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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 updated my blog weekly - or when something special happened.
Wed 10/28 - Kiteboarding yesterday! With a cold front bringing up to 30 mph southwest winds to Lake Pleasant, northwest of Phoenix, Christian, David and I had fun riding for over an hour. A forth kiteboarder, Chris, was recovering from a hurt back and could not ride so, provided support. My top speed, and my Arizona record so far, was 27.9 mph. On my way home, although happy and tired, I stopped by LA Fitness for a good workout. What a day!
- On Thursday at the October Arizona Repeater Association (ARA) meeting I learned about using new digital controllers for our ham radio repeaters to save energy, space, cost and increase dependability and versatility.
- This week I learned lots about my new USB digital Storage Oscilloscope. Friday, my x-brother-in-law, Harold Dean came over for experimentation. This afternoon, on my way to Gang Plank, I got together with Clark Jones and Shane (my nephew) - both engineers. It was interesting watching users who really knew what they were doing.
Wed 10/21 - On Thursday I took my Duet companion on our first shopping outing. Ninety-one year-old Lavonne, who uses a walker, and I snapped up the bargains at Fresh N Easy and Food City. Sunday Duet had their volunteer appreciation dinner. Good company with chicken, beans, rice and cake. I had the privilege of donating two Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS receivers. One was used as the door prize for the dinner. The other one will be used in a drawing for the volunteers who provide transportation for the elderly. What a good feeling!
- Friday I had all the carpet cleaned in my Dahlia rental house, and then Monday wrote my second check in 2009, officially turning the house over to PropertyAZ who will now manage it - hopefully allowing me to concentrate on more important things, like planning my next kiteboarding trips.
- I'm at it again. I offered a ham radio friend $100 if he would meet his weight-loss goals between now and the middle of January, 2010. I think he is going to accept the challenge!
- Sporty change to my website at Gangplank tonight: Ovi helped me add one line of CSS and now the top buttons turn black when you hover your mouse them (big deal, eh?).
Wed 10/14 - Really too busy to have much fun this week, getting the rental house sparkling, deciding on PropertyAZ to manage it and studying the related paperwork.
- I finally found a link to the kiteboarding video that aired on NBC's WPTV Channel 5 in West Palm Beach, FL. The segment shows a number of kiteboarders, including comments and a lead in by… me! You'll find it in the OBX 2009 (Outer Banks) section of my Trips web page. Just look for the old ugly guy in the Killer Kiteboarding taking off across the country video.
- In the technology department, I got my printer working by replacing a bad ink tank and experimented with one of the new Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS receivers. It was interesting to drive with both it and my old GPS navigating at the same time. Take a look at the Nuvi 200 on my Technology's Cool web page.
- Yesterday I drove up to Payson to visit Rose Anne (my X) and see my Anne and Brook (daughter and granddaughter), out visiting from Norfolk, VA for a few days.
Wed 10/7 (uploaded 10/14) - Sunday my rental tenants move out without notice. I decided this would be a good time to hire a management company - mainly due to my absence during trips. As a result I spent much of the week researching and interviewing management companies. I interview a third one tomorrow and then will make my decision.
- Friday my new USB digital storage Virtual Oscilloscope arrived. I have found time to squeeze in setting it up, calibrating it and going through most of the instruction manual. It certainly is a powerful tool - and small (perfect for the Van Life!) You can see what it and a screen shot look like on my Technology's Cool web page.
- For kiteboarding I bought the latest wrist-mounted GPS receiver. The Garmin Foretrex 401 is smaller (but a little thicker, ugh) than my old one, uses AAA batteries (so it's always ready to go without a charger), has an electronic compass and altimeter. I'll keep my old one as a spare.
- At Gang Plank tonight I spent most of my time experimenting with reformatting my Van Life and Technology's Cool web pages with tables or CCS (cascading style sheet). I strained my brain then decided the pages are fine as they were.
Sun. 10/4 For the first time ever, I kiteboarded today in my home state of Arizona. The shore was steep rocky and the winds were gusty, all as expected, but it was good to get out on the water, even for a short time. It was at Lake Pleasant, about a half hour's drive northwest of here. Actually it was sort of a boring session, only maxing out at 16.7 mph and covering 3.08 miles in a half hour. I was able to stay upwind, do a few little jumps and carves to toeside. The best part was seeing Christian Canise again, and meeting Chris, Joe, Kenneth, Garen and others whose names escape me.