Category: Everyday Stories
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And so we discuss Hitchcock (a little)
Most of the animations at the Super Shorts Festival are for adults but there are a few appropriate for children, such as The Stalking, directed by Andrew Johnson, which H.o.p. is crazy about because it is reminiscent of Wallace and Grommit. I tell him that it is a take-off on Alfred Hitchcock’s horror films. He…
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Because I have a blog I can complain about the Eureka Altima
The Eureka Altima 2971 BVZ sucks as a vacuum and doesn’t make for good home ec sculpture either. It began giving us trouble from the beginning. And tonight it literally burned itself out. We’ve had it I think around two months and the belt first had to be replaced and then tonight we’ve no idea…
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Look up at the solar system's backbone
The Zodiacal Lights are said to be viewable now in the northern hemisphere. When you see Zodiacal Lights, you’ve seen the backbone of our solar system. Zodical Lights are sunlight reflected from interplanetary dust. The pale glow, therefore, traces the dusty plane through which all planets orbit, known to astronomers as the ecliptic plane. Early…
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150,000 square feet of asphalt at the foot of Bear Butte
A jackass by the name of Jay Allen has big plans for Bear Butte. He is going to expand his “world’s biggest bikers’ bar” right up to its foot. The first phase of Sturgis County Line will have over 150,000 s.f. of asphalt for semi-tractor trailers, hand-picked vendors, motorcycle stunt riders and one hell-of-a-lot of…
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Columbia River 1991, at Richland
This is a view of the Columbia River from the riverside park at Richland, March 1991. And that’s me. It was bright blue skies and sun shining only a few minutes beforehand. A dust storm was riding in. Weather can change very quickly there. This is an “I’m standing in front of the Columbia River…
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Old postcard of Columbia River
Old postcard of the Columbia River. Reads, Columbia river separating Oregon and Washington. Scene shows vista house at Crown Point with express highway and Mighty Columbia River. No date. Extremely faded. Didn’t toy with it much, just bringing out a few colors. Didn’t see any point laboring over major color adjustments. For comparison, here are…
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We like Neo-Kaiju
H.o.p. fell for the Neo-Kaiju Treebird by artist Kathy Staico-Schorr. We attempted to order it through Wootini which is where we first saw it. Pretty cool website adds to anticipating something good but H.o.p. would have liked Treebird regardless. He also liked a number of other toys but Treebird was the right price. Here’s a…
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Not like selling your everyday used car
It fell to Marty’s responsibility to purchase the specialized used van which served his dad for around a year before dying of ALS back in December. Marty got it for his dad here and drove it across the state to the home of his mom and dad. It fell to Marty’s responsibility to sell the…
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Lengthy post on dead artists, musicians and authors. Kind of. Kind of not.
This is a post about dead artists and writers, kind of, though it won’t seem to be at first because it’s kind of and kind of not. Walked out of one flu/cold and right into another. At least H.o.p. came down with another one, wham, and this time he felt painfully bad at the beginning.…
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The defective red hot
In The platelets rise to the top post I exhibited the results of mixing together red hots, lima beans and lentils in karo syrup, as instructed to do in the R.E.A.L. Science book, something about learning something about blood composition. Our (or my) natural inclination is to let things like this sit a few days…
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Homeschool activities we will not be doing for St. Patrick's Day
Another one of those posts where I confess my befuddlement over activities that are purported to be worthwhile enough that people actually do them, and yes I know some things are just supposed to be fun. St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t care. I know I should. Marty’s got a lot of Irish blood and I”ve…
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The platelets rise to the top
The other day I reported there were suggested science activities we wouldn’t be doing to supposedly learn more about blood. Like the mix the red hots (1/2 cup red blood cells) and lima beans (5 white blood cells) and lentils (1 tablespoon platelets) in 1 and 1/2 cup karo syrup (plasma) activity. Well, guess what…