Have We Gone Completely Out of Our Minds?

We may have. We have purchased a horse for Colleen. His name is Old Tyme Jazz; but he answers to "Jazzy."

Jazzy is a 20-year-old thoroughbred. He was a race horse, but retired early. We know he worked as a schooling horse for the last several years, but we're not sure what he was up to in the intervening years.

So now we face monthly boarding costs. Monthly food-additive costs. Regular vet visits. The equine dentist. The farrier. And a dozen minor but recurring costs.

The costs don't really bother me so much; we can handle them. Our biggest challenge will be making sure we can make time to visit and care for Jazzy. Colleen and Christina carry heavy schedules already.

We also need a long-term home for Jazzy. The stable he's at now will be there through the summer, but the land is up for sale and we may need to move him in the fall.

Getting Ready for Gardening

Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

Christina and I dropped some cash at Lowes Garden Center this morning. We got some soil to add to the flower beds, grass seed, annuals, perennials, and hanging baskets.

The big project this spring is a new flower bed built in the spot where a tree used to be. The tree came down in a wind storm and, despite having a crew come in and grind out the stump, we were left with a mass of thick roots. Rather than conduct a major excavation, we used left-over field stone to build a low wall, back-filled with new soil, and planted a mess of day-lilys.

There is a path, in life, and it is the path of least resistance.

Mahaffie House Entry In Wikipedia

My "Mahaffie" Google Alert turned up a new entry on the Mahaffie House in the Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia this morning. I had to have a look, and -- since Wikipedia is an open-source, anyone can edit it, collaborative space -- I had to add a few things.

Along with some text, I added a link to the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm Historic Site and a link to a Google Maps aerial image.

The Mahaffie House was started by my great-great-grandfather (there may be another "great" in there), so I take an on-going interest.

Part of what I've been doing with this blog has been tracking the "Mahaffie-ness" of that area and Mahaffie family history in that area.

More connections!

Playing With Language(s)

I'm fascinated by on-line translation systems. I like to take a simple few lines of text and start translating them through the languages. It's a form of solitaire-telephone.

English to French:

Je suis fasciné par les systèmes de traduction en ligne. J'aime prendre à un simple peu de lignes de texte et commencer à les traduire par les langues. C'est une forme de solitaire-telephone.

French to Spanish:

Soy fascinado por los sistemas de traducción en línea. Me gusta tomar a un simple pocas líneas de texto y comenzar a traducirlos en las lenguas. Es una forma de solitaire-telep.

Spanish to Enlish:

I am fascinated by the translation systems in line. I like to take to simple few lines of text and to begin to translate them in the languages. It is a form of solitaire-telep.

I Oversaw A Conversation Today

Driving back to the office from lunch with colleagues this afternoon I found myself at a stoplight and next to a car with two people having an animated conversation in sign language.

What struck me was the fact that both of them were smokers with cigarettes burning between the index and middle fingers of hands they were using to sign.

It was like the old days, when we'd smoke and talk at the same time with cigarettes hanging out of the corners of our mouths and bobbing up and down as we spoke.

In this case, the cigarettes were waving about for the larger gestures of sign language and deftly switched from hand to hand for the finger-spelling part.

Fascinating.

Music Map of North America: Looking for Ideas

Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

I've been thinking about creating a playlist of songs about North American history. I thought I'd start a music map to keep track of the "where" of songs as I think of them.

This is a work in progress. I'm looking for ideas; what other songs should I consider?

Fritz Takes a Helicopter Ride

Fritz Schranck, who blogs Sneaking Suspicions, took a Helicopter Ride over southern Delaware on a sunny day recently. Nice photos, Fritz!

More on our Controlled Burn

Today's Cape Gazette (expect the story to move off this front page by 5/10 at the latest) included a short story on the controlled burn Colleen and I watched a bit of the other day.

It turns out that the burn was part of a neighborhood clean-up project initiated by the Cool Spring Community Association, a newly-formed neighborhood group. I like them; they get things done.

An interesting side note: the burn appears to have inspired several residents to want to become part of the volunteer fire company.

Everyone Is A Newbie At Something

Matt Haughey, founder of MetaFilter and a web and blogging star, this week became a first-time dad. It's nice to know that even Matt gets to be a "newbie" at something.

Mazel Tov, Matt!

Controlled Burn. Station 85.

Colleen and I came upon this controlled burn, near Coolspring, on our way back from the stables this evening. There was a plume of black smoke on the horizon, on our way home, so we had to have a look.

I had a feeling it would be a controlled burn. I had seen several Milton Volunteer Fire Company (Station 85) trucks headed south from town, past the stables. They were not flashing lights or sounding sirens, but were headed away from their station. They appeared to be headed for something organized, but not an emergency.

In fact, they were planning to burn down two very old houses along Fisher Rd. This one was fully involved. A second, a few doors down, was just starting to smoke when we went by.

Controlled burns are an interesting loophole activity. They serve to train fire fighters in how houses burn. They also serve to get rid of old houses for landowners. Sounds like a win-win.

But, think about it. If you were to tear down these houses and then burn the resulting debris pile to get rid of the mess, it would be at least a source of air pollution and maybe a violation of environmental law.

Burn 'em down as training? No problem.

There's a small, contrary, curmudgeonly voice inside me that also asks: what are we training the firefighters to do here? Watch a house burn completely to the ground?

I'll ignore that small, cranky voice, however.