Thur. Dec. 15, 2022 – visit to client today, if I can swing it…

By on December 15th, 2022 in culture, decline and fall, ebay, personal

Cold and wet.   It was 50F and dropping when I went to sleep.   Wed had the temp falling all day, with only a brief time when the sky was blue and the temp was stable.   But when the sky cleared, it was a beautiful day.

Took three bins of ‘smalls’ to my auctioneer.  Picked up my check and empty bins.   Missed the chance to get in the last auction before Christmas.   That’s unfortunate, but I knew it was likely last week.  Made some money on most of the stuff I sold.   Some lost a bit.  Some made good money.   Which is all normal.  There is no way to predict what will sell in any given auction, or how much it will sell for.  The biggest return was selling a bag of vintage Fisher Price “Little People” toys.   The gallon bag of figures and accessories went for $30 and it wasn’t even very full.  All of it went for less than ebay, but that’s normal too.

Today I am trying to get to my client’s house for a few hours.   I’ve got to sort out the port forwarding for the cameras, replace the burned up PoE switch,  and see what I got wrong setting up  the VPN access.  If I have time, I need to install the cell booster repeater too.

My sibling is in town for work this week and we have a tentative dinner date tonight.   S/he brought some gifts, and I’ve got birthday gifts for him/her.  I don’t think we have Christmas gifts ready to send back with her/him.  Time is marching on, but other stuff keeps moving to the front of the line.

This is a time to be strengthening relationships, not taking them for granted.

And for stacking up memories of the good times.

Stack stuff if you can’t stack memories, but definitely take the time to stack memories…

nick

58 Comments and discussion on "Thur. Dec. 15, 2022 – visit to client today, if I can swing it…"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    The new Matilda movie is weirdly brilliant. Musical. Looking forward to taking my ten year old. 

    @Jenny – No “Puss In Boots” this holiday season?

    Universal must think they have something decent there. The “Super Mario Brothers” movie was pushed back into Spring with theme park attractions pending.

    My wife and kids are seeing “Avatar” tonight.

    My evening entertainment is that I don’t have to listen to “Never Have I Ever” in the house. Even Mindy Kaling’s writing is grating and carries.

    “Never Have I Ever” is not appropriate for kids. Heck, I doubt it is appropriate for the obvious Wine Mom target demographic.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    My wife and kids are seeing “Avatar” tonight.

    Which reminds me – Disney has a lot of their immediate future riding on this weekend.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    38F and sunny this am.    Frost on the neighbor’s roof.   Bus was only a minute or two late, which was especially nice giving the frosty temp.   If it stays cold like this, I’ll  have to get a sweater for the dog.

    These are indeed the days of miracles and wonders when I get both kids to agree that they like the strawberry cream cheese muffins I made for breakfast.

    Maybe I should buy a lotto  ticket!

    n

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    isn’t “never have I ever” a drinking game with true confessions?   How is it a show?

    n

  5. MrAtoz says:

    My condolence, Ms. Jenny. I lost a bad sheep brother years ago, but still my brother.

  6. Ray Thompson says:

    ymmv but I’d check the codes first

    The vehicle is going to the dealer tomorrow to have the problem fixed. This has happened before in my 2003 Highlander. It was a speed sensor dealing with rotational speed on the wheels. In many cases it will affect the ABS. A similar thing happened in my 1989 Astro Van where the crankshaft speed sensor failed. Only with the van everything went berserk. The cruise control did not disengage and there were some wild speed changes for a few seconds, the speedometer was disco dancing. I was about 600 miles from home and had to continue the journey without cruise control and guess my speed.

    I have been told that having a CEL is not an “oh my God, were going to die event”. It is an indication of a problem but not so serious that driving the vehicle needs to stop immediately. What is a really serious problem is when the CEL starts flashing. The computer goes into limp mode which means get to a safe place and stop driving or serious damage will result. It is a tow truck event.

