Jeffrey (Jeff) Duddles

E-Mail jjduddles@gmail.com

About Me

My photo
I live in Olympia Wa. (since 1987)where I attended The Evergreen State College. Before that I lived in Forks and Port Angeles (Penninsula Community College). I Graduated High School at Clallam Bay High in 1980. I went to middle school in West Linn Or. I am not active on this site anymore. My main online presence is on Google+ (see the "My Webpage" link on my profile page)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Ralph and Carolyn's 50th

Ralph and Carolyn celebrate 50 years!







Ralph shows his surprise during his grand entrance


Carolyn was also very surprised

On December 29 2009, we celebrated Ralph and Carolyn's 50'th anniversary. With all of our old friends and extended family so far away, I was afraid it would just be my brother Donald and myself taking them out to dinner. With them living about 6 hours away down in Coos Bay OR and me up in Olympia WA, I hadn't had a chance to meet many of their local friends.
They have lived there for over 20 years now and have developed a large network of friends. I was able to get in touch with one of their dear friends Janice. She was gracious enough to make arrangements for a place to meet and bring some beautiful flowers and a cake. She went to a lot of effort to invite as many of their local friends as possible. We had a great turnout, with about 30 people being able to attend.
We had kept it a secret, so they were both surprised when our quiet family dinner turned out to be bit more.











My brother Donald and his new wife Pam found a beautiful celebration clock. It has a plaque on the front with Ralph and Carolyn's names, and one on the back with our names.





















From left to right: Jeff, Don, Ralph and Carolyn

The video is not very good, but you can at least hear Ralph tell the story of their first date those many years ago...

We had our gathering at a nice Mexican restaurant. Near the end of the meal the crew came out with these "Happy Anniversary" sombreros and sang a festive song for the happy couple.



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

2009 Olympia Procession Of The Species

This post is a little late...The Procession Of The Species was on April 27th. I didn't get around to looking at my pictures until today. This was the first time in a few years that I did not have to work on the day of the parade, so I was glad that I got to check it out this year. Every year the costumes get better and better. The Procession was started as a celebration of Earth Day. The Four Elements were represented...Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I really enjoyed the little ones that participated. There was an article in the local paper about a four year old who had been in the parade five times. I remember them...momma's big belly was painted as the Earth and her friend's was painted as the Moon. All of the costumes and floats are hand made by volunteers.
My videos don't have any sound, so you miss a little of the effect. There are lots of other videos on YouTube. Lots of people also posted their pictures on Flickr.


A rolling Forrest


Treebeard!



Stick Legs?









Whoo! Whoo!


Nemo and the anemones!


Lizard boy's head piece is a recycled plastic bottle...




Kraby man in the Kelp Forrest



Senor Froggy



Peace!



The Cloven Hoofed Beast



Super Fly!









This little "Mouse" girl was running around her big mouse on a leash!

Backpack Birdnest Baby was napping.




The Angler Fish was a hit with the kids...


The littlest Zebras!



The rest of the herd











This dung beetle was cleaning up the mess...


Dancing Cow....MMMM Cowwwww....





Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Discovery STS 119 Mission to International Space Station (ISS)




I have been using my computer to monitor the last few shuttle missions. NASA TV (see link above) broadcasts most of the activity from launch to touchdown. During the most recent mission in March (STS 119) I watched two of the space walks (EVAs) live. They have several external cameras on the ISS as well as helmet cams showing the astronaut's view. It's pretty exciting to see it all live on your laptop.


The top photo is from 2000. The second shot was taken from Discovery in March 2009 as they did a flyby after un-docking for the journey home.


Quite a change from watching the Moon Landings in black and white with Walter Cronkite!



Here is a compilation video of the separation of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) during lift off. They added these external cameras after the destruction of the Columbia in 2003. That disaster was caused by debris hitting the leading edge of the wings, causing a breach, which led to it's breaking up during reentry. Now ground crews can review the video to help monitor for damage to the wings. During previous missions they practiced repair procedures to patch any such damage with special putty.


