The Sound of Music

Nicki's sister Barb came in the middle of last week. She had been invited to do a presentation at Kendal Friday evening on her experiences with the Von Trapp Family Singers in the late mid-1950's. The program went very well. Large enthusiastic audience. Ursula sat in the front row with Nicki. She seemed to enjoy the music. I'm sure she recognized most of the songs. Not sure she heard much of the talk but that's okay. People at Kendal were still talking about it today. I think Barb should go on tour. Bob drove down from Lansing and made it for the last couple numbers.

Barb discussed her invitation to join the Von Trapp's, the travels throughout the world, and visits to the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont (A little of Austria - A lot of Vermont). She sang songs learned from the Von Trapps as well as selections from "The Sound of Music." Barb also demostrated several different sizes of recorders and tricky maneuvers with poi balls. The Trapp Family added poi balls to their concerts during a trip to New Zealand. And Nicki well remembers the poi ball craze among the kids in her neighborhood after Barb returned from that tour.

Saturday we grabbed the opportunity of sunny weather (and temperatures in the high 40's - low 50's) to do a little kayaking. We also had Bob and Barb bring Ursula in their car so Ursula could watch us unload and launch the kayaks. She was bubbling with curiosity. After watching us they gave Ursula a bit of a drive throught the country. And later that evening we all got together at Hans and Norma's for pizza, chicken fingers, salad, and chocolate pie. I think we tired Ursula out with all the excitement and excursions.

As for our kayaking report. The paddling was fine. The water was probably very cold but we wisely or luckily didn't dip. We were just about ready to give up on wildlife when we spooked 3 great blue herons at the same time. They flow off in 3 different directions. Think we saw a couple small groups of diving grebes. I was just about to suggest to Nicki that we set the goal of taking the kayaks out at least once a month every month of the year - when we came upon a big batch of funny looking water. Of course, it was a large sheet of ice. So I played "ice breaker" for a while - interesting feel. However, the kayak doesn't turn or backup well in an ice field. There may come a point when the ice wins and the kayaks stay in the garage.

Deer in the headlights

Last night, after I chaired my monthly district technology committee meeting, I drove over to Kendal to meet Nicki and her mother for supper. As I was driving into the parking lot just outside Ursula’s room a deer walked across the drive right in front of me. A buck with 5-6 points on its antlers. Good thing I was driving slowly since I always worry about hitting a resident. And we had a nice supper with Ursula.

And have you checked out the luxury casino/hotel plans for Salamanca? Wow - a step up from the Dudley.

Yes Yes ... again

Amazingly both our levies passed. I figured it would be very close but the numbers were very positive. The replacement proposal passed 64% to 36% which I figured since there wasn’t much difference in cost. But the 5 mill new levy passed 55% to 45% which was respectable. This will give us financial stability for a while provided the state doesn’t do something screwy or GW doesn’t declare war on the economy. Click here for the campaign website.

Had our first opportunity to do the touch-screen voting. It was different but the process went smoothly. The only disconcerting part was when part of an issue would start on one screen and finish on another. Some precincts had machines that broke down or the paper back-up jammed. But I only waited 5 minutes and it was overall less worrisome than our usual punchcards. The voting results were slow to be reported. Turns out the board of elections always counts the absentee ballots first and then deals with the regular voting - and there was some problem with the absentee processing. And with the reporting pace it was hard to grasp a trend. I did a lot of reloading of the board of elections website while the levy campaign committee snacked and chit-chatted. But we got the same results at the same time as the radio stations and the TV. I gave up and went home to catch the final results. And now we start thinking about the technology levy that will need to be renewed this time next year. It never ends.

The Valley Goes Wireless

The pattern being established here is that I report on our events after some time to reflect - usually a week or so. Or I start the blog entry after I’ve had time to download our photos from the cameras and when I’ve found enough spare time to compose the text. In this case it took an entire week and now I’m sitting and watching the Cavs playing the Spurs.

