When I first typed the title of this blog, I made a small typo and missed an "m", which caused me to chuckle. As this is something of an end-of-summer recap, I had this picture that floated into my mind of a bunch of guys playing baseball with epic Gilgamesh beards! End of Sumer, indeed!
It took just a little bit of time to come up with the title. It's a bit of an onion this time, with a few different, but related meanings. The first, and probably most obvious one, is to baseball. In the United States, the boundaries of summer seem to be Opening Day and the last game of the regular season (that is, the last game before the playoffs). Next, of course, is Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" which I think is a great song, but I never really liked the video (I have not posted the video, as YouTube said there were copyright issues). This song, in turn, refers to at least one song from the Sixties: "Will I See You In September". This song was recorded by several artists, and refers to teen romance, angst and all of that gooey stuff.
What initially got me on this line of thought was the calendar. As I write this, it is 30 September 2013. It was forty-five degrees Fahrenheit when I got up this morning, which made me think of The Mamas' & The Papas' "California Dreaming". I got the newspaper from the sidewalk, and noticed that the remaining foliage was rapid turning colors or already brown. I went back inside and enjoyed a hot cup of tea with some yogurt as I read some email. Jennifer was up and had opened the back door, and Tinka was begging to go outside. Tinka is our rather skittish calico cat, and of the four humans in our home, I rank #3 on her favorites list; if our daughter were still living with us, I would be #4. Tinka was standing by the door with a look of longing in her eyes. I grabbed my mug and walked over to her, opening the door. She must have really wanted to go outside, because she dashed out and began to chew on some grass. Schwarz came out after her and found a spot in the sun.
Everything was perfect about that moment. The cats were enjoying Nature, the air was crisp and clean and the sun was at the perfect angle to make the morning dew sparkly. Today is the perfect denouement for a Chicago summer.
That's all for today- no data to take away from the moment. However, the blog is incomplete without the tagline, so until next time, ...
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wednesday night at the gym
Tuesday night I got called in to work fairly late, starting at 2100 and finishing up Wednesday morning at 0545- I wasn't kidding about working odd hours. As Jennifer and I had planned on a few errands in the morning, I decided to stay up until stay up until she got up. As I had gone in late, she seemed only slightly surprised to see me sitting at the computer when she emerged from the bedroom. I explained my thinking, and she agreed. She had a quick cup of coffee, and we took care of our errands. We got back, and I hopped in bed, emerging sometime around 1830.
I made a cup of tea and grabbed a yogurt out of the refrigerator, which has become my standard preworkout feeding routine. I think that after honey, strawberry is my favorite yogurt. As I mixed the strawberry into the Greek yogurt, though, I found that the yogurt had become frozen. As it is written on the internet, this gave me a sad. Undaunted, I mixed the strawberry into the yogurt as well as I could, but there was a stubborn block of yogurt ice that resisted all attempts at assimilation. Undaunted, but by now a bit hungrier, I grabbed a smallish saucepan and filled it about halfway with water. Next, I put the yogurt into a bowl, and place that in the saucepan which was now basking on the stove over a low fire. Then, I stirred.
I'm going to say one final thing about yogurt, and then it's off to the gym. Friends, if you're an amateur, leave the yogurt freezing to the yogurt freezing professionals. I did end up with yogurt, and it was pretty good, but instead of that smooth, pudding-like consistency I had expected, I ended up with a dairy product that bore a certain similarity to cottage cheese. Here in the United States, cottage cheese generally is available as a large curd or a small curd product. The best way to describe my yogurt was nano curd: a great deal of liquid had been separated from the solids, and those solids can best be described as curds: not unpleasant. Just unexpected and odd.
Jennifer told me that she had already gotten her workout for the day done (we have an elliptical and some free weights in the basement). It was around 2000 by the time I was ready to hit the gym- I asked if she'd like to come as it was my cardio (track) day. She said, "sure", and so we got our gym duds, grabbed our bags and drove off into the night to the gym. We arrived, got our towels from the attendant, and went off to our separate-but-equal locker facilities and changed into workout shoes.
