Manuals....

Seriously - there should be a law that when someone writes a manual - like for software or something - they have to speak English (if they are writing the English version)

Today I have 2 giant manuals to read about 2 totally different things - but I would swear that they were written by the same person who does not have English as their first language...

It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz when the scarecrow tells Dorothy to go "this way" and points in both directions - that is what the manuals do - there is one diagram that basically just points in every direction and just says - "do this" which is like saying we have no idea what we are talking about but if we put in a bunch of nice graphics with arrows - it will at least look good!

Not that I would want to write manuals for a living but come on... why?

Well - here's to hoping that you aren't sitting at work right now trying to read a manual that makes no sense! :-)

Finally.... Rain

Well,
It finally rained - I don't know how much Fulton got but in Schoolcraft we had over 2". I heard that Three Rivers got 5" not sure if that is true. I wonder if the rain will kill the Spider Mites? My dad has spider mites on his beans - they are gross little spider like bugs that kill th beans. Here's a picture of them and a description from the Internet.

Spider mites are common plant pests. Symptoms of injury include flecking, discoloration (bronzing) and scorching of leaves. Injury can lead to leaf loss and even plant death.
Natural enemies include small lady beetles, predatory mites, minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs and predatory thrips. One reason that spider mites become a problem is insecticides that kill their natural predators. Irrigation and moisture management can be important cultural controls for spider mites.

So hopefully the rain killed them or washed them away or something.... because otherwise we might have to call the press (about 10 years ago my dad was on the news talking about the Spider Mites - they were bad that year).

Looks like we will be able to move trees again - Bill is happy - have to do it quick though - he is going bear hunting at the end of the month.

Obelisk's

One thing I have been wanting to show you is the latest Obelisk that Bill & I made - we have made a few of these - they are yard decorations... anyway there is a store in Mattewan that sells pond supplies and equipment (think fish ponds for your yard) they wanted Bill to put some there to sell so we made one and took it over there... Here is a picture of it.

It looks wet because it wasn't totally dry when we took the picture. The cool thing though is Bill had a great idea and we are going to make more of them - but they will be even bettter (can't tell you what we are going to do yet - it is top secret) but once one is done then I will post a picture and show you.

Gramps Birthday

Friday night - we went over to Aunt Maude's house (Sandy) to celebrate my Grandpa's 86th birthday. I hope when I am 86 I can still do all the things he does - he still farms with my dad (long 8 - 10 hour days sometimes) and he still goes to Florida in the winter...

So - the amazing thing about this birthday party was looking around at all the kids we now have in our family. I remember for the longest time when we got together with my dad's side of the family - Trevor and I were the only kids - then for quite some time there were no kids....

Now look at all the kids - it was hilarious - they were all over the place playing with the basket of tractors and mowers and trucks. Even Lexi would go over to the basket and grab a toy and then 2 minutes later she would drop that one and grab a different one.

Little Sophie is the newest member of the family and her and Lexi hit it off (except when Lexi stole her toy - she is used to playing a little rough with Cole I guess)

Bill is still trying to get Lexi to say "Bill" although so far she is ignoring him - she can say plenty of words - I think she knows how much Bill wants her to say it - so she refuses... but when Cindi told lexi to go hug "papa" she ran over to my dad.... he is so proud of his grandaughter.

The picture of Lexi with the cake is from Bill trying to bribe her to say "Bill" with yummy yummy cake and frosting.

oh no NOT that BUTTON

Well,

I would love to tell you that things are going great at Stryker - which for the most part I guess they are... but I am learning that when you work in a job where you have lots of responsibility over the equipment that keeps the business running - you also have a lot of visibility when you make a mistake. (also known as don't make mistakes)

I remember when I decided to play soccer, Mr. Poveda used to say that the offense could make mistakes, the midfielders could make mistakes, the defense really shouldn't make mistakes and the goalie (Traci) was not allowed any mistakes.

Should've gotten used to it because that's exactly what it is like at work. Last week on Friday I was celebrating a great week after I fixed a problem that had really been bothering us. Then a contractor called and needed an address for a piece of equipment he was going to add to our network.

Let me digress a little - the backbone of a network is a bunch of switches, (shown in the picture above) these switches are what all the computers, phones and equipment plug into to get connections to the network. The switches are very important as they contain the configuration for the network and tell the computers and other things how to get the information they need so the computers work. We probably have 40 or so of these switches in the 4 buildings I am responsible for.

Ok so back to the contractor - he needs an address... well, on the front of one of these switches there is a button - the button is labeled MODE

You can see the MODE button on the left hand side it is small and black... anyway the little words above the button are status lights - for example when you have multiple switches connected together you push that button and it tells you which switch is switch #1 switch #2 etc. So I asked the contractor to push the button and tell me which switch he was plugging his equipment into. As far as I knew at that point that is the only thing that button could do.

SO - he pressed the button, except he held it down instead of pushing and letting go and he deleted the entire configuration that was stored in the switch. Of course no one even our CISCO contractor knew that button was capable of that! SO.. needless to say, I spend the entire day Friday reconfiguring the switch while everyone in that entire building stood around because they could no longer work.... this was not my idea of fun and no one was impressed... I had to fill out a report explaining what happened... under root cause of the problem I put Traci asked the contractor to push a button. Everyone loved that - under resolution - NO MORE BUTTON PUSHING!

So anyway - live and learn - but my new resolve is to go back to the good old days of playing soccer goalie - no mistakes no mistakes - please don't kick the ball at me - no mistakes no mistakes...

Keepin Up With the Blogging

So,

I haven't actually been keeping up with the blogging - I know everyone is shocked!!! I am going to try to do better... I do have a few funny stories to tell all of you though!

A few weeks ago, Bill & I woke up to find out our big dog Neo was gone... now for those of you who haven't met Neo - his picture is on the front page but I am not sure it does him justice. He is all of 130 pounds and he is black and usually pretty furry which makes him a little intimidating to people who have not met him.

Well I went looking for him and it didn't take long before a farmer comes zooming buy on his 4-wheeler... so I flagged him down and asked him if he had noticed a big black dog roaming around.

He had - he was working on the detasseling crew that was working in the field by my house and Neo the wonderdog had been detasseling with the kids since 5:00 a.m. He followed them through the entire field - and even took a ride on the machines with them. When I finally found him he was so exhausted he was sleeping in the shade by the bus. Everyone loved him and I am hoping he gets his paycheck soon.

Lilly is Here

For all of you who haven't heard - Lillian Rose Briggs is here. She was born on July 2nd and weighed in at 7.6oz and 20". Here's a picture of her on her birthday a few hours after she was born. (I know its not a very good picture - waiting to get better ones from Lyz)

She is doing great and so is the rest of the family - however Lyz tells us that Lilly is teaching Rilley to scream... uh oh... I guess that is what little sisters are for.