Winter Concert

We went to the Mark Morris Choir Winter Concert tonight.  This is James singing in the mixed advanced group.  It was nice listening to the Christmas songs, all the groups sounded great!  It was a good test for the new camera, I took a bunch of pictures and a couple of videos.

I have zoomed up a little closer for this picture.

I think this is zoomed up almost all the way, I am sure liking this camera!

Here are James and Vera after the concert, we really enjoyed it!

A busy week!

This plane showed up Thursday, a Black Friday special.  It has a brushless motor, speed control and three servos for Fifty dollars, how wrong could I go with that?  I also discovered there was still a leak around the bathroom vent fan.  We had dental cleanings this morning so it was afternoon before I could work on it.  I pulled the vent fan clear out and found lots of moisture in the insulation, I pulled it out and threw it away.  Then mopped up some of the water and decided to leave it out overnight to let things dry out.

Friday morning I had an appointment with my eye doctor to go over the results of the visual field test I took on Monday, everything was good and the eye pressures were lower than last time.  We stopped at Safeway for a few things, filled up with gas and headed home.  When I turned off at Castle Rock to pick up the mail the Blazer started running rough, I looked down and zero oil pressure!  I discovered the line to the filter had blown off.  I gave Bob a call and luckily he was home and able to tow us home, Thank You, Bob!  After putting the line back on, cleaning things up, filling it with oil, I started it up, it sounded OK and had 60 PSI of oil pressure which is about normal.  The leak had slowed down and it was looking much drier above the ceiling, I spent a bunch of time with my head up in there, then decided to give it another day of drying.

Today is was raining pretty good and there was only a couple of drips from the leak.  I can see a couple of spots where it is still wet, the forecast is for fairly dry weather Monday, so I am holding off doing anything until then.  I went out and worked on the new Extra 300 fitting the prop and spinner.  I put the spinner that came with it on and it vibrates like crazy when I checked the current draw.  I went in and ordered a different brand.  Later, I was rummaging around in my drawers and I found this nice aluminum one.  Of course I couldn't find an adapter to fit the 8 x 1.25 millimeter prop shaft, so I went in and ordered that also.   I went back out and finished up the little purple plane this evening and it is ready to go.  Once the spinner adapter gets here, the Extra will be ready for a test flight.

Up on the Roof Top!

I got a chance to use the new camera first thing today.  I was picking up some fir limbs off the parking area when I noticed this jay in a cedar tree.  I got the camera and took several pictures from different angles, for this one I ended up over by Dianne and Steve's.

As I was walking back, I noticed all the debris on the driveway, along with all the rain it blew pretty good.

 We developed a small leak around the bathroom vent fan yesterday.  When the sun came out I was really anxious to get up on the roof and repair it.  I cleaned it up first and then blew off the rest of the roof while it dried out.

James came up to help me with the jobs I wanted to do today.  I had him pick up the limbs off the lawn then mulch the leaves on it.

While James was doing that, I patched the leak and put Moss Out on the roof.

James took a break from mowing to help me get the tools off the roof, put the ladder away and then helped get the scaffolding up on the deck so I could finish cleaning the gutters.

I am showing James the app on my phone that lets me take pictures with the new camera, I used it to take this picture.  It was a good day, with James' help, I got most of the things I wanted to do finished.

Vera and I took a drive later to look at the high water.  This picture was taken at Lions Pride Park, the river had already started going down, but we could see where it had been up by the buildings at the fairgrounds.

New Camera

I had an early eye exam this morning, one quick stop a Lowe's and then we headed home because I was expecting my new camera today.  After it came, I got it charged a little and took this picture.

I was anxious to try the zoom on the Nikon P900, this is the tree top with the red mark over it in the first picture.  I was pretty happy with the results, now I can hardly wait for a clear night to try some pictures of the moon.  I got an app downloaded onto my phone so I can control the zoom and take pictures with the camera without touching it.

I took a picture of my old camera (now Vera's) and the new one together.  The new one is quite a bit bigger and heavier.

James came up this evening, stocked me up with pellets and visited for a while.

Road Trip

We headed North this morning, on the way to the Madrigal Dinner last night we had picked up some supplies that Marie needed.

After unloading and visiting Marie, I called Barry and he was feeling good enough to have visitors, so we went on to Olympia.  He was doing good, but it looks uncomfortable the way his arm has to be strapped down.  We didn't stay too long, not wanting to tire him out.  From there we went to Costco via the hobby shop.  I knew I shouldn't have stopped there!

The clerk was flying one of these around for some customers and it flew so good I ended up with one.   We found several things we wanted at Costco and then headed home.

It didn't take me long to find a charged battery, bind the INDUCTRiX quad to the transmitter and come in to show Vera how well it flies.

I got the wings finished up on the new Extra 300 this evening, now I am just waiting for the motor to get here.  We did a little of everything today and it was very enjoyable.

Madrigal Dinner

This is the Mark Morris Mixed Advanced Choir during one of their songs tonight at the Madrigal dinner.  The dinner is put on by the Mark Morris and RA Long choirs and there was lots of good performances during the dinner.

 At the front of the hall there was a raised stage where the Royal Court was seated and the kids put on skits.  The court jester was on stage when I took this picture.

This is Michelle, James and Mik after the dinner, James looked really good in his outfit.  I talked to Barry earlier today and he got to come home.

Barry

This is the two helicopters and the quad that I have been working on the last couple of weeks.  I got all three flying this week.  The Red Bull Bo-105's problem turned out to be the servo after all.  The first new servo I put in was bad, because when I put the new control board in it did the same thing.  The old board plus the second new servo (luckily I had bought two!) and it was back flying.

The little Mcpx has been suffering from old batteries, so I got new batteries, after programming it into the new transmitter, now it is flying great again.  I took the quadcopter apart a while back to try a new controller in it, that didn't work out as the controller was too big.  When I went to put it back together, I seemed to have lost the screws.  The new ones showed up this week, I finished assembling it, got it programmed into a new transmitter and test flew it.

I have been working on my new Extra 300 this week, I got the elevator and rudder hinged and the linkages all hooked up.  Today I added some bracing to the fuselage where the leading edge will rest and installed tubes for the antennas.

This is Barry ready for his shoulder replacement surgery this morning.  Mona sent me the picture and we have been texting all day to keep up with how Barry was doing.  He came through it fine and I talked to him this evening, he sounded good but tired.  He hopes to get out tomorrow.