August 30th

I got up early, and went over to the airfield and took the plane to first Woodland and then Sutter, a ~80nm round trip that took me about 2.25 hours.

When I got home, we went and got lunch before we watched the MotoGP race from Silverstone, despite knowing who the winner was (thanks, Facebook news feed).

August 29th

I was aiming to do a cross country flight today, but getting woken up by the work phone at 02:30 and 06:00 sort of screwed that up.  It was then pretty windy, so I went out and got oil, then changed the oil and filter in the Jeep.

Vic's discovered her 30th high school reunion, so we went out looking at dresses and stuff.  Luckily I'm busy that weekend, so I don't need to be dressed up.

In the evening we went over to Gwen's, so Vic could drop off a couple of guinea pig fosters, and I could install their new printer.

August 28th

I was planning to do a cross country flight this weekend, so I went over to the airfield and filled the plane to the brim, and strapped a 5 gallon fuel tank in the passenger seat.  All set :o)

When I got home, we watched "Ex Machina", which was a pretty intense movie.

August 27th

I've been having problems with the brake lights on the van, and today it looked like there's a break in the line from the switches, so I just threw a new bit of wire in there (I'm tired of screwing with this).

I went over to the airfield and did 50 minutes with Mike, and got signed off to do the cross country and written tests.  It was bloody hot out, so the plane didn't fly as well as I'd hope, but it should start cooling down soon.

August 26th

Today was the last of the chronic pain classes.  I'm now just waiting for a proper medical grade TENS unit to show up, so I can shown how to use it properly.

August 23rd

I tinkered about with the RFID stuff that I'm aiming to install on the DRZ.  There's nowhere to put everything, so I'm going to have to take a good, long look at it all, and probably split things up a little.  I'll probably have the bike down for a while, so I'll attack that next weekend, I reckon.

Gwen came over with the kids, and they played with the guinea pigs and threw the ball for Tilly.

I went over to the airfield, and flew most of the way to Woodland (I decided I'd turn back at 19:00, so I'd have ample time to get back and land before it got dark).

August 22nd

Vic went off to a guinea pig event in Marin, and I installed Volkswagen LT style truck mirrors to the van.  They're more stable, but sit in a slightly different place, so will take a little getting used to.

I went over to the airfield, and bought the new sectional map (they came out on Thursday) even though it still doesn't have the freeway on it (it's only been there for ~4 years).  I took the plane up, even though it was bumpy, and didn't have a great time.

I got home just after Vic, as she'd been stuck in traffic.  She had our new helmets that Mike got for us using his contacts and discounts :o)

August 19th

I went to my penultimate chronic pain class.  I was expecting to rush over to the EAA meeting afterwards, but that got cancelled.

August 16th

We watched the processional race from Brno, then went out and got some lunch.

In the evening, I went over to the airfield, and flew over to Marysville and Sutter airports.  I figured I should go home before I ran out of gas, as I hadn't filled up before I left :o)  I added 5 gallons (but not full) when I got back.

August 15th

I sat and tinkered with the RFID setup I'm playing with, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm overthinking things :o)  I've been trying to set up a system to reduce the power usage, and everything I have has managed to save me ~20mA.  Eh, why bother?

I took the DRZ over to the airfield for the Norcal Flight Centre pancake breakfast, but being there right at the end meant that I basically missed breakfast :o)  Vic and I went out to get some lunch, after which we pottered about looking at things and stuff until we met Rich at Roseville Honda, where we talked for a while about things and stuff.

August 14th

After work, I went over to the airport and went out to play with Mike :o)

August 13th

I rode the mountain bike, and it seems maybe a little easier to ride with the new pulleys on it.  It's definitely squeaking less :o)

We celebrated Tilly's birthday this evening, as I was in.  She got a beach ball, and destroyed it in under 20 seconds.

August 12th

I went to my chronic pain class thingy, and listened about stress and mindfulness.

When I got home, I tightened up the oil drain bolts on the DRZ, as there was a little spot under it where it was parked.  I also put a new mounting bolt on the mirror, as I managed to break that tightening it up - I guess I'm lucky it didn't drop off when I was futzing with it while riding :o)  After that, I spent about 10 minutes replacing both pulleys on my mountain bike's rear derailleur - both came in the set, so I figured they could both do with replacing.  There's a plastic bushed one, and a steel bushed one.  I put the steel one in the bottom, as that's what was there before.  While I was at it, I cleaned the rear cogs and re-oiled the chain again, as it was easier than when there's a constant pull on the chain.

August 9th

We killed time until we could watch the excellent MotoGP race from Indianapolis.  I think Valentino needs to work on his qualifying, as he was lapping faster than the leaders for a fair chunk of the race, but it's hard to make your way back from an 8th place start.

