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Blog Archive 2013 Mar

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Fri 3/1 = It's not often that you hear the impact of an accident while you're hanging around. It is less often that you end up knowing one of the drivers. This morning, in bed at about 7:00, I thought I heard an impact down on Union Hills. A few minutes later I heard a siren and a few minutes later than that I heard another siren - both sirens stopping about the same location of the impact sound. I got up, got dressed, got my camera, got a coat on and walked down the short block to Union Hills. There, Mike (you may remember he my neighbor who used to be my friend, but now is mad at me because I supposedly refused to help him in some way) had been T-Boned by a red car coming from the east while he was pulling onto Union Hills. I asked him to let me know if he needed anything, such as a ride somewhere. I am not going to hold my breath.
- 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, ate a late breakfast, bought 24 Vanguard VT ETF shares, worked on my medical expenses for 2012, enhanced my website a little, put some round elastic in the seat of my old black swim trunks, located AZ emissions stations, planed my afternoon trip and packed supper to eat at 5:00 on the trip.
- Lucky I did not have a fire making an extension cord for the LiPo tester in my heli box. I had put my battery A on the extension connector as a test and found it was all fine. Then, so I could more easily thread the wire through the heat shrink tubing, I twisted the wires together on the other end of the extension cord. I should have removed the battery first and didn't realize that I had shorted out the LiPo and did not notice it puff up until I heard the battery expel a fart - yes, passing gas. The battery was about 150° F. Its no-load voltage was 3.43 after letting it cool. I tried to charge it. It accepted the current, got hot on the charger (not normal) but would not accept a charge above 3.95 V. The battery was ruined, as its current flow was so low that it could not keep the Nano's electronics going when running the rotor motor at its lowest possible speed. Time for a new battery
- The afternoon trip was about 22 miles way out west to 59th Avenue to Duncan's RC for two Nano batteries, AZ emissions testing, Fitness 1 for a heavy arms workout (the first time back to a preacher's curl since my Mohs surgery), to fly my Nano and show my Missile Command helicopter to Angel (kid there who thought my Nano was cool) and then back home.
- This evening I mostly caught up on this Blog Archive 2013 Mar but also registered my van for two years online. I had an ice cream sandwich (3.5 fl oz & 160 calories) for my Tuesday evening treat. I was .4 pounds over my goal weight of 140 this morning, so did not deserve the special treat of a gigantic Skinny Cow Cookies 'n Cream sandwich (4 fl oz & 150 calories).

Sat 3/2 = Two four-battery
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions out front this morning resulted in braking a front canopy support post on the right side and the rear one on the left side. Hopefully my repair with a combination of superglue and hot glue will last because the support posts are part of the heli's frame. With the first flight of the day for battery B there is hardly enough current to do much of anything. However with the second flight I got a full three minutes of flying. Also I used my new battery (E) for its second and third flights this morning. I am trying to break it in gently by mostly staying in ground effect for the first three or four flights.
- Upped my Sleep Number Bed to 50, continuing the experimentation

Sun 3/3 = 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
at Fitness 1 - just battery E, where I could keep the heli in ground effect, drawing less current and finishing off my break-in of the battery. Also I retired battery B since the Nano can lose control due to the battery's low current (could break the heli), replacing B with F.
- From there I drove to the
Heli Field
dirt field south of 19th Ave and Bell Rd where guys fly electric RC helicopters and airplanes
where there was a lot of activity - mostly airplanes and gliders. One glider had a 12' wingspan and a tow prop with retractable blades. Spencer put my little Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS receiver in his 3'-long electric fighter jet (the jet looks little like the Freewing EF-2000 Eurofighter RC EDF). I started a $1 kitty for guessing how fast his jet would go. The actual top speed, as indicated by my F201, was 85.6 mph! Spencer got the four dollar kitty. His plane was up about three minutes and traveled almost three miles during the run. On my way back home I stopped by Fitness 1 and flew out my remaining three charged Nano batteries,
- Later in the morning I drove the opposite direction to the First Baptist Church of Mesa, met Lee, the interim pastor that I've heard so much about, and then to
George and Cindy
younger brother who lives in Mesa and his wife and family
's for a delicious dinner and to book flights, hotel rooms and the Terry Fator show in Las Vegas for the three of us. Also I joined the Fitness Works Athletic Club near George's house under the Silver Sneakers program, so I'll have a handy place to work out or fly my heli when I visit.

