Going back to Charlotte for my 60th Birthday!

The last time I was at Lowe's Motor Speedway was in July of 1999 to attend the Fast Track driving school and drive a race car around the 1.5 mile raceway. This was my 50th birthday present from Ellyn and the boys. This year, for my 60th, Ellyn is letting me go to the Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend. We have reservations to camp outside turn 3 for the week, but we will probably just be there from Wednesday through Monday. I already have a ticket for a seat on the front-stretch, and Ellyn will be hunkered down in the RV with ear protection. However, she is going to attend the qualifying session on Thursday. Only one car will be out at a time and there is little chance someone will crash so she is ok with that.

There are no hook ups for the RV in the camping area but we have our generator and holding tanks to rely on. I am going to purchase a couple new batteries for the RV when we get down to Virginia. The Costco there has 6 volt, deep cycle batteries made by Johnson Controls and the two 12 volt batteries we currently have will not hold a charge. People claim that two 6 volt golf cart batteries in series give better life and reliability than two 12 volt marine batteries in parallel. They also will fit in the same space under the hood. Costco sell them for only $75 each so I am going to give them a try.

Joss Whedon's Firefly Season 2

Joss Whedon's Firefly Season 2

Yes! Please! Firefly streamed from the internet? I would pay even more than $4.00 an episode! Fill out your "Recuit Profile" today!

It took me all day, but I was able to successfully capture the "leap second" on the time.gov website which shows the official U.S. time. At first, I was going to watch the US Naval Observatory site, which displays the UTC time, but I looked at the html source and found it was just sampling the atomic clock time every 3 minutes and so would not really show the leap second.

I also got a copy of Quick Screenshot Maker, which was able to capture and save an area of the screen at one second intervals.

I had to be at the laptop at 7 PM because the java displaying the time would fail occasionally. So then it was just wait-and-see and, sure enough, the leap second showed up as 18:59:60.

Leap Seconds

Leap Seconds

Why? Here is the history of time measurement based on the Cesium atom and why it is necessary to insert (or remove) a second from our time keeping to stay in synch with the rotation of the earth.

If you watch here at 11:59:59 UTC (6:59:59 EST), and you don't blink, you may see the USNO clock go to 11:59:60 UTC before advancing to 12:00:00 UTC.

Mutts for Obama

This cartoon is cute and the writer is an advocate for animal rescue shelters. Here is his strips from the last week. (Click the image for a larger view)

No!

Nightmare! The sale of our house fell through. We are now stuck in Danbury, likely through next spring, when we hope the housing market picks up and we can get out of here. The RV is parked and winterized. Argh!

Yes!

The long, national nightmare is over!

Escape and Suspense!: Escape - Three Skeleton Key

Escape and Suspense!: Escape - Three Skeleton Key

Wanna hear something really scary, listen to this in a dark basement at night. I did (well not dark but it was still scary). These old radio dramas make me think of Bill Cosby's story about his childhood, "Chicken Heart".

Sound Off, Sarah

Under Contract

We signed the contract for the purchase of our house in Danbury today. The closing is scheduled for October 31st. It seems unbelievable that we were able to sell our house for near to the asking price, to a couple who seem eager to get into it, and quickly as well. It was only on the market for about 4 weeks when these folks first saw it. They came back for a second look the next day and made an offer on the third day. They are getting a VA loan so the chances of it falling through are slight. We will know in a couple of days because the contract calls for them to be oked for the loan on 10/16. We will be on the road very soon!

Camping

 

This map shows the places we have camped in our RV. I will be updating it as we go. Obviously, it is not covering too wide an area so far, but, as soon as our house sells, we will be ranging far and wide.

I'm Going to the Races!

Hey, I have not been following the Spring Cup too closely lately, partly because I was way too busy to sit down and watch it each week, and partly because my interest had flagged a little. Too many "young guns". Guess I am starting to show my age.

So when I realized that "The Chase" is starting this coming weekend, and Ellyn and I saw  of the "chasers" on GMA yesterday, and Ellyn said "you could go to the race on Sunday, if you wanted", and I realized we are less than 1 hour from the Loudon racetrack, I thought "why not".

When we got onto the internet at the Rochester, NH library, Ellyn looked up for tickets, and found some still available. I will be sitting at the top of the stands behind turn 3. Not too bad for coming in really late.

I have to go alone, since Ellyn would not really be interested, but I should have 100,000 other fans to keep me company.

Be Careful What You Pray For

The right-wing group, Focus on the Family, thought it would be good if they could pray for rain during the Barack Obama acceptance speech in the outdoor venue in Denver. If you believe in a G-d who would listen and deliver on the "wrong-leaning" politically, then you have to wonder why the Republican Convention is being threatened with postponement and/or toning down by hurricane Gustaf. Hmmm. Define "irony".

House For Sale

 

Ok, we're into this now. We signed the papers yesterday with our realtor to put our house on the market as of 9/2/08, next Tuesday.  It only leaves us 3 more days to get the house ready because we are heading out on Sunday for about a week in the RV. We have a dumpster to help us clear out the garage and basement and another load of stuff in the RV to drop off at storage in MA.  This will be the first trip taking the kayaks on the car in tow, and also our bikes.  We will spend a few days on Cape Cod and then up to Boston and on to Vermont after that. I can't wait.

Brian's Northern Exposure

Self Portrait Overlooking Sitka
Originally uploaded by B-B-Bizarro

Brian has been in Alaska this week with his girl friend, Katherine. I love that they have taken and posted lots of pictures of their adventures. I am tempted to go there myself, to see if the scenery lives up to the pictures.

Oh man, I needed this a long time ago...and still do.

Buy and Sell Electronics, Sell Cell Phone, Recycle Electronics

Wow, they buy your old camcorders, cell phones, mp3 players, I'll bet we have a lot of stuff to send them. I will get on this as soon as I am back home.

Rest in Peace, Dad

Arnold Frank Ingalls











August 18, 1925 - June 5, 2008

BirdCam - A Sad Ending

mayhew.it - Blog Archive - BirdCam - A Sad Ending

Too bad. Well, maybe next year.

mayhew.it

mayhew.it

Watch birds hatching eggs in Italy. This guy has a camera mounted inside a bird house and is watching a nest of several eggs.

Men Hear What they Want To Hear

Ellyn thought this hit a little too close to home. I had a hearing test last year because she thought it was deteriorating. I found out I have excellent hearing. Must be my listening which has gone south.