Bills

I began writing a blog post on Tuesday, and now it's Thursday, and I never posted it because I never finished it, but here it is. If you experience déjà-vu while reading it, it's because I complained about a couple of these items back in December.

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I have a room on the end of my house that I call "the room on the end of my house." Just kidding. I call it the den. It has a sliding glass patio door on the back side. I can slide the door open and go down two steps and I'm on the ground. 

One day recently I was in a hurry and I grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. The handle broke in my hand. The door handle was solid metal, but by looking at it I could tell it was made of something that my mechanic father called (derisively) "monkey metal." I think he called it that because it was junk metal—it lacked strength. It broke easily under stress. Still, it was a solid metal door handle and I wouldn't have guessed that I could break it with one hand. And I wasn't even trying to break it, but... 

I bought a new inside door handle for the door. But installing the handle required removing the outside handle, so I did that. As I was attempting to re-install the outside handle, a small metal part about the size of a small postage stamp fell, bounced off the step I was standing on, and then fell into the grass beside the step.

I spent an hour pulling up grass and looking for that piece of metal. I ended up with a 3x3 foot section of bare ground, and still I could not find the little piece of metal. So I couldn't reassemble the door handle. The door is old and replacement parts are no longer available. So the decision was made for me—I had no choice but to buy another sliding glass door.

I went to Home Depot yesterday and selected a door. There are a plethora of options for sliding patio doors. The door color and whether to get interior blinds were the options to which I gave the most thought. I decided on the ever-popular white doors with no interior blinds. The final cost will be around $1500. 

After the new door is installed, I'll need a new curtain. The current curtain is just shot from years of use and sliding on the carpet. And I might need a new curtain rod. 

I had two dental appointments today; one for cleaning and one for filling ($340). I have three more appointments in April and one more in May. I need three more fillings and two crowns. The crowns are $1000 each and the prep visits are $340 per crown. The fillings are partly a consequence of not going to the dentist during Covid. I've never had dental insurance—not ever, so there's no discount for me.

I also need to replace the garage door opener. It was hit by lightning and the electronics burned out. I've been operating the garage door by pulling on a cord that I attached to a relay inside the opener. And while I'm at it, I also need to replace the garage door. And then, I need to replace the roof on the garage, which is fifty years old. That's a long time for shingles to last. And the two wind turbines on the garage roof have ceased operating. They've been spinning in the wind for fifty years and their bearings have failed.

After the home repairs, I should probably buy a car. My Jeep Grand Cherokee is 28 years old. It has only 105,000 miles and it still runs well, but I feel it's not as reliable as I would like. Also, a few items inside the Jeep have quit working. The radio can't switch to FM, but I never turn it on so that's not a big deal. There is a Vehicle Information Center on the dashboard that failed years ago. I disconnected it because it kept beeping, warning me that the driver's door was open when it was not. The key fob quit working. And when I lock or unlock the doors using the driver's door switch, the right front door lock often does not operate. These are all small things but expensive to get fixed. If I get another vehicle, it will be used (pre-owned, as they say today) and I'll be looking at spending $20 thousand or more for a used SUV.

I've got to get the boiler in the basement serviced, which cost $470 the last time it was serviced.  And I have to fill the heating oil tank with #2 heating oil, which cost $4.34/gallon when I filled the tank at the beginning of this heating season. The boiler uses about 400 to 600 gallons of oil per heating season.

And has anyone noticed what's happened to the PRICE of FOOD?! Ay, chihuahua!

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I just had to get that off my chest. I feel better now. It's Thursday afternoon. I'll try to do better on my next post.

The Wellerman

The song of the day is the 1830's sea ballad from New Zealand, Soon May the Wellerman Come, by British singer Nathan Evans. In 2021, this song was a hit on TikTok. The song refers to the "wellermen", pointing to supply ships owned by the Weller brothers, who were amongst the earliest European settlers of the Otago region of New Zealand. 

What Did I Tell You?

You see? YOU SEE?!

Regarding yesterday's post featuring Nuria's delicious sugar-free apple pie, Nuria just contrived a new sweet concoction. This time it is a plate of banana-raisin-walnut muffins. And they're not sugar-free. They have a taste that can only be described as yummy.

At this rate, soon my arms will not be able to reach around my belly and I will not be able to operate my keyboard and thus my blog will come to its inevitable end.

Sundown on this Thursday in March.  > > >

Photo taken looking west from my front porch. The photo falls far short of seeing the real thing.

