A Halloween Jump Scare

Just when you thought it was safe to take down the window boards:

Yeesh.  At least the Gulf's cooled down a good bit:

Hurricane season is not over until it's over,  officially on 1 December but really... at New Year's.

A Creepy Tale for This Halloween Evening

The Voice in the Well, by Justin Patrick Moore over at his site.

Yeah, it's about everything you'd want or expect for a good ghost story on Halloween.  At around 1300 words (unlucky 13! and a hundred of 'em!), it's a quick read.  Enjoy your shortening days.  I mean, shorter daylight and crisp autumn weather, not, um, you know, the other meaning of that last sentence, but take it either way you wish.  Boo!  Scary, huh?

Two New Tasks

 We've all heard of "Herculean task" and "Sisyphean task," but today I found two new terms:

• Icarian task: When you have a task that you know you're going to fail at anyway, so you decide to have some fun with it before the tenuous wax of ideas holding it together melts and the whole mess crashes back to  Earth.
• Cassandrean task: When you have to deal with people who you know won't listen to you, despite your having accurate information on and/or extensive experience in the matter, and then having to watch them fumble around after you told them the solution from the start.

Huh.  Useful terms.

Holy Cosmic Bat Nebula, Batman!

At yesterday's APOD, the Cosmic Bat Nebula.  Usually these things are 'squint, and you can sort of see it' representations.  This one however looks like it's been carefully rendered in:

A very fitting image for this Halloween season.

Still want it to cool off enough for a real hike, grumble-grumble.

Site Mention: The Manual Gearbox Preservation Society

Link here.  It's not just about performance.  It's about driving the damn car, and driving it well.

This Banner...

...makes me want to go take a hike and play radio.  Still about 10degF too warm though.  In the meantime, go visit the site.  Also for a bonus, there's a lot about Hurricane Helene's effects on western NC there; here's the link to just that tag.

Phil Lesh Checks Out at 84

Article at Stereogum.  Of unspecified causes, but after surviving hep C, a liver transplant, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and the 60's while leading – not just running with – his crowd, 84's a mighty good run.

I'll sit down with a bottle of red whisky and toast Phil and the rest of his band later this evening.  Not playing any cards though.

Whew!

Not to say that more might not form, but for the moment we can all breathe a sigh of relief:

Let's Look at That One More Time

SpaceX Super Heavy booster landing last weekend, over at APOD.

It's only 59 seconds of the main landing action.  Even if you've watched it before, go watch again now.  It'll get your blood pumping for the rest of the day.

Monday at Wright's Lake Trail

Just knocking out one of the old standards before the cool weather gets away again.  Been there, done that, did it again today.  Here are some pics; as usual, click to embiggen:

The Lake

Just some flowers along the trail.

Lowest I've ever seen the water under The Bridge of Truth, maybe 2' below the deck.

Yep, low.  Often the water's 6" over the deck.

That's all for today.  Just another hike.

Nikon 2024 Small World Photo Winners

Over at Atlas Obscura.  Interesting pictures, mostly close-ups of bugs.

Reminder to Self for Next Year

The National Bigfoot Awareness Day Special Event Station(s) will hopefully be back for 2025.  Too late for me to get in on the fun this year, but I'll be watching for next, and this post will (hopefully) remind me.

From their qrz.com biography page:

The Radio Club of Tacoma cordially invites all amateur radio operators around the world to seek out the elusive "BIGFOOT" to celebrate National Sasquatch Awareness Day on October 20th! We are sure there will be multiple sightings of the BIGFOOT special event stations, but the challenge will be to contact ALL the special event stations W7B, W7I, W7G, W7F, W7O, (stations must work W7O at least twice on 2 different modes, bands, or Zulu days) and W7T to claim the coveted BIG STOMP on the BIGFOOT Certificate!  ANYONE can apply for the certificate - even if you only worked one of the stations.

Radio Club of Tacoma (W7DK) club members will be operating BIGFOOT callsigns starting on October 16th at 0000 Zulu, and the special event will end on October 21 at 2359 Zulu. Stations will be using CW, phone, FT8/FT-4, and RTTY modes, and will be operating on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters at various times throughout each day.

Yeah, silly.  But it looks like fun.  To 2025!

Book Mention: Forbidden Area

Originally serialized as Seven Days to Never, (a much better title) this 1956 Pat Frank nuclear thriller delivers.  Growing up in a small town in north Florida in the 70's, Frank's Alas Babylon got passed around my group of friends sometime around 8th grade.  "That's too scary for you kids" the more prudish adults said, it was quasi-contraband in middle school, but read it we did.  While Forbidden Area was only published three years prior, it has a very post-WWII feel whereas Alas Babylon is firmly set in the Cold War.  The shift in tone is subtle, but quite noticeable.  In fact the main plot line, about Soviet saboteurs being delivered to U.S. shores via submarine, is lifted directly from the WWII German Operation Pastorius.

So, a synopsis: Soviet sub drops off four saboteurs on a remote Florida east coast beach.  A deep-secret DoD think tank, the "Enemy Intensions Group" surmises that the Soviets are in a wind-up for a nuclear first strike knock-out punch.  Paths intertwine, action happens, sleuthing occurs, more action... and no more because that'd be a spoiler!

