Those of you that have lived for an extended time in the city know that things move at a pretty quick pace for all practical purposes. If you make a deal to buy something and then don't show up on time, your deal probably just flew out the window as there seems to be a never ending supply of folks wanting to buy just about whatever you might be selling.
What brings this to mind is my dealing with a fellow about a Craigslist ad. If you have not heard of Craigslist.com, it is a web site that has classified ads for just about everything. From tools to quilting supplies, you can find just about anything on Craigslist. In our area, you can see ads that are centered in Grand Island, Omaha, and Lincoln, and there are nationwide listings you can navigate to easily.
Anyway... I was surfing through Craigslist several MONTHS ago and came across a "wanted" ad. The guy was looking for an old wood stove for a shop he was building, and I replied that I had one if he was still interested... I didn't see the ad until it was a couple weeks old already.
He emailed me back and said he was interested, but was in Holdredge and would be coming this way in a few days. Well, I didn't hear from the guy for a couple months and then got an email that he was still interested if I still had it. I responded I had it, but heard nothing again for several months until last week when the phone rang. It was the guy looking for the wood stove, he was in town for an auction, and did I still have the stove to sell? "Yep" I replied, and soon after my old wood stove was on his trailer heading down the road, and I had a few extra bucks in my pocket. This little story started about 8 months ago.
Some folks in rural Nebraska seem to operate on a really different time clock than the city folks I've known. I think I've commented on this sometime in the distant past, but it takes a bit of getting used to for a newbie to the area. Most business seem to close for lunch hour in our town which I never experienced in the city, and it can take months to get a deal done that in the city would have been done on the day of initial contact.
If I sound like it bothered me that it took so long to get the stove deal done, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's nice that people don't feel like they have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get things done. I think people in these parts have known for a long time that being in a hurry doesn't necessarily get things done any faster, and I'm glad I finally figured it out too.
On another topic, the green thumbs of NW Furnas county seem to be having a banner year. Margie's tomato plants are loaded, and we've been eating off them for almost two full weeks now. We only get one or two every couple days so far, but that first one was GREAT! The second, third, and forth were just as good, but we don't have enough to share with the neighbors yet. In the last couple days however, we've gotten sweet corn and cucumbers from neighbors. Have not sampled the cucs yet, but we gobbled up the corn and Margie said it was the best she's ever had. As far as I'm concerned, it was only in the top 5, but then I can't discern which of the top 5 is the best, so these ears might just be them. Thanks Neighbors!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Prosopagnosia and Laminin
I've got a problem and I know it. For some reason, I sometimes have real trouble putting names and faces together for certain people. Not that I don't recognize folks I've met because I do. As a matter of fact, I might even go so far as to say I never forget a face (well almost anyway), but put a name with that face and I am doomed now and then. And to make matters worse, it's not just people I've met recently, but folks I see and speak to on a nearly weekly basis, and it always seems to be the same folks I put my foot in my mouth with.
The names are changed to protect the innocent...
The Smith brothers. These two guys have the same last name, a family resemblance, and I see them both just about every week. For whatever reason, I can't get their names straight in my head consistently. I know who is who, but I'd bet they think once in a while I don't have a clue.
Then there's the fellow with the name that is very similar to a good friend of ours that passed away a few years ago. For whatever reason, I say "hi" and even though I consciously think exactly how I'm going to say his name, out comes my departed friends name. Close... but no cigar... I can only hope he isn't offended over the long run.
OK, so I've been thinking about writing a blog to make a public apology to the folks that I don't get their names with their faces right, and some on a consistent basis. I'm am sorry, and I really don't know why I have trouble getting your name right, but I know who you are.
So today while researching a substance called Laminin, I came across an article about obscure medical conditions and Prosopagnosia was brought up. There may be no cure, and it was originally associated with a brain injury and you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia, but the gist is some people have it and it is a described medical condition concerning face recognition. I probably don't have it, but it could make a good excuse for my feeble mind.
Oh yes about Laminin...
Google Laminin and what it is, and notice the shape of the molecule depicted.
