Grinwithoutacat.com

WARNING

We are now switching to “family” mode – all pictures below are of my Grandmother’s 90th birthday party (at least the one I attended – I think she had quite a few the past week).

If any of you relatives want copies of these you can do the following:

Right-click and select “copy” – this will get you the low resolution version of the picture.

Send an e-mail to vaxcrasher@marlowfamily.net and tell me what pictures you want high-resolution copies of. There is a number in the title bar of each photo – just reference that number. Let me know if you want an e-mail, a download link or printout – I’ll send whatever you want. If you ask for a printout you stand a very good chance of getting an 8×10 as I haven’t figured out how to print more than one picture on a page.

Send me an e-mail and ask for a CD with everything on it – I’ll burn one and mail it to you.

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From everything I’ve heard this is trouble going way back.

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Grandma’s First (ok, Second) ride in a Cadillac!

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Is this just disgustingly cute or what?

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Well, that’s it for the party – drop me a note if you want copies (see above).

Jim

Today is the actual celebration of Grandma’s birthday and, since The Barge and I are providing Chauffer services, it’s back to Columbus (just ask me why I’m staying in Fremont – I dare you!).

For those non-relatives out there, the next few pictures are of interest, then I’ll be switching to “family” mode – you can look at everything if you want, but I’ll be leaving off the witty repartee (ok, I’m cutting it back – there will still be some, but it will be mostly inside “family” stuff).

Obligatory Cop Car Photo

I had to go out to run an errand Saturday morning and I made sure I took the camera. As I was driving around I ran across this scene and realized that I left the obligatory “cop” photo out of my Washington DC trip (aiming things at the police in DC would probably be a bad idea anyway). However, I thought I could make up for that lapse by providing this picture – a Fremont cop in action! Not only that, but I had to hang a U-turn to take this picture (no comments about my sanity, please).

Note the lack of a URL on the bumper…

Bungee!

Approaching the booming metropolis of North Bend (you remember that from above, right?) I came up on this example of automotive excellence. I followed it for about a mile (slowly) before noticing exactly what was holding on the right exhaust pipe – a Bungee Cord!

Look closely – you can see the strap running up from the right exhaust pipe to the top edge of the tailgate – see click the picture for more details.

Closer…

Getting closer…

No-Name Hangout of the Skinny Skeleton

And here we are – back at the no-name bar with a skeleton riding a chopper!

Look closely and you will see two things – the pumpkin in the bench is now sporting a hole and Mr Bones is holding a flag (the red banner behind the handlebars). Perhaps he’s feeling a bit Communist today?

Ready for more detail?

Aaaahhhhh

Ahh, it all becomes clear – it’s Arlie’s Bar! And that whacky Arlie has “Polka with Leo and a Costume Party” planned for Sunday evening – too bad I’ll be back in Dallas by then.

Arlie’s Offerings

Not only is Polka available, but Arlie’s sportin’ a “Flavor of the Week”. John (you know if you’re the right “John”), does this sign remind you of anything?

Mr Bones

And here’s Mr Bones (Bone Daddy to you) again – he looks like he’s had a bit of a rough night.

More Mr. Bones

And this explains it – he’s a Husker’s fan, poor guy…

For that matter, I suspect the Pumpkin of being one, too – it’s also looking a bit rough.

Got in around 2:30 and went to retrieve our barge from the rental car agency. I’ve traveled enough that Avis now treats me quasi-respectably (certainly sir, you can have the Cavalier instead of the Metro) and they also made the mistake of sending me a “25% off anything you rent for the rest of the year” coupon. My first inclination was to grab something cool, but then I remembered this is Omaha, and there’s no such thing as a cool car here – so I asked for the biggest Cadillac they had. Then I discovered the upside of the situation – it’s costing me a whopping $80 for two and a half days!

Anyway, it was a good decision – I’m providing transportation for Grandma tomorrow to the “official” event and she informed me this evening that she had never ridden in a Cadillac – bingo! The Barge has just made itself a welcome member of the group!

I drove out to Columbus (where she lives – 40 miles from Fremont) to meet her and my parents for dinner – and passed the following worthy photo op:

Extra Skinny Biker

I spotted this fellow in North Bend, Nebraska (a booming metropolis of 1,230 souls?). In fact, I spotted him, managed to make “the barge” hang a U-turn (not hard, believe it or not) and went back for a quick photo. Yes, this really is a skeleton wearing shades on a “chopper” of some sort.

