Minor progress, a new door, and a warm trip

I'm  not sure why I have written a blog post in a while, plenty has happened since my last post, but perhaps none of it's "blogworthy", not like that has ever stopped me in the past. On the home front, slow progress has been made in the downstairs bathroom. The walls have been painted twice, as has the ceiling. We still need to pick out a mirror to replace the old medicine cabinet, and I need to paint the trim. I've decided that I'm going to redo the molding around the floor, and repair the old tile the best I can. We discussed replacing the floor tiles, but that would probably have to be extended into the kitchen so that will have to wait. For some reason, the door no longer shuts, which is an unfortunate problem for a bathroom, so I'll have to look into that

This is what a broken thermostat looks like. Felt the need to
insert a picture of it for some reason. 

The thermostat suddenly lost it's mind sometime over the summer, and as the colder weather moved in, we had a problem with the heat coming on randomly.  I learned two things during it's replacement. First, doing so is incredibly easy. Do not hesitate to do so if the need arises, just carefully follow the advice about tieing off the wires so they don't fall down into the wall. Second, the complexity and corresponding price of thermostats, is amazing. You can pay $30 or $300 for something that essentially does the same thing. I chose near the bottom, getting a basic electronic version that has a timer and can adjust the heat for the time of day, and day of the week. After thinking about it, I couldn't think of a good reason why I would want to adjust the heat using my phone, Alexa, or while a thousand my away., although some of those fancy ones look really cool.

The new door. The old one is loaded in their truck for a trip
to the dump. 

The garage door was installed. It looks terrific and almost immediately one of our neighbors complimented it. It made me realize that the neighbors were probably sick of looking into our garage, even through I had gotten used to it. A side benefit which I had not thought about, it that I no longer have to lock up everything of value in the garage. Also, it's really nice to see how clean the garage stays when the door is shut. No longer do we have leaves blowing in, and a thin layer of dust accumulating on everything. One thing of interest is that they no longer install an outside keypad, unless you pay for and order it. The control pad inside the garage hooks up to your wifi and they have an app for your phone (of course), that controls your door. One remote is standard, as most cars have garage door openers as regular equipment. I easily programmed the Toyota,  but the Dodge is giving me fits.

Bread.

We finished our fall baking. Each year we make 8 large loaves of bread and around 15 tins of cinnamon buns to be given away to our closest friends and families. After about 30 years of doing this it has gotten almost routine, which encourages errors of course but this batch looks quite good. We did a much better job controlling the heat this year with our new oven, and avoided placing the bread on the bottom rack, where they had a tenancy to burn They are all in the freezer and will be distributed next month.

Cinnamon Buns

The first and last time
 I wore this tie.

We had a beautiful but brief trip to southern Florida in the middle of October to attend a wedding. It was nice to escape the wet and dreary fall we have been having here in NY. We had a late flight into Fort Lauderdale, arriving at around 11 PM.  After baggage and getting the rental car, followed by a 50 minute drive to the hotel in Palm Beach, we finally got to bed around 130 AM, late for us old folks. The wedding was on the beach Saturday and weather was perfect. Certainly it was warm, but a nice breeze off the water kept the sweating to a minimum despite the buttoned up shirt and tie. No sport coat, thank God. The tie was linen, with a floral design, and was very admired by one of the local fireman that had arrived to honor the couple with a local fire rig. He asked for it, and I happily gave it to him. I wasn't being all that generous, it only cost me $8 bucks but both he and I have a great story. He said his wife would love it. Hope that works well for him.

I mentioned the lousy weather we've been having this fall. It's been wet and cool but not cold. This combined to delay the leaves falling from the trees, and they're only just now finishing up. This of course has delayed the annual leaf clean up and I hope to get them in before the snow falls. Unfortunately, it's looking like real cold air is arriving this week, and with it some snow, so I'd best get going on that.

Stalled projects, and Idaho again

It's been over a month since the last blog post and it's not like nothing has happened, it's really that so much has happened that I haven't had the time or inclination to write. Certainly my personal home improvement projects have completely stalled, no progress whatsoever has been made on the downstairs bathroom, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.

The mountains near Sandpoint Idaho. 

For starters, I was gone for over two weeks assisting at the Cougar Fire, a wildfire in the Idaho National Forest in the Idaho panhandle. My main function at wildfires is to provide specific weather information to the command and planning staff so they can make decisions regarding containing the fire and managing resources. It's two full weeks of 14 hour days and short nights in your tent. Very rewarding and challenging. Side benefits include working with tremendous people and getting to see parts of the country you would never otherwise visit. This fire was near Sandpoint Idaho, a beautiful small town on a gorgeous lake about a half hour north of Coeur d'Alene. Northern Idaho is truly beautiful and I hope to get back someday, as a tourist.

Chimney access door installed. 

On the home front, we had some major work done on our chimney again. The main issue is the flue for the fireplace. It goes straight up out of the firebox, then after about 10 feet it makes a right angle turn for a few feet, then straight up again to the top. This horizontal section is quite unusual, and makes it near impossible to properly clean. After two years of shrugs by the chimney cleaner, we had them install a door in the outside of the chimney so they could properly access and clean the flue. As far as I can tell, it's the first complete cleaning it has had in around a hundred years. As a fireman, I feel much more comfortable firing it up this fall.

They also fixed some of the cracks in the plaster that were caused by the improperly lined furnace flue. Next year, we will get a proper chimney cap and we will permanently repair the the outer surface. If all goes well that should be the last expense on the chimney. It is interesting to note that the chimney, flues, and related equipment has been the number one expense that we have had in our fixer upper. I think when you consider the risk if fire, and of carbon monoxide, your home's exhaust system is a proper place to hire professionals and spend a bit of money.

Here's a wintry view of our open garage. It has been open
since we moved in 3 years ago. This is about to change.  

