REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, June 7, 2026 23:34
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Friday, May 15, 2026 10:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Did I mention I hate anything to do with caulk????

That's unbelievable. It took me over an hour to remove the bad caulk job from only one end of the tub. That oldskool silicone crap is not playing. It wasn't even necessary since it's outside of the shower...

Of course, the piece that was caulked was a horrible cut job, just as I suspected. There are places where it touches the wall, and other spots where the gap is over 1/4". Just amateur hour all around.

I think I'll have to add backer rod to my list of things to buy. I don't think I'll be able to caulk that right without it. Although I'm hoping that there's "something" back there already to support the backer rod and it's not all just empty space or that might be another problem.

Although I suppose if I'm careful I could probably use my brad nailer to affix it in a few places. Something is better than nothing.

Relax man...

You've had 14 years to do this. It doesn't need to be done in one week now that you're finally getting around to it.



I'm going to clean up that huge mess and then I'm going to install the drawers and door on the vanity. If I do anything else tonight it will be getting all that caulk off of the other side of the tub, but I doubt it. I'm not going to let that slow down my primer anymore than it already has. My plan is to prime the walls and ceiling by the end of day tomorrow, hell or high water. Just in case I didn't get all the silicone off the entire way down the wall, it will be good to have a coat of primer on it before I re-caulk anyhow. I know I got it all off the vinyl, but it's up so close to the window that it's really difficult for me to get my tools in there and I was using my fingernails to scrape a lot of it off before I hit it with 60 grit sandpaper and my vice grip hands.


On the bright side, that TSP really cleaned up the walls good. There's some weird stains that were always there that I've never been able to wash off the walls, but the walls actually look pretty white now compared to the nicotene stain color they looked like a few hours ago. I don't think anybody ever smoked heavily in this house before or I would have really noticed that years ago with the work I've done. In the bathroom it was probably just the humidity from the shower mixing with the dust in the air and plastering it to the walls is all.

I don't even feel like washing that off tonight, so I guess the TSP will just have overnight to work before it all comes down.



I'm really glad I broke down and decided to remove that caulk job. I would have hated myself for not doing it every time I sat on the toilet and had to look at it screwing up my paint job on the edges.



If I had enough room between the area that needs to be re-caulked on each side, I would seriously consider buying some 1/2" crown molding or quarterround to edge it off instead. But unfortunately there's only about 1" or less between those vinyl plates and the window on one side, and the door frame on the other side.


Hmmmmmm.....

Maybe?

I'm going to have to see how thin they make quarterround. That could be the best fix here if I can get it really thin and it's still thick enough to cover the worst gaps. It would probably actually look pretty fancy too. Something to consider...

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 12:14 AM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How about next month?

Sounds like you had a good time.

I don't blame you for not wanting friends to spoil you. Back to that "who owes who" thing we were talking about a while back. Even with friends, I think it can become too lopsided if you let the little things add up.

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Don't know about that. She is busy with her husband and his cancer treatments and she is back to work.

We did. Usually when I see her it is for just a few minutes before she goes to her next client.

I'm fair certain that she wouldn't expect anything back. I just don't feel like she should be wasting money on me is all. She's got her children, grandchildren and her husband to think about.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 1:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Don't know about that. She is busy with her husband and his cancer treatments and she is back to work.

We did. Usually when I see her it is for just a few minutes before she goes to her next client.


Well... you should probably consider seeing about it. At least this summer anyhow. Sounds like you really enjoy her company. Maybe you shouldn't wait for her to initiate something next time.

Quote:
I'm fair certain that she wouldn't expect anything back. I just don't feel like she should be wasting money on me is all. She's got her children, grandchildren and her husband to think about.


Those are the really good friends. Maybe you should let her do it. It sounds like she and/or her husband were fairly successful and I'll bet she gets a kick out of it.


You need to get new shoes, Brenda. If you're not going to let your friend buy you a pair, you gotta bite the bullet.

I've worn plenty of shoes down to the nubs and had tons of holes in mine too over the years, but I'm not getting any younger and getting around isn't getting any easier. I know you've already got some mobility issues and you've got to take care of those feet.



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Saturday, May 16, 2026 1:08 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I can go to bed tonight not angry about the bad things I found in the bathroom today...

The vanity... she is done.







No more looking at this crap...









Done, yes... but maybe not exactly. I'm definately going to have to upgrade that crappy little faucet with something oil rubbed bronze. Hopefully that doesn't get TOO pricey with the need for that color. I know they're not exactly cheap these days anyhow. I had a few kitchen and bathroom faucets out in my garage, but none of them are anything I'm interested in putting in this bathroom. I think it might be time to just throw all of that away. I won't need them in the basement bathroom since I got my buddy's pedestal sink with a really nice faucet already attached. Not installed or anything, of course, but ready to go whenever I waterproof the basement and start working on the final touches of the house.


I'm going to have to replace the drain too. It was broke before I moved in, and even if it did work the top of the pull thing on the faucet was missing and it would have been a bear to pull up with my fingernails every time. The drain is all scuffed and nasty looking anyhow, and there's these weird "cut outs" in the black plastic pipe you see going into the white PVC trap and back into the wall that just holds moldy crap. It's really disgusting and it needs to go.



Oh right... after I took these pictures I added my little rubber dimples to the back of the door and the drawers to keep them from coming in contact with each other and scuffing the paint job.

It was 3M and not some dollar store crap, so they're just as sticky as they were the day I bought them, and not a single one I put up in the kitchen has ever fallen off. Somehow after all these years I've never lost that bag, even though I've used them 2 or 3 times now since I finished the kitchen. It's nice when you put things back where they belong when you're done using them.






Oh right...

I should get a picture of that scary electric that was behind the medicine cabinet.
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Saturday, May 16, 2026 2:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


If you enjoy life and/or care about the people you live with and/or aren't trying to murder your customers and/or aren't intentionally attempting to get away with arson for the insurance money, here is an example of what not to do...




