Jan 1, 2019 Tuesday Rose Parade, Dining Table

We found out that HGTV was not going to show the Rose Parade this year. It is
being shown commercial free on the Hallmark channel which I couldn’t find
streaming.  We went over to the condo and found that Hallmark is on channel 740
of the cable at Clubside.  Before the parade I took the legs off the table that
we are going to move.  I also unwrapped the bifold door that will be hung on the
Master Bedroom closet to replace the one I tossed away.  The parade ended in
disarray because near the end one of the floats broke down and for some reason
the tow truck could not move it.  We chose to start moving the table and legs to
the car.  While doing this we met a neighbor who was a renter from Victoria and
had the wrong key so she was not happy that she could not get into the unit. I
moved the table and legs to Knightsbridge without incident then did some work
outside where I installed the two clamps on the conduit.  One by the power meter
and the second clamp inside the Lanai under the outlet.  I also caulked all the
holes especially where I drilled through the wall for the conduit. When I came
inside I found that Vicki had called the Apex phone.   I called her back and
found out that she booked a plane ticket to visit us from Jan 16 to Jan 23. This
is nice but I need to do some work at finding a bedroom set since the guest
bedroom is empty. I called about a Craigslist ad in Venice for a bedroom set for
$150.  We drove there into a gated community and bought the set.  It’s cheaply
made but in good condition and the price could not be beat.   We loaded
everything into the Prius V except for the dresser.  We made plans to return
tomorrow at 10 for the dresser. Because we returned home after dark, dinner was
simply a ham sandwich with Swiss Cheese accompanied by a glass of Cabernet.


Jan 2, 2019 Wednesday Busy Day


We went back to Venice and picked up the dresser for the guest bedroom this
morning at 9.  This fit into the Prius which was a surprise.  Back at
Knightsbridge Libbie and i pushed it up the stairs successfully.  We went to the
condo around noon because Macys gave us a delivery window of 12:15 to 2:15 for
the dining room table.   While waiting I hung the folding closet door. Now it
needs paint which Libbie said she will do.  I removed the dining room closet
door which I have to plane and took a look at the HVAC insulation which is non
existent.  I need a 5 foot piece for ¾ or 1 inch pipe. I did some looking
through Craigslist and found a patio set in Nokomis which I left a phone message
about. We had to leave for the “New Year's in Vienna” which started at 7. Dinner
was a Ham sandwich before leaving at 5:45 PM.  The concert was fabulous as usual
except I got a couple next to me who decided to talk to each other throughout
the performance.  There was a large mix of Strauss music by a full orchestra.
Accompanying at times was a Soprano, a Tenor, 4 ballroom dancers from Vienna and
4 ballet dancers from Hungary.  The conductor served as narrator before each
piece.    We had one intermission and the whole thing was over by 9:30.  What a
fabulous evening.


Jan 3 Thursday Furniture & Neighbors

We heard back from the Nokomis woman.  We set up a 9 AM appointment to see the
patio set in a trailer park in Nokomis.  Google said we are 11 minutes away so
we left at 8:40 and arrived around 8:58.  Getting there was easy, winding back
to  their place on 9th street was not so easy.  The place reminded me of Trailer
Haven back in Melbourne when I was in college.  Lots of old people out riding
their tricycles past a shuffleboard court and community room.  We saw a sign for
a  laundry room as well.  The four chairs were very comfortable even though they
don’t have cushions.  We paid $100 which was a deal, disassembled the table and
put it in the Prius.  It took 2 trips to Nokomis to bring it all back where I
put the table back together on the back porch.  It’s great to have a patio set.
On the way back from Nokomis Libbie called a lady in Stoneybrook about a desk
she had for sale.  We stopped in to her condo on Chapel Hill Blvd on the second
floor and looked at it.  It was perfect for sewing purposes.  I may use one of
the file drawers for storing important papers.  We arranged to go over there on
Saturday morning at 8:30 AM when I will attempt to take the top off the desk
which will make it easier to move. After a lunch consisting of a salad I went to
work on the dishwasher, removing the old one and putting in the Bosch.  When I
fired it up I was pleased with how quiet it was.  Yes!  We met our new neighbors
next door.  They are from Connecticut and just bought the place last Spring.
Names are Paula and Dean.  Her brother Guy and friend ? live on Siesta Key in an
old  house they said. We had dinner outside on the new patio table and chairs.
It was quite nice to be out there.  Dinner was sliced ham with Butternut Squash
and a glass of Cabernet. After dinner we went out to Selby Lights in Bloom.  The
Parking lot was full so we had to use the Friendship center lot and the trolley.
The Trolley was full going there so we opted to walk which took about 15
minutes.  We discovered a new pathway while doing this. It was well lit but
secluded. The lights were spectacular as expected.  We walked to the point and
back then walked to the front of the mansion where the Bromeliad tree was then
walked through the conservatory to go home.  The Trolley had some standing room
so we hopped on and got a ride to our car at the Friendship Center.  While we
were at the garden Libbie wanted a bag of Cinnamon Popcorn for $5 so we shared
one.  It was delicious.  We got back home around 9 PM.  I put the garbage out
this evening for tomorrow morning.


Jan 4, 2019 Friday Selby

Early in the morning I went into the yard and picked up misc twigs and palmetto
fronds and filled the rest of the landscape bag for pickup today.  This morning
I went to Walmart for groceries, gas and household supplies.  I picked up
dimmable LED bulbs for the dining room fixture and discovered one of the old
non-dimmable bulbs was a wink bulb which is a smart bulb controllable with
Alexa.  The dimmable bulbs work fine in the fixture.  While I was out Libbie
washed the filthy area under the former bar that I removed.  This was an
incentive to get the hammer and chisel out and go after the protruding studs.
The resulting pock marks need filling before painting. We left for Selby at
11:45 because Vera wanted us there at 12:30.  The orientation was very
educational. We toured Botany, Horticulture and Education. I think I want to
work in Botany.  We left early at 3:30 because of threatened rain today so they
canceled the garden tour that we didn’t need anyway.  It rained pretty hard
around 5 PM and for the rest of the night.  Dinner was ham slices with Butternut
Squash and a glass of Cabernet.


Jan 5, 2019 Saturday Desk

The rain cleared out overnight but it’s pretty breezy today. We proceeded at
8:30 AM  for the desk in Stoneybrook.  The lady had taken out all the stuff from
her desk so first we removed all the drawers that Libbie carried downstairs into
the car and took to Knightsbridge.  I struggled with removing the screws and
finally went back to get my square drive bit.  This did the trick and I was able
to get the desk disassembled.  The heaviest part of the desk was the top because
it was easily one inch thick particle board covered with laminate.  We got it
all back to Knightsbridge and upstairs into the Sewing Room.  Now it needs
assembly but instead I chose to saw a few Palmetto trunks in the back.  Our
Gator showed up to watch us.  The saw work really took a toll on me.  I fell
asleep in the chair just before lunch.  We had the usual lunch of a salad then
listened to Otello live from the Met which started at 1 PM. Otello was also
playing upstairs so I went up and put the desk back together.  It seems to be a
little tilted because the drawers won’t close straight.  This totally exhausted
me.  It felt good to lay on the bed and listen to Otello. Amazingly, most of the
tasks around the Knightsbridge house are completed.  It’s time to enjoy the
area.  We talked about a bike ride tomorrow.  We’ll see how that works. Dinner
tonight was Chicken Parmesan in the air fryer. It came out really well, mostly
because I have experience with cooking chicken in the fryer.  With the chicken
we had the last of the Butternut Squash and a few glasses of Cabernet.


Jan 6, 2019 Sunday

Lights in Bloom last day We did the usual Sunday morning programs then went over
to the condo with paint and tools.  While I went to Lowes to get pipe insulation
for the AC, Libbie painted the closet door.  I brought the door home that needs
plane-ing but put it in the garage because I didn’t want to get dirty or tired
before tonight. I repaired the concrete on the back lanai at Knightsbridge with
a tube of concrete patch I picked up.  Libbie made some wrap sandwiches for us
using Tortillas wrapped around ham and cheese and then warmed in the microwave
to melt the cheese and glue it together.  This worked well. We had this just
before 4 PM then left at 4 for the last night of Lights in Bloom.  We were
assigned the Welcome Center where we checked wrist bands and also assisted
people with putting their band on if they couldn’t manage.  I got good at wrist
bands by the end of the night.  I was slightly handicapped because my left
contact lens was up high under my eyelid and I could not  coax it down.  I spent
the night using only one good eye. Because of this, at the end of the night
Libbie drove us home in my Prius.   We had an amazing constant flow of people at
the three cash registers.  The crowd started to taper at 8 PM.  Finally, around
8:30 Vera told us we don’t have to stay any more.  We turned in our lights and
vests at the classroom, grabbed some snacks for the trip home and left.  Jan 7,
2019 Monday Interview This morning after breakfast we went to Walmart for
groceries and were surprised at how lightly crowded the store was.  Libbie
needed to get a prescription filled and I needed to get a flapper valve for the
guest bathroom.  After Walmart we went to Lowes to buy a grill.  We got the 2
burner Weber as well as a new tank of propane.  I turned in the tank I bought
off Craigslist last month.  While there Libbie found more $1 Geraniums and a
variegated Dracena that we bought. We had a salad lunch then I cut one more
Palmetto trunk before changing my pants for the 2:30 PM  interview with Vera.
Libbie expressed  an interest in Horticulture and I told Vera I was interested
in the Botany department. She said someone from each department will be
contacting us in the next few days.  After the interview we went into the garden
and headed over to the Museum to see the Rainforest Masks.  There were two
artists in the  museum.  One was carving and the other painting Rainforest
masks.  I wish I brought my camera.  We brought home a Rainforest flyer for our
neighbors. After cheese, crackers and wine we had our first dinner cooked on the
new Weber grill.  We had hamburgers on buns with tomato.  As a side we had baked
beans in KC sauce that I brought with us from the Apex Food Lion.  The burgers
were on Trilo bakery rolls.  We also had Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner I
got to try out my new swim shorts and jumped into the Hot Tub with Libbie.  We
kept the LED lighting on which was pretty.  It changes from blue to red to green
in a cycle.

Jan 8, 2019 Tuesday   Landscaping

I went into the back and cut down the two bushes in front of the Lanai screen
that blocked our view.  I even pulled the root ball out of the ground.  Libbie
cut the two bushes into pieces and bagged them into the lawn and yard bags that
the waste company will accept.  I also managed to saw a few more Palmetto trunks
further clearing the Palmetto patch between the Lanai and the water.  This
absolutely wiped me out for the rest of the day.  I heard from the Botany
department at Selby.  I go back tomorrow at 1 PM to talk with John Salventi
about working on an NSF grant.  I’m excited about this except they work
afternoons. After lunch I set  up the saw horses and planed down the edge of the
closet door for Clubside.  I need to go out to hang it to test how it worked.
The issue I may have is that it was the hinge side I planed and the hinges are
no longer countersunk into the door although I tried using the planer to route
some hinge indentations.  I took a total of ¼ inch off the edge of the door and
did the hinge side so that it doesn’t need to be painted. The ongoing saga of
the guest bathroom had me go to Walmart today with Libbie.  She needed to pick
up her prescription and I bought a toilet tank rebuild kit.  The flapper I
installed yesterday still didn’t stop the tank from emptying or the float from
kicking in.   I need to remove the tank because the bathroom counter extends
over the top of the tank blocking good access. Dinner tonight after cheese,
crackers and wine was hamburgers on the new grill on a Sesame bun.  We had
tomato slices and ketchup on the burgers in the bun.  I had  looked at getting a
sweet onion but the ones for sale were from Peru so I declined.  As a side dish
we had steamfresh mixed vegetables and another glass of Cabernet.  I need to cut
down on the amount of wine we are drinking per night.


January 9, 2019 Wednesday Selby Geo-referencing

This morning I rebuilt the guest room toilet.  I think this time's the charm, it
may be fixed!  I had to remove the tank from under the counter to get to the
parts.  I replaced everything inside the tank. IT was a relatively easy job. I
left for Selby at 12:15 and arrived there at 12:50  and went straight into the
Botany building.  John gave me a tour after which I went right to work at Geo-
referencing Brazil.  I enjoyed looking up notes from the field trips describing
where a specimen was obtained.  I  then tried to find that location on the geo-
referencing website, sometimes with the help of Google Maps.  I stayed until 4
PM.  I like the Selby database although I don’t like the idea of using MS Access
since it’s a closed system. On the way  home I stopped into Walmart for Basmati
rice and then Publix for Pineapple and Swiss cheese.  I then went to Lowes for
lawn bags because we were almost out.  I also talked to the blinds guy and ended
up having some Lowes blinds cut down to fit our bedroom windows.  I also visited
lighting looking for an LED spotlight.  They had one on the aisle where they
sell electrical boxes and conduit instead of with the low voltage lighting.
This is great because I need a 110V light and not a low voltage model.  I still
need to figure out  how to tap into the existing light fixture. At home Libbie
displayed the back porch floor which she had painted.  The spot where the bar
used to be had a different color paint than the rest of the floor. She put down
what little paint she found in the can of lanai gray paint.  It looks great.
Dinner was Trader Joe’s Ravioli stuffed with truffle mushrooms and a glass of
Cabernet.  Prior to dinner we had cheese and crackers with wine.


January 10, 2019 Thursday Spotlights and Blinds

Libbie left for her first work day at Selby while I stayed home and hung the
blinds in our bedroom  Unfortunately, one of the blinds was too long by ½ inch
and did not fit.  Later in the day when Libbie returned with the car I brought
the blinds to Lowes and had the ½ inch cut off.  When I got home it fit
perfectly,  Now both windows on each side of the bed have blinds. I also tried
to cut a hole in the round PVC junction box cover to mount the LED spotlight I
purchased yesterday.  This will shine a light down on the grill.  In the evening
we can’t see the food being cooked on the grill.   While at Lowes to get the
blinds cut I picked up a round file.  This helped me to complete the hole in the
PVC quite rapidly.  I previously tried using a soldering iron  to melt the PVC
to make a hole.  This wasn’t getting anywhere, mostly because the iron was too
small to be effective.  I’ll probably have to use a combination of the soldering
iron and file to cut the cover on the light where I plan to pass the conduit
through.  This morning I also put the new VGA to HDMI converter on the
refurbished PC I bought and started that up.  It’s supposed to be a 3 Ghz I-5
but it’s very slow.  I think something is wrong.  I did the Win 7 Pro install
that was partially installed on the Hard Drive and then did a Windows update.
It’s puzzling what is slowing this PC down. I brought the door over to Clubside
that was previously planed down.  It fit perfectly but the latch would not work.
The door latch is too low to engage.  I’ll  move the strike plate down a little
to fix the situation. Dinner tonight was 15 bean ham soup made from the carcass
of the ham we had last week for New Years.  It was really good.  Libbie kept the
Cajun seasoning in the 15 beans.  Yes!  Otello was live tonight on Sirius.  I
enjoyed listening to it until I fell asleep.


January 11, 2019 Friday Work

We both got up early today and left at 8:20 AM for Selby.  Arrival was 8:56.
Libbie worked in the greenhouse unpacking plants and I spent the morning doing
both Geo-referencing and photography.  The photography was new and pretty
interesting.  The EOS utility is being used to capture raw images. It’s a little
buggy but adequate.  It hung a few times when trying a correction. Around noon
Libbie came in while I was geo-referencing.  John met Libbie then we left after
I filled out a timecard.  I also stopped by Vera’s office and picked up my
badge. We came home and i got to work right away disassembling the lanai light.
I checked Amazon tracking after a lunch of soup and discovered that the mattress
will not be delivered today and will now be Monday.  Instead I called Fed Ex to
see if I could pick it up.  The answer was yes so we jumped into the Prius and
drove to Palmetto just off the Skyway.  We found the FedEx facility opposite a
dump and picked up the mattress.  On the way back we stopped at the Ellenton
Outlet Mall where Libbie picked up jeans and sneakers. When we arrived at
Knightsbridge I unloaded the car and pushed the mattress up the stairs and into
the guest bedroom.  We both worked at unpacking it and laid it on the bed frame
to expand.  It’s supposed to expand to 12 inches from about 6.  It also is
supposed to air out.  We’ll see how it works out over the next several days.
Dinner tonight was the delicious Cajun style 15 bean ham soup.  Wow, is that
yummy.  We had it with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we checked on the
mattress.  It’s a little stinky as advertised but expanding nicely.  We cracked
the window open to air out and closed the door behind us.


January 12, 2019 Saturday  Everything

I dropped Libbie at the Condo where she cleaned it up.  I went to Lowes for some
screws for the spotlight and also a roll of screen and spline.  I dropped this
at knightsbridge and then went to Clubside to lower the latch so the closet door
properly engaged.  This worked well except I left the upper screw out.  Hope it
isn’t noticed at the walk through. I got the Visa bill this morning.  It was
$14,000 and included the insurance, Dining Table, hot tub, TV and BBQ grill.
It’s quite a lot but $3k will come out of checking and the remaining $10k from
the brokerage account.  Hopefully the Clubside sale has no glitches.  After the
last of the 15 bean soup for lunch I worked on the spotlight.  I got everything
buttoned up and discovered the spotlight wouldn’t work.  I took the outdoor lamp
apart again and discovered the screw in adapter will not work in the socket.
The light bulb won’t light and the AC plug has no voltage.  I ended up hard
wiring the spotlight into the same wires supplying the outdoor fixture.  This
worked well and both the light bulb and the spotlight work correctly.  I tried
my 6 foot ladder to reach the top of the screen cage and found I couldn’t reach
it.  I will need an 8 foot ladder which ladder has for $64 in a cheap aluminum
version.  We went to Walmart and Publix for groceries.  We ended up with $18
per pound Salmon in Publix.  This is a total rip off and I’m not sure why we did
it.  Thinking it through we should have gone to Costco to pick up Salmon.  For
the money we probably would have enough Salmon for many meals. Dinner was the
Salmon with peas and rice.  Libbie cooked the Salmon on the grill.  The new LED
spotlight worked out perfectly.


January 13, 2019 Sunday Screen

I went to Lowes early before CBS Sunday morning and bought an 8 foot ladder.
The store opened at 8 and I was there around 8:30.  The ladder was reduced to
$64 and was excellent to reach the top of the screen cage. When the morning
programs were over at 10:30 I watched a YouTube video about installing spline.
It had some good tips, one of them was to lube the channel with silicone.  I
went to Lowes and got a squeeze bottle of silicone lube.  I had no problems with
installing the screen on the corner of the cage.  It was tight and looked great.
This however wore me down. I joined Libbie in the hot tub for 30 minutes after
doing the screen work.  This mellowed me out for the rest of the day. After some
cheese, crackers and wine I ordered the usual 3 toppings pizza from Dominos
using the 7.99 coupon. The toppings were diced tomato, extra cheese and
mushrooms  on a Brooklyn crust.  They seemed to  have enough employees for the
volume this time and the pizza was ready on time.  It was quite good.


January 14, 2019 Monday Depressing

I went outside today to work the screens but while on the ladder I got a call
from Charlie.  The Buyer’s agent wants to meet me at the condo to inspect the
repairs.   I met him there at 11 AM and showed him the repairs.  I went back
home for lunch of a BLT then the electric mower arrived.  It’s not self
propelled but I pushed it around the side yard and mowed the lawn there. This
wore me out.  I went back on the ladder to resume the screen and Charlie called.
The woman is getting cold feet about closing.  She is complaining about the
plumbing with no permit and also the AC system is old and she wants a $5k
allowance for a new AC.  We’re already buying a home warranty for her.  I said
no.  She may back out of the deal forfeiting the down payment but she also could
contest the down payment.  Charlie said this would give the condo a black mark
and cause us to relist it at a lower price.  I want a clean break from this
place. It has become a nightmare of fees and memberships.  I was pretty
depressed as I completed the middle lanai screen.  Winter has also settled into
the area.  Today’s high was only into the 60s. Charlie finally called late in
the afternoon with some good news.  The other agent had the inspector call her
about the plumbing and tell her it’s not a big deal.  He also extended the
warranty another year for her out of his pocket.  I’ll have to monitor the
closing costs closely.  This was better news and served to cheer me up somewhat.
Dinner was Trader Joe’s scallops in a white sauce with rice and peas.  It was
yummy. After dinner I called Lorraine about coming over with Vicki sometime in
the next week when she’s here. We agreed on next Monday, Martin Luther King Day
at 1 PM for lunch.  I needed a strong drink tonight after today!!!


January 15, 2019 Tuesday Signing

This morning we drove over to DHR law on Fruitville and found the attorneys
office.  We met a beautiful young lady, Katie, who was our paralegal and
conducted the signing.   She was a competent and pretty woman who I would
estimate was in her twenties. When I came back to Knightsbridge I finished
working on the last of the screens.  Unfortunately I had a ripple in the screen
that I left in place because I was tired of working on the screen.  I thought
that maybe I would deal with this at another time.  Libbie and I went to Walmart
and got our groceries.  Dinner tonight was spaghetti with tomato sauce and
cheese.  We used the garden sauce which had veggies in it.  I really liked it
but Libbie did not which is too bad because that means we probably won’t have
that in the future.  We had Cabernet wine with dinner.  We set the alarm for
5:50 AM to go to the airport tomorrow.


January 16, 2019 Wednesday Tampa

Up at 5:50 AM and out the door at 6:30 to meet Vicki in Tampa.  Traffic was
incredibly heavy on 75.  We enjoyed sunset on the Skyway.  It was a beautiful
morning drive.  When we got to the Howard Franklin traffic was stop and go but I
expected this and allowed for it in the timeline of our airport trip.  We parked
in short term parking by the Earhardt elevators and went down to the Jet Blue
shuttle.  There were nice comfortable chairs facing the shuttle in the Blue
Terminal.  We arrived there at 8:05 AM waiting for Vicki.  The arrivals board
said her 8:46 AM flight was due at 8:21 AM which is about 20 minutes early.
While sitting there Charlie called about the key for the lock for the locked
closet.  I directed him to the doorbell cover.  I was hoping this was all our
buyer needed.  We continued to watch the shuttles for Vicki and finally
identified her when she waved getting off the shuttle.  On the way home we
stopped at a McDonalds in St Pete taking the 22nd St exit.  It was an easy drive
to our house.  Libbie made tuna salad sandwiches for lunch which were yummy.
While having lunch we got a call from Katie that our check and the final closing
papers were available.  After lunch we drove to the lawyers office and got our
check then drove to TdAmeritrade and deposited it.  After touring downtown a bit
we went over to Selby Gardens and toured the conservatory and the Rain Forest
Masks.  On the way home we stopped at Yoders for Honeybell Oranges.  I was
looking for a Key Lime pie but they didn’t have any of those.  Later that day I
ran out to Publix for Oatmeal and found a mini Key Lime pie for 4.99 which I
brought home.  At 7 PM we went out to the clubhouse for dinner.  We had
reservations in the dining room which was very very crowded and noisy.   The
food was great.  Lib and Vicki ordered the Broasted chicken while I had the
flash fried oysters which came with french fries and slaw.  I had a glass of
Cabernet with dinner.  What a nice meal and a nice night but very long day for
Vicki who got on a plane at 5:30 this morning.


January 17, 2019 Thursday Palmetto

It started out cold this morning in the mid forties.  I had a bowl of hot
oatmeal for breakfast to warm me up. Libbie left for her job at Selby where she
cleaned and pruned Gesneriads.  I took a walk with Vicki around Westbourne and
around Knightsbridge.  I was looking at landscaping ideas.  It was about a 2
mile walk.  I then got out the saw and sawed up some more Palmetto in time for
the landscape trash truck to arrive.  Libbie came home around noon and she and
Vicki  deboned the chicken leftovers from last night.  It made great sandwiches
for lunch along with a piece of Key Lime Pie. We then went to the UPS on Tamiami
next to the old bankrupt Sports Authority.  The packages were my old cable boxes
going back to Frontier Communications.  They provided boxes and prepaid labels
to do this.  UPS gave me a tracking number.  We then went to Costco to get
Pierogi and wine.  I also looked for more storage boxes but they didn’t have
them anymore which is too bad. Dinner tonight was a few Pierogi as a sample of
Costco premade Pierogi.  They were pretty good.  We also had air fried chicken
Parmesan which  of course came out pretty good.  With the chicken parm we had a
glass of Cabernet.


January 18, 2019 Friday Party

This morning I left for Selby but left early so that I could stop at Lowes and
pick up a Cafe Rod for Libbie’s Mothers signature birthday quilt that her sister
mailed to her. I also picked up missing bolts for the pruning saw that I lost.
They fell out while I was cutting Palmetto.  At Selby I spent the morning geo-
referencing Bromeliads collected in Brazil.  From there I went straight home and
had a salad with Vicki and Lib that Libbie had prepared.  It’s been a few days
since we have had salad.  At 6 PM we started making the Pierogi.  We made all
the ones in the package and placed a bowl of sour cream in the center of the
bowl of Pierogi.  We went over at 6:25 and met lots of people.  The food was all
good brought by many people.  There were around 40 people at the party at 4051
Westbourne.  Our hosts were Marilyn and .  I had pulled pork, pasta, a pepperoni
roll and some grape leaf wraps.  For dessert I had a piece of cheesecake.
Libbie and I brought a bottle of Willamette Valley Pinot over to have with
dinner.  A fun evening of meet the neighbors.  We sat in the living room with
the person who owns the 34 Woody I took a movie of last year.  How cool.  He’s a
Canadian named Dave and said he bought a foreclosure to fix up. His wife looks
younger than he and is a fashion designer.


January 19, 2019 Saturday Siesta Beach

After breakfast we drove over to Siesta Beach.  We were looking for the 34 Woody
but didn’t see it.  We walked 2 miles down the beach and back.  It was a nice
morning walk.  It was cloudy on the way down but cleared up for the return trip
making it a warm trip back.  The weather was nice.  Later it got windy back at
home.  Vicki treated us to lunch at Evie’s Spanish Point.  I had a Yuengling and
an Italian Sausage sandwich which was smothered in onions, peppers, parmesan and
marinara.  It was good and came with French Fries.   This wiped me out.  I did a
Lowes trip for a bathroom drain lever rod.  The guest bathroom needed a working
drain because it was partially closed and Vicki had problems with using the
sink.  I need to replace the faucets with working drain stoppers. In the evening
we reheated the Pierogi which we had with the leftover sour cream. After this it
was time for bed at 8 AM.  I was really tired.


January 20, 2019 Sunday Sun City

We didn’t watch the Sunday morning programs but instead had to leave at 9:30 AM
for Sun City.  It was about an hour drive up I-75 on a very windy but dry day.
We got there around 10:30 and met Harry and Heidi, two German friends of Vicki.
They are 4 or 5 years older than us but very nice.  He has a 38 Red Ford in the
garage along with their Mercedes and Lexus.   Sun City is a very nice community
but lacks any of the amenities of Sarasota such as culture the arts or even a
lot of good restaurants.  If your OK with that then it would work. We went out
to their clubhouse for Sunday Brunch which was not much of a brunch but the
venue was good.  I had a little bit of beef pot pie, waffle with syrup and hash
browns.  Brunch was $11 each.  I paid for 3 of us.  We had a nice leisurely
brunch. After this we drove back to Stoneybrook and stayed inside while the wind
whipped outside.  At 6 PM I ordered 2 Domino pizzas, one mushroom and one
pepperoni.  Even though the app said they were done, when we went to the store
to pick them up they were not done.  Libbie waited for another 10 minutes or so
for them to complete.  The pizza was good and we had some slices left over as
expected.


January 21, 2019 Monday Port Charlotte

I worked on the AVSA Registration in the morning then shortly before noon we
left for Ted and Lorraine's.   We arrived on time shortly before 1 as expected.
Ted and Tommy came a little later then we went over to the clubhouse.  Tommy can
hardly walk, he’s in pretty bad shape.  He said he doesn’t drive anymore. The
clubhouse was nice.  Ted treated us to lunch.  I had the blackened fish tacos.
They had a red cabbage slaw and corn on the fish.  This was easily the best fish
tacos I have ever had.  Wow, so good.  We then went over to Lorraine's for
dessert and chat.  I had a nice piece of cheesecake.  We left there around 6 PM
making part of the drive in the dark.  The blood moon was out tonight.  Shortly
after the drive home we went out into the backyard at Knightsbridge and saw the
rising moon which was glowing orange and was super large.  For dinner I had 2
slices of the leftover pizza and answered several emails as well as worked on
the meals for the convention registration.  I heard from Brenda and Mahlen who
are going to be in Florida next week. I invited them to stay here.


January 22, 2019 Tuesday Lightroom

This morning we left at 7:50 AM for Libbie to be at Horticulture at 8:30.  I
stayed in the car in the parking lot using Selby’s WiFi to watch a YouTube
tutorial.  This worked well, I’m trying to figure out how to do meal choices.
At 9 I went into Botany and found John at his computer.  Today I worked with a
Lightroom expert named Paul.  I learned a lot.  We are color correcting,
applying a lens correction and lightening up some of the images a little.  We
spent most of the time working on figuring out where the images were being
imported to and also dealing with other anomalies.  We left there at noon and
stopped by Yoders to pick up some more oranges and also a quart of strawberries.
After a lunch of tuna sandwiches we went out to Spanish Point for a nice walk
along the bay.  We renewed our membership and got Vicki in for free on one of
our guest passes.  It was a sunny but breezy afternoon.  I came back tired.  I
checked eMail and found Brenda said she and Mahlen would like to stay here,
This will be fun with an enjoyable couple. We went out to dinner at Beckhams on
the Trail.  We all wanted the ribs but Mike our waiter said they were out of
ribs.  We heard other people also try to order the ribs.  I had the fish and
chips which were excellent.  Just like in London, the fish and chips came with
peas.  We had a Yuengling with our meal.  Vicki had the chicken stir fry which
was Teriyaki, pineapples and chicken. Nicely, Vicki treated us to dinner.  It
was a nice night and finally warming up.


January 23, 2019 Wednesday TPA Airport

I heard from Winston.  The convention pages are ready to go live. I spent some
time making them live and committed to having the online registration ready in
two weeks.  While Libbie and Vicki went for a long walk I worked on the
registration website.  I’m having trouble with the meal choices.  I need to
watch some more tutorials about selecting attributes for a product.  Libbie
thawed some of the New YEars Day ham and we had ham sandwiches for lunch.  Vicki
wanted to get to the airport at 3:15 for her 6:30 flight so we left the house at
2 PM.  As we were getting off I-275 a little after 3 she got a text that her
flight has been delayed until 8 PM.  Oh well, at least she is at the airport.  I
told her if the flight was canceled that we would return to get her.  On the way
home we stopped at Costco for gas and Salmon.  We also picked up some ribs and
the storage containers I was looking for.  These containers are a good deal at 6
for $15. For dinner we had the ribs along with some roasted potatoes and roasted
carrots.  The Costco ribs were not my favorite.  They were meaty St Louis dry
rub style.  We had a glass of Cabernet with the ribs.


January 24, 2019 Thursday Registration

While Libbie left today to go over to Selby I had quiet time in which I watched
some YouTube videos about Drupal Commerce products.  I successfully Created the
meal product with choice of chicken or beef.  I then rolled on and completed the
tours and sessions.  Now I will add the merchandise then try to figure out the
registration fee and package deals. It was pouring rain this morning but they
picked up our dishwasher as well as the trash, recyclables and the landscape
debris. In the storm our cardboard got blown out all over the neighborhood.  I
found a wine carton in the pond that Libbie fished out with the rake.  This is
too bad, we’re the cause of litter. Later in the day we went to Costco and got
Salmon for dinner.  I made a separate Lowes trip for 2 metal shelves for my
office closet.  I had them cut in Lowes to 91 inches from the original 96 inches
but did not install them because the website has priority in my to-do tasks. I
called Vicki about her flight last night.  She said it was smooth and was only
45 minutes late in the end.  It was nice having her visit here. Dinner was
Salmon with roasted potato and carrots.


January 25, 2019 Friday Lightroom

Libbie went with me to Selby so we left before 8 because she starts at 8 and i
don’t have to be there until 9 AM. I used the time once again to sit in the car
and use the Selby WiFi to watch a YouTube tutorial.  In the Botany lab I worked
with Paul and did the import into Lightroom and then the export to the external
drive.  I’m learning my way around Lightroom.  Interesting I found I’m working
with a few Opera buffs.  Both John and Paul are Opera aficionados. I got the tee
shirt image from Glenda today and proceeded to add all the sizes of the tee
shirts as well as the rest of the convention merchandise.  Remaining now is the
registration fees which are pretty complicated. Dinner tonight was the rest of
the Costco ribs warmed on the grill.  This time we used a KC Classic BBQ sauce
making them come out much better than 2 days ago.  We had roasted potatoes with
the ribs and a few glasses of Cabernet.


January 26, 2019 Saturday Birding

We left at 7:45 for the Sarasota landfill and joined the Stoneybrook birders at
8:15 AM.  We then shared vehicles.  We went in a car driven by a Canadian,
Susie.  Our first stop was a bald eagle.  Wow, I have never been this close to
one.  What a treat. It was freezing cold.  I certainly was not adequately
dressed, especially with the wind.  Another treat was a bald eagle and 3
juveniles on the ridge of the landfill mound.  We saw a beautiful Shrike and a
bunch of Storks grouped together.  I have never seen Wood Storks gathered in one
grouping.  This whole place was a treat.  We got back via Bay St and the new
roundabout with Honore.  We stopped into Walmart and bought $100 worth of
groceries and missing household items like a paper towel holder, soap dish,
light bulbs, glass measuring cup and BBQ tools. In the evening we got dressed up
and went out to DooWop Denny and the Midwestern party at the clubhouse.  We got
there late at 6:30 because the social hour started at 5:30.  The food was
outstanding.  I really liked the beef short ribs and the salmon in a cream
sauce.  Dessert was Cannolis, Eclairs and cheesecake.  Wow, over the top in
goodies.  Our table of attendees was a nice bunch of varied people young to old.
We were the only dancers.  Doo Wop Denny did not disappoint with his music.  It
was great.


January 27, 2019 Sunday Rain

We watched the Sunday morning programs while it rained like heck outside.  I
went upstairs into my office and worked on the desktop computer trying to
complete the AVSA registration website.  Unfortunately I did not finish.  During
a break I installed one of the closet shelves.  This went well but not as well
as I planned.  I need to put the smaller supports in first then drop the shelf
down onto the side supports.  Because the center support will block the lower
shelves I need to run out to Lowes and pick up a bunch of these shelves to
finish out the shelving. For dinner I ordered the usual 3 topping pizza for 7.99
from Dominos.  They of course screwed this thing up.  The app indicated the
pizza was done but when Libbie arrived it wasn’t even in the oven.  A bunch of
other people were also waiting around, all of then online orders with the same
problem.  The pizza was good, we watched 60  minutes and had the pizza with a
glass of wine.


January 28, 2019 Monday

I spent most of the day trying to get product pricing to change based on the
product attribute.  Still no solution in sight.  This is draining on my time.
We did a trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up a picture for over the sofa identical
to the one we had in Clubside.  Unfortunately I did not have any picture hanger
hooks. I made a quick trip to Lowes and bought a package of hooks as well as a
valence for the guest bedroom.  I hung the picture and it looks pretty nice.  I
found a post for cloning the Drupal Custom line items.  It is a patch that needs
Linux to apply it.  I did some research and discovered that the Windows program
Cygwin is capable of running Linux commands.  I downloaded and started the
install of Cygwin before we went to bed and let it run overnight because the
install was taking a lot of time. We had a trip to Sprouts on the way home from
Hobby Lobby to see this store.  It is quite nice.  We picked up a wrap for lunch
as well as carrots and cereal.  We had Corn Chowder soup for dinner early before
leaving for the Ballet at 6 PM.  We really enjoyed “Moving Transformations” by
the Sarasota Ballet.  My favorite was Amorosa which was a world premiere.  It
was quite good and fast moving with lots of shapes and forms by leotard clad
ballerinas and their male partners. They occasionally wore long red gowns with
the leotard making them look like a complete ball gown.  The music was
contemporary.  A piece I thought should be good was a pas de deux set to
Meditation from Thais.  It was just OK, I didn’t sense a lot of connection
between the pair. The first number was a Scottish piece which didn’t belong. We
had nice seats in Row A of the balcony in the center of the house.  Very nice.
January 29, 2019 Tuesday Scanner We left the  house at 7:50 for Selby.  Libbie
starts at 8:30.  Bahia Vista was backed up so we did some creative rerouting
down and around.  I’m not sure where we were but we ended up on the junction of
301 and 41 so we took Mound and turned into Selby. Libbie got there on time.  I
watched a YouTube Drupal Commerce line item product tutorial then went into the
Botany lab at 9.  I spent the 3 hours trying to get a new scanner working and
did not have any luck.  I met Libbie outside at 12 and started the drive back.
We stopped at Yoders for produce. At the house I went into the backyard and
worked on the last of the Palmetto stumps then took down another branch of the
bottle brush tree that was hitting the house.   Libbie nicely bagged the
branches.  I then started working some more on the Line Items but got severe
pains running up and down my back.  I took an aspirin under my tongue and lay
down on the bed.  I’m hoping this is not some kind of heart condition.  It
eventually went away. Dinner tonight was chicken quesadilla in the air fryer.
Libbie ground up an avocado and mixed it with tomato pieces as a topping on the
quesadilla in addition to the sour cream and salsa toppings. We had this with a
glass of Cabernet.


January 30, 2019 Wednesday Registration

I finished installing the shelves in the office closet and then moved in.  This
got everything off the floor.  Libbie then vacuumed the office.  It sure looks
good.  I did a Walmart grocery run then a Costco run to get Salmon and wine.  In
the afternoon I had some success getting the registration working for members,
non members and the package deal.  I still need the one day registration piece
to be done but I sent what I had to be reviewed by Penny and her team. I used
the newly cleaned and organized office to use the office desktop computer and
get the registration website working. For dinner tonight I made chicken
quesadillas in the air fryer.  These are easy to do and taste yummy.  We had a
few glasses of wine with the Quesadillas.


Jan 31, 2019 Thursday

 The garbage and recycle guys came so I took the empty garbage can and filled it
with clippings from the hedge next to the driveway.  I also filled another
landscape bag.  This worked well because they picked up the stuff within 15
minutes.  As I returned the garbage can, Brenda and Mahlen arrived which was
surprising. They did good from above Jacksonville. We chatted a while then
Libbie arrived back from Selby. We had a nice chicken salad sandwich with chips
on the Lanai.  We then went to Selby and walked the garden. Back home we had
some of the wine, cheese and sausage they brought on a nice ceramic “G” dish.
For dinner Libbie cooked a Salmon with rice, broccoli and of course a glass of
wine.  It was a fun day with special friends.


Feb 1, 2019 Friday Lightroom

I left Libbie, Brenda and Mahlen while they were having breakfast.  It was 8:20
AM and time to start the drive to Selby Gardens.  I arrived just before 9 and
found John back in the Herbarium.   He put me to work image processing.  I
imported each day’s worth of raw images then applied the white balance and color
corrections during the export to the external drive as both a DNG and a JPG
image.  By 12:20 I had done 2700 images then drove home.  At home I had a
chicken salad sandwich with Libbie on the Lanai.  It is nice and warm in the
upper 70s, not bad for Feb 1.  I lay down on the bed after lunch and did some
reading in the Texture app.  There was a long story in wired about Elon Musk and
the building of the Tesla 3.  My King Size flannel shirts arrived today.  Too
bad the weather has warmed up and will remain warm for at least the next week.
Later in the afternoon I applied all the changes to the Registration that Penny
wanted.  This was easy. Dinner tonight was Salmon with broccoli and rice.  Prior
to dinner we had cheese and sausage with crackers. Accompanying both dinner and
our cheese and crackers was a few glasses of Woodbridge Pinot Noir.


Feb 2, 2019 Saturday Carmen

This morning during breakfast I watched Phil the groundhog in Pennsylvania live.
He did not see his shadow so it will be an early Spring this year. I had an
early morning trip to Lowes where I picked up some landscape lights, a garden
pick and blinds for the hallway window.  I had to exchange the blinds for a set
that was one inch longer.  They fit perfectly!  The motors are supposed to come
today and the couplers will be here tomorrow. We left early for Carmen because
the theater was going to be full for an ABC opera.  We were right.  We had a
nasty woman behind us who wouldn’t lower her cell phone volume.  The opera was
great.  Roberto Alagna and his wife were both in the HD.  He was Don Jose and
she was Micaela. She faced the camera during the interview and told us this
Opera is different because Micaela wins and gets to take Don Jose home with her.
After the Opera we went next door to Costco and bought more wine and a rack of
ribs for dinner.  When we got home the stepper motors from Amazon were on the
front porch. Earlier the Post Office had delivered the 4 Gb of RAM from BH Photo
for my desktop.  It worked perfectly.  Dinner tonight was the Costco ribs warmed
on the grill, rice and a few glasses of Pinot.


February 4, 2019 Sunday Superbowl Day & Open House

This morning I went outside and tried the new garden pick I bought.  I hacked
away at the Palmetto stump with no luck at all.  It did dig the stump out a
little more on each side but whatever roots are holding it in the ground are
pretty solid and strong.  I next went to work on the landscape lighting.  I ran
the wire under the sidewalk and directed it towards the spot where the water
comes out of the house.  I attempted drilling through the masonry block and
raised many small ants living there.  I did a Lowes run and bought a jug of raid
max and sprayed the area twice.  I ran the wire into the hole I made and emptied
a tube of concrete patch into the hole then smoothed it over. We did a little
walk after lunch and visited an Open House where the lady died after buying it
last year.  The realtor is not very good.  She said it’s owned by an estate.  I
stopped working on the wiring because I was tired.  I’ll continue tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was Mushroom Ravioli in truffle sauce that we had picked up from
Trader Joes a few weeks ago.  With dinner we had a few glasses of Cabernet and
watched some of the Super Bowl.  I went upstairs during the half time show which
was boring.  The game was not very interesting but I don’t like watching much
football anyway.  Upstairs on my computer I installed Arduino and the ESP8266
board.


Feb 5, 2019 Monday Registration, Landscape wiring

I talked with Penn today about the registration. She suggested and I agreed that
the form is too long and needs to be broken into multiple pages.  I also
contacted Vickie about a stripe account.  We decided to forego the authorize.net
dance wit Winston. I next went outside and buried the landscape wire and akso
installed 3 of the lights.  When I tried to power the thing up it would not
work. The lights kept flashing.  My meter showed no voltage.  I hope all is OK
with this. I went back inside and worked on breaking out the registration form
onto multiple pages.  I finished this but could not get the awards to display in
the cart.  I’ll finish this tomorrow.  I also took a look at my motor couplings.
They are too big.  I need a 5 mm motor side and probably a little over 5 on the
blinds roller shaft.  Amazon has the next size available.  Meanwhile i need some
tools to breadboard this which I don’t have. Sad. Dinner was the rest of the
ribs with small baked potatoes and a glass of Cabernet.


Feb 6, 2019 Tuesday Registration, Lighting

Libbie left for Selby and I continued registration work moving everything onto
separate pages. I got frustrated over the donation not transferring to the cart
when added to the cart.  I stopped and got the 8 foot ladder and changed the
lightbulb over the stairs putting 2 LEDs into place.  Now the unknown switch at
the base of the stairs works.  It is the light over the stairs and is
controllable from 2 switches, one up and one down.  Libbie came home so we went
to Walmart for groceries.  Then we did a different trip to Lowes for my new
Power Pack.  While there we filled the cart with landscaping stuff such as
Hibiscus and bedding plants.  The total was $150.  I hooked up the new
transformer and it worked well.  Now I need to relocate the lights to a better
location. Dinner was different.  We had beef tacos using the guac Libbie picked
up in Yoders.  We had taco shells with beef, lettuce, tomato, and guac.  Yum!
Accompanying this was a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I tried again with the
donations but got nowhere.


Feb 7, 2019 Wednesday Success

I watched a tutorial about setting up a rule for the Donations and later in the
day implemented it.  There was success for a change.  I got the Donation thing
working.  Outdoors I freed one of the Palmetto stumps in the back then proceeded
to use the pick to remove sod from the area around the Hibiscus.  I then planted
the two Hibiscus we purchased yesterday in Lowes.  This was happiness.  All the
removed grass went into the Lowes landscape bag. We had a surprise at the door
this evening.  Juliya from next door brought a snapper and spaghetti plate over.
She was wearing tiny little short shorts and looked fantastic.  The meal was
delicious.  It was spiced nicely.  We practically licked the plate.  After a
while we went next door to thank them.  Libbie was happy holding 7 month old
Olivia.


Feb 8, 2019 Thursday Landscape Walk

Before leaving for Selby today I started a folder with the Blinds Controller
using an ESP8266 chip. I found several templates that I am combining for an MQTT
enabled stepper controller. I had to leave at 8:20 to go to Selby. Interesting
morning at Selby.  When I arrived there was no parking.  Today was training for
Gauguin volunteers.  In addition it was the opening of Gauguin for the press.
Parking was non existent.  The front lawn of Botany was a makeshift parking lot.
In Botany I kept trying to get into the database but there was no room on the
drive holding the database and it consequently crashed.  Other users in Botany
were having the same problem.  I did geo-referencing of Ecuador for 2 hours then
moved over to the photo station to try to locate some missing jpgs.  They were
eventually found but there are a lot of missing photos.  I said I would find a
command line compare program tonight at home which I did.  On the way home I
stopped in Home Depot and picked up a Chamberlain garage door opener like we
have at home.  This has a motion sensor on the button as well as WiFi and quiet
operation.  I had a 15% off coupon which saved me $32.  Libbie made delicious
Tacos for lunch then we took a walk around Knightsbridge and Hawksmoor looking
at landscaping.   I made up my mind what kind of landscape plants I would like
to put in front of our house.  For dinner we went out to Beckhams and ordered a
half rack of ribs and black beans and rice.  With the ribs we had a Yuengling.
It was nice to be listening to Elisir d’Amore  live from the Met tonight.


February 8, 2019 Friday Workbench

I worked Selby this morning image processing and solving the mystery of why the
DNG and JPG file totals were different.  The DNG files still had photos whereas
the jpg only contained specimens.  I ended up doing around 1000 images and
enjoyed doing it. On the way back I couldn’t take Bahia Vista because the road
was closed.  I took Alta Vista and a bunch of side streets that put me on to
Tamiami.  My first chance to turn off was Webber.  I didn’t get a chance to go
to Yoders.  I stopped by Harbor Freight and bought a Workbench as well as an air
compressor.  Cap One called and said my Credit Card was compromised.  There
appears to be a fake card in circulation in a mall in Georgia.  Many charges
being made up there.  I can’t figure out how the number got out since I was
careful about skimmers and restaurants.  I’m guessing it was the Farm Bureau who
wrote my number down on a piece of paper. I proceeded to put the workbench
together this afternoon.  It has a lot of parts and of course I did not finish.
Dinner was Chicken Parmesan in the Air Fryer along with Broccoli and Cabernet.


Feb 9, 2019 Saturday Return Air Compressor

I went to Lowes early this morning to pick up a quick disconnect plug for the
new air compressor.  Libbie came with me and we bought 6 more alyssum from the
rescue table as well as a bag of Cyprus mulch.  I wasn’t happy that it was a
Scotts product.  I hooked up the air compressor and was really disappointed.
The noise was deafening.  It took a long time to fill the tank.  After 5 minutes
or so the tank was still not full.  I was able to use it to fill our bicycle
tires but decided this compressor has no future here.  I packaged it up and
returned it to Harbor Freight.  They had a 20% restocking charge which came out
to $9.  It was worth it to dispose of this thing and be done with Harbor Freight
Air Compressors.  I’ll probably pick up a Kobalt Quiet Tech compressor.  There
are 2 sizes, 2 gals and 4.3 gals for $149 and $199 respectively.  I probably
just need the 2 gal version. I finished assembling the workbench.  This thing is
well built for the price.  I’m ready to use it because the breadboard came today
in the mail from Frentaly in Georgia.  Also arriving were the new smaller motor
couplers.  These are the 5 mm to 5 mm couplers.  I previously purchased 5 mm to
8 mm couplers.  The 5 mm is a good fit on the stepper.  The other side at 5 mm
is a tight but usable fit on the blind roller shaft. Late in the afternoon
after Libbie planted the alyssum I spread the bag of mulch around the plants.
This will work well. Dinner was Salmon and baked potato halves.  Both were
really good.  Along with dinner we of course had a few glasses of Cabernet.
After dinner I continued working on the stepper software since I now have the
materials to breadboard a model.


February 10, 2019   Sunday Door Opener

After the morning shows I worked a little on the stepper program in my office
before heading into the garage.  I unpacked the new door opener and assembled it
then removed the old opener and tried to hang the new opener.  I managed to get
it attached above the garage door but had difficulty hanging it from the
ceiling.  I attached the included brackets but they were too small.  Next step
was to reuse the old brackets which are much better and stronger.  Unfortunately
in the first try at attaching them they need to be flipped 180 degrees but I was
too tired to do this. We took a walk around the neighborhood looking at various
samples of landscaping. For dinner tonight I ordered the usual 7.99 3 topping
pizza from Dominos.  We had a surprise because it said David was preparing our
order rather than Eric.  We picked it up without incident.  It was ready on time
for a change and of course was very good.  We watched the Grammy red carpet with
Ryan Secrist and then watched the beginning of the show.  The show was quite
good.


February 11, 2019 Monday Garage Door

This morning I went to work finishing up the garage door.  I had to run out to
Lowes for a treated 2x4 to mount the door safety photo eyes.  I originally
mounted them on the door track but the track wobbled as the door lowered causing
the eye to go out of alignment which caused the door to reverse.  It works much
better now.  I still need to mount the keypad remote on the stucco outside the
door.  I pulled the old keypad down exposing a large unpainted white spot.  To
hide this I need to mount the new keypad.  While I worked in the garage in the
morning my phone was busy with texts and calls from Penny, Amy and Anne.  They
all want the updated registration pages. After a bowl of clam chowder I tackled
the registration some more and made good progress.  In the afternoon I heard
from Vicki that Kerrie’s obit was online..  I checked it out and found she died
of a brain aneurysm.  It was a total surprise at 37 years old. We made a quick
trip to Costco because we were out of wine.  While there we picked up coffee, a
rotisserie chicken, and English muffins.  Dinner was the rotisserie chicken
along with baked beans and a few glasses of Cabernet.  Before dinner we had a
very nice plate of cheese and crackers with wine and conversation.


Tuesday February 12, 2019 Tuesday Registration Complete

I finished up the AVSA registration today. Libbie went to Selby which left me
with uninterrupted time to work on the last of the items on my punch list for
registration.  I still do not have the credentials for authorize.net but we can
use the Stripe stuff for now. Libbie needed tweezers so we took a trip to Harbor
Freight then went down Clark to Walmart at Clark and Honore.  Libbie wanted to
get Valentine’s cards for Paige and Emily.  We picked up our groceries as well
then filled out the Valentine cards in the Walmart parking lot and drove the
only Palmer Ranch mailbox that I know of which is on the Palmer Ranch Parkway
near Beneva.  The box said that pickup was at 7 PM so we were in good shape
getting these cards out. Dinner tonight was quesadillas using the rotisserie
chicken.  We put salsa and sour cream on the quesadilla which was filled with
onions, peppers, and mexican cheese.  Accompanying the dinner was a few glasses
of Cabernet.


February 13, 2019 Wednesday

 This was a rainy day.  I stayed indoors all day and looked at the Line Item
section of Drupal Commerce.  We took a trip to JoAnn fabric because Libbie
needed some Calico fabrics.  They didn’t have what she wanted so we stopped into
Trader Joes on the way home and picked up almonds, our only purchase.  I tried a
sample of a cake that was supposed to taste like pancakes.  It was not very good
but did taste like pancakes with maple syrup.  Dinner tonight was spaghetti with
cheese topping.


February 14, 2019 Thursday Turandot

I went into Selby this morning and did some geo-referencing and also photography
of specimens.  John managed the folders and I ran the camera.  After this I met
Libbie in the conservatory where she took me behind the scenes for a tour of the
Gesneriad house she has been grooming.  Quite nice!  We then toured the Gauguin
exhibit in both the Conservatory and also the Payne mansion where there were
original wood block lithographs.  We then had lunch in the garden at the food
truck outside the Payne mansion. We originally ordered Samarosas with a sauce
but the cooker failed to make the food.  Instead she told us to order something
else so we chose the chicken bowl which was delicious. As we were finishing the
meal she came out to us with the cooked Samarosas which we took home. She also
gave us a chocolate Macadamia nut cookie.  Back home I had 11 eMails from our
testers.  I managed to get almost all the changes in before I had to leave for
the Opera.  We had chicken sandwiches before we left for dinner.  Today was
Valentine's Day so Palm Ave was packed with no chance of getting parking.  We
paid the $5 and used the parking garage.  Fortunately I had a $5 bill in my
wallet.  The Opera was spectacular.  This is Grand Opera.  Our seats in Row D in
the middle of the house were perfect for the powerful experience.  The best
singer of the night was clearly Liu, the servant girl for the Father.  The
Soprano who played Turandot was also great.  Nessun Dorma by the tenor came off
pretty good.  He was up for the challenge.  I enjoyed the orchestra as well.
They sounded good.  The Opera ran long.  We didn’t get out until 10:45 PM  I was
going to stop into Walmart on the way  home to get the crab cake fixings but
abandoned that plan because it was so late.


February 15, 2019 Friday Miter Saws

I had fun at Selby today.  Paul is back from his Mother’s funeral. I showed him
how to geo-reference while I imported pictures.  We chatted about Turandot last
night and how good it was. After work I went to Walmart but didn’t have much
success.  No crab and no garlic or capers was the result.  Next stop was HArbor
Freight for the Miter Saw stand.  I assembled the thing then mounted the Miter
Saw.  It won’t stand up as I expected but overall it’s a good saw stand and will
be useful.  Dinner tonight was rib eye steak with small baked potatoes and a few
glasses of Cabernet.  I wanted to work on the convention registration but had no
time.


 February 16, 2019 Saturday Frustration and a party

I tried to get the reports section of the registration working.  I was
practically in tears because I couldn’t get any of the reports to report on
custom line items.  Custom Line Items are the products that contain things like
number of conventions, name on badge, etc.  This is about 20 elements that could
not be found using a View.  I was so frustrated and on top of it all we had to
go to a party tonight and then Libbie walks in and says the toilet is still
leaking.   I certainly did not appreciate this crap and used some bad language
that I shouldn’t have. We went to the party at 6:30.  It was surprising at the
number of young people at the party.  We had an enthusiastic group of young
woman doing karaoke.  Lots of fun.  We brought some Costco crab cakes that we
picked up this morning when they opened.  I had some potatoes and veggies and
also some of the sausage.  For dessert I had a slice of cheesecake.  Lots of
people seemed interested in an Audubon group.  We told them about the group at
the club that we belong to.  We left at 9 PM.  I had to pack for tomorrow’s
trip.  I also set up the VPN for our NAS.   Before the party I had shutdown the
Synology NAS and the router and then plugged them into the battery backup we
purchased this morning.  The Cyber Power device needed to be charged 8 hours
before use.  This was a little over 8 hours.