    I am hoping it is just a speed sensor. The vehicle still drives fine, mileage is where it should be on the highways.

    pantyhose. Who knew? I’ll give it a shot.

    @Jenny. That was me, not Mr. Lynn. I doubt Mr. Lynn is as depraved as a child as I was.

    The main reason I wore them was to keep wet clothing off my skin. When the temperature is hovering around 38f and it is raining, sitting on a tractor is miserable. Wet clothes made it really uncomfortable. Long underwear was of no use due to the rain. Pantyhose do not get wet as they do not absorb water. That fraction of an inch that kept the wet clothes off the skin, and that tiny air layer were just enough to make the outdoor work less miserable.

    My sister died today.

    Life is a terminal disease. Sorry for your loss although it does not appear to be such a big deal.

    When my aunt died it was a welcome relief. Everyone in the family generally despised her and most of the reaction “good f*cking riddance”. Even her sister, my mother, the last surviving family member, response was “about damn time”. I can honestly say that I felt no loss, did not grieve, and was glad she was finally gone.

    That was for two reasons. First is that her “life” in the nursing home was merely an existence. Scrap yesterday’s food off one end, shove today’s food in the other end. Then lay in bed for 23 hours. She never wanted that and vividly expressed that while she still had a brain. Dementia is really a horrible way to spend one’s last days.

    Second is that I really felt no love or loyalty. My wife was the driving factor in bringing the aunt to TN. My choice was to abandon the aunt to the state in Washington state.

    It was a daunting task dealing with Medicare, Medicaid, her private insurance, the state, the VA, the IRS, the nursing home, and all the other entities involved. It was complicated, more than necessary. It was frustrating and time-consuming fumbling through the bureaucracy. I was glad it was over.

    When my wife’s mother passed it was easier. She went rather quickly after her heart doctor told her she had a year to live. She lasted two more months. The wife, wife’s brother, and the rest of the family think she gave up. Which is OK as the MIL went out on her own terms.

    I had to deal with probate, in Texas, while living in Tennessee. That took some time. We did sell her car using the power of attorney two days after she died. POA is invalid on a person’s death, but we never told CarMax that she was dead. If we did not sell the car then it would have required storing the car for nine months in Texas, a trip back to sell, (or towing to TN which would have required renting a truck and trailer), trying to get insurance on a car we did not own, could not transfer the title. It would have devalued the car and been a major hassle.

    Probate took almost nine months. Lot of back-and-forth paperwork. The WEB and email made it easier. Only a couple of times was FedEx involved.

    Had to file her final taxes with the IRS. Then there were the estate taxes. Who knew there was such a thing as a 1041? It had to be done manually as TurboTax does not support the 1041. It was necessary to get a tax ID from the IRS for the estate in my wife’s name. The stock the MIL had was valued on the day she died and became part of the estate. The estate then has to file tax on the gains in the stock from the time the estate got the stock until the stock was finally sold. I think I got it right. It was only a couple hundred dollars. If I missed by a few dollars it is worth it for the IRS to figure it out.

  7. Ray Thompson says:

    A similar thing happened in my 1989 Astro Van where the DRIVESHAFT speed sensor failed.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Way back in the 70s, or very early 80s our family had a van based motor home, with the bed over the cab.    It had after market speed control.   In the middle of a long vacation road trip it failed, suddenly maintaining a speed half of what it was set for (or twice, can’t remember).

    Dad  explained how it worked to me, and we figured it out.   Part of the install was to put two magnets on the driveshaft so the  box could count revolutions.  One magnet fell off.   I suggested we use the magnets from a travel checkers game to replace the missing magnet.   Worked a treat!  Trip saved.  (I used to be pretty clever.)

    that was probably the first time I used a troubleshooting technique that served me well thru my professional careers- talk thru how it’s supposed to work, what it’s doing, and how it’s wrong.    That will usually help to narrow the places to look, or suggest the answer to what went wrong, no matter the system.

    n

  9. Greg Norton says:

    isn’t “never have I ever” a drinking game with true confessions?   How is it a show?

