Saturday, March 11, 2017
The crazy is taking over the world, part 88,372,119:
The crazy is taking over the world, part 88,372,119:
Paradise ponders, dowels and maple-nut bar edition...
Paradise ponders, dowels and maple-nut bar edition... A few days ago, Michelle H. (a friend who's a member of the LDS ward that we're in) invited Debbie to an auction being put on by the Ladies' Relief Society. This auction was something completely new to us. Everyone attending (all women, I believe) filled out questionnaires. From Debbie's description of the questions on it, I think they're trying to make a measure of how good and how faithful you are. The questionnaires were scored, and the points one scored become the currency for the auction that followed. Additional points were also awarded for things like participating in the song, staying until the end of the auction, etc. Debbie ended up with a few hundred points, while others had thousands. As Debbie said, having some was better than nothing, because in the auction she bid on a couple of items and won them! She brought home two maple-nut bars and two big mason jars of homemade soup. We only have one maple-nut bar now, as I ate the other one – delicious! The soup looks fantastic: an Italian sausage soup with a tomato base and orzo. I may have some later tonight! All of the items being auctioned were homemade food items (and possibly some craft items, too). The ones that went for the most points were things like pork ribs and roast turkey – and some homemade fruit pastries from a woman well-known for her baking. Debbie also got a hearty breakfast out of the event, including samples of some of the aforementioned fruit pastries. Debbie understood fully why they fetched a high “price”! The best part of all for Debbie was that she got to meet and spend time with some of the local women. She had a blast – she was all smiles when she got home.
While she was off stuffing her face and having a great time, I managed to get the next step (literally!) of my stairs project done. I finished the drilling jig and used it to drill dowel holes in all of the faces to be glued, and I did the gluing and clamping. The first photo below shows my test of the drill jig and depth setting on the drill press. The goal was to have the hole depth be just a hair over half the length of a dowel peg, so that the same amount of the peg would be inside each piece. That worked great. The second photo shows a test fit of two pieces of the step held together just by the dowel's friction. That fitting showed no errors of over 1/32", and that I can fix by sanding. The third photo shows the little mark I made on each glued face to keep the orientation straight. One arrow points to the upper surface; the other to the end that the jig should be fit onto. The fourth photo shows the jig clamped to a step piece, ready to be drilled. The fifth photo the clamps in the process of being set up. The plastic is there to keep glue from dripping onto the workbench. Note the two scrap boards that actually touch the clamps; these spread the clamping force more evenly across the face of the boards. The last photo shows the boards all glued and clamped. I had to move the end clamps right after gluing as the tops of the boards were pulling together with all the clamps on the bottom. This will be even more of a challenge on the larger step, and I think I'm going to address that by using all eight of my pipe clamps on it: four on the bottom and four on the top. Once the glue fully dries on the first, smaller step I'm going to sand out the small misalignments. Tomorrow I'll tackle the big step!
While she was off stuffing her face and having a great time, I managed to get the next step (literally!) of my stairs project done. I finished the drilling jig and used it to drill dowel holes in all of the faces to be glued, and I did the gluing and clamping. The first photo below shows my test of the drill jig and depth setting on the drill press. The goal was to have the hole depth be just a hair over half the length of a dowel peg, so that the same amount of the peg would be inside each piece. That worked great. The second photo shows a test fit of two pieces of the step held together just by the dowel's friction. That fitting showed no errors of over 1/32", and that I can fix by sanding. The third photo shows the little mark I made on each glued face to keep the orientation straight. One arrow points to the upper surface; the other to the end that the jig should be fit onto. The fourth photo shows the jig clamped to a step piece, ready to be drilled. The fifth photo the clamps in the process of being set up. The plastic is there to keep glue from dripping onto the workbench. Note the two scrap boards that actually touch the clamps; these spread the clamping force more evenly across the face of the boards. The last photo shows the boards all glued and clamped. I had to move the end clamps right after gluing as the tops of the boards were pulling together with all the clamps on the bottom. This will be even more of a challenge on the larger step, and I think I'm going to address that by using all eight of my pipe clamps on it: four on the bottom and four on the top. Once the glue fully dries on the first, smaller step I'm going to sand out the small misalignments. Tomorrow I'll tackle the big step!
Paradise ponders, howling dogs and red-winged blackbird edition...
Paradise ponders, howling dogs and red-winged blackbird edition... Yesterday I was on the phone with Tesla several times – they were working to get my Model X fixed by the end of the day, but didn't want me to drive down there for nothing. We had a deadline at 3 pm, as that would leave us just enough time to drive down there to SLC before they closed at 5 pm (and on a Friday, of course nobody there wanted to stay late). Well, we talked right at the deadline and the tech was “very confident” he'd have it fixed by 5 pm, so we jumped in the #$%^(#@( Mercedes CLA 250 and headed down. That car made us both crazy; we couldn't wait to get back in the Model X! We made it into the service center just a few minutes before 5 pm, to see our Model X all nicely washed and being charged. When we walked in the door, a smiling Denise (their front desk person) handed me my fob, took the key for the Mercedes, and we were out the door. Zero paperwork, zero hassle. That's really hard to beat!
When I checked my email this morning, I had a “service invoice” from Tesla. I expected this to be a warranty repair, so I was really surprised and a bit alarmed by that. Turns out the invoice is for zero dollars (they really should change the name of that!), and really just served to tell me what they did. They replaced the hinges, as I'd been told, but they also replaced the actuator motor that actually moves the spoiler up and down. They also put some special lubricant on the hinges that is supposed to keep them from corroding as they did. We'll see how well that works long-term...
Debbie had made us reservations at Current Fish & Oyster, which is the first nice restaurant in SLC we've tried other than Red Iguana. It was so hard to make ourselves deliberately go someone other than Red Iguana. :) But we did it, and we were very glad: we had a fantastic meal. We started with a pair of appetizers: crab cakes and mussels. We both love crab cakes, and these were good – but as it turns out, they were the least impressive part of the meal. The mussels were simply wonderful. There were a dozen or so fat mussels, slices of an excellent chorizo (spicy Mexican sausage), and slices of a really good, doughy sourdough bread grilled in spiced butter. There was a sauce poured over the whole thing that was aromatic and full of mussel flavor. That appetizer was so good that we ordered a second one to share for dessert after our meal (really, we did!). Debbie's entree was a fish stew (first photo below), mine was roasted scallops (second photo below). Both were awesome. Mine had a carrot-ginger sauce that was so good I had to sop it all up, and a rice cake in the middle that was darned near as good as the scallops themselves. The vegetables included a new one on me: purple carrots, slightly less sweet than a normal carrot. All of those veggies were delicious. Debbie's sauce was just a bit too spicy for me (it included jalapenos), but then, I'm a spicy food wuss. I tried one of her shrimps, and it tasted like it had just come off the barbie – really good. Debbie had a glass of wine; I had their homemade ginger ale. That ginger ale, presuming that you like ginger (I love it!), will make your brains fall out. I'd go back there just for that! We shall return to Current for another meal, for sure...
