The weekend of May 17th & 18th, we took the BoyScout Troop up to Alpine Scout Reservation. Alpine sits just north of the GW Bridge on the Palisades. We had a great turnout and the weather was picture perfect.
We had a good time climbing the rock climbing wall.
MJ finally got thehang of building a fire. This was the last requirement he had to complete to qualify for his Second Class rank.
I finally did the unthinkable. I got rid of the Honda Accord. After 10 years in the family we bid the car Adios!
The Honda was a great little car. I had 259,000 miles on it and it was still going. The car was starting to show signs of age. It was time for something new. My big fear was that the potential repair bills was going to get expensive to keep the car on the road.
So here I am on May 8th, getting ready to drive the Honda for the very last time. Yes – it was a sad moment for the Petersen family. (Although I was over joyed at getting a new car) My son told me that it was the only car he remembered me driving. The car was in the family for three years before Jill came along.
But as luck would have it, I replaced the Honda with a Honda! I went of the Honda Ridgeline. It’san SUV / Pickup. The versatility is perfect for the families current needs. At least that’s how I pitched the idea to my wife.
I’ve been driving the vehicle for the past 2 weeks and I absolutely love it!
So early in the month of April, Dave & I were busy getting the Troop’s trailer ready for the Turkey Swamp camping trip. Here’s a picture of the inside with the shelves. At the rear of the trailer we decided thatdrawers would really help organize us with the repair kits, extra parts and the small stuff we need to support the troop during a camp-out. We also decided to custom size the shelves for the gear in order to maximize the space usage. The right hand side of the trailer we left open, so that we could put the tables and bear box in. With the tables on the right hand side, the weight of the trailer is very close to being equally distributed between the wheels.
Here is a close up of the drawers that I made. With the Scouts being a rough as they are, I thought having the drawers made with finger joints would help them stand up to the abuse. Plus the finger joints look really cool. I was able to use the finger joint jig that I made a few years ago. The jig runs on my table saw and controls the spacing. The jig fully adjustable, so it take a bit of effort to get the spacing just right. Once you do, the joints come out looking great.
First off – I can not believe almost 2 months has gone by since my last post!!
The month of April was busy and the month of May is looking to be just as bad. Oh, wait, next week is the end of May. It real has been as bad a April!!
A lot has happened in the past 2 months. Dave & I completed the Troop trailer and we’ve taken it on 2 camping trips. Both camping trips were a success. Cathy &I decided the 98′ Honda Accord was near the end of its life. So with 259K miles on it and before it began to wear out mechanically, we traded it in for a Honda Ridgeline. I’ve had the new car for three weeks and love it. This past weekend was the second spring camping trip with the scouts. I ended up towing the troop trailer with the Ridgeline. Absolutely no issues, it was great.
I’ve got photos of the different trips with the Scouts. As I get them posted, I’ll included them in a few posts and try to catch back up!!
As far as diving goes, I haven’t even had time to look at my gear. Forget about actually getting into the water. Hopefully, maybe within the next week or two I’ll coax Mark into a quick dive……
Yesterday Cathy & I went to see Wicked on Broadway. Its the story behind the story of “The Wizard of Oz”. It is the story aboutthe wicked witch of the west and the good witch and how they came to be.
The first half of the play develops the characters in a way that is exciting and entertaining. Not all is as it seems. The storyline in the second half of the play intertwines with the “The Wizard of Oz”. As we see the true nature of the characters unfold, our perception of the original movie changes.
The costumes, the music, the actors on stage all combine into an event that is truly mesmerizing. The shear power of the vocals is amazing. I found myself lost in the story, waiting in anticipation for it to unfold.
We have seen Chicago, Gypsy and Phantom of the Opera all on Broadway. We even saw Gypsy with Bernadette Peters. They are great plays and would recommend any one of them to see. However the last play that truly captivated me to this extent was Les Miserables.
This is a must see on Broadway!
