February

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February 28th	We went to breakfast early, and I picked up some 18ga wire to start working on the YSR, then took the switches apart to clean and lubricate them and map out how they work. I cut a load of wire out of the loom, and started wiring up the switch. So far I have headlights, tail light and the horn working, but that's a lot better than nothing. I sat and ranted about 3 separate power inputs into the switchgear, then wired 2 of them together. It looks like 3 of the 4 indicator bulbs are burned out, so I'll need to fix that before going any further with them. Ooh goody, I get to track down 6v bulbs :o( In the afternoon, we went to the airfield for a barbecue at the hangar.

February 27th	The central locking in the van's started playing up, so I took a look at it. It thinks the key's in the ignition, from what I can tell, so it's not working. Basically the ignition needs to loosen up a little so that everything falls back into place when you take the key out, rather than sticking. I started looking at the YSR, and decided to just build a new wiring loom - the stock one is overly complex for what it does, and there's obviously something wrong somewhere. Of course, I don't have any 18ga wire, so I'll have to get some at some point to make any progress. As the afternoon brightened up considerably, in the evening we barbecued. Vince came over to eat on his way back from putting new fuel tanks in Mike's plane at the airfield.

February 26th	Sara from Stephan's Autohaus called to say the van's ready, so at lunch time we went and picked it up. After work, Vince came over and we went out for dinner. Tilly went berserk with joy when he pulled up in his truck, then barked at him like a mad thing when he came in. Stupid dog. The solar panels passed the 10,000KWh generated mark today.

February 25th	Seeing as it's stopped raining, the anemometer for the weather station started working again. It'll stop again soon enough, the weather's supposed to be crappy for the weekend. Again.

February 23rd	It's started raining again, and been pretty windy, so the anemometer from the weather station stopped working again :o( My World of Warcraft subscription finally expired, so I'll have to think of other things to do with my spare time.

February 21st	Again, it was supposed to rain, and Vic was working. I started the day playing World of Warcraft, and got my druid to level 80. Hmmm... just 1 lowbie, my hunter left :o). When Vic got home from work, we went out to dinner with a couple of her friends.

February 20th	As I was tired from a long day yesterday, and because it was supposed to rain, I started the day playing World of Warcraft, and got my druid to level 79. Vic went and borrowed Bill's green waste bin, then went out to do some shopping. I took this as instructions, so I cut the grass, then filled the rest of the bin with a branch from the marked for death tree in the back garden. Vic got home as I was finishing up, and pointed out that the bin was for her old hay that the guinea pigs won't eat. So I went and swapped a full green waste bin for Fred's half full (empty?) one so she could fill it. Truly, I am a genius. If the afternoon, my final tax form showed up, so I finished up my taxes then found that the e-file code for the feds didn't work. I was going to paper file for California, as they charge you $20 to make their life easier, so I paper filed for the feds too. As I didn't have enough envelopes, we went and got some, posted them off and met Vince for dinner.

February 19th	I went to San Francisco for some training. I'd intended to take the DRZ, but there was a 75% chance of rain there, so I ended up taking the Subaru. It didn't rain. Still, while killing time waiting for the traffic to calm down, I joined the poker game for a while. I ended up winning back some of the money I've previously lost to this group :o) About 2.5 hours later (not bad in thinning traffic) I got home and Tilly went berserk when she'd got off the sofa to see who it was. Apparently she'd been all by herself for weeks, or about 2 hours in human time.

February 18th	I decided to take a look at my taxes, even though I'm still waiting for the W2 from my former employers (they promise it's in the post. Yeah, sure, whatever). I was a little perturbed to see how big the update was - 18Gb? I then watched it happen in a few minutes, so methinks they don't mean Kbytes.

February 17th	After work, I spent some time in World of Warcraft, and got my druid to level 78.

February 15th	Today was Presidents' Day, when the Americans celebrate the birth of George Washington by going shopping. As I had the day off, I'd thought about going flying, but I've been feeling tired for a while. I did take a look at the YSR, concluding that the oil leak was actually from the carb (I hope, rather than the crank cases) and it's petrol and 2 stroke oil - the petrol will have evaporated. I've turned off the petrol tap, and decided to see if it happens again. I got around to rotating the wheels on the Subaru, that's well overdue. Other than that, it was just a matter of catching up on paperwork for flying and suchlike.

