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WEEK 30 2018

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Saturday 28 July 2018

Saturday - Very hot again, but the humidity is down to 15%. It's also very smokey.

I went into town, and coming back in the afternoon at 3pm or so the car temperature gauge peaked at 110F, midway between Lancaster and Antelope Acres. It was only about 104F out here in the Acres. Probably transpiration cooling from the lawns and trees...

I went into town to have lunch with R&S and get the full scoop on their trip back to RI. We went to the Kirin retaurant in town and it was quite tasty (though a bit pricey for Lancaster). They claim I've been there before but I don't recall it.

It sounds like things went very well - apart from almost missing the flight out from LAX (leaving late and traffic) they had good(ish) flights, and got a good parking spot in RI for the rental car by using some sort of app, and mostly used Uber in Boston proper, and that worked very well for them. The weather was wonderful and they enjoyed Rhode Island and later Boston, though it was a bit crowded with tourists. The newly minted ensign in the USN really really wanted tasty food and beer it seems.

Because of various bureaucratic issues (welcome to the Navy!) he also ended up having a month of leave to burn before losing it this fall, so he and the wife have plenty of time to pack and move down to San Diego from Corvallis.

They had done some yard sales before we met up, and picked me up a small round oak dining room table for $5. The finish is a bit distressed, and there is a split in a leg that needs glue, but for $5! They also picked up a set of "FORD" emblazoned car floor mats for Aaron.

I didn't do much else during the day - some reading and internet stuff - a bit worn down from a long and hot week I guess. I arose so late that it was too hot to paint by the time I was ready.

I did do some online bills.

Since I still haven't gotten a bill from SCE since February, despite calling them on July 12th about it, I just sent them $50. Maybe that will prime the invoice pump. I have no idea of what my energy use and Tiers are out here.

Books read through Week 30

#1 Dreadnought (Lost Colonies #2) #2 Star Carrier (Lost Colonies #3) #3 Atremis #4 CNTL ALT Revolt #5 Hammer of the Witches	#6 Superluminary #7 Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours #8 The Wright Brothers #9 Adapt and Overcome #10 Stand Against the Storm
#11 Stoke the Flames Higher #12 Hunter Killer #13 The Circle #14 The Med #15 The Gulf	#16 The Lawdog Files #17 Oregairu Vol. 5 #18 Oregairu Vol. 6 #19 Tomahawk (Lenson #4) #20 China Sea(Lenson #6)
#21 Black Storm, #22 The Command #23 Korea Strait (Lenson #10) #24 The Weapon (Lenson #11) #25 Superluminary #2	#26 Superluminary #3 #27 The Crisis (Lenson #12) #28 The Devil You Know #29 The Passage (Lenson #2) #30 Uncharted
#31 was, therefore, The Towers (Lenson #13)

So I am caught up, book wise, at just over one per week on the average.

These are actually a bit out of order, the 4th of July always seems to make me mess up these pages, but no big deal I guess...

Friday 27 July 2018 Friday - Very hot, 107F.

I assembled and installed one more frame, so now there are two. I didn't have any painted screen molding, I used unpainted, so that will have to be pulled off and redone later. I am not entirely happy with the quality of the work, but so it goes. Together these make up 27SF, of the 62SF of windows in the back of the house, so 43.5% of the east side heat load is being reduced by (supposedly) 90%, or about a 39% reduction. Since the temperature and humidity isn't constant day to day it's hard to say if it going to have much effect. With any luck I can at least turn on the a/c later, and run it on 'low' more.

Including the windows in the front of the house, another 135SF, the house total window area is 197SF (call it 200SF).

I was going to paint the remaining three, but it was just too hot by the time I finished the first - probably 100F+ in the garage. Painting in that heat isn't recommended, strange stuff happens. Perhaps tomorrow.

BTW, I gave the new 1" swamp cooler bearings to my neighbor yesterday, whose swamp cooler squirrel cage fan bearings coincidentally seized up yesterday! I can get another set next time I'm in town, and my unit still rotates. It's too hot to be without coolth...

Reading up on Core Data and SQLite. Sigh. I did get Patrick Alessi's book for $4, used, and he's a good author, so that's a plus.

Thursday 26 July 2018 Thursday - Horribly hot, 109F.

I worked on the window frames until after lunch. I sanded all of them, then gave two of them a second coat of primer, and the third a second coat of finish enamel. The first finish coat had so many holidays (it's hard to paint white on white) that I felt I had to redo it.

I also used wood putty on the joints in the fourth frame, the french door frame - despite my best efforts it really isn't finish carpentry level stuff.

In theory, in the afternoon I could apply primer to that after sanding the dried putty, and maybe even apply the Rustoleum to the other pieces. In reality it is just too hot in there after 1pm, even with the dog door venting cool air in, to do any work.

