End of the World. Beginning of a new one. The Life of Amberwolf.

[amberwolf]

Some of the doggie pics, including some of them finally snuggling up together on the bed,now that it's gotten nice and cool (even cold) at night.

After that there's pics of cookies...and stuff.

First one is of Tiny being bored while I was typing something up for ES, and then Yogi having a nap. (well, most of these are of them having naps). There's also one of them at the end hoping for cookies I baked last night, and another of them laying on my legs while I eat dinner, hoping for tidbits.








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Then my oatmeal-raisin cookies, a few dozen to have around, and to use up some flour and stuff I'd had since before the fire, that's probably going to go bad (it already smelled stale-ish) if not used soon. They're not the best ones I ever made, but they're good enough.



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I don't have any of it built yet, but I got all the shelving bits in one place now, organized so I can get to it as needed.





Have got one shed completely emptied and moved some workbench and storage bench stuff in there, and stuck all my old wheels in there for now.

Still have piles of cabling and power adapters I'm trying to untangle from where they were just stuffed into boxes and bags when evertyhign got moved out of the house for the repairs. Am putting each one into a little bag (i get them salvaged from work instead of throwing them away when we unpack the load each week; we probably unwrap hundreds of items each week and it is a huge waste of plastic and other resources, especially when you imagine the thousands of places doing this every day in every city on the planet).

 

[amberwolf]

I have the wifi thing pretty well solved now.

I *think* the problems I was having (at home) with the wifi adapter disappearing or automatically disabling itself are a problem with the USB port on the docking station for the laptop, combined with a bad USB cable, combined with a driver issue with hibernation/sleep modes. I'd tried different ports, on the station and the laptop directly, docked and undocked, and had the same problems. But eventually I dug out a long cable just so I could run it farther away out the window for better signal, and using that one on the laptop directly, it worked fine as long as I always use shutdown/poweroff, instead of hibernate or sleep.


So after days of fiddling with it and the little problems, and some incredible frustration, now it just works. The only issue I have had is that any breeze that stirs the tree branches between the bedroom window and John's house can cut the wifi signal out, forcing constant disconnect/reconnect.

So, I took the big camera tripod (meant for those old shoulder-carried huge 3/4"-tape cameras) off the old telescope. It has a circular threepronged "grip" to hold a camera mount, and this happens to be about the same size as the lid of a spray paint can. I screwed the lid to the back of the antenna reflector, and then clamped it in the camera mount, and swivelled it perpendicular to the way the camera would've been mounted.
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A good wind would still be able to tip this over (but that would be something like teh storm we had a few weeks back that had 50MPH+ gusts, because ti's still under my trees and between the house and sheds, it shouldn't get anything but serious winds there), but it's not as problematic as the other mounts I tried for it before, and since it is completely adjustable for angle and height and direction, it's much better for signal--sometimes I get 4 bars, though usually 3. I simply adjsuted height to just below the tree limbs, and angle to piont direction at his house.



I did have an issue with a really long USB cable I tried to make, and ended up having to use a powered USB hub (that would've been tossed out when CompUSA shutdown) as a relay halfway to it. As long as it doesn't rain I guess it's ok.




Ideally, I'd like to use an ethernet connection between teh computer and the wifi, because that can easily run for teh whole distance between me and anywhere I need the antenna to go, and i could directly connect it to a router, makign a network for any computer i happen to have setup without dealing with drivers, USB ports, etc. Unfortunately, with one exception none of the routers I have are compatible with any of the replacement firmwares peolpe have made for utilizing the full capabilities of the hardware various companies have used in many wifi routers. Some of those allow a "client mode" to let people use a wifi router as a wifi adapter instead--not just as a repeater whcih reduced bandwidth by at least half, but as a full normal wifi adapter.

Well, anyway, the one I do have apparently doesn't always work to flash it, and it cannot be reflashed bqck to it's original, so it's a brick at that point. I haven't tried it yet because it *could* work as regular router still. If I run into the need to mess wtih it, I guess I will try it first, and if it doesn't work, I'll see if I can find a Linksys unit at Goodwill cheap, that is compatible with Tomato firmware (which I've used for years on one before).

 

[The Stig]

lol that WiFi Antenna rig is great.

Its good to see pics of the dogs resting together too!

 

[amberwolf]

They've pretty well settled into quite a pair now. They don't do everything together, but they play together and are often snuggled up next to each other if it's cool enough (<60F, the cooler it is the more likely they are to stay that way for a while; Tiny is almost always the first to move from being too warm).

Yogi will usually snuggle up with me, too, at least for a while, but neither one of them is like Nana and Hachi who would stick right there with me all night. I miss that a lot--one on either side of me, most of the time, or one on my legs and the other against my back or flopped across my chest.

They've also gotten settled down for eating dinner/breakfast, too, so Tiny doesn't try to steal Yogi's first and then eat her own. I used to have to stand there while they ate, cuz Yogi would just back off and let her do it, but now she waits till he's done and he's gone outside for play or potty, and then cleans his bowl if he missed any (not usually!). Then she patrols the whole kitchen to be sure there aren't any crumbs missed :lol: and THEN she'll head outside after him.

I can even hold out a ladle or spatula I was cooking with (after cooling it) and have them both clean off the flavor, one licking each side of it, before I put it in the sink, and they are no longer shy of bumping noses with each other in the process. (I don't do this very often, but sometiems those eyes just get to me while they both sit in teh doorway of the kitchen while I cook).

They don't share pans very well, though--Yogi tends to do like Nana did, and lick the side farthest from where he's standing, effectively blocking the rest of the pan from Tiny. With Hachi and Nana, Hachi would just duck under Nana and lick around wherever Nana wasn't. Tiny just backs off and snuffles the floor around the pan, or if she's in one of her prancy moods she'll paw at the edge of the pan until she pulls it away from Yogi and then she stands on it and licks it, blocking him from it. (I don't give them pans very often either, but again, sometimes those eyes....)



The wifi setup is working very well. If I move it over and aim it around the trees so it has LOS with the Sheraton hotel over on 25th Ave & Peoria, I can pickup and sometiems connect with their wifi (zero bars). That's almost a mile away (~4000ft). I also pickup about a dozen other signals in the same direction with zero or one bar, all secured. Same thing for other directions I can point it and still clear trees and stuff.

In the same direction as my back neighbor, there's a Netgear router (unsecured) that always shows 5 bars, but can only rarely actually be connected to. I don't think it's signal strength is actually anywhere near what Windows thinks it is, but I don't have a way to verify the actual numbers (the newer Asus utility doesn't work correctly and won't even see most wifi's that are actually picked up, only teh zero bar signals adn a bunch of "fake" signals that are not really there, which can be masked in Windows. The old version worked right but the drivers that go with it didn't adn would randomly BSOD the machine).

I'm now curious if I took it up on the roof with the laptop, and slowly move it in a complete circle, how many wifi stations I could pick up and connect to with it.