I'm going to call that one the Indiana Redneck Surprise.


I.R.S. ... any way you look at it, you lose.


Please God, make this the last time I need to open any walls for any reason in this house.



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Saturday, May 16, 2026 2:28 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


So far, the cost for the remodel has been $0.00. The newest stuff I've bought and used was the paint, and that was for other projects years ago. The new hardware was already part of the stuff I bought for the kitchen. The caulk I used to do the trim was a junk tube from my buddy in the winter. The sandpaper was all bought years ago, as well as the brad nails. I think the nails were actually free after rebate, if I remember right. I've got more caulk than I know what to do with.

The oak medicine cabinet is beautiful. It was the original stuff in my rich buddy's McMansion. That was free, along with all the oak shelves and towel racks that were in the room too. The toilet cabinet was pulled off of a bathroom job I helped my buddy's dad with many years ago. It's not oak and it's crappy pressed wood on the sides, but it wasn't damaged. It's heavy as hell and built like a tank. It looks great after the paint job and it will look really nice when the doors are re-attached with a good spray paint job on the hinges and the new oil rubbed bronze knobs.


The one thing that is REALLY burning me right now is that I can't find the in-the-wall toilet paper holder I wanted to install. The one in there now is a crappy old brass color. This one I took off a bathroom job was wooden. I wanted to sand it down and paint it white like the trim. I know there's no way I would have thrown that out in a dehoard, so I'm going to have to clean up the garage a bit and see if I can't find it.

If all else fails, the existing one is in good shape. I can just clean it up and spray it down with the Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spraypaint when I get that for the hardware that needs it.



Until I get to tiling the floor, I don't think my total cost on this rehab is going to be over $60 or so. I'll need an electric box that secures to drywall for behind/inside the toilet cabinet, and I know I don't have one of those on hand. I should have everything else electrical that I'd need no problem. A small tub of wood filler and another of Dap. The metallic spray paint. I may run out of primer... I can't remember if I have another bucket on hand.

And I have about 5 different options for the vanity light out in my garage.

Unfortunately, only one of them is oil rubbed bronze. I really like the way it looks, but it has strange light bulbs I've never seen before. I'm going to have to see if they all still work and how expensive they are to replace. All of the other vanities use normal light bulbs. I'd have to spray any of those down to match all the hardware though, and I'm not sure that would look good on such a large surface area. It's got enough metallic kick to it that it makes the hardware as near a perfect match as you can get without buying all new stuff, but I think it might possibly look pretty tacky on a full decorative light fixture.

I've already got all the tile too. I've got about 7 different options out in the garage to choose from. I will probably have to buy the adhesive and the grout though. I've already got all the grouting tools.

If my buddy doesn't have any, I'll probably have to buy a length or two of baseboard. I'm not putting that disgusting crap back up or wasting any time repairing and restoring it. It wasn't even baseboard anyway. It was the same trim they used to do the door and the window.

The only real cost is going to be the toilet.

I have no idea what toilets cost these days. I'll have to start keeping an eye out for sales after I know what color I want it to be. I don't need it right away, and even if I fixed the subfloor and put the new tile floor in, I can still put the old one back until I find the right toilet for the right price. I want a REALLY nice one. I don't want to be stupid and just spend a lot on one without looking for sales and getting a feel on what the prices are, but unlike most other things in my life, I'm not going to cheap out on this one either.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 1:21 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Don't know about that. She is busy with her husband and his cancer treatments and she is back to work.

We did. Usually when I see her it is for just a few minutes before she goes to her next client.


Well... you should probably consider seeing about it. At least this summer anyhow. Sounds like you really enjoy her company. Maybe you shouldn't wait for her to initiate something next time.

Quote:
I'm fair certain that she wouldn't expect anything back. I just don't feel like she should be wasting money on me is all. She's got her children, grandchildren and her husband to think about.


Those are the really good friends. Maybe you should let her do it. It sounds like she and/or her husband were fairly successful and I'll bet she gets a kick out of it.


You need to get new shoes, Brenda. If you're not going to let your friend buy you a pair, you gotta bite the bullet.

I've worn plenty of shoes down to the nubs and had tons of holes in mine too over the years, but I'm not getting any younger and getting around isn't getting any easier. I know you've already got some mobility issues and you've got to take care of those feet.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.


I do enjoy her company and like I said we talk about all kinds of stuff. From politics to her family's doings and what happened with my mum and what is happening with friends of mine.

This time she gave me a day and I shot off a email to her about a time and we agreed on it. Maybe we will get together over the summer. Just have to see.

She enjoys her work as a support/care giver in house I know that. Don't know what her husband did in his work life. I think she does and it is nice to be worried about like that.

I will get a new pair in a bit but I got a major problem to sort out over this week.

Yeah, I noticed yesterday the left one is starting to get a hole in the toe and sometimes it feels like the soul on the outside is coming off even though I can't see anything.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 1:22 PM

BRENDA


Laundry day for me then a little shopping.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 6:47 PM

BRENDA


All done and a cold wind blowing when I was out. Just having a sit down now.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 11:11 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


k y BRENDA, have you considered that maybe the "lady thet took care of your mom" is more than the lady that toook care of your mom, and might be a friend? Possibly she likes talking with you as much as you like talking with her?
Just a thought.

Also, I second the notion of getting shoes that work for you. Bc of chemo neuropathy and a bunion, for a couple of years after chemo I did everything... walking the dog, gardening... in indoor/ outdoor slipppers. Yeah, they covered my feet but had no cushioning or support. I think that's when my knee problems started.

SIX, that remodel looks primo! That's amazing! But you're right, the wiring looks scary.