February 17, 2019 Sunday Trip

I got up automatically at 6:01 AM and hit the shower.  I packed a few items in
my suitcase, mostly toiletries,  We had some breakfast, I had oatmeal with
bananas.  We then left the house in a dense fog at 7 AM.  We were short of gas
only starting out with half a tank. Fortunately the fog started lifting around
Bradenton and got better as we went North.  It was 63 degrees but the sun was
rising and the skies were clear.  We stopped at McDonalds in Brooksville where I
got gas and we picked up some egg McMuffins.  Gas was 2.17  The skies got pretty
cloudy North of Gainesville where we took our shortcut from I-75 to I-10.  We
had another gas stop at exit 8 in SC where we had a sit down lunch and got more
gas, this time at 2.11.  I had a big Mac with small fries.  This was our last
gas stop - we decided to skip getting gas in Florence and continued home on what
we had in the tank.  We arrived home with the gauge showing 57 miles to empty.
Once home the low temperature alarm was sounding.  I flipped the breaker and
turned on the emergency electric heat.   The gas heater seems to turn on for a
little bit then cycle down.  Some sensor is detecting a failure and won’t allow
the heat to continue. We ordered our normal pizza from Dominos in Apex tis time.
It was good or about the same as we get in Sarasota.  They are a lot more
efficient in Apex.


February 18, 2019 Monday

The greenhouse ran on mostly electric heat during the night.  I replaced every
sensor in the unit - the air flow switch, the controller and the heat detector.
It turned out the igniter has a flame detector built in.  When I replaced that
the heater ran OK all day according to the sensor graphs I obtained from the
home sensing system.  It was a cold but sunny day.  I got a VPN running on the
Downing network and attempted some updates to the PI running NCID and the MQTT
broker.  This turned out to be a failure and nothing worked anymore.  Dinner
tonight was Chipotle Bowls from Chipotle along with a few glasses of Woodbridge
Red Blend because that’s all FoodLion had.


February 19, 2019 Tuesday  Sensors

I attempted to work on the AVSA registration but also worked at configuring the
graph displays of the heater sensors, both flue and ambient.   I want the
greenhouse to display on the history charts just like everything else now
displays.  Dinner tonight was Chinese takeout.  We had the usual 2 egg rolls
followed by the 3 meat Szechuan dinner.  We had this with a few glasses of
Cabernet.


February 20, 2019 Wednesday Broken Heater

I was wakened at midnight by the low temperature alarm.  The heater won’t stay
running in the greenhouse.  I used the electric backup once again and decided to
deal with it in the morning but not until I tried messing with it and ended up
going to bed at 1 AM.  I decided I need a lockout detector and reset circuit
using an Arduino.  In the morning I started programming a boarduino and
breadboarded a DS18B20 temperature sensor.  I also unhooked the bend in the
exhaust in order to improve drafting.  It was a very cold 38 degree rainy day.
In the afternoon the heater finally quit and wouldn’t restart at all.  Around
dinner time I made the decision to buy a new heater in Northern where they had
them in stock.   Dinner was spaghetti with some cheese.  After dinner we drove
to Northern and bought a 50,000 BTU heater for $379 which was a pretty good
price.  My goal was to at least lower the old heater but instead I not only
lowered the old unit but also raised the new heater into place.  I will need to
move the gas shut off and reroute the exhaust but the new heater has the
removable control panel on the walkway side making access easier.  This is
better than the Dornback unit which had the access panel over the bench.


February 21, 2019 Thursday Finish Heater

I tried framing a place for the new exhaust outlet but nailing at an angle from
a ladder was incredibly difficult.  I ended up hauling the compressor and hoses
into the greenhouse to use th framing nailer. This was great and made this part
of the job easier.  I leveled out the heater and then moved the gas valve over
from under the exhaust pipe.  After leak testing I hooked up the AC cord and the
thermostat.  The 3 inch stove pipe doesn’t fit well into the 4 inch outlet.  The
heater manual says it includes a 4 inch to 3 inch transition adapter but I
didn’t find one in the box.  I ran out to Lowes to get a treated 2x4 to use as a
nailer to hold  up the insulation which is falling but did not put that up
because I ran out of time.  I set the heater up to run overnight.  It seems to
work well except for the transition from the 4 inch to 3 inch pipe.  I’ll fix
that tomorrow. For dinner we went over to La Cocina and had a Quesadilla and a
glass of Yuengling. I went to bed working on configuring node-red on the new SD
card at the ncid address of 192.168.1.105.


February 22, 2019 Friday Finish and pack

This morning I ran over to Lowes and bought a transition adapter for the
exhaust.  This worked really well.  I also nailed up the treated 2x4 to support
the falling insulation board.  I’m happy with the result.  Once done with all
this I put all the tools away and cleaned up the project site.  Next job was to
pack the car for our Florida trip.  We don’t have much except for the bookcase
and potting soil and fertilizer plus suitcases and electronic junk.  Dinner
tonight is Chinese takeout with a glass of Cabernet.  We got the eggrolls and
the 3 meat Szechuan.


February 23, 2019 Saturday Travel to Sarasota

We left in a cold rain at 6:30 AM.  It was also dark.  I drove below the speed
limit because of conditions.  The rain finally left us at mile marker 6 in NC
just before Pedros.  We stopped for fuel and Egg McMuffins at exit 181 just
before Florence.  Our next stop was at Exit 1 in Georgia where I gassed up at a
Pilot and Libbie stood in line at Wendys which we finally abandoned.  They were
seriously understaffed so it cost us almost 45 minutes.  We finally stopped for
lunch at a McDonalds in Florida where I had a Big Mac and a small Fries.  We
took the usual I-10 to State Highway 121 at Macclenny but got lost somehow in
this route.  There is no GPS and I took the wrong road so it was a failure all
the way around.  At one point we drove completely around in a circle.
Eventually we found our way and continued.  The drive was easy however 2
accidents in the Tampa area slowed us down a little. We arrived during Sunset in
Stoneybrook.  I drove through the Country Club so Libbie could take some sunset
photos.  Arrival was around 6:30 PM which meant it took us a full 12  hours.
After some wine and cheese at home we went out to Beckhams On the Trail where we
had ribs with black beans and rice and a glass of Yuengling.  It was the end of
a good day.


Feb 24, 2019 Sunday No Access

This morning I tried to access the LAN back on Downing and found that the VPN
must not be set up correctly.  I can’t get in.  This sucks because I was
depending on this to monitor the sensors.  I spent some time looking up some of
the utility bills we need to prove residency as well as looking through our
records for a deed and other items.  We need 3 things: A passport for ID, a
Social Security number proof and residency address from a utility bill or deed.
We then took a walk around the neighborhood looking at landscape techniques It
was mostly a do nothing day. I ordered our 3 topping pizza but this time with
sausage as well as the mushrooms and extra cheese.  It was OK but I won’t do it
again.  During our pizza we watched the Oscars which were a pretty good show for
a change.  I enjoyed the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper deut as well as some of
the fashions.


Feb 25, 2019 Monday Frustrated

This morning we were planning to switch to Florida Driver licenses.  I had all
our paperwork ready.  After a call to Amica insurance about Florida rates I
found that the rate doubled.  We currently pay 1100 per year for both cars.  The
Amica lady said the cost would be 1100 per half year which is twice the price.
I decided to postpone residency for now.  I can do tax returns as a Florida
resident by changing mail addresses for no cost. My frustration was increased
this morning when I tried again to get custom line items to display in Drupal.
I still had no luck.  This can’t be impossible. After lunch we took a trip to
Englewood to Gulf Breeze Nursery.  They were out of the Evolvulus that I went
there for but I bought Blue Lantana plants.  In the back the owner’s Dad had a 2
drawer file cabinet that I also purchased.  This is a pretty nice nursery.
There are many, many attractive shrubs and plants nicely labeled including some
nice specimen palm trees. After we left there we stopped at a little Quonset hut
named “Honey Bees” nursery.  She had the Evolvulus but in bigger pots.  They
look to be 1 gallon.  I bought 5 plants for $21.   The Lantanas at Gulf Breeze
were in one quart pots for $2 each.  The 2 drawer file cabinet was $25. For
dinner tonight we went to Bodrun, our neighbor’s restaurant.  I had the lamb
Adana Kebab which came with salad and rice. This is ground lamb cooked on a
skewer.  It was delicious.  We also ordered a bottle of Cabernet to go with the
meal.  This time we had the dessert.  Libbie ordered Baklava and I had a fillo
dough pastry called Kazandibi  which was delicious.  It is described as Turkish
milk custard with caramelized sugar on top, sprinkled with ground cinnamon
Yummm,  but a long drive home after a bottle of wine.


February 26, 2019 Tuesday Planting

I spent the first few hours building a new Drupal Commerce site from scratch to
see if I could display the line items in a view.  I went outside at 10:30 and
started removing sod along the driveway then I planted the Evolvolus.  They look
real nice there and it was ahead of impending rain.  After Libbie returned from
Selby I made myself an open faced cheese and tomato sandwich while she had the
leftovers from last night’s meal at Bodrun.  We then went to Lowes and bought 6
bags of mulch and spread it around the newly planted Evolvolus as well as around
the Geraniums.  It started to rain as we were doing this job.  Dinner tonight
was mushroom ravioli topped off by strawberry shortcake.  Libbie had stopped at
Yoders on the way back from Selby this afternoon to pick up local strawberries
as well as Oranges and Guac.  After dinner I got the new Drupal Commerce site
working and discovered it was working the same way,  There seemed to be no way
to get the data out of the line  item.  I’m going to wrap this up and call it a
failure.


February 27, 2019 Wednesday Planting again

We had ¾ inch of rain over night which was good for the newly planted plants.  I
went outside and removed sod then planted the 8 trailing Lantanas.  After I had
removed the sod I decided it would be good if I had a rake to rake the remaining
roots out of the soil.  I made a trip to Lowes and picked up 8 bags of mulch as
well as a Craftsman garden rake.  This helped me rake through the dirt to get
remaining pieces of grass.  I also took out 2 bushes under the front bay window
which Libbie had previously cut back.  She planted the Star of India plant in
that spot close to the front door.  I managed to spread 7 of the bags of mulch
around leaving one bag for somewhere else later.  We did a grocery run to
Walmart for our essentials.  The most notable purchase was a one gallon gas can
and a small bottle of two cycle oil. What I forgot to buy was a quart of motor
oil for use as chain lube. Dinner tonight was Tacos using Guac that Libbie
picked up yesterday at Yoders.  We had Cabernet with the meal as well as
triscuits and cheese before hand.  There was a beautiful sunset outside this
evening as well as a little more rain.


February 28, 2019 Thursday Corn Plant

Libbie and I went to Selby together and left the house at 8:20.  I had to move 3
bags of landscape clippings out of the garage to the front for pickup.  I kept
them n the garage because of rain last night and since they are paper I kept
them dry.  At Selby I was correcting exposure on raw images.  Most of them had
to be bumped up 1.39 F Stops although some needed less, usually .89  or 1.19 F
stops.  I ended up processing 351 photos.  I met Libbie in the parking lot and
drove home.  While driving we pondered what all the Amish are doing everyday
riding around on their tricycles.  This is mostly in the vicinity of the corner
of Beneva and Bahia Vista. When we returned all our garbage had been up and the
cans were everywhere. After a BLT lunch I went outside and used the pick to
remove another of the shrubs against the screen on the Lanai.   In it’s spot I
planted Libbie’s Corn plant.  It should do well there. Dinner tonight was Tacos
which included refried beans, lettuce, tomato, hamburger, and guac.  I initially
had 3 of them but I split an additional one with Libbie that was a bonus in the
package.   Accompanying the meal was a few glasses of Cabernet.


March 1, 2019 Friday Magic Flute

I sent out a note to the AVSA Convention team highlighting the online
registration failure.  This morning I went over to Selby and got 410 pictures
corrected and exported to the E drive.   On the way home I bought a come along
and a chain at Harbor Freight.  At home after a nice Mushroom soup lunch I went
outside and worked on the Palmetto with the comealong.  After much struggle I
removed 2 more arms of the Palmetto in the back.  This completely wore me out
for the day.  We went to the Magic Flute at 6 PM for a 7:30 PM performance.  It
was first Friday so the restaurants and galleries had lots of people.  We had to
pay $5 to use the parking garage this evening.  We had tuna sandwiches in the
car on the way to the theater. The performance was magnificent.  Sarasota does a
fantastic job with just about any opera.  I’m glad we’re here.   We got home
pretty late at almost 11 PM.  We set the alarm for 6 AM tomorrow morning for our
Siesta Bird watching field trip.


March 2, 2019 Saturday Siesta Beach, La Fille du Regiment

We set the alarm for 6 and left the house at 7 AM for meeting at the North
Pavillion of Siesta Beach.  Jeff Palmer once again was our guide of shore birds.
It’s hard to believe there are different kinds of Seagulls.  We saw a variety of
Terns including the Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern and the  Black Skimmers.  Among
the gulls we saw the King Gull both adult and juvenile, the Laughing Gull and
the Lesser Black Gull which is a rare gull.  It was a nice outing.  We got back
around 10 AM after dashing into Publix for bread for sandwiches at the Opera.
We left at Noon for the Opera.  The Philly Cheesecake place was sampling their
sandwiches both going into and leaving the theater.   They were quite tasty.
The Opera was one of the best.  We saw Javier Camerana do the encore of the aria
with 9 high C’s.  The house gave a standing ovation.  The Opera was incredibly
enjoyable.  What a good cast and a great performance. On the way home I stopped
for cash at Publix because I owed Libbie $40 and was down to $3.  The Parking
garage downtown costs $5 each time we go to the Sarasota Opera. I also stopped
into Lowes to get picture frame wire and hooks for Libbie’s Mother’s painting.
I also bought white glue to glue the backing onto the picture frame.  I did the
glueing then put weights on it to sandwich it together overnight.   The glue
should be dry by tomorrow. We had wine and cheese with Cabernet then Libbie
cooked a Salmon with rice which we had for dinner with Cabernet.


March 3, 2019 Sunday Electrical and Sprinklers

During the morning shows I organized the letters from George Condon that I
scanned yesterday and today.  They detail a trip to the West Coast.  Notably gas
was 26 cents a gallon, their car had a generator in which the brushes wore down
and cabins in Montana were $3 per night.  They also had to purchase a new tire
tube for $3. After this exercise I chose to work on the electrical outlet for
the landscape lighting.  I thought I had everything but after examining the
route for the conduit I discovered I would need an L connector to bypass a
joist.  A trip to Lowes resulted in the connector as well as a few sprinkler
heads I’m going to try on our irrigation.  The sprinklers were perfect.  I added
a 90 degree sprinkler at the corner of the garage door and a 180 at the curve in
the sidewalk.  A few of the sprinklers are not doing the right thing.  I’ll do
some debug later.  I also want to get water onto the spot where Libbie’s Bottle
Palm is going to go. We ordered the standard large 3 toppings pizza from Dominos
for dinner. This time the online thing said it was made by Alexis.  They are
getting better at having our pizza ready on time. After dinner I spent some time
watching YouTube videos about adjusting Sprinklers.  I’ll have to take a look at
ours tomorrow.


March 04, 2019 Monday Power, groceries & Palmettos

I started the day in the garage mounting the outlet for the landscape lighting.
I mounted the outlet then put the clamps on the conduit.  Finally I mounted the
landscape lighting transformer on the wall below the transformer.  While I was
doing this the dove kept trying to come into the garage and perch in his
favorite place, the top of the garage door opener. Next I went into the backyard
with the come along and winched out 2 of the Palmetto arms.  They came out
easily because Libbie had dug down pretty deep under each and had cut the roots
away. I’ll remove the big one which is a triple next.  I’ll first score it with
the chainsaw but first I need oil for the blade.  We took a trip to Walmart for
groceries where I picked up the quart of motor oil I needed.  The self check
lanes were closed because of a construction project.  I hope they’re not
removing the lanes.  Consequently the lines in the remaining lanes were long.
Surprisingly it started raining pretty hard while we were in the store.  This
initially worried us because we left our tools out in the backyard.  When we got
home we were relieved that the rain was very localized to the Walmart a few
miles away, I scanned some  more of the George Condon letters from his 1937 trip
west.  After dinner I was able to use an online service and combine the multi
page letters into single PDFs for each letter.  I would like to post these
online somewhere.


March 5, 2019 Tuesday  Power & Palmettos

Libbie went to Selby this morning and I went into the garage and wired up the
landscape lighting outlet I mounted yesterday,   This was not too bad of a job
except that it requires installing a junction box in the attic over the garage,
Once finished I then tackled the Palmetto in the backyard.  I mixed the oil and
gas for the chain saw and also filled it with the new motor oil I purchased in
Walmart yesterday.  The motor oil is for chain lube.  The saw made it relatively
easy to rip a few more arms of the Palmetto out of the ground.  Now I need
another chain to get more of the arms out.  Libbie came home at noon and we sat
down and had BLT sandwiches.  I then took a trip to Lowes and picked up another
chain as well as another conduit clamp and concrete anchors.  I’ll use the extra
chain tomorrow.   I spent the rest of the afternoon scanning more of the George
Condon letters to home during WW2.  They are a pretty fascinating glimpse into
1940s life. Dinner tonight was hamburgers with baked beans and of course was
accompanied by a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I converted the scanned
letters which were in jpg to PDF files.  This allowed me to combine a multi page
letter into a single PDF for each letter.  I’m going to use Dokuwiki to post
these letters.


March 6, 2019 Wednesday Dunedin

This morning we left for Dunedin to go to Rainbows End Quilt shop.  We arrived
in Dunedin about noon after an uneventful trip across the Skyway.  There was a
high wind warning earlier today as a cold front swept in.  Crossing the water
the temperature was only 56 degrees.  Brrr.  After Libbie did her quilt shopping
and went to check out she found that there was a 35% discount on all bolts which
lowered her bill to $119.   Once done with the quilt shop we walked over to the
Crazy Lobster and had a bowl of Lobster Bisque soup and a Yuengling beer.   I
wanted a Lobster roll which were $25 but didn’t get one.  The soup was yummy.
Back home at around 3 PM we did a trip to Costco for wine and wetting solution
along with a package of frozen Blueberries. Dinner was hamburgers with a mixture
of baked beans and rice.  We had Cabernet with the meal.  After dinner I
continued working on organizing the George Condon letters on a Dokuwiki site I
created on Glembocki.info.






March 7, 2019 Thursday Nabuco

This morning Libbie left for Selby and I left with her even though I start a
half hour later.  I tried to connect to our house from the Selby parking lot and
had no luck.  This was a good test however.  I’ll continue trying to find out
what’s wrong. I continued adjusting exposure of past herbarium photos.  Time
went pretty fast.  Shawn had the rest of the article I was looking for.  He
pulled it from the archives.  Amazing.  Earlier today I found a trundle bed on
Nextdoor.  I made an appointment with Rona in Turtle Rock to see it at 2:30 PM.
It was perfect.  I offered 250 against the offering price of $275.  We
disassembled the bed and 2 mattresses and transported it home in 2 trips.  The
mattresses first then the springs and frame in the next trip.  We had a bowl of
Clam Chowder for dinner then left quickly for the Opera.  Libbie found out the
youth opera was performing at 6:30.  We listened to the concert in the courtyard
at the Opera house.  We fortunately found parking on Palm down the street.  In
the courtyard we met a couple, 88 years old, from Venice and North Carolina.
They were celebrating her birthday.  His name was Tom.  Inside the Opera house
we met a couple from NH and also Santa Fe.  This was their first time in
Sarasota, they said they are coming back next year,  Nabucco was fantastic.  It
was an opera for the chorus.  There were many Verdi choruses.  What a nice
night.  Besides the 2 intermissions there were many brief pauses as denoted by
the overhead surtitles.   We got home around 11 and I spent another hour working
on the VPN stuff.  I have another shot to try this out at Selby tomorrow.


March 8, 2019 Friday Selby, Apprentices and Open VPN

We left at 8:20 for Selby.  Libbie did not have to be there so she hung out in
downtown Sarasota as well as the garden until noon when I was done.  I was still
correcting exposure in Lightroom.  This time there was a long run of photos that
were over exposed on January 30.  It’s hard to tell what the issue with the
exposure and the camera is.  I also emailed a few samples to myself for possible
printing as wall art.   Libbie met me in front of Botany.  She was parked at the
administration building.  We went to the parking garage on Palm and parked since
we were going to be there longer than street parking would allow.  We ended up
there 3 hours.  We arrived early so we walked up to Whole Foods looking for
Thomas’s marinade.  No luck. We went back to the Opera House and went upstairs
to the Peterson Room where we were delighted by a nice selection of Arias by the
young apprentices of the Opera.  Afterward we had lunch at the Hub on the corner
of Palm and Main.  I saw a few nice yoga pants and short shorts.  Lunch was fish
tacos blackened with a Stella draught.  This was $43.  On the way home we
stopped at Turtle Rock to get the skirt for the bed we bought yesterday.  I had
success today with Open VPN.  I was able to attach to our home on Knightsbridge
and access our devices on the LAN.  Very very good.  At home I found the
Synology DDNS service that I will probably switch to.  I got
mefistofeles.synology.me running.   I would like a similar address for traviata
but traviata was not available.  I wonder if it was me who registered it?  I
chose trovatore instead.


March 9, 2019 Saturday Sonoff failure

I worked in my office today on the Sonoff devices.  I tried programming one of
them and it didn’t work so I tried a second.  It wasn’t until the second one did
not work that I realized that the programmer is putting out 5V DC when the
Sonoff can only take 3.3 volts.   I found the power supply board that came with
the proto board I bought last month and fed it with a 12V power supply.  The
resulting output was 3.3 volts.  I used this to program a 3rd Sonoff but still
no luck.  The device just sits there with no response.  I can’t figure out
what’s wrong.  I ended up ordering an Adafruit Feather as well as a power tail
replacement which is a self contained 4 outlet box with power cord that has a
built in relay and terminals to drive the relay with 3 volts.  I also bought a
barometric weather sensor, BME280,  and a plugin proto board for the feather.
The plan is to use one feather or maybe a classic Huzzah for driving the relays
and the other Feather with proto board will contain the BME280 as well as a
Moteino to capture wireless transmissions from a future weather station.  I
listened to Das Rheingold live which was the Saturday afternoon Met broadcast.
The French horns messed up on the Entry of the gods into Valhalla but overall it
was a good and enjoyable opera.  We ran over to Publix for shrimp for dinner.
While Libbie ran in to get shrimp and swiss cheese I tried to get money from the
ATM.  The new CU ATM card did not work with the old PIN.  I used the TD
Ameritrade card instead and withdrew $200.  I owed Libbie $90 I borrowed for the
Trundle bed 2 days ago which leaves me with $110 cash.  Dinner was Shrimp
“Peelers” and rice with a few glasses of Cabernet.  Before dinner I ran out and
put water on the new plantings in front because they were wilted in the sun and
warm weather today.  I did this with a hose but I really need to work on the
underground irrigation to supply water automatically.  This includes a circuit
board for the Pi to interface the Chinese relays and use the Open Sprinkler
program.


March 10, 2019 Sunday

 This was outdoor day.  I went to Lowes and got the rest of the Pentas then
stripped the sod back and planted them.  Next step was to scatter the 6 bags of
mulch and test the water sprinklers.  I marked on a sheet of paper where all the
sprinklers were for zone 1.  I’m going to cap about half of them.  I want to
attach a dripper system to one of the sprinklers and use it to water the
Ponytail palm as well as the Lantana, Revolvolus and the Pentas plants instead
of scattering water all over the ground.  We took a little bike ride today to
the wetlands area and then back down MacIntosh to home.  This was after we had
walked around both Knightsbridge and Westbourne. This is the first day of
Daylight Savings and it was surprising how light it was in the evening when we
ordered our Sunday night Pizza.  Dinner was the pizza along with a few glasses
of Cabernet.  After dinner I subscribed to the Contrarian Outlook, a portfolio
claiming that you can get 8% dividends on your retirement portfolio and retire
without withdrawals.  It looks like it will work providing the underlying
securities hold  up through a downturn.


March 11, 2019 Monday Plumbing, stocks and landscaping

I called Ryan plumbing this morning to get on their schedule for testing our
backflow valve as declared by Sarasota County from their letter I received a few
days ago.  It will be $55 for certification which runs out 4/15.  The cert lasts
for 2 years.  I then got online and bought 70K worth of stocks, all of them
income producing.  I estimate my individual account at $22k worth of income.  I
need this to pay taxes and insurance bills at year end.  I then dug up the
sprinklers next to the house on the West side and found I need taller stand
pipes.  I bought some at Lowes as well as all the pieces for a micro  drip
system.  Libbie found some MArguerites which we purchased with more mulch.  I’ll
put those in tomorrow. Meanwhile, I decided to do a fresh Pi build with
scargills script and open vpn to serve as an Open VPN server.   The last one
wouldn’t allow access to the rest of the LAN.  I’m going to try this tomorrow at
Selby.  Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese.  I got the Visa bill for this
month and paid it.  Luckily my portion was around $2,000. Compared to last month
when it was $14,000.


March 12, 2019 Tuesday Marguerite Daisies

We both left for Selby this morning at 7:50 and really made good time getting
there because traffic was light.  We also noticed that Pinecroft has remarkably
fewer Amish.  John at work said that after Ash Wednesday, which was last week,
the Amish start going back to Indiana and Ohio.  He was right.  There were fewer
tricycles and bicycles.  There was also less traffic but I’m not sure if it was
because of the Amish.  At Selby Paul showed me his technique of approximating
the correct exposure on a screenful of thumbnails and then using Lightroom synch
to apply the correction to the selected pictures.  Unfortunately in a spot check
not all the images were great.  My system was to correct each picture
individually but is slower.  John met with Bruce this afternoon and they decided
my way was best, that is to correct each picture individually.  We stopped at
Yoders on the way home and bought oranges, guac and strawberries.  After a BLT
lunch I planted the Marguerite Daisies in the front yard then started the drip
sprinkler work by digging up a sprinkler in front of the Palmetto.  I screwed a
piece of PVC into the below ground elbow where the popup sprinkler head used to
attach.  I made a trip to Lowes  for drippers and plumbing parts then a trip to
Walmart for Muffins, bread and toilet paper. I was really tired at the end of
the day.  We have a homeowners meeting tomorrow so I can’t get too dirty in the
morning but I intend to finish this job tomorrow.  The remaining task will be to
cap off the unused sprinkler heads. I’ll use the PVC and custom cut each pipe
instead of using the 18 inch standoffs I bought. Dinner was quesadillas with the
Guac and Salsa.  Libbie made a delicious shortcake which we had with the
strawberries.  Yum.  After dinner we watched the Decora Eagle on YouTube on the
big LG TV screen in the living room.  It’s remarkably clear on our TV, really
good stuff.


March 13, 2019 Wednesday

We went to the HOA meeting over at the church on McIntosh. Wow, there are some
incredible personal conflicts going on with shouting and name calling.  The
bottom line was that everything looks like it’s running smoothly with no major
issues.  We had a little discussion in our driveway with Joe and Angela about
who we should vote for among the people running for the board.  We didn’t like
Diana who sat behind us and we think Dave shot himself in the foot by being
publicly hostile towards Diana. I began laying out the drip irrigation in the
front yard and finished the job with the exception of the pressure reducer.  I
broke the hose attached reducer that I was using by tightening it too hard.  The
threads cracked.  I went to Lowes looking for a whole house reducer but came up
empty handed.  I’ll probably just  get another reducer because it’s cheaper, $10
for each instance vs $70 for a whole house reducer. Dinner tonight was Libbie’s
homemade clone of Philly Cheesesteak without the cheese.  She thinly sliced our
leftover DelMonico steak and cooked it with onions and peppers. This was served
on a hamburger bun and accompanied by a glass of Cabernet.


March 14, 2019 Pi Day

I went into Selby today at 8:30 instead of 9.  The numbering of the files of
photos is wrong because the barcode printer printed them wrong.  The printer
omitted the leading zero.  I had IT, as authorized by Bruce and John, install
BRU which stands for Bulk Renaming Utility.  Using this software I was able to
rename all the photo files on the C drive as well as the two expansion drives
and the Selby Fig server mapped as “O://”.  Both Bruce and John were incredibly
thankful.  After Selby we went out to seek Detwieler’s Market for seafood.  The
place was incredible with produce, seafood and a butcher shop.  The produce dept
had a pineapple corer which was pretty cool.  You put a whole Pineapple into the
machine, press the button and it chops the top off and cores the fruit dropping
the remains into a cup.  Very cool!  After shopping we ducked into “Infusion”
which is a Vietnamese and Thai restaurant.  We both had the Chicken Pad Thai
which was delicious.  It was lunchtime so we did not have wine, just water with
lunch. Back  home I planted the Crotons in front of the bay window.  I also
finished spreading the mulch then tackled capping more sprinklers.  I did the
ones on Dean and Paulette’s side of our house including one under the Hibiscus.
I did one  more in the back.  Still have many more that need working on. After
dinner I did a test run for 5 minutes in order to see what else needed to be
done.  The short answer is much more.  Dinner was grilled Mahi Mahi.  I had my
piece rubbed with a blackened seasoning.  We also had fresh Florida corn which
was delicious.  This was accompanied by a glass of Cabernet.  I had a slice of
the fresh pineapple for dessert.  Wow, very good. March 15, 2019 Friday I stayed
clean this morning and did some scanning and file organizing.  We left at 10:50
for the Sarasota Opera.  We parked in the Palm Ave garage and arrived at the
Opera house at 11:35 AM for the 12 noon concert.  Our seat mate was a member of
the Opera board.  We thought it was going to be an Apprentice concert but
instead it was a concert of the understudies.  It was quite good, Sarasota has a
really good group of backup singers.  After the Opera we walked down Main,
discussed the Mexican restaurant as we walked by and went to Red Classico, our
standby on the corner   I had a Yuengling which was a bottled beer and the Fish
Tacos which came with cabbage slaw filling.  I ordered them blackened and they
were delicious.  After lunch we drove to Tropiflora to check them out.  They are
primarily a Bromeliad nursery.  There is a plant festival there upcoming on Apr
5 but I didn’t see any reason to want to go to it. On the way home we stopped in
Costco and bought wine and coffee then picked up some gas at the Costco pumps.
It was 2.49 per gallon.  Gas has really gone up since the first of the year.  We
also bought a bottle of Chardonnay that was needed for cooking the Scallops
tonight.  Dinner was rice and Scallops with Cabernet and also chunks of
Cantaloupe.  I was really wiped out today and couldn’t understand why since I
didn’t do anything all day.


March 16, 2019 Saturday Sprinklers

We did a grocery run in the morning today for the spices and sauces needed for
the ribs we’re going to have tonight.  I removed the last of the sprinklers in
the back along the screen cage, replaced one in the lawn with a 90 degree
sprinkler that covers all the geraniums.  I also attached poly tubing to a
sprinkler against the foundation to water the shrubs in front.  I’ll tack down
the tubing tomorrow and attach the drippers. I did more work on labeling and
uploading the George Condon letters but there’s still more to do. Dinner tonight
was fantastic.  Libbie made her BBQ Spare ribs smothered in Onions.  We had a
baked sweet potato with the meal as well as too much Cabernet.  The ribs were
incredible and easily my favorite meal.


March 17, 2019 Sunday

After the morning shows I went out and hooked up the dripper hose for the new
plants in front of the front windows.  I also dug up some more sod and buried
the pipe where it wasn't covered by the mulch.  This wore me out for the day.  I
came inside and worked more on the scanning and organizing files.  We ordered
the standard Dominos three topping pizza for  dinner using the coupon which
gives three topping for 7.99.  As usual the  toppings were extra cheese, diced
tomato and mushrooms. We had this with the leftover Chardonnay from the scallops
2 nights ago.


March 18, 2019 Monday eye troubles, toilet repair

This morning I went to Selby.  John got special permission to let me in today
because normally there are no volunteers on Monday.  I did the usual correcting
Lightroom images.  At one point I had to import images into Lightroom from the
backup because John inadvertently deleted them when he was making room on the
camera computer C drive.  I processed a total of 644 images this morning.  When
I got home Ryan plumbing was still there even though I had to stop at Walmart
for eggs, muffins and milk. The plumbing was expensive at $232 but well worth
it.  In addition to testing and certifying our backflow valve for the county,
they repaired both toilets.  The guest bath toilet keeps running even though I
twice replaced the flapper valve.  The Master toilet was leaking water.  They
tightened and fixed the flapper in the guest bath.  They totally rebuilt the
toilet in the Master bath.  The leak was the fill hose spraying water up onto
the lid.  They also certified our backflow valve.  Certification runs out April
15.  We’re now good for 2 more years on our backflow valve. I didn’t do anything
outdoors today. I was basically tired.  I attempted to configure the BBS
software on the Synology that is supposed to access the Calibre database but I
was not able to get it to find the books database. This is disappointing.
Perhaps Calibre will run on the Pi that has Node Red? I enjoying watching a
little of American Idol this afternoon with Libbie.  All the back episodes are
available on Hulu. Dinner tonight was the leftover ribs with Florida corn on the
cob.  Accompanying the meal was of course a glass of Cabernet.


March 19, 2019 Tuesday Rain

As  of this morning we had almost ¾ inch of rain.  Libbie went to Selby while I
stayed home and did some AVSA web stuff then returned David’s call.  He said he
asked Amy to send me $107 to renew the Apple ID so the IOS app could be
restored.  I also talked to Paul several times at Selby about whether we need to
export the DNG files or just the JPG.  He proved the DNGs have exposure info.
I’m not so sure, will do some googling about this. The relay came from Adafruit
vis UPS.  It is a really nice box with 2 normally off switched outlets and one
normally on switched outlet in addition to an always on outlet. I bench tested
with a couple of breadboard wires and it worked nicely with node-red.  After
dinner I went into Lowes and picked up a plastic utility box and cover.  I had
some concern about the (esp-12) device receiving WiFi inside the plastic box in
the garage but it worked OK suspended above the wall mounted lighting
transformer.  Tomorrow I’ll do a better job of ruggedizing the wire coming out
of the ESP8266 (esp-12) box going to the relay box. We decided not to cook
tonight so we went over to Beckhams on the Trail in the Publix shopping center.
We both had a half rack of ribs with black beans and rice.  I had a Yuengling
with the meal and a glass of Cabernet with cheese and crackers before we went
over to the pub for dinner.  Lowes is right across the street so I briefly ran
in while Libbie waited in the car and picked up the utility box for the
landscape lighting project  mentioned above. March 20, 2019 Spring & Airports I
left at 10:50 to take Libbie to the airport. I-75 was a little slow because of
an accident at Bee Ridge.  I dropped her off at 12:12 at the Southwest terminal.
There was an accident on the Skyway at the toll which slowed things down a
little.  I picked up a couple of hamburgers at McDonalds on Fruitville and got
to Selby at 1:45.   John was surprised I was there which was surprising since we
discussed I would come after the airport on Wednesday.  I tried setting up a
second Lightroom at the PC outside the herbarium.  The preset I ended up with
imported green pictures into Lightroom.  This afternoon was pretty much a waste
of time.  On the way home I stopped into Harbor Freight and bought a 12 outlet
strip for my workbench.  I didn’t see a UL approval so I don’t know about this
thing.  I may disassemble it and inspect it myself. I wanted some fried chicken
from Publix for dinner but when I went over there at 7 PM the prepared foods
counter was closed.  I ended up with some Onion Rings for dinner.  The late
lunch this afternoon actually satisfied me.


March 21, 2019 Selby, cabinets, landscape lights

I went to Selby this morning at 8:20.  There was quite a bit of traffic on the
way.  At Botany I was able to copy the settings folder from the Camera PC and
paste it into the settings folder of the new Lightroom PC.  I did this via the
online drive mapping of the camera pc expansion drive which shows up on the
computer outside the herbarium as the u:// drive.  This solved the problem of
the presets now matching.  I then resumed correcting image exposures on the
camera PC in the herbarium.  John decided my days will be Monday and Thursday
however I will come on Tuesday at 11 for Paul’s last hour of Tuesday so we can
chat about image strategy. After Selby I stopped into Walmart and got some
prepared chicken, both General Tsao and some Spicy breaded wings.  They both
were delicious.  I also picked up a Marketplace pizza for tonight. This
afternoon I fastened down the new relay and the electrical box holding the
ESP8266 controller.  They are mounted on the cinder block wall next to the
landscape transformer.  It appears to be safe and secure from inadvertent
bumping and jostling. Later in the afternoon I went to Target to buy a pizza
oven pan for the Walmart pizza and also bought a garage cabinet at Lowes.  I
wrestled over the decision of which to buy, metal or plastic?  The Craftsmen
metal cabinet looks nice at $259 which would be $278 with tax.  The plastic one
I bought cost $138 with tax which was a $140 savings.  I judged the $140 wasn’t
worth it.  After having the Walmart Pepperoni pizza (I ate the whole thing) I
went into the garage and started assembling the plastic cabinet.  This thing is
complicated but logical and made to be sturdy when assembled.  The landscape
lighting is functioning correctly after the mounting.  I checked it this evening
to be sure.  On at sunset and off at 11:45 PM.  Now I want to pick up a few more
lights.  One light on each side of the garage door then one light onto the pine
in front and one light on the bottle brush for a total of 4 lights.


March 22, 2019 Friday Opera

This morning I assembled the garage cabinet.  It’s missing 3 spacers for the
hinges.  I’ll pick some up at Lowes along with 3 large washers.  I left for the
Opera at 10:50 and arrived at the Palm parking garage at 11:30.  There was quite
a bit of traffic going there especially on Bahia Vista.  Road Scholar had the
first two rows in the Hall.  I was in Row 3 which was fine. The performance was
really good.  Victor DeRienzi served as narrator.  There were printed programs
with the arias, the performer names and a separate sheet of translations for
each number.  A treat was a flute that accompanied the piano for one of the
Verdi pieces.  It involved some flute fireworks which gave the first chair flute
to showcase her stuff.  Very nice.  When it was over I went straight to the
parking garage and was able to clock in less than 2 hours which meant the
parking was free.  I then went to Detwilers via a circuitous route which
involved going South on 301 then turning left at Bay and making my way down
Novus and a few other streets to get to Fruitville where I then went to Tuttle
to get to University and then to Detwilers.  It was crowded as usual.  I picked
up another Pineapple from the machine that cores pineapples then sampled some
haddock twice.  I bought 2 pounds of ribs which was 3 ribs and 2 pounds of Hot
Italian Sausage which was quite a pile of sausage.  I should have only purchased
one pound of sausage.   A trip to Lowes later in the afternoon resulted in the
missing hardware for the cabinet.  I also bought more landscape lights and wire
for the garage door both sides and the pine tree and bottle brush.   I assembled
the rest of the cabinet and moved it into place bolting it to the wall with
concrete anchors.  I put most of the tool bags into the cabinet which were all
over the floor. Dinner was Hot Italian Sausage with Air Fryer sweet onion.  It
was a nice meal. After dinner I watched Bohemian Rhapsody which was quite a good
movie.


March 23, 2019 Saturday

This morning I left at 8 AM for the Celery Field where the group was getting
together at 8:30 AM.   It was a beautiful morning to be out and about.  There
were several college aged young woman in skimpy clothes jogging the mountain at
the fields which was nice.  We started at the Gazebo and watched the feeder.
There were a pair of nesting Bluebirds feeding babies in a bird box. We then
moved down the road next to the field and spent some time at the second walkway.
I saw a Limpkin as well as an Eastern Meadowlark and Purple Gallinule.  I also
found the name of the pond plant we have in our backyard is “alligator flag”.
Our next stop was walking the dike.  We saw some homes that had a pretty nice
view of the celery field.  There was one Dove in a bush there.  Our last stop
was Palmer Lake down Palmer Blvd looking for more Purple Gallinules.  I got back
around 11:30.  I had some snack food for lunch. I went outside and hooked up
some landscape lights then took a trip to Harbor Freight for a heat gun and some
shrink wrap.  Also bought a crimping tool.  The crimps are not so great.  I was
able to pull a crimped connection apart so I won’t use that for the landscape.
I spliced and soldered the old fashioned way then covered it all with heat
shrink.   I doubt if it’s completely waterproofed because the 2 conductor cable
has a groove which can allow moisture to enter. The heat shrink doesn’t go into
the groove. I fired up the stove for the first time ever and browned some Spare
Ribs then dumped the sauce and sliced onions into the mix.  I cooked it on low
for 1 ½ hours.  Unfortunately there was not enough sauce and even though I used
a whole onion there wasn’t enough onions and the ribs came out dry although I
think they were cooked.  We don’t have a meat thermometer so I couldn’t tell for
sure.  Dinner was the ribs and onions with a glass of Cabernet. It was flavorful
and OK but Libbie’s is much better.  I will buy more ketchup since I drained the
bottle. After dinner I combined more jpg scans into PDFs and uploaded them to
the GC letters website. This batch was more of 1943.


March 24, 2019 Sunday Wire Fishing

I punched a hole in the garage ceiling above the door and discovered I couldn’t
reach it from the attic because that section of the attic has wide sections of
sheet rock under a low roof.  I used a TV coax as a fish tape and ran the low
voltage wire from the overhead garage door to the spot above the landscape
transformer and down.  Next activity was to drill a couple of holes into the
blocks on either side of the garage door and mount the two spotlights.  I also
put in the spotlight with the extended wire next to the front Pine tree aimed up
of course.  A trip to Lowes returned the wax seal I didn’t need as well as the
extra irrigation risers.   I then a couple of sample sprinklers to play with.
One is a 4 ft adjustable made for popup heads and the other is a bubbler made
for shrubs.  I’ll use the bubbler for the 3 plants next to the front sidewalk
along the garage wall.  There is no sprinkler here now.   A bubbler may be
helpful for where I’m planning to put some Bromeliads. I tried cooking some
Italian sausages for dinner with onions and peppers on a bun.  The onions and
peppers burned in the airfryer so I tossed them into the garbage.  I chopped
some onion slices and cooked them on an aluminum foil in the BBQ.  They were OK
but not cooked the way I like them.


March 25, 2019 Monday Anniversary

Went to Selby this morning and did the usual - corrected exposure for February
images.  I wished Libbie Happy Anniversary.  She posted a nice Mardi Gras photo
of us on FB.  I didn’t feel like doing much   I returned the weed killer with
the failed pump to Walmart then bought another one, this time from another
manufacturer, Ortho.  I used the Ortho and walked around the foundation spraying
the weeds and grass to be eliminated.  The grass seems to be tough to kill.  I
also bought some plumbing fittings at Lowes and hooked up a shrub bubbler next
to the three shrubs next to the front sidewalk.  It doesn’t seem to work very
well.  I expected a circular stream, it seems to waterfall out the sides.  In my
office I started a backup of the shares directory on Mefistofeles.  I decided to
back up the NAS the old fashioned way with a file by file copy. Dinner tonight
was 2 Italian sausages on the grill along with a chopped up Florida sweet onion
from Yoders.  I need to quickly think about a watering solution for remote
triggering of my water irrigation system.


March 27, 2019 Tuesday Libbie’s Home

Left for Selby a little after 9.  Walked the neighborhood taking pictures until
10:45 AM when I went into the Botany building for a meeting with Paul.  This
didn’t work out as there was other stuff going on with Kathryn and the PC
outside the Herbarium.  Basically the monitor outside the Herbarium is old and
doesn’t match the one inside.  Sample images are not working out.  My trip early
to Selby was a waste of time.  I left there at 12 but Libbie’s plane isn’t until
2:40.  I went to Whole Foods on University looking for Thomas’s marinade.  They
didn’t have it but it’s a really nice store - large, well stocked and new.   I
got onto I-75 heading to the airport but it was backed up between exits 213 and
217 because 3 lanes go down to 2.  I was creeping along for 45 minutes at 7
miles per hour.  The only other delay was the usual ramp to the airport which
was stop and go for no reason at all.  I arrived at 2:20 and pulled into a
parking space on level 8 of the garage at the same time Libbie texted that she
landed. We waited for her 2 bags at the baggage carousel.  She only left with
one bag but returned with 2 because she was bringing home a bunch of stuff from
Sue. When we arrived at Knightsbridge Joe across the street was planting
Bougainvillea in  his front yard.  They look pretty nice because they’re in
bloom.  I was very tired when I got home.  I had done 3 hours of driving and
some of it was stressful.  After a little bit of wine and cheese we left for
Beckhams on the Trail for dinner.  We had a Yuengling draft along with  a half
rack of ribs and black beans and rice.  This is our standard pub meal at
Beckhams and is delicious.  When I got home I ordered another power relay and a
power supply from Adafruit.


March 27, 2019 Wednesday Hedge Trimming

It briefly rained this morning so I worked in the office on backing up the
synology.  I still don’t have a good backup strategy so I’m just backing up
mapped shares to the USB drive.  We did a Walmart trip to replenish groceries
and also picked up a cafe rod for a quilt wall hanging Libbie brought back from
Sues. I went outside and worked on trimming the hedge next to the driveway,  It
will need another trimming in a few weeks to shape it. The hard part was
cleaning up and bagging the clippings. This wore me out today.  I spent the rest
of the day working on the MQTT controlled sprinkler.  I decided to initially
have the device activate the relay for a fixed time period when an MQTT on
command is received.  An MQTT off will terminate the cycle.  MQTT status will
also be available. Dinner tonight was quesadilla. Libbie grilled an Italian
Sausage which I chopped up and used in the tortillas along with the onion,
pepper and cheese.  We had a glass of Cabernet or two with the meal.  We also
had wine and cheese before the meal.


March 28, 2019 Thursday

We left together for Selby at 7:50 AM.  Traffic was pretty light getting us
there early.  John was surprised I was so early.  There was another guy sitting
by the doorway doing geo referencing.  He was still there when I left.  He said
he loves this stuff.  I continued to process image exposures in Lightroom in the
Herbarium.  After 3 ½ hours of this I met Libbie over in the Welcome center.  We
went up to Detwillers for some grocery shopping where we bought a Pineapple,
tomatoes, Pineapple-Habanero salsa, ketchup, Florida corn on the cob, asparagus
and country ribs.  The ribs are for dinner tonight. We went over to Lowes to use
my $5 coupon but on the way we stopped at the corner house where I met a lady
named Jo.  She is a gardener and gave us a tour of her yard which is full of
various tropical plants.  Very nice.  We also went into her screen porch where
she keeps the orchids and succulents.  Her house is one of those with the Lanai
under roof inside the house.  It smelled pretty musty, not sure what the cause
of that is. We went to Lowes for red fountain grass and were disappointed with
how much of the pots of grass were brown.  We pointed this out to the garden
center manager and she marked them down to 50% off, $5 each.  We also bought 2
Salvia plants which were full, blooming and nice at full price.  My $5 off
coupon reduced the price of the grass to 4.14 per pot, a very nice price.  These
will go into the front yard in front of the Palmetto on drip waterers. Libbie
started making the ribs at 4:15 and by 6:30 we had a fantastic country rib
dinner smothered in Onions.  Accompanying the dinner was Florida corn on the cob
and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner I continued to work on my ESP8266
MQTT based sprinkler controller until it was time for bed.  In my office I have
been doing a Synology file by file backup.  It has been running for 2 days now
and still has over 200,000 photo files in addition to everything else.


March 29, 2019 Friday Fountain Grass, Framing

This is our day off.  I spent the morning working on hardware for the irrigation
controller and also the Synology backup drive.  It has taken a few days to do
the backup so far.  Around noon we went over to Hobby Lobby to speak about
mounting a pair of Molas in a frame.   The first guy we talked to was a complete
loser.  His manager later arrived and he was incredibly better.  We ordered a
couple of frames with burlap matte and then bought two open frames for the
Watercolor paintings we brought down from Apex.  This morning USPS delivered my
wireless Honeywell thermostat around 8:30 AM which was quite a surprise.  I
immediately removed the one upstairs off the wall and installed the new one.  It
was supposed to be brand new but it was not, it had previously been activated.
I reset to factory defaults and got it onto our wifi network then added it to
the list of thermostats from Downing Place.  This worked well however I
discovered the weather display is for Apex. After a BLT lunch that Libbie made I
went outside and started clearing the grass for where the fountain grass shrubs
are going to go.  Digging the holes was incredibly hard because of the amount of
pine roots in the ground.   With lots of sawing and pick work I eventually got
the shrubs planted.  Libbie cut away all the brown foliage and watered them in
the pot before I put them into the ground.  I did a separate trip to Lowes for 4
bags of mulch and a chain saw blade.  I used my last $5 off coupon for the
purchase.  After dinner I hose watered the plants and surrounded them with
mulch.  The issue with the mulch is that it is the brown painted stuff, not the
natural mulch that I prefer.  Dinner was Tropical chicken with roasted pineapple
Habanero salsa.   Accompanying dishes were rice and asparagus with a glass of
Cabernet.   This is the dish I will bring to the Gazebo.  I’ll call it Tropical
roasted Pineapple Habanero chicken.  Spicy, proceed at your own risk if you
dare!


March 30, 2019 Saturday irrigation and Walkure

This was a busy morning.  After breakfast I finished up the picture frames with
our watercolor paintings. I added hooks and hung them in the bedroom as well as
a Lady Slipper embroidery.   I finished up the Mefistofeles Synology NAS backup
in my office and also configured the NAS device to host the Plex server.  It
surprisingly can serve my movies on our home network.  I did a run to Costco and
picked up a case of wine for this week then stopped by Lowes and got some
Sprinkler parts.   After a BLT lunch I went into the front yard and finished
spreading the last bag of brown mulch then hooked up drippers to the fountain
grass and added drippers to replace the shrub bubbler in front of the Dracena,
Selby Lilac and one other ornamental.  This was the end of my day.  I was tired.
I stayed inside and listened to Walkure from the Met.  We chose not to go to the
HD Movie because it was on the machine for staging and I had enough of that.
Elizabeth Goerke is quite good as Brunhilde. We had the leftover spare ribs with
asparagus and rice for dinner accompanied by a few glasses of Cabernet. After
dinner I played around a little bit with streaming various movies from the Plex
Synology server.  I’m pleased with the fact that it can stream.  I was led to
believe online that the Celeron based Synology which is what I have could not
transcode movies for streaming.


March 31, 2019 Sunday Open houses, productive day

After the mildly interesting Sunday morning shows we went outside to do a few
chores.  During the Sunday shows I managed to use Jalbum to arrange the George
Condon postcards but this is when I discovered there are a few missing.  I need
to go through the stack and do some hunting.  Outdoors we planted 2 plants by
the hot tub and then 2 Salvia by the Bottle Brush.  The Salvia were  then hooked
up to drippers.  My next activity was to install a clamp on the conduit going
into the garage attic by the power box.  This needed to be done a while ago but
I let it slip by.  I went around to the side of the house and installed the
drain pipes for the condensate drains recommended by the house inspection 3
months ago.  While doing this  job I noticed the dryer vent needed cleaning so I
took it apart and used the shop vac to clean out the vent pipe.  We took a walk
to Hawksmoore and looked at an Open House that Charlie was running.  The house
was 315k for 2400 sq ft 4 bedroom house with hurricane shutters and a beautiful
lake view.  It needed a kitchen and bathroom redo and a new roof.  We thought it
was fairly priced.   We also stopped into a nicely redone house on Knightsbridge
only 4 doors down from us for $439k.  The realtor was a German lady named
Angela.  The bathroom counters were the perfect height for us.  When we got home
I finished my last to-do task which was to caulk around the low voltage wire on
either side of the garage where they came out of the cinder blocks.  I’m afraid
ants will find the hole in the block. Once inside I worked a little on scanning
another batch of George Condon postcards and posted them on the genealogy site.
We decided to skip the Gazebo party and instead ordered a pizza from Dominoes
which we had with a glass or 2 or Cabernet.  We watched the Lady Gaga movie “A
Star is Born” which was quite good, mainly because of the LAdy Gaga music and
her singing.  This movie was a vehicle to showcase her talent.  There was a
little bit of Lady Gaga nudity but it was pretty limited.


April 1, 2019 Monday

Going to Selby this morning was easy on Beneva but there were very long backups
on Bahia Vista.  I still got to Selby at 9 as planned.  I was the only volunteer
in Botany today.  I continued working on exposure correction.  Photos taken in
February are almost complete.  I go to Selby tomorrow to work out some image
stuff with Paul. I left at noon and went straight home.  While having a salad
with Libbie on the Lanai the UPS guy delivered my Adafruit package with the
irrigation relay.  When I was finished with lunch USPS delivered the WiFi
thermostat for downstairs.  I had trouble with the installation and had to
solder the W wire.  The thermostat did not light up when plugged in, instead it
blew the fuse.  I tried it upstairs and the same thing happened.  I went to
Lowes for new 3 Amp blade fuses and also bought a new WiFi thermostat.
Fortunately I can return the malfunctioning thermostat.   Dinner was spaghetti
with tomato sauce, cheese and a glass of Cabernet.  I went to bed early tonight,
I was pretty tired.


April 2, 2019 Tuesday Thermostat Afternoon

We left for selby at 7:50 and got there pretty early. I got right to work
finishing up the February images.  We had our little meeting regarding image
management this morning. I ended up running a compare against the E and F raw
files but they didn’t have the photographs.  We went home down Tamiami and
stopped into Trader Joes to get some pasta and almonds.  The sample was supposed
to be spicy hummus but it was hardly spicy at all.  Once home we had tomato soup
for lunch then I got to work on the downstairs thermostat.  I got it installed
and working after changing the fuse in the furnace in the garage.  It was blown.
I also managed to label the breaker panel for the two HVAC units and the water
heater.  Next step was to package up the old thermostat and send it back to
Michigan.  I had an eBay preprinted return postage label.  I took this to the
Osprey Post Office before they closed at 4:30.  Dinner tonight was Lobster
Ravioli with Parmesan sprinkled on top and Asparagus on the side.  We had a
glass of Cabernet with the ravioli.  After dinner I turned the irrigation
sprinklers on for 20 minutes. Tomorrow I hope to have my MQTT driven sprinklers
in place.  I still need to do the taxes.  Uggh!


April 3, 2019 Wednesday Outdoor work

We did some work outdoors today.  I capped one sprinkler in the front next to
the sidewalk.  There is still one there that needs to be capped but I went to
the back and helped Libbie pull out one of the bushes.  Unfortunately I swung
the pick and it bounced off the rocks and went through the screen.  Now I have a
screen repair.  The bush came out easily enough.  We planted the remaining
Philodendron in that spot. I am thinking that all three plants in that area need
drippers instead of a general spray.  The general spray wastes a lot of water.
After the planting I got the chain saw chain on the device and cut some more of
the Palmetto in the front off the bush.  This all went into the barrels for
pickup tomorrow.  We then tackled the Palmetto in the back and managed to take
two more “Arms” off the stump.  This has been going on since December.  Dinner
tonight was modified chicken Parmesan.  I’m supposed to cover the chicken with
tomato sauce but only had one spoonful left.  I put Salsa on my chicken breast
which was pretty good.  We had this with Asparagus and a glass of Cabernet .
After dinner I converted this afternoon’s George Condon letter scans into PDF
and uploaded them to the glembocki.info wiki.


April 4, 2019 Thursday Hot Water Coffee, Sprinklers

We got up late this morning and unfortunately Libbie made the coffee.  What a
waste of good coffee beans.  It had no coffee flavor and was basically hot
water.  I don’t know what went wrong but as soon as she left for Selby I dumped
the coffee pot into the sink and made the coffee again.  It was very good.  This
is a puzzle. While Libbie was at Selby this morning I worked in the garage and
mounted the relay for the sprinkler.  Before doing that I spent some time trying
to figure out the Solenoid wiring.  We seem to have 4 zones with the Lanai
screen sprinklers coming on with each zone. I kept the timer wired up to the
power supply for use as a terminal strip to get 24VAC to my relay box.  The
relay box turns on the transformer which has the 24VAC plugged into the timer.
From the timer a 24 VAC terminal output feeds We did a grocery trip today which
resulted in us having steak and baked potato with sour cream along with a few
glasses of Cabernet.  This was more than I could eat today.   In the evening I
was having much trouble online trying to log into my node-red account.  The
password I recorded did not work.  I never was successful today with node-red.


