Orthopedic Surgeon Visit

I saw the Orthopedic Surgeon yesterday afternoon.  After all the initial paperwork, she came in and explained that my insurance had a strange limitation in it.  Xrays have to be done by an xray specialist. Even though she has an xray machine in the office, it wouldn't be covered.  So she was going to write a referral and have me come back afterwards on another day.

So I asked what she would charge if I just paid her myself.  $50.  I actually laughed.  A second visit with her would generate another $40 copay, and the xray specialist gets one too.  Cheaper to just pay her myself and save 2 more trips!  So we did that on the spot.

She showed me the xray  It isn't the shoulder ball/socket joint that was separated.  There is a small bone that attached the clavicle/shoulder blade to the top of the ball/socket joint that detached.  It's not even "broken" just separated.  She recommended NOT repairing it surgically (unless I had a heavy work job or threw things professionally).  I can do all the gardening I want, lift paving stones, etc.

That explained a lot.  I WONDERED how I could be putting my weight on the walker with a separated ball/socket joint.  Plus, there is no pain and I have nearly complete mobility of my arm.  An operation would carry its own risks anyway.  

She further explained that, had I visited within a couple days of the fall, an operation would have been easier and with a higher likelihood of success.  Well Gee, I hadn't even gone to the hospital by "a couple of days"!  She said 3 weeks or 6 months doesn't make any difference now.  But, that if it ever starts to bother me (pain, redness, mobility problem), a repair operation could be done then just as successfully.

I have a follow-up visit in a month, and a referral to a physical therapist.  I will call the physical therapist to discuss what they can do that I can't do at home.  I don't want to travel to (and pay for) stuff I can do myself.  That would be like going to a gym club to do push-ups, LOL!  Plus I'll look this up online tomorrow.

I'm getting around with the walker more easily and can free-walk farther each day.  I will be walkinmg normally soon enough.  I can get up and down stairs without any great difficulty (still doing it sideways one step at a time, but I could BARELY do THAT last week).  

The Dr said I seem to be healing quite well and quickly (from what she read in the hospital report).  My ribs and shoulder aren't causing pain.  There are really only remaining problems.  My right leg/foot is a bit unsteady and hard to lift, though it bears weight well enough when I'm just standing still.  The right leg groin muscle hurts sometimes when I move carelessly or change positions in bed, but she says that will heal on it own.

The nasty-looking bruise on the shoulder is completely gone, and the REALLY nasty ones from hip to hip across the back have gone from solid deep plum purple to "paler pebbly", so they should be gone in a week.  I wish I could show the pictures, but modesty forbids.

I went downstairs to the basement yesterday in order to try doing my own laundry.  That worked fine.  I'm not ready to try getting on hands and knees to do the cat litter boxes yet, but I bet I will in a few days.  Wonderful Neighbor Deb was doing my laundry and litter box cleaning.  

I'm sure she will be pleased.  "Willing to do" and "wanting to do" are very different things, LOL!  

I bet I can drive by early next week.  I told Deb not to be surprised if she sees me driving the car in and out of the garage and up and down the driveway while I test my foot strength, pedal sensitivity, and reflexes.  And if that works 100%, up and down our dead end street.

Deb doesn't mention it often unless there is a timing conflict, but she is home all day because she teleworks (conflict management training).  And in spite of what she says about "liking to help people", I  am sure her generous help is interfering with her work and regular daily routine.

I have an appt with my actual primary care doctor on Thursday.  I am sure it will be mostly a "pro-forma" visit and a complete waste of time, but I suppose I have to go just in case something goes wrong in the future and the insurance company could point to any cancelled appt to disallow a claim.  *SIGH*

Lastly, I don't want to sound like I am disparaging doctors.  They are wonderful when there is something they can actual do.  The xrays/ctscan/mri have been useful.  Checking my vital signs has been informative.  But neither the hospital, primary care PA, or orthopedic surgeon have actually been able to quite FIX anything.  It's THOSE kinds of problems.  The healing of MY problems is more time-oriented than action-oriented.  Just my luck, no quick-fix, LOL!

