Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Guys,
My thinking is a van.
I know where I could do well collecting heirlooms being thrown out in wealthy communities, and then resell at the Stormville flea market which is an small airport.
If I got a pickup it would be one with a Tommy-Gate. I love the Audi, but it is too nice and too small to do my crazy heavy lifting. With some of my Home Depo loads it rides like a lowrider.
When I was at Grumman my boss let me take home a Grumman van, which is basically a UPS truck (made by Grumman Olsen) so I could basically rape and pillage a Grumman lab near where I lived.
Anyways looting was lots of fun. I created two piles: one for me, and one for our research lab.
BTW, "Don't tell Maggie." LOL.
Anyways I know I'm a good salesman. Right now I'm cranking Elmo James on my "new" ghetto blaster. Its just me in my cyclotron bunker. Right now i'm listening to "It Hurts Me Too."
Cal
My thinking is a van.
I know where I could do well collecting heirlooms being thrown out in wealthy communities, and then resell at the Stormville flea market which is an small airport.
If I got a pickup it would be one with a Tommy-Gate. I love the Audi, but it is too nice and too small to do my crazy heavy lifting. With some of my Home Depo loads it rides like a lowrider.
When I was at Grumman my boss let me take home a Grumman van, which is basically a UPS truck (made by Grumman Olsen) so I could basically rape and pillage a Grumman lab near where I lived.
Anyways looting was lots of fun. I created two piles: one for me, and one for our research lab.
BTW, "Don't tell Maggie." LOL.
Anyways I know I'm a good salesman. Right now I'm cranking Elmo James on my "new" ghetto blaster. Its just me in my cyclotron bunker. Right now i'm listening to "It Hurts Me Too."
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Kinda funny that twenty years ago the building that houses my lab cost 17 million to build, and back then it was filled with 17 million dollars worth of medical imaging equipment.
Today that number for equipment is likely closer to 50 million. My cyclotron alone cost 3.5 million.
And today I basically am a one man Sanford and son using my lab as a private storage/personal junk yard.
I love it.
I'll probably have to rent a van to move my stuff to the Baby-Victorian.
Cal
Today that number for equipment is likely closer to 50 million. My cyclotron alone cost 3.5 million.
And today I basically am a one man Sanford and son using my lab as a private storage/personal junk yard.
I love it.
I'll probably have to rent a van to move my stuff to the Baby-Victorian.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Cal, keep an eye out for old portable X-ray machines with a 3 wheeled base and a collum with a side-arm that goes up and down.
The actual X-ray part was made by ???-BUT the stand in many cases was made by Arkay.
if you junk the X-ray head ( which sits on a post that fits into the side-arm) and get a machinist to make a piece that fits into the hole where the mounting post for the X-ray head sat with a hole for a 3/8th's bolt to go through to mount a tripod head-you've got a studio stand.
The VP of our camera club was a scrounger and found us one of these from a closed dental practice.
Go to Adorama online and look at Arkay studio stand and you'll see what I'm saying.
Look at the "6ft Studio Junior"
The actual X-ray part was made by ???-BUT the stand in many cases was made by Arkay.
if you junk the X-ray head ( which sits on a post that fits into the side-arm) and get a machinist to make a piece that fits into the hole where the mounting post for the X-ray head sat with a hole for a 3/8th's bolt to go through to mount a tripod head-you've got a studio stand.
The VP of our camera club was a scrounger and found us one of these from a closed dental practice.
Go to Adorama online and look at Arkay studio stand and you'll see what I'm saying.
Look at the "6ft Studio Junior"
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
That would be cool in a 400 square foot carriage hose with a balcony and atrium.
No doubt my studio will have lots of hospital grade stuff and lab equipment.
Today's library ladder is pure treasure. I love that it has a history.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
In today's episode of Baby-Victorian I figured out that if you made a list of invasive plants that are established in New York that on my property I have the complete checklist pretty much.
A 30 inch roll of root barrier was delivered, and needs to be installed. "Maggie's" thoughts were that a narrow trench should be easy to dig, and I present the reality that digging a narrow trench in fact is harder and is more difficult.
Pretty much my version of the great wall.
