What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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Online shopping for heritage corn seed. Found a board game I liked the look of so I bought it.

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"Trust Me I’m a Doctor is a hilarious card game that lets you become an old time doctor, treating serious medieval maladies with some VERY questionable cures.

Players draw gross Ailments and horrifying Cures, then attempt to cure their patient by suggesting various outdated cures, aiming to match symbols on the cards and back up their combination with lots of verbal jousting.

The first doctor to be chosen thrice wins, and if everyone is sufficiently grossed out this is a bonus!

This party game encourages interaction with your friends. Each of these Ailments and Cures are REAL things that happened."
 
Online shopping for heritage corn seed. Found a board game I liked the look of so I bought it.

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"Trust Me I’m a Doctor is a hilarious card game that lets you become an old time doctor, treating serious medieval maladies with some VERY questionable cures.

Players draw gross Ailments and horrifying Cures, then attempt to cure their patient by suggesting various outdated cures, aiming to match symbols on the cards and back up their combination with lots of verbal jousting.

The first doctor to be chosen thrice wins, and if everyone is sufficiently grossed out this is a bonus!

This party game encourages interaction with your friends. Each of these Ailments and Cures are REAL things that happened."
This seems like as good a place as any to mention that archaeologists can identify Lewis and Clark Expedition campsites by the mercury contamination. The Expedition generally ate a meat-heavy diet leading to frequent constipation. The laxative they used ("Rush's Thunderbolts") had a substantial amount of mercury, something like 30% by weight. Hey presto, mercury-laden latrine sites!
 
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Do your cats like to sleep in the sinks?
We have faucets that turn the water on when you wave your hand past the sensor. The cats can turn them on. It didn't take long for them to grasp that they could turn the water on and off. They don't sleep in the sinks. They like watching the water. We keep the auto faucets on cold so the don't get scalded. They are also fascinated with the toilets. We have motion activated toilet night lights. I'm not sure if it is the colors changing that fascinate them or the moving water. I have tried to get a picture of the four of them gathered around the bowl peering into it. First I flush it for my business. Then wait for the tank to fill up and then open the door and they come running in. Then I flush it for them. I keep my toilet spotless because of the kittens. The night lights are from Amazon. We use them so we don't have to turn on the lights in the middle of the night. They prefer boxes to sinks.
 
Leveled a Christmas tree. Using a lathe. Yes, you read right. Our synthetic tree has had a bit of a lean for a couple of years. I have been very busy over the Christmas break but now there is some free time and I wanted to get this out of the way, early for this year.

I turned an aluminium shaft in the lathe so it was a close-fit to the socket tube that holds the trunk of the tree vertical. Then I carefully heated the hot-melt glue with a hot air gun. Checked the floor for level. Checked the post for vertical. Let glue cool. Job done.
 
Watched the Eddie Aikau yesterday on the internet. In the summer, I go snorkeling there. Eddie revolutionized Lifeguarding around the time I was born. The story goes that back in the 60s, the invitational didn't include the Hawaiians so Eddie grabbed his board and participated even though he wasn't invited. The event coordinators went to the locals and asked them to tell him to quit surfing. They replied, "no brah, they da hui." (respectful pidgin name for the surfing gang). They obviously kicked the Californian's butts and were invited after that.

In 1978, he participated in the ill fated trip to navigate the Polynesian ship, Hokulea to Tahiti. For some reason, they left Honolulu just before a storm (not a 3 hour tour) and capsized. Eddie said he would paddle back to Hawaii on his surfboard to get help. That was the last they heard from him. There's a saying that if someone asks "would you surf that?" the reply is "Eddie would go".

The Eddie Aikau Invitational only occurs when the waves are at least 20ft as measured from shore. That could be 50ft from the ocean side. As with rocketry, they have to watch the weather and decide within a week when's the best time to go except they measure it by wave height and not lack of wind. They then have to erect the event scaffolding and such at Waimea Beach. This was the 10th event since 1984 and is considered the Hawaiian Superbowl. About 50,000 spectators descended on a beach with a small parking lot and a two lane road. Basically, you have to camp there overnight with all your provisions.

This time, they invited 5 females with the 40 participants. Spoiler: a local lifeguard won the invitational. He participated in the event while still performing his lifeguard duties during the breaks. John John won the event last time in 2016 and came in second.

