Good morning!!!!

[mpham]

Do you find remove diesel tank cap hard to spin off?

Yes. Sometimes I think it's welded on there!
Still 34 here with no precipitation falling. Getting windy though!

 

[Wagtail]

Good late (Friday) morning. Overnight Low of 6C and it's presently 17.1C, overcast with gusting winds. There was 0.4mm in the gauge.

Wow, I had a sleep-in this morning... I must have needed it. Looking to head into town as I'm expecting a delivery or two. The PO does alert me if there's anything to pick-up but I need to get motivated today.

Anyway, that's about it... I'm still waiting for Summer to arrive... take care all.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Kind of a successful day, but then it bit me, making me second guess my purchase.
Logically thinking (that's probably where my mistake was) that I should go to BestBuy first for the UPS because at Costco I'll be getting refrigerated stuff.

All good so far, the UPS was in stock, actually $20 less on sale.... great! Waited in a line about 12 people long because there was only 1 cashier! Took a few deep breaths.... all good. Finally on my way to Costco.

I'm glad we live up in the mountains..... I couldn't take the city traffic/ drivers on a daily basis.......

Ok, now at Costco. No problem returning the cheese.... the rep saying "oh my" when he saw the mold. I even showed him the "best before 04/24/2023". This is where my big mistake was --- I went down the electronics section.

Well how about that --- a UPS with higher capacity and better features.... now on sale with an additional $20 off of the sale price! (Sale price didn't show up when I had looked online). I was going to get it, take the other one back.... then I talked myself out of that and headed home....

A lot of thinking went on during that 45 minute drive.... hmmmm -- a better UPS, w/ more capacity for $20 less, including the 2 RT cost of gas.
It's going to get exchanged tomorrow.....

At least gas was only $2.48 /gal. at Costco.

 

[sodamo]

Well Ted, don’t feel lonely. Of course I usually compound the agony by involving Sophie who not only concurs but gives me grief for not making the better decision initially.

Been a very good day here. Top of the list my solar made 100%, 1st time in 18 days. Not really dry, but enough I got the dogs area mowed.

Successfully changed out the oil cooler on XR4140. Not without getting hydro fluid all over of course. I think the most time consuming was getting the mounting bolts. The new cooler used a bracket vs the free nuts of original. I think my fingers are getting less adept at working in tight places. Sure was frustrating at times.

Spent some time power washing the bays where I park the tractors and the worst of the hydro leak. Impressed with 1st attempt. Used one of those round circular cleaner heads. I can see where the whole floor could use a going over. That will be an arduous day.

 

[txdon]

My wife came out of the shower shivering and regretfully told me that we have a problem. No hot water. As I was getting her a heating pad I told her that I flushed out the hot water heater today and forgot to turn it back on. She was relieved that it heated right back up in time for my hot shower and nothing had to be replaced. She is such a good sport.

 

[two_bit_score]

some ramblings...

US unemployment 3.7%
China unemployment 5.7%

will be interesting to see in our interconnected global community how much China's shrinking economy affects us.
Sometimes nations with those problems tend to blame others for their own problems, particularly if government isn't transparent.

5.7% of 1.4 billion people is a lot of folks out of work.
1.4 billion people. Almost hard to comprehend. US is at 332M btw.

China's economic growth has been enormous. And now it is slowing down. makes sense.
Lot of leading indicators in US trending poorly.
But as they say, the appetite for the American consumer seems inexhaustible.
But I do think this Christmas sales season will be down a little.
My retirement account certainly is.

I still see a lot of Hiring signs up.
the quality of service at the lowest minimum wage retail level has been pretty bad for awhile.
Seems like they have more help now.
My local Wells Fargo still doesn't have more than two people at teller banks.
I'm tired of complaining to their branch managers who come and go.

and of course our leading indicator, how many decent sized brand new tractors are on the lots nearby?
Kubota dealer in Doylestown has had several L & M models out there for several weeks now. That would never happen a year ago.

The only way US unemployment’s gets to 3.7% is by writing off all the people who stopped looking for work from the calculation of the rate.

 

[Wagtail]

My wife came out of the shower shivering and regretfully told me that we have a problem. No hot water. As I was getting her a heating pad I told her that I flushed out the hot water heater today and forgot to turn it back on. She was relieved that it heated right back up in time for my hot shower and nothing had to be replaced. She is such a good sport.

Just like my forgetting to turn the horse trough water back on the other day.

