I tried this before but didn't know how to get rid of the annoying music.
We had a rainy spring and early summer and the yard has bloomed because of it. Stepping out of the front door under that large English Walnut feels like New England. It has beautiful cool shade and save lots on AC.
Marilyn had really kept up with the garden and like the joke says, "If I do not lock the car door at church it will be full of zucchini" and we have scads of it. Now we have many loaves of zucchini bread.
Enjoy the show.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Rainbow
The rainbow is God's Reminder that he will not flood the world again. Today the heaven's opened up and poured for about 20 minutes. Lightening flashed and Thunder immediately followed meaning a very close hit.
I remembered that I had left the truck windows open so I dashed out to the car, stepped into a 3 inch deep puddle in front of the steps, ran to the truck , observed a 3 ft wide river running down the brand new sidewalk and jumped into the truck. My seat squished and my rear became soaked instantly but I did get the windows closed.
Marilyn glanced out our east facing picture window and said "Look at the beautiful rainbow!" so I dashed out again to take the pictures.
To my astonishment there was a partial double rainbow!. Believe me it was more beautiful than the pictures show. But enjoy it anyway
DAD
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Today we celebrated my 50-20th birthday. (yeah that really is 70 but...) The city of Orem has a system of about 20 local parks and we met in Nielsen's Grove on 2000 South. It is well maintained and handy to get to. We had about 35 attend and it was very rewarding to have new friends from the mission and ward, older friends from the earlier mission and old friends from much earlier in life.
At heart I am a little doubtful of my contribution to life and this was a great ego booster for me. A lot of nice things were said. Kristen took pictures and I will post them in a day or so.
Physically it was very tiring as I was on my feet for 2 hours talking to friends.
However, I am very grateful to Melissa who organized the 'potluck' and Mom for the cake and to all who made me feel very special.
Thank you all who attended. I love and appreciate you, your friendship and support. It gives me incentive to want to celebrate my 50-25 accomplishment.
At heart I am a little doubtful of my contribution to life and this was a great ego booster for me. A lot of nice things were said. Kristen took pictures and I will post them in a day or so.
Physically it was very tiring as I was on my feet for 2 hours talking to friends.
However, I am very grateful to Melissa who organized the 'potluck' and Mom for the cake and to all who made me feel very special.
Thank you all who attended. I love and appreciate you, your friendship and support. It gives me incentive to want to celebrate my 50-25 accomplishment.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Bowling
Seeing Rachel’s blog about her son Allan’s (my namesake) interest in bowling reminded me about my experience in bowling.
In 1966/67 I was stationed at the Guided Missiles School at Dam Neck, Virginia, located just south of Virginia Beach, teaching computer maintenance. I was participating in the base intramural bowling league and having a ball (pun intended). Money was tight so when I heard about a job opening at the bowling alley, I applied and started right away. At first I was just a cashier but opted to be trained on the AMF pinsetter machines and became a mechanic. Soon they eliminated the cashier position and gave the mechanic double duty. Lucky me! One of the benefits of the job was free bowling so I took advantage and soon built my average from 135 to 165 then tried out for and made the base bowling team. There were those who did not believe I would make it but I proved them wrong.
There are several military bases in the Norfolk /Virginia Beach area and they sponsored a scratch (no handicap) league that toured the bases. The base recreation department bought us fancy shirts and we practiced on Saturday morning’s right after the alley’s weekly maintenance period. Most of the members of the team also worked at the bowling alley so we were already there. Dam Neck being a small base did not have the talent to draw from as the other bases did so consequently we finished at the bottom of this league. But it was a real experience.
The team also joined a local 900 scratch money league. The 900 figure was based on a sanctioned league average of 180 and the total of the 5 members starting average had to be less than 900. This leveled the playing field and there was a lot of very close games. My sanctioned summer league average was 165 which allowed a couple of our guys with 185 and 190 averages to be on the team. In actuality my starting average was much closer to 175. Because it was a money league each participant added $1.50 per week above our bowling fees which went into a pot that the paid out at the end of the season. Our team won 1st place in the league mainly because of my low starting average and better performance during the league.
During the season I had several games near 235 and in the base intramural league I had a 285 game with a string of 9 strikes. I saw one of the other bowlers in the money league string 15 strikes (should be a perfect 300 but…), 3 to close out the first game and then string 9 more. In the first ball of the 10th frame he bowled a strike but stepped on the foul line so it negated that strike but he closed out with 2 more strikes for a 290. The tension of bowling that well builds with each strike and you really have to control your emotions and shut out everything else to continue successfully. Bowling is not just a physical game but a mental game as well as is every sport.
