davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2024

[Alliecat]

That’s a neat counter. Maybe you should be making and selling miniatures instead of trying to sell some of those dolls and figures.

[davidd]

4 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Volatile Organic Compounds: Janie says Oil-Based Stain is the Only Option

for a Project Like This

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5 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Swabbing the Deck: Triv gets busy with a brush

[Alliecat]

I'm a volatile organic

Must be getting a bit late in the year for staining, isn't it? Well, you are nearly done the project, so yay.

[davidd]

6 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Triv and Janie do some fancy cuttin' to fit a plank in to a funky corner during the deck replacement project.

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7 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Working hard across the ages: While working on the deck replacement project, Janie and Triva find "debitage," lithic (stone) flakes
left behind by ancient tool-makers. Nomadic tribes, including Paiute and the mysterious Anasazi,
regularly passed through this area between 500 and 5,000 years ago.

"Kinda cool... and kinda spooky... to think that somebody was working on a project on this
exact same spot hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of years ago, isn't it?"

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8 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Janie and Triv look over the pile of old deck planks they have removed.

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9 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Janie and Triv drape a plastic tarp over the second load of lumber for the deck replacement project.

[Alliecat]

More lumber? Thought with the stain that you might be nearly done.

While working on the deck replacement project, Janie and Triva find "debitage," lithic (stone) flakes
left behind by ancient tool-makers. Nomadic tribes, including Paiute and the mysterious Anasazi,
regularly passed through this area between 500 and 5,000 years ago.

Whaat. That is really cool. I love things where you get a sense of people who lived there in the past, going about their lives... Is that a common thing for you to find in the area?

[davidd]

I love things where you get a sense of people who lived there in the past, going about their lives...  Is that a common thing for you to find in the area?

Yes. This area appears to have been a frequently-used camping site. Stone flakes with marks from pressure flaking or "knapping" are common finds on the ground.

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10 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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BEGoths Veronica Despair with Old Books

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Bleeding Edge Goths: Veronica Despair poses with three rare 1890s science fiction novels by Edward Douglas Fawcett (brother of early 1900s Amazon ex-plorer Percy Fawcett): “The Secret of the Desert,” “Swallowed by an Earthquake,” and “Hartmann the Anarchist.”

[Alliecat]

Wow, you have 1890s sci-fi books? Cool. Are they good stories?

[davidd]

Wow, you have 1890s sci-fi books? Cool. Are they good stories?

I've only read "The Secret of the Desert" so far. I liked it a lot. It's more of an adventure yarn with sci-fi tech elements (speculative fiction for the era, at least) rather than a straight "science fiction" novel.

I've read snippets of "Hartmann the Anarchist."

"Swallowed by an Earthquake" appears to be the least common of the three. It has taken me quite a number of years to finally "complete the set."

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11 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Bratz Selfie-Snaps Yasmin

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Bratz Selfie-Snaps Yasmin watches a desert sunrise; or, she uses a desert sunrise as an opportunity for a "selfie." I mean, it's in her name, right?

[Alliecat]

Sunrise! Someone's up early!!
Sheez, I'm just going to bed

[davidd]

Sunrise!  Someone's up early!

Sunrise is occurring significantly later these days.

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12 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Swabbing the Deck... Again

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Oil-based penetrating wood stain has a tendency to "weep" or "sweat" or "seep" for a day or three after being applied, necessitating periodic wiping with a disposable rag to avoid sticky spots that fail to properly dry.

[Alliecat]

Wow, that sounds tedious. I just put weatherproofing on mine, and probably should again… Just brush it on and forget it. Not going to happen this year though, hopefully won’t need to.

Sunrise is always early in my world!

[davidd]

Sunrise is always early in my world!

Did you see Comet A3 a couple of weeks ago, since you are usually still awake during the hour before sunrise? I was not able to spot it before sunrise, but it was visible tonight (and briefly last night) shortly after sunset.

