The Manic Mechanic

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

Yeah, I still exist, but in a very low-key, nearly zero social media version. I will have to catch up on LJ happenings soon, but I felt it necessary to say hi.

Peace and love...

Pardon me if I'm not exactly filled with Christmas spirit. The weather outside is frightful, with lots of rain and even thunderstorms battering the area for the next couple days. The fire is so delightful, however, as I have the woodstove cranking to offset the dreary, cold, wet mess outside. Jeff and I have both been hit with a very nasty gastrointestinal bug, where we got it isn't clear. I've had these before, but this is by far the worst I've gotten slammed with such a thing, which made me violently ill. I think the worst is over, for I tried to have a little bit of chicken soup tonight and no warning sirens are going off yet. Jeff thankfully has off tomorrow, and with both of us under the weather, our dinner plans might have to be changed to something very light, if anything at all. He has to work Friday, unfortunately. We were planning of heading up the see his family and make a nice dinner, but that looks like it might out of the question given our messed up health. We will see. I was hoping to make it through the holidays without the usual, inevitable winter maladies dropping by to say hello, so instead we got something different and just as unwelcome. Ah, well, it is what it is. I got a couple nice presents for Jeff, he apparently has a couple for me, and we have no idea what we are getting. So that's good. Little surprises, lots of love and warmth.

Our little pooch Kodi needed to have some serious surgery done to remove a number of bladder stones. These were discovered during examinations for something unrelated, and these had the potential to wreak havoc on the little guy had those stones moved into and blocked his urethra. Little trouper he is, after the surgery he was mostly his cheerful self, but kept having accidents around the house. These have subsided, fortunately, and he's almost back to normal. In fact, it seemed in recent months he'd beg to go outside to pee more often than usual, and the frequency is less than before. So I think we had something taken care of before it could get a lot worse. Today I promised him he'd have his stitches removed, but that turned out to only be partially true. When we initially picked him up, he had of course been fitted with The Cone of Shame for obvious reasons. A day or two later he somehow managed to knock the thing off, and he went straight for the surgery site and the stitches. Jeff saw this in time and stopped him from doing any damage, but apparently he pulled one loose and created a large scab. So all but two stitches are gone until next week, where hopefully the disturbed area heals up a bit more, the scab comes off and the remaining stitches that are all caught up in there can be taken out. The Cone of Shame remains on as well, but Kodi has gotten used to it in some ways. Around here, to make the little guys feel better, we don't call the collar the "Cone of Shame," instead it's known as "The Bowl of Kisses," because all you have to do is hold that bowl in your hands and put your face inside, and you will get lots of happy licks.

As for me, well, I'm still down and out from the crumbling spine issues. Only a bit less pain, but unable to do much to the point I have even stopped climbing the walls in frustration. The pain that radiates down and concentrates on my lower left leg has resulted in now shocking amounts of atrophy. My calf is about the size of my forearm, and my thigh is about the size of my biceps before I began having all these old man issues. These days, the biceps are pretty much gone too, my clothes hang off me like a scarecrow, and everyday objects feel heavy. Some of my tools and equipment that are normally quite heavy are nearly impossible for me to deal with. On Jan. 6, I will head in for one last chance at a needle in the spine to help matters. If this doesn't do the trick, I will either have to have very invasive surgery to bolt my back together, or resign myself to pain and disability for the rest of my life. Honestly, with my track record under the knife, the latter choice is looking more promising.

I figured I owed y'all an update, unfortunately it isn't all peaches and cream. But I'll get by. I had so many opportunities to exit the human race but defied the odds. I was born prematurely, with low birth weight and needed resuscitation before spending my earliest days in an incubator, I've been hit by lightning, been electrically shocked hundreds of times during work and tinkering, been in nasty accidents, a round of misdiagnosed peritonitis that had one day left to kill me, and any other number of near misses, bad ailments, stupid situations and close calls. But I'm still here. Too bad that old saying about that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger is pretty much bullocks, because I'm the weakest I've been since most likely elementary school right now. I should be the world's strongest man.

