REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, August 6, 2026 20:11
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Monday, August 3, 2026 7:06 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think it looks fine being a lighter colour. But that is just me.


Appreciate ya. I still like it a lot too. I just wish I knew what I should have done different to get the result that I was aiming for is all. There's enough "hue" to the piece that it will match her existing furniture, but it will stand out quite a bit too. Maybe that's not such a bad thing?



Quote:
Yeah, I've heard those figures even for today.

Never understood the need for frills when no one is going to being looking at it regular.

That's terrible what they charged for grandmother and uncle's urns and for crappy ones no less.


Right? I was mad about how much it cost to bury her, especially the insane additional cost they added to the whole thing to throw my uncle's urn from over 10 years prior in the same plot, when it was nothing but two tiny urns in a gigantic plastic resin box that cost $2,000. The Urn was $900!!! Cremation a couple thousand. $1,200 for the headstone. An additional $1,800 just to put my uncle in the same plot for no good reason.

And I go back with my aunt to clean the headstones on her birthday and I've seen other graves that were caved in, likely due to the crappy $2,000 plastic resin boxes caving in under the 6 feet of dirt.

I think the whole thing was like $9,000. And my aunt would not relent and nobody else wanted to fight about it. I didn't push, even though I knew my grandma was turning in that urn knowing all that money being spent. None of that money was ever going to go to me, so they were just burning a good deal of the inheritance on bullshit. The housing market was so insane at the time they got more than twice what I'd ever think they'd get for it, so nobody was freaking out about losing a few thousand on the funeral.

Quote:
I found the bill that was sent to the Veteran's Affairs up here. Years after my dad died. Think I found it just after my mum had died. Anyways don't remember the price of the coffin but the VA was charged $500 for digging a hole. Now, mind this was in the late 70s. But I was shocked at the price. Would have cost next to nothing to do it the way our ancestors did it.


Yeah. And if you saw them dig that hole with the Bobcat in about 5 minutes you'd be even more shocked about the price. They weren't paying two guys to dig that up with spades. Well... I dunno... Maybe back in the 70's they were. Not at my grandma's site though. That was over $2,000 to dig the hole and fill it in.

Quote:
Myself, I am so not ready to think about that. I got almost another 30 or 40years left on this planet.


Good for you, Brenda.

I'm going to make my will soon though, just in case. I think pretty much everything will go to my brother. If I do go before my dad does, I'm sure my dad could help him get set up pretty good here. He'd just need somebody guiding the cash for him to pay for things like getting the lawn mowed and other maintenance. He'd be better off selling it and getting a condo or something though, honestly.

But I want to make it CRYSTAL clear that any money from my estate being spent on funeral costs is to be done at the bare bones minimum cheapest prices. If I lived about 50 miles south and/or east of where I do, I'd tell them to bury me in the back yard for free.

Nothing but cremation, a Folgers coffee can and a trip to the forest preserves for my funeral. My aunt and Dad can reenact the scene from The Big Lebowski.

Quote:
Oh yes. You do develop a system for eating and drinking. Coffee for me is usually using two hands if I want it and they are shaking, other wise I wait until they stop and I think it is safe. Also for grocery shopping. Same thing when physically writing something. I either wait or try to slow down a bit so my signature doesn't go screwy.


It's funny, but as I was reading this I can see Barb holding that coffee cup with two hands. I'm also now remembering that aside from the shakes, she also had one really weak hand. Like she could use the other hand to assist with the coffee cup, but she wasn't grabbing around it with both hands. The other one was just kind of pushed to the side of the coffee cup and aided the strong hand with a little support.

Quote:
That's what I was thinking. Just ignore it. Yeah, it is really just my book. And like I said. I do not trust doing things like that over the internet. Just too many crooks out there. Yup, just do everything the old fashioned way. I know I am a dinosaur.


Nah... Not a dinosaur. My old man has some years on you and he went all online many years ago. Far more than me, even. You're just living the life I pretend that I want to live. Completely separate from the internet, and only interacting with it on your terms. I've slowly allowed myself to get so dialed in it would be really hard to get all the way back out. Fiercely independent Jack is against all of it, but I'm Gettin' Too Old For This Shit Jack really doesn't care anymore.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 7:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
All done for today. Hands are so-so. Bringing heavy things back and doing heavy things when in. *sigh* Oh, well. One I had to do and other I just wanted to do.


SIX, you talk about neighbours finally cutting down that tree. I would love to put up a sign that says, "NO SLAMMING YOUR APARTMENT DOOR!!!" I just had someone do that about three times now.

I try not to do that as these are security doors and heavy, so when you let them go they bang some thing fierce.


Somebody in an argument, or is this a frequent thing? If it happens all the time you could let management know. They could at least try to put up some signs about it. Some people need to have it pointed out to them that they're being unintentional assholes.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 7:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of the day right now...

If I actually do have to do another coat on the front, I'm going to want to turn it on its back first so I have the full lights on it while I finish it off, and I can't do that until tomorrow night when the back has cured enough to be resting on something. So either way the work on that box is done until tomorrow.

I think I probably waited too long for spackle again, and I don't really feel like doing that right now anyhow. House is clean except some dishes, so if my Dad does come by before the weekend I don't need to be doing that. Cleaned up all the tools and threw out all the junk from all the finished jobs and only have out what I still need to finish that box.

Oh... and I actually have a nice full-length mirror now to use when I do my clothes dehoarding. I dug out the antique mirror that belongs with the really nice bedroom set I got from my lawyer uncle. I never attached it to the dresser like it should have been and it's been in a closet behind some paintings I had. Now it's set up in my small bedroom closet and all I have to do is uncover it and I don't have to guess what everything looks like.

But I don't feel like going through clothes today either.

I kind of want to just screw off the rest of the day since I can't do anything else with that box until tomorrow, but I'm having a hard time sitting still and doing nothing for very long.


I might bring that monitor down and start going through boxes of the old tech and get a picture of what still works, what doesn't, and what if anything can be cannibalized to make as much of it work as possible.

Grrrrrrr....

Losing patience with drying time, and I've still got 26 days until the bookcase is cured and we haven't even begun that clock on my aunt's hope chest yet.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 9:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Dammit...

Looks like everything is good except for the face of the body. There's a little smudge just in the center of the damn thing and I'm not going to leave it like that. The cover is fine though, so I don't need to do that and can flip it completely over to work on the lip tomorrow evening. So that's what I'll do.. Just fix the face of the body tomorrow while I've got the thing on its back, and 2 hours later when that's dry to the touch I'll set it upright so I can do all the lips at the same time and not lose another day. I'll sand out the inside good one time first and clean it up good so it's ready for the final coat of poly after I've gotten several on the lips.

Could be done with it before I go to bed tomorrow if things work out right.

Finger's crossed.





Got the start of my tech setup ready to go in the small bedroom. I just found out that I had the forsight to wrap all of that stuff up real good in black trash bags super tight around everything and tape holding it together. I don't remember doing that, so maybe I get a little lucky with some of them.