The park district's rec center has a very nice outdoor track with .5 and .75 mile courses, and the longer one loops around a pond. I like to use this track on Sundays and on evenings when I don't work in the summer. However, its officially autumn here, and the sun is down fairly early so Sundays are the only times I have to use it now. For all of those other times, there is the indoor track.
The indoor track is very nice- it has a joint friendly rubber-like surface with three lanes, one each dedicated to walkers, joggers and runners. Its like a balcony above the two basketball courts, with netting which allows for safely viewing the courts without falling on to them or getting struck by errant basketballs. The thing that is peculiar about the track is the length: 1/11 of a mile. There was a basketball game going on this evening when we were there, and some of the fellas had some pretty good shots, which made the walk a bit more interesting. When I finally finished, Jennifer informed me that I had taken an extra lap, so I ended up with twenty-three... I've got to figure how the lap function on my watch works!
Its been some time, but I finally have some database news. While thinking about this blog, I had some time to work on the database today. I started populating a table that's been sitting empty for some time, and in the midst of data entry I had an idea which sounded good at the time. I quickly created another table, put some data in it and saved it. Next, I went back to the other table and created a lookup and saved it, then went back to data entry. After only a few entries, it hit me that the lookup was not only unnecessary, it was also potentially creating a small mess. I should have tested it before creating it, especially as Access forces the DBA to save whenever changes to a table's design are made. I deleted the relationship and the lookup, and all is good again. One more table and a little more data.
That's all for now. As Always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I made a cup of tea and grabbed a yogurt out of the refrigerator, which has become my standard preworkout feeding routine. I think that after honey, strawberry is my favorite yogurt. As I mixed the strawberry into the Greek yogurt, though, I found that the yogurt had become frozen. As it is written on the internet, this gave me a sad. Undaunted, I mixed the strawberry into the yogurt as well as I could, but there was a stubborn block of yogurt ice that resisted all attempts at assimilation. Undaunted, but by now a bit hungrier, I grabbed a smallish saucepan and filled it about halfway with water. Next, I put the yogurt into a bowl, and place that in the saucepan which was now basking on the stove over a low fire. Then, I stirred.
I'm going to say one final thing about yogurt, and then it's off to the gym. Friends, if you're an amateur, leave the yogurt freezing to the yogurt freezing professionals. I did end up with yogurt, and it was pretty good, but instead of that smooth, pudding-like consistency I had expected, I ended up with a dairy product that bore a certain similarity to cottage cheese. Here in the United States, cottage cheese generally is available as a large curd or a small curd product. The best way to describe my yogurt was nano curd: a great deal of liquid had been separated from the solids, and those solids can best be described as curds: not unpleasant. Just unexpected and odd.
Jennifer told me that she had already gotten her workout for the day done (we have an elliptical and some free weights in the basement). It was around 2000 by the time I was ready to hit the gym- I asked if she'd like to come as it was my cardio (track) day. She said, "sure", and so we got our gym duds, grabbed our bags and drove off into the night to the gym. We arrived, got our towels from the attendant, and went off to our separate-but-equal locker facilities and changed into workout shoes.
The park district's rec center has a very nice outdoor track with .5 and .75 mile courses, and the longer one loops around a pond. I like to use this track on Sundays and on evenings when I don't work in the summer. However, its officially autumn here, and the sun is down fairly early so Sundays are the only times I have to use it now. For all of those other times, there is the indoor track.
The indoor track is very nice- it has a joint friendly rubber-like surface with three lanes, one each dedicated to walkers, joggers and runners. Its like a balcony above the two basketball courts, with netting which allows for safely viewing the courts without falling on to them or getting struck by errant basketballs. The thing that is peculiar about the track is the length: 1/11 of a mile. There was a basketball game going on this evening when we were there, and some of the fellas had some pretty good shots, which made the walk a bit more interesting. When I finally finished, Jennifer informed me that I had taken an extra lap, so I ended up with twenty-three... I've got to figure how the lap function on my watch works!
