Ailments

 I aged slowly, but age is catching up with me now a bit suddenly.  Leg cramps, calf cramps, ankle cramps, rib cramps.  Left pointer finger has developed "trigger finger".  

And my fingers go all clenched up sometimes.  Mom developed that around 80 as part of developing Parkinson's.  I hope there are less-serious reasons for that.  For me, it seems to be a delayed reaction to gripping things for some time.  I do yardwork, I prepare a lot of fresh veggies for dinner; and it seems to happen a couple hours later.  

I use a 4% lidocaine ointment and sometimes Aspercreme.  It helps eventually.  I will add this to my list of Doctor questions.  

But it means it is getting hard to type these days.  I better look into voice dictation apps.  I read about them years ago, but I thought they would be better by now, but they don't seem to be.  What you see on my blogs and emails is heavily edited for spelling errors (manually, I don't trust auto-correct).  I type very badly.  But I may have to soon.

Don't get me wrong.  90% of the day, I am just fine.  But I really can't write legible script anymore and manual print has become more of a slight art than a way to write quickly.  You should see me trying to write a check.  Every letter and number is individually-created carefully.

I think I actually don't get enough salt in my food.  I prepare everything fresh, and I don't add much to my food.  But if I drink some pickle juice, the fingers get better within minutes.  Another thing to ask my Doctor!

I get cold too.  I went shopping the other day and it was 45F with a brisk breeze.  I was wearing a winter jacket.  And I saw some young guy walking to the store in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt!  I suppose I was like that once.  But it was really annoying!

Getting old can be really annoying.  But I feel like it is happening too suddenly.  Sorry for complaining.  So many people my age have serious problems.  But these are mine and I live with them.  😡

Cabinet Door

When I cook, I use a lot of bowls, and I never know how many.  So I tend to leave that cabinet door open.  But if I bump my head into the lower corner ONE MORE TIME I am going to switch the door so it opens the other way!

Pet peeve...

 

Why Few Posts Lately Here

I used to post more often here.  Mostly about projects, sometimes about world events, sometimes about complaints.  Well, I kind of got inactive for a while.  I simply stopped doing projects for a while...

It's health issues.  I'm not ill, but I've been having increasing physical problems that make it harder to just "do stuff" and it is really annoying .  Let me make it clear that I understand many people my age (72) have far more serious problems and a significant % of the world population would dearly love to have "only" my problems.

So this isn't a competition.  But my issues are MY issues and I'm having some difficulties adjusting to them.  A bit of background and a list:

1.  Back in the early 1960s, my town sent out DDT fogger trucks to kill mosquitoes.  No one thought DDT harmed humans.  We kids rode or bicycles in and out of the fog behind the truck just for fun.  Shortly after, I started to develop slight hand tremors to the point where building plastic models became difficult,  "glue everywhere". The past decade, those have been getting worse.

2.  Two decades ago, my right knee started failing occasionally.  I had to be careful on stairs.  Thge past 2 months, my left knee has been a problem and it has gotten worse.  I even bought a velcro strap knee compression support.  It helps, but I walk kind of stiff-legged lately.  

I'm pretty sure I know what the cause is.  I sit with one ankle up on the opposite knee (either way).  I think it used to be called the "English Sitting Position".  Which is probably OK in itself, but when you have cats on your lap, it puts a torque on the knee (of the ankle on the other knee).  After decades of that, I think I have ruined both of them.

But the result is that I don't exactly run around the house or yard "doing stuff" lately.

3.  I'm getting too many muscle cramps!  At night in bed, I get them in my thigh, calf and ankle on either leg (randomly and never more than one place at the same time.  But they feel like my muscle is about to tear loose from the bone.  I say "bad words" when that happens.  Sometimes no problems for a couple weeks, them every night for days.  Doesn't happen in daytime.  I can't think of a cause for them.  I get enough water.

In daytime, I get rib muscle cramps if I twist around to look behind me or lift something awkwardly.  

I get finger-clenches, too.  Holding anything tightly for even short periods can cause it.  Which means most garden tools can cause it.  Just holding the steering wheel for a while can cause it.  But it doesn't happen immediately.  Usually doing that stuff is OK at the time.  I pay for it in the evening making dinner.  I  prepare a lot of fresh food, which involves a lot of knifework.  All of a sudden, my fingers on the holding hand clench and I can't hold the knife.  Typing for an hour or more also causes problems later the next day.  I don't know what causes the delay, but it is predictable.

