Category: Blog

Status: We are sheltering place with plenty of food at home, we have enough produce until the next planned trip to the store on Monday. I am teleworking in the mornings.

Plans: Make a cup of coffee and figure it out…. LOL

Narrative: It’s 04:00 and I’m up, so I made a Belgian waffle with a glass of milk. The coffee pot is ready, but I’m not quite there yet.

We’ve had a hard time getting Multicast packets across two routers, I need to find out why as soon as I can this morning. The keyword “Multicast” also broke the IPV4 route statement in the routers.

Highest priority was to get the data running between two 1921 routers, we managed to do that today. Secondary is to research the “Multicast” keyword on the IP Route statement. (It shouldn’t have broken the IPV4 route statement.)

We received freeze dried meals today from various sources as a emergency contingency if we are desperate. We’ll add rice to stretch one packet into a day’s calories.

It’s a beautiful, bright sunny day so I let the 2x 100W solar panels run the refrigerator today. They can support the fridge from about 9AM to 5PM. (With sufficient battery and inverter.)

We made some sweet potatoes and took a meal to our friends that have the virus today. We were super careful to wear gloves and to not touch anything. They stayed inside until we left.

I had to bag all of the recyclables so that the driver can pick them up without them blowing out of the container and making a mess. The one caveat is that our mail will tell them who’s stuff is in the bag if we tried to recycle something not on the list.

Worked on one of my NodeMCU boxes tonight. I added wires onto the relay outputs that will be run to a separate box that provides power and distribution for the controlled items. Since they can be either 12 or 24 volts the power was not run into this box for that purpose. I am half tempted to use a metal box for all the connections to keep the moisture out of the three other boxes. (Wireless access point, NodeMCU, FlightAware Raspi that are all plastic.)

Prayers: This is my list of prayers for Today.

Thank you lord for the gifts you have bestowed on our family, we are all in great shape during this trying time.

Lord I thank you for the Mueller’s, they are great servants for our church family.  I pray for the that they may not succumb to the disease that is rapidly approaching our community.

Lord I pray for my daughter that you would protect her as she works diligently taking care of those assigned to her and her coworkers.  I pray that she does not carry this disease home to her brother’s children that are sheltering in place at home.

Lord I pray for Deb, she has been a good servant for a great many years to our fellow parishioners.  Please protect her home and provide her husband the wisdom to make good choices during this trying time.

Lord I pray for my Aunt in Florida that she be wise when she is out in the community. I pray  that she protect herself as best she can from bringing the virus home to my mother who would surely succumb to the disease.

I pray for my mom in Pahrump Nevada, I pray that her friends take her under their care and to help her as much as they are able.

Thank you lord for these technical solutions that have allowed us to communicate with our church leadership and receive their guidance in these disturbing times.

Lord I pray for wisdom on how best to prepare ourselves and to assist others who have fallen ill during this virus outbreak.

Thank you lord for the friends that provided us the reassurance and counseling when we lose our way.

Help me not to get over involved emotionally with all the news about this virus being brought into our homes.  Let our faith in your word provide us the strength to have a positive outlook when we communicate with our families.

Help us by putting those in our congregation who need help in our path so that we might provide some assistance.

Thank you lord for my wife, our home and all the other things you’ve provided us.  We will do our best to show our gratitude by sharing these gifts you’ve bestowed onto our doorstep.   

Tomorrow: Friday, I haven’t figured out Thursday yet….

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

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

Status: Sheltering in place as ordered by the county. We are good with about 30 days of meals and 7-10 days of produce.

Plans: Work this morning remotely for four hours. Take a walk around the block with the wife. Work on my NodeMCU herd and refine connection types.

Narrative: Woke up really early this morning at 05:30 and worked on the company training that was due. I started a pot of coffee and finished the training around 08:00.

Kathy and I took a walk around the block, it was a little cool today. The breeze was much stronger than it was on Monday. Bright sun today offset the temperature when we got to the last 1/3 of the block.

The cover came in for the portable freezer, the freezer sits IN the cover. The freezer is full of food and is several pounds heaver than if we’d had done this before filling it. Well, then there’s Kathy who’s been working out for weeks just lifts it into the bag without straining! WOW (My back felt it and she’s good… LOL)

The temp of the fridge’s surface was about 3 degrees less than the room temp which is pretty good for a portable unit. I covered the unit with a blanket and the surface dropped about eight degrees. I have similar results with the bag around the unit except now it is on all six sides. I have a wattmeter on the cord to capture the power consumption which I am projecting will be about 10% less with the cover on. (Increasing the insulation.)

With the 600KVA Lifan generator at 300W for 4 hours I can run this fridge for about .4 gallons of gasoline/day. I’d have to run the generator twice that and at 500W (Max for the Lifan) for the big fridge.

We’ve been ordering stuff every other day for the last two weeks as shown by the pile of boxes waiting to be recycled.

Tomorrow: Thursday, another day of sheltering in place. We’ve signed up to bring a friend a meal tomorrow. All three family members have the virus, so we have to be very careful.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

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

Status: We’re sheltering in place as ordered by the County and getting settled for the long term. The number of cases in Gwinnett Co. have tripled in the last five days to over 180.

