Vincent The Dragon

He passed away tonight in my arms. Rest well kitten, I hope to see you again some day.

So, Mr. Princes fur has been in need of some attention due to him being old and having hyperthyroid - which means his poops are not solid, frequent, and sometimes wet.

I have been working on some of his tangles from time to time but it was time for time to take a bath. He used to love baths when he was a baby but not anymore. I got most of his fur clean and clipped out several clumps but one was being a pain and he was being wiggly...anyway, i cut him tried to clip it out. Took a nice chunk of furskin out. We managed to get him to the vet today as a drop off/work in. They were going to try just tranking him to shave his belly and work on the spot. Probably will need a stitch to bring the fur skin together and allow it to heal. It's more of a risk putting him fully under being 18 years old, though he is healthy otherwise. The cut is on his inner thy

Right now all I know is that they are keeping him overnight as he is really drunk, I don't yet know what the outcome of the wound is, nor if they had to fully put him under.
I'll know more tomorrow.

I don't get the chance to buy stuff for my self often.
Been saving up the money and have ordered the new Zelda Tears of the Kingdom edition nintendo switch.
Good luck getting my attention once it come in.

Doing some cleaning and organisation and we came across this guy.
Brand new in the box, it's a nice one too. Very smooth movement.

Anyway...Most people can get one side of a cube solved without much headache.
There are a few ways to solve these things but the easiest to do for normal people is to solve one side, then the next row down. After that comes pacing the last faces corner blocks and finally rotating them to the correct orientation. It can all be distilled down into algorithms. There are tons of different ones if you look around online. There are even simple ones that if repeated over and over, the cube will solve itself. Realistically you only need a few to solve it. There is the Moving a cube left and down, moving a cuber right and down, rotate a cube in place. Things get a little tricky for the last layer but again there is only a few move sets to use.

I can get mostly done with the second phase on my own but then i need to use some of these structured algorithms to finish it. I'm sure with work it would be pretty easy to memorize the move sets.
Cube Solve Is a good place to look.

Now for those speed solvers..man that just takes a different type of brain, they are able to visualize all the faces AND how the algorithm effects each piece AND intermix the algorithms together to move multiple pieces in different directions.

So..like we are trying to eat healthier.
We have all lost some weight.
Here is tonight's meal.
...Perhaps not the best health wise but it's not so bad. Only use halve the ramen and none of it's salt..i mean flavor...packet.
Lets see, we got bokchoy slices, some leak slices and some of the leaves, carrot, green bean, garlic, 'bella mushrooms, celery, a few pot stickers from a box and some really thinly sliced beef round that i soaked in various hotish sauces for a while before tossing into the boiling veggy broth.
On the side we have some leftover wild rice from yesterday's chicken butter curry, a few pickled veggies and pickled jalapenos.

I have been lax in posting as I feel I do not have the time and should rather do more important things like the endless amounts of housework or the never short 'to-do' list.

William is off in Dallas. He is a finalist and now competing in nationals for Bearded Lady which is a type of Drag Queen. It's been an expensive thing but we can't not do it as it may be a once in a lifetime experience for him.

James is off with friends so I have the house to myself tonight.

My firepit / BBQ thing that I love just shit the bed.

Mr. Prince is now 18 years old and has been having a time of it. Lots of poop and diarrhea and he is down to 4 pounds. I raised him by hand since he was 2 days old so I am very attached to him.
https://vincentthedragon.com/index.php/prince?blog=5
Blood work shows he has hyperthyroidism and I just picked up his new prescription food and pills. He ate the food like a wolf today but we will see if he keeps eating it.
I hope he does, I'd miss the guy terribly.

Yep, it's today.
I'm 50 now.
that is all.

We snagged these at the local big boxmart store we all hate. They were on sale but then also rang up at like $100 less that the sell price.
31.5 inches of curved big ass monitor running 1920x1080 refreshing at up to 240Hz
...yes, my desk is a mess right now.

The home server, HAL5 is old...very old..and also out of drive space.

I snagged an old server we decommissioned from work. It's a Dell PowerEdge T420.
I worked on the SAS drive plane that was always giving us a random drive disconnect, replaced the dead drives and ordered 4 additional drive trays to fill its 8 bays.
I started with windows so it would be easier to upgrade the various bios's in the system as the people we had manage the server never updated a damn thing....
It would load Linux from a boot dvd and would go through all the motions of install but the wonky Dell iDrac/Lifecycle controller refused to let it boot from the install....EUFI/TPM/Secureboot ...they are all mostly a pain in the ass trying to get them to play nice with OS re-loads or changing the OS. All the research I found that seemed useful all pointed to me having to update the iDrac which I did...but...something went wrong somewhere as upon reboot iDrac is dead.

No indicator light, no front panel controller and Bios states Lifecycle Controller is disabled and nothing I can seem to find or do will bring it back to life.
iDrac is a dead stick, there maaaayyyybe might have been a way to force load the firmware file IF the server had the iDrac SD/remote card slot adapter populated AND if the system had the proper license to even use that part but it does not.

The system WILL still boot to an error you must F1 past and I still can't get Linux to load...all in all HAL6 is dead before he fully came to life...now I need another solution to replace my aging and full home server....

I don't like big cities, never have...never will.
Forest dragons like to be out in the woods.

However; larger metropolitan areas do have things I don't normally get and that is a wider range of foods to eat.
I am away from home for a 2 week training class on a large machine for work and there is a hand pulled noodle shop near by.

So there we were, it's 3am and we give up...for now.

Old Dell with uefi bios that was being bad about replacing it's dead hard drive and loading Linux in it...Got that done.
Install Virtual box - was fine
Installed W10 on a virtual computer - was fine
USB pass through - was being bad
tried endlessly to get the application I wanted to use the W10 for to run - gave up...for now...
I also tried to get it running on WINE but to no avail.
There are 2 dll's in the program that fail to load in either WINE or VM setup.

We had like maaaybee 3 inches of powder. Nice easy to drive on snow powder...You did NOT pre-treat...What you did do was plow off all the nice grippable snow and expose road...which in 17 degree temps meant they are now wet with water from the sun which turned into a shiny sheet of glass the moment the sun started falling. There were 20 people off the interstate on the way home as they were bumper to bumper in the 'clean' side of the road and sliding all over the place. I was doing 60 in the un-plowed side in my sub-compact with no computer controlled traction assist front wheel drive.

So as you know, I roller over a dead deer in the middle or the Interstate coming home at night.
Someone else hit the thing and of course, left it in the middle of the road. Someone about a mile in front of me also hit the thing. Its dark and just over a hill so there was little to no time to react to the lump. I managed to center the car over it but that was all I had time to do. The truck in front of me was disabled by the impact, breaking his radiator. Ditto to me as it folded my radiator in half.

Progressive insurance company was fast and polite and did a great job.

The towing company not so much but it all got worked out...6 hours into setting at the side of the road…

The collision center did not have much of a job to do; Radiator, AC condenser, radiator support lower, guts and stuff hanging under the car, passenger floor pan bent up, mid frame stabilizer bar bent, broken muffler hanger.

They did the radiator, condenser and lower radiator support with paint and literally nothing else and they left some things unattended with the radiator.

It took a week, nothing wrong there but I got zero updates or feedback at all from them. The day of pickup all the guy there would say is that I pay my part over there. I asked if he knew where they put my tow bolt but all he would do was bring up a terrible phone photo as some sort of proof that it did not have one...One, the picture did not show the part of the car where the bolt screws into. Two, I put the bolt there myself while waiting for a tow so the tow guy did not have to dig it out from where it’s stored in the car. I went to the pay window and tried to have the same conversation however big but Betty was not going to get off her ass and would not give keys without payment.

I found the bolt...also my car stank like rotting flesh...and made some odd noises.

So over the weekend, I had the car in the car port at home up on blocks so I could wash the under carriage and hand dig out guts and bone in the cold. The noise was the muffler resting on top of the mid frame bar, which was bent up several inches. I removed the broken muffler hanger for now and reformed the structure bar. There is also a holding bracket assembly that holds up all the fuel and return lines that is all bent. I will have to remove it, reform it and put it back on some other day. I don’t want it to rub holes in the fuel or return lines. They did nothing about the passenger floor pan, easy to fix by just walking around inside the car. They did nothing about the oil filter with a big damn dent in it either. They also clipped off all of the wire ties that run along the top of the radiator fan shroud assembly rather than unhook them so now that wire harness is just resting on top of the shroud and could fall into the fan blades. I’ll have to purchase new clips.

I will never have another vehicle there for any repair and they are permanently off the list of places to ever purchase a new or used vehicle.

I have been meaning to put up a a post about a project I did.
That being some small engine work I did on a mower but time has not allowed.
Was also going to post about getting Wuf a different car as the G6 is a POS and drinks oil about as fast as it leaks it..not had time...
Was going to update about the fact that the house's heatpump shit the bed and had to be replaced but....

Coming back home from Dad's where we did a family gathering for the holiday and I hit a dead deer carcass in the middle of the interstate.

It was dark, speed was 70, I saw something in the road but only could straddle the large part. There was something else to the left that we are not sure of what it was.
Someone hit the deer and kept going...
There was a small truck about a mile in front of me that also hit the carcass and disabled their vehicle, busting their radiator.
I pulled safely off after going over the deer, no air bags or crash.