Mon 3/4 = I'm trying to fly my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
several times in succession because they say the LiPo batteries perform better with subsequent charges during a given day. To that end I flew twice this morning out front, at Fitness 1 this afternoon and back of Toys-R-Us in an unused, semi-lit parking lot after dark - after a heavy torso workout at LA Fitness, after a shower and trimming my toenails there, after massaging my back in their Jacuzzi, after cutting my hairs at home. A Nano session, of course, means flying four batteries three minutes each.
- Fishing ended up on the agenda for my second Heli session after the helicopter went over the fence into the back yard of my neighbor across the street to the north. I had to retrieve the heli because the battery was still active and it would become dangerously depleted, be ruined and could catch on fire. Ray was not home but his dog was! I made a grappling hook from iron wire and connected it to a roll of twine, put my ladder against outside of the fence, spotted the heli about seven feet from the fence and started fishing. I nabbed the heli by the tail after about 40 tries. Since this incident, I am practicing keeping the heli within 5 feet of the ground (lower than Ray's 7-foot fence).

COMPUTER MONITORS: Here at home I have two 19" flat-screen CRTs hooked to my little 9" EeePC900XP net book computer. Just adding a second monitor, researchers say, increases a person's efficiency by 24%. When I am working on my website, for example, I keep my directories and source folders on the 9" screen, my website on one of the big screens and the HTML code on the other. The CRTs take less power than I expected and were a deal for about $7 each at Goodwill.
Flat-Screen Monitors Samsung Dell
Type CRT CRT
Model 900DF M992
Rear Cabinet Identical Identical
Front Bezel Similar Similar
Made In China Mexico
Manufactured Jan 2004 May 2004
Standby Power 0 W 2 W
Black Screen Pwr 50 W 72 W
White Screen Pwr 64 W 90 W
Black:White Ratio 78% 80%
Pwr Comparison 71% 140%
My Settings 1024x768 1024x768
Max Resolution 1792x1344 1280x1024
Megapixels 2.4 MP 1.3 MP
Apparent Sharpness Excellent Good

Tue 3/5 = Today, more
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flying (replaced the main rotor motor), tax stuff, scheduling van road check and oil change; three new spare main rotor motors arrived from Horizon Hobby.

Wed 3/6 = First thing I took my van into nearby C&R Tire for their oil change special and an alignment and a road check before my big trip. While waiting, I made the above chart for my computer monitors.
- The new battery for my Garmin Nuvi 885T GPS receiver arrived so I retired the old one.
- Todays trip started at 2:30 this afternoon and ended about 10:00 this evening. As you might expect, first stop was Fitness 1 for a
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
session, then LA Fitness for a heavy torso workout, then to Church of the Beatitudes for a Will Seminar put on by
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other people who can not drive to their doctors' appointments
. The speaker was a will and estate attorney: very knowledgeable and interesting (I already have a will). Then on to Gangplank where I started finding weather resources for Corpus Christi, TX, which will, hopefully, make it to the Weather page here on my website
- Changing my bed to Sleep Number to 55 starting tonight.

