In the garden, and RAIN!!!! by SIGNYM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
KIKI
FWIW whenever a service tech came in to set up/ maintain/ repair an instrument I always asked them if their engineering departments ever asked the service people for suggestions ... and the answer was always no.
Why not have NO feedback for your what I'm sure you think is your perfectly perfect product!

SIX: Because this is all cheap stuff made in China that sells well enough even though it's cheap stuff from China with instructions that can hardly be called English.

The entire plant is set up, and mostly automated, to make the products specifically as you get them in the box. Altering just one little thing would cause the need to alter the production process which requires shutting down a portion of the plant, re-configuring everything, then testing it before putting it back into production mode.

Given the fact that this stuff is manufactured, packaged and shipped halfway around the world and is still as cheap as it is, they are working on razor thin margins to turn profits.

The only time they're going to look into altering anything is if something is broken so bad that all of the units are getting returned, or (much worse) it ends up causing injuries or death.

I think about computers and computer parts and their history when I think of this. In the early days of building computers with a friend of mine, everything was made in the States and was SUPER expensive. But despite the fact that the processing power, storage and memory were just mere fractions of what we have at our disposal today, those old PCs were almost perfect when it came to stability compared to what we have today if you set them up right.

You'd be hard pressed to find any electronic parts now that are made in America. They're a boatload cheaper, for sure, and everything is so much more powerful after 20+ years of R&D. From the quality of anything from motherboards, CPUs and GPUs to the software you're running whether it be an office suite or video games, the coding is also quite lazy these days, relying on the processing power of today's technology rather than expert coding and intelligent decision making to really push the limits of today's hardware.

By all rights, the machines we use in our everyday lives should be capable of quite a bit more than they currently are. But everything from the Operating System to the software package for your Graphics Card/Chip is written so sloppily that countless cycles are lost every second executing redundant code.

But nobody is ever going to fix any of that. Nobody's life is at risk. Most of the time, even though it is thought of as an inconvenience, a simple power down of the system and reboot is all that is required to "right the ship".

That's arguably a small price to pay compared to the $4000.00 it would cost to build a new computer if all of the parts were made here in the states and the fact that the days of $600 Office Suites are long gone. Hell... you can just use Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets which are almost as good as Microsoft Office and offer more to most people then they're ever going to need to use and you don't have to pay a cent for it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
Well! You know quite a bit more than you let on, SIX! Hubby (who programs in C and many other languages and is also a computer hardware expert) says the same thing.

But even I can see the sloppy (SLOPPY! SLOPPY!) programming. Our tablet, for example, has all the horsepower under the hood to be able to run several applications at once, and yet it can't manage to run more than one tab at a time. (eg play a video while you look at something else online.) Even my phone does better than that. Our DVR? Can't manage something as simple as "file management". What about "memory management"? Why do products need to be rebooted every once in a while? Doesn't the system do cleanup on powering down?

And that's just the stuff that I see. If someone (not me) were to look at how many clock cycles were wasted just waiting for something, or how many hundred of thousands of lines of code that could be eliminated, they would probably be aghast.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

Jack of all trades. Master of none.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, February 25, 2020 5:17 PM

Box for bookcase taken down to recycling and another couple of pieces of old video cabinet into the garbage.

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Tuesday, February 25, 2020 7:27 PM

Ya know what's awesome? When your buddy finally decides today is the day he wants help with something and today is also a blizzard after a week without any snow.

It took me a half hour to get there. Took me 90 minutes to get back home in the car we all know eventually isn't going to make it to Point B.

I think my problem is that I spend my life going from ZERO stress to 200% stress and back far too often. I knew today wasn't going to be a good driving day, but I did it anyways. Even more than helping a friend out (which will be reciprocated in the spring), but I just needed to get out of the fucking house and do something with my life since I let one thing after another destroy my momentum I had going once the dentures came.

He needs more help tomorrow, but I don't know if I'm going to sign up for that. Driving in the morning is supposed to be terrible. 30 to 32 degrees with snow/sleet.

