Webster Art

Had a fun day at the gym Friday. Brian and I have an on and off Friday afternoon rendezvous that depends on us both being in town. Earlier in the week Craig, James and Chris all asked me to climb, but I only had Friday available. I invited them all to join Brian and I. A great time was had by all. We know each other from previous trips, though James hadn’t met Brian.

I feel lucky to have a core group of climbers who love the sport. For a little background, I met Craig first when he was 12. He and my son with BMX buddies who started climbing. He in turn met Chris and shortly thereafter Lisa, who later became Brians girlfriend. I met James on a legendary trip to Jtree in 2007. That was my first return to Jtree in 7 years. We had a carful of characters also including Austin and Brett, joined the next year by (blind) Paul. Since then I’ve only missed 2 years in the high desert. Chris and Lisa G and I have made many, trips together to Yosemite, Smith and Squamish. Here we are in Yosemite 16 years ago:

Earlier in the week I climbed with Terry and Roger J, of Roger’s Corner at Index. I think I met Terry through Roger, and of course I met Roger through Jim P. Terry is an old alpine climber who has been everywhere and climbed everything. I met Jim P at Spire Rock in 1977 and must have seen Roger there too, since he and Jim Yoder spent years building the darn thing one stone at a time.

I also played doubles ping pong 4 times this week. Tuesday Thursday and Friday mornings with Sue and a cast of merry makers: Pam, Dennis, Casey, Lissette, Carol, Mary, Cary, Jackson and his mom, John the policeman, Eric, and a couple others whose names escape me. Wednesday evening Sue and I played with the pros: old Bob (90) Randy, Kathleen and Yo. John also showed up there after work in full armor.

I pedaled my uni twice this week. Today there was a motorcycle meetup at the ferry dock boat launch parking spot. As usual I was the only one wheeled weirdo. A little kid got so exited by my uni he raced alongside me for half a block, hooting like he’d seen a unicorn. I had enough in the tank to pedal up the hill to the skywalk. Pedaling uphill on a uni is a flat out sprint. I’m pushing as hard as I can while desperately fighting for balance. It’s important to maintain some speed because inertia helps with stability. It’s such good exercise!

I was pleased to do all that without Ibuprofen. I’ve been taking a teaspoon of a Tumeric anti-inflammatory supplement every day. It’s not as good as Ibu, but less toxic.

After riding today I stopped at Clint’s to pick up Sue who was babysitting 3 month old Gracie. Clint and I worked on truing up his new fence door. As a homeowner of an older house he is becoming quite handy. He’s put in real slate flooring in his kitchen, tiled the walls in his bathroom with grout and installed two wood stoves and a dishwasher. Being retired I help where and when I can.

I guess I could work around our house. I have to change oil in our two Toyotas. Sue is after me to replace the front and back doors. I did one on a shed last summer which turned out good for a non carpenter. I also need to clean the traps on both sinks. We’ve been overbooking ourselves in retirement. Here is a week:

• Two hours of doubles ping pong up to 4 days a week
• Climbing gym up to 3 days a week, often on same days I play pong
• Unicycle every other day, Sue walks with Pam
• Helping out, visiting and or babysitting 5 grandkids
• Playing guitar
• working on cars
• dental or medical appointments
• feeling guilty because I’m too busy to be an artist

I’ve started a new portrait from a photo. It’s really tough orange lighting with a smile. I rarely do teeth. I did a nice pencil drawing on oil gesso. That was so nice I wished I’d just done it on good hot press drawing paper. Now I am trying to put oil color on top of fixed pencil and it’s an awful transition. What was once a well value balanced drawing is a train wreck of a painting. I need to have faith that I can get it past the awkward teen years to adulthood. The suffering involved reminds me why artists are rare. It hasn’t rained in 11 days.

I bought a new pen by Pilot. It is the Vanishing Point (VP). It’s a 60 year old design and keeps the ink wet just as good as my other Pilot Namiki Falcon. They both have an 18 Karat gold nib. They both have a small flex range and handle the same. The VP has a clicky ballpoint pen function that is very cool. However, the steel involved in the mechanics makes it noticeably heavier than my Falcon. It’s not so heavy it’s dumb, and my arthritic fingers are the real problem not the VP.

I prefer drawing with my Falcon, but it is all plastic and the cap may crack someday. But there you have it, two overpriced Japanese fountain pens. You get what you pay for with pens.

I treat these semi blind contour pen drawings as practice. Like a pianist running her scales, I draw to maintain my hand eye coordination.