The first two work, but don't have all my stuff on them. That's kind of a problem since they need to be hard wired into the network in order to get it, and I don't want to be bringing any of this back down into my clean and organized living room.

I think I'm going to get some use out of a spare router my old man gave me afterall. I'm pretty sure I can use one of my backup PCs with that router to connect the two and use an external hard drive to get what I need on these things that need it.

Whether I get all this stuff working or not, almost all of it is going out of my house. Out of 5 boxes, only 1 will remain. But since this looks like it's probably going to be some real work, I might not do much more than stage everything for now.

I really had these things protected not only with the plastic but in boxes that had stuff like empty binders and old bed linens for protection. I want to get everything like that out too and get a real inventory of everything I've got.

And now that the tree is down, I knew I was going to need to do something to cover that window up since it already was bad in the afternoon with the sun but it will likely be brutal going forward, especially in the winter when the sun is lower.

I was originally thinking of a way to use some velcro pads to do it, but I think I have a better idea...

I'm pretty sure that I can get two hard drive magnets on either sides of the top corners of the upper window and they should sandwich together between the thick glass with how powerful they are. Then I could sew some magnets into the top of one of the white bedsheets I just found and I should be able to put that up and take it down fairly easily without doing any lasting damage to the window frame or wall. I would just have to make sure there was enough padding on the sheet between the magnets so that it didn't pull the magnet with it and make the one outside the window fall to the ground when I took it down.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 12:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yup.

Staging stuff as well as removing as much of my old tech from the boxes is the right move now, for sure.

Unless I'm missing something still up in the attic, I've got 7 that work, 4 that are busted and 5 that will need a lot of setup to get doing what it is supposed to be doing. One is a bad hard drive, but I don't know about the other 3 yet until I dive deep into it. I kept 12 of those hard drives that I tested were still working just for this purpose. Nice to know I won't need most of them, but they're ready whenever I get to it now.

Tons of old towels and bed linens protecting things in those boxes and they're all going through a wash cycle now. Got rid of anything that was ratty and any mattress covers that were in there because those make horrible covers for anything else and horrible drop cloths. The towels will go out with all my rags in the garage, adn all the bedding will be folded and put into a box in the basement where I've been putting others.

Got another bag of trash out, as well as two super-gross cardboard boxes that have seen better days. I won't be keeping any of these boxes ultimately because of the nicotene, so I'll be trying to get some more good boxes to replace those once I know what I'm keeping. I'm hoping that I keep so little that I've already got enough totes and clean boxes to hold everything by the end, so I won't be looking too hard.

Going to get all of that out to the trash and recycle bin while I'm taking out another 2 or 3 boxes to the garage for processing when I get to it.

Down to 18 boxes left in the attic right now. Wonder how many will be left when I'm all set for the night? I know those 2 or 3 boxes for my stereo and surround sound are going out there to be installed when it cools off a bit. And I've now made plenty of room in the small bedroom and have like things staged in rows to be gone through. If I'm doing things right, I should be able to put just about everything in the small bedroom from the attic other than a few spare flat screen monitors and a backup microwave.

May I never bring another thing upstairs again.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 12:55 AM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think it looks fine being a lighter colour. But that is just me.


Appreciate ya. I still like it a lot too. I just wish I knew what I should have done different to get the result that I was aiming for is all. There's enough "hue" to the piece that it will match her existing furniture, but it will stand out quite a bit too. Maybe that's not such a bad thing?



Quote:
Yeah, I've heard those figures even for today.

Never understood the need for frills when no one is going to being looking at it regular.

That's terrible what they charged for grandmother and uncle's urns and for crappy ones no less.


Right? I was mad about how much it cost to bury her, especially the insane additional cost they added to the whole thing to throw my uncle's urn from over 10 years prior in the same plot, when it was nothing but two tiny urns in a gigantic plastic resin box that cost $2,000. The Urn was $900!!! Cremation a couple thousand. $1,200 for the headstone. An additional $1,800 just to put my uncle in the same plot for no good reason.

And I go back with my aunt to clean the headstones on her birthday and I've seen other graves that were caved in, likely due to the crappy $2,000 plastic resin boxes caving in under the 6 feet of dirt.

I think the whole thing was like $9,000. And my aunt would not relent and nobody else wanted to fight about it. I didn't push, even though I knew my grandma was turning in that urn knowing all that money being spent. None of that money was ever going to go to me, so they were just burning a good deal of the inheritance on bullshit. The housing market was so insane at the time they got more than twice what I'd ever think they'd get for it, so nobody was freaking out about losing a few thousand on the funeral.

Quote:
I found the bill that was sent to the Veteran's Affairs up here. Years after my dad died. Think I found it just after my mum had died. Anyways don't remember the price of the coffin but the VA was charged $500 for digging a hole. Now, mind this was in the late 70s. But I was shocked at the price. Would have cost next to nothing to do it the way our ancestors did it.


Yeah. And if you saw them dig that hole with the Bobcat in about 5 minutes you'd be even more shocked about the price. They weren't paying two guys to dig that up with spades. Well... I dunno... Maybe back in the 70's they were. Not at my grandma's site though. That was over $2,000 to dig the hole and fill it in.

Quote:
Myself, I am so not ready to think about that. I got almost another 30 or 40years left on this planet.


Good for you, Brenda.

I'm going to make my will soon though, just in case. I think pretty much everything will go to my brother. If I do go before my dad does, I'm sure my dad could help him get set up pretty good here. He'd just need somebody guiding the cash for him to pay for things like getting the lawn mowed and other maintenance. He'd be better off selling it and getting a condo or something though, honestly.

But I want to make it CRYSTAL clear that any money from my estate being spent on funeral costs is to be done at the bare bones minimum cheapest prices. If I lived about 50 miles south and/or east of where I do, I'd tell them to bury me in the back yard for free.

Nothing but cremation, a Folgers coffee can and a trip to the forest preserves for my funeral. My aunt and Dad can reenact the scene from The Big Lebowski.

Quote:
Oh yes. You do develop a system for eating and drinking. Coffee for me is usually using two hands if I want it and they are shaking, other wise I wait until they stop and I think it is safe. Also for grocery shopping. Same thing when physically writing something. I either wait or try to slow down a bit so my signature doesn't go screwy.


It's funny, but as I was reading this I can see Barb holding that coffee cup with two hands. I'm also now remembering that aside from the shakes, she also had one really weak hand. Like she could use the other hand to assist with the coffee cup, but she wasn't grabbing around it with both hands. The other one was just kind of pushed to the side of the coffee cup and aided the strong hand with a little support.

Quote:
That's what I was thinking. Just ignore it. Yeah, it is really just my book. And like I said. I do not trust doing things like that over the internet. Just too many crooks out there. Yup, just do everything the old fashioned way. I know I am a dinosaur.