On the other hand, I was lucky.  If I had hit the ground differently I could have died (and the vultures around here are hungry) or been consigned to a wheelchair the rest of my life.  I have sometimes been amazed at my general good luck (which bothers me because I know things SHOULD be rather random).    But it is a case of my being unlucky in small things and lucky in the big things.

In the small things, life is cruel to me.  If I am playing a game and my opponent needs an unlikely roll of the dice, they get it (and I don't).  But the large things matter more.  I've never broken a bone and I have done plenty of stupid things that deserved one.  I don't catch infectious diseases in spite of roommates and carpool members who were CONSTANTLY sick.  When in danger, I escape.  I was involved in an icy road car pileup once and I had the only undamaged car.  I had EXACTLY the right neighbor to help me this month.  The list goes on...

Well, that's it for today.  Things are improving steadily.  One day at a time and all that...

An Awkward Afternoon

OK, so it was about 5 pm last night and time to start preparing dinner.  I do a lot food prep.  Not like sliding a knife guided by my knuckles (as seen on TV), but I slice and dice pretty well.  I'm careful with knives and tools.

I love most veggies and one of those is beets and I mean fresh beets.  I bake them or m/w them, and I've always peeled them first, which works pretty well.  But I decided last night to bake them first and see if the skins would just slip off afterwards.

Well they didn't.  Worse, trying to peel them after baking was like trying to peel a damp sponge.   The beet was hard to hold, and the peeler couldn't get a grip.  In fact, as I was struggling with it, I said to myself "Self, you could hurt yourself this way".  You know what's coming right?

Yeah, one last peeler-pull and it slipped.  It didn't hurt in the least.  In fact,  while I sensed something was wrong, it wasn't until I rinsed off the beet juice that I was sure I was bleeding.  My left middle fingertip  was bleeding and by pressing on it I could tell I had taken a (small) piece of the nail out as well. 

It is amazing how hard it can be to open one of those individual-wrapped specialty band-aids (fingertip-type in this case) when one hand is bleeding.  I had the bleeding fingertip pressed against a wadded tissue, so I had to use my right hand and teeth.  Fortunately, I wasn't worried about sterility, I just needed to stop the bleeding. 

I finally did manage the get the fingertip bandage ready to apply, the fingertip dry of blood, and anti-biotic ointment applied to the finger, and the band-aid ON.  Which was done pretty awkwardly, but it stopped bleeding.

Which was confusing because there was still blood dripping...  It turned out the ring-finger  was similarly-but-less injured.  So I had to go through the whole process all over again.

So then I had the fun of preparing dinner (chicken, tossed salad, M/W potato, stir-fried peppers and mushrooms without getting my left hand wet or oily.   Its like typing with 2 fingers on one hand... 

Now all I have to do is wait to see what things look like later today.  I stop bleeding fast, but I need to look at the fingernails.  I've never damaged one before and I don't know what happens when you do. 

Fun and Games in the kitchen,  LOL!

And my semi-annual Dentist visit is later today.  Sure, why not?  And tomorrow I "get" to pick up my riding mower from the repair shop after 3 1/2 weeks for $350.

It could be a LOT worse. I could have pulled a fingernail partially or completely loose.  The dental visit could be about a root canal.  The riding mower could be essentially unrepairable and require a new one (and the new ones aren't actually as good as the old ones). 

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?

A Week In The Life...

Some weeks, problems accumulate...

1.  Naturally, I had to order more cat food just as the snowstorm struck.  2 boxes of 8 trays total, scheduled to arrive Wed and Thurs.  Well, I had the driveway and sidewalk cleared of snow Sunday, but I didn't shovel the front steps.  Figured I would most of it melt and shovel the remainder Tuesday afternoon.  The first box arrived Tuesday morning.  UPS left it at the garage door.  So I pushed the box inside the garage.