Thu 3/7 = At 8:00 this morning I took my van into Auto Tune for a road check and decided to take it back and have them replace the double platinum spark plugs (originals have 16 years and over 264,000 miles on them) and to replace the valve cover gaskets, which have been leaking slightly for several years. They didn't get the job finished so are keeping my van overnight.
- Four
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions today demonstrated the improvement in performance with batteries' subsequent charges. Flight was almost impossible with all four batteries on the first charge, with the helicopter repeatedly totally shutting down in mid flight. Flights were pretty well normal with the second and third charges of the same four batteries.
- I had all my ducks in a row... I thought. You see, I have to spray preemergence today to keep the weeds from coming in during the next three months. Today, because it has to be activated with a half inch of rain and rain chance is 50%, 90% and 20% for tonight, tomorrow and Saturday respectively. Else, watering it in by hand for the whole back and front yards is a BIG, time consuming job.
- My ducks started getting out of line when I pumped up my gallon sprayer and the O ring broke - no pressure; no spray; no transportation (remember my van is in the shop)... except for my bicycle. What an opportunity to get a little exercise riding 1.25 miles down to Home Depot, after pumping up the tires with air that
Ken
my neighbor just to the east, whose side yard I also spray
gave me for my air bottle and figuring out the bicycle lock's combination. No O rings so I bought a new $10, one gallon, sprayer and rode the 1.25 miles back home. I got the preemergence done, but not until after dark. Both my electronic remote and old fashioned rain gauges are out now and I will be holding my breath.
- I hope I did not get the cart before the horse. Some online sources say you should not disturb the soil (mine is granite) after application of preemergence. I read that after I sprayed the preemergence and definitely need to rake my granite before my trip, so the yard will look kept and taken care of. I was not very excited about doing it, but I raked my granite at bedtime but before any rain. I hope I didn't mess things up. I won't know, though, for several months when I return from my spring/summer kiteboarding trip.
- To bed, wondering how much my van repair will cost me tomorrow morning. Thank goodness for my emergency fund!

Fri 3/8 = I picked up my van this morning. The engine even smells clean. Gone is the dusty oil smell from the leaky head gaskets. Thanks, Mike! I also went to Harbor Freight for two more LED shop lights to help with my van polishing, which I have been putting off. On the way home I stopped by Discount Tire for a rotation and balance. My van is getting closer to being ready for the big trip.
- When I drove down to take Tania to her doctor's appointment under the auspices of
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
, I found her in a taxi ready to head for the doctor's. Bad news: she got mixed up; Good news: I had a couple hours to fly my heli, go to Goodwill and do some other things.
- Rain, beautiful rain! We got a half inch of perfect rain so my preemergence was watered in and properly activated.

Sat 3/9 = Ham first and last today. Early I drove down to the Scottsdale Springfest. I bought a cute 4.5V LED reading/magnifier light and a 120V clamp-on lamp for my library for a dollar each. This evening was the Saturday Night Hamfeast - this time at Codfathers Fish & Chips. Between the two ham events went to Frank's Hobby House and bought a spare tail assembly and battery for my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
and flew it some.

Sun 3/10 = I was jostled awake at 5 this morning by a crescendo alarm by my living room weather station that some how got turned on. I realized that it was one of my two stupid atomic clocks that assume no one lives in Arizona, Hawaii or the Aleutian Islands, as neither can disable daylight savings time, so I reset the clocks to time PT so they would read correct MST. At 6 o'clock I was awakened by the same crescendo alarm, again, due to my time zone change (Duh!). I figured what was going on and turned off the alarm.
- Mostly an RC day the rest of the day. I ate breakfast on the way to the
Heli Field
dirt field south of 19th Ave and Bell Rd where guys fly electric RC helicopters and airplanes
which was buzzing with airplanes and a few helicopters, all electric, of course. 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
eight batteries worth and learned to fit in sequence with the other fliers. Among others, I met Bryan, an engineer, who had three larger RC helicopters out. He is pretty good, still practicing new maneuvers and is the Chief Science Officer of a company he started and then sold.
- About 1pm I ate my sack lunch on the way to the 59th Ave and Greenway Rd Duncan's RC. Bob and Mike helped me replace my main rotor blades with bright orange ones and also the spindle set which was slightly bent. I never noticed the play in one side of the spindle, but Bob did. Replacing it there in the shop took care of the vibration problem as well as the blade tracking problem. All it takes is money... $25 today!
- Toward sunset Ray (you remember I fished my Nano out from his back yard on Monday) was pulling weeds from the granite in his front yard. I sat down and helped him pull weeds while we visited. Although we are neighbors we seldom see each other and have not had a chance to get acquainted much over the past 18 years. I demonstrated my Nano to him and flew four batteries worth out front.
- Going to bed shortly with a Sleep Number of 70.

