74F and saturated. Humidity should be better later in the day, but not that much.
Boy I’ve got a lot to do. I’ve already given up TV, and rarely find time to read except at bedtime. I don’t know where the time goes.
Oh, right. 5 hours at school yesterday. Several hours at soccer tonight. Birthday parties this weekend. Association meetings….
And work.
It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.
n
Please don’t weaken. I enjoy your posts very much. Many thanks for taking the time and effort!
Thanks Denis!
I’ve been noodling these ideas that need posts-
rat battle summary
long term storage of normal food- what hasn’t worked (hint- anything with powdered fats, esp. cheese)
cobbling together some sort of solar energy backup system (as I now have ~800w of panels)
whole house generator install and summary
getting set up for making contacts on HF digital radio
End of life preps
fall garden
and there are others that I can’t remember at the moment…
OH, and I still haven’t finished my bathroom –> saferoom remodel…
n
Kids sports do take up a lot of time. I only have one child, so that makes it a little easier.
My son plays soccer for an AYSO league. For those unfamiliar, it is an everyone plays league. It’s much more laid back than a travel or school system league. Two practices a week and one game a week.
He has done a sport since Kindergarten. He started out in t-ball and did that and baseball up to 4th grade. He then decided he didn’t really like baseball, so he tried soccer, and has enjoyed it ever since. Admittedly, I knew nothing about soccer, but I continue to learn the more he plays.
The last 3 years, he has had the same coaches, who are fantastic. It’s amazing how much a coach contributes to the kids enjoyment of a sport.
I’ve always tried to take the approach that anything I’m doing with my son is the most important item on my agenda. The past few years, I’ve really taken this to heart. Time just seems to be going by too fast at age 45. The boy is a freshman in high school. Middle school was jut a blink of an eye. This is why I always stay at his practices. Hopefully he will look back and remember his old Dad always came to his practices and games and always cheered him on.
Having said all of that, it still is a struggle sometimes, especially when he gets the telescope out at 11 P.M. on a Friday or Saturday night…I sometimes almost can’t keep my eyes open! Getting old isn’t for the weak, as a great man used to say….
Hoping to get wife home from Hospital today. Fingers crossed.
A week ago she began to have serious nausea, throwing up every 20 minutes. Couldn’t keep her meds down and too weak to manage her blood sugar. DKA. We kept trying OTC solutions but nothing worked. By the time we got to the ER (local Methodist community hospital) her blood chemistry was badly out of whack. It took 4 days to get her back to near normal then they noticed liquid in her lungs. Only last night could she get her O2 level above 90%. Doctors think she aspirated some vomit while having DKA. It’s been a long week. She has only been alert and responsive the last couple of days. I was seriously concerned. Something similar happened in July and it led to a minor heart attack. We will be paying close attention to any sign of DKA and seek IMMEDIATE treatment in the future. Just goes to show how fragile health is for elderly (64 yr old) with type 1 diabetes. Without modern medical care she would have died.
End of life preps….yeah, that’s been on my mind lately too. It’s not just an age thing. I lost an Uncle last year. It was unexpected. He was fairly organized, but I still saw what my Dad and his remaining brother had to go through to locate everything.
I keep important papers in a safe deposit box at the bank. My wife has a key and access. It contains:
hard drive with an archive of all server data: pictures, receipts, tax returns, personal folders, etc
list of all bank accounts and account numbers (damn, just realized I need to update this)
official copies of birth certificates
social security cards
all loan payoff letters
printed copy of password database, where all online passwords are stored
printed layout of the home network, and contact info of someone I trust to help her if I’m gone
copies of relatives wills
our wills
our wedding photo negatives (until I get them digitized – real soon now)
car titles
Just recently, I bought a hard bound journal, and have begun recording information in it as well. I’m including all of our bank and investment accounts, but not listing any account numbers. The purpose of this is to give a place to start. Other things I’m including are:
house maintenance items (hvac filter changes, water filters, etc)
house information (where is water shutoff, sewer clean out, sprinkler line locations, etc)
car information (preventative maintenance tasks)
A side note: I have learned that life insurance/investment companies will find you when you are listed as a beneficiary. This happened after my Uncle’s death. Two of the accounts were known (my Dad and other uncle found paperwork about them), while a third account was discovered only when I was notified by the life insurance company about it. Make sure all investment accounts have beneficiaries listed!
