Friday, March 15, 2024

The Pi Day

Yesterday there was March Fourteen. Since recently people around the world  used to  celebrate this date   as the Pi day.  After the work  my co-worker an myself   strolled   through  the  San Francisco downtown streets and found this view:


Would it be the decent tribute  to the 3.14 number?  

Overall the day was beautiful: warm and sunny. Here are some more street pictures:  



Transamerica Pyramid.



San Francisco mix.






Arks and Lights.



Early evening. Salesforce Tower.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Flower Bulb Day

Last Saturday (March 9, 2024) there was Tulip Day in San Francisco. Eighty thousands tulips grown in USA out of Dutch bulbs were deployed in Union square in San Francisco.


  Everybody could come to this garden and pick up ap to fifteen flowers. The only problem was a huge line. You can see two labyrinths with people lines (on the left and right of the garden) on the picture below, To avoid the line we decided  to enjoy the  view from windows on the Macy's top floor.

 


  Tulip garden was no only good thing in San Francisco this Saturday. The whole afternoon was beautiful.  "Sky of Blue and Sea of Green". Here is one more photo of Clock Tower  on Embarcadero.


  

Monday, January 1, 2024

Holiday Decorations

 Here are several photos made  during this Christmas season in our neighborhood. First two photos made  next to private Christian School in our city.



Next three photos are near houses located in the neighboring city. 





Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.


Thursday, December 14, 2023

Wheel Work

 

Here is spare fifth wheel from my 2008 Ford Ranger. It is full size, so technically I can use it in  rotation. But this wheel looked very different to other  wheels.  Spare wheel is definitely made from steel, while four others have shiny aluminum  look. 



I should not simultaneously put on the car   wheels made of different  materials for a long. How to find out if my other wheels are  made of steel and painted or made out of aluminum  alloy. Permanent magnet came in handy. Magnet got  attracted the same to the spare wheel or to any other wheel  on the car.  That means all wheels are made of  steel  and I can safely  use  spare  wheel for rotation. Still I would like  all wheels to have more uniform look.



In local AutoZone  shop I bought can of silver wheel paint.



Rubber part of the wheel I covered  with paper and masking tape. Then, following paint can instruction,  I painted wheel with several layers of  silver.


Here is my freshly painted wheel installed as the rear wheel  on the  driver car side.



And here is sideview of the car. As you can see rear (former spare) wheel  and  front wheel now both look the same.
   

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Autumn Colors

 Some images from Bay Area (November 2023)

This is America!


Very unlikely these scarecrows may scary any crow.

 


This Thanksgiving gas is relatively cheap. Especially  if your car is that small.




Holiday Mushrooms family reunion. 




Children, don't be lost! Keep closer.

 

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Soda Can: Bottom Part

 


Two years ago I published  the post   about using soda can tab in DIY projects. Now I have found one more usage  for a soda can: this time for its bottom part. I used can bottom part  as cheap LED reflector for some home lighting projects, in particular  for Halloween Decors. Above you can see  Pumpkin Glister with  multi-colored eyes.



Here is the Bat Decors  with Red eyes..



The last picture is the Bat Decor shot at the moment, when eyes were not that bright and with some whitish color, so reflectors are better visible as they are.

Making  reflectors is very simple: just cut bottom parts of cans, bend edges of these parts with pliers, drill holes for LED to fit, and attach reflectors to the Glister or plywood decor with staples or pieces of cooper wire.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Apples & Birds

 


We have an apple tree in our backyard. Apples from this tree are no that special, still  we like them. But there is a problem: birds like them too. Honestly speaking birds never  eat fruit as a whole: just a small part of it, but that is enough damage for apple fruit to start rotting. How to protect apples from birds? At the beginning we tried to hang scare bird ribbons, like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3WBNCBT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details 

That worked somehow last year, but not this year. Either different  birds found our backyard this summer, or may be birds adjusted, but scare ribbon does not work anymore. So  we have to find some other mean of protection. 

In one hour I built net canopy: wooden frame out of old floor molding (I took that molding out during room renovation). This frame I attached to the long wooden post. Length of the post is slightly more then tree height).

We put  square bird net https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-14-ft-x-14-ft-Polypropylene-Bird-Block-Netting-and-Barrier-NMVBB1414/310977979 on top of the canopy and tied canopy post to tree trunk:

 

After that we attached another net to the bottom of the canopy net with small pieces of wire. 

Below you can see that "engineering  beauty" in a full view. 


And guess what? It works!  Birds do not  eat our apples  anymore. On the photo you can see scarry bird ribbon   as well, but  only because I was lazy to take it out, these are useless against our birds.  Next summer I have to  rebuild this project in more aesthetically  looking way.

Update on October 23, 2023.

Thanks to the bird  net the harvest  was saved.  Here is the photo of  collected apples  under the guard of  our  corgi.