April 2015 – Page 2 – Bus Driver Jim

The Future

I feel like I’m in the future lately. Actually I’m living out what I perceived as the future based on science fiction movies I’ve watched. You know the scene, the cool connected guy wakes up in his house and immediately starts talking to his computer while video images of the current world surround him.

I was struck by how rapidly I’m approaching that state. My office has become my connected sanctuary where I just speak, and occasionally click, to reach the outside world and to understand what’s happening in it at the moment.

For example, this morning: I was getting dressed, ready to start my day, watching Frequency on my Fire TV, which consolidates current news and video that interests me, when I started chatting with Alexa, my Echo. I was talking to her like she was real.

For the most part I was just getting current and long range weather forecasts this morning but she has also become my news and music companion. She sleeps until I say her name, and then the world is at the tip of my tounge.

Sign Update

I was pretty sure my theory about what brought the Broulims sign down was correct, a semi trailer tail-hooking it as the truck left the parking lot. I was so sure, I never bothered to ask anyone at Broulims.

I was coming by the scene today from my lunch hour power walk and I stopped and asked the sign guy that was hauling it away, what happened. Turns out it just fell over!

This sign was put up when we first came to the valley, eleven (or so) years ago. The sign guy told me the wood at the base had just fallen apart from exposure to the elements.

Really? As someone who lives in a log home much older than that sign, this causes me consternation, (as opposed to constipation) to say the least!

JimsMap Docs

I put some nice finishing touches on JimsMap today, tweaked DriggsMap, and added a new domain called MapJackson, for mapping places in Jackson, WY.

I also got the docs in pretty good shape:

Starry

Here’s Vincent van Gogh’s painting Starry Night next to the Hubble image of an expanding halo of light around the very distant star V838 Monocerotis.

My connections: Mr. Gogh and Vincent

Hill Day

Last night Steph came into my office and said Do you know what’s happening tomorrow? Ah, no… It’s cardboard derby day on the hill!

Really, already? It’s been an amazing non-winter but the annual end of the season derby is something I’ve attended most years, so today we drove up. The road was dry, the weather fair, and the event was, disappointing.

After parking fairly up close to the resort I asked Steph if she was sure it was today? All we saw were skiers but when we arrived at the base, there they were. They’ve moved the run and are now charging $10 an entry, but I guess not too many people are interested.

I recall the good old days of a hundred creations manned by drunks and kids flying insanely fast down the hill. No more, but I still got some nice shots, so click below:

I have to admit, we didn’t stay for the event. We just grabbed a coffee, took some pictures and split. Maybe it was fun, but we’ll never know…

My Spot

I just spotted my bus in Google Maps satellite view, sitting in my spot in the Broulims parking lot. Second row in, one spot over from the concrete thing.

This has been my spot for years now and I have no doubt that’s me :-)

Sign Down

The Broulim’s stripmall is the main business center in Driggs. It used to have a big sign out on the highway, showing what businesses are available inside, but the sign is now flat on it’s stomach in the parking lot.

I’ve been too busy to bop into Broulims today to ask what happened, and the photos I took yesterday showed no collision damage. My theory is that a semi leaving the parking lot and turning left, tail-hooked the sign with it’s trailer. I managed to stop next to the sign today and sure enough, there’s damage underneath. Click below to see:

Rugrats

I had a passel full of rugrats between two and four years old on my bus today, for a field trip over to the Community Center. On the positive side, they all scream in unison, and on the downside, the volume goes up when the bus turns.

I took the Ford backup bus out today specifically because of the child seats cleverly built into ten of the twelve seats. Next time, I add earplugs to the mix.

DriggsMap

This evening is the appropriate time to introduce my latest project. It’s a subset of JimsMap which itself has been under development for quite a while now.

DriggsMap is a proof of concept showing that an informational map can be localized, given a unique domain name and use JimsMap as it’s code base entirely. Enhancements made to the base are reflected on down to each sub-app.

The structure is based on a unique Google spreadsheet created in the cloud for each app, containing worksheets (categories) that are dynamically created by you, which you can then add Places to. The concept is to create an overlay on a Google Map that provides a visitor to the site visual clues to the location of a business, along with an address, phone number and a link if available.

I invite you to drop on in, look around, and see if you can get it…

Documentation is sparse at the moment, but underway :-)

Rainier Rise

This photo was taken years ago in Kent, WA. I was doing my early morning supervisor run when the sun decided to come up directly behind Mt Rainier. I can’t even remember what camera I used and I don’t have a hi-res version of it, but the photo has long remained one of my favorites. Just thought I’d share it for what it is.

Siblings

Sometimes you run across old photos that make you realize that living in the moment is relative. The instant that this photo was taken is as real and powerful as the instant I press publish on this post. The moment immediately becomes the past, upon which I will someday look back upon.

Easter Ham

Ok, here’s Easter dinner with another half hour in the oven to go. No cloves, they were banned by mother-in-law Betty, but, Family Dollar cherries are augmenting the organic pineapple in a scrumptious aromatic mix of pig meat and fruit. Happy Easter!

I had a tradition with Riley where every Easter morning I would go out early and hide a basket of goodies out in the woods and then leave plastic eggs with reverse engineered clues back to his front door. I would then wait down by the basket and watch him follow the clues to it. Today he called me and asked if I’d found the first clue. It’s too bad we’re 830 miles apart, or the tradition would be continuing…

Organic Pineapple

Have you ever had organic pineapple? Yea, me neither… This can is sitting on our counter this morning because I found a Paula Deen recipe for glazed ham which requires pineapple juice, brown sugar and mustard for the glaze. I had to go to Barrels and Bins this morning to check on my crack (Mariannes goat cheese) and for $5 I scored this can of 100% organic chunks. I’ve never paid that much for a can of anything, it better be delicious!

Before I left the house this morning I told Steph I was getting pineapple and she said that the medicine she’s on warns that eating pineapple will kill her. I went to the store anyway, after she said “Oh wait, that would be grapefruit“!

Travel Tidbits

It’s a good thing I don’t gamble or I might have been pissed off after booking a room at a Fort Mohave casino, only to discover the bulk of the place was missing! There’s a couple of historical markers here to read, just so you don’t have to drive there, and a sad weather forecast for home.

Virgin River Gorge

I shot a weird video driving through the Virgin River Gorge, which is a narrow section of Arizona that lies between St. George, UT and Mesquite, NV. It makes you wonder how the state carved out this area of rock formations for their own.

My apologies if some of the video is a bit upside down…