With Christmas right around the corner, I wanted to fill you in on how Santa is able to deliver all those toys in one night. I figured this out a long time ago when I was in the second grade. Kids are really smart at that age, and it's hard to pull the wool over their eyes.
I noticed that all my toys on Christmas morning had a shipping label to Sears Roebuck, and Company. They were never wrapped, and all the boxes were opened as if someone had inspected them before delivery, to make sure all the parts were there, and of course, pre-install batteries. It didn't take a lot of mind power to realize that Santa can't possibly load all the toys on his sleigh at once. His sack would be huge. I had seen the size of the sack the Grinch had, and he was only packing enough for one town. Imagine the size of the sack to hold toys for 9 Billion kids at once!
Santa had developed a very cleaver distribution system centuries ago . He ships toys to retailers like Sears, then when he comes to my state, he stops at the distribution center and loads up the toys for the local area. It's brilliant! Today, he uses malls as his distribution points instead of just Sears like the days I was a kid. The mall Santas take the kid's requests, and makes sure the big man's elves get them to the mall. He then oversees routing the toys to Santa's sleigh depending on which direction he is flying. Bulky items like large screen TV's and tools remain at the stores and are distributed by Best Buy and Sears elves. He really has this system down to a science, and I bet he has a huge database to guide him and his helpers.
Using malls today as his delivery points means he can keep his load low enough for the reindeer to pull without being exhausted before morning. I'm sure there's some Dept. Of Transportation regulations today that limits how many pounds he can carry, as well as OSHA limits on working on rooftops after dark. Come to think of it, if Santa abides by all safety rules and regulations, it's a wonder we get anything at all on Christmas morning!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Happy New Year!
I had a pretty good year,although it seems to have flown by so fast! Last week I was buying building materials for my new kitchen, and this week the isles are filled with Christmas ornaments. Oh, and some Halloween decorations. The calendar says it's October, but it must be 2012 already judging by the shelves at the stores.
The sad thing is, if you see something unique on the shelf, you better buy it now because when it sells out next week, it won't be replaced before December. This whole seasonal buying frenzy drives me bonkers sometimes. I guess the whole fourth quarter should be considered one long holiday.
Hallowgivingkwanzaahaunakachristmas.
Am I getting jaded in my old age? Bah, Humbug, not me. I love candy, turkey and the heartfelt season of giving and receiving love from kith and kin. Those DVD's you pull out once every year that make you feel so good. The Great Pumpkin, Sleepy Hollow, Hocus Pocus, and The Burbs. (I pull out Ghostbusters any time of the year, so it's not limited to Halloween.)
Next month will be the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Bugs and Friends Thanksgiving, and the next month all the usual Christmas Vacation, Scrooge in different forms and Santa Claus saving the day. Or Rudolf. Or Ernest.
I don't want my holiday viewing mixed up like the stores are. I want one holiday to be over before moving to the next.
So with Halloween a couple of weeks away, have you made your Christmas list out yet? Times running out, so you better hurry! Operators are standing by to take your New Year's Resolutions....
What do you guys think? Are we rushing the shopping season too fast? Making a commercial mess out of what should be emotional experiences and Holy days of celebration? Leave a comment and let me know if I'm the only one sitting on the porch yelling at kids to stay out of my yard!
The sad thing is, if you see something unique on the shelf, you better buy it now because when it sells out next week, it won't be replaced before December. This whole seasonal buying frenzy drives me bonkers sometimes. I guess the whole fourth quarter should be considered one long holiday.
Hallowgivingkwanzaahaunakachristmas.
Am I getting jaded in my old age? Bah, Humbug, not me. I love candy, turkey and the heartfelt season of giving and receiving love from kith and kin. Those DVD's you pull out once every year that make you feel so good. The Great Pumpkin, Sleepy Hollow, Hocus Pocus, and The Burbs. (I pull out Ghostbusters any time of the year, so it's not limited to Halloween.)
Next month will be the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Bugs and Friends Thanksgiving, and the next month all the usual Christmas Vacation, Scrooge in different forms and Santa Claus saving the day. Or Rudolf. Or Ernest.