The radiator support, radiator and AC are broken on mine...at first look, I felt that was most all the damage but when the tow truck came like 2 hours latter...Small pool of oil...
That's not good...Hopefully its just the oil filter as it's pretty exposed and right in the front of the engine...When I got the car some moron had removed the underskirt which probably would have protected everything in the motor though I would still have the radiator support and radiator damage.

The car is in a holding place for the night and will be taken to the body shop in the morning..I should know more then.

I am going to guess that my shitty luck will mean the car is totaled.

Tried all the things..nothing seems to keep them away.

It would have been your 46th.
We still miss you.

Just some updates on something I did weeks ago and forgot to upload

Fix one thing and one or two another breaks….

So way back in January I got 2 tires and 2 TPMS sensors for my car.
The tires, it was simply due for and the sensors was because the TPMS light came on.
The light was on when I got there and was still on when I left. I assumed the car would auto-learn and since it needed to be above 40 degree to do that I waited. 50 degree weather finally arrived and still no reset so I did what I should have done to begin with and researched. My car will not auto-learn, you have to enter the sensor information into the PCM. For various reasons I have waited until now to get it fixed. I few weeks ago I went to the place I got the tires and the sensors at to begin with to ask some questions and mention what my research showed and if they would clarify and agree but the 12 year old working there was being a smart ass. I returned a week later to ask another person but he was 13 years old and also a damn smart ass. Luckily this auto tire discount store also has a store on the other side of town and I took it there. I explained what went on thus far and what my research pointed to and if they would verify and program. The guy handling my case was older, not quite my age but he basically said...yes, you have to program in the information into the PCM pretty much for all cars and that the younger people generally do not know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Not only did the other store not program the PCM, they would not have been able to because the two TPMS sensors they did replace were keyed to the same information. His scanner showed two sensors with the same ID’s and that would never work. First, the car needs to see 4 sensors and second seeing one sensor ID with overlapping transmitted data would freak out the TPMS module.

Got the car back and no TPMS error, just a TPMS warning flashing light...which IS normal as the car needed to be driven for a while. We drove around a bit and YAY! No error lights now.

Back to home to mow the yard and...UM...nope, the tractor will not start. No crank, no lights, no nothing….battery is good, fuse is good but there is no power. Must be a wire issue or the keyswitch….I’d just push mow but that mower is also fucked. The rings are shot and it smokes after getting hot then drinks all its oil.

Oh! also the attic vent fan died...Now that its 90 degree outside and will be over 100 up in the attic crawl space, I’ll have fun replacing that thing….

United Healthcare has been trying for several years to switch those of us on Remicade to Inflectra.

Inflectra is biosimilar, not an exact copy so no guarantees, It's main side effects is respiratory infections and bronchitis so good luck with that.

Remicaide's main side effects are stuffy nose and headache.

It's only about $300 cheaper for the insurance company but considering that its an infusion just like Remicade, it's still going to cost about $30,000 a treatment anyway so I'll not see any change.

The only way I can afford to hit my max out of pocket expense every single year for the past 20+ years is a rebate from the Remicade manufacture and there is no guarantee I'll get any rebate from the Inflectra people.

Our system is broken

Well...got up early to mow the yard...Mower said NOPE

Went to our town's fireworks display - it was okay, not as good as years past.
Went to Wuf's family for a family food gathering.
Decided to grill out the next day - it was goood!

Lets see its 4:30 and all I have had to eat today is a twix bar.
Supposed to work until 11 then have a lunch before leaving to get my 8 weeks treatment of Remicade but did not leave until 11:45 so no lunch.
My service technician called in sick today as well so me leaving meant nobody is running service calls at work.
Wuf's car is back to no crank no start when the starter is hot...been fine all winter and now that its in the 80's...Going to order another new starter for it.

Round one of the covid shot.

No real issues other than my arm is sore where the shot was.

If i grow extra appendages, I'm hoping for another arm or a tail.

Well, I was working on Justin's car this weekend. It was a followup to when I did the spark plugs and noticed the head gasket leaking. It was a pretty straight forward replacement and I took my usual little videos for my you tube channel.

I put the videos together in windows as the Linux movie editors are all way more complex and feature rich than I need. I was copy paste from the phone to a folder which was going on the background while I was working on deleting no needed old pictures off the SD card in the phone. Windows decided I needed a popup notification about something unsolicited in the notifications which I dismissed at which point I hit the delete key to delete the unwanted pictures I was selecting. Unbeknownst to me windows had changed the focused window to the one containing the video files (3 windows under the visible one) and so the video files were lost. I was not able to recover them, somehow the recycle box was set to not prompt and for some reason the files bypassed it anyway nor was I able to recover them off the phones SD card ... Thanks windows for being such a POS.

This is Mrs. Niki.

She has been a stray that comes and goes for the past few years, very skittish and would run away from you and not come in close contact.
She basically just rooted around in the compost pile looking for scraps and then would leave.

She befriended the family of raccoons that visit the houses here and would get fed with them.

Over time I have managed to get her to trust us enough that she would not run away though would not let you come within a few feet of her.

Last year she finally let me touch her and a few weeks later she finally let me pet her. She lowered her head to give a head but and I gave her a good petting. You could see a light went off in her head and she remembered that pettings are a nice thing to have...And she wanted more. She would get petted and talked to when I came home and then before bed time as well as when William went outside to smoke, but she remained very skittish and would run from you if you moved. She now had a regular feeding schedule and mostly just hung around the house. One day she took over a cardboard box I had on the car port and that became her new hide out. I eventually moved the box against the wall of the house, then added a second box to give it a semi-roof. then blankets. I tried to get her to go into the garage which still has a cat door. She understood the cat door and would immediately vacate the garage if I took her into it and then stopped petting her. Box was upgraded to large copier box with a door opening, foam glued to the insides for insulation and a cat bed for winter. It got quite cold this year so I added a plug-in warming pad. She seemed quite content and became box house cat. we tried to coax her into the house many times but she would have nothing for it. One of the nights it got down to 6 degree and I got worried because she was gone all day, finally coming home in the night. The next morning she was acting odd, following me around and meowing. Like a typical loaner stray, her fur was not the best; she had ear mites and while enjoying the petting, regular meals of good food and a warm and dry place to live she seemed frumpy. Anyway...I scooped her up and gave her cuddles to get her good and warm and brought her inside. She was scared but did not mind and was not trying to escape the house. Prince is a pretty quiet cat and doesn't seem to want anything to do with Niki. He is an old cat and mostly stays in the office as it's HIS room. Shadow was all hissy and yelled a lot. I spent the next few weeks sleeping on the couch, Niki would come and sleep with me or near me. She got broad spectrum parasite stuff and you can tell it makes a big difference. Her ears are dirty still but no longer hot to the touch, eyes are clearer, her belly is not bloated and she is shedding like mad which is being replaced with soft clean fur. At first she would find places to hide and or face the wall but did not meow or howl or try to exit the house when we opened the door. Generally you want to give a new cat coming into a house with existing cats a room to have alone and let them come to each other on their own terms but this is a small house and I had no such room. Lots of visible play time with Shadow (when he was not being a hissy little bitch) eventually Shadow decided its play time with Niki and they have been spotted playing together. Niki is playing, running around and being a cuddle monster. She is a BIG cat, its hard to capture size without a reference but her head is fist sized. She looks to have been fixed and I think she is one of the pizza places stray kittens. At one point the place attracted a small colony which they took donations for to have them fixed and released a few years back. She has a few battle scars, missing some bits of here ears which is where her name comes from. She has a large nick missing from one of them. She has turned into a big sweet kitty, Shadow is happy to have someone to play with (Prince is not a player). Hopefully she will teach Shadow some manners as he is an asshole and she is twice his size with claws (he was front de-clawed) but i doubt it.

Things conspired.

Catching the Covid took me out at just the right time whereby I was unable to get some projects done that needed to be done at specific times during the year as well as just not being able to get stuff done these past few years.

Pompous grass cut down – I did get it cut but not gathered and mulched so there is a giant mountain of straw in the yard which must be dealt with before the yard grass awakens.
Big tractor converted to snow plow mode – During the snow storm last night I tried to get it ready but ran out of light and she would not start . I was supposed to get her covered under tarp but ice storm happened before I could. I could really use something to park the tractors under but those simple metal roof things are very over priced.

Water heater rinsed – something that needs done every year or more here due to the calcium we have in the water – I am 1.5 years behind on getting that done and still need to do some pipe work for the emergency pressure release valve.

I have several car parts that need installed – Williams car leaks oil pretty bad and I need to do some tune-up things – car is almost paid off, not sure if will keep and fix up a bit or use as trade in – will depend on what they will trade it in for. Oil leak seems to be the oil filter housing gasket– Justin’s car needs valve cover gasket and its been popping a cam shaft error that I have not been able to fix.

Tree cut down – there is a very large Maple tree WAY to close to the house. I have been slowly buying climbing gear. I have the climbing spikes, good repel rope, descender, pole saw, chain saw. . I still need a harness and the ropes to drop limbs with, tie off straps and hardware, some metal work on the tractor to attach a hitch mount and a winch. I will need to practice repelling as it’s been years and years since I last did that and have never done tree climbing though I have done some 60 foot pole climbing with spikes and a safety line. Am not looking forward to this.

