What did you do today?

[highup]

One of the local guys, he has passed, used an air stapler to even turn and tack in a door. He carried in his compressor for everything. When I first started I carried tacks for that.

You can't turn and tack doorways and ending points with a stapler, unless you don't stretch the carpet..... well, maybe if it's back up by tack strip, but still, only with cheap thin carpet.
I ordered something through Amazon a couple days ago, some parts for my quarter inch senco SKS stapler. I bought it probably in 1993. Senco still makes the same stapler today and every single part on a new one fits on my old one. They made it once they made it right and they didn't change a thing except the color and the pretty, sexy handles on the new ones.
Anyway when I ordered the parts, Amazon gave me one month of Amazon Prime free, which means free shipping.
I'm thinking they screwed me....... Because I just got suckered into buying stuff through them......... I'm under a spell.
Ok, I bought a new cylinder, piston, and driver for that 25+ year old SKS stapler for about 70 bucks. Well worth it.
I bought a J series Senco stapler at the habitat store a couple months ago and one of the o-rings is bad. It prevents the Piston from returning after driving a staple.
Senco stop making replacement parts for these old staplers, but there is a place online that sells an o-ring kit for the stapler. First couple places I saw it was around 17 bucks on eBay.
I typed in that same retailer and typed in Amazon in the search. It was less than 12 bucks and again, no shipping charges. That small stapler is a pneumatic stapler, and uses the same staples as a dual fast or other carpet staplers. It's a lot shorter in heigh than an electric stapler like a Duo Fast. That makes it much more usable on stairs when there's barely enough room to get the stapler under the nose. This little thing will easily get under the nose.
Okay, the spending spree ends tonight!
I bought my first real phone in October a year ago. Within less than 24 hours it slipped out of my jacket pocket fail face first and got the screen cracked. Repairing it by an authorized Motorola repair center would be about 120 bucks and since the phone kept working I just rode it out. Super glue is excellent for extending screen life.
Though the phone is still working it has more cracks now and they've gotten worse, plus the color on the screen is changing by those cracks. I spent $240 or $260 for the phone and it would cost $120 to replace the screen.....so I didn't.
I've been googling, searching for a newer version of that phone which has a better camera but it's one of the few Motorola phones that doesn't have Gorilla Glass and everywhere I looked on the internet everybody complains about how easily the glass can be shattered on this Motorola G Power phone.
Okay, ok, after a lot of googling on so-called cheap phones I clicked Amazon and ordered a Google pixel 4A tonight. It's $100 more than that Motorola I bought last year, but every review I read about the Google pixel 4A was fantastic even when compared with my old phone.
So anyway, I just made a snap decision and added it to the cart..... It should be here shortly.
I'll have a new phone with a better screen, a better camera that even takes low light and night photos. Twice the storage too. Yes I ordered a protective case for this one. Had I done that when I bought this first phone it might still look pretty. Live and learn they say.
Been a strange week.

 

[zannej]

I was going to suggest a protective case for the phone. That is one of the first things I did when I got a new phone. What sort of charging cable does your phone use? I highly recommend the magnetic chargers where you leave the little plug in the phone and just click it on to the cord with the magnet to charge it. So much easier than removing the plug and putting it back in over and over. It wears the plug down and can even damage the port over time.

Mom's eye doctor appointment went well. Yesterday I took her to the bank to sort out some problems with being erroneously charged a "return mail" fee. They credited her account for the charge and marked that they will no longer charge it. Now she just needs to sort out moving everything over from her other bank and rolling over the retirement account to the better bank.

Got the faucet for the guest bathroom. We were cheap and got it off ebay. Box was beat up but no damage inside and all the parts were in it (we compared to parts list). It's a Delta Porter high arc faucet.

Meanwhile, my friend's health is deteriorating-- he's been having debilitating headaches and getting weaker but no neurologists will see him without the right insurance (they won't even see people who don't have insurance). He most likely needs a surgical procedure but can't even be seen to determine that unless he can find some sort of charity neurologist (which does not exist in my state) or switch to a Medicaid plan that is accepted. He spent all day on the phone on hold trying to get switched to a new plan but they ended up closing up for the day and hanging up on him.

He's got another eye appointment Monday morning. His baby also has a checkup that day in another town so I hope my brother can take the baby and the mother over there while I take my friend to the eye appointment (the eye doctor's office is at the same location where my mother used to have her sleep center visits so I can find it without gps).

I'm currently trying to figure out how to put some sort of solenoid valve on my cistern to tell my pump when it needs to fill the cistern and when it needs to stop. The D-box float switch keeps getting stuck and it overflowed the cistern. I also want to adjust the height of my pump and fix up some of the plumbing to it to be more efficient. The pipes go above the jet pump and that lets air get in and causes problems. I need to raise the pump up higher so the pipes are all below it. I'm thinking of replacing the galvanized steel on it with stainless steel.

