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WEEK 37 2018

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Saturday 15 September  2018
Saturday - Nice weather.

I went out pre-dawn to watch a rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB.  This was the last launch of a Delta II, they've been launching them since 1960 or so.  I imagine that the Delta II of today has a much in common with a Delta II of 1960 as a Chevrolet Corvette of 2018 has with a 1960 model, i.e., none to speak of.

It couldn't compete with the Falcon, so it's history now, like a lot of other launch vehicles.

As a launch is was unspectacular - the engine flame wasn't as bright as a Falcon, and the sun was too far below the horizon to illuminate the plume,  After staging it became completely invisible.

I was keeping track of the delayed launch on my cellphone.  At T-60 seconds I could see the rocket ascending - the "live stream" was more like an "undead stream" I guess...

I understand that the satellite, the IceSat, was inserted into orbit successfully.
Friday 14 September 2018
Friday - Warm.

Not much to say, working away on this and that...

Thursday 13 September 2018
Thursday - Warm.  Nice in the evenings.

Ordered some stuff from Amazon - wiper blades, more window magnets, filters for the turtle tank pump, and so on. Some prices have gone up, I'm not sure if that's because of inflation or because they are gouging me as a repeat customer.  I guess it's getting easier and easier to track what people are doing online.

The eaves have some nails popped out.  I can hammer them in, go up one size from the 8d that is there now, or replace with #8 decking screws (it's the fascia and not a load bearing item).


A mentioned that they've knocked down most of the solar concentration plant over on Division street.  It's only been up for a few years - what a scam. I wonder what we paid for it? Tens of millions I am sure.

The AV is covered with solar electric farms now - they might actually cover more square miles than the housing developments do.

There are all sorts of reports of wild animals coming into town - with their native habitat's destroyed and fenced off they really don't have much choice. In the end it's a death sentence for them.

Talking to Tim, he said electric prices in San Diego are far worse than up here. They are paying billions to decommission a nuclear plant that was never turned on...

Wednesday 12 September 2018

Wednesday - Warm, but not too hot.

The big task was to clean the turtle tank.  It hasn't really been cleaned since I put it up in the spring.  I change the water regularly, but the gravel gets filthy after a while.  This took hours - I'm going to get an electric pump & hose for emptying next time, 80 gallons at 4 gallons/trip takes forever. Also it's dirty, smelly and gets all over the house.

Stumpy is pretty happy in the new clean tank, swimming around and rearranging the tank furniture, though not eating just yet.


Talked to Tim a bit. He says the job has been delayed, again.  Not starting until December sometime.


Worked on the app.  Apple's Core Data implementation is...complicated.

On page 822 of the second volume of Matt Neuburg's book IOS 7 book, (the first volume being 400 pages) he writes;

"It is important to stress that Core Data is not a beginner-level technology. It is difficult to use and extremely difficult to debug. It expresses itself in a highly verbose, rigid, arcane way."

He goes on like that for a bit.  He forgot to mention that it's also hard to stay awake when reading this stuff...


I put the trash out last night, so the garbage men didn't come until mid-day. They did take the green waste as well this time, so that's good.

Tuesday 11 September 2018
Tuesday - Warm.  But cool enough that at time during the day I had to turn off the air conditioner!

Fiddled around in the back yard a bit, taking down the temporary awning, laying out some old PT 4x4's for a flower bed along the house near the french doors.  They've warped from just sitting out in the sun.  I need two or three more, and some stakes, and a bunch of landscape gravel to do this project. It's easy and quick.

More important is the eaves, which need re-nailing here and there, sanding and priming and painting.  Then I can paint the house itself, before winter.


I was doing bills and discovered that Chase wants to charge me a $20 service fee, if I don't keep $15k in savings.  Actually they've already started, as of August. Wow. 

Time to drop them, just like I dropped Home Savings and Wells Fargo when they tried that stuff, and go back to my credit union.  Amazing greed.  They are paying 0.25% interest on the money in there, and loaning it out at credit card rates, say 20%.  An 80:1 ratio - but it's not enough, they want me to pay them to loan them my money.

The only real reason I had an account there is that they bought my old home loan at some point.

This kind of greed is almost Satanic, but I guess, as someone once said, corporations are "disproportionately psychopaths at the top".

Ah well.

The annoying part will be setting up the bill pay stuff set up on the new account.


I received another bill from SCE.  It was for about $50, which works out to 18.5 cents per kilowatt hour, for base tier.  Highway robbery. It will go higher as the fascists in Sacramento destroy the state's economy in the next few years.

Monday 10 September 2018
Monday -  Warm, but not crazy.

S came by about noon and picked up the dogs.  Feeding them less at night seems to have cured Angel's pooping issue, thank god.  S says she does that out of spite sometimes.

Talked a bit about the app.

Sunday 9 September 2018
Sunday - Nice.  Didn't do any shopping.  Did do some laundry.


I fed the dogs early last night, then let them out before I went to bed, but Angel still cr*pped in her kennel again. Cleaned stuff again.  No soft food for her tonight!

She also dug a huge hole, twice her body size, right next to the little patio.  I filled it in with dirt and gravel.  I wetted it down with a hose, and it took forever - apparently she was chasing an animal burrow.  She does that.

S&R are home from San Diego, and S will come by and pick up pets tomorrow.


I had ordered some hamburger with blue cheese from Albertson's, and donated that for a little BBQ get-together next door with the neighbor.  It tasted OK, not as good as I recall.  It is also, we discovered, extremely flammable on a outdoor grill...


Picture of the Week

Suzy's shadow
Breakfast time, with cats.

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