I use a lot of Aspercreme and Lidocaine ointments these days!

4.  I've been sleeping badly.  Not that I'm not in bed.  I am sometimes in bed 10-12 hours but getting maybe 6 hours sleep.  Partly, a heated waterbed is addictive and comfy, but I've had heated waterbeds since I was 25 and kept normal sleeping hours most of that time.  I used to be a morning person, but now the idea of getting up at 9 am feels weird.  Sometimes after being up 10 hours, I just want to go to bed again at 9 pm but that means I would be getting up at 6 am and I don't know what to do at 6 am.  I don't know what has changed.  

5.  So I haven't been as active lately as in the past.  And therefore have less to post about here.  But I think I need to take advantage of my medical insurance.  I got a card from them encouraging me to visit a doctor for a "basic exam".  I think I will take them up on that big time.  

My primary Dr (geriatric internist) didn't seem to understand what I was asking for as a "physical" 2 years ago (may have to change Dr).  But I'm thinking of many things to be done.

Full scale physical exam and many tests.  I made a long list based on several websites (I may post it separately in another post).  It may take months to get it all done.  But I've put some things off too long and my New Year Resolution is to get them all done this year.  If there are problems, better to discover them now than later (and it is really already "later").  

Maybe some things that trouble me now can be fixed.  But more importantly, maybe some things that would trouble me more in the future can be fixed or avoided.  

Eating small amounts of meat and lots of fruits&veggies doesn't prevent all problems.  It helps, but isn't a cure-all.  😟

Unhappy Camper

 I am NOT in a good mood today.  The tree service company has irritated me beyond belief.

First, let me mention that there is a consolidated public service (Miss Utility) number to call before homeowners or contractors do any excavating around buried public utilities.  Maybe not everyone has that.  But here, they come and paint lines on the lawn where the utilities are.  No one can dig within 18" nearby or down in my area.  Miss Utility promises to do the painting in "2 business days".

If a contractor is doing the digging, they have to call Miss Utility themselves for legal reasons.  The homeowner (according to the website can only arrange for that if they are doing the digging themselves.

Second, the company I called to do the tree removal  is a husband and wife team.  He does the tree removal (with a crew) and she manages the office.  I am embarassed to even mention this, but "English is a second language for both".  But it probably has some consequences to the situation.

So...  Sept 1st, she called to say they would arrive Sunday  Sept 4th.  I asked if they had called Miss Utility about the 2 tree stumps near the utilities.  She didn't know.  The husband called back to say it wasn't necessary.  I explained that 2 of the stumps they needed to grind were near utility lines.  I explained that the law said the contractor had to call Miss Utility.  He said he would.  

On Sunday, the lines had not been painted, so the contractor said he would return when they were to do the stump-grinding.  OK.  Seemed reasonable.  They removed the trees and I paid him half the quote.

By Thursday (4 business days, the lines were not painted).  I called Miss Utility to ask about that.  They had no work order for my address.  After being transferred a couple of times, I reached a very helpful person who finally advised me there was no work order within a few blocks of me.  But she opened one (in spite of me not being the contractor).  They will arrive Sept 14th (5 business days) and she gave m e a ticket number.  I thanked her very much.

So I called the tree removal company to ask them what their ticket number for the utility-painting was.

That's where everything went bad...

I could hardly understand her to begin with, but I blamed myself (I have always had trouble with accents domestic or foreign and as I say, blame myself for that).  But all I was asking was for the ticket number for their original call to Miss Utility.  Seemed like a simple question.

During our 15 minute telephone call, I was not allowed to finish One... Single... Sentence!  Please understand that, in the office doing some trouble-shooting work, my co-workers sometimes expressed their surprise at my patience.  It doesn't come naturally to me, but I tried to be "Mr Spock". It helped me solve a lot of problems...

It is hard to summarize a frustrating 15 minute telephone call, but I try to get at the gist of it.  And note, I had to struggle to ask any questions because she kept talking before I finished, so this is actually an rather perfected version of how the conversation went (baby screaming in the background - that matters)...

ME:  Can you give me the ticket number of the Miss Utility work order?

HER:  They cancelled the ticket twice.

ME:  Can I please have the ticket number?

HER:  We will be there then they tell us the lines are painted.

ME:  OK, so they cancelled the work order?

HER:  Yes.

ME:  What did you do about that?

HER:  Nothing we can do when they cancel the work order.

ME:  What did you intend to do after they cancelled the work order?  I need the stumps grinded down.

HER:  They cancelled the work order.

