BeachWeb - January 2011
Happy New Year! - Hope you enjoyed the "old One"
- maybe the New One will be better?
Nearing the end (of the first month of the new year):
Today's failure: -
we 'attempted' to go board-sailing, today, but we are FAST at RIGGING
and getting in the water; HOWEVER, the wind was FASTER at dying than we
were at getting there and utiliziing some of it? It was REALLY
NICE when I drove over the bridge (from my (fairly-successful)
camera-work) and FAST (with a tail-wind) and SLOW (against 20-28 mph
wind) trike-ride, about 12:30(ish)p.m - maybe 1:00(ish) p.m. - but by
the time we got to the board-sailing place, rigged-up and went-out
(about 3:00 ish) it was DYING (because, (perhaps, we think)) of
the RAIN... - so - well - we'll try again, but maybe we'll pay more
attention to the RAIN forecast in the future, and NOT JUST the WIND
forecast???
Some other pictures, in no particular order...
Ms._May's
'Shade House' for her orchids is MUCH further along - note the
stone-paver-flooring and path to the Shade House... - we'll do other
things later-on but at least it's 'working' now - we just need this
COLD WEATHER to quit! (and YES - in the above picture the Sun is
shining into the (iPhone) camera-lens. iPhone cameras are pretty
good for most things but the sun-shining in the lens ain't one of them!
Oh
- here's a picture of 'just some' of the repairs that resulted
when I attempted (on Christmas Day) to begin Ms._May's_ "Shade House".
I found that I'd post-hole-dug right into a 7-wire
plastic(water) pipe (NOT the 'code-approved' grey-plastic electrical
conduit). I guess I could have 'fried' several people / things /
etc. - if my post-hole-digging tool hadn't had wooden-handles AND IF
the electrical breaker hadn't kicked-the-circuit OFF right away...
AND
AND AND AND, Ms._May's rose-garden continues to flourish (being
nourished by her new fertilizer AND by the afternoon-sunshine because
she asked her huggly-hubby to chop-down an intervening tree (Brazilian
Pepper (an invasive species ANYWAY)) in the way of the sun...
A
view from the recent "New-Install" for the beach-camera-people I
work-for - VERY Scenic... - we got the bulk of the 'heavy' work (took 3
people) done on Thursday, 13th, and we'll do more later, when certain
other people / groups / organizations get their act together and finish
'their end'.
and another picture of the condo-unit (yuch) and the inlet, very scenic...
AND
- I managed (with the help of a locally-supplied man-lift) to replace a
part in the weather-system at one of our sites (and do a couple of
other 'good-things', and so that was VERY REWARDING, and did all that
before 10:00 a.m, then went for a trike-ride
other things going-on:
================
Managed
to help-out some 'needy-people' with their comp-u-problems recently.
It is unfortunate but true that computers don't (normally) "Just
Work" much as we all would like to 'think-so' - it does not REALLY
(EVER) happen! It is equally unfortunate but true that most
human beings don't just 'know' (intrinsically) how to use computers and
the software that goes with them. MOST human beings need
'some' training / support / help / assistance / guidance.
SO - we'll continue to help those poor unfortunate types that need
help...
AND
_ Cycling (or tricycling) wise - we continue to work hard, rack-up the
miles (just over 10,400, now) and wear-out tires - the tire thing
is begining to 'get to me' - it seems I'm not able to get much more
than 1,000 miles out of a pair of front-tires. I'm e-mailing
back and forth, now, with the tire's USA-representative(s) - trying to
figure out what is going wrong and why I'm not doing MUCH MUCH better
on tires... - I've tried toe-in / alignment as well as tire-pressure -
and both are things that are 'normally' cause for excessive wear - both
my toe-in and my tire pressure are well-within-spec but I continue to
wear-out tires at a rapid rate. I guess this is good for the tire
people, but bad for my bank account...
my 11 January ride (follow-the-red-line) of about 55 something miles...
and another recent ride - I went further west on this ride (today (14th of January))...
AND
- on the cycling front I've now got almost 700 miles on my newerishist
(ETRTO 23-622 (27" in American parlance)) rear-tire / frame on my trike
- and it's WONDERFUL, the more I ride the trike with this new
configuration, the more I like it. - Faster, no doubt, rougher (it has
no suspension, now) and seems to accelerate faster though that may just
be me - because the 'numbers' don't say it should accelerate faster,
but it sure seems to...