I'm already wondering if the area I was working around has those auto-ticket street lights or not, since I blew one because the speed limit around there is high and I was afraid of skidding out when the yellow came at just the wrong time. That would be extra fun to get a $150 ticket when I'm already out gas and tolls and worked all day for free.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, February 28, 2020 2:07 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

So I mentioned I was going to call an exterminator ... but for larger critters, not an exterminator exactly, but somebody who does trap and relocate. So far the first thing that got caught was the HUGEST possum I've ever seen! Poor thing. It looked so scared. It looked like it was trying to shrink down to nothing. I hope it's in a literal better place now.

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Friday, February 28, 2020 3:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Ya know what's awesome? When your buddy finally decides today is the day he wants help with something and today is also a blizzard after a week without any snow.

It took me a half hour to get there. Took me 90 minutes to get back home in the car we all know eventually isn't going to make it to Point B.

I think my problem is that I spend my life going from ZERO stress to 200% stress and back far too often. I knew today wasn't going to be a good driving day, but I did it anyways. Even more than helping a friend out (which will be reciprocated in the spring), but I just needed to get out of the fucking house and do something with my life since I let one thing after another destroy my momentum I had going once the dentures came.

He needs more help tomorrow, but I don't know if I'm going to sign up for that. Driving in the morning is supposed to be terrible. 30 to 32 degrees with snow/sleet.

I'm already wondering if the area I was working around has those auto-ticket street lights or not, since I blew one because the speed limit around there is high and I was afraid of skidding out when the yellow came at just the wrong time. That would be extra fun to get a $150 ticket when I'm already out gas and tolls and worked all day for free.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

SIX, the reason why you did white knuckle driving is because you will need your friend's help later.

You need more "cushion". More savings, a better car, and a reliable/ accessible health care. You seem to want to pare down your expenses to the bone, but having formal assets in your corner doesn't make you more dependent, it makes you more INdependent.

Take care of business. I know it will put you in contact with processes over which you have less control and may cause your stress, but in the end you'll be better off.

Best of luck.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Friday, February 28, 2020 10:38 PM

Yeah.... I'm just a little annoyed at life ATM. I'll figure it out. It should start getting nice out in a few weeks, and I'm sure that's going to brighten up my mood a bit when I can get some sun and start working out in the garage again.

Good news is my taxes are good. Got the state back already and the fed was approved. I'll just have to decide in the next three years if I want to file an 1040x and try to get back the mileage which would have reduced my taxes by quite a bit since I shouldn't have had to pay any self employment tax. I figure that's the safe way to do it after the fact rather than doing it up front. They can always just tell me no on the 1040x.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, February 28, 2020 11:47 PM

Got some recycling done this evening. Then hauled down my knitting bag. I have another scarf that I am working on. Think I am about half way finished it by the looks of what I have done.

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Saturday, February 29, 2020 12:03 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Cool.

My mom used to knit. She tried to teach me, but I knit so tight I bent the needles! I thought it was a lost art.

As for myself, I was working on lots of paperwork. But the dental insurance company REALLY screwed up my policy. I spent hours on the phone over 3 days trying to figure out why I couldn't log into my account. It turned out they entered a completely bogus birth date ... nothing matched up at all, not day nor month nor year. Supposedly they fixed it after having supposedly fixed it a few times already and supposedly after updating their computer overnight it's supposed to be OK now. But they said that a few times already. I got a bit gun shy about trying to get into their website after getting bonked off and redirected probably 50 times. So I bailed off of paperwork to get on with house work, which is what I've been doing yesterday and today. Just regular stuff, shopping, cooking, dishes, laundry, and a bit of (re)organizing. I have 2 laundry loads left, it should all be done tomorrow. And then I'll return refreshed for my paperwork effort. (Which I hope goes better than it's been going!)

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Saturday, February 29, 2020 3:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Cool. My mom used to knit. She tried to teach me, but I knit so tight I bent the needles! I thought it was a lost art.

As for myself, I was working on lots of paperwork. But the dental insurance company REALLY screwed up my policy. I spent hours on the phone over 3 days trying to figure out why I couldn't log into my account. It turned out they entered a completely bogus birth date ... nothing matched up at all, not day nor month nor year. Supposedly they fixed it after having supposedly fixed it a few times already and supposedly after updating their computer overnight it's supposed to be OK now. But they said that a few times already. I got a bit gun shy about trying to get into their website after getting bonked off and redirected probably 50 times. So I bailed off of paperwork to get on with house work, which is what I've been doing yesterday and today. Just regular stuff, shopping, cooking, dishes, laundry, and a bit of (re)organizing. I have 2 laundry loads left, it should all be done tomorrow. And then I'll return refreshed for my paperwork effort. (Which I hope goes better than it's been going!)

