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[windowanddoorsouthflorida]

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Plantation Shutters - Florida Plantation Shutters

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[mosylufanfic]

Counting Down to Midnight

The same nonny who asked me for a laundromat story also asked me for a royalty story. Both caught my eye and my heart.

This is a little late, though. Yesterday was the “royalty” day on the AUgust calendar. But parts of this story were hard. Hope it came out right!

Send me a prompt from this calendar for AUgust

Counting Down to Midnight

Cisco leaned on the windowsill, watching ships of various sizes circle the palace as they waited for their turn to land. They clustered in the sky like fireflies, more joining them every moment as they came in through the atmosphere shield. Usually it wasn't this crowded, but tonight was special.

Tonight was the Heir's Ball, and in about five hours, at midnight, the heir to the throne of Cendrillon would announce his choice of consort in preparation for taking the crown next week.

The bulk of Jupiter hung low in the sky, hulking and familiar. Cisco had seen it every day of his life, locked in the same place overhead. But here on Cendrillon, it rose and set like the sun. In a few hours, it would slide beneath the horizon, leaving the sky open, filled with stars.

Three months ago, he would have been wild with delight at the idea of actually being able to see the whole sky in person. Now the starfield looked like a yawning chasm, and he found himself clutching the windowsill so he wouldn't fall off into it.

"Son," he muttered, "you're a long way from Ganymede."

The knock sounded at the door, and Cisco called, "Come in."

A pause, and he knew he'd done something wrong. Again.

He heaved a sigh and turned on his heel. "What?" he said. "Am I not supposed to let you come in when you knock? Are you supposed to be turned away twice before I permit you into my royal presence?"

Lady Caitlin Snow glided in. She paused, spread her silky skirts wide, and lowered herself in a curtsy that seemed like an impossible feat of balance. Her back was as straight as a ruler, her high-piled hair tipped forward, the mechanics of her change in elevation hidden beneath her skirts. “Your Majesty,” she said rather pointedly.

“Madam,” he grumbled - the most informal acknowledgement he could get away with, and that only in private.

The greetings out of the way, she rose as gracefully as she’d sunk, and said, "I didn't say any of that."

"You were thinking it."

"I would merely advise cultivating a more dignified response when you don't know who's on the other side of the door."

"When you met me, I was head down in a land speeder with grease on my nose. Whatever made you think I was capable of dignity?"

She folded her hands in her skirts and said serenely, "I have faith that you could do anything you set your mind to, sire."

He suppressed another snort, which might have been too close to a yawp of terror.

Sire.

The first time she'd called him that, in his garage in Ganymede City, he'd been involved in scrubbing grease off his hands, and had to turn off the sonar cleaner to say, "What?"

"Sire," she said patiently.

"Who are you again?"

"Lady Caitlin Snow, the Royal Protocol Mistress to the court of Cendrillon."

"Cendrillon," he repeated. "Wait, isn't that the moon that had the big spaceship crash last month? And the whole royal family snuffed it?"

"Along with seventeen other people," she said. "The Accelerator. Yes."

"Sorry about that," he said, because a disaster like that had to royally suck, no pun intended. He decided not to ask about the Sire thing, because everyone knew Cendrillites, besides being insular and mysterious, were weird and old-fashioned. And the Royal Protocol Mistress would be even weirder and more old-fashioned than most. Jupiter's balls, she'd fuckin' curtsied to him when she'd walked in. "So how can I help you, Miss Snow?"

"I am properly addressed as 'my lady', 'your ladyship,' or Lady Snow," she corrected him. "And you can come back to Cendrillon with me to assume the throne."

After several moments, he said, "I think you have the wrong guy."

She'd convinced him eventually, with the help of his DNA map. Like most babies born in the Jovian settlements, he'd had his DNA mapped at birth, and it had been all the proof that was needed for the child support to come in.

He'd always known his bio-dad had money, because he'd never wanted for anything growing up, and he’d gotten access to a pretty healthy trust fund when he’d turned twenty-one. That money had allowed him to get all the schooling he wanted and to open up his own garage.

But never in his wildest dreams had he thought the guy who dutifully paid child support was a king.

And not even his wildest dreams' wildest dreams would have included him ascending to the throne.

Caitlin closed her screen, letting it disappear into the gold cuff on her wrist. She tilted her head, studying his outfit.

He resisted the urge to tug at - well, everything. The high-collared silk shirt, the fine, snug pants, the long, sweeping overcoat, stiff with embroidery and bristling with buttons, and to top it all off, a giant, intricately worked platinum brooch over his heart like a target.

It had all been tailored perfectly, but it still felt like a bad costume. One that wouldn't fool anybody.

"Very nice," she said. "Excellent choice of color." She reached out to fasten the button at his throat, and he dodged her hand. She frowned but let her hand drop.

"You look pretty," he said.

She looked fancier than usual, and that was saying something, because he'd never seen her less than perfectly groomed, whether they were taking tea with the president of Europa or hiking through the mountains or touring a platinum mine.

She touched her intricately braided and piled hair, with tiny platinum snowflakes glinting in the shining red-brown coils. "Thank you. Have you reviewed the list I gave you? "

"No, you do," he said. "That's a nice color on you. And the rocks are pretty sweet."

She ran her fingers along the glittering diamond necklace at her throat. The black mourning ring on her left hand caught the light, drinking it in. "They've been in my family for generations."

"Of course they have. Well, it looks good, is what I'm saying."

A soft blush colored her cheeks. "Thank you. You're very kind, sire. Did you get a chance to look over my list? Of candidates for your consort?"

"Yep," he said.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"A little," he said.

"Well, you have forty-four minutes until you're presented," she said. "It's in your cuff." She tapped his wrist and the thick platinum cuff he wore, light years ahead of the beat-up, second-hand aluminum cuff he'd had on Ganymede. "Use that time and go over the list again. You've met most of them already, over the past month. There are a few that weren't available to meet with you before. Focus on those. I suggest committing one or two facts to memory to ease conversation."

"I can make conversation, thanks. You know, I really did look at it. There are some men on there. And some enbies."

"You do still identify as pansexual, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. But isn't the whole point of a consort to, like, ensure the succession?"

"Oh, children," she said, waving her hand. "Children are easy to come by. That's not a concern. As you well know, so long as they bear your DNA, your heir doesn't have to be your consort's child. Though people do think it's nice if they are."

"Well, sure," he said, blinking at her.

"The Cendrillite consort serves a much more important function than mere reproduction. They are the king or queen's first advisor, their most trusted confidante." She tilted her head. "This was all in the file, sire. I gave it to you a week ago."

Okay, he hadn't read that much of it. "How am I supposed to trust anyone if I've only known them a few hours?"

"The marriage itself can take place up to a year after the Heir's Ball. You will have plenty of time to get to know them. To learn to trust them."

"What if I just pick someone at random off your list and then call it off later?"

"I’m afraid the announcement at midnight is legally binding."

"It's batshit, is what it is," he said. "It's a crazypants archaic custom. The heir picks a consort at a ball and has to announce it that same night and then can't change their mind? Even if the person they picked is mean or evil or crazy?"

She let out a sigh through her nose. It was a noise he'd heard from her a lot over the past month, when he pointed out things about dearly held Cendrillite traditions that made no goddamn sense. "For the past three hundred years, the ruler or their family has had a selection in mind well beforehand. This is a - "

"Tradition," he finished. "Yeah. I got that. But if it's just for form's sake, why are we doing it at all?"

"Because even if now were the time to start bucking tradition - which it's not - "

"Please send me a memo when it is, because I wanna get cracking on that."

"- this is a tradition that's enshrined in law. The heir must announce their choice of consort at midnight a week before their coronation. Without that announcement, the coronation cannot proceed."

He thought, Doesn't sound so bad.

She reached for the button again.

"Come on," he muttered, pushing her hand away. "I feel like I'm choking."

She narrowed her eyes. "This isn't an afternoon at the beach. This is - "

"My official presentation to my people and my fellow rulers, blah blah blah, yes, I heard you the first eighty-four times."

She dropped her hands and just looked at him.

Hating that he felt guilty for putting that look on her face, he stalked across the room and flopped onto a couch.

Staring out the window, he said, "I know it's important. I know about image and protocol and tradition. But I'm not made for that shit. I'm a fucking mechanic from Ganymede with the grease just scrubbed out from under his fingernails. The only reason I'm sitting here, in this outfit that could buy and sell my whole business three times,  is because I'm literally your only option."

"No," she said. "You're not."

He turned to scowl at her. "Please. The king already had an heir, and three spares besides. If it weren't for a faulty landing system, I'd've stayed in Ganymede my whole life and never even seen Cendrillon."

"That much is true. But it's not true that you were our only option."

He sat up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that your father was . . . generous in his affections."

His brows shot up. "He was a man-whore."

She tweaked her skirts a little. "That's another way of saying it."

"How many kids was he paying child support for?"

"You have seven half-siblings, of varying ages and genders, scattered from Amalthea to Pasiphae."

"Seven?" That, plus him and the four who'd died in the crash - "He had twelve kids? Hadn't he ever heard of birth control?"

For a moment there was a wicked glint in her eye, then she dropped her gaze demurely. "It's really not my place to speculate."

His neck was starting to hurt, looking up at her, and he remembered the rule about not sitting until you had the king's permission. He wished she wouldn't do that when it was just them, but they'd had argument after argument about it until he'd given in and let her do whatever the hell she wanted, according to whatever arcane rules made sense in her maze of traditions and protocols. He waved a hand at her. "Dost my ladyship care to pop a squat?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, but settled down in a chair, skirts arranged just so, back still poker straight. "If it pleases your Majesty."

He snorted. "Okay, so if you had all those choices, then why did you go for me? The grease-smeared garage owner from Ganymede." He cringed at the alliteration, and almost jumped up to pace the small room before he remembered that she would feel constrained to get up, too. "I never wanted to be rich and powerful, I just wanted to fix my machines and enjoy my friends and live my life."

"I know," she said. "And I'm sorry to have taken you away from all that, sire. But you are the best choice for Cendrillon."

"How do you know that? You've known me a month."

She leveled a look at him. "Do you truly think that?"

He opened his mouth to say duh, yes - but paused.

Caitlin, who kept a mental file on everyone they met. Caitlin, who seemed to know the answer to any question he came up with. Caitlin, who could neatly and quickly explain the background, the push-and-pull of any relationship from the political agreements between planets to the reason why two town's mayors weren't talking to each other.

