Day 3751

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that Abby and I went for a walk on the property.  I say walk because Abby didn't do a lot of running.  Instead she spent time sniffing the bushes, probably for mice.

I called Malone when I got back in the house.  They said that the trailer was ready.  We loaded up the dog and drove there.  Hooking up and getting out wasn't too bad.  I did have a little troubles getting the truck positioned because it needed to be almost perfectly aligned to hook up.  The drive home was quick and painless.

Parking was neither quick or painless.  It took an hour and a half of in and out of the trailer.  At one point I jammed the trailer up against a tree.  Fortunately I didn't harm the trailer, but I had to use the chainsaw to cut about half the tree away.

I had a late lunch after the trailer was parked.  I was going to work on getting things ready to leave, but I was too worn out by the parking ordeal.  I started watching videos and ended up napping instead.  When I woke up a did a little work on the Bronco.  I built a mount for a tail light and installed it.  I was going to replace the shocks, but it turned out that the OEM ones were better than the ones I purchased.  They just needed their fluid topped off.

The modem died again last night.  Spectrum delivered a new one while we were gone.  After some pain and anguish Ellen got it to work.  It's supposed to be better than the old one, I think it's worse.

I got several RC parts today.  They'll keep me busy, but I have to concentrate on getting ready to leave.  I got a folding box out of the back shed.  I plan on using it to organize what's in the basement.  No more searching through grocery bags for things.

Gerry called.  It turns out that the money I get from the annuity will probably cover the RMD for a couple of years.  After that I'll have to take it out of the IRA.

Dinner was something frozen followed by videos for the evening. 

Day 3750

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was outside to walk the property with Abby.

When I got back I decided to install the spare receiver in the Bronco.  It will be replaced in a day or two.  That went well although the process involved a short session with a Dremel.  When it was installed I started setting up the ESC and transmitter parameters.  I got the ESC done along with the steering limits.  I was working on the steering trim when the damn Spektrum servo died.  I'll have to wait until a new servo comes to finish the setup.

I started working on installing tail lights.  I found a light and LED in my spare parts.  I installed the LED and found something to make a mount out of.  Then I lost interest and quit to have lunch.  After lunch I did some shopping out of boredom.  I ended up fining a really good deal on wheels for the Bronco and ordered them.  I ordered a bunch of food at the same time.

We took Abby to a vet appointment at three.  She got a whole lot of shots.  She was smelly and greasy so on the way home we stopped at Tomlinson's and gave her a bath.

We got home just in time to feed the animals.  I watched videos for a while and then had dinner.  After dinner I took Abby out for another walk around the property.  I walked over 12,000 steps today.

The present man came several times today.  I got Hooch's presents from Amain and some option parts and food from Amazon.   More stuff is supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning.

There was no word from Malone.  I'm going to call them in the morning. 

 

Day 3749

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was in the 50's so I surfed for a little while and then began to program the Bronco.

I was under the impression that the ESC was a Hobbywing ESC like one that I already have.  I also thought that the receiver was compatible with my Flysky transmitters.  I was wrong on both counts and it took me quite a while to figure everything out.  

The ESC is indeed a version of my ESC.  Unfortunately it has different software.  That software is optimized for simplicity and crawling.  It won't work for me because I need the standard settings that this ESC doesn't support.  After many attempts I failed to get the receiver to bind with my transmitter.  I ended up ordering both an ESC and a receiver.

 To top it all off the light controller also only works with the OEM transmitter, so that's not worth anything either.  All in all the lack of compatibility of the electronics were a a real disappointment.

All of the is took a lot of time.  I stopped a little after 10 and took the dog for a walk around the place.  It was getting warm, but still pleasant.  Then I went back to the Bronco.  I worked through lunch and got it working with one of the spare mini receivers that I have.  I was starting to test features when I burned out the shift servo.  I'd forgotten to set the channel control on the transmitter to neutral and the servo burned out trying to move  something that doesn't move.

I had a collection of questionable micro servos.  I also had a new servo tester.  Two servos failed on the tester.  One had a gearbox problem.  I tried to fix it but couldn't.  The last one worked.  After that there was another struggle getting the new servo connected to the transmission.  It wasn't as bad as yesterday because I'd learned a little.  At this point the Bronco runs fine, but needs to be programmed once I get a full receiver.  I may use the spare one I have in the parts box.  I also want to install some tail lights.  That's for another day.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finding the best deal on another receiver and ESC.  Luckily I had a 17% off coupon at Amain.

Ellen fixed yakisoba for dinner.  After dinner I took Abby out for another 2 mile walk.  When I got back it was videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3748

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I took the new bird feeder pole outside and installed it.  I took the old one to the garage and salvaged what I could from it.  It was still a little cold, so I went back inside the house and completed the work on the Bronco.

I opened up the transmission and replaced the bushings with bearings.  It wasn't as hard as it could have been.  Then I replaced the bottom plate with a brass one.  That was just a lot of screws.  Putting the transmission back in was OK once I got the drive shafts set up.  I'd misread the exploded diagram.  Connecting the shift servo was a long, frustrating, task. 

I spent the rest of the time until lunch surfing and shopping.  I didn't buy anything.  I checked out the FCX24 gears that I'd gotten yesterday.  They were wrong.  The ad said they were one thing and they were really another.  I got on Amazon and set up a return.  That gave me something to do after lunch.

We took the dog and did errands.  We picked up a present for Ellen at the post office.  Then I took the gears to Whole Paycheck.  The next stop was Wally World where I bought 3 containers of DEF.  According to Zeihan it's going to become scarce (Trump's fault).  Then we took Abby to Circle C.  She had a great time running even thought it was a little hot.

