More Catching Up

 I did something to my shoulder and cannot bring it full circle without the ibuprofen.  Even with the meds it still hurts a tad when I try perform some basic function that involves my left arm, like typing.  I have a lot of things I want and need to do around the house now that the weather is warming up, but I also know that if I overdo it, I will injure myself further.  So with great frustration, the great garage cleanout reorg is delayed again.

The Saturday after Martin Luther King's Birthday, a good part of the country, including our neck of the woods, was hit with a big ice storm.  We knew it was coming in the sense that it's not gonna pass us by, be mild, or be short-term.  We knew the kids would be home for at least a week.  

It turned out to be two weeks.  The first week was declared an emergency and doesn't need to be made up, but apparently, they are still figuring out the second week. The kids had to give up President's Day as the first make-up day, hopefully the only one

Sidenote: our county does this thing where if there is a holiday during the week (typically a Monday Holiday) garbage pickup is shifted one day.  This usually isn't a problem but remember that It's Definitely Coming Storm!  Everyone whose pickup is on Friday had to wait two weeks until theirs got picked up, as well as the rest of the county for the following week.

I get the Holiday Day Shift, but they ended up doing it again in the second week, so it would have been better to somehow get all the pre-storm garbage collected.  

Meanwhile, the storm allowed Nightingale to "help" the kids get their science fair projects completed.  They would have been due Jan 27 but were extended to February 11th and we used each weekend we were home to move the project forward instead of wait until the last minute.  Yay Nightingale.

Catching Up

 We had a warm Christmas week.  It was so nice that the kids could be outside and we could have fires.  After the Michigan in-laws left, the weather cooled.  That Sunday (December 28th), we had a storm.  Sometime in the night, the winds blew down this tree.

I thought about renting a chainsaw from Home Depot and cutting at least the fallen part down myself.  But my lawn crew, ever eager to make a buck, offered to do it for me for $1500.  They actually offered to do it for $2600 back in Sept when the tree was still standing, but being unemployed, I opted not to, so I guess my cheapness saved me $1100.

As I get older, I've learned to outsource as much as I can possibly afford.  This same lawn crew offered to plow my driveway for $200.  My driveway is at least one football field long, maybe two, and it would have taken Nightingale and me hours to do it by shovel.

Because of the once a year bad weather, the kids have been home all week, and likely into next week.  Nightingale had Monday and Tuesday off, but had to use PTO for it.  She is also home on Friday for an unrelated to the storm reason. 

Overbooking my Thursday

 One of my superpowers is scheduling different things on the same day, which often leads to conflict.  I made an appointment to get a liver ultrasound today, not remembering that it was also the day our cleaning lady comes.  She doesn't have a set time, but it is usually the 9 am hour, often the last half of it.  

Fortunately, this is a small town and it doesn't take long to get across it.  Mrs E also came relatively early so I was able to give her some instructions that I needed to relay; otherwise, I would have left the garage door open and gone to my appointment early.  I also called them and they said i had a 15-minute grace period so no need to reschedule.  As it was, I got there at 9:35, no thanks to some black sedan that wouldn't make a left when the light turned green.  when it failed to move the second green light, I went around it.

next week I have my last eye clinical trial appointment.  It is on the day that our shower door is supposed to arrive.  The door was supposed to be here on Tuesday but they called and said it was delayed.  

Win some, lose some:  I paid my lawn guy an extra $150 to remove the weeds from the front of the house.  it might have been too much, but neither Nightingale or I were gonna do it.  I was so proud.  But after picking up the kids, I discovered that the stand-up freezer had been opened a crack all night.  For some reason, my kids (probably Boris) just cannot remember to close the doors correctly.  I'm not sure what we will do about all the food.  

This isn't the first time either.  Last week, they left the garage fridge wide open, and now NG won't let us use the 70 eggs for anything besides scrambled or hard-boiled.

This crate literally arrived via a slow boat from China

This crate looks like one of those crates you see in old Mummy movies, filled with Egyptian artifacts.  This one contains our new bathroom vanity.  I ordered it on July 28, 2025, and it took until Sept 2nd to arrive.  

Better not be any mummies in here

We ordered it through Amazon, but it was via a 3rd party vendor.  On August 25th, I got the following message from the seller via the Amazon portal:

"Dear customer, your goods have arrived in the western port of the United States, is arranging for the driver delivery, the driver will complete the distribution will communicate with you by phone time to sign for, please pay attention to answer the call, thank you!"