It went around in circles from there.  I couldn't get their ticket number, any explanation of what they intended to do about that, or what would happen next.  She seemed to expect to wait (for a cancelled work order?)

I finally gave up and ended the call.  I waited 20 minutes and called the husband's number (same baby screaming).  He speaks better English than she does (and they both speak English than I speak Spanish - 56 years ago in high school, so they are better at languages than I am).

To my surprise, I got the same run-around from him.

I think they never called Miss Utility.  The nearest work order they (Miss Utility) had was 4 blocks away.  And I am supposed to call them (the tree company) when the lines are painted.

I won't call them.  I don't want them to darken my door again, ever.  I paid them half the cost of the work for the half they did.  The woman is *%#^ing nuts and the husband is apparently not far behind her.  There are reasons why some business fail.

I'm going to cover the areas they were "supposed" to grind out with "Brush-B-Gone" and heavy black plastic.  They will rot out in time (I'm a patient person).  Be assured I would have been glad to pay them to complete the job.  I may call another tree service about the stumps and roots...

But damn I'm annoyed about this!

A Confusing Day

My garage door opener saved me from buying a new router!

I got up today ready to get some good work outside.  It was warm, but low humidity.  I got the newspaper, made lunch and turned on the TV to listen to the House Committee hearings.  Sat down with lunch to read the paper.

The TV has been shutting off the signal sometimes.  I have to reset it, but it comes back.  Today it really lost the cable signal.  There were a few familiar messages about resetting the source, press "B" for troubleshootings, etc.  I did and it said it was rebooting.  Then it said my coaxial cable was disconnected.  It wasn't.

The cable insisted it was.  I checked everything.  And I had phone dial tone and the computer showed my email.  I went back to the TV tried everything to reboot it again.  Then I saw a slightly different message.  It said either the settop box or the router was disconnected.

I don't have a router on the cable box (or it is built-in).  The tv and computer are on separate splices!.  But I went and looked at the computer router.  UH OH!  Red light...  I checked those and all were tight.  There is a button on the front to reboot.  I did that.  Red light again.  I unplugged the router and thew cable settop box and ate lunch.

Plugged all back in, red light again.  Decided to call the cable company; no dial tone.  Checked the computer and this time tried to open a new bookmark.  Nothing.  Damn, the previous time I was just seeing a saved cache image and didn't realize it.

So there I was, unable to contact the cable company by phone or computer.  Constant red light on the router.  The router must have died!  Disconnected it to bring to the local Best Buy (tech store for those who have different similar stores).

Got in the car and pressed the garage door opener button.  Nothing happened!  I used a few bad words meaning essentially "WHAT NOW".  I mean, the opener is a battery-powered radio signal device.How could that be connected to the cable problem.

Sometimes, I feel like Job from the Bible.  Constant problems out of "nowhere".  But I thought about it for a minute.  The garage door opener is battery-powered, but the garage door itself is NOT!  There was an electric failure somewhere, likely a tripped circuit-breaker.

So I confidently went to the circuit box to reset the tripped switch.  None were tripped...  ARRGGGHH!

Well, there is a small lever on the garage door to allow opening it manually.  I was about to do that, when I glanced at the main incoming cable connection.  It requires power from a standard electrical plug.  And the only plug near it is my GFI circuit.

I don't want to over-explain, but GFI (ground fault interrupter) is a safety plug that shuts off power in case of some short-circuiting (usually for bathroom of kitchen plugs where water is involved).  There is a little green light showing it is "on".  Mine little green light was off...  You press a small button on it to reset it.

I pressed.  It reset.  I hooked the router back up to the computer.  After a couple minutes of blinking, the router came back on and NO RED LIGHT!

I checked the computer and it uploaded new email.  The phone had dial tone again.  I turned on the tv with uncertainty.  It came on normally!  HURRAY.  Everything was working again.

Thank goodness the garage door didn't open.  And I don't know why it didn't.  The power for the garagedoor comes from a different plug I would think was attached to the GFI circuit. I suppose if I had tried some other plugs around the house, they might have been dead too.  For that matter, I have no idea why the computer router has anything to do with the TV circuit.  I suppose the router at the computer "talks" to the main incoming cable box.

So, I was relieved to not have to buy a new router (or worry about compatibility issues).  

But by that time, it was almost 5 pm and I sure wasn't going to get much useful work done outside then! I decided to prepare dinner, catch up on the political news, and (now) start to catch up on computer stuff (emails, blogging, ask the internet a few questions, find a couple of lost passwords, etc).

