We retired from our 30+ years teaching careers to go Sailing Somewhere Sometime. After nearly two years sailing the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Florida Keys we moved to Seattle to be Grandparents to our new Grandson and later our third Granddaughter. We were in Seattle for 7 years and are now planning the next phase of our retirement as we have returned to Austin, TX for the duration of the Pandemic and beyond.
September 2026 in Seattle Maybe We Need Some Active Pogo
I was reading an article about active pogo. Pogo, as used in this article, is "Pogo oscillation, also known as pogo effect or pogo instability, is a phenomenon that occurs in rocketry and propulsion systems. It is characterized by repetitive oscillations in the propulsion system, which can lead to structural damage, performance degradation, and even mission failure. Pogo oscillation is a serious concern for engineers and designers of rockets and propulsion systems, as it can have detrimental effects on the overall performance.
Active pogo refers to a system designed to stabilize pogo oscillations using feedback mechanisms. This involves the integration of sensors and controllers that actively adjust the system's response to external forces, enhancing stability and performance. Active pogo systems are often utilized in engineering applications, such as aerospace, where precise control is crucial to mitigate oscillations during operation safety of the vehicle."
Active Pogo is a system to minimize or eliminate instable oscillations.
I thought of relating Active Pogo to humanity. Obviously, repetitive oscillations in our history led to instability and it had detrimental effects on the overall health of our earthly societies.
Now we just need an Active Pogo to stabilize pogo oscillations using feedback mechanisms. This involves the integration of sensors and controllers that actively adjust the system's response to external forces, enhancing stability and Health.
How to get mechanical concepts to match Human's?
Do y'all know what a Gyration is?
This lesson highlights the similarities between human sensors and their engineering counterparts. Taking this approach enables students to view the human body as a system, that is, from the perspective of an engineer. Humans have recreated most human sensors in robots – eyes, ears and sensors for temperature, touch and smell. The lesson includes a PowerPoint file that is programmed to run a Jeopardy-style game as a fun assessment tool.
Biological engineers and neuroscientists perceive the human body as a functioning, controlled system, similar to a robot. Research findings show that mathematical principles similar to those used in robotics are extremely useful or even necessary for a complete understanding of the human body. Through this lesson, students understand the function of each of the human senses by relating them to the different sensors used in robots. This comparison enables them to better understand the functioning of sensors in both applications.
A very thoughtful Community Garden adjacent to a soccer field in Shoreline, WA When you see something like this you feel the relationship between the gardener and the plants. video, see: https://youtu.be/S7ddJOesZCA
Twin Ponds Community Garden
Twin Pond Community Garden offers 38 leasable plots for Shoreline Residents. Additionally, volunteers manage 1,400 sq. ft. of gardens where they grow, harvest and deliver over 2,500 lbs. of produce each year to area food banks in an effort to fight food insecurity in the community. Twin Ponds Garden is located next to a wetland habitat with trails surrounding the ponds. The garden is open to the public and lovingly hosts pollinator gardens, mason bees, a bat house and a children's garden with interactive elements.
We saw the USS Ronald Reagan leaving Bremerton after some repairs, the funny thing was it was headed back to Bremerton just the next day, I guess some thing didn't work right!
The Foss Family is a longtime major tugboat company in Puget Sound.
This old Foss tug has been re-invented into a great Pacific Northwest cruiser, Foss is known for naming all their tugs after family members.
Some people Love boats
We usually go for a walk while grandkids are at horse riding lessons at Rock Meadow. They had this corn patch, I wonder if they will use it for the horses?
Some heathy corn there! Has a squash patch growing beneath the corn!
We usually turn around here, but today we continued down the Lane.
We walked down a new lane and found this farm with plenty of solar power!
You Gotta Love Nature!
This Lovely view of Lake Sammamish was at the end of the lane.
First time to be out on the Sound in like 5 months, we had to shake the cobwebs out of our sailing minds.
This is the sealant they used on the docks. It has worked extremely well so far.
Another Family Birthday Celebration, several have September Birthdays!
Mimi's turn, a cupcake Birthday party!
A Neighboring American Tug departing.
Well, we hope so!
What happens if you throw a pebble in the Ocean?
A Moment of Love
Tomorrow is coming
In case it Rains
Rain finally showed up, for two days.
A new awesome vessel on our dock. Luna Moth
Then we had some Mighty Fine seats at the Sounders vs Minnesota
This is the only MLS team that has earned 8 major championships.
Also it is the Seahawks home field and they have impressive accomplishments.
Coming Soon to a Store near You!
Did y'all know Love radiates out in an infinite number of directions? It is Spherical in nature. It tunes Oscillations toward perfect Harmony, Stability, and Endurance. Active Pogo.
Ourlast week in Seattle continued with the World Cup excitement, and some preparations for traveling back to Austin. We spent an unusual amount of time watching every game that was possible on TV. That's a lot of time just sitting!
Harbor seals napping on the dock. They couldn't care less about the World Cup!
I wore my USA cap to watch world cup games on the boat.
Rabbits are simply everywhere in the Pacific Northwest now.
