Day 3310

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I surfed for a while and then went up to pick up packages at the gate.

Then packages contained the stuff that I needed to modify and mount the cat light that the nephew had given me.  I started by crawling under the table in the corner of the kitchen.  I rearranged all of the plugs using the new power strip.  There are two now - one controlled by a timer and one plugged into the wall.  Both have switches so that I can turn them off when we leave.

When that was done I got out the soldering iron.  I cut the power connector off the cat light.  I also cut one of the connectors off the power cord that had come.  Then I soldered the cat light wires to the power cord.  I insulated everything with heat shrink instead of electrical tape like the original.  Finally I mounted the cat light to the top of the window shade with mounting tape.  I used the wire mounts that had come to hold the wire along the side of the window frame.  The result looks pretty good.

After that I didn't feel like doing another project, so I went back to surfing.  About 12:45 we left for the doctor.  The appointment had been cancelled.  They left an voicemail on Ellen's phone, but she hadn't bothered to listen to it.  The new appointment is next Monday.

The next stops were Waterloo for lunch and HEB for groceries.  The parking lot at HEB was almost completely full.  It was really difficult to get a space.  The last stops were Walgreen's for Ellen's drugs and a gas station for fuel.

When we got home I started watching videos.  That took up the rest of the day.  The only other useful thing I did was test out the new solar yard lights.  They work great.  I might put them up tomorrow after we take down the tree.

Day 3309

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I made up a list of little things that needed to be done and started in on it.

I started by dealing with the mail that had stacked up.  Most of it was either investment stuff I'm not interested in or stuff for Ellen.  Then I got an email from CVS saying that I needed to get the doctor to renew one of my prescriptions  I called the doctor and have an appointment tomorrow.  Next up was some time on Amazon locating and ordering stuff to allow me to hang up the lighted cat that the nephew gave me for Christmas.  I also cleaned off the light in the kitchen.  It was covered with dust and not near as bright as it should be.

After a couple of more minor things it was time for lunch - leftover pizza.  When that was done I was fresh out of things to do.  I decided to go out and walk around the property for a while.  I just didn't want to drive anywhere.  It was over 80, but pleasant.

When I got back Ellen was watching a chick flick marathon.  It lasted until after 8.  That meant I spent the afternoon and early evening surfing.  I just didn't feel like RC stuff.  Dinner was frozen stuff.

When Ellen was done I watched football.  The 49'ers lost, so it was a good game.  When the game ended I went to bed.

Day 3308

 I woke up at 7:30 and got up for pet stuff.  Melissa fixed ham and toast for breakfast.  After that the four of us talked for a couple of hours until it was time for them to leave.

After they left I put away some of the stuff that was still left out.  Then I took the recycle stuff to the can.  Then bin was already half full.  It was a warm morning, so I decided to clean the gutter.  It was totally clogged up.

I got the ladder out and scooped out the gutter.  Then I ran the hose down the downspout to clear it out.  Everything runs fine now.  However, to get it completely fixed I need to get a couple of more supports and raise the corner of the gutter.  Ellen helped with the hose.

I took the ladder to the big broken tree.  I used it to pull down a broken branch that I've been meaning to take down since the ice storm.  I also cut off some dead branches.  That made a slight improvement in the tree's looks.  Ellen hauled away the branches while I put away the ladder and tools.

We went inside.  Ellen started watching videos and I surfed.  Eventually I joined her.  We did that until after lunch (leftover pizza).  Then Ellen cut my hair.  It really needed it.  After that it was more videos.

Dinner was an HEB salad.  After that I switched to movies.  I watched one, started two more, and finished most of another.

 Three Dollar Bill called me again.  Apparently he didn't remember he called at Christmas.  He sounded cheery even though he told me that he couldn't walk at all anymore.  He needs assistance to go to the bathroom.  I kept him talking about whatever he wanted, mainly the fact that he doesn't drink much anymore.  I politely terminated the conversation after half an hour.  He actually told me to call him sometime.

I went back to the movie for a while and then finished the evening with some surfing.

Day 3307

 I woke up at 7:30 and payed games until 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast the four of us sat around the table and talked like we did yesterday.

About 10 a thunderstorm started building up.  Eventually it went over us and dropped 15/100 of rain.  After that it moved on and the skies turned blue.  We talked a little longer and then left for a walk.

We went to the park on Becker and walked all around it on the paved path.  Everything else was too muddy.  When we were done we went to the Cajun place for lunch.  It was great.  After that we drove through the Y so John and Melissa could see the construction.  They were impressed.  We stopped at HEB and then went home.

John and I sat down to watch videos (mainly car videos).  Ellen and Melissa went back to stitching and talking.

Dinner was some leftovers from Christmas.  Then we all went back to what we'd been doing.

That was the rest of the day.