It's interesting that my other experiments with various custom antennas on a tall pole using the modified DISH did not work nearly as well as this very-badly-made "windsurfer" with a USB wifi dongle stuck into it. Could've been my handiwork on the antennas, or spacing of things, or even that the DISH required too precise a pointing because it's full parabolic instead of just horizontally like the Windsurfer. I dunno, but either way it's a lot easier with the WS, and more reliable. I don't get quite as far a distance away, though (the DISH let me pickup stuff easily 2+ miles away, though I couldn't connect to them)




Non-sequiter, but:

Does anyone on here (that's still paying attention to this thread ) read Japanese well enough to translate this, even roughly? (I realize it may not actually even be "real" Japanese, but I'm curious...I tried doing it myself via pictures of the characters found online but I didn't get very far before I got totally confused and lost).


It's a potholder, gotten via Freecycle a while back, so I don't know it's actual origins, but there are two separate "ink" styles on it. One has those characters and "Kyoko" signed in "english" on it, and is dark black and bright red. The other is more "faded" (pinker red and bluer black, both more translucent/worn than the characters) and has a logo of "© Roth Int'l". Both are printed on it, not silkscreened or handwritten/painted, so it is mass-manufactured. Couldn't find another one online that might tell me, either.

 

[The fingers]

I'll show it to Mesha-San later today. :wink:

 

[bowlofsalad]

You might do a search for 'cantenna' and attempt to adopt this idea in trial. The potential for signal amplification is likely higher with this technique, this may be of little use to you, excluding two ideas. The amount of signal interference you see through out a day can vary pretty wildly, I don't know what your signal strength is or has been, but if it is any less than excellent at all times, you may see some dropped packets with anything less than excellent signal strength. In addition to this, the greater the interference, the slower the data transfer rate will be or another way to say this is the lower the signal strength the slower the data transfer rate.

The other potential advantage for a cantenna style antenna is radically reduced wind deviation of the antenna itself. Think of it like comparing a pole versus a sail most of the time. When the wind picks up, even if it is shifting the angle of your antenna by 1 degree(even just briefly), that will destroy your signal entirely (wifi doesn't like movement, and the change in angle would likely cause the signal to miss entirely). In addition, the increased focus of the radio beam may help penetrate anything that gets in the way, like these branches you mentioned. I imagine a strong enough gust may have the potential to tip your tripod as it's configured.

I don't know if you still have your USB multiport kind of simply suspended by the USB cables, but I'd change that without delay.

If you intend to keep your current setup with the sheet metal, you might consider anchoring the tripod down.

 

[amberwolf]

You might do a search for 'cantenna' and attempt to adopt this idea in trial.

I didn't mention that part but I also tried a number of shapes of cantenna, using a few of the ones I had around at the time. Like the DISH, it is highly directional, which while it makes for great amplification, it also means you must point it pretty much exactly where you want to send/receive to/from . Same problems I had with the DISH antenna versions. There's some other variations I haven't tried yet, but since this one works, I'll stick with it until I have a specific need to improve it. (time I could spend on other projects I need more)

Right now I'm getting 3 bars steady signal, and pretty good thruput most of the time, though it's not like I'm doing much beyond the forums and emails, and uploading pics and sometimes doggie vids. It's all much much faster even at it's slowest than almost any of the free wifi out there at food places and whatnot.

The other potential advantage for a cantenna style antenna is radically reduced wind deviation of the antenna itself. Think of it like comparing a pole versus a sail most of the time. When the wind picks up, even if it is shifting the angle of your antenna by 1 degree(even just briefly), that will destroy your signal entirely (wifi doesn't like movement, and the change in angle would likely cause the signal to miss entirely). In addition, the increased focus of the radio beam may help penetrate anything that gets in the way, like these branches you mentioned. I imagine a strong enough gust may have the potential to tip your tripod as it's configured.

Oh, I imagine it would be very problematic if it got really windy--but so far it's worked pretty well even in the stiff breezes we've had a few times since I put it up. Even though the flashing the reflector is made from is just taped onto the coroplast USB holder/reflector-shaper, and is pretty thin, it hasn't had connection issues because of it yet.

The tripod is also fairly heavy on it's own--it's not your typical easy-to-carry type; it's old and massive. Probably weighs 15-20lbs by itself. :lol: I could just tie some old dead SLA to some paracord that's just long enough to let the SLA firmly seat on the ground, centered like a plumbob under the tripod, and it would probably hold it down in all but the most serious winds. But the tripod is only a temporary mount anyway, just to make it easy to move around and find the sweetspots.

The reflector can also be made of metal mesh, of which I have several types around. The main reason I used this flashing was simply because I already had the piece right there, about the right size to try out (notice it's raggedly cut edge on one side, with chunks missing--I didn't even bother to trim that to make it even on both sides, because it was just for a "quick experiment"). The mesh would let air flow thru it more than the flashing does, if ti has large enough holes (and they can be pretty large for this frequency band)


FWIW, the "nook" I have the tripod in right now, under the tree and blocked from the west by that tree, and the south and the east by the house, and the northwest by the sheds, and the northeast by another tree, is not completely immune to the wind but it doesn't get much unless it's directly from the north--even then it's buffered cuz it can't to straight thru, it has to be split to go up and over the house, or to the west around the tree, or to the east around the other tree and along the walls of the house.

I don't know if you still have your USB multiport kind of simply suspended by the USB cables, but I'd change that without delay.

[/quote]Yep, that's how it is. it would probably damage it eventually, even without moisture ingress, but I've actually had stuff hung from it's wires like that for years without failure (hubs or routers that slid off teh back of the shelf they were on, left hanging by wires, unnoticed for years until I needed to add or move a wire). I know what stresses it causes, but if it's not really crappy, it'll actually hold up to this sort of thing better than you might think.

I'm still digging thru my stuff to find things to make a long enough continuous-run shielded USB cable, so I can then mount the USB hub just inside the window where it'd be shielded from weather, and then move the antenna farther out. Probably it will get mounted on a horizontal pole sticking out from under the roof of one of the sheds. It's not a priority until the weather turns rainy, though, which isn't expected anytime in the next week, AFAIK. If it does rain and I'm not done, I can just put the stuff inside till it's over--it's not like I *have* to have wifi/internet. Or I can put plastic bags over everything; it'll keep it dry and still let wifi thru.


FWIW, I'd just use the antenna inside the window, but these double-pane windows have a coating on them that must be partly metallic, because I get little signal thru them when closed--yet if I open the window without moving the antenna at all suddenly the signal goes up from 0-1 bars to 3 steady (assuming no branches in the way). There's a number of solutions to that problem, by making a "filler" to go in front of the antenna that blocks airflow but not wifi, but I'd rather just leave the window unobstructed and have the antenna outside.

