Happy 4th of July!
What is you beverage of choice on the 4th of July?
What is you beverage of choice on the 4th of July?
What did you do today?
- Thread starter Chris
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Happy Independence Day to you too! My beverage of choice? Enhanced green tea.
I took a 4 mile walk this morning where the temps were climbing to 100⁰. I got home and drank two bottles of Body Armor, a Gatorade type of drink. I then went swimming for a bit. That Body Armor stuff works really great, but makes me pee ALOT!
I believe it is time to have a nice, cold beer (Coors Light) at my neighbor's pool party.
I believe it is time to have a nice, cold beer (Coors Light) at my neighbor's pool party.
The boys in blue are looking for you!
It’s still unnerving to think of fully autonomous self driving vehicles on the ground or in the air.
July 4 I slept in and didn't leave home. Went to flush the toilet and wash my hands and realized water was out. Went out and cistern was low so I tugged on the float lever to turn it on, then saw water pouring out from a disconnected compression fitting. I hadn't looked because I just trusted the guys who fixed the pump were replacing that with couplings and the pipe I had on hand (on inlet side of pump). Pump was humming. So I turned off the power to it. I then tried to push the compression fitting back on and grabbed on to the metal elbow going in to the pump. That was stupid. Cooked my hand. Then tried to get the water running on it to cool it but the water was hot too. I did manage to put things back together and went inside to pour cool water from a bottle onto my hand while I waited for the cistern to fill. An hour later I went back out to see if the pump would work. It filled the toilet up but then the pipe came apart again. So, it looks like the geniuses tried to solvent weld the compression fitting on to the pipe but they only used the medium strength blue cement (not intended for use on wet pipes) and only put it on the fitting and not on the pipe. It managed to hold up for a few weeks but didn't stay. I got 2 unions and will make a fitting about the size of the compression fitting (I think 8" long) to replace it so I can take that piece off in the future for maintenance if need be. The good news is that the water will fill the pump and prime it just from gravity once the cistern is full. Right now I have the compression fitting pushed together to keep water from coming out. But man, when that thing blew apart I got hosed. LOL. Shirt, pants, socks, and shoes were soaked.
I tried to go to bed at a decent hour and then Mom woke me up just before 4am screaming at me about her insulin pump. I'd changed her canula last night and apparently it bent. I had to convince her to let me put a new one on. It has been dosing her with insulin but her blood sugar isn't coming down. Will have to call the tech support on that soon. She's down to 60 units of insulin in the cartridge now so I will have to replace it tomorrow. Hoping this canula didn't bend. I'm going to have to get a different type of canula that has tubing that is easier to remove. This one is really difficult to remove while filling the tubing.
This afternoon I did curbside pickup from HD and Samsclub. I'm going to build a trash bag holder out of PVC pipe-- saw plans for one online for the 55gallon Member's Mark bags. It will hold the bags open while I fill them and it's much cheaper than the ones you can buy in the store. I also got the unionsand stuff to put the pipes in the pump house back together. It was 106°F outside so I'm waiting for it to cool off.
Meanwhile, ceiling is still dripping and I can see wet spots forming near one of the vents. I think it might be some kind of condensation dripping down but not sure how or why. I'll have to get gloves and a bag to take the wet insulation out of the attic once I can bring myself to go up there.
Hips and shoulders were hurting the entire drive home- not sure why I'm aching so much.
Almost forgot to mention, while driving through the town where I got a ticket, I paid very close attention to the signs and realized the cop lied to me about speeding. There is only ONE sign going that way that says 50mph. So. when he claimed I was going 64mph in a 50mph he was lying-- which is probably why he didn't ticket me for that. It was a 65mph zone. He wrote me a ticket for no seatbelt-- even though he acknowledged that I was wearing one-- saying it would be a lower fine. My guess is because that can't be proven as its his word against mine-- he did not have a bodycam. Not like I could contest the ticket anyway though. That town doesn't have a court and there is nowhere to contest it. The address they give for the court is the police station and the only option is to pay or have your license revoked. I wish we had cops like Havasu here instead of these lying jerks.
I tried to go to bed at a decent hour and then Mom woke me up just before 4am screaming at me about her insulin pump. I'd changed her canula last night and apparently it bent. I had to convince her to let me put a new one on. It has been dosing her with insulin but her blood sugar isn't coming down. Will have to call the tech support on that soon. She's down to 60 units of insulin in the cartridge now so I will have to replace it tomorrow. Hoping this canula didn't bend. I'm going to have to get a different type of canula that has tubing that is easier to remove. This one is really difficult to remove while filling the tubing.
