A nice Sunset

8-27-2024

I started out this week with a doctor appointment.  It went fine and the doctor was happy with the results.  Then after a stop at Safeway we went home and after lunch I started looking at the dishwasher which was not pumping out.  It turned out there was a bad air gap fitting.

After doing some checking online it turned out Lowe's had them in stock so we made another trip to Longview.  I installed it and tested it a couple of times and it seems to be pumping out OK.

8-29-2024

We had another visit from James today, I got this great picture of Vera and him.

8-31-2024

We had a nice visit from Bob and Cathy this afternoon.  Cathy had made blueberry muffins, she brought us some and they are delicious!

I installed a new compass readout in the van today and I asked Vera if she wanted to go for a ride to check it out.  We went up the hill and around Studebaker Spur 2, as we came to the Studebaker road there was this awesome sunset so I turned around and came back to take this picture.

As we went down the Spirit Lake Hwy to town I had Vera take this picture of the compass.  It uses GPS and reads out direction, altitude, speed, time and tilt angle.  I am not going 87 as I have not set it up and it is reading in kilometers.  We tried a couple of other pictures of the sunset but none were as good as that first one.

Happy Friday, James, Game Camera and Flying

 

This is the picture Laury sent me Friday titled "Happy Friday" she is so darn cute!

James came by after getting things arranged for school.  We had a great time talking about school, sports and he gave Vera a lesson on Google AI.

I went and got the game camera this afternoon.  It had been out for four months and had more deer pictures than I have ever gotten at other locations.  This is the first deer picture I got this time.

Of course I got myself mowing several times.  I also got most of the neighbors and neighborhood kids on this side of the driveway.

There was only one coyote that came by a couple of times.

The deer were pretty active at night.

This pair of deer must have found something they like right in front of the camera.

This is the last deer picture I got this time.

I got in six flights this afternoon with the helicopter and two of my Vapors.

It is pretty hard to fly and take pictures with a phone but I did manage to get one of the Night Vapor.  It has lights on the nose, tail and blinking ones on the wingtips for flying at night.  On Thursday I got in seven flights, two with a vapor and five with two helicopters.

Smart Car's New Home

8-19-2024 

I had a call today from the lady that bought the Smart Car.  She loves it and sent me this picture of it hooked to their motor home.  They have friends who want to get a Smart Car also and she wanted to know where I had the base plate installation done at.  I had to do a little research to find their contact information and then I texted it to her.

When we got the van part of the chrome strip on the step was broken and it always bugged me so I ordered a new one.  It was the package that FedEx left at the wrong house.

Here I am prying the old step off, it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected.

When I got the step off I had a little clean up to do.

This is the new step.

Installing the new one turned out to be really easy.  The forward clips slide right into their holes and the back ones just took a light tap with the palm of my hand to seat them.

James came up in the afternoon and we had a good visit talking about his up coming school year.  When he left he asked for a couple of Vera's last batch of cocoa mounds to take to Mik and Michelle.  I got in a couple of helicopter flights this evening.

8-20-2024

Today I puttered in the shop and van.  I had gotten a new tool box a few days ago and I decided to use it in the van, it worked much better than the one I had in there before.  UPS delivered one today that didn't work out for what I had planned but turned out to be perfect for my smaller batteries.  My face is healing great but sure gets itchy at times.  I made a few more flights with the new helicopter during the day, I am really enjoying it.

Jordon's Legos

 

Debbie sent me a nice picture of Jordon working on the Lego Jurassic Park scene we got him for his birthday.  It looks pretty complicated with lots of parts.

It has been a busy week for me, I had a physical therapy appointment at 7AM Tuesday morning followed by a dermatology appointment in the afternoon.  I ended up with another exercise to do each day.  After the appointment we went to breakfast at the Pancake House which is always good.  We then went up to meet Michelle at Cascade and give her some pointers on the drones she will be using in classes next year.  She showed us the changes she is making to her storage area.  After we were done there we decided to head home as there was lots of time to kill before the dermatology appointment.  I had made the dermatology appointment to have them look at a spot on my nose.  It turned out to be a Basal cell cancer so I had him look at a couple of other spots and they were the same thing so I ended up going home with a bunch of Band-Aids on my face after he removed all three.  I didn't feel that great the next couple of days so I didn't do much.  Friday I did some messing around with helicopters and figured out I had a bad GPS unit in the FW-450 so I changed it.  Today we made a run to Safeway and Dairy Queen.  After putting away the groceries I went out and calibrated the FW-450 to match its new GPS.  Then I put in a flight with it and it flew great!  After Papa Pete's pizza for dinner I went out and put in a couple of flights with the new little heli that James flew the other day.

