Hanging Around the RV Park - SKP

Monday -  I used the leaf blower and I'm glad I got the package that included the battery. The other Ryobi batteries I had were 1.5AH and the new one is 4AH. The 1.5AH batteries will run the leaf blower for about 5 minutes before the battery is drained. Fortunately, I had two of the smaller batteries so I could use the leaf blower while the new one was charging. And now I have two chargers as well. Good purchase!

There are a couple more updates for this Mac. As well as a new version of the Open Core Legacy Patcher (OCLP). This is the open-source firmware hack that allows this no-longer-supported Mac to run the current version of the operating system. I've been using OCLP for almost two years now as it was deemed too old for the last version of the operating system. BTW, it is almost 8 years old but still seems to run fine for what I need. But my needs are pretty modest these days. Maybe it's. time to pare down the number of apps on both the phone and this computer. The 14.2 MacOS update is a 13.36GB download,  On a supported Mac, it would be a small fraction of this. I have a hard time justifying a new laptop as it isn't a "need". 

Right now, I'm at the clubhouse using their WiFi to do the update. The download is going quick enough with a projected time of only 25 minutes. The last update, which was roughly the same size, took around three hours. But there was some sort of WiFi issue with an older version. Maybe that was the problem.

The Ural got used today several times as I needed a can of tomatoes for some chili plus, I used it to haul a load of leaves to the appropriate dumpster. I just tied the bag to the rack. I haven't really taken it on any trips with the Ural as there always seems to be something going on around here.

Later - It took around 25 minutes to download the update but the processing of the update file shows around 35 minutes. The whole process ended up taking a couple of hours.

Tuesday - Believe it or not, I cleaned up all these leaves yesterday. It has been windy and you can't tell that I had done anything now. And since it has been raining, everything is wet. Oh well. At least I had put the awning away yesterday since the wind was in the forecast. A couple of days ago, the awning was still out when the wind picked up and I ended up using a couple of ratchet straps to make sure the awning didn't blow around. It's supposed to be raining for the next couple of days.

Thursday - I volunteered to help cook breakfast in the park. Biscuits w/sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, fruit salad, zucchini bread w/pineapple cream cheese. It was all tasty and it was a fundraiser for in-park social events. 

Friday - I cleaned up the leaves again yesterday and today, it looks like I haven’t done anything. The Ryobi leaf blower works well and the variable speed is handy when the leaves are on gravel. It has been raining for most of the day. I’m kind of confined to not talking to anyone since Bridget tested positive yesterday. 

So, not having anyone testing and rain left me some “free time” to try out some new recipes. Nothing exotic but I did find beef ribs in the grocery store. Not very common in other locations but maybe more common in Texas. I made my own dry rub then used the Instant Pot to cook them before finishing them off in the convection oven. The beans are also “home made” from navy beans also in the Instant Pot. All tasted pretty good. I haven’t had beef ribs in years…

Mac Problems...

 

Thursday - A couple of days ago, I was updating the OS, and the power cord disconnected so the update got interrupted. Anyway, I ended up doing a "Recovery" which installed the most recent OS version that supports my hardware. That version was two major versions back. And, it automatically connected to the university and downloaded all of its policies. It took a while for me to figure out how to bypass that process and it involved booting into "Safe Mode", installing open-source firmware, and installing Sonoma, the current version. I'm glad that the Internet here is really fast. My last full backup was last month so I lost a couple of things but not much. And I was able to participate in this morning's test session.

I think it may be time for a new laptop. One that is currently supported. Though this one, A Macbook Pro with 3.3GHz I7, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD still performs pretty well. But with the RV engine, it will have to wait...

Friday - We went to the Loveland Museum as they had a special exhibit of Ansel Adams's photos of the Manzanar Internment camp. It was a nice exhibit and I've seen most of the photos over the years. It was a nice exhibit as was the rest of the museum. 

The motorhome is able to be driven now but there is a boost problem that derates the engine. They are now looking into that. So not ready to be picked up. The service manager called to let me know not to expect it to be done today. 

