Sunset 12-16-25
08:13 Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 37.06°F Pressure: 1009hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 16.58mphWords: 1247
"We're havin' a heat wave, a tropical heat wave..."
It's 37°F out there this morning, and that's nice.
Sunset last night was pretty too.
I'm getting adapted to the external keyboard. Still missing some keys, but I'm not hammering my fingertips as much.
The MPB stand arrived and things are a little better. I can see the entire screen, but the stand also has the effect of moving the screen away from my eyes, so it's not in the sweet spot of my middle-distance vision. Close enough, but not ideal.
In other news, since nothing matters anymore, I spent some money on another Apple II. This one was kind of a unicorn, and it's interesting how the dynamics of what appears on eBay seem to play out. The model I bought is an Apple IIc+. For the uninitiated, the IIc+ was the last, and fastest stock Apple II Apple released. It shed the brick-on-leash power supply for an internal power supply. The downside to that is you can't run it straight off of USB-C. It has a built-in 3.5" disk drive for 800K of disk storage. And the highlight is that it runs at 4MHz, versus the stock 1MHz of every other Apple II except the IIgs, which ran at 2.8MHz. So the IIc+ is faster even than the IIgs.
The c+ doesn't appear very often on eBay. It's not unobtanium, but while there are always a dozen or more standard IIc machines available, there may be days or weeks when you won't find a c+ listed. One came up for auction a week or so ago, and I watched it hoping to put a bid in on it, thinking I'd go as high as $600. It ended up going north of $1100! That was insane.
But, all of a sudden, there are three c+ machines available on eBay. One was a very clean standard c+ for a "buy it now" price of $750. Another was a rather dingy, yellowed version, with an aftermarket 1MB battery-backed memory expansion card, with a starting bid of $550. That machine is a bit of unicorn, because you don't often find them with the memory expansion. But, to my surprise, there was another c+ with memory expansion installed, along with the carrying case and some documentation, also listed with a "no reserve" opening bid. That auction wouldn't end until today sometime. (It's currently at $320 with 37 bids. That seems weird.)
So we went from none, to one, to three c+ machines in fairly short order.
I almost bought the $750 model, because it looked pristine and the seller indicated they'd replaced a nylon gear in the 3.5" drive that has a tendency to break in these nearly forty-year-old machines, and it had a reasonable shipping price. But I figured I'd watch the $550 auction, because it had the memory expansion card. I expected it to go north of $1K, and I wasn't going to higher than $600. If I lost the bid, I'd immediately buy the $750 machine, expecting that the $320 model would likewise go higher than $1K.
Well, I was the only bidder on the $550 auction and got it for $550 plus a rather high shipping charge and sales tax. I just checked and the $750 machine is no longer available. It doesn't indicate that it was sold, just that the seller indicated it was no longer available. The $320 machine has been inert since yesterday. I rather expect it will not go for much more than $500 now, but we'll see.
So it appears to me that some of these folks with rather rare computers watch the eBay sales and when they see one go for a high price, judge that there's a high demand and immediately list their units for sale. If the currently $320 machine goes for less than $550, I will be disappointed.
I don't understand why there are 37 bids on it though. I'm not that experienced on eBay, but I've learned to wait until the final seconds of the auction, enter the highest amount I'm willing to pay and hope for the best. I discovered that if I gave myself any more time, I'd find myself caught up in the competitive aspect of bidding and pay more than I'd intended to, which is what I thought the item should be worth.
Anyway, this particular IIc+ scratches a number of itches for me, so I'm looking forward to getting it.
The IIgs would scratch almost as many itches, but I need to work on it and it's too cold to work in the garage. I really have no place to be disassembling a power supply and doing some soldering here in the house. And I'd also have to build a platform for it that I could mount beneath the desk and, again, too cold in the garage.
The c+ will plug into the Benq with an HDMI cable, and I have two video adapters to choose from. The battery-backed RAM card means I can set up the c+ in one configuration or another, and simply turn it on and have it be ready to go. Changing configurations isn't especially difficult either, using the Floppy Emu. I can have one configuration for running a fully configured AppleWorks suite, one for UCSD Pascal 1.3, one for Apple Logo, one for Applesoft BASIC and one for DOS 3.3/Integer (Woz) BASIC, depending on what I want to play with that week.
And the fact that it runs at 4MHz with an available RAM disk makes all of those activities more enjoyable. And it'll all fit on my desk, I just have to slide this wireless keyboard under the monitor.
Got a surprise check from the insurance company yesterday, for the homeowner's policy. I thought escrow paid that a year in advance, but Mitzi and the realtor said no. Either way, we got over $1K back on the homeowner's and $900+ on the flood, so that was a pleasant surprise. I don't feel as guilty about buying the c+.
Had the county watershed protection guy out yesterday morning to look at the property and talk about septic tanks. Apart from being an additional $20K expense, it all looks pretty doable. Probably have to wait until spring to do percolation tests, but he gave us some good insights on where to put the new tank, and that all has to be planned out before we go for a permit. But we'll also need a floor plan/design to see how that fits on the property where we plan to build and that piece isn't sorted out yet.
The watershed protection guy was really nice. He's been with the county a long time, did the approval for the existing septic tank and knows all the people around here. Enjoyed chatting with him, standing in the snow at 25°F. It's easy to work with people in county government out here. In Florida, St Johns County was, for many years, maybe still is, the fastest growing county in Florida. We didn't have to work with them often, but when we did, you always got the impression that they were busy and a bit overworked/overwhelmed. This guy drove out to the house and took his time with us, it was such a nice, friendly experience.
Even with the snow and the cold, it feels warmer here.
And that's priceless.
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