Driving My Car

I grew up in a small Western Massachusetts town. There wasn’t (and still isn’t) one traffic light. The police force was volunteers (much like the fire department). There was one store that was open Monday thru Friday 7 AM to 6:30 PM, 9 to 5 on Saturday and closed on Sunday.

Courtesy Google Images

As a teen in this town, there were a few options for employment.
1. The Box Shop – but you had to be 16
2. The Drum Shop – again, age 16
3. Picking apples and blueberries
4. If you were lucky (though I’m not certain I’d call it luck) your parents would drive you one town over to pick tobacco.

So, as a kid, I couldn’t wait to get my license and obtain a modicum of freedom. I remember riding in the backseat of a car and thinking how cool it must feel to be the only person in the car when you’re driving.

Man how times change. I’ve had my license for close to forty years, and I gotta say I do not find driving to be a cool experience anymore. (Rant time – if you don’t like to listen to people bitch best stop reading here.)

Now … everyone makes mistakes when they’re driving. When I do something stupid behind the wheel, I own it. I try to let the other driver know I screwed up by giving the apologetic wave, “Hey, sorry. I’m a dumb ass.”

And that’s the difference between folks like me and the A-hole; the A-hole flips you off when they make the mistake.

With this in mind, I present five things that irritate me while driving (in no particular order),
1. If you pull out of a side street … don’t meander. Step on it! Get into the flow of traffic as quick as possible.
2. And in that vein … if it’s that important that you must be in front of me … can you at least do the speed limit?
3. Back in the olden days (like when my eldest brother was learning to drive), it was probably a nuisance to stick your arm out the window to signal a turning event. However, street legal vehicles have these handy gadgets call directionals that allow driver A to, in theory, give others in the surrounding vehicles some hint of what driver A is planning to do next. I don’t get what is so hard about using directionals … finger cramps?
4. If you’re planning to make a left turn, how about moving as far left as you can so people behind you can get by on the right.
5. If you’re making a right turn in anything other than an eighteen wheeler, you don’t need to make a big looping swerve left before you turn right. Trust me; unless you’re that bad of a driver, you’re not going to hit anything with the passenger side of the car.

I know, petty whining. But I gotta admit, I don’t find driving nearly as enjoyable as I did when I got my license. Sometimes I miss those days in that small town when I didn’t have to drive anywhere.

Does anyone have anything they’d like to add to the driving rant list?

Winter Getaway

Disney Fantasy

Winter sucks! Yeah, I’ve got the winter blues. It doesn’t help that I have a brother that sends me weather updates from Nevada.

My bride and I found a way to beat back the blahs for a short time: a seven day, Western Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy. Oh man … great weather, great food, relaxation and not a hint of snow … and best of all? When we got home, our driveway had been cleared of the snow that fell on Wednesday, 2/19.

The cruise included four ports of call: Grand Cayman; Costa Maya, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico and Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island). This is our third Disney cruise. (The other two were four day Bahamian trips that included two ports.)

Grand Cayman: Cayman Turtle Farm: Island Wildlife Encounter
According to our guide, one man owns 60 – 65% of the assets on Grand Cayman – I accepted the statement at face value and haven’t bothered to verify its veracity. We visited the Cayman Turtle Farm: Island Wildlife Encounter. The main attraction here is the endangered turtles that the facility is breeding to release back into the wild. Guests are able to feed and hold young turtles. It was an interesting day but due to time constraints – we only had four hours – we didn’t do much else.

Our Mayan guide

Costa Maya, Mexico: The Chacchoben Maya Ruins
We drove an hour via bus. Our guide, was personable and knowledgeable and 100% Mayan. He said there were only about 1 million pure blood Mayans in the Yucatán Peninsula and 5 million Mayans in total throughout the United Mexican States.

A Mayan city might have as many as 11,000 people. Our guide said that the civilization declined because the cities’ population grew too large to support its citizens and bands of people moved into the jungle to try to start new cities.

Excavated temple                                Partial excavation

The ruins were impressive. The Chacchoben Maya Ruins are only partially excavated. There are many large mounds of soil covered in jungle growth and underneath each mound is another structure. Our guide said there are over 1,200 Mayan sites identified throughout Mexico. Only a handful has been even partially cleared.

