Tag Archives: babysitting

2015/10/29 (R) A Setback

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Linda turned off her alarm and slept a few extra minutes before getting up at 6 AM.  I watched the weather on TV while she got ready to go to the bakery.  She left at 6:25, about 10 minutes later than usual.  I am always amazed at how quickly she can get showered, dressed, and out the door.

The temperature across our area was 37 degrees F, more or less, and the wind was blowing, which we could see just by looking at our trees.  The winds were forecast at 15 – 25 MPH out of the SW gusting to 40 and strengthening into the morning hours as they shifted out of the west in advance of a second cold front.

Last night I shut off the color laser printer, the two NAS units, and the Linux box as a precaution against losing power but left my laptop on since it runs on its own internal battery.  Even though all of our devices with hard disk drives are plugged into uninterruptible power supplies, and we have an auto-start whole house generator with an automatic transfer switch, I decided to leave all of these computing devices turned off until the wind subsided later today.  Morning showers were forecast as likely, with the possibility of a few snowflakes, but never materialized.  Overnight lows tonight are forecast in the mid-to-lower 30’s.  The bus is not winterized, and I have been working in it almost every day, so I have had the heat turned on in the bus for most of October.  I do, however, set the thermostats back to approximately 55 degrees F when I am done working for the day.

I got up, put on my robe, fed the cats, and made a half pot of coffee (Sweet Seattle Dreams).  While the coffee was brewing I heated up a banana-nut muffin, poured a small glass of orange-grapefruit juice, washed the last of the blueberries, and fixed a bowl of granola.  I was done with breakfast by 7:15, took my coffee to the living room, and enjoyed it by the warm glow of the fireplace as I worked on my iPad with Juniper on my lap and watched the night yield to the orange glow of sunrise.

New photo accessories from B&H Photo Video in New York, NY.

New photo accessories from B&H Photo Video in New York, NY., photographed with the new Sony a99v-DSLT camera.

My main focus today was the cockpit of the bus, specifically the floor/wall tile, but first I got dressed, turned up the heat in the bus and the garage, and then opened the boxes that arrived yesterday from B&H Photo.  I managed to do that at 8:30 AM; well ahead of my usual getting started time of 10 to 10:30 AM.  Most of the items were in one large box but two small items were in a separate box that must have been shipped from a different location.  The shipping boxes were in good shape and the B&H sealing tape was intact.  I removed everything from the shipping boxes and then checked them off on the packing slip.  Again, all of the individual product boxes and other packaging were undamaged.  I opened each item, carefully removing all of the pieces and manuals/paperwork.  I arranged everything on the dining room table and took a few photos to document what was there.

I had been pondering the damaged plywood under the driver’s seat ever since I removed the old vinyl tile.  The exposed plywood was screwed down in lots of places so I figured it was not the original floor of the bus.  I could also see many additional plywood layers in the holes for the seat mounting bolts.  Closer inspection revealed that the top layer of plywood in the driver’s area was in two pieces, fore and aft, and that only the aft piece was damaged.  Based on all of that information I decided to try removing the aft piece.

All of the screws came out except for two and they just spun in their holes so I figured the wood around them was bad.  It took a little prying but the piece popped loose.  I pushed the two power wires for the motorized seat back through a hole and the board was free.  What I found made my heart sink.

First look at the water damage in the aft portion of the driver’s floor area.

First look at the water damage in the aft portion of the driver’s floor area.

The underside of the plywood was much more damaged than the top side and it was moist.  The original bus floor was even worse.  Part of it was missing and I was able to crumble much of what was still there from the rear mounting holes back.  It was obvious that there had been considerable long-term exposure to water but it was not obvious how this had occurred and was, apparently, still occurring.  I texted Linda and Chuck with a photo of the damage and heard back from both of them fairly quickly.  This was clearly an unanticipated setback but long term it was better that I discovered it, and had a chance to fix it, rather than having covered it up.

Speaking of covering things up, the top layer of plywood must have already been damaged when we bought the coach in late 2009.  One of the things we had Creative Mobile Interiors (CMI) do to the coach between September 2009 and April 2010 was pull the carpet out of the entry and cockpit and replace it with the gray vinyl tile that I just removed.  The tile was under the swivel pedestal base of the driver’s seat so whoever installed the tile must have removed the base and must have seen the obvious signs of damage.  They should have stopped right there and let someone know and CMI should have contacted us to discuss a course of action.  The obvious course of action would have been to pull up the top layer of plywood and see what was going on.  We would not have been happy about it at the time as we were already spending more money on fixing things than we anticipated, but we could have discovered and fixed this six years ago.

The floor directly under the base of the seat is the ceiling of the first bay on the driver’s side of the bus.  It was very chilly outside so I put on my hooded sweatshirt and had a look from below.  I could see that the four threaded holes for the seat mounting bolts were part of two large steel angles running fore and aft that were welded to two square tubular steel cross members.  From that observation I decided on how to proceed.

My plan was to cut out the bad plywood by cutting between the centers of the holes.  That would leave half of each angle to support a new piece of filler plywood.  I got the Porter-Cable oscillating saw and started cutting out the really rotten wood aft of the rear seat mounting holes.  I was not prepared for what I found when I finally got that piece out.

