What did you do today?

[Eddie_T]

No pictures, I saw those boxes but even a delete draft wouldn't make them go away. Do you think the Air Fryer does a decent job? And is it hard to clean up (I suspect you have to do that).

 

[zannej]

Thus far my brother is the only one who has cooked in it. What little I've had of it has turned out well. It hasn't been too difficult to clean thus far. It has a tray to catch crumbs. I did have to peel crispy cheese off of things, but not too much has dripped yet.

I just saw the obituary for my late friend. Graveside service on Thursday. It's going to suck in this heat- especially since I can't be out in the sun. I hope it will be a short service as I can't handle the heat.

 

[Spicoli43]

Sorry for your loss, Z.

Most restaurants around here are like that, tables right next to each other so you can't hear yourself think. (Steakhouses) For some reason, they are always packed. None of my family or friends sits around in those places. The Mexican joints have better food anyway, and normal booths.

 

[BuzzLOL]

I pulled up three Japanese maple seedlings about 2.5 ft high and instead of tossing them I stuck them in a pot and braided them about a foot, added dirt and water and the experiment is on

I just got some stray boxes in above quote but think I deleted them. I'm getting weird internet troubles lately, I think it's reactions/solutions/repairs to all the internet ransomware going on.

I'm always digging up random seedlings I find in my yard and then move them to places I would want them such as a 7' high privacy hedge or 3' high decorative hedge across front of front yard...

 

[zannej]

I like the Chinese buffet where there are booths spread out and it isn't so noisy. The Cajun place we went to had very loud music playing and drowning everything out. I'm not a fan of loud music-- probably why I've never been to a concert. LOL.

Went to the funeral service today. It was getting close to raining so it was cloudy and only 86° but with 100% humidity. My late friend's son was absolutely soaked with sweat when he took his jacket off. There was a reception afterward at some little diner. They had croissant sandwiches, cookies, and brownies as well as some sweet tea, coffee, and lemonade. I had the lemonade. I was relieved to hear that my friend's son took her cat in. He hadn't realized that she took that cat in after the previous owner died. His dying wish was for someone to take care of his cat when he was gone.

Talked to some of the family about memories of my late friend. We actually spent more time with her than many of them ever had. Her caregiver came to the funeral and was considered part of the family. She'd been taking care of her the last 6 years. She said that when she first came in, our friend tried to take care of her-- wanting to cook for her, make her coffee, etc. She had to explain that she was the one who was there to take care not be taken care of.

After the reception we went to see our friend. His ceiling fan stopped working in his living room. He had a guy over (son of the former veterinarian) trying to level his driveway. There's another guy who does yardwork who was cutting weeds and stuff. Friend bought him a lawnmower so the guy promised to mow his lawn and cut weeds for free for a year. We may see about hiring him to come cut stuff at our house but we'd have to give him a lift because he doesn't have a car. He rides on a bicycle and drags his mower along with him.

Friend's gf had been sent home from work. She stood up and nearly passed out. They sent her to the on-site medical clinic. Said her pulse rate spiked too high but her blood pressure dropped too low. She is supposed to see a specialist to figure out what is wrong, but they are guessing something like Pots Syndrome.

I had a lot of trouble getting comfortable last night. Kidney stones in both sides now and the one on the left is being particularly bad. 1500mg of naproxyn and it's still throbbing. Shoulder is also still hurting. If I slept on my left side my kidney hurt more. If I slept on my right side my shoulder hurt more. If I slept on my back both hurt. I'm a side sleeper usually. Got to sleep briefly and woke up drenched in sweat. Didn't help that my mother woke me up at 2am. The door to the front room was open and Namir got out. I had to go put him back in the room. Temjin is a good kitty and stays in the room.

Kidney stones are making my whole lower back hurt so it's hard to move.

 

[Spicoli43]

zannej, you have to cut back your sodium intake and get some Cranberry Juice or at least drink a couple glasses of water with Apple Cider Vinegar. I have had Kidney stone issues since the late 90's. When I eat too much Sodium, my Kidneys tell me I need to use said therapy and cut back on the Tortilla chips.

