Good morning!!!!

[scaredychicken]

Good Evening All

I'm mostly still catching up on things here

RNG - the drone neighbour proably has his name on the stupid drone, or a phone number or some identifier. I think a potato gun that can shoot a net out to capture the drone would be good. Drone Wars might also be a reasonable option. I hope that this matter gets resolved soon.

We've had a day or two now where the temperatures hit 30, 31 C (about 90 F) no breeze, light rain ... just enough to keep the mud alive

another day of errands today

the chickens are being silly

 

[Bird]

85° this morning at 3 a.m., not a breath of air moving when I stepped outside, and going for another forecast high of 103°. The county instituted a burn ban yesterday. Looks as if we can expect a new record high, miserably hot summer.

 

[Buppies]

65 high of 87 today no rain in sight for a few days. Prayers for all

Prayers for Kyle, Eric Toppop Helogabals our Country

 

[wngsprd]

66 and fog, going to 90 and sun.

Prayers, Toppop.

Popg, thanks for the FAA info. I just got an email reminder from them to renew my drone registration.

Mostly, I knew some in Texas had suggested seceding from the USA, but didn't know they meant leaving the whole planet.

 

[daugen]

good morning all
another nice summer day, sunny up to high 80's.

Drew did you have fingers crossed when you promised to be good for two weeks

seems I'm too well known here.....actually I had to look him in the eye when I told him that after he eyerolled me recounting my mowing adventures.

never got mower off trailer, just left it there. So cleanup this morning, mow my own lawn, and need to do floors in house. Really want to hire a housecleaner but haven't found
one yet.

I left squash out for neighbors with a little sign and four out of six squash were gone last night. Will see if any left this morning. Poor squash kinda cooked out there in the heat.
Maybe I should leave a cooler out with ice packs in it................

speaking of farm stands...RS, have you built yours yet. When all that stuff comes in, you two are going to be hauling basket loads of veggies out of there.
Keep what you can, give stuff away, then rest to local food banks.

neck is a little sore, no surprise, but doing ok this morning. Hope to get outside before it gets too hot. I cooked in the sun yesterday, yes no top to mower, short sleeve shirt, a mistake, despite slathering gobs of spf 50 on me. Despite the sun tan stuff, I still feel baked this morning. Sun is terrible on the skin, some of us sure know that.

find someone to be kind to today.

Buckeye, glad you are getting a new more automatic gen. really a hassle running extension cords, and I simply would melt into a blob without hvac.

 

[NHBX]

65° now dew point 62 high’s in the upper 70’s with maybe some thunder storms this afternoon. A few showers last night maybe .10” I’ll take it.

Yesterday turned into a day of irritation playing phone tag with financial people to get some money stuff changed around but got thing’s done in the end. Maybe it’s just me but customer service and knowledgeable representatives seems to be a thing of the past in many instances. Oh well must be my age.

On a “lighter“ note the wife’s tomato plants were devoid of any tomatoes and any flowers when I went to water them yesterday evening lol. Saw a little brown sob scurrying into the woods (ground hog). The mrs wasn’t happy. Critters is one of the reasons I didn’t want to bother with a veggie garden.

Not much planned for today, maybe a ride over to the coast for lunch. That’ll make the mrs happier!

Enjoy your day everyone
Stay safe and healthy

Prayers for those in need, our country and peace around the world

 

[daugen]

Maybe it’s just me but customer service and knowledgeable representatives seems to be a thing of the past in many instances

let me guess, they had to read off a ton of legal notices and repeat everything twice...if they are pros, they have a ton of rules to follow.

Thankfully I can do my own stuff, was in the business once, but your comment is sure dead on when we think about Tractor Supply.

Could you show me where your three point hitch pins are?

What's a three point hitch?

honest word for word...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Something eating my bean plants, probably groundhogs.
So nice sleeping with AC.

