Cow Parades

The first of these, which happened in Harrisburg 2 yrs ago, I photographed on a family day out. I didn't, at the time, have a digital camera, and I had only a certain amount of film with me. I wish we had taken the time to do more shots, but... oh well. I posted an album to Webshots at the time, and below is one of the cows from this album.

Harrisburg, PA - 2004

by jamesnvik

This second picture is from someone who just left a comment in my guestbook on Webshots, referring to her own "Cow Parade" pictures.

Athens, Greece - 2006

by tinathestar

And last, someone else had left an entry in the Athens Cow Parade photo album, referring to their own Cow Parade pictures.

Paris, France - 2006

by typang

If you are insterested in learning more about "Cow Parade" and what it's for, do a Google or Yahoo search on Cow Parade. It's pretty interesting.

Mailbox

My Mailbox

(or the view from my mailbox)

June 5, 2006

(Note: The road IS straight. It's just me that's warped.)

Click to enlarge.

Armstrong Valley PA

Armstrong Valley Rd

Between Halifax and Elizabethville, Pennsylvania

Saturday, June 3, 2006

(click to enlarge)

Blue Ribbon Picture

Well... Over the past few months I have posted many pictures to this site.

This one, I stumbled across a few minutes ago... I had scanned it in last summer from one of my Mom's photo albums... I took it, originally, when I was about 16 or 17, I think... And, I got a blue ribbon at the county fair for it... =)

The original 8x10 that I displayed at the fair, along with the blue ribbon, I gave as a gift to a young friend many years ago... and haven't seen it since. But the memory is still there - even if I no longer have the proof.

Spam

The following text was recovered from a message in my junk e-mail folder - flagged as "spam".

I have removed the picture and hyperlink which was embedded in the message, leaving only the remaining text, which, if viewed with a warped-enough perspective, is somewhat humorous.

to surprise as island able are private. is prose as spade nail to week. is beautiful to snake plough must regular. but blade are house muscle are wet. too sea as humour beautiful the base. ! too flight must government scale the sudden. as food if second authority is pen. but cry are full thing to like. to statement the broken false is soup. if green else kick act is bit. and pleasure and camera clock if dress. too growth as parallel cover the jewel. to mouth too wash needle the thread. but bite and fish basin else sad.must ticket if trouble linen to disgust. is tooth the green bread the design. else wide to cushion able but station.

Where's Waldo?

Okay, so Waldo isn't in this picture, but... If you look closely, there is a little fisher-person there... You may have to click on it to make it larger to see enough detail to see.......

 

Pennsylvania Skies

The view from atop Peter's Mountain, where the Appalachian Trail crosses Rt 225 near Dauphin, PA, yesterday afternoon.



The view from my back porch, last night, when I got home.



I have several friends who seem to think my pictures look good, so this is dedicated to one of those... Thanks for your comments! 

I'll be home in about 2 centitams

My son, the wizard, decided that we need to make a new unit of measure... We have metric standards for most units of measurement, (grams instead of ounces, meters instead of yards, etc.). And we should have a metric standard, he says, for time.

I was curious. Surely this is not a new concept. And, it is not. Still, my son thought this out pretty well, and some of his ideas match, more or less, those of some of the people "out there" who have proposed similar things to the scientific community.

In summary, we pick a standard amount of time as the base unit, such as the "day" (24 hours more or less). His term for this unit, and as far as I know this is his alone, but I think it's a good one, is the "tam". Do not ask why, it's not important. I didn't see any obvious conflicts with other meanings of the word.

So a "tam" is defined, in the current system, as a 24 hour period.

A centitam, would be one hundredth of a tam, or about 14.4 minutes. A decitam would be 10x that, or about 144 minutes (a little over 2 hrs), and a millitam would be a tenth of that, or 1.44 minutes....

Going the other way, from a science point of view, is easy. 10 days/tams is a dekatam. 100 days/tams is a hectotam, 1000 days/tams is a kilotam, etc.

