In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 46 of 116
8 hours in the garage today. Got two more large cans of crap out including some bad scrap lumber that I should have gotten rid of last year. Everything is on the perimeter of the garage now, and I also was using the shop vac to make everything especially clean before putting anything anywhere. I removed all the random nails that were holding various tools, brooms and shovels and installed proper hooks for everything and made great use of my back wall with them, now being able to hang all 3 of my ladders, my spreader and my halogen work lights.
I've been keeping the car outside most days just so I don't have to move it to use the table saw or other various things, but I did want to pull in tonight and see how it works. I've got about 4 feet on either side of the car now, and I can walk to the service door from either in front or behind the car. I remember this time last year I could barely even open my door to get out of the car when I parked it in there.
I'll be out there all day tomorrow, but all the heavy lifting and getting up and down ladders should be done. It's just a matter of clearing out crap I don't need out of dressers I have out there to make room for good stuff, organizing tools and at least clearing off one of my two work benches completely so I can finally get to work fixing the power washer, backpack leaf blower and gas powered trimmer.
I'm going to need that power washer sooner than later before fixing the foundation, and I need to know now if I can fix it or if I need to buy a new one.
...
Then I mowed the lawn and finished in time to have a smoke and watch the sunset with a glass of Iced Tea.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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GOOD DOG !
Jeeze - you'd think you were the only person on the entire planet doing shit to improve lives. Or that that makes you special.
Though MOST people aren't as monomaniacally selfish or such bloviating braggarts about their efforts as you. 
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I am special. And I'm awesome.
Don't be a hater.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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snicker
Oh wait, this is the Garden thread and I'm supposed to be nice to you no matter what kind of narcissistic crap you post.
GOOD DOG !
pat pat pat
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I'll pat my own back, thank you very much.
You really shouldn't pet strays. You might get bit. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Oh, you mean you're NOT so awesome ?!!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'll pat my own back, thank you very much.
You really shouldn't pet strays. You might get bit.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I never would have guessed.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:Oh, you mean you're NOT so awesome ?!!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'll pat my own back, thank you very much.
You really shouldn't pet strays. You might get bit.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I never would have guessed.
I hardly need outside approval when I can look at things like this...
2nd bedroom Before:
2nd bedroom After:
Master bedroom Before:
Master bedroom After:
Strange... I couldn't find a before pic with both windows on the 2nd bedroom.
But yeah. I'm awesome.
And so is the A/C.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Nothing a handyman couldn't do JACK. And nothing that I haven't done.
You're not even average. You're just a wannabe - a pretender.
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I'm not a handyman. I'm an artist.
And no, you couldn't.
You drunk on that box wine, Karen.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Sigh.
It's too bad.
My friend and I will have a wet meet up tomorrow. We may stay in the mall for lunch and just tool around there.
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Quote:See, JACK? You have to resort to lying, AS ALWAYS, in order to make yourself feel special. Why are you such a twisted fuck? That's what I want to know.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'm not a handyman. I'm an artist.
And no, you couldn't.
You drunk on that box wine, Karen.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Sigh.
It's too bad.
Quote:The mall is ... OPEN? (Things here are still closed, seeing as how cases are still going up.)
Originally posted by Brenda:
My friend and I will have a wet meet up tomorrow. We may stay in the mall for lunch and just tool around there.
I was chit-chatting with a friend back in NYC. Apparently masks in public are a state law. How's that going by you?
Anyway - stay dry! And relax and have a good time! And then (hopefully) tell us all about it!
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Sigh.
It's too bad.
Quote:The mall is ... OPEN? (Things here are still closed, seeing as how cases are still going up.)
Originally posted by Brenda:
My friend and I will have a wet meet up tomorrow. We may stay in the mall for lunch and just tool around there.
I was chit-chatting with a friend back in NYC. Apparently masks in public are a state law. How's that going by you?
Anyway - stay dry! And relax and have a good time! And then (hopefully) tell us all about it!
Actually we got lucky no rain today.
This mall isn't that big and there are still 3 stores not open in it. And the food court is mostly open but much less seating. So I grabbed a table to wait for her. (We've been lucky. No major spikes since BC has partially reopened. We are looking good for phase 3 by around the middle of June. Now just because this mall is, I don't know about the big one in the next city too me. My friend said that one big mall in the city she lives in isn't open.)
There is no provincial law that says you have to wear a mask. Some people do and some people don't. I kept the one I was given at my doctor's office over a week ago and used it when I went to the vampires on Monday. Most people working in the stores have masks and gloves on, that includes the food places. My friend was wearing a mask but then she was on buses coming in from another city.
So, we met at noon and had lunch from A&W, that is a fast food place. She bought some sort of chocolate desert from the place as a treat for herself and it looked terrible to me. She said after eating most of it, it was terrible. We talked for a bit then went shopping. We found what we were looking for in one store. Then she wanted to spend another gift card that I had given her for Christmas in a comic shop. So we went in there and she found a collectable that she liked. I found a comic book that I like but I didn't buy. I have to go out tomorrow, so if it is still there I just might buy it.
We went across the street after to another store and she found a couple of more things that she needed. I should mention that she just moved a month ago, so somethings of hers need replacing. She thought about buying some flowers from this place but decided not too.
Anyways she was out here for a couple of hours and we had a good time, gave her a hug before she ran for her bus as after that she had to grab what is known in BC as the "sky train" which is a commuter train that runs from Vancouver to her city.
So, yeah. Good day.
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I was smiling the whole time I was reading your post. THANKS for taking the time!
And YAY. All in all, it DOES sound like a good day!
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Quote:Wow, just imagine how much money you would have "made" if you hadn't bought anything at all!!
SIX: If you'd like Kiki to keep her trash talking out of this thread, I'd ask Sigs and Brenda to say as much.
There's no need for it in here, and it's just as welcome now as it is when T brings it into the Garden.
Thanks.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
SIGNY: SIX, I would hve said it differently, and out of concern for you, but I agree with KIKI's point. The money that you "don't spend" is NOT income. It's great to get rebates and points and shit, but spent money is just spent money.
We used to have a joke where I worked... someone would find an ad for some really expensive luxury item .... HALF OFF ON TOP LINE CALLAWAY GOLF CLUB SET WITH FREE SET OF BALLS!... and we would laugh and say we couldn't afford to save like that, and toss the ad in the recycler.
Or dd brings me a coupon $0.75 off on [some comparatively expensive meat] and I explain, again, that even if I use the coupon it will still cost more $6 more than if I threw the coupon out and bought a cheaper brand.
I don't see you buying luxuries, and I'm glad you have an A/C, but to say that you didn't spend $100 [more] on the unit means that your A/C is basically "free" is the kind of contextual thinking that gets people in trouble.
SIX: The $100 I saved by buying it 3 weeks early is only 1/3rd of the money I am talking about. The other 2/3rds is the $200 credit I get on my new card when I spend $1,000 in 3 months, and THAT IS income. I regularly get over $500 tax free every year doing this.
I have zero debt and I pay the cards off every month. I've done so since August of 2005.
So yes... My A/C is free this year.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Wow, just imagine how much money you would have "made" if you hadn't bought anything at all!!
SIX: If you'd like Kiki to keep her trash talking out of this thread, I'd ask Sigs and Brenda to say as much.
There's no need for it in here, and it's just as welcome now as it is when T brings it into the Garden.
Thanks.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
SIGNY: SIX, I would hve said it differently, and out of concern for you, but I agree with KIKI's point. The money that you "don't spend" is NOT income. It's great to get rebates and points and shit, but spent money is just spent money.
We used to have a joke where I worked... someone would find an ad for some really expensive luxury item .... HALF OFF ON TOP LINE CALLAWAY GOLF CLUB SET WITH FREE SET OF BALLS!... and we would laugh and say we couldn't afford to save like that, and toss the ad in the recycler.
Or dd brings me a coupon $0.75 off on [some comparatively expensive meat] and I explain, again, that even if I use the coupon it will still cost more $6 more than if I threw the coupon out and bought a cheaper brand.
I don't see you buying luxuries, and I'm glad you have an A/C, but to say that you didn't spend $100 [more] on the unit means that your A/C is basically "free" is the kind of contextual thinking that gets people in trouble.
SIX: The $100 I saved by buying it 3 weeks early is only 1/3rd of the money I am talking about. The other 2/3rds is the $200 credit I get on my new card when I spend $1,000 in 3 months, and THAT IS income. I regularly get over $500 tax free every year doing this.
I have zero debt and I pay the cards off every month. I've done so since August of 2005.
So yes... My A/C is free this year.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
None, actually.
The A/C is about preventing humidity damage on the house. Comfort is just a side benefit.
I pay my monthly bills and buy my food with the card, and any home improvement stuff I need to get also goes on the card until I get the amount necessary to get the bonus. This is all paid off at the end of the month. Then I apply for a new card and do it again when I know I have a large purchase or two that would get me over the hump, otherwise there is no chance I would spend $1000 on a card in 3 months, since I can't put the gas/electric on a card with my company, and it would cost me a $60 "convenience" charge to try to pay my property taxes with a card.
Seriously. Don't try to school me about money.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Actually we got lucky no rain today.
This mall isn't that big and there are still 3 stores not open in it. And the food court is mostly open but much less seating. So I grabbed a table to wait for her. (We've been lucky. No major spikes since BC has partially reopened. We are looking good for phase 3 by around the middle of June. Now just because this mall is, I don't know about the big one in the next city too me. My friend said that one big mall in the city she lives in isn't open.)
There is no provincial law that says you have to wear a mask. Some people do and some people don't. I kept the one I was given at my doctor's office over a week ago and used it when I went to the vampires on Monday. Most people working in the stores have masks and gloves on, that includes the food places. My friend was wearing a mask but then she was on buses coming in from another city.
So, we met at noon and had lunch from A&W, that is a fast food place. She bought some sort of chocolate desert from the place as a treat for herself and it looked terrible to me. She said after eating most of it, it was terrible. We talked for a bit then went shopping. We found what we were looking for in one store. Then she wanted to spend another gift card that I had given her for Christmas in a comic shop. So we went in there and she found a collectable that she liked. I found a comic book that I like but I didn't buy. I have to go out tomorrow, so if it is still there I just might buy it.
We went across the street after to another store and she found a couple of more things that she needed. I should mention that she just moved a month ago, so somethings of hers need replacing. She thought about buying some flowers from this place but decided not too.
Anyways she was out here for a couple of hours and we had a good time, gave her a hug before she ran for her bus as after that she had to grab what is known in BC as the "sky train" which is a commuter train that runs from Vancouver to her city.
So, yeah. Good day.
Hugs are nice. I forgot about that until my brother came. Seen my old man a few times but he's still scared to touch anybody.
You going to start playing Mahjong again soon?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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It must have been about 100 degrees in my garage today with 99% humidity. Gross.... so nice to come into the A/C when I was done working.
I filled up all 3 cans with trash again, and put out more stuff on the curb. Everything I put out yesterday somebody took. Hopefully it's gone again tomorrow, but I doubt it since about half of it is all the old baseboard and door trim that I've already replaced. The door stuff isn't that bad... not any worse than you'd find at Habitat for Humanity.
