BeachWeb - December 2006
Today is Sunday, 31 December, 2006 - the
last day of the year!!!! - Today is the day that 'we-tried'
with the wind - but at the USSCMC
there was a Vanguard 15
regatta. The regatta didn't impact us much at all - we had to
walk a bit farther to get to the water, but on the other hand - we
almost always have to walk...
AND Mr. Bill forgot his kite-pump (and so had to drive back home to get
it.) BUT Ms. May had a great day on her sailboard with her 5.5
sail... Mr. Bill found that there's yet another leak
in a strut-bladder in his 10 square meter kite (Naish-brand; 3 years
old). IF my new ("Best Waroo") kite EVER
comes in then I won't need this one, anymore (similar size) - but for
now I have to dry it and fix it...
But - here's some pictures to bring you up-to-date on the last-day-of
the year!
- Our 'Toy-Wagon' - (almost) all
loaded-up - but - well - you have to dry things out every oncet in a
while
- Our 'watersports thingies'
drying on the fence (please notice dead-meat 10 meter kite in the
background)
- Our OLD Trailex cover
(to keep things on the trailer from UV death!)
- Our NEW Trailex cover
(this took several HOURS of ( Toyota ) sewing but it is definitely
better! - HOPE it will last longer than the last one (which lasted
nearly 2-3 years!)
and - just for the record, we will NOT FORGET the lovely Ms. Siew Mei - who wants to have her
picture here on the last day of the year... - she's
SOOOOOooooooo....... photogenic - so here's a few pictures of Ms. Siew
Mei - picture_1 picture_2 picture_3
Today is Thursday, 21 December -
for today's (and recent) activities... Ms. May went
boardsailing two days in a row, Mr. Bill when kiteboarding two days in
a row - we had EXCELLENT wind-weather, and you can visit our
'real-time' site here :
This is a web-site we helped set-up but it gives us 'real-time' data on
the wind at the Sailing Center where we sail about 90% of the
time... Ms. May is improving her board-sailing skills and she's
now making gybes every once in a while. Mr. Bill, yesterday, used
his new kiteboard-control-bar and it was EXCELLENT - even 'home-rigged'
without a lot of the fancy-stuff that typically comes with these...
anyway - good STUFF...
Mr. Bill also went to Quest Air
in Groveland, on Tuesday, 19th, to go
Hang Gliding - he had four excellent flights, and even though there
wasn't terrific 'lift', so the flights were 'fairly short' - it was
still a very (VERY) good day...
Some notes and some 3D track-logs of the flights here... (whoops
-
sorry - got side-tracked - more here, later)
I have to build this set of files / images - it's NOT a 'trivial' task,
but I'm looking for a better way:
- download some
info from the GPS
- make-up some ...jpeg files
- edit ...jpeg files with
Photoshop to annotate them
- concatenate the flight-logs / track-logs on-top of the
...jpeg files
- save into something for the web-site
- flight_1 track-log overlaid onto a 'Google Earth' air-photo
- flight_2 track-log overlaid onto a 'Google
Earth' air-photo
- flight_3 track-log overlaid onto a 'Google
Earth' air-photo
- flight_4 track-log overlaid onto a 'Google
Earth' air-photo
Today is Tuesday, 12 December -
for
today's 'activities' see the BOTTOM of this web-page...
Today is Sunday, 10 December,
and we have had, - since last writing (a week ago), some EXCELLENT
boardsailing in 18-25 knots of wind it was very very very exciting,
fast, fun, tiring, etc. - We also tried, again, today - and it was
marginal at best (but remember we don't have huge sails or huge boards
(for lighter-winds) - we like the 20 knots plus times - more exciting,
less work, etc. etc. etc...
Ms. May had 'protest-hearing-duty' today (no protests or redress
hearings) and yesterday (1 redress hearing). We saw this
trailer - there are only two boats on this trailer in the picture; but
there are another 3 boats that go on this trailer. Another
420 atop the yellow-red 'chase-boat' and two '29ers' that go forward of
that on the 'tongue' (on-edge) and this is from
Sturgis_Boat_Works. A VERY impressive trailer, indeed, and
if you say 'what about those two boats on top- looks like a lot of
'muscling around' - nope - sorry - there's a battery-operated 'crane'
there to pick-up the top-two-boats with - it's on the far-side just
about over the axles and it's dark-red in color...