Bought another few hundred dollars worth of 10 mil thick tarps to cover an area of grass that is 16 feet into my rear lawn on the back-backyard. Meanwhile beyond the fence is a twenty foot perimeter that has been cleared, excavated, and de-knot-weeded that is covered with tarps.
The idea is to smother the knotweed by blocking both light and water.
This part of the property looks muy ghetto. Over time I will beautify this mess. The 20 foot section will be maintained indefinitely and serve as a "moat" of sorts. I'll use mulch or gravel to protect the tarp and use raised beds to grow plants. In this beyond the fence it pretty much is like a graded-gently sloping twenty foot shelf, and then the drop goes into a 45 degree ramp.
Sixteen feet of this ramp is still our property, and then it leads to marsh grass, Dickey Brook, and the Frog Ghetto.
I see great potential here and there is a vast amount of privacy. More excavation will be ongoing, and landfill from the 400 square foot flagstone patio will provide lots of clean fill (cement and clayish topsoil). I can see building steps and terracing a landing.
Don't tell the city, but also I can somewhat annex the dead end section.
2022 is the deadline to utilize the 26% solar tax credit. To take advantage of the tax credit I need to replace and build out a south facing gable roof on the garage that is designed to hold sixteen 3x5 panels which weigh about 70 pounds a piece (1120 pounds).
Woman factor is that Maggie wants to do up a new kitchen, so this is also scheduled for 2022.
With a new roof, solar panels, I'll need a pair of Coldplay insulated garage doors (R21), and I'd like to insulate the roof to an R40. The finishing touch will be a Mitsubishi heat-pump for HVAC.
My present thinking is having the 21x20 foot garage as my studio, but also I can park my Audi A4 to keep it like new. Bought it with 16K miles in the beginning of December, and now I have about 18.5K miles.
Part of the solar installation will be a battery backup. The garage has a 100 amp service, the house a 200 amp service.
Anyways it took lots of vision to see the potential of buying a somewhat run down over 100 year old house (built 1912) that is kinda small (1400 square feet of living space) that is somewhat remote, but also not that far from NYC.
It surely is a project, but when completed and built out will be a nice two bedroom with a home office and a detached 400 square foot workspace.
My 300B tube stereo likes big rooms and tall ceilings, and it sounded amazing in my loft with 14 foot ceilings when we lived in Williamsburg. I could recreate the Blue Note, or even the recording studio where say Norah Jones is looking at me as she sings to me.
The sound-stage from single ended triodes (8 watts) should be great in the garage. Also likely could be a great place to set up a recording studio as well as my guitar and amp collections.
The attic should be a great baffle and bass-trap to cut down reflections. Should be sonic heaven, where I will set up a chase in the sweet spot to create that out of body experience.
Calvin-August
A 30 inch roll of root barrier was delivered, and needs to be installed. "Maggie's" thoughts were that a narrow trench should be easy to dig, and I present the reality that digging a narrow trench in fact is harder and is more difficult.
Pretty much my version of the great wall.
Bought another few hundred dollars worth of 10 mil thick tarps to cover an area of grass that is 16 feet into my rear lawn on the back-backyard. Meanwhile beyond the fence is a twenty foot perimeter that has been cleared, excavated, and de-knot-weeded that is covered with tarps.
The idea is to smother the knotweed by blocking both light and water.
This part of the property looks muy ghetto. Over time I will beautify this mess. The 20 foot section will be maintained indefinitely and serve as a "moat" of sorts. I'll use mulch or gravel to protect the tarp and use raised beds to grow plants. In this beyond the fence it pretty much is like a graded-gently sloping twenty foot shelf, and then the drop goes into a 45 degree ramp.
Sixteen feet of this ramp is still our property, and then it leads to marsh grass, Dickey Brook, and the Frog Ghetto.
I see great potential here and there is a vast amount of privacy. More excavation will be ongoing, and landfill from the 400 square foot flagstone patio will provide lots of clean fill (cement and clayish topsoil). I can see building steps and terracing a landing.
Don't tell the city, but also I can somewhat annex the dead end section.
2022 is the deadline to utilize the 26% solar tax credit. To take advantage of the tax credit I need to replace and build out a south facing gable roof on the garage that is designed to hold sixteen 3x5 panels which weigh about 70 pounds a piece (1120 pounds).
