Kelcey Brackett

Yesterday I helped my son build an AM radio out of a few things from around the house plus one diode. He was pretty excited about it. I think the next thing I will suggest we build is a speaker.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for super simple electronics projects?

Well both of the cars are back in full working order. The older car was close to a toss up on whether to repair or replace, but repair won out by a hair.

So of course with the cars dealt with, something else has decided to jump off a cliff. Not a vehicle this time, no this time something that keeps my sanity mostly stable. My Sony Playstation3 suddenly stopped working last night. Now I know this might not seem like that big a deal to some. Well, this device really handles most of our entertainment around here. We don’t subscribe to cable television, we do however watch a number of shows and movies using Netflix, Hulu, and rented Blu-Ray discs. The Sony Playstation is how all of those things make it to our television. The other, much more important, feature of the Playstation is of course, games. This is the part that is going to cause me the most grief until a replacement can be found. Having just purchased a new game, I am more than a little irritated at the timing of this failure.

Oh well, I will be scouring Craigslist, E-Bay, and the local pawn shops for awhile I guess.

Our “new” car has returned to us in full working order. There was some problem involving moisture and the firing of spark plugs. The dealership that we purchased the car from was very apologetic and helpful. They not only addressed the issue free of charge, which was nice since our 30-day warranty was for 50% not 100%, they also loaned us a car to use while they worked on the issue. Brian, Bob, and Dave over at Uptown Motors in Muscatine are great to work with and have a really nice selection of pre-owned cars.

The other car is a little more of a problem, to be expected since it has 245,000+ miles on it and is over 12 years old. My 1998 Toyota Rav4 is not dead though. Mike down at Curry’s Auto Inc is taking care of it right now. It may seem weird to spend a little over $1200.00 to work on a car of this age and miles, but considering that I haven’t had a car payment for the past 8 years and the only other big issues I have had were less than $500 each so I am okay with this expense, although the timing is not ideal. I am hoping to have it back tomorrow at the latest from what they tell me and I am expecting it to run quite a bit better. It seems that 1 or 2 of the 4 cylinders might not have been firing for some time now and well the exhaust was working on getting louder for some time now.

Now we just need to teach Rachel how to operate a manual transmission and she can start driving her “new” car.

We recently purchased a used car to replace a much older car that is no longer within realm of repair. Christmas morning we awoke to a winter wonderland of snow and slush. Our travel plans for the day included about 140 miles total. Given the road conditions we decided to drive my car as it sits higher off the ground. We load up, easy since the kids are not with us yet, and start heading down the road. We made it to the end of the block and the “Check Engine” light came on. This was irritating, but we weren’t going to let it bother us. We turned the car around and switched to the “new” car instead. This time we made it about five miles from home before the “Check Engine” light starts flashing and the engine starts misfiring. Now the situation is beginning to “wreck our calm”. We quickly discuss the situation and decide we should head back home and sort everything out.

After arriving at home we contact our family and let them know we may not be making to there for Christmas day. After hearing the situation they promptly dispatch my sister to pick us up and tell us that we can borrow their car to visit with our other family on Sunday.

Holidays saved, still frustrating, but saved.

My wonderful friends Dave and Stephanie recently surprised me with an Airsoft pistol. It is a replica of an Israeli Desert Eagle. The best part is that Rachel let me keep it.

Nobody seemed surprised when I promptly announced that it would be perfect for encouraging the herd of deer that hangs out in our neighborhood to go elsewhere. ( They have been absent since the day I got it for some reason, haven’t had a chance to harass them yet.)

The next morning I got up bright and early and started setting up my indoor shooting range. I marked out distances starting at 5′ and ending at 25′ and I have been working on my targeting. I have been getting much better with a little practice. I am still not extremely consistent, but I can hit near the center of the target most of the time.

It is Christmas Eve and I woke up this morning to the freshly fallen snow and the the sound of, RRRRIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG, I need to remember to turn off my phones when I go to bed. So after I finished the phone call, fed the cat, fed the birds, and made some coffee, I stopped to think about what I was going to do today. I have been struggling with this lately when I find myself with some down time. There are quite a few projects around the house that need done, cleaning out the garage is now high on the list. So of course I promptly sat down at the computer and opened Facebook.

After browsing around for a bit, I decided I should post something on my blog today. I have been trying for some time to keep an active blog. I have started this process over more times than I remember at this point.

endofthought