Update from Barbara,
It was 23 degrees when I took Colin out at 6:30.
It’s been a week since Bob first went to the hospital. He had a balloon put in yesterday and will have a pump put in Sunday to help his heart while they do the bypass.
Colin still goes out to the garage to look for Bob when I come home. Even though I see Bob at the hospital I miss having him at home. On days when he does not have procedures I stay in Sparta to take care of the home front.
Thanks to his readers for all the great support.
Best wishes for you, Barbara. And of course to RBT.
And to OFD, whichever hospital in whichever city he may be in.
Wow, sounds more and more like you guys really have a blessing in disguise. I know it sucks now, but doing it on your own schedule (as forced as it might be) is a lot better than doing it in an emergency.
Be of stout heart, it will all come right in the end.
nick
(and let us know if there is something we can do besides wish extra hard 🙂
He’s really lucky they caught it when they did.
Hopefully all will go well and he’ll be back on his feet soon and complaining here like the rest of us.
He’s really lucky they caught it when they did.
That be true. Having three bypasses plus a mitral valve indicates that significant problems were found. Serious enough that sudden heart failure and the resulting demise of a physical existence was a very real possibility.
Barbara, Robert is a fortunate man to have such a wonderful strong woman.
I know this is redundant, but @Dad’s prayers and best wishes continue for Robert, Barbara, and OFD.
My prayers to you and Bob, Barbara. Also to my buddy Mr. OFD.
Well, we are in the midst of a beautiful fall day here. Was a bit cool and grey, with full overcast this am, but now, 77F, 60%RH, and clear blue sky…
I hit a couple of stores yesterday and some sales today, but my buying has slowed way down. My auction buying has dropped precipitously, which is seasonal, but a little bit stronger than previously. In a sluggish economy, even .gov keeps things longer, wears them out, and sells off less…
I hit up the Habitat ReStore, looking for a used driveway gate. It would help with security, and possibly get the HOA off my back. They had one I can use, and the price, <$300 for 12ft of metalwork gate can't be beat. Now I have to convince the HOA that it's in everyone's interest. While there, I noticed they had some Freeze Drieds in #10 cans. I got excited! Too bad they were all pasta choices. I'm not buying cans of pasta for $2.50 / pound when I can put up my own for a lot less. WAY cheaper than the catalog price at $5/can but not for me… you never know what you'll find.
I was near that particular store because I happened across a Craigslist-ing for a big pile-o-ham radio gear. There was a nice older HF radio and power supply, some other radios, and boxes of accumulated "treasures". His listing price was high, but after meeting, looking at some of the stuff, and talking for an hour, I paid $360 for it all. I don't normally scan CL for that stuff, but I was searching for antenna tower. If I'm gonna put my HF antenna back up, and pipe costs $40, I thought I might spend $100 on real tower. Couldn't find any that cheap, but did find this guy. Spent some time going thru it (about a pallet's worth, stacked 3 ft high) and there are a couple of gems. I will sell what I can to get my money back and keep the HF radio. As I suspected, with a bit of work and luck, there's about $350 worth of stuff there (minus the HF radio.) Hams universally think their pile is worth more than it actually is.
Hit 2 other sales up that way, but only got a small folding 5w solar panel/charger kit. At $4, I thought it was worth it, even as just a novelty for the kids and it says it's USA made.
Today's sales (so far) have been a pair of Oakley sunglasses for a dollar, an Ipod shuffle, for a dollar, and one tool hoarder's estate… with too high prices. I looked at some business walkie talkies, and nice Moto FRS radios, but they all needed work. At the last minute, I decided I had enough projects, and walkies, for a while. I'm the very PICTURE of restraint….
nick
Continued prayers for Bob, Barbara and Mr OFD.
Your HOA would not be a fan of my gate.
I have this or very similar, I don’t remember where I bought it: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tarter-galvanized-mesh-gate-12-ft
Lots of reviews by haters. It’s been a good gate and showed just a hint of rust after 15 plus years where I drilled into it to mount the first gate opener. I had it tightened down enough to crush the pipe a bit, so, yeah, cracked the zinc plating. I smeared on some primer before installing the hardware for the new gate opener. Anyone with sense would let the primer dry. ….
Ok, when you renew your license plate to get the window sticker, there is another sticker for trailer plates that says VOID. That’s my gate. The cross bar and the center bar are covered with VOID stickers spaced a couple of inches apart. On the outside of the gate. Free reflectors! I’m starting on the bottom bar now. 🙂 No stickers on the top bar. Yet.
The “next door” neighbor gives me sh1t about the gate once in a while. Well, whatever man, have your Mexicans build an entrance way half as grand as your gateway and we’ll both be happy. Oh, and I ain’t paying for it. Then we laugh and open another beer.
