Robot Claw – Page 246 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Home Improvement

August 18, 2019

Our driveway was in bad condition, cracked and uneven. It was 25+ years old and past time for a new one. Last week that’s exactly what happened!

Many large trucks and a small army of men turned up to work. They started by removing the old asphalt with a bulldozer:

Then dumping the gravel substrate:

Which was flattened by a roller:

Then came the new asphalt, edges first:

Then the main portion layed down by a machine:

And flattened again with a different roller:

Lastly a final liquid asphalt coat:

And after a total of about 2.5 hours, it was done:

We haven’t used it yet since it’s halfway through a weeklong drying/setting process, but it looks good 🙂

It was hellishly expensive, but what home improvement job isn’t? It should last longer than we are in this house though, and what more could we ask!

Six Flags

August 15, 2019

We went to Six Flags New England today, an amusement park a couple of hours away with lots of rollercoasters.

That’s their Superman ride, which was awesomely tall, fast and thrilling. I rode it twice, and laughed like a child both times.

That’s the Batman ride, with lots of inversions. It wasn’t scary or too jarring, just fun, and after I did a test ride KLS took my word and had a go. She liked it but not enough to go on another big coaster.

So I rode the big ones alone, and we went on the smaller ones together. Ironically it was one of the little ones – Catwoman’s Whip – that gave me motion sickness 🙂

Our visit was free! Kristin’s work had given us passes which included parking, admission, a line-skipper and a meal. Even better than a trip to the amusement park is a free trip!

The park also has a big waterpark attached with lots of innertube rides. We rode a bunch of these as well before I hit my head hard on a concrete wall while on a lazy river and ended up in the first aid house for a bit! Right now, hours later, I’ve still got a big bump on my head…

It was a fun day though. If we get free passes again next year I’m sure we’ll visit again 🙂

All Good Things

August 12, 2019

I only brought a small carry-on with me, thinking if I bought anything I could mail it. That was foolishly optimistic since I ended up buying everything (yes, including all those books) and B & L have graciously bequeathed me an old suitcase to get it all home.

These last few days have been a relaxing mix of the usual activities, including a trip to the San Jose flea market! This is a big market full of stalls selling clothes, household goods, food and other essentials:

Amazingly they have a great arcade with many original retro cabs. I parked myself at Raiden Fighters for a while…

The food options were mostly Mexican, although there were some novel ones like pop-rocks encrusted corn-on-the-cob!

We found a strength tester and foolishly attempted it. You had to squeeze two bull horns to measure manliness and it was incredibly difficult and quite agonizing. As you can see Bernard defeated me, although my excuse was I stopped early since I was worried about my usual chest pain!

Today I went for a 3 hour walk in the hot, breezeless streets of Sunnyvale. Once I got back to the apartment I collapsed and have been loafing on this couch watching YouTube ever since. A fittingly comfortable way to end this vacation 🙂