What's everybody doing today?

[ABR]

Trying to keep Asthma symptoms from progressing into a full-blown attack. Started yesterday afternoon and kept me from resting well last night so now I'm extra tired in addition to chest tightness pain and wheezing

 

[montanabill]

It never ends.....
So we THOUGHT we were going to have a good day yesterday. Got the refund for the tiller. The store manager messed around with it for almost an hour and put it together wrong ( not like in the instructions) and finally decided to give us the refund. And indeed it was made in China....the other guy there said we should have bought one made in the U.S. they work great....hmmmmm

Then we went to pick up the hay. They made super heavy bales, very far apart so it took us several hours to load up the trailer. I thought the truck was going to overheat . We finally almost got done and it started raining...it was not supposed to rain and when I looked later, that was the only tiny rain cloud anywhere. It didn't get much wet but a little.

On the way home, driving 35 mph the entire way since the load was so heavy , we get a call from son " my car doesn't start and I have a test". SIgh.....
I let him drive mine ( with the bad idle). He did make it there but said the whole vehicle shook when he was stopped at a light.

What do you do if you have to get a vehicle repaired fast, but all the repair shops are too busy and give you a date at least 2 weeks out? Rent one\? I don't know if son is old enough to get a rental He's 24.
I just want to cry
We still have to put up the hay and figure out how he gets to school today since he has 2 more tests.

Watch the moisture content on that hay...... wet hay has a habit of self combusting. As far as cars if it is a 96 or newer you can buy a cheap analyzer that plugs into a port usually under the dash on the drivers side. It sometimes is too general to help but it will read out problems. Your rough idle could be a broken or leaking vacuum hose. The other thing to do is look for youtube videos with your same vehicle with the same problem. That is what the mechanic the shop is charging $100+ per hour does.
As far as rentals in my area the cut off for insurance is that the person has to be at least 24 years old, maybe the same where you are? Here the U haul pickups rent for $19.95 a day plus mileage etc etc.
I have always driven old cars and sometimes they don't run too good but I always buy gas from a good high volume gas station and keep the fluids topped off and a good battery in them.
My other trick for old cars is to have a towing policy that works (here it is AAA) and have a beater with a heater parked out back for times when everything breaks down. Just transfer the insurance over and maybe the battery out of another car and away you go. Rentals will suck up a bunch of money so that $500 to $1000 used banged up standby car can be a real bargain.

 

[Haertig]

It looks like an upside down wine goblet. anybody ever drink out of it when they won?

People drink from it all the time. Day before yesterday, it was at CU Boulder (our nearby university). One of their team doctors is also some kind of medical support for the Avalanche hockey club. So they had a turn with it. The mascot for CU is Ralphie - a buffalo. Ralphie was reportedly eating hay out of the Stanley Cup (not a guy dressed up in a buffalo suit - their real buffalo). Which is one of the reasons why I decided not to kiss the thing yesterday, like other people were. Maybe they wiped it down before bringing it to our dinner. It's definitely the everyman's trophy, if buffaloes are eating hay out of it.

 

[Wingnut]

Slept well but woke late at 0825... dunno why, I wasn't up late and I didn't really party yesterday, I just took it easy. Maybe it's a seasonal thing, going into fall. Oh, well, I certainly feel rested... sleeping with the window open also gives me nice fresh air and deep sleep. Guess I'll water a bit and head into town, I need to buy another breather tube for the fuel tank on my bike, the shorty tube that was on there went MIA during my last ride. Might as well hit the store while I'm in town, that'll save me a trip later. Gotta spray chain lube on the bike once I return home, I want that chain in good shape for Friday's ride to the mountains... the "free burgers & dawgs" run to Cloudcroft and beyond, lol. Should be fun! Got some trails to explore as well, not far from Cloudcroft... saw 'em last time, and I wanna check 'em out on Friday.

