Posts

Showing posts from July, 2013

Wyoming and Idaho

Image
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...
Image
Does the world really need this tension?
I was out in Peoria Illinois Thursday last week. Friday night I flew to Ithaca NY. Saturday we loaded up my truck and drove back to Atlanta with my truck. That is a long drive. I spent Saturday night near Carlisle PA. It is a great place since there are a huge number of hotels to support the huge auction need. Great.. provided there isn't an auction going on. The traffic was bad at times and the rain all made it what it was. I am now back in Duluth feeding my imaginary cat. Here kitty kitty kitty!
Image
It is mid-week. Busy as usual. I bought a bird cam for my bird feeder. The reviews said that it was good for retires. Maybe that is why I bought it. The technology seems sound. The manual is terrible. I have to decide if I go with it or replace it with a halfway decent remote control camera instead. I don't have a single decent picture to post with it yet. Maybe that answers my question. I am back in Illinois this week and NY this weekend. The weather in Atlanta has been very wet. I got a photo today from a colleague with snow in Southern Brasil (shown below). Sim, meu Portugues aulas continue. For a minute a while back I thought everything might have been perfect. I remembered George Carlin's bit that says something like "Wait.. here it comes. Heree it comes... * ... Holy shit its gone!" (ed) It is that "time" thing again. I took a test on CSM about Russia. It was pretty tough. I was a bit ashamed with my score. The good news for today is that I am...
Image
Today is cleanup day. I had a neighborhood party at the house again last night. There were more people than last time and some new faces. I really like my house and neighborhood in Atlanta. There are definitely some characters in my neighborhood. We had a beer tasting of several beers from Brazil, Russia and Belgium. Earlier this week I was in Wichita, Kansas. The flight back was a classic with delays, some short, some long. They all add up. Even though it is only a 2 hour flight from Wichita to Atlanta it is mentally tiring. It is depressing when you can see your car out the plane window on final approach and it takes an hour to get to it. ATL is usually a very fast airport, sometimes not.
Time for a refresh on this great song. Encyclopedia Galactica entry
Image
I am back from Moscow after a great trip with many many photos to sort through. The pic with me with the US flag is at the US Ambassadors reception at his residence in Moscow (Spaso House). That is where I had my July 4th backyard BBQ this year. I brought Potato Salad. Very cool. Other pics show Putin's ceremonial residence at the Kremlin Lenin's tomb in Red Square Soviet space shuttle "Buran" in Gorky park. World's largest cannon "Tsar Cannon" Russian river boat Soviet exhibition center fountain www.vvcentre.ru/eng/