Charlie's BatCave News

What Happened? NO Posts??

2010-05-14T15:54:00.004-06:00

Almost a year and I haven't posted anything...Why? Well this past year has been very, very depressing. We've had Kaye's Grandson come live with us...won't go into the details but it has been a very bad year. This year started out no better because on April 15th, after 18 years, I was let go due to "Job Reduction" and am now currently unemployed. Oh joy.

Some of the planned batcave remodeling was completed during the last year but not all. I do have most of the materials to complete almost all the planned changes now so with all my free time I now have, I hope to start building as soon as the weather improves. We had almost 5 inches of snow on the ground Wednesday morning and it's still cold to work in the garage.

I did have all four of my kids come out last year and we celebrated Birthdays and have a great time. Here are a few pictures....

Memorial Day Plans

2009-05-21T11:26:00.004-06:00

Well the first holiday weekend of the summer. It's time for a BBQ and getting the house and yard cleaned up from the winter hibernation and getting it ready for the summer. So Kaye and I will be completing several projects around the house and yard. Unfortunately I've been told there is to be no Robot work this weekend. LOL! My main projects will be replacing some doors in the garage and house, adding some wood flooring to the garage rafters for more organized storage. Building shelves in the garage and in the basement and if time permits start on the custom main door to the Batcave. It will be a pocket door made from a solid fire rated door with dimensions of 96inches tall by 36 inches wide and 2 inches thick. Weight is about 80-100 lbs. It will have a small modified triangular window in the center. I may not get to this this weekend but getting this door and a standard door for the rear office doorway is a high-priority project to complete by June 30.

The BatCave gets Remodeled this Summer

2009-05-09T00:13:00.008-06:00

This week I have started putting my designs down on paper for the BatCave Remodel Project. First is the door for the BatCave. It will be a Pocket door 36" X 8' X 2" thick. The side window will actually be a removable double-sided back-lit poster panel for the theater style Batman posters I have. I hope to have it all installed by August 1. I'm going to have to trim down the some of the collectibles I have in the BatCave because I'm running out of room...fast! I'll also have to re-arrange the 50gallon aquarium and entertainment center. I'm also going to add more accent lighting under the desk that will be controlled by both a switch and a motion sensor. I'm also going to be replacing almost all of the shelves with custom made display cabinets that will be floor to ceiling and 3 feet in width. The cabinets will hold twice as much as the current 30 inch shelves. Also I won't have to dust everything as often! These cabinets will be patterned after Star Trek the Next Generation furniture. My current idea is to have a panel at the top of the cabinets with motion sensor controlling power to the cabinet and Isolinear Chips controlling the light settings. There will be six ports wired in 3 pairs, for the chips to be inserted into. When the two chips are arranged in the two ports connected together the lights will either be on the LOW-MED-HI settings. Another chip will activate the mini-spots or indirect lights. These are just some ideas I've been rolling around in my head and like all my other project it sometimes changes as I am building and come up with a different and better idea.

April's Tasks....RoboCon'09!

2009-05-01T20:58:00.000-06:00

March and April around here are really geared towards getting the Robot and his support props prepared and ready for the big Sci-Fi Convention here in Denver so the BatCave News Blog suffers from lack of attention. It's now May, the convention is over and post convention fatigue has a firm grip on my body. For at least three months I am planning coming up with cool props and designing the convention's T-Shirts. This year was particularly stressful because I added a tribute project to the mix for Bob May. Also as if I didn't have enough stress my wife was having serious issues with a large kidney stone and was in the hospital for twice for operations and complications two weeks prior to the convention! Then my mother had heart surgery the day before the convention!! Somehow everyone made it through and I was able to complete all the upgrades to the Robot, not only did he get a new pair of shoes (wheels and treads) he got new feet and legs to match! To read more and see convention pics clink on the Untied Robot Alliance link. Both Kaye and my mom are recovering slowly but nicely.

2009-

2009-02-20T14:13:00.003-07:00

Well here it is Feb and I'm just getting back to posting....There has been so much going on that I just haven't had time to sit down and update this blog.

Kaye and I drove back to Utah where we are both from and spent Thanksgiving with our families. We had a wonderful trip.

In December we had a few good friends over to the house for a "Snack and Yak". As a group, we haven't been able to all get together for sometime so it was nice to catch-up on what we have been doing.

We had a nice quite Christmas back home in Denver and got some work done around the house during the holidays.

