Category: Blog

Status: Sheltering in place, neighbor has COVID-19.

Plans: Bring my Node MCU’s online.

• I didn’t keep up with the times today. My friend has a birthday tomorrow and I spent a great deal of time on that today.

Narrative: Air Conditioner seems to be holding up although the humidity seems a bit high. I powered up a NodeMCU with a humidity sensor today to get a reading of what it actually was.

As you can see it was just under 60% this morning. The temperature was comfortable for the most part. The the Air Conditioner rarely runs on high cool and when it does the temperature recovers very quickly.

The 160W bench power runs on solar power beginning about 08:30 in the morning. I plugged a fan into the power strip raising it to just under 200W on a 300W inverter. The 2x 100W solar panels facing east and the 2x 100W panels facing south could not fully support the 200W. (I found that Odd since the SCC was pushing about 10A.) When I checked the components yesterday the 12AWG wire from the SCC was pretty warm, so I replaced it with 10AWG wire. Today the 12AWG wire from the solar panels to the SCC was warm, I replaced those wires today with 10AWG wire. The inverter was still drawing current from the power supplies because of the 48″ of 10AWG wire TO the inverter. I moved the 2x 8″ 10AWG wire to PP75 adapter that I made for the refrigerator UPS onto the inverter as a test and the SCC then had enough copper to support the inverter with a 200W load. It took me about 30 minutes to construct a second 2x 10AWG-PP45 to PP75 pigtail so both the UPS and the inverter each had one. It did surprise me that a short 48″ 10AWG wire was insufficient to carry a 10A load at 28V. After replacing both wires the current to the Inverter DROPPED ~10% to 9Amps. Apparently the higher supply voltage actually available at the inverter improved the efficiency. I made two more pigtails for the other two inverters later in the afternoon.

Mom’s solar setup will also have these issues since the voltage to the 48V SCC is roughly 32VDC at 10A over 400Ft of 12AWG wire! She has adapters that can push 48V towards the SCC, but I’ve not tested it.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, our neighbor has COVID-19.

Plans: Need some Weed/Feed

• 07:00 Up, eating breakfast.
• 07:30 Out for a walk
• 08:00 Instacart Order, he shopped two batches.
• 09:00 Our Instacart frozen was ok, but we were missing the deli.
• 10:00 Finished Instacart fiasco, getting organized.
• 11:00 Lunch and a Nap
• 13:00 Vacuuming and cleaning
• 14:00 finishing solar panel connectors.
• 15:00 Mow front lawn
• 16:00 Recover and eat din Din.
• 17:30 Mow back lawn
• 18:30 Shower and recover.

White Fragility: Found a good website, i’ll fill this in eventually.

Feelings: I wish that the “Protesting” didn’t involve threatening violence, it would make listening to their demands more palatable. Walking onto a judges lawn threatening to “Burn Down the House” is not acceptable.

Tomorrow: Friday, bread delivery.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Taxes are DONE! Sheltering in place, our neighbor has the virus.

Plans: Take a dinner to a friend and church in the evening.

• 07:00 Up and eating breakfast.
• 08:00 Cleaning
• 09:00 made a set of solar panel cables similar to what mom has.
• 10:00 Delivered a meal to Dekalb County.
• 11:30 Back home, cleaning up
• 12:00 Instacart build, and delivery.
• 13:00 Nap
• 15:00 Blogging, Air Conditioner working good at 96 Degrees outside.
• 16:00 Cleaning
• 17:00 Looking at the weather.
• 18:00 Mow lawn
• 19:00 Get ready for church.

