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Old 09-15-2020, 12:05 PM   #1661
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staying inside for the past week due to fire and air quality. AQI 375 right now.
You would think the house would be spotless! But, no.
Even with doors and windows shut tight, smokey smell still permeates some days. Cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

To those of you in the Hurricane Sally area, stay safe.
Wish you could send some rain this way.
Not sure if you have any air filtration built into your home. We don't, and I started feeling those symptoms yesterday so I'm trying to do some filtering with an 18" x 20" furnace filter duct-taped to a box fan. It does seem to be helping some. Couldn't hurt, and the filter was just $8.88 at Walmart.
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Old 09-15-2020, 12:33 PM   #1662
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O2Bfree--
Yes, thank you. We have a higher MERV filter on our furnace and I am running the fan. Just changed the filter 3 weeks ago and again today.
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Old 09-15-2020, 12:48 PM   #1663
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O2Bfree--
Just changed the filter 3 weeks ago and again today.
What did the 3-week-old filter look like? (Just curious.)
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Old 09-15-2020, 01:43 PM   #1664
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staying inside for the past week due to fire and air quality. AQI 375 right now.
You would think the house would be spotless! But, no.
Even with doors and windows shut tight, smokey smell still permeates some days. Cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

To those of you in the Hurricane Sally area, stay safe.
Wish you could send some rain this way.
One trick I learned years ago is you can use a regular portable fan to clean the air in a room. Just point the fan away from you at a wall. The impurities in the air will stick to the wall. We are getting by with just fans now as we loaned our air cleaner to our dd family.
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Old 09-15-2020, 03:36 PM   #1665
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AM Dr. appointment, routine follow up, all's well except my sodium is high. Last time it was low. Gee, I can't win. Okay, drink more water. And to top it off they were out of flu shots so I'll have to back or get it elsewhere. No biggie yet, it's still early in the season but that sounds like a warning not to dawdle getting it.

More yard work, finished up with the largest areas that I had planned on jackhammering and tilling/seeding this year. I'll do some smaller areas but not to the same depth and see what happens.
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Old 09-15-2020, 04:24 PM   #1666
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It looks like Hurricane Sally isn't going to affect us. Our hurricane warning, flood warning, tornado warning, are gone and the only warning left is a storm surge warning so we are pretty much "home free" now. Well, our massive flood gates are still closed, but that will probably last until Sally dissipates.

2020 is beginning to wear on us, as it might be doing to some others here perhaps. Old folks like Frank and me remember the good old days and it's hard not to lose hope for the future. "What's next?" we think.

Today we went on a 30+ minute pleasure drive throughout nearby suburbs, trying to lessen the 2020 angst. While driving we talked about happiness and what we can do to be more happy, within the constraints/rules we have when living in 2020. Life goes on! And we might as well enjoy retirement as much as we safely can.
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Old 09-15-2020, 04:58 PM   #1667
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The young wife and I were discussing this at dinner last night. This is not exactly the retirement we contemplated. But I'd still rather go through this year as a retired person than as a working person. It has been relatively easy for us to cope with the restrictions and life is still good.
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Old 09-15-2020, 05:39 PM   #1668
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I'm glad I'm retired for sure!

If I was working I'd be worried about losing my job as well as getting the covid. Since my job was supporting field sales and in house customer support I can just see myself trying to do wiring / soldering / crimping to spec drawings with a friggin' mask on.
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Old 09-15-2020, 05:41 PM   #1669
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The young wife and I were discussing this at dinner last night. This is not exactly the retirement we contemplated. But I'd still rather go through this year as a retired person than as a working person. It has been relatively easy for us to cope with the restrictions and life is still good.
I'd rather live under a bridge and eat worms to survive, than to go back to work. I can't honestly go as far as you, though, and claim that it has been easy to cope with the restrictions. We do what we must do, but often it's hard. Well, harder at some times than at other times, I suppose. Oddly, what seems hard for one of us to bear is not hard for the other, and vice versa. And also, extraneous stresses (like the hurricane) seem to make everything worse.

I think the key to happiness for us in 2020 is to pay attention to what new activities might make us happier, yet still safe. We tend to rely upon the same old hobbies and activities and that can get boring.
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Old 09-15-2020, 07:37 PM   #1670
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It looks like Hurricane Sally isn't going to affect us. Our hurricane warning, flood warning, tornado warning, are gone and the only warning left is a storm surge warning so we are pretty much "home free" now. Well, our massive flood gates are still closed, but that will probably last until Sally dissipates.

2020 is beginning to wear on us, as it might be doing to some others here perhaps. Old folks like Frank and me remember the good old days and it's hard not to lose hope for the future. "What's next?" we think.

