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It appears there was a plane crash in Antarctica yesterday. Luckily no one was injured. That plane had multiple problems with the tail wheel last year. The Basler was the only plane I didn't fly on. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110910&org=NSF&from=news Someone asked me why I was quiting my activities. The answer is so I have more time to figure out what else I can quit.
Belive me. I am aware of the typos and bad grammer (sic) in my blog posts. It is what is it is. The blog is most likely going to take a different venue. I may move domains and access. It is all about information. I have much to say. I belive I am reaching a new plateau in my blog and my life. We only have one life. Do what you will. There are physical constraints. The computer situation is as always in flux here. The wireless mouse and keyboard arrived for the living room. Now we browse on the 37 inch tube, well almost. The furniture is almost ready for stain and finish. It is going to get an ebony stain and some sort or clear coat. The llamas are well. Douglas is now 27 years old. The other kids (Franklin, Christa) are of course doing very well!
When I saw this pic this morning I had to post it. This plane is near the transantarctic mountains. You don't see many photos like this, however JATO bottles are frequently used to take off from science camp areas. I flew in the plane, but without a JATO takeoff. I asked some of my co-workers about what it is like to be in the plane during a JATO takeoff. The answer was "Loud!" Photo from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4318736a12.html
I have been building the piece of furniture I designed over the past few weeks to shelve all the living room electronics. Our sick chicken is a lot better. Warming her up, forcing her to drink and generally paying attention to her seems to have kept her alive. We haven't had one get so close to dying and come back. She still might not make it but she is a lot perkier and is eating pretty good. Tough old bird is a good saying. It is cold and damp out. I guess that is what you expect of winter. Working out side isn't bad. The lack of sunshine puts a damper on productivity though. One of the neighbors likes lawn ornaments for each holiday. The giant blow up turkey was something else.
Well, I didn't get the car I was bidding on. I was out at a party when it ended so I was short by 100 bucks. There will be others. I did make the connections to borrow a trailer to get the car when I finally do find one. The base model Geo Tracker 1992 vintage with a manual transmission would be perfect. The body has to be good. The engine can be rough. I took some great pics of sundogs at sunrise on the way into work. It was 0 degrees on the farm this morning. The llamas are locked in and comfy. We have a sick chicken though.
Al Russell came down on Saturday. It has been quite a while. There was a lot to catch up on. We went out back with the jeep and I got another flat. We walked back and I went back Sunday with the weenie spare and the tractor. I used the 3 point hydraulics to jack up the jeep in 5 inches of new snow to change the tire and get the machines out of the woods. Although it was a nusence. It was fun being out in the woods in the cold and snow. In addition to my anniversary at my job. This weekend marks our 18th wedding anniversary. Where does all the time go? It got down to about 6 degrees last night with lots of wind. It was just plain nasty out. Listening to the scanner last night with the reports of car wrecks, personal tragedies and what not it seemed like the end of the world. The beavers are back down at the beaver dam and they are as destructive as ever. I am bidding on a Geo Tracker tonight for electric conversion.
Hard to believe I have been working at my current job for 7 years as of Saturday. I have been sitting at the same desk with the same monitor, same chair, same everything (almost) for 7 years (except for 4 months in Antarctica). It is a year longer than I have stayed at any other job. Usually, I pack up and leave just to get into new more interesting problems or opportunities. They have said they were sorry to see me go at every job. I am pretty tired of that song and dance. I have held two jobs previously for 6 years, and of course a few others for lesser time. Everything is relative. This is a pic of Ultima I took a few months back. She looks happy under her fruit tree.
Today is Thanksgiving and I am emailing folks in Antarctica to wish them the best. My friend Dave is stuck about 5 hours (LC-130 Aircraft) away from McMurdo at a god forsaken place known as "WAIS Divide". WAIS is an acronym for "West Antarctica Ice Sheet". There has been a seasonal science camp out there for years taking ice core samples. Dave has been out there 3 years in a row. We use a an old C-band satellite dish to get Internet through an old NOAA satellite through the University of Miami. I think he gets 5 hours of visibility at 56 kbps. Good for email for the scientists. At least they have a regular camp cook out there. I am looking for a new controller for my electric car. I have been doing a lot of research and planning. It won't be cheap. I want to do it right. I know if I don't it will be a mess and give electrics a bad name. I am diligently looking for what the the EV folks call a "Donor Car". I have reduced my goal to a 40 mile range...