It wasn't exactly a typical day, but solving stupid problems like this are becoming more frequent than they ought to be!  I had planned to transplant 40 meadow seedlings today.  Tomorrow is forecast to rain most of the day.  So it will be Wednesday.  At least the soil will be softer from the rain...

Things Not Going Well

Let me say first that I know my complaints are minor compared to some people's problems.    I remind myself of that frequently.   I am in generally good health (as are my cats), my car is running fine, I eat well, I have no financial problems, my siblings seem happy, the computers "function enough to use, and I'm not fussing with any neighbors.

That said, all is not perfect in paradise and problems are still problems...

I brought Lori to the vet for her spay operation.  Her blood platelet is too low to allow an operation.   The vet will test her blood again in 2 weeks to see if it was an anomaly.  If not, it could be serious.  Some causes are temporary; some are serious; and some are unfixable.  It will be a long 2 weeks of waiting.

Also 2 weeks means that Lori will go into Heat again.  I'm not looking forward to that!  Tonkinese are related to Siamese, and Siamese are SCREAMERS.

While at the vet, I noticed a screw in the tread of a tire.  So I stopped at the dealership and asked about repairing the tire.  They said it would be about 2 hours.  I go nuts sitting around, so I drove to a tire place.  They said the same.  I went back to the dealership.  I had momentarily forgotten they offer valet home and back service.  

They drove me home.  And called an hour later to say that the screw was too close to the sidewall for a simple repair.  Well, they "could" do that, but the repair would always be "iffy".  Since cars don't come with spare tires these days,  a blowout could be a real problem...  I opted for a new tire.  But they won't have it until tomorrow, so I have to go back again.  At least it will match the other tires (I only have a 1,000 miles on those.  

And they say it will be a quick replacement, since I have an appointment.  Not worth being driven home and back to the dealership.  Which is good.  Because it took them 2 1/2 hours to pick my up to retrieve the car today.  They explained that they only have 1 of 3 shuttle drivers available lately.  I understand that, but it didn't make me happy.

The computer is beyond my ability to fix.  I have officially entered the "I can't figure it out anymore" age now.   I might have a technician visit to fix everything, but I'm not even sure what to have him/her do.  The email is AFU, it restarts randomly, my files seem randomly on the HD and iCloud, and Google seems to have taken over.

The laptop works again.  It was non-functional for months.  Dead battery and 2 loose keys (Z and H).  But I tried it again the other day and it worked as long as plugged in directly bypassing the battery.  It wouldn't before...  2014 apps, but I can visit blogs via Feedly.  I don't dare upgrade it.  I think I'll bring it to "IFixitIt" who does (probably unauthorized) hardware repair.  

Decent weather, so I uncovered the 30x30' daffodil bed.  I covered it with black plastic last November to try to smother the grassy weeds.  That seems to have worked well, but I discovered the plastic warms the soil SO much (I should have known about that) that the daffodils emerged early.  Pale green 4" shoots all bent over!  I hope they recover.  

I have an enclosed garden (protection from squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, etc).  The enclose is electrical conduit pipe inside PVC pipe for support of chicken wire covering it all below ground.  A sticky-snowstorm collected on the chicken wire and bent part of the structure years ago, so I made removable supports the next Spring.

In early January, we were forecast to get 1" of snow.  I wasn't worried about that.  After dark, it became 3".  Not a good time to go out setting up the support pipes, but still not much to worry about.  We got 8" of sticky heavy snow.  The entire structure was about 3/4 collapsed and most pipes bent!

I have to take it mostly apart to pull the conduit out and straighten it.  And them re-cement the PVC covers.  I can't do that until the weather is above 50F.  And also, until I feel up to the effort of working outside again.  It will takes several days of work at best.

And speaking of gardening, I am woefully unprepared this year.  I mix my own seedling soil.  4 parts compost, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part each vermiculite and perlite.  Well, it is cheaper than the potting soil bags and I enjoy the process.  I save it in a big trash barrel.  But I am behind already...  

My seed list (Excel file that identifies seeds by numbered specimen vials saved in the basement fridge in a tray) is 2018.  The newer 2020 one seems lost.  Have to redo it from scratch.  And that means guessing at some seeds...