Another part for the Bronco was in the mailbox.  I installed it when I got home.  It turns out that it needed the diff gears installed differently than I had done it (I might have fouled up reassembling them).  I ended up having to remove all the axles and switch both differentials.  It's now ready for me to fire up and program.  I hope all my changes work.

I continued the morning shopping and bought shocks and the correct gears for the FCX24.  Then I watched videos until dinner.

After dinner I took Abby for a walk around the property.  I walked a total of 11,000 steps today.  Yesterday it was 13,000.  I actually enjoyed walking in the evening.

I went back inside and did some more video watching until it was time to go to bed. 

 

Day 3747

 I woke up at 8 and got up to pick up an Amazon delivery.  Then I did the usual get up stuff, pet stuff, and had breakfast.  It was going to be hot so the next item was walk the property with Abby.

It was pleasant went we started, but it got progressively warmer.  Abby had a good run though and I didn't get hot.  When I was done I went to the garage.  I cleaned the bench and the got out the pole trimmer.  I used it to significantly cut back the tree at the end of the driveway.  I didn't want it brushing the trailer when we left.  I got most of the branches with the trimmer, but I had to get out the pole chainsaw for three or four of them.  It will be a long time before it needs trimming again.

By the time I was done it was hot.  So was I (also tired and sweaty).  I went back into the house and surfed.  The car from Amain had come, along with a coupon.  I shopped for a while, but didn't see anything I wanted.  I ate lunch and continued surfing.

Audi sent me a text.  They need to replace a part.  It should be here late next week.  They are still tracing another failure.  We didn't hear from Malone's.

Eventually I decided to work on RC stuff.  I took a hex out to the garage and tried to expand it enough to fit on the mini-Kraton.  Eventually I measured the car's axle shaft.  It's 5.47 mm.  It's supposed to be 5mm.  There's no way I'll be able to find hexes that fit it.  I may try drilling some out. 

I opened the car from Amain (a Bronco).  I got out the bearings and started installing them.  I got the front and rear axles and diffs done.  That leaves the gearbox.  By then it was pet feeding time and I didn't want to do any more.  I watched videos until dinner.

Ellen fixed beef and rice for dinner.  After dinner I watched more videos and finished with a little more surfing.

Day 3746

 I woke up at 7:45 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast  after that I went out to hook up the truck.  That took a little longer than normal because I was out of practice.

Getting out of the place went fairly well.  I lightly brushed the tree at the end of the driveway.  Everywhere else I'd cut things back enough.

The trip to Malone's went fine.  We got there about 9:15.  There was no where to park the trailer though.  They moved some stuff around and we dropped the trailer.  We talked to the guy that was going to do the work.  He suggested that we replace the two Goodyear tires.  I said do it.  We actually ended up ordering a full set of 4.  I just don't want to mess with tires.

We stopped at the park in Dripping Springs when we left.  Abby had a really good run.  Then we stopped at CVS for Mounjaro.  It seems that I will have to transfer the prescription to San Antonio in order to get the next dose. 

When we got home I had lunch.  Ellen managed to break the bird feeder pole.  So after lunch I spent a very unpleasant hour+ fixing it.  It was working in the sun in 90 degree weather.  When I was done I was hot and sweaty.  I went back inside and surfed.  In the mean time Ellen bought a new pole.

I had to order a step stool on Amazon.  The one that was in the truck disappeared.  This started a long shopping session where we bought several items and also some food. 

I switched from surfing/shopping to videos.  That didn't last long and I went back to shopping, this time on Aliexpress.  Ellen watched chick flicks.

Ellen fixed BLT's for dinner.  After dinner I watched videos for a while, did some more shopping, and ended the evening with surfing. 

There was no word from either Audi or Malone's today.  The Audi rep was out today, I'm going to bug Audi tomorrow if he doesn't text. 

Day 3745

 I woke up at 8, got up, did pet stuff, and had breakfast.  I wanted to get outside and trim the trees before it got hot.

I let Abby run while I trimmed the trees.  It was a lot of hard work reaching the trimmer high over my head to chop the highest branches.  I worked for 1.5 to 2 hours.  By the time I was finished it was beginning to get hot.  I walked over 1.5 miles and trimmed every tree that lined the driveway.  I was hot, sweaty, and tired by the time I was finished.

I went back inside did some surfing.  I also finished sorting excess RC hardware, labeling it, and putting it away.  I also tried to fit every hex I have to the mini-Kraton.  None of them fit the mini-Kraton's oversized axles.  Crap.

I Ellen said that there was a package at the post office, so after lunch we went to get it.  It was more Chinese stuff.  We stopped at Circle C on the way back.  It was 85 degrees, so we didn't walk.  We did find a shady spot for Abby to play frisbee.  She got hot relatively quickly, so it was a short session.

When we got back I called the diesel place.  They'll do the trailer bearings tomorrow.  The resto of the evening was a video/nap session.

After dinner (frozen) I went out and lined up the truck to hook up to the trailer tomorrow.  I also checked the tires and the wheel nuts.  Ellen tied everything up inside and we put in the slides.  I was going to do an evening walk, but I was just too tired.

The evening was videos until I got bored and then I switched to surfing. 

Day 3744

 I woke up at 76:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing it was time to go to the doctor.

