Day 2317

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while before getting up for pets stuff and breakfast.  I surfed for a short while after breakfast.  Then I went outside to work.

I got out the weed killer I bought yesterday and spread it around on the areas where the weeds grew last year.  I covered the area around the front lawn border, the area by where the Ranger trailer is parked, and several areas in the driveway.  I used all of the 5 lbs in the container, filled it with Casoron, and used that too.  That should make weeding much easier when we get back.

After that I went back inside and asked Ellen if she wanted to look at the bracelet she saw on the web.  She said she did, so we left for the Domain.  We got there just after they opened.  Ellen liked the bracelet in person, so we bought it.  Then we walked down to the main area of the Domain.  We ate lunch at the French place I usually get coffee at.  It was expensive - $50 for two sandwiches, coffee, and bottled water.

After that we went around looking for places we might want to shop in.  We stopped at Swarovski and bought necklaces for the nieces.  I got a baby Yoda.  We stopped at a Tommy Bahama furniture store, but didn't buy anything.  We also went to a kitchen store and bought a couple of small items.  It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot.

We stopped at Lowe's on the way back.  I bought the wood and screws I need to finish working on the back shed.  Then we went home.

I was tired when we got home, so was Ellen.  We just surfed for awhile.  I bought a lighted display case on Amazon for the baby Yoda.  I was going to buy the Power Wagon body, but the delivery is too long.  It will have to wait until we are in Oregon.  That really drove home how short the time is before we leave.

Ellen went to the club at 3:30.  I'd recovered, so I went outside to work.  I hooked up the water to the trailer.  Thankfully no leaks seem to have developed over the winter.  I also cut all the boards for the shed repair.  I also installed all of the screws.  The next step is for Ellen to paint them.  I'm not going to install them until my back feels better.  It really hurts a lot at night, especially when I turn over.

After all of that I went back inside.  I fixed dinner (HEB Chinese food) and then did some surfing.  I continued that after Ellen came home.  She started watching chick flicks.  I sat in the chair and surfed because my back wouldn't let me sit in the kitchen chair anymore.

The grass hasn't grown enough for me to need to mow it.  That means that there isn't much for me to do for about a week before I start doing the hard core moving into the trailer.

Day 2316

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for breakfast.  I didn't need to do pet stuff because Ellen got up much earlier, fed them, and then went back to bed.  After breakfast I did a little surfing and then went outside.

My intention was to put the gifts away in the trailer and then test its water system to make sure it wasn't damaged in the winter.  I didn't get that far.  As soon as I got inside I realized that I hadn't sorted out my clothes.  I thought I had last fall, but I had just done a little bit.

I ended up going through my pants, shorts, cold weather clothes, jackets, and t-shirts.  It took a long time.  When I was finished I had a small pile of stuff for Goodwill and a much bigger pile of unnecessary clothes to take to the house.  I also had a lot more closet and drawer space.

Along the way I fixed one of my closet shelve that had a broken support.  I also hung up a little ceramic of an armadillo that we'd bought.

While I was doing that Ellen was in the garage doing some more painting on the TRX-4 body.  The second attempt looks much nicer than the first one.

The next stop was to sort out the gifts we'd bought.  There was a big pile for John and Patty and a smaller one for Hooch and Martha.  I put all of the ones for John and Patty in a plastic bin.  The other presents went in the bottom of the closet.

By then it was after 1:30.  The trailer was getting hot and CVS had texted about some drugs.  I wanted to sit outside somewhere for lunch.  We left.  The first stop was Lowe's and Home Depot for weed killer.  Then the post office, and finally the Italian place.  It was nice sitting outside eating.  We didn't get home until after 4.  That was too late to work on the water system and it was too windy to do the weed killer.

I surfed and Ellen started doing the taxes.  Bob called a couple of days ago to say he couldn't do our taxes.  Ellen is trying to do them on Turbo-tax.  It wasn't long before she was swearing.  Eventaully she switched to a chick flick.

I continued to surf for a while and then went to watch Dr. Pimple Popper with Ellen.  There was no dinner, just some snacks.

Day 2315

 I woke up at 8 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast - no games.  My back still hurts a lot - too much to do anything significant.

Last night I found an old Amazon gift card, a present from one of the nephews.  It's at least 2 years old.  I logged on and got it attached to our account.  I did a little shopping, but didn't order anything.  I did start looking on the web for some paint schemes for the Power Wagon.  There are some nice ones.

We needed some stuff, so it was errand time.  Also I just wanted to get out of the house.  We stopped at Costco for water and pistachios.  Buying the pistachios is the first action for getting ready to leave.  We stopped for gas and at the post office.  The last stop was HEB.  We bought bread and a bunch of stuff that will make for several lunches and dinners.

When we got home I just didn't want to do anything.  I had some kolaches from HEB for lunch and then surfed.  Ellen left for the club and I didn't even notice.  I got bored and turned on the TV.  I ate a salad and found a movie a liked and watched it.

When Ellen came home I paused the movie and we made the bed.  The cats don't seem to be as enthusiastic about playing under the sheet as they used to be.  I went back and finished the movie.  I started another, but got bored with it.  It was completely predictable.

About 8 I turned off the movie and went back to surfing.

Day 2314

 I woke up a little before 8, played some games, and then got up for breakfast (Ellen did pet stuff).  My back is still killing me, but it's not as bad as yesterday.  I'm still not going to do anything strenuous.  

Ellen had to go to the doctor today.  I saw no reason to sit in the parking lot.  I got out the Ryft instead and installed the lights.  That was mainly a lot of soldering.  They work and look really good.  The only thing left to do is glue the tires.  I just couldn't bring myself to do that, I don't know why.

Ellen had done some work on the TRX-4 body before going to the doctor.  When she got back she painted it.  It will be interesting to see how it comes out.

I did a little surfing and then checked Amazon.  All of the stuff I ordered was sitting at the gate and it wasn't even noon.  I went out to get it.

I couldn't resist.  I immediately started to install the parts on the Power Wagon.  I changed out the servo saver.  No the steering is straight without having to max out the offset setting on the transmitter.  Then I took the fenders outside to install them.  I knew I'd need the Dremel.

There were 6 pieces to the kit.  They all gave me trouble.  I had to take the battery tray out to install the rear fenders.  That was the easiest.  The front fenders needed a lot of cutting with the Dremel.  To make it worse, the cutting needed to be different on either side.  I even had to drill some mounting holes.  The final two pieces fit after torquing them into place.  I wasn't done until after 5:30.

Ellen fixed a great dinner - pork chops, salad, mashed potatoes, and corn bread.  It was really good.

