Feb 03

My New Meta Quest 2 Came In. See Y’all In A Week Or Two …

Also bought another Quansheng handheld to “brick” by trying out new programming to extend it’s functions into the 6-meter & HF bands. Mostly for “just listening.” Gonna try some shortwave listening on it also and see how that does. Fun! Even better: Fun for less than $25 with 99.9999% chance of not catching an STD.

The Meta Quest 2 VR ‘helmet?’ came in yesterday. Let it charge for all of 10 minutes before it’s irresistible attraction had it on my face going through the ‘set up’ stuff. Nice! There was a ‘shooting arcade” part of the familiarization app that was really cool. Hope I can find that one (or one like it) in the app store.

I did get this thing to do VR in X-Plane though. So, gotta order the cable to attach it to my computer and a better headband and a battery pack. I won’t be spending a lot of money on ‘games’ but hope to find an app that let’s me redesign my house with VR views. That would be fun to play with.

Probably need to clear a large enough space in the living room to “play” in when doing things other than X-Plane. Good thing I have a huge (huge) living room.

And I can totally see buying a 2nd one for SWMBO someday.

Had a nice day a couple of days ago (OR, We had a day a couple of days ago it wasn’t raining for a couple of hours), so I got out on the tractor and ran up and down the driveway and a little bit of the trail to “stir up the gravel.” Quite fun.

Still psyching myself out for surgery next month.

Freeze Dried some more jello jigglers. Cool. They get really hard and crunchy but slowly melt in your mouth with an absolute burst of flavor. I should market these.

Damn! Meant to post this over a week ago! WHERE did my freakin’ mind go?

Had my last pre-surgery exam yesterday. Went well. Not actually doing too badly for an old guy. At least I’ll die healthy someday.

Still getting used to the Oculus. Haven’t been able to get it to attach to my linux system YET so I can do X-Plane. I will when I’m not so danged busy.

SWMBO bought the complete M*A*S*H tv show and had me order the complete Criminal Minds and wants them ripped and on the server sometime soon. She doesn’t often make requests like that. She must like both shows a lot.

Watching WAY TOO MANY Youtube video’s on knee surgery and what you MUST do afterwards.

Getting too old for this shit.

Jan 15

It Got SO Cold In My Garage Last Night!

How cold did it get, Brother King?

The drain valve on my freeze dryer froze in the open position.

Damn.

So, having to heat the pantry to do a load of banana’s.

Still, not as bad as that 100 mph wind going through the Gorge right now.

Dang, that’s a first for me. Usually, when I start the freeze dryer it tells me to not do anything for 15 minutes.This time I hit the start button and it told me to load the trays. AND that the room is kinda cold (24 degrees) and the pump may not work right and give me errors. Dang. At least the valve unfroze.

Turned the heater to high. New summer project may be to rip out and rebuild the pantry.

Man, that 1.FM Deep House Radio is kicking it! Nice!

Oops, lazy Sunday now. Other than watched a lot of YouTube video’s on freeze drying (mostly) to learn about home made MRE’s, some dishes, taking a load out (bananas) and putting a load in (Nally’s Chili.  – 12 cans of Nally’s Chili), and making fried meatloaf patties, mashed, and peas for dinner, I really haven’t done much today.

My new (refurbished) 16 TB drive arrived today. DOA. Three different computers, three different operating systems (including a Windows 10 laptop), didn’t even recognize I’d attached a new drive (via usb). Finally installed it internally on my linux “ripping” machine. (The computer I have that I rip new movies/music with and all my scanning stuff through a windows vm). That recognized the drive.

No partition table. Of course. Neither GParted nor Discs able to get past the write/read errors to create a partition  table. Fsck & fdisk useless. dd was like: What drive? After a couple of hours I finally gave up. Will TRY to return the thing. Good luck with that.

I even put the drive in the RSHTECH disc clone thingie I have and it did not see the drive.

Anywho, Wx clear but Cold. Pantry finally got over 30 degrees. Nothings frozed in there; yet.

Our view on our walk this morning. (Sorry about the size.)

Y’all send westfargomusings some good vibes. He needs them.

Jan 12

Really Unusual For Us: 19 Degrees Tonight. Wind Chill 11 to 5 Degrees Possible.

