Category Archives: Uncategorized

First of all, my family and I are OK; in fact, relatively unaffected. We didn’t even lose power or cable/internet service. ATT Wireless was out of service for about a day but our land line was working. We are inconvenienced in that many roads are blocked, stores closed, etc. To some degree, our immediate area is an island.

What is now being called the “Great Flood of 2016” began as rainfall on about August 11 and the rains continued for four days (more or less, depending on location). The rainfall is usually summarized as two feet of rain in 48 hours.

Here in Ascension Parish (south of Baton Rouge), there are about 15,000 homes flooded with some 5,000 people in shelters. Some homes had only a few inches of water but many had several feet of water and some were submerged to the roof line. Many people were evacuated – typically by the “Cajun Navy” (volunteers in their fishing boats). Ascension Parish is one of the 30 parishes expected to be declared disaster areas.

Even the governor, John Bel Edwards, and his family were evacuated from the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge.

Many of the major rivers in the area are at record levels and exceed the previous records of 1983.

Interstate highway I-10 (towards New Orleans) is flooded in enough places that it is essentially not useable. Interstate I-12 is flooded for many miles, especially around the towns of Denham Springs and Walker.

Livingston Parish was among the hardest hit. The estimate is that three-fourths of the houses there were destroyed – among them some of our good friends.

What a mess!

Family, Uncategorized

The Great Ramen Noodle Salad Experience

March 22, 2016 Gordon Buck

Growing tired of my own cooking, I’ve been searching for new – preferably healthy – dishes. I recalled a salad that my sister, Kathy, made a few years ago and asked for the recipe. She said it was easy so I decided to try my hand at “Ramen Noodle Salad”.

Finding Ramen Noodles at the grocery store was much more difficult than I thought. In fact, I was tempted to buy Ramen Noodle soup and just use the noodles in my salad. But no, that wouldn’t do – I could imagine the teasing. Besides, those soup noodles were probably favored with chicken or something. I continued my search for the real thing. Suddenly, there in front of me, by the spaghetti, were packs of Ramen Noodles! Not ordinary noodles either; these were organic, whole grain noodles even though they looked like very thin spaghetti to me. I double checked the package and read, again, Ramen Noodles — Check. The rest of the ingredients were easy to find although I had to substitute sunflower seeds for sesame seeds. Time to make the salad.

Kathy had said to break up the noodles into small pieces so I worked them over with the rolling pin to get little “sticks” of noodles. The next step was to brown the noodles in butter. I sensed the beginning of problems when I dumped the noodle sticks into the hot frying pan. For one thing, the pan was too small but I didn’t want to get another one dirty. Besides, the noodle sticks on the bottom were “browning” a bit quickly so I had to stand there and stir, stir and stir. Kathy hadn’t mentioned that but she probably used a larger frying pan. In spite of my best efforts, the noodle sticks were over cooked (OK, burnt).

The rest of the ingredients (shredded cabbage, onions, oil, vinegar, etc.) were combined while waiting for the noodle sticks to cool. At last, I combined everything and took a big bite. Not good – tasted like burnt fried spaghetti!

Obviously something was wrong with my technique so I searched YouTube for the secret method. Although I didn’t find anything on YouTube, I finally realized that I was making a slaw instead of a salad and that I’d put too much emphasis on the “Ramen Noodles”. To my surprise, I also realized that I was supposed to use Ramen Noodle soup! Also, many recipes do not call for any cooking at all – the crushed noodles are simply added to the slaw. Other recipes call for lightly toasting the noodles, almonds and sesame seeds in the oven.

Now it’s back to the grocery store for real Ramen Noodles and another try but this time NO COOKING!

Uncategorized

Clothes Dryer vs Bird Nest

November 4, 2015 Gordon Buck

After a few years of good service, our clothes dryer would not completely dry a full load, so I assumed that one of the heating elements had failed and just added a few extra minutes to the cycle. Eventually, a repair technician checked out the dryer – no problem found. In fact, it has only one heating element.

The technician suggested to have a chimney sweep clean the dryer vent system.

Our dryer vent system seems strange to me because the outlet is not near the dryer. Instead, the exhaust air must go up a duct in the walls, make a horizontal turn and then go some distance before exiting. I considered using my shop vacuum to simply blow through the vent but, fortunately, decided to check the exit end first.

Up the ladder and a quick look showed that a bird nest was in the vent exit. In fact, I suspect that at least two bird nests, probably from different seasons, were in the vent. I made a hook from a clothes hanger and pulled out a lot of bird nest material.

