Family BLOG

We've got gas (almost)

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:53:36 -0400

In May Tammy called the gas company to see if we could get gas for our house (we have an oil burner now which was getting a little old). After a lot of circling around they finally said "yes" and this week the contractor finally showed up (yes 5 months later!) to run a new gas main and drop to our house.

I thought the whole thing was very interesting. The gas main ended 300 feet from our house and the gas company decided to run it 400 feet to serve everyone on our end of the street (due to Tammy's work two others have already signed up). The gas lines are plastic and come in 40' sections about 4" in diameter. To start the process the sections are all fused together using heat (450F) and pressure. In parallel they used a horizontal drilling rig to drill from the new end of the main to the hole dug where the old main ended.

The tip of the drill can be located very accurately using an RF directional finder and the rig operator gets steering instructions via radio. The drill tip can be steered remotely to go up, down, left and right. After the tunnel is drilled, the gas pipe is connected to the drill tip and pulled back through the tunnel. Pretty cool to drill a horizontal hole 5 feet under ground and come out within inches of your target 400 feet away.

Our neighbors were quite concerned the drilling would cause their driveway to collapse. Actually, the contractor said that if they aren't careful the driveways will heave UP. The drill uses a water and bentonite lubricant that is pumped into the hole. Near the driveways they had to dig some pressure relief holes to let the lubricant run out.

Although the pipe looks pretty rigid, it is actually amazingly flexible. To keep it out of the way before it was pulled it was stored on a side street and when it was pulled into the tunnel it bent around at 90 degrees in about a 4' radius with no problems. Even more amazing to me, when they spliced the new main onto the existing main they did it by putting a clamp on the existing main and simply smashing it flat so no gas could come out. Then they cut the cap off the old main and used a hub to heat fuse it to the new one (all with gas in the main).

Running the drops was interesting too. A tap for the drop is heat fused onto the main and pierces the main without any loss of gas. The drop was run from the main under our street using a small air pressure driven tunneling rig. The operator aims it by eye, sets it level, and an air hammer inside the tip pulls it along underground.

That worked to get under the street, so we have a gas line running to the end of our driveway. However it got stuck in our tree roots, so they couldn't get the gas line to the house. They are supposed to be back soon with another tool for that.

Interesting solutions and a lot less mess than trenching all over, the final result (despite our neighbors fears) left almost no signs of the digging or tunnelling.

Tiger watching

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:51:46 -0400

Last week I attended 6 of the 7 days of the Bay Hill Invitational tournament in Orlando, which was a practice round, a Pro-Am and the 4 tournament days. I had a BLAST! I am also VERY thankful that with a lot of stretching and Ibuprofin my knee held up to all the walking (maybe I'm on the road to recovery). While my favorite part of watching pro golf live is still walking with players in small galleries, I must admit that by Sunday I did get a little caught up in Tiger-mania.

On Thursday I walked with Corey Pavin (2010 Ryder Cup captain) in an early group. He was getting out-driven by 20 to 50 yards on each hole but he made the cut. I saw Woody Austin put a ball in the water from 100 yards out and I saw Richard Johnson sprint off the course to the bathrooms only to return to a 100 yard pitch and hit it 80 yards fat. When Mark Calcavecchia went in the water off the tee on 6 he muttered to Marc Turnesa (also in the water) "let me hit again now while I'm hot"...

But those were the exceptions. Mostly there was a lot of amazingly good golf. I saw John Senden hit a sprinkler head and bounce over the grandstands. He took a free drop in thick rough behind the hole, then with astounding touch found a place to land the ball and let it roll down a slope from the first cut to the hole. The margin for error was almost nil - really an all-star par.

For a second year in a row I was standing in the right place at the right time and met Arnold Palmer. This year I was in the Mastercard pavilion waiting in line to hit the newest Callaway driver when we were told that Arnold would be making an appearance in 10 minutes with Jimmy Roberts doing an informal interview to promote Jimmy's new book. They did a nice 20 minute chat with a group of 50 or so and I got to hear the story of how Jason Gore went to Latrobe Country Club one day to meet Mr. Palmer and ended up deciding to become a professional golfer.

Saturday I camped out on the 6th hole, 4 groups ahead of Tiger to see him hit the big ball over water. Tim Herron was on 6 when Tiger and his gallery came by 4, the adjacent tee box. Tim's caddie looked at me and quipped "I wonder who they all came to see?". Tim had been waiting for the fairway to clear and was just ready to hit when Tiger arrived, he called over "Hey Tiger -- MY turn" and hit first. I can see why, after Tiger hits his gallery immediately begins to swarm away and makes a lot of commotion. By the time Tiger got to 6 there was a mob standing behind me. Steve Williams went to get some water and in a very nice gesture pulled an extra water out of the players cooler and gave it to a young boy who had been waiting with me at the ropes. Instead of a 335 yard bomb, Tiger hit a safe 300 yard shot away from the edge of the water. I backtracked to find the leaders playing with essentially no gallery and walked along with Sean O'Hair and Roger Maltby in relative quiet for the rest of the day.

