Just a Dusting

Just like the forcast has indicated, we got a dusting of snow last night. It's almost like the first snow of the year and the roads were pretty slick with some ice under the dusting of snow. This picture was taken at Ballaine Lake on the way in to College Coffeehouse. Given the amount of wheelspin that I was occasionally getting, the pusher could use more studs. The sidecar wheel currently has none and you can tell that there isn't as much rear brake as usual.

I had ordered some more of the GripStuds from Aerostitch and asked them to just ship them with my RC Light whenever it is being shipped back. I think it's been almost 5 weeks so I just shot out an email to them this morning. The FirstGear Kilimanjaro jacket and pants are doing okay but they just aren't as warm or easy to put on/off as the RC.

Maybe if we get a little more snow I can try out the plow.

Thursday Afternoon - Still not very much snow but enough to try out the plow. Between steering, shifting (manual transmission) and the handheld remote to control the plow, you really have your hands full with a small driveway. But still, way easier and faster than the snow blower.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Stepping Gingerly into Facebook

I've had avoided using Facebook for a long time. I don't really care for some of their past/present security policies but things seem to be improving. The "sleazy" feel has either diminished or I've reached the "I don't care" stage. Anyway, I had created an account a couple of years ago just to "claim" it but never really did anything with it. The powers that be within Facebook said that they would delete unused accounts at one point. I'm not sure what the current policy is.

I have been using the IFTTT service to post to another rarely used social media outlet, Twitter (BTW, my identity is @RMachida in case you care to follow), for years whenever I put up a new blog post. I figured that I could do the same thing with Facebook. I installed the iPhone app and started exploring to see how to create a page and automating posts and got sucked into "adding friends" as the site was suggesting names of people that I had lost track of decades ago.

This response was predictable as I've avoided the site for quite a while and rarely had anything positive to say about the service. I was reminded of the problems when Dom had posted about the theft of his photos. Somewhat related is the terms of service on the site. According to nycounsel.com

... although you still “own” the photograph, you grant the social media sites a license to use your photograph anyway they see fit for free AND you grant them the right to let others use you picture as well!

Pretty shady behavior and it's not limited to Facebook...

I figure that my photos and posts have little if any monetary value so I'm not really concerned.

Guess Where I Am (Again)

Today, I am back at the Fairbanks International Airport for the short flight to Anchorage. Just down this afternoon for a meeting and back again this evening. At least it isn't a 10 hour trip like it was when I travelled to Barrow last week. The trip back to Fairbanks yesterday was the normal 1½ hour trip for the less than 500 mile distance.

This picture was taken yesterday on our approach to Fairbanks from the south. On the Barrow-Fairbanks flight the normal approach is from the north just to the east of the university so this is different. We circled to the west of town and came in over the Tanana River. The airport and Fairbanks is on the upper right of the picture and the university is in the upper-center.

I did get some heavy duty velcro straps for the chains but they are too short as is. Instead of returning them, I will be making some extensions out of 1" webbing and some sturdy "D"-rings which I will attach to the chains. This will not only eliminate the clearance issue but will make them much easier to install. Another post for that project.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Slow Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday, there wasn't any sea ice to be seen. This morning, there is quite a bit of ice floating out there. The whale bone arch is sort of off the beaten path since they closed the restaurant next door. But Cruz, the wonderful, new Mexican take out place is right next door. Unfortunately, it seems to be closed on Sunday. Or at least is was when I went by which was shortly after sunrise (10:40 AM).

I went to Osaka's, my favorite restaurant in Barrow, for some tempura udon. The broth is a little sweet and delicious. It was wonderful especially when compared to yesterdays fare, I went to the Sam & Lees, one of the Chinese restaurants, and the food was horrible. It seemed like they threw together leftover pork from the lunch buffet and some raw vegetables in a bowl, poured some warm sauce on top and called it good. And served it with a blob of gummy rice. Pretty poor showing. Usually it's decent.

Here is a slightly better picture of the sea ice. The beach is in the foreground then open water followed by the developing ice. I headed out to the the BEO (Barrow Environmental Observatory) mid afternoon after most of the morning low clouds and fog had burned off. On the way out, I noticed that there was a nice rainbow and some blue sky over the ocean. By evening there was no more open water. It was frozen over...

Another photo taken from the SledShed looking southwest away from the BEO. This small building (not in the picture) gets its name from the runners that it is installed on to simplify moving the building. The photo is an iPhone HDR photo using the stock camera app. It seems to do a pretty good job. I was out there to check out some network hardware as I was finding tons of errors in the documentation. The documentation was wrong. Frustrating...

One last food pic. Returned in the evening just to make sure that it was my favorite restaurant in Barrow. This was just the #3 bento box with salmon. Not shown (already consumed) miso soup and ikura sushi.