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Old 07-13-2020, 02:15 PM   #1261
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Lumber. It's the new toilet paper.....

My local Lowes this morning. The HD wasn't much better.
We had a couple of custom trellises built a couple of weeks ago by some carpenters. 'Blow that dough' trellises. Very labor intensive. The lumber was more than the labor .
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Old 07-13-2020, 03:12 PM   #1262
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The little 4-legged dude needs prescription cat food. I placed an online order 10 days ago and hadn't heard a peep so I internet-chatted with them. Turns out the manufacturer is out of it and can't say when they will be able to fulfill orders again, and oh-so-sorry we didn't bother to let you know before you ran out. So I found some in stock locally and went out to buy all they had, which was only two cases. I guess I'm a hoarder, but the little dude has issues and changing diet isn't a good thing, even if we can find an alternative.

I also did the weekly sourdough baking (started a few years ago), took my daily 2.5 mile walk, and relaxed a bit. Still a typical busy day in spite of staying home most of the time.
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Old 07-13-2020, 03:12 PM   #1263
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Well, it had been longer than I thought and the battery was low enough that it would't start, and DH has a medical appointment tomorrow. So today started with a call to AAA (my 4th battery jump this year ).
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Why not get a $40 Battery Tender and connect it to your van if you only drive it infrequently? The trickle charge will keep the battery fresh and eliminate calls to AAA.
What he said. I have two of these, one is on my pickup truck all of the time, and since COVID stuff started the other is on the Honda much of the time too. Works a charm:

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC...3&sr=1-35&th=1
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Old 07-13-2020, 03:20 PM   #1264
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Oh, and I'll be going out to see if I can catch the comet tonight. It will be quite low, if I can see it at all. The next few nights will see it getting higher in the evening sky.
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Old 07-13-2020, 03:28 PM   #1265
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I am still alive and well, and still hiding from the COVID virus, plus the hot weather here. It is 116F (47C) here today.

Been babysitting my solar system and its battery. Bought an additional 2.6 kW worth of panels to add to the installed 5.5-kW array. Did not want to climb on the roof to install the new panels in the heat (I ran out of room to do another ground mount), so just laid out 7 new panels on the pool deck perimeter, and ran some jury-rigged wires from them to a new additional charge controller.

I thought I would have plenty of juice for that 2nd mini-split, and I do, but there is not much excess power to store in the 22-kWh battery to carry through the night. One day, when the high of the day was a mere 105F and the low in the morning was 80F, the battery had enough charge to run the house through the night until sunrise again. Son of a gun! But that is not true anymore, when the high is more than 115F (46C) and the low is 90F (32C). Man, that is hot. Now, I run out of solar juice at around 9PM, and everything switches back to the grid.

Still, I have quite a bit of shading due to my own 2-story home and the neighbor's tree, so will have a bit more juice when I install the additional panels on the roof, instead of laying them around the pool as I do now.

And in order to store more juice, I just acquired another 7 kWh worth of lithium battery. It will not be until next summer that I know if the panels produce enough juice to fill up the total storage of 29 kWh. In any case, a bigger battery will not be worked as hard in terms of charging/discharging cycle depth, and will last longer. More is always good. Same with battery as with money.

PS. I saw the sad news that Khan passed away. RIP.
Glad to hear from you, again NW-bound.


"And what did I do today" ah let me see, not a Damn thing. Lol There hasn't been many of them but today was a very lazy day.
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Old 07-14-2020, 05:43 PM   #1266
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I joined AARP today.

I will be signing up for Medicare in two months, and I discovered that in order to be eligible for the UHC Plan G and the Rx plans offered through AARP, I need to be a member (which makes perfect sense). I'd been meaning to join for a long time anyway.

I also realized this afternoon that I will be giving my retirement notice to my boss in exactly 49 days on September 1 - broke the 50 day barrier!