I'm grooving on the recent addition of solar panels to the boat, Here Comes the Sun! You can see 89 Watts at the top, the boat just draws only what it needs from the 350 watts available from the solar panels, I once saw it hit 170 watts for a brief moment when the frig kicked on. It has the house batteries charged before 11:00am. So any 12 volts of energy the boat needs is supplied directly from the panels. So when the sun goes down our batteries are fully charged.
Lions Mane Jelly fish
Mom and pup are adored by the marina tenets
We had a Great flight back to Austin but on return we found a kiosk at The Domain to get our TSA pre-Check to try and simplify the process, a lot of humans returning to their home countries from Seattle!! The Seattle Airport had several big screen TV's broadcasting the games and huge crowds gathered to watch every move.
Back in Austin our Yellow Bells have been enjoying the unusual July rains, until they stopped and the temps climbed to triple digits. Our highest temp was 107, but weeks in in a row with 100, 103. 105 degree temps!
The grandkids spend the summer in Austin and enjoy horse camp at Switch Willow Stables
It's a family endeavor.
I began my birthday morning by getting a picture with Bean Dip, our grandkids love this horse!
And then I stopped by a bank to get a roll of quarters. Since it was my 3/4 birthday, I planned on handing out three quarters to whoever I happen to run into during the day. I told the bank teller what I planned to do with the quarters and she went to a safe and got me a uncirculated roll of quarters for the occasion!
Central Texas was Blessed with very uncommon early July rains topping off the lakes.
The entire Colorado River chain of lakes eventually were all 100% full
An unusual July sighting to the East of Mopac Expressway
Landscaping in Austin is favoring desert plants over grass.
The home across the street gets a remodel. This is occurring throughout the city on a huge scale. No grass, no cactus, just rocks. Rocks never need watering!
A lunch with the Soccer mom's is always fun, the talk never stops!
A complete knockdown and new home on our street, Purple is the new in color!
Three of our Austin families meet at Zachary Scott Theater to see Annie. The Theater Community is celebrating my brother's, Dave Steakley, 35th year as Director of Zachary Scott!
A fun pic on the patio at Zach Scott.
The Cousin's
Zach Theater is a family thing, here to see Annie
Some get to pet the dog who performed in Annie in the lobby after the show.
Everyone is ready for the Final 2026 World Cup Match!
Every person in this photo is way into Soccer, getting together for the World Cup final was a blast! Seattle and 3 Austin families together one more time, just misssing Brother Dave.
We went to see Brother Dave at a talk Back with the Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks at PBS in Austin.
Then we went with Ginger and Susan G. from Oklahoma to see the play.
There are three different theaters at the Zachary Scott Complex, This is the smaller Kleberg Stage for a more intimate setting to deal with the complex issues that Sally and Tom brings forward.
Time to go to Fort Worth, there is a Buc-ee's in Hillsboro where we now stop to stretch our legs on the three hour trip.
Roberts Automotive is doing a brisk business on Ramona, if your in Ft Worth and need a Mechanic, we strongly recommend Robert!
This truck has needs the axel bearing replaced, however it would cost $700 to just replace the bearing,
Instead they can replace the entire axel assemble for $500 that includes the bearing! That is due partially to labor cost. I learned a few things with our visit to Robert's Automotive.
They are gearing up for season three of Landman.
Not sure about this Patriotic Bull at the local Land Rover shop?
We met our Ft Worth life long friends at a nifty restaurant just 4 blocks from our hotel, we braved the 100 degree heat and walked over, But Roxanne gave us a ride back! During the lunch Jeff mentioned a walking trail near the old Carswell Air Base called the Airfield Falls Trails
Then we went to see Come From Away at Zach Scott, after the show there was a discussion with a man that lived in Austin that was on one of the planes diverted to Newfoundland during the 911 crises.
All the stars aligned and I was finally able to attend one of the monthly luncheon's with my long time colleagues, all teachers of Crockett High School. I loved every moment reconnecting and enjoying their camaraderie again!
We had a meeting at a South Austin office building and had to take a picture of one business' waiting room.
Our flight back to Seattle was delayed by a few hours, we managed to get on an earlier flight, our TSA was nice though! Nice temps in Seattle 60-72.
My father in law gave us a Mini Cooper back in the early 80's, it needed some work to get it running but I never had time to mess with it so we sold it. I like the new ones better.
Cool pumpkin patch in the front yard
I saw this unusual ship in the Sound and wondered what the purpose was.
This week, Seaspan Energy launched the second of its three 7600m3 LNG bunkering vessels, the Seaspan Lions, named after the twin peaks of the North Shore, or known as Ch’ich’iyúy ElxwÃkn (“Twin Sisters” or “Two Sisters”) to the Squamish Nation.
This series of vessels is named after iconic West Coast mountains and the first two vessels, the Seaspan Garibaldi (“Nch’ḵay̓”) and the Seaspan Lions (Ch’ich’iyúy ElxwÃkn), will be delivered in 2024 with the third vessel arriving in 2025.
The Seaspan Lions will provide Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) fueling services for vessels on the West Coast of North America, becoming the first company to provide LNG bunkering in the Pacific Northwest. The Seaspan Garibaldi is set to deliver low-carbon solutions to the global market and will be based in the Panama region.
The 2026 USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festival on Puget Sound
We have heard about Orcas coming through the Marina before.
