What did you do today?

[BlueSkyHigh]

No, don't believe I did!? Based on the name I think I would have remember that!?

Yes you would have!

 

[Zanne]

@havasu, that is awful. I think you mentioned in on another forum that one of the victims was pregnant. I'd read somewhere the speed was 88mph but whatever it was, it was high enough to create almost a ghost effect on the footage. No pun intended. I hope the poor bastards she hit died instantly & didn't suffer. The fact that she walked away from that... I hope the families sue the crap out of her (although I doubt she has much $ to pay).

Its too early for me to get on my soapbox about drug use and homelessness, & mental illness but maybe later.

I had to haul out more trash this morning (I'd been cleaning up stuff that spilled). I had a bit of a laugh although I was frustrated bc my brother now claims that he helped me with my work in accounting class. It was the other way around. He started off bragging that he was so great at accounting class (he failed it the first time he took it) and I pointed out that I had an A+ in the class. He then claimed it was because he helped me with my work. Which was absolute BS. I had to help him with his work- when he actually bothered to do it. I don't know if he actually believes the crap he spews or if he just likes to lie about how great he is. He's always done it ever since he learned how to speak.

I also had to bring in more cat food and appease the felines so I could get some peace. I was trying to watch Midsomer Murders and they were climbing on me and one of them was nibbling on my chin. Mind you, they still had food out, but they wanted more out.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Speaking of storm damage, I just found a piece of my one-year-old high dollar GAF roof on my deck so, along with the damage to my delicate psyche, now there is this. Also, my refrigerator is making noises like it did when there was a pin-hole Freon leak that was blowing bubbles into the tray that contains the left over water after the auto-defrost cycle. Also, the Nikon telephoto's auto-focus mechanism has gone on the fritz. When it rains it pours!

 

[havasu]

Those are just hiccups. As long as you have your health, don't sweat the small stuff.

For ***** and giggles, I tested my pool water a few days ago. It just seemed unbalanced. Never got algae but the chlorine registered high. Well, upon testing, my phosphates (which are suppose to be between 0 and 100 PPB's) was now registering 2880 PPB's. Phosphates allow algae growth, but the excessive chlorine stopped it. Well, I cleaned the filter, added phosphate remover, let the filter run for 24 hours, and the cloudiness has gone away. I also replaced my pool skimmer flapper door, since it had a crack in it. Of course, my flapper door has been discontinued, but was able to find a huge pool parts business who had one in stock. Kudos goes out to John from Johnny's Pool Service and Supplies in Covina, Cal!

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Those are just hiccups. As long as you have your health, don't sweat the small stuff.

I tend to agree but then my human factors training kicks in and I remember that a bunch of little things can add up to a big thing like 1) the nation dying by a thousand cuts, 2) drinking a bunch of NIP bottles means you finished an entire liter of hooch, etc., etc.

Take care of your algae because, who knows, in the future we may be using it as a meat substitute!

 

[havasu]

Soylent Green, my friend!

 

[Zanne]

They sell a beverage called Soylent and one of the flavors (can't remember which one) has a green color. I took a pic and showed it to my doctor and he laughed pretty hard. At the same time we both said "Soylent green is people!" Can't seem to find the pic but I'll look for it later.

 

[Zanne]

I busted my butt cleaning up to clear a path so we could get the new TV brought in. Got up at 2am to start cleaning and moving stuff. TV arrived yesterday. UPS driver accidentally dropped it on its corner. She was horrified but I know it wasn't her fault. She was trying to gently lower it and it slipped. There was really no place for her to grip on it so I told her not to worry. Amazon would replace it if it was broken. We found the handholds (which are spread too far for a single person to carry) so she helped me get it in the door. Oh, I forgot that before the tv arrived I went out and cut the weeds next to the sidewalk to make it easier to walk the path. That is why my hands, wrists, & arms hurt today.

Slept for a bit and then got up to meet my friend at the gas station-- he was out of $ & needed gas to get to work. He doesn't get his paycheck until Friday. Picked up mom's rx and some other stuff-- grabbed myself a salad for breakfast. Picked up the new phone at the post office.

Got home and setup the new phone. Had to use trial and error to figure out the code to unlink nonexistent handsets & relink. Guessed right on the 2nd try. Code used on Youtube was wrong & none of the guides had it. Pretty sure this "new" phone was actually used. It was advertised as "in box unopened" but it wasn't even in the box and the manual for the wrong phone was included. But, it's all setup and Mom can use the intercom again.

