Category: Miscellaneous babble

Random mutterings

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Rescued slide rule case

While browsing around my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore a week or so ago, I came across a Pickett slide rule case sitting on one of the shelves. Got super excited, and then got super disappointed when it turned out to be just an empty case. It was priced at $10, which I decided was a little too high for just an empty case, so I decided to pass on it.

Fast forward to today, the case was still there on the shelf. With a 50% off holiday sale going on, I decided $5 wasn’t a terrible price for the empty case, so I bought it.

It’s a black case, worn but still in pretty decent shape. The Pickett logo is partly worn off but still readable. No other identifying marks on it though.

Front view of a Pickett slide rule case for a 12 inch slide rule
Back of aPickett slide rule case for a 12 inch slide rule
Side view of a Pickett slide rule case for a 12 inch slide rule

Now I need to find another Pickett slide rule to put in it.

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First blog post + 21

First blog post was 21 years ago!

Old enough to go out to the bar for a drink most everywhere now.

Post volume hasn’t gone up like I planned or thought it might a few years ago. I’ve definitely got more projects to ramble on about, but the free time thing is lacking. I’ll just keep posting when I can I suppose.

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Email subscribers

The small handful of email subscribers to this blog might have noticed the lack of email notifications of new posts for the last little while.

I had been running into some weird blog posting issues that I thought might have been due to the Jetpack plugin, so I removed it a while back. The blog posting issues seemed to go away, so I went along on my merry way.

I’d forgotten that email subscriptions were handled by Jetpack until someone asked recently. I’ve reinstalled the Jetpack plugin, and hopefully won’t run into those weird problems I had with it before.

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Christmas Nativity 2023

Everybody piled into the Ark to make the journey to visit the new baby.

Stuffed animals in a woven basket making their way to see the Baby Jesus.

Meanwhile, Cmd Data was organizing the away team of Wise Men from the East. He’ll make sure the Wise Men get to where they need to go.

A Data Star Trek ornament leading an away team of ceramic wise men figurines.

Shepherds from the countryside have arrived with their sheep and cows to marvel at the new baby.

Christmas nativity scene with ceramic figurines.

The Ark has arrived, and it didn’t take long for everybody to disembark.

Stuffed animals in aa woven basket arriving at the stable
Stuffed animals have joined the shepherds and the sheep and the cows at the stable to see the new baby.

A new visitor this year is Smok the Dragon, from Krakow Poland.

A small figurine of the Wawel Dragon stopping by to see the new baby.

Update 2024-01-06: The wise men from the east made it thanks to Data’s skillfull navigation.

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Bulbs in unexpected places

A few weeks ago, the stove top light bulb in our microwave burned out. A trip to the local big box hardware store yielded a bulb that looked like it would work, but turned out to be too long to fit.

Connie was putting some stuff into a drawer of her mom’s sewing machine table, and I noticed there was a light bulb in the drawer. It was still in the original packaging and unopened. I stared at it a bit, and she knew exactly what I was thinking. Looked about the same size as the microwave bulb. Got the old light bulb to compare, and they were pretty much the same size.

GE appliance light bulb next to the burned out light bulb from the microwave.
Back of the GE appliance light bulb package. Package reads "Appliance bulb 115-125 Volt 15 Watts. This bulb can be used in sewing machines and other home appliances"

Put the bulb into the microwave and it worked perfectly!

Talk about a serendipitous find. Never know where you’ll end up finding something you need.

Connie says, “Thanks, Mom!”