The dryer works fine now but how to prevent recurrence? I’ve designed a simple sign:

General, Uncategorized

The Lemonade Stand

July 9, 2015 Gordon Buck

When my granddaughter wanted to go into the lemonade business, she asked me to make a lemonade stand. I imagined a simple table or box and started to make a sketch but then decided to get a bit more creative and browsed the Internet for ideas. I soon found plans for a stand somewhat similar to my own idea but larger and more elaborate.

For details, see: http://www.howtospecialist.com/outdoor-furniture/how-to-build-a-lemonade-stand/

I more or less followed the plans but used thin plywood for the top and sides. My granddaughter helped by nailing the panels and painting. She was very impressed and wants our next project to be a car – meaning a real one!

Wesleigh's lemonade sales — Wesleigh’s lemonade sales

This was a good project but I don’t know about the car …

Uncategorized

Shaving

February 9, 2015 Gordon Buck

A quick estimate: Most men my age have shaved about 15,000 times! We should all be experts but I was not.

Over the years, I’ve used a variety of shaving equipment. My first “razor” was a high tech cordless rechargeable Remington electric razor. The rechargeable battery did not last very long but I used it for several years as a plug-in. Thereafter, I tried several different types/styles of razors.

My dad used a classic “butterfly” Gillette double razor so I had to try one of those. The razor on the extreme left is a modern version of that razor. Next I tried the Gillette “Atra” (second from left) and used it for many years. After the Atra, I used a variety of disposable razors but, most often, the fancy three bladed Gillette in the middle. I always used cheap shaving cream – usually Barbasol.

A little over a year ago, I decided to test/experiment/play with other shaving equipment. Of course, I first browsed the ‘net and found, to my surprise, that “classic” shaving techniques and equipment were quite the fad. The recommended technique is to shave three times (well, three passes: with the grain (down), across the grain horizontally) and against the grain (up)). I bought a modern “butterfly” double edge razor (the one on the left), several different blades, a brush and a couple of different shaving cream/soap packages. After trying several combinations, my preference was: Edwin Jagger razor (4th from left) with Derby blades, a cheap brush, Old Bond Street Sandalwood shaving cream and aftershave. Although at first, I whipped up the shaving cream in a cereal bowl, eventually I ordered a “scuttle” to keep the whipped up shaving cream warm. This was a nice setup even though all too often my face was nicked in the process of shaving.

One day I realized that, in all fairness, I had never tried one of the modern five bladed vibrating wonder shavers. The razor is cheap (~$10) but the blades are expensive (~$4 each). Even so, in the interest of fairness, I gave it a try. No contest! — and no nicks either. For the past five months, I’ve been using the Gillette Fusion ProGlide with the same cheap brush, Sandalwood cream and aftershave shown below. It’s been great!

As the novelty wore off, I stopped using the scuttle every day and also changed to a quicker two pass (down then up) technique (except for special occasions) but continued to relather in-between passes. The $4 vibrating “blade” lasts about a month. The AA battery lasts a few months.

Some web sites I found useful and/or interesting regarding shaving and equipment include:

Shave Nation (lots of tests and demos)

The Art of Shaving

Shaving: The Art of Manliness

Edwin Jagger shaving accessories

Air guns, Airsoft, Airsoft, Buck family, Family, Genealogy, General, Medicare, Pellet guns, Photography, Retirement, SSA, Uncategorized, YouTube

Welcome

January 21, 2015 Gordon Buck

Welcome to Gordon’s Miscellaneous Blog. If Seinfeld can be a television show about nothing then I should be able to have a blog about everything. I claim no particular expertise on anything but perhaps can document some experiences and lessons learned.

On joining the ranks of the retired, I’ll be renewing old hobbies and interests as well as investigating potential new ones. Over the years, I’ve gone through many hobbies and interests, including:

Photography and videography
Genealogy and history
Archery
Rifle and Pistol target shooting
Hiking and Camping
Swiss Army Knives
Computers (programming and such)
Engineering (yep, still a math and science nerd – just retired now)
Automobiles and Bicycles
Retirement (a new interest!)

Although I already have two blogs, one of my goals is to learn more about blogging – especially using WordPress. My other blogs are:

Buck Family of Virginia: http://buckfamilyofvirginia.blogspot.com/
Light Description: http://lightdescription.blogspot.com/

Both are badly in need of updates (which should happen soon).

So, here we go …

Gordon's Misc Blog