 

[Jon]

I was looking last night on Craigslist and found there are lots of compressors for sale. Of the ones that I saw none of them compared with this one. It even has about 15 or 18 wraps of hose on the hooks behind the handle. One wrap or loop must be at least 4 ft. The hose has probably outlived two compressors.... it's stiff, but what the heck. I have two hoses I'm guessing one is 20 and one is 25 ft. That's enough hose that I could leave it in my truck if I can park close enough to get an extension cord to the compressor.

Just make sure it is going to pump enough air per minute if you are using it for underlayment The staple guns use a lot of air when pulling the trigger quickly, my old compressor just about caught up while I was putting another row of staples in the gun. Think a compressor which you could use for spray painting
A lot of guys who do a lot of floor prep here have long hoses so the compressor stays in the van

 

[highup]

The old Emglo compressor could do 4 cubic feet per minute at 90 lb, so I never ran out of air pumping in quarter-inch staples. This one can run two roofing nailers. I'm amazed how fast it pumps up.
I don't think I could have found a better compressor. Local tool supplier has one.... $459. I paid $162 and it runs like a new one. I got lucky.

 

[highup]

This is the one I bought, Zan.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Poetic-R...6cqN1IVk80UYqVcBbLPxlIZhTms9ZFvcaAsWdEALw_wcBI watched a video review on it and it looks like it might work it's a heck of a lot cheaper than an OtterBox.
The phone has Gorilla Glass 3 like the one I have now. I dropped it on its edge less than 24 hours after I got it.
14 months later it's still ticking
Three cracks go from the top 3/4 of the way to the bottom, plus a lot of spiderweb cracks near the top. Not worth fixing.

 

[highup]

I'm getting ready to leave.
Been tinkering with my wood job for way too long. It's getting really close. I ran out of base shoe and don't have enough to finish the closet. That really sucks because in the hallway and the bedrooms I reduced the sickness of the quarter round so it looks more like base shoe but taller. I also needed two different stains to get it to match the floors closest possible......
Now that I need more base shoe, I'll have to set up my saw again, the trim down the base shoe, sand it, stain it, then shoot on a quick coat of lacquer. There goes another day.
I still have base shoe to trim for the little bathroom, and to reset a pipe cover below the sink and then slowly get all of my stuff out of the house. It's been quite a ride.

 

[Floorist]

Margaret Thatcher once said that "The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

 

[highup]

Margaret Thatcher once said that "The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

I do that quite often.

 

[zannej]

I got some off-brand protective case for my phone. It has silicone bumpers on the edges to protect the screen. Not a crack for years but then it fell in a bin and my cordless drill fell on top of it and cracked the screen. Still ok though-- just a very small crack. I think they have gorilla glass 6 or 7 now. My brother was asking about it for the phone he got. I don't know the ratings.

My friend opted to reschedule his eye appointment because my brother didn't want to get up early to drive. I drove him and the baby to the pediatrician's office. Baby is 4lbs overweight. Apparently that is normal for my friend's family though. Baby got 3 shots and an oral vaccine and was not happy. He cried until I got the truck rolling and he fell asleep. We stopped by a local business to get food. Their prices went up but I want to support the local business so it won't shut down. I got a beef stew for my brother but he was asleep when I got home so I ended up eating it.

Highup, the floor and shoe molding look beautiful!

I've been feeling exhausted again. I think I forgot my meds yesterday.

I had to break up a cat fight earlier by singing. Well, wasn't quite a fight, but it was going to be one. Sir Hammington was staring down Yasuke and getting ready to fight with him. So I started singing meows to the tune of The Last Rose of Summer. Eventually it distracted Hammy enough that he came running over to figure out why I sounded like I was dying. LOL. He got right up to my face and hugged my neck and nuzzled me.

It's a bit chilly tonight so Predicate is clinging to my arm, Ginger is on my left leg and Boo is on my right leg. The dog is somewhere under the blankets.

 

[highup]

While doing my youtubeing I stumbled across this family. They have a lot of videos but comments are shut off.
I hate that because their stuff is so neat, but I also understand why they would do that. The little girl is a firecracker. Though she's a lil bitty kid, she's got every verse and every move down pat.
A really neat family.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Getting ready for the storm. Predictions from 10 to 20 inches of snow. Got an 80 foot driveway. My 28 inch snowblower can handle it though. Got heated handles too. A week ago it was 60!

Unfortunately, due to the fact that we can work from home, we don't get snow days off anymore, even in a blizzard. I could take a day off though. I actually have so much vacation time saved up, I have to use 3 week to stay under the 9 week maximum next year.

I'm 18 months away from retirement. The clock has started.

Restaurants are closed again here. Reopening on Jan 6th if Covid says OK. Heard the next county to the west, York county is at capacity for ICU and Hospital beds. If you get sick there, you are stabilized and shipped to an open bed. Not sure about Lancaster County. I can imagine Philly is really bad. Also heard food lines are not able to provide enough food around here.

Making homemade ravioli for Christmas if I can visit my brother. He's already had Covid and recovered. Neither of us have a dining room or kitchen big enough. Will have to improvise.

Stay safe out there.

Tom P.

