Done.
Render unto Caesar.
Done.
Tag: 365 project
Birdies abound.
Lots of action in the backyard this weekend.
I don’t usually care much for the mourning doves, as they aggressively hog the feeders. But I like the color around the eyes of this dove.
Red-winged blackbird:
Red-bellied woodpecker:
Bluejay:
Beautiful, red cardinal:
Eyes of Texas.
I was on campus tonight to join an old college roommate and her family watch one of her daughters in a dance competition. And her team won!
I caught a quick shot of the UT Tower. It is lit up in orange tonight; for Honors Day. Hook ’em!
By the way, if you ever want to know what the occasion is for a lit up tower, checkout this link. And a background on the university tradition of lighting the tower here.
Catching up.
Yikes, my last post was on March 3rd! I’ve been a tad busy. Since then, life has happened. I have been taking pictures along the way. Let me bring you up to speed:
– My 6th blogoversary! Six years ago I started sheila365.com. I’m not as diligent as I used to be about posting, and my posts have gotten less photo-worthy, but I do enjoy it. How time flies!
– Celebrated a friend’s birthday – this shot is from the lobby of the Hotel Van Zandt downtown. I accidentally left my Harvard Business School umbrella in the restaurant there. Oh well. 😦
– Lots of little birdies out back. I think I have 9 feeders out, altogether. I love watching them.
– We have been dealing with battery problems on Nirvana for the last couple of months. Ok, I’m using the “Royal We” there. Short story: our batteries crapped out on the boat. The charger was apparantly kaput as well. Monte has been researching chargers and new deep-cycle house batteries to keep our floating second home powered while we’re not hooked up to shore power. We have since ordered, and Monte has installed, all the various bits and pieces, and this is a snapshot of the voltmeter on the control panel down below after the installation. All is well! I think we will be anchoring out before too long!
– Work took me to Raleigh all last week. I have been taking advantage of the Austin Library’s on-line e-book and audio-book collection that can be easily checked out via the accompanying Overdrive app. On this trip, I checked out the audio book for Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley – a story about a roadtrip he took across the country with his poodle in the early 60’s. The jury is still out on how much I enjoyed it.
– It rained in Raleigh. Monte’s birthday also happened while I was there – the first that I haven’t been home to celebrate with him.
– I flew home home on Saint Patrick’s Day. Slainte!
– And then it rained some more in Austin. After MANY years of drought, and a little help from last year’s El Niñ0, Lake Travis is officially full now at 681′ above mean sea level. Hallelujah!
– Once I was back in Austin, we celebrated Monte’s birthday at a favorite restaurant. Baked Alaska for dessert!
– And, this weekend we worked in the yard and welcomed in the first day of spring!
Now you are up to date. 🙂
Tread lightly.
Last week I was using my treadmill when the motor unexpectedly stopped. In the days since then, I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about the inner workings of my treadmill (a 12 year old, well-loved Schwinn 845P).
The important bits under the cover include the digital display console, a hydraulic incline motor, a DC motor that drives the belt, a sensor that measures the speed at which the treadmill’s belt is turning, and an electronic board that controls all these things.
The symptom: The motor and belt just stopped abruptly during a workout. The console still works. The incline motor works as well. Any time I subsequently turn the treadmill back on, the console lights up, prompting for the usual inputs. Then when I press the start button, I hear a “click” after which the motor used to start-up, but now doesn’t. And after a few seconds the console just displays the message “Err LS” (looks also like “Err L5”) which apparently stands for Loss of Speed, which is an error message related to a number of different failures. I had to figure out which component had failed, causing that error.
Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting you do this at home yourself. I’m not an expert.
The patient:
The diagnostic process in my case:
- No belt movement at all.
- The circuit breaker next to the power switch has not tripped. And, besides, electricity is able to power the console and the incline motor.
- None of the capacitors on the control board appeared to be swollen or visibly failed.
- All of the wire harnesses and leads seemed to be seated firmly – no loose connections that I could see.
