Blog – Page 59 – Mark's Blog

28 November 2018, A Cold day from Mark’s past

Status: Liquid ant bait works very well, we’ll have to wait and see about the roach hotels.

Theme: Keep sorting and putting away items that were brought back from Florida.

Narrative: The tubs, baskets and boxes that were used to haul things back n forth to Florida carry an unsorted array of stuff. It will take a couple days to resort them deciding what is worth keeping and what can be tossed. The next trip to Florida the car needs to be pretty empty to carry the materials left in Florida on this trip.

A friend of ours had an “Ole Brooklyn Lantern” that they bought off a TV commercial. I found several on mom’s farm in various forms of decay. I can get one new from EBAY and other sources for about $20. The good thing is that two D cell batteries carry a significant amount of power. Depending on how bright the variable attenuator is set to the batteries can last a really long time. The bad is that the switch on the brightness control seems to be the fail point of the lantern. (Other than leaving batteries to corrode the terminals.) I also am believing a reviewer that said the big brand “D” corrodes more often than the big brand “E” batteries.

Did it mention it was like 25 degrees outside this morning. For Atlanta, that’s COLD!

We did wake up to a pile of dead ants on the kitchen counter this morning, apparently the liquid ant bait works pretty well. It comes in four rather tall clear plastic containers with a wick material on the top for the ants to retrieve the poison from.

I put a camera on three 60W light bulbs that were being run from three batteries that were being checked for capacity. They should be able to run the 60W incandescent bulb for about an hour each. Looks

I checked the cameras at the farm, no water spraying that I could see, I did want to put a light on the big well so that I could tell if it was running. Never got to it.

Had to drive East on 78 past Tim’s house to get my water tank for my CPAP today. Boo! But, that was something on my list to get done today.

I’ve spent the last couple of hours working on the tubs/baskets on the living room floor. There’s about 50% more floor showing than there was yesterday.

Engineering: Traveling CPAP’s? We are getting our first resupply of CPAP consumables, of real importance is a spare mask. The Wife’s mask is unique and she has had no spare to fall back onto. When we get our supplies next week I plan to retire her current mask into a pair of “Traveling CPAPs” that will stay in the car. (I have two spare machines.) That way if we get stranded at our son’s house (As an example), we can safely sleep there without worrying about getting our CPAPs which are likely still at our bedside. We’ll also have a spare for every component of our two machines in case of accidental damage/failure while traveling. If we travel with our current machines I’ll carry just ONE of the traveling units as a spare. (Since we’ll have three machines with us.) The only other addition if we’re traveling by car may be some kind of backup power. (Batteries with an Inverter.) It didn’t make sense to me to buy two $80.00 DC power cables when an Inverter is roughly $40.00 that can drive both machines. (I did buy two spare AC power supplies since a power spike could take out both machine power supplies at the same time.)

TDL,
Repair the VPN between Ricky’s Fortigate and home.
Dental coverage for us. (Eye coverage?)
Card for the drama department.
Lighting and Audio support for the Christmas play.
Get two teeth pulled and one post put in.
Call the doctor about the anti inflammatory that I seem to be allergic to.
Call Fl Blue, Lisa Rhodes 352-854-2100 about part D.
Find out about Dental coverage for Mom, Medicare “G”?
Find out about Eye coverage for mom.
Tomorrow: Dig up my “To Do” list and get organized. I need to gather numbers for a church budget for next year, by Wednesday if I can.

Tomorrow:

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Repairs: Pi News:

27 November 2018, A Cold day from Mark’s past

Status: It’s official, we’ve brought dem bugs to Georgia.

Narrative: I was tearing apart the battery backup units we brought from the farm and one of them had a live infant German roach in it. Kathy saw two more and we found a 1″ adult American roach on the ceiling this morning. I will have to buy some roach hotels in hopes of catching any strays. We brought so much stuff back n forth over the last year, I am a little surprised we’ve not run across more of them. All the stuff is in the middle of the living room floor in hopes of seeing them before they get to harborage. I didn’t bring the power backup equipment to Grandpa’s for just this reason. I’ll have to go through all the baskets, tubs and boxes and try and find all I can today. Then make a run to the dollar store for some preventative measures.

