Sunday, January 17, 2021

Day 31, 32, 33, 34 - Columbus, TX - TT

Thursday (Day 31) - I saw 71°F this afternoon. I’m not going to complain about that! This mornings walk was a little short at 2.27 miles as there was an early ham test today. About an hour earlier than usual. Google calendar chose today to put me back in AKST. Earlier in the week, it registered CST like it had for the previous couple of months. 

Friday (Day 32) - Another nice walk though it was windy and coo but at least it was sunny. I keep looking for a convenient route that'll be over three miles. This is just because I had signed up for a virtual 5k. And I figure that I really need to start walking everyday again.

Right now, I'm waiting for another test session to start. I hadn't signed up originally but there was a message sent out last night that they could use a couple more VEs. Since I didn't have anything planned, why not. A couple of weeks ago, they started testing two people at a time each in a seperate breakout room within Zoom. The problem they are going to run into is each room requires three VEs. I don't know how this is going to scale. 

Later - The applicant passed two tests and is now general class. There is another session tonight (8pm CST). 

I did get a task done that I've been meaning to do for quite a while. One of the pass through storage bays has a tray that pulls out about ⅔ of the way out on either side. The tracks width did not match the tray width by about ¼" and it kept falling off the rails. It was an easy fix. New bolts plus some washers to space the rails from their mounting. There was no adjustment provided by the brackets so it's just poor manufacturing. The frame of the tray is steel so it isn't like something shrunk. 

Now the bearing touch the tray and keep the tray centered, Before, it kept falling off of the bearings. What I was surprised by is that all of the bearings still have grease in them. While I was working on this, I vacuumed out the floor of the bay as well as the tray. There was a year and a half of dirt and sand.

Saturday (Day 33) - After the first testing session, I took a walk and by zig-zagging around all of the trails and roads, I managed to find a route that was over three miles. Still a tenth or so under 5k but close enough. We are going to be here for a couple more days before we head south to Harlingen, TX, which is just north of the border. The temperatures there are warmer than here with highs in the mid-70s. We will be in that area for around five weeks.

This park is just about completely full as is typical most weekends. Those here for the weekends seem to bring a lot of outdoor stuff and usually build fires. Lots of scooters and bicycles. 

There is another test session at 4:30 CST so I'm typing this post while I'm waiting for the session to start. The laptop Internet is almost always through either the iPhone or the iPad as the campground WiFi is too variable for the Zoom session. For the test session, I need a couple of web pages loaded (and one of them updates continuously while the test is in progress), Discord (chat) and Zoom. The iPhone is limited to 400kbps when used as a hotspot during peak times and it has been throttled in the evenings. The iPad isn't throttled or limited until I hit 15GB. 

Sunday (Day 34) - A beautiful day. Clear blue skies and 67°F with no wind makes for a nice walk. Only 2.22 miles around the perimeter of the park. I have some things to do around the RV. Not repairs just cleaning. I had picked up a small shop vac as we’ve needed a small vacuum for some outside chores. 

The HomeAssistant software died in the middle of a software upgrade. Probably due to the poor Internet. I had another micro-SD card purchased so I re-installed v4.18 that I had previously downloaded. After booting up, the host software upgraded to the current version then around 1am, I then upgraded the operating system to v5.10 and reinstalled the ESPHome add-in. I still have a few things to fix but I’ll wait until we get better Internet. 

We had lunch/dinner at Nancy’s Steak here in Columbus. They actually had a salad bar complete with a box of disposable gloves before the plates. A delicious dinner and reasonably priced. Especially if you compare it to Alaska prices. 

Later, we went to the hot tub one last time. At least for this park. I believe the next one has their outdoor jacuzzi open.

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