- The fuse on the motor control board is not blown.
- If I move the belt with my hand, I can see the “SPEED” led on the control board flashing as it turns, meaning the speed sensor is not the problem in my case. It appears to be working and sending a signal to the control board, which is receiving it and flashing the LED as the magnet on the drum passes the speed sensor.
- I disconnected the (DC) motor (P/N KK 2566) power leads from the control board and hooked them up to the terminals of a 12V car battery to test it by itself, and the motor worked fine. An inspection of the brushes also showed them to be in good shape. The motor is just not apparantly getting power from the control board as it should be.
- I can hear the relay click after pressing the start button, but the board is just not sending power to the motor, or at least not the right amount of power. A multimeter showed 3 Volts coming from the board to the DC motor.
- I googled “Err LS” and “treadmill” and read as much as I could find. There are alot of problems that can cause an Err LS message. I
- I called Schwinn to got their take, and even though the treadmill is out of production, I experienced great customer service from Joseph as he talked me through things to check to narrow down the problem.
The consensus diagnosis: Through process of elimination, the problem appears to be a failed control board (motor control board, actually). Apparantly this is a very common failure on treadmills of all makes and models.
The fix: I found a website called FitnessBoardsDirect, that carries such things. The replacement for my motor control board (P/N QQ 2197) is a new-from-the-manufacturer item, not a refurbished one. I called them as well. A guy named Nick answered the phone and was very nice and helpful; he confirmed the diagnosis and gave me a little more confidence that the item I would order might actually fix my problem. So, I decided to shell out $225 plus shipping for a replacement motor control board. Not cheap, but much less expensive than a new treadmill – a comparable new model retails for $800-$1000, depending on who you buy it from.
My replacement board arrived tonight and I installed it, and it worked. I’m back in business! 🙂
Must be March.
The bluebonnets are beginning to pop in our back yard, and all over the hillcountry.
Can’t wait for spring.
I spent some time this weekend working in the garden, getting it ready for spring. The african daisies are way ahead of me. 
My ride is here.
Lots of delays today after the strong storms last night.
Almost home.
Not in Texas.
A wee bit of snow fell outside my window today. Not enough to play in, but still pretty. I’ll be back home in a couple days. 
Howdy, neighbors!
We have many deer that roam our neighborhood, being located close to a number of greenbelts. We enjoy them. Like most of our neighbors, we restrict the tasty and ornamental flowers to our fenced backyard, and have learned to plant the more pungent deer-resistant greens in the front yard.
This week I noticed two deer have taken up residence in our neighbor’s large fenced backyard. It’s unlikely that they cannot get out of the yard, so I assume they are just very content to stay put. They are not overly concerned with us tramping around our back yard. I took this picture using my telephoto from about 150 feet away.
Love-ly day.
Tulips! I had a very nice Valentine’s Day. We went to the lake for the afternoon, and enjoyed a great sail up the lake a ways. Kevin, Kurt, Marty & Sue joined us on our boat, and Lori & Joe sailed along on Camelot.
And to cap off the day we had a delicious dinner at Andiamo. They were serving a special 4 course dinner with wine flight, and it was wonderful.
Now, I’m trying to get psyched up for Monday…
And now for something completely different…
We heard about a play near campus called Shit-faced Shakespeare, and went to see it tonight. Yep, you guessed it: one cast member is supposed to be very, very drunk, while the show goes on. I suspect it actually involves more acting than inebriation.
It’s not for everyone, but whether they are actually sh!t-faced or pretend, it’s a funny show.
It’s showing at Spider House Ballroom – little over an hour long. And they have a bar in the back.
At dawn’s door.
Not as pretty as a sunrise, but I love watching the sun light up the windows in the morning. Enjoy the day.
Bringing home the Jackson.
We watched the Superbowl at Dave’s house tonight with a bunch of friends. We played the dollar-a-square pool. Look who won at halftime (Broncos 13 – Panthers 7)!
Sheila365 