Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Day 65, 66, 67, 68 - Whitney, TX - TT

Sunday (65) - Today was rather cool (temperature). I pretty much stayed inside trying to recreate one of the configurations for the Wemo D1 Mini microprocessors that got reconfigured a few months back when I rebuilt the HomeAssistant server on newer hardware. I’ve been putting it off until we were somewhere with decent Internet. 

Monday (66) - I did another remote ham radio exam this morning but the testee was a no-show. Apparently, this was only the 3rd out of hundreds. So, it was a training opportunity for me to fill out one of the online forms to track exams. The other form is for submission to the FCC after an testee passes. That's one of those no-errors-allowed or else the batch file fails at there FCC. 

I'm trying out the Mac feature of extending the desktop onto an iPad. It's kind of a handy feature when doing these radio tests due to the number of windows you need to monitor. Here I have the iPad connected via USB but, supposedly, it works with WiFi as well. Things got confused when I was using another USB connection to my iPhone for Internet at the same time as extending the screen. But it actually works.

I've been talking to Garrett from Diary of a Family about some RV repairs. He just completed a certification course in Athens, TX, and is quite knowledgeable on repairing the RV portion of this rig. We have a long list.

And, I've been continuing to work on the Smart RV projects now that we have at least so-so Internet. An Internet connection is needed for compiling and generating new firmware to download to the microprocessors.

Tuesday (67) - Two more tests today. The first at noon and the second at 5pm. The Zoom room usually goes active around 30 minutes before the scheduled exam. I think that many of the other volunteers enjoy the short period of socialization especially during these days of social distancing. We picked up a handful of groceries for a Thanksgiving potluck with some friends of friends. I believe the plan is all outdoors.

Wednesday (68) - The turkey breast is in the sous vide. I browned it before double-bagging it since it needs to cook for 24 hours. Seasonings are bay leaf, sage, Herbes de Provence, salt, olive oil, and sugar. Temperature is 131°F as recommended by the Joule app. I’m pretty sure that this is the same recipe as last year. I’m using the Joule sous vide appliance this year. The temperature control seems to be more accurate plus it connects the app on my phone to set time-temperature directly from the Joule app. And it sends notifications to my Apple Watch. I know, gimmicks, but I like gimmicks. I also made some cranberry sauce w/orange. A couple more items which I’ll make tomorrow morning.

Last night, I ended up bringing in the awning due to a rain storm with high wind gusts. I really didn’t get to see if my HomeAssistant automation to turn off the lights worked. 

8 comments:

  1. Re: test results. We arrived Monday 16th 5pm and tested right away. Beacon said 3 to 5 working days. The result, negative, hit my email 2:30pm Saturday the 21st. I hear they are busy. We took a second test since SRC requires it Tuesday the 24th. State doesn't.

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    1. Thank you for the info. Since there seems to be little value in taking a test before travel, I’ll just do the one at the airport.

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    2. Arrive next week and staying for a little over a week.

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  2. Interesting reading about the new MacBooks. Mine is from 2013 I think, but still does well enough for me. I know one of these days I’ll need to replace it. I like how the iPad can serve as a second screen. That would be handy at times.
    Hope you both have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. The new Apple laptops with the Apple M1 chip sound interesting though the two USB-C ports seem to be a real limitation. Especially since I had to have the MacBook Pro repaired due to a failed port.

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  3. Richard, your turkey breast sous vide was great! Thanks for cooking and for coming over to the State Park for Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed a chance to meet you and visit.

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