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Blog Archive 2013 Feb

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Fri 2/1 = I never made it home this evening. More on that later. After making some phone calls and updating my blog this morning I drove to the
Heli Field
dirt field south of 19th Ave and Bell Rd where guys fly electric RC helicopters and airplanes
where I guy was flying a Trex 500 or such big electric RC helicopter. About five others flew electric RC airplanes, including one guy buddy-boxing with an instructor and his twin-engine Cessna 310. I flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
with its new canopy, landing skids and tail rotor motor. I crashed it back behind me out in the street - no traffic, but the pavement was too hard for the new landing gear to survive . Later, at home I repaired the landing gear with a hot glue gun and fixed tonight's supper and tomorrow's breakfast. For the
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
, I got the NiMH AAs fully rejuvenated and installed.
- Today's big trip started with helping Mildred with her computer and trying to get her to try to use it by herself a little each day, then to Frank's Hobby House to pick the rotor links that just came in for my
Heli Max
third micro RC helicopter: Heli-Max AXE 100FP that has a tail rotor and no flybar
, then to PV Mall to the Sleep Number Store to learn about their beds and find my sleep number, then down to the Chandler Radisson Hotel to spend two nights trying out one of their Sleep Number beds. Before bedtime I read some of the new
Dahlia
my rental house located on Dahlia Drive
kitchen range paperwork, including instructions and installation. and took a rare, luxurious hot bath, then went to bed on the Sleep Number bed set at 35.
- (Saturday morning my back was a little stiff but there was no pain).

Sat 2/2 = This morning I finished the new
Dahlia
my rental house located on Dahlia Drive
kitchen range paperwork and flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
in the biggest and best aerobics room yet - at the LA Fitness just west of I-10 on Chandler Boulevard. I found Hobby Action at 705 E Guadalupe Rd in nearby Tempe, AZ. The folks there were very helpful and helped me program my
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
. For the rest of the afternoon I went back to the LA Fitness for another heli session and then back to Hobby Action for more DX7s programming help. Fine people.
- This evening I drove all the way back up near home to the Saturday night Ham Feast, stopping by home on the way to hot glue the Nano's landing gear (again) and to fix tomorrow's breakfast.
- First time flying my Nano in full throttle mode, only varying the rotor pitch - one battery's worth and did fairly well. It had been necessary to reprogram the DX7s Flight Mode 1 in order to do that. Since flying that way is pretty advanced for me, I reprogrammed the Flight Mode 1 for fixed pitch. Now I can revert to the same as flying the
Trex
second RC micro RC helicopter: Align TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
or
Heli Max
third micro RC helicopter: Heli-Max AXE 100FP that has a tail rotor and no flybar
with the flip of a switch.
- During the night I will try different sleep numbers.

Sun 2/3 = This morning I ran on the treadmill in Radisson's little fitness room, prepared for departure, flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at LA Fitness on Chandler Blvd. and then went to Hobby Action in Tempe where Keoni AhYat helped me further understand my Nano and the Sepktrum DX7s controller.
- I got home in time for a late lunch, got ready for uninstalling the
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
range tomorrow and went to bed in my own firm bed (I slept well and Sunday morning my back was stiff and I experienced one stabbing pain).

Mon 2/4 = Arms (heavy; 8, 2-second reps) and
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions at Fitness One today, then to
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
to uninstall the old kitchen range and accept delivery of the new one from Sears. Another Nano session at Fitness 1 rounded out today's travels. I upped the constant pitch from 80% to 90% and found the heli flies much better.
- Test night number 2 at home on my firm bed. (Tue morning my back felt a little stiff but better).

Tue 2/5 = First thing this morning I trucked over to
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
to meet Jerry at 7:30 to modify the kitchen counter and install the new range. Big job! Done! While he was doing his work, in my van I made a table of my Sleep Number and other bed experiments and flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
on the front lawn. After the job was done, I still had some time to kill, so, again in my van, did my blog index monthly roll-over.
- Then home for lunch and sun, then to Fitness 1 for another series of four Nano flights. It seems I lost my touch - crashed a lot. This evening I worked with my
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
, exploring the files on its SD card and updating its software from Version 1.0 to Version 1.03.
- I was gathering the information to contact the manufacturer about the defunct C Crane Witness MP3/radio/player/recorder I use for the Bob Brinker show, when I ran across instructions for replacing the battery and performing a hard reset. The hard reset fixed the problem!
- Sleeping on my van bed as part of my continuing bed experimentation. I now realize that the van bed works the same way as a sleep number bed, only without the adjust-ability. (In the middle of the night my back was not very stiff, but was approaching some pain. Wednesday morning it felt pretty good).

