Leading off with a picture, so that one might instantly tell if they've seen the page, or if the page has changed since the last visit? What do you think?
That train shot thanks to Jack. The rest of the story follows directly. We just want to point out that it started out a tad chilly in these here parts this day, too. Woke up to temps below freezing. Yikes! We never should have made light of March coming in like a lion...
It did manage to get sunny and hit the mid forties - but now we are enduring colder than normal, instead of warmer. At least it hasn't dropped the white stuff, and let's hope we didn't just jinx THAT.
Here's what we know about the train wreck, besides it doesn't pay to live too close to the tracks~~
VIA-15 (a passenger train) Halifax to Montreal, derailed Feb 25, 2010 in a big snow storm 20 miles before
reaching "Joffre yard" (Québec.) The engine crew suffered only minor injuries. The lead unit, 6400, lost
its wheels and is on its side in a reverse position from the direction it was going. The trailing unit, 6457,
is upright but plowed into a house. Both locos had recently been rebuilt. The train consisted of all
Budd-built coaches. A switch problem is suspected as the cause of the accident.
March 08, 2010 Monday
Yesterday, gray and chilly all day. Forties. Late afternoon sprinkles.
Today, sunny and nice all day. Fifties. This gave us the opportunity to try out the GPS on the motorcycle.
Verdict? It works. Here's a ride through town as seen from Google Earth. The island at the top of the picture
is Guemes.
March 06, 2010 Saturday
Well, let's see, where are we? Evening. Just returned from a run to Bellingham to pick up some paper
Ann needed - reams of the stuff~
We both took cameras, but neither snapped a picture as we ran errands and grabbed a burger at Wynn's. We only happen to have the cell phone picture above because my sister sent the one below, and we wanted to send one back to her, you see...
She sent this of some folks having a party on an ice flow. This is, apparently, a regular thing up there
around Leland, MI - cut off a chunk of ice and ride it into town, while swilling beer and grilling lunch.
Get off at the local Tavern, and continue as above. Mardi said they hoped for a high of almost thirty, today.
A regular warming trend.
What we took for a successful installation was in fact the unit operating on its own batteries.
As we began to troubleshoot the connections we noticed that if power to the unit was reversed, it wouldn't operate. Since it wasn't operating, we assumed that the wires were soldered wrong - hot from the battery to neutral on the receptacle. When in fact, during continuity checking we'd shorted the battery feed and blown the fuse.
That fact didn't come to light until after we unsoldered and reversed/resoldered the receptacle, and the unit still didn't work.
Since there is a fuse in the power plug that goes in the receptacle we did think to check that. Also blown. Only when things still didn't light up after installing a new fuse, did we think to check for a battery fuse.
And only after replacing THAT, did it become apparent that the receptacle had been wired correctly in the first place, and the unit wasn't getting power because of blown fuses, not reversed wiring. Unsolder, resolder, one more time.
At which point, everything worked. We ended up with a slightly tidier installation after removing and re installing the receptacle.
Here it is with the battery on the 'tender' and that GPS terminal in standby mode.
March 05, 2010 Friday
Lovely March day - if this is the, 'In like a lion' part, we'll take it. Sixty and sunny. A bit of a breeze.
Reminded us we were going to do something about the flag problem. When the wind blows, the flag gets all
tied up around the pole.
We happened to notice that other flag poles have a way for the flag to go all the way around the pole without
getting tangled. Worked on that premise for a bit - a slip ring top and bottom.
Why, you may wonder, do we need a cigarette lighter on the motorcycle? Ah. The GPS plugs in that way.
It might be nice the next time we travel on two wheels to have the advantage of Global Positioning
to know where we are? Maps are so old news, anymore...
The first thing was to connect these two pieces together, and fasten the unit to a part of the bike. The
cover of the tool compartment seemed a good choice. A rubber sleeve over the connections and some silicone
sealant should keep the water out.
March 04, 2010 Thursday
Readership for this blog is down from the same time a year ago. Typically, there is a mid winter drop - but we worry about this...
For lack of a better reason (like, the range of interest here is pretty narrow) we blame that dang facebook!
Anyway. Maybe you could help? Send a link to this blog to everyone you know - the whole address book. YAY!
Actually, readership peaked at around an average of thirty visits a day, some time ago. Like maybe 18 months.
Lately, it's been around 24. S'ok. We remember when it was five.
We don't think we've become less interesting since then - maybe more boring? Since most folks only visit
a few times a week, if that (with the exception of you hard core readers, God love ya's) - to average thirty
visits a day means a total readership of roughly 400 different folks. Don't ask me who, we have no way to
know. But we love each and every one of you!
At any rate, here is a post with no pictures of family, pets, or motorcycles.
We are totally fascinated with this place! The most complicated machine ever built. We still can't believe
the US bailed on building the SuperCollider in TX a few years ago. But, as we have come to know - the US is
no longer the biggest, nor the best - except as a military power.
The potential to gain crucial knowledge of how the universe works lies primarily with the working of this
machine.
ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2010) — CERN has been able to take the first measurements of collisions between
particles with the highest energy ever generated. These collisions were performed at CERN's new LHC
accelerator and recorded with the CMS Experiment, which involved a key component (the barrel pixel detector)
contributed by the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in collaboration with Swiss Universities.
READ MORE
March 02, 2010 Tuesday
Ok! It's officially March, on all fronts. Page loads really fast!
Our local weather continues to be mild. The sun actually poked through today and it was in the 60's. We were inspired to hose out the lawn waste recycle bin. Now that's nice. Note: Dogs do not seem to care for the hose...
Here's a recent picture of Jake and Sylvia, Jacob clean shaven. Thanks to Ambie, his sister and coincidently my
daughter, for the picture.
