23rd April 2025, 06:18 PM
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Hmm, Unboxed at Last
No need to hang bug nets yet. When it’s skeeter season we light a citronella lamp that keeps the worst of them at bay. When they break through that, we go inside after we’ve donated a pint or so.
My porch view is mostly the steps I built a few summers ago and the lawn full of doomed weeds. Across the street is the Nebby Neighbor and her gang of white tailed flower munchers. If I don’t like that view I go around the corner (the porch wraps around; there are comfy wicker seating areas on both sides, and a dining and grilling area; there’s 600sq ft of porch total) into the shade of the tree hoarder’s abandoned jungle. It’s a quiet neighborhood and a dead end street, which I appreciate. Last edited by Solfy; 23rd April 2025 at 06:24 PM. 
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24th April 2025, 11:33 AM
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Have I mentioned how much I like my table saw?
I really like my table saw. And putting it on the mobile base was the right thing to do. I can move it to the middle of the garage, run the boards, vacuum up and put it away. Out of the way when I don't need it and handy when I do.
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25th April 2025, 05:50 AM
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Future project: Stabilize the workbench and attach a proper table vise. Then clear some of the area around it for a jig saw. I don't foresee me needing anything as powerful as a table saw.
(Backplot: The house came with a workbench, but the 'bench isn't level with the floor. It needs some shims in the right places to keep it from rocking.)
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25th April 2025, 06:17 AM
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25th April 2025, 11:55 AM
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25th April 2025, 12:08 PM
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25th April 2025, 02:08 PM
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25th April 2025, 04:36 PM
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Not soon enough!
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26th April 2025, 01:15 PM
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So I figured out why the front shifter on my bike wouldn't stay adjusted. The cable was busy breaking strand by strand inside the sheath. I was about five miles from the shack when it finally let go. After deploying a few appropriate phrases, I rummaged around and found the perfect rock to wedge it into high gear. I can get by on the rear shifter for a few days. But I need granny low for when the hill o' death is open again.
I don't normally have a hay fever problem, but out by the prairie I sneezed my head off for about ten minutes and then it was over. Completely soaked the paper towel I had and things got soggy and ew. Oh well, if thats my hay fever season I don't have it so bad. But on the path by the creek there was maybe a foot between mosquitoes. I got pelted like rain and got a few down my shirt. But they seem to be too young to know what to do yet and I got away unpranged. In a couple weeks when they have it figured out I'll have to make sure I'm out of there well before dusk. Aside from all that it was a gorgeous sunny breezy spring day. Then I scorched up a pretty decent clean-out-the-fridge stew if I do say so myself. Diced and seared chuck roast and Italian sausage with shrooms, garlic, three kinds of peppers, and carrots in a peppery tomato broth. That worked.
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28th April 2025, 06:08 AM
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Bat mitzvah in 12 days and counting. We are now masking up any time we're around other people. Yes we're being paranoid, but better safe than sick.
I took the Fire Chief to the ice rink yesterday and he loved it. I made sure he knew how to fall and how to get up. I also worked with him on getting used to gliding on ice instead of trying to walk. I think I need to practice with my manual-focus telephoto (my DSLR camera has the autofocus mechanism built into the lens and not the camera body) so I can get a good photo of him dropping the puck at the upcoming charity hockey game. ETA reference to April Awesome post Last edited by Scuba Ben; 28th April 2025 at 06:09 AM. Reason: context
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28th April 2025, 07:00 AM
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Yup, better safe than sick, Scuba Ben.
I left home early today, and as I drove along a pretty shore road to my closest voting station the rain stopped and the sun came out. May that be a good sign! Oh man oh man will I ever be glad when this election is over! Or will I? If the conservatives win, many local folks will be unsufferable in their gloating. And if the liberals win, those same folks--who have already been flying "Fuck Carney" flags to replace their "Fuck Trudeau" ones--will be unsufferable in their cries of protest. Here's something a neighbour posted on Facebook yesterday: "Anyone vote Liberal. You need a psychiatric evaluation. I think you can get a retard pension. Which you really might need." The hatred and nastiness is all so unCanadian!!! Blurgh. Please wish Canada luck!  (Pretend that leaf is red.)
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28th April 2025, 07:07 AM
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28th April 2025, 07:09 AM
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Peeking, on behalf of the American nihilist fascists - all of whom lack the capacity for shame or empathy - I apologize for exporting our crappy mindsets to your country.
If you think it's bad on your side of the line - and I'm sure it is - it's far worse on our side. Some times I want to go to the Haskell opera house in Vermont, curl up in the library's north side (that part being in Quebec), and stay there until this is all over.
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28th April 2025, 07:26 AM
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Last edited by C2H5OH; 28th April 2025 at 07:59 AM.
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28th April 2025, 07:26 AM
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Thanks you guys, and big virtual hugs to you.
