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Arizona Lou

Blog Archive 2011 Apr

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Fri 4/1 - Semi-monthly shopping trip with Mildred (she enjoyed reading from my Amazon Kindle, Boundaries by Henry Cloud while she was waiting in the car at Fresh & Easy); visited by phone with Ryan of Rocky Point Kitesurfing, who is looking for an instructor and manager for his facility at Puerto Penasco, Mexico and changed the bulb in my master bedroom closet. The old 60w incandescent bulb was still good after 15 years but the little base-button CPU module quit. The button turned the bulb on with a soft start to extend the bulb' life. Twenty-nine minutes after being turned on, it would flash twice and then shut off after one additional minute (with a manual override). Fortunately my replacement bulb is a smart bulb that has the same features. They quit making these smart bulbs, probably because they'd never burn out.

Sat 4/2 - Went to the grave-side service in Glendale, AZ for Francis Burleigh Willard, Sr. a distance cousin of mine. What a bilingual inspiration! He had done a good job of planning his own funeral, including the dinner to which we were all invited.
- Twenty-four congregated at Bill Johnson's Big Apple for tonight's hamfeast. This is the place with sawdust on the floor. The good food was worth the long wait for it.

Sun 4/3 - Was considering getting a 64gB xcSD card for backing up of my
Netbook
EeePC 900HA computer
on the upcoming spring/summer trip, but decided to hold off, considering the xcSD is not backward compatible and would require a file modification for my XP machine.
- Short full-body workout at the
PVCC
Paradise Vally Community College
gym, sorted some documents for taxes, worked on the online boating class, finished cutting up my business cards using my 200 page paper cutter, started daily hanging in my kite harness and wearing a wet suit to toughen up for the spring trip.

Mon 4/4 - Went to Fry's Electronics and b ought some things in preparation for my big kiteboarding trip: 3, 32gb SD cards for backing up my
netbook
EeePC 900HA computer
and a pair of
FRS/GRMS
Midland LXT114 Family Radio Service/General Mobile Radio Service
radios. Why more radios? Because these do not have the obnoxious Roger Beep, which blasts my ears. It turns out that the PTT release click on the FRS radios is worse than the roger beep.

Tue 4/5 - Took
Mildred
95yr-old I take to Bally Fitness weekly, shopping twice a month and help out with her "new" computer
to Bally Fitness. She said she was not going to eat the grapes I bought for her - too sour. I think she should be a little less picky, considering she is pretty dependent upon help from others. I'll try to remember this if I eventually find myself in her situation.

Wed 4/6 - Spent about 2.5 hours on the phone with Garmin and determined that there was a bug and found a workaround for my
GPS
Garmin Nuvi 885T
's not showing any waypoints to my computer: remove the GPS battery; reinstall it; turn GPS on; let it set on the initial menu screen at least 10 seconds; then connect it to the computer via USB.
- At Gangplank in Chandler, I worked on the future index for my Technology web page

Thu 4/7 - Today I learned that my
cell phone
HTC Touch Diamond smart phone
is on its way back from the repair shop with a new motherboard and under warranty. Now that is good news, considering I thought I was going to have to pay some big bucks for the repair. Duet's Beth delivered a used computer to
Mildred
95yr-old I take to Bally Fitness weekly, shopping twice a month and help out with her "new" computer
, who has is going to learn it from scratch. Beth said she got Mildred started on Solitaire. What a neat way to learn selecting, dragging, dropping and other mouse controls.

Fri 4/8 - I got up about 6:40am to make a couple of aluminum reinforcement bars for my van bumper. Most of the rest of the morning was spent taking the van in to Auto Tune for new brakes and routine coolant flush/fill and transmission services. Dave there, even installed the bumper reinforcement bars with the stainless steel rivets I provided. Such a guy!
- While I was home waiting for the van to be finished I read my Kindle while sunning for a while and got things ready for Turbotax.
- On the way home from picking up the van I showed my completed Van Auxiliary Power Project off to a couple more businesses that helped me with it: Bell Road RV Center and and NAPA Auto Parts. I also stopped by Harbor Freight and bought a titanium nitrate-coated, 29-piece drill bit set with index and bits from 1/16 to 1/2 inch by 64ths and 3/8" shaft cutdown. The little set I had been using skipped a lot of sizes so this set will be very useful, although it raises my toolbox weight up to 34 lb.

Sat 4/9 - I had to recharge my Kindle for the first time in nearly 8 weeks; took my van in for emissions testing (they couldn't test it because it needs a drive cycle); worked on my taxes and other projects and went to the Saturday night Hamfeast - this time way down in Gilbert, AZ.

MON 4/11 - Bought an Actron Fault Code Scanner since my van is coming up for emissions testing; worked on taxes.

Tue 4/12 - Tax work, Bally Fitness with Mildred and a little grocery shopping today.

