Sunny And Hot. I Could Get Used To This!

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So you know where I was most of the day. Yep. Outside doing “Stuff.” It’s amazing the amount of “Stuff” I get done outside when it’s nice like today. Truly amazing. After my trip to the Post Office I’ve pretty much stayed home.

In between doing “Stuff” outside, I tried installing Ubuntu Studio (latest version) to replace the Linux Mint (whatever version) I had. It installed and ran great. Even ran all 3 of my monitors. And, as long as I didn’t mind having all 3 monitor’s showing exactly the same damned thing, it worked fine. Drove me crazy though.

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So I used whatever their utility is to set up the monitors. When I exited the utility, my monitors went blank, then showed just white, and when I clicked anything it came up with a log-in window that wouldn’t let me log in. Continued to do this even after rebooting. Sucks!

And I couldn’t boot back into Windows 7 either. Wouldn’t even give me the choice. After an hour or so I booted with my Windows 7 disc and went into repair. Then a command prompt, then typed bootrec.exe /fixmbr. That worked. For booting into Windows anyway.

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So I reinstalled Linux Mint Cinnamon. Rebooted and ran sudo update-grub and got my OS Selection menu back. Ran some commands that were supposed to download and install the latest NVidia drivers; and it seemed to work. But now Mint goes into a mode I’ve never seen before. Very basic menu and absolutely no way to quit or reboot without just turning the computer off. And still only the one monitor.

Tried going into the driver manager thing: made a change from x-server driver to the NVidia driver and it just locked up for about 10 minutes. Had to hit cancel on that one. May try again.

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But I got something to do now. (Get it to work right!) Ought to be fun. If I’m going to switch over to Linux full time I gotta learn how to fix things that go wrong or don’t work right. Thank goodness for the Internet!

Now SWMBO is home and I’ve been copying some epub files to her Nook. About to hit the rack and read a bit. (Good thing I married a Reader!)


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Well. I Be Ready For Another Trip.

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I was just looking at the pictures I took on our trip to Eastern WaRshington last April. The first trip with the new Caravan. And, while I do enjoy the pictures of the landscapes and dramatic, nay, majestic, cliffs, caves, and gorges, I notice that Every picture of my lovely young bride of almost 30 years brings a smile to my face. Every one. How I got her to share our lives is still a mystery to me.

So, she needed our Marriage Certificate/License for something at work and I sent the .pdf to her. Then I noticed:

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I maintain that we’re only married in Ohio; and only for 60 days. SWMBO maintains something completely different! Having been with her these past almost 32 years, I know that if I’d like my Balls to stay where they are (attached. To me) I’d better change my belief system fast.

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Did a lot outside today as it was nice and sunny and hot again. We don’t get enough of those days around here. Worked on SWMBO’s rose trellis some. Trimmed branches hanging into the driveway. Trimmed the Azalea bushes. Gathered up all the clippings. Even started collecting rocks from the yard again for my “rock garden” up next to the house. Damn, I can be productive on a nice day!

I’m thinking that, instead of running a long wire from the Caravan battery to where I want to mount my radio, maybe I can tap into the wires coming off the back of the invertor thing. It’s gotta be connected to the battery somehow to charge it. Then I would have to figure out how to run under the floor across to the cabinet and up to where I want it.

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And that’s it again. Playing with that SDR Dongle until bedtime. Which is shortly for this old guy.


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Sunny. Hot. Outside. Heaven!

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Made an early run to Target in Silverdale and bought myself one of those lounge thingies so I can tan my ass. So, after weed whacking the animal yard and the trail around the back of the property, that’s just what I did. Just doing what I can outside as much as possible because it was Sunny & Hot. That was pretty much my day.

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Sometimes being “Retired” can be okay!


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Nice Day And I Got A Lot Done

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Really nice out. Got up to over 70 degrees! Put clothes on only when I went to the Post Office to mail a letter and to stop by ACE Hardware for a couple bags of cement. Then later when I remembered I still needed to drop off Netflix (so back to the Post Office), and stop by Safeway to return “Interstellar” and get some gas. Other than that …

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Spent several hours outside mixing cement and filling post holes. Phew! Strenuous.

Then I spent time getting my radio to work in the Caravan. It does! Pigtails I made work just fine for the antenna’s and the cigarette-lighter thingie inside supply’s enough power to at least listen. Going to have to run a good wire from the battery for transmitting though. I think. It seemed to work fine transmitting 50 watts FM on 2-meters, but, reading online about amps=watts/volts I’m not so sure the lighter plug will handle it (safely). 25 watts (on psk31) / 13.8 volts = 1.923 Amps. Present circuit seems to be able to handle it; but I’m still a wuse where my radio is concerned.

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Tuna sandwiches and chips for dinner cause I was a bit tired. And I stayed busy right up to time to eat. (I have to eat fairly early, around 1630-1700, cause I have GERD. The earlier I eat the less it bothers me when I go to bed. Wake up really hungry sometimes though!)

SWMBO got home safe. Just lounging around playing until bedtime. Downloading Ubuntu Studio to give that a try. If it drives all three of my monitors I’ll install it and go from there. Gotta get away from Windows!


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