News and Views

They didn’t quite finish today, but all that’s left is some trim, wire termination, and a little roof repair. Here they are installing the first solar panel: Here’s what it looked like with several panels installed: And here’s the finished job: Here’s a close-up, looking up the array: And here’s a close look at one […]

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The past couple of days, Devon has been in most of the Taiwan newspapers and and TV news shows. I think it’s some kind of publicity push by his agency to try to make him a star. He is getting ready to participate in a Taiwan “American Idol” show, or similar contest. Here’s an article […]

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Looks like there’s going to be a “Day 4” post. They didn’t finish today. I guess the rain Friday and Monday set them back a little. Most of the work today was wiring, in and out of the attic. Not much to show, but I’ll post some pictures anyway. Here you see where the wires […]

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Two things were accomplished today: They cut the tiles so the mounts could extend up through them, and they fastened rails to the mounts. Here are the rails. Tomorrow they should fasten the solar panels to the rails. Looks like the ends still need to be trimmed. Here is a close up of one mount […]

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We have approvals from the city of Tempe, the HOA and the utility company, so we are ready to move forward and install the solar panels on our roof. Construction is scheduled to begin this Friday (November 4), and be complete on the following Tuesday. Inspections and final approval will take another 1 – 2 […]

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I posted in February about installing a new hybrid hot water heater. Although the initial price was almost $1000 higher, it is supposed to cost less to operate. 6 months later, I have some data. Comparing kilowatt-hours consumed in 2011 with 2010, my average monthly bill is $43 less than it would have been at […]

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In early August the surgeon released me to play basketball, and things were going well. I was shooting at a good percentage, feeling good and getting stronger. Then around the first of September I started feeling pain in my shoulder again and getting weaker. One day I could hardly lift my arm, and it hurt […]

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I spent the last 10 days in the far east — New York and Pennsylvania. The main event was a four-day hike in the Pennsylvania “wilderness”, but I also got to meet Jennifer’s family and ride with Dale on his delivery route (twice!). It was great to finally meet Louis, Vinnie, Carmen and Lucy, after […]

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I went for a short hike in the desert this morning with my friend Les. Hiking along a wash, we saw an old mine shaft up on the hill and decided to check it out. We climbed up to it, and it looked like it went back in for a ways, at a slight downward […]

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Next week Dale, Karen and I are going backpacking in the east somewhere, probably western Pennsylvania. We should be gone 4 days/3 nights. This will be my first experience backpacking back in the east, but I understand it is nothing but non-stop rain, mud, chiggers and leeches. I’ll humor my back-east relatives by pretending to […]

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