Month: October 2019

I wanted to somewhat recreate a photo from near this location that I had taken years before – it always seems to have nice reds in the trees at this particular cemetery in Arlington, Mass and it’s on the way home. So I pulled over real quick and did a quick jaunt through. I found he original location and took some shots but wasn’t really wowed by them this year – I was going to put one of those up but as I was leaving I turned to my left and saw the structure you see in this shot and I felt it might provide a good frame. I think it came out pretty good. I am wishing I had maybe visited a week earlier since we’ve had a lot of wind and rain lately so a lot of the leaves had fallen off the trees. I think if the trees were fuller in this shot it may have looked even better. Maples do produce the best reds I feel.

Meanwhile back at Earth-1 we’ve had some furnace issues but better to take care of that now then to wait until it really gets cold. Anyways that’s all set now too – seemed to be some kind of wiring issue as to why the radiators weren’t producing heat – I even bled them all the other night.

Got back from doing some errands today. Had to get some candy to hand out later next week. Also picked up a bunch of hearing aid size batteries to replace the dead ones in this skull light up thing that we use every year as a decoration. I totally sure I had gotten the right size but when I placed them into old ‘Skully’ it worked and lit up brightly. Why the hell it would need three of them is beyond me. I ended up going to this brand new CVS they just recently opened across the street from the one it was replacing and I was curious to see what it looked like inside. They all pretty much look the same, although this new one is definitely bigger than the one it replaced and even had a fairly large grocery section.

Also spent the afternoon replacing the door summer screens to the house with the solid glass panes because the weather is turning cooler and cooler now. Should keep the heat in a little better as well. Oh, and my lens cap finally arrived today to replace the one I lost in the fields of Long Valley, NJ last week.

Been spending the last couple of days learning to run the Moodle LMS and it’s Drupal front end. Not to toot my my own horn, but I do think I’m picking it up rather quickly. It’s not the mist user friendly software in the world and the user interface (UI) is pretty clunky – but it’s some open source free tool so what does one expect. I even created my own example course today with an assignment, a video to watch, and a quiz that one must pass in order to get the certificate of completion. So I think I have the basics down. Seems like they mostly use this tool for users to self-learn so don’t have to do any grading or any of that other teacher kind of stuff. I found some really helpful videos on how to use the software on LinkedIn of all places. Guess I’ll still play around with it until I get some actual requests to start building some real course material. It’s not that bad really once you figure out where everything is (kinda all over the place and like I said, not the most intuitive interface) but I can deal.

Spent the weekend in Long Valley, NJ doing the pumpkin thing. Met up with some folks too who needed an ear, but didn’t stay long. Did get called “Massholes” down in Jerz which was kinda funny. Picked a pumpkim myself and even a gourd, as is my custom. This particular gourd is kind of cool because it naturally grew somewhat in the shape of a starfish. Never saw anything like that before. I also lost my lens cap in the field on the hayride back but I’ve since placed another one on order.

Finally picked Sean, the pumpkin we’ve been growing up here. He looks a little deformed on one side actually but it’s all good.

• Picked up bagged some leaves that had fallen off the trees.
• Finally got a haircut. Much needed and I really like how it came out.
• Went to the store to get some minor snacks for myself
• Went to the Depot to get some batteries and a nice celosia I saw last week on sale. The batteries are for the exercise bike we got for free last week. Good model. How often it actually gets used – time will tell. It works!
• Caught up on a bunch of little things around here.
• For some reason, the town is ripping up the grass edgings along the street – I imagine they are going to replant it new?

I’m currently in training learning how to administer an LMS (Learning Management System) called Moodle. It’s basically a tool that allows teachers and such to provide online courses to their students and it allows them to do grades and other things of that sort all online. Could be a new direction for me, so I’m giving it the old try.

Beautiful couple of days here – decided to spend it doing a bit of leaf peeping, and saying hello to our animal friends down at the sanctuary. Also stopped by an apple orchard and got some apples for making some apple stuff probably later today, a huge butternut squash from the farm, and some other grocery odds and ends. Also getting the place ready for the upcoming seasons, shutting down the outdoor hoses, moving the grill into the storage shed, etc.