Haven’t had breakfast, but we’ve both had our coffee this morning. I bought a bottle of Irish Crème and it was a pretty good cup of coffee today. We were down to two bags of Dominican coffee and the supplier had a 20% discount yesterday, be bought a case (16 bags) to replenish our stores. (Too bad coffee doesn’t kill the bugs, that would make things easy.)

Now that the Wife’s project is done we’re cleaning and putting things away. It’s a pretty big haul of stuff we’ve taken back n forth to Florida. I don’t have time to run around so I’ve brought the kitchen sink when I go down there. I am hesitant to bring anything back unless it’s been cleaned and we’re past the 6 months infestation period. I also have to assess the life left in all the batteries. (most were used when I brought them down there.)

I reordered CPAP supplies before I left and they didn’t send a tank for the humidifier. The tank is too little cost to send by itself so they told me to go to the local center (Winder Ga.) to get one. Boo!

Wife is also having issues with a prescription for Restasis, I don’t think Express Scripts will refill that anymore. (Like they did with my Nexium) It’s $100/month to get it at a local pharmacy.

Engineering: I did do some research on two OLD 700VA UPS units that were in the small bedroom. They would work well to replace the unit in the Bumpkin next time I’m down there. I designed the Bumpkin power supply so that it could be run over with rodents without affecting the performance. The power supply in the Morton barn just has a plastic tub over it and that has survived so far. I’ve removed the annoying beeper! (It’s tolerable when it beeps every 10 seconds for 2-5 minutes, not so much at 2-1/2 hours!)

The first of the two LS700 UPS units did well in several hours of testing and was within the parameters expected from the chart below. The second unit failed within 15 seconds, trying to resurrect the unit caused permanent damage (Crashed and burned) and it will have to be scrapped.

Had leftovers for dinner with black eyed peas and salad with “Western” dressing on it.

This afternoon while testing the UPS I’ve been clearing the kitchen table. For us it’s the “Catch All” for anything loose in our hands. It’s also the sorting place for our mail from the mailbox and the Post Office box. The table is now clear cept the few pieces of fruit in the fruit basket.

I put out roach hotels and liquid ant bait tonight, that should take care of the sugar ants we gained while in Florida. The roach hotels also worked pretty good at mom’s house.

We’re roughly $30,000 in credit card debt and there’s maybe $2,000 left in our checking. We’ll have to tighten our finances a bit more to keep enough cash on hand to send $200-$400 to mom’s account every month. I was going to try and get these teeth pulled, i’ll have to think about that since there’s only about $2K worth of credit left.

It’s going to get down to 26 in the city tonight, should be about 4 degrees colder here at the house. 22 degrees is awfully cold for the outside faucets, I wraped a sock around the faucet until I can get those foam things and cover them. (I should have done this earlier, but the weather predictions were not that cold yesterday. Boo! There is a power supply that heats the only water line in the attic (Icemaker line for fridge) and it has a pretty large battery backup. It’s under some insulation, but it can freeze if not warmed just a little. (About 5W is enough to keep it from freezing.) The garage will be above freezing and I’ve checked the radiators last year, they’re good for serious cold.

I’ve recharged the batteries I used for testing earlier today, they can run the heater if I loose power tonight. Well, I guess it’s time to call it a night. See ya tomorrow.

Tomorrow:

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Farm Sale

Service providers

Clay Electric is the power company and there are three meters on the property. (House, Trailer and Bumpkin.)
The power for the trailer has been turned off.

The Internet service is Windstream, which also provides their own telephone service. (Service lands in the house)

AT&T traditional phone service is also available on the property.

None of the inside cameras record video/audio, they are still photo’s only.

26 November 2018, A day from Mark’s past

Status: House is a shambles and we’re not done with Kathy’s project for school.

Theme: Stay loose and provide help to the Wife as needed.