 

[LadyLocust]

Howdy all. Looks like I've missed quite a bit. I've been almost running for about the past week. Sometime late morning last Thursday, the aliens abducted my work computer. Long story short, little things like gov. contracts, insurance/bonding docs. and other such frivolous things were neither sent nor received. I spent the first half of the day Monday trying to exterminate the monsters from my computer and have been playing catch-up since then.
I've also been going full throttle at home. Trying to keep the garden going as long as possible and preserving the results.
Hubby has gone the past two weekends to MT hunting - has seen a few critters but mostly other hunters. We are supposed to leave tomorrow - I would go with him since Sat. is our anniversary. His back has been out. He had it put back in Monday and goes again here in about 1/2 hour. He can hardly walk so not sure we will be able to go. There's no way he could sit in a rig driving for hours let alone hike or draw his bow.
I stopped by an estate sale Sun. on my way home from church. There was very little of interest, but I did score a few books. I'll post those over in the Reading thread. A couple look to be quite good.
Otherwise, if you catch the scent of onions processing or salsa stewing, it's just me.

 

[backlash]

When I worked at the airport the Stanly Cup came through as checked baggage.
When they saw it on the screen for the explosive scanner the TSA guys went nuts.
They all took turns holding it above their heads and getting pictures taken.
I was waiting for one of them to drop it.
I always suspected it was a duplicate used for shows but it may have been the real deal.

 

[TeeJ]

Time is just flying by, but I guess that's what happens when you are busy!

@sonya123 , sorry to hear your cars are being a pain - it's never fun! I agree with @montanabill that an OBD II Code Reader is almost essential these days. I use a $20 bluetooth one from Amazon that connects to my phone or Harbor Freight has one for just over $30 that is super simple to use. Roadside assistance is also great and you can usually find a good deal through your car insurance, wholesale club, etc. We have Good Sam for our RV and it covers all the cars in the household as well which is great.

Keeping very busy with puppy training. We're nearly housebroken, down to an accident every 3-4 days, and we just figured out fetch this morning. Atari is a super sweet boy and I'm grateful to have found him.

My daughter in law took her puppy out at 2 AM the other night and realized as she was going in there was someone in our back yard . They were gone by the time I got out there, but it shook the kids up. I suspect it's a neighbor who's got a history of substance abuse and mental issues (he came over last Halloween to accuse me of being in league with evil forces because my initials were in the shape of the "PI" symbol and confided to me that he was God)... We've replaced some of our older locks, reinforced all the lock & hinge hardware with 6" screws, and I'm in the process of installing security cameras with integrated floodlights around the house. What stinks is up until this week I've only ever locked our doors if we were on vacation. I guess that's just one more reason to want to relocate to a more rural setting where your closest neighbors are more than walking distance away!

 

[INresponse]

It was just kind of plonked down there right next to my table. Our hockey friend plays on the team with my wife, and her husband works for the Avalanche/NHL and had a turn with the cup. So they rented out half of the restaurant at our local hockey rink (a three-plex) and brought the thing for us to see.

It's funny, when they bring it out at the end of the finals, they're wearing suits and carrying it very carefully with white gloves. I was expecting the thing to be roped off, or guarded, or something. But after all those final game photo ops, evidently it becomes the average Joe's trophy. Everyone was hugging the thing, kissing it, setting babies in the top of it. There were two official "cup attendants" who were really just photographers. The hockey player names inscribed on it were tiny. It must be a computer that engraves it. You couldn't hope to read them without a magnifying glass. More like an electron microscope. I guess that's how they fit so many names on the thing.

We will have the higher quality photos later - I think they are going to email out a link to download what was photographed tonight. Here's one I took from my dining seat. It was kind of cool to be eating and gabbing away next to the trophy. I guess football, baseball, basketball, etc. all have trophies too, but probably very few people know - or care - what they look like. But most everyone knows what The Stanley Cup looks like! It's pretty big. I'd say almost 4 feet tall by two feet wide.

