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January 1, 2021 Friday Eating


I spent some time this morning on the AVSA site fixing the permission levels.  Once this was done I took a look at the Authorizations but did nothing.  It needs more understanding.  I reinstalled Home Assistant but decided I really need to install this on a Pi OS and not as a self contained.  This should give me access to root and the rest of the file system.  Home Assistant is too protected for my tastes.
At 1 PM we went over to Joe and Angelas for New Years lunch.  We brought a bottle of Korbel Brut to the lunch.  Joe fixed mashed potatoes which we then served the pork and sauerkraut over the top of the potatoes.  It was incredibly good.  We stayed and chatted for a while before leaving in the late afternoon.  I came home and lay on the bed reading some more of the Bob Eiger book and then took a short nap.
For dinner we had spaghetti with cheese.  I shouldn’t have eaten anything.  I felt stuffed and really needed to get my weight under control.  Maybe this should be a New Year's resolution.


January 2, 2021 Saturday  Birding, Ribs


We left a little after 7 AM for the Clubhouse cart barn.  There were 3 golf carts in our group doing the 121st annual Audubon Christmas bird survey.  Our leader as usual was Jeff.  The rest of the group was Nicky Waugh, Ken Brinker, Libbie and myself.  We traveled to several ponds on the golf course then over to our pnd behind our house.  Didn’t see much there so we then went to Abby’s house on Knightsbridge.  Fortunately he was in the front yard so we asked him for permission to visit the wetland behind his house.  Abby is a nice guy.  We saw a Woodstork and some Moore Hens and Ibis before going to our next destination which was the boardwalk out in front along the Central Sarasota Parkway.  We finished up around 11 at which it was time to go home and fire up the Smoker.  I put the ribs into the Smoker around 11:45 AM and immediately ran into trouble.   The Smoker shut off.  I desperately need to hook up an alternate control panel.  All I need is a waterproof enclosure for the controller I purchased on Amazon 6 months ago.  The need has become more critical.
Joe and Angela came over around 6:15.  I took the ribs out which we had with roasted potato wedges, corn casserole and Korbel Brut Champagne.   It was a very enjoyable evening. I went to bed at 9 PM and slept very soundly all night.


January 3, 2021 Sunday Planting, caulking


After the morning programs I took a look at the AVSA authorization problem but didn’t get anywhere.  I finished up my little birding story for the Outlook and sent it to Sandra, the editor of the newsletter. 
In mid afternoon I went over to Lowes to return the lampshades I bought last week.  They are pretty much cleaned out of lampshades which was a surprise.  I also picked up some rabbit repellent because the rabbit has been eating the verbena we put next to the sidewalk and next to the driveway.  I also picked up yellow Lantana, pink Gaura and white Pentas.  I planted all these when I got home and also cut back the hedge which was overhanging this flower garden. 
While I was outdoors I removed the Christmas lights and cords and brought them inside to be packed up for next year.  Indoors I caulked the bottom shelf of the bookshelves to prep it for painting.  The crack between the shelf and walls is pretty wide so it may have to get a second caulking once this first one dries.
Libbie made her excellent pizza with mushrooms for dinner.  It was great as always and we had it with a glass of Cabernet even though I want to cut out the extra calories.  Just texted me about online lessons.  I signed up for Saturday afternoon at 2 PM via zoom.  This is going to be interesting.  I’m not sure how online Clarinet lessons will go.  His text came while I was watching Ed Swicec play the Clarinet Polka on Molly & Teds show.  I had been thinking of getting out my Clarinet while watching him play and then the text came in from Justin.  How cool!


January 4, 2021 Monday  Selby, paint


I watched a few Youtube videos this morning about lighting for online teaching.  I settled on a Neweer 480 which is an array of 480 LEDs.  I left a little late for Selby as I listened to the video.  I forgot my phone so I couldn’t place the order but I ordered the light and the stand when I got home.  The issue will be where to put the music setup for online lessons.  My office is crunched for space.  
At Selby I continued to process the Gesneriads.  At one point I ran out of room on the C drive of the computer.  I ended up moving 21 Gigabytes of Florida pics to the G drive to get some space. 
At home I prepared the bookshelf base for painting and put down the first coat of paint.  I also lay the plywood sheets on the floor in the garage and painted each of them.  I also rolled up the extension cord in the backyard and removed the day/night timer.  Lights are done for the year but I didn’t bring the forms inside yet.  
Dinner tonight was leftover ribs and corn casserole that we enjoyed with a glass of Cabernet. 


January 5, 2021 Tuesday  Front Yard


Outdoors I relocated the sprinkler where the sidewalk meets the driveway.  Once this was done and tested I raked the entire front yard smooth.  
In my office I continued trying to configure Home Assistant, this time on top of a Raspbian Lite installation.  I think I will go back to the all in one Home Assistant image. I abandoned this because I couldn’t get Let’s Encrypt to work.   It looks like I’ll have to try harder.  I changed the outlet in the cabinet of the bookcase but I couldn’t find the spacers I bought in May.  I went to Lowes to get spacers but they only had ½ inch long.  I was looking for ⅜ inch long.  The ½ inch spacers cause the outlet to stick out too far.  I also bought 10 bags of mulch and some dusty miller as a trial for rabbit proofing.  I planted the 3 dusty millers to see if they would survive the critter.  If successful I’ll get a bunch more.  
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on the grill along with baked beans.  We watched an excellent program of Ted and Mollie since tonight it’s Polka Tuesday.  The show was really great with a wide variety of music.   
 January 6, 2021 Wednesday Bark, Hass IO, Clarinet


I went with Libbie to Walmart for groceries and ingredients for dinner tonight.  In the garden shop I found some beautiful full well branched yellow snapdragons which I bought.  At home I moved the Dusty Miller and put the SnapDragons in its place.  While outside I decided to also spread the bark.  I skipped around the sprinkler that still needs moving and replacing.  Everything else was fair game and got covered by bark.  I have 3 bags left.   I probably need to get some more bark.   At 10 AM today I made the AVSA website live and put a redirect on avsa.org.   The new site seems to be well received.  It was mostly Joyce and Richard Craft’s hard work.  
In my office I set up a spot for my Clarinet for online lessons.  I put together the Clarinet and shockingly did not remember how the device went together.  I also had a lot of trouble doing a basic scale.  I kept going until my mouth gave up trying to play which wasn’t very long.  I’ll keep trying.   
I tried and reflashed Home Assistant several times.  Success for me would be when I get Lets Encrypt to give me a certificate.  I discovered I don’t need the Lets Encrypt app installed when duckdns is already installed.  DuckDNS does both functions.  Unfortunately I messed the system up once again so I reflashed and plugged it back  in so that it installed the rest of itself overnight.  For dinner Libbie and I made Shrimp PAD Thai together.  It was excellent as usual. 
After dinner and before bed I logged into Selby and got a storage count of the amount of space used by the Orchid jpegs and the Broms Jpegs.  John wanted it for Bruce.


January 7, 2021 Thursday Miter Saw
This morning during breakfast I continued tinkering with Home Assistant. Overnight it continued with installing itself so that in the morning it was ready to configure.  This time I installed DuckDNS but not the Lets Encrypt module from the store.  It was successful and created the SSL.  After I added the HTTP lines to the configuration.YAML I was able to use https to access the Pi via the duckdns domain.  Woo Hoo.  This was a big accomplishment.  I now can interface to Amazon AWS which requires https communications.  Next step will be to interface with my irrigation controller and possibly fix up some of the lights to have voice commands.
I dragged the Miter Saw out of the garage and set it up next to the house.  I then tried selecting boards to cut but had a hard time because most wood was split or warped.  I ended up gooing to Lowes and buying some shelf boards.  In the store I did not like the clear pine boards so I bought the primed pine.  Even using the primed pine boards which cost twice as much, there were splits and splintered edges.   I got all the shelf boards and the supports cut.  Next step is to Dado the grooves for the shelves.  I still don’t know if I want to Dado all the shelves or just the bottom one and use holes and pegs for the others.   At some time during the day today I bought some more Kinder Morgan and a new issue of a Pimco tax free municipal bond fund. 
The light came for my Clarinet setup.  I like it and set it up immediately.
Dinner tonight was leftover Shrimp Pad Thai that Libbie served over rice.  Earlier I had a Martini with Olives and ice in it.  Wow, was it good.  I did not have Cabernet with dinner because of this but succumbed and had a glass afterwards.   This was not good.  I watched another SpaceX launch at 9:15 PM.  This is getting to look too easy.  They did the landing again - very cool.  
Prior to launch I watched a tutorial on how to configure the Lovelace UI on Home Assistant. It seems complicated. 


January 8, 2021 Friday Dado, Roast


We went out first thing this morning for the ingredients for the Crock Pot Roast I wanted to make.  We got a 4.5 pound chuck roast along with potatoes and carrots.  Detweillers was surprisingly empty which was one of the reasons we went there early.  When we got home we immediately started cutting up the veggies and filling up the Crock pot.  I set it to Low and set Alexa for an 8 hour timer.  Later during the day I did the last  hour of cooking on Medium because we both felt the roast was still a little tough and the veggies were not soft enough.   An hour or two into cooking Libbie re-read the recipe and found it needed 2 packets of Onion soup.  I only put in one so I ran out to Publix and picked up a second package.
Outdoors I used the router to cut grooves in the side shelf supports for the shelves. This went incredibly well however I found the ¾ inch router bit needed to cut a slightly wider channel than ¾ inch.  I went back and cut each channel 0.1 inches wider.  This was pretty easy with the clamp-on saw guide I was using.  The only issue is that the guide was made for 48 inch wide plywood so it was very long when used on a 12 inch wide board.  By the end of the day I had cut dados in two of the shelf support boards.  I have 2 more boards to dado then I need to paint everything before assembling it.  
In my office I set up the lighting and did a test zoom appointment with Libbie to test the camera.  I found a Microsoft Lifecam in one of my tubs and plugged it in.  Windows found the device which was plugged into USB.   I was happy to find it had a microphone as well as the cam and it works in HD but I think it was only 720p.  It’s more than adequate and works very well. 
I had multiple sessions today with the Clarinet.  A lot of it is coming back to me but I’m still having trouble reading music above the break.  I need to keep practicing on this. 
At 6:30 PM we took the roast out of the crock pot and sliced it on the cutting board.  The veggies went into a serving bowl.  Dinner was Crock Pot Chuck roast with onions, potatoes and carrots.  We had this with a glass of Cabernet. 


January 9, 2021 Saturday  Busy Day, Online Clarinet


I put down the canvas and lay all the shelf boards across the garage.  I had to dash out to Lowes and pick up a can of spackle which I put into all the knots and check marks on the wood before painting.  I had my online Clarinet lesson with Justin at 2 today.  It went quite well although he thought maybe I had an air leak in the Clarinet.  This is because sometimes B did not work unless I pressed C first.   I ended up having to review the timing which was not good.  I was putting the eight notes in pairs instead of one at a time.   After Clarinet I went to Walmart because Libbie wanted Wine. I was planning to skip wine for several days.  I’m getting too fat and need to cut back somewhere.   I went back into the garage and sanded all the spackle then put a second coat on some of the bigger cracks.  This is an interesting spackle.  It goes on pink but when it is dry it is white.   
I fooled around with programming the Linksprite R4 which is an ESP8266 board with 4 relays on board.  I initially tried programming  with the Adafruit FTDI adapter.  When that didn’t work I switched to the Sparkfun tool.  I initially had it wired wrong.  It turns out that Rx had to go to Tx and Tx to Rx.  I did not have it like that.  I used the tool called Tasmotizer to put the initial Tasmota onto the board.  I then found the IP address and attempted to configure MQTT.   I was not clear with how the configuration is supposed to be done.  There is not much information out there for the 4 relay ESP8266.
Dinner tonight was the leftover pot roast with veggies.  We had a few glasses of Cabernet with dinner and the last of the Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert.  After dinner I went back into my office and tried to figure out programming of the Tasmota once again. 


January 10, 2021 Sunday Spackle and paint


I devoted a significant amount of time trying to configure Home Assistant.  I’m still not sure about this program.  I managed to get Tasmota working perfectly on the Linksprite 4 relay board.
It looks like I can also control the board via the Home Assistant switches.  Configuration using the Lovelace UI still seems to be elusive but I like what it can potentially do from other demos on both YouTube and web galleries.  
I ran out to Publix to get the Pepperoni that I forgot to get in Walmart Friday.  After the grocery store I did a quick sanding of the Spackle I had applied earlier today, vacuumed it, wiped it with a wet rag and then painted the shelves.   Tomorrow I’ll flip them and use the spackle to fill in cracks and holes on the other side in prep for painting.  
Libbie made a delicious thin crust pepperoni pizza.  I resisted a glass of wine at first but then had a glass with my second plateful of pizza.  We put on some Ted and Mollie after dinner during which I continued trying to learn about configuring Lovelace on Home Assistant.


January 11, 2021 Monday Meeting, website and paint


This  morning I had an interesting meeting about quality checking Selby data. One of the volunteers, Jim Hanlon, was there.  He is quite a good programmer and came up with the software to look up latitude and longitude to quality check that it indeed represents the country it claims to be.  This is about the only way to check geo referenced data in bulk.  For my part I will take Liz’s extraction of Bromeliads and use the Selby number to verify there is an associated JPG.   Back in the Herbarium I have 2 folders of photos that have a camera strap hanging in front of the lens.  I was using the clone tool in photoshop to remove the strap on photos where the strap was over white space.  When it is over the specimen that picture will need to be retaken. 
When I got home I had a message from Joe that he wanted to transfer the website stuff to me.  After lunch I changed my clothes and spackled the other sides of the shelf boards.  I then met with Joe in front of our TV where I cast the laptop screen with the Stoneybrook website and went over how it is administered. 
After Joe left I went into the garage and sanded the shelves then painted the second side.  This finishes one coat of paint on all shelves.  I’ll assemble the bookcase first before putting the final coat of paint on it.   I still need to dado out two more shelf supports.  I’ll set up to do that tomorrow.  Dinner tonight was the last of the slow cooker pot roast. Libbie added more veggies to the mixture and cooked it in the oven.  She rated it 5 stars.   After dinner while classical  music played from YouTube I started studying MQTT sensors with Home Assistant.  I should be able to display my Weather Station on the panel which is my goal.


January 12, 2021 Tuesday software


I had quite a bit of success with software today.  I took the time to watch some tutorials about configuring Home Assistant.  I ended up adding the backyard weather station to the dashboard as well as the irrigation switches.  I chose not to work on the side shelf supports which need the dado grooves.  I did go outside and take down the alligator and Flamingo Christmas decorations.  I temporarily put them into the garage until I get them up into the garage attic.
I tried to practice Clarinet this afternoon.  I debugged the high B key that did work.  Amazingly Justin thought there was an air leak when I had my online lesson Saturday.  He was right.  I have one pad that does not seem to be completely closing a valve.  If the pad was a little bit thicker it would work better at sealing the valve.  I did not get to the shelf boards today.  After dinner of spaghetti and cheese we  tuned into Ted and Molly since this is Polka Tuesday  It was a thoroughly enjoyable show.  During the show I worked on the Python compare program for the Bromeliad database.  I got pretty far but still have more to do.


January 13, 2021 Wednesday  Housekeeping, clarinet repair, saxophone, wisconsin cheese 


This was a busy day.  I could not go out to the Music shop in the morning because Fogt Music does not open until Noon.  Instead I used the router and finished cutting dado grooves in the remaining 2 shelf supports.  I also put on some spackle in the knots and cracks.  Once this is sanded it can be painted.  While I was working on the dado grooves I noticed a mini van at Joe’s house.  I surmised it was a house cleaner.  I had Libbie call Angela to find out what the scoop was.  The couple, Lynn and Cleber, came over to give us an estimate.  They walked around and quoted $125 for each visit.  We said yes and they can start next Wednesday.  I reasoned that the money we are saving from Downing Place such as $79 Internet, $120 power bill and $75 average gas bill will easily cover the cleaning expense.     
Around Noon Libbie came with me to the music store.  I dropped off the Clarinet and rented a Tenor Sax.  I also bought 3 sax reeds and a music book.  The rental is $48 per month.  I thought I would try out a Sax to see how I like playing it.  
On the way home we saw there was a Farmers Market at Phillippi Creek and there was a vendor with oranges.  We stopped to see if they had Honeybells which they did.  We bought a bag of Honeybells from Brown's Orchards.  Libbie noticed a vendor selling Wisconsin Cheese.  We chatted with the owner and found she was selling cheese from Decatur Dairy in Brodhead.  She also had Cheese from a creamery in Monroe.  Unbelievable that this is in Sarasota.   At home 
I watched some YouTube Saxophone tutorials on how to assemble the instrument and how to hold it.  Tomorrow I’ll try playing it a little.  
Next I went to work on the rest of the Python program I started yesterday for Selby.  I successfully produced a list of Selby barcode numbers that lack a jpg.  This isn’t correct yet because some of these are photographs which do not have jpegs.
Dinner was 15 bean soup which has been cooking all day.  Wow, was it good.  Libbie also made Cornbread to go with the soup. 


January 14, 2021 Thursday Shelves & Mistakes


I continued to work on the side supports for the shelves.  It was a nice day so I went outside and sanded the spackle before putting another coating of spackle on the holes and cracks.  It dried quickly so I sanded it and painted.  I pulled the miter saw outside to cut all the side supports to the same height.  Unfortunately I discovered that the dado grooves on one of the boards was way out of wack. It did not line up with the others.  This is a setback.  I need to find another nice side support and put dado grooves into it. I postponed that until tomorrow.
Today was the first day of updating the Stoneybrook Estates website.  I posted the financials and edited the listing of the board.  After having a little trouble logging in as admin.  Joe set me straight so I finally was able to get in.   I have to login at the screen bottom instead of the top when it is an admin login. 
I had some conversations via email with John and Liz regarding checking the Bromeliad listing vs the jpg images.  I need to get the image processing program working big time.  This is a Linux program so I need to get Linux running on one of my machines.  I was thinking of using the i5. 
I made an attempt or two this afternoon to play some notes on the Saxophone but did not get anywhere.  I watched another YouTube to figure out what I did wrong.  It was plenty.  Ligature was upside down and the location of the Sax across my body was wrong.  I think my embouchure is OK.  Later in the evening I did some Clarinet practice which is way better.  I’m starting to get back into it.  I wish there wasn’t such a large gap between last Spring and finally getting back seriously last week. 


January 15, 2021 Friday Dado


I picked out a new shelf side support from the rag tag collection of wood boards that I have left.  I set this board up next to the garage and proceeded to cut more dado grooves.  The router bit is really in bad shape.  It’s tearing the wood and smoking pretty badly.  Hopefully I won’t need it anymore but anything can happen.  I spackled and sanded the board but did not paint it. 
Libbie and I went out to Detweilers for ingredients to make Asian Short Ribs tomorrow.  The key ingredient was beef spare ribs. 
When I got back I worked on the compare program for the Selby project.  I had several exchanges with John and Liz.  Liz suggested some OCR but I think that’s way above my pay grade and skill set.   The barcodes will be enough of a challenge. 
This afternoon Libbie took her car to Goodwill then bought gas at Costco.  While she was out she went to the car wash.  When she returned she took my car to the car wash and had it scrubbed down.  Very nice!  They did not do the inside just the exterior.  I will vacuum my car inside tomorrow. 
Dinner was Salmon with rice.  We had water with dinner and no dessert.  I’m very much OK with that.  It wasn’t until after dinner that I had time to practice my Clarinet.  Still having trouble getting over the break but I feel more comfortable with the instrument now.  I need to find the printout with all of  my scales so I can tackle the others.


January 16, 2021 Saturday Groceries, clarinet and OpenCV


This morning I ordered a compost bin from Amazon for Libbie’s potting needs.  I also ordered myself a Raspberry Pi 4 kit so I could set up a development environment.  Around 9 AM I went outside and did my shopping trip to Walmart for our normal groceries.  When I got back we started immediately putting stuff into the slow cooker.  I needed to mix up soy sauce, ginger and several other ingredients to cook the short ribs in.  Libbie did the carrots, cabbage and garlic.  We finally were able to turn the slow cooker on at 10:30 AM.  It’s a 7 to 8 hour process to cook everything. 
Next I went upstairs to practice my music, both the Clarinet and the Saxophone.   I was able to get a few notes out of the sax this time but it still felt unwieldy.  I did not go outside at all today to do any work.  I want to assemble the bookcases which I probably will do tomorrow.   One support still needs painting but I will ignore it for now. I’ll assemble first and paint later. 
I spent quite a bit of time trying to understand OpenCV.  I found some very good YouTube tutorials on installing it on a Pi and on using it to decode barcodes.  
Dinner was the Asian Short ribs.  At 6 PM we took them out of the cooker along with the veggies.  I then added cornstarch and sesame oil to the mixture to thicken it and make a gravy.  Libbie made rice to go with the meal which we had with several glasses of Cabernet.  Yum.  After dinner unbelievably the Pi 4 arrived from Amazon.  I only ordered it this morning. 


January 17, 2021 Sunday barcode success, paint and zoom


I continued to work on decoding barcodes.  I ended up installing the Anaconda IDE and via a YouTube tutorial I was able to get OpenCV installed and working along with a barcode program called Pybar.   The jpg filename is currently hardcoded in Python.   The great news is that the program was able to read the barcode of the two Selby jpgs I gave it.  This is a milestone!


I painted the last shelf support board in the garage.  I used the canvas drop cloth and 2 saw horses to support the board and used a brush to paint it instead of a roller.  Brush painting is not as good and came out streaky but the goal was to get the first coat of paint onto the board.
I practiced Clarinet for a few minutes before the 4 PM AVSA zoom meeting.  The subject was the virtual convention for the first 90 minutes then Winston, Richard, Joyce and I stayed on for at least another hour trying to figure out the Imis to Wordperfect token exchange.  It was uncomfortable for me because I was using the music workstation and it was not set up to use a computer.  The computer is behind the music stand since it was not the focus.
The meeting was over around 6:30 when Libbie actually came upstairs to tell me the pizza was ready to go into the oven. Libbie made pepperoni pizza which was outstanding.  She said it herself, she doesn’t know how this week's pizza could be better than last weeks but every week it seems better than last week’s pie.


I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to package up the Python program with all the dependencies including pyzbar and OpenCV.
  
January 18, 2021 Monday Selby, Python, bookshelves


I went off to Selby this morning.  Traffic was OK since it was MLK day.  I continued with the Gesneriads and image editing to remove the dangling strap on the photos.  I need to bring a portable drive to Selby in order to get the large jpg images so I can read the barcodes embedded into the image. 
When I got home at 12:30 I installed the PyCharm IDE on Manon 3 and also OpenCV and Pyzbar.  After some messing around with syntax I was able to read a Selby image and print the embedded barcode.  Next step is to iteratively read a directory of jpgs and get the barcodes.
At 3 PM I went outside and started nailing the shelves together.  This was harder than expected.  3 hours later I put this aside.  I have one board in the wrong place that will have to be removed.  John sent an email asking if I can come  back to Selby Wednesday morning.  I reluctantly sent back an email saying yes. This will let me grab the Bromeliad Jpg images onto an external drive.
Dinner was the leftover Short Ribs.  Libbie made gravy and also mashed potatoes to go with the meal.  It was yummy as usual.  After dinner I tried to use the Pycharm IDE to write a file but had lots of difficulties.  I’ll keep trying.  It may be that this is Python 3.7.  Previously I had done file operations using Python 2.7. 


January 19, 2021 Tuesday  Shelf Mishaps


I spent some time trying to install PyCharm on my laptop but it doesn’t work as well as the desktop version.  I did not follow the tutorial so something was misconfigured.  I learned today that tomorrow at noon registration opens for the Covid Vaccine in Sarasota County.  I’ll be at Selby tomorrow finishing up at noon so I’ll probably have to register from there or leave early.
I continued to assemble the shelves in the garage. Using the long thin white screws I originally purchased for the Clubside mouldings did the trick at stiffening the shelves and holding them together better.  I ran out of screws and need to pick up some more at Lowes.  
I tried to free up an SSD on my Pi but decided the best thing to do was to order a new 1T Sandisk drive from Amazon.  They delivered it the same day.  Arriving separately today was the new Compost Bin from Amazon.   This thing has hundreds of screws and many panels. It will take some doing to assemble it. 
Libbie reheated the short ribs along with the cabbage, carrots and some mashed potatoes.  It was yummy and I’m sorry to see it finished.  This was Polka Tuesday so we settled in to watch Molly & Ted.  Unfortunately we inadvertently watched 20 minutes of an old episode before realizing it was wrong so we watched the new one from the beginning.  It was another great show with many new songs we have not heard them do before.
In Clarinet practice today I noticed that when I first do scales I miss the high B but after warming up a few times I can manage the entire scale  including going over the break to the beat of a metronome. 


January 20, 2021 Wednesday Selby, shelves


I went to Selby this morning to clean up some stuff on John’s list which I created from the comparison between the spreadsheet and the Bromeliad Jpg listing.  I left early at 11:30 AM to register for a covid vaccination with Sarasota.  Once home the process online went smoothly which was surprising.  I was registered by 12:30.  It was supposed to open at 12:00 but they were a few minutes late and didn’t open until 12:07.  I had lunch then went to Costco for coffee,  wine and a few supplies.  I needed more screws for the bookshelves which I picked up at Lowes on the way home.  They didn’t have the thin trim screws I wanted so I got regular screws instead.   I ended up using some screws I had in the box in the garage anyway but I will keep the new screws I bought.  
I went inside and assembled the composter.  This thing had a huge bag of screws which I went through. An hour later and the composter was assembled. 
Libbie scrambled potatoes and onions for an attempt at hash browns which came out excellently.  We had this with hamburgers off the grill.


January 21, 2021 Thursday Bookshelves, Sub casserole


I continued to try to make the barcode reader function.  By the end of the day I had it reading files off the SSD drive of the Broms.  It can’t read a significant number of the files, probably around 20%.  It could be a barcode that does not have enough contrast.
Outdoors I moved the composter next to the back door for Libbie.  She is going to move things around to make room for it.  I moved the bookshelves outside and did some sanding on bringing an edge down.  I nailed the additional board on the side and discovered I still have some belt sanding to do.  Perusing recipes I discovered an interesting one called “Meatball Sub Casserole”.  It used a combo of cream cheese, mayo and tomato sauce along with the meatballs over a layer of baguette slices.   It was kind of sweet.  I only give it 3 out of 5 stars. 
This was a disappointment. Dinner tonight was the meatball sub casserole along with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I went into my office and continued to work on reading barcodes.  I found that a lot of them will not read. This is a setback.


January 22, 2021 Friday Busy Day


I spent the morning in my office.  I changed the barcode program to log both mismatched barcodes and unreadable ones.  I found that the unreadable ones were badly printed where not enough ink was used and are hardly a readable barcode.  I then did some soldering of the Linksprite board, tying all the relay commons together.  I have not hooked it up yet.  Hopefully it will work OK in the case in the garage. 
I then went outside and tried sanding down the bookshelves.  I ended up breaking 3 sanding belts.  I have no more belts.  I then used the Palm sander to do some finish sanding of the shelves before I moved them into the dining room.  I moved one set of shelves into the room and Libbie helped me move the second set inside.   They are heavy and bulky.
Dinner was the leftover meatball casserole.  Libbie baked a loaf of wheat bread to go along with dinner.  She used wheat flour which made it come out dry and dense.  Josh and Jenna were visiting Epcot resorts this evening so we tuned in and watched a walk through of the Yacht club and the Beach club. 


January 23, 2021 Saturday Busy day


I started the day with nailing together the 2 bookshelf units while on top of the lower cabinet then went upstairs and practiced Clarinet before my lesson at 2.
The lesson was great.  I got some good tips on covering the holes with my fingers.  I did some Arpeggios of various types and also a recommendation to visit the scales at the back of the book.  I’ll need to practice harder in order to do a better job at crossing the break.  Justin said I’m doing better at getting the timing correct, playing right to the beat.
After the lesson I ran out to Publix to get Shrimp and a frozen veggie.  I was looking for Pearl Onions but they didn’t have any so I got just frozen peas. 
I continued working on the shelves, tilting them over onto a couple of step stools while I added the two sheets of plywood to the backing.  This was difficult since I had to squeeze between shelves to get out of lowering the shelves and also had to squeeze between the shelves and the wall to nail the length of the plywood.  I then stood the unit upright and pushed it against the wall. Only one staple missed the shelf board and needs to be removed because it is poking through.  I also need some ¾ inch screws for the angle bracket that is going to anchor it to the wall. 
For dinner Libbie boiled Peeler shrimp, made rice and cooked peas.  We had this with several glasses of Cabernet.  


January 24, 2021 Sunday Shelf bracket


After the Sunday morning shows I attached a bracket to the top of the book shelves and to the wall.  I spent a lot of time working on Python tutorials.  I just found that Python ships with a development system called IDLE.  I tried it out and was surprised that it wasn’t bad.  It’s more straightforward than PyCharm which I previously was using.  I installed OpenCV and PyZbar on the office PC and then got the barcode decoder working.   I selected one image that couldn’t be read and experimented with it.  I first cut the size down by cropping just the barcode then trying to  increase the contrast.  I was successful at an  extreme setting.  The barcode was detected and correctly decoded. 
This afternoon we went for a nice walk in the sunshine over at Spanish Point.  I was hoping the Bromeliad garden was going to be bigger but was disappointed that there was no further progress with planting.
Dinner was Libbie’s outstanding pizza topped with pepperoni.  We had this with Wine and then watched another episode of Mrs Maisel.  This series is great.  I have 2 seasons on Plex, we would have to get the others from Amazon Prime. 


January 25, 2021 Monday Busy 


It was a Selby morning.  I went with my list of mismatched barcodes which John worked on.  I  continued removing the strap hanging in front of the lens. I finished this then started isolating the photos that needed to be retaken.  I finished the Oct 26 date but still need more work on the 10-30 date.  Meanwhile in the afternoon John finished photographing the oct 26 folder of gesneriads I set aside for retakes. 
At home I finished trimming out the shelves.  This included watching a YouTube video about how to cut a compound miter for the outside corner of a crown moulding.  The secret is to cut the crown upside down when cutting the 45 degree angle.  After I nailed all the trim up I spackled the nails. This finished my physical activity for the day.
We watched another episode of Mrs Maisel before dinner.  Dinner was leftover meatball sub casserole.  Libbie supplemented the casserole with more meatballs and tomato sauce from the leftover bag of meatballs in the refrigerator. We had this with some Cabernet.  After dinner we watched more of Mrs Maisel.  I got an interesting eMail from John.  They are finally realizing that the little programs I have been writing and using are pretty valuable and now want a writeup and a place where they will be available.   This stuff is not ready for prime time.  I currently run it out of the compiler.  I’ll need to figure out how to make this user friendly.


January 26, 2021 Tuesday Sanding, cleaning and Gazebo


This morning I sanded the bookshelves but did not get to vacuuming the shelves.  The cleaning company we hired arrived at 10:30 and stayed over 2 hours doing a deep clean.  Wow, what a job.  They had everything gleaming including polishing the appliances such as the toaster and air fryer.  Fantastic.  We’re both highly pleased.  This is certainly going to work for us.  While they were cleaning I did some reading of tech stuff on my computer and also created a description of the tools I created to assist with Selby quality checking of the images.
In the afternoon I continued to finish up the bookshelves.  I touched up the spackle and cleaned each shelf with a swiffer cloth to get it ready for painting.  I didn’t have enough paint so Libbie went with me to Lowes.  I got my gallon of paint and she was supposed to get a bag of birdseed.  The next thing I knew she had filled a cart with all their birdseed, 12 bags of it.  It was marked down from 7.99 to 1.83 per bag.   At 5:35 PM we went to Publix for a bottle of wine and went to the neighborhood gathering in the pavilion.  We enjoyed being together with about 10 others at the pool gazebo.  Around 7:30 we came home and had spaghetti before settling down to watch Ted and Molly do Polka Tuesday at 8 PM.  What fun once again.


January 27, 2021 Wednesday Farmers Market, Painting, Website
This morning after GMA we went out to the Phillippi Creek Farmers Market.  We got the usual cucumber, green pepper and bag of oranges. Of course we visited the Wisconsin cheese booth and picked up Killer Swiss and some Baby Swiss.  We walked along the vendors and saw many tempting items including original watercolors. Seafood, crab cakes and sauerkraut. We did do some impulse purchases including a container of Guacamole for dinner.  At a plant booth we bought a yellow Phal Orchid ($15) and a Pitcher Plant ($25).   Once we got home it was time to hit the brushes and get going.  Libbie helped with the painting of the bookshelves which came out pretty good. 
Later I had a series of email conversations with Sandra our Stoneybrook Newsletter editor.  She sent me a proof copy which I made a few corrections to.  I found out English was not her first language. When I asked was it French because she’s Canadian and she said no, her first language is Polish.  The January issue was not on the website so I added it.  I’ll send out the February issue on Sunday night which is the last day of the month. 
I started trying to put the Selby programs back together again.  What I had been doing was disassembling them to make the next.  I guess I shouldn’t do that anymore.   I ended up referring to the document I created for John to get the names of the program and also the names of the logging files.  
During the day I received an email bill from Rising Sun Pools for the balance of the hot tub repair.  I owed $28 more for the skimmer replacement. The total bill was $360.
Dinner was chicken Quesadilla in the air fryer which we had with the Guac we purchased this morning.  


January 28, 2021 Thursday  Tires


Not much happened today.  I made an appointment at 11 for Tires Plus.  This was a mistake.  When I got there they couldn’t find my appointment.  It was half an hour before they even took my car. They said it was going to take 90 minutes,  I questioned why and then ended up telling them to do just the oil change.  I don’t want their “quality check” or the tire rotation.   It looks like I’ll either rotate my own tires or find a place to have it done. 
At home I was going to work on the bottom of the cabinet but ended up doing nothing.  I did work on the barcode program a little.  For some of the Orchids it is detecting 2 different barcodes.  I don’t know why yet. 
For dinner tonight Libbie made tuna noodle casserole with peas.  I had a MArtini and then watched a little bit of Cory Meets World after dinner.


January 29, 2021 Friday Saw


I set up the saw horses and made the cuts for the lower section of the bookcases.  I also drilled the pocket holes for the pocket screws.  Tomorrow I’ll set up the table in the garage and put the faceplate together with pocket screws.  
Libbie and I went to Detweilers for our proteins, specifically for Country Ribs for dinner.  We also picked up corn and some potatoes to accompany the meat.
Across the street Joe received his Wyse sprinkler controller and needed a little help with the wiring.  I gave him some ignition wire to jumper from his old controller to the new one.  Wyse makes some pretty impressive technology for attractive prices.  
My Amazon stepper controller boards arrived this afternoon.  I only ordered them last night.  As it turns out I discovered that I had built a complete ESP8266 and stepper controller board using this same board 2 years ago.  I still don’t remember doing this.  I had to look it up in my journals and found an entry in Spring of 2019.  I think I built this in the workshop on Downing Place but do not remember what it was for.  I know I was at one time thinking of automating the blinds in the downstairs bedroom and another time it was the front blinds in the upstairs foyer/landing. 
In my office I fine tuned the barcode reader program although I still found some more enhancements that can be done.  I processed 10,000 Orchid image files and found half a dozen bad barcodes.   
Dinner tonight was Libbie’s Country Ribs smothered in Onions.  We had Florida Corn on the Cob as a side dish along with several glasses of Cabernet.   After dinner we watched a little of Josh and Jenna visiting the Riviera resort and having their usual hamburger and chicken nugget dinner with French Fries.   It was amusing that they got a special sauce which most likely was themed to the French theme of the Riviera resort but they chose the Ketchup.  


January 30, 2021 Saturday Faceplate and Clarinet lesson


I fine tuned the barcode program and then Turned it loose on 17,000 Orchid images.  It quit after 16,000 and won’t restart.  I don’t know what is wrong.
I had an excellent lesson with Justin once again.  I went over Arpeggio scales in the book.  I’m having trouble with the eighth notes where some of them are slurred and others are not. Gojng over the break has been surprisingly easy now that I have the technique down of how to hold the Clarinet with my thumb offset a little. 
After the lesson I went into the garage and started assembling the cabinet faceplate.  Unfortunately I put it together backwards and need to disassemble the pocket screws and put it back together again.
Dinner tonight was Libbie’s leftover country ribs accompanied by a baked sweet potato.  We had this with a few glasses of Cabernet.


January 31, 2021 Sunday Faceplate again, zoom


After the morning news shows I went into the front yard and moved the last of the sprinklers to be closer to the driveway and put a new sprinkler head in.  The drip sprayers were impacted, they badly trickle out now.  I’ll remove the pressure regulators to improve their flow.  
In the garage I disassembled the face plate for the cabinet and reassembled it correctly.  I put a little spackle on some spots.  Tomorrow I’ll sand the spackle and paint it as well as some of the cabinet doors.  
I had a zoom meeting at 4 PM today with AVSA regarding the virtual website.   Before the meeting I set up the new Wordpress installation and sent out invites to the admins.
After all this I went back to my computer and tried to get the blinds to open and close using home assistant.  The MQTT is going out but the blinds are not moving. 
Libbie made her pizza from scratch today and added more of the leftover meatballs to the top.
Yum!  We had this with the last of the wine.


February 1, 2021 Monday Selby & Windows


It was off to Selby this morning continuing to clean up Orchids and Bromeliads.  I  left early to make it home for my 12 noon appointment with Sarasota Glass. Gary showed up.  He was a pleasant person and was quite careful with his measurements.  Even after signing the contract he went back over his measurements to be sure.  He said we are getting ahead of an 8 % price increase on Feb 1 and also he sized the slider 1 inch shorter in width which brought us into the lower price class saving $1400.   We are getting the 2 Master bedroom windows next to the bed and the bathroom window changed.  We also are getting the 3 breakfast area windows and the big sliders done.  The total bill is almost $16K. Wow.  I wonder if we’re doing the right thing although the old windows are quite cold and drafty.
I was too lazy to paint in the garage today plus it’s a little cold although it won’t be much warmer tomorrow.   I worked some more on the motorized shades. I rechecked all the wiring and then reflashed the ESP8266.  This did the trick.  The stepper actually moves although it doesn’t seem to have enough power to move  the shades.  I’ll try to remove the gear mechanism before looking for a stronger motor or stepper.  I read one blog where the author had to remove the gearing to get the shades to work with his stepper which was different from mine. 
I looked at juggling funds to pay for the windows and ended up transferring $5k from TD Ameritrade.  The  downpayment was $7500. Ouch.
We had the last of the country ribs tonight.  Libbie made rice to go along with the meal.  This was a yummy meal choice which lasted for a few days.  After dinner I continued to research blinds motor drivers.


February 2, 2021 Tuesday Groundhog Day 


 I was going to paint today but was too lazy.  I heard from John and ended up working on some Python code to check whether a directory of jpg images all belonged to the same family.  I did quite a bit of work on this and almost have it running.
I also reflashed the blinds closing chip and removed the gears from the blinds in my office.  This allowed the blinds to open and close.  I tried boosting the number of steps to open and close from 12 to 14 and discovered this only opened the blinds beyond center.  One of the biggest issues is that the stepper motor is shifting in position when I close the blinds resulting in blinds not fully closed.
This morning I went to Walmart for Casserole ingredients.  Before noon Libbie and I filled the slow cooker with ground beef, onion, pepper and spices and turned it on.  6 hours later Libbie made corn bread in the cast iron skillet.  After some Clarinet practice we sat down to a dinner of Mexican Casserole with a sour cream topping.  It was good.  Libbie gave it 7 out of 10.  I rated it 4 out of 5.  Maybe I’ll switch to the 10 star system.  I would agree with the 7. We had our dinner with a few glasses of Cabernet.
After dinner we watched Ted and Mollie on YouTube.  They had one of her former students who is a Broadway and stage performer as their guest.  This was one of the best shows.  I especially liked her duet with him doing a piece from Phantom.  Mollie used her operatic skills to accompany his strong tenor voice.  It was just beautiful.


February 3, 2021 Wednesday Running around


It was too cold to paint in the garage today although it felt good in the sun.  We skipped the Wednesday Farmers Market since we didn’t need anything. I worked on the python program for Selby.  I had been getting errors reading the CSV.  I eventually found a google entry that said I need to tell the file open to use UTF-8 encoding. This worked and allowed me to continue debugging.  I switched to PyScripter instead of the built in Python idle since it allows breakpoints and simple debugging by reading variables when you hover over them.  It’s my go to debugger. 
I started the Bromeliad validator program this morning and when I went to bed at 9 PM it was still running. It has to search the CSV file for each of the Brom jpgs which is slow going.  We left a little before noon to return the Sax to Fogle Music.  Next we went over to Home Depot for a trip I dreaded.  I want to order the front door  as an impact door with impact glass.  We were delighted that we found a knowledgeable person at the millwork desk.  Dave really knew his stuff.  We ordered a $5200 door which opens out. It’s hard to believe there are impact doors which open inward.  To me this is not logical when combating high winds. 
On the way home we stopped at Chick Fila on Clark and Honore and picked  up waffle fries and chicken sandwiches which we ate at home.  On the way home we munched on waffle fries and ended up finishing them all. After lunch my next stop was Kohls to return the refrigerator door switch I ordered from Amazon.   They make returns easy, just print a label, put it on the package and drop it off at Kohls.  Refund is immediate.  On the way back from Kohls I stopped at  the Clubside condo dumpster and disposed of a pile of wood scraps.  I filled one of Libbie’s wax lined cardboard trays and dumped it into the dumpster.  I kept the tray for another load of wood. 
Dinner tonight was later because we didn’t have lunch until after 2.  We had leftover Mexican Casserole with cornbread for dinner and a little bit of Cabernet.  After dinner I watched a little of this past Tuesday’s Ted and Mollie music.  This was the show with a broadway singer that Mollie had trained.


February 4, 2021 Thursday Tool Chest


This was another lackadaisical day.  I went out to Costco for milk and also picked up a 1 Tb SSD that was on sale for $119.  I also got a few bottles of everyday wine.  My program for verifying Bromeliad jpgs is running pretty good. I made a few tweaks and am happy with the speed.  
I mounted a shelf above the scanner to hold my tool chest.  When it was done I was not happy with how it looks.  It needs to go under the workbench.  The workbench needs to be modified in order to hold it. That is what I will do, lower the bottom shelf of the workbench to make room for the tool chest.  It seems to be bolted to each leg with 2 screws.
Dinner tonight was leftover Mexican Casserole once again.  We had a piece of Corn Bread and Cabernet with dinner.


February 5, 2021 Friday Paint


I set up the saw  horses outside and sanded the sheen off the cabinet doors.  Next the saw horses were moved into the garage and set up for painting the doors.  I originally was going to paint the doors on the floor but Libbie objected.  I painted both the cabinet faceplate and the doors.  Later in the afternoon I went out to the garage and painted the other side of the doors.
I had some good success today with the blinds controller.  I implemented a single step using MQTT and played with single stepping the blinds.  This was successful.  I then implemented a function I called a crazy hack.  When the blinds reach closed after moving I use the crazy hack function to issue two more steps which in turn ensures the blinds are closed.  Basically I’m using 12 steps to open the blinds and 14 steps to close them.  I have tried multiple open and closes using 12 and 12 but the blinds tend to drift so that closed eventually looks open.  Using 12 to open and 14 to close  seems to ensure that the blinds do not drift.  Next step is to work on Alexa control as well as making a PCB for the next several stepper motors.   I want motorized blinds in our bedroom as well as the upstairs foyer. 
I did a Clarinet practice this morning and was pleasantly surprised at how easily the notes came out.  I hope this trend continues.
Dinner tonight was grilled hamburgers with baked beans and Cabernet.  Libbie was tired of leftovers from the slow cooker.  I was not.  After dinner I watched a YouTube video about Alexa integration but fell asleep.  The big surprise was the guy from “The Hook Up”. I thought he was an engineer but he said he was a High School teacher.  His video and stepper motor software  was the most helpful to me when putting together my own blinds controller.


February 6, 2021 Saturday Easy day


I did a little Clarinet practice in the morning and then spent a lot of time figuring out how to get Alex to play with Home Assistant.  I’m not getting the same results as the tutorials.    
I had a pretty good lesson with Justin today.  This was the fifth since I restarted.  Each is getting better.  He suggested the 2 pages of scales which are the Arpeggios.  I actually like that page because the measures are so challenging to play.  
Later in the afternoon I attempted to install Docker and Calibre on the Synology.  I was successful but the issue with it was the Calibre Server did not seem to be accessible outside of the Docker container.  This was a non starter for me.  Managing the books is one thing but accessing them without having to log into the Synology is the other half of the requirements.   That half is missing.  I’ll probably end up going with the Pi 4 and the Sandisk 1Tb SSD.  This will contain the Node-Red install and the Scargill script.  Before I install the Script I will make sure I get Calibre running, especially the Calibre server.
Dinner tonight was Salmon with rice and peas.  We also had a few glasses of Cabernet.  Libbie was not doing so well.  She has a tooth that is throbbing because of a receding gumline.  I hate to see her down like this.


February 7, 2021 Sunday Alexa


I spent more time today working on Alexa integration into Home Assistant.  I got node-red installed on Home Assistant although I would prefer using the existing node-red on the Scargill Pi. Unfortunately the Scargill Pi uses port 80 which is what Alexa needs to respond to node-red.  It took a while to get node-red working.  I did not have something called secret filled out.  Not sure what this does but I put my standard “offbeat” password in and the thing started working.  I immediately put the echo hub function in via the palette manager and configured it for Alexa.  This was good enough.  I monitored the debug output and discovered I had to convert the on and off to open and close for the blinds MQTT.   The blinds now open and close under Alexa commands.  
We went to Lowes and bought Tapcon screws and a paint brush.  Libbie painted the doors another coat of paint with the new brush.  For dinner tonight we had another Libbie made from scratch pizza with meatball topping which we had with a few glasses of Cabernet.  During the evening we watched Donna make a lot of Super Bowl snacks including Jalapeno poppers and chicken wings.   She has not been on for a while.  We learned that the entire family had Covid and was sick for 3 or 4 weeks.  She is especially at risk since she is obese and diabetic. 


February 8, 2021 Monday Selby & Garage hooks


Off to work this morning at Selby.  I examined the Orchids looking for misplaced Gesneriads and moved them over.  This took most of the morning.  I brought my portable drive to  get the latest dump of Bromeliads so I could run them against Liz’s database.  Liz this morning was wearing an incredibly short skirt which I approve of!!!  On the way home from Selby I stopped by Walmart and picked up Sour Cream for our dinner tonight as well as chunky Guac. 
At home Libbie had put the second coat down on the fronts of the doors.  She will do the backside tomorrow.   In the garage I used the screws I bought this past weekend and mounted the Rubbermaid track and used two of the hangers to hang the Come A Long and the Chainsaw.  That gets two more items off the porch.  Next I will hang the ladder.  I need to cut spacers to space the ladder away from the wall because it is going to cross over the power panel. The panel is at least 4 to 6 inches out from the wall.  I’m hoping that a 2x6 and a 2x4 can get me 3 inches away from the wall while the ladder hook is at least 6 inches long so I should be able to clear the power panel OK.  I’ll roll the saw outside tomorrow and cut the spacers.
At home I ran the Python program using the latest Bromeliad directory of the images I brought home.   I sent the results to Liz and John.  We have over 3,000 images not in the database. 
Liz asked if I could extract the accession numbers.  That would be great but involves doing OCR which I have my doubts about. 
The new 4th generation Alexa arrived this evening.  I set it up in our bedroom.  It certainly sounds better.  The shape is a globe instead of the traditional Hockey puck.  I found the one in the garage no longer works.  Not sure what is wrong. 
Dinner tonight was chicken Quesadilla using the guac and sour cream I bought in Walmart.  


February 9, 2021 Tuesday House cleaning, Bromeliad Db


I practiced Clarinet early before our Housekeepers arrived.  I heard from David Kessler this morning.  They are celebrating their 50th anniversary March 27 and wanted our address.  He said the anniversary is actually in April but it falls on Easter so they’re doing it early.   Lynn and her husband arrived around 11 today and immediately began vacuuming and cleaning.  They do such a fantastic job for $125. 
I thought there was a problem with the Bromeliad Db look up program I wrote since it falsely reported many Broms as not being in the Db even though they were present.  Liz discovered the columns had become offset part way through when she was cutting and pasting. She sent me a corrected spreadsheet and I reran the program.  I did make one change and that was to ignore the case. I used the string upper() function to convert all strings to upper case. 
In the garage I was stymied.  I mounted the ladder support next to the electrical box and was not pleased with the result.  The hanger hangs too low which will put the ladder very low on the wall.  I have been thinking of resting the ladder on the existing top shelf and using a chain and wall hook to secure the other end.
Libbie had a 5 PM sisters zoom so it was no Tuesday night gazebo for us.  It didn’t end until 6:30PM.  I started the Quesadilla while she was still zooming.  She hung up and joined me as we made Chicken Quesadilla and served it with sour cream, salsa and the last of the Guacamole. We had this with the remains of a bottle of wine.  Afterwards we watched Ted and Mollie’s Valentines show.  When Mollie sent the link out today it included a link to an old CD Ted had recorded .   I bought it and added a $20 tip.
UPS arrived today with the floating shelves I ordered.  I will put two of them below my bulletin board. 


February 10, 2021 Wednesday Ladder


This morning after Clarinet practice I went outside and managed to extract the ladder from under the stuff piled up.  I set it up against the back porch and climbed up onto the roof with a broom and a blower.  I cleaned the pine straw from the screen cage and also cleaned out the gutter.  
I then worked on the ladder mounts and ended up screwing a hook into the ceiling and tying the ladder to the hook with a loop of rope.  I’m not sure I like it because one end is low and the other is against the ceiling.   I would like both ends against the ceiling to make more room below.  While looking for black electrical tape I found the spacers and screws that I ordered a year ago but had misplaced.  They were in a tub in the garage labeled Electrical.
I heard from both Liz and John  today.  I sent them the updated bromeliad database specimen search which now shows that there are 430 Bromeliad images not in the database.  John found they were in folders of large numbers that had not been barcoded.  261 of them did not have barcode scanning because of the pandemic.   Libbie finished painting the bookshelves inside and also put the second coat of paint on the back side of the doors.  The goal is to finish this up and unpack the boxes by the time our housekeepers come in 2 weeks on Feb 23.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese.


February 11, 2021 Thursday Website fixed


I saw in the Sarasota paper that Farm and Garden was having a 20% off sale on Orchids.  A little after 9 AM we went up Beneva and spent $146 foro plants.  Libbie got 2 Orchids and we also picked up things like Patio tomatoes, Alyssum, Vinca and some more exotic plants.  I planted the Alyssum in front of the Lantana which was being eaten.  Hopefully the fragrance will drive away our rabbit.  I then set about working on the MAAVS website to try getting it working again.  I also had some decent Clarinet practice.  The scale page of Arpeggios is challenging and I have been trying to meet the challenge.  I feel  good about my practice.  I can tell when I don’t have a firm embouchure.  I also have been doing pretty well at going over the break and back down.  At 5:30 after practice I went to Costco for dishwashing detergent and wine. It’s a great time to go there.  The store was empty and I got through quickly.  As a treat I bought a tub of Maine Lobster spread which we had over triscuits with wine.  It was quite good.   Dinner was hamburgers from the grill with tomato, broccoli and cucumber salad.  A glass of Cabernet accompanied the meal.  It was quite good. 


February 12, 2021 Friday Trimming Wood


I started fitting the boards on the lower bookcase while Libbie started filling the shelves.  She started putting my junky books on the shelves which I don’t want there.  These will go on the bedroom bookshelf.   I used the nail gun and fastened the faceplate as well as the two side panels.  This came out pretty good.  
In my office I prepared the new Pi 4 for USB boot and put an OS on the Sandisk SSD.  Surprisingly I was able to get Calibre running on the device, the full version with book management.  My previous version of Calibre on a Pi did not have book management which is why I wanted to set it up on the Pi 4 with a 1 Tb SSD.  
Dinner was Four Seasons Chinese takeout from New China in Nokomis.  Along with this it came with rice and we added Cabernet.  After dinner I watched a little of Josh do some Park Hopping then went to bed since we will be birding in the morning.


February 13, 2021 Saturday Rainy birding


We left at 7 AM for the clubhouse.  On the way we cruised by some ring neck ducks by Clubside Circle.  At 7:15 we were off and running on Golf carts following Jeff starting at hole 1.  We had a brief stop at the eagles nest at Clubside before heading over to the pond on Glen Meadows where we saw the ducks earlier.  Jeff was able to set up his spotting scope so we could see a duck or two in detail.  About the time we were on hole #5 it started pouring rain.  I got a chance to see the beautiful butterfly garden and took a picture or two.   I need to look this up on a map so we could visit it on foot.  Update:  I think it is the condos on Old Hickory off Glen Meadows.
It started raining pretty good after viewing the butterfly garden and Jeff decided to call it a morning.  We drove back in a driving rain and got thoroughly soaked.  It was a fun outing though.  We were back home by 9 which was good because I wanted to get in some Clarinet practice before my 2 PM lesson.  The lesson with Justin went very well.  I’m going to continue doing the Arpeggios.  We did quite a few quizzes through the book, some of them sight reading the first time.  I was happy with myself.  Others highlighted areas that I need to focus on this week. 
Later in the day I cut the bottom shelf off the bedroom bookshelves and then moved it upstairs.  Meanwhile Libbie continued to empty boxes into the downstairs bookcases.  She also cleaned some of the musty books with a light bleach solution which seemed to improve the appearance and smell of the books. 
In my office I continued to work on the Pi 4 and got the Calibre program running under tightvnc.  I found that if I start the program from the keyboard I could not manage books from tightvnc but if I started it inside tightvnc then I could manage books from the remote terminal.  This was a revelation.  I now have one of the Calibre libraries up and running on the Pi 4.  I also installed Scargills script which was very helpful with Node Red, Nginx server and Webmin as well as a few other utilities.  This thing is shaping up nicely.  Next step is to move the node red routines and also get grafana running. 
Dinner was Salmon with rice and broccoli and a few glasses of Cabernet.  We watched a fun little movie tonight which was a rom-con called The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.  It was heartwarming and very enjoyable.


February 14, 2021 Sunday Unpacking, grow boxes 


We did a Lowes trip this morning.  I picked up potting soil for the grow boxes and a piece of trim for the bookshelves.  We continued unpacking boxes and finding stuff that was lost.  I have lots of CDs that need ripping, it’s overwhelming and every room is now filling with clutter.  
I mixed potting soil with topsoil and filled 2 grow boxes.   I like this mixture, mainly because the topsoil is only $2 a bag and acts as an extender for the more expensive potting soil. I planted the Patio tomatoes in one grow box, the other is still empty.  It may get some hot peppers or squash.   I would prefer peppers. I can mix peppers and onions in a stir fry or two.  
I spent some more time working on the Pi 4 Calibre books.  This thing is working well so far.
Dinner tonight was Libbie’s homemade pizza from scratch. 


February 15, 2021 Monday  Selby


This morning I parked in the leased lot 1 ½ blocks from Botany.  I enjoyed the walk and took some pics of flowers I had not seen before.  John was with his daughter this morning so I was alone in Botany.  When I left around noon I stopped in to say goodby to Liz who didn’t know I was in the building.  On the way home I stopped by Walmart for milk and other groceries then stopped into HArbor Freight to take advantage of 30% off items under $10. I bought two packages of sanding belts - an 80 grit and a 120 grit.   I didn’t get home until a little after 1.  Libbie had been busy unpacking boxes and filling the shelves with books and sorting other items out.  I put the doors on using the old brass hinges.  Now I need door knobs on the doors.
I was cleaning up files on the Google Drive accounts and read a story called “The Explorers”.  It wasn’t until I got to the end that I discovered that I wrote it.  What a bad memory I’m getting!
I had a really good Clarinet practice.  After my exercises I just fooled around with the instrument, playing various pieces of music I encountered.  It was a lot of fun.  I’m looking forward to finding more easy pieces that I can play. 
Dinner tonight was frozen Costco Italian Sausage with the last of a bottle of Cabernet.  The last time we had the Costco lasagna was on Dec 8. After dinner I went into my office and ripped 9 CDs using the old Cdex program which isn’t supported anymore.  Freedb went away but there is a new replacement for it according to Wikipedia so I used it and it worked well for most of my CDs.  Some of the specialty ones were not there so I manually put the track info in. 


