morrowlife

Here’s another one of those strange statues in downtown Sacramento. Somebody has been pretty free with the old taxpayer money. I’m not sure what this guy is looking for up there. Maybe more suckers. Low-quality photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam. Part of my famous Statue series.

Another Short Shrift night. Spent the evening chatting with our guests, to which we added my brother-in-law Ken. He’s in town early – he’s a salesman and has some local customers, so he’s combining business and vacation on this trip. He’s staying at a hotel somewhere around here, but we’ll see him again on Thursday.

I went out for sushi with a colleague who is transferring to Florida after this week. I’ll be gone for his luncheon on Thursday, so we went out today. After we got back to the office, he gave me yet another GPS. That makes four now. The new one is the best of the lot. He has also given me some other cool gadgets he’s gotten at garage sales, including a cool little robot that walks on six legs and backs up and changes direction if it hits an obstacle or hears a loud noise. Lots of fun.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Henry Ford’s voltmeter. Pretty cool old piece of machinery. In fact, it’s part of my famous Machinery series. Taken in the power house at Fairlane.

Uber Short Shrift tonight. It’s about midnight already. Loyal Reader Number Four’s brother and his family arrived this afternoon. We had a pleasant evening together.

Fine weekend. Some things got done. Others didn’t. More detail later.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a really old picture I took at Baikonur. As I recall, this was a Soyuz launch. Looks like one, anyway. Ah, the memories of that vast desert wasteland.

Non-Short Shrift tonight. Went to work an hour late and came home an hour early. I’m rested and ready for the weekend.

Not that it will be all that entertaining. We’re helping move a friend tomorrow morning, and I don’t think she’ll be anywhere near ready to move. Sigh.

Let’s see what else needs to be done? I need to get the Suburban (commercially) washed. I want to wash the Honda too. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Loyal Reader Number Four’s going to need help getting ready for next week’s family reunion, and I’m sure there must be something I can do.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed Loyal Reader Number Twenty-two’s visit this week. Sadly, he’s heading for home tomorrow morning. Have a safe trip back, LRN22! And come visit us again.

He and Loyal Reader Number One are upstairs working on the electronic project that’s consumed their week. They’re trying to make an Arduino interface with a Mac to program a PIC chip, which will then be used as a serial driver for my cool little LCD panel. Of course, I could buy a serial driver for the LCD for about twenty bucks, but that wouldn’t be fun at all, would it?

Loyal Readers Numbers One, Four, and Twenty-two went to Alcatraz this morning, and then had lunch with Loyal Reader Number Five. It sounds like they had a nice day. The most interesting thing they saw, though, was a mother seagull throwing up pieces of fish for her babies to eat. I have to agree that sounds fascinating.

Ironically, they’ve been having the most trouble with something that should have been one of the simplest problems – they need to have a switchable voltage applied to one of the pins on the PIC. It’s been quite a daunting task, but I’m sure they’ll come up with something.

Today’s controversy: Who are you with: the Saint Nicks, or the Jolly Old Elves? This controversy just might end Christmas as we know it.

Well, it wasn’t exactly Long Shrift, but it wasn’t as short as some other days. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a frog reading a book. About frogs, of course. Although frogs may be excellent readers, their literary tastes are limited. On the other hand, people mostly read books about people. (Link note: disturbing topic, but I’m still trying to figure out what’s up with result #7. I mean, the show was bad, but it wasn’t that bad.) This might not be that odd after all. Picture taken in the reptile house at the Detroit Zoo.

One more Extremely Short Shrift post. I might have to start calling this the Shortshrift blog, rather than Morrowlife. Never fear, Loyal Readers, I’ll get my act back together Real Soon Now.

As promised yesterday, here’s today’s controversy: does this worry you? Not me. And I don’t think they’re invading anyone’s privacy. When you’re out in public, whatever you’re doing is fair game. Like this stuff.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Henry Ford’s personal Model A. Having seen his personal Model T and his personal ’42, my Loyal Readers will recognize old Hank’s preference for black paint, a few experimental features (check out that huge bottle of water in the back seat!), and not much in the way of luxury. Honestly, what’s the point of owning a huge car company if you don’t get some cool machinery for yourself? The guy owned Lincoln, for crying out loud. They made some pretty hot stuff back then.

On the other hand, at least he was riding around in a car with his own name on it. That’s got to count for something.

Yet another Extremely Short Shrift night. Had a meeting right after I got home from work and the day’s gone yet again.

I have just seen the most amazing robotics video ever. Dave Barry linked to it in his blog, but there’s no need to go way over to his site. Check it out right here. Have you ever seen a more amazing robot? It looks downright alive.

And that’s it for tonight. Controversy tomorrow. See you then.