Labor Day Weekend

SooAnn and I spent Labor Day weekend visiting my friends Aaron and Joy in Sterling, IL. They were some of my best friends in Connecticut, and after a year of living so far away they missed me so much that they decided to move closer :) Or maybe they just missed the Midwest and wanted to be closer to family... Whatever the reason, it's great to have them closer and I look forward to having them visit Lafayette sometime and introduce them to some of you.

One of the highlights of the visit was a trip to the Reagan boyhood home in Dixon, IL (from 1920-1923). Actually he lived in 5 different homes in Dixon, but this is the one that has been preserved. It is a pretty normal home... nothing fancy. In fact, he shared a small room with his brother.

I think that I especially enjoyed visiting the home because President Reagan is the first president I remember and he was president during my growing up years. I find it interesting that he was the 4th president during my lifetime, and I was only a few weeks shy of 7 when he took office. One of my earliest national event memories was of the assassination attempt on March 30, 1981.

A question for my readers... What is your earliest nation event memory? I'm almost afraid to ask because it might make me feel old.

Great Horned Owl

You never know what you might see when you work outdoors in nature, and yesterday was a great example of why I have my camera along almost all the time! My coworker Scott and I were driving back the lane to the hog lagoon we are monitoring when a big bird flew out of the corn along the lane. I had no idea what it was... it didn't fly like any of the more common large birds. When we got back to the lagoon, it was standing guard over one of our instruments. It was a good distance away, and I didn't realize what it was until I zoomed in and took some photos. The owl apparently roosts on our 60 foot tower to hunt and has been around for a while, since a few weeks ago Scott had found an owl pellet (which he thought was a very large animal dropping until today) near the top of the tower. If you don't know what an owl pellet is check out this link: http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/index.htm

Tippecanoe County Fair

SooAnn and I went to the fair Saturday evening, but things were not really in full swing yet. Anybody interested in joining me there some evening this week to check it out?

July

It's been nearly 2 months since my last post, so I decided it was time for a quick update. We've had some big deadlines at work and equipment that has been uncooperative at times, so my weeks have been very busy. I've kept busy on the weekends spending time with SooAnn, career class friends, and my family.

Speaking of my family, I'm excited that we'll be heading to Ohio on Thursday to visit my parents for an extended weekend. I'm hoping to pick some wild black raspberries next to some of my dad's fields, but they've had an extremely dry summer so the raspberry supply has been low. Black raspberries are one of my favorites, especially fresh ones over vanilla ice cream.

This upcoming weekend is also the 1-year anniversary of my first visit to Lafayette. I stayed with my sister in Indianapolis and she rode up with me to check out the area and find a place to live. God has been so faithful over this past year! Thanks to all of you for your friendship!

Here's a picture of a budding meteorologist (my nephew) looking even more excited about anemometers than I am (it that's possible).

It's official....

we're dating!!

Happy Hollow Tree Photos

By popular demand (from Dana), here are a couple of photos from the Happy Hollow hike of March 31. Kind of reminds me of Treebeard from Lord of the Rings.

Stowaway and a couple of stickerings that might have been

These photos were taken on a walk in Armstrong Park (and surrounding neighborhood) last Sunday. The first photo shows a stowaway we came across (does anybody recognize him?) and the others show simulated stickerings that, although they didn't actually happen, would have been classic.

Final Four Party

Date: Saturday, March 31
Place: My place.
Time: Anytime after 5:30 PM. Games start at 6:07 PM (Ohio State vs. Georgetown is first).
Event: Cheer Ohio State on to victory!
What to Wear: Ohio State clothing. If you don't own any, wearing red would be fine. I also have a couple of extra OSU sweatshirts that will be available to be worn.
What to Bring: Snack or drink of some kind. Pizza will be ordered.

This will be a "no-sticker zone" as we will be saying a prayer before eating and having a short devotional on all occurrences of the word basketball in the Bible.

