Flower Time

Way up high, in the sky, the sun flowers are reaching, ever reaching.



And I'm laying on the ground, getting twigs down my neck!

A wittle purple sweet pea!



The line of of sunflowers grows!



More purple sweet peas! Why only violet?



A bug on the sunflower the bloomed first.



Slightly out of order, the sunflower that bloomed first!




Later!

Radio Radio

The boss left this nifty old radio behind this summer. It's a Zenith All Transistor Royal 8. I don't know what the eight stands for. Eight transistors? That's a real leather case!



And that's real shiny metal there, too! It's a heavy little sucker!
And it has BOTH kinds, AM AND FM! And AFC!



And here are the guts. Feel free to count the transistors. This is so discrete!



So the deal is, I needed a six volt power supply for this baby. I found an appropriate wall wart, but it had the wrong connector. This guy take a little miniature phone plug. I found the adapters for a universal wall wart, but not THIS adapter, nor the universal wall wart, either!

So I'm standing around at lunch, watching some wimmen dump stuff in a dumpster. I see a cable. I pull it out. It has a universal wall wart attached! W00t! But, it doesn't have the correct adapter.

So, I'm at home. I'm warming up the soldering iron. I'm drawing the power jack schematic, gonna switch it out with an audio jack that I DO have the adapter for. I'm looking for the hank of small solder in a drawer. I find an adapter. An adapter for a universal wall wart. The CORRECT adapter. SCORE!

I plug the adapter in. The polarity is not indicated on the case of the radio. Of course. I've got a 50/50 chance of getting it right. I've possibly got a 50/50 chance of blowing a transistor or a capacitor. I plug it into the radio, I hear a noise from the speaker. Nothing else. I reverse the adapter, I plug it in. I've got RADIO!

The volume control is a little scratchy, but she works fine otherwise.

Sounds good, looks good!

Later!

Gardening

The first poppy has bloomed.



The first sunflower to show a hint of bloom, although a bunch of them have flowers growing.



Some of the sunflowers are taller than me! They must be the giant ones!

A lot of the marigolds have finally bloomed, too. I figure the sweet peas will show some flowers in a couple of week.

Later!

Teeth Day

I went to the dentist today, with GREAT trepidation. Ten minutes later, I was gone. He reached in with some tweezers and pulled out the piece of bone. A piece SO SMALL, a little bigger than a pinhead, that I couldn't even SEE it, till he pointed it out. I thought it would be AT LEAST a quarter inch long, with a giant hook on the end.

So I went back to work.

Here is today's mystery pic, possibly the first in a series. Or, the last.



This is about twice as large as "life size". Or maybe even thrice. Look at the measuring device!

I know what it is, can YOU guess?

I acquired it back in the 70s, when I replaced it with a new one. If you can name the brand name of what it came from, I'm thinking you are doing pretty good!

Later!

Teeth Redux

Best shot I can get of the inside of my mouf.



Still can't see it. But I can feel it!!

Later!

Of Teeth & A Bird

I've a chunk of tooth or bone or SOMETHING coming out of my gum where the wisdom tooth was pulled a couple of months ago. It has sharp edge that is worrying the heck out of the side my tongue, and the tip of my tongue is worrying itself on IT, in turn. I tried to take a picture of it, but cannot seem to get the right angle.

And you probably didn't want to see it, anyway.

But I did!

Dentist appointment next Wednesday.

-----------------------

This probably belongs on the bicycle blog, BUT... riding home today I saw a bird. Looked sort of like quail, and my first thought was: Turkey! But no. I'm thinking it was maybe a pheasant. I didn't notice the characteristic long tail feathers, but it DID have a red patch around the eyes. Of course, didn't have the camera with me!

Falling Down

Two more sunflowers, the last two, I think, in the front yard, have been uprooted.

It's GOT to be a cat.

Meanwhile, in the back yard...

I started most of the sunflowers in peat pots. I didn't "plant" the pots properly, so many of the sunflowers are falling over.



A fairly useless photo showing the base of the plant, but not illuminating the peat pot!



That's not really soil, it's about two inches of little leaves. Very loose! Next year--USE SOIL!

I tied it to the stake with twice. I have a BIG ball of twine!



The green line...



The fairly lame compost bin is in the background. I REALLY should get rid of that white junk in the fence, it looks AWFUL!

Later!

Shocking

The latest update on the power switch deal is--The sainted Mr. M. is trying to get the manufacturer to give him a new switch to install. Well, I'm thinking, they are NOT going to let a customer install his own switches. In fact, they want to send out a whole new panel. So we are waiting on that.

Truly A Tuesday

That is to say, it's Garbage Day!