@hcombs – hope she gets well soon.
Lesson learned when my friend died suddenly. Helping his wife get access to his accounts, find the accounts, and other such items was a major challenge. The companies involved were not real helpful either.
My son has emergency access to LastPass that contains all my account passwords. If something happens to me he can sign on, then has to wait a couple of hours while LastPass sends me an email and text message. If I don’t respond he is granted access.
Wife knows where the key are to the safe deposit box. Pictures are stored on the computer and son and wife would have access. Although based on experience with my aunt most of the pictures will get tossed. Did not know most of the people or places so the images had no significance. Threw out several hundred transparencies. I suspect the same will happen to my images.
When my mother died she owed several hundred dollars to Discover. I called Discover to have the card cancelled. Discover gave me a lot of flack about who was going to pay the bill, etc. and until the bill was paid the card would remain active. I told them fine, not my problem. The balance was not going to get paid. Discover then stated the account would eventually get turned over to collections and they would destroy my mother’s credit. I told them she was dead and probably would not care. Either cancel the card or I will drop the card in the Walmart parking lot in the worst part of town and Discover will get stuck a much larger balance. Discover cancelled the card.
Same deal with the cable company. I called them to come get their equipment. Charter said I had to bring the equipment to their office. I said no, I don’t have the time. If they want their equipment they can come get it. They said if the equipment was not returned the would charge my mother for the equipment and if not paid would go to collections. I also told them fine, she is dead and probably does not care. I never found out what happened with the equipment.
Not always the case. My aunt had life insurance with the phone company from her job. I found out about the policy by accident. There were no direct named beneficiaries, just an order of family members. Spouse, siblings, cousins, something like that. Thus her sister, my mother was in line. I had to apply for the benefits and my mother split the 10K with me. When my mother died we (myself and my brothers) found out that rather than pay down her debts she splurged on a diamond ring. Also cashed in her burial insurance policy to help pay for the ring. That stuck my brother and myself with the cost of the funeral. Never found the ring. We suspect someone in the hospital stole the ring when she had her emergency that eventually killed her. Hospital had no personal effect except for some old clothing and no jewelry that my mother always wore. Yeh, someone in the hospital helped themselves to her stuff when she died.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this. I guess the lesson is, if you are checking in for a hospital stay, don’t have anything valuable on you. Not even credit cards. If you are brought in on an emergency basis, it really is a crap shoot, in more ways than one.
hcombs I hope for a speedy and complete recovery.
I realized at my dad’s memorial that I’ll be going to a lot more funerals than weddings, and that sucks.
n
Posts are easier when I can cut and paste.
This from my daily FEMA summary:
Tropical Cyclone Florence – Lifelines
Safety & Security: NC: National US&R System in coordination with Federal partners;
completed 813 evacuations, 186 rescues, 97 assistances, 5,190 shelter in place
checks, and 527 animal evacuations to date
Food, Water and Shelter:
• NC: FEMA DSA to conduct registration intake in highly populated shelters; awaiting
access into flooded areas [ how many days???? still not there, you are on your own]
• NC: 17 (-1) counties under evacuation orders (6 mandatory, 11 voluntary)
o 66 shelters open with a population of 8,920 evacuees
• SC: Municipal evacuations for small areas continue in response to local concerns
o 10 shelters open with a population of 238 evacuees
Health and Medical: NC: Nursing homes/long-term care facilities on generator power
being contacted daily by HHS to survey for unmet needs
Energy: NC: 220,970 total outages reported statewide; 30% decrease since last
report; 20% (-1) of gas stations out-of-service due to lack of fuel and/or power;
majority along coastal areas
Communications: Cellular infrastructure steadily improving in impacted area, with
sites able to switch from generator to commercial power
Transportation: Supply chains beginning to reestablish deliveries to locations as
businesses reopen; industry distributors, Federal partners, and states coordinating to
ensure unity of effort
Hazardous Waste
• NC: Continued high level of discussion, regarding flood waters that may be
polluted with hog manure and toxic coal ash
• NC: Pet vaccines transported to Union City, NC being redirected due to
flooding
• Multiple WWTPs across the state are experiencing storm related damages
(inundation, pump failure, power outages, & inaccessibility) causing sewer
discharge and overtopping of lagoons; the state is engaged with WWTPs on
generator requirements and fuel delivery
[note that flooding continues]
n
How could I miss that it is International Talk Like a Pirate day?
