What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

[Joshua F Thomas]

Got my 11month old home PC back (Intel NUC) from the computer shop after I'd run out of SSD memory and it stopped performing last Friday due to "insufficient memory". It had used up all of the 500Gb of SSD I'd got it with. In which decade was 500Gb of memory insufficient??!!!!

Anyway, a 2Tb SSD upgrade and a clone-job later and I'm back on the forum this evening!

Yeah 500GB is not that much any more, but the flash/NVME is so much faster than HDDs.

 

[boatgeek]

We went out with the family to the Washington coast. This is the view of the beach less than 100 feet from the hotel room in La Push. First picture is looking north and west, and the second is looking south and west. I do love me a wild iron-bound coast just itching to rip the bottom out of an unwary ship that gets too close to shore. Ships should respect the land. Speaking of rocks, the last one is a picture of a bunch of rocks gathered on that beach and the next one north. Lots of jasper out there.






Incidentally, there's a river mouth between us and the rocks in the first picture. That river was redirected between 1875 and the early 1900's after a shipwreck blocked the mouth of the river. The rightmost rock was also known to the local Native tribe as "Where white people happened" after an 1854 shipwreck on that rock.

 

[jqavins]

I do love me a wild iron-bound coast just itching to rip the bottom out of an unwary ship that gets too close to shore.

Because it's good for business?

 

[boatgeek]

Because it's good for business?

It's rarely great for business, though I have designed one boat that was a replacement for one that ran aground and was a total loss. Being all accurate about it, I just generally like rocky coasts better than sandy ones, though I do enjoy swimming in warm water off sandy beaches (water temperature her: ~50 degrees F year-round, so no swimming for me!). And wild coasts are better than developed ones in general.

 

[OverTheTop]

That certainly looks like WA coastline, from when I was there in the early 90's. Missing some snow though.

 

[Wayco]

Finished a marathon. Not the running type, the driving/launching type.

It all started on May 20th, when we drove our 2018 GMC Sierra Duramax diesel with a 26 ft. Stealth toy hauler from Goodyear, AZ to Show Low, AZ. (198 miles, 3.5 hours.) Had dinner with friends and spent the night. Next day was from Show Low to the KOA just South of Las Vegas, NM. Six hours and 382 miles, the last hour with gusty winds in the mountains. Spent the night there at the KOA Journey, a most excellent RV park.

Day 2) Left early (before the winds picked up again) for our property in Southern Colorado, we call it "Weathertop". Short trip of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 147 miles, over the Raton pass and through Trinidad, Co. Spent the day moving rockets and motors around and packing for NSL West.

Day 3) Drove to NSL West, near Alamosa, Co. and set up camp. 2.5 hours and 141 miles.

Day 4, 5, 6 and 7) Flew a bunch of rockets, bought a bunch of motors. Since this is rocket related, I won't go into details here, but if you are interested, here are more details:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/the-2024-newton-second-tally-thread.184433/page-3#post-2591157

Day 8, May 27th) Short drive to the Alamosa KOA, another most excellent RV park. Dumped the tanks and had dinner. Passed out.

Day 9 and 10) Drove back to Weathertop, 2 hours and 119 miles. Set up camp again, cleaned the trailer (a lot of dust), cleaned rockets and motors, set up avbays on all rockets for NCR "Mile High Mayhem".

Day 11) Drove from Weathertop to the NCR North launchsite. 6 hours and 356 miles. All on secondary roads. Set up camp and met some old and new friends.

Day 12 and 13) Flew lots of rockets, made memories, packed up late on Saturday. More details:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/the-2024-newton-second-tally-thread.184433/page-3#post-2591157

Day 14, June 2nd) Drove back to Weathertop with a 30 minute pit stop in Limon, Co. for a tire change on the toyhauler. 6.5 hours and 356 miles. Set up toy hauler and unload dirty motors into truck. Remove rockets into cargo trailer. Clean toy hauler and set up Sharon's office. Pack the truck for return to Red River. Sleep like the dead....

Day 15) Today we drove back to Red River, 2.25 hours and 115 miles. Unpacked the truck and set up our home here. Bought a one year fishing license. I am truly glad to be here.

 

[boatgeek]

That certainly looks like WA coastline, from when I was there in the early 90's. Missing some snow though.

The WA coastline doesn't usually get much snow because of the warming influence of the seawater, though they might get a dusting once or twice a year. Hurricane force winds and 30-foot seas come every winter though, and they get 100-200 inches of rain per year. The mountains just a bit inland definitely do get snow.

 

[boatgeek]

Day 2) Left early (before the winds picked up again) for our property in Southern Colorado, we call it "Weathertop".

Any trouble with the Nine Riders?

 

[OverTheTop]

The WA coastline doesn't usually get much snow because of the warming influence of the seawater, though they might get a dusting once or twice a year. Hurricane force winds and 30-foot seas come every winter though, and they get 100-200 inches of rain per year. The mountains just a bit inland definitely do get snow.

Very coastal, so moderate temperatures. Definitely had snow on the beach, rocks and logs when I was there. Would have been February '91.

 

[Cape Byron]

Made a bucket list of places to see.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

This would both fascinate me and make me anxious as heck.

Yup. That pretty much describes it. Now I'm without. Anxiety^10

 

[Rocket-Fan]

Put the second coat of paint on the kitchen & mudroom door/window casings. Added hurricane straps to first floor support LVLs in the basement. Lagged down the jack posts with tapcons

 

[bjphoenix]

Got my 11month old home PC back (Intel NUC) from the computer shop after I'd run out of SSD memory and it stopped performing last Friday due to "insufficient memory". It had used up all of the 500Gb of SSD I'd got it with. In which decade was 500Gb of memory insufficient??!!!!

