#106 1/16/2013 ...on knowing a couple of Mennonites...

This is the southbound portion of a quick "up north" trip.  The repaired furnace is running fine.  We go on assuming that some things are going to keep working...like our furnaces.  Although the simplicity of good water flowing from our faucets may be uniquely American (not the case in the 3rd world) we expect it.  We take it for granted.  The West Virginia river contamination was extreme, even in a state where surface water is often polluted from strip and mountaintop mining.  The following is an unusual statement for me (offered without explanation).  We strip away slowly at God's gifts slowly but surely in the pursuit of profit.

A new wireless modem was installed.  I forget to change the admin user name and password from 'admin' and 'admin' so have at it you hackers...and especially my neighbor internet thieves.  The furnace issue made me really concerned about furnace isseues. Duh.  I have a device called a "FreezeAlarm" which is great.  It calls me whenever the power goes out or the temperature drops below a threshold I set.  The house security system also calls when a temperature threshold is reached.  That system also has a battery backup and I've just replaced all the sensor batteries and the battery in the control box.  None of this would be necessary if I lived in more temperate climate where water, in your house, in your copper pipes or in your pex tubing did not freeze.

LacrosseAlerts makes a nice alert system and now I have three systems to give me temperature warnings.  This system has wireless sensors that I can monitor over the web or on my smart phone.  It's great.

The Mennonite Connection
My son had a very good friend in high school who was a Mennonite.  Her father was a Mennonite minister.  They were very nice and became a good place for my son to hang out.  The father and mother converted to the Mennonite faith which would negate, in their case, the argument for it being an ethnic-religious group.

Our "up north" place is near Friesland, MN, not the Friesland in the Netherlands, a historical location of significance to Mennonites.

Certainly I can understand the pacifism.  It probably would not work for me since for the right reasons I can quickly shift about 180 degrees from pacifism.  I'm going to upgrade my understanding, but not tonight.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonites


Work...
This afternoon I had a great conference call w/ a couple of collaborators in the construction IT field.  We're brainstormng sort of a Facebook solution for IT workers in the commercial construction industry.  We have an agenda, research to do over the next few days and a second conference scheduled.