April 5, 2019 Plant Festival

We went to the Tropiflora plant festival today in North Sarasota.  It was quite
an event and had a lot of people as well as a lot of plant vendors.  I picked up
a variegated agave for $35 and Libbie picked up 2 Orchids, one of which was a
very pretty peach colored plant.  We had lunch there which was quite good.  It
was catered by Oak BBQ on Tamiami.  We each had a Smoked Pork sandwich and a
bottle of water for $13 total.  We went straight home.  I planted the Agave,
hooked it to a drip watering line and also capped one more popup sprinkler
nearby .  I came inside where I laid down and rested in the afternoon before
jumping into the hot tub for a revival session.  The tub was great!  After
soaking in the tub I felt great.  While in the tub we watched an alligator on
our grass along the pond eating something.  Libbie thought it was a pine cone.
We were both wiped out so after crackers, wine and cheese we went out to the
Italian Grill.  I ordered the Italian Sausage with onions and peppers in a
tomato sauce and served over pasta.  Wow, is this good.  A glass of Cabernet
accompanied the meal.


April 6, 2019 Saturday ESP-12E deployed, carpentry today

I used MQTT to water the plants today.  It worked very well, a packet turned it
on and 20 minutes later the ESP8266 timer turned it off. This is the second ESP-
12E deployed on KB.  The first was the landscape lighting controller. I set up
the Miter saw in the side yard and cut the wood scraps for my bench.  This
really worked well.  It’s a nice saw and very easy to use in the side yard.  I
also made a step stool for the Hot Tub.  In this process I ran out of 3 inch
screws.  Ran over to Lowes to get screws and discovered the Scotts Florida
Select Mulch was on sale for $2 per bag.  I bought 5 plus Libbie needed Bayer
Rose bug killer.  The mulch is needed to cover up the brown painted mulch in the
front as well as finish up some areas that didn’t get any mulch. Dinner tonight
was Mahi Mahi blackened with spices accompanied by rice and a glass of Cabernet.
Dessert was strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, strawberries and
blueberries.  After dinner I stayed downstairs and watched a little YouTube of
the couple who have been live streaming Disney parks.  It’s quite nice.


April 7, 2019 Sunday Shopping

After the morning programs we did a Costco trip where we got bacon, a case of
wine, coffee, milk and dishwashing detergent.  I’m going to try the Kirkland
Signature dishwashing pods.  Consumer Reports rated them the best of the pods.
They also said the lowest rated pods is still better than the highest rated
liquid gel. we went out on our bicycles to look at the Stoneybrook eagle nest on
MacIntosh.  We came back through the development and watched the Martin house
for a while.  There seem to be babies inside the house. After lunch I spread the
bags of mulch on top of the brown painted stuff I didn’t like.  The painted
stuff didn’t match the other stuff in the front yard.  I have one bag left over
that I’ll use for patching here and there.  I ran out to Harbor Freight and
picked up a 4 foot long outlet strip for the new garage workbench as well as a
brush and car wash liquid for my car.  I used the brush and the liquid in the
driveway and washed the Prius.  It had a thick coating of dirt on it but readily
came off with the brush.  Halfway through Libbie came out and helped me wash the
car. It really looks nice.  On the way back from Harbor Freight I stopped at
Lowes for shelf standards and brackets to mount shelves above the workbench as
well as a 2x6 to mount the 4 foot outlet strip on the bench.  I started mounting
the shelf standards but came back in because Libbie had wine and cheese ready
before dinner.  For dinner we did the usual Sunday night Dominos take out using
the 3 topping coupon.  We had extra cheese, diced tomato and mushroom toppings
on a large pizza for 7.99.  We had the pizza with Cabernet.  During dinner we
watched 60  minutes with an interview of a billionaire, Ray Dalio, with an
interesting book “Principles”.  It’s about navigating the debt crisis.  He
correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis.


April 8, 2019 Monday Garage Shelves

I went to Selby this morning and arrived at 9 AM.  Traffic was pretty light. I
started processing the first images of the orchids. They are a lot easier
because they have more consistency.  I left at 12 and went straight home
arriving there at 12:30.  Wow, that has to be a record.  After a BLT lunch I
mounted the 2x6 “backsplash” on the garage workbench and then screwed down the 4
foot outlet strip to it.  I finished up the shelf standards and brackets then
tried to remove the nails from the ends of the salvaged boards.  It was too
tough to do so I set up the Miter Saw stand in the driveway and proceeded to
chop both ends off each board, shortening the board by a total of around 2 or 3
inches.  I like the shelves although I can’t reach the upper ones.  It may be a
good spot for little used items such as the hedge trimmer or chainsaw. I started
gathering some older turbo tax files from the Synology.  These will be useful to
Turbotax when it fills out my forms, it will know about past entries including
capital losses and depreciation. Before dinner I gave Vicki a call for her
birthday.  The girls and grandkids are there.  Barbara brought a Beef Stroganoff
from Costco and a chocolate mocha cake.  Vicki said she and Barbara are going to
a car show in New York.  Harry from Sun City is flying up to drive Bob’s car to
the show where Vicki said she may sell it. Dinner tonight was hamburger on a bun
with onion and tomato and a side of baked beans. We had a few glasses of
Cabernet with dinner.


April 9, 2019 Tuesday Taxes

Libbie went to Selby while I stayed home and tackled the taxes.  First step was
to find the Newegg link for the download I purchased.  This is my first year
purchasing Turbotax. I didn’t trust the pirate sites and what may come with it.
Turbo nicely imported all that stuff from TdAmeritrade.  I sold many stocks in
the Fall to buy the Sarasota house. Turbo neatly picked them all up and nicely
filled out the tax forms.  I need to manually add the K-1s for the ones I know
about.   The bottom line is I owe $7500 for Federal.  Still not sure if I can
get away with not filing a State tax return by claiming Florida as my legal
address.  I changed the online form with Fidelity to indicate FL residency.  I
need to do the same with the CU and TdAmeritrade. I studied moisture sensing and
ordered one from Vegetronix for the front lawn on Knightsbridge.  Powering it is
going to be a challenge since it uses several mils of power which will be tough
on batteries. Today was mostly a rainy day so it was good to be inside doing
taxes. Libbie brought home tomatoes, guac and corn from Yoders on her trip back
from Selby.  For dinner we had hamburgers with tomato and onion and corn on the
cob along with a few glasses of Cabernet.


April 10, 2019 Wednesday Soil Sensor

Today I continued working on the Soil VWC software.  After breakfast I went
outside and finished up the mulch job with the last bag of mulch.  I needed to
remove some grass in a few patches around the Palm Tree on the side so the mower
can have a straight path.  I fired up the chainsaw and helped Libbie take down
the Hibiscus next to the Hottub. I used the saw to cut it into small pieces. I
also put down some Osmocote fertilizer around each of the shrubs in the front.
I suspect this won’t take effect until the next rain but at least the job is
done. I programmed a Wemo with the VWC code in anticipation of the soil sensor
arrival.  I tried querying it with a few MQTT queries and got some sample
responses.  I also built a sample spreadsheet plotting voltage vs vwc to check
the curves supplied by Vegetronix.  It was a good match.  I’m glad I chose to
use the Wemo because it has a 3 volt range on the A/D whereas the Huzzah only
has a 1 volt range.  The sensor will be powered by 3 volts and the output will
be 0 to 3 volts. Dinner tonight was air fryer chicken Quesadilla with salsa and
the Guac that Libbie picked up in Yoders.  It was quite good.  We took a short
walk after dinner around Knightsbridge Circle. The extension tubes arrived today
for the Sony camera.  Surprisingly they came via Amazon Prime although I ordered
them on eBay.  I took a few pictures to try them out and all is well.  I wonder
how the depth of field will be.  Received an eMail from John at Selby.  He’s
looking for a free viewer of CR2 that can do rotation and image zooming.  I
recommended Irfanview.


April 11, 2019 Thursday

We went to Selby together at 7:50 AM.  I worked as usual on importing and
correcting photos in Lightroom.  When both our shifts ended at noon we took a
walk around the South end of Selby then had a Cuban from Michaels at the Selby
House.  At home I finally hung the quilt over the trundle bed.   I picked up
some framing angles in Lowes this afternoon to mount a small shelf on the window
frame for a camera.  I want to get the two cameras I have mounted and setup
before we leave at the end of April. We had Hamburgers and baked beans along
with a glass of Cabernet for dinner tonight.


April 12, 2019 Friday Shopping Day

I started the day by cutting up a Plywood sheet into two 3 inch squares and a
support for over the top of the garage cabinet which has a sagging top shelf.
This sagging shelf interferes with the door closing.  I then went to Lowes
dropping Libbie off at Kohls then I walked to  Lowes and purchased a blind for
the large sewing room window.  This blind will be closed when we are away to
keep the sunlight out.  Libbie thought she got a call from Hobby Lobby about the
Mola frames.  We went over there and it was not so.  The call was too let her
know they have the frames but  it would be Thursday before the Matte arrives.
We went home for a BLT lunch then out again to Walmart for groceries.  When we
got home the moisture sensor was waiting in the mailbox.   I immediately
soldered it to a proto board along with a Wemo ESP8266 but found out that the
battery pack I want to use shuts down because it thinks there is no load.
Eventually I plugged the cellphone in to keep the battery on and put it outside
to measure moisture.  I checked around the Impatiens and then around the Pentas.
I eventually put the probe into the roots of the Pentas and turned the water on.
I watched and recorded the moisture over time as the drippers ran then watched
the moisture content go down after they stopped.  It was quite surprising how
quickly the moisture content went down. Dinner was Delmonico Steak, baked potato
with Sour Cream and a few glasses of Cabernet. When I went to bed we watched a
live stream of the Disney fireworks from the Magic Kingdom.  This was done by
the guy who has a YouTube channel called Resort TV.  During the night I woke at
2:30 AM and watched Part 2 of the stroll through the Flower and Garden festival.


April 13, 2019 Saturday Fun and busy Day

This morning I could  not turn the channels on the TV.  I found that the
batteries in the remote control had died.  Fortunately I had a new package of
AAA in my office.  Once I got that working again I tuned the TV to Youtube and
started watching  the brother sister team of Josh and Jenna who were going to
live stream all 6 Disney theme parks today.  They are an easy going peaceful and
joyous brother and sister.  They are compelling to watch.  We pretty much
watched them all day in between other activities.  I went outside and mowed the
side lawn then started doing some activities upstairs.  I mounted the IP camera
on a bracket on the side of the bedroom window in the guest room and also in the
sewing room.  I also mounted the blinds in the sewing room.  They barely grab
the brackets but they seem to be secure.  I don’t like the placement of the
camera because it interferes with the open-close action of the slats.  I’ll get
the camera working then evaluate the situation.  It was pretty hot doing this
upstairs because the AC was set to 85.  I eventually lowered the temperature and
lay on the bed resting.  Around 5 PM Libbie and I went to Sprouts to forage for
food.  We found some large shrimp and broccoli.  I also bought a Papaya.  Dinner
was shrimp, broccoli and several glasses of Cabernet.  We talked about cutting
down on the amount of wine we are having with meals.  After dinner we went into
the Living Room and watched more of Josh and Jenna until the Magic Kingdom
fireworks was done.  Even while lying on the bed, Libbie had her tablet tuned to
this couple while we watched them on Peter Pan’s flight.  It was a nice Disney
day. April 14, 2019 Sunday taxes There was no CBS Sunday Morning this morning
because of the Masters.  I went upstairs and reviewed the taxes then did the
eFiling thing.  I checked our TdAmeritrade account and then got the routing and
account number from there to do the transfer.  I noticed that the $4k dividend
from my PSEG bond had posted which was nice.  I decided not to file an NC return
with the reasoning being that we are Florida residents this year.  I filed my
taxes last year as a part time NC resident.  I next started working on the front
yard moisture sensor.  The biggest problem was a source of 12 volts.  I
repurposed a TV antenna amplifier from the antenna that did not work out in
December.  I’m going to buy a bigger antenna and then try it in the attic.  I
put the power supply in the garage and ran landscape wire to the Pentas plant
where I hooked up the moisture sensor.   I was reading around 7.5 to 8 in the
plant roots.  It is going to rain tonight so I wanted to be hooked up before
then. The Dominos online ordering was down so we tried calling for a pizza but
we were placed forever on hold.  Then eventually we gave up and called the
Italian Grill where a plain pizza is $20.  It’s good but hardly worth it.  I had
one glass of wine with the pizza.  I’m trying to cut back on wine.


April 15, 2019 Monday Lazy Day

I slept in this morning and did not wake until 7 AM.  Wow, what a shock.  The
moisture sensor is reading 10.51 this morning. I left for Selby at 8:20 as
usual.  The traffic was pretty light. I did the usual in the Herbarium and also
updated the protocol document.  The IT dept installed Irfanview on 5 computers,
however they failed to install the plugins on half of them.   I showed John how
to use the program. It seems to do what he wants which is display Canon raw
images and then rotate and zoom.  He determined that zooming to 33% is good.
This will be used to read bar codes.  The rest of the morning was uneventful and
I left around noon after finishing the export of the DNG and JPG files for March
25.  In the morning I was able to use the VPN I previously setup up 2 months
ago. I then monitored the moisture in the front yard as displayed by node-red on
my phone.  Later in the afternoon while at home the WiFi to the ESP in the front
yard seems to have quit.  I chose not to debug this today since I was wiped out.
The rest of the afternoon was a lazy day.  We had spaghetti with cheese for
dinner then I spent some time watching a live stream by Josh from the Magic
Kingdom.  This is the same guy who did the streams on Saturday,  He is
incredibly mellow tempered and positive and is a delight to listen to.


April 16, 2019 Tuesday WiFi

I organized and archived the taxes for this  year.  Now they are completely
done!  I worked on the WiFi soil moisture in the front yard.  It just doesn’t
work in the ground.  I went out to Lowes and got a PVC electrical box and
mounted it on a length of conduit sticking out of the ground.  Now I seem to be
reliably measuring moisture.  I also implemented a read now button as well  as a
timer displaying the number of seconds since the last message was received. We
went to Sprouts this afternoon and picked up a Spiral cut 10 pound ham.  This is
our Easter Ham. Dinner was the Ham with corn on the cob and a glass or two of
Cabernet.


April 17, 2019 Wednesday

We didn’t have to go to Selby today.  I mounted the guest room camera outside on
the wall next to the window.  I’m getting a great picture from that location.
The cable seems to be a little flaky where it goes into the camera.  The camera
reported offline until I moved the cable.  Not sure about this.  In the process
of removing the screen I destroyed it.  Will have to look for a replacement.  I
also managed to get a USB drive working on the Pi.  I created a database on the
drive and accessed it using node-red which took a while.  It is now recording
the front yard moisture every 5 minutes.  Dinner tonight was sliced ham with yam
and a few glasses of Cabernet.  I watched a very sad video on YouTube today made
by Jenna of ResortTv1, half of the brother-sister team who live stream from
DisneyWorld.  She was in tears as she told the long tale of trying for 10 years
to have a baby.


April 18, 2019 Thursday Selby Day

Off to Selby at 7:50 this morning.  I chatted briefly with John about Melissa
coming at 10.  After working a while I called Libbie about staying for lunch.
Bruce, John and Melissa had lunch together while Libbie and I had lunch next to
the fountain.  We split a Cuban and a bag of chips. After lunch I went back to
Botany where Paul was waiting.  We went into the Herbarium at the Camera PC.
She was incredibly knowledgeable about the digitizing process.   It was a very
good meeting and worthwhile for me to be there.  We drove home around 2:30 with
a stop at Yoders for produce to get us through the Easter weekend.  At home I
basically did nothing.  I had planned to work on Sprinklers, databases and
cameras. Dinner was ham, apple sauce and Florida Corn on the Cob from Yoders.
Accompanying the meal were a few glasses of Cabernet. I had to run out to Publix
for a gallon of milk because I was short this morning for breakfast.  I only had
a half bowl of milk which meant I had dry cereal.


April 19, 2019 Friday Stormy

It was a dry morning but a little windy.  I capped 2 sprinkler heads and
installed a drip head on one of them.  As I was finishing up it was thundering a
little as the rain started.  I ended up putting the car in the garage as we sat
out the storm.  The rain came in sheets and there were a few very close
lightning strikes.  We  had a total of 1.5 inches of rain.  I went upstairs and
did a little bit of scanning and also got the charts working so I could plot the
moisture in the ground.  I wish I had a rain gauge to add to node-red.  During
the rainstorm I noticed the front gutter was straining under the weight of
water.  The clip holding the gutter is not attached to the fascia board as it is
supposed to be.  Tomorrow I will run out and get new gutter clips and support
the gutter better.  Dinner of course was more ham, this time with the other half
of the sweet potato, homemade cranberry sauce and a few glasses of Cabernet.
The rain quieted down while the sun came out giving us a nice sunset. The wind
however is still on the breezy side.  I enjoyed the evening watching Josh and
Jenn doing resort hopping.  They did 6 resorts in one night capped off by
fireworks.  I lay in bed with headphones on listening to the ending of the
fireworks on my tablet.  Very nice.


April 20, 2019 Saturday Busy Day

I went out early after breakfast to Lowes and picked up 5 gutter clips.  I ended
up using them all because the upper gutter had the same issue.  The support was
missing on the end of the upper gutter.  The lower gutter was missing a support
and in addition the supports were 5 feet apart instead of the recommended 3
feet.  With a missing support I measured almost 12 feet between supports.  The
gutter was badly tipped and spilling water out the side during yesterday’s heavy
rain.  After I completed this task I went into the garage attic with the
fiberglass rods I bought yesterday in Harbor Freight and pulled a wire up from
the corner of the garage door to the AC line that currently is carrying the
landscape lighting power.  This is where the junction box will go. Libbie got a
call that the framed Molas were ready at Hobby Lobby.  They did a beautiful job
framing them.   When she brought them home I immediately hung them on the wall
in the front foyer.  They look very nice.  I still have one more she brought
home from Sue’s house that will go into the front hall. Dinner tonight was ham,
apple sauce, cranberry sauce, butternut squash and a few glasses of Cabernet.
After dinner I watched the live stream from Josh and Jenna at Epcot.  I learned
of a new singer that I love his music and style.  His name is Steven Curtis
Chapman.  He sings and plays nice mellow Christian music.  It was obvious Josh
loved the concert since he sat down and stayed through about 4 songs even though
his viewers voted to move on.


April 21, 2019 Easter Sunday

We had an easy day today in honor of Easter.  No work was done. After the Sunday
morning shows we drove over to the Celery Fields for some bird watching.  We did
both boardwalks and then also drove down to Palmer Lake.  We saw a lot of
interesting birds and met two interesting Audubon members, Diane and Jim.  They
put a pin on the Celery Fields and drew a 5 mile radius around it when buying a
house.  They ended up in Tatum Ridge somewhere off Bee Ridge.   We came back for
lunch of ham, swiss and tomato on a hamburger bun.  The rest of the day was
spent reading and also scanning some more WW2 letters from George Condon to
home.  Dinner tonight was a traditional Dominos pizza using the three toppings
for 7.99 coupon.  It is tasty but the crust is not as good as the Italian Grill
crust last week.  I watched a few more videos on well drilling after dinner.


April 22, 2019 Monday water

I took Tamiami to Selby which was a lot faster than Beneva.  I arrived there at
8:50.  I finished up importing all remaining photos.  The Image processing is
now caught up to the photography.  While there I looked at the soil moisture and
concluded we needed watering.  I watered the plants remotely and watched the VWC
climb again.  This is pretty neat.  I left there at noon as planned and stopped
into Lowes to pick up the blinds using one of the coupons I received last week.
I’ll use another tomorrow for the last shade.  I ran a ½ inch poly and hooked up
5 misters to spray the geraniums.  I also set up drippers on the Philodendrons
in the back.  Next I will hook up misters for the side Alyssum and Hibiscus
garden. Dinner tonight was 15 bean soup using  the ham bone from our Easter ham.
We had one glass of Cabernet with dinner.


April 23, 2019 Tuesday Busy Day

Libbie went off to Selby while I got productive.  I put the end cap on the front
poly tube I installed yesterday.  I also drilled holes in the front of the house
and mounted the front camera outside the sewing room then I installed the new
blinds in the sewing room.  Libbie came home where we had the 15 bean soup mixed
with butternut squash.  This was a nice addition to the soup. After lunch I went
to Lowes and bought another set of blinds for the sewing room as well as a new
hatchet.  I use the $10 coupon I got from Lowes last week.  The hatchet was
great and chopping away and removing more of the Palmetto stump in the back of
the house.  Later in the afternoon I finished scanning the end of 1943 and
beginning of 1944 letters of George Condon to his family.  I also backed up this
stuff to the Synology and then backed the Synology to the USB external drive for
taking home to Apex. Dinner tonight was 15 bean soup and a glass of Cabernet.
After dinner I used my Bluetooth headphones and watched and listened to Resort
TV on YouTube.  They broadcast a Toby Mac concert from Epcot.  This guy is a
Christian music hip Hop artist.  The concert was pretty enjoyable.  I also like
the personality of Jenna and her husband as hosts.


April 24, 2019 Wednesday AVSA

I worked on the AVSA commercial portion of the website adding a slide show that
Richard Craft requested.  This was made difficult by me not remembering how to
configure the show.  Eventually I got it working and fixed his permissions so he
could add photos.  I still don’t know how an authorized user can delete photos.
I had to use the admin panel and delete photos that were the wrong size.
Outdoors I hacked some more at the Palmetto but should have directed my
attention to the watering.  I did test the misters on the Geraniums.  They are
great.  However as I was testing misters I noticed how wasteful the water was
from the sprinkler on the Alyssum.  This badly needs a mister to stop this
nonsense.  Today I also set up the saw horses next to the house and used the
power planer to trim the edge of the interior garage door where it rubbed.  I
then painted the door.  This garage door is incredibly heavy since it is solid
wood, not a hollow core like other doors.  Libbie and I struggled to lift the
door onto the hinges so we could put the pins in.  As I was painting it was
apparent how dirty this door was.  I initially was going to only paint the
planed edge but the contrast between the new white and the rest of the door
forced me to paint the whole door. Indoors I worked on the George Condon letters
and finished the current batch then posted them to the glembocki.info site.
Libbie gave me a new folder of letters that probably need scanning.  I’ll deal
with these when I get back from Apex. Dinner tonight was Beckhams on The Trail
where we each had the ribs with black beans and rice.  We had a glass of
Yuengling with the meal.


April 25, 2019 Thursday

I went with Libbie to Selby at 7:50.  We took Tamiami and because traffic was
light we ended up at Selby at 8:15.  I fixed some extraneous dashes in the file
names that were there by mistake for two dates of photos and then did the import
and export thing.  This concludes my work at Selby for this period.  I’ll return
in june.  At home I was not very productive and didn’t do what I was supposed to
do on the sprinklers.  Dinner was the last of the 15 bean soup along with a
glass of Cabernet.


April 26, 2019 Friday Rain

I got going outside because rain is coming in a few hours.  I dug up two of the
sprinkler heads and replaced them with drippers both at the Hibiscus in the back
and also the plants in the front of the house.  I managed to test the sprinklers
before it started raining.  All looked OK.  I also took the cover off the hot
tub housing and helped Libbie hook up the hose to drain the tub.  We let it all
run in the backyard towards the lake.  We were both pretty tired this afternoon.
I managed to put up the last of the blinds in the sewing room.  Now we’re ready
for our trip.  We decided not to go to the party tonight.  Instead we had Salmon
with steamfresh corn and Cabernet. It was a relaxing evening out.  After dinner
we took a sunset walk around Knightsbridge and met one of our neighbors, Dawn
lives a few houses down from us towards the corner and was walking a Pomeranian.


April 27, 2019 Saturday Long Drive

We left our driveway at 6:30 AM for the long drive home.  We did a quick
breakfast stop at McDonalds in Gainesville for an Egg McMuffin then stopped in
Brunswick, GA for gas.  Traffic was incredibly heavy.  We misjudged the end of
the month drive home from Florida traffic.  It was brake lights several times on
95. We noticed 95 was stopped North of Savannah all the way to HArdeeville so we
took I-10 E and picked up 17 North.  It was quite scenic and kept going along at
50 MPH.  We got  back on at Ridgeland and managed to miss all of the traffic
jams which was good.  We got  home at 5:45 PM.  I’m not happy with how the house
smells.  It is not moldy but it’s stale or something.  I will plug the
“humidivac” into the AC outlet in the closet to see if that thing can help. We
had dinner at La Cocina.  I had a Yuengling and the usual Quesadilla LaCocina.
Libbie had the same entree  but with a grande Margarita which was 32 ounces.
She said she deserved a double Margarita after her excellent navigating skills.


April 28, 2019 Sunday Home chores

Up at 6 as usual this morning.  The house still smells old.  I plugged the
Humidivac in and will see how this does at eliminating odor.  After the morning
programs I spent some time trying to get the Android box configured for YouTube
TV.  I was partially successful.  I couldn’t get Hulu to recognize my password
but YouTube worked except for locals.  We needed groceries so we both drew up a
list and I went shopping in Walmart.  I noticed the 55 inch LG TV is on
clearance for $349.  I may go back to get this because it’s the same TV we have
on knightsbridge and is a Smart TV.  Definitely worth the money to get the apps
integrated.  Walmart has it marked “clearance”.   I also wrote a check to the
IRS for $7500 because they said the ACH withdrawal didn’t go through.  I mailed
it this afternoon from the Apex Post Office.  Once back I had a lunch of cheese
on toast with tomato sauce then went outside and mowed the grass along the
street.  It was knee  high but not hard to mow despite a brief rain shower this
morning. Dinner tonight was Libbie’s home made pizza.  Yes!!!!   It has been a
while since we had her yummy pizza.  Dominos is OK but doesn’t measure up to her
home baked pies.


April 29, 2019 Monday TV time

After breakfast today I went outside and mowed the lawn in the back,  There is a
lot of it and it was  high.  When I was done with this I took a look at the air
filter and found it was totally clogged with gunk.  I took it out and now need
to take it to Lowes to match it  up.  After a BLT sandwich for lunch I ran out
to Walmart and picked up the LG TV which was on clearance.  The website still
has the old price but in the store it was on clearance for $349 which is
incredible for a smart TV.  I hooked it up and tried Hulu and YouTube.  They
connected instantly using my account credentials.  The device also does Plex
well and receives over 30 stations over the air.  Once I get the HomeRun device
hooked up I will be able to use Plex for recording.  Fooling around today with
Openvpn I learned a little how the key files work.  I think I am going to be
able to use the Synology as a VPN server getting it off the Pi.  The issue with
the Pi is using the other apps on board the Pi when it is acting as a VPN
Server.   Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese and a glass of Cabernet.
After dinner I watched the Adam Lambert and Queen story on ABC. April 30, 2019
Tuesday Dance I transferred the KB files from the external drive onto the
Downing Synology.  I still haven’t got the web server working on Downing yet.
The web station and Apache are both installed but I can’t get it to serve
Dokuwiki files.  I also successfully installed the Synology VPN on both Downing
Place and KB.  I set it up for port 9580 to differ from the Open VPN Pi at port
9579.  I found I could not SSH into the Pi when it is being used as a VPN
server.  By moving onto the Synology VPN I can get onto the remote LAN including
the Pi.  We had a good dance lesson with Robert.  I think I have mastered waltz
right and left turns and just needed a little tune up by Robert.  We also
covered some of the fine points of Rumba. We stopped into Food Lion on the way
back and picked up dinner which was hamburger on buns with onion, ketchup and
Baked beans.  We also had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner we saw
the baby rabbit in the garden.  I put my shoes on to open the gate to chase him
out.  He ran into the drain pipe so I plugged it with a brick and 2 fence
stakes.  We trapped a baby rabbit several years ago the same way.


May 1, 2019 Wednesday VPN

 Out the door this morning at 8:55 to get to Great Clips for their 9 AM opening.
I was in luck.  Meilani was just opening the shop as I arrived.  The door was
unlocked but the lights were not on.  I waited for her to set the shop up then
got a very nice haircut.  I went out again a little later to get our fixins at
Costco for Mary and John’s arrival tomorrow.  We decided I would do ribs.  I
tried out the Smoker this morning and all seems OK.  Picked up Cole Slaw, ribs,
wine and coffee. I played around with synchining files and also installed the
VPN client on the upstairs computer.  It now successfully attaches to
Knightsbridge allowing access to all things Knightbridge.  Later I’ll try the
Synchthing program to allow seamless transfer between the two locations.   I
want Synchthing to be under my control so that if one machine gets corrupt it
doesn’t spread to the other device.  Now I need to get switching control of the
bedroom fan timer as well as the landscape lights like I currently have for
Knightsbridge. Dinner tonight was hamburgers again with KC style baked beans.  I
did not have wine with dinner.  I’m getting better at Clarinet re-learning.  I
have managed to go through the scales successfully but it will still be a long
road.


May 2, 2019 Thursday Clarinet

I did a lot  of practice on the Clarinet today while Libbie was out walking with
Anita and then around noon when Nancy left and then again late in the day before
Mary and John arrived.  I started the Smoker this afternoon at 12:30 and tended
to the ribs all afternoon.  Mary and John arrived at 4:30 which was perfect.  I
attempted Star Wars on the Clarinet and got half way through it but with some
difficulty.  Slowly this is all coming back to me.  In another week I should be
back up to speed with my playing.  Libbie brought the package that Anita had
retrieved from our porch during the winter.  It was nice to see I ordered a pair
of Huzzah feathers from Adafruit.  These have USB connectors built in.  I’m
working on an MQTT controlled humidity and temperature sensor with attached
relay for the humidivac fan.  I want the fan to run an hour or two each night.
We had lots of good conversation into the night with wine, cheese and crackers.
Dinner was smoked ribs, baked beans and Slaw with wine.


May 3, 2019 Friday Frustration

Mary and John stayed around till around 10.  I then tried the clarinet and had
extreme frustration as I tried to go over the break.  Nothing was working so I
went out to Arts and Music in Crossroads and bought a box of 2.5 Reeds.  This
seemed to help for a while. On this trip I also stopped at the Movie theater and
bought tickets for next Saturday’s Opera then on the way home stopped into
Academy Sports and bought a pair of Sketcher loafers like I have left behind in
Sarasota.  How great was this.  At home I twice chased the rabbit around the
garden with no luck.  On my last pass I chased him under the deck so I got my
hammer, nails and screening and closed off the opening under the deck walkway
effectively trapping him under the deck.  He has been crafty enough in the past
that I doubt if I trapped him. He’ll probably show up again. In the evening
before CBC  I watched the model Julialia on CB.  She has gotten pretty daring. I
did this while working on the new crawl space esp8266 which will  include the
humidivac fan in addition to the temperature and humidity measurements.  We left
for the studio at 6:50 for the 7 PM party.  We had drinks and hors d'oeuvres
before the dancing at 7:30.  The party was nice but very small.  There was a
conflict with Hockey playoffs which kept the crowd down. After the performances
we had the buffet.  I had the brisket which Melanie’s boyfriend had smoked for 7
hours. I also had a seafood salad and broccoli salad.  I really liked the
Italian Salsa that Mitzii had made.  She said it was only 5 ingredients with
olive oil.  We danced several dances that we knew then left at 9:30.  As usual,
Robert liked the music to be loud which I didn’t care for.  Surprisingly we
managed to do very well on the waltz around the room.


May 4, 2019 Saturday Sore

I went to my scheduled 9 AM lesson with Justin.  He straightened me out on the B
note over the break that would not play.  I didn’t have enough fingers down when
playing the B.  He also suggested that I go back to the 3.0 reed instead of the
2.5.  The lesson was highly worthwhile.  He also had me practice playing the
high notes with a tuner.  My playing in the upper register was flat but by
pressing against my lip over my lower teeth brought them up higher. I spent a
little bit of time working on the crawl space humidivac fan controller and
humidity measuring device.  I’m ready to build the hardware but was
lackadaisical this afternoon.  My body is sore all over.  I couldn’t figure out
why but thought about it later in the evening and realized I fell pretty hard
yesterday chasing the rabbit in the garden.  My feet got tangled in the wire
hoops and I went over yesterday hitting the ground pretty hard. In the afternoon
I enjoyed listening to a performance of Aida with Netrebko and Raschiavelli
which was broadcast from the Met as the Saturday afternoon radio broadcast.  I
watched the Kentucky Derby in the evening and saw the disqualification of the
winning horse.  I didn’t understand what it did wrong but I guess the experts
did. We had ribs, BBQ beans and Slaw for dinner with Cabernet.  This was all
left over from Mary and John’s visit.   After dinner I enjoyed Josh and Jenna on
Youtube visiting the Magic Kingdom.  I watched the heavy rains they encountered
while on the People Mover ride.  The fireworks show was delayed by the weather
but went on.  However it did not include Tink flying from the castle because of
lightning in the area.


May 5, 2019 Sunday Crawl Space

After the morning programs I went into my workshop and soldered a cable to a
Huzzah module that already has a terminal strip for a DHT temperature/humidity
sensor.  Interestingly it programmed OK but would not run without crashing.  It
has been doing this periodically over the past year and I couldn’t figure out
why.  Now it constantly crashes.  I suspect the RAM onboard has some bad
locations.  I tried another Huzzah that was on my desk and it works better.  I
installed this in the closet and hooked up the Humidivac to the Power Tail which
is controlled by the ESP8266 Huzzah.  The ESP also reports temperature and
humidity.  I did not add the nodes in node-red yet.  Will do that in the
morning.  I spent some time on Google and Craigslist looking for clarinet or
band groups that play together for fun.  Libbie made her outstanding pizza once
again.  She made the dough fresh from scratch and it was good! May 6, 2019
Monday Stepper Motor I took the stepper motor today and removed the plastic cap
to expose the PCB.  I then cut the center lead free as per a YouTube Video.
This essentially rewires the motor I hope.  Today Amazon is bringing the driver
module to hook up to a NodeMCU to drive the thing.  I downloaded some code and
customized it by adding my credentials as well as MQTT topics to control the
motor.  The Met cooperated by playing Rosenkavalier this afternoon then a
delightful performance of Die Fledermaus. How nice.  I also spent some time
watching the delights of CB. Libbie is doing her colonoscopy prep today so I’m
on my own for meals.  I had cheese and crackers with Cole Slaw for lunch then
made some Spanish Rice that I mixed with black beans for dinner.  As of 6:30 PM
the stepper driver module still had not arrived.  I’m hoping it comes today so I
could wire it up! I went out into the driveway after dark around 8:30 PM and
climbed the ladder to clean the camera which was covered in spider webs.  I even
used Windex to clean the lens.  While I was outside the Amazon guy showed up
just before 9.  He parked out on the street and walked up the driveway with a
flashlight.  I took the module to my office and opened it.  I had to attach the
heat sink to the stepper motor driver chip.  I had trouble programming the ESP
chip.  I found I had to hold down the “Flash” button to get the IDE to flash the
chip without error.  Tomorrow I will wire the modules on a breadboard and try it
out.


May 7, 2019 Tuesday stepper

Up at 5:45 AM this morning and out the door at 6:24 for Libbie’s colonoscopy
appointment.  When we arrived the staff couldn’t get into the building because
the electronic door locks were not working.  We were delayed about 15 minutes
getting into the building which wasn’t too bad.  The whole thing was over by
8:30. At home I got to work wiring up the stepper motor controller to the power
module and driver module.  My power supply puts out 16 Volts which is probably
too high.  The 5 VDC converter is too high at 10 volts.  It does have an
adjustment pot that I will either use or replace with a fixed resistor.  I found
a blog post that says that 47K is the right value to substitute. Dinner was ribs
with rice and beans plus the last of the cole slaw.   I opened the Rutherford
Cabernet because I wanted to try it.  It was quite good but not worth the extra
money over Rodney Strong.


May 8, 2019 Wednesday Blinds Controller Working

Changed power supplies on the blinds controller this morning.  I used one that
measured 12 volts unlike yesterday’s supply that said 12 V but measured over
16V.  I also set the Buck converter output to 5 volts for the ESP8266.
Apparently I blew up the stepper driver yesterday possibly to power issues.  The
new one with 12 V supply works very well. I am able to issue open and close
commands to it.  I now want a PCB designed for this thing.  Yesterday I
downloaded KiCAD, an open source PCB and schematic designer.  I need to watch a
few tutorials for KiCAD to effectively use it. I did some Clarinet work today
and am getting better.  I’ve been using a 3.0 reed because Justin said that’s
what I need to be using.  After the scales I switched over to playing “You'll
Never Walk Alone” from Carousel.  This is coming along pretty good except for
the second page where it goes into the higher notes.  I’m having trouble
associating upper lines on the staff with a particular note.  I need to focus on
this with something like flash cards or other technique to commit these to
memory. For dinner tonight we chose to go over to La Cocina where we both had
Quesadilla La Cocina.  I had a beer with mine and Libbie had a Margarita.


May 9, 2019 Thursday Generator & Scanning

I scanned a pile of photos and Christmas Cards today that Libbie had given me
before we bought the Florida house.  The scanner or driver in the computer is
having problems.  Everytime I press the scan button it waits minutes before
starting the scan.  This is not acceptable. I went outside and disassembled the
generator control panel trying to figure out how i can get to the remote alarm
contacts.  I think the alarm will signal when there is an Overcrank or Overtemp
or Overspeed condition.  It’s more preferable to monitor the LEDs to determine
the exact condition of the fault or no fault and I still may do that.  I would
need a good PCboard with opto-isolators and possibly an onboard micro to monitor
LEDs. Libbie went to her quilt group at 2 today and also picked up some
groceries in Walmart.  Dinner was hamburgers with tomato, vidalia, baked beans
and a small glass of Cabernet finishing the bottle of Kirkwood Rutherwood
Cabernet from earlier in the week.  This was 17.99 in Costco or $4 more than
Rodney Strong.  It was good but not worth more dollars than Rodney. After dinner
I spent some time figuring out flights to Juneau and all the options.


May 10, 2019 Friday

  I had a frustrating day trying to get the scanner to be responsive.  It takes
minutes for a scan to start.  I installed Linux on the small PC I built for
multimedia usage.  It initially had Windows 7 installed.  Linux was hard to work
with and for the bottom line I never got the Epson driver to install.  I
reinstalled the driver on Manon, my desktop PC but it didn’t help.  I suspect
the scanner is sending a warming up message to the PC each time the preview or
scan button is activated.  This adds quite a time delay to scanning pictures.  I
scanned a small batch of Libbie’s pictures.  Arlene sent me a real treat.  Vicki
found my grandmother’s birth certificate and Arlene scanned it and sent it to
me.  I’ll add it to Family Search and possibly glembocki.info. Dinner tonight
was a hamburger on a bun with Vidalia, baked beans and Woodbridge Cabernet.


May 11, 2019 Saturday Opera

I had a good lesson with Justin this morning. WE covered different ways of going
over the break.  I failed miserably doing a scale.  He also tried playing along
with me.  My timing is awful.  I’ll keep trying.  Libbie made tuna sandwiches
without celery for the Opera.  I have been eating soft stuff today to get
through the cleansing tomorrow for the Monday colonoscopy. Dialogue of the
Carmelites started at Noon today.  The theater was pretty empty at Crossroads in
Cary. The Opera was intense, the French music an orchestral masterpiece.  The
ending of course is tragic as each of the nuns faces the guillotine one by one
singing until only one voice is left and then silence.  I enjoyed Isabel Leonard
as Blanch and also Karita Matilla as the Mother Superior who dies during the
opera from a painful disease. When I came home I finally talked to Arlene about
her trip to St Lucia.  She bought a package through Costco which was all
inclusive including airfare through Atlanta. Dinner tonight was Salmon with
brown rice and Cabernet.  After dinner we went out in the rain and got ice cream
at Brusters.  I had a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle in a waffle cone.   It’s been
a while and it was good!


May 12, 2019 Sunday Prep

This was a do nothing day. I did not eat anything because of a liquid diet for
the colonoscopy tomorrow.  I had a little peach Mango juice at lunchtime and
nothing else.  The prep was hard which started at 5 PM by drinking half of the
gallon container.  I could only get half of it down.  I’ll resume tomorrow
morning.  No dinner today, or any other meal.


My 13, 2019 Monday Colonoscopy

I missed the alarm at 2:15 for the colon prep.  Libbie woke me at 3:!5 so I got
right to work trying to drink the other half gallon of glycol prep.  I ended up
throwing up at the end and hoped enough of it went in for an adequate cleansing.
We left at 6:15 for the 7:30 AM procedure.  He actually didn’t take me until
after 8.  It was a good colonoscopy.  The next thing I knew was that I was in
the recovery room.  Libbie was there.  After they unhooked all the monitors and
IV I was able to get dressed and was wheeled out to the car.  I’m glad that is
over for 5 years.  There was one polyp on my rectum, not even in the colon
intestines.  I came home and felt groggy but not hungry.  For lunch I had a bowl
of hot tomato soup to warm up preceded by a bowl of shredded wheat.  The milk in
the cereal was what made me cold in the first place. Dinner tonight was a bowl
of spaghetti with Barella tomato sauce and Mozarella cheese.  It was nice to
have a hot solid meal after 2 days of not eating much because of the
colonoscopy.


May 14, 2019 Tuesday Busy Day

This morning I hooked up the inkjet with scanner to replace the 3170 scanner
that has warm up issues.  This scanner works well.  I was able to scan another
batch of Libbie’s family photos. I worked some more on the KB H2O controller.
Libbie described what she would like in the way of plant stands.  I measured the
stands to figure out what I needed for LED supports as well as how many LEDs are
needed.  I determined that 5 rolls of 5 Meter strings are needed.  Banggood has
them for $5.40 per roll.  I also bought 6 dimmers which should be enough for 6
shelves, one dimmer per shelf. We left for dance at 3:15 where we covered the
fine points of waltz.  I think I’m getting pretty good at doing some basic waltz
routines. Dinner tonight was Chinese takeout with an eggroll each.  This was the
Szechuan 3 meat which tonight was spiced pretty heavily.  I loved it but it may
have been a little bit too  much for Libbie.  With the meal we had a bottle of
14 hands Red Blend named “Hot to Trot”. After dinner I continued researching LED
lights and MQTT control of the water on the plant stand.


May 15, 2019 Wednesday Clarinet

Today I tried several times to go from A to B or go over the break.  I still
don’t have it. Justin said this is holding me back from moving forward.  I
scanned a few more pictures and finished up Libbie’s current batch except for
the negatives.  I may have to buy a new Epson slide scanner.  I want to scan our
slide collection currently in the workshop. Dinner tonight was Salmon with baked
beans and brown rice.  Libbie made dinner.  We had a bottle of Cabernet with
dinner.


May 16, 2019 Thursday Database

I had a lot of luck this morning implementing database storage of many of the
sensors on Downing Place.  I have not yet implemented charting but the basic
temps of the greenhouse, outdoors, crawl and some controls are now stored in the
database.   This took some work understanding how to implement global variables
because one of the sensors has the data coming every 20 seconds.  I save this in
a variable then store it to the database every 5 minutes thus reducing the
number of database entries.  I used this technique for several MQTT feeds which
were sending rapid data.  I practiced a few times during the day with the
Clarinet.  My Manhasset Music stand came today and I couldn’t be happier.  It
was an ebay scratch and dent sale from a Music store in Wisconsin.  I ordered a
blue one and it was in perfect condition.  I couldn’t find signs of scratches or
dents.  I may want another one for Florida.  I had limited success going over
the break today.  I did  it slowly on the scales but not at full speed playing
the “When you walk” piece that I like.  I will try harder. Dinner tonight was
spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  After dinner David Kesler called about
a member whose name wouldn’t work in the membership system of the website.  I
suspect the quote in her name had something to do with it.  I manually put her
name into Drupal successfully.


May 17, 2019 Friday Plots

I practiced many times on the Clarinet today trying to cross the break.  I also
managed to update First Class for everything up to May.  Hopefully I succeeded
although I didn;t try it on my phone.  I later mowed the lawn and spent the day
smoking ribs. The smoker quit several times.  I will need to replace the
controller with one of my own in the future.  The ribs turned out quite well in
spite of the problems.  Dinner was ribs, Baked beans and Cabernet.


May 18, 2019 Saturday The Break, landscape lights and circuit breakers

At Justins’s today I got more tips for going over the break.  I’m still not
there but I will keep trying.  When I got home I knocked the rest of the pine
straw off the roof because Libbie wanted to clean it up.  I took some of it down
to the azaleas in my cart.  It is very clean pine straw.   I next attempted to
work on the landscape lighting.  I found that the splice under the Redbud was
the culprit.  It was purchased in Lowes a few years ago as an easy way to splice
cable together but it certainly did not last.  Using points to pierce the cables
may be easy to install but you don’t get a solid waterproof electrical
connection.  I took it all apart and made a conventional splice with wire nuts
and electrical tape.  The nuts make a secure connection and the tape waterproofs
the whole thing.   I got a call from Ken that their dryer circuit breaker keeps
tripping.  He even tried another dryer and had the same results.  I offered to
change the breaker for him.  I went over at 3 and removed his old breaker.
While he ran to Lowes to get a new one I did the grocery list for Libbie at Food
Lion.  We needed wine especially and then a bunch of groceries.  Ken came back
with a new Square D 30 Amp breaker which I installed.   He tested the dryer and
it seemed to be working. If this fixes the issue then he got away OK.  It should
fix the problem.  Dinner was ribs, baked beans and Cabernet.  When it got dark I
went outside and checked the aiming of the new spotlight I mounted on the tree.
It’s aimed correctly.  No need to do anything further.  After dinner I watched
Josh do his live stream from the Magic Kingdom.  He does an amazing job
broadcasting this stuff. May 19, 2019 Sunday  Good Day I got two emails this
morning for the TV.  I responded to both.  The first one here was a guy who
moved here from Michigan.  Name was Jay.  He gave me $100 and took the TV away.
He seemed very h appy with the deal.  He said he even skipped a swim party to
chase this down.  I was glad to be rid of it. After lunch I raked up the rest of
the pine straw and spread it around the azaleas in back.  Now the task goes to
node-red.  I need to average the moisture measurements and trigger the
irrigation solenoid for a set amount of time.  For dinner tonight we had
Libbie’s traditional pizza with a bottle of Yuengling each.  Clarinet went well
today.  I seemed to go back and forth over the break with ease.


May 20, 2019 Monday  Node-red, calibre

I logged into the Knightsdale LAN and did the node-red editing to add the java
code I developed yesterday to calculate moisture averages and activate the
watering when dryness is detected.  The timer is set to do this at 6 AM.  Libbie
walked with Anita this morning and returned with a bottle of wine that was a
gift for changing the circuit breaker Sunday. I messed with Calibre and replaced
a Mitch Albom book that was not formatted correctly.  I also found there is a
new walk series by Richard Paul Evans.  I added books 1 and 3 to Calibre.  Book
2 was not available on PB or Jack’s server.  Amazon gave me two $5 coupons for
reasons I was not sure why.  I used the coupons and bought book #2 of the
series.  The price ended up being $1.99.  For dinner tonight we decided to go to
La Cocina where we had a Margarita and a Quesadilla La Cocina.


May 21, 2019 Tuesday Packing

I prepared a Raspberry Pi, this was the one formerly used at IP ending in 109
and logging sensor data.  I want to configure OSPI to use MQTT for Knightsbridge
and the plant stands. I gathered our things for the convention as well as the
rest of the trip and started packing a suitcase.  We have a lot of stuff for a 2
week trip.  Dinner was simple tonight, just a BLT and the leftover baked beans.


May 22, 2019 Wednesday Flying

Up at 4 AM this morning for our 6:40 flight.  The airport was incredibly busy
but we had United Premier access because we are flying First Class and then TSA
Pre to help zip us through security.  The flight was very smooth. We had
breakfast onboard which was not very good.  I had the egg whites with cheese and
Kale.  Libbie had a hard boiled egg with cheese and sliced chicken.  The fruit
was good - pineapple slices, orange slices and grapes. We had an on time arrival
in Denver where there was snow on the ground and alongside the runway.  It was
34 degrees.  The second plane was a few minutes late.  We had breakfast again.
I chose corn flakes with milk and once again ate the fruit and some of the berry
flavored yogurt.  We were about 20 minutes late getting into Orange County.  Joe
circled the airport with Emily instead of parking.  Once we got our luggage we
went to Paige’s school and picked her up then went to a Park where we had soft
chicken tacos from Del Taco for lunch.  They were quite good. Back at Joes
Christa came from work and Joe experimented making personal pizzas which he is
going to do for Paige’s birthday on Saturday.  We had a chicken salad and the
pizzas for dinner with a bottle of Columbia Red Cabernet which was pretty good.


May 23, 2019 Thursday

I woke up this morning rested after the long day yesterday and the 3 hour time
zone difference.  I was able to log into the VPN of both Knightsbridge and
Downing Place although I can’t log into Downing with the laptop.  I may have to
reinstall the VPN client to get the laptop to work.  This morning we went to
Paige’s gymnastics followed by a session at Air Flight which is a building of
trampolines and foam block pits for kids.  We had lunch at Rubys after the
morning.  I had a BLT with Avocado and fries.  It was too much for lunch but
delicious.  We went back to Joe’s and rested the rest of the afternoon while the
girls took naps.  When Christa came hoome from work we went over to her school
for Family night.  We had popcorn and played corn hole, frisbee enjoyed the
evening before going over to Mamas for dinner.  At Mamas I had a Mai Tai and a
plate of delicious fish tacos with black beans and rice.


May 24, 2019 Friday

I watered the Knightsbridge garden today since VWC was down to 7.2%.  It
probably would have auto triggered tomorrow anyway.  I also watered the back
porch on Downing Place but had to cut it short because the overhead greenhouse
watering was going to come on at 9 AM. This was a very cold day.  Joe took Paige
to school while we entertained Emily.  I practiced my Clarinet and was very
happy with the results.  Emily wanted to watch so I played the few nursery
rhymes I knew such as Old McDonald and Frere Jaqua (sp?).  At noon we went to
pick up Paige and have Del Tacos for lunch in the park.  We each had a soft
chicken taco with water.  At home I lay in the bedroom while Christa and the
girls made birthday cakes.  I worked on the AVSA 2020 convention page and got
most of it done except for the awards and chairs. We went over to Saigon Central
for Vietnamese food for dinner.  I had Teriyaki chicken over white rice and a
spring roll in a peanut ginger sauce that was delicious.  It was a long night in
the kitchen as Christa was stressed making cakes while the girls tried to
participate.  We left and went to  bed.


May 25, 2019 Saturday Birthday Party

The Jump house arrived this morning after breakfast.  Libbie and I went down the
slide with the two girls.  What fun.  We started blowing up balloons and
attaching them to the house before the party.  I also pumped up a giant sofa for
the “lounge area” on the driveway.  When the party started The kids went for the
jump house which was a giant pirate ship.  The kids all got to make their own
pizza, Libbie and I split a pizza which had sausage.  I wish I had the whole
thing.  Later in the evening I had my own pizza for dinner which by that time
was too much food. I also had Christa’s Caesar salad which was Romaine lettuce,
parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing.  Keving from across the street had a demo
of  his Tesla Solar battery which is hooked to his solar panels.  His Smartphone
has more graphs than imaginable for system performance.  I took pictures of the
battery and looked up some links he referred to YouTube videos about DIY Solar
Wall battery systems.


May 26, 2019 Sunday Relaxing Day

Joe ran out to McDonalds this morning and came back with a bunch of big
breakfasts which we took apart and made a few smaller breakfasts.  I had
pancakes and sausage for my breakfast and Libbie took a few muffins and the eggs
and made herself an egg sandwich.  It was a cold and rainy day.  We hung outside
with the neighbors drinking IRish Whiskey and coffee.  I even tried some Jack
Daniels Jack cider in some hot apple juice to warm up.  Dinner was more of the
pizza along with Christa’s delicious salad which she made again.  I’m going to
put this into “Recipes” of Tom’s Life bits.  Kevin and Tish from across the
street are nice neighbors.  He is geeky, probably because he’s a science
teacher.  I ordered 5 of the capacitive water sensors from Banggood to see how
they compare to the Vegetronix TDR moisture sensor.  I’m betting they are
similar.  I may go the route of calibrating them using the technique in a PDF
from Vegetronix.


May 27, 2019 Monday La Capilla

This was another easy day.  Joe started assembling the pool in the backyard.  I
helped by putting the supports together and assembling the ladder.  This is a
huge pool at 15 feet by 4 feet.  He then started putting the water in which will
be a total of 4400 gallons. This evening we went over to Happy Hour at La
Capilla.  I had 2 Margaritas, a chicken wing and bar tacos.  It was a nice way
to end the time at Joe and Christas.


May 28, 2019 Tuesday Fly

This morning we left at 6 AM for the airport.  Checkin was super easy and we
breezed through TSA Pre.  We had bacon-egg-cheese biscuits from Carls Jr once in
the gate area.  Our flight was on time at 7:40.  It was a very smooth flight to
Houston on a very full plane.  Libbie said she liked the First Class seats
better that we came out on.  We picked up a white Toyota Corolla at Hertz and
had what seemed to be a long drive to the Marriott.  I like the hotel, it’s very
modern but expensive.  We had lunch in the hotel consisting of a Portabella
mushroom sandwich that we split.  It came with fries.  We also had a Stella beer
with lunch. We greeted everyone in the registration and entry areas then went
out to dinner with Anne Nicholas.  We ate at the Armadillo Palace, a texas BBQ
restaurant that was pretty upscale.  We had Margaritas then Libbie and Anne
split a Pork Chop while I had the Gulf Seafood platter.  The Red Fish was
outstanding.  It also came with shrimp and oysters as well as fries.  This was
an excellent meal.


May 29, 2019 Space Center

We went out to McDonalds for breakfast then boarded the AVSA tour bus at 9:15.
We went to the Johnson Space Center which is more of a museum.  Mission control
was pretty interesting then we walked through the big Saturn V building
marveling at the size of that thing.  We came back for lunch where we split a
turkey wrap which came with chips.  We then visited some of the exhibits of moon
rocks before going outside and climbing the stairs to see the 747 and the Space
Shuttle outside the center. These things were bigger than I ever imagined.  I
fell asleep on the bus on the way back. For dinner Libbie and I walked next door
to the Italian Restaurant, Fornos of Italy.  We had a bottle of Wente Cabernet
with our meal. I ordered Chicken Parmesan which came with Spaghetti and bread.
The meal was excellent and pricing wasn’t bad.  We walked back to the hotel and
ran into Richard Nicholas and found that we missed the convention opening.  We
went back to the room and pretty much passed out going to sleep.


May 30, 2019 Thursday Photography

Today is photography day!!!  We had breakfast down the street at McDonalds where
I had the usual Egg McMuffin and coffee.  I got a coupon to use tomorrow for buy
one get one free.  We went to a very entertaining presentation by Ken
Mazuleweski about growing plants Texas style.  He called Joyce to the front of
the room and gave her a bag in case she hyperventilated seeing his advice.  This
was pretty funny.  We learned a lot from the presentation. After a hotel lunch
of portabello sandwich and a craft beer we went into the showroom and started
photographing plants.  Richard really slowed us down with the tripod, we did not
photograph nearly as many as we should have.  We spent a lot of time waiting for
him. Dinner tonight was in the hotel for the awards banquet. We found two people
from Michigan who spend the winters in Sarasota at the Meadows.  We introduced
them to Terry who lives in Lakewood Ranch in the Central Park section. We had
steak, salad and potatoes for dinner followed by a Tiramisu dessert.  It was a
fun evening with the Michigan people, Steve and Donna Turner and two other
ladies.  After dinner the show opened but I went to our room and posted the
winners on the website.