Sunday brought rain all morning, some heavy -- so when I arrived on the course at 2:30 Tiger had not even tee'd off. With a 5 shot deficit to Sean O'Hair I expected little excitement and planned my day around seeing Tiger up close a few times and then following smaller galleries, maybe even leaving early if Sean had increased his lead -- little did I know... After watching a few of the first groups hit off 7 I walked to 3 to stake out a place behind the tee. When Tiger walked up 2 it was clear that his gallery was HUGE. The extra people meant I could no longer see #2 green from the #3 tee box - but when the roar went up I could guess a Tiger birdie had cut the lead to 4 strokes. I was able to get a great look at Tiger drawing a three wood to the center of the fairway before O'Hair put his ball off to the right. Tiger's gallery now filled the entire 400+ yards of the 3rd hole at least 10 people deep in most places. I walked across the old railway bridge from 3 to 7 tee to wait for the group there, as O'Hair/Woods went Bogey/Birdie to cut the lead to 2, but by the time I saw a scoreboard Tiger had bogeyed 4, giving O'Hair back a margin of 3 shots.

When Tiger stepped onto 7, the lead was still 3 and I watched Tiger, O'Hair and Zach Johnson all hit the green. As I walked over to the 8th fairway I heard the roar as Tiger birdied and O'Hair bogeyed - a two shot swing, and the lead is now only 1 stroke! I had picked the right place on 8 and watched Tiger's ball land a few yards away, then watched Tiger and Zach miss the green with O'Hair making a nice approach. Tiger and Sean traded pars there and I headed for the back nine to find a new place to wait.

Walking up #1 I towards the clubhouse I struck up a conversation with a few other people who were also trying to see Tiger without battling his gallery. When I asked where they were heading one kid told me he knew a perfect place to watch on 18, did I want him to show me? I skeptically asked how that could be, since I was SURE all the good places around 18 were long gone at this point. He said his name was CJ and he LIVED in the house next to the 18th green - for $10 he'd SELL me a seat in his backyard! Still suspecting a scam I said OK, lets go see. He took me out the back gate, just down the road and we jumped a fence to get into a yard - right next to the VIP stands and shotlink tower at 18 green. Sure enough he had a row of 20 seats, at this point all empty. I gave him the $10 and claimed a seat greenside, directly behind the hole and barely 20 yards away. In the next 2 hours CJ sold a few hundred more passes to his backyard (later in the day he dropped the price to $5 but I didn't mind) and he began to sell drinks too. I'm sure he cleared several thousand in cash by the time he was done - he even had one guy insisting on getting a written promise for a seat there next year.

At this point all I could do was watch the groups play up, and watch the leader board. More than a few people were in the water or in the rocks and no one made a putt. O'Hair kept a one shot lead for a while, but then the board posted them tie and 15... then Tiger AHEAD at 16. I figured I'd just missed the come-back sitting on the 18th green (but at least I had a GOOD seat). But before we saw the final group coming up 18 and before the scores from 17 were posted a lady in the, now large, crowd standing behind me said "it's TIE, it's TIE, my son just texted me that Tiger bogeyed 17!"

WOW... so it was coming down to 18 and I was in the right place! Tiger comes up hole high and left with Sean right at the pin and long - both putting for makable birdies. Sean leaves his birdie putt well short and Tiger steps up to do what seems both improbable and inevitable... he sinks the putt, pumps his fist and hugs Steve with force as he wins again. I guess HIS knee is OK now.

This faked souvenir picture is oddly pretty close to where I was actually sitting. To give a little idea, this picture ALMOST shows me in frame. To the far right you can just make out three red shirts - those are the volunteers who snuck in below the shotlink tower. I am just to their right and out of the frame here.

FAIL

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:59:12 -0400

wow this is funny. find more like this at http://failblog.org/

Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:59:19 -0400

For the third year in a row I've been able to go to Bay Hill in Orlando to see the Arnold Palmer invitational golf tournament. This year Tammy got me a full week grounds pass so I've been to a practice round and taken Kirsten to the Pro-Am tournament.

