Tues. Aug. 21, 2018 – appointments, and more cleaning, sorting, and searching

By on August 21st, 2018 in Random Stuff

Went to bed late, so put this post on automatic…

Some heavy rain and later scattered showers overnight, with more forecast for today. Joy.

Lots of appointments today, then mom is out of the house for a few hours. I’ll have my hands full, but maybe I can make good progress.

We’ll see.

n

58 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Aug. 21, 2018 – appointments, and more cleaning, sorting, and searching"

  1. Harold Combs says:

    Only 70f here this morning and thunderstorms expected later in the day.
    My mother got ALS in her 70s and so my folks spent a lot of time making plans for their end game. They set up an irrevocable trust and put everything into it. The trust made managing their estate much easier and avoided a lot of tax issues. My dad in his last years had written me out as a beneficiary so I never expected anything but after he passed my brothers gave me an equal share. Vey kind of them as they didn’t have to give me a dime and I would never have fought it. Wifes family is still fighting over inheritance issues with a tiny 5 acres in nowhere Oklahoma and have spent far more than it’s worth on lawyers and such. Having seen what a trust can do, I am setting one up so when we pass there won’t be any issues.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Wifes family is still fighting over inheritance issues with a tiny 5 acres in nowhere Oklahoma and have spent far more than it’s worth on lawyers and such.

    My wife’s mother has a house in Kirkland, WA which many of the extended Chinese family covet — I use that word in the full religious sense since they desire to take the house and its rental income stream but they believe that my mother-in-law and her care should be someone else’s problem, a sin by Western standards. Enter Confucian filial piety, Number One Sons, and the “boss” cousin to paper over the questionable morality with “tradition”.

  3. DadCooks says:

    Well cleaning all my air cleaners (combination electrostatic, UV, and HEPA) and cranking them up to high I have managed to clean the air in my little corner of WA State so that it is only moderately bad. Visibility is almost 1/4-mile and there is a fuzzy dim ball in the sky that must be the sun.

  4. MrAtoz says:

    Mr. Dad. Would you mind sharing what air cleaner brands you are using? A submariner probably gets the good stuff.

  5. SVJeff says:

    Would you mind sharing what air cleaner brands you are using?

    I was going to ask the same…

  6. Rick Hellewell says:

    Visibility in my area of WA (across from Mutiny Bay, WA) is about a mile. Dim sun. Staying inside.

    A look at http://www.windy.com shows winds in my area mostly from the east, confirmed by my weather station. Then if you change the layer on Windy to show CO2 concentration, you can see much smoke (very bright red spot, corresponds to 4500ppbv, whatever those are, but it can’t be good) directly to the east – very heavy over the Cascades. That’s where the current smoke in my area is coming from.

    As for the Amazon link issue; I’d be interested if those that are experiencing problems with those links try a different browser. It works fine with my FireFox and Chrome versions on my Win10 lappy.

  7. brad says:

    Inheritance issues. I think I’ve mentioned: we’re looking at land and houses just now, with an eye to buying something very soon. One of the properties is a – I don’t know what you call this in English – a house with only the outside built. No floors, no electricity, just raw walls, etc.. Because of inheritance issues, apparently, it has been standing this way for thirteen years.

    It looks really promising. From what I can tell, the building is well constructed, although I will certainly get a professional opinion. A lot to finish, most of which is beyond my skill, but the price reflects that – there would be enough left in our budget to have most things done professionally.

    But you wonder about people. Thirteen years, sitting empty, because people can’t compromise or see beyond the end of their noses? It’s really amazing how stupid people can be about things…

  8. Clayton W. says:

    4500 Parts Per Billion by Volume. That is a very high reading. About 10X normal and ~2x where we would get headaches on the submarine, IIRC

  9. lynn says:

    One of the properties is a – I don’t know what you call this in English – a house with only the outside built. No floors, no electricity, just raw walls, etc.. Because of inheritance issues, apparently, it has been standing this way for thirteen years.

    I would call that a shell of a house. And the missing floors are problematic since those usually get built before the roof is put on.

    Is the house land being sold also ? Or is it a 99 year lease ?

