Recent stuff

This was a relatively productive weekend. I finished the installation of the new garage door opener and door monitoring systems. They work very well, and the new opener is eerily silent compared to the old one. Tonight I picked up a matching unit to replace the remaining unit, I will do that during my time off after Xmas. I just have to figure out a way to make the new ones play nice with the existing high security remote receivers I had installed to control the old, non-rolling code Genie openers. While the new openers respond to a simple contact closure across the remote terminals, the new wall controls are multi-function affair, with a display that shows settings, diagnostic messages, time and temperature(!) and can control features the opener has. When activated by the contact closure (essentially a short across the two terminals on the wall control, the resulting interruption of power to the wall control resets the clock and makes it show a 'Power Restored' message. I think replacing a dead short with a certain amount of resistance will do the trick, that's an experiment for the evenings.

I finally was able to winterize the trailer after the sudden cold snap froze up everything. The only casualty I was able to find is a leak at the water pump housing, an area vulnerable to damage by freezing. The pump is still functional, and rebuild parts are commonly available. These pressure pumps need to be tuned up every few years anyway due to wear and tear, so this will be a chance to do the periodic maintenance and also change the way the pump is mounted to make it quieter in operation. As it stand, every time the pump runs it growls, rattles and stutters as the water lines and the pump itself vibrate against the floor. I have a few tasks and mods to make to our home on the road to make it that much more comfortable, reliable, fun and awesome. We want to make more use of it than we have been.

This evening I went over to my friend's place and finished off most of the wiring project in the renovated living room. All that remains is putting up a couple fixtures outside and wiring the whole room into the main panel, taking it off a temporary feed. Now the living room can be made livable again, and decorated for the holidays. Much happiness and awe at concepts such as dual voltage outlets and four-way switches making life a lot more convenient for their family as well.

I've been finally taking all the backup drives and disks and loading the data onto the server drives. I was pleased to find some stuff I thought was lost. Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday night looking at pictures from way back, some at events we totally forgot about. Good times! Lots of friends in those shots that we have lost touch with, which is sad.

envirobear has tagged me for the 'one happy thing per day for each of eight days' meme, or whatever it's called. I'll start tomorrow. Not that I didnt have anything to be happy about the last few days.

Have a great week, everyone!