View attachment 94644

Congrats on the Stanley encounter. I missed out on the party with the cup when the Redwings won it, prior to reconnecting with my old friends in Michigan. Tim had it at his house each time, well the three times he was with the team. But, I did get to see one of his 3 rings. He met up with me at a bar when I was in town. I saw him wearing the ring and asked to see it, he took it off and handed it to me. The bar was at a marina and we were 10 feet from the water and the plank deck had cracks big enough for the ring to fall through into the canal. I was excited and scared at the same time. My other friends wanted to see it but I left it on my finger while I showed everyone so it wouldn't get dropped.

 

[INresponse]

Yesterday I installed the snow birds on the metal roof above the chimney and the support wires. Silicone adhesive and 2 screws holding each in place. Adjust the tension on the guy wires to take up the slack. I noticed some loose screws securing the metal roofing, next year I will need to check the entire roof and pull out the loose screws, jam in some toothpicks and glue and reinstall the screws. That 1/2" OSB sheathing just doesn't grip the screws very well. When that time comes if necessary I will crawl into the attic and put wood blocks under every loose screw so there is more for them to hold on to, but thankfully most are still secure and all the seams are siliconed together so no worries about things blowing off the roof.
Bought more stakes to frame up for the cement pads I am prepping for, I should have enough metal stakes for the important parts and I will use wood stakes to reinforce where needed. I guess that will be todays project.
Chance of rain today, the weather morons say 60% chance but I know that is wrong. It will either rain or it wont rain. 50-50 chance.

 

[Haertig]

Congrats on the Stanley encounter. I missed out on the party with the cup when the Redwings won it

The Avalanche and the Redwings used to be bitter rivals. Those games were some of the most fun to be at. A few years ago we had an exhibition game with the older (long retired) AV's and Wings players. That was so fun to watch. The players were intermingling on each others bench, having the greatest time chatting away. Even Claude Lemieux and Chris Draper, who weren't exactly the best of friends back when they were playing. That was so fun to see the camaraderie. The players had definitely slowed down and didn't look like tip-top physical specimens any more, but they sure had a great time skating together again. And the crowd didn't chant "Red Wings Suck!" like we used to continuously do back in the old days. Not even once.

 

[Weedygarden]

My daughter in law took her puppy out at 2 AM the other night and realized as she was going in there was someone in our back yard . They were gone by the time I got out there, but it shook the kids up. I suspect it's a neighbor who's got a history of substance abuse and mental issues (he came over last Halloween to accuse me of being in league with evil forces because my initials were in the shape of the "PI" symbol and confided to me that he was God)... We've replaced some of our older locks, reinforced all the lock & hinge hardware with 6" screws, and I'm in the process of installing security cameras with integrated floodlights around the house. What stinks is up until this week I've only ever locked our doors if we were on vacation. I guess that's just one more reason to want to relocate to a more rural setting where your closest neighbors are more than walking distance away!

I would take this event as an opportunity to shore up security at your home. As my grandmother used to say, "It is too late to close the barn door after the horse is out." You live in Utah, where there are many people who have good standards, but all it takes is one person who does not. Some of my out buildings have two hasps and locks on them. I have considered adding even more. Sadly, we are circling the drain these days. Crime has been skyrocketing. I have seen some reports of people living in remote areas being arrested for being in possession of more than 50 stolen vehicles. There are other similar reports out there. I want more security on my home.

 

[snappy1]

Trying to keep the garden going as long as possible

Me too! Started watering again. Today, I picked 168 (yes I counted) Habanero peppers. I also pulled up the bushes. Pulled up a few jalapeno bushes that were dead or dying. Harvested peppers, okra which is coming on again, and a few figs. Still waiting to harvest the eggplants until they are a little bigger.

Walked first this morning.
Harvested.
The big ticket item was I cleaned out my bedroom closet. When your clothes come from thrift stores, you can end up with a lot of clothes.
Made labels for yesterday's elderberry syrup and put jars away.
Only thing left for today is Bible study this evening and I did study it yesterday.