I probably have one more good day of cleaning and organizing out there before I'm done. Nice cool weather this weekend for a change. My diagnostic meter came a day early for my car, so I'm going to fool with that and see if I can get my car to do the test it needs to do so I can pass the emissions.
Also got my privacy film for the windows and the white tape I need to seal in the A/C and beautify it.
I'm famished. Going to go eat and then sleep for 10 hours... hopefully.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I was smiling the whole time I was reading your post. THANKS for taking the time!
And YAY. All in all, it DOES sound like a good day!
It was.
I even saw someone else that I should be calling. I tried yelling to get their attention but no go. Oh well. I'll just have to get on the horn.ETA The biggest mall in BC which is called "Metrotown" is open. But their hours are limited. Not badly. Most stores in malls in BC are open from around 11am and close at about 5pm though Metro Town is from 11am to 7pm.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Actually we got lucky no rain today.
This mall isn't that big and there are still 3 stores not open in it. And the food court is mostly open but much less seating. So I grabbed a table to wait for her. (We've been lucky. No major spikes since BC has partially reopened. We are looking good for phase 3 by around the middle of June. Now just because this mall is, I don't know about the big one in the next city too me. My friend said that one big mall in the city she lives in isn't open.)
There is no provincial law that says you have to wear a mask. Some people do and some people don't. I kept the one I was given at my doctor's office over a week ago and used it when I went to the vampires on Monday. Most people working in the stores have masks and gloves on, that includes the food places. My friend was wearing a mask but then she was on buses coming in from another city.
So, we met at noon and had lunch from A&W, that is a fast food place. She bought some sort of chocolate desert from the place as a treat for herself and it looked terrible to me. She said after eating most of it, it was terrible. We talked for a bit then went shopping. We found what we were looking for in one store. Then she wanted to spend another gift card that I had given her for Christmas in a comic shop. So we went in there and she found a collectable that she liked. I found a comic book that I like but I didn't buy. I have to go out tomorrow, so if it is still there I just might buy it.
We went across the street after to another store and she found a couple of more things that she needed. I should mention that she just moved a month ago, so somethings of hers need replacing. She thought about buying some flowers from this place but decided not too.
Anyways she was out here for a couple of hours and we had a good time, gave her a hug before she ran for her bus as after that she had to grab what is known in BC as the "sky train" which is a commuter train that runs from Vancouver to her city.
So, yeah. Good day.
Hugs are nice. I forgot about that until my brother came. Seen my old man a few times but he's still scared to touch anybody.
You going to start playing Mahjong again soon?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Hugs are nice.
We usually trade hugs before or after our get together.My mah jong group is still up in the air. The senior centre where we play is still closed except that they do offer take out on their lunch menu.
But I am hoping soon. I do miss playing.
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I never caught before that you did it indoors. That's a bummer.
I think I've just seen too many movies where people play pick up games of chess in the park, and I always imagined you and your friends playing Mahjong outdoors.
Maybe you have a place outdoors you can meet until the center comes back, now that the weather is finally getting nice around your parts?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Sounds like a nice day, BRENDA! I hope you have many more!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Hey KIKI, how's the back?
I STRONGLY recommend those chemical heating patches, you might want to pick some up next time you shop. I don't know what it isabout them, but they work way better for me than electrical heating pads or Biofreeze. Maybe because they're glued on (I use extra tape to keep them on) and allow freer range of motion? Also, they produce a very mild heat for 12 hours, not eight. If your back is still tweaked, you might want to give it a try. For me, one is all it takes.
Other than that, how's by you?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Good on you with the cleanup, SIX!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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I actually have baby zucchini growing.
Reached a natural stopping point a couple of days ago with taking the old compost pile apart: The garden is fully mulched and I had no prepared place for the rest. I weeded under one avocado to put mulch there, because once the mulch goes in place, no more weed torching!
Anyway, today is leaf-shredding day. Two more 65 gallon bins to shred and dump under the Haas avocado. there are other places to weed that can be mulched too, like the old veggie garden that I may turn into a "pollinator" flower garden for the rest of summer (cosmos, coneflower, milkweed) before I turn it into a winter-vegetable garden (maybe) ... but that will have to wait until I attend to other more important legal matters. And of course we are still helping with the garage to make it a functional workspace for hubby.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Good on you with the cleanup, SIX!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Thanks.
The garage was where I had left off in the dehoarding when my friend finally was able to come around so we could fix the porch and I never got back to it before winter set in.
It was kind of funny going out there that first day and spinning around in a circle for an hour with no idea where to start since there was still so much stuff and nothing I could decide to throw out. But then I realized I had 5 sheets of drywall in a corner that have been there since the first year I had the house and I brought them in and put half of them up on the one porch wall where I don't need to put any moisture resistant stuff.
That gave me 8 feet of back wall to start from. It's been pretty slow going since it was unbearably hot the last two days out there and I really had to put a lot of planning into where things should go, but it's looking great right now.
I was complaining to myself about all the old dressers I had out there because as nice as it is to have something to store stuff, you lose about half of whatever space you have when you use dressers over proper shelving units. But then I realized yesterday that I had a large cabinet screwed into the wall over one of the dressers and if I removed the doors to it I had 3 large shelves that were just big enough to hold 6 of my heavy duty totes where I could label them accordingly and break up things like various things for electrical work, tile installation, mudding & taping, painting, etc.
I won't be throwing out anything else that really clears out any room, but I have half the surface area of my two large work benches clear now, and a few empty tool boxes and one 2 empty totes to organize my tools, so I should end the day with only half of the smaller work bench covered, and that will mostly be just house projects that I haven't gotten to yet.
Great timing too, since I have to try to fix that power washer and my car. I was able to unbury the washer for easy access by the end of the night yesterday, and when I came in I realized my Diagnostic meter was shipped a day early.
Fingers crossed on both of them.
In the mean time, except for the pantry where I kind of let my tools go crazy again while doing work inside the house during the cold months, I haven't brought anything new inside and after building the closets everything has a place.
I found out at my friends Bday party last year that an old gradeschool buddy of mine lives right in my area and we've been keeping in touch since. Before the virus crap, he had come over one day and said something like "boy, you live the life of a minimalist, don't you". I laughed and told him he should have seen what the place looked like a year ago.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I never caught before that you did it indoors. That's a bummer.
I think I've just seen too many movies where people play pick up games of chess in the park, and I always imagined you and your friends playing Mahjong outdoors.
Maybe you have a place outdoors you can meet until the center comes back, now that the weather is finally getting nice around your parts?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Yeah, we do.
You are thinking of New York City and places like that. I've seen movies like that too.
We'd have to meet in a park but until the weather is better and the other thing all our mah jong gear is in the centre. So getting to it would be hard. So, I think we are stuck until the centre figures out how they are going to operate ALL the activities it does.
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Laundry day and out for a walk after. Later peeps.
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Hey Signy - my back has pretty much been teetering on the edge of crapping out the whole time. I do fairly limited physical things (washing dishes, tidying up the house, cooking, shopping and running errands, and so on) until it starts to get cranky. I'm sure you've felt that kind of thing too, where you just happen to move the wrong way and all of the sudden it tweaks intensely. But I can manage maybe three total hours of work, not counting breaks to rest my back, until that happens. And then I stop. And then I'll often move on entirely to sit-down jobs. One good thing about having so much to do is that I have no end of choices!
On the positive side, after that initial AM where I woke up almost unable to move at all, not even to shift around in bed, I haven't had a repeat of waking up so crippled - nothing beyond the normal morning level of stiffness. Rest in bed, sometimes with the heating pad, seems to reset the previous day back to a better morning.
Thanks for asking. I appreciate it!
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I think I might have to bite the bullet and buy another car... :(
I put over 200 miles on it today and ran a few cycles. I also did a "trick" on those older Toyotas where you just let it idle for 10 minutes then force it to 3000RPM for 3-5 minutes and it gets your CAT to run. No dice.
Tried a temporary patch with some soda cans and aluminum tape but the flex pipe is so fubared compared to the smaller holes last time I passed that the patch won't last more than about 2 minutes before busting.
I think there's just too many things to fix on it, and I'd really just be throwing parts at it until I figure out which one will make the stupid test run. Even if I find somebody to weld a cheap flex pipe on for me for a reasonable price, I still might have to change the thermostat for the coolant, and it's still possible that it's an 02 sensor or two keeping the test from happening even if they're not throwing any codes.
I looked into pricing a device that would fool the system, but those are NOT cheap at all. In fact, it would cost more than fixing all of the other things combined, and even then you need a bit of knowledge of how those systems work so you make it work to your car's specs.
Freaking ridiculous after all we've been through that I'm going to have to dump this car because of a stupid government test.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Been there, done that. But my car's only problem was that I had put a new battery in it.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I think I might have to bite the bullet and buy another car... :(
I put over 200 miles on it today and ran a few cycles.
Quote:catalyst?
I also did a "trick" on those older Toyotas where you just let it idle for 10 minutes then force it to 3000RPM for 3-5 minutes and it gets your CAT to run.
Quote:Darn.
No dice.
Quote:Wish I could help! Even the "old" cars like my 2001 Honda were pretty complicated ... way beyond just adjusting the timing and cleaning the carb.
Tried a temporary patch with some soda cans and aluminum tape but the flex pipe is so fubared compared to the smaller holes last time I passed that the patch won't last more than about 2 minutes before busting.
I think there's just too many things to fix on it, and I'd really just be throwing parts at it until I figure out which one will make the stupid test run. Even if I find somebody to weld a cheap flex pipe on for me for a reasonable price, I still might have to change the thermostat for the coolant, and it's still possible that it's an 02 sensor or two keeping the test from happening even if they're not throwing any codes.
I looked into pricing a device that would fool the system, but those are NOT cheap at all. In fact, it would cost more than fixing all of the other things combined, and even then you need a bit of knowledge of how those systems work so you make it work to your car's specs.
Freaking ridiculous after all we've been through that I'm going to have to dump this car because of a stupid government test.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
"Fraid it's beyond me, but you have my sympathy!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:Treat your back nicely, I'm sure it will mend in time. If you need any help, just ask.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Signy - my back has pretty much been teetering on the edge of crapping out the whole time. I do fairly limited physical things (washing dishes, tidying up the house, cooking, shopping and running errands, and so on) until it starts to get cranky. I'm sure you've felt that kind of thing too, where you just happen to move the wrong way and all of the sudden it tweaks intensely. But I can manage maybe three total hours of work, not counting breaks to rest my back, until that happens. And then I stop. And then I'll often move on entirely to sit-down jobs. One good thing about having so much to do is that I have no end of choices!
On the positive side, after that initial AM where I woke up almost unable to move at all, not even to shift around in bed, I haven't had a repeat of waking up so crippled - nothing beyond the normal morning level of stiffness. Rest in bed, sometimes with the heating pad, seems to reset the previous day back to a better morning.
Thanks for asking. I appreciate it!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Been there, done that. But my car's only problem was that I had put a new battery in it.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I think I might have to bite the bullet and buy another car... :(
I put over 200 miles on it today and ran a few cycles.
I've learned more about all of this in the last few days than I care to know, actually. The last time my battery was disconnected was when I changed the plugs a few months after I fixed the massive oil leak.
