Monthly Archives: June 2021
SwitchBot Bot . . .
Today at work was mostly trying to think of things that I need to do before we leave on Monday, making sure plenty of product labels are printed up, cables made up, etc.
I also installed another Switchbot Bot Switch on the AC back in the shipping department. It’s high up on the wall, and the remote is kind of funky.
But the real reason is so that we can automate the On/Off schedule, so that it comes on earlier in the morning before anyone comes in to work. As the days are getting hotter here in Texas, it helps if the AC can get a head start on the day.
A few weeks ago I installed on the AC in the lobby and it’s been working great. It turns the AC on at 8:45am and off at 4:45pm each weekday, and on at 11am and off at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.
So it was quick and easy to program the one back in the shipping area for the same times.
We’ve had on our coffee pot for a couple of years now, for the same reason.
It starts coffee at 7:40am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I get up early for work, and 9:40am on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday when I get up later.
Yes, the coffee pot has a delayed start function on it, but it can’t handle the different times on different days thing, plus we have enough momentary power glitches here that clear the clock function on the Mr. Coffee.
In case it’s not really clear, the Switchbot Bot is a computer-controlled button pusher. When it’s activated a little lever comes out for a few seconds and then retracts.
You can get a better idea from this video.
A really neat, versatile product.
Tomorrow we’ll try to start wrapping up all the things we need to do before we leave on Monday. But at least it will get off to good start with lunch at the Texas Huddle Grill and one of their great PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burgers.
YUM!
Thought For The Day:
I’m old enough to remember when the quarantine was only going to be 2 weeks.
Last Day Of A Nice Long Holiday . . .
Jan and I headed to lunch about 1pm, and as happens sometimes, we didn’t know where until we were actually on the way. But we ended up at Los Ramirez Mexican once again.
Always good.
Then our next stop was right down the street to the Take 5 Oil Change place to get the Jeep taken care of before our upcoming trip. This was our first time to use Take 5, and I was impressed by two things.
The first is that, unlike JiffyLube and others, Take 5 let’s you stay in your car while they’re doing the oil change. And two, oil changes having gotten expensive since the last time I had it done, rather than doing it myself.
$65 for regular (non-synthetic) high mileage 5W30. Ouch!
Then it was one last stop at HEB for a few things before heading home.
Later I got two of the four front solar screens installed, but it looks like I’m going to have to reposition a couple of the inside magnets that have come loose.
That’s for tomorrow.
While I was outside I also hooked a Harbor Freight battery maintainer to the Dakota battery to keep it charged up while we’re gone and later. Saves me from putting my charger back on it every few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago it was announced that the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis had been closed indefinitely due to cracks found during a recent inspection.
For a while Mississippi River water traffic under the bridge was also closed, backing up barges up and down the river. Though river traffic has been restored since the first phase of the repair has been completed, they say it will be still be AT LEAST several more months until the bridge is reopened to vehicle traffic.
So why I’m posting this?
Well, we’ll be traveling through there next Tuesday on our way up to Illinois. Now we will be coming up I-55 from LA/MS and will be crossing the I-55 bridge down south from the broken one.
But having crossed both bridges a number of times when we’ve been staying in the area, the traffic is pretty thick on both bridges at the same time. So I was wondering about possible backups on the I-55 crossing since it is now carrying the traffic from both bridges.
But I’ve seen several FB postings saying that it’s not a problem, especially since we’ll be passing through in the middle of the day rather then the morning or afternoon rush hour.
One less thing to worry about.
Thought For The Day:
Burning your bridges behind you takes too long. I prefer explosives.
