Fri 6/1 - This morning I stowed some stuff from around the house, loaded all the files from my old Kindle to my new Kindle Touch 3G, registered it, started sorting the pictures for my new LiFeMnPO web page, flew my old helicopter four about 7 minutes until the battery was completely depleted, and had an appointment with
Dr Hurm
Raymond Hurm, my urologists, about 3 1/2 years older than me
.
He let me do a uraflow and I pissed 28 ml/sec - the best ever for me. It certainly feels good to be peeing like the young bucks I hear in the toilet stall next to me. Boy am I proud!
Normal uroflowmetry for males
4 to 7 years old is 10 ml/sec.
8 to 13 years old is 12 ml/sec.
14 to 45 years old is 21 ml/sec.
46 to 65 years old is 12 ml/sec.
66 to 80 years old is 9 ml/sec. (my age category)
- This afternoon with my new Kindle, I downloaded a test sample book and melted my name into the unit, made a kite pump charge adapter to use with my high-tech Granite battery charger, researched LocTite, updated my facts file with the LocTite information and used my blue LocTite to install the main rotor motor's tiny drive pinion on my little TRex 100x helicopter. The pinion arrived today in the mail.
Sat 6/2 - The main event today was
George
younger brother who lives in Mesa
's
retirement party this afternoon. I had a chance to get reacquainted with my cousins, Jim and Joyce Parks, that I had not seen for about 20 years. The bubble machine which I took for the event was a big hit with the little kids.
Kimmie
my niece and one of George's daughters
helped set it up and also helped me remember to take it home by running out to the parking lot with the bag before I could drive off without it. Thanks, Kimmie!
- This morning was good news and bad news. The good: On my way home from the LA Fitness gym, I found the afore-mentioned bubble machine at a nearby Goodwill and bubble juice at Dollar Tree. The bad news, I was practicing flying my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
in preparation to flying, in a large, unobstructed room, our respective helicopters with
Shane
my nephew who lives in north Mesa and is an engineer with MedTronics
at George's retirement party. The session ended when I crashed the bird behind one of my computer monitors and broke a main rotor blade! At the end of the retirement party Shane mysteriously disappeared without saying a word. Maybe he had other things on his mind, or maybe he didn't want me flying his Blade MCPX2, considering what I had done to mine
Sun 6/3 - Today I calibrated a new 90-0z water container to use at my kitchen sink, washed the four to-paint areas on my van with detergent, determined that my jumper pack has its own internal charge controller and researched parts broken or to be broken for my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
.
Mon 6/4 - I did two neat things today. First, this morning, I dropped my van's
house battery by Elite Power Solutions so they could rebalance the cells. When I picked the battery up just before supper time, Rick said the cells were so close that rebalancing was hardly worth doing. Great news - and this was after over a year of continuous use.
- Second was I got my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
going again and noticeably improved my flying skill. The repair was thanks to Frank's Hobby House where they scavenged the parts I needed from a returned heli they had in the store. I replaced a rotor blade I had broken, got a spare and also got a spare canopy, tail rotor and two additional batteries. The flying was after my workout in the large exercise room at 24-Hour Fitness. This morning I came within a hair of ordering the parts online, expecting to receive the parts barely before I leave on my trip to Kansas and Oklahoma, when I phoned Frank's. Got the parts today! Also I worked on a carry box for the heli. This evening's repair docket included taping a second crack in the canopy and superglueing a broken strut on the landing skid.
- After supper I put my nose to the grindstone to get my van looking better for my upcoming trip by masking and spray painting an undercoat and finish coat to the four scratched areas. All the masked areas left masking tape ridges. The alternative, it seemed to me, was to spray with larger exposed areas and feather out the paint. Problem, I thought would be the overspray taking the gloss off of the surrounding areas. Bottom line: the way I did it today is uglier. Maybe I'll be able to wet sand out the ridges after the paint is completely cured. Just before bed I steel brushed and then washed with hot soapy water, the van wheels in preparation for repainting them tomorrow - black.
Tue 6/5 - Two emergencies and other stuff today, including Venus' transit of the sun. I figured out how to add all the books on my old Kindle to my new Kindle Touch 3G, along with all my bookmarks, highlights, notes and furthest read locations, but all the books and stuff I buy online still go to my old Kindle. Something to work on tomorrow.
- Getting the van spruced for the KS/OK trip, I repainted all the rims black, including the spare. That's where emergency #1 came in. I had no idea how many places I went inside my house until I noticed about 45 little black spots on my carpeting, the result, evidently, of getting a drop of black oil-based paint on my foot from the wheel-painting project. I spent the better part of an hour with paint thinner removing the black, when I had planned on getting things ready for my excursion with
Harold Dean
Harold Dean Hayes, my x-brother-in-law
to observe the Sun as Venis went accross it. Emergency #2 was related. The spare tire winch at the back of my van would not pull the spare all the way up. It was not good, but driveable.