Narrative:

White Fragility: Because of its thoughtfully-crafted agenda, values and mission, BLM is unmistakably incompatible with Biblical Christianity, and the many reasons Christians have to reject this movement can easily be found at BlackLivesMatter.com. According to its own “herstory,” BLM was founded by three black women, two of whom are self-proclaimed “queer.” The-stated-goals-of-black-lives-matter-are-anti-christian/

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Thursday

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Get organized

• 07:00 Up eating breakfast, coffee, planning
• 08:00 Walk around the block
• 09:00 Blogging, call mom.
• 10:00 Nap
• 11:30 Get Tree out of storage to dispose of it.
• 12:00 Back home, lunch and blogging then another nap.
• 14:00 Checked AC and blogging
• 15:00 Mowing lawn
• 17:00 Eating din Din
• 18:00 Watching news looking for wire guides
• 19:00 Helping Pam
• 20:00 Blogging

Narrative: Air conditioner is working pretty good for a hot day, discharge temperature was about 62 most of the day. It dropped to about 60 in the evening which is about as low as I want it to go. (Any lower and I would be worried about it freezing.)

Took the tree out of storage that was full of mice droppings, it needs to get into the trash can this week.

Need to order a new cover for the water pressure reducing valve, I gave mine to our neighbor. She’s trying to sell her house and I thought giving her mine would be easier than trying to find one at the last minute.

White Fragility: It was pretty cool today when Mr. Trump called the media out for not counting the number of white people that have died.

Feelings: We’ve kinda have had a hard day emotionally with all the discourse going on these days.

Tomorrow: Church Wednesday and taking a meal to a friend.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, our neighbor has COVID-19.

Plans: Get started on my taxes.

• 0700 Up, Breakfast and Coffee.
• 08:00 Blogging, Jackson EMC website is down.
• 09:00 Taxes Printing 1099’s and watching Instacart
• 10:00 Federal Return done… State next.
• 11:00 State Done! Whew!
• 12:00 Nap time
• 15:00 Rested, Federal return was accepted
• 15:30 Made some crème cheese dip and watching TGR.
• 16:00 State Return was accepted by Georgia, blogging.
• 17:00 Mow front lawn, eat dinner
• 18:00 run gen #1,2,3 and mow side yard. Picked up ext cords.
• 19:00 Gave spare Saturn parts to neighbors.
• 20:00 Watched the Pelican Brief with the wife.
• 22:00 Check power consumption, Jackson EMC is offline.

Narrative: Neighbor’s son came over to me without a mask and it made me uncomfortable. He said he got tested last week, but I know that doesn’t mean that he’s not at risk for having COVID since his mom does have it. He’s selling stuff from his mother’s driveway, neither him or his buyers are wearing masks.

White Fragility: I sometimes feel like that Black Americans are holding white privileged people/cities for ransom to get reparations for the sins of our fathers.

Feelings: I am SO glad that our taxes are behind us, even though it was a bit expensive.

Tomorrow: Ask doctor about my blood tests.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place our neighbor has COVID-19.

Plans: Have church and start taxes.

• 08:00 Up and eating breakfast.
• 09:00 Getting ready for church
• 10:00 Church
• 11:00 Lunch with Tracy.
• 12:00 Instacart
• 14:00 Post Office run
• 15:00 Planning and munching.
• 16:00 Scrabble
• 18:00 Blogging
• 19:00 Working on the Air Conditioner.

Narrative: Had another busy day. Church was disorganized but we got through it. The biggest struggle of the day was the Air Conditioner. Best guess, it is low on Freon and is pulling too much heat out of the house. I took the evaporator coils apart yesterday and they didn’t get abnormally cold with the additional air flowing out the access panel. The air flow didn’t seem to be centered on one area of the coils so I doubt we have an issue with dirty coils. Also the drip pan was spotless, there was no material in it.

I set the fan on circulate hoping the additional air would keep the coils thawed when the compressor was not running. It almost worked, but I can watch the temp of the air drop below 60 degrees where I assume the icing started. It got cloudy in the afternoon so the problem with the evaporator coils got worse. (I assume as the outside temp drops the volume of the refrigerant also decreases.)

I’ve raised the speed of the air handler in hopes of keeping the evaporator from freezing, I probably won’t know until midday tomorrow whether that worked.

White Fragility: So are we in the middle of a reformation or a transformation?