Nah... Not a dinosaur. My old man has some years on you and he went all online many years ago. Far more than me, even. You're just living the life I pretend that I want to live. Completely separate from the internet, and only interacting with it on your terms. I've slowly allowed myself to get so dialed in it would be really hard to get all the way back out. Fiercely independent Jack is against all of it, but I'm Gettin' Too Old For This Shit Jack really doesn't care anymore.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Sorry that I can't help you with that. It's a little above my pay grade.
Being a lighter hue and depending how dark her other furniture is, it might give the room some depth.

I don't blame you for being angry. That would have had me probably banging on someone's door wondering what the f.

I'm glad you go back to take care of her grave. That's important for you and your grandmother. Okay, someone should sue those ba$tards for that crappy work. No family should have to see that.

I'm not sure how they did it. But like I said that was quite a bit for the late 70s. 2grand, geez. That's digusting.

Thanks or at least that is what I am hoping for. Things I want to see before I can't.

I've had people ask me about a will over the last few years. I know and understand why. Guess, I just don't like courting bad luck.

I'm sure your dad would help your brother.

Me, like I said I am not going there. One day I will but not right now.

I'm right handed and both are fairly strong. It's just when they both start acting up that I have to be really careful. Like I said sometimes holding a fork depending on what is happening by myself can be at times annoying when my right decides at that moment to shake. Then it is stop and slow down.

Maybe it's a good thing that the internet came around when I was in my 30s, I guess. Never really got so hooked that I can't let it go for a few days. Even hopping into Alberta, I don't really miss it.

Don't even talk about the, "Gettin' too old for this shite." I have been there so many times over the last few years it is tiring.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 12:57 AM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
All done for today. Hands are so-so. Bringing heavy things back and doing heavy things when in. *sigh* Oh, well. One I had to do and other I just wanted to do.


SIX, you talk about neighbours finally cutting down that tree. I would love to put up a sign that says, "NO SLAMMING YOUR APARTMENT DOOR!!!" I just had someone do that about three times now.

I try not to do that as these are security doors and heavy, so when you let them go they bang some thing fierce.


Somebody in an argument, or is this a frequent thing? If it happens all the time you could let management know. They could at least try to put up some signs about it. Some people need to have it pointed out to them that they're being unintentional assholes.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Truthfully, I think it is a bit of both. Arguments that don't spill out into the hall, so the person just thinks about storming out. And there's the I don't care. Thing is I don't want to play den mother to adults.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 1:00 AM

BRENDA


Don't talk about sorting out clothes. Was looking at my dresser with my t-shirts in and started thinking I should really tidy them so I can find the t-shirt I want. Now, I have thought this before and haven't got there SIX.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 1:54 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh, I haven't started sorting any clothes yet. I've had those two giant black trashbags of stuff to go through for months now. I almost feel bad that the two bags I got from my step bro and half bro to sort through went straight to goodwill as it was. I know their styles and they just aren't my fit, though I doubt with how tall they both are we would have had too much that fit me anyhow.

Still haven't gone through all of my own clothes either. All I did a while back was make sure that I removed enough of the really garbage work clothes with holes and paint so everything I had outside of the trash bags had a home. But even that wasn't true since I had a few more in the dryer and I've got 4 shirts laid out on the bed right now.

That's going to be quite a project, and only because it's so hard for me to part with stuff like that. But it needs to be done soon.

I just want to have easy access to whatever dehoarding project I decide to start tackling on a given day. I'm not actually working on any of that yet, although I have thrown out some things as I've been moving stuff. I also just got through rearranging things so I could protect the entire floor with the linens that I was just washing that came out of the hoard boxes. I don't even want that gross cardboard touching these floors any more than they have to, and I'm trying to get as rid of as much of that as possible along the way. I'm keeping empty boxes back up in the attic for now, but that's just because I don't throw away stuff until the job is done.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 3:06 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You need to find that shirt, Brenda.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 12:39 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You need to find that shirt, Brenda.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Not really things just need to be sorted out is all. One of these days I will. When I feel like it.


Oh, at some point last night my icons on taskbar decided to go for a walk. Everything is working though.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 12:40 PM

BRENDA


Out soon on a smokey day. Looks like the smoke from the lower Interior and Washington state have reached my area.

Going to try not to stay out too long but things to do.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 4:31 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Taskbar is still bad?

Time to do that restart. See what happens.

If you can't do it with the Start Button now, do the CTRL+ALT+DEL and hit the power button icon at the lower right for the Restart option.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 5:17 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Taskbar is still bad?

Time to do that restart. See what happens.

If you can't do it with the Start Button now, do the CTRL+ALT+DEL and hit the power button icon at the lower right for the Restart option.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Yeah, I will tonight before I go to bed. That's the best time for me. I don't have to think about it. *sigh*

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 5:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I know you've mentioned the weather on your computer before. Do you need to see it there?

If not, there are certain "widgets" we can turn off on your task bar such as "News & Weather" among other things that may be running that can cause the task bar to glitch up like this.

I'm just trying to come up with easy ways to keep this from happening to you. A brand new Windows install or just a "Reset This PC", which would allow you to keep all of your files but would require you to reinstall Word and your internet browser and other things I'd be too afraid to have you try without me being able to walk you through it. Until you got a laptop that we know can connect you here, that's not an option for us.


Just try the Restart in the CTRL+ALT+DEL menu tonight and let's see how it goes this week.

Worst case, for now, is that you will know how to restart the computer when it happens again and if you have to restart more often going forward so be it.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 5:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Looks like I still have 14 boxes in the attic after last night.

3 of them are the stereo equipment that's going to be set up in the garage. 2 of them are Christmas stuff (1 box I have to keep since it's all of the ornaments given to me when I was a kid from family members, but the other one is things like mechanical Santas that all look pretty expensive but mean nothing to me). One box is books. 2 boxes of knicknacks. 1 box of pure nostalgia that I'm never getting rid of. 1 box of stuff I have for building computers (and I haven't built a computer since 2015). 2 huge totes of those old black and white photos of ancestors I know nothing about. 1 box with my old VCR and 5 or 6 tapes as well as my really nice marble chess board (I don't know where the pieces are yet, or if I even still have them). And the last box is a very old computer that I needed linux on so I could do stuff with some of that old tech (I will be throwing that out after I'm done going through what's left of the old tech).


Going to do more work on getting that stuff down and ready for sorting today in between working on my Aunt's chest.

I've got to see if I still have a roll of wax paper in my kitchen. Even though we're close to 24 hours drying time since the last coat of poly, I'm really worried about even having it upside down on towels on the horses while I'm working on finishing the face of the body, sanding the inside of the box one final time, staining the lips and getting a few coats of poly on them before I do one final coat on the lips and the inside of the box.

If I have wax paper, I'll be pulling out my boards to make table tops on the horses again so I can spread the surface area out and not worry about my box sticking to the towel or getting marred by it.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 6:14 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


About the stain ...

