December 31st

I went out into the garage and (with Vic's help) managed to get the brake caliper off the van (115ft/lbs my arse).  The rotor came off with a little wiggling, but I can't get the guts of the carrier off at all... it looks like the bearing race is stuck on the spindle.  We tried hammering some of the melted bearings off, but I'm going to have to think about it some more.  The whole thing might end up needing replacing, and that'll be a joy to behold, I'm sure.

In the evening, we met Jen and watched "Rogue One".  It was pretty good, but I hear they're going to let George Lucas direct the sequel.

December 30th

I pulled the van out of the garage and turned it around, then jacked it up.  Yeah, the driver's side wheel bearing is shot - the wheel was all floppy.  I took it off, and the bearing looks like it collapsed a while back (silently), as the bearings themselves are gone.  Joy.  I'm just hoping I don't need to replace the spindle.

December 29th

They've finished the fence.  It looks OK, but then I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'd have done it... differently.  Still, in a year it'll just be background nonsense and I won't notice it any more :o)

I jacked up the front passenger side of the van (the other side's against the garage wall) and can't see anything wrong with it.  There's no noise when turning the wheel, other than a light scuffing of the disc against the pad, and that's expected.  Hmmm.

December 28th

They're still working on the fence.

December 27th

The guys came over to start replacing the fence to the West.  I pulled stuff out of the way and left them to it, but it meant that Tilly had to go out with me, on a lead.  She's interested in everything that's going on, but thankfully doesn't feel the need to bark at everything.

In the evening, I went out in the van to get some stuff, but it started making weird noises from the front end.  I pulled over when it sounded like I had a flat tyre, but everything looks OK.  I then limped home with a light squealing when I turned the wheel at all.  Wheel bearings?  Dunno - I'll have to wait for time to look at it when it's not too cold.  I did get out and check the temperature of the wheels and brakes, and there's nothing untoward there.  I took the Jeep instead.

December 26th

Today was a holiday, as Xmas day was on Sunday, and I just wasted it playing Warcraft.

December 25th

We pretty much ignore Xmas, so I went to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for an hour :o)

December 24th

I had intended to fly, but the weather was too cold and humid, meaning there was a decent chance of carb icing, and nobody likes it when their engine coughs.  So I stayed in and played Warcraft.

In the evening, we watched "Sausage Party" and "X-Men:Apocalypse".

December 23rd

We had the day off work, so obviously it rained pretty much all day.  I spent the day playing Warcraft and getting over my long day yesterday.

In the evening, we went out to dinner as my work Xmas party :o)

December 22nd

I got up stupidly early and drove to the office to pick up some mince pies made by the current Mrs Kelly.  ~5.5 hours' driving.  Worth it.

December 20th

We watched "Suicide Squad".  There were good and bad bits...

December 19th

The 1050 video card I ordered from Dell 2 weeks ago finally showed up, so I installed that.  It seems faster than my (now) old 750, but it'll take a really busy section in Warcraft to see how fast it really is... I'd been below 15fps with the 750.

December 18th

It was blindingly cold, and I'd already decided against going to the airfield again, as the forecast showed crappy visibility.  Of course, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the forecast in the afternoon, but by then I was playing Warcraft in the warm.

December 17th

I went out to the airfield and did circuits until it started to get busy, so that was almost a whole hour :o)

In the evening, we watched "Finding Dory".

December 16th

After playing Warcraft while waiting for it to warm up, I went to the airfield and took the plane out.  It was pretty bumpy, so I only did a couple of circuits.

December 15th

It rained and rained and was windy all bloody day, so I stayed in and played Warcraft.

December 14th

We went to the EAA Xmas party, where a fun time was had by all.

December 13th

I took the Jeep in to Costco to get a new tyre fitted (the sidewall's punctured, so it can't be patched), only to be told it was going to take 3 hours.  So I spent 3 hours walking around trying the free samples and picking up stuff that I figured we needed.

After that, I dropped everything home then went to the airfield to pick up the T-shirts, as I figure we can try and get rid of some at the Xmas party tomorrow.

December 12th

I've taken the week off to kill vacation time, so obviously the weather's not looking great.  It was foggy all morning, so I decided to take Tilly for a longassed walk, only to have it brighten up while we were out.  Oh well, she enjoyed herself.

In the evening, we went to watch some TV, only to find I'd plugged the antenna into the wrong socket on the media centre PC.  Oh well, The Simpsons generally isn't that funny these days, so I can live without having seen it.

December 11th

The last time I was at the airport, I picked up the PC I'd left there for the EAA that isn't getting used for anything - the rest of the board agree that we don't need it.  I got it all updated and set up so Vic can give it to one of her friends.  I then decided to get the new hard disc into the media centre PC.  I plugged it in, only to see a 3Tb drive as 750Gb.  Hmmm.  That's an artifact of MBR, so I figured I'd just copy everything to that partition, then expand it.  I was expecting to get 2Tb and a 750Gb partition, but after a few hours and some screwing around, I ended up with 2Tb and 750Gb that was unavailable.  At all.  Screw that.  I ended up creating it as a GPT disc, and copying everything again.  I now have a 2.75Tb (formatted) drive that can only be  booted on a UEFI system, but it all works.

December 10th

It was raining, so in between playing Warcraft we got the old TV mounted to the bedroom wall.  Then took it down and put it up again, as I hadn't got the mount bolted to the TV quite straight.

December 7th

The Jeep has a flat, and Vic took the van, leaving me to ride the DRZ over to Lincoln for the EAA board meeting.  Just as well, as there was an accident on the Southbound carriageway of 65, meaning all the rubberneckers caused the traffic on the Northbound lane to stop.  I got to filter through all that, then had to watch for arseholes doing U-turns in the centre reservation, and trying to then pull away from the dirt into the fast lane of the freeway.  Jeez.

December 6th

We met Jen for dinner after work.  She's trying to decide what to buy with her VW money when they take her diesel Golf back from her.

December 5th

I took Tilly for her annual inspection, which she passed, but the blood tests left her with a couple of swellings on her legs, and the injections obviously left her a little uncomfortable, as we had a very unsettled night.  The guinea pigs were having their annuals at the same time, and one of them has ended up staying there as he hasn't been well for a while, and the medications he's on aren't working.

December 4th

I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I just stayed in and played Warcraft.

December 3rd

I started the day at the airfield cooking breakfasts, then went home and puttered about the house for a while.  After that, I went back to the airfield and took the plane out for an hour or so.  It was pretty cold, so I think I'll wear my skiing over-trousers next time :o)

November 27th

I started the day putting the new SSD in Vic's PC.  Interestingly, the old one was 7200rpm - it was slow enough that I thought it was 5400rpm.  I've obviously been spoiled by my systems having SSDs :o)

I played Warcraft while waiting for it to warm up, then gave up and stayed in.

November 26th

It was a cold and rainy day, so we stayed in and played Warcraft.  I was expecting the new TV to be delivered on Monday, and it's coming via UPS, so it's unlikely that it was going to be early.  Well, just to prove me wrong, it showed up today, so I spent some time getting it installed and setting it to "cinema" mode (as I just haven't got around to calibrating it yet).  In the evening, we watched the last Game of Thrones season 6 DVD, and were very impressed with the picture.  I'll try a Blu-ray next :o)

Vic's been complaining about the speed of her PC, and the performance monitors make it look like the problem is the hard drive, so I ordered an SSD to put in there.  Well, that also arrived, so I left it copying data from the old spinny disc and went to bed.

November 25th

I played Warcraft while it warmed up a bit, then went to the airfield and pushed a piece of wire up the hose I'm using for the static pressure port for the airspeed indicator.  I ended up having to trim a bit  off the end, as there's a bolt through the strut that I couldn't get it to wiggle past, but several circuits later, it seems to be reading pretty correct (at least, it's higher than GPS ground speed on the upwind leg, and lower on the downwind leg).  Maybe later in the weekend (if the weather improves) I'll get out and check it for accuracy properly.