We also spent some time at the USSCMC
helping them get their ( Vantage Pro2 ) Davis Instruments
)weather-web-station organized, set-up sending data to the 'internet'.
You can get to their 'almost' real-time wind
information from their web-site (noted previously (a link on the right
side)) or from our web-site: http://www.vikingasia.org/USSCMCws/index.html
. Note this information is transient at this point and once
USSCMC gets their web-act together - the information will no longer be
presented on our web-site, only on theirs?
Here's some of Ms. May's Starfruit !
We got a couple of pictures from my sister, in Austin, whom we helped
her get herself a new Nikon D80 digital camera when we were there in
early October. She sent us these pictures of her friend from
across
the street, Ms. Zuni. Even though we helped my sister get a
terrific new Nikon D80 camera - she still managed to mangle poor Ms.
Zuni's ears in 'only-one' (of about 16) pictures. But - I guess
everyone needs some 'practice' with a
new tool... My sister, Ms. K, certainly takes excellent pictures,
though, - there's no question she shows terrific promise in the
photo-world, Ms. Zuni looks just stunning in these photos! - Ms. K will
continue to improve, I'm sure and we'll showcase her art, here,
frequently as she has more time with her new Nikon and shares those
images with us. I just hope Ms. Zuni's ears don't hurt too bad
and she continues to visit K, because Ms. Zuni certainly is a terrific
model...
However, bringing the artistic endeavours of my lovely and talented
sister to you in this 'media' presents a very very potentially risky
situation. IF we present too many pictures of Ms. Zuni on a given
web-page, then our cat, the beautiful, talented, lovely and cuddly Ms.
Siew Mei might get jealous - so we have to be very careful to 'balance'
our presentation of the two beautiful feline ladies here, so they don't
get jealous of each other. However, Ms. Zuni is very very
pretty, huh?
And yet one more picture of some 'noise' we heard, while having
breakfast this morning (Monday, 11th). Strange noise(s) like we'd never
heard before so we took a picture. This is one of the power poles
that will NOT be replaced by the 'Pike' crew this week - this pole was
replaced after one of the previous hurricanes. - so these birds are on
a 'firm' perch, and making lots of 'breakfast' noises...
Today is Sunday, 3 December
and
Ms. May's new 'garden-theme' is the begining of our web-site today:
Ms. Siew Mei sitting in her chair and/or in her 'corner' -
awaiting some lunch or other food, or some
cat-petting or something maybe we don't quite understand
(yet)? We DO UNDERSTAND (we think) that she likes 'West
Wing' episodes more than "Star Trek Next Generation" episodes on
DVD (which we've been watching a lot of lately).
HOWEVER, it may be that her 'ears perk up' when Ms. Spot is featured
(as Mr. Data's cat) on Star Trek Next Generation episodes...???
Technological Marvels:
- this section is about 'how technology improves' - it's a
'random rambling' about some of the things we've gotten-into recently
that are technological advances over what we've had in the past - and
how - the technology of many things in many areas really is advancing
and making our lives BETTER:!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.) A new kiteboard bar (A GIFT no less!) - the technology is
marvelous - amazing improvements even in something
so simple... ( http://www.sskiteboarding.com
http://www.bestkites.com )
2.) I've got a January 2006 Toyota
Mini-Van - compared to the 16 year old Mercedes station wagon,
just phenomenal, amazing what automotive technology has done in 16
years?!
3.) I recently bought a new GPS ( Garmin GPSMap 76CSx
) to replace my 10 years old
GPSmap175 and my (7 years old) Garmin
48. UN-REAL the improvements in not only
the hardware but the software, the user interface, what data is stored
in the unit (amazing 'almanac' of tidal and other sun-moon, etc.
