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WEEK 44 2020
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
Saturday -Pleasant weather, bordering on too warm.
I went out in the morning and did some scraping and digging where the new pathway will be. I haven't done anything on it since early October.
It took several hours, and my hands and back hurt a bit afterwards. All sorts of debris there - knifes, forks, spoons, bolts, nuts, screws, angle iron, steel box channel, copper wire, aluminum wire, grounding straps, glass, nails, and bits of plastic housing.
The 4x4 I was going to use as a border has warped, so I'll have to get another. Maybe I'll just use 2x6's or 2x8s.
In the early evening I picked up a friend, T, and we went over to Roger's place for Halloween. He had a spectacular display, as usual. Apparently a child had mentioned last year that he had not changed things much, so this year was 90% new things...
There were a number of kids, probably close to 100. We didn't start counting because we didn't expect more than a dozen or so to start!
I called it a night at 9pm because I had to bring T home. By that time it was mostly teen-agers anyway.
Friday - Pleasant weather again.
I went out and fiddled with the lights on top of the driveway pillars, using some cardboard to just see how they looked. They are OK, but a bit dim. I think they only have a single LED in them, which makes for long lasting but relatively dim light.
Anyway, it isn't permanent, and I need to get some mortar/concrete suitable for casting, and other stuff to do that. Again, if I put in a 'real' wall someday this is all going away.
Raspberry Pi's arrived in the late afternoon.
A project for next week I guess.
Thursday - Pleasant weather.
Not doing too much outside, after three days of work.
S asked if I could build her a Pi-Hole, so after a bit of research I ordered a couple of Raspberry Pi kits, from Canakit, as they include pretty much everything you need to get started. The v.3's are overkill for this application, but there isn't a lot of difference between them and the V.2 in price, and the newer V.4 need fans or giant heatsinks, so the V.3 B+ kits seem to be the sweet spot right now.
Should arrive in a day or two.
Wednesday - Warm, verging on hot, perhaps 85-90 out.
I removed the rest of the SunTex screening on the east side, and washed the outside of the windows they'd been covering. That took until after lunch.
Then office stuff.
I did get out for an hour or two in the evening, and tried out the Orion Zoom lens. It works pretty well, much better than the cr*p that I tried in the 1980's.
Tuesday - Warm again.
In theory it was freezing last night, but not really: the tomato plants are just fine, despite no protection.
I went out and removed the SunTex screens on the west side of the house, cleaned the windows there, removed the small a/c unit in the west bedroom. Even with the Gila film still present it is seems blindingly bright in there.
It was nice, all day, and now they are saying daytime temps in the low 80's for the next week or so, and no freezing.
Monday - Warm, but OK.
Windy. I took the opportunity in the morning to go on the roof and drain the swamp cooler, and turned off the feed to it. I also blocked the ducts inside with styrofoam panels, but, just like last year, I can't find the actual canvas cover to go over the unit on the roof. I recall seeing it at some point this summer, probably out in the container, but don't really recall exactly where.
It is much quieter during a wind storm with
the ducts blocked.
I cleaned the pellet stove, and brought in a couple of bags from the container, and in late evening fired it up. Everything seems to work fine, and I let it run overnight. The temperature was dropping like a stone when I went to bed, but the house stayed very toasty all night with it running on low.
Sunday - Pleasant. Some winds
Just a normal amount of shopping in town, S and I picked up the usual at the usual spots.
I was tired, but did some of the usual weekend chores.
Book #48 was Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol.3), by Ian W. Toll. Even though the period it covered was shorter than the earlier volumes, barely a year, a lot happened in that year and it's a thick book. The Battle of the Leyte Gulf, reconquest of the Philippines, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Roosevelt's death and the atomic bomb.
Well written, I think. Recommended.
A nice half moon out.
