A Deer, a Doe . . .

So the Julie Andrews song goes.  In our case it was yearling doe caught in the rear yard fence.  About a year ago, we had a fence placed across part of our backyard and is integral with our neighbors fence.  The fence closed off a favorite route for the deer who feed at a house not far from us.

This doe obviously used to going through fence as a fawn.  In those days she could fit through the bars.  But she is near a year old now and got caught.  Her head and fore part of her torso easily fit through the bars.  But her hips did not fit and she was stuck.

The animal control fellow came out.  He climbed over the fence and grabbed her rear legs and tried to pull her back.  But that was not working to well as she had driven as far forward as she could and really wedged herself in between the bars.

So I told the fellow to bend the bars open.  He managed to get perhaps an extra inch of clearance and tried to pull her back again.  This time he was successful.  She was not hurt but very frightened.  She had been caught near the corner of the yard and immediately ran away from us and tried to go through the fence again, this time she bounced back.

Not to be dismayed she tried again a little further down the fence and again bounced back.  We, me one side and the animal control fellow on the other side, forced her to reconsider our fence.  She tried a neighbors fence but quickly realized there was a dog in that yard.  She did not want to deal with any dogs.

Then she decided to go back the way she came.  She was gone, not looking back at us at all.

I have seen a buck leap over the fence.  And we had to take one off a spear top fence across the way.  But the mature full size deer, male or female, can easily jump over the fence.  A yearling is just not big enough yet and still seems to have memories of squeezing though the bars.  She is now well aware she can not get through the fence anymore.

At least we did not have to euthanize her.  She lives to enjoy more days in the various yards and open spaces.  BTW our fence does not have the ornamental spear points on it because we did not want to remove any more deer off the fence.

The LLC . . .

I am embarking on a new adventure, the Limited Liability Corporation or as commonly known, the LLC.

I am dealing with an investment in oil wells.  Each well is an individual partnership and requires its own K-1 tax document every year.  The LLC is to capture the partnerships as it initial investment value, it will be a holding company.  That way I will be dealing with one entity instead of a bunch of partnerships.

The LLC is being set up in Delaware as all big corporations are done now days.  It seems Delaware corporate laws are the easiest to deal with.

I did learn that there is a term to deal with, "foreign qualification."  At first I thought that meant foreign as like the Bahamas or Great Britain.  But no, it means each state in the Union has their own corporation rules and regulations.  So a Delaware corporation has foreign qualifications if work is being done under the LLC in another state like Texas.  But if one is not doing work, that is paying salaries, selling goods on the internet, etc. one does not need to be qualified to operate in a different state.

It turns out it cost perhaps $150 to get an LLC in Delaware, but to be foreign qualified in Texas it cost $900. a big difference.  After poking around on Google I hit upon a forum that discussed foreign qualifications.  And there is where I learned I do not need to do anything in regard to a holding company.

While the address of the company will be here in Texas, that is just an identification formality.

The new LLC will be Morrison Lippelmann, LLC.  Not a unique name, it is may last name and that of the entity as an identifier.  And I am the owner of the LLC.

A new adventure for me.

A Droll Day . . .

Yesterday was football day and I watched LSU demolish Georgia.  Georgia tried to open up with a big bang and their wide receivers managed to drop the ball instead of catching it.  One of those two passes was a little short so it is not all the wide receivers fault but the quarterback throw made it harder to complete.  Georgia turned the ball over via a punt.

LSU promptly marched down the field and scored.  So much for the vaunted Georgia defense, allegedly the second best in the nation and best in the SEC.  It was quite leaky and LSU commence an assault that resulted in a sound defeat for Georgia knocking them out of the championship contention and probably put them into the Sugar Bowl on New Years day or when they now days play that game.  LSU of course goes on to compete for the National Championship.

Today the wind is briskly out of the South meaning if will be relatively warm and not chilly.  Lots of clouds and thus the day is not a bright and shiny one.  The leaves are almost all off the two Shumard Oaks in the front and they are all piled up in the yard and flower bed.  Both trees produced a ton of acorns and they are all over the place.  The squirrels should like that.

