Month: August 2020

11 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Monitor Air Conditioning, make adjustments as needed.

  • 07:00 Up Sipp’n on coffee and talking with the wife.
  • 08:00 Watching the air conditioner and the NodeMCU interact
  • 09:00 Reading about Chicago’s riot.
  • 10:00 made a ham sandwich for lunch
  • 11:00 Nap
  • 13:00 reading the news. (Habit forming.)
  • 14:00 Tested new DHT-22’s they didn’t work. Have to send them back.
  • 17:00 Dinner, chicken soup.
  • 18:00 Watched Rogue One with the wife
  • 21:00 Bedtime.

Narrative: Wasted a day.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: Our air conditioner is limping with a oil logged evaporator until we replace the unit in October. The thermostat is also limping along because of leaking batteries. In the afternoons the thermostat is trying to preemptively cool the house 5 degrees below the setpoint. Some of that may be because the battery acid and humidity in the air skews the displayed temp. I added a NodeMCU plus relay onto the thermostat power wire (Red) that can cut off the thermostat when it is misbehaving. I can accurately measure the temperature with two sensors and use that information to make a decision on the relay operation. It also allows me to use two other sensors in the bedrooms as part of the equation.

NodeMCU with two thermometers and a relay to cut the power to the thermostat.

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

A medic, who gave the name Phoenix, confronted an officer she said had maced her and beaten her. She and a friend criticized the police for dispersing the entire crowd when only a few people had broken into PPA. “You are taking the actions of one person and you are punishing a movement,” Phoenix said. “One person did a fire and you think it’s OK to attack everybody here?”

“You’re all practicing group punishment,” the officer replied. “Because a few cops have done wrong things and you think we all need to suffer and be out here 69 days straight.” https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/05/portland-oregon-protests-police/

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations, I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car in anger. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting KRDO Television, an ABC affiliate KTLO/KTLP, Telemundo

March to Police Chief Carmen Best’s home

Roughly 200 individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, descended Saturday evening on Best’s home in Snohomish County, north of Seattle — and they weren’t just demanding Best resign or anything anodyne.

And no, that’s not just a conservative engaging in hyperbole, trying to cast aspersions on peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters don’t, for instance, yell profanity at Best’s neighbors. Nor do they write down the license plate numbers of vehicles in the neighborhood. Or take pictures of the homes. Or ask kids in the neighborhood what school they go to. “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns; I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don’t think it’s us,” protester Nicole Gitaka told KING “Our main objective, the only thing we’re going to do, was march down to Chief Best’s house, make some noise, ask some questions, and go, that’s what was going to happen.” protester Nicole Gitaka said. Seattle Police Chief Begs City Council To ‘Stand Up for What Is Right’ After BLM Storms Her Neighborhood WJ

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 are Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Tuesday.

Retirement: 1st SS check arrives tomorrow.

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Two fans for mom should be delivered tomorrow.

Repairs: None.

Religion: Fasting all day from the news and praying for the obvious sins of Americans on Wednesday.

Family News: Mom’s in a rehab center, hopefully she’ll get home soon.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Taxes: I need to look into increasing my payments to State of Georgia.

Pi News: I’ve been working with “Home Assistant” software, the Pi’s themselves are in good shape.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Accomplishments: None.

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

10 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Monitor Air Conditioning, clean up messes from last night.

  • 00:00 Programming Internet outlet to keep the thermostat from running away.
  • 01:00 Decided against timers, building a NodeMCU with a relay.
  • 03:00 Finally figured out how to program Home Assistant to use a time.
  • 04:00 Decided against timed switching, moving toward temperature switching.
  • 05:00 Temperature switching all set, headed to bed.
  • 07:00 Up Sipp’n on coffee and talking with the wife.
  • 08:00 Checking on the NodeMCU and the Home Assistant software.
  • 09:00 Helping with groceries
  • 10:00 Helping with car registrations.
  • 11:00 Reading about Portland protests, sheesh.
  • 12:00 Blogging
  • 13:00 Time for a nap.
  • 14:00 DHT22 order arrived, none of them worked. Wrote seller message.
  • 15:00 Checking on the air conditioner, been working hard.
  • 16:00 Helping prepare din din
  • 17:00 Dinner from a Instant Pot.
  • 18:00 Reading the news, Chicago…. WOW.
  • 19:00 Blogging while watching the Air Conditioner.
  • 20:00 Checking on Portland…
  • 21:00 Bed

Narrative: Long night last night…

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: Our air conditioner is limping with a oil logged evaporator until we replace the unit in October. The thermostat is also limping along because of leaking batteries. In the afternoons the thermostat is trying to preemptively cool the house 5 degrees below the setpoint. Some of that may be because the battery acid and humidity in the air skews the displayed temp. I added a NodeMCU plus relay onto the thermostat power wire (Red) that can cut off the thermostat when it is misbehaving. I can accurately measure the temperature with two sensors and use that information to make a decision on the relay operation. It also allows me to use two other sensors in the bedrooms as part of the equation.

