BamaBoy

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Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, United States
A guy finding out if life really does begin at 50.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

1996 Hawaii Bicycle Adventure

This weekend I helped a friend setup a few year old desktop computer. You remember desktops right? Those big boxes with diskette and CD-DVD drives? I cabled it up and it booted. Sweet. I installed a current Anti Virus and ran Windows Update. Several Service Packs later we were done. Then I noticed it had 6 ~ 40 gig partitions scattered across 2 hard drives. Yuck - got to redo that. I called it a day and went home. I returned today with my partition tool and some 3.5 diskettes with pictures on them. I consolidated one HD into one big C: partition. then using this 'Old School' desktop computer copied the pictures disks to a USB thumb drive. The pictures are of a month long bike trip to Hawaii. Seeing, riding, pedaling, and camping on Maui, the Big Island (Hawaii), and Molokai. This Hawaii trip was the first time I opted for the then 'new' service of pictures on disk.

Since I spent about a week of the month trip at my brother JB's place on Maui, I decided 3 rolls of 24 exposure film would be MORE than enough. Roll a week or 3-4 pictures a day - in Hawaii. Sounds about right.

I dropped the rolls of film in the mail as I exposed them, and the prints and diskettes with the pictures were waiting for me when I got home. Back in 1996 I viewed the pictures once or twice on the diskettes, but since I had prints there was no need to mess with the disks. I put the disks in the dresser, and now years later I have no diskette drive to read them. UNTIL today! Quick... How many 3.5 inch floppy disks will a 4 gig thumb drive hold?

Times up... 2844. That's about a 31 ft high stack of them. Hope you enjoy the pictures and remembrances of that trip. Click the picture and be sure to read the captions and leave comments!
Hawaii Bicycle Trip 1996

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Merry Month of May

This last May was really different for me. I've lived by myself for over 20 years. I've visited and have hosted visitors over the years, but since Gale is now retired she came and spent the month of May with me. Somehow she avoided "Work'n my nerve" on her visit. You can check out the pictures.
Work'n My Nerve - NOT!
We took day trips and on those we pigged out on North Carolina BBQ, visited civil war battleground, a car show, and even saw a Bulls game. I hope Gale had a good time on her visit, I know I did.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Space Shuttle or Bust

I'm home for awhile and it's time for me to catch up on my blog posting. In April I went to Florida to see the shuttle launch. They scrubbed the shuttle launch the day we headed to the cape, and we didn't make the scheduled. But here are the pictures from that day and the April trip to JB's.
Exploring Florida on Shuttle Scrub

I told JB I'd be back after Gale's visit to help him with his pole barn. I'll blog about that soon.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sap is Boiling!

Ever since my trip to new Hampshire to see the fall foliage in 2009 I've wanted to come back to New Hampshire. John has been telling me about how he makes his own maple syrup, so when he asked if I like to come up for a visit during syrup making season I got my chance. I had a good time with John and Gail, and met some really nice syrup making people when John took me around to near by Sugar Houses. I have to say I now understand why those little bottles of Maple Syrup cost so much. It's a lot of work to make syrup, but well worth it.

Many thanks to John and Gail for letting me stay with them and being such great hosts. I hope you enjoy the pictures and videos. If you are ever in New Hampshire over a weekend in late winter or early spring be sure to stop and visit one of the New Hampshire Maple Sugar Houses.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Running 2011

I started running in 1980 when I lived in Auburn. I've stopped and started five or six times over the years. I would say that I have been an active runner for about 15 out of those 30+ years. This current period of active running started October 1, 2006. What I like about running is it's effective, efficient, and easy. All you really need is a pair of running shoes and 30 minutes. Running also travels well. I've ran on beaches in Hawaii, the Arizona desert, and Welsh country side. But the bulk of my running has been near my house.

The reason I have ran so long is because I've used a heart monitor from almost the very beginning. I got my first heart monitor from DAK in 1982. What a heart monitor does is stop me from exercising TOO hard and avoid getting burned out. I don't care about how fast I run. I run at whatever pace that keeps my heart in the 'target zone' (70-75% of your maximum heart rate of 220 minus your age). That 1st DAK monitor was a digital watch that you activated by putting your finger on a metal sensor on the face of the watch. In about 5 seconds it started showing your current pulse rate, and would continue to update every few seconds as long as you held your finger on the metal sensor. That 1st one was tricky to read as I ran, but I could. The next few monitors used a chest strap that had a transmitter that sent data to a receiver built into the watch. They continuously showed my pulse rate on the face of the watch. My latest heart monitor is also the chest strip type, but it transmits to my 6th generation iPod Nano and not a watch.
The monitor snaps on and off of a washable chest strap. I can replace the battery which is nice since my prior Polar chest straps used non replaceable batteries. The Nano does not have a built in receiver, and requires a small device plugged into it (white rectangle in the next picture) . I mounted my Nano in a LunaTik watch band, so I don't wash this Nano like I did my 1st one. I had left that 1st gen Nano in my running short's pocket and washed it. I found out a Nano is not machine washable :-(
The device that plugs into the Nano is actually a dual receiver, and besides the heart monitor it receives the signal from the shoe sensor that I installed in my New Balance (NOT NIKE!) running shoes.
In the past I have used a holder that attached the shoe sensor to my shoe laces, but this time I cut a 'pocket' using my Dremel rotary tool. You can too. Just be careful, and make sure the sensor is a tad below the surface. I had it just barely proud and I noticed it when I ran. Another 1/16 of a inch did the trick. I cannot feel it at all now.