The practice round was harder to follow than a tournament because there's not much info about who is on the course or where they are, so it was a bit random following players. Most players I saw practice alone (with a caddie and a coach) but there were a few in groups of two or three with just caddies and no coaches. The most notable player I found on the course was Angel Cabrera. I spent most of my time on the practice tee being amazed at how effortless, how consistently, and how far those guys hit. I was able to stand at the fence just a few feet away from Ted Purdy as he hit wedges. I also sat for a while in a corner where FootJoy was taping endorsements and Golf Digest was shooting pictures. Billy Mayfair loves his FootJoys and Golf Digest has a ton of headshots of Rocco Mediate. Golf Digest also posed and shot pictures of Boo Weekly's golf bag. Halfway through, Boo came over and said "don't you want pictures of the clubs I'm actually playing?" They had to swap several clubs and start over - I'm guessing it's for the regular feature "What's in the bag?".

For the Pro-Am Kirsten came along so we did not stay so long. We got to see Charles Howell and Bubba Watson hit over the water on #6. We overheard Charles say that on a day with the wind dead behind them he had seen Hank Kuehne cut the whole lake and hit the green from the tee! That's a carry of 340 yards.

After watching a few groups tee off 6 we walked back towards 1 and saw Woody Austin, Stephen Ames, Ben Curtis and Padraig Harrington. After that we waited a little and saw a pro-am group made up of Arnold Palmer, Tom Ridge and Bobbie Orr. Ridge and Orr were both very good golfers. The gallery was interesting since Palmer was declining autographs until after the round but Orr and Ridge were both posing for pictures and signing autographs. After following two holes Kirsten ran out of steam so we headed home. On the way out I saw Harrington sign two autographs for small kids inside the ropes - nice of him.

Time of Knee'd

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:31:59 -0400

As with many things new to me, I quickly find out that others have BTDT. Two weeks ago my chronic knee pain progressed from mild to acute and after hobbling around for a while I went to a doctor. In the hope of finding a fix for this, I've been talking to anyone who will listen to me in an attempt to learnt how to address knee pain. Yesterday it dawned on me that I've heard quite a lot of varied advice. It seems almost every third person I meet has knee pain (or some kind of joint pain)... I thought maybe I'd compile what I've heard so far and maybe get some comments and new info.

To start... my symptoms were pain and stiffness on the inner part of my right knee. Stiffness would occur after sitting at a desk or driving,and the pain would happen the day after exercise - eg walking several miles. Once the pain progressed to acute I could not walk at all in the morning (until my knee stretched out) and I could not walk more than 100 yards at one time without sharp pain starting again.

The anecdotal diagnosis from people I spoke to were: a medial ligament, or a tendon issue. And the first suggestions were:

Ice after activity
Ibuprofin before and after activity
A knee brace during activity
Strengthening exercises

The doctor took X-rays and examined the knee. His diagnosis was early signs of osteo-arthritis (actually not unusual amounts for my age) and a possible tear of the meniscus.

His suggestion was to reduce my activity level,and once the pain diminishes to do stretching and strengthening exercises --then gradually attempt to increase activity again. To help, he injected my knee with something (a corticosteroid I believe). However, he warned me the the shot was temporary.

Well, the shot worked wonders! The acute pain was gone within hours and 4 days later the knee is better than it's been in years. The stretching exercises seem to help a lot, however the strengthening exercises seem to be designed for someone about 80 years old - so it's unclear what they are really strengthening. Today I find myself wondering what will happen when the magic shot wears off and what I can do short term and long term. Here's the rest of the advice I've gotten so far from all sources...

Some experience of others...

Give the knee rest for 6 months and it may heal by itself
Have surgery to remove the damaged part of the meniscus
Don't over-do it based on the shot, use moderation in activity or pain will return fast

And the advice...

Get a brace with magnets
Get a brace with lateral supports
Make sure I walk correctly heal to toe, and symmetrically
Don't walk on hard surfaces (eg grass, not concrete)
Take glucosamin
Find a doctor who will shoot me up again when it hurts
Don't get shot up again it's bad for me
Change my diet - the acid in citrus is bad for my joints
Use heat after activity
Lose weight to reduce load on the knee

Well... that's all I've got for now. Time to do my knee exercises! More ideas are welcome (no guarantee I'll take the advice, but the more ideas I get the better).

Muppet Presentation at Hollywood Studios

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:11:45 -0400

As Disney season passholders we got to attend (along with several hundred other passholders) a special presentation today at Hollywood Studios. The main speaker had compiled video clips documenting the history of the Muppets from Jim Henson's earliest TV projects in the 1950's up until the 1990's (shortly after Jim's death.) It was, as expected, very funny, informative and fascinating to see how a group of grown men and women took some Muppets (marionette-puppets) and fashioned a whole entertainment industry out of them.