Day 3306

 I woke up at 8:30.  Yes, an hour late.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that the four of us sat at the kitchen and talked the morning and early afternoon away.  Melissa and Ellen did stitching while we talked.

We talked about a whole lot of different things.  Occasionally we used the internet to acquire information.  We talked a long time about being on the Oregon trail that way.  Melissa fixed fried ham sandwiches for lunch.

Melissa wanted to got to the post office and Target, so the three of us went there.  Ellen stayed home because she was feeling sick again.  When we got done John and I sat down to videos.  We watched a lot of different things, from Zeihan to cars.

Dinner was leftovers from Christmas - beef, shrimp, and potatoes.  After dinner John and i returned to videos while Ellen and Melissa did more stitching.

It was a fun relaxing day, but we need to do something more entertaining tomorrow.

Day 3305

 We got up at the agreed time of 7:30.  I wasn't in pain anymore, so I had breakfast along with feeding the pets.  John and Melissa just had coffee.

The kids showed up just before 9:30.  We left for the cave.  Ellen and I were in our car and the kids and John and Melissa went in their SUV.

The cave was about 12 miles north of Marble Falls.  It was a nice drive and we made good time.  The cave is in a state park.  The park has a nice gift shop.  I also has some amazing buildings and other stone work done by the CCC in the 1930's.

The cave itself is a 1.25 mile passage carved out by water.  It was amazing.  There were lots of different elaborate formations.  There was even a little flow stone.  The tour took about an hour and a half.  When we got out we went to the gift shop.

The shop had this cool machine that they use to break geodes.  You buy one and then use the machine to break it.  I had to buy one.   The machine works by wrapping a heavy chain around the geode.  Then a mechanism turned by a large wheel is used to crack the geode.  It takes quite a bit of effort to break the geode.  I ended up with a nice specimen.  Lots of people watched and a couple bought geodes, too.

After that we drove back to Marble Falls.  When we got there we turned on the road to the gun club.  We drove 10 or 15 miles farther than the club to a winery.  It was a really nice winery/restaurant.  We had dinner there and walked through part of the vineyard.  After that it was home.  We took the same road over to Cedar Park.  Then we took 183 and loop 1 home.  We made really good time.

When we got home Melissa opened her presents and we all had cake.  Both were a hit.  The kids left soon after because they need to make an early start tomorrow.  I sent the Legos we were going to sell with them.

We all sat down to watch car videos.  That lasted for about an hour before John and Melissa went to bed.  So did Ellen.  I stayed up writing the last two day's entries and then went to bed, too.

Day 3304

 I woke up 7:30.  I'd had a bad night - serious abdominal pain.  It wasn't any better when I got up.  I did the pet stuff and then a few things to get ready.  Breakfast was something that I didn't want to even attempt.

Ellen started cooking.  She spent a lot of the day doing it.

I surfed while waiting for everyone to get here.  John and Melissa got here about 11John and I sat down to watch football.  I was still in a lot of pain and considering the hospital.  I looked on the web and kidney stones were out (right place, but not enough pain).  So was appendicitis - pain in too widespread and in the wrong place.  I did dry heave two or three times.  It didn't help.

John and I watched football for the rest of the afternoon.  The plain got a little less,but not by much.  It was actually better if I stood up.  Sitting in the recliner was OK, but the kitchen chairs were unbearable.

The kids showed up after 4 with the dog.  The pain started to become less, but was still bad.  I went to the can and let some of the biggest farts I've ever had.  It didn't help though.

After they came I had calls from Hooch and three dollar bill.  Hooch's cal was the standard Merry Christmas call.  Three dollar bill bent my ear for 45 minutes with a story of a car crash he was in and his troubles getting the car fixed.  He's clearly non-functional.

With the phone calls over we opened presents.  Everyone seemed happy with what they got.

We ate about 6.  I wasn't hungry at all, but I wanted to participate.  I had a small slice of beef (it was great), a quarter of a baked potato, and a little salad.  That was all I ate today

Everyone but me played cards after dinner.  I hurt too much to sit at the table.  For some reason the pain finally went away about 9 so I could socialize until the kids left and the rest of it went to bed.

I loved having everyone here, but this Christmas sucked.

Day 3302

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I did a little surfing before starting the get ready for guests activities.

I took out the garbage.  It took two trips.  Then there was another trip to take out the recycle.  Finally I spent sometime picking up all of the fox shit on the driveway and parking area.

When that was done it was inside to clean the kitchen. I started in a clockwise direction: microwave, oven counter, oven, bread counter (including putting stuff away and rearranging the appliances), sink counter, and finally the bar counter.  It took quite a while and half a roll of paper towels.  The result looks good though.

I did a little surfing and then the Amazon stuff I bought yesterday showed up.  The new silverware organizer fits well and is a great improvement.  Ellen liked the cookies I bought her.  The Milan cookies I bought were half the size that they used to be.  FUCK BIDEN.

