Winter Begins

Well, winter begins today. It's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. We've had quite a bit of snow, ice and other forms of solid and semi-solid precipitation over the past couple of weeks. I don't mind ordinary rain, or ordinary snow, but the freezing rain and other variations really get to be a pain. This is mostly so because it's more difficult to clean up and driving in it safely is a challenge.

During the afternoon the weather was quite mild and I took a break to walk around the neighborhood a bit and snap some pictures. I'll post the better ones later. Christmas is coming, and we've been busy preparing for the celebrations. Two weeks ago we got a beautiful tree. We got it at the same place we've gotten it for some dozen or so years now. It's become a habit, or more generously a tradition. This year I figured Tommy was old enough to cut the tree part way with a real saw. At first he was apprehensive about using a sharp saw, but he overcame that with a bit of encouragement from me and Misce. It also was the quickest that we had ever gotten a tree. We went to the tree farm and back home in about an hour. Karl and Tommy, the two younger boys, decorated the tree. They did a good job, and Misce helped a bit to even out the placement of the ornaments. I hung the lights.

As far as other preparations go, Misce's been busy with cookie baking and planning for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners. The food, gifts, conversations and a chance to relax are my favorite parts of this holiday. I'm pretty sure Misce, Andy, Karl and Tommy like that too by the sound of their voices and the smiles on their faces. Somewhat sadly, this year might be the last where our little family celebrates together as an intact family. Andy is a senior in High School and next year he'll be off to college. I hope that he will be home for Christmas next year to celebrate it with us, but it will be different since he will be out on his own. Twenty three years ago my parents went through pretty much the same thing. It doesn't seem that long ago.

I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

Yes that's a lighthearted pun on a traditional Christmas song. Over the past two weeks we've had a sudden turn of weather from mild to downright cold with frequent localized flurries. It is not an extraordinary circumstance but certainly unusual enough for that wry comment in the title. Over the past decade we've not, as a rule, had any snow prior to December, and frequently not until after Christmas. Something tells me we will have a cold winter this season. I may be wrong, but some news stories related to astronomy and solar observations that I've come across recently hint that the sun is radiating less energy than what it has in the recent past. So much so, the the average global temperatures dropped half a degree Centigrade or a little more than a degree Fahrenheit. That does not sound like a lot, but according to some reports I've come across, we are back down to the average temperatures of the 1930's.

The sun's variability has a far greater apparent effect on the earth's climate than our mass release of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases into the atmosphere. Perhaps we're being humbled a bit by Nature and her Creator (real, hypothetical, imaginary or otherwise). The best we can do is adapt as well as we can to our circumstances, persevere when fate isn't kind and be thankful when it is. Speaking of adapting, I should probably make the house a bit more weather-tight and snug for this winter and insulate where appropriate.

Last of Summer's Days

Summer is winding down. By informal tradition, summer has already since passed. It is after Labor Day after all. Counting summer from the solstice to the equinox, there are a few days still left. The season is changing. The warm days are still here, but there is much cold dew in the morning as well as a coolness in the air. The evenings and nights are cool. Tonight during a class break just a bit past seven in the evening, I went for a little walk on campus to stretch my legs. The sunset sky with all its varied hues was simply wonderful. A treat for the eyes. The colors strong and true with almost infinite variation and a subtlety that no painter's brush has yet captured. Had I a camera with me I'd have taken a few pictures. Unfortunately I don't think they would have done the scene justice. During those few minutes of peace while watching the setting sky, I thought about my wife and boys and how they would appreciate the scene. I also thought of my friends, both near and far, recent and long established, those who I keep in touch with and those to whom I've not spoken to in too long a while. Change of seasons always have me in a mixed nostalgic and slightly melancholy mood. It is the passing of time witnessed by the changes all around as inexorably the future continuously gives way to the present and the present becomes the past. I say a silent and heartfelt prayer for friends, family and myself that we all may have good fortune and health. If we are all just a little fortunate we'll glimpse a bit of unexpected everyday beauty, and gratefully enjoy the moments of bliss it brings.

Beans, Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes, Oh My!

