Calculus and the Mind's Eye

My wife and #3 daughter are teaching/tutoring kids from another home schooling family this afternoon. One of the subjects is arithmetic, a useful skill but not one of my favorite academic disciplines.

Arithmetic isn't quite the same as mathematics, and that's almost another topic. My wife is the math whiz of the family: no surprise, since she's also the one with a degree in computer science. I'm more like my father: much to the frustration of school teachers and administrators who looked at my aptitude test scores, which showed considerable mathematical ability; and my report cards, which definitely didn't.

I think part of the explanation is how our brains 'do the math.'

My father told me about a test he took in calculus class. One of the test's questions described two cylinders which intersected. Students were supposed to pick the intersection's volume from a list of numbers, showing the calculations they used to arrive at that number.

While everyone else started using calculus to determine how much volume the cylinders shared, my father imagined what the cylinders looked like, looked at the cubage where they went through each other, and checked off that number: which was one of the possible values shown on the test.

Then he set about writing down what he hoped was the set of equations that would give that answer.

When the test came back, he'd gotten that problem wrong.

He was the only one in the class to get the right result for the intersection's volume: but his written math wasn't even close to being correct.

I'm the same way. My mind's eye has excellent vision, but I never passed calculus class.

Asking for the Boss

The new garage is getting closer to being done. This afternoon, one of the folks who were working on the floor knocked on the back door. Or, rather, what had been the back door before it became the door from the living room into a sort of back entry/mudroom/whatever.

He told me he was looking for the boss. My wife wasn't home at the time, and wouldn't be for a few hours: and he needed her 'okay' before he'd start sealing the floor. Not mine. Hers.

He told me how to show the floor as it would look after sealant and wax went on: essentially, spill water on it and mop it around. I said something like 'got it,' then he asked me for some paper. He wrote down his phone number: and instructions for how to show the floor as it would look after sealant and wax went on.

Several years ago, a technician who'd been called in by my wife wouldn't ask her any questions. The three of us were in the same room, I'd told him that I didn't know anything about the issue at hand - and he'd ask me a question, I'd tell my wife what he'd said, she'd tell me, and I'd tell him. At least this time my wife wasn't there. And I've done enough customer service to know that not everybody's able to hold a detailed message in memory.

The floor is concrete, now acid-washed, and quite ready for sealing. I hope that the rich mottled-brown color looks the way it did this afternoon. That's one attractive floor treatment.

Apart from that, my son's well-settled into his office, we've got wire cages around the garage's fluorescent tubes, and the pass-through from the office to the living room is cut, with doors/hatches in place.

My wife's been very patient, waiting to get her garage/workshop. I'm glad it's almost entirely done.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Men, Women, Differences, and Equality"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (May 2, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Power Tools and Getting a Grip
• "New Office"
  (March 28, 2012)
• "Home Schooling, a Garage, a Desk, and Business"
  (March 26, 2012)
• "Hey, I Can See In This Room!"
  (March 2, 2012)

Feeling Under the Weather, & a Video Camera

My wife and #3 daughter came home early, from minding the shop. They've got one more day of filling in for my father-in-law - and my wife tells me she plans to take it very easy tomorrow. Good idea. She wasn't feeling too well this afternoon. And she's skipping Soo Bahk Do tonight.

When she does that: I know my wife isn't feeling well.

Oh, well: we've been through this thing before, quite a lot over the years. We both take that 'in sickness or in health' thing seriously. And she's had me to put up with: so I'm glad to be able to turn around and be helpful for her.

My son's been talking about a video camera he's interested in. I know how it is to be enthusiastic about a gadget - and the importance of due diligence. I think this will be another learning experience for him.

Apart from that, it's been raining; the snow is melting; and I'm looking forward to warmer, dryer weather.

Wednesday Evening: A Rabbit, Medication, Routines and Rain

My wife and son are getting medicine on Giol's foot as I start writing this. It's a daily ritual we'll continue until the prescribed treatment's over.