Nicki and I drove up to Little Valley last Thursday (the 27th) night arriving just in time for a late dinner that Martha had prepared - pot roast. We certainly can’t say the oven isn’t being used. After that great dinner I did a little experimenting with the cable broadband connection. It wasn’t a matter of simply plugging my wireless router into the cable modem and being able to check my email. They just didn’t want to talk to each other which means the internet wasn’t accessible. Of course I was following the installer’s directions and not going with my experience. I'm sure I was great entertainment for Martha and Nicki. Gave up finally - looking for a fresh start in the morning.

Friday Nicki and Martha left me to do their thing in Ellicottville while I did my thing with the wireless setup. After a lot of frustration I finally did what I should have done first - basically unplugging and resetting the cable modem (the installer said not to do that) - and of course the wireless connection was instantly recognized. From there I tweaked the settings to get the best signal. Found we can receive a strong access signal outside the house at least to the garage - maybe further. So the dinning room table or the porch will be no problem. During this process I found at least one other access point in the neighborhood which is encouraging for Little Valley.

I’m not going to say anything about the level of openness. Any of the family wanting to access our connection shouldn’t have a problem. Your laptop’s wireless card should recognize the signal and the station’s name should be obviously ours. And I can always talk to the router and adjust the settings from Oberlin.

Nicki and I did a bit of a walk that afternoon. Started with the cemetary, then beyond the Fairgrounds to the bike trail, eastward past the old railroad station as far as the swimming pool, and back to the homestead. That evening we met Jim and Cindy at Tips Up Cafe. Not much of a wait. Good table. Good food. And afterward we all moved back to the house. At one point there were a bunch of laptops accessing our network round the dinning room table.

Next morning we left the Little Valley crowd and headed back towards home. Arrived at Sue’s Mom’s memorial service with plenty of time. Then did a little shopping and finally home. We did see the Wallace and Gromit movie at our local Apollo Theater that evening.

Sunday afternoon we took advantage of the very nice weather. Loaded up the kayaks and visited our Findley Lake. Kept running into people that were interested in our kayaks. Both when we were taking the boats off the Honda and later when we were getting them out of the water. We think there is some interest in the sport.

Beautiful day on the lake. Autumn leaves on the water. A ring of fall colors around the lake. Our usual herons. A couple hawks. The only disappointment was how early it is getting dark. We took the boats out of the water at 5:30 and 15 minutes later it was night. I don’t think we’ll get anymore kayaking trips on weekdays after school. Better get good weather on the weekends or that’s it for the season.

Halloween was a little better than usual for trick-or-treaters. We had around 20 - mostly very young kids. The past couple years has been very light. But that number doesn’t stress our dogs much. They bark and take a look at the costumes but Sam and Cricket weren’t on the alert.

This week has been focused on the upcoming elections. Tuesday evening was the local candidates night at First Church. Time to hear about the issues and an opportunity to see the school board candidates. Wednesday I had a levy committee meeting to discuss the final push. Thursday I attended a levy discussion at Kendal. And Saturday Nicki will be distributing leaflets in the neighborhood while I tweak the campaign website. Maybe Sunday we’ll kayak - but the forecast isn’t very promising.

Almost forgot - this week I've been trying to fix a PC at work. One of the secretaries computers had a browser hijacker "accidentally" installed which led to her getting endless annoying popups whenever she accessed her email or had to go on the internet. Needless to say it was disrupting the efficiency of her work. Took hours and hours of work to get her even partway back to normal. And the cures are as annoying as the problem. Please save yourself a lot of trouble and get yourself a Mac. Or if you can't, then keep your anti-virus definitions up-to-date. And don't click on any "free" offers or any notices that your computer has a problem and can be fixed by clicking on some flashy button. And whether you use a Mac or a PC stop using Internet Explorer and start using Firefox - a much better, faster, and more secure browser that blocks popups and has some cool features.