    A drinking game. Interesting. Definitely Wine Mom material.

    How is it a show? Mindy Kaling got money out of Netflix when the FAANGs were riding high and “this time it is different for sure – honest”.

    Netflix needs “Friends” back on the service.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    The rules of Never Have I Ever are simple: Players take turns listing potential experiences they’ve never had. If someone has done the action in question, they take a shot or a sip (or whatever other consequence you dream up). If no one has done the action in question, the person who posed the query takes a drink.

    I’ve learned WAY more than I wanted to about some of my friends playing this game.  I assume the show is based somehow on the game?

    The strategy of the game is to pick questions that others have to drink (because they’ve done it) while you don’t.   

    It’s most fun with players you are sexually interested in…

    n

  11. MrAtoz says:

    I like Never Have I Ever. Go figure.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    I’ve learned WAY more than I wanted to about some of my friends playing this game.  I assume the show is based somehow on the game?

    The show definitely has a lot of drinking and sex involved even though it is ostensibly aimed at a teen audience.

    Netflix and the other services have to burn off what’s left of these programming decisions where the execs were thinking with something other than their brains counting on the good times continuing forever.

  13. MrAtoz says:

    Ha, ha. tRump made his big announcement today: digital trading cards of his life.

    He is politically dead.

  14. nick flandrey says:

    Yeah, or they could learn to speak business english.  Japanese and koreans have classes in it.  Indians too.   ‘cuz itsa thang.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11540745/A-no-cap-guide-bussin-Gen-Z-slang-young-coworkers-use-office.html 

    I’m noticing too that a  lot of younger peoples’ speech is designed to cut off or shut down other people.  Kinda TL:DR in real life.

    n

  15. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    “I used to be pretty clever.”

    You are not alone.

  16. nick flandrey says:

    Definitely something weird with the thumbs going on.    NEVER have this many without thumbs.

    n

  17. Alan says:

    >> “I used to be pretty clever.”

    You are not alone.

    Always was kinda confused when someone said about a girl that she was pretty ugly.

  18. RickH says:

    Definitely something weird with the thumbs going on.    NEVER have this many without thumbs.

    I don’t see any issues. Clicking a thumb up or down (one or the other) increases the counter.  Counter seems to be working fine.

    5
    1
  19. Greg Norton says:

    I’m noticing too that a  lot of younger peoples’ speech is designed to cut off or shut down other people.  Kinda TL:DR in real life.

    Here’s the thing. [ topic ] I’m jus’ sayin’.

  20. Alan says:

    @Jenny, sorry for your loss. I think most folks here won’t think it presumptuous of me to say we’re here if you need anything.

    >> Christmas shopping as a distractor tonight. More snow has fallen. The streets are a wreck despite city plow operators best efforts. It was dodgy navigating the streets in my Mini Countryman. I swear I’m getting that 2” lift kit. 

    Hmm, kinda surprised that municipal snow plowing in your neck of the woods would be top notch…or am I missing something?
    And lifted like this, right?

    >> I think moms ready to pull the trigger on the big D.

    Is the dad at all expecting this? In either case, make sure all necessary defenses are in place.

  21. MrAtoz says:

    Why is plugs going to give $billions to Africa? Oh, yeah, “it is our original sin.” FJB. People in the FUSA are going to be eating cat food soon and we are sponsoring the “greening” of African nations. Let’s send some more $billions to Ukraine, too. Fund tranny transitioning/detransitioning. Spineless Redumblicans are fully on board with massive spending as long as their trough gets filled.

  22. Lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: Pig is holding a Telethon

        https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/12/14

    Oh my, he went there !  That is hilarious !

    Oh no, nobody is giving to Pig’s Elonathon !

       https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/12/15

  23. MrAtoz says:

    Activate the Hammer!

