Happy Independence Day!

 No, I haven't done that, but I applaud the men who did for their courage and bravery.

Anyway.....

  We don't celebrate the date, we celebrate the event which occurred on the date.

I know I don't have to tell this to the people who stop by here, as we also say "Merry Christmas", and not "Happy Holidays". I think we lost something when people started  celebrating the date, and not the reason. To most, it's just another day off work or school, and a reason to stuff yourself with food and drink, and that's sad. 

And I think it's a major part of what happened to get us into the condition we are now.

Enjoy the date, but please, remember the reason.

When Motor Oil Went From Cans To Bottles

 Another "I Remember...." story, sent to me by some friends.....

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Once upon a time, oil came in metal cans you had to pierce with a spout, so it was a surprise when I went to work at the filling station one day and they had motor oil in new plastic containers with a twist off cap. I wondered why no one had thought of it sooner. It was not long until I had a customer that asked me to check the oil. In the "good old days" we pumped gas, washed windshields and checked tire pressure upon request. The customer's car was low on oil and they requested a top up, so I got one of the new bottles of oil, twisted off the cap and put the neck of the container directly into the opening of the valve cover.

When I opened the bottle, I noticed it had a tamper proof cap, and the lower half twisted off while remaining on the bottle. When I pulled the bottle out of the valve cover, to my surprise, the lower half/plastic ring was gone! Where did it go? It had slipped off and fell into the valve cover. I sheepishly informed the customer that I could not see the plastic ring and would have to take off the valve cover to remove it. He was nice about it and gave me the go ahead so I pulled the car into the shop and proceeded to remove the cover. There were five of those rings in there! Apparently others had the same problem with the ring slipping off the bottle and either did not notice or did not say anything. The customer went away happy though.

Shortly after that, motor oil manufacturers seemed to revise their bottles so the ring stayed with the cap. I wondered why no one had thought of it sooner.

 

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I was a gas-pump jockey at a Sunoco Station a friend's Dad owned, but it was well before oil came in plastic bottles. He allowed me to pump gas, take payments, and clean the windshields. I could check the oil and air, but not add oil or fill tires, which required one of The Guys from the service bays to do. After a while, they convinced the owner I was smart enough to do these things properly, which he allowed, about two weeks before the summer ended, and I went back to school. My "primary" summer job was at a little electronics place, but my friend asked me if I could help, and I said sure.

Six Days for UPS Ground from Denver?!?

 Granted I ordered it Friday afternoon, but once it was picked up it sat in the UPS place over the weekend, and then took TWO DAYS to get to Loveland, where it sat for another 24 hours before they put it on a truck to bring up here.

I'm not mad at the seller, or the driver, but UPS, as a whole, seems to have gotten pretty sucky lately. I was sent shipping notices, including the dreaded "Delayed" notice, but as much as I hate driving to Denver, the next time I need something from HRO, I'm tempted to just drive down there and pick it up.

 

And after receiving damaged goods packed and shipped by a UPS "store", I never use them. FedEx has always been my first choice, and will remain so, but sometimes you don't have that option when you buy something on-line.

Field Day, 2021

 And for the first time since we moved here, I'm participating! I'm running in Class "1 Delta", which means 1 transmitter, at home, running on commercial power. If I was running on my little Honda generator, then I'd be class "1 Echo", which means 1 transmitter, running on emergency power.

It's a very good test of the new radio, as the bands are crowded (Field Day brings LOTS of people out), with a mix of very strong, and very weak, signals. Earlier today I talked to my friends on the Iowa, and was able to get through on 17 Meters (18MHz) after they could barely hear me on 20 Meters (14MHz) due to a very high local noise level, "QRM" in Ham-speak.

I've only been operating for a few hours, and have collected 18 different states, and even "rag-chewed" a bit with some of the operators.

So far the new radio working very well. I can pull weak stations out of the noise, and reject strong stations just a few kHz away. The Digital Noise Reduction and Noise Blanker are the best I've ever used, very smooth, and they don't introduce a lot of "artifacting" to the audio.

I still haven't learned to use all the wanted signal enhancement and unwanted signal rejection features of this radio, and this is a good time to learn them, and practice with them.

There are some nits and quibbles with some of the features on the radio, but as far as "Basic Receiver Performance", Yaesu knocked it out of the park this time.

RAIN!

 Finally getting some much needed rain after several weeks of dry and sometimes 100* weather.

So far my rain gauge indicates .05" for the last two days. I sometimes doubt the accuracy of my rain gauge, so I bought a "NOAA Approved" model that I can use to dump a "calibrated" amount of water into the collection bucket on the weather station and see how accurate it is.

