The little barn has just received its first set of lights. I installed lights today on the ground floor. Feels like I'm finally making progress on that front. Tonight the boys were out there riding their bikes and playing foosball. Wish I had their energy.

If you're an artist and do a painting, or maybe a sculpture of some sort, you get to display your work for everyone to enjoy and admire when you're done. Maybe you're an architect, and everybody gets to admire the beautiful building when its done.  Or maybe you're a great cook, and everybody gets to enjoy your food. Et Cetera.

But if you're a programmer, your most beautiful artistry, the code that is woven into a perfect tapestry like some sort of a fantastic musical, gets compiled into a simple little file that nobody sees. Nobody cares. In fact, its probably even copyrighted, and maybe even trade secret. Users only get to see the boring part, the user interface. They don't get to listen to the real music.

When was the last time you've seen some sort of algorithmic process printed out and hung on the wall? Yup, I didn't think so.

My wife is asking me if I feel slighted. Yes, very.

I should post a beautiful little piece of code I created over the last two late nights of code and iced tea.

But I can't. Its trade secret.

Today was absolutely beautiful. I believe we're experiencing global cooling here in Kansas.

I spent most of the day in my recliner - I've been exhausted the last several days. I was in bed last night before 9. That never happens unless I'm sick, and I'm not sick. Somehow I have this aversion to going to bed. My wife simply cannot understand this. I tell her that, to me, going to bed represents dying. At the end of every day it gets dark, and we have to go rest - and somehow, it seems to typify death to me. Its a daily reminder that life comes to an end. That we will all someday "sleep". So I would rather keep right on going. She thinks I'm weird. Oh, well. She's usually right.

But I think I slept about 9-10 hours straight last night. Very abnormal. Then I read most of the day in my recliner. Grilled burgers and ate supper with the family on the patio this evening. If you like bone-chilling fiction right out of the modern genetic-modification grinder, may I suggest you read "Hunter" by James Byron Huggins.

I'm slowly starting to feel refreshed.

I am not kidding: we just got the following email at my shop.

"Hi I was wonder if i can get a Job im am 20 year old and I was Good on computer and repair like that and"

How would you like to have this guy work on your computer?

Google's OS: Will PC Makers Bite?

Brings back to mind this post.

Its deja-vu all over again.

A little over a week ago, I brought a Mustang 2109 skidloader home from Texas. It had one problem: it wouldn't crank when you turned the key. However, it would start just fine if you manually applied power to the ignition wire going to the solenoid on the starter.

Yesterday I called Mustang headquarters in Wisconsin, and got routed to their technical parts department. The guy I talked to was incredibly helpful. He gave me the part numbers for several different manuals, then found that he had the wiring diagram on his system. He converted it to a pdf file, and emailed it right over to me - no charge. He also told me they have a service hotline you can call for diagnostic help - also free! I'm very impressed with their service, especially considering that I'm no dealer, and they didn't simply direct me to call my nearest dealer.

I took the wiring diagram to a friend of mine in Hutchinson who has a print shop. He printed it on a 36" x 36" paper for me. Then I traced the wiring on the diagram to a relay between the ignition key and the solenoid. Raised the cab, located the relay and removed it. Took it to my workbench, and hooked it up to my DC power supply. I could hear and feel the relay click - but got no continuity across the two posts that were supposed to permit power to go to the solenoid. Bingo.

Today I went to Rose Motors in Hutchinson - just two blocks from my shop. I showed the relay to one of the guys at the counter, and he thought it looked like a standard relay. A few minutes later he came back with an exact match! I was thrilled! I had had visions of calling Mustang headquarters, getting directed to a local dealer, who would then order an obscure part from Mustang, who might then come back and say its backordered.... etc etc. This was just SO easy.

Went home, plugged it in, lowered the cab, turned the key - and it fired right up. Every time.

I'm one happy guy.

Next project: building a bucket, forks, and tree jaw.

A good day for me; it ended badly for Wile E. Coyote. He came across the fields from 3/4 mile away. 350 yards out, he stopped to watch the deer that were 1/4 mile north of him. He probably thinks he's still standing there. His doorway to the happy hunting grounds was made of a 150 grain bullet traveling about 2500FPS. He never knew what hit him.

Last Saturday morning...

Surfing drifts... Because we can.

See the road?

The view of Abbeville across the fields.

Neighbors

Hunted!

Making ice cream

Yum!

I've never seen a stuck snowplow before.

Sunday morning this covey of quail was in our back yard.