 

[zannej]

There are different causes for the kidney stones. I've never had mine examined though. I really should. I love my salt but I have been trying to cut back on it a bit lately. I didn't get them until I had hypothyroid, so I think the Levothyroxin is one of the culprits. But I would rather have kidney stones and have some energy than have no energy at all like I did before. I saw a meme on a sister forum that was pretty fitting:

I will have to see if cranberry gel caps work if I can't stomach sugar free carnberry juice. I still need to consult my doctor on it. He'd probably tell me to try to collect samples.
I'm having less pain today than I did yesterday. Still had a rough night trying to get comfortable.
I cooked for Mom, wiped the counters down, and fixed a problem with Mom's computer. After a windows update (not voluntary-- it forced it despite having "no updates" selected) it somehow sprocked her boot order. It changed her main boot drive from #1 to #3 in the list. So I watched a video for a few seconds on youtube on how to get in to BIOS. Then I walked her through setting the correct boot order and it booted-- but last I looked it was still trying to complete the update. She hasn't paged me to complain so I think it worked.

I need to clean the toilet again but can't bend well enough for it. I wish they made super long-handled toilet cleaning brushes/sponges. Or telescoping ones would be nice. I don't know anyone who enjoys getting their face close to a toilet bowl to clean it. I wonder if it's possible to extend some of those car-washing brushes that attach to cordless drills so I could reach in to the toilet without bending much. LOL. Would need a brush to get the underside of the rim...
I'm about to get something to eat if I can get the cats off of my legs.

 

[Spicoli43]

Oh yeah, there's multiple causes for everything, but the main culprit for Kidney stones is fast food and processed food, which can be argued until the cows fly home, but it's all lock stock loaded with sodium.

I drink lots of water when I have my favorite Tortilla chips, but if I get stones, they are gone within an hour with Cranberry Juice or Apple Cider Vinegar. People question me on that all the time, but it isn't anecdotal, it's been that way since I first had them, and it's all over the interwebben as a solution.

As far as Windows updates, most of the time it screws something up and I have to roll it back. They apparently don't test them, and now they think it's a bright idea to roll out Windows 11, because they don't have real world brain cells. They don't have real life experience. Being Bill Gates smart in computers applies to that only.

 

[Flyover]

They apparently don't test them, and now they think it's a bright idea to roll out Windows 11, because they don't have real world brain cells. They don't have real life experience. Being Bill Gates smart in computers applies to that only.

They do test them, a lot. With Microsoft testing budgets. But Windows is a huge piece of software and there are always bound to be things that go wrong on certain computers. Think about how many different combinations of CPUs and motherboards and all that other stuff are out there, in different states of newness. It is impossible to replicate and then test and troubleshoot every possible configuration, which means some people are going to have issues. Microsoft then relies on people reporting those issues so they can replicate them and try to fix them. It's amazing anything on a computer works at all if you ask me, but I'm not a computer person so I guess that figures. I do work with computer people though, and over the course of my career that has included some Microsoft people, and I can tell you they are not a bunch of egg heads with no life experience, although some of the younger ones do lack life experience but that's true of just about all young people for obvious reasons. Bill Gates was a competent computer programmer (I assume, I don't really know his life story) but I'm pretty sure he wasn't some kind of computer genius. He's rich because he is a shrewd businessman, which means more than anything he probably understands what people want (that they don't know they want) and how to motivate the ones he works with. I'd bet he also knows a thing or two about lasers and malaria.

As for what I did today, I tried to sort my life back into order after we arrived home from a short vacation yesterday, in the woods off the grid. I spent a lot of that trip drooling over the cabin we were staying in. You could still see the carpenter's pencil marks on some of the joints, I was smiling ear to ear the whole time. In the early morning we watched deer creep through the underbrush around us, and at night from the loft I looked out the big triangular windows and was eye level with this bat that was just cleaning up out there. One day I'll build a cabin like that.

 

[zannej]

I went to the grocery store two days in a row (didn't have enough room in the cooler for everything on day 1). Feeling tired. I did manage to do some light cleaning & changed AC filters. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go hang out with a friend and have a mini Loki marathon.

Two of my cats had a major fight this morning- knocked stuff down, tumbled into the french doors to the front room and knocked them open. I finally broke them up with my foot and pushed them apart. The more aggressive one tried to move around to jump again but I threw water on him to make him stop. He ran out of the room. Other one I threw water on to snap him out of his funk-- he was sitting there growling. He was huffing and puffing & hyperventilating for awhile. I calmed him down and he later came to my room to cuddle with me.

