Song: N/A
Mood: 7
Nightmares: 0
Ghosts: Lots
That I’m starting this post at 12:53AM speaks to how today went.
J is doing much better. She went to work this morning at the regular time but started to wilt in the afternoon so she came home a little early – a good decision I think. She looked pale when she got home but after she sat down for a while the colour returned to her face.
As for me, I slept pretty well last night. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but having that pan and hose underneath the hot water tank has pretty much taken it out of the things I worry about, which has been wonderful. I don’t think I’ve had to go downstairs or tell myself that the tank is fine once since it was replaced.
I forgot to water the garden this morning so I went outside at around 2PM and watered the garden. The soil was so dry that I just hung the sprinkler on the side of the anti-lagomorph barrier and let it soak an area while I did some weeding. I find that weeding is a lot easier to do if you let the weeds get at least thigh high – waist high is even better. That way, they’re easy to see and you don’t have to bend over to pull them out. It was bloody hot out today and there I was – fat guy dressed in black again – with my eyes starting to cook. But the garden has been watered and the weeds have been vanquished. The pepper plant has eight peppers on it!
I’ve been pretty busy with a lot of electronics stuff. Right now I’m working on making a nice little package that contains a Raspberry Pi, a little screen, and the SDR receiver so I can easily move it around or go outside without carrying a loose connection of wires and parts and batteries. I keep running into some tiny little thing that ends up being a showstopper, then figuring out a way through or around it, just to run into another tiny little thing. Right now, the problem is that there’s no easy way for me to connect the screen to the Pi. I have a cable that does it, but it’s three feet long and pretty thick, so it won’t fit nicely in a box.
This evening I figured I’d look around at some of the stores and see if they sold cables that had a 90-degree end and were nice and short. The first few store sites had some cables, but were crazy expensive. Just for kicks, I thought I’d try out Walmart. Turns out, they have an awful lot of HDMI cables and adapters. I scrolled down a bit… then a bit more… and some more… and stumbled across this:
I’ll take one of those, and one of those, and one of those…
Look at that! I bet they’re throwing that tacky winter sweater in with the HDMI adapter, which would already be a pretty great deal, but it’s even marked “Reduced price”, what a deal! You can’t go wrong with HDMI parts that come with a, uh… sweater. Yeah, sweater.
Had a good chat with my parents. They’re doing well. Poor Dad has to go for yet more dental work, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel now, so that’s good. Dad’s pretty interested in the SDR radio stuff so I think I’ll record some more of it and send it to him and we can try to figure out who’s talking and what they’re talking about.
Years and years ago, Dad gave me an old, beat-up sectional antenna. I thought I’d lost it but I dug around some more and found all the pieces in the basement. It’s over nine feet tall when assembled, and it has a very old-looking connector at the bottom that I think I will just use to screw into a support base. It needs a bit of cleaning and a coat of paint, and I’ll tack on an adapter to it at or near the bottom so I’ll be able to use it with the SDR. Who knows what kinds of other wondrous things I’ll be able to pick up!
I also tuned into the local Transit radio traffic and let it play all afternoon, and it was really interesting! One driver was over nine minutes ahead on his route; an audibly annoyed control person had to explain to him why that was a bad thing to do. Another one got a ticket stuck in the transfer dispenser or something, and there were lots of bus problems. Brakes, overheating, check engine lights, the digital signs on one of the buses weren’t working… it was fascinating.
J and I just hung out and took it easy this evening. Didn’t even watch a show. She’s feeling even better now, though, so I’m glad she came home early and got comfortable on the couch. Which reminds me – we’ll need to pick something else because we just ran out of Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes to watch.
Okay, I should really end this here, I have now been working on this for over an hour. Plus, I should really check to see if Walmart has put any new HDMI cables on their website. Just to be thorough and to get the best deal I can, of course. Tomorrow should be a pretty quiet day so I will tidy up some of my stuff and try to get some more things done.
Stay safe.