Work weather, Play ball, OTA

The most significant cold front of the fall rolled through during my long weekend that dropped the lows into the upper 40s in my area. The cool weather felt good but it also meant it was time for me to finally take on a project I was waiting for such temperatures to complete. The area where I have the raised garden had a border that was made out of landscape timbers which were rotting severely. It’s something I had mentally noted as a to do since I moved in and has gotten progressively worse over the last couple years.

The prior owner didn’t install the timbers in a way that kept them all that secure or connected together. I have a decent amount of experience building these type of borders as I made a few at the old house. I utilized my heavy iron post bar to pop out the old border. The old owner also never totally closed off the old border in the back corner for some reason that I did not know until Tuesday. There was a large rock in that corner so instead of removing it he just stopped the border there. Through a combination of the post bar and lifting the heavy rock out atlas stone style I cleared the way to build a complete enclosure.

The project was not hard but was laborious, probably the most work I have done since repairing the fence. Even with the high temperatures in the 60s I still worked up a sweat when it came time to throw 30 bags of mulch into the back of the truck and then unload/spread it around. I pounded two foot rebar into each side and connected each section with metal straps to keep it secure. Wooden borders definitely have a shelf life in Florida. I am hoping my efforts will hold up until I reach retirement age.

I played pickleball twice during my five day weekend, getting out on Monday and again yesterday. The weather has been glorious to do so. Since I started recording a lot of our lunch time games I have picked up on a lot of bad habits I am doing on the court that I am trying to correct, an added benefit.

I took the time to produce a promotional video for Inmotion during my time off to promote the great discounts they are running for Black Friday. I shot tons of footage for what turned out to be a 4 minutes video.

The Eagles played Monday night and I totally forgot to watch/listen to it. They managed to squeak out a 10-7 win against the Packers in Green Bay, a nice accomplishment.

Ever since I dropped Comcast I have been messing around with using an antenna to get over the air network channels. You can get a surprising amount of stations, if you have good signal. I bought two different indoor antennas and had disappointing results. I only pulled a couple channels and the reception was awful. I knew I needed better solution. I came up with an idea, how about mounting it in the attic?

So yesterday I attached the indoor amplified antenna to a roof support in the attic, orienting to face the north where most of the towers are. I then connected the antenna to one of the coax lines which I connected to a tv. To be quite honest I did not think this would work either as I am at least 40 miles from the transmitters. Imagine my surprise when I saw 47 channels pop up when I did a scan, sweet. Now the issue is the coax lines I have identified in the attic are one that goes to the kitchen and my office, neither of which is ideal. My goal is to identify the line that goes to the master bedroom and get the signal pumped in there. I love when a plan comes together.