JUNE 2018

Wednesday 2018.6.27

Sometimes It Takes a While

The bagels at the local Costco aren't real bagels, at least not like genuine New York bagels. They're just bread in the shape of a bagel. Those of you who know real bagels will know what I mean.

But I like the Costco bagels enough to buy them. I like them toasted and buttered, and sometimes I use them to make a fried egg sandwich, and sometimes I like to spread them with sardines. I like sardines.

At Costco the price is for two packs of 6 bagels each. The problem with buying a dozen bagels for one person is that they often get moldy before the last one is eaten. What to do?

I finally found the answer, and I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out. Put all 12 in the freezer. When I want a bagel, take one out and nuke it in the microwave oven for 30 to 40 seconds. Then slice and toast. They'll last for months in the freezer; so there is no rush to beat the mold. And now with my freezer emptied out, I have plenty of room.

The EVO SS Gimbal Revisited

My EVO SS Gimbal is a great product. I almost love it.

It has one weakness. It doesn't like being bounced around. I don't abuse it, but fastened to the handlebars of my bike it gets jolted quite a bit if I'm biking over a rough surface like a dirt trail or even a bike path that is rutted with roots. Maybe it would be better mounted on a body harness or on a helmet.

The design of the GoPro mount isn't great. There is kind of a Z-shape in the way the gimbal is mounted, allowing too much flexing. This increases the jostling the gimbal must endure. If it is shaken too much, the camera flops down as if the gimbal has turned off (or the battery disconnected) and then, eventually, the gimbal recovers, only to flop again when the going gets rough again.

I think I might have worked out a solution. I folded up a strip of foam rubber and secured it in that Z-shaped area. It provides a little bit of padding while also acting as a shock absorber.

I took it out for a test ride yesterday, going quite a long distance — the longest single ride I've done so far on my Pedego, 14 miles even. Although I was on roads, they weren't perfectly smooth. The gimbal never failed.

Meanwhile, I ordered a camera mounting strap for my bike helmet from Amazon. They're inexpensive and the gimbal might be a lot happier up there.

Log Rack

Later today, or maybe tomorrow, depending on when the U.S. Postal Service delivers my parcel, I will build a log rack to hold the firewood I buy from my neighbor.

Looking at the photo on Amazon, I don't like the way the metal brackets sit on the ground. What if it rains and water pools beneath the rack? What if the rack is moved and the paint is scraped off? The steel might rust. However, if I flip them the other way around, I can extend the 2x4s about an inch past the bracket to hold them above the ground.

I also bought pressure-treated 2x4s for the rack because they are coated with a copper compound that will discourage termites from boring into the lumber. The red oak was outdoors for a long time and there are signs of termite infestation.

I will attempt to video the process and add it to My Kitchen Vlog.

Police Activity

This morning there was some police action almost in front of my home. A young neighbor was stopped by the police and arrested, handcuffed, and seated in the back of a police cruiser. His car was towed. I was saddened by the event. I like the young man. He is always polite and respectful. However, I sometimes wondered how he had the money to buy an expensive sports car and a truck at such a young age. I can't speculate, but neighbors did warn me he and his associates have been watched by the police in the past.

A Little Politics

An interesting question was asked in the news lately. When Robert Mueller releases his investigation findings to the government, will anyone act upon them or will they continue to do obeisance to Trump?

Sunday 2018.6.24

Complications

Does a barbecue need to be complicated? What began as a simple GoPro picnic started to turn into a major Hollywood production.

I have a friend who thinks in excess. He bought a steak and called me to say we should bring it to a local park to barbecue. I could bring my bike and my GoPro video camera to record the day for one of my Cycling Adventures for Seniors episodes. And then it mushroomed from there.

Two five-gallon buckets of white oak wood for the fire. Three cameras (my Sony video camera, the GoPro, and my Nikon still camera), a tripod, microphones, my Thule bike carrier to haul my Pedego e-bike, a bottle of wine, glasses, plates, flatware, my Thermapen instant read thermometer, a carving knife, a potato ricer, potatoes wrapped in foil, corn on the cob, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, butter, a pot to cook those in, and don't forget the matches.

As the list of items to pack filled one column on a piece of paper and started a second column, I stomped on the brakes. How would this encourage a senior to ride a bike? He wanted a Bacchanalian feast similar to our five pizzas video.

