alex_m_nemeth

Time to migrate back

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:51:46 GMT

It feels good to be home :-) One can only spend just so much time on facebook, although just about all my family is there. So it's just a tool now to keep in touch with folks.

Duck Wars

Mon, 04 May 2009 03:00:47 GMT

A couple of years ago my son got me a "Hooters" rubber duck for my birthday. OK I thought two can play at this game, so I got him rubber duck. Well to make a long story short, much to Wanda's and Staci ( Daughter-in-law) dismay ,we exchange ducks at christmas and birthdays. Now with my Granddaughter it's gotten worse as I can now give her little ducks :-) Poor kid is going to be traumatized

I don't think things have gotten out of hand :-) ( this is only a part of the collection )

When asked why my son said that the duck on my dash looked lonely. Many of you may remember the history of this duck. This is the "Clue Duck" from Whitewater boink 1 back in 1994 (?) It's still helpful when it's time to "get a Clue" . This duck has sat on the dashboard of every car/Truck I have owned and has been to all the boinks I've attended since. It's a very well traveled Duck, I figure about close to 250,000 miles at least!

What Do Your Initials Say About You?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:19:03 GMT

You Are Brave and Cheeky

When You Are Comfortable:

You are a strong person. You're driven and assertive. Success is yours, as much as you want it.
People find you to be clever and spirited. You're a bit saucy too... delightfully so!

When You Are At Your Best:

You are a hard worker. You need security and stability in your life, even if that means putting in long hours.
People see you as solid and dependable. You are always able to see the good in situations. Other find this comforting.

When You Are in a Social Setting:

You are philosophical and opinionated. You have quite a few pet causes, and you're always adopting a new one.
People see you as clever and smart. You now a lot, and you love to talk about a variety of subjects.

What Do Your Initials Say About You?

Quizmymates

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:07:05 GMT

Between 175 and 250 monkeys

I'm most like Between 175 and 250 monkeys.

Take More Surveys

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:26:11 GMT

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:13:46 GMT

Well it's been 2 weeks since I've had to be at the office, now it's back to the grind on Monday. :-( Nothing got done over break as I had hoped. Wanda got sick just before Christmas so that put a couple of indoor construction projects and a serious cleaning of my home office on hold. Got my computer area cleaned ( if you call throwing everything in a box cleaned :-)) ) Dropped off 3 boxes of books off the the book sale, I can see my floor again :-)

Finally got mom's legal paperwork back to the courts, waiting on the final word on that, then complete her taxes and I can close that chapter of my life away.

Got tired of sitting around the house today, so I took out my camera and traveled around the area. The results can be seen at

http://n2yel.net/010309/

A couple of samples are below

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:11:59 GMT

Should I or shouldn't travel this lonely road?

Ahhh....What the heck, let's go for it!! Besides the person who went before me may need help!

Edge of the road...Reminds me of that road in the Smokey Mountains

Ahh the view was worth the trip :-)

12-11-08

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:59:25 GMT

Our little corner of the east coast storm, between 8-12 Inches

Wanda's Jeep

My Truck

Our Deck

12-13-08

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:52:18 GMT

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:38:05 GMT

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:35:47 GMT

Yesterday morning 11-19-08

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:33:15 GMT

This was right at the end my road, just before the trucks got there

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:45:20 GMT

UGH!!!!!

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:41:53 GMT

Truck repairs suck!!!!

While on Halloween patrol that friday night while sitting on a bridge over Rt 81 making sure no one threw pumpkins over the side. I went up to the field to turn around. It was also a great view of the City of Cortland!

Anyway I heard this funky noise and when I got back to my post I heard it coming from under the hood. A little investigation later I found it was the ABS brake system pump. Pulled the fuse to the ABS system -- Problem solved.

Fast forward to Dec 7th. On my way to work I was coming down the hill and touched the brakes and the back of the truck broke loose from the road and was sliding down sideways. Oh Crap!! I managed to bring things under control by the time the stop sign came up. Thankfully no one was in the other lane.