May 31, 2018 Friday Do Nothing

We did the McDonald’s breakfast once again where I used the coupon for a free
Egg McMuffin.  I did some photography of a few missing plants that I did not
photograph yesterday.  I met with David for a while in the lobby talking about
lots of things and Imas in particular for online registration.  For lunch I went
out to Kroger and got a chicken sandwich and a package of tropical fruit.
Around 2 PM we had an internet meeting with Candace discussing how old the
website was and how dated some of the material is. She will document points from
the meeting. At 4 PM we went over for Margaritas and snacks with the Michigan
folks at 4PM then went with them to the Armadillo Palace, the restaurant we went
to with Anne a few days ago.  Traffic was pretty heavy  and the place was very
noisy with a horrible bunch of girls at the bar, I ordered the Seafood Platter
and a Margarita.  After the restaurant we went upstairs and read for a while
before going to bed.


June 1, 2019 Saturday Hanging Out

We went over to the McDonalds down the street and used the buy  one get one
coupon again for Egg McMuffins.  The employee tried to help me with the Kiosk
but I said this probably won’t work because I had a coupon. I was right. She
ended up using the cash register for my coupon.  The Egg McMuffins today were
correctly made.  The other times this week they burned the Muffin part of the
Egg McMuffin. I attended an entertaining session by Steven Covolo titled Sex
Sells.  It was dynamic and funny about his trials and tribulations of
hybridizing violets.  What a fun session. Libbie and I walked over to Le
Madelaine, a French Cafe set up like Paneras.  I had a beef french dip half
sandwich which came with a Ceasar salad.  It was great, we will be back. At 2:30
PM we went to the auction area and waited for the drawings.  We won 3 of the
prints of paintings. I stayed behind in the room at 6 PM to check in for our
flight tomorrow on Southwest.  When I returned Libbie was seated with Kitty and
Sharon Long and Rodney.  Dave and Alva joined us with Alva’s Mom.  Dinner was
chicken with mashed potato and a salad.  Desert was Creme Brule on a hard cookie
shaped like a pastry.  We don’t have to pack  until tomorrow since the art
museum doesn’t open until 12:15.  We’ll pack in the morning then check out and
head to the museum.


June 2, 2019 Sunday Van Gogh and Flying

We packed up in the morning and checked out after having lunch again at Le
Madelaines.  I had the beef dip again.  I wanted the mushroom pastry but it
would have been 25 minutes so I went with the beef I had yesterday.  We got
going a little late.  There was an issue with our bill in that a gift charge
appeared that was not ours.  In addition we lingered outside with the Nicholas’s
and then when we were underway Libbie had me turn back because she forgot her
toothbrush.  When we finally arrived at the parking garage there was a long line
for tickets.  We bought Premium Express tickets which got us into the Van Gogh
paintings. It was crowded but I thoroughly enjoyed the museum.  We had to leave
a little after 3 to go to the airport, get gas, return the car, check-in and go
through TSA.  Everything went smoothly.  There were no lines at TSA which was
surprising for a Sunday night.  We had tacos and a Shiner Bock at Papasitos in
the gate area.  It was not bad for airport food.  Our flight at 6 PM was on time
and smooth but crowded.  Fortunately there was no weather between Houston and
Raleigh so it was a good flight.  We bailed out our car for $102 and got home
around 10:30 PM.  The flight landed 15 minutes early.  Nice to be home.  The
house smelled OK.  I have the Humidivac going once a day at 3 AM.


June 3, 2019 Monday Getting Back in the groove

Up this morning and doing some unpacking.  Libbie nicely started the laundry
from our 2 weeks away.  I started sorting pictures, throwing away the extra
pictures of tags,   I spent some time updating the AVSA award winners.  David’s
version of Joe’s Entries program duplicated the second plant of the collections.
Joe sent me a corrected file but I still corrected the educational exhibit
manually.  It was done by Dmitry and Susan Hill.  Once all this was done I
concentrated on uploading pictures to the Synology NAS and retrieved pictures
from Libbie’s phone. I managed to send 10 people pictures to Teresa that she was
looking for. Dinner was hamburgers and fruit with Cabernet.  Libbie shopped
today and picked the burgers up at FoodLion and the fruit medley from the Farmer
stand in Apex.  It consisted of cantaloupe, peaches and blueberries.   After
dinner I tried to listen to the rest of the building a Wordpress theme tutorial
but was too tired to continue much further. It was a pretty good day for our
first day back.


June 4, 2019 Tuesday Zencart

Anita stopped by this morning to pick up Libbie so they could walk.  Meanwhile I
worked on configuring Zencart on the new AVSA website.  This thing has hundreds
of settings that need to be adjusted.        I like Zencart but configuration is
a real nightmare.  I spent the whole day doing this.  In the morning I also ran
out to Costco for wine and soap then came back via Laura Duncan to pick up
produce and baked beans. Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese and a glass of
Cabernet.


June 5, 2019 Wednesday Configuration

I spent the whole day configuring the AVSA registration website.  I also think I
found an error.   After turning off the information sidebox it re-appeared on
the tablet.  I ended up having to delete the section of PHP that creates the
information box. I also used Firefox to track down the color of the three bars
designating the menu on the tablet.  Purple bars on a black background are not
very visible.  I changed the color to off  white after the treasure hunt through
CSS code.  The firefox developer edition is incredibly helpful. In the morning I
went under the house and disconnected the solenoids by cutting the wires and
cutting the CPVC pipe to the solenoids.  These will be used in Sarasota for
watering the light stands.   I also spent some time doing a few things that
Joyce needed to support her newsletter. Dinner was hamburger on the grill in a
bun with tomato and onion. We had a few glasses of Cabernet with the meal.


June 6, 2019 Thursday Organizing

I spent most of today organizing files on the Synology and the desktop computer.
There are many many files just taking up space.  I also want to make sure I
bring files that I need to Sarasota.  Ideally many of the desktop files would be
on the Synology and the Synology would auto synch with the Synology in Sarasota.
I tried today to get the directories off the avregistration site and get them
working on the new avsa website.  I succeeded only to find out that the drupal
version I transferred only had the sample store.  The great news is it gave me
confidence in how to transfer files and the SQL database and get the thing
working on a new host.  This will be valuable info.  For dinner tonight we had
Quick Taco salad which is a bed of lettuce covered with hamburger, green pepper
and salsa covered with cheese, tomato chunks and crumbled tortilla chips.


June 7, 2019 Friday Backup, packing

This morning I backed up the Synology onto the External drive for transport to
Sarasota. It only took several hours this morning.  I thought it would be all
day.  I also packed up the hardware for the light stand as well as the 30 meters
of LED, dimmers and power supply as well as what I could find in my Arduino
supplies.  I still have another box of electronics that has to be packed. Libbie
and I went to REI and Harbor Freight this afternoon in a light rain.  She was
getting pants and I was going to Harbor Freight to get a set of nut drivers with
hex shanks for my electric drill. Dinner tonight was Quick Taco salad again with
many glasses of Cabernet.  Joe is starting to get a plan together with a target
landing date of July 17 at midnight and overnight that night in a Radisson by
the airport.


June 8, 2019 Saturday Clarinet & Packing

I had a 10:30 Clarinet lesson this morning instead of 9 AM because Justin had
some cancellations and he worked on his home last night moving gravel so h used
the time this morning to rest up and come in later.  I went over tone using the
tuning meter including blowing a F# with only the  mouthpiece.  Downtown Cary
was a mess with traffic because there is a Pimento cheese festival going on. Who
knew?  Navigating narrow streets with cars parked on both sides was challenging.
Getting out at Stop signs was longer than usual.  On the way home I stopped at
Foodlion and picked up a 1 lb Salmon for tonight and broccoli for dinner
tonight.  We packed the car carefully.  Because there was so much stuff to go
into the Prius we had to carefully load the car. We had 2 complete light stands
including trays, 2 boxes of electronics, our suitcases, many boxes of plants and
some tools for the KB house including a pry bar and axe. We decided to hook up a
fan in the hallway upstairs. I quickly repurposed the KB landscape lighting code
into a tower fan timer.  This worked instantly.  I hooked it to the Adafruit
relay box I had accidentally sent to Downing earlier this year.   It worked
great.  I programmed a “BigTimer” in Node-Red to turn the fan on twice a day.  I
also added some javascript to add the plant room temperatures to the database
and quickly set up a chart to retrieve the last 24 hours of temperatures to see
if there is a difference with the fan. Dinner tonight was Salmon, broccoli
crowns and the rest of the Cabernet.


June 9, 2019 Sunday Drive to Sarasota

This is not the greatest driving day because it’s Sunday and it’s raining up and
down the East Coast.  It rained South of Fayetteville and going into Lumberton
but we hit our first heavy rains crossing the lake at Santee in South Carolina.
It was dry after that for quite while  until we reached I-4 in Daytona BEach.
We were in the middle of a Florida thunder buster with whiteout conditions.
Surprisingly we made it non stop through the construction from Lake MAry to
Disneyworld.  Shortly after the heavy traffic at Disney I made a gas stop at a
Marathon.  Libbie’s phone showed heavy rain ahead as well as an accident so
instead of getting back on I-4 we chose to take the back roads to Winter Park
and then down more backroads going parallel to I-4 then South below Sun City.
We ended up on I-75 on Moccasin Wallow Road one exit from the South end of I-275
which was pretty good.  I was happy with our route and the time we made despite
bad weather.  We arrived at our home at 4 PM.  I saw our neighbor Joe who
brought the moisture sensors and the rest of the mail over that he retrieved.
For dinner we ordered the usual 3 topping pizza from Dominoes but I forgot to
add the tomatoes as our third topping.  I also picked up a 1.5 liter bottle of
wine in Publix for a not so great price of 11.99.  It was nice to be back in
Sarasota but it was very warm.


June 10, 2019 Monday Light Stands

We met the Amazon guy in our driveway this morning.  He delivered the relay
module in a shipping envelope.  This is 4 relays on a board with an ESP8266 and
will be used to control water solenoids for the plant shelves.  When we met the
Amazon guy we were on our way to a walk around Stoneybrook.  After the walk
Libbie put on her swimsuit and we went  over to the pool for the first time.  It
was pretty nice.  We were the only ones there. One we got back home we did a
grocery trip to Walmart and picked up hamburger as well as produce and other
groceries. At the house I started assembling the light stands.  Received a call
from Paul Sorano regarding a computer issue he was having. We chatted for quite
a while about hisi greenhouse and how he is bringing an old one back online that
his grandpa built.  It will be for his isolation of plants he brought back from
the convention. We had wine and cheese before dinner then had grilled hamburgers
with vidalia, baked beans and more Cabernet.  After dinner I went shopping on
Amazon and ordered waterproof speakers for the Lanai as well as a pizza stone
for our KB oven. June 11, 2019 Tuesday Back to Work It seemed early as  we went
back to work when we left the house at 7:45.  Libbie starts at 8 and I start at
8:30 so we compromised at 8:15.  I enjoyed being back.  I ended up doing image
management, combining stuff on the Q drive in the correct folders and searching
for missing files.  They are using a pretty nice program for moving files called
Vice Versa.  I may give this a try on my Synology.  At the end I needed to use
Lightroom to export some JPGs which were missing.  Bruce changed the password
and John couldn’t find the paper he wrote it on.  I left at 11:30 and visited
Libbie across the street in the greenhouse.  She was repotting plants as usual.
We left there and stopped at Yoders to pick up produce including Watermelon,
Cantaloupe, corn and tomatoes. I finished putting the first light stand together
today.  Now I need one inch conduit to support the LED light strips. I priced
metal conduit and it’s 11.50 per section.  I’ll have to use either wood furring
strips or pvc pipe.  PVC is easier to cut wood is easier to mount.  I’ll make a
decision tomorrow.  Dinner tonight was hamburger with Vidalia, corn on the cob
from Yoders and Cabernet.


June 12, 2019 Wednesday Speaker

We took a 1.5 mile walk then went over to the Stoneybrook pool.  This time I had
a swimsuit and actually went into the water.  It was mild, I was expecting cold.
Today I started taking files off the expansion drive and putting them on the
Synology.  This went mostly well.  I have to reorganize some of the Synology
files to match what the Downing Synology has onboard.  Some of this was
reflected in the expansion drive which meant moving stuff around on KB Synology
to match.  I took apart the Sonos speaker and soldered wires to the existing
speaker wires then hooked this up to the disassembled outdoor speaker that
Amazon delivered yesterday.  The Sonos is really well built.  The Amazon
waterproof speaker is cheaply built.  I started the Sonos up and it worked,
driving both sets of speakers!  The question now is whether to disable the
internal speakers and only use the external speaker. For dinner tonight we went
to Beckhams and had ribs with rice and beans and a glass of Yuengling.


June 13, 2019 Thursday Rain

Libbie and I went to Selby this morning at 7:50AM.  We admired a large purple
tree outside the Botany building.  Once inside Shawn told me it was a
Bougainvillea tree.  I didn’t know they grew as a tree.   Shawn showed me that
it was a Bougainvillea Arborea.  In the Herbarium I met a new Botanist visiting,
his name is Hernando.  My task this morning was to straighten out filenames from
June 5.  Many of the names had the wrong last digit or sometimes a bad digit
elsewhere.  All of the files had an underscore in the name.  Around 10:30 Libbie
called saying the garden was closed and the greenhouse was evacuated because of
lightning.  Fortunately I just finished up the June 5 directory cleanup.  We
left there at 10:30 in pouring rain.  By the time we got home, the road was dry
and it had not even rained.  The sun was out.  At home we gathered our artwork
from the AVSA Houston auction for Little Rock and brought it to Hobby Lobby.  We
picked out Mattes and frames and submitted 2 of the prints, a pic of terns and
one of a moonlight bayou.  I also bought a 5x7 for our space shuttle picture and
two 8x11 frames for the Hummingbird pictures. Before we went to Hobby Lobby I
received a phone call from TdAmeritrade bank regarding a credit card I applied
for.  They asked a bunch of questions and then said I was approved for $25,000.
Cap One will  still be my main card and the CU Visa for gas but the TdAmeritrade
card will be my restaurant card. At 4 PM we met the family in Rivendell who were
selling the “Frozen” bicycle.  Their daughter was 7 and had outgrown the bike.
We tossed it in the back of the Prius and then stopped in Walmart for groceries.
The main thing I needed was more of the Ortho Ground Clear chemical to kill
weeds in the driveway cracks.  When I got home I finished assembling the second
light stand.  Now I need the supports for the LED lighting which means cutting
the brackets of the old fluorescent lights and drilling them to attach the PVC
pipes. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  I put a little red
pepper on mine.  We had this with a few glasses of Cabernet.


June 14, 2019 Friday LED supports

Libbie went to Selby this morning.  I started doing things around the house as
soon as she left.  I assembled the Outdoor speaker for the outdoor Sonos. Then I
put together the NASA Space shuttle photo of us in Houston and mounted it on the
wall. Next step was to straighten and drill the support brackets for the LEDS.
I also measured the PVC pipe and cut to length.  I ended up with three of the
supports mounted, three more to go will finish one light stand.  Before Libbie
returned the car to the driveway I quickly blew the driveway off. It was covered
with pine straw.  Libbie returned tired so I offered to pick up a sub at Publix
when I went over to Lowes to get the screws for the light stand.  Dinner tonight
was chicken Parm in the air fryer.  This is a nice meal.  We  had it with bbq
beans and broccoli and of course a few glasses of Cabernet. After dinner we put
youtube on the TV and watched Josh and Jenna of ResortTV1 stream live from
Animal Kingdom.  It made me want to go there, especially at night.  Pandora
looks beautiful!  We continued watching on  our tablets in bed.


June 15, 2019 Saturday Finished LED Lighting

This morning I went out to Lowes to exchange the 2 ½ inch screws for 3 ½ inch
screws for the plant pole on the back porch.  While there I also picked up the
Quietech Air Compressor that I had been eyeing over the winter.  They claim it
was $199 but during the winter it was $179.  Now it is on sale for $149.  I
brought it home and pumped up the bike tires.  Wow is this thing quiet.  I’m
very happy with it especially after seeing how noisy a compressor can be with
the one I returned to Harbor Freight 6 months ago.  The bike tires were less
than 10 pounds.  I pumped them to 40 pounds then we took a 4 mile bike ride out
the main entrance then down McIntosh to the back gate.  It was a pleasant and
enjoyable ride. Inside I finished putting the LED supports on the light stand.
I then attached the LED strips.  After I had done 2 shelves I discovered that
there was a peel and stick backing on the strips. I’ll probably undo the first
two shelves and redo the light strips with the peel and stick.  It’s a lot
neater this way. We went out and had 3 stops - Hobby Lobby for matching 5x7
picture frames, Publix for Shrimp and to inquire about pizza dough and then
Walmart for normal groceries. Dinner tonight was shrimp with Broccoli and
Cabernet.


June 16, 2019 Sunday LED nogo

After the morning programs we got on our bikes and rode the neighborhood streets
in a light rain.  When we got back I oiled the chain with 3 in 1 oil.  I didn’t
have bike chain lube.  While doing this we met our neighbor Carol who owns the
huge dog a few doors down.  She has been in Stoneybrook since the beginning. I
had to run out to Harbor Freight for heat shrink for the LED wiring.  On the way
back we stopped at Publix and picked up the dough we ordered.  Unfortunately we
also picked up 2 delicious chocolate frosted doughnuts.  They do a good job in
the bakery department.  I spent the afternoon wiring the LEDs.  This went really
well. When it was time to plug in the power supply I had my Sparky moment.
Nothing!  Darkness!  I looked at the Power Supply and found out it was 5 volts.
I ordered a 12 V 30 A supply from Amazon after trying a 12V lab bench supply. It
would drag down to 8.75V and only dimly lit the LEDs. Hopefully the 30A supply
will fully light the LEDs.  After wine, crackers and cheese Libbie stretched out
the Publix dough and made 2 small pizzas using our new stone. The stone really
stinks. We didn’t have a pizza peel or cutter so we cooked the pizzas on a pizza
pan that we put on the stone.  We chose not to put the crust directly on the
stone which was still oily with manufacturing oil.  We need to heat the stone a
few more times to burn off the manufacturing smell.  Around 9 PM I spoke with
Joe for Father’s Day.  He is in TN working. We chatted about Disney planning.
He said he really likes the hotel on the monorail.


June 17, 2019 Disappointed

I went to Selby this morning at 8:30 but had to do a U Turn on McIntosh because
I forgot my cell phone.  I finally got to work at 9:00.  I fired up Lightroom
and found that it was a new version with the old catalog missing and none of the
settings and presets in place.  I struggled for over an hour and even chatted
with Bruce about the installation of a new version. He admitted they took
advantage of a save money offer from Adobe.   I finally found a copy of the
develop presets but couldn’t apply them.  The online tutorials didn’t help.  I
finally found a step by step tutorial that seemed to match the version of
Lightroom that I had. I then was able to install the presets. I imported the
first batch of missing photos, a batch from Jan 16 that had 602 photos.  I very
very quickly ran through and exposure corrected all of them, some of which had
exposure percentages of less than 50%.  I then exported these as JPGs onto the E
drive but did not include the Metadata which has the copyright info.  I’ll
address this situation when I go back Thursday. On the way home I bought the PVC
pipes for the second light stand and cut them up in the garage. The new power
supply had not yet arrived but the Pizza Peel and the currency detector
microscope had both arrived from Amazon.  Later in the day the Amazon guy came
around with the power supply and the LED garage lighting.  I hooked up the power
supply and adjusted the 12V so it was a little higher at 12.5 volts but the LED
lights were pretty dim.  I was barely getting 100 Fc using a lightmeter app on
my phone.  This had me pretty disappointed for the rest of the day. For dinner I
made chicken Quesadillas which we had with Cabernet.  This evening it was
raining as usual so we had our wine and cheese outside on the patio while we
watched the rain drops on the water.


June 18, 2019 Tuesday Garage Lights

Libbie left for Selby and I started mounting the LED strip lights to the garage
ceiling.  I ran out of drywall anchors and had to wait for Libbie to return with
the car.  I went to Lowes and picked up the anchors as well as material to
install shelves to hold the cans of paint which have been on the floor since we
moved in.  The box of pictures came from Mary so I hung Libbie’s Mom’s Orange in
the Kitchen and the Siesta Key Watercolor on the wall next to the sliding glass
door. I worked a little on the Lanai and managed to hang the plant hanger pole
on three of the screen cage supports.  This worked out perfectly.  I pinned the
pole at each end so it wouldn’t slip out of the support arms. I decided to make
Cashew chicken for dinner.  I printed the recipe and went out to Sprouts as part
of the Lowes trip.  I really like Sprouts mainly because they have lots of
little things like Oyster Sauce and Sesame Oil and their pricing is competitive.
Dinner was spaghetti with cheese and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we
watched “Green Book” which we really liked.  This was an excellent movie.


June 19, 2019 Wednesday Garage Lighting Complete

We took a bike ride this morning down to Bay St via the Legacy Trail and
returned via Preymore.  The return route was a mistake. We didn’t like the speed
of the traffic on Preymore. We should have taken the sidewalk.  Once home I
puttered on the ceiling outlet in the garage until Libbie was done removing
grass in the front yard.  We then got on our bikes and rode over to the pool for
a dip.  I stayed in the shallow water while Libbie did laps.  It was refreshing.
We rode our bikes back and had lunch.  After lunch I went back into the garage
and finished the wiring job.  I was sweating like a pig out there so it was so
nice to be back inside again.  Job was finished by 2 PM.  I lit it up and like
how much more light there is. We ran into Walmart and picked up groceries for
the week as well as the celery we need for dinner tonight. Libbie and I worked
together making the Cashew Chicken.  We had the Cashew Chicken over rice with a
glass of Cabernet.  It was delicious. Libbie said it was a keeper.  I finally
talked with Doug Allen today about him taking over the board page.  He will send
me AVSA numbers for new board members and once I get his number I will add him
as editor of the page.


June 20, 2019 Thursday

 I continued my work on cleaning up the images for the Broms in Lightroom as
well as using Explorer to copy images onto the Q drive and the external drive.
I finished this activity at noon then went with Libbie to see a 6 foot high
Bromeliad in bloom.  Shawn and a photographer were outside the visitors center
taking a photo of a similar plant but Shawn said it was not the same genus. We
stopped at Yoders on the way home and picked up a Watermelon and delicious
peaches along with an assortment of produce.  When we got  home I was tired once
again.  I’m not sure what it is about going to Selby but I come home very tired.
We left at 4:30 for the Happy Hour at Flemings.  Me met Irsin on our front lawn.
He had just returned from Mexico City.  Julia had to bring the groceries inside.
She was wearing sexy short shorts.  We chatted for about 15 minutes but still
arrived at Flemings exactly at 5 PM.  The front lot was valet parking but there
was plenty of parking in the aux lot a short walk away.  We sat at a table with
Bruce, German, Sally and graduate student  Ally.  For dinner I ordered the Filet
Mignon sandwich which was on a bun with caramelized onions and accompanied by
French Fries.  Accompanying our meals was a Blue Moon draft.  Libbie had a Filet
Flatbread.  The place is pricey.  We had special Happy Hour pricing and our bill
with tip was $62.  It was a pretty enjoyable evening.  Our time at Flemings
ended at 7 PM.


June 21, 2019 Friday Planting and First Day of Summer

This  morning we went out to Lowes to get a 5/16 masonary drill bit and then hit
the garden center.  We bought 3  more Evolvulus (Dwarf Morning Glory) and 3
Ilexa which are the orange flowered shrubs that are prolific in a lot of
landscaping.  Later in the day I received notification that my shelf brackets
have arrived in Lowes.  It took almost 30 minutes to process the paperwork to
get my brackets.  The pickup person was out to lunch so after waiting a while
the substitute person did not know how to use the register.  Two other employees
tried to help without not much more progress.  Eventually I was able to get out
of there.  I went across the street to Pubix and picked up a pound of white
shrimp for dinner. We planted the Evolvulus today as well as 4 or 5 Bromeliads
we brought home from Selby.  The hardest part of the Bromeliad planting was
clearing the sod, shaking the dirt out and dropping it into the bucket.  I
deferred planting the Ilexa. In the afternoon I scanned another batch of
letters.  I’m now up to 120 scans in the past two days. In the evening I
converted the JPGs into PDF files by letter date.  Remaining is uploading them
to the website. Dinner was peel and eat shrimp with Florida Corn on the Cob and
Cabernet.


June 22, 2019 Saturday Shelves and scanning

Libbie cleared the grass from in front of the Red Fountain Grass in the front
yard while I drilled holes in the cinderblocks to mount the vertical shelf
supports. I had to run out to Lowes to get more concrete anchors. I also got the
Miter saw out into the side yard to cut the shelves to size.  I decided to cut
them 40 inches long instead of 30.  This means I only got 3 shelves from a 10
foot board instead of 4.  When Libbie was done with grass clearing I dug the
three holes and planted the Ilexa bushes.  We used pine straw to mulch the
plants although this isn’t much mulch.  I decided at the last minute to buy
another 10 foot board and add 3 more shelves to the paint shelves. This is more
shelves than we need for the paint cans but it cleans up the cans which have
been all over the floor since we bought the place.   We went to Walmart for
groceries, especially the chicken which we need for tonight.  I stayed indoors
in the afternoon and scanned some more George Condon letters.  I decided that
when placing the letters on the website that I would sketch in a timeline of
WWII in the Pacific along with the chronological  placement of letters on the
website.  Dinner tonight was Cashew Chicken and a few glasses of Cabernet.


June 22, 2019 Sunday scans

We took a long bike ride this morning up to Palmer Ranch Parkway to take pics of
the plnts I like there.  It was “Society Garlic”, a plant that smells like
garlic.  Libbie does not want the plant in our yard.  I like the shape and
flowers.  A substitute may be Lavender but when I went to Lowes they didn’t have
any. I mounted the hose hanger I picked up in Lowes yesterday and wound the hose
on it.  This will help  keep it out of the way of the mower.  After lunch I
finished scanning the George Condon letters and converted them to PDFs.  I only
need to upload them to the website now.  For dinner Libbie used the new bread
maker and made dough for pizza.  Dinner was our traditional Sunday night pizza
but this time it was on Libbie’s dough.  We used our new Pizza peel and oven
stone as well.  It was nice to have Libbie made pizz again.  We watched the
Apollo 11 movie which was excellent.  The only audio was actual NASA soundtracks
accompanying NASA archive footage.  The movie was outstanding.


June 23, 2019 Monday Easy Day

I went to Selby this morning and arrived to a locked Botany building.  I went
around back and found the door open.  German was working in the Botany building,
we were the only ones.  Liz and Alexandra came later.  Both are pretty nice
looking ladies.  German said the power went out Saturday.  The photo computer
was off as well as the Fig server.  Liz called IT to get Fig restarted.  They
sent some guy out who restarted it after about an hour.  Not sure what he had to
do.  As I was transferring files to the server the power blinked off again.
Fortunately it did not stop the server, only my computer.  Using Vice Versa I
was able to use the compare and copy function to resume the copying of files
from directory to directory.  I left at 11:45 while a copy was taking place and
would probably finish around 12:30.  I stopped into Trader Joes and picked up
Ravioli, Almonds and Tahini dressing labeled as Goddess.  I was looking for
Thousand Island which they didn’t have. I crawled around the Fountain Grass in
the front yard figuring out the drip lines.  I traced the main line and found
the end.  I’ll add more pipe.  I ran out to Lowes and picked up a roll of
irrigation tubing for adding drippers tomorrow.  I finished uploading the last
of the George Condon letters and labeled them.  Libbie got another box of
pictures today from Mary while I received an OBDII scan tool from Amazon.  I
will use this with the Dr Prius app on an android device to monitor the Prius
batteries.  I am curious about the hybrid battery.    Dinner tonight was chicken
Quesadillas in the air fryer with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched
Bohemian Rhapsody.  I saw it before but Libbie never saw it. June 25, 2019
Tuesday Show Chair This morning I received an eMail from Kathy Lahti asking if
Libbie was willing to be Show Chair for the 2021 75th Anniversary convention.
Libbie is at Selby this morning so I told Kathy that Libbie will be home later.
I hope she signs up for it.  It was just yesterday that we were saying that very
few volunteer to help at these events.  Now is the time! This morning I worked
first in the garage attic tying in the outlet that I had installed in May before
we went to California and Houston.  This went fairly quickly, fortunately I had
an outlet box and cover to use for the job.  Once this was done I then started
working on the drip irrigation to the new plants. I extended the line from the
Red Fountain Grass and ran it past the Ilexa then over to the new Evolvulus. I
tested the line for a few minutes to insure that all the drippers were emitting.
After doing this work I jumped on my bicycle and went to the pool where I eased
into the water and cooled off splashing around for a while.  No one else was
there.  After the pool I rode around on the bike looking at landscaping,
especially looking for a place that bulbine was used in the landscape.  The bike
ride felt good as it served to dry my wet swimsuit pants. Dinner tonight was
spaghetti with cheese and a glass of Cabernet.


June 26, 2019 Wednesday Bromeliad Drippers

I went outside and started adding the tubing needed to put water on the
Bromeliads.  I used a water tap in the middle of the lawn.  I hooked up a filter
and pressure reducer to the existing riser.  I needed to run out to Lowes to get
a male to male hose adapter since the adapter for the tubing had a female hose
end and the output of the pressure reducer was also a female hose fitting.  The
arrangement did not work at first but later I decided to reverse the pressure
reducer and everything worked as expected.  The pressure reducer does not have a
directional arrow.  All the drippers worked but I found one Bromeliad that I
missed.  Tomorrow I’ll backtrack and hook up another dripper.  I really got hot
and sweaty in the sun.  I took a quick shower to dry off then we went to the
pool and jumped in.  The water had a lot of debris floating around on it.
Either it wasn’t cleaned recently or the trees dropped a lot of junk.   Next
time we’ll use the skimmer before going in if the water has a lot of debris.
After the pool I took a short bike ride around Knightsbridge to dry off.  It
wasn’t long enough! This basically ended my activity for the day.  I have a lot
of stuff to do but was not motivated to do anything.  For dinner we went over to
Beckhams and had a Yuengling along with a half rack of ribs and rice and beans.
The place was pretty empty. What a contrast from the season. We watched Bohemian
Rhapsody after dinner. June 27, 2019 Thursday Broken AC At Selby this morning I
tried using the other PC outside the Herbarium to transfer files to the
Bromeliadea genus.  This was after I showed Kelvin the protocol for importing
and exporting images to and from Lightroom.  After he was doing well I went to
the other PC to transfer files.  I found that doing the transfer in small
batches worked best.  John mentioned that it would be nice to have a listing of
Selby numbers and plant names.  While on the PC I used the report wizard in
Microsoft Access to dump a text file of barcode, family and genus to a file.  I
emailed this file to myself for further processing possibly with VB or with
Python.  Another possibility is to use B4J. We stopped at Yoders on the way
home.  Unfortunately when we got home I discovered the upstairs AC was blowing
warm air.  I felt the high pressure line and it was warm.  I shut the system
down and tried calling the Chinese guy who installed it.  I don’t have much
faith in him coming out.  I researched window and portable AC boxes and also
visited Walmart and Lowes to see the units.  Based on online reviews I ended up
buying an LG portable AC.  Portables are not so great but the biggest factor is
the fact there is no sill to perch the box on once inside the window so I chose
the portable.  The thing struggles to cool our bedroom but it did do the job.
As online reviews pointed out it does need an insulated duct because the output
exhaust from this thing is very hot.  I ran it overnight uninsulated. Dinner
tonight was corn on the cob, hamburger with Vidalia and tomato as well as a
glass of Cabernet.  Today didn’t work out as planned!


June 28, 2019 Friday Worlds Most Expensive Capacitor

The portable AC did us well overnight.  I texted the Chinese guy about our AC
again to get a time.  He finally called Libbie at 10 PM to say he would be there
in 20 minutes.  Almost an hour later we found he went to an address in
Kissimmee.  He told us we should find somebody else.  I called Cool Today, a
company that has very good reviews on Google and also Nextdoor.  They are
pricey.  Jason showed up at 1:30 just as I was out at Publix buying Hot Dogs and
buns for lunch.  He was quite good and thorough, going through each step of the
way explaining what he was doing.  He found that the compressor was not starting
because the starting capacitor.  He showed me a technique to measure the voltage
and current to calculate the capacitance and then compare it to the labeled
capacitance.  I verified this on Youtube.  He also measured the downstairs unit
and said the fan starting cap is a little low and could replace it for an
additional $186.  I declined.  The bill to change the cap was $356.  The fee is
$89 for a service call, a diagnostic labor charge then the parts.  I looked up
the cost of the cap on eBay.  It was $13. Or $25 from a parts place that’s not
an eBay vendor.  It was expensive but nice to be cool again.  I got some
convention materials from Mary C and put the Lonestar convention on the website.
I had an exchange with Glenda over the affiliates posting.  I’m not sure what’s
missing. Diane Buck said it needs something.  In the evening we watched Josh and
Jenna streaming live from Epcot.  There also was a concert at the American
Pavilion  stage we enjoyed and also the Frozen ride.   Dinner was Quick Taco
salad which is cooked beef with peppers and onions mixed with Salsa covering a
bed of lettuce.  Cheese and sour cream topping complete the meal along with a
glass of Cabernet.


June 29, 2019 Saturday Things

This morning even though I had a bunch of things on my plate we took a nice bike
ride. Temperature was perfect and we had no agenda.  We stopped to look at a few
Orchids in the landscape of 2 homes on Westbourne.  We toured a number of
streets and this was the only place that had the Full Sun Orchids.  WE also
talked with our neighbor Abby.  We met him by our house and then again by his in
laws house on Westbourne. I managed to update both the LSAVC and the MAAVS
websites.  Later in the afternoon I backed up the Synology to the external drive
in my office then started working on Zencart for LSAVC.  Dinner tonight was
Quick Taco salad which is a bed of Romaine covered by a hamburger mix with
onions and peppers, salsa, cheese and sour cream.   Accompanying was a glass of
Cabernet.  After dinner we watched “At Eternity’s Gate”, the Van Gogh biography.
Interesting story but I didn’t like the shaky camera work and the dark scenes.
We had an ant problem in the bedroom tonight.  They came streaming out from
around the window.  We vacuumed them and I used the spray to spray the window
frame.


June 30, 2019 Sunday Outdoor Water line

    During the Sunday morning shows I learned how to further configure Zencart
for LSAVC registration.  I never received the May issue of the LSAVC newsletter
which is the convention issue.  I contacted Glenda who nicely sent me a copy.
I’ll use this to create “products” for convention registration. When the morning
programs were over we took a bike ride up to the community gardens and back.  It
was a nice morning for a ride although a little later in the day.  When I got
back I picked up glue and a shark bite tee fitting.  The shark bit is amazing in
that it uses a push on connection.  I turned off the water and cut the PEX
tubing on the cold side going to the water heater.  I inserted the tee fitting
with the PEX in two of the ports and a ¾ CPVC pipe in the third port.  I
installed a CPVC shutoff and turned the water back on.  Everything was leak
free!  It is an amazing but expensive hookup into the PEX tubing.  The shark
bite tee is $13.  Next I drilled a hole in the garage wall and hooked up the
CPVC tubing all the way from the shutoff and through the wall.   This went
amazingly well.  It was pretty hot and I was dripping wet so I quit this job for
now.  Libbie tried to make Hot Dogs for lunch but the propane ran out.  She
finished on the stove.  I took the empty to Lowes for an exchange which costed
$21.  Ouch. Dinner was Libbie’s pizza.  She didn’t like how it turned out but I
thought it was better than Dominos.


July 1, 2019 Monday

Went to Selby this morning where I was pretty busy. John liked the listing of
barcodes and names.  He showed me his list of camera dates and image names on
his spreadsheet.  I’ll take his spreadsheet and add the name info and Selby
accession number to his listing.  I also used the Vice Versa program to resume
copying the Bromeliad files over to the Q drive.  When I  left I also had
imported several days worth of Orchid images into Lightroom.  John’s partner
baked an incredible Chocolate Mascarpone cake.  I had a very small slice.  It
was rich and delicious. On the way home I stopped into Harbor Freight and bought
a 100 ft roll of white clothes line for the LED light stand.  The LED lights are
coming tomorrow.  I ordered the 12 pack which should do 4 shelves. Dinner
tonight was hamburger with baked beans.  I had tomato and Vidalia onion on mine.
We had a few glasses of Cabernet with dinner.


July 2, 2019 Tuesday Lounge Chair

I studied roof ventilation for the garage roof.  I have three choices:  a
conventional ventilating fan which uses 400 watts when  running, a solar powered
fan which moves 800 CFM with direct sunshine or a ridge vent.   I think I will
go with the solar fan   Last night I ordered a weatherproof temperature sensor
which I will hang outside through the garage wall near the power meter. I’ll put
another temperature sensor in the attic so I could have an idea of the delta
difference between the two temperatures.  This will allow me to assess the
effectiveness of the ventilation system I install. While Libbie was at Selby
working I used the Miter Saw and cut up the 1x4s into the sizes needed for the
LED lights which are coming today.  I also worked on the CPVC plumbing pipe go
oing outside the garage.  It was a little difficult gluing the elbow outside to
the pipe going through the wall.  The pipe in the wall was moving too much to
get the elbow to fully push on.  I had to cut one off and try again.  I
eventually fastened the inside pipe to the wall with clamps and wall anchors
then did the glue job.   I buried about 20 feet of pipe along the wall
foundation before quitting because I was soaking wet and it was hot working in
the sun. After a lunch of hot dogs we went up Tamiami to look at lounge chairs.
The first place we stopped at had them for $799.  Next stop was Leaders which is
locally made but very high end.  We looked at lounge chairs from $400 to over
$1000.  We ended up buying one in Lowes for $130 without a pad.  At home I
ordered a pad from Amazon with Flamingos all over it. Dinner tonight was
mushroom ravioli with truffle sauce from Trader Joes.  We had this with
Cabernet.  My temperature sensors arrived this afternoon from Amazon delivery
services after the Amazon LEDs were delivered by UPS.


July 3, 2019 Wednesday First Light Stand

I ran out to Harbor Freight to get a square for $2.99 so I could assemble the
light supports for the stand.  On the way to Harbor Freight which is on Clark I
went to Walmart on Bee Ridge to do grocery shopping.  Picked my square  up and
came home where Libbie had finished clearing the grass in the front yard.   Now
it needs a few plants and some mulch.  Cypress mulch is on sale in Home Depot as
well as Foxtail ferns.  I finished assembling the wood light supports and
preparing the LED lights.  Each light needed the shield removed.  Unfortunately
on one light I broke and LED most likely when the box cutters slipped while
removing the covers.  Libbie provided a domed tray so I could set the light
height correctly.  I used clothesline to support the lights.  This went well.
Upstairs I’m having trouble with the temperature sensors.  The first attempt was
a loss because I inadvertently hooked the data line to one of the programming
pins.  When I moved it over to the next pin it programmed OK but I can’t read
the sensor.  More investigating needed.  For dinner we decided to try Jaliscos
on Tamiami, a Mexican Grill that advertises the best margaritas in town.  The
Margarita, on the rocks, was good.  The chips and Salsa were to die for.  They
were served with a chunky Salsa and a warm black bean dip.  The Black Bean dip
was yummy.  When we got back we watched Josh and ResortTV1 streaming Disney's
July 4th fireworks a day early. Disney does a 360 degree fireworks show on 2
nights, the 3rd and 4th.  The fireworks streamed by Josh were spectacular. I
spent more time debugging the ds18B20 when we got back but didn’t have any luck.
I really need a scope but without one I’ll try the best I can.


July 4, 2019 Thursday Quiet Day

We did a nice 7 nice bike ride this morning.  When I got back I went right to
work on the ds18b20.  I examined the breadboard and found that the data pin
being used for reading the sensor was not soldered.  Once I soldered it the
sensor worked perfectly.  Next I could not find my other 2 sensors that came in
the papckage of 3.  I had to unsolder the one on the breadboard and use it on
the Irrigation controller in the garage.  I drilled through the cinder block
wall and located the sensor outdoors but it was in the sun and heated rapidly.
I tried putting it inside the Xfinity box mounted on the wall but it was too
warm in the box.  I next tried an open pipe.  I had my best luck like this.  I
will pursue the pipe further, possibly cutting holes on one side for venting. I
copied the VOB file from the George Condon DVD then used the Open Source
“Handbrake” program to convert it to an MP4 so that the Adobe editor can open
it.  I looked up the serial number I purchased last year for Premiere Elements
which is the software I purchased last year from Adobe to do video editing.  I
started installing it but walked away in the evening for dinner and never went
back to it.  I’ll check tomorrow to see if it installed OK.  Libbie grilled 2
chicken breasts on the grill and basted them with BBQ sauce.  We had this with
leftover baked beans from 2 nights ago and also 3 glasses of Cabernet.  I need
to stop the alcohol since I’m gaining weight.  The meal was delicious.  What an
easy dinner.  After dinner we watched Josh stream the fireworks from Epcot and
then by his sister Jenna  from the Contemporary looking over to the Magic
Kingdom.  Unfortunately her signal was not great and we missed most of those
fireworks.


July 5, 2019 Friday Python

Libbie went to Selby this morning and I went to work on the Python program.  I
almost have it working.  I had it working but then when I added the log column
from John’s spreadsheet I’m now getting nulls.  This should be easy to fix.
When Libbie came back she mentioned that Subsonic would be nice to have for
putting together the music for her Dad’s Memorial.  I spent the whole day
working on Subsonic on Sonos.  After dinner I stumbled across a forum post that
said his Subsonic on Sonos was wrongly picking up the VPN IP address.  I found
the logs and noticed mine was doing the same thing.  He posted where his config
file was but I didn’t have config in that location.  Eventually I found that
/usr/syno/synoman/webman/3rdparty/subsonic had a file named subsonic.sh that
contained what looked like configuration info.  I had to change ownership with
chown then edited the file to add the Synology IP address as the host.  This
magically fixed my problem and I was able to add the service to Sonos.  The
forum indicates this problem first appeared with Subsonic 6.0.   It was nice to
get Subsonic back.  Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese and a few glasses
of Cabernet.


July 6, 2019 Saturday Video Audio

We went out early to Lowes this morning and bought 4 bags of Cypress mulch as
well as 3 Foxtail Ferns in 2 Gallon containers.  We planted the 3 Ferns and
spread the mulch.  Within a few hours it started pouring out, our timing was
great. I finished up the Python program that adds the genus and species to the
camera date-filename.  A lot of the barcodes are not in the database yet.  After
a BLT for lunch Libbie and I started picking out music for her Dad’s Memorial
DVD.  We’re short about 20 seconds.  I’ll add another short song tomorrow using
Audacity.  Two of the songs had to be recorded onto my MP3 recorder from
Youtube.  I discovered that I did not have the ⅛ inch audio cable with me, they
are all at  home.  The charger is back in Apex as well.  Dinner was Salmon,
Broccoli and a few glasses of Cabernet.  I ran over to Publix to get Salmon
after visiting Walmart for the rest of the groceries.


July 7, 2019 Sunday Little Bit of Everything

During the morning shows I worked on the Zencart configuration.  This thing is
complicated with so many places to configure and PHP files that need editing for
their text content. I then went outside to work on the plumbing before the rain
started. Joe came over and gave me another audio cable because he said he has a
case of 50 of them due to some website photography he did for the company which
is local.   I got the Spigot hooked up on the side of the house but got no
further since I need a male threaded adapter for the solenoid which is going to
be mounted next.   I decided not to  pursue the adapters since I have indoor
work to do and it’s late in the day to be working outdoors. I used Audacity to
prepare the last 3 or 4 audio files for the memorial DVD and then rendered the
movie. I’m not happy with the result because the image has black bars on all
four sides.  I next moved to more Zencart configuration. For dinner tonight
Libbie made her excellent pizza.  The stone doesn’t seem to be getting hot
enough since the crust was soggy but it was good.  After dinner we watched Jenna
stream live from the Magic Kingdom.  Libbie said if this was the first time
watching she wouldn’t watch anymore.  The camera she was using does not have low
light ability.  The fireworks stream from the MK was fantastic.
   July 8, 2019
Monday Selby Alexandra and I were the only ones in the Botany building this
morning.  Of course we froze to death.  It was so nice to go outside and warm up
at noon.  I did the usual importing and exporting to and from Lightroom.  I also
did a little playing with the Selby database on Access but did not get good
results.  I will bring a thumb drive in on Thursday and try saving the database
to it so I could play at home. On the way home in the rain down Beneva I first
stopped into Walmart to get dinner fixings for tonight as well as a few things
we needed.  Next stop was Lowes where I bought a solenoid control box to put
into the ground.  I’ll put 3 water solenoids in the ground in the line I’m
running.  One will be for the waterline on the hanging plants, one will be for
the indoor plant stands and the third will be a spare, possibly for a flower
garden on the side of the house.  The ground was too wet to do this in the
afternoon.  There was standing water in the side yard,  Instead I assembled the
solenoid manifold to go into the box. I managed to access the old LSAVC
registration on the new AVSA site.  It contained hundreds of errors but at the
bottom of each page of errors I was able to copy the text for an item and paste
it into a text file.  This was happiness.  Now I have to figure out how to
display the Welcome message above the product listing on the main pages. The
lounge chair pad arrived and I’m pretty unhappy with how uncomfortable it is.
The pad is very thin and is like no pad at all.  This thing is not worth the $71
I paid for it. Dinner tonight was Quick Taco salad which is lettuce covered with
a ground beef and salsa mixture as well as Tortilla chips, sour cream and
cheese.  We had this with 2 glasses of Cabernet.


July 9, 2019 Tuesday Slammed

It was still raining this morning.  Bill the lawn guy mowed the lawn in the rain
anyway.  There was a 2 or 3 hour break at 10 AM that I used to bury the solenoid
control box and install 3 solenoids attached to the water line.  The water line
now runs to the back porch.   I came back in and it started raining.  It was a
little after 1 PM and Libbie had just come home.  When i came in from outside I
started working on the Lonestar online registration.  I ended up reinstalling
the Zencart software  more than once in an attempt to log into the admin
console.   It would not work until I changed the name of the zencart directory
to Lonestar from lsavc,  I was able to tinker with the welcome message and
display categories on main page button.  When the display categories on main is
on the welcome message goes away which is not acceptable.  In the meantime I
heard from Mary Corondan about meal prices.  I told her about how lost Doug
Allen is .  He is basically computer illiterate but supposed to do the Secretary
job.  He finally resigned.  We returned the chair pad from Amazon  that was thin
for our tastes.  We took it to the UPS Store before they closed then went to
dinner at Beckhams on the Trail.  We had a Yuengling draft and a half rack of
ribs with rice and black beans.  This is a nice meal.  When I got back, I
continued to work on the Lonestar website.


July 10, 2019 Wednesday Drivers License

The office opened at 8:30 AM and we were there around 9.  We had a very short
wait and dealt with a very pleasant person.  I had all the right documents and
we proceeded without any problems including vision test and photo taken.  In
less than an hour we were both out of there with Florida Driver Licenses.  That
was amazing.  Now I have to wait until Friday to transfer the Prius V title and
registration to Florida.  We discovered that our Insurance document had our
street spelled wrong, two of the letters were swapped.  I sent an email to our
agent about the wrong spelling. At home I was having trouble seeing and  missed
most of the morning because I couldn’t see.  Around noon I discovered I put two
of the left contacts in for the DMV eye test.  These are my far correction
lenses. Once I got the right ones in i proceeded with configuration which took
most of the afternoon. The pressure is on.  First Mary asked and now Penny wants
to know when the registration will be ready for testing. Penny also asked about
the photos from the convention.  Much to do.  No time to do it. I started adding
attributes to the Registration Fee item after watching a Youtube video.  I
managed to add the “Name on badge” attribute but couldn’t add a second.  Dinner
tonight was quick taco salad which is a bed of lettuce with ground beef, onion,
pepper and salsa mixture.  The salad is topped with cheese, taco chips and sour
cream.  I resumed working on attributes after dinner.


July 12, 2019 Friday Registration

It’s hard to believe that this almost halfway through July.  After breakfast and
the morning GMA  I left for the Tax Collector's office to register the Prius.
The title transfer was $89 which was reasonable but the registration fee floored
me.  It was over $300 for initial registration.   The process went smoothly.
There was no wit. She walked out to my Prius and verified the VIN and odometer
then notarized the document that she certified their correctness.  I was out the
door shortly with a brand new license plate.  I stopped by Lowes to pick up some
plumbing  parts to finish the waterline on the back porch.  After lunch I took
the picture frame glass and the old fluorescent tubes which were in the garage
to the dumpster at Clubside.  It was very quiet over there, no one was around.
Contrast this to Stoneybrook Estates where yesterday morning we noticed how many
residents were here in the summer by whether they had their garbage can outside
or not.  I came home and ran the rest of the drip line along the hanging plant
rack.  Libbie marked off where she wanted drippers with a ruler and pencil.  We
had a nice long meandering bike ride through the country club side.  We looked
at driveway pavers and also landscaping. In the evening we tuned into Resort TV
on YouTube and watched Josh and Jenna in Hollywood Studios where there was a
downpour going on most of the evening.  Jenna had the best answer to someone who
asked what the weather would be next week.   She said she didn’t know but you
can be sure it will rain.  For dinner we had chicken parmesan in the air fryer
along with broccoli and a few glasses of Cabernet.


July 13, 2019 Saturday Window Washing

I needed a roll of wire to wire up the Solenoid for the new water line on the
back porch plant hanger.  This would have been a quick Lowe's trip but we ended
up going to Lowes looking for a window brush then Sprouts for dinner fixings.
BEcause Lowes did not have a window brush we drove to Ace Hardware on Clark.
This is a nice store!  They have many  more choices in mops, brushes and pails
than Lowes.  We bought a window brush then went home.  I looked up the Consumer
Reports window wash recipe and found it used ammonia which we did not have.  A
quick trip to Publix got me some ammonia.  Unfortunately the ammonia products
are all flavored.  I got Lemon.  Oh well, I mixed up the ingredients according
to the CU formula in Toms Life Bits and proceeded to wash the big doors.  They
really came out nice looking and the job wasn’t too hard.  After lunch I worked
some more on the LSAVC online registration.  I believe I have it all working
correctly except for the Stripe credit card processing.  I also still need to
add Paypal. Dinner tonight was Pork Chops, Broccoli and a Baked potato with sour
cream.  We had a few glasses of Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner we watched
Josh on Resort TV live stream from Animal Kingdom.  It looked like fun.  He
covered Pandora this time.


July 14, 2019 Sunday Solenoid wiring

I finished up configuring the LSAVC online registration.  Everything looks OK
except for online checkout.  I need to configure Stripe to make this work. I
sent the URL to Mary and Penny and requested Stripe keys from Vickie Crider.
Outside I ran the solenoid wire from the plant room through the wall and to the
solenoid control box where I wired it in.  I tested it by flushing the line and
everything worked well.  I next added drippers to each of the pots that needed
one.  I ran over to Lowes to get plant tie wire to fasten the dripper to the pot
so it won’t blow off. Libbie wanted me to clean the pine needles from the valley
between the roof and the screen cage.  I got the extension ladder and went on
the roof and swept out the valley three times to get it all.  I  needed to get
the ladder to get on the porch roof which afforded an opportunity to blow the
leaves out under where it was in the garage.  This has turned into quite the
successful day.  Remaining is programming the solenoid controller which is an
ESP8266.  I picked up an electrical box in Lowes to house the board with the
relays.  I found our laminate in Lowes. It is Hand scraped barrel Hickory.  I
looked for a touchup marker but didn’t find one.  Maybe I’ll try Walmart or Ace
Hardware.  I go to Selby tomorrow so I can stop by Ace on the way home. Libbie’s
pizza really turned out well tonight.  The crust was perfect. She said it was
not using the Broiler this time that made the crust quite good.  We had the
pizza for dinner along with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Avatar
because we want to visit Pandora at Disney and needed to know the premise of the
story.  It was OK.  The recreation of a fantasy world was quite good, the story
was OK but it really was not my kind of movie.


July 15, 2019 Monday databases

I spent a lonely morning in the herbarium this morning.  Only Zeta and Liz were
around.  I worked with Liz getting a good Broms database repot so I could run my
Python program against it.  She is pretty smart in addition to having a
beautiful body and is quite friendly and personable. On the way home I stopped
into Ace and bought some touch up markers for the scratches in our floor.  I ran
the Python program and produced a map of camera images vs Broms names and selby
numbers.  This looks pretty good this time.


I did color selections for the LSAVC Convention registration and then tried to
format the display of the products.  I still don’t have this right.  I wish I
had a WYSIWYG way of displaying content so I could do the layout correctly.


For dinner I made pork quesadilla.  This was our normal quesadilla with
Tortillas, cheese, peppers and onions but with the addition of a leftover Pork
Chop cut into small slices.  We had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.


July 16, 2019 Tuesday getting ready


This morning I tried working on the arduino but it wouldn't program.  I next
took down the light in the guest bedroom and started patching the plaster.  I
painted the exposed white underneath so it matched the gray bath paint. Ran over
to Lowes and bought a 3 light fixture and hung it. It's perfect. We packed our
things for Disney a fun.nd had Spaghetti and cheese for dinner with a Cabernet.


July 17 Wednesday Animal Kingdom

Up at 5:30 and on the road at 6:30 am. We stopped on I4 for Mcmuffins to go and
encountered our first traffic jam just before Disney. Checked into the hotel and
dropped our bags then drove over to AnimalKingdom. Our magic bands let us park
anywhere on Disney property. We waited for 65 minutes in the heat in Pandora for
the river journey. Its a worthwhile ride. I enjoyed it. Next we did Bugs Life
which is always fun. I stayed around Pandora taking pictures then we had lunch
at the flaming grill where we each had a pulled pork sandwich and an amber beer.
Next we took the Safari and saw many, many animals. In order to cool off we went
into Lion King and enjoyed a fantastic show. It was like cirque soleil with
acrobats and singing and dancing..  We were tired by 3 and drove back to rest.
Dinner was at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian. I wish Joe and Christa had joined
us but Joe was being ornery. We enjoyed a tasty coconut curry shrimp and crab
soup then split a chicken noodle asian salad. Over the top yummy. While waiting
for a table we had Mai Tai's. We dragged ourselves back onto the monorail and
watched fireworks from the stair landing at the Contemporary. I fell fast asleep
after the fireworks.


July 18, 2019 Thursday Epcot

We ordered 2 egg sandwiches for breakfast and found it to be a huge mistake with
too much food. We missed the first monorail because I was watching music from a
character breakfast below. Once in the park we ended up running at a
breathtaking pace to try catching up to Joe. I hated it. We did the frozen ride
then went over to the Land and toured the greenhouse on the boat ride. Next was
Nemo then Crush the Turtle which was pretty good. Back at the Contemporary we
split a chicken bbq pizza for lunch. We rested up, watched a lightning storm
then went back to Epcot and did the Test Track. Unbelievably fast with powered
cornering and high Gs. We had dinner in the Land. We each had the Asian Shrimp
stir fry with a Heineken then tried Soaring. Loved it so much we did it again.
Eventually at 9:10 we dragged ourselves to the monorail and went home very dead.


July 19, 2019 Friday Magic Kingdom rain

We split a single grilled egg sandwich for breakfast.  I don’t like the amount
of ham in the sandwich.  We then walked to the MK which was easy peasy.
Security was right at the entrance to the walkway next to the parking lot.  It
was only a 10 minute walk and we sailed right in.  We found that not everything
was opened.  We did Small World before meeting up with Joe and the girls.  We
rode the Merry Go Around, did Small World again, walked the Swiss Family Tree
House and then rode the Magic Carpets before having a Dole Whip.  Our next ride
was the Tiki Room before going to Pirates and then home to rest up.  Back at the
ranch we rested and had a slice of Joe’s leftover Giordano deep dish pizza.  We
tried going out at 5 PM back to the park but it was pouring.  We did a detour
walk through of the Grand Floridian and then rode the monorail back to the Magic
Kingdom.  It was still raining at the monorail station so we waited a bit then
went into the park and stood in line for a one on one photo op with Mickey and
Minnie.  This was enough for Libbie and I so we bailed out and went to the
Polynesian.  We had a Mai Tai at the bar waiting for our table which had an 8:20
reservation. We ordered another Mai Tai with dinner which was a mistake because
it totally inebriated us.  We had the Coconut Curry seafood soup again as an
appetizer and then split a Kona sampler which had Sashimi, California Roll,
Nigiri,  Tuna Poke and other delights.  I loved it!  Libbie not so much.  We had
extreme difficulty making it back.  Josh and Jenna were broadcasting from our
hotel.   They had a chat live stream going from the 3rd floor lounge.  I was too
drunk to go downstairs.


