OK I just remembered...I had another bizarre dream that involved lighting! It was like one of those house-flipping TV shows, where they were doing light designing. Anyway "they" went into some lighting store or something (saw lots of 8 foot lamps on display) and got these red incandescent bulbs (picture red ceramic-coated bulbs, but a really dark red, and A19 short neck). They supposedly put out a full spectrum light? Then the house they were redoing suddenly caught fire and the contractor or whatever started throwing furniture and keepsakes out an upstairs window...weird!
Next part has nothing to do with lighting, but rather, radio! (another hobby of mine!)
Later in the same dream, I was walking up this backcountry road, no doubt somewhere in southeast Alaska judging by the scenery and damp evergreen forest. And I was going to my Spanish teacher's house or something? (I know, sounds bizarre). I found this old barn waaay up this hill (a white, paint-peeling, regular-looking cow/horse/hay barn). Inside was the antenna rig for a low-power FM translator for an NPR station. It looked like a marine VHF antenna (think car radio antenna but bigger). It had a cut-out soda/beer can on top and the resonance or whatever of it and other metal things in there was making the station's audio faintly audible in there...(same thing that makes people's tooth fillings make a radio station audible when close to a transmitter). It was some oldies song, I recongized it but can't remember what it was now.
How weird! I suppose that could happen in real life, particularly if someone did an unlicensed, illegal, under-the-radar opearation like that in a town like mine...a small transmitter kit and antenna hidden in the attic of a 2-story building on a hill might actually get decent coverage.
In all seriousness I've thought about what it would take to start a local, somewhat-live, non-NPR commercial radio station where I live that would get decent listenership. I've bounced this off my dad and he thinks something with an oldies/classic rock/ format would be a listened-to radio station here. Rather, I'd do a "mix" format of many types of music...a "set" could look something like...lemme think about this.
Berlin-the Metro (80s new wave)
Fuel-Hemmorhage (2000s post grunge)
Alice in Chains-Down in a hole (90s grunge)
Kelly Clarkson-Hearbeat song (current top 40)
Eminem-Till i collapse (2000s rap)
Rascal Flats-What hurts the most (2000s country)
Van Halen-When it's love (80s classic rock)
Corey Hart-Sunglasses at night (80s classic rock)
Foo Fighters-Learn to fly (90s alternative)
Alice in Chains-Stone (2013 hard rock)
Nine Inch Nails-Terrible Lie (90s alternative)
Depeche Mode-Personal Jesus (80s new wave)
Gordon Lightfoot-Wreck of the Edmund Fizgerald (70s classic rock)
...you get the idea. In any major city I bet a radio format like this would never fly but in a place like this I picture it being at least somewhat successful in the absence of anything else that plays music most hours of the day. You might notice how many of these songs aren't totally played out on the radio, either...something else that I think would increase listenership. (PS, how many of these songs I listed did you recognize)? That took me a whole 2 minutes to think that "set" up.
It'd have to start small, with a small signal and this very limited reception (enough to cover my town; a couple square miles) but I think it could easily expand if it really took off to include other less-populated areas around me...I can think of a few a good signal could theoretically cover, one in particular about 30 miles away (but getting scratchy/staticky by them if it was FM which it would be). In that case it may seem like I'd be broadcasting to wilderness and ocean but there's a lot of fishing activity here and many small fishing boats have FM radios on them. (The wheelhouse of the boat I run is done with a nice Clarion marine-grade "aftermarket car stereo" type tuner. It has stellar reception IMO, with a VHF radio antenna used. (Shared with a VHF using a "cable TV splitter" looking band seperator. (VHF is Very High Frequency FM). Also has excellent AM reception. With said antenna 30-ish feet in the air (could even be like 50 feet) you can hear Sitka's relatively small (3600w ERP) NPR radio station pretty clearly quite a way out of there! (Granted, me being a person who can stand listening to somewhat-staticky/weak radio stations).
And where I live there's nothing on the AM dial easily picked up during the daylight hours...but with that particular setup I can hear a LOT of stations even during the day! If the boat sells I'd like to transfer that setup over to my house, though I don't know how well it would turn out since my house has tons of fluorescents, (including CFLs, which are horrible for AM radio period) as well as other electronics that make "noise". (My 12v>120v inverter is the worst offender, that noise gets into a hardwired telephone line by being near romex wires carrying power from said source). But I'd like to have such a setup, being a radio listener even in these days of Pandora and iTunes LOL.
That house in Atascadero had EXCELLENT FM reception, being on a hill facing several well-populated areas. A good antenna would have made it even better...the whole FM dial probably would've been full. On the fourth floor you could pick up all sorts of stuff!
Yeah, I like brighter period unless it's a "warm" color.
My first winter in Alaska (2008-09) was a big snow year, we had 10+ feet at that house, where it slid off the roof. It required a LOT of shoveling on the 1000 feet or so of boardwalk going up there from the main turnoff, which was usually plowed but we sometimes had to shovel too. Each year since has been much less so far.
Yeah you must like it better driving without snow. Does RI just have poorly-maintained roads or is this all from frost action? (I know a case of some frost-lifted pavement on a major highway, the three "bumps" aren't that obvious and there's a sign saying "dips" or whatever but if someone unfamiliar with the area hits those at 50MPH it's quite a ride in the standard minivan or compact car or 3/4 ton pickup. Local drivers know to slow waaay down in that spot (there's hardly any traffic on that road so it's safe to do so).
Still not as bad as a school bus at 40MPH or whatever on an unpaved, rocky (same highway, but under construction) road for several miles...that was the bumpiest ride I can think of.
That house I lived in in Atascadero was on an unpaved road, (and had a 37% grade driveway) and it was always interesting how people thought of it on their first time up there. People's newer, fancier cars had the low traction alarms go off on that driveway! The garbage truck also had to back out 1/4 mile! (beep beep beep the whole way). Despite likely never seeing it again, I've often thought about how possible it would be to get a Deuce up and down that road on a daily/multiple times a day basis...the neighbors might have come unglued though. (This was already one of those roads where you're driving up there and a neighbor's car comes down the road and passing is really hard (again, with "normal" cars). Much less the UPS truck LOL.