  24. Lynn says:

    My sister died today. It’s not unexpected. She’s been I’ll from her lifetime abuse of alcohol and drugs, it finished catching up with her. I lay her death at the feet of my (also dead) alcoholic parents. She got a double helping of my dads side of the family and couldn’t struggle past the brokenness. it’s just myself and my oldest sister left of my immediate family. I can’t say I was ever close to the sister who died. We despised each other as children, and I didn’t think much of her as an adult. I feel bad for not feeling a deeper grief. Guilt sucks. I’m sorry she had a crappy life and wish things had been different. While I won’t miss her, I am sad. 
     

    Christmas shopping as a distractor tonight. More snow has fallen. The streets are a wreck despite city plow operators best efforts. It was dodgy navigating the streets in my Mini Countryman. I swear I’m getting that 2” lift kit. 

    Sorry to hear about your sister.  That sucks no matter what.

    I have a 4 inch lift kit on my F-150 4×4.  Really helps out when the muck gets deep.  I’ve had mud on top of my running boards before and gotten out of it without getting stuck.  My buddy has an 8 inch lift kit so he could put 37 inch wheels and tires on his.  He is nuts.

  25. paul says:

    I must have misread the forecast yesterday.  I didn’t expect 30F or 28F this morning.  

    The dogs had zero desire to go out at 6am.  Or even 8am.  They were ready at 10am.

    Turned into a nice sunny day, all of 62f.

  26. CowboyStu says:

    Activate the Hammer!

    I agree with MrAtoZ.

  27. Lynn says:

    Hammered. That was a foul one.

  28. Lynn says:

    “Feds Seize 48 Domains That Offered DDoS-for-Hire Attacks”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/feds-seize-48-domains-that-offered-ddos-for-hire-attacks    

    “The Justice Department has also charged six suspects for running the websites, which allowed customers to generate DDoS attacks to knock websites and users offline.”

    What do people think ?  Terrorism is terrorism.  Having it on somebody else’s server does not remove the ultimate responsibility.

  29. paul says:

    I’ve casually looked at lift stuff for my truck.  Seems pretty simple, other than the actual getting under the truck in a gravel parking lot.  The Nissan Titan parts bolt right onto the Frontier.  Gives you a two or three inch lift, I forget. I forget, not actually interested anyway.

    There’s not much available  for my truck.  Other than step rails.  And a trailer brake controller.  I’m good with that because it means Nissan “got it right”.

    I do think it would be a hoot to find Datsun name plates to replace the Nissan name plates.  Just to mess with people. 

  30. Lynn says:

    Why is plugs going to give $billions to Africa? Oh, yeah, “it is our original sin.” FJB. People in the FUSA are going to be eating cat food soon and we are sponsoring the “greening” of African nations. Let’s send some more $billions to Ukraine, too. Fund tranny transitioning/detransitioning. Spineless Redumblicans are fully on board with massive spending as long as their trough gets filled.

    Yet, they will all be shocked when the Dollar fails.  

  31. paul says:

    “Feds Seize 48 Domains That Offered DDoS-for-Hire Attacks”

    Seems like anyone selling such services might possibly have enough smarts to use a server in Iceland or Argentina or even the currently Most Horrible Place in the World aka Москва.  And not a US based hosting company.

    But, that’s me being a Summer Child or whatever.

  32. paul says:

    We’ve been sending tons of money to Africa since (at least) I was in high school.  Remember that “We are the World” thing.  And what happened?  Nothing.  Still plenty of “support a starving child” commercials. 

    Like it’s been said, “Africa wins again”.

    I have noticed the commercials asking for donations to poor old Victims of German Aggression Jewish Widows in Israel needing grocery money have stopped.   Is it harsh to wonder if they have all passed?  And why isn’t Israel taking care of their folks?  In the first place? ??? 

