Real Life and What's Happening...

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All I wanted to do was eat too much and lie in the recliner and watch football with my dad and brother. What did I actually do? Ate too much, overheard my niece's call to my dad re: a car breakdown, loaded a compact pickup on a trailer, took said pickup to Louisville (two hours), drove 40 miles up I-71 to where the breakdown happened, loaded the dead car onto the trailer - after nightfall - and brought dead car back to Dad's home. Also, the powered winch on the trailer crapped out, so we managed this with ratchets and muscle power. Goddamn, that kid needs Triple A.
 
Andy-C said:
All I wanted to do was eat too much and lie in the recliner and watch football with my dad and brother. What did I actually do? Ate too much, overheard my niece's call to my dad re: a car breakdown, loaded a compact pickup on a trailer, took said pickup to Louisville (two hours), drove 40 miles up I-71 to where the breakdown happened, loaded the dead car onto the trailer - after nightfall - and brought dead car back to Dad's home. Also, the powered winch on the trailer crapped out, so we managed this with ratchets and muscle power. Goddamn, that kid needs Triple A.
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Get her it for Xmas or whatever you may celebrate.
 
I spent thanksgiving alone at home cause I've been super sick :/.

On the plus side, my mom couldn't rope me into helping her move furniture around and nobody expected me to cook. I did lay in bed and watch football games on my tablet though, and my wife brought leftovers home for me to eat.
 
EmperorNorton said:
I spent thanksgiving alone at home cause I've been super sick :/.

On the plus side, my mom couldn't rope me into helping her move furniture around and nobody expected me to cook. I did lay in bed and watch football games on my tablet though, and my wife brought leftovers home for me to eat.
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As somewhat of an introvert when it comes to family gatherings, I think this sounds grand.
 
Doing pretty well right now. Had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with a couple I haven't seen in ages and their two kids. Talked to my parents on the phone. Have a new work project I'm feeling enthusiastic about. Running a half marathon tomorrow. Even though the event is just in the suburbs, my folks offered to get me a hotel out that direction so I don't have to drive there in the morning, and I am taking them up on that offer.
 
I'm a mess, but I'm managing that mess. The foot is finally out of cast, and merely in thick bandaging. The first couple of weeks in the cast were fine but I started having anxiety attacks when I tried to go to bed at night. It may have been the cast, but also a medication. The doctor gave me medication for anxiety that may cause shortness of breath and that combined with the cast, Covid complications (asthma I had as a kid came back and covid made it worse). I also had Tylenol 4 for pain that was causing me to be exhausted and unable to fully wake up (which is strange since the stronger stuff I had right after surgery didn't.)

The good news however is that thanks to stopping the medications, and moving where I sleep in bed to the other side (so my dogs' cuddling was no longer practically pushing me off the bed) I've managed to get back to sleeping without the attacks, I was forced to finance a new mattress (sighs) so I'm even MORE broke than usual because of paying for that. This means that erratic game purchases (one every five months or so, at best), and my comics buying are on serious hold for the next year. I need the entertainment to survive (though playing the games is more important than buying them so :grin: )

Of course, now that I'm sleeping some, the increased depression has mostly faded. Though not entirely (I feel stuck taking care of my mom, and trapped here in this house and city. Oof) I'm dealing with that as best I can, all things said my mood could be worse, and I'm fighting as best I can. So it is not ALL utterly bleak, just a little grimdark *LOL*


Of course it might help me a bit if I could find something worth streaming online to distract my brain that was worth it, or some really good books. I've spent years not watching much TV, but I find that I want to watch stuff again just to pass the time since my focus for a lot (even some shows) is horrid.

I've managed this week to watch three Pixar movies Elemental, Onward, and Coco. Elemental was pretty good, the other two marginally okay, and not epic Pixar movies like Up or Incredibles.

I'm also avoiding streaming shows I've seen before and love because that makes my depression worse--feels like I'm back then. On the other hand, a new Murderbot novel came out and that's good. (I'm not as drawn in as the previous ones, but it is still building.)

