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