Tonight’s sushi dinner
Catan, Seafarers expansion, in progress.
Seen on the road: teddy bear abuse?
Shortly after the armadillo there was a ballon crossing.
Armadillo crossing
Cool clouds. Not cool weather.
With the heat wave of the past few weeks dawn skies have been a total meh. But yesterday we had a bit of rain (less than a 1 tenth inch) and it had a lingering effect. Dawn today looked awesome!
Sunrise sky on a day with a forecast high of 107F. Need an emoji for melting.
The completed Lego BMW Motorrad ensconced on a shelf in my study. I give it a 9/10 which is a high rating for me. Loses a star for a couple of missing parts and insufficient supports for some of the finishing pieces.
My wife came back from Cali with an upper respiratory something or other. Nothing that really indicated Covid but since we have tests sitting around we used one. Result negative today. Her sister also tested negative. 👍🏼
Lego BMW Motorrad is almost mechanically complete. Bag set 3 of 5 done and page 244 of 379. Moving on to the finish work.
I’ve always valued this quote: “Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.” - Robertson Davies
I’m poking around on my disk finding some blasts from the past and came across this. It is a sympathy card our vet made when our first dog passed many years ago. It was lovely and we were really touched she would make this because we didn’t know her well: “Hold My Heart”.❤️
Bag set 2 and the first 156 pages of the manual for the Lego BMW Motorrad are complete. I should complete it this weekend. Onward!
At the wine bar happy hour celebrating our new found freedom. I.e. our daughter can drive her damn self now 😂
First set of bags of the Lego BMW Motorrad are complete, 4 sets remain. 86 pages of the manual complete, 300 left to go. Engine parts seem to move as expected. Really like this kit so far😃
And so it begins… bag 1 of Lego Motorrad
In today’s episode of “homeowner bliss” I cleaned our dryer vent pipe. First time in 15 years here. The path from inside was easy. Unfortunately the outdoor outlet for the vent is on the roof and as I feared some lint clogged up the screen on that vent. Roof in 100F heat is no bueno🔥
Finished the build of the Qrp-Labs QDX digital transceiver kit. I must say the instructions are fantastic. And the best part is no magic smoke and both the send and receive sides worked right away on both Mac and RPi. Heard as far as 3,600 miles today via FT8.
Lounging on the back patio to start my day. 75F, sunny. Listening to the music of lawn mowers and enjoying the sweet smell of freshly mowed grass. 👍🏻
Today’s progress included installing 4 transistors, winding a transformer and winding 8 inductors.I think about 150 turns total. I caught a mistake on one inductor and fixed it. Hopefully my only mistake… Could be a bit neater but looks ok so far.
QDX circuit board day 1: 16 capacitors, 6 diodes and 4 inductors soldered so far. It’s gonna be awhile before I know if I made any mistakes.
My desk setup to start the QDX transceiver build. It soon got a lot messier…
My next project is to build a QDX low power digital transceiver from a kit. This is going to require a lot of soldering and provide ample opportunities for me to screw things up.
Lovely sky for this morning’s exercise.
Had to go with a slow, low impact, pace. My knees have not forgiven me for last week’s fall. I fear it will take weeks to really recover.