Its been some time, but I finally have some database news. While thinking about this blog, I had some time to work on the database today. I started populating a table that's been sitting empty for some time, and in the midst of data entry I had an idea which sounded good at the time. I quickly created another table, put some data in it and saved it. Next, I went back to the other table and created a lookup and saved it, then went back to data entry. After only a few entries, it hit me that the lookup was not only unnecessary, it was also potentially creating a small mess. I should have tested it before creating it, especially as Access forces the DBA to save whenever changes to a table's design are made. I deleted the relationship and the lookup, and all is good again. One more table and a little more data.
That's all for now. As Always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Never ask a geek a question that you really don't want answered....
For those readers who may be geeks, you've probably either seen this before, or actually done it yourself. For those of you who are not geeks, this may apply to your particular realm of expertise as well, and you may find yourself nodding in agreement. For those who are the posers of the questions, you have our collective pity, because geeks are hard-wired this way. Well, some of us are, anyway.
Jennifer was checking her Twitter feed the other day and saw something unfamiliar, so she asked me about it. What is PHP? I replied that it was a programming language; a better answer might have been "it's a scripting language," but that would have been more appropriate for Mr. T rather than my wife. I also told her that there was a book about it in the bookshelf next to the dining room table and gave her the approximate title. Then, just to make sure I had given her the correct information, I found the link on Amazon and sent it to her. I waited patiently- it had to be at least two minutes, and then I texted her, "What, no PHP love?"
Predictably, I did not receive a response.
A long time ago, I had a boss who once said of me, "I once had another employee just like you: when I asked him what time it was, he told me how to make a wrist watch."
My particular genus of geek doesn't get a lot of love when it comes to things which we are able to expound upon. However, I am not unique in my immediate family in this regard. Most all of us will regale the unsuspecting poser of an innocent question with facts, details and minutiae on our particular areas of expertise or interest at the drop of a hat. Jennifer, for example, knows a lot about a lot of things. With her geology background, she'll be more than happy to explain why (as I understand it, anyways) there's no such thing as sand. Nope- just sand-sized particles... and don't even get her started on "jungle." Daniel can wax long and eloquently on cinema, manga, and console video games, as well as Eighties and Nineties pop culture. Mr. T keeps abreast of the business side of gaming companies, and can hold his own in a video game discussion with Daniel. He's also involved with computer graphics cards and game graphics.
Me? Trivia in general- military and music in particular (anything before the 90's- you know, the good stuff), as well as all sorts of PC and software related stuff.
You've been warned.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
*And in my spare time, this weekend I'm web host shopping.
Jennifer was checking her Twitter feed the other day and saw something unfamiliar, so she asked me about it. What is PHP? I replied that it was a programming language; a better answer might have been "it's a scripting language," but that would have been more appropriate for Mr. T rather than my wife. I also told her that there was a book about it in the bookshelf next to the dining room table and gave her the approximate title. Then, just to make sure I had given her the correct information, I found the link on Amazon and sent it to her. I waited patiently- it had to be at least two minutes, and then I texted her, "What, no PHP love?"
Predictably, I did not receive a response.
A long time ago, I had a boss who once said of me, "I once had another employee just like you: when I asked him what time it was, he told me how to make a wrist watch."
My particular genus of geek doesn't get a lot of love when it comes to things which we are able to expound upon. However, I am not unique in my immediate family in this regard. Most all of us will regale the unsuspecting poser of an innocent question with facts, details and minutiae on our particular areas of expertise or interest at the drop of a hat. Jennifer, for example, knows a lot about a lot of things. With her geology background, she'll be more than happy to explain why (as I understand it, anyways) there's no such thing as sand. Nope- just sand-sized particles... and don't even get her started on "jungle." Daniel can wax long and eloquently on cinema, manga, and console video games, as well as Eighties and Nineties pop culture. Mr. T keeps abreast of the business side of gaming companies, and can hold his own in a video game discussion with Daniel. He's also involved with computer graphics cards and game graphics.
