What You've Done Today - As the World Turns

[ShadySands]

32 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

I thought you wife came from the Baltic states, I cant remember which one ?

Estonia. That's where she grew up and lived until she came to the US but she was born in Khabarovsk.

[BruceVC]

51 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

The main benefit of Tennessee is no state income tax. Also, TN tends to have a slightly lower cost of living, not that NC has a high cost of living. These change on a county by county basis, like anywhere else. Also, Tennessee tends to be more lenient on what you can build on your land without jumping through flaming hoops, though, again, that's on a county by county basis.

This is one of the serious  benefits of living in a  country that has a federal system of government, you can have  different state laws and regulations in different states and that sometimes allows you to literally be able to look at each  state and decide  " I want to live in state x because of regulation y " 

You have choice and that choice is advantageous most of the time  

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

This is one of the serious  benefits of living in a  country that has a federal system of government, you can have  different state laws and regulations in different states and that sometimes allows you to literally be able to look at each  state and decide  " I want to live in state x because of regulation y " 

You have choice and that choice is advantageous most of the time  

On top of that, the United States is large enough that the vast majority of climates and geographical features are available all without ever having to cross a country border. So, as long as you don't have anything tying you to a specific location, you can choose to move to nearly any climate and/or geographic location of your desire while staying within the same country, and that's just the lower 48, never mind Alaska and Hawaii.

[Sarex]

9 hours ago, Azdeus said:

That sounds nice. (Locally) The best I could theoretically manage, if I somehow manage to save up a downpayment, is a 68m2 3 room apartment that starts at 150000€. Cheapest house starts about 200 000€ and it needs renovations.

Is that for a newly built building or an old building?

[Guard Dog]

9 hours ago, Keyrock said:

The main benefit of Tennessee is no state income tax. Also, TN tends to have a slightly lower cost of living, not that NC has a high cost of living. These change on a county by county basis, like anywhere else. Also, Tennessee tends to be more lenient on what you can build on your land without jumping through flaming hoops, though, again, that's on a county by county basis.

I was about to say don’t tell the folks in Shelby County that LOL!

[Malcador]

10 hours ago, ShadySands said:

That's where my wife was born

In local news it's snowing. Again.

Doesn't look too bad a place, the vloggers hometown is Spassk-Dalny which is pretty depressing from her videos on it, hah.  I'd heard of Khabarovsk from Football Manager, but for some reason thought it was somewhere near the Urals.  This is what happens when you learn Russian geography from 80s flight sim maps, I guess.

[Guard Dog]

LOL I would wager a good number of Americans owe the majority of their knowledge of the cities of the world to playing football manager!

[LadyCrimson]

All the crazy weather everywhere these recent years. All we have is a possible big earthquake - that's not very likely to affect you personally much anyway - once every 50-100 years, and lately, oddball for here bits of light mid-summer rain. Seems pretty low stress to me in comparison.  Haha.

In other news, I woke up today, took off all my hand braces and was doing stuff for a while and suddenly realized my hand/thumb was working properly. Probably won't last all day but hey, I was able to eat a meal and wash my hair without pain! A good day. 

[Deadly_Nightshade]

My girlfriend's fever broke and she's feeling better, plus the COVID test came back negative! Unfortunately today she got notified that she had been exposed to someone who had tested positive while going to the doctor to get tested so the plans to meet in-person have been put-off until she tests negative again (ideally without any additional exposure incidents). I'm sure the irony of what happened will be amusing down the line but at the moment it's more frustrating than anything else.

[Azdeus]

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

Is that for a newly built building or an old building?

The apartment complex was built in 1960, but they've been renovated about 10 years ago. There's a 32m2 1 room apartment in the same building, a bargain at 125000€

The house is from 1860, and it needs pretty extensive repairs.

 

[Gromnir]

1 hour ago, Deadly_Nightshade said:

My girlfriend's fever broke and she's feeling better, plus the COVID test came back negative! Unfortunately today she got notified that she had been exposed to someone who had tested positive while going to the doctor to get tested so the plans to meet in-person have been put-off until she tests negative again (ideally without any additional exposure incidents). I'm sure the irony of what happened will be amusing down the line but at the moment it's more frustrating than anything else.

we had a bad case o' the flu this year.  literal only time we were exposed to people the ten days before contracting the flu were when we went to a pharmacist for a shingles vaccine appointment. were supermarket pharmacy location during the middle of the day. such an appointment were exact kinda thing we had been avoiding for months, but we knew we should not ignore shingles vaccination neither and we knew shingles vaccination would impact when we could get vaccinated for covid-19.

so, a few days after our shingles vaccination appointment, we got the flu. not covid, but flu.

