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21DEC24 - This must be one of the longest stretches with no uploads in awhile..seventeen days. Main reason is, I was couped up in here for well over a week nearly round the clock scanning slides and prints. Wound up with a bit over a thousand slide images and over three hundred print images. Needless to say it was a chore with which I am MOST glad to be finished. But, it did add a whole bunch of new photos to the albums, mostly oldies.
Anyway..also during this period, my six or seven year old PC's power supply gave up the ghost but at the time, I didnt know what the problem was. Tried a new PS and added a graphics card at the same time but that didn't fix it so I took it to a local repair joint. Turns out I had reversed two connectors on the new power supply and when those were re-reversed, the machine powered right up so it was the PS all along.
But while they had the box, I decided it was time for some upgrades so I went from a 4th gen i9 CPU to a 14th gen. Had to upgrade the system board to support the CPU and because these current chips run even hotter than previous gens, I went with a liquid CPU cooler. Also had to upgrade the DDR2 or 3 to two sticks of 32gb DDR5. These along with the new nVidia card have made the machine about 25-50 percent faster and that's a blessing.
04DEC24 - My first attempt at using red and green gel filters on the landscaping lights failed miserably but I sort of expected that as all I did was lather some Vaseline on the lenses and then stuck the piece of gel filter on it. I think it took less than a couple hours for the damn Corpus wind to blow most of them off. Went out the next day to find them and was short a few.
So, I got to thinking and came up with a plan. I picked up a ten foot stick of 3" PVC and cut 18 3-inch pieces off it (the number of landscaping fixtures.) Painted them black, used the sander to clean up the filter edge, then I put Gorilla Glue all around the face of the pipe and stuck the filters on. I had to get more gel filters because the pipe was so much larger than the original gel cutouts.
Let 'em sit for a couple three or four hours, checked that they were attached snuggly, then took them all out and placed them over the landscaping lights and that's what you see in the photo. I was quite happy with how good the second batch turned out.
01DEC24 - Hard for me to believe it's December already..
Anyway, while the camera couldn't get them all in one frame, what you see here are twenty solar-powered driveway lights that I picked up on Kamazonski. Until now, I've been using these cheaper, plastic reflectors that look exactly like those you see glued to roadways BUT, they're extremely light and even a good gust can move them around.
Worse, because they're so light, if I accidentally get too close to one with the mower deck, bye bye reflector.
These new chingassos have a heavy metal frame and appear to be quality manufacturing. They even have holes in the base and include concrete screws for mounting. I don't want to drill holes in my precious driveway so I plan to try a dab of Liquid Nails and see how that works.
But I love them already mainly because they're blue just like the standard FAA color for taxiway lighting. (smile) Therefive, I will be ordering more to cover the rest of the main driveway and I'll be pitching those old reflectors into the trash.
Hopefully they won't get stolen before I can get out there and glue them down. :=) That'd be just my luck, too.
30NOV24 - Until recently, I have never worn slippers but while in Maryland visiting Carpenter along with Pam and Bill, I became one.
And that's because Pammy GAVE them to me and she made them, BTW. They are SO comfortable and keep your feet toasty..I love them.
27NOV24 - "Selfie Sunday" on the FordGT600 forum so I went out and grabbed one with the appropriate props. (grin)
It was yet another beautiful day in the neighborhood but I hardly went outside at all. But, I did have a second bread baking Facetime session with my Wooster buddy whose now in New Jersey. He's the master chef I've mentioned previously.
Anyway, his loaf turned out a lot prettier than mine but he did say that he thought it was because he replaced some flour and water with his own sourdough starter which he said improves the bread markedly. Here are a couple shots of my loaf.
This isn't always a sign of a catch but it is the majority of the time. Occasionally, Mr. Go Fair will backfill downstream in the tunnel making it nearly impossible to retrieve the trap. But this time, that wasn't the case and sure enough, out he came, deader 'n a door knob.