Snopes.com's take on Laminim can be read here... http://www.snopes.com/glurge/laminin.asp
Snopes final comment is
"Perhaps most important, molecular diagrams like the one used here are generally intended to represent those structures in ways that make them easy for humans to conceptualize and work with, not to be exact reproductions of the molecules"
Well, based on that Snopes comment, I like to think God took that into consideration when building the stuff in the first place.
The names are changed to protect the innocent...
The Smith brothers. These two guys have the same last name, a family resemblance, and I see them both just about every week. For whatever reason, I can't get their names straight in my head consistently. I know who is who, but I'd bet they think once in a while I don't have a clue.
Then there's the fellow with the name that is very similar to a good friend of ours that passed away a few years ago. For whatever reason, I say "hi" and even though I consciously think exactly how I'm going to say his name, out comes my departed friends name. Close... but no cigar... I can only hope he isn't offended over the long run.
OK, so I've been thinking about writing a blog to make a public apology to the folks that I don't get their names with their faces right, and some on a consistent basis. I'm am sorry, and I really don't know why I have trouble getting your name right, but I know who you are.
So today while researching a substance called Laminin, I came across an article about obscure medical conditions and Prosopagnosia was brought up. There may be no cure, and it was originally associated with a brain injury and you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia, but the gist is some people have it and it is a described medical condition concerning face recognition. I probably don't have it, but it could make a good excuse for my feeble mind.
Oh yes about Laminin...
Google Laminin and what it is, and notice the shape of the molecule depicted.
Snopes.com's take on Laminim can be read here... http://www.snopes.com/glurge/laminin.asp
Snopes final comment is
"Perhaps most important, molecular diagrams like the one used here are generally intended to represent those structures in ways that make them easy for humans to conceptualize and work with, not to be exact reproductions of the molecules"
Well, based on that Snopes comment, I like to think God took that into consideration when building the stuff in the first place.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Frank And The Foreign Language
A while back I brought up the movie "Cars" and how much I enjoyed it. The one liner jokes, characters, and story line made for a very enjoyable movie in my opinion. One of my favorite parts of the movie involved tractor tipping and the combine Frank. See http://www.mccookgazette.com/blogs/hoag/entry/22993/ What brings this to mind is Margie's experience the other night.
As it turns out, we're your basically boring couple I suppose. Margie counted it up and it turns out in the last year and 1/2, we have gotten home after dark a whopping 4 times. Now Margie is up on me by one as she had an encounter with one of the Cars movie characters on her way home from a ladies social get-together in town the other night. Yep, Margie encountered Frank, or his cousin JD anyway.
Our country roads are pretty dark at night, so you can see when someone is coming quite a ways ahead even on a hilly, twisty road like the one between town and our place. Margie popped over a hill before a curve ahead and knew there was a car heading down the road, until she came around the corner and Frank, or JD, was hard at work in the wheat rows right next to the road, so it looked like she was about to be eaten by ol' Frank as she rounded the corner on the hill at first glance. When she got home, the first words out of her mouth were a direct quote from the movie... "There's Frank!", I immediately knew she had an encounter in the dark with a combine, and then I got the rest of the story.
Now the other part of my blog today is about my efforts to learn a foreign language. You likely didn't know it, but there are different languages used on the Internet to show the pages your computer displays. To see what this language looks like, place your cursor over this text, click the right mouse button, and then left click on "view source". Another window will open up with the computer language that is used to display this McCook Gazette web page. Yep... it takes all that to show this page!
The basic language of the Internet is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), but there have been languages developed to work with HTML to enhance how pages are displayed. Javascript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are two of the most commonly used right now. When I started my web site 7 years ago, I worked with strict HTML and the results are pretty good I think... http://www.rv-camping.org, but the new languages are a lot more flexible, as well as faster loading so I'm trying to teach myself CSS. Not an easy task when I don't have an instructor and my efforts are all trial and error... mostly error so far.
Computers have changed my life for sure, probably yours, and will continue to do so I'm certain. While searching for a picture of Frank, I stumbled on the following YouTube video and got to thinking there are folks with a lot of spare time on their hands to develop a computer program that shows this stuff, but I suppose farmers miss their fields in the middle of winter enough to work this type of computer simulation???
