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Arizona Lou

Blog Archive 2011 Mar

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Tue 3/1 - Yesterday Tim, from the Moon Valley LA Fitness Power Station juice bar, gave me a couple of his old blenders: a 3 amp Hamilton-Beach and an 11.5 amp Vita-Mix Palm Bay Club. These are commercial grade, so if I can get them working I should not have to worry about burning out my little Goodwill ones next time I make a batch of Protein Frosties. I Played around with the blenders and downloaded the instructions for the Vita-Mix Model VM0100A($450 new). It is an old one and the bearing is so worn out on its blade assembly that it leaks and rattles. I have concluded that the blade assembly cannot be fixed after attempting to seal it with faucet packing. I hate to toss out the blender because it has a big (64 oz.) "jar," which I need and is powerful (2+ peak horsepower), which will handle the tough job of blending my protein frosties. Yup, I could buy a new replacement blade assembly for about $150.00! Guess I'll have to go to more garage sales.
- Took Mildred shopping this afternoon. She bought more groceries on this trip than ever before, which made sense since the next shopping trip will be in about 15 days. When we got back to her house I helped her arrange her things for her "new" computer. Duet will be supplying the computer with dial-up Internet.

Wed 3/2 - Did two loads of dark laundry today and organized some things then went to see my dermatologist who checked me all over and biopsied a small suspect spot on the back of my right hand. They should phone me in a week or two with the result.
- For today's BIG trip I stopped by KFNN to pick up the two tickets I won to the Renaissance Festival. How did I win them? Yesterday morning I correctly guessed the number of World Series rings that Micky Mantle had when he retired. The successful high-tech strategy was to turn my radio down to avoid a feedback, voice dial the station just before they asked the question with my bluetooth headset in my left ear and listen to the station with an earphone in my right ear in order to hear the incorrect guesses of the callers before me. From KFNN I went to LA fitness for a quick but heavy workout, then to Jim Stack's (EAA president) to pick a LiFePO4 battery for me to test with my van's charging system, then on to Gangplank to catch up on this blog.

Thu 3/3 - Reconfigured the
LiFePO4
Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery that
Jim
Jim Stack, Arizona president of the Electric Automobile Association
loaned me from 36 volts to 12 volts for my testing; took Mildred to Bally Fitness; paid my property taxes online.

Fri 3/4 - Went to garage sales, most specifically looking for a blender jar for my .5 hp Vita-Mix blender. I learned to mention at the garage sales what I was looking for: in this case a blender. A couple of 'em had blenders they wanted to get rid of, but had not thought to put them out. I did not find the jar I was looking for (a rare item), but DID find a better jar (60 oz, glass) to use with my Hamilton Beach blenders.

Sat 3/5 - I discharged the
LiFePO4
Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery at the rate of 20 amps by hooking three feet of bare iron wire across its terminals. The wire was bright red hot for about two hours until the battery was down to its minimum discharge voltage of about 11.2 volts. Now it was time to do my first test to see if my lead-acid van battery would charge properly with the
LiFePO4
Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
in parallel. Both batteries charged properly!! Great news for my auxiliary van power project.

Sun 3/6 - I spent most of the morning researching battery combiners for my Van Auxiliary Power Project. These are electroniclly controled relays that automatically connect and disconnect the "house" battery to the starting battery as appropriate.
- This afternoon I drove over to George's (younger brother) and we went to the Renaissance Festival which is heald for about two months on weekends. It may be my last time there. If I wait as long to go again as I did this time, I'll be pushing 90 years old, and maybe not kiteboarding any more. We took in some shows and I had my first try at trampoline bungee jumping. More here on my TRIPS web page.

Mon 3/7 - Finished (I hope) my battery combiner research. With just a couple questions yet to be answered, I have tentatively decided on the Blue Sea SI-Series automatic charging relay.

Tue 3/8 - Got lots accomplished today: sprayed the weeds in my yards and the Krenshaw's west yard; vacuumed the house; had a good legs workout at LA Fitness, Moon Valley; went with Tim, from the juice bar there, for my first visit to Smart and Final; fixed all my meals for tomorrow for a quick get-away; put George's sketch of me up here on my website (see above).

Wed 3/9 - What a full day! Up early to the Arizona Red Cross Center to take their 8:30 - 5:30 First Aid,
CPR
cardiopulmonary resuscitation
adult/child/infant,
AED
automatic external defibrillation
class.
- Then to
Jim Stack's
President of Electric Automobile Association, Arizona
to return the
LiFePO4
Lithium/Iron/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery I borrowed last Wed for testing and for a final reality check from him of my Van Auxiliary Power Project. He seemed to think all my research, plans and ideas made sense, and he ought to know. He also gave me some local resources for the project.
- Then to Gangplank to do catch up on this website and improve the links on my Smart Stuff web page. What a long, but rewarding day!

