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The only way that I can think of tackling the problem of making an account of my life so far is to first jot down as many recollections as I can and then to weave a thread of context through them. The Tiny TV Repairman Aged 11 I had an advert in the newsagent offering my services repairing radios and televisions. This was during the period that television had switched from 405 to 625 lines and most sets were capable of receiving both standards. Usually I would effect a repair in front of some startled white haired pensioner by removing large pieces of complicated looking electronics, I would take the tuner and half the valves then I would solder the enormous multi way switch that selected vhf/uhf into the uhf position and retune the channels after fixing their aerial to point to a new transmitter. The look on their face when they saw a better picture than they had ever before on their old knackered telly, Then when they asked me how much were staggered to hear that for payment I was quite happy with all the bits I had just removed from the TV. Occasionally I ran across a television that I could not repair because the UHF section was faulty, usually a mixer section EF183 valve or another one in the HV section, whenever I had this problem I would remove all the valves and take them home where I would fit them into the family television which would then immediately acquire the same fault as my customers had, however as our family rented the television within 24 hours a serviceman would visit replacing the faulty valve. Meanwhile I would return to my elderly customers with new valves and magically restore the television to good order. The most I ever made at this was five quid but I was never short of parts. Alternate use for wind turbines. At the time I was working for U.S.Windpower in Altamont Pass California, I had been living in a Holiday Inn which was becoming rather expensive and the windpower management kindly gave me an abandoned control room to live in during my working week. The 'control room' was in fact an entire building of two stories that had previously housed over 50 control room staff. The building was located 5 miles off road high up in the pass and I had radio keys that operated various security gates along the winding track leading to "my control room". One weekend I had invited some guests to enjoy a barbeque at the new abode, it was the middle of August and being a completely windless day, temperature in the shade was 90 plus, when I had an idea - If I could just figure out the hex code for a communications packet that I could send to the wind turbines on the ridge behind me (with my 'state of the art Tandy 102 laptop') I would be able to close the a solenoid that would connect the 110V AC supply to the turbine causing it to operate in reverse and becoming a giant, 56 foot fan. Well I regret it now because it did me no favours when the management found out, but I did figure that packet out and as a result I operated 16 x 100kW turbines for about 90 minutes on that windless day. I also discovered how to adjust the blade pitch to produce the strongest wind, with hindsight I wish I had taken my kite with me that day, at least it would have been some justification for the cost of the 4.3 MwH.
Artichokes This is one that I am not at all proud of, but it is a doozy, some weekends I would travel home from the windfarm in Livermore or "Live no more" as I had now dubbed it, I would cash my outrageous cheque at the livermore bank and drive the 60 or so miles along hwy 84 back to my house at Moss beach, I would stop off in a town already mentioned on this site 'La Honda' I would party at the bar "Applejacks" and quite accustomed to waking up on Saturday morning in my car outside the bar having been to drunk to drive when the bar closed. On this occasion however as I came out of my slumbers something struck me as rather odd. The thundering noise and the giant green hailstones, the violent rocking of the vehicle and the speedometer sticking straight up instead of it's usual 7 o/c position eventually clued me in as to what was happening. I was not parked outside the bar, I may have been 20 minutes earlier when I had first woken up and started driving home, this was the second time I had woken up after taking a bit of a snooze travelling northbound along hwy 1 and veering into an artichoke field. Somehow I was quite calm about the situation and keeping my foot on the gas I used the position of the sun to assist me in navigating my way back to the highway. I will never forget the giant green hailstones and have not been able to eat globe artichokes ever since.
So that's all I have time for now, stay tuned for more later.. |
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