Mon 3/11 = First thing this morning I drove 10 miles, way north, to the Phoenix Black Mountain Police Precinct building for a community meeting with my city councilman, Jim Waring, and US congressman, David Schweikert. David had a lot of interesting things to say, mostly about the sequester, national debt, entitlements and the federal budget, or lack thereof.
- Back home, 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, fed and hand watered my six myoporums and sunned for 20 minutes.
- Later in the afternoon I flew my Nano at Fitness 1, went to LA Fitness for a heavy torso workout, Sprouts for bulk raisins and back home for another heli session.
- This evening I switched from my trial of two helibags (one for the controller and another for the Nano) back to the single case for both the controller and the Nano. Both methods include storage for spare parts, batteries etc. - To bed with the Sleep Number back down to 35.

Tue 3/12 - I don't like the squishiness of Sleep Number 35, but evidently my back does. Thirty five was only incrementally better than the other settings I've tried, up to 70, which may just be an indication of an old guy with an old back. Next will be experimenting by adding 1 inch of medium-firm foam to the top or under the mattress top.
- The tail boom on my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
has a tendency to rotate in its socket so that the tail rotor angles up. This reduces the efficiency of the tail rotor and, at the same time, adds an additional downward force for which the main rotor has to compensate, taking more battery power. I have tried making an index on the front end of the boom for the key-hole socket in the heli's frame. That has worked, but not for too long. Today I tried using some epoxy. It doesn't help that the end of the carbon-fiber boom is split. The system seemed to work OK out front for my only Nano session today.
- Late morning I took Judy to her oncologist appointment for
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
. While waiting I got my monthly blog rolled over. That means separating last month (January) from my latest blog page and adjusting all the titles and navigation links.
- This afternoon I finished going through all my medical records for 2012. I'm sure I missed something, but at least got most of the medical expenses for the itemized deductions, required by the state of Arizona in order to take the $200 tax credit for donating to
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
.
- This evening I resolved my checking account (I'm still solvent) and projected my checking account (budget) for the next five months through my kiteboarding trip.

Wed 3/13 - By the end of my second
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
session out front this morning, the tail boom was barely hanging on with scotch tape. Actually, a couple of times it broke and came lose, dangling by its wires. One time the wires ended up wound around the main rotor hub. The tail motor still works and the heli flew OK as long as the motor was in approximately position.
- A little sun around noon, followed be a fast 2 minutes on my exercycle and then to LA Fitness for a heavy legs workout and shower, checking and printing my boarding pass for tomorrow's Las Vegas Southwest Airlines flight then to Gangplank in Chandler for a couple of hours then to help
Stacie
my brother George's youngest
and her group pack food for Feed My Starving Children.


- It was interesting working in an FDA certified packing facility. You can imagine all the rules and hand washing. In one hour 65 of us packed 10,584 of the Manna Pack Rice meals, which would feed 28 kids for a year, costing about $.52 per meal. FMSC had things really well organized and maximized for enthusiastic efficiency. The four ingredients were dumped into a Mana bag through a special stainless steel funnel (see the picuure), then weighed and adjusted with rice as necessary, heat sealed, counted, boxed and then stacked on pallets.
    The MannaPack Rice food formula was designed to meet the needs of the most severely malnourished children around the world and contains:
  1. Rice, the most widely accepted grain around the world.
  2. Extruded soy nuggets, providing maximum protein at lowest cost.
  3. Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need.
  4. Dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition.
One unanswered question came to mind when the organizers told the story of a family with 14 starving children. Are we really helping when we feed children to grow up and have more starving children without educating them about responsible propagation? I believe we are just exponentially multiplying the number of starving children while we congratulate ourselves about how good we are!
- I was in bed at 10:48 with a bedroom temperature of 78 degrees and no CPAP due to a sore nostril. My longest sleep was 4:06 hours. Back pain was 0/9 and back stiffness was 3/9.