After dinner I put the wheels on the Power Wagon.  It's now complete except for the body.  Then I put everything away.

I surfed for awhile, but I got bored.  Also sitting in the kitchen chair hurts my back.  I moved to the recliner and watched TV with Ellen for the rest of the evening.  At least she wasn't watching chick flicks.

Day 2313

 I woke up at 5 because my eye was dry.  Getting to the bathroom was very painful.  I had to hold onto something every step.  Putting my weight on my left foot damn near killed me.  I guess it's the definition of getting old.

I went back to bed and slept until 7.  Then it was some game playing and getting up.  My back was killing me.  I could barely walk, but I least I didn't have to hold onto things.  I hurt so bad I didn't eat breakfast, but I did do the pet stuff.

After breakfast I started looking at how I'd do the lighting for the Ryft.  I spent quite awhile on Amazon looking for things to make into LED mounts for the Green LEDs.  I didn't find anything.  Sometime during the search I came up with the idea of using servo horns.  I got out my stash and found some that would work - with extensive modification.  I also figured out how to mount the light bar, again with some modification.

I figured I could sit on the garage chair as well as the kitchen chair (actually the one in the garage is more comfortable).  I took the parts I needed and the Ryft out to the garage.

I made the LED mounts by trimming the extra horns off a couple of servo horns and then bolting them together.  I drilled out the center holes to fit a 5mm LED.  Then I sandwiched the LED in the hole.  I made two.  I think that they will work great.

I had to modify the light bar mounts.  I broke them in half, drilled out the holes, and ground them down a little.  I also had to do a little grinding on the light bar case.  I drilled two holes in the Ryft batter case to mount the bar.  The result looks good.

I took everything into the house.  That's when I discovered that I needed standoffs to mount the light bar.  That included another trip to the garage to drill out the holes in the Ryft and the mounts.  Then I installed the light.  I called a halt there.  I'll wire up the LEDs and attach them another time.

Ellen spent a lot of the day working on repainting the TRX-4 body.  She redid the masking and put some decal matching on it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon surfing.  Dinner was leftover pizza.  After dinner I looked at Youtube videos on the TV.  I also figured out how to surf on the TV.  I'm not sure how much of that I'll do.  The browser is a little clunky.

Day 2312

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Ellen texted the Audi dealer.  They said the car was ready, so we left to pick it up.

We stopped at Lowe's on the way to pick up lumber to repair the walls of the back storage shed.  It only took a few minutes to pick up the car.  I drove the truck home, Ellen went to Hobby Lobby and HEB.

When I got home I discovered that I'd need to put the boards on the outside of the building.  I called Ellen and had her stop and get green paint and some longer screws.  Then I started cutting the lumber.  When I was finished I went inside to work on the Power Wagon.  I knew Ellen would be a while.

I installed the electronics in the Power Wagon Chassis.  I also installed the body mounts.  They took some work.  The front ones required replacing the screws on the shock mounts and grinding down the spacers.  The back ones required tapping the mounting posts.  I also programmed the ESC and adjusted the steering servo parameters.  I'm going to have to get another servo saver to get it completely right.

Ellen got home while I was working.  I went outside and set things up so she could paint.  Then I went back inside, finished up the Power Wagon work, and had lunch.  I was just getting done with that when Ellen came in to have me do more set up.  I did that and then surfed until she was finished paining.  I continued to surf for a while until the paint was dry.  It was a hot day, high 80's, and the boards were in the sun.  It didn't take them long to dry.

Eventually I went out and screwed screws into the boards.  Then I took them out to the storage building and attached them to the building.  It was hot, but it only took me about half an hour.  I was very hot and sweaty by the time I was done.  I put everything away and went back inside for a shower.

After the shower I shopped for the final pieces I need for the Power Wagon.  I ordered everything except the body.  I am in a lot of pain.  Somewhere in the board attaching process I hurt my back.  I could hardly stand, even sitting in the recliner hurt.  I eventually took some Tylenol, which at least dulled the pain.

I had pizza for dinner.  When Ellen was finished watching a chick flick we both watched a Minions movie and some YouTube videos.

Day 2311

 I woke up at 8, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When breakfast was finished I got out the stuff and started doing RC work.

I began by putting the second winch servo back together.  It took a while to get the excess glue removed from the potentiometer shaft.  When I was finished I didn't bother to test it.  I don't care if it works or not.

After that I started work on the Ryft.  I put the body on the frame.  After that it was just a few minor things, but they all seemed to fight me.  I had to take part of the frame apart and take the parts to the garage to get the back shocks mounted.  The very last screw, attaching a wheel hex nut, must have taken 20 minutes because it wouldn't align.  

The Chinese struck, too.  The ESC instructions showed a wire that was to be connected to the "supplied capacitor pack".  I spent quite some time for looking for such pack.  No luck.  I went on line to try to order a replacement.  While looking for the part I found out that the instructions are bullshit.  There is no capacitor pack.  The wire needs to be connected to the motor.

Finally the Ryft's done though except for gluing the tires and installing the wheels.  I will have installing the lights to do.

While I was doing that Ellen was in the garage.  She finished painting the Ryft wheels.  She also pretty much finished stripping the paint from the TRX-4 body.  We finished about the same time.  I had one final task.  I went to the back shed and found the hardware I'd been missing.  I noticed that I'll have to do some work on the shed walls before we leave.

Ellen and I both surfed for an hour or more.  We were waiting for Jester King to open at 2.  It was 85 degrees and too nice a day to waste.  Eventually we left and got there a little after 2.  We got some drinks.  That's when we discovered that they weren't doing food until 3.  We finally got our food after 3.  We were both hungry.  We stayed there until after almost 5.  It was nice sitting outside n the warm breeze.

On the way home I had a craving for ice cream.  We stopped in Belterra for some.  We ddin't get home until 5:30.  The cats were not amused.

I surfed while Ellen watched chick flicks.  Eventually I started to feel ambitious.  I got out the soldering iron and put connectors on the motor leads of the Power Wagon ESC.  It was just one more little thing done.  After that it was more surfing and some TV before bed.

Day 2310

 I woke up about 7:45 and played games for a few minutes before getting up at 8.  Then it was pets stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I started to get all of the stuff together to shoot.  Fortunately it didn't take that long.  Then we left for the Audi dealership.

Traffic was OK on the way and we got there a little early.  We dropped off the car and went to Capitol City.  It actually is pretty nice to drive to with the new road.  I just haven't got all of the turns down yet.  It was a little cold when we got there, low 60's, but a sweatshirt was enough to keep warm.