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28th April 2025, 09:53 AM
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I fully expect Canada to do the sane thing.
I am here to say that I am DONE spending money in the name of prepping for the tariff tsunami that is looming. I cannot plan for every contingency and it's exhausting me. Also, I've spent a f*ck ton of money in the past 10 days. I am so sick of spending money. Yes, it is a blessing to have the funds to do so. Very aware of that, but I just wish we'd crash already. I'm not trying to be horrible; I just want the impact (the worst of it) to happen so we can start getting better. Tired of the torture of all this anxiety--although... the reality will likely be much worse. Gah. It makes sense in my head.
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28th April 2025, 04:59 PM
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fascists suck.
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29th April 2025, 06:28 AM
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We did it, we did it!!!
I got 3.5 hours of sleep last night, 'cause I stayed up to watch the election results trickle in from the west coast, but it was worth it! And not only did the country vote liberal, but so did our own riding, which was really, really unexpected. Of course, now we have to deal with all of the unhappy people who didn't get their way. And that could be rough. Yesterday afternoon, a coworker told me that her car had been keyed in her driveway...probably because she and her wife had/have a Liberal sign on their front yard. (She has filed a police report.) And she said that several pick-ups have been sporadically driving by their (out-of-the-way) house, very slowly and intimidatingly. So, I don't know how this will ultimately play out, but still. I'm gonna celebrate for now! And thanks, everyone, for your moral support.  Hugs, Rigs and Jackie.
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29th April 2025, 03:24 PM
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The Canadian result gives me hope.
Also (completely unrelated): I was fretting in my way  about my Visa bill getting too high (I pay it off every month) and I just went in a checked the balance... I have a $280 credit! It's for back in February when the moving company overcharged me. They had notified me that I would be getting a refund, but I did not follow up. They're a bit tardy, but it landed on one of my uncommon high Visa balances, so I'm a happy camper.
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30th April 2025, 05:29 AM
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The random quote generator on Slashdot just gave me this gem:
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30th April 2025, 09:18 AM
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Well, I gotta get a new floor mat for the front door.
So the door squeaks pretty loudly and I thought I'd add a little silicone lube and all would be happiness. But it didn't fix it as easily as I thought, so got a punch and mallet to drive the pins up a bit so I could get the lube on better. To find that the hinges were full of some kind of old dirty grease that got on the mat. It may have been something like vegetable oil or summat. The door is now quiet, but the mat is toast so I gotta get a new one.
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30th April 2025, 10:49 AM
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Wolf, with all of the fire info that I currently have bombarding my brain, I heartily recommend against buying a natural fibre door mat.
I've babbled about fire prevention enough at home that Mr. Duck is currently looking for the best gutter screens to buy. (Fire embers blowing into debris-filled gutters are often the source of roofs catching fire.) The wildfire information session I've been preparing to host has morphed into four different sessions, at four different fire departments, in four different communities. The first will take place on May 6th and I'm both looking forward to and dreading it.  Pogo, despite having opinions, I am not very knowledgeable about Canadian politics. The Conservative party will be the main oppositional party, for sure. The (minority) Liberal government may well partner with the NDP to assure that certain "things" get done/passed, but we'll see. Even the Bloc Quebecois share a lot of the Liberal Party's values...when they don't negatively impact Quebec. I feel like we're in pretty good shape.
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30th April 2025, 03:33 PM
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30th April 2025, 04:14 PM
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I was so happy for Canada when I heard the news!
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day until 5:00 when the forecasted thunderstorm rolled in. Normal for this time of year. What we got was decidedly NOT normal. The sky turned black, the rain came, well it didn’t come down so much as it was blasted sideways on 70-90mph wind gusts. It looked like water was shot out of a cannon and sounded like a freight train (the way people describe tornadoes, but without the rotation). In five minutes it was down to a gentle shower, but most of my weeping cherry tree was lying on the ground. The whole front of the house was plastered with leaves and everything on both sides of the porch was drenched. Out back there were multiple 10” diameter branches off the maple, but they missed the garage and camper. In the back woods one 70ft locust is uprooted and another is snapped. Across the street three massive pines lay uprooted between the two houses, and half of a 3’ diameter maple just missed one neighbor’s roof but didn’t miss their fence or pool. In the cul de sac at least seven trees were down. Along the football field back fence it appears every third tree is snapped. Reports in the Pgh area are three dead (two hit by falling trees, one electrocuted), and 400,000 households without power. Ours came back on seven hours later but Verizon can’t get someone out to fix the Fios (crap shoot whether it’s a downed line or fried ONT) until Monday afternoon, which is a real buzz kill when you WFH. My neighbors have Comcast and are kind enough to let me poach their wifi in the meantime. Score one for Comcast (they’re all rat bastards). Roads are still closed all over the place because they’re covered in trees and half the township is still without power. Eldest is still powerless so I took her a cooler and ice. Had to search around to find a place that a) was open and b) had ice left. MD was working her 2nd ever shift at a new to her restaurant, where the power came back quickly and they got slammed with hungry people. Training by fire. I’m sooooo grateful tree neighbor had the death trees taken out last summer. Neighbor is in NC with her daughter so I texted and let them know everything is okay next door. Only limbs down, nothing hit the house (and the yard was already so full of detritus you can’t really tell) and reiterated my gratitude. I guarantee one of those would have been on my roof and possibly through a window.