Caitlin, who insisted that it was simply part of the job.

Would she or her bosses really have left a possible heir to the throne to chance?

"No," he said slowly. "I'm starting to think not."

She smiled a little. "Ten years ago, I became a junior assistant to the Royal Protocol Master. The first thing I got was a set of files, and instructions that I was to look after the people in them. Administer their trust funds, clean up their messes, and make sure they came to no harm. Did you know all your siblings got the same support you did?"

"Since I just learned they existed, no, I didn't."

"Three of them are dilettantes, living a life of leisure entirely on their trust fund. Two of them are constantly in monetary and legal trouble as they live beyond their means."

Cisco blinked. Knowing how healthy his trust fund was, those two of his siblings must be living high as hell.

"Two of them live in utmost comfort, and have jobs that they work at simply to have something to fill their days. And then there’s you.”

“What about me?”

“You have a master’s in engineering, and you enjoy invention.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, so?”

“You could have gotten a job at any number of well respected firms. You could have spent your days tinkering in your basement. But you opened a garage. You pay excellent wages, you have regular internships for kids in the area, and you have the fairest prices and the best work in Ganymede City."

"So?" he said again.

"That garage isn’t just productive for you. It helps others. Employment. Education. Services. That was a choice you made on your own, sire. That aspect of my duties, looking after the king's offspring, was never just about making sure they were well-cared for. I was gathering information about the kind of people you were growing up to be, on the very much off-chance that one of you might have to assume the throne."

"And I did," Cisco said.

Her hand crept over to toy with the mourning ring on her finger, as it often did when the subject of the spaceship crash came up, even obliquely. "And then you did."

He looked away from her hands and up to her face. "You really do think of everything in the Royal Protocol office, don't you?"

She smiled a little. "I've been watching you for ten years, and you say you're a humble mechanic, but you've always been more. I could have picked one of the others and at best, gotten a ruler who just floated along as a royal puppet and didn't mind who pulled their strings. But I picked you."

"Bet you regret that after a month of fights over protocol and titles."

"Oh, no," she said. "I'm more certain than ever that you're what Cendrillon needs."

"Really? Why?"

"When I took you around this moon, you talked to people. More than that, you listened to people. You asked intelligent questions, not just of me, but of everybody. And you considered the answers carefully and thoughtfully."

For the first time, he realized that she hadn't had to guide him around the tiny moon. She hadn't had to arrange meetings with regular people who owned cafes instead of manor houses, who worked in mines instead of palaces. In fact, doing so would have been a giant pain in the ass.

She could have kept him here in the palace, and there would have been plenty to do and see and learn. But she'd made sure he met his subjects, high and low, and she'd been watching as he did.

"I'm really what you want for this place," he sad. "Me."

"I love Cendrillon," she said. "I would do anything for her. But we are a hidebound place. We're mired in pointless traditions. The government strangles on its own red tape while the people cry out for change."

He gaped at her. "Of all people, I'd've thought you'd be fine with pointless traditions."

"Traditions are there to serve us, not the other way around. Who better than me to understand that?"

He considered her. "And yet, I still have to pick a consort by midnight."

"Sire, with all my heart, I believe that you have it in you to be great king. To bring Cendrillon out of the dark ages and into its rightful place in the Jovian political sphere. But you need to be firmly in place first."

"You're saying that to get to a place where I can change things, I've got to follow the rules, at least for awhile. Consort, coronation, the whole nine yards."

"Exactly. Your ascendance to the throne must go by the book. Eobard and his cronies will take any excuse to call the legitimacy of your rule, and your policies, into question. This must be done right."

He nodded, looking out the window again. Jupiter had set, taking its reflected sunlight with it. Cendrillon City glimmered in the dusk, lights blinking on all over the city. All those people, trusting in him. Or maybe not trusting.

Maybe just waiting to see what he would be.

At home - no.

On Ganymede, at this time, the atmosphere shield would be darkening. It was to simulated Terran night, even though nobody in Ganymede City had ever been back to the wasted wreck of what had been the human homeworld.

Here, they had a true night at least once a week, and they made it special. He was going to have to learn all the little differences like that.

He looked back at Caitlin. "So," he said. "We'll do it right."

She smiled.

He lifted his arm and tapped his cuff. His screen sprang to life. He picked the file blinking and swiped through the faces.

"So tell me about these consort possibilities," he said. "What exactly makes them such good candidates?"

"Political acumen, high intelligence, and family connections," she answered without hesitation. "A lot of them are senators or senators' children. Most are Cendrillites, but I included one from Io and one from Pasiphae."

Places that were already close allies with Cendrillon, he filled in mentally. "Nobody from Ganymede?"

"The only possibilities are from families that have rather closer ties than I'd like with Eobard Thawne and his set."

One day, he was going to have to learn just how hard Caitlin had spiked Thawne's guns by scooping Cisco out of his garage and off to the Cendrillite palace.

"I also weighed scientific interests quite high when I was selecting them because it's nice when you can share something with your consort."

"Yeah," he said. "Nice." He settled his hand on the armrest, letting the faces of his possible consorts slowly wheel by in the air. "What if I like someone who's not on your list?"

"The choice is ultimately yours, of course."

"But you'd be pretty pissed."

"I would offer my opinion, sire. But if your mind is firmly made up, I can certainly arrange matters."

He tilted his head. "Can they say no?"

She blinked a few times. "They won't."

"I'm not asking if they will," he said patiently. "I'm asking if they can. If they don't want to be my consort, if they're in love with someone else, if they don't like my face. Is someone allowed to say no to me?"

"They are permitted the right of refusal, yes," she said. "Which is why I recommend giving me your choice no later than eleven-thirty so I have enough time to speak to them and their family."

"Half an hour doesn't seem like much time to prepare for getting married."

"It's just the announcement," she said. "As I said, the marriage can wait for up to a year.” She touched her ring again. “A number of people on your list lost family members in the crash, and naturally they can't marry during the mourning period."

"Not even a king?"

"Not even a king."

Well. That was something.

"You already met a number of them in person, this past month," she said briskly. "I'm sure you'll recognize their names and faces as you review the list. During the ball, I'll be introducing you to each candidate on my list that you don't already know, and I'll endeavor to give you at least ten minutes alone with every candidate before eleven o'clock. That gives you some time to consider your options."

"Ten minutes with each candidate," he said. "That much time?"

"I realize it's not ideal, but it's what we have to work with." She paused and touched her ear, listening for a moment. "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I'm needed in the ballroom. With your permission?"

He started to wave her away, but he paused, remembering a lesson in protocol that had only half-stuck. He got to his feet and gave her a bow. "You may go."

She gave him a quick, surprised smile and performed another of her deep curtsies before slipping out the door.

He sat back down, but instead of focusing on the list of candidates right away, he looked at the door for several minutes, thinking hard.

A little before 11:30, Caitlin made her way up the curving stairs to where she could see the heir, leaning against the railing, looking down over the ballroom.

"Your Majesty," she said, curtsying.

He straightened up and gave her a perfect little bob of the head - not too curt, not too deep. An acknowledgement of her presence that maintained his own rank. "Your ladyship."

"Very prettily done," she said in an undertone, joining him at the railing.

"From the woman who drilled me in it for four hours."

She glanced at him, but his tone was light and his mouth quirked up at the corners, so he was probably teasing her. She smiled back at him.

One of the things she'd noticed first - that everyone noticed first - was how charming he was. Everyone liked Cisco Ramon. Everyone wanted to talk to him.

Likeability wasn't exactly priority number one for a king, but it couldn't hurt, either. Her discreet polls showed his popularity among the Cendrillite people had skyrocketed, with only a few extremely traditionalist grumblers. His popularity would diminish, she knew. Right now, his story had a great deal of charm and appeal, but Eobard Thawne and his cronies would be hard at work pointing out how inexperienced he was, an outsider, not raised to the throne.

Time to worry about that in the morning.

"Are you enjoying yourself, sire?"

"Yeah. It's a nice party," he said. "Classy."

She thought about pointing out that he should be circulating, speaking to people, showing himself. But he'd charmed everyone, and he'd spoken with everyone that she gently guided in his direction, including all the candidates, and he could take ten minutes to himself. Especially as he had yet to tell her which candidate he'd selected.

So she just said, "I'll pass your approval on to the royal events office."

"Do that," he said absently. He'd looked away from the dancers and was studying the mural that swirled around the top half of the ballroom's walls.

The mural portrayed a stylized depiction of the founding of Cendrillon. How it had started life as a barren, overlooked moonlet, settled by the poorest and unluckiest of Terran colonizers. The discovery of platinum and other high-demand metals in mines that were only supposed to yield cheap minerals. The canny decision to hide those metals, bargain for the land rights to their moonlet, and only then begin mining in earnest.

Like the abused stepdaughter turned princess in the old Terran story, Cendrillon had transformed overnight into a glittering jewel of the Jovian settlements, and the leader of the colony became its first king.

"What was Cendrillon's name before the colony got control?" he asked idly.

"You know, I don't remember," she said. "Probably one of Jupiter's minor lovers, like all the rest of the Jovian satellites."

He grinned widely. "Jupiter above, have I finally found the one fact about Cendrillon that's not at the tip of your tongue?"

She pursed her lips. "I'm sure I learned it, sire. Would you like me to look it up?"

He waved a hand. "No, I'll do it myself, later. It's fine."

She decided to look it up anyway. After midnight. "Have you selected a candidate?" She rested her fingers on her wrist, ready to bring her screen to life if she needed the backup. Not that she would unless absolutely necessary, and even then she would step into an alcove. Open screens were rather gauche at a formal ball.

"Yep."

"Excellent." She would have been more than happy to discuss the pros and cons of each candidate, but if he'd settled on one, it would give her more time to get everything organized.

"She's not on your list."

Winds of the Great Red Spot, she’d been worried about this. But she smiled brightly. "Tell me who it is and I'll tell you if it can be managed."

"I'm sure it can be managed," he said. "She fits all the qualifications. Family connections - I'm told her family has been serving the crown since colony days. High intelligence, political acumen - that especially." He looked at her. "And I like her. We click."

Caitlin shuffled possibilities in her mind like a deck of cards. Lady Iris? But the Wests served the law, not the crown, and were very clear about the distinction. Besides, she was engaged and would never agree to break it, even for her king.