****

Been running my *ss ragged with family Dr appts. Gotta see if hubby can get his back pain fixed, it's really disabling. So I'm going to schedule another injection for after his sinus surgery, and all being well after that he gets radio frequency ablation, which could last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years before needing a repeat. Daughter has some issues too, so she's going in for testing.

I used to think that being retired I should be able to get more projects done. But then I considered that taking full-time care of two disabled ppl (three, if I include myself) is the equivalent of a full time job. So I guess I should cut myself some slack.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Saturday, May 16, 2026 11:24 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
k y BRENDA, have you considered that maybe the "lady thet took care of your mom" is more than the lady that toook care of your mom, and might be a friend? Possibly she likes talking with you as much as you like talking with her?
Just a thought.

Also, I second the notion of getting shoes that work for you. Bc of chemo neuropathy and a bunion, for a couple of years after chemo I did everything... walking the dog, gardening... in indoor/ outdoor slipppers. Yeah, they covered my feet but had no cushioning or support. I think that's when my knee problems started.

SIX, that remodel looks primo! That's amazing! But you're right, the wiring looks scary.

****

Been running my *ss ragged with family Dr appts. Gotta see if hubby can get his back pain fixed, it's really disabling. So I'm going to schedule another injection for after his sinus surgery, and all being well after that he gets radio frequency ablation, which could last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years before needing a repeat. Daughter has some issues too, so she's going in for testing.

I used to think that being retired I should be able to get more projects done. But then I considered that taking full-time care of two disabled ppl (three, if I include myself) is the equivalent of a full time job. So I guess I should cut myself some slack.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger


You are quite right SIG. I should call her my friend.

I will get new shoes but like I said I have a biiig problem to solve this week.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 12:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Don't want to share what the big problem is, Brenda? I believe I saw you reference that once or twice before. You okay?

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 12:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Nice... I managed to find all of my USB thumbsticks. Or at least the important ones, anyhow. If I find any more stragglers, the more the merrier, but I got the ones that had stuff I needed.

I'm in the process of putting together my "Repair" bag for when my buddy is ready to go through all his old crap and consolidate.

I know he has an ancient laptop that I mentioned earlier with huge problems. If it is possible to save it and do anything with it, I'll have the tools for it. But I just found out today that unless you use a very specific few versions of Linux in 2026, you can't even safely use an x32 version anymore. And I have my doubts that his laptop is x64 archatecture, so if that's the case I'll have a few other non-PC options to make his laptop do non-office related things. Otherwise, it's trash, because if I can't at least get the lite version of Linux Mint on there, I know there's no way he's ever going to try to learn Linux on something that's not as user friendly for life-long Windows users.

I've got an empty laptop drive external enclosure for getting the drive out and copying everything off of it from another much faster computer first before trying to install another OS.

I've got a 2nd enclosure with a 250GB SSD. Fastest speeds for transferring on any of my old crappy tech that I've ever seen topping out at 80GB/s. His tech will probably be the bottleneck there, but I've got a fast way of pulling off data slowly but then moving it to his newest PC quickly.

When I'm finished burning images, I'll have 4 USBs 16GB or less that have various operating systems to try out on the laptop and any other older computers, and several others to try to get them to do anything worthwhile before going to the trash heap.

I've got 4 sticks of memory that I took out of the two old laptops I had. I don't know how big they are or if they'd help him, but if he's got a spare spot free we could possibly get more memory in there. Or even better if my memory is larger and we can more than double what's in there.

I've got a really cool non-enclosure kit that can transfer data off of all types of hard drives including the larger PATA or SATA hard drives, so if we need to I can rip data off of his other desktop hard drives that way instead of through Windows 98 or whatever systems nobody else but he has been using for 20 years.

I'll also put together a thumb drive with all sorts of essential free programs that I can add to whatever good computer(s) he has left after we're done.

I'll have an RJ45 cable and some various USB cables from the extras I went through the other day.

And I've even got a nice bag for all of it. It was an old laptop bag that I had the two laptops I threw away jammed into it.




I've also got those Kindles and Fire Sticks to go through to see what is still usable today and how many extra I have to give away to other people.



Got quite a bit of rest yesterday and I think I might take today off from physical work again today too. I've got my hands full with the computer stuff right now anyway.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 2:10 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't want to share what the big problem is, Brenda? I believe I saw you reference that once or twice before. You okay?

--------------------------------------------------

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I think I will be okay. Just some screw up with some real world paperwork. That's what I have to sort out.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 2:10 PM

BRENDA


Just a lazy Sunday around me. Bit of tidying up.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 9:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Found 4 bad hard drives in the attic. Not a huge deal since they were all 80GB to 250GB, but it's a bit of a bummer the 250GB drive is one of the laptop drives. It's the only one of the 4 that will fire up, but I tried cloning it since it was a backup clone of my old AIO that I may be fragging and repurposing, but it failed about 2/3rds of the way two times with a cyclical redundancy check. My drive tools aren't saying it's a bad drive, but it does say "Caution" which to me has always meant you don't put anything important on there. I wanted to have an IMG file of it in case I decide to go back to the old Windows setup I had on the AIO one day. I'll have to make sure I take the drive out of the AIO first and clone that before I do anything with it since I'm just throwing this backup drive away now.

Going to harvest the magnets and separate the metal from plastic. I know I have a box up there somewhere with about 30 old PATA drives between 160 and 320GB that I probably have no need for anymore even if any of them still work, so I'll be getting a lot of magnets and have a pretty big recycle pile when I'm done with that. I don't bother with recycling scrap metal, but I've got a few friends who do it all the time who wouldn't mind a bag full of mostly clean aluminum.

So I'm still getting some small stuff out while I'm working on the computer stuff. I really need to get back to the bathroom work though. Gotta mow the lawn soon too, if the weather would cooperate. Once that's done, I can go back to sanding the 3 or 4 pieces that still need to be sanded down. Nothing really left for me to paint at the moment. I could put one more coat of the dark on the doors and shelves to the medicine cabinet and toilet cabinets on the inside since they only got 2 coats, but I'd rather wait until I had all the other stuff that needs to be painted the same color before I do that. I'm running out of this color of paint and don't want to waste any paint in cleanup, no matter how little I lose.