Driveway fixed up – I have the box blade for the tractor and did manage to level out the gravel a good bit but the next phase is having a border on the south side of the driveway, dig out the dirt there and start adding rock. I think I worked out that 2x10’s will be the edging – Got to find someone to haul them to the house as I do not have a truck. This project is 2 fold as it also includes properly grading the front yard. There is a big dip in the grade from the front of the house to the drainage ditch. It causes water to pool in the yard and the dip is also in the driveway which makes it difficult to navigate in inclement weather. I have several large caches of dirt started but I need to shovel and cart it to the yard, do the survey lines, dig the holes for the metal poles I will use to anchor the edging (the main water line to the house runs under this section and 811 only marks up to the water meter…not sure what to do)

Garage roof – it’s shot and needs re-shingled – edges of the roof are messed up and need some wood replaced and soffit reworked. Money and parts delivery are the main factor here – the roof has been tarped for 2 years.

These are just the main ones, I have large list of smaller or not as important projects in the works as well.

Your results detect SARS-CoV-2. A positive test means that you are infected with COVID-19.

I got an email - I have been in close contact with someone whom tested positive. We spent 3 half days in close proximity working together to install some big equipment. This was Monday through Wednesday. I started feeling off on Thursday (just a migraine so meh, I get thous). Friday is a vacation day for me so I was working around the house and started feeling fatigued and yucky. By the night I feel like crap - I have NO FEVER - I still feel like crap so am heading into town for a Covid test. I have Monday off already as its a vacation day ...Man I was going to get some projects done...*sigh*

For the first time in a long time we decided to try and setup a tree.
One of our cats being an eternal asshole, we have been reluctant.
Also it's a very small house with not much room to setup such things.
Sure it's a little Charlie Brown'ish but it turned out okay.

Our turkey day is today as this is the first day in a while where were are all her at the same time and not working.

Cornbread stuffing is something I have not done before.
Pumpkin pie is from scratch using an actual pumpkin and not a can
Roasted the seeds
Basted the bird every half hour
devil eggs from a recipe book nearly twice my age.

I eated too much...

So this week save Monday, I am on a somewhat forced vacation.

I do normally like to take vacation around this week. I am not normally allowed to take vacation more than a day or two here and there because there is no longer anyone at work with any experience and/or they need constant overseeing and all issues always come to me to work out.

Normally I take this time to do lots of house works and projects but this time I have been lazy....I have a metric but ton of things to do but so far all I have done is clean house and play nintendo. feels good to be lazy.

I did start a project though..I have had these 250 gig SSD's a while now and have swapped out the 60 Gig in my computer for the new one...am in the process of re-installing all my stuff as this is a clean install and not a migration.

Not to bad but I do neeeeed a set of drum brake tools or pliers or something.

Wuf got it for me.

2020 being apparently the worst year ever ...seems to be the year of tires for us.

Williams car ate 2 tires from the ball joints going bad, then 2 more that were just worn.
My car got 2 but NEEDS 2 more.
Front tires for the yard tractor - Then the back ones blew.
Pretty sure Justin had some tires on his car go.

And today one of the fronts on the YardMan will not hold air.

Well..Poop!

I have had a Bellsouth.net email account for a million years.
Going to have to give it up.

Bellsouth swallowed into AT&T - EVERYTHING about AT&T sucks, I have not been happy with them EVER.

AT&T offloaded email to Yahoo - Yahoo has ALWAYS sucked and good luck getting useful support.

Now its 'Currently by AT&T' - they have decided to only use OAUTH without like..letting you know or anything - utterly broken IMAP access - and the use less secure app/passkey simply fails on all ends....There is no support, they do not care, they want you to use the junk web interface or some shitty phone app.

I am forwarding ALL bellsouth email to my gmail account and using that until I give up on it's lack of spam filtering at which point I will probably use a vincentthedragon.com account.

Got some work done on the motorcycle. 1983 Honda V65 Magna that needs some love. I am going to get it back on the road...one day...

What are you doing with yours ?

Most of ours is going to paying back taxes....
Going to finally get that drag blade for the Yardman Tractor so we can hopefully start fixing the driveway and flattening out the yard a bit.

What little is left will just go in our very small savings.
All in all the money is just a drop in the bucket, only half a months pay check.
I'm sure we the working poor will pay for it and more once this is over and the rich/politicians think of more ways to get richer.

It's a little past due and I have had the parts for awhile but it's either been raining for 40 days or cold or I am just too busy.

Since I have my work service car here at the house due to the pandemic. I felt it was time and the weather has been good.
I have a 2009 Honda Fit and its due for spark plugs and valve adjustment. Now, spark plugs are easy but I have never done valve adjustments so there was a little trepidation.

All in all, i did okay I think. The valves were defiantly off. Motor still ticks more than I think it should but time will tell if i messed anything up.

Next thing it is due for is replacing the coolant. Easy job, just got to order the funky blue stuff these Honda's take.
Car has 125,000 miles and I expect to get that much more at the very least.

Amidst the country going bonkers over the current pandemic for which they are not really prepared to deal with due to being snowflakes and lacking in education and common sense...Our politicians have already started negative smear commercials over the failures of each others ability to lead the country.

To our leaders ~ You should all..ALL..be ashamed.

Right now people are hoarding, over buying and being utterly selfish and panicky. They are being led like sheep by the media and scare mongering. This is AMERICA and there is no food in the stores..YOU..You taught them this and you should look at what you have done with some thought and introspect.

Go now to the dictionary and look up the word 'Leader'; your name is not there.

And to the rest of you out there..Wash your hands. Use your brain. Realize that you are lacking in what made this Country what it was some long time ago and educate yourself in what should have been common sense.

In so much as social equality we have come a long way now if only we still had a moral core, humility and brains.

As of a few days ago - it's my 10 year anniversary at the place I work.

It's never been a great place to work but things have gotten better.
The biggest issue is the lack of being able to find qualified people to work there.
As it is I do WAY more than most, I can't even take the 3 weeks vacation I get.
I am only allowed to take a day here and there and since the owners all get huge amounts of vacation time, what's left for me is slim pickings.
:/
One day when i win the lottery, I can retire....

https://www.facebook.com/vincent.altmeyer.9/posts/2763192270435771

Went to local grocery chain store to get some things and I wound up getting some meats and things.

I asked for paper bags at the checkout...the girl fiddled with the paper page not even being able to open the damn thing. She was clueless on how to bag and gave up, asking me to do it myself.

The human race is doomed you know, and this is proof...

Well the SSL installed but I don't see anywhere to tell the thing to stop serving up the non SSL's of everything.

Adding SSL to the website...lets see how bad I break things.

Honey there is a hissing sound from under the sink.

...
Water tube that vampires off to run under the house and to the fridge was spurting.
Joy joy!

Luckily I had everything needed laying around to fix it fairly quickly.
...and now there is actually a shutoff valve installed to turn it off if it breaks again.

Okay, well maybe i'll sip sip

Well let's see...

Upgraded the blog software and immediately get a ton of new registrations spam. I have put a Captcha question in place for new users and that seems to have stopped itbut I am going to work more on that later - also need to switch the entire site to https.

The septic tank backed up into the mains and was causing us a rather shitty problem - It's been like 10 years since the thing has been pumped so all in all it was a good run for it. All pumped out and seems to be back in business.

With family help, we got a ton of limbs trimmed back around the house and driveway. There is a rather large maple tree that is way to close to the house and is in the way of expanding the patio into something more useful. Being poor I can not afford to have someone come cut it down. The tree is beyond out skill in felling it without destroying halve the house or the garage. Thinking that I am going to get some climbing gear and take the top out bit by bit.

Wuf is settling into his new job and the increase in pay should help us get some debt down and perhaps actually have some money to work with.

I am on the fence about leaving my job, though it is NOT a good place to work and has zero upward mobility and is stagnant, I have a very small window of opportunity to move to something else without disrupting my medical insurance. Having to pay for COBRA is not possible nor is having 2 deductibles in a year. The cost of medical in this country is insane.

We have a housemate that will be moving in and I will expand about that later. For now, know that he is our Panda and we Luff him.

It is okay to be jealous.

Early Birthday Present !

The smaller one I got using a gift card That I was given..mm...last year....

I wore out my PokeMon GO Advanced wrist pog so the smaller ball is it's replacement.
The larger Ball is a portable power of 1200 mAH !!

Did a little camping (RV) with my Dad and stepmom. It reminds me of how much I miss camping and that we would like to have the vehicle and RV to do such things.

Me and Dad were setting by the fire looking at the giant RV's and expensive trucks wondering how people can afford these things. I was wondering how I can afford anything.
There is $27 in my bank account and piles on piles of medical bills in the que as well as us not being able to pay our way without assistance from Mom in the form of this house we live in and the electricity it uses. Most everything we have is old, hand me downs, broken things that I have fixed or things other people have gotten for us. We got a couch recently but have not paid for it yet and that's about the only thing we have splurged on of any consequence.

Our hand me down couch ..has had it.
The person that gave it to us did a wonderful thing and we appreciated it to pieces...literally !
..Screws keep falling out of it...also it was not very big so when we had company, they had not much places to set.

Sooo...
$750 at Big Lots - we have a year to pay it off and I know we can do it.

