2016-02-27

Google street view comes to Southern Luzon.

Much joy in our house yesterday when we found that Google has just expanded their street view to much of Southern Luzon, including Olivia's home town of Daraga and the rural place where she spent her early childhood, Cawalog (but that doesn't show on maps), this Jeepney is just passing the school at nearby Baris and to show how useful they are it manages to carry about 100 school students fairly comfortably.
Actually I'm posting this pic because the owner Maria Noga is known to Olivia.
Much time is now being spent by each of us exploring the streets around Daraga and Legazpi.
Cawalog is about 3 km south along the road from this bus shot.

2016-02-26

Up to my usual standard.

A rough cut bit of plastic and a bit of double sided tape.
Hopefully it'll add a bit of depth to Daisy's transmission push in knob so Jimmy's life will become slightly easier.
I can't make it too pretty or it wouldn't have that personal touch.

2016-02-21

A mouse fix.

Having things fail seems a normal part of life for me, this time the left button of my favourite and very cheap mouse broke, for the second time. Happily I have a stock of a few more switches to replace the bad ones when required, so it's a quick and simple repair with my soldering iron to keep this old and very nice mouse working.
It's not easy to find a mouse I like, I suppose I'm fussy but I like them to fit my hand nicely, move the pointer smoothly on my preferred surface, and be a pleasing to my eye colour.

2016-02-20

Market morning.

Olivia wanted to go to the park market this morning, it gave me an excuse to take a photo. The clock here was fixed a long time ago after being out of service for a few months, it's a couple of minutes slow (I checked my camera's time afterwards and it was a minute fast) but close enough. I should drop a hint somewhere that a fresh coat of paint would be nice.
Seven minutes later I was carrying this table back to Daisy, not expensive at $25, and Olivia's happy.

2016-02-18

Washing machine job done.

The pump motor I ordered the other day arrived this morning, very prompt for an Aussie seller so that's a good hint that a change may be happening.
The difference is only cosmetic but I like the pretty green impeller on the old motor more.
The pump is held in place by three easily accessed screws, the job is that simple, and helped greatly by being able to order parts online, sadly though Australia has changed into a country where people are now reluctant to change a light bulb, not that old style incandescent ones exist any more.
I wrote in a prior post that the washing machine was a decade old, I checked my old photos and it was only 9 years old but still have to think it's served us well.

2016-02-16

Age wearies another.

This battery pack on our original eeepc 701 that has been used as our webcam server for many a year is playing up and has led to some angst of late, I suspect one of the cells inside it has given up its ghost.
Like many things it simply uses readily available 18650 cells, so I simply ordered some new ones that I'll solder in their place, already though I'm starting to think I should have ordered a complete unit at twice the price as the glue they use to hold it together is a real bugger and things became more broken than I'd wished.
For now I'll just wait for the new ones to arrive and hope things return to a healthy state afterwards.

2016-02-11

Washing machine blues.

Our decade old LG WD-8015C washing machine chucked a wobbly yesterday by the drain pump refusing to do its job, so why would I be dismantling the control board?
Well since the program button has been intermittently faulty since nearly new I saw this as a great time to replace it, it's a commonly available part which I have a box of so this was a simple job to do, but it doesn't fix a pump motor, however this gave me a chance to inspect the control boards for obvious trauma.
The problem was the pump motor itself, its shaft seal has become worn and allowed grunge to build up inside to stop the motor turning, it isn't really a rebuildable part so I've ordered a new one and until it arrives I just cleaned the old one and put it back into service, hopefully things will be fine in the meantime.
In reality I can't moan about the service this LG has given us, the switch fault isn't theirs but rather their supplier, much as that plague of bad capacitors which gave many a otherwise good company a bad name a decade + ago. The pump I can put down to fair wear and tear and a new one was vastly less than a minimum call out fee from a serviceman.

2016-02-08

Another molar fail.

This sizable chunk broke off one of my molars a few days ago, about the only positive is it'll give the dentist a bit more work to do when next I get in the chair.
I expect to be Gummy Jimmy in the not too distant future, and I care very little about that as their failing message is ringing loud and clear now.

2016-02-01

59 today.

Olivia bought a cake that I'm hoping I can get my ruinous teeth around shortly.
We had planned on a bit of fancy lunch at an eatery but after finding three closed places we gave up, I might try a different day of the week next birthday.