Monthly Archives: August 2020
Three Cows A Day . . .
On the WuFlu front:
Dr. Anthony Fauci says chance of coronavirus vaccine being highly effective is ‘not great’
White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci that the chances of scientists creating a highly effective vaccine — one that provides 98% or more guaranteed protection — for the virus are slim.
Scientists are hoping for a coronavirus vaccine that is at least 75% effective, but 50% or 60% effective would be acceptable, too, he said.
The FDA has said it would authorize a coronavirus vaccine so long as it is safe and at least 50% effective.
Considering they also hope for 50% effectiveness of the yearly seasonal flu shot, but usually end up in the 25%-35% range, this doesn’t presage the usefulness of the long-awaited ‘vaccine’.
Then a couple of days ago, Ohio governor DeWine was tested for the virus before a scheduled visit from Pres. Trump. And to his surprise, though he had no symptoms, he tested positive. Then a few hours later a retest said he was negative.
So which result do you think got counted in the daily totals?
Asking for a friend.
On this day in 2011 Jan got to check off another item on her Bucket List, the DeYoung Family Zoo up in Michigan.
August 7, 2011
DeYoung Family Zoo . . .
When I went to bed last night I still didn’t know if we were going to make the trip this morning up to Wallace, MI about 100 miles away, to visit the DeYoung Family Zoo.
The weather was showing a 60% chance of thunderstorms last night, but it was supposed to be clear on Monday. So we could wait til then if necessary.
But when I checked it about 5 am, it was down to 50% chance, and by 8 it was 40%. So we decided to give it go since it looked like things were improving. And it turned out to be a beautiful day, lucky for us.
We headed out a little after 9, stopping in Shawano for Egg Muffins and coffee, and then gas. We got to the park about 11:30, and it was all we hoped it would be.
The DeYoung Family Zoo is owned by Bud and Carrie DeYoung, and has been featured for several years on the Nat Geo Wild channel as “My Life is a Zoo”.
Since we love small zoos and animal parks, it has been on our bucket list for a couple of years.
Just this year along we’ve visited places like Bearizona in Williams, AZ, Out of Africa in Camp Verde, AZ, Cat Tales Zoological Park north of Spokane, WA, and the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch between Tucson and Phoenix, AZ.
One of the first things we encountered was the petting zoo area where Jan tried her hand at feeding the goats.
They had a real mix of animals in this area, including alpacas,
and a zhorse, or zorse, a zebra/horse cross.
First off, you have no idea how hard I resisted saying something about “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears.”
Oh, wait. I just did. Sorry.
They have a little bit of everything here. I’m really just hitting some of the highlights.
One thing we both liked at this zoo was the fact that it wasn’t just all sterile concrete and moats. The animal’s habitats were large and natural-looking, like this grizzly cage.
They have over 400 animals here, and most of them are rescues of one sort or another, including these two beautiful cats.
A little while after we got there it was feeding time for the meat eaters. Here’s Bud flinging a chunk of cow over the fence to the waiting White Tiger below.
Although I could never get a picture of it, when the meat is thrown over the fence, the tigers leap up about 10 feet and catch it in mid-air.
Carrie said they go through three cows a DAY to feed the animals.
They have a new baby hippo who’s in a temporary facility,
until her new pool is ready. Very nice.
Here’s Carrie in the cage and talking about the different breeds of wolves they have.
These are Dingos, the Australian wild dogs, of “The Dingo Ate My Baby” fame, although these are like pets, and kids were hand-feeding them dog biscuits from the box.
This mother hyena is taking her cub back to the den after it got too close to the fence and the crowd of people around.
Besides the baby hippo, there were a lot of other, smaller babies that we could pet, hold, or feed.
This is a baby Wallaby, a type of kangaroo.
And here’s a very young monkey being feed by a little girl.
And here’s a Stripped Hyena, one of Carrie’s favorites, who really likes to be held and cuddled.
Bud came out with these two somewhat older baby monkeys that really entertained the crowd with their antics.
The last area we visited was the reptile exhibit with this Monitor Lizard just hanging out.
Bud and Carrie have really put a lot of work into this place and it shows.
As I said, I just skimmed the surface of what there is to see here. Check it out if you’re in the area.
We left the park about 2:30 and headed home, stopping for dinner at the Cottage Diner in Cecil, WI, about 25 miles from the rig.
We got back about 5:45 and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we’ll head south about 200 miles to Janesville, WI for one night, then Normal, IL for one night, before ending up in Vandalia, IL at Jan’s sister’s house on Wednesday for our family reunion. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon will be in on Thursday.
We can’t wait.
Unfortunately it looks like Chis, Linda, and Piper won’t be able to come. They will be missed.