 

[amberwolf]

It's started sprinkling off and on the last couple days, and expected to actually rain tonight and maybe tomorrow, so for now I secured plastic bags around the USB hub and over the whole antenna unit. Doesnt seem to affect it's operation noticeably, though hte hub runs several degrees warmer than when in open air. The bag over the antenna is open on the bottom and secured to the legs instead of tied shut, mostly because it wasn't possible to do that, so there's no measurable temperature change of the USB wifi stick.


No luck yet in locating any of the Linksys wifi routers either in my stuff or at goodwill/etc, of a type that will let me turn them into wifi adapters via Tomato firmware.



Hours at work have been cut the last month or so, so budget is getting tighter at home. Usualy this time of year there's more hours than we have people, and have to hire more, but this year they've cut back hours a whole lot, and no new people either. When we lose a couple of people who are planning on leaving for other stores soon, then there will be more hours for the rest of us, but till that happens it's slim pickings.


Solar water heater is still not back in operation (see that thread for specifics); with the rain this week I may not get it done for another week or more. :/ That takes more money out of my budget to pay for hte electricity to heat water for showers (it's too cold to shower in the unheated water, which is around 55F at the cold tap, and 65F or so at the unheated hot tap after it's gotten water from the storage tank up thru the house pipes to the tap).


I've gotten about half fo the lantana and stuff out of those planters moved into the ground now, some in front yard near the sidewalk and some along the side and back fences in the backyard. Several don't look so happy, and may not survive.

Some of the other plants I'd found seeds for in parking lots are starting to sprout now, not sure how they'll do during the winter but we'll see. I don't remmeber what they were anymore. :/


If the rains keep happening regularly (unlikely) I'll probably have enough grass to have to mow again soonish. Haven't had to do that in a couple of months now, except a couple of spots in the front yard that get regular water around the trees and lantana.


Been just trickle watering each individual plant for a while now, moving the hoses around periodically, and it's keeping my water usage down some, but it's still a fair bit of water needed for a yard this size, since I am trying to get so much of it back into shape and shading itself. With teh temperature drops for fall/winter it's now much less evaporation so it takes a lot less water to start with, and will be a lot cheaper for winter than it was in summer. But I'm hoping that spending a little more in winter to water things to get bigger before summer next year hits, will create enough extra shade that ground evaporation will be less and will keep more of the water I do have to use in the plants and thru them, making them grow instead of just wafting directly off into the air.

I don't thnk im gonna have the "hedges" I am after around the backyard for at least a couple of years, though, at the rate they grow and the rate Yogi breaks them off as he runs along the fences.

the ones in front are a lot easier since the only thing stopping their growth is pruning and water regulation, especially with the winter sun right on them all day.

 

[The fingers]

You'll probably be getting some rain soon, courtesy of the pineapple express. We sure needed it here.

 

[amberwolf]

we've already been getting it as sprinkles last couple days, and this afternoon.

Was expected to get heavier tonight, and tomorrow, but I havent' seen any of it yet. RIght now it's only a little cloudy out there; I can seee a lot of stars.

 

[friendly1uk]

I'm not sure the cantenna works for anything but direction finding. It has a number of problems, and nothing good about it.
The current reflector seems to be doing the trick. Perhaps add some directors. Then you have the whole package.

If your ever bored, you could mess with a TV aerial. Swap the driven element for your dongle and adjust the spacing and length of the other elements to suit 2.4 which is a frequency often served by yagi's so many designs exist to simply copy. Or you can buy one from china for $12 delivered.

 

[amberwolf]

The yagi is the first one I was going to try...but when I used to make them for ham stuff a couple decades ago, I found that I wasn't very good at it, because I always had trouble with them being pretty finicky about spacing/etc and I've never been very good at getting things precise, or even close sometimes (no matter how I do things I always seem to mess up either measurements or cutting/positioning things--I do way better with "sculpting" things to shape than anything else, but I think I have some sort of perception problem that affects construction of things like this. :/

So I haven't tried it. I guess it'd probably be less sensitive to wind than the Windsurfer's big arc-plate, but if I make that plate out of screen isntead of solid sheet it'll probably be ok.



This morning I had to fish the USB hub that used to be between the computer and antenna out of the mud, disassemble, clean, and dry it out--Yogi must'v'e thought it would be really nifty to see what that plastic bag hanging up there would taste like, and somehow managed to pull the bag and hub down without pulling the antenna over, yanking out the cords in the process without damaging them or the hub. Thankfully he didn't find the hub appetizing, and didn't even leave any toothmarks in it. But he did pull the bag off, and left the hub in the mud under the tree.

Now it's cleaned and dried, and working ok on two of the four ports--the two end ones don't work right; they detect devices attached, which then show up in Device Manager, but won't actually "talk" to them, which is a strange problem I can't explain, and is the same problem I have with the rear port on the docking station.

(for instance, with a keyboard or mouse, it'll show up but not operate. With a wifi adapter, it'll show up but windows thinks it's disabled in the listing of network adapters, and it can't be enabled, even though it shows as enabled in device manager. A harddisk will show up in dm but not in storage or even fdisk, etc. is strange that it could be talked to enough to tell the computer what is attached, correctly, but then not respond to anything else)

But two ports still work, so that'll have to do for now. And for the moment I moved the antenna back a few feet so the hub is jus tinside the window, and won't be a temptation to Yogi hanging in the air like that. :lol:



The rain is not heavy but it has been steady since sometime last night (well, technically this morning, maybe 1 or 2 am?) and there's at least a half inch out there right now. It's lightened up to a sprinkle now, but hasn't stopped yet.


Both the dogs are much more interested in sprawling out in here than playing out in the mud. Tiny's been sticking with me on the bed, laying on my leg, which is quite unusual since it's not cold (around 72F in here right now)--normally she'd be sprawled out on the cooler floor in the kitchen, or corner of the bedroom (where Yogi is at the moment).

Usually Yogi would be out there so he coudl bark at anyone on teh street or alley, but at work we finally got the citronella spray refill and battery for the anti-bark collar I have (used to use on Hachi and Nana for the same reason) after a couple of months of them being unavailable, and so I bought them and filled teh collar and put it on Yogi, when I got home.

Of course, as soon as tehy were done with dinner they both ran out to go play, and Yogi found something to bark at, but there was only half a bark (presumably because the collar sprayed citronella out in front of him under his chin, and surprised him into stopping). He didn't bark again all night, and I haven't heard him do it this morning, either, when he usually barks at all the people getting into cars to go off to work, and such. I didn't expect it to work that well that fast with him, and I sort of feel bad, but I don't want him (and Tiny) to be in trouble with the neighborhood, because there is at least one person around here that has been complaining to people with barking dogs. So far I haven't gotten any complaints directly or indirectly, but the fines are so high if the complaints went to the city that I'd have no way of paying them--according to the neighborhood newsletter they could be $1500 or more.

So the best of bad choices is to use this bark collar and teach him not to bark at everything.

Hopefully once he stops that, Tiny will also stop cuz she does know better, and already learned to only bark at people in the alley or at my fence before I got Yogi and he started unteaching her.