This season, in addition to the flower beds we've put into the backyard, we've put in a two beds and about a dozen stand alone pots of various vegetables. We planted cucumbers, beans, peppers and tomatoes earlier in the season. The cucumber vines yielded at least three dozen cucumbers over about a month. That was fairly successful, the cucumbers were a common side dish for a little while. They were quite delicious too. The green beans yielded only two bowlfuls. That was enough for side dishes for two meals. That proved a little bit disappointing but it was enough for a start. Perhaps next time we will be little bit more successful with the green beans. The peppers are an ongoing story. We have both sweet and spicy ones. We've already included some peppers in salads and other dishes. Some of the spicy peppers proved a bit too much, the rest were just wonderful. Next year we'll most likely plant them in the garden beds rather than in stand alone pots. Last, but certainly not least, we planted several varieties of tomatoes both in beds and in pots. Those in pots did not do as well as those in the beds, probably because the beds require less watering and work on our part. The tomatoes started off slow but over the past two weeks we've had a veritable cornucopia of tomatoes. Yesterday I collected the third five-quart bowl of miniature tomatoes from the garden beds. For as many as I've collected, just as many I've had to let go because they either burst or were past their prime. Had I been more conscientious with the gardening we would have had even more. As it stands, everyone has had more than their fill of tomatoes, in salads, soups, and in hand snacks. We had so much we shared our tomato bounty with our neighbors and they enjoyed them too. Our food gardening efforts proved fairly successful, and we got far more edible food out of our two food garden beds and a dozen standalone pots than I would have imagined. The tomatoes and peppers are not done yet, and the bean an cucumber bed we replanted with radishes, broccoli, lettuce and cabbage. We are hoping for a late crop just before frost in mid to late October. Over all the food garden has been a success, both my wife Misce and I are pleased with our efforts and results.

A Trip, a Fall, Bruises and an Infection

A little bit of misfortune befell Misce and me. On Wednesday, Misce tripped and fell over our new home gym while she was putting something away. She bruised a lot on her arm, hip and leg. The pain must have been excruciating. The same day I came down with a bit of a swelling on my right shin and a slight fever. The next day on Thursday, Misce's arm and leg were still bothering her and the bruises looked horrible. I went to work thinking I had recovered from whatever had given me the fever earlier. Within two hours of coming to work, I returned home with a fairly serious fever. At the advice of my doctor, I ended up at the local hospital's emergency room. The attending physician admitted me to the hospital for an overnight stay and a twenty four hour regimen of intravenous anti-biotics. Seems that I had picked up either a staph or strep infection most likely through a cut on my foot. Walking barefoot in the garden can leave one open to such things I guess. While I was at the hospital, Misce's pain from her bruises got worse. On Friday, just a day after me, she ended up in the emergency room at the behest of her doctor. Turns out that her bruises were either bad muscle contusions or even hair line fractures. The only thing the doctors could do for her was a sling for her arm to immobilize it and a prescription for strong pain killers. Oh what a mess we were, she with a sling and evil looking bruises, me with a nearly systemic infection and a fever. Unfortunately she is still suffering while she recovers, the doctors could not do much more to help. I, on the other hand, just need to complete my prescription of follow on oral anti-biotics. This incident had both of us thankful for modern medicine. That said, my heart still aches for Misce as she is still in pain while she recovers. I'm hoping for better fortune for all of us for at least a little while.

Caveman Television

In the past week we've fired up our chimenea several times. It's nothing more than a crude cast iron outdoor fireplace or stove of sorts. We put it about six feet away from the two adirondack chairs in the back yard. It stands like a lone sentinel in the middle of our garden bed layout. We've lit the fire just before sunset and let it burn past dusk into the night. We end up by the fire for an hour or two. Watching the flames dance on the burning wood is entrancing. It is also very peaceful and relaxing. In those moments I think about how long humans have been watching fire and for how long it has served us so well. Cultures even have myths about how we first acquired our oldest and most powerful servant, the myth of Prometheus and Zeus comes to mind. When I think about that long legacy of fire use by humans. I feel like I wake a slumbering ancient memory not quite my own whenever I sit by a warm dancing fire. That connected feeling lets me feel a little like what our most ancient of ancestors felt like when they sat around a warm fire in the cold dark of the night. Deep down inside, we moderns are not that much different from the prehistoric people. We are different to be sure, and conspicuously so in some very strinking ways, but at our core we much more similar to our ancient ancestors. The dancing flame delights the eye and entrances the mind, and put the soul at ease while it banishes cold, darkness, and fear. That is true for us as much as it was for our earliest fire using ancestors.

Garden Delight

This year my wife and I decided to cleanup and transform our backyard. Throughout the spring and part of the summer we worked on our gardens in the backyard. We were so ambitious in our transformation of the backyard, my wife Misce nicknamed it "The Park". We did all the planning and all the work ourselves. I mainly did the layout, digging and building the frames for the beds. She planned what to plant as well doing most of the actual planting. Yes, we both got our hands dirty. Our garden has that signature of two minds and sets of hands working on it. In the spacing and layout of the beds and plantings, you can clearly see my fascination for geometry, symmetry, and visual rhythm. In the mixture and abundance of color, exuberance of blooms, shape of foliage my wife's sense of composition is clearly evident. We, the whole family, like the backyard garden. We managed to transform an ordinary backyard that we liked but didn't think about much into a place we fully enjoy. My wife and I've taken to sitting on a pair of Adirondack chairs at sunset and dusk watching the changing colors of the sky, waiting for humming birds, finches, and what ever else might come or fly by. That time sitting and relaxing in the garden is great for catching up with each other's lives as well as just spending time together. At those times when I feel the calm of our garden, I'm glad that we made the effort to build ourselves this place. The calm feeling, the sights of the garden, and the sights and sounds of the animals it attracts make all the effort we put into it worthwhile. It is our special place.