At the end of the season we entered a local money tournament and came in second place. I got real hot in this tournament and bowled a 657 (average of 219) for the three games. That pushed us way up in the score. We actually came out with the high scratch score but due to starting handicaps one other team beat us by a whisker.
At this time in my life I did not understand the Words of Wisdom however I did learn an allied lesson. I learned that just the slightest bit of alcohol would alter my timing and throw off my score by 10 to 20 pins. Just like booze and driving do not mix, booze and sports do not mix. Bowling is a mechanical sport requiring one to repeat your delivery accurately every time. Then knowing the mathematics of the angles of delivery of the ball will get one to the 175 average easily. Better bowlers then learn to read the physics of the lane to predict what the ball will do each time it rolls down the lane and alter their delivery angle and speed to compensate. The best bowlers also learn to control their emotions so that their performance is repeatable. Adrenalin does funny things to you and the excitement of stringing strikes together raises the tension significantly. Learning to handle the emotions in those kinds of situations tells the difference between a good player and a very good player. Physical conditioning also plays a part so that you do not tire altering your consistency.
However, I have probably have been bowling 5 times since then because of ships schedules, growing family needs and much different priorities in life. I had a great time that season and learned some life long lessons. Now I am just too far out of shape (round is a shape) to bowl again.
Seeing Rachel’s blog about her son Allan’s (my namesake) interest in bowling reminded me about my experience in bowling.
In 1966/67 I was stationed at the Guided Missiles School at Dam Neck, Virginia, located just south of Virginia Beach, teaching computer maintenance. I was participating in the base intramural bowling league and having a ball (pun intended). Money was tight so when I heard about a job opening at the bowling alley, I applied and started right away. At first I was just a cashier but opted to be trained on the AMF pinsetter machines and became a mechanic. Soon they eliminated the cashier position and gave the mechanic double duty. Lucky me! One of the benefits of the job was free bowling so I took advantage and soon built my average from 135 to 165 then tried out for and made the base bowling team. There were those who did not believe I would make it but I proved them wrong.
There are several military bases in the Norfolk /Virginia Beach area and they sponsored a scratch (no handicap) league that toured the bases. The base recreation department bought us fancy shirts and we practiced on Saturday morning’s right after the alley’s weekly maintenance period. Most of the members of the team also worked at the bowling alley so we were already there. Dam Neck being a small base did not have the talent to draw from as the other bases did so consequently we finished at the bottom of this league. But it was a real experience.
The team also joined a local 900 scratch money league. The 900 figure was based on a sanctioned league average of 180 and the total of the 5 members starting average had to be less than 900. This leveled the playing field and there was a lot of very close games. My sanctioned summer league average was 165 which allowed a couple of our guys with 185 and 190 averages to be on the team. In actuality my starting average was much closer to 175. Because it was a money league each participant added $1.50 per week above our bowling fees which went into a pot that the paid out at the end of the season. Our team won 1st place in the league mainly because of my low starting average and better performance during the league.
During the season I had several games near 235 and in the base intramural league I had a 285 game with a string of 9 strikes. I saw one of the other bowlers in the money league string 15 strikes (should be a perfect 300 but…), 3 to close out the first game and then string 9 more. In the first ball of the 10th frame he bowled a strike but stepped on the foul line so it negated that strike but he closed out with 2 more strikes for a 290. The tension of bowling that well builds with each strike and you really have to control your emotions and shut out everything else to continue successfully. Bowling is not just a physical game but a mental game as well as is every sport.
At the end of the season we entered a local money tournament and came in second place. I got real hot in this tournament and bowled a 657 (average of 219) for the three games. That pushed us way up in the score. We actually came out with the high scratch score but due to starting handicaps one other team beat us by a whisker.
At this time in my life I did not understand the Words of Wisdom however I did learn an allied lesson. I learned that just the slightest bit of alcohol would alter my timing and throw off my score by 10 to 20 pins. Just like booze and driving do not mix, booze and sports do not mix. Bowling is a mechanical sport requiring one to repeat your delivery accurately every time. Then knowing the mathematics of the angles of delivery of the ball will get one to the 175 average easily. Better bowlers then learn to read the physics of the lane to predict what the ball will do each time it rolls down the lane and alter their delivery angle and speed to compensate. The best bowlers also learn to control their emotions so that their performance is repeatable. Adrenalin does funny things to you and the excitement of stringing strikes together raises the tension significantly. Learning to handle the emotions in those kinds of situations tells the difference between a good player and a very good player. Physical conditioning also plays a part so that you do not tire altering your consistency.
