Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Bugs and other pests

If you use the American-style dates, then a bit more than an hour after midnight tonight is a special time; 01:02:03 04/05/06.

During a conference call yesterday, the project leader told us that our customer was taking a particular issue very seriously. "They're holding the stick to the mud" said the project leader.

A local extermination business has a sign on the side of their building, showing the pest of the month. This month it's skunks. On the front window, they have a sign about the Bug Club, where kids can learn about entymology. "Have your next party here." Um, no, thanks. Besides, Yucca Mountain looks like a much better place for kids.

Periodically, I check the referrer logs for this journal. The logs don't tell me the user name or email address of the person visiting the site, but they show details such operating system, browser version, IP address and domain name of the Internet service provider. It's interesting stuff. Someone from Costa Rica visited yesterday. Some of entries show up frequently; others are new. This one, though, spooked me a bit.

You may to give up your plans to build a new communications infrastructure with tin cans and string; someone has already patented the idea. (Via)

Finally, Tom DeLay, aka "The Hammer," is stepping down from Congress and will not seek re-election in the fall. Schadenfreude is a malicious delight in the misfortune of others. Shall we succumb to that temptation? Well, maybe a little. (His congressional site is here. His official website is here. As a footnote, his web site has no privacy policy.)
Posted by Karl Hakkarainen at 5:57 PM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings from sunny Tucson AZ,

My name is Kevin Keresey, and I hail from The Chair City.

I recently stumbled on your polyglot blog while searching for this info: "When did Kay's Drive In" open? Was not able to find anything more than "the early '60's", which was from, of all sources, your blog.

I'm kinda in one of those retro moods in which I am researching my youth as I age. Next year will be the same year anniversary of my HS graduation as my "nerd score", a mere 34.

As a Gardner High grad of 1973 living here since '77, I probably am coming to terms with my hometown and its memories, which I had conveniently stuffed in the attic of my mind. So I have researched places I used to work (Conant-Ball, Heywood-Wakefield), my old high school football team & GHS football history, the ex-World's Biggest Chair on Elm Street, the defunct Mohawk Drive-In, Whalom Park, and many other places, most of which are long gone. A non-stop fun-ride of sadness and loss. But "such is life", as some Scandinavian philsopher must have said. Or was that Woody Allen?

While researching Conant-Ball, I came across a blog by the purchasing agent---Kay---at Henry Heywood Hospital with whom I have had a 5-month, at-least-3-emails-a-day ongoing fun ride. A kindred spirit who graduated 4 years before me.

The Web is a fascinating tool, a veritable synchronicity magnet at times, and when I read your blog I realized "here's a guy like myself, except who didn't do drugs like myself; a person who, as Frank Zappa (a notorious non-drug user) said, should probably not have done drugs. Unlike certain benighted conservatives, I don't believe it automatically puts me in the bad guy category, but damage was done by all the Guinness and pot, and cheap beer and acid and various recreational things. None of today's scourges (meth, heroin, crack) ever entered my system, of which I am proud.

I therefore, since February 26, 1993, count myself in the "recovering community", hardly giving it a notice, yet being thankful most days. I wish I could somehow have the capacity for such a wide range of interests as you show on your blog, but I'm human and must realize my limits (which I would like to see diminish as I age, not increase).

For 22 years I have painted signs (up to 40' long in one case) and restored aged signage, in Tucson. With more motivation I could make 3-5 times what I meagerly make now. I also work part time in a so-called "health-food" store, which helps me feed my brain what it needs. No excessive fads or trends have made their way into my daily life but I am no picture of perfect health.

Eddie Van Halen, whom I can say never really impressed me all that much, lost part of his tongue to cancer a few years ago, hence the gap-toothed homeless look in March. Oh, and the crack, too. No matter how low I get, which can be quite low, I can be grateful I am not in his shoes.

After doing a sandblasted wooden sign last July for a retired U of AZ ergonomics professor from England who called me "old chap" without any affectation, I was able to buy the computer I am now using. Probably I have learned more since early August than I learned in the previous 49 years combined. [unintentional flattery alert] Your wide range of interests is quite amazing, no flattery intended, and I for one am impressed. Usually people have a "niche interest" that feels safe, yet you are all over the map. With even a 1946 map of Philipston. This is the stuff "impressed" is made of.