That's how I learned as well. My mum taught me when I was in high school or just before I started. I don't do anything fancy just scarves and I might have knitted some mittens once for my mum. She used to knit socks for my dad.

So, it's not a totally lost art.

Sorry for the Canadian in my sentences there. My fingers just went that way.

Sorry you were having such a hard time and that everything got messed up.I hate paperwork. Gotta make an appointment to get my taxes done, now that I've got all the paperwork I need for that.

Laundry day for me tomorrow. So I got to hit the hay.

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Saturday, February 29, 2020 12:11 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Paperwork and bureaucracies ... especially health care/insurance bureaucracies ... ugh. We had a bad contact number recorded in our file at the doctor's office, and I can't tell you the number of times we tried to correct it at chec-in (you know, whne they hand you a piece of paper and ask you if all of the info is correct, and you keep pointing out the error.)

Then we went to the scheduling desk and had THEM try to correct it, but for some reason their main database would never update and kept burping up the wrong #. That caused us to miss several important phone calls from the doctor's office. Eventually they fixed it, I don't know how, but it must have been bad software.

My Medicare bill comes so late in the mail, it's impossible for me to make payment on time, so I'm always in arrears. I just put it on autopay.

*****

Plodding thru at this end. My yearly paperwork filing has been interrrupted by all sorts of things, but we DID manage to go to the lumberyard and pick up supplies for garage shelving, which hubby desperately needs to make his workshop functional, and supplies for a bed platform, as well as "shorts" ... samples of wood (cedar, cherry, red oak, hard maple, sugar pine) for hubby to work on- see how they cut, plane, and chisel.

Also saw our lawyer to make progress on the legal/financial aspects of setting up our dear daugher's future.

As I mentioned in the coronavirus thread, we have suspended our weekly restaurant outing and dear daughter's gym exercise program, which she JUST started. That was to help dd practice her social skills and increase her comfort level with being out of the house, not with mom and dad. But when we explained our concerns to her case worker, she was VERY understanding. Unusually so, as if she herself has the same concerns. I think in a month we'll know whether this was a useless decision, or a very smart one.

So, onward thru the fog. Absent any crap-seeping toilets or other emergencies I'm going to focus on sorting out my filing in-between other stuff, and interviewing potential fiduciaries/trustees/conservators.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Saturday, March 7, 2020 12:52 AM

I remembered today why I hate going to the largest mall on the Lower Mainland. Too many people and the place confuses me. Got mixed up trying to find a store looking for one item. Then got tired and decided not to go looking for the other item I wanted.

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Saturday, March 7, 2020 12:59 AM

This Saturday could be the last time BC changes its clocks. We here are getting tired of waiting on Washington, Oregon and California to get their collective sh&t together and deal with congress.

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Sunday, March 8, 2020 3:17 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Starting Tuesday we have the possibility of a change of weather... the chance of rain for the foreseeable future.

BRENDA, how fares BC with the coronavirus? You might have ANOTHER reason not to go to malls!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Sunday, March 8, 2020 9:09 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
This Saturday could be the last time BC changes its clocks. We here are getting tired of waiting on Washington, Oregon and California to get their collective sh&t together and deal with congress.

Good for you guys.

I'm envious of those in Indianapolis who don't change the clock. So stupid that half our state does and the other half doesn't.

I'm going out to help my friend again today. It's supposed to hit 60 degrees for the first time this year, so that ought to be nice.

Unfortunately it looks like it will be at least another 2-3 weeks before it gets this warm again, but at least spring is coming.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, March 8, 2020 9:26 AM

lol...

I just now put two and two together and realized that it was daylight savings time here too.

Good thing my buddy is a late riser on the weekends. I've still got plenty of time to get ready and get out there when I said I'd be.