Need to redo my Excel password list too.  I set it up offline for security, but it vanished too.  I have an old version on a thumb drive.  But so many scribbled changes to the printout, I am nearley starting from scratch there too.  I have a password app, but it is annoying hard to use.  I mean, the password to the password app has to be horribly long and weird, so how does that help?  I'm going back to offline Excel printout.  No one can hack a printout created on an offline computer!  But that does mean nearkly a day's worth of typing on the offline...

Cable TV sucks!  And I have the top tier.  I got it because of History, Science, Nat Geo, and Discovery channels and old but free movies originally.  Those have become mostly paranormal, alien, conspiracy junk these days.  And I found an old  movie I wanted to watch and they STILL wanted to charge $4 for it.  I'm going to HAVE to explore streaming TV and pay for that.

I'm not awake enough hours in the day to solve all this stuff!

Little Requirements

I'm healing but not "healed".  I can drive the car safely and get through a store OK,  but getting in and out of the car is (literally) a bit of a pain.  

I have to help my right leg under the steering wheel in and out.  It's more "annoying" than anything else.   But I'd rather not do it anymore than I need to.  So I went shopping just for a can of fish flakes in spite of that.  Why?

They needed food suitable to their mouths.  I have some adult fish, some catfish, some baby guppies and a Betta (not all in the same aquarium).  The betta has pellets it loves (beats me why).  The catfish will eat anything that falls on the gravel.  I have frozen brine shrimp for the adult fish.

But the baby guppies need crushed flakes and I was OUT of flakes entirely.  Not even dust in the container.  I'm responsible for them as much as for the cats and the outside birds accustomed to getting suet and sunflower seeds.

So (reluctantly) out I went out bad weather notwithstanding...  I pay more attention to "the closest parking space" than I used to.  The shopping strip has speed bumps.  It drives me crazy when people come to a full stop before easing over them.  They are designed to be passed over best at about 10-15 mph.  

So I followed a car coming to full stops at each speed bump.  And there was a place where we had the right of way and the side lot area had a stop sign.  Guess who came to a full stop to wave the other driver on?  THAT messed up the expectation of 3 drivers and almost got me rear-ended!

I know people like that MEAN well, but they don't understand how it confuses others.  SOME people leave a trail of car accidents behind them and wonder how "others" cause them.  AARGHH!

Then I saw a close parking spot.  Guess who backed into it?  Of course that "full stop speed bump" driver had the right to it, but my bad luck meant the next open space was 50' more walking.

I was shopping at a pet store because I thought I would get a few middle-tank fish like serpa tetras (I'm down to 2 of them) while getting the fishy flakes.  No such luck; the tanks were nearly empty.  Maybe they are going out of business.  Or fish are hard to stock these days.  Whichever, I just got the fishy flakes.

The cashier is apparently required to ask if I found everything I wanted.  I know that if I say "no" they get all distressed and waste time trying to help me find it.  I mean, I already SAW they didn't have the tetras, so I said "yes".  

Which I'm sure goes into some report that they have everything I wanted (which suggests I wasn't looking for fish and was inaccurate).  Sometimes you can't win.  

Something else that annoys me is that EVERY SINGLE CASH REGISTER I EVER MEET NOW demands that I actively decline some charity or another.  I give to my choices regularly by credit card; I shouldn't need to have to press a button to say "no" at every cash register.  Besides, I bet the store would get a %.  And there is some slight public shaming (Oh look, he didn't give to save a homeless pet).

So, needing fishy flakes and not finding fish, I purchased and left.  I was advised that I had $3 reward points and used it.  Felt stupid using a credit card for the additional $2 and change, but I hate coins these days.  They just go into a large jar.  I need to bring them to my bank on a Thursday (they only accept loose coins then with some machine they have).  I understand; it is a bit labor-intensive.

Stopped at the local DIY store to drop off burnt fluorescent tubes and buy new ones for the plant stand.  They didn't have what I wanted.  Went to the next and they did (almost).  Not all artificial lighting is the same.  Watts are not that important.  Lumens and Color/Temperature are.  Very basically, Lumens are brightness, which is like "volume of light". Temperature in this regard isn't how HOT the bulb is; it is the red/green/blue color spectrum like in a star.

Plants mostly use red and blue for photosynthesis.  We see most plants as green because they DON'T use it and reflect it away.  The colors we see are what they DON'T absorb and use and (in light) expressed as "Kelvin" (temperature above absolute zero).  Long story not TOO LONG, plants grow best at 5000 Kelvin which (for reasons I do NOT understand) means mostly red and blue.