Ellen did the wash and scrubbed the floor.  Then she went out and put a coat of paint on the Subaru body.  Yeah.

After that we had lunch - leftovers to clear them out of the refrigerator.  Then it was videos.  There wasn't anything left to do.  

Ellen heated up the frozen lasagna for dinner.  After dinner was more videos until I got bored and went to surfing instead.

Day 3301

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a couple of things to prepare for company.  I took out the garbage and took a bunch of the RC obstacles to the well house.  They didn't need to be on the coffee table.

After that I really didn't have anything to do, so I surfed for a while.  Ellen called up the cake place, so we left to pick it up in Dripping Springs.  We stopped at HEB for bananas and milk.  Apparently it's necessary for us to stop here every day.  We also stopped at ACE for BBQ rub.  Eventually we got to the bakery.  The cake looks great and so do the cookies.  We bought two extra from the display cabinet.  They taste as good as they look.

We stopped at P. Terry's on the way home.  I was craving a hamburger.

As I said, there wasn't much to do today.  Ellen is still feeling sick, so she watched chick flicks.  I surfed.

Eventually Ellen switched to videos and I watched, too.

Ellen fixed frozen pepperoni lasagna for dinner.  It was OK.  After dinner was a mixture of videos and surfing.

Tomorrow is a lot of cleaning.

Day 3300

I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I started by vacuuming the guest bedroom and the guest bathroom.

When that was done I cleaned off the kitchen table and wiped it down well with Murphy's oil soap.  That got Ellen going and she cleaned off all of her stuff from the table, too.  With that done I took some stuff garbage out.

When that was done we went on another trip to the grocery store.  There were several items that we forgot yesterday and a couple that we couldn't find.  We got everything that we needed and went back home.

It was still a little cold, so I set up everything in the house that I needed to install the magnetic mounts.  I finished the work on the magnetic connection mounts in the garage.  It wasn't hard, but it took some time.  When the mounts were finished I took them back to the house.

I tried to figure ot how to fit the mount on the Chevy.  There just isn't any place where the magnet wouldn't interfere with with electronics or mechanicals.  I settled on wiring a long connection to the lights to allow me full access to the internals when the body is removed without the need to unplug the lights.  If necessary I might be able to mount a magnetic switch, but I'll use it this way unless it gets obnoxious.

I was kind of tired of working on RC, so I ate lunch and did some surfing and video watching.  Eventually I got to work on the Mojave Grom.  There was plenty of room to attach the mount on it.  It felt good to finish the work on both vehicles.

After that I went to videos.  Ellen is feeling sick again and went to bed early.  I had leftovers for dinner and then finished the movie that I started yesterday.  When that was done it was football for the rest of the evening.

Day 3299

 I woke up at 7 and got up to eat breakfast and do the pet stuff.  After that we left to do grocery shopping.

We went to the HEB on Nutty Brown Road.  It was busy, but not overly crowded.  We bought a  lot of stuff.  The bill came to more then $200.  The most expensive thing was 6 lbs of roast beef at $19/lb.  FUCK BIDEN.  For that price we could have had each person order a good dinner at Longhorn.  Oh well.

When we got home I started to clean up some things.  I put away a lot of stuff in the kitchen and took the garbage out.  Then I took some things to the apartment and the garage.  I also rearranged some things in the guest bedroom so John and Melissa would have places to put their stuff.  I'd pretty much monopolized every flat surface.

With that done I went back out to the garage.  I made two more magnetic connection mounts.  I'll do the final fitting and installation in the the Mojave Grom and Chevy tomorrow.  Then I'll do the final cleanup of the guest bedroom.

It wasn't noon yet, but I didn't feel like doing anything else today.  I did more surfing while Ellen watched chick flicks.  When she was done with that I switched to videos.

Ellen fixed hot turkey sandwiches for dinner.  After dinner I watched 1.5 movies.  I can only watch so many videos.

Day 3298

  I woke up about 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done we left to get a safety certificate for the Audi.

That turned out to be a pain in the ass.  The place we usually go to doesn't do them anymore.  We went to the Dripping Springs post office to mail the Christmas cards and then to RR12 and Fitzhugh to another auto place.  They didn't do the tests anymore either.

We stopped at Home Depot for another (smaller) plant.  Then it was HEB for gas and a lot of frozen food.  We also got smoothy ingredients.  We wanted to use the new blender things that we bought at Costco yesterday. 

I decided to stop at Firestone on the way home.  They said they'd do the test in an hour.  It was only 11, so we decided to sit.  I'd brought my tablet so I was prepared.  I walked over to Dutch Bros first.  That improved my attitude a lot.

Firestone was true to their word.  After that we went to Fireman's for lunch and then home.

When we got home I put my new plant in the terrarium.  I also put the one we'd bought yesterday in a small pot we had laying around.

Ellen fixed some smoothies.  They were great.  The new smoothy makers work well, as long as you follow the instructions.

