More Computer Woes

I feel like a broken record sometimes...  computer, computer, computer.   I'm almost surprised anyone reads this blog lately.

I mentioned previously that the HD was backed up, so I erased the HD to try and try to restore the most likely "OK" apps a few at a time to see where the frequent restart problem was.  Great in theory, but it is not ( have learned) easy to restore some apps selectively.

I am probably misunderstanding some things, but it seems that some apps won't restore directly, but need to be re-installed via the original download installer packages.  I can't find some of them.  Maybe some kinds of files don't get included in the backup program or I need to change settings to cause them to backup.

They say "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".  True.  I know enough to think I can fix things, but that same knowledge is "just enough" to get me wading in computer fixes that turn out to be too deep.

So I decided the better part of valor was just to restore the whole HD, and think of something else to try.  Eliminating all apps I could do without and or re-download free was one.  Getting the computer to a repair place was another.

I restored the HD successfully.  It took 9 hours.  Not that I had to do anything those 9 hours, but I had to stick around because sometimes the computer asks a question.  It didn't, so I spent the time cleaning windows and finishing my existing Civilization 2 game  (I won).

As an aside, I cleaned the windows using balled-up newspaper and home-made "windex".  Worked well, but finished with more "windex" and lint-free cloth.  And since the outside of the bottom half can be swiveled inwards, I was able to do the outside too. The Civ 2 game got my colonists to Alpha Centuri successfully in spite of all the opposing civs allying against me.  Well, I needed something to be successful!

So the HD was restored about 10 am (yes I stayed up all night).  There was some minor success in that (aside that it worked at all).  While it did that auto-restart upon turning it on, it didn't crash while I used it the next day.  Sounds great, right?

Nope.  The computer case became very hot!  That means death to the HD.  There is no point is trying to have it repaired.  I've gone through hot case issues before and it is never really fixable.  So I am just going to replace the Mac Mini.  It wasn't expensive itself (a renewed 2018 model from Amazon).  I should stop buying "cheap"...

"Cheap" is an old family habit.  My parents lived through The Great Depression and my Dad's side of the family were struggling farmers and small merchants.  As the eldest child, I was taught to be cheap.  Childhood training dies hard even though I don't have to be.

But I still have a dilemma.  Apple tends to release a new Mac Mini every couple years.  I have a 2018, there is a 2020, and I found some discussion that there will be a new one in 2023.  So rather than buy a factory-issued 2020, it might make sense to buy a renewed 2020 to last a year or 2.  Amazon sells them for around $400.  

That's not "going cheap".  It's more like buying a used car to just last 2 years while waiting for one of the good new all-electric cars expected to become available in 2024.  I won't bother you right now about all-electric cars, but one would suit my needs just fine (I do short errands frequently).

OK, I've talked myself into a renewed 2020 Mac Mini.  Will order one tonight.  I have to make these constant computer problems go away!

Cooking

I enjoy cooking.  But sometimes the "same old same old" gets boring.  So I read cooking articles in the newspaper, see some on TV, etc.  Most just seem like the authors are randomly throwing things together to create something new ("Sausage with cauliflower and mushrooms"?  No thank you). 

But sometimes I find a strange one that sounds (in my mind) like it might work.  I've been making a North Aftican chicken dish I found.  It sounds weird but I really like it. 

It is chicken with lemon and shallots and green olives.  I made it a few days ago, took it out of the oven, set it to cool enough to set into individual containers (covered it with a wire rack so the cats wouldn't get at it), and forgot about it overnight!  Had to toss those...

ARGHHH!

So I just had to do it again today.  Went shopping for a new pack of 10 thighs and lemons.  This time all went well.  The pan holds 6 thighs, so I baked the other 4 with more spices and panko flake coating.  That went well too (and actually one of THOSE was dinner tonight with a big tossed salad, an ear of corn, and some brocolli. 

It was important to me to make up for the wasted ones...  When a mess up cooking (and fortunately, it is just me, not guests) I want to do it again right soon.

And (I may have mentioned the recipe previously), it is very flexible.  No specific amounts of anything (sort of making a salad)

You take skinless chick thighs (I think bone-in adds to the flavor) seasoned with garlic, ginger, and paprika to taste to marinate for a few hours;  place them in a shallow baking pan, top them with with lemon and shallot wedges.  Heat oven to 350F.  Bake about 40 minutes (til 175-180F).  Remove thighs to covered plate.  Remove lemon wedges to a plate to cool. 

If you don't like chicken fat, drain into a fat-separator and wait 5 minutes, then return non-fat portion to pan.  Whisk in enough cornstarch to make a medium slurry.  A shot of dry sherry and some chicken paste is a nice addition.

Add more green olives than you might think (4-8 per thigh) to baking pan and return to the oven for 5 minutes.  If the sauce is too thick, whisking in a little water at a time works fine.  Place thighs in baking pan to reheat (thighs are very forgiving of temperature and reheating).

