I read an interesting story about the capture of a 17 foot female white shark that's estimated more than 50 years old. Caught off the coast of Nova Scotia, the shark was fitted with 3 tags to record/track it's travels for the next 5 years.
Researchers collected samples that included bacteria, blood and skin. With a weight of 3,541 pounds the story states the shark had a diet of seals.
link here:
I listen to your music every day.
Eddie Van Halen, guitarist extraordinaire and now Rock & Roll legend has passed on at the age of 65. In a class by himself, Eddie is considered one of the most influential guitarists of our time.
His techniques and style was unique. Eddie and his older brother Alex founded the band Van Halen and skyrocketed to stardom performing to sellout arenas around the world.
Diagnosed with throat cancer more than a decade ago, he traveled as far as Germany seeking treatment. Sadly, he gave up the fight this morning.
All the rock stations in my travels are playing Van Halen songs and I caught a tribute show on Satellite radio this evening.
Eddie, playing inspired a million guitarists... may your music live on!
The list of those who work at the White House who are affected by COVID-19 has grown sharply. Thursday, it was president Trump and the first lady Melania that followed after Hope Hicks. On Friday, Kellyanne Conway made the list. I believe that makes seven.
I think it's because they aren't following guidelines established by the CDC.
Who's next?
Two weeks ago I was installing pendant lights and this past weekend I was designing a brick faced wall unit. My daughter decided she wanted a fireplace built-out wall unit. She found a local company who had photos on their site but needed my help for placement in the family room.
She an my son-in-law are busy decorating the house they recently moved to and now that the sectional furniture arrived a buffet unit was purchased. Unhappy with the TV being mounted to an empty wall the brick wall unit became an item of interest.
Someone used a design program for the sofa and placement of the wall unit was equally spaced on the back wall. However, it pushed the sofa so close to the side in interfered with the sliding door access.
Measuring tape and pieces of paper represented the locations of the item to be built. I strongly disagreed the unit should be centered. "No, it doesn't fit the room" said I.
The answer was 'yes' that all the sofa components were modular and re-configuring the layout was possible. So, we moved one piece and magically... the sofa fit and so did the wall unit in the location I suggested.
It was late and I packed my laptop. Everyone was delighted I found the design solution to her wall unit.
On the way home I got some Pollo Tropical Cuban style grilled chicken and had a mini-feast!
Thursday, October 1st, 2020 is the next full moon. It's closet to the autumnal equinox and celebrated globally. In North America, it's called the Harvest Moon.
Neil Young released a studio album in 1992, titled Harvest Moon.
Enjoy... !
My dad loved to cook. He also loved to watch TV while cooking. Unfortunately, the TV was in the living room and couldn't be viewed from the kitchen.
He would run back and forth trying to do both.
Let's say there was a chase scene on a Western that caught his attention... there would be a good chance the spaghetti would boil over or the broiled steaks would be crispy!
My first wife appropriately nicknamed him Burnie.
Two decades ago I decided to study Traditional Irish Music by way of the Uilleann Pipes. It was difficult as I had two obstacles. The music and the pipes!
I had a few websites with music as well as books, videos and private lessons to help me along the way. I attempted to play along with folks who were immersed in Irish music since they were children. Had I stayed with guitar, my chances would have been better, but no... I wanted to play pipes.
So much for a brief background to my Trad background.
One of the players that I sometimes listened to was an Irish woman Emer Mayock.
Her piping was flawless. Actually, her main instrument was wooden flute and she's been on lots of videos and albums including a few of her own. One claim to fame of hers was touring/recording with the musical group Afro Celt Sound system.
I saw a few videos but lost interest because there were so many players in the band her solo attempts always got covered up in the percussion section.
My car comes with a trial subscription of satellite radio and yesterday, I happened on a tune (songs have singing and tunes don't) by Afro Celts.
Yeah, Emer Mayock came to mind.
Here's a video featuring Emer Mayock & Dónal Siggins with Emer on flute.
