morning in Quartzsite / relo to Plomosa

I needed to make a run into Quartzsite this morning, and I wanted to relocate as my mobile data was terrible. Dear Planet Fitness I had to make a run to the USPS to send a certified letter to PF cancelling my subscription.  You can do it in person at your “home” gym or send

2020 travels, according to Google

In 2020 you traveled a total distance of 7,032 miles  It’s interesting that a nomad drives less (7k miles /year) than the average American (12k miles/yr). The difference, of course, is that I stay in place most of the time.

logistics: Shea Rd BLM to Dome Rock BLM

I would have gotten up earlier this morning to start the relo, but coyotes were having a party last night.  Which meant that Muffin didn’t sleep.  Which meant that I didn’t sleep. Earlier in the evening I heard a honk and saw a Suburban behind me;  I recognized him from a nearby campsite.  The gentleman

heads up: 2x Battle Born giveaway

Mortons on the Move are giving away 2 heated BB lithium batts and a Victron monitor they used for promotion/testing. The heating element appears to be similar to heated pipe tape like people use to keep their plumbing from freezing. Many DIYers have been doing this already so it’s good to see some confirmation in

second stimulus and closed bank accounts

One of the reasons I held onto the Chase checking account as long as I did was to make deposit of any second stimulus easier. Judging that possibility to be nil, I closed the account and opened the (excellent) Ally online-only account. Of course then the 2nd stimulus drops. Kinda like rain after washing your

redux: why overpaneled systems don’t make braggable power

I’ve talked about this before but will revisit because it is so danged counterintuitive: overpaneled solar configurations rarely make impressive levels of power. For example, this morning the system achieved Vabs (14.7v) at 0950 local time.   By definition, charging acceptance will drop from this point until float (or sundown in my case).  So barring the

life upgrade: turning off my phone

I have always had an uneasy relationship with the telephone.   To paraphase the famous historiographical quip, this says more about me than it does the telephone.    So what makes voice calls unpleasant for me? First, I am socially awkward.  Trying to understand social cues even under favorable conditions maxxes out my CPU, increases my anxiety,

bringing old Pi boxes back online

While I was in Wally World my devices were updating over their wifi (repeated in the van). Two of the devices were a Pi and Pi2 I brought back online. The Pi 3 does the DVR duties and the others have just been sitting in a plastic pencil box.  They are small enough I brought

challenges: bandwidth, water, party people

A few days left here in Shea Rd.  My 28d cooling-off period for Quartzsite is up on the 5th.  The Q dump transfer station is open next week until the 6th, and I’d like to drop off trash before getting set up in Q.   So I relocate on the 5th or 6th. challenges My internet

three months on the new VPS

Just got my quarterly renewal notice for the linux Virtual Private Server so it’s time for a review. You may remember I was coming from one larger (512MB RAM) American VPS, one smaller (128MB RAM) European VPS, and a share of a database server. For the same money I got one larger (1GB RAM) European