Another big project has been started, again by professionals, is the replacement of the garage door. I really wanted to save the money and do the job myself, but nearly everyone I asked, and nearly everywhere I looked, suggested that installing a large, double garage door was just too tricky and dangerous by a weekend warrior. So, we bit the bullet and ordered a door and opener which will be installed later this week. I will be doing the wiring for the opener before they arrive, but the installation will be completed by the Gates Garage Door Company. It will be nice to keep the bats, skunks, cats and who knows what else out of our garage, not to mention winter snow. The added security will be nice too.

Hitting a moving target

A rather ugly yet plain bathroom. Note the
$5 light fixture/ 

We keep changing our mind on what we want to work on next so it's kind of hard to plan ahead. After discussion it has been decided that the half bath off the kitchen was next on the list, since I've done such a good job on the upstairs bath. (Ha Ha). I really don't understand the evolution of our tiny powder room. It was clearly not in the original plans of the house as it was added to the porch, but it seems like an early edition as it has some of the same old tile that is found in the main upstairs bathroom. It looks like an older style construction, but they punched a hole in the basement wall to get the plumbing through. In any case, the paint and tile are quite dated, with the lower half of the wall a metal "tile" that has actually rusted in spots. The first two rows of tile are ceramic, and I may retain them for sentimental or historic reasons, but that metal stuff below has to go. No decision has been made on what to replace it with, but I may dabble in ceramic tile. It should be a good place to practice at something I've never done before. The toilet and pedestal sink are newer, and in good shape so their fate is unknown. The toilet tank, at a minimum, will need to be removed to get to the tile, and if we decide to replace the sink, we will we to make that decision before I get to the tile work.

Old tile detail. along and above the thin black tile is
ceramic. Below is metal. It's amazing how well it matches.

A more pressing problem is the complete lack of insulation under the floor and in the walls causing the occasional frozen pipe. Next to and behind the bathroom is the old porch, which is unheated, and below is an unheated crawl space. I've insulated the pipe the best I can, and even added a heater to the crawl space in the winter. There is a small heater in the bathroom itself, but in the coldest weather, freezing pipes are still a problem. It really surprises me that they built it this way with no concern for frozen pipes. What I really need to do is force myself into the crawl space and insulate it. This may be a job for the fall, when all the bugs and spiders have gone away.

Use the regular paint for big jobs. Save the spray for small
ones, Trust me on this. 

Getting back to the upstairs bathroom, I mentioned last month how I needed to repaint the bathroom door as the old dark color was bleeding through. Well, I went ahead and bought the spray version of my favorite stain blocker made by Zinsser. This was a mistake. It does say on the label to use in a well ventilated place, and they mean it. Despite opening the window, the fumes were just too much, especially considering how big the door was, and how much paint I needed. I had a headache for two days. I was smart enough to do the second coat with the regular, brush applied version of the product, but frankly that stinks too. The good news is that the door came out great, after two coats of the stain blocker and a finishing coat of semi-gloss enamel.

On the lawn and garden front, I've had a sudden invasion of crab grass. Looking around the neighborhood, it looks like it has it everyone has crab grass to some degree, so I guess that makes me feel better. I have fertilized the lawn twice now this year, with little effect. Part of that may be due to the fact that I will not waste the time and money to water the grass, especially on the large side lot. As we get into August there's not much reason to do anything about it this year, but I'll do some crab grass research over the winter. In the meantime, I'll continue to call the collection of weeds and crab grass our "lawn".

Finally, a project completed, while others drag on.

The new lights, properly anchored. "Window treatments"
in the background

I can finally say with confidence that the upstairs hallway is now done. It joins the list now with 7 other rooms/hallways/stairs that are completely finished. Not bad, I guess, considering that Cindy and I both still work full time, and have done all the work ourselves. The final jobs in the hallway included installing the smoke detector, hanging "window treatments" and to finally replace the ugly lighting. Changing out the lighting was not quite as simple as you would think, since it took us quite some time to select the new fixtures, but more importantly, that once again I found incorrectly installed lighting boxes in the ceiling. This means that I had to properly anchor the boxes before installing the lights. We were able to purchase lower hanging, stylish lights since the ceilings are so nice and high, even on the second floor.  I put them on a dimmer so we can lower the lights and use them as a night light, and because the old fashioned filament bulbs look cool. We used an antique brass switch plate and ordered a solid brass dimmer knob to match the fixtures. Very nice.

The "window treatments" were just a curtain rod and curtains. These too took some time to pick since we wanted to match the light fixtures, and because short length antique brass curtain rods are not as common as you might think. The curtains continue our house tradition of the diamond pattern and are just lightweight shears.

First Alert P1010 smoke detector. Shown
larger than actual size

We got a button style smoke detector, only about 2 inches diameter and 2 inches deep, with a non-replaceable lithium battery which should last about 10 years. They are much smaller than, and work just as well as a traditional smoke detector. I eventually plan to add a smoke detector to our security system which will be a nice backup.

The "quick" bathroom spruce up has taken a couple of serious steps backwards. First, hanging wet towels next to the bathroom door is already having an effect. Despite several coats of high quality, semi gloss paint, it looks like the original darker door colors are now starting to bleed through. It now seems like I will need to use a stain blocker and repaint, and we needed to find a new place to hang our bath towels. So we decided to get new towel rods for the hand towels and bath towels. Hoo-boy. Something as seemingly innocuous as towel racks can definitely cause problems if you choose poorly, or do not think it through.  For starters, the bases of the fixtures we choose were square, not round. So what, right? Wrong. If you don't install the anchoring hardware perfectly level, the much larger square bases exaggerate even a minor error. Also, I installed the long towel rod in the dry wall directly above the top of the tile which runs along the bottom of the wall. I used my level to make sure it was true, which it is, but it didn't occur to me that it would look crooked when compared to the not so level top of the tile below. Damn. Finally, if you've installed any bathroom hardware lately, you may notice that it is "screw-less", meaning that the fixture snaps onto the wall anchor with no visible attachment. Perfect, if you've installed them exactly right and have no need to ever move them. Not so perfect for me, since I now have to muscle them off the wall. This will mean repairing the wall, and repainting before make another attempt. Oof.