NodeMCU with two thermometers and a relay to cut the power to the thermostat.
Documented today’s fight with the Thermostat

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

A medic, who gave the name Phoenix, confronted an officer she said had maced her and beaten her. She and a friend criticized the police for dispersing the entire crowd when only a few people had broken into PPA. “You are taking the actions of one person and you are punishing a movement,” Phoenix said. “One person did a fire and you think it’s OK to attack everybody here?”

“You’re all practicing group punishment,” the officer replied. “Because a few cops have done wrong things and you think we all need to suffer and be out here 69 days straight.” https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/05/portland-oregon-protests-police/

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations, I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car in anger. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting KRDO Television, an ABC affiliate KTLO/KTLP, Telemundo

March to Police Chief Carmen Best’s home

Roughly 200 individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, descended Saturday evening on Best’s home in Snohomish County, north of Seattle — and they weren’t just demanding Best resign or anything anodyne.

And no, that’s not just a conservative engaging in hyperbole, trying to cast aspersions on peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters don’t, for instance, yell profanity at Best’s neighbors. Nor do they write down the license plate numbers of vehicles in the neighborhood. Or take pictures of the homes. Or ask kids in the neighborhood what school they go to. “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns; I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don’t think it’s us,” protester Nicole Gitaka told KING “Our main objective, the only thing we’re going to do, was march down to Chief Best’s house, make some noise, ask some questions, and go, that’s what was going to happen.” protester Nicole Gitaka said. Seattle Police Chief Begs City Council To ‘Stand Up for What Is Right’ After BLM Storms Her Neighborhood WJ

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 are Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Tuesday.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two more days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles and Micro SD cards for my phone which should be delivered today.

Repairs: None.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in a rehab center, hopefully she’ll get home soon.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Throat: I have had a heavy thick flem for a couple years, I don’t cough per-se but I forcibly exhale to clear my throat pretty often. (Like in the movie Destination Wedding.) It has been green on occasion, but not normally. I have not figured out whether it is from my nasal cavity (Eyes) or my esophagus.
  • Eyes: At the end of the day my eyes are so dry that it is difficult to sleep. The mucus that runs down my sinus makes the back of my throat sticky. The stickiness then prevents me from breathing OUT my nose. My eyes are so uncomfortable by the end of the day I cannot keep them open.
  • Feet: Within the last several week the soles of my feet feel spongy, it’s the weirdest feeling like I am walking on a sponge with the loss of sensitivity of the skin that’s in contact with the floor.
  • Prostate: I am getting warning signs that my prostate is in difficulty. The PSA levels were above normal on my checkup last month. (Previous year was normal.) Over the last three years I have had intermittent difficulty urinating which has been tied to increased blood pressure making the episodes temporary. Over time I realized that romantic encounters with the wife significantly reduce these urinating difficulties. Last week there was a very slight pressure between my buttocks that felt like I was carrying a sponge underneath my tailbone. Today I’ve had an uncomfortable pressure like I have to defecate, but there’s nothing when I try. There is a very minor pain like I’ve fallen on my buttocks right at my tailbone. (Which I’ve done several times.)

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Taxes: I need to look into increasing my payments to State of Georgia.

Pi News: I’ve been working with “Home Assistant” software, the Pi’s themselves are in good shape.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Accomplishments: None.

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

9 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Church Today

  • 07:00 Up Sipp’n on coffee and talking with the wife.
  • 08:00 Checking on the Air Conditioning
  • 09:00 Shower and get ready for church
  • 10:00 Services
  • 11:00 Checking on solar power handoff
  • 12:00 Blogging
  • 13:00 Working on Air conditioning thermostat overcooling, spent most of the evening on it.
  • 14:00 Ordered a Instacart delivery from Kroger
  • 16:00 The timed switching of the thermostat is not enough.
  • 17:00 Dinner
  • 21:00 Rebuilding Home Assistant
  • 22:00 Rebuilding NodeMCU’s for the new Home Assistant image.
  • 23:00 Programmed Internet switched outlet to cut power to Air Handler.
  • TOmorrow….