I'll try to get the other 4.5 x 3 window frame up tomorrow, and oil paint the remaining frames, but we'll see - I need to go into town tomorrow morning and pick up some screen molding and also some new bearings for the swamp cooler.

Everything takes so much longer than I expect.

A few cat items arrived: Jim's specialty food, a new Furminator brush (I can't find the old one), and a cat grooming glove. The cats, all of them, just loooooovvvve the brush and grooming glove. In fact both Jim and Suzy eventually were so stimulated by the latter that they eventually attacked the glove, purring all the while. I took handfuls of hair from Jim, so I think maybe I can get a handle on the whole hairball issue. Since moving last year I haven't been grooming him, and as a longhair it has become an issue.

There was a great deal of smoke haze to the east and to the west - fire season is officially here I guess. It does make for lovely sunrise and sunsets, and moon-rises.

There is a major lunar eclipse scheduled for tomorrow, but only on the other side of the world. Perhaps the Moon has Trump Derangement Syndrome?

It was my neighbor's son's birthday yesterday, so we went out to Tokyo Steakhouse for dinner. Filet & Shrimp and (for me, anyway) a couple of beers...

Wednesday 25 July 2018

Wednesday - Hot. 112F according to my thermometer here at the house. Weather Underground was showing 109F at the airport a few miles away. They keep upping the temperature's predicted - it was supposed to drop down into the 90's by this time, according to last week's predictions.

In the morning I went into town and picked up some swamp cooler parts. Unfortunately they are out of swamp cooler pads - both Home Depot and Lowe's had none, and apparently no intention of ordering more. I did pick up a few items I might need, but forgot to get a measurement of the bearing size I probably need - there is a bit of "thump" when the fan is on.

But I ran the descale solution through the unit for an hour, and hosed out the interior, and washed the pads with a high power water jet, and it worked much better, with a better throughput, than it had been.

Humidity is down, fortunately, into the teens, and that plus the maintenance helped keep the house reasonably cool all day.

I also picked up some magnets, for attaching the frames to the house.

I also picked up some more 1x3's. I essentially had to check through every piece of 1x3 they had, and took the 5 best pieces. Horrible quality wood, some had bends of 2" in eight feed, some was warped, some was kinked at knots.

All this house work tends to eat up my mornings. I work in the garage until about noon, when it's 100F+ in the shade, and then knock off.

AH had to go to Castaic, to drop off some tractor axles that needed work, at a shop there. I tagged along, just for the fun of it. Castaic has really grown.

The vet called, said Jim probably did not have Pancreatitis, but that he might still have an infection. Good news about the big P, and I can bring him in for another AB shot this weekend. His appetite is somewhat back, so that's good.

He is up and about again, more his usual social self.

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Tuesday - Hot. 109F apparently.

I stapled the new solar screening material to the finished frame, added some (unpainted!) screen molding and temporarily screwed it to the house, over the master bath window. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. As long as you don't get too close... The molding is just screwed on to the frame, so I can remove it for painting.

I also milled out a frame for the french door window - just one because I ran out of 1x3's, and then glued it up.

I talked to Dave and Tim a bit in the evening, about an old job (2011) that we'd worked on in Matilija Canyon. They'd already figured things out by the time I called back, about 9:30pm.

Monday 23 July 2018

Monday - Hot. And supposed to get hotter this week, but with decreasing humidity, so maybe the swamp cooler will work.

S stopped by in the morning and picked up the dogs and the various dog appurtenances. They weren't much trouble, but I admit I am happy to not be taking care of them all the time.

She and R were back in RI for Kirk's graduation from OCS. Apparently everything went well with the flights, and RI and the graduation weather was excellent. Apparently Kirk has a month off before reporting for duty, after 2 years of ROTC-ish stuff.

I fiddled with the little adapter. I mis-spoke last week, what I actually ordered was a male-male VGA (DSUB) adapter. The little USB video adapter came with a DVI output and a DVI-2-VGA female adapter. What I needed was a male-male adapter because of the port on the back of the 2nd monitor was also a female.

I did have to futz around and get a DisplayLink software upgrade from the USB video adapter makers. Apparently Apple has bollixed up their OSX driver software with the last couple of releases, and the software that shipped with the adapter only works on older versions of OSX. So it goes.

So, now I have two monitors...guess I should get cracking and make use of them!

Sunday 22 July 2018

Sunday - Hot. And kind of humid.

Did some cleanup around the house, clamped up the other frame. I gave the "medium" window frame a coat of enamel, over the primer.

Since it was so blamed hot I didn't do much outside. I worked on the app in the afternoon.

Picture of the Week

horses

Horses at the "Z" ranch.

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