Trivial (or not so trivial) stuff that makes you happy.

[Jens]

I had a co-worker once who bought a top-of-the-line TI calculator. He was very proud of it. But one day he left it on his desk when he went home. The next morning it was gone.

It’s a nice story. The thing is, I distinctly remember reading it before. Perhaps you have posted it before?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pzkpfw]

My oldest sisters' oldest son and wife have just had their first baby.

First of the "next level". (My own oldest, my daughter, is 26 but I'm picking at least 4 years before I'm a grandfather an Opa).

So I'm a great uncle, or something.

(I'm from an immigrant family, that went to a different language/culture, and was married 26 years to someone from a very different language/culture; so I've always been a bit unclear on the non-direct familial relationship names.)

Rang my Dad to make sure he got the news. Weird to hear your father cry. It spread.

[Swift]

My oldest sisters' oldest son and wife have just had their first baby.

First of the "next level". (My own oldest, my daughter, is 26 but I'm picking at least 4 years before I'm a grandfather an Opa).

So I'm a great uncle, or something.

(I'm from an immigrant family, that went to a different language/culture, and was married 26 years to someone from a very different language/culture; so I've always been a bit unclear on the non-direct familial relationship names.)

Rang my Dad to make sure he got the news. Weird to hear your father cry. It spread.

Congrats Uncle pzkpfw

[Swift]

Homecoming story number 2: On arrival we came in and were greeted by exactly no cats. We started calling and after a couple of minutes one of them came out. Looked in the usual places for the other, no cat. I texted the sitter to ask when he'd last seen her. He replied he'd only seen the other one. Uh-Oh. A bit more looking and I called him.
"So you only just saw the one?"
"Yes, do you think she could have gotten out? Now I'm worried."
"So are we. We haven't done a thorough search but..."
MEOW! MEOW, MEOW, MEOW!
Just where HAVE you two been! MEOW!

All's well.

ETA: Purring on my lap now. All is very well.

That's always my biggest fear when we go on vacation. Maki is very social, but Ginger is shy with strangers. After years of using the same petsitter, she usually only takes a day or so before she will come out and see the sitter.

[Trebuchet]

I was going to catch up on YouTube videos last night. It turned out the cats thought it more important that I spend time with them. They were right.

[Gillianren]

(I'm from an immigrant family, that went to a different language/culture, and was married 26 years to someone from a very different language/culture; so I've always been a bit unclear on the non-direct familial relationship names.)

You are indeed a great-uncle! (Though some people say "grand-uncle.") Your [theoretical] grandchildren and that child would be second cousins; that child and your children are first cousins once removed.

[Jim]

… On arrival we came in and were greeted by exactly no cats. We started calling and after a couple of minutes one of them came out. Looked in the usual places for the other, no cat. ...

I think I've mentioned this before, but the difference between cats and dogs is, when you are gone for a day and come home a dog is, "Oh! Oh! You're home, you're home!!! I missed you so much!!!!" Go away for two weeks and when you get home cats are, "You were gone?"

It’s a nice story. The thing is, I distinctly remember reading it before. Perhaps you have posted it before?

Probably. The good ones have legs.

[Trebuchet]

It’s a nice story. The thing is, I distinctly remember reading it before. Perhaps you have posted it before?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably. The good ones have legs.

Or perhaps you remembered mine of the time every unsecured calculator in the engineering office was taken, but they were too dumb to take any of the chargers! Mine was locked in my desk.

[pzkpfw]

You are indeed a great-uncle! (Though some people say "grand-uncle.") Your [theoretical] grandchildren and that child would be second cousins; that child and your children are first cousins once removed.

Thank you.

(Texted a friend the news. He says it just means I'm "old".)

[Gillianren]

Third weekend of faire was wonderful. I found something I'd been looking for for some time now and hadn't been able to find in my size. My booth friends and I have a new in-joke. We talked out some stuff about the website to improve it. I got hugged by a waitress at the place we always go Saturday night for giving her one of the boss's pins. I'm sad faire is over, but I really do have such a wonderful time. And then this morning, when she woke up, the first thing Irene said was, "You're back!"