    Have you ever noticed that most all of the “you can help” with whatever commercials want $18 or $19 a month? Why not $20?  $20 is a nice even amount.  Maybe there’s a price break on Merchant Fees.  Maybe it’s a “gotta send you a tax form” thing. 

    It’s all a scam.

    Want to feed stray dogs?  Get your backside to your local pound and ask what kind of food they feed.  Then pick up a bag a month at WalMart or wherever.  That’s a well spent $20.  Do not actually spend time visiting the dogs.  Just don’t.  Unless you want another dog. 

    I woke up grumpy and grouchy today. 

  33. SteveF says:

    Seems like anyone selling such services might possibly have enough smarts to use a server in Iceland or Argentina or even the currently Most Horrible Place in the World aka Москва.

    Put the servers in Hillary’s bathroom.

    We’ve been sending tons of money to Africa since (at least) I was in high school.  Remember that “We are the World” thing.  And what happened?  Nothing.  Still plenty of “support a starving child” commercials.

    I addressed this a couple months ago.

  34. Lynn says:

    “EPA proposes rule to cut HFC use, speed transition to efficient heating and cooling technologies”

       https://www.utilitydive.com/news/epa-proposes-rule-to-cut-hfc-use-speed-transition-to-efficient-heating-and/638715/

    “The agency estimates the rule will reduce greenhouse gas emissions while saving consumers and industry $8 billion through 2050.”

    No more freon, gonna shift to CO2 for refrigeration and heating.  It is not more efficient than HFCs, that is a bald faced lie.

  35. lpdbw says:

    No more freon, gonna shift to CO2 for refrigeration and heating.  It is not more efficient than HFCs, that is a bald faced lie.

    Oh sure, who do you expect me to believe?  The agenda-driven wonks at the EPA or some guy who makes his living modeling gases under pressure?

    “Modeling gases” had me overriding my fingers twice while typing.  They really wanted to double those letters.

  36. Lynn says:

    Wow, where did all of these top level domains come from ?  My wife got a letter today that her CPA is retiring and selling his business to another CPA.  The new CPA has *.cpa website and email addresses, supposedly restricted to only people with CPAs.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

    I see that there are new *.energy, *.engineer, and *.engineering domains for sale. Looks expensive without doing any more research. I already have seven domains that I use, I really do not want to pick up anymore at the moment. Five of them forward to my main domain.

  37. Lynn says:

    “Boom! Watch an inflatable space station module explode on video”

       https://www.space.com/sierra-space-life-habitat-explosion-test

    “Sierra Space completed this test to prepare for Orbital Reef, a private space complex to replace the International Space Station.”

    Cool !

  38. Greg Norton says:

    “Sierra Space completed this test to prepare for Orbital Reef, a private space complex to replace the International Space Station.”

    IIRC, Sierra had one of the high bays in the VAB at Kennedy, but that may not have survived the various mergers or SLS budget growth.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    “EPA proposes rule to cut HFC use, speed transition to efficient heating and cooling technologies”

    No more freon, gonna shift to CO2 for refrigeration and heating.  It is not more efficient than HFCs, that is a bald faced lie.

    I paid $600 for four pounds of Freon this Summer. I guess we’d better plan on replacing that upstairs unit soon, before even the newer new stuff gets banned.

  40. RickH says:

    I already have seven domains that I use, I really do not want to pick up anymore at the moment. Five of them forward to my main domain.

    Piker. I have 27 domain names. All but two are active sites.

  41. Lynn says:

    “EPA proposes rule to cut HFC use, speed transition to efficient heating and cooling technologies”

    No more freon, gonna shift to CO2 for refrigeration and heating.  It is not more efficient than HFCs, that is a bald faced lie.

    BTW, I am not a big fan of CO2 as a refrigerant but I vastly prefer it over ammonia or propane.  An ammonia refrigeration system could kill everyone in the house or vehicle if it suddenly vents.  And propane is a potential fire if it suddenly vents.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    BTW, I am not a big fan of CO2 as a refrigerant but I vastly prefer it over ammonia or propane.  An ammonia refrigeration system could kill everyone in the house or vehicle if it suddenly vents.  And propane is a potential fire if it suddenly vents.