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13 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Radio Days (or Nights)

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Today while I was attending to random chores and tasks a memory popped in to my mind from my middle school / junior high years about listening to the radio. A depressing memory, 'natch, as my memories from that era tend to be.

In those days the popular radio station among junior high and high school students was a contemporary rock music station called KZEL. KZEL was not a Top 40 station, it tended toward... I don't even know what the style was called. Significantly less commercial than Top 40. Maybe it was AOR (Album Oriented Rock), but I'm not sure.

Today I found myself thinking about the time I decided to try listening to KZEL. I wasn't in to rock music. I wasn't really in to any music. Sometimes I used to play 78rpm records from the 1930s and 1940s on an old radio-phonograph at my grandparents' house. I knew more about Spike Jones & His City Slickers than I did about whatever rock and pop groups were current.

I was an exceptionally un-cool kid.

For a couple of weeks I tried to learn how to be cool by listening to KZEL while doing my homework, or if I didn't have any homework, while sitting at my desk in my room doodling randomly with Flair felt-tip markers.

In the evenings KZEL played more obscure music than they did during the day. I think the phrase today is "deep cuts," rarely played songs from albums that were popular, mixed in with tracks from more obscure groups.

I remember going to school and trying to talk to some of my... friends? Acquaintances? To some of the people I knew who were definitely more cool than I was, people who listened to KZEL.

My attempts to break the Cool Barrier failed to overcome my inherent squaresville drippiness.

I also remember when a lot of radios still had vacuum tubes. Most radios had transistors or solid state circuitry, but some older radios had tubes. The tubes would emit a warm glow, like a dim lightbulb, from the back of the radio.

Today, tube radios (or "amplifiers" and "receivers") are held in high regard by "audiophiles" and can be quite ex-pensive.

(Image: 1/6-scale dollhouse diorama)



13 October - A Doll A Day 2024

P.S.: I know some forum members are interested in such things -- I just came in from looking at Comet A3 from my back porch. Pretty decent view tonight; somewhat faint and not totally sharp due to atmospheric haze, lingering twilight, and bright moon, but definitely visible almost directly to the east, with a distinct nucleus and a long tail pointing straight upward.

[Alliecat]

Ha! I was out last night and saw it! Two shows in a week – Thursday night was out from 11:30 to 4 a.m. for a fabulous northern light show. Nobody crazy enough to be out on the lighthouse point at 2 a.m. so I had it all to myself. It was wonderful. Also freezing though. Dang, why didn’t I think to take a doll.
The comet was very low and a bit hard to see with the naked eye but showed up pretty well with the camera. Still have to get the photos off it. Cloudy tonight.
[K wait… east???  ]

The photo comments brought back memories of the many many hours I spent listening to the radio in my teens. I would listen to the top five every night, and top 40… I remember trying for ages to tape a favourite song and being frustrated every single time by the idjit dj cutting off the end of it.

[davidd]

Ha! I was out last night and saw it! Two shows in a week – Thursday night was out from 11:30 to 4 a.m. for a fabulous northern light show. Nobody crazy enough to be out on the lighthouse point at 2 a.m. so I had it all to myself. It was wonderful. Also freezing though. Dang, why didn’t I think to take a doll.
The comet was very low and a bit hard to see with the naked eye but showed up pretty well with the camera. Still have to get the photos off it. Cloudy tonight.
[K wait… east???  ]

The photo comments brought back memories of the many many hours I spent listening to the radio in my teens. I would listen to the top five every night, and top 40… I remember trying for ages to tape a favourite song and being frustrated every single time by the idjit dj cutting off the end of it.

I typed "east" didn't I? I meant "west" toward the setting sun. Duhhhh. (I should go back and edit, but I won't now.)

Happy for you, and envious, that you got a good view of the aurora last week. Nothing here; too far south and too overcast.

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14 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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"This Wasn't in the Forecast!"

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A sudden storm front moved in during the afternoon, thwarting Janie's work on outdoor carpentry projects.

[davidd]

15 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Drawing a Bead

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Janie evaluates how moisture beads up on the recently stained deck planks following a night of rain.