What I like about the Nano is it uploads my 'work out' data to the web, and will even post it to Facebook.

If you click that run data image it will take you to the details that shows the heart rate also. I really like that Nike+iPod tracks all my workouts. The Nike site will chart your progress and has challenges and groups activities you can participate in.

The Nano lets you set your heart rate target zone, but it does not alert you when you are above or below it like my old watch did. I think that is a MAJOR issue. The reason I wear the heart monitor is for it to nag me when I run too slow and caution me when I run to hard. If I press the button on the Nano the 'voice' says all the details including current heart rate and pace, but that really is not the same as having it beep in real time when you get out of the target zone.

All this technology is 'OK', but I have to say the fact that that I can't use the chest strap with my Touch is another draw back. Of course Nike, Apple, and Polar are in business to sell product so they aren't going to ever sell something that makes the ideal 'work out' companion. They want you to have a iPhone, so the Touch and Nano do not have a GPS. The chest strap does not work with the iPhone, so you have to have a Nano. The Touch has the receiver built in for the shoe sensor since it does not have GPS, but the receiver does not support the chest strap. Personally I think the Nano is the 'right size' for a work out companion. A future Nano might have a built in receiver for the chest strap and shoe sensor, but it will never have GPS. Nike provides the web side to track your runs. Nike needs the sensor so there is a reason for people to buy Nike shoes with the pocket for the sensor built in. I'm sure that soon Nike will sell the sensor built into the shoe and the external sensor will go away. That will stop non Nike runners from using the Nike site. Oh well, I'll enjoy the freedom to choose my own brand of shoes while I can. Come on Android!

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Would you like to...

Couple weeks ago I found yet another USPS delivered package sitting next to my mail box. Sometimes a package is just sitting there on the ground and sometimes the package is inside an overturn mail tub to keep it dry. A mail tub looks like a recycle bin except it's white and has "US Mail" printed on it. I just take the package and leave the tub for the letter carrier to retrieve the next service day. Not real happy that my sometimes expensive packages are just sitting out at the street.

That's the original steel box and pole the builder put up as a 'thank you' when I bought the house in December 1988. I took it down and put up a cypress post and plastic box my little sister Karen gave me when she visited in the spring of 1989. The cypress post rotted and broke off at grade level after 8 or 10 years. I had put the original pole and box in my crawl space resting on a couple bricks. It is dry under there and the bricks kept it from making ground contact, so the original box and post were still like new. They have been back up now for 10-12 years. Only problem with the box is it's standard size and not big enough to hold packages. I needed something bigger. I could get a large box locally, but ....

I used the Internet and got a 'Super Size' one for a few dollars more! I even ordered custom numbers and letters! Ain't Internet shopping great?

Ironically the UPS driver delivered it to my back step Monday. I put it up today. Those numbers & letters are reflective, and should make it an easy target at night for a brick or bat. If that happens I still have the old box I can put back up - again. I'll just smile if I have too that. We're leaving those young'ins $30-40 trillion in public debt, so they'll be paying plenty for our fun.
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Who's That Coming Down the Drive?

I've been in this house since 1989 and I like that it's set back from the street and surrounded by woods. I have a 400ft driveway that I had paved back in 2009. The way the windows in my house face I see mostly woods. It's hard to see cars that come down the drive except for one window in the back bedroom. At one time I had a inexpensive wireless motion detector to detect cars as they came down the drive. It was triggered by anything, cars, wind, sun, deer, you name it. False alarms continued even after I relocated it several times. I finely gave up on it.

I spotted a solar powered wireless 'metal detector' type drive way alert on Amazon, but the reviews were hit and miss at best. That got me thinking about about a system I first saw in the mid 80s when I was still in Florida. I remember seeing the Winland Electronics Vehicle Alert System in catalogs all those years ago and from time to time ever since. The Winland system requires you to install a sensor next to the drive way and run (plus bury) a cable to a console installed inside your home. It's still around because it works.

The Winland system was always more expensive than what I wanted to pay, especially since I needed more than the supplied 100ft cable. Now days $400 isn't as expensive to me as it used to be. I'm older and I don't like surprise visitors as much, so I ordered one with a 350ft cable. You can click the picture above and see and read about my installation of the system.

I have to say making a trench 330 ft long and a few inches deep is a bit more work than I expected. The tree roots and crossing two creeks using flexible metal conduit added to the effort. I worked at it 3-4 hours a day until it was done. I used my hammer drill with a bit borrowed from Wally, and put the cable through the foundation below grade.

I made a counter out of a inexpensive pedometer to keep track of how many vehicles come in and out my drive. The counter works well. My idea of using a wireless doorbell to alert me if I'm working in the garage didn't work due to RF interference. I'll install a wired buzzer next time I'm pulling cable through the conduit to the detached garage, so I can be alerted if I'm out there.

I'm hoping for many years of trouble free service from this system. I'm sure sooner or later something will break the cable. Hopefully by then they be cheap wireless systems that work and I'll just get one of those.