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I'm very fond of lilacs. We had a clump of lilacs next to our house in
Binghamton (upstate NY) and the first year that we lived in our house here
in Rhode Island I planted a lilac bush on each side of the house and one
in the garden in our front yard. (I keep wanting to call them lilac trees,
but apparently technically they are considered bushes.)
Some years lilacs can be spectacular and some years they are just so-so.
This year may not be spectacular, but certainly is satisfyingly delightful. |
We've been trying to have our house painted since last fall. Bad weather
in the fall blocked that -- long stretch of wet weather held up work at
the job our contractor had to complete first, so that by the time she would
have been able to get her crew over to our house, the weather was beginning
to get too overnight for paint to set properly, so the project was postponed
until this spring.
And about a month ago they got here and power washed the house.
Then it rained...
And then it rained some more...
But now they have been able to get a lot of the work done: new stain on
the shingles (three sides of the house), repair some window sills, and
paint the front of the house, and paint the porch and the trim, etc. The
upper half shows the old color of the front of the house and the bottom
shows the new color. |
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An amusing hip hop video -- Curious GWB.
Enron executives found guilty. Good. Maybe eventually these corporate crooks
will get the message.
- Adelphia CEO John Rigas convicted. 15 years.
- All First CEO Nathan Chapman convicted. 7 1/2 years.
- ImClone Founder Sam Waksal convicted. 7 years.
- Worldcom: CEO Bernie Ebbers convicted. 25 years.
- Rite Aid: CEO Martin Grass convicted. 8 years.
- WorldTeq CEO Bruce Bertman convicted. 4 years.
- Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski convicted. 25 years.
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I had mentioned recently that I was scheduled to take a CPR and defibrillator
training course -- this picture was taken at that training on Tuesday night.
I have been CPR certified a couple of times in the past but those certifications
had long expired. This was a CPR and AED course (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
and Automated External Defibrillator). Those AED machines were very impressive.
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If you've ever taken a CPR course you probably recognize the practice dummy. In these new classes, you not only practice airway clearing and rescue breathing and chest compressions, you also practice using the AED. Many communities are positioning AEDs in public areas. The Town of Narragansett has three AEDs in each school in town, one in each park (and two at the town beach), one in every police car, and there will also be one at The Towers and one
at Kinney Bungalow.
This truly is an automated device -- the machine checks the heart activity and will only administer a shock if
ventrical fibrillation is detected. (The human task is to administer CPR and to connect the machine and to resume
CPR if the machine determines that this is not a case of ventrical fibrillation.)
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