Let me know if you'll be there! Hopefully some of your are still blogging, since the number of comments has dropped significantly on most blogs I read lately.

OKTXKS

I am blogging this evening from my hotel room in Amarillo, Texas, while watching the Ohio State against Tennessee NCAA game. It is now halftime with the Buckeyes behind 49-32.

I've spent this week here in the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and extreme southern Kansas. We had a successful week preparing 3 of our measurement sites: 1 at a dairy farm and 2 at hog farms. We were blessed with dry weather until just after we finished up the 3rd site around noon today. Then it really poured later this afternoon.

Here are a few photos I've taken this week. The game is getting closer now! It was tied a little while ago. Be sure to check out the Spring Peeper blog... it's been updated. Update at 12:30 AM EDT (11:30 PM CDT)!!! WOW!!! BUCKEYES WIN!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!

Turkey Run State Park

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and also Eric's birthday, so to celebrate a group of 8 of us went for a hike at Turkey Run State Park. This also helped Eric get started on his New Year's resolution to "hike all the trails at Turkey Run." A good time was had by all, and, although it was a bit chilly while eating the picnic lunch, it was a beautiful day for a hike. Those of you who might have been scared off by the cold missed a great time! I'm sure there will be more opportunities to hike as a group this spring and summer... but by then it will probably be hot and humid with lots of bugs. A big thanks to Abby and anyone else who was involved in putting this event together and provided food! My next post will probably be from the panhandle of Oklahoma, where I am headed bright and early tomorrow morning.

Spring Peepers

Without looking it up, do you know what a Spring Peeper is? A funny story and multimedia presentation related to this question will be posted at the conclusion of this informal survey.

UPDATE: Given the overwhelming response to the survey, I'm assuming that most of you already know what Spring Peepers are and are insulted that I would even imply that you don't by asking this question. For those of you that don't already know, here's a link to a Wikipedia entry about Spring Peepers. They are small frogs that make a lot of high pitched noise in the spring. I heard them a lot when I lived back east (PA, MD, and CT) but haven't yet heard them in Indiana. I was hiking with my "sisters" a couple of weekends ago and was commenting that I missed hearing the peepers and wondered if we would hear any on the hike. They had never heard of them and questioned whether they were related to the snipe. So it's kind of an inside joke. By the way, there really is such a thing as the snipe as well.... Although I have never seen one in person, even though I have taken friends on snipe hunts before (some of them very successful, if you know what I mean).

What a difference a month makes....

It's hard to believe, but one month ago today the blizzard of 2007 was in full swing. All of the parking spaces in my apartment complex are available for the first time since then as the last piles of snow have nearly succumbed to the record-breaking warmth of today. I love all the seasons, but right now I love spring the best! I enjoy hearing the birds singing in the morning when I wake up and watching things slowly come back to life.

Sunday morning I walked outside around 6:45 and saw a beautiful alignment of the moon, Jupiter, and Antares (a bright star visible in the evening during the summer). I was feeling a little stressed at the moment because my cell-phone (and hence alarm) failed to automatically make the time change, but when I saw the beauty of God's creation my stress level dropped 100%. I didn't even know the alignment was happening before I went out, which made it all the more exciting to me. I enjoy watching the constellations change with the seasons and it's almost like greeting old friends when I see constellations I haven't seen for a few months.

If it wasn't for good old Daylight Savings Time I would have slept right through this celestial alignment. So, you see, DST is a good thing. I have not found many who share this opinion in this state. What do you all think about DST?

Photo on TV

This morning, I submitted a photo I took of yesterday's freezing fog to WLFI-TV. I just heard back that they will probably be showing it on WLFI news (probably during the weather, but I'm not sure). He didn't specify when, but I will be watching this evening and wanted to let the blog-world know! I will post the photo later....

UPDATE: The photo aired at around 5:15. Thanks to Eric for taping it for me! Here's the photo, plus a couple of photos of my TV with the photo.

