​Thanksgivng was a success - Here is the run down

Gylver and Joan were set to arrive around 2pm and at 1:30 pm I put the baking potatoes in the oven at a slightly lower temp so it would be over an hour for them to be done.

I then pulled out the large platter and laid out a charcuterie board: summer sausage, cured/smoked ham, smoked cheddar, cranberry goat cheese, camembert, fig jam, sour cherry jam, assorted crackers, green grapes and strawberries and a nut mix of cashews, pecan, hazel/filberts, brazil, and almonds. 

I also took the key lime pie I ordered out of the fridge and put it on the counter, it arrived last week and had been in the freezer. 

On the counter I laid out 4 of each small plates, large plates, wine glasses, forks, knives, spoons.

Gyl and Joan arrived at 2:30 with the BBQ which we put in the oven with the potatoes to warm up and we sat and talked for a while.

At 3:30-ish we moved to the table and played a crazy game called FLUXX (you start with one set of rules and as you play the rules change as does the goal to win); I have 2 version one based on Doctor Who and the others is H.P. Lovecraft's The Elder Scrolls and Cthulhu.   Some where after the first game which was longer so everyone else became familiar with how to play... I brought over the charcuterie, Joan and I opened the wine and Gyl and Erich had sparkling cider. 

At 6 pm we cleared the table and served up dinner - BBQ brisket and pork roast, coleslaw, potato, butter, sour cream, more wine, water and cider along with LOTS more talking and discussions about stocks, finances, wills, trusts, being in snow storms, etc.

THEN IT WAS TIME FOR PIE and Coffee!!!!. Joan has a love of Key Lime pie which is why i researched and then ordered a pie from a place in Key West, Florida; it is one of the best to get mail order and IT WAS SOOOooooooo good.

At 9 pm we called it a night and we packed up the pie was left over (half) and it went home with Joan as well as half the leftover BBQ. 

I was in bed and asleep by 11 pm. 
And that was my day.

I have a friend who lives in New Braunfels who is very active in the Kiwanis. She recently commissioned me to make a Temari for their holiday fundraising event.  I made two - one being in red/green/white/gold for those who observe Christmas and a Blue/Silver/White for those that celebrate Hannukah.

Afterwards I made a "very" Hannukah one for me. 

AWhere did October go?
I completed another enhancement to the Tooling Tracker and then took a long break. The shop elf and I started to binge watch some spy/mystery/action movies and series on Amazon:

• ​Jack Ryan - movie and Amazon series
• The Terminal List - Amazon series
• Jason Bourne - all movies
• Reacher - Amazon series (not the movies)

I rested and read 4 books in less than 4 weeks.

​AND I to played in the studio again. I have been slowly acquiring tools to use with the hydraulic press (thus the diversion with making the Tooling Tracker) and I spend some of each day making sample pressings of the various impression dies and texture samples using the rolling mill, of the texture plates and practiced making some small dishes with texture and impressions to learn how best to do that. Along the way I also semi-disassembled the rolling mill to clean and recalibrate it.

​ I am not done as I have to make some boxes, cups and dishes with texture and impressions.

I can't believe a month has past and I haven't update what I have been doing... Which is not much except for working on the Tool(ing) Tracker application.
I have 140 registered users but 8 have never logged in once!; gonna have to followup with them.
There are about 20 users who are really working on it with various users having created 14 Tool Types, 46 Tool Categories,  and 320 Tool Items.

And so far I have added the ability to import/parse PDF invoices to automatically create Tool items.
I have also created a website crawler to crawl the PotterUSA website to get the SKU, Name and Image of current products for a Product Image Gallery; which I finished yesterday. The crawler has already gleaned 1000+ records

I am currently working on a User Image Gallery where the users can have lots of images of the their Tool Item and even images of finished products. 

From there I add the ability of a user to attach a picture from the Product Gallery or from their Image Gallery to their Tool Item. 

On Thursday, August 18, 2022 I announced in the Potter People FB group that it was "ALIVE" and along with a link to the website I let my potential users register for an account. 

