Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Finally!

We finally got some snow. Granted only a couple of inches but it's better than nothing. I had several errands to do today and I must admit that riding on fresh snow is in the "fun" category. The only place I needed 2WD was returning home up our road. When in 2WD, you do a lot of steering by shifting your weight on the pegs. I suspect that by tomorrow there will be a lot more gravel on the roads.

I needed to pick up a 1⅛" 6-pointed socket to remove the fuel filter on the truck. I had neglected to run the summer fuel out of the system and get some winter fuel. Summer fuel, aka #2 diesel, has a gel point of 10°F to 20°F and the last week or so of below zero temperatures meant that the fuel no longer flows. I have spare fuel filters so the current plan is to clear out the garage enough to park the truck (motorcycles get to live outside for a while) but I need to get the truck running long enough to move it. I'm hoping that replacing the fuel filter and filling the housing with anti-gel chemical and kerosene will enable the truck to run and start enough to move it. With a curb weight of over 7000 lbs, I'm not going to be able to push it.

The other errand was to pick up and return a "dishwasher installation kit" that the salesman said was essential. All of the parts were included with the new dishwasher so 5 seconds after signing for the part, I returned it for a refund. When asked for a reason, I put down "stubborn salesman selling unnecessary accessories".

BTW, this post is being done on an Acer C720P Chromebook. Much faster than the Samsung Chromebook I had picked up a couple of years ago. The key feature is the addition of a touch screen. After years of using an iPad, you get used to simply touching the screen. On this Chromebook, it actually does something. With 4GB of memory, 32 GB SSD and an Intel dual-core processor based on the Haswell architecture, it feels fast enough. The 720p display is much nicer than the older Samsung Chromebook.

Adding photos from the Nexus phone is in the "trivial" category.

Wednesday Morning Update - Our regular November temperatures have finally returned as well though the Weather Channel is still predicting a low of +3°F for today. This is a screenshot from the Nexus 4 Android phone and to add it to the blog, you just select the "From your phone" tab from within "Insert image" popup window. Couldn't be easier. Though I did have to google how to do a screenshot.

8 comments:

  1. So pretty with a little dusting of snow!
    I love your reason for the return - lol!

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    1. Any snow at this time of year is a plus as it insulates the ground. Lowers the chance of frozen buried pipes.

      I couldn't convince him that I didn't need the kit. Even the comments on the Sears site say that the sales clerks were going to try and push their installation kit and that you don't need it. The Bosch dishwashers come with everything you need.

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  2. I wonder if they'll actually read your feedback comment....

    Good news re the snow, small amount that it turned out to be regardless....wish we had even that much snow right now. We got but a dusting...

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    1. The difference is that any little bit of snow that we get is going to hang around for a while.

      The clerk that did the return snickered at the comment and said "I bet I know who that is".

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  3. Good luck with the truck Richard. There are always lots of fuel filters around here, numerous friends run diesel machines and the seasonal fuel switch/plugged filters are major maintenance items. I've got my hands full with the gasoline engines.

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    1. I completely forgot about the summer fuel in the tank until about 5 sec after the engine shut off.

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  4. I always enjoyed it when we'd get a few inches of snow in BC. A skiff of snow here in Corvallis will shut down schools so it is just darn inconvenient.

    The new computer sounds cool. I like the idea of having a keyboard and a touch screen.

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    1. "A skiff of snow", is that a Canadian term? I haven't heard it before.

      I think that the Chromebooks are a decent idea if you have ubiquitous Internet and it's kind of getting to that point. The iPad is on Verizon, the iPhone is on AT&T and the Nexus is GCI (Alaska based telecom) and all support tethering. With the Chromebook, updates are all automatic, the hardware is relatively cheap and light and faster, and the screen on this one is pretty decent. Plus the battery lasts all day. The functionality of a web based OS is improving.

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