Yesterday while waiting for Tesla's service, I was planning to go to the next step on my stairs project. That didn't happen, because I discovered that I'd messed up my jig: two parts that were supposed to be glued at a right angle were actually at about 80°. That wouldn't do at all! So I ripped the jig apart, re-routed the slot for the 1x6, and redid the glue job. So this morning I'm right back where I thought I was yesterday morning.
On Wednesday morning we heard the songs of red-winged blackbirds. These are our reliable harbingers of springtime, so we were very happy to see them. We have the spectacular yellow-headed blackbirds in the valley, too – but about ten miles north of us, not here, darn it. There are several dozen of them that stay near our irrigation canal, which is filled with water all summer. Usually at this time of year it's empty, but this year, with all the snow and rain, it's running about half full just from the runoff. That must make the blackbirds very happy! Soon our barn swallows will return, too. Some robins stayed through the winter, but the spring cohort is starting to arrive as well. A pair of Canadian geese landed in the field north of our house yesterday, possibly the same pair that nested in an adjacent tree last year. They were here this morning as well. Lots of bird song around the place now!
For the last few days (and in the forecast for at least the next ten days) we've had highs in the 50s and 60s. The snow is melting at a prodigious rate, both in the valley and up the mountain slopes below about 8,000' altitude. Starting in a week, the forecast calls for frost-free nights, too. Our “mud season” has begun! Many of the fields around us are largely clear of snow, and some of the alfalfa fields are already greening up. The only deep snow left on our property is the giant piles on the north side of our house, made by snow sliding off our roof, which this time of year are shaded all day long. Some of those piles are still 6' high!
This time of year the sun is rising just south of due east of our house. There is a small mountain peak in that direction from us, and that means we're in shadow in the early morning, while the valley both north and south of us is in the sun. This morning when I looked toward my neighbor to the north, his trees were brightly lit. They're all deciduous trees, so it was the branches and twigs that were lit – and he's got two weeping willows with bright yellow twigs, and a tree I don't know with bright red twigs. Both of them were striking in that bright morning light, especially as seen from the shadow I was in.
A reader (Glen B.) wrote me this morning wondering why I haven't mentioned our puppies recently. Well, there's no good reason other than my cranial density!
The two puppies, Cabo and Mako, are really not puppies any more. They're a year old, and they're starting to get their adult personalities. Cabo is much smaller than Mako – she's the smallest adult field spaniel we've had, and Mako, I'm pretty sure, is even bigger than Mo'i was. Cabo is especially affectionate. She loves to deliver kisses and ear nibbles, even while she's trying to chew a hole in Mako. Mako is also affectionate, but in a lunky sort of way that involves leaping onto you, trying to claw his way up into your arms, etc. Cabo, on the other hand, is very gentle.
The two of them sleep in crates in our kitchen at night, while Miki and Race have the run of the kitchen. In the mornings, right about eight hours after we put them up for the night, Cabo and Mako make it known that they want out. The way they do this has us laughing at them every morning. Somehow they've developed the habit of using some highly creative canine vocalizations to get us up. I think maybe they hear us laughing at them, and are encouraged by that. We've never heard dogs making sounds like they do, so it's hard for me to describe. I'm going to have to figure out a way to record them, so I can post them here. Mako, in particular, is very good at these exotic dog sounds.
Anyway, those vocalizations are my cue to get up and let them outside. But when I open the crate, the first thing they do is jump on me for attention. By the time I've let them outside and I walk back into the bedroom to take my morning shower, my face, hands, and arms are covered with dog slobber – the detritus of ten million “Good morning, papa!” dog kisses. Never fails to start my day in a cheery mood. :)
When I checked my email this morning, I had a “service invoice” from Tesla. I expected this to be a warranty repair, so I was really surprised and a bit alarmed by that. Turns out the invoice is for zero dollars (they really should change the name of that!), and really just served to tell me what they did. They replaced the hinges, as I'd been told, but they also replaced the actuator motor that actually moves the spoiler up and down. They also put some special lubricant on the hinges that is supposed to keep them from corroding as they did. We'll see how well that works long-term...
Debbie had made us reservations at Current Fish & Oyster, which is the first nice restaurant in SLC we've tried other than Red Iguana. It was so hard to make ourselves deliberately go someone other than Red Iguana. :) But we did it, and we were very glad: we had a fantastic meal. We started with a pair of appetizers: crab cakes and mussels. We both love crab cakes, and these were good – but as it turns out, they were the least impressive part of the meal. The mussels were simply wonderful. There were a dozen or so fat mussels, slices of an excellent chorizo (spicy Mexican sausage), and slices of a really good, doughy sourdough bread grilled in spiced butter. There was a sauce poured over the whole thing that was aromatic and full of mussel flavor. That appetizer was so good that we ordered a second one to share for dessert after our meal (really, we did!). Debbie's entree was a fish stew (first photo below), mine was roasted scallops (second photo below). Both were awesome. Mine had a carrot-ginger sauce that was so good I had to sop it all up, and a rice cake in the middle that was darned near as good as the scallops themselves. The vegetables included a new one on me: purple carrots, slightly less sweet than a normal carrot. All of those veggies were delicious. Debbie's sauce was just a bit too spicy for me (it included jalapenos), but then, I'm a spicy food wuss. I tried one of her shrimps, and it tasted like it had just come off the barbie – really good. Debbie had a glass of wine; I had their homemade ginger ale. That ginger ale, presuming that you like ginger (I love it!), will make your brains fall out. I'd go back there just for that! We shall return to Current for another meal, for sure...
