Merry Christmas, everyone!
I realize it has been quite some time since my last post, so it is more than about time I flag a new life-sign. :-)
The past couple of months have been the busiest year-end we have been having ever.
I have had to visit several customers for year-end installations and training, participated in a 10-day workshop on ancient wood structured in Florence, Italy in October and did many other interesting things.
As the years before, we haven't had a white christmas here this year; instead the temperatures are circling around 0°C and we are having a wonderful mix of ice and rain. So you have to scratch ice off your car every morning. :-( As far as christmas-presents are concerned, I am happy. I got a new alarm clock (you had to push the buttons on my old one so hard that you almost snapped the casing when you wanted to set a time), a new hard-shell for my iPod and some books. Yesterday, all of my family came together which was nice as well.
I visited my grandma in the nursing home today. She has been there for just over a year now and we have seen some pretty extreme ups and downs during that time. Thankfully, today was one of her bright days and it was very nice to see her.
Our heat-pump is once again at its operational limits, barely able to feed enough heat into the house. If it gets just a bit more colder, the house will start to cool down exponentially with every degree the outside temperature is dropping. The trial against the company that sold and installed the system almost 3 years ago will commence in march or april. So far, the electronics of the thing have not caught on fire again for a third time. I am undecided wether that is because we now keep the electronics box open with live exposed wires but better ventilation and cooling or wether it just hasn't been pushed far enough yet. The next two and a half months will tell, I guess.
In part because of the heatpump situation, in part because it needed to be done anyway, we have started replacing the windows around the house with better insulated ones and will look at installing a possibly Solar-Power-capable better insulated roof next spring as well.
As far as traveling is concerned, my list of places to go to is filling up again. I have to visit one of my airline customers again tomorrow because of an equipment failure. Lovely trip; 2hrs in the car each way for a 30 minute repair. :-( Other than that, I will be going to Hamburg in January, among other places. Also on my list is a week Abu Dhabi in March and also a while Boston and maybe also a few other US cities in May. I may "have" to squeeze in another one or two-week trip to Boston before then, but that is not under my influence.
I will post on some other things at a later time (but this year still), when I am finished doing what I have do do next.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
The past couple of months have been the busiest year-end we have been having ever.
I have had to visit several customers for year-end installations and training, participated in a 10-day workshop on ancient wood structured in Florence, Italy in October and did many other interesting things.
As the years before, we haven't had a white christmas here this year; instead the temperatures are circling around 0°C and we are having a wonderful mix of ice and rain. So you have to scratch ice off your car every morning. :-( As far as christmas-presents are concerned, I am happy. I got a new alarm clock (you had to push the buttons on my old one so hard that you almost snapped the casing when you wanted to set a time), a new hard-shell for my iPod and some books. Yesterday, all of my family came together which was nice as well.
I visited my grandma in the nursing home today. She has been there for just over a year now and we have seen some pretty extreme ups and downs during that time. Thankfully, today was one of her bright days and it was very nice to see her.
Our heat-pump is once again at its operational limits, barely able to feed enough heat into the house. If it gets just a bit more colder, the house will start to cool down exponentially with every degree the outside temperature is dropping. The trial against the company that sold and installed the system almost 3 years ago will commence in march or april. So far, the electronics of the thing have not caught on fire again for a third time. I am undecided wether that is because we now keep the electronics box open with live exposed wires but better ventilation and cooling or wether it just hasn't been pushed far enough yet. The next two and a half months will tell, I guess.
In part because of the heatpump situation, in part because it needed to be done anyway, we have started replacing the windows around the house with better insulated ones and will look at installing a possibly Solar-Power-capable better insulated roof next spring as well.
As far as traveling is concerned, my list of places to go to is filling up again. I have to visit one of my airline customers again tomorrow because of an equipment failure. Lovely trip; 2hrs in the car each way for a 30 minute repair. :-( Other than that, I will be going to Hamburg in January, among other places. Also on my list is a week Abu Dhabi in March and also a while Boston and maybe also a few other US cities in May. I may "have" to squeeze in another one or two-week trip to Boston before then, but that is not under my influence.
I will post on some other things at a later time (but this year still), when I am finished doing what I have do do next.
Merry Christmas, everyone!