Day 3359

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a little surfing before going out to get some chores done.

Abby has been vomiting because she's drinking water from the pond.  I got out a tarp to cover the pond with.  I also needed some rocks to weight down the edges of the tarp.  I got out the Gorilla cart.  When I did that I noticed that the softener needed salt, so I put in two bags.  The carts wheels were flat, so I inflated them.  Then I went out to the woods behind the garage and filled the cart with medium sized rocks.

After all of that I was ready to cover the pond.  I had Ellen help me spread it out.  Then I used the rocks to hold it from folding up into the pond.  They'll also keep Abby from getting under it.  I actually had to get three more from behind the fence.  We'll see this will work.

 After that I put everything away and took a load of garbage to the cans.  I also went to the furnace filters in both the house and the apartment to get their sizes. 

By then it was 11.  We drove to Dripping Springs and took Abby to the park to run.  It was a warm day and we had a good walk.  Then we had lunch at the pizza place there.  I mad a quick sop at HEB before we left.  We also stopped at Home Depot to get salt and furnace filters.  Then it was back home.

I unloaded 80 lbs of salt, installed the three new filters, and took the old ones to the garbage.  The new shelves for the garage came.  I was tired though, so I just surfed for a while. Ellen left for the doctor.  I'd recovered so I went out to the garage and assembled the shelves.  They will work great.  After one more trip to the garbage I went inside to do more surfing.

Ellen was watching chick flicks, so I surfed some more and had leftovers for dinner.  Eventually the chick flicks were over and we watched videos for the rest of the evening.

Abby is a tired doggy tonight.

Day 3358

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Today was a bit of a disappointment.  I wanted to go shooting, but there was a cold front going through.  Sixty degrees with the wind blowing was not the kind of weather that I wanted to go shooting in.

I ended up surfing for a while instead.  That got boring, but I really couldn't think of anything useful to do.  I decided to go shopping instead. 

I got on Aliexpress and spent hours looking through their sales categories.  I actually found about 5 items that I really wanted.  All of them cost less than $15 total.  It was cheap entertainment.  

Ellen spent a lot of the day watching chick flicks.  I would make comment occasionally.  Eventually I was tired of shopping and sat down to listen.  Her asshole started giving her trouble, so I got to switch to videos.

The rest of the evening was videos.

Day 3357

 I woke up at 6 (by choice) and played games for a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a little surfing and then we left to do errands.  We left Abby at home because it was warm today.

Our first stop was HEB.  We need a lot of the usual things.  Then we went to the post office.  The last stop was Costco.  We went through the entire store.  We got the water and drinks that we needed.  I saw a small shelving unit that I picked up.  I need something else to hold RC cars in the garage.

After that we went home and unloaded the car.  Then we took Abby to Circle C.  She had a great time.  We had a good walk enjoying the warm weather.  We met a Visla on the way.  Abby had fun playing with it.  Unfortunately it was at the end of the walk and she was a little hot and tired.

We stopped at the Italian place when the walk was done.  Again, the warm weather was nice.

When we got home I went to the garage to assemble the new shelving.  It went together easily.  Better yet it fit exactly where I wanted it to.  I rearranged some stuff and got back a lot of work area that had been taken up by RC stuff.  There's also a lot of room left for cars that are in the spare bedroom. 

When I got back to the house it was a little surfing followed by videos.  The videos led to a nap.  I was rudely interrupted by a junk phone call.

Dinner was leftovers followed by more videos.

Day 3356

 I woke up before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I surfed for a while.  I'd planned on going to Costco early in the day.

Unfortunately Ellen's asshole was giving her real problems.  She spent the whole morning in and out of the can.  By the time she was finished I was no longer interested.  Instead I decided to do a couple of minor things.

I did a little cleanup, took out the garbage, and then tried to get the weather station by the door to work.  After a fair amount of messing around it was apparent that it was broken.  That lead me to look for a replacement on both Aliexpress and Amazon.  I found one on Amazon that Ellen liked and that was on sale.  On a whim I looked for the micro-b.  It was in stock.

That set off a long session of looking for micro-b stuff on Amain, Aliexpress, and Amazon.  I ended up ordering the car from Amazon and a couple of parts from Aliexpress.

By then Ellen was working on putting masking on the Reflex body.  I decided to build up the connecting rods I'd already bought for the micro-b.  The car won't be here for a week or more.

When that was done I switched to videos.  I watched them through dinner (hot dogs) and for a while afterwards.  Then I switched to the computer to watch videos about stuff for the trailer.  It's time to start thinking about it.

Tomorrow we will go to Costco.  Hopefully the dog will get a run, too.

Day 3355

 I woke up at 7:30, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I surfed for a little while and then it was time to take Cooper to the vet.