July 20, 2019 Saturday Checkout

I was up normally at 6 AM today and answered an email from Candace.  Then we had
breakfast in the Cantina again.  Libbie had the grilled egg sandwich but I
didn’t want that anymore so I had a short stack of pancakes which were very
good.   It’s a beautiful day outside and I considered renting a small boat and
going out to play on Bay Lake.  Instead we chatted with Christa.  Joe had a plan
to go to Tampa instead of our house.  We drove to the Outlet Mall at Ellenton
where Libbie got two pairs of shoes and then some clothes in the VF Outlet
store.  Next stop was Deitwillers for seafood (scallops), T Bone steaks on sale
and produce.  We drove over to Yoders to get the rest of our stuff before having
a hot dog at Webers,  We have always seen this place and wondered about a
business that serves only hot dogs.  Libbie ordered a plain with mustard and
ketchup.  I ordered a Webdog which had special relish and thin slices of
cucumber.  It was really good.  We had water with our meals since the beer
machine was broken.  We finally got home at 3 PM after leaving Disney at 11 AM.
I went out to Walmart and bought all the ingredients for an ice cream cake per
Cynthia’s recipe.  Around 7 PM Joe, Christa and the girls arrived.  They went to
Tampa but ended up in a downpour trying to get across the Sunshine Skyway.  By
the time they arrived the rain was done.  It was fun having the girls here.
They added life to the house with their boundless energy.  What a difference two
little ones make. We had dinner in the ballroom consisting of scallops, salad
and rice with a glass of Cabernet. After dinner I unwrapped ice cream bars and
made an ice cream cake.  It was hard to believe we didn’t get to bed until after
11.


July 21, 2019 Sunday Libbie’s Birthday

Joe went out paddle board early this morning then came back and went out on
errands and lunch with Christa.  They ended up going to Evies for lunch while we
had the girls.  After lunch Libbie and I took the girls to the pool and stayed
in the water for quite a while.  Paige is quite the swimmer.  Emily of course
has no fear of water.  I had troubles with her goggles, getting them over her
ears while not pulling her hair is a challenge.  Eventually Joe and Christa
showed up while we went back after our pool time.  The girls could probably stay
in the water forever. Earlier today I used the Adafruit USB to serial adapter
that I program ESP chips with and got it to work for the Linknode R4 relay
board.  That’s a nice board. Around 6 PM Christa served peach mulled Margaritas
from a Jose Cuervo premix. Joe cooked the T bone steaks, bacon wrapped asparagus
and grilled Brussels sprouts.  We had the ice cream cake birthday cake with
candles spelling “72” for dessert.  We sang all the birthday songs and had a
very nice party with streamers and balloons.  It was quite a nice day and
evening.


July 22, 2019 Monday Tree Trimming

This morning I installed the 4 relay Arduino into a blue electrical box.  I
stayed home waiting for the letter that I requested to be redelivered today.
When it finally came it was from the management agency telling me the palm trees
needed trimming.  They paid $7 to send a certified letter!   I’m going to notify
the board that this is totally unacceptable.  I got my chainsaw out and
remounted the chain and gassed it up.  Next I pulled out the extension ladder
and climbed the tree and trimmed the dead fronds. Before I could finish cutting
them up the chainsaw would not keep running so I had to cut the last two fronds
with the hand saw and could not resume cutting up the pieces.  This really wore
me out.  Libbie served Quesadillas from the air fryer which was nice.  I was too
tired to move.  We had this with Peach Margaritas that Christa made,  Dessert
was more of the ice cream cake.  After dessert I watched parts of Leap Ballerina
with the girls but midway through it Arlene called.  She had stents installed
because of 90% blockage.


July 23, 2019 Tuesday Selby

I reluctantly went to Selby this morning but once there got into the swing of
things.  I consolidated files for Bromeliads which previously were broken into
genus.  I ended up generating lists of files to compare to find out why there
are more DNGs than JPEGs.  I will compare using python later.  Libbie showed up
in the herbarium around noon with Paige.  I then joined them and we toured the
garden.   We only did half of the garden as we stopped in the Mansion to view
the glass exhibit and then sat a table with Christa and Paige and colored a
sheet of paper with a glass drawing on it.  I left the garden and stopped first
at Yoders for peaches then stopped at Lowes for some air tools.  I also searched
for some tune up kit for the Echo chainsaw.  I want to change the fuel filter
which is inside the gas tank and also replace the spark plug.  The saw still is
dying when I pull the throttle.  I kept it running a bit to slice up some palm
fronds.  The saw then died.  It’s acting like it’s starved for fuel.  I also
watched some YouTube videos that blame the spark arrestor for this behavior.
EVeryone went out this afternoon after the rain and went to Siesta Key to play
in the surf and search for shells.  I stayed  home and wrote the fore mentioned
Python program.  I enjoy doing this.  I also configured the UI in NodeRed to run
the plant timer. I met them at 8 PM at Sharkeys for dinner.  We were in the
inside dining room because the wait in the outside dining room was 45 minutes.
I had the blackened grouper 6 oz which came with fries and slaw for $25.  I had
a Yuengling with the meal. The total bill with tip was $136.  Ouch. This was a
little late for me for dinner.


July 24, 2019 Wednesday Rain and Palms

When I came downstairs today I worked on the Python program and created the
listing of orphaned camera files and emailed them to John.  Shortly later I
heard from him that he went looking for the missing jpegs and found that at
least some of them were photographs. Later this morning I ran over to Lowes and
bought an electric pole saw made by Worx  for $71.  This thing is a bargain for
what I’m getting.  It’s even cheaper than Harbor Freight which wants 79.99 for
the same thing but Chinese made.  I dragged out the ladder again and set it
against the Palm Tree to the right of our house and used the pole saw to do a
trimming. I then got on my bike and rode to the pool, arriving there just as it
started raining. I raced back to the house to get the car in a downpour and then
drove over to the pool with the car and picked up Emily, Paige and Libbie.  We
sat on the Lanai and watched it rain as well as played a few rounds of cards
with the girls until Emily started losing attention.  Being only 2 her attention
span is pretty short. Much later in the afternoon when the rain lightened up I
went outside and started tying the palm fronds.  After I got 2 or 3 bundles down
to the street Libbie came out to help me which was great.  We got everything
down to the street since this is our last pickup for a while.  I tested out the
hanging plants UI live in Node Red since Lib said the plants need water. It
worked thank goodness.  For dinner tonight Christa went out to Costco and picked
up a Pizza.  We had Pepperoni pizza, salad and a glass of wine.  Joe worked in
the garage looking for mount points in the ceiling to hang his paddle board
which he is going to leave behind.  We have very little room in the garage, I
suggested the ceiling.  Joe announced today that they are going to leave
tomorrow and drive as far as Savannah which he is estimating at about 6 hours
away.


July 25, 2019 Thursday  Joe Leaves and We practice Pasta and Beef casserole

Libbie went with Joe and family to Caspersen Beach then North to Siesta Beach.
She said as soon as they got into the water it started pouring rain and wind.
They came home and started packing up to leave.  Joe hung the paddle board in
the garage up on the ceiling.  This worked out pretty good.  He was amazed at
how close the Lowes was to our house. They got going around noon but Libbie
discovered Emily’s blankie in the house.  We texted them and they turned around.
I bicycled out to the gate with the blanket, a book and a Lion King Souvenir.
They did the U-Turn at the gate after getting the stuff from me which I had put
into a plastic Walmart bag. Libbie and I rested up a little and then I did a
Walmart run for the Ground Beef and Pasta Casserole. We made the Casserole for
dinner tonight as a trial run which we then had along with a glass of Cabernet.
It was quite good.  After dinner we had an ice cream bar for dessert which was
leftover from my “ice cream cake making” for Libbie’s birthday.  We then watched
Resort TV1 but it wasn’t live.  Josh filmed the Epcot rope drop last week so we
watched the Frozen ride and the greenhouse ride in the Land before going to bed.
It was pouring rain really hard as we went to bed. July 26, 2019 Friday It was
relaxing staying inside and watching GMA and also Ryan and Kelly later.  I then
went over to Lowes to get a 5/16 Masonry bit to hang the  new hose hanger which
broke.  The old one was a piece of junk made out of plastic.  In Lowes I
discovered that I could get masonary bits with an SDS shank to fit my hammer
drill.  This made the job incredibly easier.  I also looked at battery operated
Hammer Drills but did not want to spend the money at this time.  The Craftsman
is $129 but has a small battery and is not highly rated.  The Kobalt has an
excellent rating and is $99 but comes without a battery.  A 4 amp battery and a
charger would be $93 extra dollars. After I finished hanging the hose hanger I
got out the ladder and tried cleaning the gutter next to the sidewalk.  I saw it
overflowing last night in the heavy rain. The gutter had a few pine needles in
it which I removed but nothing to cause it to seriously overflow.  The rain was
just heavy.   After this job I used up the rest of the weed killer and sprayed
the weeds coming up in the front yard.  Now the jug is empty.  I’ll try looking
for a DIY weed killer online.  I saw one last month on FB. I emailed the
management agency and informed them that the tree that needed trimming was not
mine. They responded that they only do what the committee tells them to do. I
found DIY weed killer recommending Vinegar and Dawn to kill weeds and half cup
per gallon of salt to poison the soil so weeds will not reappear.  I did a trip
to Walmart and picked up the Vinegar as well as the groceries needed to make the
casserole for tonight’s party.  We made the casserole and went over at 6:30
We brought a bottle of Ravenswood Zinfandel with us as well as the casserole.
Somebody helped themselves to our wine and left us with half a bottle before we
even had a single drink.  It is supposed to be BYOB.  I am not happy with that.
We got home at around 9:30  and spent a little time watching Josh and Jenna in
Hollywood Studios before going to bed.


July 27, 2019 Saturday Misc Preparations

I backed up the Synology onto the External drive today and picked out the Honors
Table pictures for AVSA.  Ran over to Harbor Freight and bought some 14 inch
long cable ties and secured the hanging plants in case of strong winds while we
are gone.  Libbie and I jumped into the Hot Tub today as a last hurrah before
draining it tomorrow.  Dinner tonight was the leftover pasta casserole from the
party last night.  I had several glasses of Cabernet with the meal.








July 28, 2019. Sunday Last Minute Stuff

While CBS Sunday morning was playing I worked on selecting photos from each
group of photos for the AVSA Houston convention library pages.  I’m trying to
get this done by the Sept 1 deadline which is impacted by our trip to Maine in
August.  I went outside and added drippers to the 3 Foxtail Ferns we planted in
the front yard.  We then tested the drippers on the Lanai where the hanging
plants are located.  I’ll program this run to activate every 3 days for 15
seconds.  I’m marking that today, July 28, we ran the hanging plant drippers.
Next run should be on July 31. I finished up wiring the power supply with solder
and heat shrink  and ran the wire into the garage from outside for the front
Moisture Monitor.  This wire is using the same hole as the landscape lighting
for the front of the house. I then  packed all our stuff that needs to go to
Apex including the ChainSaw and the extra batteries for the blower.  Libbie
helped me select clothes to take for both the Maine and the Alaska trips.  I
printed all our travel docs and put them into labeled folders along with our
passports.  We had the leftover pasta and beef casserole for dinner along with
the last of the wine.  Because we won’t be back for a while I filled a large
garage garbage bag with trash and kitchen garbage and took it over to the
dumpster at the Clubside Condos.  Libbie and I jumped into the Hot Tub which was
set to 102 from yesterday and soaked for a while.  Once done I removed the panel
and hooked up the drain hose.  We ran it towards the pond and drained the tub.
I next fastened the lid down using the lateches. We’re all set for the drive
home. We set our alarms for 5 AM.  With luck we’ll be out the door by 6.


July 29, 2019 Monday Drive Home

We got up at 5 AM which seemed early.  I was tired.  I flipped the coffee maker
on and ibbie filled the thermos for our trip.  The car had gas from several days
ago.  We got going at 5:46.  Traffic was heavy but no delays through Tampa.  We
stopped at McDonalds in Bushnell for Bacon, Egg and Cheese biscuits. As always,
we drove I-75 up to exit 404 above Gainesville and did the back roads through
Lake Butler and onto I-10 just before Baldwin.  I had some eye troubles and
stopped at a Rest Area for a few minutes just before Gainesville.  Our next stop
was in North Florida past Jacksonville for Gas at 2.51.  This was a quick in and
out. Libbie picked us up a banana and a few crackers inside the store.  Next
stop was exit 190 at the Pilot North of Florence.  Gas was 2.25.  We also tried
to get food at Wendy’s but it was crowded so I did a U-turn around the median
out front and ran into McDonalds.  The Hamburgers and fries were fresh and good.
I chose a small hamburger and Libbie chose a small cheeseburger.  We had this
with a small order of fries.   There was one slow down around the Cossahootchie
Bridge.  The Southbound lanes were shut down completely because a Walmart truck
looks like it hit the bridge abutment over the river.  The truck was heavily
damaged along the side with the cab and wheels pushed in.   Traffic on that side
was backed up for miles.  We cruised by the accident at 18 MPH for about 20
minutes before resuming at 70+ MPH.  We got home at 5:30 and were shocked that
Joe had mowed the lawn and cleaned the driveway.  Wow, that was nice.  Christa
went out for dinner to Smithfields and came home with pulled pork, fried
chicken, hush puppies, slaw and baked beans.  She also made us Margaritas with
Raspberries in it.  The house smelled musty, I think it is coming from the AC
System.




July 30, 2019 Tuesday Tree Down

This is our first full day back.  I came down early and was soon joined by Emily
who lay silently on the sofa. I did a little update work for AVSA this morning
on the website and cleaned up my requirements document for a potential robo
Secretary.  I want to sort out the pictures for the library but did not get into
that today. Joe offered to help clean up the dead tree next to the  house if I
drop it.  The chain saw chain adjusting screw is stripped so it makes adjusting
the chain very hard.  I ordered a new adjuster on eBay which should be here
Saturday.  I also need a new chain which I will pick up locally and install when
the adjuster comes in. With Joe’s help I hooked up a chain to the dead tree next
to the house and then made a notch and dropped it.  The tree fell as planned and
didn’t do too much collateral damage.  I chopped it up and Joe hauled it around
to the back of the shed, cleaning up the mess.  This was great.  I was done but
he was ready to drop another one,  I would do it but would rather have a new
chain to make the cutting easier. For dinner we went out to La Cocina.  I had
the usual Quesadilla La Cocina but Christa had an El Diablo or something like
that which was super hot spicy.  I noted it for ordering next time.  We had two
rounds of Margaritas  with the meal and the girls had kids plates of burritos
and Quesadillas.  After the restaurant we went out to Goodberry's for Carolina
Concretes.  I ordered the usual Chocolate base with raspberries.  Wow was it
good.  It’s been a long time, next time it will be a mini instead of a
“regular”.


July 31, 2019 Wednesday Shopping

This morning Joe and Family packed up and started out for the next leg of their
journey.  When I came downstairs Joe was sitting at his laptop trying to find a
hotel to stay at in DC.  They finally got going around 10:30 AM which in my
opinion is too late for the Smithsonian Museums that close at 5 PM.  We saw on
Facebook later that they were able to do some of the monuments on the Mall.
Since the girls are 5 and 2 this is probably good enough for them.  I spent the
day sorting files, mail and just getting organized.  I ran over to Costco and
picked up plastic tubs for Stoneybrook storage then went to Academy Sports for
shoes and and Lemon Eucalyptis.  Did a drive by of the High School and noted it
was landscaped and the road was being prepared for paving.  Next stop was lowes
for Yellow Jacket Spray which I will administer after dark.  This stuff is a
foam that should be shot into the nest when the bees are all  present and can’t
see because it’s dark.   Dinner tonight was eggrolls, 3 meat Szechuan takeout
and a few glasses of Cabernet.


Aug 1, 2019 Thursday Haircut and DMV

At 9 I went to Great Clips for a Haircut.  I had the manager, Amanda, cut my
hair.  She is not as good as the little Asian woman who was not around.  The
bottom line was I was glad it was cut.  I next did a trip to the DMV where I
turned in my plate.  This was easy and I received a receipt for the plate but I
did have to stand in line.   Since I was there at South Hills I went to Harbor
Freight and picked up a tool bag and knee pads for Stoneybrook.  Down there I
have a jigsaw that needs a bag.  The rest of the day was spent reading Stories
Online because they sent me a link to login to keep my account active.  I got
hooked on a teacher forbidden love story sort of like is in the news everyday.
It was well written.  Dinner was Spaghetti with cheese.  In thunder lightning
and rain I put the garbage out after dark.  I can report that today I poked at
the bees nest and found it to be inactive.  The foam I sprayed yesterday worked.


Aug 2, 2019 Friday Internet frustration

Today I tried again with the new cable modem and got nowhere quickly.  I ended
up with no service whatsoever.  I found out that the cable company never made
the repair of the broken connector years ago.  They just taped it together.  I
fooled around with it a little and eventually got the old cable modem to synch.
The worst part was that most of the LAN did not work unless it had an internet
connection.  I wonder what is up with that???  The biggest thing I discovered
was that the center connector in the internet cable was short and not making
contact to the cable  modem.  This may have been my biggest problem.  I used the
long nose pliers and pulled the center conductor out quite a bit more.
Eventually I had internet service but I was exhausted. I called Spectrum and
have a tech coming out tomorrow at 5 PM.  I’m going to be there this time and
make sure they do it right this time.  Libbie wanted something easy for dinner
so we ended up going to the new Harris Teeter and cruising the aisles of
prepared foods looking for dinner.  We settled on their pizza and bought a half
pepperoni and half steak and onion.  It wasn’t very good.  We had the pizza with
a few glasses of Cabernet and watched Josh and Jenna on ResortTV1. It was an
incredibly rainy night in DisneyWorld and we enjoyed the streaming they gave us
including the fireworks. This brother-sister team are a very positive spirit on
YouTube.  They never argue and provide good clean pleasant conversation that I
enjoy.


Aug 3, 2019 Saturday Photos

I started using Jalbum and labeled the horticultural photos.  I discovered I did
not have all the class winners and sent out an email to both Joe Bruns and Dave
Kesler for help.  Joe later sent me a PDF of the class winners.   Despite a
massive amount of rain last night, Apex Doppler radar estimated 4.6 inches
although my rain gauge only recorded 2 inches, the Internet connection that I
rigged together held together.  I went out to Walmart in the afternoon and
picked up toothpaste and deodorant as well as a few groceries. I hooked up
Libbie’s laptop to the TV wirelessly so that she could watch a live stream from
Facebook of her cousin Jon’s Abraham Lincoln tribute band performing on period
instruments.  The stream was not great, we have become used to streams from
Resort TV using the latest Samsung Android phone.  This group was using an iPad
which is not a good streaming device. The Spectrum guy showed up at 6 PM, a
little later than I expected but still within his window of service.  The great
news is that not only did he put a new connector on but he installed a box onto
the wall and put the ground block inside the box and ran a new ground wire to
the ground stake.  I’m pretty happy with the installation.  He did a great job
hooking us up.  If they did it like this a few years ago we would not have this
problem today.  Dinner tonight was Salmon and Butternut Squash with a few
glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner I did some more reading on SOL and briefly
dozed before going to bed at 11:30.


Aug 4, 2019 Sunday Slide Show

This morning I checked the Lowes hammer drill and the ad still has the drill on
sale but they sweetened the deal by throwing in a 24V 2A battery.  I still had
to buy the $44 charger.  I placed my order for the drill and charger and they
automatically added the battery to my cart.  I picked it up later in the
afternoon. The battery is half charged so I put it on the charger.
Unfortunately there was no tool bag with the drill.  I will pick one up at
Harbor Freight some time in the next few weeks.   I worked quite a bit on the
Library pictures.  I only have the collection classes left to identify and
caption.  I started writing again this afternoon, something I have not done in a
while.  I also did some reading of past stories and couldn’t believe some of my
writings.  Some were great, others were not so great. Libbie made her pizza
again today from scratch.  Wow, this one was a 10 out of 10.  We had it with a
couple of Yuengling beers Joe left in the refrigerator.


Aug 5, 2019 Monday Finishing Up Library Photos

I alternated between my story writings on Google Docs and also the library
photos.  I finished up the collection classes of the photos I have on the hard
drive (meaning I took a picture)  and then started rounding up the Gesneriads. I
ran the Gesneriads through Lightroom touching up highlights and dark areas.  I
put these into Jalbum as usual and captioned each of the plants, created a
slideshow and uploaded it all to the library page.  This concludes the library
photos for 2019 unless I wish to add misc pictures as a bonus.  I ran out to
Walmart for tuna, peas and egg noodles.  Libbie made tuna noodle casserole which
is always good but tonight’s meal was a little watery but good nonetheless.
After dinner I continued reading from the site Storiesonline.  There have been
some pretty good authors in there.


Aug 6, 2019 Tuesday  packing & Emily’s Birthday


Lots of last minute stuff to do today in order to get ready for our trip. I got
up at 5:30 in order to do a Southwest check-in at 6:05.  I like getting up early
and spending some quiet time doing Violet stuff.  Libbie came down later and
showed me the FB feed from this morning.  We enjoyed seeing the candle on a
bagel at Ellie's house for Emily's 3rd birthday and then they sang Happy
Birthday to her out of tune. We saw this on a FB video.  I packed everything for
the trip tomorrow in a quick pass through my closet.  Weekends are  easier to
pack for.  We went out to La Cocina and had a Margarita and Quesadilla. I took a
shower the night before to save time in the  morning and set up the coffee maker
then set the alarm for a 3:30 wakeup.


Aug 7, 2019 Wednesday Waterville

Everything went well this morning.  Flights were on time because it was
Southwest.  We picked up breakfast in Baltimore, Egg McMuffins and coffee.
There was a thunderstorm on the coast around NY so we went around it going all
the way over to the Finger Lakes and across through New Hampshire into Portland.
Interestingly when going North through Central PA the flight was rough with a
moderate chop but when the plane turned East over the Finger Lakes the flight
settled out and became smooth.  We landed around 10:30 in Portland and picked up
a Hyundai Elantra which is a pretty nice car.  I really like the side warning
radar when there is someone in your blind spot.  A little icon lights up in the
side mirror and if you turn on the signal light the car beeps a warning to you.
Very nice.  We stopped in Freeport on the LL Bean campus looking for boots.  No
luck but I found a tall man rain coat in the outlet store that fits nicely.  It
was 30% off and fit nicely.  The sleeves and tail length were perfect.   We
looked at the Lobster rolls in Linda Beans but instead chose to get one from a
guy in the corner of the Beans parking lot.  We both 2 lobster rolls at $16 each
and a pepsi and a water.  The rolls were toasted and were with mayo. He said
that’s how it is usually done, toast the roll and mix the lobster with Hellmans
Mayo  The food was delicious and totally worth it.  We continued our journey and
went straight to Mary and Johns on the lake.  We sat outside and drank some
water.  They showed us the nice plaques they placed on Toad Rock on the lake
commemorating George and Mary. When we left we drove 11 miles and checked into
the Hampton Inn in Waterville.  They messed up our reservation not having us
down for today but I produced the confirmation which shows we had a reservation
for today.  We got a 2 room suite as an upgrade because of the mess up.  We went
out to downtown Waterville for dinner.  There was a festival called Taste of
Waterville going on with music and food trucks.  We chose to eat at a place Mary
and John recommended called the Last Unicorn.  It was excellent.  I bought a
bottle of Cabernet with our meal.  I ordered the Chesapeake crab cakes with rice
and a very nice salad that came with a Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing.  We found
parking just a few feet from the restaurant which was a surprise.  After dinner
we watched Elvis sing in the Beer Garden.  He was all dressed up in a white suit
with rhinestones just like Elvis of Las Vegas fame.  When we got to our hotel
the rains had started.  This is the same rain our plane went around earlier
today, it was making its way in and will rain all day.


August 8, 2019 Thursday Benziger Camp

This morning after the Hampton Inn breakfast we went down the highway to the
next exit and made some copies of the family song sheet in Staples.  Libbie made
16 double sided copies which were legal size.  We joined the Benzigers and Mary
Elaine and company at the Camp.  They have two very nice well adjusted and Happy
kids.  I tried working on the Lonestar shopping cart.  This thing is a mess with
the oddball checkout that I don’t know how to control.  I need to spend lots of
time working on the thing.  We had cold cut sandwiches for lunch then Mary made
the Tofu Stir Fry for dinner.  Pete and Kate arrived just before dinner after
their flight was delayed yesterday due to weather. They finally got going at 7
AM from Portland.


August 9, 2019 Friday   Party

After the hotel breakfast Libbie picked up a dozen donuts and brought them to
the camp.  We arrived there around 9:30 AM.  They were erecting the tent and
unloading the tables when we arrived in the morning.  I had a nice quiet time
working on the Convention Registration while a group went out on a boat with an
inner tube.  The checkout experience is a disaster but little by little I have
been modifying PHP files to format data and eliminate unnecessary things.  I
still need to remove a password required for checkout.  I wish I could have a
day alone somewhere to work on this but it won’t happen. Libbie and I went out
to Hannaford and picked up the food platters, over $160 worth of food.
   Pizza
is being delivered tonight around 6:30. Joe and the girls arrived late this
afternoon.  They spent the night on an island called Diamond Shoals near
Portland.  When they arrived at China Lake they immediately went into the water
and went swimming.  Paige is a good swimmer.  Emily is fearless jumping off the
dock out on the lake.  Both girls are active and a handful but I love it.
Everybody started arriving in the late afternoon just when it started raining.
We had a nice pizza party under the tent anyway in the pouring rain along with a
few cracks of thunder. We then came indoors for a hat giveaway/grab to the grand
children.  It is hard to believe that George Condon owned 17 hats.  Then there
was a singalong.  Emily sat quietly on Libbie’s lap listening to everyone
singing until she fell asleep.  Libbie thinks that she (Emily) is musical and
has never experienced everyone singing like this.  When it was time to leave we
drove the dark rainy roads back to our hotel.  We got lost for a while and
Libbie’s phone was left at Marys so eventually I pulled over and got mine out of
the trunk which was dead.  We plugged it into the car for charging and
eventually got enough of a signal for navigating back to the Hampton Inn.  We
met Steven and Lesley at the hotel unloading their car.  They sure brought a lot
of stuff. Dinner tonight was several slices of Pizza, some Amber “Kotsch” craft
beer and a Klondike Ice Cream bar for dessert.


August 10, 2019 Saturday Party

We met all the Condons and Pillis’s in the breakfast room of the Hampton Inn.
They have more than a handful of kids. We drove to the Benzigers where
festivities were going to start at 10.  There was a memorial in the tent with
some music and talks.  I liked Mary and Johns singing of Happy along with their
ukulele playing.  It was quite nice, they’re pretty good singers.  I read the
Robert Service poem of “Contentment” which I really like. We went out on the
boats in 2 shifts to place the George and Mary ashes in the lake.  The wouldn’t
sink at first, floating on the surface but then they became waterlogged and went
down. We came back and had lobster.  Christa sat at our table with Barb.  Barb
instructed Christa on how to tear apart a lobster and get the meat out. The
lobster was quite good and also came with corn on the cob It was a slow day of
hanging out and reviewing albums.  We found a few to take  home. One in
particular was an album of old timey pictures nicely labeled.  It apparently was
done by some relative and given to George and Mary.  I will be scanning the
album into a PDF.  This is something I need to do for the Glembocki Genealogy.
I may get into this in earnest when I get back as soon as the Lonestar
registration is done. At dinner time Joe and Christa ordered a bunch of Pizzas
but we told them that Grandpa will be paying for them.  Grandpa’s checkbook has
been paying for all the party items. We left there at 8 PM.  The word is that
quiche will be delivered tomorrow morning as a brunch meal.  IT was daylight as
we left but became dark as we arrived at the Hampton.


Aug 11, 2019 Sunday Hanging Out

After the Hotel breakfast we drove to Mary and Johns where everyone was having
breakfast/brunch of Quiche and Blueberry Muffins.  We  hung out on the porch
just reading and enjoying the scenery. Folks started leaving throughout the day.
In the evening instead of a restaurant we all decided to stay at home and have
burgers on the grill along with some Cabernet. Joe ran the grill and Alma made
some rice and eggplant.  I had just a burger without bun with onions and ketchup
and several glasses of a very nice Cabernet, the Chateau St Michelle. Corrie and
her family stayed almost until 9:30 because of Boston traffic.  They eventually
left and then the rest of us wandered off. One little note, after we all had
eaten little Emily led us in song.  It started with Chrita’s favorite song, “We
are Christa” but then she did the ABC song and then sang “the wipers on the
bus”.  She was very cute with her animation of the songs. We got back to the
hotel around 10 after a tiring day.


Aug 12, 2019 Monday Going Home


We had the usual Hampton Inn breakfast.  The breakfast room was different this
morning.  Instead of the families there were business people dressed for work
and working at their laptops.  We checked out this morning and drove to Mary and
Johns.  We joined David, Alma and Mary sorting Christmas ornaments into piles
for each grandchild.  There were a lot of ornaments in the box.  Alma was good
at opening each wrapped one and deciding where it should go. Libbie and I wiped
down tables and chairs outside for when the tent people arrive to pick
everything up.   They came later in the morning and picked up everything. We had
lunch on the porch consisting of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  We got
going at 1:30PM to drive to Portland and arrived there just before 3.  After
briefly driving in the airport area to find a gas station I filled up the rental
car @ 2.75 per gallon.  We needed around 9 gallons. Hertz wasn’t great at
returns.  There was no one there to greet us in the garage so we went inside and
stood in line for quite a while to turn in the keys.  As of the next morning
(8/13) I still did not receive a receipt for the rental. We walked the length of
the terminal to the Frontier counter to check into our flight to RDU.  I had
prepaid for a carry on and a checked bag as well as exit row seat selection.
This all went well then we went through TSA Pre where I was randomly selected
for a shoe swab. The Frontier flight was on time.  We boarded and got the exit
row.  The airbus 320 is outfitted quite primitively.  Seatbacks are a plastic
shell with a thin padding and are quite hard on your body.  The flight was
quick.  One hour and 36 minutes from wheels up to wheels down. They took quite a
while to get the jetway to the plane and even longer to get the baggage to the
carousel.  Libbie had to get off the Park N Ride Shuttle at Terminal 1 after we
were picked up at Terminal 2 because she left her shoulder bag with tablet
hanging in the bathroom stall.  She took the pedestrian tunnel back to Terminal
2 and retrieved her bag while I bailed out the car from the lot and then picked
her up on the way through the terminals. We stopped in La Cocina for dinner.  It
was Margarita night and we had two each.  I ordered the Fish Tacos which were
grilled Tilapia with a pineapple slaw. Sides were rice and a pink colored Mayo
sauce which I hardly used.  The house looked fine when we pulled in around 9 PM.


August 13, 2019 Tuesday  Diversion

I tried finding the password section of the website for registration so I could
disable it.  I didn’t have a lot of luck doing this.  I looked at Lyndon Lyon
and liked the registration with a password option provided there.  I guess I
will have to have registration since not having it is not an option with Zen
Cart.  I downloaded a new version of Zen and will install that when I try for
registration which I don’t care for. This afternoon Joe’s plane from Boston was
supposed to land at 5:46.  At that time a nasty thunderstorm was raging.  The
plane circled several times over Danvill, VA before they had to divert to
Greensboro for more fuel.  In the meantime we were going to pick up food at
Smithfields but bailed out when the sky turned black.  We decided to go to the
shelter of the parking garage at the airport but didn’t make it when we got
caught in the storm.  Eventually we made it to the airport in heavy rain, high
winds and thunder and lightning but the Premiere parking was full.  We did the
regular lot which was outside but then found we could go down 2 levels and found
a spot after driving around a while.  We were under cover but quite a way from
the terminal.  We found out that the plane was not coming because it landed in
Greensboro with no estimated time of Raleigh.  We went to Smithfields and bought
2 pints of BBQ, 1 pint  of slaw and 1 pint of BBQ beans along with 12 hush
puppies.  Joe arrived around 9 PM via Lyft and had dinner before we all went to
bed.


Aug 14, 2019 Wednesday Starting Over

I made the decision to do a fresh install of Zen Cart because the other was so
screwed up.  It was my best decision.  The new cart seems to be cleaner and more
attractive. This morning after breakfast and a cup of coffee I took Joe to the
airport to retrieve his Jet Blue suitcases and to rent a car.  They arrived last
night only with the clothes on their backs. To keep weight down, Joe even
checked his day bag which had his computer. Other than a trip to the CU, the gas
station and Walmart I spent the day configuring the cart again.  I also finished
scanning the Stauffacher book of historic photos.  Now I need to combine the
jpgs into a PDF, probably using the online service I used for the George Condon
letters. The new registration cart is almost fully functional. I still need  the
pricing for commercial tables and then the awards.  Dinner tonight was spaghetti
with cheese on top accompanied by a glass of Cabernet. Aug 15, 2019 Thursday
Getting close I continued configuring the new shopping cart with several minor
issues along the way.  I did not have SSL turned on but figured out how that
should be done and got it going with https.  The biggest issue was Stripe would
not function unless it had SSL.  Now it has a problem if the same person buys
something else using their stored credentials.  I will eliminate all this stuff
about saving credit cards, etc and reword the checkout page. Joe sent the Amazon
return barcode which I printed and affixed to the modem.  I drove the modem to
Kohls in Crossroads at the Amazon returns desk. Next stop was across the street
at Best Buy where I bought an Arris Surfboard modem.  They didn’t have much in
the way of scanners which I need for my slide collection.  The Epson 3170
Perfection quit.  It was the one I need for scanning slides.  I ordered a new
scanner from Amazon.  Libbie wanted something easy for dinner so I stopped at
Trader Joes and picked up some ravioli, one lobster and one corn, cheese and
basil. I also tasted some mushroom Risotto in the store and really liked it so I
bought a bag of the Risotto. Dinner was Lobster Ravioli.  I rounded up the
garbage to put out and found a baby possum in the garage garbage can.  I took
him outside and dumped it onto the pine straw but he didn’t move.  I went inside
and got some water and poured it on the animal thinking he was dehydrated.  This
caused him to get up and walk away slowly.


Aug 16, 2019 Friday Paige Arrives

I did the usual this morning, finished configuring the Lonestar Registration
Cart.  This has gone reasonably well.  I then installed the new Cable Modem but
ended up having to call Spectrum because their online activation did not work.
The tech guy suggested that I call Sales to change to a higher speed plan for
less money.  I’m reasonably happy with my plan.  All I need is reliability which
is why I changed the Cable Modem to this new one I purchased in Best Buy.  Model
is an SB6183 and is one of the top ones recommended by Tom’s Hardware and a
number of other sites. Paige arrived with MArk, Danielle and their kids around
4:30 just after a pretty heavy thunder shower.   I lit the grill and was
surprised by the noise under the deck.  It was the sump draining the crawl
space.  I never saw it run before but it is really running.  Libbie said she
heard and saw the same thing when she and Danielle were outside cooking burgers
and hot dogs.  Dinner tonight was Burgers, hot dogs, baked beans and potato
chips with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I watched Resortv1.  They were
streaming live Mickey's 2019 Halloween Party. I tried playing my Clarinet
several times today but found I get winded after simply playing a single scale.
I need to badly lose weight to correct this situation.


Aug 17, 2019 Saturday Back to Clarinet

This morning I sent out a note to the LSAVC folks that convention registration
was ready to go live.  I am reasonably happy with the website except for the
need to register with an email.  After a BLT for lunch I went to my Clarinet
lesson with Justin.  It was great in that he pointed out what was happening with
my scales.  I also found that I need to work some more with the Duets book and
quit the fun to play pieces.  After the lesson I went to Foodlion to get a list
of groceries that Paige and Libbie put together.  Unfortunately it was missing a
few things such as cheese for nibbles and sour cream for the Tacos.  Dinner was
Tacos with corn on the cob. The Tacos were pretty spicy, a little more than I
care for.  The Taco shells were pretty good.  They were a Trader Joe's organic
product.  After dinner we watched the Disney Halloween parade (in August!) that
was streamed by Josh and Jenna Friday night.  The choreography of the
dancers/marchers in the parade was remarkable.  They each were in step with the
music and with each other.  Disney is good at assembling a cast of hundreds and
essentially putting on a stage show that was  a hundred feet wide and a mile
long.  I enjoyed seeing this.


Aug 18, 2019 Sunday Park

This was an easy going day.  I created a new AVSA convention registration site
and then did a compare of the configured Lone Star site to the AVSA site.  I
changed the few files compared  Beyond Compare and uploaded them.  I was happy
with the results.  I need to do this for the rest of the site.  Paige and Libbie
were non stop.  She shadowed Libbie everywhere, sewing, gardening, and cooking.
We took a walk through the woods in the back to the Park at Seagroves.  The
slides were too hot to use so Paige just climbed the tree house.  On the way we
walked out on the dock and watched the turtles.  There were quite a few of all
sizes. Dinner tonight was pizza from scratch.  Libbie made one big pizza and two
small  ones.  One of the small ones was plain and the other had Pepperoni.  Our
pizza had Pepperoni. It was a different tasting Pepperoni from a brand I did not
recognize.  I miss surely Kroger.


Aug 19, 2019 Monday Easy Day

I continued comparing the configured LSAVC site with the AVSA site and uploaded
the files that had been changed so that the AVSA site matched the LSAVC
registration site. I went grocery shopping with Paige to Walmart.  That was an
experience since she wanted everything she saw.  I did break down and buy her a
6 pack of yogurt because she said she only had one left of the Gogurt.  She
actually had 2 left. Dinner tonight was excellent.  I made Corn and Basil
ravioli which I served with Tomato Sauce.  We had “nibbles” beforehand along
with a glass of Malbec. I did some Clarinet practice today and was happy.  I
think the lesson with Justin this past Saturday really helped.


Aug 20, 20019 Tuesday Scanning

The new Epson V855 scanner arrived yesterday at 6 PM.  This morning i unpacked
it and installed the Epson drivers.  As expected, scanning slides is slow.  I
timed it at 4 mins and 7 seconds per group of 4 slides.  Add to that 28 seconds
of preview and about 1 minute of setup the total is almost 6 minutes or 1.5
minute per slide.  I completely scanned the 2 rolls of slides labeled Hawaii.
It was pictures from our August 1987 Hawaiian trip.  The scans are not bad, the
pictures are terrible. It’s remarkable how much better today’s digital pictures
are straight from the camera! The good news about scanning slides is I played
clarinet while the scan was going on.  This meant my Clarinet practice went all
afternoon.  Dinner tonight was egg noodles with tuna, peas and milk in Libbie’s
Tuna noodle casserole which we had with a glass of Cabernet.   After  dinner I
went back upstairs and finished the Hawaii pictures.


Aug 21, 2019 Wednesday Scanning Redux

I started scanning the 1975 trip to Wisconsin pictures and finished the entire
roll by late afternoon.  I have used the scanning time to practice my Clarinet.
It’s great because it allows me to rest in between sequences of notes or songs.
It takes about 4 ½  minutes to scan a group of 4 slides.  This is not counting
the preview scan which is only necessary if the slide orientation has changed.
My next batch of slides will be New Mexico 1973.  Many of these slides have not
been seen for years and are fun when I can see the scanned results. I made a
Costco trip this afternoon for coffee and wine while Libbie and Paige made
chocolate peanut butter cookies, the ones with the hershey kiss in the center.
One of my bottles of wine was for Cole and Emily.  We went to their house this
evening at 6 except we got caught in rush hour traffic and got there at 6:10
instead.  We did not account for the traffic.  Their house is beautiful and very
tastefully decorated.  The paints are the pinterest colors - light gray and
white trim.  The floors are a really nice hardwood.  I’m certainly going to put
hardwood down in our kitchen and eating area once I stiffen the floor. Cole made
a very nice dinner consisting of green beans in a honey bacon sauce, garlic
mashed potatoes from red skinned new potatoes and Pork Medallions.  Wow was the
meal good.  I need to try this in my own repertoire.  We left there in a light
rain and because it was dark, I missed the turn to get back and ended up on Hwy
55 in Feltonville to get home.  There were flashes of lightning which concerned
Paige but we got home without any incidents from her.


Aug 22, 2019 Thursday Scanning New Mexico

Today I spent all day scanning the slides from our New Mexico 1973 adventure
with Mary and John.  These slides like the slides the past few days have not
been seen for many years.  I am amazed at how young we were.  During lunch today
Joe called to see how Paige was doing.  He said he will try to come back
Saturday and fly home on Sunday.  This was news to us because we did not know if
Paige was staying for 2 more days or another week.  Libbie went to a 1 PM Dr
appointment today while I stayed home with Paige.  We did a States puzzle on the
Dining Room floor then Paige declared it was nap time.  This was Ok with me but
Libbie arrived around that time so there was no nap. Dinner was Tacos with beef,
refried beans, lettuce, tomato and sour cream along with a few glasses of Sour
Cream.  Libbie even made a chocolate pudding for dessert.  After dinner I went
upstairs and scanned the remaining slides completely finishing the New Mexico
reel.  This is the 4th reel in 3 days. Hawaii x 2 reels, Wisconsin x 1 reel and
New Mexico x 1 reel. I really like the idea of playing Clarinet all day while
scanning. It helps my practice and playing instead of just playing a few minutes
and quitting because I can’t hold the embouchure.  I need to continue like this.


Aug 23, 2019 Friday Scanning 1992 AVSA

Today while practicing Clarinet I scanned the entire reel of the 1992 Columbus
Convention.  Libbie apparently had a camera she took to Columbus while I stayed
at the Dayton Hamfest with Weathersat Ink.  In retrospect I wish I accompanied
her to the AVSA Convention.  We left early for the Lion King this afternoon.
When we got there I found we didn’t need to be early.  The theater was mostly
empty but it had a good number of kids.  I used 2 promo codes that Joe sent and
needed to buy an additional ticket for Paige which cost $11.  The movie held her
interest and was very intense.  I was surprised she could sit still for so long.
It definitely was a long movie that started at 1:10 and was over at 3:20 PM.
That’s a long time for a little one.  The movie was quite good and gave me a
dilemma.  I’m not sure if I like the new one with real animals or whether I like
the animated version. Dinner tonight was chicken parm along with pasta noodles
as a side and as a main dish for Paige.  I also made a batch of French Fries in
the toaster oven which were quite good.  Accompanying dinner was a glass of
Cabernet.  Before dinner I went under the  house to size the floor stabilizing
job.  I found I need to replace the AC ducts that go across the space because
they would interfere with the floor joist support.  My plan is for a triple 2x6
at the 7 foot mark which is the middle of our 14 foot span.  The 2x6 will be
supported by jack posts resting on concrete landscape blocks or possibly deck
blocks.


Aug 24, 2019 Saturday Clarinet Ligature

I started scanning the Owego home construction slides.  I did not finish the
roll but got about half of them completed.  I went to my Clarinet lesson at 1
PM.  IT was good in that Justin said the stiffer reed sounds much better but my
ligature is not holding it correctly.  He suggested a flexible ligature and gave
me the name of one which I ordered on eBay.  Paige and I went out in a light
rain to pick up Joe at the Alamo counter at the airport.  We got there around
4:30 and picked up Joe and his heavy suitcase. Libbie made pizzas from scratch
for all of us.  She used the pepperoni I picked up earlier in the week for
Paige.  We had many pieces of Pepperoni pizza with Cabernet.  After dinner PAige
and Joe packed their suitcases with all of Paige’s stuff laying around the
house.  I finished scanning a small pile of slides I had removed from the tray.


Aug 25, 2019 Sunday Goodby Paige

Up early and out the door at 5:45 AM to the airport.  Paige and Joe have a 7:27
flight direct to LAX on Delta Air.  They are carrying 137 pounds worth of
luggage which includes the car seat.  Each of their suitcases is exactly 50
pounds..  The plane left 7 minutes early according to Flightaware.  Back home I
picked up a 25 foot roll of flexible ducting and some tools.  MArtha came over
to ride with Libbie to a Violet Club meeting in Greensboro.  While they did that
I went under the house and tried replacing one of the horizontal duct runs,  It
was difficult and I need to redo it.  I don’t trust the zip ties because I don’t
have a tool to tighten the ties.  A how-to I read said that you can’t tighten a
zip tie properly without a tensioning tool.  There are also several sources
recommending mastic over the metal stub before attaching the flexible ducting. I
came back inside after several hours, took a shower, rested a little on the bed
and then finished scanning slides of the Owego House.  Libbie had a dough in the
refrigerator so for dinner when she came home from Greensboro we had Pepperoni
Pizza on a nice thin crust.  It was quite good. I had a Yuengling with my pizza
slices.  Yumm.   After dinner I finished up the slides and organized the scanned
slides in the archive box.  I’m making up the organization as I go along.   I
retrieved the next slide roll.  It will be the June 1986 Grand Canyon trip.


Aug 26, 2019 Monday Vacation West

I continued scanning slides.  Today it was the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley,
Albuquerque trip.  I haven’t seen these pictures in years.  The new scanner
although slow is fabulous.  The digital ICE technology does an effective job at
removing dust and minor scratches.   I will be re-scanning some rolls of slides
I did years ago because this thing does a better job at color restoration and
dust removal.  I want a way to effectively store and more importantly, easily
access these slides like Google Photos does. I went to Home Depot for some
mastic which is recommended to attach flexible ducts and happily found the zip
tie tensioning tool that I have been searching for online.  The thing is $50 but
will go a long way towards ensuring that the zip ties are doing their job
fastening the flex ducts to the metal takeoffs. When I went to Home Depot the
new High School was getting out.  The line of cars for pickups stretched from
the School to Hwy 64 and then around the corner of 64 on the shoulder. Dinner
tonight was mushroom risotto with chicken.  I thought it was pretty good, Libbie
said it was just “OK”.    We had it with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we
looked for the VMA awards but it is on MTV and we don’t have that channel on
YouTube TV or Hulu, the two subscription services we pay for.  I went back
upstairs and resumed scanning slides but did not finish the reel.  My goal was a
reel a day.


Aug 27, 2019 Tuesday Flex ducts

I finished up scanning the reel of the West vacation slides.  That was an
amazing trip featuring Tucson, Kitt Peak, Albuquerque, White Sands and the Grand
Canyon in addition to Monument Valley.  I looked for an easy way to geo-
reference and change the dates of the slides but so far have been unsuccessful.
Around 11 AM I went under the house to work on replacing the duct runs that
interfere with the proposed triple 2x6 support beam.  I removed 2 runs, vacuumed
the floor under them and applied mastic to the metal stubs.  After sliding the
flex duct onto the mastic I fastened the zip ties and then tightened them with
the zip tie gun.  This thing works pretty good once I figured out how to use it.
The stubs on the main duct are pretty stubby or short.  I hope there’s enough
there to grip and hold the flex duct onto it.  This was one of the main reasons
I stuck with the mastic even though it is a mess pushing the duct onto wet
mastic.  My fingers get coated with the stuff and worse I have to thread a zip
tie on and use the tensioning gun with sticky hands. Hopefully the mastic will
stop the zip tie from slipping off the duct.  I’m generally happy with the
installation.  I crawled out of there tired and sore.  I took a shower and then
vegetated.  Libbie was also wiped out.  She emptied a few cabinets of unused
dishes and hauled them to Habitat  as a donation.  We haven’t used this stuff in
40 years. We still have a lot of junk in our house that we don’t use.   Dinner
tonight was Chinese takeout.  We had our usual 2 egg rolls, 3 meat Szechuan and
several glasses of Cabernet.  I was basically drunk by the end of the meal in
addition to having limited mobility because of my work in the crawl space. After
dinner I started scanning the 1983 Charleston-Epcot trip which is boring because
so far it’s  just Charleston homes.  They are beautiful but I don’t need scanned
slides of the homes.  It would be much better to spend a weekend there and shoot
digital pix.


Aug 28, 2019 Wednesday Day Off

I was sore today from the crawl space work yesterday.  I stayed inside and
worked on scanning the Charleston-Disney trip. Surprisingly we had the Sally
Ride Space Shuttle launch pictures at the end of this roll and also a cactus
greenhouse that I did not recognize.  The greenhouse created a map of the US out
of Cactus. I did a building supply run to Home Depot and bought the 2x6s and
Jack Posts.  I had a concern about fitting 12 2x6s in the Prius, 9 of them 12
feet long.  I stacked them on the center console between the seats. They stuck
out about 2 feet beyond the tailgate.  The 5 jack posts were placed on the floor
next to the 2x6 load.  Everything made it  home without incident.  I had a 10%
off coupon which I used on the $300 purchase saving me $30. After the Home Depot
purchase I did a Walmart grocery run while Libbie had an eye Dr appointment for
her cataract surgery.  Her surgery will be Oct 1 with follow up surgery 3 weeks
later and then possibly another trip in Nov for a follow up. I did some
searching online for something to write meta tags and did find anything.  I
ended up watching a YouTube Video about adding GPS coordinates to pictures via
Lightroom and decided this was probably the best way to do it.  I added the
pictures scanned to date  to imageDb where I’ll deal with geo referencing later.
Dinner tonight was Quesadilla.  It was so good I want it tomorrow night as well.
The thing that works so well is the Costco Salsa sauce.  It is rich, thick and
delicious with a touch of heat.  After dinner I tried organizing what I had
scanned so far.  I completely filled a box with scanned slides so I have to
prepare an index sheet for a new box.  The index sheets are being photographed
and placed on Life Bits.


Aug 29, 2019 Thursday Duct Work

I went under the house this morning and finished up the ductwork by replacing
the last two ducts with flexible ducting.  I don’t like the way the flex
attaches to the stubs of the main duct.  The stubs are too short which means the
stub is just barely long enough to attach the flex duct and the zip tie.  I
moved all the 12 foot 2x6s into the crawl space ready to be installed.  I will
have to hang them temporarily from a 2x2 short board attached to the joists
before putting in the jack posts to support them.   Putting in the ductwork
today was not too bad. I spent time in the morning before doing the duct work
working on Paypal for Lone Star. It looks like I have to generate some API stuff
in the Soap interface. I continued scanning slides today.  This time it is the
slides of the house construction of Rosecommon Lane and Downing Place.  It looks
like Lightroom is what I’ll have to use to modify the meta data.  There may be a
problem geo referencing because I read a few things that said that maps are not
supported in older versions of Lightroom which is what I have. For dinner
tonight I made chicken Quesadilla which we had with a few glasses of Cabernet.
After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna at the Epcot Food and Wine festival.
Those two are crazy.  This morning they were in line at 4 AM for the 4:30 AM
opening of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.


August 30, 2019 Friday Easy Day

I’m still sore from yesterday and also a little lazy.  I got Paypal working for
Lonestar. It required logging into Paypal then requesting access to the API. A
code was texted to Vickie who then forwarded it to me. It allowed me to request
the API certificate and signature which I copied and pasted into the shopping
cart.  I notified Richard Craft that Paypal was configured and within an hour I
heard from him that he successfully registered with Paypal.  I was holding my
breath and relieved to hear it worked.  I scanned a few more rolls of slides
including Hatteras Camping which I apparently had scanned a few years back.
This time I scanned at a larger size which is questionable whether it was better
or not.  I also found a treasure which was a Bell-Howell box labeled “Specials”.
It was all of the photos that could be framed because the content and
composition were artistic and visually pleasing. Dinner tonight was spaghetti
with Mozzarella cheese. Before and after dinner I enjoyed Josh and Jenna on
Resort TV 1 broadcasting on behalf of a charity called Give Kids The World.  I
watched it all the way to the end of the fireworks which they streamed from the
top of Bay tower. Bay tower is where we stayed while at Disney.  Josh and Jenna
were able to get into the private club “Top of the World” on Bay Tower which is
reserved for Disney Vacation Club members and their guests.


Aug 31, 2019 Saturday Floor supports

I went under the house today with the air compressor and the nail gun and put up
the first 2x6.  I need to create a 7 foot long calibrated stick for measuring
distance off the back foundation wall.  It’s too hard with just a flexible tape
measure.  I struggled to get the board up.  I built a web sling but that came
down so I built a wire sling that seemed to work.  I then used a Jack Post to
hold the beam against the floor joist so I could drive a few nails into it with
the nail gun.  This seemed to work well.  I’m fighting a few sagging floor
joists since they all don’t meet my 2x6 evenly.  Some of them have a gap between
the extra support and the joist.  I’m still not sure how to deal with this.  I
hope installing the jack posts along the 2x6 will help more.  I only put one up
before I quit for lunch and decided not to continue.  This is harder than I
imagined. In the afternoon I enjoyed scanning some slides from a reel labeled
College 1.  The subject matter seemed to be FIT in Dec 67 of standalone
buildings.  I don’t know why I took those slides except maybe it was a new
camera.  I remember having a new Mamiya 500DTL which had dual metering, both
spot and average.  The shutter and F stop were manual but the light meter was in
the viewfinder so settings were easy.  Focus was also manual.  Hard to believe
that it took so much effort to take a picture.  I did not finish scanning the
roll of slides, I have about another half roll to go. Dinner tonight was shrimp
peelers with broccoli and many glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched
Resort TV streaming from Crescent Lake in the Disney Yacht Club area.  They took
a private Disney boat which holds 10 and went into Epcot on the  lake to watch
Illuminations from the boat.  The boat had snacks onboard as well as pizza.  It
looked like fun and I enjoyed watching it.  When it was over I was sore and had
muscle cramps from the earlier crawling around under the house and then laying
on the floor watching Resort TV.


Sept 1, 2019 Sunday Floor beams, slides

After the Sunday morning news shows I went under the house and worked some more
on the beams.  I have 2 Jack Posts now installed and the first 12 feet of triple
beam and even more linear feet of both a double and a single beam.  This will
continue tomorrow.  For the section of the beam I have completed which is in the
lowest clearance of the crawl space I used the webbing to hold up the flexible
duct work completing the job in those sections.  I also had to move the brace
which was holding up the sewer line so the beam could be installed.  I’m not
sure at this point but I think the kitchen floor is more firm where I finished
the triple beam. I resumed scanning the college slides.  These were from 1967
and 1968 and featured mostly dorm life.  I was shocked at the smoking going on
in dorm rooms.  Yuck! Libbie made her outstanding pizza once again for dinner.
It was with a brand new dough from scratch and was really good.  We had a few
glasses of Cabernet with dinner.  This finishes the Cabernet with no plans for
more wine this week until we get to Alaska.  After dinner we went to Brusters
for Ice Cream. I had the usual Chocolate Truffle cone.  We accumulated enough
points for a $5 ice cream credit which bought us a free cone.


Sept 2, 2019 Labor Day Monday Beams and slides again

I finished up the roll of slides labeled College 1 and retrieved College 2 from
the slide shelves in the workshop.  This will be next. I did a grocery run to
Walmart mostly because I needed tissues.  We were totally out and the box on the
downstairs end table next to my chair was out.  After Walmart and lunch I went
under the house and began the beam work again.  The 12 foot boards are unwieldy
threading them over the flexible ducts and into the wire slings I created  to
hold them.  I installed one more Jack Post, that’s now 3 out of 5 posts.  The
beams are at a point now where they need to be notched to clear the gas line
which runs out to the grill.  This is almost to the chimney.  I quit around 5
and came in for a shower then fell asleep laying on the bed afterwards while
watching YouTube’s Jenna cover the Halloween Treats at Disney world. Dinner
tonight was Chicken Quesadilla in the air fryer.  We did not have any wine but
finished up Christa’s bottle of Margarita Mix and had a glass each with our pre
dinner snack.  I treated myself to Pepper Jack cheese and had it with our
snacks.   I planned to return to slide scanning after dinner but never returned
and instead did some reading and went to bed.


