Helping Clearwater Cleanup Camp: IBM Centennial of Service Celebration

IBM Celebrates 100 years as a company this year (today, actually). Yesterday, 900 IBMers in the Hudson Valley alone were taking part in volunteer projects like ours. I participated in a project with 100 other IBMers where we helped clean up Clearwater's camp at University Settlement, just south of the city of Beacon.

Here a Clearwater staff member explains the tasks for our team - making rain barrels and a flow-through planter - and the importance of controlling storm run-off.

All volunteers muster in the morning.

"The White House," where Clearwater's offices are on the property.

The finished rain barrels.

Some of the volunteers work on designing the planter.

Lunch time.

We were entertained by some of the talented musicians from the staff of Clearwater and The Mystic Whaler.

A traditional canoe hangs in one of the buildings.

Retired and renowned IBMer Roger McKnight showed up to snap pictures.

Carrying at HUGE canoe. Many hands make light work.

More Fun With PVC

PVC is Lego for adults. I decided I wanted an outrigger for my canoe to stabilize it and give it more buoyancy. There are plenty of plans for outriggers, one site that sells them, Cabela's has them - but I had to do it myself. I created these pontoons out of irrigation pipe and tested them today in the river - they hold their air and seem like they are going to work. I will get to try them on the canoe for a real test, soon.

Tree Climbing Cat

Fishin!

They're small, but he caught 'em all by himself.

Sloop Clearwater

The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater tied up at Beacon Harbor.

Symmetrophobia

Beef kidney - yet another weird pattern that wigs me out.

Certain patterns in nature weird me out. I recently learned that this is called "symmetrophobia". I first noticed that regular patterns in nature bothered me as a kid whenever I saw a honeycomb or a magnification of an insect's compound eye. One day as a bag boy in a local grocery store as a teenager something came down the conveyor that freaked me out. I picked up the item, noticed what it looked like, and dropped it. "What the hell is that?!" I asked. The customer responded, "Tripe!". I refused to touch it again. I made the man bag it himself. He laughed.

The article I reference indicates that I:

may become anxious in any situation that is symmetrical and may actively rearrange [my] home and work environment so that they are asymmetrical. In extreme cases, [I] may completely withdraw from society as [I] become completely unable to function in a symmetrical world.

and furthermore:

All phobias are the result of a real-life traumatic incident in an individual’s life. Thereafter, that traumatic experience is automatically and consistently associated with symmetry.

but I ain't buying it. I just get weirded out by the stuff.