A typical room bulb is something like 2500K (which means it has green and gives us balanced color from OUR POV.  Pants like higher Kelvin to a point.  5000 is best, 4000 to 6500 is OK.  All I could find was 6100.  I bought some.  

Sorry for all the details, I never know where to stop.  Maybe I should have been a teacher...

I was pretty much worn out by the time I got home.  Too much walking and I can feel it.  But the fish needed the flakes and the baby guppies moreso crushed small and the plant stand had a few bulbs to replace.  You have responsibilities to things you keep.

So I take care of the birdfeeders even when I have to climb a 6' stepladder, go driving to get fishy flakes when they need them, etc.  

You do what you think you must.

A Less Than Great Week

My normal routines have gone entirely out of whack this past week or so.  Too many annoyances...

Let me say clearly,that my troubles are minor compared with many peoples'.  But they are MY troubles and on my mind constantly. 

1.  I just can't seem to get in tough with the owner of the neighboring property.  The contractors won't tell me (don't want to get in trouble).  The County tax records still list the previous owner and I know ownership passed to a bank and then the property was sold.

I need to talk to the actual owner or whoever is managing the contractors renovating the property.  I can't find the person, though the contractor boss says 'he".  I am worried every day they will start painting or tearing down MY fence when I'm not looking.

WHY I care if they paint it is a whole separate post and I will try to get to that soon.  Meanwhile, it is my fence on my property and I claim the right to decide how it looks.

2.  My beloved 60" plasma HDTV died Wednesday.  It just went *blink* and then nothing.  It is only 3 1/2 years old.  The soonest appointment for a repair I could get is next Wednesday.  Actually, I called Samsung for trouble-shooting advice hoping for some rebooting advice.  I didn't know that repairs on those things were even possible. 

The Sumsung service desk says it sounds like a power supply problem.  I have my doubts, since there is a little red power "on" indicator and it is lit.  But maybe there is a circuit past that which can be replaced. 

Anyway, the idea of having no TV at all for week was just too much, so I went to Walmart and bought a 24" model for $138.  Plus, I wanted tit as a test o know if it was the TV or just some cable or the cable box etc.

Right out of the box, the new little TV came right on.  It's the 60" that is having the problem.  Plus I can show that to the repair person.  Having a small TV isn't bad.  Since I have MSNBC on most of the day, I listen to TV more than I watch it.  Who needs to watch talking heads?

But The Washington Nationals baseball team are in the playoffs, and watching THAT on a small TV is annoying.  But I'm old enough to remember our first family 12" B&W TV and then years later thinking a color 20" TV was just "amazing".  So I pulled the TV stand closer to the chair and got used to it.  4 days of "tiny" TV isn't the worst thing.  Some people drink water from polluted creeks...

But I'll still be happy to see the big screen again.

3.  I mentioned a couple weeks ago getting the metal spout of a gas can stuck in the car's fuel inlet.  The dealership did the job removing it just fine.  How they did it is not something I expect to have to know for future situations, but they did suggest I have the timing belt and all drive belts replaced.  Not from wear, but due to age.  They wanted $1000 for that.  My automatic response was no because there was no actual problem.  It wasn't like they said "we looked at your timing belt and it is worn out".

But now everytime I start the car I worry.  Some problems you can see developing.  The engine is hart to start, the engine runs rough while driving, there are noises, the brakes squeal, etc.    But when a timing belt breaks, everything just STOPS all at once and nothing first. 

It's like falling off a cliff.  The falling isn't the problem.  The problem is the sudden "THUD".  A broken timing belt is a "THUD".  That happened on a previous car, and lucky that I was directly in front of a good local repair shop.  They just pushed it into the shop and replaced the timing belt in an hour!  I doubt I would be so lucky again.

I think I may pay for the whole belt assembly.  I've been lucky.  No sense pushing my luck.  The Toyota Highlander is 12 years old.  It only has about 28,000 miles on it.  But it has mostly been stop-and-go traffic commuting and local errands, and that is really hard on an engine.  I want to keep the current car running until there is a good SUV hybrid or fuel cell model available.  I like SUVs for the height and cargo capacity.  And since I don't drive much, gas mileage isn't a concern.

4.  I'm listing information about Iza to bring to the vet.  My thanks to everyone who mentioned things to ask about.  I want to talk to the vet about a plan of exams rather that just bring Iza to the vet and say "do stuff"  I want the vet to think about it, advise me of what tests he indends to perform, and them look them up before I agree. 

