Helpful Garden Hints

Are you troubled by those pesky little lawn ornaments? You can't do better than getting a couple of these gremlins to help you get rid of them. Now if only I could keep the gremlins from chewing on the furniture.

Mid January Update

I really enjoyed my visit to Ridge on Friday, seeing faculty friends and spending time with great alumni like Carly, Ashley, Sandra, Christine, Akil, Henry, and Jon. It's always nice to find out that people will spend time with you, even when they no longer have to.  It's also nice to hear how you folks are doing and to hear so much in the way intelligent thoughts and interesting activities.

Saturday was spent at the NJ Physics Olympics. We had an astonishingly large turnout comprising four teams. This says a lot about Mr. Lee and Ms Mususmeci and the club officers. We got a first in the collision free car event.  I hope this year's juniors will compete next year as well.  I got to judge the Fermi questions and I am glad to say there were no horrendously silly answers from Ridge this year.

It was a long drive home Saturday and it felt good to be back in the country.

We had a snow storm last week and two this week, but the total on the ground is well under two feet. There's still plenty for snowshoeing and I did some of that last Monday and yesterday without ever driving anywhere to do it.

Here are a couple of photos from last Friday: one of our house and one taken from about 400 feet up Hawley Road.

Maybe these photos will inspire some of you to visit.

Well back to finding a contractor for our septic system and to refreshing my understanding of sold state circuits so I can repair a receiver.

Check with Your Colleges, Visit

A few colleges have misplaced or not received recs I sent out last month. Double check to make sure they have arrived. Contact the colleges directly NOT the common application site, which only records online recs.

We got about 6 inches of icy snow here today which postponed my venturing down to New Jersey until Friday morning. I hope to get to Ridge before noon. I will try to help the Physics Olympics teams, but will be available for other things.

Busy Week

The last several days have been pretty busy. I've got twenty two new rafters in place to help support our loft roof, which is doing some sagging after 125 years. Ten or twelve more to go. This involved cutting and installing 15 foot long 2x6 s using brackets I made from angle iron and what are called collar ties cut from 14 foot long 1 1/2 by 6s. Managed to get this far with no new cuts or bruises. Wish me luck on the rest.

Also managed to fix a VCR and a CD player 9 mostly new drive belts) and find and order replacements for some bad transistors in an old Sony receiver. It is a nice piece of equipment and weighs slightly less than a Sherman tank. It was built to last, but not to withstand shorted speaker wires. Transistors burn out quickly since they have low impedance and are sensitive to temperatures. Got to be careful with old equipment.

Speaking of old equipment, I got bored
 of only hearing my complaints while working in the loft so I assembled a sound system using a CD player, a 30 year old amplifier, a 35 year old speaker, and a 55 year old tuner. The tuner is a little weak, but the other components are not bad.

I am supposed to give a lesson on how the physics of torque is used in engineering to seventh graders in a Greenfield magnet school next week. If it goes well maybe I can show how one principle can explain why riding uphill in low gear is easier and why bridge beams are deep and narrow, not wide and shallow.  More likely, I'll just show them how lucky they are to have their regular teacher every day.

We saw War Horse. I thought it was a fine movie. It reminded me of how pointless and wasteful most wars were, particularly World War One. Also we picked my wife's car after it was repaired following a parking lot get together.

Also managed to get mildly confused by Griffith's contention ( in his primer on particle physics) that the weak force does not change generations of leptons. I thought muon ( 2nd generation lepton) to electron, electron anti neutrino ( both first generation), and muon neutrino ( 2nd gereration) was a weak interaction. I relize we are still left with a sum of zero total first generation leptons ( particles and antiparticles cancel in this accounting) and one second generation lepton, as we started, but there are two first generation particles in an existence as a result of the decay. Enough of this, I'll check with my son.

Hope to see some of you at Ridge on Friday, if this week's snowstorm isn't a show stopper up here.

Project

Here is the combination coffee table/display case I made for my wife. While it has many technical imperfections,  it is still not bad. Like a lot of my students.

Post Holiday Post

I managed a sort of symmetrical title to this post.

Hope you all had good holidays and I hope those of you who are sitting on the edges of your seats about admissions are getting some good news.

Our holidays were very pleasant up here, with Daniel around and much time spent with Chris' family and many new friends. The coffee table/ display case I made for my wife was a big hit with her so I have garnered some brownie points.

Things are a lot quieter and slower paced up here. Good things as far as we are concerned.

We visited New Jersey, attending a New Years Day party and staying with friends. We did a walk around Ramapo Lake on Monday and more visiting.

Tuesday was my day to visit Ridge and I appreciate the warm welcome I received from many students and faculty members. It was also nice to see some graduates who came back to visit.

Thanks to Mr. Lee and Ms. Musumeci, the current club officers, and the spirit of Ridge students, the physics club is thriving. Twenty members are planning to attend the Physics Olympics on 1/14.

After being busy and doing a lot of driving Tuesday, yesterday was a rest day. It never got out of the teens and I didn't do much more than take a walk and fill a bird feeder and reread a couple of chapters on particle physics.

Today started with a walk and will progress to trying to sort out faulty thermostats, attempting to repair a CD player ( some of us prefer non MP3 sound), and, I hope, to making some progress reinforcing the loft over our kitchen and workshop. I also want to see how many days in a row I can go without getting into a car.