Yesterday while waiting for Tesla's service, I was planning to go to the next step on my stairs project. That didn't happen, because I discovered that I'd messed up my jig: two parts that were supposed to be glued at a right angle were actually at about 80°. That wouldn't do at all! So I ripped the jig apart, re-routed the slot for the 1x6, and redid the glue job. So this morning I'm right back where I thought I was yesterday morning.
For the last few days (and in the forecast for at least the next ten days) we've had highs in the 50s and 60s. The snow is melting at a prodigious rate, both in the valley and up the mountain slopes below about 8,000' altitude. Starting in a week, the forecast calls for frost-free nights, too. Our “mud season” has begun! Many of the fields around us are largely clear of snow, and some of the alfalfa fields are already greening up. The only deep snow left on our property is the giant piles on the north side of our house, made by snow sliding off our roof, which this time of year are shaded all day long. Some of those piles are still 6' high!
This time of year the sun is rising just south of due east of our house. There is a small mountain peak in that direction from us, and that means we're in shadow in the early morning, while the valley both north and south of us is in the sun. This morning when I looked toward my neighbor to the north, his trees were brightly lit. They're all deciduous trees, so it was the branches and twigs that were lit – and he's got two weeping willows with bright yellow twigs, and a tree I don't know with bright red twigs. Both of them were striking in that bright morning light, especially as seen from the shadow I was in.
A reader (Glen B.) wrote me this morning wondering why I haven't mentioned our puppies recently. Well, there's no good reason other than my cranial density!
The two puppies, Cabo and Mako, are really not puppies any more. They're a year old, and they're starting to get their adult personalities. Cabo is much smaller than Mako – she's the smallest adult field spaniel we've had, and Mako, I'm pretty sure, is even bigger than Mo'i was. Cabo is especially affectionate. She loves to deliver kisses and ear nibbles, even while she's trying to chew a hole in Mako. Mako is also affectionate, but in a lunky sort of way that involves leaping onto you, trying to claw his way up into your arms, etc. Cabo, on the other hand, is very gentle.
The two of them sleep in crates in our kitchen at night, while Miki and Race have the run of the kitchen. In the mornings, right about eight hours after we put them up for the night, Cabo and Mako make it known that they want out. The way they do this has us laughing at them every morning. Somehow they've developed the habit of using some highly creative canine vocalizations to get us up. I think maybe they hear us laughing at them, and are encouraged by that. We've never heard dogs making sounds like they do, so it's hard for me to describe. I'm going to have to figure out a way to record them, so I can post them here. Mako, in particular, is very good at these exotic dog sounds.
Anyway, those vocalizations are my cue to get up and let them outside. But when I open the crate, the first thing they do is jump on me for attention. By the time I've let them outside and I walk back into the bedroom to take my morning shower, my face, hands, and arms are covered with dog slobber – the detritus of ten million “Good morning, papa!” dog kisses. Never fails to start my day in a cheery mood. :)
Friday, March 10, 2017
What's Elon done now?
What's Elon done now? Via still-stuck-in-San-Diego friend and reader Simon M.: I can fix South Australia's power network in 100 days or it's free. As Simon quipped: “You’ve got to love this guy!”
Triggered memory ... of my “plantsman” dad...
Triggered memory ... of my “plantsman” dad... Some of my favorite memories from the many trips I took with my dad are of our conversations. These conversations mostly happened in two settings: while driving (and we drove a lot, as some of our destinations were 1,500 miles from our home) and while resting in some beautiful spot on one of our hikes.
During one of those “while driving” conversations, while on the way to Santa Rosa, California, we talked about Luther Burbank. My dad and I were traveling to Santa Rosa as a sort of pilgrimage for my dad, to Burbank's old estate (now a gardens and museum). Burbank was one of my dad's botanical heroes, for lots of reasons. He died when my dad was but a little boy, but his dad visited Burbank on his epic travels to California in the early 1900s. My grandfather Earle Dilatush brought back stories and memories of that visit, and shared them with my dad. When I was a small boy, my dad kept a set of books detailing Burbank's work by his desk. All I can remember about those tomes is that they were thick (and heavy!), filled with photos and a few color plates, and all the text was completely beyond my comprehension.
So what triggered the memories that led to this post? Reading this article, link forwarded by a friend. My dad and I saw all of the plants referenced in that article on our visit that day, sometime in the mid-'90s.
Once again I'm reminded just how much I cherish those trips with my dad, and how thankful I am that Debbie and I found the money and time to make some good memories with our parents...
So what triggered the memories that led to this post? Reading this article, link forwarded by a friend. My dad and I saw all of the plants referenced in that article on our visit that day, sometime in the mid-'90s.
Once again I'm reminded just how much I cherish those trips with my dad, and how thankful I am that Debbie and I found the money and time to make some good memories with our parents...
Paradise ponders, dancing with jigs edition...
Paradise ponders, dancing with jigs edition... Our Tesla Model X is still at the service center, but I did get some news on it yesterday. The technicians there tracked the problem down to a corroded “hinge” that lets the spoiler move up and down. It's not at all clear to me how a hinge would be used to move the spoiler up-and-down on its mounting posts, but that's what they told me. There's a new hinge on order that should come in today. The techs told me that some other Model Xs have been having the same issue, so engineering is tracking it and looking for a long-term solution. It was refreshing to have such a frank and open discussion with a car manufacturer's representatives; that attitude is much appreciated by me. We're hoping to be able to return the #%(*#($ Mercedes CLA 250 today and pick up our Model X. We may have to take it back in at some later date for the long-term fix, but that's ok. We knew we were getting a version 1.0 when we pre-ordered it. :)
I did manage to get a little time in on my stairs project yesterday, and I hope I'll get some more today. I'm putting three dowels down the centerline of each 4x4 butt joint I'm making, and to get the holes precisely positioned in the opposing faces I needed a drill jig. That's what I built yesterday, from some scrap white pine 1x6 and a 2x4. The first photo shows the guide I rigged with clamps in order to route a groove in the 2x4 to insert the 1x6. The second photo shows the result. The third photo shows the 2x4s being glued to the 1x6, and the last photo the end result. This morning I'll drill the three template holes in the 1x6, and then the jig is done. I didn't really dance with it, though. :)
This exercise made me think of the day, many years ago, when it dawned on me that clamps were pretty much the center of any woodworker's universe. When I thought of a wood shop, I, like most people, thought of tools like saws, planes, hammers, etc. But now I think I could best tell you if someone was a woodworker by looking for the clamps in their shop. :) I own 28 clamps (I counted yesterday) of five distinct types, and I have 8 more arriving today (pipe clamps, for the sixth type). This isn't nearly enough; I'm pretty sure I need at least twice as many, both in number and in type. I also need a rack to store them all, as right now I just keep them in a messy pile.
