Beach
Club
- February 2007
Monday,
26 February: - more
hang-gliding today - amongst other things (like putting out the
trash-cans, petting the cat and vacuuming the house (to say nothing of
fixing breakfast and such!)
Anyway - this image is (like most others) from Google-Earth along with
the downloaded track-log(s) from my Garmin GPS (76CSx)...
I also did two more flights that are not shown here, where I wore a
different helmet (one of theirs with a radio on it) and got 'real-time'
guidance on my foot-landing-skills from the owner of Florida Ridge,
Mr._James.
Like most learning processes - there's about 10 different things you
need to remember to do in that 2-4 seconds of foot-landing - I've got
about 1/2 of them right - more practice will help me 'get closer'
to foot-landing-nirvana. Mr._James was able to tell
me a couple of new things that no one else had told me, before.
It started to rain, and so I got WET and COLD after having been
sweating, earlier, plus everyone wanted to eat lunch - so we gave-up
about 2:30 p.m..
ALSO: finished an Excellent book 'Out of Gas' by: David
Goodstein (of Cal-Tech - W.W. Norton (New York (ISBN: 0-393-05857-3))
Very very good treatment of
the subject-matter. Introduces a lot of physics and
thermodynamics in understandable text, and the real 'logic' and
'science' behind the up-coming disaster that is about to strike planet
earth. The fact that Al Gore received an Oscar for his
treatment of this same - basic - concept in his documentary "An
Inconvenient Truth" is also
telling that the future is not bright for this planet if we keep going
the way we are (and If Mr. Bill keeps driving all-over Florida to go
Hang Gliding.
Friday,
23rd February:
Talked to my huggly-bunch this morning - very nice to chat with
her on the phone. Even though she's away it's still nice to
hear her voice and know she's O.K.... Maybe will chat with her more
often...
Went for a bicycle ride along the eastern-shore of Lake Okeechobee,
late this afternoon (after finishing the 'house-projects' (noted
below). The "LOST" (Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail)
continues to be a wonderful place to ride my
bicycle. Port Mayaca is about 30-40 minutes
closer to Stuart than is South Bay - where I went riding last week (see
below)... So the drive to Port Mayaca is just a
hair less than 30 minutes, not much further than the kiteboarding -
boardsailing venue at USSCMC... One can ride north or south from the
Port Mayaca area. I chose to ride north, today (red-line in the
image above).
Also finished-up the re-routing of the
water-pipe - a project I
took-on about a week ago - along with the 'privacy fence' - and didn't
quite understand how much WORK this would be.
Picture of the ending of the water-pipe, in two 'hose bibbs' -
so we can water a part of the yard, as well as the 'hedge' (with a
soaker-hose) at the same time - a little better 'system' than what was
here before - and all for less than $10 worth of new parts...
Click Here for (larger-sized) digging (a very long trench - took me 3
days!) -pictures - View looking
North / View
looking South
This picture of our 'privacy fence' (so people from the nearby-street
can't see directly-into our garage) is of the fence about 2/3rds
done. I still need to get another 'fence panel' from Lowe's. The
one you see here is a recycled item from the hurricanes in
2004... The new panel will hang on the two posts you see to the
right.
Book
Reviews & Commentaries:
------ Finished up some books this week:
Oil - Anatomy of an Industry -
by: Matthew Yeomans - good treatment of the industry as a whole, but in
particular on how the oil industry treats 'less developed' countries
who's economy has a particularly hard time adapting to the changes in
'culture' that oil and oil-revenues brings to them
Extreme Conditions - by: John
Strohmeyer - 1993 - Simon & Schuster - a story of Oil in Alaska -
and what it took / takes to get it out of the ground and get it
shipped. Politics, tribal land, and other such things are also
covered
Out of Gas - by: David
Goodstein - 2004 - what will the US do when we run out of
gasoline? Where will portable power come from - interesting
question to ponder - this book makes some unique predictions for the
future.
CyberShock - by: Winn
Schwartau - 2000 - There's no end to the people and semi-automagic
scripts that will attempt to 'whack-out' your computer and/or the
information stored thereupon, especially if you have an 'always on'
internet connection... Read this before you connect!
