Your projects, what are you working on in your free time? Options

[mirocu]

Surface may appear smoother than it is ™

It's not so smooth, actually. Didn't sand it too much and I didn't use any varnish or so. And it's the same one in both pics

And thankx

It is? I looks like raw wood in one, and finished wood in the second one!

That's because in the first pic it's unpainted, in the second one it's painted


Sudden project arose this morning; putting up gutter on the old smithy. Only problem; we should have done it twenty years ago before rain splatter ruined the wall
Anyway, I got started and the minute I was all done, it started to rain. No joke


And no pic. It's just a gutter

[Acadian]

Nice job getting your gutter up. Icing on the cake was instant testing by a rainfall. With my luck, putting up new gutters would cause a drought.

[mirocu]

Nice job getting your gutter up. Icing on the cake was instant testing by a rainfall.

Indeed! Can't believe my luck there

With my luck, putting up new gutters would cause a drought.

[mALX]

Surface may appear smoother than it is ™

It's not so smooth, actually. Didn't sand it too much and I didn't use any varnish or so. And it's the same one in both pics

And thankx

It is? I looks like raw wood in one, and finished wood in the second one!

That's because in the first pic it's unpainted, in the second one it's painted


Sudden project arose this morning; putting up gutter on the old smithy. Only problem; we should have done it twenty years ago before rain splatter ruined the wall
Anyway, I got started and the minute I was all done, it started to rain. No joke


And no pic. It's just a gutter

I need a gutter




This post has been edited by mALX: Sep 28 2019, 05:13 PM

[Sakiri]

Surface may appear smoother than it is ™

It's not so smooth, actually. Didn't sand it too much and I didn't use any varnish or so. And it's the same one in both pics

And thankx

It is? I looks like raw wood in one, and finished wood in the second one!

That's because in the first pic it's unpainted, in the second one it's painted


Sudden project arose this morning; putting up gutter on the old smithy. Only problem; we should have done it twenty years ago before rain splatter ruined the wall
Anyway, I got started and the minute I was all done, it started to rain. No joke


And no pic. It's just a gutter

I need a gutter

My mind lives in a gutter.

[Decrepit]

Project: Finalize and Upload new TpF Scenic Excursions episode
Status: Complete, for good or ill
Non juicy info and a link are found in the appropriate thread.

Project: Mow Lawn
Status: Uh-oh
I ought to have mowed yesterday afternoon/evening. But temps were some degrees hotter than predicted. Just couldn't force myself to leave the house. But it's gonna be even hotter (in the mid nineties) until mid/late week. Grass is gonna be hella high by then. To the plus, if I hold out, temps should be much more reasonable. <crosses fingers>

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 29 2019, 03:38 PM

[Decrepit]

Project: Stupidity
Status: A state of being
My commode has acted flaky for years. Too often takes an act of congress to flush a dump. Nor does it always fill properly after a successful/unsuccessful flush. Somethings makes 'gurgling' sounds, which indicates periodic adding of water to the bowl, even when already at normal level. Yesterday, lying abed reading, I hear gurgling from the bathroom. Go to commode. Jiggle handle. Flush. Bowl drains but does not refill. Flush. Doesn't refill. Lift tank lid. No water. Check faucets. Running water. Not sure what's up, but need functioning toilet. Make emergency Home Depot run for toilet innards. Buy fancy kit with two separate flush functions, 'normal' and 'lite.' Return home. Shut off water going to toilet. Tear out old innards. Break for drink of water. No water from faucets! Doh!

Call 'city' hall. My part of town undergoing brief water outage.

Too late to back out of switch. In any case, new innards will surely be an improvement? Box states job takes 25min. I estimate 2.5hrs. Correct, give or take a minute or so. Procedure not helped by poorly written instructions. Just as well. By finish water back on. Too soon to know how new innards perform. Three dump flushes all succeeded, but old system could exceed that. Haven't properly adjusted 'lite' flush mechanism. No point testing it.

So there it is, a false alarm triggered replacement of something in need of replacement.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 3 2019, 09:52 PM

[Sakiri]

Lol act of congress to flush a dump.

Sounds like our toilet for a while. Turned out that the sewage line to clogged somewhere and we had a truck come and suction the line(our sewage line access is in the middle of my yard). Problem solved.

But if you had tank refill issues it's probably tank innards related.