Hopefully he remembered and I'm not going over there and waking him and his fiancee up.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 9, 2020 12:28 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I think the coronavirus marches on, as predicted

case
case
case
cluster
cluster
BOOM!

For me, the next signal for personal concern would be a case detected in my city, or the city next door (since I live near the border). That would be a step up, and probably prompt me to switch to an N95. We are actually sanitizing packages and mail as they arrive with 70pct IPA (hubby is profoundly concerned) so I have a spray bottle and sanitizer at both doors, and masks at one. Have elimianted restaruant and gym, not churchgoers, and reduced the number of shopping trips and go when less crowded, wearing procedure masks and sanitizing our hands and phones on the way in. Beyond that, as far as I can tell there's nothing else we CAN do, aside from getting good sleep and generally trying to stay healthy, which I always try to do anyway.

So we have put the pedal to the metal on getting a special needs trust, and all related legal and financial issues, completed. That won't end our efforts to get dear daughter situated after our death, tho. We still need to make practical arrangements ... where will she live? Who will take care of her? Who will be checking in on her from time to time, making sure she is healthy and happy?

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Monday, March 9, 2020 12:50 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

In the meantime, I finally got about 75% of my yearly filing done. The way I handle the mail as it comes in is "recycling- bill to pay- other action- to be filed". The "to be filed" goes into a large wicker basket that I bought just for that purpose, but at the end of the year it's a ginormous pile. SOME of those records (like utilities) I keep for a year, others (like tax-related) I keep for ten, and others - product manuals I keep for the lifetime of the product. I keep "evidence of insurance" statements for the lifetime of the insurance too. The most complicated is the health insurance, since we are on different insurances and receive different statements. Those "explanation of benefits" I keep for about four years; I have had an inordinate amount of trouble getting the right insurance billed whenever we change insurances, which has happened more than once on the past three years. I figure if they haven't resolved their billing in that time, it's not going to happen. Boy, if anyone can figure out how to responsibly simplify, please let me know!

I've also consolidated and closed several small accounts to make things simpler for us and anybody who comes after us. I recall the mess that my parents left when they died ... a roomful (literally) of papers which I sorted thru, resolving into boxes and boxes of "this is not a bill" insurance benefits and many many account statements from closed accounts when dad was chasing the highest interest rates, along with a few important assets and some love letters from just after WWII when they first heard of each other. Don't want to leave that mess for anyone else.

My next step is to go thru the tax-related papers and make sure they're complete so that we can get our taxes done. But today, we are interviewing a potential conservator/trustee.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Monday, March 9, 2020 12:51 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I've eliminated my am restaurant coffee. I do have some at home, and I'm drinking half-rations for 5 days to eventually go without and not trigger a massive caffeine withdrawal headache. The first day - 3 days ago - I was SOOooo sleepy I went to bed at 4PM 'for a little nap' and didn't wake up till 7PM! I guess I was running on caffeine more than I realized.

Other than that I'm focusing on stuff inside the house.

Amazon packages are probably OK if they shipped from China. China's outbreak has gone down dramatically, and the time to your house would probably inactivate whatever virus might be there. The last step - which I think is out from Ontario, California, could be the most problematic, but not at this moment.

Anyway, if that info doesn't change your procedures, at least you have more of safety buffer than you realized.

Man, this AM I got RUDELY awakened (during a crazy dream) by what sounded like somewhat pounding on my front door. But it was just the neighbors doing some work inside the house. Not *their* house. b/c its a rental. There are very few owners left on my street. I wonder how that transition from owners to renters happened. Did house prices jack themselves up out of the reach of buyers? Or was this an undervalued neighborhood slumlords decided to mine? Or what? Something to ponder, maybe, at some point.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 4:55 PM

Just when I thought that I had all the animals out of my house...

Say, did any of you know that a squirrel can and will gnaw a 4" diameter hole right through the top of your roof, shingles, plywood and all?

I didn't either.

That's what I was hearing upstairs in my attic a few weeks back, scurrying around up there. I banged on the walls, made a lot of barking noises, scared the piss out of it and heard it scurry away and never heard it since.

Finally went up there now that I had a free day that was decent weather to find a massive hole in my roof and the debris they left behind.