We rented a cart and loaded it up.  It was so nice to shoot without a bunch of crap floating in my eyes.  I actually shot pretty well, especially considering how long it's been since I shot.  I do have some trouble with crossers where my eyes have to shift control.  The first eye to see the target doesn't let the second eye take over.  I'm going to have to work on that.  I used the new 20 ga.  It shoots like a dream.

We shot about 150 rounds a piece.  Our card had 3200 birds on it.  When we were finished we bought 8 boxes of 12 ga, all they would sell us.  I'd never seen them before, made by Nobel.

We stopped at the hamburger place in Sunset Valley for lunch because I had a hamburger craving.  I also stopped at Home Depot to pick up some connectors I forgot to pick up yesterday.  After a stop at the post office the last stop was a gas station.  I put 30 gallons of diesel in the truck.  It cost almost $150.  FUCK BIDEN FUCK BIDEN, and especially FUCK BIDEN.

When we got home I put everything away.  Then I ran a pull through through the 20 ga.'s barrels and coated it with Seal.  It's going to be hard to shoot the 12 ga. in preference to the 20.  I also painted the other side of the Ryft wheels silver.  They'll be ready for Ellen to paint tomorrow.

That was it for accomplishing anything today.  The rest of the afternoon was videos.  After dinner (a sandwich) it was TV.

Day 2309

 I woke up at 8 and got out of bed about 8:30.  Then it was pert stuff and breakfast followed by a little surfing.  I checked the email from Grand Design about the recall.  It basically said "have it fixed by a dealer".  That's not an option.

Ellen found a description of the fix on the web.  I involves removing the refrigerator.  It said you could see if the fix was necessary by removing the top vent.  Unfortunately our trailer has a panel that blocks the view.  Crap.  I contacted a couple of mobile fixit places.  One called back to say they couldn't do the job, but warned me that there were a lot of shady people in the business.  The other didn't call back.  Ellen is going to look for more with good reviews.

This is a free day with good weather.  I could have done anything, but I was just totally unmotivated.  I really wanted to do NOTHING.  At my request Ellen went out to prep the TRX-4 body for repaint.  She worked for hours on it.  I surfed.

I actually did a couple of minor things.  I took out the garbage and recycle and cleaned off the leaves on the porch and deck.  I also put away all of the hardware from the old bike rack.  That was it.  Ellen quit work on the body at lunch time.  I don't blame her.

After some more surfing we left for a couple of errands.  We stopped at Lowe's for paint for the Ryft's wheels.  We then went to the pet store for Cooper's treats.  The final stops were the post office and NAPA for more brake cleaner (paint remover).  I had to wait for half an hour at the post office for a package.

When we got home I put a light coat of paint on the Ryft wheels.  Then it was surfing until dinner.  Ellen fixed steaks on the Traeger.  After dinner it was a little surfing, some reading, and TV.  I was very disappointed with the detail part (radiators) that came for the Ryft.  They were supposed to be 1/10 scale, but they are 1/8.  That makes them too big and I don't see any way to adapt them.

Day 2308

 I woke up a little before 8 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I surfed for about half an hour and then we left for the eye doctor.  Traffic was strange.  It was almost stop and go from Barton Springs until the river.  That's the first time I've seen it that way at 9:30 in the morning.

We still got to the doctor a little early.  The waiting room was really busy, but I got in after a short wait.  They did the usual measurements.  I had them keep going on the eye check.  I see 20/15 in both eyes.  Then I saw the doctor.  He pronounced me in great shape.  He also said that the sparkles I see in the edge of my right eye vision are because he used a laser to go around the retina to prevent tears.  He did it to the left eye, too.  Cool.  Finally he said I'm good to shoot.  The whole thing couldn't have go better.  Furthermore, I was out in 40 minutes.  Usually it takes at least that long to get my eyes dilated.

From there we went to the Domain.  The jewelry store didn't open until 11, so we just walked around.  The enchilada I ate last night gave me grief all day.  I was continually looking for a restroom.   When we got back to the jewelry store I decided on the middle size bracelet.  It has a cool design.  After we bought it we spent a couple more hours walking around.  It was nice, 65 degrees and sunny.  We finished up by having Ramen for lunch.  It was really good.

It was so nice to have something on my wrist again.  The new bracelet is not quite as heavy as the old, but it fits a little better.  The jeweler I asked to make me a bracelet called with an estimate.  It was only $1,000 more than the one I bought.  If he'd called earlier I would have said yes.  I called back later and told them I'd have the work done in the Fall.  There's only 4 weeks until we leave.

We stopped at the post office and HEB on the way home.  Between the post office and the mailbox there were three packages of RC stuff.  When we got home I finished work on another servo for the winch.  It took a lot of fine tuning, but it works.  That project is done.  I looked at the failing servo.  It turns out I could have fixed it by gluing the potentiometer post.  Oh well. 

Ellen fixed chicken tenders for dinner.  After dinner I installed the floor plates on the power wagon.  I would have installed the fenders, but they didn't fit.  More wasted money.  I need to get bullet connectors for the ESC before I can install the electronics.  After I buy wheels and tires all I need to do is the body.

The rest of the evening was surfing.  Ellen watched chick flicks and competitive cooking.

Day 2307

 I woke up about 8 and played games for awhile before getting up for pet stuff and breakfast.  The weather service was warning that there would be a big thunderstorm in the afternoon or evening.  Two inch hail was predicted, so we put the car in the garage.

The weather turned out to be a big nothing burger.  There was a lot of wind at time, a lot of thunder, and a total of .6 inches of rain fell.  In other words nothing special except for the tornado alerts over the weather radio.  We still have one until 1:00 AM, but the radar shows everything has moved north.

After breakfast I decided to finish taking apart the old bike rack.  I finished the job and brought a box of hardware and a load of larger parts back to the garage.  I put every thing except the hardware away.  Then I quit because it was starting to rain.

I emailed Grant about what will be necessary to drain the IRA I inherited from Mom.  That got both Ellen and I working on estimating this year's taxes and our net worth.  We managed to come up with numbers for both, but it took a lot of effort.  The bottom line for Grant is wait until we know about this year's taxes. 

I also got really annoyed with the Audi service.  I made an appointment 6 weeks ago for an oil change and to fix a recall.  The appointment is for Thursday.  Today they texted to tell me that they would need to keep the car for a week or more.  The alternative was to wait until July.  I asked about the oil change.  They said to bring it in and they would get it back to me "in a couple of days".  I almost cancelled.

