August 03, 2006
Haulin'! Bug Style
I decided to have some people over last Friday for some climbing (bouldering) & drinking. Unfortunately, it had been in the high 90's all week and was threatening to be in the 100's when woke up on Friday. The thought of 105ºF heat, plus climbing, mixed with a lil bit of drinking was heartbreaking. Drastic times call for drastic measures! I decided I need to some how cool off my garage. Easiest choice? Pump in the AC from the house. Not a bad idea until you consider the 7.5' tall by 16' wide metal garage door. With it being 100º on the outside, that door would suck the coolness out the air I pumped into the garage. Remedy: a lil bit of insulation.
Insulation? No prob. Just run down to Home Depot and pick some up, right? Exactly! Finding and buying the poly insulation was no problem. In and out in a jiffy. Now I was standing in the Home Depot parking lot, in the 100ºF heat with 60% humidity, with four (4) sheets of 4'x8'x1.5" poly insulation. Needless to say, the VW Bug I arrived in instantly seemed about the size of a matchbox car.
I thought to myself, "No problem, I've transport other sheets of 4'x8' material in the bug before by cutting them into 2'x8' sections." Of course those were thinner sheets along the lines of 1/2" thick. I went through the motions of pulling out the bottom cushion of the back seat and the head headrests. Next I pulled the back seat down and dialed the front seat back as flat as it would go. The Bug was now looking a little more spacious; about the size of a Tonka trunk...
I pulled the first sheet off the cart, scored and separated it down the middle, length-wise, and stacked the 2'x8' sections from the floor in back to the dash in front. "Fits like a glove," I thought, impressed with myself. Cutting and sliding in the second sheet started to get me a little worried; the stack was quickly nearing the roof since each sheet ended up 3" high. The third sheet got split and put in. "Wow, not much room left. Nothing to do but try the last sheet," I thought. With the last sheet cut, I slid in the first half. It didn't look like anymore would fit: "Well shit on me". I slid in the last half, keeping my toes and fingers crossed. "Perfect!" The stack came right up to the bottom of the rearview mirror. I quickly cut a couple of small pieces off of the corners in the back and I was good to close the hatch and take off. Needless to say I got a few odd looks while driving down the road with the bright pink poly insulation as my passenger.
With some pleading, Bensbane helped me cut and install the insulation. We opened the door between the house and garage and fanned in cool air. Ahhh, the comforts of AC. The garage cooled and much bouldering was done.
Mission: Success!
Posted by aeon3 at 12:14 AM | Comments (2)
March 31, 2006
Hellz Yeah, It's Friday!!
Posted by aeon3 at 10:23 AM | Comments (2)
January 08, 2006
Duck Tape History & Color Wheel
I guess you learn something new every day. This time it's about Duck Tape. According to Michaels, "duct tape was first created and manufactured in 1942 to keep moisture out of ammunition cases in World War II. Because it used cotton duck fabric, which was waterproof, people referred to the tape as 'Duck Tape'." Wow, who knew?
The oh-so-famous duck tape not only comes in grey, but it comes in a whole variety of colors. A peek at the Duck Tape University reveals that the colors range from the normal colors (royal blue, white, green, yellow) to the exotic (funky flamingo [hot pink], Island Green [Fluorescent Green], and blaze orange). Michaels, here I come!! I want one of each color to use for marking routes on my climbing wall!
Posted by aeon3 at 03:56 PM | Comments (2)
January 06, 2006
Renaissance Festival: Costumes III
Renaissance Redneck...
Posted by aeon3 at 05:35 PM | Comments (2)
December 07, 2005
Punny: Rudov and his wife...
There was a man, Rudov, who lived in St. Paul with his wife. Being from Russia, he earned the nicknamed "the Red". Well one warm December day Rudov and his wife were enjoying a delicious breakfast. His wife looks out of their kitchen window and notices some precipitation. His wife says, "Look, Honey, it's snowing out!" Rudov looks out the window and protests, "That is obviously not snow, it's rain!" The wife mumbles under her breath, "I guess 'the Red' can't tell the difference between snow and rain." Flustered and insulted he turns to his wife with a stern face and says, "Rudov 'the Red' knows rain dear!!".
Posted by aeon3 at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2005
Duluth: North Shore Style Comp Weekend
Just got back from a good weekend in Duluth. Spent most of Saturday at the North Shore Style Rock Climbing competition. It was a well put-together, well sponsored, and well attended comp. Yours truly came in third place in the men's intermediate category. Unfortunately, they only gave out prizes (for some odd reason) to the 1st place finishers of each of the 6 categories (instead of to the top 3 finishers of each). Although I didn't win a prize from my climbing skillz, I did manage to walk away the winner of a long sleeve shirt during one of the raffles. Congrats to all of the other 17 top finishers.
Saturday night was spent eating and drinking at Old Chicago's and chilling out at our hotel, the Inn on Lake Superior. I tried out the new Leinenkugels Apple Spice brew. It was pretty good, though I'd only recommend drinking it in small (12oz) quantities. It had much more of a tart apple flavor than I was expecting/hoping for.
The Inn was pretty nice. They have a small heated pool on the roof outside. That, mixed with about a -10ºF wind chill, made for many a funny frozen hair-do. I also learned a new mathematical formula:
-10ºF wind chill + cold/icy concrete roof + me in just a swimsuit + stuff in my pockets + a wonderful 102ºF heated pool = "me pulling a Chris Anderson" (Note: pulling a Chris Anderson consists of jumping into a body of water (hot tub, Lake Superior, etc.) with your cell phone still in your pocket).
Fortunately for me I realized right away that my phone was in my pocket (it started vibrating, begging for air, about 5 seconds after I jumped in). So I pulled it apart and set up on a towel by the pool deck to dry (a.k.a. freeze). After being submerged, then frozen, then dried out, my phone works like a charm *knock on wood*.
So here's my advice of the week! If you ever drench your phone, remove the phone from water ASAP, pull out the battery, and place all of its pieces into the freezer. After about an hour (or until frozen), remove the phone's components and let dry in ambient (72ºF) air over night. Then Presto!, you're phone is magically working again. This is what worked for me, so I'm sure it'll work for you. (Disclaimer*: Don't listen to me... I'm obviously an idiot who just got lucky!)
I guess you can say all's well that ends well. I leave you with a couple of pics from the beautiful, sunny, 12ºF afternoon on Sunday...
A Cold Wait...
Navigating the Canal...
*Additional note to disclaimer: Being an electrical engineer I highly recommend NOT letting your phone freeze while full of water. Why? Because water loves to expand when it freezes, causing all of your phone's nifty hi-tech components, solder joints, and LCDs to flex and crack in ways they aren't supposed to. What I would recommend is to remove your cell's battery and place all pieces into a warm, dry environment to dry. (no, not your oven)
Posted by aeon3 at 08:41 PM | Comments (2)