Yes, I pushed the code to "PROD" as we like to say in the coding world. The Tooling Tracker was published to the server and I felt it was time for the (possible) users to have at it.

I was done with most of basic features and I figure I would go the Microsoft route and let the users find if there were bugs I had not found, and fixed.  So far only ONE bug has been found by a user and I found 3 others all of which have fixed.

As of today I have 91 registered users and they and I are slowly adding the info to their accounts. 

As I was adding my items I came across a few things that I felt should be changed: Increase the field size for the SKU, Name, and Description on the Tool Item record; set the default page size to 10, it was 5; add the Order # to the listing page; have the quantity field default to 1.

And for an enhancement for bundles, kits, and boxes have a check box that say's the item (with purchase price, etc) is a parent item. Then allow for other (child) Tool Items to be created and tied to the parent.  I am working on this now and hope to have it released in the next few days. 

Along the way I have also made some enhancements for the Webmaster (me!) to help manage the users.

As I said in the prior post, I decided to make this dontation-ware and a few people have donated which is nice. I don't know how big this get and the database could be very big given the number of people who use PotterUSA tooling which might require subscription to cover costs but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. 

Time for me to get back to coding!

Last time, I wrote about working on "a thing"; well it's almost ready for the world. 
BUT WHAT IS IT ???!!! you ask
Sit back with a cuppa and get ready for a long tale.

Several months, even before the BIG WALK, I started pondering a database where I could track the tools, I own, for the hydraulic press I have trust me; there is a never ending list of things to purchase. Yes, it's for metal geeky stuff. Some items come with a part number on them but some things, like the rolling mill texture plates and the impression dies do NOT or it's written in marker that eventually wears off. 

To solve my dilemma I started a MS Access database what would have the information I wanted and I could put pictures of the various items in the record. I won't list the fields I settle on but let's just say it's the basic info about what was bought.

After I returned from my month long vacation, somehow in the PotterUSA Facebook group (a.k.a PotterPeople) a discussion began on how do everyone keeps track of  their stuff because many people have bought things two or three times!  Some use Excel, others Word or other text document and of course the question arose about pictures to identity dies that don't have numbers or the number wore off.  I eventually chimed in with my little database application which raised many questions as most members (9.5K+) don't know me or that I write software for fun; crazy eh??  

Some people asked if I would give them "my app" but when I questioned if they knew how to use MS Access (or if they used a Windows PC) I got crickets!

Over the next week I thought about it and I realized that there was a need for an application so others could keep track of their stuff too. I put several polls in the group regarding what devices (desktop, laptop, phone, tablet) and operating system (Winx, Mac OS, Linus, iOS, Android) and oh the confusion that resulted was amazing.  I decided that this application would have to be web-based otherwise I would be spending most of my time providing installation support; upgrades would be a nightmare.

Since I work mostly with Microsoft technology the tech stack I chose is MS SQL Server 2019 with MS SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio 2022 as the IDE for coding with the following: .net (Core) 6; ASP.NET with Razor Pages; Entity Framework (for db operations); Bootstrap for the styling; jQuery/javaScript for front end stuff; and various other packages for all sorts of functionality. 

It took about 2 weeks to all this out and then I sat down and created a clean Virtual Machine (VM) on my  development laptop so I could then begin installing all the software I would need. 

To cut a very, very, long story down to just a long story; I resurrected a framework I built 2 years about and upgraded the various backend software to be the most recent. Then I started the real building of the database tables, configuring the UI with a menu, logo and other static pages; then on to the pages where all the user interaction would take place as well as pages for me, the admin/webmaster would manage the site. I also had to make it so a user would only see their stuff - including adding, editing, deleting, viewing and printing. 

This week, the majority of the code was complete so I bought a domain and setup an account with a hosting provider; configured the email system; setup PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee, and Stripe for donations. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that the application is DonationWare - I am hoping to cover operating costs. I also have it so sample data is seeding into each user account so a user can see how it would work. 

It's now been 3.5 weeks, I have been working on it EVERY DAY of the week, since I started and I just pushed the Alpha version to the remote server and I have been working on/with it to find things that need to fixed. 