Did some makeshift patchwork up there that looks like shit and isn't going to hold very long just to have something done before it rains tonight and in hopes of deterring it from coming back in the mean time. My pitch is scary high and I have no business being up there. That's about the most terrifying thing I've done in about 10 years... and I had to do it twice... the second time with a bunch of shit in my hands.

Going to have to watch some YouTube vids about how to fix this.

Seriously, WTF animals. I'm about one step away from dumping toxic waste all over my lawn.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 9, 2020 5:22 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

After 'coons, squirrels are the worst.

I saw some home-repair(remodel) show - I don't remember which one - the only thing I remember about the whole show is what the squirrels were doing. The house had a brick fireplace chimney with a really really large, really really thick sheet of lead as flashing - and the squirrels were eating it! Well, not eating it per se, but gnawing on it to keep their teeth trimmed. And a whole lot of the lead flashing was gone. Didn't they get lead poisoning or something?

I've read that once they start on a spot they tend to go back to it even after it's been repaired (material replaced). I don't know if that's true. But I've read that one must do extra to keep them from re-doing what they did in the first place. I believe the answer is hardware cloth, but I'd be curious what you find.

Anyway, I'm glad you made your temporary repair and got back on the ground safely! But what a chore just to to that! Do you think when you're doing repairs you might set up something to secure yourself on the roof then hoist your materials up separately?

I was visiting back home a few years ago, and it struck me how much people do there to make the place not what it wants to be, just like people here do a lot to make the place not what it wants to be. Here people struggle against the fact that this is dry land (and getting drier by the year). There people struggle against the succession that wants to happen to any open area - grasses to forbs to shrubs to pioneer trees to forest.

It doesn't look like it Jack but I think you live in a forest with all the critters that want to live in one.

The temporary end to MY critter story is that the guy trapped and relocated 2 possums, but that's all he was going to do for $266. One was YUGE - it nearly filled the trap top to bottom, side to side, I shit you not. That was the one that looked really scared, and like it was trying to shrink down to nothing, poor thing. The other was the sweetest-looking nearly all white one about half that size.

So I may call him back for another round of trapping.

I still do have the gophers in my yard, but I'll get to them later. And there are definitely squirrels everywhere!

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Monday, March 9, 2020 6:11 PM

Well... I have 3 maple trees on my very large lawn. That's it. I'm considering having them removed, but I will really miss the shade.

There didn't appear to be any damage outside of the hole itself, at least from what I could tell.

The night they were in here, there was no mistaking it. I could hear them in the attic all the way from the 1st floor they were so loud. After I scared them off, I haven't heard them since. I think that they wrote off all the "work" of destroying my roof and figured they didn't want to tango with whatever "beast" was inside their new place.

After I patch it, I'll monitor the situation. If they come back, I'm getting the trees torn down.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 9, 2020 7:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

You don't have to remove the trees, SIX, just trim back the branches so that the roof isn't just a convenient jump away!

Oh I also tended to my "windowsill garden" which is just about what I can manage nowadays with all the other stuff going on. I had a couple of long dead plants and five struggling ones, so I tossed the dead ones and separated/ repotted the others. I get to see which ones survive. I left them far too long and their roots were tangled, so pulling them apart was kinda rough.

The interview was interesting and positive. But we have two more to go

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Monday, March 9, 2020 7:58 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I agree about trimming back the branches instead of removing the trees. Wherever I see squirrels going to or from structures they're going via handy tree branches. The only exception I ever saw, and then only once, was a squirrel that went up a wooden fence and up a short ~4' section of stucco garage wall (which must have been sufficiently rough for traction), then onto the roof.

I just want to say that my area APPEARS to be reverting to oak-woodland. I've had multiple coast live oak plant themselves in my yard - one is a good 35' tree, one is just a bit smaller, two are 15' trees, and there are multiple smaller ones all around. Plus I have 2 trees I've provisionally IDd as beech that planted themselves. The reason why I say APPEARS to be reverting to oak-woodland is because of course there's fire-suppression here. I don't know what would be happening if there was a normal fire-regime.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 8:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Starting Tuesday we have the possibility of a change of weather... the chance of rain for the foreseeable future.

