![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Summer Solstice
Wednesday, June 21st, 2023 09:22 pmWelcome to the first day of Astronomical Summer! It got up to 90F on this insanely long day, and, even though I left it off all night and all day until 7PM, the wifi repeater for the back room refused to work!
I had to put it in the freezer, to really cool it down, and now it's out, but the condensation's gotta dry out of it!
So, needless to say, I'm writing this entry from the studio computer... which I had to set up to be able to process photos from my phone, first!
--<>--
Last night, I set up the new monitor in here, and today, a chair I ordered was delivered as well, so this is more or less the full studio setup!..
That chair back is not very comfortable, so I'm gonna remove it and just use it as a stool... which should be fine.
Here's the machine, with everything hooked into it.
You can see I have a USB hub, velcroed to the left side, with the WIFI adapter on it.
The new backup drive is hooked up here, but it's easy, with the machine on this shelf, to disconnect it and plug in thumb drives and whatnot.
I renamed the machine, "Computey," and put big googly eyes on him.
I spent a while last night, down in the shop, creating a custom stand for the new monitor, in order to conserve desk space, and keep it down low... out of the way of Computey!
Using some 1X4, and scrap moulding strips, I designed it to hold the front, under the bezel, but go a bit higher in the back here.
And it works great!
The monitor has air vents on top, but also on the bottom under it's, "feet," so I drilled large holes to allow air to still flow into those vents.
I put footings on the underside, as you can see above, and yes... the whole thing is simply nailed together.
Normally I use screws, but this design was so simple, nails worked better!
The footings allow air to get underneath (there are also air holes on the front there), but also allows the wires for the mouse and keyboard to get underneath.
And they'll protect the monitor from spilled beer, if I'm ever dumb enough to put a beer can on the desktop... which I definitely AM!
The keyboard also has a slim profile so, there's a decent amount of real estate left on the desktop for the mike and the MIDI keyboard controller.
This desk goes back to the 1920s, by the way, and came to us by way of my maternal grandfather, who was still using it in his office when he retired in the 1950s.
I used this desk... in this location of this room... to make my first ping pong recordings back in the early 1990s.
------------{=0=}------------
I had set up the new chair after work this evening, and figured it was too hot to bother mowing the lawn.
But then I could not get the WIFI repeater to stay online, and it was still light out, so I said, fuck it, and mowed the back yard!
We have had no rain for several weeks so, ONLY the areas reached by my sprinklers were green and growing... but it was getting pretty shaggy so I was glad to take care of this tonight.
--<>--
This was the first mow since I'd filled in all the ruts, and back then, the barbecue grass mat still had bricks holding it down.
So tonight it was GLORIOUS to just mow straight back and forth over that whole area without having to lift the mower over the ruts, and skirt around the damn barbecue site!
Nobody has mowed over that barbecue site since the Truman Administration!
And it was equally glorious to mow straight over the site of the juniper tree!
Here's a take of things after I was done!
As you can see, the new grass has been growing like gangbusters, and will be completely integrated into the rest of the lawn in another week or two!
Second shot here, of the area where the worst ruts ran... almost but not quite returned to normal!
And a last shot of how the hill is coming along, with new grass growing around and inside the mulberry stump!
Yes, I will need clippers to keep that grass inside the stump down, but it's worth it because prior to this, that stump looked so hideous!
Now it looks like an illustration in a fantasy novel or something!
--<>--
I forgot to take pics of the birch site by the back room, but it's coming along just as well.
And then after I was done, I put the irrigation system back together, and it all fired up at 9PM like usual!
------------{=0=}------------
I only put down the first seed in the ruts two weeks ago!
Free seed is just so much faster than grass seed mat!
But once that grass seed mat is fully established, I can move that sprinkler closer to the hill, and move the other one back, toward the house to hit other areas that are still waiting.
Of course, it would help if we had any actual rain, but you know... rain is only for ruining plans, not for helping things!
------------{=0=}------------
But, in the final analysis... the yard is in a good place, here on the Summer Solstice!
