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DailySale has some good refurbished small laptops that might work for you. I bought a $98 Samsung Chromebook like the ones that are new at Best Buy for $360. I wanted to see if junk or if it would work. Seems to work fine, it's just refurbished. They have macs, Dells are being offered right now. About 13 inch sized.
 
My mother refuses to buy anything refurbished & also refuses to buy any Dell products after several bad experiences with them (and their customer service). She has an Android touch-screen All-In-One (which is basically a 21" tablet that she uses all the time to play games- it's lightweight so she can lift it easily).

My brother needed a haircut but the hair salon in town was closed (despite their FB page saying they were open). So we went to a salon at one of the super walmarts in Alexandria. He got his hair cut while I picked up some kitchen supplies and was looking at the inventory in electronics. There was a really nice All-In-One with a nice touch screen- picture was beautiful on it. But it was over $900 so hard pass. I found a little tray thing for monitors to sit on with enough space underneath for a keyboard. I got it for Mom's desk since her monitor stand is very short & can't be adjusted & the crap she piles up on her desk covers the bottom of the screen. I was in the process of clearing a space when she walked in so I had to abort. I need to get her to go through stuff to throw away or put away elsewhere so I can get it set up.

I would get one for my own desk, but cats are jerks and I know they will knock my monitor off the back if I raise it up. They managed to knock my monitor off of my desk a couple of times (fortunately, I have stuff behind to catch it).

I picked up more frozen meals for my mother to try but she wanted Taco Bell, so we got her some chalupa supremes and nacho fries. I got what was supposed to be a steak quesadilla but there was a real "where's the beef" situation going on. There was none in the edge pieces and only a little bit in one of the center pieces (it's cut in to like 4 pieces).

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my mother to look at slidebar/showerhead options so we can get her bathroom renovated. The one I'm leaning toward is an off-brand that screws on to the shower arm at the top & has a suction cup at the bottom and a diverter at the bottom so she can switch from handheld to rainshower. The slidebar is about 25" long. No extra drilling & it can be adjusted more than one that is drilled in to place. The plan is to have a vertical grab bar close to the entry for her to grab as she steps in (about a 24" bar) and the handheld would be in reach while she's sitting on an adjustable height shower seat. The shower controls will be just below the slidebar, and there will be another 24" or 36" horizontal bar on the back wall (which will be to her left). I'm also considering a 16" horizontal grab bar with a removable shelf piece that will sit below the shower controls. It can be an extra piece to help her in case she loses her balance and it can hold her soap & washcloths.
 
I hope you can get your mom with the program so you can help her. I get to go to the VA this afternoon for paperwork for Dad. I hope you can get the bathroom figured out with your Mom and that the monitor stand works for her.
 
Thanks, Angie. I hope things went smoothly at the VA.

I got my mother to clean up her desk a little bit. She partially cleared one little spot (took her 3 hours bc she was moving so slow & kept complaining about how annoying it was that she actually had to go through her own stuff). Mice had been busy on her desk chewing in to things. I had to get her gloves and clorox wipes. She eventually gave up without completing the task, but there was enough space for the tray. I held the monitor up while she pushed it in to place and moved any obstacles out from under the legs. Now she can slide stuff under the monitor and even put short items on top of the tray so she's happy. Her chair had somehow gotten lowered so I had to raise it back up for her so she's at a better height to look at her screen. I turned her computer on for her and the first thing she did was load youtube to watch cyst/pimple-popping videos while she ate a second dinner (she was still hungry after the first meal & two sides).

She wasn't happy that her passwords & such were saved & there were some things she didn't have written on her piece of paper where she keeps her notes on stuff. I knew she had some of her passwords & junk saved on her laptop so I booted it up & wrote down the info for her so she can login to her e-mail on her desktop. She apparently re-installed one of her games she likes to play on the computer bc she was playing it (and it was loud) when she talked to me on the intercom.

I finally got her to look at my e-mail that had links to the shower stuff. She liked the grab bar with the shelf. She didn't like the rainshower thing but while I was doing price comparisons for the grab bar, a related link showed up for a Moen version of the showerhead & slidebar. Moen's recommended pricing was something like $270, Lowes had it for $182, but I found it at Menards for $99 (w/ free shipping) so she ordered it. It's more expensive than the off-brand options but it's got a lifetime warranty. I think she may have ordered the grab bar as well bc it was on sale.

She also wants me to order the shower pan & wall kit (I have the account set up for Lowes to order online & can get the military discount). That one I think we would have to ship to store and ask them to open it up so we can inspect it for damage (bc it's cheaper than having it shipped to home).

Mom also discovered that she doesn't hate the meals with cauliflower & she actually liked the "mac" and cheese dish with cauliflower instead of pasta. My brother was eating some and she wanted to try it and really liked it and wanted me to get more. She then tried other stuff with the mashed cauliflower & decided she was wrong about hating all of it (she only hated the one with the bitter garlic in it). I hope she will go back to liking some of the stuff she liked for awhile and then got tired of. I stocked up on it and I worry she'll get tired of the stuff she likes now. It's funny because she used to complain about how picky one of our elderly friends was, but she's just as picky-- if not more.
 
