Day 149, Sunday, December 31, 2017 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 42

Almost Full

Sunday, December 31, 2017 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 42, 0 Miles, 3,740.2 Towing Miles For the Trip

I did some playing with my new Nikon D850, combined with a 2X Teleconverter & my 80 - 400 Zoom lens. The end result is a wide open f stop of f:11, and the autofocus doesn't work, and Nikon doesn't recommend the combination, but manual focus is OK, and the image isn't too bad. The moon isn't quite full, but that shows the craters at the edges better.

I had an interesting morning. Awake at 6:00AM, just in time to catch Weekend Edition Sunday & the puzzle (Which, for one of the few times, I got, having been to Walla Walla, WA more than once).

I usually climb out of bed & open the shades on the sun side of the trailer to help with the morning heating. Looked at the thermometer - outside 43°F, inside 48°F? Since I have the furnace thermostat set for 58°F, that didn't seem right. Checked the thermostat, and it was off. I must have hit the buttons while working on the radio yesterday. Under all the blankets I have on the bed, along with a ski hat I sometimes wear on cold nights (the buzz cut hairstyle results in insulation loss), I didn't notice that it was cold in the trailer until I got up. It only took the furnace 10 minutes to bring the trailer back to 58°F.

I didn't get all that much solar heating (or electricity from the solar panels) this morning - gray skies & cool for the walk for coffee. Started the day down 21amp hours, and I'm still down 6 amp hours at 1:00; not a problem, but the first day since tilting the panels that I haven't been back to full by 1:00.

After breakfast I did some reading, then finished up my year end accounting, put the 2017 spreadsheets in the "old" folder, and updated the 2018 spreadsheets. I went to the Social Security website & discovered I got a raise this year, the first in 3 years. I even started on the 2017 income tax information, at least the year to date interest from my banks. Some make it easy to find (on the main page), others make you dig into your account information. In any case, that part is done. I usually file in early February as soon as I get my W2s since I have been taking the standard deduction for years, and don't expect that to change.

Since the late afternoon sun got the batteries up to full, I used the microwave to cook a Boston Market Chicken Parmesan for dinner.

Until Tomorrow -