Keeping Fit and Healthy

Health and keeping fit is a challenge that well all face, especially so as we age. This past winter I passed one of those mileposts in aging turning forty. In the continuum of aging this in reality is no more significant than thirty-nine or forty-one, but given our common base ten number system the passing of yet another decade is deemed significant. I'm now starting middle age. According to social norms this is when one is less physically active. Also unfortunately, this is also the age when all of us need to watch for the signs of aging and of a deteriorating body. Tests for diabetes, colon cancer, cholesterol, heart function and a whole host of other age related diseases suddenly become the norm. Perhaps one is supposed to resign to the deterioration of the body, and eventually of the mind as one ages, but life and living is too precious and too wonderful to do that without at least a minimal effort to mitigate the effects of aging. While I'm fully aware that I do not have the same physical constitution that I had in my early twenties, when according to the medical literature I was at my physical peak, it does not mean that I am necessarily now going to be unable to enjoy the physicality of life.

It doesn't come easily, I have to work at it. My line of work, developing software, precludes a lot of physical activity. Most of the day I sit at a desk working on problems, typing at a computer, or in meetings with others hashing out design and implementation strategies. This certainly isn't conducive to keeping healthy. My personal fitness strategy involves explicit strength training as well as physical activities that I enjoy.

Four or five times a week I'll go through a simple calisthenics and stretching routine prior to my morning shower. First there is the stretching. This is nothing more than the classic runner's stretches for the hamstring and the thighs, as well as stretches for the arms and back and neck. It usually takes no more than four minutes to complete. Next come the pushups, three dozen of them, in the best possible form that I can do. Form here is important not only because it exercises the muscle and it uses the full and correct range of motion, but also that it prevents injury. For the sake of variety I change the distance that my arms are apart each time I do them. For example, on some days I will have my hands directly below my chest, hands turned in slightly and fingers touching. Other days I will have my hands directly below my shoulders, while on some days I will have my hands out wide. This exercises my chest, shoulder and arm muscles slightly differently with emphasis on different muscle groups. After the pushups, come the situps. I put my feet under the bedroom dresser or some other fixed anchor and do three dozen situps. There are trainers who discourage situps as a calisthenic but I find that it works for me. I do have one significant modification though. I do my situps on a cushion, usually an oversized pillow and I keep my back straight as possible when doing the sit up. The next exercise is a simple squat, to work my legs. Again, I do my three dozen. With this exercise I again focus on form making sure that I do the full range of motion and do it smoothly and completely. The next exercise that I would like to do, but cant quite yet, is a dozen pullups. I don't have a bar to do them on. This is something that will be a minor project for me on some future weekend. All of this takes less time to do than it took me to describe and type. While these exercises will not increase my core strength in any significant way, they certainly help to maintain it. At this point in my life, maintaining health and fitness is my goal, not training for a competition of some sort and this daily calisthenic routine fulfills that goal quite well. This routine is of course in addition to being physically active by indulging in activities that require it.

Along with this focus on daily calisthenics and a generally physically active life, a varied diet plays a part. The best way to describe this diet is omnivorous. Basically I'll eat most anything that will not harm me or permanently offend my taste and olfactory senses. So along with the tried and true fresh veggies, fruits, lean meats, fish, complex carbs my diet occasionally include things such as smoked octopus, pickled herring, soft cheeses, pungent mushrooms and a whole variety of unusual foods. These foods are not only a culinary delight, or sometimes a minor misadventure, they also are a different source of nutrients and minerals. Keeping the diet varied keeps boredom at bay. This does not mean that my diet has no regularity what so ever but rather that my staples and comfort foods are inter mixed with slightly more unusual fare. Another thing I've learned to do is to eat as much as possible with the seasons. For example, I eat a lot of cherries and blueberries when they are in season here in Pennsylvania. Fortunately this is when those foods are at their best and cheapest. Eating with the seasons has heightened my sense of what foods I have an appetite or craving for. Following my father's example, I've learned to pay particular attention to my bodily cravings for different foods. Yes they do happen and they do vary and after getting into the habit of paying attention to them it is easy to distinguish them from a simple hunger for food. When those very food specific cravings do hit me, rather than struggle against them, I indulge them to the point of satiety. The theory is that the food contains some nutrient that my body needs and that my subconscious mind equates the taste of that food with that needed nutrient. At least that is the theory at a 100,000 foot level.

