Waiting On Trane

I sure will be glad when the Trane heat pump installer arrives Friday morning.  This week hasn't been too bad.  It got up to 79 inside last Friday or Saturday and today.  Two exhaust fans and 2 open windows made it tolerable.  It seems weird when it is warmer inside than outside in May.  

Well, the physical house structure retains heat and takes a long time to cool.  I also have enough appliances that produce heat on their own, and I do cook dinner every day.  Plus, I had the whole house insulation improved some years ago so if heat/cool doesn't go out open windows or doors, it doesn't go out at all.  Normally a good thing, but not right now.

I've been lucky with the weather this week.  May can get pretty warm here, but it has stayed in the 70s daytime and gets down into the 50s at night.   So at least it isn't Mid-Summer, which is when my heat pumps usually fail.  Today and Thursday are forecast to stay cool, so that gets me to Installation Day.  Yay!

I'm prepared.  All the weeds around the current outdoor unit have been pulled up or cut down.  Everything with 5' of the indoor part has been moved away.  I've cleared off the workbench nearest the indoor part so the installer has some space to place tools.  I'll move the car out of the garage the night before so he has an easy direct route from his truck to the basement.  Everything but drinks and snacks and if he wants them, I have them!  😀

New Kitten Delayed

I called the Tonkinese breeder yesterday.  She knows I am looking for a female of light colors like Iza.  Turned out the newest litter was 5 males in the color I wanted and the one female was dark brown.  Well sometimes gender is uncertain for weeks.  

But she assures me the litter of her partner-in-breeding has had a healthy litter of mostly females 2 weeks younger and ready for adoption in early October and they are sure the colors will be about what I wanted.  And will send pictures of all.

I'm to blame if I have Iza in mind.  I keep saying "whatever close " in my head, but I keep saying "Iza" in my heart.  I'm torn...

The available "brown" female Tonkinese might melt my heart.  Brown would be different, but the breeder says their colors get darker.  Yeah, Iza's did too.  I didn't mind that.  It made her different after her first year.

She has the picture of Iza on her wall next to my name.  She understands about colors.  I can't describe Iza by Tonkie colors but she can.  I think Iza was "platimum or champaign" but blue eyes only come from some mixtures.

The next litter are ready in early October.  Quite frankly, at that point, I will take any female Tonkie I can get.  I've waited a year and a half.  Has to be female though.  3 males and Ayla would feel odd.

Arranged for the car to be "maintenanced" tomorrow.  First annual visit to the dealership since I bought it.  If I have to do a 90 mile each way trip for a cat, I want to make sure it is ready for a highway.   The dealership service department pulled me in 2 directions.  First, 700 miles in a year is not a problem in most ways.  But a year is too long for oil or coolant sometimes.  I have enough problems with gas-powered yard equipment; I won't risk a new car.

I'll let them do what they want.  Most of it is free for the first years anyway.  I just want to make sure I can safely drive at highways speeds to the breeder 90 miles and back and not worry about oil and coolant.

Looking forward to Lorelei Lee even if it is ANOTHER few weeks.  Though my patience IS thinning.

Will post promised pics from the breeder when I get them...

Update

The main Mac Mini dessktop HD is erased.  I confirmed that.  It does keep the operating system (High Sierra, not Catalina).  That is a relief.  Apple will probably look back on Catalina some day the way Coca Cola looks back on "New Coke" and Microsoft looks back on the Paperclip  function.

Or maybe not.  Apple might be dedicated to forcing it's users into iCloud and new annual subscription apps forever.  Already, I can see that I am being forced to choose the subscription MS Word and Excek (which I love vs the Apple Pags and Numbers (which have few features).

Fortunately, I have fewer word and spreadsheet demands than I used to, so I might die before they make it a "pay for every use" world.

But that's neither here nor there right now.  Right now, I finally have my OLD Mac Mini (the one BEFORE the one I spilled the wine on - call it the grandparent of the new one and the parent is dead)  being backed up on a 4TB My Passport external HD (51 minutes and counting down).  That isn't over-writing my older backups, just saving what is on my OLD Mac.  The pre-Catalina backups are still there.  4 TB is a lot of storage.

