10:36 – More kit stuff today, although things are slowing down, as they always do this time of year. We’ll have a couple of quiet months before things start to ramp up again for the Christmas season and the start of the new semester in January.
Autumn is definitely starting to arrive up here in the mountains. The leaves are gradually starting to change and fall, and the nighttime lows are into the low 50’s F (~11C). Mornings are usually quite foggy.
As I’m re-ordering inventory for science kits, it again strikes me how useful many of these items are in a prepping sense. Antibiotics and heirloom seeds for biology kits, raw chemicals that can also be used for everything from making up oral rehydration salts to 131 mg/mL potassium iodide solution, bottles and plastic bags by the thousands, and so on. I’d actually considered making up kits of useful items like ORS components, KI solution, etc., but we’re not certified by the FDA for packaging items for human consumption. I suppose I could offer items for educational laboratory use only (wink-wink), but it seems simpler just to tell people what to order themselves. Most of it is available in reasonably small quantities on Amazon.com, such as this, this, this, this, and, for radiation emergencies, even this.
Or you could simply buy ORS packets, although they’ll cost you about a buck per liter versus a small fraction of that for making them up yourself, and KI tablets, although again those’ll cost you about $0.50 per dose versus about $0.02 per dose just buying 100 grams of KI.
Which brings up the issue of how many doses of different things you need to stock. If you need ORS, you need it badly, and a course of treatment for one person can require 20 to 50 liters, or more. I do keep a 15-pack of the commercial ORS on hand, but those are for if we need it RIGHT NOW. In terms of raw materials for ORS, our inventory varies, but all of the components are also science-kit inventory items, so we typically have 1,000+ liters’ worth on hand. KI is also a science kit inventory item, so we generally have at least 8,000 to 10,000 doses on hand. The latter would obviously be excessive if we weren’t stocking it mainly for science kits, but the former is actually a reasonable level, enough for 20 to 50 courses of treatment.
Interesting point. As I try to figure some fish meds, I am discovering that you probably need way more than you think.
I’d guess most people buy one jar of fish meds and call it good. No way that’s enough for a group.
4/day/10days = half jar per person / incident. I’d bet treating something like a deep penetrating wound (say a tree branch in the thigh during cleanup or while cutting brush for fire control, or to hide something) would eat up most of a jar.
How about having a cut while mucking out the latrine, or prophylaxis during ebola treatment for your family?
My ongoing bout of food poisoning is miserable, but I’ve got the time and facilities to ride it out. Post-collapse, food poisoning is a serious threat and will be widespread. Poor sanitation, poor hygiene, no refrigeration, questionable food sources, all will contribute to rampant misery.
$400 in fish mox, or fish flox, might be a better prep than $400 in wheat berries.
nick
And AGAIN:
“New wave of police protests after unarmed black man is shot dead by San Diego officer when his sister reported his ‘erratic’ behavior
Black man was shot dead by officer at Broadway Village Shopping Center
El Cajon Police say they were told the man was acting ‘erratically’
Cops said 30-year-old man did not comply with officers’ instructions
A woman has said the dead man was her brother, Alfred Olango
She screamed at police: ‘I called you to help me but you killed my brother’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3810837/Unarmed-black-man-acting-erratically-shot-police-San-Diego-suburb-amid-claims-cops-confiscated-witnesses-cell-phones.html”
So much fail.
People, stop calling the cops to help you with your family problems. Stop calling the cops to help with health issues.
Cops, this focus on compliance needs to change. I’ve talked about it before. There is a certain percentage of the population that is INCAPABLE of compliance. It’s a very poor gatekeeping function when life and death is involved.
Reporters- you suck. Learn to construct sentences and complete thoughts.
SOMETHING stinks in the article. There are contradictions about what video there is, how it was obtained, and who provided what.
Cops, quit trying to justify your actions with bureau speak –
“Davis said on Tuesday night that the shooting victim was walking in traffic ‘not only endangering himself, but motorists.’ Walking in traffic. And they sure kept him from hurting himself.
Ok at the end of the day, this looks like it ended with ‘suicide by cop’ and the shoot is probably justified under current policy. How long will it be before cops get smart and stop giving these kinds of opportunities to people? The city will undoubtedly end up paying out way more money than it would have cost to control traffic on the street, thereby eliminating the ‘threat to motorists’ if there ever was one. The decision to run up on an altered person and start shouting at them is NEVER going to end well. Time to put some other tools in the box besides lethal force and compliance.
In the bigger picture, both cops have 21 years on the force, both will likely take retirement after this, and who wouldn’t? That takes two experienced officers off the street and STILL pays their salary (Cali public sector retirement is usually at full pay) and how does that benefit the people of California?
nick
oh, and el cajon seems to be even sh!ttier than when I lived in San Diego. I guess nothing gets nicer.
I just “found” storage space in my house. I knew it was there when I bought the house but promptly forgot about it because it was not convenient. Whoever framed up my house back in 1880 really wanted the upstairs rooms to be nice rectangles. The chimney got in the way so off to the side of my closet is a long skinny nook. Only 15 inches wide but ~60 inches deep and full ceiling height of 8 feet. That will easily hold a hundred or more #10 cans. Being in the center of the house and off of the closet it never gets exposed to extremes of temperature.
Another plus is that it is very well hidden. Unless you go into the closet looking for it you will never see it. Its existence is not obvious from the room layouts. Old houses are fun that way, they have lots of little hidden corners were things can be stashed.
Anyone with a crazy recent “roof scape” design on their home probably has whole rooms of empty space tucked out of sight. I’ve been in attics on some of these houses that have more cubic space than the second floor living areas. a little plywood, some sheetrock, and some flex duct and you have great
‘hidden’obscured storage….n
So much fail.
+1,000,000
Stop calling the cops if your mantra is cops are out to kill Blacks. How fricking stupid can you be? Is there any doubt this guy wanted to die. The cops won’t say what was in his hand. Probably a Koran.
We all know CNN is not a news organization anymore. Today they brought out a female mooslim reporter for NPR. The first world out of her gob: “Clinton leads Trump by double digits in ALL polls.” A blatant lie. CNN didn’t even challenge her. The Clinton New Network.
The Arizona Republic newspaper endorses Cankles. They claim they are a conservative newspaper, but tRump is not conservative or qualified. So what do they do? Endorse the worst Libturdian in recent history. There are other candidates, or, how about not endorsing anyone. Yeah, conservative newspaper.