Lady Kendra or Lady Cynthia might serve, although they had various complications in their lives that had led her to strike them from her list. It could be managed, through.

Please, please let him not have selected Dame Lisa Snart. She was a nightmare and her brother was worse. They couldn't have that kind of mess so near the throne, not if they wanted to hold Thawne's set in check.

He raised his brows at her. "Figured it out yet?"

She said lightly, "Please tell me you caught her name and that I'm not going to have to find her by her shoe size."

"Hmm," he said. "Interesting. What is your shoe size?"

For a moment, she couldn't work out what he was saying and then her mouth fell open. "Sire. No."

"Cisco," he said. "It's Cisco, remember?"

"You want me as your consort?"

"You said you'd do anything for Cendrillon," he told her.

"But I - I wasn't - I never thought - " She was stuttering. She hadn't fumbled with her words like this since the day of the royal funeral.

“Is it illegal?”

“Oh, no. There’s actually a great deal of precedent. In 452 PS, Queen Calypso married her Royal Protocol Mistress, and in 535 PS, Prince Leonides married his mother’s Royal Protocol Mistress, and in 659 PS, the Royal Protocol Master was already the father of the Heir when Queen Magritte married him after her first consort died of the Ionian flu - “

He broke in before she could nervously recite all the times the Royal Protocol Masters and Mistresses had become the royal consort. “Is it improper?”

She twisted the black ring on her finger. “Right away, yes, it would be most improper. But in four months - "

He took both her hands, and she swallowed the rest of her words. "Look," he said. "I know your fiance died in the crash. I know you're still in your mourning period for him. I'd never ask you to do anything you don't want to do on a personal level."

She had to fight not to pull her hand with the mourning ring out of Cisco's loose grip and press it against her chest, because that would be rude.

"But you said it yourself. It's not about children or succession, it's about the king having a partner and an advisor they can trust. I trust you."

She stared at him, struck into silence. His eyes were utterly sincere.

"You think I can be a great king? I think I'd be lost without you."

She pressed her lips together. "I - I need a moment. Sire. Cisco. Please?"

He let go of her hands. "I have a backup in mind," he said. "But you're the one I want."

She almost forgot to curtsy to him before she ducked into the hallway, headed for a tiny receiving room.

She sank down on the couch, hands clenched in her skirts.

The consort? Her?

She'd spent most of the past month assembling that list, adding people and striking people as she got to know Cisco, to know what he needed and what he valued and what he liked. She'd been sure that he would be able to find the perfect consort on there. It had never crossed her mind that he might pick her instead.

She was used to a life in the background. She had never expected to be the Royal Protocol Mistress so soon. She had thought she might ascend to the position in fifteen or twenty years, when Tina retired, and spend the rest of her days moving in the royal court, arranging ceremonies and gently manipulating protocol in the name of politics.

And now Cisco wanted her as his consort. In the spotlight, a lever that the entire court would attempt to use if they wanted to shift the king's will.

I trust you, he had said.

She held her hand out, staring at the mourning ring.

The crash had killed Tina, and elevated her to this position too soon. It had killed Ronnie, and left her without the lover and partner and husband she'd intended to have.

The careful path of her life had been vaporized in the fireball of the Accelerator.

She’d seized upon the necessary work of finding Cisco and bringing him back to Cendrillon to keep her getting up in the morning. But in a way, she'd been just following the broken and burning path because she hadn't known what else to do.

Now Cisco was offering her a new path. A big and scary and alluring one. To be the king's consort, to be in a position to change her home for the better. To shift the balance of power between the court and the people, to shed some of the shackles of the past, in a much more direct way than the Royal Protocol Mistress ever could.

To marry Cisco.

She didn't know if she wanted it

She didn't know if she didn't want it, either.

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered.

Your duty, her mother’s voice said in her head.

It was a cold answer, but the Snows bred cold women, and it was the clear, bracing kind of cold that woke you up on a drowsy winter morning. She sat up straight, pressing her palms into her knees.

Yes.

Her duty.

She had been doing her duty to the crown since she was a child, following in her mother's footsteps. If this was what the crown wanted of her, then she would do it.

If this was what Cendrillon needed from her, she would be glad.

When Caitlin stepped out of the room, it was to see  a cluster of people on the balcony with Cisco, laughing and talking. He smiled, talked, and laughed along with them, no indication that he felt at all awkward in their glittering presence.

She watched a minor lord touch his arm lightly, a duchess laugh brightly at something he said. Of course, he would be their king in a week's time, and a king was always witty and attractive, but Cisco would be both with or without the crown.

A simple mechanic indeed, she thought tartly. He could say that all he wanted, but the truth was, he belonged anywhere he put himself.

Was one of those people his backup? The person he meant to marry if she told him no?

She swallowed back something that felt too close to jealousy and took a step forward. He noticed the movement and looked past his companions for a moment, catching her eye. He said something to them and excused himself from the circle, bowing in return to their bows and curtsies.

A few looked after him, but whatever he'd said provoked no question. Everyone knew that Caitlin had been dedicating all her time to him in the month since she'd brought him back from Ganymede, and everyone also knew that she would be arranging the match.

Nobody had the faintest idea what was to come.

He closed the door behind him and turned to her.“Well?”

She curtsied, spreading her skirts wide. But it wasn’t the low, reverent curtsy she had given him ever since they'd first met. It was shallower, the head dipping less, the spread of skirts held more briefly.

It was the kind of curtsy that only a consort could give to the crown.

He didn't know all the secret language of reverences yet, the precise and careful establishment of rank, and how they could be used to grovel or insult or even mock. But from the flicker in his eye, he noted the difference, and that sent the message she intended.

She rose out of the curtsy and asked him, “Did you read the section on proper forms of address for your consort?”

He cocked his head, smiling at her as he recited, “The court addresses the ruler’s consort as ‘your grace,’ and speaks of them as his, her, or xir grace."

She blinked and smiled. “Do you know what the ruler calls their consort in formal address?”

“My trust,” he said. “Or the crown’s trust. And you address me as, 'my crown.'"

"Yes." She found herself fussing with her black ring, and paused, looking at it. "Do you wish me to take this off?"

"I thought nobody could end the mourning period early."

"For family members. Ronnie wasn't - we weren't married yet."

"No," he said, firmly. "Leave it on."

She looked up. "But -  "

"He was your fiance and you loved him," he said. "Just because you're marrying me doesn't change that. Leave it on. We'll marry when you're ready."

Her eyes burned. She pushed the ring back to the base of her finger.

There would be talk about that ring. She found herself formulating answers. His Highness respects the suffering his people underwent. He has no desire to forget the past.

Yes. Handled in the right way, this could be very much to Cisco's political advantage.

The ring still felt good on her finger. Warm and solid.

"So, what now? Do we just - " He waved at the doors.

She checked the time. "Three minutes to midnight. It's just enough time for us to walk down the stairs to the royal dais. The herald will make the announcement when we're there." She brought her cuff to her mouth. "Gideon?"

"Yes, my lady?"

"His Majesty has made his choice of consort. He will be marrying Lady Caitlin Snow."

After a shocked pause, Gideon's quiet, "Very good, my lady," in her ear told her all was well in hand.

She ended the call and said, "She'll be ready for us."

Cisco held out his hand. “Shall we?”

She started to step back, as she had for the past month, and then thought, No, I should take it.

She would walk at his side down the grand, sweeping staircase, not behind him, and that alone would send a signal to the court before a word was said.

She put her hand in his, feeling it close warm and firm around hers. She swallowed hard, waiting for the heat of the spotlight.

Before he approached the doors, he said, "So, my trust."

"Yes, my crown?"

"What do I call you in private?"

She looked over at him. He was smiling, his eyes soft. He knew what he'd asked of her. She let out her breath.

"You can call me Caitlin."

FINIS

(A/N) if you’re interested in their outfits, I ran across these on pinterest.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f1/a5/1d/f1a51d9e5150106116e95975ac5abf32.jpg

http://amortentiafashion.tumblr.com/post/138822184855

Even though they’re based on traditional Georgian dress (the country, not the US state or the British time period), I thought they were perfect for space royalty.

[kerbaldevteam]

KSP Weekly: A Jovian Pioneer

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. Today marks the 46th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 10, the very first probe to complete a mission to Jupiter. It was launched in 1972 by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and weighing 258 kilograms. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first artificial object to achieve the escape velocity that will allow it to leave the Solar System; only five crafts including Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 & 2, and New Horizons have achieved that. The project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.

Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74-meter diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch. It also carries various scientific instruments, such as a Helium Vector Magnetometer, a Quadrispherical Plasma Analyzer, a Charged Particle Instrument (CPI), a Cosmic Ray Telescope (CRT), a Geiger Tube Telescope (GTT), a Trapped Radiation Detector (TRD), Meteoroid Detectors, an Asteroid/Meteoroid Detector (AMD), a Ultraviolet Photometer, an Imaging Photopolarimeter (IPP), and an Infrared Radiometer.

Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. It began photographing Jupiter on November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 km, and a total of about 500 images were transmitted.

The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 km. During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the Solar System and heliosphere, which is is the bubble-like region of space dominated by the Sun, which extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion km (80 AU) from Earth.

Some scientists predict that Pioneer 10 is currently around  114.07 AU from the Earth; and traveling at 12.04 km/s relative to the Sun and traveling outward at about 2.54 AU per year. If left undisturbed, the probe and its sister craft Pioneer 11 will join the two Voyager spacecrafts and the New Horizons spacecraft in leaving the Solar System to wander the interstellar medium. The Pioneer 10 trajectory is expected to take it in the general direction of the star Aldebaran, currently located at a distance of about 68 light years. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would require more than two million years for the spacecraft to reach it.

At the behest of Carl Sagan, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a 152 by 229 mm gold-anodized aluminum plaque in case either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from another planetary system. The plaques feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts to provide some shielding from interstellar dust. I wonder if Kerbals will perform a similar mission to explore Jool and the outskirts of the Kerbollean Star System?

[Development news start here]

Another great week full of developments! For starters, last week we released our first patch for KSP Enhanced Edition and we haven’t lost a minute to start comping all the feedback that our beloved players are providing us with. We want once more to reiterate our commitment to continue supporting Enhanced Edition. Click here to read the detailed release notes.

