Category: Blog

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies. (Even TP)

Plans: Start a budget and do something around the house.

• 06:00 up reading the news and writing in my blog.
• Transferred 1K into mom’s savings from her checking.
• 07:00 Paid down our credit card as I am now on a “Retired” budget.
• No stimulus check yet.
• Changed my time management matrix for retirement.
• Had four eggs for breakfast, juice and coffee.
• Mounted ears on 15A 24V power supplies to be mounted in garage.
• 09:00 Waiting on mom, trying to charge the generator battery.
• 13:30 up from my nap, downloaded my pay stubs.
• 14:00 Mowed the back yard.
• 15:30 Replacing the 24V power supplies in the garage.
• 16:15 Eating Dinner
• 18:00 Cleaning up, took out the trash.
• 19:00 Writing in my blog and checking the refrigerator power consumption.

Narrative: A LONG time ago I needed a backup for my CPAP and the Google Foo was against using a Modified Wave inverter. ResMed did sell a DC power supply that ran on 12V and 24V. That power supply coupled with a DC UPS worked very well for years. I found out much later that the modified wave inverters worked just fine, but it added weight and bulk to my airline luggage. In the end, I traveled with an APC 450VA UPS that had no weight and two 8AH batteries. The two DC UPS units were repurposed for use on the homestead for the emergency lights and fire alarm sensors. I’ve since upgraded both of those units so the 4A power supplies were gathering dust. The two 14A Power Supplies are not UPS units, their power will be provided by a battery backup unit. They will share the two solar panels on the roof to power the television. A NodeMCU will coordinate the switching of the DC for the inverter and the output when the solar panels are not providing enough power.

The plan is to use one of these power supplies to backup the power provided by the sun. When the solar power is insufficient to run the TV, the power supply makes up the difference for the AC Inverter. The Node MCU will isolate the inverter at night to improve the system efficiency by supplying utility power directly to the TV.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Church services in the morning on Zoom

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: Still sheltering in place (We’re Seniors) until June, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Work my last day and deal with that emotional upheaval.

• 06:00 Get up for work for the last time!
• 10:00 Drive to Dobbins
• 11:00 Retired…. Again!
• 13:00 Went for a walk around the block
• 14:00 Nap time.
• 15:00 E-Mail, Facebook and snail mail.
• 17:00 Supper, Salmon
• 18:00 Vacuumed floors
• 19:00 Cleaned refrigerator condenser coils.
• 20:00 Writing in my Blog

Narrative: I heard a noise a while ago from the rear of the refrigerator that sounded like a motor shaft rumbling in the bearing. (Enough of a gap exists where the shaft rolls around the circumference as it turns.) With our refrigerator being our lifeline in this outbreak I did a quick cleaning on the coils. Then put a small fan on the floor and started closely monitoring the power consumed for both fridges. (Figuring the compressor current would rise considerably if something was failing or the air wasn’t moving across the coils.) The results were still not what I had expected so I did a “Deep” cleaning of the coils today and found dog hair still in the coils. (We’ve not had a dog in many years.) The power consumed while running dropped from 170W to 133W today, that’s pretty substantial! It will be interesting to see what the monitor comes up with next month.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Get organized and start a budget.

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’ve got plenty of food and supplies. We’ve not gotten our stimulus check, but I did manage to get our checking Acct added to their website this morning.

Plans: Work, Groceries, Walk.

• 03:46 Added checking acct to the USG website for Stimulus Check.
• 06:00 Check in with the team.
• 09:00 Put away groceries.
• 11:00 Checked out of work and signed my timecard for the day.
• 11:15 We went to deliver a gift to a friend, check our PO box and get some liquor.
• 12:30 We walked around the block, it almost rained. (Just a few sprinkles.)
• 13:30 I went down for a much needed nap.
• 15:30 ordered the TPM sensor for the Ford Focus (Spare Tire)
• 17:00 had dinner, brought in the mail and checked our neighbors back yard.
• 18:00 Writing in my blog.
• 19:00 put my latest Raspberry Pi in a FLIRC case to keep it cool.
• 21:00 writing the SD card for the Raspi.

Narrative: Yesterday I tried to get the status of my Stimulus check and I bombed the street address and got locked out. This morning I entered the correct address after downloading my 2018 return. The Gov said they didn’t have a checking acct for me because I deferred the money until this year, but they did have my correct address. So as of today they hadn’t mailed me a check or made a direct deposit. I did a little hunting yesterday and got a little worried. There are a number of people that their check was redirected (Stolen) by thieves who got the common information from public sources or stolen data. In my case they would not have known all the details. Hopefully we’ll get it soon…

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Last day at work for the foreseeable future, retire at last.

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: Work and prepare for storm today.

• 05:30 up, started coffee and checked my E-Mail
• 08:00 Built a Raspberry Pi4 with 4 Gig of memory.
• 11:30 Leisure day at work, went for a short walk.
• 12:00 Discussed the weather with the team.
• 13:00 Worked with someone sending Dominican coffee overseas.
• 13:30 Took a much needed nap.
• 15:30 Read through the news, updated DH Gate and put in a new Insta Cart.
• 16:00 Writing in my blog.
• 19:30 Church tonight.

Narrative:

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Work at 06:00, Insta Cart at 09:00, Walk at 11:00

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: Work, take a walk around the block and work on the homestead.

• 06:00 Got up, made coffee and checked in with work.
• 09:30 Checked my video mouse trap, nothing at the peanut butter.
• 12:00 Had a fun day at work, mowed the neighbors yard.
• 13:30 Took a much needed nap.
• 15:00 Hooked both 48V battery banks together and ran the UPS until 12V/Battery
• 17:00 Set power supplies to charge batteries and went in for dinner.
• 18:30 played a game of scrabble and prepared for bed.