(Alright, not exactly the same, but similar)

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 34ºF for the start, mostly clear, light breeze. Light to moderate wind, mostly clear sky, and high temp was 55ºF. Putter in morning, then leaf control got back porch and north sidewalk sucked up. Bike ride in afternoon, nap and Fish club Christmas party.
Helo hope you figured out what to do for the day, plenty cool there.
Scaredy glad you got some seat time.
Ron figuring out where to put the equipment most important part of job. Glad you got nap yesterday. Hope mice are slowing down. Nice pic of yellow ears.
Drew hope you come out from dentist intact.
Billy sounds like you are getting plenty of firewood work done.
Drew interesting ramblings.
Kilroy glad internet is back up, hope different pair helps. Sorry about the illness, get better soon. Hope you can get back to milling soon.
Bill hope day turns out as planned.
Drew enjoy your snow.
Kilroy nice setup.
Buppies good to hear no bent trees. We get out cold air Thursday. prayers sent.
Paul hope you found something interesting.
Frits hope repairs goes well, I understand about less likely to do all the maintenance on the vehicles.
Don good to hear foot healing well. Next week will end colder .
Ken sorry fatigue not giving up.
Chris sorry about the ice. Hope oak drops leaves soon. I need at least one more mow.
Ron good point about proper foot support around house.
Dennis sorry about ice. sorry about change in WX data retention change with no warning
RNG hope trip is good. Roller may start for a while now it has been jarred.
Don thanks for info on support.
Buppies thanks for shoe/sandal info. Trees will be bending soon if not already.
Frits good to know custom insert worked for you.
Don quite the arch.
Don unless we get the cold front 2 winter ago over Christmas.
Jim sorry about drug store out of stock. Good leaf control has wife happy. Hope stereo install and cleanup went well.
Don thanks for update.
RS good luck getting wife to part with sewing machine if they are in good shape. Hope discussion allows for leak fixing. Hope Thursday went well.
Rich hope passport goes smoothly. Hope firewood dries out in a year.
Phil glad you are ready.
David good to hear Honda back up and generating. Dogs will be happy with their area mowed.,Good luck with LS oil cooler.
Ted glad wife has work around to use 'puter. Sorry about cheese, and yes you shouls put UPS on to protest the PCB on pellet stove.
Dennis, neat pic.
Mark but when you can't find it...
Thomas enjoy early date night.
Bill waiting for plow report.
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle /Daughter, /mom's breathing, /learning new job, /friends upcoming new baby, /son's migraines, Bird /aging issues, Roy /passed away, /wife ankle,recover from getting sick, Don /brother medical procedure, Ron /broken arm and heart, Billy /mom hypertension & congestive heart failure, David(moss) /remodel, /divorce, Buppies /new skin cancer spot and treatment, /elbow healing, /wife knee healing, Thomas /gout, /wife's pain, Phil /reflux, /wife's eyes and fall, Frits/ daughters hip replacement /veteran son with mental issues, Ken /dad possible dementia, /uncle's surgery, Steppenwolfe /son-auto immune disorder, Grev /wife's eye, Ted /knee recovery, /retirement & disability red tape, /family issues, /wife feeling bad, Lou / eye issues, Doug and wife/health issues, / hand nerve and surgery, /fall and recovery, / wife headaches and heart eval, / David(sadamo)/Sophie's new eye surgery recovery, Chris /neighbor's granddaughter and Covid issues, Scaredy/shoulder dislocation, /wife not feeling well, /marriage not doing well, / friend stop drinking, Paul/ wife's healing from back surgery, Dennis /retirement, /coughing, /neighbor issues, /land development, / brother "alligallyitus" and back in hospital, Drew /foot heel issues, /friend's wife cancer diagnosis and recovery, mike /wife's surgery, Scotty, /back pain, Frits /daughter recovery from surgery, Helogabals /second opinion, /wife's friend situation, Mark /wife colon surgery, Fatjay /father broken hip, Ukraine war, and Country.

 

[daugen]

I'm up way too early, wind blowing the flag banging against shutter in bedroom.
Cold and wet out

forecast shows we might have a white Christmas! Supposed to get very cold, in the teens, with precip later this week

mouth a little sore this morning but at least I can chew again. Admit being a little tentative biting down on anything.

and oh boy, what a story at the dentist yesterday.

He told me why I kept getting infections below one tooth.
Just had the second one, luckily dosing myself immediately with penicillin.
Crown, which then had a root canal, should be dead as can be. Nope.

