Monthly Archives: October 2013

They started putting the cross pieces on the supports yesterday, which was good. Not so good was the weather — blustery with intermittent rain and snow flurries. We had hoped they would have finished this part of the work while … Continue reading →

Andy and I get a lot of catalogs. Some of them get tossed out immediately, but we almost always look at the Hammacher Schlemmer one. It usually has some intriguing gadgets in it. One of the latest is a runaway … Continue reading →

The buck stops here. —President Harry Truman It’s hard to imagine Truman saying he didn’t know about the extent of the National Security Agency spying. The story is Obama didn’t know the NSA was listening in to the private phone … Continue reading →

Having my site hacked made me aware of vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins, themes and files. Bottom line — always upgrade to the latest versions as soon as possible. That experience may be one reason I found the article Russia’s New … Continue reading →

[Cézanne] is the father of us all. —Matisse and Picasso [I]t is true that there is hardly one modern artist of importance to whom Cézanne is not father or grandfather, and that no other influence is comparable with his. —Clive … Continue reading →

[Cézanne] is the father of us all. —Matisse and Picasso [I]t is true that there is hardly one modern artist of importance to whom Cézanne is not father or grandfather, and that no other influence is comparable with his. —Clive … Continue reading →

They made more progress on the solar panel supports yesterday: The threaded rods we see in this picture straddle the rafters supporting the roof. They’re secured to steel plates at the bottom of the rafters. That’s fairly straightforward inside the … Continue reading →

bikehikebabe asked how the penetrations were made water-tight. The 1/2″ polyurethane ring acts as a gasket covered by the stainless steel cap. When the nut is tightened against the washer and the stainless steel cap, the ring is squished against … Continue reading →

An advertisement from World View Enterprises: Your View of the World Is About to Change Majestic views of our planet, slowly expanding below, are certain to captivate you, as you ascend to the edge of space. The transition from horizon … Continue reading →

Joe suggested a product to seal the penetrations the solar panel supports make in the roof. If Joe says he has had good luck with the product, Andy will probably go with it, but the warranty doesn’t exactly inspire confidence: … Continue reading →