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I suppose that when I go this long between posting things here I ought to maintain some sort of chronological order. We went to the air show again this year, and here are the obligatory images. Nathen et al. came down and we (Barbara, myself, Sabrina, Braxton, Cub, and Jim) joined them. We went in three cars, but I managed to get Barbara and I separated from everybody else and from each other.

I wandered around for three hours and passed within 10 yards of all of them without seeing anybody I knew. This snafu was clearly my fault, and Barbara was a bit unhappy with me.

I was a somewhat disappointed, as several of the exhibits I wanted to see were absent. Still, there were many unusual static aircraft displays, and many more operational ones that I enjoyed viewing, so maybe we'll do it again in two years...

There was one advantage to being lost. I wandered into places that most people don't get to see (perhaps they were even supposed to have been "off limits.") Nobody stopped me, and I managed to capture this image of the F22 Raptor that was "interesting." This is what I call real Stealth Technology.

I have taken to riding my recumbent bicycle at lunchtime and I am finding that it is more of a truck than a sports car (so much for the adage, "Don't ever let 'em see you sweat"). Riding the diamond bike to the junction of highway 77 and back (a distance of just over 10 miles) occupied all but ten minutes of my hour interlude. Performing a similar feat on the recumbent required all of the break, plus an additional three minutes. There are differences in the unloading and loading tasks, and direct riding comparisons like that are not rigorously valid, as wind plays a huge part in bicycle velocity and we are currently experiencing spring breezes on this portion of the planet. Still, it feels like the energy expenditure required to climb those hills is significantly greater on the recliner (with the end result being a decrease in velocity).

My machine is designed to fold, and when striving in those high torque gears, the joint where the back wheel pivots creaks as if it were moving, such that I may be actually lifting my weight with each stroke of my legs. That would definitely be inefficient. The entire machine is assembled using fast release bolts. You might expect that from a high end piece of machinery that was designed to fold (and it is nice when you are performing maintenance) but an unintended consequence is that it is difficult to get those bolt as tight as conventional fasteners. Perhaps I will replace a few of them with regular bolts (supplemented with large washers [a necessity given that the main frame is hollow, square aluminum tubing]), and see if I can eliminate that source of energy loss. The bicycle is also geared lower than the Puget, and I am attempting to remedy that by installing a larger front gear (tagged with the unlikely name, "chainring" in the parts catalogue). It sells for $19.95 (plus $5 shipping) and that may help my top end, but it will not affect the bicycles hill climbing capabilities. I replaced the 48 tooth front chainring with one having 52 teeth ($25 with shipping). The highest gear now moves me forward 29.50 feet for every revolution of the crank (up from 27.23). For comparison, the Puget (my conventional bicycle) has a high gear that moved me forward 28.27 feet per crank revolution. That suggests that I should be able to sustain higher speeds going downhill.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem (or perhaps feel is a more accurate word) to be the case. Between sessions of Conference on Saturday, I rode 29.9 miles toward Winkleman (before Barbara rescued me) and maintained an average speed of 18.3. Given that I have two trips on the Puget where my averages were 20.1 and 20.3, that speed was a bit disappointing. Two mph doesn't sound like much, but I plan on sitting on the bicycle for seven hours each day during my upcoming Provo to Canada ride, and that represents a difference of 14 miles (quite significant when your daily goal is 100 miles). The difference between the two bicycles is like the difference between driving a sports car and a truck. One is light, nimble, and fast and the other is heavy, lumbering, and slow. It appears that what I need is a bigger engine. Any thoughts about where I might be able to find one (preferably used)? At this point, I am planning on taking the recumbent bike on the trip, simply because I can not sit on the Puget for seven hours in a day, but in truth, I arrived at that conclusion with some degree of reluctance.

I purchased another camera and (with apologies to Ameilia for posting "non-people" pictures) used it to take these images of baby cacti.

I wanted a camera that would take close up photos of wild flowers, and I have been disappointed in the performance of the Nikon. I suppose the fault is mine, in that I am aware that macro lenses are required and I tried to skimp using diopters (single element close up lenses). The result has been images with a very shallow depth of field.