Sunday,
16th February:
Went boardsailing today - AWESOME WIND - I 'hung-on'
(literally) for about an hour - WAY OVERPOWERED on a 4.5 square meter (Neil
Pryde)
sail (belonging to my lovely wife). Did some spin-outs at
max-rpm, and some incredibly high jumps (very
un-intentional). HUGE short-chop - you couldn't help but
get air-borne! - anyway - If I'd had a 3.5 square meter sail it would
still have been too much, I think, and I eventually gave up because my
hands were VERY VERY COLD and didn't 'work' very well anymore, but it
were good while it lasted.
Now -
home with everything rinsed, in warm, cozy, house reading book and
listening to radio...
Some friends were there when I got there, Mr_Eric (kiteboard buddy) and
his Son Mr. Alec. - click the above
image to see larger version... you wouldn't know it by
this picture but the wind is about 20-30 knots - and if I was
overpowered on a 4.5 then it was VERY WINDY! I only took three
images one and two
and three
Saturday
evening, 17 February, 2007::
Just returned to Stuart, from a ' scooter-towing
' clinic at Quest Air
in Groveland, Florida (drove home last night)
I've learned a LOT about the
scooter-tow concept and about how it is applied to Hang Gliding -
specifically beginner training. I suspect that scooter
towing (just one form of the towing concept) could be applied almost
anywhere you can find a smooth field - 1,000 to 2,000 feet long, but it
is also
a marvelous opportunity to bring hang-gliding to the
'masses'. It can be done on a short field and
with
operator-skill (something we were learning at the clinic (I'm
learning even more
about 'foot-landing')). It is also a good way for
beginners to get a
feel for the sport - at no more than 5 feet off the ground, so
exceedingly safe.
Just one picture of a 125cc Yamaha
scotter modified for towing hang-gliders. ( or
larger if you really care ).
You'll note it has no front wheel or tires, but the rear wheel has some
'added-flanges' to keep the rope (Spectron 7 / 64" diameter)
in-check. This scooter has enough power to tow
fairly large
gliders / pilots to about 500-1,000 feet. It has about 3,000 feet
of line on the rear-wheel-spool.
Larger scooters (450cc) have both power and line (7,000 feet) to tow
gliders-pilots up to about 2,000-3,000 feet. A lot of both the
height and time depends on cooperative work between the pilot and the
scooter-operator.
This system uses a 'turn-around-block' anchored into the ground with an
'auger'. We pulled the auger out of the
(soft-sandy-Florida-soil-sand) yesterday - a bigger auger, more deeply
set would not pull out... Some people / operations do not use a
turn-around block - some do - this guy highly recommends this,
and I think from an 'engineering' standpoint it's a very good idea...
I spent a couple of cold nights (39F / 27F) - sleeping in the mini-van
- but I was
warm and snuggly ( small / large
).
Speaking of cold -
read about this 35
year
old German para-glider pilot. Para gliders are
significantly different from hang-gliders; but this 'accident' in
Australia proves, beyond a doubt - the inherent stability / safety in
both. Ewa Wisnierska can report on many things that others can
not, after this "practice" flight.
Today
is Tuesday, 13 February:
Mr. Bill went (back to (yes, more driving)) Lake Okeechobee for a
bicycle ride, today. A Track-Log (from the 7 year old Garmin GPS
48 unit) is indicated as a red-line on the image below (Click image
for larger version). The total length is about 12
miles - much
longer than I had originally intended, and there was a considerable
head-wind out of the south-east. A little village
called "South Bay" is at the extreme lower-right in this image.
This (terrific (paved, flat, no interruptions)) bicycle-path is about
60 miles / hour and fifteen minutes from home in Stuart.
This image is the track-log (red-line) imported directly-into a Google
Earth
image. Sometimes I download the data from the GPS unit in a
...kml (Keyhole Markup Language) format.
Sometimes, however, I use 'Google Earth' (extra-cost-option) to
download the data directly... More detail about this process can
be had by e-mailing
me. Most are not interested, but briefly, -
it's a 'multi-step process' and takes 2-3-4 pieces of software, and
quite some time...
