Take a look at all of the lightning strikes just a few miles east of me. It is making
for a nice show while we are cooking dinner and listening to NPR.
The image was lifted from here.
http://www.thebakken.org/electricity/lightning/detector.htm
We have a little storm headed our way. You know spring has arrived when you need to
disconnect the coax from the patch panel because you are worried about lightning.
Since I live at the top of a hill, in the country, with no large trees, and my radio
towers are the tallest structure around... I disconnect the feed lines from the patch
panel.
The life of an Amateur Radio operator living in Meeker Co, MN.
I have been trying to get warranty parts shipped since 4/11 without success.
They must be a small mom & pop shop. 10 days from the original call and I still
don't have the right parts for the project. This tankless water heater is NOT that
complex. A couple of big 240vac relays, some temp sensors, a pot for adjusting the
temp, a couple of elements, and the whole thing is being driven by a simple MCU like
a PIC. (The chip is covered with a label so I can't get the exact model... but it
sure looks like a PIC.)
They are really nice people... but I just need the
proper parts to be sent out ASAP.
I stopped by my friend's house where our 23'
Rockwood Roo was in winter storage. After a couple of minutes of hook-up
tasks the Roo was on it's way home for the 2008 season.
The trailer seems heavier than I remember as I rolled through the hills of Meeker
county. I think that I am sensitive to the big trailer and my old Tahoe. The Roo
is more than twice the weight of our previous pop-up camper. My Tahoe has
a little over 100,000 miles on it so I am little sensitive... I hear every pop, squeak,
ping, and knock. I probably won't feel better until I have a newer tow vehicle. In
all reality the Tahoe is probably just fine.
The trailer is now parked at our house. The battery has been reconnected and
the shore power is plugged in. If time permits on Sunday I hope drain the anti-freeze
from the water lines. I hope to do some modifications to the cabinets and shelves
this season to increase the amount of usable storage that we have available to us.
So far we have reservations for 4 trips in May and June. The 2008 season will probably
have a lot of weekend trips compared to previous seasons but most of them will be
two and three day weekends. Cristy and I have very different vacation plans through
our employers and this this year they do not sync up very well.
I doubt there will be any week long trips this year. (In 2007 we had two.)
It could be be interesting year based upon the current gas prices. I have noticed
that Minnesota
state parks seem like they are booked with reservations much earlier than normal.
I suspect the economic recession is keeping people closer to home this year instead
of the more expensive trips cross-country.
I would like to try to go out for a weekend in about two weeks someplace relatively
close by like Sibley or Glacial
Lakes. A shake down trip is always a good thing. Typically there are some
small items that we are missing or need to take care of and a simple trip is good
for that. --I am also a little more cautious with the bigger trailer.
My new camera has a new RAW format... go figure. It looks like I will need to
purchase a Photoshop or Photoshop Elements upgrade before I can use the Canon XSi
with Adobe Camera Raw.
Another forced upgrade to put more money in someone's pocket.
This upsets me enough that I am ready to think about boycotting Adobe products and
going someplace else. Adobe is trying to corner the market on their niche offerings.
I am already planning to leave Microsoft Windows to move to the Mac and
Linux. I need to find a good open source solution to leave Adobe behind as well. --I
sure sounds like an angry person in this post.
What a pain in the rear end.....
So your reading this going what is the problem. Well, I need to keep my two existing
Embarq numbers (home + home/office) and get a third line. The issue is trying to figure
out how to order an Adjacent Exchange connection. Embarq says
they don't care... call Meltel. The really nice folks at Meltel are telling me to
talk to the Embarq folks. Arrgghhh.
The folks at Meltel are really friendly so hopefully they can help me figure this
out on Monday. I would love to be able to order conventional DSL and then get
rid of my Wireless Internet connection.
After searching around on the Internet for information I realized that all BestBuy
locations have received two Canon XSi kits for each location regardless of what the
BestBuy.com inventory is showing.
I called the BestBuy in St Cloud this morning. Sure enough they had it in stock. They
put it aside for me with my name on it.
My son and I drove up to St Cloud and picked up this morning. The battery is on the
charger right now.
I also purchased two 4gb SDHCx4 memory cards for it. I found some on sale for $27.
I know... I could have gotten larger cards... but then they would not fit on a DVD
when I create the two offline copies as part of my standard work flow. Until BlueRay
DVD writers are a reasonable price I will not use capture media in the field larger
than a standard DVD.
I will need to track down a spare battery online somewhere. I also need to test the
rest of my existing accessories to see if there are any other items that I need that
are not compatible with my existing gear.
I am excited to have the camera upgrade. Spring has arrived. That means springs flowers
and spring storms. Let the lightning begin... I am ready for the new photo season.
I am starting to look for Rag
type Photo/Inkjet paper. Here is one that I am
interested in seeing. I might need to place a small order to see how it looks and
run a couple of test prints.
Jacob and I worked on a large batch of Peanut Butter / Chocolate Chip cookies this
afternoon. Time to eat a cookie and watch a Western on AMC.
Today I put up the three bird houses that Jacob and Ben built at their grandfather's
house over spring break. The birds have been invading our yard as a sure sign that
spring is nearby.
When you look at the snow in yard you might not think that is almost the middle of
April 2008.