Thu 3/10 - I phoned Dymo because my electronic date stamp reset itself to it's default date and time every day or two. The tech suggested that I pry up the negative clock battery spring. It fixed the problem. Now, why didn't I think of that! Went to Bally Total Fitness with Mildred for my arms workout and her seniors aerobics class.

Fri 3/11 - Something is wrong with my
smart cell phone
HTC Touch Diamond
. It showed no sign of life in one morning so I moved the SIM card to my Motorola C-139 stand-by phone and started using it. Not all the fancy features, but at least I have a phone to use.

Sat 3/12 - Today was pretty cool. I combined showing off my
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery with garage sales. All I got at the garage sales was a talking pedometer. People at several stores have helped with my Van Auxiliary Power Project, so I decided to show them some of the result. They were all very interested, as they had not seen such a high-tech, lightweight and efficient battery before. To add to the drama, I took in my iron wire and demonstrated how you could "short" a 2' length across the terminals, turn the wire red hot, measure the current at 25 amps and not damage the battery.

Sun 3/13 - I put my Motorola C-139 cell phone back in the drawer, after I got my
smart cell phone
HTC Touch Diamond
to charge, but it is getting warm and the battery is lasting about a half a day or for a few of phone calls.
- West Marine stuff is a little pricey (for my meager budget) but they treat me well. I drove over to their store (west Phoenix) and exchanged some things for my Van Auxiliary Power Project; also started using my "new" talking pedometer, just for kicks. By default it tells you each 1k steps. You can also press a button to have it tell you the current number of steps, calories burned, distance walked and time walking. I don't think it is very accurate, but it gives an interesting reference point. Also getting it going allowed me to tap into my over-abundant supply of button batteries.

Mon 3/14 - Went to LA Fitness, Moon Valley, for my weekly heavy, 3-second-stroke arms workout and worked on my projects.

Tue 3/15 - I was pulling my phone out to dial 9-1-1 at Mildred's house this morning. As usual, I had phoned her as I left home: no answer. When I got to her house I rang the door bell: no answer. I phoned her twice from outside her carport door: no answer. I went next door and got acquainted with her neighbor to the east, who had not seen her so far this morning. We were to go shopping at 10am so she could be home in plenty of time for her 2pm hearing appointment. In the past she had always answered the door when we were getting together. I figured the police would come, break down the door and we would find Mildred in bad shape. Just before dialing 9-1-1, a taxi pulled up with Mildred in it. Thank goodness she was OK. She had gotten her appointment and shopping times mixed up.

Wed 3/16 - Last night I decided I should join Mike, my neighbor across the street to the northwest, in his moving sale this weekend, only mine will be a garage sale. In the middle of the might I thought about all the things I could get cleared out of the house and garage and some of the logistics. Sometimes it is difficult to turn my brain off. To that end, I located and bought a compact and lightweight 28" x 60" folding table at Walmart for $37.88.
- In the finance department, I shuffled some money to my emergency Money Market account, paid my two credit card bills, resolved my checking account. The first time around my check register was $4,000.00 low. I had accidentally put a deposit in my debit column.
- At Gangplank this evening I worked on this blog and did a show-and-tell of my
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery, red-hot wire and all. About four, there, were very interested and asked lots of questions which I was, of course, happy to answer.

Thu 3/17 - I bought 4 Garage sale kits at 99 Cent Only store - better that making my own with boxes and foamboard - both more readable, although small (only 8.5 x 11" plus a 3 x 11" arrow), and consistent for all the signs. Mildred to Bally Fitness.
After dark, put out garage sale signs for tomorrow morning:
Garage Sale
Fri Sat Sun 7-2

Fri 3/18 - Up @ 5:59 this morning for breakfast and to put things out for my garage sale. Lots of activity; sold some stuff; Got logs of garage cleaning done. Today I saw some garage floor that I had not seen in about 15 years. Magically more space.
- This evening Harold Dean Hayes (x-brother-in-law) came over for our usual tech talk. Our topics included my Amazon Kindle, my Van Auxiliary Power Project (his input and perspective were helpful) and his "new" side-car Harley Davidson.

Sat 3/19 - Garage sale is continuing with fewer sales than yesterday. The most significant thing that happened was a lady drove up on my sidewalk while she was making a U turn and clobbered my Garage Sale sign. Her reply, when I asked her if she would fix it was, "I'm sorry... no speak English!" The sign was marginally usable after I taped it back together. Meanwhile Able and his family drove up from Tucson to buy my van's 3rd row bench seat for $60.
- I installed the new battery I got in the mail yesterday for my
smart cell phone
HTC Touch Diamond
. We'll see if the problem is the phone or the battery (see 3/13/11 for details).
- To Saturday-night Hamfeast tonight: Golden Valley Chinese Restaurant, 832 W Baseline Rd, Mesa, AZ

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