wegenering

Schatzkammer

Posted by: ycd0108, 9:52 PM GMT on January 29, 2012

Yahoo Bablefish tells me that Schatz is treasure and Kammer is Chamber. German to English translation.

I was thinking of calling it "Joe".
Need a name for this thing.
Hints:
I made it from Fir slats about 1/4" x 3"
It was supposed to be a "Shadow Box" for my grand daughter
I'm giving it an old friend for her birthday this evening (she's a wonderful cook).
She is gonna ask me: "What the ---- IS it?"
Any ideas?
Oh, you can see the thing in my "Recent Photos"

Updated: 3:29 AM GMT on February 01, 2012

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Minor success

Posted by: ycd0108, 5:28 PM GMT on January 27, 2012

I think I've figured out how to upload photos from the iPod. Now I will need to learn something about photography.
The new picture in my recent photos looked like the tree was on fire yesterday as I drove into the yard.
We had had cold/cool and light rain for the days before and the sun had been shining for an hour or so on this mossy tree. The smoke is not fire or steam. I assume the warm moss is simply expiring the excess moisture.
Sometimes I can get quite clear pictures with the iPod and the main thing for me is that it is with me most of the time.
My theory about learning just about any technique is:
"Just Shoot It!"
(Incidentally the above quote is printed large on the paper cups I use to mix epoxy.)

Updated: 1:30 AM GMT on January 28, 2012

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Go to New project

Posted by: ycd0108, 6:31 AM GMT on January 25, 2012

I'm going to attempt to keep a record of the boat project. Tloml hollared up at me to write down what I was doing on that day and put wiring diagrams and any details somewhere folks (or even myself) could access. It's a big undertaking.
I fired up my version of "Open Office" and wrote more or less as I write here: "Scream of conciousness". I realize that even I would have trouble finding anything remotely connected to a marine drive unit in last night's entry but that is the crucial point: Connections.
That is where the wiring diagram comes in to the story:
Wiring color codes have been "standardized" (read: changed again) since the boat was built. The Marine Electrician we hired used the new colors on the wires and he did a fine job. When you get back to the old engine and servo systems you either install new or somewhere you go back to the old wire color.
'Course the answer is to go all the way - new power and drive unit, new trim tabs and pump, new exhaust fan, new bilge pump and I know that. I simply can not afford it. So we transit back to the old color code somewhere along the line. The Mechanic yesterday was OK with all this. If you have worked on a boat you will understand.

Thanks Pat. I was stuck.I dunno if your Mom was more beautiful than mine but she was mighty fine.
Briar put up a thing about games and got me thinking.
I Googled the game of "Go" - it is too simple and too complex.
We played initially with the traditional board - real black and white stones and a large chunk of wood on carved legs with a grid marked 19x19.
T'other day I was trying to sort out the garage and I found a metal cookie box all covered with dust. inside were caps of pop and beer bottles painted black and white.
Eventually I scrabbled about on the high shelf I had found the box on and there was a cardboard sheet folded up. when you open it there is the 19x19 grid.
The guy I played this game with died while I was working in RSA and I guess nobody around here knew the significance of the bottle caps and the cardboard grid.

Updated: 3:38 AM GMT on January 27, 2012

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Phone yer Mom!

Posted by: ycd0108, 5:26 PM GMT on January 22, 2012

Always a relief when she picks up and answers my "How ya Doin'?" with "Fine".
This morning she's on about something she's reading which mentions Eugene "Careful with that Axe":
http://www.focusing.org/
I dunno - looks like a bit too much detail for me.
Broad Strokes!
If you can not phone her
Give her a thought.

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Starter fluid

Posted by: ycd0108, 5:26 PM GMT on January 20, 2012

One of the Profs at the local college bought an old fish boat and it "needed" TLC. He called me and another poet/carpenter. We took our tools and crossed the "Pond" to West Vancouver.
M.V. "Wren" sat in the yard of another poet/prof on a trailer. Not the prettiest vessel. The crew got busy with antifouling paint and I messed around with the propulsion system. The engine was a 7/14 Easthope: one lung and magneto ignition. There was a small cup to pour gas into the single cylinder and a short bar to throw the flywheel to start the characteristic "Pop pause Pop" of the Easthope. Once I had checked this engine out I figured our best bet was the 9.9 Mercury outboard so I spent most of the couple of days there building an outboard motor mount off the canoe stern of the vessel.
At some point I was welding something on the rudder and noticed the smell of burning hair. Once I got out of the big clunky welding mask I found that my shoulder length hair was aflame.
Mike and I went back home to the Island and the Wren was launched and checked out. We got a call to come back to bring the boat over to the Island - 35 kilometers, I think, over the Salish Sea (called Strait of Georgia back then).
We bundled aboard with the essential supply: Big spray can of ether (Starter Fluid) and about a dozen beer each for the crew.
We left Horseshoe Bay with flying colours - the old Easthope flumping away while the Merc hummed. Pretty soon the Easthope coughed out so I went forward to give it some ether and gasoline and throw the flywheel and we picked up some speed again. This became the pattern of the voyage: Three guys sipping beer in the stern well and one guy at the helm till the Easthope coughs then I go back in and snort some ether with the old engine and it would, most often, make the friendly gesture of firing for a while.
We were approaching our harbour destination when the wind started to pick up and the waves followed. The Easthope still needed regular shots of ether but it became clear that my weight moved forward lifted the little Merc's prop out of the water and we were in danger of loosing both motors. I gave up the intimacy with the old engine and went back to being ballast. Wren made it to the Fisherman's Wharf and the good news was there was a Pub close so we could call for a ride and top up the fluid levels.
I noticed the smell of ether but guessed it was because I had been sharing my stash with the Easthope. Finally one of the crew looked down and my day pack he had been resting his foot on was noticeably wet with starter fluid.