I did a little work on the Ryft.  I probably could have finished it, but I just wasn't motivated.  I think the failure of the winch effort caused the lack of desire to work on anything.  Instead I spent most of the day surfing and watching videos.  Ellen spent most of the day and evening watching chick flicks.

Dinner was a frozen enchilada.  After dinner I felt guilty and did a little RC work.  I took the second servo from the SCX and modified it so it could be used in the winch.  Hopefully it will work when I test it tomorrow.

Day 2306

 I woke up at 9.  So what, it's my birthday.  I got up after some game playing and did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I went outside to install the new bike rack.

The first step was to unhook the old one.  I wrestled one of the bikes off the old one and Ellen helped me with the other.  I sent her back in with the cover - it needed patching inn several places.  Then I unbolted the braces and unlocked the hitch.  Then I got Ellen out again to help me load the old rack onto the garden cart.  I hauled it to the back storage building.  Getting it inside wasn't easy.  It's heavy and barely fit through the door.

I got Ellen again and had her help me install the new rack.  I put one of the bikes on the rack and adjusted the fittings.  Then I got Ellen out once again to help with the second bike.  I ended having to take the first bike off to do it.  I think Ellen was interested in how the new rack worked because she stayed out to help and watch.

The next hour or so was a symphony of doing something and redoing it.  We got both bikes up, but then had to change all 4 wheel mounts.  Both of post clamps had to be taken apart and put back together with optional parts.  We finally got everything set up.  The rack was still a little wobbly, so I used the four ratchet straps I'd used before to stabilize it.  The result is pretty rock solid.

I put everything away and went inside.  I took a shower because I had grease all over my arms from the bike chains.  Then I surfed for a while.  I was tired.  Eventually I remembered that the cover needed to be put on the bikes.  We went out and did that.  At least that was a quick job.

I also decided that I wanted to salvage some of the hardware on the old rack.  That was about 4.30.  I wanted to go out to eat at 5.  I took some tools to the building and took off about 1/4 of the stuff.  That's all the time I had until 5.  Then we went to the restaurant at loop 1 and Slaughter that we hadn't been able to go to.  It was expensive, but good.  We sat outside in the 75 degree weather.

When we got home we had birthday cake.  After that I surfed and Ellen watched chick flicks.  I didn't get any RC car work done, but I still think it was a good day.

Day 2305

 I woke up a little after 7 and played games until after 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I decided to work on the winch.  I took it apart and then took the servo apart.  I couldn't see anything wrong, and when I put it back together it worked fine.  I attached it to the chassis and attempted to wind the cable. 

The servo would stop halfway through winding.  I thought the battery was discharged, so I put it on the charger and surfed until it charged.  When I tried with the charged battery the same thing happened even when I wasn't winding the cable.  I quit working on it in disgust.

We needed orange juice and bananas, and I wanted to order a birthday cake.  We went to Central market.  We got the groceries, but no cake.  They didn't have any on display, and they said I couldn't order one for tomorrow.  I was pissed, but there wasn't anything I could.

It was lunch time, so after getting the mail we went to Waterloo Icehouse.  We both ordered breakfasts.  They were very good, and expensive - $35.  FUCK BIDEN.  Then we went to HEB and bought a cake.  It may not be quite as good, but at least it was available.  It may be my imagination, but it seems like the shelves are getting a little more bare.

When we got home I went out to the garage to finish the bike rack.  I needed a victory today.  I finished it and took the rest of the packing material to the garbage/recycle.  The rack is built like a brick shithouse.  It should work fine.  I also took the four ratchet straps off the bike rack on the trailer.  That's as far as I wanted to go.  It was over 80 and too hot to work in the sun.

I spent the rest of the afternoon surfing.  I have an idea for fixing the winch, but I didn't feel like working on it anymore.  Ellen fixed fish burgers for dinner.  After dinner I surfed while Ellen watched chick flicks.

Day 2304

 I stayed up late last night playing games, so I didn't et up until 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I took some parts and tools out to the garage to work on the winch.

I modified one of the original winch mounts to fit.  Then I modified the winch enclosure to fit the mount.  That gave me the basis for mounting the winch.  I attached the winch mount with a screw at the bottom.  I didn't have a long enough screw to mount it at the top.  I attached part of a servo mount to the enclosure, then I attached the top of the servo to it.  The result is really secure.

I attached the winch enclosure to the bumper using screws.  It attached easily because there were already holes drilled in the bumper.  At that point the winch was finished, but I still needed to add lights.

There were threaded holes in the bumper for LED lights.  I used a couple of scrap pieces to fabricate LED holders to screw into the bumper.  By then it was 1:30, so I went inside for lunch.

After lunch I soldered resistors to the LEDs using the new cordless soldering iron.  It works pretty good, but the tip is too big.  I need to look for a smaller one.  Then I used wire from the connector assemblies I bought for the SCX24 to wire the LEDs to a Y wire assembly I purchased a long time ago.  The other part of the Y connector went to the servo.

The last part of the process was to go back to the garage and modify the LED holders.  When I was finished the whole assembly looked nice.  When I tested it the LEDs worked fine.  The servo didn't.  After some debugging I determined that the servo is toast.  It worked when I modified it.  I didn't have the heart to take it apart.  If worst comes to worst I have another servo.

I put everything away in disgust and went back out to the garage.  I spent an hour and a half putting the bike rack together.  I got it all unpacked (there's a lot of pieces).  I also got a load of the packing material ( a lot of cardboard, plastic bags, and foam) taken to the garbage.  I put about half of the rack together before I decided to quit for the night.

Dinner was leftover pizza.  After dinner I did some surfing while Ellen watched a chick flick.  I joined her to watch TV when it was over.

Day 2303

 I got up about 8, but didn't get up until 9:30.  I had a good game going.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast followed by a short surfing session.  After that I got out all of the tools and started working on the Ryft.

I made good progress.  I finished the cage.  I also connected up all of the suspension linkages and the driveshafts.  That seems like a short list, but it was a lot of work.  The next step will be to combine the two.  I didn't feel like doing any more.  Continuing would have seemed like work so I put everything away.

I surfed for a while and then had a sandwich for lunch.After that I surfed until 5:30.  I probably should have gone out to the garage to work on the bike rack, but I just didn't feel like it.

At 5:30 I went out to bring in the garbage can.  A bumper and a servo for the new build had been delivered.  I'm going to call the new build the "power wagon".  I don't have a body for it right now, but that's what I'm planning on using.

