The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Who’d’a thunk it?
Found behind a store in Red Oaks Mill, overlooking the Mighty Wappingers Creek:
The old rail fell off its (long gone) post before the tree grew around it and the newer rail (upper right) definitely isn’t fresh from the factory, so this tableau has been on display for quite a while.
The tree’s growth rings have pretty much weathered away.
The remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped half a foot of rain in our area, so we walked to the remains of the Red Oaks Mill Dam to see the water:
The white water crests stand in place over rocks in the stream bed, with hypnotic flowlines.
The concrete abutment over on the left is now completely submerged. It was more conspicuous in May:
Surprisingly, most of the tree trunks and debris collecting over on the right remain jammed in place, as seen in March:
For completeness, the scene in February:
The USGS has a hydrology station just downstream that reported about 10 feet of water, the “moderate” flood stage, around the time I took the first picture. The normal level is 3 feet.
The “major” flood stage is 14 feet and, back in 2007, this is what it looked like at 15 feet:
Our reference point is a drain pipe on the retaining wall behind the hotel: when the Mighty Wappingers Creek covers the pipe, it’s well and truly flooding.
Searching for “red oaks mill dam” will surface more pix and stories.
Spotted on a walk around the neighborhood:
If only it was a sign of the times …
Mostly, this blog ticks along with 400 to 500 page views per day, with 300-ish visitors looking at a page or two each.
This week, something happened:
Both of those spikes came from Germany:
Traffic spikes generally come from a single post getting fifteen minutes of Reddit fame, with a zillion visitors hitting a specific page.
In this case, a German “visitor” read nearly all of my 4461 posts on two days: 822 + 3561 = 4383. I’m reasonably sure no human finds my writing that interesting, so it’s likely a scraper capturing my text for the purposes of spinning it into a blog-like site with “unique content” for the purposes of SEO.
Perhaps the first traffic spike was a targeting run?
I’ll never know the rest of the story, but if you happen to stumble across a blog with an uncanny resemblance to this one, written by something with a wide vocabulary and no techie knowledge, let me know.
I noticed something out of place when I fired up the soldering iron:
It’s not obvious in a flat photo without depth perception, but here’s a closer look:
A tiny spider had set up shop just over the tip cleaning port, with a delicate web linking the sponge to the iron holder.
I tried to deport her outdoors, as is our custom with helpful critters, but she jumped off the web and scurried to an unknown spot on the bench. She’ll surely rebuild in an equally productive spot.
Obviously, I’m not soldering enough electronic gadgetry …
Mary found another tree frog while picking Savoy lettuce for breakfast:
They’re much better camouflaged in their (more or less) natural surroundings, so I didn’t spot it at first, either.
They really are cute little gadgets:
This is only the fourth tree frog she’s seen in the last two decades, but the second one in a month. It may be the same frog as before, although the garden now has a rather husky resident snake who seems to be eating well.
Spotted on the way into a fast food joint:
Reading the lower meter seems particularly difficult:
Given how bollards embedded in concrete fail, they’re not providing any protection.
Did the meters get plumbed in first, with the bollards carefully fitted around them?
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 