Ok Time to get the ABS system fixed. Called up the dealer here I bought the truck from. They said with out actually doing a diagnostic they couldn't tell, however worse case senerio it would cost $2,000 bucks. GROAN............

Applied on-line for a loan this morning, let's see what happens. I only had $3,000 left till it was paid off. Well at least it's still worth $6000. I've had it 6 yrs and 135,00 miles and it's the only major item I had to replace, except the rack & pinion which was covered under warranty, I guess I can't complain too much.

The beauty of flight

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:55:51 GMT

The intention was to get to the lake before the fog disappeared, didn't happen :-(( Still it was a nice day. Ducks, Geese, lots of birds. The east side of the lake had some kind of sailing event going on , should have stopped by.

While moving from one end of the park to the other, I missed the classic shots of geese landing in the water in formation. As luck would have it, I missed several of these, wrong place at the wrong time :-(

I did manage to catch a Gull landing about 5 feet from me. He flew in a circle around me before landing Thank goodness for 3 Frames per second auto shoot and not getting dizzy as you spin around :-)

Start of the circle

First loop

Checking out the LZ

Checking airspeed

Touchdown

Home away from home

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:58:31 GMT

or how I spent my Saturday night

Friday was the start of the 40th annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society. My role was to provide AV support for the Saturday public concert with the The Cornell Symphony Orchestra and the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra featuring "The Planets by Gustav Holst", and the world premiere of "Anillos (Rings)" by Cornell composer Roberto Sierra. It was pretty good. We've been rehearsing most of the week.

This is my "Office"

Of course I get the "Best" seats in the house :-)

The show was pretty good also ( This was from the dress rehearsal )

Then I had to watch out for these things on the way home late at night.

Sunday - I webstreamed 2 seminars on " Planetary Rings" , which was kinda of interesting. However I think I'd have found the one on "Near Earth Asteroids" more interesting.

I had a chance to see Bill Nye "The Science Guy" live but I fell asleep about 6:30 ( show at 7:30 ) Oh well there will be other times.

My weekend escapades

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:36:49 GMT

Friday night - removed air conditioners from the windows, had to use the truck headlights to see. Now to pack things up and put away. Was a frost warning( again) for the weekend.

Sat. Got up at the butt-crack, actually it was O-Dark ( 5am ) promptly fell back to sleep till O-Dark thirty. Had to get on the road by 6 or I'd be late. This was the day of the Hunter Pace
http://www.hunter-pace.com/ It's about 1.5ish hours away......Why?....

For me it's become an annual event ( Aug & Oct ) mostly to hang out with other "ham" people and Horse folks, not to mention I get to hang out in the woods for 6 hours, mainly by myself, with a horse or 2 coming my way.

This year I got to go to several other parts of the course, mainly to act as a spotter and to take pictures. I should have them up on my web site in a couple of weeks. Had a good time.

Went home and downloaded the photos, was disappointed many came out crappy much editing will be needed before they become useable.

Got an ambulance call, it was my Sat for 24 Hr duty. Pull Cord activation unable to find. Let them know I was back in town. Went home.

About 7pm Had another call - Had to transport to hospital this time. On the way back, only 2 miles out of town......I hit an animal with the ambulance. Not just any animal...No it wasn't a deer. or a cow..or a possum ......It was a skunk, a striped kitty.

I yelled "Oh Sh$$" then the crew in the back then felt 2 thumps. wasn't long afterwards the natural aroma of the skunk hit the interior.

I'll be nice and not tell what was said then! To make matters better the Chief was at the station when we got back. And we were only 1 rig that night ( the other is out of service )

Had to scrub the rig down thrice ( outdoors) to try and get rid of the smell. Nope was still there.

Thankfully we didn't have another call that night.

Sunday Morning 9am - they had another call and needed manpower. I thought "oh boy"

Went to the call I could smell that the aroma, no one seemed to notice.

Went to annual clambake and Dept inspection. Then went home and did stuff around the house getting it ready for winter.

Which came this morning ( temp was 20 degrees at 6am )

Waiting For the weekend

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:46:48 GMT

UGH!!!!!! It's only Tuesday, hurry up weekend and get here, I have things to do!!

