Hello 13

Here we go into the next year, again. When you’re really old like me, the New Years event is just a time to pause and reflect on the year ending.

For me, it was quite a year. I acted on my bucket list by taking the summer off and driving 16,000 miles across 16 states. I posted over 400 blog entries, with uncounted numbers of photos, and I wrote a lot of code.

Tomorrow is Steph’s and my anniversary so I’m making her Eggs Benedict for breakfast and maybe we’ll get out of the valley for some shopping.

I’m wrapping up my new States mobile app and it incorporates the Fisher Yates Shuffle. This is an algorithm for generating a random permutation of a finite set, in other words, randomly shuffling them. It’s really cool, I feed it a block of numbers and it shuffles them up and returns them in random sequence with no duplicates. But I ramble…

If you have a modern browser or a smart phone you can try it Here.

Happy New Years!

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Categorized as House

Recharge

I was hunkered down in my man-cave office today, deep in mobile code when Steph came in and said You should recharge your batteries! Huh, what batteries? My camera, my phone, my tablet, my truck, what? She really meant Go outside, it’s nice

It was a tactic intended to free up the cave for a little cleaning. I grabbed my camera, left my code, and headed outside onto our 2° cold driveway. Here I am recharging…

btw: I slipped the Who Is Transpoman production into the mix yesterday. TranspoMan was my handle for many of the early years of this strange odyssey…

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Categorized as House

Randy

After living here in the valley for a year, pretending to retire, I was getting restless and short on cash. I mentioned to Steph I should check into that Cart Bus I saw running around the valley, maybe they needed a driver.

Steph was working as the receptionist at our local newspaper at the time and one day this guy named Randy walked in and said he wanted to place an ad. Turned out he was the manager of the Cart Bus and was looking for a driver. Steph said You don’t need to place an ad, then called me at home and handed him the phone.

I had my CDL, a recent DOT physical, a current CPR card and I was driving for him the next day. Randy was a great guy, a valley native with his kids and grand-kids all raised here. He was pretty much confined to just dispatching out of the office due to his poor health and when TRPTA bought the company out, Randy was let go.

His quality of life rapidly declined and he was on dialysis. One day he had a bunch of family over to his house, ate his favorite foods for breakfast and then sat in his favorite chair. His dog curled up on his lap and he watched TV.

His wife went in to check on him later and he was smiling. He had also died. May we all pass so peacefully…

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Categorized as The Valley

Lost And Found

This is my current Lost and Found box consisting of six little caps, three little sets of mittens and one orphaned pink one.

I really think that Head Start and Pre-School should offer classes to these kids on how to take care of their stuff. When I pull up to each house I don’t get out of my seat to make sure they have everything, and the parents never get on the bus, they just hand me a punch-card and meet their child at the passenger door.

The kids up to this age always have adults taking care of them. When they’re faced with the responsibility of gathering their things up before leaving the bus, well…

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Categorized as The Bus

jQueryM

I was involved in the Internet before it was… I remember clearly the moment when a fellow member of our elite club connected with another computer and announced he had seen the future! He had left his static world with a click of his mouse…

Well here I am, still alive, and playing with the latest stuff. Damn if this isn’t fine!

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Categorized as Android

Xmas 2012

Enjoyed another fine Christmas at my sisters little house nestled at the base of the Tetons last night, with family, friends, great food and high-tech.


SlideShow (Xmas 2012)
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Categorized as Family

Seahorses

Steph designed and created these stuffed seahorses from scratch. I’m pretty proud of my programming abilities but the skill level involved here blows my mind.

They quickly came alive, had sex, and laid eggs…
Ahhh, the magic of Christmas!

SlideShow (Seahorses)

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Categorized as Steph

Day Before

Twas the day before Christmas and… Oh, wait, I’ve already done that one. I just called the office to see if anyone’s riding today and only one guy, Randy, needed to get to work this morning and make Pizza. We decided not to run the route for just a one minute trip, sorry Randy.

My dispatcher asked me how the roads were up here and I told her I didn’t even leave the house yesterday so I had no clue. She laughed. Steph is going to work this morning just so she can ride over Suicide Pass today with a co-worker. Her boss is having a Christmas party down in Jackson and it’s OK, I have her bank account pin number :-)

I’ll mosey in to town later on to buy chips to go with the killer bacon guacamole I’m making for Christmas at my sisters house tomorrow, and if the dentist in Victor is open I’m going to pre-purchase a tooth extraction for Steph as a Christmas present.

And since nobody around here reads my blog, everything will be a surprise!