Aside from my gaining weight, nothing of significance happened in the 'hood today. Well, there was one thing. I couldn't log into my bank today. Either their website is malfunctioning, or someone has hacked my account, stolen my money, and closed my account. I can't reach anyone at the bank by phone, and no one has answered my emails. But as Alfred E. Newman was wont to say: "What, me worry?"

A Weighty Matter

In my last blog post I talked about Donald Trump. Today I want to talk about something important—something much more important than Trump. I want to talk about body weight.

For the past twenty years, my weight has been constant as a rock at 205 pounds. It never goes higher, and despite my best efforts, it never goes lower. For ten years, I drank a liter of vodka every day and my weight never changed so much as a pound. I quit drinking 2½ years ago and still my weight never changed. It stayed at a solid 205 pounds. I had begun wondering if my scale was broken. Maybe it would show that everything I put on the scale weighed 205 pounds. 

Then Nuria, my Costa Rican lady friend, moved in with me. She likes to cook. She especially likes to make desserts. Here's a photo of her latest dessert. She calls it "apple pie." I call it a heart attack waiting to happen. But in acknowledgement of my expanding waistline, she made one concession. This pie is sugar free. At least, that's what she tells me.

Homemade Sugar-Free Apple Pie

So what is my weight now? My scale says 214, clothed, and 210 wearing only my skivvies.

What should my weight be for best health? For my age and height, I should weigh between 128 and 162 pounds.

The last time I weighed 128 pounds I was in high school. In year 2000, I weighed about 185. Since then, I've slowly put on twenty pounds. When I hit 205, my weight stabilized there. For a while. I did hit a weight spurt where my weight zoomed up to 218. I don't know why it went up. But I brought it back down. I got it down to 201, whereupon it rebounded to 205 and stayed there for a number of years. Then, as I mentioned, Nuria moved in and with her came cakes, pies, cookies, and real meals, not frozen Stouffers's or Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine. Nope, yesterday I had spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and parmesan cheese plus apple pie. Tonight Nuria plans to have Mediterranean pasta salad, stuffed salmon, sweet peas, broccoli, and carrots. And I sit at the dinner table with no resistance to tasty food.

Somebody, help.

Trump's Bad Day

Today is Monday, March 20. The word around the campfire is that Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, twice impeached and facing multiple court charges, could be arrested tomorrow. I don't have a crystal ball, but that's what they say.

Trump has faced a lot of legal problems, but the Big Four that come to my mind are:

Hush money payments to Stormy Daniels

Georgia election interference

Classified documents not returned

DOJ investigation into Jan. 6 riot (or "tour" if you're Tucker Carlson)

Okay, everyone makes a boo-boo now and then, but for a former U.S. President, Trump is setting records. Let's look into the details.

The DC attorney general has been investigating Trump over the J6 riots. (Criminal investigation.)

Eleven members of the US House are suing Trump, Giuliani, Oath Keepers and Proud Boys for conspiring to incite violence at the Capitol. (Civil action.)

Seven Capitol police officers who were injured during the insurrection are accusing Trump and others of intentionally inciting the attack. (Civil action.)

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating Trump and his company for potential financial and tax crimes, as well as insurance fraud. (Criminal investigation.)

There is the Westchester golf course investigation, underreporting property values to reduce taxes. Letitia James, NY State Attorney, is investigating. (Criminal investigation.)

The Washington DC attorney general is accusing Trump's 2017 inauguration committee of misusing assets to profit the Trump family. (Civil action.)

Mary Trump, Donald Trump's niece, is suing him and his siblings for allegedly defrauding her out of inheritance money. (Civil action.)

An anonymous group of plaintiffs accused Trump, three of his children and his company of misleading people to invest in bogus business opportunities. (Civil action.)

The district attorney's office in Fulton county, Georgia, is investigating whether Trump interfered with the election by trying to pressure Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to overturn the results.  (Criminal investigation.)

Local voters in Detroit are suing Trump and the Republican National Committee for threatening to overturn the election results in Michigan. (Civil action.)

E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her at a New York department store in the 1990s. (Civil action.)

Retired Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a former top Ukraine expert in the Trump administration who testified to Congress during Trump’s first impeachment, is suing Trump and several allies for allegedly retaliating against him. (Civil action.)

Six protesters are suing Trump after his then head of security, Keith Schiller, allegedly assaulted them during a demonstration outside Trump Tower in 2015. (Civil action.)

Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is accusing Trump and the US government of sending him back to prison as a retaliatory measure after Cohen wrote a tell-all memoir about his work for Trump. (Civil action.)

So...

I know when I write them down in a list like this, it sounds a bit bad for Trump. But let's consider these charges one by one.

Suppose that Trump was having a bad day and decided to have (potentially) everyone in Congress murdered. Okay, that could happen to anyone, right? Haven't you ever had a bad day and wanted to kill your... entire family? Or, everyone at your workplace? And then you realized the gun store was closed and you were out of ammo and ... and ...

On second thought, this is probably not helping Trump.

Wayfaring Stranger

The song of the day is Wayfaring Stranger. It is a well-known American folk and gospel song with roots from the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1700s. It was first recorded in 1930. This performance is by country hitmaker Trace Adkins.

Angels

I was walking through the superstore when I realized something. I realized that all the people walking around me were angels. They were angels in disguise, angels wearing street clothes. They didn't know that they were angels. They thought they were just human beings, nothing more. All of them had done bad things since their arrival on Earth. Some of them had done very bad things. But it was okay because they were learning. You don't expect children to have the wisdom of adults, and even angels have to learn and grow. 

When this realization strikes, it lasts only for a few seconds, perhaps for a minute. Life catches up with us and we're jerked back into our earthly existence. I guess that's why some people live in monasteries. They want to be free of society's distractions so that they can remember that we're all angels in disguise.

One day your body will die, but the angel inside you will not die. It will go home. But it will be back. There are many of its kind who are sleepwalking through their lives. They must be awakened. One day they will see the Light and then they can awaken others. The Light will spread. 

Some may not believe this. It may be difficult to accept, but the day will come, acceptance will come. You'll see. 

What Next?

On Wednesday of last week my microwave oven quit working.

On Monday of this week my toaster oven quit working. 

On Tuesday, I spent five hours getting my lawn tractor operational after a tire went flat, and my Jeep's battery went dead. So what went wrong today?

Last night, I discovered that my Reminder program didn't work. I wrote it years ago, for Windows computers. The first version was called RxReminder, but that was later changed to ReminderXR after someone registered the first name for a trademark.  Windows 7 was mainstream at that time. Next, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 were released and I continued writing and revising my Reminder program. I quit revising it in 2013. At that time I was at version 1.8.1.

The Reminder program reminds me to take medications and also reminds me of appointments. It was inspired by memories of how difficult it was for my mother to remember to take her medicines at the right times as well as keep her appointments as she got older. My mother passed away without seeing the program, but the Reminder program has been very useful to me.

I've been using version 1.8.1 for about ten years. But yesterday it quit working. Nuria has it on her laptop and it still works there. She uses Windows 10 and I still use Windows 8.1. I tried various ways to get it working, but the program refused all of them. I gave up and went to bed. 

This morning when I came into the living room, I saw that the Reminder program was running and was open on my computer screen. I never turn my PC off—I just reboot once in a while if it gets slow. So my PC was running last night. A feature of the Reminder program is to start itself at midnight and reset medications to "not taken" and look for appointment reminders for the new day. Apparently, this self-start feature worked fine, even though it wouldn't start when I tried to make it start. 

So I exited the Reminder program and tried to start it again. And again, I couldn't start it. It just threw an error message and then the message box closed. I tried many ways to get it to start, but it wouldn't.

Then I had an idea. I tried starting the previous version, which was 1.8.0. It started up without any problem. So that's the Reminder I have running on my PC now. I haven't checked to see what the differences are between version 1.8.0 and 1.8.1, but I think they're minor. I think Fate made this happen just to continue my streak of having something to fix every day.

BTW, I created the Reminder program as a way to teach myself how to program Windows computers. I found a lot of help on the Internet. I already knew a little bit about programming. I had learned Fortran (a now obsolete language) and MBasic and CBasic, two flavors of the Basic language. I taught myself assembly language; first, I learned machine code for the MOS Technology 6502 on my KIM-1 board, then I learned Z80 assembly language for my Osborne 1 which ran the CP/M OS. Then I learned assembly language for the Motorola MC68302 multiprotocol processor that I used on a small computer I designed for a project at work. Then I taught myself Visual Basic which, despite the name, is a complicated language that has as much power as Visual C# (C-sharp). The syntax is different, but if you can do a thing with Visual C# then you can most likely do that same thing with Visual Basic.

