As [...]]]> After a brief hiatus of 15 years, I picked up a new soldiering iron and I am actually building hardware again. I’m slowly rebuilding my lab from scratch.  The new house is going to come in handy because I actually want space for a workbench and some decent magnifying glasses, and the usual crap.

As a reflexive problem, I figured out my first new project, because I need a lab, because of the new house, oh whatever…

I’m going to try my hand at building a wireless internet thermostat for the SF house.
As it turns out, good thermostats are more complicated than one would expect.  We want hysteresis in the system so it isn’t firing and shutting down the heating/cooling units, plus, with multi-stage equipment (small and large furnace burners and small and large air conditioning) we want to intelligently maximize the use of the small (eco-friendly) stage, but kick on the big stage when the energy differential between the desired and current temperatures is high.

I just want to be able to turn off the damn heat when I’m out of the house for a few days.. or turn it on when I’m driving up from the Peninsula so it’s not freezing when I get there.

Once I’m done with that one, I’m thinking radio controlled helicopter with a .38 caliber handgun.

Last night, around midnight, this happened… it sounded like an explosion out back.

I had just called the dogs in 5 second earlier, they were going nuts, guess they knew the tree was giving way.

Tree guy came out this morning, then pointed at the tree out [...]]]> Not a good day to be a tree in my life.

Last night, around midnight, this happened… it sounded like an explosion out back.

I had just called the dogs in 5 second earlier, they were going nuts, guess they knew the tree was giving way.

Tree guy came out this morning, then pointed at the tree out front and asked me when I was going to stop fooling myself and remove the zombie oak next to the driveway. He’s right.

Drove up to SF to talk to the tree guys up there that I was scheduled to meet. Removing a blighted Willow in the back yard and dealing with the Sycamore up front and the neighbor’s tree that is trying to kill it.

The tree guy said, “Wow, what a beautiful Acacia!” (it’s 70 years old and at least 70 feet tall)… stares at it a second and says… “oh fuck. pardon my french… take a look at that.” I look and notice that about 30 feet up, there’s an 18 inch crack where one of the main branches is about to break.  If it goes, it will take out the back yard in 4 neighborhood houses.  We can’t cut just one limb, it looks like the tree won’t really be salvageable (horribly off balance), so it is probably going to get murdered too.

In case you weren’t aware, I happen to love trees, that was a main deciding factor for both houses, and both of them are getting denuded.

If you are a tree, for your own sake, stay away from me today.

Todo:

Someone suggested this route:

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Seems like a nice idea, explore earthquake country…

Parkfield is the most active part of the San Andreas fault. Almost constant tremors and quakes. I may skip the Parkfield loop if it’s too hot…

Unfortunately, most of the users seem to be from Oregon, so if you’re a Californian, get busy!  I’ve posted my favorites/recent trips.

This is the route I’m considering –