I forgot about the box when I decided to drive out for some errands Wed.  Well, you would be surprised at how many cans of cat food an SUV can crush beyond use...  ARGHHH!

2.  The outside unit of the heat pump stopped working.  I'm getting normal heat via electrical induction from the inside unit (like an oven), and I suspect it isn't costing MUCH more than the usual heating (some normal furnaces routinely operate that way).  I have been trying a few things hoping the outside unit will just "start" again.  I shovelled the snow from around the unit where air comes in, scooped out accumulated snow inside the unit, poured hot water over the insides hoping some ice was preventing operation, pulled and re-inserted circuit breakers, etc.  No luck.

But when the block of ice inside the outside unit finally melts and it doesn't start working normally again in a couple of days, I will have to call for repairs.  I didn't call immediately, because I AM getting heat, and I know they take complete failures as emergencies first.  Besides, they always want to just replace the whole unit. 

3.  My automatic garage door openers stopped working.  The overhead door light just blied rapidly.  That probably means something, but I couldn't find the manual.  But it isn't THAT hard to just raise and lower the door manually.

So I checked the power supply, circuit breakers, spring attachments, possible blockages, etc.  No luck.  Finally, I followed the wiring down to the bottom of the garage door track.  Well lookee there!  There is a set of safety lights at each side.  If the light beam between them is blocked, the system shuts off.  One of them had gotten pushed off.  Well, I guess when I ran over the box of cat food, I also pushed it into the light beam device.  Took just a minute to get it clipped back on and aimed properly. 

At least SOMETHING got working again.

4.  I mentioned previously that I had set up a regular birdfeeder on a pole on the deck to feed the non-finch birds sunflower seeds during the snowstorm.  They emptied it today.  The stepladder is still buried under the deck snowdrift, so I figured I would just untie it and set it down flat to refill it, and them put it upright again and retie it.  Brilliant but dumb idea!

The instant I untied the last know holding the pole tight, a strong gust of wind hit.  So there I was holding the bottom of the pole while the heavy top started to fall over.  I couldn't hold it up.  The feeder can crashing down on the deck.  The wooden feeder broke into 4 pieces!  I said a few BAD WORDS.  But what is done is done, and you go on from there.

I took the pieces down to the work bench and set about regluing the pieces (with exterior waterproof wood glue).  It took 12 bar clamps (you can never have too many bar clamps).  The feeder is back together, but it has to set until tomorrow morning.  I started to put out a tray of seeds, but even with a brick in the tray, the wind was slowly pushing it around.  And even if I clamped the tray to the deck rails, the wind would probably just blow the seeds out.  Sadly, the birds will have to wait til I get up in the morning...

5.  The trash company didn't show up for regular pickup today.  I'm leaving it out by the street.  I recycle and compost so much that about the only thing that goes in the trash is used cat litter, styrofoam,  and chicken skin.  And I out the chicken skin IN the litter bags.  So I feel pretty confident that NO scavenger is going to bother MY garbage can!  LOL!

BTW, I drove out today and saw a neighbor's TRASH can knocked over and the contents spilled out.  It was ALL cans and bottles.  All recyclable.  Aw c'mon...  We get free street-side recycle pickup and you don't even have to sort it.  Are they ACTIVELY against recyclying?

6.  This one is a bit long...  My waterbed sprung a leak.  That happens.  I have a repair kit.  I've probably patched it a dozen times (the waterbed mattress is at least 35 years old).  I only noticed when I pulled the sheets up for washing and the edges in one corner were wet.  I pulled up that corner of the waterbed. I thought it was wet cat food at first (because there was some there), and thereby hangs a short tale.

Ayla eats only in the bedroom, and sometimes she decides on some odd places.  That morning she had decided she would eat on the bookcase headboard of the waterbed.  I sure don't argue about it.   It's not like she gets to make a WHOLE lot of decisions in her life, so I give her the ones I can. 

