MOTHERHOOD INVENTS NECESSITY or whatever—

One problem when I bought my my new truck was I could not see the ball of the trailer hitch when I backed up to connect the camper.

Even with careful alignment of the vehicles it is still a hit and miss proposition, requiring multiple trips in and out of the truck to place the ball precisely enough the receiver can be lowered and secured.

A visit to the “Ajax Camper Supply” web catalog led me to a nifty mirror on an adjustable shaft which attached somewhere on the rear of the truck with a magnet; and, for only a100 bucks or so.

I was tempted until I read their customer comments on this contraption and discovered folks had trouble with the mirror falling out of its frame.

So, after pondering this challenge a bit, I went to the local auto parts store and bought a rectangular semi-truck mirror. It has threaded studs on both narrow ends and cost 20 bucks.

I then fashioned a two piece saddle out of wood scraps that hangs over the truck’s tailgate and allows me to adjust the tilt of the mirror so I can clearly see the ball in the truck’s own rearview mirror.

About a bucks worth of weather stripping on the saddle cut in the contour of the tailgate protects the truck’s paint and about three bucks worth of white, spray enamel makes the thing look store bought.

When I am done with the hitching chore I simply loosen a couple of wing nuts and put the mirror back in its original box. The saddle is two flat pieces and it joins the boxed mirror in a storage compartment for the next outing.

Yup, necessity sure is the mother of invention.

BLUE JAYS ARE NOT BLUE—

Birds look colorful to us for two reasons: 1) the color we see is actually produced by colorful pigment in the bird’s feathers, or 2) the color is produced by the feathers reflecting daylight.

The Northern Cardinal is quite red, of course. If a cardinal’s red feather was ground into powder, the powder would be red.

Not so with the blue jay, or any other “blue” bird for that matter. No pigment turns feathers blue.

In the photos to the right that is the same blue jay feather. In the top picture the feather is being held so it reflects daylight and it appears blue.

But, when I turn the feather so light is passing through the feather from behind, the feather appears a dull gray, which it is and which is the color you would find if you ground this feather into powder.

Try the same visual experiment with a cardinal feather and it will appear red regardless of the viewing angle.

If you are really curious about the finer details of this phenomenon, here’s an interesting source:


http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx?c=a&id=667

CHANGING TO WEEKLY BLOG--

I am lumbering toward a year’s worth of consecutive, daily blog postings—but, I am running out of gas.

Just try it some time. Write one note to your best friend—every day, and see how long you can keep that up. It’s quite a challenge.

The counter on my blog yesterday said I had already made 395 posts over a string of 302 days. (Many days had more than one topic.) Mercy!

I am now planning on taking a week’s vacation immediately after Thanksgiving. When I return, I will be changing to a weekly version of Fogeyisms on December 1st; posting at least one feature-sized item every Saturday.

With a week between postings, then, I can envision being a bit more expansive—going into greater detail in the narratives. Likely I’ll be using more pictures to illustrate the pieces. That’s like the magazine rather than daily news format.

Perhaps there will be more than one subject treated on those weekly presentations.

Naturally, if something timely comes along I will occasionally post mid-week, or whatever.

Here’s a little ditty I wrote back near the beginning; something I’ve held in reserve until the day arrived when I was truly out of gas:

NOTHING TO SAY--

Here I sit with absolutely nothing meaningful to say today.

When my late bride would encounter that phenomenon in me she never failed to express her gratitude.

Fortunately I never reached that day. And, now that I have decided to change to weekly blogs, I really feel relieved.

Thanks for being out there and please stay tuned!

VETERAN’S DAY, A CELEBRATION--

The church sanctuary rocked as the combined choirs sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

It was one of those moments when eyes teared and shivers ran up and down patriotic spines.

The battle song was the rousing finale to the St. John’s United Church of Christ’s recent Sunday observance of Veteran’s Day 2007.

Earlier, folks dressed in colonial costumes represented the 13 original colonies and depicted the vote to take our yet-to-be country on the dangerous leap into independence. Then, with the flourish of quill pens those same representatives re-enacted the signing of our Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....”

John Hancock’s signature is largest on this document because, with a bounty already placed on his head by the English, Hancock quipped--perhaps the size of his signature would provoke the British officials to double the award.

And with that burst of bravado, our country was born.

The color guard of the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard at Mansfield-Lahm Airport (large photo) presented “Dressing the Flag” and brought the audience back to the present time with snappy and very formal, military precision.