[Jim]

Some time back I bought my wife an opal ring. A couple of months ago she lost it. After a thorough search and vigorous questioning of the cats it was not to be found, so I told her I'd get it replaced. We went to the same jeweler in the mall and they checked their records. Turns out they had an identical ring in the showcase. We bought it and left it to be resized.

A few days later she went back to get the ring.

The next day a couple of men tried a smash-and-grab at that same jeweler ... and on that same showcase. Since the showcase fronts the mall, they walked up to it and smashed the glass. This (surprise!) put a lot of broken glass all over the rings in the showcase. They didn't have time to pick out the rings and didn't want to scoop up a bunch of broken glass, so they left empty handed.

[Gillianren]

Opal is my favourite gemstone!

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Well tomorrow we will be headed to the Hopewell rocks, never seen them before, it is almost 4 hours away and bit out of the way.

[Trebuchet]

Is this the "makes me happy" thread? In that case, kitties!

[Gillianren]

Our new bed is already proving that part of the worsened back pain I had been feeling was definitely because our old mattress was in such bad shape.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Here a few pictures from the little trip today, now must see there is still star trek on the TV and get a little snack.
https://twitter.com/DavidLPFairweat/...09382714167297

[Gillianren]

Yesterday, I went to our local independent bookstore looking for specific books by a specific author. They didn't have any of them, but they did have another book that I would've wanted if I'd put any thought into its existence, so I got that instead. I was also able to make a contribution, however small, to their drive to buy the building they're in from its current owner.

[Torsten]

Here a few pictures from the little trip today, now must see there is still star trek on the TV and get a little snack.
https://twitter.com/DavidLPFairweat/...09382714167297

Glad you saw it at low tide. When I was there on the 11th, the tide was up and I wasn't willing to wait around with a crowd of a zillion other tourists. I must have been spoiled by my first and last visit in October 1980: There were just two other people there.

[Torsten]

Yesterday, I went to our local independent bookstore looking for specific books by a specific author. They didn't have any of them, but they did have another book that I would've wanted if I'd put any thought into its existence, so I got that instead. I was also able to make a contribution, however small, to their drive to buy the building they're in from its current owner.

That used to happen to me when I'd visit one or the other of my daughters when they worked at Russell Books in Victoria. Local independents = good.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Glad you saw it at low tide. When I was there on the 11th, the tide was up and I wasn't willing to wait around with a crowd of a zillion other tourists. I must have been spoiled by my first and last visit in October 1980: There were just two other people there.

There were two groups that went, the group I went with got there first and divided up, and the second group didn't get for another hour and I went down to Damoiselle beach and got back couldn't find the so ended up going down to rocks again and walking along the beach. They eventually had to call me on my cell phone to fond where I was. Great day, glad to hear from you.

[Torsten]

Sleeping in my own bed. I got back from my cross Canada motorcycle trip about a week ago.

19,000 km + and 3 oil changes. One minor problem with the starter switch and the headlight interlock (or whatever it's called).

6 nights with family and friends, 3 nights in hotels or BnBs, 36 nights camping.

I retraced parts of some earlier trips I'd made many years ago, but much of it was entirely new to me.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, including the poor weather days, because you know, the sun will always come out again, and if you endure the ugly parts, you'll have a story to tell.

ETA:
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/attachm...1&d=1567301085

There's a gap in the Alberta coverage because of, ah, Torsten.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Not many people have gone across Canada and back looks like a great trip, wished I could of met you but you missed this part of the province.

[George]

Wow!

How many participated?

[Torsten]

Wow!

How many participated?

I went alone.

I'd hoped to do a similar trip in 2017 with my friend Dan, with whom I'd travelled to Alaska and throughout BC the previous summer. (That included a visit to Peters Creek, Alaska.) But Dan passed away. I'd hoped to do this trip with another friend, but his health was not up for this trip. He said, "Just do it Torsten, you may not be able to next year." So it was solo again, as in 1982 when I rode my first motorcycle to Newfoundland. However, that trip was later in the year and I returned via a route through USA.