  10. JimB says:

    “…there is a fuzzy dim ball in the sky that must be the sun.”

    I was a little worried about that, but we are still here over an hour later, so it must be. Good call. Whew, that was worrisome!

  11. lynn says:

    Arlo and Janis: early mornings
    https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2018/08/20

    Yup, that is me.

  12. lynn says:

    “U.S. oil gains offsetting OPEC losses”
    https://www.upi.com/Energy-News/2018/08/17/US-oil-gains-offsetting-OPEC-losses/1691534498055/?sl=11

    “The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported total crude oil production for the week ending Aug. 10 at 10.9 million barrels per day, meaning the United States is on par with Saudi Arabia in terms of global production leaders.”

    We in the USA are living in the land of milk and honey, blessed beyond all means.

  13. brad says:

    Well, the raw floors are there, but they are just bare concrete (we’re talking Swiss houses, which are brick, steel and concrete, not wooden framing). The lowest floor needs insulation, all need heating pipes and then the final surface added.

    The land is sold, not leased like the UK, but exactly how much land is a negotiating point. Apparently the kids who inherited this want to fulfill their father’s dream of building more houses nearby, even though they haven’t managed to finish the one that was half built,after 13 years of arguing.

  14. MarkD says:

    Nick, Take care of yourself, first. I walked into a mess as executor of my dad’s estate and it took a toll on me for months. I won’t go into details, suffice it to say my family was not the problem. It can be draining. Do what you can and live for another day.

  15. DadCooks says:

    MrAtoz said:
    “Mr. Dad. Would you mind sharing what air cleaner brands you are using? A submariner probably gets the good stuff.”

    Unfortunately, they are all 10 to 15 years old. I got them from my Lennox Dealer, but they no longer sell portable units that I am aware of and the units were branded Lennox with no indication who really made them.

    If I was to buy one today I would lean towards whatever Costco has in the store and/or online. I just checked Costco Online and they do not have what I would consider a good unit. I do recall that the unit that is currently at my local Costco (don’t recall the brand) is a good one, albeit expensive.

    Some basic things to look for:
    (1) The filters need to be a standard size because even a “permanent” one needs to be replaced.
    (2) The UV lamp(s) need to be accessible and, again, a standard size.
    (3) The electrostatic unit is designed to be removed and cleaned.

    Sorry I cannot be of more immediate help, my mind is having a foggy day (not weather related, just old related).

  16. SVJeff says:

    I got them from my Lennox Dealer, but they no longer sell portable units that I am aware of

    Thanks for that info. If one could find them used, would they be a logical purchase? If so, could you share any identifiers – model numbers or series?

  17. Greg Norton says:

    I got them from my Lennox Dealer, but they no longer sell portable units that I am aware of

    The HVAC contractors want to sell installation of permanent filter boxes at the blower intake to house either passive or active media. Supposedly, these cannot be installed after market, but, after looking at the box on my new unit, I doubt that is true.

  18. nightraker says:

    Dunno what a submariner would think, but I had a previous model some years ago that worked for me:

    Vornado

  19. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, sold the truck. Got KBB trade in value for the truck as-is. Remember that it was gonna be $3k to fix it up safe and sound. I think it was a fair offer, and the whole experience at Carmax was great. Went home with a check.

    Unpleasant surprise with the financial guy this am, mom has about half of what she thought she had in assets (not counting the house.) We are trying to figure out why she had that particular number in her head, reviewing whether any might have been moved by my dad, and double checking that the accounts are consistent. Most likely explanation is she remembers wrong, but [we kids] need to confirm there isn’t some missing. At first pass, all the known disbursements are consistent with the current account balances. The advisor checked his record of their self reported assets from years ago, and it was consistent, although it had more in one class than she thought. Sibling has the job of looking at tax returns and seeing if they are consistent with the balances too. Sibling is Executor both as named alternate for my mom, and ‘de jure’ (think that’s the term.) In any case, I’m glad mom has the cash from the truck to throw into the pot.

    At the moment, I’m still renting a truck and driving home, so any comments on my proposed route from yesterday are appreciated.

    n

  20. lynn says:

    Unpleasant surprise with the financial guy this am, mom has about half of what she thought she had in assets (not counting the house.)