Narrative: Long night last night… I’ll fill this in on Monday

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: Our air conditioner is limping with a oil logged evaporator until we replace the unit in October. The thermostat is also limping along because of leaking batteries. In the afternoons the thermostat is trying to preemptively cool the house 5 degrees below the setpoint. Some of that may be because the battery acid and humidity in the air skews the displayed temp. I added a NodeMCU plus relay onto the thermostat power wire (Red) that can cut off the thermostat at timed intervals.

NodeMCU with two thermometers and a relay to cut the power to the thermostat.

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

A medic, who gave the name Phoenix, confronted an officer she said had maced her and beaten her. She and a friend criticized the police for dispersing the entire crowd when only a few people had broken into PPA. “You are taking the actions of one person and you are punishing a movement,” Phoenix said. “One person did a fire and you think it’s OK to attack everybody here?”

“You’re all practicing group punishment,” the officer replied. “Because a few cops have done wrong things and you think we all need to suffer and be out here 69 days straight.” https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/05/portland-oregon-protests-police/

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations, I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car in anger. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting KRDO Television, an ABC affiliate KTLO/KTLP, Telemundo

March to Police Chief Carmen Best’s home

Roughly 200 individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, descended Saturday evening on Best’s home in Snohomish County, north of Seattle — and they weren’t just demanding Best resign or anything anodyne.

And no, that’s not just a conservative engaging in hyperbole, trying to cast aspersions on peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters don’t, for instance, yell profanity at Best’s neighbors. Nor do they write down the license plate numbers of vehicles in the neighborhood. Or take pictures of the homes. Or ask kids in the neighborhood what school they go to. “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns; I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don’t think it’s us,” protester Nicole Gitaka told KING “Our main objective, the only thing we’re going to do, was march down to Chief Best’s house, make some noise, ask some questions, and go, that’s what was going to happen.” protester Nicole Gitaka said. Seattle Police Chief Begs City Council To ‘Stand Up for What Is Right’ After BLM Storms Her Neighborhood WJ

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 are Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Monday.

Retirement: 1st SS check Wednesday.

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage handle.

Repairs: None.

Religion: Wednesday is a day of fasting and prayer.

Family News: Mom’s in a rehab center, hopefully she’ll get home soon.

Arts: No movies, played scrabble.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Taxes: I need to look into increasing my payments to State of Georgia.

Pi News: I’ve been working with “Home Assistant” software, the Pi’s themselves are in good shape.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Accomplishments: None.

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

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Throat: I have had a heavy thick flem for a couple years, I don’t cough per-se but I forcibly exhale to clear my throat pretty often. (Like in the movie Destination Wedding.) It has been green on occasion, but not normally. I have not figured out whether it is from my nasal cavity (Eyes) or my esophagus.
  • Eyes: At the end of the day my eyes are so dry that it is difficult to sleep. The mucus that runs down my sinus makes the back of my throat sticky. The stickiness then prevents me from breathing OUT my nose. My eyes are so uncomfortable by the end of the day I cannot keep them open.
  • Feet: Within the last several week the soles of my feet feel spongy, it’s the weirdest feeling like I am walking on a sponge with the loss of sensitivity of the skin that’s in contact with the floor.
  • Prostate: I am getting warning signs that my prostate is in difficulty. The PSA levels were above normal on my checkup last month. (Previous year was normal.) Over the last three years I have had intermittent difficulty urinating which has been tied to increased blood pressure making the episodes temporary. Over time I realized that romantic encounters with the wife significantly reduce these urinating difficulties. Last week there was a very slight pressure between my buttocks that felt like I was carrying a sponge underneath my tailbone. Today I’ve had an uncomfortable pressure like I have to defecate, but there’s nothing when I try. There is a very minor pain like I’ve fallen on my buttocks right at my tailbone. (Which I’ve done several times.)

8 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Drive to the Doc and buy a pillow.