 

[INresponse]

The Avalanche and the Redwings used to be bitter rivals. Those games were some of the most fun to be at. A few years ago we had an exhibition game with the older (long retired) AV's and Wings players. That was so fun to watch. The players were intermingling on each others bench, having the greatest time chatting away. Even Claude Lemieux and Chris Draper, who weren't exactly the best of friends back when they were playing. That was so fun to see the camaraderie. The players had definitely slowed down and didn't look like tip-top physical specimens any more, but they sure had a great time skating together again. And the crowd didn't chant "Red Wings Suck!" like we used to continuously do back in the old days. Not even once.

Very cool. Yup, we hated it when the Avs won the cup in 96, the year the Redwings had the best record in the league, and the big fights didn't help our opinions but they sure made the games exciting to watch. But that made our win in 97 so much better. Bad management hurt the wings but it looks like Yzerman is doing good so I am hoping the Wings can win it again this year since you won it last season. When my friend worked for the team and my other friends would go to the games and then to the teams favorite bar after the games many times the players that were fighting on the ice during the game were drinking beer and laughing with each other in the bar. The game is one mentality and real life is much different..... in most cases.

 

[INresponse]

Just ordered new Michigan and Utah football flags for the flagpole. I need to represent my pride, Michigan because I grew up there, Utah because I live here. Hoping they both have good seasons again, but now that I bought new flags I probably jinxed the season.

 

[Mel]

I'm going to try to disassemble an old Whirlpool dishwasher and see if it can be used for a garden bed. I did see a video for that on YouTube so I probably need to watch that first.

Peel, cut and blanch some potatoes for dehydration. I may let them cool overnight.

I'm going to see what needs to be done in the garden.

Go find out how the new dishwasher works.

Help paint a table.

 

[Magus]

Sleeping. always sleeping. Had a hiker's breakfast and went right back to sleep.

 

[Neb]

Seems I am supposed to atay in plumbers mode.

Normal water pressure is 45-80 PSI. 150 PSI is nor good. Couldn't adjust the pressure down so...

Bad pressure regulating valve.

Told The Princess no dishwasher or washing machine until I fix the water pressure.

These types of plumbing projects always make me sweat. Taking out the water to the house is serious. Back up plan will be to use water from the other side of the duplex since it is on a separate meter.

Ben

 

[Amish Heart]

Still close to 100 outside, so no greenhouse finishing yet. Went to the two bin stores and Dollar General this morning, then off to Aldi to fill a cart. Still putting things away, but kids will be home any minute. Older granddaughter is in argumentative mode and is giving me the silent treatment, but is going to work after she gets home, so I really won't see her. She walked away from me last night when the twins both came home at 10:15 from a 6pm therapy appointment. Lying explanation. Would not talk about it and just glared and walked off. 263 more days. Grandson starts a new job as a "table seater" at the amish restaurant in our little town tomorrow. He generally does not like to work, but is blowing through the money he earned in the summer, so hopefully he will stick with it, and won't get fired. I would encourage him to make and save all his money, because he is going to need it when he moves out.

 

[Wingnut]

Back from town, not really up for any projects right this minute, think I'll read a good book... I picked up a breather tube for the fuel tank on the monster thumper, I'll slap that on later when it cools off a bit. Or I can do it manana when I apply some chain lube to the bike. Looking forward to Friday's ride, but I'll have to pull some weeds tomorrow, I noticed some blasted goathead vines coming up in the yard. Man, will I ever be glad when cold weather rolls around and puts a stop to the flourishing goatheads... till then, I have to stay on top of the eradication program, ugh. Meh, I'll spend some time and fill a few Walmart sacks manana... can't be bothered with it right now, too warm outside. Gonna sit indoors in the A/C and have a cold beer instead.

 

[Spikedriver]

I'm doing dishes and watching the workers make progress on the new grocery store next door to me. This guy was not far from my kitchen window in the lift. According to Fareway, they're still on schedule to open November 1st, but they haven't started hiring anybody yet...

