Looking for a new car
We’re looking for a new car since the van was in an accident a while ago. The insurance company decided not to pay to get it fixed, but give us a check instead. It turns out we’re also going to get the van back. I’ll use it as a truck since 4×8 sheets of material will fit in it and also to pull the boat. The van is drivable, but not worth fixing. I test-drove a couple cars yesterday and will do some more looking today. I’ve been looking at the Subaru Forester. It’s a small SUV/wagon type vehicle with AWD. It should get around the mid 20s for gas mileage, yet still have enough room for snowboards, hockey sticks and other kid-type stuff. I found one with just over 90k miles that’s a good price. We’ll need to return the rental car and pick up the van today. The insurance check should come today, too. There’s nothing quite like the queasy feeling you can get when buying a used vehicle – wondering if you picked one that will need expensive repairs or one that will turn out to be a good deal.
I’ve been wondering about the best way to start designing the BBQ grill temperature controller. That’s going to be a tough thing for me to build. Choosing the microprocessor, learning how to create the circuit and write the program is not a strong area of knowledge for me (actually, I know almost nothing about that). I did check out terracotta pots at Wal-Mart yesterday. They have a 14″ pot that seems pretty durable, but not too heavy. I think a bigger one will be better, maybe up to 20″ in diameter. Maybe Menards or a nursery/landscape store will have the larger pots. Making a fake Big Green Egg with the pots will be the easy part, and usable by itself, though with a temperature controller will be even better.
With all the snow we’ve been getting, the snowblower has been getting a good workout. A spring that engages the drive wheels came off a week ago and I had to fix that, but overall it’s been working really good. I helped a couple neighbors clear the snow in their driveways yesterday. It was the first time I’ve meet those two neighbors.
Boy, that sure was boring to read.