Seems the doc in NC when doing the root canal broke off the very end of his dental pic at the bottom of my tooth.
Might not have realized he did it.
Endodontist last week put me through a 435 dollar high tech xray, which turned out to be a CT of the teeth, expensive machine........,
and lo and behold, lit up like a torch was that small piece of metal in my jaw, at base of tooth. Where the infection was.
Just lovely, and I get MRIs too...

So back to endodontist I go and have my jaw cut open from the interior side and he digs out the "appliance" as they called it.
Uh, really? Appliance is something you intentionally put in. I already have a 5 inch long titanium rod in my neck. That is an appliance.
Leaving a piece of the tool in me is not an appliance.

I will send the 1500 dollar endodontist surgical bill to the dentist in NC.
I never asked for extra parts.

 

[Wagtail]

^^^
Bugger.

 

[daugen]

^^^
Bugger.

I wonder if best practices says a dentist should inspect his tools when finished?...
When I send the bill down to old dentist, who subbed me out to someone, I'm going to suggest that for the future.

I know surgeons have to count their bandages and tools.
It's the MRI that gives me the creeps. I get them fairly routinely due to falling apart.
What if it sucked it straight up through top of my head?
that doesn't sound like it would end well

I need to go back to sleep but doesn't look promising.
time for an early cup of coffee
Wagtail, late evening for you?

 

[sodamo]

That had to be upsetting Drew
Sure hope the NC dentist acts responsibly.

 

[daugen]

Thanks David.
Funny, I come from a family of lawyers but would never consider suing a doc if it was an honest mistake.
this probably goes over the line a little.
Wonder if he ever noticed one of his pics was shorter than the others...
I just want them to pay the bill to fix it. Nothing more. Nothing less for sure.

When my Mother got uterine cancer, she was operated on by a prominent local surgeon, unsuccessfully.
Cancer not excised, bad margins, did nothing but spread the problem.
He came to my Father at our home and apologized for not doing the procedure differently.
He did the best he could and made the wrong decision.
My Mother would have died anyway for other reasons I'm quite sure, but can you imagine a doc today coming to your
home to apologize?
I believe my Father and the doctor polished off an entire quart of scotch together and left on good terms.
drink to ease the common pain.

if this was a drunk hurting me in an accident, woe to them. This was a guy trying to help me. He gets some slack.
but clearly should not profit on that procedure if he leaves something inside me. So he will pay the bill. Or his insurance company will.
He would be dumb to put in a claim. These folks make a LOT of money.

 

[ronjhall]

Coffee is done brewing. 30° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 34° with chance of early evening snow. Got .40" of rain. Got all the new items installed for security system yesterday. Need todo some cleanup today. Waiting for one more item to show up before doing final setup. Not sure what I will get into today.
Caught this little guy getting a couple minutes of late afternoon sunshine.

Drew, sorry to hear about tooth problems. Hope Dentist takes care of the bill.

Everyone stay safe and well.

Good Morning All.

 

[Helogabals]

Good morning

Still around -10 C (14 F)
As we started to share fuel prices - yesterday here retailers made a little price war. For few hours gas was as low as 5.9 $/gal. Regular price is ~ 6.8 $/gal
Motorists were queuing around petrol stations. IMHO silly, they could have saved maybe 10 $. Keep in mind - average gas tank for EU car is ~ 10 gal. One of my companies van has 80 liters (20 gal), which is considered big for passenger car but normal for commercial van


Other than that - yesterday late evening brought twins to dentist, the same clinic where I am going, just other doc, specialist for kids. One boy had rather deep cavity and just in dentist chair he started to tell that sometimes that tooth already was giving pain... So doc has to go went till nerve, but then instead to kill nerve she used some top-notch bio material for filling, which will turn into dental bone. Sounded like witchcraft, but those are latest discoveries
With other guy was more simple, just one small black spot.
Anyway - that was their first serious experience with dentist
Together for both boys paid little more than 200 $. Money well spent, IMHO. Theoretically could be 0.0, as here kids dental care is included in our "Medicare". But that "free" has some drawbacks - long queues, weak specialists, poorly equipped clinics. So I chose to pay all myself (later I will got 50 % off with my personal income tax reduction, just have to send pic of invoice to our IRS) and have top service by all means.
Kids were behind my back when I was paying and just later I figured that they felt sorry for this expenses they have unnecessarily created by poor dental hygiene, not brushing good enough etc
Gave them both lecture not to waste time if there is pain. Should have scheduled this some "moons ago"
That is what I have done wrong when I was their age. My father passed away early, mother almost has no influence on me - rebel teenager. State were falling - wild '90, there was not decent technologies, neither will, neither money to do proper medical services. So now I have to live with poor decisions I have made that time, when I was their age, ok little older, but the same mental capacities . Have agreed we will not the same mistake with them.