So it took a month to get here from China and then another week to get to my house.  It was delivered in a semi-truck, which creates its own issues.

The road that runs parallel to my subdivision prohibits trucks.  I'm not sure about the one on the other side but the truck driver who called me probably didn't want to chance it.  he called the local police and got permission to ignore the sign.

This is a case of the Spirit of the Law overriding the Letter of the Law.  You don't want trucks driving on certain roads because of long term damage.  But you need to be able to transport things to homes without having to offload to a smaller vehicle.

Technically, the delivery guy was supposed to leave it at the curb but he was nice enough to bring it up the hill (with my help) to our detached garage.  My contractor and his crew got to work on it the next day and it mostly went off without a hitch.  There are some issues and we are working on them.

Begin Rant: so while in hindsight I know there were things we could have done better and faster and maybe even cheaper, I refuse to let this damage my already life-long beaten confidence.  The learning curve is high and I did not get a lot of help from my contractor.  For something like this you need input from a designer and the only contractor to offer that was the guy who quoted twice what our contractor quoted.  I'm not saying Obi-wan wasn't helpful, he's been terrific, but I feel like he could have helped us more with the tile selection.

End Rant.

More Car Trouble

During our vacation, we had to replace the battery in the Minivan.  Less than a week later, I had to replace the thermostat.  On Wednesday of this week, the car wouldn't start while I was at Boris' OT.  I got a jump and made it back home, but then the car died again.

When this light comes on, it's serious

Since Thursday was July 4th, no auto shops were open.  For fun, I tried jumping the car again and had mixed results.  The car did power up but I accidentally crossed the streams of the jumper cables when I took them off the car providing the recharge.  This caused the car to turn off and a red dot to appear on the dashboard.  Uncle Google said this is a security feature that supposedly makes your car inoperable in case...it's not clear why this would help.

Working on your car in the South be like

There was no power to anything else.  Which means car doors don't work.  The trunk door won't open.  The driver and passenger have manual door openers but you really need to be able to open side doors and trunks.  

I didn't spend too much time on it because it was so Fucking Hot yesterday I couldn't be outside without breaking into a sweat even just standing still, let alone trying to troubleshoot a vehicle.

This morning, for grins and giggles, I decided to try again.  The red dot was still there.  I put my jumper cables on my battery and purposely cross the other set to see if I get a spark.  A spark would mean the battery has power.  I did get a spark.  But only one.  the second time I tried, there was nothing.  I removed the cables and checked the cab.  This time, the lower-level things did work, but the car didn't start.

I went back and attempted to put the cables back on.  when I put the red on the positive side of the battery, the battery shook, and the car simulated the sounds it makes when you try to start it up.  

I tried to start the car and it powered up.  Yes!  And then I put on my Bad Decision Jeans.  I told the kids that they had to come with me or go over to Kendra's house.  They chose the latter and wisely so, as it would turn out.

For some reason, I was locked into the idea that the car didn't have enough charge.  So I decided to drive it around for 30 minutes.  But about 15-20 minutes into that, the dashboard display and other electrical systems started to flicker.  I decided that I should turn around and go straight to the automotive place I had tried calling all morning with no answer.  I was about 2 miles away when the car went dead while driving.  I didn't have the smarts to pull over because Missippippi Road shoulders don't really exit.  I was trying to make it to a cutout to a subdivision but was stopped 50 yards short.  While driving, I put the car in Neutral and tried to restart, no luck.  So I put it in Park, which was good and bad.  Bad in that there was now no way to push it. But good in that it wouldn't get into an accident by suddenly moving on its own.

So there I am dead in the water at Pleasant Hill, between Goodman Rd and Nall Rd.  At the moment I decided to enact a U-turn and head toward the auto shop, I was also talking to my FIL.  I would need a ride home.  At his bequest, I called Triple-A again because we would need a tow.  I wanted desperately to avoid that because it is such a painful process to get them to send anyone (feature, not bug), but I did so.  

Because I wasn't completely off the road -- not even close -- all the cars going North had to go around me in a No-Passing Zone when it was clear to do so.  Many good samaritans wanted to give me a jump but I explained that was not the problem.  And because I was in Park, there was no way to move the car.  

While we were waiting for the Tow Truck, I tried to repeat my earlier steps to see if I could get the car started.  My FIL felt it was futile but I've learned to go against his recommendations and once again I was right.  I got the car started and was able to drive it to the Autoshop, where I learned why they weren't answering their phone.  They were closed.