 

[amberwolf]

On the USB wifi: I can now hibernate or sleep the unit fine using the laptop rear port via the USB hub. So...apparently I had a problem not only with the laptop's docking station but also with the port on the hub I'd been using (which now is "more failed", causing me to use a different port), causing the whole issue with hibernate or sleep and detecting the wifi adapter in the network section.

I'd still rather get a linksys wifi router and use Tomato firmware on it as teh adapter but this still works fine now, at least.


Yogi hasn't gotten back to "normal barking" but now he does bark at some things again, even with the citronella spray collar. It's different, though, only lasting a couple or three barks at most, before it cuts off querolously, and except when he is surprised by something suddenly speeding thru the alley (bike or car usually) he doesn't bark as loudly, and doesnt' just keep going.

So at least for now, it's helping. I would like to say it's "working", but it doesnt' stop it completely, and I havent' had mcuh response beyond what I already managed on the daily training to not bark at things outside the alley. (i.e.: doesn't bark at the neighbor in his yard *across* the alley, but does still start to bark at anyone he can see across the street, or vehicles he can see on the street).


I haven't tried the collar on TIny yet because she *usually* barks only after he's started something, cuz she knows better but somtimes just gets excited by his barking.


It's now easier to halt him by command when they hear another dog barking outside and start to scrabble up and head outside, though sometimes he still keeps going, or restarts going, if they keep on barking. Tiny usually stops, but if he runs out she will often follow him.

Yogi is finally getting to come when I call him (except if he's barking); it's taken quite a lot of work with treats and attention to get him to come happily, I think that before the rescue and I got him, he was punished after coming to a call. But I reward him whenever he comes, no matter what he was doing before that. He still ducks his head when I reach for him, but nto as much, and recovers very quickly.



Rain stopped and it' snice and sunny now, though evetything's still all wet and soggy. No progress on the solar water heater yet, or more on the sheds, or pretty mcuh anything else.


I am now having to relearn walking with the cane using my left hand isntead of the right, because my right elbow hurts so much after a while of walking with the cane that it's actually worse than my knees, and if I try to lift much more than a couple o fpounds with just my right hand it starts to ache, and more than 10lbs is almost impossible from the pain my elbow.

So my left side and back are aching from moving and leaning differently than usual, and I'm a lot slower than before, but that'll change over the next few weeks as my body relearns.

 

[The fingers]

I made a couple of walking sticks out of old graphite golf shafts I got for a few bucks at Goodwill. Glued a small crutch tip on the bottom with goop and made about a 15" length of parachute cord with a small knot and melted at both ends. Force the knots one at a time through the tiny hole at the end of the grip with a needle-nose pliers and voila: a featherweight walking stick that works well with only very light finger/wrist pressure. :wink:

 

[amberwolf]

My aluminum cane is light enough already, but my body is not, and the thing I have to do with the cane to have it help me is to lift my weight using the hand on the cane, to take as much of that weight off my knees as I can. I don't need the cane all the time, but when I get tired or it just hurts more than I can deal with and still keep walking around quickly enough to be practical, it lets me continue working or doing whatever I need to do. Usually at home I cna manage without it (the sound of it on the laminate floor disturbs Tiny, and Yogi shies away from it sometimes, so I don't use it if I can avoid it except in the front yard where they aren't, and I take it on walks with the dogs in case I need it after tehy've worn me out).


I don't expect anything would really help beyond a walker, a wheelchair, or some sort of support frame that passes the load from above my knees down around and past my knees to the ground under my feet.

I have both of the former, but the wheelchair isn't practical at work becaues I'd still ahve to stand up out of it frequently, and getting up and down a lot is harder than just staying standing and walking. The walker is harder to deal with than the cane so I don't use it, either, unless I have to.

I've considered a few ways to make the latter, but so far haven't come up wiht one that would probably work, except a couple that would require pretty exact molding of parts to my body, to try to pass the weight thru my thighs/buttocks and up my back to under my armpits. I could do that, but my body changes weight and contours/size depending on how well I feel (I still get bouts of depressive eating that I try really hard to control, but since the fire I've been as high as 185-190lbs, then waffling down to as low as 155lbs and back up to 180lbs and down again, presently around the middle of that). Even my pants don't all fit sometimes as my thighs expand at the worst of those times, so I don't expect anything that has to fit me tightly, especially there, will work very well with this issue.



If I just needed the cane for balance, it'd be different, and I don't think I'd ahve the problems I do in my elbow/hand right now.

 

[amberwolf]

Interesting problem with the wifi started a few days ago, haven't found it's cause or a solution.

-- In either the ASUS wifi utility, or the Windows wifi, it will only ever show a single bar of signal before connecting.
-- After connecting, it will show a more normal reading, 3 or 4 bars, usually.
-- Reported connection speed varies wildly, from 5Mbps to 150Mbps, according to either utility.
-- Actual connection speed appears to have nothing to do with the reported speed.
-- Connection "drops" randomly, not by actually losing the connection, but by simply no longer passing network packets thru. An IP refresh, or release and renew, or DNS flush, does not fix it--I must choose Disconnect and then Connect to regain the connection.
-- Signal strength varies, from as low as -89dB to as high as -55dB, based on aiming of antenna, anywhere in the direction of my neighbor's house, within the connection zone.

-- HOwever: Moving the antenna closer to or farther from his house, anywhere between my house and my back fence right across teh alley from his yard, does not change teh signal strength more than around 1dB, which is not normal. I should get a LOT more signal strength change between those spots.

-- I also get only about 1dB change if I turn the USB adapter 180 degrees (or anywhere in between). This is probably normal; I can't remember what change I got originally when trying this).


-- If I take the USB adapter out of the Windsurfer antenna, and just hang it from the USB cord out the window, I get around -89dB or so, and just barely connect.

-- If I use a different USB cable, it makes no difference, except that a long enough cable eventually reaches a point where the computer no longer recognizes the USB wifi adapter on it.

-- if I directly connect the USB adapter to the laptop's USB port, and move around the yard, the results are the same, as well.


Wifi still works "normally" for the most part, just that randomly I will have to disconnect/reonnect via the ASUS or Windows utility, if I find a page isn't responding. It's just wierd.


FWIW, I opened up the adapter (it just snaps together) and found that in addition to the built-in antennas, it also has the little standard jacks for external antennas. I haven't tried using them yet, but may try it.



In other news, the unknown plant that looks like a tomato appears to be exactly that. Some of them have ripened to brigtht red, about an inch across at most, and I opened one up and it smells like a tomato, and the seeds are those of a tomato. I haven't tasted it, as I don't know if it's an edible version or not.

Also, there was a green one that had fallen off, when it's vine broke, that was in a little hollow of dirt in another nearby planter--it's been there for mabye 3 weeks and it hasn't dried up or rotted, which is wierd. The stem and vine section is in the dirt there, though, and I've got those water absorbing crystals mixed into that dirt, so maybe it's still feeding off of that, though no longer supplied iwth nutrients/etc needed to ripen, it's still "living" off photosynthesis in it's own skin, and water absorbed from the dirt?

