Alaska

Oct. 17th, 2025 01:27 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
 As we boarded our plane in Santa Rosa we could hear Chena vigorously defending her crate from the baggage loaders. We arrived long after dark.  Chena was super glad to see me when I got to baggage claim.  Three dog kennels were lined up waiting for people to retrieve them.  Everyone up here has dogs. 
This morning Chena and I walked around the neighborhood. 
Pictures! )

Yesterday

Oct. 17th, 2025 01:18 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
The night before was showerless.  Turns out the water heater never re-lit after the stove installation.  I couldn't get it to light and M had long since gone to bed. That was annoying since I'd moved a bunch of rocks, propped up the new culvert with rocks, zip tied the culvert coupler on to two pieces and leveled things as best I could. Enough work to get a bit dirty.
Anyway, in the morning I went down, got the tractor and shoveled a lot of gravel in around the new culvert.  Extra good for getting your heart rate up a bit and keeping it there.  The gravel needed to be packed as I went so lots of walking on it.  Eventually gravel covered most of the culvert and I was able to use the tractor to shove a pile of loose dirt over the gravel.  Yay for progress. 


Once done with the culvert I got a shower at M's, hastily packed the last few things and we left for the airport, Alaska bound.  Fortunately we could leave our car at Dave's house (he lives right next to the airport) and get a ride with him. Thank goodness for friends!

Photo cross-post

Oct. 17th, 2025 08:01 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


The neighbours are putting in a front drive. The children were delighted to get a go.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker
It would be awesome if I didn't have to have an argument with Gideon about bedtime every single night.

Sophia doesn't do that any more. I wonder at what age he'll grow out of it.

Fun Days, Stove, Firefly.

Oct. 15th, 2025 07:30 pm
ranunculus: (Default)
[personal profile] ranunculus
This last week has been crazy busy. 
Update with pictures. )


shoes for an offering

Oct. 15th, 2025 06:36 pm
asakiyume: (miroku)
[personal profile] asakiyume
[personal profile] wakanomori ran in the Cape Cod Marathon over the weekend--in the teeth of an approaching nor'easter! While he was slogging it out, I wandered the coast, nibbling rose hips and admiring plants like this one, with soft, enticing seed heads. I found out it's called "groundsel bush," also sea-myrtle or saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia)

Baccharis Halimifolia (groundsel bush)

These patent leather shoes grabbed my attention, tucked just so on the other side of the wall separating the beach from the sidewalk. No one was walking barefoot on the beach except gulls and cormorants.

shoes for an offering

They look like shiny eggs in a nest.

Or like an offering. In The Snow Queen, Gerda gives her new red shoes to the river, believing that the river has taken her playmate Kay, and that by offering the river her shoes, she can induce it to give him back. But the river hasn't taken Kay.

These black shoes aren't near enough to the ocean to really count as an offering to the waves or tide, I don't think.

So if they're an offering, to or for whom?

Or maybe someone just doesn't like their patent leather shoes and has left them for someone else to claim.

Pitching sleeves [rowing, projects]

Oct. 15th, 2025 04:20 pm
rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
The region of an oar that sits in the oarlock is referred to as the oar's sleeve. Historically, oar sleeves were made of leather, which helped to reduce wear of the wood shaft as the oar was used and repeatedly turned from square to feather with every rowing stroke.

On modern fiberglass oars, the sleeves are made of plastic. Plastic sleeves inevitably wear out, and need to be replaced, as illustrated by these photos from the last time I worked to refurbish rowing oars, way back in 2012 in Texas.

Modern sleeves are also designed to have flat surfaces that hold the oar at very precise angles, helping to ensure that the rowing movement is efficient both when the oar is in the water and when it is out of the water.

That makes sleeve replacement fussy and stressful. Thankfully, the major oar manufacturer provides detailed instructions on how to set everything up correctly. I ensured that the oar blade surface was level across a specific part of the blade, and then ensured the shaft of the oar was also level, lining the oar up across the surface of our basement workbench.

Pitching oar sleeves

Then I used a rowing "pitch meter" to set the sleeve with a 3-degree pitch.

One part that was confusing to me, however, was whether that needed to be a positive 3-degree pitch or a negative 3-degree pitch. Thankfully, I had another pair of oars nearby, so I could check and confirm a positive 3-degree pitch.

Once the pitch was set, I secured the sleeve by applying a 2-part polyurethane glue.

Pitching oar sleeves

I completed the process for a pair of oars, one specialized for the starboard side of the boat, the other specialized for the port side of the boat.

Last night while on the verge of falling asleep, a question occurred to me about whether I had correctly set the pitch at a positive three degrees for the second, port-side oar. I will need to recheck it this evening. If I got the port oar backwards, I'll need to take everything apart, pry out the glue, and try again. Sigh.