 

[homerowner]

Well, that seems cleaned up a bit?

 

[Eddie_T]

I fought with a Sharkbite coupler on a CPVC/copper plumbing repair for a couple of hours. I got the coupler halfway on and couldn't get it off using the plastic clip. I finally used the metal spring removal tool compressing it with a grip clamp. Then I got the idea to install it using the same method. It worked but if I get into any more plumbing I am going PEX.

 

[bud16415]

I fought with a Sharkbite coupler on a CPVC/copper plumbing repair for a couple of hours. I got the coupler halfway on and couldn't get it off using the plastic clip. I finally used the metal spring removal tool compressing it with a grip clamp. Then I got the idea to install it using the same method. It worked but if I get into any more plumbing I am going PEX.

I bought an old house that was abandon for a couple years. When we started to fix it up I spent two full days messing around with repairs. I said this is crazy and went over and chopped the pipe off at the meter and plumbed the whole house in PEX in 1.5 days. You won’t regret when you say enough.

 

[zannej]

Yesterday was the Loki marathon. Was going great until my friend's mom showed up needing $ for her drug fix. She dropped her dog in my friend's office & started frantically doing dishes and cleaning the stove while complaining that her food stamps ran out and she didn't know how to get them renewed. Friend gave her some $ for cleaning and sent her on her way so we could continue the marathon. It's a good show. Post office was closed by the time we got out so I went today. Found a package for my neighbor's daughter-in-law on the porch when I got back. It had been rained on, was wet, and the end was bent in. I took pictures of the condition I found it in and then took it over. She wasn't home but her mother-in-law was home. She told me her husband (the wifebeater/thief) had died last month. Which explains why my street sign disappeared last month just after his death. She made a point to ask me about the street sign (probably to gauge whether or not I realized her family stole it) and then was all "I didn't take it!". I had never suggested that she had. I said that I had looked to see if it had just fallen off but it was gone. She had a little bit of a guilty look on her face so I'm pretty sure one of her sons took the sign. They had wanted the street to be named after her husband instead of my father but we lived her before they did and the street was named before they moved in. I think she's still trying to get the street name changed so I'm trying to figure out who is in charge of the road signs now. I live out of the city so it would be someone from the parish. I used to know the guy who was in charge but I think he's dead now.
Shoulder is still bugging me more today so I could barely carry the packages.
I think tomorrow will be a day of rest and Sunday will be a cleaning day.

 

[Spicoli43]

I got 60 yards of 3/4 rock yesterday for my driveway, which is about 130' by 70'. I have a small metal rake like I can buy anywhere, but am drawing a blank trying to find bigger rakes that are made of steel. I would prefer a 36" rake like this one from Ace, but getting an Aluminum one will be futile because the tines will probably bend in 3 minutes. I don't think Steel rakes above say 18" exist.

I have to spread the rock out in most places and then either rent a roller or use a plate compactor, but I want to finish this project this year.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/gardening-tools/rakes/7272594

 

[zannej]

I don't even remember what I did on the weekend. This weather has me feeling exhausted. Felt sick the past couple of days. I'd forgotten my meds for a couple of days. Ran out of my naproxyn. Shoulder, arm, neck, & back don't like me. Monday I had to drag myself out of bed to go get mail and pickup food for mom since I wasn't up to cooking. Tuesday I don't really remember except I called the police juror for my district about my roadsign being stolen. He said for some reason people steal road signs all the time. He said he'd get a new one made up and put up asap. Seemed like a nice enough guy. I know he's been trying to have more maintenance done on the roads, although putting gravel down on the paved road only made it worse.

My friends (I'll call them Z & A) had bought a house in a small town nearby. Turns out the house was condemned and seller didn't tell them. That's why they sold it. So now the town is after them to have it demolished at their expense & they can't afford it. They already paid all sorts of fees & they had wanted to fix it up-- it is fit enough to be fixed-- but for whatever reason the town is insisting they get it demolished-- I'm guessing someone on the town council or a mayor probably owns a business that gets $ for demos. So, they are going to see if they can sell it to someone who only wants the land and who is willing to build on it. They said that if they had found out sooner they could have undone the deal with the seller & gotten their $ back. But that the sellers got the hell out of dodge & can't be found.

