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aqueduct across the Elbe
Tuesday, September 10 2024
location: cabin 105, Swiss Ruby river boat, Elbe-Havel Canal just west of the aqueduct across the Elbe River, Germany
We'd docked in a place where there wasn't much of interest except canal technology. To the east was an aqueduct carrying the canal well above the Elbe, high enough for boats on the Elbe to navigate unimpeded beneath it. And to the west was an elevator for lifing boats contained in a small boxlike pool up to a couple dozen feet, a much trickier and more physically-demanding task than simply allowing water to flow into a lock. But supposedly doing things this way is much faster and better for certain scenarios. Not knowing any of this, Gretchen got off the boat by herself and ended up walking on the side of the aqueduct across the Elbe without ever realizing what she was seeing or thinking it all that remarkable.
Meanwhile I'd taken a recreational 150 mg dose of pseudoephedrine and was using ChatGPT to help me add a new feature to my ESP-8266 Remote Control system: a dropdown allowing the user to pick a time in the past to see the graphical data from the weather or inverter sensors. Since that graphical system already has a provision to show the data at different scales (from those a few hours in length to as long as a year), the date picker had to be aware of the timescale being displayed so it could show dropdowns with dates (and sometimes datetimes) corresponding to the beginning of each timespan being displayed. The information provided by the dropdown didn't end up being a date; instead it was a whole number corresponding to the number of the time unit in the past. From that, knowing the size of the timescale and the present datetime, both the beginning and end of the data to be displayed could be calculated. The heart of this functionality ended up being some code ChatGPT came up with that, given the name of a timespan and an ordinal number could calculate the beginning datetime. I then had to modify the SQL to take this information into account in limiting what date range of data to display, as well as granularly to display the data in that date range. (I could plot every data point over a year-long span, but it would take a long time and maybe crash Chrome, so instead I only display one data point per day when displaying a graph of data for a whole year.)
When I needed a little break from that, I got off the boat and went around the nearby boat lift system to the other side of the canal, where I'd seen hovering kites (that is, the bird of prey). I hoped to take pictures of one, so I had my good camera with me. While I was there, I saw a small bird of prey attack a kite in a spectacular display. But unfortunately it all happened too fast for me to catch it with my camera.
After the boat started moving again, the passengers all got a good look at the Elbe from the canal aqueduct. And then we continued for awhile before docking once more, this time near a small city with the not-especially distinctive name of Burg. (Its full name is Burg bei Magdeburg to help distinguish it from other cities with the same name.) Once again Gretchen eagerly hopped off the boat and went for a stroll, while I stayed back and tinkered more with the code I'd been working on. (There was a lot that could go wrong with it, and I kept having to make tweaks.) When I got it to a place where I was reasonably happy with it, I went for a stroll myself. But I didn't get far from the boat when I was joined by Kelly and Brian, which was fine with me even if I jokingly agreed when they said I was probably sick of them by now. We walked past a big brown barking dog and a couple sketchy-looking people daydrinking at the side door of their house. There was also a tiny horse and some chickens in a place that looked a little too urban for such creatures. We came upon Gretchen as she was heading back to the boat, but we didn't stop to talk with her for long. She hadn't found Burg especially interesting. As we continued into Burg, the three of us chuckled over a few amusing things, such as Gretchen's animosity towards Dave. We didn't get much beyond the railroad tracks before deciding we needed to head back to the boat so we could be there in time for dinner.
Tonight at dinner for the first time, I carried with me a bottle of wine I'd decanted from one of the cheap bottles I'd bought yesterday. The wine wasn't great, but it was plenty good enough. I should mention that I've been continuing to bring ghost pepper with me to most non-breakfast meals. Simon usually wants some to add to his soup, and tonight Gretchen asked for some too. (It seems to work best when adding heat to soup; in pasta or sandwiches, it tends to be a bit too concentrated even when divided into tiny well-distributed pieces. Usually the results are great, but sometimes I overdo it and end up suffering.)
Tonight before she went to sleep, Gretchen set the alarm for 3:00am so she'd be able to see the first (and perhaps only) Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump presidential debate. It would be happening at 9:00pm EDT, but in Germany we were six hours ahead. I knew I wouldn't want to be waking up so early to then endure something so potentially stressful, so Gretchen intended to watch it on her phone using earphones.
The boat lift system near where we docked west of the Elbe aqueduct.
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How the boat lift works, in German.
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I was unfamiliar with this European maple. It's a field maple.
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A gnarly thistle-like plant over near where I was looking to photograph the kites.
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I didn't get any pictures of the kites, but I did get one of the swallows, where were numerous.
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As our boat enters the aqueduct carrying the Elbe-Havel Canal high above the Elbe.
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Looking down at the Elbe from the aqueduct.
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Cranes flying high north of the canal in Burg.
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Nice crane array!
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