Week of 15 Jan 2024

1. Up by 08:00, Nap at 11:00, Lunch at 1:30, Bed at 9:30
2. Clean CPAP hoses.
3. Buy new smoke/fire/CO detectors
4. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
5. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
6. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
   Get battery packs from storage.
   Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
7. Charge and update tablets x 6
8. Ham Radio Deluxe software.
9. Check on letters and give gifts to CF.
10. Get translation transmitter.
11. Recycle Batteries #3
12. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
13. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
14. Get exercise pads from storage.
15. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
16. Fix Jacoby account
17. TurboTax 2024.
18. Make Dentist Appointment
19. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
20. Buy air filters 16x25x1
21. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
22. Change owner of storage
23. Fill batteries with water
24. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
25. Wells Fargo Advisors
26. Good Will
27. Hand truck
28. Fertilize the lawn
29. Buy a water hose
30. Repair radiator on Blue.
31. Repair the eves on our home
32. Replace back door of garage
33. Repair window in garage
34. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
35. Repair the brakes on Blue.
36. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
37. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
38. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
39. File estate taxes.
40. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

My wife and I are still getting organized to make better use of our time. Writing things down has become a necessity! At present, our 80’s Day Timers are filling the need to document our paths.

Spent a good part of the morning changing passwords. I need to look into password managers for Windows and our Android phones since I have 60 of them that need to be updated.

Added two more batteries to the refrigerator UPS. It now has 3500WH of battery that should be enough to keep it running for 36 hours. There’s a 26AWG jumper wire across the third 35AH battery pair to allow them to equalize before putting the 10A fuses on them. I may also connect the Solar Charge Controller onto the batteries so that they can last as long as possible. (Maybe put a relay between the SCC and the batteries to only connect the SCC when the power is off.) Planning on connecting the SCC to the internal battery connectors to prevent unevenly charging the individual battery pairs.

Served the second meal using the vacuum insulated serving bowl. The vegetables were hot, but we should have put the butter in first. LOL We also need to warm the plates and heavy serving bowls in the warmer drawer while we are cooking.

Filled the pair of new wet cell deep cycle batteries on the house 2.5KW UPS. (The water was down to the plates which is bad.) I used a gallon of distilled water between two new batteries. (I am now just a little concerned about the water levels on the two older batteries.)

I kinda burnt the heel of my hands with battery acid. (They were new sealed batteries; I hadn’t thought of them having acid on them.) Next time I am wearing GLOVES!

Watched the beginning of Hallmark’s Sand Dollar cove for our evening entertainment.

Tuesday “Prepare for COLD”

It was a LONG day preparing for the temperatures in the teens tonight. I’ve been neglecting my deep cycle batteries in the garage, the new pair needed a gallon of water! The old ones didn’t need much water, which seems strange. I got rid of a set of batteries because they needed a lot of water. I am now wondering if those batteries are the ones needing replacing?

Covered our water meter to keep it from freezing, it will be in the teens several times over the next week. I also covered our pressure regulator next to the house.

I plugged the cave vent so preserve the heat for the central part of the house. I’ll set it to gas heat once the temperature drops below 30 degrees. I changed out one of the personal heaters for the bedroom to give it an extra 50 watts.

I also put the heater I removed in the den to keep that small room warm. Although it still got pretty cold by morning.

Watched “The Secret” Dare to Dream again for our evening’s entertainment and went to bed.

Wednesday

We switch to gas overnight when the outside temperature got below freezing. The heat pump will automatically switchover when the compressor can’t keep the house warm. It’s a toss whether the electric bill or gas bill is cheaper at 25 degrees.

We worked on the house for a little while, the house ended up being pretty cool by morning. The house thermostat is set at 68 at night. The bedroom did stay above 70 degrees with the four personal space heaters. The humidifier kept it quite comfy. (Not to mention our two throws over us.)

I spend about an hour a day catching up on the news. I also spent about 30 minutes reading my HAM General License book. Called Uncle Paul and we talked about our radios some. Cousin Patty sent some pictures of Elgin’s snowfall.

We worked on our January bills, PO Box, Vehicle Insurance, Homeowners, Balloon policy and our termite contract all renew at the beginning of the year. (All the insurances are auto pay to our CC.)

We have church services on Wednesday evening. We finished watching Sand Dollar cove for our evening entertainment.

Thursday

Slept in and worked on this blog to get caught up. Enjoyed a cup of Dominican coffee with Baileys Irish Cream every morning.

Helped the wife with organizing her routines book, we typed several pages and trimmed – punched them for the small day timers this morning.

Moved the back yard solar panels to the van to charge its battery. The four 10W panels in parallel produce about an amp of current most of the day. Which works pretty well keeping the car battery charged. (They were on the blue Focus.)

Had a good nap, catching up on the news while I get organized.

