Tom's Diary

07:30 AM: I’m up.  Feeling somewhat woozy; probably from all those   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009     leftovers I consumed yesterday.

10:10 AM: Categorized and renamed the title sections of numerous posts over the past couple of hours.  Later today, I’ll publish a list of all updated posts.

11:40 AM: Just got up from a nap.  Back to post categorizing.

02:00 PM: Just got home from Mom’s doctors appointment.  All is well.

03:00 PM: I just did another hour of more post categorizing on this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

04:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.  However, we’ll have to catch the last fifteen minutes of it tonight, when it airs on Soap Net, because my DVR ran out of space.

04:30 PM: We skimmed through the programs recorded on the DVR, and discarded all the Dr. Phil episodes that pertain to the Dr. Phil family.  [Emmy] already saw them, and I didn’t care to see them.

05:15 PM: Worked the   Christmas lighting, 2009 project. 

09:00 PM: Categorized and de-duped titles of numerous posts in   this   blog. 

09:50 PM: Posted the list of   post revisions for today.

11:05 PM: Watched the 2009-11-24 episode of Dr. Phil, called:   The Biggest Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making.  Nothing too much to say about this really, except that Dr. Phil showed too little understanding for the woman who stole a neighbor’s dog  so she wouldn’t have to continue dealing with its relentless barking and peeing on her property.  Of course, dog napping was wrong.  But in her defense, the lady felt she’d been pushed into a corner by the legal system, which the judge in her case himself said, had failed her.  There was no legal remedy for the noise except for her to move.  I’ve been in similar situations with noisy neighbors and in my experience, the legal system favors the noisy perpetrators more than the folks who must live with the racket.  Dr. Phil’s position echoed the societal view, in my opinion.

12:00 AM: Bedtime.  Catch you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Christmas lighting, 2009 project
• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-30
• LED String Fails: 2009-11-30
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-30

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in this blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, appearance, indexing, and search-ability:

Tom Hesley

05:20 PM: One blue LED string failed today.  The light output shrunk; they got dimmer and dimmer. Indeed, part of the   Christmas lighting, 2009 effort,  is the periodic repair of failed strings, since I haven’t a big enough bank account to just buy new every time one goes bad. 

I checked all bulbs and they appear to be fine. The problem seems to be in the string itself therefore, and not the bulbs, though it could be that several bulbs are de-generating at the same rate and thus, replacing only one at a time would not appreciably brighten the string back up to its normal levels. 

This string contains two series legs of lights; only one is dim, while those in the other glow at full brightness.  I thought I’d take a bulb from the good leg, and plug it into each socket in the bad side.  But I discovered that the polarity of the bulbs in the good leg is reversed from that in the bad.  So the bulbs are not interchangeable across legs; at least, not in this particular LED light set.  LEDs, unlike incandescent bulbs, are polarity-sensitive.  Plus, they’re easily damaged by applying backward voltage at full power.  I learned this the hard way last year, when I blew out all the bulbs in a “now-deceased” LED set from the   Christmas lighting, 2008   project.

Indeed, many of these strings have series resisters.  So I got excited while recalling this, because in such a string, the resister going bad would cause this same, dimming behavior.  I reasoned that replacing the resister would fix them.  However, this particular string has no visible resisters, unless they’re in the plug, or unless the wire itself serves the same current-limiting function. 

Investigating further.  Stand by.

06:00 PM: Found out that one or more of the light bulbs in this string have built-in resisters.  Appears to be a 20-ohm.  However, not all the bulbs have these however, which further complicates the repair of these strings. 

06:30 PM: I started pulling bulbs and checking them by running them individually from my bench power supply (set max current to 50 MA, and the output voltage to around two volts).  I got three or four bulbs into the bad leg when I found the two bad ones.  They did glow a little.  That is, they weren’t completely burned out.  But their light output, as well as their current draw, was much lower than other bulbs in the string.  It turns out that changing these solved the problem, and both legs of the string are again glowing at equal, and full brightness.   Now, we’re ready for Santa to come down the chimney. 

Tom Hesley 

Related Posts

• Christmas lighting, 2009
• Today’s Business: 2009-11-30

Log

11:30 AM: Dispensed morning meds.

02:15 PM: Just got back from Mom’s doctors appointment.  All is well, and he authorized a small change in her meds.  As she did before entering the nursing facility in September, she’ll move the dosing time for her mag oxide from the supper-time slot to the morning slot.