As it turns out, we're your basically boring couple I suppose. Margie counted it up and it turns out in the last year and 1/2, we have gotten home after dark a whopping 4 times. Now Margie is up on me by one as she had an encounter with one of the Cars movie characters on her way home from a ladies social get-together in town the other night. Yep, Margie encountered Frank, or his cousin JD anyway.
Our country roads are pretty dark at night, so you can see when someone is coming quite a ways ahead even on a hilly, twisty road like the one between town and our place. Margie popped over a hill before a curve ahead and knew there was a car heading down the road, until she came around the corner and Frank, or JD, was hard at work in the wheat rows right next to the road, so it looked like she was about to be eaten by ol' Frank as she rounded the corner on the hill at first glance. When she got home, the first words out of her mouth were a direct quote from the movie... "There's Frank!", I immediately knew she had an encounter in the dark with a combine, and then I got the rest of the story.
Now the other part of my blog today is about my efforts to learn a foreign language. You likely didn't know it, but there are different languages used on the Internet to show the pages your computer displays. To see what this language looks like, place your cursor over this text, click the right mouse button, and then left click on "view source". Another window will open up with the computer language that is used to display this McCook Gazette web page. Yep... it takes all that to show this page!
The basic language of the Internet is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), but there have been languages developed to work with HTML to enhance how pages are displayed. Javascript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are two of the most commonly used right now. When I started my web site 7 years ago, I worked with strict HTML and the results are pretty good I think... http://www.rv-camping.org, but the new languages are a lot more flexible, as well as faster loading so I'm trying to teach myself CSS. Not an easy task when I don't have an instructor and my efforts are all trial and error... mostly error so far.
Computers have changed my life for sure, probably yours, and will continue to do so I'm certain. While searching for a picture of Frank, I stumbled on the following YouTube video and got to thinking there are folks with a lot of spare time on their hands to develop a computer program that shows this stuff, but I suppose farmers miss their fields in the middle of winter enough to work this type of computer simulation???
Sunday, July 5, 2009
There's Just Something About A Parade
I've been in two parades once in my distant past. What I mean by that is that I was in two parades with the same float. I was stationed at the US Air Force Survival School near Spokane Washington, driving trucks with supplies and heavy equipment used to maintain a training area for military survival students. The base was asked to provide a float for an early summer parade in Spokane, and the town of Ritzville Washington asked us to be in their 4th of July Parade after seeing our entry at Spokane.
Since I was driving the "Official Use Only" truck pulling the flatbed trailer that had our float riding on it, I was expected to wear my uniform, while the folks on the float itself were dressed in costume. You see, our float commemorate northwest USA exploration and we had a giant raft on this 40 foot flatbed, similar what Lewis & Clark might have fashioned once they got to the big rivers heading west to the ocean. The raft really was huge if you think about all the poles necessary to make a raft 45' x 10' with a large "hut" in the center. The guys riding the float were dressed in buckskins and armed with polling staffs. It had a mast for a sail, but that proved to be impractical as the mast was so tall it had to be lowered at each intersection in Spokane and was quickly abandoned. So much for forethought.
The Spokane parade was great with a lot of people watching and many floats, but the Ritzville event was by FAR the most fun! The town of Ritzville has about 1700 or so folks living there, and the whole town turned out. I seemed to be a marked man in uniform as I believe I got to shake just about every person in the towns hand one way or the other. Those folks, like the most people around here were very patriotic and appreciative of our military and what they do for us. The whole town had a pot luck and the chow was to say the least... great! Our crew for the event ended up spending the whole day in Ritzville and it's something I'll never forget. I was too young then to really understand the significance of their feelings, but it comes to you sooner or later.
