Life in a Small Town from a Big Town Person

I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. As I grew up, I never considered what it meant to have a grocery store, gas station, restaurant, and drug store on just about every corner. And that was just the suburbs. As I got even older, I started to venture into the city and discovered a whole new world of shops and restaurants to enjoy. Life was good.

After “retiring” my career during the worst days of my illness, I moved to a small town to “take it easy”. I’ve been here almost four years and I can tell you that it’s nice to be surrounded by quiet. What’s odd, though, is that I sleep every night with ear plugs in my ears. The deafening quiet makes the sounds of the country come to life and bellow like church bells.

However, there’s a payoff. There were more stores in one shopping center in Atlanta than there are in the entire town I live in. Of course, there’s always the Wal-Mart. I’m not saying that we don’t have any restaurants, it’s just that we have only 10 or so, and most of those are chains. Aside from a Lowe’s home improvement store and the Wal-Mart, there’s no place to go shopping here. The closest larger cities are around 2 hours away. We had to drive 2 hours yesterday just to get somewhat of a sushi dinner (and it was at a place called “Joe’s”) or good Indian food.

There’s a tradeoff, I suppose. The traffic is much easier to navigate and I don’t constantly fear that I’m going to get my head cut off in an accident. There’s something about the big city, though that calls me back. When I lived there, I didn’t do anything anyway, so what’s the big deal? I stayed at home and watched movies on my TV. But I guess that it was the idea of having the option to drive a few minutes for a great Sushi Dinner, or a nice hole-in-the-wall pizza place that made it great to live in a big city.

In the end, I’m here for good, so I better get used to it. Honestly, though, I think I prefer it here.

Chicken Coop – Where is it today?

A few months back, I spent a few days and a few dollars (that’s putting it lightly) building a chicken coop with the hopes of getting some fresh eggs. I used the plans from http://www.catawbacoops.com/ It seems rational to me…a portable chicken coop.

The design is horrible. My chickens were “stolen” within the first month of putting them in the coop. I woke up one morning and the side of the coop was on the ground. No chickens were in sight. I did find some chicken feathers about 25 feet away.

Not only that, but this thing is far from being “portable”. It takes two grown men to even move it a few feet. Imagine trying to move it with the chickens inside. You can’t lift it too high or they’ll escape.

Since I’m only one grown man, I can’t move it. My brother-in-law did me a favor when he was in town and moved it for me. He thought that you were supposed to drag it, so he did, and the bottom fell apart. When that happened, the door fell off. If I want to raise chickens again, I’ll need to fix it.

Here’s what it looked like on assembly day…

Here’s what it looks like today…

It’s still standing, but it’s only been five months. I hope the handles still hold up.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, because I’m not. I was just super excited about raising my own chickens!

I think I’ll wait until Spring and try again. I might even consider a different design that incorporates wheels.

Aaagh! I’m going crazy with anticipation!

Ok, I can’t stand it any longer. I ordered my Dell mini computer on July 26th. It still hasn’t come. The estimated delivery date is September 2! It’s driving me nuts. If I could cancel my order, I would and then go to a Best Buy and get one there. I had no idea it was going to take this long to get my computer. I have zero patience. I guess I’m learning some now, eh?

Gold Bars

I’ve always thought it would be cool to own a gold bar. Just the way it shines and the thickness of it. I’m not so much a gold fan, but there’s something about the gold bar that’s attractive to me.

I wonder how soft they really are and if you could scratch gold off the surface easily. I just had a dream that I had a gold bar in my hands and it melted and felt like Silly Putty or warm Sculpey.

No Windows 7 for my Mini

Shoot, it turns out that I won’t be able to install Windows 7 on my new Mini, after all. It seems that Windows 7 needs 16GB just to run. I’ve decided that I’m not yet comfortable with the idea of changing out my 16GB drive for a new 32GB drive, so I’ll have to stick with Windows XP for my Mini.

Twit-ter

Define “Twit”…

twit (n) –

offensive term: an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody’s commonsense or consideration for others ( slang insult ) .

I have nothing to add.

Cerkit the Robot – a preschool development project

Laurie is a preschool teacher. She needs a teaching tool for teaching phonemic awareness. I’m making “Cerkit the Robot” to fill her needs. When a child segregates a sound, they can only understand speech like a robot, so you have to talk to them as such. In other words, the word “CAT” is spoken as “K”, “AH”, “T”, all separated by a pause.

When they get it correct, Cerkit’s eyes will light up. Cerkit’s eyes are LEDs controlled by a switch.

Here’s the parts list:

From Radio Shack:

Robot Body: part # 270-1806 (Project Enclosure)
Robot Head: part #270-1802 (Project Enclosure)
Eyes: 2x part #276-0270 (Red LED Assembly)
Battery: part #270-324 (Heavy Duty 9v battery snap connectors)
Switch: part #275-618 (Pushbutton Switch)
Arms and legs: part #278-1624 (Split cable tubing)
Wire (I bought a 50 ft. 4 conductor telephone wire spool. Make sure it’s solid and not “twisted pair”) – pt #278-872 (24 ga. Solid 4 conductor telephone wire)
Soldering Iron
Solder

From Lowe’s

2x 2.5” washers
”antenna” : B6148 Door Stoppers
Nuts/bolts (I bought 10×24x1-1/4) – Lowe’s #491301

A Dremel drill is recommended in this process, as well.

Here are a few pictures to illustrate the making of Cerkit…

First, I drilled the holes in the head and inserted the LEDs.

I then wired the eyes together (red on one LED to black on the other). I then fed the remaining wires (black and red) through a hole that I drilled between the head and the body. I then attached the head to the body using the nuts and bolts (I first drilled pilot holes).

I then attached the door stop to the head.
 

 

I attached the wires to the 9v power supply. (Black to black). Then, I attached the remaining wire to the switch (red). From the other side of the switch, I attached the wire to the 9v power supply (red to red). I then soldered all the connections.

The evil robot shot…

Cerkit with his eyes attached. 

The final shot.

The button is mounted on the back of the robot and triggers the eyes to light up.

Cerkit the robot is now ready to delight preschoolers for years to come!

Banana Rum Smoothie

2 Cups Orange Juice
1/2 Cup Apple Juice
1/2 Cup Banana Rum
1 Pint Frozen Strawberries
1 Whole Banana

Mix in a blender and enjoy.

..Bump in the Night

It’s nice living on acreage with a house in the middle of nowhere, it really is. The pond is relaxing, the nearest neighbor is over 200 yards away, and it’s quiet.

Most of the time that’s a good thing. It makes it easy to sleep. However, there are nights when the quiet is pierced with a howling sound that I can only describe as a cross between a drunk man screaming at the top of his lungs and an owl. It’s frightening. I have no idea what it is and I’m not entirely sure I want to find out, either.

It’s kind of creepy, because it seems to be on a schedule. It’s always sometime between 2:00 and 2:30 AM. If I had to put it on a scale with a severe thunderstorm (you know, the kind that strike lightening in your front yard) and a tornado, it would fall somewhere between the two…and I HATE lightening/thunder.

Last night, however, I didn’t hear the screams, I heard what sounded like a dog moaning. Again, around 2:00 AM.

I haven’t slept well the past two nights. Hopefully, they’ll both be away tonight.

Tron Legacy

Probably not news to you, but there’s a new Tron movie coming out. The teaser trailer looks sweet.

http://kingofgng.com/eng/2009/07/26/tron-legacy-exposed/