So Avast, ye scum! Scurrilous dogs all ye be! Harken to my words, and Take no Prisoners!
n
Yeh, someone in the hospital helped themselves to her stuff when she died.
We learned about hospital staff rackets (again, I mean that in the full legal sense of the word) through my father-in-law’s heart transplant and subsequent rejection at UT Southwestern/Parkland in Dallas.
Yes, the hospital where JFK was pronounced dead. The label “Den of thieves” would be an understatement. Even the nuns running the guest rooms were on the take at that place.
My best Mr. Hcombs. I hope Mrs. Hcombs recovers quickly.
From Monday:
Ford’s not the victim here.
Wow, is that ever true. Right now, good people are looking at themselves in the mirror and saying, “do I want to go through this nightmare ?”. Cause the Ruth Ginsburg replacement is coming up fast. The lizard is just about dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AriOjUfbBrw&t=177s
Wow. She should retire immediately and enjoy her last two weeks of life with her family. Almost incoherent.
Can you imagine the screaming and the caterwauling that is going to happen when Ginsberg passes on to her reward ? There will be demands that she is replaced with another extremely progressive person who identifies as a she. And that person should use the world’s constitutions instead of the USA constitution for their rulings from on high.
OH, and I still haven’t finished my bathroom –> saferoom remodel…
Women XXXXXX people do not like living in a construction zone. Just sayin.
We suspect someone in the hospital stole the ring when she had her emergency that eventually killed her
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this. I guess the lesson is, if you are checking in for a hospital stay, don’t have anything valuable on you. Not even credit cards. If you are brought in on an emergency basis, it really is a crap shoot, in more ways than one.
It is worse than that. When my Dad had his open heart surgery at Methodist in the Houston Med Center 21 years ago, there was several of us in the large waiting room as we were waiting for our loved ones to come out of recovery. I sat in a chair and read until 4am when my Dad got moved into a room.
About 3am, a person who had laid on the floor by the wall using her jacket as a cover woke up. She immediately began looking for her purse which had disappeared. I had seen a hospital employee come through and sit down close to her for while but thought nothing of it. That hospital employee had obviously stolen her purse which also had her husband’s wallet in it while he was in surgery.
“Nearly half in top 5 U.S. cities don’t speak English at home, record 67 million”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/nearly-half-in-top-5-u-s-cities-dont-speak-english-at-home-record-67-million
It is time to shut down immigration for a couple of generations like we did from 1920 ??? to 1965 ???. We are getting overwhelmed. And we need to expel the illegal immigrants here now. Even the so-called dreamers.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Hoping to get wife home from Hospital today. Fingers crossed.
A week ago she began to have serious nausea, throwing up every 20 minutes. Couldn’t keep her meds down and too weak to manage her blood sugar. DKA.
DKA = Diabetic ketoacidosis
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-ketoacidosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20371551
That is not good ! My uncle has that problem and it really messes with him. I hope you get her stabilized and get to bring her home today. I said a prayer for her and you.
The hospital probably charged her for “Disposal of Miscellaneous Items” on her husband’s hospital bill.
My niece had an accident on her motocross motorcycle. She was at an event and had a spill, broke a bone in her shoulder. She had a couple hundred dollars in one of the pockets of her racing suit. When she left the hospital five hours later all the pockets in the racing suit were empty. She had kept the cash with her to keep it safe. Someone in the hospital had stolen the money.
