I think THIS is pretty cool! But I notice the touchdown rockets have charred the surrounding area. Hope there weren’t any flowers growing there or anything.

It’s Friday. This Saturday is the work Christmas party…

Today is not totally cloudy, like most of this week has been. It’s a good sign. On the dark side, I rekkon the yard’ll need mowing again.

I hope your weekend is fantastic!

Our friend had their parents visiting from Scotland last week, they’re leaving today. Last night we had a good-bye dinner for them at The Kitchen restaurant. It was quite nice. Everyone was surprised at how good it was. I especially enjoyed their Mango Mousse that I had for dessert.

Below are a few pictures from last night.

I’ve met Geoff and Lorna several times, every time they come, and they’re great to hang around with. Emma is my wife’s best friend and she went to Scotland with Emma last summer. Wish I coulda gone, but I will!

Outside the restaurant, there were two chickens above the door, roosting there, quite high up. I guess they were there for the night. Funny.

And tomorrow is Friday! It’s still cold, rainy and windy here… Sad, so sad.

Well, back to work today after three vacation days and a weekend. I did house chores more than expected. Yesterday, my designated beach day, it rained. so I installed the new fan, picture above.

Day-before yesterday, I went and bought the new fan, and the above pictured replacement light fixture for the kitchen. And light bulbs. I replaced the kitchen lights. It took more time than expected, because on the final step, putting the third and last light shade in, I found that the socket was broken and I had to take the whole thing down, return to the store and trade the defective one for a new, identical one. But, I got it done. And it was bright. I knew The Wife would say it was too bright.

A little backstory, My wife and I have an ongoing squabble about light bulbs. She likes these dim, yellow light bulbs, “natural light, soft white”. I like brighter lights, so you can see what you’re doing, maybe see your hand in front of your face or dissect a microbe.  Needless to say, we have these dim yellow lights all over the house. Happy wife, happy life.

Do you see, in the picture above, where it says 2700K? With the little triangle below the bar, like a brightness slider? Well, these are the bulbs my wife bought, after she returned and replaced the bulbs selected by me. The bulbs I originally bought had the arrow/slider all the way at the other end, and  the number said something like  500,000K. It lit the whole house, through the walls, ’round the corners, front porch and back. It lit the neighbors yard next door and the whole street. Stadium lighting, as the wife said. My wife forced me to admit that my bulbs were too bright, which, (I had no choice) I reluctantly did.

Seriously, you couldn’t even look at them, it was like being blinded by the sun.

So the fan’s up, lights up, concrete patched, lots of household projects done. Now it’s back to work on a rainy, cold Wednesday that feels like a Monday. 

Havva good’un!

I took three days “use it or lose it” vacation.  (I have to use it before the end of the year because I’m already transferring the max number of days to next year). The whole time, it’s been sunny and nice. I’ve been doing projects around the house the. No diving, no beach. Yesterday, a gorgeous day, I promised myself I was going to the beach. Screw the projects. Today is lugubrious and cold, howling wind, rain. Definitely not a beach day. Sigh, I guess I could install this ceiling fan…

Back to work tomorrow, It’ll be nice and sunny again….

I made the first three videos below from the audio on fourth video. I extracted the audio, then edited it and screengrabbed it while it played back in my Lexis Audio Editor, then mixed the audio with the screengrabbed video. I think it helps be be able to “see” the audio as you hear it.

The first is what the human ear would probably hear from the wind on Mars. YOU PROBABLY CAN’T HEAR IT WITHOUT GOOD HEADPHONES, TURNED UP LOUD! It is very low frequency, and if you have good headphones and turn it up to max volume, you ( I ) seem to “feel” it in your ears more than hear it. You can see it’s quite a large signal, but it’s near the lower limit of human hearing, therefore hard to hear. I find it fascinating.

In the second video, the audio has been pitched up two octaves, placing it easily within the human audio range. (Remember, you might still have your headphones all the way up and may want to lower the volume a bit)

In the video below, the sound comes from a different instrument on the InSight lander, and has been multiplied by 100, thereby increasing the frequency by 100. It sounds really weird.

The video below is the story that was all over the news, you’ve possibly seen it already. Like I already said, the audio for the first three videos came from the audio in the video below. Their explanation is much more thorough than mine. You’ll hear all the same sounds as in my videos again, but I like my videos because there is a good visual reference to go with the sound.

Hope you enjoyed this post, I enjoyed making it! It took quite a lot of work and I hope you’ll leave a comment!

It’s Thursday, my Friday this week. I’m off work tomorrow. And Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday I didn’t post. I sat here, ticking away the moments that make up a dull pre-work-blog-post-time. Frittering and wasting the pre-work-blog-post-time in an offhand way. Kicking around on the piece of ground that’s my back porch, waiting for someone or something to show me what to say.

Nothing happened. Then I went to work.

The weather has been great, scooter every day. Today looks good too, but I feel like taking the van.

Last night we went to the seasons first Christmas party. At The Wife’s water exercise class place. Fitness Connection. My first time there. Of course, there was no working out, just lots and lots of food. And booze.

And that’s about it, another candidate for Worlds Most Boring Blog Post.

Have a great day! And weekend!

Yesterday, driving to work, I witnessed a bicycle/car accident. Lucky no one was hurt. I always worry about that early morning driving. The sun is right in your eyes this time of year. Plus the bike riders were going the wrong way around the roundabout.  The biker guy got up after the crash, angry, and stormed for the car. I called out “Don’t kill him, you were going the wrong way!” He calmed down instantly. They traded info, and I offered a copy of the video. (The car driver called, and I emailed it to him). Then I asked the bikers if they wanted to put their (brand new) bikes in the back of my van and I’d give them a ride to work. They did. I think I was more shook up than anyone else there!

Yesterday at my beachlunch, I took the following pics of a beautiful ship. They were putting up the sails as they went by,

It was a good lunch hour, and a good day, overall.

You have a good day too!

We gave Sheba a chew skin dog treat yesterday, she wasn’t sure she liked it. She held it in her mouth for quite a while before not eating it.  I thought she was quite cute.

The camera cannot capture the coolness of these water droplets caught in the succulents leaves. In reality, they look like liquid clear siver metal.

It was a perfect weekend, in that I didn’t leave the property from Friday when I got home from work, till this morning, when I took Sheba on our walk. I don’t feel good about it this morning though. I feel like I wish I had gone to the beach this weekend. Also, last night there was a Hanukka candle lighting at the Ritz beach that I wish I’d gone to. Wife has a bad knee this weekend, all swollen and sore. She wanted to stay home, and I lazily agreed.

Have a great week!