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- Lou's Kiteboarding home page
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- Lou's Comedy home page
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Note: While not kiteboarding, I plan to update my blog weekly - or when something special happens.
We 9/30 - Thursday was a full and rewarding day. First thing in the morning I went to Glendale for Duet training so I can take an older person to do their shopping when I do mine. Then to Frys Electronics in West Phoenix where I bought a cool Kill-a-Watt power monitor. A picture and more info at the top of my Technology's Cool web page. Then, ate my prepared lunch on the way, to LA Fitness Moon Valley gym, and Dollar Tree. Then home for supper and to Tempe for the monthly ARA (Arizona Repeater Association - ham radio operators) meeting where we learned all about computer security. After the meeting I sat at the feet of Clark Jones, the oscilloscope guru, to fine tune the requirements for purchasing a virtual (USB) one.
- On the way out to my van after the ARA meeting I bugged Ben who said he was trying to quit smoking so I paid him $10 for seven cigarettes - half of his remaining supply. His was determined to survive the week on just the remaining seven. COOL!
- With the help of my nephew, Shane, who is an engineer with MedTronics, and Clark I thouroughly researched and ordered a virtual USB oscilloscope, the acute DS-1202 - just for experimentation.
- My optometrist checked my eyes and they are ok
We 9/23 (uploaded Friday) - Spending so much time at the computer with my website and stuff, I decided I should have something a little more comfortable than my thrift-store office chair. Of course I did way more research than necessary and sat in about 100 chairs in the process. Office Max let me try one out for over an hour and a half while working on my website at one of their desks. That's the one I bought. I think it is a winner.
- I figured that you ought to be able to have a miniature fireworks display by putting a theft-guard patch (the one-inch square circuit on the bottom of many packages) on a china plate in the microwave oven. It worked!
- I had to hand water the granite in my front and back yards because we haven't had any rain since I applied the pre-emergence spray and it needs to be activated with a half inch of rain.
- My website took time each day. I devised the coolest (to me) navigation menu at the top and bottom of all my blog pages. I improved my website's security and finished the SSI and other tweaks that one can't see but make the website work better and topped it all off tonight at Gang Plank in Chandler.
Wed 9/16 I’ve started vocalizing every day to strengthen my voice. My voice has never been the same since voice surgery a couple years ago. Hopefully this will help me get back to normal. Maybe I’ll eventually even be able to yell at people – or at least talk to groups.
- This weekend was the 16-hour biennial endurance test, known as the September AOPA Phoenix FIRC. In layman’s terms that stands for Flight Instructor Refresher Course conducted by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Gerry Fairbairn and Mark Grady certainly did their part to make boring material entertaining.
- Also, in the boring department, my optometrist said my eyes are doing OK, and I researched virtual oscilloscopes. Then, of course, tonight I drove to Gang Plank in Chandler where I hung with other tech heads and worked on my blog and this website. To keep my Google ratings up, I do something to the website every day. This week that involved reorganizing Shops, Services & WX and improving some wording here and there.
Wed 9/9 – The main thing that happened this week is that it didn’t rain. The pre-emergence weed spray I applied on Friday needs a half inch of rain for activation. It looks as though I am going to hand water the whole yard now. Also I put fresh AAs in all my clocks that use them, shredded or filed mail that arrived during my four-month kiteboarding trip, repaired my kitchen faucet and went to the Heart Attack Grill for dinner with some ham radio operators (I ate one of their greasy French fries),
- In the recreation department, I got my G-gauge train going and switched the configuration of a couple of trains, researched some possible kiteboarding destinations for next year, bought a military spec jerry can which I am cleaning out for drinking water, updated & backed up my GPS waypoints and discovered how to show videos on my cell phone (be prepared to get bored next time I see you).
- My website? I found a video that made me laugh. It is on my Stupidity page at Stupid Stupidity and am adding AZ to the title of the web pages so searching for AZ Lou will find me. This evening I drove the 35 miles to Chandler for Gang Plank while leaving my computer in its bag sitting in the hallway back home (talk about stupidity!). Remi, of Dev-Fu, was both patient and helpful with a local web server to use on my computer with my website’s SSI (Server-Side Includes) so the heading and menus of each webpage will magically appear. When I get it working I will be able to see what my web pages look like before I upload them to the Internet for the world to see.
Wed 9/2 – A busy, but good week:
For the van, did a radiator flush & fill then, and also had to replace the radiator fans because the right one’s motor was bad – about $500 total – but that is equal to about one car payment, and now the rest is free since the van is paid for. While waiting for my van I started my Christmas letter while the first half of the year is fresh in my mind. Hopefully I’ll get the letter out on time this year.
- Ted Kennedy died. Although I very much disagreed with his politics, his life was inspiring to me.
- No cavities!
- I’ve been doing short, fast sessions on my exercycle, going to various gyms and working on my tan a little each day. Why the tan? I don’t want to sunburn on my next kiteboarding trip and I want a tan line that matches my new swim trunks – pretty vain, eh?
- Website: Van Life is now complete. Check out what it takes to use a minivan as your home for four months. Also I have added photo credits (with which Internet Explorer is not compatible) to the hover pictures on my home page.
Scientists have discovered three new elements. Check it out, just for fun, at the bottom of LOUisms.
On the Smart Finance etc. web page I added some info about auto insurance to the Suggested ratios section.
At Gang Plank tonight I found how to use SSI (Server-Side Includes) so the heading and menus of each webpage will magically appear. The code will be in a small file of its own instead of on each separate page. That will make updating a two-minute job instead of the three-hour job of changing every page on the website.