Lots of Christmas ads in the papers.  We no longer exchange gifts at Christmas as each gets what one wants when we want it.  I scanned them looking for bargains and did not see anything I really wanted or needed.  I may go get a .22 caliber rifle. I see one advertised that was like the one I had as a teenager.  When I went into the service, I left the gun with my father-in-law and it was stolen from his Red River camp.  He never bothered to replace it.  Lost that rifle and .32 caliber H&R revolver.

I do have an old family single shot .22 that I must have shot several thousand rounds through it.  I had to stop when the stop gap repair on the firing mechanism failed.  My brother later had the gun fixed and I learned get parts was fairly easy.  I have yet to fire it since recovering it though I cleaned up  before putting it away.

Judie is doing her usual thing getting ready for Jacob, Anne and their children for Christmas.  The will appear the day after Christmas as that is the least expensive travel time.  They will stay through New Years and then head back to cold Wisconsin.  She will also dispense checks to all the children, they are all grown and can get what they want for Christmas.

I am worried about my old Officer Training School (OTS) buddy.  We met at the airport in San Antonio waiting for an Air Force bus to pick us up and take us to Lackland AFB for our training and conversion to military officers.  He was wearing a wool sports coat and sweating buckshot.  He was coming in from Cleveland, OH where it was cool or even down right cold on Lake Erie.  August in San Antonio is roasting hot and dry.  We eventually were commissioned as Second Lieutenants on November 5th, 1963 and both of us went off to the USAF.

We both retired from active duty completing more than 20 years of service.  He, alas, got crosswise with an Air Force Major General and retired as a Major.  I conversely got ensconced with a Brigadier General that went on to be Lieutenant General (that is three stars).  As a consequence I retired as full Colonel, two grades above my buddy.  He wisely did his 20 years and I went on to do 26 years of service.  I spent five years a colonel and then figure out it was time to go.

I said I was worried as he is in the hospital again.  We almost lost him last summer.  He told me it was botched biopsy that did him in for that period.  He recovered out of that, retired from H&R Block tax folks and settled into final retirement.  I received a message from him saying he was in the hospital and that is what is bothering me.  His health is not to swift right now and being in the hospital is very concerning to me.

Judie and I are plugging along seeing doctors here and there.  She has far more doctors than I do, but we have two in common, our GP and our Cardiologist.  She has many more than I do.  I often drive her to the ones across town in Fort Worth or even further.

To all who read this I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Little Things . . .

We have lived in the same place now for  17 years.  Our home is paid for and we have not outstanding debts.  But little things keep arising.  Such is life.

The other day, Judie was in the guest bathroom, and had bit of a tussle with a shower door.  All I know is that she came in to the den and said, "I have a problem."  The issue was one of the two shower doors shattered in to a jillion pieces.  She needed help cleaning up.  She had a broom and shovel scoop.

I went into the garage and got my industrial vacuum cleaner.  And I spent maybe 20 minutes sucking up the glass pieces.  Some of the glass even got into the toilet bowl.  I fished that out very easily.  I left the glass in the shower/tub for the repairman to clean up.

We called the folks that did our main bathroom remodeling for us and they sent out a tradesman.  He measured the door and said, "No problem."   We wait now for the new door.  He will also lubricate the old door that is remaining and get all of it back in good working order.

Then the exit door to the garage acted up.  The latch stuck.  The bolt stuck fully retracted so that one can not close the door and expect it to stay closed.  So I disassembled the door knob and I figured the spring internal to the mechanism had broken and thus did not push the bolt out to engage the door jamb.  I had fixed this once before so it was not a new job to me.

We went to Lowe's and found the part.  There are two companies that make this kind of product and they are slightly but uniquely different.  I was able to find an exact match, purchased it and went home.  I had to fix the door face to adapt to the face plate.  The old latch had rounded corners and this was squared off.  I had to do a little chisel work to remove a little of the wood material so that the face plate fit in place.  Not a big job.

