Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Disturbed ... The Sound of Silence

Heard this for the first time today...blew me away:



It was released back in December, some 51 years after Simon & Garfunkle had premiered it.

And the Conan acoustic version:


Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left it's seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed
By the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening

People writing songs
That voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made
And the sign flashed out it's warning
And the words that it was forming

And the sign said
"The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of silence

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Republican Primary 2016

I know I have a track record that sucks at political prognostication, but ever since I saw buried in plain sight that Massachusetts set a new record in Republican primary turnout up by 20% over it's previous best years I've been dying to see OH & FL results.

Any other candidate and the Republican establishment would be pissing on Hillary's political grave already with turnout numbers like these:

Ohio 2008: 1,095,917
Ohio 2012: 1,213,879
Ohio 2016: 2,038,288 -- Trump in 2nd place out-polled the previous two primary winners. (Dems turned out 1.2M; had turned out 2.2M in '08)

Florida 2008: ~1.9M
Floriada 2012: 1,949,498
Florida 2016: 2,349,795
(Dems turned out 1.6M; had turned out 1.7M in '08)

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Working on the driveway

Pondering how I didn't think of using the Ratchet Rake on the driveway last fall...

Pre-filling some ruts...suppose I should have dragged and broken up the driveway first? We'll see how this does though.



Dragged out some of the big ones before I started going up and down the driveway:




I'm thinking I will let it be rained on this week, and maybe next weekend drag it some more to try and eliminate what I know are some low spots still. At least at this point is A LOT smoother!

2015 Peeper Report

First: Thursday 3/10 Full Blast: Friday 3/11 Earliest yet I believe!

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Splittin'

Rented a splitter from the American Rent-all up in Thompson, $97.84 and it's due back 8:30 tomorrow. (Used to be you could sneak a free day in when rental places were closed...these folks gave me a code to their fenced lot so it's due back even though they're closed :/)
Got home about 9:15am:

While it flips upright to handle logs that would be difficult to lift, it really hurts the back leaning over that way. So I only made them small enough to lift up to the splitter once it was horizontal again.




About 4:30pm I decided if I kept going I was tired enough I would probably hurt myself.

If I can move tomorrow morning, I'll go out between 7 and 8 and try to finish up before I need to head north with the splitter.


Finished up Sunday morning by going out 6:45 to 8am before I left to return it:

Only stuff left was well frozen to the ground, or needs some saw work. Probably about two or three hours to finish everything (after I get this stuff stacked).

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Brooklyn Election Rules...

To stash this somewhere...HB5388 is a proposed amendment to the special act that currently governs Brooklyn's elections:

http://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p128501coll3/id/61462

[256.] AN ACT PROVIDING FOR BIENNIAL ELECTIONS IN THE TOWN OF BROOKLYN. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: SECTION 1. At the annual town election of the town of Brooklyn to be held on the first Monday of October, 1929, and biennially there­after, there shall be elected three selectmen, two auditors, five constables, a collector of taxes, one member of the board of assessors, one member of the board of relief and three members of the town school committee, each of whom shall hold office for two years from the date of his election or until his successor shall have been elected and shall have qualified. There shall also be elected, at said election and biennially thereafter, a town clerk and a town treasurer, each of whom shall hold office for two years from the first Monday in January next succeeding his election. There shall also be elected, at said election, one member of the board of assessors, one member of the board of relief and three members of the town school committee, each of whom shall hold office for one year from the first Monday of October, 1930, or until his successor shall have been elected and shall have qualified. SEC. 2. At the biennial town election of the town of Brooklyn to be held on the first Monday of October, 1931, and biennially thereafter, there shall be elected three members of the board of assessors, three mem­bers of the board of relief and nine members of the town school committee, each of whom shall hold office for two years from the date of his election or until his successor shall have been elected and shall have qualified. SEC. 3. If the number of officers to be elected under the provisions of this act shall be even, no person shall vote for more than one-half of the number and, if the number to be elected shall be odd, no person shall vote for more than a bare majority of the number. SEC. 4. The electors of the town of Brooklyn are authorized to vote at town meetings in the same manner as they are authorized to vote at electors' meetings under the provisions of an act dividing the town of Brooklyn into voting districts, approved April 12, 1883, mutatis mutandis. Approved May 8, 1929.

http://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p128501coll3/id/63053

[367.] AN ACT AMENDING AN ACT PROVIDING FOR BIENNIAL ELECTIONS IN THE TOWN OF BROOKLYN. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: Section two of an act providing for biennial elections in the town of Brooklyn, approved May 8, 1929, is amended to read as follows: At the biennial election of the town of Brooklyn to be held on the first Monday of October, 1931. and biennially thereafter, there shall be elected three mem­bers of the board of assessors, and three members of the board of relief, each of whom shall hold office for two years from the date of his election and until his successor shall be elected and shall have qualified; and there shall be elected at said biennial election held on the first Monday of Oc­tober, 1931, and biennially thereafter, six members of the town school com­mittee, three of whom shall be from each major political party, and each of whom shall hold office for two years from the date of his election or until his successor shall be elected and shall have qualified. Approved May 8, 1931.