November 24th

Today was Thanksgiving, so we didn't have to go to work.  I played Warcraft for a long time in the morning, as Tilly doesn't know the difference between work and Warcraft, and I figured she'd dug me out of bed (so she could lie in the warm bit) because she was worried I was going to be late.

We went out and paid somebody to make us lunch, then I went over to the airfield to take the plane out.  I've been thinking that the airspeed indicator is over reading, and I reckon it's a static pressure thing.  I tried a short line, but that was terrible, so I put the longer line up one of the wing struts.  It seemed to be pretty much perfect for a while, then I get the feeling that it's over reading again, so I think it's shifted.  I'm thinking I'll try putting a stiff wire up the middle of it next, but I think I'm making progress.  If it was under reading a bit, I don't think I'd care nearly as much.  Anyway, it was cold, so the plane flew great with just me in it, and I only saw 2 other aircraft moving the whole time I was there.

November 20th

Another cold and wet day, but it brightened up in the afternoon.  It's a shame it gets dark so early, or I'd have managed to go flying or something.

November 19th

It was cold and wet, so I spent the day playing Warcraft.

November 18th

Now it's started getting colder, I've noticed that there's a problem with the eating - it'll run for about 10 minutes, then shut off.  The only way to get it to start again (that impatient me has found) is to go and flip the breaker - it'll start right up then.  So, while it wasn't too cold in the evening, I got up in the roof and checked the error code that the furnace is throwing:

Code 33: LIMIT OR FLAME ROLL-OUT SWITCH IS OPEN - If open longer than three minutes, code
changes to #13. Check for:
- Defective blower motor or start capacitor. - Dirty filter or restricted duct system.
- Loose blower wheel. - Defective switch or connections.
- Inadequate Combustion air supply Flame Roll-out Switch or fuse link.
- Open Flame Roll-out switch,or fuse link. Manual reset or replace.

Mean anything?  Nope, it didn't to me either.  So, I cleaned the flame sensor (even though it wasn't really dirty), then when I was testing it, I noticed that the filter was all bent out of shape.  That gets changed when the Nest controller says it's done enough hours, so I think it was a bad filter, and it's clogged up.  Changed that, and went on with the evening.

November 16th

We went to the EAA membership meeting - the last of the year (as the December meeting is the Xmas party).  I got to cook burgers, which meant I stayed warm longer :o)

November 13th

Having bought supplies, I tidied up the hot tub, then started filling and dosing it.  I put it all back together, and it took roughly all bloody day to heat up, but we did get to sit in it in the evening.  Egads, that thing uses a lot of power.

Light blue - solar generation
Dark blue - aggregate
Green - power usage

Orange - solar voltage
Red - voltage used

November 12th

I played Warcraft until it warmed up a little, then went out and changed the fuel lines on the Vanagon.  That all went swimmingly, so I went over to the airfield (filling the van up on the way) and took the Flightstar out for a bit.  Having taken off on 15 (as that's the runway people were using) I went over to the river to see if the trees are changing colour yet (they aren't), then tootled back.  As I'd only been up for around 45 minutes, I decided to shoot some circuits.  I landed on 33 (as that's the run way people were using), then took off again on 33.  At this point the guys who'd been using 33 were gone, so everybody wanted to use 15, so I landed on 15.  I ended up doing an hour of circuits :o)  There were a bunch of PPCs out for a flyin that I didn't know anything about, and apparently they had ~50 aircraft all told.

November 9th

Oh dear.

November 7th

John's in town for a few days, so we went out to dinner.  It was good to see him, even though he's trying to convince me to buy another motorcycle (or two).

November 6th

I was too tired to go and fly, as it's cold and cloudy, so I stayed in and played Warcraft, and got a few small things done around the house.

November 5th

I got up early and headed to the airfield to cook pancake breakfasts for people.  It was pretty cold, so there weren't that many people, but there were a lot of them who sat and watched the whole of "Flying the Feathered Edge" in memory of Bob Hoover.

Vic came, and brought Joey, so we spent some time pottering around showing him things and introducing him to people.

It had been pointed out to me at the airfield that the van's leaking gas (it wasn't when I left home, or I would have smelled it), so when I got home (after letting it cool down) I took a look at that.  With the TiiCo engine, there are 2 fuel hoses in the engine compartment (compared to about 10 with the waterboxer engine), so I removed the leaking one, and figured I'd get enough hose to do both of them.  We went to the local auto parts store, where they tried to give me "fuel injector" hose that's rated at 50psi.  I ended up ordering hose from Van Cafe that's rated at over 200psi.

November 2nd

Dan's moving from San Francisco to Philadelphia, so I got up at stupid o'clock and rode in to the office to have a team lunch.  I managed to slope out early enough to get home and drop off my gear, feed Tilly and still make the EAA board meeting.  I don't remember what I agreed to :o)

November 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

October 30th

After dropping the old hot tub cover closed yesterday, there was a load of crap back in the hot tub, so while it wasn't raining, I opened it up and cleaned that out.  Now I just need to get new filters, and I can look at filling it and starting it up again for the winter.  Vic picked up a big tarp to cover the thing in the summer, as it's the summer sun that's destroying the cover (and eating the stitching, which is the reason it starts to leak).

October 29th

It was supposed to rain all day, so in between playing Warcraft, I went out in the dry spells and made a start on cleaning out the hot tub, as the new cover was delivered in the week.  I got everything clean, and got Vic to help me taking off the old cover, which I did with it open (it had a load of water in it, so I didn't want to close it and put all that back in the tub.  As I was standing on the lip, something happened and I was knocked into the empty hot tub, so I've hurt my back and my leg.  We got the cover off, and the new cover on.  We also managed to get the old lid over to the recycling drop off, yay.

October 22nd

In the afternoon, I took the Flightstar out for a bit.  It was a bit bumpy, but I'd gone out earlier than I usually do, so I guess that's to be expected.  I ended up back at Lincoln to shoot a couple of landings (between Lee doing the same thing) before packing everything up and heading home.

October 20th

In the office again, when we went out to lunch there was obviously something afoot - seems there was a bomb threat.  There seemed to be a lot of traffic on the way home, so it took about 2.5 hours.

October 19th

I got up stupidly early and rode in to work.  Despite having left the house before 5am, I hit a lot of traffic around Fairfield, and started filtering.  I thought "this is going to be a long day", but all but one lane was closed, for whatever reason (you generally don't see the road being worked on when this happens).  When I got to work, as usual the sensors in the car park couldn't see the bike, so I pushed it around the barrier and parked, then found that my RFID key wouldn't let me in.  When Candace showed up there were a couple of us waiting, and it seems old cards were turned off by the building management.  I could still get into our floor, just not into the building to get to the stairs.  That's supposedly been fixed.

After a day of meetings, we went out to dinner, where I got to try popcorn in liquid nitrogen.  It's cold popcorn.

Having a couple of beers with Nathan, he found out that I have a paralysed arm - he's never noticed, despite us seeing each other from time to time in the office for several years :o)

October 16th

It rained pretty much all weekend, so I got to play Warcraft, getting my first toon up to level 110.  Oh, and I replaced the wipers on the Jeep, as we're now aware that they needed replacing.  And ordered new tyres, as with over 50,000 miles over 6 years, it needed doing.  Vic'll take the Jeep in on Tuesday to get them fitted.

October 8th

We got up early and went over to the airfield to fly to Sutter for the Ragwing Roundup.  Gary left in his Pietenpol just before we did, but he was headed over to the river, and we flew pretty much straight there.  He beat us there.  As did Bruce, who wasn't even at Lincoln when we left :o)  After lunch, we flew back, and it was a lot bumpier than the way there - this is why I don't tend to fly at lunchtime.

