Dander

A Question of the Day.  Is it ever good to "get one's dander up"?  Yes.  No. Maybe. Much is uncertain.

The phrase sounds, and is, American circa 1830's.  It might be a spin on a word from the West Indies that delightfully involves making rum.  "Dander, or Dunder" meaning the fermentation of sugar.  Inexpertly one assumes since it derives from the Spanish "redundar" which means "to overflow". 

Perhaps by now you've acquired my tendency to look at words and note similarities to other words.  Yes, redundar arrives straight from the Latin "redundare".  It's basic meaning is to be in excess, or superfluous.*

To be redundant in America is a little depressing but you are at least still drawing a paycheck.  In the UK "to be made redundant" means you've become obsolete and have been let go.

Near as I can figure Dander and Dandruff are not related at all.  The latter word is also of uncertain origins and one assumes Dandruff in any event goes down not up.  

And what about Dunderhead?  Dunder supposedly derives from Thunder via assorted Dutch influences.  It also rather suggests the influence of "Dunce".  As it happens the Spanish were not the only ones with interests in the West Indies.  If you manage your fermentation very badly - as a Dunce would - it might not just overflow but thunderously explode!

________________________

*Darn it, more words linking to other words.  Superfluous meaning of course, quite literally, to be over flowing.....

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Week Three

We are at roughly the mid point of Build Season....and its an odd progress report.  Some things were done very quickly and very well.  Others that were assumed to be in hand or easy-peasy have proven otherwise.  One key system is pretty much non functional.   Sigh.

Drive base is good.  The electronics will be going on "under the deck" shortly.  We have nice bumpers.  The clearance is such that the game pieces will not get stuck under there.

We have an elevator.  It works but is still a little twitchy.   It is living on an old robot frame at the moment.  It's nice to have old stuff with the same mounting hole pattern.  Software can tinker with it as the main robot is being worked on elsewhere and otherwise.  Lots of metal shavings being generated.  That is one measure of progress.

The "end game" this year involves essentially doing a chin up on a saggy chain, then reaching the elevator up to drop a game piece in a high up slot.  Climber looks as if it will work.  Still need to attach a winch to the arms.  Nice level hang.  We have a bit of latitude as to the location of the remaining parts, so should be able to keep it that way.

Ah, but the device that actually picks the rings up and shoots them?  That's not going so well.  We are expecting to prototype two new designs on Monday.

Stay tuned.

A Happy Birbay

At some point having birthdays loses its novelty.  I barely notice 'em unless they end in a zero.  So my recent one was uneventful.  The highlight was artwork from the grand kids.  Hmmm....variations on a common theme here....

I guess this one is a reference to my age.  An old buck with 67 points on his antlers would not be able to lift his head off the ground.  I'm at least doing a little better than that crawling out of bed in the morning!

Delightful imps, the rather saucy nature of their greetings notwithstanding.

The Scrap Brotherhood of Cadott Wisconsin

Here's a little story I ran across.  As usual I was looking for something else.

Cadott is a small town to the east of us.  It was one of those second generation lumber centers.  The first generation were places on major rivers.  When the prime timber available for floating down to mill towns ran out, railroads were built and places like Cadott had periods of prosperity.  Usually these were brief.  Cadott and towns like it, strung out along the rail line, are quiet places now.

But there used to be a mill there.  And in 1880 there was also The Scrap Brotherhood.  This was a "benefit society" for mill workers.  Sort of a mutual aid group that supported each other in times of illness and such.  Jobs did not come with benefits back then.

In 1884 they built "a fine hall" known as Scrap Hall.  It was described as having a spacious stage and a seating capacity of 500.  Dances, dramatic performances, public meetings and such were held there.

Scrap Hall stood at the corner of Main and West, right across from the mill.  I can find it on plat maps starting in 1894, but the best detail is on the 1912 map.

The Brotherhood was well thought of in its time.  A brief newspaper mention from 1892:

Although evidently existing for at least 30 years I can't find out much more.  All members were required to be mill employees, and the occasional mentions exist of dances and such.  

The eventual fate of the Brotherhood and of Scrap Hall is ill defined.  Apparently the Hall was lost to fire at some point after 1912, and a blacksmith's shop was built on the site.  Here's how it looks in 2023.  The building, now expanded, is probably the successor blacksmith's shop and by its position likely sits on part of the foundation of the earlier, and more interesting, building.

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Week Two in Video

 For those of you who prefer video to monologue!

