What's everybody doing today?

[Neb]

We went from 70's to 20's in a week. ...

For a second I thought you were time traveling.

Quoting from This Old Tony on YouTube

Time travel is dangerous.

Ben

 

[Neb]

Yesterday I only had to entertain one of the G-duaghters, since the younger had an event with friends. I don't mind since they do fight a bit when they are both trying to get attention. Olivia decided she was going to build a halloween shop to add to her Lego apartment.

Today I went to Lowe's to order more concrete. I felt bad for the guy working the contractors desk since the silly computer would not let him apply the discount I get as a vet. He was getting very frustrated and had to find supervisors to over-ride the computer to match what I had in the receipt from the previous purchase. eventually he got everything in but then I looked at the total and told him that is was too low. He said "Just take it, I don't want to go through that again."

We did get some more concrete in and it is time to move the forms again. I think we are about 75% done with the concrete at this point.

Behave!

Ben

 

[Grimm]

We took a "sick day" today because we all wanted to sleep in. Even the cats slept in rather than wake me up when I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. (They want to be fed so they start meowing and licking my hands to get me up). Roo wanted to sleep in so Juju and I started the daily routine and fed the animals and started breakfast. I reminded Roo she will have double school work tomorrow if she wants to take the day off today. She didn't seem to mind.

We ran to the grocery store after lunch. I just wanted to grab a sack of potatoes and some cabbage but ended up with cold cuts and more eggs too. I couldn't help myself. I know I will make a large purchase of food on Wednesday at Target when I take Roo to pick out a small birthday gift for herself. We use to take the girls to Toys R Us but since they closed Target is the next best place except I over spend on food when we go. . I will try to restrict it to frozen veggies but I know I'll leave with water as well.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today was a real sour day here. Wife was in a very bad mood and I'm the only one to talk to (yell at) around here.... Then I got in to a bad mood, not a good combination.

We made taco filling with lettuce, homemade salsa, Guacamole, and Mexican cheese, had a nice sit down dinner, cleaned up together and all is right with the world.

 

[Amish Heart]

Well, tomorrow is another day, Urban. Everyone has a bad day now and again. Not looking forward to getting little granddaughter to school tomorrow, it will be cold and snowy. Twins don't go in till Wed. It's their school on computer day tomorrow.

 

[hashbrown]

We have been watching Doomsday Preppers for the last couple of evenings. We had never watched the show before. Some folks have some strange ideas!

 

[Bacpacker]

One of my techs called me yesterday to inform me his son went to school with another kid that came down with Covid and they were hit with contact tracing. He called medical this morning and they quaratined him until Nov 9th. Also told me his son has a fever around 100 and isn't acting himself at all. He likely has it and his whole familiy probably will before it's over. Please say a prayer for them and the others at work that have it. One guy has a high fever and is having trouble getting it down. Also found out today our Division Director is in the hospital with it. She has asthma and is very much over weight.
With him going out I am now down to one tech in the Environmental shop and one in the radio shop. Hard to get much done being this short handed.

 

[Neb]

We have been watching Doomsday Preppers for the last couple of evenings. We had never watched the show before. Some folks have some strange ideas! ☠

What have you been waiting for?

I liked the efforts but their critiques at the end were always "and they ridiculous for thinking that way"

When you get to the episode where the guy is packing up his world and headed to Costa Rica, that was the guy that started"Mainstream Preppers" website. I and others cobtibuted to that now defunct site. That is where I cobtibuted before I came here .

Ben

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep! It was a good site, too. We spent many years on it. I remember once upon a time when I was nervous about getting chickens and talked about it on the site. And the photos of the farm we currently have. That was years ago.
I loved watching Doomsday Preppers. It was a hoot. I liked the lady who stored alot of food and cooked a meal for a bunch of people from food storage. I wanted to be like her, and I guess I am. I didn't like the commentary after, thought they were nick picking. I remember the pandemic prepper and thought she was overkill. She's probably laughing now.

 

[Meerkat]

One of my techs called me yesterday to inform me his son went to school with another kid that came down with Covid and they were hit with contact tracing. He called medical this morning and they quaratined him until Nov 9th. Also told me his son has a fever around 100 and isn't acting himself at all. He likely has it and his whole familiy probably will before it's over. Please say a prayer for them and the others at work that have it. One guy has a high fever and is having trouble getting it down. Also found out today our Division Director is in the hospital with it. She has asthma and is very much over weight.
With him going out I am now down to one tech in the Environmental shop and one in the radio shop. Hard to get much done being this short handed.

