What did you do today? - 2020 version

[Sue J]

I just participated in an online focus group. It was about a local Medicare Advantage Plan. They weren't trying to get us to enroll, it was watching 3 different ad campaigns and answering questions and commenting on what we liked or didn't like, what parts motivated us to call for more info, etc. It was very interesting and took an hour of my time.

In 2015 I participated in another focus group from the same insurance company. That one was in a local office building. There were 8 of us at a conference table with a coordinator and one wall was a mirror so I knew we were being watched. That one was about how we decided on that company for our ObamaCare insurance. We were given sandwiches and drinks and a $100 dollar bill on the way out. No SSN needed, no 1099 issued.

This time it was done from home online in a chat session that included pictures of ad materials and videos of possible commercials with different story lines. I don't know how many of us were participating but we made comments and then took polls based on everyone's comments, do you agree or disagree? Many folks were concerned about the network limitations. We were asked if the ad motivated you to call for more info. We were not asked anything about original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.

Instead of the $100 bill on the way out the door the payment this time is a $125 Amazon gift card in email. Almost as good as cash!

 

[O2Bfree]

Went for my eye exam this morning. Every two years with an excellent ophthalmologist. For various reasons, I need the professional checkup on a regular basis.

This seems like a good idea for most people. I know two people who've had retinal cancer. Neither had symptoms, the cancer was discovered on a routine eye exam. One fella lost his eye and the other lost sight in the eye, but both kept their lives.

This morning I took my mom to the peridontist for part two of a procedure to save a badly decayed tooth. One more trip to her dentist later this month to get the temporary filling replaced, then hopefully she'll be done with that. She'll be 91 later this month, but in spite of her age the dentist wanted to see if the tooth could be saved. It's run her about $1500 so far...

Biked to the beach this afternoon to meet up with a friend I haven't seen since the virus thing hit. Enjoyed some rare PNW sunshine, and was surprised at how many people were there on a Monday afternoon. Maybe some got today off work for the 4th holiday.

 

[Ronstar]

Got my first Medicare bill. Not on Medicare Until August, but at least I got the bill.

 

[Souschef]

Today was a wonderful day. We went back to our secret Central California beach spot to set up our day camp again. To get there you drive up a dead end road and through a tunnel under the freeway to our spot overlooking the beach.
We had our chairs, umbrella, TV tray, and cooler. The entertainment was provided by feeding some ground squirrels pumpkin seeds we had brought with us.
Someone on a Senior forum posted a photo of Brighton Beach in England, where you would have had to walk over people to get to the water.

 

[MBAustin]

Well, now I understand how people can spend a lot of time on genealogy! DBIL did a really nice job with my family this spring (he had run out of things to do with his own family as they have it complete back to the Mayflower and before). He found about 180 people for my family tree! I finally got the software installed on my computer and started messing around with it today. I added a bunch of photos and obituaries I had on my computer, added details on a few people, and figured out (finally) the relationship between a friend from HS who I knew was related (2nd cousin on my mother's side). I've been working on it for several hours and realize I'm going to have to set a time limit each day. Once I get more photos and documents loaded, I'll send reports to my sister and cousins.

 

[braumeister]

figured out (finally) the relationship between a friend from HS who I knew was related (2nd cousin on my mother's side).

So many twists and turns!
It took me years to figure out a couple of relationships.

 

[tmm99]

Then when I walked in the building, I had my temperature taken and was asked the usual screening questions. No problem there, but they made me take off my N95 mask and put on one of their regular masks "because we don't know about your mask and we have to protect our staff". Just insane. I'm glad it will be another two years before I have to go back.

I was thinking about my N95 mask in the same vein (It has an exhaust valve. The kind you wear when you want to sand something...), as N95 mask would protect the wearer, but not sure if they protect others around them. I don't feel quite comfortable with a regular surgical mask, so I'm thinking of wearing a surgical mask over my N95 (which I"ve seen people do) if I was asked to wear a surgical mask. I should probably practice in advance to make sure I'm OK wearing both. I almost passed out wearing the N95 mask at the beginning, but I am totally fine with it now, so I think I'll be alright adding a surgical mask on top.

 

[tmm99]

Today was a wonderful day. We went back to our secret Central California beach spot to set up our day camp again. To get there you drive up a dead end road and through a tunnel under the freeway to our spot overlooking the beach.
We had our chairs, umbrella, TV tray, and cooler. The entertainment was provided by feeding some ground squirrels pumpkin seeds we had brought with us.
Someone on a Senior forum posted a photo of Brighton Beach in England, where you would have had to walk over people to get to the water.