Wed 2/6 = I don't know why it takes me an hour to wash my van, but it sure looks nice now that it and its tires sparkle. This afternoon's trip included Fitness 1 (for a heli session), Hobby Action in Tempe (where I found that the Atomic/Venom case for the
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
doesn't really fit the DX7s, as the case is so thin it won't close without putting pressure on the DX7s's control sticks), 24-Hour Fitness for a torso workout (8 2-second reps) and Gangplank where I nailed down all the possible case measurements for different configurations for my new RC helicopter hobby, plus a little work on my website.

Thu 2/7 = This morning I pretty much decided on buying a Select Comfort Sleep Number bed and paid off my Capital One balance early to have enough headroom for the big bed purchase.
- Around noon I sunned for 20 minutes and then this afternoon I went to Fitness 1 for a four-flight
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
session and actually did fairly well with a fixed pitch configuration.
- What a neat trip this evening after supper, taking a thrift store tour looking for a smaller helli-case for my
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
and a larger one for both the DX7s and
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
- and finding both types... almost. I found a $7 leather case for both, although the case is a little shorter but longer than ideal. For just the DX7s, I found a $3 case that, also, is a little larger than it needs to be. In both cases (no pun intended) the extra space can hold extra parts, tools, chargers or whatever. Also I got a high efficiency 12V wall wart for more options in charging my Nano batteries and, finally, a 6-cup Oster blender jar and lid to use in making my chocolate Protein Frosties. The trip included four Goodwill stores, a Savers thrift store and Radio Shack, which did not have replacements for my DX7s' hold and flaps switches.

Fri 2/8 = Before and after my trip today I did some vacuuming, stowing, sweeping, mopping, dusting, wiping, organizing, wind/weather forecasting, setting out my four micro helicopters and generally making the house more functional and look better in preparation for
Shane
My nephew, George's son who is an engineer for Medtronics
's visit tomorrow. It surely looks nice and makes me feel good and have a sense of organization, self control and accomplishment.
- I tried sharing Google Docs for the second time, this time with Shane, so, theoretically, either one of can edit the file anywhere in the world on any Internet-connected computer and the other person can immediately see the changes. He hasn't made any changes yet that I have seen, so I don't know if it really works. - Generally I feel good that I was able to whip myself into shape and accomplish so much today.

Sat 2/9 =
Shane
My nephew, George's son who is an engineer for Medtronics
arrived a little before 8 this morning. We had a good time teching out and talking RC helicopters. He loved my Phoenix RC simulator - especially when he was able to fly his exact biggest helicopter, his Blade 450x on the simulator.
- Since Shane's Chevy Volt (plug-in hybred electric car) was charging at a nearby Shell Station, we took my van out to the
Heli Field
dirt field south of 19th Ave and Bell Rd where guys fly electric RC helicopters and airplanes
for his lesson with Spencer, which started with Spencer fine tuning and tweaking the helicopter/control systems. Shane was estatic about what he was able to do: sweeping turns, inverted flight, rolls, flips and loops. Before today he had only hovered the 450x for a few seconds a couple of times. Spencer and Shane used a buddy box system so Spencer could take control when Shane got into a tight spot.
- After Shane's heli lesson I had a chance to drive his freshly-charged Volt from the Shell station to In-N-Out Burger. A book I am reading talks about In-N-Out Burger's way of doing quality busiiness, so I had to have one - my first one, and first hamburger in probably 10 years or so. It WAS tasty, along with some French fries and half a chocolate shake.
- On the way back from the Saturday Night Hamfeast I heared that tools and winter clothing were generally on sale now, so Stopped by Lowe's and Walmart and started a chart on features and prices for cordless drills. I am specifically looking to replace my little old DeWalt. I have had its NiCd batteries rebuilt three times and the motor is starting to arc.