...

worse, 'cause o' a scheduling snafus, we weren't even able to get our shingles vaccination on the day o' our appointment.

am all 'bout appreciating the irony, but such recognition didn't make us feel any better as we were feverish, achy and experiencing chills for 'bout ten days.

HA! Good Fun!

ps when we finally did get the shingles vaccination, we had a less than pleasant reaction. not as bad as it coulda' been, 'but the eve after getting our first shingles shot, we had a world class bout o' uncontrollable shivering which lasted 'tween six and eight hours... kinda lost track o' time at some point. 

has been a weird year.

 

[Azdeus]

Watched some of the stunning photos of Etna

[BruceVC]

On 2/20/2021 at 2:56 PM, Gfted1 said:

 

Gfted1 I know you skilled  at DIY generally which is something I admire when I met people like you.  I mentioned I have zero DIY skills so I rely on always paying for electricians and other artisans which is a waste of money  (okay my household insurance gives me 2 free services per year  for any DIY calls but its only 2 )

I decided to take  a massive step forward today  to start doing my own DIY outside my insurance where appropriate....and guess what ?

I am defrosting my fridge , by myself. Its going well so far and I will let you know how this project progresses 

Edited February 26, 2021 by BruceVC

[Gfted1]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I am defrosting my fridge , by myself. Its going well so far and I will let you know how this project progresses 

Nice! Ive never defrosted a refrigerator but I assume you just unplug it and leave the doors open? Im curious, your "household insurance" can be used on anything big or small (AC / heat) or is only for appliances (fridge, washing machine, etc.)?

As you will learn, the costs of the actual materials required to perform a fix as usually very affordable. Where you take the biggest hit is usually in the "labor charges". The more you learn to do yourself, the more you will save in this category.

[BruceVC]

10 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Nice! Ive never defrosted a refrigerator but I assume you just unplug it and leave the doors open? Im curious, your "household insurance" can be used on anything big or small (AC / heat) or is only for appliances (fridge, washing machine, etc.)?

As you will learn, the costs of the actual materials required to perform a fix as usually very affordable. Where you take the biggest hit is usually in the "labor charges". The more you learn to do yourself, the more you will save in this category.

Yes, you also know how to defrost a fridge. Its more complicated than it sounds 

So my insurance callout can be for any " household internal problem"  like a blocked drain, electrify tripping  or failed kitchen appliance and you  get the first hour of labor for free but you must pay for any required parts 

So I have only used them about 4-5 times for plumbing problems as I use the actual manufacturer , like Kelvinator in the case of my fridge , and the item warranty period to fix my appliances normally or I use a qualified electrical  engineer if its out of warranty and pay him privately and pay for parts myself 

[Azdeus]

Huh, funny that, so I had a relatively calm and boring day at work today, and I decided I'd teach myself how to rewire VBG connectors and ABS/EBS connectors so drivers don't have to wait for the on-call technician to show up a couple of hours after the driver has his departure time.

Already earned me a case of beer

[Guard Dog]

This would be the weekend I'd turn the garden soil and start fertilizing for planting. But I'm a little concerned we're not done with freezing temps yet. Better to wait, stay inside and play computer games. 

So.... Father is my son huh? I wasn't expecting that. Not sure what is more amazing. That I didn't see that coming or that I managed to avoid that spoiler for six years. But then I was surprised to find out I was Darth Revan and that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time too. 

Just curious... if both nate and nora were black or asian did they change Father to match? Not going to play it again and was just curious how far they paid attention to detail. 

[ShadySands]

I haven't defrosted a fridge in an age. I think I had to do it twice in the 6 months that I was in Comm school back in the Marines. Barracks life sucked.

Edited February 27, 2021 by ShadySands

[LadyCrimson]

pc rebooted itself again while I was sleeping. Hubby looked at event viewer for me, no conclusions beyond usual general maybes.  Then I looked in case and noticed a darker spot on top of gpu near an edge.

I think the cpu cooler thingie is leaking. Took 2 years.  >.>  so looking for a coil heat sink now.  pffffffffffft. Knew I shoulve stuck to one of those in the first place.   Hopefully thats it.  

