Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

-
Image
I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
Post a Comment
-

http://www.catfastferry.com/the_ship/

Bonnie and I went to Toronto Friday night on the fast ferry. We stayed at the Westin Harbour where on Saturday the World Championship of Public Speaking took place. We came home on the ferry Saturday night. By the time we got to Berkshire it was actually Sunday morning.

The ferry was neat. It was clean, fast, smooth and fun. We went business class. We had fun chating and making friends on the way over. They serve food in business class and the leather couches are pretty comfy. I slept on the way back.

We didn't have passports with us. It turns out that to travel between Canada and the US you just plain need a passport with you these days. We weren't sure if they were going to let us into Canada.

The one little movie of the stern wake of the cat while under way got corrupted. Maybe I need a new camera. Grr.

The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking was worthwhile. The top ten competed and the winner was named, Lance Miller from California. He nailed a speech using a mnemonic device of "Cha Ching" where the theme was that we "validate" people and we allow them to validate us, much like getting your parking garage ticket stamped in a professional's office. All the speeches gave us a lot to think about and made us laugh. The 1800 people in the audience were well behaved (no one got out of their seats for 90 minutes during the competition) and it is interesting to see the mutual support in each other even at these high levels of competition. I need to get a copy of the video of these speeches. It is impressive to anyone. To a Toastmaster that can pick out subtle flaws these speeches are impressive and inspiring. As I was talking to my brother I was reminded that I had been quoted that public speaking is the original multimedia.

Bonnie and I had a great dinner at The Old Mill on the west side of Toronto. It took me hours on the web to decide on that place before we went. We were not disappointed. It was quite away from where we were staying but we could still take the subway. The food was excellent and the service was exceptional. For an appetizer I had asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon.




Click pic for video


Click pic for video

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ditches, Vents and Drains

-
Image
Beautiful morning on the lake. I needed to put some vents in the basement. It's never about just one thing. The vents through the brick was one thing. Getting a window well to allow proper airflow and a drain to ensure the window well doesn't fill with water are other things. I had some fun with my bobcat and digging in the dirt. I am glad its over. We went out to dinner at the American Legion Post in the neighborhood. It only made sense to drive my M998 and pose next to the tank. The humvee has been my grocery-getter lately.
Read more

Knives and Septic Systems

-
Image
I went to the largest knife show anywhere. It was in Atlanta. https://bladeshow.com/home/ It's not like I am crazy about knives. I am however, interested in intense human efforts and world class passion in particular areas. I find myself having very involved discussions with folks that are sharing their passion and expertise. I met with folks about knife making from the US and Western Europe of course, but also South Africa, Finland, Australia. It's a effective and pleasant way to learn. I had an issue (sewer pipe was broken by my stump grinder) with the septic system here in Duluth. Of course, I had to ask lots of questions and do inspections and assessments myself. Septic technology is interesting. Nothing to be scared about and although the technology is ancient and sometimes unplesant there is a lot to know. https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1421&title=a-beginners-guide-to-septic-systems Having that knowledge is especially important if you...
Read more

The Electromagnetic Spectrum --DC to Daylight (and actually well beyond)

-
Image
Besides carrying my scintillation detector with me looking for ionizing radiation (over 2.46 petahertz) and decaying isotopes, I have been playing in the more friendly "basement" of the electromagnetic spectrum (under a gigahertz). A pic of my radio bench. I sold my IFR ( http://blog.theguysatwork.com/2025/02/updates-storm-and-other.html) . I needed to replace the function (at least a lot of it) with a cheaper digital produt. So for 1/10 the sale price of my IFR, I ended up buying a TinySA Ultra+ ZS406 Spectrum Analyzer. It is indeed tiny. It does what I want it to do and it's a fun new toy. Our autographed copy of the "Fall of Civilizations" arrived from the UK. Paul Cooper does such a great job with his pobcasts and videos. I felt compelled to get a personalized copy of the book. ( https://www.paulmmcooper.com/ ) Seeing this licence plate on the front of a pickup truck seemed fitting-- not so much as contrarian, but as a Komatsu equipment fan. It's g...
Read more