In case you were wondering, we do have enough of those big orange game pieces to make it to Week Six.  After that....maybe we start striking poses on the field elements!

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Week Two Report

Week two started with sub zero weather and a delay in delivery of key components.  That's the bad news.  On the flip side, we are at a stage of needing components for the final build far earlier than usual.  If this design "works" we'll have it rolling with a bit of time left to practice.

Ah, but that big "if".  The current design had three complicated things.  An intake/launch device that reminds one of a pizza box with powered rollers.  A pivoting elevator to move the box up and down/in and out.  And a second elevator for the grand finale climb.

Elevator two has been replaced with something simpler and more fun.  Elevator one is a known mechanism with only a few quirks due to not being upright most of the time.  It will work with modifications.  The pizza box is going to need several iterations.

A few pictures from early in the week.

We had all the elevator parts in stock.  You need precision for this, so the connecting brackets are carefully lined up with these expandable through clips.  They are called Cleco clamps.  I just like to say that word.  Powder coating is lookin' sharp.

Howard, last year's robot, had already been taken apart down the the drive base.  With a new base likely in a few days it was time to pull the motor modules off, clean them up, add new grease and replace a few bearings.  The robot had to live in my garage for a while over the summer.  An unfortunate consequence is a bit of rust here and there.  I'm not sure if robot deconstruction more resembles Nascar Pit Crew or Hyenas versus Antelope Carcass.  Bit of both I guess.  In past years we sometimes held a mock serious Robot Funeral but Covid put us all in a more somber mood.

Software is working with one of our other test bed robots.  It cruises around orienting by these sort of bar code signs.  They are called April Tags.

We got our batch of team designed, laser cut parts in this week.  Here's the base and an elevator mechanism.

The base will stay bare metal, but the other lasered parts....

Of our three weekday sessions, one was OK, two were very good.  Saturdays are when we get about half the work of the week completed.  Wonder what we'll see then?

Saturday started slow but built momentum as the day went on.  We now have three robots "live".  One is just a test bed for shooter mechanisms.  One is our competition machine.  The drive base is done and seems rock solid.  Here's a pic with several of the mechanisms at least laid into place.

It's coming along.  The third machine is the software development base.  The team has made considerable progress on this one.  Watch it lock into its launch location using the bar codes on the field elements for orientation.  This is with no human hand at the controls.

Basically we are on track.  There's now only one mechanism that concerns me and it has at least been started.  Onward.

Axman Redux

It's been a long time since I went over to Axman Surplus in St. Paul.  I've been trying to reduce the amount of random stuff in my basement, and Axman has serious Hoarder potential for those of us who like gadgets and kitsch.

I had heard that the place was broken into during the unrest a few summers back.  Looters in search of items that could be swigged or re-sold probably stood there a moment in silence, then went on to more productive targets.   

Is Axman still the King of Surplus Stores in 2024?

Without filling up my basement workshop (which I do refer to as Area 51) I can still enjoy the creative, ironic signage...

On that last one I think they missed a Cerberus reference.....

A few items at Axman are not for sale, being more permanent décor.  This emotive Jesus has been there for a long time.  His sign used to say "Go Easy on Jeezy".  Still Covid Days in his corner.  Guessing that raising Lazarus is harder than it once was...

Sometimes things get a little dark.  This looks to be a sort of pull over doll's head wig,.  Probably it went with the mannikin heads you often find staring at you from a top shelf.

Not that the Kitty and Shark masks for kids directly adjacent are all that much better.

Yes, Axman is still The King, at least by the standards of shopping entertainment per dollar spent. And I always enjoy the odd stickers and signs slapped on the outside of the building.  I've long suspected they mostly represented local bands who appear and disappear like May Fly hatches.  But I'm never quite sure...

DOGS Should VOTE.  (said to be a reference from a video game called Second Life.  But maybe also a band?)

I actually think this last one is Peak Axman.  A band called PathosMosfet would be pretty cool.  Combine a Emo sort of vibe with the name of an electronic component.  Or is it a reference to a specific brand of Italian made Amp?  Or both?  This time internet gives no answers...

L.C. Millard

The study of small town/small time patent medicine companies almost always leaves you shorthanded.  Usually you have information and no artifacts.  Sometimes it is an artifact and little info.  That's the case with L.C. Millard and his Magic Oil, aka The Great Pain Exterminator.

Here's the bottle.  Paper label only.  I have photos but have not actually seen the item in person.  The style looks late, probably 1910 or so.  But if you look closely you'll see a possible clue.....