Narrative: I have two 1500W UPS units that run on a 48 Volt battery. I’ve found it difficult to match four 12V batteries in a string. One string of four batteries have two batteries that have a little less capacity that the other two. (So the two strong ones push the weak ones into deep discharge.) I bought a battery management device that matches the four batteries as they are charged. What it cannot do is match them when they are pushing 15 amps into the UPS. The plan is to find a pair of batteries in the seven 24V banks on the other UPS. Otherwise I’ll have to buy 4 new batteries with no guarantee they will discharge as a team.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Groceries and then prepare for storms.

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: Work, put away groceries, take a walk and work on the homestead.

• 06:00 Check in with work
• 09:00 PTO
• 09:30 put away groceries
• 10:00 Return to work
• 11:00 Take a walk
• 12:00 Had salmon cakes for lunch.
• 13:00 Set a video mouse trap.
• 14:00 Took a nap.
• 15:30 Writing in my blog
• 16:30 Patched the roof.
• 17:00 Watched the Governor’s speech.
• 18:00 Mousetrap Test passed, re-centered camera.
• 18:30 Ordered fan motor for fridge.
• 19:00 Hung some pictures up for the wife.
• 20:30 Bought Hue Hub and a few bulbs. (The bulbs I have flounder)

Narrative: Had a busy day. Went to a friends house and setup a camera on the floor with a spoon of peanut butter on a paper plate in front of it. I set the camera to send me and E-Mail with 5 pictures 2 before, 2 after the movement.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Tuesday, 4 more days till I retire.

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: Eat breakfast, Attend church, work on my list.

1. Get up and sip on a cup of coffee
2. Gett’n ready for church at 10, had eggs and green peppers for breakfast.
3. Generators 4 and 2 both have gasoline in them, will try to run them dry today.
   • I put a fan on the generator to provide a cool down from full load since I do not know when the generator will run out of gas.
4. Had a chicken salad sandwich for lunch, pretty good.
5. Took a picture of the neighbors lawn before the weed+feed takes ahold of the lawn.
6. Mowed our front lawn, our neighbor did theirs and mine looked pretty high.
7. Gen 4 ran out of fuel, I’m switching over to non Ethanal gas for them.
8. installed UPS neighbor’s house
9. Checked cameras before retiring for bed.

Narrative for something cool I did today:

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Back to work, not going to be a good day.

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. Day one for Georgia businesses being open, virus number still climbing. (53 people in perished in ~2 days.)

Plans: Work on my task list above, it’s a beautiful day outside.

• 06:00 Up early for a Saturday, sipp’n coffee and checking out work E-Mail
• 07:00 Work is crazy, logged into DOD and getting acquainted.
• 08:00 Setup WiFi outlets and walked next door with a couple desk lamps.
• 09:00 Dusted the neighbor’s lawn with fertilizer while it was still wet.
• 10:00 Cranked up a generator and played with the solar panel and generator/
• 11:30 Took a nap
• 13:30 Up from my Nap writing in my blog, not much of an excuse for Saturdays.
• 14:30 Still writing…. LOL
• 15:30 Dealt with the Bees and the gas line hole is plugged with Great Stuff!
• 16:30 Dinner, Fish
• 17:00 Repairing the driveway remote controlled light.
• 18:00 putting power pole connectors on inline fuses.
• 19:00 Watching TV with the wife.
• 20:30 Checking on neighbors lights I put in today.

Narrative: Nothing dramatic today, it was a beautiful day to work outside when I can.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Sunday services at 10AM.

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: Work, take a walk and work on the homestead.

• 06:00 Wake with the alarm, sip on a cup of coffee and check in with work.
• 09:00 Walked around the block.
• 11:00 Signed out of work.
• 12:00 Started generator #1 and let it run for 40 minutes.
• 14:00 Took a nap
• 16:00 Ordered Door Dash, Chilis.
• 17:00 Writing in Blog.

Narrative: 06:00 is tough on a Friday, only one more to go!

The sun came out today before we took our walk around the block, very enjoyable!

The roof patch kit is here and so is the Great Stuff can. (I want to wait until both surfaces are dry before trying to patch them.)

Mom got the 48V Inverter to run her refrigerator off of her golf cart today. We still need a cable to her battery plug.

Started Generator #1 of five and pulled the plug on one of the 48V UPS units. I ran it more than 40 minutes using the generator to charge the batteries. The UPS complained that it had run out of run time, but the battery voltage was still over 49 volts.

We splurged and ordered Chilis tonight.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, A Day Off!

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: Work in the morning and weather the storms.

https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=oss;r=0;t=3;s=201;o=0;b=0.00;n=0;y=31.7725;x=-88.83;z=8;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;ra=1;ts=1;tr=1;

• 07:00 Woke up late, checked in with the team and grabbed a cup of coffee.
• 12:00 Storms were a bust, no much of anything.
• 13:00 Took a nap
• 15:00 checked the mail, neighbors mail and their cameras.
• 16:00 had a salad and black beans for dinner
• 18:00 played a game of scrabble with the wife.

Narrative: The Inverter for Nancy’s golf cart will be there on Monday, but the cable is three more weeks. I could make a cable but then someone would have to install it.

The Pi-Aware receiver is holding on, I may wait to change it out since it got a little warmer in the plastic box. (Versus the metal one.) It was within 10 degrees of throttling last summer during the heat of the day.

I looked at portable freezers while I tested my Raspberry Pi and i still like the one we bought. It has been a little on the high side of temperature -2 to -8, but way cold enough to keep the contents frozen. It is quiet as a mouse and doesn’t draw much power.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Friday, get up early, take a walk and watch a movie.

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