The vet said Cooper was healing nicely, but wanted to see him again in a week.  They also gave us more pills for him.  It was a nice day, mid-60's, so we went over to the park behind HEB.  I took Abby for a walk while Ellen stayed in the car with Cooper.  I took Abby around the fields, up to the far woods, and back to the car.  She did great.  She followed every command, kept in touch with me at all times, and even patiently waited while some kid petted her.

When that was done we went to the cake place and ordered a birthday cake.  They said it was good we signed up early.  They already have 150 cakes to make between now and our birthday in 4 weeks.  After a stop at HEB for gas we went home. 

I had one of the Waterloo pancakes for lunch.  After heating it up in the microwave it was really good.  After lunch Ellen cut my hair.  Then we did a little planning on painting the Reflex body.  I took the Reflex out to the garage and cut down the body mounts so I could put magnets on them.   I'll have to wait until the body is painted to install them.

Somehow I got looking at Aliexpress again.  That cost a fair amount of time and an $11 order. 

Dinner was Waterloo quesadillas.  After dinner was videos.

Day 3354

 I woke up at 8, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a little surfing.  It was up to mid 50's, so I was just waiting for it to warm up enough to walk the dog.

I got tired of surfing and started to plan out painting the Reflex.  Ellen got involved and we came up with a plan.  I got out my decal/sticker stash and started looking for something that might simplify the painting.

It got to be time to walk the dog and got to lunch. We went to Circle C because it had misted all day yesterday and the ground was a little muddy.  We parked by the dog park, but there weren't many in the park.  We walked down to Escarpment.  There was a GSP there.  The people were friendly and we talked while the dogs ran all around.  It was great for Abby.

We stopped at Waterloo for lunch.  I order pancakes, quesadillas, and two boxes to put the leftovers in.  There was enough left over for another big meal.  We stopped at HEB for TP, OJ, bread and bananas.  It was 59 degrees when we got home.

I did a little bit more on the Reflex and then started watching videos for the rest of the day.  

Ellen fixed hot dogs for dinner.  We'll eat the Waterloo leftovers tomorrow.

I forgot to turn off the heat today.  I'll do that tomorrow. 

All in all it was a classic doggy day.

Day 3353

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was still below 40, so I did some surfing.  After a little bit of that I went back to the Reflex.

It was too cold to go to the garage, so I programmed the car.  That was pretty easy because I could use a programmer.  Setting the steering was a little more of a problem.  I had to relearn how to reverse the action of the servo.  Finally I worked on the lights.  I got out my parts stash and installed a red LED in a light housing.  It was a perfect fit in the back of the car.

After that I went back to surfing.  It was still took cold to work in the garage.  Eventually it got up to 40 and I decided to go.  It was only 50 in the garage - cold.  I took a bunch of stuff with me to put away.  Then I drilled a hole in the wing to mount the rear light and enlarged the hole in the front light mount so it fit the mounting screw.  

When I got back to the house I mounted the two lights and routed the wires.  By then it was after 1 and time for lunch.  After lunch I soldered everything together and tested it.  At that point building the car is DONE.  (That's not strictly true.  The body still needs painting and then mounting).

I spent quite a while putting everything away.  Then I packed up all of the leftover pieces from the kit.  The final thing was to take out a bunch of garbage.  It was Abby's high point of the day.

The rest of the evening was a mix of surfing, videos, and a little reading.

It's 40 right now and it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow.  We'll see.

Day 3352

 I woke up at 7 today because I couldn't go back to sleep.  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.

I'd intended to work on the Reflex today, but it didn't happen.  The chief reason was that it was still really cold, under 40, and I needed to do a little work in the garage to make progress.  I did discover that the wheel hexes on the Reflex were too thin to work with any standard 12mm wheel.  That lead me to Aliexpress to find better ones.  Oh well, there went the rest of the day.

I stayed on Aliexpress for most of the day.  I was just really looking for more stuff to buy.  Of course I was successful.

There was another Chinese package at the post office, so a little after noon we left to pick it up.  After that we stopped at the Satellite restaurant in Circle C.  We'd avoided it for years because when we first got her they didn't allow dogs.  Apparently they changed that years ago.  The waitress was horrified at the thought that dogs were banned.  The food there is pretty good, but really expensive.  The lunch selection is pretty limited, too.  It won't be a regular place for us to go.

We stopped at the coffee place on Slaughter on the way home in honor or the cold.  I was embarrassed at paying $6 for a cup of coffee. 

When we got home I went back to Aliexpress.  Eventually I bought about $40 of stuff when I originally was looking for a $3 set of wheel hexes.  It's kind of like when we go grocery shopping and end up with three bags of food when we went in for OJ and bananas.

I switched to videos when the shopping was done.  I ended up watching a series of 1/2 hour shows on different topics.  It was a good change from my usual 5 minute or under choices.

