Now that it's summer time I have 2 choices each Tuesday: go to archery or do the HAM radio net. With my HT I can't hit the repeater in Milpitas from the archery place and although I can hit it with the amp/antenna in the Jeep I don't have the Jeep all the time so I decided to rig something up in the car. Kenny was right in that it's a pain to attach/detach all the HT stuff from the amp all the time so I decided to just get a cheap 2m only radio, which oddly is about the same price as the 2m/440 amp. I picked up an Icom 2200H and a though-the-glass antenna since no one at the ham hut could come up with a better way of mounting an antenna on the car without major drilling. The hatchback edge won't work, the hinge is like a French hinge and 'rotates' down which would rip the mount off every time I opened the hatch. Not so ideal for anything.

Once I got the Icom home it became clear that it was larger than I thought and it wouldn't fit in any of the places I thought it might. The only spot was below the glove box (won't fit in it in any way that I could actually use the radio once it was installed) but there is nothing solid under there to mount it to. Took a bit of looking but after a trip to OSH to pick up some brackets and a piece of 1"x1/8"x3' flat bar, and some work with the drill, dremel and some blocks of wood I crafted a mount. I only had to drill one hole, everything else I reused existing holes or mounting points. It may look funky but it's really strong and I only had to use 2 washers as spacers to get the radio to mount level with the bottom of the dash. Woot!

With the mic disconnected and tossed in the glove box you can't even really see it unless you're 6" away or less from the glass. It would be annoying for some jackass to break a $300 window to steal a $140 ham radio.

Impulse buy! After hating the official 'apple bumper' on my iphone which actually allows it to make calls while I hold it for the last 6 (?) months I finally found a case I like. It's thin, isn't ugly and unlike the bumper actually lets me get at the ports on the phone. No more removing the case so I can plug into speakers or my car charger/FM widget. OK, so maybe 6 months isn't an impulse but just walking into the store today (to get out of the rain, WTF?) and seeing it there and buying it. Maybe 'fate' is better than 'impulse'?

This morning at the light by the office I saw a horrible thing. A brand new 1200GS.... being ridden by a hipster douche bag! Skinny jeans, stupid shoes, messenger bag, 70s leather jacket, crochet gloves and a scarf. WTF? GSes are never ridden by posers or losers like this, they're only ridden by super bad-asses who actually know how to ride and know what a GS is for. Usually the see and be seen crowd is into sport bikes, harleys or vespas. GSes are ugly and weird and need to stay that way.

Also this morning while making my sandwich I figured out how to describe the sensation of being on these pseudo-meds. Anxiety/fear/doubt are still swirling around in my head constantly, but it's like there is a glass wall separating me from them. Or like being in a large ship looking out a window at a raging storm. You can feel the power of the storm outside, but only in a peripheral way, and only occasionally does it strike with enough power to move the ship so you know it's real. You still have the thoughts, nothing is suppressed or muddled, you just don't get the physical reactions to them. No shaking, no sweating, no headaches, no churning stomach, no (well minimal) abdominal pain. It makes it easier to sort things out when you can think them through logically rather than having random emotional responses that do nothing to 'solve' the core issue.

Today we went to the Maker Faire which is a weird combo of steam punk, burning man, myth busters, a ham fest, an electronics swap meet, a DIY craft show and some other random stuff. All the needed was a petting zoo and it would be complete. I enjoyed the electronics stuff and some of the welding demos, the woman enjoyed the cheese making and some of the crazy stuffed animals. We didn't get any electronics or flame throwing pottery, but we did get some 'grow your own' mushroom kits and a 'make your own cheese' kit. Paul (guy at work that does a lot with burning man) said we should get their really early or don't go at all. Good call. We found a spot to park without having to pay the $17 parking tax in the main lot and got to see lots of stuff. By the time we left at 1pm the place was so packed you couldn't see anything. They really need a larger venue if they're going to have that many people and events going on.

