Trivial (or not so trivial) stuff that makes you happy.

[Swift]

Ohio has a very nice online renewal system for auto registration (I just did mine the other day); very easy to use.

The bad part is that Ohio charges $100 more to license a hybrid or electric car than a gasoline-powered car (it is about $160 vs. $60 per year). The supposed thinking about this is that since hybrids and electrics use less gasoline, their owners end up paying less gasoline-tax, and this is the way for the state to make up that difference.

[Solfe]

A teacher that took over for me in a classroom has asked me back to take over for a brief period before I leave for a new job. That feels pretty good.

[DonM435]

Ohio has a very nice online renewal system for auto registration (I just did mine the other day); very easy to use.

The bad part is that Ohio charges $100 more to license a hybrid or electric car than a gasoline-powered car (it is about $160 vs. $60 per year). The supposed thinking about this is that since hybrids and electrics use less gasoline, their owners end up paying less gasoline-tax, and this is the way for the state to make up that difference.

Shame on you for saving on gasoline and disrupting the social order! You'll pay for that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imputed_income

[Trebuchet]

A teacher that took over for me in a classroom has asked me back to take over for a brief period before I leave for a new job. That feels pretty good.

Is the new job still in Special Ed? I have great admiration for you folks in that field!

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Ohio has a very nice online renewal system for auto registration (I just did mine the other day); very easy to use.

The bad part is that Ohio charges $100 more to license a hybrid or electric car than a gasoline-powered car (it is about $160 vs. $60 per year). The supposed thinking about this is that since hybrids and electrics use less gasoline, their owners end up paying less gasoline-tax, and this is the way for the state to make up that difference.

They allow on license renewal I just didn't have anyway to pay for it online.

[Gillianren]

You can renew online--and we did. We usually do; not all places that sell license tabs let you pay with credit or debit. But you can choose to either have them mail you the tabs or you can go pick them up, and Graham was not sure it would be notably faster to find time in our schedule to pick them up, especially since he wasn't sure I could do it for him.

In definitely non-trivial, non-automotive news, my firstborn's coming down today! It'll be the first time I've celebrated her birthday (admittedly yesterday, but close enough) with her since she was born.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

You can renew online--and we did. We usually do; not all places that sell license tabs let you pay with credit or debit. But you can choose to either have them mail you the tabs or you can go pick them up, and Graham was not sure it would be notably faster to find time in our schedule to pick them up, especially since he wasn't sure I could do it for him.

In definitely non-trivial, non-automotive news, my firstborn's coming down today! It'll be the first time I've celebrated her birthday (admittedly yesterday, but close enough) with her since she was born.

Have a good celebration.

[Solfe]

Is the new job still in Special Ed? I have great admiration for you folks in that field!

I wish. The job I accept doesn't start until Dec 1st. This is still at my old/current job at a school.

[KaiYeves]

I had a nice bike ride yesterday into Falls Church, the weather was lovely and a lot of people were out walking or biking (wearing masks, thankfully). Normally I make that trip on Wednesday and everyone is in school or at work, but this was a Saturday, so little kids were swinging in front yard swings or playing baseball. I waved and rang my bike bell at them and they waved back.

I got some frozen yogurt at a shop I hadn’t been to before. Normally I get coconut and mango, but they had Georgia Peach as a flavor and that looked good, so I got half peach and half coconut, with mango and pineapple bits on top. I ate it on a bench and just enjoyed the sunlight.

After getting a chicken salad sandwich wrapped up to go at a deli nearby, I biked home and got back to my building just in time to sit and watch the sunset.

What a wonderful day.

[Solfe]

Amazon has a wish list feature that is publicly visible. I did not know my wishlist was visible to anyone until I got a surprise order.

I ordered some memory for my laptop and I selected the wrong thing. I returned it and the company that sold it to me processed the refund immediately. I didn't expect that, so I ordered the correct thing from their Amazon store and they shipped it in two days. I was so happy, I mentioned them on my blog. I didn't think I had enough of a following to make any difference, but a nice post will get you followers.