Additionally, we also published a new tutorial for the upcoming Making History Expansion, where we detail the steps needed to share missions with other players. With this guide you’ll be ready to export, share and play missions from day one! Coupled with the last week’s tutorial, where we look into the process of creating missions, you’ll have the necessary tools to become a true Mission Designer on March 13th!

As expected, the developers have been very busy this week, making the final preparations for the Expansion and ongoing an exhaustive bughunt. It is common at this stage of the development process to encounter issues that managed to escape the view of the developers when things were originally implemented. Luckily, the expert eyes of our testers are working to ensure a smooth release. Kudos to all of them!

While the bug fixing is currently the main task at hand, some of the devs finished implementing the mesh switching button for the new vintage space suit. We have basically added a cycle button in the select crew window between the Kerbal icon and name. Clicking this hanger-shaped icon will change the assigned suit, and change the Kerbal icon to show the assigned suit. But an image is worth a thousand words, so check it out yourselves.  

The team also added an "Author" field to the Mission Briefing tab, so that creators are properly credited for their missions.

Additionally, the team finished with the implementation of the intermediate Tutorial, which will teach players to provide missions with scores, create situational events, among other cool stuff! We are also updating some older engine audio. The task is almost done and we are currently testing that everything works (or sounds) as it should.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

[Click here for high-res images]

*Information Source:  

(n.d.). Encounter with the Giant. Retrieved from https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/ch8.htm

(n.d.). The Pioneer Jupiter Mission. Retrieved from https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/ch2.htm

Dunbar, B. (n.d.). Pioneer-10 and Pioneer-11. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer10-11.html

[stargatesandgarage]

Security Gate Repairing Cannot Be Delayed In Any Time Of The Day

Security gates are all time necessary. And for business protection it has to be fit for twenty four hours. As the gate keeps protection, control the entry of intruder and other type natural or manmade hazards, it should be free from any type of operating problem. But machine can be out of order anytime. If human can be sick, a machine can also be sick or failure it needs to give twenty four hour protection. Then we need experts or technicians. Security gates have special type of technicians. Rolling gate, coiling gate, fire gates, automated doors, overhead doors are all types of security doors. Only experts know how to deal with equipments. Rolling gate Manhattan installs and operates gates by their expert, technicians after getting referring from customers. If you have any type of problem with the hardware, spring, device just inform them. The emergency gates can be out of order any time so the service is available for any time i.e. for 24 hours.

NYC, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn are some poplar places to avail the emergency gate service. Rolling gate based on technology of coiling when it opens or closes. The wheel carriers actually roll the gate. It holds spring-loaded door lock, which is opened by the key from outside. It needs to be fitted well to control the door weight. Rear wheels keep the gate upright on the track. The spring and shocker controls the balance and the latches lock the fenced on the track of the gates. The automated doors are purely more sophisticated than a manual one. So there can be necessary of repairing job anytime. Rolling gate Manhattan for 24 hours is open to repair jam in track, spring, wheel and all type of heavy parts of the gate. You will be served release of stuck gates, repairing of safe front spring, lubrication, heavy gate repairing, switch installation, total replacement of old gates, grill and window repairing, emergency repair, cable & motor repair, inspection and design consultation, bent repair and many more. The new installation is also available on call basis. The experts at first consult and then offer suitable type of gates covering all type of security measures.

You can have gates like industrial, sectional, overhead, fire protector, glass, aluminum shutters, dock safeguards, Rolling & Folding grills, Coiling Security Gates & Grilles, see through rolling gates, steel gate with panel or flat design, full covered steel gates and so on. Brands, styles and design all can be customized. The rolling aluminum gate has features like automated, fully designed, heavy duty, long lasting color along with low maintenance. The solid steed door is also attractive, weather proof and many more facilities.

Here the doors and gates are with all type of service range. Just know make your requirements and install a solid door. Rolling gate NYC, Manhattan are all ahead with quality roll up gates, grills from installation and repairing. From vandalism and burglaries you have option to protect your home and commercial premises. Now it is your duty to be secured when option is very close to you.

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[stargategaragenewyork]

Types of Raynor Garage Doors

There are several different types of Raynor garage doors available.  Aluminum, wood carriage, and steel doors are all selectable for residential buildings.  Depending on your needs, whether business or home, you will undoubtedly be able to find a type of garage door that suits you.

Some of the features of the steel Raynor garage doors include thermal efficiency and top quality security.  The steel line of doors are made to be durable and functional but offer maximum security and damage-prevention.  Many different colors and surface types are available for the steel line, and windows can be included or not, as you prefer.  These types of doors are good for people looking for the best theft and break-in prevention while still maintaining an attractive door appearance.

If your house or business has a more outdoorsy or country-style atmosphere, the wood carriage doors are a great option.  This both slide and swing open depending on your preference.  There are different collections available to suit each style of home, and many of these doors are hand-crafted and can be custom-built. Again, windows may be included if desired, and there are several different window materials available.

Of course, the carriage doors are also very durable and secure.  Sliding doors are typically chosen when space is a concern, while doors that open normally are a good option if there is plenty of room for them to open and close.

Raynor garage doors also have options for remote-controlled systems, and security systems requiring a password can also be included for maximum safety.  People can't open your garage doors if they don't have the passcode.  This makes the doors more resistant to theft and damage.

Aside from being durable and secure, these garage doors also offer great custom designs for just about any home.  They can be painted, crafted, and designed with any type of surface and setting you to wish. Of course, the cost is a factor, but Raynor is undoubtedly one of the most price-efficient manufacturers of garage doors.

The type of garage door you choose should be decided based on your home type, needs, location, and function.  If you live in an area where security is an issue or there is a high neighborhood crime rate, the steel doors would be the best option.  By contrast, if you live in the country or somewhere in the woods, security is less of a consideration.  In these cases, the wood-style doors are a beautiful and secure choice.

For most cost-efficient needs, aluminum doors are the best option.  These doors are secure but still affordable.  You will have the peace of mind that your doors protect you and will last for the entire life of your house, but they won't break your bank.

To summarize, consider the needs of your house or business and your budget when trying to decide what type of door is best.  This way you can make an educated purchase with the knowledge that these doors will last, provide great security, and also look very nice with your garage.

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[scifigeneration]

Devourer of planets? Princeton Astronomers dub star 'Kronos'

In mythology, the Titan Kronos devoured his children, including Poseidon (better known as the planet Neptune), Hades (Pluto) and three daughters.

So when a group of Princeton astronomers discovered twin stars, one of which showed signs of having ingested a dozen or more rocky planets, they named them after Kronos and his lesser-known brother Krios. Their official designations are HD 240430 and HD 240429, and they are both about 350 light years from Earth.

The keys to the discovery were first confirming that the widely separated pair are in fact a binary pair, and secondly observing Kronos' strikingly unusual chemical abundance pattern, explained Semyeong Oh, a graduate student in astrophysical sciences who is lead author on a new paper describing Kronos and Krios. Oh works with David Spergel, the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation and director of the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics.

Other co-moving star pairs have had different chemistries, Oh explained, but none as dramatic as Kronos and Krios.

Most stars that are as metal-rich as Kronos "have all the other elements enhanced at a similar level," she said, "whereas Kronos has volatile elements suppressed, which makes it really weird in the general context of stellar abundance patterns."

In other words, Kronos had an unusually high level of rock-forming minerals, including magnesium, aluminum, silicon, iron, chromium and yttrium, without an equally high level of volatile compounds -- those that are most often found in gas form, like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and potassium.

Kronos is already outside the galactic norm, said Oh, and in addition, "because it has a stellar companion to compare it to, it makes the case a little stronger."

Kronos and Krios are far enough apart that some astronomers have questioned whether the two were in fact a binary pair. Both are about 4 billion years old, and like our own, slightly older sun, both are yellow G-type stars. They orbit each other infrequently, on the order of every 10,000 years or so. An earlier researcher, Jean-Louis Halbwachs of the Observatoire Astronomique of Strasbourg, had identified them as co-moving -- moving together -- in his 1986 survey, but Oh independently identified them as co-moving based on two-dimensional astrometric information from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission.

During a group research discussion at the Flatiron Institute, a colleague suggested pooling their data sets. John Brewer, a postdoctoral researcher from Yale University visiting at Columbia University, had been using data from the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to calculate the spectrographic chemistries and radial velocities of stars.

"John suggested that maybe we should cross-match my co-moving catalogue with his chemical-abundance catalogue, because it's interesting to ask whether they have the same compositions," Oh said.

Binary stars should have matching radial velocities, but that information hadn't been available in the Gaia dataset, so seeing their matching velocities in Brewer's data supported the theory that Kronos and Krios, though two light years apart, were a binary set.

Then the researchers noticed the extreme chemical differences between them.

"I'm very easily excitable, so as soon as they had the same radial velocities and different chemistry, my mind already started racing," said Adrian Price-Whelan, a Lyman Spitzer, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow in Astrophysical Sciences and a co-author on the paper.

Oh took more convincing, both scientists recalled. "Semyeong is careful and was skeptical," said Price-Whelan, so her first step was to double-check all the data. Once simple error had been ruled out, they began entertaining various theories. Maybe Kronos and Krios had accreted their planetary disks at different times during stellar formation. That one can't be tested, said Price-Whelan, but it seems unlikely.

Maybe they only started moving together more recently, after trading partners with another pair of binary stars, a process known as binary exchange. Oh ruled that out with "a simple calculation," she said. "She's very modest," Price-Whelan noted.

Oh's skepticism was finally overcome when she plotted the chemical abundance pattern as a function of condensation temperature -- the temperatures at which volatiles condense into solids. Condensation temperatures play a key role in planetary formation because rocky planets tend to form where it's warm -- closer to a star -- while gas giants form more easily in the colder regions far from their star.

She immediately observed that all of the minerals that solidify below 1200 Kelvin were the ones Kronos was low in, while all the minerals that solidify at warmer temperatures were abundant.

"Other processes that change the abundance of elements generically throughout the galaxy don't give you a trend like that," said Price-Whelan. "They would selectively enhance certain elements, and it would appear random if you plotted it versus condensation temperatures. The fact that there's a trend there hinted towards something related to planet formation rather than galactic chemical evolution."

That was her "Aha!" moment, Oh said. "All of the elements that would make up a rocky planet are exactly the elements that are enhanced on Kronos, and the volatile elements are not enhanced, so that provides a strong argument for a planet engulfment scenario, instead of something else."