It is a normal weekend I suppose. We went to a Toastmaster event in Ithaca last night. Jason and Claudia both competed in the district contests. This was the contest that culminates 2000 toastmasters from across the state. Unfortunately, neither won, but to compete at this level is certainly an achievement. The Columbian guy who won the Humorous contest was a real hoot. I have been patrolling the woods out back with the jeep looking for hunters and getting firewood. There were no signs of hunters on opening day which was great with me. I take my camera and my note pads to capture back tags. Anyone I catch will get a ticket from the DEC. I have a bunch of firewood to process. I should have enough for this year, but you really can't have too much. Worst thing is that I will use it next year. As long as I can get out back (snow not too deep) I might as well bring it forth. It is a great excuse to spend time in the woods. Even though it was in the 20s I was down to a t-shirt working ...
While we are fighting a physical battle in the middle east the Chinese are fighting a battle at the real front. Malware/Trogans/Virus and any other executables to compromise our computer securities are being purchased by us I bet. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/11/11/2003387202
It is the weekend again. We had our first snow this morning and I was out back with the Jeep early. I dressed for the cold and it triggered a nerve or two. First of all it wasn't really cold and that it was so humid even though it was sort of cold. Hypothermia is much more likely when things are damp. In fact, most cases of hypothermia involve moisture, not cold, as the primary constituent. It is great to have robust internet (actually working) and the varied electronic devices accessed of late. I mounted the flat screen tv on the wall and I triaged the Fisher amp that gave me a smoke genie last Saturday morning, weird. Don't know what caused it besides me flicking a switch or two. DC coupled amps can be problematic. I may have to upgrade to a pair of McIntosh 275s to go with the "unsmoked" McIntosh Preamp I still have in the array. I had the strangest dream last night. I was in a novel about a wierd evacuation from a polar research station. Coincidentally, Mc...
Well getting my internet access straightened around is a big deal. I feel as though I had a big damp blanket pulled off me and now it is time to dry off and and figure out what's next. My antivirus is working again properly - and it is all good (cyberspace speaking). I got about half of my new heavy duty posted signs up today. I found the property lines ok except for one corner. I have had problems at the corner before too. There is a iron pipe and all that .. I just cant seem to find it. Being color blind doesn't help. I just can't see a lot of the blazes. Maybe I should just buy a GPS again. Borrowing one makes more sense at the moment. I enjoyed my walk. There is nothing quite like it. It is certainly better than TV. I used my new brush cutter around the pond. All the trees and brush are getting the axe (saw) this fall/winter around the pond. It needs attention based on what I learned in pond school a couple of years back. The jeep decided to run today. It has a in...
I got my internet at home working again via satellite. The LNA went bad and had to be replaced. This time thru Wild Blue. It is pretty fast. I am getting 1Mbps downloads. That is fast enough. One of the side benefits is that this system is that it is ethernet versus the USB connection on the old modem so I can network this connection to the new TV, the neighbors, and the toaster if needed. Now I have to change my email address and all that goes with that. I also have to create the simple webpage that is on the posted signs I will be hanging in a few minutes. No hunting allowed on the property this year. I reached the breaking point this past summer. Having the land is great but it does require some management that isn't always fun. Having the dish tv is different. Now there are 100 channels of infomercials. I got some more components for the electric car, hopefully I can start getting the test stand operational today. I left a note (offer to purchase) a Geo Tracker that is off t...
Man o' man getting on the internet has really been working againist me lately. I got the new tv (great). I got the dish for "Cable" tv, and I had my new internet dish installed (Wild Blue). The Wild blue worked for exactly 2 days and quit. I am trying to get it fixed. Hopefully today the guy will be out. I am currently using a WIFI connection down in Binghamton. We can receive 7 hi def stations locally, about 12 analog signals and then we have the dish and the internet connected to the TV via VGA. I am working out the details of how to hook all this stuff up including the subwoofer I installed in the coffee table. I have been taking a lot of photos lately, stopping the truck on the way to work or whatever. It is worth it. Of course ;-) at this sitting I have almost none of my new pics with me. I am working on getting my electric car drive train working. I built a test stand and a programming interface for the controller. I bid on a geo tracker with a bad engine on eba...
