Speaker Repair

Last weekend we noticed our stereo speakers were rattling when a loud bass sound was being generated. Taking off the grill cover we saw that the foam ring around the perimeter of the speaker had deteriorated, and was mostly missing. There were crumbs of the foam in the bottom of the grill cover.

I ordered a pair of foam speaker ring repair kits on line and repaired the upper 12" speakers last night. You can see in this photo the upper large speaker has been repaired, but the bottom speaker still has a hole in the foam ring.

Here's a close up photo of the bottom speaker so you can see where part of the foam ring is missing. The foam on the upper speaker was about 90% gone, but the lower speaker is only about 10% gone.

Here you can see I've taken the lower speaker out, but where is the wiring? Where is the voice coil on the back of the speaker? Apparently I was ripped off by Sony when I bought these speakers 25 years ago. They made it look like there were two big woofers in the speaker cabinets when in fact the bottom "woofer" is just a paper cone.

Turkey Washcloth

Here's my version of the Turkey washcloth, done with Sugar N Cream in worsted weight, with #3 needles. The idea came from HeidiCoaster along with a pattern she found on the web. I didn't quite follow the instructions so I'm looking forward to seeing how her version turns out.

Pumpkin Curry

We had some uncarved pumpkins left over from Halloween this year, so I decided to make pumpkin curry from them.  That was my favorite entree at the "Rice N Spice" Thai restaurant where I used to have lunch in Bellevue.  So I started by cutting one pumpkin in half, removed the seeds, took off the skin, and chopped the rest into bite-sized chunks. Here you can see how I quickly filled my bowl before I had chopped up even one quarter of the pumpkin.

I got a bigger bowl to hold the rest of the half pumpkin, then started cooking some onions, garlic, coconut milk, coriander, cumin, turmeric, red chili pepper, and chili powder. Since I had so much pumpkin, I cooked these ingredients in two of the biggest 8 quart pots I could find. Then I added the pumpkin to start it cooking and chopped up the other half of the big pumpkin.

When the pumpkin curry had finished cooking, I had two gallons of curry. Enough to keep me eating for a week or two. I had to make space in the refrigerator for a two gallon Tupperware container, plus room for the big bowl of chopped pumpkin. I'm not certain at this time whether or not I will be able to cook up that bowl of pumpkin before it starts to mold in the refrigerator. I can't eat pumpkin pie so that's out. Hmm.

One of my dietary requirements is to eliminate salt, so this recipe is very bland. It's not very red either, and it's supposed to be a "red curry" so I must have missed something. Maybe I can improve the next batch, if I can eat this first batch fast enough. On the other hand, by the time I finish the first batch I may not want to see another pumpkin until next Halloween.

The other day LaGrande showed me this recent photo of her pet hamster, using her iPod screen. My eyes being what they are, I was shocked to see the size of that beloved rodent. I asked her for a copy of the photo so I could post it here on a full sized screen. The little guy has obviously been well fed.

Comice Pear Harvest: September 30

Our Comice pear tree did not fare well in the drought this past summer. That may be the reason why about half the pears dried up and cracked like the one on the left.

The pear on the right represents what happened to the rest of them. They were all infested with some kind of worm. I was able to cut away small portions that were still good, but these pears aren't ripe yet. We should wait until mid October before picking them, if the worms and the birds haven't eaten them.

It's a Bird, it's a Mouse, No, It's a BAT!

Monya called to me with an unusual sense of urgency, "Come here!"

We both knew there had been a bat sleeping under our new outdoor window shades, but today she found one still there. I climbed up a ladder and lifted the shade carefully to look behind it. The shadowy little creature looked nervous but held his ground. I climbed back down.

From inside the house we can see him clearly and he isn't frightened away even when we get close with the camera. Maybe he can't "see" us through the glass. The bamboo slats in the photo are about one half inch wide and the camera was only about twelve inches away from him. You can see his ears in silhouette.

Great Grumpy Turns 85

Poor Great Grumpy had to pose for this photo at least four or five times before the camera finally worked properly. It was a short but fun little mid-week celebration with ice cream and cake. The most fun was hearing him tell about the two chickens he's been raising, and how they follow him around.

Great Niece's Wedding

Yesterday Grumpy and I attended his great grand daughter's wedding. I'm her great uncle so we were both something great. We got there early and were able to play with the bride's siblings.

How can brides always be so beautiful?

What is This Thing?

My home office is a mess, so lately I've been making an effort to organize it and maybe get rid of things I don't really need. Yesterday I found a box of strange things with a label on it: "Diffuser, Deflector, & Lube packet enclosed" Inside were two of these white things with a black ring, and a tube of silicone lubricant. The "things" were very good quality so I decided they must be valuable, but for what purpose?

Under the box was a packet of warranty papers for my scuba diving BCP, so it is somehow related to my scuba gear but it doesn't look like it would attach to any of my scuba gear.

Then I thought, "is this thing supposed to attach to my under water camera housing?" By golly it does! And that white thing is exactly positioned in front of the flash unit! This is just like what I've seen professional photographers using! It's a camera flash diffuser that softens harsh shadows and eliminates a dark shadow cast from the housing's lens ring.

So now I'm wondering if I can figure out what this other thing is. It's a black ring with a metal insert. There are several seams and at least one hinge, but I can't get it to open or unlock. It's marked "Patent Pending...made in Italy" so it has a purpose.

