Travel's and Image's

WEEK 35 2011

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Oxnard Weather Underground

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First Post, 17 March 2002

Nine Years Ago, This Week, 2002

Eight Years Ago, This Week, 2003

Seven Years Ago, this week, 2004

Six Years Ago, this week, 2005

Five Years Ago, This Week, 2006

Four Years Ago, This Week, 2007

Three Years Ago, This Week, 2008

Two Years Ago, This Week, 2009

One Year Ago, This Week, 2010

Saturday 3 September 2011

Saturday - update: Tim had bought new bunk beds for the kids. So we spent the afternoon setting them up. It wasn't hard, per se, but it was a lot of detail work. One bedset was metal, and Tim referred to it as "the erector set". There were, quite literally, over a hundred pieces to assemble. The other was wood, and so earned the sobriquet "the Tinkertoy set". It hadn't the same number of pieces and went much quicker than the first.

The mattresses were interesting, as they came rolled up in a small duffel bag. So small that my first question was "Did you order some bolsters with the bed?". As best we can figure they put an 8" thick mattress in a thick plastic bag, compress it (probably mechanically), then heat seal the ends of the bag. Atmospheric pressure then keeps the bed springs compressed, and then they can roll the now 1" thick mattress up and insert it into the little duffel. The label warned that one should stay back when opening it up, and we sort of expected things to explode outwards when we released the seals, but it was a pretty tame experience really.

Friday 2 September 2011

Friday - update: I visited my recently widowed friend, and helped her pack away a bunch of her husband's things. Then I moved and set up some of her TV's, which for some reason had gotten stuck on the On-Demand channel. This all took most of the day. For lunch, however, we went to a nearby French restaurant, where I had Croque-Monsieur sandwich, and a Ratatoutille soup.

Then, back to my friend Tims' in the evening.

Phoebe, soaking up warmth from the uninstalled pavers.

Thursday 1 September 2011

Thursday - update: The trip down to San Diego went well, I arrived in good time for heading off to the San Francisco vs. Charger's football game, which was a lot of fun. It's much nicer going to a game when you don't have to drive to the stadium yourself.

We had seats up in the higher reaches, which was cool. We could see the entire field, and it was neat seeing all the stuff you don't generally see on TV. The Chargers had their cannon, and the fireworks, which were much more impressive in person than on the small screen. You also got to see the players (lot's of them, since this is a pre-season game before the last cut to 53 players) warming up on the field, before heading back into the locker room. Later they enter the field "officially", through smoke and lines of cheerleaders in the case of the home team Chargers.

The game was fun (the 49er's won), though the starter's only played for a while. The first half went quickly - relatively few commercial breaks - but there were a number of the commercial breaks in the second half.

The last time I can remember seeing the 49er's play in person was at Kezar Stadium - and Wikipedia states that the 49er's haven't played there since the 1960's. Yikes.

A great evening.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Wednesday - the blood tests results for Phoebe were inconclusive. The vet has prescribed a couple of pills to be given, twice a day, and we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks. No sign of leukemia, or pretty much any liver disease, or anything. Slightly elevated white cell count.

From Wikipedia on Atmospheric-Thermodynamics:

The thermodynamic structure of the hurricane can be modelled as a heat engine ^[3] running between sea temperature of about 300K and tropopause which has temperature of about 200K. Parcels of air traveling close to the surface take up moisture and warm, ascending air expands and cools releasing moisture (rain) during the condensation. The release of latent heat energy during the condensation provides mechanical energy for the hurricane.

Since a hurricane gets its energy from the ocean, after it passes the temperature of the ocean should be...lower.

From Wattts Up With That: Irene Takes a Bite out of Ocean Heat, RTWT, a picture of the ocean after Hurricane Irene:

A screen grab of the Earthscope network, showing all the different types of instrumentation.

Some sites are no longer active (black triangles), and, sadly some of the stuff isn't showing up in current plots- I suspect is actually there, and their web guy has moved on. It's interesting to note that there are a few non-USA sites. Obviously geology doesn't care about the Canadian and Mexican borders...

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Tuesday - Still waiting on the results of Phoebe's blood tests.

I mentioned last week the sensor network that imaged the seismic waves from the Virginia earthquake moving across the country.

Another neat network (again from Watts Up With That blog) that I had never head of, is the TAOS/TRITON network of weather buoy's, anchored across the entire Pacific Ocean! And sister networks Pirata and Rama.

Taos-Triton, across the Pacific Ocean, near the equator.

pirata

Pirata Sensor Buoy's in the Atlantic

rama sensor network

Rama sensor buoy's in the Indian Ocean.

Monday 29 August 2011

Monday - Not much going on. Haven't heard from the boss, we were supposed to do some web page stuff this weekend. I went ahead and did some of the things we talked about, but text and images for all the newer projects is missing, he was going to supply that. Ah well.

