On July 4, we drove to Ashland, OR and saw Misner & Smith in concert. It was 107 degrees in the Sacramento Valley during our drive, so we had the air conditioner on most of the way. We found that the AC slowed us down far more than the trailer. Aside from an occasional […]
Guppy trailer, part 5: 1000-mile test Read More »
At last, after a month of fabrication, I was able to assemble the parts on the morning of June 23, 2013. Strangely, it began to rain that day and drizzled off and on for the next two days–something I have never seen in California in June! But I had varnished so many of the components
Guppy trailer, part 4: assembled Read More »
I have been cranking away on the trailer as fast as I can, so I am inserting this blog post after-the fact. This page describes the fabrication of the components. Here is the left sidewall, under construction in our living-room. A few things visible in this image: 1) On my dad’s advice I sanded the
Guppy Trailer, Part 3: fabricating the components Read More »
The next task was to design the Guppy cabin itself. A rib-and-skin scheme, infilled with rigid insulation and overlaid with thin sheet aluminum (0.24 ga, if I can manage it) seems like the lightest overall design. I started with 1/2″ marine ply sheets, to be cut into 1.5″ wide curved ribs. Below is my first
Guppy Trailer, part 2: cutting the ribs Read More »
This summer Lizzie wants to go on a grand-loop road-trip around the U.S. with the kids. We have thought about various ways to do this, and we have decided upon building a teardrop-type trailer which we will tow behind our VW Golf (a.k.a. Glove). Why? 1. We need something convenient to camp in. At first
Guppy Trailer, part 1: the basic concept Read More »
Ananda Lee Tan referred me to current critique of environmental discourse: Bill McKibben sounding the Rational-Protestant alarm of Doom & Gloom, and three rebuttals to his argument–not refutations of threat of climate change, but of the finger-wagging rhetoric of McKibben which is so unlikely to motivate the broad spectrum of Americans into adjusting our lives
Making sustainability awesome Read More »
On Saturday, July 7, Amy and Gary had their fantastic barbecue picnic. On Sunday they got married at St. Gregory’s. Here I am posting pictures I took during the service, for all to enjoy but especially for Amy and Gary to download:
Baker-Landis wedding Read More »
Anyone who has gone to church, synagogue, mosque, or any regularly-scheduled meeting over the last twenty years has encountered the irritating interruption of cell-phone ringing. Yesterday such an embarrassing event disrupted the NY Philharmonic’s performance at the Lincoln Center. It occurred to me several years ago that most of these appalling interruptions are entirely preventable.
Appeal for “Sheduled Ring” on mobiles Read More »
Thank you to all of you who wished me Happy Birthday by various 21st-century means! At Lizzie’s strong encouraging we took a 3-day road trip to Tahoe. Of course we did not check the news to discover that Tahoe is about as snow-free as San Francisco at the moment–actually that became front-page news the day
Birthday in South Lake Tahoe Read More »
Today Gabriel and his friend Clark learned a powerful lesson. We were at the local park, throwing tennis balls, when the fellow who was on the other side of the wall remarked that he had found two baby birds on the tennis court. He looked up into the nearest tree, but there was no visible
A bird in the hand Read More »