Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I flew up to Maine to see my sister and cousins for a few days. As part of the trip we went up Mount Washington in NH. We went up on the Cogged Railway. It's A unique old vehicle system that only uses a large cog underneath the engine hooked into a ladder type of rack on the tracks all the way to the top. The modern engine uses a 600HP John Deere driving a hydraulic pump which in turn drives several hydraulic motors turning the large cog. Mt Washington is known for the extreme cold and highest wind in the world. Yes, the world. That was not the case when we went up. The winds were 3 MPH and the temp was 62 degrees. the highest ever temp ever recorded was 72 degrees and a 3 MPH wind is generally unheard of. So, the weather was quite kind for us.

I have been too busy to post much lately.There has been a lot of activities at home, at work and inside my head. A couple of new pics of Grace and Jewel. The license plate on I-75 in rush hour made perfect sense to me. Actually it may have been too obvious. I took care of a couple small projects that were bugging me. I recovered and made stands for my Peavey speakers used my vintage McIntosh setup. The speaker stands made a huge acoustic difference. I think I will shorten them by 3 inches, however. That will get the tweeters at exactly ear level. I was pleased when one of my YouTube guys did a special bit on my macs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyPLAUEekPw (advance to 8:22 in the video). I recommisoned my exercise bicycle electrical generator. I am powering my work laptop computer, but I was dissatified on the setup and I am piecing together a much better power supply. Powering the monitors is probably too much for my pedal power. I will see how things go over the longe...

The triplets appeared when I was on a call with my colleagues in Japan. I had to pause, standup, click and send them a pic. It was good to see they are growing and all appear to be healthy. It will be good to get back to Japan after many many years away.

I had to chuckle and hassle the guys at work as they were doing some landscaping and trimming around the office. They actually used a 40 ton off-road articulated dump truck for hauling brush. They also used a 40,000 pound bucket loader in lieu of a skid steer. They were using the tools they had available. A campsite i enjoyed recently on the banks of Lake Allatoona.

My sister took a picture of an iceburg near Greenland that looks a little like a cat, our white cat, Jewel. I been using the M998 without doors and the back curtain rolled up. Much better in summer. Redneck A/C. The Moon, Jupiter and Venus in the early Morning, using nothing but my cell phone to take the pic.

I do like the outdoors and nature. I dont like the naive view. I like the real thing. Sometimes it can be scary and sometimes it hurts. I still like nature. I like wilderness. Camping in North Georgia is quite nice. There is a alot going on as usual, at work and at home. I think I am going to sell the humvee. I dont need 5 cars. I have some more work to do to it, but after I get what I have planned done. Its gonna hit the road. It will still take me awhile with my current level of productivity and the number of projects I have in flight. I will be up in NY again soon probably and I have travel plans currently to Maine, New Hampshire and Japan. I am making vacation plans mostly in the Caribbean. That is the push to get us over 100 Countries. I also still have to get to Wyoming, to finish off the 50 US states. I did yard work today. Mostly weeding before it got hot out, but also grading. I ran the Bobcat after the dirt settled more around the house as part of the drain/vents I had p...

It has been hot and humid. We usually get some breaks in the heat and humidity in the summer. Not this year. The relativity humidity barely edged below 60% in the last month. We don't get dew on the lawns. We got heat instead. I think the heat and humidity is why I got a summer cold. I am mostly resting this weekend. One of the things we do when we travel is get flavorings and spices. We broke into some curry this past week that we obtained in a market in Turkmenistan last year. It was good. It was made in Russia and distributed out of Belarus. They translated into Kazakh and Armenian. I liked the taste and the label.

I took this pic while camping the past week. It was taken at sunrise, but also there is a full-moon in the west. It was a capricorn moon. https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/astrology/full-moon-in-capricorn-july-2025 A few more pics of the deer triplets. I managed to get all three in a couple pics. All three seem to be healthy. I think they are about 10 weeks old. They are eating grass nicely.

We have had a new resident. Actually there several new residents. A deer decided to have her kids in the back yard. They are here often. I can see them from my Zoom Room, so I apologize if I seem a little distracted sometimes when I am on a video call. We went canoeing and camping in South Carolina. We were exploring without a lot of planning, so you get what you expect- adventure and discovery. We stopped by the Tallulah Gorge lookout. When I rode my motorcycle through the area in the early 80's, I vowed I would come back. And I have come back-- again. I ate my traditional moon pie there as well. The Tesla is a great camper. Charge the battery, run the AC and enjoy the filtered ventilation with a nice entertainment system. Crazy. The paddleing wasn't that good. We found ourselves in Lake Keowee. The campground was good if you speak Spanish, and only enjoy power sports on small boats. I am a bit disturbed by the new trend of wake boarding. Instead of skiing being towed by...

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.

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.

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...