I went over to the airfield and finished cleaning the plane, then went out for over an hour and a half - I flew to the Feather River, from there over Far West Lake, and then up to Auburn.  I was going to land there, but there were a couple of planes doing circuits, and landing every few minutes, so I just watched for a while, then went back to the airfield.

While I was up, I'd been getting called for work, despite not being on call - it had pretty much killed my phone's battery.  I spent a while trying to get my phone charged enough that I could answer the call, and when I eventually did, it was a fscking robo-call.  I went home in a huff.

August 8th

I started the day going out to post stuff and get supplies, then changed the oil in the DRZ (it's a pain, as it holds oil in the frame).  I was cleaning the chain on the mountain bike when I found a crack in the lower rear derailleur pulley.  It took me ages to figure out which one I have (apparently there are hundreds of different "Shimano Deore XT" setups) and to order a replacement.  I'm assuming that this has happened at any time in the last 15 years, so I'm not going to stress about it - I'll just replace it when I get the new one.

In the afternoon, I went to the airfield, stopping at the new flight centre to see what they have in stock.  I found out they're having a pancake breakfast next Saturday, so I got them to send me a flyer so we can tell the EAA chapter membership.  When I got to the hangar, it was too windy to fly, so I went with the Jacks to get a root beer float.  When we got back to the airfield, the wind ad calmed down, so I went out for 45 minutes.  The wind (at ground level) was coming from the South, so I headed West, aiming for the Feather River.  The GPS showed a fairly decent ground speed of ~60mph, which made me suspicious - was was showing ~40mph on the way back, having not got as far as the river :o)  When I got back, I made a start on cleaning the plane, as it's got pretty dusty in the hangar.

August 5th

I went to the chronic pain class to listen to a bunch of apocryphal scare stories about medications.  Whatever.  After that, I hammered over to Lincoln for the tail end of the EAA board meeting, then went to the airfield (with pretty much everybody) to see the parts of a Steen Skybolt kit in Jack's hangar - he's trying to get it donated to the chapter, as the owner died a while ago.  I also showed Gary some of the wheels we have on our junk pile at the back of our hangar :o)  It was getting dark on the way home, and the LED headlight on the DRZ seems to work pretty well, but could do with being tilted up slightly (it's lighting up the front mudguard, which is wasted light).

August 3rd

I took the day off - it's a comp day for being on call at the weekends.  I cleared out a couple of niggling little things around the house, and played some Warcraft (they've given me a free week to try and get me to come back to playing more regularly).  It seems that you're spending all your time getting resources for the new boat quests, and that's... dull.

I went over to the airfield and fixed Danny's little red cart - we'd used it to move his engine from his side of the hangar to mine, and it was broken then.  Anyway, next time I see him, I'll give it back to him, and he'll be happy, as I think he misses it :o)  It was quite windy, so all the smoke has been blown out.  I went up and did a couple of circuits, but it was a bit late to be doing much else.

August 2nd

I tinkered around the house with various things and stuff, and in the afternoon went over to the airfield and installed a new primer plunger - the old one was leaking when it's being used.  It was a lot less traumatic than I'd expected, and I've taken the old one home to see what the problem is (I bet it's an o-ring that's been dissolved over time by the ethanol in the gas).  If it's easy to fix, that'd be great, but I bought a spare regardless.  Anyway, after that I went out for a flight, and was pretty much kept to a small area by the smoke from the various fires in the area.  I played around with various turns (30 degree, 45 degree, 60 degree, climbing, descending), stalls (I still can't get a good clean break - it just mushes along while losing ~800' a minute) and flying as slowly as I can - just above stall.  When I got back to the airport, I'd been out for an hour and 45 minutes, so I did an extra circuit to make it an even 2 hours when I parked it.  A guy in a pickup came over for a chat - Weston.  He's just bought a Quicksilver ultralight, and is getting ready to fly it in from Woodland.  I told him about the EAA, so here's hoping I see him again :o)

August 1st

Power billed

Power generated

I spent most of the day upgrading PCs to Windows 10.  It looks a little bit different, and is maybe a little quicker but it was basically painless.  I did take the time to get the Aten KVM switch on my desktop to work properly - I'd never bothered thinking that the Windows 10 upgrade would fix it.  I had to stop it doing mouse emulation (scroll lock, scroll lock, m, enter) so that the Logitech unifying receiver would work correctly.  On the plus side, it seems to switch a lot faster (not that I ever seem to run both systems at the same time, but if I did...).

July 31st

I looked at the inner tube from the bicycle (in Tilly's paddly pool, which upset her), and it has a tiny pinhole on top - i.e. not where it hits the road.  No idea how that happened, but I'll see if I can get a patch to work.