Dragon

Thank God people are driving like sane people here. We had a fairly warm day with lots of snow a couple days ago followed by a very cold evening which has led into some very cold days (we're plugging the cars in at night now). That whole confluence (+10 points) ended up giving us sheer ice on the roads. It's only just starting to get back to being reasonably drivable again, I don't think I could stand it if people were driving like lunatics.

Baldur

marius, do people in Missouri normally use turn signals?
In RI the only time you see them used is when somebody accidentally knocks them on. They will drive for ages on the highway with the blinker going, oblivious to the chaos they wreak.
Massachusetts is no better.

Dragon

In Red Deer the rule seems to be if you're in a turning lane where you have no choice but to turn and everybody is well aware that you are turning you MUST ALWAYS use your turn signal. If you're changing lanes in front of someone or other situations where people have no reason to believe you're going to turn without warning you must absolutly not use you signal. At least that's how it seems to me.

Dragon

My friend once followed someone who had their left turn signal on across almost the whole province of Saskatchewan (it's an extremely straight hwy with very little on it). They did eventually turn left, appearantly they felt they had to give 3 hours notice on the turn.

Baldur

Rhode Islanders would embrace such a law wholeheartedly.
Baldur drives a pickup truck, which being larger than most cars is easy to see.
Last week an elderly woman who was driving in the high speed lane to my left came up from behind me and tried to merge into my driver's side door.
Baldur does use his side view mirror and saw her approach. She was just a couple inches away when I blew my horn. She was suddenly startled and veered away, probably scraping the guard rail. I hope she did anyway.
I caught the invectives (+8 points) and gestures that the woman directly behind me gave her in my rear view mirror.
She obviously was aware of the averted accident. It's nice to know there were witnesses had she hit my truck.

Baldur

Baldur went to a thrift shop today and ALMOST bought an old iron.
It was in my shopping cart until just before I went to the cash register, but sadly I returned it to the shelf.
It was such a beautifully designed piece of 1930s Art Deco.
This was not a steam iron, so there were no vent holes underneath. The main body was a very heavy wedge of mirror polished stainless steel. There was a cantilevered brown bakelite handle that was almost sculptural, and a very thick fabric wrapped cord, that didn't have the newer polarized plug on it.
I was trying in my mind to convert it into a very wild task light, but realized it would become another unfinished project.
So the $3 piece of modern design went back on the shelf.
Sniff Sniff

marius

Yes, Baldur, a fair percent of Missourians do actuallly use their signals. Guess I should be happy about that. Glad that lol (little old lady) did not hit your truck.

So, there are no full moon effects in Rhode Island or Red Deer today? Maybe they get localized. Once had a friend who was a med tech at a local hospital. Whenever I noticed an odd full moon and knew she was working that night, I'd always call the next day to hear her stories. They had the strangest things happen on some full nights in the ER!

marius

Baldur, I do not understand. You wrote about the iron: "I was trying in my mind to convert it into a very wild task light, but realized it would become another unfinished project."

What is a "very wild task light?" Something is not computing. hehehe, it could be me and my wild full moon brain. : )

Baldur

Being rather weighted, the stainless part would be a perfect lamp base, what needed to be figured out was how to attach a flexible gooseneck lamp arm with a focusing light reflector.
It appeared that the key to dis-assembling the piece was to remove the setting dial, there were no visible connectors holding the handle to the base. Everything must be tooled from inside

marius

Okay, have a better picture now, but still ... task light? Would this be a light you'd use in a wood-working shop or something?

Baldur

marius, I think my last response would help to explain it a bit, but I'll elaborate anyway.
My idea was to gut the iron and use the body of it as a lamp base.
Baldur can use a flexible task light for my projects here and this repurposed one seems ideal.
I imagine attaching a flexible steel gooseneck and some sort of a bowl shaped steel shade to focus a hig intensity bulb.
In thinking it out the ideal shade may be one of those aluminum (aluminium in the UK) reflectors used on old flash cameras. The type where there were small flash bulbs inserted before those odd flash cubes were invented.

Who remembers flash cubes?
Baldur hadn't used that term in decades.

Baldur

Baldur does nothing in an easy fashion.

Baldur

This would be a desktop or tabletop piece, I love the bakelite handle as part of it.

marius

Okay - now I have a good idea of your plan. Sounds fun.

