Modern Vespa

Pensioner's Discount Wednesday.

500g of smoked salmon offcuts for ZAR 55.
That is US $2-65 per pound...!


(No, it is not a decimal error... check the pic!)

PS - South Africa's uses DD-MM-YY format...
or YYYY-MM-DD

Beer spa.

is that good for the skin? Like bathing in milk

No idea.

It's delicious and relaxing though. And eventually my skin is gonna melt off anyway so whatever

Snow in the mountains west of Reno! And I finished installing the new slings on my patio furniture today. These things are cheering me up today!

My kitten on a cop car

Despite the fact our Cupra was subbed out for a 1.2L Opel Grandland, the Czech back roads were still fantastic.

Cat burglar?

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof?

(Yeah, I'm dating myself )

Those look like some great Vespa roads!

I'm having a beer waiting for my flight and the two people behind me seem to have some sort of job reviewing corporate expense reports.

Their conversations on justifying or declining employee meal per diems, entertainment, and travel is quite entertaining.

The school district I work for grants its employees a Fair Day. We get to take a paid day off during the month of October, without it affecting our Vacation time. The theory is that we are to use it to attend the State Fair of Texas, but we're not required to attend the Fair to be able to use it. I took my Fair Day yesterday (Thursday, October 12).

I had scheduled an oil change service at the dealership for that day. (Before y'all jump on me for not doing my own maintenance for something as simple as an oil change, the dealership included free oil changes for the first 3 years of ownership when I purchased the truck. I'd be stupid to do the changes myself when I can get them done for free at the dealership.) There was also an open recall on my truck that they needed to address (mine wasn't actually affected by the recall, but they still needed to check it off in the system). The appointment was at 8am. I also had them perform the State Inspection that was overdue on the truck so that I could renew the registration, that was also expired. The entire service took just under three hours, a large portion of which was waiting for the inspection tech to arrive to work.

After getting the service completed I went to Kroger to get the registration renewed, then I picked up a late breakfast/early lunch for the wife and myself.

After eating lunch I unboxed the new security cam I'd ordered to replace the one that the squirrels had damaged the power cord to. I'd previously contacted the manufacturer to see if the cord was hardwired or if it was a replaceable cord, since it was a USB cord. Turns out it was hardwired, hence the new camera.

After getting the camera software setup, I grabbed the ladder and drill and went out to swap it out. I got it mounted and anchored the power cord with a staple gun to hopefully avoid future squirrel damage.

The new camera has much better image quality. The old one was 1080p, while the new one is 4k. The new one also has better night vision - it "sees" color at night, while the old one was black & white only. The new camera also has a wider field of view.

I'm still considering repairing the power cable on the old camera. Since it's only used for power, not data transmission, the cable only has two wires: power and ground. I just need to find a good way to splice the extremely thin wires together. Then I need to find a place to mount the old camera.

Screen caps for comparison:

Not seeing the wires in person if only two wires I would cut them so the two splices are staggered a couple inches. Then slip some heat shrink tubing over them and use a soldering iron to solder them together and then shrink the tubing to insulate. Might want to use some larger tubing to shrink over the whole splice area.

monogodo,

Nice camera quality. My only camera is remote in the back of my yard by the woods were I watch squirrels from the forest eating unsalted peanuts in the feeder I have set up for them.

Bob Copeland
Getting Cold here in Frostbite Falls MN

Every pedestrian crossing sign in Czechia makes me smile. He has a fancy hat.

Home made scooter cookies.

Thanks for the tip.

If I think of it, I'll take a pic when I get home tonight.

The wire is flat, like a phone cable, and inside the plastic insulation of the main cable are two really thin insulated wires, one for power, one for ground (I'm assuming). I tried to strip them, just to see what I had to work with, but the wires inside are so incredibly thin that it wasn't going to work well. I'm guessing that if I solder them, I'd use the soldering iron to melt off the insulation first, then solder them.

It'll make for a good rainy afternoon project some weekend.

Romeo y Julieta Dianas and a lil Zacapa XO. And the weather today in Prague is absolutely spectacular.

Bonus: found a bottle of Michter's 10yr Rye at less than US MSRP. What a day.

armedferret,

You are my kind of guy - living the good life - good Cuban Cigar and Rye. I am sure you know we do not get Cuban Romeo & Julieta Cigars in the USA. The original family that made those cigars left Cuba after Castro took over and nationalized all the cigar manufacturing. They still grow and make Romeo & Juliet cigars that can only be sold in the USA under their original name.

Bob Copeland

Hi Bob!! I'm all too familiar, grew up in Ames IA.

So I make it a point to grab something Cuban and rare whenever we're abroad. Next up is Carnevale di Venezia in February. And I retire (AD USAF) in the summer of 2024 at 44 years old so....plenty of time and spry-ness left to enjoy a lot more adventures.

armedferret,

I would be interested if you would share how much that one Cuban Romeo & Julieta cigar costs in USA Dollars. I would buy them in Mexico on vacation and they were pricey. This was years ago - I think they were $12.00 each.

