From This --- To This

Friday brought a combination of snow and rain along with fog. This is on the gravel road along the north side of the campus. By this time (mid afternoon), the snow had mostly melted.

This was taken on Market Street in San Francisco even though the writing on the streetcar suggests San Diego. I'm not sure what that is all about. It was 70°F this afternoon and not very smoky at all. The Lyft driver said that most of the smoke was in the east bay i.e. Oakland, Berkeley, etc. I walked down to the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero where the Internet2 Tech Exchange is being held from my boutique hotel on Sutter Street. Tomorrow, I'm working with the IPv6 Working Group to capture audio and video of an IPv6 Solutions Tutorial. The plan is to edit the video and put it up on the Internet.

On Sunday evening, a small group of us met in the atrium of the Hyatt to look for dinner somewhere. Very artsy restaurants around here. I'm not sure where we ended up but they had dungeness crab spaghetti. I have never heard of that combination before so I had to try it. A bit spicy with chili peppers and grilled corn in addition to the crab. A tasty combination. There were about eight of us including a couple of guys from Guam who had never been to San Francisco before. So there were a lot of suggestions on where they needed to visit. At dinner, we had guys from Hawaii, North Dakota, and Houston in addition to Guam. An enjoyable evening.

That Time of Year

This morning, everything was covered by a couple of inches of the white stuff. By the time I left for coffee, it was 34°F and slushy. I was thinking about taking a picture somewhere but everyone knows what slushy, wet roads look like. I thought that it may be a good time to install some studs into at least the pusher and the steer tires. The front tire is pretty worn but there was enough rubber on the outside knobs to hold the stud. Not so much in the center. This is a picture of the rear tire and there is still room for about 30% more studs if I see a need.

The led bulbs came in from Amazon and they really light up the inside of the speedometer. I don't think it's ever been this easy to read. Maybe I only had one working bulb in the past. Not bad for only $5...

The boot repair proved to be less effective. Pretty wet inside of the boots after about 25 miles of errands on really wet roads. It may be time for some new riding boots.

Amateur Radio

In 2007, the morse code exam requirements were removed from the amateur radio tests. I had considered taking the tests a few years back when one of my son's Boy Scout friends mentioned that morse code was no longer required. Last week, I discovered that the exams are administered on the first Saturday of the month in Fairbanks and the tests are free. The test admins are members of the local amateur radio club and volunteer their time. It was a pretty straight forward test with only 35 questions. This was the entry level Technician class test. I'm planning to take the General class license test in December.

Bridget asked if this was the next hobby (such as the motorcycle, followed by the sidecar, the Ural, and the RV). But I don't think so. It is just something that I always wanted to do but never had the time. They mentioned that I should be in the database within a week or so...

Slow Slide Towards Winter

Yesterday, someone mentioned that it's been a nice, slow slide towards winter. That is a great way to describe it. Last year, I posted that I replaced the roof clearance lights on the truck with LED versions. Well, I ended up replacing two of them as they "burned out". I thought LEDs lasted almost forever... Oh well, they were cheap from Amazon so I simply ordered another set of five. Now I have three extra.

On Monday, I went out to Fox for the monthly BMW get together and on the way home I noticed that I had no lights in the speedometer. I rarely need to actually see the speedometer any more due to familiarity with the Ural but being able to see it would be nice. The bulb was one of the original and didn't have any sort of number on it. Simply 12V 3W or 12 volts, 3 watts. The glass bulb is pretty small and the local Napa and Batteries & Bulb place didn't have anything that would fit. I found some LED replacements on Amazon. I guess I'll see how well they work...

Icy roads in Fairbanks is inevitable no matter how nice the weather is. Last year, I opted not to stud the tires since they were brand new and the rubber was softer. This year, I ordered 150 #1200 studs from Gripstuds.com. They are the same price as Aerostitch but the shipping is less. This is the same size that I've been using for years and they seem to work pretty well on ice and packed snow. And I don't use as many studs per tire as the 2-wheel riders so I don't have the clear road problems that they report. (i.e. The studs reduce traction when there is no ice or snow)