February 16, 2021 Tuesday Spackle, CD ripping


I put a coat of spackle on the nail holes and sanded them later in the day.  They still needed more spackle in spots so I put down another coat.  I was hoping to finish the spackling today but it looks like it will be tomorrow.  I did a little photo scanning of our My Childrens Wedding book which is a wedding album of our wedding that came from one of our parents.  I also finished scanning some of Libbie’s Christmas cards from this year.  These are cards from her family.
As part of our unpacking of the dining room we had several cartons of CDs.  I took a tub of singles and ripped 35 of the CDs to MP3s.  I decided that on the bigger multi CD Opera albums I will go back and scan the covers so I know what albums they came from.   
I chatted with Vicki about the Polka cruise.  She wants me to book the 2 rooms tomorrow when they open.  The hours are 9 AM to 1 PM so I’ll call in the morning.
We went over to the Gazebo tonight to join the neighbors.  It was our neighbor Carol’s birthday.  Carol’s husband is Lee, they sold their NY house on LI  in Nov the same time we did.  Dinner tonight was the last of the Costco Italian Sausage lasagna.  After dinner we watched Ted and Mollie who were not together.  Due to a snow storm Mollie was still at her parent’s house in Wisconsin so she and Ted tried to do the show remotely together.  Ted was mostly solo although Mollie did a few numbers with her Family which were great.  She was on Piano, her Dad on Button Box and her brother on vocals.  It was certainly different. 


February 17, 2021 Wednesday AC Outlet


We went to the Farmers Market this morning and picked up a bag of veggies which included Bok Choy. 
I did the final spackle job on the bookcase this morning then started working on the AC outlet.  I found one of the black or the hot line going to the next outlet was shorted to ground.  I isolated it and put the outlet back together.  As a final test I plugged the Sonos speaker in which used to be in my office in Apex.  I set it up without a problem and renamed it.  Now I need to hook up the telephone.  
I continued scanning some CDs and discovered that the album art needs scanning as well.  All the CDs I scanned so far do not have album art.  I started scanning some of the albums on my scanner.  I also  finished scanning our wedding album and posted it on Glembocki.info.  It came out pretty good and tells a story. 
I was too tired to do much Clarinet practice so I only put in a few minutes. 
One of my tasks today was to stop the Pi 4, plug it into the Kill A Watt and measure the wattage.  Unbelievably the power was 3 to 4 watts.  It never went above 4 watts.  I would guess the consumption is 3.5 watts.
Libbie used the Bok Choy and combined it with Shrimp, celery, bean sprouts and mushrooms.  It was yummy.  We had this with a glass of Cabernet.  At 7 PM I participated in a virtual of Capri, Italy put on by FIT.  It was excellent.  I definitely will do more virtual tours if offered.  We had a certified Italian tour guide who did a great job giving us the highlights. 


February 18, 2021 Thursday CD Ripping, Moving in


The bookshelves are finished except for some paint touchup.  The pile of boxes in the room is going down little by little.  I hung up some of the bird pictures in the hallway opposite the bathroom.   The problem with reducing the number of boxes in the dining room is that my office is accumulating buckets of stuff.  I need to throw a lot more of it out.
I continued to rip CDs but now i have a new protocol.  Before I rip each CD I scan the artwork on the case.  This is more work in the end because each of the scans has to be copied to the correct CD rip.  I have only done a handful so far.
We watched the Mars rover landing at 4 PM today.  It is hard to believe that the complex system they created to land the thing actually worked.  I had little to no faith in NASA and their abilities anymore.   They screwed up the Shuttle program and then are way over budget and behind schedule on a Moon rocket to the point I think they should just cancel the thing and turn it over to SpaceX. 
Dinner tonight was more of the shrimp chow mein with rice.  We had a glass of Cabernet with dinner. 


February 19, 2021 Friday CD rip


I spent most of the day in my office ripping CDs. I easily completed 50 CDs.  This time I also am scanning the artwork.  The task still remains of matching artwork to CDs, renaming the scan and then moving both into the movie directory.
I also have been working on slowly unpacking boxes in the dining room, sorting through a lot of the junk especially the stuff I don’t need and discarding it.  I threw away 4 boxes of scanned slides as well as the collection of keyboards.  I decided if I need a keyboard I can order one from Amazon.  
We had wine and cheese in the afternoon but I fell asleep in my chair.  Libbie woke me at 6:20 at which time I started making the Chicken Parm.  She made the broccoli.  Dinner was Chicken Parm with broccoli and Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenn go resort hopping.  It was amusing to see Josh hang out at the Grand Piano listening to the piano player.  He is quite good and did some rags and Scott Joplin in addition to Disney classics such as “When you wish upon a star”.  I ended up looking for the sheet music online and downloaded it.  Earlier today I tried playing a guitar music book of Beatles songs on the Clarinet.  It doesn’t translate very well.  I found a Beatles songbook for Clarinet on Goodwill of Seattle.  I ordered it.  I previously purchased a Seattle World's Fair book from this same Goodwill a few years ago.


February 20, 2021 Saturday CD ripping, Clarinet lesson


This morning I continued to combine the CD artwork with the ripped CDs and then move the album to the Music server.  There is a lot of work here with ripping, scanning, combining and filing.  I started with about 90 that needed managing and finished with about 60 left.  
We went to Detweilers this morning for our protein trip.  We picked up a steak for dinner and also got some Salmon, Chicken Breasts, a Pork Roast and Pork Chops.  I then went to Walmart for some staples such as cheese, eggs and sour cream.  
I had an interesting lesson with Justin.  We were doing eighth notes in an exercise in the book, specifically exercise 88.   There are long strings of eighth notes and I was having difficulty with both timing and playing the correct note.   I’ll get through this with practice this week.
I continued cleaning up my office and the dining room.  I eliminated a few more boxes and also took my parents Wedding Album and decided to deal with the huge book.  I tore it apart and scanned all the 8x10 photos inside.  Next step is to make an album and post it on glembocki.info.   I’ll also figure out how to make a PDF from Jalbum and post it on the Mormon heritage site.  They accept pictures with family trees. 
Dinner tonight was the devil steak recipe Libbie has made in the past.  It’s a Sirloin steak covered with a sauce made of mushrooms, worcestershire, sherry and flamed with Brandy.   It was delicious. 


February 22, 2021 Sunday Dining Room Cleanup


After the morning shows I went into my office and built the album of my parents wedding.  I posted it on the Glembocki.info site more than once.  Each time I found a change I had to make in spelling or people identification.  The easiest way to fix it was to make the correction, delete what was there and then upload the newly corrected version.   I sent the link to my sisters and Libbie.  I also added a link at the page bottom to get to the Stauffacher-Condon website. 
Outdoors I worked on cutting up the surplus wood for disposal and also built a platform for the toolbox in my office.  I sanded it outdoors, now I need to paint it.  
I showed Dean the finished bookcase.  I think it really looks nice.
At 4 PM we watched another episode of Dinners with Donna.  She made her Lasagna which I want to try.  She had a nice teenage girl helping her make the Lasagna.  Donna obviously is the experienced chef and the young girl was helpful but definitely inexperienced.  Her kitchen crew rated it a 10 at the conclusion of the show. 
For dinner Libbie made her pizza from one of her frozen doughs. It was excellent as usual.  This time it had fresh tomato pieces and mushrooms.  The crust was crispy and thin, Perfect!  We had wine with this and watched a little of Ted and Molliie’s past show.  I did the exercises from my lesson yesterday.  They are challenging but I am managing with practice.  I found Doreen Ketchum's improv lesson on  YouTube and loved it.  She takes something simple like Mary had a little lamb and adds notes and changes the rhythm to make it her style.  Good lesson!   I also watched a little of Dr Selfrdige’s live music stream this afternoon and found some sheet music and an accompanying track from his lesson I want to try.


February 23, 2021 Monday Dining Room Complete!


I went to Selby this morning overdressed in a flannel shirt and jeans.  When I finished at noon it was 82 out.  I did the enjoyable walk to the remote leased lot once again.  Many people use the sidewalk.  At home Libbie and I began the task of clearing the floor in the Dining Room.  We hung up all the pictures in various places around the house.  I ended up taking a Lowes trip to get more 4d nails for some of the pics.  When they have the type of hooks attached along the edge a conventional wall hanger doesn’t work. A nail with a head is perfect for this type of picture.  I used the new nails for the 2 pictures I hung in the guest bathroom. Once all this was done we disassembled the dining room table and moved it into the Dining Room.  I bolted the legs back on and set the table up.  It is beautiful!  The room looks great.  Both of us were admiring the room.   I can’t believe it that it all came together nicely like this.  This afternoon on the way back from buying nails at Lowes I stopped by the condo dumpster and got rid of a pile of wood scraps that were riding around in the back of my car.
I practiced Clarinet a little but didn’t spend much time.  I downloaded and printed Star Wars and When the Saints Go Marching from the Dr Selfridge site.  I tried playing both but they both need more practice.  I want to also play the play along background track but haven’t decided how I’m going to go about this.   I was thinking of the Sonos but the computer has more flexibility.
Dinner was the last of the Deviled Steak along with a baked potato and sour cream, Broccoli and a glass of Cabernet. 


February 23, 2021 Tuesday Garden centers, Belkis, social


Lynn and Cedron arrived early this morning for our Tuesday morning house cleaning.  They do an incredibly good job of cleaning and polishing everything.  Once they left we went to Englewood in search of Pepper Plants.  We picked up some landscaping plants at Mr T then went down to Gulf Breeze but they had nothing.  We then stopped at Honey Bees which is a tiny nursery on the side of the road.  They had pepper plants for $1.39 each.  I got 2 Bell peppers and 2  Banana Peppers.  On the way home we stopped at Belkis for a lunch time Cuban and for the entertainment value of this place.  We got a sample of the chicken noodle soup.  Another guy came in for a Cuban and was offered samples of the pork and also the black beans.  We picked up a Cuban for lunch, and also a Pork Combo platter for dinner tonight.  
At home Libbie went through pictures that have been moved into her sewing room.  She gave me a handful to scan which were some old Farm pictures and some Disney postcards as well as a handful of mounted pics her Mother used to display on bookshelves.
The Gazebo was cancelled tonight but Angela invited us over to hang out on their Lanai.  We brought our wine glasses and had an enjoyable chat on the back porch.   We got home and heated the Pork Combo in the microwave and had rice, black beans, Pork and Plantains with a glass of Cabernet.  We then watched Polka Tuesday with Ted and Mollie.  This is an enjoyable show. 


February 24, 2021 Wednesday


In the morning I bought a bag of topsoil and a bag of potting mix, mixed them up and filled 2 grow boxes.  One box got my cucumber seeds and the other received the squash seeds.  I also had an empty grow box that I put the pepper plants into.   I put the two boxes outside along the wall.  The tomatoes and Peppers remain inside the screen porch.   I also replaced the drip sprinkler near the Alyssum outside the screen door with a conventional popup nozzle.  This nozzle is an adjustable coverage 4 foot spray.  I like the idea of adjustable coverage.
We planted the Mexican Fire Vine next to the garbage can walkway.  It’s not clear if there is enough sun there.
The stand came for the Keyboard.  When we opened the keyboard to put it on the stand we found that the liner had disintegrated and put green powder and sticky gunk on everything.  We took it outside to remove the keyboard then moved it to the garage where we vacuumed it with a brush.  Libbie then used some spray cleaner and a sponge to work on cleaning up the keyboard.  When I moved it inside we found that I needed an adapter for the headphones.  The keyboard did light up which was an encouraging sign.  I went to Walmart and found a kit of adapters for $10. I reluctantly bought it along with some groceries we needed, specifically milk for my cereal.  When we set up the headphones with the keyboard I found we didn’t know how to put the keyboard into piano mode. Later in the evening I found the D10 Manuals and read a little about how to put it into piano mode.  I probably need to replace the internal battery which I will google.
I found a note from my Mother that her wedding was at the Grand Concourse Plaza Hotel and not the Church Hall that I put down in the album.  I corrected the error and then did some research on the hotel.  This place was once a grand luxury hotel but now is a  NYC run senior center.  I found pics of the old hotel and even a few postcard images.  I learned that Donald Trump and Marla Maples got married there.  
Later in the day I took the unripe box of strawberries and chopped them up then mixed up flour, oats, brown sugar and butter and lined a baking pan.  I made strawberry oat bars which came out pretty well.  Dinner was hamburgers with tomato and baked beans and wine.  While warming the grill it ran out of gas.  I put the second cylinder on which is also pretty light.  I need to get the empty filled or exchanged soon.  After dinner I watched Mollie and Ted from last night because last night when the show was streamed I went into and out of consciousness.  I was pretty tired.     


February 25, 2021 Thursday Painting, Covid vaccine


I set up the saw horses next to the garage and cut all the wood for my office desk extension and also the 2 speaker shelves.  After nailing the speaker shelves together I set up the drop cloth and began the  job of painting all the wood.  I managed to get 2 coats on the speaker shelves and on the tool box stand.  During the painting Libbie came outside with her phone.  We got a text for our vaccine appointment.  I sent a yes as a response and learned it was invalid.  I was supposed to send a “1”.   I spent some time on the phone with a lady named Latonya who straightened it out for me.  We then got a confirmation text.  I printed out the form that we have to fill out. 
I went back to painting the boards but did not finish.  The tabletop still needs a second coat.  I also need to cut ¾ inch off the wall support.  It’s too long because it butts against the other wll support in the corner which causes it to protrude past the edge of the table.  
Libbie and I made the .pork chops with onion and apples.  I picked up peas in Publix to go along with the meal.  Dinner was Pork Chops with onions, apples and peas.  We had Cabernet with the meal.


February 26, 2021 Friday Desk


This  morning I set up the dropcloth and saw horses next to the house and painted the desktop extension.  I cleared off the rolling cart of all the equipment and photo albums then used the reciprocating saw to cut the handles off.  I needed to do this so it would fit under the desktop extension.  I then screwed the 1x4 supports to the wall and began the task of moving the PC wires which meant disconnecting a lot of stuff including the ethernet switch, keyboard, mouse and speakers.  I mounted the desktop after the paint was dried but I still need to drill a hole in the top for the wires to pass through to the scanner. 
I also mounted the Sonos speakers on the new stands I built and paired them in a stereo pair. Sonos is amazing in this way.  You can pair speakers for stereo which worked quite well.  Both Sonos have to be the same type.  One of mine was a newer model so I took one of the older ones out of the box and paired it easily.  I like it!
Dinner tonight was the last of the pork chops, onions, apples which we had with a glass of Cabernet.  After this nice dinner we watched a little of Josh and Jenna visiting Disney Springs.  The cookies at Guideons look amazing but they clearly are too much for one person.  Josh had a Chocolate Chip which was 8 ounces and covered with chocolate chips in addition to the chocolate chips inside the cookie.


February 27, 2021 Saturday Vaccine, Sprinkler


This morning I did a little bit of Clarinet practice and then took down the shelf that held up the toolbox in my office.  Yesterday I moved the toolbox into the closet on the floor shelf I built.  We left the house at 9:45 for our vaccine appointment at the Venice airport.   When we arrived the line was long but it kept moving along.  We reached the vaccine station at 10:39 after getting on the line at 10:09   It was highly efficient run by the National Guard.  After getting vaccinated we had 11:01 written on our windshield.  This is the expiration of our 15 minute timeout period after vaccination.  We got an appointment card for March 20 which is our 2nd dose, 21 days later.   On the way home we stopped into Belki’s and picked up a Cuban Sandwich for lunch.  I had a 2 PM lesson with Justin which went well.  I still have some exercises to do.  We concentrated a little during the lesson trying to do a few measures which were not working.  For the rest of the afternoon I went into the garage and worked on mounting the ESP8266 relay board inside the Orbit box on the wall.  I wired up all the solenoids to the relays and closed up the box.  I did not test it but it should work.
For dinner we ordered ribs, rice and beans from Beckhams.  We went before it was ready so we could stop into Publix and get Mint Moose Tracks Ice cream for dessert.   This was a celebratory meal celebrating our first dose of the Covid vaccine.  After dinner we watched a little bit of Ted and Molly before going upstairs to read a little in bed.


February 28, 2021 Sunday Office finishing touches


After the morning shows I went into my office and hung some pictures.  I also drilled a hole into the new desktop extension in order to accomodate the cables for the scanner and the pencil sharpener. I wanted to work on file compares for Selby but found out I could not remotely log into the system. It said my password expired.  This freed up my afternoon.
I updated the George-Mary website with a recipe and a few pics Libbie obtained from her cousin.  The recipe was her GrandMothers Fruit salad which added a cup of sugar to a bag of marshmallows and then put whipped cream topping on it all.  Wow, the sugar load.  The amazing thing is it uses a can of diced pineapples but discarded the pineapple juice.
I need to start scanning the Ernie letters and posting them so we can give the box away.
Libbie made pizza from scratch then added peppers and onions to it.  This was my favorite of all time.  After dinner we watched Casimir Pulaski days in Pulaski, WI which Ted and Mollie kicked off from their Ohio home with a 90 minute concert they streamed live.  Excellent!
I updated my spreadsheet with dividends from both Fidelity and TdAmeritrade.  The monthly total is nicely increasing, this time it was over $2500 for February. 


March 1, 2021 Monday  Selby


I went to Selby this morning.  When I went out for the paper, there was no WSJ.  In it’s place was the Sarasota Herald.  I think it’s the same delivery guy.   The grow boxes are doing incredibly good.  I filled them with water today, they were surprisingly low but not empty.  The seeds I planted in two of the boxes have sprouted - the cucumbers and the zucchini.  I’m hoping that I get something out of this.  It has been several years of failures in NC.  
At Selby I grabbed listings of each of the types: Broms, Orchids and Gesneriads.  I’ll run the Python script at home to do the checking.  I did a little more cleanup on my  office workbench by assembling the magnifier assembly.  I found I could order LED versions of the bulbs in the lamps of this device so I put in an Amazon order.   Amazon delivered a gigabit switch today for behind the TV.  This switch will accommodate the TV as well as the telephone adapters, both the Sarasota landline and the Apex landline.
We watched a Botany seminar about Orchid conservation by a Smithsonian Botanist which was pretty good although it was primarily directed at Botanists.
Libbie had a sister's zoom at 4 while I went upstairs to practice Clarinet a little bit.   Dinner was simple spaghetti with tomato sauce and Italian cheese sprinkled over the top.  After dinner we watched Josh streaming from the pre opening of the Flower and Garden Festival.  We didn’t see much of the flowers which was disappointing.


March 2, 2021 Tuesday Custom button, gazebo & Mollie
I tried to implement a custom button to turn the sprinklers on and off but didn’t have much luck.  I want a simple button that sends out an MQTT message to activate a sprinkler like I have now with Node Red.  I want to transition to Home Assistant because of access from outside plus other widgets available.  I still have not gotten a button working yet.  I picked up some groceries at Walmart to make Kung Pao Chicken.  I forgot my phone so I went by memory.  I got everything except for the Chicken Broth.  This is not bad from memory.  Libbie made some Club BBQ at 5:30 while I practiced Clarinet.  We left at 6 for the Gazebo where we got together with the neighbors.  It was a fun evening.  The talk was the vaccine, others still do not have it but Ginny is scheduled for this week.   When we came home we had Club BBQ and watched Ted and Mollie.  They had Fred Zweich with them tonight.  He’s a very good musician and especially good with the Clarinet.


March 3, 2021 Wednesday  Passwords, cooking


We did a Farmers Market trip for our veggies and cheese this morning.  We had some incredible rain just before we left.  When the rain stopped and the sun came out we went over there. The Cheese lady was just getting set up again after enduring the morning storm.  A cold front is moving in lowering our temperatures closer to normal.
LastPass free edition is running out soon so I searched for a free replacement.  I found Bitwarden which is open source and free and works about the same as LastPass.  I exported my passwords and imported them into Bitwarden.  I’m now setup using the new program and so deleted LastPass.  It was a good program for many years until it was no longer free.  I spent more time with Home Assistant trying to understand push buttons on the dashboard.  All I want is a button that will send an MQTT message to Node-Red to start a timer and turn on the irrigation.
I had a recipe from My Recipes for Kung Pao chicken so I picked up the ingredients yesterday except for Broth.  A Publix trip got me some Broth.  Libbie cut up the chicken and Broccoli while I made the sauce and stirred the food in the Wok.  Libbie made some rice.  Dinner was Kung Pao Chicken over rice.  It was not a 5, possibly a 3.  I will have to try it again.  The biggest problem was it had a strong ginger taste. I think there was too much of it.  After dinner we watched part 1 of the ABT Winter Festival stream.  It was quite good 


March 4, 2021 Thursday Bok Tower


After breakfast we gathered our stuff and left for Bok Tower about 9:15 PM.  We took the back way through  Arcadia admiring the Orange groves and cattle ranches. At one point we were on a 1 ½ lane country road through an Orange Grove that was in bloom.  We both lowered our car windows and soaked in the fragrance.  At the gate for Bok there was a long line of cars paying their admission fees.  We crept up to our turn then masked up and showed our Selby membership for reciprocal admission.  We luckily found parking in the front row.  The gardens were at the peak of bloom for the Azalea season.  It was beautiful.  We stayed on top of the hill listening to the Carillon at 1:15 PM.  After about 15 minutes we started walking down the hill to the Welcome center for a late lunch.  I ordered a turkey and smoked gouda wrap which came with chips.  Libbie had a chicken salad on a croissant.  The ride to Bok was gloomy and cloudy and our temperature was only 61 degrees.  I only had shorts on so I thought it was going to be a cold day.  Fortunately when we got there the sun came out and it warmed into the low 70s.  I was appropriately dressed thank goodness. It was a fantastic afternoon of perfect weather to enjoy the blossoms and fragrance.  We left after lunch and had an enjoyable and easy drive back.  When we got  home I was incredibly stiff and tired but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  We chatted with the neighbors when we arrived.  Gina got her shot as well as Dieter and Marlie.  They have the first of the Modernas.   We’re waiting for the second from Pfizer.
Dinner was informally leftover Club BBQ on a bun while we watched the second part of the Winter Festival of ABT.  The Part 2 was better than Part 1 and included some classical excerpts from Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam.  I really liked it.  Youtube then treated us to some excerpts from ABT’s Nutcracker which was a little different since it wasn't choreographed  by Balanchine. 


March 5, 2021 Friday Office cleanup


Libbie had a Doctor appointment so I took the morning time to practice Clarinet and work on cleaning up my workbench.  I mounted the vise in the corner using the bolts I brought with me from Apex.  I also cleaned up the bench top.  I had to vacuum the bench and floor of the drill shavings.  Next up is to swap out my computer speakers and mount the sandstone art on the wall using the floating shelves. 
In the afternoon I trimmed the hedge along the driveway.  I have considered removing a few of the hedges and planting Bougainvillea in its place.  The issue is the underground power lines. 
I did a severe trimming in an attempt to lower the height since it doesn’t need to be that high. 
Libbie and I made Mongolian Beef for dinner.  We had this over rice with a few glasses of Cabernet.  


March 6, 2021 Saturday clarinet


I did some Clarinet practice in the morning followed by a trip to Walmart for Milk and an extension cord for hooking up the phone.  I hooked up our landline using the old Google Voice number from Downing place, 919-362-8532.  It worked! After a grilled cheese lunch I had my lesson.  Justin helped me quite a bit with the difficult ⅛ notes by having me double the metronome speed and playing them one note per beat.  This worked!!!
It rained on and off all day long. Temp was only in the 60s.  I continued to study how to get a button in Home Assistant.  I really needed a way to activate a button to trigger an event in Node Red.  I finally found that an entity button will do this.  An event monitor in Node Red recognizes the button toggle.  It worked!  Now I need to code the rest of the routine in Node Red. 
I made a Key Lime pie using Lime Juice from Walmart.  Because it needed egg yolks I had egg whites left over.  Libbie used this to make meringue for the topping.
Dinner was leftover Mongolian Beef bulked up with more veggies.  The Key Lime Pie dessert was outstanding, even better than a Detweiler's pie.  Woo Hoo!


March 7, 2021 Sunday Python


I tried this afternoon to run the Selby compare programs but kept encountering errors.  I finally decided it was because I did not specify the character set in the file  open.  I remembered I had to do this the last time I ran this.  I spent a lot of the day reading.  Libbie made her pizza which was excellent.  She put fresh mushrooms on it which we picked up at the Farmers Market this past Wednesday.  We had the pizza with cabernet.  I went to Lowes for a new aerator for the bathroom sink and for a larger harp for my lamp.  Both items were a failure.  The harp was still too short and the aerator did not fit.  That’s 0 for 2!


March 8, 2021 Monday Selby, lazy


I went to Selby after working a little on the compare programs in my office. At Selby it was cleanup time for misc folders of images.  I used my compare from home to fill in the blanks.  There was only one missing Brom that needed processing.  I found there are about 10,000 Orchid images missing on E so I started backfilling them using Vice Versa.  I left on time at noon.  This time I parked in the regular Selby lot because there did not seem to be crowds looking for parking spaces.  I was correct. 
At home I did not do much other than practice Clarinet a little and ordered a metronome for the keyboard.   Libbie has been practicing the piano that is set up in the dining room.
Dinner tonight was grilled hamburger on a bun with tomato and a side of baked beans.  After dinner I went upstairs early, around 7:30 PM and climbed into bed and read some Florida attraction history in the book I bought a while back.  It’s pretty fascinating to read about some of the older roadside attractions that have closed since the arrival of Disney although Disney is not entirely to blame.  Changing travel and styles have  left the roadside attractions by the wayside just as things like motor courts and tourist cabins have been abandoned in favor of some of the bigger chains with more amenities. 




March 9, 2021 Tuesday Cleaning, picture frames


We picked up around the place then greeted our cleaning people at just before 9 AM.  They do  a fabulous job cleaning the place and are well worth it.  While they were cleaning I tried assembling the Belgium watercolor we bought in Europe into a picture frame.  It didn’t work very well.  I’m going to bring the painting over to Hobby Lobby and have them frame it.  It needs a new Matte and a frame that fits.  I spent a lot of time today in my office taking advantage of my trial subscription to Easy News.  There is not much there except a lot of porn. 
I picked up some  wine in Walmart for the party tonight.  We went to the gazebo at 6.  I used the new 24 oz water bottle to carry the wine which worked out well.  The only issue was I couldn’t figure out how much wine to put into the thermos.  When we got home we had spaghetti with cheese for dinner and watched Ted and Mollie.  This show is always great and enjoyable.


March 10, 2021 Wednesday HOA Horrors


This morning I tuned into the zoom meeting of the HOA.  What a horror show.  The entire board needs to resign and a new election held.  I felt pretty bad about the meeting.  After the meeting we took our lamp and went to a lamp shop on 17th St in Sarasota.  This place was a treasure with row upon row of shades.  I even found a large harp to fit the floor lamp in my office
On the way home we stopped at Farm and Garden and picked up some Basil and Mint plants.  I will start another grow box with these plants.  I went to Lowes after lunch and bought some growing media for the grow boxes. I also picked up a sprinkler head and a trellis for the vine we purchased. I put up the trellis and removed the wooden one that came with the plant.  I also decided to install the sprinkler head.  I could not completely test it because Libbie was working on the Geraniums. 
Dinner was chicken quesadilla with Cabernet.  After dinner we went over to Joe and Angela’s to talk about the meeting today.  We all agreed we need better leadership in the HOA.  There is no communication and they are doing a lot of stuff that is not to our benefit such as getting rid of  the Lakes maintenance company.


March 11, 2021 Thursday Bromeliads


We left at 9:30 for Craigslist Bromeliads in Venice.  The person, Andye, gave us a tour of her gardens surrounding the house.  Her entire front yard, side yards and back yard were covered with plants.  I bought 6 Neoregilia Bromeliads which are a hybrid named Pink Bromeliad Martin.   They are a beautiful plant.  We planted them next to the driveway after I rototilled the area.  Libbie proceeded to chop down the hedge so that it is 3 feet high instead of over 6 feet.  I need to mulch it with bark now but planting the grow boxes has priority.
The HOA management agency sent me a pile of meeting minutes which I eventually got all posted on the SB website.  
I ordered some 3 way bulbs from Amazon for our 2 lamps that we purchased lampshades for.  Libbie also wanted some Lavender lotion which I ordered from Los Poblanos. 
By the end of the day we were both tired.  We chose to order fish and chips from Beckhams which we had with Cabernet.  It also came with green peas which is traditional for a British pub. 


March 12, 2021 Friday Chain Saw, water, goodwill


I gathered the ingredients for the shopping list for the Pork Roast in the slow cooker and went to Walmart and picked everything up. The trip to and fro was difficult.  The road is one lane and the cutoff to Walmart was closed.  Even worse, the entrance from Tamiami to Walmart was blocked off. I took it anyway and went around the barriers.   When I came back we went to work preparing the veggies, making a rub and rubbing down the roast.  We then filled the slow cooker and turned it on for 8 hours.
Next I went outside and worked on the newly found sprinkler under the hedges.  I saw it pop up yesterday but it did not spray. I had to run the water to find it again.  After I found the sprinkler I dug it out and put a new sprinkler head in.  The new sprayer head gets partially blocked by the hedge but some of the spray does get through. 
Libbie needed the rest of the bigger hedge limbs cut down so I got out the chain saw and started it up.  Surprisingly it worked after a few pulls!  I cut down all the hedge limbs so everything was the same height above the ground. We stacked them next to the house for cutting up at another time.
My next order of business was to fill a grow box with medium and plant herbs and mint.  I put this on the back porch and moved the tomatoes outdoors.  They are getting pretty big.  I need some support posts.
After lunch I basically did nothing in the afternoon.  I spent some time reading until it was time for the roast to come out.  I pulled the roast and veggies then made some gravy.   We plated the meal at the stove and poured some Cabernet.  Dinner was pork roast and veggies with gravy and a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna for the normal Friday night stream.


March 13, 2021 Saturday bikes


This morning I did a little Clarinet practice then hung the oil paintings from our Apex bedroom.  We bought these on a Public TV auction.  The Amazon 3 way bulbs arrived.  I did not know there were 2 bulbs in each package so I had ordered 2 packages when I only needed one.  I messed around with Home Assistant trying to set up a couple of switches that will drive a timer on Node Red.  I need this to turn the water off after 20 minutes.  I also want to log the water events so I know what the interval between waterings is.  Node Red should be able to do all this for me. 
Libbie cleaned up the garage with the vacuum after all the stuff went to Goodwill yesterday.  Because she was in the way I could not cement the opening in the wall like I wanted to.  I’ll tackle that task tomorrow.  I went out to Costco for wine and coffee.  I also found Lobster Ravioli in a 2 pack and also sauerkraut for a recipe I want to make.  
After lunch we pumped up the bike tires, charged the batteries and went for a long bike ride.  I used Google pedometer to map our route after the fact.  Our total  mileage was 4.8 miles.
I had my 2 PM Clarinet lesson today.  The exercises I worked on during the week of playing ⅛ notes quickly 
Dinner tonight was leftover Pork Roast with veggies.  Libbie added some wine and chicken broth to make more gravy.  I liked it, but she didn’t like it so much.  


March 14, 2021 Sunday Many things


Libbie went on a bike ride at 8 AM today, the first day of DST which means we lost an hour of sleep.  I got busy this morning and went to Lowes where I picked up  bags of bark and a popup sprinkler for the side irrigation.  I want this sprinkler to be able to reach the Mexican Flame Vine we put in.  It will be for a sprinkler that pops up but doesn’t put out any water.  While in Lowes I also picked up an Aloe from the rescue table.  I planted this next to the Bromeliads.  I spread the 2 bags of bark around this area.  Next I went into the garage and mixed a batch of hydraulic cement.  I patched the hole where the wires for the irrigation solenoid went through the wall.  I should have patched the outside of the hole as well but didn’t think of it at the time.  More work to do!
I went to the Walmart up on Clark this afternoon to get a graham crust and condensed milk so I could make a Key Lime Pie.  The Pie is easy enough but Libbie was a big help because I was having difficulty separating yolks.  She did this part and then made a meringue with the egg whites.  We had a Libbie pizza for dinner with mushrooms then had the Key Lime Pie for dessert.   I was wiped out by the end of the day so I went upstairs early and lay down reading the Florida attraction history book.


March 15, 2021 Monday Selby, sprinklers


I did my thing at Selby this morning cleaning up new photos and moving photos into correct folders.  On the way home I stopped at Harbor Freight for a tarp and rope for the chairs on our yard patio where we intend to watch the sunset.  There was a huge traffic jam on all the surrounding roads.  It took 25 minutes to go down MacIntosh from the Parkway to the back entrance.
While I was away Libbie worked on the house scrubbing and cleaning. When I got home I changed the sprinkler head next to the trash cans and aimed it at the Mexican Flame Vine.  This plant was not getting water from the normal sprinklers.  I tested it and it worked well although I got a little wet adjusting it. 
Inside I finally managed to get node-red integrated with the outdoor sprinkler irrigation.  I ended up using the normal Tasmota switches and receiving the MQTT commands in node-red.  This starts a timer which then issues an MQTT turn off command when it times out.  I tested it at having the timers set for only a few seconds and it worked. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover veggies mixed up with the leftover pork roast that Libbie cooked on the stove top.  She thought it was better than the first time we had this.  I liked it equally both times.  We had this with Cabernet and then the last of the Key Lime Pie for dessert.


March 16, 2021 Tuesday Florida Attractions


We took a trip to the Walmart on Clark so we didn’t have to deal with a single lane on Tamiami.  I needed Milk and we picked up some other staples.  Gazebo is canceled tonight but we had a zoom with FIT doing a virtual tour of Ireland.  There were technical difficulties at the beginning, then they quickly switched to a zoom tour.  This was better but we spent too much time in Dublin visiting buildings.  We decided to bail out at 8 PM to pick up Mollie B instead.  During the zoom of Ireland we had an informal dinner of Costco’s Lobster Ravioli.  I didn’t think it had much flavor. We had a few glasses of Cabernet with this. 
In the garage I set up a folding table near the door and prepared to replace the tail light on the Prius.  After this I will replace the laundry room window.  With luck I’ll have this done before Sarasota Glass starts replacing the rest of our windows.  The last bit of reinforcement activity will be a new front door which is delayed according to Home Depot. 


March 17, 2021 Wednesday Tail Lights, 


We started out going to the Farmers MArket this morning but bailed out just before Stickney Point because Libbie had bowel issues.  I turned around on Tamiami and came home.  This was a blessing in disguise because I had things I needed to do this morning.
When we got back I started removing the interior panels of Libbie’s Prius and taking off weather strippings and mouldings.  I eventually got to the screws holding down the tail light.  I replaced the broken tail light and buttoned the car back up.  Total time was less than 2 hours. 
After this I planted the Haworthia I bought in South Venice this week.  I originally wanted to put this into a landscape rock but it needs more moisture than I can get out of a rock container.  I’ll use a Bromeliad in any landscape rock I come up with.  I want to replicate what I found in Selby landscaping during my walk to Botany several weeks ago.  
The next order of business was the chairs in the backyard. I put the chairs onto the backyard “patio” and tied them to the pine tree with a rope.  I then covered them with a green tarp and tied the tarp down to four rerod stakes I pounded into the ground. 
After this I spent the rest of the time in my office.  I bought a copy of Turbo Premiere to do my taxes but it will only run on Windows 10.   I may have to convert my I7 machine, Manon 3, to Windows 10.  I started researching decrapifying a new copy of windows.  It looks like a program named NT Lite is what I need in addition to a Win 10 image and a backup of the Manon 3 C-drive which is a 500 Gbyte SSD device.
On the Clarinet I’m still struggling with groups of 3 ⅛ notes in a row but I’m tackling it the Justin way.  This breaks up a measure to just a few notes and then adding notes until I have mastered it.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese and tomato sauce.  After dinner we watched a walk of Downtown Sarasota by a streamer who obviously has never been here before. 


March 18, 2021 Thursday Files


The tax filing deadline was extended until May 17 by the government.  After much mulling about I finally decided I would upgrade Manon to Windows 10.  This will be a big step because I am going to install from scratch.  I looked at the specs of my computer - an I7 @ 4.0 Ghz with 16 Gb of RAM  and decided it’s still a very competitive PC.  I was surprised too that it has an SSD but it’s only 500 Gb.  I ordered a 1 T SSD by Sandisk for the fresh install.  Meanwhile I started a total backup to an external 6T drive of the existing C drive.   I initially used Windows backup but after it ran for 6 hours I discovered that it was not a file by file copy.  Instead it seemed to be a set of zip files all of the same size. This was not acceptable.  I ended up doing a plain old file explorer copy of all the C drive files to the external.  I did some research on Pi 4 external heat sinks and liked one that is a case consisting of a chunk of aluminum with fins.  The cooling is passive, i.e. no fan.  Amazon suggested a package of heat sink case and a Pi 4 and power supply.  I went for it.  Delivery is set for Saturday.  I ordered a serial number for Windows 10 for $35. which included a 10% discount.  I hope it is legitimate because it is a bargain. 
I decided to forego the window replacement in the laundry room because it’s supposed to rain later today.  This is what prompted me to work in the office all day on a PC upgrade.
I had one Lowes trip to return the lamp harp I bought that didn’t fit the office floor lamp.  Last week I found a larger harp in the lamp shade store in Sarasota. 
At 6 PM I started making Shrimp Pad Thai with Libbie’s help.  We used the Organic red thai noodles.  I thought it was pretty good.  Libbie said it had good flavor but was a gummy mess.  I didn’t think so. We had Cabernet and then Mint Moosetracks for dessert.  After dinner we watched Coming to America 2  on Amazon Prime.  It was as funny as the original.


March 19, 2021 Friday PC files
I spent almost the whole day in my office cleaning up files on the Synology NAS.  This is in prep for replacing the C drive on Manon 3 and then installing Windows 10. The new drive will not be here until Saturday.   Today the new Pi 4 with an aluminum case that serves as a heatsink arrived a day early from Amazon.  It’s quite nice, possibly the nicest Pi case that I have in my arsenal.. I may order another one for my other Pi 4.   I will have one Pi as a Mosquitto broker which will also have Calibre installed and have an SSD boot drive. This will go into the laundry room cabinet.  The other Pi 4 will also boot from SSD but a much smaller SSD and will contain the Home Assistant software.  
Libbie added more noodles and sauce to the  leftover Pad Thai from yesterday and made rice to go along with it as an extender.  We had this with Cabernet then watched FRiday night live with Josh and Jen from Universal this time instead of Disneyworld.


March 20, 2021 Saturday Pfizer #2


I printed our consent forms after breakfast and then we filled them out.  I printed them out 2 sided which was our problem last time.  They only want one piece of paper from each person.   We left at 9:45 expecting to get on a line like last time.  Instead we went straight through except we had to drive all around the grass field.  They obviously are set up for a much larger surge.  We arrived at a tent where a nice lady took our paperwork and then gave each of us our vaccine.   It was painless and we didn’t even get a band aid.  After having to wait for 15 minutes we were back home at 11:06 from our 10:30 appointment.  
The new 1 Tb SSD drive by Sandisk arrived from Amazon this afternoon.  I immediately took Manon3 apart and installed the drive.  I then installed Win 10 from the USB drive I prepared yesterday.  The license key I purchased this week did not work.  Microsoft says it’s not legitimate.  I thought it was too low a price at $35.  Instead I used a pirate activation service and activated my license.  This is a lesson learned.
The install went well and so did the decrapify script with GUI I found via a YouTube video.  I removed lots of MS crap and installed some must have software.  I then started installing my own stuff beginning with Beyond Compare followed by Fastone Viewer and Fastone Capture.  I still have more to install.  It was great that the decrapify script installed Chrome and Firefox. 
The real reason for all of this is to run TurboTax which requires Win 10 plus it was time to get onboard the Win 10 train. 
Libbie made Salmon on the grill, baked potato and Lima Beans for dinner. We had this with Cabernet.  After dinner I went back to reading the book “1969”.  It has way too much detail.  Who needs to read about every knife stab made by the Manson serial killers or every single pitch of each inning in a baseball game?


March 21, 2021 Sunday PC install


I continued adding programs to the new Win10 on Manon.  I got Python running using Pyscripter and proceeded to process the Selby files looking for missing jpg and dng on all the specimen types.  The Broms are done but the Orchids and Gesneriads had missing jpgs or DNGs.  
At 4 PM we were entertained by the meatloaf challenge between Cory and Donna.  I have a need to make meatloaf after watching this.   Dinner tonight was Libbie’s pizza with onions and peppers and with leaves of basil from the plants in the grow box.
I felt pretty good today after the vaccine yesterday but Libbie was lackadaisical all day that she was blaming on the vaccine. 


March 22, 2021 Monday Selby, taxes


This morning I did my normal Selby trip to work at finding lost images.  The time went pretty quickly.  I thought I only had a small number of gesneriads to do but it turns out each of those had the wrong barcode so it was a slow process individually renaming files to match the barcode and then create the normal jpg and dng files.   After Selby I stopped in the Walmart neighborhood market on Bee Ridge and picked up some of the ingredients for Meatloaf Muffins. 
At  home I continued with Turbotax adding the TdAmeritrade transactions and the Credit Union 1099.  I also added the home sale data but when I got to the end the program said I don’t have to report the sale. This is hard to believe. 
 At 5:30 I started making the meatloaf dinner. I was inspired by the Meatloaf challenge yesterday between Cory and Donna.  Libbie chopped onions and garlic while I sauteed the onions,   mixed the ingredients and then filled the muffin tins. They get baked at 350 for 25 minutes.  She then made our side which was potato and onion hash browns.  The meal was delicious.  We had  Meatloaf muffins each and a serving of hash browns along with a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I did some reading then went up to bed and continued reading.  All the mail apps stopped working on my table,  then Kindle stopped.  I did some reading and found out that a Chrome update was the culprit.  I disabled Chrome and sure enough, the apps started working again.  


March 23, 2021 Tuesday Window, cleaning, gazebo


I started the morning by working on the laundry room window.  I took down the blinds, unscrewed the window frame and started cutting the sheetrock.  Unfortunately I discovered that 
The cuts I made were ½ inch too far into the room.  This is a dilemma since I will now have a gap that I have to make up.  When our cleaning people, Cleber and Lynn,  came here for our 2 week cleaning I stopped working on the window.  I never went back to it partly because I wasn’t sure how I should proceed with the ½ inch gap.  I may just get a ½ inch strip of plywood or some trim wood and fill the gap.  I did more work on the taxes.  It looks like the house sale will not  have to be reported which to me is unbelievable.  I can’t believe I just walk away with $600,000 in my pocket.   On the bad side I have to pay almost $4,000 in taxes and the total is still increasing because Libbie’s income is not included in the total yet.  She has CU interest income and stock dividends. 
We went over to the gazebo tonight which was a nice outing.  I brought the little container filled with wine as well as the mosquito stuff. 
When we came back from the gazebo Libbie made more hash browns while I put the muffins in the microwave for a reheat.  I then ran upstairs and bought Opera tickets for April 13.  There weren’t too many tickets available but I picked up 2 in the front row mezzanine.  
Dinner was meatloaf muffins, hash browns and more Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Ted and Mollie with guests Boy Named Tom.  It was another great show as usual.


March 24, 2021 Wednesday Windows


This morning I taped up the outside of the laundry room window.  I then used the sawzall and cut the aluminum frame on each side where the two panes meet.  This allowed me to remove the lower plane in one piece.  The upper pane had to be broken in order to be removed.  This was a mess because even though the glass was taped on both sides, little shards still managed to spray outwards and also drop on the floor.  I vacuumed the stuff on the laundry room floor and picked up the bigger pieces from the lawn. IT was a breeze to run the planar around the new window in order to trim it down.  That is one of my best tools except that when planing the window flange there are little pieces of plastic everywhere.   This stuff doesn’t clean up very well and lasts forever, it doesn’t decompose.  I fit the window in the opening and temporarily secured it with a single screw.  It does not have the bucks surrounding it.  I’ll cut the bucks and fit them tomorrow.  The biggest issue with them is drilling into the solid concrete blocks.   I was way beyond exhausted after this job.  Libbie nicely cleaned up the sheetrock powder from the floor because I was too tired to move.  Libbie did a Farmers Market trip today on her way back from the Dentist.  She picked up corn on the cob which we had for dinner.  It was the best corn of the year.  Dinner was grilled Pork Chops with corn on the cob and several glasses of Cabernet. 


March 25, 2021 Thursday 49 years


I took today off and spent the morning in my office working on the digital art collection. I have to regenerate all the albums that were built in the old version of Jalbum.  I have a few of them completed but there is more to do. This should have been done a while back anyway.
My Clarinet practice was pretty good today. I’m trying for dynamics and for correct playing. I have almost mastered “You’ll Never Walk alone” from Carousel as well as “Hey Jude” by the Beatles.  
We got dressed up for dinner and left in Joe and Angela’s car for dinner.  They came over earlier in the day with a card and bottle of Champagne.  We arrived a little early for our 6 PM reservation. We had a bottle of Shannon Ridge Cabernet and various appetizers.  I ordered Carrot Taratore but then Ersen sent over several other very nice appetizers.  For dinner I had the Halibut in a cream sauce with capers and olives.  Libbie had the Lamb shish kabob.   
What a nice evening.  We learned that Ersen has to move out of his house by May 1.  The owner wants to sell it.  This is too bad since they are very good neighbors.


March 26, 2021 Friday Window


I did a trip to Walmart for the normal groceries and to get a 1632 battery for Libbie’s key FOB.  I replaced the battery in her key FOB and in the spare for her car. Once I got back I set up the saw next to the house and began the job of building bucks for the laundry room window.  I needed to pick up a small piece of plywood to use a shim.  I was shocked at lumber prices.  This small piece of wood was $26.  2x4s are selling for $7 and sheets of plywood are $50.  Wow!   I cut my strip of plywood and put it under one of the bucks.  I then put the window into the opening and cleaned up the sawdust and sheetrock powder outside and inside.   This really ran me down.  I skipped Clarinet practice for today.  I  just didn’t feel like it.  
Dinner tonight was tuna steak with broccoli.  This was really good.  It was accompanied by some of the leftovers from Bodrun such as the Carrot Tarratore and the salad with cucumbers.  In place of Pita bread we used slices of flour Tortilla.  Accompanying the meal was Cabernet.  After dinner we went outside and watched the sunset.  Ersen and Olivia came out briefly but went back into the screen porch because of the mosquitoes.  We didn’t do much more this evening except watch the normal Resort TV1 at Animal Kingdom then went upstairs to read and to hose off the mosquito spray.


March 27, 2021 Saturday Flower Garden, grow boxes


After breakfast today we went to the Farm and Garden.  I bought beefsteak tomatoes and kitchen herbs.  Libbie got an orchid as well as salvia and vinca.  For the front yard I picked up a few more red Pentas.  I’m also going to try some blue daze evolvulus again.  So far I have not been successful with this stuff although I’ve seen it growing everywhere.  
When we got back I did a little Clarinet practice then had my 2 PM lesson.  It went well.  I played a few duets with Justin which were fun.  I think I can record the duet part and play along with myself once I master the music. 
After the lesson I went to Lowes and picked up more potting and topsoil for a couple more grow boxes.  I planted the tomatoes and herbs in the 2 new boxes.  I still need to put the flowers into the ground in front.  I’ll probably do this tomorrow.
Libbie made steak with mushrooms and brandy flaming in the pan.  This is my favorite steak.  We had the French Champagne from Joe and Angela plus a baked potato with sour cream.  After dinner we took our champagne outside and watched the sunset as we finished the bottle.  I took a picture of our champagne and steak plus sunset and emailed it to Joe and Angela.


March 28, 2021 Sunday Digital Art


I did a little work on the sprinklers because they were barely working.  I had to clear the filter on 3 of the sprinklers.  It looks like I may need to look into a filter for the well.  
I spent a considerable amount of time working on my digital art, nostalgia and history collection.  I’m building a separate page of links served by Synology to many photo albums built with Jalbum. Using the bookmark program from the past 25 years I’m able to maintain the page of links using separate sections for each type of album - art, history, nostalgia, etc.  It’s a lot of work but I’m looking forward to the results.
Libbie made her pizza for dinner which had fresh basil from the grow box and fresh mushrooms.  Yum.  We had this with Cabernet.


March 29, 2021 Monday Selby done


I went into Selby this morning with my to-do list of Orchids and Gesneriads that needed processing. By around 10:30 I had finished up the list of the missing.  I left there early at around 11 and stopped at Walmart for groceries.  I then had a stop at Harbor Freight for some oscillating saw blades.  When I got home I saw Libbie’s car over at the pool.  She was having her exercise class.  
I continued working on the laundry room window. I used a combination of various shims to secure the window and drilled holes through it all for the Tapcon screws.  I put 4 screws on each side but did not secure the window top.  I need to either cut a piece of plywood or buy a piece of ½ inch plywood to use as a shim. 
I was very tired today since my knee was bothering me last night and I didn’t get much sleep.
I only practiced about 15 minutes of Clarinet today.  
Dinner was the leftover deviled steak which was yummy.  We had baked potato with sour cream and broccoli as sides along with one glass of Cabernet.  


March 30, 2021 Tuesday Window screws


I made a trip to Lowes and picked up a piece of ½ inch plywood.   I cut a 3 inch wide shim from one side and wedged it into the top of the window for a nice tight fit.  After putting all the tapcon screws in on the top and two sides I trimmed the side shims with the oscillating saw.  I’m glad that I stopped in Harbor Freight on my way home from Selby yesterday. I picked up a couple of oscillating saw blades on that trip with no particular purpose.  I just knew I needed to keep a few blades on hand in case something like this popped up.  After trimming the shims I caulked the outside of the window then used the spray foam and filled the gaps along the window.  The foam expanded as it dried and bubbled out.  Tomorrow I’ll use the workshop filet knife and trim the foam before putting the PVC trim pieces on the inside. 
I did more work on the digital art page on Life Bits.  I did this while Libbie was having a sister zoom conference at 5 PM.  This also meant we missed Gazebo night with the neighbors. 
Dinner tonight was Costco Lobster ravioli which we had with a bottle of Kirkland Zinfadel.  After dinner we watched Ted and Molly.  Guests tonight were a Father and 2 sons.  The Father played the Concertina while one boy played tuba and a younger one did Clarinet and Sax.  Wow, what talented teenagers.


March 31, 2021 Wednesday trim, groceries


We had a morning  trip to the farmers market. Sadly it ends at the end of this month.  We got our cheese, produce and guac.  When we got home we unloaded the produce, took inventory and then I went out to Walmart for the normal groceries plus an Easter Ham. I also picked up a couple of Russel Stover chocolate rabbits for Easter this Sunday.  It’s a tradition with me for Libbie.
I took a 1x4 out into the side yard and ripped it down to use as trim wood in the laundry room window.  For the other windows I previously used PVC boards so I didn’t have to paint them.  The only thing I had hanging around the garage was a primed pine 1x4 so I used it.  I need to trim the foam where it leaked out when I filled the cavities before I install the trim.  This will also involve the nail gun so I ended up deferring this job until tomorrow.  Amazon delivered my wood muller today.  I also got a USB power meter to measure the current drawn by an SSD.  It was surprisingly low at 0.17 amps.  I picked a few mint leaves from the grow box and cut some limes, put it all in a glass and used the muller to mash the mint and lime together.  I added some sugar and rum the topped it with club water.  It tasted a little weak and had too much mint.
Since we had guac from the Farmers Market I made chicken quesadillas in the air fryer which we topped with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.  We had Cabernet with dinner then I poured another glass of Cabernet and brought it outside for the sunset.  This time I tried using the fogger I picked up in  Walmart before we sat down.  This seemed to keep the mosquitos away.  I think we perfected this.  The chairs have a tarp covering them because of the birds   The fogger gets the area ready for sitting by zapping the mosquitos in the area..  


April 1, 2021 Thursday Finish Window


My knee is killing me today.  I took the filet knife and trimmed all the excess foam. I did a final caulk of the window and then had to trim the trim a little bit.  This involved getting the miter saw out for the trim boards.  I next got the nail gun out and nailed the trim to the sides.  A final caulking finished the job.  It looks pretty good. Next step is to pick up some blinds in Lowes.  
I finished the little history album I was making about the history of canned foods.  It is accessible on the new page on life bits which will be an index to digital art collections and esoterica. 
Dinner tonight was Salmon on the grill with lettuce, tomato, mozzarella and balsamic.  This was perfect.  The stock portfolios are doing incredibly well.  Besides a bucketful of dividends today the account value on  Fidelity which has our house money is up over $20,000.  That’s a lot for only 4 months and probably won’t be repeated.  I also had a preferred called in the Roth account which I reinvested in mostly CEFs. 
After dinner we went into the backyard and watched the sunset.  The yard fogger I bought has really worked well.  We have yet to be bothered by a mosquito in the times I used it.  It was too clear for a spectacular sunset but it was enjoyable to watch anyway. 


April 2, 2021 Friday Window blinds, pain


I took a trip to Lowes for a garbage can and window blinds.  I had the blinds custom cut to 24 ¼ inch wide for the laundry room window.  IT costs $10 more to buy the levolor blinds which are the only ones they will cut to size.  I didn’t like the flimsy garbage cans they had for $35.  I’ll look at the ones in Walmart next or possibly take a trip up to Home Depot or Ace HArdware.
After I installed the new blinds in the laundry room I washed the window with Windex.  My knee started hurting really bad so I made it  upstairs and started working on the Synology NAS.  I found that I could break the Hybrid array by removing a drive from the Volume by clicking on it, physically remove the device by rebooting, then power down and reinstall the drive.  The drive is now recognized as a new drive.  I used the Synology NAS to format it and then started moving data over from the Raid drive which Synology is now complaining that it is compromised due to the other half of the Raid missing.  Moving the Zcat directory took several hours.  I next started moving the ImageDb directory.  This will take over one day according to Synology.  I’ll check on it tomorrow.  My knee was in extreme pain.  I could hardly walk.  Just before lunch I took an Ibuprofen.  The pain eased remarkably, restoring my walk to almost normal.
Dinner tonight was some leftover meatloaf muffins.  Libbie made some yummy hash browns to go along with the muffins. We had Cabernet with this and enjoyed the meal while watching Josh and Jenna at the MK.  This inspired me to get some park tickets, park reservations and also to fill out a request to rent a DVC property at the Beach Club from David's DVC Rentals.  If I get it I will have saved several thousand dollars over the Disney list price.  I’ll just have to see what they come up with.  4 nights at a DVC rental is $1200.  Disney wants a minimum of $600 per night at the Florida Resident rate. 


April 3, 2021 Saturday Clarinet, Synology


I did some practice with the Clarinet today but it wasn’t enough.  I didn’t do too good during my lesson.  I thought I had mastered the exercises on page 122 but I did not and had much trouble getting through them. I was disappointed and have vowed to do better.  
We went to Walmart this morning and picked up a garbage can and some bathroom products such as toothpaste and shampoo.  I looked for a Sony AM/FM radio I saw on the website but they were out of it.  This is to listen to a signal injected into the sprinkler line.  I saw a video showing a lawn mower spark injecting noise into a sprinkler line so I’m hoping I can do something similar. 
I messed with the Synology copying files over to Volume 2 from Volume 1.  Once Volume 1 is empty I will change the Raid type to Basic.  Once done I should have a NAS with 12 Tb data but without a failover.  The intention is to have the two Synology boxes back each other up.  
Next I will upgrade DSM and then synch the two Synologies with each other.  Dinner tonight was our Easter baked ham along with broccoli and sweet potato.  We had Cabernet with dinner then went outside to watch the sunset. 
After dinner we watched a tour of new construction around Disney World.