  • 07:00 Up Sipp’n on coffee and talking with the wife.
  • 08:00 Changed the AC to low speed to lower the humidity.
  • 09:00 Attic, removed the fan from the Den duct.
  • 10:00 Looking over the NodeMCU readings.
  • 12:00 Delivered a meal and visited the post office.
  • 13:00 Connecting the Inverter remote on switch to relay #1.
  • 14:00 Pulled some wire out of an extension cord to make the connection.
  • 15:00 Programmed Home Assistant to turn off the Garage Inverter if necessary.
  • 16:00 Reading the news. (Laughable.)
  • 17:00 Dinner, Pot Pie!
  • 18:00 Upgrading Home Assistant software.

Narrative: Out for a drive today.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: I added a voltage divider so that I could measure up to 48V and not reach the 3.3V maximum on the A/D converter pins. Today I added an 8.2K resistor 82K+8K+10K/10K to make the voltage divider a tenth of the input. The ratio ended being 1/10th or 1/20th (100K+) of the input voltage . To protect the A/D converter I used coils and a capacitor to absorb the 3uS transients when the house gets struck by lightning. (Like every year…) The connections to the NodeMCU and the voltage divider were 24AWG CAT-5 wire for simplicity. Breadboards require a solid wire for a good contract. Grounding one side of the twisted pair keeps the inductance down and flipping the pairs so that the solid color carried the signal made it easier to trace them. (All the “Slate” wires were essentially grounded. The 28AWG wire on the capacitors and the coils were a challenge. I could not have done this with a used board that had 18AWG wires stuffed in them at any point. The end game is to have a PCB manufactured.

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

A medic, who gave the name Phoenix, confronted an officer she said had maced her and beaten her. She and a friend criticized the police for dispersing the entire crowd when only a few people had broken into PPA. “You are taking the actions of one person and you are punishing a movement,” Phoenix said. “One person did a fire and you think it’s OK to attack everybody here?”

“You’re all practicing group punishment,” the officer replied. “Because a few cops have done wrong things and you think we all need to suffer and be out here 69 days straight.” https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/05/portland-oregon-protests-police/

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations, I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car in anger. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting KRDO Television, an ABC affiliate KTLO/KTLP, Telemundo

March to Police Chief Carmen Best’s home

Roughly 200 individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, descended Saturday evening on Best’s home in Snohomish County, north of Seattle — and they weren’t just demanding Best resign or anything anodyne.

And no, that’s not just a conservative engaging in hyperbole, trying to cast aspersions on peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters don’t, for instance, yell profanity at Best’s neighbors. Nor do they write down the license plate numbers of vehicles in the neighborhood. Or take pictures of the homes. Or ask kids in the neighborhood what school they go to. “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns; I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don’t think it’s us,” protester Nicole Gitaka told KING “Our main objective, the only thing we’re going to do, was march down to Chief Best’s house, make some noise, ask some questions, and go, that’s what was going to happen.” protester Nicole Gitaka said. Seattle Police Chief Begs City Council To ‘Stand Up for What Is Right’ After BLM Storms Her Neighborhood WJ

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 are Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Saturday.

Retirement: 1st SS check in five days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles and Micro SD cards for my phone which should be delivered today.

Repairs: None.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in a rehab center, hopefully she’ll get home soon.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Throat: I have had a heavy thick flem for a couple years, I don’t cough per-se but I forcibly exhale to clear my throat pretty often. (Like in the movie Destination Wedding.) It has been green on occasion, but not normally. I have not figured out whether it is from my nasal cavity (Eyes) or my esophagus.
  • Eyes: At the end of the day my eyes are so dry that it is difficult to sleep. The mucus that runs down my sinus makes the back of my throat sticky. The stickiness then prevents me from breathing OUT my nose. My eyes are so uncomfortable by the end of the day I cannot keep them open.
  • Feet: Within the last several week the soles of my feet feel spongy, it’s the weirdest feeling like I am walking on a sponge with the loss of sensitivity of the skin that’s in contact with the floor.
  • Prostate: I am getting warning signs that my prostate is in difficulty. The PSA levels were above normal on my checkup last month. (Previous year was normal.) Over the last three years I have had intermittent difficulty urinating which has been tied to increased blood pressure making the episodes temporary. Over time I realized that romantic encounters with the wife significantly reduce these urinating difficulties. Last week there was a very slight pressure between my buttocks that felt like I was carrying a sponge underneath my tailbone. Today I’ve had an uncomfortable pressure like I have to defecate, but there’s nothing when I try. There is a very minor pain like I’ve fallen on my buttocks right at my tailbone. (Which I’ve done several times.)