When compared to facebook

Thursday morning I got up early and headed for Spiro, Oklahoma, to pick up a trailer that I had ordered. I was just about ready to leave when I realized just how cold it was outside, and ran back into the house to grab a cap and a pair of gloves. I ran back out, yanked open the back door of the truck to toss the stuff on the back seat, and BAM! SLAMMED the edge of the door into my left eyebrow. Hence the lovely photo.

Kinda puts new meaning to the saying "Smashing good looks" doesn't it? I put some ice on it for a bit, then headed out hoping that my eye wouldn't swell shut. That would have really put the crimp on driving. I took two ibuprofen and hoped for the best. It stung for several hours, then settled down to a throb.

I got to Spiro a little after 11:00AM, and took care of what little paperwork was necessary to complete the purchase. By the way, if anybody needs a good flatbed trailer, Elite Trailers is THE place. I got exactly what I needed for $1500-$2000 less than what I would have paid at a trailer dealer in Kansas. When we were finishing the paperwork, they told me the balance due, and I looked at my papers and said "That's not right." They looked at me funny and restated the total. I told them "You forgot to charge me the $250 extra for sandblasting the trailer". The guy realized I was right, and got this amazed look on his face and said "Nobody does THAT anymore!!" And thanked me for being honest. I told him that I prefer being able to sleep at night. If you call them to buy a trailer, please tell Danny that I sent you!

Next I met Dad, Mom, & Jeanie at the Mexican restaurant next door while they finished wiring the trailer. Dad recently bought a van with a wheelchair lift in it, and it makes it wonderfully easy to take Jeanie along - and she loves it! We had a good time together. After lunch Dad helped me hook up the trailer for the first time, and I headed off for Oklahoma City.

We resell lots of used computers that we buy in large quantities. Part of the reason for purchasing the trailer was to make it easy to transport pallets of computer equipment. I got to the wholesaler's warehouse at about 4:00PM and spent the next hour walking through the warehouse and talking to my sales rep. GREAT FUN! It feels like Christmas every time I go there. Imagine a 70,000 square foot facility packed to the gills with computer equipment to sell!

I spent some time with my sister Judith and husband Willie, then went to Home Depot and bought some good ratchet straps. After that I ate shrimp at Red Lobster, then went back to my hotel for the night. Worked on my shop management software project for several hours, then crashed for the night. Somehow pulling a trailer is a bit more stressful driving than just driving the pickup. I suppose I'll get used to it.

And by the way - to anybody wondering why I would choose a gooseneck over a bumper hitch trailer - here's why: there is simply no comparison in terms of ride and handling. A gooseneck hitch is far more stable. You don't have the "rocking horse" motion with a gooseneck that you get with a bumper hitch. You also don't have the front end of the truck being pushed on turns, or by strong side winds. Its a lot safer.

While we're on this subject, I had a B&W Turnover Ball Hitch installed in the truck too. You can reach in through the wheel well on the driver's side, and pull a little lever to unlock the ball. Then you just pick the ball up, turn it over, and drop it headfirst down the hole. That leaves the ball in the slot, but leaves the bed completely clear and unobstructed for other things. I also had a trailer plug installed inside the pickup bed so the trailer wire isn't hanging over the tailgate and scratching everything up. Got that idea from John Miller who moved to Kansas from Kentucky last year.

Back to OKC. The next morning I spent several more hours buying stuff in the warehouse. Then we palletized everything, and loaded it on the trailer. I strapped everything down and headed home. Six pallets of stuff. After the trailer was loaded, I realized that I would have room for 12 pallets, so this thing should be satisfactory for a very long time.

I got back to the shop at about 4:00PM and unloaded, then headed home. It was a relief to get everything there safely.

After I got home, the little people all had to run around on the trailer and inspect it.

I picked up the puppy, and set her up on the trailer - and to my astonishment, she simply sat down in the middle of the trailer and shook. She was terrified! I picked her up and put her back down on the ground, and she ran around and acted like she was really relieved. After thinking about it for a bit, I think I might know why she was so afraid. Here's a puppy pic:

This puppy is another story. One evening about a month ago I came home from work, and my wife told me that she had just returned a dish to another church family several miles from here. On her way over, she noticed a puppy in the ditch. She said it was still there when she came back, and kind of acted like it wanted to be seen. She told me about where it was, and I immediately realized that somebody had dumped it. It was at least a mile from the nearest house, kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Shawn & I immediately threw on our coats, grabbed the spotlight, and jumped into the truck to go looking for it. It was about 30 degrees outside, and rather windy. We found the puppy - it was still lying in the ditch. Shawn picked it up, and jumped back into the truck. I noticed immediately that the puppy didn't wag its tail, or do anything for that matter. It just laid there on Shawn's lap.