That afternoon, when I pulled the wet sheets up I found her bowl tucked into that corner.  WOW!  I sure didn't think there was THAT much water in canned cat food (and it didn't smell like anycat had peed there).  But the cause and effect seemed clear.  So I cleaned up the spilled cat food, wiped it clean, and stuffed an old towel down to absorb the water.

Well, THAT wasn't the problem.  There was TOO much water the next morning and the towel was soaked.  So I pulled the corner of the waterbed up (which is not easy - water is heavy).  And I found a strange little piece of sharp metal.  I can't identify it, but I assume it took a while for it to slowly wear through the waterbed mattress. 

I can't get a patch to hold in the corner unless I drain the mattress and remove in entirely.  And even that might not work.  So, after all these years, I think I will replace it.  It's OK, they aren't expensive.  $50 to $200 depending on whether you want baffles and lumbar supports etc.  But I'm used to the cheap kind with nothing fancy so I will stick with that.

There COULD have been a better time for this.  All my hoses are outside and too cold to uncoil without maybe causing a break.  But at least the forecast calls for 50F temperatures Sunday, so I can probably get one into the basement undamaged and let it warm up inside.   One of the problems with a waterbed is draining them.  That can take a couple hours.  And then you have to fill the new one.  Filling a waterbed takes about 30 minutes from the outside spigot, and it takes all day for the heater to warm the water. 

Fortunately, my basement laundry tub faucet has a garden hose screw fitting.  But my water heater doesn't hold enough hot water to fill the king size waterbed mattress.  So it will be a balancing act to get the heated and cold tub water mixed right so I can sleep on the new mattress the same night as I empty it.

I'm probably not saying this clearly.  I have to get up in the morning, drain the old mattress, remove it, pull up the old liner (old and worn out) dry the wood frame, set the new liner in place, set in the new mattress, fill it, get the water warm enough, and put the mattress pads and sheets back on.  My recollection from the last time (30 years ago) was that took all day.  So I will be in for a very boring (watching a waterbed mattress fill up is like watching paint dry), but dedicated day...

7.  I had a mouse invasion.  Marley caught 5 mice!  I initially blamed the snow for making mice seek shelter, but it might have actually been my fault.  Last Friday, when the snow began to fall, I brought a few tubs of planting soil into the basement to thaw out so I could plant leftover Spring bulbs in them for forcing by Spring.  There MAY have been mice nesting in them in the leaf litter covering the soil. 

I HOPE he caught them all regardless of how they got inside.  Probably.  There were 4 caught one day, I found a 5th in a bucket the 2nd, and none for 4 days.

Quite a week!

Mild Underved Destruction

One of the things I had to do when I expected the excavator contractor to show up "any tomorrow" was remove the birdfeeder.   It wasn't easy.  Try setting a pipe 3' deep in the ground for almost 30 years and see if IT is easy to pull out! 

It took work.  But I did it.  But then I had this thing with a 24" saucer under it and a 18" baffle below  (successful squirrel baffles) and no where to put it.  So I set it against the deck where the 24" saucer fit in tight.  Seemed safe.

Nope!  I went out today and the whole thing had fallen over.  And falling over, it broke!  I don't think it is repairable.  I'm going to have to build a new one.

Now, on one hand, I'm sad it broke.  It lasted 20 years (all cedar) and the cardinals and finches loved it.  On the other hand, I wanted to improve it a bit anyway.  I'd rather it had stayed intact, but I'll take advantage of the damage to build it better. 

A lot larger to begin with, and with an interior slope to make the last seeds go down to the feeding tray. 

But I wouldn't have to worry about this if the excavation contractor who said they would be here had come here instead of begging off for better jobs.  I'm still p&*@ed about that!

I hope the new feeder is as well-built as the previous one.  Some things just go better the first time around and you can't duplicate it.  So maybe the new one will be better and maybe not.

