LavaCon 2026 and the future.

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LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...

My exercise regimen is paying dividends. I am somewhat surprised at the progress. I am running 3.1 miles (5k) in 24 minutes now. The amount of weight I use on almost all the machines has increased, except for the biceps. I have backed off a little bit on the overall routine just to take the edge off it. Further progress I am sure of, but I can take more time.

Bonnie's sister is down this weekend and we celebrated Bonnies birthday.

I made Baked Alaska. I did quite a bit of research before I started. My recipe was a combination of recipes I gleaned from the web.

I made a 13 x 9 inch chocolate cake, cut into 6 pieces. I took a half gallon of french vanilla ice cream and cut that into 6 even slabs. I refroze the ice cream slabs in foil in the big cold freezer we have downstairs. Then it is time for the meringue. I used our own chicken eggs being careful to use the oldest eggs we had. I read that you should use eggs at least 4 days old. (That was difficult). I had about 9 or 10 egg whites being very careful not to get any yolk and avoiding getting any hand oils in the egg whites. I added about an 1/8 of a tsp of cream of tartar in 1 cup of confectioners sugar. I very vigorously beat the egg whites with an electric mixer and slowly added the sugar-mix. Minutes later I had a stiff meringue. I assembled the deep-frozen slabs of ice cream and cake on top of brown paper on a cookie sheet. The assembly then got covered with the meringue, carefully and completely down flush with the brown paper, looking for leaks. I froze this new assembly for a couple of hours. Placed the alaskas in the oven at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. (could have gone longer). I garnished with canned pears and chocolate sauce. It was good.



I had quite a treat this morning. I have pictures of a Sundog. Sundogs are created much like a rainbow except that the refraction is done in atmospheric ice crystals. They are distinctive from rainbows since they most often look almost purely vertical. In my pictures you can see they are gently curved, although not nearly as much as a conventional liquid-water rainbow. I was very pleased to get the pics. I am again surprised at the number, variety and intensity of rainbows I have seen on the farm. As with all rainbows, seeing them in person far exceeds the experience seeing them imaged.

Here is a decent link that explains Sundogs. Sundog


Click pic for video


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LavaCon 2026 and the future.