I ran across this sketch Mary Ellen completed for me earlier this year and it reminded me how much I miss collaborating with her on projects. I still think of her often and miss her friendship.
Personal
Thank you Veterans
It’s Veteran’s Day and all of us at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. would like to thank all the veterans that served our country honorably. And as always, a thank you to our current service men and women that are away from their families defending our country. Your efforts make our way of life possible.
I am reusing the picture of the eagle on the tombstone from a previous post. The picture was taken at Fort Snelling by Frank Glick. I think it is a beautiful and moving picture. I was contacted earlier this year from the photographer and I have included the credit below. Several people contacted me asking me where they could obtain a copy of this picture, so now I have that information available.
Image © 2011 Frank Glick, used with permission, all rights reserved. www.liketophoto.com
Walnuts to beat the band!
I spent last weekend picking up walnuts. I lost count on the number of buckets, but I’m estimating I picked up over 200 gallon. I was too lazy to drag them up and weigh them, but they weren’t light. We have four walnut trees and we had a bumper crop. I have a Nut Wizard that works pretty good for picking them up, but this year they were so thick that even that was a challenge. It does well with one nut, but when you are running across a clump of 5, it doesn’t have the opportunity spread out and pick them up.
Audiologist Humor
I was at an Audiologist conference with my wife, Becky, the last few days. Below’s a sample of Audiologist humor from the Resound blog. You’ll see what I’ve been putting up with for the last few days. Putting up with it at a resort retreat wasn’t bad though. If I’d been healthy it would have been better. I came down with a cold the day before we left and I’m still fighting it now. Unfortunately for Becky, all of her quality time with me has resulted in her catching it now too.
One thing I’ve decided. Audiologists like corny jokes… and Alcohol… Lots of Alcohol! So here you go…
Audiologist Pick-up Lines:
- Want to come over and study forced oscillation and resonance factor?
- Trust me, I am a doctor.
- I bet no one can put you in a supine position faster and better than me.
- Want to learn the log roll?
- Two words: Fixation denied.
- Ask me about down ten up five
- I know the Sabine’s Reverberation Equation. Want to come and test it out in my boudoir?
- We do it periodically with frequency and great amplitude.
- Between you and me, we can make Longitudinal waves and Transverse waves.
- Let’s measure how loud and how far your voice can propagate via simple means of compression and rarefaction.
- Bone oscillation. Need I say more?
- Audiology. We bring the “Oooo?!” in Otolaryngology
- Allow me to find your natural frequency
- Does the word tinnitus ring a bell?
- Someday I will find the cure to tinnitus (that ringing noise you hear in your ears) and win the “No Bell” prize.
Grandma Murphy
Many of you have given me your condolences on the passing of my grandmother. Thank you. I’ve been blessed more than most to have had my Grandma in my life for as long as I did. Not many people live to see their 100th Birthday, which she celebrated in August of 2012. Grandma had 95 very good years before her health began to fail. Even at the end, she was able to smile and enjoy some of the things in life.
The family struggled to put together the obituary (see right); there is only so much that can be said in the limited space. I have a wealth of stories I could tell about my Grandmother, so for those of you interested, indulge me in some rambling memories of some of our good times together.
When I was little, I would spend a lot of weekends with them in their home in Winamac. During a lot of this time she was working at the bank, so Grandpa would entertain me Saturday morning (often watching Saturday morning cartoons with me) until she got home at noon. She and Grandpa woke me in the middle of the night so I could witness some of the Apollo space missions live. They taught me to mushroom hunt. They taught me to fish. Grandma Murphy was probably the only fisherman out on the lake who always had her hair done and was dressed in her good jewelry and full make-up! That didn’t stop her from baiting a hook and taking her own fish off the line though! Grandma had an aging uncle in Monticello she looked after. Grandpa and Grandma would take me with them to do yard work for him on the weekends. Grandma would direct the activities, but would also be right in there working with us.