 

[Magus]

Seems I am supposed to atay in plumbers mode.

View attachment 94672

Normal water pressure is 45-80 PSI. 150 PSI is nor good. Couldn't adjust the pressure down so...

Bad pressure regulating valve.

Told The Princess no dishwasher or washing machine until I fix the water pressure.

These types of plumbing projects always make me sweat. Taking out the water to the house is serious. Back up plan will be to use water from the other side of the duplex since it is on a separate meter.

Ben

It may not be bad, run a hair drier on it a few minutes, the lube that china uses is known to turn into goop. IF that is the case, pop the back, spray it with 100% medical alcohol and when it dries, put a drop of 20Wt synthetic in it.

 

[Neb]

It may not be bad, run a hair drier on it a few minutes, the lube that china uses is known to turn into goop. IF that is the case, pop the back, spray it with 100% medical alcohol and when it dries, put a drop of 20Wt synthetic in it.

Thanks but...

I had bear of a time when I helped my son replace his.

I will revamp the plumbing because I don't have a place to drain all of the water from my system. I will add a tee after the regulator with a drain valve. I will transition to PEX and shark bite fitting at get it over with. Replace it all new stuff that out last me.

This place is about 100 years old. Indoor running water was added by my grandparents.

Fun story time...

We hand dug out the basement because I had friends that were too tall stand up straight. I had to rerun the the waste lines to do so. My great uncle stuck his nose in to see what we were doing. He saw me pulling out the terracotta pipe and asked if there was ant chinking in the joints. Nope. He then said ...

I always wondered how they manage to install it so fast.

They just pieced them together, covered it with dirt and concrete it over. The pipes when we dug them up the pipes were surrounded by rich black dirt. I have an incredible grape vine growing in that dirt almost 30 years now.

And after we were done that funny smell in the basement was gone.

Ben

 

[Peanut]

I had errands in town, a grocery run. I now have food in the house, yea! Stopped at the guitar shop for a few items also. One was a new clip-on electronic tuner. My old one, a Korg, was okay but my ears were more accurate. But there are times when the ambient noise is so high I couldn’t hear well enough to tune. Like when I played at the restaurant. So a good tuner is a must own if you play publicly.

Today I bought a Peterson Strobe tuner. Accurate to 1/1000th of a fret. Better than my old one by far. I clipped both to my guitar so I could test them side by side in real time. Best part… I can now store up to 50 different tunings in memory and I can use it for multiple instrument types, even horns. It’s simple to use, just 3 buttons.

Now for the best, best part… I can read it on a dark stage without my glasses! (new one on the left)

 

[rusty]

Long day. Drove about 60 miles to my last infusion at 10 am. About 10 miles from there my wife had a contrast MRI at 4 30. We decided not to drive all the way back home between, but it was 99 out. Made for a long day. Left at 8 30 this morning, got home at 7 this evening.

 

[Amish Heart]

Wow, that is a long day. Our temps were about the same. I'm looking forward to cool temps tomorrow, but we'll be driving about 40 miles in the afternoon for husband's spine shot.

 

[INresponse]

