whatcha doing?

[Bigshankhank]

an MTBS reaction channel?

Kind of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 format, with your shadow in the foreground busting his balls.

[DerGolgo]

Waiting to see whether the "rocket wrench" that the most experienced UXB chap has decided they should use can pull the fuse out of the unexploded 1,000 lbs bomb they found less than 4,000 feet from where I'm sitting, typing this, will do the job.
Or whether I have to find a new optometrist (my present optometrist is in front of who's shop they found the thing, in the downtown shopping district).
Time to defusal attempt: 45 minutes.

EDIT: It's just past 6pm. If they are going as planned, they are doing it right this minute.
I'm not worried about my safety, not in the last.
But you better believe it, I'm wearing pants.

[red]

But you better believe it, I'm wearing pants.

I hope they are brown pants.

[DerGolgo]

But you better believe it, I'm wearing pants.

I hope they are brown pants.

Nope, black.
Also, the bomb disposal was successful. Took them no less than three attempts with the rocket wrench.
The device was an "acid fuse", actually containing a vial of acetone and a set of cellulose discs that some unit armorer chose at random. When unearthed, the temperature changes, stuff is agitated, oxygen gets in there. Stuff happens.
Even when undisturbed, these things will sometimes spontaneously detonate, there's about two of those going off someplace in Germany every year. Though not so big.
This one had a special locking device, or anti-handling device, to prevent the detonator being removed from the rest of the bomb. British and German bomb designers had a terrifying contest about that, making bombs that wouldn't explode on impact but at an unpredictable time later. Thus closing down a street, a factory, whatever, until it was defused or detonated.
Even though the bomb was sitting in the middle of the downtown shopping district. Right outside the door of the very optometrist who fitted the reading glasses I'm wearing right at this moment. The option of detonating the thing in-situ was not off the table. Removal was very tricky, and it was likely to spontaneously go off at any moment.

British 1,000 lbs. GP bomb. The weight would be the weight of the whole thing so what, 500, 600 lbs. of explosive filling? Something like that. Amatol. Which is a mixture of TNT and Ammonium-Nitrate. The former doesn't have enough oxygen for all the other stuff in there, and the latter has more oxygen than it knows what to do with. Mixed together, the brisance will be lower than with TNT, higher than with pure Ammonium-Nitrate. But the explosive energy will be greater than for either on its lonesome, on account of the extra oxygen out of the detonating AN reacting with all the carbon and nitrogen and things out of the TNT.

The chances that I, indoors, would have been injured by shockwave, blastwave, or debris, was quite zero. Most of the 4,000 or so feet between me and the bomb's location is obstructed view, filled with buildings. Concrete or brick, no wooden structures. The street the bomb was on has comparatively tall buildings on either side of a narrow pedestrian street, the latter sloped in a direction pointing about 90° away from me. So I might have been startled by the bang. But that would have been it. The ceiling in my apartment is solid, it has killed. A. Hilti.
No joke. Trying to hang a lamp, the Hilti in good working order and operated by an experienced operator. Dead within the minute. The building is post-war, with walls filled with rubble-brick. The concrete frame, though, seems to have been made from leftover air-raid-shelter-concrete. So a most fitting four layers of protection between me and the gabled roof that any debris would have had to penetrate.

[Bigshankhank]

Well it’s not every morning you are out walking your dogs and stumble upon the dead body of one of your neighbors in their driveway. That was pretty unusual.

[DerGolgo]

Well it’s not every morning you are out walking your dogs and stumble upon the dead body of one of your neighbors in their driveway. That was pretty unusual.

Care to elaborate?
Natural causes, accident, or foul play?

[Bigshankhank]

Well it’s not every morning you are out walking your dogs and stumble upon the dead body of one of your neighbors in their driveway. That was pretty unusual.

Care to elaborate?
Natural causes, accident, or foul play?

Lying on his back in the driveway, blood (congealed by the time we found him) pooled beneath his ear. Cold and stiff, probably been like that for a few hours, the sheriffs deputies who arrived on scene with the ambulance didn’t seem to think there was a crime involved. If I had to guess he had been standing on the front bumper of his Jeep and slipped.

