Modern Vespa

Someone bought me a (very lightly) pre-owned 6D Mark II camera body. I've no idea whomst. But it just arrived with a note talking smack about this being my first full-frame.

I have a short list of names that are getting phone calls but hot damn this thing is NICE.

It wasn't me, I swear. I have nothing but P&Ss in the Canon department.

This is my only full-frame.

Screaming into the void sometimes cheers me up.

A little bit.

Ah, beans.

The new body won't work with my current "walkin 'round" lens, a fairly simple sigma 17-50 f/2.8. So that will stay with the T6S backup crop body.

So I found a 24-105 F4L IS for under four bills on KEH....about the same as the Sigma normally runs.

This may reduce what I have to take with me, the 70-200 may hang back when we travel. We'll see.

I've always wanted to go to Italy and have some really nice shoes made for me. Maybe I need to go to Spain!

As long as you dont try to have an exotic skin shipped between countries Carmina is fantastic.

I have Gazuano & Girling making some bespoke shoes for me now. Should be done later this spring.

This evening I watched a video that showed a street with about a foot of water on it. It appeared to be in 'Nam or Cambodia, etc.
There were lots of scooters driving in the water, and I spotted a single Vespa among them. So, FWIW, I know my scoot can handle a foot or so of water. For some reason, that cheered me up!

Who knows what damage the water would do, but fun does have a price tag sometimes

I didn't scream but rather stared into the same void foolishly waiting for another AT&T message telling me about the future credit they had no intention of giving me.

This serviette while we are at our Gardens for The Hamilton Arts Festival Sunset Symphony. Fireworks will finish the night no doubt.

Needs to get the seat lowered.

Jess
I'm right beside you with the ATT thing. We are a business serving the Silicon Valley giants in the heart of Silicon Valley. The ATT service was so bad and spotty that we also have to run Comcast Business Class parallel with ATT. They both go out all the time. Your post cheered me up knowing I'm not the only one suffering. (I know you are speaking of Cell service but ATT is ATT)
Double Dratt I say.

I found a couple of new shirts at the Walmart in Huron, South Dakota last night, and they even have the top button in the right place, not too low like most seem to be.

And not only did I score two shirts, I also found a replacement for my ailing and worn out suction cup phone holder for my ancient GPS unit. My old suction cup window phone/GPS holder had been failing on its suction duties and regularly falling off the window and crashing into my Contigo coffee thermos. And it was under $7 bucks!

I am obviously pleased! (See photo).

Carbon steel pans are cheering me up today. I've been re-seasoning this Matfer Bourgeat carbon steel pan for the last couple of days and I think I'm finally happy with it.

I've seasoned various cast iron and carbon-steel pans in the past, usually using flaxseed oil. Which worked well, but was a huge amount of work to get a really good finish. This time, I'm using BuzzyWaxx, which is a combination of oil and beeswax. It makes the process much, much easier. The beeswax keeps the oil in one place on the pan, ensuring even coverage without drops forming during the baking-on process.

Next up is this wok, which I have had for years but which really needs to be stripped and re-seasoned.

Wok like a man.

There's so many ways to interpret that.

I was just playing on the song and Howie Mandel movie title.

Stripping back the wok to bare steel.

Can I use Flaxseed oil in my Vespa, you know, to season it properly?

Then there's 'Wok Hard, The Dewey Cox Story'

Yes. absolutely.

But not inside the crank case.

Recipe book - "Forty Ways To Wok Your Dog."

Jess could start his own Hard Wok Cafe!

Continuing the story. As much as I like the BuzzyWax product I alluded to previously, I wanted to try making my own seasoning compound, and with flax seed oil instead of canola. I already had beeswax pellets (for making wood finishes) and flax seed oil isn't too hard to find. I did need some containers. And since this was highly experimental, I opted to do it in my workshop, so I needed a cheap hotplate to heat up the mixture.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Lookin' good!

Still basking in the glow - Mrs. CLE and I spent Friday night at the Kent Beatlefest in Kent, OH. Saw five or six different bands ranging from Beatles influenced to Beatles tribute. I am convinced the best way to enjoy Beatles music is sung at the top of one's lungs along with 300 or so other fanatics.

https://www.kentbeatlefest.com/

If you want some fun, take Obla Dibla Da!

