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.

One Knitted Dress for a Demanding Client

I finished knitting this dress and delivered it last night. It took only 29 days. It had to be done quickly because she is growing so fast.

Ice Storm: Jan 19,2012

Here are a couple of sample shots of the ice on our car and in the Maple tree. The freezing rain is sticking to everything out there, including the side of the house.

Raccoon Tracks in Snow

The baby raccoons have grown up and now we have five adult raccoons patrolling our driveway. I think this became their route because we used to leave cat food out on the porch for Pompi. When the cat food disappeared, I always assumed it was Pompi who ate it, so I kept putting it out each night. One night when it snowed and I saw the only tracks around the cat food were raccoon tracks, I quit putting out the cat food. But the raccoons continue to use the route past our porch.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Here are some of the Christmas ornaments I made last December using yarn left over from previous projects. The first photo shows four hats that fit perfectly on my fingers.

The next photo shows the hat and sweater sets I made. Each sweater was a miniature of the original sweater made from that yarn. We put fuzzy pipe cleaners inside the sweaters so they would hang on the tree.

November Glass Bead Class

Last November I took a class to learn how to make functional beads rather than merely decorative jewelry types of beads. First I will show you some that I made. They make nice handles for things like letter openers, canope knives, light switch pull strings, and maybe even pendants. The red one is Monya's favorite but I like the transparent blue beads. The white beads were just markers to identify my beads compared to other student's.

The next three photos show what an expert (not me) can make. There is a hollow teapot, a plain hollow bead, and a snowman. All of these are still on the stainless steel mandrel, with a coating of white release agent. We use a pair of pliers to hold the mandrel while we twist the bead loose. Since these good beads were not mine, I was not at liberty to remove them from the mandrels.

Froe Mallet

My new froe arrived the other day and I was excited to use it right away. Unfortunately, it requires a mallet which I needed to make. So I picked out the smallest log from my stash and began cutting it in half with my crosscut carpenter's saw. In the first photo you can see my new froe in the foreground, and the log being cut into its partner mallet.

In the past I have always had a difficult time cutting a log such as this without the saw kerf meandering. By the time I finish the cut, the kerf being cut does not line up with the kerf at the beginning. But now, thanks to my hero Roy Underhill, I know how to do this: "Rotate the work frequently, and keep one's mind clear of impure thoughts." It worked very well, as can be seen in the second photo.

The next step was to cut a handle out of one end of the stump of log. I followed the same process of keeping "one's mind clear of impure thoughts" and sawed partially through the log, splitting off the excess wood with a chisel.

When it came time to clean up the new handle with a drawknife, I discovered that my shaving horse was woefully inadequate. The jaws of the shaving horse were not large enough to accomodate a full sized log. So I tied the log to the shaving horse and braced it against my knees with a piece of scrap wood.

Here's what the handle looked like when I quit working on it. I could clean it up a little with a spokeshave, but it's just a froe mallet.

I'd like to show the froe and mallet in action, but that takes two hands, leaving nothing for holding a camera. I used it to split the other half of the log I used for the mallet. It will be a nice piece for making a hammer handle, and I have enough left over for making several more handles, or spinning tops. Now I have lots of indoor projects that will keep me through the rainy winter.