October 31st |
Hallowe'en. Great. We took
Chloe
to the
Bear dog park,
where we managed to get her to go through the short tunnel, once. We then went to Starbucks, where
we blagged some whipped cream for her, and walked home on a long circuitous route to see the dressed
up kids and decorated houses. Chloe was wearing her new coat, and people seemed to think it was a
costume, so maybe I need to find a Superman "S" to go on the back or something.
Now, I'd had to struggle to get it done up around her belly, which has been looking a little tubby
recently, but no big deal. In the evening, she was making noises breathing. She's been doing that
for a few days, and I even had a vet's appointment for Wednesday to check it out (both the vets I wanted
her to see were in surgery or out of the office until then), but she seemed a bit distressed. Great.
We packed everything up and took her to the emergency vet, where an X-ray showed that they couldn't see
her heart for the fluid in her chest cavity. Great, a
pleural effusion.
They shaved her sides, and used a catheter to drain out almost a litre of fluid. This was sent off
to be examined, but showed no sign of a bacterial infection.
She got to spend the night at the vet. |
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October 29th |
The clocks went back, so I got to spend some quality time adjusting clocks all
over the house, and losing an hour of daylight when I want it. I know that the poor children have
to walk to school in the dark in the winter if we don't change the clocks, but these days when their
parents drive them to school, all they're really doing is walking from the car to the door. I'm
pretty sure even 21st century children can manage that.
The most irritating thing is always my Toshiba PDA, that proudly tells me that it's changed the clock
all by itself. I'm so proud if it. The PCs are all set up with NTP, so I don't have to deal with
them all telling me how clever they are.
After breakfast, Vic and I headed off to
Apple Hill
to look at the leaves falling, eat apples and be merrie.
We weren't too late home, so managed to watch the last
MotoGP
race of the year. It was a bit of an anti-climax, to be honest. It was nice to see Bayliss win his
first MotoGP race, I'm OK with Hayden winning the championship, overjoyed that Pedrosa didn't do
better than 5th, but saddened that Rossi crashed out of this race. It was looking to be a really
good race, but I ended up doing interminable sums to see what could happen if this, that or the other
happened - none of which did. It was a bit of a procession to the line.
Anyways, after that, we were pretty wiped out, so had an early night. |
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October 28th |
After running some errands, I went to the
SPCA
for the day. Vic had some stuff to do with the car in the evening, so she dropped me and
Chloe
at the just opened
Bear dog park.
I say just, the grand opening was today, but I found out today that it's been
open all week. Nobody tells me anything. Anyway, Chloe played there for a bit, then we walked home,
it's about a mile. They have a few agility toys there - tunnels and suchlike. I managed to get her
to jump over the little jump, but she didn't want to go through the tunnels. She doesn't understand
what you want from her, and I'm not going to crawl through and drag her behind me.
In the evening, we watched
Battlestar Galactica ,
but I'm having an increasingly difficult task getting Vic enthused, as it's still dragging. We want
explosions and space battles, damnit! |
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October 27th |
I went to
the airfield
and bashed out a couple of circuits in the
Rans,
my last opportunity to do so after work this year. Unless I can skip out early, of course ;o) |
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October 25th |
In the 25+ mph winds, my next door neighbours' tree dumped one of it's big
branches on the front of his house. Of course, he's in San Diego, so Fred and I chopped the branches
up until we could drag it all into his front garden. Luckily, it looks like the only damage is a
few scrapes in the paint, and a few bent gutters. This is the same tree that dropped a branch a
couple of years ago, tearing a branch out of one of my trees. It's now looking like we'll have
to bring the rest of it down at some point, as it's getting weaker every time this happens.
Of course, I only thought to take a picture when I was half way through cutting branches to get
some weight off the roof. Doh :o) |
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October 23rd |
After work, I scurried off to
the airfield
and did two circuits in the
Rans
before it started to get dark. The winds were listed as "calm", which means that we should
use the default 15 runway, but there was a 172 doing circuits on 33. So, I taxied all the way
down to the threshold for 33, just in time for him to leave the circuit. As there was nobody
else about, I took off on 33, did a long left hand circuit and then joined on the crosswind
leg for 15. There was a
Piper Warrior
who joined the circuit at the same time as I did, but everything went fine, without problems.