Oh and her colleagues calculated that gaining this many rock-forming minerals without many volatiles would require engulfing roughly 15 Earth-mass planets.

Eating a gas giant wouldn't give the same result, Price-Whelan explained. Jupiter, for example, has an inner rocky core that could easily have 15 Earth masses of rocky material, but "if you were to take Jupiter and throw it into a star, Jupiter also has this huge gaseous envelope, so you'd also enhance carbon, nitrogen -- the volatiles that Semyeong mentioned," he said. "To flip it around, you have to throw in a bunch of smaller planets."

While no known star has 15 Earth-sized planets in orbit around it, the Kepler space telescope has detected many multi-planet systems, said Jessie Christiansen, an astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research. "I see no problem with there being more than 15 Earth masses of accretable material around a solar-type star." She pointed to Kepler-11, which has more than 22 Earth masses of material in six planets with close orbits, or HD 219134, which has at least 15 Earth masses of material in its inner four planets.

"At the moment, we are still at the stage of piecing together different observations to determine how and when exoplanets form," said Christiansen. "It's difficult to directly observe planet formation around young stars -- they are typically shrouded in dust, and the stars themselves are very active, which makes it hard to disentangle any signals from the planets. So we have to infer what we can from the limited information we have. If borne out, this new window onto the masses and compositions of the material in the early stages of planetary systems may provide crucial constraints for planet formation theories."

The research also has implication for stellar formation models, noted Price-Whelan.

"One of the common assumptions -- well-motivated, but it is an assumption -- that's pervasive through galactic astronomy right now is that stars are born with [chemical] abundances, and they then keep those abundances," he said. "This is an indication that, at least in some cases, that is catastrophically false."

[marcosoropoet]

Lemon Cake ~

1. The way it works is I want a cup of hot black tea... not falling slowly, in reverse augmented reality money banquet begging rose vortex prizes in this cataclysmic rose-gold trick u look like a new weirder snapchat filter, wasn't it some high-up guy that stopped everything ((( the other day ))) to fix a cheeseburger emoji? legit muted chatter on the other moon @green geo-political stupor attracting pivoting magnetized crosshairs freezing blood cold, sangfroid, stalking the horror victim relentlessly — and I'm stuck in a trapezoid alone inside this very weird dream, and I don't want you to look at me... but at, this, in its place. "it's safe, you can show yourself now" —... is it me? that I can't see? a crackingly crazy dog with the animal terror look in (((the eyes))) bites down on cumulus cirrus myth, rains blood down configuring liquid glass fireball hush in place of a goofy smile myth you think you knew me you think you have a print-out of the dna blueprint... 2. Glock Terror Noir: "I beeped to you twice loud, right? That means I'm here, right? FUCK YOU YOU SHOULD BE OUTSIDE ALREADY! You stupid fuck!!!" "You got the gun?" It wasn't a lucid dream yet very vivid, hyper real. Everything cut out with sharp edges of colour. Everything cut out with a crimson jewel tone refraction of myriad bursting colours. 3. A thousand rabbit coins for one violet kiss. Goes to my head. Flipping through a magazine, seeing my name in black velvet lights. buzzkiller butcher spin. I took too many lashes. Clouds of dice, sky of black velvet. Humans made of pliable molecules, in upward sky and forward time prettiness trying to understand everything like always.stop. You can spot civilizations on any street. Cymbals erupt in metallic sonic splash. The fragrant steam of food. Hot sun in tearing eyes. We are navigated by the sun. Solar matrix. Solar head-trip. Solar juvenile expectations. 4. a crackingly crazy dog with the animal terror look in the eyes (((the eyes))) bites down on cumulus cirrus, rains blood down configuring liquid glass fireball hush of silent fire roar in place of a goofy smile you think you know me you think you have a print-out of the world ending in the cataclysmic baking of white light. Baking soda, YouTube. Everyone kept talking with no questions.questions simply wiped with a bright nano-sizzle. Lovely Laundry can do bright nano-sizzle for you no extra cost lovely laundromat is re-processing tape loop for you with no language so blank 5. I have cast iron bells and indigenous whistles. Cracks, fissures, broken bones cannot compare with a broken brain. The pop-open scenario of a greeting card is my 3-D gig. Yours you'll have to find.My dogfoot bathtub fills with ocean water, and reflects a useless boring world. Second-hand smoke and cracked mirrors. personality buzzes? A sucker punch kills the show. When we were just about to land on Jupiter, as injured caricatures of a newer generation. As mind-boggling freaks under my direction and fresh algorithm. artificial but our intellects welcome you to warm lovely laundry* As gallons of tutti-frutti body-wash explode from the tv screen. As silent, screened double agent doppelgangers clockwork entering the zero dome court, are announced in digital voice. As rocknroll would cool my warm forehead. As the black clouds came down a blanket. I am a liar and kept saying that they were violet. A street connection finally made, each party sauntered away in rain coming down hard. I stayed incognito, a complete unknown, some don't know jack about the public eye. But honeychild I'm on my own, on my best behavioral electrode. I don't talk so loud because nobody cares, and soft yellow applause is a small yellow bird, which gives me clunky goosebumps. anonymous content. white eyes, red sun. Can we cut a deal? I look upon the wavering reflection of my face in the pool of crushed light and abandoned darkness There I see myself so close to the eye it causes hallucinatory thought-speech. Knocking! ... I bought a big bouncing ball and soft yellow applause is a small yellow applause is a small yellow bird, White eyes, red sun. Can we cut a deal? I look upon the packed bowl of five alarm chili with a broken brain. The pop-open scenario of a greeting card is my 3-D gig. Yours I'll have five stores to find. My dogfoot bathtub fills with ocean water, and reflects dumpster cracked crackling gardenia candles... Mad thought-speech. Knocking. I'm bringing you a lemon cake, since I found out that you had just moved in the streets slant and distort because nobody cares, and some bubblegum welts. I bought a big bouncing ball and some shit for you when you was under the radar so don't fuck with me, next morning the liquid police rolled you away, I safekept your belt in the backpack with the interstellar interstate fused wet grey clouds dripping inky newsprint. Standing frozen, still, waiting for the newsprint and a cracked mirror. personality carries the buzz? You are naked in digital voice. As rocknroll would cool my warm forehead. As the black clouds came down a blanket. I am a liar and kept saying that they were green-gold. But they wasn't. A street dogs stands up.Gas station coffee, hazelnuts, driving through the tricky narrow brick-lined cobblestone alleys ))) kill the show. When we were just about to land on Jupiter, as injured caricatures of a newer generation. As mind-boggling freakshow, I stop the world to continue my friendship with ((( myself ))). You'll run for ointment, and take the bloody curtain with myself. I have no sense of time but have overgrown myself. I have cast iron bells, indigenous whistles, and fresh green pinwheels for y'all. Cracks; I stop the world ended in the street. Cymbals erupt in metallic sonic splash. The fragrant steam of food. Hot sun in tearing eyes. for a long time now. I ((( uh ))) actualize myself in the center of nowhere how is that? around the rusty tectonics of the picture in vivid blades of green country grass under brown cattle sinew, focus bright beam polished pyrite black shale mile Running on auto pilot projection of artificial gelatin intelligence resists rendering mass malfunction tremor gaping swallows. vacuum. blackhole. microcosm. more rapid imagery. helicopter. red propeller swings hard very quietly not making too much noise. too much scratch selfhelpbook many please tonight no. Not ever! Never in a million years. Cigar touting clowns, in formal barbed wire attire, and fiberglass Bow-Ties. Entire walls and windows covered in aluminum foil glaring eye of metallic skin; a searing spotlight blasting white rays of simple pure technology, propeller swings hard, hums loudly, large white-hot light hit /up! yes, fake-out in The Lovely Laundromat. very quietly not making too much scratch selfhelpbook many please tonight. solo bassiest sitar floated out from the quantum illusion, so I will display all of my pieces in the q u a n t u m i l l u s i o n of filmic boundary universe knife-edge time, timelessness evolves into the wind — I went to the portion where sparkling dust motes, in bright beams of day: no no I've ate already officer — ...these comments/moments.repeating fruity dripping reds ...would you like the egg soft boiled sir? The spy motions with his long 24K pinky nail. Bad mother persona places bitch's sister's sheltered elite urban mutation basement sector composite. Do not find me there please yesyes 451...451...451..., the siren shuffled its screeching fast — I went to the show instead of the money-crave zombie industry brand week, with its truly myriad iterations, a million jealous flashbulb moneyshots screeching fast. dry-ice frozen three dimensional pop clusterfuck strobes pulsating on grinding grin trashcan collage alley moneyshots of dry-ice frozen three dimensional strobes pulsating on grinding grin trashcan collage alley moneyshot font/color graffiti to boot grind down to grey ash, silt slides off of the sociopathic shelter, don't gimme no free-as-the-air mama depersonalization, baby forge a very practiced, precise, dark sycophant; thus having left many with a deep amazement, and an addiction to their smooth hiding inside whole icing not defaced, baby. A public building in the sea-tang background of a hallucinatory black shadow puppet eyelash one-off vortex, Radio:...day and night I sit at home and I cry, (1234), wonderin' maybe if this is too telling of the money-craving for some peripheral excitement. Choppers swoop down low with a searing spotlight blasting white rays of simple pure technology, propeller hard-flung repetitive sound, blue siren screech around the zombie We are controlling you away, I safekept your belongings in the street. Cymbals erupt in metallic sonic splash. The fragrant steam of food. Hot sun in tearing eyes. Inside, the gold mine candles, Prehensile party sauntered away into the goldmine's sweet cool air As gallons of tutti-frutti body-wash explode from the tv screen. As silent, screen.piano.blue smoke rising in the projector's beam.cyclops. As silent, screened double agent doppelgangers entering the liquid police rolled and navigated by the sun when you walk very gently you will see and define the desire to rise above grey rocks and sedimentary boulders, to hit and get cracked gardenia candle-flash hit of reminding flesh, the delicacy and myth. But if you storm through me, and stampede, you will be messing with me and lovely laundry takes great pleasure in you our lovely wet customer. I'll fall far to the other side of the room, and the screened double agent doppelgangers were entering volcano freeze-hold. perfume zoom flipping through cymbals erupt in metallic sonic splash of street festival band playing in fragrant steam of food. Hot sun in sparkling eyes. My dogfoot bathtub fills with ocean water, and reflects a useless boring world. Second-hand smoke and cracked mirrors. gallons of tutti-frutti body-wash explode from the tv screen. As silent, screened double agent doppelgangers entering the zero dome court, are announced in digital voice. I don't talk so loud because nobody cares, and soft yellow applause is a very small yellow bird, which gives me clunky goosebumps. anonymous content. white eyes, red sun.youtube.time jumps and dilates... Can we cut a deal? I look upon the wavering reflection of my face in the pool of crushed light and abandoned darkness. I'll cry stone tree myth, for every glittering blackeye unguent. There I see myself so close to the eye it causes hallucinatory thought-speech. Knocking. Why hello there"!" fake af, I'm bringing you a lemon cake, since I found out that you had just moved in today. Uh-huh, yeah (turns around and points) right there across the street, uh-huh, r i g h t t h e r e.