I love it. All the outrage that trump isn’t “qualified.” Where was that when the junior senator from illinois, who was a complete cypher, with NO ACCOMPLISHMENTS at all, was proposed for POTUS?
Their lying hypocrisy becomes clearer every time they open their fat bloated gobs.
n
Is Cheeto-Head sabotaging himself deliberately??
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/the-first-debate-advantage-clinton/
If so, Barnhardt would appear to be correct; he doesn’t really want that job, and no one in their right mind would. Maybe it’s just a big ego-booster for now and he’ll go back to his financial chicanery and tee-vee shows and pro-wrestling promotions. Or he could just hang out at home with wifey; I certainly would.
He had a chance to put her away the other night and inexplicably did not. And then shot off his gob yesterday with a bunch of nonsense and rubbish. We’ll see how it goes over the next debates and the next five weeks, I guess. Anything can happen.
tRump’s ego is so yuuuuge he’ll go the whole way. I agree, he could have put away Cankles, but didn’t really prepare. Maybe next time. I hope he brings up BJ Klinton’s history of blowjobs in the Oval Office. lol! Talk about awkward.
Turkey is almost finished building its wall to keep out the Syrian refugees … and ISIS.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151056198611/the-wall-around-isis
and
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-turkey-to-complete-syria-border-wall-within-5-months-official-says-2016-9
Looks impressive. Call me ignorant but walls work.
If Cankles wins, I wonder how long it will take for her to start poking Russia in the eye? Giving away more tech to mooslim fukstiks? Deploy troops to help with the new NATO terrorism unit? It fucking never ends with Dumbocrats and Redumblicans.
Walls are raycissssssss!
Yay!
@RBT,
I saw this microscope on Amazon and I realize it’s a toy. I’m wondering if it might be a good enough toy to interest a small child about 5 years old, or if there is something else in the price range that might be worth looking at. Have you looked at it?
“If Cankles wins, I wonder how long it will take for her to start poking Russia in the eye? Giving away more tech to mooslim fukstiks? Deploy troops to help with the new NATO terrorism unit?”
Not long at all; she’s made it clear she’s a bloodthirsty chickenhawk maniac. And Prince Vlad is pissed off at her already. We could actually go to the brink again with the nukular weapons, if not further.
A Killary administration will mean more war overseas and more repression at home. A Cheeto-Head one means cities boiling over with riots and mayhem and an extremely hostile MSM. Think LBJ-Nixon only with smartypants phones, social media, flash mobs, and much better weapons all around. We’ve seen demonstrated that just one piece of shit can murder half a dozen cops and lock up a city for a few hours; or two of them with a pressure cooker can shut down a major city after killing and wounding dozens.
As others have pointed out yesterday and today here, it doesn’t take much, just a little imagination, and cities can just be shut right down with ensuing widespread panic.
In the top picture, does Huma Abedin’s father look like a pipe-smoking chimpanzee in a Mao jacket?
In the top picture
lol! Massive macroaggression! How about a trigger warning next time Mr. SteveF?
As *you* say, I approve!
@Dave
I’ve never seen that particular model, but most of these small digital microscopes are decent within their limitations and for the price. Certainly good for elementary-age kids and probably even into junior high. The built-in 1024×768 digital camera is a very nice feature.
That is actually an insult to all pipe-smoking chimpanzees in Mao jackets.
And I say that as a near-relative who’s been smoking a pipe for 62 of my 63 years. Almost got me expelled from kindergarten.
lol! The only Dumbocrat Senator vote to *not* overrided Odooshnozzle on the 9/11 bill is Dirty Harry Reid. Please, you dumb fukstik, just die. 97 to 1. lol!
@dave, my daughter, now age 7, likes looking thru my optical scopes, but with eye relief and other issues, it’s hard to know what she’s seeing.
I have binocular microscopes and stereoscopes.
The stereoscopes let her look at real world objects. (and help me with watches and with soldering and electronics repair.)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=elmo+presenter&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=stereomaster+microscope&_sacat=0
Or you could look at something like this
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=elmo+presenter&_sacat=0
which doesn’t have the usb cam, but works with DVI or VGA on an old monitor. Most of the cameras are high quality and zoom in quite far.
I’ve got one of those too, but don’t have it set up due to space issues.
The biggest visual issue I see on the cheap optics is color separation. You get a lot of multiple images and rings around stuff with cheap lenses, and you need a lot more light.
nick
“Almost got me expelled from kindergarten.”
You might have been better off if you had, thus avoiding the next twelve years of publik skool. I almost didn’t make it, either; put up a fuss on the very first day and my mom had to hike down the street to get me out. I somehow knew instinctively this was not right and was gonna be a problem.
In re: the Abedin family; long-time musloid operatives. Ain’t that special? Not to mention Obola’s chief of staff being an Iranian commie. Is it any wonder we face a more or less continual musloid threat in this country now?
“…Dirty Harry Reid. Please, you dumb fukstik, just die.”
Hey, we hadda wait FOREVER for Ted Kennedy to croak, and now the hourglass has been turned for BOTH Clintons. We should gin up a betting pool for which one goes first; my money’s on Larry; he’s a mess. Hundreds of millions of dollars can’t keep the Grim Reaper away forever.
No, Larry is a paradigm of health beside Cankles.
BREAKING NEWS: Gunman is in custody after shooting two students at a South Carolina elementary school
By Ashley Collman For Dailymail.com
Published: 13:51 EST, 28 September 2016 | Updated: 13:54 EST, 28 September 2016
e-mail
View comments
A gunman has been arrested after opening fire at a South Carolina elementary school on Wednesday.
CNN reports that at least two students were shot in the incident at Townville Elementary school.
One of the injured students was taken by a helicopter to Greenville Trauma Center.
It’s unclear if the shooter is an adult or a child. Law enforcement have described it as a ‘lone shooter’ situation so the threat is believed to be over.
The students at the school are now being evacuated to a nearby baptist church, where their parents can pick them up at.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3812362/Gunman-custody-shooting-two-students-South-Carolina-elementary-school.html
added– according to local news reports, shooter is a teen, 2 kids lifeflighted to local trauma center, one teacher transported, one dead person nearby also related to shooting.
As a redhead, wouldn’t you be closely related to orangutans? Chimps would be distant cousins.
