What did you do today?

[Zanne]

I had some kind of large plastic things put in for field lines. I think from Infiltrator Systems. They 1ft of dirt above them.

Got up early and unloaded a bunch of stuff from the back seat of the truck, moved things into the trunk, put stuff in bins, moved car parts and jack stands to the CRV, etc. Went inside and cooked up some hamburger patties so they wouldn't go bad. Went back out with a weed trimmer thingy and cut for about 20min before the battery died. I have it charging now. I plan to go into town to get mail after noon. Post office re-opens at 12:30pm.

My sister is on her way to visit. Mom and bro are sleeping. I might have to meet her in town to help her find her way over here. I should probably get up and do some cleaning but I overheated a bit and need to take things slow. Past few days I keep losing my balance and falling (but I caught myself or landed on things so I didn't go all the way to the ground).

Got an e-mail that the gift I got from the registry for cousin's son was ready for pickup at HD. I messaged and e-mailed him a heads up. He messaged back that he picked it up and thanked me. He's a sweet kid. Well, young man. But I remember him as a little kid.

i've got Mewlatto clinging to me for now.

 

[havasu]

Mama bought a new Toyota Rav4 last week. She commented it is like driving in a fish bowl. I have an appointment to get the side windows tinted today. This should make her happier.

 

[Ludington]

Mama bought a new Toyota Rav4 last week. She commented it is like driving in a fish bowl. I have an appointment to get the side windows tinted today. This should make her happier.

How dark can you make them ? Without Mr. Law comming for you ?

 

[Twowaxhack]

How dark can you make them ? Without Mr. Law comming for you ?

That’s racist dude

 

[Ludington]

That’s racist dude

Race ? RACE... DID SOMEONE SAY THEY WANTED TO RACE ?
Ooooooweeee !!!

 

[havasu]

Legally, any side window tint is citable under PRK (Peoples Republic of Kaliforniastan) laws. Lately, people have been blacking out their windshields, and side windows with 2x limo tint. I'm going to do exactly what I did to my Lexus. Dark tint to match the rear sides and back. This way, all side windows will look the same. Yeah, im such a rebel lawbreaker!

 

[havasu]

All done. Same place, same tint (Llumar lifetime tint) same color.

 

[Zanne]

I went back out and trimmed more of the weeds along the sidewalk after my little trimmer thingy charged more. Some of the blackberry bush cuttings got stuck on my cardigan. Some of the weeds were too thick for my cutter to cut through so I stomped them down. Doesn't really look like I did much, but I spent over 30min working on them and having to stop to unjam my trimmer. I need to get my actual weedeater out and see if it can take them down. I got one that can have blades on it. That is for another day.

Sister showed up while I was cooling off inside. We introduced her to the kitties she never met and re-introduced her to kitties that she remembered. Lady Sylvanas was actually friendly with her and she is normally scared of strangers, but she saw her petting Gravy Jones and got jealous. Biscuits didn't remember her. Rupert just loves people so he was friendly. Same with Itsy. Boo was still outside. Mewlatto was antisocial as usual since I seem to be the only one he likes.

Sister picked a hotel and took my brother with her for the car ride up there, but she changed her mind when they saw the place. Said it looked like a place the ghouls from Fallout would hang out, pretty sure they would get stabbed by a hobo, and she went to a different place nearby. My truck's gps was way off on where the place was so I had to use my phone's gps to find it. Sis and bro piled into the truck and we went to the chinese place to eat. Then went back to her hotel to hang out for a bit, share watching videos, she showed my brother her VR game thingy. Mom fell asleep. Then we headed back home but Mom wanted McDonalds. That took about 25min and I had to go inside to get my food bc they never brought it out as they were understaffed and swamped. No one was at the front registers.

Got home and finally got to sit down to eat after doing a few things. I could hear and feel Princess (who sits on the back of the couch) moving closer because she wanted some of my fries. She put a paw on my back and had her nose almost in my ear while licking her chops. So I shared a few fries with her and she was happy and sat on my lap afterward.

As an aside, my sister was going to use Mom's bathroom when she got here but I told her mine was cleaner (bc it is) and she used it instead and said she liked the changes to it. Last time she saw it there was no flooring and no toilet. We used to share this room and that bathroom as kids and back then it had really gross carpet in it.

Anyway, I had to heat up some food for Mom before I could go to bed and I racked out. Woke up just before 6am not feeling very rested. In about 15min I'm going to go wake mom to change her Dexcom sensor. She can take her old one off but needs me to put the new one on.

For now, Mewlatto is curled up on me and I just took some allergy meds to stop my sneezing.

 

[Ludington]

I went back out and trimmed more of the weeds along the sidewalk after my little trimmer thingy charged more. Some of the blackberry bush cuttings got stuck on my cardigan. Some of the weeds were too thick for my cutter to cut through so I stomped them down. Doesn't really look like I did much, but I spent over 30min working on them and having to stop to unjam my trimmer. I need to get my actual weedeater out and see if it can take them down. I got one that can have blades on it. That is for another day.