Woman factor is that Maggie wants to do up a new kitchen, so this is also scheduled for 2022.
With a new roof, solar panels, I'll need a pair of Coldplay insulated garage doors (R21), and I'd like to insulate the roof to an R40. The finishing touch will be a Mitsubishi heat-pump for HVAC.
My present thinking is having the 21x20 foot garage as my studio, but also I can park my Audi A4 to keep it like new. Bought it with 16K miles in the beginning of December, and now I have about 18.5K miles.
Part of the solar installation will be a battery backup. The garage has a 100 amp service, the house a 200 amp service.
Anyways it took lots of vision to see the potential of buying a somewhat run down over 100 year old house (built 1912) that is kinda small (1400 square feet of living space) that is somewhat remote, but also not that far from NYC.
It surely is a project, but when completed and built out will be a nice two bedroom with a home office and a detached 400 square foot workspace.
My 300B tube stereo likes big rooms and tall ceilings, and it sounded amazing in my loft with 14 foot ceilings when we lived in Williamsburg. I could recreate the Blue Note, or even the recording studio where say Norah Jones is looking at me as she sings to me.
The sound-stage from single ended triodes (8 watts) should be great in the garage. Also likely could be a great place to set up a recording studio as well as my guitar and amp collections.
The attic should be a great baffle and bass-trap to cut down reflections. Should be sonic heaven, where I will set up a chase in the sweet spot to create that out of body experience.
Calvin-August
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Since you have a deadline on the solar panels, you need to sit Maggie down and explain to her that the solar panels need to be done ASAP.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
26% tax credit is a good reason. Not only the solar panels but also the battery back-up gets 26% if installed as a "system."
So here is where my experience at Brookhaven National Labs comes in. I kinda worked as a Sue-doe project manager for building out 10 RF systems for the Relitivistic Heavy Ion Collider. I was only a technician, but I basically managed teams of men, plumbers, electricians, wire pullers, electronics technicians... To give you an idea of the scale here Building 1004 was one of five buildings around a collider that measured 2.7 miles in circumferance.
The RHIC Collider could only be operated in the winter, otherwise it would drain the grid. You can see the "ring" from outer space with the naked eye.
It was pretty crazy. The RHIC Project was a ten year project and for 8 years they did prototyping and research, and they only left 2 years to build out the whole project. That was when I was hired.
This was really stressful because my boss would tell me that I would have to call back xxx and yyy in the few minutes that I went to the bathroom.
So on my evaluation my boss said, "Cal is like a one man army or having an army of technicians..."
It was a very creative job and I was the problem solver. A lot of the training I got at Grumman was military like and goal oriented. I was a rouge operator at a Fortune 500 company and at the National Lab no different. Basically a thug.
So upon retirement next year I think I can get the kitchen, the garage roof torn down and rebuilt, and the solar system with battery backup installed.
Believe it or not that the installation of the Solar system only takes a day.
Once the sheathing on the roof is done I think I can shingle the roof by myself in a weekend, weather permitting. The insulating can be done later. Of course I need a contractor and a crew to install the gable roof that uses a load beam so I won't have trusses.
Devil Christian tells me that as far as the city and taxes go the garage is still a garage, and heating a garage is not prohibited, and that attic space is not considered living space and is basically storage space.
Don't tell the city that it is my studio and workspace.
The kitchen I know has a heart pine floor underneath two layers of linolium and a top of ceramic tile. I figure I want to stockpile soon the 120 or so square feet of salvaged heart pine to have on hand to replace the floor.
The cabinets are Home Depo "specials" that are solid maple. We would like to recycle them by painting them, and I can do a lacquer finish like on a guitar.
Our kitchen is awkward because there are 5 doorways and a radiator right under the set of side windows. The solution is a center island with a sink so that we can create a triangle between the sink, fridge and stove. Also our present kitchen lacks counter space.
So in the kitchen I'll be hiring a plumber, an electrician, and a pro floor installer. The stove is a 4 burner natural gas convection oven that eventually will get replaced with mucho expensive Italian 5 burner convection oven. Of course these ovens are both the same size and the oven can be replaced at a later time, as the fridge.