Just didn't feel like scraping caulk or washing and priming walls today. It'll get done soonish.




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Sunday, May 17, 2026 10:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Boy... I'm glad that I looked for that box of drives right now while I had everything out. They're smaller than I thought. Only 120 to 160GB. Easily over 30 of them. Maybe 40. I remember buying them super cheap in a lot about 12 years ago for a project I intended to work on but just never got around to doing.

Not that I care now, but after the dehoard I made the mistake of moving them into the attic. Hot and humid is not a good space for old drives.


I am testing them out right now. I'm actually surprised that any of them still work, but so far I've got 4 160GB and 2 120GB that are working and passed the tests in GOOD condition.

I am going to keep 6 of them because I still have use for that many. I'm assuming none are over 160GB, but I'll keep the 6 largest drives made by good companies. Mostly Segate and hopefully all 160GB or larger, preferably. The Maxtors I wouldn't keep anyway, but they've all done me the courtesy of not working at all so far, making that decision even easier. The WD drives don't seem to be faring too well either. They can go with other stuff I'm going to be getting rid of, but at least I can build something out of it with other old tech I have up there (assuming any of that still works) and give it away instead of throwing it all in the trash.

Between these drives and the ones I've dismantled over the years, I think I'm finally going to be able to make that disc platter mirror I was always thinking about making. I'm going to have a ton of them.


That box was HEAVY. Might not be a huge amount of space cleaned out when that's done, but it's a good deal of weight that will be out of my life anyhow.



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Sunday, May 17, 2026 11:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Alright... so until I look at that other stuff, I'm going to keep 10 of the drives. They're all 160GB and they're all 7200RPM Seagate Barracudas. The best of the best of the collection.

Not a bad hour or two spent testing. I'm so glad that I finally found all my computer stuff and have it all in one place so I can do these types of things after neglecting them forever. I already knew 7 years ago when I dehoarded that I had no need for 35 hard drives anymore, but until I got around to testing/using any of them, I didn't want to just throw them all out. So with 10 saved, that leaves 25 drives to trash now. I'm sure I probably won't even need 6 when I get to it, but just in case one or two fail by the time I do, I've got a few spares. Once that work is done, I'll get rid of the rest of them. Might save that for colder weather though. I'll probably pull it all out of the attic and stage it in the small bedroom where I have the other stuff I need to go through like clothes.

I guess I'll be watching YouTube and pulling drives apart for the rest of the night.

That's cool. I didn't want to work anyways.

ETA... Boy... I forgot how long it takes to do these. Got about 24 star screws per drive that need to come off. Only did 5 of the 25 so far, and that's just throwing the magnets into a pile and not separating them from the metal they're glued on. Need to bust out two pairs of pliers for that job.

I've done some cool things with those before. I glued a bunch of them underneath one of my ladders and now when I'm up screwing things in I can just put a bunch of screws on the top and they all stick there. I know I pulled out at least a few nuts and bolts with a long tipped screwdriver with some of those magnets attached to it. They're insanely strong compared to fridge magnets.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 9:19 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I've been able to fit yardwork in between family. My last task was pruning the feijoa up and out. There was a lot of dead stuff in there, and a lot of old bird nests. It's not entirely done, bc now that I can see what's what, it's time to get out the sawzall.

Also, at this point I need a wheelbarrow and pole pruner.

That'll have to wait for a bit tho, bc today is hubby's "Dr day". So I'll just have time for some raking and chopping and binning up. Despite the fact that I have to fit this in between other stuff, overall, it's going well. I actually remembered to take "before" and "in progress" photos. I can't wait for it to be done!

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, May 18, 2026 1:46 PM

BRENDA


Out on a Holiday Monday up here. Victoria day. Just the usual. Need groceries.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 5:06 PM

BRENDA


All done for today. Even a little clean up in a corner. Sitting down now.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 6:39 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Another hot and rainy day outside today. Oh well...

Got all those drives taken care of before I went to sleep. Somebody's going to have about 25lbs of aluminum to recycle.

Just doing drive cleanup and maintenance as I still babysit the distro transfer and make tweaks to my own setup right now.

Looking at what I've got backed up several times on different drives, I'm going to have to trash a lot of stuff over about 4 drives now and come up with a new batch of things I wanted backed up, since most of the backups on 2 drives are now severely outdated as well.

I've got one huge drive. I think the plan is to get everything over there so I can organize things, remove all the redundancies and then choose what I put on those other two backup drives after everything has been purged and cataloged.

Not really in a huge hurry to do anything else at the moment until maybe Thursday when it cools off and stops raining so I can get the lawn mowed and start sanding down what still needs to be sanded.

If I do any bathroom work today/tonight, it would be removing the caulk on the other side of the tub and washing the TSP off the walls so I can get a coat of primer up everywhere.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 8:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


So much to clean...

My old tech isn't helping much in that process, since I need to do most of this work remotely on the network unless I want to spend hours sitting cross-legged on my hardwood floor... which I don't. I am trying to speed things along using my new spare 250GB external when I can and where it makes sense.

Feels good getting rid of all of this crap though, even if it is going to take a while to sort through it all.

I think I'm probably going to end up buying one more 5TB HD once I'm done, just to assure a proper full backup of the truly important things, and to have the backup all on one drive instead of spread to a few smaller 2TB drives. If I end up with a spare 2TB drive or two when I'm done, I know I have uses for those that don't include backing things up and throwing them in a box for 5 years.