Fortunately for me, I procrastinated on that fix and did it after my emissions test that spring. Because there was already a hole in the flex pipe back then and although I was able to patch it enough to muffle the sound for 20 or so minutes, I wouldn't have ever gotten the catalyst to run a complete test like that (or so I've read on the internet...)
But that does seem to be the likely case here. Not that I drive all that much or for any long distances when I do, but in an entire year and 3/4 I have yet to complete the CAT test since the battery was reconnected.
Quote:catalyst?
I also did a "trick" on those older Toyotas where you just let it idle for 10 minutes then force it to 3000RPM for 3-5 minutes and it gets your CAT to run.
Quote:Darn.
No dice.
Yeah... the catalyst.
Quote:
Wish I could help! Even the "old" cars like my 2001 Honda were pretty complicated ... way beyond just adjusting the timing and cleaning the carb.
"Fraid it's beyond me, but you have my sympathy!
Well... mine is even older. So old, in fact, that if it were one year older I wouldn't even be able to do the OBD (and neither would they) and they'd have to do the sniffer test on the tail pipe.
I'd still fail it right now with the gaping hole in the exhaust, but chances are pretty good that if I got that fixed I would pass.
I'm so on the fence about what to do next. It is possible I could take my measurements and order a $16 flex pipe and some clamps and get away without welding it and that might be all it takes to get that dumb test to run. But I might end up wasting a few more days trying to do drive cycles, wasting more gas, and just frustrating myself when it could be an O2 sensor or two or the thermostat is bad.
I don't have any codes on the OBD at all. Just an INC on the CAT.
Good news, I guess. But it doesn't really give me any information to go on.
I don't regret the OBD purchase though. I'm certainly never buying a car in the future without making sure that the meter says it would pass the emissions test.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:I'm doing my best!
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Treat your back nicely
Quote:I'm just impatient at waiting for it, and having to be limited and gingerly while I'm waiting.
I'm sure it will mend in time.
Quote:And that is a very kind and deeply appreciated offer. Especially because I know it's honestly meant.
If you need any help, just ask.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Well, it rained on me when I went out after doing my laundry. By the time I was ready to go home, it was bright and sunny out. Stupid weather can't make up its mind.
Anyways I did go back to that comic shop and bought two comic books. The Wolverine one I noticed with my friend then a Thor one. Oh well. I don't do that very often.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sounds like a nice day, BRENDA! I hope you have many more!
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If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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It was nice Sig. One of these times she is out here I am going to have to drag her over here to see this place.
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Also second drawer on my dad's old dresser cleaned out. Seems it was mostly dish towels and pillow cases. So I don't need any of those types of things for a while.
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Lazy Sunday.
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I miss lazy Sundays...
I was trying to have one. I was even successful until around 5PM.
But after a nap I was feeling super guilty for letting this car thing bother me and derail my work so I went out and bought a flex pipe and a few clamps and got to work under the car.
Just before the light was gone I was able to cut off both ends of the exhaust pipe around the old damaged flex and fit the new one in. One big problem though... It only fits the end of the pipe that goes to the muffler and tailpipe. It won't fit around the one coming from the CAT.
I'm sure that it should. There's no way the pipe is 2.25". It's got to be rust buildup and/or any bumps I might have made cutting it. Temporarily, I sealed them up by butting them tight, wrapping them with aluminum tape, wrapping an aluminum can around that and further taping it, then using another clamp to hold it together.
This at least allowed me to test it out and it sounds a million times better. The exhaust is now actually coming out of the tailpipe instead of bellowing out right underneath where I sit.
But I still haven't got the CAT test to initiate.
I might try some catalyst cleaner, and/or remove the assembly and clean it by hand. I might do some research on how to verify my O2 sensors are working. Unlike the newer model the guy doing the videos had, my 2nd O2 sensor isn't past the flex pipe and is right after the CAT before the flex.
So that means that fixing the pipe probably didn't help me out at all outside of reducing noise, improving performance of the car and not breathing in a bunch of carbon monoxide when I drive it around.
Maybe the cat is just dirty... I dunno.
I think I'm going to pull the battery for 10 minutes tomorrow and start everything from scratch. I don't have any bad codes at all that would be preventing me from getting the test to run, so I'm really kind of grasping at straws.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Jack, you are a head of me. I think I might have understood about half of your post. But then what I know about cars you could fit on the head of a pin. Since I've never driven or owned a car.
Yeah, Sundays I don't usually do too much unless it is something that I've been putting off for a while. And that I covered last week. So I just messed around with this thing, listened to some music and watched a little tv.
I really need to get a couch as watching tv in a dining room chair isn't good for my back.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Jack, you are a head of me. I think I might have understood about half of your post. But then what I know about cars you could fit on the head of a pin. Since I've never driven or owned a car.
Everything I put in that post I didn't know a thing about 3 days ago.
Like owning a house, owning a car is great until it isn't.
You've gotten by this far without either. I'd say your much better off without them.
Oh... tip of the day: Don't use safety glasses when using a sawzall to cut a steel pipe 3" from your face. Use safety goggles.
If you don't, you'll learn very quickly the hard way that getting metal shavings in your eyes is not fun, and if you didn't wear contact lenses like me you might even go blind.
Quote:
Yeah, Sundays I don't usually do too much unless it is something that I've been putting off for a while. And that I covered last week. So I just messed around with this thing, listened to some music and watched a little tv.
I really need to get a couch as watching tv in a dining room chair isn't good for my back.
My problem is too many years behind me where everyday was a lazy Sunday. I'm paying for it now.
Hope I can enjoy them again one day if I keep at it. In the mean time, enjoy them for me.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Thinking about the million-and-one things ahead of me, ANY lazy day is immediately spoiled by guilt.
I was supposed to get a lot done today, but I got tangled up with other stuff and got almost totally derailed. The only thing I can point to is that between dd and myself, we got 2 bins of leaves shredded and under one of the avocados, and one bin of weeds out by the curb, so I did my week's-worth of three bins of cleanup. And I ordered some hose end fixit parts over the internet, made dinner and cleaned the kitchen (mostly). But I still have a LOT of things staring me in the face.
Since Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are anticipated to be hot-hot-hot, I guess I'll be doing indoor work.
Still thinking about that frontyard landscaping, too. Needs some revision, but I'm not going to put a lot of work into it until I figure out a design.
And HEY! My hollyleaf redberry looks like it's going to have berries this year. Good for the birds, but they'll have to get there ahead of me! heh heh heh
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Somewhere I recall you saying you have either hollyleaf cherry or its subspecies Catalina Island cherry. I just want to point out that my experience with them is that they're extremely variable in form, depending on growing conditions and even individual plants.
I have a bunch of Catalina Island cherries planted under a large incense cedar and juniper on my side of a fence, but along the edge of a neighbor's uphill front lawn. So they get a lot of regular water, and nearly 100% shade, and they're very tall, very big around, and with widely spaced deep green dull, large smooth leaves with smooth edges. One of them seems to have found a deep source of water and is now a genuine tree.
On the other side of the front yard are the exact same kind of tree, planted at exactly the same time and at exactly the same size, that border a neighbor's downhill driveway. They get NO extra water, and no shade. They're roughly half the size with ~1/2 sized, shiny, more crinkly leaves with pointier edge scallops in a brighter green.
AND their form also changes depending on how closely planted they are to each other!
The hollyleaf cherries I had before were not uniform either - some were shorter and bushier, some taller and more treelike, etc. And the two hybridize freely, so depending on your source you may get some that are more like Catalina Island cherry, and some that are more like hollyleaf cherry.
Overall I like the looks of hollyleaf cherry better - their leaves are a prettier green, more crinkly, and more glossy, and they sparkle in the sun.
But what I like about both is that they're really reliable - they're very drought tolerant and do best in full sun, but not at all touchy about clay soil or extra water (as long as they're not constantly wet) or shade.
In general though, expect either kind to grow much bigger if planted as a specimen (solitary) plant, with extra water, and some shade.
OOC, have you ever heard of Malosma laurina? It seems to be quite variable. I thought I knew most of the native shrubs but I just ran across it.
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I don't imagine I'll ever have time to get to the landscaping. I planted a bunch of hastas when I moved in and besides an unidentified bush on one end, that's what's out there.
One or two of the hastas even died in the shadier areas. I know they don't grow as big in a lot of shade, but I didn't even know they could die.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Jack, you are a head of me. I think I might have understood about half of your post. But then what I know about cars you could fit on the head of a pin. Since I've never driven or owned a car.Quote:
Everything I put in that post I didn't know a thing about 3 days ago.
Like owning a house, owning a car is great until it isn't.
You've gotten by this far without either. I'd say your much better off without them.
Would have loved a car before the seizures but yeah now not a good idea. A house would have been nice again if I could have afforded it when I was younger. Now, it's not really a possibility.Quote:
Oh... tip of the day: Don't use safety glasses when using a sawzall to cut a steel pipe 3" from your face. Use safety goggles.
If you don't, you'll learn very quickly the hard way that getting metal shavings in your eyes is not fun, and if you didn't wear contact lenses like me you might even go blind.
That's not so good Jack. You have got to be more careful.Quote:
Yeah, Sundays I don't usually do too much unless it is something that I've been putting off for a while. And that I covered last week. So I just messed around with this thing, listened to some music and watched a little tv.
I really need to get a couch as watching tv in a dining room chair isn't good for my back.
Quote:
My problem is too many years behind me where everyday was a lazy Sunday. I'm paying for it now.
Hope I can enjoy them again one day if I keep at it. In the mean time, enjoy them for me.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I'm sure you will one of these days Jack.
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Well, I am back from my doctor's and got the results from my blood work. All is good but my bad cholesterol is up a bit. It was up a bit last year too. So, I got to figure out what to do about that.
Also lost 5 pounds but I can put that back on I think easily.
She decided to do an extra bit of poking at me but that all came out fine. Listened to my lungs, took my blood pressure and because I was jumpy it went into the normal range. Usually my bp is low.
Heart, liver, lungs, kidneys all good. Calcium, thyroid stable, hemoglobin good, iron stores good, potassium good, sodium good. Blood sugar good. Good cholesterol good. So all numbers really where they should be.
Only numbers not back is on where my seizure meds are. That takes a couple of weeks. That might need adjusting from what she sounded like and if they do it will be down.
So, she's happy and I'm happy.
Hope, I don't have to cut out peanut butter but it does contain a lot of saturated fat.
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Hey Brenda - I think if you get natural peanut butter - without hydrogenation or added fats - it's really low in saturated fat! One tablespoon has about 1.5gram of saturated fat and 12.5grams of UNsaturated fat.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - I think if you get natural peanut butter - without hydrogenation or added fats - it's really low in saturated fat!
I'm looking into it as that is one food I really do love. "Stick to your ribs" as my dad used to say.
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Call back from my family doc this afternoon, she got the report on my seizure meds level and they are too high. So, she has taken it down. I now take 2 in the morning and 3 at night. I go back to her in two months and we shall see.
Flipside is my eye doctor's office is reopened and taking in patients. So I called this afternoon and made an appointment. Got one for September.