The last time I was in Gardner was in 1997 to visit my 33-year friend Tom Beauregard in Hubbardston. His kids are now 9 years older, and Tom has now been married 26 years. Prior to that I visited in 1992 for my mother's funeral in February. My mom was a nurse at HHH---graduated from the nursing school in 1937, which had its last class graduate in '70 and is now an auxiliary building for the hospital---and at rich Gardnerites' homes for years and years.

Later in '92, in June, I returned to bring items from their house---my childhood home from 1955-77---down here in a small U-Haul attached to their well-maintained maroon Ford Fairmont, which I managed to keep on the road for 100,000 more miles and got rid of only 2 years ago. During that summer '92 visit, and also in the '97 visit, Kay's Dairy Bar was on the list of attractions. The "small" mixed swirl cone was a medium, the medium was a large and my choice, "large" was actually humungous. My choice was repeated several times during those visits.

My dad, Tom Keresey, knew Karl Seppala (spelling may not be right) who owned--and probably founded--Kay's along with, I guess, Kay. I vaguely remember her with glasses and her hair in a bun, and am not sure when they sold it or if/when they died, but from what I read the quality level is marginal now.

Dad died in 1990, was a 1927 GHS grad and was a bank manager for many years in S. Gardner and S. Ashburnham, as well as a teller from 1946-74 at what was called Worcester County National Bank, which became Shawmut sometime in the '80's, I think, then Fleet. When I looked up my hoop team (mainly out of a sense of tradition) the Celtics, I noticed they are no longer at Fleet Center, but at a building sporting an odd amalgam of blandness: TD Banknorth. (from Toronto). Life is change. "Change is the new normal." Change is so highly overrated. And in my opinion, not usually for the better.

I stay static and occasionally make brave bursts forth into change, preferring to retreat again into a comfort zone. We all have our own, and we all are doing the best we can at any given moment. To quote your blog: "my sentiments toward my fellow travelers have soften(ed). These are not intrinsically mean-spirited, self-centered, or feral people." Well, I am self-centered and feral, but it's a self-aware, sensitive ferality. Hardly mean-spirited at all, except in traffic now and then.

The Red Sox winning the Series was something my dad would have loved to see. I have all 4 games, each on a separate VHS tape, in a shrine-like area. Just knowing they are there is a comfort. Having seen the Buckner Lapse on TV here in '86, I never got my hopes up too much for the Sox. Oh, and I also have the infamous "Pedro knocks Zimmer down" game on tape. The cast of characters (Millar, Pedro, Traitor---I mean Damon, Bellhorn and Lowe) are now a diaspora across the baseball landscape, but who knew that a breakfast cereal (Coco Crisp) could have any beneficial impact to the Sox in 2006? He is.

This is meandering along quite nicely but I am running out of time and you, patience. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed your blog immensely and could be intellectually nourished from it exclusively in times of 'Net drought. The postcard of South Gardner in the early 1900's....the "Ha Ha! What goes around comes around" Schadenfreude (Yes, let's!)....the notion that chocolate can worsen depression (What? Dark chocolate is good for the disposition, having pseudo-cannabinoids that affect mood in a positive way. But just dark, not milk, chocolate)....all these and more have convinced me to bookmark your blog.

This decent, well-meaning, hike-enjoying, music-loving fellow traveler is very happy to have stumbled upon you in my search for info on Kay's. It is odd how I am corresponding with a new friend, Kay, after unsuccessfully looking up "when did Conant-Ball close?". I probably will never know the answers to the "when did Kay's open? or "when did the owners pass away?" questions, and you know what? It doesn't really matter. Queen and David Bohm would agree.

My best wishes to your family and please send me a line or two if you want.

'Kay?


Kevin Keresey

5:55 AM
Anonymous said...

I tried emailing this long-winded post above but was unable to.

My email address: k81vin@aol.com

If my nerd score was higher I could not only figure that out, but escape the clutches of AOL (6 months free service upon computer purchase, currently 'continuing on' at 23.90 a month.)

5:48 PM

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