What did you do today? - 2020 version

[MBAustin]

Miscellaneous errands day. Took little dog to the groomer, exchanged propane tanks for the grill, quick Costco run, picked up our monthly floral bouquet from the neighborhood florist. Then finished the minutes for the 2 ZOOM meetings yesterday that I was secretary for (I so wish they were not on the same day every month!).

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Deal killer right there!

I haven't been to the barber since February. DW uses the dog's grooming clippers on me and it's worked fine. Gotta strange urge to lift my leg in the bathroom though...

DW actually did a pretty good job on me with her sewing scissors after watching some YouTube videos. Part of me wants to be a hippie but then the bigger part of me gets too annoyed with my hair.

 

[O2Bfree]

Watched part of the ISS spacewalk this morning. Learned that the ISS has a 3-D printer so they can print some types of parts and tools when certain needs arise. On a previous spacewalk they had trouble pulling an "H-fixture" off the outside of ISS. Engineers on the ground analyzed the problem, then sent the ISS a CAD file for a special wedge, which was produced on the printer as part of the tool kit put together to pry off the fixture. Not quite a Star Trek replicator, but moving in that direction!

Took DM to the dentist, then to the restaurant she and DD owned for a snack. The waitresses there fawn over her and we often see an old customer that remembers her. The new owner has pictures of the place from the 1950s-70s on the walls, and it's fun to look at them and reminisce. He's doing an exceptional job with the place, and it's great to see the folks' legacy in such good hands.

Next we went to the bank to deal with her matured CD. I was hoping she'd go for a Pen Fed CD at 0.7%, but she rolled to the bank's 6-month CD at 0.15%. She thinks the rates might go up by then. I was annoyed, but who am I to say?

Then she wanted to go to the Verizon store to shop for a new phone. I've been trying to get her to look at them online, but she still expects personal, face-to-face service. Unfortunately, you can't even go into the Verizon store now, and anyways the guy said they don't have flip phones there to look at. Then we went to Best Buy, but they had only one model of flip phone to look at. So I'll have DM come over to shop online when she's not so tired.

Gosh I'm glad I don't have to work anymore! I'd hate to saddle DH with all that running around, or have to do it on the weekend.

 

[Nemo2]

DW actually did a pretty good job on me with her sewing scissors after watching some YouTube videos. Part of me wants to be a hippie but then the bigger part of me gets too annoyed with my hair.

Haven't had mine cut since.......gonna braid it, and tuck the braids in my socks....already have the "Maharishi" business cards on order.

 

[aja8888]

Haven't had mine cut since.......gonna braid it, and tuck the braids in my socks....already have the "Maharishi" business cards on order.

My barber opened up the day Texas blew the opening whistle. I have been there twice already. It feels so good to be acting like a human again. I have to make an appointment and I am wearing a mask as the barber is. All is good!!

 

[EastWest Gal]

This morning before DS went to the hospital for work, we chatted about an idea he had to develop his home streaming and music teaching studio. It involved moving his computer to a basement room, and setting up keyboard and drums. This afternoon, DH and DS moves everything out of the room, including my music set-up. It’s nice to see the change, but given I’m in an online festival with a rehearsal tonight, I wish I had had a bit of notice....[emoji53]

 

[MBAustin]

Right after I finished my ZOOM yoga class, DH texted me from the backyard that the fish pond pump was making noise. That usually means low water, but I had just filled it yesterday so that was not good. Went out and it was very low. Checked for damming in the waterfall, which is usually the culprit, but didn't seem to be. Then noticed the area around the pump was wet. Bingo - the PVC pipe out of the pump had come loose and was spewing water out. This has happened before but only in winter when the pipe contracts from the cold. Not sure what caused it, but easy fix with a small screwdriver to tighten the band again.

As I finished, I found two baby frogs in the catch basket and let them free. Then we watched two dragonflies have sex, followed by the female laying her eggs in the pond. That made our day. We are easily entertained these days...

 

[Nemo2]

Then we watched two dragonflies have sex

"Hello Chauncey Gardiner"

 

[Walt34]

Then we watched two dragonflies have sex, followed by the female laying her eggs in the pond. That made our day. We are easily entertained these days...

Reminds me of the time last spring DW and I went for a walk, and while passing the pond she noticed two turtles thrashing in the water. She stared for a moment and then asked "Why are those turtles fighting?"

"Um, they're not fighting, dear."

"Oh."

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Spent the AM sweating my arse off. The highs have been in the mid 90s the last few weeks which isn't too bad, but with dewpoints in the mid to high 70s (which is more common to Savannah and Florida) the heat index has been miserable.

Anyway, I was getting tired of finding and schlepping chlorine for the pool so I bit the bullet and installed a salt water chlorine generator. It was a fairly simple affair, but I was soaking wet after just 30 minutes outside. I can tell you one thing...I am very, VERY happy that I don't have to turn wrenches on Air Force jets these days...I don't think I would survive very long!