Chris from CLE

So Friday I finally got FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) installed in the London flat. Took the slowest option (uncontended 115Mbs) with a big reduction in 'allowed' data transfer (down from 20TB to 2TB p.m.) and finally ditched a copper pair into the premises. Better, more robust infrastructure and £20 p.m. cheaper. Win-win.

w00t!

A snippet from the control panel pages (per-second oversight):

I gave my resident cooties a fresh dollop of slightly watered-down honey in one cup, and some thick sugar water in the other, and all three were soon enjoying the buggy buffet.

If they make it a couple more months, I will return them to the great outdoors from whence they came last autumn.

THEN they'll probably drop dead, but it won't be for lack effort and support on my part.

Got our final reservation confirmed for Italy in October, 2 nights in Milan. Taking wife's mum along. She lost her husband in October several years ago, so to avoid being alone and dwelling on sad thoughts she comes to visit us around that time. Last year we took her to Prague, and this year Milan/Florence/Rome.

Still have to do the logistics between towns (Italo or Frecciarossa Business Class probably) but it's far enough out we have some time before we worry about that.

Before leaving work I texted my daughter "What are you cooking me for dinner?". Halfway home she texts me a photo. I got the earbuds in, siri reads me a description "a bowl of pasta and a plate of vegetables on a wooden board".

I love living in 2024.

Of course she had eaten it all by the time I got home.

Because I'm lazy*, I bought a Universal Ceiling Fan Remote Control Kit for the ceiling fan in the living room back in December. I finally got around to installing it on Saturday.

When installing it, I relized that I had a chance to rectify another electrical issue we have in the house.

One of the previous owners was responsible for all of the additions/renovations to the house. Most of the work was done to the code at the time, but even so, there are some weird things going on. Most of the lights in the additions are not hardwired to their circuits. Instead there are outlets installed in the ceiling, and the lights simply plug into them. It's weird, but it works. It also makes it really easy to work on the things safely, because I can simply unplug them.

One of the electrical things that has bothered us over the years is that the following outlets/items are on the same circuit: the outlet for the gas stove (clock & oven igniter), the kitchen lights & ceiling fan, the outlet for the microwave, a random outlet in the second living room next to the kitchen, and the ceiling fan/light in that room (the one I added the remote kit to). Normally this isn't a problem. But if were using the microwave and the oven and the lights, the circuit breaker trips. Sometimes it trips with just the microwave and the lights. I try to work around it by turning off the lights when microwaving something longer than 3 minutes.

I realized that we have another light in that living room that we never use, and it is plugged into an outlet that's on a different circuit. So when I installed the remote kit, I simply replaced the power cord with a longer one and plugged it into that other outlet. I haven't had a chance to check to see if the circuit breaker trips now, but I'm hoping that will help.

As an added benefit, I got rid of a weird light that we never use.

Unfortunately it doesn't connect to any Smart Home systems, and uses a simple remote instead, but I'm ok with that. We just have to remember to only use the remote to turn it on & off.

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* Part of it is laziness, part of it is due to the cats. My wife and I will both be sitting on the couch (which is a dual power reclining loveseat), and will each have a cat sleeping on our laps. We'll want to turn the light off, or change the speed on the ceiling fan, but we don't want to disturb the cats. We do have one of those grabber things, but it doesn't grip the pull chain for the lights very well. By adding the remote kit, we can simply use it instead.

Siri forgot the pickles. Inexcusable.

Last time I painted a motorcycle helmet I didn't care about the finish and just shot it with flat black. I decided to see if I could get a quality result from a rattle can. I grabbed an old Bell Bullit helmet from the shelf and stripped it down. I knocked the gloss off the old paint w/ light sanding and primed the surface (3 coats). I let that cure overnight and added the color, GM Aqua Blue Metallic (61U), 3 coats. This is a color match to my old chopper. After curing overnight, I applied 4 coats of clear. I went a little too heavy and got a couple sags. I'll correct that with a 1500 grit wet sand after the clear has cured. So far I'm pretty excited about how this looks. I'll post the final results after cutting and polishing. This cheers me up!

Outstanding!

I neglected to ask earlier, jess. Sony?

It's my many-years dream camera, the Leica Q2. I pined after the Leica Q (original) for many years. When the Q2 was introduced, I used what was probably my very last work bonus to buy it.

Now there's a Leica Q3, but alas... there are no more work bonuses.

Nice Helmet