The damaged bus sub-floor cut away. I could see through into the bay below the driver’s seat. The blue to the left is paper shop towels soaking up the water and rotted plywood in a small tray area.

The damaged bus sub-floor cut away. I could see through into the bay below the driver’s seat. The blue to the left is paper shop towels soaking up the water and rotted plywood in a small tray area.

What I found was water; not dampness, but standing water.  And debris, lots of mucky debris.  We had a lot rain starting late Tuesday evening, all through the day yesterday, and overnight into early this morning so I suspected that this water might be “fresh” as in recently arrived in this location.

The cross member aft of the rear pair of seat mounting holes is the top of the rear wall of the compartment under the driver’s seat.  All of the water was in the area aft of the cross member in what appeared to be a kind of tray about two inches deep below the level of the driver’s floor.  It was almost full of disintegrated plywood, and other stuff, and obviously did not have a natural drain.  I sent a second  text message to Linda and Chuck with a photo of the water/debris-filled pan aft of the rear mounting holes for the driver seat pedestal.  Some things you just have to share, and some things you just have to see to believe.

It took me a little longer to realize what was going on as my immediate concern was cleaning up the mess.  I put on a disposable glove to pick up all the detritus in the tray and put it in a trash bag.  The tray extended under the floor towards the outside of the coach so I reached back in there and just kept pulling out more and more wet junk.  At this point I started to analyze what was in front of me.

It was now obvious to me that the damage to the floor under the driver’s seat was caused by water filling this tray and coming in contact with the bottom of the plywood bus floor.  With nowhere for the water to drain it was able to stay in contact with the plywood for very long periods of time allowing it to penetrate the plies, soften them, and destroy the (water soluble) glue between them.

Clearly I needed to figure out where this water is coming from and stop it, but that was not going to happen today.  I did, however, go back outside and check the front electrical bay.  Sure enough, there was a little water on the floor of that compartment, so it was possible that the water might be coming from there somehow.  If so, I need to find the breach and seal it.  That, however, just pushes the problem down the road as I will still need to figure out how water is getting into the electrical bay in the first place and stop that.

The more I studied the way the bus was built the clearer it became that the original plywood bus floor extends under the left console into the first bay and separates the small upper compartment from the larger one below.  But this tray-like area was below the floor and farther back which meant it was under the front electrical bay and above the driver side steer tire.  I will have to check again but it appeared that this piece of plywood must be the floor of the electrical bay.

With a better, but still incomplete, understanding of the situation I resumed cutting out plywood.  My oscillating saw went through the rotten wood like a hot knife through butter, but did not cut the undamaged plywood very well.  I figured the blade was dull so I opened the Bosch replacement blade I had on hand only to discover that it did not fit my Porter-Cable tool.  Arrrgh.

It was probably a good time for a break anyway, so I went to Lowe’s to get a couple of extra blades.  I had good QSOs with Mike (W8XH) going to and from the store.  The weather is supposed to be very pleasant all next week, with afternoon highs in the upper 60’s, so we are going to try to find a day to work on my antennas and the small tower next to the house.  Bus or no bus, I also have to make time for our amateur radio hobby.  When I got home I made popcorn for lunch and then got back to work.  It’s a good thing I don’t have to fix most of my meals.

Linda called at 3:15 PM to see if she needed to come home and pick me up before going to Ann Arbor.  Given what I was dealing with I was tempted to say ‘yes’ but I knew that this was a situation where I needed to stay on task until it was fixed.  Brendan and Shawna both had work-related obligations this evening and asked Linda if she could watch Madeline for a while.  Rather than have her cut her work day short to come home she left the bakery and drove directly to Ann Arbor while I continued to work on repairing the floor.

I called Chuck to see if he had time to consult with me about all of this.  He called me back and we talked it through.  He thinks the entry point for the water could be the frame on the large piece of fixed glass just aft of the driver’s position.  I know we have a leak near the front of the large window assembly just aft of that one and the forward edge of the window panel may also be above the front electrical bay.

As soon as I was done talking with Chuck I removed the reading light on the vertical walnut chase by the driver’s left shoulder and then removed the nine screws that hold the cover in place and took it off.  I have known for a long time that there was a lot of stuff running through that chase but I had never removed the cover to look inside.  It is crammed full of AC and DC wires, coaxial cables, air lines, and residential air-conditioning refrigerant lines.  My immediate interest was evidence of water, and I did find the same stains that were similar to ones we have found elsewhere in the coach, but I did not see anything that looked or felt wet.

With the new blade for my oscillating saw I managed to cut out the piece of plywood between the four mounting holes but it wasn’t easy.  With that piece out, however, I could use my inspection mirror to see the underside of the floor and reach into the space below to determine distances to various structural members with my carpenter’s tape measure.

I still had more wood to cut out but by 4:15 PM I’d had enough for today.  I set the top layer of plywood back in place and covered all of the larger holes with painter’s tape in a feeble effort to keep critters and cold air out of the coach overnight.  I also used two pieces of felt and painter’s tape to seal the hole where the steering column goes through the floor.  I took a few more photos, which I had been doing all along today.  Tomorrow I think I will use the circular saw and/or the cutoff tool and try to make quicker work of this.