April 4, 2021 Sunday Synology continued


I continued working on moving files on the Synology.  I now have both drives in Traviata configured as a basic Raid of 6 Tb each giving me a total of 12 Tb of storage.  I decided to move the movies folder to the empty 6 Tb drive.  This will offload 1.5 Tb from a full Drive 2 in the box.  I also am in the process of syncing the files with the main Synology named Mefistofeles.  Once all the files are up to date from Mefistofeles I will do the same dance with Mefistofeles which involves separating the Raid into 2 basic drives, clearing one completely, moving everything over to the cleared drive and then clearing the other drive.  It is several days of work.
Today is Easter.  I prepared a little basket with a box of Russel Stover candy and a chocolate bunny.  It is a tradition with me.  
John asked if I could come to Selby on Tuesday instead of Monday because he has a flat tire.  I told him I didn’t think there was any work left.  He agreed and now I’m on standby. 
Libbie made her excellent pizza with fresh mushrooms and freshly picked basil.  After dinner we watched the Pixar movie Ratatouille on Disney Plus.
April 5, 2021 Monday Planting, letter scanning, fertilizer


After running the sprinklers to water  the front yard I went out after an hour or two and planted the 6 Pentas plants and the 4 Evolvolus.  They are going to surround a landscape rock if I ever find one.  Next I used the sprinkler can and went around and fertilized the grow boxes plus the Bougainvillea.  
During the afternoon I started scanning one bundle of the Ernie Stauffacher letters.  This is a significant work effort because the jpgs need to be converted to PDF then placed onto the page on the Stauffacher photo album website. 
My knee is still killing me so we scheduled a trip to Walmart to get an elastic bandage to wrap my knee to see if that would do any good.  It didn’t.  The bandage tends to pull on my skin. 
When we got back I resumed scanning the Ernie letters.  I’m determined to get the first bundle scanned today although it will not all be processed and uploaded.
I didn’t finish them before dinner and did not go back to scanning for the rest of the day.  We had the ham again with sweet potato and Pinot for dinner.  After dinner we watched Hemingway on PBS.  It’s a Ken Burns documentary that is well done using documents and photos from the JFK museum in Boston. He did a great job making text on the page come alive.  This part 1 of 3 and was 2 hours long. 


April 6, 2021 Tuesday scanning


I finished scanning and processing the first bundle of Ernies letters that Libbie had given me.  I also put these on the website.  She then gave me the sequence of letters around the death of Ernie. I put these in their own section of the website.  It looks pretty good and I’m very happy with it.  The synching of files between the two Synologies continued today with less than 250,000 files left the last time I checked. 
We had the house cleaned this morning.  It’s looking better and better.  We almost didn’t want to live here after they left because it would mess the place up.
My knee continues to be very painful.  I don’t know what to do.  I probably should visit a doctorl
Libbie’s car has an engine light so I plugged the bluetooth OBD scanner into the port and synched it up with my tablet.  The error code being reported is P0038 which I googled.  It is the second oxygen sensor, the one after the catalytic converter.  This is the less important sensor.
At 6 PM we went over to the gazebo for a very nice evening.  It was Steve’s birthday so his wife Chris brought a birthday cake.  When we got home we watched Ted and Mollie while having a bowl of soup for dinner preceded by cheese and crackers.


April 7, 2021 knee pain, sprinkler


This morning the two synologys have less than 30,000 files remaining to synch.  This is down from over 1 million 2 days ago.   I had a lot of knee pain today.  I ended up using a cold pack consisting of frozen peas over a towel.  It helped the pain somewhat.  
Outdoors I tried a slow walk around Knightsbridge Circle so that my knee would get some exercise.  It was pleasant and I think it was beneficial.  I added another sprinkler in the front where Libbie had planted past the end of the sprinkler line.   When I turned the water on the front yard there was no water coming out.  I suspect the water solenoid is bad or stuck shut.
I ended up hand watering the new plants in the front yard.   I’ll work on the solenoid tomorrow. 
Lowes is having a mulch sale starting tomorrow - 5 for $10.  I’ll be there.  
Dinner tonight was Pitty Pan without the egg.  This consists of cubes of ham, potato and onion and was delicious.  Libbie had added a  dash of black pepper and red pepper flakes.  It added a little heat to the mixture. We were tempted but did not have wine with the meal or before or after.  We watched episode 2 of Hemingway.  This covered the years 1929-1944.  YouTube had a problem in that about 25 minutes of the show was not recorded.  I don’t know what happened. 


April 8, 2021 sprinklers, mulch


I went out t 7:30 this morning to pick up some mulch on the Lowes sale.  I got 15 bags at 5 for $10.  I got help loading the car but unloaded all 15 bags in the driveway when I got home.  
I fooled around with the solenoid next to the well but determined that this was not the issue. I can't get any water into the front yard.  I  uncapped one of the risers along the West wall of the house and turned the water on.  I had a good flow up until that point.  Next I decided to dig up the only known solenoid in the original irrigation.  This is in the center of the front yard.  It was a struggle with my bad knee but I managed to get the solenoid dug up all around.  I was quite surprised by the number of pipes criss crossing around the solenoid.  A larger pipe appears to be the main water line.  The solenoid appears to work but there is no water at the input pipe.  I’m thinking there may be a pipe broken underground.  I ended up hand watering the plants that were new.  I only put down one bag of the mulch I bought this morning.  I went into the house with extreme knee pain and lay down for a while. 
Libbie made 15 bean soup today with the leftover ham bone from this past weekend.   It was delicious.  Dinner was the 15 bean soup with freshly made corn bread.  After dinner we watched the conclusion of the Hemingway series on PBS.  It was previously recorded Wednesday night. 


April 9, 2021 sprinkler, bad knee


I went to Lowes early this morning and picked up 3 pipes, ¾ inch diameter.  I dug a trench from the sprinkler at the corner of the sidewalk near the front door to the bottle brush for the first of the pipes.  It was a struggle to get on my hands and knees and dig out the sprinkler with the trowel.  I then unscrewed the sprinkler and replaced it with a PVC tee.  A 10 foot piece of PVC then is glued into this tee and the old sprinkler is then reinstalled onto the top of the tee.
This concluded my day outside.  My knee was in bad shape after this activity.  I made it to the family room and sat down with ice on my knee and the footrest extended.  This was my position for the rest of the afternoon.  Later I did go upstairs to practice Clarinet and scanned a few more of the Ernie letters.  The next batch started with 4 page letters.  This takes more time and is slow going. 
Libbie reheated the 15 bean soup and the corn bread for dinner.  This is even better the second day and was very yummy.  We had this informally while watching Josh at the Kinkade store in Disney Springs.  My biggest fear is that my knee got so stressed today instead of resting that I will have trouble sleeping.


April 10, 2021 Saturday Pain, water pipe


I went out and dug the rest of the trench along the West side of the house.  My knee was killing me.  Libbie came out and helped by digging under a tree root in two places.  I put the pipe in the trench and glued all the fittings completing the jumper from the working line to the non working line.  After letting the glue set up for 30 minutes I turned the water on to test it.  The front was nicely getting watered. I had to adjust the aim of the one sprinkler next to the front porch that I had removed.  I do have one sprinkler on the edge of the driveway that needs cleaning since it appears to be clogged and spitting.
After my 2 PM Clarinet lesson I went outside again and covered up the ditch.  I then covered the sand with mulch so that it doesn’t splash onto the house when it rains.  My knee was totally destroyed after this activity.  I iced it down and also took another Ibuprofen
At about 5 PM the rain came.  It was blowing sideways and seemed violent.  My weather station recorded a constant wind of 20 and peak gusts of 25.  This is not as high as the wind seemed when it was mixed with the rain.
Libbie said there is not much soup left from the 15 bean ham soup so we baked a Costco lasagna that was in the freezer from several weeks ago.  We had this with one glass of Cabernet that was leftover in a wine bottle that we did not know we had.  After dinner I lay on the sofa and read more from Last Train to Key West.  I’m really really liking this book.


April 11, 2021 Pain, rain


It rained all day which was good. I needed a day off of my hurt knee.  I finished reading the Last Train to Key West and started a new book,  The Last Resort.   I also did a little scanning today and continued to move files off the Synology Raid drive so I could repurpose it as a second drive in the box.  By the end of the day all the files had been sucessfully moved.  Now I have to get my lifebits up and running again.
Libbie made her delicious pizza with fresh basil and mushrooms.  It came out really good.  We watched a Youtube video of a virtual performance of the Venice Symphony strings. It was quite good.  I need to call them about getting a season subscription.


April 12. 2021 More pain, slides, Synology


I worked on the Synology this morning.  I needed to reinstall Dokuwiki and the webserver.  With a little bit of fussing I was able to get it serving pages at port 2206 which is where the Lifebits is normally served from.   Once this was done I got the synch to the second synology running.  Last step was to reinstall subsonic and get it serving files to the Sonos.  
My knee was in incredible pain.   At one point I went to Walgreens and picked up a knee compression sock.  The online price was 6.39 but Walgreen charged 12.79 in the store.  This is a ripoff but I wanted this thing.  It really felt good at first but after an hour or so the pain came back big time.  I was wearing it while scanning the Ernie letters.  Interestingly when I came to April 7 there was a filmstrip with images of a bombing run of his taken from 4,000 feet.  I hooked up the slide scanner on the Epson and scanned the slides for what it was worth.  They weren’t very interesting. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover Costco Lasagna.  I spent the evening with my knee up on the recliner footrest. 
 
April 13, 2021 Tuesday Dr, xray, Opera


This was an eventful day.  I texted John about not coming in today and then called Intercoastal Medical about an appointment.  They got me in at 10:15 with Dr Bidle.  He looked at my knee and prescribed some NSID pain killer which he said was 6,000 times the potency of Ibuprofen.
Next I drove up Beneva to the Radiology office where I checked in and was told the wait was 45 minutes.  I had no choice so I waited it out.  The girls in the office were very pretty.  One of them was stunning.  My Radiologist was Taylor who shared a birthday with me but her birth year was 1991. Later Dr Bidle called and left a message that he looked at the Xray and saw a little mild arthritis and some fusion of the bones.  Shortly after I received another call, this time from the Ortho office.  They gave me an appointment for tomorrow morning at 9:45 PM.  Libbie and I went to Walmart to pick up my prescription but unfortunately it was for Lisinopril and not the pain killer for my hurting knee.  On the way home we picked up lunch at Chick Fil A.  I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing  up the Ernie letter scanning.  I am now up to May.  He died in October which probably means about 2 more packets of letters. 
We left at 5:45 for our 7:30 Opera. I had to park in the parking garage which was fine.  Downtown Sarasota was surprisingly crowded with tables all over the sidewalk and people dining.  We sat in the Opera courtyard before the performance and had a glass of Cabernet with a bag of chex mix each.   The Opera was fantastic.  It has been too long!  One year ago was our last live performance when we went to an apprentice concert.  We took the elevator up to our Mezzanine seats which were the front row of the mezzanine. I had a great view of the Orchestra.  The Rossini singing was terrific.  I want to purchase the stream of the performance when it becomes available next week. Rossini loaded the Opera with duets, trios, quartets and even a septet for the final aria.  What fun!


April 14, 2021 Wednesday Cortisone, relief


It was another  painful night and morning.  I went to the Ortho office for a 10 PM appointment on Beneva.  They are next to Farm and Garden nursery.   The Dr seems to be a good guy.  He explained everything about the knee.  I saw my Xray.  It shows mild arthritis and bone effusion which is a swelling.  The Meniscus around the bone is swollen and possibly torn.  He gave me a Cortisone steroid shot in the knee which should reduce swelling.  He said to  monitor it a week then if it’s still a problem they will do an MRI then have to do surgery to remove torn tissue.  He thought that’s what would probably happen.  I’m hoping for the no surgery result.  Walmart texted that my prescription was ready so Libbie and I went there and Libbie went into the store to pick up my Nsaid pain reliever.   This stuff is called Meloxicam and is 6000 times the strength of OTC Ibuprofen.  The cost was $0. 
I kept off my feet the rest of the afternoon and did some more scanning of Ernies letters.  
I then made chicken parm in the air fryer.  Libbie cut up a Butternut squash which was delicious.
After dinner we watched last night’s presentation of Mollie and Ted because of the opera last night we couldn’t watch it live.  It was another enjoyable show.


April 15, 2021 Thursday resting, scanning


I went outside this morning and set my little stool in front of each sprinkler filter and cleaned out the filters on each of the 2 dripper lines and on two of the sprinklers.  I decided I really need a sand filter in the water line so I ordered one from Amazon.  It was delivered later today. That is amazing.   The filter cleaning went well, I did this while Libbie was trimming bushes and spreading mulch.  Thank goodness she tackled that pile of mulch bags I bought.  With my bad knee I need to stay off the knee as much as possible.  The Meloxicam Ibuprofen wore off this afternoon and the knee was still fine with just a touch of pain.  I’ll keep the pills on the side as an option in case I need them.  I spent the afternoon in my office scanning the Ernie letters.  I finished scanning all his letters but I still have a packet of condolences to deal with.  I’ll finish those tomorrow and then begin the jpg to pdf process and get it all posted over the weekend.  I need to get back to the Glembocki photos next and finish Mom’s photos. It has been 13 years since she passed away.  I got an SSL renewal notice for glembocki.info and ended up taking a 5 year deal.  The next time there is a hosting renewal deal I’ll strike and hopefully get as much as 5 years. 
John sent me a list of the things that need to be done on the cleanup of the digitization.  I haven’t looked it over yet but I’ll probably deal with it over the weekend and then go into Selby on Tuesday. 
Libbie re-tied the strings on the last packet of letters that I digitized.  I’ll gather all the packets in a pile on the dining room table and get a photo for the Ernie website.
Libbie made some spaghetti for dinner while I worked on the ribs.  I pulled the membranes and put on a rub then refrigerated the 2 half racks.   Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  After dinner we watched the Ted and Molly performance again from Tuesday.  This is a good one because it was a nice compilation video of the past year.


April 16, 2021 Friday filter, pain


I went out early for a few PVC fittings for the filter.  The filter has one inch brass male pipe threads.  I got a one inch screw on PVC fitting and then a ¾ inch adapter to get down to ¾ inch glue pipe fittings.  I mounted the filter housing on the wall and hooked the supply water to one side of it.  My knee went downhill very fast doing this and by the end of the afternoon I was  in extreme pain.  I ended up taking one of the Meloxicam tablets.  It didn’t get too much better.   While doing the filter I was also cooking ribs.  When I started the smoker I had troubles with the box turning off.  Eventually it settled down and stayed on.  It didn’t seem to affect the quality of the ribs. They were delicious.  I was completely wiped and actually fell asleep while Resort TV1 was on.  Dinner was the smoked ribs with  butternut squash and baked beans.  We had Cabernet with the meal.  After dinner I did not help Libbie in the kitchen.  I had to sit down while she did all the work.  We watched Resort TV1 but I soon fell sound asleep during this I was sore, injured and tired.  
At times during the day I researched Generac generators.  Shipping on these is delayed until August at the earliest.  I checked with Lowes, Home Depot and Northern Tool.  The only one I can order online is Northern.  The other two I have to go into the store. 


April 17, 2021 Saturday scanning


My knee was in pain all day.  I did not go outside to finish up the water filter.  It still needs the fittings between the filter output and the solenoid manifold. 
Because I suspended physical activities outdoors I concentrated inside and finished scanning the Ernie Sympathy letters.  Now I need to put all this on the website.  I canceled my Clarinet lesson today because of my knee.  I had not practiced much and was not in the mood to sit still for a lesson.
My task now remains to put together the scanned Ernie materials on the website. 
For dinner Libbie grilled the smoked ribs which we had with baked beans, butternut squash and Cabernet.  


April 18, 2021 Sunday Finished letters


I went outside this morning and finished up the fittings on the filter.  I wanted to get this job completed before we have 2 days of rain beginning this evening.  It was a little difficult getting down with my bad knee but I got the job done and then used it to water the front yard flowers. 
I felt good that this job is finally done. 
Next I went into the office and finished up the Ernie letters and got everything posted to the glembocki website.
My knee was killing me on and off all afternoon.  I spent a lot of time horizontal just reading.  At 4 PM we watched cooking with Donna.  She was doing instant pot recipes.  She did not sell us on an  instant pot .  When questioned what device to get if only getting one she admitted the air fryer was more useful than the instant pot.   Everything she tried using the recipe times was undercooked.  I liked the idea of fast cooking but did not see any big advantage to the device.  
Libbie made her yummy pizza with fresh basil   We had the pizza with Cabernet while watching Donna.  Her cooking show lasted 4 hours.


April 19, 2021 Monday rain


We were supposed to get up to 4 inches of rain but ended up with 0.1 inches.  We did a Walmart trip but this really wiped out my knee with significant pain.  I need to get this fixed. 
I picked up the Clarinet today after a few days break.  I played surprisingly well.  Thank goodness.  The rest of the day was spent moping around.  Dinner tonight was tuna noodle casserole which was pretty good because it’s been a while since we had it last.
I researched generators today.  I really like the 10 kw Briggs because it’s a compact package.
I measured my pad space and think it will fit. 


April 20, 2021 Tuesday Selby


I went to Selby this morning and continued the image file cleanup.  The sky opened up around 9:30 and the rain was fierce.  In front of the side door there was a waterfall coming off the roof.  Liz had made a run for it from her car and went through the water arriving inside the building with a scream as she got thoroughly drenched.  It was pretty funny,she looked like a drowned rat.  I had a productive morning working through a long list of to-dos.  
When I got home the house was totally cleaned from our house cleaners.  The place really looks good. 
Libbie had a root canal appointment today at 4 PM.  Before that she made a little cloth bag for the bird seed we bought for Joe’s birthday.   She came back from the appointment in time for the 6 PM gazebo gathering.  It was Joe’s birthday so Angela brought a cake from Publix along with Proseco.  Libbie couldn’t have any of the wine but was able to have some birthday cake.  It was Joe’s 58th birthday.  When we came home we expected to watch Ted and Mollie but the show was canceled due to Ted being ill.  For dinner we had something very simple - tomato soup and crackers.  That’s all Libbie could have with her sore mouth.  


April 21, 2021 Wednesday pain, pain, pain


My leg really hurt bad all day today.  We had a short trip to the Farmers Market and to Detweillers for produce and some proteins.  After this I put my leg up to soothe my throbbing knee.  I called the Doctor today but did not hear back.  This is not good.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on the Grill with tomato slices and corn on the cob.  The corn was delicious.


April 22, 2021 Thursday  More rest


I received a call from the Orthopedic office that I will get a call from the MRI center in Hyde Park.  I kept my phone with me all day for this and of course received my share of spam calls.  Once this medical ordeal is over with I’ll switch my phone over to voice mail unless on the contacts list. 
Libbie went to volunteer at Selby this afternoon so I had the day to myself.  I did a lot of reading and then hung two of the floating shelves.  They were originally held onto the brackets with double sided tape  so I went out to Target and picked up some Super Glue and attached the shelves after the brackets were mounted.
For dinner I cooked the lobster cakes in the air fryer.  The round parchment paper really worked well.  It fits the basket and has holes punched in it.  Most importantly it stops the lobster cakes from sticking to the pan.  We had these on toasted buns with tomato slices.


April 23, 2021 Friday Cooking


I didn’t do much today except nurse my misery.  I had my Dentist appointment at 1 and it doesn’t look good.  There is a cavity under a crown which means removing the crown.  It’s $1,000.  In addition, there is so much plaque buildup I need 2 scaling treatments to scrape my teeth. Uggh.  At 2 PM we watched a Selby presentation about the Butterfly house.  I then went upstairs but was in so much pain I ended up taking a Meloxicam which I thought I had given up.  IT gave me some relief, surprisingly.  Libbie cooked some chicken thighs in the air fryer which came out very delicious.  She salted and peppered them then did 6 minutes on one side and 4 on the other.  This was quite good.  At 6 PM we tuned into the FIT zoom from Barcelona for a Tapas meal.  It was the best zoom ever.  I’m definitely going to cook some of these dishes, especially the salad. 


April 24, 2021 Saturday Resting


I spent the morning resting my knee as usual but also had a chance to talk with Ellie about her Mother’s (Arlene’s) 70th birthday.  She doesn’t need any videos, only snapshots.  I’ll spend some time gathering what pics I have that are not on the Glembocki website.  At 2 PM I had a pretty good Clarinet lesson with Justin.  We did a little more on the ⅛ notes following a dotted quarter note.  We also covered the circle of fifths.  I never understood how this worked but I learned a lot.  Advancing clockwise from C each position is 4 notes away from the previous.  Each key signature picks up a sharp, therefore with C at the top, next position is G with one sharp, an “F#”.  Going counterclock, one position back if F with a B flat. 
Libbie went to Publix and picked up milk for me as well as Shrimp Peelers for dinner.  Dinner was shrimp peelers with broccoli.  After dinner we watched a little of Il Bruschero that I captured from Sarasota Opera.  Quality is fantastic.
I did a lot of research today on generators and transfer switches.  It’s hard to find a transfer switch in stock just like all the backup generators which are not available.  They are gone, probably because of the Texas blackout this past winter.  All places I checked online are out of stock.  I started researching a lockout device for the main panel instead.  This device allows only one of two breakers to be on - either the main power or the backup power breaker.  I’m not thrilled having to toggle breakers in addition to starting the generator, plugging in  cord and flipping a lockout from main to aux.


April 25, 2021 Sunday scanning        


Today I disassembled my boyhood photo album which held pictures from 1956 to 1959.  The pics were glued in so removing them was less than easy but I managed.somehow to get them separated and scanned.  After scanning them all I started the Jalbum app and dropped them all into the program.  I sorted a few into groups and labeled them but did not finish the job. I’ll pick this up tomorrow.  It was 9 PM when I stopped doing this.  
Libbie made her homemade pizza from scratch today.   While she was making the Pizza we tuned into Resort TV1.  Josh and Jenna were in line for the reopening of the People Mover.  By the time the night was over and the stream ended they had ridden it 9 times.  They probably did a 10th after the stream.  I went upstairs to continue working on labeling the pics in Jalbum.


April 26, 2021 Monday More pain


I went into Selby this morning even though my knee was killing me.  Around 11 AM I wish I could stretch my leg out for a little.  When I got home I called the Ortho office about the MRI. I was supposed to get a call but never did.   Aetna authorized the procedure. The Ortho office transferred me directly to MRI   I lay down for a while then went outside to address the water filter.   I flushed the filter then removed the screen from the drippers on the Geraniums.   The sprinklers sort of work for now.  A few of them may need further cleaning.
I worked on captioning the pictures in my album for several hours but did not finish.  Some of the dates  were wrong so I need to go back to the photos and get this sorted out.
Libbie grilled a Pork Chop which was delicious.  We had this with Apple Sauce and Baked Beans.  No wine was consumed tonight!  After dinner I went back to reading the Jennifer Doudna book “Code Breaker”.  I have really gotten into it.


April 27, 2021 Tuesday  albums, gazebo


I put the pedal to the metal and worked on finishing up the photo album of my 1956-1959 pictures.  I finally finished captioning and uploaded it all to glembocki.info.  I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out.  Meanwhile I got the lists of the new board members which I distributed to the homeowners.  I’m going to change my title from webmaster to digital media administrator. 
My knee was killing me so as an experiment I took a Meloxicam even though it makes me jumpy.  I can’t tell if it helps or not.   We went over at 8 PM to sit with the neighbors.  It was a nice evening of conversation.  We drank water instead of wine which was good.  We came back at 7:30 and Libbie made spaghetti.  I tried one of my green peppers with the spaghetti.   It was perfect, the first from the garden.  Earlier for lunch we had the first tomato.  After our spaghetti we watched Mollie B.  It was another great show, this time she did an interesting medley of Beatles songs.


April 28, 2021 Wednesday out to Dinner


I slept really well last night mainly because I didn’t sleep at all the previous night. It was a makeup sleep.  I tried to log into Selby but I’m guessing my password expired.  I sent a note to John and Liz.  I finished hanging the floating shelves and vacuumed them.  I’ll wipe them down next with a damp cloth before moving onto them. 
We went out to dinner at 6:30 PM to Evies which is called the Point.  We took the elevator to the second floor because of my knee.  The third floor is the bar.  The view was spectacular.  We got a table outside right away.  We started with a glass of Yuengling and ordered a Crab Dip appetizer.  Our main entree was fish and chips.  It was way too much food.  We boxed up 2 fish sticks and all the fries.  The sunset was beautiful over the water.  It was a very nice evening.


April 29, 2021 Thursday Meeting, transfer switch


I really slept well last night and didn’t wake until 7:30 AM.  This was a record for me.  My knee has been horrible the last few days.   I’m locked out of Selby remote so I have not been able to get a directory listing of the Broms. 
My knee has been bothering me all day but that didn’t stop me from going to Walmart for the regular groceries.  I went to a Blvd meeting at 4 at the Country Club which turned out to be a security meeting instead.  It was the wrong meeting.  It was educational since I learned a lot about the Envera gate.
The meeting was long and did not get over until 5:30 PM.  Libbie was already home from her afternoon at Selby. She reheated the fish from last night and the French Fries in the air fryer. They came out pretty good.  After dinner I went upstairs and did some maintenance on the membership list.  Just before dinner UPS arrived with my Generac manual transfer switch.  This thing is a beast.  It’s quite heavy and should be interesting hooking up.  Before I do any hookup of the transfer switch I will need to add an aux panel in order to free up a breaker position on the main panel.


April 30, 2021 Friday circuit breakers, tapas


I unboxed the new Generac transfer switch and studied all the pieces.  I then took a picture of the Main breaker box in the garage and the hand written breaker label sheet.  At my computer I was able to enhance the pencil writing before printing.  I used this with a list of essential circuits I made and came out with a list of circuits and breaker sizes.  I need a lot of 15 Amp breakers for the bedroom lighting. I made a trip to Publix for sleeping pills so I stopped at Lowes and got the 50 Amp breaker for the main panel.  While there I got some interesting 15 Amp tandem breakers.  They are 2 separate 15 amp breakers but occupying one slot.  This is how the 8 circuit transfer switch can have up to 16 circuits.   Since the panel comes pre wired I will need to add more 14 gauge wires to the wiring harness.  
The sleeping aid I came up with is a natural plant root called Melatonin.  I have had too many sleepless nights so I got this to try helping my sleep.  I did not want any drugs such as Benadryl which has a hangover effect the next day.
Libbie made the Spanish Tapas potatoes that we saw on Chef Josh's Zoom from Barcekona,  Thank you FIT.  They were delicious.  We had this with hamburgers on the grill and home grown tomatoes.  They were from my grow box.  Dessert was Publix Premium Mint Moosetracks ice cream.  Yummy.


May 1, 2021 Saturday pain, transfer switch


It’s another day of extreme knee pain.  Despite this I managed to get the extension ladder down which was covering the main circuit panel.  I then took the cover off and discovered that the main power lines run down the right side of the box.  This rules out drilling the right side for the wire harness from the transfer switch.  It looks like I will need to shorten 2 shelves in order to make space for the transfer switch.  I left it like this for today.  My knee was killing me.  Tomorrow I will mount the panel and shorten the two shelves to fit the space that’s left.
I had a pretty good Clarinet lesson with Justin   We covered the circle of ⅕ ths and ¼ ths some more as well as some exercises on the difficult page.
Dinner tonight was Salmon with Butternut Squash.  I had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner I went to bed. We had dinner a little later because we delayed it until we saw the Kentucky Derby.  Such a big whoop de doo for a 2 minute race.


May 2. 2021 Sunday Not much


I’m still suffering with my knee.  I have been taking Ibuprofen as needed.  I am pretty much wiped out.  I did manage to punch a 1 ¼ inch hole into the side of the Main panel and fitted it with a PVC connector but I’m going to have to get 2 connectors and somehow glue them back to back so the panels could be next to each other. 
At 4 PM we watched cooking with Donna,  She made a lot of Star Wars treats for May the Fourth be with you.  Libbie made her pizza for dinner and topped it with homegrown basil and homegrown tomatoes.


May 3, 2021 Monday Selby, rest


I went to Selby this morning in quite a bit of pain.  I managed to synch up files with Q and also get a dump of the directories of Broms CR2 and JPG images. I left around 11:30 eager to get home and rest my knee.  On the way home I hobbled into Lowes and bought two male threaded adapters for 1 ¼ inch pipe.  I’ll use these back to back to connect the transfer switch to the main panel.  I think they will work well.  I could not mount the switch on the wall because my knee was killing me.  I went upstairs and lay down with the heating pad. 
Libbie cooked some chicken thighs and then stir fried it with peppers, onions and tomato from the garden.  Served on a Taco with Salsa and red pepper this was delicious.  Wow.


May 4, 2021 Tuesday  Transfer switch, MRI


I was out the door in the dark at 6:15 AM for my 7 AM appointment at Intracoastal on Hyde Park St.  This street is off Tuttle North of Webber.  I was there in plenty of time.  The scan was the most painful 12 minutes of my life. My knee was clamped down and started throbbing away towards the end of the test.  I was so so glad when it was finally over.   I was back home by 8 AM.  
I spent a lot of time resting my knee today.. When our cleaning couple arrived I sat in my office and fell asleep.  I had not slept at all during the night, getting only one hour between 3:30 and 4:30 AM.  
Later in the afternoon I drilled the holes for the Tapcons to support the transfer switch.  The switch mounted well and strong.  I’m happy with this.  Now I need to thread the cable through the 1 ¼ inch coupling tieing the two boxes together.
I went into the hot tub today after dinner mainly for my knee.  It really felt good.  I stayed in the water for 2 cycles of the timer.
Dinner was spaghetti with the chicken, pepper and onion stir fry.  Wow, this is great spaghetti.
After dinner and the hot tub we watched Ted and Mollie live.  Their guest was a Mexican Accordion player who plays Mexican Polkas.  Without vocals they sound a little boring.


May 5, 2021 Wednesday Filter, lunch


I tried running the yard sprinklers but nothing came out.  I got out my meter and disassembled the control box and found that everything was OK.  24 VAC was coming out each relay when activated.  This was a good chance to dress the wires inside the box and make it all neater.  Libbie tried flushing the filter but it did no good so I removed the filter and Libbie brushed it down removing a fine layer of sand covering the screen.  When it was reassembled with the cleaned filter the sprinklers worked normally. 
At 11:30 Libbie drove over to Spanish Point to pick up our box lunch for volunteer appreciation day.  At 4 PM we watched Jennifer address the volunteers on zoom and also give an update on the new construction.  Groundbreaking is June 3.  Around that time the Botany building will be demolished.
Dinner was the leftover sub sandwich lunch.  We only ate half for lunch.  They gave us a tub of potato salad, a tub of fruit, a sub sandwich, bag of chips and a very decadent chocolate on chocolate dessert.  There was an outer coating of chocolate, some kind of chocolate fudge inside along with caramel and sea salt on the outside.  Whoa, was this good.
After dinner I jumped into the Hot Tub.  This felt fantastic on my knee.


May 6, 2021 Thursday MCL tear and sprain


I went at 10:30 for my MRI consultation.  Fortunately I do not have a torn meniscus.  The Medial Collateral Ligament is sprained with a tear.  I was fitted with a brace and start therapy at the end of the month. On the way home I did some grocery shopping in Walmart.  Libbie was already gone so after a brief rest I turned the house power off and ran the 50 amp circuit from a new breaker in the main panel to the sub panel.  I also move 2 15 amp branches over.  These serve the Master bedroom and the baths.  Curiously, they used 14/3 to feed these two branches which means a single neutral for 2 branches.  This apparently is legal if each branch is on a different phase. 
This was all I did.  Today was busy with the delivery notices.  Home Depot called and said our door is here.  They will deliver it on May 17.  The trucking company is going to deliver the generator on May 12.  My work is piling up!!!
We went out to the Point for dinner.  Unfortunately it was too cloudy for a nice sunset.  It was also pretty windy.  We enjoyed a starter kickin crab dip followed by crab stuffed blackened Mahi Mahi.  It was delicious.  


May 7, 2021 Friday Breakers, Hot tub lifter


I started moving the refrigerator breaker into the transfer switch.  Like the bedrooms and bath, the refrigerator has a common neutral with the counter with the breadmaker.  I tried tracing the neutral but after time with our neighbors my knee was too tired to stand this long so I buttoned everything up again.  It's a good thing because I need a pair of 20 amp dual breakers in the transfer box.  I’ll pick those up in Lowes tomorrow.  They are needed before I can transfer the circuits over. 
At noon Libbie and I took a ride to Legacy Hot Tubs. I looked at the lifters and chose the one with gas compression cylinders.  It allows the cover to pop right up when you partially lift it. Because of my bad knee this is sorely needed since the cover is too unwieldy for me to control with only one good leg on the ground.  On the way back we drove down Main Street and found parking on Palm.  I didn’t pay because I read that Sarasota is not enforcing parking meters.  Paying for parking is voluntary until June.  We got a table at Red Classico on the corner of Main and Palm.  It has been a year since we have been here.  We had our traditional Yuenglings to begin.  I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich which was fantastic.  It had lettuce, tomato, bacon and some kind of green sauce.  Really good.  Since it was late, almost 3 PM, I wasn’t in the mood for much dinner after the huge lunch.  We had a bowl of Campbell's Chicken Corn Chowder for dinner.   I watched Josh ride the Velocicoaster at Universal.  He claims it was the most intense and best coaster he has ever been on.  I turned that off and jumped into the Hot Tub.  It is so good on my knee.


May 8, 2021 Saturday breakers


In the morning I had a trip to Costco for coffee and wine.  The store was happily empty at the opening.  On the way home I picked up 2 more circuit breakers in Lowes.  These were 20 Amp dual breakers.  I will be transferring more branches than I first estimated because of the way the panel is wired with two branches sharing a single neutral.  I practiced before my lesson then had a lesson with Justin that finished the book.  He said I could pick music I like and we could try learning it.  I like this idea. I’m thinking of Gabriel's Oboe, Wonderful world or the Barcarolle. 
Once the lesson was over I went into the  garage and started working on the refrigerator branch which shares a common with the breadmaker counter.  I traced these then moved them into the transfer switch.  This finished my breaker box activity because my knee was starting to ache. 
Libbie came back from her Conservatory volunteer job at Selby around 4:30.  She said she is really enjoying the contact with people and may like it better than the greenhouse.
Dinner was chicken thighs grilled on the grill with BBQ sauce and corn on the cob.  We had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  After dinner we did the Hot Tub at sunset.  It really feels good on my sore knee. 


May 9, 2021 Sunday transfer switch


After the Sunday morning shows I returned to the garage and continued hooking up the transfer switch.  This time all the branches moved were normal branches without shared neutrals so that was easier.  I also moved the GFI which supplied the FIOS internet outlet in the garage and also supplied the laundry room internet connection.   This was enough for me for one day.  I went into my office to do other stuff.   I ran the Python program against Liz’s database and discovered we have about 300 missing images.  I also did some trivia for the Stoneybrook website. 
Ersins house is on the market and viewings are very brisk.  There is a non stop parade of people going through the house but it does not look like it has been sold yet.
Libbie made bread today which was yummy but she also made pizza dough.  We had pizza with fresh basil, fresh peppers and onions.  It was very good.  Today was Mothers Day so Joe and Christa called.  This brightened her day. 
At sunset I did the hot tub again.  This feels good on my knee which still hurts painfully.


May 10, 2021 Monday Redux


I worked in the garage a little and moved the microwave branch over to the transfer switch.  This more or less completes the wiring.  I’m still thinking about moving my office to the switch.  The great news is there are  few spares inside the transfer box of the dual breakers where 2 breakers occupy one slot.  I am reserving one 20 Amp spot for the future elevator.  The elevator  will be on the backup generator.  
I next moved to my office and worked on the taxes.  I added Libbie’s two 1099’s and also remembered to add the IRS $125 interest on my tax refund.  I ended up owing a total of $5060.
I hopefully filled out the routing and account numbers correctly so they can draft my CU checking account.   This whole thing is a big relief that it is done before May 17 which is this year’s deadline.  
Today I made it through the whole day without taking an Ibuprofen.  
Dinner tonight was a pork chop with Butternut Squash.  I had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  Lately I have been avoiding alcohol since I have been taking Ibuprofen.  The Pork Chop was too nice of a meal to not have wine with dinner.  After dinner I did the Hot Tub again to soothe my knee then went to bed early but rather than sleep I read some more.  The Evanovich book I’m reading, “Big Girl Panties” is pretty good.  She’s a good writer.


May 11, 2021 Tuesday Office circuit


I did a quick Walmart trip this morning to get normal staples plus I needed a small trimmer razor.  I could not find my old one.  
In the afternoon I traced out the branch circuit for my office.  Once I located the neutral I spliced it and moved it as well as the hot lead.  I relocated the 15 amp breaker over to the transfer switch.  This completes moving branches to the transfer switch.  Now I have to hook up the outdoor outlet before closing up the two panels.  I also want to find a self stick label so I could label the circuits. 
At 6 we went over to the gazebo for a nice get together with the neighbors. We left around 7:30 and had a dinner of chicken thighs, home grown tomatoes and peppers sauteed with onions on a tortilla.  After dinner  we watched Ted and Mollie on about a 10 minute delay.  It was a good show.  We enjoyed the guest artis, a crooner named Matt Tolentino.


May 12, 2021 Wednesday Generator


I buttoned up the main panel in the garage after using cable ties to dress the bundles of cables inside the panel.  I waited for the generator to arrive before going to Lowes for wire and conduit fittings. The generator arrived on a tractor trailer at 2:30.  We had an excellent driver who used his hand truck to pull the generator into the garage.  One spot was bashed in so I cut it loose from the pallet while the driver was there and flipped it over.  Where it was bashed did not hit anything, it was a vacant area.  After the truck left I unboxed the thing with Libbie’s help.  Now I have to assemble the wheels, feet and handles.   I next went to Lowes and picked up the conduit fittings as well as Tapcon screws.  Getting the 8 gauge wire cut was an ordeal.  I didn’t have the smartest person helping me.  In the end he got the numbers wrong.  I spent an inordinate amount of time on my feet while the cashier looked up the numbers.  I paid for it at home and ended up having to take an ibuprofen to calm down my throbbing knee. Dinner was spaghetti with last night's leftover chicken and veggies put into the sauce.  Libbie nicely made this before I went to the board meeting at the Management Offices on Clark.  It was a 7 PM meeting and was great, very calm and business like.  Everything was over by 8.


May 13, 2021 Thursday generator, transfer switch


With the generator upside down I took a seat next to it and installed the wheels and the feet.  I then flipped it on it’s side and installed the two handles.  While doing this Dean next door came over to see what I was doing.   I finished  up the job but was too weak to stand the generator on its feet.  I left it there for now.  I ran out to Walmart to get 10W30 oil for the engine.  The manual says to use normal oil, not synthetic.  Surprisingly, most oil in Walmart was synthetic.  I found some Quaker State on the bottom shelf which I put into my cart.  I also picked up some wild caught large shrimp for dinner tonight. 
I was wiped out today.  Libbie was also.  We blame it on my sleepless nights the last few days due to the knee injury.  It still hurts like hell. 
In the afternoon I hooked up the hole punch on top of the transfer switch for the one inch conduit.  I got it punched part way through before giving up.  I was exhausted.  To be resumed tomorrow!  Libbie made the Tapas potatoes and the remoulade sauce while I battered the shrimp and cooked them in the air fryer.  Libbie didn’t care for them but I thought they were OK.  After dinner I quickly lay down on the sofa and put my leg up on a pillow.  I was hurting.


May 14, 2021 Friday Dentist


I had an 8 AM Dental appointment today.  I had a periodontal scraping which was less painful than I was expecting.  It went well.  It is not covered by insurance.  The nice lady at the Dentist Office desk had a suggestion of a better Dental plan.  It’s not insurance but instead is a network of Dentists who have agreed to a reduced fee structure.  Everything is included, Crowns and fillings, etc.  I looked into it when I got home and signed up for the Family plan for Libbie and I. It was $160.  I’ll drop the Humana $25 per month coverage. 
Later in the morning 2 guys showed up to install the hot tub lid opener.  They spent some time installing the thing.  It was well worth the $125 installation fee. 
In the garage I finished the hole punch in the top of the transfer switch.  I then drilled the large hole in the wall for the conduit.  I still need to enlarge the hole in the wall since it was only a one inch drill bit.  The pipe is 1 ½ inch diameter.   I enlarged the inside hole but did not go outside. My knee had enough for today.
Libbie made chili and cornbread for dinner using ingredients that we had in the pantry - tomato, kidney beans, spices and corn meal.  The meal was fantastic. My dental treatment this morning did not allow for alcohol so I had water.  I was better off anyway since this gave me an option tonight to use Ibuprofen if I need it.  After dinner we used the hot tub with the new lift installed today.  Raising the lid is so much easier now. 
This was Friday night so Resort TV1 was broadcasting from Disney, tonight it was a skyliner stream starting at Hollywood Studios and then moving to Epcot later in the evening.


May 15, 2021 Saturday PVC, Wonderful World


I started by enlarging the hole outside the garage for the PVC pipe to fit through.  I cut and glued a pipe and passed it through the wall. This showed me that my planned route for the pipe was not possible down the wall because I could not pull off a 90 degree turn.  The actual route would now go through the Xfinity box so I ended up taking Xfinity off the wall along with the associated conduit.  This was as far as I took it today.  Tomorrow I’ll put down a clamp to set the orientation outdoors before hooking the pipe to the transfer box inside using glue and fittings.  
I had a great lesson today with Justin.  I sent him a copy of Wonderful World.  He said we haven’t covered the triplets yet but the music could be learned.  I bought the music and the play- along track.  The sheet music is a PDF and the play-along came as 2 MP3s.  One is with the Clarinet playing and the second without.
Libbie reheated the Chili and Cornbread for dinner.  I decided to join her with my first glass of Cabernet in over a week.   I have more or less been off of Ibuprofen for the past 2 days.  This may be a sign that my knee is healing.  I’m not sure if it’s that or if I’m staying off my feet more.
I was too tired to jump in the hot tub tonight so I stayed dry and watched an Episode of the Maandelorian.  Tonight we watched Season 2 Episode 2.  I really enjoyed it.


May 16, 2021 Sunday Wiring


I ran out to Walmart this morning before the CBS Sunday Morning Program.  The store was incredibly empty.  I needed milk for cereal and I also picked up mushrooms and on impulse, Pistachios.   After the shows I began cutting and gluing the PVC fittings.  When it was all completed I bundled the 4 pieces of #8 wire but once I got them through the wall I chickened out after seeing how close to the live terminals the connections would be.  I ended up shutting down the Synology then powering down the 50 Amp breaker to the transfer switch.  I got everything hooked up in short order and repowered the panel and the Synology.  Next task is to hook up the outside socket.  I need to punch a hole in it for the PVC conduit but the knock out will not pop out as expected.  I will attempt to drill this and then use progressively larger punches to make the hole.
We watched Resort TV1 on and off all day today.  They were doing a People Mover stream seeing how many times they could ride it.  They ended up with 28 rides. 
We had Libbies pizza for dinner which had mushrooms on it. It was yummy as usual.  After dinner we watched an episode of the Mandelorian as well as did some sunset hot tubbing.  


May 17, 2021 Monday Wiring, Handyman


I did not go to Selby today.  I stayed home waiting for our Home Depot door delivery.  While in the garage I drilled a larger hole in the side of the box and then used a small punch followed by a larger punch to make a hole in the plug connector box.  It now accommodates the one inch conduit.   I glued all the fittings together but before I could run the wires the truck with my new front doors arrived.  The thing is huge so the only place that it could go was into the garage.  I cut the top of the wood pieces off so it would fit into the garage.  The delivery guys were nice enough to pull the fork lift hand truck into the garage and drop the door off there.  After they left I called Walter, a home handyman about installing the door.  Because I want an HVHZ installation (high velocity hurricane zone) I don’t think he’s the person I need. He can however be a help with removing the front hall closet.  
I continued the wiring of the outdoor PVC by threading the cables through the conduit fittings into the socket box.  Once everything was in the shade I set up a chair and sat there cutting and stripping wires making the hookup to the socket.  I put the cover on which was the finishing touch.   The whole job looks neat and clean.  After I vacuum the garage floor under the  panels I’ll mix up some hydraulic cement and patch both indoor and outdoor holes around the conduit as well as misc holes from mollies that are no longer used. 
Dinner tonight was a pork chop with apple sauce and peas and onions.  After dinner we sat on the back porch in the lounge chair and enjoyed the sunset outside in the warm air .  I was freezing inside although the AC was set to 78.  Once the sunset was over we came inside and watched another episode of the Mandelorian.  The little child creature is certainly cute enough and now seems to be featured as mando travels from planet to planet.


May 18, 2021 Tuesday Port Charlotte


This morning our housekeeping folks came early so we could go to Port Charlotte for lunch.  I went out at 8:45 to go to the Great Clips next to Harbor Freight.  Our local Great Clips next to Publix is closed on Tuesday which was too bad but I made the 10 minute drive to the other one.  I was next when I checked in.  My hair cutter was a beautiful Seminole.  She was tall and thin and wore an attractive black top with a feather design and tight white pants.  She was quite personable. I got a very nice haircut which was everything I wanted - shorter and thinned out. When I arrived home from the barber our cleaners were still scrubbing and cleaning.   We left around 11 and took Honore to I-75 at Laurel and I-75 into Port Charlotte. 
We greeted Lorraine at her house.  Ted came a little later with Tommy, Doris and Carl.  The Taj is hooked up just outside Riverwood. He picked them up.  We had a great time   In a little bit we went to lunch at the Riverwood Clubhouse.  I had a Sea Breeze which was vodka with grapefruit juice.  For lunch I ordered a Reuben which came with chips.   It was quite good but too much food.  We went back to Ted and Lorraine;s and reminisced over our parents' past.  I learned why Jean was Sophie.  Her birth certificate says Jean but she was baptised as Sophie.  Her family called her Sophie growing up but she didn’t like the name so switched to Jean in her adult years.  After a brief time at Lorraines after lunch we  went to see the Taj Mahal and got a tour. 
After the tour we drove Doris and Carl back to Lorraines then started for home.  While on I-75 my knee started hurting.  Both knees were bothering me as they were bent in the driving position.  I couldn’t wait to get home and stretch them out.   At home I rested in my chair and eventually made it to the sofa and fell asleep for a short nap.  We skipped dinner today because of the huge lunch.  At 8 PM we watched Ted and Molly as usual on a Tuesday night. This evening because we didn’t get home until almost 6:30, we skipped the Tuesday night Gazebo.


May 19, 2021 Wednesday Door, elevator, panel


This morning I started vacuuming the floor and around the electrical panel of all the pieces of concrete and powder that resulted from cutting a few holes in the wall.   While I was vacuuming, Walt the carpenter came.  He looked at the 2 doors delivered to the garage by Home Depot.  Then he looked at the existing doors as well as the closet that will be removed.  I really liked him. He said he could start next week.
Next I called the Stiltz Florida elevator company to get the ball rolling on an elevator.  I talked to Stiltz of Florida who is based in Orlando.  She took all my information and said I would get a call back from one of their two sales people, either Heather or Mr White.
I next went back into the garage and finished the cleanup and put the panel cover back on.  I wanted to cement around the holes in the concrete but my knee stopped me from doing anything else.  It hurt pretty bad.
Libbie cooked together some chicken, tomatoes, peppers and onions.  After this delicious dinner we went into the Hot Tub which was good for my knee.   I spent the rest of the evening reading.


May 20, 2021 Thursday cement, elevator


This morning I mixed up a batch of hydraulic cement and patched around the conduit going through the concrete walls.  I also patched the pock marks both inside and outside where mollies and anchor screws used to be.
Once all this was in I then sat down and worked on the new Synology Photos in the NAS box I upgraded to DSM 7.  It’s not very flexible but I like the timeline view vs folder view and the ease to switch between them. 
I got a call today from the Stiltz guy and made an appointment for next Wednesday. 
Libbie left for Selby around noon while I went to Detwilers for fruit and to exchange our propane tank. 
For dinner we went out to the Italian Grill which is under new ownership.  I had a Yuengling along with the classic lasagna which also came with a sallad.  Libbie had eggplant casserole.  
It was nice to get out again.  We watched another episode of the Mandelorian before going to bed.


May 21, 2021 Friday fruit, ladder




I had the second of my 2 dental scalings today.  It went quickly.  After the scaling she polished my teeth with the polishing compound.  My next visit is now a regular cleaning in September.
At home I wanted to work on the crap scattered all over the garage.  I hung the ladder back up since the transfer switch project is complete.  I also added oil to the new generator. That is as far as I got in the garage.  I chose to not be on my feet that long.  Instead I played Clarinet.  The Wonderful World song is coming along great.  My assignment was to learn the first 16 bars.   I’m almost there.
Libbie went to Selby while I took a trip to Detweilers.  I really wanted the empty propane bottle exchanged and they did the trick at a decent price, $5 less than Lowes.  I went crazy in the produce department and bought a lot of fruit including pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries and grapes. 
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on the grill with tomato and Vidalia Onion.  As a side we had a plate of fruit and had this with the only wine in the closet, a bottle of Kirkwood Chardonnay.


May 22, 2021 Saturday clarinet


This morning I sized up how the bike rack would fit on the garage wall but did not do anything about it.  We went out at 10 to visit Fogts music because they charged me for $51 and I never was in the store.  I had them delete my card on file and then issue a refund.  We stopped in Walmart on the way home and picked up some groceries.
I had a nice lesson at 2 with Justin. We did the bridge section of Wonderful World. This has a few challenging triples that cross the break.  I can’t wait to play this next section.  Justin mentioned that I should find other songs I like.  I have in mind Gabriel's Oboe by Morricone.  I also may take a look at the Barcarolle by Offenbach.  
I purchased Digital Program 7 of the Sarasota Ballet.  After my Clarinet lesson I recorded it but the audio was set too high.  The result is slightly distorted so I will do it again tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was Italian Sausages cooked on the grill and served in a bun with peppers and onions.  With the meal was a glass of Cabernet.  We watched the conclusion of Season 2 of the Mandelorian on Disney Plus.  Then we had the idea of searching for Fantasia.  Both versions are there, the original and Fantasia 2000.  We watched the first piece of Fantasia original which was the Bach Toccata and Fugue.


May 23, 2022 Sunday Trim


After the morning programs I took the last of the trim off the front door then cut away a piece of sheetrock on each side of the door to inspect the bucks. They look like they are 2x4s which is good.  One is treated so I have to assume it’s on masonry.  Once done I brought the vacuum inside and cleaned up around the door.
Libbie needed zucchini for banana bread.  While in the store I picked up a dozen pink roses because she has been putting in overtime tending to my needs.  I have trouble because of my bad knee which doesn’t seem to be getting any better. 
Libbie made pizza dough from scratch then made a pizza with tomatoes, mushrooms and thai basil.  This was great.  I had a single glass of Cabernet with the pizza. After dinner we watched more of Fantasia.  We didn’t finish because we wanted to do the hot tub before sunset.  We caught the tail end of the sunset.  The cover lifter for the hot tub has worked well for me.


May 24. 2021 Monday lackadaisical        


This was mostly a miserable day. I want to work in the garage putting the place back together but I can’t stand very long.  We talked with Joe a little today, he is flying down to Columbia to help Angela with moving her Mother.
Despite a knee that has grounded me I dragged the Miter Saw out, set it up and cut two pieces of 2x4 that I will use to mount the hooks that will support the bike rack. I possibly can put the bikes under the rack.   I only cut the boards but did not mount them.  I continue to attempt playing part B or the Bridge part of Wonderful World.  It’s getting better but not great.  The A part seems pretty easy now.  I can mostly play it but not error free.  I stumble somewhere through the piece.  
For dinner Libbie put some chicken thigh pieces on skewers and grilled them. She made a Spiedie sauce to coat the meat after cooking.  We had these in leftover Brioche and leftover hamburger buns.  This was good.  Accompanying the meal was cantaloupe slices. 
After dinner I rested my leg in the hot tub while catching the end of sunset.  We watched the conclusion of Fantasia tonight.  It was terrific.  The last piece was a medley of Night on Bald Mountain followed by the Ave Maria.  Quite good!  It’s now time to watch Fantasia 2000 tomorrow night.


May 25, 2021 Tuesday doing better, therapy


Today I tried bending my knee normally with some pain.  I need to get this back into shape.  It seems to have healed quite a bit but is still a bucket of pain.  I managed to get the 2 wood blocks screwed into the wall and then mounted the brackets.  Now I need to lift the bike rack onto it but I’ll need Libbie’s help with this.   
I had my therapy appointment at 12:45.  My physical therapist is Amanda, a very cute and petite young lady dressed in black scrubs.  She was very nice and oh so young.  Today’s session was to measure the range of motion from standing on one foot to standing on my toes, bending my legs back and also laying them flat.  My range of motion is pretty poor.  I have 6 weeks worth of appointments twice a week to do the therapy.  Amanda also said I would have home exercises to do.
I continued to practice the bridge  lines of Wonderful World.  While searching for my next piece of music I purchased the sheet music for Gabriel's Oboe and Gershwin's Summertime.
I tried several times today to walk up the stairs one foot after the other.
Libbie made spaghetti for dinner which we had with tomato sauce and cheese before going over to Gazebo Tuesday.  We had an enjoyable time at the Gazebo which was at 6:30  instead of 6 PM.  After the Gazebo we got home around 8:15 and caught Ted and Mollie who taped their Tuesday night program because they are on the road.  Libbie said Mollie was in the chat during the replay.  I went to bed this evening and passed out.  The knee is doing much better.


May 26, 2021 Wednesday Stiltz, Closet


I went to Walmart this morning for gas and groceries.  I used the last of the milk so it was a needed trip. 
The Stiltz elevator sales guy showed up at 1:20 PM.  He said his Mother lives in Turtle Rock.  He was pretty good and pointed out a few things about the closet location I chose for the elevator.  The drawing was wrong by 2 inches so I’ll have to completely remove the wall in front of the door instead of 3/4ths. There is a false ceiling in the closet.  There may be ductwork up there.  It will need to be investigated.  This will involve me cutting the false ceiling down and dealing with any ductwork that potentially may be in the way.  However, this is the best location in the house and will have to be made to work.   I ended up removing the closet door and setting up the step stool.  I initially was going to also cut through the ceiling but did not act.   My knee is significantly better today.
While the salesperson was here we asked about seeing a model of the Duo Vista we signed up for.   He set us up for an appointment Friday morning at 11 AM.  Google says it is 2 hours and 16 minutes to get there. 
Dinner tonight was a Pork Chop marinated in Libbie’s homemade Spiedie sauce.  Veggies were peas with Pearl Onions and the leftover AppleSauce.  A glass of Cabernet accompanied the meal.  After dinner I gladly jumped into the Hot Tub.  The lid lifter really helps me.  The Hot Water settles my restless leg.  


May 27, 2021 Thursday Begin PT


I had a pretty good PT session, my first, with physical therapist Tom at Intracoastal on Potter.  We did some stretches then pulled my heel back towards my butt while lying on my back.  Then some leg lifts and the back of the knee presses onto  a bolister. I got some  homework to do as well consisting of heel slides, pressing back of the knee into the bolister and standing on tiptoes. 
Once home I began sizing up what it would take to remove the false ceiling in the hall closet.  
It’s a puzzle why it’s there.  My biggest fear was there are HVAC ducts in the false ceiling.
I set everything up in the closet ready for working on the demolition.  Once Libbie left at 1 for Selby I began working the edges of the ceiling with the oscillating saw.  This was a horrible job.  I ended up having to put goggles on because of the dust streaming down.  The ceiling came down easily in one piece once freed around the edges.  I put it into the garage and continued on the side walls.  I wanted the wall behind the switches removed.  This too was4 a messy job but the sheet rock gave up easily once freed.  I wanted to continue but it was getting late and I needed to clean up  the place before Libbie got back and also take a shower to get all the dust off my body and out of my hair.  The great news is that the ductwork is not under this false ceiling.  It’s not clear why this ceiling is there.   I do have more wires to move but some of them appear to be TV cable or telephone cables. With luck one of the telephone cables can be used to pull a 12/2 wire for the elevator.  I’m thinking this wire would stretch across the garage attic and come into the closet space  where this phone wire comes in.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers from the grill along with our garden tomato and baked beans.  The fresh Detweiler beef along with our garden tomatoes was the best burger ever.  I only had water with this.  After dinner we watched Fantasia 2000 and then jumped into the hot tub for sunset and to relieve my aching knee.  It was throbbing pretty bad.  I ended up taking an Ibuprofen before bed to try relaxing it.  I Also ended up waking at 2 and taking another one.  I hope I did not set the knee back by stressing it too much.