I did manage to get a little time in on my stairs project yesterday, and I hope I'll get some more today. I'm putting three dowels down the centerline of each 4x4 butt joint I'm making, and to get the holes precisely positioned in the opposing faces I needed a drill jig. That's what I built yesterday, from some scrap white pine 1x6 and a 2x4. The first photo shows the guide I rigged with clamps in order to route a groove in the 2x4 to insert the 1x6. The second photo shows the result. The third photo shows the 2x4s being glued to the 1x6, and the last photo the end result. This morning I'll drill the three template holes in the 1x6, and then the jig is done. I didn't really dance with it, though. :)
This exercise made me think of the day, many years ago, when it dawned on me that clamps were pretty much the center of any woodworker's universe. When I thought of a wood shop, I, like most people, thought of tools like saws, planes, hammers, etc. But now I think I could best tell you if someone was a woodworker by looking for the clamps in their shop. :) I own 28 clamps (I counted yesterday) of five distinct types, and I have 8 more arriving today (pipe clamps, for the sixth type). This isn't nearly enough; I'm pretty sure I need at least twice as many, both in number and in type. I also need a rack to store them all, as right now I just keep them in a messy pile.
Habits and conventions...
Others, though, have life experiences more akin to mine. Just to make one example: I have a neighbor who is older than I am, and has spent his entire working life around machinery. While fixing an irrigation pipe last summer, he ran into trouble that he thought was caused by his arthritis interfering with his finger strength – he was unable to remove a 6" long nipple. He called me over to help him out. The pipe unscrewed easily, and when my neighbor saw me do it, he immediately started making fun of himself – because he'd been trying to tighten it! Fifty years of field experience with machinery, and he still didn't have the directionality of threads down pat. In fact, I discovered, he relied on a little jingle (“righty tighty, lefty loosy”) to jog his memory, but somehow he'd messed that up. He told me that he's always had trouble remembering the direction to turn bolts, etc. He's even marked his tools with arrows to help him remember.
Thinking about this apparent dichotomy (people who can or can't easily remember thread directions) got me to wondering if it might be related to dyslexia. A little googling quickly eliminated that hypothesis: dyslexia is strictly related to words (as you can see from the word's roots!), and doesn't affect any other abilities so far as I can tell from the studies I scanned. I learned thread directions so long ago that I can't recall at all whether it was difficult for me to learn. Anything you've learned so well that it's now not even raised to a conscious level is, I suspect, like that.
Might it be related to one's spatial reasoning ability? That's an area where the tests I've taken indicate I have a high ability, and it's also (feminists, avert your eyes) one where women score, on average, considerably below men. Some men, obviously, score low as well. I wonder how well this ability correlates with the ease of internalizing thread direction? Or the sense of “proper” twist-em direction? :)
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Unusual morning skies...
Haversine...
Haversine... Just ran across this trigonometric function in my reading this morning. I'd never heard of it before. Turns out there's a boatload of these “vestigial” trig functions. As the author of that post mentions, I learned about sine, cosine, and tangent in high school, then picked up secant, cosecant, and cotangent somewhere along the line. The rest of these I'd never heard of: versine, vercosine, coversine, covercosine, exsecant, excosecant, haversine, havercosine, hacoversine, and hacovercosine.
The reason why these functions were invented is interesting, too. It all comes down to the fact that people didn't used to have calculators or computers at their desks, and these functions, provided in tables, saved a great deal of manual computation...
The reason why these functions were invented is interesting, too. It all comes down to the fact that people didn't used to have calculators or computers at their desks, and these functions, provided in tables, saved a great deal of manual computation...
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Paradise ponders, koa cat and bad Mercedes edition...
Paradise ponders, koa cat and bad Mercedes edition... While we were in Hawai'i last week, we stopped a couple of times at an interesting shop that we really enjoyed: The Gallery of Great Things. It's a bit of a challenge to characterize this place, as you'll see if you wander around their web site. The employees who helped us were a delight: the polar opposite of the pushy salespeople – they seemed a bit unhappy that some of the items they carry were departing. The store serves as a retail outlet for quite a large number of Hawai'ian artists of many types: painters, sculptors, tapa makers, bead artists, and many more.
There were quite a few things there that we enjoyed looking at, and some wooden items in particular that we wanted to buy. On our past visits, we never had enough money to even consider buying some of the larger wooden items that we liked. This time we could, though, and we bought two of them.
The first thing we got was a cat carved from a koa log (three view below). It stands about 3' tall and weighs about 35 pounds. I'm not quite sure what to call this style. “Abstract” doesn't seem quite right. The engineer in me wants to call this “low resolution”, since it's a bit like an image rendered in low resolution. Whatever you want to call it, we liked it a lot. The carving is nicely done, and the finish is beautifully done – smooth and pettable. :)
The carved koa bowl at right is the second piece we got. It, too, is carved from a koa log. On the right hand side the blue “streak” is a crack that was filled with crushed turquoise and epoxy. The rest of it is flawless and carved down to roughly 3/8" (10 mm) thickness. It's now the centerpiece of our dining room table.
We selected both of these while in Hawai'i, letting the gallery ship them back to us in Utah. The folks at the gallery assured us that the owner was the world's leading expert in packing fragile items for shipment to the U.S., and that they do this pretty much literally every day, so I wasn't too worried about it. We got the packages a few days ago, and I can attest to the quality of the packing job – both pieces were swaddled in so many layers of waterproofing, shock-absorbing, and protective materials that it's really hard to imagine how anything could have hurt them! And nothing had: both pieces arrived in perfect condition. They were shipped UPS Ground from Hawai'i, which, one presumes, isn't really how they were shipped. :) Each piece took just 3 business days to get here, which really seems kind of astonishing to me. The cost for shipping each piece was well under $100. The world seems to get smaller all the time...