Here's some 'general interest' pictures from the levee running-around
Lake Okeechobee. There's a significant advantage in riding your
bicycle along this levee, the scenery is ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL and ALWAYS
CHANGING!
ANYWAY, you should also know that I 'escaped' the
bicycling - Lake Okeechobee area just before (apparently) HUGE
thunderstorm(s), and now they are
predicting tornadoes in / around our area here in Stuart, as well as
farther north. I'm
listening to the fifth 'advisory' within the last 40 minutes, on the
radio, right now, and it's POURING rain right now, too...
Today
is Monday, 12 February:
We have several new images that you might be interested in - but you
might, not, then, again, be interested...
- Mr. Bill's 'been shopping' - for his huggly-bunch
and
his birds (well - maybe his squirrels?)
- Mr. Bill went hang gliding at Florida
Ridge on Sunday, 11th, but there was not much 'lift' but he did
manage one of three foot-landings in a fairly 'normal' manner. He
has yet to break a glider or his body, but - we'll have to see how
things go - this 'foot-landing' thing is significantly different 'for
real' than it was at Lookout Mountain Flight Park (where we did some
practice on some training hills. - For one thing I'm using my own
harness, this time - and that makes it different, plus using a fairly
large glider - which means landing-speed is fairly high. - I WILL
OVERCOME this obstacle, but it is definitely 'harder than it looks' and
it will definitely take 'some time' to learn to do it WELL...
- also: Got the Toyota Mini-Van
serviced (change oil and rotate tires - takes less than an hour
and costs me only about $22 - but then I have the oil and the filter
already - total cost is about $75 when you consider everything
- also: went to the library - found a couple of terrific (computer
/ networking) books, and a video-movie
of the Carl Hiaasen book "Hoot"
- a kids-book about
ground-owls. I've recently read the book, so watching the
video should prove enjoyable
- I found a movie (at the library) "Syriana"
with Matt Damon, and George
Clooney (looks really good with a beard!), Jeffery Wright, William
Hurt, Amanda Peet (amongst others) who are VERY GOOD. This movie
is about "BIG OIL" and how / what it is to be involved therein - and
how the economics, politics, and global involvement are key 'movers and
shakers' in our culture. The movie is VERY ENGAGING, but one MUST
pay attention or you will be lost, instantly and the remainder of the
movie will make little sense. There's some blowing-things up -
but the bulk of this movie takes place in the minds of the
actors. VERY "MENTAL" - unlike some movies.
- Several books on the subject of BIG-OIL and what they do to
under-developed countries and the US and so-on and so-forth - enjoyable
reading if a disturbing subject-matter. The Library has
many books on this subject area. A LOT of reading if you're
interested.
- The Bone Collector - by Jeffery
Deaver - EXCELLENT
movie
(starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie (who are amazing in this
movie) I saw about a week ago while visiting my Mom in
Jacksonville. Just got the book
from the library on Monday - finished it last night.
Excellent work. This author has many other novels - I suspect
I'll read more of his work...
Today
is Sunday, 11th...
First - we have a picture of Ms. SM that some seem to think is pretty
good (though maybe I need to clean her ear?), and just for reference
this is NOT a Photoshop trick to see her
head and left ear in 'relief'; - it is merely her head in front of a
towel
hanging on a chair (and the towel detail is 'washed-out' because of the
flash, and it is definitely 'luck' and not 'talent'...
And - next to Ms. Siew Mei's picture there is an attempt at an
annotated GoogleEarth image of the 'track-log' (in orange) of my one
and only short (12 minute) flight at Quest Air... If
the annotations are too small to read, click on the image for a MUCH
BIGGER (almost 900 k bytes) size where you can read the
annotations. I'm hoping to go to Florida Ridge later
today (Sunday, 11th - more driving!) - but maybe if I get a longer
flight in at Florida Ridge then there will be a different 'track-log'
in this spot this evening. - MAYBE it will be longer than 12
minutes -- one can always
HOPE and PRAY!...)
Today is Tuesday, 6th February,
2007: - Today -- amongst other things - I spent about 3 hours 'Land
Sailing' at Hugenot Park (on the Atlantic Ocean; just a tiny-bit north
of the outfall of the St. John's River, into the Atlantic).
