Jamcleat

Sitting here on the deck on a seasonally hot day reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I have a glass of what was ice water. Before the ice “cubes” melted, they were prisms of a segment. That is the shape that the level water in the ice maker has as the intersection with the arc that is the mold. Someplace around here, I have articles (a,b,c) about ice maker repair but when it works an ice maker is a wonderful thing.

In a previous time, the ice cubes had to be made in the freezer section of the refrigerator.  A metal pan held held metal dividers that had to be warmed or shifted with a lever  to separate the rectangular prisms from the separators in the tray.  When plastic became popular, a plastic tray made “cubes” with trapezoidal faces.  These trays ejected the ice everywhere but into the glass you were trying to fill.

Back even farther, chunks of ice were broken from the same block of ice that cooled the food in the ice box.  An ice pick was poked at the ice until a chunk came off.  The block of ice likely came from an ice plant where ammonia refrigerant cooled a couple of gallons of water in each mold to make thousands of blocks every day.

Even farther back and maybe still today where it is more economical than not, ice was sawn from surface of a lake or even a purpose-built pond. Hauled and stored in an ice-house with sawdust packed between the blocks to keep them from sticking and to insulate.

Just some thoughts on a day when the temperature is 97 or so.  A bit of a breeze make it tolerable.  And ice water makes it enjoyable.

After a bit of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning, my daughter came down from Asheville in the afternoon. We had supper of spaghetti and salad and music that we rarely get to hear. Sunday, my son came down from school, BLT’s for lunch, naps, daughter changed the oil in her car and we had meat loaf and baked potatoes for supper.

Those concerned about global warming may enjoy this. It’s superstringy, from The Reference Frame. Or maybe not.

The last week, the weather has been unbeatable.  The air conditioning is off and the windows are open.  Mid-eighties days, low sixties at night.  Prime sleeping weather.

In this YouTube clip, the host of the British Top Gear show gets a ride in an U2.

Many days when I get home from work, Adah waits by the door of the car until I open it.  She jumps in my lap squeezed by the steering wheel. Or sits on the seat next to me and wants to be patted.  I do not know how long I could pat her before she tired.  I have never patted her like that for more than 10 minutes.

Monday Morning

Nuf said.

I have been busy elsewhere on the web, playing with new toys.  I have discovered Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Wunderground and LinkedIn.  So I have been exploring each.  On the first and last, I am Christopher Calvin.  On the middle 3 of these, I am known as CBCalvin.

I find Twitter a bit distracting.  If you follow a long list of people, the updates are frequent and probably not related to what you are doing.  This requires disciplne to maintain focus on the task at hand.  The best part of twitter is its simplicity.  A simple input box permits 140 characters of text in answer to the question “What are you doing now?”.  Some people, including me,  use it as a sort of asynchronous IM to people they know are following.  Others use it as a journal.  There is a way to watch the whole stream.  A few minutes gives you an idea of the esprit de temps. If my message is long, I sometimes try to edit it so that it is EXACTLY 140 characters.

Flickr is a site for posting pictures.  All of the pictures you post are part of your “photostream”.  If you are a free member, you can organize 3 collections.  If you want more and more storage, you can pay a fee and become a professional member.  Flickr is a good way to share your pictures.

Facebook is a social networking site.  You can locate and communicate with people you may currently or have known in the past.  You can post notes and pictures.  Most of what you post is shareable with the world if you want it to be.  Another way to keep in touch.

Wunderground is basically a weather reporting site.  You can get your local weather in great detail with discussion and the whole works.  They also have weather pictures of current (the last week) of weather.  I have posted some pictures there, not because they are great pictures but just to document the weather.
So because I have been elsewhere, that is why I have not been here.

My daughter was home for the holidays. Most of the days were rainy but we had at least one nice day when we could be outside. She took the opportunity to make glass beads. My son took this picture. The glass rod is melted and gathered on a mandrel, additional colors are added. The bead is then cooled slowly.

I got up early this morning so that I could take pictures in Fountain Inn of the Fall weather. I have posted a few of them at the Weather Underground picture site. I will select a few more perhaps and put them up to Flickr. When I got back Elvis was sleeping.

I started raking after the pictures were up, took a break for lunch. After lunch, I brought Elvis outside to help me. He wandered about while I raked. If he got too far I would bring him back, hold him a bit, give him some pats, set him down, rake some more, repeat for about an hour.

I still have the back yard to do. I had better get back to it to finish before dark.