So I made a new rule. "If it doesn't fit on a bike, i.e. in the basket, it doesn't go." The main idea of my new YouTube channel is to encourage seniors to get on a bike and go for a ride.

At the end of the day the barbecue was excellent. We simplified to steak, a salad, potatoes (no ricer), and corn on the cob. It was a delicious meal in a beautiful setting called Skofield Park above the city of Santa Barbara. The area was full of trees. There was plenty of shade. The temperature was mild. Other than the flies and bees liking our food (mesh food protectors are now on my Amazon wish list), it was a perfect day.

I Scored Some Wood

That doesn't sound quite right. Let me explain.

My neighbor across the street has a tree-trimming business. I asked him if he had any oak suitable for firewood or as fuel for a wood grill. "I've got tons." He rents a piece of property up in the foothills where he stores his trucks and other equipment. Along each side of the driveway are piles of stacked split wood, well seasoned and dry.

He drove me up there to his yard to show me around. He was right. Tons. We loaded a small pile, about 4½ feet long and 18 inches high, of red oak, for which he charged me $10. And I can drive up there in my SUV and load up on wood whenever I need it. After stacking it in my driveway he'll look at it and tell me how much I owe. He's a good neighbor. I trust him, and he trusts me.

I Leave Them Speechless

I did a Kitchen Vlog in which I unboxed and demonstrated my new EVO SS Gimbal. I wrote about it on Wednesday. It received the typical amount of attention. Most of my vlog videos are rarely watched more than 100 times. A video that demonstrates a product people might have an interest in does better. My Haier washing machine video has been seen more than 4,000 times so far and the Thule bike carrier video has accumulated more than 5,000 views.

After a few days my gimbal video was seen more than 60 times. That's normal. But what wasn't normal was the comments. My videos might receive 10 to 15 comments during the first 24 to 48 hours. After four days there is still only one comment on the gimbal video. Strange. I can only conclude the video was so phenomenal, I left people speechless.

My First Cycling Adventure for Seniors Video

Yesterday I uploaded my first video to my new channel, Cycling Adventures for Seniors. The first few minutes are devoted to an introduction so that people know who I am and why I vlog in my kitchen. Then I do a short ride to show them the ocean near my home.

It is certainly not unique. There are many YouTube videos about seniors riding bicycles. There are even clubs for them. I don't know how many of them are riding Pedego e-bikes, but they're out there riding around, enjoying fresh air and exercise. So it will be interesting to see how this new channel does. Will it eventually fade into obscurity or will it gain popularity over time as my Mobile Home Gourmet channel did? Time will tell.

Next week's video will be Skofield Park in Santa Barbara.

Another Way to Recycle

Do you ever get those bundles of junk-mail flyers, lot of ads from local stores and restaurants? I saw on YouTube several videos of people who shredded their old newspapers, soaked them in water for a day or two, and them compressed them into fireplace logs or barbecue briquettes. After drying for a week or two, they are ready for burning.

Here's the thing: I live in a mobile home park. The mail is delivered to one location of boxes near the laundry room. Next to the mail boxes there is a blue recycling bin for the convenience of the residents. They dump their flyers in there. After two weeks the bin is full of potential biquette material.

I have a few advantages. I own a really good paper shredder. It reduces the paper to confetti. I also have an emersion blender. After soaking the shredded paper for two days I further reduced the paper a little — not to a pulp, but breaking up the little bits a little more. And I have a potato ricer. I filled the hopper with shredded wet paper and pressed to eliminate most of the water. I ended up with 14 briquettes, which are drying on a rack on my back porch.

If your wife lives with you, you might want to do this project while she's in church. She might not appreciate your using her kitchen gadgets to make barbecue briquettes.

I won't know for a few weeks how well they burn. Stay tuned. And I see the potential for another video.

Wednesday 2018.6.20

Tomorrow is Summer

Tomorrow is the summer solstice, the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year. When I was a child in New England I loved summer. School was out, the days were long, and but for occasional rainy days, the weather was perfect for playing outdoors. I remember the thunder head clouds that would occasionally appear on the horizon. We'd head home, knowing a thunder storm was coming. Fond memories.

Here in California it is almost always summer. This was my fantasy location and I never regretted moving here. I still love it.

Cycling for Seniors

My work on the new YouTube channel progresses. This week I finalized the banner art.