    Look for hidden or forgotten bank / Fidelity / Discover / credit union / etc accounts. My father-in-law had nine total. The wife has him down to six. But she had to find 2 or 3 of them. The people who lived through the Depression learned the hard way to not trust that your bank was going to open in the morning. Plus, toasters.

  21. lynn says:

    Sibling has the job of looking at tax returns and seeing if they are consistent with the balances too. Sibling is Executor both as named alternate for my mom, and ‘de jure’ (think that’s the term.)

    Are either of your siblings living near your mom where they can pop in and check on her ? If not, you might have another crisis coming in six months.

  22. MrAtoz says:

    Sam’s has this Honeywell air purifier:

    Honeywell

  23. Greg Norton says:

    At the moment, I’m still renting a truck and driving home, so any comments on my proposed route from yesterday are appreciated.

    I’ve driven I-57 from Maron to Mt. Vernon a couple of times, but it has been a while. I don’t recall anything out of the ordinary.

    Cracker Barrel in Caseyville and Four Points in Fairview Heights were okay eight years ago, but two major race incidents which made national news have occurred within walking distance of the hotel since I stayed there.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, while not right next door, both are in regular contact and either could get here in less than an hour. One passes by at least once a week.

    I hope my mom will start addressing her own health issues now that she has time. The grandkids are a powerful motivator, so I hope so.

    I also suspect dad might have other unknown (to us) accounts, but as the financial guy pointed out, all the interest is automatically reported to the IRS, so if he didn’t include them in 1040s then there would be corrections issued. If dad used incorrect identifying info, there isn’t much we can do to find them except keep going thru the mounds of paperwork here. I know that dad USED to have lots of accounts, as he’d open one for a specific purpose. He wrote a check out on graph paper to buy a car once, from an account he set up for that purpose and never ordered the checks. I don’t know if he continued that practice. Mom doesn’t think so.

    n

    added- I don’t think there are bundles of foil wrapped bills ( worth more than a few thousand in total) hidden, or piles of precious metals. The silver bars we found so far are 10 t oz and were hidden in different places. We’re talking about 100k plus (maybe/possibly/ not likely) missing.

  25. Rick Hellewell says:

    @Nick – I don’t envy your ‘treasure hunt’. But have been thinking about what I would do on a ‘treasure hunt’.

    I do it room-by-room. Start at one corner. Look at everything for hidden spots. Remove outlet panels and HVAC grates. Use an endoscope on my phone to peer down into areas. Open every book and object. Look for hidden panels on the walls.

    Starting at one corner, and a thorough inspection of each wall. Then the floor: remove carpets at the corner – that’s easy enough to reposition. Move any throw rugs. Look deep into every furniture crevice. Open the zippers on cushions, and feel around. Don’t forget the ceiling.

    In the attic, looked for disturbed areas of insulation (if there is attic access). Look for dirty fingerprint marks around access points.

    Same thing in the garage. Start at one corner, and look everywhere. Then the outside of the house. Look in utility access panels (water meters /sprinkler controls). Look for disturbed dirt around the house. Kick over any large rocks. Look in rain gutters.

    Assume that the detailing you did on the truck looked in all nooks and crannies (cabin air filter? behind the glove box?).

    Anyway, those are the thoughts I had while cogitating on what would be a thorough treasure hunt. I suspect you have done many of those things.

    I wish you luck….and my condolences.

  26. lynn says:

    added- I don’t think there are bundles of foil wrapped bills ( worth more than a few thousand in total) hidden, or piles of precious metals. The silver bars we found so far are 10 t oz and were hidden in different places. We’re talking about 100k plus (maybe/possibly/ not likely) missing.

    I thought that my father-in-law had $100K more than he did when my wife took over his accounts in 2016. Turned out that the four surgeries in 2014 partially came out of his pocket since he had never bothered to sign up for Medicare. He is a disabled vet and figured that the VA would pay for everything, even if he went to the local ER instead of the VA ER. He was wrong. He is now signed up for Medicare.

  27. Greg Norton says:

    The people who lived through the Depression learned the hard way to not trust that your bank was going to open in the morning. Plus, toasters.

