Cafe Einstein : LPTP #9...onward and upward

Bill592
Bill592
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RE: Looks a good spot Bill!

Quote:

Looks a good spot Bill! A dining table with a view. Decent size tent you have. :-)

Cheers, Mike.

Howdy Mike,
When I first arrived up there it was dark out 2130hrs so, I just laid out a ground sheet and slept under the stars. It was Great ! The owls were Hooting away all night and, about 0200hrs the wolves started howling (which I admit sent kind of a tingly feeling though me )
The next day I set up the tent and, I'm glad I did because it sprinkled on and off.
Bill

mikey
mikey
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RE: RE: Looks a good spot

Quote:
Quote:

Looks a good spot Bill! A dining table with a view. Decent size tent you have. :-)

Cheers, Mike.

Howdy Mike,
When I first arrived up there it was dark out 2130hrs so, I just laid out a ground sheet and slept under the stars. It was Great ! The owls were Hooting away all night and, about 0200hrs the wolves started howling (which I admit sent kind of a tingly feeling though me )
The next day I set up the tent and, I'm glad I did because it sprinkled on and off.
Bill

I used to hate the rain when I camped, now I no longer camp so I just go inside and wait it out. I used to camp with the kids in Scouts, they are both grown now, so no more camping.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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There are great camping spots

There are great camping spots in The Grampians mountain range, an Aussie knock-off of the real one in Scotland. Great views, hiking, camping etc. Funny thing is that at formal zoos one has to pay and be supervised for say, patting and feeding kangaroos. In the Grampians you'd be lucky to keep them out of your car or tent as they are well practised in the art of foraging off humans. Take a photo at anytime in any random horizontal direction. It will include a kangaroo.

We don't have the equivalent of wolves. The only likely candidate for spine chilling night time calls is koala bears, believe it or not. The males have a long guttural growl in the mating season. For those overseas visitors unfamiliar with it we usually say ( casual deadpan tone ): it's just a Drop Bear ... :-) ;-)

There are Tasmanian Devils in Bugs Bunny cartoons. But since Tasmania is a fictional land we normally don't have cause to speak of them. :-)

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Here's some footage that includes the growl. Try that in the dark of night somewhere out in the bush ! As noted, the guy up close with the camera is obviously an idiot.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Bill592
Bill592
Joined: 25 Feb 05
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RE: There are great camping

Quote:

There are great camping spots in The Grampians mountain range, an Aussie knock-off of the real one in Scotland. Great views, hiking, camping etc.

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Here's some footage that includes the growl. Try that in the dark of night somewhere out in the bush ! As noted, the guy up close with the camera is obviously an idiot.

Howdy Mike,
The Grampians looks fantastic ! Would love to go there someday )

That Koala would scare the crap out of you in the middle of the night if you didn't know what it was )

Bill

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: That Koala would scare

Quote:
That Koala would scare the crap out of you in the middle of the night if you didn't know what it was )


Because it's a dominance/territory/sexual thing, then in the right season one can have two or more males facing off with such noise emitted. Typically with a female nearby to impress, you get the idea. I've only ever heard a solo act, so imagine those growling conversations. It's quite the opposite of their Teddy Bear image. Sort of like penguins howling at the moon.

IMHO the weirdest and most beautiful rock formations in Australia is the Ediacaran hills :

... the site of many really, really old ( pre-Cambrian ) fossils, of which there is much discussion. This landscape is very ancient ... nature's way of saying : humans, you are nothing special.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
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RE: RE: That Koala would

Quote:
Quote:
That Koala would scare the crap out of you in the middle of the night if you didn't know what it was )

Because it's a dominance/territory/sexual thing, then in the right season one can have two or more males facing off with such noise emitted. Typically with a female nearby to impress, you get the idea. I've only ever heard a solo act, so imagine those growling conversations. It's quite the opposite of their Teddy Bear image. Sort of like penguins howling at the moon.

IMHO the weirdest and most beautiful rock formations in Australia is the Ediacaran hills :

This one looks like rocks moving up and over the top of other rocks as you can see the layers, that takes a LONG time!!

Quote:
Quote:

That one I don't know though! Is that an old volcano or has the ground around it eroded away?

Quote:

... the site of many really, really old ( pre-Cambrian ) fossils, of which there is much discussion. This landscape is very ancient ... nature's way of saying : humans, you are nothing special.