There are alos some of the other plants beginniung o sprout up.













The lantana I most recently transplanted seems tob e doing ok, though not yet thriving, probably because of the colder avarage temperatures not letting it grow like usual. Been nice and damp on average since planting it though.


Weeds are springing up everywhere, with the rains. Been working too many days in a row recently to have energy and time in the daylight to mow anything, though, so that's probably gonna happen this Sunday (first day off coming up), or if I'm too wiped out then on Christmas day, which I'll also have off cuz the store is closed then, and I don't have anyone here to have Christmas with (I expect BIll and his sister will be doing something on their own, as they did on Thanksgiving, and eveyrone else I know already has other plans AFAIK, so it's just me and the dogs).


Dogs are loving the colder weather, though my joints and bones aren't much liking the rainy days.


Tiny's so energetic taht she is doing even more of he running out the door, around the yard, back in thru the doggiewindow, back out the door, etc., every time I come home and we go out back. Takes her a few minutes to finally decide she'd rather sit and wait for dinner than runn around in circles, while Yogi runs away with his stick.
View attachment 4






No progress on the solar water heater. Between work and the changing weather I haven' been up to doing anything about it. :/

 

[amberwolf]

My power usage is down to around 3kWh a day at minimum, average of 5kWh/day. Peaks of 12kWh/day if I cook a batch of something and run the electric water heater and wash clothes all on the same day (almost a month ago the last time for that). More typical peak usage is 7-8kWh.

I haven't had to run any heaters yet; the insulation is good enough even with the low 40s to low 30s F temps we've gotten recently at night, with highs in low to mid 60s F, lots of clouds partial, scattered, and full, on various days. Today was clearest day in a while and it didnt' hit 70F peak. In teh house it's been about 60F lowest before dawn, and around 68F highest before evening.

Warmer in my bedroom cuz I leave the curtain across the doorway, and the dogs and I spend most of our time in here when we aren't outside doing stuff in the yard. Around 65-67F lowest in here, and 70F highest; doesn't vary much on days I'm here all day; just on days I work and am away for hours at a time.

It'll get colder now that winter is setling in, and I will have to start wearing sweaters and layering up indoors (rather than waste power and money heating things), except for times I have to work with my hands on stuff cuz they get too stiff and hurty in the cold.

So altogether stuff (other than money) is going pretty well, or at least normally.



Except for today. :/

Last night as I tried to sleep I felt that sinister tingling in my sinuses, and it was a fullblown headcold by the time I had to head out to work. I"m a lot better now but I'm sure I'm still contagious, and I still don't think I could walk for a few minutes at a a time without sitting down to rest, and I still get dizzy spells even just sitting here. I can feel my guts roiling so the porcelain-god-worship will probably start soon.


By midday I was all done with standing up and walking around, my head was spinning and I had tunnelvision and couldnt' even think straight. I had to go home instead of finishing my shift, and had to sit in hte breakroom for a good while to get far enough past the dizziness just to be able to walk to the bike out front. Then I had to sit on the bike for a while to gather strength for the ride home.

I rode home slowly, 10-13MPH for most of it, only speeding up when I had to to quickly cross streets/etc in traffic gaps and such. I didn't even put my feet up on the pedals the entire way home, cuz i kept needing to push myself back upright as I slowed down enough to make it harder to stay upright without wobbling (the bike doesn't ride very well below around 8MPH or so unless you're very attentive and quick on reactions, which I am not right now).

I took the "back way", rather than directly thru the madhouse that is a shopping center during the holidaze. :/ Went a little north and west over to 31st ave then south to peoria, west to the turn into what used to be a medical plaza and is now half that and half foodcourt. Thankfully the medical half is nearly deserted, so I could get thru that back to 31st ave and south from there (31st ave does nto go straight thru, there is no "thru traffic" allowed at that light--you have to turn either east or west, which is stupid, but it's been that way for a couple decades or so I think).

But while waiting to get out of the center, a pedestrian crossing the street (not at a crosswalk, and not paying attention) almost got run over by two different vehicles. The pedestrian didnt' step out infront of either vehicle, and was many car lengths from any of them, with plenty of time to cross if traffic was normal. However, the first vehicle gunned their engine, speeding WAY up, honking the horn continously, without even slowing down at all, while the pedestrian froze in panic staring at the vehicle. At the very last second the vehicle swerved just barely around them, yelling obscenities out the window and not slowing down from it's much higher rate of speed, and not stopping at the stop sign at the intersection ahead, simply speeding thru it still honking repeatedly.

Whiel that was happening, another vehicle from the other direction was not apparently paying attention to any of this, and was weaving around while talking on a phone, I think, waving one hand with the other on the wheel (maybe, I couldn't see that). After the first vehicle swerved around the pedestrian standing in shock, the second narrowly missed the first vehicle and just barely missed the pedestrian. I don't think they even saw the first vehicle *or* the pedestrian.



From there I went down 31st ave, then back onto Metro Parkway when 31st ends intersecting it, where I pulled over into the extrawide bike lane area before the intersection, and rested again; the tunnelvision was much less by this point.


ONward to MP, then south on 29th ave to the parking lot I have to go thru to get to a place on Dunlap that I can cross southbound to get to "my" side of it (cuz again, you can't go north or south thru the 29th & Dunlap intersection either, and generally unless there is ZERO traffic at that intersection, it's a bad idea to be in antying other than a multi-thousand-pound vehicle waiting to make a turn there, especially in this crazy shopping season).


While I was making my lane change to move left into the center turn lane, then just like once before a couple years or more ago, a car sped up a whole lot from a fair distance behind me, then went around me ON MY LEFT, into the opposite traffic lanes (whcih were both full of cars). Just like before, he had NO need to do that as if he really was in that much of a hurry, he could've just kept going ina straight line as I was already completely out of the southbound traffic lane he was in. I have no idea why anyone would even do that sort of thing; it's stupid, dangerous, and totally unnecessary.

THere was some brake squealing and swerving of cars, but I don't think anybody hit anyone else, and the idiot swerved back into the southbound lane just before he would've run me over and/or hit someone head on in the northbound lanes.

If I didn't have my 2WD with multi-kW available for these GTFOOTW situations, I *would* have been hit. But as soon as I saw hin swerve left I hit both throttles hard (instead of regen brakign which is what I normally do at that point, to get into the driveway there), and went from decelerating at just under 10MPH to soemthing over 25MPH (heading downhill at this point so it was much quicker accel than normal, too), just before he crossed behind me back into his own lane.

I just continued on south in the center lane to the second driveway into the parking lot, and waited several minutes there until traffic cleared up enough to cross (did I mention the shopping centers are a madhouse right now?).