    Since Vantucky, my wife and I have Direct Deposit at separate credit unions. The clinic up there seemed to have a really cozy relationship with the bank they encouraged us to use, and the paychecks seemed carefully engineered to turn my wife into an indentured servant. They knew our balance, regardless of whether it was legal.

    Toasters? PECU gave me $50 for keeping my CGI Direct Deposit account open a year. I’ll probably keep the account until we leave Texas so no big deal.

  28. lynn says:

    Starting at one corner, and a thorough inspection of each wall. Then the floor: remove carpets at the corner – that’s easy enough to reposition. Move any throw rugs. Look deep into every furniture crevice. Open the zippers on cushions, and feel around. Don’t forget the ceiling.

    A friend’s father passed away 5 or 6 years ago. They pulled up in the carpet in his home office (he worked from home on his real estate investments). They found a floor safe with over a million dollars worth of 1 oz gold coins and a lot of ammo. It was a big floor safe and my friend suspected that it was there.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    A friend’s father passed away 5 or 6 years ago. They pulled up in the carpet in his home office (he worked from home on his real estate investments). They found a floor safe with over a million dollars worth of 1 oz gold coins and a lot of ammo. It was a big floor safe and my friend suspected that it was there.

    Don’t forget hobby gear.

    And, since moving to Texas, my wife has had more than one female patient report finding a dress stash after the husband died. Depending on the condition, era, and tastes of the buyer, those can fetch decent money on EBay.

  30. lynn says:

    And, since moving to Texas, my wife has had more than one female patient report finding a dress stash after the husband died. Depending on the condition, era, and tastes of the buyer, those can fetch decent money on EBay.

    Cross dressers ?

  31. paul says:

    Air cleaners: I had an electrostatic filter I bought at Sears. 18×20 ? It was made to replace the disposable filter. So, that’s where it went. It did not like cat hair and would go off like a bug zapper cooking a couple of June bugs at the same time. And just where was Fido’s favorite place to sleep? You’re right! I hinged the intake grill and with a little bit of baseboard trim scraps, made a place for a disposable filter. Magnetic cupboard latches to hold it closed.
    It did a very good job. At the time we smoked. In the house, even! The house never smelled smoky.
    The power supply failed.

  32. DadCooks says:

    @SVJeff said:
    Thanks for that info. If one could find them used, would they be a logical purchase? If so, could you share any identifiers – model numbers or series?

    I do not recommend buying them used; people do not care for them properly and get them in a state of total clog. I have seen some at garage sales; only value was scrap.

    @Greg Norton is correct in saying the HVAC contractors are only interested in selling permanent installations, and as he observed it is a doubtful retrofit.

    @nighttraker, I consider Vornado to be a good product. Costco sometimes carries them.

    @MrAtoz, that Honeywell is okay. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWYO53G?ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-org00-win10-dsk00-nomod-us000-pcomp-feature-pcomp-wm-3-wm-8-wm-1&ref=aa_pcomp%5C%22%3EAmazon&tag=ttgnet-20 Amazon has it for less.

    @RickH – the link tab did it again and I followed your instructions to the letter.

  33. Rick Hellewell says:

    @DadCooks: try an Amazon link with a different browser, if you can. Create one with just a paste of the link, then the same link with the ‘link-button/paste/link-button’ process.

    Also, create a Notepad text file and paste in just the link like you would in a comment here. Then save that text file (with no other additions to the file), and email it to me (rhellewell@gmail.com) .

    I can’t duplicate the problem here or on a test site.

  34. paul says:

    I’ve tried the fancy accordion 3M filters. My system doesn’t like them. Somehow it senses airflow and runs the blower faster. And louder. The 3 packs at Lowes work just fine. Not as good for dust… err, patina… but I’m cool.

    My t-stat tells me when the filter needs changing. It must be counting a month of hours, not a month of days. I get the message three times a year.