Before quitting for real I decided to unscrew the 3-sided bump out from the passenger side HVAC duct cover and measure the left desk base and pedestal to see what the correct distance needs to be.  The bump out protrudes about four inches but it should only be three inches.  As I suspected it is too big by the width of the wood, but I will take more careful measurements before I take it to Jarel to have it cut down.  I also discovered, however, that the filter material we used to cover the hole where the heater hoses previously came out of the HVAC duct was interfering with the fit of the duct cover, including the bump out.  While I was thinking about it I pulled out the two filler strips that go on either end of the plywood sofa seat.  Jarel is going to remake them longer and out of solid walnut.  Since we moved the seat board out almost five inches one side of each strip is now exposed and visible and the stained plywood edge is just not the look we want.

We had a heavy overcast most of the day and by 5 PM the light was fading.  I dialed back the thermostats, grabbed the camera and the house phone, locked up the bus and went inside.  I changed into my robe and then fixed dinner.  I did not want to spend a lot of time preparing and eating a meal by myself so I had a can of Amy’s Chili with Vegetables.  I added crackers, Smoked Tabasco Sauce, and shredded Daiya mozzarella vegan cheese.  Some strawberry preserves on crackers added a touch of sweetness and Stash Raspberry Pomegranate Green Tea added its own warmth.  Given a little more time I can make a better meal for myself but ever since Linda retired and took over preparing our whole-food plant-based (vegan) cuisine I am no longer as comfortable/confident in the kitchen as I once was.  This way of eating involves ingredients and techniques with which I am simply not familiar.

After dinner I sat on the living room couch in the same spot, and in the same robe, as I did at the beginning of the day and worked on this post.  I like the sense of things coming full circle, but mostly it is a comfortable place to sit and use my iPad.  Linda and I texted for a while after she had put Madeline to bed.  At 9:07 PM she indicated that she was leaving Ann Arbor and heading home.  She got home a little before 10 and we sat in the living room for a while and finally turned in at 11.  It had been a long day for both of us.

 

2015/07/25 (S) Monitoring

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We started our day with our weekly ham radio breakfast in South Lyon.  As we were leaving breakfast I called Chuck to see if he was at his shop.  He wasn’t but said he could be there between 11 and 11:30 AM.  We drove home, loaded up my car with the accumulated recyclables, headed over to Recycle Livingston, and then headed to Chuck’s shop in Novi.  We arrived before he did and let ourselves in.  I got his Dremel tool kit and pistol style soldering gun and we chatted for a while.  He had a noon appointment with someone at a commercial building he owns in Livonia, and we had a long list of project tasks to take care of, so it was a shorter chat than usual.  We stopped at the Lowe’s in New Hudson and bought a can of garage door spray lube and then headed home, stopping for fuel at the Brighton Shell station on Grand River Avenue at I-96.

At our ham radio breakfast Linda had rye toast and I had an English muffin for breakfast (our usual meals) so we were hungry by the time we got home.  We had roll up sandwiches of hummus, Vidalia onions, and greens with a drizzle of olive in a whole wheat pita.  Very tasty.  We then got to work installing the wall-mounted track for the ZioTek monitor mounting system I bought from CyberGuys.

The north wall of the ham shack. Critical points for the mounting of the ZioTek track system are marked with green tape.

The north wall of the ham shack. Critical points for the mounting of the ZioTek track system are marked with green tape.

Conceptually the installation was simple but it took all afternoon.  There is a kind of alcove at the north end of my office that serves as our amateur radio (ham) shack.  The purpose of the ZioTek system is to support up to four monitors on the north wall above the two desks located there so that they are not attached to the desks or using up any of the desktop real estate.  The walls in the office are 7/16ths inch thick T-111 exterior plywood with 1/2″ grooves on 4″ centers running the length of the plywood sheets.  The sheets are installed vertically so the groves run vertically giving the appearance of vertically installed 4″ wide rough sawn boards.  We finished the photo studio/office at the old house with this material so we knew we liked the way it looks.  Being plywood it has once major advantage and one major disadvantage compared to drywall; you can screw relatively heavy things to it, but holes are essentially impossible to repair.  What that meant for us was that we only had one chance to get the track in the correct location.

In this case “correct” meant:  at the right height and horizontal location to be able to position the monitors exactly where we wanted them while making sure the track was level.  To accomplish this I bought a 1″x6″-8′ poplar board to use as a mounting plate for the two track sections.  (All of the trim in the ham shack/office is poplar.)  We used pieces of tape to mark the locations of the corners of the three monitors on the wall and marked the centers of the VESA 100×100 mounting plates.  When we knew where the horizontal centerline of the tracks needed to be we determined the horizontal location of the tracks relative to the right end of the poplar board, which would be installed flush to the vertical trim in the northeast corner of the alcove.

The ZioTek tracks will mount to the horizontal poplar board which will be mounted to the wall at the studs.

The ZioTek tracks will mount to the horizontal poplar board which will be mounted to the wall at the studs.