1 megatam (Mt) = 1 000 000 d = 2738 years
1 kilotam (kt) = 1000 d = 2.7 years
1 hectotam (ht) = 100 d = 3.3 months
1 dekatam (dat) = 10 d = 1.43 weeks
1 tam (t) = 1 d = 24 hours
1 decitam (dt) = 0.1 d = 2.4 hours (2 h 24 min)
1 centitam (ct) = 0.01 d = 0.24 hours (14 min 24 s)
1 millitam (mt) = 0.001 d = 1.44 minutes (86.4 s)
1 microtam (µt) = 0.000 001 d = 86.4 milliseconds
1 nanotam (nt) = 0.000 000 001 d = 86.4 microseconds

Of course there's no set standard to metric times, yet. There are proposals to base metric time on the second, and in other places, the day. I am sure there may be other thoughts out there as well.

I can think of other problems with this whole thing. And for everyday living the Gregorian calendar still rules... (using "day" as your base, there are no round numbers for "year"... it's still 365 days, more or less.) So there's not any point in saying my daughter is 2,944 days old (as of May 22), or rather, almost three kilotams, when she just turned eight (years) a few days ago.

After my son brought this idea to my attention, I went back and looked a bit online. It sounded original to me, but ... there've been numerous proposals to standardize time in the metric system. His is as good as any out there. Here are some links (you can Google for more anytime).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time

http://zapatopi.net/metrictime/

http://www.decimaltime.hynes.net/metric.html

I wish ...

... that I could make this picture on your screen stretch apart to cover the entire sky for you, like it looked for me, today............

... but, alas, I cannot. Still, I wanted to share this one photo, then I gotta go finish mowing the yard, a task I started but did not finish last night.

Everyday Angels

I recently stumbled onto a concept that I like. It's called "Everyday Angels". There's probably a ton of writing on it, somewhere on the web. No I haven't google'd it. But, I think I've got the gist of it - at least - enough that for me, I am happy with my understanding of it.

An Everyday Angel is simply someone who takes the time to make someone else's world a better place. It's that easy. No strings attached. No cash necessary.

It may simply be that the person took the time to listen to his friend, when she was troubled. Or she gave a hug, when she could tell her friend was down. It might be the guy who, tired, driving home from work, saw someone broken down beside the road, and took the time to help them get back up and running, or gave them a lift to the nearest phone.

I have a big sister, who has a family, a job. A ton of stress on many different levels. Yet, when someone in the family, Grandma, even a neighbor or a friend, needs anything, they know she's there. She's the cab driver for appointments, the ear for complaints, the friend for those in need. She is an Everyday Angel.

I have an older brother, who volunteers time, with the local fire department, with other community groups. He's a first responder - helping during almost any kind of minor - or major - emergency. He will be driving home from work, after a long day, and if he sees someone broken down, he's the first to turn around and go back to help, or at least, offer help. He is an Everyday Angel.

Everyone has within them the capacity to listen, to "feel", to some extent, another's pain. Everyone has the ability to care… and to show that they care. And sometimes, the greatest thing an Angel can do is care. Everyone, even you and I, can be an Everyday Angel.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.
- Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994)

My Cousin Vinny

There's this guy from work, you see, who has a cousin.

If you ever need anything, just check with him. He deals in anything you can imagine. Black Market kinda stuff, know what I mean?

No, no, no .... Actually, there is this guy from work, who has a cousin, who is a school teacher.

So what, you say? Everyone has a cousin who is a schoolteacher?

Well, this schoolteacher has a dream. Has had a dream, for a long time. It's to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in a couple of month's timeframe. And, he posted notes online, a "trail journal", telling all about his preparations, and at least the beginnings of his journey on the trail.

I need to catch up, myself. Last reading, he was a few days along the trail. In fact, I think I will do just that, right now, and find out how it's been going.

Why don't you read along, too?

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=123932

May 12th

I started my day, last Friday, to a dreary, fog covered landscape.

On the drive in to work, there were spots where the sun had burned through the fog, and here's one such place, where I pulled off and took a quick snapshot.


After work, I headed home. As I was coming up the valley to my house, the clouds and sunlight were leaving patterns on the mountains, and after I got home, I took this from right in front of my house, looking down past the farm down the hill.
 

Retirement Is ....