    When it starts to warm up in March, I open the house if the day is warm. By the end of April, the heat never runs. We go to a/c about the end of May. I’ve made it to the end of June. 🙂

    After Summer breaks about early September, we open the house on cool enough days and it’s a couple of months of running nothing but a few fans. Very variable from year to year. One year I lit the woodstove mid October and chipped ice from the animal water supplies the day before Halloween. Happy B’day to me! Another year, we didn’t light the stove until the week after Thanksgiving.

  35. lynn says:

    I’ve tried the fancy accordion 3M filters. My system doesn’t like them. Somehow it senses airflow and runs the blower faster. And louder. The 3 packs at Lowes work just fine. Not as good for dust… err, patina… but I’m cool.

    I use the allergan filters from Sam’s Club. Four of the monsters, two 20×25 for the front system and two 12×20 for the back system. I change them every three months or whenever I remember. I ignore everything the thermostats tell me, I am the master of my destiny.
    https://www.samsclub.com/sams/algn-fltr-10x20x1-4-pack/prod21365259.ip?xid=plp_product_1_1

    I never open the windows here in the swamp. My allergies just go nuts when I try to sleep with the windows open.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    Cross dressers ?

    It isn’t uncommon, even in Texas.

  37. Greg Norton says:

    @Greg Norton is correct in saying the HVAC contractors are only interested in selling permanent installations, and as he observed it is a doubtful retrofit.

    I meant to say that my filter box didn’t look like it was something that would be impossible to retrofit, especially on a new unit. Salespeople for the contractors aren’t gonna do that or sell a portable unit.

    The salesperson for my AC contractor is the reason we won’t have them back to do our upstairs replacement. Sadly, the techs are excellent.

  38. Greg Norton says:

    I never open the windows here in the swamp. My allergies just go nuts when I try to sleep with the windows open.

    You’re familiar enough with the water vapor curve to know what that does to the humidity levels in the house and how long the AC will have to run to pump the dampness out of the air.

    Like a lot of Southern women her age, my mother was always obsessed with installing a massive central attic fan like the houses had before AC. Fortunately, she has never found a contractor willing to do it due the work due to the mold potential. IIRC, it is against code, especially since Andrew in FL.

  39. BillF says:

    I hate electrostatic air cleaners. The issue is that when they get dirty and start arcing, they create ozone. Some create ozone no matter what (sharper image). Ozone is great in the upper atmosphere but bad at ground level. Some people have serious trouble with it (me for one). It causes asthma for me and if I smell it when I walk into a business, I head for the exit.
    Even if it does not bother you, it is very nasty. That is one reason you don’t want to store tires around electric motors for example.
    I would use a good HEPA filter, maybe with UVC also. Not that expensive and no ozone.

  40. lynn says:

    “New “Turning Tables” Technique Bypasses All Windows Kernel Mitigations”
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-turning-tables-technique-bypasses-all-windows-kernel-mitigations/

    This is the first article that I have seen that says I might should be running Windows 10. That exploit table is awesome.

    Except now, there is an awesome new exploit that might pass them all.

  41. paul says:

    I like to open a bedroom window a couple of inches so I can hear the cicadas and perhaps frogs and toads and stuff. It does jack up the humidity. So, not for the last couple of months.

    With the double pane double hung argon filled blah blah blah windows, all I hear is airplanes and emu hens drumming. That noise comes through the walls.

    Heck, when the windows were brand new, I was cleaning sticker glue off of the dining room windows and never heard the UPS truck before I saw it.

  42. SteveF says:

    Jenny,

    Presumably the “Jennifer” who left a very nice (and long, a notable fraction of the length of the book) review was you. Thank you for the kind words.

  43. Rick Hellewell says:

    Speaking of books…I have finished the final review of my story “Light Blink”. Book 1 is done, and I am 17K words into Book 2. The book’s cover has been done for a while, and I’ve completed the cover’s final tweaks. And the book’s web site is done.

    I’ll be formatting it as a ebook over the next few days. And then posting it as a Kindle ebook.

    The web site is here: https://www.lightblink.com .

    There is a book excerpt there, along with other information, including a Contact and About page. The ‘Lost’ page is also there – which amused me when I did it. (It’s the ‘404’ page.)

    You are all welcome to take a look at the site, and the excerpt. And let me know what you think.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    This is the first article that I have seen that says I might should be running Windows 10. That exploit table is awesome.