I suddenly remembered that the clocks go back this weekend, so
this is my last week of being able to fly after work, bummer :o(
I looked at Jack's electric starter kit, but it's for a 582, so it won't fit. It's also a GPL kit,
and I've read some bad things about tolerances and cracked cases, but the Rotax kit doesn't look like
it'll fit, so maybe I'll shelve that idea... |
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October 22nd |
As
Chloe's
all better, I went to the
SPCA
today. There were 4 dog adoptions, which is always nice to see. We went home and watched
Battlestar Galactica ,
it's still a bit slow, but it looks like it should get going now. Some nice effects, especially
the whole warp jumping into the atmosphere thing :o) |
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October 21st |
Chloe
got me up at 3am, so I wasn't in any state to go to the
SPCA.
After a few hours' sleep, I went to
the airfield
and did a few circuits in the
Rans.
The wind was calm when I took off, but the last 2 landings were in a 3mph crosswind, and weren't
overly exciting, so maybe I'm getting back into the swing of things. There was a brief moment with
a
Piper Seneca
who didn't hear me on the radio, and joined the circuit in the wrong place, but I had him in sight
the whole time, it just made him jump :o)
I've been offered a deal on an electric starter for the plane - I just need to see if it's the
right one (it was bought for a 582, and I have a 447). I like the idea of an electric start,
even if it means rewiring everything :o) |
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October 20th |
I've been having a bunch of problems with my laptop, it crashes from time to
time for no obvious reason. I reseated everything I could, and that didn't help. I replaced the
memory (hey, an upgrade to 1Gb seemed like a good idea anyway), and that didn't help. My last try
was a new hard disc - a 120Gb, 5400rpm unit I picked up for $90 new. After several hours installing
things, it crashed again, so I've decided to go back to the original 30Gb, 5400rpm unit. I'll get
an external disc enclosure for the new disc - there are some really clever ones that you can use
without a laptop to dump all the pictures off your digital camera, so I'll probably look at something
like that :o) |
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October 19th |
Chloe
slept through the night, finally :o)
The
MotoGP
debate runs along, after the weekend's crashfest. We also saw
this
posted online. The mind boggles.
I spoke to Stephan about the
van,
it seems that they opened the crate with the engine in it to find the head was cracked, so we're
waiting for a new one to show up. We're hoping for something in the next week or so... |
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October 18th |
Chloe
had a restless night, but we didn't need to go out. Also, there are lumps in the garden that
could be picked up with the poop scoop, rather than being hosed off :o) |
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October 17th |
Today the
US population crossed the 300 million mark.
I wonder if that includes illegal immigrants, as, depending on who you listen to, there could be
between 20 and 30,000,000 of them. Stupid politicians.
Chloe
got me up again, but didn't even go out :o) |
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October 16th |
Chloe
got me up during the night, but I think it's more through habit and that she's figured that she can
than because she needed to go out. We'll see...
It's interesting to read some of the other
comments
about the weekend's
MotoGP
excitement :o) |
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October 15th |
Chloe
still got me up during the night, but she seems pretty much back to normal, personality-wise.
I think she's figured out that a lot of whining will get me up to let her out at any time of
night, so hopefully she'll be fully normal soon, so I can get a proper night of sleep.
During the day, I put the new fork seal in the
Hawk,
it went straight in without any sort of fuss. I then set about filling the fork with oil,
with it back on the bike, so I didn't have to worry about it falling over or anything silly.
The manual says 502ml of oil, leaving a 128mm air gap at the top. So, I put 502ml in, and got,
at the back of the fork (ie less than at a level point), 104mm. Even after bouncing the forks
a lot, I couldn't do any better than that, so I gave up and set the other fork (not just rebuilt
to 104mm - it lost a bit of oil when I fired the fork cap across the garage, chipping the paint
on the tank a while back. It wasn't until later on that I remembered the cartridge emulators...
they were still in the forks, and you'd usually measure the air gap without them. Doh.
In the evening, Vic came over and we watched the
MotoGP
race from Estoril. Egads, what a race! So much for team orders... one race to go, and it all
to play for :o) |
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October 14th |
As
Chloe
got me up a couple of times during the night, I decided against going to the
SPCA.
I thought that would give me a chance to catch up with some sleep, but I only managed to catch up
with some TiVo recordings. Oh well, every little helps :o) |
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October 13th |
We got up several times during the night, so despite the fact that she seemed
at lot better, first thing in the morning, I called the vet, and took
Chloe
in. They don't think there's anything actually wrong with her, but she's on a bland diet,
meaning rice, cottage cheese and boiled chicken. Several times a day. She thinks it's Xmas.
