The neighbourhood rascal.

Marilyn (our neighbour) told us that the family that had this cat just moved away and abandoned it, but that has not worried this fine little guy, who has made friends with most of us in the neighbourhood. Always comes running when we're out in the garden, occasionally his little face will appear at our garage roof window and he's always out and about.

Cord Cutting

I may have posted a photograph of the 8 bay antenna originally when I mounted it (more tea vicar?) and set up the ATSC capture system. However, now it has an extra doobery attached it seems appropriate to present it again.

The little grey box at the bottom is the new addition, it is a coaxial amplifier that boosts the signal very close to the source. I decided it was needed as at certain times of the day, the signal for CHEK TV becomes weak, hopefully this will sort that issue out.

It's been 28 months now, and we "survive" on a few high definition ATSC channels (CHEK and PBS) with several other free OTA (over the air) digital channels. Add Netflix to the mix, plus an amazing amount of free streaming available on the web, and we have our fill of free TV.

Tinkering

The antenna expreiment is about 28 months and counting now, and today I decided to tweak the setup slightly by adding an inline amplifier to the signal close to the antenna itself. It made good sense as the weather has been quite fantastic over the last week.

Here I am, standing barefoot on a very hot asphalt shingle roof, burning the soles of my feet, the antenna in the background :

Our life in a nutshell

Early retirement, this about sums it all up :

Photo taken at the "Right Track" downtown Auckland. Karen starting on her first "Mac's Gold" all malt lager.

Muriwai Beach March 2015

Sue sent this picture from a week or so ago, already seems like an age. This is Karen watching as I take ten minutes out of this short life to dive into the surf at Muriwai Beach. It was a fantastic day, the gannet colony, the brew pub, the burning hot sands. Memories are made of this.

The little car that could.

Just back from Canadian Tire after ordering a new set of Michelin tires for the car (they gave me a very good deal). It was such a nice, spring day that I decided to give the wheels, and then the outside of the car a wash (phase one of the complete clean) while Karen pottered around in the garden. Karen took possession of her Acura RSX on the 21st March 2003, so we are now officially into our 13th year with the reliable baby. Oil change soon and new plugs. Total kilometres as of today : a mere 75,547.  Although it's a Tuesday, we decided that a post car cleaning beer was in order to celebrate the baby's birthday. Any excuse!