And here's that clue.  I think it says Columbian E &F Co.  

Lindle C. Millard was born in Illinois in 1846.  After living there and in Iowa he came to Chippewa Falls circa 1885.  I have not found much about his occupation.  His obituary describes him as "A gentleman of exemplary habits.."  I think he began running a small time patent medicine company circa 1893.  That was the year of the great Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, which commemorated the 401st anniversary of Columbus discovering the new world.  The cryptic words above seem to hint at this event.

My usual source of information on small town doings is the local paper.  And with regard to Mr. Millard it has been slim pickings.  Starting in the early 90s there are periodic mentions of him being in various communities on business.  But it is often vague.  Here's an example from 1897 that caught my eye as he was apparently calling on the tiny hamlet that is near my "up north" cabin.

Regards how he got into the patent medicine trade, and what he did before that, I have only hints.  He may have been the L. Millard who worked in logging camps as a "scaler" in the late 1880s.  As you may have guessed, a scaler estimates the amount and therefor the value, of lumber in a load of cut trees.  This was actually a pretty important job.

In late 1891 L.C. Millard fell and was injured on what he claimed was a defective section of city sidewalk on Cedar Street.  He hurt his back, had to walk with a cane, and attempted to get the City of Chippewa Falls to pay him $5000 in compensation.  This was eventually denied.  Was this the event that took him "out of the woods" and into a more sedentary occupation?

Per the label on the above bottle this was Millard's home and place of business.  This modest dwelling, where he must have filled his bottles, is actually quite near my house.  

When L.C. Millard died in 1912 his obituary gives us just a little more....

The doings of his son Charles up in Alaska get frequent mention in local papers.  And there is a brief mention in July 1913 that his daughter Mrs. Wilson was carrying on her father's work as "..an agent for medicine...".  She was said to be making good and getting ready for a business trip up north.  

Weekly Video Update! FRC 2024 Week One

We've always wanted to do a week by week update during robot build season but until now have just never quite gotten our act together.

Act now together.

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Week One Report

Well its a complicated game this year.  A weird little foam rubber donut has to be collected and launched into various targets, one of which can only be accessed if you first elevate your robot clear off the ground while hauling yourself up onto a swinging chain.  Uh....right.

It appears that a fair bit of our off season work may come in handy but there will be a number of brand new challenges to figure out.  For what its worth, the "glam" picture of our robot's preliminary CAD looks like this:

Two different elevator systems, and an over the bumper intake that is so far theoretical.  Oh, and nifty black powder coating, 'cause in victory or ambitious disaster you wanna look sharp.  Some images of Week One.

A prototype of the intake device.

Last year's competition robot stripped down to drive base to serve as a test bed.  It looks as if this will be another "Swerve Drive Rules" game, so our hard work on that last season will not have to be completely repeated.

This year we have a design team that has also thought deeply on strategic goals.  Will things translate from the White Board to the Real World?

Quite a bit got done in our first few sessions.  Saturdays have always been our most productive working days.  A few pictures from Saturday of Week One.

The design has evolved...

Two of the three major field elements are ready for use.

Although we design virtually we still find it useful to put a tape outline of scoring element geometry on the wall of the hallway.  This is a double check on design specs and every year seems to show us something we are happy learning about early rather than late.  We add a few artistic flourishes, call it a mural and the custodians just leave it up for us.

So lots going on.  And now starts the race.  Getting the robot from design to completion requires parts to be ordered and to arrive at the right time.  We hope we don't lose days to snow.  One key component is rather new ground for us and it is anticipated that prototypes 1.0 and 2.0 won't suffice.  "Fail early" is the saying that applies.

Stay tuned.

Return of the Nimrod

The Birkebeiner Ski race is familiar to people in Scandinavia, in northern Wisconsin, and among the cross country ski community in general.  It commemorates a turbulent time in medieval Norway when a royal baby named Haakon needed to be spirited away from some characters called Baglers, who wanted to bump him off as part of a dynastic war.  Brave warriors called Birkebeiners got on their skis and made good an escape, getting Haakon to safety.

The American Birkebeiner race up in Hayward Wisconsin celebrates this legend, with thousands of skiers participating in the most prestigious cross country ski race in North America.  There are always re-enactors to carry Haakon off to safety.

One of my kids who lives in the area has for years participated in a more light hearted aspect of "The Birkie".  One that has just a smidge of controversy here and there but no dynastic strife.  Well, maybe just a smidge of that too.  