So yeah, I'm here and sorting things. Hope y'all are well! :grin:
 
Silverlion said:
I'm a mess, but I'm managing that mess. The foot is finally out of cast, and merely in thick bandaging. The first couple of weeks in the cast were fine but I started having anxiety attacks when I tried to go to bed at night. It may have been the cast, but also a medication. The doctor gave me medication for anxiety that may cause shortness of breath and that combined with the cast, Covid complications (asthma I had as a kid came back and covid made it worse). I also had Tylenol 4 for pain that was causing me to be exhausted and unable to fully wake up (which is strange since the stronger stuff I had right after surgery didn't.)

The good news however is that thanks to stopping the medications, and moving where I sleep in bed to the other side (so my dogs' cuddling was no longer practically pushing me off the bed) I've managed to get back to sleeping without the attacks, I was forced to finance a new mattress (sighs) so I'm even MORE broke than usual because of paying for that. This means that erratic game purchases (one every five months or so, at best), and my comics buying are on serious hold for the next year. I need the entertainment to survive (though playing the games is more important than buying them so :grin: )

Of course, now that I'm sleeping some, the increased depression has mostly faded. Though not entirely (I feel stuck taking care of my mom, and trapped here in this house and city. Oof) I'm dealing with that as best I can, all things said my mood could be worse, and I'm fighting as best I can. So it is not ALL utterly bleak, just a little grimdark *LOL*


Of course it might help me a bit if I could find something worth streaming online to distract my brain that was worth it, or some really good books. I've spent years not watching much TV, but I find that I want to watch stuff again just to pass the time since my focus for a lot (even some shows) is horrid.

I've managed this week to watch three Pixar movies Elemental, Onward, and Coco. Elemental was pretty good, the other two marginally okay, and not epic Pixar movies like Up or Incredibles.

I'm also avoiding streaming shows I've seen before and love because that makes my depression worse--feels like I'm back then. On the other hand, a new Murderbot novel came out and that's good. (I'm not as drawn in as the previous ones, but it is still building.)

So yeah, I'm here and sorting things. Hope y'all are well! :grin:
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I'm glad to hear that you're doing better!
 
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Andy-C said:
All I wanted to do was eat too much and lie in the recliner and watch football with my dad and brother. What did I actually do? Ate too much, overheard my niece's call to my dad re: a car breakdown, loaded a compact pickup on a trailer, took said pickup to Louisville (two hours), drove 40 miles up I-71 to where the breakdown happened, loaded the dead car onto the trailer - after nightfall - and brought dead car back to Dad's home. Also, the powered winch on the trailer crapped out, so we managed this with ratchets and muscle power. Goddamn, that kid needs Triple A.
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Hmm. I need to tell the Thanksgiving story about a dump truck, a trailer, a digger, a pickup, and a Trooper…

I was invited to my co-workers in-laws for Thanksgiving one year. I get there. He isn’t there yet. A call comes in, he got his Isuzu Trooper stuck in his yard.

The trailer is hooked to the dump truck. We try and load the digger on the trailer but it won’t make it up the tilt bed. So we use the digger to jump start the pickup (which has expired registration) and get that up on the trailer. Drive to co-workers house. Unload pickup. Drive it close enough to the Troooer to pull it out. Then we need to pull the pickup out because it got stuck. Then load it back on the trailer.

Finally everyone makes it back to the in-laws….
 
I'm finally beginning to get out of the fog from the fatigue symptoms I've had for several months. Apparently, I had B12 and D-vitamin, and potassium, deficiency plus an elevated sedimentation rate; all having the potential to leading to fatigue. So I'm on several pills and supplements, and will see the doc again in a few weeks to see if things have improved enough. While still tired, I'm definitely a lot less tired and my creative side is wakening up again. :smile:
 
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Lundgren said:
I'm finally beginning to get out of the fog from the fatigue symptoms I've had for several months. Apparently, I had B12 and D-vitamin, and potassium, deficiency plus an elevated sedimentation rate; all having the potential to leading to fatigue. So I'm one several pills and supplements, and will see the doc again in a few weeks to see if things have improved enough. While still tired, I'm definitely a lot less tired and my creative side is wakening up again. :smile:
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Oof, I need to talk to my doctor to see if I can do that.
 