I don't want my holiday viewing mixed up like the stores are. I want one holiday to be over before moving to the next.
So with Halloween a couple of weeks away, have you made your Christmas list out yet? Times running out, so you better hurry! Operators are standing by to take your New Year's Resolutions....
What do you guys think? Are we rushing the shopping season too fast? Making a commercial mess out of what should be emotional experiences and Holy days of celebration? Leave a comment and let me know if I'm the only one sitting on the porch yelling at kids to stay out of my yard!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Your House Will Keep You Busy
I have always loved older houses. They just don't build them like that anymore. Living in an old house can have its' challenges, but a lot of fun at the same time. My last house was new construction and even it had issues I had to deal with from time to time. Like the outlets in the dinning room that were never hooked up, but passed all inspections, and rot under the front door and a leaking Sliding door leading to the deck.
I had the opportunity to buy my current house back in 1995 and figured it would be a 5 year project to restore it like I wanted. Here I am 16 years later and still renovating this old house. It's a labor of love though, so I certainly am not complaining. Besides, it has a history that is cool to research and imagine how it was when it was built back in 1905. The town of Wendell was new, founded in 1903 as a railroad stop between Zebulon and Knightdale, NC. The Richardson family had it built and moved in. Mr. Richardson was the former Mayor of Zebulon, NC. He would walk the three blocks into downtown to buy a cigar in his retirement days, and always had some candy in his pocket for the kids he'd walk by.
His Granddaughter told us about the bathroom addition added to the back "L" of the house, and how she had to dawn her coat to go onto the back porch to the bathroom in the Winter, but at least it was attached to the house. The old Carriage House is still in use as storage, and in need of repair, but that's another project for later. Down at the Little River, the grist mill ground corn during the day, and was switched to a generator at night to supply electricity to the town. Each household got about 85 Watts of power to run the lights and radios at dusk. They were charged extra if they went over that amount.
Back in the day, houses were built facing East / West with a center hallway for cooling. On either side of the hallway are four big rooms. A double sided fireplace on each side of the hallway warmed the main part of the house. Off the back is an "L" which is two room in a line from the left side with porches on each side. Later those porches were closed in to make smaller rooms about 7' X 15 feet each. The street side porch is now a mud room/ laundry room connected inline with the main hall, where the indoor bathroom was added on.
At some point, the house was divided into two apartments, with the owners living in the front, and tenants in the back. The great hall was divided, and the front kitchen was put there, with the back kitchen in one of the closed in porches. The wiring was updated for the two spaces. Some of the old two-wire ceramic insulators are still in the attic. Today, the kitchen is still in the main hallway and has to go somewhere!
We used one of the main four rooms as a guest bedroom and storage. We noticed the floor was sagging a bit, and later a lot. I took a quick look underneath and saw a couple floor joists had broken in the middle. A few pine floorboards were rotten by the fireplace so it was obvious we had some water damage from a roof leak around the fireplace chimney flashing. I had no choice but to tear up the flooring and fix the problem.
In late August I began demolition with the aid of Tommy Stanley, a younger friend of mine for many years. At 55, I needed a strong helper since my knees and back wear out quickly and Tommy's dad, David, does this kind of work and was kind enough to provide technical help and code advice. David was amazing and pitched in to handle the hard stuff we could not have tackled on our own. We started at the outside wall since I figured that's where the most damage would be and I was fearing the outside sill would need replacing and the sooner I knew this the better.
Builders at the turn of the century did not lay sub-flooring. The tongue and groove 3/4" Pine boards are attached directly to the joists using cut nails. Made out of iron, these nails will rust a bit causing them to grab into the wood making it impossible to pull out. It makes one heck of a strong floor, though. Unfortunately, you end up tearing the floor boards to pieces when you remove them and since most were a little rotten, there was no way to save them for use later.
