Back at work after the annual KMC week off between Christmas and New Years. KMC is the first place I’ve had this sort of stretch of time off without something else to get done in a long time…not off on vacation but just at home for the holiday.
Woke up to a rosy red dawn over the pond this morning.
Quiet one this year as Alyssa is on deployment and its just the two of us and the in-laws. Went for a goat hike (SLR pictures coming soon) before Christmas and got various work around the house done but otherwise was a quiet time. No gift exchanges in the house this year…neither of us really needed anything and we’re trying to budget wisely.
Got a bit of sandbox programming done (and pushed to github). Hoping to keep the momentum up and get this tool working rather than rehashing the same bits of code (with improvements) again and again.
Looking at improving my python programming as well. Not my favorite language but (as with Java) an important language to have in the toolbox in the modern world. This stuff can provide a nice side line when tool building is a bit much so should keep rolling over the next few weeks.
In the process of staining the big plywood reindeer that sometimes stands out in front of the porch at Christmas time and then coating it in spar urethane. Staining is done, sealing is a longer process as the spar urethane takes some time to cure between coats. Expecting that this will take the balance of the week if not a bit longer to wrap up.
Still plenty of sorting to do as can be seen from the other half of the back basement…
Once the work table is clear of reindeer parts I’m going to see if I can reassemble to partially broken monitor from the office and perhaps use it on the VR machine (which currently has two really old monitors attached) to play some of the steam games I’ve got loaded there.
I moved that machine to clear room around the heavy bag but it is going to have to move again to get it close enough to the open area in front of the TV for the VR to be usable. Got to get to that soon so that I can try out doom VR…had intended to try that over Christmas but wound up doing more practical things instead.
Sometime between early morning and mid-afternoon on New Years day our light pole toppled over. The cause remains a mystery at this point as the pole is part way up the driveway and a pretty stout piece of metal. It had been bumped in the fall by the guy who clears our leaves, but was still firmly standing. Currently the steel pole is torn loose from the cement footing and only vertical because I have two six foot steel bars propping it up.
I expect that I’ll have to dig out the footing i the spring and buy a replacement post. A quick online search found only black and white posts so perhaps we’ll have to live with a color mismatch…we’ll see come spring. Perhaps they’ll have stocked up on additional color options at that point.
We had some real snow New Year’s eve but by the time I went to bed it had mostly melted away.
Bought a new snow blower but haven’t needed it yet this year. I’m expecting that an Ariens should last me at least as long as the Craftsman is replaced 🙂