I'll put a more detailed account in the physical fitness thread when I have the time and energy to write it, but short version, I ran (well, mixed ran-walked, really) a half marathon on Saturday & got my personal best time!

My previous best was 3 hours, 6 minutes, and some-odd seconds, my goal for this one was 2:59:59, and my actual time was 2:55:34, so I'm very happy about that!
 
As part of my quest this year to bring more organization into my life, I spent the last few weeks:

1) Selling books that I'm unlikely to read anytime soon to a local bookstore. They are giving me pretty good prices, surprisingly, because I have weird reading habits and take in books that they don't see every day. Most of the money is going straight into the bank for Christmas and all the birthdays coming up. I have six close family members with birthdays in late November and December.

2) Using the money from the first batch of sales to buy an inexpensive 11'' tablet and force myself to start reading more books and comics on it. Though I generally dislike reading on a screen, I'm working hard to get used to it, since I'm drowning in books (close to 2,500 in the house, if you count the rpgs).

3) Going through every single subscription we have in the house, re-evaluating it, and doing whatever I could to bring the price down for the next year. That resulted in around 50% savings (or better) on the ones we kept. In some cases that meant closing an account and opening a new one with a new email address, but so be it. That included everything from streaming to online stuff to web hosting and more.

4) Doing mass re-organization in my "craft / storage room," which included putting things into stackable plastic shoe boxes, labeling them, and moving them onto shelves. So far I'm up to about 60 new boxes, thanks to Wal-Mart 10-packs.

5) Going to all those doctor appointments I haven't had time to get to and getting set up to do cataract surgery, a heart stress test, and several tooth extractions.

Next on the list is going through a barn, a storage space, and my garage and getting rid of mass amounts of stuff. That includes three massive server racks and huge quantities of redundant tools (I probably have 20 or 30 hammers alone). I'm probably going to do a big "free tools in my driveway, take what you want" giveaway one weekend, take dozens of trips to donate things to thrift stores, and rent one of those big dumpsters they drop off for a few days in suburban house driveways.
 
Mine is made by Onyx, as I specifically wanted one that wasn't a Kindle. I can't say I have used it much during the seven years I had it, but it is nice to have a full size one to read PDFs on.
 
Fenris-77 said:
Hmm. Well, any decent sized tablet would do. I want something else to read my PDFs on besides my laptop.
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The full-sized iPads are a pretty good size, and they have a decent aspect ratio for document reading, not like all those 'wide screen' tablets intended for watching movies on. Of course, they are comparatively pricey.
 
Agemegos said:
It’s raining. Not a lot, but there’ll be a millimetre in the gauges by 9 AM (in 2.5 hours), and we have 10–30mm predicted for later today and tonight. I should be able to find out tomorrow whether my brother is okay and his house still standing.

There are still people in a lot of trouble further north, but for us just here it’s over for now.
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We ended up getting 40.8 mm of rain in the last six days of October, which is not a lot, but there having been only 49.0 mm in the six months preceding it made a big difference. In November so far we've had 112.0 mm, which is a little more than the month's average of 95 mm.

This morning I took a drive up to Bellbrook to see how the upriver country has recovered. On the way I stopped at a little informal lookout to take a photo.

Six weeks ago the prospect looked like this:

IMG_0997 (1).jpeg

This morning, it looked like this:

IMG_1040.jpeg

At Bellbrook the banks of the river were green, the water was deep and clear, flowing well over the rapids, and there were kids wagging school to swim in the river.

I think my new anti-depressant might be kicking in.
 
Agemegos said:
We ended up getting 40.8 mm of rain in the last six days of October, which is not a lot, but there having been only 49.0 mm in the six months preceding it made a big difference. In November so far we've had 112.0 mm, which is a little more than the month's average of 95 mm.

This morning I took a drive up to Bellbrook to see how the upriver country has recovered. On the way I stopped at a little informal lookout to take a photo.

Six weeks ago the prospect looked like this:

View attachment 72039

This morning, it looked like this:

View attachment 72040

At Bellbrook the banks of the river were green, the water was deep and clear, flowing well over the rapids, and there were kids wagging school to swim in the river.