 

[wngsprd]

33, and starry sky. Rain gone after about 2 inches. Looking for 52 in sunshine.

Yesterday's rain and wife going to friend's for yoga Christmas party gave me some free time inside. What to do? After regular morning chores, decided to watch a 007 movie I didn't think I'd ever seen but had recorded...Moonraker...with one of least favorite James Bonds (Connery will always be #1.) Got about halfway through and decided I needed to roast coffee, since I had sent nearly all my recent roasts to the yoga ladies for Christmas. Then needed to check on something outside, and ended up taking a 35 degree rainy hike. The forest is so different in the rain or snow. Just finished the movie this morning.

Friday already?

 

[Buppies]

Hard to believe wngsprd Friday already time is flying

sorry about tooth trouble Drew

Lots of ice yesterday mainly in trees 1.48 inches of liquid no power loss. Cold air from my original forecast delayed until end of next week but with highs in 20s lows single digit will wake you up

Tractor still sleeping

Prayers for all our Country

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, the low temperature is 31 and going to a high of 32°F. Wind ESE 15 gusting to 23 mph. Snow today will amount to a couple of inches they say. We got 6" from the storm, I will plow that when I get back from town. I will turn the back blade around from this ) to this ( and cut it right down to the gravel. The only place I wont do that is where I plow across the well line. There I will only use the V plow.

I had 5 gigs of music on a 8 gig stick in the Jeep and when I quit using the Jeep on longish trips (157 miles) I stripped the music off that stick, the Dodge doesn't have such an option.
Now I find that the International I am driving has a usb port for music on the radio, so last evening I spent about an hour reloading the stick. Maybe I will stuff the stick into the computer today and listen to some of it.

Drew, good luck getting NC dentist to pony up the 1500. You may have to sue him for it. I do hope that you kept the evidence.

Town and dump run today and I had better get another 5 gallons of ethanol free high test fuel for the genny. I keep the genny full and 15 gallons on hand over winter, then use that up cutting grass in summer. What I don't use up in summer gets put into the Dodge in fall. That way I always have fresh fuel in winter for the genny.

Have a safe day all

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
It’s 40 and going to stay there all day. It’s still raining, total Is about 1.5” and the Davis and Tempest actually agree on that. Supposed to taper off later this afternoon.

Yesterday we decided that the sloppy freezing rain and snow would keep people home, so we made a Costco run. Traffic was light, but more shoppers than we expected, still not crowded, but we expected empty. I put things away and did some organizing in the shop, spent way too long watching Colin Furze build a tunnel from his workshop to his house on YouTube.
That’s what happens when no one calls with something for me to fix. Almost forgot to get the trash and recycling down to the street, not a pleasant task in the weather at the time. I kept delaying, thinking it would improve. When I remembered I didn’t do it it was no less miserable than the rest of the day, but now it was dark as well.

Today I’ve got to decide what will go in the crockpot for the boys this evening, as you can’t play music on an empty stomach. That may involve a trip to the grocery store.

First outing is grandson’s nursery school Christmas program this morning.
If nothing better comes up, I really should tidy up my desk in the shop and the music room, both of which sorely need it.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning!

God has given us another chance to get it right (or at least not screw up too badly).

it is 26 degrees F colder this morning than it was this time yesterday — but it is DRY! So hopefully our delivery goes well later.

All nine hens decided that they were going to sleep out on the roosting bar in the covered run instead of the coop. I hope they enjoyed waking up in 25F weather! I haven’t gone out and checked then yet, but i can hear some screaming because they want their morning birdseed, and I have to reload pellets in the feeders.

I did some spot-checking on this year’s firewood with a moisture meter and I am coming in anywhere between 9% and 15% moisture, so that is good news (if you can trust the Horrible Fright meter. . .)

Sitting in the sink are another two dozen hard boiled eggs, waiting to be shelled and pickled. I need to find a good “sweet” pickle recipe for eggs since MrsKilroyJC does NOT do spicy. . . She starts sweating when I wave a bottle of Frank’s in the same room as her. . .

have a wonderful, safe, and happy Friday everyone!