It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow.  I hope so.  I really want to get the other things done on the Reflex.

Day 3351

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cold again today, 26, so I just surfed for a while.

Eventually I got out the Reflex.  Now that I had all of the parts I made real progress.  I soldered the connectors onto the ESC and installed it.  Then I wired everything up and centered the servo.  I had to put together the servo saver.  That took some effort.  The spring was really hard to install.  After that I hooked up the steering.  The last mechanical thing that I had to do was attach the wing.  That was easy.

The rest of the work was electrical.  I did some of the wiring routing.  That was difficult because it's a small car and there isn't a lot of room.  I got an email that the Chinese stuff was at the post office.  So I stopped work and we went to the post office.

We also stopped at the pet store for cat food.  It was past lunch time, so we stopped at Culver's on the way back.  Their hamburgers are pretty good and I really like their french fries.

When we got back Ellen turned on videos.  I decided to watch also.  That took us to past dinner (frozen).  Eventually I got bored with that and went back to the Reflex.  I basically finished the build.  I installed the receiver, capacitors, and power switch.  I also finished the wire routing.  The last thing was putting on the tires.

The next steps are programming the car and installing the lights.  Installing the lights will involve a little work in the garage.  I'm hoping it will be a little warmer tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic.

Day 3350

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  The temperature was 19 degrees.

After breakfast I surfed for a while.  Then I got out the Reflex.  I tried to make some progress on it, but there wasn't much I could do until the pinion gear and servo were delivered.  I ended up doing a couple of small things and a lot of planning.  I did find the lights that I want to put on in my spare parts stash.  The front will be easy.  The back will be hard.

Fortunately the servo showed up about noon.  I tried to install it, but it turns out that the servo mount needs to be disassembled first.  That disgusted me, so I went back to surfing.  That eventually turned to videos.

The pinion showed up in the late afternoon.  Unfortunately it had been shipped USPS, so it was in the mailbox.  I wasn't going to make the 1/2 mile walk in 20 degree weather, so I took the car.  When I got back I went back to videos.

I watched videos through dinner (Ellen fixed sausage and hash browns) and into the evening.  I got bad and went back to work on the Reflex.  I installed the pinion and motor.  The kit actually has a really neat mechanism to set the gear mesh.  It was easy and really accurate.  I also installed the servo.  I can't hook it up until I've centered the servo.

I also made a small mod to the ESC mount so I could route the motor wires better.  At that point I decided to quit for the night and watch Gutfeld.  The next steps involve the soldering iron.

It's supposed to be cold for another three days, so I'll have plenty of time to do the remaining things.

Day 3349

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was a long surfing session.

The big thing on the agenda today was to install a new thermostat in the apartment.  It wasn't that hard, just a little time consuming.  Ellen did the programming.  When I was done I spent some time in the garage putting away stuff that I'd been just dumping there.  The next act was to take out the garbage and recycle.  It's only Tuesday, but I don't want to have to do it tomorrow when it's 19 degrees out.  Most of it was RC stuff.  The final act was to turn on the heaters in the trailer and well house.

I was a little burned out on the Reflex, so when I got back to the house it was a long surfing session.  That lasted until after lunch.  It got boring, so I decided to get out the Reflex.

The assembly problems continued.  This time it wasn't the kit's fault.  I'd purchased a pinion gear for it a while back.  The manufacturer is a good one.  Unfortunately they screwed this one up by not completely threading the grub screw hole.  It's worthless.  I spent some time ordering another.  It's supposed to be her tomorrow.  We'll see.

I found a few other things to work on.  I installed the sway bars and put together part of the servo connection.  That really is all I can do until the pinion is here.

It was 60 when I was outside in the morning.  By 4 it was down to the low 50's.  By 7 or so it was down to 29.  They were right about the Arctic air. 

I spent the rest of the evening watching videos.  Cooper spent the whole time on my lap.  Abby was not happy and kept trying to get me to switch to her.

Day 3348

 I woke up at 7 and played games for an hour.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Ellen called the vet and we have an appointment for  Cooper at 3:30.  His breath really stinks and we want him looked at.

I did a little surfing and then got to work on the Reflex. My problem building it continued, only this time it was pretty much my fault.  I completed the back suspension and put together the tie rods.  Installing the tie rods showed up a big problem.  The A arms for the front and back are slightly different lengths.  I'd mixed them up.  I had to take apart both the front and back suspensions, switch one set of arms, and put everything back together.

When I was finished it had warmed up to 53 degrees.  We decided to take Abby to Circle C.  When we got there there was a GSP.  Abby had a great time running around and wrestling with him.  Eventually we walked over to Escarpment and back.  Abby did great exploring the woods, but not forgetting to check in frequently.  After that we went home for lunch.