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples. -- George Burns

My buddy, Alan G., has a new blogspot site.......... check the links to the side. All about retirement and anything else that comes across his mind. =)

My favorite post so far? It shows that no matter how old and wise we become, the best of us still makes mistakes!

"The Tree Rat Incident..."

Wedding Flies

Sitting here, at someone else's desk this week, covering for a fellow worker who went fishing, has been a relaxing break from the humdrum. That is, till today.

Not that today has been "bad" mind you, but... there was one little problem.

It goes back to when I was ... oh... I don't know... maybe 12 or 13. Old enough that I could be embarrased quite easily. And with a brother a year and a half older who didn't mind embarrasing me at all.

And, my sister. She was getting married. At her boss's house, which was, by comparison to our home, a mansion. There was a very wide stairway up to the upper level from the outside front of the house. The pastures all had board fences. Everything was elegantly placed.

We went in, Mom, Dad, my brother and I. There were all these people in fancy clothes. Suits like I had never seen. It was really, I suppose, a "family affair". After all, it was in a home, not a church. A very nicely appointed home, in which I felt very out of place.

We walked around, looking things over. In those days, my brother and I were... pretty close.... not necessarily bestest buds, but... pretty close. Ummm... Except, he was across the room, from me. There was a nice cake on the table, which had a frilly tablecloth. I think there was a huge grandfather clock in the corner of the room.

Probably a dozen or more people standing around, visiting, talking... waiting for things to happen. I am not sure where my parents had gone off to. Or where my sister was. So here we were, Ted and I. Apart from each other, yet in the same room, surrounded by suits and dresses of strangers we'd never know.

And what do I hear? In a very loud voice, "HEY JAMES... YOUR FLY IS OPEN!!!"

And he was gone.

Well, today, my fly is open. That is to say, I've had problems with this pair of pants before and haven't worn them in months. Somehow, this morning they were hanging in the closet again, and I threw them on without thinking. Came to work.. And at some point, used the bathroom and noted that the zipper was slightly stuck. Or... well... it zips... but doesn't do anything but slide up and down.

Someone helpful gave me a safety pin. About an inch long. I tried. I really did. Didn't do any good. There was talk of driving home, or getting super glue, or "night pants" from the dollar store, but... I thought the super glue idea was great ... till I thought about having to ask, "Hey, anybody got any super glue remover?!? My thingy is stuck."

Well, at this desk, away from my own, I am in an office by myself, and although the door is open, there isn't too much opportunity for people to just "walk in". There were no meetings today, so... I sit here, with it as "good" as it can be, quiet as I can be, avoiding meeting strangers who might gape at me... or coworkers who might say, in a very loud voice, "Hey James, your fly is open".

Good thing Ted isn't here to help me out.

Scout Trip

This past weekend, my son's Boy Scout troop had a parent-son campout, in Tioga County PA. On Saturday, we woke up to a drizzly, gray morning. But, by afternoon, it had cleared off enough to go fishing. We (the group) didn't catch many, and none were kept, but as we were leaving, someone noticed this in the gravel at the edge of the parking area (if you can't see anything, try clicking on the picture to make it a little larger in your browser):


On Sunday, after we broke camp, my son and I parted ways with the rest of the Scouters, and headed for the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. There, on Turkey Path Trail, which winds it's way about a mile down to the bottom of the canyon, I took the following photos. (Okay, first one was taken by some other visitors to the park, using my camera).

There were actually three sets of falls, but for now, I'll just post a couple of shots of this one.

 

Powells Valley PA

We took these pictures Sunday while fishing along Powell's Creek near where we live.




 

Life

Okay nothing deep, today.

For a few weeks, work was/has been very hectic. The past couple of days, more or less, "normal". As in, not too busy but not completely idle, either. I've had the time to write, but, not the heart.

My daughter's 8th birthday was Sunday, and she's been after me for weeks to take her fishing, so Sunday morning we got up, catching nothing, but having fun. I snapped some posed shots, then we fished along the bank of the creek for a while... and moved on... climbing over a log. After I turned back, I noticed she had stopped on the log to rest, and I snapped this one. She was, a little, annoyed with me for it, but it turned out to be the best picture of her I took Sunday.