This recipe is easier than it sounds, is completely open to ingredient quantities, and flexible.  You can do almost anything you want, for example, so long as the chicken thighs reach 175F.  And, in fact, my recipe is more complicated than the recipe I found (which was just a chicken parts/lemon/shallot/green olive stew.

It is fine on its own.  I usually serve a thigh over spaghetti with the sauce.  If you just want the thighs, make little sauce. 

I'm mostly mentioning this because I was really annoyed at myself at letting the previous version sit out and spoil.  And then one paragraph let to another, LOL!

Another Day In The Life, Part 1

So, I decided to renovate the lawn.  That means cutting the grass down to 1",  aerating the lawn, collecting all the grass-clippings so that new seed can reach the ground and get some sunlight, and watering the lawn slightly 2x a day to keep the seeds moist.

I thought I had the timing perfect.  Aerate the lawn with my core aerator (pulls 3"x1/4" plugs of soil out of the ground and deposits them on the surface.  That allows air and water and fertilizer to get deep into the soil, and reduces compaction.

And since I was going to be dragging the aerator across the lawn with the riding mower, I would mow the grass short in a pattern that threw the grass clippings into just a couple of 4" wide rows.

Then I would rake the grass up and save it for the compost pile.  Then spread the grass seed.  The weather forecast was for occasional rain for the next week.  Perfect for the seeds to germinate in 80 degree temps.

Well, that was the PLAN...

The aerator has a tray on the top for putting heavy stuff on the top to make the aerator tubes sink deeply. 

I bought solid cinder blocks for it years ago.  And I added more weight this time (the ground was a bit dry).

No plan works...  As soon as I started (1 pm Wednesday), I discovered the aerator tires were flat and one was tire was off the wheel.  I had to take all the heavy stuff off and raise the end of the aerator off the ground supported by bricks.  Taking off the tire was awkward.  There was one bolt on the outside and 2 on the inside.  Only the farthest inside bolt held by a wrench allowed the outside bolt to be loosened.  With the wheel off, I had to reinflate the tire.

Of COURSE it didn't have a tube inside.  That would have been too easy.  I had to get the tire re-seated onto the metal wheel in order to get any air to stay in it.  I know from past experience that pressure on the outside of the tire can get the tire re-seated onto the wheel.  I spent an hour struggling to do that, to no avail.  Well, I worked at a tire company briefly, and I remembered they had an air-pressurized tube that went around small tires to press the tire to the wheel.  I don't have one of those.  I was dripping with sweat and worn out, so I stopped for an hour.  Drank 3 glasses of water.

When I was cooled down, I tried to think of ways to squeeze the tire onto the wheel.  I have an air pump to add a lot of air through the valve all at once.  With that attached to the valve, I tried twisting a rope around it, and I tried turning a loop of rope with a crowbar.  That didn't work.  I tried putting the tire in my bench vise and using some wood clamps across the tire in 3 directions.  That didn't work.

Damn!  I finally thought of ratcheting straps (like you use to hold a boat to a trailer.  That was awkward.  12' of strap around a 8" tire takes a lot of winding.  And the straps I had only get to 6' short (from 12').  I finally managed to hook the end of the strap at a point where the ratchet would really tighten.

It didn't work.  Well, not the 1st time or the 2nd or the 3rd or 4th.    But eventually, by pounding the sides of the tire with a rubber mallet, the seal finally caught suddenly!  YAY, HOORAY, and HALALULEAH!!!  It caught suddenly and filled...  I couldn't find anything on the tire that said what PSI to fill it, but I went for 12 as that seemed tight but with a slight "give".

So I brought it back outside and put the wheel back on the axle.  Being a sensible type, I also  checked the other tire.  It was at "0" but the bead to the wheel had not broken.  So I dragged the air pump outside and filled it to 12 psi too.

By that time it was 5 pm.  I decided to stop for the day and make dinner.

Thursday, I went all around the yard, aerating and mowing at the same time (very slowly so the aerator tubes could sink into the soil).  Just before I was done, the mower ran out of gas.  Well, I had more gas in the can, so I refilled it.  And then the mower wouldn't start again! 

OK, I guess I put a lot of stress on the riding mower hauling the aerator around with all that weight on it.  But why the mower wouldn't start was confusing.  I'm barely competent with gas engines.  I thought maybe I flooded the carburator.  I decided to stop for the day and I covered the mower with a tarp due to the possibility of rain.

And the next day is tomorrow's post...

Successes and Failures, Part 2

Today some failures WITH Successes...

When I moved here 30 years ago, there were some things lacking.  One of which were towel racks and toilet paper holders in the bathrooms.  So I bought some decent wood ones and installed them myself.  Some have come loose over the years.  I put up with a lot of minor stuff that is not perfect (there are only so many hours in a day for maintenance) but the main bathroom TP holder finally got so loose it demanded attention.

Image my shock when I discovered that (30 years ago) I had simply put screws into drywall!  OK, I know I wasn't "Harry Homemaker" back then.  Dad was a very talented D-I-Yer, but never involved us boys in his projects (well, quite frankly, he couldn't teach worth a damn and had no patience for helpers who didn't already know what to do).  But I didn't remember I was THAT stupid to try to hold things to drywall with regular wood screws!  The wonder is that they held for so long.

