Bob Space

I think I will use the holiday weekend to transfer all of the family’s user accounts from the eMac to the Mac mini … and then decommission the eMac. It’s probably time. The eMac has been making a disturbing number of loud POPping noises, which I suspect are power supply-related. Also, this will solve some A/V issues the wife has had.

So we go back to being a one-desktop family. Since we will still also have two laptops and (later this month) two smartphones, I don’t think anyone will be suffering for computer time.

My middle years seem to be taken up with resolving unfinished business from my youth: getting my bachelors degree, mastering model rocketry, watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos from start to finish. The next one: getting physically fit.

(Oh, I had enough strength and stamina to do what needed doing. But I’ve never, ever been “objectively” fit. It’s far past time to correct that. And if I can’t do it on my own, right now, then what comes next doesn’t bear speculation.)

I’m not going to spam you with the details of what I will be doing, except to reassure you that it is:

• safe: I’ve seen my doctor and gotten a green light;
• progressive: it starts slow and builds at a reasonable tempo;
• about performance: the job is to meet the simple goals. Anything else that happens is gravy.
• scientific (of course!): the goals are based on age- and gender-appropriate norms derived from a long heritage of research.

I reworked the plan a little bit since the last Facebook post, making the endgame a little more reachable and leaving me room to keep climbing afterwards. But the resolution to not cut the hair remains. Yes, I need to get pictures going.

This is the first report of up to 33, chronicling events between 30 Aug 2010 and 11 Apr 2011.

Nasty blustery weekend is upon us. Good time to be indoors.
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I’m swearing off my fantasies of writing rocketry calculators for webOS (and off of computer programming in general). I will retire the Palm PDA (and its rocketry apps) to the range box. (Gotta update that motor database though!)

On equipment: I’m going to, in the words of the MST3K theme song, “really just relax.” Take whatever gear I feel like flying from. Keep the Big Gear on hand if the girls decide to try something mid-power, or if I decide to emerge from my self-imposed very-low-power confinement someday (’cause APCP motors are really cool to watch…).

As far as what I’m going to build? Just mostly finish what I’ve got (two cutaway motor models, a Quest Astra, and a book). When those are done, try some new things. I haven’t done helicopter recovery yet. I’d like to see what wadding-less recovery (using baffles) is like.

At the bottom, after finishing NARTREK, it’s time for me to settle into small projects that amuse, “fly casual,” and support the girls if they choose to start building and flying.

The Lady and I will probably upgrade to smartphones in the near future. Our Nokia 6085 flipphones are starting to show signs of wear and tear — we actually had to trade phones because The Lady’s ringer was no longer sufficiently audible to her. A tech diagnosed it as the speaker wearing out … which wouldn’t surprise me, after four years.

So what smartphones are we getting?
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Truly. I just updated the blog from WordPress 2.8 to 3.0. It doesn’t look like anything’s broken, but drop me a line if you have any problems. (And yes, I finally found my webhost’s automated “update” button. So after having manually updated WordPress once, I need never do so again.)

(Why up this early? Want to get ahead of the back-to-school shopping this morning.)

Clear day, satnav led us to the designated spot about 7:10 AM. The Daughters and I unpacked and were setting up the range when the first of the 4-H youth arrived. The other made a surprise entrance at about 8:15. So lots of flying got done on the lakebed.
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(You’ll have to read The Jeopardy! Book to get that one. Or ask me, but beware the tale is long and trivia-ridden.)
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I have been battling a cough to little effect for a week. I now diagnose this as some sort of sinusitis, and I prescribe saline nasal irrigation, frequency and tonicity to be determined.

I gave the Lady of the Manor my Christmas wish list today. Her reaction: “Really? ” I think she’s suprised that I finally put some list ideas together right around the time she usually starts thinking about gift shopping. Hey, it only takes me fifteen years to pick up on these things.

The Daughters will be drafted as range crew to help me at the next couple launch days. They do not yet know this. And I do not yet know how to fit all three of us and my flight gear into the Honda Accord. That seems fair to me.

Shuttle Discovery‘s final mission is now aiming for November 2010. Endeavour‘s final scheduled mission is now aiming for February 2011. Both dates were pushed out due to difficulties with the paylods. For Discovery, it was refitting a portable cargo module into a permanent addition to the Station. For Endeavour, it’s the ever-popular Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which needed rejiggering to suit the new plans to extend ISS operations out past 2015.
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