Mostly from an email to a friend:

I ended up playing with the iobridge yesterday (iobridge.com). I can now read the temperature and turn a light off/on in the shop from anywhere in the world. Boy, that’s got to come in handy sometime or another. Hi.

Actually, it wouldn’t take much to be able to switch between heating and cooling on the shop’s thermostat (or I could just buy a smarter AC controller). The small iobridge microcontroller is setup totally across the internet, i.e. no computer-language programming required. I have another board that does require low-level programming to scratch that itch I get from time to time. The iobridge will talk to the other board by serial connection and allow the passing of commands and the collection of data. The iobridge will also control X10 wall-plug devices directly (that’s how I turn the light off/on).

The computer I’m using in the shop I just bought from bestbuy for about $200.

Jeanne needed a computer in the bedroom for a little solitude while writing; so I went looking. Bought her an Acer R1600. It runs XP, drives a large monitor, and runs really cool to the touch (uses very little power). Liked it so much I went back and bought me one for the shop. Added a USB WiFi device to each to keep from running Cat5 cable. They hit the Belkin router in the living room just fine.

Break

About this blog going dormant, I figured it out: I was no longer focused enough on the yard to generate discussions and my ongoing activities mostly fell under the theme of my other blog, i.e. recumbent bike riding. But now that I have my part of the shop appointed with work benches and tools I’ve started piddling with electronics/web control/embedded computing again. I use to do that kind of think at work. I’ll drop the “yard” part of yard.piddling.info and shift this blog to piddling of all kinds not recumbent.

I’m not going to say that I will start posting here on a regular basis, I either will or I will not.

We’ve been very active this year; I’ve had my longest bike ride, 122 miles, and we’ve been on two biking vacations, one to Georgia and one to Florida. Jeanne has a new two-wheel, orange recumbent and I have a new three, i.e. a trike. Tomorrow, we plan on riding the bikes shown in the first photo for 32 miles, if it does not rain. Jeanne is training for a 50 mile ride during the upcoming “Birthday Ride” where you ride your age, in miles or kilometers. 50 miles is about 80 kilometers. She is obviously not that old but the 25 mile turnaround gets us to a nice restaurant for lunch. You can read about some of this over on bentrider.info as it unfolds.

Of course, we’re not just riding bikes, nor just going on biking vacations. Later this month we will be going to the Neshoba County Fair for 3 days. This fair has been described as the Republican Woodstock. You’ll be able to read about that here … or not.

From my FaceBook:

Just enjoyed a wrong number call: After hearing my voice

She said “I must have a wrong number”.

I said “That’s perfectly alright”.

She said “Oh, you can meet the nicest people that way”.

I said “That’s true, but you really can’t tell with just one phone call”.

And then we had a nice long laugh together.

Wow, been a while since I’ve been here. I always thought that when I retired, like last June, that I would spend major time in the yard with my hands in the dirt; and, by assumption, be writing about it a lot here. However, my retired life shifted. I started riding recumbent bikes, which I’ve written about over on bentrider.info. I rode over 3,000 miles last year and expect to ride 5,000 to 7,000 this. That’s a lot of riding. I have a 115 mile ride on the 28th of March and a trip to Florida for a group ride in April. So, go on over to bentrider.info and check that activity out.

However, my focus on recumbents does not mean there is nothing going on in the yard. There is! Major stuff, such as building a 1040 square foot shop in the back with A/C, hot/cold water, phone, TV, network, etc. And a new fence. And … But I’m getting ahead of myself. Besides, I’ve written about that over … yonder. Why over yonder, on the bent blog? Because the shop started smaller and with the name “Bike Barn”. It then grew into something much bigger. Much of the new functionality is not bike related and, really, more appropriate here.

And who is doing all this construction for me. That would be Jimmy Burke on the ladder above, my contractor.

However, this is how I normally see him, conducting his mysterious magic. By the way, not a staged photo; the grin is because I caught him on two phones at the same time.

I’ve missed yard.piddling and reporting my activities here. I’ll see if I can wear two blogger hats for awhile.

First of all, “FireDog” is what Circuit City calls their tech people.

I went to Office Depot to get printer ink for me and price tags for Jeanne. Since it is next to Circuit City I decided to run by there also. I told myself that while there I could check on … well you’ll see.

I walked into Circuit City and before I got to anything interesting one of their techies approached and asked if he could help me. I replied something like “I guess not, I’ve already forgotten the excuse I made up to come by here.” I couldn’t understand his reply over the laughter and just walked on. Didn’t buy anything, so, I guess it wasn’t important.

happy birthday to me, happy bir..irth..day to meee, happy birthday to me. Saturday, 4 October, was my 66th. I told Jeanne I didn’t want a cake. She didn’t give in but she did compromise. You can read more about it at bentrider.info.

Wordless Wednesday (8 October) AND

PhotoHunt Theme: "Sad", 4 October, 2008

Some might consider this a sad birthday cake but it was actually very happy and short lived.

Me and Mike this summer.

On the way back from our Xenia, Ohio trip this summer we stopped off in Jasper, Alabama and visited my brother Mike and his wife Mary. It had been a while since I’d seen him and he has been on my mind since. Today I ran across a story from him and thought I would share it. I don’t remember when he sent the email but it was a long time ago. It was when he still had a computer store which he no longer has. My loss! Well, it was nice having a brother with his own computer store. Of course it is nicer just having a brother.

He wrote:

“Hi Brother,
I drove up to the Arby’s drive up window. I had ordered their special - 5 roast beef’s for 5.95. Pretty good deal. I was counting my money when the fellow came to the window with a sack in his hand. I looked at him and told him I wanted some ketchup, regular sauce and horsey sauce. He just stood there with a silly grin on his face. I figured he didn’t hear me so I repeated myself. He never moved. A**h***.

