Coffeeneuring Stop #6: Waveland's Ladner Pier Pavilions

 With a hurricane on the way (but not here yet), what else to do but take a ride along the beachfront down to the Waveland Pier at lunchtime.  We'll get back to the hurricane part in a minute.  But first...

1. where: Garfield Ladner municipal pier pavilions, Waveland MS

2. date: 10/28/20

3. what: chicory cafe au lait with half&half

4. ride details: CX bike on a blustery pre-storm day

5. distance: 4.6 miles, with another 3.8 miles added on by riding along the beach toward downtown, in sort of a T-shaped route.

What could be more 2020 than sneaking in a coffeneuring trip with a hurricane bearing down on the area?  Well the window boards were all up, the yard objects were all stowed, and the cars were moved away from the trees.  Time to ride off some pre-storm jitters.

So here I sit, typing on my little laptop by the light of a battery lamp, linked to blogger via the phone's wifi hotspot.  Ugh, soooo much cleanup to do.  Second-worst storm I've been through, a distant second to Katrina.  Got to find an electrician tomorrow... and get the chainsaw running... so much stuff to do.  Time to upload pictures and hit the rack.  Main thing: everyone's OK.

Coffee, and listening to storm news...

 

Not too rough, yet.  Water's only up about a foot.  I hear it topped out in the neighborhood of 10 feet.

 

I wonder what Zeta clocked in at when it finally hit the MS Coast?

afternote, 10/29: Gusts to 104 recorded here in town.  I believe it!

Next Monday: 100 Years of KDKA

 KDKA in Pittsburgh has a decent claim to being the first commercial broadcaster, and while these things are always murky, it is absolutely not in doubt that they first began broadcasting on November 2, 1920.  Stumbled across this article about their early studio and transmitter hardware today, and if you want more history here's their Wikipedia page.  Lots of nice grainy old B&W photos of tube amplifiers and wind-up record players – one with what is likely the first electric phono pickup.

It's an odd thing, but when I lived in Pittsburgh I can't recall ever listening in on KDKA.  Lots and lots of WRCT, but no KDKA.  Eh, I was busy with other things.  Way busy.

Side-story:  Some years back I met an old gentleman who had grown up in Pittsburgh, and been in his teens circa 1920.  Being young and technically-minded, he built a crystal radio to tune in the then-new KDKA.  He related that people in the neighborhood were fascinated by his device, but they didn't quite understand what was going on.  Word got around and people who barely knew his family were dropping by, asking to have a listen at this mysterious gizmo.  One old matron tucked the earpiece to her ear, listened, made some strange faces, listened again, slammed the earpiece down on on the desk, shouted "I still don't believe it!" and stomped out.  My, how times have changed.

Anyway, I'll bet that they're planning something interesting and cool next Monday evening.  Don't have a clue as to what, but on their 100th birthday they've got to have something planned.  Will definitely try to tune them in via skywave.  Remember, 1020 AM, a good half-hour after dark.

Coffeeneuring Stop #5: Washington Street Pier

 Yet another coffee shop without walls, today's coffeeneuring ride was to the Washington Street pier & boat launch area.

1. where: Washington Street pier fill, Bay St. Louis MS

2. date: 10/25/20

3. what: cafe au lait, chicory coffee w/ half&half

4. ride details: CX bike on a cool (~70F) morning along the seawall

5. distance: 3.8 miles round-trip

Another beachfront landmark.  Sat on the rip-rap, sipped a couple of cups, and read for a bit.  Then pedaled home and had lunch.

Rip-rap, coffee, bike.

View looking east, toward Henderson Point (see stop #4).  Pilings are from the old Bay ferry, which ran for a couple of years while the new bridge was being constructed in the aftermath of Katrina.  Pelican!

Spooky October Picture

 From today's NASA APOD.  It's a computer simulation of the distribution of dark matter in a large section of the universe.  Not exactly real, but it is carefully constructed to show the result of hypothesized interactions.  If it looks spooky, it's because the universe can be a pretty spooky place – if you look at it the right way.

Coffeeneuring Stop #4: Henderson Point

 Continuing out theme this year of "coffee shops without walls but near water," here's today's lunchtime stop just across the bridge into Harrison County.

1. where: Henderson Point, Pass Christian MS

2: date: 10/23/20

3. what: cafe au lait, chicory coffee & half-and-half

4. ride details: CX bike on a day before a cool front blows in

5. distance: 12.0 miles round-trip

Another favorite turn-around spot, here on the Gulf side of Henderson Point.  It's about the prettiest section of beach on this end of the MS coast.  It's still relatively wild and secluded after being scoured clean by Hurricane Katrina.  There are a few new houses around, but a lot more foundation slabs can be seen, if you know where to look.

Looking west, back toward Bay St. Louis.  You can see town's waterfront over the back wheel and top tube.

Looking southeast toward Cat Island.  Can't really see it from here though, elevation's too low and the island's over the horizon.

A Mixed Bag in Space

 Just finished reading A Hole in Space, a 1974 short story collection by Larry Niven.  Don't know why I'd never read, or even heard of this one before, because back in the '80s I burned through just about everything he'd written up until then.  So, how was it?  Mixed, with everything between C+ to A.  There's a classic Louis Wu story in there (There is a Tide, which I'd read long ago), a very noir-ish story about a criminal gang using flash mobs to pull off their heists (the enabling technology is a little different than cell phones however), some bribery mixed with game theory, an alien contact story where a bartender saves the Earth, why pure theoretical physicists can't be trusted with alien hardware, etc.

It's a good way to spend a couple of evenings.  Really wishing he'd get an English edition of Protector out on Kindle though.  My copy's packed up, and it just feels like time to re-read it.  In the meantime though, it was nice to stumble across a previously unknown collection like A Hole in Space.

The CitiCar: Truly Awful

 Article at Wikipedia and some hilarious video at youtube.  

People look back at the 70s with nostalgia, but it is hard for anybody who was there to get past leisure suits and CitiCars and the like.  OK, there were a few things like punk rock and and the VAX-11/780 that were pretty good, but for the most part the 70s were about shutting down the Apollo program and building junk like the CitiCar.