Another full day of working on the FC4A program. In the afternoonn the Met ran the Enchanted Island which is not one of my favorites. We had Chinese takeout and shiraz for dinner. After dinner we watched the movie Her which was not one of my favorites, in fact I thought it was stupid.

Spent the day writing the Python scripts that massaged the First Class data for the FC4A program. I had great success. The database works nicely and pics and data are displayed correctly. I had to add a second SQL database table for the credits for the photos. It really works well. I heard from John wondering where the FC4A program is. I told him the status. We had dinner of peas, ribs that Libbie cooked all day and Shiraz. It was too much to drink the whole bottle. We went to dance and I couldn't function I was so confused over patterns and steps. Even Libbie didn't know whether a rock step was forward or backward. never again. We left the party early at 9:15.

I put more of an effort into the database and found that if the values are null, the program crashes. I looked at the old database I used last year for First Class and found Ii inserted zeroes in place of null values. I started writing a Python program to perform this function on the CSV prior to importing. I need a complete management program to work on data before importing. The Cell phone came around noon today while Nancy was still here helping Libbie. It's a pretty neat device although signal strength to Sprint is pretty poor. I spent time on and off adding apps and playing with the phone. The book reading is surprisingly good. Dinner was BBQ sandwiches topped with Cole Slaw again. After dinner we watched Last Vegas which I had seen previously while Libbie was in RI. It's supposed to rain and possibly sleet overnight. When we went to bed it was raining and when I used the LED light to look out I could see snowflakes along with a steady rain.

I started working on First Class 4 Android in earnest. I started by creating a new B4A project and created a separate SQLlite database. I'm learning how to import data into it and also how to display from the Db. It's not working since it keeps crashing the program. We went to dance at 3:30 where Robert first reviewed Foxtrot a little then addressed our problems with Swing last night. It was pretty helpful and I learned a lot. Libbie and I practiced at home and did quite well, surprisingly. Dinner tonight was Pulled Pork sandwiches with Cole Slaw topping. This was some of the pulled pork leftovers from when Bill and Barb were here. I worked till midnight on trying to use B4A to read the db without crashing.

The roads are icy this morning since the rain last night froze and there is a thin glaze on everything. Waited till noon when the temperature went to 40 and the roads were only wet. Started to look at First Class and adapting it to Android. We had Salmon and veggies for dinner then went to group swing class. The moves were pretty complicated and I was confused but I'm determined to make this work. Hopefully Robert can straighten out my Swing tomorrow.

More sleet predicted for today. The critter dug out the front of the shed in front of the mesh screen but didn't get in. I went out in the late morning and tamped some dirt over the hole before the rain started. Ran over to Kroger when the rain started and picked up some Salmon but Libbie didn't cook it because it was very cold and sleeting out. We got a little dusting of frozen precipitation on raised surfaces like on leaves but not on the ground because the warm ground melted the sleet. It's going down to 15 tonight which is unusual for March. I got a music player up and running for the plant room but I found out I don't have another micro usb cable. Need to order some. Dinner tonight was egg noodles covered with creamed tuna fish and peas. After dinner we listened to Werther live which was premiering. Vicki called from Sarasota. Our tenant wants ESPN, Fox News and some kind of Big 10 sports package. I ordered it for another $25 which they said I could cancel after one month.

It's beautiful and warm out. I continue to read about interfacing to flask web sites. I really like the protocol because I can control hardware from a web page. I put screen in the front of the shed this morning to stop a critter from trying to dig under there. My rake is missing so /i had to make do with the shovel. We left at 1:10 for the ballet - a double bill of Rachmaninov Piano concerto and Vivaldi's four seasons. I loved it, especially the four seasons which was well choreographed and very colorful. I ended up updating our performance log in the life bits. In the evening we turned on the Academy Awards and watched it all the way to midnight. Best Picture was 12 years a slave. We just saw Gravity last night which won 7 awards so it was nice to see this. Dinner was Lib's pizza which was amazing because we were out all afternoon but she pulled it off.

This morning I went upstairs and worked on putting bridezilla's screen grabs of the album into a PDF using an old version of Photoshop. This went well, then I emailed it to her for approval. Hopefully she goes for it. We'll see. We had to leave early for Prince Igor which started at noon. It's hard to believe but this is the 75th presentation of the Met HD. I went back home and counted the number I have listed in Tom's Life Bits. The number is 58. We have attended 58 performance. Where has the time gone? Wow. We came home around 5. For dinner we had more homemade Chinese with stir fry carrots, celery, Bok Choy and chicken over rice with a bottle of Shiraz. After dinner we watched Gravity with Sandra Bullock which was an amazing movie. It was exciting all the way to the end.

I worked on infrared control via a web app running on the Raspberry Pi. For dinner we had the Salmon I purchased yesterday along with some rice and a glass of Shiraz. We left for dance in the evening for the 8 PM party which we enjoyed. We had first Andrew then Melanie help us with beginning the open right turn of the Foxtrot.

