THE TROLLS WIN
No grand holiday plans here. I went to the coffee shop this morning and worked on the confirmation curriculum for a couple of hours, went for a bike ride (the one without the motor), and then did yard work for most of the remainder of the afternoon. Pam did some shopping, went to the gym and worked in the kitchen. She started working on tonight's meal, the one we were going to take into J & A's, where we'd meet up with S & M and all have dinner together. But Josh called mid-morning to say he was the only one at their house not sick. So at 5:00 we headed into town and met S & M at a Baja Fresh midway between our homes. Baja Fresh serves pretty good Mexican food that's all made from scratch out of fresh ingredients but served in an order-at-the-counter setting. We sat outside and after eating our dinners we had the dessert Pam made before we got Josh's call.
It was really nice eating outside, with evening temps in the mid-70's, and our high today was 14 degrees below the average for today's date - 96 degrees. Terrific weather! We'll be back to triple digits by the weekend but everybody is enjoying these unseasonably mild temps.
Go to this link and click on the picture of the cheetah. Then choose "open." You'll see some outstanding nature picks in a Power Point presentation (click on each pic to advance to the next one). Some of these photos are beautiful. My favorite is the zebras from above.
Terrific Photography Slide Show
You've undoubtedly heard about the Phoenix Lander which just landed on Mars and is preparing to take photos and soil samples of the Red Planet. It's called the Phoenix because it was built here. But in addition to the mind blowing elements of a space ship successfully landing on another planet and then conducting experiments as directed by commands given from earth, 36 million miles away (!), there's this photo.
This is a picture taken by another one of our space craft sent to circle Mars and take long-distance pictures of the planet. It snapped a pic of the Phoenix Lander descending to the surface of Mars. You can see the parachute, the lander and the cords of chute connecting it to the lander! And all of this was done by remote control from 36 million miles away!
I'm still kicking around the idea of building a VW, like this one - a definite head turner - available just a few miles away from us. I've been doing some internet research on VW engines, trying to decide if I want to tackle rebuilding one. I knew they came in various sizes; they increased the displacement several times over the years. I also knew they switched from a 6 volt electrical system to a 12 volt system in 1967. But now I'm learning about single- and double-port engines and the kind of modifications that can be done to improve performance and/or reliability. Anybody who's owned a vintage VW, including yours truly, has had the exhaust valve in the #3 cylinder fail. That cylinder ran hotter than the rest because its location restricted air flow around it (VW's are air cooled). When that valve finally breaks from the heat, usually at about 60,000 miles, the pieces fly around inside the cylinder, breaking the piston into dozens of tiny pieces. Not good! So the most common mod is to add a larger oil reservoir and filter (oil absorbs engine heat) and an oil temp gauge to monitor that critical factor. Some guys put in oil coolers.
I think my next steps are to order a book by Tom Wilson on rebuilding VW engines, which seems to be the definitive book on the subject and try to find a shop that specializes in old VW's and talk to somebody to get a feel for the task.
Did you click on the link, "this one" at the beginning of the previous paragraph? Did you watch the video? If so, you've been "Rickrolled." I read in last week's TIME magazine that getting Rickrolled is one of the latest internet pranks. You create a link that people think will lead them to something innocuous, like a sports story, a recipe, or a pic of a classic VW. Instead they go to the 1987 music video of Rick Astley singing his hit, "Never Gonna Let You Go."
Hey, I don't make 'em up, I just report 'em.
I had a serious thought earlier today that I thought at the time warranted discussion in tonight's post. But I can't remember what it was, and I'm ready for bed. Besides, it probably wasn't anything that mattered anyway.
Goodnight.
No grand holiday plans here. I went to the coffee shop this morning and worked on the confirmation curriculum for a couple of hours, went for a bike ride (the one without the motor), and then did yard work for most of the remainder of the afternoon. Pam did some shopping, went to the gym and worked in the kitchen. She started working on tonight's meal, the one we were going to take into J & A's, where we'd meet up with S & M and all have dinner together. But Josh called mid-morning to say he was the only one at their house not sick. So at 5:00 we headed into town and met S & M at a Baja Fresh midway between our homes. Baja Fresh serves pretty good Mexican food that's all made from scratch out of fresh ingredients but served in an order-at-the-counter setting. We sat outside and after eating our dinners we had the dessert Pam made before we got Josh's call.It was really nice eating outside, with evening temps in the mid-70's, and our high today was 14 degrees below the average for today's date - 96 degrees. Terrific weather! We'll be back to triple digits by the weekend but everybody is enjoying these unseasonably mild temps.
Go to this link and click on the picture of the cheetah. Then choose "open." You'll see some outstanding nature picks in a Power Point presentation (click on each pic to advance to the next one). Some of these photos are beautiful. My favorite is the zebras from above.
Terrific Photography Slide Show
You've undoubtedly heard about the Phoenix Lander which just landed on Mars and is preparing to take photos and soil samples of the Red Planet. It's called the Phoenix because it was built here. But in addition to the mind blowing elements of a space ship successfully landing on another planet and then conducting experiments as directed by commands given from earth, 36 million miles away (!), there's this photo.
This is a picture taken by another one of our space craft sent to circle Mars and take long-distance pictures of the planet. It snapped a pic of the Phoenix Lander descending to the surface of Mars. You can see the parachute, the lander and the cords of chute connecting it to the lander! And all of this was done by remote control from 36 million miles away!
I'm still kicking around the idea of building a VW, like this one - a definite head turner - available just a few miles away from us. I've been doing some internet research on VW engines, trying to decide if I want to tackle rebuilding one. I knew they came in various sizes; they increased the displacement several times over the years. I also knew they switched from a 6 volt electrical system to a 12 volt system in 1967. But now I'm learning about single- and double-port engines and the kind of modifications that can be done to improve performance and/or reliability. Anybody who's owned a vintage VW, including yours truly, has had the exhaust valve in the #3 cylinder fail. That cylinder ran hotter than the rest because its location restricted air flow around it (VW's are air cooled). When that valve finally breaks from the heat, usually at about 60,000 miles, the pieces fly around inside the cylinder, breaking the piston into dozens of tiny pieces. Not good! So the most common mod is to add a larger oil reservoir and filter (oil absorbs engine heat) and an oil temp gauge to monitor that critical factor. Some guys put in oil coolers.
I think my next steps are to order a book by Tom Wilson on rebuilding VW engines, which seems to be the definitive book on the subject and try to find a shop that specializes in old VW's and talk to somebody to get a feel for the task.
Did you click on the link, "this one" at the beginning of the previous paragraph? Did you watch the video? If so, you've been "Rickrolled." I read in last week's TIME magazine that getting Rickrolled is one of the latest internet pranks. You create a link that people think will lead them to something innocuous, like a sports story, a recipe, or a pic of a classic VW. Instead they go to the 1987 music video of Rick Astley singing his hit, "Never Gonna Let You Go."
Hey, I don't make 'em up, I just report 'em.
I had a serious thought earlier today that I thought at the time warranted discussion in tonight's post. But I can't remember what it was, and I'm ready for bed. Besides, it probably wasn't anything that mattered anyway.
Goodnight.
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