What are you doing these days?

[preraph]

On 5/25/2020 at 8:36 AM, Happy Lemming said:

I took the motorcycle out yesterday for a ride.  I didn't have anywhere (in particular) to go. I just rode and rode along some quiet back roads through the desert.

It felt good and calming.

I've been craving to ride a motorcycle lately.  Just a little one.  Even then, it would probably mess up my knees some way.  Everything does.  Dallas is nowhere to ride, though.  Would be good to load one up and go to the country.

[Happy Lemming]

13 minutes ago, preraph said:

I've been craving to ride a motorcycle lately.  Just a little one.  Even then, it would probably mess up my knees some way.  Everything does.  Dallas is nowhere to ride, though.  Would be good to load one up and go to the country.

Have you ever thought about a CAM-AM?  Its a three wheeled motorcycle.  You don't have to put your feet down when you stop and I think some models have a reverse gear (for getting it out of the garage and parking spaces).  You can get them in automatic transmission or standard transmission.

It would probably be easy on your knees, as well.  You could certainly ask a Can-Am dealer about "wear and tear" on your knees. You could probably sit on one and see how the riding position affects your knees, back, elbows, etc.

I've never rode one, but the concept sounds like it might work for you.

[preraph]

12 minutes ago, Happy Lemming said:

Have you ever thought about a CAM-AM?  Its a three wheeled motorcycle.  You don't have to put your feet down when you stop and I think some models have a reverse gear (for getting it out of the garage and parking spaces).  You can get them in automatic transmission or standard transmission.

It would probably be easy on your knees, as well.  You could certainly ask a Can-Am dealer about "wear and tear" on your knees. You could probably sit on one and see how the riding position affects your knees, back, elbows, etc.

I've never rode one, but the concept sounds like it might work for you.

My cousin has a big ol three wheel Honda because my cousin lost his leg on a motocycle about 10 years ago, so yes, I have thought about it, but I can't afford one.  And it would be too heavy to load.  A little trail bike, I might be able to load up into the back of a van or something like that.  But probably it's all beyond my capabilities now.  My cousin might let me drive his, but he'd be worried every second!

[chillii]

Ohhhhh, forgot , andddd , l got my new tv.

It's a really smart one haha , ummm, apparently , not that l can work it or do l giva fk how smart it is l just want it for my shows and movies.. Got a fantastic picture , sounds great too , but if you press the wrong button in the middle of something good, kiss that good bye for 5mins till you figure out how the hell to get it back to your movie.

The only thing is it is a smart tv , don't think you can even buy a dumb one these days but the point is l don't want the damn thing spying on me , got my daughter on the job figuring out how to kill it.

Edited May 26, 2020 by chillii

[preraph]

Eww, I'm with you on that, Chillii. I hate all that built-in stuff and built-in cameras and all that. My sister bought me an Alexa about 2 or 3 years ago and I wouldn't even turn it on or take it out of the box and just gave it back to her. And I work hard to keep the Google Assistant turned off on my phone. 

 

I do want a smart TV but the only reason I want it is because there are some services that you can get some of the old vintage TV shows on. But the best of them has commercials that you can't buzz through so unless you can record it, not sure it would work out anyway. 

[preraph]

I got a code violation and worried all day about what it was because I knew it was coming in the mail. I've lived here for over 20 years and those trees out there have been the same but someone must have complained on it because now I'm going to have to just cut a tree in half vertically and just destroy that tree and hear it at the wrong time of season to do it and also that they can have someone park practically in my driveway every time they have a little party. 

 

I went out there and broke a saw trying to do it myself and I can't get up high anyway and it has to be all cut off up to 15 ft to the curb, so another unexpected expense. 

[Happy Lemming]

1 hour ago, preraph said:

 I can't get up high anyway and it has to be all cut off up to 15 ft to the curb, so another unexpected expense. 

I feel your pain... I have a large tree that drapes into the road.  I purchased a tall A-Frame ladder that I use to get high enough to trim it.  I have to put the ladder in the road.  I park my truck (with hazard lights on) behind me to protect me from traffic coming up the road.  The last thing I need is a car to hit the ladder and send me flying with a saw in my hands.

Its quite a production to get that tree trimmed and after a good rain and some heat, it grows and droops requiring a repeat trimming.

This is not something I think you should attempt to do, especially with your knee problems.

 

[preraph]

I can't even get one wrong up on a ladder without shaky and my knees won't even allow me to step up that far. We just trim the trees in the dark with the guy across the street. I shined a flashlight at cars that came down the street. 

 

It just butchered two of my trees. I had all these pretty yellow trumpet blooms vining down off the one and all of those had to be completely taken off. And now my crepe myrtle is only half a tree. I would love to know who complained on it. It could just be some delivery guy or something but I mean 20 years in the code people haven't written it up yet so somebody had to complain I think. 15 foot up is a long ways. That makes it an expensive and dangerous project. 

