Home Improvement Tips - You're Welcome In Advance
Some people around the neighborhood know me as a do-it-yourself kind of guy. I thought I'd go over some of the steps I take when I am preparing to improve upon my home so that others may benefit from my experiences.
Gathering the Materials
Many people ask the experts "Are brand name home improvement supplies worth the extra cost?" Absolutely! For example, Band-Aid(tm) brand bandages are much better than store-brand. They have better characters, such as SpongeBob and Scooby Doo, and according to the old jingle, they will stick in soapy suds. That last point is important because you'll need to wash your hands to clean out new wounds while you're wearing Band-Aids to cover the existing wounds.
Preparing the Worksite
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation! Included in that preparation is making sure your home improvement materials are close at hand when you need them. For example, it is very difficult to clean blood drips off interior latex paint, so I recommend keeping some Wet Ones(tm) wipes handy to clean up the inevitable smudges. If you're working on, say, a dryer with glossy appliance paint, keeping those wipes close at hand isn't quite as important, with one exception: blood will produce rust in no time if not cleaned from untreated metal. (Which should make you wonder what exactly blood contains that causes metal to rust instantly.)
Time to Start!
Start your home improvement project by double-checking your plans and materials, then get going! This is the exciting part, where all your training, judgment, and life experience pay off. I don't want to brag, but once during a project that I had prepared extensively for, I skinned three knuckles and was able to clean and bandage all three without dripping any blood on my tuxedo. My fast thinking paid off, and my additional cleaning bill from Mr. Leroy's Tux World was much lower than the previous time.
Project Clean-Up
The mark of a true home improvement professional is attention to detail, whether it's before, during, or after the job. A clean work site can mean the difference between a satisfied customer (or wife) and hours of grumbling under your breath after the workers have left. I usually start on one end of the work site, cleaning up any red stains or drips with Wet Ones wipes, and picking up any Band-Aid wrappers or boxes along the way. Make sure to dispose of any biological waste in an environmentally safe manner - if you wrap them in banana peels the garbage men will not notice them.
A Job Well Done
Congratulations! You're finished, and your project was a success! Your worksite is clean, and your fingers are covered with Bob the Builder and Elmo Band-Aids. (The reason you're not wearing regular, brown Band-Aids is because your kids refuse to wear Bob and Elmo now that they're older, and you have a huge box of them in the closet.)
Project Follow-Up
About a week after your project, you want to make sure the customer is still satisfied with the work. Also, you should also check each of your wounds for infection or discoloration. If a nail gun was used during your project, remember to inspect both the entrance and exit wounds. If you find you need health care, please check to make sure your hands have not been infected since last time you lost your insurance, because that would be considered a pre-existing condition.
Good luck with your project!
Hershey's Missed Opportunity
Flanders (left) and Hershey
The boys and I tried a can of sardines today. I don't think I've ever had them before. M didn't mind them too much, but K didn't like the smell. I thought they were pretty tasty. They're supposed to be good for you, they have lots of vitamins and fish-related goodness. When I was finished with the can, I turned around and Hershey was sitting there sadly looking at me. He was nowhere around when I opened the can but he must have smelled them. I didn't know he was there or I would have offered him some. Hershey will continue to miss chances to eat sardines if he lays around sleeping all day.
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Our software was released uneventfully on Wednesday. Uneventfully is a good thing. If it had been eventful, it would have meant problems. So far it's running well and some of our customers have already tried it out. I hope they like what they're seeing.
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Do you know what a Spite House is?
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Did you know that some mountains get taller? Do you know why? Click here to find out.
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I might stop in for lunch at this place if I'm ever in the neighborhood. To ask for directions, not to eat. I can't afford it.
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Christmas is only 6 days away. Hope you have all your shopping done. Stay warm!
