One of my friends does try to get me to do puzzles, but this one I legitimately wanted to do on my own. It was solely just because of what the puzzle had on it. I don't know the last time I ever legitimately did a whole puzzle (certainly never one that big) on my own, because they almost never interest me.

Lol, Khajiit was just messin' with ya!

So what was it a puzzle of, if you don't mind saying?

Oh, I know you were. Sorry, I should've made that clear.

As aforementioned, it was of the U.S. Presidents. Well, it isn't completely up to date, since Donald Trump is not on it (I suppose not being up to date was why it was on clearance ). I think it's a pretty cool thing to have and do though, regardless of what I think of any of them.

I'll try to snap a picture of it when I get the chance, if you want to see.

Sure! We like to see pics of what our fellow Chorrolites have been up to!

Behold my masterpiece!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3mo7sc636gm6wnf/P...Puzzle.jpg?dl=0

Cool! You going to frame it?

Thanks. Yeah, when I get a chance to get some puzzle glue I will put it up on the wall somewhere.

Nice job, Rader!

Nice puzzle. Back in my pre-PC days I enjoyed assembling jigsaw puzzles every now and again. Still have eighteen of them on a shelf. The largest, at 4000 pieces, is a humorous take on the Battle of Trafalgar by Ryba, seen here advertised in a reduced 2000 piece edition. My oldest are three (US) Civil War Centennial puzzles, battle scenes taken from that era's romanticized lithographs. Other than the Centennial puzzles (600+ pieces) and Trafalgar, most of my span the 1500-2000 piece range. I don't believe I've touched one in decades.

Well, I'm hosed. AT&T performed the switch from DSL to U-Verse this morning. Once everything was in place I went online to test my new "improved" speed. Download speed, which normally hovered around 315kbs with DSL is now just over 200kbs. Some upgrade. According to the rep I just spoke with, only the slowest speed U-verse is available in my area. What the...? What happened to the 3x speed I was originally promised? They're are sending out a tech Monday to see routing me differently can open up faster speeds, but make no promises. I'm not holding my breath. (The tech who made the switch today said I had a solid 18mb connection, if memory serves. But what does he know?) My only saving grace is that, based on one brief visit, I can still view YouTube videos at 480p.

Man that suuuucks! They should have just left the people who would get slower speeds alone! Such BS! I hope they at least give you a break on the price.

Yeah, tell me about it. Bad as download speed now is, upload speed is absolutely atrocious. Just tested by uploaded an almost 8mb unedited Oblivion bmp format screenshot to imjur. Took 3m 20s! Bloody 'ell. I shutter to think what sort of time it would take to re-upload my four 2014 Oblivion videos to YouTube, three of which are somewhat over 1gb. Even Minecraft save games, which I periodically uploaded as recently as late last year, now clock in at close to 500mb each in 7z format. I'll upload no more of those. (I've no need to in any case. The little putzing around I do in Minecraftia these days result in nothing significant enough to warrant replacing what I now have online.) A tech is still scheduled to visit tomorrow and see if I can somehow get a faster plan. I'm not holding my breath.

Due to needing to be available tomorrow from 8am to 8pm for the AT&T tech I did my grocery run this morning. No frozen broccoli. The Fuji's looked mediocre at best. (At least they went up 20 cents.)

Due to it being overly cool early morning and grocery shopping late morning I didn't get in my exercise-walk until after supper. Didn't bother taking a heart reading due to being to keyed up over this internet business.

Almost forgot to mention that, again due to fretting over internet speed woes, I got next to no sleep last night. Gonna try and remember to take a sleeping pill before retiring tonight. (I didn't think of it yesterday until far too much of the night had passed.

NOTE TO SELF: I "must" remember to drop off my city utilities payment at City Hall tomorrow, assuming I'm not stuck home awaiting AT&T the entire time. If not tomorrow then day after for sure. Don't want to pay a late fee.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 11 2017, 02:31 AM

As of now I'm a happier camper. The tech sent out today upgraded me to twice as fast as my old DSL account, no increase in price (according to him) and fixed some problems found on my line. The line fix helps my upload speed, but it's still nothing to write home about. I could have been upgraded higher, but would lose out on the introductory deal and have to pay and additional $10 a month. The tech recommended I stick with what I have now until after the intro discount expires, which makes sense.