We set the poplar board in the utility hallway and positioned the two tracks on it.  I butted the tracks together and slid one of the mounting plates so it saddled both tracks and kept them aligned.  The tracks are 4.5″ wide and the board was 5.5″ wide so I very carefully positioned the tracks for a 1/2″ reveal along both edges.  I then marked the eight mounting holes (four in each track) and removed the tracks.  Using a brad point wood bit that was slightly smaller than the central shaft of a #14 wood screw I drilled holes that were as carefully centered as I could make them.

We held the board in position against the wall and used a 1.5″ #6 finishing nail through the right mounting hole to hold that end of the board.  We then used a 4-foot level on the top edge of the board and secured the left end with a second nail through one of the mounting holes.  We positioned the chair where it will be when in use and made sure we liked the height of the board.  It looked and felt right so we proceeded to secure it to the wall.

The ZioTek tracks mounted to the poplar board mounted to the wall. Linda is vacuuming up sawdust from drilling.

The ZioTek tracks mounted to the poplar board mounted to the wall. Linda is vacuuming up sawdust from drilling.

Using a small carpenter’s square I marked locations for mounting screws one inch in from each edge of the board in vertical alignment with the small heads of the nails that secure the T-111 to the studs.  The 8-foot long board spanned six studs so I had 12 holes to drill.  I used a standard drill bit that was slightly smaller than the shaft of a #14 wood screw and drilled through the poplar board, through the T-111, and into the studs.   I used a countersink bit to create recessed pockets for the flathead wood screws.  We then secured the board using 3″ long #14 flathead wood screws.  We applied a little soap to the screw threads to help them go in.

I pulled the two small nails out of the track mounting holes.  Using the same drill bit I finished drilling out the mounting holes all the way through the T-111.  We positioned and partially installed one track using 2″ long #14 flathead wood screws in the two end mounting holes.  We then did the same thing with the other track.  I slid one of the mounts so that half of it was in each track and partially installed the remaining four screws.  I gently snugged up all eight screws, checking the track alignment as I went, and then torqued them down.  The heads stick up above the inside surface of the track but the shuttle mounts are raised on the underside so they slide right over the screw heads without interference.

The first of three monitors to get mounted. This one is on the left end of the tracks.

The first of three monitors to get mounted. This one is on the left end of the tracks.

With the track mounted to the wall we turned our attention to installing the monitor mounting arms and monitors.  We used one of the long arms on the left, the short arm in the center, and the medium arm on the right.  The other long arm will eventually end up on the far right or get swapped for the medium arm, but for now I only wanted to mount three monitors.  We installed the nice Dell monitor that goes with my older Dell Precision laptop in the center and installed the two ASUS monitors to either side of it.

By the time we got the third monitor mounted the office was in more disarray than usual and we did not have time to clean up tools and put things back in order.  Linda did manage, however, to run the vacuum cleaner and get most of the sawdust and wood chips sucked up.  Our son had called during the afternoon with a last minute request for babysitting services from Linda and I decided to go too.

A view of the mounts for the left and center monitors. This is a substantial system.

A view of the mounts for the left and center monitors. This is a substantial system.

We left at 6 PM for Ann Arbor and stopped at the Whole Foods Market to pick up a few things for dinner.  We got two different vegan sushi rolls, a cold couscous salad, and some organic black grapes.  When we arrived at Brendan and Shawna’s house a little before 7 PM Madeline was surprised and excited to see us.  Brendan and Shawna left around 7:15 PM for an engagement party and Madeline was fine with the whole thing.  She was still eating her blueberries and strawberries and then wanted Linda to read several books to her.  We went upstairs to see how her crib had been converted to a toddler bed, allowing her to get up during the night to use the bathroom.  Such a big girl.  But not too big for pajamas that featured fairies.

After another couple of stories Madeline went to bed without a fuss.  We then had dinner.  The California rolls were OK but the couscous salad was outstanding and the grapes were very good.  We sat on the couch using our iPads but I could not stay awake so I laid down and drifted off to sleep.  I was awakened about 90 minutes later by the return of Madeline’s parents.  Linda gathered up our leftover food and the roses the kids had gotten her as a “thank you” for babysitting on such short notice which gave me time to fully wake up.  We were on our way by 10:30 PM and back home shortly after 11.

 

2013_11_08-15 (F-R) Another Busy Week

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The second week of November was another one of those weeks where we were busy every day from the time I got up until the time we went to bed, but I don’t have a clear recollection of what I was doing each day as I did not always mark it on my calendar.  I think that is because I spent a lot of time at my computers working on WordPress websites and installing packages/updates.  Some days are very clear, however.

2013-11-08 (F) The “Eyes” Have It

We had managed to snag a couple of appointment times this morning to have our eyes checked by our long-standing optometrist at the Farmington Vision Clinic.  Linda’s eyes had not changed very much, but it had been a couple of years since she got new glasses, so she decided to get a pair.  I had been experiencing intermittent “wavy” patterns and was a bit concerned about that.  The exam did not indicate any issues with diabetes or glaucoma, so that was a relief.  The tentative diagnosis was “pre-migraine ocular disturbance” which was interesting because I was not experiencing any headaches, and rarely do.  The trigger may be something that I eat, perhaps caffeine or wine, so I may need to keep a food log.  Ugh.  I like writing about the dishes Linda prepares, but I don’t like “logging” my food intake.

