Temperature Is But Feels Like

When we lived in Melbourne all those years ago we got used to things such as "wind chill factor".  In this part of the world wind chill factor rarely gets a mention, until this week that is. About Sunday or there abouts a strong and consistent south westerly blew into SE Queensland.  It has been blowing strongly all week but is due to die off tomorrow.

For many people in this part of the world, tomorrow can't come soon enough.  Though we have had sunny clear blue skies, the morning temperature has been in single figures, even down to 4 one morning.  Throw in the strong, cold south westerly and its wind chill factor, this week has been icy.

Some people have their heaters (reverse cycle air con) running all day.  We had it going all one day it was so cold.  We still have 4 weeks of 'winter' weather to go until things begin to warm up just a little in SE Queensland.

The doctor put me onto Symbicort after my visit last week to do something with my persistent cough.  I am pleased to say I have improved markedly with the occasional daily splutter.  But nothing like it used to be. I return for a follow up visit in a fortnight or so.

The footy on TV over the weekend wasn't too good for me but Trish is happy.  My team turned over top spot on the ladder to Trish's team. Now she is smiling even more.

The move to Windows 10 has been relatively smooth.  Most days I find something I need to install that I had forgotten about.  And then there are some programs which just don't work well (or crack easily) with Windows 10.  In every case I have found a replacement, sometimes better than my original.

My reliance on backing things up has come to my rescue on a couple of oocasions.  It is so nice just to copy a settings folder over from a backup to the new install and everything with that program just rolls along as if nothing had happened.

My PC starts much much more quickly and shuts down smoothly meaning I have achieved my aim and solved the hassles from when I was on Windows 7.

I continue to keep an eye out for a "4TB Seagate Personal Cloud" hard drive.  The current list price is around $300 but there is a promotion every now and again where it sells for around $200.  Patience is the keyword here.

I have a brew on at the moment and the cooler weather isn't helping.  I do use a heat pad to raise the temperature as required.  I will bottle wash tomorrow and probably bottle on Sunday.

We have a long time arrangement to go to a Rugby League match in Brisbane this Friday night with 4 friends.  We will travel into Brisbane and stay the night.  Our hotel is within walking distance of the Stadium.  It will be a new experience for me but I can still keep up with the real footy (AFL) scores through an app on my phone.

We enjoyed a great Thai lunch yesterday just on our own this time.

The cold weather and my cough has put a stop to my bike riding.  However with conditions improving tomorrow I hope to saddle up again mid morning when things begin to warm up. It may not be a 'full' 12lm+ ride.

Kate, Arj and family are having a ball in the USA with Niagara Falls a recent highlight for them.  Right now Kim and her friend are in San Fransisco seeing the sights. She has a big birthday next week and expects to be in Las Vegas to celebrate.

So now you are up to date with all our news.  We are both well and enjoying the SE Queensland lifestyle.  All we need is some of that SE Queensland warmth to return.

The Big Move

Recently it would take the best part of three or four minutes to open my computer in the morning.  It worked fine but there were times, especially at startup and shut down when it just seemed to take ages.  This week I wanted to do a few things but I had to wait until the disk drive quietened down before the PC would react.

I had considered moving to Windows 10 earlier in the year.  I use my PC quite a bit and it has been almost 2 years since I first got it and a reformat and reinstall would get it back to good condition again.  But I worked on the adage that if it ain't broken, don't fix it!

So this week was kind of the final straw.  It has taken just on a full day to load on Windows 10 and set it all up again.  It doesn't look that different to what it did before but it now loads in 90 seconds and shuts down almost as quickly.  It has been a good move.

I have had to 'modify' a few things so it works with Windows 10.  I had to find a registry hack to get Windows Picture Viewer back again.  My Nero 8 just wouldn't work and Firefox wouldn't allow heaps of addons to load.  Now I am trying Waterfox (a Firefox spinoff) instead of Firefox as my browser.  Thunderbird was my email client but I have now swapped to a Thunderbird updated clone called "Earlybird".