I think my new anti-depressant might be kicking in.
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I want what he's having! :-)

Seriously though, that is an amazing transformation. Glad you're getting some rain; I'm in SoCal, and the last two years we've gotten a lot of rain. Nothing so far this year, but I'm hoping we get a normal amount just to keep the drought at bay...
 
Agemegos said:
We ended up getting 40.8 mm of rain in the last six days of October, which is not a lot, but there having been only 49.0 mm in the six months preceding it made a big difference. In November so far we've had 112.0 mm, which is a little more than the month's average of 95 mm.

This morning I took a drive up to Bellbrook to see how the upriver country has recovered. On the way I stopped at a little informal lookout to take a photo.

Six weeks ago the prospect looked like this:

View attachment 72039

This morning, it looked like this:

View attachment 72040

At Bellbrook the banks of the river were green, the water was deep and clear, flowing well over the rapids, and there were kids wagging school to swim in the river.
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That's quite the contrast. Mind you, seeing this in reverse wasn't that uncommon where I grew up if it was a long, hot summer. Farmers hated it, we thought it a nice change from the mud of winter and spring.
Agemegos said:
I think my new anti-depressant might be kicking in.
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I hope it continues to work - depression is very Not Nice.
 
Sharrow said:
The full-sized iPads are a pretty good size, and they have a decent aspect ratio for document reading, not like all those 'wide screen' tablets intended for watching movies on. Of course, they are comparatively pricey.
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Yeah, I use my iPad mostly as a reading device; it's good for 8.5 x 11 (or A4) page-sized .pdfs that seem standard for a lot of rpgs. It's also nice for standard e-books, since a two-page view is still quite readable, and for comics.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Yeah, I use my iPad mostly as a reading device; it's good for 8.5 x 11 (or A4) page-sized .pdfs that seem standard for a lot of rpgs. It's also nice for standard e-books, since a two-page view is still quite readable, and for comics.
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Comics are a bigger deal than one might suspect. I absolutely hate reading them on my laptop, and a phone is just ridiculous. A second, decent sized, monitor works but that feels like a lot of kit just to read a comic book.
 
Fenris-77 said:
Comics are a bigger deal than one might suspect. I absolutely hate reading them on my laptop, and a phone is just ridiculous. A second, decent sized, monitor works but that feels like a lot of kit just to read a comic book.
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It is hard to find a really satisfactory way to read them on a device. Because I get almost all the e-comics I read through the local public library, I end up accessing them through its Hoopla app. This makes it easy to read frame-by-frame, which is one of the default modes, but if you do that you don't see an entire page at once. You can jump back and forth from full-page to frame-by-frame, but it's slightly clunky to do so and I don't always bother. So when I read comics in e-version I'm paying more attention to the details of each frame than I might with a physical copy, but often missing the page layout.
 
Reading comics and rpg books is one of the few reasons I have a tablet. Wouldn't really need it for anything else. (though it is better for watching shows in bed than my phone would be).

I just have a cheap Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 though. Honestly, I could have gone more expensive but feel like it is "good enough" for everything I do. (Hell you can get one right now in the US for $180 on Best Buy during Cyber Monday sales).

(Edit: Realized I have the A8 not the A7. A8 has a bigger 10.5" screen).
 
EmperorNorton said:
Reading comics and rpg books is one of the few reasons I have a tablet. Wouldn't really need it for anything else. (though it is better for watching shows in bed than my phone would be).

I just have a cheap Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 though. Honestly, I could have gone more expensive but feel like it is "good enough" for everything I do. (Hell you can get one right now in the US for $180 on Best Buy during Cyber Monday sales).

(Edit: Realized I have the A8 not the A7. A8 has a bigger 10.5" screen).
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Sighs. I really could use a new one for reading PDF's and such, but aargh money. Ah well.
 
If you have the skillz to root them or otherwise get to Google play or you have a limited use case, Amazon Fires are ok. I just picked up up a new 7" for $40 during the holiday sale. It looks like refurbished is $37 when not on sale. They have only 16 gb memory and 3 gb ram and Amazon's market has half the apps that Google does but for most size ranges, they are quite a bit cheaper than other options and most/all are Samsung tablets now.
 
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