I’m not sure why this isn’t in focus – maybe because I wasn’t exactly comfortable taking a picture of the decorations of a biker bar in the middle of nowhere. However, I’ll be going back through there tomorrow (lucky me!) and I’ll try to get a better shot without, umm, getting shot (sorry – couldn’t resist that one).

Extra Skinny Biker Bar

Here’s another shot – to get a bit more “atmosphere.” Note that the bar is open, but doesn’t exactly have one of those “name” thingies.

Well, that’s all for the day – more to come tomorrow probably, although it will mostly be family stuff. Then again, if you know my family…

Today I’m going to the National Museum of American History and then do some constructive wandering around – maybe taking in the National Archives, the Capitol and The Library of Congress. I’ll also be doing a bit of ducking and weaving – gotta stay out of the sniper’s sights.

So, here we go…

September 11 Exhibit

The first exhibit I went to was the September 11 one. I only took one shot (again, it seemed weird taking pictures of something like this) and my single shot really didn’t come out that well. What you see above is the center of the exhibit – a small montage made up of a fire truck door and a few twisted beams from the World Trade Center. Off to the right is another piece of beam that sits outside of the rail and is obviously meant to be touched. The top part is already worn smooth and polished – and you are very much drawn to it (yes, I did touch it – a very, very strange sensation).

More Steam Engines!

The basement was just full of steam engines – heaven as far as I’m concerned! However, I ran into the usual issues with low light photography, as well as the fact that most of the engines were black-on-black with a lot more black around them. The picture above is one of the smaller ones, and a shot that cleaned up a bit better than most.

Tina, I apologize – I got tired of looking at engine pictures and just didn’t get any more in – can you forgive me?

Steam Tractor

Here is a nice steam tractor (no it’s not an engine – I got the whole bit of machinery). Imagine driving this thing around trying to plow a field – just what I wanted, a plowing bomb!

Steam Tractor

And the back of the tractor – nice and simple, right? Also, how would you like to run this thing on a warm summer day? No a/c here!

Archie Bunker’s Chair

The obligatory shot of Archie Bunker’s chair. I like the beer can on the table – it says “Beer” – or maybe “Quality Beer” – nothing else.

The Famous Ruby Slippers

Katy, I know you will kill me for this, but I’m posting the shot anyway – look what I found!

So, you need to take a long lunch, run down to the NMAH and take a look – the ruby slippers are in town for the moment!

For the rest of you, these are the ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in the original Wizard of Oz. You can’t tell from my crappy photo, but they are really just covered with shiny red sequins (ahh, the romance…).

It’s an Enigma

A couple of the Enigma machines used by the Germans in WWII. The Allies were able to break these in a number of interesting ways, mostly involving early digital computers and strategic raids on u-boats or other military targets to get the code books.

Interestingly enough, the Enigma (and many other cryptographic systems) were designed with the assumption that the enemy could get a copy of the machine quite easily. Therefore, actual code books and settings were much more important than the machines themselves.

Part of the ENIAC

A portion of the original ENIAC – one of the first digital computers. Note that I said “portion” – this thing was spread along three different walls and took up a considerable amount of space. I work with computers every day, but I’m still amazed at how far things have come – my camera has more power and memory than this big beast.

UNIVAC

A nice ad for a UNIVAC. You have to love a computer that is the furniture instead of just sitting on it!

IBM 650

And an IBM 650 – the display describes this as “The first business computer” – how would you like to have to use this beast?

Note the punch card reader to the right – it’s slightly bigger than your average photocopier.

Now this is what I call hardware!

Apple I and Altair 8800

Moving right along, we come to the original Apple computer and an ALTAIR 8800 – arguably the parents of the computers we all use today. I actually learned to program on an Apple II – not too far away from the Apple you see above, although not in the cool wood case.

And yes, I am a card-carrying Geek!

Heavy Loot

A really big coin – about 2.5 feet across. I wonder, is it good or bad to have one of these – maybe that’s how people got change from their taxes or something.

You have to wonder about a civilization that uses money like this but, then again, ours mostly consists of invisible magnetic charges in computers we never see, so maybe they had the right idea – keep your money where you can see it (and trip over it of course).