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Hey Brenda - good news!
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So, I went to the ATM. I was going to do a bunch of shopping and start cooking in batches - shakshouka (Tunisian recipe of eggs poached in a sauce made of tomatoes, sweet red peppers, onions, and garlic with herbs and spices) with beef (new recipe); a standard pork and cabbage stew with potato, carrot, celery and onion; and a cream of chicken mushroom soup made with cauliflower and milk instead of cream and roux (new recipe).
But when I was walking back to my car I saw a big puddle underneath and a brisk drip, drip, drip from the bottom of the car. Thinking it might be gasoline, I put the car in neutral and rolled it off the puddle - and sure enough - it was gas. Sigh. Thank goodness for AAA and their free towing under 7 miles. And I'm OK with fixing it. The car is still super reliable after all these years, and the fix is far cheaper than a new(ish) car.
But not having a car for the next couple of days sure is going to put a dent in my plans.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - good news!
Yup, I think lowering the seizure med may work.
And yes, good news on my eye doc.
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KIKI, sorry to hear about the car. That is a bummer.
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Quote:I hope that lowering your meds might boost your mood a little bit, too. *fingers crossed*
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - good news!
Yup, I think lowering the seizure med may work.
And yes, good news on my eye doc.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:No rental?
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
So, I went to the ATM. I was going to do a bunch of shopping and start cooking in batches - shakshouka (Tunisian recipe of eggs poached in a sauce made of tomatoes, sweet red peppers, onions, and garlic with herbs and spices) with beef (new recipe); a standard pork and cabbage stew with potato, carrot, celery and onion; and a cream of chicken mushroom soup made with cauliflower and milk instead of cream and roux (new recipe).
But when I was walking back to my car I saw a big puddle underneath and a brisk drip, drip, drip from the bottom of the car. Thinking it might be gasoline, I put the car in neutral and rolled it off the puddle - and sure enough - it was gas. Sigh. Thank goodness for AAA and their free towing under 7 miles. And I'm OK with fixing it. The car is still super reliable after all these years, and the fix is far cheaper than a new(ish) car.
But not having a car for the next couple of days sure is going to put a dent in my plans.
Anyway, get in touch if you think you'll be car-less for more than a couple days.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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I seem to have stalled out a bit. I know I should be making better progress on a couple of important items but I just can't seem to get the get-up-and-go to get it done. And I'd like to do something more with the front yard besides maintenance, but I haven't figured out what, yet, so I'm stuck putting in work w/o seeing progress.
I do have to say that torching and spraying have REALLY cut back on the weeding chores, tho! Been noodling on that frontyard landscape ... visualization is SOOOO not my "thing" when I'm focused on looks, altho I can make perfectly functional landscapes and gardens (yanno, when to use trees for shade, and how to create a flower garden or vegetable garden, where to put walkways and sprinklers etc)
So in lieu of doing anything important and necessary, I bought a bunch of pollinator-friendly seeds for the old veggie garden. I was going to use that for my veggies instead of the groundcover sage area that I wound up ripping out, but the family was so distraught that I might disturb the nasturtiums that had taken over the old veggie garden during the winter. I tried to tell them that those flowers would poop out by June anyway, but they begged and begged for me to leave them alone. So now the flowers are pooped out and it's too late to put summer vegies in there, and way too early for winter veggies, so dd and I picked out a bunch of flower seeds - borage, sunflower, cosmos, marigold, milkweed (for the monarchs), zinnia etc and we're just going to toss them in and water the garden and cross our fingers.
Sigh. Still have to get to the important stuff tho.
Tomorrow is garage fixit day ... we got the rest of the replacement LEDS in, compatible with fluorescent fixtures (bipin 48" tubes) except the ballast which needs to be removed.
I just feel kinda outta steam.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Oh, re the car - I talked w/ the shop owner and he said gas tank leaks are very common in my kind of car. But he'd take a look in the AM, and that he might have to order a part. It doesn't sound like it should be too complicated or take too long. I'll just shift my focus to stuff in the house.
Quote:I would LOVE to be at your level of stalled out! it would be quite a step up for me.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I seem to have stalled out a bit. I know I should be making better progress on a couple of important items but I just can't seem to get the get-up-and-go to get it done.
Quote:I think we're at the same conundrum. We'd like some kind of drought tolerant tree on either side of the front walkway. Bigger than a shrub, but not so big it's disproportionate to the house. Something attractive, and wildlife and pollinator friendly, maybe even productive and edible ... ... I'm still thinking. I had sort-of settled on some of the larger crape myrtle, but even though the bees love it, in terms how wildlife friendly it is, that's about it. I have plenty of native cherry trees already. Pomegranate is pretty but it has such a distinctive look that doesn't necessarily go with the natives and crapes I already have. Elderberry gets too HUGE. The tall privet I have is a thug, over time. Native willow requires a ton of water. Acacia (prosopis alba) is very pretty, but invasive. There are many native shrubs but they don't take to pruning into a tree-shape. I may settle for crapes, but I think I'll mull a bit longer. But I think I understand your sticking point.
And I'd like to do something more with the front yard besides maintenance, but I haven't figured out what, yet, so I'm stuck putting in work w/o seeing progress.
Quote:That's a terrific thing! One can kill an awful lot of time and energy into that!
I do have to say that torching and spraying have REALLY cut back on the weeding chores, tho!
Quote:I think for me the hardest part is deciding what the 'look' will be and just going for it. But at least I have a theme - trees, hardscape, and mulch; native if possible, wildlife and pollinator friendly, and drought tolerant. All to moderate the amount of heat in the yard while allowing breezes, and to avoid having to do a lot of maintenance on lawns. groundcovers, etc.
Been noodling on that frontyard landscape ... visualization is SOOOO not my "thing" when I'm focused on looks, altho I can make perfectly functional landscapes and gardens (yanno, when to use trees for shade, and how to create a flower garden or vegetable garden, where to put walkways and sprinklers etc)
Quote:I think it'll be QUITE a pretty sight!
So in lieu of doing anything important and necessary, I bought a bunch of pollinator-friendly seeds for the old veggie garden. I was going to use that for my veggies instead of the groundcover sage area that I wound up ripping out, but the family was so distraught that I might disturb the nasturtiums that had taken over the old veggie garden during the winter. I tried to tell them that those flowers would poop out by June anyway, but they begged and begged for me to leave them alone. So now the flowers are pooped out and it's too late to put summer veggies in there, and way too early for winter veggies, so dd and I picked out a bunch of flower seeds - borage, sunflower, cosmos, marigold, milkweed (for the monarchs), zinnia etc and we're just going to toss them in and water the garden and cross our fingers.
Quote:Yeah ... don't remind me about all the stuff I need to get to.
Sigh. Still have to get to the important stuff tho.
Quote:I'm very sorry to hear that.
Tomorrow is garage fixit day ... we got the rest of the replacement LEDS in, compatible with fluorescent fixtures (bipin 48" tubes) except the ballast which needs to be removed.
I just feel kinda outta steam.
Quote:
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I seem to have stalled out a bit. I know I should be making better progress on a couple of important items but I just can't seem to get the get-up-and-go to get it done. And I'd like to do something more with the front yard besides maintenance, but I haven't figured out what, yet, so I'm stuck putting in work w/o seeing progress.
I do have to say that torching and spraying have REALLY cut back on the weeding chores, tho! Been noodling on that frontyard landscape ... visualization is SOOOO not my "thing" when I'm focused on looks, altho I can make perfectly functional landscapes and gardens (yanno, when to use trees for shade, and how to create a flower garden or vegetable garden, where to put walkways and sprinklers etc)
So in lieu of doing anything important and necessary, I bought a bunch of pollinator-friendly seeds for the old veggie garden. I was going to use that for my veggies instead of the groundcover sage area that I wound up ripping out, but the family was so distraught that I might disturb the nasturtiums that had taken over the old veggie garden during the winter. I tried to tell them that those flowers would poop out by June anyway, but they begged and begged for me to leave them alone. So now the flowers are pooped out and it's too late to put summer vegies in there, and way too early for winter veggies, so dd and I picked out a bunch of flower seeds - borage, sunflower, cosmos, marigold, milkweed (for the monarchs), zinnia etc and we're just going to toss them in and water the garden and cross our fingers.
Sigh. Still have to get to the important stuff tho.
Tomorrow is garage fixit day ... we got the rest of the replacement LEDS in, compatible with fluorescent fixtures (bipin 48" tubes) except the ballast which needs to be removed.
I just feel kinda outta steam.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
I feel for you Sigs...
I've kind of stalled out myself here. Stupid car is really throwing a wrench into my plans, when I was on such a roll. By 2:00PM yesterday I wasn't feeling that great after spending all day either under my car or inside driving it in the hot sun with no A/C, so I went inside, turned on the A/C and literally did nothing for the rest of the day.
I was hoping to have an easy time removing an O2 sensor since mine was located conveniently and looked to have two nuts bolting it down that wouldn't require a special O2 removing tool (people on Amazon said to just use a regular wrench if that would do the job instead of buying a somewhat pricey set from China that doesn't hold up very well). But then I figured out these aren't even your standard nuts and bolts holding in the assembly and I don't even know how I'd get them off without doing more research. I'm glad I at least realized that before I snapped something off.
I changed the oil yesterday, did a few re-wraps and used all 4 clamps (1 where it belongs on the end that fits, then 3 of them holding down my temporary patch) and that seemed to do the trick. I will get it fixed professionally if I can save the car because just doing this fix to the exhaust system has done more than I ever would have imagined for the performance of the car. (and makes me even more determined to save it).
I also put some SeaFoam in the oil tank and gas tank. Some people recommend using CataClean when you're at 1/4 tank and burning that off. Other people recommend filling your tank with High Octane. Both of these should do a good job cleaning your Cat if that's a problem. I will probably try both... I still have to burn off about a quarter tank before starting that.
I decided to clear the codes late yesterday as well. I hope that wasn't a bad decision, as now I have 4 incomplete monitors to get to the OK status. But without any real documentation and just a bunch of online posts to go off of, I'm wondering if t
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I'm sure you kow more about this than I do, but clearing the codes just might do the trick. Even a car as old as your has an onboard computer that comes with factory defaults, but the settings adjust to your car performance specifics as you drive.
Just keep the windows open when you run the engine, and don't run it indoors anywhere. Given the way it performs, it MAY be producing a lot of carbon monoxide, and you may be suffering from carbon monoxide (not dioxide, MONoxide) poisoning.
Carbon monoxide ties up the hemoglobin in your bloodstream and prevents oxygen from attaching, so you suffer from bodywide lack of oxygen.
Early symptoms include headache, nausea, fatigue, and body aches ... like a flu, but no fever.
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/carbon_monoxide_poisoning/article_em.h
tm
One of my chemists actually got carbon monoxide poisoning from analyzying a sample with percent-level CO, and he was only using about 50mL (about a half-cup) at a time.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:I hope that lowering your meds might boost your mood a little bit, too. *fingers crossed*
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - good news!
Yup, I think lowering the seizure med may work.
And yes, good news on my eye doc.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
I think it will help. Think I may have mentioned that I hate my seizure meds.