Wed 4/13 - Today was up and down from a tech standpoint. I spent the first half trying to get new maps downloaded my
GPS
Garmin Nuvi 885T
receiver. Garmin certainly has a contorted way with their Garmin Map Updater software, Download Manager, Microsoft .NET Framework and a bunch of error messages! After I had my fill of failures I worked on my medical miles driven and sorted medical receipts for taxes. I got my repaired
cell phone
HTC Touch Diamond smart phone
loaded with all my contacts, calendar and notes, but the phone appears to have lost its non-training voice dialing capability... a key feature for me.
- At Gangplank it took Roy about five minutes on my Toshiba laptop in a GRUB text editor to move Windows XP Professional to the top of the boot list in place of Ubuntu 9.04, so now the computer defaults to Windows instead of locking up in Ubuntu (due to lack of disk space allotted to Ubuntu). Thanks, Roy! Now the computer will record Bob Brinker and Clark Howard while I am away on my trips. Also, for you who know about websites, I got the CSS to properly control the format of my TECHNOLOGY webpage index table. A good accomplishment for me!

Thu 4/14 - Got my taxes done with TurboTax and printed out, ready for checking tomorrow; Used my new fault code scanner to find out that the van is a long ways from completing a drive cycle for emissions testing.

Fri 4/15 - Made a plastic folder for the bare 80gb hard drive from my old HP laptop so the drive won't get damaged on my trip; washed the van and drove out west to Glendale to H&R Block to meet with Enrolled Agent Winifred L. Mistretta (Winnie) who found four problems - one steming from the previous year's return. Since I'll have to file an ammended return for 2009 and its result will invalidate my 2010 return, I have decided to file for an extension and take care of both when I return from my long spring/summer kiteboarding trip.

Sat 4/16 - Measured my muscles today. I used to do it every week, then every month, then every who knows how long. Today was probably the first time in almost two years. Just want to see if I gain during my fall/winter gym months. Also, starting the middle of January, 2011, I reduced my gym days from 7/week to 4/week - a friend said a person need to give their body more time to rest.
- I took my van's blower diverter apart several times before I diagnosed the problem (bad actuator) and locked the system on fresh air until I can find a used actuator.

Sun 4/17 - Resolved my checking, prepared, filed online and mailed an extension, with check, for my 2010 taxes and spent too much time trying, unsuccessfully, to get my little cute Canon BJC-50 printer working with my
netbook computer
EeePC 900HA

Mon 4/18 - Masking, priming and spray painting about ten scuffs, including bumpers, on my van was today's big project. It surely looks nice now. Not a pro job, but good enough to suit me - especially considering the van is 15 years old. Also I reinked my Dymo DateMark electronic time/date stamp. I'm sleeping in my van in the garage tonight to check out the systems and decide which pillows etc. to take on the trip.

Tue 4/19 - Did final two loads of laundry; bought a stubby water heater shut-off screwdriver at Harbor Freight (good people there) and helped Mildred with her computer some and then took her to Bally Fitness.

Wed 4/20 - I did something stupid today. Hopefully I'll get stupid out of my system and have a run of smart. My Actron Fault Code Scanner indicated that my van was ready for emissions testing. P0420 Catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 1 was the only fault code showing. The rest looked OK. So I decided to erase that code, understanding that you can still pass with two items not reporting. Turns out that I erased ALL the codes, so will have to go through another drive cycle to get them back. That means several days of driving around and several, days before I can get the emissions check and several more days before I can leave. Ugh!

Thu 4/21 - Got a new catalytic converter installed late this afternoon and then tried to rush a drive cycle, which I accomplished in barely enough time to get to the Deer Valley emissions testing station about three minutes before closing. I PASSED!

Fri 4/22 - It seems as though I'll never get off on my kiteboarding trip. On the way to Mesa my alternator quit working. Thanks to my newly installed
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen
battery as a reserve, I did not get stalled beside the road. Also, thanks to Auto Tune they were able to put in a replacement alternator before closing time today.
- I was on my way to Mesa to see
George and Cindy
younger brother and wife
for our final pre-trip get together and to deliver a 300GB hard drive as my off-site computer backup. Enjoyed our visit.
- Also today I started keeping track of the SPI Laguna Madre wind forecast, Sunday on, from the National Weather Service website (the link is here on my Shops & Links web page, if you're interested). I just had to trim my shrubs before departing, as three months of growth during my trip,in addition to some untrimmed shagginess would porbably earn me a letter from the HOA. I also raked my front granite and reinstalled the four sun screens that I remove in the winter to make the place brighter, so my house looks pretty good.

Sat 4/23 - I actually got on the road this morning. Decided to take the scenic route of US 60/US 70 through the mountains to Lordsburg, New Mexico - about the same time and distance wise as through Tucson on I-10.

