Charles W. Moore

Weather: The New Breed

I have been meaning to post the link of a new breed of interactive weather maps that has lots of applications for pilots, sailors, farmers and everyday users.  So here it is in all it’s linked glory.  The only reason for me to do this is so i will not forget where to go to get it 🙂

New Day Dawning

The day dawned at 0800 when the pool guy awoke me banging around the pool.  I’ll bet he was surprised to see me laying on the back porch couch.  As is my habit, when I awake around 3 -4 AM I come back to the couch and read or just go back to sleep.  It is  toss up as to which but after a long trip I usually go back to sleep.

The rain crows are out there cooing, like the doves of the North they have that coo’g sound that I like to try to imitate.  I used to be good at it but now something in my vocal cords do not allow the exact tones.  Too bad,  I used to be able to call them in much closer but now I am ignored just like a foreign bird.

I just finished breakfast, my usual, and I just checked the motion detectors to see if there was any activity on the two I have set to take pictures of any trespassers. There was nothing seen.  One of the light bulbs was burnt out so it needs to be replaced.  I think I will change it to  CF type so it lasts longer – they do last longer if you turn them on and leave them on for 15 minutes before turning off.

Todays agenda – well, I had one yesterday but this morning I forgot what it was.  I do want to go to Harbor Freight just to see what they have.  I have a few internet chores to do too.  Sounds like a full day to me! Moore later

Today’s activities

We left this morning to change the oil in the car but first we went to CVS to get some Plackers and mouthwash but they only had their brand so we bought them as a trial. We then went over to the Italian Market on 22nd for some sheep cheese and grape leave wraps and finally, on the way home, to Lowes to get some Delta faucet repair kits.  Whew, that was a mouth full.

After that I became a house body.  I tried to find the water shutoff wrench I bought a few years ago to no avail.  When SAM came home she found it for me.  Now I can go out to the street and shut off the water while I repair the sink faucet.  Maybe tomorrow will be a good day for that.

I am half way through he book “A Wolf Named Romeo”.  It is a good read and is a study in people.  It is much like our people in the election this year:  We have the people who want to kill this wolf, who has not hurt anyone, just because they are scared and mean.  Then we have the other side who have interfaced long term from close range with their own dogs and have not had a problem.  The book is about the efforts of the latter group.

OK, so I’ll say good night.  BFN.

Sunday at Martha’s

We awoke to the gentle breezes flowing through the palms with their proper rustling and rubbing against the house.  How nice that sound is when the wind is reasonable.  I awoke at my usual time of 0830 hrs after a good amount of sleep. The humidity is like a gentle caress against the full  sleeve sun top I am wearing.  The shorts feel good too as it has been awhile.  We turned on the news and quickly changed channel because even FOX is questioning their new President.

The full sun shows off the agitated movement of the trees  and it is nice and I am content, if a little sore from the trip, and the pool is crystal clear with gentle ripples.  I sit here writing this blog via my mobile phone hotspot.  I called Brighthouse this AM and they want $50/mo for service as a new customer so I declined.  Maybe I can wean myself away from the internet this way.

The Raspberry Pi CCTV at home are working well but I wish one of the CCTV had a wider angle lens.  Upon return I will change out the Pi Cam for a web cam aad thst should help out.  Now I need to find one of the MS World Cam I like on the used market.  (grin). I include a picture of our youngest kid Abby.  Moore Later.

A grueling day

Lots of driving today and out on the road.  I am tired and want to go to bed.  I was reading the book “A wolf called Romeo”.  It is all about wolf who wandered into the area around Juneau, AK and started playing with the locals dogs and stealing the throw sticks the people threw out for their dogs to play with.  Interspersed are the authors comments and his travels around Alaska as a guide, amateur wolf enthusiast and all around nature lover.  It is quite good I think but then I am not a literary critic  but I know what I like to read: It is physically a paperback.

Raspberry Pi Security

My two new Pi Security CCTV are working just fine.  It is a bit surprising that for $60 you can make a device that works well.  It took a while to tweek it but as I become familiar with the controls I can make a very nice device.  The Pi CCTV does not work as well as my old Microsoft Skype Cam.  I am going to try and get one or two more of these cams as they become available on eBay. Yea, a winner.  Now I need to try some other type of web cams and make a testbed.