We decorated the house again with flags for the 4th. We wanted to replace our large flag we hang off the porch. We've had the flag for many years and while it wasn't torn, it was quite faded. After looking locally for a quality embroidered nylon flag, we ended up ordering online and it arrived, just in time, on the 3rd. Our old flag will be disposed of properly thanks to our local American Legion.

"Torque" Johnson

Union-Endicott High School. It has looked like this for
around a hundred years. So yes, even when I was there. 

One thing that has always fascinated me is how, as children, we are influenced by the people around us. I do believe that a significant portion of what we are is nature, but perhaps a larger portion is nurture. In my last blog,  I wrote about how my grandfather was a big influence in my life. My parents and other relatives were huge influences as well, but then there are others that only nudge you in a direction, and like any other course correction, it may seem minor at the time, but end up being huge later in life. These nudges are often given by peripheral people in your life, like the next tier of relatives, friends, and of course teachers.

High school for me was, I think different, then it is for many. I had a close but small circle of friends that were from all the different cliques. That worked out well, being on the periphery of the groups, but not committed to any one. My teachers, like my friends, were varied in personality and I really liked almost of of them. One that stood out for me, and a couple of my friends, was Mr. Johnson, our physics teacher. He was a new teacher back then, not all that far removed from school himself, and he seemed to connect well with the kids. The thing that I liked about him, was his humor and easy going manner. He played a great practical joke on us one day in lab when he pointed a laser at the lab table from another room. We had never seen one before (this was 1977) , and suddenly this moving, glowing spot was on our table. It must have been priceless watching our speechless amazement and excitement. He later told us the results of other times he had pulled this prank on people, and all the other hilarious reactions. He made me feel special by including us in his circle of people he trusted enough to prank.

"Torque" Johnson and a blogger.

Another time in class he was teaching us about rotational force, or "torque". During the class he naturally said "torque" many times and that kind of stuck with us. My best friend, Mike Hidock, named  him Torque Johnson at the end of the class and he really seemed to enjoy that. Anyway, through his friendly and gentle guidance, I ended up with a final grade in the high 90's for that class, and I give full credit to Torque Johnson for that. He was so approachable, so easy going and so enjoyed the students around him he just made me feel like I wanted to be there. Never intimidating, always helpful in a class that could be quite difficult. I give him full credit for advancing my interest in science, and giving me a firm foundation for my career in meteorology, a field that is based in physics and math.

I found out that Torque Johnson is retiring this year, after at least 40 years of teaching and positively influencing high school students. It could not have been easy, especially in the later years with kids that are less easily impressed with lasers, or perhaps even physics, Still, he must have helped thousands of young minds over the years and he and Union-Endicott High School should be proud. I wish him the best, and a happy and relaxing retirement. He deserves it.

Grandfather was a carpenter

Sorry. The Crown molding again. I'm really happy
with how it came out. 

My paternal grandfather was a carpenter. Not any carpenter but a master carpenter, that built houses in the 1920s and 1930s in and around Red Bank, NJ. In fact, he built the house he lived in for over 70 years, and it was magnificent. I think about him now and then, especially lately as I work on our fixer upper, and I think he would be amused yet proud. He particularly would like the crown molding I've installed. He was a tender and quiet man that I would expect would give me gentle guidance and advice. I'd like to think I've inherited a bit of carpentry skill from him, and hope that skill manifests itself someday.

Grandfather Morford was a true gentleman. He treated those around him with kindness and respect, and took special care with women. He was quick to take the arm of his wife or pull out a chair for her, or any other woman in his vicinity. One of our fondest memories of him is from our wedding. Cindy had wanted a horse and carriage for our wedding, and as we left the church, one was waiting for her. When she went to climb into the buggy in her wedding dress, grandfather bolted from the crowd to help me help her in. He wisely didn't trust my knowledge of horses and carriages.

He came by his knowledge of horses honestly. He was from the time before automobiles were common. As a teenager, he drove a horse and wagon, picking up all the children to bring them to the one room school house. Also, when an alarm came in at the volunteer fire department, he would race to the station to rig up the horses for the fireman. He told me how the horses knew from hearing the bell that there was and alarm and would be waiting for him, ready to go. What a great story.

My first NWS job was in this historic building, the
Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia. 

Both grandmother and grandfather loved that I had also become a volunteer fireman and I think felt like grandfather had been an influence in that. I think they were right. They also loved that I became a meteorologist. They told me a story how one of my great uncles was somehow involved in weather and I must have gotten the "weather bug" from him. When I got my first job in the National Weather Service at LaGuardia Airport in 1986 they were very proud. I would occasionally take the 2 hour drive down from Queens to Red Bank to visit them.

For some reason, he was always "grandfather", never grandpa or pop. The formality certainly fit him as he was always well dressed, never in jeans or even a golf or tee shirt. Always slacks and a dress shirt, often a sweater or even sport coat. The shirt was always buttoned to the top, and fastened with a Bolo tie. To this day, he is the only person I've ever known to wear a Bolo tie.

He was also a Master Mason and active in his Masonic Hall. I always knew this, but knew little about it. I know he wore his Masonic ring, but never really talked about it. Now that Masons are the subject of conspiracy theories, and featured in the huge best seller The Da Vinci Code, I would love to ask him about it. I have no idea what he would of said, probably not much, but it would be interesting to know his take on it. As far as I know, he never tried to recruit dad, or any of us to join. I wish I knew why.

Grandfather escaped the horrors of war. Being born in 1900, he was a bit too young when WWI broke out, and a bit too old for WWII. He would have served if asked of course, but I'm glad he missed out. Selfish of me, I know, but he was no warrior, and had he survived, I would be afraid that kind and gentle man would have been forever changed by the experience. During my entire memory of him, he was the manager of an enormous cemetery, literally just steps from his backdoor. Why he dropped carpentry, and took this job is unknown to me. Maybe the lack of carpentry work during WWII. In any event, the cemetery manager was a perfect job for him, sympathetic and gracious as he was. He worked that job well into his 80's, 6 days a week.

