The first step towards new paths (and other things)

 Fitness, Home work  No Responses »
Jul 272009
 

We’ve been fighting with our decomposed granite paths almost since they were installed. They were installed with a glue sealant on them to help keep them in place so the dogs wouldn’t track the small particles in. The granite particles make a great abrasive on the wood floors, making them look old after a couple of months. Unfortunately the glue on top of the path doesn’t last long, maybe a couple of weeks before you need to re-apply it which makes it time-consuming and expensive.

We’ve talked about other solutions, one of them being grass for the paths. Julie & Fish just had sod installed and had a lot left over and they offered it to us so Friday we went to work to install it. Breaking up and clearing out the decomposed granite was the slow part, taking probably about 8 hours to remove about 2 cubic yards. After that all the steps were fairly simple (thanks to Julie for providing a list). We didn’t have a sod knife but Dean suggested a serrated knife would do the trick and indeed the bread knife was great and cutting up the sod.

So now we have a patch of grass (assuming it takes) in front of the back door so the dogs will have to run across it (hopefully cleaning their paws from granite) until more can be done.

Thanks to Julie & Fish for the materials and the instructions! Thanks to Dean for assistance in putting down the sod! Thanks to Ward for the digging rod which is a great workout and a great digger!

Saturday we needed a rest so we went with Dean & Marcia to the Gilroy Garlic Festival where I had chocolate garlic ice cream, a garlic sausage sandwich, garlic corn on the cob, garlic fries, deep fried garlic, and garlic chocolate peanut butter cups.

Sunday was more relaxed and got some motivation at the end to finish fixing the front fountain. The water tube that connected the bottom to the top was pushed out by the papyrus plant growing out of control. When I hacked it back some to check out the situation I accidently cut the power cord to the pump. Nicole and Abby hacked away the papyrus some more so I was able to reinstall the tube and install the new pump.

Now we just need to get back to the fence.

 Posted by Douglas at 11:15 am

Again with the leg

 Medical  No Responses »
Jul 112009
 

I saw a vascular specialist/vascular surgeon on Tuesday for a second opinion on what I should do now that my six months are up with the blood thinners. He said I should get of the blood thinners since the clot is gone and any blockage that remains is scar tissue. He also said I should wear a calf compression stocking for two years. So today was the first day with the stocking and after a whole day mostly on my feet working outside there’s no swelling and it’s even pretty comfortable! I’m still taking the blood thinners until part two of my second opinion on August 3rd.

 Posted by Douglas at 10:47 pm  Tagged with:

Impact of fiction vs non-fiction

 Book talk, questions  4 Responses »
Jul 112009
 

This is probably obvious to most people but as I was making a list of 15 books with the most impact on me the other day and while I was making the list I noticed that most of the books I was listing were fiction. That seemed odd to me since most of the books I read are non-fiction. Then I began wondering why that is the way it is. I think it’s that non-fiction usually gets integrated into the readers knowledge, filling in gaps in knowledge, but rarely offers something that changes how you view things. Fiction can go in directions you don’t expect and as such it can really hit you.

 Posted by Douglas at 9:53 pm  Tagged with:

My understanding of hockey

 sports  No Responses »
Jul 112009
 

Before this last past hockey season I never paid attention to hockey, but Nicole was a fan and we started going to some Sharks games. At first my watching was more from an aesthetic standpoint. The patterns traced out by the players skating around were interesting to watch but as far as following what was going on I was pretty lost. Why are people constantly going on and off the ice? Why were penalties called? During the regular season my knowledge level didn’t really increase and it took the playoffs announcers to impart knowledge to me about the game.

I still have problems with two rules: icing, and intent to end play. Icing is when a player in their own end of the ice hits the puck across both center lines into the opposite goal line without any other player touching the puck along its journey. Icing isn’t actually called until an opposing player touches the puck in the end area. It doesn’t always seem to apply though; I think the goalie is exempt from causing the icing call. The intent to end play isn’t hard to understand, the whistle blows and the play is dead… almost. Play is actually dead when the referee intends to blow the whistle. This is I think the most abstract rule in all of sports since the referee can say they meant to blow the whistle seconds before they actually do. Most of the time it makes no difference but there was a play where it did make a difference. A puck was still loose but obscured from the referee’s view. It was hit in to the goal but the whistle was blown indicating the play to be dead. Normally a puck in motion gets to count as a goal, but the referee said the intended end of play was when the puck appeared dead to the referee.

The best part I think is that during the playoffs, after I had a good enough grasp of the rules, I started seeing the action as a whole again but instead of seeing it in an aesthetic way I was seeing it as a real-time moving traveling salesman type problem. The players constantly are searching for the shortest path to the goal but the nodes (their teammates) and the legs are constantly changing their values. The weights of the legs are determined by distance and proximity of the opposing players. It’s a very difficult problem to solve! I think very similar problems are solved in soccer, and to a lesser extent basketball.

Now I look forward to seeing what I’m going to learn in the coming season.

 Posted by Douglas at 9:32 pm  Tagged with:

The continuing adventures of ugly leg

 bummer, Medical  No Responses »
Jul 012009
 

In the good news, I’ve have the time between my allergy shots extended to 4 weeks. I’ve felt ready for it for a couple of months. Now I’m pretty much on the home stretch of allergy shots. Also the doctor reviewed my previous blood test and found that I don’t have to have any more blood tests done to determine whether I’m genetically predisposed to clotting. Those were all done initially and I am definitely not a born clotter.

In clot news, I saw my doctor this morning to decide what’s next for the ugly leg.  Considering my leg is pretty much the same as it was after 3 months the clot is still there and she says it’s likely to remain there. So the choice is whether to continue on the Warfarin and start developing a risk for major internal organ bleeding over time, or to stop taking it and see if the clot gets worse again. I decided it to put off that decision in favor of talking to a vascular surgeon to see what they think can be done.

Hopefully a surgeon will consider this something that can be dealt with and the clot can be removed. Since I’m not a clotter by nature I won’t have to worry about recurrence so much. I know what to look for now.

 Posted by Douglas at 1:37 pm  Tagged with: ,
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