May 28, 2021 Friday Stiltz Orlando


We left at 8:45 AM for Stiltz of Orlando.  We hit a little stop and go traffic at a merge of US 27 on I-4 which added a 10 minute delay but the rest of the trip was uneventful.  It was a beautiful day but traffic on I-4 was heavy.  This is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.  Not a great time to travel.  We went into the Stiltz offices and met Doreen.  She said we would be our support contact in the future.  We looked at their different models and then rode the duo alta.  Since the building is only one floor it only goes up a foot or two.  I first rode it with Doreen controlling it using the remote then I made it go up and down with me pushing the button.   It’s smooth and silent but slow.  It will work well.
We chose not to get on I-4 for the return trip.  The West bound interstate was stopped for several miles in the theme park area.  We took John Young Parkway to Kissimmee where we found a taco place called the Taco Maker.  We each had two beef tacos and a bottle of water.  We then continued down the highway getting on I-4 after the congestion.  We took I-4 as far as Hwy 570 which is a toll beltway around Lakeland.  We took 570 using our Quick Pass transponder. This was an excellent road.  We then took the back roads through farm country all the way until Fruitville in Sarasota.  
We were supposed to go out with Dean and Paulette tonight but when we got home they bailed out.  They are still packing and need more time.  They have a 7 AM flight tomorrow morning.
We went to the Point but the parking lot was packed.  Our plan B was to order a Four Season takeout from New China in Nokomis along with two eggrolls.  Libbie went into the restaurant to get our food while I went into Publix and picked up wine and ice cream. 
After dinner I just lay in the chair and watched Josh and Jenna while sipping my second glass of wine. 


May 29, 2021 Saturday Sheetrock demolition


I scored all the edges of the sheetrock in the closet then proceeded to pull the sheets off the wall.  Libbie nicely carried all the big pieces into the garage.  The little bits of plaster and junk were thrown into the bucket.  I managed to strip the inside of the closet totally.  Tomorrow I will do the outside of the closet.  In preparation, I scored all the edges along the ceiling and in the corner.  I’m anxious to get into the ceiling to see if the wires criss-crossing the ceiling can be moved aside or will they require splicing, making the job infinitely harder.
This ended my day, it wiped me out.
I had another good lesson with Justin.  I showed him “Summertime” and asked whether this was something I am capable of working on.  He demonstrated some of the grace notes contained within the piece.  We continued working on Wonderful World.  I was putting a pause in between some notes.
Libbie grilled some chicken thighs using my Smoking Gun BBQ Sauce. She also made the Tapas Potatoes with Remoulade sauce.  The meal was fantastic.  We had Cabernet with dinner and Mint Moosetracks Ice cream afterwards. I welcomed the hot tub for my hurting knee and restless legs which happens after eating something sweet.  There wasn’t much of a sunset but the hot water was nice for my soul.  A slew of dividends hit today.  I logged them all in and totalled it to $3,000.   This is a nice monthly amount and should continue forever.


May 30, 2021 Sunday  Productive


I took the sheetrock down outside the closet today.  This went well without ruining the ceiling or tearing up the adjoining walls.  I made a quick trip to Publix and picked up some Nathan's Hot Dogs, buns and mushrooms.  The Hot Dogs were BOGO so we now have two packages of Nathans.  After the traditional Memorial Day Hot Dog lunch I rested a little then turned the downstairs AC off and began tearing up the return air box which made up the bottom of the closet.  The filter never got dirty in the past few years and now I know why.  The inside was filthy because air was leaking in through every seam and wall space in the box.  The buildup of dust was phenomenal.  Once all was clear I measured the opening and went to Lowes and bought a temporary filter to fit the opening.  I stapled the cardboard edges to the underlying wood then turned the AC back on.
In general I am happy with how successful this activity was.  Libbie gave up quilting to be by my side for carrying sheetrock and running the shop vac. Tomorrow I will remove all the 2x4 wood from the former closet frame.  This should conclude the taking of the closet apart. In the future there is wiring and sheetrock.
Libbie made her pizza and used mushrooms, fresh tomato and fresh basil.  The crust came out thin and crisp and the pizza was over the top delicious.
At 4 PM today we watched Dinners with Donna. It was great and featured meals made in her air fryer. The entire show was devoted to air fryer cooking and was excellent.  She toasted a bagel, made cherry cheesecake chimichangas, pepperoni egg rolls, french fries, roasted balsamic brussel sprouts and flat iron steak. 
I jumped into the Hot tub after this and calmed my leg which was suffering from Restless Leg once again.  Sunset was not very spectacular while in the tub.  The sky was too clear which was unusual because it was thundering and windy only an hour ago.  I went to bed tired and satisfied.


May 31, 2021 Monday Closet Frame


I began the job of removing the 2x4 closet frame.  Using the 4 lb sledge and a few crowbars I managed to bring down the closet frame.  The trickiest part was the light switches which have a total of 6 wires going through holes drilled in two 2x4s.  I used a chisel and the wonderbar to split the 2x4 open to free the wires.  I took a trip to Lowes to get a junction box.  I picked up one that I think will house both the ESP8266 and the junctions of the 6 wires in the same box.  It has 4 gangs.  Lowes did not have a 4 gang blank wall cover plate but I found one at Amazon that I ordered.  Tomorrow both the ESP8266 and the cover plate will be delivered.  Then I will know if this strategy will work or if I will need 2 boxes, one for the ESP and one for the electrical connections.   In either case, I decided to run a 110 V outlet down low to plug in a 5 volt power source.  A low voltage wire will go from this socket to the junction box.  It will carry 5 volts DC. 
Finishing up removal of the 2x4s pretty much took all day.  Before noon Libbie and I went to Detwilers. They had $2 pulled pork sandwiches and free ice cream cones.  We also got a $4.99 warm cherry pie and a $5 bag of 10 pounds of chicken legs.  Wow, great pricing.  The store was not too crowded either.  
For dinner we had the Nathan's hot dogs that would have been lunch but Detwilers supplied lunch.  Along with the dinner hot dogs we had corn on the cob which also came from Detwilers.  It finally rained a little bit tonight.  Overall accumulation was not much but it’s a start.   Around 9 PM I used the “cover of night” to take a glass window pane and 2 garbage cans full of sheetrock and other construction debris.  I need at least one empty can for possible door removal this week.  The condos were relatively quiet and empty.  The dumpster was empty as well.  This was all good.


June 1, 2021 Tuesday Therapy, wiring


I got a call this  morning asking if I could change my afternoon therapy appointment to this morning due to a cancellation they had.  I readily agreed and went to therapy.  This session messed my knee  up for the day.  I had some pretty good pain. 
In the afternoon I got out the ladder and also lowered the attic ladder to look at how I could do wiring.  I need to run a new 12/2 to the elevator space to supply 220 VAC.  I would also like to get another 110 V outlet into the closet for running the Linksprite ESP8266 that I will use for Alexa control.  I also would like an outlet for a door cam power supply.
Dinner tonight was some fruit and a bowl of tomato soup.  We went over to the Gazebo at 6:30 PM . It was the last night for Tony and Janine who are moving to Europe.  Ginny brought some Prosecco for the occasion. When we got back home we had cherry pie and ice cream and watched Molly and Ted.  They were not live but it was a new show.  They are performing this week in Texas. 


June 2, 2021 Wednesday Pain


My knee was in pain most of today.  I blame this on the therapy, especially manipulating my kneecap. This was not good and pretty much stopped me from doing anything.
I climbed the ladder in the closet and pulled aside the insulation.  I was pleasantly surprised I could see into the garage attic.  Running the wires will be easy.  I tried but was not successful today programming the Linksprite.  Next step I will try a different power supply to see if that’s the issue although the voltmeter is saying 5.2 volts. 
We took a trip to Chappies flooring this morning and picked out some samples of vinyl.  We also put our name onto the estimator's schedule for next week.   This may cost almost $10k.  This morning Libbie’s iBond purchase came through so I finished creating my account and also bought a $10k iBond. 
Dinner was creative.  Libbie cooked a pot of veggies including peppers, onions, zucchini and tomatoes in a ratatouille type stew.  She put this over the top of a plate of spaghetti.  After dinner I watched an older version of Ted and Mollie and fell asleep.


June 3, 2021 Thursday Pain


I had an ortho appointment at 9:30.  He didn’t think the Physical Therapy was needed, in fact they may have over stressed my knee.  That is also what I feel.  He gave me a Cortisone shot and told me to do leg exercises at home.  I was in extreme pain today.
I ended up spending the afternoon laying on the couch.
We watched a little bit of Cory who was joined by wife Stefanie in the MK.  We watched them rate a spicy chicken sandwich and then left for a Mexical Restaurant we haven’t tried before.  It was Plaza Mexico on Stickney Point.  We enjoyed the atmosphere. We had a couple of large, 20 ounce, Margaritas to start.  They put chips and salsa on the table as usual for a Mexican Restaurant. I ordered 2 Chimichangas with cheese and chicken.  It came with refried beans, lettuce and guacamole.  I enjoyed the meal and ended up taking a chimichanga home.  Libbie had a combo platter and brought half of hers home as well.  I resumed reading the holdout, an FIT book club selection.  It is quite good.


June 4, 2021 Friday Wire


I’m doing a little better today with my knee.  I decided to call Walt off.  He has no experience with HVHZ doors.  I went over to Home Depot to inquire about them installing the door.  They want $1000 which I would pay but the deal breaker was it would be 2 weeks to get measured and then another 6 weeks after that.  I need the door installed in 2 weeks.  I’ll have to do it myself.  I ran the fish tape from the garage attic to the former closet.  With Libbie’s help I managed to run 2 lengths of 12/2 from the closet to the garage attic.  This is happiness.  I need to now extend the closet wall before installing the sockets.  Upstairs I had some great news.  I was able to flash tasmota onto the Linksprite R4 I got from Amazon this week.  Now I need to start it up and load the configuration file but I didn’t do that.  I am using a bigger power supply than I used 2 days ago when this didn’t work.  This time I also grounded the GP0 pin to get this thing into bootloader mode.  
Dinner tonight was hamburgers with tomato from the garden and a vidalia onion.   We had this on Brioche buns with baked beans as a side.  I had a rare glass of Cabernet with dinner.   We did a hot tub session tonight to soothe my leg then watched a little of Jenna at Hollywood Studios with husband Dale and her parents.


June 5, 2021 Saturday Clarinet


This morning I worked on configuring the Linksprite Relays for use in the foyer as a switch replacement.  This was all possible because I got Tasmota successfully loaded yesterday after trying for a few days.  I had to log into the Linksprite using it’s own Access Point.  I did this with my tablet and configured the WiFi in the Linksprite.  Once it was able to boot on it’s own I was able to configure which GPIO port is assigned to which relay.  I went into the console and issued the command for Home Assistant to discover the device.  Once this was done I was able to use Home Assistant to turn Linksprite relays off and on.  I’m now ready for the relay to be mounted in a junction box on the wall. 
The heavy gray wire is in the way of my wall addition in the elevator closet.  To make matters worse, it passes through the floor truss.  I investigated cutting the bottom cord of the floor truss but decided that was a bad idea.  A quick trip to Harbor Freight got me a $4.99 voltage detector.  This thing lights up and beeps in the presence of AC power.  I’ll identify the gray wire in the garage attic and then cut it to remove it from between the truss webbing.  
I had a pretty good Clarinet lesson today although the video froze 2 or 3 times.  We started book II which has some challenging exercises as well as the Trumpet Voluntary.  This is going to be fun.  Justin provided me with some light on the squeeks.  He thought it was not covering the holes on the Clarinet as I went over the break.  Woo Hoo!  I previously tried a new reed and twice cleaned all the pads on the Clarinet.   I also tried posture and embouchure improvements but to no avail.
Libbie grilled the chicken legs with attached thighs we got in Detweiler on Memorial Day.  They were really good because they were skin on.  She grilled these with Smoking Gun BBQ sauce and also used the Mandolin to make potato chips and deep fat fry them.  Libbie said she won’t try this again.  I thought they were OK but not crispy like a true chip.  Dinner was the grilled chicken legs and thighs along with the potato chips and a glass of Cabernet.  I jumped into the Hot Tub which was hotter than usual.  It was turned up to 103 which was too hot for me.


June 6, 2021 Sunday Wires


I identified the large gray electric cable crossing the closet by going into the garage attic and pulling on the cable while Libbie pulled on the other end.  I determined this was a 40 AMP branch on the breaker panel which means it needs #8 wire.  I also slit the thermostat cable to count the number of conductors.  It was an 8 conductor cable.   I went to Lowes and picked up 6 feet of the 8/2 romex and also 6 feet of thermostat cable.   The great news was that on the way home from Lowes it started raining.  We ended up with a total of .29 inches which was not bad.  The bad news was that I watered the flower gardens this morning after cleaning the filter.  I also bought a new spinner type sprinkler for the brown spot in the grass and also cover the two Bougainvilleas. 
Once home I cut the thermostat cable one conductor at a time and soldered the 6 foot extension inline.  When all was done I turned the power back on to the upstairs HVAC.  A little while later I discovered that this cable was really the downstairs cable and I had worked on it live.  The thermostat was now dark.  I at first thought I screwed up the wiring but after taking the thermostat off the wall and measuring the common terminal to the red terminal there was no voltage.  The voltage between C and R should be 24 VAC.  I decided to take apart the downstairs air handler in the garage looking for the controller card which contains the fuse.  I took the bottom panel off first which unfortunately was the evaporator coil.  I buttoned this back together and then took the upper panel off.   I had to use a ladder to get to the controller card in the upper panel.  I discovered the 3 amp fuse was blown.  This set off a treasure hunt looking for my blade fuses.  I had some in Apex but don’t know where they were packed.   After checking all the boxes in my office I tried some select boxes in the garage.  The electrical connections box had some 20 Amp fuses.  I put one in the controller and powered up after buttoning everything up and we got our AC back.   I ordered some replacements on Amazon.  Believe it or not the fuses come in a box of 25.  The price is right at $4.19 but I don’t really need 25 of them.  
Libbie made her delicious pizza for lunch with mushrooms, fresh basil and fresh tomato pieces.  It was yummy.  The lat minute running around climbing the ladder diagnosing the dead thermostat tired me out so I did not do the hot tub.


June 7, 2021 Monday Cable Moving


After Libbie came home from pool exercise this morning I started working on the heavy cable crossing the closet space.  IT’s an 8/2 Romex which feeds the upstairs Air Handler.   There was a little confusion on which cable this was because I was getting a false positive after flipping the breaker.  I inadvertently flipped the 50 Amp breaker to the Transfer Switch which took out the Internet and everything else including the Synology.   Once I was settled on which wire it was I carefully cut it with the dykes but with a precautionary insulating towel wrapped around the dykes handle.  I cut the wire, pulled it through to the closet and rerouted it before putting it back   It was significantly shorter after rerouting.  I installed a junction box and 6 feet of new cable to the end of the original cable before passing it back through.  With Libbie’s help we rerouted the cable into the attic.   Libbie was on the attic side and I was in the old closet space making sure it was correctly routed around the floor trusses.  While in the attic, Libbie chose to sweep the floor into a dustpan and then the large plant waxed cardboard.   I next went into the attic even though my knee was now hurting.  Surprisingly it was the right knee, not the knee that was injured.   Once I hooked up the 8/2 wires I left the attic and turned the breaker back on.   I still need to screw down a cover on the junction box and fasten the box to a floor joist.  I’ll do that some other time since my knee needs a rest.  Now that the cables are out of the way I can build the wall to mount the new electrical wires.
For dinner we chose to go to Beckhams, something we haven’t done in about a year.  I had the ribs with steak fries and a Yuengling.  When I came home I went into the hot tub for several rounds of therapy.   The hot water I think is beneficial for my knee.  At least it seems to calm it down when it feels agitated.  


June 8, 2021 Tuesday  Trim wall, measure flooring, finish attic junctions


I started with the oscillating saw to trim up the leftover studs.  There was a piece on the bottom and also a small piece hanging out at the ceiling.  After this Libbie helped me clean  up the floor with the vacuum and put all the tools away.  Mark from Chappies came at 12:20 and drew up the first floor and added in the dimensions of all the rooms.  Now it’s a waiting game for the estimate from Chappies.  Libbie went to Selby for a 1 to 4 session in the Conservatory.  She enjoyed talking to people about plants.  I meanwhile went into the garage attic and put the remaining cover on the junction boxes and then nailed them both down.
Later in the afternoon I went out to Lowes and picked up a 16x25 filter for the  filter housing I bought on Amazon.  I want to start installing this tomorrow morning.  Today while practicing Clarinet the Internet went out.  I found that the UPS in the laundry room had turned off.  I turned it back on but shortly after it turned off with a beep that would not stop.   I replaced it with one of the large UPS devices from Downing Place.  It doesn’t fit inside the cabinet so I put it on top for now.  
We got a significant rainstorm today.  The total was 0.61 inches even though our rain chances were only 10%.  It looked like it was going to rain again before Gazebo night so we chose to stay home.  It was good for my knee because I used the hot tub instead.  Unfortunately it didn't rain and we could have gone without issue.  Dinner was leftover ribs from last night plus a plate of Swiss Cheese and crackers.  I watched Ted and Mollie but they were stuck somewhere with a broken bus.  They showed a few older recordings plus had a taped message at the end from a hotel in which they apologized and sang God bless America. 


June 9, 2021 Wednesday AC Filter


I shut down the downstairs AC and went to work on rebuilding the air intake.   I cut away the sleeve around the AC lines and then cut out the PVC drain pipe.  It was installed at an angle and came into the room.  I had to run out to Lowes for some more 45 degree elbows.  With a lot of cajoling and using a pipe strap to bend the pipe to it’s limit I managed to get the pipe installed totally within the 3 ½ inch wall.   The filter housing still interferes with the pipe or vice versa.  My solution tomorrow will be to route out a channel on the right side 2x4 in order to move the filter over a ½ inch to the right.  With luck this will be enough.  I measured the sheetrock needs.  It looks like 2 sheets will cover the wall.  The sheets need to be 10 feet long.   I either rent the Lowes truck or have them deliver it.   
Libbie and I went to Detweilers for more fruit and most importantly my milk for cereal.  While there we picked up a cherry pie and vanilla ice cream. 
Dinner was Salmon on the grill along with Corn on the Cob.  We finished the half bottle of Chardonnay in the refrigerator with a glass each for dinner.    
My knee was not too bad after today’s construction activity but I used the hot tub this evening to soothe my legs.   Today I called the Ballet box office again and got Lesley to send the email again with the performances.  This time they came while I waited.   I went right ahead and put all the dates on the calendar so that I could refer to them when we buy Opera tickets on June 14 which is the day season tickets go on sale. 


June 10, 2021 Thursday Drain frustrations


I noticed a wet spot on the floor near the AC drain I replaced yesterday.  When I poured water down the cleanout port it really came out from the lower connector.  I cut this off and glued a new 45 degree on the pipe stub and added the rest of the pipes making up the drain.  This leaked even worse. It appears the glue did not hold.  I was able to pull the fitting directly off the pipe with a little difficulty.  This should not be, the pipe should dissolve a little a bond with the fitting.  It did not appear to.  I went to Lowes yet again and got a brand new 2 pack of primer and glue as well as a half dozen more 45 degree connectors.    I put everything back together once again and tested it with water poured down the cleanout port.   It leaked a little, not as bad as before but still leaking a little bit.  Such frustration.  I was exhausted and defeated.  I put the filter back on and quit for the night.  Tomorrow I will wrap the joint with silicone tape.  The tape is called Miracle Wrap and stretches up to 300% as it is wrapped and bonds to itself.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on the grill with tomato and vidalia onion. A side of Maple Bacon baked beans completed the meal.  I was experimenting with flavors of baked beans and decided this one was not a keeper.  I did not like the fake Maple flavor in my baked beans.  After dinner we had the last of the Detwilers Cherry Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream.   My leg needed some relief so I jumped into the hot tub for a half hour this evening before going to bed and falling right to sleep. 


June 11, 2021 Friday Air filter return


I started by wrapping the leaking drain pipe from yesterday’s rebuild with “Miracle Wrap”, a silicone tape that stretches and sticks to itself.  It was hard getting between the pipes but I got some tape down.  Don’t know if it works but the non taped connection doesn’t leak in normal use, only when you dump buckets of water down the drain.
I fooled around with trying to get the filter in place but ended up with a picture frame approach where I build a picture frame out of 2x4s and then attach it over the wall studs.  This will project the filter into the room an additional inch.   I went to Lowes to get two new 2x4s for this project and was shocked at the lumber pricing.  A 2x4 is now $9.  I’m assembling the picture frame with pocket screws.  I’m short of the 2 ½ inch screws needed for using 2x4 wood in the pocket structure.  I’ll take a trip to Lowes tomorrow to finish this up.   Today I fired up the play along track for Trumpet Voluntary on Sonos.  This worked really well.   It took a few runs to get a natural rhythm in sync with the play along but after a few attempts I was able to get the hang of it and keep up. How amazing!  This can really accelerate my learning.
For dinner we went out to Plaza Mexico where we had MArgaritas with dinner.  I had the Chimichanga again, beef filled with refried beans, lettuce, guac and sour cream on the sides. 


June 12, 2021 Saturday Return Air Filter, Clarinet


I went early to Lowes this morning and picked up the 2 ½ inch pocket screws I need to make a picture frame out of 2x4s.  I also looked for the metal shims that are supposed to be able to put up a door in 5 minutes.  They were supposed to be in aisle 12 but I couldn’t find them so when I got home I ordered them for pickup.  The order was fulfilled quickly.  I went back later in the day and picked them up in the drop box at the front of the store.  The 2x4 picture frames went together well except when I had to cut the notch at the bottom the saw slipped and put a big gouge in the wood.  I need some wood filler.  The circular saw blade also needs replacing.  It was smoking pretty bad, as bad as the router bit which seems to smoke a lot.   I was exhausted around noon and didn’t know how I could possibly get through a 2 PM Clarinet lesson.   The lesson was quite good as usual.  I tried playing Billy Boy which we went over and over many times.  By the end of the lesson I was back from my funk and was ready to tackle the day.  I finished up the air filter including using the peel and stick aluminum to line the opening and seal air leaks.  I hope this holds up.  The job looks pretty good.  I started cleaning up the area to get ready for working on the front door tomorrow.  I did a quick trip to Publix for Shrimp peelers and cocktail sauce for dinner tonight.  While out to Publix I also stopped in Lowes to retrieve the online order mentioned a few  sentences ago.  I got 1.5 lb of large shrimp which was too much shrimp.  Dinner was the Shrimp, rice and corn kernels that Libbie scraped from our corn on the cob a week ago.  It was too many veggies but it was very good.  After dinner I jumped into the hot tub to watch a beautiful sunset and to calm my restless legs.  This really works, which is a surprise.   When I need to calm a leg the hot water seems to do the trick.  I’m wondering now if a hot pad will do the same thing?


June 13, 2021 Sunday Door prep


I took the brick mold off the outside of the front door.  It came off easily after I scored the stucco and weather stripping.  It’s pretty shocking to see that there was only one shim and one screw holding the door up. The hinges did not reach the jamb, they fell short about a ½ inch. The hinges are only attached to the jamb instead of going through to the bucks. 
I unpackaged the new door in the garage and salvaged the battens to attach around the door.  This was to fasten a temporary tarp while the door is not there.  I went out to Harbor Freight for a tarp and also picked up a new blade for the Oscillating Saw.  There also was a 20% off coupon for this weekend that I used.  On the way back Lowes texted me that my order was ready for pickup.  It was not.  The employee couldn’t even help me retrieve the saw blade.  He went and got another one from stock.  The new blade cuts like a dream.  I had to cut two short pieces for the battens on the side of the door.  A new blade makes a huge difference. 
Libbie made her delicious mushroom pizza for dinner.  I had a glass of Cabernet with the pie.  After dinner we jumped into the hot tub to watch the sunset.   It feels great on my tired knee.  I did quite a bit of reading tonight of the FIT book club book.   It has amazing twists and turns and is quite a well written mystery.


June 14, 2021 Monday Move door


In the garage I finished unpacking the door and door frame. I wheeled the door down the sidewalk  and through the front door with Joe Meyeress help.  I managed to get both doors inside.  They were very heavy.   With Libbie’s help we got the packing materials out of the garage and onto a pile next to the house.  There is so much stuff it may be worthwhile to hire somebody to get rid of this. Add to this the old front doors and then potential sheetrock scraps and it is quite a pile. This wore me down for the rest of the day. After lunch we went to Detweilers for fruit and meat.  I had a Pistachio ice cream in a cup after shopping.  It’s quite good since I have acquired a taste for Pistachio ice cream.  It was Mom’s favorite.   After Detweilers I went to Walmart for groceries and then stopped by Publix for Shrimp.  I’m going to bring a Shrimp Cocktail to Joe and Angela's tomorrow night.  Joe invited us for wine since the neighbors won’t be getting together at the  Gazebo tomorrow night. 
Libbie cleaned up the new door frame that we unpacked then we both carried it into the house, storing it in the dining room.
Libbie made her newest cooking sensation for dinner.  She took chicken and stir fried it with peppers, onions, tomatoes and salsa plus a few spices such as garlic.  Served on a Tortilla it is delicious.  I had a glass of wine with dinner and Detweiler's Chocolate ICe Cream afterwards.  
I named her creation Libbietadas.


June 15, 2021 Tuesday


We waited for our house cleaners, Lynne and Cleber to clean up the house before getting started on any construction work.  When they were done we proceeded with construction.  They do such a good job that it seems a shame that we’re going to mess it up this morning.   
Today I prepped the front door by nailing the old packing battens around the door frame.  Next step was to unfold the tarp and fasten it over the doors.  My first try using brads and the brad gun failed.  The second attempt was to use more battens on top of the tarp to fasten the tarp to the battens. After finishing this up I decided it was good enough for a day's work.  I did not want to remove the doors and then have them sitting around all night without me doing anything.  I’ll wait till morning to pull the doors.  We cooked a pound of shrimp to make a shrimp cocktail to bring tonight to Joe and Angelas.  Angela's sister Olga is in town for another 10 days before she goes back to Columbia.  She is very nice and like Angela but quieter than Angela.  It was a nice evening. Before we went over to Joe and Angelas we had leftover Libbietadas on Tortillas.  We finished the stir fry originally made last night.




June 16, 2021 Wednesday Remove Front doors


This morning I started working on the frame around the glass on the front door. Using the ice pick I bought in Ace Hardware Cary I popped the plastic plugs then unscrewed the underlying phillips head screw.   Once I had the inside frame off it was a matter of popping the window with frame towards the outside of the door.  The windows are very heavy.  Taking both windows out lightened up the door significantly.  I then removed the pins and pulled both doors off the frame.  We piled all this up next to the house.  The scrap pile is getting pretty big.  Once the door was out I was able to pull the frame using a couple of crowbars.  The frame was not secured very well.  It only had a single screw at the top on each side. Regardless, I broke the frame in pieces as I pried it out.  It broke at the fingerstock seams.  Once it was all out I cleaned up misc nails sticking out.  Libbie then nicely used the shop vac to clean up the floor.   I then dry fit the door frame into the opening.  The sheetrock needed a little trimming and the bucks on one side needed a few taps to move them into position so that the door frame fit snugly.  I checked for squareness and it seemed to be very level both on the top and on both sides.  I will soon find out when the doors are hung.  
All this wore me out today.  For dinner we had the Detweiler's ravioli stuffed with spinach and cheese.  Libbie added Marinara sauce and sprinkled the top with cheese.  The pasta was excellent.  After dinner we watched the Ted and Mollie show from yesterday which we did not get to last night since we were out at Joe & Angelas.   It was excellent since they had a lady who played violin while her husband played guitar.  They attempted a violin standard which was the Orange Blossom Special which I loved.  She also played the Clarinet Polka on Violin.  What fun!!! 


June 17, 2021 Thursday Mount door, backwards astragal, book club


I lay down the butyl backed aluminum flashing on the threshold then put down two beads of caulk for the frame to rest on.  The frame went in OK.  I bolted it with 2 screws on the right and 1 long screw on the left. 
With Libbie’s help I was able to move the first door over to the opening.  With some jockeying and blocks under the door we were able to get the hinges lined up then screwed them down.  We did the same to the other door.  Both doors sit inside the frame quite well, straight with no sagging and an even gap where they meet.   The astragal strip is mounted on the wrong side of the door.  The factory mounted it on the inside instead of where it should be on the outside of the door.  I’ll research to see if can be moved.
Book Club was supposed to be at 7 but Libbie was still making the Bok Choy at 6:50 which was too bad because I wanted to participate in the zoom meeting.  I passively watched instead.  It was a small group and the leader spent an inordinate amount of time talking about jury selection rather than the book.  I enjoyed it anyway.  Dinner of course was the Shrimp Bok Choy along with a glass of Cabernet.  We ended up having it in the Family Room in front of the TV.


June 18, 2021 Friday Door screws


This was a day of further securing the front door.  I screwed the jamb and the header to the bucks all the way around.  I partially secured the aluminum sill plate by screwing in 3 or 4 Tapcon screws but did not finish.  I also drilled the ½ inch hole that accommodates the rod in the door astragal to secure the fixed door panel.   I still need to do the upper rod and also more screws in the hinges.  This would go a lot faster if I didn’t have to hobble around on an injured knee.  One days worth of work takes two or more days in my present condition.
Dinner tonight was the leftover Bok Choy from yesterday along with a few glasses of Cabernet.  Libbie is busy making quilting blocks.  She has this project of 10 new blocks a month.  So far she has finished 4 of the June blocks.   We were both wiped out yesterday.  I joked that I don’t really need physical therapy for my knee.  The front door project has me jumping up and down all day long which also tires me out.  This evening I did a cycle in the hot tub and then went upstairs to bed to pass out. 


June 19, 2021 Saturday Door continues


I put the upper stile bolt hole in this morning so the door is now straight.  I then drilled a hole in the door and mounted the door handle.  Overnight I only had the deadbolt mounted and used it to keep the door closed.  The doors still don’t come together evenly in the middle.  I tried moving the jambs with a pry bar but there was no play to do anything.  This is both good and bad.  For wind it is great since the code does not allow shims larger than ¼ inch.  
I finally concluded that the only way to move the door over a little is to shim the bottom hinge.  I will use one of the old hinges to do this but first I have to cut the pin ears off.  I’ll probably have to mount the vice on the garage bench in order to hold the hinge steady enough to cut through it. I ran out to Lowes to do a few returns and also picked up a PVC lattice board which I will use to cover the gap between the two doors. Once I get this item and hinge shim done all I need is two more bolts in the threshold and the door installation will be done.  Next step is to trim it out.
I did my Clarinet lesson today at 2 and had trouble with the ending of Billy Boy.  I tried a little during the lesson with Justin to learn this and then moved on to the next song in the book.  I’m determined to learn this thing.  
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on  the grill with a side of baked beans.  I had some Cabernet with this but held to only one glass.  I sleep better this way.  The hamburgers were delicious.  Libbie commented that such a simple meal is so delicious compared to the Bok Choy which she really worked hard at.


June 20, 2021 Sunday Finish door interior


I started the day off by mounting the vise on the bench in the garage.  I needed this to hold the old hinges I took off the old front doors.  The vise gripped the hinges firmly while I used the Sawzall to cut the ears off.  I used the rest of the hinge as a shim under the existing door hinges to move the doors closer together.  This is an attempt to narrow the gap between the doors.  I also finished putting all the screws in the threshold and in all the hinges including the longer 3 inch screws into each hinge.  
Once all this was done I cleaned up the old interior trim and fastened it to the door using the nail gun.  While doing this  since I had the Miter saw out and the nail gun out I built a box to hold the hardware cloth for Libbie to screen the compost.  I built the screen to exactly fit over one of the large tubs.  I wanted to do some spackling so I took a trip to Lowes and discovered they were out of 1 gallon pails of spackle.  I was able to get the third bolt and nut for my vise and put that on right away.  
Dinner tonight was Libbie’s homemade pizza.  She made a fresh dough today.  The pizza came out extremely well using fresh basil and mushrooms.
I tried reading the new book for the FIT book club but it’s too weird.  I’m not sure if I will finish it.


June 21, 2021 Monday Selby


John was getting a roof project started this morning so I didn’t go in until 9:15.  The new facility on the second floor of the blood bank is quite nice although cramped.  I like it.  I spent the morning trying to resolve some missing specimens.  I took some directory dumps and put them on OneDrive for further processing using Python.
I spent some time on the Amazon website studying Samsung tablets.  This is Prime day and they have 20% or so off on a Samsung Tablet.  With the optional keyboard cover and sales tax the total goes over $600.  I’m trying to decide what I would do with the device.  I would like a second tablet in my office for the play along tracks on Sonos for my Clarinet journey.  I also wanted a keyboard for travel emails, journals, python programming, etc.  I’m still in a quandary.  Prime deals go on for one more day.
I drew the elevator outline on the floor this afternoon in an attempt to see if the wall stub from the sliding door will be in the way. 
I didn’t work on the closet project this afternoon but I did draw up plans for the wall and then went into the garage and searched for appropriate 2x4s to build it.  This will allow me to continue with the wiring.  I also need to pick up a couple of sheets of sheetrock at Lowes.  Most likely I will be renting one of their trucks to bring the sheets home.
Dinner tonight was chicken quesadilla in the air fryer. I had 2 glasses of Cabernet with the meal which was one more than I should have.  I have been trying to cut down on wine in order to improve my sleep. 


June 22, 2021 Tuesday Wall


After ruminating over and over about the merits of the Galaxy S7 with a keyboard vs the cheaper A7 with no keyboard I finally decided to go with it and ordered the S7 with keyboard.  The expensive keyboard is half price during Prime Days.  Today is the last Prime day.  Surprisingly they will deliver it today.BBQ chicken legs with a side of corn and Lima Beans.  Yummy.   At 6:30 we left for Gazebo night.  It was Ginny’s birthday.we gave her a bottle of Prosecco for her birthday.  Angela supplied a cake and a Prosecco toast for everyone.  After our get together we came home and watched Ted and Molly broadcasting for Mollie’s Birthday from her parent’s home.  We missed all the instruments.  They only had a piano and Ted’s accordion. 


June 23, 2021 Wednesday Finish wall, zoom board meeting


I climbed the ladder and tried drilling the wall to insert the rod to pull the wall into place.  After more than an hour of trying to drill including using the heavy 90 degree drill I gave up and used the crowbar to pull the wall down. 
I took Libbie to the surgery this morning at 9:15 then returned to pick her up at 12:30.  She had a cancer spot removed from her face.  On the way home we picked up lunch from Chick Fil A.
I resumed ripping the wall extension apart, shortened it and then reassembled it.  This time it went up without any issues.   I cleaned up all the tools and Libbie nicely vacuumed up the sawdust and dirt from the work area.   We had a simple dinner of Spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.   At 7 PM we put the HOA board zoom meeting on the big screen.   It was a good non-controversial meeting.  After the meeting I went out to Publix for Orange Sherbet.  On the way to Publix I stopped by Ann Saunders home because at the meeting she said she was not getting eMails.  Her email was not in the directory so I collected it from her.  She was sad because her dog passed away.  She is a lovely person.  She invited me in to her tastefully decorated house. 


June 24, 2021 Thursday Flooring, dust


A husband and wife team, Phillip and Nataly, arrived this morning shortly after 8:30 and began moving furniture and tearing up the old flooring.  We are having everything replaced except for the bathroom, kitchen and dining room.  Jackhammering of the floor tiles in the laundry and front foyer created an unbelievable amount of dust.  There is dust on everything - the furniture, the counters, pictures, blinds, etc. What a mess!!!!!!
I went over to Lowes at 10:30 and rented the pickup truck for one hour.  They loaded me up with two sheets of sheetrock which I drove the 1.5 miles to our home.  Fortunately Phillip was in the driveway.  He helped me unload the 12 foot sheets of sheetrock into the garage.   I returned the truck and noted that the total elapsed time from truck rental to truck return was 20 minutes.  Wow!!!
At lunch I went out to Publix and picked up a turkey sub and chips for us.  It started pouring quite a bit of rain around 4 PM when Phillip and Nataly were packing up to leave.  Our house is too much of a disaster to live downstairs so we went out to Plaza Mexico for dinner.  I had the Taco and Enchilada plate.  The Thursday night special was a Jumbo Margarita for $8.25 which we had with our dinner.  It was an enjoyable night out but then we came back to our dusty, dirty  house.


June 25, 2021 Friday Flooring


Philip and Nataly arrived early and resumed jackhammering and tearing up flooring.  By the end of the day they had about 80% of the new flooring down.  The house is covered in dust and filled with mosquitos.  I spent the day working on a Selby compare program comparing camera files between E and Q.  I also communicated back and forth with Namecheap to address a WP login problem.  We can’t login to the backend of WP.  This stuff always happens at the worst time.  I have so much on my plate that it seems overwhelming.
Libbie went to the Ladies luncheon at Brine this afternoon while I stayed here and had the leftover sub sandwich from yesterday for lunch.
When our workers left the flooring job around 6 PM we went out to the Italian Grill around 6:30 PM.   Before leaving I used Yard Guard in our bedroom, my office and the upstairs hallway.  I then sprayed all the areas downstairs except the Kitchen.
Our dinner was a wood fired Pepperoni Pizza with a Stella beer.  We both made pigs out of ourselves.  When we got home we turned into Resort TV1 and watched them stream a concert by the M-80s from Epcot.  The house was still a little smelly from the insecticide we sprayed around.  I opened the bedroom and hallway window upstairs and turned the fans on.  Downstairs was not as bad, probably because I sprayed less in the areas around the kitchen.


June 26, 2021 Saturday finish flooring, run wires


I was planning on working on the closet wiring this morning but while  we were outside talking with Deter and Marie, Philip and Nataly arrived.  We weren’t expecting them until this afternoon.  They finished putting down all the vinyl and left around noon.  Remaining tasks now are installing the quarter rounds and the transitions.   Libbie set up the canvas and saw  horses in the living room and began painting the quarter rounds.  Before this we went out at lunch time to Culvers to try it out.  I had a fish sandwich and Libbie had a Swiss Melt.  We shared an order of fries.  Lucky for us we were given a free vanilla and peanut butter cup concrete.  An employee came into the dining room with a tray and the ice cream on it offering it to us because they made an extra.   On the way home we stopped at Lowes so Libbie could get a paint brush.   
I used the brand new augur bits and easily drilled some holes in the 2x4s of the closet to run wires.  I also set up the miter saw and cut some short boards to space the outlet boxes away from the corners.  I then dragged the nail gun into the house and fastened all the boards.  I next wanted to mount the electrical boxes but I couldn’t find them.  It was frustrating, I looked everywhere.  I checked the garage, the garage closets, the laundry room and the dining room.  I had no luck.  I did find one 4 gang box for the relay card. The relay card will be used for electronic control of the driveway, porch and foyer light.   This will be either a remote control or Alexa controlled.  
It started raining around 6 PM just as Libbie was going to use the grill.  We had grilled Italian Sausage with onions and peppers for dinner as well as baked beans.  I had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  The rain the last few days has been good news.  We had .28 inches today and a half inch yesterday. 


June 27, 2021 Sunday Wiring


Picked up a couple of electrical boxes in Lowes and a can of plaster.  Last week they had none.  Today I got the last can.  I wonder if there is a shortage of this stuff.
At home I disconnected and labeled all the wires going to the 3 switches then removed the wires and rerouted them to the 4 way junction box.  I need to support the other end of the box with a 2x4 or other bracket.  I finished the electrical wiring today but need to run the low voltage cable and the telephone line.
I finished up in time to watch Dinners with Donna at 4 PM.  I’m interested in her Cherry Coke pulled pork.  I may try it in the Slow Cooker this week.
Libbie made her outstanding pizza with tomatoes and fresh basil.  I had some Cabernet with the Pizza.  How nice.  I cleaned up the workspace because tomorrow Philip and Nataly will be back to finish the quarter round.


June 28, 2021 Monday Selby, finish up wiring


I went to Selby this morning but John was not there.  He forgot to tell me.  I tried copying a few files to server directory Q  that were not on the Server.  Later I found out from Bruce that the link to the Server is DSL which is why the upload speeds are so slow.  We’ll need to do this copying on campus instead of remotely. 
I left early and stopped at Costco for wine and coffee.  At home I finished the low voltage wiring and the telephone jack box and wire.  I ended up ordering the jack with cover and a surface mount jack from Amazon.  Now I’m ready for sheetrock.
Philip and Nataly spent the morning putting the quarter rounds down.  He did a great job.  They don’t have the correct size transitions from the floor to the kitchen and for in front of the sliding glass door.  This probably means they don’t get paid until the job is completed.  So far I have only paid 50% down.
We had our daily rain this afternoon which is good news.  The rainy season is underway!  After an extremely dry Spring it’s good to see the rains.  After the rain subsided a little Libbie barbecued some chicken thighs which we had with BBQ sauce.  Accompanying our meal was baked beans and a glass or two of Cabernet.  After dinner we enjoyed Orange Sherbet.  I had to run out to Publix to get more Sherbet because our last carton was almost out.


June 29, 2021 Tuesday cleanup, photos, cheesecake


I worked on the computer and practiced Clarinet while Gislaine and Cleber worked on cleaning all the dust.  They dusted fan blades, window sills, blinds, doors and mouldings.  They also washed the floor 3 times. They spent 3 hours cleaning our home.  I paid them $200.   
In my office I used the Synology Photo App and continued to organize photos and to learn how to load pictures efficiently into the app.  I think I like the app but in the evening I had trouble pulling photos on my tablet using key words.  I’ll try again tomorrow on the tablet with keyboard to see if that’s the difference.
Libbie and I made a trip to Detweilers after Lynn left.  We picked up a pork roast plus fruit and a peach cheesecake. They were sampling it and we liked it so we bought one.  Yum.
I didn’t work on the closet today but I did make a trip to Lowes to get powdered chalk to outline the outlets with chalk to mark the sheetrock for cutouts.  Dinner tonight was mushroom ravioli from Detweilers in Tomato sauce.  Because it was pouring rain we didn’t go to the Gazebo.  Instead Libbie invited Joe and Angela over for dessert.  We served the peach cheesecake.   It was a fun evening with good friends chatting mostly about travel.


June 30, 2021 Wednesday sheetrock


After a Walmart trip for the normal groceries I started measuring for the sheetrock in the former closet.  It’s remarkable that my knee is finally healing after 3 ½ months of pain and immobility.
I cut the piece in the garage including all the cutouts for the filter and the narrower wall near the ceiling.  I brought it inside to mark the electrical boxes but it still needs a little bit of fine tuning to fit properly.  I cleaned up the floor and left the sheetrock standing for the resumption of work tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers on Brioche buns with a slice of Vidalia and tomato and a side of baked beans.  I had a few glasses of Cabernet with the meal and the last of the peach cheesecake for dessert.


July 1, 2021 Thursday Sheetrock cutouts, pulled pork


I worked on fitting the sheetrock into the opening then dusted the boxes with chalk and pressed the sheetrock against the outlet boxes and chalk.  This wore me out since it involved many trips up and down the ladder.  After lunch I went upstairs and took a break for a few  hours, first laying on the bed and then organizing pictures on the Synology.
When I was ready to go I punched nails through the sheetrock at the corners of the faintly traced outlet boxes on the back side.  I moved the sheetrock out and began carefully cutting out the boxes.  When I was done I was a little disappointed because one box did not line up.  I will have to take the box down and shim it with 1/2 inch plywood.  
At 9 this morning I put the pork shoulder into the slow cooker and set it to low.  8 hours later the internal temperature was 190.  I took it out and let it cool on the cutting board for about an hour before tackling it with a knife and gloved hands.  I shredded the pork into a large bowl. 
I made the vinegar sauce while Libbie made a dressing for the slaw.  Dinner was pulled pork on a Brioche bun with a side of slaw.  I had Cabernet with the meal and Orange Sherbet for dessert.  After dinner we watched the return of fireworks to the Magic Kingdom. It was a rainy night so Tink did not fly in Happily Ever After.    We went upstairs to bed around 10 and then watched a little of Cory’s stream from Epcot of the Epcot fireworks which began at 10.  They were not as interesting. 


July 2, 2021 Friday Stiltz Contractor, Sheet rock


We learned the Stiltz contractor will be here at 10 this  morning.  We thought he would be coming from Orlando but found out that Shawn is actually local based out of Bradenton. It was a great and informed visit.  We learned a lot.  The pocket door into the elevator area is not an issue.   He had a template he uses for the elevator cutout.  We took our craft paper and made a trace of his template.  This is what I needed to estimate the elevator footprint.  He said this job was going to be easy.   After Shawn left I shimmed out the outlet that was too far over and raised two of the outlets.  They now fit better into the cutouts of the sheetrock.  
While Shawn was still in his truck the dumpster I ordered yesterday arrived.  It’s a 10 cubic foot. Libbie worked on filling it with all the construction scraps and debris in the garage. I came outside and helped her with the shelf boards since she wasn’t sure which ones were good. 
We picked up all the loose debris outside on the construction pile including 2 pallets 
I placed the sheetrock on the wall but found that I had no sheetrock screws.  A quick trip to Lowes resulted in a one pound box.  These things are a little pricey at 6.58 per pound box.  I completed fastening the sheetrock to the wall.  This worked quite well and looks good.  The other piece on the other wall will be quite easy.  We had an informal dinner of pulled pork on Brioche Buns.  Accompanying this was ColeSlaw and a glass of Cabernet.  We watched the normal Resort TV1 stream.  They covered the fireworks at the MK at 9:15 and then the fireworks at Epcot at 10.  I stayed up and watched the Happily Ever After fireworks and saw Tink fly for the first time in a year.  I then went upstairs and tried watching the Epcot fireworks show at 10 on my tablet in bed but I fell asleep.  It was a productive day.


July 3, 2021 Saturday garage cleaning


Libbie tackled the garage today.  She gave away the tubs to Joe across the street then I helped her load the car with Goodwill stuff including the Mower, Onkyo and speakers.  She also took the 10k BTU AC unit which is from the Apex Playroom but they wouldn’t take it.
Lee and Joe helped me toss the Jazzy into the dumpster.  It’s incredibly heavy and while I was at Lowes Libbie and Joe tried to toss it into the dumpster but  it was too  heavy.  3 guys were able to get the job done.  I cut the 12 foot sheet of sheetrock for the second wall section. I decided to extend it to the edge of the door frame so I removed the left side trim.  I wanted to remove the top trim as well but when I filled the cavity with foam the header trim ended up being glued in place with the foam.  I need a Plan B for the sheetrock. 
I had a pretty good Clarinet lesson today.  The most telling was when Justin played the C Major scale without the proper “oooh” and “ahhh” for below and above the break.  The notes came out horrible just like I have been playing.  All along I thought it was fingering but it was a combination of covering the holes properly and proper voicing. 
Tropical Storm Elsa is still projected to cross directly over Sarasota.  It’s still too early since it’s 3 or 4 days away.  I think it will move more to the West.
Dinner was once again the leftover pulled pork and a little bit of leftover slaw.


July 4, 2021 Sunday sheetrock, door frame


I worked on the piece of sheetrock where I cut out a single outlet and then fit it into the corner between the corner and the door.  All went reasonably well.  I put all the screws into the wall.  I only need to cover the pocket door piece now. 
I went to Lowes to pick up some pieces for the exterior door frame but after talking with Libbie, what I really need is a ¾ inch shim on the door frame and then brick moulding over the stucco.
I’ll wait until tomorrow to get the door moulding.  I am in somewhat of a hurry to get this done because the tropical storm is scheduled to arrive Tuesday.  This will help protect the door frame from wind driven water.  Libbie made a fresh dough today for our pizza.  Dinner was the pizza with fresh cut basil, tomato pieces and mushrooms.  It was delicious.  After dinner we watched Resort TV1.  Josh was streaming the fireworks  for the 4th of July then he streamed an older fireworks recording with two different views.  One from inside the park and one from outside.  It was a nice evening.


July 5, 2021 Monday Official 4th of July Holiday Car troubles, door trim


I tried to go to Lowes early to get the brick moulding for the front door.  My car had about 4 or 5 brake lights so Libbie drove me.  The brake fluid was low so we went to Advance Auto Parts on Clark and picked up a container of brake fluid and stopped by Lowes on the way home for brick moulding.  Unfortunately I topped off the brake fluid and the lights did not go away.  Later I tried the YouTube solution of jumping two pins on the OBDI interface but it didn’t work either.  
I struggled with the shims on the door frame.  The left side of the door has less room between the hinge and the stucco. I chipped away at the stucco making a mess of the wall.  The shim still did not fit so I ended up routing out the shim so it fit.  The next problem was the shim is lower than the stucco.  I went to Lowes and picked up a screen bead to use as more shime material. It was 8 PM so I didn’t put this into the frame.  We’re expecting much rain tomorrow due to tropical storm Elsa.  I have been working at getting the door weather sealed to cope. 
Dinner was Salmon with Broccoli and a glass of Cabernet.  When I picked up the screen bead to use as a shim I also stopped in Publix and picked  up some Mint Moosetracks ice cream for dessert. 


July 6, 2021 Tuesday Lazy Day


This morning we went out to Detweilers with my car with the brake warning light illuminated.  When we came back we worked on getting the cars into the garage.  Because the dumpster is in front of the right side of the garage Libbie had to do some jockeying to get her car in.  Surprisingly both cars fit but it’s a tight fit.   I moved the sheetrock I needed into the house.  I need to sheath the pocket door projection.  I took it easy this afternoon.  Libbie put Lilo and Stitch on from Disney+.   I lay on the sofa then fell asleep for a little bit.  It felt good to rest up.  I was really really tired.  After waking I went into the foyer and started on the sheetrock.  I completed sheathing all sides of the pocket door projection complete with sheetrock screws.  This completes the sheetrocking.  Now it’s time for spackle but I’ll work on the electrical outlets next.  The elevator needs 220 VAC at installation so it can be tested.
For dinner Libbie made a delicious chicken cacciatore mixture in the slow cooker.  We had this over spaghetti.  Wow, was this good.  I had Cabernet with dinner and Mint Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert.  The storm is a category 1 hurricane but it is mostly a non event.  We had one strong gust of 24 MPH. We tuned into Mollie B because it was Tuesday night but the 8 PM show was canceled because Ted was ill.  Oh well, we watched an older episode instead.


July 7, 2021 Wednesday  Electrical outlets


I climbed the ladder and installed the 220 VAC outlet as well as the telephone jack.  Next step was to install the lower outlets which are both 110 VAC.   This concluded my activity for the day.  I didn’t want to get too tired because we were going out with Phyllis and Larry tonight.  
On the Clarinet I recorded my playing with a metronome to see if I was hitting the neat.  I am.
I also tried playing above and below the break doing ooh and ahh.  This was worthwhile doing it with the Clarinet in my mouth. 
Larry and Phyllis picked us up to go to Vincenzia in Venice. Larry is over 90 and should not be driving.  We had several near misses to and from the restaurant.  Oh my.  The special tonight was Prime Rib for $16.95.  This is quite a deal.  We had a pleasant dinner and then went to their house for dessert afterwards.  Very nice.  It was a fun evening out. 


July 8, 2021 Thursday Power


Today was the day to get into the electrical panel and install a 220 VAC breaker for the line running to the elevator.  I first had to go into the garage attic and get the wire over to the spot in the ceiling above the panel.  I used the screw together fiberglass rods I purchased a number of years ago.  These worked well at pushing the wire to the ceiling hole.   I had both ½ inch and ¾ inch pieces of conduit to connect to the panel but I did not have the connector to the panel.   A quick trip to Lowes got me a couple of connectors.   I bought both sizes and made sure to get 2 of each.   While hammering on the knockout to get the steel slug out the screw driver slipped into the panel and cut through a wire causing a large flash and bang.  Surprisingly it took out the main breaker and also melted the wire in half.  This was a setback.  I spliced the broken wire but took advantage of the main breaker being off.  I relocated a few wires to make room for the elevator breaker and also rerouted the foyer/porch/driveway breaker to the other side of the breaker panel.  
When I came into the house I discovered we had no internet.   I thought another wire was melted from the short circuit earlier but it turned out to be the UPS had completely turned off.   I don’t know what caused this and it will need investigating.
Later in the afternoon I decided to order 3 of the blinds controllers.  I spent the extra $15 and had them assembled.  I hope they don’t take forever to get here like the last two I ordered but have not yet assembled.  Since then the software seems to have gotten better and supports Home Assistant.  I registered for the forums and did some reading about it.  Tomorrow I would like to assemble the front blinds controller as a trial. 
Dinner was Chicken Cacciatore over Spaghetti.  This was the last of Libbie’s slow cooker creation.   I had this with 2 glasses of Cabernet even though I was trying to cut back.  We enjoyed Corys view of the MK fireworks.  It was so crowded he walked around the back of the park and streamed the fireworks for a different view.  


July 9, 2021 Friday Attic power


I went up into the attic and opened the junction box where the live feed comes from the breaker panel and supplies the garage outlets.  I tied the 2 new outlets behind the elevator which are 110 V each to this box and closed everything up.  This job was easy but it was incredibly hot in the attic.  After this piece of work I carefully screwed the front back onto the panel.  This concludes the elevator electrical work except for mounting the computer for light control.
I went into my office and soldered all the parts on the PCB for the blinds control.  I had trouble building the connector for the servo and ended up cutting the 3 pin connector off and soldering the servo to the control cable.  I hope this isn’t a problem during installation.  My other issue was sealing the USB connector to the cable.  After soldering the power I was supposed to use a glue gun but I couldn’t find mine.  Therefore I used window caulk to attach and seal the connector.
Next step is to find a power supply and power it up.
I tried once again to reset the brake warning lights on the Prius V.  I had no luck so ended up making an appointment at Sarasota Toyota for a diagnosis.  I will go to the service place tomorrow at 8:30 AM.
Dinner was grilled hamburgers with a slice of tomato and baked beans.  I had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  


July 10, 2021 Saturday Toyota, blinds and 


We took the Prius V to the Toyota dealer at 8:30 AM to diagnose the dash lights. I got a call an hour later telling me that rodents had chewed through the engine cable to the computer.  A new cable is $4,000 and the labor to install it is $2000.   I called Amica and filed a claim because this is covered by comprehensive insurance with only a $100 deductible. They will send an appraiser to the Toyota dealer within the next 3 business days. 
I had a pretty good lesson with Justin at 2.  Beforehand I spent a half hour practicing going from the low register to the upper in the exercise called technique trax.  Justin suggested joining a community orchestra.  He sent me some Google results.  I zeroed in on the Venice community orchestra and visited the website.  They had some YouTube videos online that I cast to the TV so Libbie and I could watch it together.
In my office I powered up the blinds controller and was delighted to see it put out an access point for configuration.  Unfortunately that is all I could get it to do.  Perhaps I will update the firmware next time. 
Travis the handyman was working next door pressure washing the house in prep for painting.  Libbie asked him if he does sheetrock and he said yes.  He came over and looked at the job and said he could do it.  Hopefully this is true. 
Dinner tonight was pork chops, broccoli and baked potato with sour cream.  We finished the last of a bottle of Cabernet (2 glasses) with dinner.   I continued reading the book I bought on Bookapy, Swish.  I’m enjoying it.


July 11, 2021 Sunday blinds


After the morning programs I watched Richard Branson take off in his space plane.  Compared to SpaceX it’s juvenile and childish.  I watched it anyway. This wasted the whole morning.
In the afternoon I continued working on the blinds controller.  I finally got it to join our WiFi network and then do an over the air update.  The firmware is now at V7.  This was autodetected by Home Assistant which is good news.  I resumed the mechanical assembly which was difficult without good instructions. I managed to get it to the point where it can be mounted into the front blinds. When I completed this I resumed reading the book Swish which is not fine literature but I’m enjoying it quite a bit. 
At 4 I went downstairs to watch Dinners with Donna.  She was on her own with the camera work and initially had some difficulty with resolution.  It eventually settled down.  She made cheesecake and chicken in the Instapot.  This didn’t sell me on the device.
Libbie made her yummy pizza again with fresh basil, tomatoes and mushrooms.  This was really really good.
I spent some time today tracing my timeline of the Clarinet journey from purchasing my first used one in Sam Ash through the various lessons.  I put all this on LifeBits.


