Chilly

Its August. August is typically hot summer days and warm nights. You can throw a party on your back deck, have BBQ, if the weather is cool enough not to roast in the summer evening heat. This year the weather has been weird. We had Blizzard in February, with 8-12 inches of snow in 2 hours. Apparently those happen every 5-8 years. The rain wasn't particularly heavy, unfortunately and the winter was mostly dry, so we're technically in drought. Fires this summer have been pretty bad but the aerial and ground crews are doing good work putting them out and CalFire has been doing the brush clearing to prevent the really big ones. The sunsets have been RED from smoke in the air every evening, although it is worth pointing out that the sun actually sets into the mountains at the far side of the Sacramento Valley, towards my brother's house, 100 miles away. That's the whole valley worth of smoke and soot to filter the light through so the RED is quite startling.

The thing is, with the daily high being atypical in the mid or low 80's, nights cool off fast and evenings are becoming long pants weather, like last night. We ate Mexican food at Maria's restaurant in Grass Valley with some friends of my Dad's. A nice time. I dressed up with long sleeve shirt and long pants. I wasn't driving so I got to have a margarita, chips and good salsa, and dinner was Chile Colorado (pork in red chili sauce). Very tasty, but I paid for it overnight. Too many carbs, beans, and protein for one meal for a diabetic like me. I really should have taken a serious insulin dose overnight, a couple times. Today I am fasting to use up that food instead of possibly regaining the fat.

It was chilly this morning, however, around 51'F, and has been in the very low 50's every morning for the last week. Normally its in the upper 60's, almost 70'F at dawn. This is late September weather, almost October weather. Very odd. More like what I remember from my childhood when weather was more predictable. Based on the breeze outside, I'd say that the fog is in and the Delta Breeze is carrying that chill up here into the foothills 110 miles away. I am wearing my flannel shirt, one that's older than some of my friends, and glad to have it. The windows are open to deal with the later heat of the day by cooling the house right now, so its best to just let to do its thing. The night chill is such that I partially close many of the windows before going to bed. I don't want Dad to catch a cold. Or wake up in the morning and turn on the heat while my window is wide open.

The chill is enough that the oaks are dropping leaves, since that's one of the triggers, biochemically, to drop them. And I heard the first acorn of the season fall this morning. They're big, weigh about an ounce and the sound is audible bouncing off the deck from about 100 feet away.

Dad bought a Kindle Fire (not the HD version) cheap at KMart a few days ago. I went with him. They had TWO, limited to availability in store, and the department manager bought the other one. So far I've figured out the workarounds for importing contacts, hooking up Email, teaching Dad how to get onto wireless here and hopefully at his hotel in June Lake, where he is vacationing and hiking next week. Keep in mind he's 72. I'm really proud of him for being so healthy, but he has good role models from his friends at that gym, some older than him. He's playing Sudoku on the tablet, which is 7 inches, and watching YouTube videos (Good Eats), and reading novels from the library, which supports the Kindle and other reading devices. I can see the point of such gizmos. I love to read, but most of what I read isn't traditionally published so much as posted on Fanfiction.net or Spacebattles.com or Twisting the Hellmouth. When fanfiction authors figure out how to create believable characters and describe them properly they typically start working on original fiction they can sell. And its much easier to publish today than 20 years ago when I started writing my novels.

I think, since I write so much, a laptop with a good keyboard and a long battery life would suit me better. SSD drive for the OS and files, multi-core to run music and video, a cooling fan, GPS chip, USB ports, and built in WiFi N/G. A step up from a netbook, but a similar form factor, being small and thin, maybe 12-14 inches would be large enough.

The alternative is a 7 inch tablet with an external keyboard, with the caveat that I don't need the number pad and I have small girl-sized hands thanks to those prior generations of surgeons from Grandma Millie's side. I wish they made laptops with a solar panel on the lid and the recharging electrics built in. Leave that in a sunny windowsill and let it recharge from a lunchtime hour's use. I wonder if a charging pad that plugs into the gizmo exists that I could strap to a knapsack? So while I'm hiking in the sun, it's charging? If we had 4-layer stipple-PV solar panels this would be easier. Those are much more efficient at extracting electricity from light and save a lot of space. Those are the future I'm waiting for.

OH! That reminds me. Someone finally got around to building the hybrid thermal-PV solar setup. Its so bloody obvious it would be pointless to patent it, so I never bothered. SunDrum has built them.

They're running them in buildings now and the energy recovery time from the initial investment cost is about 3 years instead of 15 like pure PV. Hybrid is the obvious and easy answer. This to heat your hot water and the PV to charge the battery that runs your Fridge and lights and radio? That's most of civilization right there. More panels means more heating options (large hot water sump, pumps for radiators or forced air heat exchanger) and things like WiFi and TV are up and running, off grid but on-network. You don't have to hook up to the grid, and its probably better if you don't. Every scheme I've seen with selling power to the utilities? Tax scam and you lose.

I expanded my Google+ to watch more photography groups, and added some motorcycle ones too. I really wish I had a 350cc bike for cruising around up here. Maybe a Suzuki. I suspect I could come to love the DRZ400 in time, even if its looks make me want to literally puke. They're entirely FUNCTION, and I should love that, but the plastics get smudged and greasy and you can't make them pretty no matter what you do. I like Rounded Gas Tanks, and shiny frames and chrome exhaust pipes, with enough engine to pull these hills, and ride 80 over to Lake Tahoe. Anything less would frustrate me. A naked bike stays pretty for decades. A plastic bike just gets more worn and tired looking, even if its still good underneath. They don't age like a Naked bike does. This is why the Honda 350/360 is such a find, assuming I can actually track one down. Someday there will be a business that uses CNC to custom make parts to keep old machines running. For a modest fee. I'm not talking about the really BAD Enfields, which the Indians sell with tolerances so wrong that they never fit without a blacksmith getting involved. I'm really unimpressed with Indian-made products. They make the Chinese look professional. The Royal Enfield motorcycle is famous for suffering from its cooling fins resonating, which eventually breaks the cylinder or the fins. Rather than fixing that properly and replacing the cylinder casts with the correction, they just shove some rubber braces on them. Rubber that cooks and falls off, so it resonates again. That's utter CRAP. That's CONTEMPT for the customer. So no, no matter how nice they look, I won't buy an Enfield EVER.

See how pretty? Damn shame.

I like the Suzuki TU250 but it isn't sold here so I'll try and get a Honda CB350, in time. Get the job first. Get an apartment or rent a house (better for me), and a lockable garage. Get the motorcycle safety class done. Watched a video on shifting gears. Really? That easy? Huh.

I have to respect the simple design. Sequential gearbox for the win. Dad keeps looking at sports cars. If I get the job, might buy his red car, offer to sell my white one to him. If he declines someone else will buy it. Then Dad will have a space for a Porche and I'll have a nice red car appropriate for a divorced man for days I don't feel like wearing leather. And its REALLY FAST. Like my old Prelude (to what?) aka The Albatross because it kept breaking down and the repairs cost more than a new car's payments. I eventually had the Albatross crushed in retaliation under a state gross polluter program. I think that car was cursed. Or rather, badly repaired in important ways after a crash by the prior owner. Sigh. Bad car.

Still chilly and 65'F at 9:30 AM. Amazing, this weather. I hope my readers have a good weekend.