I really want to ride to Tuktoyaktuk some day, but that should not be done alone (though I know someone who went to Inuvik shortly after the Dempster Highway was opened.

[grant hutchison]

Wow!

How many participated?

That's interesting. It never occurred to me that anyone would make such a journey other than on their own.

Grant Hutchison

[Torsten]

That's interesting. It never occurred to me that anyone would make such a journey other than on their own.

Grant Hutchison

I generally prefer to do the long trips alone. I'm free to do whatever pleases me in the moment, or for the rest of the day, without having to think about the other rider(s). I've travelled long distances with the friends I mentioned earlier, with my son, and with a group of four other riders. Travelling with my son was the most enjoyable as adapting to each other's styles and making accommodations was really, and unexpectedly, easy.

I need a certain level of social interaction on a trip, and so I seek the established campsites. Someone usually wants to talk, and I find it interesting to learn, however superficially, about other people's trips, their backgrounds, etc. I only did one night of "free camping" this trip, and it was on the shore of a beautiful lake in central Newfoundland where two other parties were also staying. And that was a fun evening as we all sat in our camp chairs around an imaginary fire and talked long after the sun had set.

I kept a journal during the trip. I don't think it has any profound observations or insights, but I hope it will help me remember different parts of the trip.

I've ordered a new rear tire, which should be here next week. In the meantime I've reinstalled the one that was on before I started the trip, as it is in far better shape. In about half an hour I'll start a day ride with a friend into an area I haven't visited in about 25 years. Where does the time go?

[pzkpfw]

... and 3 oil changes. ...

On a trip like this, do you take the requisite tools with you, or do you find local bike shops to pop in to for a service?

(This boggles me. A ride to the "top" of New Zealand, then down to the "bottom", then back home, would be around 2,000 km.)

[Delvo]

I was recently considering the possibility that I might need to ride all day for just 1 day, and suspected even that would be too much. Sometimes if I've ridden for just 3 hours or so it's started to bother my butt & back. I don't know whether it's possible to find a bike that wouldn't have that effect, but if it is, I also have no idea how (and it would probably mean spending a lot of money).

What I have done for several road trips is leave the back seats out of my PT Cruiser and use it as a tent that doesn't even need to be deployed & packed back up again. I even made a long white cloth thing to hang in all of the windows for privacy. It's bewildering to me that the entire automobile industry has decided never to make another vehicle with removable back seats. The ability to camp without a tent (plus the lack of a no-back-seats option in a car or SUV) is one reason why my next vehicle will be a truck and I'll add a shell on the back.

The last big trip I had in my Cruiser, I also took a normal tent because I wasn't sure exactly where I'd end up. The spot I found turned out to be perfect for a tent so it wouldn't have mattered what vehicle I had this time. I was almost 48 hours early for the eclipse and mine was one of the first few tents to go up on a treeless mountaintop/hilltop surrounded by Appalachian highland forest. Within a day, we had enough other neighbors waiting for the eclipse with us to make it like a festival, complete with frisbees, footballs, loose friendly dogs, various musical instruments, a few big shared fires at night, sharing & trading of food, stargazing after the fires went out, one guy with a big reflecting telescope showing other people some sights through it, and another guy who brought a drone and showed me a bit of how it worked and some pictures & video he took of our camp with it. Being the only person I know of there who knew ahead of time about shadow flames/snakes before & after totality, I rolled out my Cruiser Curtain Cloth on the grass to watch for it on and told others what it was for, and the word spread all around the mountaintop so then the whole camp knew to watch for it and started putting out whatever they had that might work for it too. When it started, I had people from halfway around the hilltop shouting at me that they were seeing it, and several of them told me afterward that that unexpected extra discovery was their favorite part. So I got to not only have my own favorite road trip but also contribute to a couple hundred other people's.

[Torsten]

On a trip like this, do you take the requisite tools with you, or do you find local bike shops to pop in to for a service?

I take a small collection of tools:

• 10, 12, and 14 mm wrenches, an adjustable wrench, and a 24 mm socket. The first 3 are common sizes on this bike, the latter two are for loosening the rear axle so that the chain can be adjusted.