At home I've been thinking that the problems with the HTPC seem like a hard disc problem, and I was thinking I'd try swapping in another disc, even though Windows said there was nothing wrong with the disc every time I checked it.  I fired the HTPC up (out of sleep mode) to shut it down properly, and found that Windows now thought that there was a problem.  I pulled the HTPC apart and hooked up a spare disc and fired up Acronis, only to find it didn't want to talk to my wireless USB mouse and keyboard.  I don't have a wired mouse and keyboard any more, as we have no spare PCs at the moment (2 of our PCs are home built, and the other didn't come with a keyboard), so I went out to get a cheap mouse at the very least.  Fry's didn't have the mice I'd seen on their web site that were supposedly in stock at Roseville, so I went to Best Buy, where a mouse and keyboard wasn't that much more than just a mouse, so I got both - it's always useful to have spares.
At home, the HTPC running Acronis still wouldn't see the mouse and keyboard.  I figured it was a "problem" where the new Z170 motherboard wasn't driving the USB ports the way the Acronis software wanted.  It was time to put the drives in my old Z97 desktop.  The first time it booted I couldn't see the CD drive to boot Acronis because the SATA connection had come undone in all the shuffling.  The next time it couldn't see the CD drive because the weight of the extra hard drive hanging out the side had pulled the power connector off it.  Once I got that fixed, it wouldn't get past the POST because the drive was throwing errors (so it's probably the controller rather than bad sectors).  I turned off the SMART testing, booted Acronis and cloned the 1.5Tb drive onto an old 750Gb drive.  I put my desktop back together, and it still works.  I put the HTPC back together and everything seems a lot better - I watched something I'd recorded in the week and there were a couple of drops, but that was down to problems with the recording, rather than the system hanging.  I reckon it's time to get a new drive.  With start of all the Black Friday nonsense being 6 weeks away, I'll wait and get something then.  And go through a lot of this again to get everything cloned again :o)

October 5th

I went to Lincoln for the EAA board meeting.  Afterwards, we went to the hangar to see the sign all lit up, only it... wasn't.

As there are 3 strings of LEDs, I figured it had to be a power problem, and we checked the wiring and everything looked OK inside.  The problem was the (old) 12V power supply we'd thrown in - it was putting out ~3V.  Jim had a 9V power supply in his car, so we tried that and everything lit up.  Ron was suitably impressed :o)

October 2nd

It was forecast to rain, so I stayed in and played Warcraft.  And rain it did - we got over an inch in about 10 minutes :o)  It washed out some of the front garden stuff, as the gutters were overflowing, so they weren't being directed down the driveway.

When it stopped, I got up on the roof and cleared all the gutters - hopefully now the trees are gone, I'll have to do that a lot less frequently.

October 1st

Another new month, so here are the power stats:

Power billed

Power generated

I got up early and headed to the airport, where I threw in an hour and 20 minutes' circuits before putting the plane away and meeting Jim at the EAA hangar.  While we have the lift, we took the EAA letters off the outside wall and installed some LED strips I've had for this very purpose for months.  Obviously it's daylight so you can't see that they're lit up, but flipping them on and off again means you can just about see that they're now lit.  We're hoping to surprise Ron, the president, on Wednesday at the board meeting :o)

I went over to the Norcal Flight Centre and picked up the CHT probes I'd ordered (obviously the CHT has been fine the last few weeks, but whatever).  I then stripped the top off the air shroud and replaced the probes and the spark plugs (it's been 50 hours since they were last done).  I put everything back together, but couldn't be bothered to take the plane out again, as I was pretty damned tired, so I went home.

After tiring Tilly out, I played with the HTPC - I had to reinstall WMC after the Windows 10 Anniversary build was installed, and it's almost unwatchable.  I think it's something to do with the now obsolete Playready DRM, so I've stepped back to the previous build that still has it, run through all the setup again and we'll see if that fixes it for good.  I've also disabled the Windows Update process, so hopefully we won't be in this situation again.  Time to take another look at Kodi, I guess.

September 30th

I had a lot planned for tomorrow, so I got up on the roof and washed the solar panels today :o)

September 26th

I'd taken the day off to make up for a couple of weekends on call, so I wasted the morning playing around on the computer.

In the early afternoon, I went to the airport to help Rocky with the LRAA website, and when that was sorted, I went over and talked to Frank for a while about his new Cozy.  Then I took the Flightstar up for an hour - the highlights were watching the yellow crop-dusting biplanes landing on their little strip between the power lines, and being thanked profusely by a big corporate jet for letting him get out before I flew overhead to join the circuit - I figure I was using less fuel flying than he was idling waiting for me :o)

September 25th

I took the keyless ignition stuff off the DRZ - I think it's broken, so I'll have to see if there's anything inside the box that's obviously screwed, and maybe use the other kit I have to get it working again - I liked not needing a key to start it :o)

In the evening we went to dinner with Jen (not that Jen, this is a new one) and Gwen to celebrate Vic's birthday.

September 24th

I started the day at the airfield, flying.  I just pottered around looking for a hot air balloon that had been flying around the casino on my drive in, but I think they got it down and packed away before I was even out of the hangar.  I saw a couple of the guys at the powered parachute fly-in at the South end of the field, and they were starting to pack up when I gave up because it was starting to get bumpy.

In the evening, we watched "Captain America: Civil War".  It was OK, I guess, but there were too many plot points and characters, making it overlong.  Also, aren't superhero movies supposed to be fun?

September 21st

I went to the airfield for the EAA membership meeting about involving kids in flying.  I also got to cook on the barbecue...

September 18th

In the afternoon, I went and sat in a sandwich place with Rich and Sharon and chatted before going to the airport to fly for a while.  Looks like the wind's going to be picking up for the next few days, so I'm not so bothered that it gets dark early enough to make flying after work tricky :o)

September 17th

I went flying in the evening.  It's funny, as I didn't have the gas to fill the plane up last time I flew, so I put 5 gallons in the 10 gallon tank, flew for almost an hour and half, then put 5 gallons in the tank and it's still not full.  I'm not sure, but I think it uses more 89 octane gas than it does 91 octane - I've been testing it.

I also need a new cylinder head temperature probe, as one is reading all over the place.  I'll do that when I change the spark plugs, which should be in the next few engine hours.

September 16th

We watched "Top Secret Rosies", a movie Jim had lent us at the last pancake breakfast.

September 15th

We went to Jen's <mumble>th bithday party.  Afterwards, we met John at a Starbucks because he'd gone to the wrong restaurant to meet us.

September 14th

Rich came over to play with Tilly, so that was nice.

September 10th

I started the day at the airport, cooking breakfast and then helping get the brittle old skylights replaced with solid panels (so we can watch movies in there better).  A couple of us went and got Coke floats, and then I figured I might as well go back to the airport and fly, as it didn't make sense to go home just to turn round and go back again.

September 9th

We watched "The Jungle Book", because Vic thought I would be going flying, but I hadn't left early enough due to work.  Stupid tilting planet.

September 7th

Today was the EAA board meeting, where things were discussed.  If you want to know what, you should have come along, it's open to all.

September 6th

After work we went and met Mig and Steve at the Folsom Bike Night, where we also met Truman who's passing through from Oregon.

September 5th

Today was Labo(u)r Day, when Americans celebrate the gains of the unions by going shopping.

I built a bridge for the front garden, then Vic and I installed it.

In the evening I went to the airfield and just did circuits.  I need to start getting there a bit earlier, as it's getting dark sooner and sooner.

September 4th

Another day just doing chores around the house until the evening, when I could fly again.  Again I helped Jack tinker with the M-Squared before we headed out to fly over Far West Lake.  It's a shame i didn't have a camera with me, as his bright green plane against the lake looked really cool.  We'd taken off on 33, but while we were out I'd heard the aircraft throwing circuits change to 15, so I had to get in front of Jack (who was flying without a radio) to make sure we joined the correct pattern when we got back.  I landed OK, but Jack went around, so  I was doing his radio calls for him.  He veered off on the next landing attempt, and it seems that he'd actually bounced hard enough to break off a wheel.  He came again, and without a left wheel where it should be, ground looped the plane.  I went back, and we got his plane off the runway so others could take off and land, then went and got a garage creeper, tie downs and the van and towed it back to the hangar.  Jeez.

September 3rd

I started the day at the airfield, cooking breakfast for about 20 people who showed up to watch my copy of "Air America".  Bruce enjoyed it enough that he's borrowed it to watch it with his wife.

