Son testing out hydro foil

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Man, I have always wanted to try one of those !
So smooth, but are they hard to learn and enjoy?

Went to a par 3 w my nephew & bro n law..saw these guys by the pond

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I swear this dudes more Muppet than dog

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If you are familiar with wake surfing then not to hard to get up. Foot placement is critical too far back and the foil rockets straight up and once the fin breaks the surface you are done. Should have a longer rope but my son was in such a hurry to try it out he forgot to grab the rope from the dock. Need to be careful as being above the water just increases the chance of a painful wipeout.

My work view for the day..so expensive here, but it’s still growing. A few blocks east of Vancouver

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If you like Innis and Gunn, try Ola Dubh scotch ale. It’s fantastic.

Edited for autocorrect

You gotta love a man that knows colours.

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Just took this, outside my window, might have to take this one to the UFO thread!?!

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The local Australian Wood Ducks having a stroll today.

There were 3 juniors yesterday, I hope the 3rd one is ok.

Crazy buggas waddle across a busy road daily for some unknown reason.

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The prickly pear cactus I have around my mailbox started blooming yesterday. Flowers only last a few days but sure are vibrant.
I love cactus! No need to water or do anything at all. Pull off a piece, put it in the ground a few inches and it grows like crazy!
In winter it’s buried for weeks below 3ft of snow.
Just Make sure that you NEVER touch it with anything less that industrial thickness rubber gloves or you will be miserable!
The thorns are almost invisible and the only way to remove them is with duct tape!

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A tornado touched down last September and destroyed this 120 year old Sycamore tree on a site I was working at. I asked the arborist who removed it to cut me some “Wagon Wheels” from the thickest part of the trunk. They are great for throwing hatchets and backstops for pistol and rifle targets.

I used one to make a table at my “hillbilly fire pit” in the back yard last week.

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A mate turned up in his Bullitt yesti.

I made like a good mate and let him put it in my shed while he's here.

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My wife has been taking care of her mom the past couple of days so I volunteered to dogsit Basil today. Already went for two walks and she played with a squeaky toy for a hour while I changed out the kitchen taps.

Next up on the chore list is to change out the ceiling fan in the bedroom

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Made it to my old buddies place in Windsor Connecticut we haven't seen each other since 1993

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Nice deer and turkeys. Did he recognize you? That's a lot of years. Keep us in the loop about the fishing.

The wife did good today hitting a couple yard sales. $6 for the metal swivel chair phone bench and $12 for the 4' tall doors. Never seen hardware like that. And they work. I have some stained glass windows that hopefully will work and I'll build a piece of furniture around them. Maybe a pantry or armoire

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That fishing trip was 28 years ago ...Vancouver BC

Some pictures from my living room window and from a couple other perspectives of our wild "rose garden"

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This is how I feel after this week

Wife did good again today at yard sales. Cool old RCA radio. Missing the record player but the radio still works good.

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She also found this cool cast iron moose. I'm thinking it might be a fire place grate now that I see it in person. It's large, very heavy and I think really old20220610_173010.jpg20220610_173044.jpg

Charlie got to see Casper again today, she hadn't been around in a while.

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golfingdad1 you win Black Bear trumps everything almost. Except cougar, brown bear, etc. you see where I am going with this.

I'll work on the others, headed back to Tucson .
The road trip rodeo is over.
I wish I could post the video of the 2 Bears. There was actuality a mating pair that strolled through the front yard yesterday .
First pics are the male.
Here was the female.
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Me squeezing out the last few dregs of sunshine on a winters afternoon.

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I usually don't look at bottles when I hit sales but saw this guy the other day for a nickel, and brought him home

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Just place him next to a Mrs. Butterworth.

What about Aunt Jemima?

My first attempt at capturing lighting on the dash cam.

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That's kid stuff. Next time try catching it in a bottle.
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littlecammi our Nikola Tesla!

Still can't believe my wife only paid $35 for this 38/39 RCA radio. Cleaned up nice. I love old furniture and anything with curved wood

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Hey, I have curved wood, but it's off limits!

Having fun seeing how far I can shove Superman across the 36' floor before he takes a spill.

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I’m a long ways from home for a few weeks on course for work. This little turkey and I have struck up a friendship…I think she’s the hotel manager. I tried to complain about the wifi to her but she completely disregarded my concerns.

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That's a cat mate. Just FYI.

Edited just because

I usually can’t taste the difference

Speaking of meals….

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House got hit by lightning Monday night. Wasn't sure, thought it was maybe in the yard or woods. But I found the spot later in the day Tues (lucky the house didn't burn down).

All kinds of stuff not working. The 'finding things not working' list is getting longer - time to get insurance involved.

Posted these in the lawn thread, thought I'd share here.

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Surge took out my FlightAware receiver.

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Lightning must have followed the metal trim, then arced over to the soffit light trim. Same issue with some flood lights. Blew the lens right off this one.

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Turned off some breakers until an electrician comes over. I'm sure my smart house switches are toast.

Yikes that some scary stuff you don’t want to fool around with. All in all still consider yourself lucky had it been worse

Yikes! I had to google.flight feeder, but I still don't understand why anyone would want to know flight positions? Hobby, job....? Just curious. Glad everything will be ok for you.

I have a "whole home surge protector" attached to my main panel, wonder if it would have done it's job in your situation. I installed mine after a buddy's street got hit by lightning and his house was the only one not to loose anything, because ha had one. If you drove up his street, all you saw were major appliances on the curb in front of everyone's home. People lost everything electric. He just had the melted remains of the surge protector which did it's job.

I'm a retired RF electrical engineer, so it's just sort of a fun hobby. My designs were mostly military stuff, but I did a fair amount on the aviation side too.

For those that don't know, FlightAware tracks the planes...part of it is used for when you go to the airport and you can look at a monitor and see the flight locations coming in an departing. Part of it is to track cargo flights for the shipping companies, etc. Anyone can track a flight for free via the service (i.e. a family member is flying).

Many track using cheap setups using a Raspberry Pi and a $20 USB receiver, mine was supplied by FlightAware tho for free.

Glad everyone is safe!

Also, a civilian ADS-B receiver…who knew! I’m guessing that’s for real time traffic data on flight sims?

Edit: I see you just responded. I work in the pointy end of airplanes - interesting little fact: flying across the Pacific we haven’t had access to ADS-B capability (and something called CPLDC) until quite recently (in our fleet). So while my wife could check a website to see my position, I had to use a scratchy old school HF radio to report it to ATC. Still have to use it when equipment is U/S but thankfully now ATC is leveraging that technology a lot more.