My goodness BacP it has been a bad year for lots of us with illness and problems, we already pray for all our members here so will do and keep you in mind. .

 

[Mr.Meer]

One of my techs called me yesterday to inform me his son went to school with another kid that came down with Covid and they were hit with contact tracing. He called medical this morning and they quaratined him until Nov 9th. Also told me his son has a fever around 100 and isn't acting himself at all. He likely has it and his whole familiy probably will before it's over. Please say a prayer for them and the others at work that have it. One guy has a high fever and is having trouble getting it down. Also found out today our Division Director is in the hospital with it. She has asthma and is very much over weight.
With him going out I am now down to one tech in the Environmental shop and one in the radio shop. Hard to get much done being this short handed.

's for you, your help, and their families BacP.

 

[Peanut]

Wish I had the chainsaw running good. A week ago last Friday I gave the saw to my grtnephew. He’d gotten an after school job at the power equipment shop in town. He was going to take the saw to work with him. I was going to pick it up last Friday. I had to make a couple of calls that day but found out the saw was still sitting in his garage. &*%#

So I went to his house, got it, then drove it to town to be checked, wasn’t running right even with a new spark plug… It won't be ready until Thursday.

I already mentioned I got the pole saw running and used it Saturday, been nice if I had the chainsaw also. Anyway, today I cut down some brush by a gate out to the low field. I used the bucket on the front-end loader to press some of it down, then backed the bush hog over it.

I scooped and hauled all of the brush and limbs from both days down to a brush pile. The place looks a little better now. I have a lot more I need to cut down on these cool fall days.

 

[LadyLocust]

The last few weeks have been "home automation installation" times for me.

Today I was fine tuning a new Ring camera/floodlight that I installed yesterday. Re-aiming it for best video coverage, trimming evergreen bushes that were blocking some of the view, working with the app to set up motion detection zones, alert settings, recording settings, etc. Today was the easy part - except going up and down that metal ladder with bare hands (16 degrees out there in the middle of the day). You had to grab and move quick so your hands wouldn't freeze to the metal. Yesterday was a lot warmer luckily, because I had to be up on that ladder a lot longer installing an outlet box and doing all the electrical wiring. Tomorrow I'll re-purpose another one of my old unused WiFi routers as an additional access point since this new camera is on the edge of WiFi signal strength. We have a separate Ring doorbell too with a camera in it. That's nice, but I like this new floodlight/camera combo better.

The new sprinkler controller I installed three weeks ago is alerting me that it's not going to water due to the low temperatures (I haven't told it that I already drained the system last week). It's one of those smart controllers that adjusts watering times based on weather sensors and also on online forecasts - it looks at heat, humidity, wind, type of grass, type of soil, slope, elevation, full sun or shade, rain accumulation ... all kinds of things to determine watering times. If it rains enough (you set how much) it is smart enough to turn itself off for a while. If it decides it's going to water a zone for, say, 30 minutes then it will break that up into two 15 minutes cycles and do a different zone in between to help prevent saturating the soil and thus having water run off. You control it from your smartphone or computer. Everything is done on the controller so you don't need internet to access it (you can get to it from your local network, and it even has its own internal network with WiFi access point). Of course you can use the internet it you want to access the thing from across the country, but you don't have to. I can even talk to one of my Echo devices and say things like, "Alexa, turn on front yard sprinklers for 15 minutes" and that interfaces into the controller. Many cities, mine included, have substantial rebates on these smart controllers because of the water savings. By the time you include the rebate, a smart controller ends up costing less than a standard controller (no rebates for the simple controllers here). I got my controller on sale for $165, and the city rebate was an additional $100, so quite a good deal.

I've been getting more and more into home automation these last few weeks, with the sprinkler controller, the cameras and automated floodlights, inside the house voice controlled lights, upgrading the alarm system with motion sensors. Even the bed is hooked into the network - it's one of those things that pumps air into and out of itself to adjust for your movements and motions in bed. Hot and cold air to maintain the temperature you like (it also has a separate electric foot heater). Get out of bed and it turns on night lights for you. Get back in bed and it turns them off. Motion and sound sensors (to detect snoring) so it can give you a "quality of sleep" report in the morning. It can raise you up to a sitting position, elevate your feet. It's king size, but each side is independent of the other for controls. A few years ago I swore I'd never put up with stuff like this. Yet, here I am...

