Made in the USA


Tennessee Wedding Vacation


Jun 02

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My wife and I recently drove from our northern Illinois home to eastern Tennessee for our nephew’s wedding, and made a little vacation out of the trip.  We don’t often get to take vacations, so we wanted to take in some of the sites along the way.  However, we could only take a couple of days on either side of the wedding day, so we still didn’t get to do a whole lot.  I had investigated a few attractions before we embarked, but we waited until we were on the road before deciding where our first excursion would be.  I was leaning toward letting Mammoth Cave be our first stop, but Kathy wasn’t interested in seeing another cave.  They all look the same to her.  I know all you spelunkers out there will disagree.  So we headed toward where one of my maps said Natural Stone Bridge was located, and found a motel a little north of there for the night. 

I then went online to get more detailed directions to the Natural Bridge, only to find we were actually 100 miles south of it.  The map I printed went to a lesser-known one that was a little harder to get to, and I did finally find the detailed directions to it, and discovered another attraction along the way.  So we decided to stop at Cumberland Falls first and then if there was time continue on to the Natural Bridge.

After spending the entire morning there, we decided not to venture to the bridge, but return to the highway and on to eastern Tennessee instead.  Once in Jonesborough, TN we toured the downtown historical district for a while, looked around in some of the shops, read some of the commemorative markers, etc.  Then we had to get ready for the rehearsal dinner, so that was all the sightseeing we could take in for the day.

The next day, after a late breakfast at the pancake house, we decided to head toward Greenville to view the Andrew Johnson Historic site, but while we stopped for lunch we asked a local about directions to it, and found out that the Iris Festival was going on and it might make finding a place to park a little difficult.  We thought he said Irish Festival, so we expected it to be rather festive, active, and crowded.  Since we didn’t want to risk being late for the wedding that afternoon, we once again altered our plans, and went to Davey Crockett’s birthplace instead.  This was a nice little drive in which we almost ran out of gas, with not a station to be seen along the way.  From there we returned to the motel to change clothes for the wedding.

The next day was Sunday, and as is our standard, we went to church, having chosen one in walking distance of the motel, Central Christian on Main Street in the historic district of Jonesborough.  When we arrived, three ladies were standing outside the front doors exchanging pleasantries, and interrupted their conversing to greet us warmly and cheerfully.  They made sure we felt welcome at their little church.  It was a wonderful service, followed by a baptism, for which we couldn’t stay because we had to check out of the motel.

After lunch, we returned to the Greenville area to take in the Andrew Johnson site and the Iris Festival we missed the day before.  And although we expected it to be less busy than our perception on an Irish Festival, the Iris Festival is still a big deal in that part of the country.  Then it was time to hit the road to return to northern Illinois.  We dodged a dinnertime thunderstorm by stopping for dinner at Shoney’s, then drove on to a motel just a little south of Lexington.

Monday was the last leg of the trip, and we planned on stopping at the Ben Hur Museum, which we found to be closed on Mondays, and the Railway Museum, which is also closed on Mondays.  Oh, well.  I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my wife outside of the caves.  After all,  it’s not so much about the destination as it is the journey.  Make the most of it.  Stop and smell the roses.  And love the one you’re with.

Tracy Henness

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But I Wasn’t Invited


Dec 08

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Last night my wife, Kathy, and I hosted the women’s Bible study Christmas party.  Not being a woman, and by inference not invited, my options included:
1) drop in on Darrell (taking him up in an invite)
2) go Christmas shopping
3) act as a waiter
4) disappear to the bedroom to finish up some grading before the next day’s final exam

I hesitated to take option 1 since I had a sore throat and he has two kids, and I didn’t want to risk infecting them.  This of course turned out to be a lame excuse since one of the ladies brought her 11 year old daughter, and another brought her month old daughter, so it was two kids at Darrell’s house or two kids at my house.

As for the second option I didn’t want to waste gas so I did the Christmas shopping on the way home from Rock Valley College.  Since my wife does the vast majority of our Christmas shopping there’s not much left for me to do.  So this quick stop delayed me just enough for my wife to call me and ask me to stop by the bank and then swing over to pick up one of the ladies coming to the party.  If I hadn’t stopped to shop I’d have already been home before she called.