[Decrepit]

Lol act of congress to flush a dump.

Sounds like our toilet for a while. Turned out that the sewage line to clogged somewhere and we had a truck come and suction the line(our sewage line access is in the middle of my yard). Problem solved.

But if you had tank refill issues it's probably tank innards related.

I've long suspected at least part of my toilet woes is either partly clogged line, ultra cheap toilet itself, or a bit of both. That said, it hasn't misbehaved once since innards replacement. Still too soon to tell, but I'll hope for the best.

Project: Make Law Mowing Great Bearable Again
Status: Research & Planning Stage
Taking its cue from the toilet, my mower has been flaky much of this grass/weed growing season. A bit hard to start. Once started, it tends to conk out within seconds to a few minutes. Up til now it has done this maybe 10-15min, then work without interruption until end of mow. Today, it defeated me. Constant stoppages until I was worn out past the point of continuing. In all that time I mowed a grand total of maybe five strips.

Came to computer. Researched. Best I can tell, the problem is likely a defective gas cap, bad spark plug, or clogged carburetor. Was able to test cap. Nope, not that.

Then, when all seemed hopeless, an act of unlooked-for kindness materialized. While attempting another start, a next door neighbor approached me, saying he'd already asked his son to mow my lawn this evening. (They're the ones who mowed for me several weeks following my bout of illness due to mowing in super hot weather earlier this season.) Thanked him. Pushed the mower onto front porch. Called it a mow.

Am going buy a new spark plug this coming errand day. If that doesn't work, as suspected, I'll buy/order a carburetor repair kit. Might also try carburetor cleaning spray. Thing about the carburetor is, a rebuild might be too much for me to tackle. We shall see.

Project: Make Lying Down Bearable Again
Status: A losing battle?
You might remember I spent two years sleeping on the sofa due to strong shoulder/neck/back pains that made it impossible to lie in bed. Then, following two years of sofa sleep, onset of loin / outer thigh pain forced me to abandon the sofa. Thanks to a new, expensive 3" mattress topper, I could lie on my side on the bed again. Not a pain-free experience, but not so bad I couldn't endure it.

After a year of bed sleep, neck /shoulder pain worsened, to the point I couldn't bear it. Returned to the sofa. That lasted two weeks. Then, the beginnings of loin / outer thigh resurfaced. Gah!

In desperation, I placed my old 2" memory gel topper atop the newer (expensive) 3" topper. Nope, still too much pain. Returned to sofa for another night.

And miserable it was. Next day, I decided to trying something radical.

The vast majority of my life was spent as a back-sleeper only. That ceased maybe five years ago, when my rump gave out of me. Since then, back sleeping triggers severe lower back / rump pain. (Neck / should pain became an issue later, during my struggles with TMJ Syndrom.) Anyway, I had not tried lying on my back with the combo of new 3" topper, 2" memory gel topper, and mattress. Worth a shot, though I expected nothing good to come of it.

To my surprise, with this combo lower-back / rump pain is mild much of the time. I can tolerate it...so far. Jury's out of neck / shoulder pain. It starts out minimal but gradually worsens. Sometimes it becomes unbearable. Sometimes painful but tolerable.

That's where things stand now. Been attempting to sleep on my back only a few days. Gonna keep at it, as I'm pretty much out of options.

[mALX]

Project: Stupidity
Status: A state of being
My commode has acted flaky for years. Too often takes an act of congress to flush a dump. Nor does it always fill properly after a successful/unsuccessful flush. Somethings makes 'gurgling' sounds, which indicates periodic adding of water to the bowl, even when already at normal level. Yesterday, lying abed reading, I hear gurgling from the bathroom. Go to commode. Jiggle handle. Flush. Bowl drains but does not refill. Flush. Doesn't refill. Lift tank lid. No water. Check faucets. Running water. Not sure what's up, but need functioning toilet. Make emergency Home Depot run for toilet innards. Buy fancy kit with two separate flush functions, 'normal' and 'lite.' Return home. Shut off water going to toilet. Tear out old innards. Break for drink of water. No water from faucets! Doh!

Call 'city' hall. My part of town undergoing brief water outage.

