Indoor antics

Last night was on the quiet side.  Cindy was out to dinner with her daughter and Alfred so I had a nice night at home with the girls.  One of the things I did was my first indoor flight with the Phantom, I wanted to see how it’s stability would translate indoors.  The answer was, very well. I had no issue keeping the copter under control with one hand while shooting video with the other.  It would drift around a bit due to poor GPS signal but it was very easy to keep it safe from any potential impact objects, despite it’s size.

The pets were not at all happy with my indoor flight session. The Phantom is loud and pushes large amounts of air around.  Tuki hid behind the stand on the top of his cage, Sadie stayed put in the dining room and Nicki retired to the quieter bedroom.  It was fun hovering the Phantom indoors but obviously it is much better suited for outdoor flight where it has room to spread it’s wings (propellers) .

I ordered a prop balancer for the copter.  Evidently pretty much every prop you buy will be slightly unbalanced.  This causes slight vibration which can show up in aerial video.  In order to balance a prop you mount it on the balancer, turn it so it is parallel to the table and release it.  If it falls to one side or the other that is the heavy side.  You take sandpaper and sand the heavy side slightly and repeat until the prop stays perfectly balanced.  It sounds potentially tedious but everything I have read says it is one of things you really should do.

Ali flies home this afternoon.  I will be returning the dogs to her place after work.  It seems like the girls have been with me for a long time, so long that it almost felt like I was transported back to the days where the dogs lived at the house full time.

I have been fortunate to be able to accommodate them being at the house during weekdays between the kindness of my neighbor who let them out for me several days, and Cindy, who reappropriated vacation time so she could make sure the girls were taken care of.

Both of the dogs seem to have positive results from their longest uninterrupted house stay since the split.  Sadie, who has been getting increasingly chunkified has definitely lost some weight with her nearly unlimited access to the backyard, allowing her to run off some chub. Nicki’s energy level and mobility are noticeably better as well.  Watching her be able to do more than just plod along slowly has been great.  Watching her run a little bit around the shed the other day was one of highlights of the new year so far. Waking up tomorrow without them will feel weird for sure.

I am mired in a very bad losing streak in Hearthstone, which continued last night.  Strategies that were consistently working for me no longer do.  Looks like it’s time to reevaluate.