Starter on Williams car is borked...no go unless you bang on it with a mallet.

If it's not one thing it's another, i still need to install swaybar links but have been busy. As is always the case we have no money.

Reman starter from local auto store = $200 and its not in stock
Reman starter from Amazon = $100 and that includes 2 day shipping cost ( the starter is only $65)

Well, that will not leave much $$ left to eat or gas but it's ordered.

One day..ONE DAY it sure would be nice to get ahead, live somewhat comfortable and be able to pay our bills - nothing exorbitant but not always on the verge of being destitute.

Woot

This weekends project....
The Wheel bearing hub assembly in Wuf's car on the passenger side is noisy...that means it's dying.
Anyway..i ordered some online from a descent company for half the cost of the junk at the auto store.
This morning I replaced the noisy one, not to hard a job. I will go ahead and replace the other side once the back ordered sway bar links come in the mail.
While I was inspecting the issue, i noticed that the boots on them are failed.

We had loss of coolant and eventual overheat.
Parts ordered online and hoped they are the correct ones.
The job itself was not too bad and so far the car is running fine now other than the bearing hub issue; which is the next part to replace.

Say what you will - Amazon is for sure killing brick and mortar stores but....

Presto is who makes the expensive Orville Redenbacher popper - Presto brand was like $15

AT-205 is $9 and not sold in auto stores because it apparently actually WORKS and the stuff the auto stores sell only works so long as you keep buying more and adding it every oil change (I'll let you know if it actually seems to work)

2 foot patch cables were dollars each - 10's of dollars in the store

Feeler gauges were $7 and the store price was twice and only has either SAE or Metric and this kit is both

Bosh air filter was under $5 , store is $20

The bad part is that only the AT205 was made in the USA, the rest is all china :/

...
..
.
Working in the supply right now, should be good to go.

Meet HAL5.
The old server is old and out of drive space. I have had this guy for awhile but life stuff kept me from splurging on parts to get it back into production.
A good friend of mine recently handed over some computer things and stuff and it gave me enough drives to get this guy up and running.

I managed to purchase a memory upgrade awhile ago but drives were what I really needed.
I wanted to drop in 4 2TB (the largest this raid card will address) drives but that will have to wait still.

Dell PowerEdge 1900
2 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5120 @ 1.86GHz
Memory 16420MB
Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa

SCSI Disks
TSSTcorp CDRWDVD TS-H492C
ATA WDC WD3200AAKS-7
ATA ST3250310AS
DELL RD1000
DELL PERC 5/i

Rock'n it!

Okay, so the pit is not deep enough for the new pump...

Sump pump in crawl space died - replacement aquired.
...been under the house every day when i come home to adjust the float. I dont think the well is deep enough nor wide enough but I'll keep tweaking the float a few more times.
I think the well needs redone though.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..except this one because it's special.

I decided to make chili and since it was a nice day and I have not seen the sun much; I did it outside.

Have a look!

Got the deck all cleaned up and put away for the winter. Its mostly in great shape but needs a little work with the bolts that hold the belt cover in place. Snow plow has been attached. Now...its not that useful against the sheet of ice since the skidplates just ski over it but it's called a snow plow not an ice plow. The tractor is heavy enough though to bust up the ice just driving on it. I can see that I do indeed need to do some work to the front tire bushings when I pull the cowell off and work on the stearing this spring.

*sips*
So...the truck transmission is in and working. I would like to thank those that assisted...Joe, Kodi, Fox.

It's been stressful at work. Working late, running at %110 to try and get things done. No one has any experience with what they are doing since we lost our entire workforce and have all new people to train. I am spread very thin as I am the only one that knows everything.

Wuf got me a bunch of sweet shirts and things for the holiday, they have snarky sayings on them that I love.

Weather can't make up its mind and I am way far behind on some projects I wanted to get done.

.

I have managed to get all the connections undone, all the lines unhooked and all the bolts loose or out with the exception of the dip stick tube.
It's nearly ready to drop the dead trans out. If all goes as planned I should have it totally removed this weekend. Possibly even the replacement partially put into place.

People wonder why I have a hard time finishing one...welll...because things like this happen.

So...truck is almost paid off and sure enough that is when the transmission takes a dump....

Fun times!..the trans is heavy as fuk, it's a 4x4 so the truck is heavy as fuk and I am totally not looking forward to doing this out in the yard since this thing would not fit in my little garage even if I tried. I don't really have the right things to do this but I will make due. Luckily though a long time friend of mine managed to find me a transmission jack to borrow and also lent me his large floor jack. Today's project is getting the heavy used replacement transmission that everyone hopes will work out of the back and under the carport so I can start the process of building platforms under the truck to jack it up high enough to do this swap.
.

So...we do not get to have many get-a-ways.
So when the chance came along to go to the Cincinnati Zoo on the cheap, we did and it was great!

Cheap hotel, drove there, tickets were free.
I have never been to that zoo and I highly recommend it...so much to see and do and they have tons of events from time to time .

I may post a followup that highlights just our favorites pictures.

relaxing with the spoils after a days work.

Stripped, caulked and ready for primer...which i seem to be out of.

Thankyou Wuf for the beer!
It's my favorite and it's mah birthday so he got some for me to enjoy.

So..took..well, was highly encouraged to take Friday off as well as the holiday. Eee, i have like 100 hours of vacation and since I am low on technicians, I have been told I am not able to take consecutive days off...but they must be used or I loose them.

Anyway...Got the water heater closet painted and the shelves back in place. Now I just need to drill the hole in the floor and run the emergency valve line and then work the door frame back into place.

I also have a new project. I bought dads old Yardman.
They don't make things like this anymore, its a nice powerplant. The engine runs just an hydrolic pump and a PTO so it's nice and strong. The frame is build like a brick shit house so it can take some heavy lifting and work. I need to work on a few minor things...steering...give the PTO a good look at since it's not been used in a while, the break disk needs looked at and I think the hydrolic valve that runs the transmission may have some blow by as the trans likes to creep.

None of this is difficult I think...The tractor has a 3 point in the back so once i find a drag blade and/or drag box then I can fix the yard and the driveway which are getting realllly bad.

oh..that little drip we still had will be easy to fix...um..nope. Life refused to just let me reseal the threads on the one di-electric nor did it let me just float some more solder on the valve that was drippy...it made me pull out some more pipe, purchase some new elbows and di-electrics and re-work the damn thing...so far so good, i see no leaks or drips.

All repaired and mostly installed.

I still have to clean up wiring, add some components and fine tune some of the units configuration (The manual does not read very well).

So..the water heater was found to be leaking. Apparently for a while. Black mold under the tiles. It's been a very long weekend. We started draining the old tank Friday, it's now 10:50 p.m. on sunday and we now have hot water. Parts of the project went as expected. parts of the project went sideways for a while. I still have one verrrrry small drip from one of the solder joints that I will deal with later. Thank you to my Husband for being understanding. Thank you to my mom and step father for all they did to help this weekend. Thank you life for smacking me around for all of it so far so that, while I am not prefect at it nor proficient, having the skill set'ish to get this fixed

See...and then right on Que of something actually working, I go to the closet to get some cleaning supply to clean the mildew we keep getting on the ceiling of the bathroom....
It's not coming from the threads of the element.

So...yard tractor's front tires keep going flat.
This is not abnormal for those cheap turf tires lawn equipment comes with to do this.
They dry rot and crack and since they are only 2 ply, they leak..
There is nothing wrong with the tread or the tire really, for the speeds and PSI they operate on, no need to replace tire just put in a tube.
So I got some tubes, spend most of the day trying to wrangle the damn thing into the tire. I don't have the correct tools of course and nothing about the procedure went well.
6 hours later, i now have 2 inner tubes with screw driver puncture holes and I gave up...The yard is a mess...would not matter anyway since we are flat broke as always and there is no gas in the tank.

So I moved on to a project I have been working on, fixing up an AV signal processor/surround sound amp that a friend gave me.
We can't have new things, only old shit and hand-me-downs since life is determined to shit on us at every turn.

I enjoy fixing things...It's hard without the proper tools.
It seems I did manage to replace the AMP chips without breaking anything by using not the best or correct tools.
I don't have a full set of spare speakers lying around to really give the amp a 'burn in' test so if it fails, i'm sure it will do so after I have spend a ton of hours re-doing the AV rack in the living room.
I will be adding those two hand-me-down Yamaha's to the current speakers, most of which are part of the 5.1 system I bought like 25 years ago, to bring the thing up to 7.1

As you can see, I have my helper getting in the way the entire time.

So..like..been having this odd smell in my car and have not been able to track it down...couple weeks ago i rummaged around pretty hard in the car...Now the smell got worse.

like something died in it smell.

Found it now, when i moved the spare tire last time, i smurshed the baby mouse living in the car.
How he got in there is a mystery as I keep my car fairly clean.

Been detailing and shampooing the inside, scrubber out the spare tire well with pinesol.

This..is a self drilling sheet metal screw....There is a new dollar store being build on my work travel route and its one of those cheap metal clad steel frame buildings.

William was going to have to travel for a work thing but it switched from mandatory to elective.
Instead we picked up a few cheap poles and got our fishing license.
Going to go out this evening and see what we can find and then again Sunday, perhaps a bit on Monday.

