The Myth & The Majesty

This is a broken car door handle. It's been a thorn in my side for a few years now. Why? Well, at one point I would have said it was too expensive to fix and therefore it was very low priority. Recently, however, I needed to replace my front brakes. Let's talk about things that are too expensive. Egads. This time, though, I realized I had the time to take care of it myself, and after a fair bit of research (that is, watching videos on YouTube) I realized I could probably do my brakes myself. A few parts, a couple hours, and voila -- brakes! Which is what brings me here today. You see, I'm not really a DIY person (whether that was car stuff or other stuff) and there are a lot of things out there that I used to only purchase. Over time, however, I've realized how much of it I can take care of myself in a shorter time for a lot less money, whether it's fixing something or making something from scratch. I'll admit, I have an  unfair advantage : ...

The first time I climbed Harney I was roughly 10. (...I think.) The only thing I really remember about that day was the fact that the last half-mile was entirely in the clouds, so I never got to see the view Mom and Dad had talked about. Luckily, to a 10-year-old brain, getting to run through the clouds is possibly even cooler than getting to see into Wyoming. The next time, it was a huge obstacle. I was 12, I was carrying a backpack and therefore way more weight than my tiny body was used to (that's right, at one point I was tiny) and it was the longest walk of my life. Almost literally -- it took hours. [Yes, if some of this is familiar -- I have talked about it before .] Now, two decades after my first trip, it's a wander in the woods. An hour and a half-ish walk to a gorgeous stone tower at South Dakota's highest point. It's solid exercise but not the challenge I remember, even though now I carry all that additional weight on a more permanent basis than I di...

Do you believe in ghosts? It's a simple enough question. Do you? Do you think that some people, for one reason or another, linger here after death? Leave behind an energy that cannot be fully explained? I ask this because until fairly recently, I would have rolled my eyes at such a question. But living in the Hills has certain risks, and one of those is a direct challenge to such skepticism. The Black Hills are considered a sacred place by the local Lakota tribes, alive with an energy not found everywhere. Maybe it started centuries ago; maybe it has more to do with the violent history surrounding the European settlement here. When white folks first found their way into the Hills, they were first fought off and later (through various treaties) banned from the area. It wasn't until the discovery of gold (we're in the 1870s or so by now) that the area was flooded with would-be settlers looking for riches. Towns sprang up, places with no law and no legal existence (r...

Yesterday, I had the day off and I decided I should actually leave and make the most of it. Which meant that shortly after breakfast, I loaded up my boat and headed to Sheridan Lake. Poor Sophie. No matter how often I do this, it always looks silly... I've talked about my kayaking adventures here and there, but I don't know if I've ever told you the story of this particular boat. It's not long. We had an outing with rented boats back in Wausau a few years ago. At that point, one of my coworkers owned a boat that he'd actually bought off another guy from Siemens; he hadn't had it long and he hadn't used it a lot yet. A year later, he still hadn't used it much. He mentioned his willingness to sell it and I, having fallen in love with kayaking after a single outing, jumped at the chance. And so it was that I bought my boat for $75 and a growler of beer. It was a steal. Anyway, last year by this point, I was pretty much done kayaking for ...

This is Clarence. A few weeks ago, Clarence appeared in camp, hungry for both food and attention. Apparently one of the sadly large number of pets that get dumped in the area, Clarence seemed happy to find people. Not long after that, the Bossman suggested Clarence should maybe be relocated. And then I had my first real encounter with him. Followed directly by my buying a bag of cat food and putting an official claim on him. It may have something to do with Clarence's uncanny resemblance to Edgar, who was staying with me at the time. (In fact, the first time I saw Clarence, I thought Edgar had gotten out.) It may also have been the fact that he seemed friendly enough and had, after all, found us. Anyway, since then Clarence has taken to wandering camp. Most mornings he follows me around, no more than a few feet behind or in front of me as I check buildings or grab coffee from the kitchen. He's proving his usefulness, too -- I've been given a couple of gifts o...

This past weekend -- while in Sioux Falls -- my mother asked if I felt like visiting Verizon. I'd mentioned it in passing a couple weeks ago but hadn't really thought about it again, and now was my chance. You see, for the first time in about a decade, my phone had survived to an actual upgrade. I'm on the family plan (hard to feel sheepish when it saves me hundreds) and somehow, no other family member had needed a new phone in the meantime. As for the phone itself surviving -- well. I had one of these. Photo pulled from Google Images. Mine is much more scratched up.   That is a Casio Brigade. The kind of phone made for construction workers and twenty-something women who break phones. Water resistant, shock resistant, and all-around tough.   Which is handy, since I liked to drop it in things just to scare people. Or throw it down a sidewalk. (Yep. Did that more than once.)   It does, of course, have its limitations. The speaker is in a weird spot...