Looking to be a busy weekend. Sat, I'll be at the Fall Hunter Pace http://www.hunter-pace.com/ providing communications for the trail. Got some good pictures last Oct, and even more in the late Summer series this year. Now with the colors changing Hopefully I can add some color.

After that it'll be a couple of hours at the Cortland Pumpkin Fest http://www.cortlandpumpkinfest.org/ Great Pumpkin Pies

Should be home by 6 pm, then I'm on Ambulance Duty till 5am.

Sunday is the Annual Inspection for the Fire Dept, and the Clam Bake afterwards. Beer & Clams.....Ahhhhh...what more could a person ask for.

Wildlife

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:13:33 GMT

Here are a couple of shots of the Red Fox in our backyard. Sorry for the fuzziness, they were at the extreme end of my telephoto lens, then I had to zoom in further

Normal Shot to give some perspective

Zoomed In

Zoomed In

Campaign Humor

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:41:40 GMT

Another JibJab

http://sendables.jibjab.com/sendables/1191/time_for_some_campaignin

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:30:30 GMT

Friday Night - Ran the video conference ( To NYC & DC ) portion of a local debate " McCain v. Obama in 3D -- Data and Debate on Domestic Policy" They figured about 1,000 people locally. It was interesting

http://www.vivo.library.cornell.edu/entity?home=65535&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fvivo.library.cornell.edu%2Fns%2F0.1%23EducatetheVoteMcCainvObamain3DDataandDebateonDomesticPolicy

Then got to watch the debate on the "Big Screen" Roughly the size of movie theater screen. Then to read some other journal threads on the debate I saw it all :-)

Friday Afternoon -- monitored a video conference & real media Stream between one of the music professors here at Cornell & the New World Symphony ( NWS ) as they were rehearsing a piece he composed.

Sat Afternoon - Help set the stage area for a Cornell Glee Club concert, learned how the staging risers go together and how to connect a 32 channel sound board.

Sat. Night - Ran a video conference where the professor was linked to the NWS Concert where they played his piece. He was shown to the audience as he explained what inspired him to create what he did. It was a great concert!

self-portrait meme: all right,

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:09:58 GMT

Typical Day at the office

Home Sweet Home

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:05:37 GMT

While sorting through my many pictures I think I'll share a few from time to time.
Many of you may have heard me "Brag" about the garden I built for Wanda, although if you ask her it'd be more like "Whine" about it :-)

Here is the start of the 2nd half

A little further on

For the most part it's done

A view from above

And last, but not least, a view from the rooftop of our backyard

Tha't all for now

Politics

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:18:22 GMT

I was channel surfing the other night and happen to stop on the Larry King Show ( Why does memories of DC Boink 1 keep flashing by :-) )

Anyway They were talking about the media involvement and how most everyone is calling the media being run by the "Good Ole Boys" and calling for a "Families are off limits"

Anyway I've been a fan of JibJab for many years and I think this satire is most enlightening

http://www.jibjab.com/originals/what_we_call_the_news

The Collection

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:33:33 GMT

Since I'm still going through Mom's estate I have 3 boxes ( about the size of those 80-100 quart tubs ) of pictures I have to go through, many are dated prior to 1955, I have no idea, other than I was able to place some of them from my grandfathers old house, it was kinda hard since some of them were pictures of a snowstorm, with drifts as high as the poles. Thankfully this weekend we're ( Me, my aunts & uncles ) getting together with my grandfather ( who turns 93 on the 14th ) and go through then for the the family genealogy. With mom gone, he's our best source of information. His body may be giving out, but his mind is as sharp as a tack.

Anyway I was uploading some pictures to my server so Wanda could have access to them, and for giggles & grins I did a properties check on my "Photo Album" I have almost 14,000 ( 13,960 to be exact ) digital photos. 17 Gb worth. Thankfully I have them sorted by events, family, boinks, etc. That's going to climb once I start digitizing mom's collection, and my class reunions for the last 30 years.