My Grandfather served WWII, my Dad is a Marine...many other of our family members have served and we thank them all for their sacrifices and service.

This is my fishing good luck charm, It belonged to my grandfather. Needs a new line break pad..thing..but its still mechanically sound.
Perhaps I'll locate the part to fix it.

Started working on the AV signal processor / AMP
This this is a real bugger to take apart, never seen JST connectors like this.
Also, the power connectors are not on connectors that remove, they are soldered to the boards.

The vacuum rework station I got worked GREAT. the inline amp chips just fell out with ease but...
oops, the second chip is different than the one you could plainly see si I'll have to amazon another chip before I can put it all back together.

Hopefully I'll remember where all these wires go...meep...

I have not been coming up with much to say because I can't find anything good to say.
Life it seems is just bent on constantly trying to beat us into the ground.

Well...A good friend of mines AV amp / signal processor seems to have pooped its output amp chips.

It's a really nice amp, I have wanted to replace my 20+ year old amp for years.
As such he kindly gave the thing to me and if I fix, i can haz.

I have been tinkering at electronic repairs since I was little but have never had the right tools really.
It's been 'my turn' to buy something for myself for some time now and hoping that, due to some small breaks in our financial situation, me purchasing new output chips and a proper solder re-work station don't come bite us in the tail.

Perhaps even I can recoup some $ by offering some small equipment repair services.

Well..If i pay all the bills except the car registration that is due and don't pay the as yet unknown amount for the new Verizon bill..that leaves $23.30 in the bank to pay for gas back and forth to work and food to eat for the next 2 weeks.

We are boned.

It's been 8 years since I started...Every year we seem to go further in debt.
Something has to change.

So…this is our rebuilding year.

We cleared out all of our savings and retirement due to some heavy expenses that came up last year. Important things like final expenses for a family member, cars that gave out and having to pay for COBRA insurance.
Insurance this year is decently priced, William makes more money at his new job so we can rebuild and have a little breathing room perhaps replace some of our 10-15 year old computers and TV and take a small vacation getaway.
Then we got the flu and I tried to schedule my treatment...nope, the insurance is actually Minimal Elective Coverage which literally only pays for a handful of preventative screenings and zero actual medical things.
Okay, had to switch to the more expensive offering at my work which is an HSA type small little group plan of sorts. Should be good coverage but I am still waiting for my several weeks past due treatment to get approved; oh and we can’t yet afford the hundreds of dollars co-pay for Williams meds. The plan costs us $950 a month and $12750 out of pocket. That is a serious chunk out of our take home pay and prior we were living pay check to paycheck so I am not really sure how to absorb this. Also we owe $3000 in taxes which I will have to file an extension for. I have zero chance of paying for that right now. My company doesn’t take out state taxes and we can’t seem to scrape up the quarterly estimates. We make more than what is considered to be poverty so that means our taxes is high to pay for everyone else. Us liquidating a retirement plan hits hard in taxes and since we could not come up with that December COBRA payment of $1400 that also raised the taxes.

Shutting off the TV services, eating cheap unhealthy food, bypassing the dental work we both seriously need, zero entertainment funds, not putting anything back, not up keeping the house, not paying for rent or electricity or insurance.
My sign reads …Will do things for money…

and it just so happens to be the house's heat pump that is.

Hopefully the circulation fan motor that has locked up is not too expensive.
I'll dig it out of the unit tomorrow morning, depending on what it is, perhaps rig up something as i have some AC motors lying about.

Won't be until Tuesday though to find a replacement as things will be closed and also pay check will not be in the bank until Tuesday.

Right now we have the unit in EM heat mode so things are fine'ish and all.

Wuf got me some Dr Who stuff (^_^)
*insert Dr Who theme music*

I has always been a fan and i watched the original stuff when I was little.
Always loved it.

While I have not seen everything of the reboot, nor do I watch it on the telly; I have seen every surviving and reconstructed of the original series and all of its movies and specials.
I am currently working my way through binging on the reboot. (currently just started Season 2)

My present to Wuf was not all that. I got him a pricey coat he has been wanting as well as some nice outfits.

Just not been feeling it this year so I struggled.
I don't really care much for this holiday.
While not being a truly religious dragon, I am spiritual and the meanings behind this season have gotten lost.
Corrupted by commercialism and greed.

Don't get me wrong, i love not using windows and for the most part linux is great...unless there is a problem.

I use a program called Tellico to keep track of all our movies. It uses Amazon Web service API to look things up. It's great as all i have to do is scan the movies UPC code and it bring everything in.... well, it's decided to not work.

Tellicos' website has never been all that useful, the internet web searches return useless or way out of date information and its newest version refuses to compile with cryptic reasons given for which the above stated is not helping. I am not running the latest version of Mint so that's not helping...All i wanted to do was scan in the pile of movies we have acquired here in the past 6 months but it quickly spirals into a project that could take all day.

*sigh*

Seems I missed my chance to get Ho-oh, while the ticker says it's available until tomorrow I saw none today.
I have been raiding after work every day and have found people to raid with most nights but I have not been able to capture one.

Me and William went out and about Saturday to do some catching. He doesn't get the chance to play much but on his first ever raid that ended in success, he caught the damn thing on his second ball toss. Ah well, I also missed out on the first set of legendary's as well.

My 'Dex is pretty full, only missing the things I can't currently get due to them being region locked and the legendary's I can't seem to capture.
You would think there would be some kind of reward for being a higher level or a more avid player but it seems to be the opposite.

I would have spend Sunday out looking but I was busy trying to resurrect William's computer...it is dead and it's not in the budget to replace. I can't even scrap up the money to fix up mine nor get the parts needed for the server. I am working on putting together him a computer which is my secondary workstation I use. It's fairly descent and will work just fine for what he needs it to do.

Seems I missed my chance to get Ho-oh, while the ticker says it's available until tomorrow I saw none today.
I have been raiding after work every day and have found people to raid with most nights but I have not been able to capture one.

Me and William went out and about Saturday to do some catching. He doesn't get the chance to play much but on his first ever raid that ended in success, he caught the damn thing on his second ball toss. Ah well, I also missed out on the first set of legendary's as well.

My 'Dex is pretty full, only missing the things I can't currently get due to them being region locked and the legendary's I can't seem to capture.
You would think there would be some kind of reward for being a higher level or a more avid player but it seems to be the opposite.

I would have spend Sunday out looking but I was busy trying to resurrect William's computer...it is dead and it's not in the budget to replace. I can't even scrap up the money to fix up mine nor get the parts needed for the server. I am working on putting together him a computer which is my secondary workstation I use. It's fairly descent and will work just fine for what he needs it to do.

It's good...it's cheap...it's easy..also it's gooood!

Cold beer after a hard days work.

sill ton's of yard work and other upkeeps though....

So far - So good; We have managed to pay for Corbra so far.

We went to see the latest Thor movie.

*spoiler* It was good but i though there was a bit to much emphasis on comedy.

Our plan always was to get a 3rd car so I could work on one of them and still have transportation since things take longer than a weekend to fix.

We managed to find a way to get William a car from the same car lot we got the FIT....Then he lost his job.
He has found another and will start the end of the month but that still means 3 car payments a month.
It also means COBRA insurance at $1300 a fucking month.

welll shit...okay...so now that car#1 situation has been taken car of it's time to return to making car#2 at least safe to drive...we still had just enough money to buy some ball joints and rent the tool but..nope...A its to late for the tires to give any more life as there is a wire showing.. and B there is zero way this removal tool will work for this car..If the car parts places around here had a different tool then it would be okay but I can find no way of making this tool work, nor can a friend of mine. Seems the only way is to remove the entire steering knuckle and use the tool up side down to push out the joint. So, right now what we have is a car that we are paying $460 a month for that has had one after another issues in a way that is made it not possible to dump high maintenance costs into and its reached the point of being no longer drive able.

What has gone out so far is...water pump, steering fluid high pressure lines, steering rack and pinion, plugs, wires, purge valve, EVAP control, and a spark module.

it requires still, breaks all around, rear rotors, tires, upper ball joints, lower ball joints, the control arm joints.

The rims leak at some small cracks at the inner wells where someone has ran each of the rims over curbs, there is a engine temperature sensor code and the shocks are shot to the point that the thing bounces around like trying to walk on a 1970's water bed and it uses more oil than it should.

Minimally I need upper ball joints and two used tires but the shop cost on uppers is beyond what we have right now and I am sure they will not let you drive away with wires poking out from the tires.

For now its double duty on car sharing which equals not as much sleep as we need since for now we work different shits.
Going to call up the buy here pay here rape you place and see what they would do if we offer to sign the title back to them and walk but..we still own $6,000

any ideas?

I was able to get things in order and now have a nicely used little car....Good bye PT. You did your job and although in the end your crappy engineering was the death of you, you were a good car.

So…William has been working stupid amounts of 13 hours shifts and during a holiday.
His pay check will be nice and fat, we had around 600 also set back so far so we were hoping to then go out and find a cheap car to buy from an individual and also order the parts needed to fix the front end of his truck.

Family member on the other side of the US passed away so a good chunk of the 600 has gone to drive out there and put things in order and all that.

The front end of his truck is really bad, tire is to the wires now and I am having a hard time keeping it on the road. It needs upper ball joints and I had figured that there would still be enough money to get the parts and get them installed while he was away for the week.

