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.

Category: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

  • Too Many Deer: Roadside Attraction

    A mutual staredown during a utility bike ride:

    Roadside Deer - Rt 376 Marker 1111 - 2018-06-20
    Roadside Deer – Rt 376 Marker 1111 – 2018-06-20

    This is just after noon, when deer should be snoozing, north of Paula’s Public House, with the deer on the creek side of the road. I’m towing the trailer with an empty propane tank, coasting down from 18 mph, and expecting the deer to jump in front of me, because that’s what deer do. It waited patiently until I passed, hopped the guide rail, trotted across the road, then clambered up the steep hillside away from the Mighty Wappinger Creek.

    Searching for deer will reveal many more encounters.

  • Power Line Inspection

    We heard God’s Own Weedwhacker off to the right as we approached Jackson Drive on the way home:

    Chopper over power lines - Vassar Rd near Jackson Dr - 2018-06-11
    Chopper over power lines – Vassar Rd near Jackson Dr – 2018-06-11

    The chopper followed the power lines, just over the treetops, with the downdraft thrashing the leaves:

    Chopper over power lines - Vassar Rd near Jackson Dr - rear camera - 2018-06-11
    Chopper over power lines – Vassar Rd near Jackson Dr – rear camera – 2018-06-11

    Long ago, I attended a talk about using choppers for power line inspection and maintenance. Apparently, someone with nerves of ice can replace insulator supports and aeolian dampers on high-tension lines while perched on a chopper hovering very very close to the conductors. Pilots with experience getting troops into and out of hot LZs are in high demand.

    I’m sure they give the E911 call center a heads-up before taking off …

  • Turtles All The Way Down

    Spotted another big turtle ready to cross the Dutchess Rail Trail along Daley Rd:

    Rail Trail Turtle - 2018-06-04
    Rail Trail Turtle – 2018-06-04

    This must be the best season ever for turtles crossing vast expanses of asphalt, because I don’t recall seeing this many turtles during any previous spring. Confirmation bias in full effect, to be sure.

    The picture is a dot-for-dot crop from the Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera, demonstrating why image compression has more to do with resolution than the number of dots.

  • Snapping Turtle Teleportation

    The dark spot in the grass, barely visible over on the left, is a dinner-plate-size snapping turtle recently teleported from the middle of Rt 376 just north of Robinson Lane:

    Snapping Turtle Teleportation - Rt 376 - 2018-06-02
    Snapping Turtle Teleportation – Rt 376 – 2018-06-02

    The driver of the white van managed to stop both lanes during the rescue and, judging from the lack of gore, handled the snapper without incurring organic damage.

    Color me impressed!

  • Tiny Turtle Teleportation: Rail Trail

    This little critter was chugging across the Dutchess Rail Trail near the ponds north of Page Industrial Park, so I stopped to lend a hand:

    Tiny Turtle Dorsal - Rail Trail - 2018-05-23
    Tiny Turtle Dorsal – Rail Trail – 2018-05-23

    The plastron looked like a brightly colored jewel:

    Tiny Turtle Ventral - Rail Trail - 2018-05-23
    Tiny Turtle Ventral – Rail Trail – 2018-05-23

    Perhaps plastrons start out with all the pigment they’ll ever have, then fade from bright orange to yellow-brown as they spread out.

    If you’re not paying attention, you’d think “pebble” or “dog turd”. Neither of which you should ride over, of course, but … teleporting a tiny turtle to the drainage ditch on the far side seemed to increase the world’s net happiness.

    The pix are tight crops from the AS30V’s 170° FOV images, which means they’re way grittier than you’d expect from a “full HD” image.

  • Turtle Teleportation: Vassar Road

    As always, we knew this wouldn’t end well for the small lump just in front of the car’s rear wheel (clicky for more, albeit fuzzy, dots):

    Turtle 0134 - Vassar Rd - 2018-05-20
    Turtle 0134 – Vassar Rd – 2018-05-20

    So I stopped to lend a hand:

    Turtle 1280 - Vassar Rd - 2018-05-20
    Turtle 1280 – Vassar Rd – 2018-05-20

    A fumbling hand, as it turned out, on the turtle’s slippery shell:

    Turtle 1364 - Vassar Rd - 2018-05-20
    Turtle 1364 – Vassar Rd – 2018-05-20

    A belly-up turtle in the middle of the road knows the solution to the Halting Problem.

    I hoped a secluded spot under a pine tree was closer to its destination:

    Turtle 1724 - Vassar Rd - 2018-05-20
    Turtle 1724 – Vassar Rd – 2018-05-20

    However, if the turtle is a female in search of an egg-laying site, then she and all her progeny must cross Vassar Road in the other direction to reach the Mighty Wappinger Creek.

    We’ll teleport them if we see them, too …

  • Multicolored Chicken Eggs

    This cheerful assortment came from a friend with an assortment of happy chickens:

    Multicolored chicken eggs
    Multicolored chicken eggs

    The lonely Medium white egg, obviously strictly from commercial, serves as a size and color reference. Most of the others weighed in the Large to Extra-Large range.

    Even though none of the chickens had the digital upgrade, the morning omelet tasted just fine!