Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
A white pickup from a local landscaping company pulled onto Raymond Avenue well ahead of me:
Pickup Truck Drill Drop – A
Although it’s not obvious to you, something seemed wrong as it pulled away:
Pickup Truck Drill Drop – B
A closer look:
Pickup Truck Drill Drop – B – detail
The dark blob turned out to be a carrying case for an industrial-strength drill:
Pickup Truck Drill Drop – C
Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic and the drivers could all swerve around the debris:
Pickup Truck Drill Drop – D
I was hauling a trailer of groceries and didn’t want to stop, but hailed the driver where he pulled over just past the Hooker Avenue intersection. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice the drill was missing and proceeded on his way.
When I got home, I called the company to tell them what happened. I hope they got someone there before the circling vultures landed …
The fox caught what looks like a small groundhog for supper:
IM_00307 – Fox with supper – 2023-05-25
The tom turkeys have been forming and re-forming their groups:
IM_00178 – Turkey parade – 2023-05-24
The gray cat may have spotted breakfast out there in the yard:
IM_00112 – Gray Cat – 2023-05-23
We haven’t seen a raccoon stand up like this before, so something must be very interesting out there:
IM_00089 – Standing raccoon – 2023-05-27
Off to its far right, Mary had fertilized a new pepper planting, which evidently smelled good enough to motivate vigorous digging. None of the plants sustained damage, despite being tossed around, but dexterous paws were surely involved!
Spotted in a soon-to-be-rebuilt rest area on I-87 north of Kingston NY, a chandelier stuffed with old-school CFL bulbs of various vintages:
NYS I-87 Rest Area – CFL chandelier
The yellowish dome on the far right might still house an incandescent bulb, but I can’t tell from here.
Judging from the high color temperature and even illumination, the chandelier next to it has 16 newish LED bulbs:
NYS I-87 Rest Area – LED chandelier
What’s of interest: both chandeliers have two dead bulbs and, perhaps, the center floodlight of the LED fixture had died, too. We don’t know how long they’ve been in place, other than that the LEDs are certainly more recent, but a 6% failure rate is nothing to brag about.
From what I’ve seen, the reliability of both CFL and LED bulbs is greatly overstated and certainly do not justify preemptive replacement of a working bulb of any vintage.
Some drivers give us absurd amounts of clearance, which is what we thought the driver of the white Jeep was doing:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – Jeep passing
Some drivers give us very little clearance, either deliberately or though negligence, which is what I thought the driver of the silver Subaru was doing:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – Subaru close pass
Reviewing the videos revealed a different story that could have ended very badly for everyone involved.
Moving back in time, we crossed the bridge over the Wappingers creek, which has two southbound lanes. The left lane is dedicated to left turns onto Red Oaks Mill Road and the right lane is for through traffic southbound on Rt 376:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – Red Oaks Mill bridge
I had noticed oncoming drivers in the northbound lane were moving far over to the fog line, but (unseen by me) they were definitely swerving off the road:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 1
It seems the Jeep driver crossed the bridge in the left lane and continued straight through, passing the solid line of vehicles in the right lane behind us. You can see the top of the Jeep’s windshield peeking out behind the Subaru, with minimal clearance to the black car swerving out of the way:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 1 clearance
There’s not much shoulder on that side of the road, but the driver of the white Honda is using it all:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 2
With all the oncoming traffic out of the way, the Jeep driver now accelerates in the wrong lane:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – passing 1
And passes the Subaru just behind us:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – passing 2
The license plate looks like JAE-7751, early in the “J” plate series, so that’s a shiny new Jeep.
Being passed at close range in an obviously no-passing zone caused the Subaru driver to flinch in our direction:
New Jeep Reckless Driving – Subaru clearance
Unsurprisingly, the Jeep driver ran the red light at the top of the hill, presumably to avoid being stopped directly in front of us.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 