Wyoming and Idaho

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We are back from a quick vacation. I managed to score three (actually several more) bucket list items in 4 days. 1.) Long Snowmobile Trip. 2.) Yellowstone Park and 3.) Wyoming. I reached my 50th State --Wyoming! And we took a 90 mile snowmobile trip in Yellowstone National Park. We went to the "Craters of the Moon--National Monument and Preserve" in Idaho and also stopped at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) where I got to see (with my own eyes) the very cool nuclear powered twin turbojet engine. It was a successful experiment in the 1950s and 1960s. https://whatisnuclear.com/safety-minutes/htre-3-meltdown.html Of course, I had my Radiacode scintillation detector with me and yes, the apparatus is "Hot". The screenshot of the readings from my three walk-arounds the artifact. I swear you could smell the radiation. There was a very un-natural burnt smell something reminiscent of burned bakelite. Although, I am quite certain the emitted radition was not the source...

The weather has been unusual. The extended forecast was calling for thunderstorms everyday for about 10 days. The forecast has been pretty much right.

Things are great. The realities of life are something to enjoy right now for the most part. I really slept in this morning. I got up at 7:30. I should have been rested and I know I am now after I finally get the mental wake-up cloud cleared.

Friday night I went to a great auction in Cinncinatus, NY. It was an estate for a guy who collected everything, but mostly unusual tools. So if you can imagine a collectible tool auction and the crowd that would gather discussing what the tool actually was could be quite a hoot. "Some kind of puller" was the defacto answer. It was a good brain tease for some really weird "yankee" tools. I bought a big box of files and rasps, a Geiger counter, misc. hardware will all sorts of things ($1 a box) and I got the light fixtures for the outside of the barn (I was not about to be outbid on those and ended up paying $47.50 for 4.) They were exactly what I was looking for. They are white porcelain with a 660 W (600 volt) capacity porcelain bulb socket. They are going to look great with the pipe coming out of the barn bent up and down into these fixtures. I will use a 200W to 300W (non-frosted) incandescent bulb. Of course, I have all the control wiring running underground to the barn so I will be controlling these lights from inside the house. It will be very nice.

Dwayne and I went and took the antennas off his house Saturday (he has moved out). I cut and split some firewood, plugs and wires on the Subaru, took some more metal to the scrap yard, and used my new power washer. I don't know what I did before I had one of those. I was very hesitant to get "yet another engine" but it will actually save work.

Bonnie and I are planning a trip down to Washington DC at the end of August for the Toastmasters International Convention Speech Contest (The World Championship of Public Speaking) and to meet up with some folks.

I have to get ready for this winter!

Here is a link that is an entrance to to some interesting folks and their job (Communications tech.) Don't miss Bob Zook, Bruce Blackburn and some of the others you will find linked in here.

Chuck Kimball

All of the kids were here at the same time last weekend.

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