Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Hazel needs her dreadlocks
trimmed.
What's So Smart About Ideograms
I am just now discovering that sometimes my "smart" phone
-camera-datebook-alarm clock-magazine-check book-transistor
radio-music player... does not always tell me when I have
missed a call or that there is voice mail waiting. Another
case where the “standards” if there ever were any have been
subsumed by the options available to anyone with enough
patience to burrow through layered menus written in emojis
and icons. First you have to learn the language. Once upon a
long ago we had Egyptian hieroglyphs/ideograms and then the
written word. Now we are inexorably sliding backwards toward
a new language of ideograms. Complete with an online Rosetta
Stone. “Are
emojis a step forwards in how we communicate or are we
reverting back to the language of the ancient Egyptians?”
Emoji to be used when submitting Half&Half on your
shopping list to the E-grocery:
Finished with the Autumnal Equinox letter of 2019 just in
time to be late starting this Winter Solstice Letter that
will likely take me into next Spring to post. I used to
write these letters more or less monthly. That time table
devolved into less monthly and more quarterly. Only another
delay and we'll be back to Semi-Annually. Eh?
2019xi14 Annual Checkup and Other Unrelated Squibs
Looking good. Passed my annual strip search. All my numbers
are within the edges of “Normal” tho some of them are a wee
bit too close to the upper (bad) end of acceptability.
Starting tomorrow I have to do something about that. Eat,
drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may diet. You might want
to sell any stock you have in Ben&Jerry's.
“We'll believe a corporation is a person when Texas executes
one.”
Fixing a Scooba at The Food Bank. see the last page
of the Quick
Start Guide...
After you prep the machine lock the baby [and the Shiatsu]
away... and:
When Scooba has completed a cleaning cycle, empty and rinse
Scooba’s tanks.
Remove the tank.
Open the Dirty and Clean tanks and drain.
Rinse the Dirty and Clean tanks with warm water.
Remove and rinse Scooba’s filter.
Remove and clean Scooba's cleaning head and brush.
Put it all back together...
Replace Scooba’s tank.
Plug in the charger.
...and then in very fine print way at the bottom (might be
on another page in your viewer is: All this cleaning up
after the Scooba doo will take you longer than washing the
floor with a mop, which exercise is better for you anyway.
Somehow or other all that reminds me of: “Do not
open shrink-wrap until you have read and agreed to the
conditions contained within.”
Intermittent Rain These Past Few Days
 My 12-hourly observations: 0.53”, 0.13”, …
Reports from the east and north are mostly in whole inches
per hour. Lots of road closures due to flooding and
closed-road rescues from flooded washes. Generally speaking
these storm cells tend to go to one side of Tonopah or the
other. Perhaps some influence of the Palo Verde Nuke Plant?
Or the Weather Modification Satellites?
Funny you should interpret TGIF that way. I recently sent
one pair of my Limmer Boots (purchased custom made new in
1970) to Peter Limmer in Intervale for minor repair. TGIF is
an apt reminder of how I should put them on. The repair,
exclusive of shipping to and fro, is going to cost more than
the boots cost new. OTOH, to replace these boots would cost
ten times their new cost.
November 23rd Would Be Saint George's Day in April
 Bill, W1VBG (Very Bald Guy), has been gone a
year. Unveiling of his bronze
plaque happened as planned on the afternoon of 23rd
November at El Dorado Hot Spring. The weather and Sunset
Soak were great. Lunch was filling especially with Peaches
filling up on Animal Crackers. She even helped us eat up all
the remaining sandwiches. This picture shows Peaches opening
and Hoovering
a sack of Kettle Chips.
Thank you once again for your donations that helped with the
purchase and placement of this plaque. Thanks especially to
Matt & Peaches of Eldo and Camilla, formerly of Eldo;
thanks to Sue and Toby and Mike, each and all for their
special help. And thanks to all of us for cleaning up after
and taking away all the leftovers.
The plaque is on a mount in a flower bed hard by the
entrance to the Desert Pete soaking area. The
flag is a Marine Signal Flag denoting SkinnyDippers in the
water. The Photo Board is a collection of pictures
that mark important moments in the life of Bill and Camilla
in their quest for hot water and the early development of El
Dorado Hot Spring.
Long Live Skinnydippers!
 I think I
might never eat another shrimp. You were not the only person
not there. Lots of shrimp to go around and a good time
otherwise. Nice weather. Good time soaking. Prob'ly just as
well not everyone showed up. There were lots of leftovers to
take home.
2019 xii 1, November WX Summary
Shifting gears is the theme of this November's weather.
Winter arrived like a squalling baby on the 19th. Within
seconds the wind went from calm to 30, rain poured,
temperature plummeted 17f degrees. You can see the before
and after difference in the Degree
Days figures:
1st-19th CoolingDD=65, HeatingDD=9;
19th-30th CoolingDD=0, HeatingDD=110.