The Fun Center Chordsmen presented taps. The bagpiper presented “Amazing Grace”. The audience waved small American flags, some, while dabbing their moist eyes with handkerchiefs.

Fogeyisms tips our hat to the folks at St. John’s for its marvelous program, and...
...If you cherish your freedom today, tip your hat to a veteran.

COMMENTERRY—

Recently I watched a ding-a-ling load the groceries in his car, then simply push his empty cart toward the next empty parking space, when the rack for empty carts was one more parking space away.

I wondered which slimy rock he would be crawling back under that night.

Then there was this bozo I encountered the other evening, after dark, approaching me in my lane of the road with his high beam headlights blasting through my windshield.

I slowed down and pulled into the empty, opposing lane and as I slid by this mental midget I could see it was simply retrieving its mail from its rural mailbox which was at the end of its driveway, a challenging 50 foot walk from its garage.

Sure enough, after I passed it backed up and pulled into its garage; without the nuisance of having to get out and open the door—of course.

Clearly, two stellar examples of today’s Me-Me-Me genetic catastrophe.

Then, this on prescription drugs:

The clerk handed me a tiny tube of stuff the dermatologist had prescribed to treat a problem on my scalp. That will be $58.72 she chirped.

“You’re kidding me,” I gasped.

This tube would barely have contained enough grease to lubricate the latch on your watch band.

Of course, I routinely hear stories of folks who face staggering costs for their drugs; folks who sometimes are forced to choose between their medicine and food.

I don’t pretend to have any answer to the near impossible cost of medical care but, I often wonder what would happen if they locked medical, insurance and regulatory officials in a room along with a few key Congress-critters and refused to let them out until they achieve a return to sanity in all medical charges.

Then, this on more sloppy journalism:

The Detroit News reported November 9th a badly burned and beheaded body found northwest of there was that of a registered sex offender from Illinois.
The story concluded with this profound comment:

“Sorensen’s (the victim) head has not been found.

A cause of death has not been determined.”

Anyone want to hazard a guess?

FIX YOUR PIX—

This shot of my pal Max was done with nothing more than indirect window light.

Most every home has a place where you could pose a person, perhaps leaning against a wall and looking out the window. Get in close with your camera, focus carefully and squeeeezze the shutter release.

Delightful, casual portraits can be made easily this way. Zoom your lens out a bit toward the telephoto end. This will lessen the depth of field and help throw any background detail out of focus.

Here’s another simple technique. Let the person stand so just ½ of their face is illuminated by the window light (not direct sunlight). Then, use a sheet of something white as a reflector and bounce some of that window light into the shadow side of your subject’s face. A piece of wrinkled aluminum foil taped to some cardboard will work nicely.

Bingo! You can do a picture that rivals a studio portrait with very simple tools.

The small photo is the same image. I just fiddled with it a bit in Photoshop software. Your editing software may not be quite as powerful, but, likely you can do some delightful things with whatever picture editing software came with your camera.

ANOTHER SILLY SEASON—

That was the phrase my late political colleague Paul Whizzer White used to describe these annual digressions from sanity.

We are done, albeit temporarily, with being hurricaned by political advertising. The quaint, visual pollution of countless yard signs will soon disappear as well.

Some already have.

Before the polls closed I was chauffeuring incumbent friend Fritz Ackerman around the township gathering his hand-made signs promoting his reelection as one of our trustees.

He’s the kind of down-to-earth fellow who would prefer they not be there in the first place.

And, he won, handily—soon to commence his 29th consecutive year in office.

My friend John Scheurer did not do as well in his first attempt at public office—a seat on the Madison Board of Education. But, we will be better served as a community if he does succeed one day.

Like Fritz, John is a quiet, intelligent guy who has a lot to offer in public service. Voters out there will be doing themselves a favor when they recognize that.

And my favorite mayor lost. Long-time Bellville village mayor Carolynn Studenmund was defeated after 22 years of service. I don’t know why, but, when the dust settles she and the town will realize we all are better off because she was there. Thanks Mayor!

The voters in Mansfield finally approved an operating levy for the city schools. They and the state recently built a castle of a high-school up there while the system has been flirting with academic failure for years and discipline in the hallways nearly requires the presence of the national guard. I wish them luck.

Now, unfortunately, the country’s sanity will suffer an accelerating assault by the national political circus of the 2008 campaign--which seemed to start several years ago.

Heaven help us.