Me? Trivia in general- military and music in particular (anything before the 90's- you know, the good stuff), as well as all sorts of PC and software related stuff.
You've been warned.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
*And in my spare time, this weekend I'm web host shopping.
Monday, September 16, 2013
#notsobigdata- an update, a new spreadsheet, and gym rats!
Sometimes I feel like a nanobot in the data universe. A pretty diligent, hard-working nanobot, to be sure. But in terms of the data I typically handle, still very much a nanobot... and in the For What It's Worth Department, nano == 10-9.
I didn't get many cards for my birthday this year: actually, I only got one, and it was from an insurance agent in Utah. I live in Illinois; I guess I won't get any when their #notsobigdata specialists clean up his mail list. In the bigger scheme of things, I guess the ~seventy-five cents this agent probably spent on this card isn't any big deal. However, when one considers the cost of bad data (and in this instance, my name is bad data) on a larger scale, its easily into the millions of dollars when one considers how many (postal) mail lists exist. In my current role, I have the opportunity to look at all sorts of mailing list data. Just last Saturday I was doing a quality check on a segment of a job, and I ran across some bad data. In this particular instance, the program looked for the addressee's (member's) first name (fname) and last name (lname). This particular customer has a couple of places where the lname is used and the fname is not. The customer wants verbiage like "To the lname home", in some places and "To the head of the lname family" in others. Its really a nice, personalized rewards mailpiece, but it breaks down when the data are incorrect. As in, when the member puts their lname in the fname field, and vice versa.
Lets face it, you and I fill out lots of forms. For our favorite stores, there may be some sort of loyalty or rewards program: we agree to give the store certain information, and in return, they pass along some savings. Jennifer and I (and Daniel) are members of a number of these, and for the most part, the paltry amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that we surrender is a fairly small price to pay in return for the savings on merchandise that we realize. There are other programs that we participate in, though, where we have some options as to our input, and in these we further limit our exposure. Yes, we reap some benefits of the programs, but we do not share all of the data they request.
In other data news, Jennifer and I have been going to the gym recently, and now that we've been going for a few weeks, its time for a report.
It only took us about a week to recognize many of the "regulars" at our local Parks and Recreation Department Fitness Center (a.k.a. the gym). There is what I suppose is the usual assortment of 40- and 50-something folks wanting to get (back) into shape, some 20- and 30-something women.... mostly women who hit the cardio equipment hard, and then there are the runners, lifters and other sundry amateur athletes.
Among the lifters, I'm the only one who keeps a log book. At least, I've never seen anyone else there with a logbook. My logbook goes back about two years, and documents my previous intermittent attempts to become a more physically fit human specimen. Now that Jennifer and I are working together, the plan is finally starting to come together. My logbook has blood pressure, weight, and exercise activity. It is going to get transferred to a spreadsheet pretty soon- and that's the #notsobigdata. #notsobigdata really is important, especially if it pertains to you or to someone you love. Don't be a victim of big data. Use #notsobigdata to make a positive impact on your life!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
**I almost forgot: time to post links to some *ahem* golden oldies!
I didn't get many cards for my birthday this year: actually, I only got one, and it was from an insurance agent in Utah. I live in Illinois; I guess I won't get any when their #notsobigdata specialists clean up his mail list. In the bigger scheme of things, I guess the ~seventy-five cents this agent probably spent on this card isn't any big deal. However, when one considers the cost of bad data (and in this instance, my name is bad data) on a larger scale, its easily into the millions of dollars when one considers how many (postal) mail lists exist. In my current role, I have the opportunity to look at all sorts of mailing list data. Just last Saturday I was doing a quality check on a segment of a job, and I ran across some bad data. In this particular instance, the program looked for the addressee's (member's) first name (fname) and last name (lname). This particular customer has a couple of places where the lname is used and the fname is not. The customer wants verbiage like "To the lname home", in some places and "To the head of the lname family" in others. Its really a nice, personalized rewards mailpiece, but it breaks down when the data are incorrect. As in, when the member puts their lname in the fname field, and vice versa.