I’ve been busy the past few weeks upgrading the PC in the house. My PC was a 900MHz dinosaur and MJ’s PC was a 300MHz dust ball. Yes – I’m a technologist running the equivalent of the Ford Model-T. Looking around at what is available and the cost, I decided to continue the Petersen tradition of building my own machines. I ended up buying the motherboards, CPU and memory off eBay. I went with a 2-CPU Xeon 2.8GHz with 6GB of ram for my machine. For the other machine I went with a 2-CPU 2.2GHz Xeon with 3GB of ram. Of course with the Xeon class chips, If I can get a faster chipset, I can always swap them out for more speed. Each machine ended up costing me around $200 to get a server class machine. With me running the different software packages and trying to max out the machine, the most I have been able to do is to get the CPU’s up to about 40% utilization.
Most of the machines in the house are running Linux. I’m forced to keep a few Windows machines around. Cathy prefers Windows and MJ needs it to be compatible with school. If I had my way, Windows would be all but taken out of this house. I find that Linux has come a long way. It is faster, cleaner and very convenient upgrading the packages.
After an hour or two everyone in the household is able to move around on a Linux box getting email and browsing the Internet. Plus the software that is available for Linux is mind boggling. In fact I find myself installing three or four variants of software that fits a particular function and playing around deciding which one I like.
For the moment, I’m stuck with some Windows. But at least with the server class Xeon processors, they function reasonably well.
This blog site is now mobile! That’s right, for those who couldn’t wait to get to a desktop, you can now read my blog posts from a PDA, Blackberry, iPhone or most any other type of mobile device! Just use your mobile device and browse to this website!
I can even post entries to this blog from a PDA! Sweet!!
Granted, blogging from a PDA is a bit cumbersome. I don’t see myself trying to upload pictures or files from a PDA. But to post a quick text update to the blog – Its fits the bill very nicely.
Its Awesome!
Our Winterburg campout was a success! We took the troop up to Forestburg Boy Scout Reservation this past weekend for an overnight campout. The entire troop slept out in tents on the snow! The boys had a great time. We hiked down to the nearby waterfalls. The boys went sled riding.
Ok, so some of the adult leaders went sled riding as well!!
We did have a small cabin to cook, eat and get warm in. However we choose to sleep outside in the 15 degree weather for the night. When you a prepared for the cold, it is quite comfortable to sleep on the snow.
The stew we had for Saturday night was very tasty. Especially after being in the cold for most of the day. Sunday’s breakfast, we tried to use a Dutch Oven to cook up Taylor ham and Eggs. Took over an hour to cook and it eventually turned out ok. We have to re-think cooking breakfast in a Dutch Oven on our next campout.
I’m actually looking forward to next year’s Winterburg!
Yeah! The upgrade to wordpress 2.3.2 was a success! I updated several plugins that I like such as gallery2 photo. I also added an RSS feed display plugin. So now I have Scouting news displayed in the sidebar.
In 1956 Dr Hubbert developed a model to predict the point at which US oil would reach the peak output and begin to decline. His theory is referred to as “Peak Oil” or “Hubbert’s Peak Oil”. Hubbert predicted that domestic oil production would begin to decline between 1965 and 1970. US Domestic oil production peaked in 1970. Of course at the time everyone denied that it had peaked. To read more on peak oil on wikipedia: Hubbert Peak Oil
Even Dick Cheney, our beloved vice-president has acknowledged the problem of peak oil: Dick Cheney on Peak Oil
Researchers have taken his model and used it to estimate the world peak oil. Pessimistic estimates put world peak oil somewhere between 2008 and 2011. Optimistic estimates put world peak oil somewhere around 2020 and 2030.
Now think about this. Essentially we areeither just at peak oil or within 10 years we will be at that point. Our entire economy is based on oil, this includes more than heating our homes and transportation. It also include the manufacture of most plastics, cosmetics and polymers! The effort to move our economy to another energy source and to re-develop our manufacturing base will be an enormous effort!!
The high gas prices we see today are only the beginning. Gas will continue to fluctuate, we may even see $2 a gallon for a short period of time. However for the near term $3 to $4 a gallon will be more the norm. Add some more instability in the oil producing regions and $5 to $6 for a gallon of gas is possible.
What I find aggravating is the Politicians and Corporate America choose to remain blissfully ignorant of the pending problem. By the time they wake up to the problem, itwill be us, the individuals, who will be hurt.