This afternoon I did curbside pickup from HD and Samsclub. I'm going to build a trash bag holder out of PVC pipe-- saw plans for one online for the 55gallon Member's Mark bags. It will hold the bags open while I fill them and it's much cheaper than the ones you can buy in the store. I also got the unionsand stuff to put the pipes in the pump house back together. It was 106°F outside so I'm waiting for it to cool off.
Meanwhile, ceiling is still dripping and I can see wet spots forming near one of the vents. I think it might be some kind of condensation dripping down but not sure how or why. I'll have to get gloves and a bag to take the wet insulation out of the attic once I can bring myself to go up there.
Hips and shoulders were hurting the entire drive home- not sure why I'm aching so much.
Almost forgot to mention, while driving through the town where I got a ticket, I paid very close attention to the signs and realized the cop lied to me about speeding. There is only ONE sign going that way that says 50mph. So. when he claimed I was going 64mph in a 50mph he was lying-- which is probably why he didn't ticket me for that. It was a 65mph zone. He wrote me a ticket for no seatbelt-- even though he acknowledged that I was wearing one-- saying it would be a lower fine. My guess is because that can't be proven as its his word against mine-- he did not have a bodycam. Not like I could contest the ticket anyway though. That town doesn't have a court and there is nowhere to contest it. The address they give for the court is the police station and the only option is to pay or have your license revoked. I wish we had cops like Havasu here instead of these lying jerks.
Z, I would recommend going into the PD, and ask to speak to the Chief. Tell him what you said to us. Force him to prove that his officers are on the up and up. Who knows. Maybe you can be the one citizen to make that department better.
I've been to that PD. They won't let you speak to the chief. He's not even in the office most of the time. No one is even in there most of the time when they are supposed to be open. They don't answer their phones. The town is notorious for speed traps and bogus tickets. They are corrupt and will not budge. A big portion of the town's income is from tickets. Sadly, its less aggravation to just pay and be done with it. Bc if they get mad they will find other excuses to pull me over whenever I pass through. They like to retaliate there. One of the things Louisiana is known for is police corruption and speed traps. I've got too much else to do-- trying to get Mom's blood sugar to come back down and having trouble with her insulin pump. Don't know if her canula dislodged or not but put two in within hours of each other because one bent. I've replaced the cartridge, the tubing, and the canula in the past 24hrs. Her blood sugar is still showing as "high". She may have to manually inject some of the insulin if we can figure out how much she should take.
It rained a lot but the dripping from the attic is subsiding so I think its from the hvac system.
I went to fix the pipes and found that whoever pulled the fittings at HD screwed up and put an FIP union in the bag instead of SLIP. Easy mistake to make- especially since the bin in the store had the FIP ones mixed in with SLIP. I couldn't even find the bin for the FIP ones. I went back and explained the situation and that they had just misread the bag. They let me swap it out. I forgot to check the other fittings I got and then remembered when I got home-- found one other that was wrong-- also FIP instead of slip-- but that one is cheap and easy to replace locally. Cheaper than driving back up there.
Popped in to TSC to get sweet feed for the cows as they've been hollering at me lately. They were very happy. Went to put the fittings on and found that my friend forgot to screw the cap back on properly. It was at an angle and it was all dried up. So, another trip to TSC (hardware store was closed) and got a 4oz jar. Back home and put everything together. In a few minutes I can go turn the water back on (it had 2hr cure time). When the well service guys solvent welded, they didn't even give it 5min to cure. I don't want this to come apart.
I fed mom when I got home before I had to go back into town. I hope she's feeling ok. About to go check on her.
Edit: Turned the shutoff to let water flow to the pump but realized the cistern was low and the damned lever didn't trigger. The float and rod were down but the arm didn't budge. I had to pull on it to make the pump turn on. Ugh. I really hate that thing but I still haven't figured out what controller/contactor I need to make a float or other option work with the 230v 1hp pump. It's so aggravating.
On the upside, Mom's blood sugar finally went down. It's at 100 now.
Oh, and call me childish, but my impulse buy today:
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Finally the site is back online!
That frog looks very scary! Is it a poisonous cobalt blue tree frog?
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Error!
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Yeah, sorry for the technical error today. All the servers went down for several hours.
(sh)It happens.
Truth be told it's one of the very few sites that maintains, using my calculations, 99 and 44 one-hundredths percent availability.