It makes sense.  Nobody wants to work anymore.  They are closed on the weekends and were obviously closed for the 4th.  Why not give your crew a 4-day weekend, especially since it likely doesn't cost the shop owner since the mechanics probably get paid only when they are working.  

Triple-A called at that exact moment to tell me they were on the way so I was able to cancel the tow.  The options were to leave the car there or find an open place.  The risk was driving a car that might become disabled at any moment.  A quick call to Nightingale confirmed the right decision was to leave the car.  

Next week Natasha starts Soccer Camp.  We could technically walk there but the heat will still be terrible.  So we will rely on the In-Laws to get her there and back, while I deal with the car.

Update from the Future: The problem with the battery was the connection.  Between the plastic pads I was required to buy with my new battery and the existing corrosion on the battery terminals, it was causing the battery to "act as if it were not attached to the vehicle".  The Autoshop charged me $40 cash (aka under the table, off the books) and we have been good to go ever since.

How snow fall can snowball in a Mid-South city

Because of holidays and snow days, my kids have been out of school more days than they have been in school so far this year.

It's understandable why they didn't have school yesterday as the snow was finally melting.  Not having it today is a questionable decision.  I get that they had to make it based on how conditions looked at 8 pm last night.  They couldn't count on the snow and ice being melted by the time school buses needed to pick up kids (it mostly was).

But honestly, it is damn near impossible to work while my kids are home.  First, they seem to know when I'm on a call and they come into the kitchen area and make lots of noise.

Second, Boris is an eating machine and I have to keep him from raiding the fridge and eating all the food at once.  

It's a balmy 50 degrees right now which is good for melting the last remnants of the snowfall.  But it also means it's wet and muddy so playing outside is not an option.

The snow also affected garbage pickup.  It was already going to be a day late because of MLK Day.  For some reason here, a Monday holiday causes everything to shift one day whereas in Chicago it would be caught up by Thursday.  But the snow made it impossible for the trucks to do pickup so we skipped a week.  Apparently, there were problems yesterday and they are gonna try to catch up today.  

We have two garbage bins which average about 1.5 fullness unless we have family over.  But our recycle bin is almost full and I still have some boxes and our usual daily production to figure out.  I could run some over to my FIL since he only recycles cardboard boxes.

January is the longest month

 For those keeping track at home, our kids were on break from school since Dec X.  They went back on January 4th for two days.  Then we kept them home that Monday because of COVID.  We sent them back but this week they were off on Monday for MLK Day.  But since Mississippi experienced more snowfall (8 inches) and colder weather (zero degrees) than usual, school was closed on Tuesday and Today.  It will likely be closed all week because the temperatures will get not high enough to melt something like it usually does down here next week.

Now, to be sure, it makes perfect sense that MS doesn't invest heavily in snow removal equipment. If you average 1 inch of snow yearly that typically melts a day later, why spend the money?   Reports vary but we don't have snowplows or salt trucks, or if we do, there is only one per county, if at all.

That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.  The amount of snow Mississippi received would not raise an eyebrow back in Chicago.  We would have dug ourselves out and the roads would have been plowed in time for Tuesday morning commuters.  

Luckily, my kids have discovered that a schoolmate lives kitty-corner to our lot line.  So they have had someone to play with outside in this cold.  They wore themselves out yesterday and slept through the night without any issues.  Well, Boris went to bed early because of a headache which seems to have disappeared today.  I'm making sure he drinks more water today to rule out simple dehydration.

Nice Try Though

last week my in-laws gave us their tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  It was a date night but because it was last minute, so many things went wrong.

The good:  loved the pyro-techno part.

|The Bad: some of the slow songs (something about a train) were boring.

The Ugly: after the "Christmas story" was over, the lead came out and said "I know it's a school night but we are gonna play a couple of songs from our newest album.

I was under the impression that there would be two more songs and it would be over.  but they just kept playing.  and playing ..and playing.  

IF I had known the encore was gonna go on for an hour, that would have been one thing.  but I felt like they were just gonna play one more song and then we could go.  so I was trapped.

when the concert finally ended, it took a ridiculous amount of time to exit the FedEx Arena because 1) a lot of Slow Moving People and 2) The Powers that be decided that everyone should exit the way they came in....one exit location for 7200 people.  

This house has some serious electrical issues

 The other day I noticed the deck lights didn't turn on automatically.  We only have an outlet on one side of the deck, from which we run two power strips.  We have the deck lights and a few other things connected to these.