Also shoveled a lot of snow on several different occasions today. It was snowing quite hard, and it kept building up fast. Went to the grocery store and stocked up on staples. Cooked dinner. Well, it wasn't much cooking - grilled cheese and cream of mushroom soup - I think that's a great combo on cold snowy days. Supposed to get down to 8 degrees tonight.

So when I was first reading this and you said you hooked up your bed, I was still thinking security system and thought "Um in case some stranger crawls in?"
@Sewingcreations15 How stressful. So glad he is through it and it went well. Prayers for a speedy recovery for him and peace of mind and rest for you.
@Patchouli You're so thoughtful
@Bacpacker I still don't know anybody who's had it. Keep you well and prayers for your colleagues.
I had to drive to Looneyville and back today. On the way, I spotted 3 big horn sheep. On the way back, I saw 1 ram but he was huge I always look for them and for peeers. I honk at peeers Yep, that's me.

 

[Grimm]

We have been watching Doomsday Preppers for the last couple of evenings. We had never watched the show before. Some folks have some strange ideas! ☠

Buuuuuuuut, that show is what lead me to PS back when Roo was a baby.

 

[Peanut]

That show was worth a few laughs. For entertainment purposes they selected the most outrageous preppers to video and air. But... there were a few good ideas if I remember correctly.

 

[backlash]

The last few weeks have been "home automation installation" times for me.

Today I was fine tuning a new Ring camera/floodlight that I installed yesterday. Re-aiming it for best video coverage, trimming evergreen bushes that were blocking some of the view, working with the app to set up motion detection zones, alert settings, recording settings, etc. Today was the easy part - except going up and down that metal ladder with bare hands (16 degrees out there in the middle of the day). You had to grab and move quick so your hands wouldn't freeze to the metal. Yesterday was a lot warmer luckily, because I had to be up on that ladder a lot longer installing an outlet box and doing all the electrical wiring. Tomorrow I'll re-purpose another one of my old unused WiFi routers as an additional access point since this new camera is on the edge of WiFi signal strength. We have a separate Ring doorbell too with a camera in it. That's nice, but I like this new floodlight/camera combo better.

The new sprinkler controller I installed three weeks ago is alerting me that it's not going to water due to the low temperatures (I haven't told it that I already drained the system last week). It's one of those smart controllers that adjusts watering times based on weather sensors and also on online forecasts - it looks at heat, humidity, wind, type of grass, type of soil, slope, elevation, full sun or shade, rain accumulation ... all kinds of things to determine watering times. If it rains enough (you set how much) it is smart enough to turn itself off for a while. If it decides it's going to water a zone for, say, 30 minutes then it will break that up into two 15 minutes cycles and do a different zone in between to help prevent saturating the soil and thus having water run off. You control it from your smartphone or computer. Everything is done on the controller so you don't need internet to access it (you can get to it from your local network, and it even has its own internal network with WiFi access point). Of course you can use the internet it you want to access the thing from across the country, but you don't have to. I can even talk to one of my Echo devices and say things like, "Alexa, turn on front yard sprinklers for 15 minutes" and that interfaces into the controller. Many cities, mine included, have substantial rebates on these smart controllers because of the water savings. By the time you include the rebate, a smart controller ends up costing less than a standard controller (no rebates for the simple controllers here). I got my controller on sale for $165, and the city rebate was an additional $100, so quite a good deal.

I've been getting more and more into home automation these last few weeks, with the sprinkler controller, the cameras and automated floodlights, inside the house voice controlled lights, upgrading the alarm system with motion sensors. Even the bed is hooked into the network - it's one of those things that pumps air into and out of itself to adjust for your movements and motions in bed. Hot and cold air to maintain the temperature you like (it also has a separate electric foot heater). Get out of bed and it turns on night lights for you. Get back in bed and it turns them off. Motion and sound sensors (to detect snoring) so it can give you a "quality of sleep" report in the morning. It can raise you up to a sitting position, elevate your feet. It's king size, but each side is independent of the other for controls. A few years ago I swore I'd never put up with stuff like this. Yet, here I am...

Also shoveled a lot of snow on several different occasions today. It was snowing quite hard, and it kept building up fast. Went to the grocery store and stocked up on staples. Cooked dinner. Well, it wasn't much cooking - grilled cheese and cream of mushroom soup - I think that's a great combo on cold snowy days. Supposed to get down to 8 degrees tonight.

I have also been home automating. I installed a SimpliSafe system, put in some smart lights, a new combo door latch, and Wyze cameras.

