Farmers Market

went to the farmers market in downtown St. Petersburg.  The St. Pete version includes lots of fast food and a jazz band with lots of downtown people and dogs.  There were a couple of stands that had actual green veggies.  Perhaps the freezing cold killed all the vegetables and that was the reason why there were so few  farm related stands. 

I did get to see all the boats at the municipal marina.  Man, there are a lot of them.  The municipality allows only boat owners and escorted guests on the docks so I could not get a close look at some of the boats.  I think you could spend all day on the docks.

After we returned, the rain started.  Not real heavy rain but rain nonetheless.  I took a nap & so did SAM. End-of-day

Today at the beach

We went again to the Gulfport beach and enjoyed the somewhat warmer sun that seems to appear around 1400 hrs local.  We got a good 1.5 hours and a slight burn.  I think this is good and we will be sun hardened in a few days.  After the beach we drove all the way to Indian Shoures and then Clearwater where we exited and took 49th Street back.

I sent for free tickets to the Swedish SS Gunilla that will be arriving here in a few days.  My birthday will be spent on tour of the 195′ tall ship.  Pretty cool.  Speaking of sailboats – there is one that has sunk just off of Gulfport Beach.  Wierd as it has been down for two days and there is no activity around it at all.  It must be in about 20′ of water as the mast is sticking out about 20-30′.

PFC: A Little Old-School Knowledge

Power Factor Correction: Boring for anyone not interested in Power Factor of AC power.

 PFC: A Little Old-School Knowledge.

Pigeon Impossible

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEjUAnPc2VA

Jerry & Caroline

[singlepic id=133 w=320 h=240 float=left]We spent most of Saturday on Jerry & Caroline’s boat boat out on the river.  We enjoyed the outing.  Today we returned but the wind was too high and so we just looked at boats and went to West Marine to drool and talk of upgrade plans.  Specifically, we discussed modifying alternators for external 3 stage charging as relates to Jerry’s boat.

Later we drove to Martha’s but she was not at home so we made some soop and started washing the clothes.  End of weekend.

Martha’s

I spent all day at Martha’s working on the computer. I installed XPSP3 and the new AVG 9.x. This took a long time. This morning I put her Hotmail account on Outlook so all her emails come into Outlook. There seems to be a persistent virus on the computer that keeps coming back – something to work on later.

The Walk

I was at the airport by 0945 waiting for the General Partner to show up for the “Hangar Walk Through” for this winter. It is about 1/2 mile of walking in and out of each hangar at the airport to check of contraband articles – like avgas in open containers, electrical heaters that are just running & running , etc. We found one heater running blowing hot air into an engine compartment. That is about $20 per month just for one heater. As usual there was a controversy or two. Two doors had been re-keyed and we could not get inside. Also, one the renters is a bit petulant. However, all-in-all everything was pretty good this winter.  The winter is about half over and I am ready for warmer weather. 

The General Partner told me that electricity usage was double what the previous month was and I attribute this to the cold weather plus the electric heater I mentioned above.  The cold weather was a factor because we have two hangars that have Propane heat and the air blowers are on a lot in cold weather.

Google China cyberattack part of vast espionage campaign

 Link to complete The Washington Post article.

Computer attacks on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States, security experts said….

Want to pay $4/gal?

You can do something about it. Listen to this link http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1847353721?bctid=61485469001
and then go to http://www.pickensplan.com/petition .
Make a difference!

Excellent Vid on Flight 1549

Think of yourself piloting a big airplane and then watch this video (there is audio later).

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE_5eiYn0D0&feature=player_embedded