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Post by Martin on Feb 14, 2012 0:42:51 GMT -4
Yes, It's painful to go outside after all the mild weather. Nothing needs urgent attention outside here so I spun around and marched right back into the house! LOL
~Martin
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Feb 14, 2012 9:52:19 GMT -4
Trudy, You can hang out with Amish families any time you want to come visit. I have gotten way past the normal skepticism they hold for us English, and am welcome in their homes, which by the way are immaculate, warm and cozy this time of year. We were in Phoenix for the Meteorological Conference that was held at the convention center. Lynn and I dislike cities so we stayed a little outside of the down town a little but close enough to walk to the Metro. The horseback trip was with Saguaro Lake Ranch, it was our favorite part of the whole trip, we forded some streams on horseback which was pretty cool, and rode around the desert all day, it was really nice. The only disappointment to the whole trip was the fact that we did NOT find a Mexican restaurant that was better than our very own El Rodeo in Harrisburg PA, and we ate Mexican almost every night we were there. We tried all the so-called have to try spots, from my daughter in law who used to live in Sedona. NONE of them were as good as El Rodeo. Same thing in San Antonio, TX the year before, in fact, we have been searching 11 years for a better Mexican restaurant, there aren't any! ;D
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Post by Martin on Feb 14, 2012 14:59:37 GMT -4
Hey Andy, How are you liking your Kindle? I'm thinking about getting one at the end of the month. ~Martin
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Post by azlonerider on Feb 14, 2012 21:20:04 GMT -4
Martin, I really like my kindle, it's easy to use, very readable and the battery holds a charge for a long time. I like reading books on it. Right now I have about 90 books on it with plenty of space on it. Most of the books I have are free classic fiction, or classic non-fiction DIY type stuff.
Some drawbacks: Amazon tracks what you read, and the books you buy... that is a huge negative for me because if Amazon has that info who will they give to?
That is my one drawback
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Post by leatherneckpa on Feb 16, 2012 16:38:15 GMT -4
OK, so I woke up this morning to two e-mails from readers of The Valley. Pretty cool, huh? I wrote answers, in my typically verbose manner, and sent them off. In the process of answering one of them I went to Amazon to find the title and author of a book I was recommending (too lazy to go searching the house for it). Naturally I discovered another book that caught my interest. Just out of curiosity I checked the online directory at our local library, planning to peruse their copy before I slapped down the $20 on Amazon for a book that I would later be disappointed in. Son of a gun, they had a copy on the shelf.
So I stopped at the library during my errands this afternoon and walked out with three other books I want to check out. I LOVE a good library, and ours seems to be pretty decent. I think that might become one of my criteria in the "land-search", being within a reasonable distance of a decent library.
I can remember the very first library I ever stepped foot in. It was a one-room, converted church with stacks instead of pews. And it had one of those rolling ladder-on-rails arrangement for the tall stacks against the walls. The stacks on the walls went the full 10' to the ceiling. It seemed awfully tall at the time, but the the floor stacks couldn't have been more than 6' tall because my dad could read the top shelf titles and he was only 5'10". I was 6 years old when I got my first library card.
There used to be a "mail-order" inter-library loan available to us when I was a kid, growing up in the Mohawk Valley of NY. They had a newsprint catalog and you mailed in a postcard with your request on it. A week or so later you'd get the book in the mail. It was good for one month and then you mailed it back, in the provided envelope. I wonder if there was a cost for membership? If so, Dad paid it for me. And you could send them the author and title for almost anything and they'd try to get it for you from some other library if they didn't have it. Boy, I haven't thought of that thing in over 30 years. I'd be willing to bet that doesn't exist anymore, in today's economic climate. More's the pity.
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Feb 16, 2012 16:52:02 GMT -4
You are the Chicken Man of PA Mike! I think it is way cool, glad you do too. Our web site had over 2,000 hits last month from people accessing the paper and the other web pages.
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Post by Martin on Feb 16, 2012 16:54:09 GMT -4
It seemed awfully tall at the time..... Probably because of all the stories! LOL ~Martin The libraries around here pretty much suck!
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Post by leatherneckpa on Feb 16, 2012 17:59:26 GMT -4
;D I just noticed Martin's "title" under his 5 stars. Whoever did that could not have gotten it more right! ;D
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Post by leatherneckpa on Feb 21, 2012 10:37:28 GMT -4
I have decided that I am not a big fan of "biscuit joinery" for anything more than aligning parts while gluing them together. A few years back I made a 2'x3' table top for Cindy for some reason. I didn't have any money for materials, so it was built from what I had on hand. In this case it was some left over 3/4" red cedar boards. It really looked spectacular with a couple of coats of oil and wax. It needed legs, so I slapped something together using some pre-fab legs from Lowes and biscuits for joining the aprons to the legs. My last Airedale was about 70 lbs, this one is about 65 lbs, and both can best be described as active and rambunctious. So the little table got bumped, slammed, and knocked over on a pretty regular basis as they chased the 70 lb Lab around the house. Last week two of the legs broke free and the table fell.