Propane usage rose as the daily average temperatures
dropped. Flashlight battery consumption is also up as the
morning and evening observations are often done in the dark;
only about eight hours of daylight these days. Here's hoping
there are some remnants of Penguindian
Summer hidden behind a cactus hereabouts.
Pearl Harbour Day Came and Went
I saw nary a ripple in the news reporting, not at all like
the hoopla harking to 9-11.
The Palo Verde Generating Station
(a.k.a. Tonopah Nuke Plant) is no longer issuing their
Safety Information Calendar. Twelve pages of colourful local
artistry with little boxes in which to write appointments
has been preempted by a booklet of six-and-a-half pages of
safety information and a letter of apology. The calendar
hung at the ready on my wall. The booklet, at best, will
likely end up in a stack of similarly mundane catalogues.
For those of you to whom I mailed those Palo Verde calendars
I sorrowfully offer here this cheap imitation.
The Ides of Twelfth Month
Finally repaired TinyTruck of the ignition failure which
happened last April. Ever since replacing the ignition
pickup coil the motor has been hard to start on a cold
morning, often resorting to injections of electrons from a
booster charger; which problem being exacerbated by the
onset of Winter. After trying any number of stop-gap fixes
and absorbing the advice of any number of Answer-Me-This
talk-show hosts I finally replaced that same part again with
one from a different vendor, a different manufacturer. This
morning, with the temperature outside bottoming out at 42f
TinyTruck started up in the first second of cranking. Yeaaa
Truck! Yeaaa Allan! Yeaa NAPA and Echlin. (Boo AutoZone;
that's where the previous coil came from.)
Sudoku Revisited
For those of you who are having trouble with the Binary
Sudoku puzzle included a few letters ago I offer this
helpful comment>>>>>>>>>>
Fox Lunch Reprise
Last week I returned from my four hours of volunteer fixing
things at the Buckeye Food Bank with the usual 35# of
comestibles. Among the haul is a selection of wrapped
sandwiches from the local quickie eat-here-&-get-gas
place. Mostly these are rather soggy and stale but the
fillings are often worth salvage. After I've done with the
unwrapping and sorting I stash the remains in a sack placed
atop the cooler atop the table. Tomorrow I'll walk them a
quarter mile south to Lunch Rock for the Critter Disposal
Squad.
Tonight tho, after supper, after dark, after tea, after
toilet and finally to bed, Hurricane Hazel-Rah got spooked
when the automagic yard lights came on. She tears to and fro
and I have little choice but to get up and see what is the
clatter. Last
year, in May, a red fox came to raid the stash;
this time the fox is fatter. Br'er Fox was circling the
table, climbing on the tool box, the cinder block, looking
for a leap to the table top. Finally he [she?] leapt up to
confront the cooler and the sack of sandwiches. All this
time I am watching, ensorcelled at the window beside
Hurricane Hazel. Michael, on the ham radio, is exhorting me
to get my camera. My camera is out of reach in
TinyTruck. Get your phone—make a video! Then
Br'er Fox pulled the sack of sandwiches down on her [his?]
head and beat a hasty retreat. The lights went out. Then I
went and found my phone.  The image links to a 15 second
6MB MP4 Video.
Of Date Lines and Time Zones.
How often does this happen: “In 2019, the winter solstice
arrives on Saturday, December 21, at 11:19 p.m. EST...” and
“In 2019 the winter solstice will occur on Sunday 22
December at 04.19am.” Now, who knows why and where? Hint:
Either
way Happy Solstice Everyone! No Bah Humbugging about
this; the days will soon be getting longer again. And warmer
too I hope.
Sawdust From The Yule Log
 I have my new Yule Branch tastefully
arranged and illuminated for the occasion. I went shopping
at the Yule Tree Lot at Fry's last week and chatted with the
tree keeper. I told him I lived in a Residence Vehicle and
did not have room for a whole tree; did he have any branches
available? And he did! Several to choose from so I'm all set
for another season.
Solstice Dinner With My Extended Family
Made my famous Pickle Pie [recipe available by request] and
provided a ham. Good time playing KeepAway with the dogs,
binge-watching Star Wars, eating and drinking and telling
storeys.
Boxing Day
Another Green Flash sunrise over the lion's rump on the
ridge of the Estrella Mountains.
Pictures From Spaaace...
 In memory
of cosmonauts Alexei Leonov, Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund
Jähn, Ham Radio Astronauts aboard the International Space
Station were transmitting slow scan TV images during 28
December to January 1st. The pictures are beamed down, from
Amateur Radio Station RS0ISS/NA1SS via VHF ham radio and
received at The Cat Drag'd Inn. Six passes a day
pass over Tonopah each results in two or three images. All
totalled I collected 80+ images but still managed only 12
out of the set of 15. Right-click on this image to view full
size.
Happy 2020
At least we should all be able to see better the handwriting
on the wall.
|
2019,
December: The Days Are Getting Longer — Greetings Virtual
Travellers and Pen Friends: 