Giol - #1 daughter's rabbit - does not like the treatment, but handles it rather well (aside from covering an eye with his paw). until the medicine touched the sore spot. Then he kicked - vigorously.

Now he's getting a treat - somewhat in the manner of a child at the dentist's.

Soon, my son and I will be reading Garfield and singing that song.

It's been a gray, rainy day here in Sauk Centre: I went out this afternoon to take some photos for a Sauk Centre Journal entry.

Aside from that, and the usual research and writing, it's been a fairly normal day. Except that I slept until almost noon. I sincerely hope I'm not coming down with something.

Sunday: Father's Day 2009 - Surprising my Wife

When my wife came back from church today, she shouted "Happy Father's Day" up the stairs. It was about a quarter to noon, and she apparently expected me to be still in bed.

I wasn't: Which she discovered as she rounded the corner into the kitchen, and saw me in the north room, at (what else?) the computer.

Now, I'm going up to spend a little time relaxing in a lazy boy chair in the attic, reading. It's been a good day.

A Week and a Day After the Crash

It's been a week and a day since my wife and #3 daughter co-starred in a car wreck. They're doing pretty well, under the circumstances. #3 daughter has 'whiplash.' There's reason to believe that the muscles that are clamping to disks in her neck together will unclench. Maybe before the cast on her right arm comes off. Broken wrist.

Both of the ladies are sleeping a great deal more than they usually do: which does seem to have something to do with the healing process.

'Well, Today I Didn't Do it'

There's a cartoon I saw, a long time ago. One panel, showing a living room in chaos. A woman was sprawled on the couch, talking to a man who was coming in the door. The caption was something like this:

"You've ask me what I do with my time all day? Today, I didn't do it."

I'm not as surprised as that husband: I've handled housework from time to time over the years. Good thing, too, because my wife and #3 daughter needed relaxation and no stress. Still do. There was our son, but he's a 12-going-on-13-year-old boy. A fine fellow: but you get the idea.

So, for a week and a day now, I've been taking care of some of the more obvious, critical, chores, and making sure that my wife and #3 daughter can relax. (I'll grant that expecting my wife to relax while I worked in her kitchen was a bit much.)

I even took off the slippers I normally wear, before going into the room where the ladies are resting. Those things clomp, and I'm noisy enough as it is.

Ain't I a swell guy?

Seriously - all this comes under the heading of 'least I can do' stuff. I'm just glad I'm able to lend a hand.

A Milestone

Yesterday and today, my wife has told me and our son to get the dishes and kitchen taken care of after the evening meal. Before, I'd just do it.

Getting back to the routine of issuing instructions for household chores is, I think, a good sign that she's feeling better.

Meanwhile, the two ladies are walking more freely - and that's all the exercise they're supposed to do for the time being. I think it's getting to be a bit frustrating.

Wednesday: Another Day, and a Traffic Accident

My wife and #3 daughter were in Osakis, for a guitar lesson. From the time I got the call, my guess is that they were on their way home when another vehicle hit the van.

The highway patrol called, with the news, and let me know that the ladies were on their way to the hospital in Alexandria. And, naturally enough, assumed that I'd be driving up to see them.

One little detail: My wife's car, and #3 daughter's are currently a sort of lawn sculpture south of the driveway, with a medium snow cover over them. I think that the ladies have the keys with them: and in any event, the two cars have to be pried apart before either is driven. Nothing serious, but the side of one is pressed rather firmly into the side of the other.

My wife has a plan for getting them apart, and I think I know what it is - but it'll require that we have one or both sets of keys here.

One more thing: they've been sitting there so long, that I'm not at all convinced that either of them will run. Those batteries could be drained by now.

Good news: it doesn't look like either of their injuries are particularly serious. But, they're still being checked out

Now, to see what I can do about feeding myself.

Tuesday: I Overslept

My body's probably trying to tell me something. I overslept this morning.

But, once up, I got some writing done. After lunch, I went to the place where I used to work and sorted through a few cubic feet of papers - part of an effort to clear unnecessary stuff out of the building. That left me with some time to check out an item at Wal-Mart, and get photos of the Ash Street Project.