I loved programming. Sometimes I would start programming in the morning and after what seemed like ten minutes I would realize that hours had passed. They say, "Time flies when you're having fun!" and I can vouch for that.

But, to get back on topic, what's going to go bad next?  TV?  Computer?  Jeep? And when? This evening?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  Whatever it is, there's one thing that I know for certain. I refuse to climb on the roof in order to fix it.

Getting Ready For Spring

Yesterday, Monday, I decided to mow the lawn. So: go and get the lawn tractor out of the garage and start mowing. Right?

Wrong. First, I have to move the Jeep so that I can move the lawn tractor. But I can't. The Jeep's battery is dead. I put the battery charger on it. Then I inspected the lawn tractor.

<< The lawn tractor when it was brand new, April 2015.

The right front tire on the tractor was completely deflated. I have an air pump, but it's not made for completely deflated tires. In that situation, the air leaks out around the rim as fast as it goes into the tire. 

I had to take the tire off the axle, which took maybe two hours. There's a cap to remove, then a cotter pin, then a large washer, then the tire slides off the axle. It sounds simple, and it is, but each step required tools that I did not have handy. So it was: trudge to the house, go down to the cellar where the tools are kept, rummage for a tool, get something that looks like it might do the job, trudge back to the garage, get on my knees, and try and try to use the tool. Then, give up, go to the house, to the basement again, and do it all again with a different or bigger tool. 

After a couple of hours, I got the tire off. Then I took it to Sheetz, because Sheetz has an auto tire air pump. But I couldn't inflate the tire, for the reason I already stated: too little air flow. 

So I drove to another auto service station. A young woman sitting behind a desk told me they couldn't help me because "we don't do tires." How can you operate an auto service business and not be able to inflate a tire?

I drove to a third auto place. I had been to this place before. It's called Tuffy. In fact, I've taken my Jeep to it a number of times. They had a tire air pump and it took three seconds to inflate the lawn tractor's tire. They didn't charge me for it. Then I went home and re-installed the tire onto the tractor's axle. The whole process took about five hours, from discovering the flat tire to removing it from the tractor to fixing it to re-installing it onto the tractor. 

I left the battery charger on the Jeep's battery overnight. When I went out to the garage today at noon, I got into the Jeep and turned the key. The engine didn't do it's usual cranking; it roared to life instantly. As soon as I turned the key, the car was running. I moved the car a few feet so that I could get the lawn tractor out of the garage.

I mowed the yard: front, side, and back. Nuria came out and did her part with the string trimmer and the leaf blower. The yard looks a little splotchy because at this time of year it's partly green and partly brown. It has to do with a mix of grass seed types that have been put down in the yard over the years. But it does look much better than before the mowing. 

I can hardly wait to see what breaks tomorrow.

Toaster Oven

On Monday I wrote about my Sharp microwave oven. After 30 years of use it failed, and Nuria and I spent most of the day shopping for a replacement.

Today, five days later, my Haier toaster oven failed. I took it apart. Inside the oven, an electrical connection that was supposed to be secured with a screw and nut had never been tightened. The nut was loose on the screw. The screw served as an electrode on one end of a heating element. Because the electrode screw and the nut were both metal, electrical contact was made and current flowed through the connection. But because someone at the factory in China never tightened that nut, the connection was poor and therefore it got very hot. Eventually the connection burned from the high temperature and the connection was lost and the oven quit working. 

Above: Toaster oven, partially disassembled on my dining room table. I had just removed 20 screws that held the shiny cover onto the oven.

Above left: Good connection, shiny screw, shiny nut. Electricity flows through the connection.
Above right: Burnt connection, screw and nut burned and blackened from high temperature.

I could probably fix the oven if I had the right size nut. I have a lot of screws and nuts in little cabinets in my garage, but I don't have the correct size to fix the oven. I found an inexpensive oven online at Walmart and we ordered it. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow. That's what Walmart says, and if you can't trust Walmart, who can you trust? You know?

Yesterday we ate dinner at Arby's (which you would know if you read yesterday's blog post) and through an error we were given a free chicken sandwich and fries. We ate them today for lunch.

The chicken sandwich (disassembled) looks like this:

What you see is a piece of fried chicken and a bun—a very bare bun. We put ketchup on the chicken and on the fries and cut the sandwich in half, and with the fries we had an adequate lunch, so I can't complain. At least, not to Arby's. But I can complain to the Internet. Dear Arby's customers, when you're ordering from someone who looks like she's in middle school, speak slowly and be prepared to repeat yourself. The sandwich actually wasn't bad, but could have been better with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

A Favor

Saturday (yesterday) was a pretty day. Sunny, blue sky, a few puffy white clouds. It was 5PM. I was sitting in the living room looking out the front window. Nuria was sitting on the sofa. I looked at Nuria and said, "Let's go to Arby's. We can get fish sandwiches." Nuria said "Okay." And so we were off.