Drove to Public Storage to pick up the translation transmitter. There was a bunch of stuff dropped off and filled the storage bin. It took several messages to try and figure out who was there. We’ll bring the amplifier and transmitter to church on Sunday.

It was in the 40’s tonight so I left the heat pump engaged to take care of the heat tonight. It’s going to be bitter cold again tomorrow though.

Watched another hallmark movie last night “As Luck would Have It.”

Friday

Had pancakes for breakfast, hadn’t done that in a while. Put my boots on the boot dryer to air them out while I wear the newer pair.

It’s 41 degrees outside, and that’s as warm as it is going to get today. 18 is predicted for tonight. I set the thermostat at 74 to warm the home.

Our Electric bill was $133 last month, that’s the first bill after dropping the solar cooperative from our account. It’s also the first month that was less than $150 in over a year. The solar cooperative is $23 per 225KW block and we had three blocks. In the 15 months we had it, we made/broke even maybe three times. Most of the time we only made $53 of the $69 per month we paid into it. The price point of $23 per block is just not a fair price, it needs to be more like $18 per 200KW to break even. (Even less to be fair.) According to their website “The program is designed to allow you to support solar through your monthly subscription, and is not intended to result in energy savings.” This economy is not supportive of giving our electric company another $30 a month just to be generous.

Worked on Ham Radio Deluxe software defining what frequencies I can transmit using my Technician License. I had to look up what ITU Region the USA is, #2…

I changed my PW on NORD VPN and then bricked my router troubleshooting the VPN. Ooops! Like DUMB!
Back to square 1, load current firmware…. Geez
2. Change the LAN address…
3. Turn off the Wireless
4. Load VPN credentials
5. Start the VPN client service.
The VPN router is back online. (That’s what supports my radio software/hardware.)

Charged Black and Blue tablets today. Teal and the two small ones were not charged.

Cleaned off the kitchen table, it had gotten to be a pile of half-finished projects.

Recycled some of the Wife’s school books from the 80’s, I got to throw it in! I did put a hard cover book in the recycling and yup I wasn’t supposed to! ARG!

Spent a good part of the evening cleaning CPAP hoses, it was more difficult than normal to get them dry for some reason. We have about 20 hoses and we change them out every week and clean them every two months. We found out tonight they have date codes on one end. We tossed the old ones from 2018-19 for wear and tear. I looked on our contracted supplier’s webpages and there is no cleaning process for the hose. (I assume we’re just supposed to toss them every three months.) There was nothing wrong with the hoses from 2018 that I could tell.

Watched another hallmark movie before bed. It’s going to get down in the teens tonight.

I have blocked off my cave heater vent and we’re under heated throws on the bed tonight. Mom runs hers on low and that’s usually plenty warm.

The two throws in the den run on 36VDC, which puts out about 12W of heat into the 100 Ohms of wire in the blanket. (It’s a 100W blanket.) In the summer 28 Volts is plenty and that’s about 8W of heat. They are perfectly safe to leave powered since they generate so little heat. Even when folded up in a pile they don’t really get hot. We can easily run 12W throws for hours on battery if we have to use them to stay warm.

Saturday

We both need to consume a fair amount of fiber each day or else we get chronic constipation. The solution thus far is to have a bowl of mini wheats within reach and munch on them throughout the day.

When we go grocery shopping we take these insulated bags with us. The biggest bag (Blue) is used for dairy since milk takes up a lot of space. The green bag is for meat and is plastic lined. The two black bags are for frozen vegetables and/or frozen fish.

I’m having trouble sleeping flat because of my Gerd and I’m struggling with my wedge because my head slides down to my chest cutting off my air.
Sleeping in the chair I can keep my head in an appropriate position up against the center console. (The heated throw makes the night very comfy)

Packed the church equipment for tomorrow. It’s going to be bone chilling cold!
The house is configured for the cold weather again tonight.

I still feel like I am walking in deep water where I have no idea of what I am walking into.

Sunday

Drove to the church service location at 7:30 and set out the handicapped cones and signs. There are only two handicapped parking spaces. These cones give them nine more spaces that can also be used for people with temporary walking disabilities since they are not officially marked. The young members who get there early take these parking spaces.)

Setup the stage, nine microphones and a keyboard. Drums and guitars are setup by the players of those instruments.

This is their $6,000.00 Yamaha TF5 board. It digitizes all 32 inputs and them processes them like an analog board would. (Analog fader controls) There’s four 250W amplifiers on the output of the board. We added a UHF wireless microphone shown above and a headphone amplifier just out of frame on the left. https://www.youtube.com/live/YSZywPS7NpQ?

I was exhausted when I got home, we took a short nap and we went to Longhorn’s for dinner. Chicken on top of a strawberry salad with a Crown and coke!

Back home listening to 80’s videos and writing in my blog.