I looked at all the boxes I had up in the attic too, and if I go through all that old tech that should eliminate about half of the stuff I still have up there. Not a can of worms I want to open just yet, and I think I have plenty of more important things to keep me busy until winter starts, but getting that done before the end of the year is on the to-do list for sure.

When I went out to the garage last night, I realized how much dehoarding I've already done out there without even really intending on it. Between just bringing in all the clothes and tech stuff I had out there and finally getting work done on the bathroom and those bi-fold doors, the garage isn't looking nearly as cluttered as it was. Once I get my buddy to come over here and help me bring in that really fancy leather recliner a neighbor gave me a while back, that will really open up the half of the garage where my large work bench sits.

I've also got 6 large bi-folds on that bench that I probably won't need too. Once I know that the two bifolds I'm working on now do the trick, I can get rid of all 6 of those things. If I hadn't already made all those modular shelving units, I'm sure I could have done something with those too, but I can't see any use for them now, so they'll be a huge batch of trash going outside sometime soon as well. (Although, it occurs to me that those may be the right fit for the laundry room int he basement... there's never been any doors there, and they're not even really necessary, but if they fit, I may be holding on to the two best doors for the basement work).

Oh... and once I finish the bathroom, there will be quite a few other things I've been holding onto that I will be able to let go. I'll just have to decide if I want to keep any of them for the basement bathroom whenever I get around to it.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 10:02 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


How do I have over 30TB of space and it's not enough room???

It's rhetorical. I know the answer already. Just one thing I'd backed up alone ended up being backed up in 4 different spots in its entirety on my large drive, and two of those spots are reflections of two smaller drives I've got so I bet I find them at least 2 more times.

I think I've been burned so many times losing work by not saving that I've gone too far the other way with it.

I just have to get it all cleaned, purged and organized is all. Right now, everything is going into one pot so I can see it all and make real choices instead of bouncing around from place to place to place and forgetting what I was comparing.

What a mess...

Can't wait to see how far I can slim it all down.



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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 1:02 PM

BRENDA


Things to do before I go out.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 2:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It will be nice when some transfers finally finish here...


You ever try to delete something, but frustratingly enough it tells you that a file is in use so you can't delete it?

Doing this level of re-org and purging across a network, and things start getting weird...

I've got files so old here that there are "thumbs.db" files all over the place. Windows hasn't used those for quite a while, but even though they aren't used in newer OS's, Windows still recognizes them as a System File. So of course, I always get the obligatory warning about moving or deleting them whenever they come up, but half the time when I say yes to that it says the file is in use (when deleting remotely). But if I go to the computer itself and remember the folders that the bad files are in, I have no problem deleting them there. This has happened at least 30 times so far.

But the one that's really bugging me is a file that claims I need admin permission to remove. I'm the admin, and I'm also using admin privileges when trying to delete it and then it tells me that I need permission from "Everyone" to delete the folder. I've never seen that one before. I've even gone as far as trying to delete that folder in both Command Prompt and even Powershell with admin privliges and no dice. The strange thing is that over the network that bad folder doesn't show up at all. But if I try to delete the parent folder over the network, it doesn't throw any errors and looks as though the delete worked, but the folder remains.

I'm hoping after everything is restarted I can remove it. Otherwise, that's just going to be an annoying file tree that stays on that drive forever. It's my 15TB drive, and there's no way I can move everything off of it temporarily to reformat the drive.







I patched up the damage in the bathroom and I'm going to wash the TSP off the walls now. Then I'll cut out that gross silicone caulk job the other side of the tub. May or may not get to primering anything today though because I'm going to visit one of my friends tonight when they get off work. We'll see how the day goes.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 2:50 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I see you're busy, busy, busy SIX!

Does your version of Windows have a file search function? I had to resort to that a lot enforcing the "filing system" on our server. If it does, try searching for "thumbs.db" or *.db (or something like that. It's been a while since I did that!)

One of these days I'm gonna have to purge and organize my files too. Right now it's a a bit of a jumble. I do have folders and subfolders (or directories and subdirectories if you prefer) but a lot of duplicate pix.

****

Still busy at this end honchoing appointments and errands and regular housework, and doing yardwork in between. Have a breather today with only 3 errands to run, and since today is "clean out the frig" day, not much cooking.
I started chopping and binning up yesterday, but I got delayed so the day was pretty hot when I started, and only got about 20% done. Today and tomorrow are expected to be 87F, and Thurs 2 Dr appts for family, so it looks like indoor work for me.



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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 3:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I see you're busy, busy, busy SIX!

Does your version of Windows have a file search function? I had to resort to that a lot enforcing the "filing system" on our server. If it does, try searching for "thumbs.db" or *.db (or something like that. It's been a while since I did that!)


Yes. It does. I will be doing a search for thumbs.db after I get everything I'm going to sort through on that single large drive and I can do a restart on all my computers so there shouldn't be any file conflicts. It's just taking a LONG time to do that is all. I've sped it up here and there with that spare 250GB drive since transfer speeds on that are about 10 times what the network will do, but I've also noticed quite a bit of overlap as I was copying things over, so I've been using tools like Beyond Compare, Folder Match and WinSCP to thouroughly browse similar folders so I can delete what's not necessary. I'll be doing a lot of that still once everything is on one drive, but as I catch very large folders I'm doing them along the way.

What eventually ends up happening is that I have so many move and delete functions going on both PCs and over the network at one time that I have to step away from it because everything else is slowed to a crawl.

I've NEVER seen delete functions take this long before, but sometimes we're talking folders with over 1 million files in the sub-folders, so all of my drives are getting a workout this week.

Quote:
One of these days I'm gonna have to purge and organize my files too. Right now it's a a bit of a jumble. I do have folders and subfolders (or directories and subdirectories if you prefer) but a lot of duplicate pix.


The sooner the better, but I'm fairly confident that your mess is much more manageable than the mess I've left for myself over the last 20 or so years.

