Saturday morning coffee and general catching up thread, Dec 13

[5thDragoons]

Wifey and lazy granddaughter are still sleeping in so coffee not made yet. No worries - they will make a big pot in a bit. Got my gift buying all done! Units of universal gift = currency! It magically turns into what they were hoping for in the 1st place. I still try to convince them I don't want anything. Just got the Marlin handcuffs, and I've that RR dagger in Budapest waiting for the EU to allow packages sent to USA again. I'm not sure what's up with that -silly politics, I suppose.

Dense fog this morning. Recently, an enormous horned owl has been hooting at me & Flop Ears when we go out early to leave footprints. I hope to find it's home tree so I can try for a pic, but no luck yet. Also no owl this morning. Everything was covered in hoar frost, but I'm not sure that had it hooting somewhere else. Spooky? No - it's actually a peaceful sound... unless you're a wabbit.

No real plans for today. Work on finishing a model kit maybe - maybe not. SW

[Allen]

I've only seen one of those "Great Horned Owls". It was at a distance and kept it's distance----probably why it lived long enough to get big. By big I mean it appeared to be about 25-30" tall way up in a pine tree where it could see well but nothing could get to it. It's "hoot" was very low pitched (baritone).

I've seen/heard/read reports about large birds like eagles swooping down, grabbing and flying off with peoples pets. I'm sure these very large owls could do the same so not a welcome visitor for many people with small pets.

[lyman]

got them in this area, they sing the song of their people in the spring and summer, mostly at daybreak and sunset ,

day off, kinda, as in wife out of town, and I don't have a gunshow,
so spent the day working in the shop, on the shop,
got 1/3 of the ceiling painted, (need some drywall loving on the rest) and prepped the last 2 walls that need painting,

dad built this building tall enough so you can rotate a sheet of plywood in it (he was a carpenter when I was born) which means the ceiling is 10 foot,

neck a bit stif from using the roller on the long pole,, may need a beverage tonight and maybe an advil,,,

sucks getting old,


gonna be cold here tomorrow,

[lyman]

PXL_20251213_214922516.MP.jpg PXL_20251213_214936607.MP.jpg

[lyman]

today's progress,
gotta move the box somewhere else, but hung the US flag, the Ord/ Army flags (Dad was Ord)

SR center is on the door to the vault,

Snoopy was given to me last year but a friend that owns Southern Gun Works in Suffolk, and my brothers girlfriend framed it for m,

[5thDragoons]

Went out to start the truck just now - getting too wimpy for waiting until it gets warm while I drive - and noticed a couple meteors zipping in. I think I did read something about a meteor shower. A friend in Nevada on another site always kept us up to speed on things like that. I'll let it warm a bit more then off to see if the owl hoots at us again. Then back to be a cereal killer.
The breakfast burritos I like are $5 now so I grabbed a box of Lucky Charms. Same price, but it will be good for breakfast 4X. SW

[PWC]

I let the dogs out at 0600 and watched a sattellite go over. Phoenix skyglow pretty much blocks all ut brightest stars

[Allen]

I've seen pictures of an F-15 that had a wing shot off and was able to fly and safely land but that doesn't hold a candle to a rickety old wooden dog house with no wings, means of propulsion, or landing gear to fly and fight against Germany's WW1 Red Barron.

When you have a mind to create cartoons (Charles Schultz) like this who needs drugs?

[lyman]

Went out to start the truck just now - getting too wimpy for waiting until it gets warm while I drive - and noticed a couple meteors zipping in. I think I did read something about a meteor shower. A friend in Nevada on another site always kept us up to speed on things like that. I'll let it warm a bit more then off to see if the owl hoots at us again. Then back to be a cereal killer.
The breakfast burritos I like are $5 now so I grabbed a box of Lucky Charms. Same price, but it will be good for breakfast 4X. SW

of you are speaking of Dragonsdad, not sure he is still online, or even still with us,

texted his cell number I had and it was someone else now,

minefield , including Mike Riddick, (who talked to him often) thinks he may be passed or no longer able to communicate online

[lyman]

I let the dogs out at 0600 and watched a sattellite go over. Phoenix skyglow pretty much blocks all ut brightest stars

my brothers place has little light pollution, we can sit outside and watch teh starlink sats go by

was at a buy one night late up near Luray VA, not much as far as light pollution, and while it was cold, it was a cloudless night, and the stars were magnificent,

[lyman]

I've seen pictures of an F-15 that had a wing shot off and was able to fly and safely land but that doesn't hold a candle to a rickety old wooden dog house with no wings, means of propulsion, or landing gear to fly and fight against Germany's WW1 Red Barron.

When you have a mind to create cartoons (Charles Schultz) like this who needs drugs?

I have prints of WW1 planes hanging in my house and shop from Robert Taylor, Nicholas Trudgian and James Dietz, and maybe a few others , however this one hanging in my shop is my favorite,

all CGI, and a bit of a rough bastardization of the original cartoon, but still , feels right

Snoopy is a tough bastard,

[PWC]

Thing is, I've got 4 telescopes; 2 ea 4 1/2" reflectors and 2 ea 80mm refractors and 2 spotting scopes. Spotters are good for general viewing of the moon. Saturn's rings are almost edge on and disappearing. Jupiter is always great esp with its moons in transit. My problem is, my back yard now has too many trees to view except overhead, and the dog gone sky is best viewed when I'm getting my best sleep. The times when I could stay up all night are now in my rearview mirror.

[Allen]

Watched many a night come and go outside at my last job for many years. On top of reactors and other structures you can see for miles and miles. I could see surrounding towns celebrate the 4th with their distant fireworks shows.

Day times were much busier with job duties but still time to watch an occasional tornado, water spout, or dust devil.

Early one morning while still dark I was outside when a column blew up across the highway. Total darkness became noontime brightness instantly. The column contained mononitrotoluene, used in the production of TNT so you can imagine the size of the blast.

The good 'ol days. Got to see a lot. Sometimes too much.

[5thDragoons]

Mike Riddick, (who talked to him often) thinks he may be passed or no longer able to communicate online

Unfortunately, I think that's right. He smoked for way too many years, and it might have caught up with him. He was a good old boy, and I'll miss him. SW

[5thDragoons]

As for watching the sky, I used to do some of that when I was still railroading. BN & UP shared a joint line for hauling coal from the Powder River basin. BN owned the track and called the shots as to train movement. We'd roll up to the jct, call the BN disp who would often say, "you're waiting on 3 trains that are 50 miles away right now. Proceed on signal indication after they go by."

The junction was pretty much in the middle o' nowhere, Wyo so no light interference watching the stars. I'd get up on the short hood in nice weather and watch for satellites passing over. Always wondered if they were spy sats or not. Could have been weather sats, too. I think comm sats were in geosynchronous orbit and really didn't move much.

But here came the 3 trains and... *blink* there was a green light. Grab throttle and off to the mines we went. SW