The 2"X8" joists all failed near the center of the room as they were spanning 15' with no center support. In the picture above you can see the cut nails still holding strong in the joists and mold growing on the beam in front of the fireplace. We pulled them all out and had David over to inspect the sills around the room. To our surprise, they were all in good shape except a small area at one of the piers. These are 8" X 8" "logs" surrounding the room's perimeter and was dead level on all sides. David chiseled out the bad spot and inserted some good wood into the beam. It was easy to nail a new treated 2" X 10" to them so we had something fresh to nail to. The old wood is so hard being old growth Pine it's a chore to drive a nail into, but fortunately I was given a pneumatic framing nail gun for Christmas last year, so it made the task pretty easy.
Even though local building codes allow a 2" X 8" board to span 15', I decided to add a center beam to bear the load. We set a double 2" X 10" treated beam on three new foundation piers in the center of the room that the new joists rests on. Now that it it finished, I wouldn't have a problem if someone drove a Mack truck on the floor. It is pretty stout now. I spent every free weekend and day off moving plumbing and electrical outlets for the new kitchen. I had to wait until a good time to move the drains and water lines since this disables the old kitchen next door, and we've been eating out for a week now. But finally, I don't have to lay under the house making connections. I have been sore in places I didn't know I had from crawling in the dirt, twisting into awkward angles working around air ducts and numerous obstacles. It's been an amazing feeling to wake up and not have to shimmy under the house for hours.
I think the happiest feeling I've had on this project was when the insulation covered the view of old dirt, and the new sub-floor sealed it up. I was totally tired of seeing a dirt floor and walking atop floor joists. Luckily, I didn't fall and break a hip and aside from a burn from dripping solder on my left arm, no injuries so far! I did get a bruise, but haven't shed any blood yet.
With a solid floor to walk on, we removed the wallpaper, and began patching walls. I have some framing to finish in the old closet area and a portion of ceiling to fix. A previous owner cut an access panel to the attic in the closet. The ceilings are the same tongue and groove Pine used on the floors. I found enough pieces of it in the attic to fill in the hole, but it's going to be a challenge to get it to match the cut they made. Hopefully a little caulk will fill and gaps I leave.
With the major construction nearing the end, I'll post the finished results when it's finished. I have the new sink ready to go in, the new flooring is ready to lay down, and we finally agreed on a paint color. I have a couple more days off, so I hope to finish this project soon. I need some rest!
I had the opportunity to buy my current house back in 1995 and figured it would be a 5 year project to restore it like I wanted. Here I am 16 years later and still renovating this old house. It's a labor of love though, so I certainly am not complaining. Besides, it has a history that is cool to research and imagine how it was when it was built back in 1905. The town of Wendell was new, founded in 1903 as a railroad stop between Zebulon and Knightdale, NC. The Richardson family had it built and moved in. Mr. Richardson was the former Mayor of Zebulon, NC. He would walk the three blocks into downtown to buy a cigar in his retirement days, and always had some candy in his pocket for the kids he'd walk by.
His Granddaughter told us about the bathroom addition added to the back "L" of the house, and how she had to dawn her coat to go onto the back porch to the bathroom in the Winter, but at least it was attached to the house. The old Carriage House is still in use as storage, and in need of repair, but that's another project for later. Down at the Little River, the grist mill ground corn during the day, and was switched to a generator at night to supply electricity to the town. Each household got about 85 Watts of power to run the lights and radios at dusk. They were charged extra if they went over that amount.
Back in the day, houses were built facing East / West with a center hallway for cooling. On either side of the hallway are four big rooms. A double sided fireplace on each side of the hallway warmed the main part of the house. Off the back is an "L" which is two room in a line from the left side with porches on each side. Later those porches were closed in to make smaller rooms about 7' X 15 feet each. The street side porch is now a mud room/ laundry room connected inline with the main hall, where the indoor bathroom was added on.
At some point, the house was divided into two apartments, with the owners living in the front, and tenants in the back. The great hall was divided, and the front kitchen was put there, with the back kitchen in one of the closed in porches. The wiring was updated for the two spaces. Some of the old two-wire ceramic insulators are still in the attic. Today, the kitchen is still in the main hallway and has to go somewhere!
In late August I began demolition with the aid of Tommy Stanley, a younger friend of mine for many years. At 55, I needed a strong helper since my knees and back wear out quickly and Tommy's dad, David, does this kind of work and was kind enough to provide technical help and code advice. David was amazing and pitched in to handle the hard stuff we could not have tackled on our own. We started at the outside wall since I figured that's where the most damage would be and I was fearing the outside sill would need replacing and the sooner I knew this the better.