    Isn’t CO2 classified as a pollutant now?

    They don’t just want to take away the cars. They want your AC systems too.

  43. drwilliams says:

    They don’t just want to take away the cars. They want your AC systems too.

    They want serfs.

  44. lpdbw says:

    As long as you are still allowed to use power, and don’t need compactness, you can cool using almost any fluid.  I remember reading about ROVAC back in the 70’s.  Air is the fluid; compress, bleed off excess heat, expand in the living area, cycle.  

    Efficient?  I don’t know.  I understand it’s loud and requires huge heat exchangers.

    Apparently there’s a gain if you manage a state change in your refrigerant, but I haven’t looked into that.  But compressing any gas makes it hot, and running the hot gas (or temporary liquid) through a heat exchanger makes it cooler, and then letting if expand (or boil) in another exchanger gives you your coolness. 

    But once they take away your HFC’s, and your ammonia, and your propane, they’ll limit the amount of power you can consume.   So you’ll sit in the dark and heat and eat bugs, and like it.

  45. nick flandrey says:

    I woke up grumpy and grouchy today.   

    – yes, but you WOKE UP.

    every day above ground is a good day.

    n

  46. Jenny says:

    @Ray

    I used that pantyhose truck today. Big difference. We got another dump of snow last night. 

    @Alan

    municipal snow plowing in your neck of the woods would be top notch

    It is top notch, but depending on area of town we’ve gotten 4’ (feet) of snow in about a week. It’s a lot, not the most we have ever had in such a short time frame. Typically that amount of snow is spread over weeks or months, not days.

    Regarding friends and the big D – I don’t know what he’s expecting. We’ve been trying to counsel the mother but she’s trying to make things fair, not understanding or willfully ignoring the danger. We are doing our best to ensure the kids are safe. I’ve told her the stories of my friends dead of domestic violence, don’t know if she understands it happens even in nice families to nice people. She hasn’t, to my knowledg, followed thru with making any police reports or anything else ‘official’ other than a brief interview with a disinterested employee of our local CPS (pediatrician forced it). I’ve practiced and coached the girls on calling police and how to know when to do so, and ensured they can rattle off their address.  
     

    Lifting the Mini – this might be the lift kit my husband thought might work. I’ve got notes somewhere on the specific one, I just want a bit more clearance for snow berms. https://www.m7tuning.com/lifted-gen2-r60-mini-countryman
     

    Rabbit for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious. 290° F for about three hours in an uncovered Dutch oven. With rabbit gravy, mashed potatoes, and a big salad. Rabbit was an older buck, nice and fatty, so very flavorful and tender but not falling apart. 
     

    And thank you all for your kind thoughts. I imagine there will be a funeral or service of some sort. Don’t know if it’ll be Southern California where she lived, or Northern California where we grew up. I’m hoping Southern California so can fit in a visit with Cowboy Stu. 
     

  47. Lynn says:

    BTW, I am not a big fan of CO2 as a refrigerant but I vastly prefer it over ammonia or propane.  An ammonia refrigeration system could kill everyone in the house or vehicle if it suddenly vents.  And propane is a potential fire if it suddenly vents.

    Isn’t CO2 classified as a pollutant now?

    They don’t just want to take away the cars. They want your AC systems too.

    Yes, CO2 is classified as a pollutant, but SCOTUS just said that only Congress can regulate it.  The EPA cannot regulate CO2 with direction from Congress.  And SCOTUS said that the EPA cannot regulate any other gas like HFCs without direction from Congress.  So EPA is going off into the woods again.

        https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/supreme-court-curtails-epas-authority-to-fight-climate-change/

    Worse, EPA wants to regulate fire and combustion.