Chuck is in the process of prepping their bus for southbound travel, so I met up with him for lunch.  He had also gotten connected to a guy in California whose older brother was living in Michigan when he passed away back in June.  The older brother was well known in the Prevost bus community, and had a converted coach stored in the N.E. suburbs of the Detroit Metro Area.  The surviving brother needed to deal with as part of his brother’s affairs, and Chuck had offered our assistance on Sunday.

2013_11_09 (S) Schramm’s Mead

But first we had to deal with Saturday, which started with our usual ham radio club breakfast in South Lyon, Michigan.  Attendance varies, but we had a big crowd of at least 20 people.  After breakfast we decided to drive over to Ferndale and find Schramm’s Mead.  I worked with Ken Schramm before I retired from Wayne RESA.  He’s still the TV / Multi-media Production Manager there, but outside of normal business hours he is a well-known expert on the subject of mead, having written a well-respected book on the subject, and speaking at international conventions.  He and his wife Jean and their daughter Alison have been working for over a year to get Schramm’s Mead open, and that finally happened about 6 weeks ago.  They are at 327 W. 9 Mile Rd. in Ferndale, Michigan.  The meadery is located in a very “happening” part of town just a short walk west of the intersection of 9 Mile Rd. and Woodward Avenue and should be a good location for them.  Parking was plentiful, with both paid and free options.  We sampled their complete line of currently available mead products and bought three bottles.  I have added a section to the Health & Food tab of this website on Wine & Mead and refer you there for more information about mead and the offerings from Schramm’s Mead.  Let me just say here “this is good stuff.”

2013_11_10 (N) Buses & Ham Radio

Sunday found me headed to Chuck’s house near South Lyon bright and early, or at least early.  We needed to meet the guy from California at the RV storage lot in Shelby Township, so it took an hour to get there.  He was waiting for us, let us in, and led us to the bus.  It was a 1997 (~) Prevost XL (40’) Royale Coach conversion with a Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine and 6-speed automatic transmission.  It appeared to be in good shape and Chuck and I set about figuring out its state.  The chassis batteries had been left “on” and were drained.  The house and generator batteries were also “on” but appeared to be in better shape.  It did not appear to have much fuel in the tank, but with the chassis batteries drained we couldn’t get accurate readings from any of the gauges.  We got the generator started, plugged in the 24V emergency chassis battery charger, turned the house batter chargers on, and set about finding the circuit breakers and switches seeing what worked.

After letting the generator/24V charger run for several hours the chassis batteries showed no sign of coming back to life.  We still had enough hours of daylight to do something about it.  We located a NAPA Auto Parts Store less than 2.5 miles from the storage yard and gave them a call.  They had 8 of the type battery we needed (12V Group 31).  We only needed four.  We pulled the old ones out of the bus and headed over.  By taking the old ones we did not have worry about disposal/recycling of them and avoided a “core charge.”  We installed the new batteries and the DD-60S fired right up.  That’s was a beautiful thing to hear.  The chassis and brake systems aired-up correctly and the gauges all came to life.  That’s was a beautiful thing to see.

The bus had about ¼ tank of fuel indicated, or about 40+ gallons, so we decided we did NOT need to drive it someplace to fuel it right that minute.  The bus was headed to Staley Coach in Nashville, TN at the end of the week and could stop for fuel early in the trip.

I had a ham radio club meeting at 6:30 PM, and needed to get dinner, so Chuck and I made our exit and headed back to his house.  I got home in time to change clothes but not sit down and eat.  Linda made sandwiches for us to eat as we drove to the meeting.

Our November ham radio club meeting is a significant one as we elect officers for the coming year.  Mike (W8XH) agreed to run for a 2nd term as president, Paul (N8BHT) agreed to run again for Treasurer, and I (K8BRF) agreed to run again for Vice-President.  Marty (KB8JIU) did not wish to run again as Secretary, and Harvey (AC8NO) agreed to run for that position, which he has held in the past.  There being only one candidate for each officer, the slate was declared elected.  The program for the evening was put on by Mike (W8XH) and Steve (N8AR).  They demonstrated the use of Mike’s Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) to examine the characteristics of an antenna by calibrating out the effects of the transmission line.

Technical note:  Transmission lines have losses, i.e., they inherently dissipate as heat some of the energy they are trying to transfer from a radio transmitter to an antenna.  The losses depend on frequency, and if the transmission line is of low quality it will dissipate more energy per linear foot than a higher quality one at any particular frequency.  How much energy it dissipates thus depends on the inherent loss, the length, and the frequency of the signal.  When a transmitter sends energy through a transmission line it would ideally like all of the energy to reach the antenna, be transferred into the antenna, and cause it to resonate, producing electromagnetic radiation.  It never works quite that well in practice.  If there is a mismatch between the transmission line and the antenna, some of the energy will be “reflected” back down the transmission line towards the transmitter.  However, if there are sufficient losses in the transmission line the reflected energy never makes it back to the radio, which makes the radio think everything is just fine when in fact very little of the energy the radio produces may get turned into useful RF EM radiation.  Mike’s VNA allows the user to “calibrate out” the effect of the transmission line and “see” what is actually happening at the antenna.  That’s cool, and that’s a good thing to be able to do.