Apparently, the company I ordered from liked that and ordered me a model A-wing that was on my wishlist. Surprising but nice.

[Swift]

I had a nice bike ride yesterday into Falls Church, the weather was lovely and a lot of people were out walking or biking (wearing masks, thankfully). Normally I make that trip on Wednesday and everyone is in school or at work, but this was a Saturday, so little kids were swinging in front yard swings or playing baseball. I waved and rang my bike bell at them and they waved back.

I got some frozen yogurt at a shop I hadn’t been to before. Normally I get coconut and mango, but they had Georgia Peach as a flavor and that looked good, so I got half peach and half coconut, with mango and pineapple bits on top. I ate it on a bench and just enjoyed the sunlight.

After getting a chicken salad sandwich wrapped up to go at a deli nearby, I biked home and got back to my building just in time to sit and watch the sunset.

What a wonderful day.

My cousin lives in Arlington, which is just down the road from Falls Church.

I don't know about the DC area, but northern Ohio has had spectacular weather the last week or so. We've been running high 60s to around 70°F for highs, and sunny everyday. Supposed to continue till about Wednesday, then drop back to more seasonable 50s.

My wife and I were out hiking both days this past weekend, and if anything, I was a little too warm.

[PetersCreek]

Oh, the nerdy pleasure one gets, peeling protective coverings from a new device.

[Trebuchet]

Or unboxing a new tool!

[PetersCreek]

Or unboxing a new tool!

Now that you mention it, my new dado set came in a few days ago:



Unboxing this wasn't as pleasurable as other premium blades. Instead of the the teeth having been dipped in a somewhat waxy protective vinyl, as is common, these were wrapped with split tubing. Effective, and quicker than peeling vinyl but not nearly as satisfying. I'll have to take my satisfaction in money saved. This was about half the cost of the set I've been lusting after for a long time and this one is reported to be nearly as good. Time to get my groove on and find out.

[ozduck]

On another site someone pointed out that the 12th of November was the 50th anniversary of the (in)famous whale levitation event on live TV in Oregon - when the phrase 'too much dynamite' had no meaning. I guess some of you saw this the first time around. While I am well and truly old enough to have done so I don't recall it making the news in Australia.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...TDTUjP0e4GL7sk

[Van Rijn]

I’m also old enough to have seen the original news about it, though I would still have been fairly young. I don’t remember anything about it from then though. Rather I ran into it by seeing (I believe) this website probably two decades ago:

https://www.theexplodingwhale.com/

I laughed a lot when I first heard about it.

I know my family moved between states sometime that year, so it might have happened when we were just too busy to notice it, but I suspect it just didn’t originally make much of a splash . . . on the news, at least.

[Selenite]

There's now a memorial park on the site to commemorate the event. I imagine a Blubber-Burger stand nearby won't be far behind.

[DonM435]

Shouldn't there be a motto: "Well, blow me down up!"

[Extravoice]

We can laugh now, but I came across the restored video, and some of those chunks look like they could have injured someone.
The reporter showed a car with a crushed roof. But to be fair, it appeared to be a convertible.

[Selenite]

Shouldn't there be a motto: "Well, blow me down up!"

No motto yet, but they do have an adorable, albeit un-exploded mascot.

[Trebuchet]

Now that you mention it, my new dado set came in a few days ago:



Unboxing this wasn't as pleasurable as other premium blades. Instead of the the teeth having been dipped in a somewhat waxy protective vinyl, as is common, these were wrapped with split tubing. Effective, and quicker than peeling vinyl but not nearly as satisfying. I'll have to take my satisfaction in money saved. This was about half the cost of the set I've been lusting after for a long time and this one is reported to be nearly as good. Time to get my groove on and find out.

I see what you did there....