Then I had my brother help me carry the TV in to the living room. Mom paged him once to come back and try to remove the coaxial cable but it was stuck. I had to use pliers to get it loose. It was a pain to put on the new TV because it kept crossthreading. Anyway, I got the stands on the new tv and set it up in the entertainment center. I got it out of the box, assembled, and put in all by myself & I didn't break anything. Then I had to set it up for Mom to use Youtube. She's a happy camper. It has very good sound. Sound bar had to sit on the bottom of the entertainment center though bc it blocked the receiver on the TV.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Then I had to set it up for Mom to use Youtube. She's a happy camper.

All's well that ends well!

 

[havasu]

One of the sons of my retired partner is a cop for a local town (Arcadia PD). He was shot in the face last night, but fortunately the bullet exited his cheek rather entering his brin. We rushed to the hospital, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. he got lucky....real lucky.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

I heard that on Fox. God bless and keep him! Please keep us posted!

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Let's see. Yesterday I completed 6 hours of CE training for my Home Inspector's License. Actually did 8 since 2 of the hours was a repeat of a seminar I did in the fall. One of the topics was a seminar on structural connectors (think Simpson Strong Tie, since their district rep was the person who lead the seminar) and the other two seminars were on various forms of crawl space repair and basement wall repair. Once case study involved a $70,000 repair of a home in Asheville, NC. The entire home sat low off the road (a common but foolish building practice here) thus a large flow of water towards the front basement wall. It was a full basement, finished. Block wall (another bad idea). They had to excavate to the footers, power wash the wall, re-parge the wall, damp proof it, then place a foundation drain system in, along with a dimple membrane, and backfill with gravel. The contractor who did all this said "the home was well built". EXCUSE ME? Only 20 years old, you are excavating down to the footers, putting in a drain system that wasn't there to begin with, backfill with gravel which should have been done in the first place, and then in doing so, you caused an issue with the garage footers not at the same level, which required a jack screw, and then you also tell the homeowner they must regrade their landscaping to direct water away from the home AND you say it's a well built home? I don't think so. I think the original builder wasn't even thinking.

On the way home, my neighbor calls me, and asks me if I know about garbage disposals. I go over and look and one of the prongs that mashes the food against the wall, which was held in place with a swage rivet, had come off. I sent her to buy a new one and installed it today. Come to find out that the original plumber for the builder (the largest plumber for new construction in NC and SC) did not use plumber's putty but a *&^%load of silicone to affix the mount assembly to the sink. Scraped all that moldy crap off, and used plumber's putty instead. So now they are happy. As most disposals do nowadays, it came with a pigtail plug and that was not exactly easy to remove, but did that last night. They love to hardware these things here.

 

[Hamberg]

One of the topics was a seminar on structural connectors (think Simpson Strong Tie, since their district rep was the person who lead the seminar)

Wish they would do a similar one up here

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Wish they would do a similar one up here

Hamberg, send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you the seminar information and the documentation they gave me. It's all in digital PDF format.

 

[Zanne]

@havasu, I hope he will be ok. A

@Mitchell-DIY-Guy That sounds pretty cool and I'm glad you were able to help your neighbor.

I still need to get my friend over to hook up the water supply lines in my bathroom. They are roughed in but we didn't have the fittings to go from the shutoff valves to underside of sink at the time the PEX was put in. He also reversed hot and cold but I don't really care as I can cross the lines over. It slightly bugs me but not enough to climb under the house at this point.

Yesterday I cooked, cleaned up, convinced my brother to haul out trash bags I'd filled, & played Medieval Dynasty. One minute its 10pm and the next it was 3am. LOL. Today I'm trying to motivate myself to do some cleaning ut my body and brain are not having it. Probably bc I stayed up unti 3am...

