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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 11, 2015 16:57:43 GMT
Mary wasn't seen because she was off on a private affair. Behind closed doors, probably with some Italian meatball.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 12, 2015 1:30:46 GMT
Maybe she quit her job or maybe the company she worked for no longer does contract work for the AF. Who knows? At the RAB last night, I met a breast cancer survivor who lives in Rio Linda (the cars-up-on-blocks burg that Rush Limbaugh always joked about before he left Sacto for NYC and FL). She is doing a study of cancer clusters, so I gave her my poop uh.., information about my colon cancer (100% OK now). She wants a big Sacto map to put pins in and I may be able to supply a couple old real estate maps from when I worked for the MLS for ten years in IT. She did some work on MyMaps on Google, but then the print shop wouldn't print her map without written permission from Google. I'll have to look into their TOS. ---- Spent the day in the bowels of the Recorder's office, but didn't get much done. I had a 14-year gap to bridge and couldn't do it on the computer system. So I switched to microfilm, but reader started getting cranky. It uses electric clutches and brakes (like an old mainframe tape drive) and it got to the point where I had to turn the reels by hand against the force of the brakes. That's no fun at all. ---- I'm presently at the venerably McKinley branch of the Sacramento Public Library inside the Florence Turton Clunie memorial in McKinley Park at the edge of downtown. You can be famous, too, if you'll just fork out 150 large. Its a 1936, art deco creaky-wooden-floor kind of place where the stacks are up a narrow stairway that even the elevators won't take you. (For those interested in USGS benchmark hunting, there's one right outside the front door embedded in the brickwork.) I had to ask for an extension on a book about knife sharpening that I have hidden from myself and was due two days ago.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 12, 2015 14:52:49 GMT
Maybe Mary was just being quite contrary, and spent the day growing her garden with cockles and mussels, alive alive O. I'm going to assume your using the word bowels, after the paragraph where you spoke of poop, was intentional.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 12, 2015 21:17:07 GMT
Well, of course. I am back at the McKinley Branch way downtown on a Sat morning, because when I was here last night, I made the mistake of not putting away my driver's license in my wallet and managed to drop it. Thus I had to return to the scene of the crime to retrieve it. The reason I had to use my DL is that I had misplaced my library card (which is probably in the car somewhere). So you see, one failing lead to the other, that is, a cascade of catastrophes. Lest you accuse me of blowing things out of proportion, my vehicle is burning gas like crazy and it costs me a quarter of a tank to go downtown and back, which qualifies. Lucky for me, to compensate, gas prices are inching downward to historic lows. The lady working the counter had a unique watch that was of a design based on the peace symbol. She collects all things peace symbol, so now I will have to keep an eye open at GW for something peace-symbol-related.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 13, 2015 20:44:43 GMT
While I was at McKinley Branch yesterday, they had a kid's band in there singing all sorts of songs for them (practically giving me a headache while concentrating on using the PC), one a pirate song. Later I asked the drummer who sang it with a pirate's hat on if he knew where "Arrrr!" originated, and he didn't. It came from Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 movie, Treasure Island; before then, it was unknown. I told him he could always remember that, because Robert starts with an.... He thanked me, but you can never tell if someone means it or is just being polite. ---- On the way home last night, I stopped by Walmart and bought a new car air filter. I doubt it will alter my too-rich, gas-guzzling situation, so maybe that is just wishful filtering. Noonish today, it stopped pouring down—we're in a drought here, don't you know—so I installed it in in the library parking lot while waiting for the doors to open. I'll see what happens on the way back.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 13, 2015 21:29:39 GMT
I should be able to Remembarrr about the pirates because my town is called Newton.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 15, 2015 21:51:09 GMT
Yesterday morning, I was the first in a Goodwill store. While I was wandering around finding nothing interesting, the furniture guy brings out this 28"-wide SONY LED HD TV and starts testing it on their in-house cable (DVD player in the warehouse wirelessly connected to the TV area). It looked great. HD TVs typically go for 100 – 200 USD, but since this was on the smaller side, it was priced at only 50, including a remote control. Into the cart it went and I got to see the looks on other shoppers as I wheeled it around. Lucky me.
There was also a cute little CRT analog TV that had a built-in DVD player in the bottom for 8 USD, but the DVD drawer wouldn't open, so I passed.
----
I worked all afternoon down at the Recorder's office yesterday. Try as I might, I couldn't bridge the 12-year gap in ownership by searching on ROSI, the computer system. So off into the world of the hand-written General Index on microfilm using an increasingly-cranky viewer. I finally found the deed, which was correctly indexed in the 1930s, but screwed up when they indexed it in ROSI in the 1960s. DI GERONIMO MIKE was clearly visible in the Recorder's typewritten record, but the later indexers typed it in as DEGEROMMO M! So I would have had to pare the search key down to "D" in order to bypass that typo, which would have produced a lot of names. That deed put me back on track to finding the next owner and the next, so I got all excited and in the groove. Too bad it was almost closing time when I located it.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 16, 2015 2:12:52 GMT
Yesterday was trash day. I got an antiquish wooden table top from our dumpster. I had actually taken it out of the dumpster last week, and left it out in case anyone might take it. But it got thrown back in. So I had to retrieve it for the second time yesterday. There was also another fan, it needs some minor repairs: the plastic ring that screws the back half of the cage to the motor section has a crack, so it needs some tape or wire to make it secure. And I got a pumpkin from down the street, still very solid, about 20 lbs.