Sun 2/10 = This morning I researched cordless electric drills online and customized my new Goodwill cases for my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
stuff. The cases look like they were made for the purpose!
- This afternoon, at Fitness 1, had a four-flight heli session and arms workout of 8-reps-of-2-seconds-each (done a day early to adjust my workout schedule for my surgery coming up on Friday) and compared prices and features of cordless electric drills at Home Depot and Harbor Freight.
- After supper I ordered an Hitachi DS10DFL cordless electric drill from Amazon. The features I like are its build, LED work light, relatively high torque, 2-speed gear shift, key-less chuck, small size, light weight and its Lithium Ion battery and charger.

Mon 2/11 = This morning I resolved my checking account - well, almost. I got it to within $3.72 and, after going through everything twice, figured that was close enough. Also I paid off the only credit card on which I had any balance, scheduled auto-Refill for my StraightTalk cell phone service, and shuffled some money from a savings account to checking.
- Had four good
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flights at Fitness 1 and bought a surge proctor at Home Depot for my not-yet-shipped Sleep Number Bed.
- This evening I glued the foam pads and spacers into my new Heli case.
- Tonight I had my first dream about RC - controlling a helicopter or something. I must be getting subconsciously pretty serious about it, eh?

Tue 2/12 = Today I taped up my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
's split canopy, flew it out front, broke off the front tip of its right landing skid and updated my website.

Wed 2/13 = Three
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions today. The first was a short one-battery session (landed once & crashed all other times) at the
Heli Field
dirt field south of 19th Ave and Bell Rd where guys fly electric RC helicopters and airplanes
and succeeded in embarrassing myself thoroughly. There was the usual good company and comradery. Ken's student did not show up for his lesson and Kin had to use the battery up so I volunteered help and flew an RC airplane for the first time, buddy boxing with Ken. It was cool! Ken said I did pretty well and mentioned that I could get a plane like the one we flew for a few hundred dollars. Neat idea, but I have enough irons in the fire at this time. Besides the RC airplane takes up more space than my Nano. On the way home I had a four-battery session at Fitness 1.
- This afternoon's project was to make an accounting list of all the things cluttering my giveaway shelf and box them up for donating to Goodwill (almost $200 worth) and then head over to Duncan's RC on 35 Ave where Byron replaced both broken switches on my
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
.
- Of course I had to try out my newly repaired DX7s, especially with the now-functioning throttle kill switch. That lead to the third heli session of four batteries out front of my house at dusk. I would have never found my Nano were it not for the sort-of whispering sound the servos make. I lost control behind me (a real no-no) and it flew into my garage and lodged itself behind my Black and Decker Work Mate bench, underneath my skimboard between my carpet fan and my Liquid Force travel kiteboarding bag. Oh, yes. The controller works fine. Thanks Byron!

Thu 2/14 = Surgery preparation, setting up new mattress and
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flying today:
- This morning right after breakfast I had a pretty good Nano session out front. The main drive motor plug tends to get loose so I have to go in and reseat it every so often. The second session was at Fitness 1 this afternoon. It seems that the Nano's batteries are not lasting four minutes as they used to.
- Surgery preparation included my last gym workout (legs at LA Fitness), grocery shopping (Mildred did not feel up to going along with me), fixing meals for tomorrow and planning what to take to the dermatologist's office. The Mohs procedure tomorrow could take from six to eight hours, depending on how it goes. Mohs is designed to remove as little normal flesh as possible and yet get all the cancer. The squamous cell carcinoma is less than 10mm on the back of my left upper arm - no big deal? But it is the first for me. I just hope they do not have to cut too much out to get all the cancer, considering they waited eight weeks since I first noticed the growth.
- Setting up my new Sleep Number took 30 minutes, not including calibration, although they say it takes an hour. I cheated, though, having downloaded and read the instructions ahead of time and having a single-chamber bed. The queen-sized mattress came in one box 20 x 25 x 39 inches. Ah, for a good night's sleep at Sleep Number #35 (I hope).

