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conulyBut really, how do you spell it in English?
ysabetwordsmith ysabetwordsmith ysabetwordsmith conulythewaynesolarbirdI bought something for my second bike trailer build on Saturday.
The trailer’s basically been done for weeks already. I’m adding details and accessories now, like, I want to sew a cover, and I want to add reflectors. So I took it for another little shakedown ride, this time to a hardware store I found out had DOT-grade adhesive reflectors in stock for… more money than I’d like, but not unreasonable money.
Here’s what I’ve done with those stickers so far. I think it’s pretty good. The rear view is my biggest concern, given that my bike is well-lit, and this… frankly ugly flash photo… makes the reflectors pop well, showing how they’d reflect headlights. It’ll help:
But it occurred to me as I was doing all this that…
This is the first time I’ve bought something for this project.
The trailer frame was salvaged from a semi-wrecked kiddo hauler abandoned outdoors for over a year. The platform is made from a cargo pallet someone illegally dumped and I salvaged; the metal clamps holding it in place I shaped out of old building strapping. I literally found the warning flag pole on the street, and it inserts into a metal tube salvaged from a housemate’s broken laundry rack. I made a flag for it from scrap fabric. The cage is made from Buy Nothing-listed DIY cube shelving, the kind that never really works right, but there’s nothing wrong with the wire squares that a whole bunch of zip ties can’t fix. Other parts are 3D-printed, designed by me, printed by me, at home.
Everything else was just ordinary supplies I already had.
But when it came to the reflectors… I looked around a little, but then… I just went and bought something. And I have kind of mixed feelings about that!
I mean, it’s fine. Really. At some point, I’m going to want to replace these tyres, too, and that’s a purchase – they were also in the outdoors for at least a year and as a result are semi-rotted. They’re only still usable because I used a lot of silicone glue to make a reinforcement coat on the walls. (Hey, it’s not stupid if it works, and it works.) So sooner or later, money was going to be spent.
But even so, just buying something – even if it’s something you legitimately can’t make at home, like DOT-spec reflective material – feels like cheating. I kinda don’t like it.
Part of it is that I started making these cargo carriers around the time Anna got laid off, and even after she finally got a new job earlier this year, I kept the same approach. Sure, it helped that I already had basically everything I needed by that time, but also, we’re trying to make up for a lot of lost money and time, so I kept doing things the same way.
Until today, when I didn’t. I did it the normal way instead. It’s a very normal thing. You need an item, a part, whatever – you can just buy it.
And… maybe… maybe it’s just how extremely abnormal everything else is right now, in this endless emergency… but…
I just don’t know how I feel about that.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
scrubjayspeaksmellowtiggerWinter solstice is just a few days away, so I thought it would be a good week to share some of the fascinating recent news from astronomy.
A study was published in Science, summarized in a few news sites. Here is the least advertising-heavy version that I could find. It talks about how diverse life on a planet may be slow or unlikely to form, unless rich hydrocarbons are delivered to it from the outer edges of a solar system. Near the forming star, for example, the temperature is too hot for these gases to condense along with the planet, so they get blown by the solar wind and condense farther out. The hypothesized body Theia is what crashed into Earth (forming our moon afterward) and also delivered hydrocarbons and water. It's an interesting idea, and it makes Earth a little more special in the galaxy. That also makes it a factor in the Drake equation about the chances of finding intelligent life. I'm not sure how this theory squares with Venus, which is theorized to originally have had lots of water on it too.
Voyager 1 is almost 1 light-day away from Earth. This very anthropocentric "turning of the odometer" milestone will occur next year in November 2026. This article in Popular Science talks about it. I follow Voyager 2 on Mastodon, where there are automated reminders about the distance of both probes.
I don't know if Logan (aka loganbeary aka Dodecadude) is still alive. He left both Dreamwidth and Livejournal around the same time, but I thought his cancer treatment was going okay. He might appreciate this story in Scientific American about the magnetic sun. Scientists have a theory for predicting the solar cycle that is so effective that they're now forming a company to sell predictions based on the model. They don't know yet why the theory works, just that it's an effective model.