information). - the Track-Logs can now be up to 10,000 points - the old
track-log in the Garmin 48 was limited to 1,024 points)
4.) Recently bought a new ( http://www.oneill.com
) wet-suit (with long-sleeves and long-pants - all-in-one (first time I
ever had
one of these) - and again - incredible advances in the construction and
materials make it an un-real
improvement over my 12 year old farmer-john
5.) Ms. May has recently bought 3 new board sails and 1 new mast -
again - just as in other things the
improvements in the technology really improve one's enjoyment of
the sport and and reduce one's muscle needs which also improves
enjoyment. ( http://www.sailworks.com
, http://www.neilpryde.com )
6.) I've ordered a single new "Bow" Kite-board-kite and though I've not
used it at all - just watching others
with Bow kites and talking to people I can well see that this is
definitely the 'wave of the future''. http://www.bestkiteboarding.com
7.) new software technologies. - in my teaching-role at IRCC ( http://www.ircc.edu ) I am now fully
aware how advances in software technology are making life easier, more
productive and more efficient for both CAD-designers 'in general' ( http://www.autocad.com ) as well as
for people who landscape huge areas and need land-scape specific
software. ( http://www.eaglepoint.com
)
8.) the 'technology' of laptop and desktop computers - their screens,
their peripherals (most of which are useable on both the ( Microsoft ) Windows XP-PC
platforms as well as by the Linux
- Unix community and by Macintosh (a specialized form of Linux
called "Darwin"))
all continue to improve - drastically - especially compared with what
was the 'norm' back in the days of old & yore when I first got into
the 'business' of computing 'about 22 years ago (1984)...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the 'NorthWest' corner of our yard... This is ALSO
where: sorry for the interruption the
right-hand or second picture is 'after' _Asplundh_ did their thing???!!
a.) there are several terrific looking palm-trees that Ms. May wants to
keep
b.) where Mr. Bill keeps getting poison oak (or something) that REALLY
Itches - but that he is not going in here again without a LOT of
protection! - preferably a set of knight's armour and/or whatever-else
it takes to keep out of THIS OOKIE STUFF that is REALLY OOKIE - if you
want to see HOW OOKIE - check-out this OOKIE OOKIE OOKIE --- OOZIE
OOZIE OOZIE picture of his left-ankle...
This 'area' is going to 'be taken-out' by AsplundhTreeGurus, this
coming week - in preparation for Pike_Electric_Gurus (under contract to
Florida_Power_and_Light) to take-out and replace the power-pole you see
in the middle of the above picture.. However, please note that after
certain recent hurricanes we had five 'bucket-trucks' stuck back here
in this part of the yard, AND at the extreme lower-right side of this
picture you'll see some almost white sand. This is the 'remains'
of a turtle's home - and the thing goes on and on and on - it's about
6-9 feet in diameter and about 2 feet deep - the turtle that lived
here, we think, has moved next door (one lot to the east) where there's
not so much 'activity' - this 'burrow' has been abandoned for about 6-8
months now... - so the Bucket-Trucks to do the electrical work will
have to be very careful to not get stuck again!... http://www.asplundh.com
http://www.pike.com
http://www.fpl.com
and - here's a picture of the 'install' of a new concrete pole in the
front-yard (south-west-corner) of our lot - (this happened on Tuesday
afternoon, 12th December 2006).
AND - over this 'New Year's Weekend' Pike was working to finish-up some
power-pole work in our 'back (north)' yard. They left various
& sundry equipment 'just laying around' in our yard...
Pike-Truck-1 ( small
) ( large )
Pike-Truck-2 ( small
) ( large )
However, we 'accomodated' their 'left-over' equipment and stored it in
our yard, just fine - glad we have the ROOM (an acre of land is a LOT -
(also a LOT to trim and keep 'trimmed' and 'cleared-out' - we've
put-out about 30-40 trash-cans in the last few weeks - all of which
were filled with 'yard-trash' - Apparently my 'yard-trash' reputation
has spread far and wide - I'm now told I'm to do yard-work for 'hire'
(well for food, anyway?)
Another 'new-task' we're working on now is to help the 'sailing-center'
locally, to get their weather-information, (things like windspeed,
wind-direction, temperature, etc. etc. etc. on their web-site... - at
the same time we may end-up with this information on OUR web-site
too. - We'll just have to see - this coming Wednesday - we HOPE
to 'put it all together' after reading the help-files a bit more) -
we'll let you know when/if this 'comes to pass'... - http://www.davisnet.com
you can see this link at / in the story about USSCMC above!...
last updated: Sunday, 31
December
2006 at approximately 15:58 p.m. USA-EDT
revID: 1r .....