Lets face it, you and I fill out lots of forms. For our favorite stores, there may be some sort of loyalty or rewards program: we agree to give the store certain information, and in return, they pass along some savings. Jennifer and I (and Daniel) are members of a number of these, and for the most part, the paltry amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that we surrender is a fairly small price to pay in return for the savings on merchandise that we realize. There are other programs that we participate in, though, where we have some options as to our input, and in these we further limit our exposure. Yes, we reap some benefits of the programs, but we do not share all of the data they request.
In other data news, Jennifer and I have been going to the gym recently, and now that we've been going for a few weeks, its time for a report.
It only took us about a week to recognize many of the "regulars" at our local Parks and Recreation Department Fitness Center (a.k.a. the gym). There is what I suppose is the usual assortment of 40- and 50-something folks wanting to get (back) into shape, some 20- and 30-something women.... mostly women who hit the cardio equipment hard, and then there are the runners, lifters and other sundry amateur athletes.
Among the lifters, I'm the only one who keeps a log book. At least, I've never seen anyone else there with a logbook. My logbook goes back about two years, and documents my previous intermittent attempts to become a more physically fit human specimen. Now that Jennifer and I are working together, the plan is finally starting to come together. My logbook has blood pressure, weight, and exercise activity. It is going to get transferred to a spreadsheet pretty soon- and that's the #notsobigdata. #notsobigdata really is important, especially if it pertains to you or to someone you love. Don't be a victim of big data. Use #notsobigdata to make a positive impact on your life!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
**I almost forgot: time to post links to some *ahem* golden oldies!
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
#notsobigdata updates
Well, its getting down to the wire, so to speak. TechNet is gone, and I'm thinking its time to make the big leap to a website. Yes, I am aware there is no real connection between a website and TechNet, but in my little #notsobigdata corner of the world, a tenuous link can be postulated. The connection is this: as TechNet was considered to be an education expense, a website is the next best thing (I think you might actually have to know me to make the connection). And so, I will create a website (eventually).
I'm in no real hurry to create a website, partly because up until now I've had no reason to have a website. I mean, there are oodles of websites out in cyberspace with even less reason to exist than I can think of, but I'd like to think that my little corner of the web will have some sort of special significance. Yup, I'd really like to think that. Just like that special feeling you get when its jeans day, and everyone wears jeans. Still, there are a few things that outweigh the negatives, like experience and education. I've found- at least for me- that rolling up your sleeves and actually working on something is a worthwhile investment of time. So, when all of the factors are weighed, it seems that the website is on the way. I've started doing some research- pricing, features, domain names, but I think its going to be a bit before I take the plunge, as it appears that the domain name I wanted is taken (well, its registered as a .com domain but does not appear to be active; .net is currently available and I might go that route).
In other #notsobigdata news, I found an interesting piece on LinkedIn about Little Data. #notsobigdata is important, but it's not always so easy to define. One commenter on the LinkedIn piece had a really nice definition of Small Data- fairly short and to the point.
And unfortunately, that's all the news for now. If I don't publish this now, I don't know when I ever will!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I'm in no real hurry to create a website, partly because up until now I've had no reason to have a website. I mean, there are oodles of websites out in cyberspace with even less reason to exist than I can think of, but I'd like to think that my little corner of the web will have some sort of special significance. Yup, I'd really like to think that. Just like that special feeling you get when its jeans day, and everyone wears jeans. Still, there are a few things that outweigh the negatives, like experience and education. I've found- at least for me- that rolling up your sleeves and actually working on something is a worthwhile investment of time. So, when all of the factors are weighed, it seems that the website is on the way. I've started doing some research- pricing, features, domain names, but I think its going to be a bit before I take the plunge, as it appears that the domain name I wanted is taken (well, its registered as a .com domain but does not appear to be active; .net is currently available and I might go that route).