I suspect when my mother had the emergency she was wearing the ring. Either the hospital stole the ring or the mortuary when my mother died. Either way it was a several thousand dollar theft. Reported it to the police and the result was just a shrug from the officer that my mother should not have worn the ring to the hospital. Right, as in an emergency you have time to remove all your jewelry.
Can you imagine the screaming and the caterwauling that is going to happen when Ginsberg passes on to her reward ? There will be demands that she is replaced with another extremely progressive person who identifies as a she. And that person should use the world’s constitutions instead of the USA constitution for their rulings from on high.
I’m old enough to remember that Ginsberg was part of the Clinton payola to Ross Perot 25 years ago. She is the wife of one of his key tax lawyers and sailed through the confirmation, something like 94-3. No one expected her to be this radical, but she does lean conservative on tax issues like the reversal of the National Bellas Hess decision.
(The Supreme Court pick and enough Medicaid data processing contracts to launch Perot Systems, starting with … Arkansas. GM paid off Perot to stay away from EDS, and the Apple buyout of H. Ross’ NeXT investment wasn’t even a remotely considered possibility in 1993.)
IIRC Murkowski was the Senator who insisted on a philosophical replacement for Kennedy this time around. Murkowski has a perpetual axe to grind against conservatives because of what happened to her father — losing his reelection primary to Sarah Palin.
BTW, Texas had a big surprise Tuesday night, “Flores scores upset over Gallego in District 19 Senate runoff”, “Republican to replace convicted ex-state Sen. Carlos Uresti”
https://www.ksat.com/news/election-results/district-19-special-runoff-election-result
This was a very blue Texas Senate seat runoff election. It was won by a Republican.
I am not believing all of these election poll prognosticators. I suspect that a lot of them (if not all) are intentionally swinging their polling results blue.
Supper tonight is very much on the lazy side.
I’m going to open and drain a can of Keystone beef, whisk in a spoon of flour as a hopeful thickener, add the meat, add a can of canned whole potatoes, chopped into quarters. Plus black pepper. Onto the back burner on low to simmer awhile.
That’s what I’m going to eat. Other folks here might have other plans, but…. not my problem. There’s sandwich fixings in the fridge. 🙂
Well I’m going to Woolgrower’s.
http://woolgrowers.net/dinner-menu/
extra pickled tongue please…
you can try browning the flour ahead of time, toss it in a pan over medium heat until it starts to brown. Should taste better.
The excess starch from the canned potatoes will help thicken too.
n
I had a frozen $4.79/lb tbone steak grilled outside, fresh broccoli steamed and covered in cheese sauce (made from powdered, long term storage), naan bread from the freezer. Yum.
n
and off to soccer practice….
I am not believing all of these election poll prognosticators. I suspect that a lot of them (if not all) are intentionally swinging their polling results blue.
As for Texas, someone is finally starting to run negative ads against Robert Francis. It isn’t Cruz. A third party with deep pockets, certainly.
In my Congressional district, MJ Hegar changed her ads to hide what my wife calls her “Ambien Eyes”. I guess someone else noticed.
“Lupe” is melting down in the polls now that people are realizing how batsh*t crazy she is, especially when they think of her in the Governor’s mansion. Texas could be a huge Republican night, but everyone should still turn out to vote and contribute to the 20 point (minimum) Abbott victory margin.
FL Senate will be a tossup. Rick Scott is still the unindicted co-conspirator behind one of the largest fraud cases against Medicare in history. And that’s the crime which is easily understood by the public. He’s done other bad things.
Governor Gillum in Tallahassee? No way. Many Republicans would have considered Gwen Graham with an open mind, just based on her family’s long commitment to Florida (and BBQ Bob on the campaign trail for one last hoo-rah), but the Dems lost their mind there — they could have won.
As for the only other place I’ve lived for a considerable length of time, WA State, BOHICA. Inslee was Costco’s chore boy and not much interested in anything else. The next occupant of the Governor’s mansion will be different, with higher expectations.
Speaking of politics I received this in today’s email
Typical of the dems
Of course they want money and I’m for Prop 6 and have given.