So I put in drywall anchors (ribbed plastic cones you pound into a hole and then the screw expands them tightly).  To be extra good about it, I squeezed some glue into the holes first.  The new attachments should outlast me.

The next complete failure is going to take a professional to fix.  There is a reason professionals hate amateurs.  Amateurs do really stupid things that "make sense at the time".  Well, I had some loose bathtub tiles.  And I had this can of spray insulation that hardened to "waterproof".  Seemed like a good thing to use.

The stuff does penetrate deeply while liquid.  What I didn't realize was that the spray foam expands before hardening.  Yeah, I blew out a dozen tiles all around the faucet.  In fact, no tile repairman will touch the job.  And the bathroom restoration people consider it too small a job.  I'm between a rock and a hard place...

I might actually have to damage the tile wall worse to get anyone to fix it.  I've done some really stupid things before (raise your hands if you haven't), but that qualifies as one of the dumbest! * Right now, I have a plastic trash bag taped over the loosened tiles so that shower water doesn't get into the walls.
 -----------------
* The really dumbest was when I had a car towed to a dealership when I was 21 and being broke, I decided to walk home.  I didn't realize I lived 10 miles away.  And then I had to walk BACK to the dealership 2 days later to be shown an engine crankcase full of tar.  "Oh, you need to add oil".  Gee thanks Dad for not teaching me that stuff.  ("Do you know how to fix this? [to me at 15].  "Then don't bother me")...

The engine was completely destroyed.  I spent a year struggling with buses before I could buy a crappy used car. 

Appliance Failure

I hate it when major appliances fail.  They're "major" appliances not just because they are large, but because they are expensive and important (My M/V might object to being left out of the group since I use it daily).  And it takes some research and time to replace them.

Minor appliances are easy.  Your M/V fails, you get another anywhere in 30 minutes.  Same with toasters, slow-cookers, fans, radios, clocks, etc.  But try to replace a dishwasher in less than a week...

Anyway, I noticed after my usual dinner binge of opening and closing the refrigerator a dozen times for this or that, that the thermometer was up to 50F.  I keep it at 35-37F, and that is the middle cold setting (4 out of 7).  But I use a lot of fresh foods and it warms up briefly inside being opened so much.

But when I went to put leftovers away an hour later, it was still 50.  Uh, Oh!!!  Hoping it was the refrigerator thermometer, I also stuck my digital cooking thermometer probe in there.

I checked for internal airflow blockages, but it is designed so that blocking the internal airflow is nearly impossible.  I distinctly recall from the manual that no cleaning of external coils is required, and indeed after pulling the refrigerator out a few inches and shining a flashlight behind it, there is nothing to clean.

This morning, it was still 50!  *GLOOM*

I've gone through a few refrigerators in my time.  It's always the condensor, and replacing the condenser is most of the cost of a new refrigerator.  But you pay $100 for the serviceman to tell you that.

So I jacked up the cooling button to max.  After 4 hours, it got back down to 37F.  I can live with that for a week while I choose a new refrigerator.  But it does mean that a lot of stuff was held at 50F for 36 hours.  Which means stuff like mayonnaise and salad dressing are dangerous.  I don't keep fresh meat, so no loss there.  Veggies and fruits are safe.  You can tell when they go bad anyway.  So I haven't lost much food.

With the cooling selection on "maximum" I can wait a few days.  At least it's not like having the A/C die in the middle of Summer or the Furnace die in Mid-Winter...

The choice for a new one is ongoing.  When the previous refrigerator died (sadly only 5 years ago) I replaced it immediately without doing much research.  I like bottom-freezer models and I went to one store and bought the cheapest most energy-efficient model they had in black.  Bad move...

This time, I'm going for the largest, best temperature-recovery time, bottom-freezer, with slide out shelves, in black, high-reliability-rated refrigerator I can find that will fit in the space.  Right now, according to Consumer Reports magazine website, that seems to be a Kenmore Elite 79043.


I decided to ignore the energy-efficiency rating.  I don't do that lightly.  But I discovered something surprising about refrigerators.   The big low-efficient refrigerators cost about $59 per year to operate.  The best-efficiency (with slow temperature recovery times) cost about $40 per year.  The difference is irrelevant.  Why would I want a refrigerator that ages my milk faster each week to save $19 per year?

Its not like choosing a car that saves $1,000 in gas per year...  $19 is the difference between most and least energy costs?  Who cares?

There is more to the decision.  I keep an older refrigerator in the basement for bulk veggie and fruit storage, garden seeds, beer, wine, bird suet, sodas, etc.  I bet it is so energy-inefficient that I've paid for a new one several times over.  I should have replaced IT years ago...

So the new one will go in the kitchen, the current one will go in the basement (where 50F is just fine for the things I keep there), and the deliverymen will haul away the oldest one for junk.

Looks like I am going shopping at Sears tomorrow!