The first two options were also out of the question after guests started to arrive.  Both cars got blocked in so I had to stay home.

I explained to the ladies later in the evening that I had the option of acting as a waiter, but chose not to on the grounds that I would probably spill something and ruin the evening.  They seemed to buy that excuse.

I included option 4 in my actual participation.  I helped move furniture, managed coats, directed parking, made myself generally helpful while trying to maintain my relative invisibility, finished my grading, directed traffic out of our driveway, and helped cleanup the house afterwards.

Overall it seemed the ladies had a delightful time.  It was good to hear all the laughter in the house (although it seemed loudest while I was alone in the bedroom grading assignments).  And Kathy, my wife, seemed please about the outcome of the evening (which was all I was really concerned about).  Kathy thanked me for sticking around and being helpful.

Tracy Henness

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Frozen Pipes


Jan 16

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 I learned an important lesson today. When you replace the filter cartridge in a whole-house water filter, make sure you flush the lines to all faucets in the house. I change the cartridge in my InstaPure water filter every 3 months, on the 15th day of January, April, July, and October. So I changed it yesterday because it was the 15th, without regard to the fact that we were experiencing near-record low temperatures for this area at the time. Then came the critical mistake. I didn’t run water through all the faucets after changing the filter. When changing the filter you introduce air and impurities into your pipes. This increases the chances under extreme cold temperatures of forming ice crystals in the pipes. So this morning I found that my failure resulted in freezing the hot water pipes between the kitchen and bath. We still had hot water to the kitchen, but not to the bathroom. The kitchen was fine because we washed the dishes after the change. We had cold water to the bathroom because the toilet was flushed a few times last night.

I spent 3 ½ hours thawing pipes this morning since the freeze was inside the wall of the southeast corner of the house. I already knew not to try to thaw them too quickly as they might burst. Patience was necessary to avoid the expense of new plumbing.  But as it was getting late, (I had already called in to work to explain that I would be late) and my patience was wavering, I prayed for God to speed up the process a bit.  Within about 5 minutes the water was flowing.  Why did I wait so long to pray??  I know better than that.  I guess that’s two important lessons today.

Tracy Henness

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Christmas Adventure


Dec 25

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Kathy and I left two days before Christmas to visit our daughter Karen in Philadelphia. Since she lives in a studio apartment she arranged with her landlord to let us sleep in his RV which he keeps parked behind her apartment. He left the keys with her, and she went in earlier in the day to turn the heat on low in preparation for our stay. When done she locked it up and went about her daily business.

She works at the Philadelphia airport, and since we were flying from Chicago – O’Hare to PHL she planned to wait there for our arrival after her shift. Since the weather had turned snowy before our scheduled flight it was delayed. The original 4:25pm departure was changed to 4:40pm. Not too bad. Then 6:05pm. Still not bad. Then 7:15pm, then 8:15pm, then back to 7:15pm, then again to 8:15pm. We finally took off about 9:15pm.

Karen also works at McDonald’s and was scheduled to work at 5:00am the next morning, so she called in because she knew she would be getting to bed quite late after an already long day. She didn’t know just how late that would be.

We arrived about midnight Philly time and had to wait till about 12:45am for the luggage. We then began the long trek to her apartment. Since she works at PHL she was parked in the employee lot to which they provide a shuttle. We weren’t aware just how far that was, so we experienced the long shuttle ride she takes every day that she works. From there it is nearly a 45 minute drive under normal conditions. These weren’t normal conditions. The roads were icy and slick. The emergency responders were kept busy with numerous traffic accidents. Some multi-vehicle accidents were causing the shutdown of several sections of major roadways. Although Kathy and I both felt a little uncomfortable about how closely Karen was tailing the vehicles ahead of her, we didn’t want to nag her since we understood she was anxious to get home, well actually more so to get something to eat since neither she nor I had had any sustenance since lunch. She pulled off the main route to head toward a place she knew would be open during the wee hours of the morning.