I straightened some of the locking pins for our hangar door.  I was thinking I'd pull the out then use the tow hitch on the van, but the hole that the pin that holds the tow hitch in is almost exactly the right size, so I used that instead.  Hopefully now they won't drag on the ground when the hangar owners come to see what needs to be done to fix the doors next week.

I pottered around the house doing odds and ends until I could go back to the airfield and fly.  I helped Jack sort out the M-Squared, then we headed out to fly along the river.  It was pretty windy, and when I realised that we'd taken 20 minutes to get there, I figured we would head home before it got dark.  We put everything away, they stood around talking until Jim Volk showed up to see if we wanted to buy his Cherokee.  Neither of us did.

September 2nd

After work I went and took the plane out.  I flew over the house, but couldn't see Vic, even though she claims to have saved at me.

September 1st

Tilly had an adventure, when I left the side gate open taking the garbage out for pickup in the morning.  She wandered down the road sniffing around the neighbours' garbage bins until I came and found her.  I was telling her what a silly dog she is when Vic opened the garage door, and Tilly dashed off to sit in the van.

August 28th

I spent part of the morning replacing sprinkler valves - 2 were leaking slightly, so I figured I'd replace all 3.

We moved the end of the rock from the road onto the garden and driveway.

Obviously one of the sprinkler valves didn't seal properly, so I had to go out and get new fittings, and cut off the new fittings I'd just replaced.  Still, it's all OK now - I know this because I bashed the crap out of my little finger reinstalling it, so now I've bled on everything there, it's done.  For good measure I replaced all the (tools of ignorance) wire nuts that were dissolving due to the sun, while wondering why I don't just solder them, other than it being a PITA to get to.

August 27th

We went out and got supplies for various tasks, and looked at the new 2017 Honda Grom.  Meh.

In the evening, I went flying.

August 26th

We watched "Batman Vs Superman", and truly, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.  It wasn't a great movie, and there seemed to be a lot going on that wasn't adequately explained, but it was enjoyable enough.

August 24th

After work I schlepped over to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for about an hour.  Must remember it's starting to get dark earlier :o)

August 21st

I started the day by replacing a punctured inner tube on my bicycle that I happened to notice walking past it, then I helped Vic in the front garden.  We've ended up getting a ~12' tree to plant in the hole we dug.  I was hoping to get it in the ground so it can start growing, but we were lucky to get it in the van :o)

August 20th

I got up early and went to the airport and flew for a while - just circuits - then met Rocky to finish up some stuff on the LRAA website.  Hopefully that'll be going live soon, as it seems there'll be a powered parachute fly-in next month :o)

August 19th

Today was National Aviation Day, so I went and aviated.

August 17th

I went to the airfield for the EAA meeting, and ended up barbecuing.  Tony and Bill talked about going to Oshkosh.  Maybe next year, eh?

August 16th

After work I went to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for a little tootle around.  I should do that more often :o)

August 15th

On my lunchtime bicycle ride, I go past the dog park, and there's often this scruffy little white dog who races me along the fence.  Well, today I'd just finished racing him and a black Labrador charged up to me outside the fence.  I stopped, and the owner called him back, so I figured all was good and went on my way.  A minute later, I was a couple of lanes over on the road, as I was going to turn left, and heard cars emergency braking behind me - the black Labrador was charging after me again.  I got off the bike this time, but he ran away again.  I figured if the cop in the traffic didn't care, why should I get involved?  I have a feeling I'd have been... unpleasant... to the owner.

August 14th

I started the day flying, and I should have got there earlier - I was getting bounced around a fair bit by the time I got back to the airfield.

August 13th

The new EAA1541 newsletter showed up, so I spent a while getting that all hacked up and on the website.  While I was there, I did some general tidying up, and moved some things around.

August 12th

I went to the airfield to spend an hour showing Rocky how to work Wordpress for the LRAA website, and three hours later I left for home :o)  I've got myself set up as an admin, so I can hopefully help him when he gets stuck with things.

August 11th

I finished planting the grass plugs in the garden.  Yay.  Tilly still wants to roll in the dirt there, rather than literally anywhere else in the garden.

In the afternoon I went to the airfield and dropped off the old PC at the EAA hangar, then took the Flightstar out for a bimble around.

When I got home, I waited for it to get proper dark, then went out to Pilot Hill to watch the Perseids.  Sadly there were a bunch of people there, and they all arrived with their headlights on, and drove around looking for somewhere to park.  Some kids parked next to me, and were all very loud.  After an hour or so of hearing them eating really loudly (really, is it a competition?) and being put off by their torches and cellphones, I gave up and went home.  Just as well, as I'd been feeding a few thousand mosquitoes, by the looks of my arms and head :o(

August 10th

I planted some more grass plugs in the garden.  Now if I can just stop Tilly from standing all over them for a while, so they can get all sorted out...

I was having problems with the PC I reinstalled yesterday, but reseating the memory seems to have fixed that.

In the evening we met Jen for dinner, then went and looked at the Rocklin Fine Arts show for a bit.

August 9th

I spent some time in the garden planting some grass plugs - this is hopefully full sun, drought tolerant grass that's supposedly good at choking out weeds.  We'll see how that goes.

I reinstalled an old PC I was going to give the EAA - I'd done it before, but somehow it has lost some files.  Screw it, a reinstall's quicker than fixing it.

We went to a motorcycle meet up at a bar in Folsom.  There were fewer bikes than I'd expected, but it was OK.

August 7th

I headed back to Sacramento on a Delta flight.  Tilly remembers who I am, even though the van's been parked in the garage the whole time I've been away.

August 6th

We spent a lot of the day looking at fridges and washing machines and dryers trying to find stuff to fit the spaces available.

In other news, I got the TV set up - all that's needed now is a signal to drive it.

August 5th

We got up, had breakfast and headed back to the house for the (watching two guys) unloading of the truck.  Things were spread around the house, and some stuff was unpacked.  We're going to spend the first night in Russ and Deeps' new house.

August 4th

We drove the last few hundred miles down to Russ' new house, and after ages on the freeway, got to unload part the truck into their garage.

In the afternoon, we went to the Queen Mary, where we're spending the night.

August 3rd

We got as far as Palm Springs, California.  We had thought we might be able to get all the way back to Los Angeles, but an accident just before the California border scuppered that.

August 2nd

We left Boerne and headed... West.  We ended up in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

August 1st

We got in to Texas.  It all looks the same, so it doesn't matter where we are, but we're in Boerne.

From home, here's the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

July 31st

We left Live Oak, FL, and drove through Banjoville Alabama, Banjoville Mississippi and got to Covington Louisiana.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

July 30th

I missed my connection in Charlotte, and the following one.  Rather than wait another 2 hours, and force Mum, Dad and Russ to wait 4 or so hours for me to get to Fort Lauderdale, I flew to Orlando and waited for them to pick me up there.  We then drove and drove and drove until getting to a podunk little town called Live Oak, where had dinner, found 2 bars and crashed for the night.

July 29th

Vince came over to mirror his current laptop hard drive to a new one so he can upgrade his Windows 7 installation to Windows 10, before the free upgrade expires at midnight.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute... I had thought about reminding him earlier in the month, but the last time I'd brought it up he'd said "fuck Microsoft", so I didn't bother :)

Later he came over and borrowed my external drive cage and a spare drive I had, because his upgrade worked somehow.

Rich and Josh came over, and we went out and got dinner before Vic ran me to the airport to catch a plane to Charlotte.  The plane was delayed 2 hours because of a thunderstorm in Phoenix, and a load of people were getting really upset that the flight to Phoenix was cancelled due to said thunderstorm.  I think they were expecting to fly, in a thunderstorm that the pilot had said was too severe.  Pussy.

July 24th

I spent quite a bit of time working, but I've managed to build a USB charging cable for the camera (of all the stupid... it needs a 10 ohm resistor between the data pins or it won't charge).  I looked at the keyless ignition system on the DRZ, and I've decided to leave it unplugged for a day or so, as I seem to remember needing something like that to reset everything properly.