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Wireless Water Meters and Google Street View
We had our water meter replaced a few years ago. It used to be they would have to go down in the basement to read someone’s water meter, which was a pain for everyone involved. They replaced our meter to emit a wireless signal of some kind – this allows them to stay outside the house and capture the meter readings without entering the house. The signal is strong enough to be picked up from the street. I’m not sure how it works since it doesn’t have a power cord. I wonder if the water pressure moves a small turbine in the meter and creates enough of an electric charge to send the signal. That’s a good idea if they’re not already doing it. I’ll Google it someday to find out.
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Speaking of Google, some of you probably know what Google Street View is. You can zoom all the way down in Google Maps to actually see what it is like to be standing in the street at that location. See this page to get an overview of Street View. Here is a page with an overview of the vehicles they use and how it works.
Google uses a car, or sometimes a modified adult tricycle, to ride around city streets and take pictures as it goes. It takes pictures on both sides of the street. A GPS unit in the car/cycle will keep track of where the pictures are taken, then use them when someone wants to see a location in Street View.
In Street View you can “drive” through a street or downtown area by clicking on the arrow keys on the screen, and Street View will change the pictures you're looking at to create a video of sorts.
One day last summer I was in yard doing some work, and I saw a car with a bunch of odd electronic devices hanging off the side and the roof. It had a very small sign on the door that I couldn’t read, but it looked familiar – I though it had to be the Google Street View car. They were taking pictures of our street and houses, and pretty soon I’d be able to see my yard online up close and personal.
A few minutes later, I noticed the car coming through again. I was surprised, because I didn’t think they would have time to go through every street twice, but I didn’t want to miss my chance to be on Street View for all to see. As the car approached, I faced the street and waved to the car as it drove slowly by.
This time I could make out the sign on the door. The car was from the utilities department, and the equipment attached to the side were the devices that received the wireless signal my water meter was sending.
The guy driving the car thought I was nuts.
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Speaking of Google, some of you probably know what Google Street View is. You can zoom all the way down in Google Maps to actually see what it is like to be standing in the street at that location. See this page to get an overview of Street View. Here is a page with an overview of the vehicles they use and how it works.
Google uses a car, or sometimes a modified adult tricycle, to ride around city streets and take pictures as it goes. It takes pictures on both sides of the street. A GPS unit in the car/cycle will keep track of where the pictures are taken, then use them when someone wants to see a location in Street View.
In Street View you can “drive” through a street or downtown area by clicking on the arrow keys on the screen, and Street View will change the pictures you're looking at to create a video of sorts.
One day last summer I was in yard doing some work, and I saw a car with a bunch of odd electronic devices hanging off the side and the roof. It had a very small sign on the door that I couldn’t read, but it looked familiar – I though it had to be the Google Street View car. They were taking pictures of our street and houses, and pretty soon I’d be able to see my yard online up close and personal.
A few minutes later, I noticed the car coming through again. I was surprised, because I didn’t think they would have time to go through every street twice, but I didn’t want to miss my chance to be on Street View for all to see. As the car approached, I faced the street and waved to the car as it drove slowly by.
This time I could make out the sign on the door. The car was from the utilities department, and the equipment attached to the side were the devices that received the wireless signal my water meter was sending.
The guy driving the car thought I was nuts.
The Cold She Is Upon Us (or: Brrrrrrrr! Don't Go Out There!)
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Wow, it's really cold out. I didn't know it was supposed to get this cold because I rarely pay attention to the weather reports. My car was sort of growling for a while until it got warmed up after work today.
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J and I have a short-term CD at the bank that is about to mature. We wondered what would happen if we put it back into another short-term CD and the person at the bank told us we would earn 0.50 percent interest. Now that banks don't have to pay for money any more they don't care about people with their piddly little accounts. I don't have any coffee cans around the house, but if I did, I'd take our CD money and stuff it in there. Then I'd bury it in the yard.
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I am going to get a new phone soon. A super-fancy one I can use to check my email and browse the web. Neat, right? Not exactly. The phone will belong to my company, and they'll use it to notify me if there are any problems on our servers. It might ring in the middle of the night, or during dinner, or on a Saturday. So you can imagine I have mixed feelings about it. It won't be that bad, the servers generally are reliable and any problems that come up are usually easy to take care of. I'm also going to try to trade weeks with another team member, so I won't have to worry about it all the time. We'll see how it goes, I'm not used to being support staff.