I did get to the doctor yesterday regarding my cough.  At last she is coming around to the idea that possibly it is exercise induced asthma.  I am on a new 'puffer' called Symbicort.  I usually have my worst cough first thing in the morning when I wake.  A couple of early morning puffs and my coughing was reduced to a few small coughs over an hour or so.  Trish was delighted not to be woken to a coughing fit.

I am not back on the bike yet, but now I have this new device I may be tempted to venture out again when we get a nice sunny day.  It is cool and overcast today so bike riding isn't any sort of consideration.

Kate, Arj and family are in New York 'on their way home'.  We are trying to communicate with people down south to have their car ready for them when they get back home.  A quick Facebook "Message" to Kate in New York, a few minutes later Skype was up and running and the relevant conversation took place.

Needless to say they are having a great time.

Altogether we finished up with around 150 mls over the four or five days last weekend.  The wind wasn't too bad and overall we managed without a problem.  But it was great to get the sun back again.  It looks like a couple of dreary days coming up this weekend and it does look like cooling right off.  Top teens is all we can expect over the next few days.  Great footy watching on the TV weather I reckon.

Wet Stuff Still To Come

We are expecting around 3" to 4" (up to 100mls) of heavy rain with strong winds and storms this afternoon, Sunday.  But at 8:15 Sunday morning it is raining quite steadily now, even before the heavy stuff is expected.  That's the pergola in the backyard in the photo with the rain streaming off the roof.  You can also make out the heavy rain drops in the photo as well.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

I put another bag of salt in the pool yesterday because it has been wet on and off all week since my last post.  As the rain falls, excess water from the pool exits through the overflow pipe to the front street taking the pool's salt with it.  I still have one spare bag of salt to put in just in case after the storms expected this afternoon.

So I haven't really been for a bike ride in some time.  The chest congestion remains and the cold weather while on the bike is not a good option.

Trish had a huge art show thing on last weekend where they raised over $8,000.  It was quite successful.

The couple of android TV boxes I setup have been quite a success.  I took my 'lend' android box back from the neighbour but installed Kodi on his laptop for him.  He is even more delighted now!

The other guy is quickly learning some of the intricacies of the hardware.  Necessity is a great teacher as he is coming to understand how it all works.

Our footy teams continue to do well and it now looks like both our teams should figure in the 2016 finals.

We headed out for a meal with friends on Wednesday and had a great meal at a local Chinese spot and an enjoyable night out.  We seemed to order perfectly and each course complemented the other.  It was a great night out, good friends and great food.

I gave the new pressure water cleaner a quick tryout during the week on the edges of the driveway.  It seems to be the most powerful model I have owned yet and it works extremely effectively.

Computer Club is quietening off for me and I don't really mind at all.  I enjoy having some time to chat and move around.

Kate, Arj and family have departed Saudi Arabia to head home after being there for two years.  They are returning home via 6 weeks in the USA where Arj has several relatives.  James has just celebrated his 9th birthday and is delighted he is now slightly taller than his older sister!

Our other daughter Kim who is in Perth is heading to the US as well.  She wants to be in Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday.  It is a trip she and her partner have been planning for some time.

Some heavy rain is moving in from the west.  The weather radar map above shows the heaviest of the rain still way out to the west.  It is due sometime after lunch and is to be accompanied by strong wind and flash flooding warnings.  We are where the arrow is pointing.

It will be fairly fast moving so shouldn't be a problem for us.

Friday Update

With another Arts Centre "Fair" on this weekend, Trish won't be around for much of the time for the next few days.  Plenty of footy on TV so I will be OK.

I am even back on my bike again but I do begin to cough and splutter a bit after 8 or so kilometres.  I battle through it all but will possible consider shortening the ride just a little.  My next visit back to the doctor is a little over a week away.

