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January 11, 2019 11 AM Update

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Frigid Friday! This is the time of year when it’s usually the coldest, although one year ago it was pretty mild at winters aren’t as cold as they once were most of the time. Next Friday is Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯. Partly sunny and 14 degrees in Delmar. Cold and gusty outside, with a 18 mph breeze from the northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph πŸ’¨πŸ’¨πŸ’¨. The current wind chill is -3. Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 1 pm. 🌑️

Today will be sunny and cold 🌞, with a high of 18 degrees at 2pm. 12 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 1 at 3pm; Northwest wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy in the morning, which became mostly clear by afternoon. The high last year was 51 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1975. 8.0 inches of snow fell back in 1922.❄

The sun will set at 4:43 pm with dusk around 5:14 pm, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for mostly sunny skies πŸŒƒ and temperatures around 17 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 1. β˜ƒοΈ Breezy, 18 mph breeze β›… from the northwest with gusts up to 31mph. Today will have 9 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 26 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear πŸŒƒ, with a low of 10 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around zero at 6pm; Northwest wind 6 to 14 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 39 degrees. The record low of -26 occurred back in 1968.

This morning, I drove down to the express bus stop, as the landlord is cutting down another tree in the yard where I’m normally parked. 🌳 Hopefully that won’t make my apartment warmer in the summer, but I doubt it will. The other trees he’s cut in recent years are more problematic, but summer is survivable. At least I shouldn’t have to worry about that tree falling on my truck, and maybe it will give me more sun to ensure my accessory battery remain fully charged. Not so cold running from door to to door, the bus and office were plenty warm.

Like before, the truck started easily with the fully charged accessory battery backing up the starting battery, πŸ”‹although once again I had trouble getting it out of park until it warmed up a bit. Only have problems with that when it’s really cold out and it hasn’t warmed up enough.πŸ…ΏΒ  I think it’s a malfunctioning wheel sensor, but because it only acts up in extreme cold, I’m not that worried about it butΒ I do hope it doesn’t leave me stranded somewhere at some point. It’s almost certain that mud and ice in the sensor congeals causing all kinds of problems, apparently a common issue with trucks built by the General.

I’ve read on the interwebs more likely than not it’s a wheel speed sensor that is filled with ice and mud throwing invalid data into the computer, that thinks the car is moving, which causes the ABS and traction control to shut off temporarily, and also is sending invalid data that keeps the park mode from releasing until it errors out into limp-home mode. But as long as it’s above 20 degrees, this isn’t an issue at all.πŸš— I don’t drive enough in the winter, to spend $500 or $1,000 to fix an occasionally annoying issue. Cruise control also doesn’t work until things aren’t warmed up below 40 degrees outside, but again I can live with that. I don’t drive that much in the winter, and will fix the sensor once it gets more unreliable and ABS light is on all of the time or cruise stops working completely. It’s been doing this for about two or three years now, but it’s so occasional, it’s not a big deal, but annoying. 😑

Last night, was pretty cold so I mostly just stayed home, did a little bit of reading and listening to podcast,🎧 and retired to bed early. I had fish sticks and green beans and I ended up pulling out a few beers from my truck, which sat there from the last time camping, as I wanted a drink. I don’t drink very often anymore, but I figured one would be fine, 🍺 it’s not like I have I’ve had a beer since the near year except for the one I had the other night.

Other then that, I didn’t do much. I really should work more on my electronics projects, but I’ve held off on that, in part because I’m having a lot of trouble with this one bluetooth module I’ve been experimenting onπŸ”’, and I’ve been a bit too tired to spend a lot of time soldering, which requires a careful eye. I have ample parts now and they are carefully sorted, πŸ”¬ I just really need to sit down and work on things. Maybe if the weekend remains as cold as it’s been lately.🌬 I do want to get outside for a while though this weekend.🚢

As previously noted, next Friday is Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯 when the sun will be setting at 4:51 pm with dusk at 5:22 pm. On that day in 2018, we had a rather cold but partly sunny day with some snow showers and temperatures between 24 and 2 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. I bet Winnie the Pooh had to put the honey in the microwave to warm it up a bit before he could use it, although hopefully not too long where he melted it. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1973.

 Cold Afternoon

How trees ‘talk’ to each other using fungi

How trees ‘talk’ to each other using fungi

"The fungi and the trees are in a mutually beneficial relationship: the fungi cannot photosynthesize, as they have no access to light and no chlorophyll. So they get a type of sugar produced in photosynthesis and carbon from the trees.
In return for sugar and carbon, fungi release nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen, as well as water, to the trees. It's a win-win."

"Furthermore, the fungi will connect one tree to another through their network, which allows them to defend themselves more effectively."

"Trees that get attacked by bugs, for instance, release chemical signals into the fungi. Neighboring trees pick up these signals and increase their own resistance to the threat."

My Dashboard Camera, A VIOFO A119

People often ask questions about my dashboard camera.

I have a VIOFO A119 with the GPS base. You will want the GPS base, not just for logging, but because it makes it very easy to remove from your truck to download the photos (it just slides out of the GPS base, with the standard base, you have to unplug the USB cable each time you remove it).

With the GPS base, you get a second plastic-only base (USB wire connects directly) for using in a second car in the package. The cost with the GPS base was around $100 (it was $90 without the base plus $10 for the GPS base). You will also need to buy a Class 10 USB card which are about $25 from a local retailer. 64 GB gets you 6 hours of video at 2560Γ—1440, which is automatically overwritten oldest video first. I have two cards to store things while on vacation. Plugs into any computer with a USB port, looks like a USB hard drive when it plugs in.

http://www.viofo.com/home/30-a119-1080p-60fps-dash-cam.html

I am very happy with it, and has very good quality on sunny days, with some pixelation issues in low light levels and if there is a lot of trees moving in the picture. As soon as you get it, you will want to update the firmware toΒ A119.20160829.V1.1 from their web page (it’s possible the newest models have this firmware version). The newer firmware allows you full control over the labels (you can turn all of them off) and adds an option for MPH rather than the earlier firmware’s Km/h only option. The firmware can be updated from any computer with USB port as you just have to download a file on it in a specific folder from VIVOFO’s web page, and Β it can be installed on any Mac/Linux/Window computer with a USB port.

The camera is powered by a USB cable (11 foot cable included). It starts recording automatically when plugged in, but should be put on a switched outlet in your truck, so you don’t kill the battery. Make sure you have a steady voltage supplied to the USB port, as it will stop recording shortly after losing voltageΒ and may corrupt the currently recording file if it repeatedly loses voltage, like if you have a rough road, and the power connection is flipping on and off.

https://dashcamtalk.com/a119/

All of the relatively affordable dash board cameras are from China. They don’t make many many American ones, as they aren’t as popular in America. But I’m pretty happy with what I got, and it was well packaged and good quality for being an obviously Chinese model (and everything was in English).

Here are some my observations about using my dash camera in my truck.