You didn't do anything wrong, SIX. The chest is made of very dense fine- grained wood that just doesn't soak up stain, is all. The legs that I tried to stain to match the furniture were made from bits of the old silver maple, and I had the same problem. I was using a gel mahogany stain, and like I said, I had to use it like a glaze and leave a lot on to get the color to match. In fact, I kind of had to "paint on" a grain pattern. Fortunately, being legs tucked under a chest of drawers, nobody looks at them very closely!

Maybe a water or alcohol based dye or a tung oil/ solvent based stain would have penetrated better.

If I ever find the answer I'll let you know!



-----------

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

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 7:36 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
About the stain ...

You didn't do anything wrong, SIX. The chest is made of very dense fine- grained wood that just doesn't soak up stain, is all. The legs that I tried to stain to match the furniture were made from bits of the old silver maple, and I had the same problem. I was using a gel mahogany stain, and like I said, I had to use it like a glaze and leave a lot on to get the color to match. In fact, I kind of had to "paint on" a grain pattern. Fortunately, being legs tucked under a chest of drawers, nobody looks at them very closely!

Maybe a water or alcohol based dye or a tung oil/ solvent based stain would have penetrated better.

If I ever find the answer I'll let you know!


Appreciate ya, Sigs.


I remember being initially disappointed with my hardwood floors because I wanted them basically dark brown and they didn't turn out that way at all. What bothers me about both my floors and this piece is that they are both significantly lighter than they were before I sanded them. Must have been much different products that they were using back then compared to what we've got now, huh?



I'll have some nice pics later. Not going to be ready for hinges until tomorrow night if everything goes right tonight, but I got my 5th and final coat on the front board of the box, and everything else was good with 4 coats. So I just finished getting the handles on the box before I tipped it 90 degrees on the base after giving the face 2 hours to dry. All that's left is staining and poly on the lips now, since I decided against sanding the inside and doing another coat. It's beautiful now and I don't want to screw anything up accidentally at the last moment since I'm pretty much out of time and I'm also very low on poly too.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 9:47 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Not done, but really getting close now...

My god, she's beautiful...












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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 10:00 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Had to repost the originals just to look at them side by side again. Too bad I didn't take nice angles of the before pics like I did while I was working on it.






I've got to go out to my garage and see if I have any foam brushes out there. I don't have any inside. I'm not even going to attempt to put the poly on the lips with a regular brush. If I can't find a foam brush, I'm going to cut up a fresh kitchen sponge and just give it very light coats.

It turns out that I have until Monday now for this to be finished since my aunt will be busy on retirement day partying with people she worked with and she's actually quite busy already this weekend. Whether it's at her place or mine, I don't want this to just be a quick hand off. So I'm just going to go thin with a foam brush or sponge and use as many coats as I feel I need to finish off the job without leaking poly all over either side onto those beautiful finishes.

In lieu of having any 300-400 grit sand paper, I'm going to just use the face of a clean cardboard box to "sand" in between coats. The fibers on the cardboard are more than enough to scuff it so the next coat will hold.


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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 10:59 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Wow, that's beautiful, SIX.

Wouldn't it be nice to work with such beautiful wood every day??

-----------

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

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 11:12 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, that's beautiful, SIX.

Wouldn't it be nice to work with such beautiful wood every day??


Thanks Sigs.

If money didn't matter and/or I could find a way to make it work, I could do that every day for the rest of my life and you'd never hear me complain.


BIG ETA:

Yeah... Maybe don't listen to my advice below...

Everything is still okay, but that second coat presented a problem I didn't have the first time around. Lots and lots and lots of bubbles.

Truth be told, I've been fighting bubbles on this job from the very beginning. It probably made poly much harder than it needed to be, and I'm going to blame my cheapness and refusing to buy new poly when I had a "perfectly good" half can of it in my basement from who knows how many years ago and even if it was ever mine in the first place.

But on that sponge the 2nd time around it was brutal. Don't know why that happened when it was fine the first time. So glad I only have one more application to go and I won't have to worry about it anymore.



I'll still leave what I did below...




I just figured out something pretty cool that might be useful to your or your husband one day...

I didn't have any foam brushes, and I was going to cut a kitchen sponge into strips and try using that, but when I was out in the garage I found something that ended up being way better than that, and I didn't even cut it up.

It was a small palm-sized auto sponge that I got from the Dollar Tree. I think it was meant for either applying or buffing out wax on your car. Not a big sponge with big holes like for wiping off grout, but tons of micro-holes that you can't even see. I already had my brush and the can of poly wrapped up from last night (for like 4 days I've been doing that too without cleanup or wasting poly, btw)...

So because of that brush still in the way, the fact that I only have less than 1/2" of poly at the bottom of the can, and the fact the can is pretty rusty around the top because it's ancient, I thought what if I just used the poly on the brush to wipe it on the sponge and then use the sponge on the lips?

That works great. I did my best to rub from the center outward to the 2 finished sides and then wiped it in a straight line. Some poly did get off the side where I didn't want to, but it's so little and thin that it easily wiped right off with a dry part of the sponge without any issue. No dripping, just a little excess that needed to be removed quickly before it bonded to the previous layer.

It is a thin coat, but it's a solid one. I'm only doing 3 like that and it should be more than enough. But I was really worried about gravity screwing me on this one and it turned out okay.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026 11:48 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I know you've mentioned the weather on your computer before. Do you need to see it there?

If not, there are certain "widgets" we can turn off on your task bar such as "News & Weather" among other things that may be running that can cause the task bar to glitch up like this.

I'm just trying to come up with easy ways to keep this from happening to you. A brand new Windows install or just a "Reset This PC", which would allow you to keep all of your files but would require you to reinstall Word and your internet browser and other things I'd be too afraid to have you try without me being able to walk you through it. Until you got a laptop that we know can connect you here, that's not an option for us.


Just try the Restart in the CTRL+ALT+DEL menu tonight and let's see how it goes this week.

Worst case, for now, is that you will know how to restart the computer when it happens again and if you have to restart more often going forward so be it.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Well, when I miss the weather on the news I do use it. The clock I use to know when get up and take my meds.

Yeah, to do something that technical I would need someone standing over me, directing me and explaining why I am doing certain things. Too much for me.

Like I said I will set things in motion before I go to bed.

That's what I was thinking. If this going to keep happening I will but it does worry me about trying to get some writing done.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 1:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, when I miss the weather on the news I do use it. The clock I use to know when get up and take my meds.


The clock would stay. That's always been a part of windows since the very beginning and separate from the weather/news "widgets" that are always connected online to update that info for you.

I've looked up what could be causing your taskbar to freeze up like this, and every time I've asked that weather/news widget always comes up as a potential suspect. (I just did again right now and I'm working on putting something together for you).

Quote:
Yeah, to do something that technical I would need someone standing over me, directing me and explaining why I am doing certain things. Too much for me.

Like I said I will set things in motion before I go to bed.