Sister showed up while I was cooling off inside. We introduced her to the kitties she never met and re-introduced her to kitties that she remembered. Lady Sylvanas was actually friendly with her and she is normally scared of strangers, but she saw her petting Gravy Jones and got jealous. Biscuits didn't remember her. Rupert just loves people so he was friendly. Same with Itsy. Boo was still outside. Mewlatto was antisocial as usual since I seem to be the only one he likes.

Sister picked a hotel and took my brother with her for the car ride up there, but she changed her mind when they saw the place. Said it looked like a place the ghouls from Fallout would hang out, pretty sure they would get stabbed by a hobo, and she went to a different place nearby. My truck's gps was way off on where the place was so I had to use my phone's gps to find it. Sis and bro piled into the truck and we went to the chinese place to eat. Then went back to her hotel to hang out for a bit, share watching videos, she showed my brother her VR game thingy. Mom fell asleep. Then we headed back home but Mom wanted McDonalds. That took about 25min and I had to go inside to get my food bc they never brought it out as they were understaffed and swamped. No one was at the front registers.

Got home and finally got to sit down to eat after doing a few things. I could hear and feel Princess (who sits on the back of the couch) moving closer because she wanted some of my fries. She put a paw on my back and had her nose almost in my ear while licking her chops. So I shared a few fries with her and she was happy and sat on my lap afterward.

As an aside, my sister was going to use Mom's bathroom when she got here but I told her mine was cleaner (bc it is) and she used it instead and said she liked the changes to it. Last time she saw it there was no flooring and no toilet. We used to share this room and that bathroom as kids and back then it had really gross carpet in it.

Anyway, I had to heat up some food for Mom before I could go to bed and I racked out. Woke up just before 6am not feeling very rested. In about 15min I'm going to go wake mom to change her Dexcom sensor. She can take her old one off but needs me to put the new one on.

For now, Mewlatto is curled up on me and I just took some allergy meds to stop my sneezing.

Do those sensors just stick on , or are there tiny needles that prick the skin ?

 

[Zanne]

Do those sensors just stick on , or are there tiny needles that prick the skin ?

there is a very small needle that sticks into the skin, but it's smaller than the needle Mom uses to inject herself with insulin and she said she doesn't even feel it. It is held on by adhesive stickers. The insulin pump cannula will work the same, but it will be plastic instead of metal.

We went over to our friend's house to meet up with my sister when she got back into town here. She stayed in the town of the wedding overnight and then drove out here. Friend's cat was high on catnip and climbed in her lap. He doesn't normally do that with strangers. We had some food but Mom didn't eat much and we hung out for a few hours before Mom got hangry. My brother had to go to work but Mom, sis, and I all went to a local Mexican restaurant. I discovered their burrito grande is huge and very good. The pepper gave me a headache, but it was still worth it. Before friend's ex came to pick up her kid, the kid mistook Mom's cane for a microphone and was trying to sing into it.

After eating we went to the hotel my sister was staying at for the night and hung out with her until after 11pm-- although I fell asleep for at least an hour. We said our goodbyes and I took Mom home. Sister messaged me to say she was stopping at our cousin's house and she's already there. I think she's spending the night before driving back to Albuquerque.

Today I was talking to my friend online and he said his car battery died. So I went into town and took him to the store to get a new one, plus some oil and a filter for his engine. It was overdue for an oil change. His car uses the same oil as my truck. Got him some milk, donuts, and cupcakes- he wanted those instead of cake. His birthday is tomorrow but he'll be working.

Had previously bought him some boots as an early birthday present and he wore them to the store.

I got milk and a few other groceries. Cooked for Mom, fed kitties, fed doggies, and talked to my aunt (mom's oldest sister) on the phone briefly. She was calling to see how we are doing and was asking about the photos I sent her from the wedding.

Saw some guys digging trenches to put in fiberoptic cable but they didn't speak English so they didn't understand when I was trying to ask them how far they are running the cables. I'm willing to bet they will run it to everyone else but not to my house. Just my sort of luck. I'll be shocked if they run it out to my house.

 

[havasu]

Z, use the translator on your phone to talk to those guys. I can't think of a better way to get utilities to a home they probably aren't aware it even exists.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

@Zanne, who is your ISP?

We have fiber so close to us in our neighborhood that we can smell it but, because of the configuration of our homes in this townhouse community, they refuse to put the fiber in.

 

[havasu]

I saw them installing fiber down the street from my house and asked them if they were going to continue into my neighborhood. They told me their orders were to avoid my neighborhood since everyone was already on another cabled company, and felt it would be a waste of resources.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

I saw them installing fiber down the street from my house and asked them if they were going to continue into my neighborhood. They told me their orders were to avoid my neighborhood since everyone was already on another cabled company, and felt it would be a waste of resources.

