made-with-Nvu-t.png August (2009) - Beach Clubmade-with-Nvu-t.png

Today is the 22nd of August (well LATE the night of the 21st (Friday))... - so - anyway - have NOTHING OF VALUE TO ADD TO YOUR LIFE, so - considering that - I'll just post a bunch of useless pictures here and you can play with them?!

Bill.SurfExpo.pedal.sm.jpg 
Me on some sort of pedal-thingie at Surf Expo (Orlando) (yes - that's _Henry's_ finger in the way of the lens - go figger - he OUGHT to know how to take pictures (by now?), but, well, - whatever?)

This year's Surf Expo show had NO kites, NO boardsailing (at ALL!) - apparently because the show is a month earlier than it used to be - all the 'wind-sports' people are going to a show in Hood River, Oregon, in mid-September, so I guess I won't go? - Harumph!

Mom.trike3.jpg
Here's Mom in Jacksonville, on her "Trike" - I did a LOT of research on this - and her physio-therapist in Jacksonville really helped-us-out with this... - She really likes her Trike - and is riding it almost daily.

As for our upcoming (cycle)-trip, Ms. May and I are both riding hard, and as the people that organize the ride in North Carolina get closer and get more things on their web-site, we sign up for this, that, and the other...   Just signed up for their 'meal-plan' tonite and that looks tasty, I hope there is a LOT of FOOD, I will DEFINITELY be HUNGRY after riding 40-80 miles a day!

EVS_Sebastian_Aug20.4.sm.jpg
here's just a 'tiny-bit' of aluminum corrosion that I'm going to have to fix in the next few weeks



EVS_LWI_camera.nomore.jpg
This is a picture I took AFTER the work when we got an 'emergency phone call' - saying, "Come take this camera out NOW or we're going to dump it in the inlet!" - so I went down south and yanked out the camera and the control boxes, and some cables, (and left the rest of the cables in the conduits...) - there was significant hammer-drilling, oxy-acteylene cutting and other 'demolition' going on inside this concrete building while I was working - I borrowed, though, one of their LONG extension ladders so I didn't have to carry mine down to the beach!

and - lastly (for this section of the web) - here's another picture of me up a ladder - taken on Thursday, 20th of August at Sebastian Inlet...

small        large    


Weekend of 15 - 16 August / Saturday - Sunday: -  a lot of things happening - mostly to do with cycling and kiteboarding (did both on Saturday - but on Sunday only rode (with Ms._Huggly) to Jupiter and back (almost 40 miles) against a LOT of WIND.  Now that kind of wind normally makes good kiteboarding - but the wind / weather web-sites said only 10 knots (funny - it felt like a LOT MORE when riding AGAINST it early on Sunday morning...

We chose today (16th August) to do our weekly 40 mile ride to/from Jupiter rather than at Lake Okeechobee.   It turned out there was a LOT of WIND but - well - we got the wind behind us coming home - but that didn't help Ms._May's appetite (she was VERY hungry when she got home) nor Mr. Bill's knees (which were very (VERY)) tired when HE got home -

BUT - if we'd ridden at the lake - we would have had the wind against us on the way back (when tired) and that would have been very bad. - So - we lucked-out and picked the right Sunday morning to do Jupiter... Plus - we must have see a pack of about 40-50 bikes headed North when we were going south, then another 20-30 people probably not in that "Race"? - this road is a VERY POPULAR road to cycle on... (and it's shady in the morning and a LOT of 'huge' expensive houses! - so - overall a great day cycling (if tiring) and a great afternoon relaxing, reading, computing, eating, etc.

AND Mr._Bill's just turned-over 3,000 miles on his trike since he got it the end of last October...!!!

vetcat1.face.jpg
Found this cat (his name is "Leo" and he's VERY FRIENDLY and VERY LOVEY)  at the vet's office when I went to buy some things for our cat... His expression is EXACTLY how I feel about things some times... - so I thought I'd share it!

Went TriceQ riding this morning ((May and I did the "Jensen Beach Hills" early), then my trike-friend (Tractor_Tom) from Okeechobee came over (and he bought three tires from me (and he put them on his trike)) then we did about another 30 miles or so down-towards Jupiter Island, and such.  We managed to 'avoid' the rain-squalls on the way south early in the ride but got severely soaked on the way home - when we couldn't aviod the rain!   Tomorrow morning, early, Ms. May and I will go all the way to the Jupiter Lighthouse and back - 'about' 40 miles or so... - the last part is along the intracoastal waterway in Tequesta and Jupiter and VERY Scenic...

