The Bar, Volume #4

[Ugly Dougly]

Hi Simon, Ashland says Hi! Really beautiful up there. Had a great time celebrating friend's 50th BDay. Very civilized town.

Love that Ashland, too. Keep it a secret, okay, Marty?

[magicmarty]

Morning, Kiddies. UD, the secret of Ashland is out for sure. The town was really fully occupied. Wait for resaurant seating, and the theaters were virtually sold out. But it is a beautiful town with beautiful surrounding scenery and an exquisite adjacent valley. A place I could live very happily!

Beer and boobs are a tough combo to beat!

Have a great day, all

(((LF)))

[Martiena]

Having my first feeling gratitude for sight. Noticed last summer at TTITD my sight was off. Anyway, turns out like my grandfather I have cataracts ( about 20 years too early)
Had the first eye operated on Friday. WOW!!! I can see so much better! Now I can see with one eye Other eye to be done this Friday.

Downside... Bad for the garden can't prune, weed etc. for a few weeks.

Anti M, I hope you are starting to feel better. I would love to see your garden!

MDF and Knowmad I feel for you. Toothaches are horrible. I hope you are both able to get it fixed soon.
Cataract surgery is a cakewalk compared to toothaches...I can now comment having had both!

Great photos Figjam, like Trilobyte I love the body painted fellow.

Savannah, have a great week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Le Chat Noir.

Ygmir... thank god for people like you that run in when others watch (or run away). I always wonder, are the bystanders afraid to get involved? Is it really a comfort thing?
I guess it is a different story for each person. Sad though.

Have a good chew this week Simon
Lemur, I hope you have an amazing week.
Have a great day eplayans!

[^Rhino!]

Happy Monday Everyone.

i have resolved to kick this weeks ass.

who is with me?

I hadn't really given it a lot of thought . . . but that may mean the week's ass seriously needs to be kicked.

I'm not even kidding.

Hmm . . .

Ahhh, yes. The most famous movie quote of all time, by none other than Rowdy Roddy Piper:

[media]

or at least until Robert Duvall claimed that he loved the smell of napalm in the morning.

[theCryptofishist]

Somewhat amazing, actually...

[ygmir]

quite interesting indeed

[Elliot]

I'm back in Clearlake.

No more 11 hour airline ride ever. Ever.

Otherwise all well. Burned off at least ten pounds of fat. Animal park is up and running -- sort'a.

[magicmarty]

Welcome home, Elliot. I am volunteering at the Exploratorium table at the Maker's Faire on Saturday morning the 18th and hope to see you there. Hope some of you E Playans stop by and say hi.

[Elliot]

I'll be at the Maker Faire both days, competing in the Death Defying Figure Eight Pedal Car Races.

[Aurelia]

Glad you are safely home again Elliot

I am volunteering at Bottle Rock Napa starting Thursday the 9th
see you music lovers there?

xoA.

[trilobyte]

Welcome back, Elliot. I hope to see you and Marty and any other ePlayans I can at Maker Faire. I'm not sure which day we're going yet, I need to check with the girl.

[MyDearFriend]

Welcome home, Elliot! Glad you had a successful trip.

Marty & Trilo, I hope the Maker's Faire is fun for you! I am so envious of your opportunity there. It seems like a wonderful event!

[theCryptofishist]

Tisha was looking to make up a group of five for the maker's faire. Apparently, that's half price.

[Ugly Dougly]

Somewhat amazing, actually...

I have a cunning linguist friend who is sure to have an opinion on this.

Such languages have been postulated for years. But they are only using four language families to verify this?

[theCryptofishist]

Seven, Dougly. And they checked against other families that didn't have those words.

[MyDearFriend]

Ha, good morning, please pass me some , I won't be capable of pouring my own until after I've had some.

[Elorrum]

A little bit less than yesterday
My idiot alarm went off too easily. Getting some car repairs this weekend. I decided to keep my current ride and make the 100k plus fixes.

[magicmarty]

Morning (((MDF))) Happy Hump Day!Kicks starts the ECM and Voila! for all

Too early to be up so dives into the NEB, hoping that MDFand Elorrum are lurking therein, seeking a succulent snuggle.

[AntiM]

Tiptoes past the NEB

Lovely morning here. Cold is nearly gone, so yesterday when Larry stopped by home for an 8 hour break, we went out to a nice lunch. I have new glasses, have to go see a specialist because apparently I have a blank spot in my right eye. Nothing I notice, but it showed up twice now. Hmmm. Well, at least it is in the bad eye, and may be nothing.

