Dancing to the music...

Dancing to the music...  Via my mom, who gave me a great belly laugh as I ate my lunch of tlapeno made by my lovely bride...

She walked up and tied her old mule to the hitching post. As she stood there, brushing some of the dust from her face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

The young gunslinger looked at the old woman and laughed, "Hey old woman, have you ever danced?"

The old woman looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No, I never did dance. Never really wanted to."

A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, "Well, you old bag, you're gonna dance now," and started shooting at the old woman's feet.

The old woman prospector – not wanting to get her toe blown off – started hopping around.  Everybody was laughing.  When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon.

The old woman turned to her pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers.  The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.  The crowd stopped laughing immediately.

The young gunslinger heard the sounds, too, and he turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening.

The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old woman and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.  The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old woman's hands, as she quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No ma'am.  But ... I've always wanted to."

Now that's what I call a measured and well-considered answer!

An obituary for the ages...

An obituary for the ages...  A snippet:

He excelled at attempting home improvement projects, outsmarting rabbits, annoying the women in his life and reading every book he could get his hands on.

He thought everyone could, and should, live on a strict diet of salmon, canned peas and rice pilaf, and took extreme pride in the fact that he had a freezer stocked full of wild game and seafood.

His life goal was to beat his wife at Scrabble, and although he never succeeded, his dream lives on in the family he left behind.

Do go read the whole thing...

Comet 67P...

Comet 67P...  As seen by Rosetta on March 21st, from a distance of 83 km (about 50 miles).  The outgassing is much more visible than it was just a few weeks ago, because the comet is getting closer to the sun and is warming up...

Meanwhile, over on the other side of Mars...

Meanwhile, over on the other side of Mars ... the Curiosity rover is doing a tire self-examination.  You may recall that the mission planners were getting worried about the unexpectedly high rate of tire damage – and photos like this one show why, graphically.  Those aluminum tires look like the losers in a rough fight.  In the photo at right (click to embiggen) you can see several badly damaged parts on one of the rover's six tires.  The mission planners are driving carefully these days, most especially to avoid any particularly sharp or jagged rocks.  Let's hope this caution keeps Curiosity mobile long enough to explore Mt. Sharp!

The shadow knows...

The shadow knows...  The Mars rover Opportunity is sitting on the edge of Endurance Crater, and happened to be in the right position to snap a nice photo of its own shadow.  Opportunity is now almost finished with the 11th year of its planned 90 day mission – you just gotta love that little robot!  Via APOD, of course...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  I got my new band saw unpacked, cleaned up (the table was covered with grease for storage), and mostly aligned.  There were some challenges here, as that thing was very heavy.   The biggest challenge was getting it onto the mobile base I got for it.  Working by myself, how do I get almost 500 pounds of band saw off its shipping pallet and onto the mobile base?  The answer involves the tractor, of course – and also the very convenient eye bolt that comes on top of the band saw for lifting it.  I wrapped a chain around my forklift's tines, cranked the forklift high enough to clear the band saw, hooked up the chain to the eye bolt, and hoisted away.  Tractors sure are handy things to have around!

I haven't tested the band saw yet, or done the final alignment, as I haven't connected it to power yet.  I'll have to run to Home Depot today for a few components, and then I'll do those last things...