Mister Sparkly Countertop!

A project I've been working on for awhile in fits and starts is a fiber optic light countertop. I bought an offcut of solid surface from Floform (I'm not sure the brand or colour). I fabricated it into a vanity for our bathroom, to replace some old butcher block laminate. After drilling about 150 1mm holes, I painstakingly glued each fiber in place, then sanded the top smooth. It looks pretty cool! I'm marketing these through my business if you're interested in buying one! Mister Sparkly Countertop

Solar Eclipse 2017

Ken and Bev from All-Star Telescope invited us to join them in Casper for the Solar Eclipse. They booked the hotel two years ago! It was a good excuse to see them and some other family and mutual friends as well. August 21 was a warm, clear day. We arrived at the site by 10am and watched others setting up cameras and telescopes.

Using camping supplies we had handy, Michelle followed NASA's pinhole camera instructions, and together with the kids we had made 3 boxes for safely viewing the sun. They worked well! Even the seasoned astronomers took a peek!

Our viewing site was on the lawn of a Medical Center, and a couple of nurses came out to see what was happening.

Kate drew a picture on her dry-erase board to show the first nip that the moon took out of the sun:

Here's a picture of the group while it's still bright out, and then again as it gets darker. As totality approached at about 11:42am, the temperature dropped, the mosquitoes came out, the streetlights went on, and there was a 360 degree sunset!

There were only a couple of moments of totality. Time passed very quickly. I tried to enjoy it but also took a few pictures of both the eclipse and also the group, and missed the "diamond ring effect" at the end while I was fiddling with my camera settings. As the sun slipped back into its usual bright eye-blinding self, cheers erupted from the group. It was indeed an awesome spectacle to witness together.

Here is a "pinhole picture" from a sheet of cardboard on which Bev drew the number 2017 with pinholes. It was difficult to photograph the suns on a second sheet of paper, but by bringing up the contrast you can see the moons easily! Happy Eclipse Chasing everybody!

Devil's Kitchen

Well, as you can see, our car topper made it to Wyoming (see previous post--by the way, it worked well; gas mileage did suffer a bit but not too crazy). We camped at a KOA in Greybull with our friends from Denver. One day we did a daytrip to see some nearby falls, and the Devil's Kitchen (see photo). I'm not sure what was he was cooking up--something green and slimy? We also visited a Dinosaur Track site and walked over some real tracks in the rock. Then after a few days we drove to Casper, which is the subject of my next post!

Car topper

Last time we went camping at Chilliwack Lake, we took my pickup truck...and everything and everyone fit comfortably. However for a longer journey the car makes more sense. Except that the four of us will not fit in there too comfortably with all of our camping stuff (I don't know how my family did it when I was in highschool. I remember a week trip up the Island with 4 of us in a small hatchback).

The obvious solution is to put some stuff on top of the car. I found some nice roofracks on Craigslist for $125. That was as much as I was willing to spend, however, and decided that for this trip, a home-made car-topper would do.

It had to be aerodynamic, somewhat waterproof, light, and secure. I'm fairly happy with the end result, but the real test will come tomorrow when we go road-tripping!

The box is made of some old 1x4s someone gave me for free (cedar I think), some scraps of 1/4" plywood I had, and a wee bit of hardware (some U bolts for the front and some zap-straps for the back). Malachi helped me paint it. I call it the "Thule: Almost" box. I also added another piece of plywood (not pictured) angled at the front to further deflect the wind.