On the electronics front - I'm
'convinced' (maybe erroneously so) that a couple of the wind-direction
and wind-speed sensor-clusters that I've taken-out of various and
sundry places are still good (and my new Fluke
ScopeMeter (105B) tells me I'm correct; the electronics part(s)
still work just fine (the rest of this thing was mounted in another
place and the battery-leaked all over the printed circuit board and
that was the end of that...?!?!!?
ANYWAY _ I was studying / reading / researching the PIC micro-controller (the one used by many Amateur Radio people) ( Wikipedia Link / Manufacturer's web-site ) and then someone suggested I look at something called the "BASIC stamp" ( Wikipedia link / manufacturer's web-site ) (so-named because it's programmed in a BASIC (programming language) variant called 'PBASIC'...
ANYWAY
- I've been researching web-sites and such - and reading / researching
/ reading / researching - and hope to make a decision soonish...!!!
AND - my Windows (XP / SP3) DNS finally 'came-back-to-life' so I have a fully-functional Windows XP computer again (WOW!!!!!) (even though it is six or seven years old (I'd toyed with the idea of purchasing a new Toshiba Satellite (D650 series) laptop (to replace my aging Toshiba Laptop) - but - well - decided against it for now...
I also have created a 9 gigabyte partition on it's hard-disk and installed " Ubuntu " , one of the better Linux
distributions... So - I'm re-learning Linux - and it is FUN and
ReWARDING! and wow has it changed (for the BETTER) since I used it a
LOT about 15 years ago...
We
helped-out (Ms._May is a _judge_ and I'm a " B.I.M.B.O. ") at the "Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta (2010)"
in
Miami (well, actually 'Coconut Grove') from late the afternoon of
the 26th through the 30th... ( of December, 2010) - just a
"Few" (iPhone) pictures... (something like 660 sailors, something
like 500 boats, something like darned near NO WIND - but - well - we'll
let the pictures tell the stor(ies))
the
"Opti(mist) Trolley-Farm - just a few of the several hundred 'trolleys'
that represent Optimist Dinghies on the waters of Biscayne Bay,
(attempting) racing... (scroll right to get the 'full' effect'!)
Just
a "bit of nothing" (meaning almost no wind) which we tried (and tried
(and tried)) all week to 'avoid' but which kept plaguing us (can't run
many 'real' races with 'not much wind' - and this represents what we
saw "MOST" of the week...
AND - the 'final' 'Piece de Resistance' - of the regatta (late on
Thursday afternoon, the 30th) the hosting-club (and I'm guessing the
sponsors) put-on an 'All You Can Eat (yes I PIGGED-OUT - does the sound "Oink Oink" mean anything?) ) Ice Cream
Bonanza... - Vanilla Ice Cream with all the toppings you can imagine
(well at least all the ones they could come up with (crumbled Oreos,
hot chocolate syrup, hot fudge, sprinkles of various types, etc. etc.
etc. etc. - Ms. May said she was too cold from the air-conditioning in
the judges room, so I ate her share (as well as my own - I might have
gained 5 pounds right there!!!!
And "Mr. Bumper" - a cat we met late on the afternoon of the 26th when
we went for a walk around Coconut Grove before our meeting(s)...
Some "Old News" from late last year (November and December 2010)...
1.) Mr. Bill's 2-years-old TriceQ ( http://www.icetrikes.co.uk ) with his new " 700 x 23 c tire (French Designation) - the new ' ETRTO
' designation is: 23-622 BIG reart wheel/tire / rear-frame... -
VERY FAST - still 'twiddling' though to get the recumbent seat correct,
the chain-length correct and the shfiter-indexing- correct - however,
now have a total of 'about' 100 miles on it - so we're getting there -
it will take MORE TWIDDLING - over the coming weeks... PLUS have a
(VERY OLD) tire off of my Trek 5200 diamond-frame, and I'm fairly
certain this tire will 'blow' fairly soon. I am, though, carrying
spare TIRES and TUBES of the appropriate size (and a pump!)
