If you’re looking for a new way to watch the weather, check out ChaserTV.com … it is a weather and storm watching site and also has trackers with cameras in cars all tied to maps. So instead of pulling up the basic weather while we are under a tornado watch here in the Cincinnati area this Friday afternoon, I thought I would try something different.
So far just rain in my area of SW Ohio, but noticed several school closings this afternoon including my son’s classes at Miami University in Oxford Ohio.
This week I unboxed a couple of the Marinco Nicro Solar Day/Night vents and added a couple of new tools to my box in preparation for my next boat related project. The plan is to keep the a little bit of air circulating inside of our sailboat in order to retard the musty smell and mildew all too common in closed up boats. I’ve opted to purchase two of them with the idea of putting one of vent fan exhausting air to the outside and the other solar powered vent pushing in fresh air… we’ll see how that goes. (I also need to re-bed a couple of dripping ports, but that’s another project).
I’m a little bit apprehensive about the installation as I’ll need to put a 4-3/4” hole in the forward cabin top. It is a slightly cambered fiberglass deck area, but hopefully it will seal to keep both the rain and green water from finding its way through and around the solar powered vent. After taking one of them apart, I’m also concerned with their integral strength. There is a somewhat dubious sliding gate feature that is designed to close the opening if water does start to find its way in, but I’m not sure how well this feature will work? That said, I do plan on keeping the vent high on the the cabin top and somewhat mid-ship … not on the forward hatch or lower deck area.
The other solar vent is to be fitted direct to the hatch on the aft cabin … which requires a hole a bit smaller – 4-1/2” through the Lewmar acrylic hatch (no internal trim ring). For a direct to hatch installation, the manual recommends a polyurethane adhesive only and not to use fasteners. Having a little bit of experience with airplane canopies, I think I’ll heed the advice and just use a little pressure with some 3M 5200 adhesive/sealant.
The larger holes could be cut with a saber saw, but I’m using the project as an excuse to purchase a couple new larger Ruko hole saws … I’ve always wanted a quality hole saw … now I have both a 4-1/2 and 4-3/4 size. The bad news is that they cost $20 each from AutomationDirect. and unless I can use them for something else, they are an expensive one-time use tool – I’ll keep my eye out for a friend wanting to install a Nicro vent.
I did a little housecleaning to my blog today and finally updated the WordPress install to the current 3.3.1 release (Jan 2012). (updated my WordPress.com “alias” blog and Posterous blog too … but am unsure exactly how and what I want to use the duplicate postings for?)
It is hard to believe this is still America. The expanding government is not only dictating what individuals or companies will purchase and provide, over an above the long list of taxes we pay, but are spending way too much time on the nitty gritty details of what once was personal liberty. I’m starting to wonder what this country is going to look like in a few years IF the Supreme Court isn’t willing to defend citizens from an overreaching bureaucracy trampling our constitutional rights.
The Senate voted 51-48 Thursday to reject a measure that would have let employers omit insurance coverage for health services they found morally or religiously objectionable, following a contentious debate on an issue that is reshaping the political discourse.
Hmm … I’ve never given much thought to filling out a U.S. Customs form when returning from space??? I found this one from the little trip by Apollo 11 in 1969 humorous (form below). Probably should have included “Bock” by name.
Just noticed this when cleaning out my inbox … 5 years on Twitter. Wow … it doesn’t seem as if RichC has been posting tweets that long until you see over 5000 of them! Hmm, but it looks like MyDesultoryBlog on Twitter is still a youngster?
In an odd turn of events, Sunday’s rain delayed big race was delayed further due to more rain for the Monday afternoon start, but eventually got underway Monday evening, much to the dismay of my wife (she would have preferred something other then watching cars turning left for several hours). The 200 mph bumper car race seemed to be set up for the normal finish, but with 40 laps to go Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into a safety vehicle during caution (not really his fault) … a jet engine track drier with 200 gallons of fuel. The following fireball on the new 10+ million dollar surface then threatened to end the race. Cooler heads prevailed and quick work from the fire and safety crews helped cleaned up … with of all things Tide laundry detergent and prevent real damage. After yet another delay, the red flagged race restarted. In the early Tuesday morning hours the race finishing without further delay and strong running Matt Kenseth held off both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle to win for the second year in a row.
Besides racing, Twitter buzzed due to Brad Keslowski having his iPhone in his racecar. Although he wasn’t tweeting and driving … he was active and posted photos from the track during the red flag and grew his 60,000 followers to over 200,000 in about an hour. (yes I was one of them – couldn’t resist watching him with other drivers gathered around while the television cameras were rolling)
My EAA friend Steve posted this aviation history video to his site and I wanted to share and archive it on my site too. Probably should make a copy in case it disappears from YouTube …hmm?