The big time consumer is after spraying the cabinets because the lacquer needs a couple of weeks to harden/cure before leveling and polishing. I figure I need the garage as my staging area for painting.
The ceiling in the kitchen I intend on using 4x4 plywood as panels to be modular. The seams will be covered with flat molding. Know that the next project will be the "Tub" room for the slipper shaped soaking tub. I'll need access to that ceiling for the plumbing, so I'm thinking ahead and making the ceiling not only modular, but also future proofed for future renovations (soaking tub).
The natural gas hot water heater that already exists will provide the scalding hot water for the dishwasher and soaking tub, otherwise the instant on hot water provided by the oil burner is hot enough. This allows me to keep the instant on hot water at a moderate temperature, and also have scalding hot water that I can cycle on or off as needed.
Lots of planning, good organizational skills and attention to details required.
In the end a two bedroom house not for a family by perhaps ideal for a professional couple without kids. Ideal/statigic location due to proximity to NYC, Bear Mountain, Blue Mountain Preserve, Metro North, and of course the historic City of Peekskill.
So in the end I'll have a happy Maggie and a 400 foot studio. The HVAC (Mitsubishi heat-pump) can be done later as well as the insulation.
What a great way to celebrate retirement as an accomplishment.
I forgot the 3/4 bath off the kitchen, but that will be reduced to a 1/2 bath. This too can be done at a later time.
Kidding around I asked Maggie, "What are we going to do once we are done with the house?" LOL.
I know that I'll likely be in my garage, working out, printing, listening to music, or playing guitar or bass.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
The trip to Europe gig is not happening. Covid related they decided to use people in Europe. Oh-well.
To be honest, going to Europe to work is a long commute, and I alread have lots of exciting stuff I would rather get done at home.
I would just fall further behind in schedule and then feel more pressure.
I just want to be a lazy-slacker.
I'll be using some vacation time next week. We will have the grandkid (girl) for a week.
I think I'll be buying R30 blankets and try and deal with insulating the attic in the cool mornings then battle the knotweed. I have to dig a 30 inch deep trench to install a root barrier, grade the back backyard that is covered in a tarp, and grade the 20 foot shelf beyond the fence. perhaps I can get back to breaking up concrete to build out the flagstone patio again.
Cal
To be honest, going to Europe to work is a long commute, and I alread have lots of exciting stuff I would rather get done at home.
I would just fall further behind in schedule and then feel more pressure.
I just want to be a lazy-slacker.
I'll be using some vacation time next week. We will have the grandkid (girl) for a week.
I think I'll be buying R30 blankets and try and deal with insulating the attic in the cool mornings then battle the knotweed. I have to dig a 30 inch deep trench to install a root barrier, grade the back backyard that is covered in a tarp, and grade the 20 foot shelf beyond the fence. perhaps I can get back to breaking up concrete to build out the flagstone patio again.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Cal, you can envy me now----bought a black F2 body Monday.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
You suck. LOL.
You know that snarky Joe also has a stash of nice F2's.
I thought that the Leica SL2-MOT would be a Nikon F2 killer, because I have that 50 Lux E60. Together the SL2-MOT and 50 Lux E60 is a great rig, but I also have a Noct-Nikkor...
Right now the Noct-Nikkor is on my SL digital.
I still have my F3P, but that camera I like to have rigged with a motor drive.
I was looking to get another F3P to use without a MD-4. I already have a spare very clean data back and a rare and unusual aftermarket grip, and a spare AH-4 hand strap.
All these things I do to avoid buying a F2. This is kinda funny. No such thing as F2 antibodies it seems to prevent Nikon F2 disease.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Well, as with almost every F & F2, the Photomic meter head doesn't work, but the body is in good shape other than the light seals and the base is scuffed up.
What will really piss you off is the price-$75 & tax!
PS: go to Goodwill's web site-they have a SL for sale.
What will really piss you off is the price-$75 & tax!
PS: go to Goodwill's web site-they have a SL for sale.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
Get a DE-2 prism finder and be happy.
In comparing a F2 with DE-2 against a M-body in some ways the F2 is smaller, and in another bigger.
For me the F3P has enough features and differences from a F3 or F3HP that I gave away the F3HP that I had covered in Italian goat leather that some people called the Prada F3 HP.