AND
- late-breaking-news... Mr. Bill passed the '10,000 mile' mark just
recently - yes, that's right for those 'sports fans' out there who
spend most of their life being 'couch potatoes', this 'old man' has now
completed (just barely, admittedly) 10,000 miles in just a hair over
two years on his recumbent tricycle... - With the NEW rear-tire (that
you see in the above picture) on the trike for just a bit over 200
miles - the 10,000 mile mark was passed in the week before Christmas...
So
- haven't done much riding the in past week (26th - 30th December) but
I'm HOPING the 'New Year' will bring some New Weather and I can ride
more in the comming weeks and months, and try to make it 15,000 miles
by this time next year!!!
The NEW TriceQ rear-frame did not have a 'mud-guard' to keep water, dirt, etc. off my back
and off my 'bags of things' - so I attempted to build one out of two
parts / pieces - it is VERY LIGHT WEIGHT...
The
NEW YEAR HAS brought some significantly warmer temperatures, and some
'riding' here, there, everywhere... I rode the LOST (Lake Okeechobee)
with my friend Tom from Okeechobee. I rode (this morning
(Tuesday, 25th) the ride from Jensen Beach to Ft. Pierce (along
Hutchinson Island) and went exceedingly fast on the ride NORTH to Ft.
Pierce (with a 20 mph tail-wind I averaged a bit over 19 mph for the
first 43 minutes (that put me in Ft. Pierce). I will NOT tell you
what I averaged on the way BACK - SOUTH - AGAINST the 20 mph head-wind
- but let's just say it was NOT 19.3 mph! and leave it at that... - We
had a great lunch at home, and then tried some boardsailing but the
first-paragraph on this web-page tells you all about THAT!?
The
week before Christmas, we ATTEMPTED to stay warm when the
temperature was below freezing fore three nights in a row, needless to
say the yard now has some significant 'brown-spots' as a result of this
freezing weather... I suspect that Mangoes, next year, may be in
short supply...
A couple of "Thought Provoking Questions":
=================================
God & the Genome Project:
Here's a 'got me thinking' question for you:
IF (big BIG IF) - there were some way to retrieve a 'valid' DNA sample from Jesus
(and/or the 'philosophical leader' of any other religion)
and IF (another BIG IF) that 'leader' was 'perceived' (or 'known') to be able to heal by 'the laying on of hands'
and IF (yet one more BIG IF) the DNA could be 'replicated'
could,
then, another human being be 'cloned' or somehow 'developed' with the
DNA of the 'healer' to - then - heal other people?
(and, note here,
though, that the 'healer' can heal OTHERs, not him/her/itself!)
AND
- if the answers to all these IFs were really YES - then could / would
some company (or government (or whatever)) be able, then, to basically
make redundant all these drugs and drug-companies that we have today
and what would that all do to all the 'world's economies'?
(this 'thought provoking question' was the subject (and a lot more things are in the book))
"The Miracle Strain" by: Michael Cordy (1997) (ISBN: 0688155081)
And the 'Dan Brown' book 'The Lost Symbol'
might also have some of this sort of thing (what would happen if God
could be re-created? - though the Dan Brown book has a LOT to
say about the Masonic Brotherhood, it also talks about DNA being
replicated in places?
AND _ now - if that's not enough thought provoking for you - try this one:
A computing question:
Let's
'assume' that 90% of those of us in 'developed' societies, who
use e-mail, know what hackers and spammers and phishers are.
WHAT IF _ we could (somehow (carrot and/or stick)) convince all those
'nefarious types' to use their skills for GOOD (for BETTERing the
people, computers, societies) instead of for spamming, phishing,
trojans, viruses, etc. etc. etc. etc. - what would the
(computering / e-mailing) world 'look like'?
AND: HOW would we
get those nefarious types to do that? - (what type(s) of carrots and
sticks would we use as a society to inflict this change?
This
'Thought Provoking Question" came (in SMALL PART) from the above
mentioned book, but the book did NOT dwell on the "Thought Provoking
Question" - I developed it on my own, while reading the book...
AND/OR for the "Cycle North Carolina - 2010 cycling trip" you can click on this link: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2010/CNC10/CNC10.html
AND - that's about it for now.... - more later....
Archived BeachWeb monthly site(s): Click here for a list of the archived months
updated: 18:32 p.m. on Tuesday, 25 January, 2011; by: Mr._Bill on the Apple Macintosh
'G5' - revID: 1d