Sept 3, 2019 Tuesday Clean Up

During GMA I uploaded a judges Handbook addendum for Mary Corondon and then
built an album for Richard Craft’s Horticultural photos and uploaded them to the
website. After GMA this morning I ran out to Costco for Wetting Solution and
Wine.  Wow was the store busy.  I even had to wait in line at the self checkout.
NExt I put the canvas down in the back of the Prius and spread it over the back
of the chairs to protect them from fiberglass.  I loaded the ducts covered with
disintegrating insulation into the back and stacked the fluorescent light
housings on top complete with tubes.  The dump has significantly changed.  There
is a huge steel shed with the dumpsters underneath and various stations for
different scrap materials.  Mine was judged to be scrap metal but they made me
take out the tubes and bring them to Household Hazardous Waste.  I got rid of
everything then stopped in Walmart on the way home for toothpaste and deodorant,
items with brands I like that are not in Costco.  At home I picked up all the
scrap insulation pieces left behind by the ducts and vacuumed the canvas drop
cloth and the inside of the Prius.  All this really wore me down and it was only
noon. I spent the rest of the day scanning slides, reading and doing some
organization for our trip. Dinner was Chicken Parmesan in the air fryer, french
fries and broccoli along with a few glasses of Cabernet.


Sept 4, 2019 Wednesday Packing

I finished scanning the roll of College II slides today and then turned the mail
off at the post office.  I had to do a clothing run to both Costco and Walmart
for more socks and underwear.  I don’t have enough to make it 20 days, I could
only find 12 pairs of each.  The shirts are fine for the entire trip.  I’m
bringing mostly long sleeved flannel shirts and a few polo shirts. Dinner
tonight was spaghetti.  I chopped up some green pepper and onion for mine.  It
was delicious and I would have had to throw it away since we leave tomorrow.  We
decided at the last minute to take a 3rd checked bag to handle our overflow.
Alaska will allow 2 free checked bags each because we are First Class.


Sept 5, 2019 Juneau

We got up at 4 and out the door at 4:20AM for our 6:30 AM flight on Alaskan Air.
Everything went smoothly putting us at the gate at around 5:20 AM.  The flight
left on time but was pretty rough over NC because of the hurricane.  The plane
bounced up and down and side  to side.  The crew was instructed to remain seated
as we flew out through the outer bands of hurricane Dorian which currently is
off Charleston, SC. Once clear of the Smokey Mountains the flight was remarkably
smooth.  We were served a breakfast of a Caprese omelet which was an egg folded
over tomato and mozzarella with Spinach.  Accompanying breakfast was a fruit
plate and a blueberry muffin.  Our next flight out of San Francisco was very
smooth.  We went out the same gate but on a different plane.  This was very
convenient. On the plane we had lunch consisting of a chicken and mozzarella
sandwich.  It was delicious and came with chips and a piece of Seattle chocolate
which was yummy. We also received warm nuts.  Once in Seattle we had to take a
train from the C gates to the N gates. We found the Alaskan Air First Class
Lounge up one level above the gates.  We had a glass of red wine and some trail
mix.  The lounge was incredibly nice.  It had comfy chairs, WiFi and a wonderful
view overlooking the runway.  It was also very quiet and a nice respite from the
Airport terminal.  On the next flight we were offered lunch again but instead
requested chips and wine.  They also served a dish of warmed nuts.  The service
on this flight was over the top good. Out flight attendant was a young pretty
blonde who was incredibly friendly and attentive.  Service was over the top
excellent. We landed 15 minutes early in Juneau.  Uncruise was right there to
pick us up as well as several other Uncruise passengers who are traveling on a
variety of Uncruise tours.  We got a harbor view room which was wonderful.  We
have room 302 on the third floor.  We walked across the street to Tracy's Crab
Shack and ordered one  combo meal which was crab bisque, 4 mini crabcakes and a
crab leg.  We ordered separately a second bowl of crab bisque then split the
combo.  We had this with a glass of Alaskan Amber.  We hit the bed when it was
still daylight because we were exhausted.  Juneau is 4 hours behind so for us 8
PM was really midnight.


Sept 6, 2019 Friday Downtown Juneau

We went downstairs to breakfast in the Sports Bar which is not associated with
the hotel.  They open at 7 so we were one of the first customers.  I ordered the
Classic breakfast which was 2 eggs, hash browns, toast and bacon for $12.  It
was quite a bit of food.  We invited Anne and Joan to join us. We met them
yesterday on the Uncruise transfer.  They are two widowed traveling step
sisters, one from Seattle and one from Annapolis.  We found out Joan was 85.
After breakfast we hung around the room for a while then took a walk through
downtown.  I found some Klingit Note Cards I would like to frame and hang next
to our Panamanian Molas but did not buy.  One building in particular was called
the Senate Building.  It looked like it could be a Government building from way
back.  It now was a series of art shops with a particularly good quilt shop
exhibiting a lot of Alaskan fabrics and quilts.  We then walked to Tracy’s Crab
Shack and had lunch.  I had an Alaskan Crab roll which was 4 ounces of crab meat
in a bun topped with slaw.  Libbie had the lobster bisque.  We met a couple
there who were on a Disney cruise.  They pointed out the Disney ship. We tried
to walk down there but the Pier ended so we turned back. We met a local guy who
moved here 30 years ago from Kansas.  He was friendly and showed us an old gold
mine building across the street then told us about the ships, etc.  He was a
nice guy. We wandered back to our hotel and rested after a very tiring day. My
side of the bed doesn’t have a nightstand or any power which is an issue because
the tablet is pretty low. I lay on the bed and researched dinner venues.  Juneau
doesn’t have any fine dining. In the end we went to Tracy’s Crab Shake.  We
ordered 2 legs, a bowl of crab bisque for Libbie and 4 mini crab cakes for me.
We each had a glass of Alaskan Amber.  We wanted to walk to the Whale Sculpture
but in the end decided to go back.  Our tummies were full and we were tired.
Back in the room I watched Josh and Jenn for a while at Mickey’s Halloween
Party.  The park was pretty deserted most likely because many people canceled
their vacation plans due to the hurricane which never happened.  This morning we
saw the eye was crossing Hatteras but our camera showed no wind at home.  I
guess the worst of it was when we flew out Thursday.


Sept 7, 2019 Saturday Uncruise

Today we have to check out and drop our luggage at the Uncruise desk next door
in the Convention Center.  We had the Classic breakfast again in the restaurant.
The food is great.  The coffee is lousy.


Breakfast was in the Hotel Sports Bar, McGyvinny.  After breakfast we took a
walk towards the Douglas Bridge where there is a nice little Sea Park with a
breaching whale statue.  It shoots out water about every 15 minutes.  Libbie
took a terrific picture of the whale.  Because of the infinity pool it looked
like the whale was actually in the Gastineau Channel in Juneau. She posted it on
Facebook and several friends were fooled until she fessed up to what she did.
Ken and Susan and their traveling companions all joined us at the Civic Center
next to the hotel that is used by Uncruise for their transfers.  We all walked
across the street to Tracy's for lunch.  We ordered 2 Crab Bisques for lunch and
split an order of 6 crab cakes.  With lunch we each ordered an Alaskan Amber.
After lunch we walked downtown where I was able to pick up a Tjlinket painting
called "Nurturing Raven".  At 4:45 as scheduled, Sarah from Uncruise led us to
the Wilderness Explorer where we were shown to our cabin.  Our baggage was
already onboard.  After all the instructions, boat tour, etc we met a lot of the
crew including Charli the Hotel Manager, Tara the bartender, Danni one of the
expedition leaders.  Danni was on our Costa Rica trip 2 years ago and Charli was
the bartender on the Legacy of the Columbia River wine cruise. We sat with Laura
and Jim, Joan and Ann for dinner.  We had Sockeye Salmon with a beet glaze,
fingerling potatoes, roasted green beans in a sauce and dessert was a Chocolate
Mousse with chocolate wafers and pistachio nuts.  I was drinking an excellent
Red Blend called Two Mountains Red Blend.  I did not stay up for the evening
talk by the expedition leader Kelly but heard it over the PA in our stateroom.
Our cabin is teeny tiny, probably the smallest that we have had so far on all
our Uncruise adventures. I tried reading my Behind the Disney Rides book but
fell asleep.  I slept well.


Sept 8, 2019 Sunday Haines

We got up at midnight when they announced that the Northern Lights were visible.
We went outside in the cold windy air as the boat plowed North.  The nightime
sky was beautiful and the Northern Lights streaked across the sky in an arc.  I
thought it was a little green. Libbie didn't think there was any color. It was
my first time of my adult life that I have seen the Northern Lights.  I don't
remember where I was seeing them as a Boy Scout I think.  Breakfast was a
buffet.  I had a Veggie Fritata with potatoes and bacon.  Drink was coffee.  I
did a morning explore Haines with Kay.  Since it was Sunday there was nothing
open.  It might have been interesting seeing some of the Art Galleries.  Libbie
went Kayaking with one of the Barbi entourage.  I came back on the skiff for a
buffet lunch.  I saw the Sangria on the bar and had to have it.  It was the
specialty drink of the day.  For lunch I had a salad with Blueberry Vinagraitte,
chicken and veggies greek style, some polenta and Baklava for dessert. Libbie
joined me at 1:30 for a slow interpretive walk which lasted around 1 1/2 hours
on the Chilkote Trail that we were driven to by a shuttle van.  Our guide was
outstanding.  He studied glaciers and their history in college so we learned
about the woods we were walking in. It was a fun but tiring experience. My
camera battery died so I put it on the charger when we got back to the room.
Dinner tonight was Alskan Halibut and a Vanilla Ice Cream with raspberry sauce
for dessert.  I switched to the Cabernet for dinner but liked the mixed blend
Better.


Sept 9, 2019 Monday Glacier Bay

This morning we stopped to pick up a Ranger for Glacier Bay.  I had a bagel and
bacon for breakfast then we listened to the glacier talk from our Ranger. They
had a midmorning brunch today of pulled pork, black beans and tortilla with sour
cream and guac.  I only had water with the meal since it was morning.  I'm
trying not to drink alcohol in the morning.  We arrived at Margie glacier at
12:30.  This is the top of the park where 3 glaciers come together, Margie,
Ferris and Grand Pacific. The Sony camera is not great on batteries.  My fully
charged battery was down to 30% in a few hours.  The Canon point and shoot is
doing much better.  During the day I requested a Gin Martini which was
fantastic. Somewhere during the day I had a Hot Chocolate with Peppermint
Schnappes as well. Wow, incredibly good. We traveled to the top of Glacier Bay
at the North end which is 60 miles from the entrance at the South end.  Along
the way we found Puffens on South Marble Island.  We saw some enormous calving
of the Margie Glacier. A huge chunk broke off and caused a tremendous Tsunami
moving the boat up and down on the water.  On the way back down to Beacon Cove
which is the entrance we saw some Mountain Goats on the cliffs of sheer vertical
granite high in the air.  These goats are amazing. We got off the boat at
Bartlett Cove to see if the WiFi was on.  The lodge is closed for the season and
Molly, our Park Ranger, said the Visitor Center is closed for the season. We
went up the drive from the dock and sat at the picnic tables outside the
Visitors Center and hooked to the WiFi.  It was a great signal.  I went through
the eMails, there was nothing important. Dinner tonight was Stuffed peppers with
coconut sauce and Saffron rice. The peppers could use a little more cooking. We
unfortunately sat with Kren and Phil, two of the Barbi crowd of friends.  They
are high maintenance complainers from the sun through the window shade to the
quality of the lamb and what they were wearing for dinner.  I didn't like them
at all.  Hopefully we won't sit with them again.  Dessert was an over the top
chocolate cheesecake in an Oreo Crust with berries.  This was the best dessert
ever. After our little excursion to Bartlett Cove we came back to the boat and
went to bed at 8:30 PM.  It was another long but fantastic day.


Sept 10, 2019 Tuesday Hiking and Skiff Riding

I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast this morning. My pre-breakfast was a
delicious Cheese Danish which I had with Coffee.  At 10 AM we went out for a
meandering walk with Sarah.  She is quite the Botanist. We examined mushrooms,
sphagnum moss, banana slugs, Yarrow and other incredibly beautiful plants in the
wild.  This was Georges Island which was the site for gun placement during WWII.
We found some evidence of gun containers and cables on the island which were
left as rusting scrap or historic relics.  Another group did a 5 mile hike to
visit the gun location but our group was not the serious hikers, we were the
meandering group.  We came back just as lunch was served.  I had a salad and a
bowl of seafood chowder.  This was fantastic.  Along the way this week I have
been reading the Behind the Scenes book or book 3 of the trilogy Disney
Demystified advertised by Resort TV 1.  The book is fascinating but it is really
poorly written. After lunch we rode to Inian Island where the activity was a
skiff tour. i signed up for the Pontoon boat which has the aluminum rails for a
back support, Even then it was a pretty long ride to be in a skiff.  I enjoyed
the Sea Otters swimming on their backs and especially enjoyed one with a baby on
it's belly. Cute.  It makes me wish I purchased the Sea Otter stone carving. I'm
not a big fan of skiff riding but it's better than kayaking which is what Libbie
did today with Susan. Once we got back I started charging my camera battery and
working on this journal.  I'm very glad I brought the computer but really wished
I had WiFi. Dinner tonight was Dungeness Crab which I had with a glass of Red
Blend wine. The dinner was buffet style so I took a nice crab and also found a
claw. After dinner Kelly gave a talk on Piddipeds which are mammals with fins
instead of fingers.  She had a lot of info and cute pics of Sea Otters and their
babies cruising on Mama's tummy.  She had some nice pics of the one we saw today
that she had taken with a pretty good zoom lens.  The talk was over at 9 PM so
we went straight to bed.


Sept 11, 2019 Wednesday Kuku Island

After breakfast in the morning we went out for a beach walk with NAte. We
wandered the tidepools turning over rocks and observing hermit crabs.  Libbie
found an underwater caterpillar called a zerotope.  Nate is a g odd naturalist
explaining the things we found which included jelly fish, sea urchins and little
darting fish called scults.  Any spelling of this stuff is guess work on my part
in this journal.  I found a skeleton which included verterbrae and rib bones. It
was mostly intact with the exception of the skull. Nate's best guess was that it
was a sea otter. This was an enjoyable non strenuous walk. After a lunch of wrap
sandwiches and potato salad I went out with Dani for a Bushwack. She is not the
botanist that Nate or Sarah is but she is an adventurer and has an adventurous
spirit.  We walked in very thick brush at times and did quite a bit of elevation
that it got my heart rate up considerably.  It was also hot in my Rain Jacket.
The LL Bean rain jacket was an excellent purchase last month.  On the way back
our boat driver gave us a tour along the shore where a sea otter swimming.  We
slowed the boat down and cruised along at his speed watching him swim and twist
and turn.  In the evening just before dinner we encountered a large pod of
humpbacks feeding in Frederick Sound.  They surrounded the boat surfacing and
diving. Dinner tonight was half and half short ribs and crab stuffed white fish
(scrod).  Both were yummy.  I had a MArtini before dinner and at least 3 or 4
glasses of Malbec.  I need to slow down on the alcohol. I went up to bed right
after dinner since it was almost 9 oclock PM in a jam packed day.

Sept 12, 2019 Thursday Petersburg

I had French Toast and bacon for breakfast then boarded a skiff at 9:05 to go
for a slow meander with Ted.  The path had two planks side by side keeping it
dry.  Covering the planks was netting to keep it non slip.  Unbelievable! The
forest was a lovely green, covered with moss and fallen trees.  The walk went
along the edge of the water.  Eventually we went off of the pth nd down to the
beach to explore a shipwreck and other beach oddities.  There were many boat
parts including an entire engine block and other rusting iron parts.  On the way
back our driver was Sabrina who likes to open the throttle.  The rain pelted us
hard as we sped along to the ship.  Once onboard it was time to warm up and also
time for lunch.  I had a baked potato stuffed with 3 bean chili and topped with
Tapatio.  Wow, was it good.  An Alaskan Amber topped the meal.  The boat had no
more CO2 for beer but Charli had a cool work around.  She attached the CO2 from
the soda gun to the beer taps to give us beer.  This of course shut down the
soda operation until more CO2 could come back aboard.  Al in all it was an
excellent lunch.  We had this lunch with Ken and Susan.  The dining room was
empty since many hikes were still out including a 7 1/2 hour all day hike to the
top of the mountain. After lunch we took the second skiff out to downtown.  As
we got half way to the docks it started pouring rain.  I had my LL Bean rain
coat but my rain paints were back on the boat. My jeans got soaking wet but
surprisingly dried out quickly when the sun came out.  We walked down Egan St
along the waters edge stopping into a little art gallery at first.  Tjlinkit
prints of a drawing of a salmon and then later of an owl were priced at almost
$200 so I passed. We enjoyed the trash cans painted with labels from the
canneries since Petersburg is a fishing village.  There are a number of very
good hardware stores in the town.  Ken Barbi bought a pair of real Alaskan Boots
in an Ace Hardware for $21. They look like the real deal. We found the library
and took a picture of the outside.  It's a nice new  modern building.  Inside
there were comfy chairs and very good WiFi. Libbie wanted me to check Blue Iris
because of predicted storms for Raleigh but everything looked as calm as could
be.  I checked over the mails, there didn't seem to be too much except for a $4k
Cap One Bill that I'll deal with when we return. I should have also checked Home
Depot since I bought all the stuff for under the house for my floor
reinforcement project that is not done. Dinner tonight was poached Halibut which
was delicious. We sat with a woman, Karen, from Kissimmee who was with her Son.
The Son works at "Give Kids the World".  The Son had some issues with speech and
hearing but seemed to be nice.  His name was Tommy.  After dinner we stayed for
expedition leader Sarah's talk on edible plants in the wilderness.  She is an
amateur Botanist and is quite the expert at identifying mushrooms and berries.
The Captain spoke with us this evening and said we were going to be sailing
through some rough seas and high winds tomorrow.  We may not have any activities
off the boat.


Sept 13, 2019 Friday Rough Seas

Our boat swayed and rocked overnight in rough seas.  When I woke this morning I
skipped my shower because the boat was rocking so bad.  It was quite foggy and
rainy outside as the boat pitched and tipped.  Breakfast was a prosciuto and
parmesan Quiche which I really liked.  I had sausage with breakfast and a
Raspberry Croissant before breakfast. It was a morning of cruising looking for a
calmer path in a more protected cove to get out of the wind and waves. I did
quite a bit of journaling catch up as well as writing my story "the
entrepreneurs". Lunch was pulled pork over bread with BBQ sauce and an Alaskan
Amber.  I continued writing the entrepreneur story and reading the Forgotten
Road by Richard Paul Evans.  We were scheduled to go out on a Skiff in an area
that had at least 50 Bald Eagles looking down from the trees but it was pouring
rain and pretty cold so we bailed out.  Many others had as well.  We saw one
skiff go out with only 4 people on board.  It was a beautiful calm cove with an
abundance of eagles but i was tired and had no desire to go outside and get wet.
I enjoyed the down time to catch up on my journal and write a little bit. Dinner
tonight was Koho Salmon with a fantastic and sinful chocolate dessert with
berries and wafers of chocolate.  They are feeding us too well.  Dani was the
presenter tonight and gave a talk on Native Art.  IT was pretty interesting but
I was getting sleepy and left towards the end.


Sept 14, 2019 Saturday Misty Fjords


We sailed into Misty Fjords this morning during breakfast.  Breakfast was an
over easy egg with ham slices and potato wedges.  This morning we skiff rode in
Walker Cove.  What a beautiful morning with high cliff walls and waterfalls
running down everywhere.  We saw an abundance of eagles both in the trees and
walking around on the meadow or beach araa.  The skiff ride was spectacular as
we visited a cove with a water fall and then cruised under an eagle sitting
above us in a tree.  It was quite nice except that it started pouring rain on
the way back.  Lunch looked like a dinner meal.  I had Macaroni and Salmon
salad, braised beef, veggies and corn chowder.  An Alaskan Amber completed the
meal. In the afternoon we cruised the Misty Fjords.  What a spectacular sight.
The boat pulled right up to a waterfalls cascading down the granite wall showing
how deep the water is right at the base of the granite walls. We were told it's
over 600 feet deep.  We saw a number of float planes as we visited Owl Face and
then into xxyyxx crater?  There were site after beautiful site on all sides of
the boat.  Eventually it was dinner time.  We had Halibut Ceviche, Artic Char
over risotto and veggies.  With dinner I had a few glasses of the red blend.
Earlier I had a Martini and pretzels covered with beer cheese.  We went to bed
after dinner.


Sept 15, 2019 Sunday Ketchican

This morning for breakfast I had fluffy pancakes, a few potatoes and bacon.  We
pulled into Ketchican and tied up.  At 8:45 we had a city tour with Old Joe, a
Tjlinkit Indian from the Eagle clan.  He was great.  We learned an Eagle can
only marry a Raven.  Whether you are an Eagle or a Raven is dependant on your
Mother.  If your Father as a Raven married an Eagle then you are an Eagle. We
had an interesting tour of downtown and the Brothels of Salmon? Creek.  Joe said
they tried to take men's money in the 1920s and still are doing that today as
gift shops. Joe has a FB page I need to checkout called Where The Eagle Walks.
After the tour I picked up a few Tjlinkit art prints and a DVD of their legacy
in an effort to learn more, especially for my blog. We stopped at a coffee shop
ad used their WiFi for the cost of 2 hot chocolates.  We sat at picnic benches
outside but the number of smokers was horrible.  I was miserable. We came back
to the ship for lunch which was a veggie lasagna, salad and a glass of Alaskan
Amber.  We got our laundry back nicely folded in the bag.  We then went out
again to meander among tourist shops.  The cruise ships are awful and the shops
they collect is even worse.  There are nice native owned shops among the trashy
trash. We cme back inside and I went to the top or 400 deck to see Ken's
satellite terminal.  He has an old LNB and a router powered by a LIPO battery.
HE logs into the router and gets low speed satellite data consisting of RSSI
feeds and weather from all over the world.  Bit race is in the 20 kbit range,
exceedingly slow. We had dinner with Gordon and Cameron tonight.  I had a
MArtini then a glass of Red Blend with comboy caviar which is a black bean and
corn salad with tortilla chips.  Dinner was a very nice garlic shrimp with
risotta.  Gordon was a Forensic investigator in San Francisco while his wife is
still employed as a micro biologist at an aquarium associated with the Monterrey
aquarium. There was a talent show at night which was entertaining.  Libbie
stayed for it while I went back to the room and listened in from the room
speaker. Our guide Sarah (with an H) has an identical twin sister Megan that is
joining the cruise with us as a replacement for Danni.


September 16, 2019 Monday Cruising

Today we have a time change up one hour to now agree with the West Coast which I
call Seattle time. Breakfast was later this morning at 8 PM because there were
no activities today, only cruising. Breakfast was an egg over easy with a few
potatoes and 2 sausage patties.  I spent a lot of time reading having finished
Book 2 of the Route 66 walk series and now I'm starting book 3, The Road Home.
We had a lunch of sandwiches.  I had turkey on Fociaca bread along with
Vegetable Soup and a green salad with pepper dressing.  The afternoon led to a
galley tour and a talk by the Chef.  The Galley is surprisingly small
considering the amount of food that comes out of there.  We had a Q&A about
sustainable seafood and locally sourced veggies and meats.  They do an
incredibly good job with the quality of the food.  They arrange for the fresh
produce with local grocers so we have fresh greens and fresh berries. They are
predicting rough seas overnight.  Dinner tonight was panko crusted white fish
with Cajun Aoili sauce and veggies. I liked the fish a lot. I should have
skipped dessert which was an Oreo crusted white pudding.  We had a little
anniversary celebration tonight for Ken and Susan since it was their 37th.  We
sat with Ken & susan and Phil and Kara.  Kara is incredibly dumb. Back in the
room I


September 17, 2019 Tuesday Rough Seas


I had scrambled eggs and Ham slices for breakfastt at 7:30 because we were going
to enter the Pacific today with gale force winds.  They tied everything down on
the boat and warned everyone to find a seat and stay put.  Take Dramamine if you
have a tendency to get sea sick.  I was fine.  I didn't think the sea was that
rough. In fact I actually enoyed the up and down motion a little.  I recorded
video on my tablet of the waves and boat rocking. Eventually I saw some Pacific
Dolphins. Ken had a very nice GPS app called Mavrick on his phone.  I want it on
my phone for next time we do a trip.  Once the roughness was over we had a 12:30
lunch that was delicious.  It was sweet and sour chicken, Green salad with Mint
Berry Dressing, brown rice with Red Thai Chili Sauce and Cucumber Kimchi.  Wow,
good.  We had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with lunch. Afternoon was much calmer
as we continued cruising along having made it across Charlotte Sound. Dinner
tonight was Cod topped with a tomato reduction that I don't think went with the
delicious fish.  Accompanying the meal was pollenta and green beans.  Dessert
was another out of this world creation of a tropical Creme Brule with candied
lime and candied lemon surrounded by berries.  Wow, was this good!!!  I want the
recipe for this one.  There was Act 1 of the murder mystery where the captain
was murdered.  Everyone participating had interesting costumes with the funnies
being the janitor played by a guy with black briefs and a short kilt.  If he was
a girl it would be much more interesting but it was funny none the less.  After
dinner we stayed for Meghan's talk on Railroad magnate Harry Harriman who bought
a steamship and invited world scientists and writers including John Muir to
cruise to Alaska. The guy was responsible for the gold spike of the
transcontinental railroad and was into science so much he funded scientists with
onboard laboratory equipment to make the journey.


Sept 18, 2019 Wednesday Beautiful Day

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes.  Before breakfast I had a
Mixed Berry Muffin.  The morning we spent time on the top deck watching a large
city go by and then several pods of Whales feeding.  We saw a nice lighthouse
with red roof and 3 whale watching boats as our channel opened up into a very
wide bay. Lunch was spaghetti with a very nice Mrinara Sauce and garlic bread.
After lunch we continued cruising down the inner pssge.  I used the time to
finish the Road series with the "Road Home" and found another John Paul Evans
Book, The Mistletoe Inn. Dinner tonight was Koho Salmon with potatoes and
veggies. Dessert was an oreo cake and vanilla ice cream with berries. After
dinner I went out the back of the boat and took some sunset pictures.


Sept 19, 2019 Thursday San Juan islands

fter eggs over easy with sausge we prepred for a meander hike after a Skiff Ride
to a state park.  Ted was our leader.  The hike was mildly interesting.  We saw
the Mandarone tree with it's peeled red and yellow bark, walked along a
sandstone wall with fossil shells and watched Harlequin Ducks.  It was foggy
when we went out but cleared up pretty good by the end of our hike.  The sun
strted breaking through.  After a lunch of hamburgers, potato wedges, slaw and
clam chowder with an Alaskan Amber we got onto a skiff that was supposed to be a
skiff and meander but ended up being a skiff only as we chased down a solo Orca
that we never found.  The fog and rain had moved in.  I found out the Amazon
Spheres required tickets and that they were sold out for Saturday.  We will try
going anyway to see if there is a standby list.  We had dinner tonight with
Gordon and Cameron from Oakland. I had the Halibut which was outstanding with
risotto, mixed veggies and mushrooms and mushroom soup.  Dessert was a carrot
cake.  Our table mates were celebrating their 30th anniversary.  He is retired
but she is still working.  After dinner they were doing a jeopardy game that we
lsitened to on the PA from our room.  This morning I paid the $700 gratuity
which was $25 each per day or $50 x 14 days.  Charli the hotel manager said we
should have gotten a shipboard credit thank you or a gift basket for our 4th
trip.  We got nothing.


Sept 20, 2019 Oympic National Park


I was up  little late today for breakfast.  I had scrambled eggs, chicken
sausage and coffee.  Pre-Breakfast pastry was a blueberry twirl which was
excellent.  We left on the bus to Crystal Lake in the Olympic National Park.  We
did a little hiking and enjoyed Merrymore waterfall after a number of stairs to
get up there.  Marydell said we did 4  miles of hiking.  Libbie and I ate our
boxed lunch in a double Adirondack Chair alongside the lake.  Lunch was a
chicken curry salad sandwich with a brownie.  We had 2 ducks begging for food
but eventually they decided we were not going to feed them so they left.  We got
on the bus for our next destination, the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center.  We
spent 20 minutes there for bathrooms and an intro before going into the park and
up to the top at Hurricane Ridge.  The views were spectacular. We found some
interesting birds, a Canada Jay and an interesting Junco.  All were scrounging
for food.   On the trail I saw a Snow Hare and a Black Tail Deer crossed our
path and meandered along pretty slowly.  Eventually we took the bus back to the
boat through the little town of Port Angeles. Immediately Tara asked me if I
wanted a drink.  I said a Martini which she brought with two Olives and a
sidecar.  Very nice.  We had dinner with Gordon and Cameron and chatted about
his musical parents and also Bonsai. It was the Captains dinner tonight so it
was either Ribeye or Scallops.  I had the Ribeye which was fair along with a
baked potato and several glasses of Red Blend wine.  After dinner we had the
slide show of the 2 week journey.  We covered a lot of ground in 2 weeks. We
were surprised in our cabin when there was a note from Charli and a present of 2
Uncruise jackets. That was nice but mine is too small and I can't figure when we
would wear them.


Sept 21, 2019 Saturday Embarkation

We got up at 5:30 AM this morning to pack our suitcases.  They have to be out
the door by 7 AM so they can be picked up for transfer to the hotel bus.  Our
breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs with the fantastic Uncruise bacon.  I
had a peach Danish after breakfast. We ate with Gordon and Cameron who gave us
his business card.  We exchanged the heavy uncruise jackets from Charli the boat
hotel manager for a fleece jacket and a lightweight poncho.  Libbie can wear
those two items. The bus got lost getting to the dock where our boat was at.  It
went to the wrong dock.  Eventually we got going and arrived at the Crown Plaza
downtown at 10:15.  Sara the activities gave us bad information by telling us
the Crown Plaza was closer to our hotel than the Homewood Suites.  We passed the
Homewood on our way to the Crown Plaza.  This mistake would not have happened if
we had WiFi.  We walked to the Amazon Spheres and tried to get in but their
Security said no because we were not pre ticketed.  We visited the downstairs
public displays instead then walked to the Pikes Place Market.  That places was
awful.  There were two giant cruise ships there that flooded the area.  We ended
up walking back to the Crown Plaza and found a nice quiet Southeast Asian
restaurant named “Ginger”.  I’m going to try replicating the Monk Curry which is
what I had.  It was delicious. We went up to the Crown Plaza to get our
suitcases then called an Uber.  I set up Libbie’s phone for Uber because mine
won’t hold a charge and is slow as molasses. David our Uber drove took us to the
Homewood in his Lexus.  It was a nice ride.  Our Suite looks out on the water
and is very very nice, especially compared to the tiny boat we were on. We
rested on the bed for quite a while before going up the street uphill to
Garibaldi’s Mexican where we had a Margarita and a chicken Quesadilla.  I slept
well afterward relishing the joy of having WiFi again.  I was able to do lots of
stuff I couldn’t do the last 3 weeks. Sept 22, 2019 Sunday Pacific Bonsai Museum
Breakfast downstairs in the Homewood Suites was surprising.  It was a full hot
breakfast buffet.  The coffee was outstanding.  There were a lot of people down
there, most of them waiting to get on a Cruise Ship.  We are near the Cruise
Ship docks. It’s a rainy day which is typical for Seattle.  Unfortunately the
Bonsai Garden we want to go to today is outdoors. We started walking along the
waterfront in a light rain.  We enjoyed the few sculptures in the sculpture
garden and arrived at the whale watching terminal where we decided to call an
Uber.  Earlier today an Uber to the Bonsai garden was $120. We found this was
because of high demand for baseball and football games downtown.   Uber pricing
had now come down to $65 so we called one and got a ride with a driver from
Venezuela named Ender.  We were surprised at how far out the place was and when
we eventually got dropped off.  I also wondered how easy it would be to get an
Uber out here.  The rain picked up quite a bit as we entered the garden but it
seemed so Seattle like.  With overcast skies, steady rain, 100 foot tall
conifers and moss covered buildings it all fit a location in the Northwestern
US.  The garden was spectacular. Even though we were in a constant rain we
enjoyed the many bonsai on display. The architecture and landscaping contributed
to the beauty of the plants. We spent a few hours there in the rain before we
ducked into the bookstore to dry off.  We chatted with the clerk a little about
the garden before calling an Uber.  A local person, Amani from Afghanistan, had
just turned his device on and accepted our request for a ride to downtown.
Traffic was much heavier than our outbound trip.  We settled in the room and
bought some Merlot from the hotel gift shop for $12. We had the leftover
Quesadilla from yesterday with the wine.  Later we decided to order a pizza to
be delivered from Romi Pizza during the Emmy broadcast.  We needed more wine so
walked to the corner Deli named Stella which had a very good wine selection. I
ordered an 18” cheese pizza for $25 with tax and gave the driver a $5 tip.  This
was an expensive meal but very convenient.  We watched the Emmys to the end but
hardly knew any of the shows or the actors.


Sept 23, 2019 Monday Chihuly & Space Needle

After the hotel breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage we researched some
Seattle activities and went outside to begin the walk uphill to the Chihuly
Glass Garden.  The Glass was the best I have ever seen Chihuly do. We then went
outside in the Glass garden and were blown away by the texture and colors of the
plants mingled with Chihuly Glass that perfectly complemented its environment.
We bought a package ticket which included the garden and the space needle with a
timed entry of 10:45.  Libbie went back and changed it to 12:00 because we
wanted more time in the garden.  We took the last 20 minutes to explore the gift
shop.  It’s nicely designed and curated with gift shop items. We then got into
line for our ride up the space needle.  The line was 45 minutes long but went
quickly because we had a lot of posters about the tower construction to
entertain us.  I enjoyed the top of the tower more than I thought I would.  The
second level has a glass floor and rotates.  That was fun. We did a lot of the
selfies in the rain at the top.  They offer selfie stations where we watch a
camera count down and then get a photo. We had to wait in line for a while to
come down but the great news was we rotated while standing in line so the view
was always good.  After the tower we were seated at the Chihuly Collections Cafe
for dinner. This restaurant features some of the collections that Chihuly has
collected.  Our table had bakelite napkin rings and salt-pepper shakers in a
collection under the glass tabletop.  What fun.  For lunch we ordered Dungeness
Crab roll which came with fries.  We also ordered a 5 oz glass of Red Blend
wine.  Lunch was delicious. After lunch we made our way down Thomas St to the
hotel on 2nd.  While passing through the lobby I ordered the shuttle for 9 AM
tomorrow. We went up to our room and found out this opening night of the Met.
They live streamed Porgy and Bess which I mostly listened to.  I was laying on
the bed and fell asleep due to a combination of circumstances.  Good food, good
wine and lots of exercise walking.  I woke during intermission and stayed awake
the rest of the night.  Dinner tonight was leftover pizza with leftover wine.
What a great night.


Sept 24, 2019 Tuesday Going Home

We had the hotel breakfast at 7.  I had French Toast and smoked sausage slices
that looked like Kelbasi and a Poppy Seed Bagel with cream cheese.  We went to
the room and packed our suitcases then came down for pickup by the hotel card
service.  A gentleman picked us up in a giant SUV and took us to the airport for
$45 plus $10 tip.  I didn’t like his driving or his cell phone use while driving
but the ride was comfortable and $20 cheaper than Uber. We got off on time at
11:20 and were surprised to see Blaise and Kathy getting on the plane after we
were seated. We had First Class seats.  Lunch served was a cold Salmon salad
with Tiramitsu dessert and a roll with butter.  I had a glass of red blend with
lunch.   The flight was not smooth.  From the start it was turbulent at times
even when there appeared to be no weather below and we were over the plains, not
the mountains or body of water.  We got into Raleigh almost an hour early which
was good news.  During the flight I managed to finish Friends with Benefits Book
3.  This was the final book and a very nice red that I thoroughly enjoyed
complete with a happy ending. After we fetched our suitcases Park and relax took
my two QR codes I had in the glove box which were point redemptions.  The bill
went from $170 to $151 because I knocked 2 days off.  When I came home I went to
the grocery store and bought milk, muffins and soup.  We had Corn Chowder Soup
for dinner which was a great light start to our return.  I need to lose some
serious weight.


Sept 25, 2019 Wednesday Getting Back

Bad News!!!  I stepped on the scale this morning.  It said I was 242.  Yikes!
The diet starts immediately. Libbie got a call asking if she could have her eye
surgery tomorrow instead of Oct 1.  She agreed. We unpacked our suitcases this
morning and when I confirmed the mouse was really missing I went to Best Buy and
bought another one. I tried to buy tix to Turandot but the theater was sold out
at Crossroads.  At home I saw all the surrounding screens were sold except for
North Hills.  I picked up 2 tickets for there from Fandango. Tomorrow I’ll look
at Sarasota theaters for February. I did many updates to the MAAVS website today
catching up on Memos, convention manual, species ID and convention items.
Everything should now be  up to date. After a lunch of Wild Rice soup I took
Libbie to TDAmeritrade on Weston Pkwy  in Cary so she could deposit the Sisters
check.  On the way home we stopped at Fresh Market for Salmon and a veggie for
dinner. I found a few bonds that looked attractive with 5% yields while doing
research this morning online.  I also bought a REIT yielding 9%, Arbor Realty
(ABR) at 13.12  The CU is only giving 2.2% on CDs.  Dinner tonight was Salmon
with butternut squash and a glass of water instead of wine. I continued
researching financial issues while listening to the live broadcast of MacBeth
from the Met.  I didn’t get to bed until after 11.


Sept 26, 2019 Thursday Eye Day

This morning I had a normal cereal breakfast but Libbie was not allowed to eat
anything.  We left at 9 AM for Duke Hospital.  The parking garage was amazingly
full.  We parked on the top deck and then got a ride to the front entrance in a
golf cart because of construction around the deck pedestrian entrance.  The
surgery only takes 10 minutes!  The prep and the after care is much much more.
We came home at 2 PM.  I put eye drops in her eyes, one drop from each of 3
bottles.  I then went to Foodlion and picked up some salad fixings, soup and
spaghetti.  I fixed the soup for lunch then later in the evening I made
spaghetti for the first time ever.  It needed more sauce.  I started reading the
Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans.  I really like his writing.  I went to
bed at 11 reading the book until tired.  Today I received a bill for UBI taxes
from TdAmeritrade for the Roth IRA.  Since the account only has $54 and the bill
is 2139 I have some work to do juggling funds.


Sept 27, 2019 Friday Followup

I had a bowl of cereal then drove Libbie to the eye doctor for her 8 AM followup
appointment.  All is well, her eye is healing nicely.  I started scanning the
slide roll labeled “Places 1”.  Lots of interesting slides from the 60s and 70s
including Peterborough, NH and Melbourne Village, FL where I photographed Martin
houses. Pretty funny because this was before I knew Libbie. I finished the
Mistletoe Promise today and loved it. Author  Richard Paul Evans has a writing
style that appeals to me and draws me in to the story.  For dinner tonight I
made chicken Parmesan in the air fryer while Libbie cooked some Broccoli. We had
the meal with a glass of water.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna in
Hollywood Studio.  Late in the evening from bed  I watched them stream the Star
Wars fireworks.  Using headphones the John Williams music and sound was
fantastic.  Disney did a good job projecting Star Wars onto the Grauman's
Chinese Theater in Hollywood Studio.  We have seen this kind of projection
before on the Castle for the “Happily Ever After” Show.  It’s quite good and is
called “projection mapping”


Sept 28, 2019 Saturday. Scanning

 Resumed scanning this morning.  My clock with USB and AC outlets arrived via
Amazon today.  It’s pretty nice.  Ran out to Foodlion to get AAA batteries for
the backup. While there I also picked up some Atlantic Salmon for dinner
tonight.  They had sunflower seeds in tubs.  I have been missing these in
salads. We had a nice salad for lunch with all the veggies.  I continued
scanning slides and have uncovered pictures I haven’t seen for years.  I also
discovered how young we were back in 1971 from our appearance on the pics.  Our
first date was at Intermont in Solon, NY which was a ski bowl North of Greek
Peak on I-81. I found pics of a visit we made there in the Spring when
wildflowers were growing.  Libbie has a handful of violets in her hand on the
side of the hill.  I did some googling and found a gallery of pics of the
abandoned Intermont ski resort and made it into a Jalbum which I put on my Life
Bits under Historical Albums. Dinner tonight was Butternut Squash, Salmon and a
glass of water.  We both have been having trouble falling asleep.  Libbie said
it was the fact we stopped the wine cold turkey.  I think it is our bodies
getting used to East Coast time.  Alaskan time was 4 hours back followed by a
few days in Seattle which was 3 hours back.


Sept 29, 2019 Sunday Shortness of Breath

After the morning  programs I went to scanning slides from the Places II roll.
There were a lot of unseen misc photos from our early years.  Very nice.  We
were young!  I had a lunch of salad greens with pepper, cucumber, sunflower and
pepperoncini today.  After this salad I wasn’t doing so well and had shortness
of breath for most of the afternoon.  Libbie went to Downton Abby with Nancy and
several others to the Apex Cinema at Beaver Creek.  While she was gone I ly on
the bed hoping the shortness of breath would go away.  It finally did around
dinner time.  For dinner she made her delicious cheese pizza.  It was nice to
have this again after a seemingly long absence.  After dinner I finished
scanning the Place II roll and started the roll labeled Projects.


Sept 30, 2019 Monday

Libbie went to a Mammography screening this morning and then walked with Anita
later in the morning.  I continued scanning the Projects roll of slides. This
roll contained stuff I haven’t seen in 50 years .  There were pics of my
Heathkit building and pics of the inside of Colonial Gardens which was a dump.
The biggest surprise was the tools on my workbench.  I still use those same
tools today and the same soldering iron.  What a shock.   I wasn’t feeling well
this morning with diarrhea and intestinal cramps but after a bowl of soup for
lunch I felt a lot better.   For dinner I made Chicken Parm which we had with
the leftover Butternut squash from 2 days ago.  Very good.  We only had water
with our chicken.  Earlier i ran over to Trader Joes for Apples since it is the
season.  I picked up some MacIntosh Apples and also some Tortellini and Ravioli
for other night dinners.  They didn’t have the cheese I wanted which was an
Italian and also Parmesan so I could make Chicken Parmesan.  I stopped by
Foodlion on Kildaire Farm Road for the missing items.   After our delicious
dinner tonight we both watched Resort TV for the last showing of Illuminations,
the Epcot ending fireworks show.  They raised over $2,000 dollars for themselves
and had a record 14,600 viewers.  The old record was 9,000.  That’s phenomenal
for a Middle School teacher and his sister.


Oct 1, 2019 Tuesday Insurance & Scanning

First day of the month!  I received a renewal from Florida Farm Bureau so before
I plunk down $40 to renew membership I got an online quote from Geico for home
insurance.  They wanted $2800 for insurance.  We currently pay around $2200.   I
guess I’ll renew my membership to continue Farm Member membership.  I scanned
some recipes and added them to Life Bits then resumed scanning slides.  This
time I’m scanning T&L I from 1972.  It was fun seeing the old Apalachin house
and Libbie’s backyard picnic and prime rib dinner in the dining room.  Such fun
memories.  I’m continuing to administer drops to Libbie 4 times a day.  Lunch
was a bowl of Sausage Gumbo.  Later in the evening we had Cheese Tortellini with
tomato sauce and cheese on top.  As has been normal the last few days we had a
glass of water with dinner.  After dinner we watched the Live Stream of Josh and
Jenna for the premiere of Epcot Forever.


Oct 2, 2019 Wednesday  Same Old same old

I began scanning a new slide roll today, this time it is T&L&J I and features a
pregnant Libbie and hospital photos of Joe’s birth.  I haven’t seen these in
years. I did a little Clarinet practice today along with slide scanning.  I had
to run out to Foodlion to get 4 AAA batteries for my metronome which died while
we were gone.  I apparently left it on for many weeks although the batteries are
several years old. I managed to get an online account with Florida Farm Bureau
so now i can renew our membership online.  I started working on a car insurance
quote but had to abandon it because Libbie wanted eye drops.  I’ll resume the
quote request tomorrow. Amica is good but of course I want a price comparison
since I’m always checking on prices. Anita gave Libbie some stuffed cabbage with
mashed potatoes for dinner which also included chocolate chip cookies.   The
cabbage was insanely good and had me longing for my Mother’s stuffed cabbage.
It tasted very similar with the cooked cabbage and tomato sauce.  Libbie and I
had a little discussion about what kind of tomato sauce was used - I guessed
tomato soup but cooking light recipes call for strained tomato such as Pomi.  I
used this in the casserole I made for the potluck party at our neighbor’s house.
We had the stuffed cabbage with a glass of water in step with our current
lifestyle change to get healthier.


Oct 3, 2019 Thursday Scanning continues

I continued scanning slides and practicing Clarinet.  I ordered a 915 Mhz
Moteino today in order to replicate the weather setup I have in Apex for
installation in Sarasota.  I’m hoping to build the breadboard up which includes
a Moteino, a BME280 pressure sensor and a Huzzah for MQTT transmissions.  I’ll
mount it all  on a perf board and attach a 5 volt wall wart.  NExt step is to
order either a Vantage Vue or a Vantage Pro sensor suite.  I’m leaning towards
the Vantage Vue.  Dinner tonight was Lobster Ravioli topped with Parmesan.


Oct 4, 2019 Friday Scanning and Tacos

Today is National Taco Day.  I picked up the ingredients for Quick Taco Salad at
Foodlion today.  The scanning continues.  I finished the T&L&J I roll and
started scanning T&L&J II.  I had a little trouble today playing more than 3
measures during  my Clarinet practice.  I didn’t have the breath support for
more.  Perhaps Blaise is correct, I need a better reed.  He said he can’t even
blow a 3.0 reed.  I’m now wondering about where I’m heading. Dinner tonight was
Quick Taco salad which is a bed of lettuce and refried beans covered by a ground
beef and salsa mixture topped with fresh tomato.  A glass of water went along
with the meal.  After dinner we watched Resort TV 1 done by Jenna alone.  She
was in Animal Kingdom with her parents and friend Donna.  She is not as good as
her brother Josh who had to attend a school event.


Oct 5, 2019 Saturday Clarinets & Pork

I had a really good Clarinet lesson today with Justin.  My breathing has been
occuring in the wrong places. We played the duet together.  It took several
tries but I finally was able to play along with him. This may have been a
breakthrough moment!  I hope so. On the way home I stopped at Harris Teeter and
looked at the Pork and the Salmon.  I decided I needed Libbie’s help at
selection.  The store is a shame.  It’s quite nice and fancy inside but devoid
of customers.  The prices are outrageous being significantly higher than Food
Lion. After lunch Libbie went back to Harris Teeter with me and selected the
Pork Chops.  I also bought Gala Apples there but nothing else because of
pricing. We stopped into Food Lion on the way home for the rest of our
groceries. I picked up a bottle of Pinot Noir in Food Lion for dinner.  Dinner
was Pork Chops with Apples, pearl Onions and Basmati Rice accompanied by a
bottle of Pinot.  It was quite good.  Earlier today Libbie mentioned that she’s
more of the simple type, just cook the chops on the grill rather than go through
multiple pans and a mixture of spices and things to make a meal.  I like both.
For a special dinner I like the effort of mixing spices and using multiple pans.


Oct 6, 2019 Sunday Scanning, Cortelyou House picture

I finished another roll of slides, T+L+J II.  Next roll will be T+L+J III.   I
heard from Vicki that the Chatham public works building is being named after
Bob.  Arlene suggested that I come but that’s the day after Libbie’s eye
surgery.  She has a followup on the 25th. I did some perspective correction of
Libbie’s Cortelyou house photo and sent it to Walgreens using a 50% off coupon.
It didn’t come out very well.  I reduced the pic to give it a border for matting
and converted it to Black and White.  I need to submit this one to Walgreens and
pick a frame for it.  I watched a guy make frames on YouTube using several
hundred thousand dollars worth of wood working tools. I’m still waiting for a
download link for the new Family Tree Maker.  They were supposed to send this
before the end of summer but so far nothing. In the kitchen today Libbie painted
the door frame and is looking at doing the back foyer. Dinner tonight was
Libbie’s pizza.  She used the Trader Joe’s Marinara sauce with a 5 cheese blend
and a 4 cheese blend.  The  toppings were excellent.


Oct 7, 2019 Monday Camera Sale

After breakfast I decided to gather all my old camera gear and haul it over to
Peace Camera on Falls of the Neuse.  I had mixed emotions about giving  up my
Canon DSLR but the reality is I don’t use it for anything especially since the
Sony A6000 has admirably filled in the vacuum.  I did the trip in hopes of
picking up a Sigma telephoto lens along with adapter.  I left everything there
instead of hanging around while they do an appraisal.  I heard later in the day
that the swap for a lens and adapter would be about equal on the bottom line.  I
almost was in an accident on the way  home.  At the light at 64 and Lake Pine I
made a left turn when the green arrow appeared but an oncoming car jumped the
light and went around me causing the car turning behind me to hit the horn.
That was close.  The moron made it through the light At home I finished scanning
the latest roll of slides, TLJ III. I picked up the BW version of the Cortelyou
house sketch and am happy with the results.  I reduced the picture so it could
be matted and the converted the sepia to BW.  it’s not bad but I’ll hold off on
framing until I frame the New Utrecht pics and use the same framing material.
Dinner tonight was Quesadilla using the leftover Taco meat from our National
Taco Day meal on Friday.  Topping the quesadilla was sour cream, salsa and a
fresh avocado.  After dinner I continued the slide scanning until the TLJ III
roll was done.  I’m generally pleased with the quality of the scans and with how
far I have progressed in scanning the collection.  I need to get a total count
for the record.


Oct 8, 2019 Tuesday Telephoto Lens

I went to Peace Camera this morning to see about my trade.  They didn;t want any
of the flashes or the camera bodies or the 50 mm lens.  They said all that stuff
had no way of being sold.  I did have enough in trade equipment to get the Sigma
150-600 telephoto plus adapter and the usb dock to program the lens.  This was
good news and bad news.  I got rid of a bunch of stuff I no longer use but I’m
still stuck with a case load of camera equipment I don’t want. It will be either
Goodwill or Craigslist.  After lunch I resumed slide scanning.  I’m now on TLJ
IV but didn’t finish it today.  I went with Libbie to Home Depot where we picked
up some paint for the back foyer and an LED strip light for over the keyboard on
my computer server shelves. Dinner tonight was the apples, pearl onion and pork
recipe with a twist.  We had one left over Pork Chop which Libbie supplemented
with a chicken breast.  It was quite good.  The pork matches the meal better but
it was good none the less because of the sauce and everything else.   After
dinner I googled Josh and found out his new school is in Windermere.  It’s a
private Art school and is quite expensive.  Tuition is listed at $23k per year
but the fact that it is an Art school is probably good for him.  He had a video
posted today about what’s happening to Josh since he has missed the Friday night
live stream a few times in the past.


Oct 9, 2019 Wednesday Dead Mouse battery

Slide scanning continues.  I finished TLJ IV and started going through the
shelves holding the slide reels.  I found a steel box of loose slides so I
scanned them all.  They were select slides of nice photographic subjects such as
snow drifts, barns, hillside views and nature.  I’ll scan TLJ V next but then I
need to switch gears and start preparing slide trays to be scanned in Sarasota.
This means removing slides from trays and condensing them into slide boxes. I
had to do a Costco trip for gas and coffee this morning.  I also picked up two
very nice bottles of wine, one for Shriners in 2 weeks and 1 for a nice dinner
this weekend.  Hopefully we’ll have either Salmon or Shrimp. The battery in my
mouse died today.  This is a brand new mouse that is supposed to have a battery
that lasts 18  months.  I barely got 2 weeks out of it but it was a cheap
Chinese battery that was included.  I bought a fresh pack in Food Lion.  We’ll
see how far that goes.  Dinner tonight was stuffed peppers that Anita gave
Libbie. Accompanying the peppers was Polenta.  This was delicious and a nice
treat.  After dinner we watched the live stream of Josh and Jenna reading the
mail.  It’s impressive that they could do this from separate locations with 2
windows on the screen, each person in their own window. When Jenna holds up a
card or a gift he is able to zoom her window to full screen.  Very professional
for just a couple of amateurs doing a live stream.


Oct 10, 2019 Thursday Paint

This morning I painted the back foyer that Libbie previously had done the edging
for.  She spent 2 hours doing the edging.  I was tired from the painting but
after lunch I got out the 8 foot ladder and painted the stairwell because
tomorrow morning I have an eye doctor appointment.  After the painting I went
upstairs and continued the slide scanning and consolidating reels of slides.
This time I started scanning the reel of Libbie’s Europe vacation in 1970.  I
finished this late at night after dinner.  Libbie viewed some of the slides with
me before she went to bed.  I finished up at 10:15 PM.  I’m going to scan TLJ V
and also 2 rolls of Honeymoon slides before we leave for Sarasota.  Dinner
tonight was spaghetti with Trader Joe Marinara sauce and cheese topping.  We
lost track of time and ended up having dinner at 7:45 PM which wasn’t too bad
but I wanted to continue scanning slides.


Oct 11, 2019 Friday Eyes and paint

Ii had a good eye checkup this morning with Dr Amy.  My prescription has not
changed except I asked that I get the old contacts back instead of the super
thin ones because I had trouble keeping the thin ones on my eye.  I was
constantly searching for them under my eyelids when they got knocked off center
by me either touching my eye or rubbing my eye.  It happened once while I was
driving home from Florida and another time when I was monitoring the door at the
ticketing center in Selby during Lights in Bloom.  After coming home from the
eye Dr I changed clothes and fetched a plank from under the house.  I propped
the plank from the top of the stairs to a ladder on the stairs.  I doubled up
this 2x6 plank and then walked across this with the roller and then the brush to
finish painting the stair walls.  Libbie nicely cleaned up after this job.  We
both worked at putting the railing back.  Once this was done I resumed scanning
slides.  Earlier today on the way from the eye doctor I stopped into Walmart
across the street from the doctors office and purchased the ingredients for
meatloaf muffins.  Dinner tonight was meatloaf muffins with french fries and a
glass of Chateau St Michelle Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna
at the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  It was fun watching the parade
and then watching the fireworks. Josh as usual did a great job streaming and got
some of the best views.


Oct 12, 2019 Saturday No Clarinet & Turandot

I got ready for Clarinet this morning and packed the instrument in the car.
Justin called at 9:10 and said he messed up.  He sent an email for 9:30 when it
should have been 9:00.  He had a 12 available but the Opera means we can’t make
that one.  We left at 11:58 AM and got to North Hills around 12:25 for the 12:55
Opera.  We started with a bag of popcorn before the Opera.  The performance was
spectacularly Grand Opera.  Christine Goerke was a great Turandot.  We had a
tenor premiering in HD who did well with Nessun Dorma.  Libbie made sandwiches
for intermission.  On the way home we tried to go to Harris Teeter across from
the theater but it was so packed with cars and traffic that we bailed out and
went to our local Food Lion instead.  We picked up Wachese Shrimp and Butternut
Squash for dinner. Dinner was shrimp peelers, butternut squash and Rodney Strong
Cabernet.  The Chateau St Michelle from yesterday did not hold up overnight.  It
tasted bitter to me.  I ended up dumping it and opening the bottle of Rodney
Strong I purchased for the Shriner party.  After dinner we watched Josh and
Jenna on Youtube taking a Disney Happily Ever After fireworks cruise sponsored
by a Texas family who cruised with them.  I looked this up and found the cruise
is available for $349 for up to 10 people.  It looked pretty fabulous.