[lost-carcosa]

On March 3rd, 1972, NASA launched Pioneer 10 into space to study our solar system and beyond.Aboard the spacecraft was the Pioneer Plaque, one of the most ambitious pieces of communication ever conceived, serving as a “galactic greeting card”—should any extraterrestrial life come across it.Today, there are only three plaques in the universe, two of which are billions of kilometers away from our planet, while the third is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.Now, I’m bringing the plaque back to Earth.

“It will be the oldest artifact of mankind. Because a billion years from now, mountain building and erosion will have destroyed everything on the Earth, but this plaque will remain intact.” —Carl Sagan

The Plaque

The gold-anodized aluminum Pioneer plaque was launched in 1972 and 1973 aboard NASA’s twin spacecraft, Pioneer 10 and 11, respectively. Pioneer 10 was the first to complete its mission to soar by Jupiter. Pioneer 11 followed, studying the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the Solar System and heliosphere.

The plaque, designed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan with artwork prepared by Linda Salzman Sagan, was identically bolted to Pioneer 10 and 11’s antenna supports. Designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system—who might intercept it millions of years from now—each plaque portrays when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings.

—

The Replica and the Reissue

My name is Duane King and I am a creative director and designer obsessed with the cosmos and galactic exploration.

This fascination began in my early childhood as I drew spacecraft while watching the TV show, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage with Carl Sagan. It grew into a passion that continues to this day, and I’ve amassed an incredible collection of space memorabilia. But none have sparked my creative spirit or curiosity more than the Pioneer plaque.

Put simply, the plaque is an expression of the vision and adventurous spirit that defines humanity at its best, and working with the plaque has been a lifelong dream of mine. So I set out to make a replica for myself. As I researched, I stumbled across a documentary that featured the plaque. Watching, I glimpsed the craftsman's hands at work on it—and I suddenly realized that I might be able to find him! I Googled for leads and soon located the company I suspected had made the plaques. Google Street View showed the exterior of his trophy shop, Precision Engravers, in San Carlos, California. And in the corner of the trophy-filled window was a sign that read “Home of the Pioneer plaque.” Astonished, I called and found the very craftsman behind the original—Ponciano Barbosa. Now, he is incredibly excited about this project too!

After making a prototype for myself, I was struck by the realization that there were only three other plaques, near and far, in our universe. And then there was the one I held in my hands. It was amazing, even magical. I had to share the opportunity to feel this way.

The world could use a little more hope—and the Pioneer plaque is gold-anodized optimism. So, in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 10, I have decided to create a historically accurate reproduction of the plaque.

Through this campaign, I will offer 200 plaque replicas, each manually engraved from the master craftsman's original 1972 design. I’ve emphasized every detail in order to create the most accurate, quality replicas ever made.

I want the plaque to reach everyone who shares my passion for the Pioneer missions. That’s why I’m also reissuing a laser-etched aluminum edition.

The laser-etched aluminum reissue maintains the same beautiful design, so that everyone can enjoy this symbol of hope and curiosity: a piece of history of your very own.

The Details

Both the replica and reissue plaques will come wrapped in a beautiful tissue paper made from blueprints of Pioneer 10.

Each plaque will also be delivered in a gorgeous paper case foil-stamped with the golden Pioneer diagram on the exterior along with the launch dates and locations of Pioneer 10 and 11 on the interior. For the replicas, I will also be including cancelled Pioneer Jupiter stamps within each package. Overall, the packaging is perfect for either storage or display.

What the Plaque Means

At the top left of the plaque is a schematic of the hyperfine transition of neutral atomic hydrogen––a universal ‘yardstick’––providing a basic unit of both time and physical length throughout the physical universe. As a further size check, the binary equivalent of the decimal number 8 is shown between tote marks indicating the height of the two human figures pictured to be compared with the scale of the spacecraft itself, which is also shown in the silhouette on the plaque. The hydrogen wavelength––about 21 cm (8 inches)––multiplied by the binary number representing 8 alongside the woman, gives her height, namely 168 cm (66 inches).

The radial pattern will help other scientists locate our solar system in the galaxy. The solid bars indicate distance, with the horizontal bar denoting the distance from the Sun to the galactic center. The shorter solid bars represent direction and distances to various pulsars from our Sun, and the ticks following them are the periods of the pulsars in binary form.

Below the orientation diagram, as a further aid to identification should the spacecraft be intercepted while our Solar System is still in the galactic records, there is a diagram showing relative distances of the solar planets and identifying the ringed planet Saturn and the planet from which Pioneer originated. After accelerating past the largest planet as shown by a track, the spacecraft is depicted with its antenna pointing back to its origin on the third planet.

Finally, the plaque depicts man and woman in what to humans is a characteristic gesture of friendliness but also shows how limbs can be moved and displays the important four fingers and opposing thumb. The figures and physiognomy were carefully chosen and drawn for ethnic neutrality, and no attempt is made to explain to an alien intelligence what may be mysterious differences between two physical types—man and woman.

“The mysterious part is the man and the woman to the right of the plaque. And they will be mysterious because there will not be men and women anywhere else.” ––Carl Sagan

—

The Specs

Pioneer plaque replica

Material: 6061 T6 gold-anodized aluminum Dimensions: 22.86 × 15.24 cm (6 × 9 in) Thickness: 1.27 mm (0.05 in) Imprint: Manually engraved by the original manufacturer in the USA

Pioneer plaque reissue

Material: 6061 T6 gold-anodized aluminum Dimensions: 22.86 × 15.24 cm (6 × 9 in) Thickness: 1.27 mm (0.05 in) Imprint: Laser engraved in the USA

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, June 16 2017 11:00 PM BST.

[windowanddoorsouthflorida]

Unlock Luxury: Find Your Perfect Windows and Doors in South Florida

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[nicholerestrada]

This Double-Decker Deco Bus Is Magic

So, here’s Randy Grubb’s “Magic Bus.” It’s a mix of milk truck, Volkswagen Microbus, GMC Motorhome, hand-formed aluminum, and sci-fi all frappéd in an art-deco blender with some pastel paint. For those who remember a time when Volkswagen vans weren’t collector items, it’s a throwback to the hippy contraptions of the psychedelic era when cast-off school buses would be expanded into double-decker crash pads by welding VW shells atop the roofs. Think 1968, when The Who first released “Magic Bus.”

Grubb’s bus is also an evolution of his Decoliner, which C/D featured in the February 2013 issue. It takes many of the ideas built into that split-level road vessel and refines them for specific duty. Specific because, while Decoliner was built to Grubb’s whims, the Magic Bus was commissioned by one of Grubb’s patrons. And that language is precise because Grubb views himself as an artist and vehicles as his medium. Suitably, then, the Magic Bus is making its official public debut at the 70th annual Grand National Roadster Show January 25-27 at the Pomona, California, Fairplex. Formerly known as the Oakland Roadster Show, it’s the celebration of hot-rod craftsmanship where the top award is called America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, or AMBR.

“For the chassis, I went back to the same ’70s GMC motorhome I used on the Decoliner,” Grubb explains about the Magic Bus’s basic engineering. “And for the same reasons. That front-wheel-drive platform allows us to stack double high and still have plenty of room for everything.”

The GMC Motorhome, produced between 1973 and 1978, is itself an ingenious classic of the mobile-house species. Using drivetrain bits from the then current Oldsmobile Toronado and an air suspension that includes inline dual rear tires along each flank, GM was able to engineer a practically flat-floored coach that was significantly closer to the ground and sleeker-looking than its competition. So, the Magic Bus is powered by an easygoing 455-cubic-inch (7.5 liter) Oldsmobile V-8 that feeds into GM’s TH425 three-speed automatic transaxle. Nothing exotic, and, while Grubb has rebuilt all the components, it’s likely that the Magic Bus’s engine is making close to the 250 horsepower it was rated at when installed in the 1973 Toronado.

Working in his Grants Pass, Oregon, shop, Grubb started this time with a 1947 Divco milk truck. “It was the only other iconic, art deco piece that lent itself well to being sister to the Decoliner,” Grubb says comparing the Divco’s bulldog nose to that of the Decoliner, which was swiped from a 1950 White 3000 cab-over.

“As soon as I saw the Divco close to the chassis, I saw that it was going to be a little bit too narrow. And stacking the VW bus on top, I thought it was going to be too narrow and tall. So to balance the thing, the first thing I did was widen the Divco milk truck.”

At first glance, the Divco nose seems practically unchanged. But in fact, Grubb blew it apart and widened it a total of eight inches. That meant sectioning the hood and front grille into 30 different pieces, adding new sheet steel, reshaping the grille, and welding it all back together. The nose is now hinged at the front and tilts open as one piece. Each of the two panes of windshield is four inches wider than stock. The fenders are new aluminum pieces hand-formed by Grubb.

One subtle change is that Grubb has moved the headlights off the Divco’s nose and replaced them with large combination light and turn signal units off a Peterbilt semi. The front bumper center is from the leading edge of a 1949 Plymouth, while the bumper ends are from the tail of the same car. It’s dressed out with over-riders from a 1957 Corvette.

“We bought a 1962 VW,” Grubb continues. “It started life as an 11-window, and I bought the kit to convert the roof into the 23-window, adding the top lights and the sunroof. But the giant sunroof is even gianter than it should be. It’s actually 18 inches longer than a regular Kombi sunroof. Just because I wanted it bigger.”