He remained active almost up to his death in his mid 90's. We heard that he was up and the second floor roof of his garage replacing shingles as he approached 90. Grandmother was not pleased, and dad was concerned, but of course he was fine and fixed his roof without injury. Not only had we underestimated his health, we somehow forgot how careful and smart he was. He did nothing in haste and without careful planning.

In 1989 grandmother and grandfather drove from New Jersey to Cortland, NY to stay with Cindy and I. They announced that this was their last trip away from home and wanted to visit everyone they could. Of course they were wonderful guests, insisting on taking us out to dinner one night, then grandmother helped Cindy prepare a whole turkey the second night. Right around dinner, a fire call came in and they insisted that I go, that there was no reason for me to keep them company. Cindy I think, felt differently.  After a couple days they returned to New Jersey and, true to their word, never left again.

I feel lucky and honored to have known such a good man. A man that had so much knowledge and experience, of gentle kindness and wisdom. He had a lot more to teach than just carpentry, and I'd like to think some of it rubbed off on me, in the 30 plus years that I knew him.

Memorial Day

The flags are out. 

Memorial Day means different things to different people To many, it's the first holiday of "summer", although that's pushing it here in the north. Being that, it's traditionally the time to open pools, parks, and to get the boats out. It's a time for family gatherings, grilling, and just enjoying the outdoors. The freedom and ability to do such things is what makes this country great. Of course, like most things good, it has come with a price. Millions gave everything to allow us to enjoy our freedoms, whether that be as simple as grilling a burger in your backyard, or as important as speaking your mind at a political rally.

Part of the way Cindy and I honor their memory is to put about 40 flags on our property for the weekend. A simple task, and appropriate too since this holiday used to be called Decoration Day. Decoration Day was originally established after the Civil War as a day to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers. As time went on, flowers changed to small flags, and people began to call the holiday Memorial Day. Hopefully, as people walk or drive by the house, the flags will help them remember why we have the holiday, and remember those that allow us the freedom to honor it as we wish.

Molding finally done. I like the contrast between the
wall color and ceiling. 

On the home improvement front. the molding has been completed. The new compound miter saw worked beautifully and the angles came out nice. There are some minor gaps of course, mainly because the house is not square, and the walls have rolling waves in them, So, I have nearly completed caulking the gaps and nail holes in the molding, and it actually looks pretty good. Soon the paper I taped to the floor in November, will finally be removed.

It looks better in real life. Honest.

With the arrival of warm weather, work has moved outdoors, mostly of the general maintenance and upkeep variety. Last fall, after stacking all the firewood in the garage that would fit, we had about a half face cord left outside. It took me two tractor cart loads to bring that wood in the garage. My raked and re-seeded lawn is coming along nicely, mainly thanks to our persistent rain. It got it's first cut last week.

Despite my brown thumb, and questionable purchase decision, our little spruce tree is doing great. It's loaded with new growth and looks very healthy. I never let it go more than 24 hours without water as it tends to droop a bit in dry and warm conditions.

Healthy little tree. 

I came across an interesting blog that was very complimentary of our small city. The writer praised the architecture here in Binghamton that survived the urban renewal wave of the 1970s. He also liked our collection of interesting and eclectic bars and restaurants, many of which I have yet to visit. It really is amazing how this small city, with a struggling economy, has really had the downtown area blossom with so many interesting places to eat and drink. A lot has to do with the growth of Binghamton University, but I think the abundance of classic old buildings at a relatively cheap price, has certainly helped. I need to check more of these places out, and you should too. Several small business owners deserve to be rewarded for the effort and innovation, and the more new customers they get, the better.

Crown molding failure, and lawn failure

First piece installed. Note the nicely painted ceiling, wall
and trim work. Very proud of that. 

It was not a good weekend in the home improvement and maintenance front here at the Morford estate. To start with, I had the weekend off and decided to wrap up the ongoing hallway improvement by installing the crown molding, with Cindy's help. It's fairly straightforward work, but the 6 foot long pieces of molding take two people to install, and Cindy is not only a good sport, she wants this hallway done! So, we forged ahead. The tricky part of any molding installation is the mitering of the corners. In the living room, I got expert help, because there were some non standard angles, and it was a very wide molding. For the hallway, it was all 90 degree cuts, with a much narrower molding. No problem. Ha ha. First of all, in my defense, you really can't buy a decent manual miter box anymore. Pretty much all you see is this plastic thing with slots for common angles. It will work with standard molding, like quarter round, but even narrow crown molding is installed at an angle, which makes the cuts tricky. Essentially, the molding is inverted, and held at the angle that it will be installed, then you make your 45 degree cut. Problem is the crappy plastic miter box allows the molding to slip no matter how careful you are in holding it. This then throws off the cut, and when you go to install the molding, the cuts don't line up correctly and frankly, it looks like crap. Damn.

So, the solution is to get a better miter box. Well, at least locally, you have two choices: Buy the cheap plastic thing like I already own, or spend $150+ and buy an electric miter saw with all the bells and whistles. Considering I needed to redo the hallway, and I still have the den and the sun room/bar in the future, I ended up jumping into a $179 Porter Cable compound miter saw. After taking it out of the box and reading the instructions, I have a whole new appreciation for anyone that can use it. I think the engine room of a battleship may have fewer levers, dials, and readouts. It took me almost an hour just to figure out how to unfold it and set it up on my work bench. Good news is I think it will give me plenty of blog fodder for the future.

The dead zone. In this picture, I'm about half way
through putting down the grass seed and mulch cover.  

Then there is this lawn thing I have going on. Faithful readers of this blog will know that I may be a marginal carpenter, but I am an abject failure when it comes to growing green things. This include our "lawn". By "lawn", I mean the loose collection of dandelions, weeds, and pitiful tufts of grass. The weeds do provide at least some ground cover, even lasting through summer dry spells when whatever grass we have dies or goes dormant. This spring, I decided to buy a lawn fertilizer, weed killer combo to encourage a bit more grass to grow.  As I prepared to spread it. I decided to look more closely at a large area of bare dirt that had developed over the winter. Leave it to me to be such a brown thumb that even the weeds died. I have no idea what happened, but decided I needed to start from scratch and plant new grass in that area, after tilling the ground. Of course, I miscalculated the amount I needed and had to run back to to store for another bag.  Elsewhere I spread the fertilizer and weed killer hoping for lawn improvement.