We'll see...

The Yardwork Excavation Contractor Blues

"GLOOM*

I spoke to the excavation contractor early today.  I'd been patient.  They (Della & Son) said on August 14 that they would be out to do the work "next week" (Aug 17-21) with a day's notice "because some jobs go way faster than others and some way slower, and to keep the crews busy they have to juggle the schedule".  OK.  Well, it isn't exactly urgent, like plumbing or roof repair work.

But when I didn't hear from them all last week, I called.  It seems they are no longer interested in doing my work.  They are "busy".  Good for them.  I suggested keeping me on their list, but they said they probably wouldn't get aroubd to my little job this year.

Stunned silence on my part...

I asked if they had decided their job estimate was too low; they said it wasn't, they just weren't going to be able to schedule the job.  And didn't want to keep my job on their list.  So, like "goodbye, and don't call us again".

Wow!  I was disappointed that they wouldn't do the work, but worse, it left me kind of out of options.  There are 2 kinds of businesses who do yard grading work.  One is excavators, the other is landscapers.  And all the others of both types had not been very interested. 

Excavators want to move around a lot more soil in open areas.  Landscapers are more used to residential grading, but their main thing is to plant the new area.  My job doesn't quite fit either.

The Della & Son proposal was perfect.  They would scrape off the plants (English Ivy, Poison Ivy, vines, and 3' tree saplings) from the surface of the ridge and dispose of the material.  Then depending on the quality of soil beneath that, they would either move it to the sunken front lawn, or haul it away as "fill dirt" (used to fill up ravines or to level under parking lots, etc).  If required, they would bring in topsoil to raise the front lawn above the height of the drainage easement.

No one else I talked to was willing to do that.  I was so pleased, I accepted their proposal on the spot, and we shook hands on it.  I am considering trying to shame them into doing the work anyway.

But I found another residential excavator today (Cornerstone Excavations).  His ratings are "A" in all categories and no one who wrote a review has been displeased.  Unfortunately, I am on the far edge of where he will travel to for work.  He won't travel to provide a firm quote.  He won't do the entire job (the spreading of soil on the sunken lawn isn't stuff he does).  But he does have the light equipment sufficient to scrape the ridge level and dispose of the unusable ivy and saplings without tearing the entire backyard up and he does the work himself.

The Della & Son proposal for the whole job was $3500.  While Cornerstone can't give me a firm price ahead of time, he estimates $1000 to scrape the ridge and $350 per truckload (estimate 2 truckloads) to dispose of the material.  He said I would get a much better deal having the topsoil to raise the sunken lawn done locally, and I think he is right.

Hoping that his estimate of $1700 doesn't suddenly become $3000 when it is done, I've agreed to send him pictures of the worksite and schedule the work.

Now, back to "shaming" Della & Son...  They gave me a written proposal and I accepted it, pending only a one-day notice for them to show up.  And they backed out.  I got their name off Angie's List (an independent contractor rating site).  Contractors care about their ratings there.  Della & Son have a straight "A" rating (price, quality, professionalism, punctuality, etc).  I'm going to give them a negative review.  Contractors often respond to reviews there.  I would still like them to do the whole project, because they had seen the work to be done onsite, described the work to be done perfectly, and given a firm quote.

We'll see what happens...

Waiting

Stream of semi-conciousness, "day-in-the-life" stuff...

And waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  For what?  Oh just the excavators who gave me a quote for scooping off the backyard ridge.  Why am I waiting?  Oh because they said they would be here "sometime this week" with  day's notice and "this week" is pretty much over now. 

OK, I actually needed some time.  It's amazing how much stuff needs to be moved to prepare for destruction.  I had to dig up 12 daylilies and pot them up for later replanting.  THey wren't happy where they were anyway.  And there were all those leftover posts and boards from the deck rebuild last Fall.  One can always use big chunks of lumber for "something".  I had to drag about a ton of THAT away from the ridge.

