Jumble

Yesterday I got through the four preliminary words in the daily Jumble puzzle, but the final phrase stumped me. It needed two five letter words: something of something. Looking at the letters I had to work with I realized the solution was probably two identical words. Some fooling around and I realized the words could be SHAPE or PHASE, neither of which made any sense. This morning the answer appeared: What do you find in a junkyard? HEAPS of HEAPS. There is probably a word to describe words that use the same set of letters. Algoriphone maybe?

Two Stroke Engines

I was walking back from Heaton's automotive yesterday after I dropped my truck off for an oil change and I came across a dealer in used off road toys, ATV's and motorcycles. He had several machines parked outside by the street and several of them had two stroke engines, as evidenced by the expansion chamber exhaust pipes. Everything these days uses four stroke engines, except for really small stuff like weed wackers and chain saws, so these must all be from a previous era. One ATV was notable because it had a two cylinder engine with symmetrical expansion chambers, one on each side. The engine was also set back in the frame to allow room for a portion of the expansion chambers in front of the engine. Very odd.

Brown Bicycle

Parked, or rather dropped on the ground outside the front door of Hank's was a bicycle. It was noticeable because it was painted brown. Not just the frame, but the entire bike except the tires, (and maybe the seat, I don't recall), and kind of an ugly house brown to boot. Then I noticed the front disk brake and the rear suspension, and I got to wondering. Could this be an expensive bike that somebody painted to hide it's value? Or a stolen bike, painted to disguise it's origins? Neither explanation makes much sense. If it was valuable, why was it lying on the ground? As for being stolen, I've never know a thief to do something like this. Bicycle thieves usually just ride them until they get bored and then ditch them. Or if they are pros stealing expensive bikes, they sell them. Painting doesn't make much sense in either case.

And then there's the way high-tech filters down to the mass market. Disk brakes may be what you get on your run-of-the-mill mountain bike these days.

Girl's Names

I went by Hank's yesterday and Jewly has a new name tag that says Julie. I didn't inquire about the old one, there are too many woman out there who have slightly different spellings of ordinary names. But this was a change, so I asked her, and she told me her supervisor had made the "Jewly" name tag on a whim, but Julie was her real name.

Milk Jugs

Costco has changed their milk jugs from the old standard to a new fangled one and it stinks. Hard to pour when full, the milk splashes off the cereal and all over the table. It drips down the side. It might use slightly less plastic than the old ones, but over all it's not an improvement. This has got me wondering if this new design is going to succeed, or whether the die has already been cast and we are all just going to have to learn to live with the new design.

The Downside of Community College

Community colleges can provide you with a good education at a reasonable price. That is what I have always believed. Even if you are going for a four year degree, you can pick up the first two years at your local community college for a fraction of the price of a four year school. Besides, you can live at home and save another small fortune on housing.

What nobody mentions is the traffic and the parking. There is only one little two lane road into the local community college campus, and at five till nine this morning there was a traffic jam half a mile long of all the people who thought waiting till the last minute would be okay.

Then there are the parking lots, endless lots, all full.

I put in roughly two years at community colleges, but I never ran into these kind of problems. Ah, back in the good old days, when life was simpler, flowers were prettier, and all was right with the world. And no, we are not going to talk about Vietnam right now.

Video Mirror

Mirrors work very well in any number of applications. Examining your face in the morning, for instance. For any other part of your body, they are generally more trouble than they are worth. Especially if you need two mirrors, like when you are trying to see the back of your head.

Digital electronics has advanced to the point that a video mirror might be a reasonable alternative. You would need a digital display, like one used with a desktop computer, and a video camera. You would also need some kind of remote control arm to hold and aim the camera.

The first application could be one that would let you see your head from any angle. You would sit in front of the screen and the camera would move around your head.

I am surprised I have not seen one on the market already. Could be that the design of mechanical part needs some work. Making it functional would be easy, but making something people could easily use might be a bit of a trick. And then there would be the difficulty in making an actual mechanical device. Might make it too expensive for the mass market.