BRENDA, how fares BC with the coronavirus? You might have ANOTHER reason not to go to malls!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

Sad to say that BC has had its first death from COVID-19. An elderly man in a care home in Vancouver.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 8:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
This Saturday could be the last time BC changes its clocks. We here are getting tired of waiting on Washington, Oregon and California to get their collective sh&t together and deal with congress.

Good for you guys.

I'm envious of those in Indianapolis who don't change the clock. So stupid that half our state does and the other half doesn't.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I'm hoping that it will be. Will have to see what happens in October.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 9:09 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Sad to say that BC has had its first death from COVID-19. An elderly man in a care home in Vancouver.

I don't think the guy was on a cruise ship or returned from a trip to Wuhan or Italy recently! Did they have a presumptive source for his infection that you know? Or did they assign it to 'community transmission'?

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Monday, March 9, 2020 9:36 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Here's the answer - after reading a number of online reports, it appears that two care workers and two residents of the long-term care home, including the man who died - tested positive. They think one of the care workers brought it in to the facility.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/national-news/death-in-bc-care-home
-believed-to-be-first-covid-19-fatality-in-canada-2147908

Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia's provincial health officer, and Health Minister Adrian Dix announced news of the death at the Lynn Valley Care Centre on Sunday night. The man's symptoms were detected some time between Thursday and early Friday.

"He was a man in his 80s and he had a number of underlying health conditions, unfortunately, so (he was) in that risk group for people who are more likely to have severe disease with this," Henry told a news conference in Victoria.

Another resident in her 70s who tested positive at the same facility also had pre-existing conditions but is in stable condition, Henry said, adding the "outbreak" is especially concerning because it involves transmission in the community, not through travel.

A second health-care worker from the same facility has also been tested positive for COVID-19 and is in isolation at home. The initial worker is believed to have worked at two other care homes.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 9:54 PM

The funny thing is, after years of letting those branches grow long I finally got around to cutting A LOT of them back last summer. I had one branch that would scrape the roof if it got windy enough. And there were zero squirrel problems in that situation.

The problem is, everything that is left is really too tall for me to get to. I don't know how far down they're jumping to get up there, but it's got to be a leap of at least 2 1/2 feet horizontally, and twice that vertically.

I can't figure it. There's nothing in here that it would want as far as food. How would it even know to burrow into a roof? There wasn't any shingle problems, as the roof was only a few years old when I bought the house and nothing has ever leaked.

Everybody I've talked to, including people who do trade work, have said they never heard of a squirrel burrowing down into a roof before. But unless my roof was hit by a meteor that burnt up between hitting the roof and the drywall inside the attic, that's exactly what happened here.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 9, 2020 11:21 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

A squirrel can easily do a 2.5' horizontal jump, and a 5' vertical jump down, but not up. They(it) could be jumping down to the roof, and scampering off another way besides the trees.

I'm curious - did you see (an) actual squirrel(s)? and how big is the hole, approximately?

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Monday, March 9, 2020 11:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Sad to say that BC has had its first death from COVID-19. An elderly man in a care home in Vancouver.
I don't think the guy was on a cruise ship or returned from a trip to Wuhan or Italy recently! Did they have a presumptive source for his infection that you know? Or did they assign it to 'community transmission'?

The news said at least one care worker was sick.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 11:25 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Oh that's too bad, Brenda. I agree with Signy, it's another good reason to not go to malls at this point.

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Monday, March 9, 2020 11:51 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
I can't figure it. There's nothing in here that it would want as far as food. How would it even know to burrow into a roof? There wasn't any shingle problems, as the roof was only a few years old when I bought the house and nothing has ever leaked.

Everybody I've talked to, including people who do trade work, have said they never heard of a squirrel burrowing down into a roof before. But unless my roof was hit by a meteor that burnt up between hitting the roof and the drywall inside the attic, that's exactly what happened here.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The one story that I read about squirrels returning to the scene to repeat the damage had to do with an exterior attic windowsill. Why a windowsill? And why go back to it after it was repaired?