Then this afternoon I went kiteboarding (sorry - no pictures - need a waterproof camera) - anyway - it was VERY GOOD - if a bit overpowered for about 90 minutes - I could have done more but the wind kept picking up and I already had the biggest kite (16 square meters) on - (since there was ALMOST NO WIND when I started! - anyway - it was a TERRIFIC DAY on the water!


Did some more web-camera work this week - and there's more to do - this is the season of lightning, heat, and hurricanes, all of which conspire to wipe-out web_cams and generate more work for me - but that's fine - I like the work...

EVS_PT_pigtail.sm.jpg   Bill.BB.work.sm.jpg
Here's just one of the things I made-up this week.  This is a 'jumper or 'pig-tail'' for the pan_tilt mechanism, could be useful to re-position the camera-housing for easier access.  The other picture is obviously 'me' up on top of the roof at Bathtub_Beach_/_Reef... - where I seem to have spent quite a bit of time, lately.  This is a self-portrait with my iPhone3g - No one else is lunatic enough to come up there on that roof to take my picture?


On Saturday, 8th August: - we had an 'interesting' week... - PLENTY of activity to make sure that none of us fall-asleep-on-the-job...

On the way back from Orlando, I got a phone-call and had to visit the Sebastian_Inlet web-camera-site (see picture(s) at the bottom of this web-page) and do a little-bit of debugging / resetting / etc.

Then  May and I both spent the better part of the day on Wednesday at Bathtub_Beach_Reef (near to where we live here in _Stuart_).    I spent quite some time (and a trip to Home Depot) to re-wire both the 110 volt AC supply and the 24 volt DC supply into a new housing (that the door was not rusted-off-of...)       Then when attempting to re-boot this power-supply - it became obvious, while on the telephone with the gang in _Miami_ that the (printed-circuit-board / transformer_board) was 'toast', (to say nothing of the smoking capacitor) - so we gave-up on the remainder of that repair (which was, at least originally) supposed to supply a new (GSM-cell) modem (and a new plastic protective box) to the camera-system (which has been 'down' for a couple of weeks.)

Yesterday (that's Friday, 7th) I pedalled over 45 miles on my trike - not really expecting to do so - and found that I'd not had enough to eat before I started, so I really got way-laid with lack of nutrition...

I arrived home to find a poor lizard stuck in a bucket of rain-water, so of course had to get him out, and in the excitement, I noted he had a full-tail which means that he'd not yet met Ms. Siew Mei, the cat who seems to eat lizard tails!

AND - of course, we've had our share of RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN with con-sequent rumble rumble rumble (and lightning), and - of course - that's not Ms. Siew Mei's most favourite thing...

AND - I've finally managed to make version 0.5.9 (beta) (or so) of the (front) 'mud-guards' (pictures: small   larger ) for my TriceQ - and because of all the rain on Thursday night - I had a great opportunity to try out my 'mud-guards' on my Friday morning trike-ride... Today, (Satureday) I've modified them, once again, (now they might be considered version 0.95 or so?)  - and they are still 'ugly' but
very functional...

AND - Since we're really going to do this thing (400 miles plus in the North Carolina Mountains (in late September)) I've been 'adapting' and changing and modifying various and sundry bags...

TriceQ.clothesbag.sm.jpg
This one (the black one in the image above) is to carry my clothes that I'm sure to have ON in the morning when it's chilly and we start cycling - then take them off during mid-day when it gets HOT HOT HOT... - this bag contains (and has "SOME" room left-over):  long warm bike-pants, long-sleeve-warm-bike-jacket, warm gloves, (with full-fingers) rain-pants for bicycling, and a long-sleeve-lycra-top)... It fits quite handily behind the mesh-seat on the Trike... - and JUST for REFERENCE - for thos that seem to be eternally asking 'dumb_questions' - here's the outline of the things in this picture that DO NOT relate to the clothes-bag:
SO - there you go ! - that's the 'life of the TriceQ's parts and pieces...


Bikebag.sm.jpg
AND _ for Ms. May's bicycle and her propensity to make things 'Look Nice' - I modified her Timbuk2 shoulder-bag for her bicycle, with orange webbing and some yellow velcro and such - However, she'll have to evaluate the suitability with some 'test-rides'?!


On Sunday, 2nd August:

We rode the hills of Jensen Beach this morning (from about 06:50 til about 08:00 or so), with me on the Trek 5200 and I did 3 rounds (17.2 miles total) in less than an hour, and even spent some time stopped, while chatting with a friend who lives up there and is practicing his running for a 1/2 marathon soon...