Mom is enjoying the monitor tray & was telling my sister on the phone how happy she was with it. She's not usually one to praise things or show much appreciation very often so it made me happy that she's happy with it. She still griped about wanting me to move some stuff in the living room, but I need to get more stuff cleared out.

I'm going to have to start calling my friend's fiance "my friend" bc she really helped me out today (well, technically yesterday). It was her day off from work so I brought her over (not sure if her little car would make it down my road) and we worked on the kitchen together. She's a hard worker and fast cleaner. I was feeling better this time so I was able to clean with her. I still have trouble with bending, but I was able to lift some stuff & I held the dustpan (which has a long handle) still for her and then dumped it in to the trash can. When a bag was full, I pulled it out & tied it off while she put a new bag in. We worked for four hours, taking about a 20 minute break in the middle to grab some food. I had just bought a family size butter garlic chicken so I dissected it & let her eat as much as she wanted. She also had a piece of the cake I baked the night before & she really liked it.

I had to re-clean the floor of the pantry because one of the cats has decided it's his home & litterbox. He keeps sneaking in when the door is opened & he gets locked in. He likes to hide in there bc two of his older brothers keep beating him up. We need to get them all fixed & hopefully that will reduce the hostility.

I put a big plastic bin in the pantry that I planned to store stuff in. We didn't get around to that yet because she had to leave go to pick up a co-worker. She's coming back Monday to help with more cleaning. She got the sink cleared up pretty well & loaded dishes in to the dishwasher (although we will have to take them out to wash them since they aren't all dishwasher safe & that dishwasher sucks- it is basically just a storage island). I have to clean out the cabinets before we can put stuff away in them though. If I'm feeling ok tomorrow (later today) or this weekend, I'll try to do some cleaning before she comes back.

At some point (hopefully soon) we really need to organize the pantry better. I need to make sure anything in cardboard boxes or plastic bags is stored where bugs & mice can't get to them. And we need to throw out stuff that has expired.
 
Finally had a fence guy come out to work up an estimate -- we had about 40 feet of 6' privacy fence blow over in the windstorm a couple weeks ago. I wish it was something I could fix myself but I went out and looked at it right after the storm, and it definitely isn't something I could do. Fence guy hasn't called yet with the estimate but I know it ain't gonna be pretty.

The fence is just a straight shot on fairly level terrain. The posts go (er, went) right into clay soil. If anyone here knows about that kind of work, let me know the lower boundary of what an outrageous estimate might sound like.
 
OK, fence guy says it'll be a little over eleven hundred. To me that seems fair but I really don't know.
 
We tried getting quotes from multiple contractors but everyone was so swamped only one actually got back to us and came out to give us a quote. Not sure what we can possibly do about that.

Keep in mind this is for a remove/replace of six fence panels. And it's below freezing out; the ground's basically frozen. But again, I don't know what the baseline price should be given those conditions...
 
Flyover, I hope you can get the fence fixed soon- but that price sounds very steep to me. Is it covered by insurance?

My friend was supposed to come out Monday but Sunday night she said she was going to be busy & that she'd come out Wednesday. She never contacted me after that and I saw her posting on social media about how she was drinking vodka & I knew it meant she wasn't going to come out. I do appreciate the help she gave me before, but I wish people were more reliable. She doesn't really have the $ to be out drinking and she got sick from drinking & missed 2 days of work. She's going to get herself fired. I know she's 21 & wants to have fun, but I didn't go out drinking at that age- I was focused on college.

I did a bit more cleaning in the house myself, but Tuesday morning one of the cats my brother brought home (who had been abused by a previous owner) flaked out and suddenly bit me very hard without warning or provocation when I was petting him. He's suddenly gone to biting or scratching before and even chased after me and attacked my leg bc he was mad when I stopped petting him, but he never bit very hard. This time he was trying to inflict damage and bit as hard as he could and sunk his teeth to the gums into my right hand on my palm, base of my thumb, and edge of my wrist. He bit more than once so there are 5 punctures. Made a bloody mess in the bathroom when I was trying to get out some gauze to press on it to stop the bleeding. Used compression until the bleeding slowed, rinsed the blood off, cleaned with hydrogen peroxide, and put triple antibiotic cream on. Yesterday I couldn't grip things but it's starting to heal now and I have more mobility in. Still highly annoying.

Since I couldn't clean in the house I decided to finally clean my e-mail inbox. I had over 14k messages. Went through and moved ones I wanted to keep to other folders and deleted the rest. Cleared out all of them now. First time my inbox has been cleared since 2014.

Once my hand has recovered enough to hold a grinder, I want to try the grinder on my bathroom floor to see if I can smooth out the botched self-leveling job. Trying to find a one-use grinder that will do the job. HF has some off-brand ones between $15 to $30. Lowes has a Porter Cable one for $40. The diamond cup wheel is about $35+, but I will need to find one that fits the tools. I want to get something that is in stock rather than ordering online.
 