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Anyways out for my walk in a bit in the RAIN.
Saw a news blip a bit ago on this thing. Ontario is being suffocated this June. One area has already set up a cooling station for its citizens.
While we in BC are being drowned. It is pouring but I need a walk to keep moving as my left leg tried to cramp up this morning.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm sure you kow more about this than I do, but clearing the codes just might do the trick. Even a car as old as your has an onboard computer that comes with factory defaults, but the settings adjust to your car performance specifics as you drive.
I just learned that you are a lot better off with an older car like I've got (assuming you can pass, that is). These old dogs only have to pass the diagnostic once for things like the CAT and EVAP systems, and then they don't get run again until after the battery is pulled or the system is wiped by an OBD. New cars will continuously run things like that and fail you if they go bad in between. I saw a cool video of an app a guy was using on a tablet that he could hook up to his car and show a million more things than my cheapo little Chinese meter does.
I put two drive cycles on the car today and around 100 miles. 3 of the systems showed OK immediately upon starting up (they are the continuous diagnostics). 1 of them completed by the first stop light (I believe the ECG monitor). The biggest one to set today would be the O2 Sensor Monitor, which cleared by the time I hit the expressway. At least I THINK that should mean that my O2 sensors are good.
Still no luck on the CAT monitor, and the EVAP hasn't gone either. I'm kind of glad the EVAP hasn't gone yet. That was kind of the whole purpose of resetting everything since I've read that the EVAP is supposed to happen after the CAT.
Tomorrow I'm throwing some CataClean or at least some STP and just driving my car until it runs out of gas. I'll have a can on me to fill it so I can get to the gas station, and I'll try to run out around the place where I can buy high octane and put in half a tank of that.
Quote:
Just keep the windows open when you run the engine, and don't run it indoors anywhere. Given the way it performs, it MAY be producing a lot of carbon monoxide, and you may be suffering from carbon monoxide (not dioxide, MONoxide) poisoning.
Carbon monoxide ties up the hemoglobin in your bloodstream and prevents oxygen from attaching, so you suffer from bodywide lack of oxygen.
Early symptoms include headache, nausea, fatigue, and body aches ... like a flu, but no fever.
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/carbon_monoxide_poisoning/article_em.h
tm
One of my chemists actually got carbon monoxide poisoning from analyzying a sample with percent-level CO, and he was only using about 50mL (about a half-cup) at a time.
Thanks for the tip. I've probably already done some damage over the years with it, but I've always tried to have windows open even during the winter. I'd say right now after doing the flex pipe that my car is probably safer than it's been in years. At least I know the vast majority of the emissions are going out the tail pipe instead of under my seat now.
We almost had a tornado around here earlier. First time in my life I'd ever seen the sky do that in person. I was out in my garage working, ignoring the city's raid sirens until the third time they went and I opened up the door and said out loud "that ain't good".
I don't think I've ever seen clouds that low before. I'd look to the West and the clouds were going Northwest. I'd look to the East and the clouds were going Northeast. I never did see a funnel, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got one a little north of me.
By the time I went inside and checked the internet, it had already passed us and I went back out to the garage. I'm about 2 hours away from having everything in there completely clean and organized. Maybe another 1 1/2 hours integrating the tools in my house outside too.
Weather permitting, I'm going to finish the garage tomorrow, do the gas thing with the car, fill my tires up on my car once I get the compressor back out into its new home, and then I'm going to re-install my car radio I
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I'll be damned...
I've got two Catalytic Converters. The guy I've been watching do YouTube videos either didn't know that, or didn't bother mentioning it because that CAT isn't going to make you fail the test.
At least, I don't think it will... The 2nd one is really far downstream and close to the muffler, way past the 2nd O2 sensor. So I'm not sure how it would be able to even be tested.
But if I'm wrong and that's why the CAT test isn't initiating, I may have to bite the bullet and have somebody give my flex pipe a proper weld. At least 95% of the emissions is making it all the way down-pipe right now, but I know it can't be all of it with my temporary patch job.
The only reason I figured that out is because I was watching another auto guy I like talking about how to clean your cat and he simply threw his in a bucket with dish detergent in it overnight, and I recognized the part from the back of my car. I probably won't be able to reach and remove it with my ramps. Might have to ask around for some good jacks/stands.
I'm downloading (what I believe) is the service manual now. Time to do some real research.
If I get this to work after upping the performance beyond my expectations so far, I might just have to look into figuring out how to fix the A/C. I could probably get another 5 to 10 years out of this car.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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All the drive cycles I've heard about from YT or all over the internet are BS... I found the exact drive cycle from the manufacture for my model within my year range.
It is actually possible that with how infrequently I drive that I just never got that to go off in a year and a half, given the parameters. The first part of the cycle that you need to hold steady is slower than I ever drive on the expressway and faster than I ever drive on side streets. It's slower than all the highway miles I've put on in the last week and faster than all the city miles I put on last week.
It doesn't matter that I've done the second part of the cycle when the first part was never completed...
I'm scrapping all plans I had for now. I'm going to try the drive cycle tomorrow with the additives I already have in the tank, which may or may not work. Then I'll fill it over 1/2 tank and do it again. Probably have to wait an extra day to do the EVAP one since you are required to leave it overnight with a cold start for that to complete as well as having 1/4 to 3/4 tank of gas for it to even initiate.
If it works, I'll get that pipe welded proper, change my spark plugs again and consider fixing my A/C and broken door handle.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Not only do I have to tell my neighbor thanks for all the years of cleaning out the sewers at the corner of the street, but let him know that in a perfect world the entire 3 block area around us owes him a debt of gratitude.
He lost a lot of his mobility with a back issue during the winter, and even with a shot he's not moving too well. So last night was the 2nd time I cleared out our sewers when they started to back up.
I woke up late this morning because yesterday was a long day and I didn't sleep very well. I look out the kitchen window and what do I see? Somebody bravely driving their coup through water so high I probably wouldn't have chanced it, two kids playing in the water with their parents yelling at them to stop, and the entire street is flooded and up about 15 feet on my property. My first thought was the city sewer was screwed up again!... but then I remembered the chaotic winds and near tornado yesterday and did the math...
A rake, some elbow grease, a pair of soaking shoes, socks and jeans and 45 minutes of my morning and the street is clear.
"If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." ~God, Futureama
But I know now...
And so does the entire family that mysteriously disappeared into their houses as soon as I got to work. Half of the work being on their side of the street.
And to think... I used to get pissed off at that neighbor for dumping 50 lbs of soaking wet helicopters on my grass in front of the sewer. I had no idea how much hassle he saved me over the years.
I guess I'm the reluctant Patriarch of the block now. I don't have any choice since my lawn will be most affected and my car will be pinned in unless those sewers are working.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I think the monitor for my Blair's system is shot. Going to have a look around and see if I can get another one.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the monitor for my Blair's system is shot. Going to have a look around and see if I can get another one.
Monitor? System?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Yep, I guess you're That Guy now.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Not only do I have to tell my neighbor thanks for all the years of cleaning out the sewers at the corner of the street, but let him know that in a perfect world the entire 3 block area around us owes him a debt of gratitude.
He lost a lot of his mobility with a back issue during the winter, and even with a shot he's not moving too well. So last night was the 2nd time I cleared out our sewers when they started to back up.
I woke up late this morning because yesterday was a long day and I didn't sleep very well. I look out the kitchen window and what do I see? Somebody bravely driving their coup through water so high I probably wouldn't have chanced it, two kids playing in the water with their parents yelling at them to stop, and the entire street is flooded and up about 15 feet on my property. My first thought was the city sewer was screwed up again!... but then I remembered the chaotic winds and near tornado yesterday and did the math...
A rake, some elbow grease, a pair of soaking shoes, socks and jeans and 45 minutes of my morning and the street is clear.
"If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." ~God, Futureama
But I know now...
And so does the entire family that mysteriously disappeared into their houses as soon as I got to work. Half of the work being on their side of the street.
And to think... I used to get pissed off at that neighbor for dumping 50 lbs of soaking wet helicopters on my grass in front of the sewer. I had no idea how much hassle he saved me over the years.
I guess I'm the reluctant Patriarch of the block now. I don't have any choice since my lawn will be most affected and my car will be pinned in unless those sewers are working.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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I passed.
I probably didn't even need to fix my emissions because of where the O2 sensors were located, but now that it's all over with I'm glad that this happened. The car runs so much better now, and that's with my temporary McGyver fix keeping it all together. I've got an appointment with a welding guy to do it all up proper. $50 to $100 depending on how difficult it will be... he didn't want to say for sure over the phone. My cut is clean. It will be easy. Hell... If I had a welding machine I'd do it myself and I've never welded before.
Just an FYI for anybody who ever needs a CAT test to initiate. Here's the steps that I took that I think ended up in a successful diagnostic, in order of importance:
1. FIND THE EXACT DRIVE CYCLE FOR YOUR MAKE, MODEL AND YEAR OF YOUR VEHICLE. Don't listen to what anybody on YouTube says, or even what mechanics say. They don't know. They couldn't possibly know because drive cycles are all over the freaking map.
Also, DON'T try any "tricks" with revving your engine up while in park for a few minutes at a time. This DID NOT WORK at all and I easily put 30 minutes on my car at 3,000RPM while in park, which might destroy a lesser engine than the bulletproof masterpieces the Japanese were putting out back in the 90's.
2. Buy an OBDII scanner. Even a $25 one that tells you basic codes and which tests have and have not completed will be super helpful. If you have the money, spend the extra cash for one with more monitoring features like temperature values on individual sensors (although in the end I didn't need this, and I knew as much once I did the research last night and read up on the service manual).
3. Dump a bunch of SeaFoam and Heet into your gas tank. The Caveat is that you probably don't need to do this if you have a newer car and you use good gasoline. Additives were much more necessary in the old days when there weren't as many government regulations on gas quality and vehicle construction. But if you haven't treated your car right in the past and/or filled up with cheap gasoline, it can't hurt to burn off a bad tank of gas with additives while trying to get the tests to initiate. SeaFoam does a great job cleaning up carbon deposits within the entire system, and Heet will get any water out of your tank from cheap gasoline.
4. Once your just about out of gas, fill it up with 93 Supreme at a place known to have good gasoline. Look online to find where good gasoline is by you.
5. Follow that drive cycle to the best of your ability. Don't worry if you have to stop and start up again in between. Contrary to the verbiage of the documentation that people post online, the actual drive cycle documentation tells you that this is OK to do. Just make sure you accelerate slowly and coast to stops in between and don't do any hard breaking.
That being said, give it quite a bit more time to complete than they tell you in the cycle before stopping and shutting your car off, especially for a trouble monitor like the CAT. You obviously bank some of that driving time at the correct speeds in between starting and stopping, but the documentation doesn't state anywhere how much or exactly how that works. It took me over 3 times as long to get the CAT monitor to read OK than the drive cycle was supposed to be. Had I turned off the car before it cleared I would have had to start from square one.
I actually hope this doesn't help anybody and nobody ever needs to be put through that stress and BS.
