Out This Morning

Well, what do we have accumulated in the photo file?  It's starting to build up, so he

On Tuesday the 18 I went down to the river after doing labs.  I parked at the Y and walked along Friar's Road looking at the flowers, birds, and traffic, along with the workmen doing something to a bridge, looks like adding another track.

Here we see some birds in the San Diego River.

Several views of flowers along the sidewalk.

I had no less than two men pop out of the bushes on little trails.  One had a disagreeable pit bull type-of-dog.  Quite the growly thing.  Said man was kind enough to let his disagreeable dog crap on the sidewalk without picking it up.  Thank you, oh citizen!

Flowers everywhere!

Found a geocache at the end of the walk, then turned around and returned to the vehicle.

My gas gauge started working again, all on its own. What to think?

Today I took the bike to the Silver Strand and got me some caches.  I spent an hour looking for the one at this particular location, and an hour the previous time I was here (there?)!  This time I found it!

Here's a blast from the past that I discovered at my mother's, and she kindly let me have it.

Thanks for reading!

Just A Couple Of Things

This one is kinda weird.  A workman came by to open the long-stuck door to a storage room under the stairs.  The door was really stuck, and he actually broke the door in two pieces, even though he had taken the hinge pins out.  That part of the door stayed stuck.  We were all amused.  Inside was a light (with an ungrounded ground wire on the adapter...) which I thought might be handy, and that transformer. 

Saw this new landscaping over by Vons.  Doesn't seem like a good idea to plant those where kids could easily mess with them.

Thanks for reading!

A Few Days Worth

I walked over to the library the other day.  I noticed this smashed conduit at the gas station.  They probably ought to do something about that.

On a mostly sunny Sunday we did the six miles round-trip hike to the peak of Cuyamaca and back again.  It was pretty grueling.  My boots are a little too short, so going downhill my toes hit the end of the shoes and it gets real sore.  I developed Hiker's Ankles (heat rash) afterwards, but at least it doesn't itch

I took some of these pictures with the camera, and some on the phone.  The are posted, here, in order of file number, not chronologically, so that is why they are out of order.

Dead/possibly burnt tree on the peak. See, this is what I was talking about, it should come after all the walking up pictures!

On the peak after around three miles of walking up, with a whole lot of vertical gain.

A view of El Capitan reservoir from the peak.

Matt is taking a picture of something, possibly a bee.

These are probably the best view of the hike, hence all the pictures!

And yet another one!

As we proceeded up Lookout Fire Road I had to stop and take a picture of Stonewall Peak.

I would swear is no cache in there.  So, is it gone, or am I just looking in the wrong place again?

I think these turned out pretty darn good.  Stonewall Peak over there, and Cuyamaca Lake over there there.

This one might be even better, the other one shows all the bushes. Maybe I zoomed in a bit.  I don't remember!

This, after much effort, I discovered to NOT be the geocache I was looking for. That turned out to be across and down the road a bit.  But it was nearly as hard to get to as this was!!

View of El Capitan from down the mountain a bit.  Nice of someone to put a bench there!

I was trying to get some memorable picture here, but all I can see is my yellow fake teeth!

Self at the peak.

View of El Capitan reservoir to the west from Cuyamaca peak.

View of dead trees on Cuyamaca peak.

WhoEVER heard of mixing gobs of pepper with their ketchup?

Pattymelt.  The onion rings were too much for me.  At times I really miss my gall bladder!

A rat I caught in our yard last night!!

Yes, I know it's a possum, I let the baby go.

My gas gauge showing the gauge on empty and the "getting empty" light on, in spite of there being a full tank.

A little ORIGINAL CONTENT™ I came up with for the Facebook. Not much reaction, though.

In-N-Out Burger burgers are pretty good, but the fries have not been all that wonderful lately.  Below we see my fries (the full-size ones) compared to my host's fries.  Sad

And here we see what was left after I ate my full-size fries.  Black fries!  How wrong is that?

Thanks for reading!

Watching TV

The other day I was watching Macgyver while visiting with my mother, since there really isn't a whole lot to do over there without any internet/cell phone access.  And my vehicle was in the shop!  Trapped!  Ha ha!  I love visiting my mother and brothers, but get a bit panicky without my own transportation.  Maybe I should pre-position a bicycle there!

Anyway, we were watching season 1 episode 18 titled "Ugly Duckling".  You can probably find it on YouTube or something and watch it if you want.

About 26 or so minutes in we find Macgyver and the very smart teen Kate (Darcy Marta) suddenly trapped and under attack by the bad guys.  Mac grabs a piece of equipment off the shelf and hooks it up to a large speaker to make a sonic weapon.  And it works, the bad guys clap their hands over their ears and can't shoot, until, well, you'll just have to watch it!

Anyway, again, when I saw Mac grab that piece of equipment I said "That is not an audio oscillator, that is a Collins S-line radio transmitter!"