[Jaeger]

Well it’s not every morning you are out walking your dogs and stumble upon the dead body of one of your neighbors in their driveway. That was pretty unusual.

Care to elaborate?
Natural causes, accident, or foul play?

Lying on his back in the driveway, blood (congealed by the time we found him) pooled beneath his ear. Cold and stiff, probably been like that for a few hours, the sheriffs deputies who arrived on scene with the ambulance didn’t seem to think there was a crime involved. If I had to guess he had been standing on the front bumper of his Jeep and slipped.

--Jaeger

[Bigshankhank]

The chances that I, indoors, would have been injured by shockwave, blastwave, or debris, was quite zero. Most of the 4,000 or so feet between me and the bomb's location is obstructed view, filled with buildings. Concrete or brick, no wooden structures. The street the bomb was on has comparatively tall buildings on either side of a narrow pedestrian street, the latter sloped in a direction pointing about 90° away from me. So I might have been startled by the bang. But that would have been it. The ceiling in my apartment is solid, it has killed. A. Hilti.
No joke. Trying to hang a lamp, the Hilti in good working order and operated by an experienced operator. Dead with the minute. The building is post-war, with walls filled with rubble-brick. The concrete frame, though, seems to have been made from leftover air-raid-shelter-concrete. So a most fitting four layers of protection between me and the gabled roof that any debris would have had to penetrate.

I am sorry to have overlooked this post, by the way. Post war reconstruction efforts fascinate me, seeing as I am in the construction industry professionally.

[DerGolgo]

I am sorry to have overlooked this post, by the way. Post war reconstruction efforts fascinate me, seeing as I am in the construction industry professionally.

To concisely describe the difference in approach between here and in your part of the world:
When I watched Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp, and the construction workers happen upon the buried vampire-coffin, when the digger shovel went into the ground and something made "ding".
The dialogue was something like: "We've hit something!" and "Let's dig it up then!".
And my initial reaction was "Oh, come on, bad writing. No construction worker would be that stupid ... "
And it took me a moment to figure out that, no, actually, in New England, construction workers would not expect to dig up unexploded bombs and things.

Also regarding reconstruction: While the ceilings, the areas around the windows, and around some of the doors are impenetrable even to the attentions of a Hilti in experienced hands - I can just about put a finger through most of the remaining walls in my apartment.
No, seriously. That rubble-brick is shit, and not the good kind. Concrete frame, filled in with bricks actually made from rubble, and the concrete either leftover from air-raid-shelter construction, or mixed up by guys who had learned their trade building such.

Fun fact about reconstruction: In total, across West Germany, more living space (apartment buildings etc.) was destroyed after the cessation of hostilities than by the bombings. If some part of town had already been damaged by bombing, or completely wiped out (as some were in places), the urban planners were delighted to "have room" they could use for the new main occupant of the post-war cities. The car.
So by the 1950s, huge swathes had been plowed through cities, tearing down many buildings that had been repairable, or had received only minor damage to begin with, and in many cases (until tenants were evicted for purposeful demolition) had housed people (urban planning not withstanding, there had been a housing shortage, obviously).

[DerGolgo]

So I come home from visiting a friend in the hospital today.
I'm at the door of my building, unlocking the front door, and behind me I hear the brup bupp bupp of a motorbike. "Twin, but one that revs" was my immediate diagnosis.
As I open the door, the noise passes by right behind me. I turn, and what do I see?
Something like an SV650, an NT650, something bigger? A Duc, an Aprilia?

Nope.

Right behind me. Literally right behind me. As in less than one foot away, on the pavement.
A kid, one a minibike. Seriously. Whoever did the "sound design", set up the intake and exhaust mufflers, did a bang-up job. Close up, it sounded like a big bike.
The kid, judging by size no more than six or seven, seemed to be having fun, as far as I could tell that from behind.

He was operating a non-registered, non-road-legal motor vehicle, on the sidewalk, on the left side of the road, while being about 10 years too young for any class license, consequently missing such. I can't tell you how illegal operating a non-road-legal motor vehicle is on its own. Even someone with a license, riding circles in the supermarket parking lot, not on the road, would be breaking the law there.
Had a cop caught the kid, there'd be a reasonable chance that whoever gave the bike to the kid. Would be in court in short order.
But kid was having fun, and while not ATGATT, he was wearing a helmet that made him look a bit like Megamind, a bunch of sizes too large.
There's a kid that's gonna go places.
On two wheels.

