Sunday Start Up

[Lilac]

We had freezing rain, early and the temps held around 32. We were lucky with just a coating of ice. Now depending on which forecast you watch, we are to get 1-3" or 3-6" of snow on top of the ice. Our school district has already cancelled classes for tomorrow. Tomorrow was already a day off for the little girls school. Dgs22 was to leave tomorrow to go back to college. His first class isn't until Tuesday afternoon, so weather permitting he may head back Tuesday morning.

I have stayed in my jammies, covered with a blanket on the sofa. I have ate, napped, watched TV and read. A very relaxing day. Now to watch the KC Chiefs. Talked to dm and one of my dcousins and her dh went to KC to the game. Brrrr I'd rather watch it on TV in a warm house. Of course, dcousin is 22 years younger than me and only lives 2 hours from there. Makes a difference.

[Nancy]

My biggest data user is instagram. Thiught of a password I can remember. Git in to my e-mail nothing worth all thst trouble. In it lol! Dinner is cooling.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back on the treadmill.

You might want to turn off Alexa, LadyM, for security reasons. It means it is possible to listen inside your house, which makes you vulnerable if hacked. Same idea as putting tape over your camera on a laptop.

I'm paranoid about how fast technology is progressing, along with the insecurity of networks in particular. It is one thing to say people who are hacked deserve to be (mostly because they aid the perpetrator by making a mistake and allowing access through software offers.) But in actual fact, these things have huge repercussions. The internet of Things has been used to attack legitimate organisations. Computers have ordered things at the request of radio/tv announcers. Where exactly will it end?

I turn my data off on my phone whenever I'm not using data. It is pain especially since my phone won't connect to the 3g network automatically, I have to switch to 2g and back before it will connect. But it means I usually stay within my 100mb per month (I have 1 gig which I'm nursing along to last a year if possible but if not, I have data available when I need it which is better than before where I only got 10mb per day (for $2!)

I'm on the treadmill again to get the last 3K steps I need for the day.

I watched 3 episodes of The Crown while on the couch (and dh brought in pizza for me.)

I need to get to work when I get off the treadmill so I'm prepared to start the week well.

[CathyS]

We just came home from the pool/hot tub. I found that if I could keep myself submerged up to my ears, it felt good on the upper chest and that area. Unfortunately my hair got wet, and it's cold out! I couldn't get it as dry as I wanted with the low power hairdryers they provide.

Supper tomorrow night will be a frozen meat pie that I bought at a church sale in November.

Stitch group in the morning. I also have to go to the bank to pay my Niagara Power bill. Less than $100. We were paying around $300 a month at the apartment we had 2 years ago and we couldn't control the heat very well there either. Bad windows and a long, useless hallway that was always hotter than the rest of the apartment.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Now I'm going to bed late.

But I did book the flights to Nova Scotia and California, rental cars for both places and hotel for Nova Scotia. We'll have extra days in California (about 3) so not sure if we'll drive some place or just hang out some place around San Francisco. The bulk of the trip will be visiting with dh's aunt in Napa and exploring that area. Although we don't drink so that limits how much exploring we'll do.

[Harriet]

Those who have experienced some hands-on tire troubles may be amused at the menfolk's story yesterday that I had intended to tell but didn't have time to do justice.

Dstepson happened to hit a rock with one of the tractor's front tires. Tire began to deflate. This will not be an easy situation with a hard tractor tire, of course - car tire would be a lot easier. He tried to pump air in, but the valve stem fell down into the tire. Now, see, at this point, I would have gone to a tire shop, but it has been explained to me that I just don't understand. Dstepson and HRH went to the store. Dstepson was only going to buy one to replace it but HRH said no, buy several - anything can happen. Anyway, back to the tractor. Unbelievably, as dstepson tried again, he dropped this one inside the tire with the first one. Turns out this is a very easy thing to do because of needing three hands for the task.

Ds shows up. (Now you know things will get worse with the appearance of a second child - it's a law of physics.) Ultimately, a third valve stem is lost inside the tire. I think they blame this one on ds. The boys say this is like The Three Stooges. HRH says no, it's like Laurel and Hardy because he only sees two comedians. Dstepson wants to reach in to try to retrieve them. HRH lays down the law that no one's fingers are going into harm's way at the edge of the rim. So dstepson tries needle-nose pliers. It's such an awkward task that he loses his grip on the pliers and they, too, fall into the tire. At this point, HRH says that he would have been willing to take the tire to a tire shop if there was one valve stem lost inside the tire, but there's no way he's taking it with 3 valve stems and a pair of pliers in there, because he couldn't stand the embarrassment.

Finally, they just take the tire completely off the rim, which they hated to have to do, but the embarrassing items are retrieved. Now the real work of getting a tractor tire back onto the rim. So the boys remember (are you ready for this - my sons of whom I'm so proud) that on the internet there are you-tube videos where guys use ether (aerosol propellant) and a blow torch and the tire pops back onto the rim, also popping the heavy tire itself up into the air when it happens, which is cool, right? And so, dstepson says, hey I have a torch. And ds says, hey I have ether. And HRH says he'll be standing over at the truck, because somebody needs to be conscious in order to call 911. Thankfully, none of the three are the daredevils they each used to be, and the idea is abandoned.

Finally, still determined they do not need a tire shop, they get down to the hard work and elbow grease of the thing and use a strap around the length of the tire tread. They tighten it the old fashioned way and plump the edges out enough to latch onto the rim correctly. So, hours after simply hitting a rock, the tractor is back to normal and 3 tired men are finished for the day. This is how nothing gets done. Or at least it's one way.