- Both Harold Dean and I got some good photos of the sun, thanks to the transportation in his Hummer and the projection from his four-inch reflective telescope to my white screen. After the stellar event, I took my van to Discount Tire where they fixed the spare winch problem. Evidently the winch cable had wrapped up on itself or something. Then on to Frank's Hobby House for new landing skids for my heli and then to LA fitness. I had a few minutes between a couple of their classes in the large group exercise room to practice with my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
.
Wed 6/6 - Today I met
George and Cindy
younger brother who lives in Mesa and his wife
at Thai House On Shea in Scottsdale. We had a good visit and satisfied Cindy's craving for food from Thailand. Also I flew my little
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
at LA Fitness and did pretty well.
Thu 6/7 - This morning I trimmed all my shrubs and raked the granite in my front and side yards, so the place will look good when I go on my trip.
-
Heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
good news and bad news. After a workout at Fitness 1, I flew the heli in their aerobics room, for the first time, and also for the first time without stopping or crashing, one battery's endurance - almost six minutes! Then to see Dr Khaled Saleh, my Pulmonologist. I am officially off Warfarin now and don't need to see him again, unless I feel a need in six months. On the way home I stopped by LA Fitness to flymy heli in their aerobics room. I was doing well and on my third battery for the session when I crashed the bird into a ceiling recessed light fixture. One of the fly-bar foils broke off, so I spent some of this evening using superglue and a special adhesive to glue it back on. I find my holding device with two spring alligator clips comes in real handy for such procedures.
- Also I re-engineered a window-edge antenna
mounting bracket
MFJ-310 with BNC connector
so it will fit on my van's rear wing window and replaced my HT's charging cradle.
Fri 6/8 - This morning I started following the weather in Hutchinson and McPherson, KS and scheduled the payment (payoff, of course) of all four of my credit cards - one that is my primary card (cuz it shows me kiteboarding in Brazil), a second card only for my phone bill, and two others that I use twice a year to keep them in my credit mix.
-
Heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
damage report: My first session in the LA Fitness aerobics room ended after 2.5 batteries when I crashed the heli into the floor and broke the repaired flybar. That meant a trip to Frank's Hobby House where Chris and Patric coached me in replacing the flybar. While I was there, I also bought a new landing gear skid and another pair of main rotor blades. It is a good thing, because on my way home I flew the heli in the aerobics room of 24-Hour Fitness where a hard landing resulted in a broken landing gear skid strut. My evening projects included replacing the landing gear skid with the new one and super-gluing the old one.
- Other accomplishments were sunning, backing my computer up to an external hard drive and
finishing the installation of my van's exterior ham radio antenna on the top edge of the left rear wing window. Did a professional job of it, but it tool almost all evening
Sat 6/9 - I said to my Android phone's Maps program, "Maui Cable Wakeboard Park, Guthrey, Oklahoma" and up it popped on the map with a label that said, "closed permanently." That's exactly what I wanted to know. Also I said, "Central Christian College (CCC), McPherson, Kansas" and up it popped on a map with the driving directions. Technology can surely be nice!
- Still getting ready for my trip, I cut my hairs and went to LA Fitness for my last legs workout and to fly my heli - no crashes with 6 batteries of flying. Bananas were getting pretty ripe at home so I ate all four of 'em.
Sun 6/10 - Got off just after noon and spent the night in Albuquerque, NM. Things that slowed me down were a seized pump motor for my van's running water system, having to return home after about fifteen minutes of driving to get my 1962 Central yearbook and a brush fire that temporarily closed I-17.
Mon 6/11 - Drove to McPherson, KS and spent the night in their parking lot, with my 3A high-tech Granite battery charger plugged into one of their motor home outlets to keep my LiFeMnPO battery charged up while my van is sitting for the next few days.
Tue 6/12 - Today I worked for the IT guys as part of the Central Alumni Campus Improvement Program. My job: to pull the Cat 5e cables from the data switcher closet down and across the hall to ten data drops for computers to be used in the room to which the journalism department is moving.
- Met lots of nice people and had a total of 10 battery-flights with my heli. Four battery-flights in a Kline Hall lounge with a 20x30' clear area, learning to fly in a limited space, then six battery-flights in the gymnasium where I had the opposite - lots of space. The most fun was sitting up in the bleachers and flying all around the gym.
- Spending the night in Kline Hall where the temperature feels like a refrigerator - 69 degrees.
Wed 6/13 - I spent most of the day on the CCC website checking out pages, menus, links and loading. At lunch I sat the same table as Hal, the president of CCC and had a chance to ask about CCC's financial situation and the vision he has for the college.