I got to see him after a 45+ minute wait.  Overall he was happy with the blood work except he wants me to drink more water.  I'm going to have to work on that.  He says tmy A1C is down, that's good.  However that means he can't up the dose on the Mounjaro.  The insurance company won't let him.  Crap.  I think that means that I"m just going to get hungrier and hungrier.  Also I've only lost 16 lbs.  I'm going to have to exercise more.  Finally he said he's going to reduce my BP med.

I talked to him about my forgetting words.  He says with my family history it's likely I'll get dementia.  He's prescribing a drug that will delay, but not stop, it. 

We took Abby to Circle C when I was done.  It was hot.  She ran a fair amount and drank a lot of water.  Then we went to Torchy's for lunch followed by HEB for milk and bread.

I really didn't have anything to do when we got home.  I decided to replace the diff gears in the TRX4M.  I've had them for a long time.  Unfortunately I ordered a balanced set rather than a higher front speed.  I put them in anyway.  The front was a pain in the ass.  I cemented my decision not to do the SCX30.  All those tiny screws would make it very difficult.

I almost stripped a tiny screw while I was doing the replacement.  I went out to the garage and collected every tiny screw I had in the parts bin.  None of them fit.  I sorted them all and put them in bags so next time I can determine if I have the right one.

By the time I finished that it was time to feed the pets.  

Ellen fixed scrambled eggs and ham with hash browns.  I really like that.  Afterwards I took Abby out and did another 2 miles of walking.  When I came back inside I watched videos for the rest of the evening. 

 

Day 3743

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was going to be hot again, so I took Abby out to walk.  She had a good time and I got my two miles in.

When I finished walking I went to the garage and set up everything to grease one of the trailer wheel's bearings.  I got everything set up and jacked up a wheel.  When I removed the dust cover I discovered that the axle didn't have a grease fitting.  It was the one they replaced in Fort Stockton.  Crap.  I put everything away and went back to the house.

I called Malone diesel.  They said they could grease the bearings, but to call back on Wednesday.  Later I got a text about the car.  I had to ask for it though.  They are still working on it. 

I wanted to get something accomplished, so I went out to glue the mower seat.  Ellen helped.  I hope it works out.  The grass hasn't grown enough to need mowing though. 

After that I surfed through lunch.  At one point Devon jumped up on the table, grabbed one of the 1/64 cars, and took off with it.  We chased him down and got it back.

After lunch we went to HEB for bananas and the post office for a Chinese package.  The package contained some hex hubs for the mini Kraton and diff gears for the scx30.  None of the hex hubs fit.  It's because the mini Kraton uses non standard axle diameters.  Crap.  That means I have no way of widening the track except buying new wheels and tires.  The SCX part was a bust, too.  Installing it requires taking the front end completely apart.  It's a nightmare of really, really small screws and parts.  I decided it wasn't worth it.

Dinner was something frozen.  After some videos I took Abby out for another walk.  It was 84 degrees, but really pleasant.  I walked another mile and then quit because daylight was fading and I didn't want Abby running into any wildlife.

The rest of the evening was videos. 

Day 3742

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was going to be another hot day (again in the 90's) so I took the dog with me when I walked around the property.  She had her usual fun time scouting the whole place.

After the walk I went to the garage and got everything together to grease the trailer wheels.  I wanted it all in one place so tomorrow I can immediately start.  I really wanted to finish up the mini-Kraton, so I went back to the house. 

I was going to add lights to the mini-Kraton, but that turned out not to be doable without drilling holes in the frame.  I didn't want to do that.  I decided to leave it unlighted.  I did bind the receiver, program the ESC, and set the steering trim.  It's now ready to run.

By the time I was done it was getting hot outside.  I had lunch and then put all of the RC stuff away.  I also went through the soldering box under the kitchen table.  I threw away some stuff, moved some stuff and organized the rest.  I've totally filled the RC instruction folder.  That got me on Aliexpress looking for another one.  It wasn't easy.  The search function kept showing me stuff I wasn't interested in.  I also ordered some 22ga wire.  I'm almost out.

After that the rest of the day was surfing and videos.  Ellen fixed chicken and hash browns for dinner.

 I'm only planning on doing one trailer hub tomorrow.  Hopefully it won't turn out to be hard to do.

Day 3741

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was going to be hot again (got to the mid 90's), so I took Abby for a walk around the property.  It was still early so the temperature was pleasant, but you could tell it was going to heat up. 

I decided that today was the day that I'd get the mini-Kraton ready to run. I started by putting fluid in the center diff.  That involved removing one piece - that had 13 screws holding it.  I put 500K fluid in the diff.  It's so thick that I had to use pliers to squeeze the fluid out of the plastic bottle.

With that done I did something recommended on the web.  The car has a plastic arm that holds down the battery.  That limits battery size.  People remove the arm and replace it with a strap.  Someone on the web sells a part to make this easy.  I decided to just remove the arm and make my own mount for the strap.  I used some "junk" parts that I had in the parts cases.  This took quite a while because I got elegant with it.  It was fun though.

The last of the morning activities was replacing the stock electronics with an ESC and receiver that I already had.  That went pretty well.  The result looks really good. 

By then it was lunch time - a sandwich.  After lunch I surfed for a while just to take a break.  The I started work on the front and rear differentials.  Fortunately I'd run across a video that showed someone doing it.  It was nice to know exactly what screws needed to be removed to get to the diffs.  The diffs both needed fluid badly.

By then it was time to feed the animals.  I did that and then watched videos until dinner.  I had the shrimp and rice from yesterday along with some birthday cake.  It was all really good.