[PhoenixFemmeFatale]

shuffles in and looks around:
Morning people.
AntiM, I overheard you talking about new glasses. They look lovely! All folks have a 'blind spot' in their visual field... It's where the optic nerve is located. Blind spots are only a concern if they are in unusual places and/or growing in size (which I'm assuming is the issue). Keep us posted!
I'm going to need a couple extra zaps of caffeine today... I woke up at 4:00am to the sad little whimper of my dog. Nothing is so sad as the sound of a living creature in pain.
On a positive note it should be a beautiful 82F today with sunny skies! Nothing wrong with that! Yay!

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes CCCP*
*notes squirming in NEB*

take it easy MDF! I hope you're feeling a little better at least.
HI Elorrum. yeah, that decision, as to keep or get new. Well, I've not had a "new" car in years, but at least "less old". If you do change, make sure it's something "Bowmanlakeable".

Good for a nice day, AntiM. maybe the blind spot will turn out to be the sticker on your glasses.

Hi PFF (may I abbreviate?). glad to see ya poppin in. sorry about your puppy.

*heads for IBBOD*

[Elliot]

Regarding a popular Mutant Vehicle:
Duane Flatmo is upgrading El Pulpo Mecanico (the mechanical octopus). The original pickup-truck chassis has been scrapped and the beast is being rebuilt on a van chassis. There is lots of new fire-art equipment. And this time there is art on the lower part of the vehicle, including some of the dragon and/or crustacean equipment from previous pedal-vehicles. There are pictures on his Facebook page.

I was wide awake before dawn today. Reverse jet lag!

[ygmir]

Hi Elliot!!!
glad to see ya back and fit!!!

how did the pond repair go?

[Elliot]

how did the pond repair go?

Ah yes, the duck pond... one of the major headaches at the Amadeus Dyrepark (animal park). My brother wanted to clean and expand and generally upgrade the pond, so it would need to be drained, and the 4 inch drain pipe in the dam could not keep up with the inflow. So they tore out the old dam and built a new one with a 12 inch drain valve.

I took part in tearing down the old dam with a sledge and other manual implements. Reinforced concrete, yes.

The new dam was built with logs. The fellow who built it competes in the annual Norwegian Chainsaw Championship. So it looked very nice. Only it leaked. It was simply not properly built into the terrain. The running water washed away the soil around the new dam. (Haste makes waste and all that.)

Last I looked, water seemed to be running only thru the valve, so they may have gotten it sealed. I know they drove sheets of plywood into the soil, and they applied numerous sacks of various compounds....

I did bring up Bentonite, and the fellow said he knew what I was talking about, but.... Now that I'm on my own computer again I'll see if I can translate bentonite to Norwegian.


As for Amadeus Dyrepark in general.... They have a wondrous collection of animals not often seen in Norway, and the scenery is breathtaking. Essentially, visitors walk a mile or so on wide foot-paths among a variety of spacious animal-habitats laid out in spruce- and birch-forest. To my pleasant surprise, the animals do not hide in the back of their habitats when people show up. Rather, they come to the front fences to interact. Of course, the fact that the park sells bags of feed to the visitors might have something to do with that.

That said, some of the warm-climate critters are not always on display -- a necessity for their well-being. Visitors I talked with seemed to understand and accept that just fine.

There is a playground, a hot dog and ice cream booth, picnic tables, barbeque pits.... Families make a day of it, and it's only an hour-and-a-half drive from downtown Oslo. Pretty cool.

The newest arrivals are two red foxes, rescued from a fur farm. They won't be on display for a while, but they represent the expansion my brother is working on.
Oh... make that several red foxes -- they arrived pregnant.

Next door to this place, some other people are building an authentic Viking longhouse, felling their own logs right on the premises and so forth, as the centerpiece of a small Viking museum/theme park. So long term this will be quite a place to visit.

[ygmir]

sounds wonderful, Elliot!!
I'd love to visit Norway some day. sigh............


bentonite is a mineral, used in well drilling of all types, a very heavy, dense clay. if that helps interpret.

[AntiM]

Road trip!

[knowmad]

Marymals coming over the Mts for the weekend! yay!

[trilobyte]

Sounds like a great place, Elliot, and kudos for helping them to try and get things sorted.

[Elliot]

The zoo was founded 14 years ago and did all right, but the original owner kind'a let it go the last few years. Finally last year the place might have been shut down, and the animals put down. My brother just couldn't stand that thought, so he gathered a team and arranged a deal. He lives and breathes wild animals -- the kind of guy you might see on TV crawling into a wolf's den to check on the pups. A couple of years ago he was part of a team that hand-raised two bear cubs. (There is a TV series about that, but only available in Europe, I believe.)

His specialty is wolves, and he hopes to include wolves in the park in something like five years. There is almost unlimited land, but a couple of miles of wolf-grade fencing would cost a fortune. So one step at the time.

Yeah, I'm proud of my kid brother!

[Sham]

Marymals coming over the Mts for the weekend! yay!

[media]