I spent the time until 3 surfing and then we left for the vet.  The vet looked Cooper over and said that the smell was from food in the socket.  Other than that he looks OK.  We'll take him back in a week.

I got a chance to weigh Abby while we were at the vet.  She weighs 34.4 lbs.  GREAT.

We stopped at HEB on the way home to stock up a little bit.   When we got home it was surfing until after dinner (BBQ turkey sandwich).  Then I went back to working on the Reflex.  I got a little done and then ran into a "missing" part (a ball stud).  I looked all over for it.  Then I went looking on Amain and Amazon for a replacement.  They had them, but the packages were expensive.  I decided to wait until tomorrow and look at the parts collections in the garage.

As I was putting things away I found the part.  It was in the parts case under a tool.  After hours of looking for the missing part I was able to put the shocks on.  I still have a little bit of work that I can do before I have to wait for the servo.  It isn't due for almost a week.

After I put everything away for the night I watched videos. 

Abby is a tired dog.  She went into the bedroom to her bed before 8.

Day 3347

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was only 42 degrees out.  I wanted to wait until it was warmer and then we'd take the dog for a run and a bath.

I filled some time surfing and then went back to work on the Reflex. At first it was just a standard build.  Then the problems showed up.  First was an instruction problem.  They showed a piece that wasn't in the kit.  I spent a lot of time looking for it.  Eventually I found out by looking at further pages that the part actually look a lot different than what is pictured.  This is a problem with the American manufacturer.

The next problem was also an instruction problem.  The instructions had me attach a part.  Several steps later it was necessary to remove this part and install an additional part using the same screws.  The instructions didn't mention this.  They were drawn as if the part removal wasn't necessary.

The last problem was a classic case of Cheap Chinese Shit.  The seal on one of the wheel bearings fell off.  Unfortunately I didn't have a replacement, so I just put the seal back on the bearing and installed it.

By then it was warm enough to take Abby out.  We went to Circle C because the collar wasn't charged.  I put it on her anyway.  When we got there they'd set up a temporary dog park using movable chain link fence.  There were several people/dog combinations there.  Abby had fun running with all of the other dogs.

When we were done there we went to Torchy's for lunch.  They were selling Girl Scout cookies outside and we bought some.  It was pretty warm enough to eat outside.  The next stop was the dog store where Abby got a bath.  She came out softer, less greasy, whiter, and with a dog cookie.  The last stop was the post office.

I went back to work on the Reflex when we got back.  I did a few more steps and quit when I got tired of working on it.  I did a little more surfing and then switched to videos. 

Ellen fixed sausage from the BBQ place for dinner.  It was really good.  After dinner was more videos and surfing.

Day 3346

 I woke up at 7:30 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we left for Hondo.  It was about 8:20.

We made good time going to Hondo.  We arrived there at little before 10:30.  The appointment was at 11, so we had to wait.  They were out running the dogs. 

The appointment lasted about an hour.  We talked about how she was doing.  They think that she's great.  Then we took her out to the field to do retrieves.  They had me shoot using a 20 ga side by side that shot really low.  

Abby did great on the first bird.  It took a little time to have her calm down, but she responded well to the commands to change direction.  She ended with a beautiful point.  When the bird flushed I broke its wing.  Abby stayed still until she was released.  She went back on point because the bird wasn't dead.  The lady picked it up, killed it, and threw it a little ways.  She had me shoot when she threw it.  Abby did a good retrieve on it then.

Abby found the second bird a lot faster.  Again she pointed really solid.  I wounded the bird.  The lady released Abby.  Abby went and got the bird and brought it back still alive.  The lady also put out a bird for Mini, but I couldn't shoot it because it flew directly behind the lady.

After that we spent a lot of time talking about how to control Abby and keep her doing what she's been trained to do. 

We paid the bill ($3,000) and were back on the road a little after noon.

We stopped at the BBQ place and got some smoked turkey and sausage.  I'm not overly fond of their brisket.  Then we stopped at a burger place in Del Rio to pick up lunch.  The hamburgers were huge.

The rest of the trip was pretty normal.  There was a big tie up just as we got on I35.  Some asshole's van was stopped in the lane next to the fast lane.  There were also a couple of small slow downs later on.  We almost got rear ended at one.  I almost hit someone at another where they slammed on their brakes in front of me.

We got cheap gas at the HEB in Kyle on the way home.  We were home by 3:30.

The cats are thrilled to have the dog back.  Devon is still hissing at Cooper.  They both hid in the bedroom.

Abby is REALLY happy to be home.  She kept switching between laps all night whie we watched videos.

Day 3345

 I woke up a little after 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was surfing.  When I got tired of that I went to work on Ellen's car.