From here - to the southwest, across the St. John's River, I can see a
Navy aircraft carrier in the small port of Mayport where the Navy has a
big installation.
Here's a small image taken on the beach (click to get larger image)...
If you want to see what a land-sailor looks like 'in-action' there's a
TINY video that Ms. May shot in October of 2003 (yes; a long time ago),
when we were at
"Matanzas Inlet" - near St. Augustine, Florida. You
can access
that video (QuickTime, I believe) by clicking
here .
I have also taken a 'track-log' of the LandSailing - here it is. - if
you click on this image - you get a larger-'scale' (less area
represented) image, more 'detail' of the track-logs. The
'sort-of' square body of water in the bottom of the image is the
Mayport Naval Basin. Just above that is the outflow of the St.
John's River into the Atlantic Ocean. Then just north of that
where it says "Huguenot Memorial Park" - is were I drove-out to park on
the beach and go Land Sailing - the cyan lines are the
track-logs. If you click on the image itself - you will get
another image with more 'detail'... - More statistics here, later - the
image, though - represents 'about' 3 hours of back-and-forth - about 2
hours was very good wind (direction and strength). About 1/2 hour
on the front-end the angle was wrong and about 1/2 hour on the end the
strength died off and I had to walk back to the car.
Today is Friday, 2nd February,
2007, only the second day of the month - but we had BIG FUN
today... We
first went to the Orchid Show where we saw a lot of the most beautiful
flowers you've ever seen; AMAZING what orchids blossom into some
times. AND Ms. May just checked-out our
voice-mail-messages, and while we were out boardsailing - she won a
'gift certificate' at the Orchid Show. The gift certificate
is for a
dinner at a local restaurant - $25 - pretty good 'return on investment'
for a $2 ticket to get into the Orchid Show...
THEN we braved the 'chilly-water' and the strong-westerly-wind and went
boardsailing, as shown below...
Here's a 'track-log' (taken from our Garmin GPS) overlain upon a
"Google Earth" image of the sailing area.
click the above
image for a (much) larger image.
Ms. May's top-speed was about 20-22 knots, Mr. Bill's top speed about
24 knots - not bad for a gusty-day on the beach, huh.
I hope to eventually get the 'ground-speed-colored' version of the
track log placed here. The colored (based on ground speed)
track-log comes from a product called "See You" (which is really for
HangGliding)) from a company called Naviter
.
IF you want to see the 'raw-file' of the speed-colored-track-log - then
' click here ' - it ain't pretty -
but we'll get there, eventually. In this image the 'red' is
'about' 45 km/h = 'about' 25 knots, the 'blue' is near zero km/h / zero
knots. The little tiny red 'tick-marks' across the track-logs are
1 minute markers drawn by the See You software. There's a fairly
obvious horizontal line which is a latitude line ( = 27.25 degrees
North ) - also drawn by the See You software. I'll have a
good time - being challenged by this image and by Photoshop to
'clean-up' this image-file for overlay on the Google Earth image of the
Indian River. Something to keep me busy and out of trouble, huh?
February is frequently the
coldest (and frequently some of the windiest) weather here in Stuart,
but it is also the begining of the Hang Gliding season.
So, we
have two conflicting activities to look forward to (Hang Gliding and
boardsailing). Hang Gliding is a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive (or 1 1/2 to
Florida Ridge if we go there), but the boardsailing and kiteboarding
are less than 20 minute drive - go - figger.
Good (maybe even great)
kite-boarding and board-sailing here in Stuart, and/or periods of
calm-mild-wind when we might go to Florida Ridge or to Groveland to go
Hang Gliding..
Engineering
Section: - we have some
Squirrel Engineering and some Stump Engineering, too... ... ...
Squirrel Engineering:
UPDATED:
Friday
- 23 February - Please Note, Mr. Bill admits to failure in this
effort!!!!
