Recycled Electrons - Blog of Keith Horowitz

We were over at friend's house for a Christmas Eve party. The adults play Trivial pursuit. Not many questions were being answered correctly, even with teams. So after a while we switched to Scrabble. It seems to me that since you can't play names, that basically all the words you can make have to be all lower case letters. So it seems to me that the Scrabble letters should really be all lower case printed on them instead of all upper case. And the blank should have a little zero printed in the corner. Just another on of those things I'm told I think too much about. :)

Between getting up early for the new job and being sick, I haven't had a lot of energy for much. The new job is okay. The people are nice. The guys training us are a bit rapid fire, but don't expect that I will get everything the first time. But I am picking up things rather quickly. Which is nice that I can get up to speed quickly. But it also gives me a feel for how un-creative this job is likely to be. My boys started 'winter' break as of this afternoon. I get off Friday (no pay). But I will not lose another paid day around New Year's. Which is mostly good news.

My youngest son kept asking to go to the beach while we were in FLorida. It was cool and windy for Florida on Saturday, but we went to the beach anyhow. I took some pictures along the same stretch of beach as the last few times I'd been down there. 2004-12-11 Sun going down on Fort Myers Beach Bird flying Birds in flight Birds along the shore Wind blowing interesting patterns with the sand Windy, cool day on Florida beach Beach - Gentle waves on Fort Myers Beach 2004-12-11 Fort Myers Beach Pier

I'm back from Florida. We all went down for a long weekend for my father's service. It wasn't as emotional as I expected. I got to see a bunch of relatives I don't see much, including a cousin I hadn't seen for about 9 years. The kids had a lot of fun in the hotel pool quite a few times over the weekend. The time just flew by. We got in late, and I drove down from Denver while the rest slept. I managed to catch a nap this afternoon which helped a lot. I wanted to thank all my blog friends for all their great support during this time. All your comments meant so much to me! Thank you all!

My father passed away on Sunday afternoon. He had Alzheimers for a number of years. I keep explaining to everyone who expects me to be devastated that I've already done a bunch of mourning. I know the service on Friday will be sad and emotional, but so far I haven't cried. I last saw him this past summer. I am sure he recognized me, but he was already showing that he didn't know who I was. So in my mind, I started to say goodbye then. When I went to my uncle's funeral a few months ago, and saw much cousins speaking about their father, I realized that I would be in that same spot in not too long. Sometimes with Alzheimers, the person's body stay much longer after their mind has gone. My dad was just at that point of slipping both complete beyond who he was and beyond the point of living comfortably. He was no longer happy. So it was a very good time for him to have his final rest. I was glad my sister was able to be with him to the end. His lung ...

The other day I got a call from home: there was no hot water. As the house and hot water heater was less than 4 years old, I was hopeful it was something simple - like maybe the kids played with a controls or that the pilot light somehow went out. I had trouble with the pilot light going out about 3 times back in New Jersey. When I got home, I hadn't remembered that the hot water heater was out. I remembered when I went to wash my hands with hot water. After I had just formed a bunch of hamburgers. Bad time to remember there was no hot water. I cleaned my hands as best as I could, and started warming some water on the stove. After dinner I went down to check the water heater. As I opened the door, I could tell it wasn't a simple problem. I heard a hissing noise. I saw water on the floor. As I got closer, I heard water spraying on top, going up the vent. And there appeared to be no heat in the system. I turned off the water and took off the top....

Reuters.com - Townsfolk Face Fight Over Cats and Dogs

Reuters UK - Eiffel Tower offers sky-high ice-skating challenge On the first floor platform. So all of you planning a visit to Disney in Paris can plan on a side trip - for a limited time!

From the interview I had Monday, I was told to expect a call from the section head on the East coast yesterday or today. I did not get the call yesterday. At work Yesterday I got an email that today they had a team-building outing planned. A number of the groups were going to see the movie National Treasure . I had just see the movie this past weekend. Also I wasn't sure of the value of going on a team-building outing with only 3 days left on the job. I was still undecided as the day went on. It was getting close to time to decide when the phone rang. It was the section head from the interview. He talked to me for about 10 minutes. Overall I thought it went well. I figured I had enough time to make it to the movie, and I decided that I was in the mood for popcorn. I also was losing concentration on the project I was trying to finish up, so I thought the movie would be a good break. I'd have to pay for the movie, but the company should pay for my time as if I ...

I have noticed that driving styles seem to change depending on the area of the country. I have noticed some trates in certain area. In New York, people are very likey to rush by in the right lane to cut you off at a squeeze - and this often backs up traffic. In New Jersey, many people like to run through stop signs. In Florida, they like to cut back very close in front of you after passing on the left - much closer than safe following distance, so you either have to slow down or wind up tailgating the person in front for more than few seconds. I hate driving in Florida. When I moved to Colorado 4 years ago, I noticed differences in the average driving style. You will see people move out of a merge lane way ahead of the merge - even when there is bad traffic - this lets traffic keept moving at a better pace than places where people rush to cut in front, stalling the merge. I noticed here that people would almost always come to a full stop at a stop sign. People also seemed to...