Back to Lowes for four more legs to rebuild the base. This time I used my doweling jig and 2" grooved dowels. It may not be as fast as a biscuit joiner but I feel a lot better about the table lasting more than a five years this time. Now all I have to do is paint the base (2 coats) and put the top back on.
What time I didn't spend building this table base was spent studying for my next licensing exams. I am taking two of them on March 10th, General Science and Biology. I have already sent my paperwork to Harrisburg applying for my teaching license. Once I pass these two tests I will be able to search for a job teaching three different sciences. I will most likely take the Physics licensing exam in June, which leaves the Chemistry one for October.
It's a funny thing, there's only ONE licensing exam for Math, only ONE for Language Arts (English), and only ONE for Social Studies. But for science there are FIVE! I'd cry "foul" but I doubt it would do any good. Better just to take the tests and pass them all. From what I have seen in schools so far, if I have all five licenses I will be VERY unique among science teachers. Most have only 2, maybe three. The most common ones being Gen Sci and Bio.
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Post by Martin on Feb 21, 2012 11:57:32 GMT -4
I have decided that I am not a big fan of "biscuit joinery" for anything more than aligning parts while gluing them together. A few years back I made a 2'x3' table top for Cindy for some reason. I didn't have any money for materials, so it was built from what I had on hand. In this case it was some left over 3/4" red cedar boards. It really looked spectacular with a couple of coats of oil and wax. It needed legs, so I slapped something together using some pre-fab legs from Lowes and biscuits for joining the aprons to the legs. My last Airedale was about 70 lbs, this one is about 65 lbs, and both can best be described as active and rambunctious. So the little table got bumped, slammed, and knocked over on a pretty regular basis as they chased the 70 lb Lab around the house. Last week two of the legs broke free and the table fell. Back to Lowes for four more legs to rebuild the base. This time I used my doweling jig and 2" grooved dowels. It may not be as fast as a biscuit joiner but I feel a lot better about the table lasting more than a five years this time. Now all I have to do is paint the base (2 coats) and put the top back on. What time I didn't spend building this table base was spent studying for my next licensing exams. I am taking two of them on March 10th, General Science and Biology. I have already sent my paperwork to Harrisburg applying for my teaching license. Once I pass these two tests I will be able to search for a job teaching three different sciences. I will most likely take the Physics licensing exam in June, which leaves the Chemistry one for October. It's a funny thing, there's only ONE licensing exam for Math, only ONE for Language Arts (English), and only ONE for Social Studies. But for science there are FIVE! I'd cry "foul" but I doubt it would do any good. Better just to take the tests and pass them all. From what I have seen in schools so far, if I have all five licenses I will be VERY unique among science teachers. Most have only 2, maybe three. The most common ones being Gen Sci and Bio. Good luck with your exams!!! ~Martin
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Post by leatherneckpa on Feb 23, 2012 13:29:32 GMT -4
Study break yesterday consisted of two half hour sessions of painting the table base. I have confirmed that I hate to paint ANYTHING! Oh well, it was almost[/i] worth it to see how happy Cindy was to get her table back last night.
Took a sample Biology test online today. Got enough points to have a passing score, but not much to spare. Two weeks to go, plenty of time to study. I am now confident I will pass, it's just a matter of maximizing the score.
Andy/Trudy (whoever sees this first) is there a website I can view your pens at? I have two brothers who are going to turn 50 next month and I am considering buying them a "commemorative" pen. My youngest brother bought me a wooden pen (Hawaiian koa) when I got promoted to LT and it's the only pen I have ever held on to. I've lost Cross pens. Papermates and Bics are disposable as far as I'm concerned. But that pen I have held on to for over 12 years now.
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Post by azlonerider on Feb 24, 2012 0:34:29 GMT -4
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Post by Martin on Feb 28, 2012 21:56:34 GMT -4
These crazy town folk!!! A guy down the street set out a big Delta table saw with the trash. Me being the dumpster diver that I am (LOL) knocked on their door and asked if I could have it. He said "Sure,please take it, but the motor doesn't work"...Okay!!! I took it home and pushed the reset button, works fine so far!!!! ~Martin
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Post by nhlivefreeordie on Feb 28, 2012 22:00:43 GMT -4
Good Grief, some peoples kids.....
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Post by leatherneckpa on Feb 29, 2012 9:21:47 GMT -4
Wait a minute! There's a "Reset" button on these things!? I've owned table saws for over 20 years and didn't know that. (Grizzly and then DeWalt) Where is it located? On the motor?
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