Good Morning!!!! 47F @ 4:15AM. Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 59F. Winds light and variable.
It was nice to see the winds finally calm yesterday afternoon after several days of blowing. Looks like a monster storm headed east; hope you all are careful dealing with the rain/snow.
Sorry to hear that the shipping mystery has made its way to you. So far, the generator has passed through Portland, Medford, came back to Chico and kept right on going to Sacramento. I wonder if the box will be plastered with travel stickers by the time it gets here?:confused3: Makes me wonder how in the world FedEx can show a profit operating like this, and I worry that all those miles will damage the generator before it even makes it here.
Don, I have two Apple laptops from 2011 that are no longer being supported, including the one I'm using to write this note. The other one has a hardware issue that Apple recalled, but Apple never notified me about it and now the recall is somehow expired, so I'd be stuck paying for the repair to continue to use the machine. That's a hard way to sell more computers...
Looks like some good progress there, David! Very interested in how it turns out, and am enjoying the progress photos.:thumbsup:
Keep up the bird shots, Ron. Funny how fast those little critters can swap ends so quickly on you!:laughing::thumbsup:
Good to hear you're feeling better, Drew, and I hope all goes well with the awning repair.
Looking forward to the next garage build video, Ted.
Spent the morning burnin' up the phone lines yesterday. Got a call early from the steel supplier, appoligizing for the mix up, but the only solution they could offer was to send the wrong material they purchased out for galvanizing, at my expense. The civil engineer that consulted on the array design came up with a different steel, and I've gotten in touch with a different supplier to see what they can come up with.
Heard back from AT&T again, and from the technical side at least, they admit that the radio links in the copper land line infrastructure will fail during extended power outages, and they have no plans in place to mitigate that problem. Pretty much what I figured would happen. And the case manager called to say she's done all she can, and considers the case closed. I guess it's OK with them if people have no way to get emergency information or call for help during Public Safety Power Shutoffs.
A gal at FedEx admitted they mistakenly sent the generator to Seattle, but couldn't explain why. She promised to call first thing this morning with a delivery time, but as I mentioned, now it's down in Sacramento, having already passed through Chico again on its way south.:shocked:
Got ahold of the propane guy, who now says the 1000 gallon tank will be in next week. I told him I need the old tank out of the way by the weekend so we can trench, and he's supposed to get back to me today on a date to pump it dry and take it away. I'll be on 5 gallon picnic bottles until the new lines and bottle are in, but I don't use much propane since I started heating with wood.
Closed the deal on the new safe, and have paint chips on the way to double check on the color. Eight to ten week delivery time, but at least I know he'll deliver it if we can't find a shipper. I'm thinkin' FedEx wouldn't be my first choice, OnTrack my second, or SAIA the third. :confused2:
Instead of fooling with string yesterday afternoon, I put the bucket back on the tractor and got a start cutting a terrace for the generator pad. Got down into some really hard clay, and it looks like I'll need to put the backhoe back on to finish. Played around with the box blade to see how it would do, but it was pretty slow going and it would skip over any rocks it came across, and there are a lot of 'em. But I was able to place the cut so only straight trenches will be needed between the propane tank and generator, and from the garage to the generator.
Finished up with a nice sunset and a couple fingers of moonshine on the back porch. Purely analgesic, of course!:laughing:
Not sure what the day will bring; it's an opportunity rich environment.
And Happy Hump Day!
