Some photos from the 2010 Air Show at Andrews.
Click and image below to enlarge or view the set at flickr.
I don’t particularly like itunes but I use it because I don’t have any practical alternative. Getting things onto my iphone requires it and I haven’t used anything music management that I’ve liked better. Over the years, I’ve learned to limit my expectations and this has kept me from getting too annoyed. My biggest gripe with itunes is metadata management and codec support. Neither of those has changed but one itunes feature previously limited to the ipod shuffle has finally been added to other ipods including the iphone and presumably the ipad. That is the ability to downconvert high resolution music on the fly during sync to 128k bps aac.
This means I can finally stop keeping two itunes libraries, one with apple lossless for the home theater system and another at 128k bps for the iphone. I’m willing to trade the increase in sync time (because of the need to convert the files prior to sending them to the phone) for simpler file management. It only took three years of submitting this through itunes feedback for it to happen. Perhaps there is hope for my requests for flac support and for being able to have better support for multiple artists, composers and genres on a track.
In the beginning of March, Lauri and I bought a new refrigerator to replace a roughly thirty year old unit. The old fridge still ran but was beginning to make odd noises and the door wouldn’t always stay shut. It seemed likely that it was running on borrowed time and we began to search for a replacement. It was the last of the original appliances in our condo to go.
We settled on a 20 cubic foot LG french door style refrigerator in Stainless Steel from Sears. Our space for the fridge was very small and we didn’t have many options, particularly for nicer units. The woman at Sears in Fair Oaks pointed out this unit and after a couple of weeks of checking around and doing some research we decided that was the unit we wanted. Home Depot had it at a cheaper price but we wanted to give the commission to the woman who pointed out the unit to us. Sears matched Home Depot’s price and we set a delivery date for March 23rd.
On the afternoon of the 23rd, the new fridge was delivered and all seemed well. The next morning we began to realize that something might be wrong. Both the refrigerator and freezer sections seemed warm. We cranked down the temperature control to their coldest settings and hoped that things would cool down. Later that afternoon, Lauri called me to say that the food in the freezer had thawed out. We definitely had a problem.
We called the woman who sold us the unit and explained the problem. She directed us to another number where they would arrange an exchange. All went well until we asked about the lost food. They offered us $50. This was only a 1/3 of the actual value. They said they would have to send a technician out to verify the loss. Also, it would take two days for us to get a new fridge.
The next day the tech came out and asked if I wanted him to try to fix the unit. I said that I was willing to accept a repaired unit so long as we had confidence that the unit would continue to run. He opened the back panel and exclaimed, “Oh my god!”
The compressor was completely off its mount. It was clear the refrigerator had been subject to some pretty strong physical forces. He tried to set things right but the compressor would not work. He verified our food loss and in a few weeks I should get a check.
The next morning the new fridge came and it worked. The only problem is that the delivery guys have scuffed up and in a couple places gouged the walls in the stairwell. The stairway is tight but the first delivery crew made it without incident. No other delivery crew has caused damage. It’s fixable but this new purchase has had a lot of collateral damage associated with it.
I am a bit peeved that Sears would transfer us around to three different people to deal with getting a replacement and then question us on the cost of the food loss. Particularly when the tech who “verified” the loss simply asked me for the number. Now I have to contact Sears again to let them know the damage their delivery people have done to the walls.
It will be a long time before Sears gets my business after this.
In August 2009 I was in Maine with Lauri. We were visiting her family. I took the opportunity to visit the Maine Archives to see if I could find some info on my great grandfather, John F. Marson. I didn’t know much about him. From the census, I knew he was born in 1854 in Pittston, Maine. In 1860 and 1870 he’s still in Pittston but in 1880 he’s in Phillips. In 1920, he’s in Avon, in 1910 he’s in Strong and then in 1920 and 1930 he was back in Phillips. That was the last record I had for him. I didn’t know when or where he died. Then I found a grave transcription at NEHGS for a John F. Marson at Sampson Cemetery in Phillips. That seemed like it could be him.
At the archives I managed to find his death record that said he died on September 5, 1941 in Phillips. This matched what the grave transcription record said so it seemed worthwhile to see if we could find this cemetery.
The only catch was the directions. I had no idea when they had been written so how much had the roads in the area changed? Doing a web search for Sampson Cemetery didn’t turn anything up. But, the directions seemed clear so off we went. We drove back and forth on the main road through Salem, Maine which was supposed to lead to this cemetery without finding it. We spoke to some people, one of whom had been a cemetery caretaker for the area decades ago. He didn’t recall a Sampson Cemetery but said that there was a place that matched what we described and gave us some directions.
We still didn’t find it and gave up and got lunch. During lunch, I pulled out my iphone and started googling. Had I though of those searches before, I’d have saved a bunch of time. John Marson’s grave was listed on A Few Cemeteries in Maine and this showed that Sampson Cemetery was actually Sand Hill Cemetery and gave better directions.
We ended up going back a couple of days later and found the grave. If I’d any doubt that we found the right John Marson it was eliminated when we saw the graves of Verne and Ola Huntingdon nearby. I have photos from the 1930′s of my father’s family at Verne and Ola Huntington’s place including photos of John Marson there. I’m not sure what the connection between the families was but it was clear this was the right John Marson.
Now comes the mystery. John Marson’s grave was off by itself with a fairly large gap between it and other graves on the same row. His grave had flowers that looked fairly recent. The mystery is who left them. It looks like John Marson and my great grandmother Helen split up at some point after 1891 though I don’t know exactly when. Though I know Marson’s whereabouts from the census, I’ve no indication he married again. His grave is solitary with no spouse or children nearby. So far as I know, my grandmother was his only child. Who left the flowers?