@RBT, you cleaned them out of Keystone Ground Beef:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Keystone-Ground-Beef-28-oz/23636965
Have you tried the Keystone Beef Strips for $1.50 more ?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Keystone-All-Natural-Beef-28-oz/22309254
tRump’s ego is so yuuuuge he’ll go the whole way. I agree, he could have put away Cankles, but didn’t really prepare. Maybe next time. I hope he brings up BJ Klinton’s history of blowjobs in the Oval Office. lol! Talk about awkward.
Trump said after the debate that he was going to talk about Monica in response to a question and then spotted Chelsea in the crowd. Chelsea and his oldest daughter are BFFs and The Donald knows her quite well apparently.
http://nypost.com/2016/09/27/why-trump-decided-not-bring-up-lewinsky-at-debate/
Lots he could talk about that isn’t 20 years old.
n
While I’m happy to see obamma get a comeuppance, I don’t like seeing us weakened as a country.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-28/white-house-enraged-most-embarrassing-vote-ever-senate-veto-override
“White House Enraged At “Most Embarrassing Vote Ever” Senate Veto Override
Tyler Durden’s picture
by Tyler Durden
Sep 28, 2016 2:13 PM
It appears for once, the word (of some politicians) is mightier than the pen (of Obama). The White House has lashed out at The Senate’s veto override, which Josh Earnest described as “the single most embarrassing thing that the United States Senate has done.” ”
You have to love the cartoon though.
n
lol! Obola the ass-kisser. Why are we protecting the Saudis?
Lots he could talk about that isn’t 20 years old.
Yup. And, I am willing to bet that should Illary win, she will not let Bill meet interns in the Oval Orifice.
@lynn
I have a few 28-ounce cans of the Keystone beef chunks in inventory, but Barbara doesn’t much like any kind of beef other than ground. She doesn’t even eat steak, roast beef, or prime rib. I don’t worry too much about beef, since we have about 20,000 cans’ worth munching grass 50 yards from our back door.
Walmart frequently goes out-of-stock on several Keystone meats. When that happens, just mark the box to be notified when it’s back in stock.
jeez walmart.com’s search engine is messed up. All kinds of bad results.
n
hah, people are marking it up and selling it on ebay.
This kinda got overlooked today. I think we can look forward to a whole bunch more of this.
This is often called a ‘chimpout’ in other circles. And to fan the flames, anyone looking at that video want to guess the immigration status of these “youths” parents?
n
I have a few 28-ounce cans of the Keystone beef chunks in inventory, but Barbara doesn’t much like any kind of beef other than ground. She doesn’t even eat steak, roast beef, or prime rib. I don’t worry too much about beef, since we have about 20,000 cans’ worth munching grass 50 yards from our back door.
Walmart frequently goes out-of-stock on several Keystone meats. When that happens, just mark the box to be notified when it’s back in stock.
Thanks for the recommendation ! And I forgot about the email notification box, thanks for the reminder.
Yes, we also have about four or five million of those beef on the hoof wandering around Texas. At least a thousand within a mile of my house in fact. I figure that they will last 3 or 4 months at most in a food emergency. The owner is about 200 yards away from my office and is quite feisty.
I wish that Walmart would tell you how many to buy to get them shipped in bulk. My last experience with the Spam cans left me saying never again.
This is often called a ‘chimpout’ in other circles.
Augh!! Another macroaggression! Trigger warning, please! Rayciss! Stop referring to Blacks as chimps! Calling ObolaLynch!
Colin, fetch!
I forget the movie where two brothers “jack” some beef with a chainsaw….
had to be late ’70s or in the ’80s….
n
‘course in TX, getting caught in the act of rustling cattle is still a death penalty offense.
The House still has to vote. I am sure Nancy Pelosi will rally a few dumbocrats to vote NO with her.
I do hope that other countries follow our example and start holding our politicians liable for wars and pestilence plaguing the world. Hall them all off to the Hague.
I just heard on the news that the House has voted Obuttwad another defeat. Be prepared for his spoiled child temper tantrum. I bet he is going to call for all out war on us Deplorables. Bring it on, I locked and loaded.
Edit: BTW, I have the Walmart Shipping Pass, I love getting stuff in just 2 days. Oh, and I ordered a few cans of that Keystone All Natural Beef.
Finally feeling more myself. Brain was surprisingly scrambled by the poison.
Currently installing my new NAS. Fry’s had a $200 off sale, so that made up my mind. WDmyCLOUD, 4x3TB drives. Configured raid5.
Updating firmware……………….
n
“You have to love the cartoon though.”
+20,000,000,000,000 (that should be 20 trillion)
The Saudi King is facing the wrong way, Obuttwad is a cock-sucker not an ass kisser.
Sure glad this isn’t Facecrack.
If I have offended anyone, get used to it, I am authorized as a Submarine Veteran to use colorful vocabulary in all company.
Glad to hear you’re betta, Mr. nick; it sucks being sick or hurting when ya have a whole chit-load to do every day and night and a nice plan for it all.
And as you pointed out, it would suck a LOT MORE during SHTF scenarios.
Example 1: I had planned to assemble the rest of the firewood racks and stack the rest of the firewood. A joke now, because I have trouble making it up and down the stairs and can’t be on my feet more then five or ten minutes.
Example 2: If zombies invaded the ‘hood, I guess I’d be in the sitting or prone position with my rifles. Smaller target at least, but shit for mobility and moving off the X.
“If I have offended anyone, get used to it, I am authorized as a Submarine Veteran to use colorful vocabulary in all company.”
Hahaha, good luck offending ME. I am authorized as a military police and spec ops vet to mandatorily use colorful vocab in all company and during all occasions. Put THAT in your pipes and smoke it, you fucking cupcakes and snowflakes!
If I have offended anyone, get used to it, I am authorized as a Submarine Veteran to use colorful vocabulary in all company.
Macroaggressions all. Saying a Black man is a cock-sucker is rayciss, you know.
Keep up the good work!
I’m authorized as a quiche eatin’, pussy Aviator to *fly* above all this riff raff.
“I’m authorized as a quiche eatin’, pussy Aviator…”
R U sure U have the word order correctly there, kemosabe???
Gunman is in custody after shooting two students at a South Carolina elementary school
How can that even be possible? After all that would be a gun free zone with multiple signs. We all know people read signs and such signage will keep the scum out.
Microaggression, Mr. OFD. Sexist pig.