The rest of the evening was videos.  I actually found a video showing the car I ordered yesterday racing.  Unfortunately it didn't play well so I couldn't see anything. 

Day 3740

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I'd forgotten to order a car for Hooch yesterday, so I started with that.

The car costs $67.  That means I needed to order $33 more stuff to get free shipping.  That was important, because they were going to charge me $11 for shipping.  I spent a lot of time on and off all day looking for things to add.  I kept finding things that were either out of stock, or wouldn't count towards the $33.  It actually took until after 4 to find everything.  That included ordering another 1/18 scale car that was on sale.  It's going to be a great upgrade project though.

 It was getting warm, already up to 70.  I took Abby out to walk around the property.  It was warm enough that she didn't go as hard as usual.  It was almost noon when I was done, so I had lunch after some more Amain searching.

A good part of the afternoon was Amain.  There was significant time on videos and a nap.  After feeding the pets dinner we went to Longhorn.  I had my usual steak and shrimp.  I used to eat all of it.  Now the shrimp and some of the potato is tomorrow's lunch.

After dinner I took advantage of not having the dog to stop at Academy to by walking shorts.  The ones I have are getting worn.  I bought two pairs.

Ellen's asshole was giving her problems when we got home.  We'll leave the birthday cake until tomorrow.  She spent the rest of the evening on the can and I spent it on videos.

 

Day 3739

 I woke up at 8, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff.  No breakfast because I needed a blood test.  Instead I took up an old unfinished job.

 Years ago I installed a sliding door in the master bathroom so that there was some slight privacy if desired.  The install was a real pain in the ass.  As I finished the install I discovered that there was no way to anchor the door stop.  The door would slide off the guide if you opened it too far.  I was too tired and disgusted to fix it.  Somehow it never got fixed.  Today I fixed it.

Adding a set screw to the factory door stop would require removing both the door and it's rail.  That's probably why I didn't fix it.  After a little analysis I figured out how to make my own door stop.  It was simple and only required removing a couple of small parts and drilling holes in them.  I did that.  Then I added a door stop made out of some leftover M4 threaded rod and a couple of old plastic door stops.  The whole fix took an hour or so and really improved the door.

It was going to get hot today (eventually 90), so I went outside and walked the property while the dog ran.  It was 11 by the time I was finished.   That's when I went to the doctor.  When I got back I had breakfast and surfed until it was time to take Ellen to her eye doctor appointment.  I sat in the truck outside and played games.

When she was done we went to Central Market.  We were going to buy a birthday cake, but they didn't have one.  We went to HEB instead.  We'll see how good it is tomorrow.

I did some surfing and some video watching until dinner.  Ellen fixed beef and rice.  After that it was videos and surfing for the rest of the evening. 

Day 3738

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then we put the dog in the car and left for Costco.  As soon as I started the car the display lit up with warning messages and the check engine light came on.  I continued to go to Costco (we needed water) and Ellen called Audi.

Audi said to bring it in.  They promised us a loaner (that didn't happen).  We had to take Abby home first.  When we got there they wrote up what we saw the car do and put us in a Lyft.  My only hope is that the car does it one more time.  Then it qualifies under the lemon law.

When we got home we decided to got to Dripping Springs.  The truck had started, but not finished, a regen when we last drove it.  Luckily it started again by the time we got to 290.  I drove a little past Dripping Springs and the ash went down to 0.

We stopped at the park and Abby had a really good run.  At one point we stopped and watched her run all around a field continuously for about 5 minutes.  That was in addition to all the other running she did.  After that we went to the pizza place by HEB and had lunch.  I had half a sandwich and a salad.

When we got home I decided to do another RC thing.  I'd had a light set for the micro-b for a long time.  I'd also noticed that the electronics needed to be rearranged to make the body fit better.  What should have been a simple task turned bad.  With no instructions I had to sear the internet to find how to attach the rear light.  It involved taking the wing and wing mount off.  The hardware for the front light didn't fit.  Luckily I had some that would.  I had to use the Dremel to get it to fit though.  Finally the supplied wiring harness had to be modified.

After hours of work the final result looks pretty good though. 

After that I did a little online shopping.  Amain was having a sale.  I didn't buy anything.   Then it was videos until some time after dinner when I switched to surfing.

Day 3737

 I woke up at 8, got up, and had breakfast.  I didn't play games because Ellen wanted to start the wash.  It was another cold morning, in the low 40's.  I decided to continue on the "organize the RC stuff" effort.

 I filed some more parts away in storage containers, but the big task was redoing the 10 compartment M2 screw container.  That involved rearranging all 10 compartments, labeling them, and putting the old screws and the new screws in it.  A lot of the moving involved a hemostat to get the screws out of one container and into another.  Needless to say it took forever.  When I got done it was time for lunch.

After lunch it had warmed up to 62 so I took Abby for a walk.  The temperature was fine, but it wasn't pleasant.  I'd done something to the ligament at the back of my left knee getting out of bed this morning.  It hurts to fully bend the knee.  When walking it hurts to walk down any sort of incline.  I had to change to my old, mostly flat, path to walk on.

It was time for videos when I was done.  Somehow that took up the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We signed up with a Ukraine news site to get their take on the war.  It cost $60 for a year, but I think it gores to a good cause.

That was it for the day. 

Day 3736

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was 40 degrees out (it only got to 51 today) so going outside wasn't an option.  I decided to do a few small tasks.  the first was fixing the loose arms on the chairs.

