And now what did you do TODAY?

[mikeymad]

microwave

 

 

(and stand back)

[Grahame]

7 minutes ago, mikeymad said:

microwave

 

 

(and stand back)

 

 

[Dusty Chalk]

3 hours ago, Grahame said:

Disassembled some hard drives.

Joanne's work had some old hard drives that they wanted to get rid of / render inoperable.

With the right tool (torx screwdriver bit) it was relatively trivial to open them up and take them apart.

All I need to do now is put the drive platters beyond use.

However lacking a drill press, or a large calibre firearm and high speed camera, I'm open to suggestions.

Thoughts?

Neighbor(s) with a drill press/large calibre firearm and/or high-speed camera.

See also:  fire/napalm.

See also:  degauss (those are magnetic heads, aren't they?)

See also:  put them in zip drive cartridges and watch them commit click-of-death suicide.  🙃

[jose]

I can lend you my flamethrower suitable for eliminating hornets' nests, mothers-in-law, politicians, undesirable visitors... and HD

[Augsburger]

Soak in bucket of Muriatic acid. Muriatic acid can be sourced at any local swimming pool store.

When done pour the acid on your wasp nest...no wait, the wasp problem is the other guy's issue.  /\  /\  /\

 

[swt61]

When done you can trip out.

Oh wait, that's  a different acid.

[ktm]

I went to see a Branson show called the million dollar quartet last night.

Great show!  Most people have forgotten who Carl Perkins was.

His music influenced many artists of the 60 's.

[swt61]

Carl wrote and first recorded Blue Suede Shoes, not Elvis.

 

[swt61]

Working on a punch list for a finished project. It was quite hot, even in the city. Happily, it's supposed to cool off tomorrow. 

[ktm]

Went to the retina specialist 

Got shots in both eyes. Too much

Fun for one day.

[Knuckledragger]

OOF.  Found the first real casualty of moving today:

That's a bootleg house remix of Air's "All I Need" that is now utterly destroyed.  The bootleg mix is not on YT, of course.  I don't really buy vinyl anymore (I own ~2K records and don't use them for DJing) but this is one I'm going to make a point to replace.  Hopefully Discogs (bless its heart) doesn't block the sale of it on their marketplace.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Knuckledragger

[Grahame]

Fed some hummingbirds (with 1 part organic cane sugar : 4 parts water) , in Sonoma.

 

[swt61]

Put together and installed double pocket doors. The company finally listened to me and bought good quality aluminum frames. No more warping wood frames rubbing against the doors.

[swt61]

Also building a false beam for the ceiling. 

Biscuits and a biscuit joiner are still handy for lining up long mitered corners!

[ktm]

On 8/13/2023 at 1:16 PM, Grahame said:

Fed some hummingbirds (with 1 part organic cane sugar : 4 parts water) , in Sonoma.

 

There is a backyard battle at the wife's hummingbird feeder.

A pair of hummingbirds have been hanging around on a nearby

branch and drive off other (larger) hummingbirds. Last year

It was a all out war for the birdseed by cardinals. 

[Grahame]

27 minutes ago, ktm said:

There is a backyard battle at the wife's hummingbird feeder.

A pair of hummingbirds have been hanging around on a nearby

branch and drive off other (larger) hummingbirds. Last year

It was a all out war for the birdseed by cardinals. 

Hummingbirds are territorial little buggers, that's for sure!

[Dusty Chalk]

I recently found out that they are considered portents of war in ancient times:

Quote

To make a sacrifice to God Huitzilopochtli, Aztec high priests donned cloaks made of hummingbird skins. It’s estimated that each adult cloak requires the skin of 8,000 hummingbirds. While the priests wore these shimmering, iridescent outfits, they would cut out the still-beating heart from a slave or captive and present it to Huitzilopochtli. They believed this sacrifice would ensure them a victory on the battlefield.

 

[Grahame]

Attended 

There were plenty of contenders,

In all three classes.

With "best in show" going to "Squashbuckler"

and then it's on/off to the races, full of drama and excitement!

See for Yourselves! 

 

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Did no-one think to use a trebuchet?  Or was that against the rules?

[guzziguy]

On 8/15/2023 at 8:19 PM, Dusty Chalk said:

I recently found out that they are considered portents of war in ancient times:

 

Yep.  They are basically small flying dinosaurs.

[swt61]

This will be a long drawn out post. Just a fair warning for those with better ways to spend 15 minutes or so.