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Taxes: I need to look into increasing my payments to State of Georgia.

Pi News: I’ve been working with “Home Assistant” software, the Pi’s themselves are in good shape.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Accomplishments: None.

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

7 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Drive to the Doc and buy a pillow.

  • 07:00 Up Sipp’n on coffee and talking with the wife.
  • 08:00 Walk down the street and back
  • 09:00 Extend the range of the A/D converter on the NodeMCU in the garage.
  • 10:00 Off to the liquor store and the doctors office for a pillow.
  • 11:00 Home
  • 12:00 Nap
  • 14:00 Blogging.
  • 15:00 Reading about the interaction with BLM and a politician at their home.
  • 17:00 Dinner
  • 18:00 Reading more about BLM visiting homes late at night.

Narrative: Out for a drive today.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: I added a voltage divider so that I could measure up to 48V and not reach the 3.3V maximum on the A/D converter pins. Today I added an 8.2K resistor 82K+8K+10K/10K to make the voltage divider a tenth of the input. The ratio ended being 1/10th or 1/20th (100K+) of the input voltage . To protect the A/D converter I used coils and a capacitor to absorb the 3uS transients when the house gets struck by lightning. (Like every year…)

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations, I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car in anger. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting KRDO Television, an ABC affiliate KTLO/KTLP, Telemundo

March to Police Chief Carmen Best’s home

Roughly 200 individuals, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, descended Saturday evening on Best’s home in Snohomish County, north of Seattle — and they weren’t just demanding Best resign or anything anodyne.

And no, that’s not just a conservative engaging in hyperbole, trying to cast aspersions on peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters don’t, for instance, yell profanity at Best’s neighbors. Nor do they write down the license plate numbers of vehicles in the neighborhood. Or take pictures of the homes. Or ask kids in the neighborhood what school they go to. “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns; I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don’t think it’s us,” protester Nicole Gitaka told KING “Our main objective, the only thing we’re going to do, was march down to Chief Best’s house, make some noise, ask some questions, and go, that’s what was going to happen.” protester Nicole Gitaka said. Seattle Police Chief Begs City Council To ‘Stand Up for What Is Right’ After BLM Storms Her Neighborhood WJ

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 is Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Saturday.

Retirement: 1st SS check in five days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles and Micro SD cards for my phone which should be delivered today.

Repairs: None.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in a rehab center, hopefully she’ll get home soon.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Throat: I have had a heavy thick flem for a couple years, I don’t cough per-se but I forcibly exhale to clear my throat pretty often. (Like in the movie Destination Wedding.) It has been green on occasion, but not normally. I have not figured out whether it is from my nasal cavity (Eyes) or my esophagus.
  • Eyes: At the end of the day my eyes are so dry that it is difficult to sleep. The mucus that runs down my sinus makes the back of my throat sticky. The stickiness then prevents me from breathing OUT my nose. My eyes are so uncomfortable by the end of the day I cannot keep them open.
  • Feet: Within the last several week the soles of my feet feel spongy, it’s the weirdest feeling like I am walking on a sponge with the loss of sensitivity of the skin that’s in contact with the floor.
  • Prostate: I am getting warning signs that my prostate is in difficulty. The PSA levels were above normal on my checkup last month. (Previous year was normal.) Over the last three years I have had intermittent difficulty urinating which has been tied to increased blood pressure making the episodes temporary. Over time I realized that romantic encounters with the wife significantly reduce these urinating difficulties. Last week there was a very slight pressure between my buttocks that felt like I was carrying a sponge underneath my tailbone. Today I’ve had an uncomfortable pressure like I have to defecate, but there’s nothing when I try. There is a very minor pain like I’ve fallen on my buttocks right at my tailbone. (Which I’ve done several times.)

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Taxes: I need to look into increasing my payments to State of Georgia.

Pi News: I’ve been working with “Home Assistant” software, the Pi’s themselves are in good shape.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Accomplishments: None.

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

6 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Keep working on the house and monitoring the Air Conditioner.

