Quick Clip

This is just a catch-up filler, for those who are blog junkies.

We had our first snow on Thursday, October 30th. It stuck a little, but there was no accumulation. Mike called from the road and said the snow was about 2 inches deep from Richfield and north into the snow belt. Of course, upstate NY had to get about a foot of fluffy to plow that day.

The deck rail is coming slowly. One 6 foot section is complete. There are still five post sleeves on back order from Carter Lumber. The rail color is "White Sand", and it is a sort of "dirty" white that doesn't quite match the white of the trim on the house. Mutterings have been heard about the possibility of painting it to match. I want none of that.

Moved the gas line from its original position (sticking out of the face of the deck fascia) to a new spot on the rail post of the lower deck. I had just enough scrap 1/2" gas pipe to do the job, and only had to buy a pair of close nipples for the project. Mike and I had determined earlier that the pipe threader would allow production of nipples down to about 6 inches, but I figured out a way to get that down to about 4 inches. Also figured out an alternative to a pipe vise, requiring a stand that would hold the pipe threader in a vertical position.

The MAD is going to need far more traps to do the job properly. I suggested that perhaps school projects could be encouraged where students would build the traps in shop class or as science projects. Registered at freepatentsonline.com and downloaded the files for the CDC Light Trap and the CDC Gravid Trap. Since the gummint was assigned the patents, I assume that all we have to do is put some working drawings together and see if we can get volunteers to build them.

Registered with the unemployment people. Found out that they cannot yet make a determination of my eligibility for benefits since my previous employer has only reported my employment through the end of June.

Sent out another resume this morning.

Met the parents of Dennis Datich at Family Night at church last night (see January 25th post). Found out that Dennis died two years ago. I'm starting to understand what old geezers feel when all their contemporaries have become extinct. Can you imagine being the last living dinosaur?

Tomorrow is V-Day. I will be a precinct judge at Barberton 4-B. 5:30 AM until 7 PM. Long day tomorrow, methinks.

Ready to set up a joint account on ComputerShare (can't change the individual account to joint), one at Dominion, and one at Mellon Bank for direct stock purchases. The mutual fund business may be an easy way to go -- let somebody else handle the management and charge you for it -- but direct control of what is purchased and held has some appeal. Too many mutual funds were heavily invested in financial stocks. I should have known better than to leave stuff exposed that way.

Se ya narrow.