  48. Lynn says:

    As long as you are still allowed to use power, and don’t need compactness, you can cool using almost any fluid.  I remember reading about ROVAC back in the 70’s.  Air is the fluid; compress, bleed off excess heat, expand in the living area, cycle.  

    Efficient?  I don’t know.  I understand it’s loud and requires huge heat exchangers.

    Apparently there’s a gain if you manage a state change in your refrigerant, but I haven’t looked into that.  But compressing any gas makes it hot, and running the hot gas (or temporary liquid) through a heat exchanger makes it cooler, and then letting if expand (or boil) in another exchanger gives you your coolness. 

    But once they take away your HFC’s, and your ammonia, and your propane, they’ll limit the amount of power you can consume.   So you’ll sit in the dark and heat and eat bugs, and like it.

    If your refrigerant can liquefy by going through a pressure reduction valve, then your efficiency doubles.  CO2 has a problem, it does not liquefy below five atmospheres (60 psig), so your system pressure is high in order for it to liquefy.  

    But when the system pressure is high, you tend to get leaks.  But all the new HFCs are also high pressure, R12 and R22 were so popular since they were low pressure and very efficient.  They actually had few leaks, comparatively.

    The compressor outlet is always a hot vapor, otherwise your compressor is trying to compress liquid and will soon fail due to liquid hammer.  You run the hot vapor through the outside heat exchanger, it drops temperature to 5 F above ambient, and then you depressurize it using a valve.  The temperature drops in the valve significantly due to the Joule-Thompson effect.  Then you run it through the inside heat exchanger where it cools the air and the refrigerant turns into a vapor again.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule%E2%80%93Thomson_effect

    For a heat pump, just reverse the cycle and you steal XXXXX borrow heat from the outside.  Heat pumps work down to 0 F or lower as long as the outside heat exchanger does not freeze up to moisture condensing on it.  That is why the heat pumps run in cooling mode for 5 minutes an hour, to unfreeze the outside heat exchanger.

  49. Lynn says:

    Lifting the Mini – this might be the lift kit my husband thought might work. I’ve got notes somewhere on the specific one, I just want a bit more clearance for snow berms. https://www.m7tuning.com/lifted-gen2-r60-mini-countryman

    Cool !  And some knobby / studded tires then too.

  50. nick flandrey says:

    Went to dinner with my sib.   Pretty mediocre meal at a local restaurant that is branching out.   Too loud inside by 10 to 12dB.  Wish I’d thought of my hearing protection.   Food was ok but not really goode quality (and that should be enough of a tipoff without naming names).  Just an observation but if your serving staff can’t hear to take orders, the music is TOO DAMN LOUD.   couple that with my hearing issues and it was unpleasant.

    Nice to see my sib though.

    D2 got the fajita plate and added roasted quail.  She liked it.  Starting to count up the weird animals she’s eaten, like her daddy it will probably end up a pretty long list.

    Got to my client’s house.  One dog was missing, and the other was moping around and super thin.   I’ve been working at the house, and playing with the dogs since they were puppies.  11 years doesn’t seem like enough, but the big dogs have more issues and don’t stay as long.  The second dog will probably not linger without her constant companion.  It’ll be an empty house without two big dogs taking up all the space.  

    Set up the port forwarding.  Super easy to set up and to edit on the ubiquiti unifi security gateway.  Got that all working and now my [sometimes] partner can access the system remotely to do software fixes and updates.   The VPN looked like it was set up correctly, but I think I missed the part about a pre-shared key…  I’ll make the change at my end and try again tomorrow.

    Did some troubleshooting of the two dead cameras.   The expensive PTZ cam was fine when I tested it on a stand alone PoE injector.   The other bullet cam was not.    The bullet cam was very close to the lightning strike last year.   The cam took out the switch port, and the port I moved it to while testing.   Three ports down on an eight port switch.   I will probably not use my PoE switch, but instead use a backup ordinary small switch with a PoE injector for each cam.   We’re looking at updating the whole cam and NVR system in the new year anyway.