The bad Mercedes? Well, that's got nothing to do with Hawai'i! :) This morning we drove our Tesla Model X down to Salt Lake City for the technicians to try again (second time) to repair our reluctant spoiler. It's supposed to extend and retract automatically as you drive; ours was stuck in the fully extended position. The techs couldn't estimate the time, so they arranged for a (free) loaner car. They didn't have a spare Tesla to lend us, so they rented a Mercedes CLA 250 instead. We drove that back home. We hated it. It's tiny, we feel like we're riding in a go kart, every little bump feels like someone is hammering our butts, it's noisy, and the way the engine stops and restarts every time you pause at a traffic signal is very distracting. The worst sin of all, though, is that the damned thing doesn't even have a backup camera! We had a hell of a time figuring out how to use some basic things, too, such as the radio. We were both thoroughly underwhelmed. We want our Tesla back! :) The plan is to drive back down to SLC tomorrow to get it...
There were quite a few things there that we enjoyed looking at, and some wooden items in particular that we wanted to buy. On our past visits, we never had enough money to even consider buying some of the larger wooden items that we liked. This time we could, though, and we bought two of them.
The first thing we got was a cat carved from a koa log (three view below). It stands about 3' tall and weighs about 35 pounds. I'm not quite sure what to call this style. “Abstract” doesn't seem quite right. The engineer in me wants to call this “low resolution”, since it's a bit like an image rendered in low resolution. Whatever you want to call it, we liked it a lot. The carving is nicely done, and the finish is beautifully done – smooth and pettable. :)
We selected both of these while in Hawai'i, letting the gallery ship them back to us in Utah. The folks at the gallery assured us that the owner was the world's leading expert in packing fragile items for shipment to the U.S., and that they do this pretty much literally every day, so I wasn't too worried about it. We got the packages a few days ago, and I can attest to the quality of the packing job – both pieces were swaddled in so many layers of waterproofing, shock-absorbing, and protective materials that it's really hard to imagine how anything could have hurt them! And nothing had: both pieces arrived in perfect condition. They were shipped UPS Ground from Hawai'i, which, one presumes, isn't really how they were shipped. :) Each piece took just 3 business days to get here, which really seems kind of astonishing to me. The cost for shipping each piece was well under $100. The world seems to get smaller all the time...
The bad Mercedes? Well, that's got nothing to do with Hawai'i! :) This morning we drove our Tesla Model X down to Salt Lake City for the technicians to try again (second time) to repair our reluctant spoiler. It's supposed to extend and retract automatically as you drive; ours was stuck in the fully extended position. The techs couldn't estimate the time, so they arranged for a (free) loaner car. They didn't have a spare Tesla to lend us, so they rented a Mercedes CLA 250 instead. We drove that back home. We hated it. It's tiny, we feel like we're riding in a go kart, every little bump feels like someone is hammering our butts, it's noisy, and the way the engine stops and restarts every time you pause at a traffic signal is very distracting. The worst sin of all, though, is that the damned thing doesn't even have a backup camera! We had a hell of a time figuring out how to use some basic things, too, such as the radio. We were both thoroughly underwhelmed. We want our Tesla back! :) The plan is to drive back down to SLC tomorrow to get it...
Lossless compression ain't quite what it used to be!
Lossless compression ain't quite what it used to be! Way back in the dark ages of computing (I speak of the early '90s), I worked for a company that made quite a bit of money from lossless compression software (and even a little from hardware!): Stac Electronics. I wasn't one of the subject matter experts there, but I worked with them every day, and a little bit rubbed off. I've had an interest in it ever since.
So when a blog post raved about a lossless compression library I'd never heard of before (Zstandard), I went and read about it in a blog post, then off to the GitHub repository to take a look at their docs and at the API.
It's really kind of amazing what's happened in the 25 years since I was at Stac. The core LZS code at Stac had a trivial API by comparison, and the code base was vastly smaller. As with almost every kind of software, the newer things are far more complex, more sophisticated, and more capable. Even just looking at the statistical graphs is kind of mind-boggling; we didn't have nearly as complete an analysis – mostly we had “point” tests with results under just a few sets of conditions. Of course the CPUs are vastly more powerful these days, and that enables all sorts of interesting things, some of which Zstandard leverages some of those.
Sometimes I wonder if there's any such thing as simple software anymore... :)
So when a blog post raved about a lossless compression library I'd never heard of before (Zstandard), I went and read about it in a blog post, then off to the GitHub repository to take a look at their docs and at the API.
It's really kind of amazing what's happened in the 25 years since I was at Stac. The core LZS code at Stac had a trivial API by comparison, and the code base was vastly smaller. As with almost every kind of software, the newer things are far more complex, more sophisticated, and more capable. Even just looking at the statistical graphs is kind of mind-boggling; we didn't have nearly as complete an analysis – mostly we had “point” tests with results under just a few sets of conditions. Of course the CPUs are vastly more powerful these days, and that enables all sorts of interesting things, some of which Zstandard leverages some of those.
Sometimes I wonder if there's any such thing as simple software anymore... :)
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
A stunningly great support experience...
A stunningly great support experience... Those are not words I write often! :) I just got off the phone with a support agent (Debbie) at Health Equity. They are a company that provides and manages HSA accounts, a confusing topic in the first place. The health insurance that we started this year (Regence – Blue Cross/Blue Shield) uses Health Equity as a partner.
We're new to the whole thing as of January 1st, and I was trying to understand why I had a credit showing on one of my claims. It looked to me as though the claim should have a zero balance, but the Health Equity website showed a small credit on it. I first submitted a request (yesterday) via a web support page, but promptly got an email saying that I should call them, as they didn't want to put private details in an email (good security practice!). They sent me a number that was allegedly 24x7 and invited me to call.
So at around 7 am this morning, cringing in anticipation of a difficult conversation, I picked up my phone and called. After a short and easy automated routing, I was put in queue for a support agent. Within 10 seconds, Debbie picked up the phone and we started talking.
That call may be the best single telephone support interaction I have ever had.
What sticks in my mind the most is Debbie's attitude: cheery, eager to help, funny, friendly, and personable as you could imagine. She's located in Draper, Utah – just south of Salt Lake City – not northeastern Uzbekistan or Sri Lanka or whatever. English is her first language. She knows the area – she's even familiar with Paradise! Bottom line from the call: neither she nor others there understand why there's a credit on that claim. It looks to them, too, like the balance should show as zero. They were open and upfront with that; no BS was dispensed.
Kudos from this ancient manager to the folks at Health Equity that are making this happen. Support like that doesn't happen by accident...