I went to the airfield in the evening, and fixed the airspeed indicator.  I then went out for a flight, and was running down the river doing around 70mph ground speed when I suddenly realised I'd have to get home before it gets dark.  Rather than play around anywhere else, I headed straight back to the airfield.  I played around to see how low I could get the ground speed - 28mph - and landed shortly before sunset.  At least I managed to put the plane away before it got dark.

July 23rd

I've noticed a crack in the silencer on the Vanagon, so I ordered a new one.  It's here, so I installed it.  It's stainless steel, so you'd think it'll last, but it's not braced like the mild steel one it's replacing.  On the plus side, it has a lifetime warranty.  I had read about the new one being smaller than the original, but I've managed to bend the outer casing clamping it down, so I don't think that's a problem.

In the evening, I went over to the airfield and took the plane out for a bit.  I had the video camera running, and saw a train, so I chased it for a mile or two.  I went along the river, and ran around the lake, and was tootling along when the airspeed indicator went down to zero.  That bothered me, so I went back to the airfield... the hose from the probe has come unhooked.  Doy.

July 22nd

The new lithium battery arrived, and it's tiny, and weighs bugger all.  I installed it, but now the keyless ignition controller isn't working.  It still starts with the key though, so that's something.

July 20th

We went to the EAA members' meeting.  I was expecting to cook barbecue, but we had pizza.  I don't know how to barbecue pizza.

July 19th

We were going to go to a bike night in Folsom, but the DRZ wouldn't start.  A little investigation after dinner points to the battery being totally and utterly dead.  Still, this looks like an excuse to move to a LiFePO instead.

July 17th

It was too windy to fly, so I just pottered around the house getting things done.  Jack came over to look at the fences that need replacing, hopefully he can work up a reasonable quote :o)

July 16th

I got up and tidied everything away, then went flying.  I was hoping to shoot video along the road along Camp Far West Lake, but I set the camera to 90 degrees rather than 0 degrees (so it was in landscape) and I was getting bounced all over the place - I should have gone sooner.

I fixed the TV to zoom in to 480p content (I think), so it looks like the Windows 10 / hacked WMC is working.  I'd like to get the skin I had previously working, but that's not a big deal really.

I went back to the airfield in the evening, and was chatting to Jack and Marianne when a couple came past with their kid, who's autistic.  He's apparently really into planes, so I spent about an hour showing them around the planes in our and Jack's hangar, and ended up only flying for 25 minutes before it got dark.  I got to play with Mike in his 120 though, so that was fun :o)

July 15th

On my afternoon bicycle ride, I passed a guy blocking the path with his bike while he drank water.  A bit later he came storming past me, on a tricky part of the trail - I know because I've crashed all over the place.  Anyway, I though "this should be interesting", then got to watch him wipe out just in front of me.  He was OK, and waved me past, but didn't pass me again.  About 4 miles later, I got a puncture, and got to walk home.

July 14th

After work, I went flying, and looked hard at the road that runs along Camp Far West Lake - I reckon it'd be cool to video Vic riding along there :o)

In the evening I loaded a hacked version of Windows Media Centre on the HTPC, as Kodi seems to hang on waking up from sleep, and I can't get it to download the guide more than a day or so out.  I don't want to pay for a guide subscription until I'm sure everything works, and I'm a ways from that right now.

In WMC, I seem to have most things working, and now I just need to get DVDs to play full screen - I have a feeling this is the TV, as I see it downshifting to 480p from 1080p.  I've seem problems with the resolution on wake, too, but I'll carry on testing it.

July 10th

We went to the local Jeep dealer and looked at a Renegade Trailhawk they had there.  Nobody seemed interested in selling us a $30,000 car, so we wandered over to Elk Grove, where they had a brand new 2015 one on sale.  We took that for a test drive, and decided to see what they'd trade the Wrangler for.  The $13,000 offer was some $5,000 below what Kelly Blue Book say the trade-in value is, which sort of soured us on the whole thing.  While I was pretty sure I could have beaten them into a deal we'd have accepted, Vic wasn't that bothered about the car - when we looked at the Wrangler, she was all excited, and this one is just "meh, it's a car", so we walked.

In the evening I met CJ, Gwen and Jahzara over at the airfield so Jahzara could see and sit in the plane, and see me (and others) fly.  After I'd done 1 circuit, Jack arrived, and we ended up both doing circuits (me in the Flightstar, him in the M-Squared) to entertain the ladies until they had to go home for Jahzara's bed time.

June 9th

I went out to the airport to help / harangue Jack working on his M-Squared, and we got it all buttoned up.  Steve, a Flightstar and Quicksilver guy, was there, so he took it up for a test flight, then took Jack up for a second test flight.  They reckon it needs a different gearbox and prop, but in my book it flies, so that's just tuning - they can do that later.  We stopped at a restaurant on the way out from the airport, and Vic came and joined us.

June 8th

As Kodi seems to be working OK, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the media centre to Windows 10.  It's a while since I've done that, and it's even more painfully slow than I remember, as there are a lot of upgrades to install.  Still, if it doesn't work, I've got a month to go back to 7.

July 7th

Having run a bunch of errands all day, I decided screw it, the wind looks like it's pretty constant, and close to straight down the runway at Lincoln.  I did one circuit, getting bashed about quite well, and went home.

July 6th

I got PowerDVD integrated into Kodi, and even though it's a little different, I think I'll be able to get it all to work.  Either that or I stay with Windows 7 until Microsoft stop sending out the TV Guide updates (again).

In the evening, I went to the EAA Board of Directors' meeting, and managed to not pick up anything new to do.

July 5th

I've taken the week off so I don't end up losing vacation time.  Obviously it's too windy to fly.  As Microsoft are stopping the free Windows 7-10 upgrades at the end of the month (the 29th, to be exact), I figured I should get the media centre sorted out.  So I installed Kodi on it.  It's basically working with NextPVR, I just need to figure out the PowerDVD integration.

July 4th

Today was Independence Day, when Americans celebrate them leaving the British Empire by going shopping.

It was too windy to fly, so I pottered about the house doing little stuff, and changed the oil in the Jeep.

July 3rd

I met Luis from Lodi at the airport so he could look at the Flightstar again.  Sadly it was too windy to fly (~17mph), but we did figure out that he's too tall for it.  Not sure why we didn't see his knees were against the instrument panel yesterday.  We tried a couple more planes to see what could fit him, but I think he's a bit screwed because he has long legs.  Oh well.

In the afternoon, I picked up Vince and we went to Turlock to look at a Rans S-12.  It's in good condition, but has a fuel leak at the moment, so isn't flyable.  Hmmm.

In the evening, we had to put up with the fireworks at Sun City, and Tilly was barking at the people in the street outside watching them, so we went out to join them.  Tilly ended up sitting on Kathy's lap, then sitting with me, then sitting on Kathy's lap, then sitting with me, then wanting to go in.

July 2nd

I'd advertised the Flightstar on Barnstormers, and a guy's called up wanting to see it.  He flew in from Lodi, and seems very excited about getting it.  Hmmm.

On the way back from the airport, I stopped and talked to Rich at Roseville Honda for a while.

July 1st

A new month, so new solar stats.

Power billed

Power generated

Having spent the week in the office, I managed to slope out just after 15:00.  Meaning I got home after 19:00.  Stupid holiday weekend.

June 26th

I'd intended to go flying in the morning again, but I wasn't feeling so great, so I washed the solar panels and tidied up before going to San Francisco, where I'll be working for the week.

June 25th

I got up early and went to the airfield and flew for an hour.  At home, I pottered around doing little things until the early evening, when I went back to the airfield and did some circuits waiting for Jack to arrive.  When he got there, I put the Flightstar away and went and looked at his ailerons.  We routed the Bowden cable up to the bell crank, and then started looking at the ailerons themselves, as they're very sticky.  We've ended up taking them off, and Jack'll clean up the signs of galling on the fittings and put them back together carefully.  Hopefully he can get this all finished up in the next few days so he can get an airworthiness certificate sorted out before his daughter's wedding at the beginning of August (that's the goal, anyway).

June 24th

Jack and Co came over and took down the other tree in the front garden.  It's a lot brighter in the office now :o)

June 20th

After work I went over to the airport and took the Flightstar up for a tootle around.  I headed South for a change, and took a look at the work going on at the HP site and the new driving range that they're putting in.  It was a bit bumpy, so I was tending to stay above ~1400'.