Part of the presentation was given by David Goelz who is the puppeteer for Gonzo. He has been with the Muppet organization since the 1970's and has a long history with Jim Henson. Included in the audience was Jim's daughter, Heather, who gave a little insight as to what is was like growing up on the Muppets set (which I didn't know was in London.)

After the presentation there was a question and answer period and then a Muppet trivia contest. Some people in the audience were some real die-hard muppet fans asking detailed questions about the Muppets. I don't remember really watching the Muppets (the show started broadcasting on TV in 1976) and didn't even know if they were still around. (They are - not on TV, but in movies and merchandising.)

Through the majority of the trivia contest I sat there never raising my hand. Who knows all this stuff about the Muppets? Things like Gonzo's girlfriend's name, the names of the scientists in the lab, the first time the Muppets were on national TV, but I tell you - this audience knew it all. Then they asked the question, "Which guest actress that appeared on the Muppets had won a Tony and Oscar and an Emmy?" Would you believe I knew that one and nobody else did? Scored myself a limited edition Muppet 50th anniversary pin, which actually means something to me because we have become amateur pin traders since we have been frequenting Disney.

So now my visit was complete. But in true Disney fashion, they had one more surprise. As we left we got to take our picture with Gonzo and David Goelz. If I knew how to post that to our website I would, but I don't, so you'll just have to ask me to see it.

the nothing post

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:14:34 -0400

Hi all, how is everyone? I got back from my cruise and figured I'd make a blog about well, nothing. Usually I right a blog about something specific. But I found that my blogs about something weren't as interesting as when I talk to people in person. So I'll start off by saying, my cruise was great. We went on this amazing shore excursion where I got in a really fast boat and rode to a private island where they had a water trampoline and other cool stuff (if i have any pictures Ii'll post them in the photogallery). The rest of the cruise was just ice cream and pizza to me. Then there's the glass elevator, I spent most of my time riding the elevators. The funny thing is, for every person that notices that I have no floor put in, there's was two people that didn't.

My mom got a DVR for christmas. It can record to DVDs and do all sorts of stuff. i just tried using it today, it was a little harder to use than I thought. So I was forced to look at el manual de instrucciones, yes the intruction manual was in Spanish. I eventually managed to use the DVR and it works great.

I got to get back to school now, bye.

Carnival Cruise - Belize

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:05:39 -0400

On Tues. the Glory stopped in Belize for the day. There was no set plan that morning, I just wanted to explore and see what the city was like and find out more about it. First things first, we had to get off the ship. We waited in line for a tender that would take us the 5 miles to the port. This can take some time when you have 3,500 passengers plus various crew all wanting to get off, but eventually we got to the port.

The port was a dizzying array of all kinds of shops trying to sell us various memorabilia to drag home. Of course, we have no room for any of this stuff at home, so shopping was not my goal - I wanted to see houses and people and stuff. So we make it to the gates that let us out of this tourist shopping mecca and what do we find? The gate is literally blocked by dozens of Belizians who are trying to sell us more stuff, tours... we couldn't walk anywhere without all of them following us. It was a little weird having people follow us. Many of the women wanted to braid Kirsten's hair (yeah, where will they be when I have to pull all of the beads and junk out of her hair, huh?) So we kept telling them no. Finally, Dave said, "You know they are not going to leave us alone." So we agreed to let Willard drive us around Belize city in his van.

Willard was a nice man who had somewhat of a British accent. This makes sense since Belize (formally called British Honduras) was a British colony from 1862 to 1981. He showed us the Governors house and other colonial era buildings around Belize City. He also explained that all the bricks used in the foundations of those colonial buildings arrived in Belize as ballast from the ships that had come to take the mahogany harvested here back to England. Belize got the bricks, England got the mahogany.

Old Belize was our next stop. There Mark finally stopped whining since we let him go down the zip line. It was really high and really long. Mark says it was fun - but as I am not so much into heights, I wasn't going to join him. They had a man-made beach there but after the beautiful beach on Isle de' Pasion, it looked just so-so. I think you have to venture out of Belize City to see the really nice beaches.

We drove past St John's Cathedral (oldest church in Belize - built in 1812 out of those bricks again!), the Lighthouse monument at Fort George Point (donated to Belize by Baron Bliss of Portugal - he is entombed there) and the only manual swing bridge that is still in use today.

