Yard sales with R&S in the morning, then lunch, then a nap, then some reading, then back over for movie night.
S
had seen the same problem with the spec as I did, and independently
came up with the same solution, so I think we can forge ahead now. On
Monday, when my hands will (in theory) feel better.
C
called to say that her Dad passed away in the hospital. There is no
good side to the passing of a parent, but at least it wasn't long or
painful, his body just shut down in his sleep.
Friday
6
February
2015
Friday
- Nice weather. Hints of rain, but no actual moisture, sadly.
I worked about a half day on the app, then had to stop, when my hands gave out...
Thursday 5 February 2015
Thursday
- Nice weather, really.
Busy on the app, or at least an interface for it. I made a couple to show S,
though they don't do much but look pretty. I did identify what might be
a problem with the spec, but also came up with a possible solution. S is busy, so it might be a couple days until we get together about it, but there's plenty to do.
Book #6 was The Dragon Society, by Lawrence Watt-Evans. This was the sequel to Book #5Dragon Weather,
and was pretty good. It was an interlibrary loan book, and I also have
the third in the trilogy. The plot thickens: the Dragon Society, of
which the protagonist is a member, is dedicated to the destruction of
dragons, but when the members learn that the dragon's destruction means
their own death most desert and many start siding with the dragons...
My heel still hurts a bit, so no walk today. My friend C's
dad is in the hospital, and she needed to leave the valley, so I
watched her dog Samantha until her husband came by and picked her up in
the late afternoon.
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Wednesday - Warm and mostly sunny.
I
did some grocery shopping in the morning, and picked up a free 55
gallon aquarium to transfer the turtle to. He's a bit cramped in his
current tank, and I want to move him to the living room where he can
hang out with the rest of us... I need to make a stand, and since I
have some scrap plywood I think I'll just do some cinder blocks for
supports. I'll paint them to give it a better look.
Worked
on the app until about 7pm. S called with some more ideas on the work
surface layout, so I'm going to make an abbreviated version with the
new version, so we don't go down the path taken before, where it took
several months to get to spec, but the spec itself was too hard for the
(notional) customers...
I spent a fair amount of time also
trying to make it 'stateless'. You know, that's actually more work and
code then creating a model to track the state, so I'm back to the old
way. I guess the previous design decision was correct, back in the day
(October of last year).
No comet observing - high clouds and a full moon mean it's impossible. Ah well.
I
was thinking of attaching the camera to the old Celestron via a
piggyback mount and using the drive to track the stars and get long
exposures.
There's a mount for a finder scope, but it appears
to have been glued on. I don't really think I trust glue from the
1980's with my good camera and lens.
There are some screws
around the finder end of the scope, and a couple are missing where
there was probably something once attached, and I could probably use
those. But then again, I don't have a mount and plate I really trust,
just some plastic stuff on tripods that's OK for loads in a terrestrial
(horizontal) mode. For a nearly vertical arrangement I think I'd prefer
metal. There is a design mount and plate design called the ARCA, that
would do, and I do have a metal lathe and mill in the garage...
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Tuesday
- Pretty tired. I worked on the app for a half day or so.
I
also tried to do my usual walk, but had to give up after a mile, as the
left heel was really aching. It's not that I mind the pain, but I don't
want to re-injure that Achilles tendon, which would put the kibosh on
the big hike.
While
picking up some books at the Quartz Hill Library the other day I
wandered over to the New Books section. I noticed there was a shelf
full of what seemed to be CD cases, with various topics on the sides.
Intrigued I took one down, and discovered that actually they were
placeholders for loaner Kindle Readers!
You
can check them out with your library card, no deposits or extra stuff
required, and they are pre-loaded with about 10 books on the subject in
question, and another 200 or so free books (i.e. out of copyright
stuff: Moby Dick, the Bible, etc). You can check them out for three
weeks, just like a book, and they come with a charger and packet of
documentation.
The ten book limit makes sense - at that point
the cost of the ebooks is equal to the cost of the hardware, so if you
lose or break the Kindle it causes the least impact.
This has Team of Rivals, which I've been meaning to read.
Monday 2 February 2015
Monday
- I did some chores around A's house in the morning.
I fiddled with the
upstairs TV, and got it to where it would stream again. I also played a
bit with a window type HD antenna for it, and was able to pick up a few
stations, but didn't have long enough cables to reach to the TV from
most.
I also untangled all the cables for a computer desk downstairs - about
twelve things were plugged into three separate extension cables, a fire
hazard if there ever was one. Once that was done, and we were down to
four cords, I turned the PC there on. It hadn't been turned on in a few
years and was running Windows XP in 256MB of ram. Actually in 271MB of
Ram - it was swapping to the disk not doing anything in userland at
all! A says she
has another,newer, PC upstairs and I'll see about getting it going next
time. We were out of time...
In the early afternoon we headed north for Lancaster, arriving about
5:15pm. The house looked good and the pets well taken care of. I was
pretty tired and went to bed about 9pm :-)
Sunday 1 February 2015
Sunday
- OTR, in San Diego.
More maintenance.
The big one for me was installing a new fluorescent light fixture in
the kitchen overhead. It was easy enough, though made a bit more
difficult by the fact the the old fixture was held in by molly bolts,
of which I had none. I used a couple of small screws to attach it to
the drywall, and will attach it properly next time I'm down, and
install two more replacement fixtures.
In theory one could just replace the ballast, but you don't save much
and it takes a lot longer.
Saturday we
had done shopping and installations.
We had taken the front off the washer to see where the leak was, and
then part of the back in search of the location. We'd hoped it was in
the plastic valve manifold or rubber hose, but it turned out to be
within the spinning drum assembly. An expert could probably still fix
it, but the unit was built in 1979,
and a new one was just $329 at the local Sears Outlet. So when we went
to lunch we picked a nice place, le Champagne, next to the Sears Outlet
and killed two birds with one stone.
Three birds,
because we did a bunch of shopping at Trader Joe's next door.
And, while we were there, we picked up the light fixture for the
kitchen from Home Depot. Four
birds.
On returning to the house we installed the new washer, tested it, then
started the first of many, many loads.
We also had to check out the dryer, as there was a report of a gas
leak. There was no sign of that, so it may just have been the exhaust
hose ajar. We made sure it was tightly inserted into the vent pipe, and
checked that there was a good flow to the outside.
S also vacuumed and steam cleaned the rugs (the family pet is
a bit incontinent), and did some loads of dishes.
The water at the kitchen faucet was just trickling, but we soaked the
fixture in vinegar overnight and it was restored to it's normal full flow
spray/stream state by morning.
In the early afternoon R and I went over to Tim's for the game. We had
a good time - great company - and I overate tremendously, and we all
watched a pretty good game. I don't think anyone there was a fan of
either team, per se, so we just enjoyed the play.
There was a randomized football bingo pool, and I, bizarrely enough, won a
football pool for the first time in my life. I spent my vast
winnings, $15, on girl scout cookies from Tim's daughter, to take
home...
R & T & I hung out for a few hours afterwards,
discussing Life, the Universe, and Everything. It's ten
years, almost to the day, since Tim and I were laid off at NASA Dryden.
Time flies...
Back in Scripps Ranch about midnight.
Picture of
the Week Photo Notes: An
overly saturated evening sky.