I know what a chore that is, so I'm sure you'll get to it when you get to it. It's really a "Winter" job, but you don't really have a winter over where you live.



Quote:
Still busy at this end honchoing appointments and errands and regular housework, and doing yardwork in between. Have a breather today with only 3 errands to run, and since today is "clean out the frig" day, not much cooking.
I started chopping and binning up yesterday, but I got delayed so the day was pretty hot when I started, and only got about 20% done. Today and tomorrow are expected to be 87F, and Thurs 2 Dr appts for family, so it looks like indoor work for me.


Wow. You're getting a lot done too. I'm glad you're feeling well enough to keep up with it again.

Stay cool.




I just cut out all the silocone crap caulk job on the other side of the tub and cleaned it up. I figured if I was going to do both today, I'd better do that before I washed the TSP off the walls or I might give myself an excuse not to do the caulk again. I really hope that my crappy camera was able to snap some good pics of that caulk job so I can post them here and we can laugh at it.





Oh... and I have managed to clear a lot of space on my drives already. I finally got all my drives down to at least 10% free so I don't get warnings that I've got too much stuff on them anymore.

I've got most of my non-music/TV/Movies off of my streaming drive for the first time in over a year, so there's tons of free space left for the one thing that drive should be used for. And even though I've been moving tons of stuff to the 15TB drive, not only have I been deleting enough stuff to make room for all of it, but I've gone from only 2TB free to about 3.25TB free.

I'd guess that in the last 24 hours I've probably deleted about 3.5TB of outdated and/or redundant crap. My hope is that I can still delete another 3.5TB or more by the time I'm done, although I think I'm just about done doing the low-hanging fruit and it will probably be more time-consuming from here on out. I'll just have to balance doing this and working on the house until it's done.


What I'm hoping is that when I look at those two 2TB drives that I was using for backups I can quickly identify all of the folders on them as stuff that I've already taken care of on the huge drive and just wipe them clean so I'll have a place to make a 2nd backup of the most important things. Like I said, eventually I think I should just get one more 5TB drive for that, but in the meantime I'll feel better if I have those 2nd backups once this is all organized.



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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 4:57 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Nice. Looks like my hardware store carries 3/8" quarter round. They don't have any 1/4", but I think that might risk being too thin for the job anyhow. 3/8" should cover any of the worst of the bad cuts on that vinyl plate thing in between the painted wall and and the vinyl walls of the bath.

Got a little worried when I saw their only product that thin was made of oak, but at that width Oak must not be too expensive because it's still less than $4.00 each. Unfortunately, they don't come pre-primed like the cheaper pine would have too, but it'll get the job done. They come in 8ft lengths, which is absolutely perfect. I'll probably have to cut less than 1/4" off an end to get it to fit.

Hopefully the crap camera I have shows this work and what it looked like before I did it. I have my doubts.

EDIT: Come to think of it, I may want to see if I can get 1/2" quarter round to use as a crown in the tub too. They did such a freakin' awful job with caulk and just cutting out that vinyl overall and the caulk job to the ceiling over the shower looks like absolute trash. Not something I'm going to worry about today, as that doesn't need to be done until after the rest of the bathroom is done, but if I can fix that it might talk me out of ripping down all those walls and tiling them one day. The vinyl walls themselves are pretty nice and easy to clean up if it weren't for the horrible job they did.


That's it for today. Time to clean up. Going to go to the store and get those pieces along with some spackle, wood filler and the oil rubbed bronze paint. Not ready to buy any electric yet since I still don't know what I'll need to finish the project, but if I get this stuff I should be able to get most of the job done outside of electric now.



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Tuesday, May 19, 2026 5:47 PM

BRENDA


Well, this morning started out with me hopefully getting my RL paperwork straightened. Now, I just have to wait and see if it worked. Had to post a couple of things for it.

All other things done and having a sit down now. Weather can't decide if it want's to stay sunny or rain.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 2:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hope it's all good, Brenda.

We got one more warm and rainy day, then it cools off and should be dry for a few days so I can finally get my lawn mowed. It really needs it.

Although I don't feel too bad. They want to raise my property taxes to ridiculous levels, they can send the teachers over here to mow my lawn if they don't like it.





Got everything I needed at the hardware store. Turns out that even though I have about 30 buckets of paint and maybe 15 of those haven't even been opened yet, I didn't leave myself with a lot of primer when I checked out of doing work on the house a few years ago. I'm glad I thought to check that and didn't just assume that buried under more than a dozen buckets in either of the 2 spots that I keep the paint there was a fresh primer bucket waiting for me.

Nope. Just a bunch of paint that claims that it's "paint and primer in one", but if you believe that one I've got these 50 year shingles I can put up for ya and I'll be long dead before they start leaking on you in only 25.



Don't even ask my driveway how that 8 year blacktop is holding up.





And boy... am I glad I just took a chance and bought the 1/4"x1/4" pre-primed pine quarter round. I was obviously wrong about what I thought I saw on the webpage. If there was any 3/8" oak in that building, I didn't find it. Wasted a good 20 minutes looking for it too. Almost walked out without anything but figured I'd at least give the 1/2" stuff a shot. Boy am I happy I did that. There won't be as pronounced of a double-bevel effect with this stuff, but it didn't stick out as far as I thought it would. The thing it is going up against on the 90 degree to the wall is a thin, hollow vinyl "plate" that is not very thick at all, and it's rounded on both the right and left edge. I was worried that anything over 3/8" would be too wide and the flat back of the piece would stick out further than where the vinyl plate starts to curve in to the wall, and even with caulk that would just look almost as bad as the horrible caulk job I'm fixing with this stuff.


Unfortunately, I didn't pull the lights down yet or really try to get a good look behind the scenes, so I couldn't buy any electric today. I'm going to have to do some research on toilet heights anyhow before I figure that out. Everything as far as height going over the toilet needs to be based on me buying a LARGE toilet and still having enough room for the hand towels to hang above it.

