Grandkids sometimes have a wicked sense of humor. Bouncing baby dolls up and down in a stairwell on the end of fishing line/rubber bands.... This is referred to as "Spider Baby" and of course is the most fun when an unsuspecting passerby gets surprised!
We tend to think of burial practices as being pretty standard across the country. But this is not actually the case. Major urban areas trend towards cremation as open space is at a premium. Alaska has permafrost. And then there is Louisiana.
Louisiana is more than its chief city New Orleans. But N.O. tends to dominate our images of the state. And in New Orleans most burials are above ground. Hey, go figure, build a city below water level, a city that is kept from becoming a big frog pond only be elaborate levees, and you'll have difficulty digging an honest six foot deep grave.
Recently Jay, a frequent correspondent, sent me several pictures from Houma Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Thanks Jay!
The "Two Fork" style of tombstone is fairly common here up north, but this one is odd in that it is both on the chubby side and has the inscription flat almost at ground level. Up this way you'd sometimes not see it if the caretaker would not mow the lawn on schedule. Note the hard gravel surface in this cemetery. Note also the nifty brass inscription plate which is seriously leaching metal salts into the surrounding stone due the the wet environment.
Behind me:
Robotics. Sub zero temperatures.
Here's the official end of the robotics campaign, a pile of wadded up receipts harvested from various pockets, the floor of my car, one that was in the trash. Final accounting time.
Ahead of me:
A month of archaeology in England. Time with the grandkids. Travels to Pacific Time Zone.
Anything else I feel like doing.
Here's a look ahead, the menu of the Bowes Hotel where I'll be staying. Mmmmmmm, curry and pints of ale after a long day of digging....
With robots done it is time to look ahead. I'm off to excavate at Vindolanda in about six weeks. Oddly the first real find of the 2020 season has already been made....and quite by accident.
There is a stream that runs past the site. Of course the fort is built on a hill, and logically stuff rolls down or is tossed down said hill over the centuries. Well, in January a fellow clearing a fallen tree in the embankment came across this tangled in the roots:
It is a broken section of a Roman altar!
How did it get there? Was it chucked off the fort battlement when the Empire went Christian under Constantine the Great? Did it knock around a while getting reused as part of assorted Dark Age and Medieval structures? That is impossible to say.
But I have a theory about how it got so worn down and eroded. I have it on very good authority that stream levels vary on a regular basis. Something to do with volunteers walking to the site along the road adjacent to the stream after having had several cups of tea (British diggers) or coffee (Americans) to fortify themselves for an active day of work!
Given the limitations of a young team, middlin' resources and six weeks to pull it off, our mantra for this build season was "Hard to Break. Easy to Fix. Made with parts we have." I report with mild surprise that we actually pulled it off. Many frustrations and distractions aside the final product - Robot Hank - is the most resilient robot we have ever built. After a few tweaks based on the Thursday practice matches we fired it up and ran through seven matches without a hiccup or a repair of any significance.
It is a somewhat limited design. The trade off for building a tank and having a bit of time to practice drive it is that there are some high level functions you can't build in. In fact this robot is able to go out and score approximately 17 points tops. And you know, it did it. Basically in every match. We have a simple but effective autonomous routine. 100% success. We can climb low or medium bar as the demands of our alliance require. Also, 100% success. In between we take some shots where we an get them, and got good enough that teams started specifically targeting us for defense from time to time. With some dramatic near tips ensuing!
Really good work by drivers, pit crew, programmers. And because this does not happen all by itself, credit also to the media/pr crew who helped us secure funding. We've even got some artistic talent turning up.
A few robot pix.
Lots of robots have fragile, delicate hooks for the climbing phase of the match. Hank has a massive riveted together system that pops up pneumatically....then grabs the bar and pulls up, eventually securing it to the top of the robot with about 140 pounds of grip strength. Lots of robots falling off their climbs today. You could demolish the building and you'd find Hank still holding on like a determined pit bull.
Casual shot of some pit crew, drive team and others posing with Hank.
The playing field from way up in the top rows of the stands.
Short post at least for words. I'm pretty tired. Up before dawn, rode the bus with two dozen kids leaving at 6am. We made it to Duluth, got our paperwork and robot inspection cleared in record time.
This was an afternoon for practice matches. We had three scheduled and got in two extra by being ready when others were not. A few minor hiccups, as is to be expected, but overall the robot, drive team and pit crew all seem solid. A few pictures of the day.
Software dials things in.
We have a mascot with home made outfit!
The field of play is way busier than the drivers expected.
In a build season with much frustration here's a welcome bit of whimsy. The team named the robot Hank. I don't know why, but it is coincidentally also the name of my son's frisky dog. Puppy Hank is a most estimable canine who gives me many happy moments. He adores me and I feel the same about him. Robot Hank on the other hand has caused me a great deal of worry, and once banged me on the shin when he was feeling electronically out of sorts.
Here is Hank in his final form.
It was always going to be a challenging build season. Pandemic, earliest possible competition schedule, and a team of kids who had little experience. Indeed, this robot was primarily built by 8th and 9th graders. And to their credit, the darn thing does work. At least it was working on Tuesday night!
Unless you are a very high level team the build process starts with high ambitions, but the compromises begin soon after. It takes a certain amount of time to do the complicated stuff, and a bit of time past that to make systems robust and reliable. When you fall behind in the first couple of weeks you can never make that time up.
It has been hard. Some of my posts showing gnarled, twisted trees covered with ice are a bit of poetic expression.
Well a great deal has been learned, and having a young team does mean the experience pool deepens quickly. We have things to address logistically before we can start talking about next year. But first.....tonight the robot goes off to Duluth the night ahead of the main team. I'm riding a school bus with a couple dozen robot kids Thursday morning.
With what few functional neurons remain to me after that experience I'll try to post a bit about how Robot Hank does in competition.