And, tee hee, I remember flash cubes. Also ... not sure what they were called, but when I was six Dad had these cantaloupe-sized lights attached on a rod. Think there were three on each rod. He'd arrange them around the floor, position all nine of us (the 10th wasn't born yet) for the annual Christmas photo and BOOM! We'd be blind for the next several hours.

We have lots of these photos and in every single one, some kid is making one of those odd kid faces. Seems like there was always a tear or too - Dad got very manic with this process. But, they are funny pictures now!

Robindcr8l

Well, today I bought some meat at the grocery store and went to my refrigerator/freezer in the garage to freeze it, as there was not room in the house one. I opened the freezer to find the light on and all the meat in there completely thawed and STINKY! I can't figure why it all spoiled so fast. It can't have been broken for more than 4 or 5 days, and I think it's only been maybe 3. And being in the garage, it's quite cold out there, so even though the stuff may have THAWED, it should have stayed cold enough to not get STINKY! What a mess and a waste of money! Besides my whole turkey, there were some prized Buffalo, NY hot dogs, which cannot be purchased anywhere else close to Boise. I brought them back this summer after my first visit home in NINE YEARS! Now I have to wait another 9 years to have a good hot dog! NOT HAPPY!

Jake and I are trying to get the Xmas lights up and most of them DO NOT WORK! NOT HAPPY!

So with all of these mechanical type issues, between Baldur's computer woes, and my ruined refrigerator and useless lights, I was SURE that it must be mercury retrograde. This is an astrological phenomenon (10 pts) that occurs several times a year and lasts 2-3 weeks. It is when the revolution of mercury around the sun gets so slow that it looks from the earth like Mercury is going backwards. During these times, things tend to get chaotic, and mechanical items break. They even recommend you don't travel if possible. Surely this would explain all of these goings-on.

But I looked online at the mercury retrograde calendar and it doesn't start til the end of the month, so it must be the full moon, like Marius said. But it feels different than just a full moon for some reason.

marius

Wow Robin, sorry about your freezer. Hate when that happens. We had two ice storms two years in a row and lost an enormous amount of food. NOT fun!

That is curious about mercury retrograde. I don't know astrology, but nearly forty years ago had some gal do my charts and she seemed to know amazing things, things she could not have known as she'd never met me before and didn't know anyone I knew. She said, "You have serious issues with your mother." I'd just met the woman, and yeah, maybe something about me advertised that, but I wouldn't know what. She said I'd had issues with my mom all my life and that it would not be an easy road for a long time." She was right about that. She also said I'd need to pay special attention to dental needs - wasn't wrong there either and my teeth "looked" perfect. And last, she said I had great spiritual inclinations and would pursue the unknown in that direction and probably end up in a helping kind of professsion. Right again.

As for the full moon, I find some way worse than others. This time I actually took an emergency depression medication. Haven't felt the need for that since I went off them all four years ago ... but today was a real zinger. Can usually manage the depression (have dysthymia) with yoga, aerobics, meditation, diet, etc. but none of that worked for me today. Maybe there are solar flares? I've noticed those seem to cause wackiness too! (giggle)

marius

Time for sleep and dreams of things. Glad Baldur is back on-line even if it's on the dreaded laptop.

Sweet dreams to all!

sheftali52

Hi all--Sheftali sympathizes with computer glitches and other sundry problems. My computer was acting goofy today, and after much swearing, and a System Restore, it was back in operation. Sheftali had never done a System Restore before, and had no idea if it was the right thing to do. It apparently worked--yay.

The full moon over Yorktown, Virginia, was bright and beautiful last night. Oddly, two stray cats came up on our deck and startled me. We never get cats on our deck, as we have two vigilant dogs. But, last night those cats were on the deck and the dogs never noticed! Go figure. Also, the full moon had a beautiful halo around it, which was quite a sight. The halo extended out a long way from the moon, making the sight even more notable.

Sheftali commiserates a bit about the bad drivers everyone noted. I live about three hours south of Washington, DC, and the traffic in this area is getting worse every year. Tailgating seems to be the most common infraction in this densely populated area. Very aggravating. Sheftali's rule is to be very vigilant every time she gets behind the wheel, and practice defensive driving as much as possible.

Hope those who celebrate Christmas are getting into a festive mood. Oh, and glad to see maddyjean is back, though, er, she is a bit crafty about it!!!

matthew

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=72272

Go find this pic in the gallery... Does a butterfly show up instead? And look at teach's gallery... One of my pics shows up there, but if you open it... it reverts back to hers...

Just me???

matthew

Hey... It looks like a butterfly here too... but opened it is not...

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=72272