Thursday, May 28, 2015

May 27th

I went over to Frank and Lisa's to get a thumb drive full of video of the Cozy - Frank's thumb drive seems to be corrupting files, so I dropped his off and he put the videos on mine.  Maybe I'll get time to look at that at the weekend.

May 25th

Today was Memorial Day, when Americans remember their war dead by going shopping.

Tilly and I went for a long and exciting walk through the park.  She got to steal a tennis ball from a passing toddler, drop it so it rolled off the bridge and then retrieve and return it.  We met Vic at Starbucks on the way home, where she got some whipped cream and water.

We replaced a part of the fence that was rotting - basically we're trying to get the fence to hold on as long as possible before it all needs replacing.

We barbecued in the evening, like pretty much everybody else.  It's a marker for the beginning of summer.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

May 24th

I collected up the remains of the recycling, and dropped a bunch of it on the floor in the garage, meaning there was broken glass everywhere.  We cleared that up, even getting the vehicles out so the floor is swept and cleaner than it's been since I sealed it.  I then headed out and dropped it off (cardboard goes to one place, cans and bottles go to another).  Eventually I ended up at the airfield, where I dropped off the old pushbike, then decided to take the plane out.  Mind you, it was 11:00, rather than the evening.  The wind hadn't got up yet, but there were a lot of thermals around, so, having passed an eagle at 800' who looked at me like I was crazy, I headed back.

At home I did a bunch of work on the spreadsheet that holds my log book, basically to make it line up with my hard copy log book better (and I can have the computer figure out the totals for everything at the end of the page now).

We had intended to barbecue, but Richard called to ask us to dinner to say "thanks" for me dumping a pile of old model railway stuff I don't need on him, so we had pizza instead :o)

May 23rd

I starred the day in the garage, repairing a puncture on the older pushbike... it's been down with a slow puncture for a while.  I only discovered it when I was thinking about taking it to the airfield for running around, rather than walking everywhere like a schmuck.  Anyway, that's fixed.  I put together the rail for the timelapse setup, now I just need to decide how to drive it.  I knocked apart one of the surplus old pieces of wood with my hand axe, the started work on the van.  I took out the spacers I'd put on the front wheels when I was running 235 section tyres, as now it's down to 215s, I don't think they're necessary.  I then started work on installing a headlight relay.  I already have a high beam relay, as that's 220W that doesn't need to run through the light switch, but I've been thinking that the normal low beams are on more, so now (with Vic's help) that 110V doesn't come through the light switch either.  I was tidying up the recycling when the sliding door on the van rolled all the way back hard enough to break the latch for the sliding window (it was sitting on the sloped driveway at the time), so I got to bring it back in while I fixed that with some longer screws.  It never ends, does it?

I did some tinkering with some videos Frank's given me of the Cozy jet, but I can only read half of them.  I'm blaming him, as I even downloaded the GoPro software, and it couldn't handle them.

In the evening, we watched "Interstellar", which was pretty good.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

May 20th

We went to the EAA membership meeting, and heard about the final plans for the Tri-motor.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

May 17th

After we watched the excellent Le Mans MotoGP race, I tinkered around with the trolley for the time lapse system I'm building.  Despite having to chase around for more parts (where we tried a new pizza place), I managed to get it all together and working - it rolls just fine.  I still need to build the rails, and figure out the motor system.


Vic's been reorganising all the junk down the side of the house, and I got involved in some of that.

May 16th

I spent some time tinkering in the garage, but needed parts.  We went out to pick up bits, and after that I went over to the airfield.  It was pretty windy, but I took the plane out for about 45 minutes.  When I got back, I ended up chatting to Jack until almost midnight.  Luckily I texted Vic to say I was OK before she called the police :o)

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

May 12th

Rolie Polie Olie, our Roomba, hasn't been picking up fluff for a while.  The fan's running, as it's blowing air out the back, but I thought the brushes weren't turning (I can't find a way to test that, as when it's on its back, it won't run), so I took the gearbox apart.  There was a lot of hair in there, but I think one of the pins had slipped out, allowing a cog to freewheel rather than pass the drive to the brushes.  Hopefully that's fixed :o)

Monday, May 11, 2015

May 10th

We dinked around with some stuff for the EAA, and in the afternoon went over to the airfield to reset the fuel probe in the Flightstar.  When we finished, a full tank was registering 100, but after turning it off and on again, it went down to something in the 20s.  I'm pretty sure the probe's buggered, and needs replacing.  Oh well.  We went out for a flight, but the wind's been weird for a couple of weeks, and was still weird, so we gave up after about 40 minutes.

May 9th

Vic's fish tank has been condemned, as it's a) got a snail problem and b) got some sort of bacterial problem.  The vet said to move the fish to a new tank, and destroy this one.  I'm pretty sure bleach and sunlight'll kill most bacteria, but this thing is old, and shows a lot of water damage, so we went and looked at new tanks.  We're currently thinking about a corner tank, which'll obviously need a new stand, lid, pump, lighting etc.  So we'll probably get working on that sooner rather than later, as it'll have to sit and allow everything to settle for a month or so before we can move fish into it.  I'm hoping we can get some sparkly fish too, as the full spectrum LED lights they use now make them light up well.

We took the old TV over to Gwen's (it's too big and heavy to put in a car, after all), and got that all set up.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

May 6th

I went to the board meeting at the airport, and we got a bunch of Tri-motor stuff decided.  It's less than a month away, so it's all sort of downhill from here :o)

May 4th

I had the day off - originally it had been to drive all the way to Redwood City for a doctor's appointment, but I managed to convince them that a 10 minute phone call would be better on a telephone, rather than after a 3 hour drive.  Yay.  What my GP had described as a cyst on my spinal cord is just scar tissue, so there's no need for an operation there.  I'm being referred to a pain specialist, with the view that I can spend the rest of my life on painkillers rather than get cut in to.  We'll see how that goes, but there are 3 surgical techniques (in increasing order of invasiveness) that we can look at yet.

Monday, May 4, 2015

May 3rd

We watched the processional MotoGP race, and wasted the rest of the day - it was too gusty to fly and have fun.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

May 2nd

I got up early and went to Lincoln to hand out flyers for the EAA Tri-motor event.  We started out with Dusty in a tucked away corner by the garbage cans, and then they put a bouncy castle in front of us.  Bruce went and talked to the organisers, and we moved to a far more prominent place, and started handing out flyers.  There was a car show and a chili cook-off going on, and I should have entered the van as loads of people were looking at it (I could have even cooked chili in it).

When that all rolled up, we folded the wings and headed back to the airfield.  I hadn't originally planned on going back, but I had all the junk in the van, so back I went.  When we'd put Dusty away, I ended up chatting with Frank and helping him mount a couple of cameras to the Cozy.  I finally rolled home in time to go and get a pizza for dinner and catch up on some TV.

Friday, May 1, 2015

May 1st

New month...

Power billed

Power generated










In the evening, we went to a local "biker bar", with 1 bike parked outside it, so we could shout at Vic's cow-orker Connie and they could dance.

April 28th

John's in town, and we met him and his cow-orker Michael at the airfield so I could take them both for a quick flight.  It was pretty windy, but my landings weren't terrible.  Afterwards we went to dinner, and we left them driving in sad little circles in the Fry's car park.