One flaw in this book is nailing down the year in which things happen.  On one hand, most of the characters are WWII veterans of one sort or another with about 5 to 10 years' more experience and rank.  That would place it somewhere circa 1950 – 1955, and that matches the book's feel.  However, the B-47 and B-52 bombers were all mothballed and replaced by a fleet of "B-99"s – a high-flying beast that more or less corresponds to the never-built B-70 fleet.  That would place it in perhaps the mid-to-late 1960's.  ICBMs in this book are just coming online, but in secretive ways, and in limited numbers.  Finally the Soviet submarines and their nuclear strike capabilities are like a late-1940's fever dream based on WWII pipe dreams.  So, as for the real year?  It's a work of fiction, so take your pick.

Apart from the anachronistic aspects of the characters and military hardware, a second flaw the book suffers from is an excess of "tell, don't show."  Frank had much improved his writing by the time of Alas Babylon to reverse this to "show, don't tell," but in this novel it makes the story drag at times.

Having said all that, this book does fairly accurately anticipate the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, if not in specific detail, then more in the general nuclear brinksmanship and skulduggery departments.  For that alone it is worth the read.  It's an interesting time capsule, and a look back at a very different time here in America.

ps: It was adapted by none other than Rod Serling into the first episode of Playhouse 90, with a cast of names you'd easily recognize.  Probably worth digging around for a copy.

With All This Going-to-the-Woods...

... in this great fall weather, here's a fitting cartoon:

Time to re-watch The Blair Witch Project while sorting out camping gear.  It's so much more relaxing than dealing with the actual monsters that come to play in my neighborhood.

High Bluff Thursday

This week was the first real cool snap of this fall, so I hiked High Bluff trail... yet again.  Previous outings here.  Not much to say beyond, damn if it isn't one of my favorites.  Dragged along the FT-70 and talked to a few people via the Carrabelle repeater.  Used the 18" Nagoya antenna, and just tilted it a little on my pack harness to keep it from banging against my hat brim.  Worked well enough.

Here, have a couple of pics.

Cool snap, yes, but that's sand not snow.

These grown-over bridges always bring back half-remembered stories from childhood.  Weird.

Stay tuned, because the cool hiking weather's just begun.

SpaceX Starship Booster Launch & Landing

Even more spectacular than their Falcon landings.  Eight minutes, WTWT.

It's pretty clear that the era of private space is here.

Too Good to Pass Up

I may or may not have something worthwhile to say later today.  Tomorrow.  Er, maybe later this week.

Honestly, the weather forecast is looking pretty good for a Thursday hike.

Cooling Down

Fall is definitely here, though it's not quite cool & crisp:

More importantly, here's the sea surface temperature map of the Gulf, before Helene:

And after Milton:

Note how the hot stripe starting in the Yucatan Strait has largely fallen apart, and the overall surface temperature is down.  Hopeful signs, even if it's still a long way to December.

I just want some cool weather to go hiking and camping.

ps: You can get the daily sea surface temp maps here: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/products/ocean/ohc/

Reason #284 You Need a Good Cooler

Reason 284: You might have to ride out a hurricane in it.  Article & video at the BBC.

From the article:

“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner," said Lt Cmdr Dana Grady, chief commander of the St Petersburg sector.

"To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75-90mph winds, 20-25ft seas, for an extended period of time to include overnight.

"He survived because of a life jacket, his emergency position indicating locator beacon, and a cooler."

Now that is a Florida Man moment.

Good, sturdy coolers – don't go into hurricane season without at least one.  You're far more likely to need it to salvage the contents of your refrigerator, but sometimes things just go sideways.  Really, really sideways.

A Timely Re-Post

From over at The SWLing Post, here's a re-post of When the fertilizer hits the fan radio kit

Also, at the above's co-blog QRPer, here's a status update of the head blogger, who lives in western North Carolina: Helene Aftermath Update: Solar Power

That is all for today.

Dark Chocolate, Now It's Good for You

Article over at Inc.  Several studies referenced, so this is not just some one-off.  It's short, RTWT.

I'll take any good news that I can get this week.  Along with a chunk of dark chocolate and a cup of strong black coffee.

An Interesting Contact

The Associazione Radioamatori Italiani (Italian Radio Amateurs Association) is celebrating 100 years on the air with a three month long special multi-station event.  Yesterday evening, one of their PSK-31 stations was booming into north FL on 20m like it was next door in Georgia, so that was an easy 5500 mile contact.  Sometimes the angels sing and these band openings happen, just like that.  RAI has an entire points scheme for various levels of awards (i.e., certificates suitable for framing), but I doubt that I'll spend the time hunting any more down.  No, one unexpected and very easy contact is enough.  If more present themselves though, that'll be all good and well too.

Keeps things lively, unpredictable.  That's part of what makes this hobby fun.

ps: got this in the email today:

Cool!

Oh Great, Now They're Radioactive

Years ago I joked to my mother during the approach of Hurricane Katrina "At least it's not radioactive."  "Is that even possible?"  "No, but if it was, this would be the storm."  But it was only a joke!  I had no idea.  Now comes this article: 

Retrofitted Cold War Spy Plane Shows That Most Tropical Storms are Radioactive.

Not Actual Size

I mean, they're not all that radioactive, and it's only gamma rays, but still, yeesh.

Radioactive hurricanes, how very 2020's.

Hoo Boy

Not directly at us, but not exactly not either.  Mostly though, the central/south Florida coast doesn't need this.  Still about four days away, and the uncertainty is huge.

Happy CB Day, Everybody!

"???"

Check the date.

Beyond that, just busy.  Check back later.