Travels and Thoughts

In mid afternoon we went to the county fair - we'd tickets but it turns out that it was free to get in the first hour. So maybe we'll go again next week. My friends won numerous prizes for their craft and food entries. The boy even won a "best of show" which comes with a basket of candy bars! After the sun went down it cooled off nicely and we enjoyed the exhibits, some Gyro's, beer, a bluegrass band and the company of some later arriving friends. Low key but altogether satisfactory.

Trekkies are awesomely insane: Klingons Crossing the Delaware. [via Silfray Hraka]

Klingons

Colonials

Thursday 23 August 2007

Thursday - hot and humid again. It has turned mild and pleasant this evening though. I could sit outside on the patio, enjoying the balmy dusk, if I didn't mind the incessant mewing and scratching at the French doors of my cats, eager to join me disappear into the night. Though if I lured them into the garage first they wouldn't know have to know I was outside...

Unless they smelled it on my shoes and then spent the rest of the night peeing in my shoes.

I discovered a broken sprinkler pipe and spent some time fixing that today. The sprinkler pipes originally installed were not schedule 40, are buried only an inch or two under the earth (there are no California standards for lawn irrigation pipe) and simply shatter when even lightly tapped by a shovel or hoe. Also the bark in that particular flower bed had cactus needles in it, as I found out the hard way. Bah. I should have worn gloves.

Indeed, due to lack of gloves and the liberal misapplication of Red Hot Blue Glue my hands now resemble those of the grups adults in "Miri".

Peter Knego, who took the 2007 picture of the dilapidated Kalakala, also has a video out: On the Road to Alang, about the "Beach of Doom" in India where old ships (tankers, freighters, cruise ships, etc.) are broken up. It looks interesting, but sad, if you love old ships.

I think that even if the Kalakala's hull is unsound - very likely as it was made from riveted black iron in the 1920's - her superstructure might be salvaged and put up ashore. Indeed it seems like it'd make a good museum for bits and pieces from the vessels at the "Beach of Doom".

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Wednesday - so, it's only 81F outside but inside my house it is at 77F. The cause: 35% humidity outdoors. The evaporative cooler has essentially no cooling capacity at that point, and is just supersaturating the indoor air, probably to near 100%. Ugh. Time for the central air (Rankine cycle) system.

There was another Space Station flyover today. It was a good one, northwest to southeast, and at 8:42pm it was dark enough to be visible and yet early enough that the sun illuminated it for a substantial period. Unfortunately it was also a half moon and very smoky, so it wasn't as striking as it might be. Compared to any of the stars in the Big Dipper it was much brighter. Heavens' Above said magnitude -1.8, and that seems about right.

My family has a personal interest in the old ferryboat Fresno (ex-Wilapa) because she was moored in Martinez for years after being taken out of service. My father knew the old caretaker, Roy, and he'd let us aboard to wander about and fish for sturgeon off the fantail.

Anyway, my brother sent me an interesting link to a shipping news page with a picture of an another old ferry boat, the Kalakala, the only Art Deco ferry ever built. She is now in a distressed condition:

The Kalakala in June 2007. [credit Peter Knego]

The Kalakala has her own web page, it turns out, and one of the photo's on the site was of the Fresno moored alongside the Kalakala,

The Kalakala

You know, looking at the shipping news page, that photo was taken in 2007. The Kalakala page has her scheduled for being repainted and refurbished in 2004-2006. Looks like it didn't happen. Hopefully it's just a delay, not a collapse of the restoration organization. Restoring and maintaining ships is expensive to do.

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Tuesday - I get the strangest suggestions from Amazon.com:

So, what is the connection between Jack London and Robert B. Reich, whiny and annoying political appointee, too lefty even for Bill Clinton?

The shuttle landed okay. Indeed, they say the layer of felt exposed at the bottom of the damaged tile wasn't even seared.

Monday 20 August 2007

Monday - it looked like I might have a bite on a renter for the house, so I spent more time cleaning. But I had help this time - a son of some friends. We had a pretty good time cleaning, got a lot done, then ate pizza and watched MONK and SUPERNATURAL until his parents came to pick him up.

Was you ever bit by a dead snake?

Best Beer Commercial Ever.

Sunday 19 August July 2007

Sunday - mostly spent cleaning. The problem with cleaning is that the clean area, or spot, makes the condition of the rest of your house obvious. If you clean up the kitchen then the dining room looks bad. So you clean that. But it's next to the living room, and then the only room left to do downstairs is the family room and you might as well clean that, too. And so it goes, upstairs, downstairs, in the garage, out in the yard...

Late in the evening, looking at Heaven's Above I noticed that the Space Station was going to have a fairly visible pass over Lancaster, so I walked out to a darker spot at 9:10pm and waited. It was very smoky to the northwest, but - I saw it. Or thought I did. Because there was another object, nearly as bright, perhaps with two or three degree's separation, trailing it. Which mean it was probably a pair of commuter jets, en route to Ontario or San Bernardino.

Only, half way up the sky, the first dot went out. Then the second dot, at the same location. And I realized:

It was the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, flying in formation! Awesome!

Picture of the Week

beach boys in concert at the Ventura County Fair

Photo Notes: The Beach Boys & Fans (pretty girls) on stage, Ventura County Fair, Ca..

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