I appreciate the positive comment!
No idea what sort of frog its supposed to be, but I like frogs and I like blue.
Well, I guess it's not so bad that I was down yesterday too. LOL. Mom didn't even get out of bed except to go to the bathroom. She felt awful. She was wrong about her blood sugar being down to 100. It was still over 500. I wanted to take her to the hospital but she didn't want to go. Her dexcom sensor failed. No warning saying it needed to be changed or was nearing time to change. It just straight up died. Then her pump kept giving insulin and gave me trouble when I told it to stop bc fingerstick said her sugar was low. More than half the menu options went away and all it wanted to do was dispense insulin and I had to keep telling it not to and it sort of argued with me. Once the new sensor kicked in it behaved better, but her sugar was down to 60 something this morning while I was in the shower and she got mad that I didn't answer the intercom and she didn't hear me shout "I'm in the bathroom" the one time I heard her call my name. So she stuffed her face with candy and her bg shot up to 300.
She had an appointment with the NP and we told her about our misadventures with the pump. She said she'd put in a request for the infusion sets that are easier to take the tubing off (autosoft xc). I'm pretty sure I dislodged the canula trying to remove the tubing so it could be filled. She also gave me more info on the pump and some tips. Went to Mexican place afterward. My order was right but the waitress misunderstood Mom and got hers wrong. She didn't complain though. Had leftovers for dinner.
I put the new union on the setup and it sprayed everywhere. I could not get it tight enough even with a pipe wrench. I lack the coordination and the strength. Friend drove out and tightened it enough to compress the o-ring and its holding. Poor Fippy didn't get his bath yet though.
Well, I guess it's not so bad that I was down yesterday too. LOL. Mom didn't even get out of bed except to go to the bathroom. She felt awful. She was wrong about her blood sugar being down to 100. It was still over 500. I wanted to take her to the hospital but she didn't want to go. Her dexcom sensor failed. No warning saying it needed to be changed or was nearing time to change. It just straight up died. Then her pump kept giving insulin and gave me trouble when I told it to stop bc fingerstick said her sugar was low. More than half the menu options went away and all it wanted to do was dispense insulin and I had to keep telling it not to and it sort of argued with me. Once the new sensor kicked in it behaved better, but her sugar was down to 60 something this morning while I was in the shower and she got mad that I didn't answer the intercom and she didn't hear me shout "I'm in the bathroom" the one time I heard her call my name. So she stuffed her face with candy and her bg shot up to 300.
She had an appointment with the NP and we told her about our misadventures with the pump. She said she'd put in a request for the infusion sets that are easier to take the tubing off (autosoft xc). I'm pretty sure I dislodged the canula trying to remove the tubing so it could be filled. She also gave me more info on the pump and some tips. Went to Mexican place afterward. My order was right but the waitress misunderstood Mom and got hers wrong. She didn't complain though. Had leftovers for dinner.
I put the new union on the setup and it sprayed everywhere. I could not get it tight enough even with a pipe wrench. I lack the coordination and the strength. Friend drove out and tightened it enough to compress the o-ring and its holding. Poor Fippy didn't get his bath yet though.
In a fit of being pistoff, I "accidentally" pulled the rear-view mirror out of its mount on the windshield of my Jeep. Bit the bullet and went to the dealer to get them to reinstall it and admitted what I had done. Thirty minutes later the car was returned to me, washed no less, and the mirror was reattached. No charge whatsoever! Sometimes car dealerships will do something like this just to fool you!
@Zanne, sorry to hear about your mom's continuing saga with her insulin and it sounds like it's not going to get any easier for you but I wish you well. Also, I looked into "sweet feed" and found out that TSC has it for about $12 for a fifty-pound bag! During these raging days of inflation and rising prices, I am considering putting my family on a diet of sweet feed and see if we can survive on it! Since we eat like horses, I am considering the mix that has copper in it.
@Zanne, sorry to hear about your mom's continuing saga with her insulin and it sounds like it's not going to get any easier for you but I wish you well. Also, I looked into "sweet feed" and found out that TSC has it for about $12 for a fifty-pound bag! During these raging days of inflation and rising prices, I am considering putting my family on a diet of sweet feed and see if we can survive on it! Since we eat like horses, I am considering the mix that has copper in it.
@Zanne, I'm curious, does your mom have problems with neuropathy?
I keep my numbers down around 130-140 but neuropathy is kicking my buttocks. I've got one foot turning into a block of wood. A real pain in the rear end.