Finally scraped the paint on the vehicle, through a series of misjudgments. I am throughly p.o.ed at myself.



Not a mark on the concrete pylon!

I REALLY need to get my act together!

Here is a rose from our garden. I'm told it is a "Peace" rose.



It struck ME as interesting that the boxes for frozen pizza have the same background, just colored differently.



Just one big pizza Photoshop, I guess!

I dropped into Radio Shack and purchased a couple of Modular Jacks for the outrageous sum of nearly 20 bucks so as to construct a LAN network cable testing device as per this article.

Later!

Flower Time

Mystery plant! Never noticed it blooming before, in twenty years of living here!

Tentatively identified as Arum maculatum. Also called Lords and Ladies.



One of these is with flash, one is without. I can't remember which is which!



What's all that gunk around the base of the spadix? Pollen?

Later!

Hook Up

Using the fabulous OptiVISOR (and a soldering iron!) I managed to FINALLY solder the wires on the USB extension cable I'm making for to be able to plug in flash drives that won't seat properly because of their fat housings.



I certainly can't brag about the soldering job, but when I did the smoke test..no smoke! The computer recognized and read my flash drive, and the LED lit up!

I PROBABLY should have checked the cable for shorts using a multimeter, but, you only live twice!

Now I have to get some RTV to insulate and hold it together, wrap the shreds of copper shielding around it from the original connector, and, well, that's it.

The Bees Are Back!

As I mentioned over in the bike blog, the bees have returned.

What's the story? A bunch of years ago, a swarm of bees settled in around an ill-fitting board on the upstairs apartments' patio. We, and by "we" I mean, not me, called the off-site apartment managers. They said, "It's your problem."

Ok, what do I care? The bees moved in, builded themselves a hive! Surprise!

A year, or maybe two, later, the apartment managers came to the conclusion that it was a bad thing to have a hive. So they hired some guys, under the table, no doubt, to rip out the boards, rip out the honey comb (and there was a TON of it!), and put some new boards up. Apparently, they didn't get all the honey. Whenever it gets hot, the bees come back.

And here we are!



This one has been rotated and gamma fidgeted to un-darken the bees. For your viewing pleasure. Too bad they didn't shoot a little gunk into those voids!



It's like the bottom board/entrance to one of Kelly's bee hives! All the workers scurrying about, looking for someone to sting. Someone allergic. Someone like ME!

Ain't nature wonderful?

Murder, I Say!!

I went out to the front yard to water the sunflowers, and THIS is what I found!



Is that not outrageous?? Is the foul fellow who did this two-legged, or four?

There are a couple of suspicious cats that frequent the area...

I'd like to THINK it was cats.

At any rate, just last Sunday, you will recall, they looked like this...



They survived the roofers, only to die an ignominious death at the hands of, what?

There are only a couple of sweet peas left, and all those other green things sprouting up, that I know not what they are, so I continue to water.

Coverth All The Bases

We are going to cover a few things here, so sit down and take a load off.

I really enjoyed listening to those "hipster know-it-alls" on This American Life on KCRW, Santa Monica Public Radio.

Ol' Blue Eyes was playing with a new Mac at work, trying to figure out how to use this "easy-t0-use" computer.



Why is the photo backwards? I don't know, must a Mac feature!

We got our roof finished up on Saturday. The roofers did a good job, not too many plants destroyed. But the inside of the garage is not QUITE how they found it.

There's a bit of gunk on the water heater!



I'm PRETTY sure I didn't leave that box and tire THERE!
And, my oil can is missing! (found it later, in the wagon...)



Hey, there's a fox hunting antenna on my model railroad! Good thing I covered the railroad with plastic (several years ago, albeit.)



Box of plastic misc. parts spilleded on the floor. Just outrageous!



The final gift from the roofers, a nail I found in my shoe. Thought it was a rock, at first!



Oh, and I just finished that book. Too little, too late!

I thought this bird was one of those fake scare-birds, but a little while late it was gone, so either it fell off, or flew away!



Crow or hawk? Or what?

Pet Peeve: Typos on greeting cards...



The sunflower in the front yard are growing really well. Thick stalks, much sturdier than the anemic ones in the back yard. Maybe they will grow tall enough to block the view!



My Gerber Mark II Combat Survival knife sheath has developed some kind of corrosion between the brass and the leather. What's up with THAT?

Green goo!



Look like a leaking battery!



It's corruded away!



Lastly, a closeup of the sunflower jungle in the front yard. There are a couple of sweet peas in there, and some weeds, too.

Stuff

I was looking for something in the garage yesterday, but I never found it, because I got BURIED in piles of stuff.