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Thought for the Day:
Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don’t have to do it for you
In 2015 Jan and I were still down in Gulf Shores, AL again checking out some of our favorite eating places.
August 7, 2015
Friday’s Follow-ups and Food . . .
Thought I’d do a follow-up on my new IronMan 601 tires. We now have a little over 2000 miles on them with no problems whatsoever. They feel good on the road, and I haven’t had to add any air in the six weeks they’ve been on the coach.
The only thing new is the sound. As I mentioned right after we hit the road with them, the different tread pattern makes a different sound. Nothing objectionable, and not really obvious. It’s almost subliminal. In fact Jan says she can’t hear it at all.
Hope we get another 60,000 miles out of them like the first set of Sumitomos.
Thanks to a friend and blog reader, Janna Clark, we now have Wi-Fi back in the coach. As I mentioned before, the Cradlepoint router we’ve had for 8 years finally died. Finding Cradlepoint no longer makes small routers like this, I was looking around for a substitute when Janna mentioned she had one she was willing to part with.
It was waiting for me when we got to Athens last Sunday, but it was a couple of days before I had time to set it up. I just configured it with the same SSID and password as my old one and all my devices logged in with no problems or other changes.
So our Kindles and Tab are happy once again. Thanks, Janna.
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About 3:30 Jan and I drove up to the Intercoastal Waterway to have linner at Lulu’s at Homeport. Lulu, better known as Lucy Buffett, Jimmy’s older sister, has had a very popular restaurant here for over ten years. And it seems to get bigger and more popular every year. Lulu’s is one of our Don’t Miss places here at Gulf Shores, and today’s visit just reinforced that.
We went early hoping to be able to get a table on the water and lucked out.
They even have large play areas for the kids, including this climbing area with tightropes and swings. (and safety harnesses.)
The place was crowed as usual, but we got seated right away. During really busy times we have waited as long as two hours. It’s that good.
As usual we went with our favorites. Jan got her Blackened Shrimp Tacos with a side of Guacamole,
while I started out with a cup of Gumbo
and a Half and Half Seafood Platter with Blackened Shrimp and Fried Oysters.
Like Desoto’s where we ate last night, everything from the salad dressings to the tartar sauce to the seafood, is prepared in-house. And it certainly shows
Another thing prepared in-house, that we never miss, is their Krispy Kreme Doughnut Bread Pudding.
No matter how full we are, we always find room to share a piece. In fact I didn’t finish all the fries with my dinner so I’d be sure and have room, and Jan, likewise with her chips.
Since they still had some open tables, we sat around for a while just enjoying the view and our time in Gulf Shores. Even got to see a couple of porpoises in the Canal, though they were too fast for my camera.
Next Thursday, when we leave, is coming too fast.
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Thought for the Day:
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened” — Winston S. Churchill
And in 2016 we were again down in Gulf Shores, AL, this time just enjoying the beach.
August 7, 2016
I Triple Dog Dare You . . .
And there’s not a frozen flagpole in sight.
Well, we lucked up today with the scheduled rain not showing up. And even with the sun out, it only made it up to 90 degrees. Nice.
After our coffee this morning, I spent most of the early afternoon looking at a DirecTV problem that started a week or so ago with a couple of symptoms.
The first problem was that sometimes it wouldn’t record two problems at one time. One of them would just be blank. And the other thing was that every few hours we would get an on-screen message saying that the DVR had not received any guide updates for 1, 2, or even 10 hours. I had already tried a power-down reboot with no luck.
My first thought was that one of the twin RG-6 cables running from the satellite dish to the receiver was bad. But replacing the cables with a spare set didn’t fix the problem.
Next I wondered if there was a reason that someone threw away this Winegard CarryOut Dome. Regular blog readers will remember that back in May while we were staying at the Lake Conroe TT, I found a Winegard CarryOut dome on the ground outside one of the dumpsters at the park.
Superficially it looked OK so I grabbed it and threw it in the backseat. Jan just shook her head, since she’s used to my dumpster diving. But as it turned out, when I got around to checking it out it worked perfectly. So since I had swapped it out with my original one, I just started using the new one as a long-term test.
So maybe it was possible that one of the two outputs on the CarryOut was flakey, and that’s why someone threw it away. So I tested each output separately and both were working fine.
Now the only thing left was the DVR receiver itself. So I pulled both cables off the DVR and then plugged one into the Tuner 1 input . . . and got nothing. So I plugged it into Tuner 2, and got a good signal. Back to Tuner 1, and nothing.
Next I went into the DVR’s Setup menu to check the actual signal levels, and I was showing 95% on Tuner 2, but nothing on Tuner 1 when I plugged in the that one. So it was definitely a Tuner 1 problem.
