Blog – Page 56 – Mark's Blog

27 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Our financial situation is improving as we pay off the debt incurred this year and we are starting to build a daily routine again.

Plans: Spend some time drawing up a plan for next year and align our 11 month old budget to that plan.

Narrative: Well I was going to work on our finances, didn’t happen. Phones were pretty busy this morning working out finding a dentist in Florida and whether Florida Blue covered it.

The afternoon was spent playing with Pi-Aware receiver and the new antenna my son sent me. I mounted the antenna on a pipe from a speaker stand and taped the pipe to the bathroom vent for the evening. The antenna increased the range by about a third and the receiver is displaying aircraft greater than 150NM.

I am on the fence whether to return to the 1/4 wave antenna since there is no real need for a long distance unit with all the Pi-Aware receivers near Atlanta.

The current thought is to move the larger collinear antenna to a relative’s house further East where there are no receivers and return to the 1/4 wave antenna to support short range reception of non ADS-B aircraft for triangulation at the homestead. (MLAT)

My son and I did rebuild our network between us tonight, it did take a couple of hours. (I’m a bit rusty.)

Pi News: Cables for the large Pi-Aware antenna should arrive today, I don’t want to buy something to mount it with until I’ve tried the antenna. It will also give me the opportunity to build a Pi-Aware for an offspring that doesn’t seem to have anyone around him with one.

Tomorrow: It is supposed to rain all day, but Tim’s Flight Aware receiver and antenna arrives tomorrow.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs:

26 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Christmas is over, still cleaning.

Plans: Look over our finances and start planning for January 2019 when we have most of the large bills of the year.

Narrative: We forgot to turn the heat back on yesterday. (We opened the windows while we were cooking.) It’s 64 in here and 32 outside. Our coffee is brewing and I’m in for a couple eggs for breakfast.

Enjoyed a relaxing day today, we walked around the block listening to the XM radio 60’s (that the wife loves) on my new radio I got for Christmas. Played with ground planes for the Pi-Aware ADS-B antenna on the roof. I didn’t get the same results as the You-Tube video guy did.

Had left-overs from the Christmas dinner and watched a documentary about Walt Disney before turning in for the evening.

Tomorrow: Both the PiAware antenna cables arrive tomorrow. Need to get an assessment whether the large 1090MHZ antenna I got for Christmas is worth the trouble. The small 1/4 wave antenna is getting substantial amount of traffic beyond 100NM already.

25 December 2018, Christmas

Status: Livingroom is clear, but there is a few items I put back in the cars for storage. The family is coming over just after noon.

Plans: Help my sweetheart prepare for today’s feast.

Narrative: Got up around 8 and it was a pretty day this morning. Had my morning brew which was terrific as always. We’re planning a fire today, so I got on the roof this morning to move the PiAware from the chimney where it has lived for a couple days. I finally decided to mount the antenna on the top of a rotating vent (Which I stopped from rotating.) I ran a wire from the chimney 12V power to the Pi to supply the 8W of power it needs to keep running.

Mash sweet potatoes and put them in a bowl, that was my offering for dinner today.

The families arrived a little after 1PM and left well after 7PM so everybody was having a great time.

I received a portable radio and a wind up emergency radio from Santa this year. Both turned out to be excellent products. (Hard sometimes to get something substantial from Amazon without it being junk.)

Repairs: My Internet connection has started failing occasionally, I don’t know whether it’s a DNS problem with the Pi-Holes or it is a connectivity issue. I started a “Smoke” ping to the first Comcast gateway. That will prove the connectivity is not the issue. (But I think it is.) I checked the modem, the logs say it has been up for weeks. The RF links are also well above the minimum readings so I doubt that’s an issue. The cameras are complaining the most and they are after the Sophos firewall, so I can eliminate that as an issue. I’ve looked at the Fortigate logs, nothing there suggests that it’s going offline.

Tomorrow:
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

24 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Just a few piles left in the living room.

Plans: Finish the living room today. Watch “The Santa clause” with family.

Narrative: Got up really early and headed down to the Honey Baked Ham store for tomorrow’s dinner. It took a little longer than I would have hoped, but we have the main course for tomorrow.

Worked on the living room most of the morning, there are a couple of things I need to put away. But that project is Done!