After the "Hills Ride", Mr. Bill 'twidddddddddled' his right Shimano 600 Ultegra SIS shifter on the Trek 5200 (about 18 years old, but still 22 pounds (it hasn't gained any weight in the last 18 years, but I have - something wrong there)).

ANYWAY the right shifter (for the back derailleur) has been 'iffy' for months (maybe years) - so today he got BRAVE, and took the darned thing apart (mostly) - (but definitely got a a point where he said "THIS IS TOO COMPLEX" and so quit taking it apart at that point...   (But I have a Shimano direction-sheet which proved VERY VERY HELPFUL - there's literally about 50 different 'parts' inside there - in the shifting / indexing part (which I didn't dis-assemble)...

But cleaning the shifter-indexing mechanism, and a new cable and cleaning-out the housings and putting it all back together, and adjusting it, achieved nirvana.  It now shifts like a DREAM! - wow - what a difference.   It does TAKE TIME - but I guess that's why some of us pay the Bike Shop, but some of us don't?

Anyway - a MUCH IMPROVED Trek 5200 rear shifter!


Saturday, 1st of August, 2009.

We did our 40 miles on the L.O.S.T. this morning (back home by 11:00 a.m.)

01Aug09_LOST_sunrise.sm.jpg    
Here's the sunrise from this morning's cycling along the L.O.S.T..


01Aug09_LOST_May3.sm.jpg
Here's Ms._May on her new (used) 17 pound carbon Trek road-bike (just SLIGHTLY behind me on my TriceQ).

Ms._May went to visit an aging (pottery) friend the other day, in a nursing home.   Ms._May told this friend she'd just gotten a 17 pound carbon bicycle.   The friend, then says, "OH, is that one of those bicycles that if you fill up the water bottle and put it on the bike it doubles the bike's weight?"

 - yeah - that's JUST about right -

- and Ms._May had no idea this lady was that 'up' on modern technology and it's ins and outs...

I'm 'attempting' to take the above picture with my little blue (6 year old) Sony DSC-U30 camera - which has a string on it so I can't drop it (as easily as I can drop my iPhone (which has NO STRING and no PLACE to PUT a STRING)) - so - Maybe more pictures, in the future, will be with the Sony U30...  It takes 1,200 by 1,600 pixel images whereas the iPhone's camera, though good, has no string to hold and no flash - and takes 800 x 600 pixel images... - but the iPhone e-mails the images from the iPhone - so - life is but a trade-off, huh?


On the way back ((to our car at Port Mayaca) AND into the wind) we were looking for just about any excuse to slow-down or stop...   We saw some powered-paraglider-types at Port Mayaca Park,  while we were still about 5 five miles away from there, which was our finish-location.  I stopped and attempted to chat with the powered-paraglider types, obviously a guy and his father (well, at least obvious to me) - but they spoke VERY LITTLE English - though I did get out of them they were from the Fort Lauderdale area...

01Aug09_LOST_treeonplain.sm.jpg
But we also saw this one lonely tree out here in the middle of nowhere...



Bill.ladder3.sm.jpg    mast.after2.sm.jpg    
Mr._Bill seems to be doing MORE and MORE work with web-cameras.  Some are on beaches, some are for construction, some are for looking at traffic in and out of inlets (near beaches?).   I worked 3 days doing this type of thing, last week, and it looks as though I'll work at least two days next week, also...  Believe it or not they actually pay me money to do this work, too, amazing what one can do in 'semi-retirement' to earn a few extra bucks of 'pocket-change'.

Now that you SEE this image - make certain to let me know why you think there's an 'abberation' (bump) in the 'horizon' above my head... This is the Atlantic Ocean - it should NOT look like that - it's some function of a problem with the iPhone3G camera, but WHAT?



AND _ Make CERTAIN that you wish my Sister, Ms._K a HAPPY BIRTHDAY this month... - we won't say how OLD she's going to be - but - I'll always be 8 years older than HER!>>>



Mr. Bill's best hang-gliding-flight (Ever) - see the FlightLog.Org web-page, here...
and-or see the track-log over  Google Earth Image(s), here...   small_image     larger_image (1 megabyte)


Archived BeachWeb monthly site(s):   Click here for a list of the archived months


Some people have asked, WHERE can I FIND, "X" - whatever the heck "X" is?;   but in my case - these two things are being asked about...
           The "Tire Changing Web-Page"        and/or the       VANC (VikingAsia (Networks and Computers)) Consulting) web-page.
                    AND / OR if you 'WANT' (or desire or need or have an 'urge' for something you don't see, then you can e-mail me at:  bill@vikingasia.org


updated:    20:55 p.m. on Friday, 21 August, 2009 - revID:  1f