The first step was to install the electronics.  They wouldn't fit without a little modification to the frame.  I took the car out to the garage and went to work with the Dremel.  When I was done the ESC and receiver fit pretty well.

The next step was to charge up a battery.  The new charger works nice, but the instructions that came with it sucked.  Luckily the ones on the web were much better.  I printed out a copy to keep with the charger.  With the battery charged I bound the receiver to the transmitter and tested the motor connection.  I got it right the first time (yellow is positive, blue is negative).

After that it was setting up the steering trim and end points.  The ESC is not programmable, so that was it.  There was a pretty big cleanup effort.  It was past lunch time, so we went to the post office to pick up the  Chinese packages.  Then we stopped at Culvers on the way back home.

I did the cleanup - putting away tools, the soldering stuff, a little garbage, etc.  It's nice to look at that end of the table and see nothing but the work mat and tool case.  I'll be resuming work on the Reflex shortly.  It's been many weeks.

The rest of the day switched back and forth between videos and surfing.  I'd get bored with one and switch to the other. 

We're supposed to be in Hondo at 11 tomorrow to see Abby.  That means getting up at 7:30.

Cooper seems to doing well.  Devon is almost willing to put up with him now.  We separated them when we left today.  Maybe they can stay together tomorrow.

Day 3344

 I woke up at 6:30, got up, packed up the cats and took them to the vet.

Once we dropped the cats off we stopped at IHOP for breakfast.  That was followed by Dutch Bros for coffee.  We stopped at HEB for fuel and groceries.  We were headed back home by 9.  Wow.  That's about the time I usually get out of bed.

When I got home I did a little surfing.  Aliexpress sent me a message about a sale they were having.  That got me started looking at stuff on their website.  I ended up making two orders. 

I actually spent the whole day on Aliexpress.  I didn't finish until almost 8.

We picked the cats up at 4.  When we got home Devon was being shitty of course.  The vet put them on half rations today, and soft food only for 10 days.  We tried to give Cooper a pain pill, but he fought so much that he started bleeding.

Ellen fixed chicken and rice for dinner.

I'll have to work on Ellen's car tomorrow.

Day 3343

 I woke up at 8:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I did some surfing.  Then I went to work on Ellen's mini-b.  It was nice not to face another problem with the contraption.

All the work I had to do involved soldering.  I had to put both motor and battery connectors on the ESC.  I also had to put connectors on the motor.  In addition I had a battery that needed a connector.

I'd ordered 4mm connectors for the motor, but they hadn't come.  I replaced the battery connector on the ESC.  Then I did the battery.  After I finished I noticed that connector I'd put on had the wire colors reversed.  CRAP.  I had to remove the connector as well as the one I'd put on another battery awhile back.  I marked the wrong connectors with a big label so I wouldn't do that again.

I couldn't do any more soldering until the connectors came in.  I spent the rest of the afternoon surfing with some videos thrown in.

After dinner the connectors arrived and I went out to get them.  I almost lost Cooper.  He snuck out when I wasn't looking and I didn't notice it.  I walked up to the gate, got the package, and returned to the house.  Cooper wasn't inside when I got back.  After searching inside for a short time I went outside and started calling for him.  I did that for a couple of minutes and then started walking towards the truck.  Cooper was walking towards me across the yard.  He'd been outside for at least 10 to 15 minutes.  I'm very lucky he didn't go too far and came back when I called.

I needed something to take my mind off the near catastrophe, so I started to solder the new connectors on the motor and ESC.  It went pretty well.  The last step will be determining the polarity of the ESC outputs.  They are documented and the wire colors are yellow and blue.  Fucking Chinese.

When I was putting the connectors away I discovered that I'd had a bunch of 4mm connectors already.  Crap.  Getting old sucks. 

The rest of the evening was surfing.  We have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow to take the cats to get their teeth cleaned.  That made for an early bedtime.

Day 3342

 I woke up a little after 7:30 and played games.  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It rained for most of the day, a total of 2 inches.  I surfed while Ellen worked on her part of the contraption.  When she had it all done I tested it.

It sort of worked.  There were some places where parts interfered, just like when I built my part.  I showed her what needed to be done and she went to work.  Unfortunately the fixes weren't easy.  I did a little surfing and then got the mini-b's from the garage. 

I removed the electronics from Ellen's mini-b.  I was going to replace them, but I needed connectors from the garage.  It was raining WAY too hard to go get them.  I went back to surfing.

Ellen got her changes made and I tried another test.  There was one big failure.  Ellen went back to repair and I continued surfing.  Eventually I got to the garage.  Unfortunately the connectors that I have aren't optimal.  I ended up ordering some from Amazon.  They should be here in the morning.

Ellen's third try was a charm.  Everything worked fine.  I put the contraption on top of the refrigerator.  It looks good up there.  Hopefully the cats will leave it alone.  Then we both put away all of the extra pieces.  A lot more of the table area is clear now.  