So I need to figure out exactly how high that box needs to go before I can figure out where I want to put my electrical outlet inside of it.

I'm fairly certain that the only piece I would need to buy for any electric that I know I wouldn't have is a box that attaches to the drywall when there is no stud available. But I might luck out and have a stud right where I want to go with it too.

Maybe I'll give her a look tomorrow. I think for sure I'll get a coat of primer up if nothing else. Walls are all washed down and I already repaired the holes in the walls from various things that were screwed into them. And if I do that, I probably would put the first coat of paint up too for the hell of it. I've got a ton of that color and it's such a small room I'm not worried about running out of it.


Really though... I've got to get that electric figured out soon if for no reason other than to have a medicine cabinet with a mirror up there again. Until I get contact paper in those drawers, I don't want to be keeping things in there and I'm running back in and out of the small bedroom with half my stuff right now. I've got a little hand mirror balanced in the opening in the wall where the old cabinet used to be. And once I pull those lights down and put a pigtail up there, I'm not going to have much light in there until the job is done.


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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 1:31 PM

BRENDA


So do I SIX.



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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 1:31 PM

BRENDA


Out soon with meds to get and a couple of other things.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 4:54 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
So do I SIX.



When will you know?

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 4:56 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Heya SIX, a zillion years ago, when I was replacing our toilets with low-flow, I got ADA compliant height, and I'm glad I did! Unless a bathroom is intended for children, higher toilets are so much easier on the knees!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 6:10 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
So do I SIX.



When will you know?

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger


I think I'll have to call them on Friday.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 6:12 PM

BRENDA


Back and done for today. Warm out almost was sorry I was wearing my jacket out.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 11:03 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Heya SIX, a zillion years ago, when I was replacing our toilets with low-flow, I got ADA compliant height, and I'm glad I did! Unless a bathroom is intended for children, higher toilets are so much easier on the knees!


Good tip.

I figured there were certain standards out there, I just hadn't looked into them yet. From the little bit I've read, it looks like the top of my toilet tank would be between 28" and 30". I'm going to look at some toilets specifically before I go with that.

If the cabinet height won't be an issue with the shelf/towel hanger under it to 30", that'll be great.

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to attach the two pieces at the bottom, which would give the cabinet a decorative look all around the bottom with the towel rod under it... or if I'm going to try hanging the toilet cab high enough so that the shelf could be used too.

I don't need the shelf really, since under the two cabinet doors there is already a decent sized opening with a shelf right above it, but it is such a small bathroom for a main bathroom that every little extra space to put stuff is probably more than welcome.



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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 11:19 PM

BRENDA


Off to mah jong tomorrow then other stuff.

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Thursday, May 21, 2026 1:54 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Still plugging away at the data dehoard. It's going to get faster when I finally get everything over to the huge backup drive and it's all in one place. I've been trying to compare large things as I've been moving like stuff with like and getting them all closer together before doing the real purge, but that's pretty slow-going if I mess with it because I've got so many things moving around that the computer speed is simply too slow to keep up with what I'm trying to do.

All of those weird folder things disappeared when I had a moment to reboot everything. I knew all of them would except for that weird invisible folder that only showed up in one place and said I needed "permission from Everyone" to delete the folder. Turns out after a reboot that folder was just gone. That must have been what the strange error was about. Something so out of the ordinary that Windows threw out an incorrect error. Maybe it's something that was even buried in the code and not something anybody would regularly see unless the system got glitched?


I keep thinking that I'm deleting a lot, but 20GB here or there doesn't really put a dent in the free-space on a 15TB drive.

I know there's a ton I can still get rid of once it's all organized. Just have to be patient. My streaming drive which was almost full has about 3TB free, as it should be, now that I've removed everything that doesn't belong there. If I did all of this cleanup years ago I never would have needed to use that space... not that it harmed anything.

A lot of that free space was made by clogging up my work drive to the point where it's only got 800GB free again. I think I can get rid of a lot of that, and what remains is stuff I'm going to want to have backed up anyhow. But eventually I'll get that backed up a second time on the spare large drives and I should have a few TB free on the work drive too.

If I can do that and get down to about 4TB free on the huge drive, I'll be a pretty happy dude.



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Thursday, May 21, 2026 2:26 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SIX, if you're going to hoard anything, it may as well be bytes. I encourage dear daughter to give stuff away but take pix bc electrons are small! But good on you for dehoarding bc all that data doesn't help if you can't find it afterwards.


BRENDA, bon chance!


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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, May 21, 2026 5:00 PM

BRENDA


Merci, SIG.

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Thursday, May 21, 2026 5:04 PM

BRENDA


Good morning at mah jong finished in 2nd place with over 6,000 points. I went out 4 times, had 3 hands with winds and dragons. Also had one hand with all 4 flowers. So, I was getting some really good hands then middle ones then a couple of crappy ones, like 20 and 40points. My first hand was over 1,000 points.

Did some shopping then got back and realized that I forgot something and since I didn't want to do it tomorrow. I went back out and got it.

Wore my jacket today and sorry again that I did. Having a sit down now.

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Thursday, May 21, 2026 11:26 PM

BRENDA


Off to work tomorrow.

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Friday, May 22, 2026 1:40 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


The couple that you work for sounds clueless. Hope she doesn't have you running up and down the stairs.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, May 22, 2026 2:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yeah... It's not exactly fun, but not nearly as bad as cleaning a hoarded house is.

I don't think it would have been possible at all if I didn't have that big drive. Even looking at everything on one drive is pretty slow going.

It's all on the one drive now finally. That took a few days and a lot more babysitting than I thought it might.