The Giant Ski Race, where teams of six stalwarts on a single pair of giant skis, sprint down the main street of Hayward to the bemusement of spectators.  Last year he made an elaborate "mockumentary" of the event.  It was a full length feature film with a local movie theater doing the World Premier and all manner of nonsense.  In case you missed it:

After winning the event five times the Nimrods decided to hang it up.  So ends a mighty sports dynasty.  

Or does it?

Recently a trailer has dropped suggesting a Nimrod revival, something that involves the Legend of Haakon and the whole re-enactor thing.  Worth a couple minutes of your time if you don't have the leisure and a beverage in hand for the full length feature from a year ago.

Obviously much in the same tongue in cheek genre, but being a peripheral member of the Nimrod entourage I see some interesting things hinted at.  It appears that the role of Haakon is being played by one of my grand daughter's dolls.  An old nemesis of mine....Doll Baby.

Given Doll Baby's profound disdain for authority - at least that of grandpas - I suppose it was inevitable that Hollywood would be appealing.  I was wondering what DB had been up to.  Last communique I had was being ordered to get a Covid test around Christmas....

Will the Nimrods rise to the occasion saving both "Baby Haakon" and the Birkie in general (dangerously low snow amounts at press time).  Probably.  Will fame, fortune and a life on the silver screen turn Doll Baby into an insufferable brat?  Too late for that.  Far too late.

H.W. Barker does not approve of Short Sheeting!

Sometimes you get remembered for things other than what you'd predict.

H.W. Barker of Sparta Wisconsin turned out this swell looking patent medicine.

This one is so clean it is almost harder to read than usual.  "H.W. BARKER'S COUGH REMEDY 50 cents".

Over his long life H.W. Barker did a lot of things.  Born near Lacrosse, Wisconsin in 1860 he went over to Minnesota for a visit after his high school graduation and ended up staying 22 years.  He taught school for a while before moving to Parker's Prairie where he apprenticed with a doctor and helped in a drug store.  At that point in history that's all you needed to get a Pharmacy license, so he moved to Elbow Lake and started a drug store.  There he ran for mayor and served as same for three terms.  He became at least a passable fiddler, good enough to play at weddings.  He married and had several children.

In 1902 he moved back to Wisconsin, specifically to Sparta.  Presumably drawing upon his prior pharmacy experience he started producing medicines in a building behind his house.  He had a modest degree of success, selling over an 8 state area and employing several salesmen.  

Barker also returned to politics, serving as a Wisconsin state senator from 1907 to 1909.  

After that he seems to have just carried on.  An news article on the occasion of his 89th birthday in 1949 says that he was still making and selling his products, although by then he was down to a skin medicine and vanilla flavoring extract.

In 1950 he passed away.  His obituary is largely a rehash of the article published the year before.  I think it is interesting how it identifies him:

He appears to be a likeable old coot, whose great accomplishment in life was sponsoring a bill that required hotels to use nine foot long bedsheets!  Hotel patrons with nice warm toes are an appreciative group.

FIRST Robotics - The 2024 Campaign Begins

 

Here we go again.  Another FIRST robotics season.  The "reveal video" describing the game went live on Saturday.  3500 teams around the world are now hard at work.

The team thinks they can do it.  And based on the degree of brainstorming and prototyping that has already happened I agree.  Never bet against smart, motivated kids.

And here's a whole batch of 'em.  Once again we hosted the other teams in the area for Reveal Video, snacks and brainstorming.

After coming up 8 seconds short in a Finals match last season our focus this year is efficiency.  How many minutes, hours or even days does it take to distill down to a precious few seconds when it makes all the difference?  My contribution was to make the long drive over to pick up game specific items over in Minnesota.  Getting them back to home base 45 minutes ahead of schedule - and in compliance with speed limits - will be the first contribution to Project T-minus-08.

The Perfidious Squirrels

I use some words just because I like to say them.  Perfidious is one such word.  For reasons I can't fathom it is commonly used by the French to criticize the English.  "Perfidious Albion" being the usual framing.  Evidently it was used by a Spanish-French playwright in the 1700's and just caught on.

Anyway, I've started using this word - so descriptive of dastardly behavior - to describe the Perfidious Squirrels.  My dog hates 'em, and I think he's got the right of it.  

Oddly the etymology of the word is a bit "doggy", making this very appropriate.