I took Phoebe to the vet, and she weighed him. He's down to 12.5 pounds, from 18. Not good. Palpitation of his abdomen didn't reveal any masses, and his kidney's seemed good. So they took a bunch of blood work and will let me know what they find. His appetite is down, and he's a bit lethargic. Hopefully it is just a bacteria infection or something similar, curable.

Book #100 was Mission of Honor, by David Weber. This is the latest in the Honorverse series, following the adventures of one Honor Harrington in the distant future. The series is getting slower, more stretched out, and I think the author is stretching plot elements to allow more books in the series. That said, it was a good read, though as with most of Weber's books the plotting and committee meetings take up most of the book.

I'd been waiting for the local library to get a copy since last year, and finally gave up late last week and bought a ebook copy. Amazon didn't carry that, I had to go to Baen Books Webscription.net site and sign up, but it was pretty painless. And $6 is actually less than most paperbacks today.

Which brings us to the magical 100 books read mark! Yay! So much for the 50 Book Challenge!!

#1 Lords of the Sea #2 Kris Longknife #1: Mutineer #3 Kris Longknife #2: Deserter #4 Kris Longknife #3: Defiant #5 Kris Longknife #4: Resolute	#6 Kris Longknife #5: Audacious #7 Kris Longknife #6: Intrepid #8 Kris Longknife #7: Undaunted #9 Little Women #10 Good Wives
#11 Empress of Eternity #12 Quarter Share #13 Up Jim River #14 Betrayer of Worlds #15 The Bounty*	#16 Half Share #17 A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden #18 The Wreck of the River of Stars #19 Citadel: Troy Rising II #20 Live Free or Die
#21 Surface Detail #22 How the Irish Saved Civilization #23 The Name of the Wind #24 The Wise Man's Fear #25 A Galaxy Unknown	#26 Valor at Vauzlee #27 The Clockwork Universe #28 The Clones of Mawcett #29 The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet #30 Trader Vyx
#31 Origins of Life #32 Milor! #33 Castle Vroman #34 Outies #35 Origins	#36 Resurrection and Awakening #37 Triton #38 Frontline #39 Fracture #40 Fragments
#41 Into My Father's Wake #42 Heaven, Hell, and Salt Water #43 Blood Maidens #44 Dust #45 Saturn Alia	#46 A Lion on Tharthee #47 The Warriors Apprentice #48 The Vor Game #49 Brothers In Arms #50 Mirror Dance
#51 Cetaganda #52 Memory #53 Finder #54 Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn #55 Barryar	#56 Komarr #57 A Civil Campaign #58 Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas #59 Altered Carbon #60 Broken Angels
#61 True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop and Unassisted Around the World #62 Chill, #63 The Lost Fleet #1: Dauntless #64 The Lost Fleet #2: Fearless #65 The Lost Fleet #3:Courageous	#66 The Lost Fleet #4:Valiant #67 The Lost Fleet #5:Relentless #68 The Lost Fleet #6:Victorious #66 69 The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught #67 70 The Undercover Economist
#68 71 The Silkie #69 72 The World of Null-A #70 73 The Players of Null-A #72 74 Angelmass #71 75 Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand	#73 76 The Witling #74 77 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse) #78 Sailing the Dream #79 The Hot Gate #80 A Princess of Mars
#81 Drood #82 Gods of Mars #83 Warlord of Mars #84 Thuvia, Maid of Mars #85 The Ocean Waits	#86 Fifth Circle, The Passage Log #87 Fuzzy Nation #88 Full Share #89 The Ice Diaries: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Daring Mission #90 Temporary Duty
#91 Confessions of a D-List Supervillian #92 In the Shadow of Ares #93 Brain Cuttings #94 Hounded #95 Hexed	#96 Agent of Byzantium #97 Hammered #98 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms #99 A Light in the Dark #100 Mission of Honor

I'd be happier about the whole thing if it wasn't because I've mostly been unemployed here in Lancaster, and alone evenings after working on the house in Martinez, and of course, mostly alone in the evenings after work in Ventura.

Ah well. There are people much worse off than me.

Sunday 28 August 2011

Sunday - Doing this and that. It's very hot out, which restricts activity during the day. While most of the joint pains have subsided, my right hand and elbow are still rather stiff and sore. Nothing like they were, but laying paver's and digging would be contra-indicated anyway :-(

I want to take Phoebe to the vet tomorrow, so I can't leave town for cooler environs right now.

I've only taken him to the vet once or twice - usually my house sitter does it. I'll carpet the bottom of the cat carrier with some old sweated-in clothes, so at least it'll smell like me. But he doesn't care for it. He's never forgotten S, who took him the first time. Of course he got "fixed" on that trip, which had to be pretty traumatic.

Book #99 was A Light in the Dark, by Nathan Lowell. This was more of a novelette, set in the same universe (and time period?) as his Solar Clipper series, but with a different cargo ship. We get a peek at some issues beyond those that Ishmael mentions, but no big discoveries.

Picture of the Week

Beaver dam on Alhambra Creek in Martinez, CA

Photo Notes: Beaver Dam on Alhambra Creek, downtown Martinez, Ca.

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