StateVu

Here’s my newest app, StateVu. It’s based on Microsoft’s latest Bing Maps V8 platform and uses my U.S. Cities database along with custom GeoJson units for Counties within each State. It’s simple to use and quite informative, so dive on in if you like…

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Categorized as Site Stuff

Maverick

Now I’ve gone and done it. By putting up a post about my massive Christmas light display, folks driving by will now exclaim loudly There’s busdriver Jim’s place!

So, I just picked up the new home defense weapon: a Mossberg 88 Maverick. Nothing says ho ho ho like a bad-ass shotgun with a pistol grip.

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Categorized as House

Thanksgiving 16

We had Thanksgiving dinner tonight at Huntsman’s Springs, the ritziest place in town. Steph and I started out by jumping into the black Subaru that pulled up to our driveway precisely at 1400 where my nephew Brian jumped out and I took over as designated driver. The first stop was Dave and Cat’s house where Dave showed off his new used Porsche, his new baby, and his wife whom I first met when she was the baby’s age.

At 1600 we headed to Huntsman’s and had a terrific meal. Great food, great family, great time. Click on the photo below to see the shots I took along the way.

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Categorized as Family

Delivery

Ok, this is cool. I’ve been signed up with UPS My Choice shipment notification services for a few years now and today they introduced something new. Now you can see your packages arriving in real-time on a Bing map. I’m expecting my new Fire HD 8 this afternoon and I can see that it’s currently sitting on a truck in Tetonia.

Speaking of Amazon, how come you can transfer funds into a Gift Card account (which I use for incidental purchases) in five minutes, while it takes two to three business days with PayPal. Just saying…

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Categorized as Various

Decoration Up

I beat the neighborhood today and got my holiday decoration up, before Thanksgiving even! The folks driving by tonight will gaze over at our house and know that the true spirit of Christmas is on display here.

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Categorized as House

GeoJson Bounds

Something weird has popped up behind the Driggs Community Center. I was sitting nearby using the free wifi to listen to Rush Limbaugh on TuneIn Radio (because the bus radio is broken) when I spotted this thing. It has ritualistic overtones and is either the work of bored teenagers or cosmically connected granola heads.

Speaking of the latter, I was driving my Victor kids to Driggs this afternoon and one of the older kids was asking the younger ones why were you born? The answers were pretty inane until one little kid answered I was told to come back.

Ok, it’s all starting to make sense now, except for the title of this post, which only has meaning to the geek heads I’ve been conversing with lately in the Microsoft Bing Maps Web Control Forum…

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Categorized as Various

Leaf Collector

Steph’s been busting ass on the yard. She really wanted to get all of the leaves gathered before the snow hit and the string of great weather we’ve had, has made that possible.

I volunteered to help but she said I was too old and too out of shape for this kind of work, so I’m just sticking to coding, making beef stew, getting a high-speed walk on my treadmill and then some weight-lifting later…

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Categorized as House

Sand Bed

I bought some sand bags at Ace last year to add traction to my drive train in the snow. The weight worked well, the canvas bags not so much, they seemed to tear just by touching them. I ended up dumping all the sand into our wheelbarrow last Spring, where it’s been sitting until today.

I distributed the sand into six heavy duty plastic bags, secured them with Gorilla tape and put them inside the cab directly over the rear end. Steph picked up a nice blanket for $10 at Kings which I put down first, protecting the insulation sheet below. This leaves plenty of room in front of the bags for groceries and Walmart swag. Pretty sweet.

Next weekend I’ll swap my snow tires on and be ready for Winter…

Much nicer than last year.

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Categorized as Vehicles

Mountain Road

We’ve got a beautiful stretch of shirt-sleeve weather going on now, with a bunch more in the forecast. Not bad for early November, unless you’re a powder head dying to huck your meat off the backside. Sorry kiddies, you’ll just have to wait…

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Categorized as The Bus

Rileys Room

My son Riley and his auto body technician buddies are in Vegas for SEMA, the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world. The boy has loved cars since he was a toddler and his ability to name automobile makes and models around him was truly uncanny. Now he’s one of the best auto body guys in Puget Sound.

He texted me this picture of the room he checked into tonight and serendipity is most definitely happening. He knows my lucky number and I’m sure he smiled big when he got the room assignment.

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Categorized as Riley