Fri 2/15 = Using the Mohs procedure, Dr Travis Lam got all the cancer with the first 2-mm layer so I was at the office only 2 1/2 hours. Jared, the technician who has been preparing slides for about five years, gave me a quick tour of his operation. He took my tissue (about 11 mm in diameter), froze it, cut it horizontally into 8 slices of about 5 microns each, mounted the slices on two slides of four samples each and put them through a series of dyes to mark various cell types, including cancer. Dr Lam read the results and proclaimed the margin as cancer free.
- To sew me up, Dr Lam made the round wound into a football-shape by removing two triangles of skin on each side. As opposed to the original round wound, the remaining long, narrow, incision can be sewed together for quicker healing and with, hopefully, little scaring.
- Naturally the rest of the day I took it easy, although my arm felt pretty good... until the local anaesthetic wore off during the night. Taking it easy was a good idea, as I could have stressed the wound without realizing it. I'll try to remember that next time I go under the knife.

Sat 2/16 = This morning I ordered three main rotor motors for my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
from Glenn Behnke of Hanger 9, a branch of Horizon Hobby. Actually, the motors are back-ordered, but sitting on the dock in Los Angeles. It appears I won't be flying the Nano for a while.
- This afternoon I stopped by Fitness 1 and showed Jose my little Missile Command Helicopter (see my Technology web page) on the way to The U-Haul House, where I met
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
for a fancy reception and tour sponsored by
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
- Trader Joe's is out of the way for me but not today between the U-Haul House and the Hamfeast, so I bought about $70 worth of nuts on impulse. When I got home I realized I already had plenty of nuts - especially sunflower seeds, but that is what freezers are for.
- At tonight's Saturday Hamfeast was a good group in Scottsdale. To bed, third night at Sleep Number 35. (Back felt pretty good in the morning)

Mon 2/18 = My EeePC900 computer spent all last night and most of today backing up to the 1 terabyte Iomega hard drive I keep in a fireproof box in a closet. I used my Toshiba laptop in the kitchen to work on my income taxes with TaxActOnline. I hate paying taxes and, even more, all the time it takes to figure them out. Congress!
- In the more active department I drove to Summer Winds Nursery where Jimmy gave me ideas about how to keep my myoporum from dieing again. I took pictures and samples to show him. The bottom line: more water and more root stimulator. If I can get the plants past the first year I'll probably have it made. Being gone months at a time doesn't help a lot. Any way, I hand watered and stimulated all six plants with the two gallon plastic watering can I bought the other day at Home Depot.
- I even got the rest of the van's needed touch-up spots wet sanded, wanting to get the paint applied so I can use the new drill, that has not arrived yet, to buff it out.
- Before bedtime I flew the Bade mCPx on my PhoenixRC simulator - actually did some successful loops, turns, approaches and landings. I won't talk about my attempted rolls. Tonight I'm increasing my new Select Comfort bed's Sleep Number from 35 to 40 to see how I sleep and I figured out a finer, more accurate, testing procedure. I just wish I had thought of it earlier. It involves standard flexing while still in bed and then standing up straight after getting out of bed. That may sound funny, but it is an interesting sequence for an old guy.

Tue 2/19 = This morning I was getting my day organized when I received a phone call from Patricia at Duet. She will be coming by with Grandma around 11:00 for my new, 2-month-old queen-sized Simmons Beautyrest Classic mattress. I appreciate Duet helping me to find a good home for the mattress with someone who needs it.
- While waiting I straightened up the house some, putting couch towels away, vacuuming, making my bed (which I don't do unless company coming) sweeping and making the library futon back into a couch. I also Dremel-modified the battery holder I adapted for my
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
so it is easier to remove the AAs.
- After they picked up the mattress I sunned 20 minutes and had lunch.
- New Drill: My new 3/8 inch Hitachi DS10DFL driver/drill arrived today. My concern about it not fitting in my tool box was unfounded, as, compared to my old Dewalt DW926, the new drill, with battery, weighs 26% less and is a half inch shorter. It also has a Lithium Ion battery rather than NiCd.
(weights in pounds) Old New
Weight, with battery 3.23 2.38
Length, inches 8.056 7.480
Drill, Only weight 2.375 1.910
Battery, Only weight .8560 .4692
- I think I am going to like my new Hitachi DS10DFL cordless electric drill because it is smaller, lighter, is powered by a Lithium Ion battery and has an LED light, so I wasted time taking pictures.