The first chair was simple.  It only needed a screw on the arm to be tightened.  My chair was more complicated.  I had to remove the arm and tighten two VERY loose screws on it's base.  Then I had to go to the garage (it was cold) to get a larger screw to replace the one securing the top of the arm.  I also had to drill out the mounting hole in the arm.  I put it all back together and now I have a solid chair arm.

The next item was putting away some of the RC stuff that's accumulated on the bed.  There's lots of parts that needed to be put into the storage cases.  I made a dent in it, but there's still stuff to do.  That's because I decided to install the motor fan on the Typhon.  I hadn't done it before because the fan connector was wrong.  Of course I had to cut wires and solder a new connector.  It was harder than usual because the fan wires were too thin to use strippers.  I had to carefully scrape of the insulation with an xacto knife.

I gave up on parts sorting and had lunch.  Aliexpress has a big sale going on so I spent a lot of the afternoon shopping.  I actually got some really good deals.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner.  Then we did errands.  We went to the post office so I could pick up a couple of Chinese packages.  Then we stopped at HEB for groceries.

When we got home I did some surfing, finished the shopping and watched a few videos. 

Day 3735

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I surfed for a little while, took out the garbage, and started moving gravel.

I'd missed several spots when I last moved gravel.  It was probably because I hadn't taken my glasses off when I was looking.  This time I did.  I hauled 4 or so loads of gravel and filled in maybe 8-10 places.  I think I got them all this time.  I also spent a little time in the garage rearranging things to make it easier to access them.

I was tired when I went back into the house, so I went back to surfing.  Abby was not happy, she wanted to run.  Hooch called to talk about signing the paperwork for the farm.  That turned into a fairly long conversation about catching up.  It was lunch time before we were through talking.

Abby kept bugging me to go some where.  Eventually I gave in even though the temp was 90.  We went to Circle C.  We tried to walk only in the shade.  Abby still got a good run in.  It wasn't as long as usual, probably because she got hot.

Rather than going home we went to Torchy's.  We got chips and drinks and sat on their patio.  I was tired of sitting at home on the computer or watching videos.  Eventually we went home for, you guessed it, videos.  Actually it was videos and a fairly long nap.

Dinner was something frozen, followed by more videos.  I also signed the paperwork for the farm and mailed it back to Hooch.  I finished the day by surfing some more. 

Day 3734

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I surfed for a while while Ellen sat on the can.  Then we left for errands.

The first errand was taking Abby to Circle C.  It was cool in the morning, but scheduled to get hot later so we wanted to run her early.  The park was packed with kids playing soccer.  We managed to get in a full walk and Abby got in a full run.  Then we went to Walgreen's to pick up Ellen's drugs.  After that it was back home.

 I continued my work on the computer before, during, and after lunch.  I finished setting up the browser and copied a lot of files from the old computer to the new one.  That completed everything that I think I have to do.  I'm starting to use the new computer to see if I missed anything.  Side note - the new computer was working better today than it has in weeks.  It still has a few glitches though.

With that done I did the final work on the trailer.  That involved replacing the Chinesium jump rings on the end of the chains with the slide rings I got from Amazon.  They worked much better.  I put the trailer in the bedroom.  Maybe I'll actually use it some day.  I haven't even hooked it up to a battery.

The final RC related stuff was to put some stuff away and order some diff fluid for the mini-Kraton.  Amazon has it a cheap as Aliexpress. 

I did some shopping on Aliexpress.  I didn't buy anything because they are having a site-wide sale in two days.  I put some things in the cart though. 

After that it was videos, and some napping, for the rest of the afternoon and evening. 

Day 3733

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was supposed to get hot today (it did), so after that I took Abby for a walk around the property.  I knew that we wouldn't have time for Circle C today.

Ellen came out just as I finished walking to say that my new computer was a t Best Buy.  That worked out great because I planned on going to Hobby Town today.  They sent me another 20% off coupon and I was going to use it to by a mini-Kraton.  I also needed to got to the post office and HEB.

 We left Abby at home and drove to Hobby Town.  I got the mini-Kraton.  We drove to the other side of the freeway and filled up the car.  Gas is really expensive right now because Trump is bombing Iran.  That's OK.  They need it.  From there we drove back to Best Buy and picked up the computer.  That was followed by the post office.  There were letters and a Chinese package there.  It was Friday at noon, but we went through the Y to HEB anyway.  The one on 290 is so much nicer than the one at Circle C.

When we got home there was a lot of stuff.  I piled the computer, car, and Chinese bag on the couch and had lunch.  Then I went through the stuff from China.  It included the race course I bought for Ellen.  Unfortunately it's too small.  I'm going to order a bigger one.  Then Ellen gave me a much needed haircut.

After that I unboxed the mini-Kraton just to look at it.  I won't run it until I get a chance to change the fluids.  Instead I went to work on the new computer.  I so like getting into PC hell.  It took hours, but I managed to get all of the apps I need loaded and some of the data.  I plan on finishing up tomorrow. 

I was still in PC hell when Ellen fixed sausage and waffles for dinner.  I did a little more work and then spent the rest of the evening watching videos. 

Day 3732

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After  breakfast Abby and I walked around the property.  It was a little cool, but comfortable after I warmed up.

When I was done I went back inside to do the wiring on the trailer.  It was a little slow, mainly because I'm so clumsy.  I just can't seem to get my left hand to work as well as it used to.  It didn't help that one of the wires on the winch switch came off.  Chinese junk.  I had quite a tie using an Ohm meter to figure out which of the six terminals had lost a wire.  When I got it done I didn't test it.  I need to at some point.