Spending around $300 for a network drive I talked about in the post below is over the top at this stage.  On the OzBargain website I see where just a few months ago a 4TB version was selling for $190 on special.  I will wait for another special and consider things then.

I received an email from the store I ordered the el cheapo pressure washer from saying they were unable to supply the model I ordered because it was now out of stock.  They asked if I would accept a higher spec model in its place.  The $199 pressure washer arrived this morning by courier.  A good deal for $80!

It has a washer head as well which is just perfect for doing pathways.  It works pretty well. You can't adjust the spray though, you have two interchangeable 'lance' heads, one with a circular spray pattern, the other a flat pattern.

Help set a friend's new android tv box up the other day.  He will be very happy as he is about to have the NBN connected and go onto a new plan.  His current limit will go from 20GB to 1,000GB when the new plan comes into effect, most likely in around a fortnight's time.

Another friend here on our estate is trying out my 2nd android TV box.  I have lent it to him so he can decide if this is the way he wants to go.  He is not using a wireless keyboard but is trying an 'air mouse' I got on eBay.  It isn't very user friendly and he is having problems with it.  He could use another model air mouse or even just an ordinary laptop wireless mouse.  We will see if that makes it easier for him when I pop around to his place later today.

We had a 29° day yesterday, 24 or so today and low 20's (our standard winter type top temperature) for much of next week.  The 6 weeks from mid June to the end of July is probably the coldest time of the year here.

Kate, Arj and family in Saudi are preparing to return home.  Their stuff has been packed and is in transit back to Australia, a trip which takes several months.  Here is a link to Arj's blog where there is a new post. (HERE).  Upon departure from Saudi they head to the U.S. for 6 weeks before returning home late in July.

Their house becomes vacant for them to move back into around the end of August.

The home brew was bottled and is fermenting away nicely. A brand new Dan Murphy's alcohol super store is opening in Caloundra this weekend.  Our drink specials will now be around the corner instead of 15k's away at Kawana.

It is a sensational 24 and bright sunshine outside today!

120mls later (or about 5")

The rain has departed the Sunny Coast after dropping a total of 120mls over a couple of days with 61mls falling Friday and overnight into Saturday morning.  The remaining 60mls fell over the other days. Some areas of the Gold Coast (250k's south of us) received 250mls in 24 hours.

This amount of rain over an extended time isn't a problem for us so we have escaped virtually unscathed.  We are now left with a howling southerly wind.  This is great for drying stuff out a little but not good for top temperatures.  We will struggle to the the top of the teens today!

Computer Club was real quiet yesterday with only around 20 die hards making the effort to get along after all the rain.  So there was time for a good chat about things and for some one on one help from the Club President who is a fully authorized Microsoft Technician.

The footy yesterday (Saturday) was quite nerve wracking for both of us but both teams came out of the day with wins.

After a few responses to questions I had asked online, it appears a Seagate Cloud Wireless Network drive (pic above) is not the way for me to go right now when you consider what I already have.  File transfer across the network is hampered by the speed of any wireless network, wireless computer connections are well known to be considerably slower than a 'hard wired' or Ethernet connection.  I can share files wirelessly at around 7 mb per second.  A USB connection can share at around 80mb per second!

And the Android TV box does not share files quickly at all, usually it is well under 2mb per second.

I have rejigged my hard drives around the place a little and have improved the setup just a little.

All up I have 3 external hard drives connected to the main PC, one of them is connected to the WD Media Player, another to the new Android TV Box and Trish has her own portable drive to back up her files.  So to add another 3TB networked wireless drive to the setup we had would not have been a good economical decision.

I can keep copies of backups easily from my PC and Trish backs up her files as well.  For all intents and purposes, the 1TB portable drive attached to the WDTV media player in the lounge can act as 1TB Network Drive as it is always on and always connected to the wireless network.

The bottle washing was completed by 9 am this morning and I will bottle tomorrow. The rest of the time will be spent indoors cuddling up against the colder winds blowing outside.

