Good Morning!!!! 46F @ 7:45AM. Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 53F. Winds light and variable.
Picked up another half inch of gentle rain yesterday afternoon and evening. Not much, but every bit helps.
I upgraded the main stereo receiver in the great room last February, BF. Needed more HDMI inputs, and wanted the receiver to switch video as well as audio. I was also looking for one with a phono input, as well as more power per channel. Ended up with a Yamaha AVENTAGERX-A760BL from B&H Photo. 125W/channel vs. 70 for the Denon it replaced. It's 7.1, and comes with a microphone that will automatically balance the speakers for a particular listening location, a feature I viewed as a gimmick but that actually worked quite well. That particular model had a good balance of features, power, and price, and got good reviews on the sites I checked. B&H has been a very good source of electronics and computers for me, almost always beating on the price point and shipping quickly. And when something isn't right, they fix it promptly with no excuses, unlike many other East Coast stores. Best of all, I can really hear the improvement in sound clarity. I'm hearing things in music and movie soundtracks I never did before, a benefit I didn't anticipate. Still using my old Advent Loudspeakers that got new foam for the speaker surrounds a few years ago. Picked up several additional pairs very inexpensively on Craig's List, then got re-foam kits to do them all.
Did you worry about sparking a fire while you were cutting the landing strip, Don? That brush looked very dry. Something I've always wondered about, once a field like that is cut, is it any safer from a fire standpoint seeing as how all the cuttings are still on the ground? I'm wondering if I should invest in a large lawn vacuum of some sort to cut the fuel load on the property here.
I can remember cars flying by me on snow and ice encrusted roads, only to see them spinning out of control into the ditch not much further on. One time it was just as I was leaving an airport in Chicago, late at night after a tiring and delayed flight. Woke me right up, and was a great warning to be extra careful on the way to the hotel. I made a point of flying through Dallas or Atlanta in the winter when I had to make a connection, and tried to put off trips to the northern tier of states until spring.
I've been called for jury duty many times, but for some reason always end up being excused during the interview. Seems like the attorneys aren't comfortable with someone that thinks for themselves and believes strongly in capital punishment.:laughing:
jerrybob, WalMart batteries get pretty consistent high ratings when Consumer Reports tests them, and I've had good luck with their starting and deep cycle batteries here. Ford/Delco batteries are also highly regarded, but the last pair I put in the F250 didn't make it through the warranty period, and the new set doesn't seem to be as strong, so next time around it'll be a pair of WalMart batteries in the truck, too.
Lots of new faces around the Good Morning!!!! campfire these last few weeks; the more the merrier! :welcome:
When I first moved in here, Drew, the propane tank was dry, and since it was rented, I had to call around to find out the company it belonged to. Turns out they were the only ones that would come out right away and put some fuel in it, even though it was only a pair of 10 gallon bottles worth. They aren't the least expensive, but they've always been very responsive when something needed service or I needed propane. They also sold and installed the woodstove here, but I had to laugh when they called last year to ask why I wasn't buying as much propane. :laughing: Drew, it would probably be a good idea to call around and check with your neighbors on a new supplier before you give walking papers to your old one.
BTW, Buckey, that woodstove replaced a gas fireplace appliance that didn't put out any heat, and didn't look all that great, either. You made a good choice with that heat pump, one I'll be looking into once I get to old to cut my own firewood.
Once again, RS, slow down, yer makin' the rest of us look bad. Again!:laughing:
I've got a bit of a swale that gets very muddy when we get a lot of rain, Eric. The Kubota side-by-side needs 4WD to get through it, ends up sliding sideways and leaving big, ugly tracks in its wake. I'm not sure there's any vehicle besides a hovercraft that wouldn't tear up the ground, and for some reason I never see hovercraft trying to negotiate side hills:laughing:
Still feeling a little under the weather, but was curious with the new Apple High Sierra OS had to offer. Decided to upgrade a laptop I only use for web browsing and email yesterday, and in spite of all the warnings, the upgrade went fairly smoothly. All of my old applications, including Adobe Photoshop CS4, still work, and I'm not experiencing any of the slowdowns or quirks others have reported. Surprisingly, network performance seems a bit better, even on HughesNet's own speed test. The Photos application also allows editing with an external application, another nice bonus. If it continues to behave itself, I'll upgrade the other two laptops in a week or so. This latest Intel chip security vulnerability is already patched in the new version of the OS, and Apple hasn't released a patch for the old one, or mentioned that they will.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