With the Divco nose in place and the Microbus suspended over it, Grubb built a structure using aluminum girders cut on a water-jet table. Spaced 24 inches apart, these run down the sides of the lower body and integrate into the standard structure of the VW. With that structure in place, Grubb skinned the bus with subtly voluptuous sheet aluminum. The torpedo tail shape of the VW was formed around the slope of Beetle rear side windows. And yes, the standard VW headlights are in working condition.

Then rear fenders are formed from scratch by Grubb and, he says, shaped with inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s cleavage. “It’s a very unusual fender treatment,” Grubb asserts. “And I think it’s successful.”

To get from the lower deck to the upper deck, Grubb built a one-person elevator using hidden cables and a winch usually used on ATVs. Grubb claims that its design is based on that of one aboard the fictional Jupiter 2 spacecraft as seen on the original Lost In Space TV series.

Since Grubb’s client is planning to use the Magic Bus for Wine Country excursions out of San Francisco, and temperatures in the Napa Valley can easily exceed 100 degrees in the summer, there’s a big, limousine-spec air conditioning unit in the front of the VW portion to keep the upstairs cool. Another oversize A/C unit is at the back of the VW, and it blows downstairs.

There are no seats upstairs in the Magic Bus. Instead it’s lined with pillows, so riders up there can carouse, cavort, and cuddle in fully prone style. Also, unlike the Decoliner which could be driven from its upper deck, the Magic Bus must be driven from downstairs.

In the main cabin, there’s seating for a dozen or so friendly people and a classic Coca-Cola cooler to keep them refreshed. In the tail there’s a sort of conversation pit where people can get together to enjoy each other’s company.

Hippy-dippy lunacy that it is, that Magic Bus makes perfect sense for its intended purpose of taking members from San Francisco’s “The Battery” social club on communal excursions. It’s nudging up against nearly sensible in that sense, more practical than many Grubb creations.

As part of the Blastolene vehicular art collective, Grubb has built up a portfolio of vehicles ranging from Jay Leno’s Tank Car and a Peterbilt-based street rod known as Piss’d Off Pete to, well, the Decoliner and Magic Bus. “I like what I call ‘mechanical-ocity,’ ” concludes Grubb. “I want my pieces to be interesting to everybody at every level.”

Source link

Source: https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/01/25/this-double-decker-deco-bus-is-magic/

from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/this-double-decker-deco-bus-is-magic/

[michaeljtraylor]

This Double-Decker Deco Bus Is Magic

So, here’s Randy Grubb’s “Magic Bus.” It’s a mix of milk truck, Volkswagen Microbus, GMC Motorhome, hand-formed aluminum, and sci-fi all frappéd in an art-deco blender with some pastel paint. For those who remember a time when Volkswagen vans weren’t collector items, it’s a throwback to the hippy contraptions of the psychedelic era when cast-off school buses would be expanded into double-decker crash pads by welding VW shells atop the roofs. Think 1968, when The Who first released “Magic Bus.”

Grubb’s bus is also an evolution of his Decoliner, which C/D featured in the February 2013 issue. It takes many of the ideas built into that split-level road vessel and refines them for specific duty. Specific because, while Decoliner was built to Grubb’s whims, the Magic Bus was commissioned by one of Grubb’s patrons. And that language is precise because Grubb views himself as an artist and vehicles as his medium. Suitably, then, the Magic Bus is making its official public debut at the 70th annual Grand National Roadster Show January 25-27 at the Pomona, California, Fairplex. Formerly known as the Oakland Roadster Show, it’s the celebration of hot-rod craftsmanship where the top award is called America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, or AMBR.

“For the chassis, I went back to the same ’70s GMC motorhome I used on the Decoliner,” Grubb explains about the Magic Bus’s basic engineering. “And for the same reasons. That front-wheel-drive platform allows us to stack double high and still have plenty of room for everything.”

The GMC Motorhome, produced between 1973 and 1978, is itself an ingenious classic of the mobile-house species. Using drivetrain bits from the then current Oldsmobile Toronado and an air suspension that includes inline dual rear tires along each flank, GM was able to engineer a practically flat-floored coach that was significantly closer to the ground and sleeker-looking than its competition. So, the Magic Bus is powered by an easygoing 455-cubic-inch (7.5 liter) Oldsmobile V-8 that feeds into GM’s TH425 three-speed automatic transaxle. Nothing exotic, and, while Grubb has rebuilt all the components, it’s likely that the Magic Bus’s engine is making close to the 250 horsepower it was rated at when installed in the 1973 Toronado.

Working in his Grants Pass, Oregon, shop, Grubb started this time with a 1947 Divco milk truck. “It was the only other iconic, art deco piece that lent itself well to being sister to the Decoliner,” Grubb says comparing the Divco’s bulldog nose to that of the Decoliner, which was swiped from a 1950 White 3000 cab-over.

“As soon as I saw the Divco close to the chassis, I saw that it was going to be a little bit too narrow. And stacking the VW bus on top, I thought it was going to be too narrow and tall. So to balance the thing, the first thing I did was widen the Divco milk truck.”

At first glance, the Divco nose seems practically unchanged. But in fact, Grubb blew it apart and widened it a total of eight inches. That meant sectioning the hood and front grille into 30 different pieces, adding new sheet steel, reshaping the grille, and welding it all back together. The nose is now hinged at the front and tilts open as one piece. Each of the two panes of windshield is four inches wider than stock. The fenders are new aluminum pieces hand-formed by Grubb.

One subtle change is that Grubb has moved the headlights off the Divco’s nose and replaced them with large combination light and turn signal units off a Peterbilt semi. The front bumper center is from the leading edge of a 1949 Plymouth, while the bumper ends are from the tail of the same car. It’s dressed out with over-riders from a 1957 Corvette.

“We bought a 1962 VW,” Grubb continues. “It started life as an 11-window, and I bought the kit to convert the roof into the 23-window, adding the top lights and the sunroof. But the giant sunroof is even gianter than it should be. It’s actually 18 inches longer than a regular Kombi sunroof. Just because I wanted it bigger.”

With the Divco nose in place and the Microbus suspended over it, Grubb built a structure using aluminum girders cut on a water-jet table. Spaced 24 inches apart, these run down the sides of the lower body and integrate into the standard structure of the VW. With that structure in place, Grubb skinned the bus with subtly voluptuous sheet aluminum. The torpedo tail shape of the VW was formed around the slope of Beetle rear side windows. And yes, the standard VW headlights are in working condition.

Then rear fenders are formed from scratch by Grubb and, he says, shaped with inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s cleavage. “It’s a very unusual fender treatment,” Grubb asserts. “And I think it’s successful.”

To get from the lower deck to the upper deck, Grubb built a one-person elevator using hidden cables and a winch usually used on ATVs. Grubb claims that its design is based on that of one aboard the fictional Jupiter 2 spacecraft as seen on the original Lost In Space TV series.

Since Grubb’s client is planning to use the Magic Bus for Wine Country excursions out of San Francisco, and temperatures in the Napa Valley can easily exceed 100 degrees in the summer, there’s a big, limousine-spec air conditioning unit in the front of the VW portion to keep the upstairs cool. Another oversize A/C unit is at the back of the VW, and it blows downstairs.

There are no seats upstairs in the Magic Bus. Instead it’s lined with pillows, so riders up there can carouse, cavort, and cuddle in fully prone style. Also, unlike the Decoliner which could be driven from its upper deck, the Magic Bus must be driven from downstairs.

In the main cabin, there’s seating for a dozen or so friendly people and a classic Coca-Cola cooler to keep them refreshed. In the tail there’s a sort of conversation pit where people can get together to enjoy each other’s company.

Hippy-dippy lunacy that it is, that Magic Bus makes perfect sense for its intended purpose of taking members from San Francisco’s “The Battery” social club on communal excursions. It’s nudging up against nearly sensible in that sense, more practical than many Grubb creations.

As part of the Blastolene vehicular art collective, Grubb has built up a portfolio of vehicles ranging from Jay Leno’s Tank Car and a Peterbilt-based street rod known as Piss’d Off Pete to, well, the Decoliner and Magic Bus. “I like what I call ‘mechanical-ocity,’ ” concludes Grubb. “I want my pieces to be interesting to everybody at every level.”

Source link

from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/01/25/this-double-decker-deco-bus-is-magic/ from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.tumblr.com/post/182306457379

[garkomedia1]

This Double-Decker Deco Bus Is Magic

So, here’s Randy Grubb’s “Magic Bus.” It’s a mix of milk truck, Volkswagen Microbus, GMC Motorhome, hand-formed aluminum, and sci-fi all frappéd in an art-deco blender with some pastel paint. For those who remember a time when Volkswagen vans weren’t collector items, it’s a throwback to the hippy contraptions of the psychedelic era when cast-off school buses would be expanded into double-decker crash pads by welding VW shells atop the roofs. Think 1968, when The Who first released “Magic Bus.”

Grubb’s bus is also an evolution of his Decoliner, which C/D featured in the February 2013 issue. It takes many of the ideas built into that split-level road vessel and refines them for specific duty. Specific because, while Decoliner was built to Grubb’s whims, the Magic Bus was commissioned by one of Grubb’s patrons. And that language is precise because Grubb views himself as an artist and vehicles as his medium. Suitably, then, the Magic Bus is making its official public debut at the 70th annual Grand National Roadster Show January 25-27 at the Pomona, California, Fairplex. Formerly known as the Oakland Roadster Show, it’s the celebration of hot-rod craftsmanship where the top award is called America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, or AMBR.

“For the chassis, I went back to the same ’70s GMC motorhome I used on the Decoliner,” Grubb explains about the Magic Bus’s basic engineering. “And for the same reasons. That front-wheel-drive platform allows us to stack double high and still have plenty of room for everything.”

The GMC Motorhome, produced between 1973 and 1978, is itself an ingenious classic of the mobile-house species. Using drivetrain bits from the then current Oldsmobile Toronado and an air suspension that includes inline dual rear tires along each flank, GM was able to engineer a practically flat-floored coach that was significantly closer to the ground and sleeker-looking than its competition. So, the Magic Bus is powered by an easygoing 455-cubic-inch (7.5 liter) Oldsmobile V-8 that feeds into GM’s TH425 three-speed automatic transaxle. Nothing exotic, and, while Grubb has rebuilt all the components, it’s likely that the Magic Bus’s engine is making close to the 250 horsepower it was rated at when installed in the 1973 Toronado.