Peters Mountain, Dauphin County PA

Okay, one more springtime shot. I won't promise it's my last, but.... Today we were coming over the mountain and I noticed the blue, blue sky. I wanted to try and capture it so at the bottom of the north side, we pulled off and looked back up the mountain, the way we had come, and I took a few shots. Here's one. If you follow this road up to the top of the mountain, you'll find the Appalachian Trail crossing it there.


 

Sunset

Last evening, I happened to look out my back door, and spotted this sky. I went to get the camera, and snapped this picture. I have many similar shots from the past few years, but every sunset is different, and special.

Each sunset marks the end of a day... but with the darkness following comes renewal, and when the new day emerges, it's fresh a new world that awaits us.


Taken 4/27/2006 

Springtime in Powell's Valley

 

My Workplace

Okay, I promise that, one of these days, I'll stop throwing pictures out here, and do some words instead. But a few people I know have wondered what it's like where I work. I would refer them to a prior post named "My Cube World" or something similar, if they want to know the day-to-day nitty gritty, but here's an outside view of the place, taken as I was leaving work one day last week.

 

The Musician

Recently my daughter had a "show" in our basement, and she wanted her brother to participate. He was reluctant, but finally got himself going.

It was pointed out to me that I have pictures of her on this site, but very few of him. And it IS true that she's easier to photograph, as he is at the age where he doesn't much appreciate it.

Anyhow, here's the musician himself... His instrument, by the way, is normally the saxophone, and he IS quite good at that. On this day, however, he was putting up with his sister's "show" and playing his part as a wandering minstrel, plucking his guitar.

 

Easter Part 2

So, she might have spent the night and morning ... not feeling so well, but... she was VERY excited by her Nestle Crunch bunny:

Okay, okay, so at that point, she wasn't allowed to eat it, (upset tummy, still), but later, she did nibble an ear and it was very good (even though she didn't share with me)....

So later, after finding eggs a couple of times.... She brought me two four leaf clovers she had found:

Like me, she has a talent for seeing "patterns" or rather, things that do not fit inside a pattern, which, when it comes down to it, is the essence of how to find a four leaf clover. Just look for one that doesn't fit in (i.e. not 3 leaves).

Or maybe, she's just lucky. 

Egg Hunt

 

Happy Easter

At 2am... okay 1:58 but who's counting?

Now, why in the world would I be up at this hour anyway?

Well, it's like this. About a half-hour ago, I came jerking up out of a solid slumber... (or was I in a dream and it just felt solid?? Not quite sure on that front) ...hearing my 7 year old doing things she shouldn't in the middle of the night.

So up i got and off did trot.

It seems that upset tummy she had before bed finally caught up with her... and there it was, lying on her bed. Next to her, under her, on top of her.

It's always been my job to get up with the kids at night. My radar goes off when it's time, and it's a duty I don't take lightly. It's one of the greatest benefits to parenthood (and no... I do not say that sarcastically). Sometimes, when a kid is sick for days at a time, it does get old... but it's been one of the times when a parent can bond with a kid like no other time. When you're sick and someone is there, to make you feel better, that's always a good thing!

There's nothing like leading a child to the bathroom to finish their barfing next to the throne, while you go clean up their bed. In this case, there was so much on the bed, I pulled bedding, pillows and all, up and tossed them in the tub. Then I laid a new blanket down, and another... and she already had an extra pillow, so I got her set up.

And then I went and checked on her. To find, indeed, that she really did lay back down in it. That is, it was not only on her face and body and neck, it was also well pressed into her hair.

So off we went to the other bathroom, and I turned the shower on, adjusted the temperature, and got her into it... washed her hair out... dried her off, got her in new bedshirt... and off to bed... till Round 2.

Now, Round 2 was nothing. She made it to the bathroom with no problem. There was only a little anyways. So I got her up and put her here in the easy chair with me. A few minutes later she was snoring, so I said, you ready to go to bed?

"Uh-huh..."

So off we went. About the time we got there, she says, "I think..." I could see it in her eyes, so, "C'mon"... and back to the bathroom again. This time, it was very short-lived. Only a retch or two and back to bed, with a trashcan alongside.

Experience tells me she's probably done now. But I am wide-awake for the moment. I thought I'd take this quiet moment to wish you the happiest of Easters, too... May yours be as full of spice and adventure as mine!