Once in the parking lot I pulled over into a spot for a while to rest and let my heart slow down and the adrenaline dissipate, and try not to puke from the dizziness.

Then onward again thru the parking lot to it's easternmost exit on Dunlap, which is hte only way for me to get to the median left turn southward across DUnlap. But just as I was about to get to that exit, a big SUV with a lady driving but not looking at anything sped around the corner from behind the Conn's that's recently taken over the old ToysRUs building, and swerved straight at me, head on.


I had NO time to do anything at all, even if I had my normal reaction times and wasn't sick.

I was riding at less than 10MPH on the right side of the southernmost lane between parking spots (which were all empty EXCEPT for the one immediately to my right at that moment, conveniently eliminating my only possible escape route of being able to swerve right and ditch the bike and roll off of it).

The SUV came around the corner and pointed right at me, and was close enough for me to have been able to stand up, stretch forward over the bike, reach out and touch when she finaly slammed to a near-stop, with one hand up in a gesture of confusion/apology/embarassment.

Then she just drove around me and away, and I continied to the driveway and waited another several minutes for traffic to die off enoujgh to get across to the median turn lane, where I wated another severla minutes again to cross the other half of Dunlap to get to the streets I then ride home on.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, once out of the shopping center insanity.

Before that, though, a couple times there, I really didn't think I was going to get to reach home and see Tiny and Yogi again. :/

Yet, I did, and they were really happy to see me, too.



I still don't feel very well, but I can't sleep (headcolds suck), so I thought I'd type up the above before I forget the details. (I have the feeling I did forget something, but having forgotten, I am not sure).


Doggies are snoring at my feet right now, with twitching tails and toes and little whimpers of puppy dreamz.

 

[The fingers]

That's why I hate holiday traffic, too many people in a hurry not looking where they're going. :x

 

[amberwolf]

Yep.


Not being up to doing the stuff I really need to get done around the house (yardwork mostly) but being unable to just sit or lay here any longer getting over being sick, I went out with Bill today for lunch and Goodwill run, etc.


While out I found the type of Linksys WRT54G wifi router I'd been looking for, that supports the Tomato and other 3rd party firmware to let me use it as a wireless client (essentially as a wifi adapter on a network port).

Changed the FW over to Tomato (which is a lot better than the Linksys stuff anyway) only to find that it doesn't support client mode when using the WPA2 security mode (which is what my neighbor's router is set to use). It's actually in the FAQ/notes for Tomato, but I missed it when reading them previously. :/

So rather than putzing around more with that just ATM, until I can decide to try one fo the other 3rd party stuff that might work with WPA2 (dunno if any do)...I played some more with the ASUS USB wifi stuff.

First, I went thru and removed all of the saved wifi configurations for it, in it's network properties. Then I reconnected to my neighbor's wifi, and it recreated the connection, which now correctly is setup as "automatic" rather than "on demand" (there are no options to set that up or change it or even to see which it is, within WIndows itself), and now instead of showing one bar of signal until after connecting, when it will show 2 or 3 or 4, it correclty shows the actual signal level even before connecting, just in the site survey.

No idea what corrupted the setting(s) before, but now it at least looks like it should. It still drops the connection randomly without losing it's IP/etc, requring a manual disconnect/reconnect to fix it, though.


So, in case that's an antenna issue, given my crappy thrown-togethr construction of the Windsurfer reflector antenna, I dug out the eagle-painted DISH dish and tried a couple things.

(I previously tried the unpainted DISH dish, which is slightly different in design and configuration, and forced me to manufacture an antenna for it to connect directly to the laptop's internal wifi, as I didn't know the ASUS thingy had connectors inside at the time. That dish/etc required pretty precise aiming or it got zero signal, and/or would lose the signal with any jitter of the dish, etc).



First, I just made an adapter from the 75ohm thread-on cable connector to the little tiny laptop-card type snap-on connector that's in the ASUS USB thingy, and connected the ASUS up to the horn on the DISH directly, and wrapped the rest of the ASUS in a foil bag secured to the horn arm to minimize RF in or out of it so I coudl see what it was actually getting from the horn.

For ease of mounting and aiming things, I put the DISH on the tripod upside down, since it's horn is offset from center by a lot cuz it normally points at the sky and I need it to point at the horizon (house behind me actually).

While watching teh ASUS dB display in it's utility, after connecting to the wifi network, I slowly moved the aim point around to see what the best signal is, but never got any better than -88dB, many many times worse than using the Windsurfer, which even in it's current state with whatever issues its' got is still getting -65 to -70dB, at best.

(for whatever stupid reason it can't show you any signal info until *after* you connect, making it impossible to use for just finding a strong signal, since the dB display updates rapidly (more than 1hz) but the bar displays on each individual wifi network it detects only update every 10-30 seconds at best. WOuld take forever to work out the best network and signal if I used that).

Same thing if I used either of the internal antenna points. It's probably an impedance mismatch, or connection issue, cuz the bandwidth/frequency list of the horn includes the standard G wifi band.


So I figured what the heck, we'll try just taping the whole ASUS unit to the face of the horn itself, with it's internal antenna facing the DISH dish, centered on the center of the horn, instead of connecting to the horn's antenna.

NOW it gets the same, or slightly better, than the Windsurfer reflector, anywhere from -68dB up to -64dB, when aimed at the highest signal point. It does not require quite as precise aiming as the unpainted DISH dish, but it isn't as tolerant as the Windsurfer. It'll pick up a signal when aimed pretty much anywhere at the neighbor's house, though not past it. The Windsurfer will work even if it's aimed quite a bit off, though it drops down to -85 to -90dB by then.

I get better data rates on average wtih the DISH vs the Windsurfer, though it still varies quite a lot, in the couple of hours I've been messing with it (it's pretty breezy outside, so I expect it's mostly reflections and interference from teh tree that is overhead where the tripod is--nothing is in the direct path).


But since I can't use the horn itself and a cable running inside to the ASUS's antenna connector, I still have to just wrap the whole antenna rig with a plastic bag to keep rain out of the ASUS electronics.

If I could've used the ASUS inside, and just cabled to the DISH, it'd've been weatherproof without the bag (which would look a lot better and also mean not worrying about humidity buidling up inside the bag, or a tear, or blwoing off, etc., and getting teh ASUS wifi adapter wet and destroying it.



Now, assuming it's just a connection problem because of my kluged-up adapter cable, or impedance mismatch because of type of antenna vs what the ASUS expects, then it's quite possible I could still hook up the DISH horn directly to the Linksys WRT54G's antenna port(s), assuming I can find a way to make a firmware work on it as a client with the WPA2 security mode. I don't know what impedance the horn is (not marked) but it uses the 75ohm typical RF cable you'd see between set-top boxes and VCRs adn whatnot, on it's output, and AFAICR tha's also what is used on the WRT54G's antenna ports (which are thread-on).



Note that I haven't even tried testing using the eagle-painted DISH to connect to any of the other wifi's in the area, or even ones pretty far away, like the Sheraton Crescent, etc. that are unsecured (all the local ones seem to be secured with WPA2).