I installed the binary for node.js on the Pi. It worked well. I anm able to run the tutorial examples. I found one site with horrible examples that didn't work. The comments section is what eventually clued me in to not visit this site. It's another cold one today. I demoed the eBike to Nancy at noon, taking a trip down the driveway. Dinner was Bok choy with Shiraz. It was incredibly good. while Libbie was out at quilting I ran over to Kroger and got Salmon which we can have tomorrow night before the party.

Tried to compile the node.js on the Pi. It took 2 hours and I had a few errors I didn't understand. Time to do more reading to understand this thing. It's too cold to go bike riding today. The high is only in the forties. We went to dance today at 3:30. We enjoyed watching Robert choreographing himself in a Tango before we started. We went over last nights Foxtrot with some great success. Now I get what Andrew was trying to do. We spent the whole session doing the Foxtrot Open right turn. For dinner tonight we went out to La Cocina. This is the last Wednesday of the month which meant they had a Mariachi band. The guys came over to play Happy Birthday to us only they had the wrong table. It was for a guy at the bar. Funny. Libbie had them play Via con dido or something like that. We each had a Quesadilla La Cocina with a Margarita. Libbie's was cooked a little too much.

Groceries this morning then I tried another bike trip through Vintage Grove. the bike is really doing well. Started reading about node.js for real time control of hardware on the server via the web. We had a dinner of spaghetti then went to the amalgamations. We thought we were going to cha cha because that is what the schedule said but Andrew had it wrong. We had another Foxtrot session. Libbie was not a happy camper but I stayed with it including video. She doesn't like Andrews teaching technique. I think she was just tired.

I read quite a bit this morning about using a Pi for remote control of IR devices. This is the ultimate remote. I can't wait to get this working. After doing this most of the morning I buckled down and worked on bridezilla's album.. I ended up finishing it on MyPublisher. In the meantime, John Carter wanted a way to submit Best Varieties online. I created a new page with the best varieties and a form to submit the data. Dinner was BBQ on a bun and a salad. After dinner I listened to Prince Igor live from the Met.

Today I started working on Bridezilla's album. We took some nice pictures but they will be hidden by the fact she wants 5 pictures per page. Awful. I tried laying the first 10 pages out then assembled jpgs of the pages into a pdf and sent them to her. This afternoon I had a nice bike ride on the ebike. I went out onto 1010 through vintage grove. The temp was on the cool side so I wore a hoody. Came home through the woods once again but I was smarter this time and downshifted before I entered the woods so I could do pedal assistance. I adjusted the front brake so it doesn't make a rubbing noise anymore. The bike is really working well. For dinner we had Libbie's pizza which came out with a nice thin crust and was delicious. While looking for Bridezilla's wedding pics I reminisced while looking at pics of soome of the models I photographed over the years. This was a fun time.

Bill and Barb left at 9 this morning. They are going to spend the night with their friends the monks in Annapolis. Libbie was afraid to tell Sue cause she would be unhappy. I hooked up a common wire on the furnace under the house and then proceeded to hook up the new Honeywell Wifi thermostat downstairs. I really like it, it's crisp clean and colorful. I took a nice bike ride out through vintage Grove again and then showed off my eBike to the little Bike shop where I bought my mountain bike frame. The bike performed well. I came back home through the woods once again and I was very happy, however the bike needs shocks to navigate the bumps in the woods. It was a bumpy ride and I unfortunately had the bike in too high a gear to climb the hill in our backyard. I couldn't pedal and the front wheel kept slipping on the wet leaves. Dinner was pulled pork, cole slaw, Brunswick stew and corn bread.

Bill is coming today. We did some more cleanup, I charged the bike battery from the ride yesterday. A line of severe storms moved through at noon but other than heavy rain, there was no wind damage. They arrived around 3 while I was out at Kroger picking up some Cole Slaw. We had a nice visit, Bill was very interested in the eBike. He really looks like he is in bad shape, moving slowly and looking to be in very much pain. What a shock. We had the pulled pork, cole slaw and Brunswick Stew for dinner with some Italian wine and then some 2 buck chuck. It was an incredibly nice visit. Our new bathroom really looks great.

We spent the day cleaning the house. I swiffered the dining room and then went for a ride on my ebike. The ride this time was without incident. I went into Vintage Grove and returned via the oath in the back of the house. I had to walk the bike over both creek crossings and also walk it down the dam. This went well and it was surprising to see how fast it happened. We took multiple trips to Kohls to get towels and a shower curtain for the back bathroom. It really looks nice. Dinner was the rest of the rotisserie chicken. In the evening I prepared a rub for the picnic shoulder I purchased. I bought a 9 pound shoulder which will take 8 hours at 275 degrees to cook. I'm also going to start a Brunswick Stew in the morning. Die Fledermaus was on live otnight - I really enjoyed listening to it.