If Obuttwad were a rapper rather than a dead goat rapist, he’d be Assmaster O. He pounds (or pounded; not sure if he can get away with it currently) the asses of teenaged Indonesian boys, but only if they were pretty. I don’t know if the “pretty” part of the requirement referred to the boys’ faces or their asses.
“…not sure if he can get away with it currently…”
R U joking? After seeing what Killary has gotten away with so far? He could pound whatever asses on the South Lawn at high noon and the MSM would celebrate and cry hosannas, alternating with “Alhoa Snackbar,” in Turkish.
If you bitch about it or even look too solemn or sad or angry, you will be a homophobic rayciss suffering w/Islamophobia and a trip to the re-ed camp will be in order. Said re-ed camps will be at re-purposed college and university campuses around the country, primarily the Northeast, of course, but Flyover Country has had its share of commie perverts, too. Re-education conducted by English, Comp Lit, Philosophy and Sociology professors.
I’ll be the guy in the cage they keep for demonstrative purposes, mumbling medieval epic poetry in various dead languages.
Well, the guy for the Fed job was supposed to call me at 5 for a one-hour phone interview but failed to do so, and it’s now 6:10 and I’ve got the grill on for some organic grass-fed beef burgers for when wife gets home from her last day at the Montpeculiar gig. Fuck it.
We’ll see if there’s an explanation tomorrow; I’d rather have my RHEL job back anyway, and the references were called and sang my praises.
My dad was a Marine. I think I know /all/ of the “bad” words.
I’m going to order a can of each flavor Keystone as samples. Ship to store is free. If the cans come dented, their problem.
I bought my current riding lawnmower in September 2002. It’s still “the new one”. The first was in ’92 and I wore it out mowing the entire place for several years. I used it to pull a lawnmower trailer for moving rocks, bags of concrete, t-posts, etc. Towards the end it would use almost a quart of oil to mow the back yard. Fogged the skeeters away, too.
A few weeks ago the deck belt broke. I went to the local Tractor Supply and used bad words. Some genius (aka Shithead) thinks it’s a good idea to stock the various belts by size. I guess it’s “pretty”. It’s quite obvious Mr. Shithead has no idea how a fucking library works. Plus put it all in an extra narrow aisle with almost no light. Nice. Real nice. I have part numbers with no clue of belt sizes. And I need a FLASHLIGHT. Bah, MTD com had all 3 belts for ~$130 w/ free shipping. Amazon? All 3 for ~$88 although from 3 vendors. Easy choice.
The plan was to replace the belts. You have to remove the deck first. Kind of scary since I have not done this before. Not fun in the dirt in the carport, but not a big deal. Pull the cotter-pin clip things and washers. I had a spare set of new blades, so that’s done, too. The rear drive belt has to come off to replace the front drive belt. Rear belt seems like it will be easy. The front belt needs you to remove the drive pulley from the engine. While lying in dirt that hasn’t had rain in at least 6 years. You know what? The two drive belts look and feel just fine.
Now to re-install the mower deck. The linkage was easy. Getting the belt onto the engine pulley, no problem. Then we have a spring to reattach. Perhaps if I pull a rear wheel? The Stupid Side of The Force was strong. So, no. Disconnect the deck again. Attach spring, fight the belt back onto the pulley. Then fight with entire damn thing to get the linkage attached. The belt and spring pull against each other which twists the deck. Meanwhile the deck is laying in powder fine dirt with plenty of little rocks for someone’s knees.
My dad taught me a lot of words and I can make up a few, too.
Next time? I’m getting a new mower. Or do it on the front deck or haul the project to the neighbor’s barn… he has a concrete floor.
I’m sore. The worse is my right forearm. I went to the store this morning and couldn’t turn the ignition key enough to start the van. 🙂
“I’m going to order a can of each flavor Keystone as samples. Ship to store is free. If the cans come dented, their problem.”
Our closest Walmart is a 1.5-hour round trip.
From here, Super Wally World is a little less than 20 miles.
Costco is about an hour one way. Sam’s Club moved again, from near 183 and 360 in Austin. No clue where. Double decking 183 has me lost. Traffic is Austin is too crazy to even try.
I have two Super Wally World’s within a 30 minute round trip each. Plus the hours to walk around in there stupefied at how much stuff they carry. And trying to find the stuff that I came to buy because they freaking moved it again !
That said, I have heard that Super Wally World is cutting their SKU’s again. They used to have 250,000 SKUs in each store. Then they cut off the top of the shelves and cut the SKUs to 175,000. Now I am hearing 125,000 SKUs. Sad, the world is.
Two within 15-minute drives? That’s nature’s way of telling you the population density is way too high.
I’ve got a Sams, Costco, and 2 walmarts (and the recently closed walmart grocery) all within 5 miles. If I pushed out to 15 miles, that would include 3 costcos….
n
and pretty close to including 2 REI stores.
If I push out to 65 miles, we have one Costco and six Sam’s, but the only things inside 35 miles are five or six Walmarts, but it takes at least 45 minutes to get to any of them.
Yah, what RBT said.
That, or Lynn drives really really fast.
The two Super Walmarts are 9 miles away and 11 miles away. The Costco is 6 miles away. The Sams Club is 9 miles away. The HEB (my personal favorite) is 3 miles away.
8,000,000 people living in a 100 mile wide and 70 mile north to south area. That would be Houston.
So much for free speech:
“was charged with civil rights intimidation by the Johnson City Police Department
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3812805/White-student-gorilla-mask-overalls-carrying-noose-tied-bananas-charged-facing-against-Black-Lives-Matter-protesters.html”
civil rights intimidation….
n
Arghhhh! Am drawing new bitmaps for our main software toolbar. I could not draw a straight line if my life depended on it.
Most graphics packages have “straight line” tools. If you’re using MSPaint, you’re probably out of luck, but everything else should be able to do what you need.
Try Inkscape. Free, easy to learn, runs on any platform you’re likely to need.
Also, if you’re that bad at it, why are you doing it? Even if you don’t want to pay a graphic artist to do it, surely someone in the company can at least draw a straight line. Or your wife or one of your kids, for that matter.
BLM is primarily a political topic. Mocking them would seem to be political expression, the mostly highly protected form of speech.
But then, I don’t see any legal justification for not throwing Crooked Hillary and her gang in jail for breach of classified information, so it’s obvious my understanding of the plain meaning of the law is somewhat flawed.
and The Best Defense show on mass casualty was less than I’d hoped. In fact their normal weekly show has more good info in it.