While I was in the basement, I also sanded the oars to be repainted, and applied the next coat of paint.

It's really important to sand between coats to ensure the paint adheres well.

Prepping for paint coat 2

Even after just one full coat, these oars are already looking so much better than before.

Prepping for paint coat 2

The work will continue.

Animals in containers [cats, animals]

Oct. 15th, 2025 04:09 pm
rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
Martha is a little more shy than George is about having her picture taken, but she at least stayed inside the cat carrier where she had been curled up sleeping for long enough for me to get this photo!

Are you trying to give us a hint, Martha?

I wonder if she's trying to give us a hint.

Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon I took one of the Animal Physiology reptiles to the vet. Here is Geri the Gerrhosaurus major on her way to the vet:

Geri goes to the vet

Geri goes to the vet

Here we are waiting for the vet to arrive and take a look at a growth on her neck:
Geri goes to the vet

Unfortunately, the vet suspects the growth may be cancerous. We will go back next Tuesday for surgery to remove tissue from the surrounding area.

Geri goes to the vet

Geri did a wonderful job of being her calm self for almost the entire time we were at the vet. She waited until after the vet drew a blood sample before she flipped the switch from calm, still reptile to squiggly-wiggly squirming running away reptile. She ran right back out of her transport box, to the vet's surprise!

But she behaved herself again for the entire ride back to campus.

The students who care for Geri were grateful to know that she was getting attention from the vet, but are now worried about her cancer diagnosis. I just hope that we can all continue to provide Geri with the best possible life for as long as possible, however the diagnosis turns out. She has been a wonderful animal for the students in Animal Physiology to meet and work with.

A bit more about Lysenkoism [books]

Oct. 15th, 2025 03:17 pm
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[personal profile] rebeccmeister
From the Wikipedia page about it, it appears that the People's Republic of China was accepting of Lysenkoism for a number of years, which I'd interpret to mean there was some deployment of some of the agricultural policies and approaches favored under the philosophy.

This gets to be interesting because it partially relates to a question I'd had earlier, about how people from different cultures teach and learn about the theory of evolution by natural selection, as most often credited to Darwin (but one should at least say, see also Alfred Russel Wallace).

Interestingly, Darwin's understanding of the mechanisms of inheritance was probably more closely aligned with the concept of the inheritance of acquired characteristics; here's what someone created as a rough timeline of genetics-related events in Russia, wherein you can see that Gregor Mendel appeared on the scene after Darwin.

But in countries with a history of very heavy state influence on scientific teaching, I could imagine that there might often be a glossing-over of the teaching of any history of science, and instead a favoring of, "This is how science works now. No questions." Or if a society is more collectivist in nature, some sort of narrative more along the lines of, "This is how we understand this topic now, based on general agreement," with less emphasis placed on the supposed importance of any particular individuals in "discovering" a thing.

For now I think I'm going to continue with my storytelling approach that talks about some of these characters, but I'll also try to include some questions and commentary about whether this is an appropriate way to think about scientific understanding. My reason for leaving the matter a somewhat open question is because for some people, learning Eurocentric history can be really alienating. And eventually we'll wind up talking about Watson and Crick anyway, and so the question will arise as to what to do about problematic figures (look it up, James Watson's off his rocker).
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
I'm meh on the lyrics and music, but the video...! So here it is, with a couple of other videos that inexplicably got skipped last time I posted a lot of videos.

****


Fate of Ophelia )

******


Two covers of the same song )

*******


Guinea pigs exit and enter the tube )

******


Ghost waltz )
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Also, another one of our furnace pipes has developed a leak. Every time we fix one, the next one goes. I've patched this one, so with any luck (and with our keeping the heat pretty low) it should last until we can call in a plumber.

(Does anybody know a plumber who will accept payment in semi-feral kittens? There's a batch around the corner, very adorable, very healthy, and willing to warm up to anybody who feeds them! They do need to be just a little bit neutered, defleaed, and probably dewormed as well, not to mention vaxxed, but that's surely no big deal for the right family! Actually, I think it's two litters, so that should be ample payment for a little bit of plumbing work.)

**********************************


Read more... )
sistawendy: me in C18-inspired makeup looking amused (amused eighteenthcent)
[personal profile] sistawendy
Against my better judgment I went to the Blue Moon last night. Good beer, the cute bartender with the queer hair, and a mix of good house music and train wrecks. So far so normal, you say, but I ended up chatting with a lady with grey hair. It turns out that she and I have similar... tastes, and I don't just mean house music.

Didn't turn out my nightstand light until 2315. I only regret that slightly. I've already asked if she's going to the Monkey Loft on Saturday.

Gaydar is when you can tell who's queer. What is it called when you instinctively find the kinky folk in a vanilla space? Flaydar?
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