New way of telling the short version

I know I talk and write an awful lot that no one wants to read.  For the most part, there are probably very few people that are actually into the details of whatever I do.  For instance, if I come up with a cool app that has some cool features, y'all just want to hear about the cool app and cool features, not all of the nuts and bolts of what I did and how I did it.  Normally, I write all of the details, then realize that it is way to long, and write a "So, long story short," section.  Then I end up moving that to the top, and hoping it's enough.  Well, now I think I've found a new way to do it.  Instead of trying to add a paraphrase section, I'm writing an app where I can highlight the portions that make up a short version and hide everything else.  So the posts will start out with the short version visible, and When you click the "tl;dr;" button, you'll see the rest.  If you don't want the details, don't click the button. And, by the way, this post is simply a test. :)

Bees are dead

I went to check on the hive today.  It's too cold to open, so I just stick my ear to the side to see if I hear them; no sound today.  I knew the hive was small, and was afraid it wasn't going to survive, and apparently I was right.  I didn't take pictures (because it is awfully cold out there) but from everything I could see, they simply froze.  There wasn't any honey where they were, but judging by the bees that had their heads stuck in the comb, the cluster was only about 2 inches across.  I'm taking the opportunity to cut down a couple of the frames that had been built out too much.  I've mentioned in the posts before that I was trying to do some foundationless frames.  The bees built the adjoining frames thicker into the empty space instead of building comb in the foundationless frame.  So now I can cut those down to their proper thickness.  I'll probably split the comb into two boxes and install two packages in the spring.  Then I'll use the rest of the comb as bait in other boxes to try to trap swarms.  Maybe I'll get lucky.  There's also a woman at work that thinks she has a hive under a water feature in her yard.  I'll try to capture that as well.  Maybe next year will be better.

I still don't know for sure why they were weak in the first place.  Maybe we installed them too late, and they missed the spring flow, or the drought kept the flows from being large enough.  I don't see signs of disease, but I may also just not know what to look for.  The queen was unmarked, so something may have happened to the queen late in the season and stressed the hive that way.  Or there may have been more varroa than I thought.  At least next time I'll have more than one hive, and I can compare them.  I'm thinking about calling the apiary inspector to come out and look it over, but I don't know if I can do that since I haven't actually registered yet.  I don't know what he'll say if he comes out and the hive isn't branded (which is required in Texas).

Into the Woods - Not worth the money

We watched "Into the Woods" the other day.  Definitely not worth the money.  The story was alright, (although my wife said it didn't make any sense to her), but the music was pitiful.  I haven't watched a musical in a while, but I seem to recall them having several tunes.  This one seemed to just have one or maybe two tunes in the whole thing, that they just kept singing different words to.  And the tunes were so repetitive that it seemed they were just a flimsy excuse to sing instead of talk.  It wouldn't have been worth seeing at the dollar theater.