”
Your HOA would not be a fan of my gate.”
That’s for certain!
This is typical of the sort of thing my neighborhood has, I’d put either mesh behind it, or vertical boards in between the steel.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8139285,-95.5369161,3a,75y,90.75h,88.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXqYuf9AFoWyJBkh0XpRXog!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
n
oh, and mine would have a straight top.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8129591,-95.5371014,3a,21.2y,297.73h,88.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbI1O_5TOjHc5wm8g0iG-MA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Ah, well, first link is a very nice looking gate. Maybe shade cloth? Second link, add a couple of hundred bucks /plus/ running the wire in some kind of conduit to have twin gate openers.
Yup, I’m thinking of just modifying whatever I can get cheap, and going with manual operation for a while. Mainly I need to screen the stuff stored in the driveway. The “clutter”.
On an unrelated note, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it” ™
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5071147/Joe-Scarborough-Mika-Brzezinksi-party-fake-TRUMP.html
Look at the list of circle jerk sycophants on the guest list. No collusion? No groupthink? No way.
n
$429.99
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-48-class-47-6-diag–led-1080p-smart-hdtv/4801501.p?skuId=4801501
$349.99
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-40-class-39-5-diag–led-1080p-smart-hdtv/4804406.p?skuId=4804406
Old TV worked fine: 2006 Bravia 40″, but I cracked the screen and no replacement to be had anywhere. Silly, really, because it suited me fine. I used it as a monitor attached to a laptop for Netfux and Amazon.
I don’t have cable or an antenna, just an old (but good) DVD player and an equally old laptop. They work fine with a bit of futzing around trying to get sound through the amplifier.
New one is 48″ vs. 40″, and light as a feather. Lacks some inputs/outputs and is not as well-built as the old one… but at 20% of the price (not including inflation) it’s great. It takes wireless, but I like my wired LAN and it does that too.
I did my homework, and this really hits the sweet spot in terms of reviews, price, etc.
The color needs some customisation, but I’m weird that way. If you access the technical menu, I think you can tweak it even further AND save the settings to a USB stick. I want to add more blue… will figure it out eventually.
The neat new features I like are the network access and USB ports: Netfux and Amazon are built-in and work without a hitch, and you can plug in a little laptop drive or USB stick to watch all the movies you’ve begged, borrowed, or stolen.
Three cons I’ve noticed:
1. Remote is very basic. Remote from the old one could be programmed to control the amp, TV and DVD player, so I’m using that instead.
2. Screen is paper-thin, so fragile. Plus, no anti-glare coating. A tiny fingerprint is noticeable.
3. HUGE design error such that main HDMI port is covered by brackets for wall mounting. You can get around that using stand-offs AND a 90° or 270° HDMI adaptor, but it’s a glaring error.
jim~
Get well soon!
Apropos of nothing; I woke up today and said the nursery rhyme: “Mary Mary quite contrary” with a new 2nd verse to include our dog. My wife asked me to say the correct 2nd verse, which I could not totally recall. So Google… I will never think of that rhyme in the same way again (not that I have thought of it for 50 years or so, but it showed up today for some reason). We should remember that some things tended to be much nastier in the past.
I want to add more blue…
You may want to have your eyes checked for cataracts. I was told my images were too blue when they looked fine to me. Checked them with a histogram and sure enough, too much blue. Once I had the cataract surgery the issue became obvious. The cataracts were blocking a significant portion of the blue spectrum.
using stand-offs AND a 90° or 270° HDMI adaptor
You can get HDMI cables with a 90° end. Better than using an adapter.
Screen is paper-thin, so fragile
You may find that those screens are tougher than you think. They can flex quite a bit before shattering. Thicker glass would not allow that flexing.
BTW, a great place for good and cheap cables of any type is CyberGuys http://www.cyberguys.com .
Have used them many times in the past. And you don’t need to buy expensive HDMI cables. Cheap ones have the same standards as the expensive ones.
@rickH,
that’s true for short ones, but for anything over 6ft, quality starts to cost…
And if you want to get farther, without an active extender, you need active equalized cables, and they cost more too.
n
(what you get from better quality/more $– more insertions, better holding force (hate freakin’ HDMI standard for not having a lock), better isolation/less noise/less crosstalk, better shielding.) It’s a very high speed digital signal and weird things can and do happen. Did I mention I hate HDMI? The HDCP flag/handshake/etc causes me innumerable quantities of grief, as do EDID management issues, and ARC implementations. Forget about ethernet over HDMI. You can’t even really look at the signal or it’s components to see what’s going wrong. Fricken HDMI.)