We have mixed feelings about this. I guess pioneers taught kids how to shoot squirrels back in the day. She does it under strict supervision, with the bow out of reach when he isn’t home.

If you live in an old house your clothes closet doesn’t have lights. What did people do back then? I wasn’t about to pay an electrician to wire a new circuit from the main panel to each closet in each bedroom.

Amazon sells motion activated rechargeable closet lights for $17 advertised to last 60 days, but I don’t believe they are as good, bright or as controllable as my DIY system. I did buy a couple units from Lowes but they ran on 4 disposable C cells which are expensive and short lived.

The system I built uses 4 separate components.

• Motion – infrared sensor
• battery
• charger
• LED light strip

The battery can be something as simple as a motorcycle battery, recharged with a car trickle charger. So it depends on what you have on hand. I already had two 12 volt rechargeable LiFePO4 batteries that I use when I hike with my ham radios.

I charge them with a $37 LifePo charger that plugs directly into the battery:

I also had a 20 foot 110V dimmable plug in light strip already up in my closet. These Chinese made light strips are cheap and super bright. You can also find them at Lowes. But it was annoying because the power chord over to the wall outlet ran under the closet door and looked like a fire risk. And it wasn’t motion activated. I’d plug it in to use the closet, then forget and leave the light on. I looked into door activated switches, meaning the light turns on when the door is open, but that requires hard wiring 110 volts which seemed too much.

Over the span of a couple years I went though the C cell Lowes closet light, the 110V LED strip and a simple headlamp hung on the door. None were ideal. Then I was on a climbing trip and went into one of those classic cement outhouses at night in Joshua Tree. A light came on in the ceiling. There is no electricity in Jtree. I looked up and they had the solution.

Rechargeable battery powered closet light sensor

Inside a metal cage on the cement ceiling they had a small rechargeable battery wired into a motion-infrared sensor with wires that led to a small LED light and a small solar panel on the roof.

While staring at it I realized I could replace the solar panel with my Bienno battery and charger and my system would be complete.

I wired in a standard automotive fuse for safety. I used Anderson PowerPole connectors because that is the standard in the Ham radio community and the YouTube learning curve is short. Plus that is what the battery ships with.

The beauty of this DIY closet light is that it is very bright, lasts for weeks, is rechargeable, is fused, and never has more than 12 volts in it. So fire risk is low. The only real risk is when charging the battery with the 110V chord going under the door. We are always careful to unplug any chargers before leaving the house. This includes laptops, iPads, phones, vacuums, etc.

I offered to put one in my wife’s closet but she prefers replacing C cell batteries. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.

Mountain closed, what to do?

Yesterday we were supposed to ski Rainier but two of the plow drivers recently retired. As with many boomer staffed blue collar trades these two old dudes took a ton of experience out the door with them. Our inside connection tells us that the online park service application process is incredibly cumbersome. The local loggers and diesel equipment operators who would be ideal for the job don’t have a chance of wading through the byzantine park service application process. Besides, who wants to drive a snowplow?

Fortunately there is a skinny ski and snowshoe trail on the way to Rainier. It is run by volunteers. It’s basically a couple old logging roads with reservable huts at the top. They have their own ski resort style grooming plows. If it snows a lot you park at the highest parking spot they can keep clear. You need a $50 yearly Snowpark pass, but other than that it’s free.

Yesterday Lisa and I skied – skinned 3 miles up the snow covered road to the 4700 foot high hut. I’d forgot to carb up the night before and ran out of gas in the last mile. I should have brought a rope so she could tow my sorry old ass. Both kids are incredibly strong: lungs with legs. But by stopping every 60 feet I managed to dig deep and arrive on top.

Lisa took off down the road like a shot, effortlessly linking turns on the narrow cat track. Both kids bought season passes as soon as they got hired in the ER. They can ski anything anywhere, including off the summit of Rainier. I ski the lifts maybe once a year. Who can afford $230 a day?

So when we go as family we skin up which is totally free and better exercise.

There was a crew of women dragging light plastic sleds. We couldn’t figure out why they needed McKinley style sleds to haul up light backpacks. But when they hopped in at the top and went zooming down the road, steering with their feet, we quickly saw the logic. No skill required and a fast trip down.

I started out snow plowing like a raw beginner. But with 3 miles to go I cramped up. The slope lessened and I was able to practice my cat track turns. Couldn’t keep pace with Lisa but she’d stop now and then and look back. Twas a fun ski day. Thanks to Sue for babysitting so Lisa could get out. My wife is a saint.