Wed 2/20 = This morning I drove to the Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale for a town hall meeting with Senator John McCain, AZ State Treasurer, Doug Ducey and Phoenix Counsel man Jim Waring. There was standing room only, various media and a number of verbose people with agendas. John was cool and handled things well for his hour and a half.
- Congress should take a lesson from Doug Ducey, who thinks taxes should be broad, low and simple. This was in response to my question about not eliminating the food tax.
- After the town hall and a quick trip home to fix lunch I took 63-year old Joe to a nephrologist under the auspices of Duet, came back home to do a few things and then headed to Chandler. At 24 Hour Fitness there I did my first workout since my Mohs surgery 5 days ago. I topped off the evening at Gangplank.

Thu 2/21 = This morning I went to Dr Jeff Pyritz (pronounced Pirates), my optometrist, who found my eyes unchanged from last time, about 2 months ago.
- Other things I did today were rescheduling my Dig auto drip system to Mo & Thu after confirming that there is a bug in their interval scheduling (hopefully my myoporums will no longer die), adding a bracket for the the 4-AA battery holder in my Heli Case, doing a series of tests with the five abrasive/polish liquids I have on hand and catching up on this blog.

Fri 2/22 = Today Dr Lam's assistant took the stitches out of the back of my upper left arm from the Mohs surgery a week ago.
- Before driving home I phoned Hobby Action in Tempe and then drove the 60-mile round trip to pick up a main rotor motor for my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
since they seemed to be the only place anywhere that has the motors.
- After a stop at home to lunch and relax I went to Fitness 1 where I had my first slightly-modified heavy arms workout in about a week, and, of course flew my Nano with its new main rotor motor. The tail blades bound after getting bent. That, combined with hairs wrapped around the shaft caused the motor to overheat, so it is turning hard (stiff), taking a lot of battery power and not doing a very good job.
- This evening I paid property taxes online for my five parcels. They run about $3,000 a year. Add to that about $10,600 in income taxes and all the accrued sales tax and you can understand why I abhor our inefficient and ineffective governments which act like they can solve everyone's problems if they get enough of our money.
- Also I super glued my old, split
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
tail boom. It is the standard, shorter boom that came with the Nano and the motor should still be good. Tomorrow I'll install the boom and test the heli out.
- To bed with my Sleep Number Bed back from 40 to 35, so I can see how my back does using the more accurate testing procedure I developed while sleeping at Number 40 for four nights.

Sat 2/23 = I forced myself to work on taxes an hour before doing anything with my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. Then I bench tested the current draw of the main rotor motor (400-500 mA at 3 volts depending upon the pitch of the blades) and the tail rotor motor (300 mA at 2 volts). At the same rpm the stiff tail motor draws 470 mA (157% of normal). I flew three 4-battery sessions today: One at home just hovering in the confined space and tweaking the tail boom and rotor; another at Fitness 1; and the last session, after supper, on the ground floor of a two-level, 100-car parking garage in Scottsdale.
- This afternoon, among other things, I spent some time cleaning off the workbench in my Lab, focusing in two areas. I started with some things that have been sitting on the bench for, would you believe, years and then some things that had accumulated in the middle of my work area. There is still a long way to go, but the workbench looks better and is a little more functional now, with an emphasis on RC helicopter maintenance.
- Amica Mutual is one of the two top rated insurance companies in the US. Today I received a dividend check for $400 as a policy holder. It amounted to a 20% return on the premiums I paid during 2012 for all my policies: auto, fire, homeowners and umbrella.
- I didn't know where I would end up this evening as I headed out on the 101 freeway toward Tempe where the Saturday night hamfeast was, knowing that I might end up having supper with
George and Cindy
younger brother who lives in Mesa and his wife
instead. On my way George phoned that they just got out of the movie there so I took the Chaparral exit and met them for Thai food.

Sun 2/24 = On YouTube this morning I watched yesterday's massive Daytona NASCAR crash, finished my federal tax entry, cleared my workbench some more, sunned 20 minutes, flew a PhoenixRC helicopter simulation some, tried out the PhoenixRC heli trainers, flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at Fitness 1, did some financial stuff and prepared digital camera sensor information for the Technology page here on my website.