With that done there wasn't really anything else on the menu.  It was too cold to go outside although it eventually got to 70 late in the afternoon.  I did a lot of surfing and watched a few videos.  I ate a sandwich for lunch rather than going to Waterloo for the low priced hamburger.  I just felt like eating something more healthy.

After a little more surfing I decided to shop on Aliexpress.  I didn't really need anything, I just felt like shopping.  I spent hours finding the lowest price for some hexes.  I also bought two more of the small flashlights I'd purchased a while back.  One is for the truck and the other I'll give to John. 

Dinner was something frozen.  I spent the evening watching videos. 

Day 3731

 A big thunderstorm woke me up a little before 6.  It lasted quite a while and dumped a lot of rain.  There was enough rain to cause the septic to "growl" a little bit.  That's impressive considering that it's been bone dry all winter.  I spent at least 2 hours playing games before getting up for pet stuff and breakfast.

I surfed for a while and then went out to the garage.  The jack had broken yesterday so I repaired it.  Then I mounted the box using shims.  Finally I drilled hole in the box for the winch wires and the winch switch.  After mounting the switch there was nothing left to do except wiring.  I cleaned everything up (that took some time) and took the trailer to the house to wire it.

Somewhere between the garage and the house I lost the inclination to do anything.  I surfed for a while and then ate lunch.  After lunch it was time for errands.  It was too muddy to walk on the property.  Also we needed some groceries and I needed to pick up some drugs.  We took Abby to Circle C and walked around the grass covered parts of the fields.  We walked around the edges so Abby got a chance to run in the woods.  She covered a lot of ground.  The CVS and grocery stops were ordinary.

When we got home I started watching videos.  I kept falling asleep during one video and waking up halfway through another.  That's how the rest of the afternoon went.

 Ellen fixed sausage and hash browns for dinner.  They were really good.  After dinner was more videos until I got bored ans switched to surfing. 

Day 3730

 I woke up about 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Installing the weather station was the priority today since I wanted it to measure the big storm that was supposed to show up tonight.

I went to the garage to get the ladder and some tools.  It was the first of at least 6 round trips I made before the install was complete.  I just kept needing stuff from the garage.  Eventually I logged 5,000 steps by the time it was done.  I got the ladder set up and tried to unscrew the sensor mounting pole.  It was rusted solid.  I immediately determined that Ellen would have to help.  I needed to stand on the top rung of the ladder to remove the old sensor and I needed her to hold the ladder.

I got the old sensor down and hooked up the new one.  It wouldn't talk to the display.  We spent a long time messing with batteries and settings.  Eventually we got it to work on the ground.  Then I took it onto the work and it quit.  After some more screwing around we got it to work on the roof.  Then I installed it and it quit again.  I took it down and we messed with it some more.  On the second install it finally worked. 

I finally got to put everything away (two garage trips) and have lunch.  Abby won't run around the property if I'm working in the garage.  I was tired, but I walked around for an mile so she would run.  I had to walk a different path because parts of the normal one were a little muddy. 

 After the walk I got in a short work session on the trailer.  I mounted the winch and figured out where the box was going to go.  I drilled the mounting holes, but didn't mount it.  I need some shims and it was getting late and I was tired.

I went back to the house, fed the pets, and watched videos until dinner.  After dinner was videos until I got bored and switched to surfing. 

Day 3729

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I had an email from Wells Fargo encouraging me to activate my new card.  Then thing is, I don't have one.  I decided to call them.

I spent a long time on terminal hold before talking to someone who couldn't help me.  Luckily they transferred me to someone who could.  He explained that the card may have just been delayed and to call on Friday if I haven't received it.  He also explained how the $200 thing works.  After three months we'll get a $200 credit on the card.  We'll have to use it the month it appears. 

After that I went out to work on the trailer.  I had a rough idea of how I'd finish the jack, but no clear plans.  Having the 3mm threaded rod helped a lot by letting me try out different things.  I started out by using the hacksaw to cut a support post out of some aluminum stock.  Then I got a cable clamp for my railroad stuff to use to attach the upper tube to the post.  I attached the post to the trailer frame which allowed me to finalize the length of the bottom tube.  That's when I realized that my "design wouldn't work because the 3mm rod wasn't captured vertically.

I decided to walk around the place while I tried to come up with a solution.  Abby wouldn't do anything except sit in the garage with me.  I had to walk.  While I was walking I came up with a possible solution.  I went back to the garage to implement it.  As I was about to start I came up with a better, simpler, solution.  YEAH.  I decided to implement it after lunch.

I did a little surfing after lunch and then went back to the garage.  My simpler solution worked fine.  That allowed me to finally do the final assembly of the jack.  I attached the foot to the bottom of the jack and called it a day.  The final result works well and looks pretty good.

I think what I have left to do is mount the box and winch and do the wiring.  The new weather station came today, so installing that will take priority. 

I  went back inside the house.  Ellen was watching chick flicks so I read a couple of magazines and did some surfing.  When she was done we watched videos together.  I might have taken a short nap.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner.  I spent the whole evening watching videos. 

Day 3728

 I woke up at 8 - 7 really since today was "change to daylight saving" day.  I played games for a little while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast  It was in the 50's, so I put on a long sleeve shirt.  After breakfast we drove to the Best Buy by I5.  They had the computer that I was interested in even though the website said they didn't.  

The computer is OK.  It's got a huge touch panel that will make typing harder.  I'll probably turn it off when I'm typing.  They only had the 16 GB version though.  I ordered the 32 GB version, but it won't be here for 10 days.  In the mean time I'm getting used to the failures of the current one.