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Tuesday, March 10, 2020 12:48 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Here's a specific re tree bracnhes: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/stop-squirrels-getting-roof-28355.html

Prune back any tree branches that come within 10 feet of your house.

and other tips

If you find evidence of squirrel presence, such as gnaw marks, urine or feces, and insulation ripped apart, make noise and light the attic brightly to encourage the squirrels to leave. When you are unsure whether or not squirrels are still present, consult a pest control specialist. Commence repairs once you are sure the squirrels are gone.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2020 2:52 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Oh that's too bad, Brenda. I agree with Signy, it's another good reason to not go to malls at this point.

That place is big and I don't really like it anyways. I only go out there when I think I have enough time or that is the only place I think I can find what I am looking for.

True enough.

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 3:23 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, we ran our errands today, using procedure masks. The pharmacy tech wistfully asked me ... "Where did you get your masks?" I explained that I got some of them to work with suspect lead paint (true) and procedure masks from my sister for allergy control when gardening (Not true. Sis bought a bunch for us about a month ago bc she saw this coming down the pike, but I didn't want the pharma tech to feel bad.)
I told her that the procedure mask does two things: (1) It keeps HER from getting sick (she brightened at the thought) and (2) it keeps me from touching my face.

I want to give a mask to everyone I see.

Did all of our errands efficiently, in and done, pharmacy, groceries, mail, filling up the van, bank... so glad when we were finished! Then I had a lot of kitchen-work to do, specially this green salsa that I had bought the peppers, cilantro and limes for, but didn't get a chance to make before because I got busy interviewing fiduciaries.

So, tomorrow we help put up shelving in the garage, and I guess Friday we finish up. Saturday I intend to do nothing all day ... but I know it won't work out that way!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 3:34 AM

Got some errands run today and tomorrow just the usual. That being work.

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 9:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Quote:
I can't figure it. There's nothing in here that it would want as far as food. How would it even know to burrow into a roof? There wasn't any shingle problems, as the roof was only a few years old when I bought the house and nothing has ever leaked.

Everybody I've talked to, including people who do trade work, have said they never heard of a squirrel burrowing down into a roof before. But unless my roof was hit by a meteor that burnt up between hitting the roof and the drywall inside the attic, that's exactly what happened here.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
The one story that I read about squirrels returning to the scene to repeat the damage had to do with an exterior attic windowsill. Why a windowsill? And why go back to it after it was repaired?

I don't know. I think they're a lot smarter than we think they are... or at least they're a lot smarter than I would have ever given them credit for.

I'm 99% sure it wasn't looking for any food. Even if I had some lying in the kitchen that it would have liked, that isn't a great access point to get down to it. I think it was probably trying to find a good place to stock up any food it found.

But I really think that when I scared it off that first night, it completely abandoned the spot. It had probably been around 10 days between when I heard it and when I did a makeshift patch and I hadn't heard anything in between. It wasn't in there when I did the temporary patch either. I did think to set the patch up with the materials I had in a way that it would be obvious if it tried coming back. I put a block on the top of it without screwing it to anything, which was heavy enough to not be blown down by the wind, but would likely be moved and/or fall off of the roof it it came back and tried to get back in. 4 days later it remains undisturbed.

I'm pretty sure that it had no idea what was behind the walls of it's new food pantry, but it had no intention of sticking around long enough to find out.

Now that the semi-panic about it has worn off and I have assessed the situation, it's not completely terrible. The damage is on the overhang of the porch, almost all the way toward the front of it. The hole itself, when it let in water, would almost certainly be above the soffit panel (the overhang of the overhang). Worst case is that it's far enough in to let water into the wall, but again, it's a steep pitch and it's just the overhang over the concrete porch so it's not like I'd be getting water into the walls of the house.

I think I should be able to get an extension ladder up to the very top of the peak of that overhang and do the work from on the ladder. As scary as that idea is, it still sounds better than doing all that roof climbing I was doing the other night. I'm going to see if maybe I can get my friend to bring his. I have two of them, but they're not as long and pretty flimsy when extended fully. His is so bulky and heavy it almost requires two people to set it up straight.

I cut back what I could the other night too. I even got on my 10 foot extension ladder this time and cut more back than I thought I'd be able to.

The problem is, these trees are very mature and very tall. I've been able to get to the ones that are close to the roof about as tall as the peak of the roof... hopefully 10 feet away, but there are branches that are so high I'd never be able to reach them no matter what I do. Branches that height on the furthest tree practically drape over the entire roof of the house.

