“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” ― Heraclitus
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Home as an exotic destination
In previous years we have spent Christmas in Panama, Peru, Hawaii, and Nicaragua. This Year's Christmas is a bit different. We aren't in some exotic locale, or perhaps we are are. We are home in Duluth GA and went to our home Church for Midnight mass in Norcross, GA. We are busy making plans on spending more time in Southern California.
So Cal Adventure
Southern California is a different kind of place. Although it may not be as different as you may have thought. Compared to Silicon valley, houses are "affordable". Although again, the word affordable may be known by a different name in other place in the country, like maybe "crazy, but obtainable for some". I find myself looking for the unicorn (again) in the housing realm. I have done it before. I suspect I will do it again here, but with a totally different set of parameters. Actually, we are getting close. The weather is very nice. We had some serious rain the other day, some flooding but mostly sunny and in the 60s F. I was out in Newport harbor today. There will be a parade of boats with Christmas lights later in the month. https://www.christmasboatparade.com
I was out in the Mojave Desert in California. A lot of aviation history has been made and IS being made out this way. In the grainy long-distance pic of the airliners you can see a Boeing 747SP. It is a unicorn for plane spotters for sure. It is only the second one I have seen in my life. The other one was in Narita Japan in 1985. I think the one here might be the one owned by the NASA Armstrong (Dryden) Flight Research Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747SP
Angie and I are back from a few days in Jamaica. It was the first time we every stayed in an all-inclusive resort. We did some side trips, but mostly chilled. We got back into Atlanta on 4:00 PM on thanksgiving. We put the 14 pound frozen turkey (with olive oil, some white wine, a tied bough of tarragon, salt and pepper) in the pressure cooker and it was done in 1 hour 15 minutes set on 10 PSI steam. It really is a great way to cook a turkey well and fast. Its a lot safer than a deep fry as well.
I took a course on blockchain today. Atlanta is well setup for the next plays in "fintech". It was good to get access to some of the folks who have been working in this area for the last 8 or 9 years. Like a lot of inventions, it is is technology looking for an application. My belief is that with cryptocurrency there is opportunity. I think specific opportunity is to break the geography of currency. Why are particular tracts of land (Read; Countries and reserve banks) tied so closely to main stream currencies? This is a so-called "digitization" opportunity moving the human race into the future. It is fun to expand my personal understanding.
I really like this guy's electronics videos. I understand that they may have cult-like following like Bob Ross or something, but he does give lots of great information and tips. I find this video to be quite good in support of fixing "All American 5" radios. I particularly like the details on rebuilding the IF transformers (23:47). I have several that could use a tune up. I also like that he is giving these antique radios the respect they deserve. Note that this radio was built in Utica NY.
Back again-- again in Duluth from NY. No broadband internet at all in NY. Total crap. Rumor has it that my street is getting fiber in the next 2 months though. We will see. We did a lot more work to the house and installed hardwood floors. More trips to the scrap yard. More trips to the dump. More trips to secret tire island and more trips to the can man. It is endless. I have been having chronic neck pain and I have been going to a Korean terrorist, I mean therapist. A pic of grace the cat. A typical redneck truck in upstate NY-- surprising it just doesn't break in half with all the tin-worm infestation. I always vote in NY, but this year I voted in person. Angie served as the local Russian interference agent in Berkshire NY. We had some business in Maryland so we visited the Antietam Civil war battleground. Interesting. The skills and courtesy of professional truck drivers has fallen in my eyes. It gets dangerous as these guys in these huge machines hang out in the left lane, not
We are again back in Duluth from the farm in NY. We made good progress on the house and barn, fixing upgrading, cleaning. More to come. We went to the dump three times, the metal scrap yard twice and the can/bottle redemption center once. I am slowly, but surely converting Angie to a redneck. It is a journey for her between US State Department work and scrapper-redneck. The snow was a bit of a surprise as well as the "ice fog" in the Owego valley. The weather changes fast and extremely. The corn was harvested. It has been so wet in NY we had to transfer the grain out in the road, rather than the field. The truck would get stuck. We both have vivid dreams sleeping on the farm. The cool air and lack of population seems to trigger vivid dreaming. Sometimes the dreams are so vivid it is clear why some people may think they are abducted by aliens.