On my way home to fetch him to go get the rental car and my motor goes foom.
It’s been towed home, I’ll try to resurrect it this weekend. something has gone catastrophic with that timing belt I replaced.

We are/will be drained of finances again…I need a different car but I have no money and my credit score is 600.

I have some dental work that needs done before I lose some teeth over it.

Williams truck needs work ASAP, upper ball joints and arms and some tires will hold it over but it has other issues.

I need new glasses and a jacket for work.

The video card on my already old and mostly put together from stuff I was given computer has died.

^_^

well...update on the car. Compression test says things are fine. Replaced the spark plugs, wires and it runs a lot better. Ordered some hoses and the EGR system.

I am currently in chicago for a week doing some training for work. Nearly everyone in my class is a total noob or totally new to this brand so that makes things interesting.

I have had a sore throat for a few days, kinda comes and goes but right now its kicking my ass....well, i have homework to do, better get to it.

Well...The truck is running.
It was not just plugs, one of the spark modules died.
...
My car still runs, still gets good gas mileage but has a lack of power/stutter under load and is using 2 quarts of oil every 5000 miles.
I ordered a tool, compression testing kit which i am guessing is going to tell me the rings are shot.

Part of me still wants to fix the thing up but part of me wants to just get another car.
Only have a few hundred saved up, can't really afford a car payment not sure what to do.

Truck still needs a full suspension rebuild, rims, tires, some seal here and there and a sensor or two.
Car would still need shocks, CV joints, Clutch.

sigh

When do we win?

Still runs like crap and still is popping a misfire code.
Hoping it's just fowled up plugs from the evap issue.
Out of money right now, will have to baby it for now.

sell it to you

On Friday my Mother in-law passed away.
Shirley Vario, I knew you not long enough to know you well but I own you a debt of gratitude.
It was her that got my husband on that dating website where we met so I have her to thank.

Until we meet again, be at piece.

Meouth healed up from her loosing an eye but her body never caught up.
She never gained up any weight and while happy and fine she took a turn this weekend and decided it was her time.

She is with Mr. Speckles and Miss FancyLu now.
She was loved and I'll see her again some day.

well one of the fun things about having a car or truck with some miles on it is the things that wear out...

We are down to our last $150 ... fuel line fix lasted until today.

Won't have any money until Monday after quitting time.

I might be able to replace the line with regular rubber fuel line but i am sure it will rub against something and fail sooner than later.
...i drained and saved what i could from the tank, just filed it, can't afford to loose it all...GD tired of everything being a struggle.

We work hard...we have nothing to show for it...no backup plan, no savings, no equity, no retirement, we barely spend anything on entertainment...whats the point?

Just in time for us to be completely broke due to paying the taxes we owe....my car decided it wants to spurt gas everywhere.

Had some friends over the help me yank out the gas tank...at least it was not what i feared it would be.
It's not the pump, its the fuel line....which is a dealer only part....but we did find a kit that may work...*crosses talons*

i'll put it back together tomorrow....also due for oil and tire rotate so I'll do that too.

Looks like i got a pretty nasty oil leak on the back end of the motor now too, i think its the valve cover and or the sensors on the end of the cam shafts.
There looks to be a good amount of oil in the throttle body too...not sue whats up with that.

If this repair kit fixes the gas issue then all i need now is brakes, CV joints, main seals, oil pump seals, oil pump rebuild kit, struts, plugs, wires, whatever is making that damn bearing noise in the timing belt area, EGR solenoid, rear wiper environmental seal, hatch shocks, clutch and bearing kit....

Now, this picture is not so great...taking a picture with a cell phone of a TV is not something i have quite got down pat.

Wuf loves me thiiiis much

I finally got my meds, at a different hospital than where i normally.
I don't really care for the place but meds are meds.

Had some friends over again for some video game fun which was great.

Tonight we went to a hockey game, courtesy of Williams work. It was pretty good but....the game makes no sense to me.

The Ford center seems way smaller than it should be and the parking and traffic flow is horrid.

Ahhh vacation….I have gotten nothing done...at all!

Oh, I had some silly notion that I would get some projects done but oh well.

I still don't have an answer for my medicine but I am doing well, some of that may be due to the lack of stress.

What I have been doing other than just housework and fiddling around is playing my Hyrule Warriors game.

We met some local furs that are nice and did some hanging out, Playing CAH, making home made pizza and generally having a nice time. They also have been playing the game with me which helped get me past some levels. Hope to hang out more. They were even kind enough to sell me on the cheap a two person reclining love seat in good working order.

Also my mother managed to snag a PokéMon Go Plus for me so I have been doing some walk abouts.

Sadly, today is the last day and I have to go back to the grind on Monday.

I should be setting in the chair getting my treatment...but no...I got turned away because apparently Anthem, the insurance company has decided thats its too expensive there despite being on their Preferred Provider list. No one can give me a solution today because everybody is out for the holiday. well, it sure was fucking nice of them to make this decision then go off on holiday.

I did get a letter stating that for NEXT year I am denied and have to drive 4 hours round trip to get the stuff...which is NOT a solution unless they provide me with a driver. I can't do anything about it right now because that denial is for a plan I will not have next year as I'll be going on Williams group policy from work ...but they have not gotten their shit together and issues cards or policy numbers..oh, and it's also Anthem...

The medical system in this country is a broken mess and its managed by total morons

Our early presents to ourselves
Woot!

This be Meouth the one eye kitty.

She is doing okay.
She is home and setup in my office here with Prince to be around and will have the terror, i mean Shadow the kitten in the rest of the house so he is NOT around her until things calm down.
The Vet aides said she was a sweet kitty and purry.
Meouth is a senior cat but she's worth the effort.
She needs to gain a little weight though.

this is not my video

but it's relevant.
Right now one of ours is laying on the kitchen table.
Meouth is old and has been loosing weight.
Today I found her eye that she has always had problem with seemingly coming apart. It's a bloody mess, Vet will be called first thing when they open.

okay so...power steering in the truck exploded....still under its little warranty from the car place so they fixed it.

water pump exploded a week later....i noticed it was starting to leak a good bit and the shaft was wobbly while I was doing an oil change but we could not get it into the shop before it blew up...but it's still under warranty so they towed it and fixed it.

I feel like crap today but i am trying to get things done...leaving Monday to be in Kennesaw for a week doing a training class for work.

October 28th
Vincent and William got married !

The ceremony went well, the church and decorations we put together looked great.
Me and mom were up until 2am the night before working on the cake, which was fun and brought back memories.

I'll have some better pictures soon!

This is shadow.
Mewling from the woods.
He's not a stray and while it's possible he somehow got separated from his family, it's more likely he is a drop off.
He's in good health other than a cold in nose so to speak. He has obviously been inside a house and around people.

so far Meouth is okay with him and Prince is standoffish and a little hissy but is okay with the guy in the same room.
Letting them find each other by them selves and not pushing them together but it's a small house.

We have 2.5 weeks until the wedding so the little guy is going to have to make due until its over before he gets shots and something for his cold.
Being a small house having just the 2 cats was just fine by me but we can't say no to someone in need.

After standing around Walmart for several hours to get very much needed tires for my car I went home to check on Williams car, because he mentioned the power steering was whining. While we have been doing pretty good with money right now since Williams job is paying pretty good, the tires used up all my cushion....Will's car is out of steering fluid, like bone dry so a little investigating and sure enough, one of the lines has rusted through and is shot. Trip to auto store and like $200 in parts later I get to figure out how to replace these things. The $200 ate all of Williams cushion as well....It's now 9pm, i have not eaten. I think it may be fixed but i don't know. Extremely frustrating job as cars are horrible to work on now a days, everything is in the way, you cant reach anything and serviceability was the last thing on their mind. First time i fired it up after the replacement it promptly blew out all the fluid. One of the seals on the steering gear fell out as i was inserting the hose. Hour and a half later and its back on but i don't know if its sealed or working due to being out of fluid.

Wow...was that a job.
I have gotten pretty good at removing the intake and various parts that gain access to the drivers side of the car but this...this makes you want to strangle and entire office of engineers. Car is up and running ans all is well but the shear number of hours it took me.

Next time I will have to have someone help, the special tools i picked up Reeally helped. One day when we win the lottery, i'll have a kickass shop with a lift and a proper set of impact tools.

Alright, I have everything I need to replace my timing belt thats 30k miles past its due date.
Going to kick this off this weekend, who wants to help?

nice cat bed...

Do NOT stare directly into the cute.
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I warned you.
Presents from Wuf

So...after a bunch of driving around and not seeing anything worth having or outside of our price range...we had to go back into the buy-here-pay-here thing.
but, we found this
Its a 2004 Chevy trailblazer 4x4
Interior is good, nothing seems dented or busted, no leaks, 110,000 miles.
Bose sound package, Onstar, Navigation system (still seems to be active), DVD player and screen.
In the glove box is what looks to be a complete service history...and it was cheaper than I would have expected at the lot we got it from but they did not have it long.

Lets keep our fingers crossed that we got a good one.

So had to buy the starter($105), put it on on Tuesday. Car boiling over...took radiator out and rinsed the crap out of it Wednesday, seems still clogged and car still overheats.
Bought radiator and thermostat Friday($160) and have been putting it in today. Car seems to run very cool now and no leaks....

