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WEEK 48 2016

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Saturday 26 November 2016

Saturday - Rain!

It started off sunny, then a front - as predicted - came in. We actually received some rain, though not a great deal. But it's nice to have rain and winds for a change. I missed the stuff earlier in week in the AV, when I was on the road.

The first few drops just after lunch, blowing sideways...

The leaves mostly blew off the tree in front, and away down the street, which means fewer for me to rake up!

In the evening I made a nice fire. Budd was interested in it, but not obsessed. More interested in the scents on the stacked firewood nearby, really.

One thing I did when I pulled out the old cassette player earlier in the week was to try to run it off some old (unused) batteries I had. These dated to about 2006/2007, and had an expiration date of MAR 2012. I thought 'maybe', but they were dead, dead, dead. Had they been stored in a cold place they might have still been good, but the garage where they'd been stored probably averages 90F in the summer and 33F in the winter, so after 10 years storage it just wasn't to be.

It also had a 110V cord, so I can just use the car inverter for now.

I've thought from time to time about building a super-insulated fridge, with, say, 12" insulated walls and door, to be run off of solar power to store things like batteries for the long term. If you can keep things at a low temperature the chemical rx are much delayed. But for many things you want to keep above freezing, so as not to get ice crystals forming. I'm not sure how to design the radiator though - the copper pipes are actually a 'thermal short' to the inside of the cooler when the cooling system is active. Some sort of ducting and lids to keep them from absorbing heat when the system isn't actually running I guess.

Friday 25 November 2016

Friday - Bright and sunny.

Black Friday. Not that I've gone out shopping on this day in years. And the feeling from friends and relatives is that they are tired of the greedy nonsense too. I wonder if we've hit "Peak Black Friday"?

I had a flare up of pain in the bad tooth, and that was unfortunate, but so it goes. Probably just some sort of mild infection at the surgery site. I'd felt some 'head ache' symptoms on Wednesday, but had hoped it was just holiday stress...

Of course the endodontist office was closed today....

Thursday 24 November 2016 Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving!

I went over to R&S's place, and had an enjoyable time.

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Wednesday - Not too much going on.

I created a spreadsheet for a recent audit, per the District's request, and sent it off to T.

It was a friend's belated birthday party, so that made for a nice evening, then home early and back to bed at a reasonable hour.

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Tuesday - OTR. I did some office work, looking at a District clients report, then did a cold call in person on a business that we'd been unable to contact, and found out when the best time for their audit would be (early in the am, they are a surgical practice).

Then, late morning, back to Lancaster, where despite my plan to 'get things done' I really just crashed, fighting to stay away until 8:30. I guess I'm not truly recovered from that long term infection.

I had let Budd roam free while I was gone. All the felines have all their eyes and ears, no visible wounds in fact, so that's good. There is still sporadic (and startling) outbursts of snarling and hissing though.

Monday 21 November 2016

Monday - OTR. The audit went pretty well. I met up with CB and we drove out to Westlake, and went through several large country club type buildings. The staff were polite and helpful, and we got it all done. Then we went back to the office and tabulated everything for the county, so that task is in the can.

It was late, and T wanted me to check on a couple of things, so I decided to stay the night.

Sunday 20 November 2016

Sunday - OTR, down to Ventura. Coolish and wet.

A bit of shopping in the morning. I'm going to a friends for Thanksgiving and offered to buy the food.

I also did some chores and deferred cleaning before leaving. It's amazing how much doesn't get done when you haven't been feeling well. And it's been a while, months even, since I felt "good".

I found an old Radioshack cassette player, and an AUX out cable compatible with it and the Explorer's radio input. I tried using a portable CD player first, but it skipped horribly. I have a lot of cassette tapes, so the plan is to use the player, and the car inverter, for books on tape stuff until I get around to having the radio replaced. I don't think it's been long since I bought it, maybe 5 years, so I'm a bit annoyed at the unnecessary expense that Kenwood's lack of commitment to build quality is going to cost me. Maybe I'll just go all MP3, and skip the hard media.

[update: checking my blog, the radio was replaced in December 2009. So the original Ford AM/FM/Cassette/CD lasted 11 years, and the replacement Kenwood AM/FM/CD/USB only 7 years.]

In any case it was a long and tiring commute down to Ventura in the pouring rain. I didn't dare listen to anything, being far too busy concentrating on the slick wet road and crazed drivers.

Picture of the Week

Marina Dawn.

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