I woke up to a few text messages from a friend who is skeptical about the news that the president and first lady tested positive for COVID-19.
First thoughts are:
Is it really true? Is it for avoidance of the next debate?
Maybe a ploy for an unknown agenda that could be a wild reason to delay the election.
Possibly to tout Hydroxychloroquine or other medicine as a quick cure.
It's wait and see right now and maybe... maybe in his 2 weeks of quarantine he could practice doing something presidential and stay off Twitter for (at least) a few hours.
Being the president of the United States is a part-time job and I have proof.
I do.
We've been getting rain off and on all Wednesday afternoon. By midnight, storm clouds moved in the area and lightening strikes were active. Combined lightening and thunder shook the buildings and set off car alarms a few times.
National Weather Service warnings came over the cell phones. Normally, they are away from the bedroom but loud enough to hear the emergency tone. The thunder was loud enough so I got up to see how much rain was in the parking lot.
Some of you may recall 3 months ago, I lost a car due to street flooding on the main road of my community where I have assigned parking. Two hours of solid rain was more than the storm drains could handle and water was up to the courtyard walkway on both sides of the street with as much a 2 feet of water in the low spots.
It's past 3am and I'm checking radar showing the storm overhead, by my 'accuwindow' forecast has little rain outside, no flooding and thunder in the distance as it appears to be moving north toward West Palm Beach.
I'm going back to bed...
Lots of news stories this week and one pertains to the president harping about fraudulent ballots to an election that hasn't taken place. He states in rallies he's not going to stand for a loss. I've also seen comments indicating he won't agree to a peaceful transition and he's claiming the only way he could lose is the election is if the Democrats cheat.
This level of BS make me wonder... how is is possible those 'Democrats' will cheat?
In previous elections, it was tampering (or at least claims of tampering) with voting machines by outside sources. In the upcoming election, due to virus concerns, it's expected citizens will be voting by mail-in ballot. I've seen a few videos on the process of checking signatures and marking in the system that a vote was cast... thus avoiding chances of fraud. That would make the president's complaints unfounded.
Setting the stage for an election like a Banana Republic is what I see here. Forget that part about being American was living in a country where the people decided (by vote) their choice in a president. We have a president who wants to rewrite our system of voting.
Eric Trump seems to have summed it up nicely, that his father would concede the election 'if he got blown out of the water' by Biden.
My response was: Ya think??
So, it's cheating if the win is marginal and can only be accepted if it's a landslide.
Right, that's how I see it. The vote regardless of your party (or non-party) must be a landslide win for Biden or Trump won't accept it.
Two weeks ago, I received a subpoena to appear at my daughters. The purpose was for dinner... and to install a chandelier in her dining room.
Dinner was great but the lighting didn't go so well.
Most new houses have cheap white base fixtures. The homeowners need to install something substantial. The fixtures are caulked to the ceiling that needs to be cut away from the drywall. If you don't it will pull off a chunk of ceiling and you have 2 jobs. Install the new fixture and repair/repaint the ceiling. Usually in that order.
The electrician didn't use the normal screws that come with the fixtures, instead they used screws that are self-tapping anchors that are rated to be used on concrete. Moron. The threads in the electric box were stripped so I had to improvise with other screws.
The chandelier had some prism shaped acrylic rods that reflected light around the room. I made the joke that she bought it from Superman as it had a similar look to his ice getaway in the North Pole.
Not a fan of parts that don't fit, it required some finagling to get all the rods and assembly to go together.
This week was another request... install pendent lights over the island.
Installation of the first light went well, but testing the illumination revealed some odd shadows on the countertop and raising/lowering the light didn't help.
Oh... there's a box in the hallway that's 30" x 30" x 30" yeah?
It's a light going over the breakfast table. I'm thinking something that would be launched over Cape Canaveral designed to circle the globe and detect alien spacecraft. I was close. Not my taste in fixtures, but everyone like that one!
Groan, two fixtures in the living/family room and I'm outta there!
The pendent lights are going back to the store tomorrow and I'll be notified when the replacements arrive.
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