Cool... Try to remember the date you do this (the 4th), and we'll see how many days it lasts before it happens again. I'm still thinking that one good proper restart could fix the issue completely.

Quote:
That's what I was thinking. If this going to keep happening I will but it does worry me about trying to get some writing done.


That's why I want to put a few new tools in your arsenal and get you more familiarized with using Windows.




Like right now, we're forcing a restart (and probably need one anyway), but the next time your taskbar freezes I want you to watch this video and follow along with him. This way you are able to restart a process called "Explorer.exe" which controls File Explorer and your Task Bar among other things. When it restarts, your task bar will come back to life and it doesn't require you restarting the computer and waiting for it to reboot.

Here's the video:




If it seems like it's fast, it's because it is.

A lot of this stuff is actually safe and pretty easy, Brenda. We just have to get you more confident with your computer is all.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 2:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Shiny! Let's be good guys



My brother wore that to work everyday as his replacement lanyard for our keycard badges. It's the only Firefly memorabilia I own. Takes up so little space I guess I never got rid of it.



And I knew I'd find that picture of the 3 gay chefs my brother and sister in law gave me after they were out antiquing along with the statue.




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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 3:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It's all done now. All I have to do is figure out how to prop up the lid so I can get the hinges attached without marring anything and we're good. My dad is coming by on Thursday probably, so maybe I can have him help out somehow.


That bookcase can't cure fast enough...

I found so much stuff today. Found the box with my other Grandma's Wedgewood pieces that I managed to have somebody in the family take for me from her collection, and after my mom found out that I liked those she gave me a piece she had when they moved out of state. I found a picture of my uncle holding me when I was a baby that my mom matted and my step-dad made a frame for too. I've got a nice jewelry box from my Grams that was decorated with real sea shells, and I found my other uncle's collection of seashells and really cool stones that he had sitting in this giagantic kiln-dried ashtray that has some of the coolest designs on it. I also have Grams' HUGE Dictonary that I made sure to take even though I had to tape the thing up because the binding was so broken. That thing has all the words that They are trying to erase and always will. That book was brought out 10 times in a Scrabble game when her sister came over and played. They were out for blood and if you joined them they weren't going to take it easy on you for a second.

There's things I've found that I'm already forgetting I found.

And as soon as those shelves cure and I can get some contact paper up there I've got a new home for all of it.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 12:49 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, when I miss the weather on the news I do use it. The clock I use to know when get up and take my meds.


The clock would stay. That's always been a part of windows since the very beginning and separate from the weather/news "widgets" that are always connected online to update that info for you.

I've looked up what could be causing your taskbar to freeze up like this, and every time I've asked that weather/news widget always comes up as a potential suspect. (I just did again right now and I'm working on putting something together for you).

Quote:
Yeah, to do something that technical I would need someone standing over me, directing me and explaining why I am doing certain things. Too much for me.

Like I said I will set things in motion before I go to bed.


Cool... Try to remember the date you do this (the 4th), and we'll see how many days it lasts before it happens again. I'm still thinking that one good proper restart could fix the issue completely.

Quote:
That's what I was thinking. If this going to keep happening I will but it does worry me about trying to get some writing done.


That's why I want to put a few new tools in your arsenal and get you more familiarized with using Windows.




Like right now, we're forcing a restart (and probably need one anyway), but the next time your taskbar freezes I want you to watch this video and follow along with him. This way you are able to restart a process called "Explorer.exe" which controls File Explorer and your Task Bar among other things. When it restarts, your task bar will come back to life and it doesn't require you restarting the computer and waiting for it to reboot.

Here's the video:




If it seems like it's fast, it's because it is.

A lot of this stuff is actually safe and pretty easy, Brenda. We just have to get you more confident with your computer is all.



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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


I got the widget thing to come as an answer to a question. Don't remember what though.

I will write it down. So I don't forget. And will let you know how long it lasts.

Appreciate the help. Everyone around me in RL seems to be tired of answering my questions.

Will watch the video when I get back today Professor. I know I've come across Explorer.exe when I've been looking for a solution to all of this.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 12:55 PM

BRENDA


Out in a bit. Need groceries and meds. Still a little hazy by the look of it.

Even though I couldn't smell it yesterday it made my throat a little scratchy. Probably some particulate matter in there.

Washington state is a disaster right now. Town called Spokane is practically burned to the ground. So many homes lost.

People getting on fire services here in BC. When the fires are too hot the firefighters have to pull back. Then the only ways to try and stop it is drop retardant, water bombers and helicopters bucketing and building fire breaks.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 12:56 PM

BRENDA


Oh, SIX the only icon on the start page not to come up was ADOBE reader but I don't really use it. Course it maybe back now.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 2:31 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I got the widget thing to come as an answer to a question. Don't remember what though.


Yeah... It's a problem I never have because when I install windows it's among the whole ton of things that I disable. I didn't realize how buggy the feature was because of this. If we continue to have issues down the road, we might have to find an alternative for your weather that isn't integrated directly with your taskbar which is too important to be glitching out for the weather updates.

Quote:
I will write it down. So I don't forget. And will let you know how long it lasts.


Yeah... I'm still foggy about what exactly you've done so far, so I'm half-convinced that you haven't actually forced a legit Windows restart yet. This could fix the problem.

Quote:
Appreciate the help. Everyone around me in RL seems to be tired of answering my questions.


No worries.

Quote:
Will watch the video when I get back today Professor. I know I've come across Explorer.exe when I've been looking for a solution to all of this.


The video is only 17 seconds long, but it basically shows you what might take me 3,000 words or more to get across for you. If you find it's going too fast when you watch it, I can go into more detail about what he's doing, but you can see how quick and easy it actually is.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 2:34 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Oh, SIX the only icon on the start page not to come up was ADOBE reader but I don't really use it. Course it maybe back now.


I don't really know what that means, Brenda.

I'll try to take a guess...

By "Start Page" do you mean the "Desktop"?

Desktop is the official name for your screen after you boot up and login. It's got your background with icons on it, and the Task Bar at the bottom.


If that's the case, are you saying that you've got icons for regularly used programs on the Desktop, but the Adobe one isn't showing up for some reason?



This could be due to the same issue that is causing your Task Bar to flake out. Hopefully a legit restart fixes this.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 2:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Only 8 boxes left in the attic now.

One is my receiver that I don't want to put in the garage until I get a good dust cover for it and I'm ready to set all that up out there. The 2nd is the box with the VCR, a few tapes and my chess board (which I'm starting to think I don't have any pieces for anymore). 3rd is my box of nostalgia that isn't ever getting thrown out. 4th and 5th are the Christmas boxes. 6th is my box for building computers. And the last two are the two giant totes of black and white photos.

I think for now, that's all going to be packed up neatly and waiting for the next step.

I've got plenty of room to work on stuff in the small bedroom now and still have easy access to that hole in the closet to work on capping it off, so I don't really want to bring any more down until I get moving on clearing stuff out of that bedroom. I don't want any spillover into other rooms.