Oh... total cost to have 2 more years driving my car: $34 for flex pipe and clamps (the clamps I'll probably return after the weld). $30 for gas. 1 broken heavy metal sawzall blade, and another that I dulled to the point of ineffectiveness.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the monitor for my Blair's system is shot. Going to have a look around and see if I can get another one.
Monitor? System?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Sorry. I inherited my late guy's desktop computer when he died. I've got it all wired up here in my new place but the monitor doesn't want to cooperate, so I am thinking it is dead. I turned it one once in the crap place and the acer screen came up (as it is an acer monitor) then I turned it on once after I moved and it wouldn't read the hard drive. All I got was "no signal". Now, when I tried turning it on this week, nothing happened.
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Your computer boots up? Lights go on and fans go on?
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I got my car back! It was the gas tank.
YAY!! I have wheels!
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Your computer boots up? Lights go on and fans go on?
Yup, the drive works as far as I can tell.
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I'm wondering if you get a new monitor if you'll have the drivers (code) to run it, or even the video card. I think your computer might be pretty old. Maybe call up a computer place and let them know what you have and ask what they might recommend.
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Shouldn't have to worry about drivers for a monitor anymore these days, unless we're talking about a system so old it's still using Windows XP or something.
But if the computer doesn't have HDMI output which sounds extremely likely, you'd have to make sure that the new monitor has whatever input needed from the video card, or you'd have to buy a converter for it. 
DVI (top) or VGA (bottom) is most likely. I haven't bought a new computer monitor in about 5 years, so I don't know what they typically have these days, but mind has DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs.
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the monitor for my Blair's system is shot. Going to have a look around and see if I can get another one.
Monitor? System?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Sorry. I inherited my late guy's desktop computer when he died. I've got it all wired up here in my new place but the monitor doesn't want to cooperate, so I am thinking it is dead. I turned it one once in the crap place and the acer screen came up (as it is an acer monitor) then I turned it on once after I moved and it wouldn't read the hard drive. All I got was "no signal". Now, when I tried turning it on this week, nothing happened.
Is there a reason you think it's not reading the hard drive?
I'm only asking because it sounds like you're explaining a different problem and I'm not aware what your level of knowledge with computers is and I don't want to assume anything.
It does sound to me like your monitor or video card might be bad, or it could be just a bad cord. If the lights come on and the thing beeps like it's supposed to, chances are that it is booting up properly and getting to the operating system, but you're just not getting the signal to the screen.
First thing I would do is take out the cable from the computer and the monitor and put them back in and try to start it again. If there's no change, see if maybe somebody you know has an extra monitor you could try, or even an old flatscreen TV they don't use anymore (a lot of them have the same inputs needed for your computer these days).
If you can borrow one and it works, then try their monitor/TV using your cord too to see if your cord is bad.
Monitors have really come down in price these days. You could probably look at this as an opportunity to get yourself a larger screen than you were used to before. I thought I was in heaven when I bought my 27" monitor, but when I bought an old 40" flat screen TV from a buddy at the old job for $75 and used them both for a dual monitor setup on my computer, just wow.
Worst case scenario is if the video card is bad. You can get them really cheap in 2020 since you're not looking for any advanced 3D graphics to run the latest games... maybe $30-$35 tops, but you'd have to open the case and install it yourself or know somebody who can do it for you. You'd also have to buy the right kind to fit the slot on your motherboard... That actually got pretty tricky since they kept changing the nature of the slots that housed the video cards on motherboards as flat screen monitors made demand for higher bandwidth grow very fast. Buy the wrong one and it just won't fit.
Not terribly difficult to install after you got the right one, but I know that it can be daunting for somebody who's never done it before to have to open that case up.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I got my car back! It was the gas tank.
YAY!! I have wheels!
Congrats. I know how good that feels.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Shouldn't have to worry about drivers for a monitor anymore these days, unless we're talking about a system so old it's still using Windows XP or something.
But if the computer doesn't have HDMI output which sounds extremely likely, you'd have to make sure that the new monitor has whatever input needed from the video card, or you'd have to buy a converter for it.
DVI (top) or VGA (bottom) is most likely. I haven't bought a new computer monitor in about 5 years, so I don't know what they typically have these days, but mind has DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs.Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the monitor for my Blair's system is shot. Going to have a look around and see if I can get another one.
Monitor? System?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Sorry. I inherited my late guy's desktop computer when he died. I've got it all wired up here in my new place but the monitor doesn't want to cooperate, so I am thinking it is dead. I turned it one once in the crap place and the acer screen came up (as it is an acer monitor) then I turned it on once after I moved and it wouldn't read the hard drive. All I got was "no signal". Now, when I tried turning it on this week, nothing happened.
Is there a reason you think it's not reading the hard drive?
I'm only asking because it sounds like you're explaining a different problem and I'm not aware what your level of knowledge with computers is and I don't want to assume anything.
It does sound to me like your monitor or video card might be bad, or it could be just a bad cord. If the lights come on and the thing beeps like it's supposed to, chances are that it is booting up properly and getting to the operating system, but you're just not getting the signal to the screen.
First thing I would do is take out the cable from the computer and the monitor and put them back in and try to start it again. If there's no change, see if maybe somebody you know has an extra monitor you could try, or even an old flatscreen TV they don't use anymore (a lot of them have the same inputs needed for your computer these days).
If you can borrow one and it works, then try their monitor/TV using your cord too to see if your cord is bad.
Monitors have really come down in price these days. You could probably look at this as an opportunity to get yourself a larger screen than you were used to before. I thought I was in heaven when I bought my 27" monitor, but when I bought an old 40" flat screen TV from a buddy at the old job for $75 and used them both for a dual monitor setup on my computer, just wow.
Worst case scenario is if the video card is bad. You can get them really cheap in 2020 since you're not looking for any advanced 3D graphics to run the latest games... maybe $30-$35 tops, but you'd have to open the case and install it yourself or know somebody who can do it for you. You'd also have to buy the right kind to fit the slot on your motherboard... That actually got pretty tricky since they kept changing the nature of the slots that housed the video cards on motherboards as flat screen monitors made demand for higher bandwidth grow very fast. Buy the wrong one and it just won't fit.
Not terribly difficult to install after you got the right one, but I know that it can be daunting for somebody who's never done it before to have to open that case up.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
It doesn't have a video card as when my IT friend flipped it from Linux (which my Blair loved) back to Windows, he forgot that. I told him not to worry about it as I wanted to wait until I moved before really taking a stab it. NOW, that I have moved and all this flap happened I can't get a hold of him.
I saw my IT in
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Hey Brenda - just a real quick check for your monitor ... I can see there might be a couple places where it might not turn on at all - no power-on light. One is the power supply from the computer to the monitor. It seems you have an alternate computer that you're posting from. If it's not a laptop, you might try plugging the monitor into that other computer. You might also try changing out the power cord.
The other is that actual power switch itself on the monitor. Switches go bad! sort of. They develop oxidation and general crud on the contacts. You can fix that if you vigorously use the switch; that helps rub the crud off.
Oh, I found a good troubleshooting guide. You sound like you've already been through this, but I thought I'd post it anyway.
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000241.htm
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Dang, it was supposed to be cooler today but the max temp here was 94F (34C).
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - just a real quick check for your monitor ... I can see there might be a couple places where it might not turn on at all - no power-on light. One is the power supply from the computer to the monitor. It seems you have an alternate computer that you're posting from. If it's not a laptop, you might try plugging the monitor into that other computer. You might also try changing out the power cord.
The other is that actual power switch itself on the monitor. Switches go bad! sort of. They develop oxidation and general crud on the contacts. You can fix that if you vigorously use the switch; that helps rub the crud off.
Oh, I found a good troubleshooting guide. You sound like you've already been through this, but I thought I'd post it anyway.
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000241.htm
The monitor belongs with the desktop. What I use to type to you guys is a laptop.
The power button on the monitor maybe gone. When I press on it, it won't do anything and it used to make sort of a clicking sound when the monitor would turn on. The light on the button would then be blue.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I passed.
I probably didn't even need to fix my emissions because of where the O2 sensors were located, but now that it's all over with I'm glad that this happened. The car runs so much better now, and that's with my temporary McGyver fix keeping it all together. I've got an appointment with a welding guy to do it all up proper. $50 to $100 depending on how difficult it will be... he didn't want to say for sure over the phone. My cut is clean. It will be easy. Hell... If I had a welding machine I'd do it myself and I've never welded before.
Just an FYI for anybody who ever needs a CAT test to initiate. Here's the steps that I took that I think ended up in a successful diagnostic, in order of importance:
1. FIND THE EXACT DRIVE CYCLE FOR YOUR MAKE, MODEL AND YEAR OF YOUR VEHICLE. Don't listen to what anybody on YouTube says, or even what mechanics say. They don't know. They couldn't possibly know because drive cycles are all over the freaking map.
Also, DON'T try any "tricks" with revving your engine up while in park for a few minutes at a time. This DID NOT WORK at all and I easily put 30 minutes on my car at 3,000RPM while in park, which might destroy a lesser engine than the bulletproof masterpieces the Japanese were putting out back in the 90's.
2. Buy an OBDII scanner. Even a $25 one that tells you basic codes and which tests have and have not completed will be super helpful. If you have the money, spend the extra cash for one with more monitoring features like temperature values on individual sensors (although in the end I didn't need this, and I knew as much once I did the research last night and read up on the service manual).
3. Dump a bunch of SeaFoam and Heet into your gas tank. The Caveat is that you probably don't need to do this if you have a newer car and you use good gasoline. Additives were much more necessary in the old days when there weren't as many government regulations on gas quality and vehicle construction. But if you haven't treated your car right in the past and/or filled up with cheap gasoline, it can't hurt to burn off a bad tank of gas with additives while trying to get the tests to initiate. SeaFoam does a great job cleaning up carbon deposits within the entire system, and Heet will get any water out of your tank from cheap gasoline.
4. Once your just about out of gas, fill it up with 93 Supreme at a place known to have good gasoline. Look online to find where good gasoline is by you.
5. Follow that drive cycle to the best of your ability. Don't worry if you have to stop and start up again in between. Contrary to the verbiage of the documentation that people post online, the actual drive cycle documentation tells you that this is OK to do. Just make sure you accelerate slowly and coast to stops in between and don't do any hard breaking.
That being said, give it quite a bit more time to complete than they tell you in the cycle before stopping and shutting your car off, especially for a trouble monitor like the CAT. You obviously bank some of that driving time at the correct speeds in between starting and stopping, but the documentation doesn't state anywhere how much or exactly how that works. It took me over 3 times as long to get the CAT monitor to read OK than the drive cycle was supposed to be. Had I turned off the car before it cleared I would have had to start from square one.
I actually hope this doesn't help anybody and nobody ever needs to be put through that stress and BS.
Oh... total cost to have 2 more years driving my car: $34 for flex pipe and clamps (the clamps I'll probably return after the weld). $30 for gas. 1 broken heavy metal sawzall blade, and another that I dulled to the point of ineffectiveness.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
WOOHOO!!!!
SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!
I'll bet that's a load off your mind
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I got my car back! It was the gas tank.
YAY!! I have wheels!
ANOTHER WOO HOO!!!!
