Carolyn and I along with our good friends Woodie and Linda will be departing in less than a month for a three week adventure in Great Britain ... I have started a web log to document that trip and I invite you to tag along ... the web log is at Great Britain Odyssey 2010 ... you should be able to subscribe to the web log like my others by providing your email address in the supplied link on the upper left where it says "Subscribe for email updates" ... I hope you'll enjoy the narrative as we wander along.
Well, the United States celebrates its independence on July 4th ... I officially announced my independence from IBM today July 6th. I contacted my manager and requested that she initiate the necessary steps to make my retirement after 36 years and 1 month effective July 31, 2010.
It's been a good ride for the most part ... I have encountered incredible people, traveled a bit and definitely had the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. I have been present to see the phenomenal explosion of the computer and information technology's impact on the human race from a ring side seat ... I've even been inside the ring in some instances and can say I actually had a hand in some of the impact. I was a very early user of what became the "Internet / World Wide Web" and got to enjoy the sense of wonder people experienced as I provided education and tutorial to new users. I was one of the first 'work at home' employees of IBM and one of the first wave of 'laptop computer' users ... the change has been astounding and I am grateful for the part I have played and the opportunity to participate directly in the change.
Things are definitely not the same nowadays within the company. One of the founding tenets of the IBM company was "Respect for the individual" ... sadly I have also had a ring side seat to watch that belief within the management of the company erode to the point where it is a far distant memory in the few of us that are old enough to remember when it existed. In the past 10 years IBM has fallen from one of the most respected American companies and most desirable places to work to a middle of the pack 'also ran'. It's really too bad because I still believe the majority of the employees in IBM and most certainly the ones I have had the privilege to work alongside for the last 36 years are representative of America's best and brightest. The executive and upper management levels of the company however have taken a serious turn for the worse and I no longer have any respect for the people running this once great company.
So ... farewell to IBM ... I look forward to July 31, 2010 with a sense of expectation for what is to come with the change in my life and the impact it will have on my family. I believe that it is the right time to make this transition and am anxious to see what the next chapter will hold.
Carolyn and I have long had an affinity for antiquing and specifically we like American antiques that are 'golden oak' . Recently we have started going to antique auctions in the area seeking treasures and discovering that we have paid way way too much for some of the things we have purchased over the years in 'antique stores' ... auctions are definitely more fun and CAN BE much better 'price performers' ... and besides ... I LIKE TO BID!!!
Anyway Carolyn had been looking for a "highboy chest of drawers" for Zoey's room for some while now and at a recent auction we bought ... this ...
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |
stripper and tung oil ... we ended up with ...
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |
We are happy with the way it turned out ... I'm sure when she is about 13 Zoey will wish she had a "new" chest of drawers but hopefully someone will manage to convince her this is better!!
Well we picked up the new Mini on Tuesday (5/25/2010). Our first stop was Discount Tire to have the Run Flats removed and a set of slightly wider, definitely quieter and a little smoother non-Run Flats installed. So now I have a set of new Run Flats for sale on CraigsList
this ad.
My apologies to Rick Nelson!
We've been married for going on 37 years and pretty much every year for Valentine's Day I've given Carolyn roses ... very traditional ... but I have to tell you after 37 years it's getting tough to be 'original' with roses!
Pretty much since we've lived here in Bulverde, Carolyn has maintained some sort of vegetable garden. But, the last few years production from that garden has been poor primarily because over 25+ years the trees around the garden have finally gotten so big they effectively block the sun. Consequently, "the garden" has been transformed into more of a flower garden than a vegetable garden.
A few weeks ago we decided to act on the notion we have had for the last few years to 'move' the garden to a sunnier spot and significantly reduce the size, concentrating on tomatoes, peppers and maybe a couple of other things in small quantity. We have debated the best way to do this for a few years now and never came up with a plan both of us liked. Inspiration struck when I saw a 'doggie kennel' at the local Tractor Supply! It already had a gate, was 6 feet tall and a manageable 10 feet square. We loaded it up in the truck, bought literally a ton of limestone border rocks and two yards of good garden soil and had "instant garden"!
Cool ... except ... to my eye the damn thing stuck out like a sore thumb on top of the hill. I thought about painting it green, hopefully to camouflage it a bit and had even gotten Carolyn's permission to do so. Happily I procrastinated just enough!
As I was viewing the 'sore thumb garden' from inside a few days ago it seemed to me that if there were just some 'color' it wouldn't look so bad. And like a Senior throwing a rock at a Freshman it struck me that this would be the perfect Valentine's gift ... staying with the 'flowers theme' in general but at the same time giving Carolyn yet another excuse to feed her 'flower buying sickness' (she has it pretty bad!) and dealing with what I considered to be a bit of an eye sore.
