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Showing posts from September 4, 2011

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...
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I guess the thing that strikes me is that the Fire Department is a long way from the river. There are many many businesses that flooded. Certainly a record flood. We thought the flood of 2006 was going to stay in the record books for a while. Not so. There are positive things about living in the hills as we do. The farm was generally unscathed. The drive way was washed away in June and the repair held. The basement had only a small puddle. Here is a pic that I lifted from the web. It is the Fire Department in Owego NY underwater Friday 9-9-11 after I had left town. Here is a pic sent to me that shows the high water mark on the airplanes in the hanger at Tri-Cities airport in Endicott NY.
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Things have been hectic. I was up in NY most of this week. The weather absolutely stunk. It stunk so bad there was record flooding in the Binghamton/Owego areas. Despite the flooding we went to a couple of awesome outdoor dinning events in Williamson and Endicott NY. It was great to see some old friends and be around familiar people and family. I spend so much time traveling and working it was a good thing. The weather was too crappy to go flying. We saw lots and lots of different mushrooms out in the woods. The beaver dam was really getting some of the flood too. Interestingly, there was little mud in the water back there in nature. The mud erosion happens in the developed areas. Time in the woods was great. I bought a nice electric wood splitter for DJ. That will keep her busy. I tried to catch up on farm tasks, but I can really only get to the really important ones or the enjoyable ones. I did a few of both. Saturday I go flying back here in Atlanta. I am off to Texas for most...