02:20 PM: Dispensed lunch time meds.

06:00 PM: Dispensed evening meds.

11:15 PM: Dispensed bedtime meds.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-30

Today’s Tasks

• Dispensing Mom’s insulin and meds
• Cat duty
• Showering
• Starting all pending laundry

Log

10:45 AM: I’m up.  

12:00 PM: Sister Jojo, her daughter and oldest son, and sister Mary Ann’s oldest daughter just arrived.  Jojo and I worked the   Christmas lighting, 2009 project.

01:15 PM: We enjoyed pizza for lunch on this gorgeous afternoon; temperatures have reached into the low 60s and the sun is shining brightly.  I might do a little work on the   wheelchair ramp project,   while the weather’s this nice.

03:35 PM: Okay, I think all the work for the   wheelchair ramp project   for the winter is done.  The anti-skid surface has been installed as well as the lips on each side, and anything else can probably wait until next spring once the weather breaks.

05:30 PM: Worked the   Christmas lighting, 2009 project   some more.  Now, it’s shower and nap time.

07:30 PM: I’m up again and all clean.  Now, I’m heading for the kitchen to devour more of those   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009    leftovers, that just won’t seem to go away.

08:15 PM: Done with dinner.  Well, one small container of cranberry sauce is now empty.    Oh yes, and I kicked a bottle of diet Pepsi too.  We’re making some headway on the leftovers.  But tomorrow, we’ll have to freeze some of them. 

10:05 PM: Just finished categorizing another 100 posts in the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  There are now 1100 left to do.

11:35 PM: Posted today’s list of post revisions   here. 

12:55 AM: Time for bed.  Catch you tomorrow.  Do take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-29
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-29
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Today, I either added or modified the following posts in this blog for improved categorization, clarity, appearance, indexing, and search-ability:

Tom Hesley

Sister Jojo went to Hometown market for Mom and purchased the following items:

• Whole wheat bread (1 loaf)
• A&W root beer (2 liters)

Total cost: $3.10

Tom Hesley

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• Today’s Business: 2009-11-29

Log

09:00 AM: She covered her breakfast with 10 units of log insulin. 

10:50 AM: She took her NPH, long-acting insulin just now.

10:55 AM: Reminding readers that her glucometer is out of order at present.  We should receive a replacement tomorrow or Tuesday. 

12:30 PM: Morning meds dispensed.

02:05 PM: She covered a large piece of pizza for lunch, with 10 units of log insulin. 

06:00 PM: Afternoon meds dispensed.

08:30 PM: Mom took 14 units of log insulin to cover her supper.

10:06 PM: Evening and night meds have been dispensed. 

10:16 PM: Just a reminder that Mom has an appointment with her PCP tomorrow afternoon, at 1:00.  Transportation to and from has been arranged.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-29

Log

10:15 AM: I’m up.  [Tad] just called and I’ll probably be on the phone with him for a half-hour or so.  That’s how long we talk typically. He has scheduled a WPSBC alumni board meeting for December 9th, at 7:00 PM, and I put this on my calendar because I must prepare my treasurers reports for each of these gatherings.  He and [Morra] are on their way to Johnstown to see [Tad's] mom, and so that [Tad] can go deer hunting the day after tomorrow.

12:30 PM: Just added a few more tidbits to the    Snuff Memories   post, created yesterday.

01:50 PM: [Emmy] just finished giving me a wonderful back massage and combing my hair.  Now, she’s off for a nap and I’ll content myself writing stuff here.

03:25 PM: Added the   1984: Year in Review   post.

05:00 PM: I noticed today that I    earned my first writing dollar. 

06:00 PM: [Emmy] and I ate more leftovers from our   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009.

07:45 PM: We watched yesterday’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

10:34 PM: Added posts for each day in November, 2009, that list all the URLs for the posts that were either added or revised on that day.  I did this to give people a more detailed account of my daily activities on the blogs, and to encourage search engines to index more of my documents.  Click   here   to see a list of these new posts.

11:55 PM: Posted the list of   post revisions for today.

12:40 AM: I just spent the past couple hours categorizing and re-writing duplicate titles in posts in   this   blog, and now, I’m ready for bed.  *yawn*  So take care, and I’ll again write at you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

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• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-28
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Today, I either added or modified the following posts in this blog for improved clarity, appearance, indexing, and search-ability:

Tom Hesley