Author Archives: admin

Glenn’s photos are up here.

Some of my personal favorites were him looking at the creepy stuffed raccoon at the Little Red School House. 

My parents took us there when we were kids.  Happily it has changed very little in the last 25 years, it is mostly as I remember it.  In a world of  constant change, a little benign neglect is not a bad thing.

Speaking of old things, I went to an antique store at lunch the other day.  Rosebud Antiques in Countryside, IL.  (On LaGrange Road, just south of 55th street.)  It is about the closest thing to Mr. Charrington’s junk shop from 1984 as I have ever seen.  You have to turn sideways to get down most of the isles.  If, however, you are looking for an old Schwinn, they got ’em in spades.  Stingrays, Typhoons, etc.  Coaster brakes as far as the eye can see.

I find it ironic that ‘success’ in Iraq is defined by returning to a previous state of hell.  Casualties are at the lowest level since June of last year.

Mission accomplished.

I don’t know about you, but just being a good as you were a year ago doesn’t seem much like meaningful progress to me.  How about zero combat fatalities?  How about returning vital infrastructure to pre war levels?  How about having less than 3,000,000+ refugees?  That is success.  What we have now is a return to the previous levels of failure.

Thank goodness it is Friday. Nothing too scary this week. Typical Glenn, teething, screaming, but sleeping well.

Work has been keeping me busy, as always, but not too busy.

Even though I an Electronics Engineer, I have a growing respect for purely mechanical things. In particular, mechanical watches. To me, it is fascinating how something designed 100 years ago works so well. No battery, no motors, just some springs and cogs and gears. Automatic watches are an even more amazing chunk of technology. Just the motion of your arm winds the watch. This is done using what is known as a rotor, which is just an uneven weight.

(This is a Seiko 7S26 automatic movement.)

Just look at how much stuff gets crammed in a watch case. This modern movement is based on designs from the late 50’s. It has about 40 moving parts. The more I read about mechanical watches, the more respect I have for long dead engineers and watchmakers.

I was watching an interview with Bill Clinton and the comparison to the present occupant of the White House (occasional occupant) makes me sad.  We had a President who could talk without a teleprompter and not look like an idiot.  We had 8 years of peace and prosperity.  We had several years where the government was running a surplus not a massive deficit.  We had jobs created all the time.  The number of jobs created was greater than the population growth.  Now we are happy when we hear 130,000 new jobs are created.  Guess what numbnuts, the population grows at 150,000 a month.

I am not saying I want Hillary.  I haven’t decided yet, but I know I miss the Billy Boy days.

It’s official, Erika delivered a large baby girl yesterday: See Their Blog Entry

So, that means I am officially an Uncle and Glenn has a cousin.  I wonder what he will think about her?  I foresee him doing his two handed whack at least once.