This little tree makes me happy. Note the
bare ground behind it. 

There is a bright spot in my gardening world. Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree made it through the harsh winter and looks terrific. It's loaded with new growth and looks happy. It is right on the edge of the dead zone and apparently whatever killed everything else had no effect on the little tree. Have I found something green I cannot kill? Lets hope so.

Other good news is that we have finally broken the back of winter. Just in time too, considering that the days start getting shorter again in a little over the month.We jumped right into the 80s, some places even touching 90, which has caused an explosion of colorful flowers and budding trees. It's mother nature's version of seeing a gap in the traffic and stepping on the gas. Better hurry up and get going before it's too late!

Lastly, the owner of the Adam's Family house behind us has hired a local father/son team to clean up the lot. A large tree blew down over the winter so they took care of that while cleaning up other branches, and picking up plain old garbage that has sat there since we moved in. All in all I'm impressed. Any work over there is good news.

Management and Leadership

Management and leadership are two different things, and I've seen good and bad examples of both in my life. Keep in mind I've been in dual careers for over 30 years, one in the volunteer fire service, and the other in the federal government. Anyway, a good manager will organize things well, and generally keep everything within his empire running smoothly. This does not necessarily make him a leader. A good leader will inspire the people under him, making them strive to do better for themselves and the job. A good leader in not always a good manager. Finding someone that is both a good leader, and a good manager, is rare.

A leader?

I'm old so I'm going to use and old TV show to make my point. M*A*S*H had perfect examples of both good leaders and good managers. Major Frank Burns was a good manager. His uniform was perfect, his foot locker organized, he planned and attended meetings promptly. When he was left in charge, he tried to organize a ragtag group of doctors, nurses, and technicians into an army unit. Everyone hated him and plotted against him. He had no leadership skills whatsoever. Meanwhile, Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce was a drunken mess. He was rarely in uniform, sometimes only wearing a red robe over his boxers with a straw cowboy hat on his head. He usually did not shave, his quarters were a mess. However, when he spoke, people listened. Most of the other officers and enlisted in the camp adored him and followed him, even though he would say he was no leader. He was a lousy manager, but a fantastic, albeit reluctant leader.

I think management can be learned from a book if you try. There are tips and tools you can use to organize yourself and your life, if you wish to put forward the effort. Leadership is different though. There are natural born leaders, and I also believe you can learn leadership by following a leader, but those that try to lead from a book usually fail miserably. I think that's because you have to get a feel for people, and make the right decision on the spot, No book can give you that ability to read people, or even list all the possible responses you may have for any given situation.

It's been my experience in both the fire service and in the government that different people need to be led in different ways. Some need a bit a fear, while others just need encouragement. Some need to be micromanaged while you lead them, literally telling them every step of the way, until they finally figure it out. Others, well you simply need to explain the goals and leave them alone. They manage and lead themselves.

Good leaders are self starters and think outside of the box. They will emerge in a crisis. Often, you don't even need to ask, leaders will just step forward and take care of whatever response is needed. In the fire service, you can see this at a fire scene, or in the clean up of the fire hall after an event. Leaders identify a problem and work towards a solution. Managers will research an answer. On the Titanic, leaders began to fill the lifeboats. Managers rearranged the deck chairs.

The older I get, the more frustrated I get with bad leadership. Bad management I can more easily overlook, perhaps since I am somewhat disorganized myself, but more likely because someone else's poor management rarely affects me. There are exceptions of course, like when you wait an eternity for your appointment at a doctors office, or when the person in line in front of you at Wegman's can't seem to find their credit card. Poor leadership is more ominous, and, like many, I fear we are raising generations of poor leaders as examples of good leadership (aka parenting) become more rare. 

This is true within the quasi-military fire service, and the bureaucratic government. Both have a tendency to promote managers, not leaders, because good managers can more easily be quantified by bean counters, and seen visually as well organized (re: Major Frank Burns). Good leaders are often quiet, unassuming, and generally not interested in the title or spotlight. Good leaders will struggle to put together a flashy and effective resume, while good managers will hand you one the next day. This exposes a basic flaw in our lauded republic. We often elect good managers, not necessarily good leaders.

So what's the point? When given the opportunity to help make a choice, I've tried to promote leaders, not managers. We need both of course, but spotting a good leader and moving them forward is more difficult yet more rewarding. I'm encouraged that colleges and universities have recognized this and do not select the incoming freshman based solely on GPA. I've seen some examples of excellent leadership recently in young people, and this makes me hopeful that there are good leaders are out there, and they are doing the right thing. I am optimistic that they will wade through the minutia and bureaucracy that awaits their young adult life and emerge as the leaders we need.

A quick getaway while thinking about paint, and, winter continues, again

Love this room, but a little goes a long way. 

Slow progress continues in the hallway and now stairwell. Two coats of paint have been applied to the stairwell ceiling in anticipation of painting the walls. Painting the walls of the stairwell and upstairs hallway is dependent on us deciding on a color, which is something we continue to struggle with. When choosing subtle colors for a room or hall, you kind of have two families to chose from, the blue/gray/green spectrum of colors, and the brown/yellow/red spectrum. Of course, there are bold and bright colors that are good for a feature wall, but even those are some derivative of the primary colors. We did go bold in the guest room upstairs, but the hallway should be a bit more subdued, without being too dark since there is only one window in the hall.

Paint samples. Subtle, yet important
differences. 

The downstairs of our home is painted with colors in the brown/yellow family and we think it would make sense to continue that theme up the stairs to the second floor and in the hall way. Well, we got up to about 10 samples on the wall and they are all either too dark, or too light. We also would like have it stand off a bit from the creamy yellow of the living room which connects directly to the stairwell wall. We gave it one more try and finally came up with a winner. "White Mocha" was the choice and it seems like a nice compromise between being too dark and not gray. I spent the day on a Saturday painting both the stairwell and the vestibule and they came out beautifully. I'll add some pictures in the next blog.