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Monday, Instacart groceries in the morning.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Under Siege: The young appear to be so “empowered” that they just might take control and completely change our capitalist “United States of America” to some form of socialism to provide reparation type resources for the black neighborhoods.

Status: Our air conditioner is low on FREON and has to be coddled until the repairman gets here in 9 days. We are sheltering in place with a neighbor that has COVID-19 right next door to us.

Plans: I need to finish the movie “Network”, more and more I feel that’s where we are as a nation.

• 07:00 Up, checking blower for dirty vanes and cleaning the air conditioner filters.
• 08:00 Breakfast and cleaning up the leftovers from the air conditioner work.
• 09:00 Still cleaning and testing Gen#1, it runs MUCH better with Mid Grade Gas!
• 10:00 Zoom with the music ministry, that was fun.
• 11:00 Ran four of the generators, Gen#2 may have a bad inverter. I didn’t run #5.
• 12:00 Chilis
• 14:00 Nap
• 16:00 cleanup and watch You’ve got mail with the wife.
• 18:00 researched Mayor Bottoms videos for something she said.
• 20:00 Bed.

Narrative: There is still a lot of junk laying around the house that I need to get rid of, the question is how…

White Fragility: With the decentralized BLM organization and that the protests are being organized on social media, we are on a long road…. I am now thinking revolution, mayor Bottoms is calling it “Transformation“.

We’ve talked to several members of our church and they say no. However, there is no reason for BLM (mostly white lately) protests to let up and their laundry list of demands is never ending. If the city governments don’t capitulate, BLM protestors allow ANTIFA to destroy and burn while the demonstrators keep the police and fire departments at bay using lasers to blind the police. With the pressure being exerted by these two organizations the cities are giving them a pass on minor violations and rapidly trying to produce legislation that will appease the mob.

Feelings: The young are listening to social media and social media is not telling the whole story to manipulate them.

Tomorrow: Church, it’s Sunday.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Lots to do.

• 07:00 Up, breakfast and coffee
• 08:00 Prepare for trip to the doctor.
• 09:00 Dr. Appts for wife and myself.
• 10:00 Return home.
• 11:00 Start work on Air Conditioner that seems to have a frozen evaporator.
• 12:00 Locate circuit board for Stove.
• 13:00 Start work on stove that has a burnt circuit board.
• 14:00 Waiting for the wife.
• 16:00 Mow lawn.
• 17:00 Dinner, beans and ham.
• 18:00 Planning, maybe a nap.
• 22:00 Blogging

Narrative: Had a busy day that started with two doctors’ appointments and ended up with massaging the air conditioner so it stays running for 9 more days.

The trip to the doctor was the first time we met in person since the virus outbreak in February. (Then it was a virtual appointment.) Yesterday we went to the office but Kathy was the only one with the appointment. Today we both had appointments in person with masks and a process of using hand sanitizer before handling the office clipboard.

When we got home the air conditioner was running on high cool but the temperature was one degree above set point. (Unusual) Using a temp gun the air coming out of the vent was 65 degrees. Too warm for the compressor on high cool and too cool for it not to have run recently. I turned off the breaker for the compressor and let the fan thaw the evaporator coils in the air handler. (Took about half an hour on high fan, surprising!) I took the cover off the coils and they looked pristine with no material in the drip tray. The drip line had mold on the underside of the pipes which I wiped off and discarded. Turned on the compressor and checked the temp of the coils, they were above 60 degrees which is right on target. Also there was good air flow through the coils. (I have no idea why the coils are freezing up.)

I did manage to fix the stove today. Lightning took out a diode and that blew both of the control boards for the stove top. I replaced the first board before I knew the second one was also blown.

White Fragility: It feels to me that the black population has an entrenched hatred for police officers. I agree that there has been some aggreges abuse, but the forgiveness seems a bit short. Eventually the “Movement” will have a steep hill to climb if the protesting keeps willfully disregarding established laws and ordinances. (Instead of positioning themselves above our existing laws as though they didn’t apply to them.)