July 12, 2021 Monday blinds


Today I took down the front foyer blinds upstairs and fitted the servo motor into the top.  The plastic of the blinds cracked and I lost a sizable chunk off the end.  Thank goodness the false piece that is placed over the front covers up the cracked piece.   I still need to do some adjustment because the servo pops up out of the opening when the blinds are closed. It returns when the blinds rotate the other way.  I set up a little routine in node-red to control the blinds at sunrise and sunset.  I waited for sunset and was disappointed when it didn’t work.  After dinner I did some debugging and comparison to the landscape timer.  I’m using the Scargill BigTimer object in node-red.  I discovered that the latitude and longitude were not set.  I can’t believe I left out this important detail.  I copied the numbers from the landscape big timer and set it up to try again.  Next opportunity is sunrise at 6:46 AM tomorrow morning. 
I heard from the Toyota dealer that they have not heard from the appraiser.  A few minutes later the appraiser called so I sent them to the Toyota dealer.  Hopefully this will all get settled.  Shortly after that Heather from Stiltz called.  She wanted to start the elevator install Wednesday.  I told her we would be out of town but I could come back Wednesday night and asked if she could start Thursday.  She called back and said that Thursday is OK.   I went online and canceled the Wednesday Comfort Suites reservation.  It will have to be another time for an Orlando museum adventure. 
Now I need to scramble and hook up the landline for the elevator.  
For dinner tonight I made our old Quick Taco salad.  This is beef and peppers sauteed with salsa and poured over a bed of lettuce.  For toppers I added tomato, crumbled tostada chips, green onion and sour cream.  A few glasses of Cabernet accompanied the meal. 


July 13, 2021 Tuesday Telephone, Stiltz


The upstairs foyer blinds opened automatically at sunrise today.  Yeah!  Lynn and Cleber came this morning and did their beautiful cleaning job.  Before they came I hooked up the jack for the upstairs telephone.  After Lynne and Cleber left I hooked up another router into the Mesh system and added the Obi200 to it before plugging it into the newly installed jack.  I couldn’t find the second OBI200 so I used the one from the telephone downstairs.  I plugged a phone into the jack in the former closet downstairs and it worked.  Unfortunately later in the day I discovered that the newly added router took the mesh network down.  This needs to be investigated.  
Today I used the extension ladder and climbed onto the porch roof for the first time in a long time.  My knees felt pretty good.  I cleared the pine straw from the screen cage  and cleaned out the gutter.  We’re ready for the next rain event.
Libbie went to Selby this morning.  She visited the Highwaymen show which opened this week.   I want to also get over there. Shawn from Stiltz called to say he had a guy driving down from Gainesville to look at the job and make a materials list.  He thought they were going to start tomorrow, Wednesday.  I told him no, it was Thursday.  They had made a hotel reservation down here in Sarasota that was non refundable.  They will send the guy from Sarasota to a job in Parrish tomorrow instead.  Billy from Stiltz arrived around 4:30 PM.  He took some measurements to figure out what size wood he needed to buy.  He was a nice guy.  He dropped off the insert and also the side support rails.  We have all this in the garage. 
At 6 PM we went out to dinner at Plaza Mexico on Stickney.  This is our favorite  Mexican place.  It was quite crowded with many families at 6 PM.  We waited 25 minutes for a table.  We enjoyed our table when we finally got seated.  It was in the corner in the bar area and was nice and quiet.  I had a Chimichanga which I have become hooked on.  We had Margaritas with chips and salsa before the meal.  I have been having trouble with the frozen Margaritas.  It freezes my throat so I have been having Margaritas on the rocks.  We got home around 8 PM and tuned in to Ted and Mollie.  They were streaming from Mollie’s Dad’s garage.  He built them a stage in his garage.  They apparently were in the audience in the garage.  It’s a fun family affair.  When it was over I was really tired. 


July 14, 2021 Birthday


At 9:30 this morning we left for Lake Mary.  Traffic on I-4 was the usual stopped near US 27 and also stopped through the Disney area.  Surprisingly downtown Orlando was OK.  We stopped on Lake MAry Blvd at 7-11 for gas and then McDonalds for a bathroom.  McDonalds always has clean rest rooms.  The 7-11 was awful, especially the moron in a truck playing his stereo so loud it hurt my ears.  With all this we arrived at Cynthias at 12:34 for the 1:00 party.
She outdid herself with the decorations and banners.  There was plenty of food for everyone.  She had about 25 people.  After some nice sauerkraut & kielbasa and a few stuffed peppers we sang Happy Birthday and there was a cake.  She also had fried chicken, meatballs and buns but I didn’t take any of those.
We left the party around 3:00 PM but had to visit Jack’s Tesla.  I wasn’t really interested but we went and then toured Jack’s junky trailer. I could not live like that.  The roof leaked and water stained the wall and messed up part of the floor.  The floors weren’t that great to begin with and were a terrible patchwork of different flooring types.  We finally got going around 3:30 and took the toll road SR 417 around Orlando.  We got off on US 441 and then US 17.  At one point we were stopped and creeping for almost an hour.  Finally we got back onto I-4 again and were moving long at 70 MPH.  There were a few slowdowns but nothing very bad.  My knee was killing me so before Lakeland I pulled into a rest area and Libbie took over.  Her Prius is not the best for tall people.  The console blocks my foot from moving anywhere. 
With Libbie driving the rest of the trip went smoothly.  We had no  more events and no rain.  (While on the 417 toll road it was pouring rain.)  We stopped by Chick Fil A on Clark and Honore  and picked up 2 chicken sandwiches and fries for dinner.  We ate the fries before we got home.
It was great to be home again.  Tomorrow the elevator construction crew should arrive.


July 15, 2021 Thursday construction


Billy, Al and Shawn arrived at 8 this morning and got to work.  They set up a tent in the driveway for the saw and began cutting the floor truss and reinforcing the floor.  While this went on I spent the morning in my office working on getting the blinds to respond to Alexa.  It doesn’t seem like I can use the same name for the device and the same name to invoke it via Alexa.  I may have to change the blinds name to something else so I can call them Foyer Blinds in Alexa. 
During the day Billy called me over and said he has to move the AC duct which means buying an extension.  I approved the purchase and signed a change order put together by Shawn.  They are billing me $100 for materials and $75 for labor for a total of $175 extra.  This isn’t too bad. They finished the construction phase of the job today.  Tomorrow a crew is driving from Orlando with the cab and motor and should have it all hooked  up by the end of the day. 
We met our new neighbors, Andrew and Peter.  They seem to be pretty nice guys.  They were going to the Sarasota Chemical waste disposal and took our two 5 gallon paint cans we inherited with the house.  This was great but Libbie didn’t know the two batteries should also go.  They were from the Jazzy. 
Amica approved the car repair for $6000 less my $100 deductible.  This was a good deal. I called Arlene for her Anniversary today and asked her about Kielbasa recipes.  I’m going to get Kielbasa at the German butcher shop and make it with the sauerkraut from Costco.  It will  probably be in the slow cooker.  
Dinner tonight was simple spaghetti with cheese.  We watched Cory at the opening of the Epcot Food and Wine festival.   His food reviews are so good.  It was fun to see him try a super hot dish, the Mango Habanero Chicken Wings.  It was a very good and fun stream!!!


July 16, 2021 Friday elevator


Billy and Al came at 8 and resumed the elevator construction work.  At 9 AM a trailer arrived with the elevator and 2 more Stiltz guys.  Billy and Al left around noon - the construction phase was done.  Stiltz guys Germaine and Justin spent the afternoon hooking up the elevator.  By 4 PM it was ready.  LIbbie and I got a walk through and each rode the elevator to the top and back down.  I hooked up the wireless adapter and plugged it to the telephone jack upstairs.  The elevator phone worked fine.  
While the elevator construction was going on I installed Kicad  and went through some of the YouTube tutorials.  I found some of the missing component footprints and imported them.  I’m ready now to begin wiring the parts together onscreen.  
Libbie put some chicken thighs on the grill for dinner.  We had BBQ chicken thighs, Lima beans and corn and a glass of Cabernet for dinner.   It has been a pretty good day.  The construction is finally coming to an end. 


July 17, 2021 Saturday plaster


I tried to learn how to make footprints in Kicad but around 9 Travis arrived to begin the sheetrock plaster work.  He is doing a fantastic job,  Before Travis came Joe came over. He rode the elevator to the second floor.  We had to park it there for Travis to do his plaster work.
I had a glitch with my zoom lesson with Justin this afternoon.  If you sign too early into zoom and when my turn came the connection didn’t go through.  Justin texted me to disconnect and reconnect.  We finally got through and had my lesson. 
We went to Detweilers for our fruit and proteins.  I picked up some bay scallops which are tiny scallops as my impulse purchase.   We also bought a delicious pound cake, one of the best pound cakes ever. J
When I got home I talked to a Denton person named Anne, a friend of Anne Nicholas.  Anne N. said she just wanted some advice.  Reality was she wanted someone to build a website for her.  Yikes!  I was pissed off at this.  This is such a monumental task and it’s treated as something that could be just put together instantly.  After that I talked to John Salventi.  He wanted me Tuesday but I agreed on Wednesday.  He is concerned that John Clark is there with 8 students getting into our database.  
Before dinner I installed the shelf upstairs and started hooking up the wireless telephone adapter, making it neater than a pile of wires on the floor.   I still need to put cable ties on the wires to dress them up.
Dinner was NY Strip Steak that we picked up in Detweilers along with a baked potato and sour cream.  Some Cabernet accompanied the meal.


July 18, 2021 Sunday Door trim


After the CBS Sunday morning show I went to Walmart for normal groceries plus the ingredients to make the ice cream cake I am planning for Tuesday night.  
At home I started outdoors by caulking around the door then moved the miter saw to the sidewalk in front of the house.  It was warm outside so I came in to take a break and have a glass of water. After cooling down I cut the spacers for the left side of the door frame and nailed them down.  Next step was the brick moulding around the door.  This went better than expected.  I switched to 2 inch long nails in the nail gun and put the frame on.  It’s a simple job but time consuming to get neat mitered corners.  Once nailed I ran a bead of caulk around the door frame on all 3 sides.  I put down a coat of spackle on the nail holes but will probably sand it lightly and apply more spackle before final painting.  I also did the inside of the door on the door jamb but did not tackle the door trim yet.  I’ll finish that up  when the spackle is done. 
I continued working on learning Kicad and building the blinds schematic.  I created a footprint for the ESP8266 and also created a custom footprint.  I really need my calipers to accurately measure device pin diameters.  I really wish I knew where all the devices went - my calipers, the micrometer, etc. 
Libbie made her delicious pizza from scratch including making a new dough.  Toppings were mushrooms, fresh basil and fresh tomato pieces.  It was fantastic.  We had the pizza with a glass of Cabernet.


July 19, 2021 Monday plaster, stucco and cake


I worked on the stucco around the front door and mixed up  a batch of hydraulic cement to do some patching.  Tomorrow I’ll paint the stucco.  Travis arrived later in the morning and started unloading his plaster but was interrupted by Peter and Andrew next door.  Those guys are going back to Toronto tomorrow and need to pick house paint colors before they go.  Travis is going to paint their house.  Eventually Travis started sanding and plastering the next coat.  It’s looking pretty good!  Unfortunately his sanding with the fan on has thrown dust all over the house.
I continued to build a footprint for Kicad.  I’m more or less getting the hang of making new parts even though this design only has 3 modules.
I started making the ice cream cake but needed to run over to Walmat to get another box of Blue Bunny ice cream sandwiches.  While there I picked up 2 bottles of Cabernet and 2 bottles of Brut Champagne.   At home I made the ice cream cake without further issue and placed it on the bottom of the freezer drawer.   For dinner tonight Libbie made hamburgers on the grill which we had with slices of tomato and baked beans.  A glass of Cabernet completed the meal.  Dessert was the Detweiler's pound cake with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  How decadent!
We continued to watch the TV series “McCartney” which is chock full of Beatles music and how each piece was made as described by Pau McCartney.  This was all on Hulu.


July 20, 2021 Tuesday Happy Birthday party


The neighbors are coming over tonight.  I started outside by taping the door frame and then painting the stucco around the frame.  I previously patched all the holes and the missing chunks from removing the old door. After a few hours I removed the tape.  I’ll paint the door later this week.  It uses a darker color than the stucco. 
Next I spread around the two bags of mulch from this spring.  I couldn’t spread them back then  because my knee was injured but now all is somewhat well.
In my office I continued to work on the footprints for the blinds controller.  I have now figured out what I want to do and should be able to wrap this up tomorrow.
The neighbors all came over at 6:30 for the little party.  I set up everything in the Family Room and the Living Room but everyone ended up in the Living Room.  Fortunately we had enough chairs to go around using the dining room, kitchen and island chairs.  It was a nice party, even Phyllis and Larry came by.  I had nachos with queso, cheese and crackers and shrimp set out.  For beverages I served Proseco, Champagne and Cabernet in addition to water.   It was a very nice party.
For dinner I went out earlier in the evening and picked up a turkey sub in Publix.  Libbie and I split half of a half sub.  We’ll have the other half tomorrow for lunch.  I made dinner reservations at Bodrum for tomorrow evening.


July 21, 2021 Wednesday Libbie’s Birthday


This morning I used Libbie’s Prius to go over to Lowes ang get a sheet of Luan plywood. I had them take 8 inches off the edge to fit into the hatch.  I cut the piece to fit the opening over the ac return duct but did not install it.  I’ll do that tomorrow.  I attended the Lunch and Learn zoom from MIT about space junk cleanup using robotic spacecraft.  It was excellent.  Libbie got a birthday call during the zoom and Joe came to the door a little later.  Despite all this it was still an outstanding Lunch and Learn.   
I finished creating Kicad footprints and wired up the blinds controller on screen.  Now I need to figure out how to create a PCB and get this wired.  I picked out a few tutorials to watch later.
We went to Bodrum at 6 PM for a 6:30 PM appointment.   ERsen and Julia were not there but our waitress Danielle said she called them and they wished us well and complimented a bottle of wine for us.  How nice.  We started with the appetizer which was a Pistachio Bomb.  Wow, was it good.  It was a greek yogurt with pistachios and other goodies with a side of pita bread slices.  For dinner we both had the ground lamb with lettuce salad and rice.  Neither of us could finish the meal.  What a nice evening.  When we came home we had birthday ice cream cake and watched Ted and Mollie that we didn’t see last night.  They were broadcasting from her Dad’s garage once again.


July 22, 2021 Thursday Plywood


I cut a piece of luan plywood to cover the AC area of the elevator surround.  With a little work I got it to fit nicely.  I hooked up the 5 volt power supply in the lower A socket but chose not to install the computer above because the box was filled with dust.  I would vacuum out the dust but there is more sanding and dust to come.  I don’t want the relays covered in dust. 
Next I went upstairs and continued to work on learning Kicad and continued to lay out the PCB for the blinds.  I also did some research on 3d printers and ended up ordering one from Amazon. It’s the Creality 3d Pro.  I also ordered a roll of white filament.  I’ll use this to print a stepper motor mount for the blinds. 
I continued working the PCB and ended up manually wiring it twice.  The last time I printed the design and discovered the Lolin part covers up the pins for the stepper motor.  I need to unwired everything and move the stepper pins up beyond the edge of the Lolin module.  It was too late to rewire it again, I’ll deal with it tomorrow.  Dinner this evening was spaghetti topped with cheese.  We had more of the birthday cake for dessert.  


July 23, 2021 Friday Oshpark


Libbie and I went to Selby this morning to see the  Highwaymen paintings.  They have an excellent collection of paintings on display.  When we arrived  the Botany building was coming down.  I parked nearby and went to the fence to get some photos.  I got a nice movie of the digger grabbing big chunks of the herbarium and putting them into a big dump truck.  After this we went inside and visited the conservatory.  After admiring the Orchids and other botanica we walked to the Payne Mansion.  Inside the Highwaymen art was stunning.  They had an outstanding collection of paintings on display.  I really enjoyed it.  We next went over to the Palm Ave parking garage behind the Opera House.  The first two hours are free.  We got a nice table under an umbrella on the sidewalk where we ordered a meatball sandwich and a Stella beer. They were out of Yuengling.   It was a leisurely and enjoyable lunch.
When I got home I continued working on the Blinds Controller.  I did an initial upload to Oshpark.  They couldn’t find the board outline.  I did the board outline again using the Cuts layer and tried again.  This time they took the project without errors.  I reviewed the various layers and went to the checkout screen and paid $18 for 3 boards, 1.8 x 2 inches each. This was as small as I could make it.  I have had enough problems with USPS shipping that I skipped the free shipping and went for 2 day Fedex.  
Dinner was kielbasa and sausage from the slow cooker.  I wasn’t happy with the meal.  The Sauerkraut was too tart and there was not enough Kielbasa.  I added potatoes 3 hours before the meal was done and they didn’t get done either.  They were a little too firm for eating.  Tomorrow I will add more kielbasa and brown sugar then cook it for many more hours, mostly to soften the potatoes.  We watched a little of Jenna with Resort TV1 then went upstairs to read.  My filament came today for the 3D printer.  I bought a roll of white, mainly to build the motor supports for the stepper motor. 


July 24, 2021 Saturday Clarinet


I spent a lot of time watching YouTube tutorials on  how to use Scad and what the process is to go from OpenScad to a printed model.  I found the numbers in OpenScad are mm.  The stepper motor 3d model from The Hookup on Github has the block width set to 47 which is 47mm.  This  is 1.85 inches which is just shorter than the width of my blinds.  I’ll need to get a more accurate measurement with my calipers.  The output from OpenScad is an STL file which should go into a slicer program.  The Open Source Slicer named Cura is the most popular and is what I downloaded.  The output from Cura goes onto an SD card for printing by the Creality Ender Pro.
At 2 PM I waited for Justin to show up for my Clarinet lesson but he wasn’t there. Texting back and forth he had taken another student who signed in early and got confused.  I had  my lesson at 2:30 instead.  No lesson next week as I transition to Tuesday evenings. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover Kielbasa and Sauerkraut.  We had wine with this and the last of the Vanilla Ice Cream we purchased from Detweiler's last Saturday. 


July 25, 2021 Sunday 3d printer


After the CBS Morning News shows which I hardly paid attention to I went upstairs and watched some more tutorials about the Ender printer and how to design using the various CAD programs.  I specifically was looking into which programs are able to modify an STL file.  The one I like, which is OpenScad, does not import STL files, it only creates them. 
I watched Donna do her Marathon birthday stream cooking for a tea party.  She started at 2 PM and I gave up at 9 PM watching it on and off. 
In the late afternoon the 3D printer arrived.  I chose to use the dining room table to assemble it.  There are many pieces and no written instructions, only a pictorial assembly guide.  It takes a little studying of each picture to figure out what pieces are involved, what screws to use and how to orient the parts.  Some are simple but others are a puzzle.
Libbie made her excellent pizza again.  I had to run out to Walmart for pizza cheese and picked up a few other items while there.  Dinner was the pizza with a few glasses of Cabernet.


July 26, 2021 Monday Selby, Printer


I went over to Selby at 9:30 and met John and Bruce in front of the old Botany building.  We went through the fence and set up my workstation in the trailer being used by Horticulture.  I was able to run Beyond Compare  from a USB drive.  I previously installed it this morning while watching GMA.  I upgraded the standard edition to the Pro version.  This gives  me the ability to reach more drives such as One Drive and Dropbox.   It was $30 for the upgrade.  I have been very happy with Beyond Compare over the years, probably the last 20 or more.  
When I got home Libbie was out at the ladies monthly luncheon.  She went to Kikis this time.  Kiki is next to Harbor Freight.  I was working in my office when she arrived.  Libbie called ahead and told  me to open the garage door because it was raining.  I was able to use the MyQ app on my phone from my office to open the door.  Libbie brought me half a turkey wrap for lunch.  It was very good with bacon bits in it for some good flavor. 
I watched a pretty good OpenScad tutorial about making a project case including recessing the lid and putting in posts in the corners to hold the lid.  It’s a great model for further project cases. I need to find the screw inserts.  The 1,000 foot roll of 22 gauge wire I ordered came this afternoon via UPS. This is the thinnest wire around for  2 conductor 22 gauge wire.  
I continued to  assemble the printer.  The head was problematic.  The first time I mounted it upside down.  The next time it was on the wrong side of the bar.  The third time seems to be correct.  I plugged the printer in and used the menu to Home the x, y and z coordinates. Now all I need to do is level the table and start printing. 
Dinner was Chicken Quesadilla in the Air Fryer.  We had this with sour cream and Salsa.  I also had 2 glasses of wine with the meal.  After dinner I continued working on the printer and finally got it all together.  I need to move it  upstairs for actual printing.  


July 27, 2021 Tuesday Printer, Tuesday night


I brought the printer and all the tools upstairs this morning because Gisleine and Cleber will be cleaning the house.  While they cleaned I tried leveling the printer bed but had no luck. I ended up watching some YouTube videos and discovered that the stop for the z direction needed to be adjusting but there is a tab that interferes.  I cut that off and now had more range of adjustment.  I need to adjust the printer head first and then set the position of the z home switch.
It was raining most of the afternoon so we chose not to go to the Gazebo.  Joe and Angela invited us over for Arepas and wine.  We brought our last bottle of Proseco over.  Angela had Arepas they bought at the Colombian store. She cut an Avocado in half and then spread the contents over the toasted Arepa.  Some Andouille sausage cooked in the air fryer and cut up over the surface of the Avocado made a filling and delicious sandwich.  It was a nice evening of wine and chatting with our neighbors. 


July 28, 2021 Wednesday Prius V, Auto leveling


I spent quite a bit of time today trying to get the 3D printer bed leveled.  I managed to get one corner set OK after doing a home position. The other corners all seemed to be out of reach of the adjustment knobs.  I finally gave up after watching half a dozen leveling videos and concluded that the best approach was to purchase the BLtouch self leveling option made by Creality, the printer manufacturer.  Amazon had it for $42 with delivery tomorrow. 
I picked my Prius up at 3 PM and left Libbie’s Prius behind.  Robert in Service showed me the photos from his phone of the inside of my car.  They had to remove the entire dashboard.  They also removed the headlights and front bumper.  The car has been essentially rebuilt. The nice part is they washed the car and then detailed it which means they vacuumed and cleaned the inside.  It looks pretty sharp.  On the way home I stopped in Costco and picked up coffee, wine and Salsa.  I also brought home a Rotisserie Chicken.. They unbelievably are still $4.99 and they are large.  Libbie was at the Opera and was supposed to come home at 6:30 but she surprised me and came home at 4:15.  We went immediately to get Libbie’s car.  If I knew she was going to be home this early we could have done this in one trip.
Dinner tonight was the Rotisserie Chicken with Baked Beans and a glass of Cabernet. After dinner we watched Mollie B from this past Tuesday night. 


July 29, 2021 Thursday sliding door lock, auto leveling


We left for Detweilers at 9 to get our produce.  We heard from Travis while en route.  He’s coming over this morning to sand and spray the stipple coat.  We told him we’re coming in 30 minutes.  We texted Angela and told her lunch was out today at the Colombian Restaurant.  When we got home Travis arrived while we were unpacking groceries.  He spent the day sanding and then spray painting.  Saturday he’ll paint the final coat.   Our house is dusty once again!!!  Libbie and I started wiping down surfaces after he left.  I can’t wait for all this to be done.  In my office I studied auto leveling the printer bed in preparation for the auto leveling upgrade to arrive today.   When the kit arrived I began immediately to install it on the printer.  Thank goodness for YouTube!  With the onscreen tutorials I was able to install it without any issues.  I also watched a YouTube video about a 12 V sliding door lock. I liked it so much I ordered one for the back door along with a Shelly-1 to control it with MQTT and home assistant.
Dinner was the rest of the Rotisserie Chicken along with Baked Beans and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched an old Mollie B episode before I went upstairs and played with auto leveling a little more on the 3d printer.  I need an instruction sheet on what the procedure is for auto leveling, specifically how to set the Z offset.  This is the part I’m missing.


July 30, 2021 Friday Printing, License Plate Error


I created a procedure for bed leveling and z offset on the 3 d printer. I did this from watching a few YouTube videos.  I also picked up some paint at Lowes and found the Ginger plant that Libbie always admired at Joe Meyeress’s house. While out I went across the street from Lowes and found the ATM in Target.  Libbie wanted $200.  Some of this went into Emily’s birthday card which I also found in Target. 
Once home I applied the protocol I wrote and did the bed leveling and z offset on the printer.  I did this twice before starting the printer on my first object - the stepper motor holder for the blinds.  The first  time came out quite well.   The block of plastic had a raft around it I found out was an option in the Creality slicer.  Also the wiring hole is too small and the block could stand to be a tad smaller.  I knocked 2 mm off the X direction for the next one, enlarged the cutouts in the corners and made the wiring hole bigger.  This was easy.  I turned the printer loose and printed the second block.  This came out quite well.  The raft at the bottom was gone.  The printer goes through a strange set of movements that does not print anything for the first 3% of the object. I kicked off a 3rd printing, this time on glass, and it did the same thing.  It didn’t print anything for the first 3%.  The third object came out as well as the other 2 except I lost the first one I printed.  Oshpark notified me that they shipped my PCB with delivery Tuesday.  I can’t wait.  I’ll have 3 blocks ready for the 3 circuit boards.  I plan to do the blinds in our bedroom facing West and then move downstairs to the West Family Room blind and finally the living room before ordering the next batch of PCBoards.  Dinner was Chinese takeout.  We drove to New China in Nokomis for 2 egg rolls and the 4 meat dinner and had it at home along with some Cabernet.  After dinner I watched Resort TV1 at the MK before going upstairs to print the third stepper holder mentioned above.  In today’s mail Libbie got a toll notice from SunPass.  They scanned the plate wrong.  It was a pickup truck.  I used a magnifying glass and found the second digit was an H instead of the D that is on Libbie’s plate.  I filed a dispute online with Sunpass.   They are supposed to respond in 3 business days.


July 31, 2021 Saturday 3d, Travis painting


This morning I started by looking at the blinds 3d plastic blocks.  I fitted one into the Laundry Room blinds and it fit perfectly.  Travis showed up next door this morning to paint the trim for HOA approval.  Next he came here and began painting the walls.  He informed me that we were going to need more paint.  I went out to Lowes and bought a second can and also picked up some red wire nuts and a can of spackle. It took a while at Lowes because it was Saturday and I had to wait for a few orders in front of me. Eventually I brought the paint back for Travis and it was on time before he needed it.  The paint job so far looks great.  We are pretty lucky to have found Travis.  I printed the receiver for the sliding door latch.  Tomorrow I’ll print the section holding the device itself in a case with the Shelly MQTT module.  It will take 6 hours to print.  The receiver as well as the stepper holders each tak a few minutes more than an hour to print.  I modified 3 of the stepper motors for use in the blinds controller.  I have one installed and a second was already modified so that makes all 5 of the first bunch done.  I need to order more steppers and also get busy designing a remote control case. 
For dinner tonight Libbie sliced up the Eggplant we picked up this week and made her version of Eggplant Parmesan.  It included onions, garlic, peppers and fresh tomatoes.  It was outstanding.
After dinner we watched Josh doing some experiments with 4K streaming at the MK.  I then went upstairs at 8:30 to continue reading “The Quiet Americans” because that is the book club discussion this coming Wednesday night.  Right on time I posted about $1,000 worth of dividends for the end of July and also for August from the Fidelity portfolio.  


August 1, 2021 Sunday planting, printing, paint finished


Travis came over early this morning and started putting the second coat of paint on the walls.  He also attempted to fixup the popcorn ceiling while he painted the ceiling.  It still doesn’t look great.  He’s going to come back with roll-on popcorn to see if that will work.  We think it’s fine.  I went to Lowes and bought a can of Spray Wise Window cleaner and a microfiber cloth to clean the inside of the elevator.  That stuff does a great job.
In my office I printed the holder for the electromagnetic lock that is coming from Amazon for the sliding glass door.  I had some trouble getting started.  The first few layers did not stick and were lifting off.  I let it go for a while and soon it was printing OK.  This holder required around 6 hours of printing.  It came out pretty good but needs a little sanding around the edges where it flashed over.  
Libbie reported ants coming in the West downstairs window.  I took out the bug spray and sprayed the entire foundation as well as the stream of ants.  When the insecticide dried after an hour or so I took the tube of caulk and touched up the caulking around the window.  The ants were getting into a void in the caulking.  I went around the house and touched up the caulk on all the windows. 
This afternoon I planted the red Pentas plant I bought earlier in the week.  What was significant with this is that I was able to get down on my hands and knees on the knee pad.  I dug the hole, planted the Pentas  and then filled up the sprinkler can with fertilizer water.  I soaked the ground around the Pentas and used the remaining water on adjacent plants.  Let’s see how this works out.  The pushbuttons and the additional stepper motors arrived from Amazon.  I now have 10 motors, 5 of which have been modified.  With the exception of the PCBoards I have all I need for the blinds controllers.  The remotes need a box design and an order of the NodeMCU chips.  I have not ordered the NodeMCU chips yet.  The P Channel FETs are coming from China and the buttons are here now.  Libbie made fresh dough for the pizza tonight.  It was delicious, made with fresh basil and mushrooms.  


August 2, 2021 Monday Selby, electrical outlets


I printed the August quilt pattern for Libbie before I went to Selby at 9.   At Selby I learned Georeferencing from John.  My password did not work but our accountant Mandy is also the IT person.  She is a beautiful thin blonde who is also very friendly.  I like her.  We got the password resolved and I was able to log in.  John instructed me in geo-referencing.  We are using Jim’s output where he determined which coordinates were in the wrong political division or even the wrong country.   I’m verifying the software results and creating a spreadsheet entry for updating Brahms.  This also involves looking up the uncertainty in the Selby database.  I left there at noon and stopped at the Colombian store to pick up Arepas for dinner tonight.
At home I worked on the electrical outlets and replaced the two in the hallway.  I had to run out to Lowes and get an outlet cover.  The very loose outlet in the hallway was actually broken in half.  I replaced it and also used a spacer to raise the lower end which was sunkent.  The upper end only needed a nut to raise it a little bit.  The outlet is much more firm and actually looks good.  The sliding door magnetic latch arrived from Amazon this afternoon.  It fits  perfectly in the 3d printed part I made yesterday.  Next step is to figure out the thickness of the shim that is required.  While in Lowes today I bought long #8 screws to hold the latch on the door frame.  The holes in the latch and the 3d model are sized perfectly for a #8 screw.  The Clarinet took a back seat today to all the other activities.  No practice today.
For dinner I tried toasting the Arepas but the toaster oven did not do the trick.  I then put one on a skillet on the stove and toasted one in Olive Oil.  Neither solution was great.  The Avocado was not fully ripe but we tried with what we had and managed to coat two of the Arepas.  The Chorizo cooked up very well in the air fryer and was delicious.   I cooked 3 of the sausages and even Libbie liked the sausage.  It was like a mild Italian Sausage.  


August 3, 2021 Tuesday Rain, PCB, Clarinet, Party


I planned to set up the saw in the driveway but it started raining and continued raining all day.  Instead I worked on the solenoid latch for the sliding glass door.  I had to jumper out the reed switch that disables the latch until the receiver with a magnet is nearby.  I tried to reverse the solenoid to make the lock stay locked with no power and then unlock when powered.  I couldn’t get this to work.  Next I hooked up the Shelly and packed everything into the printed case but with the shelly attached the transformer only put out 3 volts.  It was 12V without load.  I may have gotten a bad batch of transformers which were pretty cheap on Amazon.   I think I got screwed.  The PCB finally came via FedEx at 5:05.  I had a Clarinet lesson at 5:15 so I didn’t get to play with it too much.  Two problems became apparent right away.  The pin strip holes for the stepper motor are a little tight.  I used a hammer to tap the pins into place.  The more serious problem is the width of the LoLin chip.  I used 0.9 inches and it is 1.1 inches wide.   The hole sizes are all good.  In the next batch I will adjust the Lolin spacing and enlarge the holes a little for the pin strip.  Assuming this design works, everything else is good.   In this version I will have to wire the Lolin leads by hand on one side where the design is too narrow.  
We had some of the eggplant for dinner after my Clarinet lesson and then went to Chris and Steve’s house for Chris’s birthday party.  It was nice to see all the neighbors there.  We had Prosecco and birthday cake.  We had a fun evening then headed back to watch Ted and Mollie live from Mollie’s Dad’s garage.   It was a shortened but fun program.  I then went upstairs into my office and soldered the pins for the sockets but did not power anything up.  It was bed time.


August 4, 2021 Wednesday blinds, slides


We woke this morning to rain.  This dashed my plan to trim out the  elevator since I need the saw in the driveway.  I continued to build the PC Board.  Accommodating the narrow Lolin footprint was easy.  There were only 3 connections on that side plus an optional ground.   The more difficult job was programming the Lolin.  It was not recognized by my PC.  I eventually discovered that a CH340 was needed in the PC.  I first got an inkling of this when I googled but installed the wrong driver.  I then found a website that identified the USB chip on my Lolin.  It is a CH340.  I went into the Windows Device Manager and saw that the USB port had a yellow triangle indicating no driver.  After trying a CH340 driver on my laptop the chip was recognized.  I programmed the Lolin downstairs on the laptop with the ESP8266 firmware.  I then moved the device to my PC upstairs, installed the driver and then programmed it with the Arduino software. 
I completely configured one PC board with all the hardware including a stepper motor and was delighted to see that when I controlled the motor from Home Assistant it responded to the MQTT commands of Open and Close. Yes!
I measured the blinds shaft in our bedroom and found it to be a little more than 4 mm so I 3d printed a 4mm shaft adapter for the stepper.  I will install this tomorrow morning.  I next turned to slide scanning.  I tackled the July 1978 slides that were labeled Western Trip.  This was Mary and George’s trip from LA to Tijuana and included a trip to Disneyland.  It was fun to see the old Monorail and People Mover with the race cars below.   After dinner I finished this batch and posted them on the George and Mary page.  Dinner tonight was Salmon with rice and Lima beans accompanied by a single glass of Cabernet.  After dinner I started a zoom conference at 7 PM for the FIT Book Club.  The book is “The Quiet Americans” and was outstanding.  The leader, Dr Tenga, was well prepared and had many many questions to try to stimulate discussion.  It went on for well over an hour.


August 5, 2021 Thursday Blinds. Detweilers


We did a trip to Detweilers this morning for fruit. The store was empty which was great.  We went though it pretty quick and home.  I took down the bedroom blinds and worked on installing the stepper motor and the ESP8266 board.  It all fit on one side of the blinds which was outstanding.  When I finished with this job I did a quick run to Walmart for normal groceries, the most important of which was Oatmeal.  
At home again I routed the power for the blinds to behind the bookcase on Libbie’s side.  The blinds work but they need a few more steps to close.  I’ll look into some software changes in the ESP8266 code. I started to scan the box of George and MAry slides labeled Russia 1982.  I have about half of them scanned.  They are mostly pictures of buildings and aren’t very interesting.  I’ll probably throw the slides away after scanning.
Dinner tonight was Arepas.  When I tried to cook them on the stove top the left burner burned out.  I need to figure out a replacement.  Dinner was the Arepas with a coating of Avocado and a topping of Chorizo sausage. This was pretty yummy.  After dinner I watched some YouTube videos about replacing the element on a glass top stove.  It looks like I can get a new element at an appliance parts store on Bee Ridge.  They open at 8:30 tomorrow morning.




August 6, 2021 Friday Busy Day


I have a lot to do in the coming weeks.  This morning I worked a little on the blinds software, trying to understand why manually advancing the blinds closing works while adding more steps does not.  In addition, the bedroom blinds seem to struggle a little midway through before going along normally.   I chose to have Badger Bob replace the stove element instead of repairing it myself.  It would cost about $100 for an element.  With Badger Bob we had to pay $89 for a diagnosis and then it will be $230 for the repair including parts.  The total will be around $320 with the diagnosis.  The Badger Bob guy showed up in the early afternoon.  He was professional and efficient. 
Next door to us the Gulf Gate Screen company came out and removed all the screens from the pool cage.  They are supposed to replace all the rusty screws. 
I setup the saw in the driveway and proceeded to cut the baseboard trim.  I put it all down and then caulked all the joints including nail holes.   I also put down the ¾ round along the baseboard.  This took many many trips in and out of the house, taking measurements and then going outside to the saw to cut the baseboard.  Once this was all done it was 3 PM.  I then went into my office and studied how to open and close the blinds with the Arduino software.  Fortunately I can update the blinds over the air and had many tries with the office blinds.  I got nowhere except I have a much better understanding of how this all works.   The key is the timer which periodically services the stepper motor by calling the stepper routine.  The stepper routine determines whether the blinds should be opening, closing or stopping. 
I then took the tray of slides that were labeled Libbie’s.  I had to break the news to her that the slides were of a Carribean Cruise by her parents.  I did find some Libbie slides in my slide collection which made her happier. 
Dinner tonight was Hamburgers on a bun with tomato and Vidalia Onion (for me).  We had baked beans as a side and Cabernet along with the meal.  After dinner I went back to trying to understand the stepper routines.


August 7, 2021 Saturday slides


I worked some more on the blinds program trying to understand it but the office blinds on which I was testing the program became unresponsive.  The device seemed to be able to take updates over the air but it did not operate the blinds.  The Master Bedroom blinds do not even show up on the network either using the IP scanner or with the Arduino tool under the Ports option.  Libbie did a nice job painting the door frame and the trim around the elevator.   She did this while I worked in my office both doing the blinds software and also while I scanned slides.  Another huge box of slides and documents arrived from Mary.  There were old letters, Christmas cards and other unwanted landfill material.  Libbie spent the afternoon culling the pile down to just a handful of slides that need scanning. Most of the slides are of buildings and suitcases and none of it is interesting.  I did scan two cubes from my collection of Libbie’s 1964 slides and posted them on the glembocki.info website. I found a program to change the camera date so that the Synology box could put them in the correct order. 
Later in the day I made cranberry chicken by mixing cranberries and catalina dressing with some orange zest and pouring it over chicken breasts.
Dinner was cranberry chicken with Lima beans and Cabernet.


August 8, 2021 Sunday Blinds, slides


After the morning CBS shows I got out the ladder and tackled the blinds.  The first step was to measure the voltages.  The 12 volts was OK but I noticed the CPU had 12 volts going to it instead of 5 volts.   The output of the regulator was also 12 volts.  I unfortunately removed the regulator on my bench before discovering or remembering that this regulator has an output voltage adjustment.  It is quite touchy, made harder by the digital voltmeter batteries quitting.  I switched to big bertha, my 50 year old Simpson and set the output to 5 volts on the new regulator.   I installed it and all worked well in the afternoon.  When I went  upstairs at 9 PM the blinds were still open.  They were supposed to close at sunset.  I am suspecting it is the regulator again but I’m not sure.  I’ll have to climb the ladder with the voltmeter and check it out.   I’ll do this tomorrow. Libbie was on a tear downstairs.  After she painted the front door she went through her parents slides and culled the pile down to just a few hundred out of the 3,000 or more slides.  The pile of trash is monumental.  She separated the slides and trays from the cardboard for the recycling can. Libbie made her pizza for dinner tonight.  It was outstandingly excellent as usual. 


August 9, 2021 Monday Selby, lunch, blinds


I went to Selby  this morning and spent the time on geo-referencing.  I left there as usual at noon.  .On the way home I was thinking of doing something different for lunch.  I thought of Chick Fil A but drove by without stopping.  I noticed the Skillets sign said Breakfast and Lunch.  When I got home I checked the menu and suggested to Libbie that we do lunch.  She was wearing her paint clothes to paint the front door but was on board and quickly changed.  We both enjoyed lunch at Skillets.  It was bright, cheery and wide open.  We had a quiet corner booth and ordered our sandwiches.  I had a Reuben which was delicious.  It came with a Parmesan potato pancake which to me was like hash browns.  I liked it.  It also came with some fruit and a pickle.  We ended up taking half of our sandwiches  home, there was so much food.  Libbie had a turkey wrap which had spring greens, almonds, cranberries and Balsamic.  This wiped us both out for the afternoon.  I felt like taking a nap but instead took the blinds apart to see what was wrong this time with our bedroom blinds.  The regulator seems to have quit. It was shorting out the power supply to read 0 volts. I have a different kind of regulator on order from Amazon.  It should be here tomorrow.  The new one has a fixed 5 volt option if you select it with a solder bridge. If not selected then there is a pot onboard for adjustable voltage.   After the touchiness of the previous adjustable regulator I want to go with a fixed solution.  I put a new regulator on the blinds control board and then hooked it up.  I have it hanging from the blinds by the stepper leads.  It seems to be working for now.  I need to design a new PCB with the new regulator onboard. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover half of my Reuben Sandwich along with a pickle.  I tried practicing more Clarinet but the song Molly something was pretty hard with the changing rhythms.  I have more work to do.


August 10, 2021 Tuesday gesneriads, blinds


This was a busy day in our house.  Libbie wanted to paint the front door but early this morning  Travis came to put popcorn on the ceiling.  Next, our cleaning folks came a little later this morning because it was the first day of school.  We had a noon Gesneriad presentation via zoom which we tried to watch while they were cleaning. I had to leave the presentation towards the end to give Lynn her check.  She and husband Cleber did the usual fantastic job in cleaning the place.   Libbie had to leave to go to Selby for her afternoon in the conservatory.  While she was gone I worked on the blinds controller.  I think the stepper motor is the wrong choice for the blinds.  I noticed that when there is a little binding the blinds fall behind and don’t close all the way or if they close as soon as the stepper power is removed, the blinds partly pop open.  A servo has feedback to hold it’s position.  Even if there is any binding the servo will keep trying to get on the right track.  The downside of this is power consumption all the time.  I’ll have to measure the power to see how bad it is.  There is a possibility of adding a FET to switch off the Servo after a period of time. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover Cranberry chicken.  We had this with Libbie’s birthday Cabernet and a side of Lima Beans.  After dinner I watched the newest Mollie B.  They are on the road performing so they had a recorded show.  It was one hour of non-stop Polka without any breaks.  Wow, it was so enjoyable.  Libbie went upstairs but I stayed and watched the whole performance.  I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. 


August 11, 2021 Wednesday servo


I did some research about how to use a Lolin board with a servo and the MK Software. It looks pretty do-able.  I prepared a Lolin with Pyflasher, flashing the MK software and found I could get to it over WiFi after setting up an access point and inputting my credentials.  At lunchtime we had a Selby seminar about the Highwaymen by John McCormick of Spanish Point.  It was the best lecture so far.  John shared pictures of he and his wife with over half of the Highwaymen.  He has quite a few paintings by them acquired over 20 years via trips to Jupiter and antique stores in Arcadia as well as all over Florida.  What a great presentation.
After lunch I breadboarded the Lolin with the Servo Motor and had success controlling the motor over MQTT.  I even enabled the pushbutton switch which opens or closes the blinds at the touch of a button.  Later in the afternoon I managed to get this into Home Assistant using Tasmota Auto Discovery which worked well. 
Dinner tonight was the last of the Cranberry Chicken along with Lima Beans and a glass of Cabernet. After dinner we watched the rerun of Josh and Jenna at the Boo Bash.  This was a scaled back Halloween party for less money than parties of the past. 


August 12, 2021 Thursday blinds


I spent all of today working on the blinds. I removed the blinds from our bedroom window and brought it into my office.  I measured the width and location of the shaft.  I also tried printing a few designs with little or no luck.  The Servo doesn’t fit the blinds exactly.  I took the blinds into the garage and used the router to remove the lip along a section of the housing so the Servo fit inside.   I then tried printing a promising mount but it was too wide to accommodate the cable from the servo.  I really need to learn how to build a mount in Openscad.  Towards that end I watched 2 beginners tutorials.  I think I can design a 3d mount.  The printer had a problem moving the Y axis.  I tried manually homing the device but when I tried printing it tried to self destruct.  I quickly shut the power off.   Eventually I discovered that the Y axis stop indicator was stuck closed.  I grabbed the flimsy piece of metal and bent it a little to unstick it.  The printer then printed normally after that.  At the end of the day I put the old stepper back into the bedroom blinds and  put them on the window.   As I was doing this, the Home Assistant quit because the power blinked during a thunderstorm.  We had another evening of run interspersed with thunder and lightning.  During a break in the rain Libbie grilled some hamburgers which we had on Brioche buns with sliced tomato.  Our side was baked beans along with 2 glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner I checked my TD Ameritrade account and Hillman cashed out my shares.   That’s the end of an era.  I owned that preferred issue since 2001.  I spent the rest of the evening looking for a replacement.  I have around $13,000 to spend.
This afternoon I also scanned two of Libbie’s cubes of slides and posted them to the Family site.  They were her 1967 and 1968 slides of college and family get-togethers.


August 13, 2021 Friday Mount design, slides


I spent the day working on Openscad doing the design for the servo holder with a ridge to match the edge of the blinds.  This was a fun exercise and involved using the caliper for sizing, the tutorial to look up reference material in Openscad and the Openscad program.  I printed one version with the 3d printer and ended up making a few improvements.  I added these to the design and started another print.  While it was printing I tackled the last two cubes of Libbie’s.  I scanned these and posted them to the Family website. 
We went to the Philly cheesesteak place next to the Toyota dealer and ordered 2 Philly cheesesteak subs for lunch.  I had mine “wit” which was cheese wiz, onions and peppers.  They were delicious.  Because of the large lunch we only  had tomato soup for dinner along with cheese and crackers.  After lunch I went out to Publix for ice cream and then Lowes for 6-32 x 1 screws.  I needed the screws for mounting the servo to my new mount design.  They worked very well.  The servo is nicely secured.  I need to try it in a set of blinds to really test it.


August 14, 2021 Saturday pcb


I worked in my office all day, mostly on the blinds.  I managed to create a schematic and then laid out a PC Board.  Once I checked all the holes and Lolin dimensions I uploaded it to Oshpark and then chose 2 day shipping.  The bottom line was $20 for 3 boards including Fedex 2 day shipping.   My next action for the afternoon was to take one of the previous OshPark boards designed for the Stepper and wire it for the Servo.  I was tickled when I powered it up and it responded to MQTT commands from Home Assistant. While this was going on our afternoon rains started.  Earlier in the day Libbie uncovered 2 irrigation valves in the back of the house next to the screen cage.  I grabbed a 24 VAC transformer and the 100 foot extension cord and activated each of them in turn. I heard the solenoids click even though they were buried in sand but nothing came out.  I’m guessing the Master valve needs activating.  The Master valve might be the one in the front yard.  I’ll have to activate it along with one of the backyard valves.
I gave up on Badger Bobs waiting for the stove element.  It has been a week as of Friday (yesterday) that we have been waiting.  I grabbed the model number of our stove and went online searching for an element.  Amazon didn’t have it but GE parts did.  I ordered it from them along with 2 day shipping.  The bottom line was $100 with shipping.  It should be here Wednesday or Thursday.
Libbie spent some time this afternoon making Herbed Pork Chops in white wine sauce.  Wow, they were good.  She mixed in pearl onions and potatoes.  Because the sauce needed Chardonnay we had the rest of the bottle with the meal. Dessert was Mint Chip ice cream.  What a  perfect dinner.


August 15, 2021 Sunday art collection


This was an easy do nothing day. I did nothing about the blinds.  Good news from Oshpark - my job went into fab. They  are expected back around Aug 25.   I got some old Hard Drives out and found my TrueCrypt files as well as the rest of my digital art collection.  I spent some time copying it to Manon 4.  From there I will build albums to go onto the Synology.   The artist I was looking for I found, Bean Backus, the mentor of the Highwaymen.  His paintings were published in a book, Southern Skies and Gentle Breezes.  I looked on eBay to see if I could find the book but it was priced anywhere from $49 to $200.   I grabbed the directory of Backus paintings and built a Jalbum which I then put onto Tom’s Digital Art.  Much more to do!
It was raining all day rain today but I managed to get out and try another experiment with the newly discovered solenoid boxes.   I turned on loop 1 of the irrigation which turns on the master valve then I energized each of the buried solenoids individually and then both together.  Nothing happened.  I need to dig them up and attach a hose to see what they’re hooked to. 
Libbie made what she is calling a veggie pizza.  It had pepper, onions and tomato pieces and was over the top good and delicious.  I had a glass of Cabernet with dinner.  While we were eating I recorded Siegfried from Bayreuth.  This version is being streamed free on video by Deutsche Grammophon.  Unfortunately Siegfried takes place at something that looks like Mount Rushmore but with the faces of Lenin, Marx and Mao.  The music however is great.  


August 16, 2021 Monday Selby, digital art


I had a pretty good morning at Selby.  I continued to solve the geo referencing puzzle and also was drawn into a meeting by Bruce about gathering energy needs for the new building.
After I left Selby I stopped at Walmart for a handful of groceries and then stopped at Harbor Freight for the small Bauer Dremel tool and some 40 grit sandpaper for the Palm Sander. 
At home I worked some more on my digital art collection.  I regenerated several of the directories of art using Jalbum.  Apparently Jalbum changed along the way so the older albums need to be imported instead of directly opened.  The bottom line is the same.  I eventually will have to regenerate all the albums.
Dinner tonight was Chicken Quesadilla. Libbie shredded some cooked chicken and chopped the onions and peppers while I cooked the quesadillas in the air fryer.   I used Parchment Paper under the Quesadilla to help keep it from sticking.  It seemed to work pretty well.
Libbie called Badger Bobs and cancelled the service call to replace the range element.  I have a new one on the way directly from GE although I haven’t received anything such as a tracking number. 


August 17, 2021 Tuesday Front door


I worked most of the day on my digital art album.  This thing has been sorely neglected for years so I decided it’s now time to get this thing off the ground.  I like what I have so far. 
Libbie went to Selby this afternoon so I took the opportunity to work on the front door.  I sanded the threshold, taped the rubber gasket and painted with the leftover Bubble Gum from Benjamin Moore. A few spots still need sanding because the paint raised the grain of the former carpet in a few spots that the Palm Sander missed.  These spots were mainly on the edge of the threshold.  I’ll sand tomorrow and put down another coat of paint.  
Dinner tonight was spaghetti with cheese and tomato sauce.  We wanted something easy so we could go over to the gazebo at 6:30.  Unfortunately nobody else was at the gazebo when we went over there.  Earlier I had a Clarinet lesson with Justin at 5:15.  He covered a puzzling concept - cut time.  I didn’t understand it well when he explained it but I found a few online tutorials afterward on YouTube that helped to explain it.   I watched these in bed before falling asleep.


August 18, 2021 Wednesday door


I sanded the rough spots showing through the paint on the front threshold and then put down a coat of paint.  I then taped the hinges in prep for painting the door.  I also washed the frame around the glass, it was filthy. 
At noon we watched a zoom from Selby about the glass in the garden.  Selby has partnered with a gallery in St Pete.  The owner and a few of the artists were part of the presentation.  I decided we need to do a St Pete trip and go gallery visiting with the focus on glass. 
I worked a little more on the digital art collection placing a few more of the existing artists into the index.  There is still much more to do.
Dinner tonight was scallops cooked in breadcrumbs and spices.  It was a Libbie creation. 
We had this over rice with a side of Lima Beans and a few glasses of Cabernet.  After dinner we sat in on the Zoom board meeting which went smoothly. 


August 19, 2021 Thursday driving around


Libbie volunteered to paint the front door.  While she set up for painting I went to Benjamin Moore on Clark and picked up another can of Bubble Gum which is the color used on the blocks and on the door.   I took the door knobs off, taped the glass and jumped back into the car to go to Home Depot.  I bought the Ryobi 18 volt fogger and a bottle of cutter fogging liquid.  The battery was dead so I put it on the charger.   Travis came over after noon and took a look at the ceiling popcorn.  He took out his roller and painted the popcorn ceiling white around the elevator.   Libbie finished the first coat on the door.  On the way back from Home Depot I stopped at Chick Fil A on the corner of Honore and Clark and picked up chicken sandwiches and fries for us.   This wiped me out for the day it was so much food.
We went to Detweiler's for a roast and veggies.  I am going to make a slow cooker roast with veggies tomorrow.  
Libbie took a couple of pieces of chicken out of the freezer and grilled them with BBQ sauce.  There was one half of a breast and one thigh in the freezer which she grilled.  We had this with KC BBQ sauce.  I need to make a batch of Smoking Guns sauce.  After dinner we watched Cory's World on YouTube.  He’s back after a few weeks of Covid.


August 20, 2021 Friday  Busy day


Libbie started painting the front door at 8:30 so she could do water aerobics at 10.  Before she started I used the new fogger and fogged the front door and bushes.  I’m surprised at how noisy it is. 
While she painted the door I worked on the computer for the lights.  I initially hooked it up backwards because I used all the NC relay contacts instead of the NO.  I corrected this and was surprised that I had already programmed Alexa to activate the three lights.  They all worked both from the HA app and also from Alexa. Woo Hoo.  This concludes the elevator project.
The front door project is also coming to an end.  Painting is done, now I need to add the additional batten on the front door to cover the gap between the doors.  I routed the latch out from the board and set it up on some saw horses over the large canvas for painting, something I’ll probably do tomorrow.
I worked a little more on the digital art collection.  I’m doing a little bit each day.  The M2 screws also arrived today.  I tried 4 of them on the 3d printed coupling and they were a success.  I now have a servo motor good to go.  I previously had mounted  a servo on a printed mounting block.  I’ll outfit this one with an adapter and the new screws and install it in the downstairs blinds in the Family Room.
This morning while Libbie was exercising in the pool I chopped veggies and put the roast in the slow cooker.  The veggies went over the top along with two packets of onion soup powder and water.  I turned this on at 11 AM for dinner tonight at 6:30.
Dinner was the Chuck Roast with potatoes, onions and carrots.  This was incredibly good.  We had this with wine.   I checked the internal roast temperature at 4 PM and it was 190 which was good.  A few more hours were needed to soften the potatoes and carrots.  To be sure I put the slow cooker on high for 1 hour of the time remaining and then switched back to Low at 5 PM.
After dinner we watched  little more of Cory at Hollywood Studio because we wanted to see what other food he was going to eat.  He had grilled cheese buffalo chicken and then a Candy Corn milkshake. His food reviews are quite good and very honest.


August 21, 2021 Saturday Paint


I set off a bug bomb in the Family Room this morning to try to control the mosquitos in the  house.  I fogged outside around the front door and set up to paint.  Using the fine brush I painted the threshold where the tape pulled the paint from the concrete.  I then used the paint to paint the batten strip in the garage.  I’m going to use this strip to cover the seam where the doors come together.  The manufacturer should have designed this in but I suspect they don’t have a clue about how to build a hurricane door.
We watched a few YouTube videos about the Fakahatchee Strand.  The place looks scary with all the gators and snakes but it’s the Everglades. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover roast with veggies.  We had this with a leftover bottle of Champagne from Libbie’s birthday party.   After dinner we watched Josh experiment with some new equipment in the MK.  The highlight was the rainbow over the castle.  Very pretty.


August 22, 2021 Sunday Highwaymen Painting


After the CBS Sunday Morning show at 10:30 we left for Selby because I had not been to the Art Sale and Demonstration in the Event Center.  There were two highwaymen painting, Isaac Knight and xx yy.  We walked around the room looking at all the paintings.  They were available in both Giclee and original art.  The painting that Libbie liked was priced at $4500.  We went over and chatted with Isaac Knight and ended up purchasing a large 36 x 24 painting he had on an easel.  He said it hung in house for 30 years but he is downsizing.  He claimed it would be $3,000 but he would sell it for $2,000.   Later he offered it to me at $1800 and I went for it.   We bought an original highwayman painting from a highwayman!  Pretty cool.  We were going to go out to lunch downtown but because we had this painting we chose to go home instead.  We also bought 2 Giclees from Roderick Hair, son of Alfred Hair.  He had some of his own paintings for sale but they were not as good as his Father’s art.  The two prints cost $20 each.  They will complement the big one we picked up from Isaac Knight. 
After dropping off the painting at home we went out to the Point outdoor dining.  I really liked the short shorts worn by the young hostess.  We had 2 Yuenglings and split a Kickin Crab dip then had Clam Chowder for lunch.  I had a bowl which was too big.  Libbie had a more intelligent choice, a cup of Chowder.   Once home I hung the Highwaymen painting over the Family Room sofa.   The two prints will look great next to it after we make a trip to Hobby Lobby for a couple of frames. 
In my office I followed an exacting procedure to transfer the LSAVC convention registration from the AVSA website over to the LSAVC website.  After doing all these steps I was quite pleased to find that the new site worked.  Now I need to do some editing to convert it to 2021. 
Dinner was Libbie’s pizza, plain without mushrooms or any other goodies.  It was excellent.
We had quite a good day.