    Except now, there is an awesome new exploit that might pass them all.

    Linux and Mac are vulnerable *in theory*.

    I took my “No Windows None Of The Time” laptop to FL in July. Except for the hotel’s 40 year-old hurricane-ravaged electrical system wreaking havoc on my AC adapter, everything went pretty well even if Fedora is currently the more stable Linux distro of the two I like best (I have four on the laptop sharing one home partition).

  45. Ray Thompson says:

    You are all welcome to take a look at the site, and the excerpt. And let me know what you think.

    Excerpt is spelled incorrectly on the site. Exceprt.

  46. SteveF says:

    I have finished the final review of my story

    Now do a proofread of your site, at least the front page.

    EXCEPRT

    And don’t beat yourself up. On any work longer than a few hundred words, you can proofread and copy edit and read aloud a dozen times and still miss something.

  47. SteveF says:

    Curses! If I hadn’t paused to yawn, I would have beaten Ray to that typo busting.

    I’ll get you next time, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

  48. Spook says:

    Cheapest meat available is apparently canned mackerel. If you like it it’s pretty
    good. Make croquettes (see salmon recipes)?

    And you will attract every cat and raccoon in a 10-mile radius. (chuckle)

    More meat, on the hoof! Uh, paw…

  49. Nick Flandrey says:

    WRT searching the truck, I pulled every rubber bottom in every nook, felt under the edges of all the interior trim, looked in all the obvious places, and still found nothing. Hard to believe.

    After more pressure washing today, and the meetings, and the (surprisingly large) stress of selling the truck, I decided to do just a bit of treasure hunting in the basement. (oh, and I glued in the wedges under the toilet that rocked, so hopefully that is FINALLY done.)

    My fiber optic inspection cam came thru. When I revisited a spot that yielded a silver bar, and some loose change (and was one where he previously stored cash) I found dad’s old class ring. 1950, with initials engraved, and since there wasn’t any tarnish, I’m guessing gold. WAY in the back corner, I’d have missed it (did miss it) with a manual sweep. The rafter bay next to it yielded two silver coins (very worn) and some wheat pennies from the 40s. A 70s silver dollar and several late sixties dimes were also there. I think he’s probably been missing that ring for decades, I’ve never known him to wear it.

    I’m beat, and headed for bed.

    n

  50. Jenny says:

    @SteveF
    You are welcome, sir. I liked your dedication. That was very nice to read.

    I genuinely enjoyed the story. The characters ‘felt’ real, which is a notable accomplishment in my opinion. I’d like more books featuring these children.

    There was pleading for “one more chapter” from my daughter this evening. That’s always a good sign and not every book gets that plea. She likes ‘vranthi a lot. She’s glad Bob isn’t her brother (not sure why). Her comment upon seeing the pic of the list in chapter 2 was “huh, that’s a pretty good list. But it should have a knife”. She’s enjoying the illustrations as well.

    I’ll observe the story is better “read aloud”. No idea why that might be but am finding it smoother and clearer voices as a read aloud experience. Might just be me.

    I hope you publish more of your stories.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    Went on one more treasure hunt…. looked at a bag of dimes and pulled 2 mercury dimes, and a couple dozen silver dimes out of the rest.

    Fun to see the silver amongst the debased coins.

    n

  52. lynn says:

    Lady, our geriatric 15 year old British Cocker spaniel, went to the vet again today. She went yesterday but she got upset. So the vet had her brought back today and she gave her a mild sedative. She then checked out her weepy eye and the growth on her gum line. Both were ok, just to be watched.

    Then the wife got the vets groomer to give Lady a quick trim. Which, she woke up during the middle of so they had to give her a little more sedative. Btw, the groomers name for Lady is Miss Bitey Bitey.

    The vet used a sedative that they can reverse now so she was well awake when the wife showed up.

    Lady will be 16 in a couple of months and has dropped another pound down to 25. She was at 38 about four ??? years ago. She is losing muscle mass now, not good.

    One thing that I am noticing lately is that Lady is getting confused. She will just stop and stand there for a while. Then she will move on like nothing happened. The wife and I realized today that we have not heard her bark in a long time, maybe a function of her deafness.