All the best,

Phil & Jeff & Kodi & Snickels

Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks for being faithful readers over the years. Your gift to me. :-)

Okay, I'm gonna try to play catch-up on some postings I shoulda been doing all along. No thanks to LJ having a case of the butt when I did try. Anyway, enough of that, let us see if there is to be some success.

Jeff and I filled out paperwork today declaring us as domestic partners to be able to share in medical insurance. Our wonderful credit union witnesses and notarizes things like affidavits for free (membership has its privileges!), and the folks there not only don't bat an eye when presented with stuff in that realm, but are genuinely encouraging. The morning's pleasantries done, Jeff had a new task with his new position in his new job that had him doing a cooking demonstration at a D.C. hospital. When I asked him about it, I tried to have him liken it to various Food Network shows. "Well, was it Kitchen Nightmares? Diners, Drive-ins and Dives? Restaurant Impossible (woof @ Robert Irvine)? Iron Chef (Today's secret ingredient is... BEDPANS!)?" Jeff answered with what was to be my next choice, "More like Rachel Ray." Hee, figures. He said he had a good time, people said he put on an amazing show, and he came home smelling of garlic and onions. Someone assisting Jeff got him a chef hat and said, "Here, I got you a 'torque'." This was a demonstration all about cooking and eating healthy. On his way home after 8pm, despite all that cooking, Jeff hadn't eaten anything to speak of. Before getting back to La Casa Mayhem, he stopped to pick us up a little dinner. Of course, after all the healthy cooking and eating schtick, it was McDonald's.

Here at Mayhem Acres, things are a study in contradiction and contrasts. The water heater needed a shot of refrigerant. The no-frost freezer needs to be defrosted. The refrigerator stopped making ice cubes and is instead making puddles. My work is never done.

Verizon just installed a fiber optic connection solely for the landline phone here because the 50+ year-old copper lines in the area are in too bad of shape (I've had ongoing problems with line noise for over 20 years). To this technological triumph I have connected my 1957-vintage, black 500-series Western Electric rotary dial telephone, which is fully functional and has never sounded better. Sadly, there have been a number of growing pains with my newfangled service. Aside from noise, the old copper lines had 99.99% availability.

We had a delightful visitor just before Xmas. erstexman was in the midst of his whirlwind, several-state tour and paid us a visit. It's been a while since I've had a known-you-on-Livejournal-for-ages-and-we-finally-meet meetup. Evan is a delight, and though his time where was limited, we are talking about doing something sometime in summer. Here's my best attempt at a social-media ready, arm's-length self-photo of us:



Unfortunately for Evan, he had an unexpected bumper car ride in one of the roundabouts about a mile from the house. Mind you, I love me some roundabouts, when there's no one nearby and I have the Mini Cooper all warmed up. Unfortunately, there are too many people around to make this joyride happen every time, and they are no fun when I haul around 50 feet worth of loaded truck and travel trailer though them. I normally have to pass through 3 or four of them in succession, and there are nine(!) such circles within a less-than-2 square mile area here, with a couple more to come. That HAS to be some sort of record. None of these nine circles of hell existed here 15 years ago. At least they aren't traffic lighted intersections.

Next time, erstexman says he's not driving here. I don't blame him. ;-)

Speaking of Mini Coopers, we were mulling what to get Jeff's grand-niece Kylie for xmas. She turns 3 soon, and we wanted to make her holiday special. We found a KidTrax electric Mini at Costco. We knew she'd love it and be the only kid in that old coal town with one (turns out she has a Jeep already, but, up there, everyone has one of those). I personalized it with custom stickers that said "Kylie's Cooper" in a playful font (no, not Comic Sans!). She kept getting inside while I was trying to put it together, when that task was finally done, we headed out in the blustery Pennslovakia cold so she could test drive it in the yard. For not even three yet, she's a pretty good driver. We might be looking at the next Danica Patrick.



