Entries Tagged 'Change' ↓

Cheerfulmonk. Creative Commons license

 
The U.S. Senate is now holding hearings on the legality of targeted killings, especially with Predator drones. Does the war on terror give the U.S. the right to kill suspected terrorists anywhere in the world? And even if it does have that right, are these killings doing more harm than good given that mistakes happen and innocent people are also being killed?

One Yemeni writer, Farea Al-Muslimi, testified about his own shock and hatred when a drone bombed his village. In the past he had good feelings toward America but now:

The drone strike and its impact tore my heart, much as the tragic bombings in Boston last week tore your hearts and also mine. What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my village… one drone strike accomplished in an instant: There is now an intense anger and growing hatred of America.

The Yemenis are now burning drones in effigy and
Muslimi said Yemini parents are using the drones as bogeymen to get their kids to go to bed:

Go to sleep or I will call the planes.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, of course, is using the drone strikes to try to recruit more terrorists. Do you think they will succeed? Do you think we’ve gone too far with the drone strikes?

 
In June, 2010 I wrote

Years ago “I’ve been agin’ ‘em all” was my husband’s and my favorite joke. The world has probably deteriorated even more since then, but at the moment I’m having too good a time to worry about it.

At the time I was talking about my Kindle, which is a boon to people like me with bad eyestrain. I think a lot of things in the country and in the world have deteriorated even more since that post, but I’m now subscribed to audible.com and have a wealth of books read to me via my mp3 player. How’s that for luxury? And the thing that prompted this post is a new $0.99 iPad app called Digits:
 

 
Notice the big numbers on the main pad. Another boon for my poor old eyes. But the thing that makes it special to me is the record of my calculations on the left. If I do any lengthy calculations I usually use an Excel spreadsheet so I can check to make sure I’ve put the correct numbers in. This little app means I don’t have to fire up Excel.

Also, if I want to reuse a number I simply highlight it and pull it over into my new calculation. This is handy when I calculate the gross receipts tax on items we’re replacing using our insurance from the fire. I also expect it to be useful in a couple of months when I work on the income tax.

Yes, I know. I do get excited by little things. And I know such enthusiasm isn’t cool. So it’s nice — thanks to The Thundering Herd — to have some kindred spirits in the world:

 

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. A walk. A walk.
 

Come on, kid, we walk all the time. Act like you have done this before.
 

No, I think I’ll stick with being uncool. How about you?

The Thundering Herd. Used with permission.

 
The Thundering Herd spent the holiday at the beach. The human dad enjoyed the scenery and Cheoah immersed herself in other things.

I think of Cheoah as a kindred spirit. Scenery is fine as long as it doesn’t keep me from immersing myself in my projects. Well, truth to tell, my projects don’t usually involve my butt in the air and my head in the ground, but immersion it is nonetheless.

And I spend a lot of time digging for information. As I’m writing this I’m also chatting online with a Verizon representative to see if we can get Andy a cell phone that works up on the land. His old one can’t get reception there, and the workmen had problems with their phones too. We’re checking to see if a new one would be more powerful.

I also spent the morning doing research on satellite internet plans, and they all seem to suck be less than satisfactory. So at the moment we don’t have either cell phone service or internet up there. As a consequence I’ve spent the past few days planning how to set up my study so it will work for occasional visits at least. On a nice day the scenery up there is beautiful, so it’s well worth some effort.
 

 
Are you a project person too? What are your favorite ways of spending your time?

This past Thursday I wrote about sheathing the cabin. Friday they installed the center roof beam:
 

 

 

 

 

 
They plan to continue working on the roof this week.

They also brought up our bathtub and took it into the house. Presumably the plumber is starting to think about installing that soon? We’ll just have to see.
 

 
How was your week?

 
The above picture was taken from our porch yesterday evening. It doesn’t show the brilliant orange of the sun, but it does show how the smoke is obscuring the view of Jemez Mountains a couple of miles away. The smoke was from the Wildwater Baldy fire in the southwest corner of the state, several hundred miles from here.

Fortunately the wind shifted and it was clear again today, with the temperature in the mid- to high-60′s.
 

 
As I write this (3:50 pm) the fire down south has consumed over 122,000 acres and is presumably still growing. To put it in perspective our Las Conchas fire last year burned over 156,000 acres and was the largest in New Mexico state history so far. It’s clearly going to be another bad fire year.

On a different note, Kaitlin wrote to say it’s 94 degrees where she is and everyone is inside enjoying the air conditioner, except for Montana, their youngest dog. She has short hair and is outside basking in the sun. Here’s a picture of her and Sammy that Kaitlin sent last night. You can see why Sammy isn’t basking in the sun too.
 

 
What’s the weather like where you are?

 
As we’ve said, this has been quite a year for us here:
 

 
What about you? Has your life changed much in the past year?

For better resolution click here.

 
As I wrote last Thursday, we made a lot of progress last week. The stems walls are now done and Joe plans to go up tomorrow to pack the dirt around the outside of the house as well as level and compact the dirt on the inside. He and his crew will also bend down the rebar and add more to prepare inside of the house for a concrete slab floor. (That area is covered at the moment to keep the ground from freezing.) He hopes to get approval from the building inspector Wednesday so he can, weather permitting, pour the slab the following week.

If the weather cooperates the Tuff Shed crew will start building the shed Tuesday. Again, whatever happens it should be interesting.

Hope things are going well with you. Kaitlin and Torben are coming tomorrow and will fly back Saturday Friday. Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?

This past week was a productive one. Andy filled the back of the truck with wood to give it more traction in the snow when he plows:
 

 
The well driller installed the new lid for our well house (now being painted):
 

 
And Joe managed to get all of the permits we need for the septic system, house, and shed and dug the trenches for the house foundation:
 

 
The plan for this week was for Joe to put the rebar in and get approval from the building inspector to pour the concrete so we could order the shed. Unfortunately we had a bit of snow this weekend and there’s a winter storm watch for tonight, so who knows?
 

 

 

 
For more, and higher quality, pictures start here.

 
This view of the clearing was taken last Thursday. That was the day Joe was supposed to go down to Bernalillo to get the building permits, so between that and the weather we weren’t surprised that Andy was the only one up there. But Friday was beautiful and still no one else came up.

The weekend was gorgeous and the same is predicted for the first part of the coming week. So Andy is going to phone Steve tomorrow morning to see if (1) we now have the permits, and (2) if they will take advantage of the good weather to get something done on the construction. I will let you know!

In the meantime Andy is cutting down more trees and we’ve been making decisions on the roofing, windows, exterior colors, etc. so some progress is being made.

For larger view click on picture.
 

For larger view click on picture.

 
They continued preparing the site for the shed Friday while Steve and Joe (supposedly) went down to Bernalillo to see if they could get some building permits. We haven’t heard if they had any luck but should know more tomorrow.

We’re still keeping an eye on the weather. There’s a 50% chance of precipitation Wednesday, which might slow things down. Especially if it’s time to start pouring concrete. It’s all very interesting.