August 23, 2021 Monday Selby, convention editing


I did my Selby duty this morning.  It was back to images.  I spent some time synchronizing the C drive with the external drives so files on C could be deleted to make room. I also managed to copy today’s batch of image editing up to the server despite the slow link. It takes around 5 minutes per picture.  Fortunately there were only 25 or so images to edit.
When I got home Libbie was on the phone with Vicki.  Earlier this morning she had gone to the dermatologist and then went to Aerobics.  Busy morning.
We took our highwaymen prints and the Bruges watercolor too Hobby Lobby and picked out a Mat and frame for the watercolor and left it.  We also picked up some stock 11x14 frames for the two Highwaymen prints we purchased.   Once home I framed the 2 prints with the purchased frames and hung them next to the Isaac Knight Oil painting.  I also finished hanging the artwork in the front foyer with Libbie’s help.  We’ll hang the art in the Living Room when the watercolor piece comes back from framing at Hobby Lobby, probably in the week after Labor Day. 
I returned to my office and attempted some work on the LSAVC convention site.  I finally was able to login using old admin credentials and start editing.  I changed a few places from Allen, TX to Fort Worth and also changed some spots that said 2019 to this year, 2021.
Dinner tonight was the last of the Chuck Roast dinners which was delicious.   The beef had totally disintegrated into the “stew” but was delicious.  We had this with the last of the Champagne from Saturday night.  


August 24, 2021 Tuesday Batten strip, Zencart


Libbie went to Selby while I stayed in my  office because Gislaine was here cleaning the house.  I continued to work at configuring zencart for the LSAVC website.  This is going better than expected.  When they left I had a little lunch then screwed the batten strip onto the center between the two doors.  I was able to drill a pilot hole into the batten and into the door cladding. Then I drove an exterior rated screw into the batten and the door.  This went pretty well and the batten strip seems to be secure.  I then spackled each hole, sanded them when the spackle dried and touched up each with paint.  A few of the holes need a little more spackle which I will do tomorrow.  Dinner was hamburgers on the grill with tomato on a Brioche bun and a side of baked beans. We had a glass of Cabernet with dinner and one afterward to watch Mollie’s Polka party.  The show was a repeat of a March show.  She also sent some interesting news that they were moving to Wisconsin near the Bustas, her parents and the other Busta family members. We looked up their old church in Ohio and found it for sale for $171k.  It looks like a dump for a house.


August 25, 2021 Wednesday Colombian lunch, registration


The LSAVC registration is looking pretty good.  More people tested it and I only had two changes - wording of view the cart on the front page and putting the “read the Covid Liability statement” request in bold.   I think this thing is ready to go. 
We went over to the Colombian restaurant on Beneva with Joe, Angela and Angela’s daughter Marie.   The food was great.  I had the #2 which was a soup with shredded beef, Pork Belly, plantains and beans.  It was super heavy duty and came with rice and a small Arepa.  I could only eat half of it but it was good.  It wiped me out for the rest of the day.
I finally totally finished the front door.  I put down a second coat of spackle for about 3 or 4 of the screw holes, sanded them when dry and then put a coat of paint on.   The door is completely done except for glass cleaning with Windex.
The Gary Munroe Highwaymen book arrived today in excellent condition.  I won this on an eBay auction for $8.50.  This came vis USPS and surprisingly was routed from New Smyrna Beach to Jacksonville to go to Sarasota.  Anyway, it came here in record time.   It’s the book that started it all 20 years ago.  
The D1 Mini came from Amazon.  This thing is compact and has made me wonder why I used the Lolin for the Servo controller.  I’ll probably do another design using the D1 instead of the Lolin.   Dinner tonight was a simple English Muffin  with slice of cheddar and a slice of tomato.  After the huge lunch today we didn’t need much else. 


August 26, 2026 Thursday D1 mini


I worked on getting together a breadboard for the D1 mini. In the middle of it all I had a pause going back to the dentist to resolve Libbie’s bill, then up to Detweilers for Avocado’s and Chorizo for dinner tonight then a stop at Costco to get a Waterpick recommended by the Dental Hygienist.  I had been to Costco earlier today to get coffee, wine and wetting solution.  This time there were more people there.
I went back to the D1 mini but couldn’t get it to run on batteries.  I took out the power supply I bought on Amazon last month and used it.  The D1 mini powered up OK on the 5 volt input.
The program worked flawlessly, sending an MQTT packet then releasing the GPIO pin which was holding the PFET gate on.  Once the PFET gate was released from zero volts, it floated high and shut the PFET off killing power to the D1 Mini.  During device activation the power draw was 70 ma on the 5 volts. 
In the afternoon we picked up a huge Staghorn Fern from Jo on the corner.  She has several and wanted to get rid of this one.  We moved it to a spot in the backyard between 2 trees. 
Dinner tonight was Arepa’s with avocado and Chorizo.  They were pretty good.  Even Libbie enjoyed them this time.  After dinner we tried watching Cory at the MK but the lag was pretty bad.  He said the signal was very good but YouTube was having problems.  I went back to my office to look at the D1 mini power issue some more.  I want to run it on 3 volts, not 5 volts.


August 27, 2026 Friday Osh Park PCB


I tried some more with running the D1 mini on battery power but didn’t get anywhere.  The PFET does not appear to be behaving properly.  Meanwhile, we have the Staghorn  Fern we picked up yesterday on the ground.  Libbie wants to hang it.  She measured the crown at somewhere between 18 and 20 inches.  We drove down to Englewood to Mr T’s to look for a 20 inch hanging basket.  They did not have one, their largest size was 14 inches.  I always enjoy this garden center and the best Ace Hardware store anywhere.  I ended up buying an Allamanda plant for $29 which was white and in full bloom.  The tag said it blooms all year long and grows up to 20 feet.  I planted it next to the Bottle Brush plant in front of the outdoor city water spigot. 
When we arrived home the PCB order from Oshpark had arrived via Fedex.  I soldered connectors on one of them in my shop and it had a short from Vcc to ground.  I ended up taking a roll of solder wicking and running over each pin as I melted the solder. This removed a lot of the solder.  It also removed the short, thank goodness.   I programmed the ESP8266 with blinds software from an MK Software forum user named Mountain.  He has an image on the MK  repository which is very nice and includes a web based GUI for config.  I hooked up a servo and it worked!  I populated a second board and programmed another chip for it.  If the first servo mount fits the blinds I will print another couple of mounts for the next two boards. 
For dinner tonight we ordered half racks of ribs with rice and beans from Beckhams.  We had this with Cabernet and then pound cake with mint moose track ice cream for dessert.  After dinner we watched a little of Josh and Jenna at Hollywood Studios before going upstairs to do some before bed reading. 


August 28, 2021 Saturday servo install


This morning I removed the Family Room blinds and took them outside for routing.  Surprisingly they were Levolor blinds which used a hex shaft.  Fortunately I had a printed hex adapter which I screwed onto another servo motor.  The motor mounting had to be filed to fit into the blinds channel.  I will  make some modifications to the 3d design file before printing the next one.  This is the first time I have used one of my own printed designs in a blinds.  The CPU did not fit into the remaining space in the blinds so I kept it outside and fastened it to double sided gorilla mounting tape and then put it into the top window channel.  A little magic in node-red gave me a timer for sunset/sunrise.  It worked!  The blinds closed automatically at sunset but we had not noticed even though we were sitting in the room.
I got my chains out to inventory what I had in order to hang the Staghorn Fern.  I have enough chains to create a hangar. I also have a large enough chain to string between the two trees to hold the hanging fern.  The basket I ordered from Amazon arrived.  It’s a 20 inch basket but I’m not sure I need it now. 
Libbie is sick today after overdoing outdoors this morning. She wanted to clear the area around where the Staghorn will sit and worked herself into the ground.   Later in the day she was running a 101 fever and had cold symptoms.  I hope it’s not Covid. 
I continued the blinds project.  I modified the Openscad model and then printed another servo motor mount.  This one will go into the Office blinds.
I toasted an Arepa and sliced up an Avocado to top it.  I air fried two Chorizo but Libbie wasn’t eating.  I made a bowl of tomato soup for her.  Dinner for me was an Arepa with Avocado, Chorizo and a glass of Cabernet.  The rest of the Detweiler's pound cake with ice cream was my dessert.  I had some fun on my Clarinet learning to play Hallelujah.  The sheet music I purchased online is a very easy to play version.  I did a little Clarinet playing while the 3d printer printed a servo motor mount.


August 29, 2021 Sunday Fern hanger, office blinds


I sprayed mosquito stuff on my arms and legs and brought the chains outside next to the Staghorn fern.  I was able to lay the chains out on the grass and take the Staghorn from it’s pot and lay it on the chain.  This gave me an idea of where to cut it.  I put the chain in my vise and  cut the appropriate links to make two 8 foot long chains.  I tied the chains together at the center and carried it outside.  After I moved the Fern to the center of the chains it was easy too pull the sides up and fasten them at the top with a repair link.  I used this same link to affix a hook and hung the plant from this hook on a chain.  I previously stretched a chain between two trees to hold the hanging plant.
While doing this I discovered that I left the leaf blower outdoors over night.  We had 1 ½ inches of rain on the blower.  It would not start, even after I put a fresh battery in the device.  I brought it inside with the hope that the AC would dry the appliance out.  This will take a few days.  Libbie seems to have a bad cold today which is too bad.  We are planning to leave for Marco Island tomorrow. 
I brought my  office blinds outside and routed the groove at the top to make room for the servo motor.  This almost went well except the router slipped and broke a piece of the plastic blinds housing.  The servo on the newly designed mount went into the blinds extremely well.  There was even room for the ESP8266 chip.  Unfortunately the blinds seem to be binding for unknown reasons.  I need to remove the blinds and watch their operation to figure this out.
For dinner tonight I used one of Dominos website coupons and picked up a large pie with extra cheese, diced tomato and mushrooms.


August 30, 2021 Monday Marco
Libbie is still not 100% today, recovering from a cold.  The worst of it seems over. This morning I went into my office to debug the blinds.  What a surprise, the office blinds were working.  I moved the ESP8266 out of the end of the blinds which may have made the difference.  The servo is no longer pushed against the blinds shaft making it turn more freely.  I am no longer seeing the binding I was seeing last night.  I opened and closed the blinds a dozen or more times and they opened and closed smoothly.  This was fantastic news. In future installations I will cut the connector off and patch in a few feet of extension wire so the ESP will sit at one end and the servo at the other.  The stepper will still plug into the board but on the opposite side of the blinds. 
Around 11 we packed the car and left for Marco Island.  I got off I-75 at Fort Meyers and drove to Pinchers, a seafood restaurant on the Caloosahatchee River.  The location is scenic and it is next to the Edison-Ford estate.  I had the cheese-crab appetizer dip along with a cup of corn and crab chowder.  It was delicious.  The Yuengling beer was 2 for 1 so I had 2 beers with lunch.  Libbie had taken medicine so she was not drinking alcohol.
After lunch we went to the Ford-Edison and found out they no longer do reciprocals with Selby. It would have been $50 to walk the garden so we opted out and went South.  It was an easy drive to Naples once we got onto I-75.  Our hotel is beautiful.  We have a full Ocean view one bedroom suite.  We sat out on the Lanai when we got in and took in the view.  A short walk in the evening to the restaurants across the street had us seated outdoors in the Oyster Society seafood restaurant.  The meal was pricey but outstanding.  Service was impeccable.  I had the Florida Snapper blackened and Libbie had Scallops over Butternut squash ravioli.   A glass  of Wente Cabernet complemented the meal.  The food total was $105 which was $125 with tip.  It was worth it.  After dinner we went up to the room and did some reading.


August 31, 2021 Tuesday Fakahatchee


I made the awful Keurig this morning.  That stuff is horrid.  I don’t see how a coffee drinker can stand that stuff.  Libbie slept in this morning so breakfast was pretty late.  We chose to eat on the hotel’s terrace.  The view of the beach and water  is beautiful, the food was very good but the coffee tasted like it was made hours ago. It was also expensive.  Breakfast for an omelet and pancakes was $65.  We were paying for the view, not the food.
We got our car from the valet and drove down to the Fakahatchee.  The park is very lonely and empty.  We drove Jane’’s scenic drive to the end.  It was incredibly bumpy. We saw a few birds and a few gators and lots of Bromeliads and Tillandsia in the trees.  At one point we had a gator blocking the road.  We got out and yelled and whistled to him, slammed the car doors and tried everything including rolling stones at him to get him to move. Eventually he got up and slithered into the water on the side of the road.  This is the real Florida.  We eventually turned around and left the park after a restroom stop.  I drove to Everglades City looking for a Seafood restaurant.  We found perfection.  A rundown dockside restaurant serving seafood on picnic tables along the docks served us well.  Libbie had a crabcake which she said was the real deal of lump crab meat.  I had a mixed basket of fish and shrimp which were delicious.  Both our meals came with fries I did not need.  This was the best seafood restaurant ever.  We got back and the valet asked if we had been off roading.  The car tires and wheel wells were covered with sand from  the Fakahatchee. 
We hung out reading in the suite until around 6 at which we walked over to Pinchers for dinner. I had Orange Glazed BBQ shrimp which were delicious.  It came with fries I didn’t need and 2 Yuenglings which I only had one of.  They run a 2 for 1 drink special and deliver both drinks at once.  After dinner we wat on the Lanai witing for sunset but the clouds on the horizon stopped us from seeing the sun go down which was too bad. 


Sept 1, 2021 Wednesday Beach


The Starbucks Columbian coffee I brought was perfect in the drip coffee maker the hotel provided when I complained about Keurig.  I made good coffee and had it with a bagel and cream cheese.  What a contrast from yesterday’s awful coffee and $65 breakfast.
After breakfast we walked the beach and then took a couple of lounge chairs.  The hotel provided towels and gave us an ice bucket full of water bottles.  I’ll have to check the bill to see what this will cost.   It was great laying out in the sun on the beach for a few hours.  I enjoyed a few young ladies in thongs as well as one in a bikini in the lounge chair next to us.
We decided to go to Everglades City for lunch where we went to City Seafood again and had crab, fish and shrimp on the dock. After lunch we took a walk down a trail in the 10,000 islands National Wildlife Refuge.  We only went out for a short walk because we both were hot and tired.
We then headed back around 3 PM.  We had some wine and cheese with crackers on the Lanai while I watched a few pool girls in bikinis and thongs.  It has been a nice getaway for me.  Libbie however is under the weather and thinks she has Covid.  Amazon is out of home test kits. Our best bet is to get tested when we get back tomorrow.  It’s supposed to rain tomorrow so going home may be slow going.   I want to stop at Corkscrew Swamp on the way home mainly to see the Ghost Orchid in bloom. 
For dinner we walked to Pinchers again.  I had the Orange Glazed shrimp which is an orange honey with chipotle and is grilled on a skewer.  They are delicious.  Libbie had Coconut Shrimp.
We came home to watch the sunset but like the previous nights, the sunset was masked by clouds which seemed to form on the horizon each evening.  That’s OK, it’s a nice outing for me regardless.  I’m loving it.  I only wished Libbie felt better.  I’m really enjoying the Monroe Highwaymen Book.  There is so much History I did not know.


Sept 2, 2021 Thursday Home, FC4A


We left Marco Island around 10 AM after I made more of the good coffee in the drip maker and had a Cinnamon Raisin bagel with Cream Cheese.   Libbie is still dealing with a nasty cold that she suspects is Covid.   I chose not to do the Corkscrew Swamp audubon because Libbie is not well and they are calling for rain in Naples around 10 M to 3 PM.  We ran into the rain just North of Fort Myers and after a heavy downburst or two it was a light rain the rest of the way.
When we got back I made some soup for lunch then I went online looking for Covid testing.  Because it was raining we didn’t feel like driving to the County site by the airport.  I booked an appointment at CVS on Tamiami near us for Saturday morning for Libbie.  If I need testing I will go to the airport site. 
In my office I set up a new version, version 11, of B4A.  I then tried recompiling the old software but found that a lot of the libraries are no longer supported or are missing.  I’m updating the app to use built in functions or finding alternative libraries.  For instance, the unzip library was replaced by a newer library but needs some different function calls.  I didn’t feel like chasing down everything today so I put it aside and went to fetch dinner.
I used a 50% off coupon and ordered an Xlarge pizza with mushrooms and diced tomatoes from Dominoes.  The bill was $10 which was not bad.  I had 2 ½ slices, Libbie only had one slice for dinner.  She then went to bed.  We watched the first episode of the PBS series about Robotics and the new work. It was quite good but had the usual PBS bias.


Sept 3, 2021 Friday FC4A


I finally was able to get all the libraries installed for FC4A and get it compiled.  It now runs with errors. I guess this is progress.  This version of Android has a different way of doing things.  I need to figure out what this difference is.
I made some Chicken Corn Chowder for lunch but Libbie didn’t have hers.  She is still pretty sick and running a fever. She spent most of the day in bed.
I cooked Chicken in the Air Fryer for dinner but Libbie didn’t have much of hers.  She requested clear soup so I ran out to Publix and picked up a few cans of Chicken Noodle soup and a can of Chicken with rice.  Publix is pretty expensive, the soup was $1.81 per can which is ridiculous for Campbell's plain soup.  Libbie went to bed early but I stayed up watching Josh at Epcot and also reading tutorials on the new B4A vs the old way of doing things.


Sept 4, 2021 Saturday FC4A


This morning was a preview of the Ratatouille ride for D23 members.  Cory was a member so he streamed the opening which we watched.  It seems to be a worthy ride combining 3d with sensory experiences in ride cars such as sight, sounds and smells.
I continued to work on FC4A and Libbie continues to be ill.  I am replacing functions that are no longer valid in the new paradigm of Android programming.  I replaced the DBUtils with the new library but unfortunately the new library did not have the function “If Fieldexists”.  I found an example of Table Exists as a suitable replacement so I implemented it.  Now the download complete function needs a replacement.  I stopped working a little after 9 and went to bed tired.
For dinner tonight I cooked 2 burgers on the grill.  They came out pretty good.  I cut up a tomato and built a sandwich for myself.  Libbie did not want a bun, she only ate the burger and a tomato slice which was good.  I’m happy to see her getting some protein.  Dinner was the hamburger with no sides.


Sept 5, 2021 Sunday FC4A


During the Sunday Morning News Shows I filled out some missing events in both 2013 and 2020 on my events pages of Life Bits.  I reconstructed this stuff from my journals. 
I continued replacing functions with new ones that are the new Android way of doing things.  This is going pretty slow.  Libbie found online that Paul Dalton of Plant Pros had died.  I looked him up and found that Plant Pro Farm that took over Plant Pros went out of business before 2016.  We sold the greenhouse to them in 2013 and helped them reconstruct it on Dowling  Rd off Poole.  They were also remodeling the house purchased on the site.   Zillow shows the property sold in 2016 without the greenhouse.  A note on the listing says the greenhouse was sold and removed leaving the gravel behind.  I looked further and found that Sam Hilker married Lauren in 2017.  She has a lot of pics on Facebook wearing a skimpy bikini and looks darn good.  I met her in 2013 and found her to be a nice girl and also quite attractive but she should run as far as Sam as she could.  He was a non-starter.
I picked up Nathan's Hot Dogs in Publix for dinner as a Labor Day cook out special.  As usual, they were BOGO.   Dinner was the Hot Dogs with baked beans and water.   Libbie seemed to be better this evening.  She is even smiling and laughing at something I said. She also seems to be coughing less.  Good News!!!!  Delights today: 1)Bagel and Cream Cheese for breakfast  2)Guzmania Bromeliads in Lowes  


Sept 6, 2021 Monday roundup, fc4a


I went outside at 9 and mixed up 2 gallons of strong roundup.  The strong roundup is when you mix 6 ounces per gallon which is the mixture for woody plants.  I sprayed the weeds in the front yard, around  the chairs on the sunset patio, and around the garbage cans.
In my office I continued to work on FC4A.  This time I replaced the downloads of photos but I did not get the unzip function working.  I also can’t find where the file downloaded.  I can’t see it externally with browser programs.
I scheduled a Covid test for tomorrow afternoon at 3:50 PM.  This may be a problem for my Clarinet lesson at 5:15.
For dinner I made  spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  I made way too much Spaghetti, probably enough for 4 people.  I went to Publix after dinner and picked up some Mango and Orange sherbet. 


Sept 7, 2021 Tuesday B4A


I finally got the unzip routine working in a separate B4X app.  I used the archiver library instead of the old abzunzip I previously used.  Now I need to incorporate this into the main routines.  
Libbie is feeling better today.  She was actually able to talk on the phone for a while.  Later in the day she was much more animated and alive.
I went over to CVS on Clark and had a Covid test at 3:50 PM.  It was pretty efficient.  I was home by 4:15.  I next had my Clarinet lesson at 5:15 PM.  I continued the syncopation exercises which I seem to be having trouble with.   Once this was over I came downstairs to decide what to do about dinner.  I was going to  make “quick taco” salad but since I was missing some of the ingredients I chose to use some of the thawed beef and make hamburgers instead which I made with baked beans.  My hamburger had a nice slice of Vidalia on it along with tomato.  I had this on a Brioche bun. A lot of the weeds I treated with Roundup have withered.  Some of the grasses however still look pretty viable. 


Sept 8, 2021 Wednesday B4A


I watched a video about using wait for “job done” to learn how to deal with asynchronous tasks in Android.  The example shown was quite good.   I took some time off to go out to Detweilers for dinner ingredients and some fruit.  I returned and resumed the FC4A rebuild.  I need to implement the wait for job during the install in which many files need to be downloaded and unzipped.  I did not get this done today.
I managed to get the MAAVS Domain transferred to Ken Barbi.  I still need to transfer the billing name and address.
Libbie is much better this afternoon. She actually was singing after Clarinet practice.  I was practicing playing Grand Old Flag and when I came downstairs she was singing it.  I did not hear anything from my Covid test yet. I’m guessing I am negative but I called off Selby yesterday anyway.
I came down around 6 and started cooking the beef while Libbie diced the Green pepper and the tomato. The Quick Taco came together quickly as the name implies.  Dinner was Quick Taco Salad with a glass of Cabernet.


Sept 9, 2021 Thursday FC4A again


I continued working on synch vs asynch for FC4A.  I managed to get the big download reliably done and the unzipping of it.  I have been working on getting progress indicators but so far no luck. 
My Covid test came back late today.  I’m negative.  It took over 2 days to get the results or about 51 hours.  I think the Labor Day surge had something to do with the long wait.  Libbie got hers in one day, unfortunately it was positive.
Dinner tonight was the last of the Quick Taco I made last night. During the day and all evening I watched the DIS Family reunion fund raiser by Give Kids the World at the Disney Contemporary Resort.  In the evening the Great Society Orchestra played on Cory’s stream.  I didn’t stay up for Yeehaw Bob.


Sept 10, 2021 Friday More of same


I went to what I thought was my 9 AM appointment for dental cleaning but found out the appointment was at 9.  They changed it but notified Libbies phone so I didn’t change the calendar.  Uh oh.
At home I installed First Class and updated it to Dec 2019. I then zipped up the photos and added them to the assets folder.   I didn’t do too much else today but instead watched the ending of Cory’s livestream at the DIS Family reunion by Give Kids the World.  The Grand Society Orchestra and Yeehaw Bob were two of the performers.
I wasted the day mostly online before doing a quick trip to Walmart. 
Dinner tonight was Salmon on the grill, rice and Broccoli. I had a few glasses of Cabernet with dinner then settled down to watch Josh streaming from the Magic Kingdom.  He was covering a new feature - about 50 characters have gold statues with a 50 medallion for the 50th anniversary of Disney World.  There are not 50 sculptures because some of the sculptures feature 2 characters.  Pretty cool.


Sept 11, 2021 Saturday FC4A


It was another practically do nothing day.  I managed to put some nylon rope on the hanging Staghorn Fern in order to stop it from swinging in the wind. In my office I did manage to package up some setup code in order to copy and unzip the photos from the assets folder. These are the new photos from the new install of the First Class desktop version.
Now my task is to do a byte by byte read of the First Class database to convert it into SQL.  This same code will potentially be used in the app to do updates, freeing  me from manually updating the app.  
I worked on a Pbase folder of pulp fiction art that a guy digitized and put it on his pbase account.  I grabbed the page source and tried some python to download and save an image on the page.  This was successful.  Now I need to read the page and feed each URL to this function.   I should really have been working on FC4A but the pulp art project was more intriguing.
Dinner tonight was Shrimp Scampi from a cooking light recipe.  It was good but Libbie was so so, mostly because of her Covid recovery.  She made rice and Broccoli to accompany the meal. 


Sept 12, 2021 Sunday SQL


I managed to decode the avml file successfully.  This was a binary file of violet records, 440 bytes per record but not a database.  I also started working on building an SQL database to hold this data.  Next step is to load the database record by record with data read from the MVL.
Dinner tonight was an XL pizza from Dominoes with the usual 3 toppings - extra cheese, diced tomato and mushrooms.  


Sept 13, 2021 Monday  Selby, SQL


I waited to hear from John before I went to Selby this morning.  When a text came I left for there.  I had a chat with Bruce about Covid and he said to tell Libbie he wished her well.  I processed a bunch of new images that John found and put them into the correct folders.  They have not been backed up to Q.  John has decided to use my log book to log “to-do” items. The new stand for 2 monitors is quite nice.  I would like a desktop version of this.  Currently the Botany one is mounted to the wall which really is a 2x10 bolted across the window. 
On the way home I stopped at Farm and Garden and looked at glazed pots.  I found some I liked.  Next I stopped in Harbor Freight and bought an outlet strip for my office.  This will mount to the wall under the desk extension.  I currently have a bunch of wall warts plugged in or laying all over the floor.  
The FC4A project continues.  I made a little progress compiling the DButils into the test SQL program.  I had syntax errors and also figured out how the maps work with populating a database.  One map is used to name all the fields for creating the table and then a map is used to populate the data into the table.  I’m happy with the progress so far. 
My Fire HD tablet arrived.  It’s quite nice for $50.  This will be my weather and clock display in the Family Room.   It needs a server running js and html with css.
For dinner tonight Libbie mixed together onions, peppers and leftover tomatoes with the leftover Quick Taco sauce and served it over spaghetti.  Wow, was it good.  I had this with a few glasses of Cabernet.   After dinner I continued looking for a server to host the display for the time and temperature.  I may be settled on using the NAS Apache on port 2208.


Sept 14, 2021 Eye doctor, Tuesday MQTT failure, Tommy passes


I tried getting an MQTT packet displayed on a webserver using Websockets.  It seems like the older version of the MQTT broker does not have Websockets compiled in.  I put this down to go to an eye doctor appointment at 10:30.  He was running behind and I ended up staying there until noon.  Nothing has changed so I will  just get new contacts.  Later in the day I got a call that my toric lens has been discontinued so I have to go back to get a fitting for something else.  My appointment is tomorrow at 2:15.  On the way home I stopped in Walmart and picked up buns for our hamburgers tonight.   Once home I continued on the MQTT journey.  I upgraded MQTT to the latest version which killed the MQTT broker.  All attempts at reviving it failed.  I even did a reinstall of the Scargill script.  Next step is to reinstall everything including a new version of the OS.  
I had a pretty good Clarinet lesson at 5:15.  I moved on from syncopation and learned some new notes - high C#.  It will take some work to learn the fingering of this and play normally.  A new key signature with 2 sharps on it.   Just as my lesson ended my cell phone rang.  It was Lorraine telling me that Tommy had passed away.  He had Covid and was one of those who refused to get vaccinated.  I called my sisters to let them know.  Vicki was starting the prep for a Colonoscopy tomorrow and Arlene was in Cape May conducting a knitting retreat.  I told them both about our cousin and how Lorraine thought it was his own fault because he insisted he didn’t need to be vaccinated.  Both Ted and Lorraine ended up with Covid but they recovered.
Dinner was hamburgers on the grill during a pretty heavy rainstorm but there was no lightning.  We had the burgers with onion, Vidalia Onion and baked beans accompanied by a glass of Cabernet.


Sept 15, 2021 Wednesday MQTT, eye doctor, success


I continued to try figuring out why MQTT did not work.  Without the broker the whole house is dead.  I tried installing Pi Jessie on an SSD and then plugged it into the Pi 3 but it would not boot.  I then installed Jessie on an SD card and booted the Pi from the SD.  From there I installed the Scargill script and was quite surprised that MQTT still did not work.  I found that the Mosquitto broker loaded a websockets config file which had a statement that disabled anonymous usage.  Once I deleted this line the MQTT broker worked with the laptop program MQTT-Spy. Home Assistant still has a problem in that auto discovery does not seem to be working.  I nicely discovered that I can upgrade the blinds over the air and it works quite well.  I upgraded the blinds from 7.05 to 7.10.  Not sure what the fix was but I’m happy. 
I went to the eye doctor again this afternoon because the contacts I previously used have been discontinued so Dr Billings wanted to try a different brand to see if it worked.  It did.  After the eye doctor I stopped into Detweilers and picked up produce and some Italian Sausage as well as corn on the cub for dinner tonight. 
Dinner was grilled Salmon with corn on the cob.  We had some Cabernet accompanying the meal.  After dinner I watched the SpaceX launch of 4 civilian astronauts. 


Sept 16, 2021 Thursday Failure


This morning I went to the Eye Doctor again.  He fitted me with a new contact lens to replace yesterday’s temporary lens.  This one is pretty good.  Once I got back I started fooling around with CSS for the Fire tablet and got it to display the way I wanted.   Next I set up the 3d printer to print a stand for the tablet.  This turned out to be a disaster.  At first it didn’t print well so I bumped up the z offset.  After it was printing OK for a while I was working in the office and not paying too much attention.  It totally screwed up the ending where it was supposed to print the final coating.  I was left with a honeycomb at the end.  I ended up ordering a stand on Amazon. They were 2 for $6  which will be good because I could use one in the office or perhaps for another Amazon Tablet in the future. My other failure is the blinds.  They seem to be acting  up.  The downstairs blind will not close fully.  My office blind seems to have similar problems. 
I tried to “Tasmotize” 2 different SOnoff devices.  Both had troubles getting onto the WiFi network.  I’m not sure what is wrong.  I want to configure some temp sensors and also  an ultrasonic sensor in the garage to detect if the garage door is up or down.  Everytime I programmed a sonoff I tried to get it onto the WiFi network but it wouldn’t connect.  After multiple times with two devices I gave up.  Perhaps if I tried a brand new one out of the box the results would be different. 
Dinner tonight was Italian Sausage on the grill along with sauteed onions and peppers.  We had these on Detweiler's bakery buns which are outstanding.  After dinner I watched Cory at the Magic Kingdom.  The fun part was watching him having wings at a Disney sit down restaurant.
He rated the wings as well worth the price, 5 wings for $15.  He said he would rather do this than pay for a cheeseburger at some Disney takeout.


Sept 17, 2021 Friday Rain


In the morning Libbie was feeling much better on her Covid journey.  We went to the Farm and Garden store on Beneva.  I bought a large porcelain bowl for the Bromeliads while Libbie bought an Orchid and a flat of white vincas.  I found a red annual. I will try to see if it is Rabbit proof.   We also found a pot of PAtio tomatoes that had 3 plants in it.  We have been looking for the Patio brand of tomatoes.  This is goodness.  We stopped into Walmart on the way home and picked up wings and wine.  It started raining on the way home and continued throughout the day.  This was a good chance to get rain displayed on my Amazon Fire tablet.  In my office I finally managed to subscribe to the rain amount and display it.  I thought I was going to be counting bucket tips but I found that I did this years ago in the ESP8266 software that picks up the RF packets from the Davis.   This was good news and made the job easier.  Today we ended up getting 3.46 inches of rain.  That is on top of 1 inch yesterday.  Wow.
When we came home at noon I mixed up the spices and rubbed down 10 of the wings.   In the evening around 6 PM I cooked the wings in the oven and also poured some Frozen  French Fries into the Air Fryer.  They came out really good, just like restaurant French Fries.  Dinner was Chicken wings, French Fries and Cabernet.  After dinner we watched the Disney Fireworks on Resort TV1.  They were pretty good. It was just Josh tonight because Jenna has Covid.


Sept 18, 2021 Saturday Guzmania, rain


It was another rainy day.  This morning when the rain let up enough, I moved the Miter saw into the driveway and made a riser with some 2x6s.  This supports a 12 inch saucer which holds the three 6 inch pots of Guzmania.  I need to either put holes in the saucer or find a weather resistant 12 inch platform of plastic or metal.
I didn’t do much this afternoon.  I found an updated version of the DRM remover for Calibre and installed it on my PC.  With the Kindle Unlimited subscription I got from buying the Fire tablet, I have been accumulating some of the Arcadia Publishing History books.  The DRM remover plugin works well provided you opened the book first in the Kindle for PC app.  This apparently leaves behind some keys that the DRM remover tool uses to remove DRM.   It is very fast. 
Later in the day I came down and fired up the grill to grill the leftover Italian Sausage.  Libbie cut up the green pepper and another onion which we put over the top of the sausage on a bakery bun.  A glass of Cabernet accompanied the meal. After dinner we watched the splashdown of the SpaceX capsule with 4 people on board.  


Sept 19, 2021 Sunday Patio Tomatoes, cooking on YouTube


Today I went into the side yard and prepared a Grow Box.  I added almost 2 cups of Lime and stirred it in.  Then I grabbed the Patio Tomato we purchased at Farm and Garden and split it into 3.  There were 3 plants growing in the 4 inch pot.  I also put down 2 cups of general purpose fertilizer in a strip down the middle of the grow box.   Hopefully this will grow into nice plants.  
Next I unscrewed the side panel from the Hot Tub and hooked up a hose to drain the tub essentially into the lake.  Libbie then climbed inside to clean it however she slipped and fell while in the tub and banged her head on the side as well as her hip into the bench.  The inside was wet and slippery.   This put her out for the day with a big bruise.
I continued removing DRM from some of the Kindle Art books.  I ended up purchasing a program from epubcor to assist with doing the removal and conversion to epub.  It seems to do a pretty good job.
At 4 PM I watched Dinners with Donna.  Today she was making recipes using crescent roll dough.  I saw a few I would like to try.  It ran for over 4 hours.  Libbie made her excellent pizza once again.  It’s been a while since we had a Libbie pizza.  They were missed.   I ran out to Publix for Mushrooms as well as Orange and Mango Sherbet for dessert. 


Sept 20, 2021 Monday Selby, not much


I went to Selby this morning and continued cleaning up files and synching between the camera PC and the Q drive on the server. On the way home I stopped at Costco for gas. Gas is now 2.99 per gallon. That’s been the highest in a while.  After gas I went into the store and picked up the usual staples - coffee, wine and trash bags.
I didn’t do much this afternoon after the Costco trip.  I did a little bit of reading and watching some YouTube videos but in general I was tired.
Dinner tonight was BBQ chicken on the grill along with a side of Baked beans.  We had Cabernet with dinner and Sherbet after.  At 7 PM we watched Bruce and Liz do a presentation on Herbaria to the Florida Native Plant Society.


Sept 21, 2021 Tuesday SQL database, Clarinet, bark, walk


Gislene and Cleber came here this morning to clean.   When they leave the house sparkles and smells good.  It’s amazing how clean the place can be.   I stayed in my office while they cleaned, working on the SQL in a B4J program.  I will use some of the code in the main program to do updates but the code will also be used to create the initial SQL database for the released app. After some learning I managed to get it to read the Master variety list into the database.  Next step is to view some of the data in a table view or equivalent.
I gathered a recipe and made a list of ingredients on the Alexa shopping app for Ziti but because of a Clarinet lesson late in the day I’ll make the Ziti tomorrow.  The Clarinet lesson went well.  The whole time was used to work on ⅛ notes and ⅛ rests.  I thought the issue was going to be C Sharp which is a new note but instead it was a drill of ⅛ notes.  I have my marching orders for the week.  After the lesson I ran out to Lowes and picked up two bags of the larger bark chips.  Near the front door we had exposed pipe and wire and a mud hole under where the drain overflows.   Two bags of bark nicely filled in this area. 
Libbie grilled some Pork Chops in what looked like stormy skies.  It got dark and the wind picked up but the rain never came.  Dinner was Pork Chops with Lima Beans.  We had Cabernet with dinner and then took a walk around the block.  The sun was setting making the walk pleasant.  We stopped and talked to Abby for a while down the street before resuming our walk. It was a nice evening.  I enjoyed watching the Amazon Fire HD display the weather from the outdoor Davis ISS. 


Sept 22, 2021 Wednesday SQL, cooking, FIT History


I ran out this morning and picked up all the ingredients for the Baked Greek Ziti recipe that was sent to me by All Recipes.   When I got back I continued to work on the SQL for First Class.  I need to create a database and have it available to examine by other programs on my PC.   This so far has eluded me.  I did a little bit of practice on my Clarinet but I still am not getting the ⅛ notes on the beat.  I will continue working on this.
In the afternoon I started sauteing the onions then added the garlic and finally the ground beef. Libbie prepared the pasta and the white sauce.  We combined them in a casserole dish with the ziti in white sauce on the bottom and the ground beef mixture over the top coated with Mozzarella.  We kept this on the  counter until ready to bake.  We cast the zoom presentation of FIT History on the big TV at 4 PM.  It was presented by Gordon Patterson who is a very dynamic professor with lots of stories and a wonderful storyteller.  Libbie said she wanted more from Dr Patterson, it was so interesting.  I thoroughly enjoyed it because I lived the journey. 
We next heated the oven and baked the Ziti.  Dinner was the Greek Ziti also known as Pastitsio. We rated it 5 stars.  Libbie said each bite had a different flavor from the ziti in white sauce to the cinnamon flavored beef or the mozzarella and tomato topping.  Each bite was delicious and different. Some Cabernet accompanied the meal.


Sept 23, 2021 Thursday SQL failure


I continued working on the B4J SQL function with no success.  I am having trouble reading the mvl list so I could insert the record number into the avml list.  This is the list with all the descriptions.  I have given up on B4J for the most part.  Tomorrow I will start putting this function into B4A and try my luck there.  The issue with using Android is finding the resulting databases.  So far I have not been able to use an Android File Explorer to access files in an app. 
Late in the day I had great success setting up a Pi 4 to boot from an SSD.  The next task is to clone an SD to SSD although that may not be entirely necessary.  I may be able to use a backup restore for HA to get the SSD up to the level my SD card is at.
Dinner tonight was the leftover Baked Greek Ziti.  We had fun watching Cory at the new Epcot 220 restaurant. It is Prix Fixe for $79 per person.  We watched him eat a 24 oz ribeye after eating a Calamari appetizer.  He then finished a Salmon that Sam could not finish followed by several desserts.


Sept 24, 2021 Friday Dentist, HA SSD boot


I successfully got an installation of Home Assistant booted from an external USB drive on a Raspberry Pi 4.  I used the Snapshot feature to transfer all the settings from the old SD card on a Pi 3 to the USB drive on a Pi 4.  This worked well after installing the Google Drive snapshot app.  It retrieved my latest snapshot from Google then applied it to Home Assistant restoring all my devices and configurations.  This was a major accomplishment.  Now I would like to set up a second Pi 4 to boot from USB and run the Scargill script.   I’m not sure what the Scargill script gives me that Home Assistant does not.  Possibly an alternative to a desktop Linux?
I went to the dentist at 11:30 after a mixup over appointment times.  I was showing 10:30 but the printed card said 10:00.  They said the appointment was at 9:30.  I had Yuliya who was a beautiful young girl.  She found several areas of concern, both at the end of the run of teeth towards the back of my mouth.  I need to pay more attention to cleaning around the ends. 
After a lunch of leftover baked Ziti I went upstairs and continued fooling around with the second Pi 4 but I could not get it to boot.
I made a 5:30 reservation at the Point for dinner.  It was a little early for us.  We had Yuengling with Kickin Crab dip.  It was quite warm and the sun was high but the bay view was spectacular. 
I did not have to make a reservation from what we observed.   There were plenty of tables.  We came home quite stuffed and couldn’t wait to sit down.  I continued to read about how to fix the Pi 4 that won’t boot from USB.


Sept 25, 2021 Saturday second Pi 4 boot from SSD




I tried various techniques to get the second  Pi 4 to boot from the SSD.  Eventually I ended up opening an SSH session and manually reprogramming the EEPROM. I then booted from the SD card and used the Desktop in Raspbian to clone the SD card to the Sandisk 1T SSD.   This worked.  I was quite surprised that the Pi 4 booted from the SSD.  I next spent some time setting up the VNC.  I ended up using RealVNC over TightVNC because it comes with the Pi operating system and autostarts.  I had trouble getting TightVNC to autostart at boot time. 
Once this was setup the next step was to install the Scargill script.  This script gives me the Mosquitto broker and a half dozen other utilities.  I also installed Calibre on the device with great success.  
In the afternoon Libbie and I went out to Walmart for some groceries for tonight.  Libbie previously went to a plant mounting class at Selby run by her former supervisor Addie.   The mount looks pretty nice. 
Dinner tonight was NY Strip steak with baked potato and sour cream.  A glass of Cabernet accompanied the meal.


Sept 26, 2021 Sunday Pfizer


Most of the day was spent struggling with SQL databases.  I ended up putting the MVL database into the example and it ran successfully.   However when I tried to read a single cell the program crashed as before.  I think the issue is how to format the select statement.
I checked the CVS website to inquire about PFizer 3rd doses and found that I could get an appointment at 4.  I took it. We left at 3:45 PM for our appointment.  While there we also got the flu vaccine.  That’s one shot in each arm.  Pfizer Covid in the left arm and the double dose flu vaccine in the right arm.  This may be troublesome but I’ll see how it goes.  Once I got home I worked on the Python program for Selby.  I had 2 compares to do.  One went well, all the jpegs were in place.  The Orchid CR2 directory did not do so well.  Out of 471 files, 329 of them were missing.  Libbie made her excellent pizza with fresh basil and mushrooms.  It was delicious as usual. Around 7:30 PM we were really tired and wanted to go to bed but held back.  Instead I worked on my computer on the SQL database. 


Sept 27, 2021 Monday SQL success


Selby was called off today by John.  I’m going in tomorrow instead. I had some luck today reading from an SQL database.  Next I put the B4J program to create a starting database for First Class.  I discovered that the original listings had quotes in them that upset the SQL select statements.  I attempted to use an editor and replace all the quotes in one database and the put it in the program but there are still quotes in the other file.  The biggest problem is I don’t know which files are brought into the program.  There appears to be several locations.  At the end of the day I was too tired to chase all of this down so I gave up and went to bed.  I came down around 6 and started cooking the Chicken Quesadilla in the Air Fryer. Libbie nicely prepared all the veggies and the chicken.  It was easy to make the meal thanks to her prep work.   My right arm has been sore all day.  This was the arm that received the flu shot yesterday.  The left arm which had the Covid Pfizer shot is fine except for some soreness around the injection spot.  I’m glad we got this done yesterday.


Sept 28, 2021 Tuesday Selby, SQL, Mexican dinner


I went this morning to Selby instead of yesterday, Monday.  I had a nice chat with Bruce about reading Exif data.  He sent me a program he bought called Exif Pilot.  I think this can be done with Python and some of the Python libraries.   Meanwhile, cleanup of the digitized images continues.  I got engrossed in this and the time went quickly.
On the way home I stopped into Harbor Freight and picked up 3 storage cases that were on sale.  This is for both Electronic parts and nuts and bolts.  Libbie took a look at them for sewing needs and liked them.
I continued to work on the SQL app.  Now I have trouble inserting data into the database.  I went through and found some of the names not matching columns in the database.  I still need to continue cleaning up the database names I am using in the map that the app inserts into the program.  I worked on this up to the time of my Clarinet lesson.  I continued to do the syncopation.  Justin said my ⅛ notes are too quick.  We did some exercises with 1/16 notes for the latter half of the lessons.  This is hard.  I ran out of breath while playing along with him.  This will need the accompaniment tracks that I put on Sonos a while back.
After my lesson there wasn’t much time for more work, we went out to Plaza Mexico for dinner and Margaritas.  I had the beef Chimichangas which come with lettuce and refried beans.  A Margarita on the rocks accompanied the meal. When we came home I watched a little of Josh and Jennas broadcast from Epcot. This is Jenna's first time back in the park since Covid.


Sept 29, 2021 Wednesday EXIF, database, Bromeliads


This morning Libbie and I drove to Venice to Michaels Bromeliads.  The greenhouses were by appointment only so we only could visit the retail shop.  We found quite a few very nice Bromeliads, $105 worth.  After the Broms we drove to Mr T looking for potting soil and mounting bark. They had neither.  I did see a lot of nice glazed pottery which was buy one get the second for 50% off.  I always enjoy coming to this place, even if we don’t buy anything.  On the way home we diverted over to Venice Island and stopped at our favorite gas station.  Belki’s Cuban food is still inside.  We picked up a Cuban sandwich and on the spur of the moment also got dinner.  We chose the pork with black beans and rice.  Mrs Belki nicely packed up our dinner and the Cuban sandwich.  We had half of the Cuban for lunch and saved the rest for another day. 
I went into my office and logged into Selby.  I managed to download the Herbarium database and also installed MS Access 2010.  Surprisingly it all worked but I don’t have a clue about how to use access.  There were some pre-built reports that I was able to use to select a list of plants with Family, Genus and Species.  I couldn’t find any good way to export them.  The excel report kept getting an overflow.  I exported this to a text file which has a lot of empty lines.  With a little bit of Python I think I can massage this data into a csv file consisting of Family, Genus, Species. 
I’ll then use this to load an SQL database for lookups.  The plan is to parse an Exif tag and then with the assistance of the database, identify each tag as a Family, Genus or Species. 
I spent the whole afternoon doing this.  At the end of the day I switched to the First Class project and did a simple insert to a 3 field SQL database.  This worked.  It would not work when I tried an insert using DbUtils into the larger First Class database earlier.  Perhaps DbUtils is the culprit.  I will pursue this tomorrow.  Dinner tonight was the pork with rice and beans we picked up in Belkis.  I had some wine with this.  After dinner I went out to Publix and picked up the last ingredient for the Mixology class, Sparkling Apple Cider.  I also picked up Bagels and Sherbet.
We had dinner informally while watching Cory with his two little girls in Epcot.  It was fun.  The new show was Harmonious and it was spectacular with light, sound, water and fireworks.


Sept 30, 2021 Thursday SQL, Exif, Mixology


This was a busy day.  In the morning we went over to Tropiflora to look for mounting material.
We bought an Orchid and a cute Tillandsia that I am going to hang from a fishing line.  Our next stop was Home and Garden on Beneva.  I bought two little mini flowers to replace the dusty miller.  Libbie picked up a bale of Pro Mix which was the purpose of the trip.   That bale was heavy!  She said 60 pounds. 
I continued to muddle my way through SQL.  I managed to get a small database with three columns working.  When I tried the First Class database with all 21 columns I kept getting various errors.  I solved the “no table named violets” error.  I had a typo with database names.
Now the error is “column is not unique”.  I can’t figure that one out.  This is getting frustrating.
I switched to the Exif issue with Selby.  I managed to read the entire Herbarium database into an SQL using SQLite Studio.  The SQLiteStudio app has an option to load the database tables from a CSV file.  I created a CSV file in Python and then loaded it with the Studio program.  The Python program had to take each field and comma delimit it as well as remove extra space characters and blank lines. 
Libbie made spaghetti for us this evening as a quick meal because the Florida Tech Mixology class starts at 7.  She managed to get all the spices out and lined up.  It was still challenging to keep up with the Zoom session.  I enjoyed mixing all the drinks and engaging with alumni.  I was clearly the oldest one there.  The next oldest one was a young lady from the Bahamas who graduated in 1977.  I chatted with her a bit.  She knew about the Red Tide problem in the Sarasota area.   I made all three Bourbon based drinks.  Each one had 2 ounces of alcohol so we each consumed 6 ounces.  It was too much alcohol for one night!


Oct 1, 2021 Friday sql, exif 


Before I did anything I went outside and planted the two mini vincas I bought yesterday.  It is pretty dry out now that rainy season is over.   I came inside and installed the Exif module into Python.  This went well and I actually could read the tags.  I located the tag for the hort description and was able to easily parse it.  I next installed SQL and read the herbarium database and was able to apply a tag and find Orchidaceae.  Unfortunately the genus I was looking for was not in the database.  I need a better database so I went searching. I came up with nothing.  Possibly on Monday Bruce or Liz may know of one.  I thought I had a solution and actually sent an email which was premature. 
Today is the Disney 50th celebration.  Josh is streaming all day long today from the opening until after the fireworks.  We watched some of this off and on.   I played the Clarinet this afternoon as usual and sailed through the 1/16th notes.  Next I took out the Movie Classics book I received from Amazon this week.  With a combination of the accompaniment track played on Sonos and the sheet music I started making some headway on Gabriel's Oboe.  The opening is 4 sixteenth notes followed by a string of 1/16 notes.  The accompaniment track starts with a section of 8 notes on the harp before the Clarinet begins.  Timing has been a challenge.
For dinner tonight Libbie grilled some chicken thighs on the outdoor grill with BBQ sauce.  I made the rest of the bag of frozen french fries in the Air Fryer.  They came out pretty nice.  After dinner we watched more of the Disney 50th anniversary festivities including the ABC special which had some nice history.  We then switched over to Josh who was streaming the new fireworks show which was fun to see.  It was really crowded in the park.


Oct 2, 2021 Saturday SQL takeout


I went upstairs and continued to work on both the First Class program and also on the Selby Exif reader.  For First Class I managed to put the Joe Bruns file into a CSV file and then import it into an SQL database.   This was all successful.  Now I’m going to try to write this database, something I have not been able to do so far.  If it doesn’t work I at least have the source code that created this db.
On the Selby front I managed to read the Selby herbarium data into an SQL browser written in B4J.  I can scroll through data, filter it or edit it including adding new records.  I may load this on my tablet for show and tell.  It will require recompiling for Android.  The issue with Android is if the db gets edited, downloading the edited version may be an issue. 
For dinner we decided to do Chinese takeout.  Libbie ordered the 4 meat Szechuan from New China in Nokomis.  We had this with 2 egg rolls and a glass of Cabernet.  Today we watched the rest of the ABC special for the Disney 50th.  It covered the History of Disneyworld and the celebrities who visited.  Notable was Princess Diana and her boys who stayed at the Grand Flo.  They probably used our rooms at the Grand Flo, the Presidential suite.


Oct 3, 2021 Sunday some success


I continued working on both the Python program for Selby Exif reading and First Class databases.   It was frustrating because all day long I had not been able to find a variable in the Genus column of the database I created.  Eventually late in the afternoon I found that to pass a string parameter to a query I needed to put the string in brackets.  This was only a partial solution.  It worked in the Family column for Orchidaceae but didn’t work for Leptotes in the Genus column.   Eventually I found that a space before the name was killing the search.  A little more googling found how to put wildcards before and after the variable being searched.  This worked.  It is probably useful for the B4A program in First Class as well since the technique is the same.   At last forward progress!
At 4 PM I watched Dinners with Donna for 3 hours.  She was making dishes with all things Zucchini.   While she was making her dishes I was logged into the upstairs computer remotely and still trying with the Python program to no avail.  It wasn’t till after dinner that I had success.
Libbie made a new dough for her pizza this afternoon.  The pizza was one of the best.  She combined it with peppers, onions and the leftover pepperoni (4 pieces).  It was really, really good. 


Oct 4, 2021 Monday Selby, databases, Angela


This morning I went to Selby.  Had a nice chat with Bruce about what he needs to extract from the images in order to import into Brahms.  I got back to cleaning up images for John.  This consumed the morning making the time go by quickly.  On the way home I stopped into Lowes and picked up an extension for the front yard sprinklers.  I have a few sprinklers covered by plants that I want to raise above the plant crown.  I didn’t do this because I wanted to stay clean.
I spoke with Joe today and helped him bring his packages back across the street.  Angela’s Mother died a week ago and they have been in Columbia.  We collected their packages for the past week.
I went out in the late afternoon for rotisserie chicken and dishwashing detergent. Costco was not crowded which is why I like going over here late in the afternoon.  Most of the carts had people buying only one or two items.
Angela and Joe came over later to thank us for watching their house.  They brought Columbian coffee and mugs as a gift.  This was nice.
Dinner was the Costco Rotisserie chicken and broccoli.  We are trying to cut back on food.  I hope it works.  After dinner I started downloading the Selby live plant collection photos.  I went to bed with the downloading proceeding but very slowly.


Oct 5, 2021 Tuesday Gisline, Selby photos, SQL


Gisline texted that she would like to come at 8:30.  This was fine with us.  She and her husband do such a fantastic job cleaning our place we are willing to take whenever she wants to come over.   While they cleaned and scrubbed I worked on the PC downloading the Selby live plant pictures.  There are over 27,000 of them and they are good quality.  While downloading I also browsed the Selby website and found the presentation for Brahms.  It looks very promising with the ability to tie together all of Selby’s digital resources - documents, historic photos, Herbarium images and the living plant collection.  
I also downloaded the living plant database and opened it in Access on my PC.  I managed to dump a CSV file of the accession data which contains what I’m looking for and so much more. 
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to put the CSV into an SQLite database.  Eventually I found a python program on github that does this.  Using Pyscripter I ran the Python script and managed to create an SQLite database.  I had to install a module called “six” to get the script to run.  I also found where in the Pyscripter IDE the command line parameters could be added. I needed to do this to tell the program the name of the CSV file and the name of the database to be created.  This was all successful, the script ran amazingly quick.  Now it’s time to grab the images and parse the data for lookup in the database.
Today before lunch Libbie and I went on a Detweiler's trip.  I wanted spare ribs, she needed produce.  We also picked up Salmon, Brats and ground beef.   I helped her package the meats into ziplocks for the freezer. Dinner tonight was the rest of the rotisserie chicken and a side of lima beans.  No wine in an effort to cut back. 


Oct 6, 2021 Wednesday irrigation, python spare ribs


I wanted to go out first thing and work on the irrigation but Bill’s employee was out cutting the grass. I worked in my office a little on reading the file list of Living Plant photos using Python. 
Yesterday the Amazon Fire HD 10 arrived.  Amazon is having a fantastic sale on these things.  The HD 10 is $99. I have been having trouble getting the Fully Kiosk browser to work.  The URL for the weather display on my Synology comes up with a 404 page not found error.  After messing with it all last night and today I finally deleted the Fully Kiosk browser and re installed it.  The thing started working!  I’m going to use it to display my photo collection of digital pics and scans going back to 1917. 
Outside I located all the buried sprinkler heads and extended two of the heads above tall plants.  I was able to test the East yard irrigation and water the plants.  I ran a brief test on the front yard but I still have work to do there.
In the afternoon I resumed python work on the living plant photos.  I was able to take one photo, extract the MSBG number and use the number to look up the plant. I printed all the desired parameters from the database lookup.  Now I need to print this to a file and also sequence through the directory of files grabbing each file and running it through the process. 
Dinner was fantastic.  Libbie cooked the country ribs from Detweiler’s in her traditional spare ribs sauce with onions.  This smelled heavenly while it was cooking and was delicious.  Dinner was country ribs in BBQ along with Butternut squash.  Both were delicious.
After dinner I continued with Python.  I’m learning quite a bit as well with the Python syntax. 


