Monday, March 12, 2012

Ronda’s Surgery Is Tomorrow At 7:30am

We leave the house very early tomorrow morning for Ronda’s surgery. As some of you may know she is having bariatric bypass surgery to help her lose weight. She passed all of the rigorous testing and preparations and today did the “cleanse” part to prepare for tomorrow.

The surgery we are told takes about an hour and she will be in recovery for up to 3 hours after. She should be out of the hospital by this Friday, we hope! Then she has to stay home up to two weeks recovering and after that she should be able to resume pretty much normal activity however eating will be very different for her for the rest of her life.

We haven’t scheduled a trip for the end of March yet, I put that on hold until she knows what she wants to do. I can wait until she is ready, until she is I’ll work on the rig and get it ready.

I’ll write an update tomorrow, until then have a great night!   

Friday, March 9, 2012

RV House Batteries

Ya know, back in November of 2010 I blogged about buying new batteries. I waited until Spring of 2011 and during the whole winter the batteries I was told needed replacing were holding up as they should. After 4 weeks they would be down maybe 10% to 15% tops which from my reading is the norm so I left them alone and they worked fine through the 2011 season.

Here it is 2012 and they still seem fine, the water level holds firm and they only need topping off mid-season. So I’m going to again see how they will hold up this year. I think I’ll buy new ones this Fall so I don’t push my luck.

Just thinking out loud… have a great weekend everybody!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Scott’s RV Comes Through!

I just made an appointment with Scott’s RV, brand new RV tires from BF Goodrich $975.00 installed out the door. This includes using the best old tire to replace the current spare. Considering Champion quoted me $1,500 for Chinese tires last Fall this is great news!

The RV goes in this weekend for new shoes! Whoohoo! I’m not crazy about spending $1,000.00 but from the blogs I read we’re getting off lucky! I need to get the roof cleaned professionally, no way my back is going to handle that so that’s the next thing to save for. Thank God I filled the gas tank, we’re good for our first few trips until I have to worry about that again, and by then it will be much higher than the $3.89 I paid.

The wife is going in next week for her surgery so we’re not sure yet when our first trip is going to be. Typically we head out on my birthday for our first trip at the end of March but this year we aren’t sure. It depends on how well she recovers, I told her I’ll do everything, she can just rest in the rig, we’ll see how it goes.

Have a great day everybody!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Play Mass Effect 3, Watch HDTV & Remote Control Network

All on 4 screens run off of one computer. Unreal and this sucker is 4 years old!! Amazing what can be done when you know what to throw at something. This things raw CPU output is equal to a brand new i7-3820. It may not have the memory bandwidth a machine with the 3820 may have but at 32gigs (I upgraded today) of Quad channel memory it does pretty durn good!

The MSI ATI 6950 with 2 gigs of memory ain’t the fastest video card but quad monitor support or the ability to play one game on all 4 monitors… AWESOME!!!

I’m not a gamer but I figure why not see what this machine can do so I downloaded Mass Effect 3, started that on one screen, kicked on some HDTV on the next screen and remote controlled several servers on the last two monitors so 4 monitors going full tilt. With 2 SSD drives in RAID 0 this thing is butter smooth and insane fast.

I’m in ADD heaven!!!! Smile with tongue out

Monday, March 5, 2012

I Forgot – High Oil Prices Means High Tire Prices!!

We decided last year to wait until this Spring to replace the 4 rear tires. I just got a new quote and it’s almost $400.00 more than last year for the same tires. I told him the date codes better be from this year if I have to hand out that much more money! I don’t think I’ll get that lucky. I also priced Goodyear RV tires, holy Toledo $500.00 each for 19.5’s?!?!?