This week started off a little rough with Bob's memorial service. I should have new satelite internet service next week. I also bought a new HDTV. The 37 inch model I picked out is small for those things. I am also getting dish TV for the first time ever. So we will be veging out in front of the tv this winter it appears. My friend Pete drew me into the idea of making an electric car. So I now have a very nice 3-Phase Fork lift motor and AC controller. I am looking for a small car with a bad engine. Bernhardi, Robert (Bob) Robert (Bob) Bernhardi, of Center Lisle, passed on unexpectedly at age 55. Bob was predeceased by his mother, Marie; and his brother, Paul. He is survived by his wife, Debra Jean (DJ) McCullough; daughters, Michelle and Amanda; grandchildren, Angela, Dakota and Ian; father, Robert G. Bernhardi; siblings, Bill, Tom, Mary, Eileen and John; also many nieces and nephews. Bob grew up in the Port Byron, N.Y. area, graduated from Penfield, N.Y. High Sch...
On my last flying lesson we were about 300 feet off the ground on climb-out and the engine demonstrated a definite change in power. After about 3 seconds the power came back on ok. Not great, but ok. It turned out we had a weak cylinder, low compression. So the plane is getting a new piston and the cylinder bored.
I still don't have proper Internet access at home. Everyone is deplying to Antarctica now for "Mainbody". It will be interesting to hear the stories. I sent the following hero shot to friend who is deploying. It shows me dangerously working on telecommunications systems in the forbidding harshness of the business world.
It appears I am getting a new ISP, new satellite internet connection and a new email address. I have finally had it with Earthlink and their Satellite connection. I am getting some new service Oct 17th. It will be a welcome relief with the problems and poor customer service over these years. It reminds me of my old hosting company. The problems just grate on you and grate on you. It is quite a relief after you invest the time to get a new supplier. It was quite iritaing when my earthlink email stopped working when I was in Antarctica last year. The current problems are mess between slow connections limited Internet access. The video didn't seem to work on the previous post. It is a new system. They will get it going at some point. My Departmnet won the Center for information Developmnet Managemnet (CIDM) Rare Bird award this Year! Thta is a big deal. We are dwarfed by the compition and the other submmisions came from Microsoft, Cadance, Mentor Graphics and others. It feels gr...
I am back from Atlanta. We won the annual CIDM Rare Bird award in regards to our XML process development! The award is great, but feeling that you deserve it is the greatest part. I am in the hospital waiting room in Binghamton. Bonnie is under general anesthisia for the sound wave lipotripsy to breakup the remaining large kidney stone. Hopefully it works. I am not sure how long it is going to take. I haven't had a flying lesson this week. I will be going up this coming week. I have been studying the sectional charts looking for interesting cross-country trips. The plan is the same as it has been, to accomplish a first-solo this year. After that I haven't made any commitments, but the natural thing to do is the required cross-country solos, written exam, build hours, take a oral exam and check flight. It takes a minimum of 40 hours for the private pilot license. I will have many more than that most likely. Getting comfortable in the air is not as easy as it is for some folks,...
Bonnie is doing better. They got one of the stones out. A future lipotripsy will get the other big one. She was doing well enough that we decided to have me to continue to Atlanta, where I am now at the CIDM Best Practices Conference. My presentation went well. I have another couple days of meetings. It feels good to be ahead in our processes compared to other folks. The Future is even better. I have alot of work to get ready for winter still. I am looking forward to finishing projects I started earlier this year. After working outside last winter in Antarctica, I plan on working outside more this winter in tame-ol upstate ny. You must dress and regulate. What I mean by regulate is you have to manage your clothing. If you get hot, remove; if you get cold add. Humans can't regulate their heat that well. It requires a manual process. Knowing that makes a big difference.
My satellite internet is still barely working at home. It will not let me see many sites including Blogger.com. I am blogging from the Wilson Hospital (Binghamton N.Y.) surgical waiting room. Bonnie and I have pretty much been here (and another hospital) since 4 am. It turns out she has some nasty big kidney stones. They are doing an assortment of procedures and contingency procedures. Let's hope for the best.