ONce I feel a little more up to it (hopefully later today) I may go ahead and just connect ti up to the DISH and see what I get out of it on a site survey, even if I can't use it to connect to them yet.

 

[amberwolf]

I never got to working on the wifi stuff today.

I have almost finished up Bill's present, though there's a lot of details to be finished, and it still needs new brake pads (the ones I have are next to unused but pretty old), and I have to find a brake lever that will work on the rear Tektro brakes (the Shimano lever I tried doesn't work with them; it's for a different type; which one I don't know, but even if the cable is tensioned so that the pads rest on the rims, squeezing it all the way down to the bars doesn't fully clamp the pads down). I have several Tektro levers; one is in use on the front brakes, but all the others have various things wrong with them; mostly broken bar-clamps, so can't be used, and there aren't enough working parts to make one lever. HAven't found any other compatible levers either, though I used to have a whole pile of them, I guess they've vanished after the whole fire cleanup. I have one unknown off the copper/white Mongoose Hatchet frame that may work (the other is broken).

Anyway, I'm still poking around boxes for parts, might find the rest of what I need.

I had to change out the handlebars; the flat-style will make him have to lean forward oo far, and he wants a more upright posture, so I used the BMX bars off that black mongoose I got at goodwill. (woulda used the pink ones above but Bill wouldn't appreciate that). Was gonna use the original stem, but I somehow crossthreaded the first thread when puting the bolt bakc in, and was unable to fix the problem, eventualyl destroying the bolt and the threads in the stem. :/ So I had to also use the BMX stem.

Since the front brakes are the style that eneds a cable stop *in* the stem, I had to drill a hole in the aluminum block, and managed to break off the small bit for the cable hole in the hole. SO I had to then drill the housing hole down a litle farther than I wanted, and use a long torx bit and a hammer to force the broken bit out.

Oh, and becuase I didn't have the rear brake arms for this frame (I had taken it all apart some time before the fire, for some reason I can't remember now, and have no idea where hthe bits went to) and had to use the tektro arms, I also had to file those at their base, because the studs are just a hair shorter on these types of brakes, than they need to be for the tektro arms. That means if i tighten the pivot bolt, the arms stick in position once squeeezed "on". The filing fixed the problem more or less.

Bill wants solid tires so as to not worrry about flats at all, despite the disadvantages, so I spent most of today dealing with them. First up was prying the tubes off the old crappy wheels I had them on, so I could put them on the Sierra's nicer ones (the best I have that arent' all painted up in dayglo). But when I mounted the first one on, I found that these wide rims let the whole thing wobble around on there, and it's likely that the tube amd tire could roll off the rim under side loading, which would really suck ina turn at an intersection.

The only narrrow rim wheels I have in the right size that arent junk are the ones on The Velcro Eclipse, so taht's what I ended up using, after truing them up. It was really easy to get the tires and tubes onto the wide rims, but it was actually harder to put them on the narrow ones than it was to take them off the narrow junk wheels, and I gouged the brake surfaces of the rims in many places in the process, becuase my hands already hurt from he removeals, and I was really tired, so I coudlnt' properly hold onto the tools anymore. But at least they're on there now.

I had to use thumbshifters, as i don't have any gripshifters that will work on the 6-sprocket rear, and even the 3-ring front shifers I found are all crappy, so the best stuff I have is these old thumbshifters off THe Velcro Eclipse.

I took a short ride down the sidewalk to the street and back, and managed to fall off gracefully into a roll when I got off and my knees didn't cooperate in holding me up. But the bike works, even if I don't so well. (this is why I don't really ride pedal bikes anymore; it takes so much out of me to ride even a very short distance that even dismounting doesnt' always work. I can't even do my work commute these days, without a motor or a wheelchair, or several hours to walk it).


Now it is naptime again. Tiny and Yogi already gave up on me and conked out a while back, snoring away with twitchy toes.

 

[amberwolf]

I've had some of those thoughts about the system, but others hadn't occured to me.



It's a litle on the late side, but it's now just below freezing, just before midnight, day after Christmas. It's very very clear skies, so no snow to make it "white", but at least now it's cold enough for it.

Since it's getting colder in here (was 59F in the bedroom when I got home, a few degrees warmer in the front room which gets warmed by sunlight on the front wall and window, for the few hours of daylight) Tiny and Yogi are both snuggled up on the bed, her curled up on my legs and him over on the corner, in his typical chin-on-bed, front-paws splayed out to either side pose, looking so sad. (really he's asleep, though).

I wonder how cold it's gonna get before morning?

And since I hadn't expected it to get that cold yet (was not predicted to get even close) I didn't prepare any of the plants or trees for it, so I wonder which ones I will lose from it?


Hmm... As I was about to click "submit", a VERY loud explosion sounded outside. I don't recognize the actual sound, but it was aerial. It was similar to the sound of the charges used to launch the huge fireworks displays, but there was no accompanying "burst" sound, or any of the other sounds usually heard. And it's volume was as if I was actually *at* the launch site; it made the windows buzz, and in the otherwise silent night almost made me jump out ofmy skin--Tiny and Yogi practically peed themselves.

When I went outside (after climbing out from underneath two terrified St Bernards both trying to hide in the corner of the bed where the walls meet, which is where I was laying), I could see a cloud of smoke in the utterly clear midnight sky to the south, and just very very slightly east, probably several miles away but being nighttime I can't really tell. The cloud was already stretched out, as if there is a wind up there blowing it (there is a little slight almost-breeze from the north-ish down here at ground level), and continued to stretch as I watched (until my hands got too cold and began to hurt, less than a minute after I went out there in my terrycloth robe and sweatpants). So I went in, and started typing this up.

And as I was typing the word "hurt" above, a rapid pair of explosions almost as loud as the first occured, sounding like it was from teh same direction--but this time there was nothing in the sky in any direction, so perhaps the cloud had nothing to do with the sound?

Tiny really did pee herself the second time, but Yogi decided to follow me out back and run around the yard looking for...whatever, then come back to stand with me as I looked around.

I don't know for sure but would guess around 6-7 minutes between the first explosion and the second pair. (that pair overlapped each other, the last starting before the first even died down).

I heard no sirens and still hear none, but if it's really that far away I probably wouldn't even outside.

I wonder if it will be in the news at all, or if I will ever find out what it was.


FWIW, a very similar explosion sound occured sometime earlier this month, but I had just awakened from a nightmare then, and couldn't rationally respond to it, only remembering about the sound later, next day I think. But I forgot to ever go look up if it was reported publicly or not.