That street and utilities replacement and improvement project is coming along well, as far as I can tell. Today's obvious bit of progress was a long stretch of sidewalk getting poured on the west side of the Stearns County Fairgrounds.

Our son got home before I did. He spent most of the day at the Arrowwood Water Park, up in Alexandria. Near Alexandria, actually, if it's the place I'm thinking of. I'm told that he had a good time. This has been a big week for him already: two major go-and-have-fun field trips in a row.

My wife and #3 daughter moved at least half of the furniture in the north room around this morning. She tells me that it's in preparation of more stuff coming in.

That gives me quite an incentive to get busy at organizing my stuff - and getting rid of the extra/outdated/useless papers.

The top event of the day was my wife and #3 daughter's recital this evening. We set off in plenty of time to get to Camphill Village, about 12 miles north of town, with time left over for the ladies to get their instruments tuned.

As we were driving up Highway 71, #3 daughter asked me if a particular road was the one we were supposed to turn off on. I replied, 'no,' and drove on. A few miles later, my wife observed that we'd gone too far.

They were both right. We'd gone too far, and I should have turned at the road #3 daughter asked about.

We got there in time, though.

And, the recital went well. It was nice, listening to the music, and one of the babies near me decided that I was someone to smile at.

The other major event of the day was my main computer developing some sort of trouble - most likely with its hard drive. The earliest I can bring it in to be fixed is Tuesday, next week. Frustrating, but I'm hopeful that I haven't lost the data.

Meanwhile, my webcam that looks at Ash Street is out of service.

When I told our son that I planned to use my old laptop to stand in for the main computer on the Ash Street webcam, he said he'd thought of the same thing - which I believe - and added, "great minds think alike, hmm?" That's my boy.

My Wife Washed My Coffee Cup!

When I got back from the weekend trip that I wrote about earlier, I discovered that my coffee cup was no longer in its usual position. After several minutes of searching, a thought hit me.

Moments later, I was checking the dishwasher. There, near the front of a clean load, was my coffee cup.

Clean. Outside and inside.

Holding the now-white cup in my hand, I showed my wife the now characterless container.

She acknowledged that my coffee would taste different now, but observed that it should be back to normal in a few weeks.

Wednesday: Tomorrow's Valentine's Day

This morning, I discovered what our son and #3 daughter had been up to in the back yard yesterday afternoon.
They'd aligned the Valentine's heart with the bathroom window: right where my wife and I would see it. what a great way to start this day.

The rest of the day, for me, was spent getting work done on the computer - and doing some long-overdue clearing out of un-needed files. It's amazing how much space photos take up.

At the other end of the house, my wife was getting her living room flooring put in place. The methodical pro she'd found to do the job, and his helper, have the room looking better than it ever has. My opinion. She's been wanting to get a hard surface, and something that looks classier than the wildly-colored carpet, in that room ever since we moved here.

There's going to be some nostalgic remembering of the carpet. The kids used to play 'shape tag' on it, where they could only step on certain shapes. Even so, I'm pretty sure they'll like the change.

It was worth not being able to use the room for a day.

Tomorrow's Valentine's Day. And, to my slight surprise, I actually remembered to get something for my wife.

Our son told me that, when his teacher got a call from the office to tell her that his Valentine's card holder had been dropped off, she said something like, 'it's what size?!'

Saturday: Two Daughters, a Son, and a Cousin

Actually, the visitor today is my niece, but I think of her as "one of the cousins," since that's her relationship to our kids.

Daughter #2 came home this afternoon, after a visit with Grandpa. (More relational title confusion. He's her grandfather, my father, and my wife's father-in-law.) She had good memories, and a car-full of stuff from his household. He and we have been transferring material out of his house on each visit, so that there'll be less to move when he does move out.

Daughters #2 and 3 had a great time, visiting, with my wife contributing to the conversation. I was taking a nap through part of that.