Plans: Prescriptions are the task of the day for the wife. (Get enough for the next 90 days.) I’m digging around in my cave for a 10 year old router to see if I can get it on the Internet again.

Narrative: Slept ok, didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and woke up at 04:00 for an hour or so. Checked in with my coworkers and sipp’n a cup of coffee.

Finished work around 11:30 and started working on our “Virtual Doctor” visits. We get an invite on our Cell Phones in an E-Mail message. That starts a browser session to include a video chat. It’s incompatible with the Android browser so I had to change the default browser to Chrome for the session.

Both sessions we were unable to talk to the doctor over the service. We ended up calling on a second device and using the phone for a video feed only. (I could hear the doctor, he couldn’t hear me.) In the end we got our prescriptions without having to expose ourselves to the Doctor’s office!

Took a pretty long nap and did a quick check my company E-Mail before working on my NodeMCU’s for today.

I’ve ordered about eight of these boxes. They are water resistant (They call dust resistant) and are of a good size to house the NodeMCU and the I/O boards I need. This one node can measure five voltages, the temp and humidity inside the box and control four high power peripherals over a WiFi connection. I had previously researched metal boxes, but the NodeMCU is a WiFi device. (RF transparent box needed.)

We watched “Hidden Figures” together, we had to buy it since it wasn’t on Amazon Prime or Netflix. Good movie for an evening with the wife.

Tomorrow: Wednesday, work and shelter in place.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

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

Status: We went grocery shopping this morning and we have about 30 days of food on hand thanks to having the portable freezer I bought a couple weeks ago. We’ve run it continually with several loaves of bread and bags of ice cubes before we moved any real food into it yesterday. It is set to -8 F degrees, the thermostat will rise to about -2 before the compressor kicks in. (Still a safe frozen temp.) I don’t ever remember having this much food in the refrigerator/freezer, like ever. It is a little scary to have a new appliance responsible for two weeks worth of food. But, i have to admit that it has been solid since plugging it in. The only anomaly with this refrigerator is the power factor .65 is HORRIBLE. I probably can improve that by running a better power supply. I need to power it on DC and capture the surge current, then i’ll know. Testing this while I am dependent on it may not be a good plan though!

Plans: Work about 4 hours and do some long term planning. The virus is still getting worse and closer to us. According to the news the infections should peak about Easter (2 weeks).

Narrative: The trip to the store was made a day early since it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Everything went well, the produce section was stocked. The meat section was ok, but the frozen vegetables were very scarce. Dairy was in good shape, plenty of eggs and milk. We even got a nice package of toilet paper today! The bill was a little over $300.00, but we were buying two weeks worth. (Eat One/Freeze One)

We called the doctor’s office and cancelled our two appointments for tomorrow. (We’ve got enough medicine to last another 30 days, hopefully this will cool down a little and the office will not be as much of a risk.)

Stir Fry and a large salad for dinner. It used up a half a package of chicken and a frozen package of stir fry vegetables.

Amazon has delivered something to our door almost every day since I got back home. We are still shelving boxes and mail for one day to allow any contamination by the shipper to dissipate a little. The inside of the packages should be fairly safe and the inside of the product package is assumed safe.

Tomorrow: Tuesday, another working day, supposed to rain.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

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

Status: We’re “sheltering in place” as directed by the County. We have more than two weeks of food and supplies with us. *Even a few rolls of toilet paper.

Plans: Celebrate the Lord’s day with our family group and listen to our pastures message for today.

Narrative: I’ve been struggling all morning trying to figure out a balance of work and home since I am now working for a company as a “Consultant”. I ran across a picture yesterday that showed an Elle Fanning listening to what Francis Ford Coppola was telling her. I can’t imagine her asking him to show her what he wanted (She wasn’t qualified for her job.), or asking him twice because she allowed herself to be distracted and missed something he said.

The other notable thing in the Super 8 movie was a young boy that “in the moment” had to focus on saving the girl he loved from a large alien by standing up to it in the face of certain death. We all have had moments when there wasn’t enough time or resources to maintain several options like in a chess game. At some point a choice (Good or Bad) has to be made on just ONE PATH and be willing to accept the consequences as a man. When I was sliding towards a freight train on black ice in my car was one of those times when a single path had to be chosen. (There was no time and a certain risk of death was upon me.)

The above scene caused me to choke up and almost cry just posting it in my blog this morning. We all have been given a gift of life on Earth and as I get older I realize just how precious that gift really is.

Having workers that can watch videos, listen to news while at work and have nothing to show for an entire week’s (40 Hrs.) pay really bothers me. They will never get that time back to repay their employer or their coworkers.

My wife and I searched the Internet for toilet paper today. (We’re down to four rolls so if it has to be delivered that time has to be taken into account.) I found those huge rolls that businesses use for 27 dollars for a package of eight.

As soon as I clicked on it the rolls disappeared. Someone bought all eight cases, each with eight 1,000ft rolls at one time. Probably to resell them as individual rolls to make a profit. There are so many unemployed looking for an extra dollar, they are gobbling up all this scarce merchandise only to resell it at a higher price.) The problem of course it takes it away from those who need it the most in the regular stores.