What brings the above to mind is the parade we attended yesterday in Arapahoe. It started off badly enough for me. One of the few things that I've discovered here that makes life difficult for newcomers is that a lot of information is "assumed" to be known by everyone, even if you've never been there before. My most recent example of this is finding the parade route through Arapahoe for starters, and being in the completely wrong place at the wrong time. Fire and EMS crews parked on Vine street waiting for the parade to start... I'm sorry! I didn't know I shouldn't turn on Vine! I didn't mean to be an SA (Stupid A#$), and I promise next time I'll know where to go.
Anyway... I should have paid attention to how big a parade it really was as it went on for close to an hour I believe. It started with two sets of Color Guards followed by a marching band. I always get chills when I see a Color Guard marching down the street, and this was the first time I've seen two. The above mentioned fire and EMS crews and vehicles were next followed by a wide variety of parade participants from motorcycles and tractors, to pot bellied pigs and horseback riders. And to wrap up the perfect parade in downtown Arapahoe, the Gosper/Furnas County Museum was open and we spent another hour or so wandering around the great collection of artifacts on display there.
We wrapped up our day at a barbecue and fireworks display out in the country. One of the amazing things we noticed was that after the initial thrill of the fireworks starting, the kids attending were more interested in catching firefly's than the overhead flashes in the night sky. One of the major topics of conversation? The weather. Not too surprising considering I don't think the thermometer hit 80 at our place which, according to local folks, is very unusual for this time of year. Lows in the 80's are common in early July I hear, so this holiday was exceptional... in more ways than one for us.
Since I was driving the "Official Use Only" truck pulling the flatbed trailer that had our float riding on it, I was expected to wear my uniform, while the folks on the float itself were dressed in costume. You see, our float commemorate northwest USA exploration and we had a giant raft on this 40 foot flatbed, similar what Lewis & Clark might have fashioned once they got to the big rivers heading west to the ocean. The raft really was huge if you think about all the poles necessary to make a raft 45' x 10' with a large "hut" in the center. The guys riding the float were dressed in buckskins and armed with polling staffs. It had a mast for a sail, but that proved to be impractical as the mast was so tall it had to be lowered at each intersection in Spokane and was quickly abandoned. So much for forethought.
The Spokane parade was great with a lot of people watching and many floats, but the Ritzville event was by FAR the most fun! The town of Ritzville has about 1700 or so folks living there, and the whole town turned out. I seemed to be a marked man in uniform as I believe I got to shake just about every person in the towns hand one way or the other. Those folks, like the most people around here were very patriotic and appreciative of our military and what they do for us. The whole town had a pot luck and the chow was to say the least... great! Our crew for the event ended up spending the whole day in Ritzville and it's something I'll never forget. I was too young then to really understand the significance of their feelings, but it comes to you sooner or later.
What brings the above to mind is the parade we attended yesterday in Arapahoe. It started off badly enough for me. One of the few things that I've discovered here that makes life difficult for newcomers is that a lot of information is "assumed" to be known by everyone, even if you've never been there before. My most recent example of this is finding the parade route through Arapahoe for starters, and being in the completely wrong place at the wrong time. Fire and EMS crews parked on Vine street waiting for the parade to start... I'm sorry! I didn't know I shouldn't turn on Vine! I didn't mean to be an SA (Stupid A#$), and I promise next time I'll know where to go.
Anyway... I should have paid attention to how big a parade it really was as it went on for close to an hour I believe. It started with two sets of Color Guards followed by a marching band. I always get chills when I see a Color Guard marching down the street, and this was the first time I've seen two. The above mentioned fire and EMS crews and vehicles were next followed by a wide variety of parade participants from motorcycles and tractors, to pot bellied pigs and horseback riders. And to wrap up the perfect parade in downtown Arapahoe, the Gosper/Furnas County Museum was open and we spent another hour or so wandering around the great collection of artifacts on display there.
We wrapped up our day at a barbecue and fireworks display out in the country. One of the amazing things we noticed was that after the initial thrill of the fireworks starting, the kids attending were more interested in catching firefly's than the overhead flashes in the night sky. One of the major topics of conversation? The weather. Not too surprising considering I don't think the thermometer hit 80 at our place which, according to local folks, is very unusual for this time of year. Lows in the 80's are common in early July I hear, so this holiday was exceptional... in more ways than one for us.
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