Some Odds and Ends

With the three weeks of steady rain here in Northern California and some personal stuff going on, we've not been able to travel like we had planned so.... here's some fun stuff to look at until we head off to Chico next week to hang out at the Sierra Nevada Brewery for some tours and tasting.
Weather, goats, birthdays, zydeco, a movie, breadmaking, a new tool pegboard and a 60 year old guy running.... Lots to look at...enjoy all the photos.



Looking our our front window, south, with the rain clouds coming.

We've got some Groucho Marx disguises so we can go to the brewery multiple times during the day...hiccup.

Now...for the REALLY fun stuff...
Kim offered to help out with a local goat farm. She spent the day feeding over 50 baby goats (called kids).

Sarah, the owner, milking some momma goats. She makes goat milk soap which Kim LOVES.

So tiny. Kim picked them under her arms to feed them. She called them "her footballs".

It was also Kim's birthday in February and my Dad's in March. I got Kim a handmade rubboard from Louisiana and we took Dad out to breakfast for his 89th birthday.

Unwrapping the box.

She was so not expecting it. You can see how much fun she had playing it in the video below. Oh, and notice we still have our artificial tree up.




 

We bought a Breadman breadmaking machine at a garage sale for $2 !! ...and watched in amazement as the bread got mixed.

KIm is praying for it to Rise, Rise, Rise!

the Before photo of our tools to put on the new pegboard

Clever way to hold it in place while I secure it to the wall.

Wall BEFORE.

Wall AFTER.

For the first time in 5 years, I stayed in shape during the winter...zooooooom.

The Amazing California State Railroad Museum

Kim and I went up to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento a few weeks ago when the town opens up all the museums for a day for free! We got there an hour early and got there ahead of most of this line that ran around the block! Kim has been trying for years to get me to go to this museum and, when she finally got me there, I enjoyed it so much. Thank you Kim !

They must have over a dozen trains from all eras inside. Passenger, Coal, Mail Trains, Personal Trains.....wonderful exhibits.

Next to each of these trains were many glass enclosed displays showing details for each one and other side interests to railroading in general including the engineering tools used to make the tracks themselves.



Engineering Tools used in the railroad industry



Wheel defect guages and caliper in canvas pouch - 1950s



Southern Pacific Rulebook - 1930



Literature of the day regarding railroading

These are some of the "high-class" choices

Some passenger Give-Aways once you board

Some of the First Class treatments for the passengers.

Drafting Scales and Protractor

Drafting Tools

Upstairs, on the third flor, was devoted totally to toy trains, from decades ago to more recent. How many of us used to play with these trains when we were kids? I sure did.

HO Scale trains

N Scale Trains (Kim's hand for size comparison)

And, of course, the happy couple outside afterwards.

All the photos were taken with my Droid phone.

Waaaaay too much to take in just a couple of hours....and it was a bit crowded due to the Free Day. We'll have to come back and take a more liesurely journey.

The photos seems small but if you click on them, they'll enlarge for you to see more detail.

Happy Railroading!

At last... a trip !

Well, it was only a day trip but a trip nonetheless. Kim and I headed up to Beale Air Force Base north of Sacramento about an hour to do some on-base business (secret stuff).

Beale is the home of the 9th Reconnaisance Wing (9 RW) which features two very cool airplanes: the U2 Dragon Lady and the Global Hawk.

U2 flying over Beale AFB

The U2 provides day and night, very high-altitude (70,000 feet), all-weather surveillane. The aircraft is also used for electronic sensor research and development, satellite, calibration, and satellite data validation. As a frame of reference, commercial aircarft that we fly in the United States fly between 36,000 and 40,000 feet. These guys fly WAY up there.

Because of the high operating altitude, the pilot must wear the equivalent of a space suit. The suit delivers the pilot's oxygen supply and emergency protection in case cabin pressure is lost at altitude (the cabin provides pressure equivalent to about 29,000 feet / 8,800 metres). To prevent hypoxia and decrease the chance of decompression sickness, pilots don a full pressure suit and begin breathing 100% oxygen one hour prior to launch to remove nitrogen from the body; while moving from the building to the aircraft they breathe from a portable oxygen supply.

Pilot walking up to the U2...but first....must let someone take his photo.

Landing is very very tricky due to the construction of the plane and especially it's wing span. There is a "chase car" that actually follows the airplane as it's landing to talk it down. Check out this youtube video of landings gone bad. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY&feature=feedwll

The other plane is a Global Hawk. This plane is flown with no pilot!

Here's a terrific link is you are interested in the plane..... 

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm

Global Hawk maintenance.

After we were done watching the U2 practice "touch and go" landings we headed out to explore the surrounding country and saw the plane fly right over us. Pretty spectaular.

Well, we did other stuff later in the day that I'll post in a few days. This post is already a bit lengthy.

Tampa, Florida brrrrrrrr

We went to Tampa for 9 days recently and it was cold ! I watched the weather report leading up to the trip...72, 75, 78...perfect! But, a cold front came down from the north while we were there and the temps were in the upper 40s/low 50s during the day and lower 30s at night. So much for laying by the pool !

This was a business trip so there were LOTS of hours. It was a proposal/interview that was to happen waaay back in July but just came up. I got to be with some good friends of mine that I have not seen in a while...Phil Waller, Susan Chanen, Greg Tate, Jim Harris and Bob Parent.

We used a 55" Vizio TV for the interview so, on Sunday when I worked, this is what my workspace looked like.

You can really see details at this size.

On Saturday...the one day that was 74 degrees, Kim and I drove north about 85 miles to a place called The Villages. It's a vast retirement community that we've been thinking about looking into. There are 80,000 people that live there ! They have over 2,000 activities....everything from bocce ball, to softball leagues....two bowling lanes, an entire building full of the latest woodworking equipment, swimming, drawing, etc etc. There are golf carts EVERYWHERE because that's how most of them get around. There are a number of shopping centers cattered to the residents.

So many of the golf carts have been customized....up to $20K for some of these.

Just one of the many shopping centers.

They have parties nightly.

The Villages is loaded with lakes, natural and man made...also over 30 golf courses.

They have a program that you can get Golf For Life....on the executive courses.

On the way back to Tampa we took the back roads to see what the countryside was like.

We heard about this Christmas Store in Clearwater....supposed to be one of the largest in the country...over 100 decorated trees so we went over to see it. On the way over the bridge I had to get near the water (of course).



The entrance is not much to look at but the insides.....!


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They had a number of small villages set up with LOTS of miniature items.



They had some terrific life-size animals. Kim fell in love with this goose.

When we got back to the Sacramento airport, Santa was in the area so Kim went up and asked him for a MotorHome ! (We only have a Fifth-Wheel. Motorhomes are 40' long !)

Here's a 1:37 minute video of the inside of the store. It moves a bit fast but the ending is worth it.

Merry Christmas to you all !