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I'm finishing up some software I'm writing to help some people at school who are organizing teams for next year's Science Olympiad. Last year there were over 100 students who signed up, many for multiple events, so I thought some software to keep the info organized would be helpful. (I hope it will be, that remains to be seen.)
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Top Two Worst Christmas Songs Ever
1) Little Drummer Boy - Because the greatest "gift to bring" to the family of a sleeping newborn is midnight drum-clobbering.
2) The First Noel - this song wouldn't bother me so much if the lyrics flowed with the music. By the third verse, the syllables that span a measure and a half start to get old.
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A few links for this week:This is a site that you can use if people who should do their Googling ask you a dumb question. You can send them a link that shows them how to use Google themselves next time. Helpful if you have coworkers who don't think for themselves.
A while back I posted some links to some abandoned buildings and subway stations. Today, some links to new, vibrant, and very active subway stations.
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Christmas Decoration News
We decorated the Christmas tree today - we bought it yesterday at Lodi Farms, our favorite local nursery.
While K was putting up one of the decorations with his name on it, he declared "I want this to be in the middle so everyone can see the glory of me." Humble is not a word commonly used to describe him.
We were listening to Christmas music and Elvis's version of "Here Comes Santa Claus" was on. I've always wondered about a line in that song: "Let's give thanks to the Lord above, 'cause Santa Clause comes tonight." Some of today's popular "prosperity" preachers would approve, but I find it a tenuous connection.
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In non-Christmas news, the homeowner in our neighborhood who was involved in a shooting earlier this week was released for the time being as investigators continue to look into what happened. They believe it may have been self-defense, and are not charging him at this time. This article gives some of the updates.
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In non-Christmas and non-gun-related news, my nephew Daniel has chicken pox, as do some of his classmates. Try not to scratch, Daniel!
Here's hoping everyone else reading this is healthy and relatively non-itchy.
A Lot of Neighborhood News
We've had some interesting happenings in the neighborhood recently.
A little while back, someone from our neighborhood was working at his business in a Detroit suburb, and was notified by some passersby that there was a baby crying in a dumpster. He investigated and helped rescue the baby. The mother of the baby was just today found and charged. Here is a link to the story.
Today, much worse news: there was a shooting outside a home near ours. About 8:30 this morning, a homeowner shot and killed a man who had just arrived at the house to see him. No one has reported exactly what the relationship between the two men was, but according to eyewitnesses, it appears the homeowner brought a gun outside with him when he met with the other man. The shooter's family was at the house when this happened, and his 4th grade son goes to the same school as our kids. Here is a link to the story.
The amazing thing about these two stories is that the same man is at the center of them - the homeowner is the same man who helped get the baby from the dumpster.
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I can't top that for excitement in our lives, but we had a great Thanksgiving this year, seeing almost every single major family member (just missed a few neices) and it was nice to catch up with everyone and get some pictures. We have a lot to be thankful for in our family.
A little while back, someone from our neighborhood was working at his business in a Detroit suburb, and was notified by some passersby that there was a baby crying in a dumpster. He investigated and helped rescue the baby. The mother of the baby was just today found and charged. Here is a link to the story.
Today, much worse news: there was a shooting outside a home near ours. About 8:30 this morning, a homeowner shot and killed a man who had just arrived at the house to see him. No one has reported exactly what the relationship between the two men was, but according to eyewitnesses, it appears the homeowner brought a gun outside with him when he met with the other man. The shooter's family was at the house when this happened, and his 4th grade son goes to the same school as our kids. Here is a link to the story.
The amazing thing about these two stories is that the same man is at the center of them - the homeowner is the same man who helped get the baby from the dumpster.
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I can't top that for excitement in our lives, but we had a great Thanksgiving this year, seeing almost every single major family member (just missed a few neices) and it was nice to catch up with everyone and get some pictures. We have a lot to be thankful for in our family.
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