You can have your day in court or you don’t have to pay the fine. That’s the way our legal system works in every state. If you pay the fine that’s pleading guilty…….
yes, she has polyneuropathy. She's had it since the 1990s. It's why she takes Dilantin and Amitriptyline. I've gotten a little better at doing the canulas after watching some videos with tips on how to do it. She was half asleep on the last canula change so that made things easier. She was lying down and holding still instead of sitting up and moving around. I put the new canula on before taking the old one off. The tubing gets changed with the cartridge so I was able to remove the brand new tubing on the new canula, put it in a bag, and then just transfer over the old tubing by unclipping it from the olc canula and sliding it in to the new canula. Then I just told the pump to fill canula and it worked. Her sugar is still bouncing around but it has remained in acceptable levels.
See that's the thing. There is no court to have a day in. The address for the "court" is a small police station. Most of the time there isn't even anyone there and even if there is, they don't always answer the phone. My brother tried to contest a BS ticket he got for rolling through a stop-- he had proof that there was no stop there. It was a yield and there were no vehicles coming. He tried to find the court and found out there wasn't one. I was with him. They said the only option was to pay the ticket or have his license revoked. So, this is one of those alford plea situations I guess. This town has been doing it for a very long time so it's their m.o. and how they make most of their revenue. I'm linking an article below.
Ok, just looked it up and apparently there is a mayor's court, but the town I got the ticket in is mentioned in the article as one of the worst offenders. If you try to contest a ticket they double your fines and give you 3 months probation at $50 per month now. The mayor is both prosecutor and judge so he always finds with himself. Also, judges in Louisiana get paid a bonus for every conviction, even if its in traffic court.
https://reason.com/2021/07/19/how-louisiana-perfected-the-speed-trap/
Speed traps are so notorious that google maps gps will actually warn you that you are entering one.
Meanwhile, my brother put in his notice at work and has already applied for a new job. He works at an arcade at a casino and he's on the adult side of the arcade and there's a kid's arcade adjacent to it. The kiosk on his side closed an hour before the kiosk on the kid's side so he was doing his closing work and was in the office doing the paperwork. He was told that a 12-yr-old girl, through no fault of any employees on kid's side, escaped and went through adult side and then made it to the door & was caught by security. Turns out it was a 6-yr-old boy and was entirely the fault of the kid's side employee who didn't follow exiting protocol and the kid just walked by her as she didn't check to see where all the kids were and didn't close the gate right away. But she's besties with my brother's supervisor's supervisor. So, the higher up boss was asking where my brother was when the kid wandered in and was told he was in the office doing his closing work. She claimed she didn't blame him, but she then announced a policy that only supervisors could have keys and then took his key away. He found out later that she only took away his key and no one else's. So know he can't do opening or closing or open prize bins or pretty much do his job without going and asking someone from kid's side to unlock a door for him. He said it shows the boss doesn't trust or respect him. And bc they cut his hours so much, he knows they won't promote him to supervisor like they said they were going to do. He said if they'd had 2 or 3 people on shift on his side like they were supposed to, then someone would have spotted the kid, but they refuse to put even 2 people over there and have just him, while they have 4 people on kid's side.
He was already in a bad mood Monday night when he came home but then he dropped his food getting it out of the microwave and it spilled everywhere. He started having a tantrum, screaming, yelling, throwing things, kicking things, etc. He kicked over a bunch of cat food bowls and scattered stuff. It woke me up. I went to see what was wrong and he kept screaming at me like it was my fault and kept kicking over more cat food bowls. I asked him to stop, he screamed at me that he wasn't going to and called me names and continued kicking over cat food bowls. I asked him to stop again and screamed at me again and kept at it. Eventually he calmed down after I started making faces at him, but he left me with a mess. Fortunately, the dogs cleaned up most of the food for me.
Yesterday I was able to clean off the counter more and get some stuff put away but was still tired and I made a grocery run. Princess caught a possum and was tearing the poor thing up in the kitchen. Blood all over the floor. I locked her in the living room so I could take the poor thing out. It was still breathing but was bleeding pretty badly. I hope it survived and was able to crawl away but its been too hot to check.
Today I broke up some fights between the cats, picked up a bin that the cats knocked over and spilled, got a new cat food bag out of the truck and fed kitties. Then I cooked for Mom. Boo has been climbing on me and wanting attention. He's the one who woke me up to put out food. LOL.
I should give Fippy a bath but I'm tired and feeling lazy. This heat really gets to me.
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