Good Morning!!!! 51F @ 5:30AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 77F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
No measurable rain in the last 24 hours, but I did see raindrops on the patio concrete yesterday morning early when I peaked out. Today's high will be 15F higher than yesterday, and tomorrow will reach into the low 80s. Then dropping back down into the mid to low 70s for the rest of the period, and again no rain in sight.
In the real estate markets I'm watching, Ted, there are far more million dollar plus homes coming on the market than there are priced less than that. Maybe today's 1200-1400 sq. ft. home can no longer be considered a "starter" home because they're selling in the $500K to $800K range. I'm keeping my eye still on Oregon, and in Santa Barbara County and Placer County here in California. I was going to start looking into Arizona, but that seems like it wouldn't offer any improvement with regard to the wildfire problem. Perhaps Utah could work, but haven't done much homework there yet.
The biggest issue I have with the solar power system, Kyle, is the brown outs that happen when things like the air conditioner compressor start. I've had to replace the power supplies in two laptop computers so far, several LED "bulbs", and even the UPS units that were supposed to protect the more sensitive electronics no longer seem to be doing so. The makers of the main system components tell me the system shouldn't be doing that, and have offered some suggestions that might help. But there are a raft of other issues, too, some just annoyances, others involving warranty periods and battery life. They've all been on the table and unresolved for several years now, so in a way it's good this case is underway and there will be some kind of closure in a couple of months.
When I looked for Merrill's mid height waterproof Moab boot, I couldn't find any of my size in stock, even from the multiple sellers on Amazon. So I'm going to try some from a maker called
La Sportiva that are well rated and are available in wide sizes. We'll see. The folks at the store I'm dealing with have been very accommodating, covering shipping back and forth and providing the mailing labels. If this go round doesn't work out, maybe the Merrill's will be available again by then. Thanks for the Ecco Trak info, Buppies. Looks like we wear pretty close to the same size.
Found a site to download more of the Factory Service Manual for the Subaru engine that was used in the van conversion, and made some measurements on the connector going to the Engine Management Unit that seem to indicate it's not properly wired. While doing that, the van went into the fail-to-start mode again, and this time I was able to confirm that the injectors are definitely not firing when it happens. In the middle of the next test, the engine started running again, so the intermittent nature of the problem is once again making things difficult.
Got a phone call back from the court clerk late in the day, and she was very helpful and informative. There's a small chance I can get the case dismissed if I file a Declaration that points out the case was brought in the wrong county, but unless the judge reads it before the hearing, I'll still have to drive the three hours to attend.
Noticed that the side-by-side was almost out of fuel, so filled it up, and as long as the pump was out, brought the tractor up to fill it up, too. When I was done, it started a regeneration cycle on the way back to where I keep it parked, so I took it for a loop of the new road to check out the water damage along the way. The lower part had sections that saw some erosion, and others where rocks and dirt had been washed down on them, but nothing that can't be touched up with the FEL. That wasn't enough to let the regeneration finish, so I moved a couple more trees over to the burn pile and that's all it took. It'll be too windy to burn today, but the breeze will feel good while I'm working the chainsaw.
Hope everyone enjoys the weekend!