2013_11_11 (M) Odds ‘n’ Ends

Monday was a catch-all day for me while Linda went to Ann Arbor for her regular Monday babysitting duty.  I talked to Michele and she was encouraged that she would be able to fix the two expensive body panels that I crunched.  I called Prevost and ordered the 3rd panel that she would not be able to fix.  It would ship via UPS and arrive on Wednesday.  I updated my LinkedIn account and added all three of our phone numbers to the Federal DO NOT CALL LIST, a long overdue chore.  I called Adams Well Drilling and Water Treatment to get new whole-house sediment filters and chlorine tablets for the carbon filter unit.  We have a sediment filter housing that takes 10” long large-diameter filter elements.  They are a spun polypropylene with a dual micron rating; 50 microns on the outside and 5 microns on the inside.  It’s like having two filters in one!  The 50 micron portion removes the larger sediment that can quickly plug and filter and render it useless, leaving the 5 micron filter to remove only smaller particles.  The flow rate through this filter is excellent, and it’s easy to change thanks to the pre- & post-filter shutoff valves Adam’s installed, and the pressure relief button on top of the housing.

We had previously arranged to meet Kate for dinner.  Having just seen her in Ypsilanti, we agree to meet at the Zukey Lake Tavern in Pinckney, Michigan.  Linda and I wanted to check it out as our ham radio club had decided to go there for our December holiday meeting/dinner.  They have a very average salad bar, but I was able to get plenty to eat at it.  Linda had a veggie burger.  Not a great choice for us as restaurants go, but it will work well for the club.

2013_11_12 (T) Madeline Comes To Visit

Linda had agreed to babysit our grand-daughter on Tuesday so our son could continue working on a presentation for his department at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.  I don’t get to see Madeline as much as Linda does, so our son offered to bring her to our house and work there while Linda and I handled baby duties.  Madeline is a busy little girl.  She is an accomplished crawler and is working on standing up and walking.  She loves her books and toys, and grandma bought some new ones to have at our house for her.  She kept us both busy while her dad worked on his computer.  He brought her Pack-n-Play and set it up in the bedroom that we have designated for her.  She went down for nap right on schedule at 2 PM and slept for ~90 minutes.  We got to play with her until sometime after 5 PM when it was time to leave.

2013_11_13 (W) & _14 (R)

Linda had called a couple of weeks ago and managed to get an appointment with our primary care physician for her annual physical due to a cancellation.  Her total cholesterol had risen a little from the last visit, which annoyed her given the way we eat, but her HDL, LDL, and triglyceride numbers all looked really good.  She was also able to talk to the nurse and find me an appointment time later in the month.  I really did not want to wait until late April or May for my next physical.

Thursday morning I went to Chuck’s bus garage to chat with him and our mobile Mechanic, Joe Cannarozzi, who had come in from Chicago to complete some work on Chuck’s coach.  Joe had also been engaged by the guy from California to drive the bus to Staley Coach near Nashville, Tennessee on Friday morning and bring the guy back to the Detroit area.  It turned out that Chuck needed new brake pads for his tag axle wheels.  We were sitting around wringing our hands about how to get those in time for Joe to finish the brake job when I realized that Joe was going to Nashville where Prevost has one of their major factory parts and service centers!  Phone calls were made, parts were ordered and put on account for will call, and it was agreed that Joe would pick them up on Friday and bring them back with him.  Sometimes bus stories do have happy endings.

I spent Wednesday and part of Thursday working at my computers.  Larry (K8UT) is a member of our ham radio club and a very accomplished web designer.  He had given me the “key” to getting a local web-server running:  LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin).  I got MySQL and phpMyAdmin installed on the Linux box but was unable to create the databases I needed in spite of spending time with the documentation.  By Thursday evening I still did not have WordPress running on our local web-server, but I was clearly making progress in that direction.  Sometimes computer stories have happy endings too.

2013_10_07-10 (M – R) Wrap-up and Re-load

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Linda did double duty this week (Monday and Wednesday) in the babysitting department as she will miss her regularly scheduled shift next week while we attend an RV rally / photography workshop.  So our daughter got Wednesday “off” will fill in for her next Monday.  I took the opportunity to work at my desk and finally prepared the various materials that I have to supply to the members of our FMCA Freethinkers associate chapter for our upcoming annual business meeting.  We also took care of errands and finished cleaning up from the open house.

One errand I had not ever been on was taking boxes of paper to a shredding facility (Royal Oak Recycling in White Lake Township).  This place has you drive onto a scale with your car, drive to a dock and unload your stuff, and then drive back on the scale.  I had 10 copier paper boxes of mixed paper and hadn’t really thought about the fact that “20 lb” paper means that a case of 10 reams weights 20 pounds.  I didn’t think I had that much paper, but the difference in the before and after weight of the car was 220 lbs.  ROR charges 15 cents per pound if you want to watch them shred your paper, or they pay you 2.5 cents per pound if you are willing to just drop it off.  Since the papers to be shred were mostly old personal and business financial records, we wanted to verify that they had indeed been shredded, so I paid.  They only take cash, so it was a good thing that I had enough to cover the $33+ amount.