After that we I spent the rest of the evening switching between videos and surfing.

Day 3297

 I woke up about 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After some surfing we left for some errands.

The first was to pick up the new prostate shrinking drug.  It costs me $1 a pill.  Fuck, the "change your drug plan" window closed last week.  I looked it up later.  It has a set of nasty side effects.  The one I'm most concerned with is growing tits.  It also grow hair on your head.  As far as shrinking the prostate it takes up to 6 months to start to work.  I also learned that having a large prostate can cause you to lose the ability to pee.  Not good.

After CVS we did a couple of things that we could have done yesterday except for Ellen's asshole.  The first stop was Lowe's and Home Depot looking for a plant for the terrarium.  Then we stopped at the post office, the pet store (cat food), and Costco (water).  The last stop was Dominos for pizza.

When we got home I went to the garage to work on the mounts for the magnetic wire connections.  It didn't go well.  After a lot of work I ended up with three mounts (I need 5), a big mess, and a strong desire to not work on it anymore.  I went back to the house and spent time surfing and watching videos.

Ellen filled out a bunch of Christmas cards while I was outside.  We'll mail them tomorrow so that they have a chance of getting there before Christmas.  We also have to get the Audi safety certification.  The license expires at the end of the month.

Ellen went to archery.  I ate a frozen thing for dinner and then surfed.  I started watching a movie, but got bored and went back to surfing for the rest of the evening.

Day 3296

 I woke up at 7:15 and got up for pet stuff.  I didn't have breakfast because we were going to eat after the eye appointment.  We left for the doctor a little before 8.

Traffic on loop 1 was already backed up to LaCrosse.  I took 1826 to Slaughter and then Escarpment to William Cannon.  There was little traffic on any of them.  I made a mistake using the frontage road past 290 to get on.  The entrance was really backed up because assholes kept letting people pull up and get in at the last moment.  We still made it to the doctor 20 minutes early.

I waited 40 minutes to get in.  I'd brought my tablet, so I barely noticed the wait.  The whole thing took a long time though.  We weren't out until 11.  The doctor said my eyes checked out fine.

We went to the breakfast place that Jack Allen opened across loop 1.  It was packed at 11.  We had a good late breakfast.  Afterwards we killed a little time and then left because the lunch crowd was coming in.

We went to Central market and got OJ, bread, and bananas.  Then we went to the piss doctor.  I got in on time there.  The doctor said that the MRI was clear.  He also said that my prostate was 3x normal size.  The PSA level is probably caused by it.  A PSA of 10 can damage other organs, so he put me on a prostate shrinking drug.  Great, another pill.

Ellen's asshole was giving her problems, so after that we went home.  I went out to the garage to build mounts.  That was a disaster.  After several failed attempts I found a way of doing it with the Dremel.  Imagine that.  Unfortunately the Dremel battery died before I could finish one.

I went back inside and watched videos for a little while before switching to surfing.  Eventually it was back to videos for the rest of the day.

Day 3295

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I surfed.

Eventually I got tired of surfing and got out the TRX4-M.  I'd purchased both flex shock mounts and differential gears for it.  I figured that the shock mounts would be easier to do, so I started with them.  They would have been easy, except there were not instructions.  I installed the front ones, but they didn't seem to be working right.

I got on Amazon and found a couple of places that sold the mounts and showed pictures of them installed.  It turned out that I had them mounted wrong.  I had to take everything apart and put it together again.  The back ones were much quicker, since I could see how to install them.

Unfortunately when I had everything back together I noticed that the front shocks interfered with the steering.  It took a while to figure out the fix, and then more time to rectify it.  By the time I was finished it was after 2.  I had no desire to do anything else.

I put everything away and sat down to videos.  Of course it ended up in a nap.  When I woke up I started watching movies.  I watched 2.5 movies.  It was a good change from videos.  It also took all of the evening.

I worked for quite a while today.  Unfortunately I didn't accomplish much.  The magnetic connectors came in the evening.  They are going to work out just fine.

Day 3294

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I spent about an hour organizing all of the RC instruction sheets I've collected.  I halted that in order to go to the Amarillo Christmas Bazaar.

It was after 11 when we left, so traffic wasn't a problem.  I did end up taking Caesar Chavez because a sign said that Barton Creek was closed.  Driving along downtown didn't cost too much time though.  To make it better we got a great parking space.

It was fun walking through the place as usual.  We bought some jewelry for the nieces.  I got a solar powered terrarium.  It looks neat, but I have to get a plant for it and some assembly is required.  When we were finished we went across the street to Black's.  The BBQ was fantastic as usual.  I saw a guy with a Tektronix shirt on and we talked a little in line.

After that we stopped at the post office and then went home.  I finished my RC instruction sheet organizing and put everything away.  Then I decided that I'd accomplished enough for the day and started watching videos.