While we were struggling mightily with the paint color, we decided to escape to one of our favorite getaways over spring break. In years past we would head to the Jersey shore near Cape May. It would not be swimming weather, but certainly walking and relaxing weather. Well, maybe not. The endless winter continues and forced us to rethink on our destination. We decide to embrace the bad weather and head into the teeth of it.

Cindy enjoys a Martini by the fireplace at our favorite
 restaurant, The Olde Bryan Inn.

We headed north to Albany and the southern Adirondacks near Lake George. It's built for cold there and there's plenty to do despite the awful weather. The most relaxing part is hitting our favorite restaurants, including The Olde Bryan Inn  in Saratoga and The Log Jam in Lake George. Both are classic, cozy northern woods restaurants with plentiful servings of steaks, seafood, and comfort food. You got to love a place that will serve lobster or a grilled cheese with equal care and cheerful service. We spent our days wandering, shopping and finding places to grab a quick bite. If you haven't been, the Saratoga Springs and Lake George area is beautiful, and in my opinion, best visited in the off season, which is roughly from November 1st through about Memorial Day. After that, hotels become very pricey and everything is packed. Plus, even in the Adirondacks they do not light their fireplaces in the summer.

I gave up on the 17th and lit a fire. It was snowing again. 

Winter really dragged on in April. We are now near the end of the month and we have finally seeing some milder weather, but the first half of the month was truly miserable, with snow falling everyday for the first 10 days of the month, and another couple inches falling in the middle of the month. As we now approach the end of the month, there is snow in the forecast again for the last weekend of the month, as if April has one more bad joke to pull on us. The disappointing spring weather we see around here does have a silver lining in the gray clouds though. It really leads us to a beautiful summer, usually not too hot, and very green. We had a summer visitor from Oklahoma to my office a couple of years ago and he couldn't get over how green it was around here, despite being the middle of summer. I'll take that as a huge compliment, without mentioning the price we pay to enjoy that.

Fire

I've been around fire for much of my life. As a child, I had horrible, waking nightmares about fire. In one, I "woke" to find the desk next to my bed covered in glowing coals, steaming and smoking. In another, I looked around to see my room in flames, jumped out of bed and opened the door to see the hallway engulfed in flames. Both times, I started screaming that the house was on fire, causing my poor father to leap out of bed and charge past me down the hallway. Upon fully waking, nothing was amiss. The worst however, was the time I opened my eyes to see to severed hands floating above my bed. In one hand was a box of matches, the other, a wooden match. The second hand struck the match on the side of the box, and dropped the match in my bed. I can still see that in my minds eye, like it happened yesterday.

While my subconscious is apparently terrified of fire, I consciously have no fear, just respect. In fact, I've found myself drawn to fire. So much so I volunteered to become a firefighter back in 1986 when Cindy and I lived in Cortland. When we moved to Binghamton in 1988, I joined Prospect Terrace Fire Department, and have been a member ever since. Through training and on calls I've been in several building fires. It's quite an experience. First, despite the protective gear, it's much hotter than you might think. Also, it's very difficult to see, with the smoke and steam. The fire is often just a dull glow, not at all like the dramatic flames Hollywood likes to show. It can be very claustrophobic, and that is probably the number one cause of potential firefighters washing out. It is very unnerving to be in a dangerous environment with one of of your primary senses (sight) removed. In fact, when we train new firefighters, we will often put wax paper in their mask, or make them put their hood on backwards so they learn how to find their way on touch alone (though heavy gloves).

FDNY

This brings us to the horrible tragedy in New York City, where a firefighter perished. They were conducting an interior attack on a fire when the call came in to pullout. Somehow Michael Davidson became separated from the rest of his crew and was lost. Despite the imminent danger of collapse and a raging fire, his fellow firefighters went back in to find him. The pulled him out, but it was too late. He left behind a wife and four children under the age of 7.

Of course, FDNY handled this horrible loss with a sad dignity. They stood at solemn attention as their fallen brother was transported from the fire, to the hospital, to the funeral home. Once he was recovered, FF Davidson was never left alone, a brother or sister always at his side as he rested. Likewise, his young widow is accompanied everywhere by FDNY escorts.

Meanwhile, his engine, Engine 69, is taken out of service as brother and sister firefighters spend hours scrubing the hard working rig that will be Michael Davidson's final ride. The Emerald Society, FDNY's Pipes and Drums band played it's mournful tunes. It is overwhelmingly sad. The hardest men and women I have ever met, are reduced to tears, yet they remain at attention, saluting their fallen brother, with the same courage and fortitude with which they attack fire. Stronger and better people do not exist, yet they will downplay their role, their heroism. Immediately after the burial, many quickly return to their station, and await the bells which will send them off to their next call. No break given, none expected.

Make no mistake, these men and women are true hero's, in every sense of the world. As a volunteer firefighter I have a small glimpse of their world, yet I can hardly fathom a career of such danger and loss with over 26,000 annual structure fires (71 a day), and 1,150 firefighters killed in the 153 year history of the department. They have earned and deserve the respect of anyone that lives or visits New York City. If something goes wrong, no worries, they have your back and they're happy to help.

That is what we should all take from the tragedy: No matter how savage the punch, no matter how vicious the loss, the human spirit, embodied by The FDNY, will prevail. Take heart in that, and hug, or at least shake the hand, of the next firefighter you see. That's all they want.

Travel, hallways, and winter continues...

I tend to write a blog when I feel inspired, or when I've done enough to fill up a page or so. Of course, there are times when I am busy, but whatever I'm doing is just not worthy of interest. It is also somewhat embarrassing how little actual progress I make at times, so there is that too. For today's blog, I think I have enough to write about, and I think I'm inspired enough to make it interesting. We shall see.

Back in 2007, standing on a ridge in the Sierra mountains
with a not so active fire behind me. I got out in time. 