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Dentist appointment today, a new struggle.

• 08:00 Up and eating breakfast, morning meeting with the wife.
• 09:00 Blogging and getting ready for a dentist apt.
• 10:00 Drive to Dentist.
• 11:00 Dentist appointment time.
• 12:00 Should be returning home.
• 12:30 Instacart ordered
• 13:00 Instacart shopping
• 14:00 Done with shopping, ordered Chili’s
• 15:00 What a let down, food was late and cold.
• 16:00 Researching UV lights for Air Handlers.
• 17:00 Talking about BLM
• 18:00 Probably a nap is in order….

Narrative:

MASKS!: Were at a dentist office today that one office person did not wear a mask across her mouth. (She said that we wouldn’t be able to hear her with her mask on.) The company policy is that everyone wears a mask! She came out to the car to deliver some forms with the mask pulled down to her chin (Below her mouth). Now we are breathing her exhale in a small space! She pulled up the mask after balking and we had no trouble hearing her through the thin mask she was wearing. (Not even a cloth mask.)

White Fragility: I am sincerely afraid of engaging in a conversation with most of my fellow parishioners of color. We were warned during a church service by a woman of color weeks ago that a white person would not be able to console a person of color. We’ve tried engaging them when they’ve posted vulgar hate videos online to which they responded with “We’re raising awareness”. I am sure that every person in America knows about BLM by now. Any “Raising Awareness” at this point is holding a mob of white college student’s knee on white leadership’s necks until they give in to the BLM organization’s demands. My feeling is that we now have a church of Black Christians that have not forgiven the sins of others who have hurt them. Before George Floyd we were a united church of Christians that were of many colors. Open conversations about our walk in Christ last year was easy and without any risk of offending each other.

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans:

• 07:00 Eating breakfast
• 08:00 Walk around the block.
• 09:00 Blogging and reading the news
• 10:00 Cleaning.
• 11:00 Moved Backup CKT to a Standby Modified Square wave UPS to reduce heat.
• 12:00 Shut down Pure Sine Wave inverter. (Reduced the noise considerably)
• 13:00 Cleaned up materials used in testing the batteries for MSW Inverter test.
• 14:00 Built cart for groceries tomorrow. (Now very complicated with Dental APT.)
• 15:00 Nap
• 16:00 Dinner
• 17:00 get ready for church and changed the fireplace lights to 60W bulbs.
• 18:00 Setup table for church and a charging cord for my phone.
• 19:30 Church Ezra.
• 20:00 Installing wireless charging stations in all of our rooms.

Narrative: Shortly after we bought the house I had a homebuilt Un-Interruptible Power Supply that powered my computers and the lights on the fireplace. Over the years it has become a secondary breaker panel with outlets in every room that will remain powered when the utility power fails. It also has become two completely redundant circuits with separate power sources that can support their loads for more than five and up to twelve hours. (Including a third circuit for the refrigerator.)

Today I have stepped backwards on one of the two circuits, I have decommissioned the “Online” UPS for an offline modified square wave one. (That I used to use about 10 years ago.) The advantage is they don’t produce any noise and very little heat. The disadvantage is that they tie the utility power to the house circuit as long as it falls within an acceptable range. Outside that range a relay switches the power to battery with a minor break in power to and from battery. (The online UPS use battery power for their inverters 100% of the time so there is no break in power.) There is a significant power loss with the “Online” UPS units of about 20% where the offline ones are near 100% efficient when they are not charging the batteries. The last problem that the “Offline” versions have they don’t recognize a MSW as an acceptable power source and will run on battery. I found out that my new 48V online UPS units are also in that category, which was unnerving.

I’ve already moved most of my loads off of the online UPS in the garage to reduce the temperature extremes that are not good for my batteries.

White Fragility: I really wish that the national news would not carry EVERY SINGLE incident of abuse to a black man without giving an equivalent amount of media attention to all colors of men and women that have been abused. It paints a very biased picture that black men are always the target of abuse.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Dental appointment, a new challenge.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To