It's Back!

A phone call this morning confirmed my PC was ready and available to be collected from the tech who was checking it for me.  For all intents and purposes there wasn't anything wrong with it.  It did get a good clean out of dust and other bits and pieces.

Then everything was tested and it all came out OK.  I am guessing a build up of dust and an extremely humid day allowed a short circuit somewhere which shut down the PC power supply.  They usually reboot them selves an hour or two later.  This seems to fit the timetable of events to when the tech got it going again.

He even checked the small battery on the motherboard.  It was removed and tested but then the PC lost all my 'personal' settings, the time and date etc.  This in turn has an effect on any updates as it checks the last update with the current date and time.  When I got it back this morning the PC thought it was 2002!

Our long dry spell has come to an end with several thunderstorms rolling through this morning.  The pool is again full, the lawns have had a well earned watering and the plants are looking a lot happier.  We can expect even more rain as the day continues.

Kate and Arj have accepted a 2 year appointment to an overseas school.  We will give more details when we are able to.

Great to have the PC back again.  Especially as the cricket is now over with the Aussies going to a 5-nil win late yesterday.

Before the storms I got in my 12.5k bike ride and a glorious swim with pool around 28 degrees.

Cooler Today

The air con worked for almost 12 hours yesterday before a weak change made its way in from the south around 9pm last night.  Our backyard thermometer reached 44.5 degrees and the temperature was above 40 until the sun went down.  Overnight it was around the mid 20's.

The pool was sensational yesterday and used repeatedly (especially during breaks in the cricket) by both of us.  The shelter provided the shade and it wasn't too bad sitting out there.  Humidity was around 25% for much of the time.  The pool temp peaked at around 29 degrees yesterday afternoon.  It was still 27.5 degrees for my post bike ride swim this morning.

Today is the opposite, cloudy, overcast, mid 20's and trying to drizzle.  The humidity is around 75%.  We are expecting a top of high 20's.  It is trying to rain but all we have managed so far is a very brief light shower.

Click on the photo for a larger view, then click on the "X" to return to this page.  Both of these photos show what a gloomy and overcast day today is.

This morning I had a slightly shorter ride than usual and as you can see from the photo I rode down to Pumicestone Passage.  There were a few walkers and riders out and about, all enjoying the cooler conditions.

We have been promised another hotter day tomorrow before a cooler and stronger change on Tuesday which revert things back to 'normal'.

I will continue to spend my time in front of the TV today and enjoying the cricket.  The ceiling fans will come into their own with the sticky weather creating a situation not too dissimilar to Melbourne' "Evaporative Cooling".

40+ at Caloundra West

Comments get made about my preoccupation with weather where we live. 

Right now at just after 11 am on Saturday Jan 4th our outdoor temperature monitor is telling us it is 40.3 in our backyard right now.  Inside it is around 27 degrees but the air-con has been on for around an hour.  We can expect the temperature to ease as the day progresses and we get some respite caused by our proximity to the sea.

The Test cricket from Sydney is playing on the TV.

The one saving point of today's hot weather is that the humidity is down around 32%.  This at least makes the weather outside not as bad as it could have been.

Thank heavens for the solar energy panels beefing out electricity on these sunny days.  The pool is a very popular spot throughout the day.

Yesterday was hot as well with a top around 36 in our enclosed backyard.  The temp fell to the high 20's after the sun went down last night.  However the strong northerly we have had took the temperature back up to 30 degrees when we went to bed after a swim at 11pm.

However a cooler change is expected for us later today.

The Heat Is On

Our thermometer in the backyard tells us it is 37.5 degrees at 10:15 am.  It is always a little hotter in our smaller enclosed backyard.  The house is all shut up Melbourne summer style with windows and curtains all closed.  It is expected to be even warmer tomorrow.  The air conditioner will be switched on later.  It is days like today we are pleased we put the solar energy panels on which makes costs of running the air con more able to be managed.

The pool was a little below 27 degrees this morning after my bike ride.  It may get to almost 30 in the pool later on today.  We still badly need some rain though as I may need to top the pool up tomorrow from the mains system.

My PC remains at the computer repair place as it is holiday time and the guy is taking a break.  I expect to have it back sometime early next week.  Trish and I have been sharing her laptop.

With the cricket now on TV again that will take most of my time over the next few days.  The pool will be a welcome option during any of the breaks in today's play.

I will be bottle washing tomorrow as I put a brew on yesterday.  It is bubbling away as I type.  I helped someone out with their media player and as a vote of thanks I was given a couple of cans of Home Brew.  They were very welcome.  I have an "English Bitter" brewing now.

There isn't a lot of news.  I am back to my bike riding and sorting out my new bike.  I do some small adjustments on it from time to time.  I am creating a list of items to be attended to at the first free bike service I get early in February.

Happy New Year

A fair bit has happened since I last posted on my Blog.  I really enjoyed the final day's play of the Melbourne Test match where Australia won to go 4 nil up in the series.

Trish and I then spent the Sunday evening with Kim in her unit/flat in St Kilda and possibly had too much of a good time as we were flying home the next day.

We returned to the Sunshine Coast safely on Monday.  Fortunately we arrived at Tiger Airlines in Melbourne nice and early.  They had several aircraft leaving first thing for several Queensland holiday destinations so the check-in area was packed.  It took 50 minutes to get from the end of the queue until we checked in.  Trish and I had to sit apart the plane was that full.

Neighbour Brian was there to pick us up from the Sunshine Coast Airport and we were home by 10:30 am.  There were heaps of things to do, vacuum the pool, sort out luggage and set up the backyard again.  I was pleased everything started up OK when I powered things on after being away.  Needless to say we slept very well.

I didn't have the same success on Tuesday morning though, my PC was dead!  We had a little rain overnight and in the morning there was heavy cloud everywhere.  It was quite warm too and extremely humid.  Not good weather for starting up electrical equipment.  It is at the Computer Repair place now.

Even my Chinese imported phone started doing weird things.  But once I put it onto the charger for a while the problems cleared up.  As the battery charges it gets warm.  This warmth helped to dry the phone from the extreme humidity we were having.  It is working fine again now.

This is a little better than I can say for myself.  We went out with friends Ian and Kerrie for a meal last night then back to their place to see in the New Year.  I am suffering a little right now.

I managed 9k's on my bike ride this morning.  It was a little shorter than usual as I thought I should be a little careful not having ridden for a couple of weeks.

The pool will be a popular spot today as the clouds have disappeared and we have have bright sunshine with temps in the low 30's.