I felt sorry for the technician who performed the installation because he had to install a temporary coaxial cable in a trench he had to dig because the PVC pipe to the cable terminal was blocked. The company will send a special unit later this week to complete the permanent installation.
But, as of today, we have our high speed internet and can watch the BCS college championship game between Oregon and Auburn!
Image: (top) west side of the dam and basin (seen from US 60) – (bottom) east side showing spillway and lower wash. Click on the image to enlarge.
One of the things you have to consider when buying property is the potential for damage from fire and flooding. I was very interested in the proximity of the Casandro Wash Dam and how the floodplain might affect our property. The diagram at the right shows an aerial view of the dam and spillway, the lower wash (yellow line) and the location of the new house (red circle). Click the thumbnail to enlarge.
According to the Flood Control District of Maricopa county:
Casandro Wash Dam was constructed to collect and store water from the Casandro Wash, removing a significant number of residential structures from the 100-year floodplain in a three-square-mile area east of the structure. The dam is 350 feet in length and the emergency spillway is an 80-foot-wide concrete weir through the embankment near the center of the dam. Casandro Wash Dam was constructed by the District which is also responsible for the operation and maintenance of the structure excluding the outfall system, which is maintained by the Town of Wickenburg.
From all the information we have gathered and the details in the escrow papers, we, and the other property owners near Casandro Wash are in pretty good shape when it comes to flood potential thanks to the dam and spillway.
We’re in Arizona this week doing chores for the new house, so blogging will be light. We did not post yesterday because someone (maybe it was me) forgot to pack up the AC power converter/charger for the laptop. Damsel had hers with her but it isn’t compatible with my laptop. Since the battery only lasts about two hours (even with the low power settings), I budgeted the time for downloading Damsel’s photos and updating the money program.
Today, we drove to Surprise, AZ to a Radio Shack store to pick up a universal AC supply manufactured by iGo (seen at right). While we were in the store, I made them open up the package and demonstrate that it was equivalent to the charger I inadvertently left in California. Bottom line is that we’re good to go.
We observed good progress on our new Arizona house. You can see it on the other blog.
About thirty years ago, I worked in the Preliminary Design Department for a major toy manufacturer. Part of the daily routine on the development team was to play with contemporary games and toys to foster a sense of what kids might like. I remember one of the popular video games at the time was Space Invaders, where alien ships entered the atmosphere and it was the game player’s job to shoot ’em down.
Since I am interested in development of on-line applications, I subscribe to a blog where Flash™ animation development is discussed. Last week there was a post about a game submitted to the developer’s forum called SWiSH Invaders. It is strongly reminiscent of the game I played (and was never very good at) 30 years ago. I post the game here for your amusement and, if you happen to remember that game, nostalgia.
Link to the on-line game is here.
After nearly twenty years, my old Hewlett Packard 4L Laserjet printer finally bought the farm. The venerable old printer started misfeeding the paper last night causing jams and errors. I tried troubleshooting it for a while but it stubbornly refused to cooperate. So I disconnected it from the network and loaded it up to go to the HAZMAT recycle center on Friday. I have a bunch of other HAZMAT items boxed up so the timing is right.
Image: HP 4L – Click to enlarge
Even before showing signs of failure, it started getting hard to find toner cartridges for the old printer. Fortunately, one on-line source came through a couple of years ago when I ordered a couple of toner cartridges. I used one up and the last one we had started to exhibit signs of going out of toner.
The last time I installed the printer on the new laptop, I had a difficult time locating an on-line source for a proper printer driver. I guess the signs were all there that the time has come for a new printer.
We will be in the market for a new printer when the new house in Arizona is complete. In California, we’re going to scout out and buy a cheapie printer to use until we finally get the house on the market.
Jim Geraghty at NRO’s Campaign Spot forwards this interesting Election Year Dynamic Trend Map from Google:
This shows states senate race trending at the present time. The redder a state is the better for Republican candidates, the bluer states go to Democrats and yellow is a toss-up as of today.
You can change the mode to senate, house or governor races. You can also change the source of polling (limited to a few liberal sources).
As Geraghty says, “If your map just keeps getting redder and redder, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s broken.”
I got tired of the suction-cup GPS mount that came stock with my Garmin 205W. The GPS was exposed to the sun on the windshield and the temperatures where we’ve been this summer worried me that the unit might be getting too much heat. I went on-line and found a nifty little dash mount which I ordered from Amazon last week.
The mount attaches itself to the dash with an adhesive and its footprint is very small which allows us to put it almost anywhere there is a small vacant spot. I chose to attach it to the spot just above the On-Star panel (which we never use) in the SUV. This location is also convenient because it puts the GPS in closer proximity to the passenger if Damsel (or myself) need to assist with navigation.
Another plus to the dash mount is that the power cord can be coiled up and isn’t flopping around in the drivers visual field of regard. I kept the suction cup mount in case we need to use the GPS in Damsel’s Convertible or if we’re renting a truck or RV.
Click on the image to enlarge.