Blizzard of 2007 (Part 2)

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Top Snowstorm Memories

Wow! I went for a walk around my apartment complex a little while ago to check out the conditions and experience the storm once again before the snow stopped. I was amazed at how much deeper the snow and snowdrifts were than they were around 2 PM when I took the photos on a previous post. I will be out in the morning to get some more photos. While walking, I contemplated where this storm ranks with other snow storms I have witnessed. Here's the list I came up with:

1) Great Blizzard of 1978 (26 January 1978). This storm is in a class by itself. Unfortunately, I was just shy of 4 at the time and so have very limited memory of it. However, one of my earliest memories was sledding down a huge drift (10-15 feet deep) created by this storm in the barnyard. I sometimes find myself wishing for another storm like this one, but the conditions that came together to produce this storm are extremely rare.

2) President's Day Storm II (15 to 18 February 2003). About 22" at my apartment in Greenbelt, MD (Washington DC suburb).

3) Blizzard of 1996 (6 to 8 January 1996). I awoke on the morning of Sunday, January 7 to find that the impact expected from this storm in NW Ohio had been drastically underestimated. The first day of classes for the quarter at Cedarville, scheduled for the next day, was cancelled because it was virtually impossible to return to campus. This was the second snowstorm of about a foot during a very, very memorable Christmas break. Blizzard warnings were issued for both storms.

4) Blizzard of 2007 (TODAY!)

5) Snowstorm of 24 February 1990. Only about 4" fell in this storm, but strong winds made it memorable. I was in Lima for high school music competition on this day, and we were not allowed to return home and ended up spending the night in a hotel there.

Blizzard of 2007

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Career Class Cleans Community Center

A large group from the career ABF showed up at 8 this morning to help sweep the Community Center. A good (and dusty) time was had by all and it was great to be able to serve in this way. We then went for a delicious brunch at the Cracker Barrel.

Ben-Hur (Part 1)

A couple of Sundays ago I had some time in the church library after my membership interview. In my search for a good book to read, I came across "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" by Lew Wallace. When I saw the title, I chose it right away for several reasons:
1) Lew Wallace was a Hoosier, born in Brookville (near Cincinnati, OH) and spending much of his life in Indianapolis and Crawfordsville. The book was the best-selling novel of the 19th century.
2) The book is a favorite of the pastor of the church I attended in Connecticut. He's even written a sequel.
3) I saw the movie (1959 starring Charlton Heston) a couple of years ago and really liked it.

I've passed the 100 page mark (out of 500) and the book has not disappointed. It is not a quick reading book, as the author writes in a very descriptive style that requires a lot of thought. I can understand why my previous pastor likes it so much. Here is a segment taken from when the wise men arrive to see Jesus:

The apartment was lighted by a lantern enough to enable the strangers to find the mother, and the child awake in her lap.

"Is the child thine?" asked Balthasar of Mary.

And she who had kept all the things in the least affecting the little one, and pondered them in her heart, held it up in the light, saying, "He is my son!"

And they fell down and worshipped him.

They saw the child was as other children: about its head was neither nimbus nor material crown; its lips opened not in speech; if it heard their expressions of joy, their invocations, their prayers, it made no sign whatever, but, baby-like, looked longer at the flame in the lantern than at them.

In a little while they arose, and, returning to the camels, brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and laid them before the child, abating nothing of their worshipful speeches; of which no part is given, for the thoughtful know that the pure worship of the pure heart was then what it is now, and has always been, an inspired song.

And this was the Saviour they had come so far to find!

Yet they worshipped without a doubt.

Purdue Basketball Party

Date: Saturday, Feb. 10
Time: Noon
Location: Matt and Eric's place
Event: Purdue Basketball Game on TV (check the schedule to see who the opponent is.... I'll give you one guess)

Let me know if you can make it.

Random Photos

Here are a couple of photos.... One sent to me by a friend. The other posted in response to GKnees comment about wishing she could have seem Seema in the snow.