Oct 13, 2019 Sunday Rain

This morning Libbie and I went to Lowes for a new grill for the back foyer as
well as the few types of white electrical covers we were missing.  I also bought
new white 3 way switches but did not install them.  It started raining while we
were in Lowes and continued throughout the day into the evening.  We really need
the rain.  I finished up scanning TLJ V and also finished Libbie’s Family
pictures which were standalone in a box of not scanned slides.  I started
scanning one of the two honeymoon reels.  When the honeymoon reels are scanned
the shelves will have been cleared of slides.  I still have 3 boxes of compacted
slides (no reels) that will be going to Sarasota to resume scanning.  I don’t
think I can finish them up here in the next two weeks but I will continue the
scanning process as long as I can.  Let’s see how far I get!  Dinner tonight was
Libbie’s outstanding pizza.  The crust came out nice and thin.  She used two of
the Italian blend cheeses as a topping.  The rain continued this evening.  I
checked our weather station and we only received 0.3 inches but I guess some is
better than nothing. Both Sue Hoffman and Ken Barbi had updates for me to put on
the MAAVS website which I managed to accomplish.  This evening I studied some of
the Bruce Winter code fo tripr reading a file tree and creating a list of files.
I installed Perl and ran his code and achieved a listing of jpg images for 2019.
This is looking good.  I’m hoping to have a display cycling every 30 seconds
displaying a new random picture from ImageDb.  This will allow us to see some of
the older pictures that have not surfaced for a while including video clips.


Oct 14, 2019 Monday Columbus Day Mowing

I decided to go outside and get the mowing done.  The weeds in the backyard are
pretty high and it’s a nice sunny day.  The mower did well but I only got ¾ of
the backyard done before I got tired.  After a salad for lunch I did some
debugging of Javascript for displaying a slideshow of photos and videos in the
web browser.  It looks like Javascript is not really what I need because it is
limited to only the same directory due to security concerns.  I want to display
the photos from ImageDb.  To test the programs I copied the 2019 directory into
the web browser directory on the Trovatore (Downing Place) Synology.  The photos
displayed well but the videos do not.  The original source code had the videos
in a separate directory.   I may have to do that.  A better approach may be to
ditch the browser and look into just displaying pictures to a monitor using PHP
or something like that.  I didn’t scan too many slides today but I did practice
the Clarinet.  I’m pretty happy with the piece I have been working on for the
past year.  Time to move on!!!!   Dinner was leftover meatball muffins along
with the Food Lion Baked Beans which I really like but Libbie thinks are too
spicy.   We each had a glass of Cabernet which was leftover from Saturday night.


Oct 15, 2019 Tuesday Lens Trip,

I made the trip to Peace Camera to retrieve my lens I left there last week.  I
don’t know why, I’m not going to use it anywhere.  After lunch I resumed
scanning slides and reorganizing the files on the Synology as I backed them up
onto the external drive.  The slideshow I created yesterday was not working
today.  I did some research and found that browsers can no longer access files
on the local drive according to some standard.  I first found the error by
looking at the console while the javascript ran then did some googling.  The
browsers must have taken an update overnight so that neither Chrome or Firefox
would work.  I was able to find a setting in Firefox to allow it to access local
files but not Chrome.  This will be an issue going forward. Dinner tonight was
leftover meatloaf muffins along with leftover butternut squash.  Both were
yummy.  After dinner I resumed slide scanning and finished Honeymoon I.  The
surprise was that Honeymoon II is only half a reel.  I’ll easily finish those
tomorrow which finishes the main collection of slides!


Oct 16, 2019 Wednesday Finished

I worked on the slide display program and got it displaying movies in the
browser.  The issue was the search was looking for the subdirectory named
“video”.  I changed it to look for MP4 and now it displays movie clips randomly
along with the slides.  In my slide scanning I finished Honeymoon II which
finishes the main reels of slides.  I decided to start scanning a zip lock bag
of Dad’s slides of their Miami trip.  When this is done the slide scanning on
Downing Place will be done.  I have 3 boxes that needs scanning which I’ll do in
Sarasota along with all the movies as well as VCR tapes.  This means Sarasota
will  need the VCR digitizer in addition to the movie digitizer.  That’s a lot
of stuff to move in the Prius. We went out today after lunch to the Asian Market
for the ingredients for Libbie’s Chow Mein which she single handedly made.
Dinner was Chow Mein along with the whole bottle of two buck chuck Shiraz.
After dinner I listened to Porgy and Bess live while studying the javascript
slide app.


Oct 17, 2019 Thursday WebDav on Mefistofeles

I set  up a Let’s Encrypt certificate on Mefistofeles on Stoneybrook and then
used a recipe I found online on setting up a WebDav server.  Once setup I was
able to map the Mefistofeles ImageDb Drive in windows and start transferring
files to it.  By the end of the day I had transferred all the scanned files to
Sarasota.  Previously I sat down with Libbie at the computer.  We were able to
chronologically sort all the unsorted scans based on Joe’s age in the slide.  We
managed to get everything sorted which allowed me to use the WebDav server in
Sarasota to map a drive for transferring all the images.   I also finished
scanning Mom & Dad’s trip to Florida in April 1968.  After scanning I renamed
the slides so they would scan in order.  I would also like to add title slides.
Dinner tonight was leftover Chow Mein over Basmati rice.  It was quite good.  I
stayed downstairs late after dinner watching the file transfer from the Downing
Synology to the Sarasota synology.  I’m very happy about this breakthrough.  One
thing I was required to do was open port 80 in Sarasota to get the certificate.
This opened my Life Bits Apache Server on Synology to the public.  At the end of
the evening I used VPN to log into the Sarasota router and close port 80.  I’ll
keep it like this until I get some Password protection on LifeBits.


Oct 18, 2019 Friday Slide Show Ignore Labels

I continued transferring image files to Knightsbridge.  The process is slow but
for the first time I am able to synch Downing files with Knightsbridge files
without using an external drive.  I still will keep a backup of the Synology on
the external drive because it is considered a backup with an air gap i.e. it is
not connected in anyway to the Synology.  The problem with connecting 2
Synologies over the network is that if one gets corrupted the corruption
transfers to the second over the network wiping the files out on both machines.
I modified the Javascript slideshow program to recognize an “@” symbol at the
end of the file name before the file extension.  When the “@” is in a file name
it is flagged as a do not display file such as a label or a personal photo.  I
tested this and debugged the javascript so that it works.  I marked all the
labels in the Pacific Bonsai Museum trip so they won’t display as well as the
map images in the Alaska trip.   As of late night all ImageDb files had been
synched to Knightsbridge including the “@” flagged ones. Mary Corondan needed a
way to access meals of the registration form dropdown.  Unfortunately I don’t
see a way to do this in a report.  The same is true of the awards.  We need a
way to distinguish designated vs undesignated  awards in a report.   I have some
work to do. Dinner tonight was Lobster Ravioli sprinkled with a little cheese.
After dinner we watched Jenna on Resort TV1 touring Port Orleans and Disney
Springs.  It was during this Youtube stream that I finished synching the two
synology machines, Downing Place and Knightsbridge Circle.


Oct 19, 2019 Saturday Packing and digitizing

I went to my Clarinet lesson at 11.  We spent the session trying to improve my
tone in the Clarion register where the notes are coming out flat and out of
tune.  After Clarinet I stopped by Foodlion where I bought Salmon and Sweet
Potatoes for dinner.  I should have also picked up soup but it wasn’t on the
list.  I filled a moving box that Libbie gave me with the VCR and video
digitizer as well as the box of tapes that need digitizing.  I also rounded up
the 8 mm films that need scanning   When I get to Sarasota I’ll order a new
digitizer but this time I’ll get the pro model which can handle 9 inch reels.
This will be a convenience rather than a necessity. I spent some of my spare
time today tagging files that I don’t want displayed with the “@” symbol.  I
also scanned a box of R rated slides I found from our early years.  These won’t
be put into the lineup.  Dinner tonight was Salmon with Sweet Potatoes and Snow
Peas.  The Snow Peas were a leftover package  from the Chow Mein dish this week.
We had a bottle of Cabernet with the meal.  After dinner we watched Josh do a
live stream from Disneyworld in conjunction with a live stream from Disneyland
California.   We stayed up for the Happily Ever After fireworks show which was
one of the clearest and best yet. This is an enjoyable synchronized fireworks
show.


Oct 20, 2019 Sunday Perl Programs and Raspberry Pi

After the Sunday morning news shows I went to Walmart to pick up some groceries,
mainly soups for lunch.  I then tried to set up a Pi with external USB hard
drive but had no luck doing this.  The Pii hangs when booted.   I then tried
using javascript to access files on a separate drive on the Synology but this
didn’t work either.   I kicked off the make index perl program and created the
jpg index and the mp4 index.  Each section of the two indices took 3 hours each
to create.  We have 126,400 jpg files and around 1000 MP4 movies.  Libbie made
her outstanding pizza.  It was over the top this time because she put the
leftover mushrooms from our Chow Mein into the pizza.  Wow was it good.  After
dinner we watched Jenna on Resort TV1 rent a golf cart and tour the halloween
decorations in Fort Wilderness.  It’s impressive with how elaborate people
decorate their campsite with Halloween stuff.  They then went to the sing along
at 8 PM.  I really enjoyed it.  People in the chat also mentioned how their
whole family is involved in watching the sing along.  It was quite entertaining
Disney style.  We did not stay for the fireworks but saw some of them while in
bed.


Oct 21, 2019 Monday Blood Test

I fasted this morning before leaving for a blood test at 7:30 AM.  They seemed
to be running behind and did not take  my sample until 7:50.  After the Labcorp
blood test I went across the street and found the NY grown MacIntosh apples
still in Walmart.  These were the same I bought over a week ago and are very
good.  I  looked for them in Apex but it seems only Cary has them.  While in
Walmart I looked for Progresso Corn Chowder but didn’t find any so I picked up
some Walmart brand Corn Chowder as a sample.  We had some for lunch and it
seemed OK. At the computer I transferred the last 20 years of photos to the web
directory and then tried to run the perl indexing program.  I ran into all kinds
of errors.  It may really be a permissions issue rather than file not found.
I’ll setup a test case on my laptop to get to the bottom of this. I patched up
the garage door bottom where a critter chewed through the rubber.  It doesn’t
look good but it should be functional.  I may have to call a door company to
replace the rubber on the door bottom. Dinner tonight was Tortellini with tomato
sauce and cheese topping sprinkled on. I have been gathering postcard images
from eBay for more slideshows on Life Bits.


Oct 22, 2019 Tuesday Linux and Pi time

I worked on installing Linux Mint on the Zotac but then abandoned that effort
when it became difficult to get working especially with trying to locate the
Apache web directory on the external drive.  I did quite a bit of reading and
watching Youtube videos before I found one that did a great job of explaining
how to install Raspbian on an external drive and how to get it to boot.  I put
Raspbian on an SD card, added the line that will program flash to boot from USB
and then booted the image.  This is a one way trip.  The Pi can no longer boot
from the SD after this bit of programming.  Next I used Etcher to put the
Raspbian image on the external drive.  I also had to add the SSH file in root to
allow it to use remote SSH login.  After a while the Pi booted from the USB!!!
It doesn’t seem to boot reliably and also seems to be slower but at least the SD
card is gone and Apache can now be located on the external drive out of the box.
I then installed the Scargill script but I chose an older one by mistake.  It
did not install Apache and probably another bunch of stuff.  I’ll retry this in
the morning since I was up until 10:30 PM monitoring the Script.  I’m finally
getting to a point of serving up our slides on a web server port! Dinner tonight
was entirely leftovers.  We had frozen buns and frozen hamburgers that Libbie
thawed.  Dinner was hamburgers with baked beans and a glass of water. I focused
my air today on the Clarinet using the tuning meter to keep the notes in the
Clarion register in tune.  This is mostly working.  The notes seem to be
lighting up the green LED on the meter.


Oct 23, 2019 Wednesday Crawl Space supports

I worked under the house today and installed the rest of the 2x6 support planks.
All that remains is bolting the two remaining Jack Posts and tightening
everything then cleaning up all the tools.  This will finish the job.  I
estimate about 3 or 4 more hours and I’ll be done. We went to FoodLion and
bought the ingredients to make a Tagine Beef Stew from a Cooking Light Recipe.
The stew used Sirloin Steak in cubes, Onions, butternut squash cubes and spices.
It was a little spicy for Libbie but very good. It was actually fun to make and
delicious to eat.


Oct 24, 2019 Thursday Doctors and Doctors

We got up early this morning and left at 6:15 AM for Duke Hospital.  Libbie had
her second eye procedure done this morning.  While in the waiting room I heard
from John Salventi at Selby asking when I will be back.  I gave him our schedule
and told him we plan to be at Members Day next Saturday Nov 2.  The surgery was
quick and soon we were on our way home.  Libbie wanted to swing by McDonalds for
an egg McMuffin for breakfast instead of cooking her own.  We stopped at the one
at Lake Pine and 64 and picked up the Muffin at the drive through.  I made soup
for lunch before leaving for my wellness exam with Dr Schroeder.  My weight is
at 240 which is terrible.  My blood pressure was fantastic at 120/70 and all the
numbers are in line except the cholesterol went up but is still within limits.
It was a pretty good checkup.   I came home and continued to work on configuring
the web server for my slides.  I’m having a lot of trouble with permissions. For
dinner tonight I made Angel Hair Spaghetti using the Trader Joe Marinara Sauce.
I topped it with Italian cheese.  Libbie stayed in her chair and gave
suggestions while I made spaghetti. After dinner, I continued on my desktop to
adjust the permissions and also get the slide show running.  In the end
permissions were still an issue but I was able to get the program to display
images in the browser window.


Oct 25, 2019 Friday Slide FTP

We had an 8 AM Eye doctor visit with Libbie’s eye surgeon as a follow up.  All
is OK.  When we got back I began tagging older photos that were signs.  I’m
using the “@” sign at the end of the filename to indicate the photo should not
be displayed in the slide show.  I’m eliminating the display of signs or any
other content that shouldn’t be in a slide show such as documentation. I synced
these up with Mefistofeles in Sarasota then began the FTP process to get these
onto the Slide show machine.  It took around 5 or 6 hours to transfer the last
20 years worth of photos onto the machine. We did a Costco trip for wine for
tomorrow night as well as a package of Foster Grant reading glasses for Libbie.
Dinner was the leftover Tagine Beef stew along with rice and a bottle of Chateau
St Michelle Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenny at Mickey's Not So
Scary Halloween party in the Magic Kingdom.  During the Live Stream I continued
FTPing files up to the Slide Machine.  I went to bed after 10 while the files
were still transferring.  I left the PC on overnight and went to bed.


Saturday Oct 26, 2019 Saturday Dance

This was mostly a do nothing day.  I had a pretty good lesson with Justin this
morning.  We went into Book 2 of the Essential Elements and he showed me what i
should cover over the Winter.  I can’t wait to get into this book.  This series
also includes accompanying downloads to play along with.  I need something like
this to be able to keep up with a group.  The few times I tried this with Justin
it did not work well because I couldn’t keep up.  I continued transferring
slides to my Pi slide drive.  I finally ended up with everything transferred.  I
also made a quick run to Lowes to get screws, metallic duct tape and framing
straps all for the beam project in the crawl space.  We left a little after 6
for the Shriners dance.  We encountered heavy traffic on the Belt Line due to
the State Fair.  IT was nice to see everyone again although we were seated at a
separate table away from everyone else but we had fun.  The cocktail party had
shrimp and fried chicken for hors d'oeuvres.  The meal was roast beef at a
carving station along with asparagus and potatoes.  It was a good night.  We
left at 10 AM, about 30 minutes before the end.


Saturday Oct 27, 2019 Raymonda

I played with the slides this morning.  Since everything is transferred I wanted
to get a slide index and then try the slide show.   I found some problems with
the indexing program.  One of the issues was permissions for the index file.
Eventually I got the permissions fixed and the index built and tried the slide
show.  It works well but more slides need to be tagged with the “@” sign
indicated it’s not to be displayed.  Images such as signs, documentation or
project details that wouldn’t be interesting.  We left in a pretty good rain at
noon driving to Raymonda.  When we got to the parking garage at North Hills the
rain seemed to have let up and we had 30 minutes until the ballet started.  We
left early expecting to encounter Fair traffic but there was none.  We decided
to walk around the shopping center but it started to rain again so we bailed out
and went into the theater.  Raymonda is the ideal ballet.  It has a nice story
in the first two acts which the Bolshoi does in grand style with a hundred
dancers.  The Glazunov music is beautiful with soft beautiful passages and then
triumphal phrases.  The third act is over the top.  It showcases everything
ballet can do with many different kinds of dance in a wedding celebration with
accompanying dance music from many countries - Russian, German, Spanish. When we
got out the skies had cleared and the sun was peeking through.  Dinner tonight
was  Libbie’s fantastic pizza with Mushrooms.  I picked up some Baby Bella
mushrooms on sale for $2 in Food Lion. We watched the slide show of my photos on
the big TV screen.  I discovered that the 100 pics repeat without getting a new
batch.  I started debugging this and think I found a fix but did not test it
yet.


Oct 28, 2019 Monday Crawl Beam

I went under the house this morning and started nailing plates to each joist
until I ran out of nails after 2 hours.  I came upstairs and while resting I
took a phone call from Dr Amy about my contacts.  She has three sets of trial
lenses for me in the office.  After lunch I stopped by her office and picked up
the new lenses and gave them my Florida address.  Next I went to Lowes at
Crossroads.  I picked up a few more joist brackets and a new box of nails.  Next
stop was Food Lion on Kildaire Farm and Maynard.  I picked up the missing
ingredients for Chicken Cacciatore which included Spinach, Mushrooms and diced
tomatoes.  Once home I went back into the crawl space and finished nailing the
joists.  I was tired at the end but I kept going until I was done.  Inside the
Family Room I sat in my chair and had Libbie walk across the room several times.
The floor was stable as could be!  Success.  At first I didn’t think this was
doing anything but today I proved otherwise.  The new support beam is working
well.  Now I have to move all the tools out of the crawl space. I was exhausted
and had committed to make our dinner.  Libbie jumped in and made the Cacciatore.
We finished the bottle of white Sauvignon Blanc that went into the dish.  Dinner
was the Chicken Cacciatore with several glasses of Sauvignon Blanc.  The
Cacciatore was delicious and gets a 5 star rating from both of us.


Oct 29, 2019 Tuesday Packing

I retrieved the air compressor and hoses from under the house then resumed
getting ready for the trip.  I put in an offer of $3,000 on the Janome.  List
was $3200. on eBay.  The strategy was to delay purchasing it so that when it
ships we’ll be in Florida.  I’ll pay for it tomorrow. eBay gives buyers one day
to pay for an accepted offer.   I backed up the files from Trovatore onto the
external drive.  There are two reasons to do this.  One is to have a backup of
the Downing Place Synology, the second reason is to transfer new files to the
Synology in Florida.  This should keep both devices in synch.  We have a lot of
stuff to move to Florida.  I hope it all fits in the car.  I picked up more
spaghetti and a bottle of Pinot Grigio for dinner tonight.  Dinner was the
leftover Cacciatore juiced up with the rest of the mushrooms and the remains of
the bag of spinach.  Libbie also added more wine.  We had the rest of the bottle
with dinner.  Dinner tongiht was the Cacciatore.


Oct 30, 2019 Wednesday Pack and Travel

This morning I made the $3,000 payment for the Janome.  Within seconds Capital
One texted me asking whether I made the $3,000 purchase.  I replied
affirmatively. I started packing the suitcases and the box of slide digitization
stuff.   After toying with the idea of leaving tonight instead of early tomorrow
I made a reservation for the Hardeeville, SC Holiday Inn Express.  Libbie was
able to get in early at Dr Tuckers, 5 PM instead of 6 PM.  We left in light rain
at 6 PM after her appointment  Of course traffic out of Raleigh was heavy.  It
remained bumper to bumper until 210 in Angier.  From then on it was clear
sailing with on and off light rain.  We stopped in a Wendys for dinner.  I had a
Wendys Single without cheese and we split a large fries. The drive through SC at
night was fantastic.  We had a clear empty road.  We checked into a beautiful
Holiday Inn at 11 PM which was great.  The place looked and felt brand new and
modern. I fell asleep immediately when I hit the bed.


Oct 31, 2019 Thursday Halloween

I was up by 6:30 and waited for Libbie then we went down to breakfast for the
usual bagel, eggs and sausage.  There was a tour bus in the hotel from a church
in Venice Florida.  They toured Savannah and were on their way to Charleston.
They filled up the breakfast room.  We got on the road by 8 AM.  We had good
travel until I-75 where the traffic was pretty heavy.  We did a combo gas and
food stop at a Pilot-Wendys just before OCala.  Getting in and out of there was
horrible.  The road was gridlock going in and coming out.  This was a bad choice
of stops.  Just before that I had a pitstop at the Payne Prairie preserve just
outside of Gainesville.  We got to Stoneybrook at 3 PM and found out our gate
key did not work.  We went to the office and found out they once again took our
name off the access list.  They supposedly fixed it but after going to Walmart
for groceries and Trick or Treat Candy we couldn’t get in again. The great news
is the people across the street sold their house and there was a moving truck
there taking their stuff out.  They were neighborhood trailer trash who got the
house for free as a caretaker for the elderly lady who lived there and then
died.  They were loud and obnoxious with kids running around at night flashing
lights at people and making noise.  They discarded a marble top table at the
curb that Libbie wanted so we moved it into our garage.  She wanted it for
plants.  We had spaghetti with cheese for dinner with Cabernet wine.  We had a
group of about 12 young kids for trick or treat candy and then around 8 PM 3
teenage girls showed up.  I questioned how big they were and they said you’re
never too old for trick or treating.


Nov 1, 2019 Friday

Libbie cleaned the back porch today since it was filthy and also scrubbed out
the hot tub so she could fill it and start it heating.  I went into the front
yard and started pulling weeds in the landscaping.  I did a trip to Lowes to
pick up a wire shelf for my closet so I could empty the suitcase full of
electronics.  We saw Ersen and Julia with Olivia this morning.  Julia looked
nice in her short shorts and braless tee shirt.  They are really nice people.
They told us they’re going to go to NY for 4 days for Julia’s birthday which is
Nov 4.  I transferred my RMD from the IRA, a little over $17k of which I
requested 40% Federal withholding.   With luck this will cover my taxes without
an under withholding penalty like I received last year.  Next I’ll transfer
enough money to CU checking to pay the Downing place taxes.  Our bedside
charger-clocks arrived from Amazon today.  I went to Publix for 4 AAA batteries
for the backup batteries in the devices then set the time and put them on our
night stands.  I ordered a roof vent fan online this morning at Lowes to get my
AA points active for 18 more months.  We went back in the PM to pick up the fan.
Libbie came with me and went plant shopping.  We got a bunch of really nice
plants for half price.  Dinner tonight was leftover Rigatoni from the potluck
party which was held before we left Sarasota in August. We had this with
Cabernet.  We watched Resort TV do some monorail hopping tonight.  It was nice
to see them focus on the music in the Grand Floridian.  Josh covered both the
band and the piano player playing the Grand Steinway in the center of the lobby.


Nov 2, 2019 Saturday Members Day

We left around 7:15 for Members Day at Selby.  The gates open at 8.  We thought
attendance was down this year.  Jennifer came through and gave us a quick
rundown on where the garden stands with the Improvement Plan.  Hopefully the
City will approve it when they meet on Nov 5, 3 days from now, although there is
a lot of neighborhood opposition. We went to the plant sale and bought two
plants each then we went into the gift shop and bought a Cattleya Orchid.
Garden shop purchases are 25% off today for members. When we got home I
continued weeding the front yard.  I did this in several increments, coming back
inside each time to cool off.  I also took a look at the water fitting that was
broken, probably run over by the mower.  The good news is I have another
coupler.  I may cover this up with an irrigation valve box to protect it. I
picked up Salmon in Publix then went back for a bottle of Woodbridge Cabernet.
Dinner was Salmon, baked sweet potato and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After
dinner there was a surprise live stream of Josh in the MK featuring the
Christmas decorations which are starting to appear throughout the park including
the Jungle Cruise now changed to the Jingle Cruise for the holidays.


Nov 3, 2019 Sunday Weeding & Shelving

I decided to put a second 8 foot shelf into my closet because it was a big job
to empty the shelves and remove the center support.  Since I was adding one
shelf I decided to go to Lowes and pick up a second shelf.  I also picked up 3
of the 4 foot wire shelves with associated hardware for Libbie’s sewing room
closet.  She needed a place to store fabric.   Before working on the shelves I
spent some time in the front yard pulling weeds and repairing the broken
pressure  reducer in the water line.   I made good progress on the weeds.  The
job should be finished in a day or two then I will install the replacement
plants.  Putting the upper shelf up in the closet was a hard job because there
wasn’t much room for my body above the top of the door.  I finished the top
shelf but then quit for the day because I was both sore and tired. I ran over to
Publix at the last minute for pizza cheese that we were out of.  Wow is that
place expensive.  Generic Publix brand is 3.89 a package compare to around $2 at
either Foodlion or Walmart.  I picked up Sargento aged pizza cheese which was on
sale at 2 for $5.  I also got a bottle of Woodbridge Cabernet.  Dinner was
Libbie’s  homemade pizza with the Cabernet.  She had trouble with the dough
which was frozen since August.  It was too moist and stuck to the paddle but the
pizza was delicious.  It had fresh chopped basil leaves from a plant we brought
from our Apex greenhouse.  After dinner I lay in bed listening to Mo Rocca and
his podcast of Mobituaries.  The first one was of presidential brother the late
Billy Carter.  It was well done with interviews of Jimmy Carter and Billy
Carter's wife and six grown kids.


November 4, 2019 Monday Weeds, Shelves and Sewing Machines

I finished the shelves in my office this morning.  Now it’s a matter of picking
everything up off the floor and putting it back as well as unpacking the boxes
of stuff I brought from Apex which included slides and reels of movies to be
digitized.  I also have a bunch of misc electronics.  Once the shelf was up but
not yet populated I went outside and did some more weeding.  We have an
impressive pile of weeds filling a bag and three or four barrels.  We’re still
not done with weeding.  While I weeded the front by the street, Libbie worked on
weeding the Bromeliads which seemed to all have survived. After lunch the Janome
9450 sewing machine arrived.  The box was bashed but the machine was in good
shape.  I helped Libbie assemble the foot pedal assembly.  Now she has a steep
learning curve to climb.  We were looking for a big brown UPS truck but instead
the UPS guy was driving a black sedan.  This was surprising.  The box was a
little damaged but after unpacking the machine everything seemed to be OK.  We
put the pieces together then Libbie started playing with learning how to add
thread, run the needle and cut the thread.  It’s a pretty complicated piece of
machinery. The Davis Weather Sensor suite arrived via FedEx at almost 6 PM which
was surprising for them.  I removed the sensors from the package and assembled
the few parts such as wind vane, anemometer, and tipping bucket.  I’m still not
sure where to put it.  It will either be located on the corner of the Lanai or
down by the pond.  My preference is the corner of the Lanai. For dinner we went
out to Beckhams, the pub in the Publix shopping center.  I had a half rack of
ribs with Steak Fries and 1 ½ Yuengling Draft beers.  Yumm!  We haven’t been to
Beckhams in a while.  The food was delicious and our waitress was very prompt
and a generally happy person.  When we came home we watched Jenna visit the
Christmas decorations at the Magic Kingdom.  She certainly does not have the eye
for art and beauty that Josh does although she clearly tries hard.


November 5, 2019 Tuesday Shelves and Bookcases

This morning I worked in the front yard finishing the rest of the weed removal.
I then located the old Marguerite locations and planted the new replacements.
They had to be planted in the exact spot as before because of the drip line
going to each plant. Libbie and I did a grand tour shopping trip visiting
Costco, Kohls and Lowes.  I picked up coffee and wine in Costco then bought a
pole for the weather station in Lowes.  While there I also picked up some CPVC
pipes for the outdoor speaker wires.  The speaker has been an ongoing project
for the past year.  I worked a little on Libbie’s sewing room shelves but had to
stop for a trip to Venice where I had a 3:30PM appointment.  I checked
Craigslist for some kind of cart or table for my scanner and digitizer equipment
and found a cart in Venice.  I made arrangements to see it at 3:30PM.   When we
went down there we found a beautiful house with gorgeous furniture.  The owners
are moving to Maine.  How strange.  While there the lady mentioned that all
furniture with a blue dot is for sale.  We found a beautiful Oak finish bookcase
for sale with a blue dot for $125.  Once we had the cart in the car we stopped
at the Venice Groves and bought two Orange Soft Serve cones. I then hit the
Publix ATM for $200.  The CU PIN did not work, I ended up using the TdAmeritrade
ATM card which refunds any fees from ATMs.   After taking the cart to
Stoneybrook we returned to the house in Venice and bought the bookcase.  It hung
out the back of our car so I tied the hatch down and used the floor mat to
protect the crown molding from the tied down hatch.  Dinner tonight was Rigatoni
in tomato sauce with Italian cheese and several glasses of Cabernet.


November 6, 2019 Wednesday Happy Birthday

I finished up the shelves in Libbie’s sewing room and also vacuumed up the
sheetrock.as well as the cobwebs and spiders up in the corners where the wall
meets the ceiling.  I then worked a little in my office putting stuff away.  I
tried applying for a Homestead exemption and still need voter registration cards
and a letter from the Wake County tax assessors office stating I do not receive
any exemptions on our property taxes.  We went to Walmart and picked up $70
worth of groceries.  I’m still not sure what we bought other than everyday
groceries. We had a tuna sandwich at 6 before leaviing for Rigoletto at the
Sarasota Opera.  I found parking on Palm using a meter which cost $1.75 for the
time remaining until 8 PM when they no longer charge for parking.  The meter had
a user friendly interface which allowed me to keep tapping the plus sign while
giving me the new total and the new expiration time. The Opera was fantastic as
Sarasota usually does.  It went very fast, I couldn’t believe it was over.  We
met a nice 88 year old gentleman in front of us who was wearing a red jacket
with gold embroidery patterns.   Libbie commented to him that  the jacket looked
nice.  He thanked her then we had a long chat about Opera at the Met and also in
La Scala and Verona.  He recommended both theaters.   We were home by 11 PM.  If
possible I would park on Palm again in the future.


November 7, 2019 Thursday Back to Selby


We left this morning shortly before 8.  I arrived at the Botany building at
Selby around 8:30 and greeted John.  He had a long list of activities most of
which were fixups from errors that occurred over the past few months.  I enjoyed
manipulating files around.  Time went quickly.  Paul stopped in because John
wanted him to overlap with me.  He normally has been working in the PM.  It was
nice to see everybody. On the way home we stopped in Yoders and picked up some
Guac for our quesadillas.  In the yard I planted the two new replacement Ilixii
and rooted some cool red cuttings I salvaged from Selby compost.  I then did the
main event.  I mounted the weather sensor package on a plastic pole over the
Lanai.  This really went well.  Now I need the Arduino in the house to pick up
the transmissions if any.  The solar powered battery may need to recharge a
little before I could use it.  That was it for me.  I was tired for the rest of
the day.  Around dinner time Libbie cooked the chicken and I made Quesadillas
for dinner.  We had this with sour cream, Salsa and Guac.


November 8, 2019 Friday Opera and ESP8266

I started building the receiver for the Davis weather sensors.  I’m using the
magnifier mounted to a headband.  This is working well since it’s pretty hard
for me to see the pins naked eye.  I really need to create a schematic for this
thing but for now I wired it up on the fly.  Interestingly all three parts, the
BMP280, the Moteino and the ESP8266 Huzzah, all have onboard regulators to run
their chips at 3.3 volts.  Externally I supplied 5 volts to each module. We left
at 11:10 for the Apprentice Opera and arrived at the Parking garage around
11:35.  We sat in the front row in the rehearsal Hall.  The concert was
fantastic.  There are a good bunch of diverse apprentices from all over the
world.  They sang mostly Operatic hit tunes in duets, quartets, sextets and the
whole gang for the finale.  Wow, what a performance. I particularly liked a
Soprano who had a powerful voice and was beautiful with a nice body.  This is
rare for an opera singer.  After the concert we walked down Main Street for
lunch at Red Classico on the corner of Main and Palm.  We had a streetside table
that they seemed to have forgotten about.  We were mostly ignored but enjoyed
the time.  For lunch I had a Yuengling and Fish and Chips, choosing Cod as my
fish instead of Grouper.  For unknown reasons Grouper was $4 more.  I always
thought Cod was the standard fish in Fish and Chips.  We came home stuffed and
decided to go light with dinner.  In the afternoon I worked at my desktop
computer transferring files from the external drive to the Synology. For dinner
we had guac on crackers along with a little bit of Swiss and a half a glass of
wine which finished our wine bottle.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna at
Mickey's First Christmas party of the year inside the Magic Kingdom.  It was
pouring rain there.  We only had light rain here but in Orlando the situation
was a lot different.  The stage show in front of the castle was canceled but the
fireworks went on.  The Christmas Decorations were beautiful.


November 9, 2019 Saturday Moteino

I initially struggled with programming the Moteino.  I first tried an FTDI
breakout to program the thing, then installed the LowPower Labs board but no
luck.  I switched to the Adafruit programmer and still no happiness.  When I
eventually removed the Moteino from the breadboard I was able to program it.  I
then studied the schematic and found the Rx line is driven by the Tx of the
Huzzah.  This probably prevents the Mote from being driven.  For the Huzzah I
stop this from happening by using a 2 pin jumper on the Huzzah Rx line so it
wouldn’t be driven and thus preventing programming.  The great news is that
after a few minutes the Moteino was able to synch up with the weather station
and began receiving broadcasts.  I was able to see the wind speed and direction.
I didn’t bother parsing temperature or humidity since I’m sure they’re all OK.
It was great to be able to read the transmissions.  Now it’s time to get the
Huzzah running.  I downloaded the Photo Mechanic program trial version to see if
I liked it.  It’s a quick way to update the Metadata in a group of photos.  I
was happy to see that File Explorer was able to recognize the tags I wrote with
the program.  It would be a super huge job to tag all my photos with this thing.
After lunch we did the shopping rounds.  First stop was TOPS to look at Janome
accessories.  Libbie bought spools, needles and thread.  Nice store and $39
later we were on our way.  Next stop was our HD tickets at the Mall.  $222 later
we had 10 tickets.  Libbie wanted to look for reading glasses in Costco.  While
there we got our Salmon and wine as well.  This was a $70 stop.  Finally we
decided to get blocks of cheese in Publix.  They were on sale at 2 for $9 so we
got 4 blocks as well as a pineapple.  Total here was $25.  Our total for this
adventure was around $350. Wow.  Dinner was Salmon with rice and broccoli and a
few glasses of Cabernet. After dinner we watched the YouTube replay of Josh and
Jennas live stream from last night.  We did not see the fireworks last night so
we watched that.  It was raining pretty hard there which stopped the smoke from
dissipating so the fireworks were lost in the Smoke.  We enjoyed the
presentation anyway as well as Space Mountain and hanging out in the treat
places afterward.  The treats at the Christmas party were various cookies and
hot chocolate.


November 10, 2019 Sunday Not Working

This morning after the Sunday Morning Shows I went to work trying to get the
Weather receiver reading data into the Huzzah chip.  So far nothing is working.
Later in the day I built another Huzzah and put it into a protoboard with just
the BMP280 chip and once again no results.  I was able to program the Huzzah
with the laptop and also run the I2C scanner. The scanner showed a device at
address 0x77 which is the correct address for the Adafruit BMP280 device.
However, when I run the BMP280  test program I get chip not found. After lunch
Libbie and I decided to take a walk.  We stopped into the Open House a few doors
down.  They want $399K for a very nice house that is completely updated.  I like
the 3 car garage.  Libbie thought the house is too close to the road in the
back.  We then walked all around Knightsbridge Circle before returning home.
Dinner was Libbie’s homemade pizza.  The crust came out thin and crispy this
time.  After dinner I continued to play with the Huzzah but had no  success.


November 11, 2019 Monday Not Responding

The Huzzah I’m using to receive the packets from the Moteino was not responding.
I built a second one and struggled with programming it.  I don’t like the new
programmer built into the IDE.  Eventually I ended up programming a NodeMCU.
This was much easier to program because it uses a USB cable instead of an
external FTDi cable.  It also will program on the desktop.  The Huzzah would
only program on my laptop.  The results with the NodeMCU were the same.  The
device is still not receiving the Serial data.  Possibly related is the fact
that the LED would not blink either.  The loop is running because I put a print
statement in that does print out every 2 seconds but the LED does not blink.  I
put together all the MAAVS slides for the 2019 convention.  I did not post any
of this since I have to build a page to hold it.  Dinner tonight was Chicken
Parmesan in the air fryer along with broccoli and a glass of water.  After
dinner I continued to debug the Weather receiver until I was tired and went to
bed.


November 12, 2019 Tuesday Debugging

We left this morning at 7:50 for Selby.  In Botany I worked on John’s 2 page
list of problems with the images.  There was a lot of file renaming and in a few
cases importing new camera images into Lightroom and exporting as dng and jpg.
The images were retaken for various reasons - blurry, finger in picture, no
barcode, etc.   After work I met Libbie out front at noon and admired the
Bougainvillea in front of Selby.  The trunk is very thick and it could be seen
that over the years it had been cut back nicely, i.e. some stalks were left long
while others cut short.  This is the way it should be cut!  We stopped by Yoders
for Guacamole, tangerines, grapes and apples.  I like this fruit stand. At home
I continued to work on the weather receiver.  I found the issue was with Easy
Transfer.  Easy Transfer puts a special header on the packet and Easy Transfer
was not being used on the Moteino sending the data to the Huzzah.  For debugging
I’m using a NodeMCU because this thing uses USB for programming and the Serial
Monitor and does not need a reset combination to put it into programming mode.
This is much better than the Huzzah, however once I get the code developed I
will program a Huzzah and use it because the board is wired for the Huzzah and
it’s more compact.  The board could not be rewired due to the larger size of a
NodeMCU.  It won’t fit on the available space.  There currently is an issue
receiving packets from the Moteino, most of them are coming through with CRC
errors.   I may have to employ EasyTransfer to do a better job sending data or
figure out a better way to send and receive data. Dinner was Quesadilla with
Salsa and Guacamole and a few glasses of Cabernet.


November 13, 2019 Wednesday Finally Working

I spent the morning hours updating the MAAVS website.  I added the photo albums
and archived the convention pages.  This took quite a bit of time and thank
goodness I previously built the photo gallery and had it ready to go.  Drupal on
MAAVS is a dream compared to the AVSA Drupal.  I’m not sure what the differences
are except that the AVSA website has a custom theme built by me.   I next
switched to working on the transfer problem between the Moteino and the Huzzah.
I rewrote the Moteino code to utilize EasyTransfer.  It was easier to rewrite
than I initially thought.  I discovered that a lot of the Moteino code is not
used because it was originally used to decode the incoming packets.  Now all it
does is run the radio and pass the resulting binary data to the ESP8266 for
decoding.  I then reworked the ESP8266 code to use EasyTransfer.  This too was
very easy to do.  While debugging I discovered the MQTT code was not in place
and the NTP function retrieving time was not reliable.  I worked through all the
issues and by late in the night I was able to start uploading data to
Wunderground.  While in bed I looked at the Wundermap and there was my
Stoneybrook weather station!  I had to use a fixed value for barometric pressure
until a pressure chip arrives that I purchased on eBay. Dinner tonight was
spaghetti with cheese and a glass or two of Cabernet.


November 14, 2019 Thursday Wind Vanes, Internet and Missing JPG files

I spent the time this morning at Selby correcting file names and re-exporting
some images that were retaken.  I decided that enough images were missing that
it was time to create a spreadsheet showing which camera images had JPG and
which images were missing their dng or jpg counterpart.  I took directory
listing files of the camera raw, the jpgs and the dngs and mailed these files to
myself.  At home I will create a Python script to put these in a spreadsheet
column highlighting the missing files.  While Libbie and I were driving home
Paul from Selby called.  He wanted to ask about internet connections.  I told
him he could stop by on his way home which he did later in the afternoon.  We
chatted about his Comcast service going down frequently.  I looked at all his
splitters and power injector and said this was not good.  Something is causing
him to lose synch and drop his service. Earlier in the afternoon Libbie and I
went out to get ingredients for a broccoli cheese soup that is a Panera clone as
well as hamburgers and buns.  Dinner was hamburgers with baked beans and a few
glasses of Cabernet.  My weather receiver continues to perform well but the
directional wind vane is incorrect. The packets for example show the wind vane
at 90 degrees but the arrow is instead at 270.  I need to see if it is correctly
mounted on the shaft.


November 15, 2019 Friday Shopping, Wind and Temperature

We did a shopping trip first to Lowes where we scored some very nice $1 plants
then Walmart on Cattleman Rd where they did not have a towel rack that we went
to get.  The website said they had 3 in stock. I’m not happy with Walmart’s
online product management.  I’ve been disappointed too many times.  This time we
drove all the way to Cattleman and came home empty handed.  We did go next door
to Home Depot where I found a heavy duty hose hanger and Libbie found a nice
Cattleya Orchid.  I thought I fixed the outdoor weather software but while
checking the wunderground site in bed I noticed the temperature is not moving.
Something is wrong and the software is pretty suspicious.   I worked on
debugging a Python program to look for missing jpg and dng files for Selby.  The
Python string functions are pretty powerful.  I’m continuing to work on the
program with success.  In the afternoon Libbie and I worked together to make
dinner.  We made the copycat version of Panera Bread’s Broccoli Cheese soup.
Libbie sauteed onions and garlic with flour while I measured cream, broth and
milk and added the spices with the liquids.  All the while she continued to
stir.  When it was all mixed we took it off the heat, covered it and jumped into
the Hot Tub which was relaxing.  After the Hot Tub we had Cheese and Crackers
with wine.  We then turn the heat back onto the soup and mixed in the cheddar
cheese and broccoli.  Libbie heated the baguette we bought in the oven wrapped
in foil. Dinner was Broccoli cheese soup, baguette bread with several glasses of
Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Jenna and her parents tour Christmas
Decorations around the Epcot resorts.  They were pretty nice especially
Boardwalk with a miniature bakery.  When we turned that off for the night I
stayed downstairs and worked some more on the Selby Python program.


November 16, 2019 Saturday Success

I continued working on the Selby Python program and had quite a bit of success
as well as enforcement of my understanding of Python.  I produced a spreadsheet
of missing files out of the 37,000 photos.  There were quite a few raw CR2
images missing either their JPG or DNG counterpart, sometimes both.  It took a
long time for the computer to run producing the list.  I then emailed it to
John.  Next up was to tackle the weather software which was still reporting
weird temperatures.  I loaded the code into the NodeMCU chip instead of the
Huzzah and gave that a go.  It was successful and reported the correct
temperature.  I will redo the breadboard to accommodate the NodeMCU chip.  I
gave some thought to doing a PCB for the receiver with the two CPU chips plus
the barometric pressure chip.  I may also consider putting a header onboard for
an RTC chip.  I’ll probably use KiCAD which is an open source schematic and pcb
software.  To help with this I downloaded the KICAD software and started
watching a tutorial but never got beyond the overview.   Dinner tonight was
Salmon with Broccoli, rice and Cabernet. I’m concerned that the propane bottle
is down to ¼.  I started looking for a used tank on Craigslist but had no luck.


November 17, 2019 Sunday Le Corsaire

I spent the morning struggling with Kicad.  I found a library for the NodeMCU
but nothing for the Moteino.  I downloaded an Eagle library for Moteino and used
an online converter to create a Kicad version.  It only partially worked.  I
still need a schematic symbol but it created the footprint. We left for the
ballet at 12:30 or so.  Libbie made tuna sandwiches we had for lunch during
intermission. This one was not live but instead an encore presentation from Oct.
The ballet is rich in beautiful music and also has much dancing by a large cast.
The interview with the costume designer revealed that there are 500 costumes
used in this production.  She also said the Bolshoi tutus are special.  They are
bigger in diameter and also higher up on the dancer’s body.  It was effective,
the production numbers were stunning.  This was considered part of the classic
repertoire but I have never seen it.  The music however was familiar.  The
weather station continues to perform well.  It will be nice to get a pressure
sensor for this thing.  I’m disappointed the eBay seller was tardy mailing it
out but it is within eBay guidelines.  I’m used to other vendors shipping
immediately.    Dinner was a Dominos 3 topping large pizza with extra cheese,
diced tomatoes and mushrooms as the toppings.  The coupon price has gone up to
9.99 from the previous 7.99.  This is still a pretty good deal.  Before the
pizza I went outside and used the drill driver to hang the hose hanger.  The
drill driver makes a huge difference drilling the concrete wall.  This was my
first time using it even though i bought it when we were home in September.
After dinner I managed to listen to one Kicad tutorial which was quite good. He
is called “John’s Basement” and has an easy going style with no BS that packs a
lot of info into the video.  I’ll watch a few more by him.  I really need to
learn how to create a symbol.


November 18, 2019 Monday Productive

I took the ladder out of the garage and went up on the porch roof where I
cleaned the pine straw off the roof and also cleaned out the gutter over the
Lanai.  The House gutter still needs cleaning but I didn’t do that one.  Next I
set up the ladder against the front Palm tree and trimmed it of a few dead
pieces.  This filled up a whole garbage can.  There is another branch that needs
cutting down but it is going to wait for another time.  While I trimmed the tree
Libbie planted all the shrubs in the front yard that we picked up at Lowes last
week.  My pressure sensor arrived in an envelope in the mail.  The packaging was
cute.  I used the new digital microscope to solder the header.  It worked pretty
good but there is not enough room under the scope for the vise and the PCB.  I
need to work on making more room under the microscope lens.  I then watched a
few more tutorials by “John’s Basement” about Kicad and after transferring a
bunch of files up to my desktop computer from the laptop Kicad, I started
creating a custom library and started the component for the Moteino. Dinner
tonight was hamburger on a bun with ketchup and baked beans with rice. After
dinner we watched Josh and Jenna in the Magic Kingdom on a pretty nice but
chilly night there.  My temperature readings from the Davis continue to be
uploaded to Wunderground without issue.  This is great news.  Now all I need is
for the pressure sensor to be hooked up and reading reliably for uploads.


November 19, 2019 Tuesday Kicad

 Out the door this morning just before 8.  I had a disaster with my coffee cup.
I grabbed the travel mug by the lid which was not secured.  The full mug of
coffee dumped all over the living room floor.  Libbie helped me clean it up.
That was not a good start to the day.  At Selby I started looking for the
thousands of missing jpg files. I found a folder that said “Lightroom jpg don’t
use”.  John said he put those jpg files there because he didn’t know what they
were.   There were 9,000 jpg files in there but I didn’t move them until all the
other changes were done. When we came home the mail had already arrived.  My USB
cables arrived.  I ordered 3 for various NodeMCU projects including the weather
gateway and a temperature sensor for the garage attic.  While I was at it, I
tried the USB-C cables that arrived 6 months ago and Libbie said did not fit her
phone.  I tried one and it certainly did fit.  We are all set with cables for
now. I listened to some more KiCAD tutorials and managed to create the Symbol
for the Moteino.  Next I want to create a footprint.  I watched the tutorial
silently but need to watch it with the sound on.  Today on the way home from
Selby we stopped into Trader Joes because Libbie needed Almonds.  While there we
also picked up various pastas - tortellini, lobster ravioli and a mushroom
ravioli.  Dinner tonight was Tortellini with tomato sauce and a few glasses of
Two Buck chuck Shiraz.  This afternoon the LCD monitor I ordered from Newegg
came via UPS.  I unpacked it and disposed of the packing materials but did not
set it up or turn  it on.  Hopefully the old VCR can feed it.  One thing I did
not do today was hook up the pressure sensor.  I want to program that thing on a
separate breadboard before adding it to the weather gateway.


November 20, 2019 Wednesday Pine Straw

While Libbie went to her eye appointment I worked a little in the yard.  I
picked up all the pine straw that came from the Lanai roof in the back. I used
this to cover the exposed irrigation pipes in the front yard and then around the
bushes.  I also put up the towel bar on the back porch.  This really went well
with my new hammer drill.  That thing really slices into the concrete blocks.
The towel bar looks great and is very sturdy.  I then went into my office and
hooked up the new BMP280 pressure sensor.  It did not work with the Adafruit
library so I went searching.  I found some code posted on a website that didn’t
use a library to address and read the BMP chip.  Surprisingly this worked!   I
packaged up the code and put it into the main program and soon had it outputting
to Weather Underground.  It does not have the humidity function, only
temperature and pressure.  This is happiness! For dinner I found a cheesy Shrimp
and grits recipe that Libbie rejected so I next went for a Shrimp Fettuccine
Alfredo.  I went to Walmart and got all the ingredients then stopped by Publix
for refrigerated Fettuccine but bought Linguini instead.  I didn’t recognize
that it was the wrong thing.  The meal came out delicious but as the reviewers
stated, the noodles were a little dry.  This was in spite of the fact that we
doubled the amount of liquid in the mixture from the amount called for in the
recipe.  It was yummy and definitely a keeper for me.   Dave Kesler called
around 6 PM.  Because of his situation at home with his Mother in Law he is
resigning from the Technology committee and throttling back on many of his AVSA
activities.  That’s too bad because the office is in pretty bad shape after the
flood.  The Imus Office software is still not up and running.  The proposal is
to move this stuff into the Cloud for a lot of money.  I only hope there is good
project management of this effort.


November 21, 2019 Thursday Plumbing Repair

I had an interesting  morning in Botany.  I continued to correct images and move
files around.  I was so involved in what I was doing that i lost track of the
time.  We stopped by Yoders on the way home and picked up our produce which
included Apples and Veggies.  The Weather station continues to perform well.  I
never got around to watching the video about Kicad footprints.  I’ll make sure
to do that tomorrow.  It’s a beautiful day so Libbie and I took a walk around
Westbourne Circle. After the walk I did the repair to the front yard irrigation
pipe that I had punctured while weeding.  We went into the hot tub around
sunset.  It looks like the towel bar I mounted on the wall is going to work.
I’ll go to Lowes and get a second one to  mount under the first. Dinner tonight
was Trader Joe's Lobster Ravioli with some Parmesan topping and a few glasses of
Cabernet.


November 22, 2019 Friday Shopping, Sad Passing of a Friend

This morning we went to the new Detweillers for dinner fixins.  Wow, is this
store great.  It is everything I expect of a Detweillers - a huge meat counter,
seafood counter and a fantastic produce section.  We bought Country Ribs for
1.69 per pound along with a  pineapple from the machine, fresh green beans,
squash and a Sweet Potato.  After Detweillers we went to Harbor Freight for a
bench brush, nut drivers, 25 foot ruler and scissors as well as a free
flashlight.  Score!  After some vegetable soup for lunch we went down to Venice
to JoAnns for Libbie’s sewing notions and fabric.  We then stopped into Walmart
on the way home to return a colander I wrongfully bought and picked up a
strainer instead.   That was enough shopping for one day!!!! I spent some time
this afternoon watching the Kicad Footprint tutorial and trying to make a
footprint for my WxGateway.  I had some success with the Moteino but the BMP280
pressure sensor did not seem to get saved.  It’s not in the library.  Oh well,
try again.  At least it’s good practice. Libbie cooked the Country Ribs which we
purchased today.  Dinner was Country Ribs smothered in Onions along with Rice,
fresh Green Beans and a few glasses of Cabernet.   Wow was this like old times,
incredibly good.  Dessert was homemade Pumpkin Pie topped with whipped cream.
We used the Organic Pumpkin can from Deitweillers.   We watched Jenna and Josh
in Animal Kingdom after dinner.  Late at night I received word that Richard
Nicholas had died from a heart attack today.  Wow, is this a shock and so so
sad.  Poor Anne.  I don’t think she will be able to manage alone for long term.
Richard was her pillar, left to herself she was flakey.


November 23, 2019 Saturday

This morning I went to Lowes to pick up another towel bar for the porch and to
find someone to get a garage door estimate.  It was too early to find a garage
door person but I did get a towel bar.  When I got home I installed the towel
bar.  It’s nice and secure on the concrete block wall.  I fetched the vacuum and
cleaned up the powder from the drilling.  When I came home Libbie was in the
garage crying.  She just talked to Anne about Richard’s death.  Anne was at the
funeral home making arrangements for Richard’s body.  Laura was with her which
was good. We bought Romaine Lettuce at Detweillers and now the FDC is telling us
to throw out Romaine from Salinas Valley.  Our lettuce was from Salinas.   I
ordered a keyboard from Walmart and picked it up in the store.  I also needed
gas while there. I did a little work at the Desktop PC mainly trying out the
Logitech Keyboard and mouse I picked up in Walmart.  This is my first wireless
keyboard.  I like it.  I added the scans of Libbie’s Mom’s Recipes to the George
Condon letters page. This is a new section of that page. Dinner tonight was the
last of the Country Ribs smothered in Onions.  This is incredibly good.  We had
it with a Sweet Potato and green beans.  The Sweet Potato came from Detweillers
and was excellent.  There was a little concern that it was not cured but it
really was great.  We had a few glasses of Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner
we watched ResortTV1.  Josh was broadcasting from California with his friend
Brent.   It wasn’t very interesting so we watched a little then headed
upstairs.   During the day I picked up a Sympathy card for Anne from Target and
also used Teleflora to send flowers to Anne’s house.  We chose a Sympathy
Bouquet.  Received word at 1:30 that it was delivered.  Good deal.  Cost with
delivery and tax was $94.


November 24, 2019 Sunday PCB

This morning we watched the Sunday morning shows then I decided to start getting
KiCad on the desktop in my office to try accessing a shared drive.  This thing
was not made for transferring to another computer.  Settings are scattered all
over with the paths to the symbols, footprints and libraries.  What a pain.
Eventually I succeeded and created a netlist which I imported into the PCB
layout program.  I layed out all the footprints and found out that they will not
all fit onto a PCB that will fit into an electrical utility box.  I made the PCB
a little bigger rather than going with components on both sides because I was
not sure about thermal properties or the fact that both chips, the NODEMCU and
the Moteino, have RF components that may or may not  be happy on top of each
other.   Libbie made her delicious pizza from scratch today which meant a new
dough.  I bought mushrooms that she didn’t like because they were cut up into
slices but they were not washed.  She had to wash the bits and pieces.   Dinner
tonight was the pizza with baby bella mushrooms and a glass of wine.  Just
before dinner our neighbor David came over with a book about Stoneybrook Estates
that he put together.  It includes the rules as well as map, emergency numbers,
etc.  After dinner I transferred $500 from savings to checking and then went
online and paid the Wake County taxes.  I want to give the original tax bill and
paid receipt to the Sarasota Tax Collector as proof that I don’t get any
exemptions from other states.   Hopefully this will be sufficient.   While
online I also requested an address verification from the Post Office for Downing
Place.  This will let me set up the informed delivery which is a picture of each
piece of mail.