After some light investigation, I determined that the outlet wasn't providing any power.  Unfortunately, troubleshooting requires turning the junction boxes on and off and that isn't something I can do when Nightingale is working.  Last night I finally got a chance and while that didn't solve the problem, it did point me in the right direction.  We have a light switch in the kids' room that always throws a breaker on the circuit board.  I flipped it on, then reset the breaker, and then the deck lights worked again.

BUT...last night one of our Air Conditioning units stopped working.  The air was coming out but it wasn't cold.  After a bit of troubleshooting, I determined it was the same problem as last year.  In fact, it has been 11 months since a repairman charged me $240 to fix it.  

• $70 for a capacitor (they average $20)
• $50 for freon (this was just a precaution)
• $120 for labor, about half an hour of work IIRC.

I wanted to avoid that this time so I will replace the capacitor myself.  Amazon had one and I could have had it here tomorrow between 4 am and 8 am but I needed to find one more item for $1.10.  I could have selected literally anything, even two capacitors ($23.90 ea), and returned it.  But I wanted to find something we could use.  It indicated that I had until 5 pm to place the order so I put it down to go deal with feeding my kids lunch.

at 2:30 I picked this up again and now no option for tomorrow is available.  the earliest will be sometime Saturday and it might bleed over into Sunday.  I don't know if it is because Amazon just baits and switches the rapid delivery or because we live in such a shithole state that they only deliver here when it is convenient for them.

Update from the future:  While getting an estimate for a water tank replacement, the person was able to troubleshoot my AC and figured it was just the circuit breaker.  Since I had already tried that, I'm gonna say that the problem was the Capacitor and the breaker.

Garage Door Update

 The person from the garage installation place came on Wednesday.  I asked him what the plan was and he looked at me like I was crazy.  He said, "I'm installing a panel."  I asked about cutting the concrete and he said "we are a garage installation shop, we don't really cut cement."  

I left him alone. I thought about calling the shop and asking them to have him leave and take his attitude

with him, but I decided to just cool it for a minute.  Because then it happened.  He realized that installing the panel wasn't going to magically make the garage door level with the floor.  

He told me that he was just told to come here and replace a panel.  He had no further info, he assumed it was a dinged panel during delivery as that happens all the time.  I think once he realized how much they upsold us on that door, he knew he needed to be politer.  

instead of installing the shorter panel, which would bring the windows down a bit so they can be seen from the outside (curb appeal), he installed a weather strip.  This doesn't really do anything except look ugly.  He said he is going to get an adjustable strip that can be lowered on one side.  Then he will install the shorter panel.  This was probably just a way to get out of there.  

so our plan now is to wait about 2 weeks and see if they come back to us.  If they do, fine.  If they don't, I give them a call.  

Garage Door Disaster

Yesterday Boris was coughing badly and we decided to keep him home from school.  In keeping with the twin tradition, we kept Natasha home too.  They are only in Second Grade so they aren't missing anything important and it eliminates the after-school pickup.

Today the Mid-South is experiencing cold weather and expecting Ice Storms.  The Powers-That-Be made the call last night to cancel school.  So another day with Moose and Squirrel at home, full of energy but not able to go outside and burn it, at least until the snow arrives.

[For anyone new to MOL, I fluctuate between referring to my kids as either Moose and Squirrel in the general sense, or Natasha and Boris when being specific.]

I don't think I've shared this yet so here goes.  Last summer our garage door bit the dust.  It was an inevitability that was accelerated by a delivery person accidentally kicking the door sensor such that it wouldn't sometimes close when desired.  Usually when we needed to close it the most.  We would have to close it manually and that caused some problems too because it's a heavy door and closing it with a car parked under it is challenging.  

One particular day when we had to leave on a trip and were down to the wire because that's how we roll, Nightingale bent the door such that it made it harder to close subsequently.  I finally had to surrender and get a new door and opener.  $5000.  

So the timeline is Precision came and looked at the door on 10/12/22 and ordered me a new one.  Like everything it takes 6-8 weeks.  It actually was available the week we were in Chicago for Thanksgiving.  Since we had already waited over a month, what was another week.  I scheduled them to come to install on December 1st as that was an easy date to remember and would push back the balance payment another month, or so I thought.

It turns out, the person who came to look at the door failed to notice that one side of the garage entry was lower so when the installer put in the new door, there is a gap.  The installer said that they would have to order some new panels that would hide the gap better. 

That white is the outside light

He asked if I wanted to pay the balance now or after the Gap Remediation.  Guess which I choose.

He also said something about grounding the concrete as well, but he didn't go into detail.  His manager was supposed to call me which never happened and I was not in a hurry to remind them that I exist still owing them $2500.

