Blog Archive 2014 Sep
Mon Sep 1 = I wore my Maui Hawaiian shirt to celebrate Labor Day this morning for flying my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
because one or more prudish RC guys have complained when I go shirtless, which I usually do in the summer. I even did a comedy bit about the shirt.
- I took my across-the-street neighbors, Greg and Brenda, out for breakfast. The food was both good and reasonably priced at the Village Inn Restaurant (not the pizza place).
- I bought the Internet domain name of
arizonalou.com so now when you go to it, you automatically land on my Comedy web page. It will cost me only about $15 per year and the redirection is free from GoDaddy.
Tue Sep 2 = I didn't get my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
into the air at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
until 11:24 this morning.
By then it was getting pretty hot. Good thing there's a shade tree where we fly.
Wed Sep 3 = Didn't make it out to fly my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
until about 11:30 this morning. There were only a few fliers out there by then, but one of the prudes was out there smoking his e-cigarette. He made a comment about my lack of a shirt, which opened the door for a little stand-up comedy by me on the subject.
- Continuing the comedy theme, I spent most of the afternoon preparing for tonight.
I did a 4.5-minute tribute to Robin Williams at Stand-up Scottsdale.
Thu Sep 4 = I had a list of things to do before heading out to the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
to fly my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
,
like eating, packaging a Magellan inflatable travel neck pillow for mailing, preparing a short shopping list, organizing my bag for the gym, and practicing flips on my
Phoenix RC simulator. As the first stop on my trip, I finally got the Nano in the air at 2:49 this afternoon. Needless to say, I was the only RC pilot out there.
Fri Sep 5 = People can surely be nice - and helpful - especially if they have good eyes. Thirty seconds into my third
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flight I lost sight of it to the east over the hill, so chopped the power. I spent about a half hour looking for it in the grass, in the gravel, in the trees and in the bushes. A couple, with their beautiful, big poodle, just finishing their carry-out lunch on the picnic table, offered to walk their dog and look for my heli. They found it way over at the second sidewalk. Thanks, guys! They declined my offer to buy them lunch.
Sat Sep 6 = Here's what I observed, tracking the voltages for the single-cell LiPo flight batteries for my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
for the past week:
Typical 150mAh Cell Voltages for Various Charge States
| Volts |
Status (voltages measured on iCharger) |
|
4.15 |
After fast charge w iCharger
|
|
4.17 - 4.20 |
After full charge w iCharger
|
|
3.71 - 3.75 |
After normal 4-minute flight (most significant)
|
|
3.78 - 3.80 |
After storage charge w iCharger
|
|
3.80 - 3.83 |
After sitting for a day
|
|
3.68 |
After sitting overnight on parallel board w LED
|
- Instead of going to the hamfeast tonight I went to see headliner, Jamie Lee, at Stand-Up Scottsdale who kept going for 43 minutes. However, I think I enjoyed Clayton Perkins, one of the three feature comedians, more than Jamie. He had the audience laughing 50% of his 13-minute set with 8.8 laughs per minute. He was good - and funny!
Sun Sep 7 = No heli this morning because I drove west to Surprise, AZ to sign an agreement with the other four homeowners that share a well. I arrived in time to scope out my two lots before our 9am meeting. I worked out at a gym on the way back home, finishing three days of light-fast workouts.
- Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I resolved my checking account for July in 18 minutes - I think a record. The key is to be careful and check EVERYTHING as I go.
Mon Sep 8 = It was somewhat of a short night, with the remnants of Hurricane Norbert dropping a record amount of rain on us - about five inches. That's 71% of our annual average. Today we received more rain for one day than ever before on a single day - and it was only 8:00 am. I got up about 3am to unplug my computer stuff because of the lightning. While up I solved the mystery of the water on my kitchen counter when I got home from my trip two and a half weeks ago. This morning water was running down my vaulted ceiling and dripping down onto an indirect fluorescent light fixture atop one of my kitchen cabinets, running down through the cabinet, onto the kitchen counter and then down onto the floor. I collected over two gallons of water in my drip
bucket.
- Today I made phone calls to the likes of my doctor, a voice therapist, my property manager, and some comedy people. I batted about 50% voice mails, but did learn that my
- Dahlia
- my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
tenant is moving out early - OK because they have already paid to the end of the month when their lease is over. They bought a new house! It makes me feel good that I have helped a number of couples reach their goals with that little house.
Tue Sep 9 = This evening I replaced the tail boom/motor assembly on my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
with a good used one (that I had glued together with CA) because the Nano's tail was not holding with aggressive maneuvering the last couple of mornings.
Talent and ingenuity combine in this video of a high school student's amazing performance from classical music to chopsticks on a PVC instrument he made:
Wed Sep 10 = Our neighborhood electric power went out at 11:10 last night and wasn't restored until 1:28 this morning, two hours later.
- I moved my FLIR i7 thermographic
camera
purchase up so I can have it to help analyze my roof leaks. I saved over $100 by ordering the
camera
by phone from CT Supply in Colorado Springs, as opposed to ordering it from New Jersey through ebay. Being close, the i7 should arrive by Friday, in time to use when Rick looks at my roof on Monday. Thank you, Charity.
