WEEK 32 2008
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First Post,
17 March 2002
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Saturday
- relaxing a bit. Took Peg, Dads' dog, for a walk, or maybe she took me. In any case we both enjoyed it.
I mentioned the Compass Rose last year. I am reminded tonight, web surfing, that I used to work next to the biggest compass rose in the world: that painted on the lakebed at Edwards AFB, near NASA.
Also at DeputyDog, the Grand Shaft, at Dover, dating to the Napoleonic wars. Someday I just have to do an engineering tour of England!
Seen on the wall at a Mexican restaurant:
Marilyn, Elvis and John Lennon I recognize. The others???
Friday 8 August
2008
Friday
- on the road, back up to Lancaster. I got in about 9:00 from Ventura on Thursday night; stopped by
briefly with some friends, played with the cats, hit the sack and got
on the road north about 8:00am, into Martinez mid afternoon. Moderate traffic, not terrible but
fairly continuous.
You know, I forgot to get the wheel balanced on the Explorer after the
repair of last week, and there was a definite resonance at 70mph, so I
did most of the drive at 65. I'll have to get that fixed this weekend.
Crawdad in Ventura.
Thursday 7 August
2008
Thursday
- another busy day. I was working under the approaches to NAS Point Mugu, and saw a P3-Orion, an E-2C (E-2D?), a C-2, some F-18's and C-130's, and a couple of smallish commuter type transports.
I thought it was a great show, the guy I was working with didn't care for it.
I'd gotten a letter from the marina a while back, suggesting I clean up
my area of the dock. I was a bit puzzled, I'd just been down there and
it was fine. So I ignored it.
After getting another letter I decided to call, and they claimed that
there was an issue. So, instead of heading home to Lancaster right
after work, from Camarillo I drove back to Ventura.
And there was a mess.
A scuba suit, a bait box, a pail of garbage, a boarding step, an
uncapped gas can, an extra water line, a pail of cleaning supplies, a
pail of mystery stuff, fishing poles, cloths, some discarded line. It
was the fishing boat in the next slip of course, so I called up the
marina and told them that it was an unsightly, unsanitary and unsafe
mess - but that it wasn't mine and I'd appreciate them cleaning it up,
pronto. And I mentioned finding cigarette butts in my cockpit (it's a
fiberglass boat!) and hooks and weights wrapped around my rigging (it's
illegal to fish from the docks!).
You know, it looked like good sailing weather down there. There were
some Tall Ships (kinda) in the harbor, so I took a few pics from
landward - they weren't open to visitors at the time.
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Wednesday
- a busy day, trying to get a jump on the big task ahead, and make some
progress before a break this weekend to go up and visit my Dad.
Geeky (non-religious) stained glass. Pretty neat. [via Violins and Starships]
There are a number of things in science and technology that would make
for neat glass - mathematics, astronomy, engineering diagrams of
various kinds. Mohr's Circle, for example, or a Rankine Oval.
Tuesday 5 August 2008
Tuesday
- finished one zone, starting another.
Bashed my shin on a rock, raised a pretty nice goose egg for a couple of hours, subsided now.
An interesting link on using
naval vessels log books (the British Navy specifically) to reconstruct past climactic
history. Apparently some of the data is numerical, and some
is descriptive (the Beaufort Scale or equivalent?). With 100,000 log books there ought to be some clues as
to what was happening in the ocean, but the history of the land
stations over the last hundred years shows how easily bias is
introduced into a data set.
Add in the French navy, the Spanish navy, the American navy, and all the rest, and it's a pretty broad database.
Monday 4 August 2008
Monday
- back down below, a full days work, then a meeting in the evening with some
business associates.
Sunday 3 August 2008
Sunday
- mowed the lawn, edged a bit, finished bills, shopped, generally kept
busy.
I was going to hike with my brother, but he apparently left without me
when I was outside mowing :-(
Hot, 100F or so, not as bad as yesterdays 106F.
I bought some white vinegar and cleaned out the hummingbird feeder with
that, and white rice. Almost immediately when I hung it up outdoors
afterward there was a little guy drinking - maybe they can taste the
mold or fungi or whatever the black stuff inside is, and avoid it.
Back on the road tomorrow.