We finally got a text yesterday asking me to call and schedule the installation.  As I'm in no hurry to shell out more money, I scheduled for next Wednesday, as the weather will be in the 50s again.  

Troubleshooting 101: read the manual, repeat as necessary

 Against the advice of my Facebook consultants, I purchased a monitor with a built-in webcam about two years ago this week.  An ASUS BE24E series.  Everyone said that not only is the quality of standalone webcams better but built-in ones tend to break leaving you with useless hardware.  Think TV/VCR combos.

Well, the webcam worked for a while until it didn't.  Sometime in the late fall of 2021, it stopped working.  I'm not 100 % sure when it stopped working because I don't use it every day.  I just remember

testing it out for an interview, it not working, and me going to my box of cords and hardware and using one of the many detached cameras I've come across over the years.

Periodically, I'd try to troubleshoot it but it was never a priority.  This week, however, as I was working on another home project, I came across the manual that came with the monitor.  It's mostly pictorial but I noticed something I hadn't before.  If you are using a VGA connection instead of HDMI (or DVI I suppose) you need to use a USB firewire for the camera to work.

This might be common knowledge among my nerdier tech friends but I apparently forgot this step.  I'm guessing that when I first got the monitor, more detailed instructions came with and I used a firewire.  I must have forgotten it when I moved the computer from the middle bedroom to the office.  

It's nice to have a fully working monitor again.  It would be nice to be fully working myself.  

Our visit to Gulf Port.

While this is still fresh in my head, I should write about our trip down to the gulf last week.  We went to Gulfport, which has got to be one of the laziest names for a place.  I guess ShipDock was already taken.  This was actually the first family vacation that didn't involve going to visit family.  Instead, Katness came down with her kids and sans husband and we caravaned together.

It was a 5 hour drive and with 3 drivers and two cars, one person just doesn't get a break.  One of our only local friends said that 3 days at the gulf is plenty.  We went down on Tuesday and were going to leave Friday morning but we were expecting to have bad weather late Thursday evening through Friday.  I'm not sure why that would be a problem other than packing the car in the rain.  I'm also not sure why we still left once the weather report showed the rain would pass us.  

But mostly, I'm pissed that we couldn't leave until 6 pm because Katness wanted to take the kids to a water park and get them the snowcones they were promised.  That meant driving 5 and half hours in the dark.

Most of this trip was reliving her last visit here just in her husband's place.  We went to most of the same restaurants as she did last time.  

Edit from the Future:  I was going to write more about this trip last July but life got busy and I had other things that took my time.  The main thing is when we got home, I pretty much ignored Katness and didn't do anything during the remaining days of her visit.  Nightingale went with her to various places of course, but I stayed home.

We got together again in St Loius the weekend of Columbus Day because our kids were off, and by then I was over it.  

Down to 8 lives now

The other day I’m doing laundry and I put the load from the washer into the dryer. Before doing so, I take a blanket out of the dryer (from the previous load) and walk not 10 yards away to put it on the sectional.

Ryder: a near-death experience changes ya, man

Close the door and hit start. A few minutes later I happen to walk by and hear a thumping. I open the dryer and see my cat had gotten in there without me noticing. Luckily it had only been 5 minutes and though he was gasping like he was out of breath, he’s fine now, though it took a day before he would purr.

Elsa needs another cup of coffee, or something stronger

We laugh now but I shudder to think what would have happened if I didn’t notice for the entire 30 minutes.  Our Google Research showed that this is not an uncommon occurrence because cats love to explore new places and warm laundry is very attractive.  It also showed that many of these occurrences don't end well, so again, very fortunate.

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Ultimate Playset Drama

Edit from the future:  I had sitting in my draft folder from a year ago.  I finally decided to publish as is instead of working it out.  I'm backdating this to the date I wrote it.

Yesterday we were expecting delivery of a Playset.  We were told it would arrive at 11 am but they did not get here until 1:12 pm and it took 2.5 hours to put together so it wasn't quite ready when the kids got home from school.  It's mostly pre-assembled but the components have to be connected and it has to be leveled and a few more minor things.  Still much better than the two weeks my neighbor and I spent putting their much smaller playset together from scratch last year.