Typical of the dems
Of course they want money and I’m for Prop 6 and have given.
Just be glad they still let you buy gasoline in Kalifornia. I figure that gasoline and diesel will be banned in Kalifornia in the next decade or so.
I gave my Dad a couple of books for his birthday last night. One was
https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443/?tag=ttgnet-20
My sister-in-law saw the book title “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and immediately started arguing that fossil fuels are horrible for the environment. My brother grabbed her and asked her to calm down.
BTW, she drives a Mercedes E350 sedan.
Mercedes E350. But they’re special. Does she have a front license plate? (one of my pet peeves. Seems only people with expensive cars are exempt. Google BMW front plate)
“Beto O’Rourke leads Ted Cruz by 2 among likely voters in U.S. Senate race, new poll finds”
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/09/19/beto-orourke-leads-cruz-new-poll-texas-senate-race/
This poll is just fake news trying to promote Beto. The real poll happens on Oct 22, 2018 to Nov 6, 2018 (we can early vote in Texas).
Beautiful evening, shade, nice breeze. Bright moon.
N
ALL: Thanks for the good thoughts
Got wife home this afternoon and she is resting, something you don’t get to do in a hospital. She went in with DKA that caused aggressive nausea, she was throwing up every 15 minutes for over 24 hours. Because she couldn’t keep her oral meds down and she was so exhausted from the constant vomiting she wasn’t able to manage her sugar levels; her blood chemistry was totally screwed up. It took 3 days in ICU to get her near normal. Then complications, fluid in the lungs. Doctors think this was caused by aspirating some of her vomit in the 24 hours of constant nausea. After another 3 days she can keep her O2 levels above 95% and go home. But the experience has left her weak and exhausted so I have to mind her for a few days. Thank goodness my management is understanding and I can do most of my work from home.
I will say that our regional Methodist Hospital staff were WONDERFUL. Friendly, caring, and going out of their way to help people who are not at their best and suffering. The very diverse staff were amazing. We met a Filipina nurses aid who told us where to find adobo (a Philippines dish my wife loves) and a doctor who spent almost an hour with us discussing SciFi and historical fiction. I never saw that kind of personal attention anywhere else.
This poll is just fake news trying to promote Beto. The real poll happens on Oct 22, 2018 to Nov 6, 2018 (we can early vote in Texas).
Quinnipiac (sp?) had Cruz up by 9 yesterday. More importantly, his job approval rating was above 50%.
Robert Francis, on the other hand, had a job approval rating in his district below 50. That’s usually a sign that an incumbent won’t win reelection.
Don’t use the ‘B’ word. It feeds a lie.
Don’t use the ‘B’ word. It feeds a lie.
Yes Sir !
My sister-in-law saw the book title “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and immediately started arguing that fossil fuels are horrible for the environment. My brother grabbed her and asked her to calm down.
BTW, she drives a Mercedes E350 sedan.
That’s socially acceptable hypocrisy. Do you actually expect her to drive a … Prius? God forbid. That’s for average people.
At least it is a real Mercedes and not one of the stolen Chrysler designs that Daimler sells as their low end.
That’s socially acceptable hypocrisy. Do you actually expect her to drive a … Prius? God forbid. That’s for average people.
I only know one person who drives a Prius, one of my wife’s Chinese cousins in … Seattle!
Though, it isn’t so much about where he lives and more that he drives whatever his brother and sister tell him to buy.
Again, this is a Chinese cousin. The family weirdness defies explanation. One of the reasons we got out of the Northwest.
I’ve driven a Prius once. Had a rental for a couple weeks while on TDY. I didn’t hate it, and it had decent pep (as in I don’t think I’m going to die trying to merge into traffic.) Of course, I drove it like I stole it. Would I want to drive one daily? No way.
A co worker had an early Prius. It was OK, but I don’t think I’ll ever buy a sedan – harder to get in and out of.
My brother has a Prius. Seems nice. Would be better if he would just drive the thing and quit messing with the controls on the dash. Or he could be texting, same thing.