Pretty productive day. I got two rounds of skeet in while the woman was riding, and even better than the skeet was sitting on the covered patio at the range enjoying a beverage. The weather was perfect, breezy but not windy, warm but not hot, sunny but the patio provided the shade. Life should involve more sitting on porches which is why I spent the afternoon outside reading.

Also today I washed and waxed the Jeep and got it swapped out with the car at work, and managed to get the car washed up too (but not waxed yet).

We tried that sushi place dad said was so awesome, but it was just OK. We were apparently spoiled by Sushi Kai.

Typing on this crappy dell keyboard for any length of time makes my fingers hurt, I'm so spoiled by my MSFT keyboard at work. I have a spare (bought 2 when I found them online) but I hate to take it out of the box. It's gotta last me the rest of my working career. :)

I won't go into work, again it's all tragic and all that. They still have no idea what they're really going to do with me or my group yet, but whatever it is it's supposed to happen on the 1st. I did learn through some round about channels that I'm going to take over the cost center for the department. That's gotta be a resume bullet. Speaking of, I finally got my updated resume put up on Monster. Hopefully they'll stop calling me about low end sysadmin jobs. If I wanted to make 50% less money I'm sure I could get a fun job and do that.

The woman, who is still enjoying feeding the 5 squirrels that are living in the trees outside, sent me this CNN article on cooking squirrel. She said it grossed her out but she forwarded it because I would like it and "I would find it eventually anyway". Not sure how I would have found it, it's not like I read CNN.

I'm not liking Firefox 4, the control-T to open a new tab doesn't work anymore. Why would they shut off the hot keys?

OK, so what else to report on another week of my life that's gone into the history books? The guys from Austin were here this week and they came over on Tuesday for dinner. The woman made roast chicken and mushroom risotto with some asparagus. It wasn't her 'best effort' but it was our fault for being so late to dinner and her having to hold it for us. Our 5pm meeting got out at 7:30pm which was supposed to be when dinner started.

This is the lamest update in a while. I think I'll stop now until something interesting actually happens. Ah, but one interesting thing is that dad gave me his great uncle's cap lock rifle. I did a bit of research and found out it's a "US Common Rifle model 1817". This particular one was made in 1824 and started life as a flintlock. As was common back then, it was sometime later converted to a cap lock. Dad said that they fired it once without a ball in it, just some powder, by tying it a to a tree and using a string to pull the trigger. Just in case it blew up. I asked him if they cleaned it after and he said no... and that this was in 1970 or so. Oy. I ran some patches though it and the barrel is completely trashed and pitted and unusable at this point. Maybe it was that bad before the 1970 test fire but 41 years of sitting around rusting hasn't done it any help. Pictures are here.

Another week without an update, I'm getting out of practice. Better try to fix that through the next week, don't want to break the cycle by just being lazy. If I'm going to stop, I want it to be a choice.

OK anyway, I took Thursday and Friday off to burn more comp time and drove up to the Shasta land to check on things, play with some stuff I've been wanting to do and to change the oil in the generator. First order of business when I finally got up there was to setup the radio and try some PSK31. This time I brought the new IC7000 along and tried to do everything with just the laptop sound card. I swear I had things working before I left the house, but I couldn't get the laptop to not over-drive the input on the radio. When I got home I installed an updated sound driver that gives me a tiny bit more control over the output and it seems to be working with my home antenna but the real test will be to try in the field again using the buddistick (in the park, don't want to go somewhere else only to be denied). The real answer is to install a resistor in line with the output to pull the level down, I should make up some sort of adapter to do that so I don't have to cut the wiring up. A variable would be handy too, wonder if Fry's still caries anything like that? If not it's time to go to Halted and dig around in the junk bins.

With PSK31 out of the running I tuned up some of the calling frequencies on 20m that I can never hear anything on at home and both of them had tons of activity. The noise floor was almost zero on the scale, being out away from everything really helps out the radio game.

On a side note, on Sunday I made up two more radials for the buddistick. They're 17' exactly so I don't have to carry a tape measure in the bag to get my 17' radials.

