Detritus of Empire

It snowed.  Not as much as predicted, but already at morning coffee time everything local had been cancelled due to alarmist reports.  Or heck, maybe the schools all wanted to trim a day off of the minimal learning days that lead up to a major holiday. 

So robotics practice off, and an evening social occasion also cancelled.

Didn't even have enough snow to make a proper job clearing it.  Those eager beaver neighbors got their snow blower out first and did the out front sidewalk.

So, boring day.

Ah well, for logistic reasons our "Christmas" will be over the weekend, so there's that.

Sometimes you just have to say nice things.

Vojtik's Stockyard is an unusual business enterprise.  Two locations a short distance apart, one is a meat packing business the other a classic Wisconsin bar and grill.  I've enjoyed the work of both.

When we were laboring in the heat of July, building that off grid house, The Stockyard (restaurant) was our go to place.  Food.  A cold beer.  Several glasses of ice water.  We left considerably restored.  That by the way is the base meaning of the word restaurant, and they did a darn good job.

They also have their earlier building just up the road a stretch.  This used to be the restaurant in front, meat packing out back.  Now its all meat, all the time.

And they do wild game processing.  Deer mostly, but I'm sure if you pulled up with a defunct bear or some such they'd rise to the occasion.

As I've mentioned the business side of this is delightful.  When I asked how to get the ball rolling when I had a deer I was told: "First, go to the bar".  Deal.  Paperwork done in five minutes then then up the road to drop off the deer.  I admit, this year's bag was of a rather small critter - which I consider a testament to my skill as an archer! - but the guys who pulled it off the truck were cheerful and enthusiastic.  "Nice deer!"

The process - inadvertent pun - on the other end is also simple.  They call you up.  You go to - you guessed it - the bar.  And they have a refrigerated trailer with everyone's processed steaks, sticks and sausage ready in a marked tub.  

I have the deer in my freezer now.  I had cleared plenty of space.  More than I needed as it turns out.  And the first venison stick has been sampled.  Mmmm, good stuff.

Cheers

I've mentioned before that I think all robots are Buddhists.  They are clearly reincarnated time and time again as their parts are recycled into other robots.  In years past we've even had the occasional "Robot Funeral" prior to a machine being dismantled.  The words of institution being:  "Bolts to bolts, widgets to widgets...."  When the world went insane due to Covid we were a bit less enthused about this, as death seemed a poor subject for humor.  And to be more practically sensitive we often have kids on the team who have parents, grandparents etc facing health challenges.

I think this was our last Robot Funeral back in 2021

But the principle remains.  A robot is born, lives its (?) life, then its components are scattered, not like ashes over a body of water, but to the recycling bin, the electronics cart, the far reaches of the various storage spaces....

Sometimes things come back in unexpected ways.  This year there are new rules for the protective bumpers that competition robots must have.  We are being encouraged to experiment with different materials.  This was rather good fun, and we put together a series of videos for other teams to consider.  Worth a minute or two of amusing time spent, and some things you'll see have "histories". 

After figuring out how much squishing various foam types could take and still recover, we got even meaner....

Eventually the team outgrew its initial home, and the H.of.P. was used to knock apart our storage shelves and such.  It then became a ceremonial object which is presented to our student build lead at the start of his or her tenure.  It is only for the persuasion of mechanical objects, and has been used less as a test of mechanical integrity.  We have enthusiastic robot drivers for that now...

I often start to write something silly and find that the Real World is stranger than I imagined it to be.  So....what do actual Buddhists do for Robot Funerals?  Well, as it happens, in Japan they really do have ceremonies for decommissioned Companion Robots.  Who knew?

My dog Hank regards my wife and I as pretty poor excuses for dogs.  Still, we are the Alphas in this pack and he has to get along with us.  But he seems to think we need a remedial level of education.

Walks are very important to the Dog Unit.  Why can't the bipeds see this?  So he tries to train us.  Everything that is associated with a walk he tries to reproduce.  He'll nudge us towards the front door.  He is very aware of when I set down my coffee cup.  He knows I put on socks and shoes by the front door.  So he brings socks and deposits them there.  Mine, my wife's, clean, dirty.  Surely several pairs will up the odds.  When that does not work he'll try anything that smells like us.  He'll tip over the bathroom trash can and bring down disgusting (to us) used Kleenex.  Recently in an example of going above and beyond, he somehow got a bar of soap out of the shower and hauled it downstairs.  That's dedication....

And when it comes to the final step in the pre-walk algorithm, he glitches.  I want him to pick up the harness/leash combo from the floor and give it to me.  He knows how to do it.  He usually does it and gets the immediate desired result.  But sometimes......

It was the last day of November when I passed through a surprisingly busy town in Western Wisconsin.  It seemed like the sort of place where "Tree Shaped Tombstones" would be found.  So I took a detour to the cemetery where a couple of deer stared at me fearlessly.  Hey, last day of hunting season and besides they were safe in the city limits.

I was not disappointed.

Modern "Trees" are quite rare.  And this one has its own granite bench.  There's gotta be a story here.  This first photo worried me....

This one just confused me.  There seem to be a lot of Alvarezs showing up here....

The explanation is HERE.  This is the memorial for Leona Grace Johnson, who died in 2022 at the age of 100.  Noah and Jonah are just a couple of her many great grandchildren.  So rather than this being a memorial to some tragic death of children it is a monument to a life that seems to have been very well lived indeed.  Cheers Leona.

It has been a while since I took the short drive over to work at "Sand Land", the astonishingly eccentric project some friends of mine have been at for a decade or so.  Not everyone understands Sand Land.  I mean...buy a ravine and bring in volunteers to excavate an underground tunnel system?  With stair cases, a spiral slide, a tavern, and...well I'm not sure what else is in there at the moment because I just came to work, not to take the latest tour.

So, its underground we go...

It's always important to pay attention to signs..

Here's a short video clip I took while running the wagon back in.  I don't go so fast when dragging it out.

Exercise and Eccentricity.  I need more of  both.

Really good teams are built in the off season.  So for the FIRST time in team history we have continued meeting through the summer on a small scale but focused basis.  We've run the fall pre-season differently too, with the high school team working on a few specific projects while putting major effort into our "farm club", Robot School.

But with that concluded, and with the last of the Thanksgiving left overs consumed, 5826 has started "regular" meetings twice a week in December.  We think we know the roster, although there will always be some add-ons and drop offs as the lives of young people can be complicated.  It should be a strong team this year.

Lots going on.  In no particular order....

In the background, Jeffery the middle school project bot is being taken apart.  In the foreground, various foam samples.  New rules this year allow different options.  And as robots have started taking and dispensing harder hits, they'd better be good.

Software doing software things.  Some of them may have gone beyond the coach's comprehension levels.  I am both pleased and moderately concerned by this....