Too late to back out of switch. In any case, new innards will surely be an improvement? Box states job takes 25min. I estimate 2.5hrs. Correct, give or take a minute or so. Procedure not helped by poorly written instructions. Just as well. By finish water back on. Too soon to know how new innards perform. Three dump flushes all succeeded, but old system could exceed that. Haven't properly adjusted 'lite' flush mechanism. No point testing it.

So there it is, a false alarm triggered replacement of something in need of replacement.

You are absolutely the handiest man I've ever met! You can build your own computers; mow, repair cars; repair mowers and weed-eaters = and now you can fix the toilet too? Where is the bow down emoticon when needed?

I have so much go wrong around the house that I just can't fix; and since I all but single-handedly raised my son = that means he can't fix anything either. (trickle down lack of know-how).

That said; when confronted with the choice of paying a plumber to change the wax ring on his toilet; he managed to watch a YouTube vid on how to do it and successfully switched out an old leaky ring for a brand new one that fixed the issue! (Yes, I'm bragging about him doing that, lol). But it is the first thing he has ever done, and I hope the start of him starting to act like a man, lol.

I'm seriously thinking about waving a huge bill in front of him to encourage him to fix our oven, lol. All it needs done is to change out the panel that runs the fancy "keyboard" (some kind of touch panel that just plugs into a connector in the stove's masthead) and fixing it for just the cost of the parts; I've seen hundreds of vids on how to do that on YouTube!

Now that I've seen him fix that toilet; I am working up a stack of chores that he can follow that up with, too! It is just the start of what this house needs; I've already hinted about weed-eating the yard; repairing the ripped screens; painting interior and exterior; building me a planter for the front drive; etc....etc...etc...









This post has been edited by mALX: Oct 4 2019, 10:03 PM

[Sakiri]

I feel you on back pain.

Im a stomach sleeper. Been forcing myself to sleep on my sides with a pillow between my knees. PT lady said it'd help. God, it makes the morning stiffness worse because I can't roll over.

I get tired sitting with a correct posture. I can't see my screen sitting like that either. Wake up every morning with hip and lower back pain, stiff as hell, and nothing fixes it.

Nothing. Fixes. It.

Even pain pills aren't helping, granted it's only OTC stuff. Im betting my hip flexors are screwed, my SI is screwed. This sucks.

[Decrepit]

Project: Primary Care Visit
Status: Egg On My Face
This was a once-every-six-months status-checks with my doc. Blood work and urinalysis are included. Immediately afterward I was to have my first-ever annual Medicare Wellness Exam by a specialty nurse. I considered myself well prepared, drinking glass after glass of water all morning until leaving for the appointment roughly 0915.

All went as anticipated until urinalysis. I was more than ready to do my thing, so expected no difficulties. Sure enough, my cup (almost) runneth over, with more to come. Could have easily filled two cups. Set full cup on the commode lid while I washed hands and zipped up. Then it happened. My cup must have been sitting too near lid edge. It went crashing to the floor. There I was, a spill on the floor and me now dry as a bone, with the embarrassment of informing lab technicians of my situation yet to come. It must be said that, on the surface at least, they took it better than I did. Needless to say I gotta make a special trip into town for another try at it.

Just prior to urinalysis, my doc's nurse informed me I couldn't have my Wellness Exam. The Wellness Nurse is out sick! Me being me, I couldn't help commenting how ironic that statement seems.

I feel you on back pain.

Im a stomach sleeper. Been forcing myself to sleep on my sides with a pillow between my knees. PT lady said it'd help. God, it makes the morning stiffness worse because I can't roll over.

I get tired sitting with a correct posture. I can't see my screen sitting like that either. Wake up every morning with hip and lower back pain, stiff as hell, and nothing fixes it.

Nothing. Fixes. It.

Even pain pills aren't helping, granted it's only OTC stuff. Im betting my hip flexors are screwed, my SI is screwed. This sucks.

Wasn't so many years ago when lying down in bed was one of my favorite pastimes. When my now dearly departed waterbed mattress and I were in decent shape it was sheer bliss. How times have changed! On a positive note, a combination of expensive 3" 100% Natural Latex Mattress Topper ('soft' variant) and an older 2" Memory Gel topper has improved my situation, where neither of those did squat on its own. Not a big improvement, sad to say. But enough so that I get decent sleep many nights. Certainly more so than before.