Crap. I hate being cold. It is snowing right now but isn’t supposed to stick. BUT, with 19 Degrees low, how is it supposed to NOT stick? Gonna make our morning walk a bundled up pleasure tomorrow.

Had a CT scan of my left hip & knee today so the robot can figure out how it’s going to give me a new knee next month. Oh, finally got scheduled and now have no less than 3 different appointments, on the phone and in person, to make sure that I’m ready to go. Well, I’m ready to go. I think. Fuck.

Not looking forward to several weeks of pain/uncomfortable-ness but it’s gotta get better than the daily crap I get to enjoy now. I can do this. In a year it’ll be remembered pain.

Watching the Youtube video’s has helped. Seeing what other folks are ‘suffering’ and their tales helps. Also their experiences with rehab.

And I’ll have She Who Must Be Obeyed to help me.

Been listening to 1.FM: Deep House Radio on the internet. NICE!

I use ‘StreamWriter” to listen to/record internet radio stations. It usually cuts out the commercials when recording. Mostly. Mostly listen to KWPX Cowpoke Radio (cause I grew up with this stuff and know all the words), Costa Del Mar (Original), Chilltrax-The World’s Chillout Channel, and some of the Oldies stations. Ancient Oldies actually. Hard to believe some of the music I grew up with in the mid-60’s to mid-70’s is 50 years or older now. Another Fuck.

SWMBO doesn’t like my changed tastes in music but that’s pretty mutual. Can’t stand most of the stuff she listens to (Loren Green: Ponderosa, etc) but have a bunch of it on a thumb drive for when we take trips together. And she does get to listen to “her” music on trips; just not all the time. There’s a lot of things I can put up with for awhile for her.

Just tried turning on the heaty snow melting setting on the starlink router and accidentally rebooted the danged thing.

Jan 09

Active Wx Alert: Gale Warning Until 1900 This Evening …

And at 0550 I got to hear my tower sing. True, it sits right outside my shack window but it’s the first time I’ve heard it make any noise in a wind. Pretty good gust though. Looking forward to walking around the property later to see if we lost any more trees.

Not a whole hell of a lot going on around here otherwise. Been cold and WET the last few days. Dog complains that I’ve gotten old cause when I look out and it’s raining we don’t go for our walk. Sure, normally I’ve spent too much time with the Grunts to let a little rain stop me, just put on your poncho and git, but I just don’t feel like it lately.

Went to a Doc for a pre-surgery appointment and he cleared me. Gave me 14 bottles of Ensure to drink in the week before said surgery. Bunch of exercises to do. Sent me home and I’ve heard Nada since. Gonna call them today.

In the meantime I went to a physical therapy session here in Belfair. Nice that it’s so close. They gave me more exercises that I’ll be doing after the surgery to start now. They keep wanting me to sign up to start regular visits but I haven’t been scheduled for surgery yet.

SWMBO and I are working out how we’re going to handle my post-surgery limitations. Told her to tell me if I’m getting cranky. Couldn’t shut her up! When she finally ran down I had to expand on that with “from the pain or inaction after surgery.”

Still experimenting with the freeze dryer and what I can make. Put together some ‘nearly instant breakfasts’ using 1 & 1/2 cups of scrambled eggs, O’Briens(?), & sausage mix (all cooked and freeze dried separately) that worked out rather well. Add between 1/2 to 3/4 cup hot water, mix well and let sit for a minute and you’re eating breakfast.

Of course, had to make two versions: mine with sausage and SWMBO’s without. She doesn’t like sausage. Poor woman. She’s from Toledo, you know. Diced some ham to try for the next batch.

Adding some freeze dried cheese to the mix should be good. Mushrooms? Maters?

I need an 8mm vcr/camcorder so I can convert all my old family tapes to digital.

Our House From Space! Fookin' Amazing!

Oh, got a review of a Tarzan movie collection I bought on Amazon REJECTED because it violated their community standards. In it I mentioned the OLD society norms and various racial stereotypes so “put your big boy/girl panties on and accept that that was the way it was back then.” Guess you can’t tell folks to grow up publicly anymore.

Still, Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane in that jungle suit she wore. Still nice almost 100 years later.

Y’all have a great day!