I spent last week out in Idaho, Boise specifically, for an Incident Meteorologist refresher. For those that do not know, I am an IMET (Incident Meteorologist) and get dispatched, primarily to wildfires in the western U.S., to provide specific weather forecasts for the incident. These forecasts are used to help plan the command staff direct operations against the fire in a safe manner. It's a great conference with intensive training and good people. One of the final things we must practice is deploying and getting into a fire shelter in a matter of seconds, always entertaining and interesting as I try to stuff this old, 6' 3" frame into what is essentially a large Zip-Lock bag. I have no doubt that if I were actually about to be overrun by a wildfire, I'd get into that thing amazingly fast.

Boise itself is a beautiful city. Up and coming, active, young and very western. Trendy restaurants seem to be popping up everywhere as the state capital and college town blend with old west sensibility. Fresh air and open spaces make the place invigorating. Keep in mind though, I was there in March, with average highs in the 50's and even a passing shower from time to time. In summer, 100 degrees is not uncommon as the desert-like nature of the place takes over. The natural vegetation, outside of the watered areas, is dead grass and rocks, until you get into the nearby mountains, where cooler air and additional precipitation allows for beautiful evergreens.

Just another March snowstorm.

While I was in Boise, it snowed at home, of course, leaving Cindy to deal with it. March is generally a snowy month in upstate NY, which is really quite cruel. The increased sunlight from the longer days gives you hope, only to have those hopes dashed in yet another storm. The problem is that Canada is still bitter cold, while the southern U.S. begins to warm. This creates a strong temperature gradient on which storms love to build. They also love to track up along the mid Atlantic and northeast coast, which puts Binghamton in a very favorable spot for snow, and lots of it. Luckily for Cindy, that strong March sun helps melt the snow, so she decided not to shovel and allow nature to take it's course. I'd be happy to teach my bride how to operate the snowblower, but the chance of her actually using it are about as low as the chance for a snow free March.

The repaired wall. Still needs a bit of fine sanding and
some primer. 

On the home improvement and remodel front, I've been mainly working in the upstairs hallway, The wall repair job that I wrote extensively about is pretty much done. Just some finishing sanding and the wall will be ready to paint. First of course, will be the ceiling, which is ready to go after repairs and other prep. I've also been working in the bathroom, repairing and painting the window frame and door. The bathroom door had a huge mirror, which I removed months ago. It left behind drill holes, but even worse was that the door had never been painted beneath the mirror. Four coats of thinly applied pair were needed to cover up the ugliness.

We've been using the alarm system I installed after Christmas, with only one false alarm. Cindy accidentally set off the alarm while leaving for work one morning, unfortunately while I was in the shower, This resulted in a sleepy person in California calling and asking for our safe word, and me tracking and dripping water all the way downstairs to turn off the alarm At least we know everything is working. We have three faulty sensors which I need to track down and get advice on from SimpliSafe but the door sensors are working perfectly, which is the main thing.

That's about all I have for now. Hopefully the next blog will document progress in the hallway, and a quick getaway trip to one of our favorite spots.

Back at it

Repaired ceiling. I'm actually getting good at this. Note the
missing molding. 

With the holidays fully behind us, I have little excuse left to keep from diving back into some open projects at the house. Back in the Fall, I started after the upstairs hallway, tearing off the awful molding and some of the fixtures. It remained in that condition through Christmas, and Cindy has been beyond patient with the mess and I really need to get going on that work. First step was to repair the damaged ceiling. There were holes where the multiple smoke detectors and light fixtures hung, and where the cheap molding was attached. Next is  the big job of repairing the plaster wall that has become detached from the lathe backing. I researched the process months ago and had already purchased the needed supplies.

Holes drilled, but wall still bulging out.

I fixed the ceiling pretty quickly and decided I could no longer put off the wall repair. The first step is to drill multiple holes through the plaster in which to pump the construction adhesive. Then, you use drywall screws with big washers to pull the plaster back to the lathe, hoping that the construction adhesive bonds the two back together. This step actually went pretty well, and I pumped damn near an entire tube of adhesive into the wall. Very little oozed back out so it went somewhere, hopefully where it was needed. The drywall screws grabbed the lathe easily.

Drywall screws holding the plaster in place.

After 24 hours, you must remove the screws and hope that the plaster remains attached to the wall. Surprisingly, that's pretty much what happened. The good news is that the plaster is not longer moving back and forth in place, the bad news is that the result is an ugly mess. Some of the plaster chiped, then there are the places where a bit of the construction adhesive sticks to the washers and pulls away the plaster and paint when you remove them. So, the next step is to fill the holes and cracks with a joint compound then I will probably have to (horrors!) skim that entire wall. I've never skimmed a wall, and I'm not looking forward to it, but it is the best way to smooth out an uneven wall surface, and will look best when painted. The results of that will be in an upcoming blog.

The repaired wall. Really. Hole fix and skimming comes next.

Otherwise I did some finishing work in the bathroom. I replaced the old, industrial light fixture in the bathroom ceiling with a new, LED fixture. Of course, the previous installation did not properly install the junction box. It is just "floating" in place above the ceiling, held only by the wiring. The proper way to fix this is to go into the attic and secure the fixture to an attic floor joist. This involves moving our boxed Christmas decorations and removing the attic floor. An "easier" way would be to attach the junction box to a nearby joist, by accessing it through the hole in the bathroom ceiling. but it looks like there is nothing readily available. So, when the weather warms up, attic here I come. Of course, there is blown in insulation between the attic floor and ceiling below so that stuff will get everywhere.

In the world of upstate weather, after a brutally cold stretch in the end of December into January, the end of January and the beginning of February has been fairly benign. Not all that cold and still relatively snow free. I had been thinking that February would turn cold again, but it's been near normal so far, with a real thaw expected in the next week. I still think this winter has another brutal cold stretch in it, and I'm afraid that may mean March now, right when we are rightfully tired of winter and ready for Spring. Good news is that I understand the maple trees are being tapped and sap has begun to run. The first delicious product of Spring cannot be far away!

Cold

We finally got some snow to go with the cold.