Once darkness started to fall I put away the radio and setup the origami sleeper. Took about 20 seconds to setup and other than needing more padding (the metal floor of the jeep is HARD) the thing worked great. I got some screen material from OSH in case I wanted to screen off the windows but it was cold enough not to need them open. I'm going to pre-cut and put edges (with gaffers tape?) on some screens to I can either velcro or tape them over the windows and the lift hatch opening for the trip this summer. I know at some point I'm going to get hot in that thing and want to open a window without bugs attacking. The only downside is that you have to store all your other gear outside because you're sleeping in the cargo area. If I can find a cargo net I can sling it up in the roll bar which should let me keep some gear in the back while I'm sleeping.

In the morning I went to change the oil in the generator, and if I could have gotten either of the drain plugs open without risking stripping them (I only had an adjustable wrench, I didn't think to bring the sockets) then method #1 would have worked. Nice foil tray under the drain bolts leading right into the bucket. However, since I couldn't get the drain bolts out I opened the inspection hole and.... tipped the whole thing over as seen in picture #2. The manual says you can do that as long as you don't tip it toward the spark plug. OK, I can not do that. I left the drain pan and whatnot up there, at .8 quarts per year of oil changes it will take 10 years for me to fill that waste container.

While leaving the land I ran into more quail, saw a covey back by where I was camping and this guy was part of one that scattered when I drove up to the gate. Someone is going to have themselves a happy little quail season (invariably it will be crazy neighbor guy).

On the way home I stopped by the Tehama wilderness area (about 35 miles off I5 by Red Bluff) to see if it would be suitable for a camping/shooting weekend. It's really an ugly place, lots of scrub and small trees and rocks and stuff. I was running short on time so I didn't get to explore much but I found that good firing position pretty easily. We could setup next to or actually use this rocks as a rest and shoot down onto the hillside in the distance. The road goes all the way across the valley so we could drive to/from the targets. Not 1000 yards but at least a good 500 without risking shooting across the road.

I also swung by 3 different gun stores up north looking for flintlock stuff, found a few but they weren't what I wanted. I did pick up some powder though, it was way cheaper than down here and I didn't have to wait for it.

Saturday we went to dinner with the woman's brother, he was in town just for the night as a layover on his way to Dubai. The restaurant was an Italian place up in Burlingame and it was pretty unremarkable. So much so I don't even remember the name.

Today I cleaned up the camping gear, made some cables I had been putting off making and then cleaned up my soldering junk, went to a clays lesson and cleaned the house a bit. We also watched the 4 baby squirrels that have found the feeder on the patio. They sure make a mess out of everything tossing seed pods and barley around. They really don't like the barley in the squirrel chow.

Finished the downtime on schedule yesterday, maybe even an hour early although there were some lingering issues after the 'all clear' which means it wasn't a complete slam dunk. Oh well, it's over and most the users are happy with the results so far.

After the downtime last night we went to the woman's old boss' house up in the Oakland hills for a birthday party. You know you're getting old when you go to a birthday and say "what great caterers you've used". The food was pretty damn good, and they had 3 red wines that were also above average. I'm starting to enjoy going to events at rich folks houses now that I can appreciate the wines they serve. Got pretty cold up there when the fog rolled over the hills but otherwise it was a fun night.... or as fun as you can have with 50 shrinks.

Today the woman went with me to pick up the shotgun and for her to take some pics of my lesson. Most were pretty bad, but she got lucky with this one and actually caught the clay being broken (circled). Not bad for an iPhone.

The new shotgun makes a huge difference. The recoil is so much easier to deal with and I fired about 50% more shots in the hour than I usually do just because I wasn't as beat up and didn't have to spend so much time fighting the gun. The woman was shocked that I was fumbling around with it when I was first trying to put it together. She's not used to seeing me fumble around with any weapon but it's the first time I've tried to assemble and over/under, didn't know how the thing really worked.

