By Your Command

A few weeks back when Chris visited, we noticed a number of houses with stucco exteriors. Most of them were pretty poorly done. I've declined to include any photos of those - they tend to look like prisons. However, there was one house in particular that Chris thought was well done, and he asked me to photograph it and send him the pictures. I believe this may be in relation to a project he is working on, an addition to our Uncle Tim's house in Kentucky. Here are the shots I took today.

Stucco exterior with nicely done edge elements. Anybody know the right word for those?

Close-up on chimney with edge details

Also today, I finally finished with Phase I of the yard work. All of the leaves and trash have been bagged and are ready to be hauled away. There are still little bits of debris all about - sticks and twigs, and getting them all is nearly impossible. I also started pulling up the vines/ground cover/creeping devil plants that are everywhere in the backyard. And they're in the front too, but not to the same degree. But it takes a great deal of effort to get them up - they're tangled into the grass, and into each other, like a basket woven of live plants. It's going to be a long-term project, I think. That's Phase II.

Another project is coming along nicely - the library re-indexing. I've collected Library of Congress Classification or International Standard Book Numbers from all of the non-fiction titles. Using the online LoC index, I should get LCCNs for everything. They're all going into an Excel spreadsheet, which I may convert into an Access database. Six hundred thirty-five volumes and counting.

Filed in: Books Del_Ray House Architecture Photography

Hairless

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Saturday is Ryan's birthday - I hope he likes the gift I sent him.

Filed in: Family Boston

Sixteen Miles on the Erie Canal

Recently my folks got a movie via NetFlix that Chris had recommended to them, My Architect. It was made by the son of Louis Kahn, the great architect. Read about him - he was an interesting man. But Mom & Dad, and Chris, all told me I should find out more about one project of his in particular. They couldn't give me all the details, since the film just passes over it, but it was a ship. Specially designed to be the home of an orchestra. And double as its performance space. Interesting, on a lot of levels. So I did some research, and it paid off today.

It's not truly a ship in the traditional sense. It's the Point/Counterpoint II, a self-propelled barge that seems to be based in Pittsburgh. Here are some photos I cribbed from across the internets.

Point/Counterpoint II underway


At the pier in Morganton, WV and opened up for a concert.


A good aerial view.

Apparently she's still in operation, home to the American Waterways Wind Orchestra. It's hard to find information on her portcalls or travels. But I've seen some indications that she'll be in Louisiana this summer. I think she may dock in New Orleans - maybe I can get Sarah to go have a look.

Speaking of Sarah, we got out of the office for lunch today for tacos over at Moe's. She seems like she's doing really well, even if her Spyder did get totalled a few weeks back. Everybody's fine, and it was the other guy's fault, and insurance is taken care of. She'll be around a little longer, but soon goes back to New Orleans to finish her thesis. I know we all look forward to the next time she'll be in the neighborhood.

Filed in: Ships Architecture

Eerily Beautiful

Stole this photo from the previously mentioned CapitalWeather.com. I've always liked good storm pictures. And the Jefferson Memorial is my favorite of the big three monuments on the Mall. Combined with the cherry blossoms in full bloom, I think it makes for an extraordinary photograph. I wish I could take pictures like this.

A surprise visitor on the job today - Sarah is up from New Orleans to do some work. It's good to see her; I knew she was coming to town, but I didn't know she'd be in at the office. So that brightens up my day some. It also sounds like a good excuse for Five Guys or Moe's for lunch.

Filed in: Photography

Storm Front Company

We just had a terrible line of thunderstorms roll through, incredibly swift and potent. I went for a ride this afternoon, and it was partly cloudy and pleasant. Perhaps a little windy. Not an hour after I got home, we were in a tornado warning area courtesy of the National Weather Service. Shortly after that, the storm began in earnest. A great deal of lightning, high winds, hail - it was terrific. I captured the radar image from Weather Underground and posted it below. The black dots are lightning strikes. The most amazing thing about the storm was not its intensity, but the speed with which it arrived. I didn't even see storm clouds on the horizon while I was out riding. The world never fails to be interesting.

The radar image of the front rolling through

Filed in: Del_Ray Science

Haphazard

The last few days I've been experimenting with HTML again, trying to introduce a few new elements into the page design here. I've managed to cobble together a randomizing script that should produce a new image banner at the top of the page each time you reload. The aesthetics aren't quite right, yet, but it's a semi-interesting puzzle to keep my mind occupied.

In more important news, it is Opening Day. The President is throwing out the first pitchi in Cincinnati as I type this. Unfortunately, I can't listen to the game as I would like. I have to renew my MLB audio subscription, but I can't do that until I get my replacement credit card. However, the game is being broadcast on ESPN. I'm actually recording it on my DVR. I can skip over pitching changes, at least. By the look of the lineup and the rotation, it could be a long season. Oh, the first batter of the season, Juan Pierre of the Cubs, just got a triple. Super. Followed by a Todd Walker double. A long, long season.

Filed in: Baseball Internets

Failure Modes

Beautiful weather again today. I did do some work around the house, including raking up the yards, going over the gardens to see what needs to be done, etc. But since there was some rain this morning, I decided to do some things inside. The guest bed has needed some work for years now. It sits on a folding metal frame that has 4 legs with casters. The two casters at one end came equipped with locking brakes. I forgot to unlock them when moving the bed, and ended up shredding the cheap plastic wheels. So I finally decided to replace them. I took a nice walk down to the local hardware store and found casters I thought would work well.

On the way home, I stopped at the custard shop for the flavor of the day, Puree du Smurf. It was great - bright blue color, tasting of - I don't know. Sherbet? But what made it truly brilliant were the pieces of whipped marshmallow hidden inside. Delicious, and hilarious. Also, they had a drawing of smurf in a blender on the front door.

I got home and set to replacing the casters. Here's the new with the old:

The new, the slightly broken, and the totalled casters

The casters are set in a plastic sleeve that goes into the formed sheet metal frame. Mild steel, I think. And the shaft of the new caster fit perfectly. All done! Let's take her for a test toast.

The bed... settled underneath me. Hmmm.

Turns out the old casters had longer shafts for a reason. The upper end of the plastic sleeve was set into a small metal retaining tab that's welded to the frame. I hadn't noticed this. It's important because the center of the wheel, where the load will be centered, is offset from the axis of the shaft. This means that a moment couple is created, trying to bend the shaft. The shaft is plenty strong - no problem. But the metal tab is what normally resists the bending moment. If the shaft in the sleeve doesn't reach the tab, only the crappy plastic sleeve is there to stop the entire caster from rotating right out from under the frame.

Weld fracture and inelastic deformation at pre-stressed zone

As you see, the sleeve failed, the welds holding the bottom plate failed, and the pre-stressed areas where the side plate is bent over to become the bottom plate failed. As an engineer, I really should have caught this one ahead of time.

So the guest bed is now a frameless low-rider, just like my bed.

Filed in: House Del_Ray