SRHuston Dot Net

Open doors we find our way
We look, we see, we smile
Surely day-breaks cross our path
And stay maybe a while

–Yes, “Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)”

Been a while, as often happens. I’ll summarize a few things since that’s what’s on my mind and what brings me here today 😀

Emily really wanted the Epic limited edition boxed set and we got it for her for Christmas; but my old turntable was still not operational since we moved here, as the Yamaha receiver we had didn’t have a phone pre-amp – though it subsequently died anyway – and the JVC we used to use before it wasn’t working well anyway and wasn’t usable for things after all. So I finally bit the bullet and picked up a new receiver, then got the equipment I knew I’d need to get the turntable up to snuff: a new cartridge since I never replaced the one on it for the entire time I used it (got a new stylus and kept using that), and a new belt since the old one was .. well, old. Got things sorted out, pulled the LPs out of the cabinet they were shoved into and organized them (and found out about Discogs, which will be great next time I go to the thrift store), even played a few albums to test things out. Christmas day she was thrilled, and David got a couple albums as well since once the kids knew vinyl was an option they put some on their wish lists. Parenting win. I got some new records too, so overall win.

Also on my wish list was a new weather station, an Ambient Weather WS-2000, because the one I got a few years ago started acting strange – doing things like reporting the temperature some 20-30 degrees lower than it was, for example. Some things said that could be a result of low batteries, and it had been up long enough that I thought that might be an issue too, so this spring/summer I pulled it down off the garage and replaced them. Unfortunately, things didn’t improve, so I figured it was time to shop for a replacement. Well I got it for Christmas, and currently have it sitting on my front porch bungeed to the railing while I test things out, but I’ve already set it up in weewx replacing the La Crosse one. Tomorrow I plan to be out, though the wind will be pretty high anyway, so on Wednesday I’m hoping I can climb up and swap out the old one for the new one. Then I can ring in the new year with new weather measurements that will be more accurate than the -40F that the old one said it was this morning. And you can see all the published goodness here: https://srhuston.net/weather/

Oh, and the quote and image? I was listening to Tales from Topographic Oceans as I wrote it. And listening to music on vinyl is a kind of ritual, if you do it right. And I did. And it was. And it was glorious.