But I'll do anything within reason to make her life (and mine) better.  My regular vet of 30 years gets the first chance to identify her problems.  I trust him a lot because of years of good attntion but also because HE was the one who found Ayla had almost a whole ovary after the breeder's vet did 2 failed spay operations.  But he might not be so skilled/equipped at detailed tests.   I know of a certified feline specialist (an annoying hour drive away because of few bridges across a river but closest - 40 road miles, 10 as the crows fly) and will go there if my regular vet can't find the problems. 

But to be clear, the feline specialist vet wanted $1700 for exploratory surgery and my vet did it for $400.

The Wrist Watch

I have been wearing the same wristwatch for about 40 years.  It is so old, there isn't even one on ebay.  It is a Sears Phasar digital watch.  There is a Phasar 1000 and a Phasar 2000, but not the original unnumbered one. 

I love that watch.  It loses about a second per day, but it does NOTHING other than show time and day/date.  But is a little line at the bottom that underlines the day of week.  There are 2 buttons.  One selects something to change, the other changes it.

Simple, straightforward, and the buttons are so small you can't activate them by accident.  It was a gift from my parents the day I got my first career job in 1975.  I have had the battery replaced about once a year, and every 10 years, the velcro band has worn out and I replace that with my favorite watch band "sharkleash".  It has 2 velcro straps, so working while wearing it, it doesn't loosen.  Watch and band are so part of me.

The watch finally died.  Well, gee, who would imagine a cheap digital watch from 1975 would only last 40 years?  ;)  A jeweler replaced the battery and it only worked when cold; arm-warmth stopped it.  So, time to replace it...

WAAAHHHHH!!!!  I loved that watch...

But everything good goes away eventually, so I looked for a decent replacement.  I learned that I hate all modern watches.  They DO too much.  Alarm features, Stopwatch features.  Even "foreign time zone" features whatever that is.

All I want is time, day, and date.  And small is good.  I don't want some big clunker on my arm.  I would happily wear a "ladies" watch, but they are too small.  Having to put on my reading glasses just to read the watch sort of defeats the purpose.

So I found one that didn't have too many features (and WOW had the sharkleash band), and it arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I struggled for 2 hours to program it.  The manual was only on line and deciding which manual to use was iffy.  No specific model identifications on any of the manuals.   Utter frustration.

I barely got it to show time, but every time I touched the darn thing, it seemed to change displays.  I got permission to return it to Amazon.

But before I did that, I really had to find a better one.  I found one that seemed better at Sears, a Casio Illuminator with a simple resin watch band.  It had fewer features and one less side button.  I went to Sears and bought it.  But I hate the watchband.  Its a buckle type and I LOVE the velcro type.  But it just takes popping the watchband pins and replacing the band.

Wrong!  This watchband doesn't have the old removable pins.  The pin is solid and would not be removed.  Internet searches suggested you could just push the pins out, but these were unpushable.

I DON'T GIVE UP EASILY!

I have a set of watch repair tools.  They didn't get the solid non-spring pins out.  OK, I have bigger tools.  With a small slot screwdriver, I bent the damned pins and pulled them loose with a vise-grip plier.  I was only risking $16 if I destroyed the watch anyway.

The watch repair tool kit has, among other things, a bag of dozens of spring watch pins.  I found 2 that would fit in place of the solid rod pins.

So I ripped the damned solid pins loose and that got the stupid resin buckle band off.  My sharkleash band was wider than the watch so I used a pair of surgical scissors I got from the doctor who removed my appendix in 1968 (I keep everything that seems useful) and cut a notch in the sharkleash band to fit.

It only took 15 minutes of fighting with the spring-pins to get them in.

But now I have the simple straight-forward cheap digital watch I preferred on the watch band I preferred.  It only took 2 online orders, a trip to the local Sears store, and about 3 total hours of work, but I have what I wanted.

For $16 for the Casio watch and $15 for the watch tool kit, I can return the $49 clunky watch I hated to Amazon for free.  And I don't care about the money.

I'm a persistent type, LOL!  I got what I wanted at the end...

Gardenweb

Everything I like goes away.  TV shows, beverages, internet discussion forums, clothes, appliances, etc...

Today I discovered my favorite garden discussion site is essentially "gone".  Oh, I never visited every month, mostly just at the start of each year to talk about "new" heirloom tomatoes I was trying, building raised beds, starting seeds under lights.  I was an "irregular" (very active at times, but absent later in the year).

And it just isn't there anymore.  Well, it exists in name but it was bought by some sales site called "Houzz" (a house improvement sales site).  Gardenweb is there in name, as I said, but they trashed it, deleted all the archives, killed all the usernames, and simplified the format to unusability. 

