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Thursday July 8th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

After a long break and big weekend there is always stuff to catch up on that didn’t make the first report. First on my mind is the two site visitors who slipped me a donation over the weekend. Thank you very much. It was a rough week, and it really helped.

Second is to emphasize the poker run and swap meet this weekend. It is a big deal. There are ten local trail stops, six that offer free camping, and even road service by the local custom bike guy, Super Dave. Check it out here.

Item three is whitewater. We are looking at a good weekend for rafting this weekend. We have had a good bit of rain in both the Peshtigo  and Menominee River watersheds. Looking at the various USGS sites, the gauges are showing 1.2-1.4″ since Monday. Athelstane Weather is showing 2.13 for the month, and since it didn’t rain on the 1,2 or 3rd, that is from Monday on.

Right now both the Pesh and Menom are running just under their 80 percentile, meaning that on this date, 80% of the time the river is lower than it is today. Add in the rain today and yesterday, and there is a lot of promise for a very fun weekend on the rivers.

Someone asked a few weeks ago how the Ubuntu worked out. I never followed up that page. It works great for some stuff. The computers used in the photo concession on the Menominee River outpost of Kosir’s is 100% Ubuntu/Linux, and it works great. It is faster than the Windows and rock stable. We also use it on the slide show computer when we sell the pix at at Rapids Resort on the Peshtigo. Again it works good no problems.

As far as my goal of turning this machine into into a 64 bit Linux video editing monster, no joy. The Linux video editing programs just aren’t up to snuff with the Edius and Premiere Pro that I use now. You kind of expect that, they are very expensive programs. Those programs are too complex to emulate through Wine or a program like that.

As far as everyday use, I am all for it. I can have Ubuntu loaded and be surfing on the net on a reasonably modern computer in 24 minutes. You don’t need anti-virus (really!), and there is a mind numbing assortment of mods, plug ins, and programs. It recognizes and installs my wireless card instantly, and finds the network.

Unlike Windows, I can pull a drive from one computer and put on a totally different one and put it back in with no ill effect or driver dramas.

It works good and is FREE. Your mission.. finding which plug ins work best for you. The ones that start with K are usually top notch.

Next up on the tech to try list is an SSD, a solid state hard drive. It is a hard drive made up of memory chips. It has no moving parts, and is way faster than any hard drive. They were very expensive, but prices are dropping.  The part that I like is that it has 2-4x the sustained speed of my SCSI 320 stuff, and that is a low end SSD.

When I video edit at the raft company I have to get it done as fast as possible. This would be a huge help for me, making everything significantly faster.

It won’t be this week. I had a bad week. Maybe next week things will look up. I haven’t researched them too much recently. This is actually the second one that I clicked, but it is an example.

Anyone need a cheap Nikon lens for a D40, D60, D80, D90? I have one that will go on E-Bay if no one wants it. I had a little slippery rock incident while shooting a rafting trip Monday and splashed it. It fogged up and I figured it was shot. I ordered a new one overnight air out of NYC.

After a day in a bag of rice it cleared up. The glass is nice and clear and it works fine. It didn’t go under, and it never had water in it, but it got splashed enough to fog it up a little. In the meantime I got a heck of a deal on a much fancier lens.

While it is fine, there is a risk that it could mold up if it is stored wrong (humid), so I am selling it cheap. It is a Nikon 28-200 Nikkor ED 3.5-5.6G lens. I probably paid $300 or $350 for it in ’08, and a C note takes it. The glass is clear and it works good.   Ken Rockwell even likes it.

Sliding back on topic..

In my travels to Lakewood/Townsend/Carter I saw that the storm a while back did some damage that way too. There were trees down by roads. The paper that way, the Forest County Republican, had the front page showing a lot of damage. I kind of expected that after Lakewood’s zip code was 98% out of power at one point.

I want to thank the guy in the Fireside T shirt that gave my truck a jump up at the Carter Casino gas station Tuesday. Nice guy, offered to help, jumped the truck, wouldn’t take money. I like that about living around here. Thank you!

In the same incident, I want to thank the folks at the gas station for being understanding when the truck broke down. I was there for a little while as Chris brought me a new starter out. I was on the road in about 20 minutes once I got it, but they let me hang out for an hour plus while I waited. Again thanks!

That is it for now. I might have more to add later. If I do I will note it in the title. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday July 7th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Let’s start with last weekend. Last weekend was great with a lot of happy people around. The Dark Horse band with Tommy Greywolf was great too.

The rain came a little early on Monday for a lot of people. According to the USGS gauge it added up to just over an inch. Athelstane Weather is showing 1.61″ and Scott e-mailed in that Rhinelander saw 1 3/4″.

I am sure that some of that hit the Peshtigo River watershed. How much remains the question. The wathershed is on the fringe of the range of the radar and the precip totals are always suspect. In heavy rain the majority of the signal is reflected back before it ever gets here. There is more rain expected over the next 36 hours, so rafting should be great again this weekend.

Did anyone catch last night’s sunset? Golly was that something. Here I was 30 miles from home with no camera. It started with the sun peeking through a patch of overcast and backlighting a big thunder cloud. Then it did the beam thing where the rays of sun poked out through the clouds. Later the horizion went orange while the small high clouds reflected pink and blue. To the east were more big thunder clouds lit in the softest pastel blue and gray. It was really something, a top 10 postcard sunset to be sure. I was not happy about not bringing the camera.

There is an event today that deserves our attention and support. The Beach Club on Waubee Lake is having a fundraiser for the  Lakewood/Townsend Ambulance Service. It starts at 4pm. There will be music by Kendricks & Johnson, a remote controlled boat race, and drawings for door prizes like autographed Packers pictures.