You know that part earlier where I said I can't catch a break?
...
So my car is not wanting to start, you have to push start it about 50% of the time.
Something you can only do with a manual transmission by the way, so that odd third pedal has another use.
The car is also starting to overheat and is 30,000 miles past do to have the timing belt replaced.

The starter is not so bad, should run me $100 for the part and I can do that myself.

timing belt is a different matter... timing belt kit with water pump, radiator hoses, radiator cap, serpentine belts, new coolant, new refrigerant and PAG oil ...should run me about $300 in parts ....oh..and.

Thats how to replace it....

This is a project I have been putting off until I could afford it, i had a backup vehicle, i had vacation time, i had help...I am going to need help with this one.

offered to take over payements of 200 a month buuutttt.
once it got here...nope...the list of what is wrong with this thing is long, it was not taken care of at all.
Also the final price is much more than we were thinking so...

thanks but no, we will just have to scrape and pinch and come up with money for a better car somehow.

...

I Cooked up some food for me and Wuf

^_^

Okay, remember that bridge from
http://vincentthedragon.com/index.php/ow-2?blog=2

Well here is something to put a little perspective on the size and also what we did about it today.

Also, today was the day we had to turn in Williams car for his bankruptcy, so we are less one car...

We went to a candle vigil tonight in remembrance for the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Okay...so i know little to nothing about auto body and paint.
Here is a piece of aluminum from the bike.
There are these little black thready looking things on the outside, they feel smooth and will not wash or scrub off...
took some 800 grit and water to the center there and you can see the result...
Is this a clear coat that has failed or something?
???

So...I have chosen to house-set for my sister while her and her family are off visiting mom for a week.

kitty cats and puppy dogs galore!
Oh, and some fish

The internet here is WAY faster than our place, wish i could drag my home rig here and see what SecondLife would look like with real internet.

The kittens are in the unholy cute stage so at least there is that.

Put new blades on the yard tractor - blades are expensive! nearly $50 for mower blades...mowed for about 45 mins and the deck went boom.
yep, trashed idler pulley, killed the belt also...and the spindle bearings sound like crap.

3 years old, I keep it clean and washed...now needs $200 in parts.
I may be able to rebuild the spindles if i can get the bearings out, might be able to match up the idler pulleys at a supply store. Hopefully I can find better pulleys, the OEM ones are junk. but it will still run $100+

These are for a Chevy 350, bored .030 over with a rod length of 5.7.
Aluminum pistons from Enginetech.
Brand new, never used.
http://www.enginekits.com/enginetech-p1534-flat-top-4v-pistons.html

Our wedding rings have arrived.

Been saving for a while now...scraping by to keep back money.
I just placed the order for our wedding rings!

I have blisters on my paws..but it's worth it.
Was at my dads helping with some rather large projects.
One being removing the washed out bridge in the woods, It's hard to tell from the photo but the ditch there is deeper than I am tall and the spanners were 4 telephone poles...
We also moved/hacked at the dirt around a huge stump in the yard.

Wuf made me foods!

It came up in conversation so here is a picture of HAL4

Just a quick video walk-around of the church we are going to have our ceremony in.

So...the software that this blog is created on is B2Evolution.
It's open source, free and have been around for a good long time.

Up until now, upgrading has been a somewhat manual process of downloading the source and replacing the entire websites code with the new stuff then editing some code to point it to the database and also editing the code you have made configuration changes to.

Now there is an experimental feature that you can upgrade the code from inside the back office log in without the need to muck around in the SQL or the codebase.
It worked like a a charm.

Woot!

Here is some pics of what home for the week will be.
Down in Kennesaw Georgia for a vendor school for work on a piece of equipment I already know how to work on.
It's required to be trained in order to call technical support....

It's been a long drive, I'll post some more stuff and updates and crap later.

woke up a little late, not been sleeping well lately.

Coffee pot will not turn on.

One of my Tech's calls in sick.

I was behind on some things already.

One of my other tech's ran into machine issues that but him behind so now we are good and behind.

I'd rather not say much about crimmus, i don't really much care for it. It's a holiday twisted around all the wrong reasons.

spent time with family, that went...okay..
Had plans for a friend to hang out, that fell apart as usual

years almost up, not much to show for another year gone.
same shit, different day.
eat sleep poop housework repeat etc

Been awhile since I sat and type in the chair.
Had to do my treatment on a Saturday because of the holiday and work schedule and such.

I don't much care for the season, its hard to get into it when you have no money all the time.

Been working on and thinking about the wedding next year. We did find a small open church that may be willing to have us on the cheap.

Have not gotten much done on the house or outside, everything requires money.

We are getting by but I'd rather be able to pay our own way. I need to find a descent job that has benefits. I look all the time but nothing worthwhile seems to be out there.

It came up in conversation...Also, NSFW.
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So, went RV camping with dad, step-mom and Will. Was nice and fun too.
It was very nice camping weather, chilly at night, great for campfire and passing around a little wine.
Here's a few pics

October 28th of next year.
I'd like it to be a Celtic / Furry theme but time will tell.

We have been together for a long time now, seems reasonable to take the next step.

Besides for all our differences and the parts of us that get on each others nerves, I love him.

...I had a running motorcycle

Well...I have been tinkering with the bike. FINALLY got it to run ..for about 3 seconds...but it was that beautiful slow and low throaty Blub Blub Blub Blub.

To do this I had to bypass the fuel pump relay and hot run the fuel pump for a bit - there was ZERO fuel in the line still. After the 3 seconds I hit the kill switch and ran to get my phone but could never get it to fire after that. 30 year old electronics are a bit wonky, fuel pump or relay or ignition module is not working right.

While tinkering I was finding a cover here, a bolt there, wire harness exposed there...and i was putting all that back in place but as i starting digging into the issue; sure enough I was removing all the things that I had put back. Walking in my brothers shoes in tracking down the issue.

On August 30th my younger brother took his life.
He will be missed but not forever, nor forgotten.

Whatever dark place led him to that end, I know not nor will I understand.
I love my brother and he was a good man. Many many more people than I would think would show up at my own funeral did so at his to share grief and joy at all the things he gave and taught them.

Among a few things dear to heart that exude David's persona, which I'll post later once I get a picture worthy.; I inherited a motorcycle he was working on.

I have been wanting one, amusing I can get this one running on a budget, this will be the one I learn on so if anyone can offer assistance in knowledge and teaching now will be the time.

yep

Wuf picked my up a dragon for my fuzzy collection
(^_^)

Back from a vacation..I don't take those often.

Mom's wedding in Connecticut which was very well done and nice and...okay so there was a Tardis, Dr Who theme music, Plushies and references to Second Life!

We also did some tourist things around Connecticut where mom and her lion lives as well as spending a day touring New York City.
Lots of history, totally cool architecture and stuff....The 911 site was....moving...

I'll post a few picture when my phone is done updating

Local Furry group
http://imgur.com/a/Y5QqF <---pictures not taken by me

https://www.facebook.com/groups/457809340919852/?fref=nf <--Local Groups Facebook thing

Nice to get out and meet new ..umm...people?
Doubly so when its local

Soo..we went and saw Jurassic World...
*spoilers*
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It's an effects movie, there is no doubt.
I liked it though, it was an endless string of funny homages to the original movie.
If your going to pony up the money to watch in in IMAX 3d, its worth it.
If you don't want the 3D then wait until its on the blue rays.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6791152/

Kissed any one of your Facebook friends? ~ Yes
Been arrested? ~ No
Kissed someone you didn't like? ~ No
Slept in until 5 PM? ~ Yes
Fallen asleep at work/school? ~ Yes
Ran a red light? ~ Yes
Been suspended from school? ~ No
Experienced love at first sight? ~ No
Totaled your car in an accident? ~ Yes
Been fired from a job? ~ No
Fired somebody? ~ Yes
Sang karaoke? ~ No
Pointed a gun at someone? ~ Yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? ~ Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? ~ Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? ~ Yes
Kissed in the rain? ~ No
Had a close brush with death (your own) ~ Yes
Seen someone die? ~ No
Played spin-the-bottle? ~ No
Sang in the shower? ~ Yes
Smoked a cigar? ~ Yes
Sat on a rooftop? ~ Yes
Taken pictures of yourself naked? ~ Yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? ~ No
Skipped school? ~ Yes
Eaten a bug? ~ Yes
Sleepwalked? ~ Yes
Walked a moonlit beach? ~ No
Ridden a motorcycle? ~ No
Dumped someone? ~ No
Forgotten your anniversary? ~ Yes
Lied to avoid a ticket? ~ No
Ridden on a helicopter? ~ No
Shaved your head? ~ No
Blacked out from drinking? ~ No
Played a prank on someone? ~ Yes
Hit a home run? ~ No
Felt like killing someone? ~ Yes
Cross-dressed? ~ No
Been falling-down drunk? ~ Yes
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? ~ Yes
Eaten snake? ~ No
Marched/Protested? ~ No
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? ~ No
Puked on amusement ride? ~ No
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? ~ Yes
Been in a band? ~ No
Knitted? ~ No
Been on TV? ~ No
Shot a gun? ~ Yes
Skinny-dipped? ~ No
Caused someone to need stitches? ~ No
Ridden a surfboard? ~ No
Drank straight from a liquor bottle? ~ Yes
Had surgery? ~ Yes
Streaked? ~ No
Taken by ambulance to hospital? ~ Yes
Passed out when not drinking? ~ Yes
Peed on a bush? ~ Yes
Donated Blood? ~ No
Grabbed electric fence? ~ Yes
Eaten alligator meat? ~ Yes
Eaten cheesecake? ~ Yes
Eaten kids' Halloween candy? ~ Yes
Killed an animal when not hunting? ~ Yes
Peed your pants in public? ~ No
Written graffiti? ~ No
Still love someone you shouldn't? ~ Yes
Think about the future? ~ Yes
Been in handcuffs? ~ Yes
Believe in love? ~ Yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? ~ Yes

You know the one..The biggest one...the one you pretty much have to have...the one that's blue

out of 7 claims so far this year they have processed 2 of them correctly.
The remainder of the In-network services have been denied for no reason.