 

Well I just probably got exposed to coronavirus because I was out there close to him for probably 30 minutes.. I just about got heat stroke.

[Ruby Slippers]

2 hours ago, preraph said:

and also that they can have someone park practically in my driveway every time they have a little party

My two immediate neighbors on the right are constantly having parties and guests who partially block my driveway. I can't stand them and dream of the day I can move on up to a better neighborhood and leave those a**h***s in my dust. 

One day, this truck was blocking HALF of my driveway. I texted that neighbor to tell her to move the illegally parked truck. She's a constant source of trouble (barking dog at all hours, screaming kids, trashy guests parking in crazy ways in the cul-de-sac) and never takes any responsibility for her s***ty behavior, just blames me for complaining. She texted back, "WOW. He's not even blocking you." 

I informed her that according to the law, he was blocking my driveway, and anyway, it's dangerous to leave so little room to back out. She had him move. Just absolutely unbelievable that I had to tell this MORON it was a problem.

Sorry about your tree troubles. I have big old trees that need trimming, but no complaints, so for now I'm saving the money for more important things.

[HappySenior]

I'm not sure when I was last on here before today. I think it's been a couple of months. I've lost track of time to some extent. I know it was after the quarantine started, so March maybe early April.  I was offered a job I thought was temporary, then it looked like it was permanent, then ended up being temporary with a possibility of further work later. This is care-taking. It's tragic when you see an old person who has no children, need care but want to remain in their home. Especially in the 90's when they become frail. Most eventually come to realize how expensive 24 hour care is and become motivated to start caring for themselves (which is good) and then realize what they are paying and want to stop having care. (Which in many cases, can endanger their lives.)  It's sad.

Still I was grateful for the job. I'd started painting and working on my house and this gave me money to do some of the changes I really wanted to make. At the same time, my pets had baby pets (accidentally) and I have been dealing with that too. So keeping so so busy until this last weekend the client decided she didn't want to keep paying us, it was too expensive. I don't feel it was her best choice and I feel there's a good chance she will fall again and either have to have help at home or go into a nursing home. I do have a reference for other jobs and there are lots who need care in my area. 

Now I'm back to trying to work up the motivation to do home updates and finish those I started. I like what I've done so far, but it's still far too crowded and cluttered for my liking. I found myself spinning my wheels today and basically did nothing except a little creative art experiment. I miss my senior friends (center is closed still), I miss my church friends. I've got lots to do but feeling generally unmotivated. I've spent too long getting up before the sun, basing my day around work, then coming home to do chores and flopping into bed early every day. Without that schedule, I feel a bit lost. I'm sure it will pass.

In my state we have just been ordered to wear masks until further notice which seems silly given that our count has always been low and we hadn't been ordered to before, but whatever. Probably 50% of people in my area won't and more than that hadn't been before. Doesn't worry me, it's just weird. And I'll hate it because I probably won't recognize my friends if I do see them, except in particular cases based on body shape or height. Meh.

I hope everyone on here has been well. I'm going to try to get a better start on things tomorrow.
 

[chillii]

6 hours ago, preraph said:

Eww, I'm with you on that, Chillii. I hate all that built-in stuff and built-in cameras and all that. My sister bought me an Alexa about 2 or 3 years ago and I wouldn't even turn it on or take it out of the box and just gave it back to her. And I work hard to keep the Google Assistant turned off on my phone. 

 

I do want a smart TV but the only reason I want it is because there are some services that you can get some of the old vintage TV shows on. But the best of them has commercials that you can't buzz through so unless you can record it, not sure it would work out anyway. 

 

Haaa . that's funny.

Yep it does everything apparently , l'm hoping it washes dishes too. My daughter somehow set it to ad volume down to 20% of whatever your show volume is. Damn , that's smart haha. When the ads come it just turns itself down , how cool is that. Hate bloody ads and they're always so loud.

Shame about the tress , sounds like a job for tree guys though unfortunately. On my old place we had 20 huge 150yr old Cypress and one storm kind of folded down 10 or them like domino's . Didn't hit the house thank God but there was a mountain of fallen tree at the back , like a mountain. l left them because l was selling and l thought well if the buyer has any brains he's actually got firewood there forever and he could even sell the logs rather than it devaluing the property and low and be hold , the guy that bought it thought exactly that too so l got out of the 5k bill to have them all cleaned up.

 

 

 

 

[schlumpy]

11 hours ago, chillii said:

Ohhhhh, forgot , andddd , l got my new tv.

It's a really smart one haha , ummm, apparently , not that l can work it or do l giva fk how smart it is l just want it for my shows and movies.. Got a fantastic picture , sounds great too , but if you press the wrong button in the middle of something good, kiss that good bye for 5mins till you figure out how the hell to get it back to your movie.