But as I was stepping through the menu, I noticed something else. The DVR’s system software had been updated on July 27th. That’s about the time that the problem started.
Hmmm!
I guess I could call DirecTV, but I doubt they could get me a new DVR before we leave here on Tuesday morning. So I decided to check the Satellite Dish Setup on the receiver. It was set to 18” LNB, MultiSwitch, and Dual Tuners just as it should be.
Hmmm!
I wonder what would happen if I set it to Single Tuner, which should make it only operate on Turner 1. And since Tuner 1 wasn’t working, what would happen? So I changed it to Single, and then rebooted the DVR.
And when I tried plugging into Tuner 1 this time, it now worked. So that means the circuitry itself is working. Of course this leaves me right where I started – with a single Tuner input. So now I reset it back to Dual Tuners and again rebooted.
And this time both Tuner inputs now work fine.
So the only I thing I can figure is that something glitched during the system software update, and setting it to Single Tuner and then back to Dual fixed the problem.
This taken care of, about 4pm Jan and I headed out for dinner. As we talked over where to go, Jan mentioned how much she enjoyed her Chicken Sandwich at Hooter’s the other night, so back we went.
I of course went right back with my 10 wings, naked, all drums, but this time I bumped the sauce up to Triple Dog Dare, their hottest sauce, from last time’s 911. I got the feeling not many people order this, because our waitress looked at me with wide eyes and said, “It’s really hot!” and I said, “I hope so.”
The sauce on the plate is a side of their Chipotle Honey, since I like a little sweetness with the heat.
Triple Dog Dare is hotter than 911, but I’ve had hotter, like Buffalo Wild Wings, Blazin’ sauce, or the several places that I had Ghost Pepper wings. But they were good.
And even Jan liked it since she kept rubbing her sandwich in the Triple Dog Dare drippings on my plate.
Later in the evening, about 7pm, Jan and I drove down to the main intersection and walked out on the beach with our chairs to watch the sunset. And it was certainly worth it.
I’m constantly amazed at the light-gathering capacity of this Panasonic Lumix FZ270. When I took the photo below it was so dark that we could hardly see this kayakers as they paddled in.
Got to talking with them, and they started about a mile west of here and then the wind kicked up and they got blown down the coast. Since they weren’t where they were supposed to be, they borrowed my cell phone to call their wifes to let them know where to pick them up.
Thought for the Day:
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson
Bombs Away . . .
Today, August 6th, is a very important date in my life for two reasons.
The first is the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima today in 1945.
As I’ve mentioned before, my mother was a Captain (later Major) in the Army Nurse Corp and she and her nurses were on a train for New Orleans from West Point to get on a troop ship to the Pacific to participate in the invasion of the Japanese homeland.
And with Japan’s propensity for attacking hospital ships there’s a very good chance she might not have made it home. After all, it was forecast that there would be over a million American casualties during a possible invasion.
And the second reason is that on this date 29 years ago Tim Berners-Lee.of the CERN Institute in Switzerland put up the very first website on what would become the World Wide Web.
You can read more about it further down the blog.
On this date in 2009 we were in Cape Cod, MA checking out where we lived in 1972 when I was working for the DOD at Otis AFB there.
August 6, 2009
We found it!
We spent our last day on Cape Cod driving around looking for the efficiency motel unit we stayed in here in 1972.
And we found it.
But the first time we had to do this morning was move. We only had our other site for 4 days and then someone else had it reserved. So we had to pack up and move down the road apiece from site 266 to site 2.
Actually this is a better site for us, because it’s a pull-thru and had room behind it for us to hook up the toad (truck) before we pull out tomorrow.
After getting hooked up, we headed out on our quest. And first we found the motel, or what’s left of it, that we stayed in for a few days when we first got here. Apparently it’s no longer a going concern.
Next we moved into an efficiency motel unit that had two bedrooms. We knew it was on the water, so we just kept checking likely areas, and there it was.
We didn’t remember the name, but now it’s called the Cape Wind Resort. The place has expanded and the cranberry bog behind it is gone, but the playground area out in front where Chris played is still here. Chris turned four while we were here, so he probably wouldn’t remember the place.
We only stayed here a month or so, because the rent would go from $100 a month in the winter to $400 a month once the tourist season started after Memorial Day. That’s when we moved into the house we found a few days ago.
It’s kind of amazing that all these places are still here after almost 40 years, but then they’ve got houses around here that were built in 1675, so I guess it’s not that amazing.
Coming home we ate dinner at a pretty decent Mexican place called Sam Diegos. Not bad.