Thu 8/14 = Christmas time again and what a day! This morning I packed for Las Vegas and, at 1:45 pm, drove to Sky Harbor Airport where I met
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa
, since my Christmas gift to them was seeing the Terry Fator Show. Naturally there was lots of hurry and waiting. After the short flight, a long shuttle ride, lengthy hotel check-in and a quick sandwich on the way, we arrived in the Terry Fator Theatre in time for the show.
- Terry was awesome - a ventriloquist with over seven dummies and a combination of singing by both him and his dummies and, of course, the pithy humor that dummies elicit. He is the best that I have ever seen!
- We walked around a little after the show, then headed back to our rooms on the 12th floor of The Quad for a good night's sleep on their comfy beds.

Fri 3/15 = Mostly getting back-home-to-Phoenix day. Lesson learned from this trip: Take a taxi from the airport if you have to make it to your hotel in a timely manner - especially if there are three in your party.
- This evening I finished entering doctors' visits into my 2012 medical spreadsheet.

Sat 3/16 = This morning I boldfaced all the towns I visited in my Nov, 2012 blog, mailed checks off for my
SPI
South Padre Island, Texas
 Windsurfing/Kiteboarding Association dues and for a grazing lease fee on my 5A near Wittmann and did some other financial stuff.
- This afternoon I vacuumed, installed a spare tail boom on my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
, flew it and did a heavy arms workout at Fitness 1 and went to the ham feast way down in Gilbert for supper. There were only three of us there.
- When I got home I straightened the house up a little, re-inked my electronic date stamp and printing calculator and moved the 1" medium-firm foam from on top of my Sleep Number Mattress to under the mattress top and zipped it in. To bed with the Sleep Number set at 45.

Sun 3/17 = 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, worked on my Arizona income taxes with TaxACT Online, made a shopping list in my HP Jornada and then went shopping with Mildred around 10:00. Typically when I would arrive at Mildred's house I'd ring her carport doorbell, she would say something like, "The door's open, for God sake come on in. I don't know why you ring the door bell, anyway." When I arrived today, for the first time, I did just that. She evidently was in the bathroom at the time but eventually came into the living room, scolding me for just walking in. Needless to say, it was an interesting shopping trip at Winco Foods for most of the stuff, Sprouts Farmer's Market for 99-cent grapes and Fry's Market Place for an 88-cent cantaloupe. Aw, the challenges of interpersonal relationships!
- This afternoon I wet sanded with 2000 grit buffed a touch-up paint overspray test area on my van with moderate success. This evening I caught up on this blog and mapped out my busy day for tomorrow. To bed with the Sleep Number set at 55.

    Mon 3/18 = Ten hours of mostly driving from place to place today:
  1. Dahlia
    my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
    first thing this morning after flying my Nano to get the paint crew started on repainting the exterior
  2. Frank's Hobby House to buy a tail assembly for my
    Nano
    fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
  3. Phone the Clark Howard national talk show from my van set up as an office in the parking lot
  4. Stop by Mildred's to give her a can of lentil soup left in my van from our shopping trip
  5. O'Reilly Auto Parts to compare new spark plugs to the old 265,000 mile ones from my van
  6. Home to fix and eat lunch
  7. Fitness 1 to fly my Nano
  8. West Angela Drive to pick up Carol Kershner for Duet
  9. Doctor's office at 7th St & Bell Rd with Carol
  10. Winco Foods for broccoli; Carol also bought some items
  11. Back to Carol's to drop her off
  12. LA Fitness for a heavy torso workout
  13. Back home by evening to prepare my medications for the next three months and lay out a loose schedule for my next road trip, so Next Trips now reads:
    Next Trips: Early April we plan on heading out for our usual 3-month road trip, probably spending a couple of weeks kiteboarding in Corpus Christi, then down to
    SPI
    South Padre Island, Texas
    . The first part of May we will spend a half day at
    TSR
    Texas Ski Ranch wake-board cable park in New Braunfels, TX
     and then on to
    OBX
    Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina
    . In the latter part of July we plan to head back west, visiting friends and family on the way home to Arizona, thinking about a tropical kiteboarding trip later in the year... somewhere, which all relates to our first LOU ism and our Smart Stuff.

Tue 3/19 = Mostly finance today - sort of. This morning I got up early (wasn't sleeping anyway), 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, took my van to Auto Tune to recharge the AC, finished my US & AZ income taxes online with TaxAct and tried to figure out Straight Talk's buggy date reporting for their Auto-Renew.
- To bed with Sleep Number set at 40.