In loading you don't have to shoot dead frames on a F3P to get the camera ready making loading faster. Then there is no door lock that allows for speedier unloading and opening of the back. Then there is the weathersealing and oversized shutter speed dial. The shutter lock is different.
I love the muy macho hot shoe on the prism.
My F3P I modded so that the light illuminates the LCD. I find this useful for shooting at night, and even during the day the metering has higher visability, but the downside is the battery drain.
The shutter is electronic, and as the in camera battery runs down the shutter sometimes might not fire after say 6-7 rolls of film. The meter and light turns on whenever you half depress the shutter button. THe solution to the battery drain is to use a MD-4 motor drive where there are 8 penlight batteries.
I happen to love the fell of a F3P with a MD-4 mounted. Pretty much a weapon held in plain sight. Also mighty annoying the sound of a motordrive, my trademark. LOL. you know me: loud and annoying. LOL.
What's the serial number? Light seals are no problem, done many replacement. Is it a black body? If you you suck. LOL.
Cal
Range-rover
Mentor
I have a F3 as well that came with the motor drive all working and no LCD bleeding,
way back when the F3 first came out I saw it at the Nikon House in New York City
and like the camera ever since. Paid $175.00 for mine off ebay, but having a SP with
three lenses is hard to match.
way back when the F3 first came out I saw it at the Nikon House in New York City
and like the camera ever since. Paid $175.00 for mine off ebay, but having a SP with
three lenses is hard to match.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Bob,
Way back B&H had a Noct-Nikkor for $2.7K when they were selling at $3.5K. I figured some mistake or mispricing, so I bought it.
For me the F3 VF'er with the magnifying diopter was a better rig for exploiting the F1.2 of the Noct-Nikkor.
In a way the Noct-Nikkor was like getting a vaccination from Noctilux disease.
The Noct-Nikkor is not as sharp in the corners as a Noctilux, but then again it does not have the light fall off and dark corners of the Noctilux.
My Noct-Nikkor has a hand ground ASPH element and low coma glass that prevents that lava lamp effect seen from bright lights in night shots.
A lens like the Noct-Nikkor is optimized and designed to excel shot wide open.
On my SL digital I use the Noctilux F1.2 profile which seems to be a great fit. The Noct-Nikkor on the SL is still a hot rig. If I depress the joystick the electronic VF'er zooms in and makes it EZ-PZ to nail the focus.
My Noct-Nikkor was CLA'ed by Sammy's in L.A.
With just the SL or F3P along with the Noct-Nikkor I can do mucho photography. Old gear somehow stays current, although a SL2S has IBIS which would kill for night stalking.
Interesting to note how the Noct-Nikkor and 50 Lux "E60" are from a pre-digital era, but have the resolution and rendering that is not compromised on a digital body.
On my SL2 though it is the speed, precision and interface that makes me use the native Leica "L" glass.
On my SL2 I dumbed down the camera and made the interface simplier. Perfect for a lazy-slacker.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Been offline and at home baby sitting a 7 year old grand daughter this past week. It felt like being retired, and retirement is only about 5 months away.
In my case I figure it is best to pay my taxes on my 403B before I'm 70 since I don't want to pay huge Medicare premiums that tax you on a sliding scale.
"No one ever got rich by paying taxes," the rich say.
I also figure I'll defer collecting my Grumman pension until I'm 70 also because I don't need the funds and because New York tax exempts only $20K of either pension or 401K-403B income.
Bonus is by differing to age 70 I end up getting a larger annual payment. Remember I have a projected life expectancy of 111 years, and this will require mucho money.
My hospital pension I won't tap until I'm 65.
"Maggie" is 5 years older than me, and at 68 the heat and humidity makes her vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Yesterday it was 93 and she had an episode that reached heat exhaustion.
Her Dutch, English and Irish genes really are not well suited for tropical like conditions when New York gets swampy and like Florida.
Meanwhile because I'm a skinny bitch, and Cantonese my breeding is for a tropical climate. Hong Kong has the heat and humidity of Havana Cuba. I sweat a lot and it is easy for me to saturate my clothing with sweat. Also because of my endurance training I know how to moderate my efforts so I can extend the envelope.