My biggest improvement is I CUT THE CABLE. No more Dish Network or DSL internet.
My son was here for the weekend and he turned on his T-Mobile hot spot. My internet speed went from 3.5 meg to 30 meg. I now have a T-Mobile access point, $40 a month for 20 Gig of data. We can stream movies with no buffering. YouTube videos play in 4K high definition. I put an antenna outside and I get 35 channels free. Actually only about 10 or so are channels we will actually watch but we get all the local stations.

 

[Haertig]

$40 a month for 20 Gig of data. ... YouTube videos play in 4K high definition.

Realize that one 4K full length streaming movie is usually more than 20Gb ... your entire monthly limit. Byte for byte, cell phone provider hotspots are about the most expensive way you can get internet service.

 

[Grimm]

Realize that one 4K full length streaming movie is usually more than 20Gb ... your entire monthly limit. Byte for byte, cell phone provider hotspots are about the most expensive way you can get internet service.

We had one when we lived in the cabin as backup for when the weather knocked out the internet.

 

[Haertig]

They are very useful if you need internet, and don't have any Wifi or other network available. My sister uses one for her business, where she often needs to fire up her computer and communicate in the absence of any more traditional internet connections. A Godsend if you need that, but they're way too expensive for high volume data IMHO.

 

[Terri9630]

We got an inch of rain before it turned to snow, last time I went out we were over 4". We are down to 18° with a wind chill of 7°.

 

[Amish Heart]

We woke up to 24 degrees, so not too bad. School is cancelled though, because it's snowing right now

 

[hiwall]

I think the snow is ending now. I guess I will go brush snow off the solar panels.

 

[snappy1]

Walked first, fed dogs.

I have a London Fog purse/ bag that I bought at a thrift shop for $2. Need to touch up a couple of spots with shoe polish. Second load of laundry is already in dryer. After the purse, all I have to do is write a few eBay drafts.

Our new range was supposed to come today, but has a new delivery date of Nov. 6th. Been almost a month with no oven.

 

[Meerkat]

I voted today at 1pm for the first time since 2012. I couldn'r see so a old lady helped me fill it out, She said I blacked out Trump and Biden and Harris or something the lady looked at me and said do you know who just just voted for,lol. So she went and got me another card and smiled said " lets fix this right now" and helped me black out the correct ones then she said " you did good". I left all the ammendments blank.I did look again real good to make sure I saw Trumps name,
This whole town is for Trump some of the signs look liek bill boards and I'm not kidding, Trump signs everwwhere,
Went grocery shopping and didn't listen to Mr Rose Colored glasses, spent $700 on canned meat,hambuger, chicken, a few roast for freezer and other things of course, now freezer is full and one of us is happy.

 

[Meerkat]

I can't correct,orange line is at it again. I'll edit it later.Sorry.

 

[Bacpacker]

Went to Sams after work. Picked up several pork loins and some beef. Also got 2 bulk packs of TP, something like 90 rolls. Got more ziplock bags, some vitamins. They had a good supply of TP this time, actually most shelves and spaces were all well stocked. Best the store has looked since spring.
We also had our septic pumped today. It's been 6 years since last time and it was in good shape.

 

[The Lazy L]

Spent 6 hours mowing and leaf removal for a recent widow. Weather wasn't the best but it needed to be done and today was forecasted as the best day before the funeral.

 

[backlash]

Realize that one 4K full length streaming movie is usually more than 20Gb ... your entire monthly limit. Byte for byte, cell phone provider hotspots are about the most expensive way you can get internet service.

Well, that was a lesson. I used my entire 20 Gig in less than 24 hours. I had no idea my Wyze cameras use as much data as they do. Each camera uses between 4 and 7 meg per minute. 3 cameras ate through my data allotment in 1 night.
I can still use our phone as hot spots but I give up and will just keep my DSL.
Live and learn but the good thing is it didn't cost me anything.
I canceled the service.

 

[hashbrown]

It’s rained for a week! We are still working on the kitchen at our house cabinets are in granite countertops are complete just waiting on tile backsplash and new appliances. Had a little time today so I gave the shop apartment bathroom a little love before and after.

 

[Meerkat]

It’s rained for a week! We are still working on the kitchen at our house cabinets are in granite countertops are complete just waiting on tile backsplash and new appliances. Had a little time today so I gave the shop apartment bathroom a little love before and after.
View attachment 52510View attachment 52511

Looks good HashB. This house needs some upkeep too. And its only 15.