@mALX
I think you confuse me with someone else. I'm no one's idea of a 'handyman.' I can do some very basic things, not always well enough to pass muster. My dad, now he was a handyman.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 25 2019, 02:51 AM

[mALX]

Project: Primary Care Visit
Status: Egg On My Face
This was one of those every-six-month status-checks with my doc. Blood work and urinalysis are included. Immediately afterward I was to have my first-ever annual Medicare Wellness Exam by a specialty nurse. I considered myself well prepared, drinking glass after glass of water all morning long until leaving for the appointment roughly 0915.

All went as expected until urinalysis. I was more than ready to do my thing, so expected no difficulties. Sure enough, my cup (almost) runneth over, with more to come. Could have easily filled two cups. Set the cup on the commode lid while I washed my hands and zipped up. And then it happened. My cup must have been sitting too near the lid edge. It went crashing to the floor. There I was, a spill on the floor and me now dry as a bone, with the embarrassment of informing lab technicians of my situation yet to come. It must be said that, on the surface at least, they took it better than I did. Needless to say I gotta make a special trip into town for another try at it.

Just prior to urinalysis, my doc's nurse informed me I couldn't have my Wellness Exam. The Wellness Nurse is out sick! Me being me, I couldn't help commenting how ironic that statement seems.

Bold: This had me in hysterics, especially coming right after your urine dilemma! This was a priceless post!!!

[Decrepit]

Project: Upload & Publish new TpF Scenic Excursions episode
Status: Complete

I uploaded mid week, with the video set to automatically publish itself at 5am this morning. I link is found in our What are You Playing? thread.

[Decrepit]

Project: Upload new Scenic Excursions episode, set to 'publish' Saturday
Status: FAIL

Uploaded overnight, check. Description created, check. TAGS created, check. Thumbnail created and uploaded, check. All applicable video settings set at YouTube, check.

Waking this morning, I took care of business, headed straight to the 'computer room,' and played the episode to check video quality. To my horror, its only available resolution is 360p. Something obviously went wrong. Deleted it. Will try again tonight or Friday night. Not sure what went wrong, so don't know what to do different.


Project: Pay state/local/city taxes due on internet purchases
Status: Ready to stick in the mailbox once it gets light enough outside

I owe a whopping $2.42 this month! An among so small can be postponed, then combined with other smallish monthly payments down the road. In fact that's the way I'm supposed to do it. No way am I gonna do it that way. Keeping track what I bought when, and whether state tax was paid or not is hard enough a month at a time. As it is, I neglected to indicated in my ledger whether one of this month's two internet purchases took out state tax. (I would still owe county and local taxes in any case.) To be safe I included it.

Project: Prepared 'city' utility payment
Status: Ready for drop off at 'city' hall next time I drive that way (which I do every time I drive anywhere)

Wrote out the check immediately after preparing Oct internet purchase tax payment

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 31 2019, 12:25 PM

[Decrepit]

Project: Upload TpF Scenic Excursions episode, to be published Saturday morning
Status: Success!
Second time's the charm. I suspect unfamiliarity with YT's new upload screens is what did me in first time. Even this time round I was unsure I did it right until testing the video online after upload/processing.

Project: Update secondary PC, which uses Win7, to Win10
Status: Need to do so ASAP
The clock is ticking. Come early Jan 2020 Win7 will become untrustworthy unless not connected to the internet or networked with other local computers. Can't afford to let that happen, as my Bro uses it to browse the web during visits. My plan is to attempt a straightforward 'update' leaving as much as possible intact. If that fails I'll do a full install from scratch.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Nov 2 2019, 06:44 PM

[Decrepit]

Project: Adjust old-fashioned clocks (and my watch) for time change
Status: All but done
Did so soon after waking. (Meant to do before retiring last night, but me being me... ) The car's clock remains to be adjusted. I'll get to that whenever I do...assuming I bother at all.

Project: Make Lying Down Great Tolerable Again.
Status: Setback
I jinxed myself by earlier stating that I now suffer less pain lying down. Only a few days later pain worsened, to the point that by last night it had become too intense to remain abed upon waking at 0230 (pre time change). Moved to the sofa, which lessened neck/shoulder/upper-back pain enough to allow another hour's sleep. Which means I woke up at 0230 again =P

Project: Balance computerized Checking/Savings Account ledgers
Status: Complete
Slight SNAFU. My first BALANCE ACCOUNT attempt showed $14 in spending unaccounted for. Luckily, the amount itself made tracking down the problem easy. It almost had to be medicine my online pharmacy mails me, some of which are sent (and charged to my account) automatically, without me needing to okay it. Sure enough, a little research proved that to be the case.