Jerry's Rock

It was about six years ago last October when I went to visit my friend Jerry at his house in Arizona. We had lots of fun adventures in the mountains and high grasslands nearby. I was fascinated with the flora, the fauna, the climate, and the geology of the place. The Chiricauha Mountains to the east is the location of a volcanic cauldera but it is so ancient that there are no signs of pumice or lava. Instead, the volcanic ash accumulated to about 2000 feet thick, then hardened into a silica stone and eroded into vertical stone spires called "hoodoos."

Jerry's property is located on a nearly flat valley floor some miles away from the mountains, with a creek nearby that drains from those mountains. There is a layer of eroded river stones not very deep beneath the top soil, and Jerry has had many encounters with them while digging trenches and post holes and the like.

One day while walking up his driveway I spotted an odd looking stone. I picked it up and brought it home with me, with the idea that some day I would figure out how to cut it open and see what was inside. I thought it looked like a geode, you know, the stones with a hollow spot in the middle lined with clear crystals. It wasn't likely though, knowing the volcanic history.

My granddaughter who is now nine years old began pestering me a few weeks ago, to crack open Jerry's rock. I preferred to cut it, but now there was incentive to act. I considered buying a stone cutting tool, but those are expensive. Then somebody mentioned that I should merely ask someone who owns a stone cutter to cut it for me.

We ended up going to a store named "Jerry's Rock and Gem Shop" to cut Jerry's rock. The people there were so friendly and helpful. In less than the time it took for us to look at all the wonderful rocks, jewelry, fossils, and shells in the store, they had cut Jerry's rock in half for me. Inside we found a small opening filled with the most wonderful tiny clear crystals.

I want to polish the face of the stone halves and make them look really nice.

Gollum

Last night two mermaids told me parts of the story "The Hobbit" and then they drew pictures of what the characters in the story looked like. Here is one nice drawing.

100 Miles to Nowhere

Yesterday we did the annual 100 mile ride to nowhere, to raise money for cancer research. We used the airport perimeter road which nicely measures exactly one mile in length, and there isn't much traffic on it, although we did count almost 200 bikes in two hours. The photo shows famous rider #5595 at about 35 miles. I went along for moral support but only did 62 miles. Rider #5595 went the full 100 miles, then rode his bike back up the hill to get home.

More Human Power Challenge

Here are two more photos from the Human Power Challenge weekend. I like the one with the Quest velomobile crossing the finish line because the checkered flag is perfectly poised.

The second photo shows the flood from the torrential downpour we had Saturday night. That tandem tricycle has water nearly up to the hub and that's a 20" diameter wheel. It took 25 minutes for the rain to fall, then several hours for it all to drain away.

OHPV Human Power Challenge

Last weekend three generations of our family attended the Human Power Challenge at the Portland International Raceway. We had time trials, sprints, drag races, an obstacle course and a road race, all under human power. Some folks had bikes, some had trikes, and some had totally enclosed velomobiles. I hope to have some good photos soon, but for now here's a great shot of me on the final lap of the road race.

Here are some stats from my point of view:

1. Great Grumpy had a faster drag race speed than me even though I went faster than he did when we were side by side.

2. In the road race I was able to pass the 15 year old girl again this year.

3. I almost kept up with the famous woman who had set a 24 hour speed record on her bicycle. (Don't I get credit for "almost"?)

4. In the obstacle course I was faster than a six year old boy on a BMX.

So you can tell I was not very competitive. I didn't win any prizes this year but with a borrowed recumbent I think I improved my time trial speed and my 200 meter sprint speed over what I did on my diamond frame bike last year.

Little League

Our favorite Little League team, the Mets, were playing at La Center yesterday. Our favorite player, #13 rotated during the game from center field to left field, then to second base on the defensive side. Here you see his batting stance, a nicely aggressive pose. He was the first batter in the top of the 6th inning.

Apparently that stance frightened the pitcher into throwing wild pitches. The arrow shows the blurry location of the ball and you can see #13 watching it with disappointment. He walked to first base, then stole second.

Here our intrepid player #13 is watching for a chance to steal third base. You can see by the scoreboard in the background that two of the batters following him were put out, and shortly after this photo was taken the third batter ended the inning with another out.

It was fun watching this level of baseball again after so many years.

Last Sunday we had a pair of twin girls come to visit. They played together so nicely that it was a pleasure to have them here. I even took a picture of them all dressed up in matching outfits, right down to their matching ruby slippers. It was actually quite difficult to tell one from the other.

Lollipop Girl

The other day I met this little girl who had the sweetest face.

Papoose Snuggle

Here's a picture of the papoose snuggle I finished recently. The yarn is called "Cuddles" and is a very soft 100% acrylic. It's machine washable too.

Rather than wrapping your papoose in a blanket, then worrying all the time about keeping the blanket folded properly, you simply tuck your papoose into the snuggle in the same manner as a foot going into a sock. If the air is cold you can fold the collar up.

A Good Bicycle Rack

Here's how I keep my bike at the office, in this locked room. Each hook swings freely and rolls from side to side, so you can adjust the spacing while hanging or removing your bike. Each hook has a bar that extends down and lines up with the bike's frame, so you can lock the bike with a secure U-bolt lock. My bike is hanging at the far end of the room, on the right side, with my helmet hanging from the seat.

There are hooks on the wall to the left where you can hang your wet stuff while you're at work.

Opossum Skeleton

Over the years I have found lots of carcasses of dead animals in my yard. Mostly they have been rats, mice, birds, squirrels, cats, and even some dogs. But last week I discovered this skeleton of an opossum. I have seen opossums running around in the middle of the night, and I've seen dead ones lying in the road, so I knew they were here, but it still surprised me to see this one. It was laying in the middle of the path worn into my lawn by regular patrols of raccoons. I suspect the raccoons dragged it here, and maybe they even ate most of it.