G'night moon
Current Wx: Temp: 82.76°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 8.05mphWords: 13
Went to lock the front door last night and spotted the crescent moon.
✍️ Reply by emailShadow Test
Current Wx: Temp: 86.02°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 9.22mphWords: 3
Another test post.
✍️ Reply by emailGremlins
21:51 Friday, 21 July 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 86.02°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 697
I guess I blogged too soon about "mission accomplished."
I tried to post G'night moon with the automation I'd put together that worked in the Traffic post, and it didn't work.
But first, an update...
I received the 128GB of RAM in the mail yesterday, and I installed it last night. Hilarity ensued.
It took three boot attempts to finally get the iMac to boot into the login screen. After logging in, the computer pauses for what feels like minutes, I haven't timed it yet, before getting to Finder, and then running all the stuff that runs at startup. I've been through this drill many times now, and it doesn't improve. I guess it's doing some kind of RAM check or some other diagnostic that takes an inordinate amount of time compared to booting with 64GB.
But once it's up and running, it reports it has 128GB of RAM and seems otherwise content.
I don't reboot often, usually, so I decided it was something I can live with.
Then I tried to do the G'night moon post.
The last part of the automation runs an Automator app called Sync Server, which is a "Watch me do" recorded script that selects the Forklift favorites menubar item. This automation ran correctly on Wednesday. Today, it failed. The cursor moved under app control and tried to click the menu bar items, but seemingly failed and then wouldn't release the mouse cursor. Drag the mouse and it would drag itself right back up to where that final menubar item was supposed to be. Click-it, don't click-it, makes no difference. Little gear spinning in the menubar. Did the command-tab thing hoping I could get to Sync Server and just do a CMD-Q or Esc or something... It's not an app that appears in command-tab.
Ugh. Press the power button, hit return for Shut Down.
Restart, and wait.
While I was waiting, I used the 13" M1 MBP to search for some clue on Automator not releasing the mouse cursor. No joy there.
Once everything was back up and running, I launched Automator and opened Sync Server. Tried to run it from the main run command, just to see if it would run in Automator. Same thing, trapped the cursor. Did CMD-Q to quit Automator, thinking that would release the cursor. Get a dialog that there's an automation running with two buttons, the left one being Quit or "Quit anyway," the right one being the default and selected by pressing Return, "Cancel."
Ugh!
I took a stab at various key combinations with Return to see if I could make it select the non-default, since I couldn't use the mouse. No joy. Not saying there isn't one, there are a million of these little tricks hidden in Mac OS, but I wasn't going to go look for one just then, so hit the power button again.
Minutes later, back into Automator. Deleted the actions, re-recorded it. Ran it from Automator. Ran fine.
Saved it, ran just the Sync Server app and it reported it didn't have permission and I needed to give it permission in Accessibility in System Settings. Well, it does have permission in Accessibility in System Settings. Ugh!
Figured I'd log out and log back in and see if that reconciled something. Nope, same error. Logging out and in is a lot faster than re-booting though.
So, what worked on Wednesday, doesn't work on Friday. What works in Automator, doesn't work outside of Automator. Sigh.
There are probably better ways to do what I want to do anyway, so I guess I'll look into those. But wow, this hit-or-miss thing with Mac OS Ventura and automation is frustrating. I did open the recorded actions and looked at the associated UI script events and that all looked benign. No clues there.
It's a mystery. I know Automator has something of a less than sterling reputation. While it doesn't do a lot, the things it does do, it seems to do them well. Except "Watch me do." And something in Apple's security features is bumping into it as well. Beyond my pay-grade.
✍️ Reply by emailCloudscape 7-20-25
Current Wx: Temp: 66.25°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 10.63mphWords: 495
Florida is flat. About the only thing that offers any sense of "scale" may be clouds in the sky, though you have to be at the beach, or somewhere in open country to really get any sense of it. In Del Webb, the only thing you feel is claustrophobia.
We're at about 1400 feet here, which is high enough to be above much of the landscape to the west. (The hill is higher behind us.) So there's this enormous canvas that is right before us, where nature creates something different every day.
I suppose it could be a matter of perception, and where one chooses to place one's attention. There are smaller canvases in our yards, but in suburbia we try to make them as uniform as possible and "change" is often of the unwelcome variety (weeds, fungus, etc.)
Anyway, enough of that.
Made it to the gym this morning. Just get up, get dressed and go. I think it has to be the first thing I do, so I don't get distracted or give myself the opportunity to talk myself out of it.
Got there about 0550 this morning. One of the old guys that was there on Friday was there, elliptical man. And there was a young guy there too, who seemed to be an employee. He sat at the desk for a while anyway. Later he was on the treadmill, and then I lost track of him. Another young woman showed up about 0630 and I let her in. She said she had a week's pass. Fine with me.
Knee tucks were hard again. I've experienced some de-conditioning I guess. They should recover quickly, I think. This equipment is different than what we trained on in Florida. Had a time of it trying to figure out the hip abduction/adduction machine; but I eventually got it. Their "seated row" machine is different, but then I saw they had another one that was more conventional. Found a platform I could use for step-ups, but I can't adjust the height. It's about a foot, maybe a little more. I think it's the same as I was doing in Florida. Close anyway.
Spent some time in the garage yesterday, adding a corner to the shelf we'd built when Mitzi's son-in-law was here. I put the Makita battery storage brackets on the bottom of it, and two chargers on top. May get in there today and put something up to hang clamps on. It ain't pretty, but it's starting to get more organized.
Since I worked out this morning, I'm feeling a bit lazy now. I need to get this medical history thing finished so I can make an appointment with a dermatologist. I also need to find a new primary care doctor. It'd be great to be young and not care about any of that health stuff. My youngest says, "Adulting is hard."
Try gettin' old, sweetheart.
Well, better turn to.
✍️ Reply by emailBasement Pour
Current Wx: Temp: 73.42°F Pressure: 1003hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 13.47mphWords: 373
Well, that's done!
They finished everything just before the rain arrived, so we got lucky. There was some smokiness returning as well, and the weather seems to have pushed that out too.
They've got to let those walls cure a bit and then they'll take down the bracing and begin working on the slab. I have to figure out where the PEX piping will go for the radiant heat. But first they have to lay out the plumbing, interior wall footers, add stone to bring everything up to grade, compact it all, lay PEX then rebar, then pour. (Well, there's a vapor barrier, and the insulation on top of that as well too.)
Once that's done, they can bring in the floor joists and set those, followed by the subfloor, which is necessary for the bracing for the next courses of ICF blocks. I'm guessing we're looking at a couple of more weeks before we pour the walls of the main floor.
Then the challenge will be the gable ends. I have no idea how that's going to go, but I'm not the guy doing it.
All I did was watch all morning, and I'm exhausted. I can't imagine what Brad and Derrick feel like.
We had a final design meeting for the timber frame deck and porch and resolved all the outstanding questions regarding the design. We're hopeful now that the roof decks will all align properly. We learned that if we want to get the roof on this fall, we'd better hustle because a lot of the good teams are already booked out two years! Yeesh!
I met with CleanLife LED to do a notional layout of the low-voltage DC lighting. That should be enough for them to quote us for the bill of materials. Not every switch will be remotely operated, because the associated controller is $50, and the switch is $20. So we'll still be running wiring to many switch locations, but it'll be doorbell wire. Once we order the material, they'll do an actual wiring plan for our installer.
Still outstanding is the cost of getting utility power to the house, and we're expecting that to be a big expense.
In the meantime, the beat goes on...
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