While I didn't even like driving there, the side-streets in my neighborhood would be a death-trap for someone zooming by with his head at rearview-mirror height, max. Narrow, shit pavement, plenty of shade from buildings and trees, and every inch of legal, semi legal, and "who's gonna notice" legal parking spots filled with parked cars.
The cops aren't happy when they have to come to this neighborhood, I don't think I've ever seen them just "patrol" around here. Not that I don't see them here often enough, just never on "patrol" ...
On the main street that my door is on, sure. But if kid has the balls, and the stupid to take to the side streets, he could practice riding until he's old enough for a license. If he were to survive.

I just felt like sharing this. Today was a motorcyclish day.
I met the woman who told tall biker tales, see rants and rides, the kid breaking the law, breaking the law, ooph, ooph, breaking the law, and I visited a friend of mine in hospital. Who's in the neurology ward, stroke unit. I had to spend a bunch of time as a patient in neurology, often enough door to door, and a few times bed to bed, with stroke victims. For the obvious reason.
On the first beautiful, blue sky, 77°F day of the year.
Harumph.

[DerGolgo]

Updating my KSP install, and about 133 of the 216 mods I like, while watching rocket porn:

[Bigshankhank]

In light of Toys R Us closing it’s doors, the wife and I went on a pilgrimage to check them out one last time. And ended up spending an embarrassing amount of money on Nerf guns. For those who done know me, we are middle aged and we have no kids at home.

Once we returned home, we spent endless hours ambushing one another and building up secret caches of weapons and darts all over the place. I realize millennial couples would do such a thing as a prelude to energetic and exhausting bedroom hijinx, but referring back to the two of us being in our middle age years, sadly the gun battles themselves left us exhausted.

[problemaddict]

Hey GG, check in? But first, inspect your brake lines, please.

[DerGolgo]

Some of you may recall, not quite three months ago, I reported about a dud 1,000 lbs bomb that had been uncovered right outside the optometrist who fits my glasses, and how the downtown area, not 4,000 feet from me, was shut down for the defusing.

Since then, I twice thought "Huh, I should post an update". And immediately forgot, because it was no biggie.
As of late March, two months after the big thing mentioned above, two more bombs had been found within 1.5 miles of my apartment. The first one in a residential area on the other side of the Autobahn, a 500 lbs one of indeterminate origin. Just by weight of numbers, it was likely British. The warning from the civil-defense and disaster-relief office's app didn't specify.

The second one was in a mostly open area with some industry in it, mostly waste-heaps from coal-mining I believe. That one was a 500 lbs one, also, and that was identified as American. IIRC from my research, all the area raids here were Bomber Command, any 8th Air Force attacks were either on targets of opportunity, like when they had to turn back from the original target and just needed something to throw bombs at, or attacks on coal-gassification plants. For the latter, the location would make sense, near some coal mines. Curiously, the area today also has a biomass-gassification thermo-electric power-station. Where they make methane from potato-peels and suchlike and burn it. Some sort of synchronicity.

Neither were a big deal, and American bombs had simpler impact fuzes than British bombs, they didn't compete with Germany to make indefusable bombs like Britain did.

I only just remembered I had never posted that update. Because, seriously. No biggie. These things just get found. Likely, there's something unexploded within a few hundred feet of me. Possibly something enormous that could actually bust this block, though that'd be on the less-likely end of the spectrum (bigger bombs are more obvious when they bury themselves). The next time they fix a sewer or something, they might find one right underneath a spot I have stood on a thousand times. That's life here. No biggie.

Update concluded.

[guitargeek]

[media]https://youtu.be/3xQNxQxLFeM[/media]

[0l4fderstout]

I’m procrastinating on filling out my paperwork to start training in HVACR service. After the concussion/tbi,sitting at a computer pouring over security data and developing tools to report it became an impossibility. Though it means i have more impetus to ride often.

