Probably the most crucial thing this weekend was having my friend inspect and approve the new soundproof wall in front of the room she will live in someday. Hearing my description over the phone, she was worried I had destroyed my home with a too-narrow hallway. The hallway is slightly narrower, by 3 inches at the neck, but actually more passible with the old CD racks removed, since they took up over 6 inches. I will probably not reattach the 5 foot long abstract painting I had in that location, but get a smaller and thinner picture. My friend strongly supported that idea, but I have no idea when I will find a suitable new painting.
I also attached the front bezel for the A/C unit inside Lyndhurst, and programmed it for summer operation (87 degrees, 11am to 8pm, Energy Saver). Even with timer set the fan turns on occasionally at night to "sense" the temperature. I think if I didn't turn on Energy Saver, I wonder if the fan would be on all the time.
Even after much hammering with a rubber mallet and even a regular hammer, and bending with pliers, I could not get the exposed chassis of the A/C bent sufficiently to get the bezel on all-the-way. The contractors had bent the chassis during installation and for that reason couldn't push the A/C unit all the way into its own frame. As a result, even when the bezel is aligned with the control panel, the top back of the bezel is about 1/2 inch away from the places where it is supposed to clip on top. So I was unable to get it to clip on the top, and in order to attach the #6 stainless screws at the bottom, there has to be even more tilt of the front bottom into the unit and front top leaning out. So the whole bezel tilts away from the top about 1 inch. It doesn't look too bad, and as it is nevertheless squeezed onto the chassis very tightly and held with the two screws on the bottom, I believe it is very secure. The bezel is also serving it's engineered functions including covering the thermostat so it doesn't get triggered by tiny gusts of hot air, and directing cold air at the top In the final attachment (btw this process took over an hour) I cracked a bit of the bezel on the bottom. But the crack is not near the screws fortunately and the bezel is holding despite the small crack. I am glad to have gotten this job finally done (if not done well) after more than 12 months of putting it off. As warm weather is arriving now there was no more time to delay.
I mowed the back yard, mowing all around Lyndhurst and mowing down weeds around the tree. I left flowers that are growing around the tree.
I brought the spare clips from the soundproof wall construction and the spare camera back into Lyndhurst, along with the new 6 ft 375 lb ladder.
I removed the fluorescent bug light the electrician installed this week and changed it out with the Miracle LED light I had been pointing toward the patio. I then replaced the patio light with a Miracle LED bug light, so the patio is lit by diffuse yellow light. I adjusted both lights so that the entire back yard is lit, and actually the front of the patio is slightly darkened for better privacy. I had found that the CFL bug light was actually attracting bugs. Now I see the Miracle bulbs are attracting moths also, probably because the heat generates infrared, but since the LED bulbs produce far less heat, they should attract fewer moths. The key bit about bug lights (and most LED's) is that they do not emit blues and ultraviolet, which attract most flying insects including mosquitos.
On Saturday I downloaded the instructions for the Insteon switch that controls the patio light, and programmed it to accept X10 signals for on and off. On Sunday I tried to program my X10 home control program to turn the patio light on at dusk and off at dawn. Unfortunately, the code I had chosen was also the code used by the computer monitor in the lab, so I changed the code for the patio light. And I needed to replace the batteries and reset the X10 home control module so it would accept new timer programs. But even with all this set up correctly, the light did not turn off at dawn because the noisy circuit it is on rejects X10 signals from the lab circuit where the home control module is. I tried turning it on and off immediately through the home control program and even that did not work. This might be a good time to buy an Insteon home controller which uses RF and line signals to get the control signals across more reliably than X10.
Also this weekend very much enjoyed performance of Verdi's Requiem at the San Antonio Symphony with my friend. She had not been feeling well toward the end of the week, and was still not quite back to normal this weekend, seeming a bit withdrawn. But we had the traditional drink at home afterwards (when she inspected the wall and new fan). And she called twice and came over for a visit and lunch on Sunday. Though there were some rough edges in our interaction this weekend (she had gotten the crazy idea I might have stolen her identity and could be charging money in her name--apparently someone was doing that) it ended on a good note and we had much more interaction than on any weekend in months and more than the average Symphony weekend. We discussed terms of future cohabitation. She wanted to be informed if I take any home equity loans (I paid off my home mortgage last year), anything which could possibly cause me to lose my home "so she can be prepared." I told her I am constitutionally not disposed to home equity loans and do not intend to consider anything like that until retirement, and would be happy to let her know if I do. I am happy to pay the minimal extra interest required on my credit cards and zero percent credit offers as the price of living on my own terms and not putting my home ownership at any risk, even from such unexpected possibilities as losing my job. My friend is currently forswearing all credit, considering it all evil, but as for me, it's hard to run a castle without credit.
By some fluke, I had neglected to pay off one of my credit cards (the one that has a zero percent offer expiring this month...I had originally hoped to pay it off this month until the contemplating the extra remodeling costs) until Saturday, and the due date was Sunday. Perhaps I forgot about it because I was originally intended a full payoff after my April 6th payday. I got the minimum payment in electronically at 1pm on Saturday afternoon, and the website seems to say that it will be credited that very day even though it is a weekend day (but such payments don't show up in their accounting until the next business day). So I dodged an unexpected bullet. If I missed a payment date on one card I hardly use it might bring higher interest rates on all other cards, or at least that's the way it went before the recent credit reforms. If you do rely on credit, you need to keep up with it.