 

[daugen]

when I moved to Washington NC and bought the farm there, the coolest thing was that the first store I got to heading into town, maybe `12 minutes away was TSC.
When I got there, all the staff were women, and boy were they good. I think several of them were local and had grown up on farms with tractors. Store was very well run and I was in there constantly.
Over the years, seemed like management changed, and now there were young guys who knew nothing. Including the guy who didn't know what a three point hitch was.
this brings back other retail memories.

when I owned my Radio Shack in this little town, I had five employees, plus my wife. They were all enthusiasts. They really liked working in an electronics shop where there was something, in fact at least half, that wasn't Radio Shack. That whole silvery plastic look of their stores always turned me off. So I went with solid oak slatwall, nice brown berber carpet, places to sit, etc.
And it worked. Did almost a million dollars in sales volume my last year before selling store. Was really important to me all employees knew where the thermistors were even if they had no clue what a thermistor did. or a triode or triac. Or a ???. Plus they had to know how to read the coding on resistors. All those little colored bands. Hard on the eyes.

Before printed circuits, there were a lot of little parts and we stocked every little part Radio Shack offered. The fact I had built Heath Kits in the past probably influenced doing retail after selling my insurance agency. That store was fun because we all kept it neat and clean and well stocked. Landlord next door got annoyed because common parking lot was always full. Tough. I built an adult toy store and it was great fun. Couldn't do it again, can't compete against internet.

if you are going to do a job, do it well. learn your trade. Know your stuff. Or you will be replaced by a drone giving directions.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 78˚ heading to 100s however we might have some could cover this afternoon and hopefully a bit cooler than predicted.

Our card club has a meeting this morning and I'll attend to see if they are receptive to my idea to speed up the games by reducing wait times by having individual table timers instead of one room timer.

It is recommend to get a new hearing aid every 5 years because of changing technology, it's been 8 years for me. Costco is about 1/3 the price but quality really depends on the audiologist that is giving you the test and programing the hearing aids to your particular loss. The hearing aids do not just amplify sound and frequencies you cannot hear it cancels back ground noise. They are also directional and can have multiple programs. Switching to different programs (example: car to restaurant mode) is automatic or manual and now the hearing aids are rechargeable. I have lots of questions to ask and lots of options to choose from.

 

[kenmbz]

Morning all, hot yesterday (over 90) so just did some pool work and put out Japanese beetle traps as they are starting to proliferate.
Have them about 50 or so from their targets so they don't go through the bushes to get to the traps.

PopG - how are you feeling? Good to see you back.
NHBX - Groundhogs are why my 7' high chickenwire fence is also stapled down. They are very good at getting under things and lifting. I went from 50'x50' garden to 2 3x6 gardens, just so I could control the situation better.

Some famous Rome sights:

Leaving Rome for Naples - note the train speed

They are also in a drought and heatwave - was around 90 when in Rome-went up to 100 the day after we left.

 

[RoyJackson]

2022-07-14, 0851

64° right now...high in the mid-70's....maybe some T-Storms later today

Wife and stepdaughter left at 0130 for Lebanon NH to catch a bus to the Boston airport. They're at the airport now...flight leaves in about half an hour. They're going to visit another stepdaughter in St. Augustine, FL
I'm home, dog sitting. That's the Plan of the Day.
Was up when they prepping to leave and back up about 0700...not enough sleep so I think I'm going to lie back down. Margeaux is lying in the hall...looking for her mom, I reckon. She'll climb up on the bed soon enough...

 

[NHBX]

let me guess, they had to read off a ton of legal notices and repeat everything twice...if they are pros, they have a ton of rules to follow.

No, to explain a little further I’ve had my investments with this company for over 30 years. The rep I’ve had for year’s retired and the new rep is a younger one and apparently new to the company and not really trained well enough. (IMHO) The issue was something as simple as renewing a deferred annuity that had matured. He wanted to mail me some forms to fill out and I told him no we can do it over the phone and use an electronic signature. He was sure it couldn’t be done like that, funny that’s that’s how it’s been done in the past. Finally got him to transfer me to someone higher up, voice mail who would of thunk it! Finally called the main number and explained my situation and got transferred to a rep that knew what to do and in less tha 20 minutes all done This is the first time I dealt with the new rep but it probably won’t be the last unless I demand a new one which I won’t do.

Now on to TSC, we have 3 in area and if you don’t have a real good idea of what you need and where it may be in the store you are out of luck lol.

Before Rad shack we had Archer Kent, staffed with folks who knew their stuff and could offer advice and solutions.

