AUDub

It was a clever spin on the option.

Fun with the SLR

All good.

TIL YYZ is an excellent lullaby.

Shannon did have a 59 yarder called back. The one where they leapt the shield. We would have passed on the punt average category if not for that.

Goff, Gurley and the Rams offense looked good tonight. Dallas next week might be a good game.

I'm glad Cody got it back together mentally after washing out of Philly and Cleveland.

Better host that somewhere else @around4ever. Looks like Photobucket got you too.

No expert on snakes and that's a blurry picture (one can hardly blame you for not wanting to get closer) but that very well could be a copperhead.

Would make a fine recruiting poster.

He is a damn fine fullback. His name really should come up more often when discussing our success in 13.

Keep your house clean and you're fine. They're called recluse for a reason. When they get you is when they get into an article of clothing or a boot that's been left a while, or an infrequently slept in bed. When they press up against you is what drives them to bite, so shake that stuff out keep bedding off the floor and wall, etc. They're also pretty stupid. They don't climb well at all. I joke that, if I could put a bathtub or sink in every room of the house, they'd be gone in no time flat. In that dumbass's case, it was a jar.

Meh, you deal with it. They spike in the spring and summer and disappear in the autumn. We sped it up this year with quarterly spraying. Hope that keeps their numbers down next year. You do what you can. I've caulked off every possible point of ingress into the house and put out sticky traps. Catch quite a few. With the spraying, I'm thinking we should see even fewer in the future. You never completely get rid of them here in central Alabama.

Here's the little monster. Wonder how long before he starves.

Yes, they are recluse. Common here. My neighbors get them too. Actually, since I moved to get quarterly spraying, they're a lot less common. In fact, the only live one I've seen in months is one I have trapped in a jar. Little buggers can survive forever with no food and water.

Turn him loose in my house. Brown Recluse infestation over with the quickness.

Battleship in the dark with the power out.

Manly nerds

If working with HVAC and electrical wiring isn't manly, I don't know what is.

Home automation is my hobby as of late. There are several protocols on the market, but I chose the Z-wave wireless protocol to control my lights, thermostats, and door locks. Lowe's Iris branded home automation equipment is Z-wave and will work with any other Z-wave control units, even if it doesn't say so on the packaging. It's an industry standard. Buy a head unit, in my case a Mi Casa Verde Vera, then all you need to do is buy and install components like switches, dimmers, thermostats, deadbolts etc. They form a mesh network and communicate with each other, passing commands to where they need to be. You can then control them, either through an app, or with some tweaking like I've done, Google Home. Need to be comfortable working with electricity to do it, but it's not a tough DIY project. As for the AC, on most air handlers there is a transformer stepping down the line voltage from your breakers, generally 220V like most large appliances, to 24 Volts 40 Amps. This stepped down voltage is what operates the contactor (Basically a big relay, an electrically operated switch. I've replaced several in the past.) if you have electric heat to turn on the coils, the gas valve if you have gas, and the compressor relay on your AC outdoor unit if you have a heat pump or just to run the AC. 24 volts always goes to your thermostat so it can send cooling and heating calls to those relays or valves, but what it lacks is a ground, or common in electrical parlance, hence the name C-wire. If you ever get a smart thermostat like a Nest, you'll need to run a C-wire, otherwise you'll be replacing batteries constantly. There you go. Clear as mud.

My nerd project for the day. A Z-wave controlled thermostat. Previous owner didn't follow code installing the prior one, so it took me a good 2 hours to find the C wire to keep from destroying my new thermostat. Spent the day wiring new 5 conductor thermostat cable and metering it out. The end result: The batteries are metered at 97, but that's deceptive. Since I wired up the C wire, it's powered off the 24V circuit on the transformer. It dropped from 100 because I disconnected it from the wall and programmed its wireless capability on the Z-wave unit in the basement by taking it down there on battery power. I'm kind of anal about these things, so I may replace the batteries just so it gives me a nice even 100.

Best Hank Hill voice: "That boy ain't right"

War Eagle!

He loves his little sissy. Sleeps by her. Shadows her everywhere. He's the sweetest dog I've even owned.

Kisses