My little girl is all grown up and off on her own now in Plymouth New Hampshire. Her new coach is starting to learn what we’ve known for a long time now. She made the team as expected, so she’s all set to have a great time there at PSU. I must be having lots of fun myself, because it seems like time is not just flying, but gone supersonic. I suppose this will be the “before” college pic, while her and Michelle were feasting on fresh lobster in Portland:
New Guppy Tank
The live fish-food raising project is coming along well, albeit slowly after a year so far. Turns out attempting to raise shrimp, snails and guppies all in the same aquarium is not a great idea. Apparently the guppies eat the shrimp fry, so the guppies get a new tank. Also, the guppies seem to be not breeding very quickly. They have slowed down these past few months, with only around 2-3 new babies a month showing up lately. We’ll see how they do without the shrimp. Who knows, maybe the shrimp were eating the baby guppies.
Anyway, the really cool thing about the new 60-gallon is it’s an acrylic “Uniquarium” – basically a clear plastic tank with the filtration system built right in. Sounded like a good idea and seems to be working well so far after about a month in service. All the various pieces of equipment (air stones, pump, heater, etc.) are hidden in the tank’s rear compartment(s), giving it a much cleaner, un-cluttered appearance. Cleaning the filter itself looks to be pretty simple – just pull out the filter pads, rinse and replace.
“Man Cave Remodel 2017” project is now in full swing! Next phase involves some new sound equipment and rebuilding the audio portion of the basement entertainment system from scratch. It’s been cannibalized for amps and basically fell into disuse for probably at least the last 5 years.
Charlottesville, JMHO
I suppose maybe it’s time to get started bulldozing every Confederate-related monument and cemetery in the country and try to pretend like our Civil War never happened. Apparently that project is now underway, and the people pushing it appear to be naive enough to believe this approach might do some good. So, consider what just happened in Charlottesville, VA last weekend and try to imagine a positive outcome. Now we are obliged to talk about it, with the POTUS leading the chorus.
Despite actually knowing very little about the man himself, I hate the fuck out of Donald Trump – thought he might be a useful idiot in his current role, and the right idiot for the job, at this time in history, given the binary choice. From a politician or political perspective, at least he has the cojones to not always attempt being politically correct. Political correctness, whether it is being done to assuage special interests, coddle foreign despots or mollify the general social stratum is not now, nor has it ever been a “good” idea. It only serves to exacerbate and prolong the controversy it purports to address. Perhaps PC indifference even was/is a big contributor to getting us here in the 1st place.
The social issues subsequently engendered by slavery (and all forms of bigotry and discrimination, for that matter) will not be helped by attempting to block out history. Currently fashionable attitudes and responses to this state of affairs fundamentally constitute censorship from the left meeting hate on the right. There is nothing wrong with a historical monument or statue, whether you like or agree with what it stands for or not. There are some very popular monuments and historical sites in Germany and eastern Europe that represent dark periods of evil just as bad or worse than what our Confederacy and it’s heritage stand for here.
Statues, memorials and history itself set the stage. Those things are useful remembrances to bygone days. Painful as they may be, they’d be better served in a museum, pointing the way forward in law and and justice. The principles of social equality have been firmly established through our courts and legislatures. Attempting to influence the status quo by taking down statues or beating up skinheads is woefully self-delusional and a direct incite to violence. The reformers and haters have equal enmity for the other. That problem really only exists on a personal level. It becomes a completely different problem when institutionalized or combined in like-minded mobs. We solved the institutional part a long time ago.
The only way this gets better is after the individuals harboring it grow old and die. I say “Death to the Haters!” Preferably due to natural causes. Time heals all wounds.
Midsummer Pond View
Pond is looking nice after a slow start this year. I had major headaches getting it properly sealed during initial startup last spring. Then I made the rookie mistake of letting an algae bloom go too far. But, it’s an ongoing learning process. I took a video and a few night shots to document current progress. Maybe next year will be the first relatively trouble-free year for our backyard pond. Time will tell…
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So it Begins
It was bound to start happening sooner or later – old friends going away. But this was way too early:
Steve and Dixie got divorced a long time ago, but this is how I remember him – with Dixie and the most amazing big family. RIP Steve – we had a good run, back in the day…
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July 4th, 2017
Felt compelled to post something today, despite being rather depressed about the whole idea, for some reason. Not sure if it’s my sense of the country going to shit, freedoms being chipped away faster than ever, or some other thing or combination of things, but anyway, as far as what’s important and really matters on the topic:
Annual Camping Trip
Hiking Buddy Jax and me recently spent a week up in Rocky Mountain National Park. We got all the way up Lily Mountain and within about 3 miles of Buchanan Pass this year. But I paid the price for over-doing it and took a week to recover this time around. So it looks like the Buchanan Pass goal is going to have to wait until after a left hip replacement. Despite making it about a mile further than last year, drug-assist is just not cutting it anymore. But I think starting a little earlier with a new left hip will be the future formula for success on the Buchanan Pass quest. Lion Gulch along the Little Thompson river is the last dog-friendly trail in the vicinity we have yet to explore. I think maybe we’ll be doing that on a day trip with Michelle sometime soon. The hiking boots will just have to collect dust until we get the necessary hip repairs completed. Here’s a page of Photos for the week.