In January we were back in Utah again visiting family and friends for MLK Holiday. It has been 25 years since Kaye was off on Holiday weekends so we took advantage of it. I also have been very busy remodeling the BatCave Office making more room for the collectibles and the Robot. It also offered more usable workspace at the desk and more wall space for pictures both of which were sorely lacking in the other configuration.

My Robot was featured on a Local news Station here in Denver on February 16. For more on that checkout my Robot Blog listed in the Other Interesting links section.

October Already?!

2008-10-03T12:08:00.002-06:00

WOW Time has gone by so fast I can't believe it. It seem I just got home from Yellowstone. Kaye has decided to take advantage of the Early Retirement from her work and save her sanity. So after 25 years she has found a new challenge. She got hired by the state and started working at her new job while she was taking her last four days of personal time from her old job. No rest for the wicked!

July Excursion- Jackson Wyoming and Yellowstone

2008-08-03T10:23:00.006-06:00

In July Kaye and I went to Jackson Wyoming and Yellowstone with Scott and Gaylynne, some good friends of our. We saw some beautiful country and did a lot of shopping, didn't buy much but we sure did window shop! It was was interesting to see the way Nature is rebuilding the area after those devastating fires in the 80's. I'm also curious as to why the Forest Service refuses to clear out the dead fall from those fires. It just adds more fuel for the next fire. Regardless, we had a great trip.

The accommodations were a little on the rustic side........

......but we got a free ride into town....when the horses weren't too tired.

June's Vacations- Seattle and British Columbia

2008-06-15T20:53:00.003-06:00

Spent 6 Days in sunny Seattle Washington June 6-11 and had a lot of fun. We were vacationing with my Mother-in-Law in Discovery Bay near Port Townsend. Beautiful country and a stark contrast to high desert where i live. Lots of water and everythings green. We also took a trip over to Victoria, British Columbia for one day and enjoyed it very much. Of course we ate in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle and took in all the city. The place we stayed was right on Discovery Bay and it was so different to wake up and look at the ocean in the morning with the morning fog low on the mountains. We visited a casino and my wife and I won enough back to buy everyone lunch! It was a very enjoyable and relaxing trip.

View of Discovery Bay out our bedroom window.

Totem Poles in Victoria, British Columbia

"Mountie" Guards shops on 'Government Street. Victoria, British Columbia

1966 BatMobile Construction

2008-05-21T21:19:00.007-06:00

What a great weekend this past weekend was. I attended the Great Texas B9 Robot Build-Off in Dallas Texas the weekend of May 16-18. It was a blast. For a more detailed report about the Robot event please go to The United Robot Alliance Blog. A link is provided in the menu to the right. One of the Hi-Lites was to go to the painters used to paint the Robot and see the 1966 Batmobile fiberglass body they are mating to the frame. They are waiting for some more fiberglass parts to prepare for finishing and then painting. It was looking pretty good but still a lot of work left to do. The shop doing the work said once all the parts are in it should take them about three weeks to complete. Here are some pictures of the raw body and being set to the frame....

May Already???

2008-05-01T21:18:00.002-06:00

Where has time gone? It's May already! For our 9th Wedding Anniversary that will celebrate in June, Kaye and I have decided to go to Seattle with Kaye's Mother. Since I've never been to that area of the country so it should be fun. I can't wait to go. In July we are going with our good Friends Scott and Gaylyne to Jackson, Wy for a week. That should be a blast because Scott and Gay are kind of crazy and they make it so much fun to be with. I can't wait.

For the Month of April

2008-04-03T11:30:00.005-06:00

April is only 3 days old and I have been very busy preparing for the Robot Convention called RoboCon that I host here in Denver. You can go to United Robot Alliance blog to read more about it. This is the 2nd Year we done this event and we all have fun making new friend and reconnecting with others. Plus we get to talk to others that are as passionate about the Lost in Space Robot as well as other robots.