And then there was the birdfeeder on the pole in the ground.  Had to pull THAT up.  It wasn't easy.  It's been 3' deep for 20 years.  And just figuring where to PUT it during the excavation work was a trick.  I eventually did some minor repairs (well, as long as it was there, you know?) and propped it up against the deck.  If they get THAT close to the deck with their equipment, I want to know anyway.

Oops, I forgot the pots I sunk in the ground to make the stepldder level for refilling the birdfeeder.  Had to dig them up.  And, oh lord, the vinyl-coated wire cages I used to support the pepper plants last year were buried under wild vines, so they had to be cut loose with pruners. 

Wow, I forgot about the old heat pump support base that I used to help support the stepladder,  AND the old cement base that used to be a boot scraper and I'll-repair-that-someday.  Yeah right, but I had to move it.

So I'm ready.  Oh blast, the side of the slope is covered with flagstones from a previous project and I NEED them to make a stepping-off point for the new deck when I get around to THAT!  And dang, they are buried in vines.  So I need something to cut the vines and expose the old flagstones.  Ecxept the sickle is dull and needs to be re-sharpened. 

So into the basement I go with it to the grinding wheel.  2 minutes and you could dismember a mean bear with it.  Not that I have anything against bears, you understand, just a metaphor.  Or is that an analogy? 

Anyway, I start chopping vines with the newly-sharpened sickle.  Works great.   I can see the flagstones again, first time in years.  Woah, what if there are snakes under those flagstones?  Better go get the leather gloves.  Where DID I put those?  Oh yeah, in a sealed tub so that spiders wouldn't crawl in.  You laugh?  I have black widow spiders around here.  And I'm not allergic to MUCH but I don't want to stretch it too far.  Just in case, I stomp on the gloves a few times...

So, with leather gloves on (and nothing wet inside), I go after the flagstones.  Oh damn, there's poison ivy growing in there and I'm wearing shorts.  So into the house to put on long work pants...  That being done, back out to the flagstones.  Oh wait, where are the gloves.  Back in the bedroom where I changed into long pants. 

So now I'm at the flagstones (really finally).  I lift them up, one by one and toss them onto the lawn.  Something is weird about that.  Not only no snakes but no ant nests or anything.  I check...  The dirt is oddly solid. 

Whoa, there is carpet under the flagstones!  I forgot about that.  Old stuff to supress weeds.  I can't pull it up; the vines have sent roots through it, nailing it to the dirt below.  I think I will just let the excavators take care of that part!

So now I have 3 dozen flagstone pieces sitting on the open lawn, I'm drenched in sweat (yes real salty sweat - my maternal grandmother would have been offended "animals sweat; people "perspire" - yeah right)),  and the wiping towel I have with me is as soaked as I am.  Time to go inside.

Inside, I collapse.  So it starts to rain.  Oh damn, I have a radio outside.  Up I jump to retrieve the radio.  With that in the basement, I go out and look around for other items.  While I'm out there the rain stops suddenly.  Not even 1/8th inch...

So... I decide to try an save some azaleas.  Noyt to dig them up (there is way too much poison ivy around them) but I can try some cuttings.  Even THAT was tricky.  The poison ivy is thicker than I realized.  But I get branches cut off of 3 bushes that I think I recall being one each red, white, and pink.  Maybe. 

I'm starving.  When did I eat last?  Lat night.  I don't bother with breakfast much and I think I skipped lunch to get the worksite ready.  So I eat a whole peach, a plum, a handful of grapes.  And brew a cup of green tea to keep me going...

Its not enough and it is close to dinnertime.  I feed the cats a LOT more regularly than I do me.  So I feed them and then look in the fridge.  I have cooked hot italian sausage, so I can make sausage stew. 

Don't laugh, its good.  Coined sausage, sauteed green peppers, minced onion and carrot for sweetness, and cannelini beans (OK white kidney beans), tomatoes and tomato juice for broth.  OK, its more a soup than a stew.