WOW! Wonderful!! I would feel totally comfortable in a place like that.

 

[Walt34]

Mowed about a third of the yard and then quit because of the heat. I'll do the last third tomorrow morning, did the first third yesterday. Given the forecast I won't be mowing at all for several more weeks.

Took some still photos of an R/C airplane showing the TV camera install (cheap and simple) in anticipation of making a video later on. Simple hot glue holds the camera in place. That camera/TV transmitter combo costs about $16 on Amazon, just amazingly cheap but of course not very sharp resolution at that price. For my purposes it doesn't matter. I have to wonder how small they get if you spend a few hundred.

That workbench is about 40 years old, made of framing lumber and bought at the old Hechinger's Hardware, a DC regional hardware chain similar to Lowes or Home Depot now. I bought three of those kits at ~$40 each spaced out. You could put a couple of engine blocks on each one, wouldn't strain it a bit. According to the inflation calculator at bls.gov that's about $132 now. It didn't seem that much at the time.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I made some more progress on our Swedish death cleaning today by taking a big trunk load of clutter to Goodwill. The attendant was very happy and said they usually didn't get such high quality items. One's man's trash really is another man's treasure. Many of the charity shops here are filling up and not accepting donations so I was happy to find a good home for our clutter.

Since the pandemic, I've gotten rid of two car trunks full of clutter to Goodwill, a trunk full of old electronics to the recycling center, and 4 extra garbage / recycling cans worth of stuff above and beyond our normal weekly trash. I'm not done yet, but I feel like that has been good progress.

 

[O2Bfree]

Went to one of my mom's storage units and discovered it had been broken into. She had two safes in there: a full-size gun safe full of coins, many valuable, that dad had collected over many years, and another smaller safe containing jewelry and some cash. Both safes had been cut into and the contents removed. We could not believe it. The units look easy to break into once you get into the building, but how could someone use power tools to break into TWO safes without being noticed?? So much for "Secure Storage".

She had insurance on her units but apparently did not read the contract because it does not cover money or jewelry. We can probably recover the cost of the safes and a couple other things that were taken, but that's it.

Well, I guess that crosses off some of the stuff in storage that we'll have to deal with when my mom passes. I was recently complaining about this, again, on another thread...I guess someone heard me!

 

[Hermit]

Repaired a rock chip on the windshield of the SUV. Used the Rain-X repair kit from Amazon. Very pleased with the results. There is enough resin for several more repairs, so I will definitely take it to Arizona with us. It had probably been 20 years since I had a chipped windshield, and then we had one chip 18 months ago and another 5 months ago. Both times in Phoenix.

You obviously don't own a Jeep Wrangler nor live at the other end of a very long dirt road! I do in both cases and can't remember when I haven't had at least one rock chip in the windshield. The windshield gets replaced about every two years.

 

[travelover]

......... The units look easy to break into once you get into the building, but how could someone use power tools to break into TWO safes without being noticed?? So much for "Secure Storage".

.....

Inside job. Who else would know to look there and bring tools?

 

[O2Bfree]

Inside job. Who else would know to look there and bring tools?

That came to my mind too. There was as management change in March, which adds suspicion.

As far as knowing what's in the unit, I suppose someone could use a mirror on a stick to look over the gap at the top of the units. Other than that, I can't think of a time when we had the door open and someone walked by...except for the manager who came by to tell us long-time customers that he was leaving, and who probably saw us put the safes in there years ago.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

This morning I got up before 4:00 AM to catch Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) as it rose above the trees a bit before 5:00. It's a bright, naked-eye comet with a tail pointing up about 5 degrees. If you've never seen a good comet, this one's worth it. Look to the northeast before dawn these next few days.

Edit to add link, and to say that it will move to the evening sky in the next week: https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visibility-july-2020.html

 

[braumeister]

Nice. I need to do that.
Best one I've ever seen was Hale-Bopp in 97.
Saw Halley's in 86 in South America, but it was very disappointing.