I opened the package.  The workmanship on the bumper is outstanding.  I decided to install the servo and the bumper.  That's when Chinese workmanship started biting me - and it didn't quit.  The bumper mount was too big for the frame mount.  I had to go out to the garage to drill out the frame mount.  The bumper fits, but just barely.  Things are very tight at the front of the frame.  The bumper, servo, and motor all want to occupy about the same space.

My next task was installing the servo.  There are no instructions, so it took me a while to figure out how it went.  I hooked the servo to the old SCX24 electronics and centered it.  I was about to install it when I realized that I'd have to install the motor first.  Dinner occurred first, Ellen fixed stir-fry using the noodles we bought at the Japanese store.  It was good.

With no instructions I had to puzzle out how to install the motor.  The process involves taking apart part of the gear box, installing the pinion, attaching the motor, and putting everything back together.  It was made harder because the holes for the motor mount were drilled incorrectly.  It took me quite awhile to figure that out.  It took another trip to the garage to drill the holes out so that the motor would fit.  Getting the gear box back together wasn't fun either.

The last thing I wanted to do was install the servo.  I was just about to install the last screw when I noticed that the front axles weren't straight because the steering link was too short.  I searched for, and luckily found, a couple of spacers.  I did have to go out to the garage again to drill them out.  I took off the link ends, installed the spacers, and put the link ends back on.  I was really happy when I installed the lengthened link and it corrected the problem.

After that I spent a little time looking at how to install the winch.  It will require some work, but at least I won't be fighting Chinese poor design and poorer implementation.  I'd had enough for the evening, it was after 8.  I put everything away and spent the rest of the evening surfing while Ellen watched chick flicks.

Day 2302

 I woke up at 8, did the pet stuff, and went out to haul gravel.  It took 12 loads to complete the driveway.  I'd estimated 9, but I had to cover some area that I hadn't noticed yesterday.  It took me less than an hour to do that, probably because I didn't have to haul it far.

When I was finished I went into the house to recover.  I surfed for a while and had breakfast.  Then I went off for errands.  We needed gas, so I stopped.  $4.59/gal.  FUCK BIDEN.  I also stopped a t Home Depot because I needed some more Dremel cutting wheels and water softener salt.  We also stopped at a donut place near there.  Then it was across the street to get a bottle of shampoo.  It was large, but it cost $50.  FUCK BIDEN again.

It was a great day - sunny and mid 70's.  We decided to go to Jester King for lunch.  It wasn't particularly crowded.  Ellen had pizza and pop.  I had pizza and beer.  We stayed there enjoying the warm weather for several hours.  Eventually we went home.

When I got home I loaded the 160 lbs of salt we'd bought into the garden cart and hauled it from the car to the well house.  It was a little heavier than a load of gravel, but not by a lot.  I suspect my normal load of gravel is at least 100 lbs, maybe more.  I'd always wondered about that.

I cajoled Ellen into finishing painting the Ryft interior.  I surfed while she did.  The result came out looking nice.  I put the decals on it.  There were no instructions, so I had to look on youtube to see how it was supposed to look.

Ellen watched TV while I surfed.  Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner we both watched TV together.  We're kind of getting hooked on this new Star Trek show.  Apparently it's been on for several seasons.

Day 2301

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff, and went out to move gravel.  I was working by 8:50.

I moved 12 loads of gravel in less than an hour.  I quit because I was too tired to move another load.  I made a lot of progress though.  I have less than 60 feet of the east side of the driveway to go and then I'm finished.

When I was finished I went back inside to eat breakfast and recuperate.  I was surfing and watching videos when I got an email from a jeweler that I'd emailed to about building a bracelet.  It was a little before lunch and I had a doctor's appointment at 3.  I decided to go see him, go to lunch, and then the doctor.

The jewelry store doesn't face the road it's on.  It took some effort to find it.  It was just the type of place I wanted.  It's run by and old guy that's been in the business forever.  He certainly understood custom stuff.  I told him what I wanted, and he said he's put together an estimate.

We stopped at the Japanese store nearby and got some noodles.  The two activities didn't take as long as I thought, so we went back to Central Market for milk.  Then it was lunch at a restaurant near there.  We stopped at Amy's for ice cream, but they didn't have anything we liked.

We went to the doctor's office.  We were 15 minutes early, so I waited in the car.  At 3 I went inside.  I pissed in a cup for them.  The PA said that my PSA had gone down considerably and was almost back to baseline.  The consensus was to wait and have another test in the fall.  Then she stuck her finger up my ass and I left.

It was about 4 when we got home.  I ordered some parts for my next RC build.  Ellen watched chick flicks.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner Ellen watched more TV.  I sort of listened to it as I looked at RC car videos.

Day 2300

 The gravel place woke me up at 8 with a phone  call.  They wanted to deliver the gravel early.  I said fine.  I got up and fed the cats.  They called shortly afterwards and I went out to open the gate.  I was shoveling gravel by 8:50.

I moved 13 or 14 loads.  I did a little over 60 feet of the east side of the driveway.  That does a lot to shorten how far I have to haul the gravel.  It will only get shorter.  I was done a little after 10.  I went back inside to recuperate.

I surfed for a while.  Mainly I watched videos.  I was killing time until the jewelry stores opened.  We left to go to the Domain about noon.  Traffic was really light and we made good time.

It took a while before we could find the place.  Google wasn't very specific and there was a distinct lack of street signs.  We did find it though.  We stopped at David Yurnam first.  They had a really nice bracelet, but the lady said they wanted $17,000 for it.  Ouch.  We went across the street to Tiffany's.  They had a nice bracelet also, but I didn't think that the clasp was a secure.

I didn't have breakfast and was really hungry.  We went to an "Asian fusion" place for lunch.  It was really good.  There was enough food that we both needed take home boxes.  We walked around the Domain enjoying the warm weather for another hour.  I just couldn't get my head around $17,000 for a bracelet.  We went back to the store and looked at it again.  I really liked it better than the other one.  The lady is going to have a gold one sent to the store.

Our luck with traffic held.  We were going south at 3:30 and traffic was moving at 70 to 75 all the way except for a small slowdown at Barton Creek.  The new RC car chassis was waiting at the gate when we got home.

I spent quite a while looking at parts for the chassis.  Then I got out the person at David Yurnam's card.  She had looked up the price of the wrong bracelet - some diamond encrusted monstrosity.  I looked up the one I wanted on the web - $9,500.  Just about the same as the one at Tiffany's.  It was too late to call the store.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner we both watched TV for the rest of the night.

Day 2299

 Times were messed up this morning because of DST.  I do know I was setting clocks at 10:20.  After that it was pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was a little surfing.