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

@Zanne My neighbors are Bobby and Jennifer and they have three young boys...5, 7, 9. Bobby was out of town on business when the disposal broke, and Jenn called me. Less time to get the disposal and install than even call a plumber. Last year, Bobby called me over one morning as he was about to call a plumber because "my toilet is leaking". I go over with some towels, clean and dry around the toilet (another dumb-a** thing they do around here, toilets on wooden floors...) and starting flushing and checking everything. No leaks at the base, none at the tank, none at the fittings. I probably flushed about 10 times and concluded there are no leaks. What his young boys have is bad aim. Between this and the disposal I think I saved them a few bucks. That's what good neighbors do.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Let's see. Yesterday I completed 6 hours of CE training for my Home Inspector's License. Actually did 8 since 2 of the hours was a repeat of a seminar I did in the fall. One of the topics was a seminar on structural connectors (think Simpson Strong Tie, since their district rep was the person who lead the seminar) and the other two seminars were on various forms of crawl space repair and basement wall repair. Once case study involved a $70,000 repair of a home in Asheville, NC. The entire home sat low off the road (a common but foolish building practice here) thus a large flow of water towards the front basement wall. It was a full basement, finished. Block wall (another bad idea). They had to excavate to the footers, power wash the wall, re-parge the wall, damp proof it, then place a foundation drain system in, along with a dimple membrane, and backfill with gravel. The contractor who did all this said "the home was well built". EXCUSE ME? Only 20 years old, you are excavating down to the footers, putting in a drain system that wasn't there to begin with, backfill with gravel which should have been done in the first place, and then in doing so, you caused an issue with the garage footers not at the same level, which required a jack screw, and then you also tell the homeowner they must regrade their landscaping to direct water away from the home AND you say it's a well built home? I don't think so. I think the original builder wasn't even thinking.

On the way home, my neighbor calls me, and asks me if I know about garbage disposals. I go over and look and one of the prongs that mashes the food against the wall, which was held in place with a swage rivet, had come off. I sent her to buy a new one and installed it today. Come to find out that the original plumber for the builder (the largest plumber for new construction in NC and SC) did not use plumber's putty but a *&^%load of silicone to affix the mount assembly to the sink. Scraped all that moldy crap off, and used plumber's putty instead. So now they are happy. As most disposals do nowadays, it came with a pigtail plug and that was not exactly easy to remove, but did that last night. They love to hardware these things here.

I’d help out with Jenn…..

 

[Zanne]

mitchell, I'm glad you get along with your neighbors. Wish I got along with mine better. Or rather, I wish they didn't have the propensity to steal. Although, they haven't bothered me since the old man died of colon cancer. I've let his widow know I have first aid training and can do CPR in an emergency. I really need to go back and get some updated training on that.

Yesterday I got groceries & got new windshield wipers on the truck-- passenger side one was falling apart and the piece hanging off whenever it wiped was bugging me. Decided to replace both at the same time. Driver side one was missing spots. Bosch Icon 22A size or something. I felt like an idiot bc I lost my reading glasses and when I looked it up in the book I couldn't really see well. Guy in O'Reilly's was nice about it. He even put them on for me. I watched so I could remember how they went on.

Today I had to go back to the store to get cleaning supplies & more trash bags. We were out of the 55gallon contractor bags. I got some trash bags for the trash in the truck as well. Mom forgot to tell me she was out of metamucil bars so I got those. Grabbed her some cheetohs bc I correctly guessed she was out. Also grabbed some tools. I needed a small hammer and a tack remover. Hanger on one of our eggshell paintings broke so I had to pry off the broken one and put on a new one and hang it back up.

I need to find some electric scissor type clippers to cut the tougher weeds because trying to use the manual ones wrecks my arms and wrists. I wish I knew the term for them. One can never have too many power tools.

I'm trying to motivate myself to go outside and get some pictures, but my brain is not cooperating and it was hot outside.

I had to lift a 50lb sack of sweet feed from TSC so I could feed the cows.

 

[Zanne]

I was going to get my brother to help me clean but he took Mom's car without permission to go visit our friend. She's a bit ticked bc he's only supposed to use it for going to and from work.

I got tired of the cats knocking my speakers off the desk and knocking my keyboard cover askew. So I wiped things down with rubbing alcohol to clean them and put velcro on stuff to hold it in place. I hope it holds up. Thus far stuff seems to be staying in place. Subwoofer is staying where I want it so that much is good.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

I got tired of the cats knocking my speakers off the desk and knocking my keyboard cover askew.

My dad a way of dealing with cats on the farm: He would dock their tails right behind there ears. I think he was just fooling with me because he wouldn't hurt a flea and was scared to death of snakes and spiders.