And I found this tv show, which was mildly amusing, you may be familiar with it, though I had never heard of it before.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 16, 2015 21:07:28 GMT
Pretty snappy! It's well written and directed. ---- The plastic fan-guard-retaining ring is normally made from a type of plastic that can be successfully glued with model airplane cement or anything with a solvent that will dissolve the plastic (plastic pipe glue?). Just let it dry a day and trim off any distortions in the thread from glue seepage. So what are you going to do with the table top? Do you have a base for it? BTW, I found a vertical fan like the one you did, the first one I have ever seen in person. The base on the bottom of the swivel was broken off, but as the swivel itself is undamaged, I could just glue on a disk of some sort for a new bottom. Let's see, what could I use? Hmmmmm. Click to enlarge. Click Back to return.---- After goofing off in the library most of the day, I went back to the Recorder's office for a couple of hours. In walks this guy who wants to know about name changes and was told that the Recorder doesn't have anything to do with it. So I gave him a copy of my new work flow chart that explains the whole process and told him about the Law Library's free name-change workshop, where you walk out with all your paperwork ready to file (if you can scrape up the notice-publishing fee; $435 filing fee can be waived by the court if you are a poor person in need of a new name). I want to get the chart blessed by the workshop instructor, but he's on vacation, so maybe after Christmas. Click to enlarge. Click Back to return.At 5 PM, I went to the closest library branch, McKinley, and worked three hours entering the deed data into Excel files. And, of course, finding contradictions and new questions that I need to investigate back at the Recorder's. It's endless (so far).
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 16, 2015 22:08:15 GMT
The wooden base of the table was in the dumpster the first time I pulled the top out last week. Perhaps I should have taken it, but it didn't seem that attractive to me. I compromise between the urge to salvage and the notion that I shouldn't be collecting stuff out of dumpsters in the first place. Here's the plastic ring from the fan: Here's the split: Here's my "fix":
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 17, 2015 6:11:37 GMT
Here's the ring holding the cage: All but one of the plastic clips that attach the front and the back of the cage to each other were broken. Here's my quick fix for attaching the two halves of the cage. The one remaining original clip I positioned at the top of the fan, so gravity keeps the cage in place and the potato bag ties hold it together. It's plastic bag ties from potato bags:
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 17, 2015 18:24:33 GMT
Shirley you can get some model airplane cement and do a proper repair instead of the bailing wire method. Plastic fan guard clips are the pits. I would make replacements from coat hanger wire like this: Click to enlarge. Click Back to return.Slip them over the edges of the two fan-guard half outer rings to join them together. Squeeze the clips so that they grip the rings tightly, else they will rattle. And be sure to oil the motor bushing felts and give the shaft a couple of drops, too. ---- I saw a Popular Mechanics article long ago featuring the inventor and his machine to make the Kwik Lok bag clip you are using, but it was invented for plastic bags of bread, although they are used for more than that now. Click to enlarge. Click Back to return.But potato chips need to be in air-tight bags to keep out moisture (and possibly filled with dry nitrogen and a bit of radioactive waste added as a preservative). ---- Last night I picked up a big lateral filing cabinet I bought at Goodwill for $13.50. You can read my posts of Dec 16th and 17th here for the juicy details. Then I went over to my sister's house for my Christmas haircut and will be dog-sitting while they go up to their vacation house in Grass Valley for two days. They have a couple of The Good Wifes saved on disk for me to watch. (I'll bet that's the only time you can make a plural of wife without a V.) I made them scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast (they're on Atkins) before they left this morning, but for tomorrow, I'm thinkin' WAFFLES!
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 18, 2015 20:07:41 GMT
While walking my sister's dog, I always check the HOA clubhouse depositories for goodies, which are rare. However, yesterday I found a Toro leaf blower/shredder. It was complete except for the horseshoe-shaped thingy in the lower-right-hand corner (the shredder?). It didn't run when I plugged it in, but I suspect, since it has a variable speed knob, that the SCR has left the building. I could just swap it out for a switch if the motor is OK. In their recycle depository, there was an aluminum collapsible stand for signs. Nothing seems broken, so it should be easel to fix.
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Post by CampKohler on Dec 19, 2015 20:55:56 GMT
While sitting the dog, I worked more on the photo topic for the Technical Forum. Then I took a crack at the easel. Click to enlarge. Click Back to return. It's amazing that people will pay 70 USD for these things, even if they are paid for by the employer. This one from the HOA clubhouse clearly showed signs (no pun intended) of being fiddle-dinked by non-technical hands; there was Scotch tape and packing tape holding things together when there are far better repair methods. The most I will have to do to it is to put a spot of adhesive where the plastic collars slipped off the aluminum tubes (legs). Basically it just pulled apart, and, rather than figuring out how to put it back together again properly, they just smothered it with icky-sticky tape. The bottom half of one of the telescoping legs was reversed and shoved up into the top half and taped. Well, what do you expect from minimum-wage talent? Especially if the employer will spring for a replacement. ---- I found a cubic foot of family photos from the '50s to present. I guess someone died and they got tossed, perhaps not wanting to be reminded. They might have all been converted to digital, but there were also saved greeting cards in the bag. I got a phone number from a church directory, so I am going to call it to see if I can find out what happened. Maybe someone will want the photos of the grandparents or great-grandparents. Nowadays we store the photos on a photo service. I wonder if people in the future will discover photo caches from their long-dead predecessors on these sites?
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Dec 19, 2015 22:58:28 GMT
I'm aware that those plastic clips are usually found on bags of bread. But mine came from bags of potatoes, so I wasn't going to call them bread bag clips when I didn't get them from bread bags. I also didn't get them from potato chip bags. I got them from 5 or 10 lb. bags of whole potatoes. I think you probably saw where I wrote "plastic clips" and "potato bags" and your mind fused them together to recall the words "potato chips" even though I never wrote "potato chips". Here's the wooden table top I got from the dumpster last week: With the leaf opened to double the surface area: Today I created my own Meet Up group on meetup.com: www.meetup.com/Life-Coach-From-Hell/
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