pre-spring cleaning

I guess it was the pleasant weather. Once I was home, I felt like tidying up in the back yard and garage.

The first thing I did was install a second light socket in the garage. I patched this into the old knob-and-tube wiring, using a new junction box, new pull switch socket, and some armour coat from Tony.

The second light is for astronomy use.

I finished the job screwing in a red incandescent light bulb.

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While tidying and moving things about, I stumbled across some laptop bags. Ah ha! There they are... At the back of garage. Malcolm had given me a couple of surplus bags from his work. Going back a ways. When I was decommissioning my work carry-all (Magic Bag 1.0).

I needed to replace the torn leather bag I was actively using for lugging about the portable (but heavy) power tank battery booster pak lead-acid thing.

The new bag is some sort of strong cloth material. The inner, main chamber, where you'd slide in your laptop, is a tad too thin for the old Century battery pack. So, I've put it in the outboard chamber. This is not ideal from a balance point of view. But it will work fine. The point is to have something with a shoulder strap. And pockets for the AC adapter, the in-car CLA-to-CLA charging cable, the 3-way splitter, etc.

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I pulled down from the overheard storage the picnic table umbrella. Will prove handy for upcoming backyard astronomy sessions, to keep dew (or frost) off my paperwork, etc.

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I pumped up the tires on the green garden wagon. One was really low.

I tried to use my new bicycle tire pump. It is a foot pump, i.e. tall and thin, that you hold it steady with and draw in air pulling against the foot supports. Great design. However, the nozzle is bulky, due to its 3- or 4-in-1 design. And there wasn't quite enough clearance. I had to do 2 tires with my old 12-volt car tire pump, which is sounding a little laboured.

Anyway, I got all the tires pumped up. This will make it easier to pull.