• Three Allen keys cover all the sizes used on this bike.

• A multi-screwdriver and the cheap pliers that came with the bike.

• A can of chain lubricant, a tire plug kit, a small air pump, and a few rags. ETA: tire pressure gauge

Most of this fits into a "sewer tube" container, which is a common accessory storage container that people make themselves from 4" ABS pipe and attach into the space between the rear wheel and the framework for the left sidecase.

I also take my autoclub membership card!

I'm particular about the oil I use in the machine, so I buy the required amount and then try to find a shop that will let me use their oil collection tray and dispose of the oil for me in exchange for a donation to their "coffee fund". I've never been turned away. My bike requires a filter change every third oil change, or 18,000 km. I underestimated how much the short side trips would add up, and didn't expect to have to change the filter on this trip, and so I left the tool for its removal at home. So for the last change, I went to a dealership, where the fellow overfilled it by 300 ml, well above the FULL line on the sight glass. Sheesh. I asked him to siphon out the excess.

I was really impressed by a sales rep at the Nissan dealership in Amherst, NS, who went out of his way to help me on a Saturday when no one was working in the service department, and he wouldn't accept payment for the time he provided.

(This boggles me. A ride to the "top" of New Zealand, then down to the "bottom", then back home, would be around 2,000 km.)

Yes, it's a big country. But I just got on the bike, dawdled down the highway, stopping often to take pictures or just snoop around, and each day there was an average of ~425 km behind me.

[Torsten]

I was recently considering the possibility that I might need to ride all day for just 1 day, and suspected even that would be too much. Sometimes if I've ridden for just 3 hours or so it's started to bother my butt & back. I don't know whether it's possible to find a bike that wouldn't have that effect, but if it is, I also have no idea how (and it would probably mean spending a lot of money).

The seat on my bike is comfortable. But I try to stop about once every hour and walk around. Viewpoints, rest areas, roadside historic monument sites, etc., all help. Over course, that doesn't help for covering a long distance in a given time, if that's your objective. I also sometimes just stand up on the pegs to get a change of position. I keep my giant Thermarest and tent in a bag tied onto the passenger part of the seat which then serves as a backrest. Also, being conscious of posture and not slouching is important.

What I have done for several road trips is leave the back seats out of my PT Cruiser and use it as a tent that doesn't even need to be deployed & packed back up again. I even made a long white cloth thing to hang in all of the windows for privacy. It's bewildering to me that the entire automobile industry has decided never to make another vehicle with removable back seats. The ability to camp without a tent (plus the lack of a no-back-seats option in a car or SUV) is one reason why my next vehicle will be a truck and I'll add a shell on the back.

I hardly drive my pickup (F150) any more. Even in the winter, when my bike is uninsured, it might move only once every couple of weeks. I think about what sort of vehicle might meet specs similar to yours for tentless car camping, and every time I go looking, I'm left depressed.

The last big trip I had in my Cruiser, I also took a normal tent because I wasn't sure exactly where I'd end up. The spot I found turned out to be perfect for a tent so it wouldn't have mattered what vehicle I had this time. I was almost 48 hours early for the eclipse and mine was one of the first few tents to go up on a treeless mountaintop/hilltop surrounded by Appalachian highland forest. Within a day, we had enough other neighbors waiting for the eclipse with us to make it like a festival, complete with frisbees, footballs, loose friendly dogs, various musical instruments, a few big shared fires at night, sharing & trading of food, stargazing after the fires went out, one guy with a big reflecting telescope showing other people some sights through it, and another guy who brought a drone and showed me a bit of how it worked and some pictures & video he took of our camp with it. Being the only person I know of there who knew ahead of time about shadow flames/snakes before & after totality, I rolled out my Cruiser Curtain Cloth on the grass to watch for it on and told others what it was for, and the word spread all around the mountaintop so then the whole camp knew to watch for it and started putting out whatever they had that might work for it too. When it started, I had people from halfway around the hilltop shouting at me that they were seeing it, and several of them told me afterward that that unexpected extra discovery was their favorite part. So I got to not only have my own favorite road trip but also contribute to a couple hundred other people's.

Very cool!