Oct 7, 2021 Thursday irrigation, porcelain planter


I could only do limited irrigation repair because Libbie was working on the flower bed in the back.  I replaced one sprinkler in the front and had to flush out the line while she worked.  I deferred working on the rest of the line.  We went to Farm and Garden to get a Porcelain planter and a ceramic dish for her birds.  We found both in the store. I also picked up 3 Pentas plants for the planter.  I wanted a white one which they did not have.  I’ll check with Lowes.
I continued working on the Selby Exif program.  I found 70 pictures out of 27,000 that do not have MSBG tags.  The MSBG is handy because I can use it to look up the plants Family, Genus and species info.
Later in the front yard I watered the plants.  I found this sprinkler run does not cover all of Libbie’s backyard plantings.  In addition, the drippers around the bird feeder are in pretty bad shape.  I am going to replumb this area with traditional popup sprinklers.
At 1:30 PM we watched the volunteer training for the Orchid show.  Libbie has volunteered for the show for Tuesday afternoons.  The training was excellent because it covered why each design element was chosen.  The conservatory photography was crap.  It is very interesting to see that the botany spirits and specimens are featured in the Art museum. 
Dinner was leftover spare ribs from yesterday and butternut squash.  It is still delicious.
After dinner we watched a little of Cory Meets World, especially to see what snack he purchases.  It was a pumpkin chocolate cake shaped like a pumpkin served on a tasteless cookie (Cory’s words). 


Oct 8, 2021 Friday irrigation


It was an all outdoors day today.  I started by digging up the sprinkler by the street then hooking up a hose to it.  I wanted to see what else was on this run.  Surprisingly there were only 2 other sprinkler heads on the run.  One more sprinkler located along the curb and one sprinkler head in the center of the lawn.  There has to be more but that’s all that activated when the hose pressure was injected. 
Next I took apart the irrigation controller box to apply 24 VAC to channels 2 through 6 to see if the backyard solenoids would activate.  They just vibrate and hum.  The red active wires were the ones labeled 2 and 4. 
I decided to dig up the 2 solenoids.  I discovered there were some serious sized pipes coming and going to these two valves.  There were one inch pipes on one side and 1 ¼ inch on the input size. 
I cut the output side of the solenoid and brought the pipe slivers to Lowes to match up the sizes.  
That is where I learned what size they were. For both sizes I bought a couple of connectors and some adapters to hook up a hose to inject the lines so I could see where they go.  One of the 1 inch lines was slowly dripping so I also bought some screw in caps.  I put the ½ inch pipe adapter and one of these caps on for overnight sealing of the line.  Tomorrow I’ll uncap and then hook up the hose to see where the line goes.  
I did not do any work on First Class or Selby plants.  I also did not practice Clarinet today.  Tomorrow is going to be different!
When I went out to pick up the pipe parts I stopped into Publix and got frozen french fries for dinner tonight along with Brioche buns for hamburger.  The frozen fries work well in the air fryer.  Dinner tonight was a hamburger with tomato on Brioche buns with french fries.  After dinner we watched Donna taste a ridiculous quantity of Halloween snacks on YouTube.  She bought every Halloween snack imaginable from Apple Cider Oreos to Smash Mallows and more.   I was tired and ended up going upstairs around 8:30 but not sleep.


Oct 9, 2021 Saturday Irrigation success


This morning I dragged the hose around in order to hook it up to the first solenoid.  I found the first solenoid feeds the front yard.  There also was some backwash through the solenoid which filled the hole with water.  I had to use a bucket to bail the water out of the hole.  Once this was done I dried the end of the pipe which used to feed the second solenoid and glued a hose adapter to it.  I hooked up the hose to this line and was tickled that the back yard sprinklers activated!  We had sprinklers I never knew about. Libbie helped with her clippers and cleared the grass.  I went around and pounded a white stake into the ground at each sprinkler head.  A few of our sprinklers need adjusting.  The one in the back middle of the yard sprinkles into the lake.  The one in the East yard nicely wets the Staghorn when  it goes around but it also sprays the windows of Paulette and Dean's porch.  We need to work on this.  I took a picture of the sprinkler head and then matched it up online.  Our sprinkler is a Hunter PGP.  I watched a YouTube video about how to adjust the stops on this sprinkler.  The right stop is fixed but the left is adjustable.  Finding the sprinklers is happiness.  I shut the house water off and then cut the supply line off the input side of the solenoids.  I then capped the house water and waited 20 minutes for the glue to dry before turning the water back on.  Once this was done I pulled the solenoid assembly out of the hole.  This was the end of my outdoor activity for the day.  I went inside and designed a manifold with 2 solenoids and a number of 1 inch PVC fittings.  I used this to calculate the correct number of PVC fittings for my shopping list.  Indoors I did some Clarinet practice trying to even out my eighth notes.  Justin said I’m playing them too quickly between beats.  They need to be even.
Libbie used the leftover white wine from several weeks ago and cooked scallops with wine, butter and bread crumbs.  This was incredibly good.  This was served over rice with a side of Broccoli.  After dinner I set up a 6 Tb backup drive to unload the Sandisk SSD.  I want this SSD for another Pi to display our images on the new Fire HD I bought. 
Libbie and I walked around the block tonight.  On the way around we stopped into Joe Long’s house to tell him that Charlie Gonzales of the commons board is looking for him.  We learned all about his side business of Hacker Blox, later he even sent a link to the website.  


Oct 10, 2021 Sunday Solenoid Piping


I went out early this morning when Lowes opened at 8.  I bought the long pipes needed as well as the one inch fittings.  I wanted to go early because navigating a cart with long pipes through a busy store could be challenging.  The store was empty and when it came time for checkout I had a delightful young lady about 20 something help me scan the sometimes difficult barcodes. She was lovely and friendly.  I carried my tools and pipes to the hole in the ground and tried to do the hookup but found the pipe going to the backyard irrigation is a 1 ¼ inch diameter PVC.  I went back to the store for an adapter.  This time Libbie came and picked out a replacement Mandivilla for the backyard flower bed. 
I managed to finish installing the new one inch solenoids and all the associated plumbing.  Now it needs a cover which I’ll purchase tomorrow and also a source of water.  The water will come from a ditch I have to dig across the backyard.  I wish I didn’t have to go to Selby tomorrow.  I would begin digging the ditch if I was home.  I’ll start tomorrow afternoon when I return.
Libbie made her outstanding pizza again.  This time it had Thai basil which is stronger than regular basil.  Libbie thought it was overpowering the mushrooms. 
After dinner I worked on the Selby Python program and created a CSV list of the first 1000 plants in the living plant collection.  It makes a nice table in a spreadsheet.


Oct 11, 2021 Monday Selby, ditch digging


At Selby this morning Bruce was pretty happy with the format of the table I made from the living plant images.  He said this was what he was looking for except the accession numbers are missing the letter code on the suffix.  I told him I intentionally stripped them out. 
I continued image cleanup activities.  Bruce gave me a new problem - a text file he could not open because it has 13 million lines. 
Once home I played with Bruce’s file a bit and found that Ultraedit will open it but the concept of cut and paste is non existent.  I’ll have to find another way to split this file, possibly using python.
Outdoors I did some more ditch digging and then hooked up some more of the plumbing pipes and wired the solenoids.  This is now ready for a box to cover it.  I continued the ditch work, going around the corner and going about 4 more feet through some pretty tough roots.   In one case I dug under the root rather than cripple the tree any more than necessary.  This wore me out.  For dinner we decided to order Fish and Chips from Beckhams.  I had ColeSlaw with mine, Libbie chose Garden Peas. 


Oct 12, 2021 Tuesday Water, Clarinet


I started outdoors early and continued digging the ditch along the back.  Eventually I was able to get two 10 foot pipes into the trench.  After lunch a trip to Lowes got me some more fittings and a ¾ inch screw in plug for the line going to the West side spigot.  I hooked up the East side hose to the end of the new pipes in the trench.  This allowed me to water the backyard with the in ground rotary sprinklers.  I let them run for 30 minutes.  While the watering was going on I practiced Clarinet for my lesson at 5:15.  I’m still having trouble with the 1/16 notes and when a note is oddly thrown in not on a beat. 
Amazon delivered a Pi 4 today but instead of the Pi I ordered I received a Pi-Top 4.  Rather than return it I stripped it apart and threw the Pi-Top parts away.  I want the Pi 4.  The only thing I give up with the one I ordered is a steel case and heat sink.  The Pi-Top has a plastic case and a fan.  I have a steel case with passive cooling but I need thermal grease to attach the copper heat sink.  My other choice is to use the foam thermal pads which is what is on one of the other passive cases I am using. 
Libbie worked at Selby this afternoon, the first afternoon of the Orchid show.  We were both tired by dinner time so she suggested Taco Tuesday.  I agreed.  We went to Plaza Mexico and had Margaritas with Chips and Salsa.  I then ordered the usual, a Beef Chimichanga covered with cheese and including guac, refried beans, lettuce and sour cream.  I love this dish.  I was hungry after ditch digging all day. 
It was after dinner that I disassembled the Pi-Top.  I’m not sure I did the right thing because the Pi 4 inside was an older one from 2018.  I’ll see if the update works.  I want this thing so I could have it boot from an SSD instead of using the SD Card. 


Oct 13, 2021 Wednesday ditch digging
I went outside immediately today and continued working on the waterline ditch.  I filled around the solenoid box and did some backfilling of the first two pipes.  I then had a goal of getting the ditch dug long enough for 2 more lengths of pipe. My technique is to pick the ground first, try to shovel the loose dirt if the roots will allow and then get on my hands and knees and using a combination of the trowel and the clippers, I cut through the roots and dig deeper.  I had a few roots that were too big and needed the cable cutters before I could dig those areas.  There also was a lot of buried cable.  I’m guessing it is old TV cable and landscape lighting cable.  I barely managed to get the two pipes down and partially covered in spots.  My body was sore all over, especially my left shoulder and back.  
Once my work outside was done for today I went to my office and started working on the new Pi 4.  It seems to run cool inside the passive cooling.  I was seeing a temperature of around 40C on the CPU which is 104 F.  I did all the updates and even updated the firmware so I could boot from the SSD.  I installed Scargill’s script but not with all the options.  I left off Node-red, Mosquitto and other Home Control options but I did choose the option to remove all the office tools.  I basically wanted an easy installation of Apache, PHP and Javascript.  Pi now installs RealVNC using Raspi-Config which is handy.  I now need to manually install FTP so I can load photos.  The whole purpose of this Pi is for the family photos slideshow which I will  display on the new Fire tablet  
Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  After dinner I vegged out and put my headphones on.  I spent the next 2 hours watching YouTube videos of excellent Carinet performances.  The biggest surprise was a UK singer, Hayley Westerna, who collaborated with Morricone in 2011 and wrote words for Gabriel's Oboe, Whispers in a Dream.


Oct 14, 2021 Thursday Sprinklers, Pi 4


This morning I went back to the backyard and continued the irrigation work.  It was a little more difficult this time because the spot in the corner of the house was in full sun.  It was incredibly warm as I dug about 10 more feet of trench.  I cut the pipes and fittings and put the waterline  into the trench.  I activated the backyard rotary sprinklers and adjusted most of the heads to keep the water on the lawn.  The one head in the Northwest corner can not be adjusted because the head is chewed up.  I need to replace the sprinkler head.  I had the forethought to order a sprinkler from Amazon because it came with an adjusting tool.  I could have just ordered the tool but for 5 dollars more I got a spare sprinkler head.   I now need to use this sprinkler head.  Earlier today I ordered another screen mesh filter for the new line.  Amazingly Amazon delivered it this evening.  I don’t know how they do this.  Order in the morning and receive in the afternoon.  Wow.
I worked on the Pi 4 late in the afternoon.  Using FTP I set up the laptop to upload photos from 2000 - 2010.  This took about 12 hours.  I left the laptop running when I went to bed.  It had completed 40,000 uploads but still had another 20,000 to go.  That is for 10 years worth of photos.  
Dinner was Chicken Quesadilla in the air fryer. We ate this informally in the Family Room so we could watch the return of Yeehaw Bob to the Port Orleans resort at Disney World.   A glass of Cabernet accompanied our meal.  Cory did the stream of Yeehaw Bob.  This is one well loved and crazy performer.  He is also very talented.  It was fun to watch him play all the old Disney songs.  This was going to go until midnight.  The stream started at 6 and the show started at 8:30.  We stayed up until 10 watching the first set of Bob’s. 


Oct 15, 2021 Friday Water spigot, Pork Chops


This morning I went outside and started digging the ditch from the well water source pipe at the Solenoids to the Spigot near the grow boxes.  The soil is mostly soft but full of roots and landscaping rocks.  I still don’t understand why anyone would think that landscape rocks are a good choice for mulching beds.  I managed to run the pipe and provide a vertical pipe for attachment of a spigot.  Late in the afternoon I picked up groceries at Walmart and then bought a spigot and threaded elbow at Lowes.  Using pipe thread compound I screwed the spigot at my bench vise and then glued the assembly to the vertical pipe.  I turned the well back on and Voila’, we had water out of the new spigot.  Now I need to screw this to the wall.  With the exception of landscaping, this almost concludes the well project.  I still need to install the filter  delivered by Amazon yesterday.
I continued to transfer files to the Pi 4 slide server.  It is running out of room on a 1T SSD drive.  I probably need a 2T drive instead. 
At 6 PM Libbie and I started making Pork Chops with Pearl Onions and Apples.  It came out very well.  We had the Pork Chops with pearl onions and apple and a nice gravy.  The side was rice.  As a toast to a nice meal we had a bottle of Rodney Strong Cabernet.  We saved 2 glasses in the bottle for tomorrow night.  I was so tired after the meal that I couldn’t even stand up for more than a few minutes.  
________________




Oct 16, 2021 Saturday Pipe clamps


I clamped down the spigot installed yesterday.  This completes that project.  I had to run to Lowes to get some ½ inch fittings so I could attach a sprayer onto the pipe near the Allamanda bush. While there I noticed the Vinca were marked down to $2 each.  When Libbie returned from her haircut I told her about the deal.  We went back to Lowes and bought 22 of the Vincas.  I picked up the female 1 inch PVC fittings for the new filter as well as 2 adapters to reduce this to ¾ inch.  
We set the Vinca aside until another day but I went to work and hooked up the new sprayer next to the Allamanda bush. I chose one with a ¼ circle pattern.
After a trip to Walmart to fetch my prescription I continued to work on the slide show.  There are now 21 years worth of pics uploaded to the SSD drive on the new Pi 4.  I eventually got the slides to display on the Fire 10 inch tablet.  It turned out to be a permission issue which I diagnosed from the console logs of the browser. 
I brought the tablet downstairs for show and tell.  It is too small for displaying pictures, which is unfortunate.   My next change will be larger titles and perhaps the year in big letters in the upper left corner.
Libbie reheated the leftover Pork Chops from last night which we had with Pearl Onions and Apple slices.  I mixed the chicken broth with flour and vinegar to pour over it all as a gravy.  We had the Pork Chops with onions, Apples and a side of rice.  The rest of the Rodney Strong from last night completed the meal.  I was not doing very well after dinner.  I could hardly stand for more than a few minutes.  I need a few days off from working on the irrigation.


Oct 17, 2021 Sunday  Yard sprinkler, slide show


I dug up the one sprinkler near the lake that was shooting water everywhere and replaced it with the new one I received from Amazon.  This fixed it.  I also adjusted the limits and then watered the lawn for 30 minutes.  It will be good to water the backyard and not have dry grass this winter.
I then returned to my office and worked on the titles for the slide show.  I managed to get the year displayed in the upper left corner.  After a little work with Javascript I was able to strip the filename and then the path from the image leaving me with the name of the directory which is fairly descriptive.  It serves well to title a picture.   I could not achieve a larger font size for the title using CSS so I ended up adding some HTML to the line that adds the title. It bumps up the font size one step which works fine. 
I practiced Clarinet for a few minutes then went downstairs at 4 for Dinners with Donna.  She was doing Oktoberfest meals.  She started with a Black Forest cake then met pretzel bits.  The protein was Chicken Schnitzel.  I ended up calling Vicki to see if she remembered Mom cooking Veal cutlets.  It seems to  me there were these frozen things pre breaded in a box that just require baking.  Vicki remembered them but didn’t think they were veal. I’m not sure.  
During Dinners with Donna we had Libbie’s outstanding pizza with mushroom topping. The mushrooms were very good and better than the ones from Detweiler last week.  These were firm and tasty.
After Donna we watched some Tuba Skinny and found a wonderful Clarinetist named Dr Thomas.  I looked him up and he’s the real deal - college professor, Jazz at Lincoln Center member and occasional collaborator with Wynton Marsalis. 
I next tried playing Clarinet since I was inspired but had trouble hearing the play along track.  I need to somehow add headphones to Sonos possibly using Bluetooth.  This is the same thing I need for zoom with Justin.


Oct 18, 2021 Monday Selby


I did my Botany thing at Selby today.  Our photos with the hanging camera strap did not have the correction applied.  I found that the CR2s are never touched.  The changes remain with the Lightroom database.   All our files were moved so they lost the corrections. I started doing the corrections again.  I corrected about 50 of them. 
On the way home I stopped by Fogt music to see if there were Buffet Clarinets.  I had no success,  they are closed on Mondays.  Oh well.
I tried a little Clarinet practice today but it didn’t go well.  I need more work on ⅛ notes not on the beat.  This is highlighted in the song “Coming Around the Mountain”
Dinner tonight was BBQ chicken on the grill along with a side of Baked Beans. After dinner we watched Cory’s interview with Yeehaw Bob.


Oct 19, 2021 Tuesday Quiet Day


I watered all the outdoor zones today and also did a trip to Walmart for a few groceries but did not do anything significant.  I had a meeting at 9 for the Commons to discuss the budget.  I got all my questions answered and somehow in the process I ended up as treasurer.  We also elected a President and a Vice President.   That’s what I get for reading the budget and the checkbook. 
Libbie went to Selby and I practiced Clarinet.  Still trying fancy fingerwork above the break.  I found a Meetup group called Show and Tell.  You show a piece you are working on. 
I had a pretty good lesson with Justin. I am still speeding through the eight notes.  I need to relax and get in the rhythm.  I also managed to call this morning to the Polka Cruise and make my final payment.  I still need to send an insurance check dated today.
We both were pretty tired.  I finished up my Clarinet lesson around 6 PM and Libbie returned from Selby so we went out to Plaza Mexico.  I had my standard Chimichanga and a Margarita. When we came home I watched some more Clarinet music on YouTube and then went to bed.
I bought Give Kids the World tickets for Dec 14 and also booked a night in the Hampton Inn in Kissimmee.
Oct 20, 2021 Wednesday James Museum


We left at 9:30 for the James Museum and arrived around 10:30.  We parked in the parking garage that is attached to the Museum.  After paying the $30 admission fee we were wowed by the entrance hall named the Arroyo.  The inside is beautiful and the sculpture well placed.  This is a nice museum. We then walked to the second floor where the majority of the collection remains.  The paintings are fabulous.  The sculptures are from highly skilled contemporary sculptors.  I enjoyed the art very much.  There is so much to see at this museum.  While we were browsing the gift shop we made the immediate decision to become members.  This earned us a 10% discount on a jigsaw puzzle that Libbie bought as a Christmas gift for the girls.
After the museum we walked across the street to Ford’s Garage, a car themed restaurant.
We shared 2 appetizers, a plate of shrimp in a spicy sauce and BBQ Pulled pork over Nachos.  A Yuengling accompanied the meal.  We had an easy drive home arriving back around 4 PM.  I had 2 packages waiting for me.  Bluetooth non noise canceling headphones for my Clarinet practice and also a couple of plastic magazine holders for my music. I should have ordered 4 instead of 2.  However, the 2 I did set up are a good start at getting all those books off the floor.
Because we had such a big and late lunch we didn’t feel like having a very big dinner.  I had a PB&J sandwich.  We watched a little of Josh and Jenna who were at the MK today before going upstairs early.  I was very tired and basically passed out.


Oct 21, 2021 Thursday  trenches, hose hanger, headphones


I went outside this morning and covered the rest of the trench for the new water line.  This completes the waterline project.  I then decided to tackle the hose hangers.  I removed them both but when I went to attach the East side hose hanger I needed some concrete mollys.  A trip to Lowes gave me Mollys, a clearance Pentas and a short 15 foot hose.  I mounted the East side hanger but will do the West side tomorrow.  I was tired.  I also put the PVC fittings on the new mesh screen filter but did not install the device.  It requires some digging, cutting and gluing of the lines. 
We took a trip to Detweilers and bought Apples, hoagie buns, other produce and as an impulse item, a Pumpkin cake they were sampling. 
I boiled the Brats in a beer and onion mixture then grilled them on the Weber grill.  We had this in a Hoagie bun with sauerkraut.  They were surprisingly good. I did not like the onions in beer but I liked the kraut on the brat. 
I found an MP3 player for the Galaxy S7 tablet.  I installed it along with the music tracks. The tablet has an FTP server built in.  I was able to use Filezilla to FTP into the tablet and transfer the MP3 files. These were the play along tracks  for Gabriel's Oboe as well as the Clarinet Book II.  With the new non noise canceling  Bluetooth headphones I received this week from eBay I had much fun hearing the play along clearly and not being drowned by the Clarinet.  I was able to mostly keep up with the Play along for Gabriel's Oboe.  I certainly kept up with  “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”.  This was fun.  I hope to get a lot better playing this way.


Oct 22, 2021 Friday Productive


I went out first thing in the morning and mounted the hose hanger next to the new spigot on the West side of the house.  This went well.  I attached a short 15 foot hose I bought and filled all the grow boxes with water.  This is pretty convenient.  Next I installed the sand filter on the new water line that goes to the backyard.  This filter came from Amazon a few weeks ago.  I now have 2 sand filters in water lines.  Next I focused on the new sprinkler head that Libbie requested.  This was for her new planting of Vinca in the front yard.  I mounted a 180 degree pattern sprinkler on the standpipe.  This will water both the Vinca and the Bromeliads.   
Since the new filter is on I decided it was time to hook up the new solenoid in the back to my ESP8266 timer.  This will be an alternate route to water the front yard.   I like this better because it uses the original plumbing which was meant to water the yard instead of the reverse route I had chosen.  I did the wire splicing and hooked up the solenoid lines to the controller and tested them with my phone.  All went well.  I buttoned up the controller and closed the door.  This completely finishes the irrigation project!!!  It has been a while since the well was drilled and then Libbie found the solenoids in the backyard.  Part of the reasoning was that I could not do much with my torn ligament.
Inside I resumed the work on my Clarinet using the tablet and new bluetooth headphones.  I have a very nice system now for practice.  I spent my practice time using the play along to play both Gabriel’s Oboe and also “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”.  This was a satisfying practice session.  The MP3 player on the tablet has a speed control.  I used it a little on Gabriel's Oboe for a tough measure or two.   It was excellent.
Dinner tonight was hamburger on a Hoagie Bun with tomato and a side dish of baked beans.  This was excellent and much nicer than a hamburger bun.  After dinner I took a look at the slideshow program to get it to recycle photos better.  I may have to have the program reset after showing all the slides once or twice.  Later in the evening I watched some of the Disney Boo Bash party. I like the Cavalcade singing “Boo to You”.  It’s a catchy tune.




Oct 23, 2021 Saturday Easy Day


I bought some threaded eyes and drilled a hole at each end of the screen cage and installed the two eye bolts. I ran a clothesline between the two hooks in prep for hanging poly sheeting.  This is because they will be replacing the windows in the eating area which is in the Lanai.  Hopefully we can keep some of the stucco dust off the plants and half of the porch.  When the saw cuts the stucco around the window there is a cloud of dust on everything. 
Once again today I played both Gabriel's Oboe and also Coming Round the Mountain using the play along track.  This thing makes a big difference with timing. It slows me down for the eight notes that are in pairs and speeds me up with the 1/16th notes.  The biggy is the pauses and single notes both ⅛ and 1/16 not on the beat.
I spent some time trying to figure out flights and hotels to Huntington Beach.  I reasoned that maybe we could spend some time in the Hyatt on the beach the first half of the week and then Thanksgiving with Joe’s family.  The planes are quite full. Practically every seat is taken on the American and Delta flights.
Dinner tonight was Grilled Salmon with Lima Beans.  


Oct 24, 2021 Sunday Lime


It was lightly raining this morning when Libbie started topping off the grow boxes.  I ran over to Lowes and picked up  some Lime to work into the top 3 or 4 inches of soil.  She also planted a few dozen Vinca in front to replace the older plants. 
I worked inside my office cleaning out the closet and also sorting my shoebox full of screws.  I will also dispose of the Sonos I disassembled in order to hook up speakers.  Instead I ordered a Sonos Connect which allows external speakers to be attached.  This was expensive.  On ebay I bought a used device for just under $500 including $31 tax. 
We left at 6 PM for our first Ballet performance of the season.  We were welcomed everywhere at the theater.  We had to show proof of vaccination at the door.  At Will Call we picked up all our tickets for the season.  The Ballet was spectacular.  We have very good seats in the front row of the Mezzanine for the season.   The first seat was a MArtha Graham piece set to the Music of Appalachian Spring.  It was quite good.  The second number featured the entire company and was called Sonatina from the New World.  Preceding the ballet was a short movie featuring the company welcoming us back and they are glad we’re here.  We got out around 9 and had no problems navigating down Tamiami in a light rain. It was the end of a great evening. 


Oct 25, 2021 Monday Selby, Windows


Libbie and I put up the plastic sheets this morning on the back Lanai.  Then it was time for  me to go to Selby. I continued to clean up older files - Broms, Orchids and Gesneriads.  The Ferns are waiting to be done next.  Cleanup took all morning and there is still a laundry list of items that need addressing.
When I came home Sarasota Glass was working on the windows.  They had cut away all the stucco on the downstairs breakfast area windows in the morning.  After lunch they removed the old windows and installed our new Impact glass.  These guys are good.  They also set up the scaffolding inside the Lanai for the second floor. They said they will only put two holes in the screen and then tape it when they leave.  I called Gulf Gate screen about getting the whole Lanai rescreened.  They will send their estimator next Monday.
Dinner tonight was Spaghetti with cheese sprinkled on.  After dinner we watched an enjoyable stream of Josh and Jenna driving through the Fort Wilderness campground.  The decorations are unbelievable.  They are creative, extensive and numerous.  People go all out at the Campground.   We didn’t finish the stream as we went up to bed early.  I was really tired even though I didn’t do anything today.


Oct 26, 2021 Tuesday Windows, Clarinet, Pi time


Sarasota Glass arrived this morning a little after 9.  They continued setting up the scaffolding in front of the bedroom windows.  After an hour and a half they started cutting back the stucco.  They found that those bedroom windows were embedded in foam.  The flanges were cut back because all the stucco was not removed far enough.  They then embedded the window into a bed of foam, filling the cavity completely with foam.  There then was a thin coat of stucco applied over the foam.  The guys had a pretty good job cleaning all the foam out of the opening.  The old window was placed against bare wood.  They are supposed to put flashing over the wood first. I’m glad we are replacing these windows. They were not the greatest even though they were thermopane. 
Meanwhile, Libbie went to the eye doctor and then to Selby for the afternoon.  I stayed in my office and prepared the three Pi’s to be moved to the laundry room.  I had to wash the top shelf they are on.  It was covered with a layer of dust from the flooring work this past summer. 
I cleaned it up, installed a metal outlet strip and then plugged the three Pis into their new home.  This was the HA Pi, Scargill 3 which has Calibre and the Photo Slide Pi.   I had much trouble connecting to the MQTT of Scargill 3. Eventually I found that the allow anonymous default now defaults to false instead of true meaning a password is required to connect.  I edited the config file and changed it to true.  My MQTT devices started working after this.  I still need to do discovery of the Linksprite devices because they are not showing up in HA.  This should be easy to do.  I especially need the irrigation relays. 
This was my last Clarinet lesson for 2 weeks.  Justin is going on vacation to Tucson.  I showed off my new tablet playing tunes.  He said not to rely on it the first time I approach a piece but later on it’s good to play with a group.
For dinner we went out to Plaza Mexico.  We had Margaritas with Salsa and chips then I had my standard Chimichanga.  I really like those things.  After we got back home we watched more of the Halloween decorations from Resort TV1.  I’m still blown away by how elaborate some of these displays are.  I continued debugging MQTT into the night, eventually finding the setting in the conf file that did not allow anonymous connections.


Oct 27, 2021 Wednesday Finish windows, finish Pi transfer, blinds update


This was a busy indoor day.  Sarasota Glass arrived before 9 and began carrying tools into the Lanai. Today they worked at changing the Patio doors on the Lanai.  They do a really good job.  In the afternoon more helpers arrived to disassemble the scaffolding and help with the cleanup.
While this was going on I worked at my computer and built a few slide shows of artists, postcards and a historic story or two (Life in the 60s and Disney 50).  I also updated the index for the art so all these slide shows are accessible.  While doing bookmarks I updated Tom’s Bookmarks on the internet.   On the Home Automation front I updated the software in both Linksprite relay devices.  One runs the yard irrigation and the other Linksprite device runs the foyer and outdoor lights that formerly were controlled by switches on the front foyer closet.  The closet was removed to make room for the elevator.  When I updated the Linksprites they magically reappeared in Home Assistant.  This is what prompted this episode.  When I switched Pi’s for the MQTT I lost many devices in Home Assistant.  They’re back!  The newest version of Tasmota which I put into Linksprite must have a better auto discovery algorithm.
When Sarasota Glass finished up they collected a $7,000 check from me which came from the Fidelity account.  In the TD Ameritrade account I processed the required RMD from my IRA.  I chose to give 95% of it to the IRS.  This will cover our lack of withholding for pension and SSA checks as well as dividends.
We had BBQ chicken on the grill for dinner but during the cooking of the chicken the grill ran out of gas.  Fortunately I had a spare in the garage.  This spare was refilled at the propane place on Macintosh so it’s a full 4.5 gallons. Dinner was BBQ chicken with Butternut Squash.  After dinner I worked on updating the software for the Family Room blinds.  Auto update did not work but I was able to manually upload the firmware and flash the ESP chip.  This worked nicely.  All the while I was blaming the mechanical connection from the Servo to the blinds control rod.  The new firmware is great!  Now I need to update more blinds.  
In the middle of all this I watched a Contrarian Income seminar at 2 PM and then did the Florida Tech program at 7 PM which was a visit to the Paris catacombs. It was quite interesting.  I chose this over the HOA Board meeting but I recorded the board meeting.  Will be interesting to see if it works. 


Oct 28, 2021 Thursday rain, used Clarinets


It started raining when we woke up and continued all day long.  It also was quite windy.  While I was out at the street disassembling 2 old screens into the garbage can I saw a garbage can fly across the street, dumping litter all over the street.  We ended up with .7 inches of rain.  The backyard needed watering but this solved the issue.
I spent a lot of time today studying used Clarinets on Reverb, a Clarinet forum and a few local stores. There are a lot to choose from.
I was going to make Air Fryer Fish and Chips but lost track of the time.  I even bought Cod fish  in Walmart to use for this.  I found the batter needs to be refrigerated for one hour and it was now 6 PM.  Meanwhile, Libbie had gotten the Barcelona potatoes ready. I really felt bad about this.  We ended up deciding to go out to the Italian Grill.  When we got there the owner was standing in front of his restaurant waving us away.  A transformer blew out, the power company told him it would be one hour before power was restored.  We went across the street to Beckhams, our old standby.  We both ordered Fish and Chips along with a Yuengling.  I had fries and slaw with my dinner. It has been a while since we were inside Beckhams.


Oct 29, 2021 Friday Windy
It was dry today but very windy.  I spent more time researching used Clarinets today.  I found an R13 on ebay for $1800 but the plating on the keys appears to be well worn in spots.  I also found one that is a demo in Redmond, WA from a guy named Quinn the Eskimo.  This one is $2500.  I talked with our Allstate agent about car insurance.  A girl named Alexis called to go over our St John's policy.  I told her we now have impact windows which should adjust the rate.  She estimated an additional credit of almost $400 if I get an inspection  She gave me the names of 2 inspectors to get an updated wind mitigation report for the glass.  She also quoted me car insurance for significant savings over Amica.   The difference is almost $1,000 for better coverage.
I found a recipe for Baked Cod so I could use the Cod purchased yesterday for Fish and Chips but never used it because we went out to Beckhams.  Libbie cooked the Barcelona Tapas potatoes which were delicious.  She made the aioli to go along with it.  I prepared the Cod which was baked in butter and white wine and covered with crushed Ritz crackers.  I did not like the crackers on top.  I would rather have bread crumbs.  We drank the rest of the bottle of Beringer Chardonnay with the meal.  After dinner we enjoyed Josh and Jenna’s Mom and Dad live streaming from Disney.  They only did 2 hours worth but it was fun watching two “old” people navigate the stairs and crowds.  


Oct 30, 2021 Saturday Slide show


It’s still windy today but the rain is done.  We decided on Meatloaf Muffins tonight so I ran over to Publix and picked up shredded carrots and also dinner napkins for next Saturday evening.  I sent out invitations to the neighborhood for dinner on my birthday next Saturday.
I spent the afternoon going through all the online slides making sure we didn’t have anything too personal in the lineup.  I also was cleaning out projects and QYXie stuff as well as Violet shows. 
Libbie did all the work onn making Meatloaf Muffins and Potato Tapas.  She made smoked paprika aioli and reheated Butternut squash as sides. 


Oct 31, 2021 Sunday Sarasota Art Museum, Walts, Trick or Treat


This morning while CBS Sunday Morning was playing I did computer work cleaning up some older files by refiling or discarding.  I made a quick trip to Lowes to get 2 brackets for the wall on the back porch in order for Libbie to hang her mounting she created at Selby with Bromeliads and Orchids. 
We left for the Sarasota Art Museum at 11:30.  They were having an Open house today.  I wanted to see the place.  It was a big wow. It is hard to believe how they transformed an old school building into a beautiful 3 story museum.  They basically retained the front facade but the rear and the interior was completely rebuilt as an art museum with huge galleries and an enormous elevator. The art was quite good.  Students dressed in halloween costumes acted as docents everywhere.  They were friendly and welcoming.  I really enjoyed the museum.  The courtyard had a small duo playing guitar.  It was a beautiful afternoon for art. After our visit we stopped at Walts Seafood for lunch.  I have always wanted to go here. I was not disappointed.  The food was excellent.  Libbie had Coconut Shrimp and I had Walt's Original which was a basket of Oyster, shrimp and grouper.  It was fresh and delicious.  We definitely will be back. 
At home we watched Dinner with Donna at 4 PM.  She was making her traditional Halloween snacks.  It was not as  interesting because I like the real food streams better.  Libbie made her outstanding pizza which we had during Donna's show.  We also answered the door a few times for Halloween Trick or Treaters.  We had around 12 kids total for the evening. 


Nov 1, 2021 Monday Selby, screen estimate


I went to Selby this morning as usual.  I brought the leftover candy and left it on the counter over there.  I continued cleanup of images and also processed the new images that John had retaken.  This took all of the morning.  
On the way home I stopped into the library and got my digital library card setup into a permanent card.  They sent an email saying that my temporary card will expire this week.   I took out a temporary online card 30 days ago although I have not used it yet. 
At home I was a little tired so did not jump into doing anything significant.  I paid the property taxes and also ordered Libbie a Pixel 3a phone.   Republic said they were shutting the plans down on Nov 16 in preparation for new plans at the beginning of next month.   I ordered a phone, sim card and case.  I want to stay with our current plan because we paid for a year’s worth. 
At 3 PM Daniel from Gulf Gate Rescreening showed  up.  I had him estimate sanding, painting, replacing screws on the frame of the screen cage and then rescreening the cage.  He said the estimate will come within 24 hours.
For dinner we had the leftover Meatloaf Muffins with Lima Beans.  Unfortunately we snacked on the leftover Halloween candy this afternoon.  Uggh.


Nov 2, 2021 Tuesday Inspection, plant hanger


Gislene was here this morning busily washing and vacuuming at the same time the inspector knocked on the door.  The County inspector looked at the screws in the door and the screws around the windows and also viewed the pictures that Sarasota Glass took of the upstairs windows.   Once the inspector and then Gislene left, Libbie had to leave for Selby but first she helped me take some of the window stickers off.  They were really stuck on there.  I had to use some of the goof off solvent on 2 of the labels and definitely had to use the solvent on the residue left behind. 
In the afternoon I drilled the stucco outside the new windows and installed the brackets and pole for Libbie’s Bromeliad and Orchid hanging design.  This will look nice.
For dinner we drove to Plaza Mexico, our seemingly Tuesday evening dinner we have nicknamed “Taco Tuesday”.  I had the Chimichanga along with a frozen Margarita.  There are 2 soft wrapped Tortillas filled with beef and covered with cheese.  I only had one of the two and boxed the other for tomorrow.  After the restaurant we went to a deserted Costco which was great.  I picked up wine for the party and also coffee which we were low on. 
When we got home we watched the Golf Cart parade from Fort Wilderness campground.  It was unbelievable, so many people bringing so much crap to Kissimmee.   
This was a great day.  I was satisfied and Libbie was Happy with her afternoon at Selby meeting people.


Nov 3, 2021 Wednesday Glass wrapup, screen estimate, Alfredo


Sarasota Glass came at 9 this morning and finished up the Patio Door nail plugs which had to wait until inspection yesterday.  They also picked up the last payment which was $1500.  This completes the impact glass installation.  Tomorrow we get a wind mitigation update by SRQ Inspections which costs $75.  This will save me $282 on homeowners insurance. 
Libbie and I went out to Costco where I bought a 12 pound roast and Libbie ordered a Birthday Cake for my birthday which is Saturday.  I then did a Walmart grocery trip for dinner tonight and also for the neighborhood party Saturday night.  
I did very little Clarinet practice today, barely 5 minutes worth. Hopefully I’ll do better tomorrow.  I was pretty tired by the end of the day.  We received the estimate tonight for the repainting and rescreening of the back porch.  The thing will cost $4200. to rebuild.   This includes a water gate for drainage and a spline around the pipe and wires coming in for the hot tub and plants.  We also are getting a finer mesh on the roof of the screen cage.
Dinner tonight was Shrimp Alfredo Linguine.  Libbie cooked most of it.  I did minor assistance. 
After dinner I heated some Apple Cider mixed with mulling spices.  I then strained out the mulling spices and added a shot of Bourbon.


Nov 4, 2021 Thursday Library card


Today I used my new library card and accessed some of the digital ebooks online.  Thousands of books are available.  I tried using the epubor program to remove the DRM and it worked.  I added a lot of these books to Calibre running on the Pi.  I’m very happy with the Pi performance serving books.  This is on the Scargill pi which is at address 192.168.1.105.  While in my office I also updated the blinds software.  It works much better, fully closing and opening the blinds as well as reporting full status to the HA app. 
Libbie and I hung a group of art paintings in the Living area above the Sofa.  We have wanted to hang these paintings for some time.  The upcoming party is a good excuse.
We called Lorraine for her Birthday today and sang Happy Birthday only to find out her birthday is tomorrow, Nov 5.  Oh well, it was a funny moment.  Lorraine shared a little factoid that they got the hospital bill for Tommy.  It was $111,000 all but $1,000 covered by insurance. 
We had the Shrimp Alfredo Linguine again for dinner.  We ate informally this time while watching Cory streaming from the MK.  He said he will be having a Christmas Special on Dec 7 as a Give Kids the World fundraiser.  He will be singing Christmas carols.  I went to bed around 10 PM after this.


Nov 5, 2021 Friday Roast


This morning I unpackaged the 12 pound roast and put a rub on all sides then wrapped it and refrigerated it.  Meanwhile Libbie made a delicious potato salad which we had with our lunch as a sample.  I got my password reset by Liz at Selby.  It had expired.  I used it to get a listing of the 10,000 Bromeliads which she tried importing into Brahms.  Less than 100 would not import.  I’m going to get the Herbarium database into an SQL db where I could compare each Brom with it’s Herbarium entry.  I used my copy of Access 2019 to open the original Herbarium database and then dumped it all into an XML file.  The plan is to read the XML file, parse the key fields such as barcode and plant name and put them into a SQL database for the compare program.
I spent time on the telephone with Alexis of the Allstate agent’s office.  She now has the wind mitigation update from the inspector.  We talked about submitting this to St Johns insurance for a few hundred dollars lower rate.  At the same time I made arrangements to switch the car insurance from Amica to Allstate.  It is a significant savings.  Amica was $1192 for 6 months with lower coverage.  Allstate is $723 for 6 months.  This is a $469 savings or $938. annually.
Libbie needed Scallions so I ran over to Publix and picked up Hawaiian rolls, Scallions and found a fresh Tortellini so we could have a heat and eat dinner tonight.  We had the Tortellini in tomato sauce for dinner with some Rodney Strong Cabernet.  We ate this while watching Josh and Jenna at the Grand Flo and then on the Monorail to the Contemporary for fireworks in the rain.  This evening I received a wonderful zoom recording from Arlene’s 4 kids singing Happy Birthday.  How Nice.  I put the roast into the oven before bed at around 9 PM.  Oven is set for 225 to cook low and slow. 


Nov 6,  2021 Saturday Great One


This morning I took the roast out of the oven.  It was at 190 degrees which is way beyond safe.  Later in the morning Libbie and I shredded the Pork into pulled Pork. 
I went upstairs and worked on the Selby database parsing.  I have a large XML file which is the Herbarium database dump but Python can’t deal with the whole thing.  I’m now playing with some functions that do line by line reads.
Libbie nicely made the 7 layer salad and the baked beans later this afternoon.  At 6 PM our guests started arriving.  We had Chris, Steve, Carol (a friend of Chris), Ginny, Joe, Angela, Angela’s cousin Natasha, Dieter and Marlie plus us for a total of 11 people.  It was an excellent party.  Vicki and Arlene had fruit delivered with balloons.  The delivery man sang Happy Birthday as he delivered the fruit.   I received a lot of bottles of wine for my birthday.  It was a pretty nice day. 


Nov 7, 2021 Sunday Databases


This is the morning after our party.  Ginny sent me the committee roles doc she created so I could post it on the website.   Libbie and I reviewed what a nice evening it was last night and all the food and people who came to help us celebrate,  Wow, what a nice evening.
Today I spent the whole day trying to convert the Herbarium database into either a CSV or an SQL version such as SQLite.   I found some converters that are available for a very steep fee but so far I had no success.  
For both lunch and dinner we had leftover pulled pork with potato salad, baked beans and the last of the 7 layer salad.  After dinner we watched Josh and Jenna at Disneyworld covering the Christmas decorations.  I continued looking for a way to convert the access database to SQL.
I finally went to bed around 10 PM which is remarkable because this is the first evening on Standard time.  In other words it would have been 11 PM if it was last night.


Nov 8, 2021 Monday Selby, Brahms


I did my usual trip to Selby this Monday morning.  Cleanup on images continues.  In addition, Liz gave me access to Brahms.  When I got home I played with it during the afternoon.  It’s basically a very nice wrapper around an SQL database.   
Both lunch and dinner today were leftover pulled Pork.  For dinner we had the pork with leftover Cabernet wine, baked beans and Potato Salad.  This was the first I had the Columbia Crest Cabernet.  It was a Wine Spectator rated 91 or 92 and inexpensive in Costco which is why I bought it.  Wow, was it good. It was a surprise for a less than $10 wine.  


Nov 9, 2021 Tuesday Brahms, HackerBox


I spent the day playing with the Brahms database at Selby now that I have access.  I’m trying to figure out how to write a view into the data.  So far I have been able to explore the images and data but have not been able to link them or obtain a view.   
I did more exploring on flights to SNA.  Joe has rejected the Wednesday flights because it messes up their plans to “explore SoCal”.  I’m not enthused about California and would rather avoid that.  Our only goal is to see the girls.
I went to the Maker Meetup at HackerBox as invited by Joe Long.   It was an interesting meetup with about 20 people.  Joe provided Pizza and water.  I had a bottle of water and a slice of Pepperoni Pizza which was my dinner.  I had spent the afternoon trying to get the Amazon Fire tablet configured for Libbie.   I ended up having to erase the whole thing and then tried to reinstall everything.  I continued to work on this when I came home from the Maker Meetup.  The Kindle app does not work.


Nov 10, 2021 Wednesday Fire tablet, Wallbox, SpaceX


I continued working on the Fire Tablet.  I ended up doing a factory reset again and selectively removing apps.  I also added the Play store back and then downloaded the Google apps such as Chrome, Calendar, Maps.  I finally got it all working satisfactorily.  The tablet is back to $90.  I wouldn’t mind having one in my office.   
At the suggestion of some of the Makers at the Meetup last night I searched YouTube and found a few Seeburg rebuilding videos.  The most enlightening one was washing the unit with Krud Kutter and then spraying it with a moisture remover.  I can get Krud Kutter at Lowes but I had to order the PJ1 Super Cleaner from Amazon.  This is the moisture remover.  Unfortunately it won’t be here for another week.  I looked for PJ1 at Auto Stores online but no deal.  I did find a CRC contact cleaner at Ace but that may not be the same thing.  My plan is to  use a Linksprite to control the three relays with coin selections and then the onboard ESP8266 for decoding pulses.  I need to build a converter to go from 25 VAC to 3 volt logic pulses.  Fortunately others have done it before me so it’s  just a matter of laying out the board and rounding up some parts.  
I found some software to control a Sonos but I need a tutorial about how to use a Make file.  This means setting up a tool chain which probably has to be done on Linux.
Dinner tonight was BBQ Chicken Thighs along with a side of Lima Beans. After dinner I watched more Seeburg tutorials then switched over to the SpaceX launch.  I went outside and tried to see if I could see it while looking East but it was a nogo.  I stayed up longer watching the booster landing and reading about setting up a tool chain.


Nov 11, 2021 Thursday Happy day, Rossini


Today I disassembled the wallbox further for cleaning.   I got all the keys removed by prying with a 90 degree tip pliers and gently rocking back and forth.  I put all the keys into an Oxiclean solution where they will stay overnight.
Next I disassembled the credit module and the keys cover plate.  The box is now ready for some Krud Kutter.  Amazon says the PJ1 water displacement liquid will be here tomorrow.  The plan is to wash with several doses of Krud Kutter and rinse with hot water.  When the water eventually runs clear I’ll let it drip dry for 15 minutes and then spray it with the PJ1.
I did  a grocery trip for normal staples.  This time Walmart had everything including Libbie’s bird seed and pumpkin pie filling. Both of these items have been out for the past month.  
In my office I studied interfacing to a Sonos.  I found a nice Arduino library to help with this.  I also found some pulse decoding functions to help with decoding wallbox pulses. 


Time ran out this afternoon and I had to hustle to leave for the Opera.  We were encouraged to be there early because of the vaccination check.  We also had to pick up our tickets at Will Call.
After all this we sat outside in the patio area and had a glass of Cabernet until it was time to go inside.  It was fantastic to hear the Orchestra again.  A Rossini overture didn’t hurt either.  The Opera was great.  It was the usual Rossini silliness. There were plenty of quartets, sextets and fast singing.  The Orchestra did a splendid job.  They sounded great from our traditional seats which were row D in the center of the Opera House.   We have had these seats over the years.
The Opera started at 6 PM and was over at 7:30 PM.  We parked in the Palm Garage behind the opera house which was free today for Veterans Day.  On the way home we stopped at Walts Fish House for dinner.  It was still crowded and loud at 8 PM.  We had a couple of Yuenglings.  I ordered a Mahi Mahi with a Thai Chili glaze and sides of fries and slaw. The fish was excellent.  It was on their catch of the day menu.   When we got home around 9 PM we were disappointed to see that FedEx did not leave Libbie’s phone even though I signed a slip and put it on the door.  They won’t leave the package without a person to receive it.  We stayed home all day waiting for them, even giving up an Orchid sale.  We left at 4:30 for the Opera and they showed up at 6:40 which is well after dark.  I’m not very happy with FedEx.  If they could only deliver in the daytime we would be here.


Nov 12, 2021 Friday Orchids, wallbox, parmesan chicken


We went to the Orchid Sale today and arrived on Telavast around 9:30.  The Orchid place is amazing.  They have hundreds of Orchids everywhere.  We selected a bunch of pretty ones in bloom and also some “starter” Orchids that Libbie wanted to play with.  Our total was $243 then there was a 10% discount on top of that.  On the way home we stopped at a USPS mail station in a gift shop where I bought two books of stamps and stamped the 6 thank you cards that I wrote.
Later in the day we had two FedEx deliveries.  The phone finally arrived, Libbie answered the door.  Later on the can of PJ1 cleaner arrived.  This is the water displacement project I’ll spray the wallbox down with after degunking it with Krud Kutter. This came much earlier than the Amazon website said.  I was expecting it next week.  I’ll start washing the wallbox tomorrow.
This evening I cooked 3 chicken breasts in the air fryer then coated them with ranch dressing and parmesan, provolone and panko crumbs.  A few minutes in the broiler until the cheese melted finished this dish.  It’s a Cooking Light recipe of Copycat Longhorn Steakhouse Parmesan Chicken.  It was OK but the Air Fryer Chicken Parm from a few years back may have been a little better.  After dinner we watched a little of Josh at the Disney Christmas Party.  He was going to stream until Midnight. We went to bed around 9.


Nov 13, 2021 Saturday Garage Sale, Wallbox, Credit Card bills


This morning was the big Community garage sale.  The back gate was opened at 8 AM and left open.   I took the bicycle down from the garage attic and pumped the tires up.  Joe said because we only had 3 items we could put them with his stuff.  Someone bought the bicycle for $10.  I had it listed for $20.  When we took a walk around Westbourne to meet our neighbors and see the garage sale we saw the little girl riding the Elsa bike we sold.  We were told by someone on Westbourne Circle that this family is visiting grandparents on Westbourne.  Now the little girl has a bike to ride!   As we walked the Circle we saw her several times riding with her Dad.  While walking Westbourne Libbie purchased some plant hooks for $5.   Earlier a lady in Joe’s driveway was looking for a mixer.  Ran into our house and found her duplicate mixer and then  sold it to her for $5.  This was from the condo before we moved our Cuisinart mixer down from NC.  The garage sale was a lot of fun.  We didn’t sell anything but it was fun walking the neighborhood and talking with the neighbors.  Fiona’s kids were selling lemonade in front of their house.  We visited with Charlie and his wife in their garage.  She was selling her art prints for reasonable prices, around $35 each. 
Meanwhile I cleaned the wallbox in the garage sink.  I washed the electronics 3 times until the water ran clear.  I then sprayed the electronic pieces with the water displacement product.   After everything drip dried in a few hours I moved it all back into my office.  
For dinner tonight we were going to order a Chicken PArmesan takeout from Longhorn but they were showing a 94 minute wait online.  I wanted to compare a real one with my copycat Chicken Parm.  Instead we went to the Italian Grill and had an outstanding meal.  I ordered the Stromboli and also a salad.  We had this with a glass of Cabernet.   I was only able to eat half of this and boxed the rest to take home.  I left there really full.  Wow!
The credit card bill came today.  It was a shocking $7,000.  Ouch.  Examining the bill I found we paid for the rest of the Polka Cruise, the Opera subscription at Tampa, the Sonos Connect and two new phones.  One of the phones was returned but the credit was not reflected on the bill yet.  Wow, what a full day.


Nov 14, 2021 Sunday Seeburg motor


I tried powering up the cleaned up Seeburg but the motor did not seem to turn.  I disassembled the motor and removed it from the chassis.  Even spraying with oil would not get the motor turning.   I found a spring loaded bumper that is supposed to rub against the brass gear but it was frozen pushing against the gear.  I eventually managed to get it pushed back where it was still stuck but now touching nothing.  The motor now spins freely.  I will now clean all the contacts before reassembling the motor assembly.  I also spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to do interrupts in an ESP8266.  I have a program written in C that used a different framework to compile but I could convert it to the Arduino IDE.  I will also use a second Arduino to simulate the wallbox pulses.  I found a boarduino in  my spare parts box that should do the job.
Late in the afternoon I was tired so we watched Nick of Magical News Live do fundraising for his Vascular Birthmarks charity.  He was born with a tumor that took a dozen surgeries to heal.
Libbie made her outstanding pizza again.  I ran out to Walmart because we were out of sugar and also picked up some mushrooms for the pizza.  Because it is significantly colder out today I also picked up a supply of soup.    At home I enjoyed watching a young lady in red short shorts paint the house next door. She is a pretty blonde and am not sure if she is Travis’s girlfriend or sister but she was pleasant to look at.  Dinner tonight was Libbie’s yummy pizza with mushroom topping.  I had the last can of Miller High Life beer in the refrigerator.  This was leftover from when I made Brats.


Nov 15, 2021 Monday Selby, wallbox sim, dinner compare


I did my usual trip to Selby this morning.  I tried setting up another PC for Lightroom editing and file comparisons.   The Lightroom part did not work.  We did not have Lightroom Classic installed. In addition, the old password for Adobe does not work.  Something needs to be done. 
I used my portable copy of BC4 and did a comparison between Drive G and O.  I attempted a copy of files but it was incredibly slow so I left it running when I went home. 
At home Travis and family were still painting the house next door.  I briefly chatted with the pretty young lady rollering the outside walls.   Later Libbie and I talked with Jeff who is Travis’s Dad.  He was up on a ladder painting the front of the house.
In my office I got the Boarduino out and also an FTDI cable.  I managed to get the device programmed with a sample blinking LED program.  Now the tool chain is in place I can write some simulator software to drive the potential ESP8266 Wallbox CPU.   This will be a fun project but I’m only at the beginning.  Amazon delivered Libbie’s Otterbox case today.  Still waiting for Wallbox light bulbs.  They should be here at the end of the week.
I made an online order with Longhorn Steakhouse for the Parmesan Chicken.  For sides I ordered a Ceasar salad, a fully loaded baked potato and Honey Wheat bread.  They were highly efficient.  They texted me a link I used to tell then what parking spot I was in at 6 PM.  I was in spot 1.  Then within a few minutes a girl brought my dinner out.  We compared the Longhorn meal with my copycat version.  They both tasted the same.  The Longhorn was noticeably saltier.  The potato was also coated in salt.  The sides were very good.  I liked the Caesar salad quite a bit.  The crotons were soft and tasty and the dressing was very good.  The loaf of bread was a nice touch.  We had another piece for dessert.  All in all it was a very good meal.


Nov 16, 2021 Tuesday Simulator success


I wrote a program that uses the serial port as input for wallbox key combinations.  The output is a pulse train simulating the Seeburg wallbox.  I had a little trouble getting it to recognize the serial input.  I did not use a library to implement the serial commands but instead relied on a switch case to get the letter and number combination.  Recognizing the return key was an issue.  It only recognizes a decimal 10 instead of ‘/r’. I now need to verify the timing from the wallbox and the simulator.  
Next up is to reassemble the wallbox and to begin the ESP8266 software.  I unfortunately signed up for a ballroom lesson Wednesday morning.  I wanted to go to the Big Band music in Venice in the afternoon but instead I will be going to a free lesson I don’t want. 
I went out to Publix while Libbie was working at Selby.  I wanted to see the prepared meals.  I purchased 2 Portobello Mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat.  We had this for dinner with the rest of the Longhorn bread and split a bottle of Yuengling.  It was a yummy dinner.


Nov 17, 2021 Wednesday  Seeburg ESP,  Dance


This morning I worked a little trying to put together software for the ESP8266 that is going to drive the Seeburg.  I did a little copy and pasting from my Blinds software and also from the NCiD software that did OTA updates and served web pages.  I also added some MQTT for the coin deposits.  I want Alexa commands to deposit 5, 10 or 25 cents.  There is much to be done.  I also need to finish burnishing the relay contacts.  This is a job I started last week.
We left at 10:30 for the free dance lesson at the Friendship Center in Sarasota.  The dance was Swing and our neighbors Deiter and Marlies were there.  It was a fun lesson and a good review of steps we already knew but needed brushing up.  After the lesson we tried going to Selby for a sandwich but the line was too long.  The snowbirds are back!  We went back to the center where the band was setting up for the 1 PM live music.  The band was Pure Gold.  I talked to Richard on bass guitar and his wife Liz on keyboard.  They are a volunteer band.  I told him about my Clarinet and how I was looking for a band to play with.  I need to do a lot more practicing and possibly get a Buffet Clarinet but not for taking outside of the house because they are made of wood.  We danced a Foxtrot and a Rumba but couldn’t remember too many steps.  After the music we left and stopped into Walts for lunch.  We both had Yuengling.  I had bacon wrapped scallops topped with pineapple coconut salsa.
When we got home I was wiped out but worked some more on the Seeburg software.  I also reviewed some candidates for songs and downloaded MS Word Templates to make song labels for the wallbox pages. Interestingly each label has 2 songs but only one artist so I will have to pair songs.  Dinner tonight was the mushroom stuffed ravioli I bought at Publix yesterday when I got the stuffed mushrooms.  We had a glass of Yuengling with dinner as we worked down the bottles of beer in the refrigerator from my birthday.  We watched Josh and his Family stream from Give Kids the World.  They had a GKTW escort which was nice because we got to hear a lot of background info about lights on various venues.  They raised a lot of money.  The goal was $10,000 but the total for the night went over $16,000.  As part of the stream we heard from a former Wish Family who are now volunteering at the village.  