However, I have probably have been bowling 5 times since then because of ships schedules, growing family needs and much different priorities in life. I had a great time that season and learned some life long lessons. Now I am just too far out of shape (round is a shape) to bowl again.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
New Calling
In the Mormon Church we have a lay leadership and almost everybody serves in one way or another. I have had mostly leadership positions starting with Cub Master with the responsibility to form a new cub pack in a Navy Housing area in Charleston, SC. Currently I serve a part time Church Service Missionary position of providing telephone support for the church's genealogy computer products. In that position I supervise 8 missionaries.
Today Marilyn and I were called to be Primary Nursery workers. This is the class for 18 mo to 3 yr old children. We get to play Grandpa and Grandma on a big basis. We get to "Play"! I hope that I can physically handle it but I know Marilyn can. My daughter Rachel is also a Primary Nursery leader so we will get lots of help and tips from her.
Pray for us and give us tips.
At least it is a blog entry.
See I already am displaying my ignorance and my daughter corrected me and I have edited it. so Monday we will purchase the Nursery manual at the distribution center which is 2 blocks from home.
Today Marilyn and I were called to be Primary Nursery workers. This is the class for 18 mo to 3 yr old children. We get to play Grandpa and Grandma on a big basis. We get to "Play"! I hope that I can physically handle it but I know Marilyn can. My daughter Rachel is also a Primary Nursery leader so we will get lots of help and tips from her.
Pray for us and give us tips.
At least it is a blog entry.
See I already am displaying my ignorance and my daughter corrected me and I have edited it. so Monday we will purchase the Nursery manual at the distribution center which is 2 blocks from home.
Monday, February 16, 2009
When we had to stoke the furnace
I was surfing the net and ran across an article in the Norwich Bulletin http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x497795835/Once-Upon-a-Time-There-was-a-time-when-winters-were-colder about times when winters were colder. It started me thinking about how we heat our homes. Today we take no thought as to where our heat comes from until it is absent. All we do is turn the thermostat up or down when we are cold or hot. It is like magic. Electronic sensors read the temperature and turn the automatic furnace on and off when it reaches the selected temperature. It is the same process with the air conditioner. It was a lot different when I was younger.
When I lived in Norwich in 1950 we had a coal fired steam heating system. There was a rudimentary thermostat to adjust the temperature in the house however, the furnace required banking at night and lots of work in the morning and attention during the day to keep the fire going to heat the water to make steam. It was a laborious task. I do not remember the processes in previous homes but assume it was similar.
Early in the morning Dad would start the ritual by shaking down the ashes from the previous nights burning. This process consisted of placing a handle on the outside connection of the grates at the bottom of the fire box. Then turning it back and forth so that the burned coal ashes and clinkers (unburned impurities left over in the burning process) to fall through the grate into the ash pit. This allowed room for fresh fuel to be added. One had to have enough experience to not allow the hot coals to escape y
et remove enough ashes that they did not retard the fire. You also had to pick out the "clinkers" (residue from low quality coal that wouldn't burn.) That way you had something to start the next batch of coal burning. It took a careful eye watching the process and then also avoiding getting the ash dust all over you.
The next step was to shovel out the ashes into a 5 gallon paint pail for later discarding, close the ash pit door and adjust the intake dam
per, shovel in some fresh coal, check sight glass to gauge the water level in the boiler and add more as necessary. Then came the patience of waiting for the fire to build up to heat the water to make steam and for the steam to heat the radiators and the room to warm. This process would take about 20 minutes before the room became comfortably warm. In the mean time as the steam came out of the boiler the pipes would create a cacophony of clanks and groans from heat expansion or the pipes with the final hiss of the release valve at the end of the radiator pronouncing heat has arrived.
Adding more coal during the day usually fell to my mother as she was the only on at home and if heat was needed there was no one else to do it.
At night the process was nearly the same except you “banked the furnace” with several shovels-full of coal and the damper in the exhaust flue was nearly closed and the dampers on the ash pit door were tightened down to reduce the air flow. This slowed the burning of the coal, lowering the temperature of the water, lowering the temperature in the house and keeping the fire going for the next eight hours with little or no attention.
The process
of getting coal to the coal bin was also labor intensive. Because there wasn’t an access to the coal bin delivery was by hand from the street. A 10 ton dump truck brought a load of coal to the front of the house. Usually there were two people to deliver the load, a driver and a loader. Once parked the driver would elevate the dum
p body enough that the coal would gravity feed out the dump gate in the rear of the dump body. The loader would shoulder a container and place it under the dump gate and the driver would open the gate and fill the bag with about 100 lbs of coal. The loader walked up the steps, to the side of the house where they had slid a coal chute through a small window right over the coal bin. After about 20 loads we had a ton of coal which would last about a week in the winter. Cost was about $5 per ton delivered when $100 per week was very good income.
