The Christmas Visit

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

This Christmas Mrs. TK, our two daughters and their husbands, our two dogs, and I visited our third daughter, her husband and their two dogs at their house near Philadelphia.  The ladies were cooking and shopping, the gents were watching sports.  They're all hard-working gentlemen that earn their downtime.  Not wishing to ruin the food by helping with the cooking, and becoming restless with watching TV I decided to busy myself otherwise.

So I fixed the leaking drain pipe in the upstairs bathroom sink, and put the baseboard heater back on the wall as the contractor who installed the bathroom tile floor hadn't re-installed it correctly.  I had to trim the metal end covers, which took some time using diagonal cutters because they had no tin snips.  Then I caulked all around the kitchen tile backsplash they'd just put up, filled in some nail holes on the fireplace mantle and painted it.  Then I took down the door for the first floor bathroom, trimmed and planed it so it would close properly, stole the door knob set off an old door in the basement, painted that, and put it on the bathroom door.

In between we spent part of a day in Philadelphia to go to one of Mrs. TK's favorite restaurants.

I finished this book

Re-read these two from my daughter's library:

 

 

Finished this one I received from my daughter and son-in-law as a gift;

 

And started this one that Mrs TK gave me:

We don't get all gathered together in one place very frequently now that our daughters are married and have their own lives, so it was a lot of fun to have the family together again for a few days, especially for Christmas.    

 

[bikeman564™]

how was the Tesla read?

[Square Wheels]

Sounds like you were busy.   I will invite you here next Christmas. 

[Kzoo]

I got worn out just reading your busyness.

[maddmaxx ★]

I think you may be needed at the jsharr residence.

[Square Wheels]

I got this for you @Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

[maddmaxx ★]

Who says the square one doesn't do humor?

[Kzoo]

27 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Who says the square one doesn't do humor?

[Airehead]

Great reading list

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

9 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

I got this for you @Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

I just emailed that to everyone in our company!

 

9 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Who says the square one doesn't do humor?

Well, it's "engineer humor" which isn't exactly humor for normal people.  But it is a very good start!

 

10 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

how was the Tesla read?

The first third of the book read very quickly; extremely interesting.  The second third was more technical, talked about how he tried to interest investors in his inventions, and the legal battles to defend against patent infringements.  A bit of a slog in some parts but essential to the story.  The last third moved more quickly and more sadly.  Tesla was an absolutely horrible business man and money manager.  Because of that investors shied away from him and he had no money left to renew his patents, much less defend them against those who outright thieved them.

Nonetheless he was a brilliant man whose achievements go largely unrecognized today.  I think some of that goes back to his being an immigrant, a Slav, and 'competing' against native Americans in his field.  Today this might not be so prevalent, but in his time people didn't give outright discrimination a second thought.

[shotgun]

You can come visit Hotel Shotgun anytime!

[TrentonMakes]

13 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

 

I used to pass the exit for the Hubbardton Battlefield off Route 4 on trips between home and college.... but aside from the general location I know nothing about this battle.