I have so MUCH crap in the garage, it is unbelievable!

Here is some of it:

• Slides from an Adelanto motocross in 1974.
• Slides from U.S. Gran Prix motocross at Carlsbad.
• Gerber Mark II with decomposing sheath snap. Yeah, it's GREEN!
• Program listings from computer class, circa 1981. COBOL, BASIC, etc...
• LM frequency meter tag. Hey, this boat anchor is for sale, BTW!
• Tecate To Ensenada medal I found.
• Father's Day cards, both to AND from.
• Business Card-size cards with obnoxious sayings on them.
• Library fine book from Pershing Jr. High School, circa 1965!
• VIC-20 programming and mod articles.
• Apple ][ programming and mod articles.
• Novice Roundup log.
• WAMO log.
• QSL card from a guy Phillip and I met back in 1965.
• And LOTS of other junk!
• Manual for Ringo Ranger
• Baby picture of Kimberly.
  

And I"m not saying this is VALUELESS stuff, but it's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a piece of paper with the serial number of the FMH transceiver that disappeared a decade and a half ago, so I could post a "Wanted Poster" here. Just on the off-chance...

But what I WANTED to say was, I found an article that struck a chord with me back in the day. But THAT'S not important.

What's interesting is, I Googled the author, found his books (out of print) and a couple articles written by him, and that's about all. No bio, no web page.

On the other hand, I Googled his children's names, and came up with his ex-wife's class reunion page, in which we find all SORTS of information about her and them, including her picture, and their birthdates.

You probably want to know who the author is.

I'm not telling you.

Ain't the intarnets wonderful?

Littering

Oh "CIGGY" from Wisconsin, why do you come to the Golden State to toss your burning cigarette butt out the window? Why don't you go badger someone, and somewhere, else? Especially when I'm listening to Street Hassle on the CD, and I'm just in a mood to give your black Solera a love-tap?

• Not absolutely positive about the automobile model.
• Was not actually listening to Street Hassle, but it WAS Lou.
• License plate may not be correct, but it IS representative.
  
• Badger, get it?

A tip of the fedoda to ACME License Maker!!

No Smoke Yet

UPDATE:

I have spoken to the powers, as it were, that be. The power switch in question has been determined to be defective, and so a new one is being ordered.

I have volunteered the use of my trusty Weller soldering gun when it comes time to do the deed.

Not my home Weller that has needed a new tip for the last 20 years, but my work Weller, the one that hasn't been dropped, AND has a good tip. Although the light doesn't work.

A Solder's Christmas Poem

The title has nothing much to do with this, just another typo on the intarwebs! Click here to see it in situ.

Interesting electrical problem I came across at work.

Someone complained of sparks coming from their computer cart (hold 20 laptops w/chargers).

I didn't do the investigation, I'm just documenting it for you edification.

I observed some arcing on the plug.



Here is the layout of the power distribution system in the cart. Power comes in through the cord, goes through the power switch/circuit breaker, then out to the receptacles in what is probably a spring-grippy sort of thing. I would like to take one apart. The layout looks pretty good.



Let us take a closer look at the power switch. Oh oh!! I don't know where where the sparks were seen, but THIS isn't good! Looks like someone forgot to solder the wires to the power switch/circuit breaker! The wire on the left might even look a little discoloured, or maybe it was tinned, I don't know.



I guess we'll solder the wires to the power switch, and give it the ol' smoke test!

Later!

Poppy!

We went on little trip up to the California State Poppy Reserve yesterday. It's about four hours from San Diego, not counting the odd ill-advised detour. That is, we passed a rental RV from Canada, took a detour designed to save time, and passed the SAME RV in Pasadena.

We also saw a lot of accidents. I swear there were AT LEAST 15 accidents. On the way back, just south of Santa Clarita, there was a semi rig stopped in the middle of the freeway, with a Highway Patrol parked behind him, lights a=blinking! Then we noticed that another Highway Patrol was behind us, do the zig-zag thing, stopping all traffic! So we were that last ones through!

Here is my first picture of the poppy fields.



Seems to be a tuck in the way! Whoops!

Here's a better one.



This is the line waiting to pay their four dollars for parking. You don't NEED to park there, you can park down on the main road, but it's a bit of a walk. Actually, there are plenty of poppies to see without even going into the poppy reserve. The whole valley is covered in them!

We also did a little geocaching, and came down through San Francisquito Canyon, which has a lot of history. We only found two geocaches. One at the Poppy Fields was missing, and two that we walked nearly a mile to get to, looked like might be too physically challenging for us at this time, so we left them for another time.

