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So long Mischief

Today we said goodbye to Mischief.  She was a sweet little kitty (although Simba might not have thought so).

Mischief would happily sit on the chairs, sofas, tables, generally wherever you wanted to sit, and swat at the dogs if they got too close.  She eventually learned to tolerate Nala’s affectionate licking, but Simba always kept his distance.

When Mischief demanded attention, you’d hear the most pitiful, sad, and dramatic meows coming from her.

Many years ago, Mischief overheard the vet telling Connie that Mischief was perfect.  Ever since then, Mischief always made sure that we knew she was perfect.

  • Mischief and Terror
    Mischief and Terror
  • Mischief and Terror
    Mischief and Terror
  • Happy New Year from the animals
    Happy New Year from the animals
  • Happy New Year!
    Happy New Year!
  • HNY 2016 Animals
  • Mah Animals
    Mah Animals
  • Mischief
    Mischief
  • Mischief
    Mischief

Rest easy, Mischief.  Now you can go tell everyone else how perfect you are.

Mischief the DX Cat, courtesy of The Noiseblankers.
Mischief the DX Cat, courtesy of The Noiseblankers.
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Work table storage

The indoor workbench (work table really) was in need of some vertical storage.  The table was starting to get cluttered with projects and parts and not many places to put them.  I also thought it would be nice to have some of the things I was always going into the closet for within easy reach.

Inside work table
Inside work table

I considered adding some shelves like I did for the closet but with the table being so deep (3′), I thought that would make reaching the shelves awkward.  Connie suggested getting some cheap bookshelves to make a hutch type thing.  Seemed like a pretty good idea (she often has good ideas like this), so I ended up buying some cheap inexpensive shelving units from Walmart: a 3-level cube shelf, and a three-shelf half-height book case.

Bookshelves
Bookshelves

Used some scraps of 1/4″ plywood as a back for the cube shelf (it only came with one cardboard square).  Secured the shelves to the table using screws that I put in from underneath.

Shelves attached to the table
Shelves attached to the table

Now I’ve got most of the things I reach for most within easy reach, and a little more space freed up in the closet.

Shelves loaded up
Shelves loaded up

Not quite sure what I’m going to do with the scanner yet.  I’ve got it sitting on the top of the shelves now.  It’s not something I use too frequently, so maybe I’ll just bring it down and plug it in as I need it.

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Kicking up the coffee grinding

Kicked up my coffee bean grinding yet another notch with my drill press.

Drill press
Drill press

Set the drill press to its slowest speed

Drill press at its lowest speed setting (motor spindle on the right)
Drill press at its lowest speed setting (motor spindle on the right)
Nut driver attached to the drill press
Nut driver attached

You can probably see where this is going.

Ready to grind the coffee beans
Ready to grind

Takes about 40 seconds to grind the entire hopper full of beans.  Tried to get some video, but for some reason my phone only recorded the audio.

Quite effective. The metal spindle and ceramic grinder parts gets pretty hot after grinding though and takes a few minutes to cool down enough to handle.

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Generator transfer switch installed

Got a transfer switch for the generator installed last week.  One of our neighbours’ son is a licensed electrician and was willing to install one for us.  He came by with a 10 circuit switch and a few hours later it was installed next to the main breaker panel.

  • Generator transfer switch
    Generator transfer switch
  • Generator transfer switch
    Generator transfer switch
  • Transfer switch generator plug
    Transfer switch generator plug

Thirty feet of 10 gauge 220V cable is just long enough to run from the transfer switch to the front porch where the generator will end up sitting if it needs to be deployed.

The switch is arranged in two banks each with three 15A and two 20A circuits.  A watt meter shows the load on each bank.  The instructions for the switch say to keep the load on each bank within 1 kW of each other.

Ran a quick test of the switch over the weekend and it works great.  We’re all ready for the next long power outage now.

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Galaxy S7 X-ray

Radiograph of my Galaxy S7.  80 kVp, 2.8 mAs, Canon Aero DR detector.

Galaxy S7 x-ray
Galaxy S7 x-ray

The large rectangular gray block is the battery.  Superimposed on the battery, the NFC and wireless charging coils are easily seen.  Volume buttons are on the upper left side, and the power button is on the right side. The rear camera is the square object in the upper middle.  The selfie camera is the white donut shaped object just above and to the right of the rear camera.  There’s the micro-USB port at the bottom middle, and the headphone jack to the left of the USB port.