In other #notsobigdata news, I found an interesting piece on LinkedIn about Little Data. #notsobigdata is important, but it's not always so easy to define. One commenter on the LinkedIn piece had a really nice definition of Small Data- fairly short and to the point.
And unfortunately, that's all the news for now. If I don't publish this now, I don't know when I ever will!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
 |
| Normally not very photogenic, Schwarz appears to be posing here. |
Sunday, September 8, 2013
#notsobigdata-a birthday, an epiphany and a conundrum
My birthday was this past week, and as birthdays go it was not spectacular. That's fine with me, as I grew up without most of the pomp and circumstance that is normally associated with kids' birthdays here in the United States. Still, as birthdays go, it wasn't bad. Jennifer and I had planned on going to the fitness center (*it's officially the fitness center to distinguish it from the gym, which is the big hardwood-floored room where basketball and volleyball are played, but since "gym" is colloquially used to mean 'a place where you go to lift weights, do cardio and sweat', all references to "gym" will refer to the weight and cardio place). I got up early, and after a few phone calls and a chat with tree trimmers who showed up unexpectedly to do some utility easement cleaning for the electric company, we were off to the gym. In retrospect, I could have slept in. However, we did have a very good workout.
The epiphany was the night before. Part of Mr. T's education this year is going to be about investing. He reads the business section of the Chicago Tribune every day, so this is really a logical progression. I figured the best way to do this would be to make a fantasy stock portfolio and track its performance in terms of profits and losses. He has Excel 2007 on his PC, so I whipped up a spreadsheet that he could use as a sort of master ledger for the exercise. I've done these before, so it came together pretty quickly- I even color-coded the cells with formulas so he wouldn't break anything.
The whole "whipping up" process took about ten minutes, and it was nearly perfect and complete. Of course, nearly == almost, and in this case there was a little issue which I had never had to deal with before.
The rules of the exercise include a provision for the paying of commissions on the virtual purchase and sale of equities, so I have a column for commissions- for the purpose of the exercise, this is set to == 10 USD. I did not build the commission directly into a purchase formula because this spreadsheet can be repurposed to do real world investing, and the ability to change the commission price should be available to the user. So, the grand total for a transaction is the purchase price ((price * number of shares) + commission). The problem is that this column ("total") appears as part of another formula which shows total available funds. As there are initially twenty-five rows for transactions, the user automatically starts off with a 250 USD deficit in their available funds, as 0*0+10==10. So, I embarked upon a quest to find the function that would take care of this.
I knew what I wanted, and a simple IF/THEN script would have done the trick, but VBA in newer versions of Microsoft Office (2007 and on) have apparently also had the developer tools revamped, as the Expression Builder I had hope to see was nowhere to be found.
Bummer.
On to Plan B: the library. My personal collection, that is. I spent a few hours pouring through my books, and came close to a solution on several occasions, but as they say, "close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades". I found the definitive solution (and syntax) on an Excel site. (For those with inquiring minds, the function is IFSUMS.)
This made me happy. See, I have a smiley :)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
The epiphany was the night before. Part of Mr. T's education this year is going to be about investing. He reads the business section of the Chicago Tribune every day, so this is really a logical progression. I figured the best way to do this would be to make a fantasy stock portfolio and track its performance in terms of profits and losses. He has Excel 2007 on his PC, so I whipped up a spreadsheet that he could use as a sort of master ledger for the exercise. I've done these before, so it came together pretty quickly- I even color-coded the cells with formulas so he wouldn't break anything.
The whole "whipping up" process took about ten minutes, and it was nearly perfect and complete. Of course, nearly == almost, and in this case there was a little issue which I had never had to deal with before.