During this time I have posted pictures of what the app will look like, in the Facebook group and I have some very excited people looking forward to it. I have a long list of things yet to do to make some parts of administration easier but that can be worked on after I do the first release which I hope will be next week. 

No, really this time it's real.
What you didn't know I retired??
Well back in February I hit full retirement age (FRA) as I prepared to retire, 6 contract to hire job (out of Houston) popped up that 100% remote and had flex time so I left the job at the Air Force and started the new one.  During the interview/hiring process I told them about the BIG WALK and that I would be gone for the month of May; they agreed to it.

While walking and relaxing during my time in Scotland I realized that I really wanted to do what I want to do and that I would probably not hire on, full time, when the contract was over - IF they offered it. I was going to propose possible part time contracting work.

​Then during my COVID recovery time, after I got home,  an idea came into my head about a web application (this is "the thing" ) and I realized I really wanted to work on this more than the "day job". I spoke to the parties involved and the decision was made to do it.  

I gave notice and July 22 was my last day. 

I have started the development process with days of looking into if it should be a desk top, phone/tablet, or web application; asking people for input on functionality; what new tech to use; finding libraries to use for the functionality; should it be subscription, shareware, or donation-ware; and so many other things that needed to answered. 

I started, changed, and started over again for the first few days or so as I tried things and then I finally set my ideas down and got to coding. 

So what's the thing?? Well... I am not saying yet but a few people know so IF you know, please don't say anything in the comments, if you comment.

Now, 2 months after having contracted COVID, I think/believe/hope it is over for me. 

Two weeks ago I was very tired all the time but it seemed, at times not as deep and the thinking issues were intermittent during the day but I certainly had focus issues in the evening. The phantom smells(s) - mostly of smoke were still intermittent but I noticed they happened at night, usually after dinner.

Last week I started to feel normal in the sense of not having the fuzzy brained with lack of concentration issue every day. The sudden wave of tiredness come over me, also during the day, every day and certainly at night was lessening.  

This week, it now being Friday, and I can say I feel "normal" as the majority of the symptoms are gone! I have been doing some coding and my concentration is amazing to the point that I worked until 8pm one night and had no issues the next day.  

I shall still take it easy for the next few weeks to ensure that it's really really over. 

Here is yesterdays Texas counts showing our 2+ years of the pandemic. 

It's now a month+ since I tested positive for COVID.
I am still tired, brain fogged, confused, having phantom smells, the occasional fever and some feelings of depression. 

​Having done more reading I found an article about how "they" are seeing that people who take longer to recover (i.e. long COVID) are those who continued to work and did not rest enough. Some people have told me it has taken 2-3 months for them to feel fully recovered.

With this information, I shall be resting for another month and at that time if I am still showing symptoms I will contact one of the Long COVID Clinics in the area to see what else could be done.

​And for something else, here's a temari I just finished. I started this one back in 2021 and stopped due to the tendonitis in my right thumb. I was planning on finishing it after I returned from The Big Walk. I started to work on it but as we all know, now, I got COVID and then realized I was making too many mistakes that had to be undone so I only worked on it when I felt good. It is a C8 and comes from one of the Japanese temari books but I can't find which one at the moment. 

It's now 3 weeks since I came down with the plague and 2 weeks since I finished the anti-virals. 
This week I have been feeling a bit better but my brain focus and concentration has been crap and still come 8 or 9 pm I am dead tired. 

I was hoping to go for a short walk and see how my hip was doing but it never happed until yesterday. I actually woke up in the morning not feeling physically tired and rather clear headed. The day job got rather busy but at 6 pm I was still feeling good so out I went. It was warm (96 F) but not horribly humid; I headed down toward the lake which is just under a half mile to see how I felt and I was doing good but I did think my breathing was a bit shallow and I made an effort to take deep breaths - no chest issues or coughing I just didn't think I was getting as deep a breath as I should. The good news is/was that my hip never pained me! All told I did 1.6 miles and worked up a mild sweat. 

Tomorrow I will take another COVID test to see if I am now negative; 4 more arrived in the mail, thank you U.S. Goverment my taxes are at work!