Poltrack Blog

The iced storm was devastating to our forests. Now that the snow is retreating we can see the piles of downed limbs and brush to be cleared. Roadside signs have appeared offering chipping and brush clearing services. These limbs are green wood and are very heavy. Some are bent under tension so when I’m using the chainsaw I need to pay even more attention to the direction of the cuts. Everywhere in town folks are trying to burn piles of brush unsuccessfully because green wood is not very flammable. Kerosene helps for this task. The other day I noted that chickadees were visiting the broken branches of maple trees. They were drinking the sap which is running freely now. My driveway is wet, my windshield is covered with it, all oozing from broken branches. In the morning after an overnight freeze I was greeted with maple flavored icicles, quite tasty I must say.

Of course March 14 (3.14) is just a rough approximation of the “real” value of π but leave it to those quirky folks at the Exploratorium to have a proper celebration.

My nephew is a mechanical engineering student at UNH. He sent me a photo sequence that makes me a bit queasy but I’m a bit nervous about heights. I’ll include his description of what he is doing. For those of you out there who think that Engineers just sit around all day in front of a computer, here is a little taste of what we do on a regular basis. For those of you who don't know, I work for Sig Sauer (one of the world's foremost handgun manufacturer) as a Design Engineer. I work primarily on R&D and the design of firearms and firearms components. An average day for me includes several shootings, the handling of a minimum of 20 different firearms (more often than not there are machineguns, grenade launchers, and suppressors thrown in the mix also), and it is not uncommon for me to have to move a firearm or two to get at my keyboard. The pictures depict me investigating the possibilities for wind power at my parents house. I scaled the 32m (105ft) tower to get dim...

Maxine’s daughter Martha wrote a beautiful testimony to her mom: In January of last year, I attended a Day of Recollection for caregivers and was struck by the words of the homily during Mass. Our celebrant referenced the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins‘ reflection on the scene of Jesus’ birth speaking of “God’s infinity dwindling…dwindling into an infant.” Our celebrant then paralleled this by saying we see the same dwindling in Christ’s crucifixion – God’s infinity dwindling into the reality of the world we live in. This theme of dwindling struck me as I too was witnessing my mother’s failing health. It was painful at times to watch this once vibrant and energetic woman “dwindle” into the form of an infant. And I know it was painful for her to reconcile herself to her state of health but eventually she “let go” of her need to do for herself and trusted in God’s mysterious designs. It was the greatest lesson my mother taught me – to “accept and trust in God’s plan”. My mothe...