 
I'm not sure if it is the colors changing that fascinate them or the moving water.
It's one of those things I've "always known" that cats (and dogs) are color blind. But before posting that it therefore has to be the water, I checked to verify. And it's not actually true, but their color vision is severely limited as compared to ours.
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So as for "What I did today -instead- of rocketry", I learned something about dogs and cats.
 
This seems like as good a place as any to mention that archaeologists can identify Lewis and Clark Expedition campsites by the mercury contamination. The Expedition generally ate a meat-heavy diet leading to frequent constipation. The laxative they used ("Rush's Thunderbolts") had a substantial amount of mercury, something like 30% by weight. Hey presto, mercury-laden latrine sites!
Mercury(I) chloride, Hg2Cl2 AKA "calomel" was used as a purgative into the early 20th century. As it was "insoluble" (actually low but not zero solubility) it was considered okay to take in small quantities. It wasn't...:oops:

Its low solubility is the reason that traces remained along the trail after a couple centuries.
 
It's one of those things I've "always known" that cats (and dogs) are color blind. But before posting that it therefore has to be the water, I checked to verify. And it's not actually true, but their color vision is severely limited as compared to ours.
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So as for "What I did today -instead- of rocketry", I learned something about dogs and cats.
I swear cats can see into the infrared lol
 
It's one of those things I've "always known" that cats (and dogs) are color blind. But before posting that it therefore has to be the water, I checked to verify. And it's not actually true, but their color vision is severely limited as compared to ours.
View attachment 559210

So as for "What I did today -instead- of rocketry", I learned something about dogs and cats.
You need to tell my cat that he can't actually see the laser dot he chases. I know he'll be disappointed.
 
I swear cats can see into the infrared lol
According the article, "Cats also have a broader range of vision than humans do..." It doesn't say on whether that's longer or shorter wavelengths, but since their vision is adapted to crepuscular hunting, my guess is IR.

You need to tell my cat that he can't actually see the laser dot he chases. I know he'll be disappointed.
He sees a bright spot. But apparently an orange or yellow spot would be little if at all different to him than a red one.
 
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Went to the cardiologist. Again (went two weeks ago). Was short of breath today, just walking up and down the stairs once. I normally walk 5-7x per week, 3+ miles but haven't done so since Saturday. BP consistently running 160-170 over 70-85, according to one of the three Consumer Reports top-rated units. It's also what they get at Pain Management, using a BP machine.

Currently on Amlodipine-Benzapril 10-40 and HCTZ 5 mg daily, metoprolol 25 mg morning and evening. BP measured by nurse (cuff and stethoscope method) at the cardiologist is consistently around 145/65. A 20-30 point difference in systolic between machine and nurse is...disconcerting. :(

NP at the cardiologist is increasing the Benzapril to 80 mg daily, and see what happens.
 
Obvious test: get an infrared laser pointer and see if the cat chases the invisible (to us) spot.
I like it, but the question is where to get a safe (i.e. low power) IR laser.

Found one: https://www.civillaser.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=946


Just make sure you can breath.
Unlike Terry. (Seriously, those BP numbers don't look so high to this medical layman as to cause such a severe change in exercise tolerance. I hope they get you straightened out.)
 
Obvious test: get an infrared laser pointer and see if the cat chases the invisible (to us) spot.
He doesn't seem to have any interest in what comes out of the remote control. I've forgotten what frequency the LEDs are, might be too low of a frequency. They *do* show up on a cell phone camera (one way to test if they're actually working).
 
He doesn't seem to have any interest in what comes out of the remote control. I've forgotten what frequency the LEDs are, might be too low of a frequency. They *do* show up on a cell phone camera (one way to test if they're actually working).
They provide broad illumination so that you don't have be a Phaser I marksman to change the channel. The same wavelength but in a bright dot might get the cat's attention. Might not, but I'm just saying it's not really indicative.
 
I received the BNC to SO-259 connector to go on the back of the ham radio for the 2M/440 antenna. Getting closer to being back on the air. Next is finding someone to run the (3) 33ft. wires along the mulch to act as the counterpoise for the hf antenna.
 
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They provide broad illumination so that you don't have be a Phaser I marksman to change the channel. The same wavelength but in a bright dot might get the cat's attention. Might not, but I'm just saying it's not really indicative.
I was going to say the same thing... admittedly with less flair however :)
 
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