Builders at the turn of the century did not lay sub-flooring. The tongue and groove 3/4" Pine boards are attached directly to the joists using cut nails. Made out of iron, these nails will rust a bit causing them to grab into the wood making it impossible to pull out. It makes one heck of a strong floor, though. Unfortunately, you end up tearing the floor boards to pieces when you remove them and since most were a little rotten, there was no way to save them for use later.
The 2"X8" joists all failed near the center of the room as they were spanning 15' with no center support. In the picture above you can see the cut nails still holding strong in the joists and mold growing on the beam in front of the fireplace. We pulled them all out and had David over to inspect the sills around the room. To our surprise, they were all in good shape except a small area at one of the piers. These are 8" X 8" "logs" surrounding the room's perimeter and was dead level on all sides. David chiseled out the bad spot and inserted some good wood into the beam. It was easy to nail a new treated 2" X 10" to them so we had something fresh to nail to. The old wood is so hard being old growth Pine it's a chore to drive a nail into, but fortunately I was given a pneumatic framing nail gun for Christmas last year, so it made the task pretty easy.
Even though local building codes allow a 2" X 8" board to span 15', I decided to add a center beam to bear the load. We set a double 2" X 10" treated beam on three new foundation piers in the center of the room that the new joists rests on. Now that it it finished, I wouldn't have a problem if someone drove a Mack truck on the floor. It is pretty stout now. I spent every free weekend and day off moving plumbing and electrical outlets for the new kitchen. I had to wait until a good time to move the drains and water lines since this disables the old kitchen next door, and we've been eating out for a week now. But finally, I don't have to lay under the house making connections. I have been sore in places I didn't know I had from crawling in the dirt, twisting into awkward angles working around air ducts and numerous obstacles. It's been an amazing feeling to wake up and not have to shimmy under the house for hours.
I think the happiest feeling I've had on this project was when the insulation covered the view of old dirt, and the new sub-floor sealed it up. I was totally tired of seeing a dirt floor and walking atop floor joists. Luckily, I didn't fall and break a hip and aside from a burn from dripping solder on my left arm, no injuries so far! I did get a bruise, but haven't shed any blood yet.
With a solid floor to walk on, we removed the wallpaper, and began patching walls. I have some framing to finish in the old closet area and a portion of ceiling to fix. A previous owner cut an access panel to the attic in the closet. The ceilings are the same tongue and groove Pine used on the floors. I found enough pieces of it in the attic to fill in the hole, but it's going to be a challenge to get it to match the cut they made. Hopefully a little caulk will fill and gaps I leave.
With the major construction nearing the end, I'll post the finished results when it's finished. I have the new sink ready to go in, the new flooring is ready to lay down, and we finally agreed on a paint color. I have a couple more days off, so I hope to finish this project soon. I need some rest!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Holy Convergence, Batman!
Since the early Nineties, tech articles have been touting the word: convergence. That wondrous time when the PC and the TV merge into one device. We heard and read that it is coming. For over a decade, we heard this. Over and over.
Finally it has happened. It kinda took it's sweet time coming, but it did finally happen. The Internet came to the TV screen and TV came to Internet devices.
But wait! There's a catch!You will have a hard time watching video on that old 56K modem. Heck, even DSL and cable have issues from time to time with streaming video. That old wireless router can't serve up the bits fast enough. Your daughter's on Facebook, your son is downloading an album on i tunes and the refrigerator is ordering next weeks groceries as you try to watch a movie on Netflix.
Worst yet, your ISP decides you are hogging too much bandwidth, and cuts you all down to 56K. It's all about bandwidth. He that controls thy bandwidth, controls the world. (for a "fair" price)
And who controls the bandwidth? A handful of companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time-Warner and a few others. What you don't realize is these companies are more powerful than any other force on the planet. Sleeping giants, if I may say so. When the FCC decided we needed a National Broadband Plan to become the leaders of the free world, they also decided the Internet must remain open and free. Those companies listed above said, oh no! We can't supply that much bandwidth to everyone, and help low income households connect. We have to throttle down those huge data wasters to allow everyone a piece of the American Pie.
