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.)