I found a really old Lenovo notepad that my brother was using in the mid-2000's and gave me when he didn't need it anymore. I've never used it. And apparently I can't find the power brick for it, which really sucks. I probably could have made something cool with it. I'll keep it around for now as I might find the cord in another box along the way. Worst case I could probably at least get the hard drive out of there and do something with it, but I'm going to take a guess that this thing probably had a hard drive so small it's not worth the trouble or even the cost to buy another case for it.

I also found a large portable drive my brother must have given me and I have no memory of. I was shocked to see that it fired right up, but it's only got a 150GB hard drive in it. It's nonsensical to even have that thing in 2026 since I have 5 small external drives now that were made from old laptop drives that range from 250GB to 1TB and they're powered up simply by plugging them into the computer without the need for plugging them into the wall like this one.

I can't even imagine I'd benefit from putting a larger drive in there. Even if I put a 1TB drive in there, which is the largest desktop drive I have on hand, it's a chore to be plugging that thing into the wall nearby the computer just to use it. If I had a 1TB drive that didn't have a home, that might be one thing, but in order to put one in this case right now, I'd have to take one out of one of my computers to do it and that is just stupid.

I think I might see if my buddy wants it, but really I don't even want to do that. I had planned on giving him my smallest/slowest laptop drive enclosure out of the batch I recently made to help him move his stuff, and that's twice the space while being about 1/4 the physical size and doesn't require power from the wall.



I hate throwing this thing out. But really... What else would I do? It must have been made well, because this thing would have been in stores around 2005 and it's still working just fine today even though it's spent the good deal of the last 15 years in my attic.

I just dismantled about 30 hard drives last month to harvest the magnets and separate the aluminum for recycling. They were all 120GB and useless to me. Why keep this one with 30 extra GB when I've got a stupid little thumb drive with almost as much space.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 5:38 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shiny! Let's be good guys



My brother wore that to work everyday as his replacement lanyard for our keycard badges. It's the only Firefly memorabilia I own. Takes up so little space I guess I never got rid of it.



And I knew I'd find that picture of the 3 gay chefs my brother and sister in law gave me after they were out antiquing along with the statue.




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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


A friend of mine got a Serenity keychain. I have never used. Still in its packaging.

That picture is cute and so is the ornament.

My mum used to collect salt and pepper shakers. She had a set that are most like older than me. Cowboy boot or headstones. One says, "Here lies salt" and the other one, "Here lies pepper."

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 5:44 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I got the widget thing to come as an answer to a question. Don't remember what though.


Yeah... It's a problem I never have because when I install windows it's among the whole ton of things that I disable. I didn't realize how buggy the feature was because of this. If we continue to have issues down the road, we might have to find an alternative for your weather that isn't integrated directly with your taskbar which is too important to be glitching out for the weather updates.

Quote:
I will write it down. So I don't forget. And will let you know how long it lasts.


Yeah... I'm still foggy about what exactly you've done so far, so I'm half-convinced that you haven't actually forced a legit Windows restart yet. This could fix the problem.

Quote:
Appreciate the help. Everyone around me in RL seems to be tired of answering my questions.


No worries.

Quote:
Will watch the video when I get back today Professor. I know I've come across Explorer.exe when I've been looking for a solution to all of this.


The video is only 17 seconds long, but it basically shows you what might take me 3,000 words or more to get across for you. If you find it's going too fast when you watch it, I can go into more detail about what he's doing, but you can see how quick and easy it actually is.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Sometimes I just go to a weather site that can tell what will hopefully be happening for two or three days.

I've done the turn off monitor and drive then turn every thing back on. These last two times I've done the control-alt-delete.

Saw it and I know you have told me about that to control-alt-esc too.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 5:45 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I got the widget thing to come as an answer to a question. Don't remember what though.


Yeah... It's a problem I never have because when I install windows it's among the whole ton of things that I disable. I didn't realize how buggy the feature was because of this. If we continue to have issues down the road, we might have to find an alternative for your weather that isn't integrated directly with your taskbar which is too important to be glitching out for the weather updates.

Quote:
I will write it down. So I don't forget. And will let you know how long it lasts.


Yeah... I'm still foggy about what exactly you've done so far, so I'm half-convinced that you haven't actually forced a legit Windows restart yet. This could fix the problem.

Quote:
Appreciate the help. Everyone around me in RL seems to be tired of answering my questions.


No worries.

Quote:
Will watch the video when I get back today Professor. I know I've come across Explorer.exe when I've been looking for a solution to all of this.


The video is only 17 seconds long, but it basically shows you what might take me 3,000 words or more to get across for you. If you find it's going too fast when you watch it, I can go into more detail about what he's doing, but you can see how quick and easy it actually is.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Sometimes I just go to a weather site that can tell what will hopefully be happening for two or three days.

I've done the turn off monitor and drive then turn every thing back on. These last two times I've done the control-alt-delete.

Saw it and I know you have told me about that to control-alt-esc too.


Good grief. I've gone blue on you again. Sorry. But I do appreciate the help.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 5:48 PM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Oh, SIX the only icon on the start page not to come up was ADOBE reader but I don't really use it. Course it maybe back now.


I don't really know what that means, Brenda.

I'll try to take a guess...

By "Start Page" do you mean the "Desktop"?

Desktop is the official name for your screen after you boot up and login. It's got your background with icons on it, and the Task Bar at the bottom.


If that's the case, are you saying that you've got icons for regularly used programs on the Desktop, but the Adobe one isn't showing up for some reason?



This could be due to the same issue that is causing your Task Bar to flake out. Hopefully a legit restart fixes this.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


Yes, I do mean the desktop. Sorry.

Yeah, background icons came up with taskbar but not the Adobe reader but like I said I don't use it. And it is only on the desktop, not the taskbar.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 5:49 PM

BRENDA


All done for today and some of the haze is gone. Had a bit of nice breeze at times too.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 10:19 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Yes, I do mean the desktop. Sorry.


No worries, Brenda.

But if you can remember, try to use the correct terms for them just because they are universal and everyone will know what you're talking about if you use them when you're asking for help.

I'm a pretty patient guy, especially when I'm posting here and I've got the time. But you mentioned about people losing patience helping you and I think knowing little things like these exact names instead of trying to explain a picture of your screen or using the wrong terms will help you out greatly in getting some help from other people.

Quote:
Yeah, background icons came up with taskbar but not the Adobe reader but like I said I don't use it. And it is only on the desktop, not the taskbar.


I did a little research on this and it could be because of several things over time. Adobe has been known to do updates to its program where it changes locations of the executable. This could have been any time in between the REAL restart you just now did and whenever the last time you did a restart like that (assuming that you ever did???). When this happens, the link on your Desktop for that program now points to nothing and we'd call that a "Broken Link".