Bob Copeland

It was about 60usd or thereabouts. Exchange rate being fluid and all.

Armedferret,

Clarification: It couldn't be $60.00 USD for one cigar? The US Dollar is currently 23.29 Czeck Republic Koruna. Did you say one cuban cigar was $60.00 US Dollars?

Bob Copeland

Yes sir, and that's actually less than several outlets want per stick for buying a whole box.

The Dianas is increasing significantly in price. Not likely to get another but thoroughly enjoyed the time I had with it.

armedferret,

Good on you for splurging for the best.

When you get back to the USA, I have the best kept secret for an excellent cigar. I tend to Maduro cigars for their deeper taste. I have been doing one cigar each night for over 20 years. I stumbled around trying everything at all price ranges.

You may not regularly smoke cigars so this may not be helpful. Here is what I found. Drew Estate makes some high end pricey cigars. They have the equivalent of a "Factory Second" that they bundle (No Box) that is wonderful. I think they take all the scraps from their good cigars and roll them into these bundles. I order them online from "JR Cigars" for $56.00 (bundle of 25). They are amazing. I still keep some pricey cigars in my humidor, but, go back to these because they are smooth and just as good.

Well, that is the cigar report from Frost Bite Falls Minnesota. My riding group is attempting one more ride this season despite the cold.

Bob Copeland

I was really cheered up today, as I took a nice ride through the countryside, seeing all the leaves turning color. Another bonus: A couple of days ago, I put a lowering kit on my scoot, so now can get both feet on the ground at the same time. The handling didn't change noticeably, and it was great putting both feet down at stop signs.

Good Times!

Zip, vroom, puuuuur.

The Aprilia dried out and started without hesitation this morning. 41º and clear on the ride in.

My son will be gone this afternoon for a few hours and my wife has a meeting that will probably run until 6:00. I'm taking off right after work for a good long ride.

Doing it right! Hats off to you!

PS: Bourbon for me, but we can agree to disagree.

Oh I'm not unfamiliar with the berbs and it's by far my preferred spirit (I think somewhere around 60 or so bottles in the house at the moment). But I do love a Michter's 10 from either side of the grain war.

Currently enjoying a fighting "cork" (because too many won't understand there's a rooster on the label) ol fashy.

Holy cow Why stop at 60? lol

Because I now have a fairly definitive date on when they have to be packed up to move

I still grab stuff like when Walter Reed has Blantons for 60 bucks, or something else less easy to find or unique pops up. Ijust don't lose my mind when i see Eagle Rare or Buffy Trace or the like. I have enough of the former it's more appropes to call it Eagle Common

I have just booked and paid for tickets for my wife and I to visit our son in Melbourne, Australia in February.

I could have bought another Vespa (used)...

...but I didn't.

Happy wife.

After a number of delays and false starts, my wife and I are headed back to Porto for a month. The weather will mostly suck (we've been there at this time of year before) but we'll be in our (leased) apartment. This will give us a chance to experience the city as residents instead of tourists, at least to some degree.

We got a Glowforge laser engraver at work recently, and we've been encouraged to "play" with it so that we can learn how to use it and find out what all it can do.

So far I've used it to cut Foam Core, engrave and cut acrylic, engrave marble, and engrave and cut MDF.

On Monday I started designing a project for myself. Between tending my production machines, it took me a full shift to get the item designed.

Yesterday I tried to produce it. I kept getting error messages telling me that my paths needed to be closed. So today I looked into how to get the paths closed using Illustrator. I then uploaded the file to the Glowforge, but again got an error, this time telling me that the engraved portions were not closed. Back to InDesign, where I put a solid black outline around the grey boxes that were to be engraved. That worked.

Sixteen minutes later, the items were finished. I did discover that I can't use a Light version of a font and expect it to work, I have to use the Medium version instead. The smaller tool uses the Medium weight font, while the larger tool uses the Light weight font. Both are the same font and point size. I've already adjusted my file with that correction, so if I ever produce more of them, they'll be readable.

This is the kind of stuff that drives me batty. Similar things happen in various CAD programs when you're trying to export to STL. Mission accomplished!

The snow is flying at Lake Tahoe today. Being an avid skier, this is cheering me up. My orthopedic surgeon asked me not to ski until January (my knee reconstruction was March 6th) so I'll hold off until then. I'm feeling ready!

The All Blacks missed two kicks at goal in the RWC final.
So the Springboks won by one point...

...by default.



Not a memorable game by South Africa.
Kudos to New Zealand !

See you again in 4 years...

And said no to an easy 3 points.

Well done guys. Plenty for the armchair critics to whinge about over the next 4 years but you deserved the win.

Halloween party got wild.

Having a great weekend! Motorcycle lift arrived Friday, my gal and I got it assembled and working. Saturday I used it to change my oil and filter (I have limited mobility, so the lift is necessary). Then I went for a fantastic ride through the fall colors, and temps in the 80's. Today is rainy and cold, but can't dampen my spirits!
Good times!