There are way too many pictures to stick in here, so go over to my zooomr page and take a look at them. I will be working on captions and geotags for a couple of days, I bet! You can leave comments there, if you dare!

Of Tygers and Swings, and Manly Men

A class was in the libery today, composing poems. TWO of the kidlets turned in poems that started, "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright"!!

Even I recognized THAT! I commented, "Hey, you misspelled 'tiger'"

Alfred Bester wrote "The Stars, My Destination", one of my favorite SF stories. It was originally, so I've heard, titled "Tiger Tiger", for reasons obvious when you see the book cover illustration linked to.

I've read somewhere it might be made into a movie. That would be way cool!

Back in the day (3rd or 4th grade), I tried to pass off Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Swing' as an original poem. Silly me! That was the LAST time I plagiarized anything. At least, before the internet came along!

The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from A Child's Garden of Verses

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

It is available at Project Gutenberg

THE TYGER

By William Blake
from Poems of William Blake

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Also available at Project Gutenberg!

---

On the radio this morning they wuz replaying a bit wherein guys call in and share the most "guy" thing they have ever done. One guy had ridden his motorcycle at high speed down Cajon Pass with a buddy, another had taken a bullet south of the border.

I can't think of anything.

Trees Trimmed

You saw the letter, today they trimmed the trees.

Now we can see the house in back, for the second time in twenty years!



Shooting through the door screen adds a certain air of incompetence, don't you think?

When we moved in, twenty years ago, this palm tree was about waist high. Now it's OUT OF CONTROL! They trimmed the TON of dead fronds off, about five years worth, as I gave up cutting them when the tree grew out of reach of my pole saw. I wish they had cut the darn thing down. It might have made a nice table base! Instead of a rat-ladder!!

Proofreading

One would think a Professional Business would do a better job of proofing their communiqués. It's not like they are writing some crummy blog, they are In Business!

Let us examine this letter:

• What is up with the date? No spaces, two commas? But look, they did it again the second time! At least they get points for consistency!
• Hey, that margin is a little raggedly! Line it up!
• Why is the "v" in "vehicles" capitalized? I would have capitalized the "p" in "property", too.
• I stuck in a couple of commas I thought would be appropriate, but I COULD be wrong.
• I forgot to underline the "am" after the time. It's an abbreviation. There are supposed to be periods. Two of them. At least it wasn't capitalized, as I would have mistakenly done!
• I believe "Allresidents" should be TWO words.
• The capitalization of the initial letter in each word of the closing line seems a bit much.
• "In Advanced"?
  
• While I edited out the address of the residents and the name of the company, I did NOT edit out the name and signature of the sender. There wasn't any...

A DISCLAIMER, SORT OF: I feel I can cast a few stones here, as the misteaks I make in my business communications are rarely as glaringly obvious as these!

Of Spring Weeds and Missing Trees

I was making a snarky comment about dandelions, and I was asked, "Just what IS a weed?"



Well, I looked it up, and the intarwebs consensus seems to be, a weed is a plant growing where it isn't wanted. Well, I've got dandelions in the lawn, I don't much care for THAT, but I guess in this bed of iceplanty things, it's just another flower.

The wife was out and about the other day. When she came home, she mentioned that the big tree was gone. I wasn't paying attention, as I was battle ling creeps on Desktop Tower Defense. When I went off to work the next morning I saw what she was talking about. The big tree IS gone!



Where WAS the Big Tree? Take a gander at this High-Quality Google Maps Street View of the area in question.



Nice lens flare! Hey look, you can see the same camper parked in the same place!

That tree was so big and beautiful. It's too bad they decided to cut it down. But how come I didn't notice it the day they did it?

Four For Friday

Four Things That Went Right Today

Firstly, the Earworm of the Day was the Public Service Announcement the local county television station play.

Here's the first stanza:

There's too many kitties in the cities,
Too many strays in the alleyways
They're on the street with nothing to eat
And they've got nowhere to stay.

Check out the video starting here, navigate your way to the PSA's.

What went right was, I found the lyrics on the net and got the earworm out of my head!

Nextly, someone actually checked out a book I recommended! It was Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey. You remember, Make Way For Ducklings and Blueberries For Sal? I love these books!

Thirdly, I discovered (for the second time, I think) (after digging around with a jeweler's screwdriver) that a tattoo from radiation treatments looks very like an ingrown hair or blackhead through not-very-clean bifocals...or maybe it's just a freckle. Will confirm with the doc in May. Maybe will get a "Don't Panic" tat to conceal it!

And Fourthly, the phone guy hooked our two extensions on "group" so now we can pick up either extension from, well, either extension! It's telephone heaven! And I've got no excuse for not answering the phone...

Later!