Dolphin Discovery - Google images

Cozumel, Mexico: Dolphin Discovery
In Cozumel we visited Dolphin Discovery inside Chankanaab National Park and we swam with the dolphins … OK … we actually swam with a dolphin … OK … we actually stood in the water while a dolphin swam past us, but there was a dolphin and there was swimming involved.

Our group of fifteen descended a small flight of steps onto a platform that was probably three feet below the water’s surface. We stood in a line and a trainer commanded the dolphin to swim down the line affording each member of the group an opportunity to touch the dolphin’s skin. I expected the animal’s skin to be slimy but it felt more rubbery.

Our dolphin was supposed to perform four tricks with each guest: a kiss on the lips, a kiss on the cheek, rise out of the water and plant her snout against the guest’s palm and a fin shake.

You gotta love animals; they definitely have minds of their own. Our dolphin was in no mood to show off. Our trainer had to coax her to perform. She just wanted to swim and never mind the paying customers. Eventually, she did her job and every member of our group had a chance to kiss and shake.

I enjoyed the encounter for no other reason than I just think dolphins are cool. However, I have no proof of our participation in this activity because we decided the picture they took was not worth $37.

Castaway Cay
Our last stop. We made a beeline for the adult beach (age 18 and up). We spent the whole day there. We read, swam, walked the shore and explored the shallow waters of the beach. There are all sorts of marine life. I was able to get within four or five feet of a stingray that was resting in the sand.

Stingray

It was the most relaxing day of the cruise because we didn’t have a schedule to keep.

Our moment of Zen came to a grinding halt when we stepped off the plane at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT. Back to the cold, grey, overcast that has been this New England (and beyond) winter.

But we persevere (don’t you feel bad for us?). Winter is coming to an end, spring is a couple weeks away and we’re planning our next February escape (WOOT WOOT!).

I’m curious; do others feel a need to get away from winter for a while? Let me know.

Should I Go or Should I Stay Now?

So, I haven’t blogged in a couple weeks (really, it’s been longer than that). I’ve been up to my elbows in a bathroom facelift (and this is just the beginning).

Left: Too much wallpaper             Right: Painted Feather Gray

Left: Old light switches                     Right: New light switches

My bride and I have reached that stage of our life when we’re contemplating downsizing. It’s not an urgent need but it looms and we want to be prepared. We have one child left at home and the house is too big. When there were six of us living in the house we needed the space but now … not so much.

Our ideal home would have one story, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, a living room, a basement that could be finished, 2 car garage, natural gas, sewer, town water and a small, flat lot that does not require much TLC. Oh yeah, and newer construction. We don’t want a 1950 or 60 rehab (we watch HGTV and we’ve witnessed the issues that can arise when it comes to rehabbing an old house when we attempted to rehab a 200 plus year old money pit – screw that!).

Unfortunately, the ideal home does not come with an ideal price tag. Holy crap, new houses are expensive. The ones we’ve perused in our desired area are pushing four hundred thousand.

There are some “bargains” in other regions of the country such as Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. But that would mean relocating.

A few years ago I would have had no problem with the notion of relocation. But now we’ve got a couple of grandkids and I’m not nearly as certain that I want to move too far.

It’s a conundrum. Do we settle for a place that is less then what we want so that we can stay closer to the kids and grandkids or do we pick up and leave and risk missing watching, firsthand, our kids’ families flourish?

I admit I vacillate from one extreme to the other. I rationalize by saying that there’s Skype and FaceTime and a host of other media available to maintain contact but is it the same as being there?

I guess it comes down to what is best for us (and right now I’m not certain we know what that might be). We’ve got time to figure it out but before we know it we’ll have to make a decision.

What do you think – downsize and move or stay and watch the kids grow?

An Open Letter to Stephen King

RE: Under the Dome

Dear Mr. King

Courtesy Google Images

I just finished reading Under the Dome and all I can say is, ‘WOW!’ You weren’t kidding when you wrote in the author’s note that you “… tried to write a book that would keep the pedal consistently to the metal.” This book has a lot of pages, but the chapters are short and captivating. Once I began reading, it was hard to put down.