We got to Arby's and placed our order: two fish sandwich meals. The meal comes with fries and a drink. While Nuria filled our cups with our drink of choice, I waited for the meals, which were ready quickly.

We chose a booth and sat down. My small city is, well, small, and there's not a lot to brag about. But our Arby's restaurant is the largest Arby's in the world. I thought I'd mention that just in case one of my readers plays Trivial Pursuit and the question comes up. 

"Where is the world's largest Arby's?" 

"It's in a small central Virginia city that some call the Heights."

Nuria and I sat in a booth and began eating our meals. Suddenly, I heard a man's voice call my name. Inasmuch as I had my food, I ignored hm. Maybe there's someone else in the restaurant with the same last name.

After a half minute he called my last name again. I ignored him again. 

Then he bellows my first name. Okay, this is enough. I grab my receipt and I go to the food pickup spot and I show him the receipt, pointing out my name.

"I've already got my meal," I tell him.  "I ordered two fish sandwich meals, and I've got three. Of everything. Three sandwiches and three fries." He makes a strange expression. "You ordered two and you got three?"

"Yup, I got three."

"I guess you lucked out," he says.

I turned and walked back to my booth. I didn't "luck out." I wanted two fish sandwiches, two fries, and two drinks. I'm not going to eat the third meal, so where's the luck?

Nuria and I left Arby's and I drove home. I parked in my garage and we went into the house. We watched some YouTube videos about life after death research, and the researchers related their own experiences. We went to bed late and I turned out the bedside lamp. We rolled to face each other, just a few inches apart. I put my hand on her body. It was very warm. Her skin always feels very warm to my touch. We talked about my guardian angel. I knew she was thinking of the incident with Melissa.

Melissa and I had once worked at the same company. She was married, with two kids. She became pregnant with her third baby. I had talked to Melissa about my guardian angel, and she remembered it, because one night she called me up at my home. She told me she was afraid she would lose the baby, because she had begun spotting and that is how her previous miscarriage had begun. She wanted me to send my guardian angel to her to save her baby. So I did. Or rather, I asked my angel to go and protect her and her baby. She told me later that her spotting had stopped shortly after she talked with me. She eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Nuria knew about this because I had told her, and now she was asking me to help her with something. I should mention that it had nothing to do with babies.

I don't do miracles. God does miracles. We can only ask. So, lying in bed in quiet darkness, I asked. I rubbed Nuria with my hand and I asked a favor of God. But I can't tell you what God said. 

Shhh. It's a secret.

Syn Cole

The song of the day is 2020's Time by Estonian DJ and record producer Syn Cole (Rene Pais).

New Nuker

Wednesday morning. I put a frozen sausage and egg biscuit into my microwave oven and punched in a minute and hit start. Instead of humming to life, I heard BRRRRRRR...... until I hit the STOP button. I tried again—same sound. That's not the sound of a biscuit heating. That's the sound of electronics failing.

I had to buy a new oven. I went online and found one I liked at Walmart. I ordered it. A minute later I received an email from Walmart that stated the oven wasn't in stock. I canceled the order. I continued looking on the Walmart website and found a similar oven. I ordered it. A few minutes later I received another email from Walmart. That oven was out of stock, too.

Nuria and I drove to our local Walmart to see what they had in stock. The shelves were bare. They were sold out of almost all microwave ovens. I knew there was another Walmart out in the county, though it would take a half hour to get there. So we went there. Lo and behold, they had just what I needed. It was a 1.1 cubic foot, 1000 watt oven. I bought it. The price was pretty good—$77 plus tax.

Now, I don't cook meals in the microwave oven. I heat things up. Things like frozen biscuits, frozen dinners—you get the picture. I'm not a cook; I'm a defroster. I'll bake a potato. Does that count as cooking?

My last microwave lasted me 30 years. That included "fixing" it 3 times—if replacing a fuse counts as fixing something. I don't need a complex, programmable oven. I need something simple, to defrost, to warm up, to cook a potato. I think I bought what I needed. If it lasts 30 years, somebody else will be using it long after I'm gone.