June 19th

I went over to Vince's with the rock rails for the van, and we (well, he) cut the pins off and relocated them.  We (well, he) ended up moving both pins so they're at different angles so the rails'll fit better.  I went home and threw bed liner over them, as it's hard wearing and easy to put on.  I left those in the garage for a couple of hours, then installed them.  It was still a little more fraught than I'd like, but they went on, and the ladder fit without any complaints :o)

June 18th

I had intended on going flying, but the wind was gusty all day, only to drop to zero just as it got dark.  Oh well.

June 17th

Jack and his guys came over and dropped one of the two trees in the front garden.  He's dragged off 6800lbs of tree, and there's still some on the garden :o)

June 15th

I went to the airport for a quick board meeting (the secretary has resigned), and then the EAA membership meeting, and ended up cooking again.  No worries - the talk was on vinyl wrapping, and we managed to get everything tidied away in time to watch the meeting.

June 13th

The rock rails for the van don't look like they'll fit at all.  They're both the same size, and they're both about 1/8" too short.  I've been talking to Alvis, and neither of us knows what's going on here - he builds them on a jig, so they should just slot on.

June 12th

I took a look at the rock rails from Alvis, and threw some paint over the scuffs.  It doesn't look like they'll fit without a struggle though, so I'm waiting to be feeling strong before I start work on them.

June 11th

I got up at stupid o'clock and went to the airfield to set up the breakfast area, then cooked over 400 eggs and over 200 pancakes.  We ran out of eggs and sausages at the end, but we reckon we served over 250 breakfasts.

I went home and got ready to go to the Fieldhaven Cats, Classics and Cabernet fund raiser with Vic and Gwen.

June 10th

I was expecting to be at the airport straight from work to help set up for the airfest tomorrow, but it seems that everything's just chaos there.  I ended up going over anyway and just doing circuits for an hour.  The wind wasn't terrible, and it had cooled down a bit, so it was quite pleasant.  Once I'd put my plane away, I went and helped get others tied down as there was some big-assed helicopter due in.

June 6th

I took the mountain bike out for a lunchtime ride for the first time in a few weeks (weather, busy, didn't feel like it).  Several of the little wooden bridges over creeks are gone, so I think I'll end up reorganising my ride, as I'd liek to minimise the number of times I have to get off and carry the thing.

Some stuff I'd ordered for the van showed up, but looked like it had spent the whole trip being dragged behind the UPS truck.  Still, I'll see what I can do with it at the weekend - I figure a little paint's a lot less hassle than trying to sort it out with UPS.  Alvis, the seller, is sending me some new end caps, and he was pretty pissed off about the whole thing.

June 5th

I spent most of the day either working or playing Warcraft, then went over to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for a couple of circuits and to test out an anti-jello mount on the video camera.  It made no difference, but in other news, it looks like I need a new CHT probe, as one was reading all over the bloody place from time to time.

June 4th

I went over to the airfield to cook pancakes and eggs at the EAA hangar.

I helped Rich move his plane into the middle of the (full) hangar, so Everton and I (the only two who fly) can get out without moving anybody else's plane.

Vince is trying to convince me to upgrade to something faster with a 912, so I threw the Flightstar on Barnstormers just to see if there's any interest.  Obviously I've had a clown who wants to pay me 2/3 of what I'm asking already.  I suggested he get a Quicksilver :o)

I'd aimed to go back to the airfield and fly later in the day, but got stuck working as I was on call :o(

June 1st

It's June already, so here are the power stats:

Power billed

Power generated

I went to the EAA board meeting, where things and stuff were discussed, but it was so hot I don't remember what I've agreed to do this time :o)

May 30th

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

I got up early and went to the airport.  It was pretty miserably bumpy, so I didn't stay long.

We had Sandra, Cindy, Mig and Steve over for a barbecue, so they could play with Tilly.

May 29th

I got up early again, and headed out to the airport. I flew out to the Feather River, and headed back over the flooded fields when it started to get bumpy.

In the early evening I met Jack at the airport so he could try the Flightstar for a little bit, but the rev counter was playing up a bit, so we headed back, only for it to start playing nicely as we got back.

May 28th

I got up fairly early and headed to the airfield in time to watch an Icon A5 take off.  I'm thinking he's on his way back to the Nut Tree airport where they all seem to live - I don't think they're delivering anything yet.

I took the Flightstar out for a few circuits, but it was pretty bumpy.

I went home and pottered about the house for the day, then dropped off some stuff with Rich and went out to the airport again, and went out over the Feather River and Camp Far West reservoir.

May 21st

I went over to the airport and picked up the new tyres for the plane.  I then put them on, only to hole one of the inner tubes.  It's OK, I have a spare, but it was at home, so I went home and picked it up, and got Vic to come and help split the rim and change the tube.

Still too windy to fly.

May 18th

We pottered around during the day, then went to the airport for the EAA membership meeting.  Of course the weather was fine and I could have flown, but I got to cook instead.

Right at the end of the meeting, the second hangar tenant showed up - a brand new Carbon Cub, in yellow.  It's really pretty, if a little out of my budget :o)

May 17th

It was too windy (well, gusty) to fly, so I decided to start the annual argument with Comcast about my bill.  It started off OK, as I've talked to them before, so it was just a matter of convincing them that I want the package I'd been told I could have, without any TV.

Once that was sorted out, I started the troubleshooting as to why I wasn't getting the speeds I've been paying for - the sales department say I get 75Mb/s, but the technical department say I get 50Mb/s.  I'm getting ~45Mb/s, so I believe the technical department.  We discovered that even though you have to go through various hoops to register a new modem, they'd somehow not registered the modem when I changed it about 2 years ago.  After that, I still wasn't getting the speed I should, but they did manage to slow down the upload speeds to what I should be getting.  Joy.  We went through various steps until they suggested I reset the modem, when the missing word there is "factory".  I lost the entire configuration, so I then spent the next hour or so getting things working again.

I went to the airfield to tighten up a couple of nuts I remembered leaving loose, and decided that it was still too gusty to fly.

When I got home, the Nest thermostat was complaining about the network, so I fixed that and the irrigation controller.

May 16th

I rode the DRZ over to the local Ducati / Suzuki / Kawasaki dealer to look at the various different Scramblers.  I was hoping to see the new Z125 Pro, too, but they didn't have any yet.

On the way back, I stopped at Cycle Gear, just to see if there's anything new and exciting, and there isn't.

I rode up through Loomis and home via 193 and Sierra College, so it was a good day.

Vic got home early from her trip, and Tilly was really happy to see the van back.

May 15th

I wasted the day playing Warcraft as it was pretty windy.  I ended up going over to the airfield to do some tinkering on the plane, and ended up looking at Jack's M-squared.

May 14th

I went over to the airport to help run the poker run for this year.  There was a pretty good turnout, better than last year, but it was a bit too gusty / bumpy for me to fly afterwards.

May 11th

Vic left, in the van, for McMinnville to see friends and family.  Tilly was quite upset about it until Gwen showed up to feed the guinea pigs and throw the ball.

May 8th

Vic spent the day getting ready for her trip, and I pretty much spent the day keeping out of the way by playing Warcraft.

May 7th

I got up early and headed to the airport for our first pancake breakfast in the hangar.  I helped Ron set up, and cooked the first batch of breakfasts before more helpers arrived.  It was raining, and windy, so we'd expected maybe 10 people, most of them being the board, but quite a few showed up.  One guy even flew in from McClellan, in between showers.  We'll call that a success then.

In the afternoon we went to Mig's birthday meetup for a few hours, so I could get nagged about buying more motorcycles and drink a couple of ciders.