The Pi’s are model 3 so I am streaming via wiFi and it works just fine. I love those Pi 3’s and they heald the price in spite of great product improvements.  Well, I just looked at my CCTV and they are working fine from outside the system.  This means I have to use the WAN IP to get in.  I am doing this vi my smartphone hotspot.

Kill-A-Watt: a new acqusition

Today, as a result of airport stuff, I bought a watt meter.  It was much cheaper than I thought it would be at $20.  I ran to the airport and hooked it up to my test subject and waited two hours.  Walla, I now have the information to solve the problem.  This device is quite amazing and I wished I would have bought one long before.  Now, I petitioned the Executive Committee to buy two more for use by The Hangar Partnership.

I am watching the Defiance series on Amazon Prime and Season 2 is just about complete.  Next is The Man in the High Castle season 2.  BFN.

Foggy & Fort Wayne

We drove to Fort Wayne this afternoon to visit the doctor for my first appointment of this year.  Doctor Urologist did his thing and then we went to Auburn for a Steak n Shake 5 Way Chile: My favorite for sure.

Now I am in the Technical Room watching ” The Survivalist”.  A budget film set in the woods with little talking and plot.  I now see why it was rated at 3 stars.  In the end, of the three main characters only one was left. She walked to an area that looked like a peanal farm but was really a compound where she was voted on to see if she could join the group. That is where it ended. SAM is upstairs watching “The BFG” and this was a favorite of mine: The Big Friendly Giant.  However, the download I made stopped after 58 minutes so she is streaming it now.

Another fun day at Gooseneck Lake.  Tomorrow will be a busy day.  I hope I wake up early so I can listen to the Little Red Barn Net on 3820 LSB.  Friend Dale is getting his Chemo treatment today thru Thursday.  I really feel for him as he has Lymphoma and a rare one at that.   Moore later.

Movies n Stuff

I spent the day in the TR ( Technical Room ) fiddling with ham radio and the medic center procedures.  I discovered how to download  the movies to the media center so now I can get them upstairs for SAM to watch (she is watching one now).  Right now it is sort of a convoluted process but I will streamline that.  So here is the process:

1. Select the video and download to the Movie directory folder on the Raspberry Pi 3 running Kodi. This takes about an hour.
2. Next connect to the Pi with SFTP (or SSH) and move the Movie file to the Windows or Linux machine ( I use Bitvise SSH Client ).
3. Next connect to SAM’s Notebook from My Win10 machine and move the files to SAM’s Notebook.
4. At this point I connect SAM’s Notebook to the Living Room TV HDMI 3 input and use the built in Windows 10 player and play the video.

I am using the TR more and more.  Last night I moved the computer speakers on the defunct Precision T5400 and connected them to the TV/Monitor.  My Notebook is connected to the monitor via HDMI.  This way I get to use the Extended Desktop feature.  The same monitor has a three way HDMI manual switch so I can have the Raspberry Pi under test, Notebook and Kodi Media Center.  Bottom line is it is becoming my Man Cave.

I am deliberately moving away from Facebook and reconnecting with my three blogs.  Facebook is becoming a totally disgusting media. I have always heard that people would rapidly devolve when given total freedom with no consequences – well, we are here. Moore later.

Rain + Thunder

I awoke early to the rumble of thunder and light to moderate rain with 40° temperatures. Wow, a couple of hours later it was raining hard.  In the end we received 0.8″ of rain and the temperatures dropped several degrees.  However, the day stayed overcast so we made plans to eat lunch and to have lunch at The Village because we had two free lunches we had won at an event.  After lunch we went to the “Then & Now” to window shop and perhaps a lamp for the Technical Room.

Like I said, I awoke earlier than usualand made breakfast and beat a retreat to the Technical Room to listen to the Little Red Barn Net which starts at 0830.  So I checked in and then cruised the net for an hour.  Then I got down to work trying to get Fldigi running on my notebook computer.  Finally, by changing up various check box sequences I got it working  fine with my Icom IC-7200 HF rig. Yea, a winner.

Now as I write, I am listening to the movie War Dogs.  This comes by way of the media center software Kodi running on a Raspberry Pi 3.  Actually the movie is better than I thought it would be.  The music is good and the Miami scenes were even better – I got to see many buildings I used to worked on fixing radio gear.  I hope I get to finish it tonight. It is a sad movie i a way since greed overcomes a young man and he puts that money in front of everything