In visiting Maggie's mom in a nursing home I learned that part of the aging process is a vulnerability to dehydration. I also can understand how a cardiovascular system can get taxed trying to cool an older person in extreme heat.
So at age 64 I will have to buy health insurance to bridge a year before I'm eligible for Medicare. It makes sense to tap into my 403B deeply to remodel the kitchen, put a new roof on the garage, and install a solar system.
This is all very timely because my income will not effect my Medicare premiums, and most importantly I want to capitalize on the 26% solar Tax Credit before it expires in December 31st 2022.
I don't think Maggie realizes the importance of having heat and air conditioning as we age. When there are air quality advisories and high heat indexes every year there are deaths from heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
When we lived in Williamsburg I called the 18,000 BTU air conditioner "life support" because the air was so dirty that it really was not safe to open the windows, otherwise dirt and grit would filter in and fill the loft. There was a smell from the running Domino Sugar Refinery that smelled like either burnt newsprint or cotton candy. We lived about a quarter block away.
Don't forget that sugar refineries are known to explode and pretty much the explosions can be rather large like a fuel air bomb, or like a "Daisy-Cutter."
The way a fuel-air bomb works is a cloud of something flammable is spread into a cloud and then it is ignited. In a Daisy-Cutter they use hydrogen gas, but in a sugar refinery the flammable element is the sugar itself.
The top of the tower where the sifting occurred had glass windows on the top floors so than if an explosion happened the windows would blow out instead of the building coming down.
Pretty much we lived very near a huge bomb that could go off at any time.
Yesterday I went to Home Depo and bought a 6,000 BTU air conditioner. The Baby-Victorian came with four 5,000 BTU units, but they are kinda loud in operation, and perhaps not so fresh. The newest one barely cooled our bedroom.
"Don't tell Maggie," but the Garage eventually will have HVAC provided by a Mitsubishi heat-pump.
In the Knotweed war I have piles of stalks and bags of roots and rye-ZOMES. The marsh grass has revived and is filling in the bare areas down the slope. The view is grand and expansive of a 30-40 acre marsh (frog-ghetto) and a wooded hillside that makes one think the might be in some rural part of England.
The new development is that Maggie wants to remove the back section of the fence, and my salesmanship has her sold on terracing the beyond the fence. From the lawn the view is as if looking off a cliff.
The birds have discovered my blueberry tree and have been feasting on them. I discovered that we have wild raspberries on our dead end to complement the domestic raspberries I have growing. Wild raspberries flower and produce fruit earlier.
I have a fig tree that looks like a bush that is growing as if on steroids. Mucho Japanese Maples being grown in 2 gallon pots. Right now the tree farm is a container garden with a few small maples thrown in.
In the fall I will collect acorns to grow some oaks.
Maggie wants to create a rather large flower garden in the rear lawn area that is now covered by 16 foot tarps that will be part of our "Knotweed-Moat" that will include a 30 inch root barrier.
Somehow our back-backyard got a lot bigger, more expansive, and then there is the dead-end where I intend to plant large trees. We have a stand of White Pines that are about 25-30 feet tall, and I recently learned that I can propagate them from cuttings. These are fast growers and under the right conditions they can attain a height of 150 feet.
Looks like only a three-day workweek this week, and if I can get Monday off perhaps a 5 day weekend.
The countdown to retirement continues...
Calvin-August
In my case I figure it is best to pay my taxes on my 403B before I'm 70 since I don't want to pay huge Medicare premiums that tax you on a sliding scale.
"No one ever got rich by paying taxes," the rich say.
I also figure I'll defer collecting my Grumman pension until I'm 70 also because I don't need the funds and because New York tax exempts only $20K of either pension or 401K-403B income.
Bonus is by differing to age 70 I end up getting a larger annual payment. Remember I have a projected life expectancy of 111 years, and this will require mucho money.
My hospital pension I won't tap until I'm 65.
"Maggie" is 5 years older than me, and at 68 the heat and humidity makes her vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Yesterday it was 93 and she had an episode that reached heat exhaustion.
Her Dutch, English and Irish genes really are not well suited for tropical like conditions when New York gets swampy and like Florida.