I'll report back once I've tested actual file downloads and uploads, and find out what resolution I can reliably watch YouTube videos at.

ADDENDUM:
Partially downloaded QTPR off Nexus as a test. Speed was mostly around 810kps, fluctuating occasional down to as low as 792kps. That's over double my DSL top speed of 315kps, assuming it reached that, which didn't always happen. Yeah, 810kps is no big deal these days but hey, it's better than I'm used to and a far cry better than the abysmal speed AT&T recently tried to saddle me with.

YouTube wise, based on only two videos, I can now reliably view at not only 720p but 1080p. On DSL I was pretty much limited to 480p except during bad stretched. I could occasionally use 720p, so long as I put up periodic pauses. (I haven't try videos higher than 1080p with the new service.)

ADDENDUM 2:
Now circa 1330 I just returned from paying monthly utility fees. Originally drove to City Hall circa 1230 to find the office closed for lunch. Drove home and almost said to heck with it for the day. Despite being a bit hotter than I prefer I decided to walk rather than ride during my second, successful, payment attempt.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 11 2017, 07:31 PM

Watch the price of your current plan very carefully. A lot of times, they will start you out on a lower rate and then after a certain amount of time, the price goes up dramatically.

Yeah, I'm gonna keep my eyes open for the next some months. Supposedly, my "plan" goes up only $10 per month after the introductory year. We shall see. It sort of worries me that I've received no email from AT&T confirming the work done this morning and spelling out my upgraded services. They sure weren't bashful about sending emails by the score before and immediately after my Saturday initial installation appointment. But more so than anything I'm worried about what will happen once Net Neutrality goes away, as is almost certain to happen very very soon. I can see much of the stuff I like to watch and read being throttled or outright blocked. It'll be just my luck to finally be able to view videos at decent resolution only to find that there are no longer many videos I "want" to watch, or at best am forced to watch at super low res.

Projects today and yesterday:

Yesterday:
Scheduled and attended a medical appointment with my Primary Care Physician. For around two months now I've suffered pain at my right elbow to one side of my "funny bone." It varies from barely noticeable to intense, and can be inconsistently triggered or worsened by a variety of movements with that arm/wrist. It never totally vanishes. For a stretch of several days it sometimes diminishes to the point I think it's about to fade to nothing, only to resurface full force.

The long and short of it is that, assuming the doctoring is correct, I have "tennis elbow". The good news is that, according to him, it should eventually go away without need of any sort of fancy procedure. For now I need to wear a "splint" just below my elbow joint that supposedly keeps me from aggravating the area quite so much. It's nothing elaborate, more or less a pressure band. It makes certain forearm movements difficult, so that it's now a major pain to do such things as brush my teeth, pull on/off T-shirts or sweatshirts, even put food/drink in my mouth. I was told to take Extra Strength Tylenol, but not why. Thankfully, computer usage doesn't trigger pain and is not much bothered by "splint."

Stopped by Walmart to pick up the afore mentioned Tylenol. Also bought one of sammiches kept near their deli counter, which I had for supper. Not bad at all.

Found a YouTube video, based on Bevilex Modlist, that offers 1440p resolution. It ran flawlessly for about seven minutes, then began to repeated freeze. I finally gave up the attempt and dropped to 1080p, which worked like a charm (as I knew it would). 1440p not being dependable doesn't bother me. I suspected that would be the case going in. Besides, too much viewing at that resolution might prove catastrophic for my monthly data cap.

Today:
Not yet much to report. Got in my exercise-walk circa 0700. First time since early spring I wore full sweats and toboggan outside. Also carried an umbrella, which wasn't needed. Forgot to take a heart reading afterwards.

Exercise-walk circa 0700 this morning. Heart reading afterwards: Blood Pressure 98/67, Pulse 80. Again wore full sweats and toboggan. Could have waked a bit and dressed more lightly. But every second I wait increased the chance I'll lose enthusiasm to do so. Best strike while the iron is hot.

Getting more used to brushing my teeth left handed. Same with medicated inhaler treatments, didn't waste a single puff this morning. (The darn stuff's expensive.) Removing my upper partial is still a major struggle as that takes BOTH hands. (Removing my lower-mouth apparatus, on the other hand, is super easy, as that can be done with one hand and my tongue. (It's a loose fit, not intended for use while eating.) Using a fork left handed is no fun either, and somewhat risky.