 

[Souschef]

Ordered two 32 GB Scandisk chips. Loaded all our trip pics (19 GB) in each of them. We have 2 photo frames and put one in each photo frame.
It is fun to watch a few minutes at a time and discuss where we were

 

[O2Bfree]

This morning I got up before 4:00 AM to catch Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) as it rose above the trees a bit before 5:00. It's a bright, naked-eye comet with a tail pointing up about 5 degrees. If you've never seen a good comet, this one's worth it. Look to the northeast before dawn these next few days.

Edit to add link, and to say that it will move to the evening sky in the next week: https://www.space.com/comet-neowise-visibility-july-2020.html

DH and I happened to be up then and he remembered about the comet. The sky was actually clear to the NW, and NEOWISE was easy to spot. Very cool! I remember when Hale-Bopp was visible for quite a while in 1997. Hale-Bopp got its name from its discoverers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. NEOWISE for some reason was named after the telescope used to discover it, the Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer.

We still have a Hale-Bopp commemorative shot glass that came with a bottle of Yukon Jack. I don't see one for NEOWISE, but will be on the look out. Might have to toast the ice ball with a mixed drink though, instead of straight up as in 1997.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Hale-Bopp got its name from its discoverers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. NEOWISE for some reason was named after the telescope used to discover it, the Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer.

Actually, most comets these days are basically discovered by machines, not humans, so this one was named for its discoverer, NEOWISE.

This one isn't as good as Hale-Bopp was, but it's the best one since then.

 

[Gumby]

Drove from our vacation house in Maine back home to Connecticut. Traffic was lighter than most years.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am still alive and well, and still hiding from the COVID virus, plus the hot weather here. It is 116F (47C) here today.

Been babysitting my solar system and its battery. Bought an additional 2.6 kW worth of panels to add to the installed 5.5-kW array. Did not want to climb on the roof to install the new panels in the heat (I ran out of room to do another ground mount), so just laid out 7 new panels on the pool deck perimeter, and ran some jury-rigged wires from them to a new additional charge controller.

I thought I would have plenty of juice for that 2nd mini-split, and I do, but there is not much excess power to store in the 22-kWh battery to carry through the night. One day, when the high of the day was a mere 105F and the low in the morning was 80F, the battery had enough charge to run the house through the night until sunrise again. Son of a gun! But that is not true anymore, when the high is more than 115F (46C) and the low is 90F (32C). Man, that is hot. Now, I run out of solar juice at around 9PM, and everything switches back to the grid.

Still, I have quite a bit of shading due to my own 2-story home and the neighbor's tree, so will have a bit more juice when I install the additional panels on the roof, instead of laying them around the pool as I do now.

And in order to store more juice, I just acquired another 7 kWh worth of lithium battery. It will not be until next summer that I know if the panels produce enough juice to fill up the total storage of 29 kWh. In any case, a bigger battery will not be worked as hard in terms of charging/discharging cycle depth, and will last longer. More is always good. Same with battery as with money.

PS. I saw the sad news that Khan passed away. RIP.

 

[W2R]

Voted! Today we had the Presidential Primary elections for both parties, here in Louisiana.

The people working at the polls were dressed in very professional looking scrubs, masks, and gloves, and gave each voter a big disinfecting wipe to use, plus they already individually disinfected each pen given out for voters to sign in. I was very impressed with their thorough anti-COVID19 measures.

There were only about 4-5 other voters there, and by the time we were signed in and ready to vote there were voting machines immediately available. So, we were in and out of there pretty quickly.

We didn't vote by mail, because we are concerned about mail-in ballots considering Louisiana's legendary reputation for political corruption. The politics of Louisiana are known for its entrenched corruption and populism. Probably a silly worry but we wanted to go in person.

 

[Ronstar]

Drove from our vacation house in Maine back home to Connecticut. Traffic was lighter than most years.

Did you have to do a 14 day quarantine when you got to Maine?

 

[Music Lover]

Helped shingle my brother's house today...payback from when he helped me do my house last month. His was a lot more work as it was a 6/12 pitch with a lot of 1"x6"x8' sheathing that needed replacing. Plus there was a poorly constructed addition (previous owner) that needed a lot of repair, new flashing, etc.

I quit after 6 hours as we have plans tonight but we got all the repair work done, membrane laid, vents and flashing replaced, and about a third of the shingles done. The rest will be easy and they can manage on their own.

 

[Freedom56]

It's 104 degrees in the shade today. So sitting by the pool with my laptop listening to Bryan Adams, Billy Idol, Level 42, and other music from the 80's. The water temperature is 86 degrees so we will be cooling off in the water.