The next time I need to call them, I certainly won't be cringing in anticipation.
Hell, I might call them if all I need is cheering up!
We're new to the whole thing as of January 1st, and I was trying to understand why I had a credit showing on one of my claims. It looked to me as though the claim should have a zero balance, but the Health Equity website showed a small credit on it. I first submitted a request (yesterday) via a web support page, but promptly got an email saying that I should call them, as they didn't want to put private details in an email (good security practice!). They sent me a number that was allegedly 24x7 and invited me to call.
So at around 7 am this morning, cringing in anticipation of a difficult conversation, I picked up my phone and called. After a short and easy automated routing, I was put in queue for a support agent. Within 10 seconds, Debbie picked up the phone and we started talking.
That call may be the best single telephone support interaction I have ever had.
What sticks in my mind the most is Debbie's attitude: cheery, eager to help, funny, friendly, and personable as you could imagine. She's located in Draper, Utah – just south of Salt Lake City – not northeastern Uzbekistan or Sri Lanka or whatever. English is her first language. She knows the area – she's even familiar with Paradise! Bottom line from the call: neither she nor others there understand why there's a credit on that claim. It looks to them, too, like the balance should show as zero. They were open and upfront with that; no BS was dispensed.
Kudos from this ancient manager to the folks at Health Equity that are making this happen. Support like that doesn't happen by accident...
The next time I need to call them, I certainly won't be cringing in anticipation.
Hell, I might call them if all I need is cheering up!
Monday, March 6, 2017
Paradise ponders, rectangular redwood edition...
Paradise ponders, rectangular redwood edition... Well, now that I've finished snowplowing for the day, I managed to get some time in on the steps project. I made 3 more passes through the planer on each of the 8 4x4s that I started with. That's 24 passes today (half filling my dust collection barrel!), and now the redwood 4x4s are distinctly rectangular in cross-section – but the corner radius milling has been completely removed.
The first photo shows the 8 former 4x4s; the next two show the micrometer measurement of the thickness and width, respectively. So ... the 4x4s are now dimensional lumber, 2.8225" x 3.3530". :) The thicknesses are all the same to within my ability to measure, though that will change as the pieces dry out. The widths vary considerably, though: from 3.2733" to 3.4504". Note that all of them are under the 3.5" that they're supposed to be. I'm not sure if that's the mill cheating us a teensy bit, or (more likely, I think) shrinkage from the wood drying out.
One of the challenges of building out of solid wood is dealing with shrinkage. This project is much less critical than, say, a tabletop. I will be using dowels to keep the centerline of the pieces stable, and then good glue joints to attempt to keep edges from shifting. I'm using good quality glue that resists shear forces, but even so, if the differential shrinkage between two adjacent pieces is too high, they will slip and form a little ridge. The only way I know of to guarantee that that won't happen is to glue up all the pieces and then dry them in a kiln for at least a few days. The few days I've got, but the kiln I do not. :) I'll be letting them dry in my heated barn for 4 or 5 days before I sand them down. Hopefully the majority of any differential shrinkage will have occurred by then..
The first photo shows the 8 former 4x4s; the next two show the micrometer measurement of the thickness and width, respectively. So ... the 4x4s are now dimensional lumber, 2.8225" x 3.3530". :) The thicknesses are all the same to within my ability to measure, though that will change as the pieces dry out. The widths vary considerably, though: from 3.2733" to 3.4504". Note that all of them are under the 3.5" that they're supposed to be. I'm not sure if that's the mill cheating us a teensy bit, or (more likely, I think) shrinkage from the wood drying out.
One of the challenges of building out of solid wood is dealing with shrinkage. This project is much less critical than, say, a tabletop. I will be using dowels to keep the centerline of the pieces stable, and then good glue joints to attempt to keep edges from shifting. I'm using good quality glue that resists shear forces, but even so, if the differential shrinkage between two adjacent pieces is too high, they will slip and form a little ridge. The only way I know of to guarantee that that won't happen is to glue up all the pieces and then dry them in a kiln for at least a few days. The few days I've got, but the kiln I do not. :) I'll be letting them dry in my heated barn for 4 or 5 days before I sand them down. Hopefully the majority of any differential shrinkage will have occurred by then..
Paradise ponders...
Around 8 pm, our power and cable Internet connections simultaneously died. Our backup generators kicked in within a few seconds – and ran constantly for the next five and a half hours. The outage that got us also took out the entire southern section of Cache Valley, 1,000 or so homes and businesses. That was just one of over 50 outages suffered along the Wasatch Mountains front at roughly the same time. The snowy and icy road conditions meant quite a few accidents, and some of those were collisions with poles. The wind meant quite a few downed trees, and some of those took out power, telephone, and cable lines. I'm not sure which failure mode we experienced, but the repair time was long because the power company's crews were stretched to the limit. Our general experience is that we're back up within an hour or two; this was much longer than that. After the power was off for an hour or so, I poked my head out our front door and back door, to look around at the valley. Other than at our house, there wasn't a light in sight – total darkness prevailed. Apparently we have the only backup generator within a couple of miles. After last night's experience, at least one of my neighbors is suddenly very interested. :) We were very grateful ourselves, as we didn't have to worry about getting cold, losing the food in our freezer, or even being slightly inconvenienced. Everything just worked. If my memory serves me right, this is the fifth outage we've had (and by far the longest one) since installing the generators. The decision to spend the money on them is feeling pretty good right about now...
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Paradise ponders...
Paradise ponders ... homecoming in the wind edition... We've got smiles on our faces around here, because our friend Tim D. is due home from the hospital any minute now. His recovery went faster than anticipated, always a good sign. He's up and walking around, but he does have rather severe limits on what he's allowed to lift: just 15 lbs. for the next year (though it's possible they'll relax that earlier if it's clear he's healed enough). For a retired guy whose hobby is farming alfalfa on five acres, that's going to be tough. So many things require lifting around a little farm like this, but most especially the irrigation pipes (which are in use roughly half the days from May through September, and which must be moved on each of those days) and hay for his two horses. The hay Tim's wife Jeannie can handle, except when one of the big 1,200 lb. bales needs to be moved; for that, my tractor will do the trick. The pipe moving we've started to organize some of the (many!) youths in Paradise, and me. So good to know he's home and the surgery was successful!