I decided to program the transmitter for the Ryft.  You know, a short job.  It didn't turn out that way.  I had to undo all of the work I'd done on the motor/transmission assembly all the way back to the gear cover.  The pinion gear had come loose.  I tightened that and remounted the servo using some stand offs to raise it.  Then I spent hours programming the gear select servo.  I had to take the servo save on an off several times to get it aligned correctly.  Then I had to set two different values on the transmitter to get everything correct.  Finally I had to put everything back together.

While I was doing that Ellen was out in the garage painting.  I got a package at the mail box and had a sandwich for a late lunch.  Then I put everything away.  I could have done some more work, but I didn't feel like it.

I did some more surfing, but then wanted to get something more accomplished.  I spent quite a while sorting out all of the rest of the hardware left over from my RC experience in the 80's.  I put the useful stuff in a plastic case.  I also reorganized my other parts case.  The result should be much easier to use.

All during this time Ellen was on a chick flick marathon.  She came over with a Tiffany website with a nice gold bracelet on it.  She wants to buy it for my birthday.  I like it, but it got me looking at alternatives as well as possible custom jewelers.

That was it for the day.  Ellen fixed orange chicken for dinner.  After dinner we watched TV.  The DVR was down to 7% empty.  I spent 20 minutes deleting stuff we didn't need.  We now have 23%, the highest it's been in a long time.

Day 2298

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff.  It was cold this morning, about 40.  I wanted to go to the Range shooting range, so we left right away.  We stopped at the donut place near 35 and had breakfast.  Then we went to the Range.

We got there a little bit after they opened.  There were still a few parking spots left.  Inside they were fairly crowded.  We walked around and looked at all of the vendors.  We also entered a couple of their drawings (no cost).  We got into conversations with a couple of the vendors, but no one really had anything we'd want to buy.

Ellen's asshole was giving her problems.  She made two trips to the can at the donut shop and at least 4 at the Range.  We decided to make it a short visit.  When we left there were no more parking spaces.  They were parking on the lawn.

We stopped at the post office.  The eye place sent me a bill that I've already paid.  Something more to take care of.  We also stopped at HEB and Tomlinson's.  Then it was home so Ellen could sit on the can some more.  I spent several hours on videos.  It was too cold to do anything outside.  When Ellen got off the can she watched chick flicks.

Eventually I got tired of videos and got out the stuff to work on the Ryft.  I got the transmission servo installed.  I also got the ESC installed on the motor assembly.  Finally, I attached the gas tank to the frame.  That's all I can do except test out the motor and the transmission servo.  After that I need to wait for Ellen to paint the interior.

I didn't do any else today.  I just felt like not doing much.  I went back to watching videos, and then TV.  Ellen fixed HEB meatloaf for dinner.  It was pretty good.  All of the evening was TV.

Day 2297

 I woke up at 8, played some games, and then l got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was a very cold day - low 40's.  It was obvious I wasn't going to do anything outside.  I surfed for a while and then called the gravel place.  I actually got someone to answer.  I ordered another 7 yards of gravel to be delivered on Monday.

I decided to finish the monster truck.  I started out by watching a video on charging LiPo batteries.  Then I got out the charger and charged one of the batteries.  I worked really easily.  I put the battery in the truck with the intent of programming the transmitter.  Unfortunately with the servos centered one of the steering link mounts rubbed the tire.

That set off two cycles of take off the tire, disassemble the steering, out to the garage to grind the part (it was cold), and put everything back together.  The first time didn't solve the problem, so I repeated the process.  When that was done I put the chassis on the ground and chased the cats for a little while.  It runs pretty good, but it's not an indoor vehicle.

More problems showed up when I tried to put the body on.  I hadn't hooked up a wire for the lights, so I had to open the electronics box.  Opening wasn't fun, and putting it back together was worse.  Then when I tried to attach the body the mounts didn't match the holes in the body.  lI was about to punch more holes when I noticed that the front mount was installed backwards.  I ended up correcting a 30 year old mistake.  After that the lights got connected and the body went on.  I did a short run.  It looks neat.  Then I put it away until it's warm enough to use it outside.

About then it was lunch time.  We went to Belterra to get cat food, bird seed, and eat lunch.  We got the cat food, the bird seed was sold out, and the BBQ was fantastic, but a little expensive.  When we got back I surfed for a bit and then started to work on the TRX-4 bodies.  Just like the monster truck the holes on the painted body didn't fit.  I figured out that the back mount was different than the front.  Fortunately I'd purchased extra mounts.  They fit the body.

Then I worked on the clear body.  The first task was to trim a lot of the back of the cab away to fit the TRX-4.  That took a while as I worked slowly so I didn't remove too much.  The body doesn't need a back mount, just some way to mount the magnets.  The front mount required significant modification.

I went out to the garage to work on the mounts.  I used the little heater again.  It made things a lot nicer.  I did a hardware search for screws to mount the magnets.  I also built little mounts for the back magnets.  I cut the nubs off the front mount, drilled holes in it, and attached the magnets.  Then it was back inside to mount the back magnets.  The front mount needed more modification.  I did that out on the porch so I didn't make a mess inside.

The last thing I did was a screw up.  I marked where the magnets needed to be attached to the clear body.  Then I proceeded to glue one on.  Fortunately I recognized my mistake immediately and removed it.  I'll still have to do some serious work to remove the glue on the body.

That was the end of the RC vehicle work for the day.  I had leftovers for dinner.  After dinner I sorted out some of the hardware I have while watching TV.  Eventually I just watched TV.  It feels really good to have the monster truck complete.  The TRX-4 is done except for the body.  I need to mount its lights, but Ellen wants to repaint it first.

I'll probably start work again on the Ryft over the weekend.

Day 2296

 I woke up a little before 8, played some games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I called the gravel place and spent 20 minutes on hold before they hung up on me.  I was pissed and didn't call back.  Then I did a little surfing and found that DVOR had a sale on Negrini gun cases.  That got me looking at what we had and whether we needed one.

That turned into a big effort.  I got out all of the cases and sorted out their contents.  Then I planned what we'll be taking.  That involved getting out the labeler and relabeling some of the cases.  We found that Ellen's 28 ga barrel was rusted, so she went out to clean it.  All of this took time and we ran out.  We got in the car and went to the urologist.  It was just a blood draw.

We stopped at Central Market on the way home for needed groceries.  We also stopped at the post office and the coffee shop on 290.  We ate lunch at the Mexican roach coach there.  It was nothing special.  I noticed that diesel is now over $5 a gallon.  FUCK BIDEN.