Anywho just venting,

 

[daugen]

you should vent, and shows why asking for a supervisor makes sense. I have to sometimes to get someone who speaks better English.

having a deferred annuity with some performance guarantees was always attractive to me as the one part of investment portfolio
that you could totally count on. When you can't count on anything else,(except CDs) you can only hope. with market down so much now, those guarantees show their worth
if your timing is good. Trick is to get annuity with low fees. I always felt that anyone who wanted more than 1 percent was simply greedy.
I used to have software that would highlight every fee in the food chain.

why did my portfolio go up 4 percent when the market went up 6 percent? Well, sir, there are fees and expenses.
But it's all masterfully buried in nice presentation graphs.
This is why I always liked Vanguard, cheapest rates around for most.

 

[PJSprog]

67°F and partly cloudy this morning, going up to 95° today.

Everyone at work enjoyed the relative quiet yesterday. No tires screeching in and out of the parking lot across the street, no prostitutes and drug dealers screaming at each other, no crackheads defecating on our sidewalks, and no gunfire. The gas station / convenience store did reopen at some point yesterday, but it was very quiet there, too, as there was a police cruiser parked on the lot most of the afternoon.

Got most of the rest of the grass mowed after work yesterday evening. There were some areas of the pasture that had grown fairly high, so I just mowed the whole thing. Still need to mow the front yard this evening. I wasn't going to, as it's not too bad, but The Wife reversed that decision for me.

Drew, I remember enjoying frequent trips to the Radio Shack in my home town. I got interested in electronics at an early age, and was always repairing or modifying or building something. The Shack always had what I needed. Then, sometime in the '80s, that started to change, as they began switching over from an electronic components supply business to a consumer electronics sales business. Suddenly, about 90% of their store was computers and telephones, and the isles of electronics parts were mostly replaced with a giant catalog on a stand from which they could order the parts I needed. Well, the internet came along shortly after that, so I just stopped going there, and they eventually closed anyway. The last real electronics store I knew of in the STL area (Gateway Electronics) closed it's doors a couple years ago. They'd moved into an indoor mall right before alligatoritis shut everything down, and it killed their already struggling business. Now, everything has to come from the internet from places like MCM/Newark and Parts Express. Leaves me wondering if all brick-and-mortar stores are heading for that same fate.

Good morning, gents.

 

[daugen]

I sold that store when I realized after five years I was an outdoors person, missed being outdoors too much.
Worked 6 1/2 days a week. Not enough outdoor time.

funny I bet today Ken and Paul locally would be great fans of my old store. I wish I had taken pictures of the inside. Only have pic when I sold the place.
To a genuine rocket scientist.

After I sold the business I was promptly contacted by old acquaintance who wanted help growing his electric power industry combustion turbine parts business.
And off to walking on top of the Conowingo Dam I went. We were selling Schlumberger measurement sensor pods, hardened industrial stuff, mostly to replace
strip recorders. Analog going digital. We got the scraps GE and Westinghouse left behind. What a fun place to poke around if you liked machinery.
Sure didn't touch much...

if you had to think of the most interesting job you had, while not on a tractor.
I never had kids so had freedom to try different things.

well, rest is over, should be dry out there by now after cleaning everything off.
Time to grease while sitting up high. I think I have enough air hose.

front bumper on mower not all that sturdy. Might need some reinforcement for tow ball.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low was 59°, going up to 88°, slight chance of a storm. I swear the meteorologist just get together and coordinate a generic forecast.... "Yep--- that will work for a while... we'll just say that"....

Shame about the flash flooding in SW Virginia. Tough on the small community.
There have been a few flash floods in the burn scar areas. But nothing devastating like back there.

Going for the neurologist appointment this morning. Hopefully will get some answers. Being I'll be in town, going to do some errands, Costco being on the list. It will be hot by then, so probably won't procrastinate too long.

Everyone have a great day!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I got to ordering my electronic parts from digikey back in the late 70s or early 80s. Digikey is still around. RS just stopped carrying the parts. Used to get my free battery every month in early 70s.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Shame about the flash flooding in SW Virginia. Tough on the small community.
!

I missed that news.

 

[daugen]

Radio Shack battery cards. S&H Green Stamps.
things of the past

terrible localized flooding in mountains of SW Virginia, remote area, wrecked a lot of homes
Buppies, how far from you?

mowing done. Taking a load off and cooling off.
Now to put that trailer away manually for hopefully the last time.
Going to try putting my fairly heavy duty garden cart under the hitch, so if not dragging through the gravel, could work.