Wednesday 6-28-23 Busy Dance Day & Pinball Machine Projects

 

Hot Summer Day

We had a great day with the high of 101 degrees. 

I attended four virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 at 11:00 for an hour. He called two tips of two couple A1, two tips of two couple A2 and one tip of four couple A2 to 11 participants. Dayle put us in positions that we weren't use to but he helped by cueing. Larry danced with me and we had a great time.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. She called four tips to 18 participants. She did a great job. I had to leave during the fourth tip because I had another dance. I warned her and said good-bye to everyone when I left. I had a super time dancing to Ett and with friends.

Third was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 for an hour. Dave Eno called four tips for them. He had a super small group he had three dancers. It's probably because it was later then usual. Di and Terry dance is usually at 10:00. The dancers who usually show up are from UK and they dance in the evening at their clubs. This dance was at 8:00 pm UK time. Peter was the only one from the UK. I had a fun time.

Fourth was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30 for two hours. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. Dave called one tip of C1 and Karin and Greg called the other tip to 10 participants. Dave called two A2 tips, Karin and Greg called two A2 tips and the fifth tip all the callers took turns calling to 11 participants. The last C1 tip Dave called to 10 participants. In between the A2 tips we did a little trivia. Don Moger showed up because he didn't have a dance to call in person. It is always a pleasure to see him. I had a good time dancing with friends.

While I danced Larry did a couple of pinball machine projects. First was updating the scoring screen. I wrote the other day, that he upgraded the cabinet by installing a larger scoring screen. It works great but because of the viewing angle sometimes the color in the screen was very dark. He decided he would modify the mounting plate to change the angle of the screen. He took it apart, cut the hole in the mounting plate a bit larger and made an angle box from black foam board, he then did a bit of paint touch up, he assembled and attached the angle piece with hot glue. It came out outstanding and now when you are standing and playing the screen colors look perfect. Good job, Larry👍👍.

Larry also wanted to update the pinball machine with a plunger. Currently we launch the ball with a button, the majority of real machines use a plunger, not all, some use a button. A couple of weeks ago he ordered the parts, the actual plunger came from a company in the US but he ordered the electronic pieces from a company he has previously used in France. The pieces from France arrived today.  

This is a bit bigger job. He had to disassemble a major part of the machine. The plunger requires a large strangely shaped mounting hole in the front of the machine and he also has to do a major modification to the playfield monitor mounting board. Tonight while I danced he took everything apart. Tomorrow he will begin the modifications.

The pinball machine torn apart

When I wasn't dancing I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 51 minutes and 17 seconds, which put me in 26th place in my group. I played some Angry Birds.

Since Larry was working on the pinball cabinet I played a couple games of pinball on the arcade cabinet. I played Cactus Canyon and Iron Man. While playing Cactus Canyon I got the Grand Champion high score, which was 17,497,810.

Iron Man

 

Cactus Canyon

After my last dance we started to watch On Any Sunday: Motocross, Malcolm & More on Tubi. It was suppose to be only an hour but it was the whole movie. Larry got tired after an hour of it so he went to bed. We'll finish it tomorrow. I watched the first movie of Jack Reacher. Then I watched an episode of The X-Files. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.