What did you do today? - 2020 version

[Souschef]

Actually last evening. We grilled 2 of those bacon burgers, topped off with tomatoes from our plants. After dinner we went down to the little oasis DW created between our cars and the storage shed. She put in two lattice planters for privacy, and 2 baker's racks filled with small succulents. We sat there listening to music enjoying our wine and looking at the fire from our new vertical fire pit. It doesn't get much better than that.

The fire pit is really nice, and it uses those one pound propane bottles. I bought spare refillable bottles and a kit to refill them from a 20 pound BBQ tank

[Walt34]

Offered up my annual prayer of thanks to Willis Carrier, widely credited with inventing a practical commercially available air conditioner. Today hit 98° F and we both lounged around in our comfortably cool and dehumidified home, luxuriating in the simple joy of not having to work, especially outside, today.

I did do some hedge trimming at 9:30 AM while it was still cool enough to be bearable, and hopefully not too early to annoy the neighbors with the two-stroke engines on the hedge trimmer and vacuum. Both ran for less than 15 minutes so it shouldn't have been too bad.

[Clone]

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.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 So what? Animal control SHOULD have been notified and the animal SHOULD be quarantined and if her insurance rates go up maybe, just maybe, the danged stupid irresponsible fool will keep control of her mangy mutt in the future.

I can go along with "danged stupid irresponsible fool", but "mangy mutt" is pretty judgemental in my opinion. It could have been a very well groomed and well bred canine. I didn't see any pictures or papers.

[braumeister]

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.

The doctors at this practice are all truly excellent, but their administrative machinery is horrible. I had to spend a good 15 minutes last evening going through their online check-in procedure, and when I showed up they couldn't find it so they asked me to fill it all out again on paper. I refused and was ready to walk out until they relented.

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.

[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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBAustin 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clone 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by O2Bfree ......... 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover 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-...july-2020.html