1st of 8 Mini Vacations- Florida

2008-03-20T12:15:00.012-06:00

Me and Robby the Robot from

Forbidden Planet

Batman and Catwoman at MegaCon
Me and R2D2 replica from Star Wars of course

Magic Kingdom entrance at Disney World
Touring NASA at Launch Pad 39A Endeavour in background

I just returned from a wonderful and fun packed "Mini Vacation Getaway" in Florida. A friend and I jam packed 7 days worth of fun into our 4 day trip with 20 hour days! On Friday we visited another Robot builder in Clearwater near Tampa Bay. On Saturday morning we attended MegaCon Sci-Fi Convention. That afternoon we met up with another robot building friend who works for Disney and talked Droids. Sunday we spent 14 hours at Disney World and even got to be in the Magic Kingdom's main Street Parade! At 7:00am Monday morning we were Touring NASA Complex at Cape Canaveral. We got to see the Orbiter Atlantis up close (like standing right underneath the ship) while she was being prepared for her next mission. We walked the floor of International Space Station Complex where they preparing the scientific payloads of future missions. We were able to view the payload scheduled for the next mission in May. The Lab Module to Kibo, the Japanese contribution to the space station. We went to Launch Pad 39A to see Endeavour waiting for her Tuesday Morning lift off and the beginning of mission STS-123. After touring NASA we grabbed a bite to eat, caught 2 hours of sleep and prepared for the night-time launch of the Shuttle Endeavor which was the last night launch of the shuttles. We viewed the launch from the NASA VIP viewing area at the Banana Creek Site which is 3.2 miles from the pad, the closest place to view a launch! At 2:38am we experienced the magnificent launch of the Shuttle Endeavour, which was nothing less than spectacular! To view some additional pictures of this trip, please use the link to the United Robot Alliance, located in the right column.

Sad Saturday.....

2008-03-01T11:05:00.009-07:00

My Wife just called me with some sad news....Her step Dad, Richard (Dick) passed away in his sleep last night. I am truely thankful that we were able to spend some time and have some good talks with him in the past couple of weeks. He was a good man...

Busy February!

2008-03-01T10:52:00.006-07:00

February has been very busy and stressful for both of us at work and at home. Several small projects to get done and of course the ongoing Robot and Droid projects. (see the link to United Robot Alliance) Kaye's Mom and Step-Dad came for a visit and their way to visit family in New Mexico. They stopped on the return trip home and stayed another couple of days. It was good good to see them and spend some time visiting and eating out. It's always good to have company, we don't have to try and decide what's for dinner, always a problem. Kaye's Dad came in for a visit the last week of March as well so we've lost of dinners out. I've been busy preparing to go for the 1st of 7 monthly Mini-Weekend Vacations this year running March through October. A friend and I are going to Florida to attend a Sci-Fi convention I went last year and met some cool people and Bob May. (see picture) In addition to that we are going to go to Epcot, and visit the Visitors Center at the Kennedy Space Center. We also get a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a VIP Tour of the Kennedy Space Center with trips to the Orbiter Facility, Vehicle Assembly Facility, Shuttle Landing Facility, Space Station Processing Facility and a trip out to the launch pad to see the Shuttle Endeavor sitting waiting to launch. Included with this tour is a trip out to the VIP Shuttle Launch Viewing Area at Banana Creek to watch the Launch of Endeavour Tuesday, March 11 at 2:31am. If the weather and shuttle systems all cooperate. It will be a truly amazing experience for sure and for certain. All this becasue of the Lost in Space Robot! How cool is that! Pictures to come!

Introducing my Family

2008-02-18T18:49:00.001-07:00

I wanted to take some time to introduce my Family.

First My Wonderful Wife, Kaye We met as Sophomores in high school. After high school we went our separate ways. Even though I dumped her in high school she gave me another chance and in 1999, 28 years later, we got married on Waikikii Beach, Hawaii.

We each have 4 children from previous marriages. She has 5 grandkids (4 boys and a girl) and 3 almost Step-grandkids (2 boys and a girl) and I have 6 grandkids. (3 of each) A real yours, Mine and Ours.

Kaye's Kids and...............most of her grandkids

Here are my four kids.

And my grandkids..................

All of our kids and grandkids live out side of Colorado and so the time we get to spend with them is precious.

Initial Posting

2008-02-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

As a huge Batman Fan it seemed only natural that my Blog reflects the Dark Knight. This blog will be mainly news of what's happening in my life such as my family, work, vacations and of course ONE of my two hobbies, Batman related stuff. There is a link to my other blog that is dedicated to my hobby of building life sized Robots and Droids from television series and movies. Included with these will be life size props.
Over the course of the next few months I will be undating this site with pictures, short clips and of course a detailed narrative with News from Charlie's BatCave, so come back often and see what's going on. Don't forget to click on the link for the United Robot Alliance that will transport you to outer rim of the galaxy and see what's happening with the Robots and Droids!