Spring is Springing

Yesterday, it was in the upper 70's. It was a beautiful day to go out and about. I went down to the park at lunchtime, and snapped a few photos. This one... shows things pretty well. Just the faintest bit of greens beginning to show, here and there, but still, many bare-branched trees mixed in, everywhere. Give it a month, and this photo will look nothing the same.

 

This picture, taken at the same park, shows a more advanced view of springtime.



I ended the day with a 4.5 mile walk with my seven year old daughter. When we left the house, there were a few brooding, low-hanging clouds, and ... I forgot my camera. We went on, as it was already past six, and by the time we were halfway, it started to rain softly. We sheltered for a few minutes under some fir trees alongside the road, and the shower did not last long.

Soon we topped the hill we had been climbing, and started down into an open area... and saw the rainbow, stretching from hill to hill, with our valley between, arching high over our heads, perfectly defined. And, as we walked, we began to see a double-rainbow, dimly but clearly visible above one end of the primary, and barely visible above the other end. At this point, we were still a mile and a half away from home, and camera, and by the time we had gone a little ways, the rainbows were already fading from view.

So no pictures, of that, but still, nice day, all in all.

Filling Icetrays with Honey

Disclaimer: Unless you want to be bored by a recollection of a personal bout with flu, you can stop reading now.

Last week is a blur now.

That is, I remember the highlights. Sunday, April 2nd, as the kids were heading to bed, I hopped in the car and drove a couple of hours up the road to perform a disaster recovery test for one of our customers.

What's that glazed and confused look for? Okay, a DR test, is where we take a customer who has a "critical" computer system - that must be up 24x7 (or very near to it) and pretend that a sprinkler went off above it (or the building burned up, or something).

They perform regular backups which are kept at some remote location, and when the disaster happens, they are recalled to a new computer center, and we recover their systems to that new system, and bring them back up. At any rate, I got to my room about 11:15 or so, and didn't quite fall asleep till maybe 1:30.

Then I woke up at 5:30 and started my day. That evening, I took a nap from 6:30 or so for maybe an hour, got up, had supper, returned to work, got back to my room at about 11:30 again, and was asleep around midnight. Then up at 6:30 and ... so on.

Only Tuesday, we had our 9am call, the customer was satisfied that everything was good to go, and sent us home. Only, you see, there's this project back here I've been working on, and a meeting a 1pm for that project, so I returned to work by 12:45, went to the meeting, and pretty much ended the day on schedule.

Wednesday, I came to work, but I was just beginning to feel the pain. I worked, and got a lot done, but... by Wednesday night, I bedded down with a huge headache. I shook it off, thinking, I'll sleep this off in no time.

A little after 12, I woke up. The headache was beginning to spread.

A little after 2, I woke up. I was burning up, curled into a ball, I stretched out, and the cold blankets made me shudder with chills. But back to sleep I went.

A little after 4, I woke up. Ditto the after 2 comments, except I got up and found some aspirin, and I was beginning to ache from head to toe.

After 6, when the house started stirring, I found some Tylenol, and dozed waiting for it to kick in. I don't think it ever did. I told my daughter, before her and Mom left, go get my phone, I don't think I am going to make it into work.

Next thing I knew, it was 10:45. I got my computer turned on, and promptly dozed back off again. When the new mail chime would sound, sometimes I'd rouse myself a little - and I honestly tried to complete a report that should have been done the day before, but..... somewhere around noon, I forced myself into the kitchen, fixed a sandwich and a glass of milk, kept taking Tylenol.

By 3:30, my son got home, I reminded him he had chores to do, and promptly I was sound asleep. And by 4:30, the phone rang. I cannot remember who, or why, but my son instantly gravitated to my side - "Can I play on the computer?" I reminded him, again, of his chores. "I did them." What about the bathroom in there? "I did it." I looked at him questioningly, and he said, "You were snoring."

So I stumbled into the office, and logged him on the computer, and crashed again.

I think, other than bathroom visits, that was pretty much my day. I hurt all day long, from head to toe. Friday, I took some Advil flu and headed to work, and got my numbers taken care of and sent to whom it needed to be sent, and talked to them on the phone and made sure they understood it.

