The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey August 30, 2015

Toilets and Sewing Machines

A toilet, and a sewing machine: these are both things I worked on repairing today. I was successful in repairing the toilet. However, I don't have the specialized knowledge I need to safely work on Marcia's quilting machine. If I could have fixed this, it'd save us 50 or a hundred bucks. But I can do ever so much more damage than that ... so I tried, and then I stopped. I also had a fair amount of outside-of-business-hours work this week; Some yesterday, and more of that starting around 0645 this morning and going on for a couple of…

Brian Bilbrey August 23, 2015

Kerfuffle, Past and Future

The Hugo Awards were last night. First off, congrats to the winners. I'm happy for them. I enjoyed the winning work in each category that had a winner. Well, except Guardians of the Galaxy, through no fault of its own. I don't go to movies, and rarely watch them. Five categories went to No Award. To me, that seems a bit harsh. I read everything that came in the Hugo packet, and dug up everything I could that wasn't in the packet. For me, only four or five works out of dozens rated below No Award. The people who annoy…

Brian Bilbrey August 16, 2015

Returns with a Vengeance

Summer, that is. We're in a pattern of high heat and humidity right now, which makes working outside (and walking the dog) less than utterly pleasant activities. I strive, however, to not let that stop me. Today, after shopping and such, I managed a 3-gallon harvest out of the garden, much of which turned into the contents of these jars: Yep, there's still salsa coming out of the garden. It's been winding down for a week or more, but there may be one more batch before the year's production is done. * * * My dance card was full last…

Brian Bilbrey August 11, 2015

Belated Busy

For reasons yet to be explained, I've been very, very busy. So here's a picture of a new neighbor - a 10-week old shiba inu named Roxy: * * * Our condolences to the family and friends of Master Sgt. Peter A. McKenna Jr., 35, of Bristol, Rhode Island, who died on Aug. 8, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds when he was attacked by enemy small arms fire.

Brian Bilbrey August 2, 2015

A Princess and her Pea

Lexi, protected from peas There's better be a pea under there... * * * Last night, when all was quiet, I finally got a around to putting together the Metal Earth Dragonfly model that I picked up from Amazon weeks ago on a whim, inspired by Jenny's 1000 Ferris Wheels post. It's good to have a focused distraction from time to time. The work took me away from myself for a double handful of minutes, and reminded me that I can focus when I make the effort. There's been so much going on that I'm spending more time putting out…