Drive to SPI from home in Phoenix
2011 Overall Avg
mph 		Moving Avg
mph		 Total
Time		 Miles
Today		 Total
Miles		 Forecst
Low Temp		 Night
Location
Sa Apr 23 46.5 60.6 9:37 446.5 446.5 60 deg. Clint, TX
Su Apr 24 48.4 71.1 11:11 540.7 987.2 75 deg. S San Antonio, TX
Mo Apr 25 47.0 61.7 6:10 289.7 1276.7 . South Padre Island, TX

Sun 4/24 - I stopped by San Antonia to visit with friends and spent the night in southern San Antonio. I passed through an area of government housing. It is interesting that almost all the residents had shiny vehicles that were a lot newer than mine.

Mon 4/25 - Made it to SPI a little after 4:00 this afternoon, stopped by a couple of the kite shops, joined the SPI Kiteboard Association and headed out to the North Flats. Naturally there was a good wind and a lot of kiteboarders. I did some pretty good jumps with my 12m kite and 130cm twin tip- what d'ya expect with all that power, when most people heavier than me were on their 9m kites. Then I took out my 8m kite with the both the twin tip and my 5'2" surf board and tried my first jibes on it with foot straps. Didn't make a one, but enjoyed the warmth and just wearing my trunks. Top GPS speed on my 5'2" surf board with foot straps was 27.3mph. During my last outing I lost my Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS receiver, as I forgot to use my double fasten wrist strap device. Expensive mistake. Good thing I still have my old Foretrex 201 as a spare. In some respects I like it better, as it has better waterproofing and you can reset the maximum speed without resetting the trip information.

Tue 4/26 - Two sessions today on the North Flats: 50 minute 1st session w 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board: mostly tried spins; 40 minute 2nd session w 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 and Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard w the footstraps - attempted jibes; max speed 28.3 mph on the Laguna chop.
- Got my Oregon Scientific weather station working with all four remote temperature/humidity sensors and the anemometer. Had to reset the unit. That means reprogramming the time zone, times, alarms etc.

Wed 4/27 - One kiteboarding session today on the North Flats of 1:10 with the 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board: Mostly tried spins.
- Called Capital One for a higher credit limit so I can move their card to the front of my wallet. Not yet, as they only gave me a $500 increase.

Thu 4/28 - Two sessions today on Laguna Madre: The first was almost two hours with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps. What a good feeling: I actually made most of my jibes, although the hardest part is getting my new rear foot into the back footstrap - all in preparation of a session with the board on the Gulf of Mexico.
- The second session was with my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board. About a mile off shore the kite spiraled down to the water. I thought the right front (tension) line broke but I later discovered that a load pulley broke that had the same effect. Of course that resulted in an unflyable kite and a long walk in. It WAS a beautiful day for a .8-mile stroll in chest-deep water. Top GPS speed, walking in was 1.6 mph. I am now using my Garmin Foretrex 201. I don't think I'll replace the 401, as the battery door tends to leak a little. Unfortunately I did not anticipate needing my USB/serial adapter cable to use with the 201, so can not offload new waypoints, tracks etc.

Fri 4/29 - Rode on the gulf today for the first time in two years after fixing my 12m kite at Kitesurfing, INC. Boy is the gulf different than the flat water of Laguna! Never a moment's rest. I DID meet the challenge, though. Was going to ride locally at the Pavilions (south end of SPI ) but a group came by headed downwind (north). I caught up with them and discovered they were mostly friends of mine from Arizona: Christian, Chris, Steve and others. I survived the 6.3 miles and went over ten miles in the process. I was using my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2, which I got down in the waves three or four times, but was able to relaunch it every time. I got separated from my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board two or three times but was also able to retrieve it each time in the breaking waves - no board leash! Our happy but tired group of seven shared two taxis from our destination, Access #5 back to the Pavilions.

Sat 4/30 - Two kiteboarding sessions today at the North Flats in high, gusty south-southeast winds and a new kite. The first session was with my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2 kite and my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps for about a half hour. The peak gust at my van while I was out was 35.9 mph. I did a few jibes in spite of the extreme gustiness and practiced taking my back foot in and out of the foot strap. For the second session, I inflated my 6m Best Nemesis and took it out for about a half hour. It was ridable but the gustiness did not make it much fun. Peak gust measured on my van's weather station while I was out was 39.4 mph.
- Two things happened that encouraged me to quit for the day. First, due to the combination of wind and tide, water was invading our launch/parking area - about an inch deep. Secondly the trailing edge of my 8m Cabrinha Switchblade-2, just sitting in the wind, started tearing in numerous places as a result of the age of the kite. I went to the Air Padre kite shop and bought a new 8m Best Nemesis. I drove back to the North Flats, looked at the water and decided to catch up on my blog instead of trying out my new kite.

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