Oh, and that head cold of mine, which "took a trip south" for a while, went back to my head yesterday/last night and kept me awake a lot, as well as causing me to breathe only thru my mouth, parching my throat which then cuased me to start coughin g, which ended up giving me laryngitis, too. SO I had a very difficult day a work cuz I need my voice to answer the phone , talk to customers, etc. (plus I was so tired I almost dozed off a few times when I paused to rest now and then). I expect it won't be better enough to use by tomorrow; this usually takes 2-3 days to fix itself no matter what I do, since I have to keep using it at work. Not talking at all would let it fix in a day, but I can't do that at work. I'll probably be at the register much of tomorrow, where I will have to answer the phone inaudibly so people will be frustrated and I won't be able to help them. (at least most of the people physically present seem to be understanding, though some just give me funny looks and don't respond to anything I say).



Well, it's now been more than 30 minutes and noi more explosions...and Tiny and Yogi calmed down and are snoring away.

 

[amberwolf]

Nothing on the web searches yet about the explosions last night; as loud as they were I'm surprised no one posted about them at all, anywhere. (though, the google search didn't find my post, either)



It got down to somewhere between 26-28 degrees in the backyard just before dawn, according to the mechanical thermometers I have (the digital ones all display limit-errors below freezing; I guess they didn't think anyone would care to use them if it was that cold. ).

By 9am it was 36F out there in the sun, but the ground was still all frosted up (even now, 1030am, it still is frosted in the shade).

Most of the broadleaf "weed" plants that sprouted after the rains last week, that I was going to mow and weedeat tomorrow on my day off, are wilted; I suspect the frost may have killled or damaged them. I can't tell if it's damaged the lantana or young trees. :/



I still feel unwell at best, and my throat is still raw, still coughing, with little voice that won't last long if I use it. Not gonna be a fun day at work.


Yogi had fun with the frozen-over doggie water bowl out back, though, trying to figure out how to get to the water underneath. Unfortunately I missed it as I couldn't get back out with the camera fast enough; he'd already broken thru and was slurping it up.

 

[amberwolf]

Someone elsewhere suggested it might've been a meteor, but I woudl expect to see some reports of it *somewhere* on the web, at the least on Youtube ro whatnot from celphone cameras, since it wasn't *that* late yet and many people would've still been out and about (probably partying), especially on a Friday night after a major holiday. Nothing about it on AMS site either.

So far, though, there's nothing mentioning it at al. I would feel like I had imagined it if the dogs hadn't reacted, and it had only been the first one, and not the second one (pair), and had the dogs not been exrtra jumpy about noises and such today--they wouldnt' even stay outside when the garbage ttrucks made their rounds, and usually they like to bark at them cuz they're in the alley.



It has now reached about freezing befroe Ive been home from work even half an hour (about 10:15pm), out in the middle of the backyard. Closer to he house it's a coiuple to few degrees warmer depending on where I measure, as it is toward the street and alleey and sheds. But in teh spot where the "windmill" used to be, where I usually put thermometers and such, it's already freezing. Wasnt' too far below by this past morning, but tonight it will certainly get into the 20's quickly, and I wonder how far down it will get.


The house was still 61F in the front room/hallway, backroom around 55F (I have curtains in doorways between kitchen and backroom). Bedroom was 60F, is 66F now after the dogs and I have been in here half an hour or so, as I lay here and eat dinner, they stare at me, and I read email/etc. Once all the heat from our activity stops, and we have been settled down, and it gets colder outside, it'll prbably get a few degrees colder in here, too, but nothing intolerable (not like before eh fire, when the house had very little insulation other than my blankets on walls and in doorways, windows, vents, etc, none of which I really have to do anymore, thoguh I still curtain off doorway to bedroom and between kitchen and backroom)

 

[amberwolf]

The low out there right now (it's just before dawn now, will be a few minutes until the sun peeks over the horizon) is about 24F, pretty much everywhere out back adn front, except right up against the house, which is a couple degrees warmer.

Before I dozed off last night I took the plants that were in planters inside, and put them up on the stand-up workbench in the back room, hopefully out of Yogi's curiosity zone. The tomato (or whatever) plant is already toast, all shrivelled up. The green ones aren't gonna get ripe (the one that had fallen off and ended up by itself stem-down in the soil is *still* exactly like it was then (a few weeks ago), and the ripe ones I pulled off and put in the refrigerator till I can decide if I want to use them for anything. The half-ripe ones probably won't get any riper, but I left them on the vine.


The dogs loved it out there for about half an hour, then despite their high activity level they decided their toesies were frozies and came in (I had to give up MUCH sooner).

Back room is about 48F, kitchen about 57, front room/hallway about 59F. Bedroom about 61F. Dogpile about just right F.


Now it's time for more hot tea.

 

[amberwolf]

Pardon my yping, the "t" on he keyboard doesn' alway s push down like i's supposed o, and it hurts oo much too push hard enough to guarantee it works each time. Oher keys also have problmes, but not as bad. I"m guessing Yogi slobbered in the keyboard and it's dried down in there, but i haven' had time yet o take it apar and clean it to see if ha fixes i. :/


On to the postt:

As expected, New Year's Eve was not much fun for Tiny and Yogi--neither one does well with noises like that.


It was not as bad for TIny as last year, because then she was up at Bill's, outside, (since my house was not yet finished) and fireworks started early in the evening, while I was still at work, and she was terrified.

This year, she was inside, at my house, with Yogi, and with plenty of white noise (fans) to help block out most of the small sounds outside. THe weather was rainy and very cold (less than 40F all day, chilling off even more after dark) instead of clear, so lots of poeple (kids especially) that would've otherwise been outside setting off fireworks were indoors instead.

Unfortuantely the night before, there were people "testing" their fireworks, mosly small stuff, bototle rockets, etc., and that had them both freaked out because it started when we were outside for potty and playtime after dinner.


NYE itself I still had to work, jus like last year, but when I got home Tiny and Yogi were practically normal--a little on-edge, but not super upset. Most of i t was probably from the previous night's stuff, wih whaever hey might've heard befroe i got home contributing.

hey got an extra yummy dinner, and extra portions, and also some Quiet Moments calming stuff, which while it doens't do a lot does help some. hey played outside a litle, till it started misting again, then i brougth them in so hey woudln't get so wet an dmuddy they'd need baths. hey settled down and started taking naps, and I joined them..

hat lasted for a couple of hours, before he firs booms started, and I was buried under more than two hundred pounds of frightned dogs both tryingto fit in he same space on my lap. :/

After calming tehm down, I turned up teh HEPA fan and moved he box fan (on high) into he bedroom insead fo he fron room, to block ou as much of he noise as i could. wasnt' perfect but it helped.

Still, people se t off fireworks and fired guns thru teh night and well into the morning, so i didn't ge any real sleep; was not a fun day a work toiday.

tried to nap when i got home but Tiny and Yogi were so agitated, presumably from people with leftover fireworks seting them off today, that i didn't ge to doze very long at a time before one of hem would come paw at me or get antsy and need me.

ti's all stopped now, and hey're sleeping rigth next to each oher on the bed by my legs, snoring away. i hink hey're as tired as i am. now, if i could jus t get ot sleep it'd be great.