I discovered a fun online game today (through the kisrael.com blog) that is about designing machines to move an object to the target zone. Looking at the forum, I’m amazed at the things people have “built” to solve the puzzles. You can see one of my solutions to a puzzle below.
I’m not an engineer so I build by trial and error, but it’s still fun to see the machines fail (often amusingly), and even better when it works.
Found a local news article talking about the power outage Sunday night. From what I’ve heard, the power company workers started fixing the pole at around 11:30 PM.
More than 4,000 homes in Burgaw, Rocky Point and other areas lost power for about an hour and a half.
A spokesperson for Four County Electric said a farmer burning a wheat field damaged a power pole that served several communities causing the blackout
The spokesperson said everything has now been fixed.
No word on whether the farmer will be fined for the repairs.
From Pender County blackout | WWAY NewsChannel 3 | Wilmington NC News
Technorati Tags: electricity
I woke up last night to CDF asking me for the flash light. It was about midnight and the house was unusually silent — I could hear the crickets outside. It took me a minute to realize that my eyes were open because it was so dark. I don’t mind sleeping without any light, but I’ve gotten used to the four night lights we have around the house.
Fortunately MD didn’t wake up. I was worried she would wake and be scared once she realized her lighthouse was not lit. The other one woke up a couple of times when her pacifier fell out of the crib, but once I stumbled around and found it everything was OK again.
The dog was funny. I heard her sniffing her way down the hall and the thought of her using her nose to guide her was quite amusing — even if it isn’t quite true.
Then around 12:30 the power came back on halfway (like a brown out) and I was able to make a note of the time. A little bit later it was off again. Then finally in the early morning it came back on fully.
That was just in time for a big thunderstorm. Halfway through the storm the power went out again (apparently after a really close lightning strike). There was a lot of lightning and I was very surprised that neither daughter woke up.
Technorati Tags: electricity, thunderstorm
Some friends of ours from church have blueberry bushes beside their house that are old and well established. The bushes regularly produce lots of berries. This year the area got a lot of rain just as the berries ripened so our friends told everyone to come pick blueberries before they spoil from all the rain (I think it causes the berry to split after absorbing too much water).
So we went by today around 10:00 AM and picked a bunch of berries. They girls had a good time, MD ate almost as many as she picked, and CE joined in once she saw what MD was doing. Once the bucket was full, they were happy to keep on picking, and just eat what they picked!
The other day when I got home from work, I noticed a wild rabbit sitting beside the driveway eating (or out for silflay if you’ve ever read Richard Adams’ wonderful novel). It was content to stay there while I parked the car, went inside, and then came back out with the camera.
We celebrated Pop’s 55th birthday on Friday. We had a cookout (but ate inside because of the heat) and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. Pop got the grilling started, but my brother took over so he could go spend time with the guests.
Mom baked him a birthday brownie and CE helped blow out the candles.
See more pictures.
A group (maybe a family) of Red-headed Woodpeckers were in our back yard this morning. I counted at least four or five flying between the trees. When they landed on a tree, they would make their “qwer-qwer” call and then hammer away as the chorus of replies came back.
Technorati Tags: woodpecker, birds
I came across a great picture of a bike with two child seats. It’s not unusual to see a bike with a child seat on the back, CDF’s bike has one, but I’ve never seen one (make that two) quite like this.
On a related note, the high price of gas has really made people turn to biking. We’ve been biking around our town for almost three years, but this is the first summer that I’ve really seen other people out on bikes. Our neighbors even bought bikes and they will sometimes join us in the evening.
Reading another blog, they mentioned going to a concert headlined by Chisako, the former singer of the Japanese band fra-foa. I have a passing interest in Japanese culture, mostly after visiting a few years ago, but I found this band quite interesting, They’re labeled as pop-rock, but it’s not what I’m used to in the USA. It is darker and the live concerts were full of raw emotion (now that I’ve read some more, I realize that was one of their trademarks).
Summer Fun
Originally uploaded by jmodule
Friday evenings in the summer Mayfaire Town Center puts on a concert near the movie theater. It’s a laid-back atmosphere where everyone sets up chairs and blankets on the grass and listens to whatever music is playing (usually soft rock or beach music).
We’ve been a couple of times. This past Friday I decided to use the red wagon to carry our stuff, and it doubled as a seat for the girls after CDF spread a blanket on it. It turned out to be a really great idea.