On another site someone pointed out that the 12th of November was the 50th anniversary of the (in)famous whale levitation event on live TV in Oregon - when the phrase 'too much dynamite' had no meaning. I guess some of you saw this the first time around. While I am well and truly old enough to have done so I don't recall it making the news in Australia.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...TDTUjP0e4GL7sk

On my other forum I linked to a video of that without even realizing it was the anniversary!

[Van Rijn]

We can laugh now, but I came across the restored video, and some of those chunks look like they could have injured someone.
The reporter showed a car with a crushed roof. But to be fair, it appeared to be a convertible.

Here’s a short news article on the man getting his claim paid for his car being totaled due to a three foot chunk of flying blubber:

https://www.theexplodingwhale.com/ev.../rg-1970-11-23

Definitely this story wouldn’t have been considered very humorous if somebody had been seriously injured or killed, and that certainly was a possibility. Of course much of the humor is due to how foolish this had been.

It also was deeply unpleasant for the residents. One article I read years ago (I don’t have a link) talked about the experiences of the locals. For one thing, before the explosion, the rotting whale’s smell was bad and noticeable for quite some distance away. But due to the explosion, aside from pieces going a considerable distance, there was a vaporized cloud of the stuff that went everywhere. The rancid oily stink became far, far worse and they had to leave town to really get away from it, wash their cars and take repeated showers. The town apparently reeked for a month or more. Not to mention the bystanders that became physically ill when the smell hit them from the explosion.

[Solfe]

Here’s a short news article on the man getting his claim paid for his car being totaled due to a three foot chunk of flying blubber:

https://www.theexplodingwhale.com/ev.../rg-1970-11-23

Definitely this story wouldn’t have been considered very humorous if somebody had been seriously injured or killed, and that certainly was a possibility. Of course much of the humor is due to how foolish this had been.

It also was deeply unpleasant for the residents. One article I read years ago (I don’t have a link) talked about the experiences of the locals. For one thing, before the explosion, the rotting whale’s smell was bad and noticeable for quite some distance away. But due to the explosion, aside from pieces going a considerable distance, there was a vaporized cloud of the stuff that went everywhere. The rancid oily stink became far, far worse and they had to leave town to really get away from it, wash their cars and take repeated showers. The town apparently reeked for a month or more. Not to mention the bystanders that became physically ill when the smell hit them from the explosion.

"Now it smells like burn, raw, rotting whale blubber."

[The Backroad Astronomer]

That last night about midnight there was half an hour window where it was dark and clear.

[Trebuchet]

My lovely niece and her lovely husband came for early Thanksgiving dinner today. It was great. I had only just put the turkey on when they arrived so we sat and chatted in masks for a while, then decided to take them off and have an appetizer of delicious cheese, elk summer sausage made by a friend of theirs, and their home-made (and very good!) wine. Then turkey with the usual trimmings. It was SO nice to have people to talk to. They are both teachers and have been doing distance learning and avoiding threatening situations.
After dinner, cleanup was quick and easy with all the help and the turkey carcass was quickly stripped and back into the roaster for stock making. It's been there for a few hours now and has a couple to go before I pick the bones out and strain it to be refrigerated overnight. It smells wonderful already!
A good day!

[Gillianren]

My best friend saw the inside of my house for the first time yesterday. We were both masked already anyway, and when we were outside, we still stood six feet apart, but we came inside for a minute and I showed her around. She was really excited for me.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

An old schoolmate of mine just posted a picture of part of out home town from his plane and I saw a few other pictures of his form above, I'll take any thing this year.

[Gillianren]

I had an idea for my faire boss to do official merch for the YouTube channel I've gotten into, and I heard back last night from the guy whose channel it is. He likes the idea, too!

[Swift]

Speaking of houses... I guess I'm telling without permission, but I'm sure some of the longer time CQers will probably remember Andromeda321. I've stayed in touch with her over the years. She is now married, has a post-doc in Astronomy at Yale (yes, it is Doctor Andromeda), and she and her husband just bought a house.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

We have had 57 years of the Doctor, right now we all could use a Doctor.