Perfidy, meaning treachery, faithlessness, or falsehood, comes from the Latin phrase "per fidem decipere" which means "to deceive through trust".  

Of course dogs would never do this.  That's why they have probably been called Fido, meaning faithful, for a very long time.  But oddly, it was Abraham Lincoln who popularized it, having a dog by that name that he regretfully left behind when be became president.  Supposedly his wife was concerned he'd chew on things and soil the carpets!  

Presidential dogs have gotten away with worse behavior in recent times.

An ER Miracle

If you are expecting a heart warming tale of a miraculous recovery from a serious illness, sorry.  That sort of thing is actually pretty common.  Oh, sure, the first few times you see an apparently comatose patient wake up and look around after you give them a dose of Narcan (reverses opioid overdose) or glucose ( 'cause having a blood sugar near zero ain't healthy),  its pretty impressive.  But this story is about something far, far less probable.

It was a night about this time of year.  There is usually a cold, dark, unhopeful stretch right after the holidays.  It was snowing.  And I was the only doctor working a small ER in Northern Wisconsin.

The ambulance brought in a man suffering from severe depression.  This is of the "no hope, suicidal" variety and as such not something that a pep talk and a prescription for anti depressants that will start working next week is in order.  No, this man needed inpatient psych care.

But there was a problem.  He was a VA patient.

Things have gotten better in recent years but for a long time the Veteran's Administration health care system was legendary for its callous, inefficient, slow nature.  Patients could not get in the door, and if they did they could expect to sit on gurneys in the hallways for a very long time.  Probably it started with the attitude that "You GIs are used to waiting in lines and obeying orders, so just keep waiting around and do what we say".  This of course is not being fair to the many VA employees who cared a lot, nor is it unreasonable to note that some segments of their clientele are patients of the most challenging sort.  For a long time, if you had "better" health care options you used them.  Those who did not, had much higher rates of homelessness, mental health and substance issues.

But that's not relevant to our story.  

The patient was a nice guy.  He was trying to do his best in a situation where he had little support.  He was not one of our "regulars", that challenging cohort whose creativity and tenacity in seeking narcotics was as impressive as it was aggravating.

What I'm about to say next will not be believed by anyone who has ever worked in an ER, or who has had extensive contact with the VA healthcare system.  I understand your disbelief.

Within 90 minutes I had spoken to the nearest VA hospital that had inpatient psychiatric services.  It was in Minneapolis, probably three hours away in good weather, longer under current conditions.  I had him approved for admission, the receiving resident briefed on the details, the records faxed and the ambulance putting wheels to slick pavement.

How is this possible?  That would be a longer story.  But it is always important to know who makes the decisions in any system and what motivates them.  It never hurts to be relaxed and pleasant in your conversations....none of which should be delegated to others.  Most inefficient systems are actually staffed by good people, you just have to appeal to that goodness and encourage them to do the little bit of extra work that their protocols don't strictly require.  

I hope the old soldier did OK.  I never saw him back in my ER, so most likely things worked out.  As a victory over bureaucratic inertia this was way up there in the difficulty level.  But I don't gloat over this one as I have on a few other occasions*.  A simple and sincere thank you from the patient, which I duly passed along to the VA, was sufficient reward on a cold, bleak night.                            ---------------------------------------------

Medical Software Gone Wild

Bureucraticus Victrix

Another Time Around

New Years Day.  Another circuit 'round the seasons.  Looking back, I'd rate it a pretty good year.  

I got back to England to dig up fun Roman stuff and hang out with my fun digging friends.  This is a spear head circa 2nd century AD if you are curious.

The Robotics team had its best season ever, coming within inches, or seconds depending on perspective, of qualifying for Worlds.

                                                                                                 

For the first time in a long, long while we went somewhere warm when Wisconsin was cold.  The robotics team managed without me for a week.  Honestly, they did better in my absence.

Lots of good family time.  Picking up a new daughter in law and grandkid just about defines a Good Year.

There were no major health concerns.  Our old house only needed an annoying degree of financial outlay.  I caught several species of new fish.

I did not get a deer.  But I did acquire a dog.  Here's Hank and his pal Reba, hard at work.

Yep, pretty good 2023.

Looking ahead....it will be back to Florida for a bit in March.  And off to England again in May.  The robotics team looks formidable.  Perhaps my long work in that area will reach its final goal this year.  Or next.  Anyway, my Official Predictions for the season have been made.

Here they are:

Stay tuned.....