All right. I've shared this photo almost everywhere I can ... Facebook. Text. Submitted to Jay Leno's "Headlines." But I haven't done it here. So I think I should. This is the current state of the BigLots! in Sioux Falls. It's certainly not the highest-quality photo I've taken, but I was laughing too hard ... and leaning across a driver. (We had to turn around and go back for a picture.) Go ahead and sound it out if you must. But don't overthink it. [Really, it's the exclamation point that gets me...] Cheers!

I'm not back. Not really. After this, I intend to return to silence for ... well, a week at least. However. When something amazing comes up on xkcd, I like to post about it. ( You know this .) I've managed to refrain for awhile. BUT. When something truly ambitious and beautiful comes up, I have to rave about it. And that would be today's comic, the aptly-titled " Click and Drag ." It starts out innocently enough. But then you follow the directions (you know ... to click and drag) and soon you're ... well, traveling the world.   Just one picture. I can't ruin the fun by posting all my favorite moments . It's amazing. Truly, astonishingly amazing. And absurdly poetic, right down to the fact that you can only see a small window of the world at any given time. There's still so much to explore that I will likely never see everything above and below ground. (I found an airplane! And the tunnels. But egads, he could have hidden ...

Amanda over at Life In Lajes  was minding her own business, trying to get to the UK when she was unexpectedly memed. Not being a naysayer herself, she decided to continue the madness. Strictly speaking, I'm not a meme-er. (Tee hee.) But when I found her comment waiting for me, I couldn't say no. And not just because I've known Amanda for longer than most of my non-family readers and she knows where I live. First, here are THE RULES as shared with me: You MUST post the rules.  Answer the questions the tagger sent for you in the post, and then create 11 new questions to ask the people you've tagged. Tag 11 bloggers; however, you can break the rules and tag fewer people if you want. Make sure you hyperlink their names/blogs. Let them know you've tagged them! Have fun! (Ashley's note: I would add "6. Don't ask a question you're not willing to answer.")   Now, these are the questions posed by Amanda: 1 . Where d...

Hi there! How's it going? Not a lot to report here. It's been a day of organization. I've been sorting through ... everything, it seems. Old clothes, piles of paper, computer files. While making my way through my computer, I started collecting in one spot some of the more ridiculous photos I've taken. And, naturally, my next thought was that they needed to be shared. These are all things I've seen myself. They're at varying levels of amusing and/or ridiculous. Some of them are somewhat legitimate. Some ... aren't. Like this. I didn't really know what to make of this. This one was just amusing. In a Wausau grocery store. (Of course.) This was actually a fabulous ad campaign for a museum in Seoul ... There were several slightly-less-clothed works of art depicted. I figured this one was recognizable enough. This was just plain dumb. Shame, B&N. They apparently just don't want you taking care of business on t...

[Note: As many lists as I've seen out there, this is one that I started myself based on personal observations. Yes, I have at least witnessed every last one of these. Because of that, a good chunk of them are specific to chemical engineers. Exactly five of these are things I haven't done.] * 1. You've ever considered a day with two non-work-related conversations a social success. As always, there's an xkcd for that. Thanks again, Mr. Munroe. 2. You've ever found yourself using Excel to chart some aspect of your social life. 3. You've ever used the phrase "entry and egress" in real life. [Side note: I just did this. Tripped over a cord and muttered about having to clear up my entry and egress. And then came the requisite head-smack.] 4. You've requested electronics for Christmas. Not the cool ones like iPhones or mp3 players -- the others, like external hard drives or a new motherboard. 5. You've ever taken a test for fun....

Last year, I wrote about my personal Packers history, and since then I've mentioned them far more than I ever thought I would. Today (in the interest of a non-serious post with at least a little purpose), I give you... Eight Reasons I'm Proud To Be A Packers Fan 1. It's the only community-owned team in the States. (They have their 5th stock sale going on right now. I wish I could join in...) 2. They had the guts to tell Brett Favre that no, he couldn't come back unconditionally (he would have to compete with Aaron Rodgers for the starting position) -- and when he didn't like that they traded him and ended up with Clay Matthews. I'd say that overall, that move has worked out rather well for them. 3. Fans will get behind players they refer to as "Packer people" and will similarly shy away from players that don't fit that. (Guys I've heard mentioned as "Packer people" include guys like Donald Driver, who writes children's b...

