http://www.busdriverjim.com
I’ve applied some cool touches to my new program Suhck tonight. This app sucks images from the cloud as they float upward from the hardware of humans around the world.
This latest version does some trick things to scale the image fullscreen to your browser. It seems to work great on my screen, but who knows about yours. You can also click on the image to load the owners photosets, and then return to the show by clicking back.
I was taking the Gang home tonight and Kendal asked me what I was doing for Christmas. I told him that I was going to pick up a Swanson turkey TV dinner, a half gallon of eggnog, a bottle of brandy and have myself a grand old time. Then take my hunting rifle out afterwards and try to shoot me some flying reindeer.
It was pretty funny, they thought I was kidding…
Meanwhile, Fall River Electric killed our hottub last week. As you may recall from a previous Post our power was intentionally turned off last Wednesday for some Idaho utility company rolling blackout bullshit.
Steph and I arrived after work to a home without electricity on a freezing evening and after reading news on our smart phones about everyone having their power back, we called Fall River and asked “what’s up”? Fifteen minutes later the power was restored and we moved on with our lives.
We keep our hottub running through the winter at about 85° in economy mode. It costs us money but when spring rolls around it’s ready to clean out, fire up, and enjoy. When the power was returned to us, the surge blew out the hottub’s fuse, unbeknown to us.
On Saturday I performed our normal water level check on the tub, and the whole thing was frozen. The lack of power had dropped the temp below freezing and the pumps were iced up. We may have just lost an expensive piece of hardware, and an asset to our home.
We’ve lost power here before due to natural causes and when it’s restored the only thing we have to check is our clocks. Everything just comes back to life, from our modem to our hottub. Not this time. Our power was intentionally disrupted, then forcibly restored, and now our hottub is dying. A pipe is leaking and I’ve got a small heater down there to warm it up prior to the service guy arriving tomorrow.
My new Google Wallet card arrived in the mail today and this is now the coolest money card I’ve ever owned. I’ve been with Google a long time, my Gmail account spans back many years, and I’ve used my wallet account for some big purchases like my Nexus 10 tablet along with several apps from the Google Play Store.
A couple of weeks ago I linked up my checking account with Google Wallet. I can now transfer funds directly to the card and use it just like a normal debit card. I’ve used Visa travel cards extensively over the last couple of summers, but this is different.
Now, listen carefully, because what I’m about to tell you could blow your mind. When I signed up for this connection between my bank account and the card, I was asked some amazing questions. Like, a multiple choice question about which street I used to live on.
Given four street names I had to choose the correct one, or the whole deal would grind to a halt. Here’s the kicker, the street I had to correctly pick was one that I lived on in Oakland, CA thirty years ago! Are you fahcking kidding me?
There were more questions along the same line that I answered but my head was spinning at that point and it’s all a blur now. How in the hell does Google know this much about me? This card better be pretty cool…
Prior to creating and maintaining this blog I used to take photos and post them on the Google site, Picasa. Today I wrote some code that lets you view them.
The concept was to integrate all of the albums into a blog page using the Google API, and then showing all of the photos within the album using the same technique.
Here’s the link.
My poor little Chevy bus with less than 7,000 miles is splitting in half! I’ve been watching this crack spread every morning during my pre-trip and I’m concerned it will spread to the roof. It’s caused by our frigid cold but I don’t know how to fix it, or stop it.
It’s really good to be alive! I think I’m going to be really bummed when I’m not. Perhaps, who knows. This morning I was parked next to Broulims for a brief moment when this object caught my eye.
I rolled down the window and as the frigid air came blasting in I admired its beauty and simplicity. Obviously left there from the previous day by some little kid who had blown their bubbles and had no more use for the container. Too small to be noticed by anybody, it sat there all night just waiting for me to photograph it.
It was still there at 1115 as I loaded a wheelchair client from that exact spot. In honor of still being alive, and because I can, I’ve created a new website tonight called Suhck.com!
I really hate being cold. Blood doesn’t flow properly through my poor old body and the circulation in my hands and feet goes to hell. I finally got smart in my office and moved the trusty old space heater underneath my desk, and to stop the cold air creeping through the logs I’ve jammed some foam down there.
Wow, why didn’t I do this before? The heat radiates up from below and envelopes me in a cocoon of warmth. I spend 99% of the time in my office sitting here at my desk, and it just makes sense.
There was an issue today with the Rocky Mountain Power Goshen substation near Firth, ID. This caused rolling blackouts throughout SE Idaho, including our neck of the woods.
My schedule fell apart due to the sub-zero cold and power outages, and Steph was riding with me so we got home around 1545 only to find that the garage door wouldn’t open.
Our property has a well, a septic system and an underground propane tank but most everything grinds to a halt without power. The one thing that works is the propane fireplace in the family room, so we hunkered down in there. I had my back to the fireplace trying to extract every bit of non fan blown heat, checking my Twitter feed on my phone, when I saw a news article that said everyone had their power back. Really?
I called our utility (Fall River Electric) and they said “Yep, everyone’s back up!” Really? This is the coldest day this winter and visions of lawsuits were dancing through my head over frozen water pipes. Fifteen minutes later we had power back. I’ve finally warmed up enough to put together this post of a cool snow covered pond I discovered today.
Ah, nothing like stepping into your nice warm office to start the day. Ok, not in my reality. After brushing the snow off, scraping the ice down and thumping the tires, the cockpit slowly begins to warm up to a human compatible level.
I was shocked a while back to discover that my new sweet little Chevy ride does not have a block heater. Every bus we’ve ever driven up here had an electrical plug coming out of the engine compartment. Out temps can drop down to forty below and a warm engine in the morning can be critical.
I’ll see how it goes but they will have to pry this bus from my frozen fingers. With a low profile, six wheels and new snow tires she’s rock solid on our gnarly roads.
(next morning update: it’s -14, windchill = -28, we’ll see…)
It wasn’t a good morning for trampolines around Driggs. These uprooted bouncy devices got pretty bounced around themselves from the wind that just tore through here, and they’re just a couple of blocks apart.
I suppose if I went driving around town I could find some more but these two were along my route. I also noticed the city trucks driving right by the one in the road. Removing trampolines is not in their job description I suppose…
btw: I pulled yesterdays post about my new app Wishpy due to performance issues. I’ve re-written the timing algorithm this evening and it seems to be working great now.