Updated: 5:41 PM GMT on January 20, 2012

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Outflow

Posted by: ycd0108, 1:24 AM GMT on January 16, 2012

Today:
Up at about 0630 and measured 4" of snow on the porch. Tiny flakes but lots of them. This kind of snow accumulates quickly so I just - 0900 - measured a full 6" out on the lawn. It occurs to me that the ruler might have gone further into the grass than the snow depth.
Then I measured the snow depth where Tloml's car had been parked on clean gravel: 1" in the hour since she drove out.
I bet we exceed the 8" accumulation just now warned by Environment Canada.
Dat's "Outflow" for ya.
Previous:
Setting up here for some snow. Crazy pictures: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cabc0195
on the local news of snow squalls that look like water spouts over the Salish Sea. My eldest daughter and grand daughter saw these "isolated Showers" as they flew over yesterday (to the continent) and back today. I can see small concentrations still drifting from the North west over the middle of the Strait on current radar.
Reminds me I should tarp the boat and put my pickup and tools under cover tonight.
So far no precipitation here and about 2 degrees C. Nice day so we followed some trails through our woods.
This setup can drop a lot of snow in a short time.
Pacific moist air coming east over us meets outflow from the interior and the outflow winds pick up moisture from the Strait. It doesn't need to be very cold here to make for heavy snow.
I claimed to have seen up to 6" per hour of snow accumulation, though I have no records to prove that. If we do get a dump I'll try to measure timing and depth and get a photo.
Actually I'd rather not need to do that - it can be problematic where to put the snow off the deck and getting Tloml's little Versa out of the 1,000' driveway means I mash the track down with the 4x4 and then tow her car out. At the end of the drive a paved road runs steeply down hill so she can usually get out from there but sometimes the little front wheel drive won't make it up again.
I can generally make the hill with the pickup in four wheel drive but since I have slid backward down it a couple of times I do not attempt to tow other vehicles up. We leave the two wheel drive vehicles on the level and hope some other dingaling does not loose it on the hill and crash into them.

Updated: 5:32 PM GMT on January 18, 2012

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Predictions

Posted by: ycd0108, 1:09 AM GMT on January 08, 2012

I was thinking about the wonderful world of WiFi earlier this afternoon while I read Patrap's blog and listened to McKenna's talks on various things. Tloml was on the desktop and my grand daughter was listening to Japanese Comics on her mom's laptop.
There are a few downsides to this trend - I have not had what I would call a "Real" conversation with my Gr. Dau. since she got her own iPod - before that she would steal mine - but the fact that three different people were watching or reading three different up to date sources in the same house at the same time is mind boggling to me. Tloml and I still maintain good talk time - that's how I caught her (and she me, I guess)- we still "Laugh and Cry and (..." ")Come over to the Window" - Dang! I used to sing that song but parts are now missing.
Thanks to Google:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/so+lon g+marianne_20082888.html
I worked with a lovely Marianne in Liberia and we mustered out together back to the Netherlands. When I met her in Albania on my next project I grabbed her and gave her a big hug. She winched and told me she had broken a shoulder not that long before.
I'm getting to the prediction:
In the mid '80s we were in "The Big Smoke", Vancouver, and cable TV was being installed. Many people had the home computers of the time -
I pulled out my journal of that year and looked for a reference there to whatever prediction I will eventually try to clear up but what I found was something mentioning "Chandler Wobble" and Ihad totally lost any frame of reference. So back to Google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble
To be continued - Tloml just brought me a Beef Sandwich.
Continued:
Forming concrete is a type of "Prediction". One has to think backwards because the form is to be removed. Then one needs to predict some reasonable amount for the volume you order.
One thing you can count on: when the "mud" shows up it will be a "Gong Show" no matter how well your forms are built. That stuff is really heavy and there is a limited "working time". When things go as planned you are simply worn out after the event. When things go sideways all bets are off.

Updated: 9:15 PM GMT on January 14, 2012

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New Outlook

Posted by: ycd0108, 8:22 PM GMT on January 01, 2012

Started my first entry and went searching and could not retrieve the "new blog" I had started. Here is the link I wanted:
"I read a lot of Sci-Fi in the '50s and sixties.
Some of the predictions then have shown up in the intervening years, for instance: A.C. Clark predicted geostable satellites in the forties, though he did not know that you and I would have access to the incredible images (IR,SST,La Nina, etc.) that we take for granted today.
Samuel R Delany described the "15 seconds of fame" available to all on "You Tube" in those early years.
One author I liked was interviewed in "Rolling Stone" regarding his short story predicting the melding of human and artificial intelligence (written in the '80s, predicting melding early in the 21st). When asked in the '90s what he thought about the prediction he indicated he thought it was likely to happen even sooner.
It has not happened to me (yet) because I still need to type and spell check. But when I look at the up to date images of weather on Wunderground I sometimes imagine I am better informed than the gods of Olympus".
Actually that was my first blog entry more or less exactly 4 years ago.
I don't know what happened to the link to Sam Pepys Diaries but maybe this will work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys
Tloml (the love of my life) has been reading aloud from these diaries lately and it got me to thinkin':
"What are we doing on this here WU Blog?"
It occurs to me we are creating a chronicle.
Let's go 2012!

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Now looking at the potential of humans (including myself) with regard to understanding complex natural phenomena.

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