When we got home we finished up the gun case project.  Then I got out the monster truck.  I redid the steering links.  The result was an improvement.  Then I took it out to the garage and cut down the link mounts.  That should be the last of the work.  I do have to program the radio and charge up the battery (it came today).

I took the truck back to the house and got the plastic reamer and the winch parts.  I took them back to the garage.  I used the reamer to make holes in the new TRX4 body.  Then I screwed it together so I can determine where the mounting magnets go (they came today also).  Finally I used the Dremel to finish cutting out the winch mount.  All I have left to do on it is glue the servo to the mount.

By then it was 5.  I went back inside and fed the cats.  Then I surfed for quite a while.  Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I watched a couple of movies.

Day 2295

 I woke up late, 8:30.  I stayed in bed playing games until almost 10.  The cats were not happy, but finally I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was a little cold today, 50's, so I went outside to move gravel.

I moved all of the rest of the gravel that I have.  It was 13 or so loads.  I finished the west side of the driveway, the area in front of the gate, the garbage can area and about 1 load on the east side.  All in all it was quite a bit.  When I was finished I called the gravel place, but they didn't answer and their voicemail was full.  I'll try again tomorrow.

The urologist office called to say they cancelled my appointment.  I'm getting pretty sick of that.  They can't reschedule my doctor before we leave.  FUCK.  I'm going to see some other one, probably the scrub.

I was pretty tired, so I just surfed until after lunch (pizza).  Then I surfed a little more until I felt guilty.  Then I got out the monster truck.  I soldered two longer leads on the ESC so I could connect up both motors.  When I tested it everything worked.  GREAT.  I spent quite a while winding up and routing wires.  I also had to do some work with the Dremel.  I finally got everything to fit.  I put on the tires.  I was happy for about a minute until I noticed that the steering links interfered with the tires.  I need to do some grinding, but it was 5 so I just packed it all up.

I started watching videos on the TV.  I did that for the rest of the evening.  Ellen fixed fish sticks for dinner.  They were good.

Day 2294

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  I really wanted to finish the monster truck today, so I started work on it after a little surfing.

The first job, adjusting the steering linkages went pretty well.  I had a little trouble with one, but the others were pretty easy.  I thought this might have been hard.  Then I started on the wiring.  I thought it would be easy, it turned into a battle.  The ESC wouldn't fit without some Dremel work.  The battery wouldn't fit at all.  I had to order a new one.  I couldn't return the old one because I'd replaced the connector on it.

Just mounting the on/off switch was an ordeal.  It wouldn't fit where the old one did and it took forever to find little screws, washers, and nuts to mount it.  The final straw was that the wires wouldn't connect.  They were all too short.  I needed some connectors which I didn't have.  Ordering from Amazon would have cost a lot because I'd need to buy a box of them.  I gave up and put the truck away.  I got out the winch instead.

After a little thought I decided that I could mount a part from the servo saver to the winch drum.  I went out to the garage and used the drill press to drill out a place for the part.  It worked out perfectly.  I was proud of myself.  Attaching the drum didn't go a smoothly, requiring grinding down the head of another servo part.  I got it done though.  A little fine tuning and it should be done.

I did find a couple of connectors to finish the monster truck.  I cut them off an old part from the original.  That will allow me to finish it after a little soldering.

By then it was 4 in the afternoon and I didn't have lunch.  Ellen left to teach the kids.  I decided that I'd be very guilty if I didn't haul some gravel.  I went out and moved 12 loads.  That got me pretty close to the gate on the west side.  I'm also almost out of gravel.  One more day and I'll have to order more.

That took about an hour.  I went back inside and took a shower.  Then I fixed a frozen pizza for dinner.  After dinner I sat in front of the TV and watched whatever looked interesting.

Day 2293

 We got up at 7:30, did the pet stuff and left for the GMC dealer.  Traffic was screwed up from Slaughter to 290 on loop 1.  Of course the Y was a mess.  We took Slaughter to Escarpment and then William Cannon to 290.  There was some slow traffic on loop 1 until we got to downtown, but it wasn't terrible.  We got to the dealer a little before the 9:00 appointment.

We sat around the dealership until 11:00 while they changed the oil.  It was 45 degrees and windy, so we sat away from the doors.  They washed the truck and cleaned the interior.  It's the best it's looked in months.  We noticed on the way back that diesel was $4.50 a gallon.  That's going to make our summer trip really expensive.   FUCK BIDEN.

The trip back was actually pretty quick.  We stopped at the post office and then at Jim's for a late lunch.  We made it just before the lunch crowd.  It was really crowded by the time we left.  After that we went home.

I went out to the garage to do some Dremel work making the winch.  It was cold, but the little heater that Melissa got me worked great.  It pus out an amazing amount of heat.  When the Dremel was done I went back to the house and continued work on the winch.  I ran into a problem with attaching the drum and decided to quit for the day.

I spent the rest of the day and evening surfing and watching videos.  Ellen spent the time watching chick flicks.  She fixed bacon wrapped chicken from HEB for dinner.  It was good.

Day 2292

 I woke up at 8:30 and immediately got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I spent some time redoing the wiring on the Jeep.  It wasn't hard, but it took time.  The result is exactly what I wanted.  The Jeep is now officially finished.  The mods I made were:

4 new shocks, new tires and wheels, front axle and servo, two upgraded servos, ESC, receiver, motor mount and motor.  The cost of the parts was $220.65.  I only spent $160 for the original Jeep.  For that much I could have built a super scx 24 out of parts.  I did end up with two micro micro servos, a rear end, an ESC/receiver and transmitter, and some extra screws.  I may give some of it to the nephew to sell.

After that I went out to move gravel.  I did 11 or 12 loads.  I put it all on the west rut because I don't want to haul gravel on loose gravel.  It takes more time as I have to haul the gravel farther.  I think I have enough gravel to finish the west side and do a little more on the east side.  I'll need at least 2 more tons to finish everything.  I'll probably order 5 more tons.

When that was done I went back inside.  I was going to work on something RC related, but I got sidetracked figuring out how much I spent on the jeep.  It was a lot, $370.  I got further sidetracked by figuring out how much I'd have spent if I built it out of parts instead of buying an RTR.  That came out to $300.  Crap.  It was fun doing all of the research though.

Ellen spent a lot of time in the garage today painting.  She figured out what she was going to do to paint the Ryft.  Then she painted one of the pieces.  It looks great, but the paint peels off if you look at it funny.  When she was done I had her cut my hair.  It looks a lot better.

I spent most of the rest of the day and evening surfing.  Dinner was a TV dinner.  After dinner it was more surfing while Ellen watched chick flicks.