Jeff's father had been making noises about getting a big flat screen television ever since he spent a few days with us and fell in love with ours. We got him a wall mount and a set of high-def cables, wrapped them up and gave those to him the same time Kylie got her ride. We didn't say that we got the set too. Though he didn't say it, we could tell he was just as giddy as our little girl once everything was set up. Being that the Newtown tragedy happened only a couple days prior to all this, it was nice to see a bunch of kids smiling and happy and safe. Dad included.

I wish I could say that the holidays were full of goodness and light, but sadly it was not to be. Jeff's mom has been falling deeper into the clutches of Alzheimer's, as such, the inability of the home care nurses to keep up with her needs, her increased incidences of falling and such finally forced Dad to put her in a nursing home. They treat her well there, and we know she's in good hands. The future in all this is uncertain, as it is for anyone similarly involved.

This weekend we are headed up to the homestead once again. Dad is lonely, being in the house by himself, and looks forward to our visits more now than ever. The silver lining in the recent clouds there is Dad is afforded much more time to himself, and can get out and around more. As such, we will hit the huge farm show in Harrisburg. This will get him (and us) out of the house, we can peruse tractors and livestock, see sheep being turned into shawls (well, their wool, to be precise), partake in greasy yet delicious fairgrounds food and be farmers for a day. We will also pay Mom a visit too, and bring her lots of love. We plan on sneaking Dad down here again soon so he can have a change of pace. He manages to fit in well in his own unique way. We take him out of Amish country but we bring him to our local Amish market. Wouldn't you know, he manages to find people down here who know the people up there. Dad is given a tray of whoopee pies along with a note written in Pennsylvania Dutch by his new-found friend to take to his relatives up north. Dad shuttles the Amish around as a sort of taxi service for extra money, so he knows a lot of them. The Amish are interesting folk, and, ironically, I can somewhat relate to them, beards notwithstanding. I go to a local Amish hardware store. A delightful place, there is no electricity, the place is only a few years old yet is lit by natural light from large windows, or gas mantles among the aisles. They have great deals on power tools, cordless stuff, high-tech lighting, solar power equipment and other items you can't find at the local big-box. Go upstairs and there is furniture, games, dinner ware, and clothing. The clothing is mostly what you'll find the Amish wearing, including those familiar hats. Dad keeps telling me he's gonna get me one of those hats, since my beard is starting to rival some up there. I guess he's right about that, the last time I was at that local Amish market down here, someone started asking me questions about the baked goods. An honest mistake, I guess. It made my day. It made Jeff and Dad howl with laughter.

This post is brought to you by hyphens.

Happy Christmas to all my dear readers out in LJ-Land. You have buoyed my spirits in bad times, humbled me, made me laugh, cry and think. I feel an inseparable kinship with so many of you. I never thought my little broadcast of text would find an audience, much less one as special as I have these days. You guys are beyond awesome.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

A couple weeks ago I bought a few strands of rather expensive "programmable" LED Holiday Xmas Christmas lights, but have yet to put them up, mostly because of it being windy enough to knock my already unsteady self off the ladder and general blase attitude this year. Still, I thought these would make for some impressive displays for a clever hacker. Well, I went looking around on YouTube, and I was right. Take someone who has a love for hardware hacking, video games, and over-the-top light displays, and you get these two incredible examples. The choice of music on the second makes it that much better.

This user also had a very impressive Halloween display as well. Naturally, YouTube is filled with videos from all over of people outdoing one another in light displays, most often to various Trans-Siberian Orchestra tunes. Geeks, hackers, creative types. I love my kind.

Just in time for...( FYFF )

Happy Christmas everyone! ;)

It was indeed a merry little Xmas here at the GoM. While Jeff was off at work, I was working both in the garage and in the basement. I needed to make up some spacer blocks for the safety sensors on the new garage door opener, So I rummaged through the scrap lumber and found a suitable piece, cutting and working on the stationary sander and table saw. The wood was southern yellow pine, and few wood odors come close to making the entire area smell like a 'real' workshop. I called it Santa's Workshop for the day. The smell still lingers, and reminds me of days gone by for some reason.

