Blog – Page 57 – Mark's Blog

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.

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:

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.

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:

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.

17 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Tubs and bags from the trip are still littering the living room floor. Mom’s farm electric bills total up to $200 and they are due on the Dec 26th.

Project: Make Mom comfortable
Print mom a copy of the paperwork, DONE!
Where’s the money? (It finally made it!)
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. (Sent E-Mail)
Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
Cancel Windstream Internet service.

Plans: Clear the kitchen table, put the lights on the tree.

Narrative: Had a really good cup of coffee this morning. Made some entries in my blog while sipping on it. Worked on my UPS units for about an hour, I’m letting the DVR and a camera do the hard part of timing how long they run. Kitchen table all cleared off, there are some loose ends like Windstream that I will get to later today. Finished lighting the tree, looks pretty good with three strands of LED lights.

Time for breakfast, think I’ll make some eggs. (I usually make four.) Worked a little while on closing some loops on mom’s needs. Had to clear out some of the pile so K can vacuum the floor under the tree. I do have figure out what I am going to do with these two 50W solar panels. They’d be great for two kids here in Atlanta if I can make a battery pack and inverter box for them. The box I made for the horse stalls worked terrifically, but it’s waay too much of a hazard for little kids with all the exposed wiring. I think the best thing is to retire both of the modified units with exposed circuit boards and repurpose the three units that are intact from Florida like the one below.

APC BN450M UPS with 16AH External Battery underneath

Our rose bushes in the front of the house were over 5ft high, they’ve finally died off so I cut them down today.

Engineering: Try to determine the life left in the batteries of the UPS units that were running the cameras on mom’s farm. The three small BN450M unit’s batteries have been extended from 4AH to 16AH ~160WH and should support a 60W incandescent bulb for about 3 hours. I stopped the test after 2 hours, they all passed. The Grey topped one was almost out of battery.

I have two solar panels that I put onto the lawn if I need a little extra power. The grass can reach over the panel edges reducing the effectiveness of the panel. So, I bought some feet for it.

50W Grape solar panel from The Home Depot

They also might be quite effective preventing damage to the asphalt shingles when I have to put the panels on the roof.

We played Scrabble and then watched Rudolph save Christmas once again before going to bed.

Tomorrow: I never did figure it out.

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? Yes
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? Yes
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:

16 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Living room full of tubs and bags from our Florida trip and our “Pre Lit” Christmas tree has no lights left on it from yesterday’s efforts.

Plans: Church Christmas play is today, then a Christmas party in the afternoon.

Narrative: Well, it’s 9PM and I’m just now getting settled. It has been a long day. I got up around 6AM and made sure I was set for today, then went back to bed until 7 when the alarm went off. My wife made me eggs and toast for breakfast and I was out the door by 7:40 to the school. Set out the cones and the handicapped signs, people were already trying to park in between the buildings. It makes me sad that people try and find the closest spot to the door knowing that we’ve got so many people with handicaps.

Christmas service went better than usual, but it was still a lot of work for everyone. I had two helpers on stage today, that helped immensely. We were done by 12 and I was headed home by 12:30, which is pretty good considering.

Christmas party also went pretty well, it was good to spend time with J&J. There was plenty of food and fresh coffee of plenty! We had fun and played a couple games before heading home. We attempted to take a nap, but we were too restless to stay down more than a half an hour.

My son called from Tampa and he setup a Raspberry Pi to contribute to Flight Aware with a seriously small receiver (USB dongle.) I was able to log into it from Atlanta and see the traffic over his house for about 150 miles in all directions. If that wasn’t amazing enough, it was using a 7″ magnetic mount antenna for a car.

Mom’s money for the farm has not posted and she apparently did not buy groceries today as planned.

Tomorrow: Finish the tree and clear the dining room table so the wife can wrap presents.

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

15 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: In Cordele getting some much needed rest. We put all the UPS units that were supporting the three networks in the car. Five UPS units took up a bit of room, but they did their job really well for about 8 months. Today is the first time mom’s farm has not E-Mailed me a picture of something moving!

Narrative: Woke up and had to clear my sinus so I’m catching up on my Blog. It’s been a whirl wind for the last week and we’re exhausted. We left the hotel about 08:00 and got home around 11 AM in good traveling weather. It took several minutes to figure out how long we were gone, as it turned out we left Atlanta about nine days ago. Unpacked the car and filled up our living room with boxes and bags for the last time.

Repaired one of my failing cameras so I can see the front porch for the first time in months. I rebooted the camera on the side of the house, I’ll have to wait a little while to see if the ferrite core helps keep it alive.

I also checked our finances, we’ve got about $300.00 left on our credit card and there’s a little over $1,000.00 in the checking account. I had hoped to replenish our checking account next week, but it looks like it may be a couple weeks. I have hours of work to do to account for all the expenditures this year moving mom. I thought I’d throw together just the cash contributions to get some money back into our accounts as soon as I can. I sent a list to sis and we’ll send it to mom when we agree.

Our tree has a lot of lights burnt out so we went to Lowes to get some more, they were almost sold out of lights! We did get some LED lights, but it was very slim pickings today. I’ll put them on the tree after updating the blog. I made some Dominican coffee and put some Bailey’s Irish Crème in it. Good Stuff! Most of the lights were attached to the tree with little green clips, they’re not too bad. The green wire ties however are the same color and size as the wire. I did manage to finally cut a wire trying to cut a wire tie, but I am also FINISHED de lighting the tree!

Purchases: Christmas lights and gift tags.

Travel: Cordele to da Homestead in good time.

Repairs: Front lawn camera and replacing the lights on our Christmas Tree.

Noteworthy: I am finally getting the hang of this new editor in Word Press. It doesn’t do the things the same way as the old one did.

Tomorrow: Christmas Play then Christmas Party that I am not sure I am up for.

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: Accomplishments: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Pi News:

14 December 2018, a day from Mark’s past

Status: Buyer is very upset about the tower, it is raining pretty heavily.

Narrative: I got up very early this morning and disconnected the firewall and about everything connected to the modem. Went back to bed for about an hour and we went to breakfast at Grammy’s. Realtor should have arrived at 7:30 but didn’t so I packed the box trailer with the damaged fence from yesterday. We also started packing the car and getting ready for the drive home. After a few discussions about solutions for a tower they decided to buy a telescoping tower for their cell phone booster. We finally closed on the farm around lunch and headed to Cordele GA where our room was waiting.

Tomorrow: Drive to Atlanta and get ready for the Christmas Play.