We have three cats now. Two gray ones and a yellow one. It was a weird trip arriving at the point of having three cats. I gathered firewood and mess of other stuff. It was really relaxing. Here is an interesting article about how farming is losing its position of dominance (no kidding). http://petersmagnusson.com/2007/09/04/for-the-first-time-in-10000-years-farming-is-not-the-dominating-industry/
My net connection is still broke at home. I won't be paying them this month. I have a lot of pictures to post. The two new cats are adjusting and their personalities are starting to come thru. Partial list for the long weekend: firewoord, rear pasture gate, mowing, and generally winterizing. I am working on a amateur radio in Antarctica project as well. The ice flights started last week. It appears the second flight or so there was a medavac. The NZ newspaper said that someone fell from the top of the C-17 during prefight inspection and broke their leg. There are some pretty good pictures in the "af.mil" story. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123066330 http://www.stuff.co.nz/4178203a11.html
I am still having internet issues (ISP problems) at home. I can only see some parts of the net. My Indian friend has indicated to me that they have refered the problem to a "Master Technician". Dennis, Julie, Sandy and Greg came down this weekend. I have a lot of photos to post when I am capable. We all had a good time. The two new cats are settling-in. Here is some big news in physics it seems. Everyone was thinking we were getting closer. It appears we are there. Of course there will be a lot more questions, but this appears to be a real milestone in actually detecting low-energy neutrinos. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109893 Here is a quick movie of the storm that knocked the power out Saturday night.
My home net access has been flakey. I am blogging at work. There was some internet distruption based on "shooting up" some fiber near cleveland. I suspect terrorism. They knew what they were shooting at. It is probably a test to see how the network reacted. How many simultaneous strikes like this will functionally bring the net down? It is also interesting at the lack of news coverage on this story. If it were a pipeline damaged it would be all over the news. Be aware. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/082107-gunplay-blamed-for-internet.html You may have to do a search on "gunplay" to find the article. We have two new cats! They are nice kitties for sure. One is smoke gray and the other is yellow. They get along great and they have already proved their mousing ability. I will get some pics posted soon.
I have been finishing up the front of the barn. Jeff helped me hang the upper door. I got my low voltage remote switching relay in the mail yesterday for the light. It is coming together. Bonnie made a fall wreath to hang on the upper door. It opens in so we can easily change the wreath depending on the season. The llamas are well. Current animal count is five llamas, six chickens and that's it. We will be interviewing cats this week. "So what are your plans say 4 years from now? Do you think catching mice will be interesting to you?" I sold my old honda Motorcycle. I hadn't started it in about 6 years. It was a 1971 model. The phone has been ringing off the hook. I must have priced it too low at 100 bucks. The satellite internet access at home has been up and down at home. It is really getting on my nerves. The POP3 service hasn't worked in a week. I have been keeping in touch with friends from Antarctica and I am involved in a couple of projects with the...
It is Summer. It sure is nice outside. I was planning on running in the Corporate Challenge 5K race last week, but with it 95 degrees out I decided it may be bad for my health. I understand someone did collapse and had to be taken to the hospital. I am working on the barn and basically puttering around. I still have not got my radios installed in my new truck. Maybe this weekend. I sold the red truck to a guy in Utica. The bird was out at Chautauqua lake. The deer was in the yard before work.
We are off to Chautaqua lake a for a few days. I am fishing for walleyes. The rabbits and birds really enjoy not having Tioga the cat around. We don't hear all the danger shrills from the birds and the bunnies are pretty much coming to the back door. I haven't really looked at cats yet. I am thinking a Maine Coon cat or two this time. We know we want a big cat. I have gotten serious about losing the 10 pounds I put on in Antarctica. Food is always on my mind. I am running the 5k running race next Thursday for the corporate challenge. Every pound I don't have to carry with me helps. I will run it about 25 minutes. The Subaru has been in the shop. It blew a head gasket and it is getting a new catalytic convertor, brakes, tires, and I am sure a few other things by the time it passes inspection. I have had a couple of great flying lessons. My last lesson was the usual mix of good and bad, pride and shame, and other elements of learning. The exciting part was on one of m...