Daughter #2 collected me a little later, so that I could make a video of her giving #3 daughter a trombone lesson. I think that worked out rather well: it looks like the files all came out okay. Now, I need to patch them together and put them in a format that the college can read.

The cousin came over around supper time. Daughter #2 collected her from my wife's father's house. The cousin/niece's family is visiting there today. And tomorrow, I assume. There's a fair number of them, so that Grandpa will get thoroughly visited this weekend.

My wife told me why we ran out of light bulbs.

When I replace light bulbs, I put the defunct bulbs into that cardboard cover that the new bulbs come in. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do: by securing them that way, I ensure that they won't roll away, and quite likely roll off something and break.

After listening carefully to my wife's description of the situation, I now realize that it would probably be a good idea to promptly dispose of the spent light bulbs, and the covers.

Apparently, I haven't been doing that. It's much easier to put them on, say, the kitchen table, where I'll remember to throw them away. Later.

Anonymous members of the household, seeing unattended boxed light bulbs, naturally put them back in storage. And I don't seem to notice the burned-out light bulbs that aren't there.

Which explains why we've got quite a few dead light bulbs, stored carefully where the new ones should be.

Happily, I have a patient wife: and she's used to me by now.

Thursday: Getting Back in the Habit

I see it's been quite a while since I updated this blog. High time I changed that.

My son had a four-day weekend: Monday and Tuesday this week were the school's quarter break. That was good news: I was able to grill lunch those days. I'd missed Saturday and Sunday: I was getting my son and a daughter up for a visit to Grandpa on those days.

#3 daughter and my son have been digging holes in the back yard. Lots of fun for them, and this household never aspired to a 'house beautiful' yard. We prefer the lived-in look.

(In case I haven't mentioned this before, I often refer to our three daughters as #1, #2, and #3. It's birth order: nothing to do with relative value or consideration.)

My wife spent quite a bit of October being sick: nothing serious, just enough to make her feel lousy, and drastically reduce her efficiency. She's getting better, I trust.

And, I see I've been neglecting this blog. That should end now. I've been reviewing my schedule: more about that in Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind.

My wife and the two kids who are still at home came back from Soo Bahk Do (related to Karate) a little while ago, I've got this written, and so it's time to sign off.

Wife and Daughter on the Phone: Hypothetical Wedding Plans

My wife and one of our daughters is on the phone as I write this. Happily, we've got one of those phone plans that are affordable, and have unlimited long-distance time.

The daughter in question doesn't have a husband-in-process, yet, but the two ladies were discussing weddings and related topics anyway.

Just as well to review ahead of the crunch, I suppose.

Something I hadn't thought of came up: what to put the groom in. A tux is expensive to rent, and crazy expensive to buy. Besides, I learned, 'they always foul up the size.' There's photographic evidence of that: One of my brothers-in-law's wedding pictures show a marvelously ill-fitting tuxedo.

My wife had me get a suit for the wedding, so I could use the thing later.

Today, I found out why she tagged along for the selection and fitting.

I heard my wife of a quarter century tell one of our daughters that the daughter needs to take her guy to the store, make use he picks out something suitable, and then make sure that the fitting is done right.

'He won't ask your guy, he'll look at you,' my wife said, about the clothing store's employee and the fitting of the suit. About the groom-to-be, my said, "he might as well be a mannequin."

What can I say? She's right.

Saturday Night

I'd better warn you up front: This is a rambling narrative of what life was like here at our house today. Nothing exciting happened, but on the chance that you'll find something interesting, here goes:

It's quiet now, understandably: everyone else in the family has the good sense to be in bed and asleep at this hour. I'm still up, getting some work done and, now, writing this post.

It's been a good weekend so far. The rain is fine: we need it this year. And, it didn't keep me from grilling lunch today. I wrote a word or two about grilling in the rain, with a picture our second-oldest daughter took, over on Easy Griller.