I wanted some of my kitchen visible because I'll be vlogging there. In the first video I'll explain the use of my kitchen — it's where my studio lighting is because of my Mobile Home Gourmet channel (plug). I also need to say I do not work for Pedego or GoPro (although I might pitch the channel to them if it becomes popular) — "Fancy kitchen appliances provided by [your name here]." And I want to voice my mission statement — to encourage seniors like myself to get outdoors for healthy recreation and exercise (I might eventually pitch the channel to AARP too).

As for the banner, it took a while to find a font I liked. I looked an hundreds. I chose this one because it leans slightly to the right, suggesting motion, and it is "instant read." I don't like fonts where I need to read all the words to know what they say. I want a font that will almost instantly plant the words in the mind. A fan of my cooking channel suggested I cover the aprons with a bike photo, as more appropriate for the channel. She was right.

I also created the opening graphic that will appear at the beginning of each video. It's not as colorful as the banner, but it's only the opening graphic. And, looking at it, it would make a pretty good business card. You'll see it when I start publishing videos.

I also videoed by second GoPro ride, showing the other half of the neighborhood, where all the stores are located.

Should a Senior Buy an E-bike?

Let's get a little perspective. My twin brother and his wife live in Florida. They play golf. Their membership in the local golf club is $11,000 per year. That includes cart rental. And that's per year. For about a quarter of that fee you could buy a decent Pedego. And that's a one-time expenditure. Owning the bike is almost free — how much electricity does it require to charge the battery for a few hours? And what does a good set of golf clubs cost? $100? $200? More?

Of course, not everyone would compare the expense to that of golf. How much does a ski weekend cost? Or maybe eating out less often could save a little money toward an e-bike, or maybe enjoying a martini at home rather than in a bar. There are ways.

With the money you save you might also buy a GoPro or Garmin camera and the hardware to mount it to your bike's handlebars. You can be as much of an enthusiast as your mood takes you. Some might simply want to go for a ride. Some, maybe me, might want the whole shebang. Follow your heart.

What About Video Editing?

What if you're a senior like myself and you want to record your rides? How can you edit your video to upload to your own YouTube channel? Well, you can spend a lot of money and get fancy. Or not.

GoPro has free editing software available on their web site — GoPro Studio. I downloaded it and installed it on this PC, and I've been playing with it. The program starts off with a tutorial that guides you step by step through the process. It is remarkably simple. I went onto YouTube to learn how to import a voice-over audio recording and that's simple too. So, without spending any money at all (other than for the GoPro camera and the voice recorder, of course) you can prepare your ride videos to share with friends and family.

Shipped!

The gimbal I ordered for my GoPro arrived this morning, and that is the reason this blog was delayed until later in the day. I wanted to do a video of the unboxing and then take it our for a simple test demo. The difference between using a gimbal and shooting without one is phenomenal.

Sunday 2018.6.17

Happy Father's Day

If you're a dad, hopefully you enjoyed something nice today. If you have a father, hopefully you did something nice for him. I have neither; so I bought myself a rack of ribs to enjoy.

Have I Found a Niche?

I watched a lot, at least a dozen or more, YouTube videos about biking with a GoPro camera. There were some excellent videos, very helpful, and I learned a lot. However, they all seemed to suffer from the same shortcoming, at least from my point of view. They were done by some action enthusiast who rode his (no women?) trail motorbike or mountain bike along rugged trails or along mountain ridges at breakneck speeds. One buy talked about breaking two ribs. Another suffered a dislocated shoulder.

I'll be 67 years old next month. I'm not a daredevil. I'm not a Milquetoast either — I do get out and ride my bike often, even if mostly to go shopping.

So here's what I'm thinking: I have some unused YouTube channels. One is called Blogging the News. Because I watch the news a lot and we talk about the news when we gather as friends over lunch, I thought it might be fun to talk about the news in vlogs.

One problem was the amount of work. I'd seek out ten or more news articles, read them top to bottom, select three that I thought might interest others, write up an outline, and then video myself talking about the news. Then editing, encoding, etc. It was more work than fun. Another problem is that each video is useless after 24 to 48 hours. Who wants to read old news? A cooking video I did eight years ago can still be popular.