Wed 3/20 = My morning
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
session was not good. Every flight the heli would completely and repeatedly shut down, electronics and all. All four batteries were fully charged according to the charger and also according to their voltages. The Nano would shut down so much that I couldn't even drain the batteries down to their storage voltages of 3.78v.
- I electronically filed my income taxes. The IRS accepted the federal on the spot while the AZ return was accepted later in the day.
- The day was topped off with a drive to KC Auto Paint for special black rust paint for my van's roof rack and then 40 miles down to Chandler for a 24 Hour Fitness heavy legs workout and Gangplank.
- To bed with a fake down pillow top on top of the Sleep Number Mattress set on 40 with my 1" medium-firm foam the under the quilted mattress top.

Thu 3/21 = Craigs List day for my first three helicopters: Wote the titles and descriptions in the morning, took pictures and sunned a little around noon, then in the afternoon, purged the pictures and got all three listings done by supper time. You can check the listings out at Coaxial Missile Command, Align Trex 100x and Heli-Max AXE 100 FP, or search Craigslist.org in Arizona / Phoenix / for sale / toys+games / "helicopter" in the title.
- After supper I sprayed the weeds: front, back and in Kin's west yard.

Fri 3/22 = This was Garmin GPS Maps day. It took 1.25 hours on the phone with Garmin to figure out that they had a number of pieces of unnecessary and duplicating software on my computer. No wonder I was confused in trying to maintain my free lifetime maps. Nick was very helpful and I think we actually got things figured out.
- I spent most of the rest of the day trying to figure out what was causing the spontaneous shut-down problems with my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
.

Sat 3/23 = Phoned Horizon Hobby before breakfast because they're two hours later due to daylight savings time. Jerry Green was very helpful and informative, especially when it comes to taking care of the Lipo flight batteries. He liked my website.
- My lunch pack contained two different kinds of power supplies, two different kinds of power cords, two different kinds of USB cables, a double male computer monitor cable and my eeePC computer and I was on my way flat panel (FP) computer monitor hunting at four Goodwill stores, since everything is half price today. At the fourth store I found two good 17" monitors. I couldn't decide which one to buy after thoroughly testing them so I bought both for half price of $19.99 each. You can see some of the details on my upgrade from flat screen CRTs in the chart below.
- At home, where I use three screens, for a while I used one FP and one CRT as a comparison. I liked the FP monitors so this afternoon I ditched the CRTs and hooked up both FPs, modifying their bases to align the screens vertically so things line up when spread across both 17" FP monitors. I actually finished the monitor project at bedtime.
- A New
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 was the end result of my trip out west to Duncan's RC in Glendale, after trying several ideas to get my old beat-up one to work right. Tony decided the repeated spontaneous shutdowns were likely due to a bad connection, maybe on the main circuit board or in the power leads. The new one is so smooth, and all it took was money!
- I played hooky from tonight's
Hamfeast
a group of ham radio operators meet somewhere every Saturday for supper
- but I DO have a new RC helicopter! Finishing up the installation of my new monitors and flying my heli batteries down for storage put me to bed way late, at 12:30 - bad, but I did get a lot accomplished.

Sun 3/24 = Things went from bad to worse this morning when I found a puddle of water in the middle of my kitchen floor where there are no pipes or other sources of water. I traced the cause back to the far bottom shelf of on the far side of my island. I had about 2.5 gallons of emergency water in 3 plastic jugs. I had put them there in 2008 and forgot about them. One was empty, as the plastic had deteriorated and released the water. Thanks, biodegradable plastics! Any way I had to clean up the mess and put a small fan in the cabinet to dry things out. The only real damage the water did was to deteriorate the pressed wood floor of the cabinet.
- 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
twice this morning: out front, with only one crash and at Fitness 1 with a couple mild crashes. I don't want to ruin my new bird. I have upped the flight timer from three to four minutes. That leaves the batteries at about 3.75 V for storage, having started out at 4.2 V. This evening, in my computer, I logged today's flights and battery voltages as a benchmark for future flights.

