August 13 Gathering Ground Report

 GATHERING GROUND REPORT - AUGUST 13, 2025

With a Table of four sitting at the Gathering Ground restaurant, outside temps are again in the 90's and the dew point in the high 70's.   Bart, Dave, Pete and Jerry sat around the table to again enjoy the table fare and the stories galore. 

OK, the corned beef hash is 'to die for' but does everyone have to have the same breakfast because it is that good.   Bart, Pete and Dave all ordered this same dish but changed the order by the toast selection.  One wheat, one white and one rye, all in on the corned beef,  just because I guess.

Dishwashers made a topic this AM.  All had long gone through their contractor specials that did accomplish a clean ending to the dishes and silverware.   But, they all produced enough noise that when they started everyone had to exit the kitchen in order to carry on any conversation.

AI searches were getting mixed reviews from the table.  Some missed the string of pages presented by the old Search and were now noticing that the results were brought to the screen with a paragraph structured result that most of the time was correct but sometimes seemed to miss the point.  All thought that when a more complex search string was entered the answer seemed to be more accurate.

A couple of us are planning on a trip to Europe.  So Pete brought up a tidbit that was not known by all. tipping is not expected in Europe because the bill presented at the table already includes the tip.  Most Euopeans love Americans because they usually tip on top of the bill unknowingly.

Bill has done some work at Dave's helping his kitchen to accommodate a new fridge on order but on hold as the height of the new fridge prevents it from fitting in the same space as the old fridge.  The cabinet above had to be cut and reworked.   The cabinet cutdown was accomplished as of this dining event but the doors had not been refitted.  Dave delivered the original doors today that were brought to Bill to have about 3 inches removed from the center, then glued back together and then reinstalled into the smaller door slots of the newly shrunk cabinet.

Jerry received the approved building permit for the ground mount solar panel project that was started a few months back.   Hopefully in two months a few pictures will be included to show off this project.  Again, Bill and I are taking on most of the labor, a little help from  a licensed electrician will be needed too.   Bill's favorite phase in this building project, "hey Jerry, take the dumb end of this tape measure"!   I understand.....

What is a group selfie called..............   a Usie !  

Your Scribe,

~ Jerry

July 9 Gathering Ground Report

 GATHERING GROUND REPORT - JULY 9, 2025

Dave Ewbank, Bill Wills, Pete Gottschalk, Bart Nixon

With the changing of the folks around the table over the past year, the start time  of 7:30 does not hold anymore.    This month's group made a unanimous decision to change the start time from 7:30 to 8:00 AM.   Bill, Pete, Bart, Dave and Jerry shared the table and the conversations for the morning.    

Bart is up from his Florida home for the summer, guess it's warm enough to allow his golf game to continue in Connecticut.

Bart has endeavored to refurbish a few components of his Simsbury residence.  New windows(all of them), replacing some distressed siding and then covering the entire house with a new coat of paint(long overdue was the phase I heard).  

Some comparison of insurance policies was discussed, bundling was very common, this allowed a substantial saving overall.   USAA, Amica, Travelers and AAA.  A mixed bag choice for a mixed reason.  Cost was one big driver.

Jerry did have a recent claim for homeowners. After a hail storm with roof damage, a complete shingle replacement along with 9 skylights, the financial damage was only the $1000 deductible for $30K of repair work.

Bart's doctor seems to be listening to the evening news and prescribing most of the current pharmaceuticals as seen on the news that we have to endure over and over each evening.

"Hot sauce Dave" got some discussion about the dining out experiences  while lunching at HSD.  One memory was the time a group went to the GreenDoor restaurant in Enfield.   Dave ordered a dish that was served on a metal plate heated to sizzle when the contents touched the very hot metal surface.   The contents of the dish were so hot (SPICY)that the result was a gas cloud so lethal that the experience was very similar to a gas chamber exposure when I was in boot camp, but without the gas mask!!  Everyone ducked down as the cloud came over the table and descended onto the group at the table.  Dave was non paused with his dish present, he proceeded to serve and enjoy it!!

Tom, DIck and Harry topic came around with remembrance about Tom Woodruff, DIck Wright and Harry Doughtie renting a house on Lake Congamond.  Many parties were held at this address.  Bill piped in remembering when he posted a letter to Tom, Dick and Harry with only Suffield Ct in the address field.  It was delivered to the surprise of all.

Credit freeze was discussed as an easy way to prevent ID theft and avoid going through a recovery process that is ugly and tedious.  Easy to do only with one or all of the Credit consumer reporting agencies like Equifax, etc.

Your Scribe,

Jerry

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The building is in the parking lot for HSD building Three.   

No signage yet to show what business is inside