May 11 2022 Gathering Ground

  GATHERING GROUND REPORT - MAY 11, 2022

Men in Blue:
Dave O'Leary, Jerry Kimble, Tim O'Connor, Bill Wills, Dave Ewbank,
with Chet Biernat in foreground

Warming weather has brought a few more to the table on this sunny day with Chet, Tim, Dave O, Dave E, Bill Norm and Jerry.   New wait staff greeted us and kept us full of coffee while we caught up on the latest news.   The Staff has changed several times but the food remains ample and at the right price.

Tim, with an early drive from New Hampshire, showed about 8AM as most were already at the table.   He quickly announced that his drivers license was renewed and he just wanted to test it out with a trip to Connecticut..

Of course, the Mass Pike was a bit of a traffic challenge on the way for Tim.  Norm piped-in with the fact that his wedding date coincided with the finish of the Mass Pike.   I couldn't remember the date as it was too early to hear such a low number ..... but sometime last century. [Editor's note for those who need to know: the Mass Pike was completed in February 1965 - see LINK]

Bill is about halfway complete with his next large project,a 10x20 shed located in the back of Judy's yard.   I helped Bill move the old shed, the starter shed that gets delivered and within the first month, after the lawn mower and all of the yard implements are placed inside, it has reached it's capacity.   So should be the last shed....but, we'll see.

Tim, Bill, Dave E, Chet, Norm Lapointe, Dave O

Some small talk about data centers in Vietnam (yes, Tim and BIll and Chet all got their taste of IT back then.   Wiring boards, punch cards, 7010 autocoder...stuff you can find in the history books...

There was a story relayed by TIm about automatic rifles and explosives strategically located in his data center in case.   And one time an M16 was seen with a magazine still inserted located in this data center.  Of course the commanding officer found it and firmly instructed the owner to disarm this weapon.   A slip of the finger found the small mainframe wounded and in need of the local CE.  Wonder what rank this poor marksman found himself demoted to.

Tim, caught all of us on his kids' doings in their various life's Journey.  His youngest has a great job in finance at the Pratt facility in Burwick Maine.  Click HERE for an overview of the P & W plant.

That's all for this month

Your Scribe

Jerry

April 13 2022 Gathering Ground

  GATHERING GROUND REPORT - APRIL 13, 2022

To paraphrase Billy Joel: "It's 8 o'clock on a Wednesday; the regular crowd rushes in":
Norm Lapointe, Dave O'Leary, Bill Wills, Chet Biernat 

The morning started with warmer weather and a small crew forming at the normal table at the Gathering Ground.   Chet, Norm, Dave O, BIll and Jerry enjoyed another bountiful and tasty meal to start the day.

Dave was again giving Bill some tips on Bill's recent "bucket of balls" disaster.   When the explanation of where the ball landed on almost every swing got Dave's attention, he quietly slipped some sage words of body parts positioning to Bill.   I know Bill was close enough to hear these sage words, so next month a report on Bill's game will show if Bill was successful in applying the techniques.

Scottie Scheffler was extraordinarily on his game again at the 2022 Masters!

Norm introduced pushups to the group and he does 15 SLOW pushups every day.   Followed by a few other exercises that keep him fit and trim.  The trick to get the most out of each pushup is to do a slow up and down, that way your muscles are working hard on both the uip and the down motion and the good news is that you don't have to do as many to get the benefit of many more.

A new camper in the Kimble family has introduced a new concept in mobile entertainment for this new unit.   

Little nugget if you have an RV and want to watch TV off the Wifi network.  To watch with phone or tablet, use Chromecast instead of Firestick, Roku or other casting devices.  All others have to be on a Wifi network to work.   With Chromecast, you can be in a National Park in the boondocks and turn on Guest mode in the Chromecast so that the phone or tablet connects directly to the Chromecast device on your TV for watching downloaded shows or through the mobile network of your wireless carrier to watch with YouTubeTV or SLingTV or one of the non cable providers.

Bill is building another shed in Connecticut, just starting this week and he found the price of a 2x4 is $8, up 100% from 2 years ago.

 ~ Jerry

Chet, Jerry Kimble, Norm, Dave

PHOTO GALLERY

BDL insígnia at the new parking and rental car garage.  This view is at the end of route 20 as you are entering Schoephoester road. ~ Jerry

Following photos submitted by Larry Quillen:

Grumman J-2 Duck at The Fame Museum, California, by Stewart Robotham on Flickr.

B-17 at the Yankee Air Museum, Willow Run Airport, Michigan. Photo by Bruce Bertz on Flickr.