December Thaw

Albany Winterfest. Fireworks with Jake and Ben ( here they are on the Plaza by the tree) and the Gray Family. After the fireworks we watched the Last Run 5K race. Joel and the Grays ran the race.

A trip to Albany

Uncle Jeff, Denis, Karen, Joel, Ben, Jacob, Aunt Pat, Jessie+1 and Jay.

Saturday after Christmas I travel east with the Rosenberg's in a highly packed minivan (kudos to Joel for driving 244 miles in pouring rain) to visit with them and surprise my cousin Jessie and husband Jay, and my Aunt & Uncle who are visiting them from Connecticut, at dinner.

Before dinner, we go to the state capitol and witness (up close) a great Fireworks display and root for Joel and friends Heidi & her husband who are in a 5K race. The fireworks start with a bang and then a fan of 12 screamers shoot into the air causing the kids to jump off the fence scream with them. It was a great display

Sunday it's an unseasonably warm day so Karen shoos the kids outside who end up in a snowball throw, drawing kids like magnets from around the neighborhood.

Monday it was off to the casino, not to gamble but to meet Mom & Dad who drove partway to meet us and give me a ride back home. Nephew Jake was fascinated by the gambling machines - lights, sounds, buttons, tv screens -- just like Nintendo, right?

Wii Fit

My nephew Ben got a Wii Fit for Christmas, so guess what we did Christmas day? Anyone want to share you Body Mass Index??












The boys liked to play another game -- Wilder beast skiing on Mount Cushy Tush from "Rayman Raving Rabbids" using the fit board and the hand controllers. I can hardly describe the game with it's madcap rabbits who only say a few words like "Hey" "Wow" or "Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"


See More Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Screenshot at IGN.com

Lego MindStorms

Robot pics






Jake got a Lego Mindstorms robotics kit for Christmas. The first thing he built was a catepult. After that he built the Tribot, a self-propelled bot with grippers, touch sensor, light sensor and ultrasonic sensor.

Then he programmed it using the software, downloaded the program to the bot and we ran the program.

Christmas Day Picts

Merry Christmas!

Mom's yummy fruitecake (really!) Joel reviews his olive oil pourer.



Dad with new Forked Lake (where we camp every year) hat. Ben is excited to open his Fit.


A new camera for Karen. A cool outboard motor ornament for Steve.










Jake looks at all the parts in his Mindstorms. Mom with her Lion's Club International Humanitarian Award.
It was a happy day for the kids and adults, with Grandma and Aunt showing up later for dinner.

Visiting

Tuesday Mom, Dad and I drove 115 miles (about 2 hours) to visit Aunt E., another relative I only get to see once a year. We had a good visit and chatted about all kinds of topics. We ate lunch at Meeders Dairy Bar on the main street of Ripley, NY (the last town before Pennsylvania border). This former family gas station turned deli turned restaurant is now center the pulse of the town with big windows overlooking main street and frequent patronage by the local residents. I can recommend the meatloaf, and the chicken and biscuits didn't look too bad either. The homemade pies (I had rhubarb) were not to be missed.

Drove back through a snow storm in Buffalo rush hour traffic. Thankfully Mom's new Impala handles great in the snow as I had to take evasive action into the left break-down lane when the car in front of us started swerving when it tried to slow down into slower traffic. We came to a stop along side the other car with the nose of our car in line with theirs, and they got their car under control inches away from sliding into the side of ours. Believe it or not, those company sponsored vehicle safety training slides actually helped me out.

Dad and I go about town

Steve and buddy Mike

Dad and I went about town (Rochester) Monday, I did some digital camera shopping at Scott's Photo to replace my 8 year old two mega-pixel Cannon Elph S200 with something newer. My brother likes this store, they still process film which he shoots, they know cameras and will take the time to talk with you about them. I picked up a Cannon D10 and think I will be learning how to use it for the next eight years.

Dad and I went to Hogan's Hideaway on Park Ave for lunch. Neat place and the food was good! I had a piece of salmon with a wasabi mayonaise sauce and grilled asparagas. Yummy! (They have good homemade pies too!)

Hogan's Hideaway is conveniently across the street from the Arnold Court Apartments where my brother Steve works. They maintain the building, remodel/rehab the apartments and their duties include shoveling the snow. This 80 year-old building started out as a hotel before quickly being converted to apartments and the bathroom/kitchens are wore out. The galvanized plumbing is so rotted it has literally come apart when Steve and Mike try to unscrew a fitting to repair it. All the plumbing is buried behind plaster/lath walls, making it messy to work on, and all the drain pipes in the bathroom floors are buried in six inches of concrete -- making them completely inaccessible if there is a drain leak.

The weatherman snow word of the day: 'Ground Blizzards'. Not how this is different from a 'snow squall' or 'temporary whiteout due to blowing snow'. In seven days we have received 24 inches of snow in Rochester, two of those days broke new records for single amount of snow on that day in history - Friday the 19th getting 9 inches alone.

On a completely different note, Mom & Dad's house is in a more rural area outside of Rochester, so nature is a little closer - sometimes too close! Apparently this was a good year for field mice, and they want to share our home and food. Needless to say, the mouse traps have been busy, so far we are 14 mice removed in 15 consecutive days.