A fellow was marking existing cable locations in my back yard this morning. According to him, my AT&T U-verse wiring might be buried today. Be good to get that out the way, as the lawn will need mowing soon. (Hopefully this will be one of its last mows of the year. Which reminds me I need to buy a bit more NO ETHANOL gas, the nearing no ethanol pump being roughly five-six miles away.)

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 14 2017, 03:15 PM

Cavator project:

*Washing
*Lubing
*Fueling

Before that some more rock removal. FINALLY those specific ones are gone!

Projects today:

Around 0915 I suddenly realized is was grocery day. Assuming I don't plan to to dine out during the run - I didn't - I normally time my runs so that I'm home before 1000, obviously impossible under the circumstances. Showered, dressed, drove to Walmart. As happened last week, no frozen broccoli. Neither Fuji nor Pink Lady apples looked fit to buy. I settled on $5 pre-packaged HoneyCrisps, an apple unknown to me.

Called AT&T to ask why I was receiving notifications to call a certain number or face interruptions in service when DSL internet is forceably switched to fiber U-verse next month. As you might recall, I went ahead and made the switch over a week ago. Still, maybe there was something yet to be done I had overlooked. Nope. All's well, according the fellow I spoke with. (Well, that's not quite true. My new outside cabling is still not buried.)

Called both of my state's Senators to inform them that they are under no circumstances to vote for the newly hatched Graham-Cassidy plan to destroy the ACA and replace is with something far worse. (If you know my Senators, you know my call is almost certainly for naught but hey, a fellow has to try.) Who would have thought I would be defending the ACA, which I consider a barely acceptable stopgap message at best? What I "should" have done is tell them to not only vote NO on Graham-Cassidy, but also enthusiastically throw their support behind the Single-payer Medicare for All proposals at last taking shape in both chambers. Alas, I know all too well how that would go over with those two.

(I've become bad at spontaneous extemporized speech I simply dread these congressional calls. I stumble around so much, even when I write down the gist of what I intend to say, that I often feel I do more harm than good. But...phone calls are supposedly taken more seriously than email, and now that I have unlimited free distance calling within the continental US (thank to U-verse) I've no real excuse not to anymore.)

(Maybe my decrepit avatar has rubbed off on me. An old washed up never-was, at a time of life when I expect to vegetate my days away in senile contentment, suddenly find myself in some small measure attempting to thwart those I see as perils of the realm. Any true comparison between the two of us is ludicrous, but still...)

ADDENDUM: Now 2017-09-19, I Forgot to mention that I intended to do a partial lawn mow prior to sundown yesterday evening. (The unburied AT&T cable prevents a full mow.) Alas. Went outside to check temperature to feel droplets of water hitting my exposed arms. Precipitation wasn't enough to be called rain, sprinkle or even a dribble. Not a drop of moisture showed on sidewalk, driveway or street. Grass, however, was just wet enough to prevent mowing. (I suspect I could have mowed by raising the mower blades up a notch or two, but what's the point in that?) The somewhat good news is that today's weather, which had been forecast to be stormy, is now predicted to be no worse than cloudy, giving me another potential chance to mow chance once it cools this evening.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 29 2017, 02:28 PM

Yesterday:
As threatened, I mowed much of the lawn after supper: the enter front yard, both sided, and about two-thirds of the back. Am waiting for the AT&T to bury my U-verse wiring before mowing the final third.

Today:
Exercise-walk today circa 0700. Didn't bother to take a heart reading. (Took one right after yesterday's mow.)

Called AT&T Wire Burial Department before lunch. According to the rep I spoke with my wiring is scheduled for burial tomorrow.

Checked online about my potential for being a victim of the recent Equifax data breach. The result: based on person info I provided it is unlike that the breach affected me. Not a 100% free pass, but likely the best outcome one can hope for under the circumstances. I suspected all along that I might be in the low-risk category, possessing no credit cards, taking out no loans, and paying for everything with "cash" as I do and have done for several decades. On the other hand, AT&T needed to run a credit check on me during my forced switch to U-verse earlier this month. (Leastwise, the AT&T sales rep I spoke with said that was part of the procedure.) Ergo, the big credit data businesses must have "some" info on me, however minuscule.