When Jeff got home from work (yeah, I know), we had our exchange of gifts. He got me an L.L. Bean three-in-one parka that I actually had been needing, along with some nice gloves and earmuffs. Since we will be taking a trip up to the Poconos soon to frolic in the snow, he thought this would be the perfect gift. And it was. I needed everything, including the earmuffs, which until now I didnt own. I usually rely of knit caps or tuques to keep my big flappy ears from freezing off. I got Jeff a Chef's Choice meat/food slicer, which he was pretty happy to get. I mean, what do you get a chef for xmas? lol

Jeff is home tomorrow and we plan on being mostly domestic. I might shove the Dart out of the garage and install the second opener. The second time is always much easier. ;)

I hope all of you had a great Xmas day.

I made it relatively unscathed through another major holiday. The last couple days were spent with Jeff's family in PA. It was a very low-key affair, which for me, was good.

Monday morning had a trip to an new Amish hardware and general store. This was a first for me. Upon walking into the place, it looked at first like any local small-town hardware store. It then becomes apparent that the store is somewhat dim inside, as all the light is coming from windows and skylights. Yep, there is absolutely no artificial light. Nor is there any electrical fixtures of any kind in place. Along the aisles were gas lamps consisting of open mantles and valves. These I assume were used in the evenings or when it would be rather cloudy. Below one of the gas lamps was a display of the latest power tools from DeWalk, Makita, Milwaukee and other professional brands. Lots of decent pneumatic tools as well. Plenty in the way of automotive and electrical wares, all goos stuff, and at prices comparable to big-box stores. Upstairs was an area filled with housewares, toys, furniture and other goodies. There was a large selection of those black Amish hats on display. I was told I really looked the part when I tried one on. I bought some electrical connectors for use on the truck and the camper that were actually packaged for use on Amish buggies. As odd as it seems, the lighting systems on current Amish buggies are more high-tech than a lot of current automobiles, with LED safety lighting and efficient charging systems that keep the batteries charged as the buggy is pulled by the horse. The checkout area did have a pair of modern electronic cash registers. They were being run on batteries. The more I associate with the Amish, the more respect I have for them. Hard working, helpful, devoted to their beliefs yet will never press them upon anyone.

Later, I occupied myself with cutting down a tree in their yard which had become an obstacle for new utility lines. I dispatched it in about 45 minutes time and we loaded the logs into the truck for firewood next year. Various auxiliary family units came and went, and socializing was abundant. I kinda kept quiet for the most part, my mind was often elsewhere. We opened our gifts on Xmas eve. I did not ask for anything, nor did I want anything from anyone. Jeff had been itching for weeks to give me his present, but I kept the surprise till the appropriate time. Seems he did some pretty remarkable mouse clickery on eBay. Turns out, he managed to snag a Wii, and for less than the 249 bux normally asked for in stores. Major eBay god points there. I connected it all up when we got home, after dinner. Another new distraction!

Today we all had an early dinner of ham, chicken, and lots of other goodies. Later tonight after coming home we had a quiet supper of shrimp scampi with wine.

The gifts Jeff got for his nephews ended up being the highlight of the day for them. His sister calls grumbling about the fact that the kids are playing mostly with those things, and Jeff looks at me with a smug grin and a quiet fist pump.

Still, I still feel out of sorts today. I feel very alone, despite the warm welcomes I always have up there. I miss Mom, of course, and I tend to gather more uncertainties than I reconcile at times. But for the first time in years, the house is decorated and there is a feeling of warmth and hope.



Here is our tree, now devoid of the gift payload. Much happiness has ensued.

A while ago, I picked up a little keychain-style photo viewer. My plan was to use it as an ornament. I filled it with pictures of Mom, Patches, and of her with me and Jeff as well.



I hope everyone had a great day today. I think I did.

Here is an ad that I stumbled across the other day for DirectTV:

Watch on YouTube

(Translation at end: "Some are good only on Christmas, others are good all year long.")

Who says Christmas can't be commercial?