Debbie and I had breakfast at Angie's this morning. She had a “Santa Fe” skillet with chicken, I had eggs and ham. Good, solid, delicious food as always. It was fun to hear the locals talking about local things once again; the first time we've been immersed in that since our trip to Hawai'i ended. I overheard the conversation at a nearby table, a middle-aged couple visiting Logan because they're considering moving here from Ogden. They were raving about Angie's – they couldn't believe the quality of the food, not to mention the quantity, and the smiling, friendly service just blew them away. We're not far from Ogden, but the cultural difference really is quite large. Ogden is much more the “big city” atmosphere, and service such as provided by Angie's would, I'm sure, really stand out. But I think that only explains part of it – some of it is Angie's. I've met the owner, who's often around, talking with customers. He's just like his staff – open, friendly, welcoming, interested, eager to please. I'm sure that attitude and energy trickles down to all the staff, or at least all the staff who stay employed. It's not that we get unfriendly service elsewhere in Logan, because we do with but rare exception. What I'm really trying to say is that even here Angie's stands out.
Despite overly full belly ('cause there's no such thing as a small breakfast at Angie's so far as I can tell, and it's so good you're definitely going to want to eat it all!), I started working on the steps project that I bought lumber for yesterday. There will be just two steps, 44" wide. The upper step will be more like a landing, 36" deep, because the door from our house will open over it. The other step will be about 11" deep. Both of them will be roughly 3" thick, solid redwood. I'm making them by gluing multiple 4x4s together, using dowels to get accurate joints. The 4x4s come from the lumberyard with a roughly 3/16" radius to make rounded edges – a good thing for most purposes, but not for mine, as I want the top of the slab to be free of the grooves that would make. So I'm planing all the 4x4s down on two opposite sides, to eliminate the radius. That will reduce the thickness to roughly 3" instead of 3.5".
In the first photo below you can see the side I planed on the bottom, and the unplaned side (with the radius milling) on the top. The second photo shows all eight of the 4x4s I need with one planed side (on the top). These all measure 3.137" in thickness now, down from the roughly 3.4" (with lots of variance) as I received them. This little exercise was a nice test of my planer, to see how stable its depth of cut was. So far as I'm able to measure (0.001"), it's perfect – the first piece and the last piece both measure 3.137" thick no matter where I measure them. A few hours from now, as the wood starts drying differently on the different pieces, that will no longer be true. :)
To plane all those 4x4s took a total of 24 passes through my planer, three for each piece. Why? Because the planer can only remove 3mm (a shade under 1/8") on a single pass. So to chew off enough wood to remove the radius milling, it took three passes. I'll have 24 more passes to take off the opposite side of each 4x4.
When I finished that first side on all of them, I decided to take a break. I went to shut off my dust collection system and saw that the collection barrel was over-full (see first photo below). Oops! I've only emptied this barrel twice since installing it almost two years ago. Most of what I do doesn't make all that much sawdust. But the planer is an entirely different story: it removes a lot of wood, and fast – in fact, that's it's entire job. The second photo shows what I saw after I removed the lid and cleared the “extra” chips from the transparent feeder tube. Those are all redwood chips on the top from the planing I did this morning. I reached down into the chips to see where the redwood started – and discovered that 2/3s of the barrel are redwood chips from this morning. I'm going to have to pay closer attention to that system when planing! :)
The wind is howling outside. We have an average wind speed of 28 mph predicted for later this afternoon, and I think it's probably around 20 mph average right now (though some gusts are clearly much higher speed than that). The temperature is 53°F right now, about like yesterday, and between the wind and the heat our snow cover is melting very rapidly. Many fields are completely clear already. But ... our forecast is showing up to 6" of snow over the next couple of days, so I'm not removing my snowplow from my tractor just yet...
Debbie and I had breakfast at Angie's this morning. She had a “Santa Fe” skillet with chicken, I had eggs and ham. Good, solid, delicious food as always. It was fun to hear the locals talking about local things once again; the first time we've been immersed in that since our trip to Hawai'i ended. I overheard the conversation at a nearby table, a middle-aged couple visiting Logan because they're considering moving here from Ogden. They were raving about Angie's – they couldn't believe the quality of the food, not to mention the quantity, and the smiling, friendly service just blew them away. We're not far from Ogden, but the cultural difference really is quite large. Ogden is much more the “big city” atmosphere, and service such as provided by Angie's would, I'm sure, really stand out. But I think that only explains part of it – some of it is Angie's. I've met the owner, who's often around, talking with customers. He's just like his staff – open, friendly, welcoming, interested, eager to please. I'm sure that attitude and energy trickles down to all the staff, or at least all the staff who stay employed. It's not that we get unfriendly service elsewhere in Logan, because we do with but rare exception. What I'm really trying to say is that even here Angie's stands out.
Despite overly full belly ('cause there's no such thing as a small breakfast at Angie's so far as I can tell, and it's so good you're definitely going to want to eat it all!), I started working on the steps project that I bought lumber for yesterday. There will be just two steps, 44" wide. The upper step will be more like a landing, 36" deep, because the door from our house will open over it. The other step will be about 11" deep. Both of them will be roughly 3" thick, solid redwood. I'm making them by gluing multiple 4x4s together, using dowels to get accurate joints. The 4x4s come from the lumberyard with a roughly 3/16" radius to make rounded edges – a good thing for most purposes, but not for mine, as I want the top of the slab to be free of the grooves that would make. So I'm planing all the 4x4s down on two opposite sides, to eliminate the radius. That will reduce the thickness to roughly 3" instead of 3.5".
In the first photo below you can see the side I planed on the bottom, and the unplaned side (with the radius milling) on the top. The second photo shows all eight of the 4x4s I need with one planed side (on the top). These all measure 3.137" in thickness now, down from the roughly 3.4" (with lots of variance) as I received them. This little exercise was a nice test of my planer, to see how stable its depth of cut was. So far as I'm able to measure (0.001"), it's perfect – the first piece and the last piece both measure 3.137" thick no matter where I measure them. A few hours from now, as the wood starts drying differently on the different pieces, that will no longer be true. :)
To plane all those 4x4s took a total of 24 passes through my planer, three for each piece. Why? Because the planer can only remove 3mm (a shade under 1/8") on a single pass. So to chew off enough wood to remove the radius milling, it took three passes. I'll have 24 more passes to take off the opposite side of each 4x4.