Libbie is down to only 40 minutes left in the cell phone plan. This morning I read about resetting a cable modem if connectivity is lost. I set up a Raspberry Pi to perform this job and had somewhat success doing this. I woke up this morning to thunder and lightening which was bizarre. Libbie's flight was early. I had to hustle to get to the airport in time. She had her suitcase in hand by the time I was getting off 40 at the airport exit. On the way home we picked up a rotisserie chicken and potato salad for dinner. It's a surprisingly warm day, it was 72 on our way home from the airport. We had a nice dance lesson with Robert. Today we concentrated on Foxtrot and Rhumba. Bill called late in the evening after Libbie had gone to bed. He is making his way North and wants to stop in on Friday night. This will mean no dance party for us Friday which is too bad.

Up early and into the garage this morning to change the tire on the bike. This went reasonably well. The new tube has slime in it which is a sealant so it was a little bulky to deal with. I especially had trouble getting the valve stem to stick out far enough. I ended up taking the tire off the rim again to push the valve stem up then clamped it with vice grips while I re-assembled the tire. After I got everything back to normal I took the bike out on a trip all around Buckingham. It's quite smooth riding now, especially since I oiled the steering bearings which seemed to be my biggest problem. They were pretty dry and hard to turn. I poured motor oil liberally onto the bearings. I had one problem when I hit a bump by the church - the battery pack luggage carrier slid down and rubbed the tire. I had trouble getting it tightened back up at home and ended up drilling a hole into the seat shaft to secure it. Dinner was Trader Joes Spinach Lasagna. I watched Last Vegas tonight - what a fun film of old geezers.

Dentist this morning at 8:30. I noticed the front tire was flat on the bike. Had a good checkup. Talked to Libbie this afternoon - Bill has cancer and is going to have a kidney removed. Things are not looking good for him. I took the flat tire off and noticed a tiny pin hole leak. I inspected the rim tape and didn't notice any problems. The tube is pretty old. Visited Walmart, Target and Dicks looking for a replacement tire. A 26 inch balloon tire is hard to find. Dinner was a Chile Rejeno. After dinner I went to REI after finding they have a bike department. Do they ever! It's the biggest bike department I've ever seen. Bought a Continental tire cruiser tire. I also stopped at Trader Joes expecting it to be empty but it was amazingly crowded. This evening I watched Last Vegas and was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

I got the connectors installed on the battery pack. Went to Kroger for duck tape, taped up the battery and mounted it in the luggage carrier bag. Tried a test run of the bike up Downing Place. The bike feels a little funny. The hub motor has some nice power but not as much as I would have expected. Surprisingly I got a Sunday paper on the driveway today. That's two weeks in a row. Dinner was a self rising crust pizza. I ate too much today.

I spent the day working on installing the luggage rack, the battery bag and then wiring up the bike. The battery charger and the test probes came today. The probes are a perfect fit for my digital meter. I'm pretty happy with them. I fired up the battery charger and started charging the battery pack. I monitored the charger voltage while it was charging and was happy to see it start at around 37 volts and slowly climb a tenth at a time. In the later evening I unhooked it all when the voltage reached 42 volts. The nice part is the LED on the charger which starts red and then turns green at full charge. I really like this charger, it was a good ebay find. I also ordered a Honeywell WiFi thermostat for $149 from eBay. List price was lowered to $224 at Lowes and home Depot from $249. This is better looking than the Nest and a more reliable thermostat company. dinner tonight was leftover Fried chciken from yesterday along with a salad.

The roads are nicely cleared after a morning of black ice. melting is happening rapidly. I ran around to the auto store for trailer lighting connectors then Walmart for a luggage carrier and a luggage bag. I had to return to Walmart because the bag was marked $7 but they charged me $17. To get the other $10 back I had to go with a customer service guy to the bike department, note the $7 price, then go back to the customer service department where they gave me $10.68 cash. I really wanted the credit back to my card. Oh well. Dinner tonight was fried chicken and potato salad from Kroger.

What a difference a day makes. The greenhouse roof is totally clear. For some reason I still can't use the balance function on my smart charger. I'll skip that and continue charging the cells I took out of laptop packs. I'll build these into a parallel pack for the 36 volt pack I currently have from Greenworks. The sleet and rain compacted our snow to less than an inch or two. The driveway is actually showing this morning and during the night a snow plow went down Downing Place.

There was no snow this morning. I ended up ordering a 3 amp 36 volt charger from a Calif company. The snow started falling at noon. I ran over to Kroger to look for D cell batteries for my Kerosene heater and what a zoo. Tons of people. The drive home on Old Raleigh Rd was unbelievable. I was in a line of cars creeping along. I shouldn't have done this. The snow came remarkably fast and heavy. We accumulated 6 inches in just few hours. I turned the greenhouse heat up in order to speed up snow melting because it's supposed to be freezing rain later today. It sleeted instead which kept the rain down. The snow slid off the greenhouse roof without any problems. Dinner was a can of Progresso Chicken Gumbo soup. The Pi upstairs crashed which kept one of the relays on. I turned the water off and began the cleanup. Had to get the shop vac to vacuum up the water and transferred the plants to the shelf above. They were sitting in about 2 inches of water. I vacuumed about 20 gallons of water out of the tray. Thank goodness it was lined with 6 mil poly.