I also got two projects finished up today. I fixed my toy helicopter, got those replacement gears in after around 20 minutes of dorking with it, and I got the locks swapped out of all my GIVI bags. Now I have a total of 5 bags for the bike all using 1 key. Been wanting to do that for years. Of course while I was doing those tasks the woman cooked 3 meals for next week: pulled pork for sandwiches and whatnot, brazed pork belly for Wednesday since it takes a few days to rest after cooking and some squash soup. She also whipped up some pizza dough for us to make grilled pizza tonight along with bacon and mushrooms for toppings. I think she's getting the hang of this whole chef business.

Still on schedule with the downtime it seems. Scary.

We're also all getting old. Somehow we ended up with 10 pizzas for 15 people and we only ended up eating 3 of them.

Downtime is tonight, we're prepared for 24 hours of hell. Maybe it will go OK, the plans are solid... it's the surprises that will do us in.

I've started taking a cortisol manager, going to give it a 90 day trial to see if it helps anyway. Supposedly it's going to help me sleep better. So far the results are mixed, but it's only been a few days.

The cranky old guy from the class got back to me with the email address of another cranky old guy that's got the flintlock I'm interested in. It's about 50% cheaper than buying new so I'm all for that if we can make it happen.

The major news is though that I got an offer on the cabin and it's good enough to take. If everything turns out it will be just a memory in 60 days. Woo! Now, what to do with the proceeds?

How much luggage can you bolt onto a bike? Well, lots. I wanted more room so I can easily pack my riding gear on the bike when I arrive somewhere which should let me ride more places and not be uncomfortable when I'm there in riding gear. The E21 bags I have are too small to make it fast and easy so I got the E45 which matches the old KLR top case. They're huge but do give me enough room to do what I want, even if the drop the MPG of the bike by 4 when they're on there. It also makes the bike handle funny in high winds (like between here and I5 toward Tracy) but if there is a god I won't be on that road too often with or without these bags attached.

Saturday I went to a black powder class today put on by the fish and game department. I'm now (very) mildly trained on how to use flintlocks, cap and ball rifles and pistols, percussion cap black powder shotguns and modern in-line muzzle loaders using powder 'pellets' and sabot rounds.

I gotta say that of the 20 or so people in the class that the modern in-line rifles were the least popular with the percussion cap rifles being the most popular. I really preferred the flintlocks though, something about that click... fooosh... BANG sequence that's rewarding to shoot. I didn't even really bother with the modern in-line rifle. if I wanted to shoot something accurate and hard hitting in a synthetic stock, I would just step up to a modern rifle. The powder shotgun was similarly not interesting for some reason. I did OK with it shooting trap but it's just not that much different than a modern double-barrel to be that interesting (other than the insanely long reloading sequence including 3 wads).

The other oddity was the old guys screwing around with a black powder cannon. Really unnecessary.

Today the woman and I went to OSH and Lowes to get plants for our annual lame ass box garden. In addition to the usual herbs, tomatoes and peppers (all proven producers even in the boxes) we picked up a dwarf orange tree to go with the dwarf lemon tree she brought with her from Alameda. The lemon tree had 4 lemons on it from last year that we're pretty sure aren't going to ripen more so we'll use them to clean the garbage disposal. The orange tree is now in the pot that held grandma's dead fern plant thing that has been decomposing out there for at least 6 months. I wanted a larger pot but this one was free so we'll use it until the tree gets a little bigger.

The other experiment is trying some onions from what look like a bunch of dead onion shoots. At first we weren't sure they were going to work but there are green sprouts in the middle of the bundles so we trimmed the totally dead stuff and planted the rest. Seems like it could just work.

We had this rectangle terracotta planter that would just suck the water out of and kill anything we put in it so I used a hammer to turn it into fragments we put on the top of all the planters. I'm hoping it keeps the squirrels from digging in the planters and hiding their nuts. If the woman would just stop putting nuts out for them they wouldn't do that but she wants to feed the squirrels. Let's hope my anti-squirrel defense system works.