Nov 18, 2021 Thursday software, Venice Friendship center


This morning I gave up on the wallbox arduino program I was working on and started over using an MQTT “Hello” program as my base.  I then downloaded the NCID dropbox, all 1.5 gigabytes of it, and found a nice small Arduino sketch by Tod that has OTA updates and configuration via an onboard web server.   I was able to get this to compile.  Now I want to program it into a Lolin ESP8266.  The eventual target will be a Linknode R4 which is an ESP8266 board with 4 relays. 
I had to abandon this at 12:30 so we could drive to the Venice Friendship Center for live music.  It was a bust.  The music was a guy in a wheelchair singing Karaoke.  We did collect papers on the bands they will be having.  It looks interesting but the Venice center is much more dead than the Sarasota one.  I had never been there so this was a good exploratory trip.
On the way home we stopped at Walmart for our Thanksgiving Turkey and some of the trimmings.  I worked a little more on the software before going out again at 5 PM to Costco.  I needed coffee and oatmeal.  We also found frozen coconut shrimp and picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner.  Dinner tonight was a rotisserie chicken along with potato salad.   After dinner we watched a little of Cory's World before going to bed at 9.


Nov 19, 2021 Friday Webserver, neighbors


I went outside this morning at 4 AM to see the eclipse.  Joe was set up on the sidewalk with his camera.  He got some outstanding images of a red moon.  I can’t believe anyone is up this early in the morning.
I continued studying the ESP8266 software and how to implement multiple web pages.  I hooked up a Lolin and prepared it for programming by loading a bootloader. I then tried the wallbox program I wrote but it did not serve a web page.  Next I found a sample multi page web page example and programmed it into the chip.  This one worked with 3 web pages.  I can continue developing my own or install Linux on a system and build a toolchain to implement the software I found that has web pages and Sonos interfacing. 
Our neighbors Peter and Andrew arrived from Toronto.  They are staying in a condo in Stoneybrook while their house gets rebuilt.  They gave us a tour of what they have done so far - removed the popcorn, rebuilt the pool cage, tiled 2 bathrooms and put in new kitchen appliances.   They’re waiting for flooring before resuming cabinetry.  They will install an island and then paint the place.  Wow, this is a complete rebuild.
Dinner tonight was the rotisserie chicken and the last of the leftover Potato Salad. It’s Friday night so Jenna is streaming from Hollywood Studios.




Nov 20, 2021 Saturday software, Ballet


I continued to understand the Arduino software for the Wallbox.  I installed the file system called Spiffs which will hold the HTML files for the ESP chip.  I did much studying but no real progress.
We had a PB&J sandwich before leaving for the Opera at 6 PM for our 7:30 performance.
We parked at the Palm Ave garage after cruising Palm looking for a parking spot.  Saturday night has all the restaurants in business and all the parking spots gone.  The garage is convenient to the opera house but a hassle to pay at the end of the night. We went through the vax check at the door of the Opera House and took a seat waiting for the doors to open.  The performance was full.  Many people were rescheduled from last night because the bridge to Longboat was shut down due to an accident.
We had seats  in the second row of the Mezzanine to the right.  The performance was great.  The first performance was Summetide, a celebration of a radiant day.  The lead female practically floated over the floor as she was passed from male dancer to male dancer.  She sure got a lot of air time!  I would think this is physically demanding since  she has to use all her muscles to remain prone in her ballet poses while suspended above the stage by male dancers.
There was an intermission and then the Twyla Tharp piece “Nine Sinatra Songs”.  This was delightful with a contrast of couples in ballroom costumes. There were waltz couples, Tango and other unidentified dances all set to the vocals of Frank Sinatra.  I got to appreciate what a good voice he had.  
When it was over we managed to go out a back door which avoided the lobby and ended up third at the pay machine to get out of the garage.  The machine was not working very well. 
We made it home in good time once our ticket was paid for.


Nov 21, 2021 Sunday JSON, MQTT


It was a slow day.  Fortunately I was left alone and got to study the SPIFFS file system and then using JSON files on the system to hold config data.  I am thinking that a JSON file could hold the song list for the Seeburg wallbox.  It’s not clear how many I can store in this file.  I’m also thinking that I could use MQTT to put out a single request to a more powerful computer such as a Pi.  It should be easy to send key combos via MQTT.  I’ll continue to explore techniques.  My irrigation computer has a problem.  The ground fault was tripped.  When I reset and tried using the Linksprite to control the irrigation the channel 0 relay kept turning on.  I reset the broker and also turned off the Home Assistant for a half hour before replugging.  It did not help.  I’m not sure what is going on.  I left the device unplugged for the rest of the day.
I went to Target looking for a new wall clock.  The old one died and I really miss it.   They only had fancy designer clocks.  I want an office clock that runs on batteries.
In the afternoon we saw Peter and Andrew testing their sprinklers.   We went out and chatted with them for a while.  We even found one of their sprinklers.  I measured over 16 feet from the last working one and probed around with a finger.  It was there which was lucky. 
Libbie made her delicious pizza which was a mushroom pizza for dinner.  I made an Apple Cider with mulled spices and Bourbon for dessert.  This wiped me out for the evening.  I ended up going to bed at 8 PM exhausted.


Nov 22, 2021 Monday Sonos,  Shrimp


I spent the day studying how to control Sonos and play files.  I thought I had a solution on the Pi when I was able to play a file using http running on Node in the Scargill3 Pi.  It successfully played on the Office Pi but alas, it was not to be.  When I cleared the queue using a command from the Pi, I could no longer play the file.  It would only play the file out of the queue. I spent the rest of the day trying to play a file from the Sonos library but it would  not cooperate.  I also tried to do this on Node-Red.  This would be perfect because node-red does MQTT and small processing.  Alas, it was not to be so far.  I can’t get it to play files from the synology.  Perhaps I need to set up a Windows Samba share on a Pi and play files from there?
Dinner tonight was coconut shrimp and Lima beans.  We purchased the Shrimp from Costco a few days ago.  They were  frozen ready to heat and eat and came with Orange sauce.  They were very good.  We did these in the air fryer.  To accompany the meal we had one of my birthday bottles - a white Riesling.  It was a very nice white wine that we chilled with ice cubes.
After dinner I continued working on the node-red solution for controlling the Sonos but I suddenly got a very bad back pain.  I went upstairs and took an aspirin which always seems to help these situations. When I sit for long periods such as driving from NC to FL I get the pain.  Today it was after sitting in the family room chair for a while.   I lay down on our bed with the spirin under my tongue and soon the pain was gone. 


Nov 23, 2021 Tuesday sonos success, clarinet success


I continued trying to understand the various APIs for controlling the Sonos.  I went from Node-Red to PHP and everything in between.  Eventually I was able to cobble together somoe software on an ESP8266 using the Arduino ESP.  This is the ideal platform.  To do this I had to get a Samba share going on the Scargill3 Pi.  Samba was installed but would not run when I started it.  I purged it twice with no success then I found  a forum that suggested deleting one of the config files and recreating it.  I tried this and it worked.  Samba then ran OK.  I created a WB directory in a share named Music. The share probably needs a different name because I already have a Music folder but I don’t want to tempt fate.  This works for now.  I put two songs in the WB folder and was able to access them using software in the ESP chip.  This was the goal several days ago.  Now it’s a matter of structuring the ESP code to hold the song titles.
I went out to Sprouts this afternoon and picked up 98 cents per pound Macintosh apples and the Mulling Spices I had gone out for.  I saw online that they had them.
For dinner we went out to Plaza Mexico for our traditional Tuesday dinner out. We had Frozen Margaritas which I’m not sure was a good idea since it’s a chilly evening in the 60s.  I even wore a flannel shirt over my tee shirt as a jacket as well as long pants.  I ordered Chimichangas of which I only ate one and took the second one home.  


Nov 24, 2021 Wednesday  software, dance, song selections


This morning I continued to analyze how to implement the software for selecting songs on the wallbox now that the music can be stored on a share on a pi.  I had to abandon this because Libbie wanted to do another Swing lesson at the Friendship Center.  We left at 10:30 but because of an accident on Tamiami near the hospital we were delayed and got there a little late. 
We continued some Swing basics and then at 11 went over to Morton's Market on Osprey.  We found some grab and go sandwiches in the deli department.  This is a nice grocery store but it was crowded at lunch time the day before Thanksgiving.   We got a turkey and cream cheese cranberry sandwich. Wow was it good.  I have to try this at home for turkey leftovers.  
At the Friendship center I picked up 2 waters and a bag of Doritos for $3.  This is a deal! The live band started at 1 PM with the same 4 as last week - keyboard, bass guitar, drums and trumpet.  Their music is quite good.  We tried dancing a few dances but we have forgotten so much.  It was fun anyway despite the fact we didn’t know very much.  The band took a break at 2 and that was the end of our dancing.  We had an easier trip going home.
At home I selected several dozen songs for the wall box and put them on the WB share of the NCID Pi.  As I put each song on the share I typed the title and artist onto the label template.  This was a lot of work.  One sheet of labels has 16 labels or 32 songs.  Each page in the Wallbox only holds 5 labels so I have 3 pages of labels now.  I’ll suspend this to work on the software.  The purpose of the exercise was to load up a bunch of songs to use for testing the software. 
Dinner tonight was the leftover Chimichanga from last night.  After dinner I made us some mulled apple cider with Bourbon.  Josh was streaming live from Disney.  I stayed up for the fireworks then went to study software some more in bed.


Nov 25, 2021 Thursday Thanksgiving! Sandisk, SPIFFS, Dean Martin


Today is Thanksgiving.  We’re home alone.  I decided to plug the new 2Tbyte Sandisk into the PhotoPi.  This did not work very well.  It took down the network of everything plugged into the Switch in the closet.  This was the HA Pi, the Scargill3 Pi and the Photo Pi as well as the Synology.  The Internet still worked.  At first I did not know what was wrong so I rebooted the NAS.  No deal.  Then I unplugged everything from the switch and plugged them back one at a time.  This worked!  It was the PhotoPi that took down the network.  I energized it separately with both Sandisk drives plugged in  and it booted OK.   I next signed in and tried to clone the boot drive to the new drive but that operation failed 3 times.  I need a new way to clone the drive or possibly build it from scratch.
Next I tried installing SPIFFS in the ESP8266 and loaded it with the song list with only 42 titles.  This failed many times in the ESP8266 IDE.  I’m not sure what is wrong.  I found instances of people having this problem in online forums.
Libbie made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal starting with Pumpkin Pie which we had as a snack earlier in the day.   The meal was Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing.  It was fantastic.  We had Prosecco with the meal which was a bottle left over from my birthday.  After dinner we watched the documentary on the life of Dean Martin and had our pumpkin pie dessert.  The documentary was quite good. 
I went to bed studying alternatives to storing and playing the Sonos files before falling asleep.


Nov 26, 2021 Friday Song selection Happiness


I sequestered myself in my office all day long and really put in the time to get the song selection software strategy nailed down.  Fortunately Libbie was occupied with making 2 quilts for the girls so I got the time to do the work.  I revisited node-red and tried understanding the flow of the sonos plus nodes.  I finally found that Sonos was reading the metadata of the MP3 tags and not the filename.  I experimented with where to put the key and number combo and eventually settled on using the album tag.   I spent a few hours editing the tags of the 40 or so songs that I selected for the wallbox.  I still need another 160 songs.  With the current songs in the Pi share I used a node-red flow to send a command to the Office Sonos.  This surprisingly worked for all the songs.  The intention is to use MQTT to select songs, deposit coins and select Sonos players.  I have not implemented the MQTT part yet.  That is next.  Pulses will be decoded from the key presses and the resulting key combo sent as an MQTT packet.  A portable app will allow configuration, coin presses and sonos selection.
Dinner tonight was more leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. I love this turkey.  We also had some turkey for lunch on sandwiches. 
After dinner we watched the Epcot candlelight procession which had a full orchestra with a candlelight choir. They played all Christmas Carols with a definite Christian religious theme.


Nov 27, 2021 Saturday  Redo


I discovered that the Seeburg pages of songs did not start and A1 and continue forward.  Instead they start at A7 and count down.  For example, the next page starts at A6.  I used the MP3 tagger software to change all the letter and number combos in the directory of songs to reflect the new numbering.  That’s about all I did on this project.  Amazon delivered my new 14 Tb drive several days early.  It arrived this afternoon.  I immediately unpackaged it and plugged it into the desktop to check it out.  A 14 Tb drive only has 12.8 Tb of free space.   Next I hooked it up on top of the laundry room closet and plugged the USB cable into Synology.  From my desktop I then set up several USB backup jobs and kicked them off.  They will probably spend the week running on the Synology.   I will then disconnect and only connect once a month or thereabout. 
Dinner was more leftover turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans. We popped open a new bottle of Columbia Crest Cabernet for the meal.  This is a nice everyday wine. 


Nov 28, 2021 Sunday ESP software, GKTW donation


This morning I ran out to Lowes and returned the Air Filter.  I found that Air Filters are not returnable because they are considered a sanitary item.  The guy was nice and refunded my money anyway.  He said air filters and toilet seats are in the sanitary category.  I went through the Christmas stuff and found 2 different clips for lights.  I bought one that looks like it could be slipped under shingles and the wire attached to a built-in plastic holder.   It was a beautiful day but I didn’t put the lights up.  Instead I began studying how I could decode pulses.  While watching Dinners with Donna I wrote a state machine to handle the decoding.  It compiles OK but needs some serious debugging.   This took some time to do, my coding skills are a little rusty.   I still need to add the code to activate the coin relays on board the Wallbox.  During the Dinners with Donna for GKTW this afternoon we donated $100 to the organization.  They are a worthwhile charity with excellent standing on Charity Navigator.  Donna was trying to raise $12,000 which is enough money to fund 2 wishes at GKTW.  She eventually made her goal which included our $100.  Libbie made her outstanding pizza once again. We didn’t have mushrooms this time but it was very good anyway.  I got inspired with cookie making and ordered a Linzer cookie cutting set and Andes Mint baking chips from Amazon.  


Nov 29, 2021 Monday  Christmas tree, amplifier, linzer cookie set, outdoor lights


Libbie and I went early to Lowes for a tree.  We picked out a 6 foot tree and also saw some nice wreaths that had just arrived.  We got the tree, wreaths, an orchid and a few orchid pots.
Libbie helped me unwrap the tree in the driveway and then I moved it onto the Lanai until we can get it into a stand and upright in the house.   
This was an outdoor day.  I set up the ladder in front of the garage door and put the lights up.  I couldn’t get the clips under the shingles so I attached the clips to the fascia boards.  I made it all the way around to the front door but needed an extension cord.  I ran over to Lowes looking for a 25 foot cord but all I could find was a 40 footer which I bought.  I also wanted to make wreath hangers for the 2 front doors.  They had nice thin one inch wide aluminum strips that I bent to go over the door and stretch downward to hold the two wreaths.  This worked very well.  I then put the extension cord along the drain pipe and down the wall.  I plugged it in and tested it out which worked well.  Amazon delivered my Linzer cookie cutters as well as an early delivery of the keyboard amplifier.   I hooked the amp to the keyboard and played a song one fingered to test it out.  It works well.  The Linzer cookie cutter came with a collection of attachments for different shaped holes in the center of the top cookie.  This is going to be fun when cookie baking time comes along.  I didn’t do much on the wallbox today.  I need to work on the hardware to get the box reassembled and build an interface board.  When it got dark I went outside and plugged the green lights into the outdoor outlet.  This is the strip of larger LED bulbs that I ran along the gutter.  They looked nice. 
Dinner was more leftover turkey with a sweet potato, the last of the stuffing and green beans.  I will miss the turkey, it was so good.  Accompanying the meal was a bottle of birthday Merlot.  I really liked the Merlot   After dinner we zoomed into the board budget meeting at 7 PM.  It was over at 7:05 PM.  That was the quickest meeting ever.   I was tired by the end of the day and went to bed at 9 PM.


Nov 30, 2021 Tuesday software continuation


Not much happened today.  Gislene and Cleber arrived this morning to clean the house while Libbie went off to Quilting at the Venice Friendship Center.   While they cleaned I worked on adding the MQTT stuff to the wallbox program in the ESP8266.  I also figured out which transistor needs to be removed from the Linksprite R4 board and how to run the wire from the former base terminal to the relay terminal.  I did not do the wiring.  I will finish that part up tomorrow morning.  
I had a pretty good lesson with Justin.  I expected to do 1/16 notes but instead we focused on long tones for the whole lesson.   There were quite a few new notes I had never played in the long tone sequence.  Justin said I should add the long tones to the beginning of each practice. 
We decided that we will have dinner tonight at the Italian Grill. It was crowded and we had to wait a little bit for a table.  We ended up with a high top opposite the pizza oven.  It was fine.  I ordered the Meat Stromboli which I had last time.  It is delicious and comes with a marinara sauce which is one of the best tomato sauces ever.  When we came home I was tired once again but had to get the plunger and bleach from the garage because the Master Bath toilet was clogged up.  This toilet needs to be replaced. 


Dec 1, 2021 Wednesday Finnish Christmas lights


I went into the backyard and ran the extension cord through the trees and hooked up the alligator and the Flamingo.  Next step was to put up the mesh lights with Libbie.  I had to go to Lowes for another extension cord so we could run the net lights off the overhead LEDs along the gutter crossing the sidewalk.  This was so I did not have to run the wire across the sidewalk with tape.  We finished the job by wrapping the two date palms in front of the house. 
We chose not to go to dance today because I wanted to get the lights done and get more work done on the Wallbox.  Amazon delivered our new watering cans today.  They are a little heavier plastic construction but seem to be smaller although they are supposed to be 1 gallon.   
Dinner was the leftover Stromboli from last night while we watched the Beatles documentary on Disney+, “Get Back”.  Wow, was it excellent.  I did not think I would enjoy a Beatles film so much.  Later in the evening we went outside in the street to look at the Christmas lighting on our house after dark.  It looks great.  We talked with Dieter and Marlise as they were walking by, we haven’t seen them in a while. We were trying to see if they knew anything of our neighbor Collette Penn who was run over by her car in her driveway a few days ago.  They didn’t know much about her either.  Amazingly, most neighbors don’t know much about her even those who have lived here for years. 


Dec 2, 2021 Thursday Music


I spent the morning selecting another 50 songs for the wallbox.  It was fun listening to a lot of these tracks that I have not heard in years.  Some are forgettable, others are treasures.  They are all quite interesting and a reflection of a simpler time.  Going back in time, Libbie and I watched the second installment of the Beatles “Get Back” documentary.  It was very clear they didn’t get along anymore like when they were younger and were the Beatles. This series has been great, full of music and lots of insite how Lennon and McArtney composed songs.   To wrap up the music theme, after this I practiced Clarinet playing many songs in my song book as well as doing long tones using the new keys I learned this week.  It was fun playing Christmas songs, some of which I had never seen before but I was able to somewhat play the notes with the proper timing on the page.  My work with ⅛ and 1/16 notes was very useful in this respect. 
Dinner tonight was Pulled Pork slides and baked beans.  After dinner we watched Cory stream the Epcot candlelight processional. Angela came over this evening and invited us to her home for a Dec 7 candlelight social.  It’s a huge religious holiday in Columbia also known as the festival of lights.   Unfortunately that’s the night all the streamers will be singing Christmas Carols but since it’s on YouTube we’ll be able to catch it anytime.  Amazon delivered our extra set of net lights but since it was after dark it was too late to put them up.  I only ordered these this morning.  I also ordered some Schmitt trigger chips, a 74hc14 inverter chip in a dip package from Amazon.  I need these for the Seeburg to ESP8266 interface.  I may also use these for the Arduino simulator to ESP8266 interface.  The inverting function counters the inverting done by the opto isolator so it will be very useful.  They are supposed to be here tomorrow. 


Dec 3, 2021 Friday Schematic, More Lights


I built the schematic for the wallbox interface.  The bridge chips and the HC14 Schmitt triggers arrived today from Amazon.  This is amazing next day service.  Next step is to build the breadboard simulator. I will have to have the computer in terminal mode hooked to the Arduino simulator and then monitor the MQTT from the wallbox ESP8266 to verify that the correct song is being selected.  I’m thinking that I will build a PCB for the hardware interface to the ESP chip. 
The net lights came from Amazon last night after dark.  Libbie and I put them up on the Palmetto bush. Libbie also found a bag with white lights in it.  I put these on the bottle brush tree.  One strand covered two limbs of the tree.  I needed another cube tap but instead used one  of my homemade outlet strips.  After dark I didn't think the homemade strip ws working because the net lights were not on. Investigation with a flashlight found that the cord had become unattached.  I fixed the connection and all was well.  I don’t think the extra net lights add anything nor do the bottle brush lights.  We put our small tree up inside and put the lights on but did not do anything else.  I spent the rest of the afternoon working on books from Kindle unlimited.  My subscription runs until Dec 13.  I will not renew so I’m getting all the books downloaded that I want.  
Dinner tonight was more of the frozen coconut shrimp along with Baked Sweet Potato.  Libbie cooked the shrimp in the air fryer.  We had this with 14 Hands Cabernet I picked up in Walmart today. After dinner we watched Josh streaming Christmas decorations from the hotels around Epcot. 


Dec 4, 2021 Saturday Planting, software


I went outside and planted the 4 red Salvia I purchased this week.  I then resumed the ESP software.   I needed to combine the pulse count for the letter and the number and put these into a string.  This ended up being a trial and error process.  I eventually was able to put the letter and number into a string and send it out via an MQTT publish command.  Now I need to test this.
I also put MP3 tags on all the songs I added since the first batch.  Thank goodness for the spreadsheet I created.  This thing has the song filename and what the Letter-Number combination is supposed to be,
Today Amazon reported that our Christmas Cards were delivered but they were not on our porch.  I looked at the picture they provided and then went out into the neighborhood looking for this carpet with our package on it.  I found it at Paulettes.   I didn’t like the idea they had red envelopes.  This may prove to be a problem. 
Dinner was Salmon with Baked Sweet potato.  After dinner we watched more of the Beatles “Get Back” documentary.  I’m going to miss this series when it’s all done.  It is very good with no annoying voice overs, just the Beatles jamming and arguing about things.  It was clear they were not going forward after this concert.


Dec 5, 2021 Sunday Music titles, Frisson


After the Sunday Morning shows I did a Walmart trip for Mouthwash.  This stuff helps bleeding gums.  I need to get my gums under control, brushing has not been enough.  While there I picked up a couple of Firecracker plants.  Surprisingly the ones they had earlier this week are all gone.  They had very few left. 
I spent a good part of the afternoon typing up another sheet of music titles for the Wallbox.  I now have 3 sheets of labels which is about 96 songs. 
I had an English Muffin with mozzarella and tomato sauce on it which was toasted in the toaster oven.  This was surprisingly good.  I had this early because we left at 6 for the Christmas concert at the Opera House.  We parked in the Palm Garage behind the Opera House as usual.  The  garage was free because this is Sunday.  The group was Frisson, a group of rising musicians.  They played a classical concert in the first half followed by Classical Christmas music from the Nutcracker, Messiah and favorites such as Sleigh Ride and others. They were great and we thoroughly enjoyed the music.  We were in our usual row D but seats 111 and 112 instead of our usual 108  and 109.   It was still as excellent as could be.  It was over by 9 PM.   


Dec 6, 2021 Monday Selby, flowers, beatles


I read some of the Paul McArtney lyrics book today.  It filled in a few details I was not sure about such as the girlfriend whose family he moved in with.  Even though it’s a lyrics book, it has much text written in an autobiographical style by Sir Paul himself. I also continued reading more of the behind the ride book by Mumpower about behind the scenes at Disney.
I went to Selby this morning and didn’t do much.  I chased down some  pictures that John was looking for.  The ones he wanted of the retakes were never in the retakes folder.  By using Lightroom I could see the old directories.  
I left Selby early and went to Farm and Garden for another front porch porcelain container and more flowers as replacements for my flower garden.   The new container does not match the other containers which is too bad.  I’m wondering if they have another that is more red than the orange one I bought.  I put a black sweet potato vine in the container for now and planted all the new flowers.  I also planted the firecracker bushes I picked up at Walmart several days ago. 
I wanted to hook up the wallbox simulator this afternoon but did not.  I located the large breadboard carrier and the two CPUs I will be using but didn’t get much further.  I needed to practice Clarinet whileLibbie was out walking with Pat.  
Dinner tonight was simply spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.  After dinner we watched the conclusion of the Beatles Get Back documentary which ended with the rooftop concert.  It was an excellent series. Too bad it’s over.  After this I wrestled with a decision.  My subscription to CEF Income laboratory is over next week.  It will be $450 to renew.  I’m now looking at what other income newsletters there are, not necessarily limited too Seeking Alpha.


Dec 7, 2021 Tuesday Feast of Little Candles
Libbie had her quilting group this morning while I enjoyed the quiet time all day studying income stocks.  My subscription to CEF income Lab expires next week so I’m evaluating another income group called HDO for High Dividend Opportunity.  The tools they have which are based on Google sheets are very good.  I have been inputting my portfolio into their asset allocation spreadsheet.  I really need to use the Portfolio tracker instead of the asset allocation spreadsheet.  The Income lab has been good to  me but I’m going to switch and try the HDO thing as soon as I can convince myself to spend $500.  
My lesson with Justin was OK.  I struggled through getting the 1/16th notes in time with the metronome.  Justin suggested I should go forward to the next song for the next 2 weeks.  Next week there is no lesson because I’m going to Give Kids the World.
I picked up some Crabmeat stuffed Mushrooms for dinner thinking that Angela was only going to have snack foods tonight.  Unfortunately for us she had all the Columbian foods for her celebration. We brought the leftover bottle of Proseco from my birthday.  We had a delightful evening of lighting candles, tasting Empanadas and the puff ball desserts.  In Columbia Dec 7 and Dec 8 are major holidays.  We chatted about the Beatles documentary.  When I got  home I sent the Paul McCartney book to Joe.  The book is a compilation of Beatle lyrics but it also is autobiographical with lots of descriptions about the songs.  According to Paul, the songs are his biography.  The annotation around each song is quite good since it explains that aspect of his life. 


Dec 8, 2021 Wednesday Acker Bilk, Klaus, Streamers concert


I listened to some Clarinet music online and decided to record the album “Magical Clarinet” by Acker Bilk.  He sure can make that horn sing.  I spent some time using Audacity to split the recording into individual songs. I put these on Subsonic.  The software will index the files overnight.  I also downloaded the movie Klaus because one of the guests on Suncoast view said it was her favorite Christmas movie.  For this one I forced Plex to index the movie files immediately so I could see if the movie came out OK.  
In the afternoon Libbie and I watched the streamers concert by Josh, Cory, YeeHaw Bob and others.  We were both shocked at how good a singer Cory is. Wow, he could be a professional. 
I went outside to see what was wrong with one set of our net lights in front.  Half of the set is working which is strange.  I suspect the bulbs are in series and one of them is bad. I could not fix the lights so I pulled the adjacent lights over to fill in the blank spot.  Dinner was the last of the frozen coconut shrimp which we had with rice, lima beans and a not so nice Cabernet from Chile.  After dinner we watched the rest of the Holiday concert.  This was pretty good and raised over $40,000 for GKTW.  Wow.


Dec 9, 2021 Thursday  finances, Bodrum


I spent the whole day in my office working on a stock portfolio tracker.  It was a lot of working tracking down the purchase prices of each issue and calculating an average price per share.  This was quite an eye opener since it highlighted those shares doing well and also others under water.  The real shocker was how much interest the bonds were not paying because the price had increased so much.  Based on the original purchase price the interest percent was fine but based on the current price it was not OK.  I finally finished this work but did not add the sectors that the tracker wanted.  I’m not going to sell the low interest issues yet because I still have too much cash on the sidelines.
We decided to go out to Bodrum tonight for dinner.  Libbie called in a reservation.  This restaurant is excellent as usual. We had a bottle of Shannon Ridge Cabernet with the meal.  We ordered an appetizer of Carrot Tarator to begin.   Ersen and Juliya sent us a Pistachio Bomb appetizer as a gift.  We certainly did not need this much appetizer.   I ordered the Beyti Kebab which was lamb wrapped in lavash which is a  tortilla-like pastry covered with yogurt, tomato sauce and butter.  It came with rice and a salad.  It was an incredibly nice night. 


Dec 10, 2021 Friday Finance, Light!


I spent more time today with the Portfolio tracker and also bought a few issues using up some of the spare cash in the TdAmeritrade account that resulted from the forced PSEG bond sale.
I also ran over to Target and used the ATM to get $200 cash.  Some of this will be for our house cleaners.  I also picked up some Pita for dinner in Publix and took advantage of their Bogo sale on Campbell's soup.
The Portfolio tracker has some nice features.  After I got all my stocks entered along with purchase price and distributions the thing calculates what my average yield is on the whole portfolio.  This is the first time I had an actual number to put on this.  A nice surprise today was a $440 dividend from Exxon.  I wasn’t expecting this much and was suspicious but I went back to check on the amount per share times the number of shares and the value was correct!
Dinner tonight was reheated leftovers from Bodrums last night.  I had Beyti Kebab and rice. We had this with the Carrot taratore and Pistachio Bomb on Pita bread.  While at Publix I bought a bottle of Coppola Cabernet because it was on sale.  I never had Coppola before.  I decided that for the price I would be better off with Rodney Strong. 
After dinner we enjoyed watching Josh and Jenna at the Grand Flo with the Christms decorations and the Piano player.  He did the Charlie Brown Christmas song.  After this they watched fireworks on the waterfront outside Narcoosie’s restaurant.


Dec 11, 2021 Saturday Recording. Website


I spent a lot of time today updating the LSAVC website. I had to add the convention which happened around the time of my birthday.  This took a lot of today. 
In the afternoon we watched the Selby recording of Jennifer's talk to Members about the state of the Gardens.  It included a construction update and new video simulations of the proposed parking garage, welcome center and Herbarium. 
 Later in the day I received the Y cable from Amazon.  I put it to work right away.  It works well and allows me to have 2 audio devices hooked to the speaker jack of the computer.  While monitoring Acker Bilk on the speakers I was able to use the other output from the Y cable to feed the MP3 recorder.  It worked quite well.   I recorded all the Acker Bilk Christmas songs I could find on YouTube.  He is quite good.
I did a trip to Walmart for groceries and dinner fixings for tonight.  I picked up a Sirloin Steak, Baked Potatoes and Broccoli for dinner in addition to our normal groceries. Dinner was Sirloin Steak from the grill, baked potato and sour cream and Broccoli.  We had a few glasses of Cabernet with the meal.  After dinner we tuned in to Sarasota SNN for the Sarasota Boat parade.  All the boats were decked out with Christmas lights. It was an entertaining evening. 


Dec 12, 2021 Sunday prototyping, cooking


        After the Sunday morning News show which was not interesting, I resumed looking for some parts to prototype the simulator.  I didn’t put a very good effort into it.  Later I came downstairs and watched Dinners with Donna.  Today she was cooking some interesting looking appetizers that I would like to try.  The pull apart Christmas tree looked intriguing.  I also liked the muffin tins filled with dough and then cheese and cranberry.  The last of the easy to make is pizza dough wrapped around Mozzarella cheese and then coated with spices and butter.  A Marinara dipping sauce completed the meal.  Libbie made her delicious pizza from a dough she made last weekend.  We ate this while watching Donna and having a glass of Cabernet.


Dec 13, 2021 Monday Selby, easy day


I had a good morning at Selby.  I investigated why there were differences between the raw images and the derived images.  I created some lists of the filenames that were either missing or did not have derivative JPG files.  I did not try resolving these, only creating lists of filenames. 
At home I vegetated.  I played Clarinet for a little but did not do any further work on anything.  I need to work some more on the simulator.
Dinner tonight was BBQ Chicken thighs with baked beans.  A little Cabernet accompanied the meal.  After dinner I used Google Maps looking for a restaurant around our hotel tomorrow night.  I found Smokey Bones which looks pretty good.  While on the maps I read a review about the Hampton Inn we were booked for.  There were too many bad reviews about how this place was not up to Hilton standards and needed a refurb.   There were many, many one star reviews on Trip Advisor so I ended up canceling the reservation penalty free and booked a room at the nearby Embassy Suites.  We stayed there last year.  It costs more plus you have to pay for parking but it’s worth a few dollars more. We resolved the time with Gislene.  She wanted to come later Tuesday morning but we were scheduled to leave around noon.  We instead scheduled her for Thursday morning. 


Dec 14, 2021 Tuesday drive to Kissimmee, GKTW, dinner


This was an easy morning. I did a little  work on the simulator but the key word is very little.  I looked up the GPIOs and put a second breadboard next to the first and secured them with a clipboard.  This will work well for me.  The breadboards are lashed together with the clip and the Lolin module spanning the two boards.  I looked up the GPIOs that will be used but did not hook them up. 
We had a quick PBnJ lunch before leaving around 12:30.  The trip went well.  We were a little early in Kissimmee so we decided to drive into the town center of Celebration and walk around.  Libbie said a town like this creeps her out and couldn’t imagine living there.  It certainly is a nice little town with cafes and a cute downtown.  We enjoyed a short walk but I was concerned about my knee.  It seemed to do OK but Im saving it for tonight at GKTW.
We were able to check in early at the hotel and went to our room on the 10th floor to hang out. 
We went to the hotel reception at 5:30 and had some corn chips and a glass of wine.  This is complementary.  This is a very nice hotel.  I’m glad we switched.  We got going to the Million Lights show at a little before 6.  Our entry ticket is for 6 PM.  We had to go to Pioneer village which is the parking lot and then board a shuttle bus to get to the GKTW village.  There is no parking at the GKTW village at all.  The shuttles were really efficient.  The lights were incredibly spectacular.  Periodically the houses surrounding the lake perform a synchronized light show.  Oh wow, how spectacular to be in the middle of all this.  We walked the Christmas tree trail which led us to the tram tour.  Half of the village is occupied but still decorated.  To protect the privacy in this part, trams take us through the lights.  It is beautiful but I feel the first part of the village is good enough.  Each of the homes had 2 rockers in the driveway.  We took a seat and enjoyed the music.  We wanted to hear one Trans Siberian performance and we were not disappointed. The houses blinked and flashed to the music.  Other songs were traditional Christmas Carols and also some Frank Sinatra standards.  We left the village about 8:15 and had a very easy exit and trip back to the hotel.  We sat down in the restaurant at 8:30 PM and had a light dinner.  We each had a glass of wine and then ordered the same thing, a Flatbread topped with shaved beef, blue cheese, carmelized onions, tomato and mozarella and sprinkled with a balsamic reduction.  Wow, was this ever good.  What an enjoyable meal although it was late at night.


Dec 15, 2021 Wednesday Bok Tower
This morning we went down to the Embassy breakfast which was fabulous.   We both ordered omelets.  I had one with bacon, cheese, mushrooms and green peppers.  I also picked up a piece of banana pudding.  Wow, was the omelet good.  It was full of a lot of goodies and quite filling.  After breakfast we headed out to Bok Tower.  We took I-4 to US 27.  27 was slow and crowded as always. 
We enjoyed the garden very much.  There was a lot in bloom.  A young girl in cap and gown was having her Mom take picturesAfter enjoying the container gardens around the Welcome Center we took a walk up and around the gardens to the tower.  A brief stop at the kitchen garden allowed us to admire the tomatoes and lettuce.   It was Camelia season up and around the path.  On the way down we saw a young girl putting on her Quincenerra dress for photography.  We wished her a happy Birthday and congratulated her family.  Unfortunately she was sitting in a patch of Bromeliads I wanted to photograph. Oh well, maybe next time.  At the bottom of the hill we encountered the BOK Tower Christmas tree.  It was similar to the Selby Bromeliad tree but instead was made with Begonias.
We had lunch at the Blue Palmetto Cafe in the garden.  We both ordered the same thing, a spinach wrap with turkey, bean sprouts and cranberry.  It was quite good.  We each took half of it home for dinner.  The sandwich came with chips and we added a bottle of water.  
The drive back was quite easy since we chose the back roads coming down the center of the state on a series of highways through produce farms and cattle country.  The trip home took about 2 hours. For dinner we had the other half of the lunchtime turkey wrap.  I added a pickle and some relish to mine.  It was yummy.  During dinner we watched Josh and Jenna drive their golf cart around the campgrounds at Disneyworld.  The Christmas decorations at each camping site are way over the top.  There were many inflatables and quite a few strands of lights. Unbelievable since these people had to haul all this stuff to the campground in RVs, campers and trucks from all over the country.  I don’t know how they manage.  It started raining this evening.  As expected, the ground fault tripped for the Flamingo and Alligator circuit in the backyard.  I reset it but then went to bed so I did not know if it stayed set. 


Dec 16, 2021 Thursday Irrigation, seminar


Travis was supposed to start the stucco around the windows today but he never showed up.  This is getting critical.  This weekend I will have to do the windows myself which I don’t want to do. 
Because the new sod is drying up next to the house I decided it was imperative that I start looking for the missing sprinkler head that was buried by the well work.  I measured off 13 feet from the last sprinkler and removed the sod in the area.  I then started digging. After a while I located the feeder pipe which then led me to a tee connector and eventually the buried irrigation head.  It was only about 2 inches off from the stake I placed at the 13 foot mark.  This was good news.  I screwed a 2 ½ inch riser extension pipe into the old riser.  This raised the new irrigation head to the level of the grass.  I now need a concrete ring to place around the sprinkler. 
I ran out to Costco at 5:30 to replenish the coffee and blueberries.  While in the store I also picked up a Rotisserie chicken for dinner.  I had to wait about 10 minutes for the next batch of chickens to come out of the rotisserie.  While waiting I also picked up a Christmas spiral cut ham.  It was 1.99 per pound. 
Dinner tonight was the Rotisserie chicken along with broccoli and a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Cory try to buy food at Hollywood studios.  It was very crowded.  He couldn’t even find a table after he received his order.  He wants to do another concert next year like the one earlier this month that raised money for GKTW.  This time he wants a paying audience.  I question whether he could get 42,000 out of an audience.  This is how much the streaming concert raised. 


Dec 17, 2021 Friday Wellness, Red Rice Yeast, potato salad


I had my wellness checkup this morning.  All went well.  Blood sugar is incredibly low at 79 and total cholesterol is down to 161.  Last time it was 195 for total cholesterol.  LDL is on the high side.  He said it was not high enough for statins but Red Rice Yeast has the same chemical ingredients as Statins but in lower concentrations.  The issue is the supplements are not FDA regulated.  When I got home I researched the stuff online and Mayo clinic agrees in addition to  some other medical sites with similar info about cholesterol and red rice yeast.  I found some research online that claimed 2 brands of red rice yeast had the monacolin K which is a component of prescription statins.   I ordered one of the brands from Amazon for delivery Sunday which is 2 days from now.  
I had a trip to Publix to get potato salad.  Unfortunately I picked up  a recipe I do not like.  Libbie reminded me the good potato salad was an Amish brand we got at Walmart. That’s too bad because I was looking forward to potato salad with the rotisserie chicken. 
Dinner tonight was rotisserie chicken, potato salad and a glass of Cabernet.  After dinner we watched Resort TV1 at the MK.  They also had tickets to the after hours Christmas Party.


Dec 18, 2021 Saturday Ballet


Libbie had a wreath making class at Selby while I stayed home and watered the lawn all the way around.  I need to program node-red for an automatic shutoff.  While watering I did a little work on organizing pictures and copying some onto the new photo server of Synology.
Libbie came back i n the early afternoon with Chick Fil A sandwiches and waffle fries.  This was a combo lunch and dinner for us because we had to leave for the ballet tonight. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching YouTube performances of Girl Named Tom.  They are a good wholesome band.  I hope they don’t get screwed up by being a Hollywood celebrity.  
Because of a dispute between Disney and You Tube we do not have the ABC network on You Tube TV.  I did some research online about our options which basically are Hula Live at $64 per month, Fubo TV which is an unknown and an antenna.  I do have a Home Run box which will put an outdoor antenna on the internal network.  
We left around 6:15 PM for our ballet performance of Giselle at Van Wezel.  We had great seats in row 5, seat 1 and 2 which is the center of the house.  The live orchestra and the dancing by a cast of over 24 dancers was spectacular.  The music was immersive because of our seats.  The dancing was wonderful.  The performance was long on uncomfortable seats. It was over around 10 PM.  Van Wezel seats hardly have any padding.  


Dec 19, 2021 Sunday stucco, photos


This morning Travis arrived at 8:15 to do the stucco work.  He set up his ladders, took out the screening and then announced he was not able to do the job because he couldn’t get the screen behind the old stucco.  He is going to contact a stucco company.   I did some research on youtube and found that you did not have to put the screen behind the stucco.  It’s done by screwing the mesh down around the window, not putting it under the old stucco work.  I’m afraid the stucco is going to set us back a month or so. 
I worked on adding all my photos to Synology photos. I’m still not sure it’s a good idea but the timeline view is quite good.  It is clear for this to work I need to properly add dates to all my old photos.  Synology seems to read the date from the metadata.
This afternoon we found that Joe and Angela across the street have canceled their French trip to visit her daughter.  The Omicron virus has set them back. 
Libbie made her pizza for dinner with a fresh dough.  It was fantastic as usual.  Our entertainment this evening was Josh at Hollywood Studio for some reason.  The park looks crowded.


Dec 20, 2021 Monday Selby, grocery shopping


I went over to Selby this morning and worked on consolidating images.  They previously were in folders by date, now they are going into a single folder.  This took all of the morning.  On the way home I stopped at Yoders for Honeybell Oranges and a tomato.
After lunch Libbie and I did a Walmart grocery trip. We needed our cookie ingredients plus basics.  The store was quite full and a lot of the cookie baking supplies had empty shelves. We picked up everything we needed for $140.  This was one of our bigger grocery bills. 
At home I received good news.  Travis called and said he arranged for a stucco company  to put the stucco in around the windows.  They will come tomorrow morning but I doubt it because it is supposed to start raining tonight and continue all day tomorrow.
I continued laying 1/16th notes on the Clarinet.  I have almost mastered my song for this Tuesday.  I’m pretty happy with navigating the complex notes.  I am even able to pick up most random Christmas music and play it.  
Dinner was a hamburger from our shopping trip today with tomato on a Brioche bun.  We had a glass of Cabernet with our meal.


Dec 21, 2021 Tuesday Rain, wind, clarinet ⅙ counting


The stucco people texted that they were not coming because of the rain.  During the morning it was dark and gloomy with fierce rains and wind.  We recorded a peak gust of 47 but only .68 inches of rain.  This was good enough to not need water for a few days.  We had a lot of sticks in the yard so when it all cleared I took the barrel outside and went around collecting sticks since we will possibly have the lawn mowed tomorrow. 
Libbie baked cookies while I organized pictures upstairs and then practiced clarinet for my 5:15 lesson.   I mastered the song with the 1/16 note patterns this week and nicely showed it off to Justin.  We moved on to the next song which was a little harder.  It has 3 eighth notes in a row followed by 2 sixteenth notes.  We spent some time learning to count this followed by how to play this. 
Dinner tonight was the hamburgers again, finishing the package of meat.  We had a slice of tomato on the burger and accompanied  it with a glass of Cabernet.  Before dinner we had triscuits and guac that I picked up in Yoders Monday.  
I received a surprise eMail tonight.  It was an acknowledgement from GKTW that the 4 Sroczynski girls donated in honor of us on Giving Tuesday. What a nice surprise!  I called Arlene and told her what nice kids she has. 


Dec 22, 2021 Wednesday Cookie Day        


We waited around for our stucco people but they didn’t show.  Travis called and asked if they were here.  We said no.  He called the stucco company then called back and said they would be here tomorrow.  We are running out of time because of the screen.   The stucco needs painting before the screen goes on.
We started making cookies a little after nine.  I started with crushing Oreos and also candy cane.  I started with crushing the oreos in the blender but it did not do well so I switched to the food processor.  I also ground up the candy canes in the food processor.  These two are formed into little balls.  Meanwhile I melted the Andes chocolate and filled the bottoms of about 18 mini cups.  I pressed the oreo dough balls into each one and then poured more Andes chocolate over each one.  These turned out to be my favorite cookies.   We lso mixed the Linzer dough and refrigerated it for two hours.  Meanwhile Libbie made a batch of Chruscicki which she formed and I fried.  We were very tired and sugared out by the time the last cookie was made. 
For dinner we decided to order Chinese takeout.  Libbie called in an order of 4 seasons and egg rolls.  The restaurant was pretty busy when we arrived for pickup. The food should have been ready but it was another 15 minutes.  The season has definitely started.  For dinner we had the 4 season meal with rice and egg rolls.  A cookie or two was our dessert. After dinner we just listened to music.


Dec 23, 2021 Thursday Photos


Another day and the stucco people did not show up again.  I don’t know what’s going on. 
Libbie mentioned that none of her photo albums have been scanned.  One was marked scanned but not in the mix of photos on ImageDb.  After a search I found the scans in with other scanned photos.  To ease labeling them I moved them into a directory on a drive in Manon4.   Libbie spent some time putting post it notes on pages in the album to assist me with moving them into directories. While she did this I spent the rest of the day labeling mislabeled photos in ImageDb and also dating them with various tools to allow Synology Photo to correctly show them on the correct date.  There is still much work to do here. 
Dinner tonight was the Spiral Cut Ham that Libbie cooked along with Butternut Squash and a glass of Cabernet.  Dessert was of course our Christmas cookies.  After dinner I watched a unique YouTube stream of both Cory and Josh together.
Dec 24, Friday Pictures, Christmas Eve dinner


This was another day of sorting pictures.  I took the Album that was previously scanned and used the post-it note dates that Libbie put throughout the album to identify the date each picture was taken.  I sorted the pics according to subject and using her dates and the date changer program I was able to date all the pictures so that Synology Photo was happy.  The next task was to correctly tag all the photos.  This will take many months of work.
I stopped into Lowes earlier today and bought a 16 inch wide shelf board for the laundry room.
I used this to size-up building a  cabinet.  I’m not sure I like it.   Back to the drawing board. 
We went over to Joe and Angela’s at 7 for a Colombian dinner.  Joe cooked a roast on the grill along with corn on the cob.  There also were Yukon Gold and regular potatoes and sausage. 
It was quite a nice evening with Angela's family.  The family consisted of Father Favio, Sister Olga and Husband Louise, their sons Daniel and David and Daniel’s girlfriend Paulina.   We then  had a birthday cake for Olga’s birthday.  I learned After dinner we played a dice game called Left, Right, Middle with the whole family.  What fun.  We were home by 9:30 PM.


Dec 25, Saturday Christmas Dinner, photo dates


I finally found a very good program to easily change dates in bulk.  I used this in the morning and also in the evening to process quite a few of the photos on Synology.  This is happiness.  I previously  installed Lightrooom to see if that would help.  It didn’t.  The Bulk file date changer program helped tremendously.
At 1 we went over to the Myeress for a traditional American Turkey dinner.  Joe cooked an 18 pound Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams and salad.  It was quite good.  Libbie brought a Pumpkin Pie over which she made.  Some of Angela’s Family had never had a Pumpkin Pie or Turkey before.  It was an enjoyable Christmas dinner.  After dinner we enjoyed hanging out in the sun in the backyard.  I helped Joe take Family photos with the lake in the background.  This went well with the camera on the tripod.  We had Apple or Pumpkin Pie outside on the patio.  After an enjoyable afternoon we went home.   At home we had a nice video chat with PAige and Emily.  Joe and Christa were in the room putting together an LOL dollhouse.  Christa said she is going to NYC with her school choir to Carnegie Hall.  Unfortunately this is on March 25 when we were planning our 50th anniversary party.  She also said she received a $10,000 scholarship for her Doctorate studies.  She is in the process of doing her thesis on gender identity.  Wow, I wouldn’t want to touch that subject. 
We had a simple Ham sandwich for dinner with the last of the Pumpkin Pie for dessert.  After dinner I worked some more on dating old photos.  This time I made my way through all the Beecher Hill home construction photos before going horizontal.  While in bed I continued reading my latest book, a stupid romance that is also supposed to be a comedy.


Dec 26, 2021 Sunday  Pictures


I continued working on pictures.  I have been successfully changing the date in the Exif but the file date is not changing.  I’m thinking that my own program using Python will allow me to learn the Tkinter GUI module. I found a tutorial on building an exif reader in Python which looks like it will be useful with some modifications.  
There were two big folders of scanned slides - one that said Libbie 64-65 and another of FIT 67-69.  With Libbie’s help we went through her college slides and found homes for them all.  I later changed the Exif dates to match their new folder dates.  I did the same for the folder of FIT slides.  Hopefully the images of the 1960s are done for now.  I also think I’m done with the 1970s. I wanted to have two monitors set up in my office so Libbie could be in front of one while I was on the other as we went through slides.  I bought an adapter in Walmart that was not exactly what I wanted.  The good news is that it did not scan so through no fault of mine I got it for free.  I looked at trying to use it but I wasn’t sure what to do with the type C USB on the end of a cable.  I think you are supposed to plug this into a USB port but it would take a handful of adapters and cables to plug it to  my computer.  I ended up using a laptop with a second monitor plugged into the HDMI port of the laptop.  We used this to sort the slides.  I meanwhile ordered an adapter to correctly attach a second monitor to my desktop.  If this works out I will order a stand to raise both monitors above the desktop. 
Dinner was the spiral cut ham and butternut squash which we had informally along with a glass of Cabernet.  We watched the Disney Plus Imagineering story about the building of Disney world and the creation of audio animatronics.   After Libbie went to bed I returned to my office and worked on more slides, finishing up adding dates to the FIT slide scans.  


Dec 27, 2021 Monday Selby, Python


This  morning I went to Selby and did file comparisons and transfers.  Liz and Sally have a list of 17,000 ferns that they were looking for help in converting into a spreadsheet format.  I like the challenge and the chance to write a little bit of Python to help.  While at Selby Libbie called John’s cellphone to tell him I left my cell phone at home on the kitchen counter and the stucco guys were there.  There wasn’t  much I could do but I told her if there’s an issue to call John’s phone, however he’s at the other end of the building.  
When I got home a little after noon the stucco on the windows downstairs was done but still covered with plastic.
I did a lot of reading about python and both changing dates of the exif with a python gui program and also about how to transform the large list of ferns that Sally and Liz have given me. 
At 5:45 Libbie and I went to Costco to get a large pork shoulder for the dinner party we’re hosting on Thursday for Angela’s family.  It was a great time to go because the self check had only one person there out of 6 checkouts.  Very good timing for us!
Dinner was a Sweet Potato and ham with a glass of Cabernet.  Just before dinner Joe and Angela came over with a lime citrus pudding type dessert that Angela’s sister made.  It was incredibly good.  After dinner we watched a Pixar series of the Pixar story on Disney Plus. 


Dec 28, 2021 Tuesday Python, stucco, Mexican Dinner


I spent the day in my office working on a Python program that will dissect the list of 17,000+ ferns and convert it to a spreadsheet.  I really enjoyed this very much even though it took most of the day to work through.  At the end of the day I was thrilled that I was able to write a few lines of CSV.  I did this by single stepping manually so I could see how the program is doing at reading the text file.  I found the output was missing subfamily names.  This was traced to not declaring the subfamily as a global in the parsing function.  After a quick fixup the CSV was written correctly.   Now I need to add the authorship info to the CSV.  
Outdoors the guys finished the stucco work.  It looks quite nice.  I had to remove the plant brackets because they stuccoed around them.  Libbie brought Angela over as our interpreter to get the bracket situation cleared up.  Eventually they fixed where the brackets had been.  
In the evening we decided to go out to the Mexican place for dinner.  We almost didn’t go in because it was so crowded but it was all very large groups waiting for tables.  We only had to wait about 5 minutes. They were very efficient.  The menu changed so a lot of the old favorites are not on there.  I ordered a new item, the Quesadilla stuffed with chicken, cheese, onions and peppers.  On the side was a guac salad with another salad covered with bits of tomato.  The meal was very good and it was complemented by a Frozen  Margarita.  When we came home I resumed working on the Python program.  I’m pretty excited with how this is going. 


Dec 29, 2021 Wednesday Python, groceries, roast


I continued to work on the Python program to format the selby botanical data into a spreadsheet.  I finally have a reasonably working program but it probably needs some changes.  There is a second line under several of the specimens that starts with “.var”.  I think it is a modifier for the previous line.   In this case I will have to read in two lines at a time so that I could examine the second line before constructing the first line.
I went on a Walmart grocery trip for the dinner with Angela’s family.  I got everything needed but of course I will still need to run out for a few items. 
Dinner tonight was tuna noodle casserole. We have not had this for a while.  I picked up the egg noodles today when I went to Walmart.  We had this informally along with a glass of Cabernet.
While having this meal we watched the Pixar Movie “Cars”.  Libbie had seen it but this is the first time for me.  It was quite long with some boring racing sequences but in general the story was heartwarming and enjoyable.  Pixar did a good job with story, drawing, detailing and sound.  
After the movie I unwrapped the Pork Shoulder and placed it in the oven at 8:30 PM with the oven temperature set to 225.  It should be done in the morning between 6 and 8.


Dec 30, 2021 Thursday roast, python, party


This morning I logged into Fidelity and logged many of the year end dividends.  I have been pretty happy with portfolio performance this year.  I did the same for the TdAmeritrade Portfolio.  The year end bonuses of many of the CEFs was a nice surprise.  They have totalled hundreds of dollars.  I heard from both Sally and Liz about the Botanical naming of ferns.  I incorporated their changes but did not implement all of them since I needed to participate with Libbie on pulling the pork.  We pulled both pork shoulders into trays while the beans baked in the oven.  
I mixed and poured the ingredients for the Key Lime Pie and later Libbie used the egg  whites and made a meringue topping. 
Angela’s family came over a little before 6.  We had a nice time with them.  They are a lovely family.  We need more dining room type chairs for our house.  Dinner was pulled pork, potato salad, baked beans and a 7 layer salad.  Dessert was Key Lime pie.   It was a very nice evening of good friends and conversation.  I hope Libbie is OK with this all.  I’m happy to be social for a change. 


Dec 31, 2021 Friday     Python, tickets, brick, last day of the year


I found out that tomorrow is the Met HD transmission of Cenerentola in the theaters.  Tickets are available both downtown and here at the AMC 12.  I bought 2 tickets, the theater is barely sold.  Only about 30 seats were sold in a 200 seat theater.  We took a spontaneous trip to Selby to see our brick.  Of course we stopped to look at the mounts in the conservatory before moving on to the Botany Museum.  Our brick is directly in front of the mansion at the pathway entrance to the Butterfly garden.  How nice.  We took some pics then stopped into the gift shop on the way out.  One young lady was wearing a micro mini lace skirt that was see through because of the lace.  Wow.  I enjoyed the view.  She was waiting for Grandma.
At home I continued to work on the Python program fixing issues I didn't know existed.  I saw that the Family name was not changing.  When I fixed this I next noticed that the genus was not being read anymore.  Apparently the global flag seems to have been reset as the genus processing function is exited.  I have not figured that out yet.  I did some reading about globals and this is not supposed to happen.  I hooked up the monitor stand that came from Amazon yesterday.  It’s nice to have two monitors.  I used one for displaying the fern listing and the second to debug the Python program.  I love the two monitors and also the fact that there is more room on my desk.
Dinner was leftover pulled pork, 7 layer salad and baked beans. We did not have the potato salad even though there was plenty of it.   Libbie gave a plate of food to our neighbors Peter and Andrew and also brought a plate over to her friend Pat.  Pat’s husband just got out of the hospital.  We had dinner informally while watching Cory and Steve do miniature golf at Disney.  This looks like fun.  
I fell asleep before midnight but woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks going off all around us. We both woke up, said Happy New Year and then went back to bed.


 




    
    
  
 












  


















  










 
 












    
















 


































 
  








  


 


















                                                                                                                                     
 












 














 








































  






















































  






































  






































 
 
















  








 














 










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