There is also a big motorcycle ride and swap meet up here this weekend that involves a lot of places around here. It should be pretty huge.

So we had a little music last night. I have been having a rough week and needed to blow off a little steam. The couple of you that followed along found it novel. It turned out to be an interesting playlist, but it is now just a memory.

I have been getting into this e-cig thing, and I like it. There are really good and really bad ones, and the same goes for the juice. I have it pretty well down pat, and am now trying different variations. I also found out what it is like to lose one yesterday, when it apparently fell out of the truck.

If you are interested in trying one or buying one, e-mail me through the tab on the left. I have spent the money finding the good equipment and juice. What I haven’t figured out is if I am going to set up a series of affiliate links or just a store for them. I am also considering a tasting party to introduce them to people who are unsure or unwilling to buy one without trying it. While I figure it out, e-mail me and I will set you up with the right stuff.

You do not need to spend $60. I can get 2 for that, and a sample pack of high quality juices too. I am also awaiting arrival of some high quality semi-disposables that will retail at 16 or 18 dollars.

The juice that comes with them is usually terrible tasting Chinese propylene glycol (anti-freeze) based stuff. It does not have to be like that. My non-PG flavor of the day is Island, a nice pineapple pina colada flavor. It is hard candy delicious.

With my e-cigs I am down 30-40% on the regular coffin nails in the past week, and this week will be at least 50%. The $30 worth of juice coming tomorrow will replace 3-4 cartons worth $150-200. I like it.

One downside is that I have turned into a bit of a gadget getter trying new parts and different combination of them. I still spend my $50 a week, just not all on cigarettes.

You should also be warned the the 51 brand e-cigs are frequently associated with a charge card scam, and the free trials that are spamming our e-mail boxes are too. Let me help, don’t get ripped off.

The weekend weather forecast looks ok. Saturday should be a bluebird day with temps in the upper 70s. The NAM showed a line of showers Sunday morning, then no rain until about sunset. The NWS went with a blanket 40% chance for Sunday.

While checking into that I also saw some really nice blobs of red and orange on the radar heading right for the Peshtigo River watershed. That will be perfectly timed to bring the river up this weekend. Yee-Ha!

That is about it from here. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday July 6th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

That was quite a holiday weekend. The weather stayed pretty good until Monday afternoon, Tommy Greywolf and the Dark Horse Band were great, and there were a lot of people around having a good time.

I really filled up the weekend, so I am still kind of sorting through all of it and organizing for the week, and I am not ready with a regular update just yet. Look for that tomorrow.

Thanks!

RJB

Holiday weekend FRIDAYYYY!!!!!!!

Ok so who else is pumped up that is the Friday of a holiday weekend? Golly I’m like a 6 year old on his third Red Bull.

Let’s start with weather. The high pressure that gave us bluebird weather all week is moving to the east. That will give us southern or southwest winds, and a warm weekend. We can expect the heat and humidity to be increasing as the weekend progresses toward Sunday.

Sunday, or second Saturday as we call it, looks ok to start. The HPC has us rain free until noon, and then from noon to 6pm we are bordering the 0.01-0.1 and 0.1-0.25″ bands for possible rainfall.

After 6pm Sunday it looks wet. The storm that will be coming for Sunday night and Monday has some energy and moisture from the tropical storm that went through the Gulf of Mexico, so it could bring heavy rains.

So, we will start out the weekend today in the low to mid 80s. Saturday looks like mid to upper 80s, and Sunday looks like more upper 80s or maybe a 90.

That is a pretty nice forecast for a holiday weekend, and if Sunday’s rain holds off another half of a day it would be even better.

Second Saturday? Yep, that is what we call it. A lot of people have Monday off with the holiday, so Sunday is like a second Saturday. Second Saturdays are usually pretty fun with people giving it their last yee-ha and partying like it is 1999.

The people coming to Kosir’s to raft will have fun this weekend. The Peshtigo River is still almost double it’s median flow for today, running 452cfs up from the normal 250. It is falling and will keep on falling, but it should stay plenty fun for the weekend.

The Menominee River is still running strong too, with the low of 1,000cfs and peaking on either side of 2,000 the last two days.

Either one of those rivers is better than usual for this weekend, so go rafting if that is what does it for you.

Also at Kosir’s this weekend is some exceptionally good live music. The DarkHorse Band is coming, and bringing special guest Tommy Greywolf on violin/fiddle. The Darkhorse guys are great on their own merits, playing country that even I like.

Tommy Greywolf is just amazing. He has played with Brooks & Dunn, on the AMA awards, Leno, Letterman, with guys from Kansas, Poco, and Loggins & Messina, and so many other people.

Go to his web site and check out his video. He is really an extreme talent, and the ladies are more than just a little bit partial to him as well. Beyond all of that, he is a genuinely nice guy. I have met and seen him a 3 or 4 times, and he is a huge talent and a great guy.

I have played music for a long time. I listen to and play stuff like Steely Dan, Yes, old Genesis, Kansas, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, and guys like Junior Brown and Andrew Winton. Tommy G could sit in with any of those greats, plus all of the country greats too. I know good music.  Come see what I am ranting about. Saturday night, July 3rd, Rapids Resort.

Added to the last minute event list is live music at the Curve in Sunday night.

Who is up for a sunset? Click & win a 1024 wide version for the desktop..

I think that is about it for the last minute updates.  Have a fun weekend, be safe, and thank you for visiting!

RJB