So I decide to change my usual recipe to a true stew.  Hot water, flour and chicken paste. 

I cook for myself.  Have done it since I was in college.  Not having any criticism is nice.  I know what I like to eat.  BUT!  You know how sometimes things don't come out as planned?  Well, I eat it anyway.  But sausage SOUP is good and sausage STEW is horrible.   Don't EVER add a flour-based thickener to sausage.  *I* sure won't ever again...  Worst meal I've made in a YEAR!

The meal was sort of saved by the salad I made of 2 heirloom tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and shaved carrot with Italian dressing.  And an ear of corn.  And 3 chocolate truffles...  And another peach, plum, and some strawberries.  And more wine than I usually drink.  I deserved it...

And I'm STILL waiting for the excavators to call me about the proposed schedule for removing the ridge!

Good thing I'm finally ready for them to arrive...  Finally.

Shed Door

My shed door has a small garage style door.  It came off the track yesterday! 

Its not one of the things I've ever worked on before, so it took some examination.  The track is attached firmly to the front of the shed.  So that hadn't moved.  The back of the door support has a triangle of flat metal pieces hanging from the ceiling of the shed.  But THEY weren't loose.  Bafflement...

OK, the door hangs from wheels in the track with axles going into the door to hold it into the track.  While the one that came loose seemed to have the axle come out, I couldn't see why.  The door has worked for 9 years and I found nothing loose. 

Dang, I hate it when the problem isn't obvious.  Well, I reconstructed (in my mind) the way it SHOULD have looked if it was working properly.  And saw that the axle holding the track wheel was nearly out of the door.  So, to get it working, the axle has to be firmly in the door.  OK, that's a start.

So the track is too far away from the door.  Why?  Nothing loose.  Can't see why it came out.  But I can see how it is SUPPOSED to be.  Can't make the door wider, so the door TRACK has to be closer.  Nothing's loose, so an adjustment is needed.

It only took 2 hours...  Well, seriously, I had to figure out how the whole thing was put together and how adjustments could be made.  It was the back braces.  One was set wrong.  The back braces have to match the front ones AND the door, and the back ones were over 2" wider.

I found the one bolt that had to be removed and set into another set of brace holes.  Was that easy?  Of course not!  All the other bolts in the track were short aluminum ones that easily fit in and out of the holes in the braces.  Not THAT one of course.  It was steel and it was long, and it was rusted.  The original installers must have run out of the proper short aluminum ones and found this one on the floor of the truck.  It was even slightly oversized so they had to screw it into the holes (making threads as they went like with sheet metal screws).

And of course it wasn't easy to get at.  I had to break the rust loose (how did it rust inside a dry shed?) with a wrench and a hammer.  Then turn the nut off the bolt tiny turns at a time.  THEN unscrew the bolt out in tiny turns of a wrench for all 2".

So at least then I could change the hole connections on the 3 flat metal strips acting as the braces.  IE, make the triangle smaller and the track moves closer to the door.  I did that.  Then the track wasn't square to the door, so I had to do the same on the other back side.  That went easily.  Then it took another adjustment to the original side. 

The door slides beautifully now.  Well, it MOSTLY did before, but I think it was only pulling the track close until it finally popped loose and I was just assuming it was the weight of the door that took some effort in raising it.

NOW it works as intended...  Nearly weightless.

* SIGH *  Like I didn't have anything better to do on a nice 70ish day with a list of other PLANNED projects...

Been Gone

But for reasons.  Being on the computer makes me smoke, and I have been fighting that by restricting my computer time.  The Mark's Mews blog is primary, so I manage to do that.  Emails came second, and that has been difficult.  I've had to write them in increments.  This blog seems least important...

Not that I don't enjoy writing on it.  Just that my non-smoking willpower gets worn out fast and by the time I get to THIS blog, I need a cig.

