On this morning's ride at the L.O.S.T. (Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail), I took a couple of pictures...
the sun-rise this morning
and a picture I've taken before...
We drove home from the "Cold Frozen North" on December 26 & 27, and managed to get 'caught' in several traffic-jams along the way - significantly lengthened the trip... - Here's one of our 'navigators', who is not necessarily navigating at this point, but watching the woods go by while we were whiling-away-the 3 hours or so we spent in the traffic 'jams' (yes - plural) - though MOST of it was on the 26th (holiday traffic, maybe?)...
During our time in the 'Cold Frozen North' - we had several 'hiccups' - one of which was our mini-van (from Florida (where it is NOT COLD)) decided that it would freeze EVERYTHING... (like water-bottles in the bicycles!)... - we managed to get some 'windshield-washer-anti-freeze' in that but the door-locks and other things froze, also...
However, at night we were warmed by certain bed-warmer-helpers, in a very comfortable bed...
Well - Today is Thursday, 19 December, and things are HAPPPPPPPPPPENING... (all around "Da" south...)
Thing-1:) we decidededededed NOT to snowboard again, a 'half-day' at the 'increased-rate($$$$$)' at the place which had so well accommodated us the 17th and 18th... so - AS I TYPE this, Ms. May is driving the mini-van (with bears, cycles, snowboards, clothes, etc. etc. etc. (mostly the 'etc', though!))
Thing-2:) there are "Some" images here from out last couple of days ...
view from the "TOP" of the Beech Mountain skiing area - they only had two lifts open(plus a "J-bar" in the kids-area) when we were there, but this one was just fine for us...
This is an iPhone "panorama" shot of the "Other Side" of Beech Mountain... (the 'Peak' - in about the middle of this picture) is where the picture above, of Ms. May, was taken, different view, different hour of the day...
THIS is just ONE of the snow-making machines!... - they make a LOT of snow here!
Thing-3:) Mr. Bill and Ms. May had a couple of GOOD rides on the "Withlacoochee State Trail" (that passes through Inverness (Florida)), and though the Monday (16th) was COLD, we still got a couple of good pictures...
This was a view-picture taken just south of Inverness (where we started out) very early on the morning of the 16th... (it was VERY COLD! (yes we are WIMPS!))
picture next to the trail-sign on the COLD morning - note the patriotic (red, white, blue) clothing of the hubby!
Thing-4:) we have done SOME DRVINGINGNNGNG since we left home on the
15th - the Mini-Van - we are happy to report, (it being an almost 7
year old 200,000 mile vehicle - and front-wheel-drive) we were NOT
SURE how it would handle 'snow and ice and slippery-roads' - and
though we did NOT encounter a LOT of these conditions; we did find
SOME and the mini-van (front-wheel-drive) did exceedingly well. - NOW
- that doesn't mean we're going to go out looking for snow & ice,
but it does mean that it certainly did better than expected...
Thing 5:) Mr. Bill has 'piloted' his trusty Trek 5200 (about a 20 year old carbon-framed (bicycle)) to speeds never before seen on his two wheeler... There's definitely a 'personal best' in here somewhere, but we won't quote numbers - someone might get embarassed...
YES - we are STILL DOING the 'Flower of the Day' - when we find them - wherever they may be, sometimes, here, sometimes, there...
This was taken on 14 December (a Saturday) NEAR "Port Mayaca" where I ride on the L.O.S.T..
This flower is NOT on the "L.O.S.T." but quite near-by...
this one was taken along the "Withlacoochee State Trail" near Inverness, Florida,
on he 16th of December and it WAS COLD that morning! (even in Florida!)
Mr. Bill has been continuing to work on some 'Maker' projects, - most notably one for kiln-temperatures...
'MAKER' is an 'international' movement with a lot of both hardware and software vendors making project-kits
for comp-u-weenies like me. this is the Wikipedia Link to Maker; this is the link to the 'Maker' web-page.
They have an international Faire once a year: http://makerfaire.com and there is a US-based Magazine, "Make:"
This is a picture of the 'most up to date' hardware portion (look up "Arduino" on Wikipedia if you like)
- I'm still working on the software (some in 'Arduino-C', but some in Python...
- (as I type, there is anotherwindow open on my laptop here, that has a couple of 'on-line-books' (e-books) that
I got from "O'Reilly" who publish this sort of thing...
this is someone ELSE's 'Raspberry Pi' (The "Raspberry Pi' is a COMPLETE Linux Computer,
which with it's CD-Chip-Hard-Disk still costs less than $50 US) and is at the heart, along with the Arduino,
of the MAKER philosophy / movement...
- I have one too, (pictured above: (the Raspberry Pi is the TINY printed-circuit-board between the keyboard and the monitor, it has some cables plugged into it)
(with it's TINY monitor that cost more than the computer!)... The computer (Raspberry Pi) costs 'about' $40, the SD (memory) chip (very similar to that
which is used in a lot of digital cameras) has the Operating System (a version of Debian Linux) is 'about' $10-14, and then one adds one's own keyboard,
mouse, monitor (most people have 'extras' of these 'laying around')
the computing environment you get is pretty stunning. and for the Hardware Hacks
out there this thing has some GPIO (General Purpose Input / Output) pins on it that makes it good for interfacing to the 'real world' (analog and digital sensors)...
The 'MAKER' philosophy has way more to do with 'arts & crafts' - clothing, art-projects, robots (to some
extent this is an outgrowth of the comp-u-weenie thing, but to some extent it is not), and a LOT of other arenas,
in which the Project encourages people of all ages, disciplines, realms to "MAKER" something of their own, rather
than to BUY something...
This is an example of a tiny (this is a larger-than-real-size photo) project called "TV-B-gone" that one can buy the kit, do a bit of soldering, and in essence have a 'remote control'....
There are WAY MORE projects available from a whole plethora of (electronics) vendors:
- Adafruit.com (owned and operated (for 10 years, now) by a lady EE from MIT, she's quite imaginative)
- MakerShed.com (one of the US-based companies that is leading the industry with kits and other information)
- Sparkfun.com (one of the top-five - excellent 'theory' information and other useful stuff...)
- Instructables.com (a lot of "How To" stuff here; as well as some fairly 'esoteric' stuff you won't find elsewhere)
- Electronut.in (from India, but excellent English amongst other things)
- GitHub.com (this is where a lot of the software for the above projects resides ('Git' is a software term))
There are OTHER VENDORS in the "MAKER" world, it's just that I'm an 'electronics geek' - and so most of my involvement is with these vendors. PRIMARILY, though I use "Adafruit", they have a really well integrated 'whole' picture - kits, parts, software, etc....
This is just one of the 'benefits' of using the "Adafruit" web-ordering-system. - If you spend enough, they will give you one of these small rulers as a 'gift'... (while supplies last, I suspect!).
Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html