Meanwhile because I'm a skinny bitch, and Cantonese my breeding is for a tropical climate. Hong Kong has the heat and humidity of Havana Cuba. I sweat a lot and it is easy for me to saturate my clothing with sweat. Also because of my endurance training I know how to moderate my efforts so I can extend the envelope.
In visiting Maggie's mom in a nursing home I learned that part of the aging process is a vulnerability to dehydration. I also can understand how a cardiovascular system can get taxed trying to cool an older person in extreme heat.
So at age 64 I will have to buy health insurance to bridge a year before I'm eligible for Medicare. It makes sense to tap into my 403B deeply to remodel the kitchen, put a new roof on the garage, and install a solar system.
This is all very timely because my income will not effect my Medicare premiums, and most importantly I want to capitalize on the 26% solar Tax Credit before it expires in December 31st 2022.
I don't think Maggie realizes the importance of having heat and air conditioning as we age. When there are air quality advisories and high heat indexes every year there are deaths from heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
When we lived in Williamsburg I called the 18,000 BTU air conditioner "life support" because the air was so dirty that it really was not safe to open the windows, otherwise dirt and grit would filter in and fill the loft. There was a smell from the running Domino Sugar Refinery that smelled like either burnt newsprint or cotton candy. We lived about a quarter block away.
Don't forget that sugar refineries are known to explode and pretty much the explosions can be rather large like a fuel air bomb, or like a "Daisy-Cutter."
The way a fuel-air bomb works is a cloud of something flammable is spread into a cloud and then it is ignited. In a Daisy-Cutter they use hydrogen gas, but in a sugar refinery the flammable element is the sugar itself.
The top of the tower where the sifting occurred had glass windows on the top floors so than if an explosion happened the windows would blow out instead of the building coming down.
Pretty much we lived very near a huge bomb that could go off at any time.
Yesterday I went to Home Depo and bought a 6,000 BTU air conditioner. The Baby-Victorian came with four 5,000 BTU units, but they are kinda loud in operation, and perhaps not so fresh. The newest one barely cooled our bedroom.
"Don't tell Maggie," but the Garage eventually will have HVAC provided by a Mitsubishi heat-pump.
In the Knotweed war I have piles of stalks and bags of roots and rye-ZOMES. The marsh grass has revived and is filling in the bare areas down the slope. The view is grand and expansive of a 30-40 acre marsh (frog-ghetto) and a wooded hillside that makes one think the might be in some rural part of England.
The new development is that Maggie wants to remove the back section of the fence, and my salesmanship has her sold on terracing the beyond the fence. From the lawn the view is as if looking off a cliff.
The birds have discovered my blueberry tree and have been feasting on them. I discovered that we have wild raspberries on our dead end to complement the domestic raspberries I have growing. Wild raspberries flower and produce fruit earlier.
I have a fig tree that looks like a bush that is growing as if on steroids. Mucho Japanese Maples being grown in 2 gallon pots. Right now the tree farm is a container garden with a few small maples thrown in.
In the fall I will collect acorns to grow some oaks.
Maggie wants to create a rather large flower garden in the rear lawn area that is now covered by 16 foot tarps that will be part of our "Knotweed-Moat" that will include a 30 inch root barrier.
Somehow our back-backyard got a lot bigger, more expansive, and then there is the dead-end where I intend to plant large trees. We have a stand of White Pines that are about 25-30 feet tall, and I recently learned that I can propagate them from cuttings. These are fast growers and under the right conditions they can attain a height of 150 feet.
Looks like only a three-day workweek this week, and if I can get Monday off perhaps a 5 day weekend.
The countdown to retirement continues...
Calvin-August
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Hey Cal!
I was worried about ya-wondered why you'd gone quiet.
I just checked the black F2-serial # starts with 771. The charts I've looked at say that means it was made between 11/76 and 02/77.
Yes, I looked at F2 plain prism finders-they average 2.5 times what I paid for the camera!
Cal, the fuel/air bomb they used in Vietnam was a 500 gallon propane tank dropped from a helicopter . They'd let the tank hit the ground and rupture and give the propane time to spread and then they'd drop a sachal charge with a timer out. I had a buddy that did 2.5 tours in Nam and he said it'd clear out a landing zone an 1/8 mile in diameter.