Tioga is gone. He was in and out of a coma. He did wake up and knew we were there and he purred and purred even though he was so sick. Then he slipped into his coma and we put him to sleep. I looked at hundreds of different cats before picking him. We have no inside pets now. I am not sure how long we are going to be catless. I miss having them around already.
Well, today started off a little different. Tioga the cat was involved in freak accident. I was in the barn and he came in and while I was in the other room I heard the step ladder fall. I suspected the cat's involvement and went to see if he was hurt. He was hurt, bad. We took him to the vet and he is still there. He seems to have taken quite a bump to the head and broke his jaw. We will decide whether or not to put him down tomorrow. It is not looking good. He has been a great cat. He has caught voles, mice, rats, weasels, rats, rabbits and he even killed a rooster. He is the first pet I picked out and named. The pic with the scar is when he had surgery a couple of years back
A lot is happening. It is Summer and I guess a lot always happens with the longer days and warm temperatures. The barn and fence are looking better and better. We have the gates made, painted and hung. We also got the front of the barn painted. That made a big difference. I will be working on the loft door and it will be pretty much done. I am using a remote low voltage switching arrangement for the light on the barn. That will properly control the light from inside the house over a 25-pair phone cable that I ran underground when I had a ditch dug for the main power service entrance. I buried every king of wire I had in a separate 2 in conduit when I had the ditch dug. It will feel good to actually start to use that function that we planned on a couple of years ago. I had a flight lesson tonight. I seem to be retaining information and my lessons well. There is a lot to a landing. Greene (4N7) is a great place to learn since it is difficult. You lose sight of the runway right away sin...
It is Independence day once again. I am monkeying around with stuff here on the farm. The gates are coming along and I managed to fix a bunch of stuff. It is raining on and off. The llamas got out a week or so ago. It really startled the neighbor to look up from the sink and see Professor looking in the window. The llamas, I guess, were just bored. Here is a picture of my Recirculating Infusion Mash System (Rims) I built a number of years ago. It was quite an innovative device for all grain brewing of beer. I designed the electronics and the compact system. It is now out of my house. I have too may hobbies. I want to concentrate on a few such as the dozen or so I have left. This picture shows Calisto (the white one), Professor, and Artemis chilling on the scene yesterday. Artemis is in the dirt spa. This is where the llamas take turns rolling around in the dust and enjoying their dirt.
I have been mostly doing farm related work. Work on the barn and gates and such. It all takes time. The tractor lost its clutch slave cylinder so I'm rebuilding that, hopefully will have the parts Tuesday. Pete Nystrom is headed down for Tuesday as well for the day. That will be fun. I gave a presentation about Antarctica last Wednesday at the Greene Library. People really seemed to like it. Here is a great slide show in today Chicago Tribune. It has picture and voices of friends of mine. I can easily recognize where each of the photos was taken, as well as who the people are and their voices. Chicago Tribune
It is officially Summer. I am working on the front of the barn. The long ladder is a little un-nerving for me, but it is a lot cheaper than a manlift. The llamas got out one night last week and went to visit the neighbors and we bought 100 bales of hay off another neighbor. It is pretty amazing how few calories you need when the weather is warm. It was kind of fun to be able to eat all that food when I was working outside in Antarctica. I still haven't got back to the pre-ice dietary regimen, close but not quite yet. The red truck is for sale on Ebay. No bids yet. Truck on ebay I am working on a combination Ham radio and Antarctica project. I didn't get on the air for the annual field day contest yesterday. No real reason. I went on a walk Saturday morning though our woods to (and through) the county park. I need to do that more often. It is about a 1/2 mile walk through our fields, then a 1/2 mile through our woods, and then a mile or so through the park to the lake. O...
It's coming. The pocket car. I don't think one of these would suit us well out here in the country. http://www.smartusa.com/ Bonnie and I went to Den and Julie's McCarthy's house up in Williamson NY. It was a long planned get together to talk about Antarctica and what not. There were maybe 15 people. It was great fun and very relaxing. I finished mowing my hay field this morning. This is the third year bringing the field back. It gets easier and better every year, I still have to get some lime down. My tractor can spread lime while it mows once I get the spreader attached to the back. I just have to finish some bracketry. That is the way to go. I mow for a while then I stop the tractor and drive the jeep back to the house. That saves time for sure.