Travels and Images
WEEK 8 2004
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Saturday 21 February 2004
Saturday - I have a friend coming in tomorrow, so I
spent some time cleaning up the garage a bit more. There is a bit of a
problem with storage space, which is making it difficult to put things away.
Friday 20 February
2004
Friday - off and on rain and cold weather. The side
yard is muddy - my plans to clean it and paint the eaves on the house
are most definitely on hold. Ah well.
From time to time someone brings up the idea of reviving the Saturn V rocket,
capable of putting a hundred plus tons into orbit. It was the rocket
used in sending men to the moon in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The objections are usually in three categories:
- The plans have been destroyed.
- Even if the plans exist, the thousands of manufacturers of outdated equipment are mostly gone.
- We don't need it.
There is some truth to all of these. Item #1:
blueprints don't tell the whole story. Without the engineers and
technicians who knew, intimately, what these drawings and instructions
were supposed to do there is a good chance of misinterpreting them.
Institutional knowledge is a big part of 'plans'. Item #2:
no doubt about it. The infrastructure is much much reduced from the
heyday of hundreds - if not thousands - of aerospace related companies
that existed then. Standards and materials have changed, as well as
manufacturing equipment and standards. Even Item #3
has some truth - for the most part, the amount of transport we are
doing now, at the beginning of this century, doesn't need the big
boosters.
But what if a viable Saturn production line existed - what could we use it for?
Or, to rephrase the question, would we use it (the Saturn), or shut the line down again? I suspect not.
Thursday 19 February 2004
Thursday - it's oddly hard to come up with something
to write about while unemployed. Perhaps the brain is spinning a bit
slower, perhaps the lack of outside stimulation, perhaps some
post-employment letdown. Certainly it's hard to say "I cleaned the XXX" more than a half dozen times without feeling repetitious. But it says something about the state of the house that it still isn't where I would like it to be.
And, in passing, I am thinking of buying some land and building a
house. Just kicking the idea around, really. Still, it might be nice to
get out of a noisy neighborhood and a bit further out into the country.
As a child, until my high school years, our family always lived in
rural areas - maybe I'm trying to recapture that past? Hard to say. On
the other hand, noise that other people can't ever hear bothers me. The "Taos hum" that comes and goes, the skate boarders and most of all the garage bands. Argghhh.
Dinner was at Mahli's and was OK. Sadly my beer was warm :-( Did they think I was british or something? Yuck.
Wednesday 18 February 2004
Wednesday - rain. Lot's of rain. Well, a lot for
Lancaster - nothing comparable to what they were getting in Northern
California a day or two ago.
Tuesday 17 February 2004
Tuesday - after staying the night at my friends I
came back to Lancaster via the Interstate 5 and State Highway 138, just
out of curiosity - it has been years since I went that way. Not much
has changed. A few more houses and developments, but mostly badlands -
jagged hill country.
Started on cleaning up the garage. A big job - it's been a couple of years since a thorough overhaul.
Monday 16 February 2004
Monday - went down to visit a friend in Oxnard. He has just moved into a new-to-him
house and is busy renovating it. It is a nice place, but the previous
owner was a fan of beige. Beige walls. Beige trim. Beige roofs. Urk.
So, inside and out he is making things a bit more interesting: adding
hardwood floors, brick trim, flagstone entryway, granite counters. It's
already looking much much better!
Sunday 15 February 2004
Sunday - not a lot to say. Working around the house a bit.
Photo Notes: A couple of bronze birds, wintering in my Dads' back yard. Shhhh....
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