I also started looking at Mountain House https://www.mountainhouse.com/m/category/buckets-and-kits.html who makes survival boxes of food. They are completely sold out!

Tomorrow: Monday, back to work and get groceries.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

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

Status: We’re good for supplies and sheltering in place directed by Gwinnett County of Georgia.

Plans: Take a walk, mow the lawn and work on the homestead.

Narrative: Been a rough week as you can probably tell my Blog was a little sparse. I’ve signed up for 20 hours/Week at work and spent probably 40 hours last week. That stressed us both more than I was comfortable with. Next week we’ll have a better grip on my hours.

Took a walk with the Wife, it hadn’t got hot yet and the pollen didn’t seem to bother either of us. Slight breeze and overcast skies also helped.

One of the four power supplies that supplement the UPS battery charge died yesterday. (Two have died so far of six.) I replaced the power supply and adjusted it for the maximum 500VA generators can provide. I’m running the generator this morning to make sure it’s all ok.

Watched an old movie (Super 8) 2011 which was surprisingly good, I cried at the end. (The sign of a good movie.) We made dinner together sweet potato stir fry and we froze several bags of sweet potatoes and butternut squash for later. It surprised me that the bags warmed the freezer six degrees. (I didn’t try to freeze things in the portable freezer, I was thinking it would have less cooling capacity without fans to circulate the air.)

Tomorrow: Sunday a day of rest and prayer.

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

Status: Working Remote and taking care of my sweetie. We are good for supplies.

Plans: Connect the wire I ran to the roof yesterday to a box with a wireless hotspot and a NodeMCU to measure the solar irradiation.

Narrative: Got up a little after 06:00 and turned on the coffee pot. Checked in with the guys at work and write a little in my blog.

Tomorrow: Saturday no working at all.

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

Status: At home, we’re good for supplies, I am working remotely at the request of my former employer.

Plans: Work and play, play while working, work while playing…

Narrative: Tiz a beautiful day today.

Tomorrow:

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

Status: Got an E-Mail from someone (that I have high regard for) who asked me to consider staying with the company until the unit can travel. Two days later I am back with the company temporarily.

Plans: Get organized to work from home, take a walk around the block.

Narrative: Started a cup of coffee and posting to my Blog this morning. I have enough components to start putting my security camera DVR together, but I haven’t decided where to put it.

I gotten login credentials for work and have been pretty busy this morning getting reacquainted.

Went to Kroger to get a prescription, went to the drive up window and wore cotton gloves.

Tried to get a nap in, but it was one of those days when the phone keeps sounding off.

It’s is a beautiful, bright, sunny day here today. Where was I, inside on my computer trying to get organized.

We ordered an Hawaiian Pizza from Papa Johns and had it delivered. We set out a table with the money on it. The pizza was set on the table and we carried into the house using a glove. We set the pizza on a washable surface and opened it with the glove. Washed our hands and ate the pizza without touching the box. Thew the box away and washed our hands. (Should have used the glove.) All these new habits we’ve got to learn…

I am working remote even though my bosses truly dislike the practice. (They invited me to work remotely to train their team that are in quarantine for a couple weeks.) I need to make sure that I am not investing more time than they are paying me for.

Tomorrow: Continue working and improving on our homestead.

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

Status: We’re grounded at the homestead until the virus risk drops considerably.

Plans: Go grocery shopping first thing this morning.

Narrative: Trying to get organized, which takes more effort with the virus threat affecting about everything. According to UPS we should get our portable refrigerator today, which is better than tomorrow because we’ll have groceries to put in it.

The wife is sleeping soundly, I put a fresh cup of coffee next to the bed and that didn’t rouse her either. LOL

Grocery shopping went well this morning. Kroger does open early for Seniors at 07:00 so we had exited the produce section before the store opened officially. We were out of the store by 08:20. I brought gloves to wear, but it is impossible to open those produce bags with them. Next time we go I’ll have Clorox wipes that are plenty sticky to open the bags with. The rest of the shopping I did with the cloth gloves on. My only remaining mistake was helping bag, I ended up within 3′ of the Kroger bagger. (But we’re 3 feet from the cashier too… Hmmm.)

Once home we put all the bags on the floor and washed our hands. Then trying not to handle the outside of the bag while filling the fridge. (It’s fully by the way!)

The portable fridge came today, it’s a beautiful piece of equipment! The compressor runs off of DC 12 or 24 Volts and there is a power supply inside that powers the unit from a standard outlet. It draws about 75 watts and I didn’t see a current spike when the compressor kicked in. It is currently plugged into my battery backed up outlet in the Livingroom. (Orange)

I put a bag of ice in the unit, plugged it in and set the temp to -6 degrees. Within an hour it was below zero and the ice never melted. The inside of the fridge is so cold I got freezer burn on my fingers when I felt them. TOO COOL!!!

Tomorrow: Wednesday, if the weather is right put a wireless access point on the chimney for the NodeMCU that will be providing data on the solar strength.

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