Kind of like the top of your workbench- stuff just collects. Of the 3 computers I use daily:
home desktop 1 year old: boot drive C:- 133GB used, data drive D:- 2.39TB used
home laptop 3 years old: C:- 436GB used, 40GB free (I have no idea how it got to be so full, need to clean it out)
work laptop 6 years old: C:- 460GB used, 14GB free (it's a continual battle to keep it from filling)

Was it Bill Gates who said that 640 k "should be enough for anyone"?

Yes but that was RAM not permanent storage, and on a computer that came with 360k storage devices. When I bought mine it came with 256k RAM and 2 360k flexible disk drives.

My first hard drive was 20MB- I could have bought the 10MB drive for 10% less but I thought even though I do't know what I would possibly do with all that space I'll go ahead and buy the larger drive. Now my desktop computer has 250,000 times that much storage.

My computers are all fast and responsive, even my 6 year old work laptop that has a lot of stuff installed on it.

 

[Cape Byron]

Car. Hunting.

Again.

 

[Wayco]

Any trouble with the Nine Riders?

No, but there was a herd of elk that looked pretty dangerous. They did not chase us to Rivendale.

 

[teepot]

I wrapped the holding tank with R30 insulation for the well. Then wrapped chicken wire around that. The insulation keeps the water coming to the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I used chicken wire to wrap it instead of rope like I have in the past to try to keep the pack rats from ripping up the insulation if they get in again. The problem with the water temperature is the water in the pipes in the attic. Even though they are under several feet of insulation the outside temperature still effects it. This time of year when we turn on the cold water it comes out hot until all the water in the pipes are gone. Same thing when it's cold. Takes some time to warm up.

 

[Joshua F Thomas]

Yesterday was my first day back at work after the new baby. This morning I was so exhausted (also, baby) I just declared a sick day. I'm glad there are only 8 more working days before the summer break. This new-dad thing is hard.

 

[Zeus-cat]

My wife saw the fawn run out of the brush and start nursing on mama. I took several photos with my phone, but the baby was hidden in the foliage and underneath mama. I took this one just after she turned and started to walk away so you can see the little one.



This guy shows up regularly now. I'm surprised my wife hasn't already run out and tagged his little antlers to claim them. She likes to collect the shedded antlers. The mama raccoons are bringing their babies out to eat corn now. They are soooooo cute.

 

[Zeus-cat]

A couple of months ago I posted a photo of the donation boxes I made for the cat shelter. These supplemented the existing boxes they had used for years. Here they are again and with the donations we counted last night. About $300 from 7 or 8 boxes. A couple of big places to go that will raise that total significantly.

And the last photo is from the "big kitten" room at the shelter on Monday. I had a feathered toy on a wand that I was flying over their heads. 9 of the 12 kittens got into it big time.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Played with some grandkids.

 

[John Kemker]

Talked on the phone with the prefect or TARA that signed my Level 1 and Level 2 certs back in the day, Tim Eiszner. Might just get to see him at Freedom Launch in September!

 

[Hobie1dog]

I went out on the patio and enjoyed a couple of bowls of pipe tobacco

 

[Cape Byron]

Took the 6 month old pup to the vet for de-sexing. I forgot he’s never seen a cat before.

Yep, 20 kg of Border Collie wants grandpa ‘cause Siameses is scary.

 

[teepot]

A couple of months ago I posted a photo of the donation boxes I made for the cat shelter. These supplemented the existing boxes they had used for years. Here they are again and with the donations we counted last night. About $300 from 7 or 8 boxes. A couple of big places to go that will raise that total significantly.

And the last photo is from the "big kitten" room at the shelter on Monday. I had a feathered toy on a wand that I was flying over their heads. 9 of the 12 kittens got into it big time.
View attachment 648870View attachment 648871
View attachment 648877

You are a special man. Thanks, from the kitties.

 

[teepot]

A pine seed started growing next to the edge of the patio. I didn't want to pull it out. I tried to think of a place to put that wouldn't cause a problem in the future. I found a place to put it and dug it out today. It's now with it's big brothers and sisters on a knoll in the front yard. I hope it survives the move. Any seed tough enough to plant it's self in rocks and without water has to survive the move. And I was very careful with the roots.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Visited Dad in the hospital yesterday. He has a rather complicated case(s) of blood cancer(s). He's in pretty rough shape, but says he isn't in pain and is taking this on full steam, but for a guy who never sat down because he always had to be doing something it is hard to hear about the exhausting 100 yd walk he took. He had a good month or so after CAR-T therapy where he got to do some turkey hunting and other outdoor stuff he enjoys, but then all hell broke loose. We should have a clearer diagnosis soon and a treatment plan for him to consider any day, but it just sucks.

 

[Antares JS]

Sheesh. Massive layoffs hit Northrop Grumman employees today. I'm safe, but a couple of people I was close to are not. Not a great note to end the work week on before heading to LDRS.

 

[Cape Byron]

Not a fan of ADAS technology in cars - it simply distracts drivers from their job of driving.

Read this report this morning.



I find my first question when looking at cars the last few weeks is, “How do I turn the traction control / lane departure warning / ABS / whatever off?” Living in the sticks that nonsense is of no use to anyone.

</rant>

 

[Hobie1dog]

Checked the polarity of all my stereo speakers.

 

[Art Upton]

Yeah 500GB is not that much any more, but the flash/NVME is so much faster than HDDs.

Depends on what your doing. I'm currently on a Yoga laptop with only 256GB SSD and I have 102G free.
I'm not storing videos on it.

I have an older Legion I7 Laptop that has 512G SSD and 2TB high RPM spin drive that had videos on it.