Mon 3/25 = I am learning to let the management company for
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
do more of the coordinating between the tenants and the painter after making a minor faux pas this morning.
- This morning I buffed a test area and washed my van, including the white lettering on the tires and the top and bottom of the engine with hot soapy water. Then around noon fed and watered my 6 myoporums, sunned some and ordered more nose pillows and a chin strap to use with my CPAP machine.
- Sometimes I think I am losing it, literally: The last of January I lost my favorite workout shorts (blue Lycra), a week ago Saturday I lost my Grip Stick (forearms exercise bar) and Friday I lost my fancy shift combination lock. I think I know where I was when I lost all these items. I DID add 24-Hour Fitness to my afternoon trip and found the lock, locked on the locker (empty) I used when I was there last time.
- 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: this morning out front, this afternoon at Fitness 1 and this evening with Ralfino and Sebastian, neighbor boys to the south who both have fixed-pitch single-rotor RC helicopters similar to my old
TRex
second RC micro RC helicopter: Align TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
. They're really good, probably because they're younger, learn faster and have inexpensive fixed-pitch helicopters so are inclined to be more aggressive and do more things.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 90.

Tue 3/26 = Heli good news and bad news:
- Good News: Right after breakfast I went to Buffalo Ridge Park to fly my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
, having started the four flight batteries charging first thing when I got up this morning. Last night I realized that flying in the wide open space of the park, with nothing but relatively soft grass for crashes, was what had improved my skill level with my old
TRex
second RC micro RC helicopter: Align TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
heli. It went quite well.
- Bad News: Things did not go nearly as well this evening with this, my second
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. I was sure I lost it and was thinking through the steps to buy a third one. In I was flying at the Quail Run Basin Park on my third battery, after sunset when the Nano scooted off about 300 feet to the southwest. Before I could figure out which way it was facing and react it was essentially out of sight, heading over lots of shrubbery and plants toward someone's back yard. I wished I had had a flashlight, but knew if I walked all the way to my van for one I would have no idea of where to look for the helli. I tried to focus on and walk toward where I thought it might be. Boy am I lucky! About six feet from the fence I found it laying on its side waiting for me with its blue LED bind light shining. I went to Fitness 1 to fly the last battery.
- I ordered a computer monitor - new and including shipping, for a thrift-store price from TMart.com (they have almost everything, including an unbelievable selection of RC helicopters). Also I replace the bog old drip-catching cardboard on my garage floor with the cardboard box my Sleep Number bed came in.
- I am working on my Vacation Countdown list. Today I boxed up some nuts and updated my nut-shopping spreadsheet. If all goes well, I'll be on my way the first week of April. In the not necessary but I want to do it anyway department, I removed the van's roof rack cross rails and wet sanded them in preparation for repainting.
- 'Round the house, I unbolted the 8-way heavy-duty counterbalanced monitor arm from my desk (since I gave away my CRTs) and, along with a couple other items, put it in my van for donating to Goodwill.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 80.

Wed 3/27 = Lots of driving today. It started after figuring out how much of which kinds of nuts to buy for my upcoming kiteboarding trip, with an 11:45am appointment with my
PCP
Primary Care Physician, Dr Gergi Dwivedi
for chest pain and a tiny growth on the top of my right wrist. The chest pain can be ignored unless it occurs in only one place instead of moving around and becomes constant and increasingly more severe. The growth: see my dermatologist. By calling from my PCP's office, I amazingly got a 2:30 appointment with dermatologist, Crystal Layton. She biopsied the growth.
- Trader Joe's for nuts was my next stop and, since it was lunch time, a chicken Caesar salad from their cooler. Then to east Mesa to visit with my Aunt Jana and her husband, Cy. We had a good visit, which included supper at Little Mesa, a family-type restaurant.
- Then on south and west to Gangplank in Chandler.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 70.