February 14th	After wasting part of the morning playing World of Warcraft, we went to the airfield. We reinstalled the compass on the Flightstar then took it out for an hour's flight. When we got home, I took Tilly over to Freedom Field and flung the ball until she was exhausted. Vince more or less followed me home, and we went out to get dinner. We had intended going to the Chinese buffet place, but it was heaving with people - apparently when you want a romantic evening these days, the first place that jumps into your mind is an all you can eat place. And then they wonder why there's so much obesity. So, we went and got a burger instead. When we got home, we watched Watchmen. Good movie, scratched DVD.

February 13th	I wasted most of the morning playing World of Warcraft, but I did get out into the garden to pull some more branches off the shrub that's been marked for death. In the afternoon, I rebuilt the compass for the Flightstar, we'll see if it holds this time. I took a look at the YSR to see that it's leaking oil again. Bugger. In the evening, while Vic watched Julie & Julia, I played some more Warcraft, getting my death kniggit up to level 80. Hmmm... now, should I start working on my druid?

February 12th	We went and met Scott for lunch - the first time I've seen him this year. Hmmm. I spoke to Stephan at Stephan's Autohaus about the van. It has a new torque converter, and one of the bushings, and he's aiming to drive it around for a while to try and break it. I suggested he try up and down hills, as that seems to have killed it previously. In the evening, we watched District 9 and enjoyed it.

February 11th	In the evening, we watched Terminator Salvation. Robots, explosions, big flying things, what's not to like? Sadly, the disc is a little too scratched, so it jumps at one point. I'll take it back.

February 10th	In the evening, we watched Land of the Lost, and it played most of the way through without problems despite being scratched. It'll have to go back, but we laughed at it enough to justify buying it in the first place :o)

February 9th	Blockbuster Video are slowly going out of business, and they're having a 3 pre-viewed movies for $20 sale, so we went and bought 6 movies. Let's hope that they're not too screwed up by previous viewers, eh?

February 8th	We met Vince for dinner, then headed home so Vic could dose the piggies.

February 7th	I spent a few hours in the morning playing World of Warcraft getting my death kniggit up to level 79, and >400 blacksmithing. It's cool to be able to make some useful armour - better than some of the stuff that my warrior is wearing. I knocked some up and sent it through, the rest went on the auction house to try and make back the money I've spent on materials. While Vic got ready to go to a function at the SPCA, I cut the grass, then took another lump off the tree thing in the back garden to fill the green waste bin. When she got back, we went and had lunch on the way to the airfield, and we were just up the road when Vince called to hassle me about not flying. We got there and the guys were all there. The Flightstar was already out, as Ken was shuffling things around in the hangar. We took off and headed over to Far West Lake, then back south until it was starting to get cold. We headed back to the airfield, and landed (pretty well) shortly before the sun went down. All in all a good day.

February 6th	It was raining again, so I spent a chunk of the day playing World of Warcraft and got my death kniggit up to level 78. We've decided to pull out a tree thing in the back garden, so I took a big branch off that to start the process between rain showers. I also took a look at the YSR and discovered that the headlights are getting ~2 volts when turned on, which would suggest a ground fault to me. I'll have to take it all apart to figure out what's gone wrong, but at least I have an idea what's wrong now. I'm thinking it could well be part of the turn signal flasher relay, as the indicators don't flash at all.

February 5th	It was raining, so after work while Vic went to pick up the guinea pigs from getting spayed at the vet's, I played some World of Warcraft and got my death kniggit up to level 77.

February 4th	The guy came and replaced the temperature sensor in the hot tub, so that's now coming up to temperature again. And it'll now rain until July.

February 2nd	I spoke to Stephan about the van, but he's still waiting to hear from the gearbox guy about the torque converter. I pointed out that the van had suddenly started to run better when we were on our trip, and that at the time we thought it was finally run in, but now I'm thinking that whatever was overtightened or was dragging finally wore itself down. He's said that's an interesting data point, so we'll see if that changes any part of the diagnosis.

February 1st	As Vic got in late last night, we got to unload the Subaru today. The glider on the roof was a good excuse for not going to the gym, anyway. I got the electrickery bill, and we're having to pay for electrickery for the first time since March. Stupid fog.