There's also a barrage of new devices hitting the shelves everyday. And lots of confusion with it. Today, the biggest question is "What is a TV?" Time-Warner made an app for the iPad, and almost immediately media companies sent out 'cease and dissent' letters. Media companies signed agreements with cable for them to deliver their programming to home TV sets via cable. They say they never agreed to let TWC deliver it via an Internet app.
TWC however, claims an iPad is a TV, and the companies gave them the right to deliver to consumers' TV sets, regardless where they are. A household is a subscriber, or sub, and it can contain 10 TV sets, but TWC only pays for 1 sub, not 10. Sure they may charge you for different outlets in your home, but you can actually wire up as many devices in your home as you want- you're still one sub.
TWC believes your iPod, iPad, Zune, or Android phone are additional TV sets. I have to say I agree with the program suppliers on this. They signed an agreement for subs wired to the cable. When the cable company copies that programming, and delivers it via the Internet, that's a whole new delivery method, and should have a new agreement.
Now, I like what TWC did, just not the way they did it. It was a good idea executed badly. HBO launched their own mobile app as HBO Go. It's their programming, so it makes sense for them to create the app and deliver their own stuff, instead of letting TWC make a profit off of it.
TWC has filed for clarification of 'what is a TV' in the courts, so it will be interesting to see how that works out for them. What do you think? Is your phone a TV and you should be able to watch all the same programming on it as your TV wired to cable in your den?
Finally it has happened. It kinda took it's sweet time coming, but it did finally happen. The Internet came to the TV screen and TV came to Internet devices.
But wait! There's a catch!You will have a hard time watching video on that old 56K modem. Heck, even DSL and cable have issues from time to time with streaming video. That old wireless router can't serve up the bits fast enough. Your daughter's on Facebook, your son is downloading an album on i tunes and the refrigerator is ordering next weeks groceries as you try to watch a movie on Netflix.
Worst yet, your ISP decides you are hogging too much bandwidth, and cuts you all down to 56K. It's all about bandwidth. He that controls thy bandwidth, controls the world. (for a "fair" price)
And who controls the bandwidth? A handful of companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time-Warner and a few others. What you don't realize is these companies are more powerful than any other force on the planet. Sleeping giants, if I may say so. When the FCC decided we needed a National Broadband Plan to become the leaders of the free world, they also decided the Internet must remain open and free. Those companies listed above said, oh no! We can't supply that much bandwidth to everyone, and help low income households connect. We have to throttle down those huge data wasters to allow everyone a piece of the American Pie.
There's also a barrage of new devices hitting the shelves everyday. And lots of confusion with it. Today, the biggest question is "What is a TV?" Time-Warner made an app for the iPad, and almost immediately media companies sent out 'cease and dissent' letters. Media companies signed agreements with cable for them to deliver their programming to home TV sets via cable. They say they never agreed to let TWC deliver it via an Internet app.
TWC however, claims an iPad is a TV, and the companies gave them the right to deliver to consumers' TV sets, regardless where they are. A household is a subscriber, or sub, and it can contain 10 TV sets, but TWC only pays for 1 sub, not 10. Sure they may charge you for different outlets in your home, but you can actually wire up as many devices in your home as you want- you're still one sub.
TWC believes your iPod, iPad, Zune, or Android phone are additional TV sets. I have to say I agree with the program suppliers on this. They signed an agreement for subs wired to the cable. When the cable company copies that programming, and delivers it via the Internet, that's a whole new delivery method, and should have a new agreement.
Now, I like what TWC did, just not the way they did it. It was a good idea executed badly. HBO launched their own mobile app as HBO Go. It's their programming, so it makes sense for them to create the app and deliver their own stuff, instead of letting TWC make a profit off of it.
TWC has filed for clarification of 'what is a TV' in the courts, so it will be interesting to see how that works out for them. What do you think? Is your phone a TV and you should be able to watch all the same programming on it as your TV wired to cable in your den?
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