What if I were to create a YouTube channel aimed at an audience of older folks, like myself, encouraging them to get out of the house often to enjoy some recreation on an e-bike? I could delete all the news videos from that vlog, rename it, and use it to promote e-bike exercise.

People take pictures. They'll buy a camera or a smartphone that takes pictures. Why not buy a GoPro and some inexpensive mounts to attach the camera to their bike to record their rides? They could start their own vlogs, sharing their rides with others. Spend a little more money on a bike carrier for their car and they can broaden their riding horizons.

I didn't see any YouTube videos in which seniors were using their bike and camera to enjoy the outdoors for healthy exercise and recreation, even relaxation, with leisurely biking. A niche?

I wouldn't want to duplicate my videos on two different channels. I don't know what YouTube's policy might be about such uploads, but I can't imagine they would approve. So maybe use My Kitchen Vlog to talk a little about each ride, introducing some of the footage, and use the other channel — Cycling Adventures for Seniors — to feature the rides. The first video would be a "Why I Do This" introduction and every subsequent video would promote a link to the first video in case people discover my rides without knowing the thinking behind them.

I worked on the channel art yesterday and recorded a trailer video. I'll post the link(s) here when I start uploading videos.

Painful Reminder

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we're not young anymore. I fell in the Costco parking lot, tripping over a curbing. I skinned my hands and knees, but nothing worse. Phew.

My left knee is a little swollen; so I probably won't be enjoying any bike rides for a few days, but I am thankful I am not in a cast, or in the hospital. My hands hurt; so this blog will be short today.

Wednesday 2018.6.13

A Better Blue Bin

A week ago I mentioned someone having stolen my recycling bin. I also mentioned ordering paint for plastic from Amazon and cutting a stencil.

On Sunday I painted my number on the bin in several places. I also have brown trash bin. That is numbered as well. The look great.

I read and followed the directions. Clean the area with an ammonia-based cleaner — I added a little ammonia to my bottle of Windex glass cleaner. Don't sand; don't prime. Let the paint dry 15 minutes. Full "curing" time can be as long as five days. That works fine for me. The next collection is on Friday.

I thought about doing a Kitchen Vlog video of the process, but there was too much noise in the neighborhood. And, besides, what would be so entertaining about watching someone paint their number on a recycling bin?

Body Language

The photograph from the G-7 summit in Canada this past weekend went viral quickly. This was supposedly from Angela Merkel's Instagram account. It shows trump looking opposed to all the members of the G-7.

The body language speaks volumes. Will the next summit be G-7 Minus One? Maybe Vladimir Putin will fill Trump's empty place at the table. Someone should do an oil painting of the image and hang it in the White House or the Capital building.

(And I can't help but think that Bolton is analyzing the situation, wondering how many nukes it would take to eliminate the other countries.) It strikes me as odd — maybe not odd, but certainly inappropriate — that our president admires brutal and murderous dictators and treats the peaceful leaders of allied nations as enemies.

Go GoPro?

When I sat talking with the Pedego dealership owner over coffee on Saturday the subject of out-of-town rides came up. Maybe haul the bike up to San Luis Obispo and spend a few hours riding around the city, maybe ride through the Cal Poly S.L.O. campus, and/or maybe stop at the mission. Or maybe drive a little further north to Morro Bay.

As part of our brainstorming, the subject of GoPro cameras came up. What if I were to mount a GoPro to my bike's handlebars and record my rides, then include the highlights in my Kitchen Vlogs? Start local, such as a ride down State Street in Santa Barbara, or up to the Mission, along the beach and up onto the Mesa. At my age I can't bike down a canyon dirt trail or along a mountain ridge (but I could drive my bike up into the local mountains and do a street ride to show the views over the city). I could probably mount the GoPro to my SUV's roof rack for part of the drive.

I'm also thinking of maybe starting another YouTube channel devoted to older people like myself who might enjoy a little freedom of owning a bike carrier and a Pedego e-bike. And I'm thinking of pitching the idea to Pedego to see if they might offer me a little corporate sponsorship. A certificate for a free battery when I need one would suffice. Someone even suggested pitching the idea to AARP after I build up a small library of YouTube videos.

And Then I Did a Kitchen Vlog Video…

Sometimes you need to voice your thoughts out loud, to listen to yourself think. As I was editing the video and listening to myself, something suddenly made a lot of sense.

