Blame it on the Dolphins !

Ok, Eagle (Mark) has now shamed me by completing one of his bus stop robots. So, once again, I have to admit that I haven't spent much time working on robots since I got this new Hobie Adventure Island Kayak/Sailboat.

The only way you can understand is to watch a video of this new "distraction" in my life. So, although my Bus Stop robots are still moving forward (slowly), I'm blaming the slow progress on those darned dolphins. This video was shot yesterday off the Dunedin Causeway in Florida. I spent 5-6 hours on the water. It was overcast but a beautiful day with good wind. I call this my therapy session with Paul.

To see much better video quality (windows media) Click here on Dolphin Video
or .. If you have dialup, you can right click the Dolphin Video link select "Save Link as"
or .. you can watch the low res fuzzy google version below




And here's a picture of Eagle's (lone) Bus stop robot and the robot's dog

An unusual Scarecrow

Well, after much thought, I finally came to the conclusion I cannot have a birdfeeder in our courtyard with our shark. The birds do not like the shark ... it acts kind of like a scarecrow.

At first I thought the birdfeeder was too close to the house so I moved it's location. But it was the same distance to the shark. I saw birds eyeing it but after landing on the feeder once or twice, they left and didn't return. So then I thought it was bad food so I went out and bought premium sunflower seeds and saflower. Cardinals and blue jays love that. Still no luck. They would not visit. So my next attempt involved getting a brand new birdfeeder. I thought that maybe they didn't like the design of the feeder. So I bought a really nice wood birdfeeder and thought for sure we'd get birds. After that failed, I came to the conclusion that the shark freaks these birds out. Crazy eh? Maybe I could get rich marketing this concept to farmers. Instead of scarecrows, they could plant a bunch of sharks in the ground around their cornfields.

At least our little squirrel (named Ernie by my wife) isn't afraid of the shark. Ernie occasionally hangs out in the sharks mouth. Looks really funny too.

In other breaking news, I was sent an article on MSNBC entitled "The Future of Business" listing the top 10 jobs of the future in 2012. Guess what's #10 ? .... That's right ... Robot builder, wrangler . So it looks like I"m sitting pretty if I find myself needing a job in 2012. Here's the link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20283894/

Robots just wanna have fun

(sung to the tune of Madonna's Girls just wanna have fun)

Not much robot building has been happening lately. Too many other things around here taking up our time. Sailing has been more fun than I ever dreamed and that seems to be taking up most of my spare time on the weekends. Actually the term we're using is SailYakking. The Kayak/Sailboat is big enough to take a passenger so Yvonne has been able to ride with me. And that brings up another problem ....

The robots want to go too. The Battle Droid is constantly climbing up into the Kayak rarin to go on the weekends. Battle Droids are easy to intimidate so removing him from the kayak is fairly easy but how do you safely explain to a 700 pound sensitive and slightly neurotic robot (B9 and Robby) that there's just not enough room?

On another note. You can see Jeff's new jeep in the background. It's in excellent condition. We traded the robot trailer for it and are shipping it to him in the Virgin Islands next week. Perfect for the jungle mountanous winding roads he travels. I can't believe the great deal we got on it.

Jeff

Well, our older son Jeff went to St. Thomas on Sunday and stayed only about 15 minutes. After he got off the plane, he met a cool guy from St. John and they struck up a conversation. He told Jeff he should check out St. John which was only a 15 minute ferry ride away. So off they went and this guy graciously showed Jeff around and invited him to his restaurant later that evening where he introduced Jeff to a lot of his friends.

St. John is a small Island and the cost of living is very high but it's a beautiful place. Jeff fell in love with the island and has already found a cool house overlooking the ocean that he's sharing with a couple other people. Today he started work with a fishing charter boat and the lucky dog gets to fish in those turquoise Caribbean waters and get paid for it !!! Last night was his first night in the house and he called to describe the stars and the view of the town below and the cruise ships all lit up in the harbors.

After only a couple days he has a lot of new friends and is getting about pretty well. That's good news to his worrying parents.

These are pictures taken from the balcony of his new home.

Knees about done

The knees were filled with Bondo and covered with styrene on the ends to make a strong joint. They actually came out pretty good but still need a little filler and paint in a few places.

Worked on restoring and painting an old fountain and converting it to be a bird bath. The birds from up north will be down soon so they will be welcomed with water and some food. We usually get a nice variety and they're nice to have hanging around. Squirrels are always figuring out my devices to keep them out of the food so it's always an interesting battle. But they gotta eat too.