Watch for the other booster in the distance as they fall away. You can also see the shuttle continue upwards during some of the shots. Below is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on the SRBs.





"The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) are the pair of large solid rockets used by the Space Shuttle during the first two minutes of powered flight. They are located on either side of the orange external propellant tank. Each SRB produces 1.8 times more liftoff thrust than one F-1 engine – the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever flown – 5 of which powered the Saturn V "moon rocket's" first stage. The SRBs are the largest solid-fuel rocket motors ever flown, and the first to be used for primary propulsion on human spaceflight missions. The spent SRBs are recovered from the ocean, refurbished, reloaded with propellant, and reused for several missions."





This is a series of views of the ISS from Discovery as they do their flyby. This mission installed the last of the truss sections containing a pair of solar panels. This puts the station close to it's final configuration. There is one more node (room) left to attach before the shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired in 211o. Here is an excerpt from the Wickipedia entry about the solar arrays:



"The International Space Station's main source of energy is from three of the four large U.S.-made photovoltaic arrays currently on the station, sometimes referred to as the Solar Array Wings (SAW). The first pair of arrays are attached to the P6 truss segment, which was launched and installed on top of Z1 in late 2000 during STS-97. The P6 segment was relocated to its final position, bolted to the P5 truss segment, in November 2007 during STS-120. The second pair of arrays was launched and installed in September 2006 during STS-115, but they didn't provide electricity until STS-116 in December 2006 when the station got an electrical rewiring. A third pair of arrays was installed during STS-117 in June 2007. A final pair arrived mid March 2009 on STS-119. More solar power was to have been available via the Russian-built Science Power Platform, but it was cancelled.[2]


Each of the Solar Array Wings are 34 m (112 ft) long by 12 m (39 ft) wide, and are capable of generating nearly 32.8 kW of DC power.[3] They are split into two photovoltaic blankets, with the deployment mast in between. Each blanket has 16,400 silicon photovoltaic cells, grouped into 82 active panels, each consisting of 200 cells, and each cell is 8 cm² with 4,100 diodes.[2]





close-up view of solar array folded like an accordion.

Each pair of blankets is folded like an accordion for compact delivery to space. Once in orbit, the deployment mast between each pair of blankets unfolds the array to its full length. Gimbals, known as the Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) are used to rotate the arrays so that they face the Sun to provide maximum power to the Space Station."


This clip is especially fascinating. It shows Discovery doing it's pitch maneuver prior to docking. They do a slow motion back flip with Earth as a brilliant back drop. This allows the crew on the ISS to photograph it's underside and wings to inspect for any damage incurred during liftoff.






Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spring Camping in Astoria OR



Here are some pictures and a couple of videos from my trip to Astoria. I stayed at Ft. Stevens State Park for a couple of nights. The weather was perfect (for early March), sunny with temps in the 50's and light wind.

The first pictures are on the Oregon side of the Columbia after crossing the Lewis and Clark bridge at Kelso/Longview. That is Mt. St. Hellens in the first one.

The rest are from the Jetty and at the museum and Gun Battery.

Instead of setting up my tent, I stayed in a Yurt. They are very comfortable, with a futon couch, a bunk bed that could sleep three adults and a little table and chairs. It has electricity and a heater as well. There is a video of it at the end of the photos. It was well worth the few extra bucks to not have to set up and tear down my tent.

There were active gun emplacements at the fort to protect access to the mouth of the Columbia from the Civil War all the way through WWII. There is a nice little museum detailing life on the fort as well as the surrounding area.

The park has several miles of paved bike/walking trails and easy access to both the Pacific Ocean beaches as well as the south jetty and the shoreline of the Columbia. On the river side there are views of the magnificent Hwy 101 bridge and downtown Astoria as well as lots of mountains and wildlife. There are almost 400 campsites in the campground, so I imagine it is quite a zoo in the summer. It was nice and quite this early in the season.

I am looking forward to some more spring camping as well as a summer full of Steelhead fishing on the Deschutes. I will try to keep up here with pictures and videos.













































































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