It's been really cold lately, record cold in fact, and it reminds me of the kind of cold we had back in the late 1970's. Back then, we had several days in a row below zero, pipes burst, and the old cars we drove in those days didn't start real well. I was just a teenager without responsibilities and enjoyed the brutal cold. Now, I own an old house, for which I am responsible to heat and maintain. Our old house, has been doing just fine, having endured cold winters for a 100 years, except for a poorly conceived addition, in which they built a half bath in an old porch. The plumbing for the bath runs through an unheated crawl space. Not good, especially if the temperatures fall below zero. When we moved in, the pipes were damaged from previous freezes and needed repairs. After they were repaired, I did my best to insulate the pipes and the floor. Last winter was relatively mild, and we had no problems. Over the Holidays, in anticipation of the cold, I shut off the water to the room and sure enough, the pipes froze. Of course, this was just before a big Holiday dinner we were having, and I was at work, so First Brother In Law Randy came to the rescue, and with the help of brother Ed, got the water running. No pipes had burst. If anything, it's gotten colder since and I have the water off. I hope we have no burst pipes. A summer time job will be to wedge myself into that crawl space and properly insulate those pipes and wall.

Katia enjoys the fire.

With the cold, we're close to halfway through our full cord of wood. Almost everyday, if we are home, we build a fire in the fireplace. If I leave Cindy keeps it going, including trips to the garage to stock up on wood. As inefficient as it is, it really does make a difference in keeping the downstairs warm, and it's great to look at. Katia has finally learned to lay on the rug next to the fire to warm up. Tiny little Natasha looks at the fire with interest, but generally wanders away and sleeps the day through up in our chilly bedroom.

We haven't had much snow, but much of what we've had came in two recent storms. A nasty rain, to ice, to snow storm left about half a foot and with some trepidation I went out to start the snow blower. I had started it in the fall, but figured with several below zero nights, it would be difficult. Much to my surprise, it started on the first pull. Off I went to clearing the driveway and walk, along with several of the neighbors sidewalks. One of them returned the favor as I slept off my graveyard shift and cleared mine after additional snow fell. We are lucky to be in a great neighborhood.

On the home improvement front, I installed the home security system we got from SimpliSafe. It was actually quite easy, with the hardware pretty much stick on. The package we got includes motion sensors, glass break sensors, panic button, and door and window alarms, along with two entry keypads and key fobs. I need to purchase a smoke alarm and CO detector. After you install it, the hard part begins. Thanks to living in New York, The Empire State, otherwise known as the Rules & Regulations State, the system has to registered and licensed, which means paperwork and questions. So, while the system is functional, it's turned off until I can get the blessing from the local 911 center.

Christmas Past

Mom passed away several years ago. She fought an epic battle with Alzheimer's Disease and was highly functional for many years after the onset, I think mainly because she was a very smart, college educated woman that for years managed to hold off the ravages of the disease. But of course, she was finally overcome, and declined rather quickly near the end. It was a tragic end to a full life. Dad was beside her throughout the battle, with a patience and fortitude that was truly amazing, but it cost him. By the time we finally convinced him to get help with mom, he had compromised his health. Shortly after mom passed, he had open heart surgery to repair a valve damaged by a blood virus. He must have been ill for years, but forged ahead anyway. No one is tougher. He survived the surgery, despite his age, and recovered his health.

So, what does this have to do with Christmas? Well, dad is now struggling as well. We are getting care for him, but with brother Ed in town for Christmas, us three siblings decided to start looking through the house dad and mom shared for 30 years. There were not too many surprises, mainly the typical accumulation of 50+ years of marriage, with three active children. However, we did find something both unusual, somewhat disconcerting, but yet wonderful. Stuffed in a closet, addressed to Cindy and Dave, was a small pile of Christmas presents. They were completely intact, wrapped, and obviously old. We had stopped exchanging gifts with them many years ago, yet there they were. I hesitated, but with the encouragement of sister Karen, I put them in a big black garbage bag and brought them home.

I brought the bag downstairs and put it on my work bench, not only unsure what to do, but unsure of how to bring the discovery up to Cindy. Of course, there was no way she would miss something that big out of place and the next day she asked me about it. I was still unsure what I wanted to do and just said "you weren't supposed to see that. My mistake.", and left it at that. After a couple more days of indecision, I decided to tell Cindy the story of where the presents came from, and she had the same idea that I had. We would open them on "Russian" (Orthodox) Christmas.

Presents of Christmas Past

I brought the presents up and put them under the tree. They were a bit musty, the wrapping paper slightly yellowed and obviously old. Great care had been taken in wrapping them, and dad had obviously printed the names on the tags, his handwriting unmistakable. Mom may have been past the point of writing comfortably by the time they were prepared. However, her touch, her taste, and her choice were unmistakable in the gifts. It was bittersweet opening the presents, and Mom's presence as we did so, was overwhelming. I haven't felt her so close in a very long time, well before she passed, back to the years when she was herself. The gifts? For me, a beautiful blue sweater from Eddie Bauer. She loved blue, and loved me in blue. I will cherish it. For Cindy, a clothes steamer, perfect for a person that irons her clothes one more time before putting them on in the morning. Mom loved the way Cindy dressed, and admired her choice in clothes. Then, there were three joint gifts. We got fun and funky golf ball topped drink stirrers. Mom and Dad loved happy hour, and knew we both golf. Then, we opened a Santa toy car. We have a hot dog vendor truck that Mom always thought was hilarious. It is one of those cars that drives crazily, bangs into a wall or furniture, backs up, and continues on, all the while yelling "Hot Dogs!!" and playing silly music. This Santa car is the same thing, but with a goofy Santa behind the wheel.

The crystal bowl.

The final gift was a real stunner: A beautiful crystal bowl with a red stained glass trim. It perfectly matches a small plate that we had picked up at an antique show almost 30 years ago. Mom always admired that plate and I have no doubt that she purchased the bowl to match the plate. We were stunned. Cindy cried, I stared off into space, overwhelmed with emotion, desperately missing mom. I hadn't felt like this in years, and started to wonder if I really haven't fully dealt with losing her. Her  presence in the room, and my heart, as we opened these gifts was staggering.