Working in his Grants Pass, Oregon, shop, Grubb started this time with a 1947 Divco milk truck. “It was the only other iconic, art deco piece that lent itself well to being sister to the Decoliner,” Grubb says comparing the Divco’s bulldog nose to that of the Decoliner, which was swiped from a 1950 White 3000 cab-over.

“As soon as I saw the Divco close to the chassis, I saw that it was going to be a little bit too narrow. And stacking the VW bus on top, I thought it was going to be too narrow and tall. So to balance the thing, the first thing I did was widen the Divco milk truck.”

At first glance, the Divco nose seems practically unchanged. But in fact, Grubb blew it apart and widened it a total of eight inches. That meant sectioning the hood and front grille into 30 different pieces, adding new sheet steel, reshaping the grille, and welding it all back together. The nose is now hinged at the front and tilts open as one piece. Each of the two panes of windshield is four inches wider than stock. The fenders are new aluminum pieces hand-formed by Grubb.

One subtle change is that Grubb has moved the headlights off the Divco’s nose and replaced them with large combination light and turn signal units off a Peterbilt semi. The front bumper center is from the leading edge of a 1949 Plymouth, while the bumper ends are from the tail of the same car. It’s dressed out with over-riders from a 1957 Corvette.

“We bought a 1962 VW,” Grubb continues. “It started life as an 11-window, and I bought the kit to convert the roof into the 23-window, adding the top lights and the sunroof. But the giant sunroof is even gianter than it should be. It’s actually 18 inches longer than a regular Kombi sunroof. Just because I wanted it bigger.”

With the Divco nose in place and the Microbus suspended over it, Grubb built a structure using aluminum girders cut on a water-jet table. Spaced 24 inches apart, these run down the sides of the lower body and integrate into the standard structure of the VW. With that structure in place, Grubb skinned the bus with subtly voluptuous sheet aluminum. The torpedo tail shape of the VW was formed around the slope of Beetle rear side windows. And yes, the standard VW headlights are in working condition.

Then rear fenders are formed from scratch by Grubb and, he says, shaped with inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s cleavage. “It’s a very unusual fender treatment,” Grubb asserts. “And I think it’s successful.”

To get from the lower deck to the upper deck, Grubb built a one-person elevator using hidden cables and a winch usually used on ATVs. Grubb claims that its design is based on that of one aboard the fictional Jupiter 2 spacecraft as seen on the original Lost In Space TV series.

Since Grubb’s client is planning to use the Magic Bus for Wine Country excursions out of San Francisco, and temperatures in the Napa Valley can easily exceed 100 degrees in the summer, there’s a big, limousine-spec air conditioning unit in the front of the VW portion to keep the upstairs cool. Another oversize A/C unit is at the back of the VW, and it blows downstairs.

There are no seats upstairs in the Magic Bus. Instead it’s lined with pillows, so riders up there can carouse, cavort, and cuddle in fully prone style. Also, unlike the Decoliner which could be driven from its upper deck, the Magic Bus must be driven from downstairs.

In the main cabin, there’s seating for a dozen or so friendly people and a classic Coca-Cola cooler to keep them refreshed. In the tail there’s a sort of conversation pit where people can get together to enjoy each other’s company.

Hippy-dippy lunacy that it is, that Magic Bus makes perfect sense for its intended purpose of taking members from San Francisco’s “The Battery” social club on communal excursions. It’s nudging up against nearly sensible in that sense, more practical than many Grubb creations.

As part of the Blastolene vehicular art collective, Grubb has built up a portfolio of vehicles ranging from Jay Leno’s Tank Car and a Peterbilt-based street rod known as Piss’d Off Pete to, well, the Decoliner and Magic Bus. “I like what I call ‘mechanical-ocity,’ ” concludes Grubb. “I want my pieces to be interesting to everybody at every level.”

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[stargatesandgarage]

You Will Be Served All Types Of Door And Security Service At An Excellent Way

The commercial houses which hold lots of stock in their warehouse and storehouse need to protect the stocks from any type of accidents. Residential homes need to protect their cars also. To get protected there are necessary to install protective measures like fire serving alarms, fire preventing tools and techniques, safe windows and doors. The entrance is here very much important. It should be wide, larger and also convenient to car passing. The door should be solid also to be able to stop any type of burglary and unwanted entries. In New York City the big and larger doors are got full-fledge security to stop any type of trespassing job by the rolling gate repair NYC agencies or professionals. They are actually a team of experienced and technician personnel. From installing to repair and also replacement is done here.

Risk free and durable doors are actually very much effective to provide long term services. Suppose you have car then you will definitely want to keep it safe in garage and the garage door should be easy to operate like opening and closing should be comfortable. Now manual doors have been replaced by the technologically advanced garage or overhead doors. These types of doors are controlled by powerful DC motor which makes run the steel- strengthened belt. It is controlled by remote sensors which makes no involvement of manual job. It is for residential purpose. But when it becomes commercial necessary, the same thing becomes larger and wider involving more or less same operation. The giant is also not able to open manually. Then the name becomes Roll up gate or shutter gates. The gates are made of metals like steel, aluminum or may be big glass or wood. The same thing also used for residential purpose but the size then becomes small.

The rolling gate repair NYC all over the New York, Manhattan and its adjoining area successfully operates their business. The residential gates are normally matched with every security measures along with the beautification. You can experience here option of different standard colors, modern to tradition look, custom and semi-custom, varieties of panel like grooved, short, ranch- long, flush line, mixed, , glass, ribbed, arch etc. These panels are matched with your house design. Here brand, design, customers' choice are given priority. The hardware contains specially designed spring system which controls free falling, finger entrapments etc. Concealed cables control the up and down of the gate. Now it is technologically sound so remote sensor or transmitters controls the pressure level. This system makes it noise free and smooth running.

The periodical repair is very much necessary to get them long running. The cables, spring should be checked immediately if any uncomfortable matter happens in operation. Any parts of hand operated doors or automatic doors, motors and grills, locking devices are available by the experts making online requisition or call. Get also another service to repair the locks like changing, repair etc. So at the NYC book the experts for installation or any repairing job. The price rate is very much competitive.

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[stargategaragenewyork]

Garage Door Installation

Today, garages come in a variety of styles and sizes. The garage door is as varied as the garage. There are many types including with or without windows, wood, metal, aluminum, single and double. A door can be insulated providing retention of heat in the winter and keeping the garage cool in the summer. Since many people use their garages for other things besides parking their car, the installation of the right door is important.

The garage door will also enhance the look of the exterior of your home. The style chosen can make a huge difference to the look of the home. Since there are so many makes and models of doors, when deciding to have an existing door replaced with a newer one, it is important to find an experienced installer. While many people feel this is a job they can handle themselves, this is not always a good idea.

Garage door installation, when done incorrectly can create a hazardous situation. The door must be balanced properly and the adjustments made to ensure it is working correctly. They also feature a safety measure. Sensitivity sensors are used to stop the door if something is under it as it tries to close. This is extremely important in households with small children and pets.

Most doors have remote controls that are used to open and close them. Previously, problems had been experienced with a remote control operating more than the door it was intended to operate. This created a dangerous situation for homeowners as burglars or thieves could gain access to their garage and their home. Today's doors include 'rolling code technology', which changes the frequency of the remote so that it cannot be utilized by thieves.

This is another reason for having your door installed by a professional who is up to date on the latest technology. The door may provide an enhanced look to your home, but it actually does much more. The protection provided to the residents of the home as well as to their vehicle is more vital today than ever.

According to FBI data, a burglary or home invasion occurs every 17 seconds in the U.S. The garage door and the back door are the most often used points of entry for home invasions and burglaries. This is because they provide cover more than other entrances.

The need for garage door installation by a professional that can advise you on the best way of securing your door is one way of protecting your home. The installation of alarms on the door to making certain the door is working properly is the key to protecting yourself, your family, and your home.

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[itsworn]

Magic Bus by Randy Grubb to Appear @ 70th GNRS Pomona, CA.

Through the pine trees and on the ground all around we could see the dismembered remains of a Divco milk truck, and a 23-window Volkswagen bus. What is going on here were our thoughts as we drove up the mountainside to see our buddy Randy Grubb’s latest hand-formed aluminum creation.

The year was 2017 and STREET RODDER was in Southern Oregon to take in the 40th Annual Medford Rod & Custom Show and visit a few friends. We stopped by Bob Drake Reproductions in Grants Pass, watched Mike Brewer film the Austin-Healy 3000 episode for Wheeler Dealers and then called Randy to ask if we could swing by. As evidenced by our photos of the early stages of construction it didn’t take Randy long to build the Magic Bus from the ground up. The engine is 455-inch Oldsmobile Toronado complete with a GM TH425 automatic transmission. The TH425 is the front-wheel drive cousin to the GM TH400. STREET RODDER will broadcasting live and posting to www.streetrodder.com from the 70th Annual Grand National Roadster Show.

Randy Grubb Debuts Magic Bus at the 70th Annual Grand National Roadster Show

And now the canned release, “Automotive artist Randy Grubb, creator of Jay Leno’s Tank Car, the B-702, Piss’d Off Pete, the Falconer Dodici, the DecoPods, and the DecoLiner, will be unveiling his San Francisco tribute sculpture, The Magic Bus, at the Grand National Roadster Show at Pomona, California, on January 25-27, 2019.

The 1960s Haight-Ashbury inspired bus incorporates the nose of a 1947 Divco truck, America’s iconic milk truck, and a 23-window Volkswagen Kombi van. The chassis is from a 1973 GMC motorhome and the vehicle is powered by a 455 Olds engine. Grubb fashioned the front bumpers from those of a ’49 Plymouth and a ’57 Corvette, while the rear is styled after the ’59 VW bus bumpers.

The knockout flourish to the Magic Bus is its elevator, powered by an ATV winch motor and pulleys hidden beneath the floorboard. Its design was inspired by the transport tube in the Jupiter 2 from the iconic 1960s Lost in Space television series.

Grubb created the Magic Bus for The Battery, a private members club in San Francisco, to be used for taking members to events outside of The Battery, and to be chartered by members for private use. A frequent use is likely to be experiential wine tours to Sonoma and Napa.”

To learn more about the magical coach crafting work of Randy Grubb read From Mind to Metal authored by Randy Johnson.

The post Magic Bus by Randy Grubb to Appear @ 70th GNRS Pomona, CA. appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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