Pi News: I changed the password on the cellular router this morning so that I can see the map of the aircraft as they fly over the house using the Pi Aware that I built on Saturday. Having a major airport within 40 miles creates an awful lot of traffic near us. The Raspberry Pi is in a plastic Tub on the chimney for a couple days until we (My Son and I) figure out the best way of making something permanent.

https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build

Tomorrow: Have the fam over for Christmas dinner and presents.

23 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Livingroom is on track to be finished tomorrow. Didn’t sleep very well, but I’ll make it.

Plans: It’s a long day, get up early. Take a nap after church and start working on the piles in the living room again.

Narrative: Got up a little early at 06:30 and took a shower since I was up. (I knew it was going to be very cold and this would give me a chance to dry off before heading out in the cold.) Reset the alarm for 07:30 and caught a quick nap before the wife called me out to breakfast. She made eggs and sausage for me this morning.

Got to church before 8 and set out the Handicapped cones as usual. One of the Do Not Parking signs is missing along with about 5 small cones. I’ll get eight new cones ($14 each) and four new signs ($10 each) this week for next weekend.

Church service went well, it was relatively easy without the band and all the monitors. Great sermon today.

Had a ham sandwich and headed down for a nap, especially since it’s raining again today.

Spent some time on the Flight Aware receiver, we need to know how well it performs on the roof. Specifically the top of the chimney which is an appropriate round steel surface. I don’t have an easy way to run a network cable up there and the PI doesn’t have WiFi built-in so I connected my cellular modem to the Pi and ran the whole thing on one USB cable. The tiny 5″ antenna was picking up aircraft more than 100 miles away so I’ll be very curious what we’ll see with the 24″ antenna my son bought me. I put the pile of stuff in a plastic tub on the chimney and weighted down with a couple of boards. I should get a good idea if it’s worth the trouble of running all the wires to make it permanent.

Played a game of Scrabble and watched the end of White Christmas before retiring to bed.

Tomorrow: Get the Christmas Ham at 07:30.

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

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

22 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: We have money again! The checks from the Florida sale have cleared the bank!

Plans: Clear out the living room today so we can prepare for Christmas dinner with the family on Tuesday.

Narrative: Checked the bank this morning and there were thousands of dollars available to pay off our debts we incurred over the last year. I transferred half what I owed to our credit card this morning and put some money in the savings account for the first time in a long while. I realized yesterday the pressure of having almost 30 Thousand dollars worth of debt was weighing heavily on the two of us. Especially at Christmas. (My bottle of “Jack Daniels” is about half empty.)

Spent the last 3 hours clearing the living room and I’m a little more than half way through it. It takes a lot of time to put things where they belong versus in a piece of luggage headed for Florida.

Took some time out to play with the networks this evening. My son configured a Raspberry Pi as a Flight Aware participant. It looked interesting enough to spend the 30 dollars for the receiver and the antenna last week. I got the set earlier today and the antenna that he bought for me as well. I couldn’t find the adapters or cables to use the big antenna so I setup the receiver in my cave tonight. I can see aircraft about 40 NM from inside my house. (Which is quite respectable.)

Tomorrow: Church at 8AM.

21 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Still raining, living room still full of stuff. One day to clean it.

Narrative: Checks arrived today, the deposit will be available tomorrow. Gathered up all the recycling I’ve been saving up all year. Took the batteries to Batteries & Bulbs, electronics to Best Buy and the burnt out compact fluorescents to The Home Depot. Looked at tubs and flower pots to cover and seal the chimney. The top of the chimney is bigger than I had thought. Last year I put a drop cloth on it. I suppose a garbage bag would do. The Home Depot still had a lot of Christmas lights left, couldn’t buy any until these silly checks clear.

My Flight Aware receiver and antenna arrives today. I’ve downloaded the operating system and have an idea of how i’m going to mount it and the antenna. Being winter time will make it easier to find a permanent home for it. (Nobody wants to go roaming around in a hot attic.)

Wife cooked Taco’s for dinner and we watched an old movie “Holiday Inn” before retiring to bed.

Performed a couple of long run tests on the rather large 18AH batteries I brought back from Florida. The batteries that were in the stall solar lights are about half gone and need to be tossed. The two new ones we bought for the CPAP UPS last month worked flawlessly.

