All of them can be blown up by fireworks!
Appropriate for this Independence day weekend - check out the images from a high-speed camera.
Here's the link to the rest of the story.
Details
9 hours ago
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
My Work Here Is Done
I don't mean the Blogosphere when I say "here," rather I mean the Statehouse.
About four years ago, I started work on what would ultimately become House Bill 95, and I am happy to say that it is now the law of the land. Since last November, many people put in a lot of work toward getting this enacted, and I was one of the busiest ones. The Governor signed it on June 2, so I hope to be much less busy and occupied with legislation for a while, and more occupied with things like the farm and this blog.
I'm pretty sure I went somewhere to celebrate right after this picture was taken. All that lobbying can make a man thirsty!
Also since November, my eyes have not improved. I still see double, I still have a blind spot, and I still have a lot of distortion in my left eye. But there is good news: the ophthalmologist ran some tests on me about 10 days ago, and he is convinced that the double vision can be fixed. The apparent cause of this is muscle damage that occurred when they blocked the nerves to my eye for the surgery. Essentially, my eye is not situated properly within the orb, and by tweaking some of the muscles, they can orient it properly. The blind spot is permanent, but I'll happily endure another surgery to get rid of this double vision.
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It was a very wet spring around here. It was the wettest April ever, and May wasn't much better. That caused some problems at Wyndanwood, which I'll describe in a later post. Once the rains slowed down, it immediately turned hot and humid, and I do not care at all for that kind of weather. We've also had a lot of severe weather due to the heat and humidity. The most recent was on Tuesday - I was working out at the farm, and as I started back for home, I heard the weather warnings. It seems we had a severe thunderstorm right before I got home. As I was unloading the truck, I walked by my flower bed and noticed that some of my irises were lying flat on the ground. Here is what I saw:
The mulch was still smoldering, so I doused it with water. This was obviously caused by a lightning strike. Note the charred ends of the iris stems. They say if you live long enough, you'll see everything, and this was a new one for me.
About four years ago, I started work on what would ultimately become House Bill 95, and I am happy to say that it is now the law of the land. Since last November, many people put in a lot of work toward getting this enacted, and I was one of the busiest ones. The Governor signed it on June 2, so I hope to be much less busy and occupied with legislation for a while, and more occupied with things like the farm and this blog.
I'm pretty sure I went somewhere to celebrate right after this picture was taken. All that lobbying can make a man thirsty!
Also since November, my eyes have not improved. I still see double, I still have a blind spot, and I still have a lot of distortion in my left eye. But there is good news: the ophthalmologist ran some tests on me about 10 days ago, and he is convinced that the double vision can be fixed. The apparent cause of this is muscle damage that occurred when they blocked the nerves to my eye for the surgery. Essentially, my eye is not situated properly within the orb, and by tweaking some of the muscles, they can orient it properly. The blind spot is permanent, but I'll happily endure another surgery to get rid of this double vision.
********************************************************
It was a very wet spring around here. It was the wettest April ever, and May wasn't much better. That caused some problems at Wyndanwood, which I'll describe in a later post. Once the rains slowed down, it immediately turned hot and humid, and I do not care at all for that kind of weather. We've also had a lot of severe weather due to the heat and humidity. The most recent was on Tuesday - I was working out at the farm, and as I started back for home, I heard the weather warnings. It seems we had a severe thunderstorm right before I got home. As I was unloading the truck, I walked by my flower bed and noticed that some of my irises were lying flat on the ground. Here is what I saw:
The mulch was still smoldering, so I doused it with water. This was obviously caused by a lightning strike. Note the charred ends of the iris stems. They say if you live long enough, you'll see everything, and this was a new one for me.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Happy Birthday, Chuck Norris
Today is the 71st birthday of the legendary Chuck Norris.
If you haven't studied Norrisology, you might be surprised to learn that Chuck Norris has accomplished much more than just starring in a bunch of B-rated movies and one of the worst TV shows ever created: Walker, Texas Ranger.
Here are some Chuck Norris facts...
Chuck Norris counted to infinity...twice.
When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he's not pushing himself up - he's pushing the world down.
Chuck Norris wasn't born - he just got tired of wearing his mother,
The "Black Eyed Peas" used to be known simply as "The Peas" - until they met Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
Chuck Norris made a Happy Meal cry.
Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the possibility of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the earth a billion years ago - and it's still spinning.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris has already been to Mars - and that's why there are no signs of life on Mars.
Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.
Happy birthday, Chuck!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Blindness, Parts 1 and 2
Blindness, Part 1
More than five week have passed since the retinal surgery, and my vision is still not back. That's the bad news. The good news is that the surgeon thinks the problem is with the sutures. They take about two months to dissolve, and until they do, the light won't focus properly. I have my next appointment in mid-January, by which time I should see improvement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Blindness, Part 2
I made the mistake of reading a book called Blindness, by Portuguese writer Jose Saramago while recovering from eye surgery, and I don't know if the translator took liberties with the translation, and does the Portuguese language have fewer grammatical rules than English?, but it took some time to adjust to the writing style. Why? Because there are run-on sentences and no paragraph breaks to speak of and punctuation was sorely lacking but once one adjusts to these things the book is quite enjoyable. Enjoyable in an excruciating kind of way and one man's joy is another man's torment, but who can tell the difference? A blindness takes over the world, starting with one man sitting at a traffic light but this is a white blindness, if such a thing can be. Can it be blindness if all one sees is white? Can so many rhetorical questions be found in any other book? No matter, as the doctor's wife would say, we all see something whether it is white or colors, and since she's the only one who can see the mess that humanity has become, yes she is the only one with vision, allegorically speaking, although others surely see things she cannot for there are many ways to see, she leads them out of the wilderness as it were to a world in which all can see which is perhaps the optimal state of mankind.
More than five week have passed since the retinal surgery, and my vision is still not back. That's the bad news. The good news is that the surgeon thinks the problem is with the sutures. They take about two months to dissolve, and until they do, the light won't focus properly. I have my next appointment in mid-January, by which time I should see improvement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Blindness, Part 2
I made the mistake of reading a book called Blindness, by Portuguese writer Jose Saramago while recovering from eye surgery, and I don't know if the translator took liberties with the translation, and does the Portuguese language have fewer grammatical rules than English?, but it took some time to adjust to the writing style. Why? Because there are run-on sentences and no paragraph breaks to speak of and punctuation was sorely lacking but once one adjusts to these things the book is quite enjoyable. Enjoyable in an excruciating kind of way and one man's joy is another man's torment, but who can tell the difference? A blindness takes over the world, starting with one man sitting at a traffic light but this is a white blindness, if such a thing can be. Can it be blindness if all one sees is white? Can so many rhetorical questions be found in any other book? No matter, as the doctor's wife would say, we all see something whether it is white or colors, and since she's the only one who can see the mess that humanity has become, yes she is the only one with vision, allegorically speaking, although others surely see things she cannot for there are many ways to see, she leads them out of the wilderness as it were to a world in which all can see which is perhaps the optimal state of mankind.
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