Thursday, November 22, 2012

And The Beat Goes On....

With a sunny break in the weather, a few days back, I managed to get outdoors to complete the annual 'pick up leaves' task.  We purchased a Toro leaf vac last year and this was my first opportunity to try it out.
Rain, rain, go away....
The day after an incredible downpour, the skies opened up, the sun came out in force and that signaled my cue to get out and finally gather up the leaves in our yard.
Vacuum system works great.
Our previous home had a good sized - heavily treed - yard.  I could collect the leaves with my Honda mulching mower.  This new home, with a no lawn, called for a different strategy to gather leaves.
Mulching leaf vac.
This was my first attempt with the leaf vac and I was quickly sold on its merits.  The task of walking around the yard and gathering leaves was really easy. It's a great tool!

Within three hours, I had picked up all leaves in the back and front yard.  The bag collection system works great.  Alright!....another job done.
...and the beat does go on....
With the rain back in full force, I moved indoors to continue working on a project I have busied myself with these past few winters, before we head south.

We have a rather large collection of LP's.  These records contain a large selection of music tracks we quite like.
USB Turntable connected to our desktop computer allows us to create MP3 music files.
I'm quite enjoy converting the preferred music tracks to MP3 files.  About one year ago, I managed to transfer one large box of LP's over to iTunes.  Now, I'm focused on another box.

It is as simple as plugging the USB connection from the turntable to the computer.
My goal is to transfer the music of choice from this box to iTunes by mid-December.
I save projects such as these for rainy days when getting outdoors is less appealing.
I was surprised by the number of jazz records in our collection.  These LP's have been stored in boxes, in our basement for many years.
Let the music play....
The upside (or downside for some) is that the tracks can only be uploaded in real time.  Some could find that far too time consuming but I, on the other hand, quite enjoy listening to the entire cut while the computer does its work.

With one of our two laptop computers beginning to fade, I ordered a new Dell laptop last week.  It arrived a few days ago.  I have not had a lot of time to play with Windows 8 but I'm sure it will become old hat within a few hours of tickling the keys.
I made quick work of getting the camera out to steal this shot of Easton with his cat, Kuma.
Easton was over for a visit....and his cat came along too.  I'm baby sitting Kuma the cat while Easton, his mom and Nana Jeanette are off to Edmonton for a week of visiting family.  More on that later.

Tuesday had me visit our optometrist for my regular eye exam.  All was good on that front.  There is no need to change my prescription.  Wednesday was set aside for lunch with a couple of my golfing friends and, as soon as I complete writing this blog, I'm off to our dentist for a regular exam and cleaning.

Once back home, I have the option to either prep and paint  our master bath or continue digitizing LP tracks to MP3 files.  Hmmmmmm, what to do....what to do!

Thanks for dropping by.




5 comments:

  1. You've been a very busy guy, Rene. That LP conversion project is pretty neat, you're the first guy I've known to actually do that so I'm glad to hear it works.

    I'm thinking that leaf blower would be a nice addition to my tool shed !

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  2. Your leaf vacuum looks like a nice addition to your gardening tools. Should follow your lead and transfer a lot of our old LP music over, we have boxes of them in storage also. Would be nice to have along on our travels. Great picture of Easton with his cat.

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  3. I just finished transferring all our music CD's to the iPod--it was time consuming but worth it.

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  4. Man, you need a holiday...we got our Son in Law one of those record players, and he loves it. Good way to preserve old music.

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  5. great idea for all those old vinyl records! Now that you have some alone with just the kitty you will have tons of time to get busy doing what you want!

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