Over 20 Years

 

James is launching his Mini Max on April 30th 2004.

James came up to visit today so I showed him my new helicopter.  I put the battery in it and took off to show him how well it handles the wind.  I asked him if he wanted to try it and he flew it all over the place and did a few things I have not tried.  He flew it until the low battery alarm came on and then landed it.  It was quite a surprise to realize that he has been flying radio control planes for over 20 years.  Afterwards we went into the house and had a good time reminiscing about our flying experiences with Vera.

Jordon is Seven

 

Today was Jordon's seventh birthday.  The families got together at Papa Pete's to celebrate this evening at six.  Jordon got some nice presents and we all had our favorite Papa Pete's pizza.  There was lots of visiting, laughter and story telling, it was a great party.

Earlier in the day the package that was missing Friday showed up.  The guy that it was delivered to contacted FedEx twice and never got a reply so he decided to deliver it himself.  He was really nice and I showed him some of my planes.  It turns out he has tried several drones without any luck.  I volunteered to help him if he ever wanted to try it again.

Thank You Michelle, she took this picture because she noticed I had not taken any and sent it to me.

Flying at Faro Field

When I got up to do my exercises this morning I looked out and noticed the sunrise so I got my phone and took several pictures.  This one turned out to be my favorite.  Then I got my exercise mat and started them.

I had made arrangements with Sonny on Facebook to try and join him flying today.  We arrived just after him and followed him into the field.  I took this picture as Sonny was making the first flight of the day.  We were both flying Cessnas today. 

We put the pop up over the tail gate again today and it worked great again.  This time we had tent stakes and a hammer to secure it better than last time.  I was going to fly my Electra Streak today but I discovered I had no screws to hold the wing on so it got loaded back up.  Those are Tina's dogs under the table and over by Vera.  Tina lives on the property and is a member of the club.  She didn't fly today but mowed the runway.

I am taking the Skylane off for my last flight of the day.  I ended up making 4 flights and had a great time visiting with Sonny and Tina.  We went home via the Chehalis Harbor Freight so I  could pick up a cyclone to catch the dust before my shop vac.  When we got home the package coming by FedEx was not there so I checked my email and it said delivered to a locked gated community with a picture of some place I have never seen before.  I filed complaints with Amazon, FedEx and the seller so we will see what happens.  Then I went out and assembled the cyclone and it turns out I need one more adapter for the hose connection so I made an order for it to Amazon.  By then it was time for the massagers and I settled in for the night in front of the computer.  It turned into quite a busy day.

A New Routine

 My new routine is going in and doing the exercises the physical therapist gave me first thing in the morning before I do anything else.  Then I get dressed, have breakfast and start the day.  The exercises are helping, yesterday Vera noticed I was walking normally instead of limping.  We haven't done much since my last post mainly stuck pretty close to home.

8-3-2024

I took this picture while I was in the shop organizing and labeling, I need to get a couple more of this size.

8-5-2024

This is my new helicopter, a model of the Bell Jet Ranger.  It may look like it is a long way off, but it is actually pretty close as it is small.  I am amazed at how well it flies, it has a 6 axis gyro and uses a barometer to control altitude.  All of that is in a body about 11 inches long nose to tail.

8-6-2024

Today the foot massager and two leg massagers showed up.  I got them to see if they would help get the swelling out of my left leg.  One of our UPS drivers that is on her feet a lot did a post on Facebook about hers that Vera pointed out to me.  I decided to try them and they do a great job.  The leg massagers have a mode called Lift that works great for moving the swelling up out of my calf where most of it occurs.

8-8-2024

Vera saw this picture that her niece Veda had painted.  It really reminded Vera of the border collie that she had grown up with.  Vera's dad got it when Vera was 2 years old and it didn't die until a couple of years after Vera left home.  The original was a large painting but when Vera expressed and interest in it she painted a smaller one for Vera.  It now is displayed with a picture of Vera that Veda painted when we were in Arizona for my 80th birthday.

James came up this afternoon and we had a great time visiting and talking about our past adventures.

I went out to the shop after dinner to try and program the controller for my new helicopter I am building.  It did not go well and I headed in to watch the video again.  On the way I went by the elderberry I noticed was wilted yesterday and had watered.  It looked better and then I noticed this deer.  I started talking to it and it never ran off.  It was still in the same spot when I went into the house.  It is sure nice to be walking more like normal again.  I should be able to show the therapist some improvement at my next visit in a week or so as I will do the exercises until they tell me to stop.