I had a NAME there "yardenman".  I had a history.  There were people I KNEW!  (And argued with or agreed with).  THAT part is just gone.  And I feel stupid that I'm sitting here crying about it and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it.

I put the site name as the post title in case it grabs someone using it in a search...

I tried to keep up with the change and re-register.  Can't have a handle; gotta be a plain boring real name.  Goodbye "yardenman".  You could know stuff about people with handles like TomatoLover! You have to choose housing interests and give TMI.  I even did that.  And only then did I find that there wasn't much there.  No one I recognized.  No sense of community...  I deleted my new account.

Doing some searches, I found the place had changed August last year.  Some people had gone to another site that apparently (from comments I read) is run by a (and please forgive me here) religious fundamentalist.  If he doesn't like your tone or disagrees with you, the next time you sign in you are shunted to a Disney site.  Seriously, you get automatically redirected to "Disney" forever after.

I wish I had the skills (and time) to set up my own discussion site...

BTW, about the other things I miss?  I might as well explain. 

TV - M*A*S*H ended, Babylon 5 ended, MSNBC essentially became a "Breaking News" channel 24/7, The Discovery Channel became a weird medical stuff site, National Geographic became a fake nature reality show site, The Science Channel became a fake reality show site, The History Channel does famous people drama, etc, etc, etc...  I watch baseball and a LOT of science/nature/history DVDs now.

Clothes and Kitchen - Bell-bottom pants?  Forget about it.  I wear a lot of camo now.  Bet those disappear soon.  Faded Glory shirts with ample armpits?  Gone.  I liked soft velcro "Shark Leash" watch straps.  Had to go to eBay to get a new one.  Blue Libbey glasses?  Forget it.  And I dropped a soapy coffee mug this week and broke it and 2 of my remaining 4 short blue Libbey glasses!  My old Rival crock pot of 40 years finally died a few months ago.  The new ones are junk and burn everything.  Found an old one on eBay...  Tried to find canned grapefruit lately?  Don't bother.

Beverages - Remember Tom Collins Mix?  I used to drink the stuff straight.  Its gone.  I used to make Singapore Slings using Pomegranate Brandy; discontinued.  You've seen those no-cal water flavorers?  I liked the pineapple one.  Gone.  Caffeine-Free Coke?  Gone.

It's not like I'm looking for VHS tapes and saspirilla.  I just want some things *I* like to stay available.  Speaking of camo pants, they are all cargo pants these days.  I have a 25" inseam.  When the tailor shortens the 30" ones (shortest I can get) I have pockets around my ankles,  LOL! 

I'm trying to stay in good humor.  But damn I miss that gardening site...

BANG!

I woke up startled this morning.  There was a lot bang and I could tell something hit the house. It was too sudden for a branch hitting the roof and the cats were completely poofed!  I thought maybe someown had shot at the house.

So I got up and looked around (not turning on lights or walking near the windows).  I finally realized there was dust floating in the living room, then that there was a hole in the ceiling, and finally a dent in the floor!

And there, near the bookcase, was a rock the size of a golf ball, and it was WARM... 

My house got hit by a little meteorite!!!

I bet that isn't covered by my insurance policy, but I've read they are valuable.  I'll probably just keep it though and pay for the roof and ceiling repair myself.  Seriously, how many people have a meteorite to show off?

Annoying Neighbors

My neighbors had a Labor Day party.  Good for them, that's fine.  They weren't loud or anything.  But we don't have curbs on the streets here.  So parking off-street means parking on lawns.  In this case, mine. 

I looked out the front windows in the afternoon to see 3 cars parked on my front lawn.  That would normally annoy me a bit, but I had just rototilled that area to un-compact the soil so I could plant grass.  Argh!

Yeah, yeah, they have to park "somewhere", but I noticed that they DIDNT park on the host's lawn...  THAT'S what annoyed me.  It's like that was intructions from the host neighbor "park on the neighbor's lawn, not mine"...

I let it go...  I don't like to start fights about small things.  I can run the rototiller over the crushed soil again.  Small things can start bigger arguments.

But the next day, I discovered that the guests backing their cars out from the line of other cars, backed a dozen feet onto my loose soil.  Tire tracks don't lie.

Mumble, grumble, mumble, vague swear word, mumble, grumble...

I hope they don't have another party soon.  Otherwise, I think I may charge for parking.  ;)