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30th April 2025, 05:41 PM
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I couldn’t get it to cooperate today. I think because it was in low bat mode, but even now that it’s charged it’s misbehaving as a hot spot for my iPad. Cellular in general is balky, I assume because of all the other people in the same boat pinging the towers.
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30th April 2025, 05:53 PM
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I lost power for ~25 hours but got it back around 6:00 PM today. I know lots of other folks still in the dark, though, and the reports say there is another system tomorrow night that should bring hail!
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30th April 2025, 06:20 PM
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Lovely! I hope you can park under cover.
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1st May 2025, 05:47 AM
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That's quite a storm, Solfy.
We got a small rain shower last night. I have to start putting stuff out for the spring cleanup on Saturday. On my way back from the store yesterday before the rain started, I saw someone had put out some Kodak Carousel slide trays. I grabbed two of them because my buddy JJ found a trove of family slides and got one of the projectors to be able to show them. I'll be putting out a printer that works fine but is surplus to needs and I'll put a tag on it so people know it works and hopefully find a good home for it.
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1st May 2025, 07:09 AM
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1st May 2025, 11:33 AM
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Hmm, Unboxed at Last
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From what I read it met three of four criteria. Not sure which one didn’t make it. Never heard of derechos before this week. Two days later school is still out because half the township is still without power. I feel bad for people dealing with work, childcare, and power loss associated complications.
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1st May 2025, 02:06 PM
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I never knew that the conditions that make up a derecho had a name until last summer when I experienced one. Or was it the summer before that?
Post lockdown, I have no concept of time... All I know is that our weather is getting more unpredictable and severe.
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2nd May 2025, 08:05 AM
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Howdy, folks.
It's been another long minute, and I'll admit, I haven't read the prior pages and scrolled yet. I see some of you have been dealing with storm and power issues, and I hope those are resolved soon. I have decided to retire. My last working day was the 30th, and my official retirement date is the end of September. This is not how I wanted to retire, or even WHEN I wanted to retire, but the constant nastiness and threats coming from back east were just unbearable, and I was sick of it. So, I'm closing the books on 42 years of service and going out on my terms. It doesn't feel real, I'm numb, and it hasn't quite sunk in yet. However, I haven't had a summer off since I was 11, and I plan to enjoy it for now. Who knows what doors will open? I may plan to find a job or just be retired and volunteer here and there.
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2nd May 2025, 09:08 AM
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I really like not working and especially not commuting.
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2nd May 2025, 12:56 PM
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Yay, taters, welcome to the Ladies of Leisure Club! I know you're being shoved out a bit but all things considered I don't see any upside to you sticking around for whatever new horrors are likely to come spilling out of the shit pinata we're all watching with horrified fascination. Enjoy your time off, get reacquainted with the world and have fun with your puppers!
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2nd May 2025, 01:44 PM
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congrats, taters!!!
weirdly, I think Jag is right and it does take awhile to adjust to the lack of BS! but you can do it! 
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2nd May 2025, 04:39 PM
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Congrats to taters and those who can retire. Is there anyone here who could retire and still be Ok financially but doesn't because they like working?
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2nd May 2025, 04:56 PM
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2nd May 2025, 05:51 PM
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Got the first mowing of the season done. As usual I let it get too tall and the mower struggled even though I had it set on offroad vehicle height. The clippings went on top of Audrey the compost heap. She's been simmering along about 20 degrees above ambient. But grass clippings are like M&Ms for her, so I'll be checking to see if she really lights up like a couple years ago.
I got the last patch of grass cut just at the moment the mower ran out of gas and the first drops of rain fell. I took that as a sign from the gods and knocked off for the evening. Next up; a nice hot shower and then I reckon I'll take myself out for Mexican.
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2nd May 2025, 06:48 PM
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in other news, I plan to make an offer on a house tomorrow so I've been a bit 
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3rd May 2025, 09:49 AM
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And adjusting to the lower BS level is a little difficult, because you've trained yourself to brace for it and cope but when it doesn't happen it can be disorienting until you recalibrate your fight/flight response lol. And I have my fingers crossed SO HARD for you, Jackie, that house is so cute and who doesn't want a skating rink in the basement?
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3rd May 2025, 11:37 AM
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Linear Mode