 

[LRDave]

Our neighbor (absentee owner - lives in NJ and has not been down in nearly a year) had a dead white oak tree fall in his front yard a week or so ago. I sharpened up the chainsaw and DW & I went and cut it up this AM. We discarded much of it but ended with a decent amount of wood that we took to our house and split/stacked it.

Very hot - we are about to go down for a swim in our river......

 

[Gumby]

The young wife cut my hair. I feel much better now.

 

[steelyman]

The young wife cut my hair. I feel much better now.

It’s amazing what a difference that makes! I was thrilled when my stylist opened after shutdown. I crawled back in there like the GEICO caveman, tipped double the bill and was happy to do so!

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Sent off for 23andme for DW and self. I am more interested in our ApoE values (4/4 = highest risk of Alzheimer's) and other risk markers than ancestry.

Financing is in place for our new condo. The underwriter's demands are infuriating, though.

 

[Hyper]

What idiot puts hay up on the hottest day of the yr, so far for us anyway? 99.1 deg

 

[Ronstar]

The young wife cut my hair. I feel much better now.

I know the feeling. I got a haircut yesterday - first one since mid February. It felt great.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Forgot to mention. Yesterday we went to Seattle. I got a CIMT scan and DW got a red 2009 Pontiac Vibe (to match our white 2009 Vibe). Now I have to dispose of my garden truck.

 

[Walt34]

The young wife cut my hair. I feel much better now.

Lots of that going on. DW cut mine yesterday after the new trimmer from Amazon arrived. Okay, she never went to barber school and if you look close it shows. But she's much more critical of the job than I would ever think to be. And since I hadn't had a haircut since last March I was in desperate need of one. Much better now.

Rather than the back porch where it was 90°+ we decided the shop in the basement would be much more comfortable and just as easy to clean up with a concrete floor and a nice 12 gallon shop vac right there. Somehow vacuuming myself off reminded me of vacuuming the dog after brushing. He liked it, me not so much.

Today the project was trying a new video of flying an R/C airplane around in the back yard, but this time much closer to the ground and when possible below treetop level. I came within about a foot of hitting the back porch, but it makes for a kinda neat shot in the video. A snag was fitting several still photos of the setup in the video - the edited still from Adobe Photoshop is supposed to fit easily in the video edited with Adobe's Premiere Elements, but it showed up greatly enlarged and only a small portion fit in the frame. I "fixed it" by making the still photos the same size as the video frames (640 x 480) but that's a kludge and isn't really supposed to be needed. Research continues.

One of the objects (besides just doing it for the heck of it) is to illustrate that one doesn't need to spend gobs of money to shoot a FPV (First Person View) video from an R/C airplane. The airplane retails for $100 ($140 with a cheapo radio) the el cheapo 25mW video camera/TV transmitter was $17 from Amazon, and the video monitor with a DVR was $80.

 

[REWahoo]

Replaced the kitchen faucet with one of those new-fangled "touchless" designs. I've had it since December but just now got around to the install. Been busy.

 

[O2Bfree]

Shopped online for a new flip phone for my mom. Hers doesn't hold a charge anymore, and anyways Verizon is shutting down their CDMA network at the end of the year, so her phone won't work at all then. She wants another Verizon flip phone that has voice-activated dialing and is not a prepaid phone. I haven't been able to find exactly that, so she may have to settle for an LG Exalt 4G LTE VN220 or an Alcatel GO FLIP V 4051S, neither of which has voice dialing. But the screens are larger than what she has so selecting numbers off the screen should be easier.

DH is going through the rolled coins we found at the bottom of the safe after the burglary in her storage unit. There are rolls and rolls of silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars, plus several rolls of Indian head pennies. DH calculated face value of the coins at around $273, so there may be 2-3k worth when considering the value of silver coins. Now he's looking at the Indian head pennies for any that might be particularly valuable.

Found a junk hauler that will take the ruined safes away for around $130. That's less that we'd figured, so that's some good news for mom.

 

[RobbieB]

Put the second coat of varnish on the barbee table. Only the best for our new patio.

 

[Hermit]

I'm at the kids' place. I spent time holding grandson while DD power washed the deck and washed the deck while DD held grandson. I preferred holding grandson.

 

[Markola]

We rented a pontoon on a perfect summer day here. We tooled around the scenic and clean St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin, swimming, eating and sightseeing. It was a nice physically-distanced way to get out. 4 hours for $310 on a spotless boat that was just one week old!

 

[MRG]

I had a 9:30 appointment for bloodwork. When I arrived I watched the tech nasal swab a person in their vehicle and then ask how they could help me? A few minutes later she removed blood from my vein. I really didn't feel good about the protocol but what do I know?

Went to Durango for an eye appointment with one of the three eye doctors I had appointments with pre-pandemic, she agreed my dry eye was much improved and the other two specialists would be better suited to care for anything forseen.

I drove the Model Y there and it was fun! I mostly let it drive until someone needed passing. It's everything I wanted and more; the ability to overtake other vehicles in this area is amazing.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We met up with one of our kids for a hike and picnic dinner at a regional park with some pretty views.