I have tried to overcome that using a tripod coupled with a long exposure, but setup for that is time intensive and wind induced movement has blurred many of those images. Attempts to use the telephoto lens in a close up application have also proved less than satisfactory. So, for less than the cost of an extension tube or another lens for the Nikon, I purchased a digital camera with close up capabilities rated highly by reviewers.

The Fujifilm FinePix 2800 Zoom came out in 2001, and at that time sold for $445. At this point it is basically considered obsolete, with its 2 megapixal photo size. But (given that I habitually set my Nikon at half of its 6 megapixal capability, and then crop out a portion of the photo and reduce it by a factor of three or four) I have high hopes for this new acquisition. If I were printing 8 X 10 hard copies, 2 megapixals might be marginal, but for internet work it is a huge overkill. Mine was one of three e-bay bids and I got the camera for $42.41 (shipping included).

But, when a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is. My new toy (which I acquired for less than 10¢ on the dollar) has an Achilles' heel. It stores images on Smartmedia cards. These devices were introduced as an upgrade to the 3.5 inch floppy disc, and never caught on. Some obscure internal constraint limits their capacity to 124 mb, the world has passed them by, and they are no longer manufactured. My "new" camera came sans Smartmedia card, and a 124 mb card that once sold for circa $28 is now available on e-bay with a buy-it-now price of $78.

After some hemming and hawing, I purchased a 16 mb card for $22. The camera has a 1 mb and a 2 mb setting, and a basic, normal, or fine sub-setting. The number of images this Smartmedia card will hold varies from 20 to 75 depending on the setting. Obviously a 124 mb card would be required if one were serious about photography using this camera. After a wait that seemed like forever, the memory finally arrived, and I shot these images.

This image was shot at the 1 mg, normal mode setting. I cropped out about 60% of the photo, but did not reduce the image size. It appears that: The image is large enough to work with for internet applications. The depth of field is better than I was getting using the Nikon. The detail is sufficient for this large of an image.

In spite of ill health, Sabrina, Braxton, and Cub surprised us with a visit Easter afternoon. Barbara has been suffering from a perceived dearth of grandchildren and was very pleased with the visit. Cub (at about 4 months of age) is becoming quite photogenic. Since Sabrina is reluctant to share images, Barbara wanted me to post these. Since they are basically self evident, I will prattle on about unrelated subjects while you examine them.

I attempted to acquire a replacement door for my Geo Metro, as the one I have no longer opens from the inside (nor does the window roll up and down).

During the winter, that was tolerable, but in the summer I need the window down. Barbara did the calling to locate the door, and she found three. The prices varied considerable ($100, $200, and $250). Can you guess which one I plan to buy?

Unfortunately, when I arrived at the junkyard, I found that while the window in their door rolled up quite nicely, it would not roll down at all. I already have one like that...

Maybe it is just that with all of AJ's comments about my Ghetto Mobile in the past, I can't bring myself to upgrade when he is not here to witness the installation of a new shiny red door on my faded blue vehicle...

I have been threatening Barbara with the revocation of her Grandmothers license. She is not amused...

I continue to add things to grandmasweb. Most recently, I added an excerpt from the journal of Susannah Janet Heward (Allen Bates). She was my mother's father's mother. She married Rial Allen when he was 60 and she was 17. They had one child (Sessal Dellma Allen) and then Rial died leaving Susannah with an 18 month old infant (who grew up to be that ornery character I had to use for a Grandpa). Susannah (or Nettie as she was called [or Grandma Bates as she was also called]) is the person whom I blame for my fussiness in wanting things straight, square, etc., and it is her lamp that I have sitting on top the freezer. Susannah and Rial were living near Tuba City, Arizona, and went to Salt Lake to be married. The journal excerpt covers the trip up and back. They went in the fall/winter of 1896 (after the crops were in) and the round trip took them a one day longer than two months. When we went to Grandpa LeFevre's funeral, we traversed that distance in less than 10 hours. How times change... A second story that might be worth the read is Sessal Dellma Allen (my mother's father) telling about trapping coyotes. The second half of that tail makes my skin crawl and the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Grandpa Allen was quite a story teller, but this half-way sounds like it might be true.

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