What did you do today?

[Tom Picciani]

Just winterized the lawnmower and lawn tractor. Blew all the leaves out to the street that were behind the house. Of course I woke up to an entirely new batch of leaves all over the lawn. Lawnmower was drained so I won’t trim lawn close. I will just ride over leaves and cut at highest setting. Then I’m watching football for rest of the day

 

[Floorist]

If you watch movies and old TV shows on line. Check out free Peacock and tubi. Both are completely free. There are a few ads. But they have a big selection.

 

[zannej]

Rusty, so sorry to hear about your cousin. Covid is brutal. Restaurants are particularly bad bc people have to take off their masks to eat and there's a lot of saliva going on to the glasses and flatware. It can be tough for waitstaff and others to not come into contact with it.

Highup, it never ceases to amaze me how good you are at fixing things and making new things out of other parts. It's a skill I wish I had. The floor looks beautiful!

I just took my meds, waiting 45min before I can eat. Started taking a stronger allergy pill and a Krill oil pill to see if it will help with my cholesterol. Still not feeling like the thyroid stuff is kicking in yet.

 

[highup]

Just winterized the lawnmower and lawn tractor. Blew all the leaves out to the street that were behind the house. Of course I woke up to an entirely new batch of leaves all over the lawn. Lawnmower was drained so I won’t trim lawn close. I will just ride over leaves and cut at highest setting. Then I’m watching football for rest of the day

What's your weather like? Ours is a fairly normal Fall. Wind, rain, a chill in the air. We've had dryer, warmer winters for the past # of years.

 

[highup]

Zan, I've been tearing things apart since I was 4 or 5 years old. I intentionally broke my wind up alarm clock when I was probably 6 or 7 years old. I was intrigued by it's ticking and every tick the second landed perfectly on a black dot. I had to know why. I gots to know....... So I knocked the clock off the dresser until the face broke.
........" Mom, my clock is broke, can I take it apart?"
.....she said yes.
And that's how it all began.

 

[zannej]

Highup, sounds like my dad. LOL. He took his toys apart to see how they were put together. When I was a baby he hooked some sort of motor to my crib to make it shake to help me sleep. He made me a little robot out of a coffee can, some peg legs to something, & a toy train motor (I think). Possibly had some actuators in it bc the legs moved up and down-- not smoothly, but it was still cool and it was wind-up.

Mom fell in the kitchen. She saw something that had been knocked on the floor by the raccoons & reached to pick it up, lost her balance & fell. I thought I heard cats fighting so I got up to go see & heard her shouting for my brother. I called out and asked what was wrong and she said she fell so I went and got him. He was able to pick her back up and I helped her steady herself, then I made her dinner. Good thing she lost weight. It was a lot harder to pick her up then.

Neighbor came by to bush hog some more. One of the cats is still missing & I'm worried about her. There's at least one raccoon in the house right now under the bed in the front room. No food in there so I think it wanted warmth. Dogs were going apes*** over it.

 

[Floorist]

You need to just tame the coon and make a pet out of it.

 

[highup]

22 shorts would work.

 

[zannej]

I would love to tame and train the raccoons, but they are very hostile to humans so it's not happening.

Just got a call from my best friend. He called the gp about his eye situation & she told him he needed to get to a doctor ASAP about it. He explained all ER's are full so she called around and found the one place that could take him on short notice. Said it sounded like a stroke in his eye. He can't drive bc he can't see out his left eye so I'll be picking him up & taking him to the doctor later today. EMTs told him it was not life-threatening & not to worry. Other doctor said it was urgent & needed immediate treatment. I hope the vision loss isn't permanent. He may have to go on disability if that's the case.

The up side for him is that we're planning to stop at the Chinese place to grab food & he loves the food there.

 

[Floorist]

Coons are good to eat if fixed on a rotisserie so the fat drains off.

 

[highup]

I would love to tame and train the raccoons, but they are very hostile to humans so it's not happening.

Just got a call from my best friend. He called the gp about his eye situation & she told him he needed to get to a doctor ASAP about it. He explained all ER's are full so she called around and found the one place that could take him on short notice. Said it sounded like a stroke in his eye. He can't drive bc he can't see out his left eye so I'll be picking him up & taking him to the doctor later today. EMTs told him it was not life-threatening & not to worry. Other doctor said it was urgent & needed immediate treatment. I hope the vision loss isn't permanent. He may have to go on disability if that's the case.

The up side for him is that we're planning to stop at the Chinese place to grab food & he loves the food there.

Hope everything turns out ok.

 

[zannej]

Took over 2 hours at his first appointment. They didn't call him back until over 40 minutes after his appointment & then it took 2 hours after that. Chinese food was good at least, but my friend was feeling weird. He felt a little better today. I fed him before we went. Still another 2hr appointment (they had him come in 2 days in a row). Next appointment is tomorrow morning. 1st appointment confirmed there is nothing wrong with his eye structurally. 2nd appointment showed he's legally blind in that eye. He only has a very narrow field of vision- no peripheral-- and what he sees is blurry. Since it's not the eye it's something neurological. Options are aneurysm, eye stroke, or tumor. They are running more tests tomorrow to see if they can figure out what's going on. Not sure if it's permanent or not or if he'll need surgery (if surgery can fix it). But for now he can't drive. The new part to make the blinkers on his truck work again is coming in soon but he's not sure if he'll be able to see well enough to install it. The vision issue is messing with his head and making him feel unwell.

