-

We rented a car to drive around SoCal this weekend. With 460 HP and a 10 speed paddle-shifter, the Mustang GT was definitely a good car to rip around the desert. I am glad I didn't get stopped for speeding, because at times I think they put you in jail for how much I was over the limit. We did pick up some bugs (I am told they were butterflies) and we did have to go through border control checkpoints a couple of times. We went to Anzo-Borrego and the Salton Sea which is a post-apocalyptic desert community. The sea (lake) has become so polluted and depleted. The fish can no longer live there. It was pretty interesting. The palm trees are dying, and the housing has disappeared or has become rundown. Since we were already in the groove for alt- post apocalypse scenes we also went to visit Slab City.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

California, Berkshire NY, Baltimore Maryland and Washington DC

-
Image
I am back from a speaking engagement at a familiar conference (CIDM) in San Jose California. Afterwards, I met Angie at the ATL airport and headed to the farm and to see my cousins, Aunt and Sister (and my newest relative) in Baltimore and Washington DC. It was a densely scheduled trip, but nothing compared to our typical overseas vacation trips. I have been having educational fun with my recent birthday gift. It is a Radiacode 103. It is a very sensitive scintillation radiation detector. Loads of fun. The 1k µS/hr spike shown is what the carry on baggage x-ray machine doses out. I am glad I wasn't inside the x-ray equipment. Stopping at some antique stores along the way, I found a number of uranium glass pieces. Yes, they are radioactive. Yes, the dose is comparable to that you get from riding in a commercial airplane. I took a couple of pics of property in Upstate NY. Unbelievable. It will beat out images of the best trailer trash anywhere. And yes, the vehicles are systemica...
Read more

The Electromagnetic Spectrum --DC to Daylight (and actually well beyond)

-
Image
Besides carrying my scintillation detector with me looking for ionizing radiation (over 2.46 petahertz) and decaying isotopes, I have been playing in the more friendly "basement" of the electromagnetic spectrum (under a gigahertz). A pic of my radio bench. I sold my IFR ( http://blog.theguysatwork.com/2025/02/updates-storm-and-other.html) . I needed to replace the function (at least a lot of it) with a cheaper digital produt. So for 1/10 the sale price of my IFR, I ended up buying a TinySA Ultra+ ZS406 Spectrum Analyzer. It is indeed tiny. It does what I want it to do and it's a fun new toy. Our autographed copy of the "Fall of Civilizations" arrived from the UK. Paul Cooper does such a great job with his pobcasts and videos. I felt compelled to get a personalized copy of the book. ( https://www.paulmmcooper.com/ ) Seeing this licence plate on the front of a pickup truck seemed fitting-- not so much as contrarian, but as a Komatsu equipment fan. It's g...
Read more

Chicago, Micro Excavators, Cats, Fish and Dirty Trucks

-
Image
I was in Chicago for a couple of days for work. I got a pic with an unavailable micro-excavator. Big contrast with the largest earthmoving equipment in the world that Komatsu makes. My truck got so incredibly dirty from the trees and other pollen this spring. I had to finaly wash it. I only got the top layer off with the soapy power washer. It will take several sessions. The paint is coming off the service body. It was shot with a topcoat by the upfitter in Ohio where I bought the truck. The primer from Knapheide (the service body manuafacturer) looks like it held up great. I am looking to get the truck repainted. I bought it new in Columbus Ohio in 2017 and it only has 30k miles (most of them highway between the my farm in NY and Duluth GA.) We stocked Canary Lake with new fish. About 10k fish flew into the lake off the delivery truck. We have a healthy lake and we grow some large fish. Angie and I went to a Cat Show in Gwinnett county. It was a smaller show than the other sh...
Read more