[BruceVC]

On 2/26/2021 at 3:12 PM, Gfted1 said:

Nice! Ive never defrosted a refrigerator but I assume you just unplug it and leave the doors open? Im curious, your "household insurance" can be used on anything big or small (AC / heat) or is only for appliances (fridge, washing machine, etc.)?

As you will learn, the costs of the actual materials required to perform a fix as usually very affordable. Where you take the biggest hit is usually in the "labor charges". The more you learn to do yourself, the more you will save in this category.

I was just joking about considering defrosting a fridge being a real example of DIY, its has some considerations around length of time you keep the fridge off and what happens to food but its fairly simple ....it was a success by the way

But I wasnt joking about admiring people who can do their own DIY and more importantly understand DIY principles which helps with other things that are similar. The older  I become the more I see certain things that end up costing me money or I am reliant on other people for important advice on topics that directly impact me ....for example if I was experiencing some sort of intermittent water leak when it rains  in my house I would have no idea how to troubleshoot it or my worst are electrical trips caused possibly by an appliance ....

Did you learn DIY from your dad or what allowed you to be proficient in DIY ?

[LadyCrimson]

Ok got one of those Noctura or howyaspellit coolers - this is why I still like walk-in stores. Sometimes ya want something NOW.  Seems to be nice and quiet (when new anyway) and effective (at least the fan speed didn't increase loudly with a game on).  Not actually 100% sure that was the reason for rebooting but it would make sense right.  If it was leaking it was itty bitty, couldn't really see anything obvious on the little waterblock/tubing itself, gpu seems fine outside of the dark stain.  Could've been doing a micro-droplet every hour for weeks till it became enough that every 24 hours or so something went poof.  Who knows. 

We'll see if it keeps self-rebooting now.  Cross fingers.

I need a CPU temp monitor now.  Most of the ones people always say to use for some reason never work on my PC.  By that I mean, they install/open but do not detect/display any information.

Edited February 28, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Bartimaeus]

@LadyCrimson

hwinfo64 if you haven't tried it already - it's pretty universally recommended everywhere. The one "issue" with it is that it has literally like a hundred different thing it monitors in a big list, so you have to spend a little time getting used to where to look for each component, or you can just highlight the sensors you don't you'll ever need and then right click and hide them.

[Azdeus]

I'll second hwinfo64

So last week me and my friend decided to wait a week with using the hot tub and so we tubbed yesterday instead.

It was absolutely awesome, the temperature in the air hovered around 3-4 C, a little bit of a wind but not too much, the ice on the lake has thawed and left a thin veneer of ice near the shoreline, so we could take a couple of real nice dips. The one problem was that the ice block that I cleared last weekend was floating around and wacking us now and then. We cooked ourselves good, 5 hours with the temperature up to 42C in the tub, we didn't last very long with those temperatures and had to pull in some cold water to drop the temps, but we managed to hold pretty steadily around 37-38 after that.

Now this morning when I emptied the tub it was still 27C in the water

Edited February 28, 2021 by Azdeus

[Gfted1]

20 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Did you learn DIY from your dad or what allowed you to be proficient in DIY ?

I have a very strong knack of "learn by seeing", even once, so all the DIY stuff I know I learned by somebody showing me or by watching over the repairpersons shoulder. I also have a PhD in RTFM which will get you through any project. The only thing I wont mess with is "black pipe" which carries NG throughout my home. Even though I know how to do it, I prefer to leave that to the professionals.

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, Gfted1 said:

I have a very strong knack of "learn by seeing", even once, so all the DIY stuff I know I learned by somebody showing me or by watching over the repairpersons shoulder. I also have a PhD in RTFM which will get you through any project. The only thing I wont mess with is "black pipe" which carries NG throughout my home. Even though I know how to do it, I prefer to leave that to the professionals.

Okay I need to understand something, are you saying it  wasnt like your dad would tell you to help with something because with my friends who also know DIY it was because their dads or uncles made them learn certain things?

But it sounds like you had an interest in learning and you watched what people did and then you did research...is that fair? And apart from its cheaper and better to do your own repairs do you enjoy being able to fix things?

Sorry for all the questions but your story is interesting because it  raises  different reason for how a person learns DIY, does your family ask you to do DIY and is it something your other family members also know  because I believe the ability of men to learn DIY  is in the decline and I dont think its  a positive overall change....just take this forum for example, how many forum members can do DIY and why is it like that, granted we all love our computer games so you can argue most of us are not natural DIY people but I dont think that is the reason?