Sunday mid-morning Addendum:
Project: Prepare TpF Scenic Excursions episode for upload
Status: Almost complete
This episode has been in-the-can for some time, lacking only text-narrative finalization. I'm currently rendering what I suspect will be my final draft, possibly the actual upload copy. One way or the other, it won't be uploaded until mid-week, and not published until next Saturday morning. My original intent was to number this episode 17b, since it's an alternative version of ep17, which I feel is overly marred by a combo of excessive loco exhaust and YT compression. Just this morning I had a change of heart. It is now ep 29. Due to change in camera positions during the 'cab-ride' segment, loco exhaust shouldn't be an issue. As to YT compression, we shall see.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Nov 3 2019, 03:39 PM

[SubRosa]

I am glad you mentioned the clocks. I forgot all about Daylight Savings Time.

[mALX]

Project: Adjust old-fashioned clocks (and my watch) for time change
Status: All but done
Did so soon after waking. (Meant to do before retiring last night, but me being me... ) The car's clock remains to be adjusted. I'll get to that whenever I do...assuming I bother at all.

Project: Make Lying Down Great Tolerable Again.
Status: Setback
I jinxed myself by earlier stating that I now suffer less pain lying down. Only a few days later pain worsened, to the point that by last night it had become too intense to remain abed upon waking at 0230 (pre time change). Moved to the sofa, which lessened neck/shoulder/upper-back pain enough to allow another hour's sleep. Which means I woke up at 0230 again =P

Project: Balance computerized Checking/Savings Account ledgers
Status: Complete
Slight SNAFU. My first BALANCE ACCOUNT attempt showed $14 in spending unaccounted for. Luckily, the amount itself made tracking down the problem easy. It almost had to be medicine my online pharmacy mails me, some of which are sent (and charged to my account) automatically, without me needing to okay it. Sure enough, a little research proved that to be the case.

Sunday mid-morning Addendum:
Project: Prepare TpF Scenic Excursions episode for upload
Status: Almost complete
This episode has been in-the-can for some time, lacking only text-narrative finalization. I'm currently rendering what I suspect will be my final draft, possibly the actual upload copy. One way or the other, it won't be uploaded until mid-week, and not published until next Saturday morning. My original intent was to number this episode 17b, since it's an alternative version of ep17, which I feel is overly marred by a combo of excessive loco exhaust and YT compression. Just this morning I had a change of heart. It is now ep 29. Due to change in camera positions during the 'cab-ride' segment, loco exhaust shouldn't be an issue. As to YT compression, we shall see.

I'm so sorry you are having the pain trying to sleep again! That has to be so frustrating; and is probably one of the worst pains to suffer from because the lack of good sleep hurts your health on top of just being miserable.

I hope you are able to find a solution. Have you tried tucking a pillow under your arm, neck and knees and sleeping on your side? That keeps your spine totally straight and relieves any straining on it = it is what the Doctors had me do after my spinal injury in a car accident in my twenties; and it really helped. You don't have to always sleep like that; just during the times when you are in pain.

[Decrepit]

I hope you are able to find a solution. Have you tried tucking a pillow under your arm, neck and knees and sleeping on your side? That keeps your spine totally straight and relieves any straining on it = it is what the Doctors had me do after my spinal injury in a car accident in my twenties; and it really helped. You don't have to always sleep like that; just during the times when you are in pain.

When you say a pillow under the arm,lying on my side, which arm do you mean, top or bottom? Logic points to one option, but I don't want to second-guess. Same with pillow under knee(s). As to neck, I've tried many pillows, in positions of all sorts. Never hit on one that works long term....not in the bed in any case. The sofa is another matter. During my two-year stay there I concocted one jerry-rigged neck 'pillow' I became quite comfortable with over the long haul. It didn't help much last night, but I've not had sufficient time to adapt to sofa sleeping, assuming I stick with it. The sofa has its own set of issues.

Yes, to my misfortune I sleep on my side. Haven't been a back sleep since my rump went out on me circa 2014. (It's better now, but not enough so to allow back sleep.)