I also attached the front bezel for the A/C unit inside Lyndhurst, and programmed it for summer operation (87 degrees, 11am to 8pm, Energy Saver). Even with timer set the fan turns on occasionally at night to "sense" the temperature. I think if I didn't turn on Energy Saver, I wonder if the fan would be on all the time.
Even after much hammering with a rubber mallet and even a regular hammer, and bending with pliers, I could not get the exposed chassis of the A/C bent sufficiently to get the bezel on all-the-way. The contractors had bent the chassis during installation and for that reason couldn't push the A/C unit all the way into its own frame. As a result, even when the bezel is aligned with the control panel, the top back of the bezel is about 1/2 inch away from the places where it is supposed to clip on top. So I was unable to get it to clip on the top, and in order to attach the #6 stainless screws at the bottom, there has to be even more tilt of the front bottom into the unit and front top leaning out. So the whole bezel tilts away from the top about 1 inch. It doesn't look too bad, and as it is nevertheless squeezed onto the chassis very tightly and held with the two screws on the bottom, I believe it is very secure. The bezel is also serving it's engineered functions including covering the thermostat so it doesn't get triggered by tiny gusts of hot air, and directing cold air at the top In the final attachment (btw this process took over an hour) I cracked a bit of the bezel on the bottom. But the crack is not near the screws fortunately and the bezel is holding despite the small crack. I am glad to have gotten this job finally done (if not done well) after more than 12 months of putting it off. As warm weather is arriving now there was no more time to delay.
I mowed the back yard, mowing all around Lyndhurst and mowing down weeds around the tree. I left flowers that are growing around the tree.
I brought the spare clips from the soundproof wall construction and the spare camera back into Lyndhurst, along with the new 6 ft 375 lb ladder.
I removed the fluorescent bug light the electrician installed this week and changed it out with the Miracle LED light I had been pointing toward the patio. I then replaced the patio light with a Miracle LED bug light, so the patio is lit by diffuse yellow light. I adjusted both lights so that the entire back yard is lit, and actually the front of the patio is slightly darkened for better privacy. I had found that the CFL bug light was actually attracting bugs. Now I see the Miracle bulbs are attracting moths also, probably because the heat generates infrared, but since the LED bulbs produce far less heat, they should attract fewer moths. The key bit about bug lights (and most LED's) is that they do not emit blues and ultraviolet, which attract most flying insects including mosquitos.
On Saturday I downloaded the instructions for the Insteon switch that controls the patio light, and programmed it to accept X10 signals for on and off. On Sunday I tried to program my X10 home control program to turn the patio light on at dusk and off at dawn. Unfortunately, the code I had chosen was also the code used by the computer monitor in the lab, so I changed the code for the patio light. And I needed to replace the batteries and reset the X10 home control module so it would accept new timer programs. But even with all this set up correctly, the light did not turn off at dawn because the noisy circuit it is on rejects X10 signals from the lab circuit where the home control module is. I tried turning it on and off immediately through the home control program and even that did not work. This might be a good time to buy an Insteon home controller which uses RF and line signals to get the control signals across more reliably than X10.
Also this weekend very much enjoyed performance of Verdi's Requiem at the San Antonio Symphony with my friend. She had not been feeling well toward the end of the week, and was still not quite back to normal this weekend, seeming a bit withdrawn. But we had the traditional drink at home afterwards (when she inspected the wall and new fan). And she called twice and came over for a visit and lunch on Sunday. Though there were some rough edges in our interaction this weekend (she had gotten the crazy idea I might have stolen her identity and could be charging money in her name--apparently someone was doing that) it ended on a good note and we had much more interaction than on any weekend in months and more than the average Symphony weekend. We discussed terms of future cohabitation. She wanted to be informed if I take any home equity loans (I paid off my home mortgage last year), anything which could possibly cause me to lose my home "so she can be prepared." I told her I am constitutionally not disposed to home equity loans and do not intend to consider anything like that until retirement, and would be happy to let her know if I do. I am happy to pay the minimal extra interest required on my credit cards and zero percent credit offers as the price of living on my own terms and not putting my home ownership at any risk, even from such unexpected possibilities as losing my job. My friend is currently forswearing all credit, considering it all evil, but as for me, it's hard to run a castle without credit.
By some fluke, I had neglected to pay off one of my credit cards (the one that has a zero percent offer expiring this month...I had originally hoped to pay it off this month until the contemplating the extra remodeling costs) until Saturday, and the due date was Sunday. Perhaps I forgot about it because I was originally intended a full payoff after my April 6th payday. I got the minimum payment in electronically at 1pm on Saturday afternoon, and the website seems to say that it will be credited that very day even though it is a weekend day (but such payments don't show up in their accounting until the next business day). So I dodged an unexpected bullet. If I missed a payment date on one card I hardly use it might bring higher interest rates on all other cards, or at least that's the way it went before the recent credit reforms. If you do rely on credit, you need to keep up with it.
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