Ellen started watching chick flicks.  I surfed some more.  Eventually she switched to videos (thank God).  I joined her.

Ellen fixed chili dogs for dinner.  After dinner we both watched videos.

Day 3341

 I woke up a little before 8 and played games.  After some time I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did some surfing and then went back to work on the contraption.

My attempts to improve on the operation of one feature just hadn't worked out.  I'd spent a lot of time on them with no improvement.  I decided to go back to the original design and reexamine it.  As I was redoing it the way the instructions said I realized that I had put it together wrong originally.  How embarrassing.  When I assembled it correctly everything worked fine.

There was one final thing to do.  There was an odd assembly that produces an intermittent bell like sound.  I spent hours trying to get it to work.  I finally gave up and just made sure that it matched the instructions.  As I was doing the final test I asked Ellen to come over and see if she could her a bell sound.  She said of course.  I'd spent all that time trying to make the contraption make a sound that I can't hear.  Apparently I was successful.

After that I gave the contraption to Elle so she could attach here contraption.  I cleaned everything up and got out the Typhoon Grom.  I'd  purchased a set of lights for it from China and I wanted to install them.  They looked much better than the cobbled together ones that I'd put on it.  I removed the old ones and installed the new.  They look and work great.  It felt good to work on something other than the contraption.

The packages from Amain were at the post office.  We drove over to get them.  On the way back we stopped at Culvers so Ellen could get a hamburger.  I also got notifications that the two Chinese packages have cleared US customs.  Yeah.  I thought Trump had closed that down.

The rest of the day and evening was spent surfing and watching videos.  It's getting colder.  The temperature didn't get about 50 today.

Day 3340

 I woke up about 8, played games and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing I went back to working on the contraption.

It didn't take long to put it back together.  Then I made the mistake of test running it.  It did OK, but definitely had a problem of some sort.  I couldn't resist messing with it.  That led to a multi hour attempt to improve the operation.

The customization I made yesterday had improved the operation significantly.  I decided to do another.  It didn't work out so well.  I ended up removing it.  The effort did show that there is at least one more thing that needs to be fine tuned.  It was well after lunch time, so I decided it could wait for another day.

Ellen was in the middle of a chick flick marathon so I went back to surfing.  Eventually I got sick of that and read a couple of magazines.  At 5:30 the stupid bowl came on.  It was supposed to be between two real strong teams.  It turned out to be a laugher.  At least a few of the commercials were good.  I spent much of the game playing games on my tablet.

The game ended a little before bed time.  I continued to play games until then.

The weather is much colder today.  It didn't get above 55. 

Ellen got a text from the trainer.  We'll go see Abby on Sat.

Day 3349

 I woke up at 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast, followed by a little surfing.  Eventually I got back to work on the contraption.

I started by trying to loosen up everything that moves.  After a lot of tweaking I got it to run on 5 volts.  With that done I finished the construction.  That was basically bolting the hardware to the base.  It wasn't quite as easy as it sounds.  I was really happy to put the completed contraption on Ellen's work pad so that she could add here's to it.  She was too busy watching chick flicks to do anything.

I surfed for a while, but got bored.  I decided to start on a couple of RC things.  I built a Xt60 to XT30 adapter for the new charger that's coming.  I also changed the connector on a battery that I'd bought a while back.  When I finished and was putting things away I discovered that my test power supply has a USB adapter output.  

When I connected it to the contraption it was not running smoothly.  I decided to lube every moving part on it.  That improved things.  However, it also showed that an interference that I thought I'd fixed was still there and really problematical.  Unfortunately fixing it involved a difficult disassembly.

I got things apart and discovered that once again, the Chinese had come up with a lousy design.  There was just no way for it to work.  I realized that I had to cobble something new out of the left over parts.  I took quite a while to come up with something workable.  The result involved a lock washer, a grub screw, and a complete redesign and construction of a 6 piece sub-assembly.

By then it was almost 7.  I put everything aside for tomorrow.  Putting everything together won't be easy and I won't be able to fully test it until I do.  I hope it all works as planned.

After that I had a late dinner of leftovers followed by videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3348

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did some surfing.  I really didn't want to start on the contraption right away.

Eventually I got to work.  It turned out not to be very hard to remove the motor.  It only took four screws and the motor dropped out.  I took apart the gear assembly to decide what to do.  I decided to lock the internal parts by adding a nut.  That will allow me to use a grub screw if I want.  I also replaced the crush washer with a new one.  Then I reassembled everything with a strong emphasis on blue thread lock.  After that I put the motor aside to allow the thread lock to dry.