Of course, I didn't have any of the stuff at home, so I went shopping. I bought a 5lb bag of rice,
thinking that should be enough. I boiled up 2 cups, which looks like it'll be enough for the next
week, and stirred in some cottage cheese. I'm keeping the chicken separate, as I can use that as
treats on the few times a week she does something good. |
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October 12th |
After she got me up several times during the night,
Chloe
was stumbling around like a little old woman, but seemed just very tired. I figured a day of
sleep would do her some good, and I had to go to San Jose to see the boss. On the way home, I
dropped in at Kelly Towers for dinner, and to drop off some chocolate in exchange for Lift and
Garibaldi biscuits.
I got home pretty late, but Vic came over on her way home from work, cleared up the explosive
diarrhea again (sorry, dear) and fed Chloe. |
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October 11th |
After getting up several times during the night with
Chloe,
I cancelled a planned trip to San Jose. By the end of the day, she was seeing a bit better,
and running around the garden barking at flies again.
I decided to investigate my mailing / hosting problems, and found out at
dnsreport.com
that my domain registration had expired. I paid the bill, and magically everything started to
flow again :o) |
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October 10th |
I got up to find that
Chloe
had had explosive diarrhea during the night, and spent a while clearing that up. Joy. She was
obviously very upset about it, so I kept an eye on her all day. |
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October 9th |
I started having
ISP
problems again in the afternoon :o(
After work, I went to
the airfield
and looked at the wind there. There was the occasional crosswind gust, but it was basically
calm, so I took my time inspecting the
Rans
and went for a few circuits. The engine started a lot better than I expected it to, and the
plane flew really well now it's not so hot (it was around 100F last time I flew, nearly 3 months
ago, and it's around 80F now). A good time was had by all. My (4) landings weren't the best
ever, but they were all good enough to walk away from, so I was happy :o) |
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October 8th |
I went to
the airfield
with ideas about taking the
Rans
out, but there was a 5 mile an hour crosswind. As I've not flown for a while, I'm hoping to
get in a few landings with the wind calm, or at least down the runway, to get my confidence
back. So, I washed the plane instead, as it desperately needed it :o)
In the afternoon, Vic and I went for a little bicycle ride, which turned out being about 11
miles or so, on some of the trails that you can still get to - there's a bunch of building
going on, meaning that I can't get to a load of my favourite dirt trails :o(
In the evening, we rolled Vic up a
World of Warcraft
character, and got her to level 6 :o) |
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October 7th |
I went to
the airfield
to see what was going on - the AWOS was reporting that there was a temporary control tower
in operation.
There was
a little airport day,
the first. There wasn't an awful lot there, but hopefully next year it'll be a bigger deal.
In the evening, we caught up with
Battlestar Galactica ,
and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. |
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October 5th |
I didn't get to take the
Rans
out, but it was interesting listening to
the airfield
AWOS reporting everything was clear below 600 feet :o) |
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October 4th |
Finally, my
ISP
sent a guy out to replace the box on the roof. Now, the connection's staying up all
day without any problems. This means that not only can I get some work done, but also
I've managed to play a little
World of Warcraft...
I've got both my toons to level 47 :o)
In the evening,
South Park
had an episode about Warcraft, so Vic and I watched it. Other than a few mistaiks
(you can't kill millions of boar to go up levels, they stop giving XP when you're about
level 10, and Stan's Dad was wielding the magic sword, so it would have been soulbound)
it was pretty accurate :o)
Later in the night, it rained. Finally... the weather's been all screwed up recently,
as we've been waiting for the rain to come along. Maybe tomorrow I can try and get
some time in the
Rans
:o) |
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October 3rd |
With their 17th
MotoGP
Constructor's World Championship in the bag, and next season's new 800cc rules making it
obsolete, HRC has put the RC211V's innards on display for all - see it at
Gizmag. |
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October 2nd |
The
internet connection
was flaky again after 12:30, so I called them and suggested that it maybe wasn't the
power supply. They're going to look into it in a bit more detail. Excellent |
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October 1st |
As the
ISP
had sent me a new power adapter, I plugged it in. My connection's still very slow, so
I'll call them on the morrow and see if they can tweak it a little, or whether it needs
to be replaced. I'm leaning towards the latter, myself, but the former would be a much
quicker fix, so let's hope for that.
I did manage to stumble around in
World of Warcraft
for a little while, until the disconnects got too irritating. I'd also thought about flying,
but the early morning winds were gusting at 6mph, and they generally don't get better until
the late afternoon. |
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