My Blog

Avast! Another Talk Like a Pirate Day has come ‘n gone. It be hard to be talkin’ like a pirate when the only ones to be talkin’ to arrrr meself and me dog. Me did have a bit o’ fun by having my portrait done and by sharin’ me mid-day meal with me first daughter, Cap’n Ashley.

And here be some piratical music fer ye by the Dread Crew of Oddwood

— Cap’n Rich

It is amazing what a difference a few days makes when it comes to forecasting hurricanes.

On Wednesday, August 28th, it looked like Dorian was going to pass directly over us as a Category 2 hurricane. By Saturday, August 31st, not so much. And by the time Tuesday, September 3rd rolled around, Dorian passed well enough offshore that we had just a couple of inches of rain and some occasional winds.

After having brought everything inside and having rolled up the carpets in the front rooms away from the windows “just in case”, I spent some time preparing a YouTube livestream of the storm’s impact. Using 3 old iPhones, the Live Reporter IOS app, OBS, the ZoomRadar Widget, and an MacBook Pro with lots of RAM, I set up a “4 up” scene showing 3 views out through the windows and the live radar. It worked most of the time, but the iPhones kept overheating in the windows, their streams to the OBS software were not always stable, and it was pretty useless once the sun went down. It got me thinking that what I really needed was some streamable outdoor cameras, possibly some lights, and maybe even a weather station so that I could provide the current wind speed and direction, temperature, precipitation, etc. But who am I kidding? That sounds like a lot of money and I have no real way of getting power to where I’d like to put the cameras. Oh well, I guess we’ll just need to avoid any more hurricane scares.

— Rich

Ahoy, mateys!

Cap’n Rich didn’t be dressin’ up in his full pirate regalia this year for Talk Like a Pirate Day, so no likeness to be showin’ to yer crew and sniggerin’ over.

Instead, here be hopin’ ye be enjoyin’ this hurdy gurdy cover of Stormseeker’s “The Longing” performed by Patty Gurdy and that it get ye in the piratical mood!

— Cap’n Rich

I’ve seen many men wandering
All strong and brave and keen
Seen them growing into rulers
But I long for the sea
Heard a ship came from North
To our harbour for a day
And before misfortune knows
I’ll be on my way

I’m all set to veer away
And I’m all set to go astray
All burdens I will leave ashore
To find what I’ve been longing for

Don‘t tell anyone
That this night I’ll be gone
Greeting the eternal blue
Right at the break of dawn
Sailing t‘wards the unknown
With my crew on the sea
And the day that I return
A hero I shall be

I’m all set to veer away
And I’m all set to go astray
All burdens I will leave ashore
To find what I’ve been longing for

I’ll be headed to my FLGS (that’s Friendly Local Game Store for the uninitiated) in a little bit to enjoy 13 hours of boardgaming to celebrate International Tabletop Day. I’ll hopefully get a chance to play some new (to me, anyway) games, play some old favorites, and even teach a few games to some newcomers to the hobby.

Game On!

— Rich

Why do these things always happen overnight?

The winds and rain started in earnest Sunday evening and by 8 p.m. started experiencing some leaking in the front room and the front door (which faces roughly east). Scrambled to get some towels down and some fans blowing before things got too bad. Looking outside showed that the street had flooded up over the sidewalk out front.

Spent the next 6+ hours checking the towels, texting with a friend near Celebration, and watching one of the local networks storm coverage via an old iPhone on the TV via an Apple TV. At one point I had that network on one phone, another local network on the iPad, Fox News on another phone, and a live stream out the front window on my laptop. Had some brownouts just before midnight and moved into the laundry room on some cushions around 12:30 and watched the radar of the remnants of the eye wall pass over around 2:00 a.m. Got up a couple of times in the night to do a quick check.

Daylight revealed a bunch more screens on the enclosure were in need of replacing, the tulip tree in the backyard laying down parallel to the fence, the leaks having stopped, and the fence seemingly intact. The tulip tree had actually been knocked down by the hurricanes in 2004 when it was a sapling and we’d replanted it, so kind of sad to have lost it. The cypress tree right behind our fence by the conservation area is also down. Not sure if the sycamore next to it that is also down took it down or if they fell independently. The street is still flooded (but not as badly as last night) and there is also standing water down at the fence-line by the conservation area behind the house.

Winds are still steady at 30-35 mph with occasional gusts at 50+, so staying inside for now. Will likely take a nap soon because of not getting much sleep overnight.