WELL...  The computer crashed.  Sort of.  More accurately, an upgrade to Mac Yosemite (OSX 10.10.2) crashed my iPhoto.  Don't know why, but some internet search showed a LOT of unhappy upgraders.  I spent a couple of hours a day for a week trying to get at my photos with no success.  Tried un-upgrading, and other stuff too.  No luck. 

Apple doesn't LIKE un-upgrading!!!  It offends them that you don't like the new stuff.  

I could have lived with the new "Yosemite" operating system if it allowed me access to the old photograghs, but there was an endless loop of "fixes" with no end.  I finally had to do the serious thing.

Thank goodness for "Time Machine".  It stores my previous versions of the hard drive.  You would think that makes it easy to just copy back the previous old version.  You would be right.  And you would be wrong.

Its possible.  But not easy, they say.  I know because I read all kinds of internet searches about doing it (and some said it worked and some said it failed.  I knew it COULD work, because I had done it once before.  It took the help of a Verizon IT tech (2 years ago I think).  Not his job, but he helped me.  And I wrote down the steps on some scrap paper.  A foot-high stack of which is always on the corner of my computer desk

I went through the stack and actually found the scrap! 

It worked.  Two hours for restoring the older OSX version, 30 minutes for "repairing" the iPhotos Library, 30 minutes for repairing my emails (and I had to endure 15 minutes of re-receiving 200 emails and deleting them as they were all duplicates).

But everything seems to be working last lat month again, and I am greatly relieved.

All that sitting around and watching the s-l-o-w progress made me get more cigs.  Damn!  Well, one night in 3 weeks isn't too bad.

I've been busy.  But that's the next posts...

Thanks for visiting after 6 weeks of no posts...

Fun With Lumber

Or I could title this "I have bad luck on minor things"!  I went out and bought the lumber I needed for the remaining 2 framed garden beds a few days ago.  Back at home, I decided to back the trailer up to the garage so I wouldn't have to carry the heavy preservative-treated wood from the far corner of the front yard where I store the trailer.

I'm sure anyone who has some experience in backing things up with a car knows that the longer the hitched item is, the easier it is to back up because the directions don't change as quickly as with short items.  Well, my trailer is only 8' long, and I couldn't even see it in the rear view mirror, or by opening the front car door and looking out.  I finally had to go in the garage and clamp a board upright in both rear corners of the trailer.  I think I will attach a couple of small flags on dowels attached to the trailer corners!

But I got the twelve 8'x2"x8" boards unloaded into the garage and the trailer put off into the yard corner.  Today, I set about cutting them to size.  The preservative lumber is odd.  They are not a full 2" thick or 8" wide, but thy ARE longer than 8'!  Perhaps that is so the poorly-cut ends can be recut better.

Anyway, I needed most of the boards cut to 7' long, so it didn't really matter.  Except the few end boards which I wanted to cut into two 4' long boards.  Still, the extra length made that not a problem.  I carefully measured each board's length before I made any cuts, and they were all 8'1" long.  Perfect.

Except one board.  Which I failed to measure.  Which was one of the few boards I chose for the two 4' pieces...  So I got a 4' board and a 3'10" board, which just won't make a rectangular framed bed!

Think about it.  For 8 of the boards, it didn't matter (they were getting cut to 7').  For 3 of the remaining 4 boards, I measured (and they were all at 8'1").  The ONE board I didn't remember to measure NEEDED to be 8'1" so that I could square the ends with good smooth cuts.

So the ONE short board had a 1/3 chance of being among the 4 boards that HAD to be over 8' long AND a 1/12 chance of being the only board I didn't measure.  Giving a 1/36 chance THAT board was the only one I didn't measure AND was too short.  Which means that, with 36 sets of identical boards, I would have NOT had a problem 35 times and a problem only once...  And I managed to achieve that "1 in 36 times event".

I have the worst luck with minor things!!!

So now I have to go back to buy 1 board.  Grumble, grumble, grumble...