To Do List:
- Burn the wood. (Sent Doug a message asking his price for the job.)
- Bug treatments. (Ricky will get a chance first.)
- Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
- Cover chimney.
- Ask Lawyers about Gifts.

Tomorrow: Watch the munchkins in the evening.

20 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Still lots to do, have a lunch date with some old friends. Checks arrive Saturday to replenish our accounts.

Narrative: Had my coffee and laid back down for a nap since I stayed up pretty late. Went to visit the guys at work and we had a nice lunch together. Got back home around 13:30 trying to get settled in on what needs to be done and when. Took another nap before writing questions to the lawyers and digging up answers we’ve previously gotten. Worked on cleaning and upgrading the UPS units brought up from Florida most of the night. I’ve somehow gotten a rash on the right side of my neck.

To Do List:
Burn the wood. (Sent Doug a message asking his price for the job.)
Bug treatments. (Ricky will get a chance first.)
Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
Cover chimney.
Ask Lawyers about Gifts.

Project: Qualifying for Medicaid in Florida

Cash and valuables: Maximum of $2,000.00 to qualify for Medicaid.
Land in the trust:
1. The three of family members buy out Mom’s share and her name is taken off the property.
2. The three of them write a Promissory note which provides mom an income even after she is on Medicaid. (Her income must be less than 2,250/Month total and not more than 2,000 in the bank.)
3. Mom “Gifts” her share of the property to her sister for taking care of her.

19 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: 6 Days before Christmas and there is so much to do and we have so little money left, but a check is on the way. Good news is that the rain won’t be here until almost midnight.

Narrative: Spent a great deal of time yesterday on closing remaining issues with mom’s move. Got up with the wife and we sipped our coffee while watching the “Today” show this morning.

Called Windstream Internet service in Florida and cancelled my account with them. Well, sort of, they asked if I knew the new owner and if I was willing to save them the installation cost. I have a feeling the account is still active and running up a bill. (We’ll have to see.)

Went to the storage place and we loaded all the stuff from the Christmas play into the bin. The bin is quit full, there is a lot of stuff of the singles support for the homeless in there.

Went to Lowe’s and got the covers for the faucets to keep them from freezing, took maybe five minutes to install them.

Auntie already called and had the electricity turned off on mom’s old farm that we sold last week.

Purchases: If the stuff really hits the fan and gets bad, we can keep track of the situation for a little while on TV (Until my batteries die.) If the Cell towers are working, then on our phones will have access to the Internet. As a little Doomsday Preparation I also wanted an FM radio as part of my resources. (Since it is likely that at least one radio station would survive the situation.) My last resort source of power is Solar powered micro USB charger that can charge virtually everything these days. I found two radios that have rechargeable (USB) batteries that are reasonably priced on Amazon made by Rolton. One is really just a monaural radio and MP3 player and the other has two stereo speakers and is Bluetooth capable as well. Both of them have built-in flashlights that run all night long.

To Do List:
Burn the wood. (Sent Doug a message asking his price for the job.)
Bug treatments. (Ricky will get a chance first.)
Skunky Acres will take mom’s dogs.
Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
Cover chimney.

Tomorrow: It’s going to rain all day, but I have a lunch date with some old friends.

18 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: We are just beginning to settle in, still there’s a lot that has not been taken care of yet.

Narrative: Got up around 08:00 and had my morning cup of coffee while checking my phone. Put out the two 50W solar panels with the feet on them to see how they are doing. Downloaded all the activity on my credit cards and checking account for spreadsheet of my costs this year.

The two 50W panels are producing about 35W each in the winter sun standing almost upright. (December is the worst month for solar.)

We had to make a run to Marietta to exchange a part for the Wife’s CPAP mask, then we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way back. Boo!

I took a nap and collected the solar panels from the driveway before sitting down at the spreadsheet of our expenses for hours on end. I am up to 22K worth of expenses and I am still in a draft of the spreadsheet.

To Do List:
Burn the wood. (Sent Doug a message asking his price for the job.)
Bug treatments. (Ricky will get a chance first.)
Recover password to E-Mail. (Google flagged the account, Boo)
Call Skunky Acres about dogs. (Yes, they will take mom’s dogs.)
Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
Cancel Windstream Internet service.
Cancel Power company on Farm.
Put Christmas play stuff in storage tomorrow at 10AM.
Mount the faucet freeze covers.
Cover chimney.