Hours on the phone so far this year.

Today the answer was that it's out of state and that's why.
It says on page fucking one of my gold level PPO contract that it's a multi-state plan.

Apparently they think i am supposed to show up in outpatient chemo services in Indiana, where it's administered then drive to Kentucky for the routine blood work that has to be done before the treatment then drive back to Indiana to finish the treatment then drive back to Kentucky to get the after administer blood work all in the same day?

Compacted clay weights 2970 pounds per cubic yard.
I dug a hole in the yard 10 foot by 15 foot by 5 foot deep.

I flipped the entire thing, put good dirt on the bottom of the hole, started layering clay mixed with organic material and sand, built it up and added a curtain drain...

Lets do some math.

10x15x5 = 28 Cubic Yards x 2970 pounds = 83,160 pounds = almost 42 tons
...by hand...shovels, pick axe, wheel barrel etc..

Broke a shovel, a hoe and a pick axe

If it rains and the yard turns to shit again for months on end i swear it's time for some god damn dynamite

got $7 in the bank and $5 in my pocket...

This G be rollen biatch.
...
..
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*sigh*

so our house was invaded by these creepy little sugar ants for no real reason other than inside the house is dry and outside the house is a wet mushy bog.
I tried some bug blocker all over the place outside..nothing...Very concentrated Diazinon...nothing...

Okay then, lets just feed the little fuckers.

1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 1/2 tables spoons of Borax !

1/4 of a paper towel and a few cotton balls soaked with the sugar water.

2 days later...no ants.

Well...It's more than i would have liked to pay but people with shitty credit don't have a lot of choices.
2001 Buick LeSaber
It's in okay shape, it's been wrecked but seems to have been put back together fairly well and doesn't have a zillion miles on it.

Well it's ugly but it will hold.

The fender is bent a little but i bent it back, the bumper is now being held on with some metal strapping (very redneck).
Drivers door trim popped off but i have it and its not broken, dents in the drivers door.
The inner fender well is missing half of it and the head lamp is destroyed.

I can get the fender well for like $20 and the head lamp of $50 - I'll prolly get a matching set but I am going to wait until the taxes are paid or i get pulled over.
The rest will most likely not get fixed, perhaps after the car is paid off I can decide to have the body work done on it. or not...it is 14 years old but only has 100K, interior is in great shape...we will see.

Will and I are together again. He moved back in and so far things are good. Time will tell but as long as he continues to work together rather than the way it was and maintain his own financials things will be okay.

You know the saying, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

okay, so my X's truck broke down. He is in a hard place (as am I) with finances and is starting a new job very soon so having your vehicle go down is not good.

I was asked to assist, and I am/did.

It's a clunker, cheap and fairly wore out but us poor people got to do what we got to do.
My unfamiliarity with this type of truck set me back a few hours in trying to figure out where all the water you put in the radiator was running out from the motor but i seem to be in the right track. My time outside in the cold wind without the more correct tools is just a donation, the parts required is a loan of sorts. I can't afford much to give but am hopeful that the cost of the parts will be under 150. I go to the auto store in the morning and hopefully will have the thing back up and running before dark.

Oh, and I hit a deer on the way back home...My car is still drive-able but the front bumper seems to be busted and the drivers head light assembly is busted.
I have state minimum coverage so...and I could not afford a deductible anyway. Hopefully I can repair the damage to the plastic and replace the assembly but it will be a while before i can get to it due to this loan and needing a bunch of money soon for to pay my state taxes (my employer doesn't take out state taxes and it really fucks me over in taxes)

my service coordinator up and quit.
We are short staffed as it is and those that we do have are not very experienced nor particularly qualified to fit into the position.
...which will mean more work for me...again!

So...I ran into an issue..
Ubuntu Used to be a good OS that catered not only to the high end but also the low end.
It was not uncommon to use Ubuntu to breath new life into older hardware and do more with it than windows ever could.
This is not the same anymore.
Ubuntu poopoo's on the people that made it popular and instead do stupid shit.
I could NOT get it to recognize my older video card for sit.
Fortunately there is another ubuntu offshoot other than Mint called LXLe that is Ubuntu restored back it its lighter days and works with older hardware...actually ubuntu would work but they removed and/or broke things in the repository in favor of only supporting newer hardware and thier sucky desktop manager.

Issue number two...Windows 7's boot loader is shit and hates anything but itself so i am having to stray from using my normal boot loader, (Grub2) and use a windows bootloader (EasyBCD). No biggy there.

The test bed is now all up and running and dual booting and Damn! is LXLe FAST on this thing.

Finally..we got my 3rd technician hired.
That means I needed to move because I was still in the same room as the technicians and there are only 3 desks in that room.

my office is small, it's really just a cubical and it lacks a door ...but its the first time I have had my own office.

Now, the new guy...I really did not want to hire him but i was over-ridden.
His first day was Monday, it went okay....his second day was today, he failed to bother to show or call and let us know we decided not to work for us..
Fuuuk..welll at least i got a new office?

rummaging in the shelves
Built a test bed
every geek needs one
I always kinda liked this odd case, saturated in blue LED's
the neat analogue temperature dial
It's a pretty clean build if i do say so
Old hardware, AMD Sepmteron 3000
dual booting Win7 pro and Mint Linux

Have a look.
Tell me your thoughts.

Don't be Jelly of my Jam
this is what i did this weekend.
Blackberry Jam made from blackberries i grow myself.

Well..Things are slow as of yet but the web site is now on a new web host...This post also serves as a test post so more information will follow.

so..i am wally world picking up a few things. They have nice cheap bread and i needed some flea meds for the cat...and some other crap that i cant get at a good price elsewhere.

checkout person puts the flea killer and the bread in the same bag...

So I had a friend over for a few days and he brought a game along. I liked it!
I found it used at the local game store and have been playing Super Paper Mario ^_^
it fun...other than right now it's pissing me off with a side quest that is rather lengthy and towards the end it like to just decide you have played long enough and it just kills you.

The first time i tried updating the blog it all blew up.
This time i took it in smaller increments...note to self...Do Not Get So Far Behind On Software Updates!!

Anyway...took all day but the main blog is running. The other blogs can wait as they are no longer really updated.

Now, to find a new web host and move the entire thing.

Aslo, i got out the Dutch oven and chacoal'd

So...we, me and a friend, rebuilt my main workstation Shiny.
Made from some parts two friends of mine donated to me.
Rocking a nice Gigibyte motherboard, and AMD Phenom2 956 black, and an SSD.
It working rather nicely and quite fast...like it boots so fast its crazy.

The website needs to be updated and moved elsewhere. The web host i use has gotten too expensive.

Other than that, just been cleaning the house and orginizing.

This is in response to something posted elsewhere.

Yes, it sounds like a small thing. Bringing home a puppy. We are not allowed to have any more animals in the house we don’t own. The one mom pays for, pays for electricity, water, insurance, trash pick-up and tosses in more even to pay for the mowing on the tractor she bought. The puppy discussion has been had on several occasions but no, William comes first. You do know the two cats here have been exposed to parvo and the puppy could get sick and die. There is no food in the fridge and the tires on your car are bald but sure, a puppy comes first. It's not like i came out and asked a few weeks ago when you had days off that perhaps it would be nice to fix me a meal for us to share together when i got home since you know, i come home from work and fix you food always even when you don’t let me know you have decided to eat at your mom’s or something. Oh, wait, I did...you asked for gas money and spent your time off elsewhere. ..the finger pointing game works both ways but I ask that we digress and step back and simply move on with our lives now as individuals.

Always remember that despite growing apart, there was and still is love there. There is no reason you should not continue to better your life because despite the recent illness. You have come up in the world in job, education and socially. Please if only in spite of me, continue to be healthy, employed at your good paying job and finish your education because you do have it in you.

Be well and good bye.

Thursday Will went back into the ER..this time they properly diagnosed the issue.
He had a heart attack.

They went in and unclogged a fully clogged artery with a stint and can see that he has other blockages that we are going to treat with life changes.

He should be released today and we will go from there.

Myself, work has been stupid stressful and just not worth it. With all that been going on, I have not sleep well in weeks....but i just basically slept for 36 hours so I should be good now.

The place where i host this blog has raised their prices again.
It's just not worth it anymore to pay to have this place here.
I will look for something cheaper, hopefully I can find something I can life with otherwise for the first time in a very very long time I will no longer have my own website.