So when Windows actually does a restart, it cleans a lot of caches that it has built up all around and one of them is all the desktop shortcut links you have. Unlike older versions of Windows back in the day that would just leave broken links on your Desktop until you manually removed them, Windows will catch any broken links on your desktop that are broken and throw them in the trash for you.


As long as that's your only issue, we should be good. Fingers Crossed.




BTW... Do you have any idea how long ago you did a "Restart" on your computer like you did just last night? Have you ever restarted the computer before?

I mean in this fashion. Not using the physical power button on the case, letting it fall asleep or forcing it to "Sleep" or "Shut Down".

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 10:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh... and another lesson...

When I talk about how Windows builds up a lot of caches over time, such as the icons and items on your Desktop, you should know that these caches eventually start taking up more and more RAM, which is your quick Memory.

Windows as well as programs you run use this quick memory to store important processes as well as things that are going to be accessed very frequently because it's much faster to draw the information from the energized memory stick than it is to get it from the much slower hard drive. ESPECIALLY on a mechanical hard drive with discs and platters like the one I'm almost certain is in your computer.

Other caches that Windows would build up is thumbnails for any of your images you had in folders. These are the small icons of your photographs you would see in Explorer. Rather than use up processing power every time you open a folder with pictures inside of it, it will make a small internal database with all the miniature thumbnail images it made to draw from and it's much faster and less taxing on the system.


These caches are great...

Until they're not.

There's no such thing as the Perfect Program. Especially because unlike Apple computers where they make all of their own hardware, everybody has a different PC with different component parts inside of it. It's actually quite amazing that we can get so many millions of different machines to basically run the same way once an operating system like Windows is installed on them.


But what happens with these caches and just the overall stability of Windows over time is that everything starts to degrade at some point. The caches get too large and Windows glitched out and stopped purging things from them that it should be.

Basically, the house of cards starts falling in on itself if you go too long without a real Restart.



And when you do that Restart, you're erasing all of that junk. All of those caches that you weren't even aware existed but kept everything running smoothly are now reset back to their default image.

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes.


Now... It will have to rebuild a lot of these caches on a restart. Part of that is happening in that agonizingly slow boot process. But the longer you go without a restart it's always rebuilding and optimizing things... a lot of it based off of your behavior and how you use your machine. Like if you had a lot of movies and pictures and went into those folders, it will rebuild those images caches for you again. That takes processing power and time, but the next time you go to that folder in between restarts, it will instantly load all of those thumbnail images for you from the cache rather than rebuilding them every time.

But it's okay... You can still be doing other things when it's rebuilding this stuff, and chances are especially how light you use your computer, you can go a VERY long time before another Restart and it won't have to start rebuilding everything until the next one.


It's kind of cool. It's almost like it's a living animal, but it's not. As long as no situational change has been made, it will behave exactly the same every time because that is how it's programmed to.

But eventually it gets dumb and unpredictable once the glitches start piling up. If you're noticing the glitch, it's probably because Windows stopped being able to fight against an army of them that just kept growing.

It essentially dies...

To be reborn again after you do that proper Restart.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 10:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


My Aunt's hope chest is done.

The hinges were not easy to get on, but I figured out a way to do it without screwing anything up. I didn't realize that the way the old hinges worked, the piece was quite a bit "off" of itself in the back, and the front of it is the only place that it met the bottom.

That turned out to be pretty great for 2 reasons, actually...

The first is that now I was able to add 2 rubber dome bumpers on the front corners of the lid and now that will be the only contact point from lid to body. So instead of needing wax paper all around to protect them from fusing together for the next 30 or so days, we just need two little squares of wax paper.

The second is that the one problem I was worried about almost became a non-issue. I was aware that both the front and back of the chest had swelled out slightly, and the same had not happened to the lengths of the lid. But I thought it was much more pronounced than it was, and it was because on top of that the lid was actually coming slightly back in on itself before resting on the body, making the difference between the bowed body and the unbowed lid even more pronounced.

Now I can barely even tell it exists, and I saw it every second of every day I was looking at those boxes and wondering if I was going to regret having not tried to use some furniture clamps on them for about a year before I even started stripping the thing.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026 11:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


As soon as I get the rest of the dishes done, get my painting tools down where they belong and get the countertop cleaned up, this is going to be by far the cleanest the house has ever been. Not only that, but the last time I cleaned it this deeply I still had a gaping hole in my porch and that hideous kitchen and living room hadn't been started either.

Even the small bedroom with 85% of my hoard is neat and organized and ready to roll. Nothing is stacked more than 2 high either, and that's only a few things at the end when I was trying to get another few boxes down there that made sense to have ready now. Plenty of room to work in the closet on that hole.

I've got some real work to do in the garage though, and that's going to be the last place where I've got to justify anything that I'm not getting rid of. Nothing out there is coming back into the house. It either finds a home in the garage or in the bin.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 12:01 AM

BRENDA


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Yes, I do mean the desktop. Sorry.


No worries, Brenda.

But if you can remember, try to use the correct terms for them just because they are universal and everyone will know what you're talking about if you use them when you're asking for help.

I'm a pretty patient guy, especially when I'm posting here and I've got the time. But you mentioned about people losing patience helping you and I think knowing little things like these exact names instead of trying to explain a picture of your screen or using the wrong terms will help you out greatly in getting some help from other people.

Quote:
Yeah, background icons came up with taskbar but not the Adobe reader but like I said I don't use it. And it is only on the desktop, not the taskbar.


I did a little research on this and it could be because of several things over time. Adobe has been known to do updates to its program where it changes locations of the executable. This could have been any time in between the REAL restart you just now did and whenever the last time you did a restart like that (assuming that you ever did???). When this happens, the link on your Desktop for that program now points to nothing and we'd call that a "Broken Link".

So when Windows actually does a restart, it cleans a lot of caches that it has built up all around and one of them is all the desktop shortcut links you have. Unlike older versions of Windows back in the day that would just leave broken links on your Desktop until you manually removed them, Windows will catch any broken links on your desktop that are broken and throw them in the trash for you.


As long as that's your only issue, we should be good. Fingers Crossed.




BTW... Do you have any idea how long ago you did a "Restart" on your computer like you did just last night? Have you ever restarted the computer before?

I mean in this fashion. Not using the physical power button on the case, letting it fall asleep or forcing it to "Sleep" or "Shut Down".

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.


I am working on using the right terms for computer stuff. I've had to correct myself when I say "memory stick" and it is now called an USB stick. *sigh*

No, I have never done a restart like I did on the 4th. I didn't know that I needed to do that.

Okay. Like I said I don't use Adobe or very little. So I am not going to worry about it.

Like I said up. No I've never done a restart. The person I got it from just said play and go and that is basically what I did. Just hooked it up but then with the new router it had to be rehooked up.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 12:02 AM

BRENDA


Off to mah jong tomorrow and hopefully less smoke like today.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 12:29 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I am working on using the right terms for computer stuff. I've had to correct myself when I say "memory stick" and it is now called an USB stick. *sigh*


I don't want to contradict myself here, but there probably is certain things that are interchangable and can get tricky with locality. I don't regularly call them a USB stick. I would know what somebody meant if they called it either a memory stick or a USB stick. I probably tend to call them a thumb stick or thumb drive or flash drive, but I don't even know.