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Categorized as House

Project ABH2100

Here’s a big lift to facilitate an automotive rebuild as Riley’s skills continues to evolve…

SlideShow (Project ABH2100)
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Categorized as Riley

BDJ Apps

I’ve been working on my Mobile app today. It’s a development in progress as I explore JQuery Mobile on the HTML5 platform.

It’s actually coming along pretty nice. If you have a browser that renders HTML5 (and why wouldn’t you these days?) you can try it out Here. It’s designed for a smaller screen such as an I-Phone, Android phone or any of the tablets, but it plays nicely on the big screen. You can click the buttons here as opposed to pressing them.

The layout is fluid as I develop each application, but feel free to try them out as they evolve. I’m new to this App World, but I will master it.

So here’s today’s work: When you press (click) Posted it runs through the entire database of Posts on my blog and presents each Category alphabetically. When you click on a Category, all related posts are presented. Click on a post and it will be loaded.

btw: Clicking on the the pictures below won’t do anything, they’re for illustration only, you need to load up the app Here :-)

Let’s select Around The House which has 123 posts (see the count bubble on the right).

All posts related to Around The House are presented to you, and when you select one, the individual blog post is loaded.

Here’s where you would arrive if you clicked through to: Zombie Christmas.

(… looks like that one fell flat :-)

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Categorized as Android

Tracks

It’s pretty amazing how folks around here go everywhere. There are no limits other than uptight property owners and the Forest Service. You can drive from the top of the Big Holes to the base of the Grand Tetons in a couple of hours.

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Categorized as The Valley

Zombie Christmas

My last poem…

Twas the week before Christmas when all through the house,
not a mouse was stirring, because they were doused.
No stockings were hung by the chimney we dared,
cause we didn’t think the world would be there.

Piper was nestled all snug on our bed,
in hopes that her owners soon would be dead.
With Steph in her robe and I in my hat,
we soon settled down for our last winter nap.

When out on our driveway bullets were splattered,
I sprang from my bed to join in the matter.
Away to the battle I flew in a rash,
threw off the safety and prepared to kick ass.

The Moons breasts were sagging a little bit low,
making the laser sights tracking too slow.
When what to my bleary eyes should appear,
but a truck full of rednecks with guns and beer.

They had a big old bad leader, angry and drunk,
I new in a moment it must be St. Punk.
More rapid with bullets his shots soon became,
his followers whistled and shouted his name.

Then in a twinkling I heard on the roof,
the prancing and pawing of zombies afoot.
I primed my first round and was turning around,
and killed the first zombie hitting the ground.

They were dressed all in rags down to their boots,
full of chimney ash tarnished with soot.
Bad ass guns were slung on their back,
ready to rock and ready to rack.

Welcome to the end of the world…

btw: The above photo was grabbed from my Twilight Vector video post.

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Categorized as House

Foothills

I dropped a couple clients off at the Animal Shelter this afternoon and then finally found that nice field to hang out in for a brief thirty minutes before heading back to get them.

This time it was off Stateline Road next to the foothills of the Grand Tetons. Not a bad place to stop but I had to be careful to keep my bus on the East side of the road (Idaho) and walk over to the West side of the road (Wyoming) to take this shot.

For insurance purposes our buses are not allowed in Wyoming…

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Categorized as The Bus

Piper II

I transport a bunch of kids during my workweek. Over the years I’ve tried to learn all of their names but this year there just seems to be fewer brain cells left to store them with.

I was hanging out on the bus this afternoon with a couple of kids, waiting for the rest of the bunch to board. I’ve transported the girl before but I didn’t know her name. She was around seven, cute, full of character and poise. She reminded me of a re-incarnated country singer with a slight twang. And then Timmy called her Piper and, as everyone who reads this blog knows, that’s our cat’s name.

When we pulled into Driggs for the drop, my buddy Tori from the Community School was there to pick up her daughter Piper. It all came together in a cosmic splash and made perfect sense. Tori is a teacher and one cool lady, outgoing, boisterous and fun, with a great personality. Piper is just a young Tori! Wow…

When I told her my cats name is Piper she said “Your the one in the valley who has the cat named Piper!” I’m assuming Tori is friends with the folks at the Driggs Vet Clinic…

You gotta love a small town :-) Anyway, just to put things in perspective, I spotted this big lump laying in front of our Rannai heater in the dark after dinner so I flipped on the flash and grabbed this shot of our warm and cuddly Miss Personality.

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Categorized as Piper, The Bus

Diffusion

Diffusion: Light rays subjected to scattering by reflection from a rough surface and then transmitted through a translucent state of mind.

Often resulting in confusion

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Categorized as Various