Worth watching if you haven’t had any training or any thoughts about it.
n
I am using Visual Studio 2015. It is like making my marks on the cave wall using a charcoal stick and a little clay to vary the color. We wont even discuss how primitive it is to use a single bitmap for each toolbar.
I am only adding five new buttons to the toolbar. Hardly worth hiring a graphic designer or making anyway else on my staff do the work. I just had to beat myself into submission in order to get the project started. I should have the C++ code implemented tomorrow (ha !).
Looks like the CME apocalypse is coming! We are going to get fried on Thursday and Friday.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/715472/Solar-storm-Earth-break-Sky-TV-mobile-phones
Fed guy (from Mordor) called me at 8:30 and we chatted and to make a long story short, he being a former hired DOD killer, said they’d extend an offer to me for the gig. On top of that, the other gig, back at the old IBM plantation, will be setting up interviews by this Friday. I may end up with offers for two jobs, but the Fed background check might sink me, thanks to the ongoing tax problems here. So I might take the bird in the hand versus two in the bush, I guess. If I somehow get through the background check, I could always just bail outta the post-IBM position with no hard feelings, maybe.
We shall see. Maybe I’ll end up with nothing. And back to the drawing board.
Another one of my father-in-laws annual time share bills showed today. $850. Just lovely.
More on the power failure in SA…
My nephew (a structural engineer) thinks these pylons were supposed to have been built to withstand 200 km/h winds. They were knocked down by much slower winds. This is why the state was blacked out, even though power was available from Victoria via an interconnector.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-29/restoring-power-in-sa-'very-delicate-affair'/7889846
Bad time to be in the operating theatre…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-29/adelaide-woman-on-operating-table-when-power-went-out/7888294
nick wrote:
“WDmyCLOUD, 4x3TB drives. Configured raid5. ”
Is RAID 5 using high capacity drives a good idea?
Not to mention really bad time to discover the fuel pump for your generator needs replaced.
“Next time? I’m getting a new mower.”
http://www.robomow.com
Highly recommended. Turn it on when growth starts in spring, off after the first few frosty days. Ignore it and the lawn in between, and live your life.
Hope you get what you want Dave. It would be nice to know it was still possible to go back to work…
n
Every time I see a reference to the current election in the news, I wish Mitt Romney were running for reelection. I wasn’t that impressed with him as a candidate, but he would do a better job than the current President, or either of the major party candidates running to replace him.
@miles, I don’t know. It’s how they came, and how I would have config’d them given a choice, based on 5-10 year old knowledge.
Is there an issue with it? Or a better choice? It’s a pretty good compromise between capacity and redundancy for me.
n
Bad time to be in the operating theatre…
Please please please tell me that someone got fired for not ensuring that all the backup systems worked properly, were fueled, et cetera!
I assume Miles_Teg was alluding this scenario. A drive in your RAID 5 Array fails. Before you can replace it and the NAS has time to rebuild the array, another drive fails. The only solution I could think of is to use four 4TB drives in a RAID 6 array. But that costs more and would give you 11% less storage capacity. Not to mention if your NAS doesn’t support RAID 6, it’s not an option.
Costco is about an hour one way. Sam’s Club moved again, from near 183 and 360 in Austin. No clue where. Double decking 183 has me lost. Traffic is Austin is too crazy to even try.
I’m surprised they closed one around Austin. We go to a relatively new Sam’s Club at Lakeline Mall.
Recently, I did notice an uptick in how aggressively the sales clerks upsell the $100 membership. Thanks but no thanks.
“Before you can replace it and the NAS has time to rebuild the array, another drive fails.”
Oh, that makes sense, but that’s why you do backups….
n
How do you backup 9TB of data?
Not to mention really bad time to discover the fuel pump for your generator needs replaced.
Such things happen without warning. Work one minute, fail the next. Just happened with my vehicle. Alternator shorted taking out the battery. A $65 tow and a $760 repair bill later everything is OK. Alternator (rebuilt) had to be ordered as they are not stocked by Toyota as they rarely fail.
Same scenario with a fuel in my old cowboy Cadillac. Started and drove to the big city, stopped and started about three times. Almost home and stopped to get gas. Vehicle would not start. Fuel pump had failed. A $100 tow and an $800 repair bill as the fuel tank had to be removed.
It is impossible to predict such failures. These are not regularly scheduled maintenance items with a scheduled replacement interval.
My starter motor failed on my Expy. Got it started by hammering it, and had it replaced. Within a week, my new (rebuilt w/ lifetime warranty starter) also failed. I couldn’t believe it was actually the starter, but it was. Sometimes stuff just fails.
WRT backups, I don’t actually need to backup 9TB. That would mean my NAS was full and then I’d need a new NAS! I don’t need more than one backup somewhere of media, for example. Worst case, I can re-rip it. I’m not doing movie editing or photo editing for money, so I don’t need 4 versions of everything I do. This makes it relatively easy to buy the 3TB ‘drive-o-the-day’ that is onsale at Costco and copy off my personal stuff for backup. Send that offsite, and viola…backed up.
The raid is mainly functioning as a server for file exchange between my multiple desktop machines (not super efficient but I got in the habit of working that way) and primary backup for the machines here. All thru the docs WD reminds you that a raid is NOT a backup! Oh well. It is for me, and then there is a backup to that.
Layers and layers of defense.
nick
(my backup and general pc hygiene/maintenance habits are poor. it tends to happen in spurts and not consistently.)
Bad start to the day in jersey:
BREAKING NEWS: Dozens injured after rush hour New Jersey commuter train crashes INTO Hoboken station
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3813781/As-30-people-injured-New-Jersey-commuter-train-crashes-station.html
So the cobbler’s children are barefoot? What a surprise.
Things seem to work that way around here as well.
And the carpenter’s house is never finished!
Back when I was single, despite having time and access to a fully equipped metal and woodworking shop, I used a cardboard box as a bedside table. For more than 10 years. Same box…
FWIW, I’m not an IT pro. My first pc was a TRS-80 model 1, and I remember renting time on an Apple IIE in our local game parlour. Friends had Commodore pcs, later Amigas, and I’ve been a “super user” at various times on various platforms. (As well as having actual uni classes on a DG) I had to learn way more than I wanted about configuring video cards under windows and linux so I could do my job, for a period of time. For a while I had root on some big machines here in TX at some big oil companies, and that is more terrifying than exciting! (If you’re old enough, you know that “having root” used to be a mark of distinction. Now it just means more work, less pay.)
