What Happened? NO Posts??

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

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

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!

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-

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?!

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

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.