Earworm

My earworm song just played on KCRW! I am saved!

It's Fangela, by Here We Go Magic. I love it!

One Less Thing

A lady at the grocery store showed me the secret of getting the new plastic produce bags to open. Now I don't have to stand there like a dork fiddling with the darn things!

Remember how Johnny Carson would blow into an envelope before pulling out the letter? I always thought that was cool. It didn't work with the plastic produce bags, though!

On another note...

If you wanna see a very nice model of the H.M.S. Victory, dive into Raul Guzman Jr's site. Be sure to scroll down to see the surgeon operating on a guy. It's so gross!

Plastic Goo

I broke down and bought some Squadron putty at the model railroad store yesterday. I've started assembling a couple of the SF3d figures I bought a zillion years ago. The putty is to fill in some of the gaps and such-like.



Oh, and that link is to some mighty fine model-building, not MY work!

Vacuum Between The Ears

Is this guy kidding or what?

Ohhh, it's The Tube Thing. Lots of links to interesting tube n' valve stuff.

Tube Box art.

Porn And The Art Of Vacuum Tube Fabrication. A 17 minute video...

Remember, real radios glow in the dark!

I was inspired to pop the case off my LM-16 Frequency Meter so you can see the tubes



I'm afeared to put voltage on it, so you don't get to see the glow.



This is World War II-era equipment. There are more pictures on my zooomr page, if you can stand it!

Argentine Antennas

We haven't had any antenna pics lately, so here are a few I snagged from the photographer's website. These are all from his trip to Argentina.

You can click on the image to see a bigger version!

A bunch of commercial antennas.



A large HF log periodic antenna. Possibly on a government building, in Medoza.



A small beam on a water tower.



Various commercial antennas on what I assume is a water tower.



This looks like a stacked array of two meter beams. With giant bathtubs.
Somewhere along the road to Iguazu Falls.



Quite an antenna farm there! Somewhere in Buenos Aries.



So, it looks like LU land (Argentina) is prime antenna-spotting territory!

Friday Finally

It's been a sunny week in San Diego since all those rains. I've been riding these last three days, and I've accumulated 31.67 miles.

I noticed a couple of (more!) old cars along the route. I don't know why there seem to be so many cars from the 60s (and 50s) about. That was forty years ago, for goodness sake! When I was a teen back then I never saw Model As or Model ts in everyone's driveway!

This 50s Ford station wagon is parked in the driveway of a boarded-up house. Notice the electric meter is gone. One wonders...



Down the street from the station wagon is this 60s Ford Econoline van. The mommy van of the era.



I know not why old people prefer to walk in the street instead of the sidewalk, but I see a lot of it. What's up with that?



Today I found a sponge, still in its wrapper, and a faded pink leash, perfect for walking the cat!



Oh, and I found a quarter the other day!

YESTERDAY's STUFF

It irks me no end when cops let people park in the bike lane for traffic stops! They wouldn't let them stop in the car lanes, now would they?



Here's the obligatory (and blog-redeeming) cat picture.

Ironic cat studiously ignores the mouse on his paw.



That is all!

Sunday

Not much going on here, but I did run across this exchange of Valentine's Day sentiments between two hashers, as quoted on The Half-Mind Weblog.

Cheers!

The Big Trip -- Day Three

Comfort Inns--A Comparison

Hanford

Refrigerator
Train Tracks
Complimentary Cookies
Eggs AND Sausages
Waffle Maker
Tub
Sink In The Bathroom (Where It Belongs!)

Seaside

No Refrigerator
No Train Tracks
No Cookies!
Hard Boiled Eggs
Scary Toilet!! (High Pressure Flush!!!!)
Shower
Lovely Scenery
Waffle Maker
Sink In The Bedroom

Both locations were nice, really, and the staff were very nice.

Some places we didn't visit--



Maybe next time!

Heading south on Highway 1 we found there was a bit a road repair going on. We had to wait for a bit for our turn on the one open lane. Several people got out to enjoy the view. I stayed inside and complained. And then we had to WAIT for them to get back into their vehicles when we got the green flag, as it were! The NERVE!



Traffic was very slow in Santa Barbara, too, but the sky was sure purty!



It was very clear and we could see the Channel Islands out to sea, and the oil wells, too.



There were a lot more oil wells when I was a kid. Not so attractive. Seems a shame that some people want to build more.