I’ve got a fairly extensive (but aging) collection of computers running here, and have had good networking and sometimes even ‘enterprise level’ gear at various times.
Being mostly retired from outside work means I care about it much less than I used to, and for years I’ve been trying to get by with the minimum knowledge and commitment. I used to keep up with it as a hobby as much as work, but now, I just want to USE the tech, not maintain it or explore for its own sake.
Too many broader interest now, too little time……
n
What is an IT pro anyway?
I’ve been playing with computers as long as you have.
I don’t get paid to do it 🙂 not even underpaid to do it 🙂
n
Every time I see a reference to the current election in the news, I wish Mitt Romney were running for reelection. I wasn’t that impressed with him as a candidate, but he would do a better job than the current President, or either of the major party candidates running to replace him.
No. Romney is a RINO. And a loser. He did not even campaign in October last time.
We have yet to see what Trump actually is as he has no political record. I suspect that he is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate like myself. But, tough to tell until he is under the pressure of 320 million people pulling him 320 million different ways.
Interesting. I think of you as a fiscal liberal and a social conservative.
Oh, that makes sense, but that’s why you do backups….
How do you backup 9TB of data?
Wow, that device would be 100% full then. If your new device is 100% full then that is a fail in my opinion.
However, using the 3 TB drives is dicey. Backblaze is suffering higher failure rates with 3 TB drives than I like. And the 4 TB drives are having significant problems also. I use 4 TB WD drives and am 40% transitioned to 6 TB WD backup drives. One caveat is that Backblaze probably has vibration and localized heating issues though.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q2-2016/
BTW, one can backup 8 TB to a single $246 external device:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-External-Drive-WDBFJK0080HBK-NESN/dp/B01B6BN0Q2/
WD does have a two drive raid 16 TB external for $549 (pricey !):
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-External-Drive-WDBFJK0080HBK-NESN/dp/B01B6BN1CU/
As @Dave said: “Not to mention really bad time to discover the fuel pump for your generator needs replaced.”
I am inclined to keep on-hand spares. For my generator I have a spare starter and carburetor. I also have a supply of routine consumable parts, i.e. air filters, fuel filters…
Interesting. I think of you as a fiscal liberal and a social conservative.
Probably because of the Medicare for All ™ ? My position is that the government has broken the healthcare insurance system. Even if Trump is elected and can persuade Congress to rescind Obamacare, the damage has been done. Horribly complex items like Healthcare insurance systems are not easily fixable. And you know our Congress, they will tinker with it.
I am dealing with a nasty situation. One of my employees went to the ER over the Good Friday weekend with meningitis. They spent 30 hours determining that they had viral, not bacteriological. And they walked out with a $12K bill despite our insurance. Turns out the ER in the big Sugar Land hospital is now a separate company so they got billed by both facilities. And the new ER owner is out of network (who knew ?) so they got hit with a $6K deductible and a $6K max out of pocket charge. This is not fair and not right. And they are making monthly $300 payments.
Personally, I am a social conservative. Marriage is one man, one woman to me. Socially for the USA, I have decided that I do not care. If you want to marry your turtle, go for it. Just don’t make me respect the marriage by performing the ceremony in my facility. I have rights too.
It is very common for fixed backup generators to fail when needed despite routine “testing.” The required testing falls very short of actual run conditions. And even if you want to do a hard start/ full failover test, there is a LOT of social pressure not to. It’s the same pressure that has IT guys not doing full failovers on critical servers. If you don’t trust your backup, it’s hard to put your career on they line by wiping out a critical thing. (and by definition you don’t trust it- that’s why you are testing!) Same with backup gennies. If it doesn’t work when you do your full failover, maybe you just killed the guy on life support for no reason. So they get tested the hard way.
Full set of spares and consumables for the length of time you anticipate running the gennie is very prudent.
nick
@lynn: “I am dealing with a nasty situation.”
ObolaNoCare is wonderful. Get used to it. This is the latest scam allowed by ObolaNoCare so that the insurance can collect premiums and never pay out.
Full disclosure needs to be made, however what are you going to do when you really need the ER. There may be no time to get to an in network ER, if there is one available. Most ERs are now in no way “associated” with the hospital they are in.
It will get far worse before it starts to get better. Think of trying to U-turn an aircraft carrier at a flank bell. It may not happen.
Unlike most people, I trust the free market. If Obamacare is repeated tomorrow morning, health insurance companies will be writing new policies by tomorrow afternoon.
I am inclined to keep on-hand spares.
So what happens when the fuel pump breaks or the magneto breaks? What if the breaker in the generator fails? Got a spare for that? Spares are good but that does not cover all situations. The only true redundancy would be to have a second generator, alternate power connections and an alternate fuel source.
Case in point were some servers I maintained. Triple redundant power supplies, raided disk drives, redundant network ports, dual CPUs, all on a UPS. Could not protect them any better. Most redundant systems that Compag offered. So what failed on all three servers? The motherboard. First server failed, then about a month later second server failed with the same issue, about six months later third server failed with the same issue.
ObolaNoCare is wonderful. Get used to it.
When I retired I had to put my wife on the exchange. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. Now BCBST will not longer cover my area because the cost to them was more than they anticipated. (Too many morbidly obese hillbillies that smoke, chew and do drugs). What did the health companies think was going to happen? You now have to cover people that could not get insurance because they did not want to pay or their lifestyle was so damned risky.
So now there is one company left in my area, Humana. Thus leaving them to charge whatever they want. Humana will use BCBST exit to raise the premiums by more than 50%. My wife’s rates will jump from $731 a month to $1150 a month for less coverage. I am subsidizing more leeches of society.
Health insurance should be like homeowners and auto insurance. Your premiums should be based on your risk factor. My wife should not be paying the same rates as that 34 year old hungry hippo that smokes four packs a day, considers a Big Mac combo a light snack who can barely walk because the meth has destroyed the nerves in her legs and goes the to ER twice a week because she can’t reach her ass to wipe it.
I’ve warned you in the past not to sugar coat ObolaCare, Mr. Ray. Tis a wunnerfull system brought to us from Kenya.
Turns out the ER in the big Sugar Land hospital is now a separate company so they got billed by both facilities.
