Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

Unusually, we did not travel over Christmas this year. We had some visitors in Duluth. The McMullens had a good visit. We did a few activities: Ian and Douglas got to drive the Honda S2000--- Douglas and I did some drone fun at a construction site... I almost got the truck stuck. Four Wheel Drive saved the day, but the truck got quite muddy.--- Visited the huge Chinese Market nearby--- Went to the Georgia Aquarium--- Went to the original Varsity restarant downtown--- Rode the MARTA---

Have you ever had a day were it seemed like you had to deal with all of your own personal defects and shortcomings? What did you do? Wait for a different day? Decide you weren't perfect and somehow that fixed things? Did you approach it with classical stoicism and did that make it better? What was your approach?

Angie had another birthday. Cathy has been in town and we went to see the movie "Godzilla Minus 1" and also out for dinner at a nice restaurant-- Stoney River. We enjoyed the movie. It may be the best Godzilla movie ever and true to the history/legacy of the king of monsters. It seems Godzilla has put on some weight over the years, however. 2023 1954

20 years ago the world was abuzz with the VLJ (very light jet) movement. I got to park next to this one the other day in South Carolina. Here is an article from Wired magazine from 14 years ago indicating the demise (or morph) of the hyped VLJ. (Wired article from 2009). The plane in the picture is the Cirrus Vision jet. It probably won the contest in actually (mostly) delivering on the promise of a VLJ. The actual cost of the plane here (about 3 million USD) is way outside what the ridiculously low projected pricing of 20 years ago. But, the plane is cool for sure and is very relateable to the Cirrus piston aircraft. The cruise speed of the vison jet is 345 mph. The Honda jet cruises at 424 mph and the Phenom jet at 466 mph. The speed of the vision jet is incredible compared to my Cessna 172 at 140 mph, but the Vision jet speed is pretty much with the turboprops. (King Air 360 mph and the PC-12 at 311 mph).

Another Tranksgiving Holiday has come and gone. No travel this year over the holidays as we normally do. Interesting travel is being planned. We decided NOT to participate in The Macy's Day Parade this year. We had some small regret perhaps, but we marched in the parade two years in a row. We are convinced there would NOT be sufficient novelty in the third year. We invited Vlad over for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, tossed salad, sweet corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie for dessert. Angie was trying to make her deadline in creating subtitles for some Netflix shows. I made dinner, no issues at all. A pic shows a symptom of excess. The small roaster pan was my grandmother's. The large one was the one I just bought. A modern turkey won't fit in the old one... maybe a cornish game hen or a chicken will, but you would be hard pressed to find a turkey as small as what was available 50 or 70 years ago. Turkeys are larger. According t...

I am planning a trip to Southern Africa. I am planning on Zimbabwe, Eswatini (Swaziland), Botswanna, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia. I decided to ask Chat GPT 3.5 to help direct me in the sequence of travel. The result seems to have saved a lot of my time. Let's see how that order works out as a finish booking. I am skeptical since travel efficiency on commercial airlines has little to do with a straight line being the shortest (cheapest) distance between two points. A couple weeks back I did a co-presentation at a conference regarding AI in language translation and have been attending other events to educated myself better on AI. It is a real thing and a game changer. Executives will be able to skip over middle management more relying on the "pseudo-wisdom" of AI prompt chats. It will work. The issue will be finding executives smart enough to leverage it. A couple of things are clear with the current state of AI. It only does what you tell it an...

I have made some improvements to the sawmill, specifically designed/created these bifurcated dogs. It was suggested by a friend that the new dogs need a name. He suggested "spot" since is is denotive of being in a fixed poistion. I enjoy innovation and also the ability to fabricate or do the simple development to whatever it is that needs to get done. The microwave oven stopped working. Since it is a built-in wall unit connected to the conventional oven, replacement would not be cheap. I has amazed at how many videos are available on how to fix microwave ovens there were on Youtube. The most amazing thing was the number of videos there were in regards to actually fixing the magnetrons themselves. The microwave is now fixed, but I opted to replace components including the 20 year old magetron, not repair the components. Fixing microwave oven magnatron . Adulut care? Neighborhood sign. Spelling errors are just that. I understand what was intended. I also know that it affects...

I found this on a church alter. I think this outlet is a great testimony of why I use steel electrical boxes.

The fire feature works great for evening meals, better than expected.

The deck replacement is complete. As usual, there are items to add and fuss over, but the structure is primarly usable and complete. The thing that kills me is that although the "new" deck looks great and is extraordinarily strong, it is a "repair". The deck is functionally the same as it was 2 months ago before I tore it out and replaced it. It didn't add any functional value to the house, just a repair. Some stats: (10) new/improved concrete footings and 4x6 posts, (6) 2x12x16 beams, (21) 2x10x10 joists, (37) 2x6x16 deck boards and lots of expensive fasteners. I did get some help in a couple of ways. I was part of a large layoff at Accuray, Inc. That freed up some of time for sure. It is really quite sad that they have good technology, great markets, a significant installed base and they still can't figure out how to stay/get profitable/solvent. Vlad retured from 5 months in Russia. He helped me move a lot of the heavy lumber. ...

I passed by Gracie the other day in her cat room chair and did a double take. I went and grabbed the camera. This was not some kind of action shot. It is just Gracie relaxing at her best.

We had a local youtube aviation celebrity show up at our monthly EAA breakfast. Dan Gryder showed up with the DC-3. It was good to meet him face to face. Most of the time he makes sense. Dan Gryder -Probable Cause

I started out to replace a few deck boards on my deck in anticipation of having a neighborhood party this Fall. Well, the few deck boards turned into a few more deck boards and then joists, then supporting structure. Then I found issues with a rusted-thru post supporting the adjacent porch and the underlying concrete footings. Needless to say, the small job turned into a bigger job. All the work is well within my capabilities, but the budget (both time and money) has expanded. It became my highest priority and I am back working on the urgent repairs after completing the emergency repairs. These projects look bigger than they really are compared to a new bathroom or kitchen or something. I easily do all the work myself, alone. It will be done soon.

We had a nice visit from Emma. We enjoyed a dinner with folks involved with "US Education Without Borders". It was quite an enriching experience without any jetlag or expensive tickets. Angie had to practice her Mandarin.

The Weather seems to have broken into Fall here in Duluth GA. It's a great time of year. We are looking to buy the Cirrus SR22. It already has my initials in the tail number, must be a sign. It would be good to get a plane made in this century. I dont know what species of humming bird this is. I managed to get a snapshot to study it a bit closer. I still dont know.

We decided not to travel over the labor day weekend this year, not even to NY and the farm and even when I had two holiday days available from work. The thinking was that I have lots of stuff to do around here. It seems the more work you do to a house the more work is required. I suppose it makes sense. When you take care of the major stuff the remaining items will then become major items, needing attention. I was originally planning on repairing the deck labor day weekend. When I bought the house 12 years ago I figure it needed to be replaced. I have fixed it a number of times, but I think now it appears I need to replace it or at least most of it. The structure and footings are not appropriate and joists have been doubled and tripled up. So much for just replacing a few more deck boards. Of course, since I am in this deep now I will be adding an outdoor kitchen with an outdoor sink. Oh well. Fellow Aeroventures Club member Daryl Hudec won the Grand Champion Kitbuilt at EAA Oshko...