banjoplayinnerd: (Default)
So apparently the wife and daughter went to the thrift store, again, yesterday. Maybe they're serious about this Norwescon costume thing. Anyway, they came back with a couple of complete finds.

First up: A bunch of what look like Sunday School attendance medallions. Red and blue crosses on white shield pins, that sort of thing. She thought that if they ever get around to making me a Browncoat chaplain's outfit some of them might make excellent insignia. Of course my idea of being a Browncoat military shepherd is to have collar insignia that display the Taoist yin and yang, or monads one day and Flying Spaghetti Monsters the next, but hey, there probably aren't that many Browncoat shepherds and they might have to be flexible, you know?

The next treasure she found was a little wooden toolbox kit. It's open topped, has a wood handle and needs to be assembled, sanded and stained, but it's perfect for Igor the Younger. He fancies himself quite the robot repairman, and if he has a toolbox I'm sure we can find a few tools to populate it with to keep the helping hands robot in good working order.

But the big find of the day was a $2 percussion kit consisting of several shakers, cymbals, pseudo-tambourines, a ladybug with xylophone-style sounders built into her wings, and a couple other rhythm instruments packed into a drum that fits easily around the neck. Daughter dear went to great lengths to explain that these are only for special occasions and they weren't to just run around banging on the drum anytime they felt like it.

All five of my grandkids have musical talent. Could be six, but with the three-month-old it's kinda hard to tell. I am excited to see them develop their talents a little bit. All three of my children took music in school and unfortunately none of them stuck with it. The closest was my daughter, who would dearly love to still be playing the upright bass but they're a bit expensive.

And to top all this off, last night we got to go see my oldest granddaughter perform in a choir concert. She has a very nice alto voice and is putting it to good use. The choral program at her high school is excellent, and the school's jazz choir took top honors at a recent Pacific Northwest competition. (She isn't in the jazz choir, I'm just letting you know how good the program is.) A very nice mix of songs and arrangements, from Gregorian chants to the Beatles' "Blackbird."
banjoplayinnerd: (Default)
In attendance:

Second Igor, a/k/a Boofy, age 4
First Igor, a/k/a Princess, age 7
Head Mad Scientist In Charge, a/k/a Grandpa, age fifty-something

I let my igors help me drill the holes in the front panel of the power supply I'm working on. Oh, they didn't drill the holes. That's mad scientist work. Instead they held the faceplate steady while I drilled. The result is . . .



Well, it's a little disappointing. I had hoped the rows of power posts would be straighter than they ended up being.

But only a little, and it looks pretty good considering how little I've done in the field of do-it-yourself electronics. Especially the kind that doesn't come from a kit.

We have a ways to go yet. Tomorrow I need to do the wiring (which hasn't really started yet). This will involve solder, LEDs, resistors and probably more solder. Once all that's done I can attach the box in the picture to the power supply proper and it should be ready to test and run.

I want to get this done by Friday for two reasons:

1. The new radio is coming on Saturday! I want to have this ready so I can hook up the antenna and go, albeit I'll only be able to transmit on 2 meters for a while until the new antenna goes up.

2. This will power not only the new radio but an old Radio Shack handheld that I plan to refurbish. (It needs a new battery, but the old one is soldered in, somewhere in the middle of the radio.)

The kids had a blast helping me with this. We all wore surgical-style masks, which for some reason they had been trying to get me to let them do ever since I bought them. Good thing too. There was plenty of plastic dust flying around.

I doubt there's any chance I'll be able to get out of letting them help tomorrow, even though solder will be involved. It'll be great.

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