What did you do today? - 2021 version

[1242Vintage]

Finished up the concrete work on the side of my house today. Now I have a nice flat and fire resistant spot for a propane tank and backup emergency generator. Just roll it onto the pad, connect to the transfer panel and propane and power is back up and running.

Weatherman says temps above 100 again and possible lightning. Not a good combo for tinder dry California. Decent chance for a proactive power shutdown by our utility provider.

 

[Walt34]

Had a long overdue eye exam this morning and in the course of that he put in those drops to enlarge the pupils. That pretty much killed any thoughts of doing anything outside, even with sunglasses it's just too bright. And too hot anyway. The good news is nothing bad was discovered although I have the beginnings of cataracts, and a minor change in my prescription was needed.

Putzed around with some R/C airplanes and did some maintenance with a couple of those but didn't want to start any major projects like building the kit that came last week. My R/C student pilot is coming over Thursday for assistance in setting up a new airplane and programming the receiver and transmitter and I don't want a bunch of other stuff cluttering up the workbench. Said as if there wasn't already enough clutter on it.

 

[Philliefan33]

I just booked five nights in September at an Airbnb in Nags Head. We missed our beach time last year and made a snap decision this afternoon to go ahead and book despite the recent news of an uptick in coronavirus cases. As long as we don’t go back to “no crossing state lines” (and I don’t believe we will) we should be fine.

The place we booked has more bedrooms than we need but the location is nice. If neither of the daughters & spouses can get away to join us, maybe we will ask friends along.

Now I need to research / find some pickleball courts in the area. Pickleball in the morning and beach in the afternoon is just about a perfect vacation for us.

 

[MichealKnight]

7/28 - Back to the Future

One of my all time favorite movies and I've seen all 3 of them, at LEAST 50 times a piece. DW loves it as does DD (13 YO).

AMC does a "rent a theater" so I did that just for the 3 of us and one of the movie choices was Back to the Future.

We loved it so much. Amazing - the first time I'd seen it was summer of 1985 when I was 10-100 years old, I'm sitting, watching the movie, sort of just reviewing the 36 years since.

Still many scenes that make me laugh and choke me up.

The hot dogs and fountain soda were a marvelous treat too.

 

[travelover]

I previously mentioned my pup was going in for a root canal. Today was the big day, and once he was X-rayed it turned out that he also needed two teeth pulled. He is home now, but still half stoned from the anesthetic and cheeks all swelled up. Total cost was $3600, but worth it knowing that he was in pain and I wasn't even aware of it.

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ Our poor animals may be in pain, but they have no way of telling us, and just suffer in silence. Isn't that sad?

 

[RobbieB]

I got off easy. A canine cleaning and 1 tooth pulled for $900.

 

[travelover]

I got off easy. A canine cleaning and 1 tooth pulled for $900.

I can't believe I blew more dough than you.

 

[Hermit]

I did outside work today. It is the first day I have spent out in the yard this year. I bought a big wood splitter last fall and finally got it set up by the wood pile and split and stacked some wood. I had an electric splitter and it took FOREVER. This is a 27 ton gas engine splitter that gets pulled around on a car hitch. It is fast and easy.

 

[aja8888]

My group of 75 + year old friends and I played golf (9 holes in 95 F heat) today. We were finished by lunch and stopped at the local CRACKER BARREL for the $5.99 turkey and gravy lunch special. The meatloaf special is on Thursdays.

 

[ivinsfan]

I did outside work today. It is the first day I have spent out in the yard this year. I bought a big wood splitter last fall and finally got it set up by the wood pile and split and stacked some wood. I had an electric splitter and it took FOREVER. This is a 27 ton gas engine splitter that gets pulled around on a car hitch. It is fast and easy.

No no we don't to think about wood burning season yet...

 

[RobbieB]

Nothing but sit and surf. It's 102 outside.

 

[NW-Bound]

It's 102F here too. I strung up a small shade sail of 5' x 8' in the morning, and did not finish till noon. The shade was outside the window of the breakfast room. Went for a swim in the pool, and did only 10 laps instead of the usual 20. It was hot, and I was tired.

I think I am going to have a belated beer with dinner tonight.

 

[Ronstar]

Toured Denali National Park and got a good view of Mt. Denali. Saw several bears, moose and caribou.