To amass a small body of biking videos, I'd need to travel further and further away from home. I have more than 300 cooking videos on my Mobile Home Gourmet channel and nearly 100 Kitchen Vlog videos. I couldn't possibly find that many locations close to home. The travel would mean gasoline for my SUV, at nearly $4.00 per gallon now (and my SUV is an old 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that doesn't get good gas mileage). And rides even further afield might require an overnight stay at a motel. It's easy to see how the costs might quickly accumulate.

And most important, I'm not a travel sort of guy. I'm a home body. I like being home.

So, it was an idea worth thinking about. I sorted it all out. I won't start another YouTube channel devoted to biking with my Pedego and a GoPro. However…

And Then Viewers Responded to My Kitchen Vlog

The response was positive and encouraging. More than one person wanted to donate some funds toward the purchase of a GoPro. One donation was generous enough to tip the scale in favor of the GoPro. I drove to Best Buy, which is just down the road (I could have walked) and purchased a GoPro Hero 6 along with a couple accessories I needed to attach the camera to the handlebar of my Pedego.

Then I watched a bunch of YouTube videos about setting up and using the GoPro. That was followed by more YouTube videos about updating the camera's firmware. And then more videos to learn about some basic tips and guidelines.

So here is where I am at: I won't start a new YouTube channel. For now, I'll shoot a few biking videos, most of them local, and upload them to my Kitchen Vlog. The odds of any of those videos going viral is extremely low. There are plenty of GoPro videographers on YouTube who shoot amazing travel videos or extreme sports videos. So I'll be content adding an occasional ride video to my Kitchen Vlog channel. It will add some breadth of content rather than my sitting in front of the camera in my kitchen and talking about mostly boring stuff.

So, having finished writing my blog, I'll go for a ride, testing my new camera.

Sunday 2018.6.10

A Better Photograph

I'm a little fussy about my food photography, and sometimes I'm not. Look at the photo of the Mashed Potatoes featured this week. I knew there wouldn't be a way to make a small bowl of mashed potatoes look good in a photograph. I would have needed to make a big bowl, like something you would put on the table for a dinner with the family.

The Mango Sorbet photo (see Wednesday's blog) was another quick grab, just to get something photographed until I could do better later. The sorbet was too soft. It looked like it was melting in the bowl. I knew I could do better.

Thankfully, when I bought the ingredients, I bought double — just in case there was an error that required me to shoot the video again. (There was, actually, but it's hardly noticeable. The microphone fell off my ear and was down on my shirt. You can hear a little of the noised as it brushed against the fabric when I moved. It wasn't bad enough to require another video.)

So I made sorbet again and let it firm up well in the freezer before shooting another photograph.

The sorbet looks appetizing, like you'd want to grab that spoon and dig in. It isn't a perfect photo. The focal point could have been a little more forward, but at least this look like a dish of frozen dessert you might want to eat. I have since changed the thumbnail in YouTube. This is the photo that will appear when the video goes public next Sunday. (I also got rid of that water spot on the spoon.)

And Speaking of Food…

I was heartbroken when I learned of the death of Anthony Bourdain Friday morning. Although I didn't religiously tune into this show on CNN each week, I watched it when I discovered it while channel surfing. I sought out favorite episodes on the news groups for downloading and saving. My all-time favorite was when he went to Lyon, France to meet world famous chef (now also passed) Paul Bocuse. A friend and I sat and watched that episode, amazed at the quality of the culinary art and at seeing Bourdain in jacket and tie.

Another favorite was when he sat down with President Barack Obama in a little street-side restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam. And I appreciated the trickster side of Bourdain when he introduced CNN's Anderson Cooper to spicy hot food. Cooper took a taste, paused, and said with a squeaky distress in his voice, "I could use a glass of water."

We had to discuss it, as a way of processing what happened. A cooking friend called to talk about the gift of Bourdain. Breaking bread together has been a part of family and friendship culture for thousands of years. Bourdain had the gift of sitting down with strangers in any part of the world to share food and drink with them, asking them questions about their lives. And thus he helped connect us with other cultures. We will miss him.

Air Conditioning Weather

Summer begins on Thursday of next week. This weekend we are already enjoying a taste of summer weather. It has been warm and dry — warm enough to hook up the air conditioners to the windows and use them.

