Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet
Yeah, I probably feel sorry for my middle-age self more often than most, which is especially pathetic since I was given a pretty good set of genes to start with. So, for the umpteenth time, I resolve to get back into shape and stop whining. But then to make it even worse I come across [...]
Posted on August 27th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 3 Comments »
As I get older and my idealism fades, I wonder whether the average voter in this country is intelligent enough to cast a responsible vote. If they are, (or at least a healthy majority of them are) then I shouldn’t lose any sleep over the survey shown below, recently mailed out by the Republican National [...]
Posted on August 27th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 5 Comments »
I’ve never been a huge Ted Kennedy fan; though I have always thought that he’s the role model for a politician on how to down-size his/her ambitions. I mean, he only became a really effective Senator after he gave up the idea of becoming President.
But despite my lukewarm opinion of him, I was impressed by [...]
Posted on August 26th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 1 Comment »
Often the subtle stuff goes over my head. And sometimes the obvious stuff is equally lost on me. For example. I’m the youngest of three sons, with no sisters. My dad was in the military and by the time I was twelve I had physically passed through more than forty states, usually in the back [...]
Posted on August 21st, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
If you’ve prowled around other posts on this blog, you’ll know that we installed a rainwater collection system for ALL our water needs, including drinking water. It has provided safe (UV-sanitized) and tasty water for over a year now and I’m very happy with it. But the collection part only works if it….yeah, rains.
This spring [...]
Posted on August 13th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rainwater Collection | 2 Comments »
Post number two in my retrospective tour of Nova Scotia. On our first morning in Canada, we awoke in Tatamagouche and headed west toward the harbor town of Pugwash to visit the ‘tall ships’, before later retracing our steps and heading further east.
In a stroke of luck, we caught the last stop of the [...]
Posted on August 12th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
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We all know that few things are as simple as they seem, and summing such things up in a single sound bite or a statistic is often misleading. For example, this headline from last Friday:
If you have the time, and the inclination, a more thorough (and sobering) analysis can be found here by wading through [...]
Posted on August 12th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 1 Comment »
This is the first of a series of retrospective posts about last week’s vacation. We flew to Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 30th and drove north on the route seen below to Tatamagouche.
Our plan was not to plan; deciding each day where to go and where to stay for the night. Our one rule was [...]
Posted on August 11th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | No Comments »
I realize that there are unlimited opportunities to sample creative work on the web, but I rarely take advantage of the opportunity. However, the following music video, which I came across on The Examined Life is truly worth a look.
Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group [...]
Posted on August 9th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc. | 5 Comments »
A very quick update following a wonderful eight day vacation in Nova Scotia. This was our second big vacation in all our years together and it was truly spectacular. I’ll work on getting some pictures up as soon as we dig out here at home from being away for far too long in the midst [...]
Posted on August 8th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 4 Comments »