But along with the historical sights we also got to see some of the less than touristy spots. The poverty in Belize City was readily apparent by the ramshackle housing, open sewerage systems and number of people begging in the streets. One cute little boy came up for me and asked for a donation. I purposely carried no money with me because I was afraid it would get stolen, but I really wished I had something for him. Willard said it was a shame that whenever something nice was put in the city like benches or whatever, it always seemed to get stolen. He also noted that large sums of money had been given to Belize, but somehow, none of that ever seemed to be used to make the city better.

The traffic was terrible in the city - the streets were narrow and there didn't seem to be any traffic rules except "he who gets there first, goes". There were many people on bikes and we even saw one women on a bike with a child balanced on the crossbar. That wouldn't be so unusual except that the child looked to be no more that two years old. That certainly wouldn't be legal in the US - at least not without a child seat, safety harness, helmet, knee and elbow pads...but, I digress. There are exactly three traffic lights in the city which Willard explained didn't always work.

After our ride was over we spent a half hour or so talking to a former Californian who has made Belize his home. He also lamented how poorly things are run in the country. We could have spent even longer talking, but we had, by this time, bored the kids to tears so by 1:00 pm we were taking a tender back to the ship.

Oh yeah, I did buy a couple of touristy things in the shops at the port in Belize, but really, they were small! And you have to have something to remember the trip by, don't you?

Carnival Cruise -Port Canveral, At Sea, Cozumel.

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:26:05 -0400

On Sat. Jan 10, 2009 we left Port Canaveral, Fl on the Carnival Glory for a family cruise to the Western Carribean. Our stateroom had a king size bed, pull-out couch for Mark and a bunk bed for Kirsten. Many people may have thought it a tight squeeze, but after months of living in our RV it felt immediately like home to us. And the best part was the walk-out balcony! What amazing views we saw as we sat out there watching Florida disappear on that first day.

Sunday was spent at sea enjoying the good food, meeting new people and participating in shipboard activities. Dave and Kirsten entered the putting contest (the ball breaks towards the water) and Mark discovered his new avocation - riding elevators. He spent hours riding up and down the elevators meeting the other guests. He also spent time playing on the Wii, but quickly found out that he has more games at home.

On Monday we arrived at Cozumel. It was a beautiful sunny day and a great day for an excursion. We took an awesome speed boat ride to the Isle de' Pasion with our guide, Miguel (who spoke English) and the driver, Wilbur (who smiled a lot.) All of us got drenched with salt water as we did 360's and rode really fast towards the shore (slightly frightening.) Kirsten got salt water in her eyes and was really upset on the way out - she enjoyed the ride back much better (we didn't get as wet sitting in the front of the boat on the way back as we did in the way back on the way out.)

Once on the island we got to eat (a lot) and play in the ocean (which I must add was amazingly blue.) There was this water trampoline (picture a really huge inner tube with a trampoline in the middle and a rope ladder dangling off the side, all of which is just floating offshore) that was determined to not let me up. Wow! I really do not have very strong arms and I couldn't pull myself up. Mark tried to help me up, but I was afraid I would end up pulling both of us over. I finally realized that there was going to be some pain involved and that I was going to have to wrap my legs around that thing to get up. I did it, but boy am I glad there is no video footage of this embarrassing moment. Also note, a water trampoline is really hard to bounce on since the entire thing sinks when you jump on it. I kept landing on my knees. My kids confirmed that it is not like a real trampoline. Does that excuse my gracelessness?

Also on the island was a Segway and a miniature ATV, both of which Kirsten got to ride. They also had an organized balloon toss game that I think was rigged because Dave and I lost on the very first toss. I am pleased to say that he is the one that got splatttered and not me. Hey, maybe I am stronger that I think? Nah, must have been a defective balloon. Everyone else seemed to make it a few more rounds than we did. Kirsten and Mark were a team and they made it pretty far. They lost on the behind the back tossing round.

We arrived back at the Glory that afternoon sandy, salty and tired. I really did appreciate that someone else had been making dinner while we were gone - and even better yet- they did the dishes! I could get used to this.

epcot attraction ratings

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:21:52 -0400

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ok, my mom usually does these, but I decided I’d take a shot at it. I'm going to use the same rating system my mom does. If I miss a ride, just leave a comment and I’ll go ride it and add it to the list.

**** sorin' - a great ride where you glide through many scenic places. The ride really makes you feel like you're there.

*** Ellen’s energy adventure - a slow moving ride that takes you through different types of energy

*** Journey into imagination with figment - imagination, imagination. a nice ride that takes you thought the sights, the sounds, and unfortunately the smells, of imagination.

**** Mission space - going to mars 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LIFT OFF

*** Spaceship earth - a nice little slow moving ride, not much too it

**** Test track - weeeeeeeeeeee, lets ride again. a roller coaster like ride.