Here's something to ponder for a while...

Here's something to ponder for a while ... Internet penetration across the U.S.  It varies in ways that I find surprising and not immediately explainable.  The map is from this WSJ article.  There's a very high penetration both where we used to live in Southern California, and the semi-rural place we live now in northern Utah.  But where my sister lives (near Charlottesville, Virginia) is a relative Internet desert, and I don't really have any idea why that should be.  Then there's southern New Jersey, where my parents used to live – it has no data.  WTF, New Jersey?  The part of North Carolina where a good friend of mine lives (near Asheville) rather closely resembles the nearby Charlottesville, Virginia area – and yet there, the Internet penetration is high.  What on earth is going on here?  The WSJ article portrays this as largely a rural/urban divide, but their own map belies that.  I see lots of farming areas with high penetration, some with adjoining areas of low penetration.  My first instinct is to be suspicious of the quality of the data underlying this...

Awesome news of the day!

Awesome news of the day!  At least for those unfortunates like us who live a long, long way from the nearest Trader Joe's.  I've just discovered that Trader Joe's has a storefront on Amazon, with over 2,000 products listed already.  Woo hoo!

Paradise ponders: beautiful sunrises, shed lighting, and Mako neutering edition...

Paradise ponders: beautiful sunrises, shed lighting, and Mako neutering edition...  We had a rain storm on Monday evening that coating our mountain tops with a bit of snow.  On Wednesday morning the sun hit the Wellsvilles before it touched our valley floor, making for a beautiful sunrise (at right).  I was out working on the electrical wiring in the irrigation shed, and I got to watch it progress.  As Debbie likes to say, “We live in a postcard...”

And speaking of electrical work in the shed ... I've now finished all I can do until some more of the irrigation components show up (photo of some of the work at left).  I have a quad outlet installed next to the irrigation clock, and six bare bulbs (100 watt equivalent LED bulbs from CREE).  All of the wiring is in PVC conduit, and I'm quite pleased with the way it all came out.  Doing the wiring in the barn over the past couple of years may actually have taught me something!  :)

I took poor Mako into the vet this morning, as today is the day he gets neutered.  He was really excited in the office, because of the other dogs and all the nice people to meet.  When I weighed him in, he tipped the scales at 46.5 pounds – that little puppy has done quite a bit of growing, and it's all muscle.  One of the vet techs (Madison) tried to take him into the kennels in the back, but he was straining to get to me as I left.  Madison isn't much bigger than he is, so in the end they just both stayed in the same place. :)  It wasn't until I actually walked out the door that Madison made any progress toward the back!