*I did just ask Google AI and they said in the US the most common are "Thumb Drive" and "Flash Drive". But in the UK and Ireland "Memory Stick" and "USB Stick" are the most common. It would appear that at least in your part of Canada they prefer the UK vernacular and you're using entirely different terms for it than I regularly do.



Don't get frustrated about that. Call it what you want. Most people you'd ever talk to about it are going to know what you're talking about no matter what name you use. If somebody was correcting you, that's pretty lame.

Quote:
No, I have never done a restart like I did on the 4th. I didn't know that I needed to do that.


Okay Brenda...

IMPORTANT: Please answer this question. I want to know if you have ever done a Restart command from any place before. I don't know how you did it last night, but you have the option to press the Start Button and then the Power Icon Button and select "Restart" from the list, and you also have the CTRL+ALT+DEL Menu where you would go to the lower right hand corner and press the Power Icon Button and select Restart from the menu.

You are saying that you've never done either of these methods before, correct?


You're not in trouble. I just need to know this right now, because it is important to the conversation.

Quote:
Okay. Like I said I don't use Adobe or very little. So I am not going to worry about it.


Yeah. Forget about it.

If you ever needed Adobe for anything we can get it for you. I can't see why you'd ever need it other than opening and editing a PDF file which you probably don't need to do because you do all of your banking and bills in real life and not online.


Quote:
Like I said up. No I've never done a restart. The person I got it from just said play and go and that is basically what I did. Just hooked it up but then with the new router it had to be rehooked up.


Okay. I don't mean to keep asking you, but I just want to make sure that you've never actually done what we did on the 4th before via any way that you can actually press "Restart".


Don't worry that nobody told you about it. I didn't tell anybody when I put together computers for them either. For decades on the earlier versions I didn't have to. It was just kind of known that things get crappy over time and if the computer is acting up you just power it down and reboot it and usually the problems go away.

I'm kind of annoyed that Microsoft made these changes because with all the dumbing down they've done over the years, I think it's incredibly unintuitive the way they handle it now. I didn't even know everything I'm telling you now until several years after I had installed Windows 10, and I've been using Windows operating systems since 1993.



So this is important to know.

I don't put myself on a timeline for doing restarts. Compared to how you use your computer, I literally drive mine into the ground. I have to do restarts probably every 3 months maximum, but sometimes when I'm doing really heavy work like I was on my project, it wouldn't be uncommon for me to restart it up to twice per week because it was messing up on me pretty bad.

But with how you use it, the only time it ever gets a proper Restart is when you let it do its updates. Every time Windows does an update, it does at least one full Restart process without you pressing the button, so it's not like you've gone for years now without one.

I'd say it would be good practice for you to try to remember to Restart your computer every Solstice and Equinox.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 12:35 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh...

I could think of one reason you'd need Adobe.

When you sell that book, they're probably going to want to send you a PDF document to print out and sign and mail back to them.

We'll get you hooked up then.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 1:12 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


BRENDA, bc of the way Windows works, we would have to restart our data acquisition computers at least once a week.

We usually did what we called "the three fingered salute": holding down CNTRL+ALT+DEL simultaneously.


Windows is like that. It brings up something from the hard drive into memory and when it's done with that bit it doesn't completely free up all the memory that was occupied. So after a while the memory gets all clogged with leftover bits and pieces and the computer gets confused. The only way to clear the memory is to restart.

That's how I understand it anyway.

Also, thumb drive, memory stick, USB stick... I'd know what you were talking about no matter which term you used. It's all good.

-----------

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

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 1:30 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Thanks for the Cliff's Notes, Sigs.

That's probably all Brenda ever needs to know about it. I tend to lay out way more detail, probably a bit more than I should. But they're there if she wants to have a deeper understanding of what's going on.


I'm curious if Brenda only noticed it now because she's using Windows 10 and they ended service on it.

I rarely seem to have to restart the computer these days for updates, so I figure they've probably hijacked even more of our privacy and our own machinery so they can inject a lot more of their code whenever they want to without alerting us with all those pesky restarts.

I don't think Windows 10 is getting many restarts if at all these days. I think I did have one forced on me after the days-long power outage which made that take even longer to boot up than it usually does, but that's the only one in recent memory on that computer.

Maybe since M$ isn't restting it all the time, Brenda is starting to notice things that never would have creeped up otherwise.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 1:38 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I could do this everyday for the rest of my life and you'd never hear me complain.









Look at the overlook reflected off that top...








I hid it as best as I could now in the basement so she can't see it until I want to go down there. The overlook should avert the gaze, and even if she did see it from upstairs before I took her down to reveal it she wouldn't have a clue what it was anyhow, or that it will be sitting in her place soon.

I also found out that the printer and the photo paper I got from my friend's family after his father-in-law passed is super badass and I've been wasting it on black and white tax forms.



Thought a few letter-sized full color photos of what it used to look like might be an appropriate piece to accompany it.

She stared wistfully at the worn, mismatched piece of furniture one last time, winced at the memories it held, and finally forsook it on the curb before driving away into her new life.





Or so she thought.



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 1:44 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'm so f#%@ing jealous of my Aunt right now!



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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 2:11 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
A friend of mine got a Serenity keychain. I have never used. Still in its packaging.

That picture is cute and so is the ornament.

My mum used to collect salt and pepper shakers. She had a set that are most like older than me. Cowboy boot or headstones. One says, "Here lies salt" and the other one, "Here lies pepper."


I didn't see you replied to this, Brenda.

A keychain is way more useful than a lanyard. I don't blame you for keeping it in the packaging though. I'm sure this thing will come with me wherever I go next since it takes up so little space. I think when he gave me that after we'd both gotten laid off, I probably figured I'd be working another job where I needed a lanyard by now. Probably not.



I'm not surprised you like the chefs. My sister-in-law couldn't get over them and how much work they put into making the kitchen into the Chef's TO THE EXTREME!!!!!

They only grew on me because after I removed it they bought me those two gifts. Before I did the kitchen I had that frame hanging up on the soffit in front of the sink for years. I just can't bring myself to put nail holes in my walls, so it never went back up.

But I've been thinking about that and I have some other things I'd like to have on display even if I don't want to damage the walls. I think I'm going to make some stands for pieces like this so I can stand them up somewhere instead of hanging them on the wall. I have a few things like this that could benefit from a stand that could go inside and on top of that bookcase when it's ready too.

Now that I've got all the chef's back out, I don't want to pack them away. Cafe dude is keeping his place on top of the fridge. When I make a stand for that picture, they'll probably go up there and join him.




Here lies salt. Here lies pepper. Love it.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Brenda 08.06 00:01
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