May 5th

Vic rented, so we watched "The 5th Wave".  Utter wank :o(

May 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

I screwed around all morning playing Warcraft and suchlike, and tried to get a pressure washer I bought to work.  It didn't, so I went to the airfield to tinker with the plane.  I've been thinking that the airspeed indicator is over-reading, and that's since I put the static line in, so I unplugged that.  I also tried to get the nosewheel centered when the rudder pedals are level.  The thing is, usually you'd turn the rods and one end would have left handed threads, so you'd make the rods longer or shorter as required.  Not here though, they're both right handed threads on both ends, so all I did was move the rods.  I'll need to take one end off, then loosen / tighten the fittings.  Bugger.

After struggling to get the plane out (the glider is in the wrong place, so I couldn't open the doors all the way without moving the glider) I took off, and the airspeed indicator was all over the place.  It was a bit bouncy, and once in the air I could see all the weather coming towards the airport, so I just did the one circuit, plugged the static line back in and put everything away.

April 30th

It was bloody windy, so I spent the day tinkering with installing the second Stow 'n Go seat in the van.  It was a lot more aggravation than the first one - I think things aren't quite square in there :o(

Anyway, I got that finished, and we took the van out to drop off the recycling.  The seats sit lower than the old ones, and I'm thinking I'll probably look at remounting them when Vic gets back from her trip up the coast.

April 27th

I decided to move forward with the seats in the van, so I took the (new) passenger seat out, and the (old) driver's side seat out, and installed the new seat on the driver's side with the smaller mounting hardware.  It went in folded up surprisingly easily, but then I discovered that I couldn't lift the back as the steering wheel was in the way.  I took the steering wheel off, unfolded the seat and put the steering wheel back on.  Hopefully in the right place :o)

April 24th

I spent the day tinkering with a new passenger seat in the van.  First I had to pull out the old seat, then I started working on installing the new one - after several tries, I have something that sort of works, but drags the mounting hardware when the seat swivels.  Still, I'll get smaller hardware (allen heads are deeper than bolts) and use that - I'll probably take the seat out to copy the mounting for the driver's side anyway.

I then played with some solar wiring, and ended up getting Vic to help me get everything plugged in.  A bunch of wiring is hanging out, but it at least works - I don't think the solar panel was charging the battery properly, as it wasn't plugged in that solidly.

April 23rd

After it rained yesterday, there were puffy cumulus clouds all over the place, promising a bumpy ride, so I ended up spending the afternoon at Roseville Honda chatting with Rich.

April 17th

I started the day at the airfield helping get the hot air dirigible out.  After 2 hours getting it all unfurled, inflated and flying, the pilot did one circuit, blew the landing, managed to not hit any parked aircraft and tore the envelope on one of the lights.  We then spent 2 hours folding it up again.  I went home for a while, then went back and took the Flightstar out for a bit.  It was a bit bumpy over the light and dark fields, so I concentrated on flying over green fields.  I flew over the Camp Far West reservoir, and it's still full, but the overflow isn't... flowing any more.

April 16th

I went over to the airfield to cook for the pancake breakfast.  It was a lot quieter than last month.

When I got home, I worked on getting the fridge back into the van.  There was a lot of trimming involved, but I think it looks OK.

April 15th

I trimmed up the last of the laminate, so now I can just wait for it to finish drying so I can start assembling everything.

April 14th

I trimmed the edges of the laminate for the van with the new router, and got the last of the laminate glued down.  Now I just need to wait for it to dry out and finish out-gassing so I can start final cutting / assembly.

April 13th

I went out and picked up a cheap edge trim router, to work on the laminate for the van.  I had thought about filing it down, but it's a lot harder than I'd thought, so it was going to take forever.

I did a pile of work for the EAA website.

April 12th

I went over to the airfield for a safety meeting about the NTSB.

April 10th

The weather sucked, so I tinkered around the house.  I've rebuilt the old HTPC, and upgraded it to Windows 10 and installed Kodi, with a view to upgrading the new HTPC at some point - hopefully before Microsoft start charging for Windows 10 :o)

April 9th

I went over to the airfield for the Lincoln Regional Airport Association annual membership meeting, and the follow up safety meeting (which was about ADS-B, from the FAA perspective).  After that, we had lunch and I ended up hanging out doing things and stuff for a while.

April 6th

I went to the EAA board meeting, yay!

April 3rd

I started the day playing Warcraft, then ended up getting some more of the laminate for the van sorted out.  I'm going to have to wait for a router bit to trim off the excess, but Dad's suggested I can file it away, so I might try trimming it down to a lot closer with the Dremel, then finishing it up with a file.  I have spare wood and laminate if it doesn't work out :o)

In the afternoon I went over to the airfield and gave the plane a bit of a wash - it was sunny out, so it was drying as fast as I washed it and it's got water spots all over it, but that's better than dirt, I guess.  I went out for almost an hour just playing about.  When I got back, James from the skydiving mob apologised to me for bawling me out for flying through their drop zone weeks ago - I didn't, and he figured out he was yelling at me for something somebody else had done :o)

To top it off, on the way home, I had a knob end in a Cadillac CTS trying to push me to go faster down the freeway (aaand that's what cruise control is for).  He pulled off at the same exit I did, and trying to run the tight 90 degree corner at the end at the same speed I do (with a set of Bilstein heavy duty shocks on the Van) he lost his bottle, overbraked and was all over the road :o)  He didn't push me to go any faster from there :o)

April 2nd

After playing Warcraft for a while, I went out and did some trimming with the laminate I'm going to use in the van.  I started gluing some to bits of wood until I ran out of clamps - we'll see how things turn out.

I went over to the airfield and took the plane out for a bunch of circuits, as the weather was pretty nice.

April 1st

A new month, so new stats:

Power paid for

Power generated

In the evening, I did a bunch of cutting for the cabinet in the van.  I think I'm ready to start fitting things together to see how it all fits together.

March 31st

I watched the release stream from the Tesla Model 3.  I didn't get up early and go to the dealer to put down a deposit, so it's unlikely I'd get one before the federal tax rebates run out.  The Chevy Bolt is looking like a better deal in that case :o)

March 27th

I just spent the day pottering about with things at the house :o)

March 26th

I started the day tinkering with the facia I'm building for the fridge in the kitchen in the van.  It's not warm enough to do the laminate just yet, so I have time to kill :o)  I think I've thought of a better way to do it that pretty much requires me to start over, but that's maybe not so much of a bad thing.

Tilly and I went for a long walk through Mahaney Park, but she was quite upset that we weren't meeting Vic for a cup of whipped cream at Starbucks :o)

In the afternoon I went to the airfield and took the plane out for a flight.  It was quite bumpy, as I should probably have gone up later, but it was interesting to see how full Camp Far West reservoir is now.

March 23rd

I've finished transferring data to Vic's new PC, so that's being used now.  The ~850M video card is getting ~65fps in World of Warcraft with everything turned up to 11.

March 22nd

We watched "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" and completely hated it.

Vic's PC arrived, so I started getting that set up.

March 21st

Vic's PC looks to have a borked SSD drive, so I've set her up with my old laptop until the replacement arrives, hopefully tomorrow.

March 20th

I did a bit more work on the kitchen for the van, and now the panel fits over the fridge.  I'm going to cut out a door for the space in the top, then it's time to start playing with laminate.

Of course, there's now a guy in Sacramento selling a kitchen cabinet that I could probably use to make up the panels I need, but where's the fun in that?

Vic's PC has hung in an update loop, so I'm glad I backed it up about a week ago, and that a new PC for her is going to be here probably tomorrow or Tuesday.  In the meantime, I'll try and restore it and see what happens.

March 19th

I got up early and headed over to the airfield to cook pancake breakfasts for a bunch of people at the historic aircraft display day.

After that, I went home and worked on the kitchen in the van.  After doing a bunch of trimming and building a tongue and groove for the face panel, it fit so tight I struggled to get it back off again.  Imma call that good.

March 16th

I went to the EAA membership meeting - the first based in our own hangar.  I also paid $280 to get a free cheeseburger.

March 15th

Rich, Sharon and Josh came over to play with Tilly, and work on a sponsorship package for Josh's racing.  After a few hours, we went out to dinner :o)

March 13th

Due to the crappy weather, I wasted the day playing Warcraft :o)

March 12th

The weather's sucky, so obviously the temperature sensor is playing up on the weather station - this necessitated a climb on to the roof to take out the batteries and cover up the solar panel for a few minutes, followed by hitting the reset button.  Still, I've found out that the maximum temperature it can send is 140F, the minimum is -50F and it actually displays an average of the last 15 minutes.