A part came to the mailbox at 9 PM.  I went out to get it.  It's a reel for a winch.  I played around a little to see how it would fit.  It looks promising, but I'm going to need to do a lot of Dremel work.

Day 2291

 I woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went out to the garage and used the Dremel to cut some more off the back of the Jeep so that the rear suspension would still work.  Then I started moving gravel.

I had intended to do at least 10 loads.  I did 11.  By then I was very tired and my back was beginning to hurt a lot.  I was done by 9.  It was 70 by then and I was covered in sweat.

I went back into the house and surfed.  I was too tired to do anything else.  Eventually I recovered enough to start work on the Jeep.  There's not a lot of room in it, so it took me a while to figure out where everything should go.  I hooked everything up and tested it.

I got an email saying there was a package at the post office.  So I stopped work on the Jeep and we left for the post office and lunch.  The package was some paint for Ellen.  We went to Longhorn for lunch.  I had a mango margarita, shrimp and lobster chowder, and a baked potato.  Ellen ordered ribs, but got a steak.  The waiter said he'd get the right order in immediately.  I told him we'd pay for the steak because we didn't want him to get in trouble.  He insisted that he wouldn't be.  When the bill came he didn't charge us for my drink.  He was a nice guy.

When we got home I went back to work on the Jeep.  I got everything installed and working.  That is until I put the body on.  The receiver interferes with the body.  I just didn't have the energy to redo things, so I left it for tomorrow.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I watched a series on TV that is based on a Steven King novel.  I'm not sure I'll watch the rest.  I think it's about to get really predictable.

Day 2290

 I woke up at 8 and played games until about 9.  It was a gray day, nothing like the last two.  I did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I got out the soldering stuff.

This was supposed to be a quick job.  Hah!  I needed to put a new connector on the ESC for the JEEP.  The wires are blue and yellow, not red and black.  I spent at least an hour trying to find out which is which.  I finally found a post that seemed to indicate yellow was negative.  So that's what I went with.

The second problem was the connectors I bought didn't match the ones in the Jeep.  That meant that in addition to the ESC connectors I had to change the battery and motor connectors.  I also had to make a couple of conversion wires so I could still use the old ESC.

After that was all done I put new connectors on a battery and the ESC for the Ryft.  All in all it was a lot of wire prep, soldering, and heat shrink.  To finish up I glued the tires to the rims.

As I was putting stuff back in the garage I walked out to check for packages.  There were two.  One had the ESC and motor for the new chassis I bought.  The other had the shocks and new servos for the Jeep.  I went back inside and put the shocks on the Jeep.  Then I put the new servos on.  Neither job was hard, but they were both time consuming.  I will have to do a little more Dremel work on the rear steer to make the new servo fit.

I still have several hour's work to complete the Jeep.  I have to install the new electronics and then program the transmitter and ESC.  After that it's FINISHED.  I'll probably do that before going back to the Ryft.

All of that took the whole day and part of the evening.  I spent the rest of the evening surfing.

Day 2289

 I had a bad night.  I  woke up with a dried out eye and an intense back ache.  I had to put drops in the eye and take Tylenol for the backache.  When I got out of bed about 9 I could barely walk.  Perhaps I overdid the gravel yesterday.

After pet stuff and breakfast it was time to got to the doctor for a blood test.  The next stop was the post office.  One of the things there was some of the parts I needed to modify the Jeep.  I needed to do an Amazon return, so we stopped at Whole Paycheck.  We also stopped at Costco to pick up a $500 rebate from our card.  The final stop was HEB for bananas, orange juice, TP, and milk.

I had a sandwich for lunch.  Then I started working on the Jeep.  It took a while to figure out the best approach.  After that it was out to the garage for a Dremel session.  Ellen was already out there painting.  What she did looks good.

I got done with the Jeep just as Ellen was leaving for the club.  I put the Jeep away and went out to move gravel.  I moved or 10 loads in a little over 1/2 an hour.  Then I quit.  The back was starting to hurt a lot.  I went back inside and took a shower.  Then I went out on the deck and surfed.

Dinner was another sandwich.  After dinner I watched videos on the TV.  Parts for the Ryft showed up.  Maybe I can  finally make some progress on it.  More parts were supposed to show up for the Jeep, but "the delivery is late".

Day 2288

 I woke up about 8, played games for a short while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was fairly warm, 63, so I went outside to move gravel.

I spent an hour and 40 minutes moving gravel.  I lost count of the number of loads, but it was probably around 15.  I managed to use 2 loads to fill in spots in the parking area.  The remaining loads were used to fill in the driving lanes from the bottom of the hill up to the pink fence posts.  The put a noticeable dent in the pile of gravel, but there's still a lot left.

When I was finished I was hot and tired.  I went back inside and had a mojito drink.  Then I started looking at videos, anything that Youtube showed up.  One of the things it showed up was an Injora chassis with a two speed transmission.  That set me off on a long investigation concerning it's features and quality.  It turned out to be pretty good in both categories.  It was also priced nicely.  It's only bad side was it is a pretty much assembled chassis.  It looks like a good candidate for putting a 1946 Power Wagon body on.

Even with it's level of assembly it would take significant work to make it fit the Power Wagon body.  I decided to see how much it would cost vs using a SCX10 iii kit that I'd been planning on using.  Figuring it all out took the rest of the day and some of the evening.  The bottom line was that the chassis based car would cost about $160 less then a SCX10 iii kit based one.  I ordered chassis and the recommended motor and ESC.  I'm waiting on the rest until I see the chassis.

I spent the rest of the evening looking for the best way to install servos in the Jeep.  It's going to cost a lot.  I bit the bullet and ordered them.  The ESC came today, so I have what I need to upgrade the electronics.  The bike rack came today, too.  It's heavy.  I had to get the cart out to pult it in the garage.

Day 2287

 I woke up at 8, got up and did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I surfed until it was time to leave for the eye doctor.

The trip to the other side of town was quick.  I got there 25 minutes early.  That just meant I got to wait some extra time.  The appointment was the same as the others, several tests interspersed with waits, that eventually end with a short visit with the doctor.  He pronounced me well on my way to healing.  I can quit the drops and sleeping on my left side.  They are worried about my eyeball pressure, so I've got one more appointment in three weeks.

It was almost noon when I was done.  We stopped at the post office and then went to Jack Allen's for lunch.  It was good, but expensive.  I ordered a $10 dessert.  I probably wouldn't if I'd known how much it was.

When we got home I just didn't feel like doing anything constructive, so I surfed.  It was warm, so I took a short walk when Ellen went to the club.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I watched videos on the TV.