According to McIntosh, the Hale cycle and the sunspot cycle are both ruled by magnetic bands that wrap around the sun like rings. Near the maximum of the traditional solar cycle, two new bands appear at high latitudes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; they have opposite polarities. As the cycle continues, they gradually migrate toward the equator, and new bands again appear at high latitudes—picture the arrangement as kind of like a conveyor belt. A terminator happens when the older magnetic bands finally collide at the equator. That meet-cute isn’t actually cute: it annihilates both old bands because their opposition zeroes them out. McIntosh’s model suggests the annihilation is the definitive end of a solar cycle.
There's plenty more astronomy news. It's an exciting time to be alive! Someday, I might even go study this stuff formally. I hear the Powerball lottery jackpot is up to 1 billion dollars. That's nothing to sniff at.
sidereaconulymdlbear Not a great week. Started out well, with cat cuddles and walks Sunday and
Monday mornings. Then came my GP appointment.
Of course, I was supposed to be fasting, so that was a bust. And I picked
up my re-filled prescriptions (the pharmacy is across the street), but
there was one missing. So I went in again for labs on Thursday, and they
couldn't find a vein. WTF? They advised me to try at the hospital. Labs
at HagaZiekenhuis require an appointment, but fortunately I already
had an appointment, following up on my anemia. So that was
Friday. Skipped breakfast, went in, handed them both lab forms,
one stick and done. And their website works, so I got to see the
results ahead of the appointment next week.
Oh yeah, I also had a psych appointment Thursday afternoon, to discuss
antidepressants, which actually went well. I really don't have any idea
how to make use of therapy, but I like talking about myself, my problems,
and my family. Follow-up in two weeks.
CW: medical, whingeing.
Since April or therabouts,
my "GP" is a clinic with a handful of doctors and a bunch of assistants.
It took me a while (months) to finally figure this out. Anyway, Carmen --
the assistant I saw on Monday -- couldn't find my lab results from 20
November. Fortunately I'd asked for a printout at my previous
appointment, so I scanned that and sent it by email. I got my BP meds
changed somewhat. Then labs on Wednesday.
Then yesterday I tried attending Festival of the Living Rooms, the quarterly online filk con that started almost by accident during Covid. But instead of using the Zoom app, which just works, they insisted on going through the web app embedded on their shiny new website. Calling it beta quality is being generous. FotLR may have jumped the shark this time.
Naturally I didn't get much done otherwise, although I did go back and look at the scratch tracks I'd recorded for my next album, Amethyst Rose. Um... They were recorded between 2004 and 2010! WTF? I'll have to see whether anything can be rescued from that debacle.
Enough griping. Links! How about Grooming a Giant Rescue Maine Coon Cat? And Monday's APOD, Flying Over the Earth at Night, a time-lapse from the ISS. Particularly noteworthy for the footage of the Aurora Australis starting at 1:20
If you have lots of free time, take a look at WikiFlix. CONTENT WARNING: very deep rabbit hole full of old movies.
And finally, because of the season and because it's incredibly cool, here's The Ukrainian Origin of “Carol of the Bells” | The Story of Shchedryk (Щедрик). Turns out the tune was taken from an old New Year's Day chant, from back when New Years Day was celebrated on Beltane. Better, here's the Original Ukrainian Version, sung first in a pretty littleral English translation (with Ukranian subtitles!), then in Ukranian. And best of all, here's a Remix by the B&B project for bandura and button accordion.
ysabetwordsmith ysabetwordsmith dialecticdreamercallibr8. My deepest thanks to her! :: dewline - Checking In - 14 Dec. 2025ysabetwordsmith - Recipe: "Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Onions"dialecticdreamer - Exceptional Holiday (part 1 of 1, complete)ysabetwordsmith - Safetykengr - It's been 53 yearsconuly - The sun's going down, so Happy Hanukkah pretty soon?ysabetwordsmith - Foodysabetwordsmith - Human Rightsysabetwordsmith - Birdfeedingconuly - A different fic....thewayne - Well, that was quicksolarbird - I bought something todayscrubjayspeaks - Done This Weekmellowtigger - astronomy roundupsiderea - Understanding Health Insurance: The Three-Stage Model [healthcare, US, Patreon]conuly - I love looking out the window at the snowfallmdlbear - Done Since 2025-12-07 with bonus s4sysabetwordsmith - Safetyysabetwordsmith - Today's Cookingdialecticdreamer - Skiing Lesson (part 1 of 1, complete)ninetydegrees