I'm not looking forward to summer bc it gets hot as hell, but I wish we could have some more middle ground. I wish we only had fall & spring instead of only having summer & winter now.
 
@zannej, my insurance would only cover the last hundred bucks or so and I'd be responsible for the first $1k, plus then I'd have an insurance claim and I'm guessing my rates would go up, so I'm just going to pay for it. (Also, I got a second quote yesterday for 3x as much.) My wife and I agree, this kind of stuff is exactly what our emergency savings are for.

That cat attack sounds pretty intense. I agree with @slownsteady, if my cat did that it'd be coyote food.
 
Flyover, that makes sense on not wanting the insurance premiums to go up. Some insurance companies will find BS reasons to cancel policies if they have more than a couple of claims in a few years-- that's what our insurance did to us. The "reasons" they gave for the termination weren't even true.

I don't really blame the cat because his previous owner used to beat the hell out of him & I think it contributed to his erratic behavior. Most of the time he's a very sweet cat. It doesn't help that my brother hasn't gotten the cat's sons neutered & some of them have been picking fights with him so he's agitated. Unfortunately, our vet charges something like $160+ for neutering a single cat and there are 7 of them. It will be over $200 per cat if they have to get vaccines as well.

I know how bad the cat bites can be. The bacterial infections can be nasty. My mother and father both had to get antibiotics from cat bites in the past. That's why I made sure to clean it immediately & use triple antibiotic cream. So far it's healing well. There is a little bruising & some scabs where the punctures are, but there is no swelling and it only hurts if I press directly on the punctures.

I had a completely unproductive day. Kidney stones were acting up again & I spent most of my time lying down with a heating pad trying to sooth the irritation. Sometimes that helps, but it wasn't doing much Thursday. I'm going to try to go to the post office & store today (since it's already Friday).
 
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Last week I got a second in-person quote on the fence, and yesterday that guy (who seemed more legit than the first guy) agreed to match the first guy's price, so I'll be sending him the signed contract today. (He never asked to see the first guy's estimate, so I missed my chance to tell him it was much lower! If only I was more dishonest.)

Yesterday I also finally fixed the master bathroom door. Or rather, the hole where the latch slides through the strike plate. Since before we moved there, the hole had been about 1/2" too low, so the door never really stayed closed. My 2yo would toddle in there all the time, and then proceed to open up the cabinets under the sink and treat everything under there as toys. To this day there's a stick of my wife's deodorant that has completely disappeared.

So to move the hole up I knew I'd have to plug the existing one first. I figured I'd create the plug with my hole saw and a piece of scrap plywood, but my smallest hole saw bit was still too big by about 1/2" diameter, so I ended up tracing around a 3/4" socket from one of my socket wrench sets and cutting that out with a coping saw. Then I had to shave the plug down a bit more with a chisel to get it to the right size, but finally I got a nice snug fit and glued it in place, and it was even perfectly flush. That was Monday. Then yesterday I drilled the new hole with a spade bit, chiseled out two corners a little to make it a D shape, as well as a thin layer slightly further up the door frame so the strike plate would fit properly, and voila. I recorded a 10-second video showing a close-up on the door closing, making sure you could hear that satisfying "click" as the latch slid home, then sent that to my wife. She was thrilled.

The sad thing is, those are pretty much the only two productive things it feels like I did yesterday.
 
Flyover said:
Last week I got a second in-person quote on the fence, and yesterday that guy (who seemed more legit than the first guy) agreed to match the first guy's price, so I'll be sending him the signed contract today. (He never asked to see the first guy's estimate, so I missed my chance to tell him it was much lower! If only I was more dishonest.)

Yesterday I also finally fixed the master bathroom door. Or rather, the hole where the latch slides through the strike plate. Since before we moved there, the hole had been about 1/2" too low, so the door never really stayed closed. My 2yo would toddle in there all the time, and then proceed to open up the cabinets under the sink and treat everything under there as toys. To this day there's a stick of my wife's deodorant that has completely disappeared.

So to move the hole up I knew I'd have to plug the existing one first. I figured I'd create the plug with my hole saw and a piece of scrap plywood, but my smallest hole saw bit was still too big by about 1/2" diameter, so I ended up tracing around a 3/4" socket from one of my socket wrench sets and cutting that out with a coping saw. Then I had to shave the plug down a bit more with a chisel to get it to the right size, but finally I got a nice snug fit and glued it in place, and it was even perfectly flush. That was Monday. Then yesterday I drilled the new hole with a spade bit, chiseled out two corners a little to make it a D shape, as well as a thin layer slightly further up the door frame so the strike plate would fit properly, and voila. I recorded a 10-second video showing a close-up on the door closing, making sure you could hear that satisfying "click" as the latch slid home, then sent that to my wife. She was thrilled.

The sad thing is, those are pretty much the only two productive things it feels like I did yesterday.
Click to expand...

Well, at least you accomplished something, good job!
 
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