Narrative: Didn’t sleep well again last night, overall ache’s and pain were also a distraction. Had my morning coffee and had eggs for breakfast. Got a haircut to trim my curls today. Took a pretty good nap and woke up with a dry mouth as usual. (Haven’t figured all the aspects of that one out yet.) We finally finished the school project and had a wonderful dinner to wrap up the day. I looked for a “To Do” list and couldn’t find anything relevant to Atlanta going back two weeks. I am sure I was working something?

TDL,
Repair the VPN between Ricky’s Fortigate and home.
Dental coverage for us. (Eye coverage?)
Card for the drama department.
Lighting support for the Christmas play.
Repair the two small UPS units. (60W x 4 is 240WH)
Get two teeth pulled and one post put in.
Call the doctor about the anti inflammatory that I seem to be allergic to.
Call Fl Blue, Lisa Rhodes 352-854-2100 about part D.
Find out about Dental coverage for Mom, Medicare “G”?
Find out about Eye coverage for mom.
Tomorrow: Dig up my “To Do” list and get organized. I need to gather numbers for a church budget for next year, by Wednesday if I can.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

25 November 2018, A day from Mark’s past

Status: House is a shambles and we’re not done with Kathy’s project for school.

Narrative: Had to help setup church services this morning at 08:00, it was difficult getting out of bed. I am somewhat stiff and uncoordinated, but I got there on time and setup went well. I made several serious mistakes during the service that were easily heard by the congregation. (I was not on my game today.) Home at 12:30 and had a ham sandwich while the wife does a audio recording of her presentation. (The final product will be her standing in front of the screen giving the presentation.) I am headed to bed for a nap, then we’ll do a video run-thru of her project using cameras. We recorded her project using our phones, it turned out that our phones were a better camera than any camera we had in the house. She had to comment on posts by today so that took president over continued work on the presentation. I am in moderate pain and my joints are sensitive again, I reached behind the couch and came out yelping in pain. I’m almost certain all of this some relationship with my sugar intake. Need to buy one of those meters and take my sucrose levels for a week. Well I’ve taken some pain medicine and when that kicks in I am headed to bed.

Tomorrow: Last day to turn in school project.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Farm Sale

Status:Status: Farm equipment identified, but need to post a serious paired down list to the realtor.

Narrative: We (Family) need to decide what we’re going to do with the red van? It does run, but it badly needs an oil change to prevent damaging the engine. It can’t be driven to a shop and it’s getting harder to dispose of used motor oil if I changed it myself. The inside of the van had gotten moldy by leaving loaves of bread in it and the van was occupied by mice/squirrels for some time. (They chewed through the molding and feces are everywhere.) To me, it’s scrap metal and is too scary to be used without risk to someone’s health. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any pictures from the inside of the van to show the depth of what I am describing.

https://notenoughwire.info/2018/11/21/items-left-on-the-farm/

24 November 2018, A day from Mark’s past

Status: House is a shambles and we’re not done with Kathy’s project for school.

Narrative: We spent a good deal of effort yesterday building the audio portion of her project. We’ll likely record a run through today.

The wife made coffee today, I am sipping on a cup while updating this blog.

I am not sleeping more than a couple hours at a time. I wake up with air flowing out of my mask rapidly because the seal against my face is disturbed. It will take a bit of time to break down the three pieces of the puzzle, mask tightness against my face, range of pressure given to the machine to use and my eyes draining into the back of my throat cutting off my airway by making it sticky. The way to work this taking a long period of time forgoing any productive activities. By far the most common is my eyes get dry during the day and when they heal at night the white blood cells make the pallet of my throat sticky enough that the septum blocks my airway to my nose. The result is that I end up exhaling forcibly out my mouth knocking the mask off my face. (Since I’ve lost the ability to exhale through my nose.) I get into this circle by staying up too many hours and letting my eyes get damaged by being excessively dry. It takes about three days for them to heal completely and break the cycle. (But who likes laying in bed for the better part of three days.)