I looked it up, compared stills from the show with pictures from the 'net, and that is just what it is, a Collins 32S-1 transmitter.


Here is the back panel of the transmitter. I think the AC power line comes out of that little hole down there on the right.

Here is the back side of the "audio generator" on the show.  Looks pretty similar!  Looks like he just plugged a cable into the "anti VOX" jack, what ever that is.  VOX is Voice Operated eXchange (which I did not know, I thought the "X" was for "transmitter"), but I don't get the "anti".

Another rear view of it sitting on the Large Speaker!

Here is the front panel of the transmitter.  Don't forget these are thumbnails, you can click the image to see the full size, or just mouse over it for a preview if you have an extension like Thumbnail Zoom Plus installed in Firefox. It's a wonderful thing!

Macgyver seems to be adjusting the exciter tuning...

And now he is adjusting the VFO (the "tuner").  Note that the meter on the right is only pointing at around the 100-something line. Are those microamps or milliamps?  I can never remember!

Whoa, the meter is pegged now!!

But, sadly, it only works while it is still plugged in, and so here we see the bad guys have bonked Magyver on the head and made off with the girl-who-knows.

Thanks for reading!

The images of the front and rear panels were found 

using Google Image Search.

All images from the television show are copyrighted

 by someone and used without explicit permission.

April Fools

We continue with the narrative...

April 1st -- We went over to visit my brother.  We had a nice visit, then upon leaving I found that the truck would not fire up.  The wiring to the fuel pump inertia switch was kinda melty. And the switch just would not reset.  Zut alors! Now I'm in a fix!  And it is Saturday, you will remember, so there are no repair shops open tomorrow.  So much for returning home on Sunday!

April 2nd -- We got DOGS in the house!  This one doesn't care much for me.  A little grrrrr as I walk past her, and sometimes a big bark.  I DID get a doggy kiss once, when she was overcome by the excitement of riding in the car!

This little guy is pretty barky on first acquaintance,  but will quickly settle down to get petted. He likes carrots, but takes FOREVER to finally eat them up!

I remember this pitcher from my childhood.  I always thought it was from a market near where we lived.

But it is from Red Wing, Minnesota!  Yet another childhood mis-remembery!

It was REALLY REALLY windy this afternoon.  Seriously!  I made a VIDEO OF THE WIND BLOWING that will GO RIGHT HERE. Someday...

More dog pictures.  You love dog pictures, right?

Look at him there!  Look at the cat on floor!  Oblivious he is!

The dogs need a bath.  They're going for a dip!

Both of them.  One of them loves it, the other not so much. Can you guess which is who?

The obligatory picture of a boat speeding down the river. 

April 3rd (Monday) -- Today we got the truck towed to the mechanic, and he is gonna let us know.

We went grocery shopping.

I hear this building has been under construction for a long time.  A VERY long time! 

Found these out in the desert while we were looking at that building.  The boat is pretty down-for, but the shell is...not TOO bad.  Has mostly of its glass, too!  Too bad it seems to be for a longer bed than mine!

My new home is under construction.  What a view!  Wait, April Fools was last Saturday...

It was pretty WINDY this afternoon, TOO, and I made ANOTHER VIDEO that will GO RIGHT HERE. Someday...

We had stew for dinner, and it was really good.  Had wine in it!  My brother is a really good cook, and likes to try new things!

The mechanic called and said it started up for them, but the fuel pump was testing sub-optimally. So he is going to fix the wiring, and replace the fuel pump.  It's gonna cost some coin, as they say!

April 5th -- This is from a postcard (in my mother's prize-winning collection) extolling the virtues of living in the area.  Back in the day, probably the 60s or 70s.  The two motorcycles in front look like Hodakas, what with the chrome "toaster" gas tanks.  Hence my interest.

I got the truck back this afternoon, paid for it, and I'm gonna leave tomorrow.  I checked with the pharmacy that I had asked to get an "emergency" supply of meds (I did not plan on staying THIS long!), and they had not even called my home pharmacy yet (In 24 hours???), so I cancelled the request.

April 6th (Thursday) --Drove home, no problems.

This was pretty much the only traffic slow-down the whole trip!

Nothing in the news that I could find

Still burning! Yikes!

They should make a law about using cell phones while driving...

Ooops, I missed a license plate there!

Well, that's the big trip, and about all I can remember.

No, wait, I forgot (AGAIN!) about the bicycle!!!  On the trip on, on the 8 in the desert heading towards El Centro, there was a bicycle in the middle of the lane!   People were swerving to avoid it!  I stopped and waited for traffic to clear (there wasn't really much, it was early) and hauled the bike to the side of the freeway.  It was a Trek bike, not a terribly expensive one, and not too badly damaged.  I left it there, as it wasn't mine.  Maybe whoever lost it will come back and get it.  Or maybe not.

And THAT is all I can remember!