I was worried about ya-wondered why you'd gone quiet.
I just checked the black F2-serial # starts with 771. The charts I've looked at say that means it was made between 11/76 and 02/77.
Yes, I looked at F2 plain prism finders-they average 2.5 times what I paid for the camera!
Cal, the fuel/air bomb they used in Vietnam was a 500 gallon propane tank dropped from a helicopter . They'd let the tank hit the ground and rupture and give the propane time to spread and then they'd drop a sachal charge with a timer out. I had a buddy that did 2.5 tours in Nam and he said it'd clear out a landing zone an 1/8 mile in diameter.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
The "Daisy-Cutter" was not well liked by terrorists when used in Afganistan.
I might be mistaken about hydrogen being used as the fuel though...
Unfortunately it was a pickup truck that held cyclinders of oxigen and hydrogen that were used to kill over 200 Marines in Beruit as a makeshift fuel-air bomb.
Another cool bomb (U.S. made) is the famous "Bunker-Buster" that is basically a length of sewer pipe with fins designed to use altutude and gravity to penetrate deep into the earth. The bomb has a delayed ignition.
If going the cheap route the prism finder for an original "F" will fit and work. If you do that consider mounting a F3 screen in the F2 screen frame for a much brighter screen.
Don't do it on a metered F2 because it will effect the metering, if the meter works.
This is one of my secretes, don't tell anyone.
I have another 5-day holiday weekend coming up.
Getting close to retirement...
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
The FAE uses what is essentially an oxygen rich kerosene (or JP-8) with a two stage ignition. The FAE mixture is rapidly dispersed above the ground then ignited. We didn't use any in Fallujah, as they are too destructive; granted, the constant bombardment from 155mm artillery, 90mm tank rounds, 105mm aerial artillery from spooky, 40mm Bofors, also from spooky, A-10 GAU-8, a plethora of GBUs ranging from 200-1000lb, M204 grenades, uncountable small arms fire, and quite a few claymores, about 90% of the city was destroyed. It wasn't even comparable to last year's explosion due to neglect in Beirut, though.
Phil Forrest
Phil Forrest
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
Someone I knew, but now have forgotten who, told me they saw someone smoking a cigarette near an open drum full of JP-4 (jet fuel), and when confronted about the danger/hazard, the smoker proceeded to extinguish the cigarette in the JP-4.
Evidently if this story is true JP-4 is not so flammable. The addition of a strong oxidizer makes sense.
At Grumman which was a sprawling 500 acre complex with an airstrip there was also a railroad crossing. Evidently an employee had a pickup with either a winch or snowplow and somehow a loose spray can that had flammable contents came in contact with the truck's battery voltage, ruptured the can, and ignited the contents while going over the railroad crossing.
Sadly the driver/employee was killed.
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
JP-4 was supposedly sensitive to static charge ignition. Naval JP-5 is really hard to ignite at normal atmospheric pressure and even if atomized, it could put out a zippo. When I was training to become part of the at sea fire party on board the Stennis, our fire marshal trained us to become both familiar and comfortable around JP-5. Most modern kerosene based aviation fuel is like this, in that it doesn't vaporize, but needs "misting" atomization along with some compression before ignition. It's much safer that way. We used to joke that you could put out a fire with JP-5, and it might be true if one were using a solid stream and not a dispersed fan of the liquid.
On my first deployment aboard the Stennis, we were doing racetracks up and down the Persian Gulf in early 1998. Did this for over 3 months without stopping. At that time there was a little bit of a shortage of JP-5 in the region. We refueled once with some kind of land-based avgas and when the purple shirts would draw fuel from the flight deck tanks to check for dirt and water, they would have to take extra care to not drop the glass jars. I remember it was past "halfway to boiling" out once when we were doing flight ops and the flight deck was so hot, a spilled canister of this stuff burst into flame (it's only about 12oz) because the deck was close to 300 degrees. Our shoes were getting soft and sweating feet would actually get heat blisters. That was a brutal deployment. My second deployment was the opposite, it was amazing and also was when I really decided that I wanted to be a photographer and stay in the Navy 'till retirement.
Phil Forrest