Random Thoughts 15: Crystal Clear 2021 Edition

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We are still in Denver. They keep moving back departure by 5 fricking minutes. At least this flight is supposed to be only 40% full. Still, we’re 40 min. behind already.
 
Coming back from our cache tonight we hadn't really noticed how dark it was around us until we came up on a power crew working on a large tree. Apparently a bunch of people on Hwy 210 east of I-35 lost power at some point tonight.
 
People at auctions need their head examined. I have bid online for a couple things, but I know what my stuff generally costs. I just saw a small air compressor that I bought to air up balls and small things at home (low tires also, but it takes a couple minutes) sell for more than I paid for mine new. This was far from new shape also.

There must be a name for the mania that takes over at auctions. I've seen lots of similar activity.....makes you wonder if people really don't know the value of things, or they're just excited to be the high bidder.
 
There must be a name for the mania that takes over at auctions. I've seen lots of similar activity.....makes you wonder if people really don't know the value of things, or they're just excited to be the high bidder.
A friend of mine went to Vegas for one of those big auctions. He wanted to buy an old Harley Flathead to restore and there were several. He said it took about 5 minutes on each one for the bid to exceed what he was willing to spend and the numbers were crazy high.

A few years ago the owner of Frontier Harley in Lincoln retired and put his entire collection up for auction. The auction company tried to get him to do it in Vegas and told him he would get at least $100,000 more in Vegas than Lincoln. He refused because he wanted the people that admired his collection over the years to have a chance at actually winning the bid.
 
Long-time co-worker and good friend climbed Devil's Tower some years ago. He told me that at the top, he wandered over by the edge to look down.....and suddenly he felt an almost overpowering urge to jump. He quickly moved away. He talked with a couple other people who had had a similar experience up there.
A couple of my climbing buddies rented a light plane and flew out to a small airport about 10-15 miles from Devil's Tower and bicycled into the park.
It was raining so they threw their stuff in the big teepee (wonder if it's still there) and crashed. They were awakened the next morning by tourists taking pictures of them in their sleeping bags. Still raining and they never did climb it.
 
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People at auctions need their head examined. I have bid online for a couple things, but I know what my stuff generally costs. I just saw a small air compressor that I bought to air up balls and small things at home (low tires also, but it takes a couple minutes) sell for more than I paid for mine new. This was far from new shape also.
On Ebay at least, people will bid on their own stuff or use some sort of bot system to drive up the price. I few years ago, I bought golf clubs through Ebay. I placed one bid and was outbid. About 30 minutes after the auction closed, I received a message asking if I'd still purchase the clubs for the price at which I'd placed the bid.

Maybe this isn't the case anymore but it is my experience from a number of years ago.
 
On Ebay at least, people will bid on their own stuff or use some sort of bot system to drive up the price. I few years ago, I bought golf clubs through Ebay. I placed one bid and was outbid. About 30 minutes after the auction closed, I received a message asking if I'd still purchase the clubs for the price at which I'd placed the bid.

Maybe this isn't the case anymore but it is my experience from a number of years ago.
That happened to me once. Once it got past the price I was willing to pay I stopped bidding. I was contacted a day or two later and they said the "winning bid" backed out. I told him I had already committed to buying something else.
Now it makes me wonder if that is what is happening.
 
There might be one. If you aren't careful you'll miss it.
The last two times we went out there we made a game out of counting the number of Wall Drug signs we saw on the way to Wall. If I remember correctly when we went from Des Moines we saw the first ones in NW Iowa and when we went on I-90 we saw the first ones in South Central Minnesota.

Let's just say that the count both times was in the multiple hundreds.
 
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Been raining for a couple of hours. Like moderate non-thunderstorming stuff. Might actually soak in. Guessing this ends up being a normal summer 1-incher which isn't normal at all for this this spring/summer. Garden boy is somewhat pleased.
We ended up with 2 inches in the homestead rain guage. I'm pretty sure that exceeds or matches what we have had in the last two and a half months combined at our house.

Our quarterly water bill was $200 and we barely kept the lawn alive - it certainly wasn't thriving.
 
The last two times we went out there we made a game out of counting the number of Wall Drug signs we saw on the way to Wall. If I remember correctly when we went from Des Moines we saw the first ones in NW Iowa and when we went on I-90 we saw the first ones in South Central Minnesota.

Let's just say that the count both times was in the multiple hundreds.
I'm pretty sure I saw them in the 60's or 70's in one or more of the New England highways. I guess at one point there were over 3,000 signs.
You can say that Wall Drug was the first "viral ad campaign" as those signs popped up everywhere
 
We ended up with 2 inches in the homestead rain guage. I'm pretty sure that exceeds or matches what we have had in the last two and a half months combined at our house.

Our quarterly water bill was $200 and we barely kept the lawn alive - it certainly wasn't thriving.

Crystal Airport NWS reporting station ( 6 miles north of me) says 1.47" for yesterday while MPLS International (10 miles southeast) says only .17". Based on how long and hard it rained here I gotta go with Crystal. The engineers with the City of St. Paul derisively referred to the main airport weather station as the Mohave Desert of stations. I totally believe them. It's like there is an umbrella over it. Was a BIG data argument/discussion realted tot hat data on the St. Paul Flood Control Project storm sewer pumping station design ie. deciding on a design storm probability. Pissed my guys off several time's by siding with the St. Paul peeps including a shouting profane outburst were I went Full Boxster on our team hydraulic engineer. During a break I apologized to the St. Paul city peeps. They were all " No worries that happens all of the time at our meetings." If that happened a lot with them I won't have liked working there. BTW, our guy was a notorious ass-hole and I didn't get in trouble.
 
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