Pollywogs!

Sometimes when I blog, I have a theme, and if I have been thinking about it a bit and have had a beer or two, I can usually ramble pretty well. If I have a theme and haven’t been thinking about it, and haven’t had anything to loosen my mental lips, the posting is usually terse. If I don’t have a theme…you have this!

Everything took a strong turn for the better today. An hour or so ago, around six PM local, we pulled a couple samples with Rick (the operator of Southern Veneers) thinking we’d show him how badly the kiln had ruined a good portion of his wood. We pulled the top two layers, the ones we had looked at yesterday, and he mentioned that the cracks were there when he sliced it, he was intending on using it for backing, in his opinion it looked pretty good. We pulled samples from lower, the ‘good’ veneer which was actually going into flooring and (very, very much to our suprise) it looked absolutely fine. We were hoping that veneer was nearly impossible to damage with our process (even wood as difficult as Red Beech), and it turns out that even with all of the little mistakes, problems and hiccups, the wood was fine and drying well. Talk about a load off the shoulders. And, a nicer upside having Rick there to see that it wasn’t as bad as we had been saying!

Earlier, while I was nailing down problems and adjusting the programming to deal with ‘this and that’, I’d make a revision and load it into the kiln. Once I was reasonably certain it worked the same in the PLC as it did in my head, I headed into the computer to monitor. I set the laptop up and spent some very quality time with Kell. It is really, really nice having Skype, a microphone and a little webcam along with a broadband connection, it is…as good as it can be when you are as far from home as possible without going into outer space…If you have any reason to make long distance calls, or hell, even local calls, and you have a computer and a broadband connection, may I recommend skype?

Skype.com - free and ‘it just works’, no ’screwing’ around
Microphone - $8 and ‘it just works’
Webcam - $13 and it mostly just works. Cheap webcams are still sorta hit-or-miss…this one (while available) is perfecly serviceable…

Now, ask your friends/family who are long distance calls to do the same. Connect, talk, enjoy…for free :)

Where was I? Oh yea, I wanted to play some Canasta so I re-introduced Kelley to it. I’m pretty sure she’d played once a long time ago, but after one or two hands she was stealing the pile from under me and going out like a demon. Experience still managed to prevail (I got a good headstart heh).

Canasta >:)

So, did you guys get the Bush administration pulled down yet? I noticed on TV that lying is taking its toll of the fucker, he’s looking older every day. With Libby passing the buck, I see Bush ‘revealing’ how ’successful’ he is in ‘protecting’ us from ‘terrorism’ with some smoke and mirrors about LA. Remember, the things they go out of their way to tell you are the things you should LEAST believe.

I forgot to add links for downloading that song last night didn’t I? Hopefully I’ll remember to add links for that and links for the above items, eh?

Its amazing how two beers just allows me to run on and ramble like this. Hopefully you’ve found it as interesting to read as I’ve found it interesting to thinke…err…

A few final notes on New Zealand (with lots of pics coming tomorrow, internet connection allowing):

No handguns. Shotguns are alright, but it is amazingly difficult to acquire and purchase a handgun. Please reference THESE stastics comparing the death-by-handgun rates of NZ vs the US. Apparently, if you even register to purchase a handgun, the police run a backround check including interviews with those close to you. Now, in the US, if they had a handgun buy-back, and prevented the mass-manufacturering of new ones, and carefully restricted imporation, and strongly regulated ownership, and confiscated and destroyed illegal guns…after five years, please tell me what would happen. Go on, take a wild guess…

There are quite a few //more// SUV’s and a handful more trucks down in the south island vs. Auckland. Apparently, its because it snows once a year (which EVERYONE takes as a free day, off work and school, etc etc). The lucky bastards, while it might snow once, they said that typically the weather will bounce right back to 60′F (20′C is actually what they said, who knows what 20′C is…).

These people are serious about drinking. As I might have said before, they don’t sell beer in cans (well, if they do its only a very small fraction). They thought it quite amusing when I mentioned you have to ask for bottles specifically in the US. You go to the grocery store and they literally have isles of beer and wine (wine just catching on here in the past few years).

Christchurch is on the east coast of NZ. In the space of 5 miles you have an amazing varitey of microclimes. On the planes is a near-subtropical environment (mixed species including Palms) streching for miles, but as you head towards the hills the coves and cliffs protect some places from the southerly winds. In those locations, protected from the cold, you have a positively tropical envrionment. The suburb of Summer looks straight out of Hawaii. Right up the hill from Summer, over the mountains, the forest gives way to Pines and local flora. Down the other side of the bay (into the flooded Caldera of a long extinct volcano) the climate is much colder, temperate like Pennsylvania. Rick mentioned that, while they do maintain the port and a small town simply due to the deep water and practical access, no one really wants to live there because its so damn cold in the winter (probably 20′F, with what they are used to here…). All within a 5 mile drive from the ocean, to the cliffs and foothills, and over the mountain, whatever you are looking for (except a tropical beach, while they do have a couple golden sandy beaches, the water is relatively cold).

NZ has apparently nearly the highest UV anywhere outside of Antartica. Did I mention that previously?

Rugby is actually rather interesting once you gather the rules. The play is nearly continuious and well thought-out. The more I see, the more I think ‘hey, thats not that bad, no wonder its so popular!).

No snakes, no real land mammals (a few small introduced), no toads, only a few frogs…New Zealand (if it weren’t for the introduction of rats, possums, stoats and the like) would be virtually bare of animal life. Birds made it over, but apparently NZ has been cut off from any real mainland for a very long time (or had the animal life wiped clean at one point). The only thing dangerous here apparently is a spider which can give you a nasty bite (think Brown Recluse, but not deadly, just toxic / eat your flesh).

On that note, I’m off. If no one is watching, I might use the trampoline.