Good Morning!!!! 72F @ 5:45AM. Sunshine and a few clouds. High 98F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Hope Coco's condition improves, Billy. Poor thing, it must be miserable.
Your quarantine sounds a lot like the time I spent evacuated, Drew, living in a friend's spare bedroom for a month. The air outside was so bad you couldn't breathe it, the stores and shops were packed with 10,000 new residents, so I mostly sat at a desk and read. And slept, a lot! Very depressing, even just thinking about it. But I'm preparing to be in your situation at some point in my life, there's almost no avoiding it. One thing I hope will help is a huge library of movies and TV shows stored on a file server, that I can play on a laptop, or if I'm real lucky, a big screen TV, listening with headphones. Would surely miss a few fingers of good Scotch or Bourbon once in a while, though; I bet that's not allowed, either. Are you permitted to interact with the other residents? If so, do they have activities you could use to make some new friends?
Looks like good progress, Eric. How difficult was it to get permits to do that kind of work?
Ohio, where I was raised, had State Stores, too, Billy. Always seemed to be some sour faced old person behind the counter, giving you looks like you were the scum of the earth for buying a six pack. Most grocery stores out here sell alcohol; it's just another isle like any other. And I can't remember the last time I got carded at the checkout. Maybe it's the white hair?:laughing:
Glad everything works like it should, RS. The microstructure of your weld on the spanner will be hard and brittle, but strong as all get out. Avoid shock/impulse loading; a cheater bar is your friend, and stay away from hammers. Better yet, shine it up to remove all the discoloration, then slowly heat it until you get a light straw color. Quench it in water, or better yet, used oil, and you'll temper it down so it won't be so brittle.
Happy the part you needed was available, Bruce. Hope the repair goes OK, too. You looking to buy Don's Peugeot?
Got the last of the open trenches filled yesterday before it got too hot, using the old tractor enough to make sure it's working OK. It'll stay parked now until I can get a little work done on it and get it moved on to a new owner.
Spent some time working on the whole house sprinkler system. Wasn't sure it would work, but I put all four zones onto one terminal of the controller, and it didn't seem to mind at all. That'll keep things simpler in an emergency. The I dug out an old transformer from a junk box and wired it in parallel with the controller. Plugged that in to a HomeKit enabled wall switch, and was able to turn the sprinklers on/off with the iPhone, or even by voice. And I can do that from anywhere I can get an internet connection. I already have video cameras showing views to the south and east, just need a couple more to complete the picture. Then I can be like the couple near Big Sur a couple years ago that waited until the last minute as a wildfire approached their home before turning on their sprinkler system, even though they weren't even there.
After that it was too hot to work in the garage, so I took a nap.:dance1:
Yesterday I turned off the grid connection first thing in the morning and left it that way all day. Even after I turned on the A/C. I learned that there's a heck of a dip in line voltage when the A/C comes on, no surprise there, but it's enough to upset some of the electronics. Checked outside after the nap, and the whole house sprinklers were on.
So I might need to rig a UPS for that outlet, or figure out some way of improving the solar power system or damping out the starting impulse from the A/C. The solar controller was reporting 7.5 kW being output by the panels, pretty much all they've got. The fans on the inverters and charge controllers sure got a workout; it sounded like someone was flying a drone in there. And the garage smelled of hot insulation and curing paint.
Bodyshop neighbor wants some help setting his new generator today, and he's also having trouble getting the bulldozer neighbor to dig a trench for him with the monster he used at my place. So I'll be over there this morning before it gets too warm to help him, maybe even dig that trench, too.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