Visiting a Museum, Friends and some Communitity Service

Saturday I visited the George Eastman House and viewed their exhibit "Trains" which featured 54 photographs from the famed night photographer O. Winston Link and other pictures from the George Eastman House collection.

You've probably seen one of the black & white pictures of people, stations and a steam train from O. Winston Link without knowing it. It was very enjoyable to view the large-size prints up close instead of the small magazine reproductions I've only seen up to now. In addition to the pictures they had some of his photography equipment and the camera on display. Massive flash bulb hoods (this was 1954) and a bellows camera on a heavy tripod. What was hundreds of pounds of equipment back then today can almost be carried in one arm to get similar results.

After the museum viewing, I headed over to my friends the Sheflins for a visit. I haven't seen them in a year and I can't believe how big their sons (7 and almost 3) are getting! After dinner at Schallers, Ted showed me this amazing program "YouScope"which is actually a sound file, when connected to an oscilloscope displays moving images, words and animation. This particular demo won Short Film 3rd place at the 'The Assembly demo party (a demoscene and gaming event) in Finland in 2007.' Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound very interesting, but to electronics guys (which Ted is), it's impressive. I was impressed.

Breakfast Sunday morning with the Jackling's and Mom & Dad at the Churchville Family Restaurant, then community service with the Lions Club to deliver food boxes to those who needed them. Unremarked at the table was the additional snow which fell overnight, and the lake effect snow which was falling periodically during the day. The snow in lake effect snow is no different from any typical snow, but the manifestation certainly is: Sunshine then getting darker then Snow then Wind (blowing the snow around) then Snow then Sunshine then maybe Wind or Snow. In the 15 minutes I was out with Dad snow blowing the drive, it was windy, was snowing when I pictured Mom's "Santa Stop Here" sign with lights, then was sunny when I pictured the house.

'Plowable Snow'

The local weatherman said we would get "Plowable Snow". That means more than 3" of snow, which will bring out the plows. 'Plowable Snow' eh? It was 7.5 inches of snow in 8 hours. Now we're talking snow!

Meanwhile in the shop, the replacement fuse fixed the TV/VCR. My trip to Westfield (south of Buffalo) was postponed on account of the snow. I visited with mom & dad's neighbors Barb & Al Hamm and went down in the basement to his shop. Al has a 3-in-1 combination Lathe/Mill/Drill press and we turned the centers out of plastic pulley wheels from dad's 1" Rockwell belt sander. The 40 year-old bearings on the pulley wheels had worn out and we needed to replace them. And Delta/Rockwell does not offer replacement wheels for the belt sander anymore. Making matters more challenging was the bearings were molded into the plastic wheel. Using Al Hamm's lathe we bored the plastic hub out and pressed out the old bearings. We also made a collar out of a 1" PVC coupling to glue in and keep the new bearing from coming out. A little glue and assembly and the belt sander runs quiet and smooth again!

Dad and I also took a short little trip out to Victor (across town) to pick up my nephew Zachary. With all the snow coming down, this 60 minute trip turned into a 3 hour slow drive. What also slowed us down was the winshield wipers kept icing up, so they stopped wiping the windshield clean. We'd pull up to a stoplight, I'd jump out and 'snap' the wipers against the window then drag the scraper on the ice before jumping back into the car. Funny thing was, I wasn't the only one doing this, and at several intersections you'd see cars pull up, stop, and people pop out to clear their windshields!

And I got my presents wrapped, so bring on Christmas!

Snow! And a Garbage Plate!

And then there was snow! It snowed 4 inches overnight, putting the Christmas wonder back into the land.

I've waited all year for this: a plate at Wimpy's Burger Basket with my brother (two hamburgs, macaroni salad, fries, spicy meat hot sauce, two slices of bread & butter served in a to go box slightly mixed together.) This place is not as famous as Nick Tahou's 'Home of the Garbage Plate', but it's closer and my brother and I can eat our fill there. Yummy! Here's a picture from another blogger of a garbage plate.

Out in Dad's shop we've tried our hand sharpening a wood gouge. Dad's been working on making wood bowls and this tool is used to carve the inside raduis on the wood lathe. We both took a turn sharpening the gouge and trying to follow the printed and DVD instructions, with mixed success.

I took apart an integrated TV/VCR unit which would not give up the half played video tape. It was easy to take apart, but very challenging to hand work the ejection mechanism, but eventually I got the tape out with only a couple of wrinkles on the tape. I discovered a blown fuse which might be a symptom of why the tape wouldn't eject. I have to get to radio shack to buy a replacement fuse so we'll see what happens when I replace it.

Dad's 1" Rockwell belt sander had a bearing go bad on the idler pulley, so I looked into that tool. Taking the pulley's off it seems most the bearings are worn out, so what I thought would be a simple bearing replacement job has turned into a hunt for substitute parts because the metal bearings are molded into the plastic wheels -- no pressing the old bearings out. And replacement parts are not available anymore. Dad's shop needs a metal lathe....

And I finished a book Jonelle gave me - "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. An enjoyable little novel.

Tomorrow the parents are busy, so I'll look around for a metal lathe to use to fix the pulleys, and hang with my brother after he gets off work.

Home for the Holidays

Happy to report I had good travels Monday and made it home to the parents for the holidays. No snow!  It melted away in the warm air that is advancing before the cold front which left ice in St Louis. The snow is coming though....