When I finished that first side on all of them, I decided to take a break. I went to shut off my dust collection system and saw that the collection barrel was over-full (see first photo below). Oops! I've only emptied this barrel twice since installing it almost two years ago. Most of what I do doesn't make all that much sawdust. But the planer is an entirely different story: it removes a lot of wood, and fast – in fact, that's it's entire job. The second photo shows what I saw after I removed the lid and cleared the “extra” chips from the transparent feeder tube. Those are all redwood chips on the top from the planing I did this morning. I reached down into the chips to see where the redwood started – and discovered that 2/3s of the barrel are redwood chips from this morning. I'm going to have to pay closer attention to that system when planing! :)
The wind is howling outside. We have an average wind speed of 28 mph predicted for later this afternoon, and I think it's probably around 20 mph average right now (though some gusts are clearly much higher speed than that). The temperature is 53°F right now, about like yesterday, and between the wind and the heat our snow cover is melting very rapidly. Many fields are completely clear already. But ... our forecast is showing up to 6" of snow over the next couple of days, so I'm not removing my snowplow from my tractor just yet...
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Paradise ponders...
Paradise ponders... We've been visiting Tim D., our friend and neighbor, in the hospital every day. He had back surgery to fuse three vertebrae on Wednesday. The surgery went very well, and he's recovering faster than they'd predicted. We saw him a couple of hours ago, and he's smiling and ready to be up and at 'em. I warned him that I'd take a baseball bat to him if we caught him trying to lift anything (he's got a 15 lb. limit for a year!). It's really good to see him doing well – he's one of the good guys, and we've been worried about him.
Debbie's out having her nails done at the moment, and she drove her new truck by herself for only the second time. She's had it for two months now, but didn't want to walk by herself when we had snow and ice. So we've been going together, in the Tesla, while her new truck sat in the garage. It started right up after we figured out how to do it (there's no key, and it won't do a darned thing unless your foot is on the brake).
My brother Scott went with me to pick up some lumber today. I'm building a set of stairs to get from our bedroom to our new sun room; there's a 12" drop involved, so just two steps. I'm making them from redwood, which I'm going to bleach, artificially distress (basically, I'm going to bash the hell out of it with a variety of bashers), then finish with a two-color system to accent the dents, and finally a coat of matte polyurethane to keep the natural wood look but protect it well. It should be an interesting experiment. Just getting the wood was more trouble than I expected. First, redwood is rather expensive these days. Second, in both Home Depot and Lowe's the lumber had been handled roughly and left outdoors – so it was quite dinged up and in some cases soaking wet. Lowe's had more of it in stock, so we went there and picked through a pile of wood to get the 9 4x4's that I needed (I'm gluing up the 4x4s to make a thick slab for each step). One item I wanted didn't exist in the store: pipe clamps. You wouldn't think pipe clamps would be scarce in an area with so many woodworkers, but they only had one in stock. Lots of bar clamps, but just the one pipe clamp. I had to order them from Amazon...
Debbie's out having her nails done at the moment, and she drove her new truck by herself for only the second time. She's had it for two months now, but didn't want to walk by herself when we had snow and ice. So we've been going together, in the Tesla, while her new truck sat in the garage. It started right up after we figured out how to do it (there's no key, and it won't do a darned thing unless your foot is on the brake).
My brother Scott went with me to pick up some lumber today. I'm building a set of stairs to get from our bedroom to our new sun room; there's a 12" drop involved, so just two steps. I'm making them from redwood, which I'm going to bleach, artificially distress (basically, I'm going to bash the hell out of it with a variety of bashers), then finish with a two-color system to accent the dents, and finally a coat of matte polyurethane to keep the natural wood look but protect it well. It should be an interesting experiment. Just getting the wood was more trouble than I expected. First, redwood is rather expensive these days. Second, in both Home Depot and Lowe's the lumber had been handled roughly and left outdoors – so it was quite dinged up and in some cases soaking wet. Lowe's had more of it in stock, so we went there and picked through a pile of wood to get the 9 4x4's that I needed (I'm gluing up the 4x4s to make a thick slab for each step). One item I wanted didn't exist in the store: pipe clamps. You wouldn't think pipe clamps would be scarce in an area with so many woodworkers, but they only had one in stock. Lots of bar clamps, but just the one pipe clamp. I had to order them from Amazon...
Friday, March 3, 2017
An accidental discovery...
An accidental discovery... While on our recent trip to Hawai'i, we stopped in at a coffee and tea shop to stock up for the mornings in our cottage. Naturally I'd forgotten to pack my favorite little tea infuser, so I asked at the shop for one. They didn't have any (which really surprised me!), but they did have something I'd never heard of: tea filters. I picked up a 20 pack of them for a few dollars, and used them during our trip.
How did they work out? Short answer: they're better than any infuser I've ever had, and I really liked the infusers I've had for the past few years. I ordered 200 filters last week and got them yesterday. The filters themselves are conical paper (much like coffee filter paper, but a little finer) with two little holes at the top. The filters come with a little plastic stick, cleverly shaped to go through the two holes, sit firmly on your cup's rim, while holding the filter cone open (so you can pour hot water over it). I've been rinsing my tea leaves in the infuser with cold water to get the tea dust off; that's not necessary with the filters. If you let the filters drain in your sink, in a few minutes they're dry enough to toss in the trash – very convenient.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves tea...
How did they work out? Short answer: they're better than any infuser I've ever had, and I really liked the infusers I've had for the past few years. I ordered 200 filters last week and got them yesterday. The filters themselves are conical paper (much like coffee filter paper, but a little finer) with two little holes at the top. The filters come with a little plastic stick, cleverly shaped to go through the two holes, sit firmly on your cup's rim, while holding the filter cone open (so you can pour hot water over it). I've been rinsing my tea leaves in the infuser with cold water to get the tea dust off; that's not necessary with the filters. If you let the filters drain in your sink, in a few minutes they're dry enough to toss in the trash – very convenient.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves tea...
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Slow blogging for a few days, most likely...
Slow blogging for a few days, most likely... I'm catching up on the huge pile of paperwork and backlog of stuff put off while we were on vacation. In addition, a good friend (Tim D.) had some serious back surgery yesterday. We'll be spending some time with him in the hospital until he gets home. Also we're on standby to help out at his home with anything his wife might need...
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