- I spent most of this afternoon working on two comedy routines - a modification of my Old Man routine if Howard Hughes, the owner of Stand-Up Scottsdale can watch my set, and another one, MCMXLI and Eden routine if he cannot. Howard DID watch and evaluate my routine, and then spent considerable time giving me feedback. Essentially, he said I am not ready yet for feature appearances and need to work on being a
matador
(shifting and adjusting my approach) and being my self rather than being a clown (just telling a list of rote jokes).
Thu Sep 11 = No heli flying this morning because I am still getting some tail washout with the
tail boom assembly I installed yesterday on my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
.
- Around noon I laid in the sun for 20 minutes then headed out to take Gerald to a doctor's appointment for Duet, which took until around 4pm. Then over to 59th Ave & Greenway to buy a couple Nano tail rotor assemblies.
Fri Sep 12 = I updated the maps on my Garmin Nuvi 885T GPS, using my lifetime map subscription. They still show my street as 21st rather than Rckwood, in spite of my takiing time to log a correction request. I think they mostly ignore us and do what they wish.
- At 1:03pm my FLIR i7 thermograhic camera was delivered by FedEx. I immediately put it on its charger.
- This evening
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over. We spent the entire time on his stuff - mostly his Mintoris programs, some athletic quadcopter videos and a little experimenting with some
- IR
- infrared
LEDs he broght over. I must be pretty dense, because last time we got together, without realizing it, I dominated the evening with my kiteboarding/SUP/comedy trip to Maui.
Sat Sep 13 = I've been having significant left wrist and right knee pain and started icing both pretty aggressively (several times a day/night)
- Two new batteries arrived in the mail for my Nuvi 885T. The old battery (my third) had so little energy it was lasting about three minutes when fully charged.
- This evening I went to the Saturday Night Hamfeast at the Black Bear Diner way down in Gilbert. I made a few shopping stopps on the way home.
Sun Sep 14 = This morning I got my
- Vaio
- new Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer with 11.6" touch screen, Windows 8, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD
backed up to a 64g thumb drive then drove over to go to church with
- George & Cindy
- younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
at their First Baptist Church in Mesa and then to their house for a light, nutritious, but filling lunch. Thank you, Cindy!
- On the way home I stopped by a Walmart and bought 12oz of freon for my van's AC, which was only cooling to the upper 70's. That's not enough in Phoenix, with the full sun and temperatures above 100.
Mon Sep 15 = Was I smart or stupid? I woke up about 4 this morning and decided it would be a good idea to organize the thermographs of my kitchen ceiling, take pictures of the ceiling and then print them out to show the roofer, who showed up here at Rockwood about 11:40, 1.6 hours late. He did find the leak through which over a gallon of water dripped onto my kitchen cabinet and eventually down to the kitchen counter during our last two BIG rains. He shifted a couple roof tiles to temporarily take care of the leak. Then we drove over to check the
- Dahlia
- my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
roof - doing well - not even any bird pecks on the foam roof.
- My new
FLIR camera locked up with no image and eroneous temperature information. Doing a reset solved the problem. I hope it doesn't reoccur.
Tue Sep 16 = This evening I went to the comedy show at Brigett's Last Laugh. It was a fun show, although I was not on stage. Their schedule is pretty full so John Henry is signing me up for the November 4th show.
Wed Sep 17 = Among other things I bought 9v battery snap connectors to use in my new heli case project and did some configuration testing
Thu Sep 18 = This evening I drove down to Monkey Pants in Tempe. Cristian (a good guy) was able to put me on - my 85th appearance. I was second, with four minutes. Ron Babcock, the headliner, was good, with 32 minutes. He did a good mix of his own material and interacting with the audience. He is on a California-to-DC tour, driving a restored classic Mercedes and staying with friends and comedians along the way. Sounds interesting - and he made all the tour arrangements WITHOUT the help of his agent(s).
Fri Sep 19 = Four perfect flights was the main thing that happened today: two with my PhoeniRC simulator. One flying the Align T-Rex 700E and another flying its Blade Nano CPX Thentwo in real life with my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
. I define a perfect flight as taking off (from my hand in real life), flyiing around, doing flips, inverted and such and then making a soft landing (back on my hand in real life).
- Banner Good Sam has dropped the ball several times regarding voice therapy there. It is not like them - possibly a new secretary, but it IS frustrating.
Sat Sep 20 = Among other things, I've started doing and recording a comedy routine every day. After today's session I officially, at least for the time being, decided to always use notes of some sort. Maybe I'm not too smart, not a good thinker, but I believe my flow will be much better. Now the challenge will be to do more and more of each routine without referring to the notes - but still have the notes handy - for flow.
- I got a lot done toward the end of today. Starting about 5:15, I trimmed the natal plum hedge out front, raked the trimmings and put them in the trash. Then inside, cleared my couch by finishing sorting and filing the mail from my trip. This evening I went to the Saturday-night Hamfeast at Streets of New York, did a slightly shortened heavy torso workout at LA Fitness and cleared my kitchen floor to sweep and mop in preparation for Monday's company.