November 25, 2019 Monday Shopping

I tried to apply for a Homestead exemption by bringing my Wake County tax to the
Sarasota Tax Appraiser’s office.  It didn’t do any good.  I was able to get my
Voter registration card into their system.  I was having trouble doing this
online.   They still want a letter from Wake County stating that  I have no
exemptions in NC.   Earlier we went to the Tax Collector's office and found out
they were not the ones to see. We then picked up a bunch of produce at
Detweillers and returned our Romaine Lettuce because it was being recalled.   We
then drove to Venice to see the appraiser.  Briefly visited the Audubon
sanctuary behind the appraiser’s office then went across the street to Libbie’s
favorite JoAnns for fabric for another quilt she is working on.  There was a
Super Walmart across the street so we went there to pick up the groceries on
Libbie’s list. After lunch I figured out a plan for a garage cabinet for Libbie.
I also decided to make half of the cabinet for myself which will significantly
increase my tool storage.   I took out a one month Amazon Prime membership and
then ordered some hinge templates, a saw guide and a Wok from Amazon.  All this
is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  Dinner tonight was Libbie’s custom Bok  Choy
recipe which contains celery, mushrooms, carrots and chicken in a delicious
sauce.  Yum.  We had this with several glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we
watched Josh stream live from Disneyland.  The Christmas lights were pretty,
especially Small World. Just before dinner tonight I successfully configured the
laptop to access the KiCad libraries on the Synology Shared drive.  This makes
switching from the desktop to the laptop and back is seamless.  I even made some
touch ups to the silkscreen and board outline on the laptop to the design
originally laid out on the desktop.


November 26, 2019 Tuesday Closet Materials

 This morning I went to Selby and processed more photos through Lightroom.
Three of the dates of photos taken  had dark photos and needed exposure
adjustment.  Once again, the time went fast.  I left and headed for Beneva which
was not great.  Around Webber Beneva is only one lane so it was a long wait to
merge.  I stopped at Walmart for more wine and Soy sauce.  While there I also
bought bread for turkey sandwiches later.   Next stop was Harbor Freight with
more coupons.  I used 15% off on a 4 foot outlet strip and also had a coupon for
a tool bag which is for my router I bought yesterday.  When I went out for the
mail I met Joe Meyeress in the street.  He invited us over for Thanksgiving
Dinner at 5 PM Thanksgiving Day.  I told him we’ll bring pies.  He said to call
Angela.   Our Amazon deliveries came today.  I joined Prime for one month.  We
got a Cuisinart Wok, a hinge mortise template and a skill saw guide.  I saw the
guide on YouTube and decided I needed it.  I sent a picture to Walgreens of us
and the girls at Selby and ordered 75 prints at 10 cents each.  When I went to
pick up the prints I stopped at Lowes and ordered a new garage door and picked
up wood to begin the closet project.  I did not get fasteners or hinges.  Dinner
tonight was the leftover Bok Choy which we had with a few glasses of Cabernet.
Josh did a rope drop stream earlier today from Disneyland.  We watched some of
the replay.  The park was incredibly crowded.  We stopped watching after an hour
or two.   It was enjoyable but we were both tired.  I have noticed in the past
that I am more tired on the days I go to Selby.  I’m not sure why it’s like
that.


November 27, 2019 Wednesday Office Remodel

I completely laid out the WxGateway.  It can be sent as is to OshPark but I am
going to fine tune a few things as pointed out on the John’s Basement tutorials
on YouTube.  I worked on how I was going to do the design for the garage
workshop and decided I needed a few more wood pieces.  I made a morning trip
first to Harbor Freight to get a brad stapler.  I can use this to staple the
shelves down in the cabinet if the brads can  get through plywood and 2x4 base.
Next stop was Lowes where I picked up nails and a few more 2x4s.  When I got
home we decided to visit Joe and Angela to see if Libbie had the correct number
for her.  She did not.  Somehow one digit was wrong.  We told Joe to tell Angela
that we will be bringing 2 pies for dinner.   I next went out for the pie
ingredients that Libbie needed. After lunch I cleared the wall in the garage
where the new cabinet will be built.  I also moved the existing cabinet away
from the wall.  This was the end of my outdoor work.  I came inside and
rearranged my office to utilize the floor space better. I put the table
perpendicular to the window and into the unused floorspace.  This allowed me to
put the scanner on the cart in the corner.  I’ll also try the printer on the
cart on the bottom shelf and see if that fits. Ultimately I’ll have both
computers functioning on my desktop. Libbie made Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry
for dinner in our new Wok.  There was a discrpeency in the recipe.  The video
showed Chicken Stock but the printed recipe didn’t have any broth.  Since it
seemed dry the broth was probably needed.  It certainly was a keeper and
delicious. We had the stir fry along with several glasses of Cabernet.   After
dinner Josh of ResortTV1 was doing his last broadcast from Disneyland.  The
Christmas themed Small World was truly awesome.   We loved the outdoor lighting
on Small World and really liked the Christmas medley mixed with Small World
music inside the ride.  Everything was Christmasy with LED snowflakes, Christmas
trees, bows, Christmas balls and ribbons.


November 28, 2019 Thursday Thanksgiving

This morning I started watching the Thanksgiving Parade on Network TV at 10 but
quickly bailed out when I discovered it being streamed without any announcer,
commercials or other noise.   We got to see the parade as it started at Central
Park West and 77th St.  What is nice is that all the bands and other groups were
covered.  When it was over I moved the Miter Saw outside and set up to cut wood.
I built the three sets of shelf supports before coming inside to clean up.
Libbie made the Apple Crumb Pie and a Pumpkin Pie to bring over to Joe and
Angela’s.  Dinner was at 5.  We went over at 4 but didn’t bring the pies over
until later.  The meal was great - turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy,
cranberries and other veggies.  I tried to limit myself.  For dessert we had
Libbies Apple and Pumpkin Pie with ice cream or cool whip.  We brought a bottle
of Cabernet over and had that with dinner.   Joining Angela and Joe were Steve
and Chris and Angela’s friend Jenny.  Also there was Angela’s cousin Margha from
Connecticut. She was very quiet but very nice.  She is living in Hartford, CT
but looking for a house in Florida. We came home around 9 and had another piece
of Apple Pie with Ice Cream before going to bed.


November 29, 2019 Friday  Black Friday

This morning I ran out to Lowes to get a 10 foot long 2x4 to use as a header
over the two sets of doors.  I also bought the second set of doors.  It was
Black Friday and the Lowes staff was on standby.  There was a group of 6 of them
by the door ready to help customers.  In the aisle were a pallet of Shop Vac
vacuums for $39 each and $89 Werner adjustable ladders.  I waited until later in
the morning then started cutting the wood.  I did adjust the shelf support under
the garage door track so that the second set of shelves does not have the top
shelf because of track clearance.  I went back to Lowes for more wall anchors
but was short of the longer screws to reach the anchor.  I went back to Lowes
yet again for the longer screws.  I also made a trip out to Target to get a meat
thermometer.  Luckily they were on sale because of Black Friday.  The shelves
are really coming along nice.  They are very sturdy.  Now I need the plywood for
the actual shelves. This will involve cutting in the store because they don’t
fit in my car. Libbie cooked the Butterball turkey today for dinner with all the
trimmings.  I made the cranberry sauce from a package of Cranberries.  This is
so easy.  Boil water, dump the cranberries in and cook for 10 minutes.   Dinner
was turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries and gravy along with a glass
of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched the Festival of the Lights from Epcot
which was streamed by Jenna.  Disney had a 50 piece orchestra and about a 100
member choir all singing traditional Christmas Carols.  We went  upstairs after
the concert and I watched the fireworks from bed on my tablet.


November 30, 2019 Saturday Shelves

I went out to Lowes round 8 this morning.  As expected the store was not empty
and there were lots of employees standing around.  I picked out three sheets of
½ inch and one sheet of ¼ inch plywood and took it to the saw.  I had 16 inches
taken off each ½ inch sheet which is the width of one shelf.  Then I had 20
inches taken off the ¼ inch sheet.  This is one side of the garage cabinet.  All
these cuts made the sheets small enough to fit into the Prius easily.  I
continued to put the 2x2 shelf braces in.  Unfortunately I can only get one one
52 inch support from each 8 foot board.  I ended up stopping by Lowes and
picking up 6 more 2x2s on the way home from a grocery trip to Walmart.  I picked
up Aluminum Foil, wine and soap as my main reason for going there.  I also tried
to get packets of Turkey gravy but they were out.  I bought chicken and beef
instead and Libbie told me she never would use those. Too bad, I’ll find a way.
For lunch we had yummy Turkey sandwiches and for dinner it was turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes, gravy and Cabernet.  For dessert Libbie made Apple Pie with
some leftover crust from Thanksgiving.  We had this with leftover Vanilla Ice
Cream.  I didn’t do anything after dinner but vegetated in my chair watching
YouTube videos. Dec 1, 2019 Sunday Shelves and PCBs Watched the Morning programs
then went outside and worked on the shelving.  I now have all the shelf supports
installed, ready for the plywood shelves.  It was a long day doing this.  I took
a break midway through and cleaned up the OshPark design of the Davis RF to WiFi
Gateway.  I found the NodeMCU had small holes instead of larger holes for a
socket.  I modified the footprint and checked for other errors.  I found some
missing grounds on the CPU that I added.  After error checking and looking at
hole diameters I uploaded it to Oshpark for building.  It was $33 for 3 cards
including shipping.  While fixing up the office I found a whole box of parts
that I needed.  Unfortunately I ordered sockets and terminal strips that were
already in this box.  I brought this down in Oct but neglected to unpack it.
Libbie made her pizza tonight which was yummy as always.  No wine tonight!
We’re trying to cut back. Before the pizza we had some relaxing Hot Tub time.
Libbie loves it, I could take it or leave it.  After dinner I ordered a one year
gift subscription for myself on Ancestry.  I found 2 glembocki trees under two
accounts.  There is no merge function.  I will copy the trees manually somehow.
Maybe Family Tree will allow me to merge an exported tree then synch it with
Ancestry.  It currently synchs with Ancestry so this should work.  I would
export from tomgle1 to the PC.  Import this file to FTM2019 then synch with
emilia910 on Ancestry.




Dec 2, 2019 Monday Ripping Plywood

I set up the sawhorses next to the house then assembled the Kreg Ripcut guide
and attached it to the Skill Saw.  I could not believe how straight the cuts
were!   Ripping Plywood is easy with this device.  Why didn’t I have one of
these a long time ago?  I cut all the shelves and their extensions with the
Kreg.  I used my Harbor Freight Jigsaw to cut the notches for the 2x4s.  The saw
does an admirable job.  It was the first time I used it. I purchased the saw to
cut a hole in the roof for the exhaust fan.  The fan is still in the box.  After
all the shelves were in place I got out the nail gun and discovered I needed a
quick disconnect connector.  A quick trip to Lowes and I had a quick disconnect.
I also bought a quick disconnect for the tire pressure gauge.  I think I will
buy a few more of these connectors for the bag of air tools such as the blower
and inflator I bought while Joe and Family were here. When I first started using
the nail gun It was having trouble sinking the brads.  I noticed the gun had 120
PSI stamped on it.  The tool pressure of the compressor was only set to about
60.  I cranked it up to 100 PSI and I was quickly on my way sinking the brads
correctly.  After this adjustment I did not have a single miss.   I’m glad to
have this nailer because all the shelves have a  lot of nails.  I couldn’t
imagine hammering all these manually. Today while in Lowes I stopped at the
windows desk to find out why I have not received a call regarding my garage door
estimate.  They called the estimator and told me it will be sometime in the next
two days.   I’m not so sure about the reliability of this installer. Disney Plus
had a Cyber Monday special.  I bought 12 months of service for $59 which came
out to $64 with tax.  After dinner I set up the App on the TV and browsed the
contents.  We watched the Davy Crockett movie which was enjoyable.  It really
was 3 TV shows hooked together into one long movie according to Wikipedia.
Dinner tonight was turkey slices with gravy, mashed potatoes and Butternut
squash.  We enjoyed this was a few glasses of Cabernet. I also took advantage of
a Cyber Monday Sale on Los Poblano Lavender for Libbie.  Cyber totals were three
purchases.  First was a year of Ancestry Genealogy for $99, second was 12 months
of Disney Plus for $59 and third was 2 bottles of Lavender 8 oz size for $40
after shipping.  The Los Poblanos purchase was a 20% off Cyber Monday sale.  I
did not purchase Photo Mechanic which was something I had been keeping an eye
on.


December 3, 2019 Tuesday Plywood

 Off we went to Selby this morning where I continued to cleanup image files and
transfer stuff to the Q drive.  Surprisingly Libbie came over to the Herbarium
around noon.  They were not working in Horticulture because the Conservatory was
being reconfigured after the Orchid Show.  I showed her the nice painting done
by an Intern before she left over the summer.  In Botany I learned one of the
Orchid Botanists, a guy they call Toscano, is in the hospital unconscious after
he had a heart attack. We stopped by Walmart on the way home and did some
grocery shopping.  They had more Turkey gravy packets in stock which we needed
for our leftover turkey slices.  I continued to cut slices of plywood for the
top and sides of the cabinet.  I need one more sheet of plywood for the top of
the shelves and as a covering in the front above the doors.  While I worked
cutting the wood Joe was across the street putting up Christmas lights on his
house.  They looked pretty nice at night.  I went out to Costco to pick up
coffee, wine and dishwasher detergent.  This was a good time to go there.  The
store was nicely empty but only 3 cash registers were staffed. Dinner was Turkey
slices, dark meat, with baked sweet potato.  We had some Cabernet with dinner.
After dinner we watched the rest of Davy Crockett.  It’s too bad it ends the way
it does with Davy dying at the Alamo.  Libbie then switched to YouTube and
watched Jenna’s Birthday Party at Hollywood Studios.  They had a birthday dinner
at Hollywood Studios.  I then stayed downstairs for another hour reading and
watching YouTube videos.


December 4, 2019 Wednesday Tea Time

I went out to Lowes this morning and had another sheet of plywood ripped to fit
in the car.  I had the guy take 20 inches off.  I then trimmed this to what I
needed for the top of the cabinet and for the front of the cabinet.  I used the
nail gun and put all the sides and top in place.  We had Turkey soup for lunch
then I got cleaned up and left the house at 2 for Tea with Jennifer. I stopped
by Botany where John and Bruce were in the Herbarium.  I started a job of
copying the DNG files over.  The JPGs from yesterday had finished.  We then
walked over to the tea in the great room.  We sat at a table with Pat and his
wife Sharon, her work partner Joe,  a docent named Diane and a volunteer from
the Children’s corner named Nancy.  We had a pleasant conversation.  Nancy was
from Detroit, Diane was from Northern Illinois near Chicago. It was a
traditional Tea with the triple stack.  Sandwiches on the bottom and then
goodies on the next two tiers.  Very nice. At 6:15 we went out to dinner to
Beckhams.  We both ordered the half rack of ribs with rice and beans and had a
Yuengling with dinner. We came home and watched an episode of the Mickey Mouse
Club.  Very cool!  I ordered LED net lights from Amazon today that were supposed
to arrive before 9 PM.  I watched the tracking at 9:30 PM and it said my package
was one stop away.  The next thing I knew I received notification that the
delivery was canceled and the package was damaged in transit.


December 5, 2019 Thursday  Hinges

I spent the morning at Selby working on backups and processing a few more Orchid
raw images.  I then took directory dumps of the the Broms and Orchid Jpeg and
Dngs as well as the raw camera files.  I put these on my Outlook One Drive
account to run Python against them later to determine Orphans. Liz stopped in to
Botany this morning to say hi to everyone but I was the only one in the building
since there was a staff meeting going on.  We had a nice chat about her surgery
and I met her husband who called himself driving Miss Daisy. As Libbie and I got
home from Selby the estimator from D&D Garage Doors arrived.  He was early but
at least we didn’t have to wait around for him.  He measured the door opening
and pointed out the wires that go through the pulley need to be removed.  I have
some work to do. I was tired and didn’t do much this afternoon.  I ran out to
Walmart and got 7 more hinges for the closet doors.  Now I am only one hinge
short.  Maybe I can find another Walmart to get one more.  We got a surprise in
the evening when the doorbell rang. It was Amazon delivering the LED Net lights.
Yesterday they told me the delivery was canceled because it was damaged in
transit.  Inexplicably it showed up this evening.  Libbie and I tried unwrapping
one set and I went out in the dark and tried to put them on the Palmetto but had
no success.  I’ll do this tomorrow in the daylight.  Dinner tonight was
spaghetti with cheese topping.  We watched the replay of Josh and Jenna on the
grand opening of Rise of The Resistance.  They were at the park at 4 AM this
morning for a 5:30 AM park opening.   We watched the ride which everyone said
was amazing.  Rather than fast passes they have boarding groups and take a large
number of people at once.


December 6, 2019 Friday  Christmas Lights

This morning I unwrapped the LED net lights out on the grass next to the
Palmetto.   I used one of the 7 foot door jambs as a curtain rod and hung the
lights over the Palmetto.  Libbie came out later and unwrapped the second net
light on the grass.  I used the same technique and hung the second set next to
the first and plugged the two together,  I needed another extension cord so we
went out to Lowes and bought 4 15 foot extensions for 3.68 each.  I used solder
and heat shrink and put two of the cords together.  I also found another 25 foot
outdoor cord in the garage that I used for the Palmetto Net lights.  The
extension cords that I soldered were used on the fig palms.  I had to run back
out to Walmart to buy an adapter to plug both sets of extension cords into the
timer.  We have a pretty nice timer that apparently was purchased last year.  At
dusk it operates for a dialed in amount of time.  I have it set for 6 hours
after dusk.  It works quite well and turned the lights on in the evening.
During the day I saw Joe outside putting up another set of lights, this time it
was net lights on the bushes in front of his house.  We chatted in the street
for a while then went about our business.  For dinner we went out at 6 PM to
Beckhams where we each ordered a half rack of ribs with beans and rice and also
a glass of Yuengling.  After dinner we came home and packed our bags for the
trip tomorrow.  It’s only a weekend trip so packing was pretty easy.  The  most
important item was packing the requirements paper from the homestead exemption.
There are two of them, one for each of us.  Hopefully I can get one letter for
both of us from Wake County Monday morning.


 Dec 7, 2019 Saturday Drive to Apex

We got up at 5 this morning and loaded the suitcases, sandwiches and a thermos
of coffee.  We were on the road by 5:30 AM.  I was very surprised with how much
traffic there was in Tampa and then around Ocala and Gainesville.  I didn’t
think this was going to work out well for us even though it was a Saturday and
well away from the Thanksgiving or Christmas and traffic should really be light.
It wasn’t.  The weather was perfect although we left Sarasota at 59 degrees and
it progressively got colder.  It was 45 at the Villages.   We stopped for
breakfast just before Ocala.  It was a good quick stop for bathroom and
biscuits.  Our next stop was the Georgia Welcome center for bathrooms and a
sample of Peach cider and pralines.  The pralines were delicious, the peach
cider was so-so.  It had peach flavor but it was syrupy sweet. At the same stop
we got gas at a Pilot which was pretty full.  I had to drive around for an empty
pump. We had turkey sandwiches in the car as well as a banana that Libbie bought
in the Pilot. Our last gas stop was at exit 170 in SC, another Pilot just North
of Florence. During the drive we listened to the first Met Opera broadcast of
the season which was Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten.  It was interesting but not
really my cup of tea.  We found that the 40s on 4 channel was replaced by old
timey Christmas Music which we listened to for several hours. All lanes were
closed at mile 198 which is between Dillon and South of the Border.  We got off
at Dillon which is the Harbor Freight exit and went through downtown Dillon
picking up highway 301.  It was a nice alternate route, not very crowded and had
a different view of South of the Border.  The place is more effective when seen
from 301.  We got back onto I-95 at South of the Border and continued home
mostly incident free.  There was a brief slowdown at the Clayton bypass.  We got
home at 4:50 PM.  Libbie cleaned the driveway then we jumped into the car again
and went to Walmart where I got milk for my cereal and the last of the hinges
for the closet doors.  They were sold out of Christmas Cards.  Libbie wrote a
large batch of them in the car on the drive but ran out.   We then went out at 6
PM for dinner at La Cocina.  We had a medium Margarita which was 10.99 and too
much alcohol. For dinner we each  had the Quesadilla La Cocina.  The place was
pretty busy and full of families having dinner.  It is quite a contrast from
Sarasota which is full of mostly old people.  Both Walmart and La Cocina had
young crowds and families.  We were probably the oldest people in Walmart.
Back home we watched Josh and Jenna at Mickey’s Christmas Party from Friday
night.  We did not get to see the Christmas Parade live but went to bed Friday
night before it streamed.  Tonight we got to see it.  The quality was
outstanding as were the Christmas decorations.  Disney really does a good job
decorating.


Dec 8, 2019 Sunday Packing and Cleanup

This morning I started updating the Synology on Dowing with the external drive I
brought from Sarasota.  I also began fetching stuff in the workshop to pack up
and go.  I packed a few items around the wallbox and then ran out to Lowes and
purchased 5 small boxes and 5 medium boxes.  Libbie said she had these sizes but
I was tired of begging for boxes and went out and got a reliable supply so I
could continue packing and discarding.  I got  a few boxes to take next   time
and also have one box with the Seeburg and a box with albums set to go.  In
addition I selected a pile of tool bags with various nailers, impact driver,
planer and sander to take. I created a few black bags of trash.  I’ll take this
to the landfill tomorrow in the green garbage can.  I ordered an X-Large pizza
with diced tomato, mushroom and extra cheese from Dominoes behind Auto Zone on
55.  The crust was quite soggy but the Pie was pretty tasty. We had the pie with
a few glasses of Cabernet. After dinner I updated the MAAVS website and then
continued gathering stuff to either pack or take with me.


Dec 9, 2019 Monday Trash and Pack

This morning after Libbie’s haircut we left for downtown to visit the tax
office.  We left a little after 10 and had an easy drive to Raleigh.  I parked
on Nash Square and paid 1.25 for one hour of parking.  We went up to the third
floor and found the office and also found a very nice lady who knew what we
needed.   She produced two letters for us which made me very happy.  Once we
were home we packed up the garbage from my shop, Libbie’s closet and the
household kitchen garbage and filled my car.  The big can would not fit so I put
the individual bags in the bag and took it all to the landfill.  Libbie helped
me unload all the bags into the dumpster.  Mission accomplished.  Next step was
to fill more boxes with some of the items we are taking.  I filled the car with
my three boxes of tools and misc while Libbie added her tubs of fabric and put
all the plants across the top of the boxes.  I made a reservation at Holiday Inn
in Hardeeville, SC.  We left at 3 PM today which is a day earlier than we
planned.  I checked the overnight low and it was supposed to be 62 so the plants
would be fine.  We did a gas stop in Florence, SC then a dinner stop at Santee,
SC at Bojangles.  I had a 2 piece chicken dinner with biscuit and dirty rice.
For a drink I chose water.  Libbie estimated the meal at 1,000 calories.  Yikes.
We got into our hotel shortly after 8 PM which was great.  We had a nice comfy
room in an  ultramodern facility that we previously learned was refurbished.
After some light reading I fell asleep.  It was a pretty good day of
accomplishments.


Dec 10, 2019 Tuesday Travel

We had the hotel breakfast which was so-so.  The coffee was horrible.  It tasted
like hot water with minimal flavoring.  I topped off the gas tank in front of
the hotel and hit the road at 7:39 AM.  We were at exit 8 in SC so it was a
quick trip to the three lanes of GA and FL.  We stopped for real coffee at
McDonalds at exit 38, Brunswick GA and had a bathroom stop before getting on the
highway again.  Traffic was non existent.  The trip was great.  On the shortcut
between I-10 and I-75 I counted Dollar stores and only came up with 3.  Libbie
found 2 more in Lake Butler but they were not on the road we were traveling.  At
Brooksville I got another tank of gas while Libbie ran next door to McDonalds
for a hamburger and a small shared package of fries.   Traffic was heavy like it
always is through Tampa but there were no incidents and we kept moving. We
finally arrived at our driveway at 2:20 PM.  Joe was just getting home and gave
us our mail and a package from Los Poblanos.  He said Angela’s Mother had a
heart attack so she was flying to Columbia.  Joe was just returning from the
airport. She is a smoker.  I got a call from our insurance agent who said our
policy expires today and there has been no payment.  I told her I paid online.
I then called Cypress and found they do have the payment and will charge it
later today.  What a messed up company.  Agent doesn’t know anything.  Insurance
company doesn’t charge the credit card until the last minute hoping it will work
out.  Dinner tonight was Mushroom Truffles with Cabernet.  We had swiss cheese
and triscuits before dinner with a welcome home toast of Cabernet.  Surprisingly
I had a slight headache from the drive today.  I never usually get headaches.  I
took a plain old aspirin around midnight and it cleared up, thank goodness. This
morning while at the hotel I heard from Kathy Lahti.  She wanted to know about
online registration.  I replied it was going to happen.  We exchanged eMails
once again when I got to Sarasota.  She is having Christmas at her house and
said she is pretty busy so it won’t be until after Christmas that she can get
some convention materials to me.


Dec 11, 2019 Wednesday Success!!!

This morning Libbie and I headed down to Venice with our letter from Wake County
for proving we have no Wake tax exemptions.  We handed the lady in Venice the
letter which seemed to satisfy the property homestead exemption.  Hooray! Next
stop was 8 miles down the road to a trailer park where I purchased a propane
tank filled with fuel.  While there Libbie spotted an azalea pot in the garbage
can next door and took it after talking to the owner.  The park was a real
community with a few ponds and some very nice wooden cutouts of Christmas
figures around each pond.  It was pretty nice. On the way home we received our
estimate from Lowes.  The Turkey didn’t have our garage door estimate and had us
down for an insulated door.  I’m done with Lowes.  WE drove straight to DnD on
Cattleman and met a very well dressed Sales Lady who showed us her garage door
samples hanging on the showroom wall.  I’m just looking for the classic non
insulated door. The insulated has double steel and is twice the price.  They
seem to be cheaper than Lowes for a Clopay which may or may not be comparable to
the Pella we looked at.  On the way back from the Garage Door place we stopped
at Walmart and picked up our groceries.  That’s three successes in a row -
property exemption, propane tank and groceries! At home I watched a YouTube
video about how to use the Ryobi hinge template.  I then went outside with a
door and the template and tried it using the new Harbor Freight Palm Router.  It
really worked well.  On the first one I discovered to not move the spinning
blade when done but instead to wait for it to stop.  It nicked the corner of the
jig but no real damage.  I screwed up one cutout because I measured to the
bottom of the hinge instead of the top so I redid it and now have two cutouts in
that location.  Next job is to make a jig for the door jamb. Dinner tonight was
hamburger on a bun with baked beans and a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we
watched Josh and Jenna read the mail.  The most notable piece of mail was a
Disney Artist who had 25 years with the company sent them some sketches he made
of Disney characters and Resort TV.  I liked the Donald one at a laptop typing
Resorttv1.  Before going up to bed I went outside with the garbage to the
street.  I admired our house which is lit up in color lights as well as Joe’s
Christmas lighting across the street.  It’s a festive atmosphere.


Dec 12, 2019 Thursday Selby & Garage Doors

At Selby this morning I continued managing files.  There were 3,000 Broms
missing which I started working on.  My list showed which dates were missing.
Bruce stopped by and said that he was deleting files but it was not making  any
difference in the reported file size.  I found a Microsoft article that talks
about this happening on Windows Server.  You have to run a status update program
in the Powershell using Admin privileges.  Bruce later sent me an eMail saying
that he sent the request on to the IT department.  This was a fun day.  Libbie
stopped by at the end of the day and talked to John about Orchid Bark.  Liz also
mentioned that she gets her bark from Tropiflora.  They will mix whatever you
want and sell it in a 1 or 2 cu ft large box. At home the DnD Garage Door
estimator Eric came to measure and photograph our door.  I ended up going with
the insulated Miami-Dade wind rated door which costs $800 more. The bad part is
that the strut will interfere with the cabinet I built under the tracks.  I need
to remove the top sheet of plywood and cut the cabinet down a few inches.  Eric
seemed to be knowledgeable and proficient.   I made a $1,000 deposit and put the
door on order.  Now I have 2 jobs to do.  Remove the wires going through the
pulley and also lower the cabinet. Dinner tonight was Chicken Parmesan in the
Air Fryer along with a baked sweet potato and a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner
we took a walk around Knightsbridge Circle admiring the Christmas lights of our
neighbors.


Dec 13, 2019 Friday Digitize Movies

After a few false starts I figured out the Wolverine digitizer which came from
BH Photo yesterday.  They had it for $40 less on CyberMonday last week which
extended for the week.  I ordered it Saturday before we left Apex Monday.
Delivery was scheduled for Thursday which was yesterday.  I had a 9 inch roll of
film which turned out to be a Helen Crawford film. It had 3 or 4 breaks in it.
I managed to digitize the whole thing but the frame rate is 20 FPS.   A more
normal number is 16 so I will run it through Lightroom and slow it down as well
as do some cutting and splicing.   This is basically all lI did today.  Across
the street they made a racket as a very large crew arrived and stripped the
tiles from the roof.  They worked from early in the morning until well after
dark.  At 8 PM they were still nailing down felt paper using flashlights. Dinner
tonight was hamburger on a bun with a side of leftover baked beans along with a
few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna do some
monorail resort hopping to look at Christmas decorations.


Dec 14, 2019 Saturday Digitizing and Sawing

I spent the morning playing with films and managed to digitize another roll of
8mm film. This time it was the old B&W film labeled Cybulski.  It has old pics
from the Petroski property and some Bronx pics of Grandma, Aunt Helen and Mom
walking.  These are pretty good quality considering their age.  I need to run
this through Adobe Premiere Elements to slow it down from the 20 FPS.  Before I
got all covered with sawdust I chose to go to the grocery store and get the
ingredients for our dinner tonight.  After lunch I ripped the 2x4 header over
the new closet door in the garage.  This was a messy job but I’m very happy with
the outcome. I needed to remove 2 inches from the top of the cabinet under the
garage door tracks so that the struts from the new hurricane proof door could
clear the cabinet.  Now I need to cut some 2x4s to support the top again.  They
will need to be attached with the nail gun since I can’t get in there to hammer
the boards.  This wore me down for the day.  Libbie and I went outside in the
backyard and strung the two extra strings of LED lights across the Palmetto in
the back.  I hooked up the 50 foot extension purchased from Walmart to the dusk-
dawn timer also purchased at Walmart. We’ll look at these after dark. I
retreated to the desktop computer to resume scanning pictures.  I need a way to
capture the captions my mother put above her photos in the albums as well as on
the back of the photos.  I tried some free exif writers but so far have not
found anything acceptable.  I may purchase Photo Mechanic to do this.
Lightroom will do the job but at the cost of extra time with importing and then
exporting the image.  Photo Mechanic will write the jpg image directly.  Around
6 PM I made the Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine.  The extra spices and the saltiness of
the Alfredo sauce was not good.  We had dinner then threw the extra Fettucine
away.  I salvaged the shrimp which is coated with Slap Yo Mama Cajun seasoning.
After dinner we took a walk over to Westbourne to look at our lights.  They were
not very good. We need to reconfigure this.


Dec 15, 2019 Sunday Nutcracker

I didn’t do much this morning.  We watched the Sunday Morning shows then I
scanned a few photos from my Mother’s album then it was time to go to the
Bolshoi Nutcracker Encore.  This program was live last Christmas when we saw it
at the downtown theater in Sarasota.  We watched it in the local AMC theater at
the Mall this year.  IT was still great.  The Bolshoi does a fantastic job with
their orchestra and dancers.  There was some question of whether we would see it
because the time came and there was no picture.  Libbie went to the Lobby to
tell them.  Eventually 3 other people went down looking for the picture.  It
finally started halfway through the pre show interview by Katarina.  We got home
a little before 4 PM.  During the intermission we had tuna sandwiches that
Libbie had made.  Once home I rolled the saw into the side yard and cut a few
2x4 supports for the shelf and used the nail gun to install them.   Now I’m
ready to mortise the jambs and hang the doors.  Libbie had a pizza dough
incident where the dough she made went on to bake a loaf of pizza dough bread.
The setting was on bread instead of dough.   Pizza bread is not very great.
Fortunately she had enough time to restart the bread maker and make a batch of
dough for one of her classically delicious Pizzas which we had with Cabernet.  I
scanned several 8 mm rolls today.  There was one labeled Asbury Park 1960 which
turned out to be Uncle Fred showing some relative around town including Asbury,
Statue of Liberty and Rockefeller Center.  Another film I digitized was labeled
Detroit Wedding.  The ending is a riot. It features Grandma and her 2 sisters
dancing on a Detroit lawn with a bunch of kids.  So funny.  I scanned a
significant number of my Mother’s photos.  I need to purchase Photo Mechanic to
start tagging those with the captions from her pictures.


Dec 16, 2019 Monday They Don’t Fit!

I spent the morning doing 8mm digitizing and also downloaded Photo Mechanic to
my laptop.  It works!  I experimented with captions and people in the images but
not nearly enough.  I was trying to see what shows up in Windows Explorer.  I
also need to find what will show up in Jalbum as well as possibly Synology
Moments but I may not use Moments anyway.  My Mom had handwritten notes in her
albums so I want to capture that and make sure it stays with the image.  Libbie
was looking for her Mother’s pictures on the George&Mary dokuwiki pages.  I
checked sizing then accommodate her by creating Jalbums of 4 folders of the Mary
Ellen Condon pictures.  This came out looking pretty good.  I later had to redo
the album because she found 6 of the images upside down.  In the afternoon I
started freehand routing of the hinges on the door jambs.  When it was all done
I hung 2 of the doors and found out the two doors were the wrong size.  They
were 28 inches wide instead of 24 inches.  I may not be able to cut them down
because they are hollow and I have to remove 4 inches.  It may be easiest to
just buy 2 new doors, each 24 inches.   This was the first time I ever hung a
door from scratch.  The doors are a little crooked at the top.  Now I’ll have a
chance to even them out on the new doors. Dinner tonight was spaghetti in Sams
tomato Basil sauce which was quite chunky but good.  On top of the spaghetti was
cheese.  Accompanying the meal was a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched
the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 putting up a geostationary satellite.  The
landing on the drone ship was very cool.  It was a night launch so we first saw
the light of the descending flames then a total white out.  When the smoke
cleared the rocket remained standing upright. Very cool.


December 17, 2019 PC Setup

Off to Selby as usual.  I almost have all the Bromeliads done as a complete
dataset.  I did a directory dump and uploaded to OneDrive for processing at
home.  I barely got all this work done by noon. Once home I resumed some of the
8mm film digitizing.  There was a 1961 reel labeled So Plainfield pony rides
that I digitized. I went out in the late afternoon to Lowes and picked up the
correct sized doors for the garage closet.  I also priced impact resistant
windows which were not too bad.  A typical Jeld-Wen impact resistant window was
$268.  I may buy one window later in the winter and try a replacement for the
family room downstairs because it’s on the ground floor.  This will let me see
what it’s like to do a  replacement in masonry walls.  While I was out today I
went to Costco and picked  up a rotisserie chicken.  The store was crowded with
long checkout lines.  I picked up the chicken and 2 bottles of wine and then
went to Publix where I bought a NY Style Potato Salad.  The potatoes were
overcooked which was too bad.  Next and last stop was Lowes where I loaded two
24 inch doors into the car.  I had to use the bungee cord to tie the gate down
because the doors are too long.  Dinner was rotisserie chicken with potato salad
and a few glasses of Cabernet.


December 18, 2019 Wednesday Cold

I stayed indoors all day today and had fun digitizing movies and watching a few
tutorials about keywords on Photo Mechanic.   It was only in the high 50s this
afternoon. I managed to stumble through Premiere Elements and spliced the 25th
anniversary together then slowed it down to a normal speed.  I then resurrected
my YouTube account and uploaded it.  I sent the link around to Libbie and my
sisters.  I heard from Vicki and Arlene almost immediately.  I sent severa; more
videos including one of the three Detroit sisters doing nothing but waving.
Vicki replied “that sure was action packed”.  Dinner tonight was leftover
rotisserie chicken with potato salad and Broccoli as well as a glass of Cabernet


December 19, 2019 Thursday Mugs, Hinges and Alfredo

This morning was the last morning at Selby before the Christmas break.  It was
chilly in the upper 40s going to work but warmed up to 65 by the time the
morning was over.  I finished completing the dataset for the Broms and continued
backing up the data to the Y drive which is named Daisy.  John told me that the
Botany Dept bought the Brahms software package thanks to a donor someone met at
a party.  Wow.  Sally and Liz designed a nice mug for everyone in the
department.  It’s a Tervis Tumbler with an inlay of the names of species
discovered by Selby Botanists and the logo seal of the Herbarium.  They came in
various lid colors.  I chose green.  This is a very nice Christmas gift.   On
the way home Libbie and I stopped at Walmart Grocery store on the corner of
Beneva and Bee Ridge.  I picked up the ingredients for Shrimp Alfredo but had to
go out to the Osprey Walmart for the Shrimp because the Beneva one didn’t have
what we wanted. We also picked up a picnic shoulder for a possible neighbors
dinner. I went into the garage and worked on putting three mortises on each of
the two new doors I bought and hung them on the garage closet.  They came out
pretty nice.  Now I need to do the other side and then trim them out.  With luck
I’ll finish up tomorrow or Saturday. I skipped the wine and cheese before dinner
and started making the Alfredo at 6 PM.  It’s a really easy recipe with
Fettuccine, Alfredo sauce and Shrimp.  Dinner was Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo with
a few glasses of Cabernet.


December 20, 2019 Friday Shopping, cookies and Doors

I went with Libbie this morning to Walmart for the ingredients for Christmas
Cookies.  We did pretty good because we were early enough before the big crowds
hit the store.  They did not have Chow Mein noodles for the Ting a Lings so we
stopped into Publix on the way home and got some.  Libbie made the first batch
of cookies, the Ting A Lings today.  I went outside and routed out the mortises
for the door jambs on the next set of doors.  I spent the day hanging the next
two doors now I’m ready for the trim.  I made a trip to Lowes and picked up all
the trim to trim out the doors and the cabinet edges.  Trim is pricey.  Two
doors plus the two corners cost $60. Angela came over this evening after dinner
to invite us over for Christmas Eve dinner.  We proposed that we make the main
dish and also bake some pies.  This was all done impromptu by Libbie and Angela.
Dinner tonight was the leftover Shrimp Alfredo Fettuccine which Libbie added a
little more Fettuccine as well as more cream and cream cheese to reconstitute
the mixture.  It was just as good this time around as well as last night. We had
this with several glasses of Cabernet.  It was Friday night so Josh and Jenna
were live.  We watched them at their last Mickey's Christmas Party.  The park
looked great with all the Christmas lights and the snow raining down from the
roof mounted snow guns.   We stayed for the parade and then went up to bed.  The
location to stream the parade was perfect at the end of Main Street and it was a
clear night.


Dec 21, 2019 Saturday Trim

I spent some time on the computer updating the Borowski genealogy.  This came
about because of the 8mm reel labeled “Grandma’s Film”.  I wanted to research
and document the Borowski girls and their parents, one of whom was my
Grandfather’s sister.  I went out earlier today to round up the ingredients for
the rub and BBQ sauce for the roast I am going to cook for Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile Libbie was making Cookies and also making a quilt on her sewing
machine.  She took plates of cookies to the neighbors inviting them to the
Christmas Eve dinner we are planning.  I spent the afternoon in the garage and
on the saw next to the house cutting and fitting trim to the new cabinet doors I
hung yesterday.  Libbie noticed the doors are at two different heights.  I had
not bothered with making them even.  My concern was that each pair of doors was
at the same level.  Even so one of each pair is at least a ¼ inch higher than
it’s mate.  Overall the doors look great.  Tomorrow I’ll use a nail gun and
fasten the trim down.  I came inside tired.  Libbie wanted something savory for
dinner so we talked about Mexican, Italian and Chinese dinners.  We settled on
takeout from Asian Kitchen.  I ordered Mongolian 3 and she ordered General Tsao
and Broccoli.  I was disappointed in the overcooked veggies in the Mongolian and
she was disappointed in the Broccoli in her meal.  The dinner was tasty enough
but it certainly was not as good as the Apex Chinese that we get from the Kroger
shopping center.  We had the two chinese dinners with white rice and a few
glasses of Cabernet. Dessert was ting a lings and peanut butter cookies.  After
dinner we watched the first episode of Imagineering on Disney Plus.  This was a
very nice documentary about the Disney Imagineers and how they built Disneyland
and did things that were never done before.


Dec 22, 2019 Sunday Morning Shows, Genealogy, Sanding

After the morning shows on Sunday morning I worked on genealogy.  This time I
pursued Fred Crawford and found out his Father’s name was Blane and his Mother
was a Blohm.  I never knew that.  I added all this to the genealogy thanks to
the Ancestry subscription. This has been an interesting journey.  I took a trip
to Harbor Freight and got some latex gloves for the roast using the 25% off
coupon from their sale.  I also got Libbie a free flashlight for the sewing
room.  I used the nail gun and fastened all the trim as well as a few missing
pieces of plywood on the top shelf.  I took the brand new sander out of the
case, put a sanding pad on it and sanded the shelves and the edges of the
plywood.  I’m really surprised at how nice the sander worked.  I never had a
sander before.  This one is great.  The shelves are nice and smooth.  We went
out in the evening and bought paint which cost $36 per gallon and also a roller
tray liner.  This will be an adventure.  Tomorrow night we do Lights in Bloom
and during the day I will prep the shelves which consists of cleaning them with
a vacuum and a wet rag and also taping out the walls around the shelves.
There’s a little bit of work to do yet before I can paint.  Dinner tonight was
Libbie outstanding pizza.  The crust was perfect this time and the thicker Sam’s
Choice sauce made a nice pizza.  We had this with many glasses of Cabernet.  We
then sat down and watched 2 more episodes of the Disney+ Imagineering story.
This time it was the sadness after Walt’s death and also recovering from the
losses at Disney Paris as well as the death of the Disney President who
championed the projects of the Imagineers.


Dec 23, 2019 Monday Sanding, Lights in Bloom

I mixed up the vinegar sauce for the BBQ and also made the rub from the spice
ingredients.   I set this aside and then went outside and started putting caulk
in the nail holes in the trim of the garage cabinet.  The spackle I wanted to
use was hard as a rock so I tried some caulk instead.  It seemed to work so I
went with it and caulked all the holes then after a few hours I used the sanding
sponge to sand the caulking down.  It may need another coat of caulk.  I also
want another piece of corner bead to run along the edge of the top shelf to also
cover the hole where the two closets come together. After lunch I rubbed the
pork shoulder down with the homemade rub, wrapped it in plastic and put it in
the refrigerator for oven time after we get back tonight.  We tried some air
fryer hush puppies then tried the same mix in some cooking oil.  Neither
attempts was very good.  Maybe a mix will do the trick.  Online I couldn’t find
any hush puppy mixes.  I’ll try Publix tomorrow when I buy some Hawaiian rolls.
It started raining at 3:30 PM so we monitored our email and phone to see if
Lights in Bloom was a go.  We left at 4 PM and arrived at 4:30 for our
orientation session with Vera.  We were assigned the Wishing Tree with another
couple, Debra and Dave.  They left after a few hours because she was cold.  It
was a blustery evening and the wind off the bay was cold and wicked at times.
I was tired from standing on my feet for 3 hours.  We explained the wishing tree
to guests and the significance of the ribbon colors over and over all night
long.  We met a lot of nice people. One girl in particular was wishing she gets
into Medical School.  She was delightful to talk to.  There were also many many
attractive women with their dates or significant others. We got home at 9:30
after which I set the Oven to 225 and put the roast in.  It will slowly cook for
8 to 10 hours overnight.


Dec 24, 2019 Tuesday Party

This morning I went out to Publix in search of Hush Puppy Mix as well as to pick
up a foil pan for the BBQ and Brown Sugar for Libbie’s pie baking.  I found they
don’t have Hushpuppy mix.  A nice employee looked it up for me on his Publix
app. They don’t carry it anymore.  On the way home I stopped in Lowes and picked
up one more corner bead moulding as well as a can of spackle.  I spackled the
holes on the trim of the doors and also cut and tacked up the cove moulding to
cover the hole in the front  of the cabinet where the top shelf on the shorter
cabinet  meets the taller right side cabinet.  Next we took the roast out of the
oven at 10:30 and set it aside to rest and cool.  It smells delicious.   I went
back into the garage and sanded the trim before lunch.  Now it’s ready for
paint!  It has been a long journey which started  with the purchase of the
lumber.   In the PM we both worked on pulling the pork off the bone.  It was
pretty easy and fell right off.  I was a little worried because we pulled quite
a bit of fat and bone from the meat.  It tasted yummy as we sampled a few pieces
while we stripped the bone.  Libbie made an Apple and a Pumpkin pie for the
party. We went across the street at 5 PM carrying the pies, pork, BBQ Sauce and
wine.  We met Ersin, Julia and Olivia as we crossed.  Ersin made some
horseduvers consisting of Greek Spanakopita and olives.  They were yummy.  I
looked up the recipe and found it’s Spinach with Feta and Ricotta cheese in Filo
dough.  Our Pork and BBQ sauce went over well with quite a few compliments.
Chris made a delicious NY style potato salad.  There were baked beans and pasta
as well as slaw and pasta salad.  It was an enjoyable time.  We left around 8 PM
after a nice night of conversation, wine and good food.


Dec 25, 2019 Wednesday Christmas

It was a quiet day.  Our only present was the ticket receipt for the New Year's
concert “Salute to Vienna”  that I hung on the tree.  Libbie was a little sad
without family.  I don’t blame her.  I spent the day working on the AVSA
Convention Registration and also digitizing another movie.  This time it was the
one labeled “Graduations” and was a long 5 inch reel.  We took a walk around the
neighborhood.  The morning temperature was 65 but it got up to 75 today. Libbie
mentioned that the Violet leaves were stretched for light so I repaired the
lightmeter today by replacing the switch, using the switch from the new but Lux
measuring lightmeter I bought on eBay several years ago. She was right.  Our
light value is only about 500 footcandles at the leaf level.  I need to find
brighter LEDs.   The Amazon lights I used were 2200 lumens.  They have a 5000
lumen version but the color temperature is different.  I have much research to
do including a look at ribbon lights. Dinner tonight was the leftover pork from
the party along with leftovers Angela sent with us which included cole slaw,
beans and pasta salad.   We had this with Cabernet and had Pumpkin Pie after.
We watched Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon Christmas.  This movie is just as
funny today as 25 years ago and was a perfect Christmas movie.


December 26, 2019 Thursday Paint

This morning I digitized one of Dad’s older films.  This was a B&W of me when I
was very very young.  It also includes Vicki and Arlene’s Communions and some
Family gatherings.  The film was in really bad shape.   The front end was all
crinkled up.  The film had been spliced but most of the splices were broken and
also jammed the playback projector.  I don’t know what I would have done without
the Wolverine Pro digitizer.  This thing is a dream to digitize these old films.
Quality is not bad either.  Of course it needs Adobe Premiere to splice the pics
and slow the speed down.  Fedex came this morning with a Christmas present from
Joe and Christa and the girls.  It was a variety pack of different coffees.
After lunch I changed into paint clothes and began painting the cabinets in the
garage.  Libbie came out to join me.  She did the edging while I ran the roller.
We finished the job with a little paint leftover which was a surprise. I was
prepared to buy another can of paint.  The painting got off to a bad start when
I opened the can and noticed the paint wasn’t mixed very well.  When I put the
brand new stir stick into the paint it broke in half.   Fortunately that was the
last mishap, everything after that went along smoothly.  The job looks nice.  We
jumped into the hot tub after the painting.  Dinner was spaghetti in tomato
sauce topped with cheese and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched
another episode of Imagineering and their invention of “Soaring” as well as the
lessons Disney learned about building smaller parks with half the attractions
for the same price.  Tonight I tried to log into Social Security to get a
benefits confirmation letter.  I easily did Libbie’s but mine complained of 3
repeated attempts which was not true.


December 27, 2019 Friday Hardware and Hanging plant pole

I continued digitizing old films.  During the Morning News and GMA I added more
products to the AVSA Registration site.  This thing is coming along pretty good.
The real issue is going to be getting reports and possibly printing tickets.  I
have a lot of work to do.  I put this down when the News shows were over and
went to Lowes for another latch for the garage cabinets.  I already had one that
I brought from Apex on the trip earlier this month.  I also bought three Bulbine
plants to finish the landscaping in the front yard as well as 20 feet of
galvanized pipe for hanging plants on the porch.   I mounted the latches on the
cabinets then moved onto drilling holes in the screen cage for mounts to support
the pipes.  This was quite a job involving three brackets and then a hole in the
pipe at each bracket to fasten it down.  I went back to Lowes with Libbie to get
a bracket to attach the new pole to the old pole.  They had one.   Libbie bought
a few trays of clearance Geraniums as well as a blooming Azalea for decorative
purposes.   Libbie moved into the cabinet with her pots and fertilizer.  I have
not moved into the other cabinet yet.  I went back into my office and worked on
video processing.  I redid the film labeled “Grandma’s” and put labels on the
Borowski’s images including Joseph and Stella. We left after sunset to see the
Christmas lights near the University Mall.  Just off Honore we found a whole
neighborhood where they even have lighted hoops over the road.  Just about every
house in the neighborhood was lit to one extent or the other.  There were other
houses where the entire roof was covered with LED net lights. After viewing the
neighborhood we went to  Bangkok Thai for dinner.  The parking lot was full,
requiring us to drive around looking for a spot.  We took a spot around the
corner of the shopping center and walked to Bangkok Thai. The restaurant was
packed but I was willing to wait.  They quoted 30 minutes for a table.  We sat
it out but service was incredibly slow.  It took a long time for our order to be
taken.  I had Chicken Pad Thai, Libbie had Scallops Pad Thai. We had a crab
rangoon appetizer before the meal.  Food delivery to our table was excellent.
After dinner once again it took a long time to get our check.  We were patient
and enjoyed each other’s company.  When we got home we drove through Stoneybrook
looking for lights but Knightsbridge is still the winner for lighting.   We
turned on Resort TV1 when we got in.  Josh and Jenna were in a golf cart touring
the Christmas lights at the Disney campground.  The lighting displays there are
over the top.  People carry all this stuff in their campers to set up at Disney.


December 28, 2019 Saturday Digitize, Rain in Bloom

I worked on the online registration in my office and at the same time ran the 8
mm digitizer doing a few of the old films.  I still need to work on processing
all these movies using Adobe Premiere.   The roll of LED lights arrived today
from Amazon but I didn’t have time to do anything with the lights because we had
to leave for our volunteer evening at Lights in Bloom.  It was a light rain as
we drove to Selby.  We were stationed inside the Welcome Center when the rain
really started.  Thank goodness for this job.  We stayed warm and dry as it
poured outside.  Presales for Lights in Bloom were only 700 but a lot of people
showed up and received alternate tickets for another night.  We didn’t have much
to do.  Our job was to check wrist bands and with attendance so low we were idle
most of the time.  Around 8 PM I took a solo walk around the point.  The lights
were so pretty in the puddles and there were no people so it was a magical time.
As I reached the honeycomb tunnel behind the Selby House Libbie called and said
we were dismissed for the night.  We drove home in light rain but because it was
early in the evening, only 8:15 PM, we chose to drive to Walmart in Osprey to
get groceries.  I was out of milk for cereal so we bought that as well as the
list of items on my Alexa shopping list.  We did not have dinner tonight.  When
I got home I had a bowl of cereal.


December 29, 2019 Sunday Registration and Lighting

After the Sunday morning programs I attempted to work on the Convention
Registration.  I couldn’t log into the Admin panel no matter what I did
including forcing a new password into the SQL.  I then came across a post that
stated it was necessary to adjust some files when implementing an SSL.  I
installed the certificate yesterday and had it forced to SSL in the Cpanel this
morning.  All this caused the admin login not to work.   I backed off on the
force SSL for now and it worked again.  I downloaded the single page checkout
plugin to fix the Zencart checkout experience and started configuring it.
Configuration is somewhat complicated.  I had to print the 5 pages of
instructions and start checking checking off each line of the configuration as I
completed it.  I didn’t finish this activity because it was dinner time so I
went downstairs for cheese crackers and wine before our pizza.  Earlier today I
built a fixture to hold the new roll of brighter LEDs that came yesterday.  I
had to run to Lowes to get some longer screws to screw down the PVC pipes into
the wooden fixture I constructed.  I hung the lights on the stand but did not
power them up.  I need to make up a connector with the correct polarity to light
up the LEDs. Libbie made her excellent pizza from scratch which we had with some
Cabernet.  The wine ran out and Libbie said not to buy anymore.   I have a
Costco trip planned for tomorrow.  We’ll see about the wine.  After dinner we
watched Josh and Jenna tour the Fort Wilderness campground Christmas decorations
from a golf cart.  This was really great.  The decorations were amazing.  There
was a whole Radiator Springs service garage setup and also a star wars set with
66 storm troopers and several dozen other characters including the popular baby
Yoda.  There were even walk through displays.  The surprise is all of this is in
a campground so people have to haul all this stuff in their campers to get here.


December 30, 2019 Monday Pipes and Lights

I hooked up the water pipe along the plant hanger on the back porch this
morning.  I do not have enough cable ties to hold it in place.  I’ll visit
Harbor Freight tomorrow after Selby.  I tried powering up the LED strip but it
was a failure.  My lightmeter in the phone is showing there are only about 200
footcandles.  This is less than the manufactured LED tubes on the other stand.
It looks like I’ll be doing LED tubes on the new stand but before I order them I
will try just one shelf.  I did a Costco trip next.  That place was crowded.  I
only needed coffee and wine but I also picked up a bundle of storage tubs that
they had out. At home I finally planted the three Bulbine plants I picked up a
week ago.  This should complete the front yard plantings but unfortunately the
rabbit ate down the Marguerites.  I’ll replace them with something more rabbit
proof.  We left after dark for the Enanders Christmas Light display in Venice.
Wow, was that over the top!  This guy has a parking lot next to his house as
well as several acres of his yard decorated with Christmas displays.  The yard
appears to be a botanical garden with ponds, waterfalls and huge staghorn ferns
hanging from the trees. We came back home from the Christmas lights and had
leftover PAd Thai from a few nights ago.  Libbie made fresh rice to go with the
Pad Thai.  We had this with a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched
the first three episodes of the Mandalorian.  IT’s quite a good series.  Baby
Yoda is certainly cute.  No wonder it’s wanted by many for Christmas but
unfortunately was not available in the stores.


December 31, 2019 Tuesday  Selby and New Years

Returned to Selby this morning after a week off.  I spent the morning backing up
files to Daisy and also processing the last of the Orchid images.  I left a
little early and went across the street to photograph the mechanics of the
alligator.  When I got home I searched for aluminum tubing to bend into shapes.
I want to build an alligator and a Flamingo.  I found a firm on eBay that sells
aluminum tubing in 100 foot rolls. I’m not sure of the thickness though. I think
I want ¼ inch OD or maybe as much as ⅜ inch OD.   On the way home today I
stopped at Walmart for Wings. I then stopped at Harbor Freight and got another
tool bag as well as some cable ties that I used immediately to finish strapping
down the water pipe to the plant hanger pipe. I also bought a 3 pack of allen
wrenches.  This is something I have wanted for a while since I don’t have a good
assortment of allen wrenches other than a small baggie of them in the Craftsman
tool kit. Even at home in Apex I don’t have a great assortment.   I went back
out again to Sprouts looking for Gochujang sauce to make Korean BBQ sauce.  We
wasted quite a bit of time there while an employee went to look for a manager to
see if they have it.  They did not.  I ordered a bottle from Amazon.   We
watched an episode of Imagineering before making wings for dinner.  I made the
wings in the air fryer and they were excellent.   We had wings with Broccoli and
a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched the New Year Festivities at
Epcot with Josh and Jenna.   I tried to arrange for a Hallmark subscription for
the Rose Parade.  I bought a trial subscription to Philo which carries Hallmark.
I canceled an hour later because it doesn’t support any Smart TVs and does not
work with Google Chrome.   It only works on the web and on Roku.