Some of the neat people I have met here at CCC are:
Hal Hoxie, president
Kathy Hoxie, his wife
Lanita Quastad, the president's secretary
David Ferrell, CFO (I think)
Carol, Donor's Office secretary
Doug, head of IT
Mike, his assistant
John, head of the cafeteria
Rich Edwards, head of maintenance
Al Henrion, stained glass guru
Shane, professor of all sorts of things and in JATATDC*
Kaleb, young, grounds & maintenance, also in JATATDC*
Megan, third-year Central student
Paul, young, maintenance volunteer
* Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat summer production by the McPherson Community Theatre
Thu 6/14 - Got around this morning and drove the 55 miles to Cheney Reservoir for my first two kite sessions after my surgery and pulmonary embolism and to ride with local kiteboarders, demonstrating the congeniality of the kiteboarding fraternity. I used my 8 and 12m kites and my 130cm twintip board and rode conservatively, doing only a few jumps (puny) some carves and a couple of kite loops.
Fri 6/15 - Today for the CCC Work Week, for Lanita and Alumni Registration I made a McPherson Community Theater sign-up sheet, made directions sheets for various class reunions locations, then helped Mike organize and straighten the CCC data server room, then, registered myself for the CCC Alumni Weekend.
- This evening a group of us from CCC went to see opening performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a summer production by the McPherson Community Theatre. It was great, as usual.
Sat 6/16 - Events today included:
9am - CCC campus walking tour by Rich
11am - Reunion Luncheon where we sat with our classmates (only about 8 from my class of '62)
1pm - Tour of McPherson in the city's trolley
2pm - Class reunion at the farm home of Merlin & Marilyn Fields
6pm - Heritage Class Banquet and Sharing, where we heard lots of stories from Centralities
Starting to read the Joseph story from Genesis 37 on my Kindle
Sun 6/17 - Went to the Central Christian College (CCC) Free Methodist Church this morning where a group of young people reported on their week-long mission trip to Haiti. After a CCC Legacy Dinner and a nap I headed for Hutchinson to hang out with
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
.
We talked about Amazon Kindles, flew a irRC helicopter and pigged out at Sirloin Stockade. I am sleeping in my van while here in Hutch.
Mon 6/18 - I spent most of the morning in the excellent Hutchinson City Library where I reserved the large conference room this afternoon for Stan and me to fly our little helicopters. I also phoned all around and found no hobby shop in Hutchinson, Wichita or Oklahoma City that handled Align Trex helicopters for a replacement tail rotor motor.
- At noon I met Stan. We flew my older toy helicopter and then pigged out at Sirloin Stockade. While in Hutchinson, I am having two meals a day, the first being breakfast in my van. Stan and I went back to the library where I gave him my old Kindle 3G with a keyboard. We got it registered in his name.
Tue 6/19 - This morning after breakfast in my van I went to the YMCA to workout under their Silver Sneakers program. The nice ladies at the front desk did not know how to do the paperwork, so getting in took over a half hour and did not leave time for the library after my workout in the YMCA weight room.
- At noon I met Stan at Airport. We got gas and some stuff at a Dillon grocery store and ate lunch on the way to... M&M point on
Cheney
Cheney Reservoir, a large lake 40 miles west of Wichita, KS
.
The wind was beautiful, although gusty as is always the case of inland lakes. My little hand-held anemometer peaked out at 44 mph, with averages of 29-30 mph. I had three sessions with my 6m Best Nemesis flown with an RRD and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board, totaling almost two hours.
- Stan enjoyed visiting with kiteboarders such as Paul, Lloyd, Eric, Wes, Nick, Engin and Brendt who was awesome on a strapless surfboard similar to mine. Roger and a mother/daughter team, who were here Thursday, did not make it out. On the way home Stan and I ate supper that I fixed out at the lake and Stan mentioned (1) that he thought it would not be too difficult to learn kiteboarding and (2) that he might have time and money for other things if he sold his rental properties. I whole-heartedly agreed with him on both counts.
Wed 6/20 - Took the 9-hour drive to Altus, OK after a quick, heavy full-body workout and shower at the Hutch YMCA. I arrived in Altus in time to baby sit my two granddaughters, which included some quality reading time with Brooke.
Thu 6/21 - Today I took Katie to her Western Water Dawgs swim team practice, helped Brooke add some more paths to her Marble Maze. During the day the girls joined me and my Amazon Kindle in my van and I read them Bella Blue's Big Adventures, by Vivian Stearns-Kohler whom I met on the airplane to one of my tropical kiteboarding destinations. I enjoyed butting Katie to bed with a story
Fri 6/22 - While Brooke was in school from 9-3, Katie and I did a science experiment to find whether balloons weigh more filled with air than not. They did by about 30%. On Anne's computer I researched some lakes along I-70 for possible kiteboarding on my late August drive from Colorado Springs to OBX in late summer.