I did a little wood cutting for the cabinet in the van, but I didn't feel like hanging out in the garage to do the final trimming and test installing before starting what looks like a complicated process of applying laminate.

March 11th

I took the van over to Stephan's for an oil change, general checkup and an AC recharge.  I ended up giving him the foot brake pedal, as I have spares, and looking at his Truckfridge install.  His is at the top of the cabinet, as he has a Propex heater (I use a standalone Mr Buddy), but he doesn't like the little drawer he has down there as it won't open without rolling back the carpet, making it seem a lot more illicit than necessary :o)

On the way home, I went via Rancho Cordova so I could pick up a sheet of 5/8" (15mm) plywood.  The problem is that this is in 5'x5' sheets, rather than 4'x8', so I couldn't get it in the van.  They don't have cutting facilities there, but luckily there was a contractor who lent me a circular saw out of his truck, so I left with a 2'x5' sheet and a 3'x5' sheet.  I need a single piece, less than 1'x2', so bah.

March 10th

I just did some tidying up, and put the USB charger plate in place.  I'm tempted to try again, as the old one is slightly bent to make it sit flush.  This one isn't, so it seems to bow out a bit at the top and bottom.  Shouldn't take me that long, now I have the old one to use as a pattern.  I could try and bend it, but with my luck the paint'll crack off.

March 9th

I mounted the fridge properly, and made up the wiring for the USB charger that'll be mounted on the old fridge vent.  I've also used caulk to take up some spaces that were left around the frame of the fridge.  Not sure if I like that, to be honest, but it'll be easy enough to pull out if necessary.  I also cut a laminate panel for the fridge door, so it's the same colour as the cabinets now, rather than being black.  It's a lot better looking like that.

March 8th

I cut up some wood to make a better shelf above the fridge in the van, but I think I'll probably be looking at making a different mounting pretty soon - I'd like a shelf to be mounted to the van rather than just sitting on top of the fridge.

I've cut a piece of aluminium to make a new fridge vent (seeing as it's no longer really necessary), and I'll mount a USB charger (and a switch to turn it on and off) to it.  For now I've thrown paint over it to see what it'll look like.

A while ago I ordered some Garibaldi biscuits fro, Amazon, not realising (due to the free shipping) that they were going to come from England.  They arrived today, and Kelly, the postie, brought them to me as I was in the garage with the door open.  This caused a long conversation about biscuits vs cookies while I broke into the packaging so she could try them.  They're not all sugar and chocolate like American cookies, so I don't think she was impressed.

March 7th

I've taken the week off work to use up some holiday time, so I spent the day peering at the fridge in the van.  I can't get it to sit under the sink, as there's a bulkhead in the way, but I've managed to make it sit a little further back, so the frame is level with the cabinets, rather than sitting on top of them.  Now I'm just trying to figure out everything else I want to do there.

The SPDT relay I'd ordered arrived, so I got that hooked up for the halos on the LED lights on the Van, and all's good there.  Yay, something finished!

March 6th

The back fence had come down partially in the storm last night, so we propped it up, and Vic hammered the post support I'd put in a few weeks ago so it's now further in.  That's the only reason the whole thing didn't fall down.  It's all pretty rotten, so I guess I'll have to go and point out to the owners that they should be looking at replacing it soon.  Joy.

Gwen and family came over to play with Tilly and visit the guinea pigs.  Jahzara went home and crashed out, and Tilly went for a rest when they'd all left.  Poor old thing - she doesn't have the stamina she used to :o)

March 5th

I met Bruce at the airport, where we were aiming to seal the floor in the EAA hangar, but there was a leak under one of the walls, meaning the floor was all wet.  Bugger,  Still, I'd left a can of spray foam sealant that'd help with that, so we opened it up to find it wouldn't spray.  Double bugger.

I went home, and screwed around with the EAA membership newsletter, and a bunch of stuff for the web site, then went out and installed some LED headlights on the van.  They're working, but not completely finished, as I need a SPDT relay to get them to do what I really want them to - I've ordered one and I don't have one in all my current junk.

March 3rd

Gwen came over and played with Tilly, then picked up one of the foster guinea pigs for a vet checkup, and it finally started raining properly.  Are these two things connected?  Who knows.

March 2nd

I went to go to the EAA board meeting, and thought I'd take the DRZ to test the keyless ignition.  Damn thing wouldn't start, until I figured out that I'd left the vacuum line off the petrol tap.  Doy.  Plugged that in, started it and went over for the meeting.

March 1st

A new month, so here are the power stats:

Power paid for

Power generated

February 28th

After dinking around at home, I went to the airfield to go flying only to find a T6 on the runway, having been landed gear up.  I gave up and went home.

February 24th

Gwen and Walter came over to play with Tilly.  Oh, and drop off another 2 guinea pigs to foster.  More mouths to feed.

February 23rd

I took a long lunch and went to the airfield, where I did a couple of circuits with Mike, the Designated Pilot Examiner.  All done, I now have my US Sport Pilot License :o)

In the evening, we went to dinner with Jen, then went to see "Deadpool".  It was excellent.

February 21st

We took Tilly to a Van meetup in Granite Bay, and when she was tired, left her at home to go to a meetup with friends in Folsom.

February 20th

I went to the airfield and took the plane out to practice some circuits.  Everything went swimmingly, but one of the jump plane pilots complained about me flying through their jump zone.  I didn't, and I was past their jump zone by the time they got out, as I remember thinking that I'd wasted my time running a wide circuit.  I'm pretty sure he was talking about the plane behind me in the circuit, and the fact that I'd just turned base when he started his whining should have clued him in to that - how fast does he think I fly anyway?

February 16th

We went to the (early) EAA membership meeting.  It was a talk by a guy who threw his 172 into a canyon in the Sierras, and (obviously) lived to tell about it.  It was interesting, but I was a little annoyed that his god saved him, rather than the 150+ people who risked their lives looking for and rescuing him.

February 15th

Today was Presidents Day, when Americans celebrate having presidents by going shopping.

I took Tilly for a long walk over to Mahaney Park, where she got to splash about and lay down in some of the flooded puddles.  We then met Vic at Starbucks, where Tilly got a Puppacino, then a ride home in the Jeep.  Tilly was pretty tired after all this excitement, so I went to the airfield and did some circuits.  Tony was there, so I took some pictures of his Summit and talked about it for a "what our members are flying" article on the EAA website.

February 14th

Another crappy weather day, so we stayed in.  Well, we did go to dinner with Jen.

February 13th

It was too damn windy to fly, so I pottered around the house doing stuff and playing Warcraft.

February 11th

We watched "The Martian".  Pretty good, if a little implausible at times.

February 10th

We had an EAA meeting in the new hangar, basically to talk about the hangar :o)

February 7th

I started the day at the EAA hangar, as we had talked about hanging new lights and stuff, but it seems Ken's going to do that with a bucket lift (rather than us using a rickety ladder).

Again, I went out and did a few circuits, but it was pretty bumpy.  And there was an oblivious guy doing circuits as well.  After he took off in front of me when I was on finals, and then turned (admittedly a 2 or 3 mile) finals when I was already on finals, I decided to call it a day.  There was some sort of sportsball game on, so I'd been expecting it to be quieter.

In the evening, we watched "The Last Witch Hunter".  I swear, we have more fun saying "isn't that So-and-so from Whatsit" these days.

February 6th

The EAA has been in the process of getting hangar, and we're going to rent one with an option to buy it at a later date (there's some weird negotiations going on at Lincoln with the ground rent).  We took possession of it this morning, so a bunch of us went over and moved stuff, cleaned other stuff and made plans.

After that, I took the plane out for a bunch of circuits.

February 2nd

Vince did the annual inspection on the plane - no problems.  He came over to play with Tilly, and we went out to dinner afterwards.

February 1st

A new month, so here are the solar statistics:

Power billed

Power generated