We reassembled the door knob.  Its an easy job to do but one that requires three or four hands for a while.  I did the hard part and Judie started the screws and we got it all back together again.

This is like fixing toilet flapper valves, install toilet flush units, etc.  I am the handy man that does this.  I have acquired some rather special tools.  I have the "T" handle to turn off the main water valve.  I had to also get the tool to open the main shut off valve.  The city had replaced all the meters with electronic reporting meters and thus did not want the normal house owner tinkering around with their meters.  So they made it had to get into.  Well there is a tool for that too, I call it a key latch device that allows one to open the meter cover.  I have had to assist a neighbor in turning off their water at the meter. so have become the go to guy.

Any way the stuff in the house is wearing out and has had repair calls here and there.  The wine cooler broke down, the washing machine door seal gave up the ghost, the control panel for the upper electric oven has had to be replaced.  I do not do those jobs but we know who to call when we need help.

LSU Verses BAMA . . .

LSU caught up with University of Alabama football team on Alabama's turf.  Saragin, the statistical predictor, had Bama up about four points plus and 3 or points for home field advantage in his analysis.  They got beat by a score of 46 to 41.  Bama was favored by the Las Vegas crowd by a touch down, they basically lost the game by a touch down.

Bama played really sloppy football in the first half.  That is to say LSU played near perfect ball in the first half.  The score at the end of the first half was 33 to 13.

Bama came back very strong in the second half but LSU kept up with two touchdowns in the forth quarter.  LSU was never behind the Tide of the whole game.  You might say the Tide got rolled by the Tiger.  Bama will say their vaunted quarterback, Tua, was playing hurt.  Maybe so, but he should have been replaced by Coach Saban and he was not replaced.  So he must have been capable of playing his game at a high level.  This time he did not have a Jalen Hurts to come into the game and save the day.  He, Jalen, is playing for Oklahoma now

LSU has faced four football teams ranked in the top ten and beat them.  Bama faced only one top team this year and that was LSU.

My thoughts are they had better get prepared for Auburn in the Iron Bowl.  That is a big rivalry game in Alabama.  Auburn is a tough team albeit it has lost to LSU and Florida.  But there is no predicting the outcome of the Iron Bowl.  Auburn will be licking its wounds and wanting a victory very bad.  Should Auburn win, Bama will be totally out of the competition for a National Championship.

If Auburn takes down the Tide I believe heads will roll.  They will say Coach Saban is slipping.  I think SEC Western Division has become more balanced and the dominance of Alabama is on the decline.

I close with "Geaux Tigers."

Virtual Private Network . . .

I signed up for the Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a security software package to protect my accounts from Internet scams, etc.  VPN does two things, the first is it encrypts your correspondence so others can read your message traffic.   The second thing it moves your Internet address is relocated to some odd location.  In essence it is my private network and it constantly changes.

This means when you use the computer your signal bounces from your computer to the false address located somewhere else and then the message goes into the system.  It slows down your connection but that's okay for the level of protection you get.  And you get some interesting things show up in the side bar ads.

For instance, I used the United States of America as  a source location and next thing I notice is an advertisement for a casino in California.  The odd thing is that I used to live about a half mile from that indian reservation and used camp on the reservation with the Boy Scouts.  Today, that area is off limits and closely guarded because of the casino.  I am told by old friends that each and every member of the tribe gets $140,000 a year.  How times have changed.  That was forty years ago.  Then they were poor as dirt and friendly.  Now they are very standoffish.

Later I switched to Canada and sure enough the side bar ads were definitely Canadian.  The intro web page now had stories for Canada not the US.  Ye, the big US stories were headlines but the lesser stories were all Canadian in nature.

I switched to New Zealand and got similar things from that part of the world.

It means that when the service is turned on, and it is own most of the time, people think I am in those countries and not the USA.  And when I use the USA, it relocates my location to somewhere other than where I live in Texas.

So I know the system is working.  This keeps people from locating you and hacking into your computer.  This is ideal if you have a laptop computer and you want to use it at the book store or coffee shop somewhere that is very public.  Some one can see you and then try to hack your laptop and can not find you, so they are stymied.    VPN is a great security tool and does not cost very much for what it does for you.