US Capitol (closeup)

I took a lot of shots of the Capitol (it’s hard to miss in DC) but this is probably my favorite one. This is shot from the front lawn on the House of Representatives side. Next time, I’ll plan ahead a bit more and tour the inside (you have to get up pretty early to get tickets).

The Mall

And, finally, a shot of the mall and the Washington Monument from the steps of the Capitol.

You will note that I didn’t get any pictures of either the Archives or the Library of Congress – the Archives were closed (bummer) and I just didn’t find anything in the Library that they would let me photograph (they have cool stuff like Gutenberg Bibles, but you can’t take pictures of them).

Well, that’s the trip – hope you enjoyed the pictures. I didn’t get shot and I had a very good time in DC thanks to Tina and Katy.

Jim

Today I made went to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and then made a short trip to the National Gallery of Art (the modern wing). I also learned yet another thing about my camera – you have to remember to charge the damn battery! Because of that, you will miss some of my scintillating photography of old airplanes.

National Air and Space Museum – Entrance Hall

Part of the entrance to the National Air and Space Museum. This has to be the neatest museum I have ever been in – I just love mechanical stuff and they have the biggest and best of most of it.

I’m just going to do some highlights – I took over 100 pictures, but a lot of them are various angles of the same thing – and the “thing” tends to be an old engine, part of an airplane, etc. If you want all the shots drop me a note.

Spirit of St. Louis

The Spirit of St. Louis – also in the entrance gallery. In case you haven’t been there, the place is HUGE!

Space Thingie

The bottom of one of the space capsules (either a Gemini or Apollo). It’s big, but not that big – I’m not sure I would want to ride around the planet a few times in this thing, much les come back through the atmosphere in it!

Space Thingie – Inside Shot

And a shot of the inside – what there is of it anyway.

I am amused by the fact that the camera I’m using to take these pictures probably has more processing power, and certainly more memory, than this whole spacecraft!

Now This is an Engine!

Another engine – this time a Liberty V12 from WWI. Remember the Holy Grail of Beer? This engine displaces about 24 of those beers!

Obligatory Artsy Shot

And an artsy shot of a single cylinder of another radial engine. Don’t ask why – I just liked this…

Glenn Curtiss’ Motorcycle

Glenn Curtiss was a bit of a nut case – he built this beast (yes, that is a V8 in a motorcycle) in 1906!

Whittle Jet Engine

One of the earliest British jet engines – from the beginning of WWII (in case you missed the “1941″ on the sign below it). I’d hate to be around this thing when it lit off!

Heinkel Jet Engine

The Germans were working on the same thing…

ME 262

… Although they actually managed to build an airplane around it. This is an ME262E – the jet fighter used in small numbers by the Germans at the end of WWII. This was considerably faster than the average piston powered fighter plane of the day and I’ve even read that one may have exceeded the speed of sound in a dive, although there is no real evidence of that feat.

Either way, these planes were fast and powerful, but as was typical, Herr Hitler decided to change the way they were used and screwed things up royally (thank the Gods for dictators and tyrants without a sense of reality).

Achtung!

And don’t you forget – Nicht Schleppen!

Moon Lander

On to something newer – a moon lander!

Soviet Stuff

David – here’s your CCCP!

I think this was a part of SkyLab, which I remember coming back to earth.

Soviet Capsule

Look familiar – but maybe a bit strange? That’s because it’s Russian, not American. Hmmmmm…

V2

A German V2 rocket – the basis for a lot of nasty stuff developed by the Americans and Russians over the next 50 years.

V2 Engine

And it’s engine!

Ok, ok – I’ll stop with the engines…

Goddard Rocket

Ross – here’s one for you – a copy of the original Goddard rocket.

A Z3!

I just couldn’t pass this one up…

Vax

I swear, I had nothing to do with this. Please send me an email and tell me you believe me – the address is vaxcrasher@marlowfamily.net.

Calder Sculpture

I got the camera back to life long enough to take one shot in the National Gallery of Art. This is an Alexander Calder wire sculpture that hangs in a semi-circular niche. The photo really doesn’t do it justice – the movement of the sculpture and the interplay of the shadows is actually very cool.

Well, that’s it for the day – photos of the National Museum of American History and a few other things tomorrow.