The donut place was open so we stopped there on the way home.  I got a maple bar.  The quality is just as good as ever.  We also stopped at Circle C so Abby could run.  We only did a partial course because everything was muddy from yesterday's downpour.

With that done we stopped at Tomlinson's to buy Abby some bacon chews.  Then we went across the parking lot to have brunch.  The place has kind of weird food, but it's really well done.  From there it was home.

By then it was 2:30.  I went to the garage to make some progress on the trailer.  I put the hinges on the tool box.  That took a while because the hinges didn't really fit.  I had to mess around a lot with placement and modifying the box.  I finally got it to work fairly well, although it doesn't look very good because I had to mount the screws with the heads on the inside of the box.

 After that I drilled out the nuts in the top part of the jack.  That's going to work out well.  Then I started working on the pad.  I'm making a round pad out of a piece of square flat.  I've got it roughed out, but there's some grinding to do.   By then it was after 5:30 and time to quit.

When I went inside Ellen was watching a chick flick, so I surfed.  Later she switched to videos and I joined her.  It was videos for the rest of the day.

Day 3728

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast we got in the car.  We planned to got to the Best Buy by I35 and then take the dog to Circle C.  We got as far as the stop sign.  Ellen found that they no longer had the computer I wanted at the store, or any other in Austin.  We turned around and went home.

 I went for a walk around the property with Abby running around while I did.  I sprinkled lightly a couple of times, but nothing that got me even thinking of stopping.  When I finished I went to the garage to work on the trailer.  Abby stayed with me for a while, but then she got bored and wanted to go back to the house. 

 I started on the top part of the jack.  It's a short piece of tubing with nuts jammed into both ends.  The nuts didn't seat tightly, so I "glued" them in with red lock tight.  We'll see how that works tomorrow.  Then I tried to figure out how long the bottom tube for the jack has to be.  I did a whole lot of calculations and then just tried to work it out using the tubing and the 5mm threaded rod.  I'm just not good at envisioning this type of thing.  I finally worked out what I think it should be.  I'm going to wait until I have the 3mm rod before I cut anything though. 

That effort took until a little after noon.  I went back inside and had a brisket sandwich for lunch.  I'd picked up a FedEx package yesterday, put it on the flat bed, and forgot to bring it in.  When I opened it today it was Ellen's Wells Cargo card.  Mine hasn't showed up.  I'll have to call the bank on Monday.

Then I did some surfing and video watching.  I got a message saying that there was a package at the post office, so we went and got it.  I has the remainder of the parts that I need to complete the trailer.

The videos convinced me that I wanted a mini-Kraton.  I already have the ESC and receiver for it and the motor seems to be usable.  I thought I had a $20 off coupon from Hobby Town.  That's $5 more off than I would have gotten from Amain.  Unfortunately it expires today.  I found that out too late in the day to go there.  Crap.

Ellen fixed gumbo for dinner.  After dinner was a lot more videos.   

 

Day 3727

 I woke up a little after , played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went took Abby with me and went for my walk on the property.  It was a windy and fairly cool day, but Abby seemed not to run around a s much as she usually does.  

With that out of the way I went back to work on the Typhon.  I put the new pinion gear on the motor and buttoned everything back up.  I had some trouble setting the throttle on the new ESC.  It seems to work better if you remember to plug the ESC into the receiver.  After that I programmed the ESC and put everything away. 

While I was working Ellen said that my ring was done.  We took Abby with us and went to pick it up.  They charged us a fair price.  I am a little disappointed.  The new lapis has a tiny speck of gold in the middle of it.  It really shows up in the sun.  I have to keep shutting down my OCD.

From there we went to the post office and HEB.  There wasn't anything memorable about either stop.

 Back home I had a very late lunch and then did some surfing followed by some videos.  Eventually that got boring and I went to the garage to work on the trailer.  I repaired a broken chain on the hitch.  Then I started working on the jack.  I didn't get very far.  Nothing seemed to fit right.  Eventually I realized that I'd ordered the wrong threaded rod.  CRAP.  It was back to the house to order the right stuff.

I went back to watching videos.  Dinner was leftovers followed by more videos.

The weather people promised rain today.  It didn't even come close.  They say it will rain tomorrow.  I doubt it. 

Day 3726

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was raining when I finished, so I went out to the garage to work on the trailer.

The rain stopped shortly after I started work, so I quit, got the dog, and did my walk.  It was getting warm by the time I was finished and went back to the garage.

The last two days working on the trailer hasn't involved hassles.  That ended today.  I had to redo part of the tail light wiring I did yesterday.  I was going to use crimp-ons to fix it, but the connectors were so strong that I couldn't crush them with vice grips.  I had to go back inside and solder them.  Eventually I got the lights installed.

The tie downs were a little better, but I did manage to break a drill bit and misdrill a hole.  They look good though. That was all I could do until parts come in.

I went back to the house and surfed for a short time.  Then we went to Waterloo Icehouse for their cheap hamburger Thursday.  It's on for March.  We sat outside with Abby.  It's the first hamburger I've had since I started the drug.  So far it hasn't affected me adversely.  When we finished we went home.

 I spent a lot of the afternoon surfing and watching videos.  That got boring, so I got out the Typhon to change out its motor and ESC.  I found out that I needed a new pinion, so I ordered one on Amazon along with enough other stuff to get overnight delivery.  I've installed the new WSC and have the motor attached to the motor plate.  I should be able to finish it relatively quickly tomorrow.

I ate a really late dinner of leftovers.   I hope that doesn't cause me grief.  Then I surfed for a little while and went to bed. 