I started going through the contraption looking for anything that might be problematical.  I re-positioned a couple of parts that were interfering.  I also loosened some that were too tight.  I also added a grub screw to a gear that was slipping.  I think I got it running as smoothly as possible.

It was 2 by the time I got everything buttoned up and some cleaning done.  We needed some milk and OJ, some we went to the post office and HEB.  When we got home I did some surfing.  Ellen fixed a HEB pizza we bought for a very late lunch/early dinner.  After a while I switched to videos. 

I took a little time from videos to put more glue on the Audi gas cap lanyard.  Unfortunately I got some in the wrong place.  I may have wrecked it.  I also test the contraption.  The good news is that the motor stays attached to the gear.  The bad news is that it needs 10 volts to run the contraption.  CRAP.  I so want to be done with it.

I went back to videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3347

 I woke up a little after 7.  After playing games I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I'd planned on going shooting, but the day was cool and cloudy.  I should have gone as later it cleared up and was warm.  I did a little surfing instead and then started working on the contraption.

Most of the remaining steps weren't complicated, but some of them were mechanically difficult.  When I got to step 108 (of 114) things went south.  The step involved wiring up the various power inputs, LEDs, switch, and motor.  It was all supposed to be connected using a terminal block.  Unfortunately the terminal block was cheap Chinese shit.  Some of the terminals wouldn't hold wires.  I ended up soldering a lot of the wires together.

Once that was done it was time to do a final functional check using the motor.  It failed miserably.  I went through everything and corrected a couple of interferences that were holding things up.  It still didn't work.  Eventually I figured out that the drive gear was slipping on the motor shaft.

The drive gear has grub screw holes, but the design doesn't use them.  Instead it uses a screw that screws into the end of the motor shaft.  The result just doesn't work. I had to disassemble part of the device to tighten the screw.  I put everything together and it worked for a short time before the screw came loose again.  I'm going to have to take more of the device apart and totally redo the connection between the motor shaft and the drive gear.

I'd spent most of the day on the stupid thing, so I decided to quit for the day.  I did a lot of surfing instead. 

Ellen fixed coconut shrimp for dinner.  It was from Costco.  It was as good as any I've had at a restaurant.  It probably was the same as what the restaurant uses

After dinner was videos.  I tried to watch a couple of movies, but I quit both of them because they were boring.

Day 3346

 Last night's sleep wasn't particularly good.  I had a fever and it took over an hour to get to sleep.  Then it was a light sleep with some distressing dreams.  Finally I gave up and got up at 7.  I did the pet stuff, had breakfast, and did a little surfing.  Then we left for Dripping Springs to get the truck's batteries replaced.

The truck BARELY started.  If it had been a cold morning it probably wouldn't have.  I think we stopped at every light from home to the repair place.  We did get there about 8:30.  We spent about 2 hours surfing while the work was being done.  After $650 we were back on the road.

We stopped at Dutch Bros on the way back.  I needed it after the bad night and early start.  Then it was ACE for bird seed.  We noticed that the new Italian place was open, but it was too early for lunch.  We went to HEB instead and bought some stuff for future dinners.  Then we went back across the street and had lunch at the Italian place.

The food was pretty good, but a little expensive.  The portions were big.  We both ended up taking home about half of it.  When we got home Ellen started watching a chick flick.  I began making up the Amain order.

My original goal was to get a $50 order of paint and some small stuff.  Then I ran across a $30 charger that I wanted.  Following that I saw on a vendor's website that the they were planning on passing the tariff charges onto the buyer.  Finally Ellen showed me a news item that says the low value Chinese shipments (Aliexpress) have been stopped.

That changed my goal.  I decided to get whatever was necessary to hot rod the micro-b that I'll buy when it's available.  That involved a lot of time investigating options.  Eventually I decided on just buying the motor and ESC ($120).  I'll wait on the receiver until I have it in hand.

The last stop was configuring the order.  I had coupons for $100 and $125.  I had $180 in merchandise.  I needed to divide up things into an order of at least $120 and another of $100.  That meant finding $20 more stuff that I could really use.  That  took more time.  By the time I was done it was after 6.

The rest of the evening was videos.  

One more note.  Two of the items I ordered in my last Aliexpress order didn't leave China before they shut down the low cost shipments.  I bet I never see them.  Unfortunately it's for $22.

Day 3345

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Because it was the first of the month, I replaced the CPAP stuff.  This time I replaced everything except the long tube.  Then I started surfing.  I just didn't feel like working on the contraption.

Eventually I felt the urge to do something useful.  I took out the garbage.  Then Ellen and I went out to the garage to look at the paint inventory.  We made a list for what is needed for the next RC car body.

I read an email from the eye doctor.  They gave me coupons for nighttime eye drops.  They were in a PDF, so I can make additional copies whenever I want.  I took them with us to CVS.  I also had a 20% off coupon that Ellen used.  We ended up saving $10.

