March 9, 2022 Gathering Ground

 GATHERING GROUND REPORT - MARCH 9, 2022

Welcoming party: Bill, Norm, Chet

Norm, Bill and Chet were already seated at our table at the Gathering Ground restaurant in Windsor Locks, I thought I was a little early but realized my failure to set my alarm 30 minutes earlier than normal so I was almost 30 minutes late!   But it's good to be here and enjoy the stories and good coffee.

Norm!

Somehow house windows was a topic as Norm talked about how the assisted living place he is staying had to replace their triple windows because they were so heavy the residents of the home had a very hard time opening and closing the windows.  Obviously the triple glass was added and the counter balance component of the window was never changed.   So when the Triples were replaced by double panes the hassle of opening and closing was significantly reduced.

Bill is in the design and estimating phase of building a new shed.  a 10x20 structure will have a raw material cost of approx $4000 Dollars.   Yes,lumber is down from it's all time high from last year but up significantly from the average over the last 10 years.  Just price a 2x4 at Home Depot!!

Chet is adding an addition to his home, his 10x12 addition will be using 2x12 joists and rafters.   This will hold up to the next hit by most known asteroids and comets!!

Jerry helped a friend install the latest Internet ISP from Elon Musk, the STARLINK service.   What is shipped is a dish and a tower.  The dish goes outside in clear view of sky, a cable connects the dish to the tower(located inside the house) and your smart device has the Starlink app that configures and controls the new service.  It took about 20 minutes to set up, which included naming the router and creating a private password.

The First Speed Test showed about 20MB of thoughput.   After about five minutes with the dish searching the sky for the best satelite, the speedtest topped out at 200mb.   About $100 per month but not in every neighborhood at this time.   More details on the Starlink Web site HERE

Watch out for emails from HR block, Turbo tax, etc with billing notifications that are only Spam.   The entire table has seen these Scam emails here at Tax time.

Chet with returning ski travelers Jerry and Bill

Bill and Jerry were fresh back from a week of out west skiing.  The experience was blue sky delicious.   On the way back I noticed that the Denver Airport had a strong 5G Cell service.   Odd, because of all of the fighting between the FAA and FCC.  But here was a very strong 5G signal as we watched planes taxi, take off and land.   I gave it a quick Speedtest and found several tests to be over 1000MB !!  

Spring was in the air this AM but as I'm writing these notes, we are 30 degrees and seeing 2 inches of white on the ground....ah spring in Connecticutt!!

Your Scribe.

Jerry

Granby, CT, March 9: Still in winter's grip

February 9, 2022 Gathering Ground

GATHERING GROUND REPORT

Chet Biernat, Norm Lapointe, Jo-Ann Smith, Bill Wills, Dave O'Leary

The warmer weather brought out a larger than normal crew to the Gathering Ground this month. Chet, Norm, Bill, JoAnn, Dave and Jerry had a long leisurely breakfast and conversation time this morning.

Norm announced that he finally tested Covid negative, this took several weeks and, with other stories from around the table, he was not the only one who felt great within 5 days but failed to test negatively for several weeks.

We talked dieting for a few minutes and decided for those who have a difficult time figuring out how to lose a few without buying into a major diet plan was to purchase a fitbit watch.

You input what your weight loss goal is into the watch(computer on your wrist).  It then figures out how many calories in your day's intake you need to be in order to lose the prescribed weight over the stated period.  Each day, it keeps track of the calories burned, as you input the calories eaten for each meal and then keeps a score card display of how over or under your calorie intake you are for the day.

Here is a VIDEO of a more detailed explanation of the Fitbit app on the watch.

JoAnn explained that before the next breakfast, she and Jim are off to finalize the AT by going back to Georgia in March to complete that lower leg.   Then returning to Ct for a break and then taking the Northern trek towards Katahdin.   For those who stayed in the huts on Mt Washington AT, she and Jim have pre booked 9 out of 10 to enjoy getting there and to have a real bed and someone to cook for them!!

Bill read an article about VERSION 3 of the Internet.  I didn't understand but there are articles in the link so you can see what is coming.

Lots of stories about our fun and not so fun experiences at Hamilton.  Jo shared the time she had a training session with her tour in the Info Center.   All she had to do was lug the 6 Compaq computers(aka, sewing machines) out to Logansport.   She managed to get all the way to the airport and onto the plane and then into the plant at Logansport.   The only training room she had was a 10 by 16 room with a 5x10 table to sit these Compaq luggables.   After two days of 8 hours in a smoke-filled room inserting floppy drives for each session, she was back to Windsor locks wishing the taxi would lose her cargo between the plant and the airport...  no such luck.

Bill remembered some of the training lessons when he was in flight school.  The funniest that came to the table was the backup if the cable to the tail rudder failed. Disaster Backup was to use the left or right doors in the cockpit to help steer the plane.  A very good reason to have that seatbelt firmly clicked in.

That is all the news for this month

Your scribe,

Jerry 

Dave, Jerry Kimble (scribe), Chet

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CELEBRATION IPA

The funny object in the picture below is a 5 gallon bottle that is brewing a Celebration IPA.  My son Spencer is turning 21 at end of March and this will be his birthday beer.   I'm sure he will know how to handle it once it's in smaller containers.

~ Jerry 

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NOTE FROM HANK MCWAY

Hank sent in the following email about a former co-worker that some of you may remember, Thornton "Joe" Bond:

Subject: Thornton C. Bond

"Joe was pretty quiet down the road in Hudson, we got together for one of our alumni lunches a few years back. I hadn’t heard from him in a while so I checked. He passed back in December 2020.  I don’t remember seeing anything in the News from the Hole, so I thought I’d pass it along.  After I left HSD, I guess Joe went to Pratt, but he was one super good person. Joe lived in Somers, and I lived in Tolland back then. We were both active in the Lions, he had been president of that club. Then he was active in the District, 23C, and when I became president of the club in Tolland he installed me. Just a little bit of our activities back then.

We are both staying healthy in these trying times. For me, gardening has become a wonderful use of time. Living here, and having a little greenhouse, makes it a year round activity. The biggest impact has been keeping us off the seas. We had become quite active in cruising, and now it’s been since November 2020 that we cruised last. We’re booked on a two week cruise out of Tampa this November, which means we don’t have to fly anywhere. Next year it’s back to Rome for another Mediterranean cruise which includes Sicily. Our travels have brought us to many European port cities, which we find most interesting and enjoyable.

Winter is over here, so Spring cleanup is underway outside. The temp at this hour is 86, but the pool is sitting at 70 so it will be a few more days before I get back in. Stay well,

Hank McWay"