- After Brooke's school we went to
AAFB
Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma
where Anne got me a 3-day pass and where we went swimming in the base outdoor pool.
Sat 6/23 - Took a trip around Altus today and extended my mail hold date, new van wiper blades, bought psyllium, got the van cleaned at an Air Force Base group car wash, bought some bread and had lunch and Internet at the Walmart McDonald's.
- From his post half way across the world, Robby helped me make their Wi-Fi network visible long enough for me to log onto it. It is such a relief having the Internet on my own computer. Thanks, Robby!
- After Brooke's nap we went to the
AAFB
Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma
fitness center where Anne and I took turns watching the girls and working out in the weight room. For my shift with the girls I taught Katie the first steps of flying my little toy IR-RC helicopter. She did amazingly well, especially considering she is only eight years old.
- For supper we walked across a couple of alleys to the all-you-can-eat buffet at Western Sizzler.
- Katie invited me to start sleeping on her double-bed-sized bottom bunk. It certainly beats both previous arrangements: The hide-a-bed in the living room, which preceded my van bed on the living room floor.
Sun 6/24 - We went to the Altus First United Methodist Church and to the
AAFB
Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma
library. I replaced the weather strip on the bottom of Anne's kitchen door. Katie's behavior has improved a lot since last time I was here; still a few bumps here and there from which she recovers much better. Her insight also has improved a great deal.
-
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
.
phoned tonight to ask some questions about collections in the Kindle I gave him and to comment on one of the books. That made me feel good - that Stan is using the Kindle.
Mon 6/25 - Today we did some spackeling and texturing various nicks on the walls around the house, I fixed my toy helicopter (the lower blade drive pinion had fallen off inside).
Tue 6/26 - Brooke went to school at church from about 9-3, Katie flew my toy heli briefly in the
AAFB
Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma
FCC
Freedom Community Center
auditorium and we had supper at the near-by bowling center.
Wed 6/27 - My last in Altus included spending some individual time with each granddaughter. In the morning Katie and I hung around the house. She did some reading, creative sewing while we visited and we watched some videos of John and Nick who respectively were born with no arms and no limbs. Then Brooke and I went to
AAFB
Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma
to the bowling center where she played on a kids' playground for a few minutes, we ate lunch (she had pizza and I had a grilled chicken salad) and went bowling. We obtained a 6-pound ball for her and, using the ball ramp beat me. Later in the day I watched both girls and fed them soup for supper while Anne taught her little young writer's group. The evening was topped off by my organizing things for leaving on my trip back home to Phoenix tomorrow.
Thu 6/28 - Brooke's favorite expressions in her cute little voice after she has accomplished something are, There we go! or Check it out!.
- On the road back toward home in Phoenix at 9:40am CDT after buying frozen veggies and gas. Took 10-minute nap at 1:15pm MDT. Driving 77 mph, I raced Amtrak (2 engines, 1 box car and 7 double-decker passenger cars traveling about 75 mph) for 45 miles to Holbrook, AZ - I lost due to 6-miles of 55mph speed limit in a construction zone. Drove 679 miles for the day from Altus, OK to Holbrook, AZ for the night. Because of the two-hour time change and long day, I went to bed early by Arizona time. I am going to try to use it as an incentive to see how long I can do "Early to bed - early to rise."
Fri 6/29 - Up about 6am MST; drove to Christopher Creek where
Rose Anne
my X
and I had a nice visit, catching up on all sorts of things in our kids' and our respective lives; arrived home about 2pm; unloaded the van; took Mildred shopping; went to Frank's Hobby House where Christ determined that there is probably nothing wrong with my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
's
tail rotor motor; It got too late to go to LA Fitness for a legs workout this evening so I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
- CAREFULLY here at home.
Sat 6/30 - One of
Brooke
my granddaughter
's
favorite toys, and also mine, was this marble machine, which includes funnels ramps, chutes, spirals, drops, bells and spinners. Both 3.5-year-old Brooke and I put the joints together to come up with various configurations. We built some versions so high, we had to be careful or one of us would knock them over. When they would fall, we would use the various pieces to build yet another version.
51 seconds
Follow a single marble from the time Brooke dropps it untin she begins to sing.
44 seconds
This is what happens after you put a hand full of marbles in at once:
- I have started research that may lead to a kiteboarding trip to Maui, Hawaii later this month.
- Sharon, a neighbor came over this morning to inform me that there was water running down the street from my yard from both sides of my driveway. The water quit running after my drip system shut off. I dug up each side of the driveway and discovered the leak was inside the 3" PVC conduit.