This is pretty much the last entry in the saga. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

I'd like to thank my son for enabling this trip, driving, and putting up with me.

LATER: Oh, how could I forget my daughter and her help!! If not for her, I would not have been able to go AT ALL! Period! Zip City! ¡¡¡Nada!!! But she was able to help, she volunteered, and it all happened!

Thanks, kids!

Ah, What Was That Again?

I spent a couple of hours trying to remember (and Googling) the name of an artist.

Finally it hit me, POW, it was ZORN! Anders Zorn!

Ok, now that it's documented here if I forget again, all I have to remember is, check this blog entry!

Why, you ask? Well, we had a this picture, by said artist, hanging on the wall for many years. I always thought it was a painting of my grandfather. It looks very like him, if one imagined him with a beard.

--> Here's a link to the painting <---

--> Here's link to the website about him <--

Wasn't that educational?

“There are three things I always forget. Names, faces, and – the third I can't remember.”

Italo Svevo (1861 – 1928) Italian novelist

The Big Trip -- Day One, Part Two...Or So

One of the nifty old things we saw in Hanford was this old car with startling paint job.



It looks a lot like Jay Leno's 1955 Buick Roadmaster, except for maybe the paint...

Big Trip, Day One

A Big Trip requires plenty of planning.

Or, one can just wing it...

We headed out around ten in the morning, not in the family tradition of eating breakfast (those little boxes of cereal that you cut open and fold back the tops) at the side of the road in Ventura.

No, I had breakfast at seven that morning. But we stopped at Jack In The Box where I had a breakfast something without sausage. It was pretty good. I should have had a coffee, too.

Whereas I would have driven straight through L.A., Matt likes to avoid traffic if possible, so we took the scenic detour around the worst of it. It was a big parking lot on the 10 east, but we weren't going that way.

There wasn't a lot to see along the way, at least that hadn't been seen before.

EVENTUALLY we saw some locomotives running along side of road. Trains are always interesting. I took several pics, all of them bad.



Well, what can I say?

It was time for lunch, so we decided to find an In-N-Out Burger. Matt keeps a brochure in his glove compartment listing all the locations. What a clever lad! Be prepared!

The only location in Tulare County is in Visalia, so we headed over there. Saw an abandoned drive in joint there. Right out of American Graffiti!



It was the Pepsi Cola sign that caught my attention, and sadly it's almost out of the shot.

We found the In-N-Out Burger and had a little feast. It was really crowded there. A whole soccer team came in, looked at the line, and half of them left. There was a guy in full Lycra who wheeled his bicycle in line.



Good food!

I saw a nifty old van on the way out of Visalia, but only managed to get this shot.



That's it for Visalia! Looked like a nice place to live, but I bet it's mighty warm in the summer.

Sunday Morning

I would not have the nerve to take my bicycle into a crowded restaurant, but a guy in full lycra did at the In'n'Out in Visalia yesterday. We had a pretty high-carb meal, then headed over to Hanford. We checked into our hotel room at the Comfort Inn. Pretty nice, I thought. The town is nice too, except it smells like cows, for some reason.

And there are a LOT of trains!

We had a nice visit with my dad last night. And some pizza!

Here is me, in the room. I am using a Macintosh to take the picture.



Holding the notebook up to the window, we see a car passing outside in the street this not-so-busy Sunday morning.



A slightly better view of the old hotel across the street, the Artesia hotel, built in 1891.



After availing ourselves of the fine Comfort Inn breakfast (coffee and croissant for me, waffles for Matt), we are getting ready to head out.

Well, that's about all for now, we are headed west this morning.

Monday Musings

Is there a word for the fog of breathe you see on a cold day?

All I can come up with is:

• Spirit breath
• Blowing smoke
• Fog breath

Surely there is something better!

I really hate it when I can remember the title of a book, especially when DISTINCTLY remember reading it. I've helped other people find titles, mostly utilizing Google or Amazon. Well, I spent about three hours trying to figure this out, but no luck. Now it's YOUR turn to help ME!

The book (or story) takes place during winter. A child (a boy?) ride with his grandfather (or uncle, or something...) on a steam tractor. They help people, in some way I can't remember. I THINK it was written by someone famous. I MAY have read it in a magazine, but I have the notion it was made into a television movie. To me, the steam tractor was the focal point of the story.

Go for it!

Just What DO You Know?

