Old Pa

Yeah, and leg lifts and crunches and squats and a yoga pose called "the boat", but not with an injury until after the inflammation went down.

Yoga. Taught myself off of several books and a couple of DVDs and it's been the best thing I've done for myself in years. Your library may have Sara Ivanhoe's "Yoga for Dummies" DVDs which I found to be good for beginners. Sara's pretty good eye candy, too. Right now, try these two. First lie on your back and pull first one knee up to your chest and hug it there while breathing deeply through your nose. Hug it a little tighter while breathing in fully, and then relax into the position while breathing out fully. Release the knee down on an out breath. Do the other knee the same way, holding it hugged to your chest for several breathes or at least thirty seconds. Now hug both knees into your chest and roll on your back so as to have your knees describe first clockwise and then counterclockwise circles while breathing deeply and fully through your nose. This will massage your stretched back. Now let your legs back down and relax fully while breathing deeply and slowly through your nose. Relax on the outbreath with your mind clear of all thoughts but breath and sinking into the floor like it was sand on a beach. Second, roll over and lie on your stomach. On an in breath, try to touch your backbone through your abdomen to the floor. On the out breath, relax more fully into that stretch. Hold it for three breath cycles and then relax for three. Do it again. Finally, roll back onto your back with your legs slightly apart and your arms slightly out from your sides. Roll and move until you are completely comfortable and fully relaxed while breathing deeply through your nose. Maintain only breathing and relaxation in your mind for several minutes before you get up. That should start to release and relax your back.

Sorry about your flood, Salt, but I was just trying out the "sucks" pun re your wet vac.

Apples and oranges.

Word on Squawk Box this morning from Buffet and Snow was that this was the best possible solution to a bad situation and the S&P futures were up +50. It's obviously very difficult to price this out at this time, but the consensus is that it will cost less than any of the alternatives. Markets seem to agree at this point, but we're still dropping shoes like a centipede.

Gee, Salt, that really sucks . . .

You might notice that if you look at your LPs they are thicker both at the rim and at the label. 78s are even thickness all across and 45s have no rim, but LPs are thicker at the rim and at the label. Always have been. Something you can count on and engineer upon. I keep my VPI's mat clear of goobers; with the cover it's not hard to keep the mat perfectly clean. If you clamp down an LP with both the rim and the label supported, as the VPI mat diameter provides for, the grooved music area is not in contact with the mat. No contact, no contamination. No issue. With the VPI, keeping cleaning solution off the label is also a piece of cake..

I went from a vinyl cleaning situation similar to what you describe to a VPI HW-16.5 about five years ago. The only difference is that my six feet of vinyl is primarily original issue from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and benefited greatly from having residual release agents removed. At the time, I compared the different VPI models and the Nitty Gritty models and picked the 16.5. Did not expect how good it would be or how much it would improve sound quality. Very well made and solid; I felt badly for having used my different turntable's motors to turn the LPs against the brush for three decades. Came with a decent brush as well. The wet cleaning action is pretty amazing. I couple a wet cleaning (with my own cleaning solution formulation) with an application of LAST's record preservative. The result might be described as clean, sweet, and highly detailed. You are going to be impressed.

Realizing I cannot keep up with all this stuff, I go to Extreme Tech, Maximum PC, and ZDNet and find out 1) what they are recommending and 2) why. Usually narrows things down to two or three items on a features/value basis. Then I use the shopping bots to find a responsible e-tailer with a reasonable product and shipping costs. BTW, they seem to like the Gateway XHD3000, but 30" monitors and their video engines are still in a state of rapid development and it depends on your application. As to the 30" monitor, it reminds of of years ago when I got SWMBO a new 25" TV for her home office. She was complaining to my hunting partner that it was way too big. He asked her real slowly if she had to turn her head back and forth to see the whole picture. End of conversation.

Cooper Model 57-M .22WMR.

Happy Birthday! Many more in good health!

I've been very happy with the sound of LAT International's (www.latinternational.com) interconnects and speaker cable. While their product line has changed completely since my last purchases, they still employ a silverfuse conductor (finely stranded copper dredged through molten silver before being swedged to size) that I've found to be my preference. Very good quality construction and connectors, good customer service, and reasonable prices for what you get. But it's real hard to beat a good loan . . .

Fluke 115. Pretty basic to some, but I'm stoked.

I could do that. Especially the parts where I rub my own body. Yeah, I could do that good.

I was more concerned about the absence of gun-case; these people are too normal.

You're all right. Freezing whole roasted coffee beans is the best way to preserve the volatile oils that are coffee flavor and aroma goodness. But you have to freeze them in airtight containers or the freezing process (or, even worse, the automatic freezer defrost cycle) dries them out. I blend my own coffee in eight or nine pound batches of roasted beans these days. I've roasted my own beans in the past, but could only do that outside in the past what with the smoke detectors. So I do my mix in a dedicated five gallon bucket and then freeze the beans double bagged in gallon zipper top bags (your choice of brand). I keep the coffee beans to be brewed in a one quart Dansk snap top jar in the upstairs freezer and measure the frozen beans into my burr grinder right before brewing. I've learned that when you grind frozen beans ther's a lot of static charge formed and if you don't let the ground beans sit for a couple of minutes in your grinder's ground coffee receptacle until the static dissapates, the freshly ground coffee can explode out with the static charge. There are as many differences of opinion about coffee as there are about audio, but this is the stuff that has worked for me.

I've had good luck for years with PartsExpress.

Something like this? Parts Express:Dayton DESL-18G Dual-Ended Spring-Loaded Gold Terminal Pair

I've been using the simplest and least complex Braun ADP for some years. It's got simple design, brews at the right temperature, has a carafe lid that seems to prevent evaporation, and a changeable charcoal water filter. SWMBO has so far been unable to break it. With an alarm clock (to wake you up to grind the beans with your burr grinder from their jar in your freezer) it should serve you purposes. If you let even the best coffee sit out overnight ground in the filter, you're going to miss out on a lot of the aromatic oils you paid for.

My apologies, deepak! Now I get it! You were getting into the spirit of the thread by commenting on something that you knew nothing about!

Chevy trucks are far superior to Ford and Toyota.

"a kiss from the lips that never smile"

Of course you do; what other reason to have your own forum?

Working on your bedside manner? I will, but you obviously need my help here, too.

All of a sudden, this place seems just like the other place.