That should not have happened. The way I understand that if you go to a facility that is in your plan and that facility uses a provider that is not in the plan, the provider is paid as if they are in the plan.
My wife went to have her yearly plumbing inspection and mammogram. Facility was in network. But the doctor that read the X-Rays was not in network. I got a full bill which insurance initially would not pay. I argued with the insurance company as the facility chose the doctor, not my wife, and we had no control over the choice of doctor. The facility made the mistake. Insurance covered the doctor after I threatened legal action. But insurance only paid at network rates. Doctor sent me a bill for the rest of the full amount. I then went back to the facility and told them they made an error and assigned an out of network doctor and that should not have happened. Never got another bill from the doctor.
That was about 20 years ago so I am not sure what the environment is now. My last group insurance policy stated that if an out of network facility was used in a life threatening emergency that the facility would be covered as if it was in network. Of course life threatening was not defined. Perhaps as long as you have a pulse it is not life threatening.
Well, nothing is perfect so you balance the cost vs the price.
When we did race events, you pay for the ambulance crew and the paramedics to be there, because it’s cheap compared to someone dying while waiting for 911, and the likelihood of needing them is higher than at a girl scout meeting.
I DO have duplicates of critical stuff, and I have a tiered approach so that I scale up or down depending on need. Yep, if that whole house nat gas gennie fails, I’m back to the gas portable. If that fails, I’m down to car batteries and inverters, my massive UPS, and worst case, a couple of small solar panels. Point is, I still keep making energy, just less and less, with less convenience.
More than one pistol, rife, and shotgun. More than one way to cook food. More than one way to purify water.
And more than one place to store data.
Which is freaking KILLING me at the moment. As my old NAS got flakey, I copied everything to a maxtor usb drive. Windows thinks that the drive is now somehow COMPLETELY FUBAR. It can read it, but only for a bit. Then every single file is reported as corrupt. I KNOW they aren’t corrupt, as I can read them ONCE. The WD nas thinks it doesn’t know how to mount an NTFS drive. At least it can’t mount one controlled by the USB to disk controller that is in the box…
I’d just remount the old NAS for the transfer, but I can’t FIND it. I cleaned my office and now it’s missing. Bloody hell.
nick
I’ve warned you in the past not to sugar coat ObolaCare
I hang my head in shame. Next time I will really let my feelings out.
With BCBST pulling out what is to stop Humana from pulling out? Can the state force a company to provide coverage? I don’t think so as the company would simply leave the state. So then what happens? There are no longer any exchange providers so how does one get health insurance coverage? Do you then go on state medicare (Tenncare)?
If they can force you to buy it, why can’t they force BCBST to sell it?
In both cases it’s the government compelling commerce.
Bastards.
Windows thinks that the drive is now somehow COMPLETELY FUBAR
Try a different USB cable. If the drive uses a power supply use a different power supply.
This talk of back ups and failures was sorta happening at work today. We have some bulk material to ship on dry ice to Europe. It is very expensive, vital to the company’s future, and very difficult to replace. The question came up: one shipment or multiple shipments? I recommended minimum 2 (preferably 4) separated in time by a week. Others pointed out that we have never lost a shipment before (of less important material) so 1 is OK and saves money and paperwork.
This is a real world example of normalcy bias. It never failed before so it will never fail. Those who advocated 1 shipment kept saying that cargo plane crashes are extremely rare.
I agreed, plane crashes are rare but do happen. And trucks carrying packages to and from the airport can crash. And a mistype on a form can send a package to the wrong destination. And a union can suddenly go on strike and leave your package to thaw in a warehouse. And a petty customs bureaucrat can decide to not release your package because the form has the wrong stamp. etc.
I made my case. Other will make the decision.
Interestingly, I noticed a trend in the opinions; younger people preferred single shipment, older preferred multiple.
If they can force you to buy it, why can’t they force BCBST to sell it?
The government was not forcing me to buy BCBST as Humana was a choice (only two choices here, now one). So all of that has now changed. BCBST could just shut down, cease operation, if they were forced to cover the area. BCBST still covers parts of the state, just not the county I live in. I really don’t know how they can just do partial coverage of a state but it seems that is possible and within the rules. The companies can pick and chose their counties.
That brings up the scenario that Humana could now refuse to cover some of those counties leaving people in those counties with nothing. Could the state or the feds force these companies to cover all of a state or none? BCBST is picking the counties with lower populations skipping those areas with big cities. Rural area inhabitants tend to use fewer medical resources as the big city dwellers. Big cities are welfare hubs with the lazy hungry hippos occupying the large projects with reinforced floors.
Regardless, I am getting screwed in this whole situation.
older preferred multiple
Because we are wiser having been through failures. Something critical needs to be split into multiple shipments with the hope that at least one makes it through.
And now win7 and win8 both think the drive needs to be initialized.
Seatools has hung while searching for USB drives so no joy there.
I’m better off finding the old NAS… OH maybe I put it in the safe?
n
Regardless, I am getting screwed in this whole situation.
My point exactly. The free market has been so distorted that the sinusoidal waves will take time to settle out.
It will get far worse before it starts to get better. Think of trying to U-turn an aircraft carrier at a flank bell. It may not happen.
Yup.
Unlike most people, I trust the free market. If Obamacare is repeated tomorrow morning, health insurance companies will be writing new policies by tomorrow afternoon.
There are so many failure points in that statement that I do not know where to start. You are trusting the new President. You are trusting the new Congress. And you are trusting the health insurance companies.
BTW, BCBS is now a for profit company. They totally violated the charter of the company by doing that. Know anything else that BCBS might violate so that the CEO gets his ten million dollar salary plus bonuses each year ?
I’m better off finding the old NAS… OH maybe I put it in the safe?
Maybe one of the kids is using it as a stepping stone in the backyard mud puddle ?
1-800-GOTJUNK perhaps?
As I said, I trust the free market, which by definition means I do not trust politicians. But don’t blame the failures of politicians on the free market. Again, if ACA disappeared tomorrow morning, health insurance companies would be selling policies by tomorrow afternoon, probably the same policies they sold pre-ACA and at the same rates under the same conditions.
Ok, found the old NAS. I put it in the safe to keep it safe. Never occurred to me…
And the seagate tools weren’t hung, they were busy fixing the drive. Who knew? Now it’s reporting healthy and good. All the files are visible.