Mon 2/25 = This morning I flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
out front. It went pretty well considering yesterday I reduced the
DX7s
Spektrum RC controller
, exponential from 80 to 70 which makes the helicopter respond with less stick movement (more advanced and more challenging).
- The middle of the day was mostly connected with water: Washing my van, and hand watering all six myoporums so I could feed them Miracle Gro and SuperThrive.
- This afternoon's trip included Nano flying at Fitness 1, mailing
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
my Archos 7o Internet Tablet and buying lots of forever stamps at the Boulder Hills Post Office, buying a 10' x 4' roll of foilized bubble insulation at Ace Hardware to make new sun shields for my van and a heavy torso workout at LA Fitness.
- This evening without rhyme or reason my Firefox web browser started recognizing keyboards again after about two weeks of ignoring all keyboards I tested. Google Chrome came to the rescue during that two weeks.

Tue 2/26 = Three
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
session today. One this morning out front, another at Fitness 1 this afternoon and a third this evening inside in my great room. The heli doesn't seem to be doing as well as it should - probably because the batteries are getting old, with 46 4-minute flights on each one. At this point my Nano has had 180 four-minute flights which amounts to 12 hours. I'm on my third main rotor motor and my second tail rotor motor. I did some interesting reading on the Internet and it appears that the internal resistance of LiPo batteries increases if they are left in a charged state. Thus my third Nano session so the batteries can spend the night discharged (about 3.79 V.
- Being both a photographer and a techie, I put a camera sensor types and sizes here on my Technology page for my own reference, and yours if you are interested.
- This afternoon I phoned my credit union (DSFCU) and discussed with Desiree how I believe our CU is ripping off our members, like the big banks try to rip off their customers with concocted fees, specifically: foreign exchange fees, foreign ATM fees and international fees. Also I am concerned with their huge campaign to "Forget the PIN" with debit cards so they can charge the merchants more and extolling the virtues of business credit cards (which have only liabilities and no protections under federal law).
- I got started on the most difficult part of doing taxes, the medical deductions. In order to receive an Arizona donation tax credit you must itemize >:( Thanks, legislature!
- Heading to bed with my Sleep Number set at 45 where I'll keep it for four nights.

Wed 2/27 = In order to recover from a black-screen lockup had to do a hard reset of the HP Jornada I use exclusively to organize my shopping. I believe it is the first time this was necessary.
- For lunch I met Andrew and a large group of his friends at the Scottsdale Cantina Laredo. The DreamTrips Reward Program and DreamTeam Builder presentation was the typical multi-level marketing hype about taking fantastic trips for impossibly low costs and making lots of money off people you recruit. I figured, after 12 layers as they described them, you would run out of the 7 billion people on the face of the earth. Don, the presenter was charismatic and talented speaker. I enjoyed it all, but it is, of course, not for me.
- On the way home I stopped by Discount Tire for rotation and balancing. I did a cost analysis and determined that it is better to buy my big wide tires a little more frequently than it would be to buy wider rims at $100 a pop for the tires, as they tend to wear a little more in the center on my stock narrow rims. The wider rims would also not work with stock tires, a consideration for the future.
- Wednesday evenings I try to make it to GangPlank around 6 o'clock. I made it tonight at 7:30 after reinitializing my Jornada, making my shopping list, finding that Mildred could not go shopping today, driving through lots of slow traffic to Hobby Action in Tempe, looking for a special power strip at a Goodwill nearby, buying some necessary groceries at Walmart and doing a heavy legs workout at 24 Hour Fitness. At GangPlank I flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
because I charged the batteries this afternoon and do not want to leave them in a charged state.

Thu 2/28 = Long day with heli, shopping & ARA. I flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
first thing this morning (out front) and last thing before bed (Fitness 1) with lots of stuff between. I went over the grocery adds, sunned 20 minutes, ordered a battery from Certified Battery for my Garmiin Nuvi 885T, spent 4 hours with Mildred (four grocery stores and one bank) and went to the
ARA
Arizona Repeater Association (ham radio operators)
meeting in Tempe, then to Fitness 1 for the before-bedtime Nano flight. I had charged all four batteries and, although it was getting late, I needed to use them, as it is not good for them to be stored fully charged.

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