Asberry.org

Author: aron

  • Xterra got new shoes!

    So I didn’t realize but the tires on the Xterra were really old and the fact that I would need to replace one means that I need to replace them all. I hate having mismatched tires and told myself when I could afford to do so, I’d always replace all 4. I didn’t go top end, I actually went for the $107 tires, but by the time that you add $20 for road hazard, $20 for lifetime maintenance, mounting, balancing, TPMS, disposal & environmental fees and of course tax, it’s $643 out the door. But tires are the most important safety feature on the car, at least according to Phish.

    Also today I got around to freezing the ground beef from Sam’s club. I got 90/10 which is leaner than I like but it was like 10 cents more than 80/20 and talked myself into it. Gotta remember that the freezer isn’t a permanent solution and it needs to be used within a year.

    And lastly, I’ve solidified the litter box situation with the cats and put the litter robot in the closet where the old litter box was. They seem to have taken to it after I got rid of the ants (don’t ask) and we’ll monitor the use and compliance:)

  • Sunday was not a Funday…

    Well I needed steps and hadn’t peopled all weekend so I went to church today and then went to see mom. On the way home, I decided to go to the mall and get some steps. But on the way there I ran over something and got a flat. I actually had to read the manual (which was oddly enough in the car) to figure out how to lower the spare. The same spare which came with the vehicle when I bought it 14 years ago. Yes, it was flat.

    But here’s the thing, I manged to pull into the parking garage to assess the flat, so I was actually in the shade meaning it was actually only 97 when changing the tire. The walk home wasn’t very fun but because I had 3 water bottles from my trips to the gym, I had water. So I walked to the house, jumped into the coldest shower I could draw and threw on some shorts, grabbed the truck, fired up the air compressor and went and got the spare and a lug nut to size the impact socket.

    Back to the house and filled up the spare, grabbed the jack, wheel chock and impact gun, drove back, made super quick work of the flat, came home, grabbed the bike and went and retrieved the Xterra. Life is good today

  • 5k Friday & Computer Woes

    It’s been a rough week at work and I felt like pushing a little harder so I did a 5k at the gym today, or more appropriately I walked 6200 steps at the gym today which is my best approximation of 3.1 miles. It still takes me 50 minutes which is a bit off of my best time of 18:20 but that was 35 years ago.

    Decided to put in the 2TB (drive? chip?) non-ram memory in the computer and reformat. While the BIOS seems to find the drive just fine, Windows 10 doesn’t. Really? I felt like it was back in the 90’s and trying to install NT 4.0. So I booted with the new chip seated to the old drive, it saw it just fine so now I need a driver for the Windows 10 Pro install to see it, grrrrr.

    Work is killing me, the Ross job didn’t pan out so I’m stuck for now. I’m beginning to see some desperation in the company, it makes me sad. But that’s why I got the degree and I’m not one to abandon team-mates but I’m also not one that will take a paycheck I don’t earn. It’s time to find the next gig but I’ll still be there for the crew I’ve been with for a decade. Not looking to burn bridges in this act.

  • New Tank Ordered

    I bit the bullet and bought a new tank for the truck. I had Sandy pick up the old one and because the new truck is a crew cab, there’s just less room from the front wall of the bed to the wheel rise. This tank will give me 60 gallons but I loose the toolbox and pump. But since it’s diesel I don’t need the pump and can let the fuel gravity feed from the upper tank to the truck tank.

    So the idea here is going to be to tie into the auxiliary panel in the cab so that (in theory) I should be able to pull over, push a button, and watch the onboard fuel tank fill up. But I’m looking at solenoids and the standard 3/8 NTP only allows for a .6 GPM flow, it looks like the 1/2 offers 4.6 which would be bare minimum.

  • Haircut Day

    I had a coupon for Great Clips that expires tomorrow. And, considering that it’s 109 in the shade, time for a haircut. The coupon is $10 off so $7 and I still paid $20 but most of it went for a tip which makes me happy.

  • Rain on a Sunday

    Life is good, water washes dirt away and makes new, according to STP circa 1992… I got caught in a downpour but not made of sugar…

  • On My Own

    So for better or worse, Sandy is leaving for her new job today and I become a bachelor for two months. I’m not sure this is a good idea but the money will be good and hopefully there will be a trip to visit her.

    In the mean time it’ll give me some introspective time and time to get that Linux certification. Also it’s time to start strength training and I’ll have time to do that. Here’s hoping I don’t get too used to being on my own!!!

  • Animal Issues and Birthday Party

    TGIF BTW. So the morning started out early when Sandy informed me that our racoon trap was doing double duty and was acting as a possum trap. Cute little guy but not very friendly.

    So we let him go and sent him on his way. Then, on my way to the gym, I ran over a squirrel… I was not happy about it but he was suicidal so there wasn’t anything I could have done. And when a 4 ton truck rolls over your head it’s pretty instant. But on my way home I saw that a buzzard was having a fresh meal on me. Circle of life yada yada…

    Then the evenings entertainment was Hanna’s birthday at Park Place. Always good to catch up and hang out with the extended family.

    We finished off the evening by stopping to visit mom and Ron before Sandy takes off for the new job tomorrow. Long day but lots of fun.

  • Endless Entertainment

    While I love all animals, I’m currently living with two cats. The dogs will come when I have property. In any case I was sitting in my office and I hear a din from the kitchen, I heard Sandy say something to the cats and then some crashing. As I got up to see what the issue was, a blur blew by my legs on the way into the bedroom, Sandy was trying to catch her breath from laughing and I realized the cat had gotten tangled up in a bag and was blindly running through the house.

    She finally came to rest on the cat tree where we were finally able to cut the bag away from her and freed here from the most traumatic experience of her life. It’s okay Sammy, we still love you:)

  • Computer Upgrade Time

    My development rig lost 16GB of ram, it’s so super rare for RAM to go bad but after moving all the 8 DIMMS around, I figured out which pair is causing the issue. So it’s time to replace a couple of DIMMs to get back to 64GB and while I’m at it, let’s go ahead and put in a TPM chip so we’re ready for Windows 11 and (while the patient is open) let’s upgrade the hard drive to a 2TB Samsung PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD

    We live in an amazing time that these just show up the next day. I’ve installed the RAM and I found out they now apparently have LEDs on the memory, I have no idea why but at least they modules are the same as the others. More unneeded lights sigh…

    Digging out the Windows 10 Pro installation media and will start clean over the weekend so when Monday comes there will be a bunch of re-installations but should be screaming fast.