A good day for cars today!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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It does sound like the monitor BRENDA. Just make sure that you have actual power going to the monitor... there can be three "wires" going to the back of a standard monitor from the desktop, and one is a heavier power cable that has actual power connections on it, like a rwo or three-pronged plug and its inverse. For some reason, our monitor is kinda hinky and the power cable comes loose a little bit, so unplug and plug back in the connector from the PC to the cable and from the cable to the monitor.
Sorry if you've been thru that already, I have't had a chance to read all of the back-and-forth and in a bit of a hurry.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
It doesn't have a video card as when my IT friend flipped it from Linux (which my Blair loved) back to Windows, he forgot that. I told him not to worry about it as I wanted to wait until I moved before really taking a stab it. NOW, that I have moved and all this flap happened I can't get a hold of him.
It has to have video output. If there isn't a card, it has to be on the Motherboard. That would surprise me though. It sounds like this is a fairly old computer and having an onboard GPU would have been pretty pricey. It's a common thing for Laptops to have the GPU on the board, but desktops almost always use a video card, unless you've got one of those micro-PC units that are pretty tiny, or an all-in-one destop. In all the computers I've built over the years I've never owned a desktop that had on board graphics and always bought a video card for it.
Which plug of the two I posted above (or HDMI) goes into your monitor?
Quote:
I saw my IT in the local mall and hollered at him but he paid me no mind. So I called him and left a message. Granted I know he is busy and most like behind on stuff because of the lockdown. So, that means I am in a pickle.
I did try to rewiring of the monitor and put on the drive, it light up and beeped. The monitor did nothing when I tried to turn it on. So, I just rewired it the way I had it.
My knowledge is I know basically what the parts are of a hard drive but I don't totally trust myself to take it apart and put it back together.
Hmmmmmm... I hope the guy gets back in touch with you soon. I think we may be talking past each other, and without being able to see any pictures of your rig I can't really offer any assistance.
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
The monitor belongs with the desktop. What I use to type to you guys is a laptop.
The power button on the monitor maybe gone. When I press on it, it won't do anything and it used to make sort of a clicking sound when the monitor would turn on. The light on the button would then be blue.
Yeah... I can't really help you with that. Maybe try what Kiki suggested? I had two flat screens go bad on me over the years, and one of them sounds like what you're describing. But by the time mine went bad I either already got another hand-me-down from my brother or co-workers or bought a 2nd monitor that was bigger myself so I just threw them to the curb when they gave me trouble.
Good luck!
Oh... and if you do decide to get another monitor, you should ask your friends if they have a spare or go to Goodwill or a thrift shop first. These things have been out long enough now that you can get pretty nice ones that people got rid of because they went bigger and better. Just make sure you can plug it in and see that it at least turns on before you give them the cash.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
WOOHOO!!!!
SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!
I'll bet that's a load off your mind!
Thank you Sigs. You don't even know...
I was so excited about it that I've been up since 2:30 this morning and wasn't able to get back to sleep. By 7:00 I was outside working again.
I got the garage completely clean and organized. I still have tools in the house to integrate and I have to put together my core indoor set together, but it looks fantastic and I have easy access to everything and a huge 4' x 12' work bench that is completely cleared off with nothing in front of it blocking my way to actually being able to do work on top of it now!
I fixed a few things inside my car that haven't worked for years because for the first time I felt they were worthwhile to do. I vacuumed it and spent about 4 hours cleaning the insides of the window and getting 12 years of nicotine stains out of everything.
I tried to put the radio back in, but it's not working right. I have yet to determine if the radio went bad or if I have a ground problem with my car. Something to do for another day, but it's a damn shame because when it does work it reminds me of how much I missed having a radio in my car.
Oh, and I got the pipe welded too. Found a guy who did it for $35 at a legit shop and he did a great job. Told me if he didn't have to dick around with my temporary patch it would have only cost me $20.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It does sound like the monitor BRENDA. Just make sure that you have actual power going to the monitor... there can be three "wires" going to the back of a standard monitor from the desktop, and one is a heavier power cable that has actual power connections on it, like a rwo or three-pronged plug and its inverse. For some reason, our monitor is kinda hinky and the power cable comes loose a little bit, so unplug and plug back in the connector from the PC to the cable and from the cable to the monitor.
Sorry if you've been thru that already, I have't had a chance to read all of the back-and-forth and in a bit of a hurry.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
The monitor power cord is plugged in and the only cable I touched is the one that goes from the monitor to the hard drive.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
It doesn't have a video card as when my IT friend flipped it from Linux (which my Blair loved) back to Windows, he forgot that. I told him not to worry about it as I wanted to wait until I moved before really taking a stab it. NOW, that I have moved and all this flap happened I can't get a hold of him.Quote:
It has to have video output. If there isn't a card, it has to be on the Motherboard. That would surprise me though. It sounds like this is a fairly old computer and having an onboard GPU would have been pretty pricey. It's a common thing for Laptops to have the GPU on the board, but desktops almost always use a video card, unless you've got one of those micro-PC units that are pretty tiny, or an all-in-one destop. In all the computers I've built over the years I've never owned a desktop that had on board graphics and always bought a video card for it.
Which plug of the two I posted above (or HDMI) goes into your monitor?Quote:
It is a fairly old computer. Not sure how long he had it before I inherited it and the monitor is second hand as well. A friend brought it to him from his work place as they were getting some new monitors. I'll have to back and look at what you posted to then add it to this reply.Quote:
I saw my IT in the local mall and hollered at him but he paid me no mind. So I called him and left a message. Granted I know he is busy and most like behind on stuff because of the lockdown. So, that means I am in a pickle.
I did try to rewiring of the monitor and put on the drive, it light up and beeped. The monitor did nothing when I tried to turn it on. So, I just rewired it the way I had it.
My knowledge is I know basically what the parts are of a hard drive but I don't totally trust myself to take it apart and put it back together.
Quote:
Hmmmmmm... I hope the guy gets back in touch with you soon. I think we may be talking past each other, and without being able to see any pictures of your rig I can't really offer any assistance.
Me too. I could really kill him right now.
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
The monitor belongs with the desktop. What I use to type to you guys is a laptop.
The power button on the monitor maybe gone. When I press on it, it won't do anything and it used to make sort of a clicking sound when the monitor would turn on. The light on the button would then be blue.
Yeah... I can't really help you with that. Maybe try what Kiki suggested? I had two flat screens go bad on me over the years, and one of them sounds like what you're describing. But by the time mine went bad I either already got another hand-me-down from my brother or co-workers or bought a 2nd monitor that was bigger myself so I just threw them to the curb when they gave me trouble.
Good luck!
Oh... and if you do decide to get another monitor, you should ask your friends if they have a spare or go to Goodwill or a thrift shop first. These things have been out long enough now that you can get pretty nice ones that people got rid of because they went bigger and better. Just make sure you can plug it in and see that it at least turns on before you give them the cash.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I did try the flipping the cord around and I think all it did was mess up my lap top because it is all plugged into a power bar. I will look at some thrift shops if I decide to get one.
ETA: I had another look at the picture you posted and both ends sort of look like the cable I've got.
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Quote:Well, yesterday it was 98 at our house, so today's 93 seemed cooler!
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Dang, it was supposed to be cooler today but the max temp here was 94F (34C).
Did my usual one hour of yardwork. Today it was a combination of things... raking avocado leaves (STILL) in prep for weeding and mulching, taking apart an old Texas tomato cage that that rusted together, binning up weeds, tossing out palm flower stalks (greenwaste won't take them) and raking out the shredded-leaf mulch that we dumped under one of the avocados. Also went grocery shopping and mailed out some bill pays and made a couple of phone calls still trying to fix some bills that Medicare fucked up when they randomly changed their status from primary to secondary insurance. Also tried a very new chicken recipe on hubby who "hates chicken". this was an "oven fried" chicken but the secret to success is to marinade the chicken in milk/paprika/garlic/salt/sugar/bay leave mixture for a few hours, then coat it with an egg/mustard/garlic powder/fresh ground pepper mix, then roll it in a panko/parmesan/olive oil before baking. Also, I have learned over the years that chicken breast is dry and flavorless when overcooked, so I start the wings, thighs, and drumsticks 20 minutes early and bake the chicken breast for the shortest amount of time after that ... maybe 15 minutes. Served with cucumber salad and a tomato/parsley/oinion/s&p/vinegar/olive oil salad. It must have tasted good because family asked for seconds!
But the big cooldown is coming tomorrow ... 80 degrees. WOOHOO!
Just in time to be working in the garage. I love my hubby but this garage fixup is getting kinda ... old. In addition to my yardwork yesterday we replaced the last of the 6 flourescent tubes in the garage and also the 4 fluoresecent tubes in the kitchen with LED tubes plus we had to fix the thermostat in the livingroom because the batteries pooped out and the newer ones didn't quite reach the contacts, which had corroded. Long story.
Tomorrow I edge the lawn and cut down some large elephant ears that just sprang up (I sure didn't plant them!) and rake out the new flower garden. And then we put in the last two upper shelves. Maybe the brackets for the workbench too. And then I say fuckit and lay down and read a stupid woman's magazine!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Also, I harvested my very first "crop" from the garden, which was beet greens (from thinning), and parsley for the tomato salad. In the coming week it wll be basil for chicken parmagiana and pork tenderloin stir fry with basil and Thai red curry sauce. By late next week the zucchini will be ready to pick!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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I ... uh ... went grocery shopping today and ran a bunch of errands ... what I was going to do a couple of days ago when I discovered the gas tank leak ... and then when I got home the heat just knocked me out and I slept a fair bit of the evening.
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https://twnews.us/us-news/unusually-warm-may-contributes-to-expanding-
drought-in-the-west
Unusually warm May contributes to expanding drought in the West
The Western drought has continued to expand and intensify, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data released Thursday.
Wet late-spring weather resulted in a slight decrease in the area deemed to be in extreme drought in Northern California. Severe drought receded a little in parts of northeastern Utah and southwestern Washington. Unseasonably heavy precipitation, including high-elevation snow, fell in northeastern Utah, the Drought Monitor reported.
But conditions worsened east of the Cascades, and abnormal dryness spread into southeastern Arizona. Drought developed and intensified in northern and eastern New Mexico.
One factor in the expanding drought is the fact that May 2020 was the fifth-warmest May on record. This probably exacerbated the dryness and contributed to a number of wildfires, according to the Drought Monitor’s summary.
A ridge of high pressure over Alaska and the West Coast in the first half of May drove the warm temperatures in the West. Above-average temperatures extended from the Pacific Northwest to Texas and across parts of Florida. During the same period, parts of the East were unseasonably cold.
Persistent drought and warm temperatures in the West continue to fuel fears of an early fire season in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
May 2020 was the fourth-warmest May on record in Alaska, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Average ice extent during May on the Bering Sea was the highest since 2013 but was only 71% of the 1981-2010 average.
Cooler weather is expected to return to Southern California in the next few days after a spate of heat and what the National Weather Service called an unusual late-season Santa Ana condition. Temperatures may dip below average and some mountain showers are possible in Northern California.
But as UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain points out, there are already hints of the next big heatwave on the horizon for the last 10 days of June. Whereas the recent bout of heat primarily affected Central and Southern California, the broad ridge of high pressure that may be in the offing for late June could encompass the entire West Coast.