The video watching turned into a nap.  When I woke up I fixed some frozen shrimp scampi for dinner.  It was pretty good and a change from the usual TV dinners.

After dinner was some videos followed by a football game.  I turned it off in the 3rd quarter because it was becoming a laughfer.  The losing team kept blowing really fine opportunities to score.

I did a little more video watching and then went to bed.

Day 3293

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games before getting up for pet stuff and breakfast. Then I did a little surfing.  After that I got out the RC stuff.  It was time to finish the Chevy.

The steering servo had to be replaced.  It turned out to be easier than I thought.  I got the old servo out without much trouble.  Then I took an old servo arm out to the garage and used the Dremel to shape it into one that would fit the Chevy.  Then I went back to the house and put everything back together.  Finally I remounted the ESC and receiver and dressed up all of the wires.  That went well too and everything worked perfectly when I was done.  The only thing left to do is install the magnetic wire connectors that I ordered.

The Chevy had gone so smoothly that I decided to replace the axles in the Mojave GROM.  That didn't go anywhere near as well.  I had to cut all four plastic hexes off with the Dremel.  It was hard, messy, and a pain in the ass.  When I was putting things back together one bearing fell on the floor.  I had to crawl around for a while to find it.  It's now like the Chevy - install the magnetic wire connectors and it's done.

I did some more work on the spare bedroom.  I cleaned up the closet so they will have a place for clothes.  I also put away a lot of the stuff on the bed.  There's a lot more to do, but it's manageable.  I got out the instruction folder so I could reorganize it.  However, I decided to watch a few videos first.  That turned into a nap.  When I woke up I didn't want to do anything more except watch football for the rest of the day.

Day 3292

 The first thing that I did was replace the lamp in the bedroom with one of the new ones.  It's a great improvement.  It's smaller and because it has USB charging inputs I could make the area a lot cleaner.

I didn't really feel like doing RC stuff, so I went into the bedroom to start to tidy it up for John and Melissa.  That almost immediately turned into building Legos.

That happened because there were two unfinished Lego sets in the bedroom.  One was the Minions one we got last Christmas.  The other was a bonsai tree Ellen bought a long time ago.  I really got into it.  The Minions one is neat.  It has five Minions and Gru on a rotating stage.  I'm keeping it for a while.  The Bonsai tree is getting sold.

The two kit basically took the whole day to assemble.  It was fun though.  When I got done i surfed for a while and then switched to videos.  That lasted for the rest of the day.

Day 3291

 I woke up at 7:15 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast, followed by some surfing.

Ellen was still feeling sick, so I went out on errands by myself.  It was time to go to the post office and put fuel in the car.  I also stopped at HEB to get bread and bananas.  By the time I got back it was raining fairly hard.

I dealt with some of the mail and then did some shopping.  I was going to buy a lamp on Amain because it was on sale.  Before I ordered I looked at Amazon.  They had a better lamp for 1/3 the price.  I ordered it.

Ellen had been watching chick flicks all morning.  I continued to surf while she watched.  Eventually she changed to videos.  I ate a late lunch watching them with her.  That turned into a significant nap.

When I woke up there was no point in working on the Chevy.  I need to do some Dremel work to make a new servo horn.  It was still raining, so I didn't want to go to the garage.  I watched videos instead.

Dinner was some frozen stuff.  Ellen isn't eating much.

After dinner was more videos.

Amazon is amazing.  I received the stuff I ordered at 3 in the afternoon about 8 tonight.

Day 3290

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing I decided to go out to the garage and rebuild the plant case.  I just couldn't bring myself to work on the Chevy today.

It took me at least 4 hours to rebuild the case.  First I had to disassemble the old one.  It was a patchwork of broken parts that had to be unbolted from each other.  When I was finished I had two parts I was going to keep, and 4 or 5 that I didn't need.

Then I cut the two polyethylene pieces that I needed for the new case.  One was the top and the other was the back side.  That was pretty easy.  I used the laminate blade on the jigsaw and it worked really well.  After that it was a lot of drilling and mounting brackets.  I drilled 21 holes and mounted 10 brackets.  There was a lot of careful measuring involved.  I also had to do a little parts searching.  The result is a nice sturdy case that the cats can't get into.

The last step was cleanup - a lot of sweeping and putting away tools.  When that was done I went inside for a very late lunch.  Ellen was watching a chick flick, so I surfed.  She's still sick.  I told her we should go back to CVS and get a refund on her pill.

Eventually the flick was over and she switched to videos.  I joined her.  That lasted through dinner and into the evening.  I finally got bored and ended the evening surfing.

Day 3289

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I surfed for a while and then got out the RC stuff.

I'd been putting off doing the final work on the Chevy.  Theoretically all I had to do was turn it on and program it.  I just had a bad feeling about it.  The bad feeling was justified.

