Very peaceful day. Spent some of it making some repairs in the shop.. Fixed my new tesla coil so it can play music while throwing 3 foot sparks . (Scott- either the decoupling caps on the pots or  load resistor across the optical transmitter fixed it.. not completely sure why, but I can run it up to  100% with full modulation with no problem at 10 feet. It still glitches at 4 feet.. but I was glitching too at that distance.. too close to that mean spark !)  ,I also fixed my old Theremin.. it had a blown JFET in the volume atenna circuit.. bad mix of antenna, high impedence input and proximity to lots of high voltage toys.

(wow.. that was nerdy)

Spent a good hur sleeping by the wood stove with the dogs…    then later tonight, Gabe and I headed over to Chris and Kim’s for the delayed Solstice burn. Chris showed us his new angler fish mailbox.. wow !

Chris had taken two of the wooden candles he’d made for the solstice and made them into the coolest looking robot .. complete with blinking eyes and a copper heart

there was a short fire dancing show… 

My contribution was the ‘splitter’ (ferro-titanium filings) that make the pretty sparks you can see here. 

Chris lit the robot using a rope dart

If you look carefully, you can see the robot’s copper heart glowing red here.. the camera saw it.. but you couldn’t see it with your eyes.. pretty cool

now home and about to head to sleep.. I needed a day like this

nite all, nite sam

-me

Gabes home ! After 24 days on the road, more than 5000 miles of driving, three mountains and who knows how many truck stop dinners he and his friends pulled back in to town this afternoon. I told him it was the second gladest ive ever been to see him ( after the day he was born) all night lang hes been telling us great stories from the trip and showing us pictures and movies . What an adventure !

Heres a picture from three dsys ago at 14,000 feet 

Love that oicture.. Love that boy !

Note all, nite sam

-me

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Busy, busy day…traveling interspaced by  good work related conversations… When that happens .. I don’t have much to blog about.. so i think about catching up in the last week. .. (I stop there and realize Major Tom is looping in my head)

Thats it..!  I realize that I haven’t talked about.. or completely absorbed  David Bowies death… When I first heard that he had passed I was stunned. I had just heard about a new album he was going to release… i had no idea that he was ill.. .. which is something he obviously did know. Thats so like him.. isn’t it ?

Always a surprise. I have always had so respect for the guy. His career was a constant stream of reinvention, ziggy stardust, the thin white duke, aladdin sane,  the man who fell to earth…

wow.. ‘the man who fell to earth’.. did you ever see that movie ? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074851/  .. one of my favorites.. .. It mirrored a dream i always had of coming to a place with special knowledge that could change the world.. …

I guess thats what Bowie did !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Long productive day here.. lots of thinking…. lots more to do

really enjoying my visit to texas in the winter.. this morning the air was cool and dry.. like a perfect summer night at home..

After work went to visit good friends and very gracious hosts Carl and Brynn. We took a 2,5 mile walk before dinner ..

Brynn pointed at something big sitting on one of the suburban lawns.. it was a deer.. no.. wait.. it was several deer.. then.. there were more across the street.. then more.. It amazed me that these big animals could be living in such a populated place, They did not seem bothered at all by our passing by..

and one very strange deer….. at least I think thats what i heard  Brynn called him 🙂

ok.. early flight tomorrow.. so all for now

nite all, nite sam

-me