And I’m copying to the new NAS. So, do I try plugging it back into the NAS so that it doesn’t take 4 days to do all the moves thru the network, or is that what messed me up in the first place?
n
Well, after a whole lot of churning, the WD recognized the maxtor USB enclosure. The process of telling it to copy the USB to the NAS was straightforward but s l o w. They menus are slow. The directory reads are slow. It might be ‘cuz I’m copying 39k items over the network to it from another machine, but the dashboard says it’s only using half the memory and half the cpu, so I’m gonna say ‘it’s just s l o w.’ No progress bar on the copy either…
n
I work with a guy who would be cut out of insurance because of the lifetime payout. I feel bad for him. NOT bad enough that I want to tank the entire market, however.
As Bob says, in a truly free market, insurance would be available in short order. My coworker would even be able to get insurance, but at a higher rate than most. It’s not fair that he was born with lifetime medical ills. Nor is it fair that others lose coverage because the government tried to screw the system to make it more “fair”.
Life isn’t fair.
When I quit HEB I received a letter from some company a few weeks later… I could get CHAMPUS for a period of time for the low price of “what I was making after taxes and insurance”. At $15.80 x 40 hours, I will leave the math to you.
I can give a few clues… $50 a week into the credit union off of the top and I had my 401k contribution maxed. So, take home about $380 a week after all deductions. Hey, all I have is a note for a tractor. And utilities, property taxes, groceries, beer, and whatever. House is paid off.
So, they wanted like $1600 a month for insurance. I haven’t been to a doctor for being sick in almost 20 years. Why would I buy this policy?
I looked at a site a couple of months ago and the rates were sorta ok but everything had a $10,000 deductible. Now, use little words, explain why I would pay $600 a month for a plan with such wow?
I’ll just go find a doc if I get sick. There’s always the ER… works well for the wetbacks.
Not a great plan, but it could be worse.
I’ll just go find a doc if I get sick. There’s always the ER…
That is the problem. That law has to be gotten rid of also. The law that the ER has to accept anyone regardless of ability to pay and citizenship.
I was talking to my cousin’s girlfriend last weekend. She is a billing accountant for the massive ER in Dallas, Parkland Memorial. They are approaching 80% non-pay. She does not know what happens next but she is very worried about her job. Parkland has already outsourced the billing department and made her an independent contractor so she has no benefits.
Not a great plan, but it could be worse.
You will get stung when you file your taxes. Currently not as much as the premiums but that will be changing over the years.
Not if you don’t have a refund coming. (Unless that’s changed, too.)
“Not if you don’t have a refund coming. (Unless that’s changed, too.)”
Even though you did not authorize it, the gooberment has unrestricted/uncontrolled access to all your accounts at banks, credit unions, stock brokers, etc. In other words your money is not yours, thank you Obuttwad. Part of this was buried in ObolaNoCare. Plus collection can be turned over to private collection agencies, no longer is that collection letter necessarly coming from the IRS.
The base problem with our system is that the party paying is not the party using. Coupled with collusion in price setting, and a litigious society and you get what we’ve got. High prices, widespread fraud, and unneeded procedures.
patient has incentive to ‘get his money’s worth.’
Dr has incentive to ‘cover his ass.’
facility has incentive to ‘bill high and often’ knowing it will be reduced.
insurer has incentive to deny ALL claims- they’re in business to make money for their shareholders, not to pay your claim.
I did without for a couple of decades. NO WAY does someone have a $5000 MRI “just to be sure” after the ortho says “yeah, you’ve got all the classic signs of torn meniscus” if they’re paying for it themselves. [just one example from my life] No way does someone pay a $20 drug COPAY when the OTC version of the exact same drug is $5 TOTAL. [another example]
Add in secret and variable pricing, legal monopolies and all the other stuff Karl Denninger has exhaustively chronicled, and you get this mess.
Then compound all that with an unconstitutional coercion under threat of force and it makes you want to find a clocktower.
nick
That brings up the scenario that Humana could now refuse to cover some of those counties leaving people in those counties with nothing.
There was a county in Arizona that was to have no plans available from Obamacare next year. After some prodding there is now one plan available there. From what Megan McArdle is reporting, it looks like premium increases for the cheapest Silver plan will average north of 25% next year and be as high as 100%.
The law that the ER has to accept anyone regardless of ability to pay and citizenship.
Only if you are unstable or in labor. They can turn you away if you have the a cold or the flu and a wallet biopsy comes up negative. Once you are deemed stable or non critical they can turf you.
The latest wrinkle is for a the hospital to buy you an Obamacare plan on admission so they get paid something.
Bad words come to mind…chicanery….fraud….theft….
…then a good word pops out….clocktower…..
The latest wrinkle is for a the hospital to buy you an Obamacare plan on admission so they get paid something.
Cute.
I thought that you can only buy Obamacare plans from Oct 1 to Dec 31 ?
Nope, Nov 1 to Jan 31:
http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-open-enrollment/
We need to go to Medicare for All ™ and stop this nightmare. We are losing our ERs. I have no idea what the capital cost to start an ER but it has to be millions of dollars to tens of millions of dollars.
Vegas builds *billion* dollar casinos all the time. What’s the problem? Oh, yeah, you don’t get to play for free.
I spent four days in hospital at the beginning of August.
Zero cost to me.
Yay Medicare (the Australian Version.)
Yay for a system which transfers the cost from the consumers to everyone else!
I’ve paid for Medicare and continue to pay for it.
I spent four days in hospital at the beginning of August.
Zero cost to me.
Zero cost to me.^Zero direct cost to me.
Fixed that for you.
Hope you are doing better. People don’t spend four days in the hospital for no problems.
I know there was no direct cost, but it just works out easier not to have hassles with bills and uncertainty. I did cost me in other ways though: I’d booked a flight to Melbourne for that afternoon to see an Aussie Rules match. Four days in a hotel. All lost, about $1200 worth.
I was in a six person room, ended up having the little toe on my right foot amputated – I had an ulcer that was oozing blood and pus, the surgeon told me ‘DON’T go to Melbourne unless it’s to have your foot treated.’ I was scheduled to be operated on Thursday night but several urgent cases pushed ahead. On Friday night I was at the operating theatre door at midnight when a super urgent case came in so I went back upstairs. Finally had the op Noon Saturday.
I can tell you that fasting three days in a row gets old.
Yes, my foot is healing, the wound is getting smaller and a nurse comes three times a week to change the bandage and measure the wound dimensions.