I got the receiver and transmitter bound.  The throttle and shift worked fine.  The steering didn't.  All the steering servo did was quiver.  The rest of the day was debug hell while I tried to determine what was wrong:

1. I re-soldered the wiring of the connector I'd put on the servo.  No change.

2. I explored it being a receiver problem.  I tried 5 different receivers.  They all did the same thing, even with other servos.

3. That made me look at a transmitter problem.  Using another model made the stuttering go away.  After much experimentation, and the manual, I discovered a weird parameter that was set wrong for the model I was using.  After that the other servos worked, but the one in the truck still stuttered.

4.  I removed the servo from the truck and tested it on the bench.  It worked fine.  I re-positioned the servo and reassembled everything.  The servo would barely move.

5.  I decided it was time for a new servo.  None of the ones I have will work with the very non-standard servo saver.  I went looking for an OEM replacement on the we.  No luck.

6. I finally decided to use a servo I have, but there won't be a servo saver and I'll have to fabricate a servo arm.

7. I did manage to get the ESC programmed.

All if this took hours and a lot of frustration.  Part way through I played games while a test battery charged.  I also took Ellen to the doctor.  She has the flu.  The doctor gave her a prescription for a $180 pill.  Insurance didn't cover it.

In the evening I managed to get in a little video/nap session.  I also watched the movie I was watching last night until it got boring.  I may go back to it.

One good thing was the plastic sheet to repair the plant enclosure finally showed up.  I'll probably work on that tomorrow.  I'm sick of that truck.

Day 3288

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was surfing.

Eventually I got out the RC stuff.  There was no way to install magnetic connections on the Chevy truck, so I finished the wiring on it.  I probably should have programmed it and tested it out, but I didn't want to deal with any possible problems.  I went back to surfing instead.

I had a salad for lunch and then decided to install the new door latch on the trailer.  That went pretty well.  I did have to do some messing around with keys.  I also got the door to latch a little bit easier.

Ellen put another coat of paint on the Subaru while I was doing that.  It was cold most of the day, but it warmed up enough to do that mid-afternoon.

I went back inside and started watching videos.  That turned into a nap.  Ellen started feeling very sick.  She thinks she has a bad case of the flu.  She went to bed before dinner and stayed there for the rest of the day.

When I woke up I started watching movies.  I watched one and half of another.  I'll finish the second one even though it's one of those "strong woman" fantasy movies.

Dinner was a frozen thing.

Day 3287

 I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  I played games instead.  Eventually I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I got out the RC stuff.

I thought that all I had to do was hook up the lights.  Nooooo!  It turned out that the body wouldn't fit the way I had the electronics installed.  Not only that, some careful positioning was necessary to make it all fit at all.  It took a while to get it all set up. 

That's all I got done on the truck today.  It was warm, 80+.  We went to the park at Beckett and walked around.  It may be the last warm day for quite a while.  When we were done we went to HEB for some much needed groceries.

We ate lunch when we got home.  Then Ellen went out to the garage to put a coat of paint on the Subaru body.  I surfed.  I continued to do so when she got back and watched videos.  Eventually we switched roles.

That was the rest of the afternoon.  I might have taken a short nap when Ellen went out to put another coat of paint on the Subaru.  It's looking pretty good.

Dinner was some frozen stuff.  After dinner was videos.

Day 3286

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a long time.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I got out the RC stuff.

I worked on the Chevy on and off for the whole day.  I took frequent breaks to eat lunch, watch videos and football, retrieve packages and wrap their contents.  I did manage to fix the steering servo and get the electronics mounted in the truck.  That doesn't sound like much, but it involved a lot of soldering and some improvisation.  I think I changed 4 connectors, two of which were 3 wire connectors.  The only thing that I have left to do is finalize the lights.

It got up to a balmy 62 today, so Ellen started painting the rally car body.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so hopefully she can do some more work on it tomorrow.

Dinner was a frozen thing.  I was going to watch football in the evening, but ended up watching videos instead.

Day 3285

 I got up about 8 and played games.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cold today.  It was 41 and I got up and didn't get above 43 all day.  It was also raining.  At some times it was raining hard.  Eventually we got half an inch.

Google said that the package I was waiting for wouldn't show up until late.  I surfed for a while and then decided to go to Spec's to see if I  could buy some Buffalo Trace for Lee.  Unfortunately they didn't have any, so I bought Chattanooga instead.  We also bought a bottle of Bailey's to put in hot chocolate.

We stopped at Ace next door and bought Traeger pellets and bird seed.  The last stop was HEB to get Half and Half for milk punch.  That's the drink I usually have at Christmas.  It was still raining when we got home.

There was a little more surfing and then I switched to videos.  About 3:30 I went out to see if the package was there.  It was.  When I got back to the house I decided to install the lights in the package on the new Chevy.  The light bar was easy.  The tail lights weren't.  They were attached by the smallest screws in the world.  When I picked one up it frequently got stuck under my fingernail.  I did manage to get them done just before dinner.  They look nice.