Last but not least, I gave thanks this afternoon that I have the luxury and the gift of working from home until I retire. If I had had to spend the last four months and the next six months tied to my desk in the office I would have lost my mind from the tedium and the silly office politics. Now, I can focus on just getting the job done without all the unnecessary social interactions with people. This is heaven for me.

Did I mention I'm 96% INTJ and 4% misanthrope?
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Old 07-14-2020, 10:14 PM   #1267
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I am really stoked! I was watching the first episode of Tough as Nails on CBS. They had a railroad competition on the railroad I work on!. On the caboose challenge, I have been a docent on both of them and have keys to both cabooses. The last part of the challenge was between Fillmore and Piru California. we live about 20 miles west, and those are our mountains.
https://www.cbs.com/shows/tough-as-nails//
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Old 07-14-2020, 10:17 PM   #1268
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Having a major landscape job done so I have spent the last week alternating between creative consultant and grunt laborer. Have lost a few pounds and gained a couple others.
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Old 07-15-2020, 01:53 PM   #1269
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Today, I found out that I have a first cousin I never knew about. It turns out that one of my dad's two sisters had a baby girl when she was young and single. She gave the child up for adoption. The woman's adoptive parents recently died and she decided to track down her birth family. She found my dad through a "23 and me" match. (He had submitted a swab right before he died in 2018.) Sadly, my aunt/her birth mother died of cancer in 1972. She was, however, able to track down my other, younger aunt and meet with her. My newfound cousin is two years younger than me, so I remain the oldest of my generation. I don't know if she has found her birth father.
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Old 07-15-2020, 03:38 PM   #1270
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What did you do today? - 2020 version

DW is within a couple of months of FRA. We signed her up today to start receiving SS.
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Old 07-15-2020, 03:45 PM   #1271
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Grilled some marinated chicken breasts on the back porch. Yum.
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Old 07-15-2020, 03:58 PM   #1272
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Had Zoom Board Meeting this morning. Then went to ranch and watered tree nursery, mowed grass around he place and picked wild berries. I also pumped water from crick into a tote for tree watering. Got home eat and went and checked my minnow traps.
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Old 07-15-2020, 04:04 PM   #1273
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I saw my mum today. She’s in a senior home that has been in full lockdown since March. She needed to see a doctor, my sister took her, and we met up in the parking lot of the senior home for a short but very fulfilling get together in the car. I’m very happy we had an opportunity to see each other.
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:26 PM   #1274
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^ that is awesome!
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:36 PM   #1275
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I am still alive and well, and still hiding from the COVID virus, plus the hot weather here. It is 116F (47C) here today.
Yay, you’re back! Welcome back!
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:37 PM   #1276
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I saw my mum today. She’s in a senior home that has been in full lockdown since March. She needed to see a doctor, my sister took her, and we met up in the parking lot of the senior home for a short but very fulfilling get together in the car. I’m very happy we had an opportunity to see each other.
Wow, so glad you got to see her. It’s been rough!
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:41 PM   #1277
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Why not get a $40 Battery Tender and connect it to your van if you only drive it infrequently? The trickle charge will keep the battery fresh and eliminate calls to AAA.
Yep! We have a charger we run on DF’s truck every 2 weeks.
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:44 PM   #1278
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Trimmed my trees and shoved the branches in the yard waste bins.
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Old 07-15-2020, 06:58 PM   #1279
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I dug up 90 heads of garlic from my garden, brushed all the dirt off and laid them out on drying racks in my garage. I have to save about 15-20 heads to plant in November for next year's crop. The rest will be magically transformed into delicious meals by the young wife.
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Old 07-15-2020, 07:03 PM   #1280
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We went to the U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden which started to open this month with reservations. We had a nice stroll around the gardens along with some great views of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from the hill top benches. Everyone had masks and was social distancing so it seemed pretty safe. For the first hour or so we didn't even see any other visitors except in the parking lot and entrance.
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