Heather's Blogpile

Reverend E Lee Chattin has died, at age 87

I've just gotten back from my father- in-law's funeral outside Richmond, VA. He was a warm and generous man, a retired Methodist minister of 60 years in the pulpit, and the blessing of his passing was that it was brief, he was not in pain very long, and he died peacefully at home with his daughters beside him. His family has a Scottish heritage, (Clan Chattin) so it was only fitting that he be piped out in style.

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The Rev. Edgar Lee Chattin, 87, died June 20, 2008, at his residence at Moseley, Va.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Chloe Gwendolyn Rodgers Chattin. He is survived by two daughters, Dawn Gwendolyn Chattin and husband, Scott Nash, and the Rev. Emma Lee Chattin and partner Heather James; and grandchildren, Gwendolyn Chattin Prince, Amber Nash and David Nash; and chosen family members, Wanda Ladd, from whom he received devoted care, Jore Nash Cooper, and Daryl and David Durrett. He is survived by three brothers, Willie A., Robert D. and Rev. Norman S. and his wife, Bernice; as well an abundance of nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by two brothers, George and James W.; and three sisters, Bertha Willis, Elsie Bray and Minnie Griffith.

He began ministering as a boy preacher and tent evangelist, later joined the United Methodist Church, and served over 60 years in the pulpit at various charges and locations over the Commonwealth of Virginia. Although a retired Elder of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, he still continued to minister in various ways over recent years to every person that he met.

The family will receive friends on Sunday, June 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Bennett & Barden Funeral Home at 3215 Anderson Highway, in Powhatan, Va. There will be a brief gathering and Celebration of Life later at the family's home in Mosely, Va., at 6 p.m., with the Rev. Garvin Boyd officiating.

The funeral service will be held Monday, June 23, at 4 p.m., at Genito Presbyterian Church, 2910 Genito Road, Powhatan, Va., with the Rev. Fletcher and the Rev. Bob Young officiating. A brief interment will follow at the church cemetery nearby.

If desired, contributions may be made to the Hospice of Virginia or Genito Presbyterian Church.

HerstoryVA website is now online!

Earlier this year we went to the Herstory Conference near Harrisonburg, VA. This is a women's conference connected to the Shenandoah Presbytery and has been held annually since 1994.

Emma had been asked to do a workshop and speak on diversity, but we took the weekend as a mini-vacation and really had a great time there. Its held at Massanetta Springs Conference Center an absolutely gorgeous retreat center

Unfortunately, my annual winter cold hit on Saturday (which turned into bronchitis as soon as I got home) so I missed what was one of the more interesting worship services and discussion sessions, but I plan to attend again next year!

Interestingly enough, I got an email 2 weeks ago asking if I'd help them move and update their website, in preparation for next year. Because I enjoyed it so, I really wanted to give something back, so ... http://www.herstoryva.org/

What is there now is just their previous site updated to CSS standard (for accessibility) and copied to a new domain. But I do plan to do more in the way of upgrades when I have some time.

The Next step forward

I had been shopping for a better quality active crossover for a while, and a week ago, I won an Ashly XR1001 on ebay - and yesterday it arrived. took a while to swap cables around but once I power it on - well, it really was like a veil had lifted off the music!

Just click the image to see a larger size version.

JBL - further evolved

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Well, I still haven't built grills for them, but I've got a JBL active crossover and a pair of amps to feed them, so the woofers are very tightly controlled, standup bass sounds like it should, and the rest of the frequencies - quite nice! I need to toe them in a bit, and we really should have them further from the sidewalls, but - its what we have right now, so I guess I'll suffer as best I can ...

Pope-Leighey House

As usual, click the image to see a larger size version.

I've had an interest in Frank Lloyd Wright-design homes for years, but most are in Illinois or Wisconsin. Except one - the Wright home designed for Washington Star report Loren Pope. Originally built in Falls Church, VA, later scheduled for demolition to make way for Route 66 construction, it had been moved to the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation in the 60s. I'd been meaning to visit the home for years ... Well, today we did it!