Today, Carolyn and I spent a very enjoyable day picking out planters, figuring out how to mount said planters, buying appropriate for the season flowers and planting them.
It was a good day!
Happy Valentine's Day my dear!
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |
Here it's not a garden yet .. but all the flowers are planted!
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| From Bade's web log |
Now it's a garden!! The first plant is in the ground...
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| From Bade's web log |
Just some 'winter' vegetables right now but soon tomatoes, peppers and peas will be added!
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| From Bade's web log |
Carolyn had made a commitment to Zach that when they moved into a new house and had a yard big enough we would see to it that he (and now Zoey) had a nice new "Playscape" (the modern day term for what was called a "swing set" when I was a kid) ... and so for their "big Christmas gift", Carolyn did appropriate internet research, some local shopping and comparisons and ultimately ordered online a "Gorilla Blueridge Outlook" playscape ... free shipping and no tax were both considerations plus the typical "end of year special pricing ..."
I'm not REAL SURE there was TOTAL awareness of the scope of the actual "construction" considered by all parties involved but regardless after a few shipping hassles were resolved a big semi truck pulled up to Scott's house a couple of weeks ago and "dumped" out 4 HUGE boxes that basically filled their garage ...
We arranged to at least start to build the playscape on Monday 12/21 while Brandi and Steven were in town and could lend a willing hand and as it turned out we were also blessed to have Scott's boss give him the day off unexpectedly, and a couple of Melissa's relatives on hand to help as well ... so we had a good sized team of willing labor even if NONE OF US had a clue what we were doing ...
The online reviews of this particular "kit" indicated 2 or 3 people could if all went well finish construction in 12-17 hours ... somewhat more than the 8-10 hours the manufacturer advertised ... I was not looking forward to this task.
The weather was good and we got started at 10AM ... we followed the recommendations to open all boxes and verify there were no missing parts, lay things out in an organized manner and carefully follow the 50 or so instruction steps ...
I've included a couple of photos here and there are MANY more taken by the official project photographer Brandi in the web picasa photo gallery at
Photo Gallery
A few pictures below ...
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| From Playset |
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| From Playset |
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| From Playset |
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| From Playset |
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| From Playset |
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| From Playset |
And ... 8.5 hours after we started ... and well after dark ... with a lot of help ... we had ...
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| From Playset |
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Carolyn's dad, N.B. Willey will be 90 years old tomorrow, November 16, 2009. That is a pretty momentous milestone in one's life and we are glad to have had him around to enjoy our children and grandchildren. We hope he will be with us for many more years to come.
I was struggling with a "unique" idea for a birthday present several weeks ago and as it happened Carolyn mentioned on her return from a recent visit that her dad had lost his walking cane and had taken one of her mother's old canes and erroneously cut it too short for himself ... and that lead me to thinking that I ought to be able to find the "elements" of a handmade cane on the internet ... I have PLENTY of available cedar limbs that have been cut or broken off and dried for some time and should be very light and easy for an elderly person to carry.
Knowing absolutely NOTHING about how a cane might be fashioned I started wandering around the internet in my typical "research mode" and determined that there were not really that many things one had to know ... a cane has to be dry, comfortable to hold, have a handle that is comfortable to grip, a tip that will assist with stability and be of "an appropriate length for the user" ... that last part is a little nebulous but other than that it seemed within my limited skills if I could find the necessary parts.
A little more research and I found what I considered to be adequate pieces parts and went out in the back "yard" and mused around some piles of dead cedar until I heard a "stick" calling to me ... clearly this was "the one" ... so I drug it over to the back of the shop, cut it down to a manageable length and started pealing the bark off ... this exercise proved to be the most "difficult" part of the whole escapade but honestly was not that big a deal ... pealing, grinding, rasping and a little blood and I had a "naked" cedar stick. I cut enough off of the "big end" to serve in my judgment for a handle and proceeded to whittle, carve, cut and saw until I had a "stick" that I figured looked pretty "cane like". I fitted the top brass piece by whittling a round 1 inch "tenon" on the end and then went to work on the "handle" ... more carving, sanding and whittling I had had what I felt like would serve as a comfortable handle ... a bit more sanding and some finish application and I came up with this result ... I'm pretty pleased with it ... I will present it to Mr. Willey tomorrow night (11/16/2009) on his birthday at a small party arranged by one of his friends in Hondo, Texas ... I will try and get him to decide how much too long it is for him and then bring it back with me to get the final length set and the end cap/rubber tip installed ... I think he will be pleased!
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |
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| From Bade's web log |