Bill Schell's "BeachWeb" for January  2013            made-with-Nvu-t.png

Sunday, 20 January, 2013...

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garage-studio 'done' - we have a 'tiny' list of 'tiny' things to do yet, but the bulk of this project is complete... - and thank goodness; we have other things that need our attention these days...


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YES - we won our sailing regatta - me and Two Dentists in the boat, - what a way to get an 'opinion' on my root-canal-tooth! - but it was a two-day regatta and we WON!


Trike Riding:

Today is Wednesday, 3 January...  Like some other days this week, I spent the early hours of the morning (I started before 07:00 a.m.) riding on the BEAUTIFUL L.O.S.T. (Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail).  I think I like this because of the constantly new & interesting scenery, as well as the fresh-air, sunshine, outdoors, wildlife, etc. etc. - it's just a generally terrific way to begin the day... - HOWEVER, lately I've been riding a 40 mile 'route' (not much place OTHER than the LOST dike one can go), but it's still fun, pleasant and terrific exercise...

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this is more 'reflections' - you can see the 'other' one below - but this one is 'better' (I think? - but WHO KNOWS?)

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and another of the 'route' and some Lake Okeechobee scenery... this was taken while 'south-bound' (into the sun and the compass heading on this one is 'about 120 degrees)...


Today (Wednesday, 2 January, 2013), I went to the Lake earlier, and rode my 40 miles again... THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE (and un-leashed DOGS) on the path, today...
BUT - I took a bunch of pictures, and I thought they might warrant some viewing...

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a WHOLE BUNCH of white (and some dark, also) birds, surveying their domain, and sitting quietly as I pedaled by...



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Here's some trees, and their images reflected in the VERY STILL waters of the "Rim Canal"...  The Rim Canal is not often this still, usually there's some wind.  Unfortunately both yesterday and today - the wind was like this going north, but when I started back south the wind was a LOT MORE than I wanted to ride into and it really slowed me down...

Which only points-out RULE #1: for riding the "L.O.S.T.": - regardless of which direction you choose to ride in, the wind is ALWAYS against you!.

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ONE thing that happened this morning (Tuesday, the FIRST) was that I went to my most beloved place to ride my tricycle, the 'L.O.S.T." (Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail) - and I rode about 40 miles today (yes my buns hurt, they think that 40 miles may be too much when they've been  acclimated to 20-25 miles?)...

ANYWAY, I REALLY LIKE riding around the Lake (and Ms. May and I did the WHOLE LAKE (about 120 miles) in 2 days 'about' this time last year (actually it was the 29th and 30th of December in 2011 that we rode ALL THE WAY around the lake!).

That ride, though, was 'about' 1/2 and 1/2 on and off the L.O.S.T.. - The surface-roads we found 'scary' with the BIG sugar-cane-harvesting trucks and the BIG orange harvesting trucks, and so-forth.   This web-site has "Some" text and "Some" pictures, and some links:  http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2011/Dec11/Dec11.html


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This picture is a 'GPS track-log' of our December 2011 ride ALL the WAY AROUND the lake - the part I rode, today, was the "northeast" quarter (roughly noon til 3p.m. if you think about the lake as a clock-face) - on this image the part I rode today was roughly the upper-right quadrant that has the blue-dots on it.  this is a VERY HUGE image, here, and a largeER image here...

SO - I think we'll wait to do this again until something like 80-90% of that 120 miles is on the actual levee / dike (L.O.S.T.) (and therefore we do NOT have to share the pavement with the BIG TRUCKS!...

Here's a Link-To a  short 'movie' of a very small part of today's 40 mile ride.

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Here's a picture of my Heart Rate Monitor - showing 130 beats a minute - that's a lot for an 'old-guy' like me...


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AND - here's another (random) picture that shows the awesome views that the lake-dike-path has...


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AND - LASTLY - a 'self-portrait' - (wish my arm were a bit longer, huh?)

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This is a picture of Ms. May's (almost) finished new LP-gas fired kiln.

Though it 'looks' like it's ready, there are a whole bunch of 'little-itty-bitty' jobs that I have yet to accomplish, but I'm getting there...

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Kiln-News:  AS OF 20 January, we are MUCH NEARER to firing than we have ever been, but there is still some work to be done.  Mr. Bill has his 'list' of 'engineering-things' (as opposed to art-thingies) that he must do. 

ALSO - since this will be the 'first-firing' of a 'new-kiln' - we have attempted to re-cycle about 10 years worth of clay.    The re-cycling process, is lengthy, tedious, 'interrupt-driven' (some-times the clay is 'READY' and one must "JUMP (RIGHT THEN!)"),  and very physical...   

However, in the 'first-firing' of a new-kiln, one can not be AT ALL SURE of the results, so we're going to be firing the kiln with artwork inside the kiln made mostly from re-cycled clay to save some money and obviously we HOPE that we'll get a lot of useful work out of the first firing, but we don't know... ... ...

AND - Ms. May has ordered a new thermocouple to determine temperature inside the kiln while we are firing it.  Mr. Bill has a couple of different instruments to attach to the thermocouple, to read the temperature.  PLUS Ms. May is going to use the 'cones' inside the kiln.   Mr. Bill has also re-alingned all the burners and added a union to the LP-gas piping and some supporting braces to make all the pipes more secure.  AND we've re-designed and built the holding-mechanism for the damper in the horizontal flue.   - Still some things to do, yet, but we're getting there...

You can see this blog-site which may be of more 'value added' if you are looking for Kiln Pictures (and a tiny bit of text?):    http://vikingasia.blogspot.com


Our August web-page:    http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2012/Aug12/Aug12.html

Our September web-page:    http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2012/Sep12/Sep12.html


Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page:    http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html


AND - if you're at AALLLLLL Interested (and you may not be) - here's a couple of charts that have to do with electronic 'frequency spectrum' that are quite interesting.  This is a Wall Chart for the US Spectrum Allocation from 1 to 300 Gig.  This is a handy 8 1/2" x 11" chart of the ARRL / Amateur radio frequency spectrum for the US Amateur scene.



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


updated: 18:55 p.m. (USA-EDT)  Thursday, 10 October 2013;  by: Mr._Bill on the Apple Macintosh 'Mac Mini' - revID:  1e