Just got home from work. Twice a year Home Depot has "success sharing" which is a bonus based on the stores ability to sell over "plan", the guestimate corporate sets for each day and week. Usually they tell us the amount of the "check" the store gets to split amongst the employees several weeks or more in advance but the official day we get our check is Friday and they still haven't said anything about the total amount or hung the "big check" on the wall to brag about our stores success. We keep asking our boss, and he relays our inquiry to the manager, but no word on anything. I have direct deposit so I should find out tomorrow what my take home part is, each employee that is qualified will get a minimum of $100.00, minus the 30% taken out for taxes. Our store was 3rd in our district which should be a pretty big amount but everyone is shaking their heads because the management is not bragging about it. My suspicion is that due to the inflated cost of products coming into the store and other inflated expenses the store might not have had the normal profit margin and they are afraid to tell us our bonus will be smaller than expected. The crew I work with keeps laughing about it, basically we all know we are part time and somehow it is divided up based on hourly pay and hours worked during the 6 month period. We all understand it is a "bonus" so whatever it is we will appreciate but for the store manager to not be bragging about it is way out of the ordinary. We shall see.
I have been in a lousy mood for months. I am absolutely fed up with no one having any interest in helping me with the work to finish the house. I learned years ago my "friends" had no interest in helping me and blew them out of my mind long ago but my GF's adult kids don't want to help either and they are living here. I think tonight I finally decided to try to get past that and maybe tomorrow I will suck it up and just start doing stuff to get things done. The few things left should have been done a couple years ago but without help I just don't want to do it. What really annoys me is that interest rates jumped this summer so IF I get it far enough along to pull a mortgage to pay off the building expenses the monthly payment will be several hundred dollars more than 6 months ago. IF I QUALIFY FOR THE LOAN TO BEGIN WITH DUE TO THE HIGHER INTEREST RATE. I know I can make the payments, but will the credit union believe me?
Ugh, having a couple beers before my shower and bed time. I hope everyone has a good day.

 

[Magus]

People being people.

 

[Magpie]

Classes this morning, then I have to move some furniture. Started putting the house back together and giving my kids their rooms back; it looks like I just moved in lol- and forgot my youngest brother is here Monday night from Perth with his girlfriend, whom I haven't met yet. Now I'm dithering, will I abandon all or keep going?! Lashing rain here, and very dark- a day for curling up with a book and doing nothing

 

[sonya123]

Bamadeb: sorry about your brother. When we picked up our hay, the lady we get it from got exactly the same news from her brother. I felt so bad, she was sitting there crying while her husband baled hay.

Magus: you need to get out of bed!!!

Peanut: sorry about your dad and hope you feel better. We went through this with husbands parents before we moved here. They were both close to and over 90 and still insisted on living on their own until his dad got so bad he had to go to the hospital and then nursing home where he passed away the first day he was there. Husband's mom had pancreatic cancer and she refused any treatment since there was not much they could do. They gave her 2 months but she lived another 2 years. She went to live with husband's sister ( we didn't have an extra room for her) and caused some problems there in their house like set the microwave on fire. So they were going to put her in a nursing home also. Here is where it get funny: she had bought a house in Colombia ( where she was from) and not told anyone about it! She worked until she was 80 and used that money to do it behind everyone's back. She was always asking us for money and I could never figure out why. So her cousins were living in the house then, and she moved back to Colombia to go live there until she died.
But yeah, do take the tractor keys away from your dad....tractors are dangerous for even young people

Update on the car issues: my Yukon is parked now until 2 weeks from now when I will take it to the dealer to have them hopefully fix it right. This time I think I will spend the money on the dealer , hopefully they will do a good job. Its not something simple like a vacuum hose, I looked. I put high grade fuel in it and checked air filter, none of those things.
The good news is son's car is fine, it was just a loose and way corroded battery cable terminal. We will have to replace it but for now its running. It used to be simple to take of a battery cable and replace it, but now you can't even get to anything. So we are just going to cut it, and replace the terminal. Hopefully the cable has enough slack in it

My stomach hurt all day yesterday, probably from stress since I didn't eat anything weird

Hay is put up, the goats love it. One bale fell apart and we gave it to them .

Rotated the goats around. Big goat boys had to switch pasture with little goat boys since the neighbor's girls next door were making googley eyes at them and they tried to break the fence. Now there are no girls next to them . The little ones are not big enough to break the fence

We also put winter rye seeds in the one garden husband tilled with the little rental one. I think we will just do that from now on, rent one.

 

[Wingnut]

Slow morning here, not very motivated despite good sleep. Kittens are tearing around and making noise. Herbal tea tastes good. Gotta water everything since I'll be gone tomorrow, weather forecast is looking good for my ride. Gotta apply chain lube to bike and fix that breather tube on the tank. Dunno why I feel like going back to bed... probably the thought of dealing with goatheads, ugh.