Today we went on a 30+ minute pleasure drive throughout nearby suburbs, trying to lessen the 2020 angst. While driving we talked about happiness and what we can do to be more happy, within the constraints/rules we have when living in 2020. Life goes on! And we might as well enjoy retirement as much as we safely can.
I am so glad you were not affected by Sally. DW and I did almost the same thing as you. We packed a lunch and went to our secret place on the ocean, Listened to Pandora, ate lunch, fed the ground squirrels, and just enjoyed being outside.
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Old 09-15-2020, 07:39 PM   #1671
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I am so glad you were not affected by Sally. DW and I did almost the same thing as you. We packed a lunch and went to our secret place on the ocean, Listened to Pandora, ate lunch, fed the ground squirrels, and just enjoyed being outside.
Thank you.

That sounds lovely, and peaceful! What a great idea. We thought of going to the park, but like the boat launch area where we do our birdwatching, the park was closed.
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Old 09-16-2020, 08:04 AM   #1672
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Picked our first Moon and Stars watermelon from the garden this morning. 16.5 lbs. It looks good. We'll see how it tastes tonight. I am particularly happy, as it was a volunteer. We may ditch the old Black Diamond variety that we have been growing.

20200916_095218.jpeg
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Old 09-16-2020, 08:14 AM   #1673
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Picked our first Moon and Stars watermelon from the garden this morning. 16.5 lbs. It looks good. We'll see how it tastes tonight. I am particularly happy, as it was a volunteer. We may ditch the old Black Diamond variety that we have been growing.
Looks nice. Perfect end of summer fruit.
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Old 09-16-2020, 08:48 AM   #1674
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Participated in a charity golf match yesterday. Normally I volunteer and help with participant registration and various merchandise sales/contests/giveaways before tee-off, and I get to play in the tournament. This year due to the pandemic, the pre and post tournament activities were greatly curtailed so no need for my volunteering. However the organizers were still kind enough to invite the group of us who had volunteered for those activities in the past to play in the tournament.

The covid rules made things a little different. instead of serving lunch in the restaurant before the tournament, they had a cookout where they cooked and bagged your meal. You could eat it anywhere outside, so of course there were lots of space to spread out. 2 to a cart, but the group I was in we have played together over the summer and stayed safe, so we felt comfortable around each other, just masking up when we actually rode in the cart. Instead of the post round dinner and prize raffle, dinner was brought to us on the course, and raffles were set up at various holes.

The weather was excellent, the course is on a river bank so we had spectacular views. All in all a great way to spend a day.
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Old 09-18-2020, 01:04 PM   #1675
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Went to the gym for the first time since April. They've limited capacity to 25%, which is plenty for morning - noon attendance. In the weight training areas, a few people wore masks all the time and the rest either had them on but pulled down or didn't have one. Saw a couple people doing cardio with masks on. The gym provides a spray bottle of disinfectant and asks that you wipe down equipment before and after using it. Racquetball and basketball courts, pool, and sauna, and showers are closed, and group fitness classes are canceled. The management has made good use of the racquetball courts by putting one spin bike in each court. Didn't see any of my gym buddies, but talked with both of the long-time custodians. They were out of work April-August, but pulled through ok thanks to stimulus money.

Edit to add: Air quality is still "unhealthy" today at 166. Rain and breezes are supposed to move in, but didn't come through last night as forecasted.
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Old 09-18-2020, 01:11 PM   #1676
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What did the 3-week-old filter look like? (Just curious.)
very Dark gray and fuzzy, almost as if it hadn't been changed in months! Ugh.
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Old 09-18-2020, 01:50 PM   #1677
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Enjoyed some fresh fruit leather that DW made today. It is amazingly easy to make and so delicious. Basically you put a fruit in the blender and churn it until it is a slurry, then pour it on a silicone baking pad and bake at 200 degrees until the water mostly evaporates. First we had blueberry leather, then pear leather and now we are into plum season.
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Old 09-18-2020, 02:28 PM   #1678
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Old 09-18-2020, 03:15 PM   #1679
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New phone books were delivered today, so they went in the kitchen drawer that's never used and the old ones went in the recycle bin. I don't know how many years it has been since I actually opened a phone book to look something up, but I'm sure it has been a lot. Why can't they let you opt out of receiving them?
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Old 09-18-2020, 05:38 PM   #1680
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A beautiful day, clear blue skies, high 70° F, so I mowed the "back forty" and the grass is greening up nicely after the two-day rain we had last week and the cooler weather. Two of the four areas where I jackhammered/tilled/planted grass seed last week are showing shoots so it seems I did something right. After about 25 buckets of rocks pulled out of the ground we gave up counting but the grass has to grow better with them gone. And I finally fixed the Honda FG100 tiller's fuel line issue that was giving me fits to diagnose. I really like that tiller, when it's running right it's a workhorse despite it's small size. Well, as long as you're not trying to till a half-acre or something huge.

I've given thought to trying to start a garden but given our proximity to the woods and the number of deer and other critters down there it'd probably be a lost cause without hiring 24/7 armed guards to keep them at bay.
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