The rules of the exercise include a provision for the paying of commissions on the virtual purchase and sale of equities, so I have a column for commissions- for the purpose of the exercise, this is set to == 10 USD. I did not build the commission directly into a purchase formula because this spreadsheet can be repurposed to do real world investing, and the ability to change the commission price should be available to the user. So, the grand total for a transaction is the purchase price ((price * number of shares) + commission). The problem is that this column ("total") appears as part of another formula which shows total available funds. As there are initially twenty-five rows for transactions, the user automatically starts off with a 250 USD deficit in their available funds, as 0*0+10==10. So, I embarked upon a quest to find the function that would take care of this.
I knew what I wanted, and a simple IF/THEN script would have done the trick, but VBA in newer versions of Microsoft Office (2007 and on) have apparently also had the developer tools revamped, as the Expression Builder I had hope to see was nowhere to be found.
Bummer.
On to Plan B: the library. My personal collection, that is. I spent a few hours pouring through my books, and came close to a solution on several occasions, but as they say, "close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades". I found the definitive solution (and syntax) on an Excel site. (For those with inquiring minds, the function is IFSUMS.)
This made me happy. See, I have a smiley :)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Meanwhile, at the railroad crossing...
Late Friday afternoon (August 30), a magnificent storm blew through our area. It was a wonderfully violent display of Nature, with gusting winds, chain lightning, driving rain and an unrealized threat of damaging hail. There was no real damage in its aftermath that I saw- however, according to the Chicago Tribune, over 150,000 homes lost power briefly, but as of ~2200 CST (Central Standard Time, or GMT -6), about two-thirds of these had power restored.
We knew the storm was coming- the National Weather Service (NWS) had issued some warnings at least a day in advance, so when it hit it wasn't really a surprise to the denizens of the Secret Underground Lair. I had worked late Thursday- well into the wee hours of Friday- and had consequently risen late on Friday. Jennifer and I were able to get all of our necessary running around done long before the storm hit, and I decided a nap was in order. I got about seventy-five minutes of snooze before the storm arrived, and I was able to get some really nice photos. I did a little experimentation with flash, and was quite pleased with the results.
The storm was quite amazing- and I had to get to work. I took my time getting ready, which initially annoyed Jennifer until I reminded her that it was the Friday night of a holiday weekend (Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday here in the United States). I expected traffic to be exceedingly bad because of the holiday and the storm. As it turned out, by the time I left (~1900 CST), the pavement was actually drying off, and the traffic was as good as could be expected. As the light turned green at the intersection I was at, I saw that the railroad crossing gates ahead were coming down. I pulled up to the crossing and waited.
Although I have never counted them, I've read that there are twenty-eight railroad crossings in our town. In fact, I can barely drive a mile in most directions from our house without having to cross tracks. The thing is, I like trains. I really like trains. When I was younger, I wanted to build a model railroad. When the kids were old enough to appreciate it, I ran an N scale train around the Christmas tree, and one year ran a Lego train under the tree. One year, we drove up to Union, Illinois, to visit the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the United States. When we got cats, we stopped putting a tree up, but I still love trains. Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is still one of my favorite PC games, and the online game I play most often is Train Station.
So, yeah, I like trains. When I'm trying to get somewhere, though... well, I tolerate them (and now we- actually I- am back on... track). This particular train was pulled by a single diesel electric locomotive, and moving fairly quickly. It was comprised entirely of container cars. However, the setting is everything....
As I was sitting there in my pickup truck, watching the railcars pass, I decided to try and find a song on the radio. It only took one or two presses of the "search" softkey on the radio to find a station that was playing Poison's classic "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Now, I'm happily married- Jennifer and I have been married for over twenty-five years, and even though this song is a boyfriend-girlfriend cheating song, it is still one of those classic 80's hair band ballads that puts me in a contemplative mood every time I hear it. Not because the song holds any special significance to me, but because it just takes me back. Sometimes nostalgia is just best taken at face value. Adding to the time travel nostalgia was the actual atmosphere: to the north, the sky was clear and blue, with a very distinct line of clouds that defined the storm front. To the south, the sky was pouty and petulant, serving up shades of grey with chain lightning for punctuation. Of course, I was eventually going to head south.
Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. I suppose if it had been a passenger train, the Poison song would not have had quite the effect as, say, Steve Goodman's City Of New Orleans. Steve wrote it, but I think Arlo Guthrie (yes, Woody's son) had the larger commercial success with the song. And the reason this would have been more powerful for me, is because I used to perform it at a college coffeehouse in the Seventies once a month as part of a 3-5 song set. I did it a bit more like Steve than Arlo, and it was always warmly received. I guess everyone has their song, and every rose does have its thorn.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
We knew the storm was coming- the National Weather Service (NWS) had issued some warnings at least a day in advance, so when it hit it wasn't really a surprise to the denizens of the Secret Underground Lair. I had worked late Thursday- well into the wee hours of Friday- and had consequently risen late on Friday. Jennifer and I were able to get all of our necessary running around done long before the storm hit, and I decided a nap was in order. I got about seventy-five minutes of snooze before the storm arrived, and I was able to get some really nice photos. I did a little experimentation with flash, and was quite pleased with the results.
 |
| Storm in background |
The storm was quite amazing- and I had to get to work. I took my time getting ready, which initially annoyed Jennifer until I reminded her that it was the Friday night of a holiday weekend (Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday here in the United States). I expected traffic to be exceedingly bad because of the holiday and the storm. As it turned out, by the time I left (~1900 CST), the pavement was actually drying off, and the traffic was as good as could be expected. As the light turned green at the intersection I was at, I saw that the railroad crossing gates ahead were coming down. I pulled up to the crossing and waited.
Although I have never counted them, I've read that there are twenty-eight railroad crossings in our town. In fact, I can barely drive a mile in most directions from our house without having to cross tracks. The thing is, I like trains. I really like trains. When I was younger, I wanted to build a model railroad. When the kids were old enough to appreciate it, I ran an N scale train around the Christmas tree, and one year ran a Lego train under the tree. One year, we drove up to Union, Illinois, to visit the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the United States. When we got cats, we stopped putting a tree up, but I still love trains. Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is still one of my favorite PC games, and the online game I play most often is Train Station.
So, yeah, I like trains. When I'm trying to get somewhere, though... well, I tolerate them (and now we- actually I- am back on... track). This particular train was pulled by a single diesel electric locomotive, and moving fairly quickly. It was comprised entirely of container cars. However, the setting is everything....
As I was sitting there in my pickup truck, watching the railcars pass, I decided to try and find a song on the radio. It only took one or two presses of the "search" softkey on the radio to find a station that was playing Poison's classic "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Now, I'm happily married- Jennifer and I have been married for over twenty-five years, and even though this song is a boyfriend-girlfriend cheating song, it is still one of those classic 80's hair band ballads that puts me in a contemplative mood every time I hear it. Not because the song holds any special significance to me, but because it just takes me back. Sometimes nostalgia is just best taken at face value. Adding to the time travel nostalgia was the actual atmosphere: to the north, the sky was clear and blue, with a very distinct line of clouds that defined the storm front. To the south, the sky was pouty and petulant, serving up shades of grey with chain lightning for punctuation. Of course, I was eventually going to head south.
Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. I suppose if it had been a passenger train, the Poison song would not have had quite the effect as, say, Steve Goodman's City Of New Orleans. Steve wrote it, but I think Arlo Guthrie (yes, Woody's son) had the larger commercial success with the song. And the reason this would have been more powerful for me, is because I used to perform it at a college coffeehouse in the Seventies once a month as part of a 3-5 song set. I did it a bit more like Steve than Arlo, and it was always warmly received. I guess everyone has their song, and every rose does have its thorn.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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