Overcast And Showery!

It has been a very ordinary and cool overcast day for this part of the world.  The temperature is in the low 20's, yes that is correct ... low 20's. 

It is possibly warmer in the pool right now that what it is sitting in the house.

Very little more news.

This morning I helped a guy setup to download movies and TV shows via Usenet.  Needless to say, when I awoke earlier this morning and looked outside it was obvious I wouldn't be heading off on a bike ride.

We did venture to Kawana Shopping Centre yesterday afternoon to fill in a couple of hours.  I saw my $200-20 Yamaha Amplifier on sale for $470 from the same store as I bought it from.  I was after some shorts, "Rugger Brand" which I managed to find OK.  They have sure gone up in price since I last bought them.  When reaching in for my credit card to pay, the lady serving me noticed I had a "Senior's Card" which entitled me to a 10% discount.

There is some thought we should enjoy a marked improvement in the weather come this weekend with temps again around 30 with a bright blue and sunny sky.

Overcast

There really isn't a lot to write about.  The weather has remained very comfortable with tops around 28 each day.  It remains showery with at least a few mls to enter onto my tallies most days.

Trish remains busy with the Caloundra Arts Centre Association.  On Thursday I set up a backup system for a mate on his laptop.  On Friday I helped a guy get Bigpond connected to his modem router.

Our night out Wednesday was great fun at the "Bamboo Garden" Chinese Restaurant and we all had heaps to eat and great company.

Computer Club was OK yesterday.  A lady didn't uninstall an "Office" program correctly, then tried a System Restore to try to fix the problem which arose.  Every time she goes to open "Word", Office wants to reinstall itself.  I have had that happen before myself and the one reliable way to fix it is re format your hard drive.  Something has happened within the Laptop's Registry so that every time you want to want to open Word, the computer thinks you want to install Office again.

So that really is about it.  We had 13mls of rain overnight so bike riding was off the timetable for this morning.  Another shower of rain made that a good decision.

The people in the house to the left as you face our home are moving as their lease is at an end.  They find the small home no longer suits their needs.  We will keep our fingers crossed that the new tenants are OK.  This won't happen for a few weeks but already people are looking through it.

A Busy Few Days

At last we are experiencing some dry days.  We continue to get the occasional shower flipping through and usually this occurs around 6:30 am just as I am getting ready to embark on my daily bike ride.  Today I actually managed my regular 13k bike ride and arrived back home without enduring any quick sharp shower of rain.

Much of recent days has been filled with enduring the cricket from India on TV.  It is pretty hard to watch when Australia's batsmen commit suicide and just don't value their wickets enough.  At least both the cricketers and my self have been put out of our misery with a frightful performance yesterday!

One 'highlight' of Monday was a trip to the dentist.  Hopefully my problem has now been fully overcome.  Don't you just love the sound of the dentist's drill?

Monday night was a Community Association Public Meeting night.  We had around 40 people in attendance and there was some heated discussion on helicopters over the estate with one of our guest speakers, Peter Pallot the CEO of Sunshine Coast Airport.  I think everyone went away as happy as they could be.  Some of the more expensive blocks on the estate are relatively close to the flight path for aircraft landing on the east-west runway of the nearby airport.  In hind sight, those blocks may not have been a good choice.  I guess that is what happens when people don't make full enquiries before buying a new home!

This meant Tuesday was a big day updating all the news on the BeCA website.  It was Trish's birthday too and we celebrated by doing some shopping around lunchtime and enjoying Fish n' Chips for tea.

A group of us are out this evening for a meal at the Bamboo Garden Restaurant.  It has pretty good Chinese Food there.

The 2 500GB external Hard disk drives I bought online from Harvey Norman last week arrived today.  One is for the Arts Centre Association and the other is for good friend Ian Eather which I will set up for him as a backup.  Recently Ian had a scare with his laptop and he thought he had lost everything.  This will now ensure that if he has a problem with his laptop he should have his major stuff backed up.

I also washed bottles this morning for my next brew.  13 of the 30 or so I required were brand new bottles, never been used and just required a quick rinse.  This meant the job was a little easier than usual.

After all was finished I did have a quick swim in the pool.  It was a little on the refreshing side following all the poor cooler weather we have had recently.

Some Respite

Today the weather forecast has moved from "Rain" to "Showers".  We actually had a little sunshine earlier today just before lunch.  Since the rain started Friday afternoon until just now we have had another 190mls of rain all up!  That is a little over 1100 mls in total so far in 2013!  That is a lot of rain, around 44" in the old terms!

And the weather bureau says we can expect showers for the rest of the week.

My bike is again for sale!

Drinks was extremely convivial on Friday and I should also add we were very well behaved!  It was a fun time.

Computer Club was a little quiet on Saturday because of the wet weather but I was kept busy enough helping people out.

Despite requiring hearing aids, I do enjoy listening to quality sound on my sound system.  As I now have my new $200 amplifier I have discovered I can play Digital Theatre Sound (DTS) files from my Media Player through the amp and get full DTS sound.  There isn't a lot of commercial music around which is DTS in quality, so people try to 'create' their own DTS soundtracks by manipulating their current music files.  Some work really great, others aren't quite so good. Some complete CD's come as just a single DTS track

The last day or so I have been combing download sites to find DTS audio cd's, whether commercially made or put together by home enthusiasts.  I have had a ball.  Using trial and error (along with a failure or two) I have discovered how to download a long single DTS music file and to 'rip' it into its individual tracks.  

In between time I have been enjoying the footy on TV and enduring the cricket live from India.

As I purchased some more clean bottles recently I already have enough empties to get ready for another brew.  The brew went on around an hour ago!  Half the bottles will be 'new' so they don't need the same level of cleaning as re-use bottles do.  This will make bottle washing a little easier later in the week.

Guess What? More Rain Is On Its Way!

I took my bike off the "For Sale" list this morning and managed a 12.5km bike ride, the first for around a week!  Though heavily overcast with high cloud, any rain stayed away while I completed the bike ride.

With the break in the weather it was rather busy around here this morning.  Mould had built up on some of the pavers with all the the rain so I gave it a 1:2 ratio chlorine and water sweep over the affected areas.  A quick 'firm' house off and they look great again.

I managed a quick mow of the front lawn as well and finished with a catcher full, easily the most grass I have cur from it for over 6 months.  Despite how the good the photo looks, there is a substantial amount of weed in the lawn but it sure looks better than here.

With all that work now out of the way I needed a quick swim prior to tackling my final task for the morning, to bottle the latest brew.  Now as I type it is trying to rain with spots falling from time to time.  Showers are expected to break into rain this afternoon and go on for a day or so.

Drinks are on at our place this afternoon but that won't be until around 4pm.  Next week it will be earlier as the Rugby League begins with live TV from 7:30.  This means drinks will need to be over a little earlier as the the other two couples are both Rugby League fans.  AFL doesn't begin in earnest for another three weeks.

I bought two 500GB external USB3 Hard Drives for around $46 each delivered from the Harvey Norman online website yesterday. Trish is after one for her "Stitchers" group.  They can then have a store of all their stuff, photos, newsletters, website etc all kept together in one spot.  At $46 each they were a great buy.

The other drive is for Ian, one of the drinking crew.  He will use it to back up his laptop 'just in case'.

I have found another couple of TV Series which I will 'collect'.  One is called "The Americans", the story of a married couple who are really KGB spies planted in the U.S. around 1970.  It looks quite good.

The second is called "Banshee", and tells the story of a recently released "con" who has fallen into the role of the sheriff of the small town called Banshee.  It looks good as well.

Run both titles through IMDB and check them out.