Spring began with me getting Dad's TV out of the old shed, and unearthing the ruins of the barbecue... with the brush pile, mulberry trees, jungle gym & juniper, and that tractor shed, all still very big issues to tackle.
We've come a LONG way since then!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I had to put it in the freezer, to really cool it down, and now it's out, but the condensation's gotta dry out of it!
So, needless to say, I'm writing this entry from the studio computer... which I had to set up to be able to process photos from my phone, first!
Last night, I set up the new monitor in here, and today, a chair I ordered was delivered as well, so this is more or less the full studio setup!..
That chair back is not very comfortable, so I'm gonna remove it and just use it as a stool... which should be fine.
Here's the machine, with everything hooked into it.
You can see I have a USB hub, velcroed to the left side, with the WIFI adapter on it.
The new backup drive is hooked up here, but it's easy, with the machine on this shelf, to disconnect it and plug in thumb drives and whatnot.
I renamed the machine, "Computey," and put big googly eyes on him.
I spent a while last night, down in the shop, creating a custom stand for the new monitor, in order to conserve desk space, and keep it down low... out of the way of Computey!
Using some 1X4, and scrap moulding strips, I designed it to hold the front, under the bezel, but go a bit higher in the back here.
And it works great!
The monitor has air vents on top, but also on the bottom under it's, "feet," so I drilled large holes to allow air to still flow into those vents.
I put footings on the underside, as you can see above, and yes... the whole thing is simply nailed together.
Normally I use screws, but this design was so simple, nails worked better!
The footings allow air to get underneath (there are also air holes on the front there), but also allows the wires for the mouse and keyboard to get underneath.
And they'll protect the monitor from spilled beer, if I'm ever dumb enough to put a beer can on the desktop... which I definitely AM!
The keyboard also has a slim profile so, there's a decent amount of real estate left on the desktop for the mike and the MIDI keyboard controller.
This desk goes back to the 1920s, by the way, and came to us by way of my maternal grandfather, who was still using it in his office when he retired in the 1950s.
I used this desk... in this location of this room... to make my first ping pong recordings back in the early 1990s.
I had set up the new chair after work this evening, and figured it was too hot to bother mowing the lawn.
But then I could not get the WIFI repeater to stay online, and it was still light out, so I said, fuck it, and mowed the back yard!
We have had no rain for several weeks so, ONLY the areas reached by my sprinklers were green and growing... but it was getting pretty shaggy so I was glad to take care of this tonight.
This was the first mow since I'd filled in all the ruts, and back then, the barbecue grass mat still had bricks holding it down.
So tonight it was GLORIOUS to just mow straight back and forth over that whole area without having to lift the mower over the ruts, and skirt around the damn barbecue site!
Nobody has mowed over that barbecue site since the Truman Administration!
And it was equally glorious to mow straight over the site of the juniper tree!
Here's a take of things after I was done!
As you can see, the new grass has been growing like gangbusters, and will be completely integrated into the rest of the lawn in another week or two!
Second shot here, of the area where the worst ruts ran... almost but not quite returned to normal!
And a last shot of how the hill is coming along, with new grass growing around and inside the mulberry stump!
Yes, I will need clippers to keep that grass inside the stump down, but it's worth it because prior to this, that stump looked so hideous!
Now it looks like an illustration in a fantasy novel or something!
I forgot to take pics of the birch site by the back room, but it's coming along just as well.
And then after I was done, I put the irrigation system back together, and it all fired up at 9PM like usual!
I only put down the first seed in the ruts two weeks ago!
Free seed is just so much faster than grass seed mat!
But once that grass seed mat is fully established, I can move that sprinkler closer to the hill, and move the other one back, toward the house to hit other areas that are still waiting.
Of course, it would help if we had any actual rain, but you know... rain is only for ruining plans, not for helping things!
But, in the final analysis... the yard is in a good place, here on the Summer Solstice!
Spring began with me getting Dad's TV out of the old shed, and unearthing the ruins of the barbecue... with the brush pile, mulberry trees, jungle gym & juniper, and that tractor shed, all still very big issues to tackle.
We've come a LONG way since then!
°¦}