I hadn't posted about this here, but the last couple of months have been extremely difficult for my Mother. As it happens her husband stopped making the payments on the motor home (unbenounced to her) that they lived in. To make matters worse, it was close to being paid off. She had 3 days notice of repossession (they're both in their 80's).

Couldn't find a way to stop that from here. But I was able to find a used 40' bumper pull trailer in great shape, very close to her. She was able to make that purchase, and the trailer was supposed to be delivered in 3 days time. So just a short hotel stay.

That turned out to actually take over 3 weeks and a $2000 hotel stay. She's on a very fixed income. 

Then, after locking up her old motor home and actually cutting the water and electric hook ups, the bank decided that the motor home wasn't worth repossessing. The giant slide-out had rusted frozen after nearly 20 years in the South Texas beach weather. Also with my Mother and her husband both being legally blind, they had no idea that they were living in a roach infested, mold infested, horrible environment. They had a pretty bad roof leak. My Mom has COPD, and could barely walk from one end of the 32' motorhome, to the other.

So, this frozen up motor home that wouldn't start, and was going to cost almost $4000 to be removed from the RV park they live in, the bank decided to abandon at the RV park, leaving my Mother on the hook for removal. Mind you, the bank held the title, left the motorhome locked and unusable (no hook ups). After talking to several businesses, my Mother discovered that no one would even consider moving it without a title.

Long story longer, the bank wasn't able to get away with their despicable activities. I fully understand that the mortgage was behind some eight thousand dollars ( however, even though he had missed 8 payments, he had made 6 payments after that. Payments that the bank had accepted). And again, they were literally a few payments away from being payed off, minus the 8 back payments.

She did end up having to make rent on two lots for one month, once the new trailer was finally delivered, and the old motor home was still in the old lot space.

So, to catch up...

They found a company to haul away the motor home with a giant wrecker. This company charged the bank (the legal owner) space rent, while they started refurbishing the motor home.

The bank settled with them for lot rent and removal fees. The bank also settled with the RV park for lot space rent (2 months) which the park gave to my Mother.

The RV sales company that turned a 3 day delivery into 3 weeks has agreed to reimburse my Mother for 80% of the hotel bill, and the hook ups that they were supposed to do and didn't, which my Mom had to pay someone else to do. Also the payment on the trailer was knocked down $130 a month. They told her that to qualify for the loan, she'd need an extended warranty. Turns out that was bullshit. And she had only financed $7000, and paid cash for the other $11,000.

People really like to fuck over Senior citizens!

Today I got the news that my Mother qualified for Medicaid. This also qualified her for a helper to come in 14 hrs. a week to clean, do laundry and all the shopping. My Mother and her husband can't drive anymore. He's almost fully blind, and she's loosing her sight pretty quickly ( both have macular degeneration).

The Dr. has told her that her COPD is vastly improved (no mold or roach poop for a few months now).

And finally, South Texas has no real transit help for Seniors or handicapped individuals. The bus they paid for to get to Dr. appointments is now also covered by Medicaid. That and they qualified for Meals on Wheels (more of a logistics challenge than a financial one).

So, what was a complete pain in the ass, and absolutely despicable behavior by the bank (at least in my opinion), has now turned into a bit of a rainbow after a bad storm.

I can't thank my Cousin enough, who spent hour after hour moving, boxing, cleaning and redelivering all of the roach infested clothing and belongings. Also pairing down a ton of crap that they just didn't need.

Happy ending!

[skullguise]

That's amazing, Steve.  Always advocate, even in situations where you have done some wrong.  A lot to go through, but this looks like somewhat of a blessing in disguise.  I'm glad she is through this ugliness, and wish her (them) well ongoing!

[MexicanDragon]

On 8/15/2023 at 1:27 PM, swt61 said:

 

Biscuits and a biscuit joiner are still handy for lining up long mitered corners!

Steve, well worth the (less than 15 minutes) to catch up on the story with a happy-ish ending!

I imagine it's b/c I was a few days late in reading up on biscuit-related post, so I didn't get any (wonderful) ideas. While I am hungry, I'll refrain from making any breakfast-related excursions for at least a day or so to make sure those next few meals find the right address.

[swt61]

I made sure that this time the payments automatically are pulled from her separate account. Her husband is an irresponsible asshole.

[swt61]

Realized it's been 10 months since my last covid booster.

Set up an appointment for Flu/Covid vaccines for 10:00 am tomorrow.