I became interested in the novel after watching the 2013 thirteen-episode summer miniseries of the same name on CBS. I wondered how the show tracked against the novel.

I almost didn’t watch the show because I figured it was going to be a grittier version of Gilligan’s Island under glass. Also, I pondered which came first, Fox’ 2007 The Simpsons Movie in which the fictional town of Springfield is domed in by the U.S. government or your book.

Simpsons Courtesy Google Images

It is … the movie. However, as you explain on STEPHENKING.COM, the genesis of Under the Dome came circa 1978. You said you were thinking about dome and isolation long before the Simpsons were conceived.

Dome, isolation, carnage, destruction, and death are more like it. The only similarity between the two concepts is a dome of some sort encasing a fictional town.

Chester's Mill Courtesy Google Images

In your book, I lost count of how many denizens of Chester’s Mill, Maine met their demise (people and animals) in the first fifty pages or so. Holy half-a-cow! I learned to avoid character attachments because chances were they wouldn’t be around for a prolonged period of time.

One of the main characters is second selectman Big Jim Rennie (portrayed by Dean Norris in the CBS series). What a prick! The book does a terrific job of detailing how a power-crazed douchebag can take a town’s complete isolation and use it to create a world in which he is king and emperor. His character reminded me of Napoleon, the pig from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Both characters eventually reveal themselves to be self-indulgent, maniacal control-freaks.

The TV miniseries, which will continue in the summer of 2014 (and I read on TV. com that you’ll be writing the first episode) is quite different then the book. The CBS show seems to be loosely based on the novel. The series has Chester’s Mill and Big Jim is still a prick, but the timeline of events has been altered slightly. It’s definitely less graphic, and characters and events that are not in the novel have been introduced.

I suppose this is to make it more TV-friendly? In any event, I like the show even though it doesn’t follow the book exactly. I am curious to see if the producers of the CBS show resolve the crisis in a manner similar to your book.

Mr. King, Under the Dome is the first novel of yours that I have read. In 1979, when I left MassMutual to join the military, my co-workers gave me a copy of The Stand. Unfortunately, somewhere between Springfield, Massachusetts and Parris Island, South Carolina I lost the book and never acquired another copy.

If the rest of your material is as engaging as Under the Dome, I’ve certainly been missing out. In any event, I’ve determined I’m going to acquire a Stephen King book or two to find out.

Graphene – Silicon replacement?

I think it is a fair assumption to state that synthetic materials have enhanced human development. From papyrus to paper to silicone used in computer chips, man-made materials have been at the forefront of every major technological advancement.

Graphene - courtesy Google Images

Graphene, a substance made from graphite, may be the next “miracle” material. According to Gigamon.com, graphene is made from a single layer of carbon atoms. A sheet of graphene is a million times thinner than a sheet of paper. It’s so thin it’s considered two dimensional.

Phys.org reports that graphene has a breaking strength 200 times greater than steel, making it the strongest material ever tested. Graphenea.com states it has the potential to conduct electricity better than copper at room temperature and could be used in applications such as biological engineering, optical electronics, composite materials used in aerospace, photovoltaic cells and energy storage.

HEAD racquet - courtesy Google Images

According to graphene-info.com, grapheme is already in use. Siren Technology uses a grapheme based ink in security tags and HEAD uses graphene in their YouTek™ Instinct MP Tennis Racquets.

Graphene is entering the science fiction lexicon. In the December 16, 2013 episode of the Fox show “Almost Human” a reference is made to graphene. A scientist, Rudy Lom , portrayed by Mackenzie Crook, is examining a synthetic life form and notes that there has been, “Some kind of grapheme circuit modification.”

A sheet of graphene is so thin that it’s almost invisible and its conductive properties are such that it might make excellent touch screens.

I wonder … if graphene is as strong and lightweight as it’s purported to be, could it be used to produce ultra-strong cell phones? It’d be nice to know that a drop of the phone won’t result in needing a new one.

Is graphene the next “big” thing? What do you think it should be used for?

