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WEEK 45 2020
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
Saturday - Cool. Very windy, about 50mph, the trashcans blew over. Some rain on the ground here, and a bit of snow on the Tehachapi's to the north.
I did install Devuan on the old Mint box. This took a while.
Just making the install took a while, since it had to be USB (the system has no DVD drive):
I let it use the entire disk. I was going to back up the Mint stuff, but forgot, and there isn't anything particularly useful on it anyways. SSD's are much faster than the old spinning rust.
There is a big outstanding issue after the base install: the WiFi doesn't work. The USB adapter isn't seen, and it doesn't even show an activity light. There are some messages about missing the Realtek driver. Fiddled around with it for a bit: eerily reminiscent of the not-so-good-old-days of trying to configure DOS devices with IRQ's and such. I haven't had this particular adapter fail to be recognized in Linux for a decade.
Devuan prides itself on not installing non-free stuff by default, but since to a first approximation there aren't any free wifi drivers maybe they could cut their prospective users a break and at least include them on the install package and let the users decide.
Finally gave up, I'll try it again tomorrow.
But the basic system seems to work, though it is very turn-of-the-century in look and feel.
Friday - Warm. They are predicting cold weather and even rain overnight though.
I went into town and picked up some paving sand, some bricks, and...I forget, something else. Mortar, that's it.
All of it was unloaded, except the mortar, because my back was giving out by mid-day.
I did try the pellet stove, and it worked fine, except for a mystery rattle. Maybe I'll take it apart to clean it and make sure all the screws are tight.
Thursday - Pleasant weather.
Not much to say, just working on bills and indoor tasks.
Book #49 was Strike The Blood, Vol.16, The Mirage Paladin, by Gakuto Mikomo. What can I say, who can resist volume 16 in a light novel series.
Wednesday - Hot. Into the 90's.
As expected, suddenly, overnight, ten's of thousands of ballots - almost 100% for Biden, are being "found" overnight. Scum.
Anyway, time will tell.
I went out and put down some weed-block, sand, and the composite panels that are supposed to replace base, and did about 80SF of walkway. I never got to go into town and get better lumber, and there are some other things I'm not happy with but: "Winter is Coming".
Good enough for now. If I get to a patio in the back next year I'll be having concrete delivered, and I can redo it then.
I also added a couple more lights to the front wall. I need to make up a semi-permanent holder on top of the pillars for them. Probably just liquid nail some bricks together and mortar in the light posts. Just one more task.
Tuesday - Getting warm again.
Election Day. Trump should win, he has the enthusiastic base, but the amount of cheating and voter fraud in the "blue states" is so huge...
Anyway, I voted by mail, so whatever.
I essentially voted NO on almost every California Proposition. I voted YES to allow the gig economy to continue - it's actually kind of foolish to work that way, but the obvious goal of the unions to shut down competition for work is obnoxious beyond belief.
Aaron and I went into town and picked up propane and some groceries at Costco. Hard to believe it's been two months already...
On the way home I saw what appeared to be a Halloween dummy in the ditch near the airport, then appeared to be a body, as we passed it going home. I turned around and we checked it out - turns out it was just some homeless dude, who had passed out and apparently spent the entire night there. No-one else had stopped. We gave him some water and a ride to the nearby Highway 138, which is where he was headed. A sad case.
Trump was leading when I went to bed.
Monday - Warm, but OK.
I took a small walk in the morning - less than a mile, turning around when my hip began to ache a bit. Not gonna repeat last years' thing...
I'd forgotten to set back the clocks on the stove and coffee pot, and in the garage. Not a big deal.
I saw a post on the History Blog. An EID MAR gold coin, struck for Brutus, the assassin of Julius Cesear, as in "et tu, Brutus" in 46BC, sold for almost $5,000,000.
Wow. It was made after Brutus assassinated Julius Cesear and became the big boss, but then Marc Anthony defeated Brutus (& Cassius) and rounded almost all of them all up and melted them down.
I went out with the 5se and did a few hours of observing. This time the Celestron SkyAlign worked pretty well. It would almost bring the object into the FOV in a low power eyepiece, about 1.5 degrees off. I forgot to level it, so that might be the issue.
I wanted to see Uranus and Neptune, and it slewed to about where they should be, but I just didn't see them. They are small and faint, but the 5se should resolve them easily.
Note to self: Make sure the diagonal and eyepiece will clear the scope base during automated slewing!
Sunday - Pleasant. No wind.
No shopping in town, recovering from Halloween and digging exertions..
It is time to set the clocks back, we are off of Daylight Savings Time.
I no longer expect the cats to understand.
Generally just relaxing. Pretty stiff. Did a few chores
around the house.