This is going to be a very expensive year for RV’ing… Disappointed smile

Saturday, March 3, 2012

RV Update & Gas Rant

I went up to the RV today to check for mice, fill up the tank and check all the systems out. I found no traces of mice at all for this year which is fantastic. Everything fired up and worked great. The roof really really needs to be cleaned, the chalk lines are embarrassing and disgusting. Here is Route 20 going East, road conditions were pretty good but the wind was between 20 and 35mph making the drive interesting.

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I drove my usual 18 or so total miles to make sure all moisture is out of the exhaust and the genny got a real good workout. Since the gas station is 2 blocks from storage I could fill it up and know the tank is full for our first trip of the year. The total came to $61.00, considering the tank was showing over 3/4 full it really hurt to see that 15.6 gallons still made it into the tank. The same amount of gas 2 weeks ago would have cost almost $10.00 less.  Disappointed smile

Beginning political rant… if you like or love Obama you may want to stop here..

We have to completely re-think where we are going to go this year if the gas prices continue on this path. The energy boss in our wonderful administration of hope and change has stated publicly that he has no issue with gas prices reaching parity with Europe. Our President clearly has no interest in lower gas prices considering his response to the pipeline and his fear of going against his base by drilling more here. 3 years of study wasn’t long enough but 4 failed solar companies being fast tracked through for loan guarantees costing the tax payer billions is A’OK… maybe I missed something in math class but this crap just doesn’t add up. The President actually stated if people kept their tires inflated we could save just as much oil as could be pumped here, he is either stupid or thinks we are.

For those that think I have an agenda against Obama, take a good long look at what he’s done. NOT what he brags about in campaign speeches because while he is right that US oil production is up, it’s NOT because of him. President Clinton and Bush before him are why production is up now as screwed up as that is but that’s another post. President Obama tried very hard to get that increase in production STOPPED. Don’t believe me, I invite you to do the leg work and find out the truth for yourself. It’s on the Government’s own websites and Obama’s position on energy is out there for everybody to read and hear. This is one campaign promise he kept and people love him for it, even as they are going broke filling their gas tanks but hey, it’s Bush’s fault folks. Back when I blogged daily about politics I used to vent about Bush pretty heavily so don’t think I’m hard on Obama just because he is from a different party. BOTH parties stink, I’m sick of them.

Back to our energy Czar, gas prices in Europe have been high for decades and those economies have adjusted over time for those prices, ours most definitely has not. I make good money and these prices are killing me, imagine how somebody making $8.00 an hour feels, or somebody on the same fixed income they were on where gas was $1.80 a gallon. Our President talking about solar, wind, algae and electric cars with a lousy range of 35 to 45 miles does that person no good. Where do these electric cars get plugged in Mr. Obama? COAL FIRED OUTLETS for Petes sakes! The very same Coal President Obama has said very clearly he wants to put out of business and nobody asks him about it, where the hell is the media?? The Government forcing a car company to build a car that costs tens upon tens of thousands more to build than they can sell it for doesn’t help anybody except during speeches in front of the UAW. By the way, production of the Volt, you know, the car that Obama brags is selling great was halted for a month or two causing the loss of 1,300 jobs because the Volt is selling like shit and they can’t cook the books on it, great job! Who would’a thunk it?

The car company bailouts worked right? Ask the non-union workers that lost their jobs by the thousands that question. The difference between what the public is told and what really happened is vile and disgusting and it sickens me that the media gives this President a pass so their agenda of 4 more years can happen.

Gas is projected into the $5.00 to $8.00 per gallon range this summer yet in some places like Florida it’s already $6.00. I hate to think Obama is being tough on Iran to spur higher gas prices so he can further his "green energy program", because his stance is exactly why prices are going up. His stance with Israel is weak sauce yet without reaching out to them he is pushing hard against Iran while telling Israel to back off from doing anything. President Obama says he is the most pro Israel President in history, was he called out on that lie? No, again, do just a tad of research and you’ll find Obama has not been an Israeli ally but he knows that people believe him when he talks, even when he openly lies he knows people will believe it anyway.