The thing is, we ordered this kick-ass Ultimate Playset in early November.  They said 6-7 weeks which would have put the delivery date on Christmas Day.  I did not expect them to deliver on Christmas Day but I expected it either a couple days before or the week after.  Unfortunately, I waited until that week to call and it turns out, they didn't process our order.  I called the place we purchase from and the person who answered the phone apparently was driving and gave me the builder's number.  I called him and he told me that he just received the order.  I insisted that we ordered six weeks prior and he reluctantly confirmed and said he would try to get it out to us in two weeks.  Of course, by then the Mississippi Winter started and the weather was a factor.  No point in putting it on wet soggy ground.

We finally got a good week (this week) and there was still some gaslighting from the person who was supposed to deliver.  He called on Monday and we confirmed Wednesday.  When I called him he insisted I said Thursday.  There's no point in arguing so I said "okay make sure it's Thursday."  He still was a few hours late but we have it now and the kids can burn energy instead of being on their tablets all the time.

An unfortunate set of events for New Rigel

My desktop, New Rigel, has finally bit the dust.  it seems like every time we move into a new house, one of my computers breaks a few months later.  Okay, I only have two data sets for this and both machines were already pretty old before moving them around several times.  But I had just sunk a little over $100 into upgrading the memory because it was giving me some performance issues when I tried to work with remote Citrix for my contract gig.  

I ordered a new computer desk in November.  It took two weeks to arrive via some crappy Amazon issues.  I actually had to reorder it but got a $40 credit for my troubles.

After building the desk, I powered down the PC and put everything on the new desk.  I didn't power it back up because it was evening and I didn't need to do anything computer-related.  The next morning it wouldn't turn on.  Something must have happened during the night because the UPS device I keep my PC plugged into was off, and out of backup power.  

As I had to start work, I borrowed Nightingale's laptop and was able to find most of my URLs through the power of Chrome.  This has been a decent short-term solution but Nightingale really wants her laptop back.  

I did some troubleshooting and found that if I removed the ATX CPU cable, the computer would power on, but of course, nothing would boot up.  The next thing to try was the Power Supply.  I ordered one off eBay and there was drama with that because I had my old address in my account and didn't notice until I hit Purchase.  eBay has no mechanism to change an address after an order has been placed, and the seller was less than helpful.  

The new Power Supply didn't make a difference so now the best, and really the only course of action is to get a new computer.  I'm not ready to purchase my next Forever Computer so I'm looking for a cheap but serviceable one.  My current gig goes until January 28th and I don't know when the next gig comes along.  

My dead desktop was pretty robust and it had built-in WiFi.  The cheapies I'm looking at on Woot either don't have WiFi or come with a USB dongle, which isn't ideal but I'm warming up to it. 

I considered buying an exact version of my old desktop off eBay so I would just swap out hard drives and reuse the RAM I just bought.  But as Nightingale pointed out, why would I want an 8-year-old computer?  And as some friends on Facebook pointed out when I bragged about upping the RAM, solid-state drives are where it's at, man!  

There are some cheap refurbished desktops on Woot but many of them do not come with built-in WiFi or optical drives.  Some do not say how much RAM They support.  I think I have found two that might suffice, but I'm torn between going cheap or going for the long haul. 

Lenovo M900 Small Form Factor Desktop, Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core, 16GB DDR3, Solid State Drive, Win10Pro (Your Choice: Model) -$359.99

Lenovo M900 Small Form Factor Desktop, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core, 16GB DDR3, Solid State Drive, WIFI, Win10Pro (Your Choice: Model) - $529.99

Note: I know these links may disappear but I've basically shown them with max price options on Woot.  

The major difference is the processor and each comes with different SSD size options.  Basically, I either buy the i5 with the half-terabyte SSD or I get the i7 with the 1 TB SSD.  none of the options in between are worth it.  I'm hoping that I can reuse my optical drive from New Rigel.

I'm leaning toward the cheaper option.  If it fails, i won't feel as bad knowing that I save $200 which can be used to buy the next desktop, a gaming machine perhaps.  

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How I've spent my summer

 It’s been 2 months since I was told I was being let go at Big Audit.  In that time a few minor setbacks cropped up that can be magnified by the whole losing your job thing if you let it.  My iPad screen cracked that first week or so.  My tooth cracked last week.  It feels like a few other things have occurred. 

 Oh and the electrical in our basement is acting wonky.  A couple Sundays ago, the power went out, but just to the basement.  The electrician I worked with was out of town so I did some googling.  I started flipping breakers until I identified the one for the basement (lucky number  13) and that brought power back, but only momentarily.  It kept tripping.  When they finally were able to fit me in their schedule, they came over to troubleshoot.   Seems like disconnecting the printer helped, but not completely.  As a short term solution they replaced the breaker.  It seemed to work.  I even reconnected the printer and everything was fine.  Until Saturday.  I think our cleaning lady tripped the breaker again when she vacuumed.  I’ve relocated the printer to the dining room and everything is fine for now, but I know this is a short term solution.  Just when I fixed one issue with the house, another one cropped up.