  • 07:00 Up having a cup of coffee and chatt’n with the wife.
  • 08:00 making plans
  • 09:00 shopping for 36V dummy loads.
  • 10:00 putting wires on a IR Illuminator to replace the one I burnt up.
  • 11:00 looking for thermostat cable that Jim gave us 10 years ago.
  • 12:00 Nap
  • 14:00 Build A/D cables for garage NodeMCU
  • 17:00 Din Din
  • 18:00 A/D converter is on the two 24V power supplies that run the bench Inverter.
  • 19:00 Changed it to a power supply that I can adjust the voltage.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. We are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: I added a voltage divider so that I could measure up to 48V and not reach the 3.3V maximum on the A/D converter pins. The ratio ended being 0.05204 per Volt which would be 2.914V with an input of 56 Volts.

(100K+82K+10K/10K)

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

March to officer, Sgt. Alan Van’t Land’s home.

I watched a 40 minute video of the march, as long as they kept moving it would have been ok. What was not ok was when they blocked the street and cars couldn’t get through which raised tempers. To make things even happier there were armed protesters walking the street with them so they could prevent police/home owner’s interaction. Given how often these protests have gotten out of hand AND the many examples of impunity given to these demonstrations I was very uneasy just watching the video. One last tidbit that was threatening was the protestors confronting the drivers trying to get through to their homes. No mask, yelling profanity at the driver within a foot of his face and the disunity of some of the members banging their hands on the hood of the car. (Exposing risks that things are getting out of hand.) Protesters occupy CSPD officer’s neighborhood on anniversary of De’Von Bailey shooting

Feelings: 50% of today’s youth under the age of 30 is Black, we are in for a major change with all these voters in bed with Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Tomorrow: Wednesday, mow the back yard and church service.

Retirement: 1st SS check in seven days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles.

Repairs: Replaced the headlamps on the Blue Ford Focus this morning. (Looks remarkably better.)

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Slept pretty good last night until I forgot to turn on my CPAP.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Pi News:

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Pi News: Upgraded the Home Assistant software.

Accomplishments:

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

5 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

  • 07:00 Up drinking coffee and making plans.
  • 07:30 Time to walk around the block.
  • 09:00 Blogging, checking the AC unit and reading the news.
  • 10:00 The handle for the garage arrived, 30 minutes and it’s all fixed.
  • 11:00 Located a relay module and troubleshooting why it doesn’t work NodeMCU.
  • 12:00 Nap
  • 13:00 Lunch
  • 14:00 Started car #2 but forgot and left it running a couple hours, LOL.
  • 15:00 Soldering a wire onto four NodeMCU boards so I can use them with relays.
  • 16:00 Dinner
  • 17:00 Tested relay modules and they work (Finally!)
  • 18:00 Getting ready for church
  • 20:00 cleaning up and getting ready for bed.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

As you can see from the above picture the NodeMCU V2 fits pretty nicely on a common breadboard leaving one row of pins on each side to attach wires to.

The V3 takes up the entire width of the breadboard making it necessary to connect to the pins directly. Also, it turns out, that the V3 inserted two diodes between the USB 5V and the VIN pin to it’s internal 3V regulator. Those diodes prevent me from using the VIN pin as a 5V power out pin. (Which I had done on the V2)

The jumper wire I added still leaves the reverse voltage protection of the two diodes to the internal power supply. It adds the ability to use the VIN pin as a 5V power OUT pin like the V2 does.

Now that I have 5V available from the VIN pin I can drive 125VAC @ 15A relay modules directly from the NodeMCU and control them from the Home Assistant software.

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Wednesday, mow the back yard and church service.

Retirement: 1st SS check in seven days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles.

Repairs: Replaced the headlamps on the Blue Ford Focus this morning. (Looks remarkably better.)

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Pi News:

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Slept pretty good last night until I forgot to turn on my CPAP.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Pi News: Upgraded the Home Assistant software.

Accomplishments:

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

4 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

  • 07:00 Up drinking coffee and making plans.
  • 08:00 Three hard boiled eggs for breakfast.
  • 09:00 Replaced car headlamps while it was still cool outside.
  • 11:00 Cleaned up boxes from headlamps.
  • 12:00 Nap
  • 13:00 Research and filling out my ballet.
  • 14:00 Making plans.
  • 16:00 Mow back yard
  • 17:00 Shower and blogging.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

Replaced weathered car headlamps

It went really well, I only needed a screwdriver and a 10MM socket. The left lamp housing was broken so I bought two new ones a LONG time ago.

NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

Garage NodeMCU
Closeup of NodeMCU ESP8266

Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer

Pi News: I have three Raspi’s that are “PiHoles to protect DNS calls from our network. I have four Raspi’s that run the Home Automation. I have two Raspi’s that receive the ADSB transmissions from the airplanes near the homestead. One Raspi is being used to browse the web when I am digging for something using search engines, it protects the PC from “Drive By” malware infections.

The 3B draws considerably less power than the 4B which almost has to have some form of additional cooling or it will throttle the CPU.

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Articles about our current racial climate

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Wednesday, mow the back yard and church service.

Retirement: 1st SS check in seven days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles.

Repairs: Replaced the headlamps on the Blue Ford Focus this morning. (Looks remarkably better.)

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: No movies yet.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Slept pretty good last night until I forgot to turn on my CPAP.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Pi News: Upgraded the Home Assistant software.

Accomplishments:

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

3 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

  • 05:00 Up checking the Tropical Storm headed toward mom.
  • 06:00 Coffee and morning meeting.
  • 07:00 Fixing Tricare login
  • 08:00 Generator run
  • 11:00 Generator wrap-up, two are cool and working on the third.
  • 12:00 Generator run complete, getting organized.
  • 13:00 Nap
  • 15:00 Storm passing over us, checking thermometer placed on Bench Diodes
  • 16:00 Troubleshot and fixed bench diode thermometer
  • 17:00 Dinner
  • 18:00 Ordering a part for our screen door and Skimming movies
  • 19:00 Remove old DC light fixtures on porch.
  • 20:00 Order garage door parts with Instant Pot parts.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

Ran three of my five generators today. I warmed them for a minute or two then ran them at 1/2 power (250W) for about two hours. I then pushed them to 100% power for several minutes. Cool off is run them with the cover off and a fan blowing air into the cowling. *The alternator on the end and muffler seem to be the hottest parts of the engine. By far though, the alternator takes the longest to cool down.

NodeMCU

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

Garage NodeMCU

Pi News: I have three Raspi’s that are “PiHoles to protect DNS calls from our network. I have four Raspi’s that run the Home Automation. I have two Raspi’s that receive the ADSB transmissions from the airplanes near the homestead. One Raspi is being used to browse the web when I am digging for something using search engines, it protects the PC from “Drive By” malware infections.

The 3B draws considerably less power than the 4B which almost has to have some form of additional cooling or it will throttle the CPU.

Homestead Solar Assist

Solar Assist Status: I am back to one solar charge controller with the three banks of two panels tied in parallel. I am surprised how much intermittent clouds affect the power supplied by my panels.

Homestead Battery Banks

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Home Air Conditioner

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September. I’ve adjusted the fan to run slightly faster to try and keep the ice off of the evaporator.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

Homestead Refrigerator: The condenser fan squealed a month or so ago so I ordered a new motor which arrived about a week ago. I currently have a small fan pushing air onto the condenser coils of the fridge fan locks up.

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, mow the back yard.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light today.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched Rear Window with the wife.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Slept pretty good last night until I laid on my back, woke up startled.
  • I am a bit sleepy this morning.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries:

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

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

2 August 2020, a day in progress

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

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

  • 05:00 Up checking the Tropical Storm headed toward mom.
  • 06:00 Nap
  • 07:00 Breakfast with Coffee
  • 08:00 Chatt’n with the wife
  • 09:00 Called mom, hurricane is still to the south.
  • 10:00 Good church service today.
  • 11:00 Checking my solar controllers and inverters.
  • 12:00 Blogging, then a nap.
  • 13:00 Blogging
  • 14:00 Helped make dinner
  • 18:00 Thawing air conditioner and moving thermostat off the wall.
  • 21:00 Bed Time

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

NodeMCU

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

Homestead Solar Assist

Solar Assist Status: I am back to one solar charge controller with the three banks of two panels tied in parallel. I am surprised how much intermittent clouds affect the power supplied by my panels.

Homestead Battery Banks

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

Homestead DC Power

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

Home Air Conditioner

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September. I’ve adjusted the fan to run slightly faster to try and keep the ice off of the evaporator.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

Homestead Refrigerator: The condenser fan squealed a month or so ago so I ordered a new motor which arrived about a week ago. I currently have a small fan pushing air onto the condenser coils of the fridge fan locks up.

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, mow the back yard.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light today.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched Rear Window with the wife.

  • Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
  • Slept pretty good last night until I laid on my back, woke up startled.
  • I am a bit sleepy this morning.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries:

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

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