    Where are we going ? No idea except we will not do any major surgery. Lady did enjoy riding in her wagon tonight on our 1.3 mile walk. She walked about 50 ft of it.

  53. Rick Hellewell says:

    I see that some of you with the eyes of eagles caught my intentional mistake.

    Yeah. That’s my story…..

    …sigh….

  54. SteveF says:

    There was pleading for “one more chapter”

    Heh. I know how that goes. That was how we confirmed that my daughter was able to read for real and not just sound out simple words or parrot stories she’d previously had read to her. I’d read to her before bed, reached the end of the chapter, and turned off the light. She got annoyed, turned on the light, grabbed the book, started reading, and asked me about one specific word (“through” or some such atrocious collision of spelling and pronunciation). She still preferred that I read to her, but could read the Magic Tree House books (her then-favorite) on her own if needed. (And later the kindergarten teacher and principal tried to tell us that she couldn’t actually read-read, merely “decode” the words she recognized. Or some such edubabble. There’s a reason she was in private school after that.)

    Most of what you mentioned was just what I’d tried to achieve, so I’m glad for the feedback — it’s hard to tell if you’ve hit the mark. In particular, I read the story aloud more than once, changing wording (mostly conversation, but some narrative) to sound better when spoken. As for why you think it’s better aloud then read silently, maybe it’s because your “inner reading” voice sounds like Peter Lorre.

    … You know, that would be awesome. I’m going to see if I can develop a Peter Lorre inner voice.

  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    Turns out it is sunny and cool this am here in the land of the gang shooting…

    @stevef, I’ll try it out on my kids when I get home. Just finished the Penderwick sisters books with the older, so I’ve got a nice gap to drop something short into.

    My 7yo wants a light so she can read in bed. Wife says “no way, you can’t even get up in the morning now.” DD therefore was dressed, ready, and got her lunch out of the fridge next morning. I hope my wife didn’t actually make a bargain with her. The 9yo will just turn on the lamp after bedtime and read. I shut it down when I catch her because morning sucks otherwise, but both wife and I were bedtime readers so it’s very hard to chastise when they follow in our footsteps (and it’s something we loved.)

    @lynn, cherish the moments, wait until you are certain, enjoy what you can.

    n

  56. DadCooks says:

    @lynn, you and your family are doing right by Lady. As painful as it is to watch the progression of age, keep giving her the great care you are doing. She has some time left.

    Maybe I have been lucky, but all my past dogs (yes, cat man has had dogs) and cats have given me “that look” that says “I am done”. They will also usually stop eating and drinking altogether and may seek out a favorite hiding spot.

    Be alert to Cheyne-Stokes respiration, this is a signal that the end is near:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyne%E2%80%93Stokes_respiration
    (I’m not messing with that link button anymore, it doesn’t like me)

    Give Lady a scratch in her favorite spot for me.

    Peace

  57. lynn says:

    My 7yo wants a light so she can read in bed. Wife says “no way, you can’t even get up in the morning now.” DD therefore was dressed, ready, and got her lunch out of the fridge next morning. I hope my wife didn’t actually make a bargain with her. The 9yo will just turn on the lamp after bedtime and read. I shut it down when I catch her because morning sucks otherwise, but both wife and I were bedtime readers so it’s very hard to chastise when they follow in our footsteps (and it’s something we loved.)

    Flashlight ? Flashlight ?

    I may have read into the wee hours of the morning under the covers using a … flashlight. Now, the wife has learned how to sleep with the lamp on. Until the wee hours of the morning.

    Self control issues, what self control issues ?

  58. lynn says:

    Be alert to Cheyne-Stokes respiration, this is a signal that the end is near:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyne%E2%80%93Stokes_respiration

    Oh yes, I expect to walk in the game room every morning and find Lady passed away. And she has slept like that for a long time.

    But, the vet says that Lady is in good health for her age. I figure that Lady is about equivalent to 102 in human years now. Any elevation over six inches requires help now, etc.

    And Lady and I had scrambled eggs with turkey sausage, potato chunks, and cheese for breakfast this morning.

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