 I’m not sure why it is all of a sudden a problem.  The printer had been running down there for years, even before the electrical project.  I did add a roku, and apple TV and a NETGEAR FVS318 ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 with 8-Port 10/100 Switch, but I doubt any of those draw enough power especially when passive.  Michal said it might have to do with how humidity affects some of the remaining tube and knob wiring that is within our walls.  We had a Derecho the week before the power outage and he said that might have built up some additional humidity issues.   He later said that I have too many outlets and lights connected to one line.  I think they were in a hurry to get to their next project and didn’t want to take this one on yet.

 Just before we got the news, Nightingale and I hired a baby sitter to watch our kids while we worked.  We learned quickly that both of us WFH was not working well.  Often times we both had to be on calls and that left Moose and Squirrel free to run around and cause trouble.  And sharing an office was not working out either.  

Even after getting the news, we decided we could still afford to keep The Baby Sitter and I could use the help to work on projects around the house, run critical errands, and job hunt.  On that last point,  I want to point out that job hunting during normal times can be slow.  Each time I’ve been between jobs, it’s taken several weeks to several months before I was brought on just because of the byzantine processes of Corporate America.  During a Pandemic, jobs are even harder to come by, especially for someone who specializes in a particular DM software solution.

I did manage to get the basement painted.  I used an old 5 gallon bucket of ceiling paint that I had bought for my condo in 2003 and never used.   I wouldn’t use this for a real project but it was suitable for covering up the smudges getting the ceiling and walls  one uniform color of white (more or less). 

 I feel like I accomplished some other projects but I just cannot think of them right now.  

 

 

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Tethered to a phone

 While I'm not sure of the exact date, I filed for unemployment over a month and a half ago.  In fact, I have two paychecks waiting for me.  Unfortunately I have not received the prepaid debit card Illinois is using.  I thought a card would be easier than direct deposits because of my trust issues.

The 3rd party company that does the cards for IDES shows that they haven't received my information from IDES yet and to please check with my state agency.  

I have a call into IDES about this and I am at the end of week two waiting for a callback.  I have to keep my phone with me at all times because if I miss the call, it's not like I can call them right back.  And even though their recorded message says it will come from the number I dialed, there is a slight chance it could come from another one.  So I have been answering almost all calls. 

This is annoying.  It shouldn't take this long.  And yes, I could probably select the Lost/Stolen card option or switch to direct deposit.  But I'm worried about the money that is already there.  Will I eventually get it...I assume so.  How long will it take and do I want to go through extra gymnastics of setting up DD or getting a new card.  I mean given how solid the system is so far, what could go wrong!

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Knocked another item on our Get The House Ready to Sell List

When we bought this house our inspector told us that we had a couple of problems with the electrical.  First problem was the feed was over the deck, which is absolutely against code.  Like it was never okay and there is no grandfather clause for that one.

Second, the electric panel in the basement was also not up to code.  It was using something called 'Cheaters' which allowed a 200 amp service to work with a 100 amp panel.  At least that is how it was explained to me.  It was also explained that this is fine in most parts of the country but not in Cook County.  Yay government oversight! 

We asked the owner to address it and he reluctantly gave us some money to take care of it.  I was prepared to walk away because this is a legitimate get out of contract free card issue.  But the respective realtors wanted their money after spending so much effort finding us a home and marketing his, so they convinced him to give us a credit.   Of course the standard way of determining how much money is by getting three of your electrician friends to give you lowball quotes and you take the average.  You will never find an electrician who will do the work for that price. 

Can you picture Boris hitting this with a rake?

I've been getting quotes for years from electricians who would do the panel and the move and upgrade the service (I wasn't sure if we had a 200 Amp service but it appears we do) and they all came in around $3K. 

Honestly, I don't remember how much was given but now that I think about it, it might have been more generous than I remember.

I got the panel taken care of in 2017, or was it 2018, via an Angie's list deal for about $800, IIRC.  But the electrician kept upping the price to move the feed because there are only so many good spots to put it and putting it in the best exterior location might have meant moving the panel which is a lot of work. 

