Entries Tagged 'Uncategorized' ↓

A Little Sprinkle For Your Yard

Last summer our HOA decided to start enforcing the rules, and they started cracking down on brown lawns.  I did my best to keep the lawn green with typical sprinklers, but there were two big issues with it:

  1. I had to remember to turn the sprinklers on
  2. I had to remember to turn the sprinklers off

There were nights where I meant to turn the sprinklers on, but then the night just disappears and it’s too late to do it.  And there were nights where I’d turn the sprinklers on, but realize 2-3 hours later that I forgot to turn them off.  Enough with that.

Earlier in the Spring I started working with Alan on a design (I helped measure, he did the real design), and we set Memorial Day weekend as the target for install. Saturday went well; had great weather for it. We started back up on Sunday afternoon, but it had unfortunately started raining overnight, and everything was muddy. Monday morning saw us take it closer to completion, burying most of the pipe and setting heads in place, all while still in the rain.

Two-and-a-half weeks later I just tonight got the last technical piece complete; the timer is now set! I didn’t quite know how hard it would be to do this project going into it, and if I didn’t have Alan to hold my hand through it I would have been lost.

I still need to spread grass seed over the trench lines, and possibly touch up some trench coverings a bit more, but I’m done for now. Hopefully the HOA will stay off my back this year.

Twitter, the Torch, and NPR

Today the spectacle known as the Olympic Torch Relay passed through San Francisco, but nobody who really wanted to see it — for or against — got to see it.  Not that people didn’t try to find the updated route.  Man Twitter is getting some interesting publicity out of this. “Twitterati,” I love it!

BTW, you can follow me on Twitter @jschwanz.

One of my favorite things about going into work on Wednesday mornings is I might be going in at the right time to hear my favorite segment on NPR’s Morning Edition.  Frank Deford’s segment this morning was about the torch, and the Olympics in general.  He’s got some interesting thoughts to go along with this already very interesting upcoming Olympic Games.

Yesterday




Mt. Hood

Originally uploaded by jschwanz

This was my view yesterday. Man it was nice.