 

[NW-Bound]

Toured Denali National Park and got a good view of Mt. Denali. Saw several bears, moose and caribou.

We are both fortunate to see Mt. Denali. It is said that the mountain is often behind a cloud cover, and visitors don't get to view it at all.

I looked and found a photo that I took on my 2018 RV trip. It looks like we were at the same viewpoint.

 

[Ronstar]

^ nice! Does look like the same viewpoint. Tour bus stop. Our tour bus driver said that 7/29 was the first day that they saw the mountain in July.

 

[Jim59]

Did a 50 mile round trip cycle to Luss on Loch Lomond. Had lunch and spent a peaceful hour on a bench watching the activities on the water. Splendid.

 

[grasshopper]

Summer Solstice 2013

 

[Walt34]

Spent the morning and early afternoon teaching a new club member to fly R/C airplanes. This is not something that happens in one or even a few lessons. He'd bought a new trainer airplane and we spent several hours setting up the radio receiver in it several days ago and flew it today. Unfortunately when he put it together he did not install the carbon fiber wing spar (all you engineers/pilots know what's coming) and during the third flight of setting up the gyros the wing folded when pulling out of a dive. The impact with the ground pretty much destroyed the airplane. Fortunately it is not an expensive one and will be easily replaced, and several lessons learned.

He insists that there was no spar included in the kit, but acknowledged it is in the instructions and he should have seen that when he put it together. I'm thinking he probably didn't recognize it for what it was as I know from experience that it is common practice for manufacturers to wrap the carbon fiber items in protective foam so they don't scratch up other parts. He may have thought it was part of the packing material, or it may well be that the spar was not included. I'll probably never know.

So - now he knows that wings have spars in them, and I now know not to assume that the student read, understood, and followed all assembly instructions. In the days of balsa wood construction such a wing defect would be spotted instantly because it would be so flexible. That's not the case with wings made mostly of foam. You won't know the spar isn't there until the wing fails.

The day was not a total loss for us though. He'd brought another airplane and he made several successful flights with that, a couple of them without me touching the controls, so he is making progress.

 

[street]

Beautiful view thanks Ron.

 

[NW-Bound]

It rained last night. Even with temperature merely in the high 90s, the humidity caused me to sweat profusely while I worked in the backyard, and in the shade. When I got done with the yard work, changed and jumped in the pool for a refreshing swim.

Just now in the afternoon, went checking on my solar system. Even with partially cloudy sky, the solar panels produced plenty of power. The ACs did not work that hard when the temperature was merely in the low 100Fs, and the result was the lithium battery was near full. In fact, this morning, the battery still had some juice from overnight use, and the AC were still running at a low speed on battery and had not switched to grid power. I have not seen that for a while, ever since the high temperature went above 110F.

With surplus power, I ran the pool pump for another hour to bleed off that free solar power, as the battery was full and the charging current was tapering off. It is nice when you have more electric power than you need. Just like with money, or anything else, I guess.

 

[citrine]

Putzed around.....did weekly maintenance on my hydroponic grow system, changed sheets, did laundry, used up pantry goods to make lunch and dinner.

 

[Gumby]

I sprayed a vinegar, Epsom salt and dish soap solution on the weeds growing up through the pavers in my 130 ft. long driveway. Then I mowed the lawn. After lunch, the young wife and I went out to the garden to harvest and weed. I currently have a batch of Principe Borghese tomatoes in the dehydrator; I will oil pack them in the morning. Then we'll prepare and can sauce from our Amish Paste, Roma and San Marzano tomatoes.

An interesting horticultural phenomenon I observed today was our yellow Roma tomatoes. We save seed, and the tomatoes we started this year were 100% saved from last year. Last year, every one of our Roma tomatoes was red, but this year, one of the Roma plants produces yellow tomatoes, even when fully ripe. They taste like all the others, but they are yellow; some random mutation, I guess. So I will save their seeds and see if I can continue the line next year.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I harvested ~90 garlic plants. Then we went for a long sail on Lake Michigan with our boat partners, and then repaired back to our house for grilled country-style pork ribs (cooked rosticciana style).

 

[NW-Bound]

Putzed around.....did weekly maintenance on my hydroponic grow system, changed sheets, did laundry, used up pantry goods to make lunch and dinner.

Hey, welcome back!

Have not seen you for a while.