Daily Archives: March 25, 2010

Toilet Flowers and Hot Wings…

I’ve decided to make our new toilet into a flower pot.  Because, so far, I haven’t been able to get it installed due to the fact that new toilet has different base than the old one. I know I’ll get it fixed eventually, but in the meantime, it sure looks pretty.

ToiletFlowers

We picked up Nick and Terry about 12:30pm and drove over to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.

I had the Mango Habanero wings – sweet and spicy!,  Jan had the Hot wings, Nick had the Honey BBQ, and Terry had a chicken wrap.

Really Good!

Nick and Terry wanted to get some Asiago cheese bagels so we walked about the parking lot to Panera Bread. It all looked so good that Jan picked out some blueberry scones, and some orange ones too.

Then it was over to Outpost PC to purchase some remote control switch units to control our door locks.

After that we headed over to the Atomic Testing Museum.

AtomicTestingMuseumSign

This museum is actually part of the Smithsonian and has a amazing amount of artifacts detailing the Atomic Age.

The Atomic Age began at 5:29;54 on July 16, 1945 when a plutonium bomb, nicknamed ‘Gadget”, was detonated at Trinity Site on the Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico. The flash was seen 250 miles away and the heat produced was four times hotter than the sun.

One of the displays showed many of the products that traded on the atomic age theme.

AtomicEnergyStuff

Everything from Atomic Fire Ball jawbreakers to Atomic Cocktails to Atomic Hot Sauce traded on the Atomic name.

AtomicEnergyLab .They even had an Atomic Energy Lab, from Gilbert, maker of the Erector Set.  I actually had one of these. Maybe this explains why I still glow in the dark.

Next was a collection of Geiger counters.

Geiger Counter1

Since I was a ham radio operator and worked with Civil Defense, I was issued one of these.

Geiger Counter2

The first H-Bomb was detonated in 1952 on Enewetok Atoll in the Pacific.

 

FirstHBombSign

FirstHBomb

Earlier bomb tests, starting in 1946 on Bikini Atoll, also in the Pacific, gave the bikini swimsuit its name.

This atomic artillery shell gives you some idea how small an atomic bomb can be.

Atomic Artillery

Next was the Genie Air-to-Air Atomic Missile. Jan’s father worked on this one when he was in the Air Force.

GenieSign

Genie Missile

This B61 bomb was designed in 1963 and is still the United States primary nuclear weapon.

B61

Lastly, there is this display of a piece of the Berlin Wall that marked the end of Cold War with the Soviet Union.

BerlinWall

The museum gives real insight into what went on during the period from 1945 to 1992 when the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ended nuclear testing by the major powers.

Leaving the museum, I dropped Nick and Terry and Jan off at their rig while I went up the road to Lowes for some more toilet parts. I’m going to whip this thing yet.

A while later, after it go dark we drove over to see the light show on Fremont St., but found a special event going on, with a large crowd. We’ll try again later.

So it was off to IHOP for supper. By the time we got home it was almost 10pm.

It’s been a long day, but a lot of fun.

More tomorrow…