![Buchanan Pass](http://stuff.is-a-geek.net/PhotoAlbum/Vacation/Pics/RMNP201713.jpg)
Pond v4
We’re on year #4 for the backyard pond. The biggest of the goldfish is probably close to 10″ after another long winter in their basement aquarium home with nothing to do but eat. The pond itself is looking pretty good now, after a few false starts throughout the month of May.
As expected, it was leaking badly, and unusually wet weather last spring hampered efforts to complete a major re-sealing and liner upgrade. This pond is obviously not your typical square/rectangular thing you can just throw in a liner, trim it up and be done. It’s very unusual shape extends into all 3 dimensions, 4 feet deep in the center with a straight line nowhere. Initially, this called for a thin, cheapie liner that worked well last year, and that was it. The thicker, higher-quality EPDM liners simply cannot be wrangled in effectively. Adding a new liner is also confounded by the fountain, plumbing and electrical lines. The long-term solution was simple, effective and difficult: Glue down all the folds and creases, apply roof sealant in the nooks and crannies, then re-coat the entire surface with truck bed liner – 5 times. I’ll put one more coat on it every spring until I’m satisfied it’s good to go – forever.
Here’s a link to the Photo page with all the 4th year pond pics…
Early Season Mt. Evans
I got antsy yesterday and decided to take a little drive up to Mt. Evans. It was 49F and blowing a steady 20-30mph wind at the summit. The last 1,000 ft. of the tourist trail was still snow covered. There seemed to be alot of cold people milling about under-dressed, having obviously overlooked the elevation temperature change. It was 95F down at our place. I saved a dozen shots of the spectacular views for this page.
Red(?) Rose of Texas
Serious Hauling Capacity
I made this cargo extender for the ’07 Dodge several years ago. It was a fairly good-sized welding project, for me. I looked at some commercially available models, but the ones I found all had what I viewed as major compromises of one sort or another, along with too-high prices. So I decided to fabricate this one myself with about $40 worth of 1″ steel conduit and a few rubber furniture feet.
The design maximizes available space right out to the corners of the lowered tailgate. It enabled the truck to easily carry ten 8-foot tables and 100 chairs for the graduation party last week. That’s a real achievement, considering the bed holds a large toolbox and auxiliary fuel tank to start with. The really cool part you cannot see is how the ~half-ton load does not even begin to stress the 5Klb air bag under it with a minimal 10psi charge.
It's Official
Francie received her diploma from Frederick High Saturday. The ceremony was forced indoors due to the incessant rain we’ve had this spring. Nevertheless, we got it done in fine style and the event was even shared with family back east on livestream. I snapped a few shots during and after the ceremony for this page in her PhotoAlbum.
Grandma's in Town!
What Happened to my Internet?
Nothing, really. Same ol’ shyt. Just more of it, seeping into every nook and cranny of our daily lives. I was in on the ground floor as an IT pro when it really took off in the mid 90’s, so my perspective could be considered somewhat credible. The question to me now is: are we going in the right direction? With Net Neutrality rules following other recent right-wing political initiatives, One has to wonder…
Assuming some current Cyber issues all really boil down to politics, (the answer to my question posited here) let’s take for example, the Russian election meddling issue. Or Russian election “hacking” as has been erroneously characterized in the fake news and even from podiums in our most hallowed high government chambers: WTF? Who is naive enough to believe the Russians don’t have aspects of their own national security at stake in our election outcomes? And just how short-sighted do you have to be not to expect them to do anything they can to apply influence towards those outcomes with one of the few means they have available? You can be absolutely sure the CIA is monitoring Russian political activities looking for anything they can exploit to OUR advantage – and actively doing so at every opportunity.
What is the big difference between a Russian social media/fake news campaign, and the conventional campaigns waged here at home by the candidates themselves? Technically nothing, except who is doing it. And that you cannot control. But it sure does seem to make great fodder for politicians always ready to seize upon anything they can twist to their own ends. Maybe they are just afraid of the unknown, because let’s face it, the level of technical understanding on the topic of “hacking” is pretty darn low for probably 99.999% of the population, politicians included. So goes the Russian hacking nonsense: A huge issue garnering intense focus from idiots in Washington D.C. who actually know little or nothing about the topic, generally speaking.
Follow the money. Then consider all the other Internet-borne security threats we face today: Spam, Phishing, Identity Theft, Credit Card Fraud, etc. It’s all about easy money. And what’s the “easiest” money in the world? Why taxes, of course! And there we are full circle back to politics. So conservatives favor giving the Telecoms more leeway in how the Internet is managed, giving more control and thus greater market advantage to the C-levels in the business. AT&T and their ilk just love it when the government allows them to stack the deck in their favor. More profit buys more lobbying. Round-and-round we go…
Fuck security – there’s money to be made!!
More Spring Flora
The Columbines came up really strong this year for the first time. They are the Colorado State Flower. I had a hard time getting them to grow well for many years. It took a couple tries to find the right spot around here for them. They seem to be pretty happy out back by the pond now.