1. I am not a scrapbooker. However, there are times I want to find a regular photo album (such as right after returning from an overseas trip) and said albums are frequently found near the scrapbook sections of craft stores. As it turns out, one o'clock on a Friday afternoon is a bad time to go looking because it leads to me getting trapped in scrapbook hell, surrounded by intense scrapbookers with carts loading up on sales items. I was afraid I was going to have to spend the night in that aisle, subsisting on the mints in my purse ... or climbing the display to escape to the frames aisle. 2. All right, it wasn't that bad. Still, it seems that early Friday afternoon should be safe for shopping. Not so much. 3. I did get to talk to a few random strangers, first about what went best with a Minnesota Twins print (besides, you know, flames) and at some point about the craziness of the Friday afternoon traffic. 4. Speaking of which, Sioux Falls continues to make me crazy. ...

[As always ... There's an xkcd for that!] Do you have a bucket list? I like that term, somehow. It's so much easier and less ... chore-like than a "Life To-Do List" or something like that. Until fairly recently, I didn't really have a list of my own. I mean, there have always been plenty of things I've wanted to see, do, or experience. Someone challenged me recently to start crossing things off that list ... which required making one in the first place. This, of course, got me to thinking. What exactly is on my bucket list? And would I even want to share them with the vast, unforgiving Interwebs? In the light of admitting to eating live octopus (oh wait -- I suppose that's an upcoming post!), posting a sampling of this list seemed okay. Some are more easily attained than others, but I think that's just how it goes, isn't it? 1. Attain a Ph.D. Hopefully I'll be working on that one inside a year. 2. Visit every continent....

If I have a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. -Erasmus My spending habits have changed drastically in the last year. Of course, that's to be expected -- after all, I lost my job and went from having disposable income out of proportion to my age to having a lack of disposable income out of proportion to my age. I abruptly stopped buying things and my "social money" was carefully budgeted for an occasional dinner or birthday outing. Those habits haven't yet changed, even though I've been allowed to relax a little. However, all along, I've managed to find money if there's a book I really want. I've written from time to time about my ongoing love affair with the written word. While I don't really do book reviews here because, well, I just don't, there is another aspect of this love that is easy for me to convey. This booklust has led to me finding bookstores in most cities I've visited, regardless of ...

Last year, Blogger launched a statcounter of their own that came standard with a blog. It was great for a few reasons -- first, for regular bloggers, it meant that we could keep track of a few things without effort. Secondly, it meant that those of us who were frustrated with third-party statcounters could give them up entirely. Third ... it was free. I like free. Anyway, it's been an interesting source of information for me, not least of all because it's proving to me daily that yes, people read this thing. I thought perhaps I could share some of that information with you. First, there's the spread by country (although only the top ten are shown): Clearly, most of my readers are in the US. Not exactly surprising. Next up is South Korea, which is also not surprising given that Mia Sorella lives there. Russia follows ... likely because I still have a few friends there. Daz was in Italy for a time and as this is an "all-time" stat, I suppose those hits are f...

Dear Habicht, Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential babble... What are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul...? It's been a rough couple of days -- not just for me, either. If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. The kind of week that sends me careening off into other places looking for words of wisdom. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. This time, amongst many other sources (I've been reading an awful lot), that's included Albert Einstein ... who happens to be one of my heroes. Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Toge...

This is Shorty. He's crazy. This is Shorty's boat, which he built with his own two hands. Last year, he and another psycho (Shorty #2, his half-adopted brother) dreamed this thing up. And then Shorty and another friend of his discovered some design flaws while out in some pretty high winds. Shorty just finished rebuilding this week and had to give it a test run. It started off pretty well, although Shorty realized he should have had a second person on board. (Probably not his sister, though, as she would have only caused more issues.) It wasn't all smooth sailing and a few bumps were acquired. But it all worked out, mostly. Eventually, the only real problem was that the wind decided not to blow after all. Which meant Shorty and his sister had to paddle it back in, much to the amusement of other lake-goers. The End (Hmm. Blogger could really use a script font...)