... Life is too short to be losing friends this way!

]]> I'd met a whole new group of friends when my high school friend, Joe Perrone, moved to the Wheaton area and started attending Northwood High School. I became friends with Tony Lackler around 1971. Tony and I were the same age, but I also knew his younger brother, Pete. After Tony graduated college he moved to Louisville for his first post-college job. The following summer we all 3 got together for 2 weeks camping and dirt bike riding in WestVa. (This was back when I had a Triumph 750 twin). After the trip Pete and I spent a lot of time together, just riding around the area and hanging out. I had the Triumph, and Pete had a friend's Yamaha 650. We were pretty young, and we rode like we were immortals. Big fun summer. Shortly after that we got word that Tony had died in a gun accident alone on the target range in Kentucky. Pete and I became closer friends for a while, he even got me into Alfa Romeos about that time. But he got serious about finishing his college , and I was having some bad spells of depression and denial. When I finally figured out that I had to turn myself around or life would be toxic, I went through a number of changes, dried myself out ( just before I hit 38), came out, and took a turn that left most of my old friends behind. Pete was just one of many friends I didn't see much after that. Since then, life has gotten pretty nice. I met Emma, we bought a house together, and we've been a couple for over 11 years ... but, I still wondered about my old friends. I ran across an ebay ad last year that mention one old friend, Art Amsie. He was an engineer that had a hobby of pin-up art - years ago he had a shop called The Girl-Whirl. He showed me original oil painting from Gil Elvgren. I later found out he was involved in one of the early Betty Page photo shoots, years ago. Also turns out that he died a few years back. I probably should've stayed in touch, but he got a bit private, so did I, life took some turns and ... we just lost touch. So - I'd been looking up some other old friends and a few days ago I saw the names Peter Lackler and Marian Lacker (his mom) listed on an 2006 Easter Service in Ellicott City, MD - but when I had time to go back and read the bulletin for the service - they were listed in the "Memorial" section. I googled and googled and finally found Pete's name on a School reunion page - listed as "Deceased". No other information. Don't know if it was a car crash, illness, home fire ... no idea. Life is too darned short to loose friends like this

More big big JBL fun ...

Ever since I got those old JBL 4320 Studio Monitors in Philly for $300 for my birthday last year, I'd added parts and collected bits and done a series of upgrades from the original 2 way design with horns, to a pair of DIY JBL 3-way studio monitors, and finally into DIY 4-way monitors. I'd found a schematic for a model 4333 (passive) crossover network, built that, and had gotten a nice improvement from all that. I even got an electronic crossover, dual amps and biAmped them. But, it was still a kind of hack.

]]> So, after a lot of reading, I decided that a pair of factory-built JBL 4-way Studio monitors were the way to go. But - estimates are that less than 500 pairs of the 4345 4-ways were made (18 woofer) and the 4343, although more common, still bring a pretty price in any kind of good condition. But, there was a lesser-known early model of the big 4-ways - the 4341s. It was only made for 2 years before it evolved into the 4343s, it used the same drivers in a slightly smaller cabinet, and, with luck, you can still find a pair of them for under $2000, sometimes WELL under $2k. And so we did!

They weren't perfect, they had the 2123 10inch mid-bass driver instead of the correct 2121 or later 2122 driver (I managed to do an even swap for one later on), and they had the incorrect 2234 15inch woofers (again, I managed to get a pair of the correct 2235 15" woofers and swap them in later). The L-pads were noisy and I had to replace 2 pots, I will need to build new crossovers at some point to replace the aging caps and get the best sound out of them, and, worse of all, they have no grills! (Cats beware!!) But the cabinets are clean and solid, and the walnut veneer looks quite nice after being oiled down a few times. And the sound?? Magnificent!

Children of Abraham unite?

Last night we had an interesting evening. Emma heard that the Washington Hebrew Congregation was having a special presentation of the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi - a special Sufi sect from Turkey. Ticket sales were open to the entire community - what a diverse crowd - and what a presentation!

As usual, click the image to see a larger size version.

Defending Marriage - the RIGHT way!