We have a President that voted present for nearly everything prior to becoming President, he refused to take a stance and we gave him the keys to the oval office. He blames Bush for every single thing that goes wrong and says he inherited the bad economy. Funny thing though, this President VOTED YAY for the bail out & stimulus packages, why couldn’t he just vote present for that one ‘eh? The weakened mortgage rules passed by Democrats (and Obama!!) that helped bring our economy to its knees and considering the Democrats had charge of much of the economy since they took power in 2006 means he needs to look at himself and his fellow Democrats that had power during the same period that he blamed every thing on Bush for. Does he think we don’t understand how things work, wait, he’s right, it seems most don’t!

President Bush warned in 2001 that Democrats weakening the mortgage rules will have a devastating effect on the economy. Yet he is blamed for it. What have the Republicans done? Much of the same damn thing and since they did nothing to stop the new rules from going into law they share as much of the blame in my view. Then again we don’t have a Republican President going from country to country apologizing for every single thing the US does and we don’t have a Republican President blaming the previous administration for every single thing that is occurring now and we don’t have a Republican President bowing to other world leaders in the manner they consider to be subservient in their eyes.

I am against Obama because a community organizer does not a President make. A Chicago yes man does not a President make. A Senator with barely a record does not a President make and President Obama has spent over 3 years proving why we need to get him out of office because if he is this bad the first 4 years imagine how bad it will be when he doesn’t have to worry about running for office again in 4 years.

You think the checkbook is on fire now? He’ll have a bonfire going on and Obamacare will be the kindling. Do some research on how the Obamacare healthcare plan is tuning up cost wise, very scary stuff. My Dad doesn’t understand why his medical and prescriptions have gone up so much and I can’t say anything because he loves Obama dearly, the man walks on water so anything I say falls on deaf ears.

I need to go have some coffee, I have a headache and ranting about Obamacare would take pages.. Have a good weekend everybody.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Losing Followers

4 gone in 2 weeks, wow talking about computers that boring? Don’t answer that, my wife just said yes.. mean woman…

I don’t think I ever stopped following anybody… Nyah-Nyah

On the RV front I was sick this past weekend, that is going to cost me about 30 cents per gallon more when I fill up the RV this weekend. So, about 22 bucks extra to fill it, nuts. If I wait until the weekend after, could be up yet another 30 cents or 44 bucks more, INSANE.

But hey, we don’t need to drill here or put in the pipeline, Algae is going to save the day… Disappointed smile My God in heaven above…

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

CPU’s Installed, Drastic Difference In Performance

Well, by some miracle the USPS thought they were lost but they appeared at our house today! Apparently they tried to deliver them to a house in Roselle yesterday and the good folks at that house called the postal person who didn’t check the address properly back before they could leave.

Thank goodness for people being home and alert! Hooray!

Here are the Intel E5450 Quad Core Xeon’s installed. I didn’t take a picture of the Arctic Silver #5 that I applied but I did take a picture of the heat sinks installed. The seller of the heat sink was right, it was brand new! The CPU’s work perfectly even though #2 is missing 1 capacitor. I have been stress testing the computer now for over an hour, tomorrow I’ll run a 48 hour burn in and if it passes that test it should be good to go long term.

The system booted up properly and scored an overall Windows Performance score of 7.7, which is fantastic considering it started out before the upgrades at 5.9. The difference is HUGE. Not too shabby for a 4 year old computer I threw parts at! Smile with tongue out 

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Huge heat sinks that are passive and do a great job. I could have gone with Xeon X5460’s but they are 120 watt’s each and have a rating that wouldn’t have gotten me much more performance for the money but they would dissipate A LOT more heat.

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Pre-upgrade the system scored overall 5.9 (it uses lowest component score)

Processor – 6.6

Memory  – 6.6

Desktop Graphics – 6.8

Gaming graphics – 6.8

Primary hard disk – 5.9New_Win_Score

New video card installed…

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