My other friend (the one I talk about all the time) is about at his wit's end with his job. They tried to accuse him of stealing arcade machines that they ordered him to dispose of. He found the old e-mails where they told him to dispose of them and he fwd the messages to them to prove it. His direct supervisor is also refusing to order parts that he needs to fix machines and then griping that he hasn't fixed them. He's told them numerous times he needs the parts but they are jerking him around. On top of that, he's having a harder time functioning physically because of the blood cots & he's clinically depressed. He felt really bad today because he thought he ran over one of his kittens. But his mom said it wasn't squished and that it had been dead for hours (she rolled up right after he left). It was his favorite kitten from the litter. The orange kitten is missing-- probably dead. The two black ones were in bad shape. One of them was absolutely skeletal. I took them both to the vet today. Vet said skeletal kitty might not make it, but other one should. They got subcutaneous fluids, worming medicine, antibiotics, and eye meds. They both have a form of feline herpes that affects respiratory system and eyes. So cruddy eyes, stuffy noses, lack of appetite, etc. I'm thinking of naming the skinny one Skeletor if it survives. After the vet's visit they sat on my brother's back and shoulder. Told my friend to keep them inside and told him medicine schedule for them. He offered to repay us for the vet bill but I said he can just help me with a few projects instead because my shoulder is borked.

I made my vet laugh a few times telling her about something from the homesteading forum-- someone's parrot was sneezing and yelling "Sh**!" afterward every time & she found that funny. I said that sadly we can't bring these two kittens home and that I would be going over to check on the kittens to help. I plan to go over tomorrow.

While I was typing this my fluffy black cat got jealous-- just came in from the rain, and climbed his soaking wet behind on to me. I'm trying to dry him off.

 

[Flyover]

Two of the neighborhoods adjacent to mine are brand new, so lots of houses in various early stages of construction. I was taking the baby on a walk a few days ago and finally saw a worker who looked like he knew English (though the actual hurdle is probably just that I'm shy) and he started talking to me about the weather but I managed to turn it around and ask him what they do with the dumpsters full of scrap 2x4, whether some other company is possessive about it, etc. He said they don't care about it, that he takes wood home all the time, that nobody would care if I came and took some. I could hardly believe it, with lumber prices right now especially being what they are I assumed they'd figure out a systematic way to repurpose as much as they could, but I guess our society's capacity for waste is not to be underestimated.

I came back with the truck that same evening and drove around the development from dumpster to dumpster, grabbing just the few pieces of 2x4 (and some 3/4 OSB!) that I could reach from each one. If I saw anyone at a site I asked them for permission, which they always gave. After maybe 30 or 45 minutes I returned home with what must be about $200 worth of lumber. It was like something out of a dream. Might do another round this weekend. Will use it to build a compost bin and my garage workbench/shelving.

 

[zannej]

That's awesome, Flyover!

I got woken up very early by Mom paging on the phone's intercom. Her bedroom doorknob broke and she couldn't get out of her room. Knob would just spin- something inside stripped. Fortunately, it could open from the outside so I opened it for her. Then I drove to the closest hardware store, grabbed the first (and only) privacy knob I could find, grabbed a screwdriver because I did not have the mental fortitude to look for screwdrivers in the house as I was feeling nauseous and tired. It's a magnetic one, which came in handy. Drove straight home, stepped over the cat who kept trying to trip me, took the old knob off while trying to keep cats out of the room, put new one on, realized it was backwards-- I think they assembled it wrong-- screws were on the wrong side. They should have been on the locking side but they were on the outside. So I flipped it around and got it tightened down. Now mom has a new shiny doorknob. I hope this one doesn't break. Weird thing was that the plate that goes over the latch was missing. Not sure if it was supposed to come with it, but the plate from the old latch was welded on so I couldn't pull it off. Knob that broke was at least 40 years old. I'd been wanting to replace it because the finish was peeling off and it felt awful to touch.

One of the reasons I don't eat breakfast is that I feel nauseous if I wake up too early. Gonna try to nap again if the cats will let me.

 

[Eddie_T]

Yesterday I was stung by a carpenter bee. I didn't know they stung but learned that females do. It was mild and only stung for a little while. Today the skin has a blush around the spot.

 

[bud16415]

Yesterday I was stung by a carpenter bee. I didn't know they stung but learned that females do. It was mild and only stung for a little while. Today the skin has a blush around the spot.

Ouch!