Be very grateful that all you have to do is turn up or down the thermostat.
Next issue is the kerosene oil fired kitchen stove.
When I lived in Norwich in 1950 we had a coal fired steam heating system. There was a rudimentary thermostat to adjust the temperature in the house however, the furnace required banking at night and lots of work in the morning and attention during the day to keep the fire going to heat the water to make steam. It was a laborious task. I do not remember the processes in previous homes but assume it was similar.
Early in the morning Dad would start the ritual by shaking down the ashes from the previous nights burning. This process consisted of placing a handle on the outside connection of the grates at the bottom of the fire box. Then turning it back and forth so that the burned coal ashes and clinkers (unburned impurities left over in the burning process) to fall through the grate into the ash pit. This allowed room for fresh fuel to be added. One had to have enough experience to not allow the hot coals to escape y
et remove enough ashes that they did not retard the fire. You also had to pick out the "clinkers" (residue from low quality coal that wouldn't burn.) That way you had something to start the next batch of coal burning. It took a careful eye watching the process and then also avoiding getting the ash dust all over you.The next step was to shovel out the ashes into a 5 gallon paint pail for later discarding, close the ash pit door and adjust the intake dam
per, shovel in some fresh coal, check sight glass to gauge the water level in the boiler and add more as necessary. Then came the patience of waiting for the fire to build up to heat the water to make steam and for the steam to heat the radiators and the room to warm. This process would take about 20 minutes before the room became comfortably warm. In the mean time as the steam came out of the boiler the pipes would create a cacophony of clanks and groans from heat expansion or the pipes with the final hiss of the release valve at the end of the radiator pronouncing heat has arrived.
Adding more coal during the day usually fell to my mother as she was the only on at home and if heat was needed there was no one else to do it.
At night the process was nearly the same except you “banked the furnace” with several shovels-full of coal and the damper in the exhaust flue was nearly closed and the dampers on the ash pit door were tightened down to reduce the air flow. This slowed the burning of the coal, lowering the temperature of the water, lowering the temperature in the house and keeping the fire going for the next eight hours with little or no attention.
The process
of getting coal to the coal bin was also labor intensive. Because there wasn’t an access to the coal bin delivery was by hand from the street. A 10 ton dump truck brought a load of coal to the front of the house. Usually there were two people to deliver the load, a driver and a loader. Once parked the driver would elevate the dum
p body enough that the coal would gravity feed out the dump gate in the rear of the dump body. The loader would shoulder a container and place it under the dump gate and the driver would open the gate and fill the bag with about 100 lbs of coal. The loader walked up the steps, to the side of the house where they had slid a coal chute through a small window right over the coal bin. After about 20 loads we had a ton of coal which would last about a week in the winter. Cost was about $5 per ton delivered when $100 per week was very good income.Be very grateful that all you have to do is turn up or down the thermostat.
Next issue is the kerosene oil fired kitchen stove.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Memories of Norwich, Connecticut
Memories
I grew up in Norwich, Connecticut and I have many memories of how it was in the nostalgic good old days. I was looking for some material for this blog and was surfing Google and ran into some stories by Bill Stanley in the Norwich Bulletin. He is a writer for the Bulletin and has been, along with his brother Jim, an ardent supporter of Norwich. I recommend that you follow these links and read some of these stories of how it was in good old Norwich.
Kids don’t play in the street anymore http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x84119579/Kids-don-t-play-in-the-streets-anymore
There was a time when winters were colder:
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x497795835/Once-Upon-a-Time-There-was-a-time-when-winters-were-colder
Norwich’s beauty has faded: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x408977635/Once-Upon-a-Time-Norwich-s-beauty-has-faded
Growing up in the 50’s was a good time of my life. These stories bring back memories
Allan
I grew up in Norwich, Connecticut and I have many memories of how it was in the nostalgic good old days. I was looking for some material for this blog and was surfing Google and ran into some stories by Bill Stanley in the Norwich Bulletin. He is a writer for the Bulletin and has been, along with his brother Jim, an ardent supporter of Norwich. I recommend that you follow these links and read some of these stories of how it was in good old Norwich.
Kids don’t play in the street anymore http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x84119579/Kids-don-t-play-in-the-streets-anymore
There was a time when winters were colder:
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x497795835/Once-Upon-a-Time-There-was-a-time-when-winters-were-colder
Norwich’s beauty has faded: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/billstanley/x408977635/Once-Upon-a-Time-Norwich-s-beauty-has-faded
Growing up in the 50’s was a good time of my life. These stories bring back memories
Allan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)