Day 3725

 I woke up at 7, played games, and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Abby didn't eat breakfast again.  I took out the garbage and recycle and then surfed until it was after 9.  That way the Loop1 traffic would be less.

Then we put the dog in the truck and went to pick up the car.  Traffic was actually pretty good.  We had to wait for a while when we got there.  When the service advisor went over the paper work their fix consisted of installing a massive software upgrade.  I think that the error was the same as last time.  One part of the engine control system isn't talking to another part.

We waited a while more for the car to be washed and then we drove to circle C.  It was a cloudy day in the 70's.  I think Abby was happy to be running through the park rather then the property.  When we were done Ellen took the car home and I took the truck to HEB to get some bananas and trash bags.  I got Ellen some sushi, it was on sale.

 When I got home I ate lunch and then went out to the garage.  I drilled the holes for the taillights and then took the parts into the house to do the soldering.  I got that done and just put everything away.  I have to wait for parts before I can do anything more than bolt the lights in place.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening alternating between videos and surfing.  I actually went on Aliexpress and Amazon and didn't buy anything.

Ellen fixed chicken and noodles for dinner. 

Day 3724

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I tried to feed the dog, but she wouldn't eat.  The first order of business was getting the credit card stuff sorted out.  It took a frustrating phone call, but I did it.  When I was finished I took Abby with me for a walk on the property.

I took a rake with me on the walk.  I used it to clear away the loose rock that was on some sections of the path.  It really improved walking.  I think I finished a little faster.

When I was done I went to the garage to work on the trailer.  I finished putting anti-skid material on the rest of the surfaces.  Then I went to the pump house and got a couple of red LEDs.  I couldn't find any mounts though (later I found some in the parts containers in the bedroom).

By then it was lunch time.  I watched videos while I ate.  Somehow I ended up on "cool things on Amazon" videos.  I found a couple of interesting things.  That got me on Amazon.  I ended up ordering some other things, but not the stuff I logged on to look at.  Ellen added a couple of things to the order.

Ellen found a cool 1/18 scale Jeep from CAPO.  I spent some time looking at it.  I even did enough research to determine a motor/ESC combo for it.  I'm not going to get it though.  I have enough small scale stuff now.

About 4:30 the Audi people texted to say the car was ready.  We'll get it tomorrow. 

I went back to videos and that turned into a movie.  Of course it was an older one that I'd seen before.  The newer ones just can't keep my attention.

Ellen fixed Gumbo from HEB for dinner.  It was really good.  After dinner I continued with the movie followed by some surfing. 

Day 3723

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I fed the cats, but I didn't feed the dog.  That's because as soon as I got through eating I took her with me when I walked around the property.

Abby always checks in with me every few minutes while I'm walking.  About halfway through the walk he came by covered in something.  Clearly she'd need a bath.  When I was done I put her on a lead before I let hr in the house.  I didn't want her jumping on the bed.  That was a good thing, too.  Whatever was on her smelled a lot like dead animal.

We put her directly in the shower and I gave her a bath.  At least whatever it was washed out fairly easily.  After that I went to the garage to work on the trailer.  The goal today was the ramp cables.  I had to start by grinding a little bit off one of the ramp's top edge.  It was interfering with the hinge.  when I was done everything looked good.  I only got a start at the cable before it was time to go to the bank.

We renewed a CD at the bank and moved a little money between accounts.  We also applied for credit cards.  Of course they failed.  Oh well.

We stopped at Torchy's for lunch.  They had some great shrimp tacos.  Then we went home and I went back to work on the trailer.

I finished up the ramp cables and applied the anti-slip tape to the deck.  Then I decided to apply it to some of the metal also.  That required a lot of careful cutting of the material.  I got most of it done before I timed out.

I went inside and surfed for a while before feeding the pets.  Abby hasn't eaten any dog food all day.  I guess the dead thing was great.  I'm a little worried about what it might have been and how it died.

Dinner was a sandwich.  After dinner I watched videos for a while and then tried a movie I saw recommend on the web.  I didn't like it.  It had a female lead beating the shit out of a bunch of pirates.  I hate woke movies.  I gave up on it and spent the rest of the evening on videos.

 

Day 3722

I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took Abby out for a walk around the property (she ran all over).  When I'd done my 2 miles I went to the garage to work on the trailer.

I spent until noon working on the trailer  the only thing that I got accomplished was constructing the chains that hold up the side panels.  Part of the time was spent redoing the chains on the handle pins (redoing - sound familiar).  That was pretty hard to do because the jump rings are really too big for both the chains and the handles. 

I went back to the house and had lunch.  Then I surfed for a while, basically just killing time.  I didn't go back out to the garage because I was tired of working on the trailer.  I did find some threaded eyes that I'm going to use for the tie downs on the trailer bed.  

I had packages at the post office and drugs to pick up, so we put Abby in the car.  We also stopped at the pet store.  We scored big at the pet store - 3 bags of dried cat food (they're usually out).  We also scored at CVS.  The Monjaro was $11 again and my fiber things were on sale.  I also had some coupons that applied.

When we got home I got serious about the trailer jack design.  I settled on one and searched Amazon until I found the cheapest materials.  It's going to cost less than $7.  I'd probably pay that much for a manufactured one.  I ordered everything.

After that I sat down for videos.  That lasted until after dinner (Ellen fixed stir-fry).  Eventually I got sucked into Aliexpress and ended up ordering another 1/64 car.  It only cost $16 though.

After that it was time for bed.