Tomorrow: Church services in the morning, haven’t been to one in three weeks.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Farm Sale

Status: Farm equipment identified, but need to post a serious paired down list to the realtor.

Narrative:

https://notenoughwire.info/2018/11/21/items-left-on-the-farm/

Tomorrow:
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Status: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

23 November 2018, A day from Mark’s past

Status: We’re home and trying to recover from our extended trip to Florida. Our living room floor is full of tubs and baskets from the trip.

Schedule: 09:30 travel to park for our family walk after Thanksgiving, then to the Train museum and finally lunch.

Narrative: We made coffee and then took a nap to prepare for the outing today. The walk around the park was very chilly to say the least. The train museum was pretty cool, I thought the steam engines were the coolest thing on the lot. (I hadn’t thought of a steam powered air compressor until I saw one on an engine.) I hadn’t thought of powering the air conditioning for the sleeper cars from the wheels either. Someone also spent a good deal of effort making a mechanism to keep the sleeper cars as upright as possible even on unlevel track. (Lunch was pretty good and then we were ready for our afternoon nap. We spent some time playing scrabble and planning the school project that is due on Monday.

Injuries: I’ve managed to hurt my left foot just inside my arch where the bones pinch me on the inside. I also have cracked my right heal and it managed to get infected on the way back from Florida. I used a hacksaw blade and sawed open the crack in the callas so I can apply ointments.

Noteworthy: My E-Mail was blowing up with messages from the Florida cameras today because the Realtor was walking mom’s farm taking pictures.

Tomorrow: It’s going to rain so inside cleanup day and meet up with J&J.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To

Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Today was Thanksgiving

Status: We’ve still not unpacked our car from the three week trip to Florida. But we’re very grateful to be home.
Today’s Plans: Celebrate Thanksgiving with the family just after lunch time.

Narrative: Spent an hour or so pulling stuff out of the car very early this morning. The back seat is mostly empty, but the trunk is still pretty full. Had three eggs and some juice, all the others expired a month ago. I put the coffee pot together so the Wife just has to turn it on.

We’ve picked up a nest of tiny ants, not sure but I think they’ve built a nest in the attic. Google Foo suggests liquid Borax, I’ve seen Borax powder for roaches.

Pulled some more boxes out of the car, I think I’m down to the two desktop computers from her business office. I thought about bagging them, spraying the bag and bagging them again? They’re Windows XP, but mom wants the pictures off of them. I’ve got the same issue with an old Toshiba laptop.

Thanksgiving dinner went well, I ate too much and was suckered into having peach cobbler on top of that. We had a really good time, but we miss our son that couldn’t make it for the first time in many years. We took the traditional picture with the family that will end up on our walls. We went home around 20:00, I was exhausted and just needed to get home. (Didn’t even stop for gas.) We washed our CPAP stuff tonight, it’s been a couple weeks and they were beginning to smell. Confined air works pretty good under a comforter when it is cold like this.

Firewall News: The Fortigate 60D firewall at grandpa’s will dial into my firewall in Atlanta when I ask it to. I need to find a way of having it dial without asking and maintain the link without interaction.

Solar News: I had to leave the second 50W panel in Fl. because I forgot to load it into the car. Boo! My two 100W panels in Atlanta will keep my refrigerator running during the day as long as it is bright sun and can push about 140W into the batteries. Okay, your right, it’s maybe 5 cents worth of electricity and hardly worth the effort.

Pi News: https://www.raspberrypi.org/
I downloaded NOOBS 3.0 (New Out of Box Software) and loaded it onto two 16GB Micro SD cards, NOOBS 2.0 apparently cannot be used on the Pi V3B. I’ll let it load from the SD card then update it over the Internet versus downloading the entire thing across the www. The red LED must mean something different on these new Pi’s? Something like “The power is on” because I have plenty of power available and the red LED is constantly illuminated. Mom has two Pi’s on her new desk and there are two Pi’s on the old farm as well.

Tomorrow: Plans are to walk the park and go to the Train museum, then dinner somewhere that I’ve forgotten already.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Projects: Status: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Theme: Repairs:

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647