I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Central Asia
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
We are back from our most recent crazy trip. This time it was Central Asia and the "five stans" - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. We made all of our objectives. And we have now been to 104 countries. Angie has 95 and I have 94 countries. Together it is 104. These five countries were packed into 12 days, 7 flights, 2 high speed trains, 1 cable car ride, 1 horse ride, and lots of hours in car trips.
They are all Muslim countries, but they are better characterized as former Soviet countries. Russian langauge is a strong second language in all of these countries. There isn't much English spoken in any of them. Angie being fluent in Russian made all the difference and did intrepreting for me as well as a couple of British backpackers we met in Turkmenistan.
Tajikistan is the Country with the distinct langauage being a derivitive of Persian with the others being Turkic. Ethnically, Southern Uzbecs are Tajik. Interesting, the spelling of many words is distorted in unpredicable ways. Since there is transliteration happening between two or three languages and two or three alphabets, you can pretty much rule out consistent spelling.
We learned a lot and we had a great time with this episode of adventure tourism. Great place for it.
Kazakhstan
We didn't explore much of this large country. We explored Almaty (the old capital, but still the capital in many ways). We went out to the country for horseback riding and archery. And we took a cable car up to the "Kok Tobe" which appears to be a kinda mini Soviet style resort. In the summer it would be a good place to get into some cool clean air.
Kyrgyzstan
We flew into Bishkek. On the way downtown I noticed the smell of burning coal. It turns out a lot of coal is burned for heat. There is also a massive central heating facility in the city that supplies heat to buildings. The central facility rings of Soviets. Krygystan is generaly less polished than other places we went. The people were super nice. Our driver spoke terrific English. We went on a trip to lake Issyk-Kul. it was about 4 hours each way with stops. The lake is salty, but not nearly as saulty as the ocean. Of course we tasted it.
Tajikistan
We hired a driver in Summerkand UZ and drove to Panjakent (Панҷакент). Actually, it was two drivers, one on each side of the border and we walked across the border. We went to a great market in Panjakent. There was no electric in the market because it was considered too much of a fire risk. I agree. The masonry walls and tight quarters would be a bad scene. We found local goods and well as imported goods. There was a gypsy going around offering a service on inhaling some burning grasses that were supposed to be good for your health and particularly your eyes. Of course we had to try some of that. The fire hazard in the bazaar was forgotten.
Uzbekistan
We took a highspeed train between Tashkent and Summerkand and again to Bukhara. Very nice and relaxing compared to our normal flying. I wanted to stay in the old soviet Uzbekistan Hotel. The brutalist architecture is fascinating.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a fascinating place. Most Westerners are totally unaware of what Turkmenistan is and what it is like. "It is just one of the stans". All the countries we visited on this trip were distinct and Turkministan stands out loudly in almost all respects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan
Turkministan is a closed country since 2008. Basically, you are not allowed in as a foreigner and you are not allowed out if you are a citizen. There are exceptions, of course. Angie says it's Soviet thing.
Beautiful morning on the lake. I needed to put some vents in the basement. It's never about just one thing. The vents through the brick was one thing. Getting a window well to allow proper airflow and a drain to ensure the window well doesn't fill with water are other things. I had some fun with my bobcat and digging in the dirt. I am glad its over. We went out to dinner at the American Legion Post in the neighborhood. It only made sense to drive my M998 and pose next to the tank. The humvee has been my grocery-getter lately.
Friday nights in downtown Duluth GA. Yard work Progress on the development of the property in NY. It moves slow but steady. This will be the initial building near the street. Tesla camping in North Georgia.
I went to the largest knife show anywhere. It was in Atlanta. https://bladeshow.com/home/ It's not like I am crazy about knives. I am however, interested in intense human efforts and world class passion in particular areas. I find myself having very involved discussions with folks that are sharing their passion and expertise. I met with folks about knife making from the US and Western Europe of course, but also South Africa, Finland, Australia. It's a effective and pleasant way to learn. I had an issue (sewer pipe was broken by my stump grinder) with the septic system here in Duluth. Of course, I had to ask lots of questions and do inspections and assessments myself. Septic technology is interesting. Nothing to be scared about and although the technology is ancient and sometimes unplesant there is a lot to know. https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1421&title=a-beginners-guide-to-septic-systems Having that knowledge is especially important if you...
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...
Comments