When COVID-19 derailed our plans to list the house and move south, I decided it was time to fix this issue so that I wouldn't have to give the next buyer a credit for this.  I'm likely gonna have to give them a credit for something else, because there is always something else, so this helps.  Plus Boris was walking up the stairs once with an outstretched rake in his arms and although he's too short to reach the power line now...it's only a matter of time before we have fried Moose.

I got a couple of quotes and found someone I liked.  He figured out a way to move the line with minimal impact and without having to do some of the destructive things other electricians threatened.  He also consulted with ComEd to verify that it was up to code and best practices and we got their blessing so yay!

He came in April to give the estimate and I was honest and said I wanted to do this but couldn't pull the trigger at that moment because i had other projects in-flight but wanted to get this going before summer ended.  He was very accomodating and not pushy at all.

Ironically, once I was able to get to this, we had issues with weather.  May was rather rainy and we kept having to reschedule.  We pushed it out to the first Thursday in June but then Nightingale had us join the Adamas on a lakehouse vacation.  We were going to have him do the work anyway with my mom here to reach out if there  were any problems but my spidey sense said not to do that.  So I cancelled 11th hour and reschedule for the following week.  Between his schedule and the weather, we got it done on Friday, June 12th.  It was a good thing I rescheduled too because there was a slight misunderstanding in where they would put the new feed and by being there, they were able to rethink it on the fly. 

It cost $2500 and I do like how it came out.  I'm worried that if we stay here, we'll someday put an addition on the house and that will mean this was for naught but what can you do.

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Staying put literally and figuratively

Like most of the world, we are under Home Quarantine because of the COVID-19 virus.  I don't have any hot takes or thinky-thoughts that anyone else doesn't have though I will try to write more here and at ChicagoNow for future alien anthropologists that explore our post-apocalyptic planet to consume.

Before this all begin, we were getting ready to put the house on the market.  We were trying to figure out when Nightingale could quit her job.  In order to not burn bridges, she needed to give at least a month's
notice.

We also needed to do a few more things around the house before we could officially put it on the market.  Our realtors felt like we should have listed ASAP but hat's what realtors always say.  in their line of work it a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.  But there was no way we could have had everything ready by March 1.  And our house shows better in optimal weather, especially with the lack of central air.

Below is a list of things we need to address, more or less in the order of priority.  Meaning if we could only do one thing, start with number one, etc.

at the same time, our biggest need is the need to purge.  I started by selling things on FB marketplace and Letgo, with mixed results.  I did manage to get rid of some big items and make a little money at the same time.   But I also got ghosted and the usual freaks and weirdos.

My thought is that I don't want to move things into a local storage center.  Then transport things to a Memphis area storage center.  and then to our new home once we finally find it.  Also, everything has a cost: do I pay to move it or replace it?  Or do we really need it at all?

I thought that FIL could fly up on a Tuesday, load a truck with the first batch of stuff we know we are keeping but don't need here (NG family dressers, the spare grill I bought that is still in the box, our free weights, etc) and then he could drive off early the next morning, with NG.  They would get down there in time to drop it off at storage and return the truck to the local U-haul, or even if they did it the next morning that's fine.  Then NG would fly back that Thursday afternoon, or even stay until Saturday.

Decorative Railing:  This has two fixes, expensive or cheap.  The cheap easy fix is to remove it.  And I am prepared to do so.  However,  part of me feels like it could be repaired and restored with some help.  It might mean hiring a pro and spending more than I should or if my MIL truly can help, we could do it together.

New Window Treatment for middle bedroom, living room bay window, and kitchen windows.

Paint the Basement: one consistent color of white.  There is no point in doing this while the kiddos are still running around making a mess down there.

Replace carpet in the basement.  There is no point in doing this before the basement gets painted.

Repair Plaster ceiling in the living room.  This is also easy or hard.  I don't know enough about it but I think we can get it cosmetically repaired quickly.  Or do it the right way which will take longer and cause more dust and clean up issues.  I even think we might get away with not doing anything about it but it will be the realtor's call.

Attic Steps painting:  this one is just a nice to have.  Right now the stairs are white but very dingy looking.  I think a dark grey color will make it look better and hide dirt.

Pipe Dream:  I would still like to fix the basement shower.  The problem it doesn't' seem like a cheap fix and I am not gonna pay for a bathroom reno that I won't get to enjoy.

Also, the fence between our house and our neighbor to the North of us is falling down.  At least three posts have rotted through so its likely at the point where replace versus repair costs about the same.  I suspect that if I were to check the survey, my property line is a little more north than it is right now.  which could be an issue because I don't want to screw the next owner out of land.

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