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Nice. It dipped down into the 60s last night and we've got a few days break from the heat. (Not heat like y'all are having in California though... glad to hear that you're getting a break from it). I don't mind cooler weather as long as it doesn't mean it's going to rain 3 inches every day. So far so good.
I'm going to do some final touches on the garage and figure out exactly which tools I want to keep in the house. I forgot until late last night I have a new large tool bag from a Craftsman 2-pack that came along with all the other free stuff I got when I bought the new shop vac. I want to have a good core tool set in there and keep it in my car for future jobs on the go.
Man... I've even got my car working for me now, with only the various stuff I ever use in there and everything else either thrown out or put somewhere it belongs in the house or the garage.
If my main tool bench wasn't so huge and I didn't have another smaller one on the other side, I'd easily be able to fit two vehicles in my garage now.
By the end of the weekend I have to make up my mind on whether or not I can fix that power washer. It would probably last the rest of my life if I could and would be far more powerful than anything I'd be willing to buy to replace it. I need it for a few waterproofing projects on the house, and I'm going to need it to clean the cracks in the garage and shed before I seal them up, as well as the cracks in the asphalt driveway before I give that a nice black top seal coat. My old man says I've got the rest of the outside looking so nice I'd probably add $10k to the property value just by making that driveway look nice.
Sounds like you're doing great work Sigs. Keep it up. And remember to break down huge goals into smaller ones so you have things to celebrate along the way.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Brenda,
I think I see what's going on. You were confusing me with "hard drive".
This is a hard drive in a Desktop Computer: 
The hard drive is the part of the computer that stores all of the information the computer needs to run and can also store your music, movies, pictures and any programs you install. They are quite large in desktops compared to the ones found in laptops.
You don't plug anything directly into the hard drive. There are two "outlets" on a hard drive, but one is for power and the other is for the data connection, and they both plug into different parts of your computer's motherboard internally. If you don't ever open your case, you won't ever interact with the hard drive.
What you're talking about is what I just call the "Case". Other names for it are the Chassis, Tower or Cabinet. It's the enclosure that holds and protects all of the electronic parts. The Motherboard, the CPU, the memory, the hard drive, the video/sound card, etc.
When you're plugging the cable from the monitor into the Case, you're plugging it into the video output from the Video Card.
Quote:
I did try the flipping the cord around and I think all it did was mess up my lap top because it is all plugged into a power bar. I will look at some thrift shops if I decide to get one.
It messed up your "lap top"? Just checking here because I thought we were talking about your desktop.
If we are still talking about your desktop computer, unless some random freak occurrence happened because of some faulty wiring in the cable, reversing which side went into your case and the monitor didn't hurt anything. The only time any sort of polarity problems could occur when wiring something to a computer has always been accounted for and before they made newer tech we take for granted today that are completely reversible they would make different sized ends for cables to ensure they weren't put in the wrong way. Your display cables can go either way without any problems.
Quote:
ETA: I had another look at the picture you posted and both ends sort of look like the cable I've got.
My mistake. I shouldn't have posted a picture of adapters and caused more confusion. Here's a picture of the actual cables:
(DVI is on the Left, VGA is on the Right.
DVI is rectangular and one of the prongs is a "line" instead of just pins. VGA is all pins, and is shorter on the bottom than it is on top and the sides are angled).
If you do buy a new monitor, you're going to need to know which one that your computer uses or you will not be able to plug it in. Well, you can, but you'll need to get an adapter (like the ones I posted before). They should be a lot cheaper than they are, but they are one of those products that have an obscene price markup, especially in brick and mortar stores. You'd be able to get it a lot cheaper online, but I know you don't have the ability to order stuff online. So it's better just to figure out which one you have and make sure the monitor you get will support it. Most monitors will probably support both, but I haven't been in the market for a long time and that might not be true anymore. Both VGA and DVI are aging technology now and if manufacturers what to shave production costs to make their monitor cheaper they might opt to cut one or both of them and just go with HDMI since that's becoming the new universal standard for video/audio output.
If you have the ability to do so, you can take a picture of where you plug the monitor cable into your case and just take that with you and make sure the new monitor has the same connector. (Since it's an old computer, I think we can assume
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Out for my walk in the rain. Yuck!
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hey Brenda,
I think I see what's going on. You were confusing me with "hard drive".
This is a hard drive in a Desktop Computer:
The hard drive is the part of the computer that stores all of the information the computer needs to run and can also store your music, movies, pictures and any programs you install. They are quite large in desktops compared to the ones found in laptops.
You don't plug anything directly into the hard drive. There are two "outlets" on a hard drive, but one is for power and the other is for the data connection, and they both plug into different parts of your computer's motherboard internally. If you don't ever open your case, you won't ever interact with the hard drive.
What you're talking about is what I just call the "Case". Other names for it are the Chassis, Tower or Cabinet. It's the enclosure that holds and protects all of the electronic parts. The Motherboard, the CPU, the memory, the hard drive, the video/sound card, etc.
When you're plugging the cable from the monitor into the Case, you're plugging it into the video output from the Video Card.Quote:
I did try the flipping the cord around and I think all it did was mess up my lap top because it is all plugged into a power bar. I will look at some thrift shops if I decide to get one.
It messed up your "lap top"? Just checking here because I thought we were talking about your desktop.
If we are still talking about your desktop computer, unless some random freak occurrence happened because of some faulty wiring in the cable, reversing which side went into your case and the monitor didn't hurt anything. The only time any sort of polarity problems could occur when wiring something to a computer has always been accounted for and before they made newer tech we take for granted today that are completely reversible they would make different sized ends for cables to ensure they weren't put in the wrong way. Your display cables can go either way without any problems.Quote:
ETA: I had another look at the picture you posted and both ends sort of look like the cable I've got.
My mistake. I shouldn't have posted a picture of adapters and caused more confusion. Here's a picture of the actual cables:
(DVI is on the Left, VGA is on the Right.
DVI is rectangular and one of the prongs is a "line" instead of just pins. VGA is all pins, and is shorter on the bottom than it is on top and the sides are angled).
If you do buy a new monitor, you're going to need to know which one that your computer uses or you will not be able to plug it in. Well, you can, but you'll need to get an adapter (like the ones I posted before). They should be a lot cheaper than they are, but they are one of those products that have an obscene price markup, especially in brick and mortar stores. You'd be able to get it a lot cheaper online, but I know you don't have the ability to order stuff online. So it's better just to figure out which one you have and make sure the monitor you get will support it. Most monitors will probably support both, but I haven't been in the market for a long time and that might not be true anymore. Both VGA and DVI are aging technology now and if manufacturers what to shave production costs to make their monitor cheaper they might opt to cut one or both of them and just go with HDMI since that's becoming the new universal standard for video/audio output.
If you have the ability to do so, you can take a picture of where you plug the monitor cable into your case and just take that with you and make sure the new monitor has the same connector. (Since it's an old computer, I think we can assume that it&NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Flipside, this thing seems to have completed its updates the other night or so ago. Thank goodness.
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A chiropractor, a chiropractor. My kingdom for a chiropractor.
My neck is so out of whack that the little vitamin D capsule that I take got sort of stuck in my throat. Took several swallows of water to get it going. Arrrgghhh!!!
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My phone's been busy tonight.
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Quote:
1KIKI: Dang, it was supposed to be cooler today but the max temp here was 94F (34C).
SIGNY: Well, yesterday it was 98 at our house, so today's 93 seemed cooler!
Did my usual one hour of yardwork. Today it was a combination of things... raking avocado leaves (STILL) in prep for weeding and mulching, taking apart an old Texas tomato cage that that rusted together, binning up weeds, tossing out palm flower stalks (greenwaste won't take them) and raking out the shredded-leaf mulch that we dumped under one of the avocados. Also went grocery shopping and mailed out some bill pays and made a couple of phone calls still trying to fix some bills that Medicare fucked up when they randomly changed their status from primary to secondary insurance. Also tried a very new chicken recipe on hubby who "hates chicken". this was an "oven fried" chicken but the secret to success is to marinade the chicken in milk/paprika/garlic/salt/sugar/bay leave mixture for a few hours, then coat it with an egg/mustard/garlic powder/fresh ground pepper mix, then roll it in a panko/parmesan/olive oil before baking. Also, I have learned over the years that chicken breast is dry and flavorless when overcooked, so I start the wings, thighs, and drumsticks 20 minutes early and bake the chicken breast for the shortest amount of time after that ... maybe 15 minutes. Served with cucumber salad and a tomato/parsley/oinion/s&p/vinegar/olive oil salad. It must have tasted good because family asked for seconds!
But the big cooldown is coming tomorrow ... 80 degrees. WOOHOO!
Just in time to be working in the garage. I love my hubby but this garage fixup is getting kinda ... old. In addition to my yardwork yesterday we replaced the last of the 6 flourescent tubes in the garage and also the 4 fluoresecent tubes in the kitchen with LED tubes plus we had to fix the thermostat in the livingroom because the batteries pooped out and the newer ones didn't quite reach the contacts, which had corroded. Long story.
Tomorrow I edge the lawn and cut down some large elephant ears that just sprang up (I sure didn't plant them!) and rake out the new flower garden. And then we put in the last two upper shelves. Maybe the brackets for the workbench too. And then I say fuckit and lay down and read a stupid woman's magazine!
As usual, I over-anticipated what I could accomplish. I managed to cut down the elephant ears (there were three, not two, and I had to use a bow-saw to do it) but did not manage to dig them out. One of them was so happy where is was that it was about to flower but ... sorry, dude/ette, you were blocking the sunshine for the plants that I want.
After that it was all garage-work. We managed to put up brackets and shelves for the two over-workbench shelving, so at this point the last thing to do is attach the brackets to the 16' plywood wall-patch, and then wait on the plywood so we can put the workbench in. After that, I truly hope that is the end of the garage-reconfiguration that requires our help, at least for a while, because I have projects of my own to complete.
*****
KIKI, I've been thinking about our common problem of which tree to plant. I suggest Catalina Island cherry. It has a much more upright habit than hollyleaf cherry, is evergreen and wildlife-friendly.
Unfortunately, I already planted three Catalina Island cherries on the property line (to block the view of some ugly, ugly McMansions that a developer put up, shade the property, and create that "outdoor room" configuration that I like; it looks like they're going to do the job) so I feel like I need some sort of alternate. I tend to like the channel island species better. Ironwood maybe? https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/woodlands.htm
Single-leaf pinyon pine (pinus monophylla) perhaps?
http://www.californiagardens.com/Plant_Pages/pinus_monophylla.htm
*****
On a health-related note: Several weeks ago I tried drinking Earl Grey tea, and had a bad, bad reaction to it: "
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A new tree I never heard of! How did you dig this up?
So I checked it out a bit -
Lynothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius has the multiple leaflets that almost look like a legume-tree (like acacia, mesquite, caesalpinia, mimosa, fairy duster, and palo verde) ... but ... aren't.
It's a pretty tree 
with lovely flowers
My heavy clay soil would not do well by it, I think, but your soil would be great!
I'm glad you figured out what was giving you pain, Signy!
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