A guest on Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? Office Party show said/implied that Robert Heinlein wrote Dianetics. And no one called him on it. There would have been a big "I think NOT" from the audience if I had been there!

As it was, the was a lound "Heinlein? Heinlein?? HEINLEIN????" from MY bedroom!

A Penny

I got this penny in change at work the other year. It's a 1958 D "wheatie".





Just for fun I looked up its value at About.com: Wheat Penny Values. It's worth about 3 cents. So much for found riches!

My camera technique is somewhat lacking, as usual. There are a ton of sites on the Web showing how to photograph coins. I especially like the milk jug diffuser on Coin Photography. I thnk I might try that!

Let There Be Light

I've been having some trouble lately with my reading lamp. I replaced the 40 watt fluorescent lamp with a 100 watt fluorescent lamp. It died after two hours use. I took it back to the store and they gave me a new one. I've been using that one for about a week, no problems.

A couple of days ago the switch started acting up. I had to wiggle it to get it to work. It made scary sparking noises, and finally ceased to function, electrically, at all.

I bought some new switch guts for it today, installed same, works fine.

I drilled out the rivets on the old one to see what was going on inside.



It looked ok, but when I loaded the picture into the computer and magnified it, I could see that one contact was not in the right place. You can see the contact on the right has sprung out of place. I don't' know if it was like that before I took the top of the switch, and it looks like it's making good contact anyway. I don't see any signs of arcing.

The only think I can think of is, maybe because the right-hand contact sprungded out on the left, there wasn't enough springy tension on the right where the contact makes contact with the piece that you can't see because it fell out.

So, I don't know what the problem was. All I know is the new one works fine.

Antenna Day

A lovely morning, a pleasant ride, and lots of antennas to photograph.

I wonder how long it will be before someone calls the policia on the wierd bike guy taking pictures of roofs in the semi-darkness!!

An HF Yagi and a VHF Yagi, and one of those fake owls. Or is it?



Which picture do you like more, the one WITH the power lines...



Or the one WITHOUT power lines? And chimney.

I USE to be able to name all these antennas, from many nights perusing the Allied Radio catalog. Not any more. Haven't a clue on this one! Some sort of HF vertical. With a VHF vertical on the side.



This cute little VHF quad caught my attention the other day. When cropping the pic I noticed one of the wires is broken.



I think this is a 40 meter band quad, but I don't see the element wires in the pic! Will have to check tomorrow. Hey, it's just GOT to be a quad!



Note also the multi-band dipole hanging down there.

Phil and I visited a fellow back in the sixties who had a GIANT two-element quad on his roof, over in Fletcher Hills. Must have been an 80 meter band quad. I wish I could remember his call.

Oh, yeah, the bike. Well, so far we got 30.6 miles on the odometer.

Friday RR

I see no one is taking an interest in the questionnaire thingie, so you people are still going to the model railroad stuff HERE!



Should not those boxes on the flat car be secured?

A black hole seems to be consuming the railroad, OH NOES!!!



It's amazing how that ballast sticks to the sides of the rails, defeating the force of gravity!

Correction!

I am told I am in error, that the cookies pictured yesterday are in fact NOT made with white chocolate.

Instead, they are made with semi-sweet chocolate. Which is obvious from the picture, and REAL LIFE, if one uses one's eyes.

And butterscotch, of course.

Now, where is the recipe?

On a food-related topic, How to Make a Schadenfreude Pie from John Scalzi's Whatever blog.

Monday

Went to the doc today, she said my PSA was as low as it can go. So that's pretty good news!

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I just love the top image on the Hodaka Days website!

Why Hodakas rock:

• Fairly inexpensive at around $425.00 ($2,507.00 in 2007 dollars) (But more than I could afford!).
• Most parts could be interchanged between model years.
• That shiny toaster gas tank!
• Could be modified into almost anything, and were!
• Came from Oregon! (Well, Japan, via Oregon.)

I wonder what ever became of my old Hodaka Ace 100 with the Van Tech forks?

Not to mention the Yamaha 650 with custom pinstriped fuel tank?

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My son baked us some cookies and brought them over last night! Yum, oatmeal with butterscotch and white vanilla chips! Double-YUM!












A couple of variable capacitors I had laying about. What can I do with them? I had the idea I could make a QRP transmatch kind-of-thing with them, but I don't EVEN remember where I read the article any more.

So there they sit...





I finally broke down and bought a new tip for the soldering gun. Should make an improvement