Four nights I've been up in the city

[sovay]

I woke this morning with Hestia sleeping on my feet. She sprang off the bed each time I moved, then covertly circled back to pin me in place.

I was able to complete my birthday present to spatch with a jigger so that he no longer has to eyeball his ounces between the lines of a Pyrex measuring cup. Between the cranberries and the molasses, GrandTen Distilling's Craneberry is an almost parodically Massachusetts liquor and I look forward to drinking it when I no longer feel quite so New England Gothic.

This evening I walked with my father around the reservoir, the first time in almost exactly four weeks I had seen him without having to do it through a window. There were white swans on the moving water and grey skins of ice patched to the shore. The sunset did the molten chryselephantine thing and the clouds looked like the underside of frozen oceans.



A junked tire mooring fringes of ice; it looked like an installation.



The mirror half-melted across the stones.



My mother said I should put this one on my resume as a polar explorer.

I thought I recognized a piece of equipment from the first two episodes of Apple TV+'s Masters of the Air (2023) and indeed the Bendix gyro flux gate compass was used in B-17s. I was not wrong to associate it with marine navigation, but in the case of the one in my parents' basement I had been misled by the engine-oil smell which reminded me of visiting the USS Albacore. It is WWII-era; it came years ago from an MIT Swapfest and is not currently functional, which we would like to see if we can change.

Comments

[gwynnega]

The polar explorer photo is excellent.

[sovay]

The polar explorer photo is excellent.

Thank you!

[thisbluespirit]

My mother said I should put this one on my resume as a polar explorer.

LOL! I think she's right - and it's a great photo.

[sovay]

LOL! I think she's right - and it's a great photo.

Thank you! My father took it.

[moon_custafer]

A polar explorer who’s found some mysterious ruins (the bricks)!

[sovay]

A polar explorer who’s found some mysterious ruins (the bricks)!

Ahoy the Mountains of Madness!

[asakiyume]

You're right about the tire! Nature and circumstance making art out of a thing; nothing that's not wondrous and beautiful. Love it.

And yesterday's sunset was amazing! I was driving back from my dad's--it was his 93rd birthday--and stopped to take a picture. I like the way the light congeals around you in the photo. Nature and circumstance highlighting a thing's wonder; love it ;-)

[sovay]

You're right about the tire! Nature and circumstance making art out of a thing; nothing that's not wondrous and beautiful. Love it.

Thank you! It was too striking not to try to memorialize.

And yesterday's sunset was amazing! I was driving back from my dad's--it was his 93rd birthday--and stopped to take a picture.

Happy birthday to your father! Did your picture come out?

I like the way the light congeals around you in the photo. Nature and circumstance highlighting a thing's wonder; love it

You make me sound like a natural phenomenon.

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

You are a natural phenomenon ;-) A force of nature.

Yes! I was happy with the sunset photo!

[sovay]

Yes! I was happy with the sunset photo!

You should be; it's wonderful! I love how the colors of the signs are not the colors of the sky.

[muccamukk]

I love the ice photo, and you look very explorery!

Cool about the gyro compass. Hope you can get it working!

[sovay]

I love the ice photo, and you look very explorery!

Thank you!

Cool about the gyro compass. Hope you can get it working!

We're hoping, too! We have the schematics and an original manual and will run some experiments this week. The amplifier as I understand it is kaput, but it came with a repair log from Trans-Canada that was maintained from 1950 to 1958 and I want to find out if it tells me what kind of plane the compass was in at that time. What we have is probably two of them composited in any case; the contract numbers are different. The indicator and one of the transmitters still have the original seals on them.

[vr_trakowski]

"Bendix gyro flux gate compass" sounds so sci-fi that for a moment I thought the show was reusing a Star Trek prop. XD

[sovay]

"Bendix gyro flux gate compass" sounds so sci-fi that for a moment I thought the show was reusing a Star Trek prop.

Bendix gyro flux gate compass!

(I think it's the flux gate.)

[vr_trakowski]

So much of science is fiction before it's reality! Thanks for the photo. That was not what I was picturing.

I suspect that most uses of "flux" that aren't preceded by "bloody" evoke SF, thanks to Back to the Future.

[sovay]

So much of science is fiction before it's reality! Thanks for the photo. That was not what I was picturing.

I don't have a picture of all of the pieces of ours, but here's a picture of one of the pieces. I suspect you're right about Back to the Future.

[vr_trakowski]

Yeah, by rights that should have crackling blue lightning and an ominous hum! XD

[theseatheseatheopensea]

There were white swans on the moving water and grey skins of ice patched to the shore. The sunset did the molten chryselephantine thing and the clouds looked like the underside of frozen oceans.

That's beautiful! <3

And the compass sounds very cool, although it being broken makes me think that it's a Sapphire & Steel episode waiting to happen...

[sovay]

That's beautiful!

Thank you. It was a very good walk.

And the compass sounds very cool, although it being broken makes me think that it's a Sapphire & Steel episode waiting to happen...

It's true. Time and direction, both frozen out of true, and a war somewhere to the north.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

It's true. Time and direction, both frozen out of true, and a war somewhere to the north.

That's one sentence away from being a 3sf fill! I'm just saying...

<3

[coraline]

Ooo that liquor looks fascinating i will keep an eye out for it

[sovay]

Ooo that liquor looks fascinating i will keep an eye out for it

Good hunting!

[a_reasonable_man]

Sonyah the Polah Explorah, as the cranberryland folks might say, homoioteleutonicly. (Actually, they'd probably say "Sonyer.")

The photos are lovely and I'll be interested to hear a report on the liquor!

[sovay]

Sonyah the Polah Explorah, as the cranberryland folks might say, homoioteleutonicly. (Actually, they'd probably say "Sonyer.")

They do; I've heard it. First syllable to rhyme with "dawn."

The photos are lovely and I'll be interested to hear a report on the liquor!

Thank you! I look forward to being able to provide a report!

*hugs*

[umadoshi]

the first time in almost exactly four weeks I had seen him without having to do it through a window.

I'm glad you were able to do that!

I love your polar explorer photo. ^_^

[sovay]

I'm glad you were able to do that!

Me, too! This last chunk of time has been all around rough.

I love your polar explorer photo.

Thank you.