At one time I sent updated rosters to the members of our Freethinkers chapter by attaching the PDF to an e-mail.  More recently, I decided to put the roster and other documents in my personal Dropbox, generate a link, and just e-mail the link to everyone.  That technology works very well, and is capable of even more sophisticated operating modes.  But I have also been thinking about, and working on, a website for this group using WordPress.  I decided that I would put some effort into giving it some structure and preliminary content, and use it to deliver documents and other materials to the members.  The challenge is that some of the materials, like the roster, contain information that is for the members only and cannot be available for public view.

I was able to password protect individual pages, but the protection is less than ideal as web browsers apparently remember these passwords even when you ask them not to.  It’s may be that this is being done using cookies, but however it is being done I could not figure out a way to defeat it.  I also played around with WordPress user roles, but the only thing that WordPress seemed to have built into it was the ability to require users to log in to post a comment/reply.  This is apparently one of the reasons for the “subscriber” user role.  If have been looking at a WordPress plug-in called S2, or S2 Member, or S2 Framework, that appears to have the ability to place all or part of WordPress website behind a user login function, but I have not had a chance to install, configure, and play with it yet.

On Wednesday I drove Linda to her babysitting gig in Ann Arbor and then I drove back to Ann Arbor in the afternoon to visit with Madeline and her mom and dad.  Shawna had an evening appointment so Linda and I had a quiet dinner with our son and then drove home together.

We spent Thursday re-loading the bus for our trip to Tennessee and Virginia.  Phil from Precision Grading came by around 6:30 PM.  We talked about the approximate location of the bus barn/garage and he set up his transit so we could measure the contours of the site, the driveway in from the road, and the surrounding yard.  Based on his measurements, it looks like our planned site should work very well in terms of drainage, which is always a prime consideration.

Linda spent the rest of the evening working at her desk and following the Detroit Tigers in game 5 of the first round of the American League playoffs.  I spent the rest of the evening updating the firmware in our Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR and updating the Sony Image Data Converter and Motion Picture Browser programs.

 

2013_08_27-28 Babysitting And Our First RV Visitors

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Linda has signed up to babysit our youngest grand-daughter, Madeline, on Mondays so our son and daughter-in-law can attend to their professorial duties at the University of Michigan.  (Our step-grand-daughter, Katie, is 16 and does not need a sitter.)  However, Linda sat on Saturday the 17th.  This week she sat on Tuesday because of our Monday dental appointments.  Next week she is going to sit on Tuesday because Monday is Labor Day.  Like I said, she is babysitting on Mondays.

We both left the house early, Linda for Ann Arbor in rush hour traffic and me for Dearborn in rush hour traffic.  As retired people we are not supposed to be in rush hour traffic; it tends to spoil that special, relaxed mood that is the hallmark of the happily retired.  Morning rush hour traffic headed south on US-23 into Ann Arbor is always bad.  Morning rush hour traffic headed into the northwest suburbs of Detroit on I-96 is always worse.  I was late for my 9 AM dental appointment, but only about 10 minutes.  I won’t be making any more 9 AM appointments in that part of town.

When I was done at the dentist in west Dearborn I headed for Ann Arbor, looking forward to spending some quality time with my grand-daughter.  As I was nearing Ann Arbor I got a call from W. W. Williams in, where else, east Dearborn, letting me know that my special order part was in.  Life really is all about timing.  I continued my journey to babyland.  When I walked in the front door, Madeline was sitting up in the middle of the living room playing with Grandma Linda.  She turned, looked at me, and started crying.  You can’t take anything an 8-month old does personally, but it wasn’t quite the reception I was hoping for.  She got herself all worked up.  Linda tried feeding her, but she was not to be consoled, so we took her for a walk in her very spiffy stroller.

We peeled back the sunshade so she could turn her head and look up at me, which she did frequently.  She stayed calm for the whole ride, and even babbled for a while, apparently satisfied that I was at least doing something useful.  Or perhaps I am less scary when viewed upside down?  As soon as we got back to the house, however, she got herself all upset again.  Having no other plans for the afternoon, I made my exit and drove back to Dearborn to get the special order part for our bus.  Linda told me later that Madeline settled down as soon as I left and had a nice lunch.  It won’t always be that way, of course, and it’s not a contest to see who wins.  Eight month olds are spontaneous, irrational beings, and you just have to accept that and work with it as best you can.  That’s why she has parents, aunts, and grandmothers.

By the time Phil was done working on the driveway on Monday evening he had mixed 14 tons (yes, that’s 30,800 pounds) of sandy silt into and on top of the 6 inches of 21AA road gravel that forms the top layer of the pull-through driveway.  What we really needed at that point was a good, soaking rain and starting late Tuesday evening and overnight into Wednesday we got our wish.  The rain helps the fine particles work their way down into the gravel and lock it together to form a dense mass that will not spread out when driven on, even by a heavy vehicle.  At least that’s the theory.  I drove on it again with the car Wednesday morning and it seemed to be packed pretty hard.