The only thing is it is a smart tv , don't think you can even buy a dumb one these days but the point is l don't want the damn thing spying on me , got my daughter on the job figuring out how to kill it.

Does it have it a built phone or mic? Should be in the specifications.

The camera is easy to defeat with a small square of black electrical tape. Someone pointed out to me that there are small devices that can be placed over the camera that act like a manual shutter. Maybe something like that would be better.

A microphone would have to be physically disconnected. I would not trust the electronics to do that for me.

[chillii]

Great idea cheers for that . No idea. The booklet doesn't have much because it has a on screen manual but that things about 300 pages , def' a job for my daughter.

But the spying thing yeah as in listening too like the phones do , or whatever it is they do , next minute ads are popping up on your pc from something you talked about earlier. There's a thread about it , well they were saying the smart tvs are a lot worse than phones now , l have no clue , but however they do it if they do it l want it killed , not putting up with a tv doing it as well .

Edited May 27, 2020 by chillii

[Ellener]

@preraph maybe the code people workers have nothing much to do right now? Or are suddenly trying to justify their jobs in case they get cut. ((((((((((((( )))))))))))))

 

[Ellener]

9 hours ago, HappySenior said:

In my state we have just been ordered to wear masks

I suspect a lot of the mask signs/orders are to do with liability issues, here we have already been told that the police will not be charging people over the order- though it's gives the power to do so if someone needs it. They are giving out masks and advice instead.

Lovely to read what you wrote. My life was way too cluttered before Harvey, but I had decided to keep stuff and my son said he'd come help move it on the last day. Well he didn't and a load of it ended up being put out for trash, not even recycled! But it cured me of 'collecting' and I was so glad that during my recent move during the pandemic I had so few possessions, and I was able to do it all myself until my son could get over ( he carried a dresser and box I couldn't lift! )

I'm sure you'll soon be called upon for more care work. I've signed up with Indeed, and they are sending me daily emails of specific jobs, then if my business can't continue I can start applying or get ideas for starting a new business. Good luck!

[Ellener]

8 hours ago, chillii said:

When the ads come it just turns itself down , how cool is that.

that's brilliant!!!!

[Happy Lemming]

I went to the grocery store (this morning) for the first time since March 14.  We were just getting too low on some essentials.  I put on a mask and went at 5:00am when they opened, no one was there.  I saw one other shopper and a few employees, but for the most part I had the whole store to myself. They had just about everything on my list (in stock), including Toilet Paper!!

All done... now I'm good for about a month.

[schlumpy]

Just got back from a mail run. It's a beautiful sunny day here in Ohio. I returned home the long way and saw people walking dogs, jogging and other summer activities. Library is still closed except for curbside pickups. Wendy's is still backing them up into the street. It was wonderful to go someplace. It's exhilarating just to feel normal again.

Hard to believe that death is lurking around every corner.

[sothereiwas]

Yesterday I worked my day, and then my brother came over and we set up a couple tables and ran oily patches down the bores of about 15 of my rifles, dusted and lightly oiled the outsides, and put them back in storage. Then pizza and beer. Was a fun day. Today just work, and maybe some basketball later with the kid. 

[Ellener]

I discovered a charity word game- free rice.com 

🥣

[amaysngrace]

I went to the beach today. 

[preraph]

I am so jealous!  It's the time of year I start craving water.

[preraph]

I am exhaling tonight because I am getting a medium sized job in tomorrow finally. After this last week of feeling really aimless enough to start getting depressed about it and worried, it will be a big relief to at least have work to do for the next maybe four days. 

 

I'll still be working at home, but it's not that I mind home. It's just that there are only 400 and some odd episodes of Gunsmoke and I think I've watched at least 350 of them in the last 3 weeks.. No idea what to watch after that. Bonanza I guess. 

 

Also getting my permanent porcelain insert crownish thingy put in tomorrow. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by preraph

[amaysngrace]

10 hours ago, preraph said:

I am so jealous!  It's the time of year I start craving water.

It’s way too cold for that here.  

Thanks Canada 🇨🇦

[schlumpy]

10 hours ago, preraph said:

I am exhaling tonight because I am getting a medium sized job in tomorrow finally. After this last week of feeling really aimless enough to start getting depressed about it and worried, it will be a big relief to at least have work to do for the next maybe four days. 

 

I'll still be working at home, but it's not that I mind home. It's just that there are only 400 and some odd episodes of Gunsmoke and I think I've watched at least 350 of them in the last 3 weeks.. No idea what to watch after that. Bonanza I guess. 

 

Also getting my permanent porcelain insert crownish thingy put in tomorrow. 

Don't forget Clint Eastwood in "Rawhide" and James Garner in "Maverick." What great theme songs all the old westerns had. Don't forget the movies: "How The West Was Won" or "The Big Country." Who couldn't fall in love with Jean Simmons.