My idea is to save what is on the OLD Mac, (just in case) and restoring the Oct 2019 backup Mac-to-Mac directly.  Since I can't seem to choose the backup to migrate from Time Machine, but CAN if it is the only version on the OLD actual Mac (there being no other choices), I am expecting Migration Assistant will work this time.

Backup 34 minutes and counting...

BTW, my previous migration created 69,000 photo files.  I confirmed that this OLD Mac only says 17,000.  I take that as a sign that there will not be duplicates.  Time and a few more steps over a couple days will tell.  If photos duplicate along the way, maybe this time I will see where it happens.

Backup 10 minutes to go (an hour later, LOL) but it is getting close to finished.  The computer makes a guess on time, and it changes by what files it finds.  It is like a marathon runner not knowing what hills of downslopes it will find.

I didn't waste the time just sitting here.  I cubed 5 pounds of pork shoulder I smoked a couple days ago.  And packed the cubes 4 oz each into ziplock bags and got them in the freezer.  I'm set for any pork meal for months.  Very versatile stuff, pork!

The usual is adding 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 small onion, a couple cloves garlic, and oregano, thickened with flour.  But smothered in bell peppers or carmelized onion is good.  Mixed with stir fried veggies and served over spaghetti with soy sauce is good.

Well,  the backup is going slowly.  For every GB it backs up, the computer offers more GB,  so I guess it is going to take hours.   It is up to 90GB and the total on the HD is 340,  so I might as well let it run overnight and see what I get this afternoon...

IF it backs the whole current drive up on the OLD Mac, then I Restore the OLD computer with the OCT 2019 backup and THEN Migrate that to the new computer (because thenit will be the only version Migration Assistant can find).  Abd THEN if that works, I might actually be back at Oct 2019.  and possibly be able to copy the photos since the without duplicates AND have my email settings back.

Aren't computers fun?  And then Thursday morning, I get to (try and) capture Marley to stuff him into the PTU and bring him to the vet for HIS teeth cleaning adventure.  Oh the thrill of the chase...!

Almost Delivered

The DR brand self-propelled brush mower arrived at the nearest delivery depot they use today.  Its a Fedex depot.  I chose that because DR ships stuff freight and the options were (since a freight truck can't back up into my driveway and get out in my dead end residential street):  I offload a 250 pound crate from the truck (yeah, right) at no charge or the truckers uses the tailgate to lower the crate to ground level and pushes it off (on the street) for $99.  I considered that, as the mower is probably mostly assembled and it would mean I mostly had to break the crate apart (we are not talking cardboard boxes here).

For no charge, I could have it delivered to a depot and pick it up or arrange redelivery into my garage.  Well, it was a Fedex depot, and they deliver stuff in trucks that can manage residential driveways.  And I could pick it up for free if I drove there and they would load it on my hauling trailer.

So I called Fedex about residential delivery.  I should have called them before I ordered the brush mower.  The depot is out of my delivery area.  They can have it redelivered by a contract company though.

But the Fedex person asked a question I did not expect.  "Do you have permission from the shipper to have a 3rd party pick it up and deliver it to you"?  I had to admit I did not specifically have such permission.  So they are emailing the shipper to receive that permission.

When you get a question you did not expect, it can be hard to think of follow-up questions on the spot.  So I said, yes please email the shipper.

Afterwards, it occurred to me I should have asked why permission was needed.  After all, the shipper had completed the delivery (to the Fedex depot).  Why would they be involved in any further movement of the crate? 

In my working career, I was very good at asking follow-up questions to surprises like that.  These days, not so much.  It might be age, experience with the subject matter at work, less frequency of experiencing surprise questions these days, etc.

But anyway, now I'm waiting for a company to give me permission to have a 3rd party pick up my crate at a depot and deliver it into the garage.  I expect they will grant such permission as a routine matter.

I could drive 40 miles to the Fedex depot and pick it up at any time.  But towing a heavy crate on a 5'x8' trailer is not the safest thing in the world.  And I really hate driving long distances.  40 miles with a trailer is "long" to me.

Everything will get resolved successfully eventually.  I can't WAIT to cut down that 1/8th acre of blackberries, plant some specimen trees and get that part of my back yard back!