My wife and two (I believe) daughters were at rummage sales this morning. I think it's partly for fun, but they bring home practical items, too. Most of my shirts arrive that way. For a family that isn't unnecessarily burdened with wealth, it's a good way to get serviceable clothing and equipment at a fraction of retail prices.

I spent the afternoon at a very part-time job, got home in time for supper, watched a television show we'd taped earlier, and relaxed. Sort of.

Actually, I worked on some online projects while having a sporadic conversation with our oldest daughter, had a break from that (break from the work, not so much the conversation) for family prayers, and then back to trying to multi task writing and conversation. The latter didn't work so well. The conversation, which swung back and forth between theology and history, was okay. The writing, truthfully, had to wait until I wasn't distracted.

Meanwhile, my wife and second oldest daughter were in the kitchen, talking over what she'll be doing for the next two years. That's how long she has left in college, if all goes well. Our son and third-oldest daughter must have been somewhere out of sight.

He's still enthusiastic (understatement) about his new-to-him laptop. He's downloaded anti-malware software to supplement the anti-virus package he has, found a large number - I think around a hundred - items that shouldn't be there, eliminated them, and now his gadget works faster.

Back to School Looms

It's about a week before back-to-school makes the transition here from a looming threat to a current crisis.

Our second daughter is returning to college around the end of the month. It's been great, having all four kids under the roof this summer. Right now, I'm a safe two rooms away as daughters #2 and 3, and my wife, watching "High School Musical 2." The ladies tend to whoop, loudly, at parts they like.

Daughter #1 is with me, doing something with her new laptop, in the area we're using for computers and music now.

I'm going to miss #2 when she leaves. But, that's how life goes.

Our son is, most likely, with the ladies, and probably oblivious to anything other than whatever he as going on, in the laptop that he 'inherited' from his big sister.

Earlier today, my wife and #2 daughter got part of the north face of the house painted today. They rented a sort of do-it-yourself cherry-picker for the job. We live in a farmhouse that got enveloped by the town. It's somewhat higher than most houses are, these days.

Good grief! I haven't posted since Monday. I don't know if I should call the week busy, or crazy. I'll settle for busy. That has a better ring to it.

New Hips and the Incredible Collapsing Chair

One of my daughters observed that I got new hips just in time. In common with the other ladies of this household, she's probably right.

I was up late tonight, trying to wrap up enough tasks to make for a relaxing Sunday. I'd left my laptop running in the living room. The lights were off there, but there was plenty of illumination from the doorway. I crossed the room, turned, sat in the chair I've been using, and moved it back.

I've had that chair for quite a few years now. Almost ten, I think. It's one of those inexpensive stackable things you see in front of convenience stores during summer months. Quite comfortable.

The first sign of trouble was a distinct, sharp sound: emanating from where the right rear leg of the chair had been.

That chair leg was now pursuing an independent career as a sort of kinetic art project.

The rest of the chair, with me on top, toppled backwards into the southwest corner of the living room until we met the floor and, in my case, the south wall.

At that point my eldest daughter, whose current residence is in this house, and who at that point was the closest to me, asked me if I was all right.

A reasonable question, deserving a reasonable answer. I abandoned my contemplation of the dark living room's shadow-shrouded ceiling, and answered that I was okay, but could use some help.

My wife and second-eldest daughter arrived to view the wreckage not much more than a minute later than the oldest daughter. Someone (I suspect it was my wife) had the presence of mind to turn on the light.

The chair's three remaining legs, together with my flip-flop-clad feet, blocked direct access to me, although I could extend my arms far enough for them to grab. After a well-intentioned, but doomed, effort to hoist me out by using my seat as a fulcrum, I suggested an alternate plan.

My wife grabbed one ankle, my second-oldest daughter grabbed the other, and they hauled me and the chair out of the corner like an oversize grain sack on a pallet.

That left me with enough room to roll out of the chair and get to my feet.

My oldest daughter brightly observed that my movements resembled those of a beached walrus.

I love my family. They put up with me, and I appreciate that.

What do the new hips have to do with this? I was able to move after getting dragged out, and I didn't scream once.