Doing pretty good on space though. The work computer has 2 external drives and now there's just shy of 5TB free between them. It's really actually closer to 6TB because I have the zipped/split archive and another large set of nested folders that are all essentially doubles, but stored in a way I'm not going to be storing things. I'm just waiting on it being verified as good before I delete any of that. I had less than 2TB free on these before.

Got the huge drive down to 2TB free now, which was right around what it had before I'd moved anything to it. Now I'm just hoping I can find 2 or 3 more TB to delete.

Not just to free up that space, but to have less to chose from when I'm deciding what's getting a 2nd and even a 3rd proper backup off of that.



Yeah... a digital hoard in many ways is a lot better than a real life hoard, although if you look at all the old tech I still have to get rid of there can become some overlap there. Other people don't notice your problem with a digital hoard, but it's all up in your head like a real hoard is until you get rid of it.




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Friday, May 22, 2026 9:25 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Nice. Not that it cleared up much space, but I did a search for thumbs.db after I had everything I could possibly think of put on that large drive and 1,451 were either already there or passed through after I'd missed them.

Interestingly, Windows 11 doesn't seem to care at all about them anymore. When deleting thumbs.db in Windows 10, you get an error for every one complaining it's a system file and something might break if you delete it. No such warning at all in Windows 11. You tell it to delete them and it just does.

If memory serves right, desktop.ini is another relic of Windows past that is probably littering parts of my tree. But unfortunately, I know for a fact that other things I've used have used files with that name for their own purposes, so doing a massive search/delete on them would be a bad idea, so unless I catch them specifically they're going to stay.


Nice to get those off, and even nicer knowing that they don't exist at all in any of the Program and the Build. I'd hate knowing that I was spreading these useless but still POS files to other people's systems, but I'm also not about to re-do the entire build and lose about 10 days worth of work and babysitting transfers just for that. There would have to be some MAJOR problems pointed out to me before I ever did that.



Finally got a look at those Kindles the other day. Turns out I only had 5 and my old tablet that has seen some better days was with them.

I figured out which was the newest and the best, which didn't even take research to figure out since the differences in storage space alone speak volumes on that one. Battery life in all but two of them seem to be great. The two oldest units have some problems with battery life though. I'd gotten them all to 100% and left them on with the screens off for 4 days before I finally got to them. The 3 newest ones were at 89% or higher. One of the two matching oldest ones was only at 50% and the final was at a very low 19%. This was without any use at all, and just leaving them on. It's possible that these two were so old that they didn't have as good of batteries as the newer ones and/or they weren't made with extended lifetime as a priority back then, so that 50% might be a feature and it's only the 19% one that I should pitch.


I've already put together one for my friend. He's not a huge reader, but I know what his favorite book is, and that's on there. I also put some books about bands he likes on it, as well as some other books I'd thought he might be interested and a few of my favorite books. I even found some collections of images of trading cards and magazines we liked when we were kids and put them in PDF files so I could get them readable on the Kindle too as a bonus. That will be a nice little gift.

I've got 3 good ones, and those are for me. One was from my old man and was one of those older black and white kindles. Pretty basic and not a ton of storage space, but it is unarguably easier on the eyes than the colored ones. My biggest problem with it is that he gave it to me with a ton of his books loaded up on it, and I can't transfer 1/3rd of them anywhere else since they were from the Amazon store and come with copyright protection I'm not interested in enough to learn how to break since I'm sure they could all be replaced for free anyhow if I felt like it. If I actually want to read those, I've got to keep that unit and read them before the battery goes. The best one I got when my friend's father-in-law passed and I got that fridge. Nobody there wanted it, and it's by far the newest one. The 3rd one is fairly new, but I'm using that in tandem with my project and I'll never actually read any books off of it.

I was going to give the other one to my aunt, but if that battery is shot there's no point in it. Oh well... When I'd asked her if she wanted one quite a while back, she didn't seem that enthused about it. I don't think she's ever been much of a reader, and I honestly couldn't even think of any books to put on it before I gave it to her. I'll probably just throw that one out.



I thought that after I stopped transferring a ton of stuff I'd have an easier time cleaning that huge drive from the comfort of my main PC without it glitching up all the time, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I think if I want to really clean that drive, I'm going to have to give that thing space on my coffee table for at least a few days and be careful not to bump it at all. Otherwise this could take obscenely long to work on remotely, and I've nearly run out of time to be devoting to this like I've been the last week or so.

That gorram yard isn't going to mow itself. Neither is the rest of the stuff I need to paint for the bathroom going to repair and sand itself.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Saturday, May 23, 2026 1:59 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The couple that you work for sounds clueless. Hope she doesn't have you running up and down the stairs.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger


She is clueless.

Here's another example of stupid things they have said.

She put on some classical music from Spotify or something like that. She asked me who I thought the composer was after listening I said, "Mozart." She had to look it up and she said, "You're right. You do know a lot of stuff."

I of course was totally stunned when she said it. Don't know why. Guess I wasn't expecting it. They just blow my mind sometimes.

I was running up and down the basement stairs. Almost tripped once and when I got to the top had to ask her to take one thing from me before I dropped it. She did it though. I usually bring things up one at a time but I thought since they were small but nope. Oh well.

They are also redoing the kitchen again some. The husband decided that they needed some more cabinets in the kitchen. Fine. But not that stupid white on a plain wood wall. Ugh! I'm not even sure that will work. They are also going to install a dishwasher which I haven't decided if that is a good idea or not.

Mind they are having people staying with them. They are hooked up with this mennonite group.

Still haven't made up my mind on that.

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Saturday, May 23, 2026 2:00 PM

BRENDA


Out in a bit. Need or what to do a couple of things. Nothing too heavy.

Got back after 4pm yesterday and stopped at a fast food place to get something for supper. Was too tired to do anything except the basics.

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Saturday, May 23, 2026 6:23 PM

BRENDA


All done for today. Forgot about a parade going through my city and couldn't cross the street to get to another store. Oh well. Will do on Monday.

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