I still get about 825Mbps over copper so I am not complaining.

 

[Zanne]

@Zanne, who is your ISP?

We have fiber so close to us in our neighborhood that we can smell it but, because of the configuration of our homes in this townhouse community, they refuse to put the fiber in.

Starlink satellite. It's still better than Hughesnet, but it loses signal during storms and can be pissy.
My brother took Spanish in high school and probably knows a few more words. Wish my dad was still with us. He was fluent in Spanish. We were in a big box store once and he heard some guys speaking Spanish and started up a conversation with them. Asked if they were from this one town near Guatemala and they were shocked that he knew of it, much less that he'd guess that and they said they were. They didn't know he was retired migra and he recognized their accents. LOL.
I haven't found the translate feature on my phone yet. I mostly take pictures with it.
Since the only thing available at my house is satellite, I hope they will be able to bring fiber out to our house. But it's a long way down the road. Need to find out what company is having it done to contact them and give the address and ask if they will put it out here. They'll have to work around culverts and other stuff though.
Today I'm catching up on some much needed rest but Mom has an appointment at 3pm. I'll have to go turn the truck around and make sure I get her insulin and new insulin pump brought with us.
Will need to make sure there's something to keep the insulin cool because the NP usually takes over an hour past appointment time to see people.

 

[cgilley]

Yo

I installed an outlet for my next-door neighbor. He’s getting an electric car that has a built-in charger so he only needed the outlet. Because the car will be plugged in and out repeatedly, I opted for an industrial grade outlet which cost about $75 and is made in the USA, as opposed to the nine dollar version they sell at Home Depot, all wired with #6 THHN, and per the cars requirements is fed with a 50 amp breaker. All the wiring is in 1 inch PVC conduit.

You clearly are a good neighbor. Had they called in an electrician in the Atlanta area, the charge would easily have been $1k.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Yo

You clearly are a good neighbor. Had they called in an electrician in the Atlanta area, the charge would easily have been $1k.

I must have missed the point where he did it for free. My bad.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Starlink satellite. It's still better than Hughesnet, but it loses signal during storms and can be pissy.

I checked Starlink out because I was unfamiliar with it. If you can believe what they say, they intend to have over 48,000 satellites in low earth orbit and plan on being able to give you 10Gbps download speeds! Damn!

 

[Zanne]

Yeah, they over-promse and under-deliver. When I first got Starlink it was $99/mo and had very fast speeds. They did not have speed tiers. Now they have added tiers for speed and started throttling the original customers so we get lower speeds. My last speed test was like 110mb down and 50up-- still far better than I ever got on Hughesnet or Viasat though. And that was on a good day. Some days it is so slow I can't even load web pages. And they raised the price to $120/mo and probably plan to raise it even more. For $115/mo the new fiber can do 1000Mb/s. They also have zero customer service.

Meanwhile, Mom hates her insulin pump. She doesn't like how clunky it is and she misses being able to use her dexcom receiver. The pump and the dexcom receiver can't work at the same time. If the dexcom is on, the transmitter/sensor will not send data to the pump. I had to explain this to my mother multiple times and turned her Dexcom receiver off. She then turned it on repeatedly and then whined that the pump wasn't reading her sugar and I had to take the dexcom receiver away from her and hide it. She got me back by hiding the manual for the pump from me so I can't read it. She also tried to change the amount of insulin it gives her on a regular basis-- tried to double it from what the NP programmed it to do, but she said it failed. She's been super cranky. I'm going to have to find an online manual for the Tandem T:Slim X2 and maybe take their online training courses. I want some kind of child lock on that thing to prevent her from editing certain things though. Because we are worried she's going to screw it up and end up dying from insulin overdose. I'm not looking forward to having to change the infusion set and put new insulin in. The NP did it for us at the office but stuff is supposed to be changed on Saturday, if not sooner.

I couldn't sleep last night because I was worried about her tampering with the pump. Then two ceiling tiles dropped in the kitchen-- soaking wet and water dripped from the wooden boards above. So, I went and got the 8' ladder. Had to carry it through a room with a ceiling height slightly less than 8'. That was "fun" trying to navigate around everything. Got it set up in the hallway and climbed up to take a look. It smells musty up there and I want to get a hard hat, gloves, and respirator before going up there. I don't trust touching any of the wiring or the light boxes. Will need to find my headlamp flashlight again. Oh wait, I just found it. LOL. Not sure how I will be able to get around the ductwork. The leaking spot is behind it.

The 2nd duct farther away is either over or near the leaking spot. Surprisingly the pull chain light in the attic from the 80s still works.

Does not look like enough head room to stand up in here. The disconnected metal duct used to be for a wood burning stove that was removed and subsequently stolen by the deadbeat tenants. There are at least 2 light boxes in that insulation right near the access panel.
I wonder if any of this stuff has asbestos....

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

@Zanne, please don't go up there without a respirator.