By 5:30 Friday evening the temperature outside peaked at 85°F (29°C) and that was expected to be the daytime temperature all weekend. In practice, it is usually ten degrees higher here, even though I am close enough to the ocean to enjoy cooler weather. The wind was expected to come from the northeast in an off-shore direction, bringing warm temperatures from the desert.

Weather.gov issued a Red Flag Warning for Saturday night through Sunday night, indicating a high potential for fires. I don't live in a fire danger area, but there is always the possibility that a fire up in the mountains will burn beneath the high voltage lines delivering electricity to our area, knocking out power for a while, sometimes many hours. A Red Flag Warning is to arsonists like a red cape in front of a bull. I hope we don't see any devastating fires.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to return to normal. Meanwhile, I've needed to keep my computers cool. And it worked. The white light inside one computer turned red, warning me the microprocessor was overheating. I turned on the air conditioner and within a few minutes the light changed to white again.

It is supposed to be equally warm again today. This afternoon I'll probably need the air conditioners again.

And, Finally, Another Group Ride

Yesterday morning another group ride for Pedego owners was scheduled. I attended. I was the only one who RSVPed, but the organizer didn't cancel the ride. The two of us rode down to the ocean, along the bike path adjacent to the beach, and up onto the mesa where we stopped to sit while drinking a cup of coffee. Then we rode back down into the city and ended out ride where we started, at the Pedego dealership. Those rides are always fun and because it was only the two of us, it was more relaxed and I was able to learn a little more about the host.

Wednesday 2018.6.6

Theft

Late last week someone walked off with my blue recycling bin. It wasn't an important theft because the local trash/recycling company provides the bins for free. But it annoyed me. It might have been the trailer park's gardener because I saw him outside the park with a blue bin as he was sweeping and raking around the perimeter of the park. I never noted the serial numbers on the outside of my bins; so it wasn't possible to accuse anyone of anything.

I called the trash company and they brought me a new one. No charge.

I had been advised to paint my home number on the outside of my bins because theft has been a problem. I didn't do it because I am always home when the trash and recycling are collected. As soon as the truck drives away I move the bins to the back of my driveway. I didn't move my blue bin quickly enough this time.

What paint do you use on plastic? I've seen my neighbors bins — the ones that are painted — and very quickly the paint chips off. A short visit to Amazon turned up a Krylon For Plastic spray paint specifically designed to adhere to plastic. Reviewers said it works really well; so I ordered a can. Meanwhile, I cut a stencil using a cardboard file folder. The numbers are about six inches tall, which should be adequate to identify the bins as belonging to my home.

I don't have pictures yet. The paint won't arrive until next week. I plan to do a Kitchen Vlog about it.

And Speaking of Videos…

One of the fans of my YouTube channel, Jonathan, suggested I do a video showing how I make mashed potatoes. I have a really simple procedure that uses a microwave oven and a potato ricer. The mashed potatoes come out perfect every time. I don't like lumps in my mash; so this method really is ideal for me.

And someone sent me her recipe for Mango Sorbet. It seemed like a really simple method. I looked around. Alton Brown's recipe was almost identical; so I decided to make it. It's delicious — sweet without being too sugary and just fruity enough.

Neither photograph above is very good. I have more mangos; so I'll make that recipe again and shoot a better photograph. Meanwhile, both videos are on YouTube.

The recipes are also in the Recipe Archive in all the appropriate places. Although the Mashed Potato recipe is in Side Dishes, I also put it in Basics because the procedure is so simple.

I'm glad I shot those videos when I did. I can hear jackhammers working outside this morning. There are some condos across the street and workers have been doing plumbing there. Evidently it became necessary to start tearing up the asphalt to access the pipes under the road. I have videos completed for this Sunday and next; so they won't interfere with my schedule.

Sunday 2018.6.3

All-Clad

I received a reply to the inquiry I sent to All-Clad about the griddle made in China. Their response: "While the greatest percentage of our cookware products is manufactured in Canonsburg PA, some pieces are manufactured offshore to All-Clad specifications." In other words, not at an All-Clad factory owned and operated in China. More like a Chinese factory, Wii-Pu-Yu, that perhaps licenses the All-Clad name to put on their products.

Also worth mentioning: The All-Clad-provided product information on Amazon says the cooking surface is anodized stainless steel, safe for all utensils, including metal. The box says, "Silicone, Nylon, Plastic & Wooden Utensils Only." The griddle is aluminum surfaced with a non-stick coating, like many skillets available at Costco. I feel as though I spent $100 for a $40 griddle.