My rain gauge is of the "Tipping Bucket" type, and when calibrated they're quite accurate.

The rain falls into a collector can, and then drips through the hole in the center into the little buckets inside.

Collector:

 Tipping buckets:

 Each time the bucket tips, it trips a switch sending a "One Bucket Received" signal to the controller, incrementing the rainfall measurement by one unit. In my case, each tip of the bucket indicates .01" of rain received.

I'll fill the "Calibration Device" with water, and pour it into my collector and see if they agree. After I make my measurements, I'll delete the record in the database for the rainfall so as not to skew the data set by a 1" rain measurement.

I'm beginning to think you can't trust your eyeballs when it comes to determining the amount of rain you get. An inch of standing water in a pan outside after a storm passed by doesn't necessarily mean you received 1" of rain.

Just another thing to wrap my head around while I try and understand (or "grok", if you will) this particular aspect of meteorology.

Hope y'all have a good weekend!

NLG Doing Fine

 Got his first sponge bath today, and his Mommy and Daddy dressed him in his first little outfit.

 Not doing bad for 10 weeks early.

His Daddy's arm in the foreground, and his Mommy's arm in the background.

 So tiny.......another miracle and blessing from Our Lord and Father...

Had a couple of gorgeous days, but now it's heating up again. No rain forecast until Thursday, but it's a "50% Chance" which means we'll get at least some sprinkles.

Happy Father's Day, Guys!

 Annnd I just wonder how soon this will be under attack? Mother's Day is under attack to become "Birthing Person's Day", so I can imagine what the lefties want to do. "Toxic Masculinity Day"?

Oh, well.....Be strong, and be proud of the youngsters YOU helped raise to manhood.

Can I even use that word these days?

Time to hit the road. Hope y'all have a good weekend, and Happy Father's Day!

Biden's Latest Gaffe

 Or was it a Freudian slip?

Courtesy of Stilton's Place.

That ain't gonna buff out.....

OK, Here's The New Little Guy!

 Wife can't figure out how to email phone pix to me, which means they get sent as text attachments.

Which means I have to download them from my phone to this PC, which takes a bit due to my having to use a program to access my phone from this Linux PC.

Oh, well.......

This is one of the first ones we have, shortly after birth.

Cleaned up and getting checked out.

The breathing tube was removed after about 36 hours, as he was breathing fine on his own. It was replaced with a headgear/nose mask in the following pix to supply him with extra O2.
 

And here he is with his Mom.

 

So tiny.....And Mom looks really tired....

Feeding time.

I had thought that they'd keep him in the Natal ICU until his due date, like they had to with his brother, but The Kids informed me it's based on "scores" much more than time, so if he does well, he'll be released early. Time off for good behavior, I guess.

So his Mom went home today, and TLG was happy to see her, but wondered where his brother was. He's actually taking it in quite good stride, and I know he'll be an excellent Bog Brother!

Aircraft Tracking with ADS-B

 Now that I moved my little home brew antenna outside, I'm picking up aircraft tracks out to 150 miles away. Most of them are pretty mundane; scheduled airlines, charter flights, student pilots and LifeLine flights. One that caught my eye the other day was an aircraft at 8,000', doing 35 knots. Wondering if the speed was a glitch, I looked up the tail number and found out it was a glider registered at the Owl Canyon Gliderport. I didn't look closely at his flight profile, but a glider could easily do those kinds of numbers into a headwind.

Anyway.....One plane really grabbed my attention tonight, a NASA 747 with a very unusual flight plan track.

The solid green line is where he's been, and the dotted line is where he's going, per the filed flight plan. Departure and landing the sites were both listed as "Palmdale", so it's anybody's guess what they're doing tonight. Must be a "Chemtrail" run. That's why they do it at night now, so people can't see them!

And anywhoo....Mother and child are doing fine. The new parents were treated to a "Surf and Turf" dinner tonight courtesy of the hospital, but TLG didn't get to meet his new little brother as I originally thought. Strict rules are in place, and the only people who get into the Natal ICU are Mommy and Daddy. The NLG is doing fine, breathing without assistance, eyes open, looking around, and eating like a horse per his Mom and Dad.

But he's soooo tiny!

I'll post some pix as soon as SLW sends them.

Daughter-In-Law and the New Little Guy Doing Fine

 Our New Little Guy came into this realm sometime after 0600 this morning. He weighed 2 lb 7 oz at delivery.

Yes, that's right, Two and a Half Pounds. 

He was born with his eyes open, and started crying almost immediately. His big brother was barely over two pounds at delivery, and it took him a week or so to open his eyes and start crying.

He'll be another Miracle Baby to us.

Pix to follow as soon as SLW recovers.....