After that we went to Hobby Lobby to look for paint.  They didn't have any, but we bought a puzzle on sale for Martha.  We ate at the P Terry's next door.  I like their hamburgers, but I hate their fries.  The last stop was the post office for the Chinese stuff.

When we got home I started ordering paint.  That took a long time because Ellen was in an out of the can.  Eventually I got it settled.  Because it's an order from Amain I decided to spend a lot of time looking for other stuff.  I'm still looking.  I need to identify $10 more stuff to get free shipping.

I made a call to the diesel repair place.  They said to drop in tomorrow and they'll change the truck batteries.

Ellen watched chick flicks for most of the afternoon and evening while I shopped.  Dinner was a frozen thing.

Day 3344

 I woke up a little before 8, but didn't play any games.  We had to take the cats to the vet in the morning and I wanted to work on the contraption before then.  I just got up, did the pet stuff, and breakfast, and got to work.

I worked for about an hour and a half making progress on the mechanical part of the contraption.  I'm still having a good time putting it together.

At 10 we left for the vet.  Apparently the cats seem to be in good health, but they both need their teeth cleaned.  Say goodby to another $500+.  We stopped at HEB on the way home.  We also delivered the mis-delivered letter.

As soon as we got home I went back to work on the contraption.  I stopped for lunch after a while and then went back to work.  I managed to finish all of the mechanical start.  I even got a start on the base.  I got 31 steps completed (there were some really quick ones).  That puts me at 84%.  I quit because it was time to feed the cats.  Also I didn't want to work on the wiring at the end of a day.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I surfed while Ellen watched a chick flick.  Then we watched videos for a while before watching part of a Godzilla movie.

I feel a little guilty that we didn't walk today.  It was nice, almost 80.  We'll probably go on a walk tomorrow.  The stuff from China has arrived at the post office.  My timing was good.  Trump just put a 10% tariff on China yesterday.

Day 3343

 I woke up about 8, payed games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Afterwards I did the same thing as yesterday - skip surfing and work on the contraption.

I started out slowly because I misread the instructions and put something together wrong.  That just foreshadowed more problems later.  I worked until the temperature got up to 70 degrees.  Then we went out to the deck and Ellen cut my hair.

After Ellen made me beautiful we went for a walk.  I was going to deliver a mis-delivered letter that was put in our mailbox.  Unfortunately the letter didn't match any of the addresses on Madrone circle.  I left the letter in the box of the closest real address and we continued to walk around the neighborhood.  We walked towards the rich section of the development.  The lots there are much bigger and some have amazing houses on them.  Many of the driveways are hundreds of feet long.  We also found a house with the right house number for the letter, but the wrong street.  We looked in the mailbox there and noted the names on the mail.

When we got back to the Madrone Circle boxes I looked at the letter.  The name matched one of the names on the other house.  I'll put the letter in that box tomorrow.

When we got back home I had lunch, watched a few videos, and then got back to work on the contraption.  Problems continued, but this time they weren't my fault.  A clamp was too big to fit where it was needed.  I had to use the Dremel to cut it down.  There was a screw that was too long.  I got a suitable one out of my RC collection.  A threaded part had bad threads.  Fortunately there was more than one, so I just substituted a good one.  Another part that was really a sub-assembly was constructed wrong and I had to fix it.  All this took time, but I managed to complete another 24 steps total by dinner time.  Step wise that makes me 56% done.

Ellen fixed pork chops and noodles for dinner.  After dinner it was videos for the evening.

I got up to the high 70's today and it's getting hotter tomorrow.  However the weathermen are threatening a record cold snap in a week or so.  Welcome to Texas.

Day 3342

 I woke up a little before 8 and played games for a little while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I didn't surf today.  Instead I went directly to working on the contraption.

There isn't much to say about working on it.  I do really enjoy it a lot though.  I spent all morning and the early afternoon working on it.  I managed to compete the first of the two boxes of parts.  That was only 33 of the 114 steps though.  The mechanical heart of the thing is starting to take shape.

It was 75 degrees out, so we left at 2 to walk at Circle C and then go to lunch.  Ellen wanted to go to Waterloo.  She had tacos and I had a quesadilla.  After that we went back home.

Ellen started watching chick flicks and I went back to work on the contraption.  It didn't go as well for two reasons.  I had diarrhea several times.  One involved shitting all over myself and the bathroom carpet while I was taking a piss (mistook a fart).  In addition to the interruptions I wasn't running on all cylinders working on the contraption.  I kept making errors.  I finally stopped after completing 8 more steps.  That probably took twice as long as it should have.

I started surfing.  That doesn't take much mental effort.   I did that until time for bed.

Luckily the diarrhea seems to have stopped.