Yes, your emails to me will reach me.  They will not be blocked.  But all the scaming activity will be screwed up.  There are nine or ten companies that can provide you the service.

Irrigation System . . .

Well it was not a valve.  The bane of all irrigation systems are roots.  I suspect a root was the cause of a joint separating.  It is either that or the heavy zero turn lawn mower being used on our yard.  No matter, the problem turned out to be a separated joint.

To begin with the joint was not really a good one but it lasted 10 years.  I had to dig a lot to find the joint.  A first it looked okay but all you had to do was push on the pipe and you could see a clear separation.  Well I had to dig some more to get around the joint.  And I had to remove a tree root that must have been an inch in diameter.  I saw another root under all my plumbing but I was afraid to cut it as there are irrigation wires running all over the place.  Those wires control the valves and run back to the main control box.

Any way the bad joint has been reglued and I used a piece of Cedar wood to make sure the joint would not pull apart.  It would have been major work to replace the valve and redo all the plumbing.  So a repair job is a swifter mending and allows the system to be back into use in this dry time of the years.

The yard is not suffering yet but soon will be.  And then the grass turns brown as it goes dormant.  I do not intend to allow that to happen.

So the repair is in place and I will test it shortly.

I am getting to old to do this kind of work.  Well maybe not, maybe I need more exercise.

Irrigation System . . .

The good old irrigation system has struck again.   We found large areas of the back yard flooded.  I shut the water off at the well.  There is a shut off valve there for that purpose.

Then we went hunting.  The back yard slopes away from the house, so it was an uphill search.  Pretty soon I found the leak.  It was a control valve leaking.  I have bailed it out, and must do it again as there is plenty of water around to seep back into the control valve housing.  No big deal, just got to get the water out and then disassemble the control valve.

And I must clean up the valve, wash the innards out and get rid of the sand.  The sand is not what you would imagine.  It is a very very fine particle, kind of makes the water gritty.  It is basically harmless but the control valves do not like it.  It causes them to do weird things, like leak.  In this case it leaked a lot so I think it really pushed the valve apart.  Water can be very powerful under the right circumstances.

I bailed out the control valve housing but there is so much water in the soil it will seep back into it again.  So I will wait, then bail it out once more, maybe by this afternoon around two or three PM, I can get the valve apart.

Then I have to put it back together again.  Open the shut off valve and see if everything is okay.  It may take two or three times to get the valve tightly closed and working correctly again.  Patience is necessary

I have said it before, irrigation systems are constant maintenance.  Fortunately I am adept at the job and can do the work myself.  That saves time and money and gets the system back running like it should.

Maybe I will invest in a "dirty water" valve which has an internal back flushing capability and washes itself clean.  In other words it is a self cleaning or self flushing valve.  Getting them is no big deal, getting them installed is a big deal requiring more excavation, gluing of joints, etc.  I am not sure I am up to that kind of thing.

All I can say is Geaux Tigers!

Investing . . .

Many years ago while living in Alexandria, LA I formulated a few simple rules to use when investing.  They were always invest in only New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks, in stocks that also paid dividends and if investing in mutual funds do not invest in funds that paid 12B-1 fees.

Why NYSE?  NYSE is the big board.  It is the world's largest stock exchange.  And it was closely monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission which had reasonable but stringent rules.  Other exchanges did not have as generally as good stocks as the NYSE.  Some stocks do not want to be traded on the NYSE and preferred lessor stock exchanges in San Francisco, Chicago and even New York City (the American Stock Exchange).  The NYSE has specific rules in listing the stocks on their exchange.  Usually a certain size (that means big enough to trade all the time), certain capital requirements and adherence to stringent accounting processes.

I required dividends because that is cash money in return.  Usually only mature companies pay dividends though today paying dividends is much more common than not paying dividends.  For instance, I do not invest in Berkshire-Hathaway, Warren Buffet's company.  It does not pay dividends.  They certainly invest in companies that do pay dividends like Coca-Cola - but they keep the dividends to reinvest in other companies.   I have a few shares of KO, the symbol for Coca-Cola and collect the dividends for me to use.