I've heard they're not like cats though, and it would probably die if it tried to jump down to the roof from that height.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 12:46 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I guess it's just "wait and see". One thing ... while squirrels are great at jumping down from heights and landing, they still need a path back up. Even if a squirrel were to land on your roof, it would face the scary experience of having to climb down your house and run across the lawn to get back to those trees. One or two experiences like that would discourage any except the most intrepid, I imagine.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 8:06 PM

Yeah. I'm probably good now, especially after I patch it.

I just kind of find it humorous that last spring I had branches literally scraping the roof when it would get windy and didn't have any squirrel problems and now that they were cut back and there wasn't any that were within 3 to 5 feet I find an industrious squirrel that eats holes through shingles.

I never would have questioned that they were capable of doing it, but I imagine that there's a system of ROI in place for animals that would rival our own and with a squirrel having no idea what a roof is, I can't see how it would figure that burrowing into them would be a good expenditure of calories, unless it was absolutely sure there was something in there that it wanted.

For all it knew, it could have been 8 inches of those shingles to burrow through with nothing hollow on the inside.

What are the chances I have a retarded squirrel? I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever have this happen before, but it's not exactly something that people worry about happening when they think about their roofing.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 8:33 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Do you think the racoon was keeping the squirrel away? They do that ... one animal in a nice place can keep other animals from the area. If the first animal should vacate, something else can (and in my house will!) mosey around.

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Thursday, March 12, 2020 8:41 PM

It's possible, but those trees have been there since well before I bought the place and until last spring the only animals I had in my house was an occasional mouse, which I can't imagine would have scared off any squirrels and were rather infrequent to begin with.

I think this squirrel must have seen access into a roof like this somewhere else and knew that it was a good idea or something. Otherwise I don't see how it would have picked the top of a roof with shingles as the place to start drilling.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, March 14, 2020 6:36 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, we're making progress on various things. Latest project is to install shelving in the garage so hubby has a place to put his stuff and turn the space into a more useable workshop. We bought the plywood (Baltic birch, nice stuff) a couple of weeks ago when we went to the lumber yard but were waiting on some lag bolts and brackets, which finaly arrived. The lowest shelf is going to be extra-strong because it may serve as a temprorary sharpening station/benchtop; that shelf was installed yesterday. Today DD and I sanded the shelves in prep for oiling them, making them (I hope) more resistant to wear and stains/dirt.

I hope we finish the brackets tomorrow, and oiling the shelves soon after that, but I had to call a temporary halt on the garage-work for some overdue house cleaning.

I have to say the coronavirus is helping us save money and fix the house. We used to go out Fridays for lunch, which I miss, but I don't miss the drain on the pocketbook or the hole in the schedule.

There was a retirement luncheon scheduled, and as a former coworker I was invited, but it was just canceled. I learned from my fellow retirees that things like zumba classes and line dancing classes have been suspended for a month. I suppose the month will give them time to assess the situation. I also learned that Kaiser Permanente, a ginormous HMO here, has sent out notices that over-60 should stay home as much as possible.

Or, as Chris Martensen explained the new paradign: #staythefuckhome.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!

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Sunday, March 15, 2020 6:01 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

YAY rain!

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Sunday, March 15, 2020 11:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

YAY rain!

Glad to hear that Kiki. It's dry in my neck of the woods for a spell.

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Monday, March 16, 2020 10:49 AM

I'd like a drought over here please. Could you send some of that West Coast weather my way when you get a chance?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 16, 2020 1:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'd like a drought over here please. Could you send some of that West Coast weather my way when you get a chance?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Dry weather just got here and I want it to stay for a while.

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Monday, March 16, 2020 1:04 PM

Lady that I know has asked me to pick up some hand sanitizer today. I will but I hate the stuff as I react to the alcohol in it.

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Monday, March 16, 2020 1:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'd like a drought over here please. Could you send some of that West Coast weather my way when you get a chance?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Dry weather just got here and I want it to stay for a while.

Good luck.

I've had 5 years straight with heavy to record rainfall in my area.

I'd like my poor house to get a break from it until I know I've done all the work outside I need to do.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, March 16, 2020 3:29 PM