I won't return it to Amazon as "not as advertised" because I need something that will look good in a video. However, when I use the griddle in my videos I'll cover the All-Clad name on the handles.

Dyson

My Dyson fan with "air multiplier" technology arrived on Wednesday. First impression: Not impressed. Because fan blades are not visible, I assumed it was fanless — like it used some sort of magical magnetic powers to move air, kind of like a microwave oven heats food without heat. Wrong.

The fan is in the base and at most speeds it is quiet enough, maybe, to use while shooting a video. There are ten speeds. The shift from 7 to 8 is the biggest leap in noise.

It has a filter system to remove pollutants from the air. Okay. I don't see a need. The filter is non-washable, which means having to order a replacement, currently more than $100 each on Amazon. A little divertissement:

When Dyson introduced the bagless vacuum cleaner, bag manufacturers were not pleased. Disposable bags were their bread and butter. Today, most vacuum cleaners are bagless.

So I can't help wondering if making the filter non-washable was a way for Dyson to benefit from a steady source of income by selling replacement filters. And I can't help wondering if there might be a way to circumvent that issue. It operates without the HEPA filter in place, which probably voids the warranty.

After testing the fan for a while, I decided it was more status symbol than function. I have an air purifier with a much larger filter, and it is washable. There are other "quiet" fans that sell for about one third the price of the Dyson. So I brought it back to the local Costco for a refund.

Alcone

I got the Dyson for one purpose, to move some air onto me when I'm shooting a video. My kitchen heats up in summer, even when I'm not cooking. Beads of perspiration appear on my face and that annoys me. I was hoping the Dyson who cool me down enough to prevent that problem. But at nearly $260 it is just a very expensive fan with a fancy look. I have a cheap box fan out in the shed. If I keep it far enough away from the camera it should do the same thing as the Dyson.

I did a vlog about it, showing the unboxing and assembly.

Someone responded to the video, telling me about a product for people who perform for TV and theater — Alcone Stop the Sweat. The reviews were good; so I ordered a bottle. It's coming from Texas via FedEx. I'll give it a try, and maybe do a vlog about it.

Sealy

For several months I've been making do with a mattress foundation (the box-spring thing that goes under the mattress) with a broken area of support. When it let go I heard it break. The result was a shallow crater on one side that caused the mattress to slump a little in that area. Although it wasn't enough to hurt my back, it was enough to trouble my sleep. I filled the crater with some old books and that kept things even as I waited.

The waiting was over yesterday. Once a year the trailer park management arranges for a large trash dumpster to be delivered to the park for a few days. We're supposed to dispose of any large items too big to fit in the trash bin or recycling. They'll accept almost anything — old tires, electronics, furniture, yard waste, etc. No paint or other possible toxic substances.

I drove to Costco and bought a Sealy foundation for about $75. My mattress is fine, even though it is about 20 years old. I really like it. And I remember the day I bought that mattress set. There was no Costco here in town. I had to drive about 50 miles. To fit it in my truck I had to push the front seats forward. And the mattress set still sat on top of the seat backs. I drove home with my head almost against the windshield.

This time wasn't bad at all. The local Costco is within walking distance. I simply left the back hatch open and closed the spare tire holder, which acts like a gate. The foundation rode on top of that, but it was a very short ride home. And it was a lot safer than trying to tie something large to the roof of my SUV.

So things are back to normal again, or maybe a little better. This foundation is a little thicker. My mattress is higher by about two inches. The change in altitude won't make any difference, although it might be a little easier to get out of bed.

Sony

I have issues with Sony microphones. The jacket (the plastic coating) on the cables is crap. I don't understand it. I have lots of things with cables — chargers, headphones, speakers, USB adapters, computer keyboard and mouse, lots of stuff. The jackets never deteriorate, except on Sony microphones. Why?

At Home Depot I bought a product called Liquid Electrical Tape that I experimented with, vlogging about it. You paint it on anything that needs a coating of insulation. So far, it looks like it's going to work for me.

The coating dries in five minutes, ready for a second coat. The directions say to allow the compound 24 hours to cure. I checked it a day later. The repair is flexible but appears to be strong. This might solve my Sony microphone problems.

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