Wonderful quote from Bill and Kent's weblog:

President Bush stated, “Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage. I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.”

President Bush, if you really believe marriage needs defending so damn much, then pass a constitutional amendment making divorce illegal, moron.
It’s really funny that when a court rules in favor of equality for gays, they are called an “activist court”, and when they deny us equality, they are merely “doing what they are supposed to do.”

RTD and crew bat another one out of the park!

As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

With the GallifreyOne fan site virtually off the air these days, I didn't realize that Torchwood had even aired yet! What is Torchwood ...?? sigh ... Well, once there was a British TV show called Doctor Who. After MANY years and too many stories, it went off the air in the late 80s ...

Well, this Amazing British TV writer/director/producer named Russell T Davis was quite a fan, and had a vision to return the good Doctor to the airwaves. His new telling of the tales (and Christopher Eclestone's portrayal of the Doctor) were a big hit ... midway through the first season of new episodes, there was a tale with another time traveling character that stole the show ... his name was Captain Jack ... and after another 2 years, RT Davis and crew created a spin off series about Captain Jack and his Torchwood Institute - seems they salvage alien technology for the good of humanity ...

I caught the first two episodes tonight - what a triumph. It IS an adult SciFi series, but quite a fun romp!

Rethinking the center

We have these wonderful speakers at the left and right front of the TV room, but I only have a simple JBL EC25 speaker doing center channel dialog duty. Its a nice enough 2-way design - a titanium tweeter and a pair of 5 inch woofers in a very nice beech finish cabinet - and it matches the shelf system very well.

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Click the lower image to see it doublesize.

But sonically - there is a big leap between those two 5 inche woofies in the center, and the classic LE15s - 15 inch woofers in the monitors in the front corners. The monitors have 2420 compression drivers with horn for the midrange duty, and the 2405 "slot" tweeter for the Ultra high freq ... That little titanium driver in the center doesn't come close to the sound of those ... so - I bought a pair of drivers and built a crossover network to match the mids and high end in the center. And it HAS improved the sound of dialog and music (well - TV show music - I still play regular music in 2 channel mode). Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to use for a woofer in the center - and build a box to hold these components ...

CGT at Jammin' Java - Take 2

As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

Lower picture shot by Hidayo while I was shooting mine!.

Time for a Date night out! A month back I heard the California Guitar Trio were coming to Jammin' Java in Vienna again - we'd seen them there 2 years ago and had a great time - Emma and I were really looking forward to a fun night out with music. The show was at 8PM - we got there around 6:30 and got a table 1 row back from the stage - but its a small club - I don't think there are any bad seats there. The night was great fun - I highly recommend seeing them any time they come to your town!

Let sleeping cats ...

As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

In the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and realized we'd left the lights on - as I walked by the office, I saw what our cats do when we are not around ...
Background deleted to avoid showing office clutter (!) ...

MCCBR - ShenVal Extension!

As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

Sunday October 1 ... that was the first service for the group meeting to consider the possibility of one day having an MCC in the Harrisonburg area of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Bad Shipping ... the bane of ebay

As part of my biamp project, I recently bought an old Crown D-75 off eBay. Seller said the Amp was in good shape, and I trust people at their word. I have bought and sold parts via eBay - I sold a pair of Triumph motorcycle forks, and a pair of JBL 4312 speakers - big heavy things, I padded and packed them tightly and they got to the buy on the west coast just fine.

When the Crown amp arrived a few weeks later, I was just amazed. Somehow the seller decided to use a box for a DELL flatscreen monitor and the original white foam for the monitor as packing material for the heavy amp. As you can see in the pictures, this didn't fill the box and there was no extra foam/ bubblepack or anything to hold the amp in place. It must have bounced all over the place because it broke up the foam and bashed a hole in the package. Thats not UPS's fault - its the seller's fault for doing such a poor job of packing.

I hooked the amp up to my speakers and it works fine, but I give all the credit to Crown for making a bulletproof amp, not to this yahoo seller who apparently just used his old computer trash/packing to ship a $130 amp! Amazing!