- there
is no doubt that MOST OF YOU will be anxiously awaiting the 'fall-out'
(literally / figuratively) of the last of the previous month's web-page
on Squirrel Engineering. We are happy to report
that:
Mr. Bill has had some 'success' (if 5 (failed squirrel )attempts
are worthy of success) at 'Squirrel Engineering'. This new
bird-feeder-top has, so far ,(yes - we know there might be a
'Super-Athletic-Squirrel' who will come along later and 'beat' my top)
but it hasn't happened yet!
the 'award-winning' (almost) squirrel-proof bird-feeder-top - ($15.00
for the
galvanized steel at Lowe's and about 40 minutes of work in the
shop)...
this one actually looks a lot nicer and doesn't blow-around in the wind
nearly as much as the one below...
This one is now 36" in diameter - it's 'flat' (or nearly so) - it's
'corrugated plastic' from Stuart Plastics. - I'm fairly sure you
could find a suitable location (Plastics Shop) in your town to find
some similar material. It's NOT CHEAP - it cost about
what the bird-feeder did ($30) but it 'seems' (so far) to be squirrel
proof. Remember, though, it's only been about
4-5 days - so - we can't 'guarantee' this yet?
Another picture of another top on another bird-feeder in another place
in the yard, for another form of 'free amusement'...
On Wednesday, 7th of February - I stopped by the 'bird-feeder-place'
near Mom's place in Jacksonville. After talking to the lady that
runs the store, for quite some time, I came away with several
conclusions. All of these 'theorems' I think I've proven to
myself over the past 3-8 weeks of concentrated squirrel engineering -
but it was VERY RE_ASSURING to have an 'expert' in the field re-confirm
my suspicions:
1.) the number of college degrees (engineering or not) has zero to do
with your ability to 'out-smart' the squirrels
2.) the large plastic dome that she sells (for about $20) is not a
'fool-proof' solution, squirrels ARE ABLE TO defeat it
3.) neither is the "Droll Yankees" spring-loaded perch bird-feeders
(though they are very good) a 'perfect solution'
4.) squirrels are NOT engineers, they are just very 'athletic' and very
'persistent' (unlike some humans)
5.) size DOES MATTER in terms of baffles - it must be between 24" and
36" in diameter (mine are only 24" diameter because that's the biggest
material one can buy, easily.
6.) no edge at all is 'best' - even the tiniest edge they can grab-onto
7.) the fact that they should 'not' do this is immaterial - they
obviously haven't read that part of 'the book'
8.) persistence will pay-off - as well as dollars invested in 'baffles'
9.) if I can solve this problem reliably and in-expensively - then I
can earn a significant living! (so she said!)
No web-page would be complete without a Siew Mei
Picture. She is exceedingly bored by the squirrel's
antics, to say nothing about being even more bored by Mr. Bill's antics
to prevent squirrels from getting at the bird-feed.
Stump-Engineering
- DBA "Stumps R
Us"
before removal, but after digging / rinsing
this is what's left - after- the hatcheting, the hand-sawing and the
chain-sawing-phase - nothing but a hole in the ground - some people
call this empty-space in the ground (needs to be filled-in - Ms. May is
very good at filling-in the holes!
Total elapsed time - about an hour - maybe a bit less.
Lots of sweat,
no blood, no tears, some water, and a shovel and an a hand-axe
, chain
saw which
needs a new "Oregon" 27856 chain and blade pair (from Lowe's) and a
tiny bit of engine work so it runs a bit better...
I have been assigned the task of doing one more of these, but I think
that tree is actually still alive, though it's now it in it's 'winter
coat'?
OH - one more thing: - If we're here (on this earth) to 'take care of
the others' - then - prey-tell - what are the OTHERS here for?
OH - and - finally - two lawyers walk into a fancy-dancy restaurant for
lunch, and order something 'exotic' to drink... Then they
each take-out their own fancy-dancy home-made sandwich to begin their
lunch. The waitress comes along and says, "You can't
eat your own sandwich in here for lunch, and only order a lunch-time
drink from us." - So - the lawyers trade sandwiches and proceed to have
their lunch....
(Compliments of the 'A Prarie Home
Companion Annual Joke Show (aired on
NPR on Saturday afternoon, 3 February, 2007).)
last updated: 08:14
a.m.
on Friday, 11
October, 2013; revID: 2p