Thu 3/28 = More driving today: To
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
to meet the painter, replace the front hose bib with a ball-valve hose bib and check out the sprinklers, which need some work.
- At 10:45 I picked up Rose B and transported her for PT. Instead of waiting and reading a book I drove up to the Eagle Ridge Basin 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
. Needless to say it went much better than yesterday evening. There was only time to fly out three batteries, so I flew the fourth battery at our little Mountain Rose Park after delivering Rose back to her home. Sort of in the getting-ready-for-the-kiteboarding-trip department I also packed nuts for the entire time, worked out automatic 6-month use of my two back-of-the-wallet credit cards, started backing up my computer, did some buffing out of the areas on my van where I had done some touching up of the paint and, just before bedtime, brushed onto the van's steel roof-rack cross rails, Por 15 rust-preventive paint (that you can, theoretically, apply directly over rust, but I didn't).
- To bed with Sleep Number on 60 - but I did not spend the night in bed. In the middle of the night I got to thinking (big mistake, eh?) that the roof-rail primer needed a finish coat to give it UV protection and that the finish coat needed to be applied within three to six hours. So when I got up to pee at 3 in the morning I applied three coats of SEM 39143 Trim Black spray paint with three-minute flash time. Between the coats I started the next step of computer backup.

Fri 3/29 = Up early this morning to meet
George
younger brother who lives in Mesa
at the Desert Ridge Mimi's for breakfast. We had a good visit
- I spent five hours today working on the
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
sprinkler system, but I finally got everything working correctly. I had to replace about six MP2 Rotator nozzles, one under-ground riser and one complete sprinkler head. It all involved around $100 and trips to Home Depot, 99 Cent Only and another trip way up to Ewing Irrigation. Live and learn: Here's what I'll try to remember for next time: - My kiteboarding friend, Bill Yard phoned as he was passing by Phoenix, driving from California to
SPI
South Padre Island, Texas
. He mentioned Rockport, TX (Highway 361 toward Port Aransas & ferry to Aransas pass, then 55 N to Rockport) as a possible kiteboarding location a little north of Corpus Christi.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 50.

Sat 3/30 = First thing this morning I replaced the main rotor motor in my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
then flew the heli at Buffalo Ridge Park.
- I drove over to Duncan's RC on 59th Ave for landing skids, main rotor motor and canopy to complete my stash of spare parts for my trip. On the way home I stopped by
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
to look for a wrench I may have left over there yesterday. Didn't find the wrench. I got back home in time to sun 20 minutes and have my second exercycle session.
- My priorities may be screwed up, but I have decided I am going to feel good as I drive a shiny van on my kiteboarding trip, so I spent quite a bit of time wet sanding and buffing out more retouch spots on the front if my van. I also got the beautiful new-looking, black roof cross rails reinstalled and finished, finally, the backup of my computer. Now I have full backup and recovery in three locations: at
George's
younger brother who lives in Mesa
, in a fireproof box here at home and with me in the van for the trip. The latter is a combination of an old laptop hard drive and an SD card.
- This evening I had supper at the Rustic Cafe with the ham radio operators.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 40.

Easter Sunday 3/31 -
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
this morning in Buffalo Ridge Park: Batteries C & D ended up under discharged for storage, so I put them on the charger for a short time - but I forgot to take them off in time so charged them fully. As a result I need to fly them back down to their storage voltage of 3.8.
- This morning I finished buffing out my van. It surely looks nice, at least to me, and that is what counts. There are two little places where I was too aggressive and the primer is showing through. For now I am going to leave them that way. Maybe they will help me be humble and serve as a reminder that I make my share of mistakes.
- Easter was with family for supper with
Herald and Bernadette
my X-brother-in-law and his wife
and their family. It was good getting caught up on things, including Harold's spinner projects which he makes with anything he can find, including old hard disk drive motors and bearings and a model of the Eiffel Tower. He uses magnetic reed switches to activate coils as magnets go by. Since I had to fly out my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flight batteries C & D, Harold and I went to the Desert Storm Basin Park to fly. I did not embarrass myself with more than one crash and got to drive his Dodge Magnum. Both cool. Again, batteries C & D ended up under discharged for storage, so I again put them on the charger for a short time - but again forgot to take them off in time so charged them fully. So on the way home, about dark, I stopped by the expansive parking lot of Madison #1 Middle School and did a couple flights - conservative because the pavement would not be too good for crashing.
- To bed with Sleep Number on 35.

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