Cheers, Mike.

Those pictures are COOL!!

David S
David S
Joined: 6 Dec 05
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Saturday had some truly

Saturday had some truly crappy weather. Cold, windy, on and off rain with some snow mixed in. Got to the museum about 10:00. First visited the euphemism, then wandered down to the depot to see if anyone was actually coming to visit. Amazingly, they were, so I signed in and got the handle box for the streetcar. Had to visit the euphemism again (#2).

The usual pain in the everything checking the compressor oil. Other than that, okay until I lost the pole while still inside the barn. Then when I exited the barn, I stopped with the pole right on the insulated gap in the wire, so I had to raise the front pole and go a couple feet, then lower it again. Then I lost the pole about five times getting out of the yard. Some of the Electric Car Dept. guys say to just raise the front pole and backpole past the bad spot. I might do that next time.

Due to the low number of visitors, I ran with smaller passenger counts than I really should (sometimes just two, once even only one). Kept the history lesson short. And for an hour or so, they told me to go sit at Electric Park while they did some switching around Barn 9 and the Steam Leads. Got really cold out there. I had turned the heat on, but it never kicked in. Got about two minutes of sunshine in the middle of it.

Despite the hour of nothing, I ran for ten trips around the loop. A pretty good day. Got back into the barn with no issues. Okay, maybe I stopped six inches short of where I should, but I don't think they'll give me any guff over it.

Significantly, this was the first day I did the whole shebang -- out of the barn, run all day, back to the barn -- all by myself with no training operator looking over my shoulder. One guy came along and helped with all the times I lost the pole coming out of the yard, but that was it.

Winning!

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Whoops ... Ediacara Hills.

Whoops ... Ediacara Hills. Ediacaran is the adjective. The fossils are representing the first complex, multi-cellular organisms on Earth and oxygen consuming too ! Some of them are our ancestors by who knows exactly how many generations of lineal descent. My great x 10^[7] uncle is the upper right jelly fish. :-)

Imagine hanging around on what would have been a beach or low sea back then, air non/barely breathable for us, seeing these pre-vertebrates flollup about.

@David : Well done for running the shebang without any bangs ! Also heaters only ever work when you don't need them to. There's a similar principle in banking. :-)

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
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RE: Whoops ... Ediacara

Quote:

Whoops ... Ediacara Hills. Ediacaran is the adjective. The fossils are representing the first complex, multi-cellular organisms on Earth and oxygen consuming too ! Some of them are our ancestors by who knows exactly how many generations of lineal descent. My great x 10^[7] uncle is the upper right jelly fish. :-)

Imagine hanging around on what would have been a beach or low sea back then, air non/barely breathable for us, seeing these pre-vertebrates flollup about.
Cheers, Mike.

That's cool too!

Quote:
@David : Well done for running the shebang without any bangs ! Also heaters only ever work when you don't need them to. There's a similar principle in banking. :-)

Yes it was wasn't it! And I too have found that to be true about heaters and banking. The old days of open top fire engines, so you could see the top of highrises without sticking your head out the window, were VERY cold days!! And YES I am SERIOUS, my department actually CUT THE TOPS OFF of ALL the fire engines and ladder trucks they got in the 60's per the Fire Chiefs orders! We called him 'hi-rise shorty' because he was obsessed about highrises and was only 5'2" tall!

David S
David S
Joined: 6 Dec 05
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RE: RE: @David : Well

Quote:
Quote:
@David : Well done for running the shebang without any bangs ! Also heaters only ever work when you don't need them to. There's a similar principle in banking. :-)

Yes it was wasn't it! And I too have found that to be true about heaters and banking. The old days of open top fire engines, so you could see the top of highrises without sticking your head out the window, were VERY cold days!! And YES I am SERIOUS, my department actually CUT THE TOPS OFF of ALL the fire engines and ladder trucks they got in the 60's per the Fire Chiefs orders! We called him 'hi-rise shorty' because he was obsessed about highrises and was only 5'2" tall!


Thanks, guys, and LOL about heaters and banks.

They're still saying somewhere around 60F this Saturday, but at least it should be sunny. (Which is a problem late in the day when the sun is right in your face for the part of the loop with lots of tight curves and switches, and going into the yard.)

Winning!

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

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