So what is the point of all this physical activity and a varied diet? Well other than the enjoyment of them in and of themselves, they should allow me a full and active life for as long as possible. That is to live and not just be alive.

Bird Sightings

Over the past month I've had a series of bird sightings that were interesting. Of course I'm not counting the various finches in the backyard feeders. Along with the few hawks, flocks of migrating geese, the gulls blown inland by storms, I saw a woodpecker the other day. The last that I remember seeing any woodpeckers was about three years ago. That time our family was on a walk and we notice the little fellow in a tree that we were passing by. We didn't see him behaving like a woodpecker, hammering away at the tree with his beak. Rather, we first noticed him because of his brilliant red coloring on his head. The bird was unfamiliar and its identity as a woodpecker was only one of several options. Only later when we got home did we find out that that it was a woodpecker. Well this time, I was walking around the block at lunchtime, I heard the woodpecker long before I saw it. It was that distinct staccato which only woodpeckers make. It is surprising what you can observe if you keep your eyes and ears open.

More Weather Observations

Earlier in the month I posted observations on the weather situation where I live, noting how much warmer and milder it seem so far this year. While that observation still stands, old man winter isn't going out with a whimper. In the past two weeks we've had a lot of ice, sleet, snow and freezing rain, almost as if to just remind us that it is still winter. Spring cant come quickly enough for me, and soon enough the garden beds will need attention. Perhaps this year we'll grow some vegetables along with all the flowers we normally grow. Sometime in April visiting a state park or forest will be good idea. Seeing the first blush of spring in a woodland prior to when the tree's leaves bud out is bound to cheer up everyone. Maybe my brother and his family can be convinced to come along.

Odd Weather

There's been something bothering me about the weather lately. It is the middle of winter here in the northern hemisphere. I'm in the temperate zone, meaning we have four distinct seasons. This year so far seems different. We've had less than half a dozen snows so far this year. Even frost is relatively rare. Almost all of the times when we should have had a heavy wet snow, we've had cold rain instead. Last night it was about 60 °F at night. Later it rained and we had a thunderstorm. This weather is more like the traditional spring weather, but we're ostensibly in the middle of winter. This winter seems to be non-existant, my heating bills are mercifully low because of the higher than normal temperatures. Its as if we've skipped winter all together. I'm not sure where this will lead in the future. Is this an anomaly and will the normal cold snowy winters return or will the climate change more or less permanently or will climate become unstable and unpredictable from year to year. It's time to keep my eyes open and keep my wits about me. The world is definitely changing.

Preferences

This is about my recent frustration with learning yet another web development framework. At work, I've been asked to become the expert in JBoss' Rich Faces, which seems to be an elaboration or extension of Java Server Faces. Somehow, these frameworks are supposed to make web application development easier. I suppose that is true for some value of "easy". So far I've had nothing but trouble trying to get the whole thing to work. I'm not sure if it is the configuration files, or the compilation of the web app files, or the use of the JSP tag libraries that has me so wound up the most. I feel like the effort and the difficulty of developing a web app using frameworks is just shuffling the complexity and difficulty into another place. There really does not seem to be less complexity and a higher level of abstraction. Some of the newer frameworks do approach the abstraction of traditional GUI frameworks, but go no further. I'm not really sure what the advantage is. I suspect that any breakthroughs in software design and development productivity (ability to do useful work) will only happen when we have a new theoretical insight into software development.

Swearing off idle web-surfing

I've finally decided on one of my personal goals for 2008. I've decided to severely limit idle web surfing. Since I'm software developer, cutting out the internet and web in general is impractical if not impossible. That said, I can consciously change my habits to avoid unproductive use and maximize my productive and practical use of the internet. In some ways surfing the web has been akin to pointless channel surfing, an idle use of time trying to stave off boredom. One particular piece that I will focus on is blogging, meaning writing in this particular blog. The more often I force myself to write in this blog, hopefully the better my writing and thinking will be. Perhaps by seeing my own thoughts on the screen it may help me better organize them. Also this spring I'm taking a graduate course in Selected Topics in Computer Science. The topic our professor selected is Knowledge Management. This course is one of the last three I need before earning my Master of Science in Computer Science at Kutztown University. The very first class exercise made me realize how unorganized and downright chaotic my approach to work, learning and my own personal knowledge management has been. I'm not really sure exactly what I will end up learning in course, but perhaps I can come away with a few useful lessons from it.