Ellen fixed pork chops and noodles for dinner.  After dinner I put the RC stuff away and started watching videos.  I'll test the lights tomorrow.

It was videos for the rest of the evening.

It's supposed to get warm enough for Ellen to paint tomorrow.  I hope that's true.  I'm hoping to get the rest of the work on the Chevy done.

Day 3284

 I woke up at 7:15 and played games for a while before getting up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It's Friday and I wanted to avoid traffic, so when breakfast was over we left to run errands.

The first stop was Lowe's for salt for the softener.  I bought 160 lbs.  That should be enough for a very long time because the new softener is more efficient than the old one.  The next stop was the post office to pick up a package.  The early time paid off because we got to William Cannon via 290 without a problem.

We stopped at HEB for some much needed groceries.  Then we went to Wells Cargo to get $200 for the nephew.  The last stops were Domino's for sandwiches and the coffee shop next door.  I needed the coffee.  It was 50 degrees (or less) and raining all day.  Then it was home.

When we got home I did some surfing.  That got old and I switched to movies.  I watched two.  I'm just tired of videos.  During them I went out at 3 to look for packages.  There was one with a present for Ellen.  I had to wrap it.  I went out again at 3:30.  It turns out that that package must have been delivered soon after I picked up the first one.  There are more packages tomorrow.

When the movies were done I had a salad for dinner with Jello for dessert.  I do like red jello.  Then I switched for videos for a while.  As i said, I'm a little tired of them so I went to surfing.  At the end of the evening it was back to videos to watch Gutfeld.  We're watching that every night now.

I'm hoping the packages come early tomorrow.  They have parts that I can use to continue work on the new Chevy.

Day 3283

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I decided to do some work in the garage.

I installed the additional battery holder that I bought a few days ago.  I had to modify it a little, but it came out good.  Then I re-positioned some of the ones I installed earlier to make the batteries easier to access.  Then I unboxed Melissa's present and took the shipping box to the recycle.   Finally I got some parts for the RC work and took them along with Melissa's present to the house.

I'd planned on replacing the connectors on the batteries I'd purchased last week.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough connectors.  I ended up replacing two, along with making up a connector conversion wire.  Of course I ordered more connectors.  I also ordered a box for the took instructions and a couple of lights for the new RC.

By then it was almost 1.  I fixed a salad for lunch.  As I was sitting down the water softener guy came.  He got to work and I ate lunch followed by some surfing.

It took a couple of hours for the new install.  The installer showed me the insides of the old softener.  It was trashed.  He totally redid the plumbing around the softener and put in a smaller salt tank.  There's a lot more room in the well house now.

I sat down to watch videos and fell asleep.  I woke up in time to feed the cats.

After a few more videos I had leftovers for dinner.  The rest of the evening was videos and surfing.

Day 3282

 I woke up at 8 and played games until almost 9.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that Ellen sat in the can for a while while I surfed.  When she got out we went to Barton Square.  

It was 53 degrees and raining, so it wasn't surprising that there weren't a lot of people.  We had a fun time walking around the mall.  We covered it all.  We also spent about $1K.  We bought Sophia bracelets for her graduation.  We also bought Ellen a purse.  I got a $10 bauble.  We also each got a pair of shoes.  They we buy one 50% off in addition to a 10% discount.

We finished up with lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  The food was really good.  We ordered smoothies and they were great also.  The bill came to about $50.  Not bad.

It was getting towards 3 when we left.  Traffic was building, but it wasn't bad yet.  We stopped at the pet store and bought $200 of cat food.  That way we won't have to stop for a long time.  Then it was home.

I sat down in the recliner, turned on videos, and fell asleep.  I didn't wake up for over an hour.  I fed the cats and then went back to videos.

Dinner was leftovers.  I wasn't very hungry.  After dinner was more videos.

It was a fun day.

Day 3281

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did some surfing.

Eventually I decided to do a little work on the new RC truck.  It turned out to be almost no work.  I decided I needed to upgrade the steering links.  I spent a lot of time fighting with Amain's worthless search engine to find some.  No luck.  Then I went to Amazon and found some in 5 minutes.  That killed a lot of the morning.  It also killed my desire to work on the truck.

The water guy came at 10.  He said that the water softener was toast.  It will be $6,000 or $7,000 for a new one.  I'm pissed that our $12K softener only lasted for 12 years while being used half time.  Oh well, at least we can afford it.

It was after noon and I was hungry.  I also needed to buy some cereal.  Ellen said Randall's had a sale.  We got in the car and went there.  It turns out that the sale was expired.  No cereal, but we found some other things.  We also got flu shots, which came with a 10% off your purchase coupon.

I decided that I'd rather have pizza than eat some where, so we bought one and took it home.  Ellen put bacon on it to make it better.  It did.