World's Largest Ship

Titanic - Courtesy Google Images

In 1912, the RMS Titanic was a state of the art passenger liner. She was 882 feet long and carried 3,547 passengers and crew. In case you missed it, on April 15, 1912, she hit an iceberg and sank, killing more than 1,500 people.

In the years since that 1912 disaster, ships have gotten bigger. The Disney cruise liner, the Dream, is 1,115 feet long and can carry 5,450 crew and passengers. But she’s not the largest liner in the world; that honor belongs to Royal Caribbean’s sister ships, the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas. Both ships are 1,187 feet long and can carry 6,296 people.

Wow! 6,296 people is larger than the crew aboard a United States Navy Nimitz class aircraft carrier.

Dream - Courtesy Google Images

Oasis - Courtesy Google Images

There seems to be no maximum of ship size. Freedom Ship International has announced plans to build a ship, Freedom Ship, that would be 4,500 feet long, and twenty five stories high. There would be over 200 acres of recreation space, hospitals, restaurants and a runway at the very top of the ship that would be capable of accommodating forty passenger turboprop airplanes. According to Freedom Ship International, the ship would accept up to
40,000 full time residents, 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 nightly hotel guests and 20,000 full time crew. Freedom Ship International calls it The First Mobile City at Sea.

The ship would be so massive that no port in the world could accommodate it. It would complete an around-the-world cruise every two years.

The concept for the Freedom Ship originated in the 1990s. According to Business Insider, at an estimated cost nearing a staggering $10 billion, project investors were scarce. The project was scrapped after the financial crisis in 2008.

Freedom - Courtesy Google Images

Business Insider reports that Roger Gooch, a member of the original team, has revived the idea because he believes the financial climate is changing.

I’ve seen the Oasis of the Seas up close and I’ve been on the Disney Dream. Both ships are huge; the Dream is so big that it is easy to get lost and turned around once aboard.

I find it difficult to fathom that something that’s more than ¾ of a mile long and 750 feet wide can float. If built, the Freedom Ship would make the Oasis of the Seas look like a tugboat. And, based on what happened to the Titanic, I wonder how many lifeboats it would take to evacuate 100,000 people.

What do you think; would you take a cruise aboard the Freedom Ship?

Volocopter Update

K-16B General Arrangement

I was going through basement “stuff” and I found a report approved by my father dated September 1961. Dad was the project engineer for the K-16B. The report is titled THE MODEL K-16B V/STOL AIRPLANE RESEARCH PROGRAM, Report B-27.

The introduction to Dad’s report states:

“At the request of the Bureau of Naval Weapons this report has been prepared … to summarize the research program that is being carried out under Bureau of Naval Weapons Contract NOa (s) 56-549c.”

K-16B Scale Model

According to the New England Air Museum, the U.S. Navy contacted Kaman to design and build a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The project was cancelled in 1962. My father said the K-16B program was cancelled because helicopters were approaching the air speeds desired by the Navy.

However, I don’t think the research done in the development of the K-16B was in vain; the same concept was employed in the development of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.

K-16B Tie-Down

Finding the K-16B report reminded me of my blog Flying High, July, 2012. The blog discusses the Volocopter, an 18-rotor personal helicopter developed by E-volo. In July, 2012, the company did not have a date when the ‘copter would be available to the public.

In 2012, E-volo won the Lindbergh Prize for Innovation. The Lindbergh Prize for Innovation is awarded by the Lindbergh Foundation and is intended to award people who strive to achieve a balance between technological advancement and the preservation of human and natural environments.

The Volocopter has evolved since my July blog. E-volo has developed the VC200, the first Volocopter to carry two people. On November 17, 2013, E-volo conducted a successful radio controlled test flight of the VC200. According to E-volo, the vision for the VC200 is:

“a cruising speed of at least 100 km/h
a flight altitude of up to 6500 ft
a maximum take-off weight of 450 kg
more than one hour flight time”

Unfortunately, the Volocopter is still a ways off. The Camera Forum reports that it will probably be between 10 and 20 years before the Volocopter is available to the public.

Technology evolves and one advancement builds on the one before. I’d like to think that the work my father’s team did on the K-16B played some small part in the development of the VTOL technology and subsequently the Volocopter.

So, what do you think, would you use a Volocopter for your work commute?