— Rich

Well, after rushing home from Michigan to prepare the house for what the forecasters were saying at one point was to be a direct hit from hurricane Irma, everything has changed and the latest track has Irma skirting the Gulf coast. May still get some winds, but theoretically shouldn’t be that bad here.

So far the only excitement is that overnight someone drove over the two large community mailboxes across the street. I ended up calling the sheriff’s non-emergency number who transferred me to the highway patrol since a vehicle was involved. They ended up sending out a trooper who apparently picked up the bumper left behind. He said he had been in contact with the USPS to deal with picking up the boxes (hopefully) before the winds pick up here.

— Rich

When I was a kid, Dad would take me to a baseball game for my birthday each year. Back then, I was a Cubs fan. In fact, we were in attendance at Wrigley Field in 1979 when the Phillies beat the Cubs 23 to 22 in a slugfest for the ages.

I pretty much stopped watching baseball after the strike in 1994, but still would consider myself a Cubs fan if pressed to pick a team.

When the Cubs tied up the series at 3 games a piece I decided I’d never forgive myself if I missed game 7, so I forced Karen to watch it with me.

Well, they have finally done it! After a 108 year drought, the Cubs have won the World Series!

Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Holy Cow!

— Rich

Years ago we figured out that a certain number of days after Halloween Target would have their 90% off sale and we would go and pick up some costumes for “dress-up” clothes to play with at home. This was helpful as the kids got older as we used them to supplement their ideas for costumes (which were needed to be out of the house somewhere else if people decided to ring our doorbell).

As time progressed, and Target changed their sale policies, the family has still been able to be creative with their costumes, involving various amounts of time in preparation and thrifty use of materials in their construction. This fascination my family has nurtured these many years has amused me, as it has now expanded to include dressing like a pirate (rewarded by Krispy Kreme’s free dozen “golden rings” for doing so) on Talk Like A Pirate Day (as mentioned in a previous post), and I get to maintain my support, encouragement and “only dress up if I have to” position. So I am pleased to share the efforts of my family for Halloween 2014.

Rich has now established a reputation for wearing Halloween costumes to work and tries to encourage others to participate by figuring out what exactly he is even if they are not willing to dress up themselves. Can you guess what he is?

Ashley, now that she has graduated and entered the employment world, crafted a costume that required less guessing than her father’s.

Amber acquired a wonderful stick early in the semester, which inspired her creation. She found out later it only made sense to certain age groups who were familiar with the Lion King, but she enjoyed spouting off movie quotes which may have been relevant even if they didn’t know who she was.

Alyssa and Kirsten (her cousin) attended our church’s youth group’s party as ninja’s!

Gypsy only likes dressing up for a moment at a time. In other words, she likes to figure out the appropriate way to remove her costume as quickly as possible!

And finally, Alyssa, Rich and I continued the tradition of avoiding being home (and my other favorite tradition of receiving discounts) by dressing up for Booritos at Chipotle.

~Karen

Arr! It be that time again! Talk Like A Pirate Day!

This year Bingles in 3 states celebrated TLAPD not only by talking like pirates but even dressing like them.

Cap’n Rich prompted the following missive from an officer in the Royal Navy:

We need the K-9 unit dispatched to 1120 please.

The “Cap’n” may be enticed to leave the premise by placing Solaris scripting books or chicken wings in the parking lot. Don’t be alarmed about the apparent firearm as it’s been identified as the make shift window handle from the Telecom equipment van. Please do recover the key as it needs to be returned to a nearby 7-11 so they can regain access to the men’s restroom.

Splashly Ashley was also highlighted by her captain in a missive:

If you have not filled out your talent profile and turned it in to your manager, please do this by EOD today. We appreciate your help and timeliness in this effort.

Also, make sure you fill out the Career Ambition section!

Ashley’s is to talk like a Pirate… but just for today.

Amber (aka Leftie) and her parrot Evermore plundered The Isle of the Krispy Kreme with her sister.

And then there is Scurvy Don and Crazy Linda. Words escape me…

I work with a lot of self proclaimed “rednecks”, and as you all know by now, I celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day at work.

Therefore, it isn’t any surprise that the following question came to mind the other day… Are pirates the same thing as rednecks? Let’s look at the evidence!

Both drink to excess
Both are typically missing teeth
Both don’t bathe regularly
Both like to shoot things
Both have “unique” hairstyles
Both have “unique” facial hair
Both have “unique” clothing
Both speak their own language
Both gamble
Both tow dingys
Both like flying their “colors”
Both fish

Are they the same? Maybe not exactly, but there are definitely a lot of similarities!