We brought it back to the house, and laid it on a rug on the kitchen floor. It just laid there, and would barely lift its head. When it did lift its head, it held it very crooked. I felt around on its neck, and it felt like it had an injury on the right side. We gave it some warm milk, and it lapped it up furiously, then laid right down and went to sleep. We watched it all evening, and it barely moved. I decided to take it to the vet the next morning to see what they say.

The next morning I discovered that we had freezing rain and snow overnight, and the temp had dropped to about 20. I'm sure the puppy would not have survived the night in its condition. It appeared to be starving, and was very weak. I took it to the vet clinic, and told them what little I knew. They checked its temp, and it was at 104. They put it on meds, and kept it there so they could watch it.

The next day I talked to the vet personally, and he asked me for details on what had happened to the puppy. I told him that I think somebody chucked the puppy out the window while they were driving down the road, and that the puppy smacked his head/neck on something - maybe a pole - when it landed. He had come to the same conclusion. We also agreed that the cockeyed head might be due to swelling on the brain, so he medicated for that as well. The puppy improved pretty rapidly, and I picked it up about two days later and brought it home. The puppy has very quickly become very beloved by our family, especially our boys.

Now for today: we butchered a 410 pound pig today at Titus & Marijane's place. It didn't take as long as I thought it might. Titus killed and "halved" it on Thursday night, so we started with clean halves. Three hours later we had everything deboned, and all the sausage ground. Then we cooked off the bones to make liverwurst - without liver.  While Jolene & I took the meat home to get it in the freezer, Titus grilled fresh sausage burgers over a hedge fire. Talk about GOOD BURGERS! You can't get anything like that at Burger King! We use a sausage seasoning recipe that finds its origins with my Grandpa Beachy. Its fabulous!

When Jolene & I went back for lunch, we took the truck & trailer, and I picked up a round bale at Joe Yoder's on the way home. After we got home I unloaded it with the skidloader and set it on a corner of the garden. We'll use it for mulch. Joe said the bale weighed about 1700 pounds, so I was doing a little testing (aka: fooling around) to see how well the skidloader would handle it. Dad needs a good machine to handle stuff at his feed store, and I wanted to know if a skidloader this size could do what he needs. The last photo is the most telling of the machine's capabilities. I like this thing - can you tell?

When I got the skidloader, I noticed that it had leaked a bit of hydraulic oil on the floor. Somebody else has been using it on our barn renovation project, and I wondered if that's a good thing. I put the bale on the garden, then parked the skidloader back in the shed. I used my normal approach to exiting the skidloader - right foot on the pallet fork, left foot down on the front wheel, then right foot down to the ground - except this time it didn't work that way. When my left foot hit the front wheel, it slipped off the wheel instantly, as if it was greased. My right leg caught against the auxiliary hydraulic lines feeding the grapple, and then my right foot slipped, turned, and hooked underneath a crossbar on the pallet fork. As I fell forward I knew instantly that my right leg was going to snap at the knee - I was falling about facefirst onto concrete, with my right legged pinned. Then - somehow - as I fell my right leg twisted, and my foot popped out. My leg turned and the back of my knee hooked on the hydraulic couplers. I still don't quite know how I landed on the floor without breaking anything. I laid there on the floor for a bit feeling like I was going to throw up from the pain in my leg. I still can't believe I didn't break it. The back of my knee is VERY sore, and I'm going to be hobbling for a few days, but its NOT BROKEN!!! Jolene & I talked about it, and I could have so easily wound up with a broken leg AND a broken arm. Apparently when I drove back in, that wheel hit the puddle of oil, and didn't turn far enough to wipe it off. When I jumped out, I landed right on that wet spot. I'm very grateful to still be in one unbroken piece. I would really look great in a hospital bed with a black eye, and two broken limbs....

So I'm sitting here, using my new monitor to write this. I had a 20" monitor before, which was a huge step up from a 17". Here's a pic to give a comparison between a 20" and a 30" monitor.

Software development should be really nice with this amount of real estate. The resolution is 2560 X 1600. Suzi, here's a pic of what Xara looks like on this monitor. You'll notice the size of the default working page compared to the rest of the screen. This should be really nice when I need to blow something up to work on fine detail.

Whew. I haven't done a long post like this in a long time. Somehow this week felt really busy. I'm looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow. I've never been able to understand why some people work seven days a week - we need a day of rest. Its how we're made. Enjoy yours!