Archive for November, 2022

Sky Tubes

Nov

30

2022

Some Wife and I have different philosophies on some things, one of which is turning on lights in hallways.

I prefer to have light so I can see to not step on whatever things the kids have strewn about the hallway.

She thinks its a waste of electricity for such a short distance, especially during the daytime when there’s enough residual light.

We went back and forth for a while. Years, in fact. I leave the room and turn on the light; she follows and turns it off. Or vice-versa. Not that she was following me just to turn off the light – it’s just that if we are going somewhere that’s how it usually works out.

I got tired of flipping the light switch, especially as there is plenty of light available, just not in the interior hallway. If only there were a way to get outside light inside the house.

Behold, the magic of skylight tubes! They are perfect for a situation such as our upstairs hallway, where there is no place for a window to the outside, and the ceiling has an attic above it.

So I bought one to install. That took me a couple of weekends working on it part time, and had a bit of a learning curve. Plus the attic was tall enough that I had to buy some extension tubes.

But I got it in, and it worked. But the light wasn’t impressive. A number of reviews had said that one skylight tube looks bleak, but add a second one and it is much better. The sum is greater than the parts, or something like that.

So I bought another one and installed it. Installation was about 4 hours one Saturday this time – much quicker the second time around.

Here are the main steps, in case you’re interested.

  • Cut a hole in the ceiling drywall
  • install the interior diffuser
  • go into the attic, find the interior diffuser, and mark a spot on the south-facing roof that lines up with the diffuser.
  • cut a hole in the roof
  • go on the roof and install the exterior dome and flashing
  • go back in the attic and connect the diffuser and dome via shiny tubes
  • clean up

I must agree with the other reviewers – having two skytubes is more than twice as good as one skytube.

Here are the before and after pictures, although I don’t have any with just the one skytube.

Before, with the bedroom door fully shut.

image of a hallway that is dark because doors are closed

Before, with the bedroom door mostly shut. This is how it usually was.

image of a hallway that is dark because doors are mostly closed or slightly open

After, with the door fully closed.

image of a hallway that is bright because of skylight tubes

After, looking from the bedroom doorway.

image of a hallway that is bright because of skylight tubes

End result: I’m pleased with them. They do what they’re supposed to do, and now Some Wife and I don’t disagree on the hallway light switch. The skytubes were more expensive than the electricity we’re saving, but overall it was worth it.

Your life would be brighter than noonday; Darkness would be like the morning.

Job 11:17

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Bolton Mashup

Nov

23

2022

Thanks to a recent TV ad that shows Michael Bolton singing a version of “How am I Supposed to Live Without You” but with slightly altered lyrics, I was inspired to write this blog post.

I don’t know why it popped into my head this way, but I think there must have been some other TV ad that played or referenced the song “Grandma Got Run OVer by a Reindeer”, and I noticed the two songs fit together well.

Behold:

image of sheet music for Michel Bolton's how am i supposed to live without you mixed with grandma got run over by a reindeer

And it goes the other way too, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader, to put the words to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” to the music of “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”.

It’s not perfect though. For one thing this is just the chorus. I have better things to do with my time than to fit the verses of these songs together. Plus no one knows the verses anyway.

And the Michael Bolton song has 5 lines in the chorus but the Grandma song has only 4. I removed one line to make it, and I’m guessing no one noticed until I pointed it out.

Who improvise to the sound of the harp, And like David have composed songs for themselves

Amos 6:5

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Cranky Contraptions

Nov

16

2022

Our local library hosted a class recently, so I took Gamma and Delta there. The class was called Cranky Contraptions and was actually run by a nearby museum / science center.

Here is Delta’s result – a geyser:

image of a cranky contraption representing a geyser

They’re called Cranky Contraptions because the design is based on a crankshaft, and you turn the crank to make the kinetic sculpture move.

Here’s a different view of the geyser:

image of a cranky contraption representing a geyser

And for one in motion, here’s a GIF of Gamma’s marshmallow roasting contraption:

image of a cranky contraption showing marshmallows roasting on an open fire or campfire

It was a fun class, and the boys liked it more than they thought they would. We were about the last ones there. So I recommend it as a project. If you want to try this yourself, it’s easy enough. Try this link for more ideas on cranky contraptions.

Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat, he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.”

Isaiah 44:16

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The 5 Hows: Ticket to Ride

Nov

9

2022

This is a guide for how to play the game Ticket to Ride.

1. How do I win?
By having the most points at the end of the game

2. How do I get points?
By making train routes. Just playing a train route gets you some points, but connecting routes to destinations gets you more points.

3. How do I make a train route?
Each route is marked on the board by colors. When you have enough cards of that color, you spend the cards needed for that route (one card per train car) and then you get to put your train tokens on that route.

4. How do I get train cards?
Each turn, you can do one of 3 things: draw train cards, play a train route, or draw more route cards. Question 3 went over how to play a train route. For how to get train cards, just draw them from the pile. You can draw from the 5 face-up cards or from the face-down pile. Normally you draw 2 cards, but if you draw a face-up wild card you get only 1.

5. How do the route cards work?
At the beginning of the game, you draw some starting train cards and also some starting route cards. Those are your goals. Actually they’re called destination cards because the game doesn’t care what route you take to connect the cities. If you can play your trains to connect a route, you get the points on that route card. If, at the end of the game, you didn’t fulfill that route then the points are subtracted from your total. If, during the game, you’ve made all your routes then you can take additional routes.

Note: this is for the USA edition of TTR. They have other maps, so you could buy TTR with routes in Europe or Asia or such. Some of those have other features such as tunnels or mountain passes that have additional rules.

There, now go play Ticket to Ride.

Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

2 Kings 18:23

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PSALM 10

Nov

2

2022

Now it is time for another PSALM.

Gamma made this one, like last time. This one was titled “Surprising Fishing” by him.

Now only 140 more to go.

In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the needy;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

Psalm 10:2

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