Saturday - Definitely not what I wanted to see this morning. And to think that not much more than a week ago, the temperatures were in the upper 70s (°F).

No RV Projects

Sunday - No RV projects today for a change. This afternoon, we joined Jerry & Lynne, and Kathy & Mike at Borderlands Brewing Company. The live music and the great company made for a great afternoon. 

Monday - I finally started a non-RV project late last night and didn't finish it until this morning. My Macbook Pro is a 2016 model with 16GB of memory and a 1TB internal drive. It is a 3.3GHz dual-core I7 so as far as performance goes, it's more than adequate for what I do. But, it is considered by Apple to be too old to automatically upgrade the operating system. I followed instructions I found online to upgrade it to the latest OS, macOS 13.01 aka Ventura. It took quite a while but finally finished this morning. I could barely read the screen as the default resolution was set so high. The text on the screen was tiny. I found the post-install patches which corrected the screen resolution and all seems to be working properly. Given that I only seem to use the laptop for Zoom, Discord, email, and web browsing, my needs are pretty minimal. 

I led one of the afternoon test sessions. That would be the normal use for the laptop. Even though it's only a 13" screen, it's still better to try to participate using the phone. No problems at all with any of the applications or tethering with the iPhone.

Tuesday - Scattered clouds today during the morning test session. But still nice enough to sit outside. We are testing a full-time RVer currently in Livingston, TX. 

I then walked to Sprouts to pick up some vegetable stock to brine the turkey breast overnight. I cut off the meaty portions and have the rest in a small stock pot for broth for both the dressing and gravy. Tomorrow afternoon, it’ll get vacuum sealed and put in the sous vide. Later today, I'll make the cranberry sauce now that whole cranberries are available. I enjoy cooking for the holidays...

Wednesday - This morning, Kathy took us to Catalina State Park to do a bit of hiking. The first one was a loop trail through a small valley. Lots of saguaro and views of the nearby hills. No wildlife but lots of sand. 

The fall colors are still out here in Arizona. The leaves are still changing and hadn’t fallen yet. There were still lots of burned areas from the 2020 brush fire. 

And, the required selfie from the trail. 

SSD Drive in a Macbook Pro

This morning, I came in early to swap out the hard drive in my Macbook Pro to one of the new Solid State Drives (SSD). After Googling (that's now a word isn't it?) how to open up the case and replace the drive, I sat down with my 00 phillips and T6 torx and started removing screws. Twenty one tiny screws later, I had the top off. Only a couple more screws and a few cables to go. Success, and better yet, the laptop still runs! Right now, I am doing a system install on the new drive from my Time Machine backup. My hope is that the new drive will be a bit faster and a whole lot sturdier. Another plus is that it is about 50% larger than the old drive. I still want to try out the PGP whole disk encryption that never seemed to work with the old drive. The new drive is a Super Talent Ultra SATA 256GB SSD supposedly with write speeds of 160 MB/s and read speeds of 200 MB/s. We'll see...

Tuesday Afternoon - The installation is finished and the machine boots really fast. Easily twice as fast. Similar speed increases for starting up applications so the laptop feels much faster. I'd say this was a good upgrade plus I now have almost 155 GB free. I won't know if there is any power savings but from everything I've read online, probably not. Just to mess things up more, I'm running PGP whole disk encryption. So far it is 10% completed and shows another 4 ½ hours to go. With the original hard drive, this program always hung at 1% completed so this is looking good. Not that I have anything super secret on my laptop but it is a good practice. I wanted to try it myself before recommending it to anyone else.

I walked down to University and College for lunch and came back on the scenic route with a stop at Ballaine Lake and the Geophysical Institute. So I'm still plugging away with the walking though I'm starting to feel really run down again. I rode the bike in this morning and it was a bit chilly. I think that it was only a little above freezing. With a little push, I may be able to make my walking goal this month. Though I'm tempted to ride anywhere I go.