And tomorrow it’s off to Woonsocket…
Thought For The Day:
Still true today.
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson
In 2016 we were making a day trip over to Pensacola, FL from our stay in Gulf Shores, AL.
August 6, 2016
“Vague but exciting”
Another nice, quiet day here at Gulf Shores. We had a respite from the thunderstorms today, but they’re coming back with a vengeance the next few days, including 100% chance of Heavy Thunderstorms on Tuesday when we supposed to leave for north Alabama.
They have Wi-Fi here at Gulf State Park, and it appears to cover the entire area using repeater relays. In fact we have a repeater pole right outside our rig. Too bad it doesn’t work.
And it didn’t work last year either. When I ask then about the problem, I was only told they have Wi-Fi at the Activity Center. Well, to start with, I’m not parked by the Activity Center.
But what’s strange is that they’ve got the hard part done. I have 4 bars of signal here, and my systems will connect and then try to get an IP address. Which it where all it fails. It hangs there until it gives up and times out.
Which pretty much means that the system is not connected to the internet. So I don’t know if they put the system in and then decided that it was too expensive to pay for sufficient bandwidth to cover the park or what. Since we’re talking about the State Government running things, who knows.
About 2pm Jan and I did our yearly Pensacola run, mainly for two things. Sonny’s BBQ and Artesana Imports.
Sonny’s is one of our three favorite BBQ places – Rudy’s BBQ, Famous Dave’s BBQ, and Sonny’s BBQ, . Between the 3, we’ve got most of the US covered for good BBQ.
Rudy’s covers Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and we’ve eaten at a number of locations in Texas, and as far west as Phoenix. Good Texas BBQ, Brisket, and Ribs.
Famous Dave’s covers much of the US, with locations in 36 states, as far west as California, as far north as North Dakota, Montana, and Illinois, and as far east as New York. Good Ribs, Brisket, and Hot Links. We first ate at a Famous Dave’s in Billings, MT with Mike and Janna Clark, and have eaten at a number of them around the country since then.
Sonny’s covers a large part of the south and the southeast, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and we’ve been eating at various locations since the 70’s.
We always tried to eat at the Sonny’s in Pensacola when we’re in the area, so today was our chance.
The first thing we noticed was that since we were here two years ago, they’ve done a major remodeling, inside and out, really updating the look.
But the BBQ is as good as ever. Jan got her usual Sliced Pork Sandwich with Fries and BBQ Beans, and I got my usual Pork 3 Ways Platter.
With Ribs, Sliced Pork, and Pulled Pork, it covers all the bases. I got the BBQ Beans, and the Corn on the Cob. One thing I like about their Corn on the Cob is that it’s cooked in foil, and not boiled and then left in hot water so that it gets soggy.
Besides the great BBQ, another thing I like about Sonny’s is no wimpy iced tea glasses.
No, these are big, double-handed 32oz glasses, so I’m not constantly having them refilled.
After our great meal, we drove on in toward downtown Pensacola to visit Artesana Imports, a gift shop that we’ve been visiting since the 70’s. Jan always finds something she likes, and today’s find was a new seashell-based dish towel.
Always a great place to visit.
“Vague but exciting”.
This is what Mike Sendall, Tim Berners-Lee’s boss at CERN in Switzerland wrote on Lee’s proposal giving him permission to develop what we know today as the World Wide Web.
So, yes, one guy invented the Web, and, no, it wasn’t Al Gore.
It was Tim Berners-Lee.
“He wrote the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which outlined how information would travel between computers, and HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which was used to create the first web pages. “
And today, August 6th, is the 25th anniversary of when the very first website went live.
And you can still see the page here at its original address.
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
And here’s the very first web server sitting on Lee’s desk,
It was a NexT computer which had a note taped to the front that said: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN”.
And it was almost a year later when the very first picture was published on the Web.
It’s a photo of a parody rock band made up of CERN employees.
I figure the 2nd photo was probably porn.
I got in this early enough that I remember when there was only about a dozen websites in the entire world, all of the them at universities and research facilities.
One thing to remember is that the Internet and the Web are not the same thing. The Web runs on the Internet.
The Internet came first, with the first commercial ISP’s coming online in the late 80’s, and consisted of Email, Newsgroups, and IRC Chat.
Of course direct dial-up services like CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc., had been around since the late 60’s, but there was little or no connectivity between them.
Email was pretty much what it is today, while Newsgroups were gathering areas for people to trade info on pretty much every hobby, interest, and perversion you can imagine. IRC Chat was the early version of today’s Instant Messaging.
There’s more info here:
So if it wasn’t for what happened 25 years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this.
Thought for the Day:
Life always offers a second chance. It’s called tomorrow.