The thought flashed through my mind to just get out and snatch his a** out through the window and then ask him if he put my sauces in the bag. It is 2AM and I’m still working at the store so maybe I’m not in the best of moods. I’m civilized so naturally I didn’t do it. It was a nice thought for a couple of seconds. Anyway, I said to h*** with it…I’ll pay the S** and use the ketchup I have at the store.

I almost broke a knuckle when I reached out to pay him. After I got the window down, I paid the S**. He was still grinning like a j***a** eating briers when I drove off. D***. Double D***.

Mike”

Mike and Mary

You gotta love him. How could you not? Gary (I may have shared this story before but even so I was in the mood to share it again.)

I’ve been thinking more about gardening lately and wanting to get back to yard piddling. With fall coming it is my time for maintenance activities and planning in preparation for the spring. I have my eye on a couple of ebooks, “24 Historic Styles of Garden Design” and “The Principles of Garden Design”. The first because I’m thinking about trying some radically different ideas, well, just different to start with.

An old photo taken in the rain but it is the tree with the pots around it. For example: I’ve already discussed with Jeanne the cutting down of a pecan tree in the back to create a raised vegetable (or flower) bed. There is already a slightly raised brick-surround that might do as is. In any event, these ebooks, and possibly others, will be free for downloading in October from GardenVisit.

Thanks to Sarah for thinking I would be interested and, similarly, I thought you might. I plan to check their site in October for some fall reading, if I can wait. Even when not free the prices are very affordable. I receive no compensation for these comments and they are purely my own

I thought we were buying a mattress but, boy, was I wrong. We bought a Jamison Latex Sleep System. (Not a commercial.)

Yesterday, I took a friend to an interview; Jeanne took kurt to an appointment or else she would have been with me. While waiting I sat in the car and read a science fiction I had already started. It was overcast, raining in spurts, but cool enough and very comfortable with the windows down in my van. Then it wasn’t, cool nor comfortable. Thanks to the tropical storm Fay the rain came in bands in their mad rush around the eye, which at this point was still east of us, maybe north east, and not as well-defined nor as angry as when it made landfall. So, the rain would blow in the windows and I would close them. It would get steamy warm and uncomfortable. The rain would stop and I would open the windows and the cycle would repeat.

Why didn’t I just start the engine and run the AC?

Second: The AC does not work. I took it to a shop and they could not find the location of the leak. They put marker-freon in it which should leave a stain at the leak’s location. (I actually have a freon detector which I may dig out yet; plus a vacuum pump, gages, etc. I’ve done a little AC work, replacing two outside units in the past. However, I’m trying to stop trying to do everything myself. After all, I’m retired, if not unemployed.) The marker has leaked out and I need to take the van back in. Maybe in my next retirement.

After about 45 minutes and during a storm lull I was aimlessly looking about and saw a mattress store Jeanne and I visited a year and a half ago. I was ready for a little diversity, so I walked over. I checked out a few mattresses with the owner and she explained the construction methods and the advantages of each. Even though she encouraged me I didn’t try any out since I was a little Fay and sweat wet. I told her I’d bring my wife by. I’m sure she thought “Yea, that’ll happen” as I walked back to the van through a light sprinkle.

I thought about how bad we needed a new mattress. Ours has a big hole, more like a sink-hole, right under my butt. What are the chances of that? I mean, the core could have failed anywhere but it was on my side, and right under my butt. I called Jeanne and she was on her way home from Kurt’s appointment. I told her about the sale at the place we previously visited. (I guess I failed to tell you about the sale. For example: the $5000 mattress, I mean sleep system, was marked down to about $2600. WOW) Yes, she would love to come and take a look. Such enthusiasm! You’d think the hole was on her side of the bed.

We didn’t buy before because the hole was just a slight indentation and we decided to get a side-board for the dinning room instead. So, as I said, I phoned Jeanne: I asked her to bring me a fresh shirt since in addition to being wet I was starting to smell a little like a wet puppy, which may actually be how wet old men smell. I also asked her to bring my billfold since I’d forgotten it. Retirement is tough.

I returned to reading, hoping Jeanne would arrive before my friend finished her interview. She didn’t; so I explained everything and moved the van closer to the mattress store in case Jeanne arrived in a rain cycle, and as a result of moving the van I used one of my cranks. As we waited I noticed the store owner getting into the car in the next slot. I opened my door, leaned way over and knocked on her car. She looked and I told her I had called my wife. She said that she had to run an errand but her husband would help us. He did, gave a great pitch, had been trained well (he explained that his wife was the expert). We tried several matresses, learned which model a famous 5-star hotel uses, and discovered my favorite, i.e. the expensive one. It felt really good, I mean “Really Good”. I asked the wife’s husband to turn out the lights (just joking) but he said he had done that before. Jeanne wanted to spend less, that’s my girl, but I pressured her and whispered in her ear that I wanted it . She gave in but I think she was happy, especially to be free of the guilt of the purchase. After all, we were going to spend the money on something, maybe something as mundane as van AC or alternator repair. And besides that, I didn’t really want a new bike this year anyway; believe it if you can.

Our friend joined Kurt and Jeanne in the car since the two of them had a 4 o’clock meeting which they were already late for and Jeanne would drop them off after picking up hamburgers for everyone. It’s a two hour group so they would easily catch up and the others would not eat without them. I went home and changed into drier clothes, all around, looking forward to when Fay stops her piddling and the mattress-store man-and-wife can have our new mattress delivered, “for FREE”, and the old one picked up, “for FREE”. I’m still trying to figure out how exactly it’s free.