Then the excitement began. On a curve she hit a patch of black ice. She fought to keep from sliding too close to the parked cars on our right. I was sitting in the back so I was more aware of Kathy’s reaction than of the actual predicament. She was in the front and could see clearly what was about to transpire. I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” She crossed the center line after successfully avoiding the parked cars. But she didn’t relax even though there was no oncoming traffic. Again I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” But she was more concerned about getting back into her lane. Then the back of the car began to swerve outward and the front of the car struck the driver’s side door of a parked car. Karen’s car then spun on around until it came to a stop facing the direction we were heading. I had her pull on over to the curb and call the police.

Of course the police were quite busy and we had to wait a long time. As we sat there waiting several vehicles hit that same patch of ice and lost and thankfully regained control. I wondered whether we were safe sitting there but didn’t say anything to that effect. As the police finally approached they also showed some difficulty maintaining control on the ice patch. They asked very few questions about the details of the accident. However, since the car is still registered in our name they noticed we were from Illinois and commented that we should be used to driving in this type of weather. I replied that we generally get snow rather than ice.

Since the front bumper of the car had previously been damaged by a botched attempt to tow it, and had not yet been repaired, Karen’s car suffered only minimal damage. The lower panel of the driver’s side door suffered obvious cosmetic damage and the car slid sideways till the front tire on the passenger side was pressed against the curb. Thank God no one was injured, and neither car was disabled.

After getting the accident report filed they sent us on our way and Karen wanted me to drive the rest of the way. She gave up on the idea of stopping for something to eat. So the rest of that trip was uneventful. But when we got to the RV we couldn’t get in. We tried unsuccessfully for quite a while to get the door open before giving in to the option of sleeping in the apartment, Kathy and I in Karen’s bed and Karen on the couch. We slept late into the morning, though none of us quite soundly. Then we went out to eat breakfast. Karen decided to go to Denny’s, but when we got there we found a note on the door that their water pipes had frozen and burst, and were therefore closed. We then ventured to IHOP. It was nearly lunchtime by the time we got there.

After eating we went shopping for supplies (hardware, insulation, shelving, etc.) for the apartment. The rest of the day was spent assembling, hanging, winterizing, and generally wearing ourselves out before an early bedtime.

Tracy Henness

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Chaos Out of Order


Oct 29

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Yesterday I was working with our Customer Service Rep, Carla, on a new enhancement to our system when I noticed that her optical mouse was behaving rather erratically. She said it has been doing that a lot lately, so I began investigating the problem. I checked to connection at the back of the computer and it was securely plugged in. I wiggled the cord while holding the mouse still, but it made no erratic movements. It draws its power from the connection to the computer so it was not a weak battery issue.

Further manipulation of the mouse led me to notice that the problem seemed to occur when moving over certain areas on the mouse pad. I pulled the mouse pad out from under the mouse and used just the bare desk. The mouse behaved. I put the mouse back on the desk and moved the mouse across it and it still behaved. Then I noticed that I put the mouse pad in an orderly position, that is, the edge lined up parallel with the edge of the desk. But before I took it off the desk it was skewed about 20 degrees. So I put it back to a similar position, and the mouse became erratic again. I realigned the pad and the mouse behaved, skewed the pad and the problem came back.

I examined the graphic design on the pad (I had been ignoring it all along). The top two thirds contained a world atlas and the bottom had the company logo, name, and contact information of the vendor that sent the mouse pad as a promotional gift. The atlas image had the longitude and latitude grid. When the optical mouse crossed over the grid crossings it became confused by what appeared to be a sudden change in direction. So the orderly pattern on the skewed mouse pad created the disorderly response. Carla noted that the problem started after she got the new mouse pad. She has switched back to the old one.

Note to the vendor: Thanks anyway. We won’t hold it against you. It works just fine with mechanical mice. You had no way of knowing. Besides, we got a chuckle out of it.

Interestingly, the original optical mice required mouse pads with a grid pattern in order to work. Now it seems we should avoid grid patterns with modern optical mice.

Tracy Henness

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