And The Rains Came

The weather bureau is talking about some areas of the Sunshine Coast getting around 6" or 150mls of rain over the weekend with showers due to increase later on today.  The showers began overnight into Thursday and have continued throughout yesterday and into today (Friday) for a total a little under 40mls so far.

The backyard photo above gives you an idea of how dark and dismal things look. And the temperature has dropped to normal winter temperatures as well. We have been warned to be ready for strong winds and heavy rains throughout Saturday and into Sunday. 

But at least I am feeling quite a deal better with the congestion on my chest still there but much better than a week or so ago.  I still have a bit of a cough first thing in the morning but overall I am feeling much better.  Trish and her cold seems to be improving as well.

There is a 20% off deal going on with some eBay stores at the moment.  My pressure washer stopped working a few months ago and I have grabbed one 'on-line' for $80 delivered.via the 20% off deal.  It is all we need here for the few times each year we use one of these things.

Usually I use a pressure washer for tidying any build up on bricks around the house and the like, or to clean the blinds we have down for much of summer to keep the sun off the back of the house.  Another store had them for $145 so I have done OK with the $80 delivered.

I have also been working on resurrecting Trish's old phone for my own use.  I have a replacement battery for it and I have reset it back to factory condition.  I have been stopped from installing heaps of apps as I am after another 16GB SD card for it so I can transfer some apps over.

It is $6 for a new SD card on eBay and it is due any day now.

I will then totally reformat my current phone and see of that fixes everything.  I keep on getting pop ups saying the phone is running out of space and will be unable to load any more apps.  If a good cleanout doesn't work I will consider another el cheapo phone from China.

I have me eye on an Infocus M560 for around $140 delivered or an Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 for a little under $200.  Both get great write ups from the critics.

And I am looking at my computer and wireless network backup needs as well.  With a Smart TV, 2 laptops, a PC, a couple of tablets, a couple of Android TV boxes and two android phones all accessing the one Local Area Wireless Network there has to be a more effective way of backing up and sharing files.

I am wondering if a Seagate Cloud Storage system is the way to go.  It looks pretty impressive!

Bottle washing and a bottling are due to happen Sunday and Monday and hopefully the weather won't stop that happening.

Coats and More Coats

It is June 1st, the first day of winter, and with the sudden drop in top temps back to around 20, the cooler weather is certainly back with a vengeance.  Today is grey and overcast and there is a good chance we will get a few showers over the next few days.

With the cooler weather the new $20 coat I bought last week has been in use a little.  We had a trip over to Trade Secret the other day.  They sell end of the line stuff so there are always great bargains there.  Trish had been keen for me to buy a dressier jacket than what I finished up with, and Trade Secret had just what she had originally wanted me to buy.

On the "Clearance" rack was just what she had wanted me to buy in the first place.  This delightful jacket was originally priced at $75 but by the time it reached the "Clearance" rack it was down to $21. Now it adorns my section of the walk in wardrobe.

Now I have a range of coats or jackets at home to choose from when I head out.

My head cold continues to improve.   Now my coughing outbursts are limited to just a few times per day.  I no longer disturb the neighbours when I wake and begin a coughing fit to try to clear my chest.  I do have a decent head cold now in its place but that can be dealt with easily enough.

Bike riding has gone well and truly on hold as my current health and brisk wintry weather are not a good mix!

After really enjoying an "Indian Pale Ale" when in Perth I put a brew of it on Monday morning.  It is bubbling away quietly.  Bottle washing and a bottling are to follow.

I learn something new about my Android TV box each day.  It really does keep my mind active nowadays trying to puzzle out issues or trying to work out how I can do this or that.  Needless to say I love it.

My footy turned out to be disastrous over the weekend.  There will be no need to buy air tickets down to Melbourne in September to watch the Grand Final the way my team is travelling right now. 

But I would have an appropriate coast to wear if I had to make a last minute trip!