 

[Floorist]

My stepson went totally blind at 34. Now he is raising three kids by himself.

 

[highup]

My stepson went totally blind at 34. Now he is raising three kids by himself.

I'd rather be blind from birth so I'd never know what I'm missing. That's got to be tough. I don't know how I'd raise myself if that happened.

 

[zannej]

Just got back from friend's 3rd appointment. Hit a snag in the diagnosis process bc Medicaid did not approve the MRI he needs & in this state you can't get an MRI to save your life unless your insurance approves it. Can't get one at all if you don't have insurance. I said right from the get-go he was going to need an MRI. They already did a CT scan I think, but they now said he needs an MRI to see what's going on with his head that is stopping his eye from sending messages to the brain bc his eye is fine. At least he liked the nurse who talked to him the last two days. Apparently she likes to swear & he finds it amusing. She said "You can't see f*** with that eye!" Got up at 6:27am to take him to the appointment. It was pouring rain but the warm front brought the temperature up a bit so it wasn't as cold as I'd expected. Took my friend for his appointment, sat in the truck playing Mahjong while my phone charged. My brother reclined the seat & took a nap. Didn't take as long this time- maybe an hour. Went to Samsclub after to get tp & more allergy meds. Grabbed some Member's Mark version of Mucinex DM max strength.
I tried to nap when I got home but my thieving neighbor called. Could barely hear him. Something about my cows being out- I told him my front gate and fence got destroyed so I can't keep them in. He commented on how fat they are. He said he's not doing great but he wanted to check on us & see how we were doing. Said to let him know if we needed anything. I told him I know how to do CPR & had First Responder training so if he needs help & EMTs can't get there fast enough I can help. EMT response time out here is far too slow.
My door didn't close properly when I tried to shut it. I just watched one of my cats get his claw/paw stuck in something & try to get free. He was growling & howling about it & I was too busy laughing but when I went to try to help he managed to get free. LOL. Got one of the cats touching my face as I'm trying to type. 6 cats and one of the dogs are in here now.
Good neighbor was back bush-hogging the side 5 acres today when I got home. I didn't get pics yet. Need to clear some space on my SD card.
Front yard looks good at least. My friend made fun of the fact that there is still a gate at the end of the sidewalk but no fence. Trees took out fence on both sides & the steps are broken (well, step sunk into the ground so it is no longer really usable). Mom sometimes holds on to the gate when stepping up there- weeds had previously been in the way of walking on the sides.

 

[Floorist]

My stepson could not qualify for Medicaid until he was totally blind. After he was and got it, a doctor said that could probably have saved the sight in one eye if he had seen him sooner. So to save a few hundred, he will get soc sec disability the rest of his life and a blind pension. Typical government logic.

 

[zannej]

My friend has Medicaid now- they expanded it so more people can get it although I still can't. If I lived in a different state I could get paid by the govt or my mom's insurance to be her live-in caregiver, but they don't do that here. I was going to get a job at the casino as a security guard but then the pandemic hit & that place is a petri dish. Having zero income I might have been able to qualify for Medicaid but I think they would go by Mom's income & thus I would not qualify. At least I have a good RX card to negotiate prices down a bit on the medicines & my GP cuts me a break on appointments due to being uninsured. Most doctors here don't do that though.

Just talked to another friend (the one who's house burned down just before Christmas last year). He had a job as a trucker for awhile but some idiot in a small car pulled out in front of him & he didn't see them & didn't know they were there until the impact. Even though it wasn't his fault, he got fired over it. So, now he's unemployed again & has a bad back but can't get an MRI. The only place in the state where you can get an MRI without insurance is Shreveport & it's over 3 hours away & they make you wait for frickin' ever. Never been less than a 2-hour wait past appointment time there. It's like, why bother even having an appointment time?

On the upside, I feel better about my yard and the weather is actually pleasant outside now. It's not too cold and not too hot.

This video came up related to stuff I watch & I thought it was cool. Dude built his own wood-bending machine.

 

[highup]

I wish I would have thought of this a few days ago.
I don't know if you remember a couple of months ago I bought a pair of dial indicators for 20 bucks even though I didn't know what I would use them for. I'm getting towards the end of my hardwood installation and I have noticed after taking some spacers out that the floor has expanded about a 64th or so because the spacers won't quite fit back in.
I guess I can find out how much it grows in length and with by leaving these in place.

 

[DarisMulkin]

i bent some wood at the beginning of the summer. We had a chair that had slat is the back that bent back and forth, only about 3/16 thick and oak. Got the piece I made to match perfectly and stained and put in. Couldn't tell the difference between mine and the real thing. I was happy. Simple enough to make a steam box.

 

[Floorist]

At one time I took recliners apart and rebuilt them. Now people give $1,000 for one and throw it away.