    I did a little bit to get the cell repeater ready.  I found a route for the cable to a good spot for the antenna, and did a bunch of signal level measuring to figure out which way to point the antenna.   I’ll do the install soon, maybe this coming week.  I need to find some black coax and my termination kit.  Haven’t used coax in a while…

    I let the unifi management console update all the WAPs, but decided to skip the gateway for now.  Didn’t want to kill the whole internet for the house, and my partner working remotely.

    Picture perfect sky for sunset, with an orange band on the horizon and light blue fading to dark above that, like a stage set.

    Joy is where you find it.

    n

  51. Lynn says:

    Went to dinner with my sib.   Pretty mediocre meal at a local restaurant that is branching out.   Too loud inside by 10 to 12dB.  Wish I’d thought of my hearing protection.   Food was ok but not really goode quality (and that should be enough of a tipoff without naming names).  Just an observation but if your serving staff can’t hear to take orders, the music is TOO DAMN LOUD.   couple that with my hearing issues and it was unpleasant.

    Pappas BBQ is always good.  Not enough of them though.  None in Sugar Land or Katy.  In fact, any Pappas restaurant is always way above average.

        https://pappasbbq.com/home/

  52. MrK says:

    My condolences as well Ms.Jenny. 

    Keep pushing forward, there may come a time for reflection, but at the moment you have your family to take care of, (as well as someone else’s). Your plate is quite full.   🙂 

  53. Alan says:

    >> Have you ever noticed that most all of the “you can help” with whatever commercials want $18 or $19 a month? Why not $20?  $20 is a nice even amount.  Maybe there’s a price break on Merchant Fees.  Maybe it’s a “gotta send you a tax form” thing. 

    My guess – it’s easier to multiply 20 x 12 in your head than 19 x 12, so if it’s $20 a month you quickly realize you’re signing up for $240 a year.

  54. Alan says:

    >> I need to find some black coax and my termination kit.

    @nick, if you mean ‘find in a store,’ HD and Lowes usually have bulk coax by the foot. Of course, with this “transient inflation,” the pricing may be a little more than I recall paying for it in the past.

  55. Alan says:

    >> Lifting the Mini – this might be the lift kit my husband thought might work. I’ve got notes somewhere on the specific one, I just want a bit more clearance for snow berms. https://www.m7tuning.com/lifted-gen2-r60-mini-countryman

    Ohh…you want to lift it 2 INCHES, I thought you had written 2 feet…never mind  🙂

  56. Alan says:

    >> Regarding friends and the big D – I don’t know what he’s expecting. We’ve been trying to counsel the mother but she’s trying to make things fair, not understanding or willfully ignoring the danger. We are doing our best to ensure the kids are safe. I’ve told her the stories of my friends dead of domestic violence, don’t know if she understands it happens even in nice families to nice people. She hasn’t, to my knowledg, followed thru with making any police reports or anything else ‘official’ other than a brief interview with a disinterested employee of our local CPS (pediatrician forced it). I’ve practiced and coached the girls on calling police and how to know when to do so, and ensured they can rattle off their address.  

    @Jenny, since you hang with the prep crew here, it sounds like you’ve got your rabbits ducks in a row. Keep your powder dry as they say.

  57. JimB says:

    Jenny, I’ve been away, and just catching up. Condolences to you for your sister. Sometimes we have friends who are much better than some family members, but family are special. It is still a loss, and she needs our prayers.

  58. lpdbw says:

    In fact, any Pappas restaurant is always way above average.

    Meh.  Pappasito’s is consistently, well, good, I guess, but so overpriced for what you get.  Nowhere near the neighborhood mom-n-pop tex-mex restaurant.  I liked their BBQ place fine, but there are lots of good BBQ places in Texas.  I will say it’s better than Rudy’s, for what that’s worth.

    There’s a Pappadeaux in Stafford, but I guess you knew that.

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