[Bigshankhank]

Writing a term paper. Holy fuck I haven't written a paper for a grade in 25 years, I forgot how much this process sucks.

[0l4fderstout]

Getting serious about an IBA SS1000. My original 2011 pair got sent but apparently were never received and I have since lost the paperwork from them. So I have 1027 miles sorted out and am looking at the farkles to make it a thing. (This is so much better supported now, stuff like the Spot transmitters and such can give you backup for incomplete data or jackass clerks that don't want to give gas receipts.) I kind of want to do it before school, so the clock is ticking.

[red]

I'm sitting in the Denver airport, waiting to fly home back to the land of allergens and high humidity.

[boz]

Finishing up a short week of work prior to Go Skateboarding Day (June 21st). Also nursing a sprained ankle so tomorrow I'll mostly be celebrating by pickling my innards. Le sigh.

[DerGolgo]

Finishing up a short week of work prior to Go Skateboarding Day (June 21st). Also nursing a sprained ankle so tomorrow I'll mostly be celebrating by pickling my innards. Le sigh.

Wishing you a good pickling, regardless!

[Bigshankhank]

So last night I presented my term paper at the culmination of my 1st class in my master degree program. I haven't written a paper for a grade since probably junior year of my bachelors degree, which would put it in about 1994, so this was a bit nerve wracking to see if I've still got it. As it so happens, I still got it. One class down, 23 more to go.

[DerGolgo]

So last night I presented my term paper at the culmination of my 1st class in my master degree program. I haven't written a paper for a grade since probably junior year of my bachelors degree, which would put it in about 1994, so this was a bit nerve wracking to see if I've still got it. As it so happens, I still got it. One class down, 23 more to go.

Well then?! Don't keep us all suspended like, we ain't bridges! What grade did you get?
I need some good news. I helped my nephew prepare for an oral exam in English. And he somehow managed to get the same D+ as his classmate who can barely enunciate any part of the English language. Had to give him the whole "Nobody will ever care what you had on your 10th grade report card. Nobody. Ever." speech.

[motorpsycho67]

Lying in bed sick the day before my birthday....

[0l4fderstout]

497. The total mileage yesterday ( I did the first leg state's American Legion Legacy Ride, which benefits kids who lost primary breadwinners in the years since 9/11 with stuff like tuition medical expenses.) I also ordered a new Mustang seat, because the seat pan on my Scout has a ridge where the tailbone sits and I feel like I've repeatedly been kicked in the back by Bruce Lee for a few hours. Hopefully the seat sorts it out. I have little doubt that I can do the Saddle Sore 1000 in less than 24 hours, on the planned route. (once they fix some roads in the UP, else I might need an Africa Twin or sommat to do it.)

[Bigshankhank]

Well then?! Don't keep us all suspended like, we ain't bridges! What grade did you get?
I need some good news. I helped my nephew prepare for an oral exam in English. And he somehow managed to get the same D+ as his classmate who can barely enunciate any part of the English language. Had to give him the whole "Nobody will ever care what you had on your 10th grade report card. Nobody. Ever." speech.

No idea, grades won’t come out till next week and given how addle-brained our professor was I am not even sure it’ll be that soon.

[SECO]

Did a couple hundred mile run looking for cool, moist, non scorched mountains to be in for awhile. Colorado summer. Lake Isabel. Went home to visit with out of town visitors, and service the Africa twin. Business tomorrow, then ride to Salida in a couple days to see Hayduke. Waiting to be gainfully unemployed to tour the US.

[problemaddict]

I made another episode on my YouTube channel. Trying out the "one take" style of car reviews. This one on my 1970 MGB roadster. So, if you like vintage british cars, bad lighting, poor audio, and disjointed editing, check it out!

[media]https://youtu.be/XcLa8r_DdSo[/media]

[wyckedsin]

reflecting on a trend...that it seems when life has thrown me to the bottom of the deepest pothole, I find my way back here...so i spent a little bit of time reflecting on what has happened about the Place. Sad my good byes to another member of the community and then said some words to others who had gone before. It is kind of sad really, I was looking for an image from an old hdd when I came across artwork for Fastcat, which of course prompted me to see if I could even remember my login and password for here. It seemed to have worked, because here I am again.