 

[Floorist]

Covid is getting worse here. Our county only has 23,000 people and we have had 1100 positive cases and for the first few months, we had no tests available. Our county health dept. only has 2 employees and they also handle the WIC program. There have been 15 deaths. But before they had tests, several died in a large nursing home here. They don't list them because they can't prove it. Nothing is closed. Walmart is limiting the number of people. Our only supermarket isn't. All the cafes are still open, except one, a Chinese buffet. Only had 3 grandkids out of 12 here for Thanksgiving. Probably will be the same for Christmas.

 

[Floorist]

My town is only 8,000 and we have 4 Mexican restaurants, 3 Chinese, and one Japanese. There are almost no Hispanics or Asians living here. Seems odd, but they are all busy.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Our retraunts are all closed down or paying hefty fines. A couple lost their liquer licenses because they wouldn't close down. Take outs only. They were expecting a big surge because of Thanksgiving but it didn't happen, we will see what Christmas and New Years does, I would think that is when it will show up with people having all the private parties in their homes.

 

[highup]

That's got to be labor intensive Tom. If you make really big ones, you only have to make one per person instead of 20.

 

[highup]

My town has had 589 cases and 4 deaths. Our population is 16,400.
The entire county has had about 600 cases and 4 deaths.
Here's what our local medical center says.
https://www.nbmchealth.com/covid-19/The are more concerned about the flu.
I think influenza is like 'soup of the day'.
(soup of the year) ...the flu

 

[highup]

Covid is getting worse here. Our county only has 23,000 people and we have had 1100 positive cases and for the first few months, we had no tests available. Our county health dept. only has 2 employees and they also handle the WIC program. There have been 15 deaths. But before they had tests, several died in a large nursing home here. They don't list them because they can't prove it. Nothing is closed. Walmart is limiting the number of people. Our only supermarket isn't. All the cafes are still open, except one, a Chinese buffet. Only had 3 grandkids out of 12 here for Thanksgiving. Probably will be the same for Christmas.

That's a pretty high rate. I think we've been really lucky.

 

[highup]

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

This Dad has got to be a music teacher.
That little girl is incredible. She's whipping around dancing erratically but when it comes time for her part to hit that bell, she does it flawlessly and on time as if it's no effort. This is one tight knit family. Pretty damn cool.

 

[zannej]

How do you find out how many deaths per town? I think my town has around 6k people. Two Mexican restaurants owned by one family. No Asians or Hispanics living in town. Mostly have some fast food places: McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. One local dine-in/take out place called Burger Inn that makes great fried chicken. People don't wear masks, Walmart has been packed, and people have started getting ruder.
They were short-staffed on cashiers so we were in line at the self-checkout. Some fat rude biyatch in a riding cart saw the line and decided that because we were trying to distance, she would just roll right in to cut in line ahead of the person in front of me. We all told her there was a line and she was cutting. She glared at us and frowned (wasn't wearing a mask). Person in front of me asked the employee to tell the lady to get to the back of the line. The employee did but the lady rolled her cart at the employee and nearly ran her over. Two of the self-checkouts opened up while she was getting angry that the one she was trying to get to was cards only and the people who just scanned their items had cash. The lady in front of me made it to the first one that opened and I made it to the 2nd one that opened. She was glaring at us as we checked out. Felt bad for the people behind though. Lady behind me was really pissed off and complaining about how rude people were. I said to her "We told the b*** there was a line but she didn't care. Some people have no manners."
All I did today was clean the toilet, feed the kitties, go to the post office, and get groceries. Post office was ice cold and the poor clerk was wrapped in a snuggy. She said the heat wasn't working. I had to explain to her that a letter for my neighbor was misdelivered to my box and someone from the office had written my box number on it. I wrote NOT above it so they would know not to put it in my box. I pointed out that it was the same street but not the same house number. Also sent off the letter to the power company to change the billing.
Tomorrow I'm going to the junkyard with my friend to see about a part for his truck. Window is stuck and he wants to see if a used part will fix it.
You've got really good talent, and then you have this:


LOL. I found it from a link on a song about mask-wearing that was catchy.

 

[highup]

Well my new phone arrived today along with its protective case. My last phone was a flip phone so the only thing I had on it was my contact list and it took a while but I had that all written down.
Now that I have a smartphone I have a lot of stuff on there. Phone numbers, photos and a ton of apps.
Transferring data has me scared to death.
The phone of course comes with a miniscule amount of information on how to do this. I think I need to use a Wi-Fi connection which I don't have, to upload my files and whatever to that so-called cloud. I think some of my data is backed up there but none of the photos.
The phone is a Google pixel 4A. It came with a cord a charger and a simple diagram showing how to connect two phones together to transfer data. Just a diagram no information know how to know nothing. It doesn't even bring up the issue of a SIM card. Do I leave it in my old phone to do the transfer? I assume so........ but even when googling it doesn't bring that subject up.
My old phone and my new phone are both unlocked phones, and I'm using Walmart Straight Talk phone cards, and I discovered both phones use the nano size SIM card.
I'm assuming I transfer the data to my new phone then remove the SIM card from my old phone and put it into my new phone.
Never thought getting a new phone could be so scary.