After lunch I still didn't feel like RC.  Instead I got out some Lego builds that had come somewhat apart.  I got their instructions and Ellen and I started reconstructing them.  We ended up doing 5 builds.  Three are complete and the other two are missing minor things.  We might take them to the Lego store tomorrow.

I picked up a couple of packages before dinner.  One was a big heavy thing for Melissa that I needed the handcart for.

After dinner (leftovers) it was videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3280

 After all that worry today turned out pretty well.

I woke up at 6, fed the cats, and started to get ready to go.  That included having Ellen squirt water up my ass.  It did what it was supposed to and we left about 6:45.

Traffic was already building up on Loop 1.  It was slowed down, but not stopped, at Slaughter.  I got in the William Cannon exit lane and cruised because it was empty.  The closer I got to the exit the lighter the traffic.  That allowed me to pull back on just before the exit.  WIN.  The rest of the trip went smoothly, almost no traffic.

We got the the imaging place about 7:15.  I expected to wait.  No, they open at 6.  I did have to wait almost an hour to get in though.  That gave me plenty of time to go to the bathroom.  The instructions said to take the laxative 12-16 hours before the procedure.  I chose 12.  I should have chosen 16.  I had diarrhea at least twice while waiting and felt like I had to shit all the time during the procedure.

The procedure itself went fine.  I changed into the medical PJ's and got put in their noisy tube.  I was in the tube for 28 minutes.  I even fell asleep momentarily.  This time I didn't feel the contrast at all.  Last time it made me want to pee.  The tech said the images were of good quality.  I waited in recovery for a little while and then got dressed and left.

We immediately went to the Dutch Brothers a mile or so away.  There was a Whataburger in the same parking lot.  It turns out they have a really good pancakes and bacon breakfast.  We took our coffee there and had breakfast.  ANOTHER WIN.

The next stop was the post office.  There were 3 Amain packages there.  Traffic to William on 290 was really light.  The last stop was HEB.  The laxatives were still working on me.  I had diarrhea three times while I was there.  After that I was dry for the rest of the day, but it was hours before I quit feeling like I needed to take a shit.

When I got home I opened the packages.  There were some batteries, parts for another build, a 1/24 truck, and a motor/transmission for it.  It wasn't 11 yet.  I decided to mod the truck.

It turns out that replacing the motor and transmission involves disassembling a lot of the truck.  I got that done and then ran into a problem.  The coupler between the transmission and the rear drive line had a misaligned hole for the pin.  That was no problem in the original, but the new transmission had tighter tolerances.

It should have taken a minute to connect the drive line.  Instead I spent over an hour in the garage with a drill expanding the hole in the coupler and the one inn the transmission output shaft.  I barely got everything to work.  Then I went back to the house to put everything back together.  LOSE.

I had a hell of a time putting the thing back together.  The parts blow ups weren't accurate and I'd forgotten how some of it went together.  I spent a lot of time trying to get the front drive shafts to stay in place as I was doing the assembly.  I also got the gear lever wrong.  I didn't find that out until everything was together.  That meant taking it all apart again.  Finally, I had one screw left over.  It took a while to find where it went.  On the other hand every time I dropped a part I found it immediately.  Also the motor connector on the new ESC matches the one on the motor/transmission (different manufacturers).  PART WIN, PART LOSE.

It was after 5 when I got the truck put together and everything put away.  I'll probably mount the new electronics and change the battery connector tomorrow.

I didn't have lunch because I wasn't hungry.  Ellen fixed hot turkey sandwiches for dinner.  After dinner it was videos for the evening.

Day 3279

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done I went out to the garage.

The first order of business is to finally complete the RC sorting.  It didn't take long, but it felt really good to get it down.  Then I started to haul the Christmas tree stuff to the house.  Then new tree is too heavy to lift.  I had to get a hand cart from the back storage building.  It took two trips, one for the tree and one for the decorations (two large and one small plastic boxes).

We got the tree assembled after some difficulty.  The pieces are heavy and hard to connect.  Then I started unpacking decorations while Ellen test a light string for the Star Trek lights.  When she was done she started hanging decorations.  I started surfing.

It took Ellen a long time to finish the tree.  That's because she spent a lot of time in the can.  I saw that there was a package at the gate.  I went out to get it.  It contained the new drill battery holders.  I went to the garage, took the old ones down, and installed the new ones.  When I got back Ellen had the tree done and I took the boxes and handcart back to the garage.

After that I surfed while Ellen watched chick flicks.  The plan was to take the laxatives at 6.  At 5:30 I read the box.  I'd purchased the wrong stuff.  I made a quick trip to CVS to get the right stuff.  I still ingested the pills at 6.

The rest of the evening was surfing and waiting for the pills to take effect.  It's after 9 and they haven't.  The box says they take 8 to 12 hours.  I'll probably be getting up in the middle of the night.