Sun Sep 21 = Getting ready Monday's company included sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. Sure looks nice now. I did a little grocery shopping at Winco Foods after a light, fast legs workout at LA Fitness.
- This morning I flew my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
,
wearing a shirt there for the first time this summer. One of the other fliers there got pretty bent out of shape yesterday about my no shirt. Also I started making a corrugated cardboard model of the dividers for my new heli case - the case that came with my
FLIR i7 camera.
- Tonight I aired out the house by situating the windows and interior doors so the AC fan does a forced-air airing out. I like to do this when the outside air is still after evening traffic and before morning traffic to not add dust to the house and when the nights start getting cool to save energy.
Mon Sep 22 = I got my desk, kitchen and house all cleared, cleaned and vacuumed for company this morning. I had met John Murray, through my website, who has started kiteboarding and lives in Phoenix. I had him over for lunch. We had a good time talking about... kiteboarding
- This evening
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over so we could tech out. He broght over an infarad security camera with LED night lighting. It was powered by a couple of 6v gel cells and hooked up to a video camera for display and recording - all mounted on a little portable platform. Cool beans!
-
Tue Sep 23 = I didn't realize that my little
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
could do so much damage... to me! I accidentally flew it into my right arm and the main rotor pealed up a triangle of my epidermis about 3 mm on a side - just superficial. The bleeding was impressive. However, there was no one else out at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
besides me to impress. Also I did a hard crash on the concrete sidewalk, which broke the top canopy posts, is spite of my reinforcing them with toothpicks. Won't take too much to repair them with a little hot glue.
Wed Sep 24 = After this evening's show at StandUp Scottsdale I hung around outside and visited with Howard, the owner and another comedian that I knew I had met before - somewhere. It was John Tole. We had met when we both appeared at an open mic in Wichita, KS at the Loony Bin. Small world!
Thu Sep 25 = I spent a lot of the morning catching up on sleep from last night's comedy. Also Elizabeth Banta, Executive Director of
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
phone and shared with me where they can use some funding, something I had requested. They can save a great deal of time and trouble for both themselves and their volunteers if they would be able to move from ink-based fingerprinting to electronic fingerprinting. It WOULD require an investment of over $6000 for the equipment and training. I offered to help fund the project, since technology is right down my alley and since I was looking for a Duet project to donate to. If you would like to help out,
drop me an email or go drectly to
duetaz.org and make a donation. If you like you can mention you found out about it on my website.
- I spent most of this afternoon studying biometric fingerprint hardware and software, including telephone calls to manufacturers and suppliers. I am getting excited about how much it would mean to Duet to be able to use this new technology. Also I am impressed with how much work Duet's Carol did in researching it all, meeting FBI and DPS standards etc.
- Today's trip included finally finding helicase hinges and a main rotor blade box at Ace and Dollar Tree respectively.
Fri Sep 26 = Two projects took care of most of today: Figuring out how I might be able to help a friend with his property tax situation and researching various 12 V Gel Cell and charger configurations for the new helicase I am designing.
- This evening I went to the House Of Comedy in Phoenix. John Tole, who I had met in Wichita, KS and Scottsdale, AZ, was the host. He was excellent! Headliner, Collin Moulton, was one of the best I have seen, so I put him on my
Good Comedians list. His transitions, imitations & expressions were super slick. The audience loved him and laughed a lot. Both comedians used audience interactions in a very effective and relaxed way.
Sat Sep 27 = Today I took Denise shopping under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
and paid my property taxes (online, of course). This evening I joined Drew for the evening's hamfeast: only two of us.
Sun Sep 28 = This morning at the
- RC Park
- Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
,
flying my
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
I got wind that someone had ordered pizza and a taxi to my house as a prank. Evidently they got the wrong house... and got in trouble. Good! I can't believe that a grown man can be so immature and inconsiderate of those who work hard to provide those services to the community. Why? I guess because I was not wearing a shirt in the heat when I would fly my Nano at the park. I DID start wearing a shirt out there about a week ago.
- I spent most of the afternoon preparing four minutes of info-comedy about
- Duet
- The organization through which I take non-driving seniors to their doctors' appointments
's
need for funding of electronic finger printing to eliminate lots of problems getting the finger prints the old ink way. (The prints are used for the DPS-required level one clearance of all volunteers). I did not expect to get on the program for their Partners' Appreciation Dinner this evening, but wanted to be prepared; just in case. I was correct - there was no time for me in their program, which was interesting as usual.
Mon Sep 29 = I buckled down and got to work on my taxes. Yes, I had filed an extension back in April. I couldn't let taxes interfere with my kiteboarding/comedy road trip!
- This evening I made several stops on the way down and on the way back from
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
's
for another tech-out session.
Tue Sep 30 = This evening I went to the Rick Bronson's House of Comedy here in north Phoenix. I went early and hung around or a total of three hours, including the show, hoping to get on for their open mic. That part didn't work out, but I did get to see a lot of my comedian friends perform. The House of comedy only opened the third of this month. It is a good, modern facility. I wish them good luck and good success. Hopefully I'll be able to help with a few appearances there.