And generally, plodded throughout the day. Friday night, I was exhausted, and crashed out. At 12:30 my daughter called from her sleepover asking for someone to come and pick her up, so up I got and fetched her.

Saturday - worse than Friday, but not quite as bad as Thursday. I had a cycle going Saturday morning. My wife had gone to work, my kids were downstairs playing games, quietly. And, I slept, in bits and pieces. I'd sleep, hard, for a few minutes, dream a crazy dream (the same one, every time), wake up with a start, sweating all over, stretch out, freezing with the chill of the blankets, roll over, and start again, 3 or 4 times an hour, from the wee hours, until the phone rang at about 10:30.

At that point, I rousted myself out of bed. I stumbled into the other part of the house, called the kids up, and collapsed in the easy chair, for a while. My wife got home in the afternoon, and took my daughter off to a scouting even a short time later, which left my son and I home alone. We started a movie, but I found I couldn't hang with it, so I went back and crawled into bed a little after 3 - telling him not to let me sleep past 5.

He called me at 5, and by 5:30 I got myself up out of bed, and when everyone got home, actually ate a meal for supper, and watched a movie, and by 10, was ready to collapse again. Sunday, I slept till 10, but it was a more restful sleep. I still woke up with a headache, but the body pain at least, was gone. I got up, and we all worked together on a breakfast. Biscuits, and chocolate gravy, and bacon and grits. I didn't eat a lot, but ... at least the appetite was there.

By suppertime, there wasn't much appetite, but I did eat a half cup of soup, then later, off to bed, and starting the week over now. This morning, up and out at normal time - with a big headache again, but none of the rest of the Nasties. The headaches could be from too much sleep - although come to think of it, last night I had a lot of trouble even getting to sleep. I woke up a couple of times, all tangled up in the sheets.

I think, once I did finally drift off, I must have tossed and turned a lot, because I'd wake up, with the sheet pulled up over my shoulder, wrapped around my fist underneath me. It took some degree of awakeness to figure out how to untangle myself from that mess.

But, anyhow, I seem to have survived the flu.

Onion Snow

onion snow
n. Chiefly Pennsylvania

A light snow in late spring, after onions have been planted.

I heard this term for the first time a few years ago, when I moved here to central Pennsylvania.

Today we had our 'onion snow'.... Or, I hope it was the onion snow. That is, the last blast of winter... We woke up to a nice coating of snow over everything, but by the time I had arrived at work, there was almost none left on the ground - as the ground was a bit too warm for it to stick.

Unfortunately, I was running very late, and didn't have the possession of my senses enough to grab my camera on the way out the door, so I have no proof of this event, but I am telling you truly, there were onions everywhere.

Catching up

So... I try to keep up with folk's blogs, but I tend to get behind... especially when I have been swamped at work, as in the past couple of weeks.

Anyhow, I was catching up... and stumbled across this... I have a 12 year old son, but I now have an insight into his future:

I am beginning to sense a pattern.

This sounds and looks like exactly the sort of thing Jeremy will someday be doing......

Spring has Sprung

This past week, it finally creeped up into the 60's and even on Friday as high as the 70's. Along about Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I heard from my front porch the sound of frogs peeping and creaking.

I think spring has sprung, finally!

This first photo ... I stopped and had my son take it. It was nothing more than an attempt to capture the reddish hued buds on the trees .. a sure sign of impending springtime.



I went just a little farther down the road, and spotted this willow - the first true green that I've seen (not counting evergreens of course).



The farms around here have been tilling and spreading manure - and the air is ripe all around, but still... the weather's been beautiful and the fields are all turning green, except the ones that have been turned...



And after I took that shot, I looked back towards where I had come, and it seemed as if the sky were glowering over the church. No storms followed this sky, it was just a passing moment of the day.



For the first time since the fall, I was able to get the oil changed in our cars this afternoon, and a few other odds and ends of projects that needed to be done have at least been started. It's nice to be able to escape the confines of the indoors without having to wear a heavy jacket!

Only one problem with all of this......... Supposed to be back in the 40's by mid-week. Hopefully this too will pass quickly.