This week, I was reminded the velocity of the wind increases as it is forced over the top of a solid fence, increasing the force on the solid fence exponentially, increasing air pressure on the windward side and creating a slight vacuum on the downwind side. This principle applies to all objects that slow the velocity and/or change the direction of wind. Such objects include buildings, trees, shrubs, terrain surfaces, and, of course, fences.
Given the right conditions (which included a rotting 4 x 4 post and a recorded gust of 70 mph), a fence panel can come loose and repeatedly bang on your portable gas grill until it wakes you at 4:24 am and welc
omes you to the new day. Moving fence panels in the wind and rain before breakfast can now be crossed off my bucket list.
In the light of morning we were able to use some wire fencing to temporarily replace the missing panels. The chickens are none too happy about it, as this wire fencing was being used to give them a larger are to peck and scratch for the winter. The dog appears pleased as she can now see the neighbors and has another excuse to bark. The cats, as usual, are ambivalent about the whole thing, as it has little effect on their ability to sleep most of the time.
While many people spent Black Friday shopping, I took advantage of a break in the rain to try and remove the balance of the fence post still in the ground but well below ground level. Trying to avoid digging a large hole to remove the concrete and minus a jack hammer or a large sledge hammer to break it out, I armed myself grandfather's 3/8 inch 8 amp motor corded hammer drill and proceeded to drill the sucker out. The rotted parts were easy and came out fast, but the solid portions presented more of a challenge. I added an extension to the drill bit and kept going back, unwilling to give in. About the time I had most of the post drilled out the cement started coming apart in large sections, clearly showing the broken areas that allowed water in which allowed the post to rot.
A forecast of wind and rain will delay getting the new post in the ground until next weekend. A metal brace in more concrete than was there the first time will be my over-engineered attempt to never need to replace this post again.
November 19th is World Toilet Day. Sounds like a joke, but it's deadly serious. The number of people worldwide without access to a toilet -- no public restroom, no outhouse, no latrine, no smallest room -- is a whopping 2.6 billion. That's four out of ten people who have to use fields, river-banks, beaches, rubbish dumps or city streets.
"Imagine life without a toilet. No toilets in your home or at work, no public toilets, no toilets anywhere. Imagine the mess. Imagine the disease."It's hard to imagine life without something we take for granted, but this is the daily reality for 2.6 billion people. 40% of the world’s population do not have access to adequate sanitation. That’s 2.6 billion people having to practice open defecation, urinating into rivers which lead to water borne diseases such as acute diarrhea, cholera and dysentery. Others resort to roadsides, buckets, plastic bags and open fields as their toilets. The eventual outcome -- deaths."The things we take for granted are not to be. And while we all may want more, perhaps today is a day to remember what others do not have, and, with a national holiday almost upon us, truly give thanks for what we do.
For many, Saturday morning presents the opportunity to sleep in. After a particularly trying and long week at work, I desired to join that group, hoping to convince my body not to automatically wake me as it usually does just before the alarm goes off.
The cat, however, had other ideas. Her sure-fire process for waking me up usually starts with a faint meow. Sometimes a few pets will distract her and allow me to sleep a bit more. After the meow comes the licking the hand. I have learned to avoid that by keeping my hand under the covers, which seemed to confuse her for quite some time. Snoring again, she now brings out the big guns: the large cat purring face about two inches from my eye. You haven't really lived until you open your eye and your entire field of vision is filled by a cat head.
Okay, I'm up. The cat wants out, then wants to be fed. Coffee brewing. The quiet of the morning. Overcast skies, drops of rain. Listening to podcasts. Making some notes for a class I am taking.
The stress of the week melts away. Saturday is truly a day to relax, recharge and replenish the mental and emotional reserves.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how it was not conscious thought on my part to help a person manage their food tray. It got me thinking about conscious and unconscious thoughts and how they vary.
Unconscious and conscious thought have different characteristics, which, under different circumstances, makes each the preferred format. Simple issues are generally better handled by conscious thought; complex matters are better considered with unconscious thought. What do I mean by this? You have likely experienced giving up on trying to solve a problem and while not consciously thinking about the situation a solution comes to mind within moments courtesy of the power of unconscious thought.
In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell brings us face to face with the role of unconscious decision making. The main focus is that decisions made rapidly can be every bit as good as decisions made slowly, cautiously and deliberately.
One of the main concepts is your mind is more efficient when you can move higher level thinking into the unconscious. What do I mean by that? Consider riding a bicycle. If you were like me, it took a lot of conscious attention and effort to coordinate balancing, steering and pedaling. Bicycling is no longer a daily item for me, but climbing on one does not require relearning the mechanics of riding a bike.
Driving a car, walking and using chopsticks are examples of other things you don't need to relearn. If you know how to waltz but haven't done it for a while, you may be a bit rusty, as you are relying on muscle memory, hidden away in the cerebellum, behind and underneath the brain, close to the brain stem, where physical coordination skills live without conscious thought. You get to commonly visited places without a lot of thought, what some refer to as being on auto-pilot. Do you even remember driving to work? I get there without issue, but remember almost nothing of the trip.
We are always taking in information, some of it consciously and some of it unconsciously. You don't have to know about the muscles around the eyes that only contract when a person has a true smile on their face to recognize the difference between a real smile and fake smile; this ability occurs at an unconscious level. Most people can't tell you how they know, but they know.
Our unconscious is a very powerful force. Call it what you will: instinct, gut reaction, intuition. What appears mystical or psychic is part of the function of our normal yet amazing brain.
omes you to the new day. Moving fence panels in the wind and rain before breakfast can now be crossed off my bucket list.