The first test of the pull-through driveway came when the UPS truck showed up with our Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers for the bus.  He pulled the truck right up on the pull-through driveway and backed it out with no difficulty.  That was a good omen.  The next test came when Ed & Betty arrived around 1:30 PM in their Tiffin Phaeton motorhome.  They unhooked their car just after pulling onto our street as I needed them to be able to maneuver the RV to get it parked.  They were also going to have to back out when they left and you cannot do that with a car attached to the rear end of the rig.  I met them at the end of the street, led them to our house, and got them positioned to turn into the pull-through driveway.  Betty drove their car and parked it in our regular driveway.  Ed gave me one of their walkie-talkies and I guided him in to the pull-through driveway with voice and hand signals.  Their motorhome tires did not even leave visible tracks!  Finally, success.  Their rig has 6 tires and weights about 33,000 pounds, so the weight on each tire that is similar to our bus, except that our front tires carry a couple of extra thousand pounds each.  Once they were parked and settled they came inside and we quartered a small, round watermelon and had that as a light lunch/snack.

We had the pull-through driveway built for our own use as a convenient place to park the coach while we load/unload it.  We installed an electrical outlet so that we could also run the refrigerator and maintain the batteries while it was parked there.  We plan to eventually have a “bus barn” to store it in, but for now the pull-through drive is where it will live when we are home.  That meant that we might also want to run the air conditioners while it was parked, so we installed a full “50A” RV electrical service since that is what our coach is designed for.  We also had in mind, however, that it would be nice to have RV friends be able to come for a visit and have a level place to park with some nice shade and decent electrical service.  We also have water available, but we do not currently have a way for folks to dump their holding tanks.  We eventually hope to be able to dump ours using a macerator pump connected by a garden hose (reserved for that use only) to a fitting on the first septic tank.  We can’t use a normal gravity drain hose because we have to pump the tank contents uphill to the septic tank lid.  If we get this to work, guests could do the same as long as their rig is equipped with a macerator pump.

Some of the RV clubs we belong to allow members to list their home or place of business as available for no-cost overnight stays.  FMCA calls these “Stop’in Spots” and the SKPs include them in a list of free and low-cost camping.  There is also a program called “Boondockers Welcome” that our friends Butch and Fonda joined.  We are members of Harvest Hosts, but can’t be a host site as we are a residence not a business.

Ed and Betty originally planned to stay two nights, but they are on their way to some temporary work at the Middleton Berry Farm, a pick your own (PYO) operation east of Ortonville, Michigan.  They have worked summers there for some years, usually during the strawberry season.  At one time they owned a strawberry farm in upstate New York and were the secretaries of the National Strawberry Growers Association.  Ed has a PhD in plant pathology and has done extensive extension service work as a plant pathologist.  The owners of Middleton Berry Farm needed Ed & Betty’s assistance ASAP as the raspberries have come in very well this year.

We did our usual first time visit thing and gave them a complete tour of the house, yard, and bus.  We got to see their motorhome as well, and spent some time trying to tune in over-the-air TV stations with their roof antenna.  The only station we could get was FOX out of Detroit, so Ed turned the system off and put the antenna back down.

Ed and Betty are pretty avid cyclists and have a pair of very interesting tricycles.  They are Spike models made by Trident Trikes and purchased from Craig and Linda Current of http://www.boomersbentsandbikes.com in Florida.  It’s a two front, one rear wheel design with disc brakes all around.  The two front wheels steer and the central structural member is hinged to allow the rear wheel to fold up between the two front ones for storage.  They got the 24-speed gearing option.  I test drove Ed’s and Linda test drove Betty’s and we both found them very comfortable.  Linda can’t ride a bicycle because of occasional balance problems related to her loss of hearing in her left ear, so a tricycle or quadcycle is her only viable option.  At this point in my life, I would just as soon have the stability of a 3-wheeler as well.  Another alternative for us would be a side-by-side 2-seater, which might be a lot of fun, but would probably preclude either of us going for a solo ride.

We sat and talked like old friends and enjoyed a bottle of Pinot Grigio.  Eventually Linda and Betty set about making dinner.  Betty had prepared a “vegan cheese” out of cashew nuts and served it on Saltine crackers.  It was very good, and it reminded Linda that she had purchased a vegan cheese book on our last Holistic Holiday At Sea cruise, but had not yet used any of the recipes.  Linda prepared a nice green salad.  The main course was quinoa with mushrooms and Swiss chard.  She served it with a side of fresh corn, cut off the cob.  We opened at bottle of the 2009 Egri Merlot to go with dinner.  This wine is a little sweet for red wine aficionados, but it is one of the few red wines I will drink.  It lacks any hint of tannin, and is full-bodied enough to stand up to the earthy grain/mushroom/greens dishes that Linda often prepares.  After dinner we sat on the back deck for a while and continued to enjoy our Merlot.  The mosquitoes appeared about the same time we were ready for dessert so we went back inside and enjoyed the last of vegan chocolate cake Linda had made on Monday served with fresh strawberries.  It was still as moist as when she baked it and you would not know it was vegan.  We washed it down with the end of the Merlot, which also goes very well with chocolate cake and strawberries.

The rest of the evening was a free- and far-ranging conversation about life, travels, kids, health, careers, and interests.  We looked at maps and old copies of Wilson’s Free And Low Cost Camping directories and talked about getting large rigs into National Forest campgrounds, which Ed and Betty have done successfully on numerous occasions.  Being full-timers, they are by necessity knowledgeable and skilled when it comes to finding places to park for the night.