Dr Visit

I haven't been to a Dr since 2008 and thought it was time.  Well, I feel fine, almost all my older relatives died feeling just fine until old age got them, and the family medical history says there is nothing in particular we die of.  Well, 1 Gramma died in her 70s, but that was diabetes from just eating too much gravy and being fat.  Otherwise, we all seem to healthy as horses and die of old age or the ocassional accident.  Mom died at 88 from Parkinson's and Dad died at 92 from general old age and boredom

But you never know what surprise a Dr might find and better late than never.   So I contacted the Dr Office where I last went in 2008 to start getting an annual checkup and blood tests and "all those fun things". 

Every Dr or Dentist I have ever gone too has demanded a paper form describing medical history.  And since my "medical history" is on scraps of paper and letters from Mom and such, I asked if I could come by and pick up the form to fill out at home before the appointment today.  "Sure, just come to the office and pick it up" they said. 

When I did that yesterday, "no such form".  They just ask questions and enter it into the computer.  Actually, the front desk has no idea how the back offices work.  That was STUPID #1

I sat in the exam room for 45 minutes watching green and purple colors flow around under my eyelids before the actual Dr showed up.  Yeah, he's busy, I understand.  But asked a lot of the same questions.  He doesn't use the same computer system the entry people use.  STUPID #2

But he was pretty good.  Asked the right questions to get an idea of my problems (none except some muscle cramps in bed after working hard outside), but I was there for an general physical which takes a 2nd visit.  I told them when I made the appointment that was what I wanted.  STUPID #3

The Dr flexed my calf and thigh muscles after I mentioned cramps and said he could tell I did enough exercise (Yardwork.  If you need deliberate exercise, you don't have enough outside real work to do, LOL!).

I told him about my hand tremors and he suggested I could see a neurolab above the office.  When I was leaving, I asked about the neuro lab referral and he said I didn't need that.  STUPID #4

I'll address that next visit...

I did get some information.  My pulse is 71 beats per minute.  My blood pressure was 130 over 60 (systolic and distolic, IIRC).  My lungs are in better shape than they should be for someone who has smoked for 45+ years.  He suggested I stop smoking (DUH).   I gave a blood sample for lab tests.

I can visit an x-ray lab to look for cancers, but they don't like virtual scans, saying there are too many false positives. 

I sometimes don't understand how professionals operate in such disconnected and confused systems.  In my career as a telecommunications manager for a Federal Agency, I would have been fired if my office had been so disorganized.  And I would have fired anyone who didn't understand the need for coordinated records systems!

Oh, and they let me leave without a new appointment for a physical and a discussion of the blood test results.  STUPID #5

Oh well, I've gotten back on track for regular Dr visits, and that is a good thing I suppose.  Who knows, I might have cancer all through me and better to learn that ASAP.  It would be good to know positive or negative. 

I've reached the age where people start dying of "natural causes" or specific conditions.  That's the only reason I went; to see if I was "OK".  Looks like I will have to wait a few weeks.

Trailer Tires

Some things are just frustrating!  One of my trailer tires went flat 2 weeks ago.  It was just rubber fatigue.  They are 20 years old.  There are cracks on the sidewall.  So...  time to replace both of them.  I called a tire store and they were all snooty about "trailer tires".  They want to sell you high-end all weather tires for cars.  They said they could special order them for $150 per tire.

So I went to a trailer company.  THEY were overwhelmed by putting snowplows on trucks, but did have a combination tire and rim available for $120 each and they had 5 of my size in stock.  I said OK and drove right over.

They didn't have 5 in stock.  In fact, they had none.  The person I had talked to was embarrassed.  Her computer said they had 5 and they didn't. 

I mentioned to her that I had worked for a tire store once and as assistant manager (responsible for tires among other things, we came up one tire short in inventory check and they took that out of my salary.  She was amazed but apparently that doesn't happen these days.

So I had to special order 2 tire/rim combinations for delivery last  friday.  Prepaid with an assurance that I would be called immediately when they were received.  Guess what didn't arrive Friday?

So I asked about the next delivery and that was Monday.   On Tuesday, they were still unloading the truck into the storage area.  Sure to have it complete Thursday.  But certain my tires were on the truck. 

Haven't heard from them yet.  Tomorrow I'm calling again.  Fortunately, my need for the trailer is not urgent.  But I hate unsettled matters.