12B-1 fees are used to reimburse brokers for selling the mutual fund.  In other words you the fund holder are paying the broker to sell the funds even though the fund maybe charging you a fee to buy into the fund.  The funds back then routinely charged you 5% up front for their services.  Then along came the "No Load fund" funds where the management did not charge the customer anything to buy into the fund.  That is not to say the fund does not pay fees to buy and sell shares, those fees are expensed to the net profit of the fund, you do not see them.  Brokers soon learned they had a hard time selling funds with a 5% front end fee.  They design funds that had no up front fees but had exit fees.  If you left the fund, that is sold out your shares, they charged 5% if you bailed out in the first year, 4% if you bailed out in two years, etc, until you had owned the fund for 5 years.  They still do that and call those funds no load funds when in fact they have an exit load on the fund.  Read the fine print.  There are several large fund companies like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity that have pure no load funds.  If you feel like that is the way to invest, by all means used funds from those no load fund companies.

Today I have modified my rules.  I still require an investment to pay a dividend or interest.  And I read daily "Seeking Alpha" a forum on the Internet.  It is comprise of articles written by financial advisers, some of the certified, some are foreign and all of them seem to be specialized in some form of investment.  There those that only cover big oil companies, some energy companies (oil, electrical generation, wind farms, pipe lines, etc.), some only Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs), some closed in funds, some in Master Limited Partnerships and so on.  It covers the gambit and is educational.  I also subscribe to Kiplingers Magazine, a magazine that covers investments as well as advise on a host of topics from credit cards to buy automobiles.  It gives good advice and is equally educational.

Today We hold Exchange Traded Funds, a new kind of mutual fund that is actively traded on the stock exchanges.  We both have life insurance, which is a kind of cash investment for your heirs.
Annuities another kind of insurance policy.  We also own some old style mutual funds, all no load funds, that I just let them do their thing and watch them grow.   We have some real estate, our home which is paid for, our autos which we either own or lease, a camp (Judie's family place on False River) and I have shares in the family corporation that owns the plantation.

I am fortunate in that I have a pension earned as retiree of the USAF.  Coupled with that I have compensation from the VA for my disabilities from my military service, and we collect Social Security.  We have Medicare paid out of out Social Security take care of our medical needs for the most part (we do have to pay for prescribed drugs albeit at a discount).  Our secondary medical insurance is TRICARE for Life, another earned military benefit.   So for the most part our day to day needs are met by the pensions and VA compensation.

That allows us to keep being well invested.  And the cash thrown off can be like Warren Buffett reinvested to grow out holdings.  We always lived within our means while in the military.  When I retired from the military I started drawing my pension immediately yet I went to work and had a second income.  I retired from Raytheon (and Texas Instruments at the same time) and took a cash settlement that I invested.  I rolled it all into an IRA and continue to mange those assets today.  Yes, we must take an annual minimum required distribution annually but generally make that back though the year in the investments.

It pays to plan ahead.

The Bathroom . . .

Well our bathroom is finished.  We retained the tile floor and the bath with jets but completely redid the shower (it needed it too) and Judie has always wanted granite tops for the two sinks.  We also replaced the toilet with a taller one (we had no idea that there were different heights for toilets until a discussion with a neighbor).

The old toilet had a loose bolt and it kind of wobbled on the floor.  It never leaked except when I had to replace the filler assembly.  Filler assemblies are plastic and tend to break down with time.  The new toilet has 1.2 gallon tank and swift flush function.  It really works and is very fast.  The old toilet had a 1.5 gallon tank the flush chain had a float in the middle of it.  So when you flushed, it you held the handle down you got a full shot of water.  If you had just urinated, a quick handle movement and the water was exchanged and not the whole tank was emptied.   The new toilet is so much faster to empty and refill.  We really did not care about that but we did want a taller unit.

That quick flush did not always work.  But great idea.  The new toilet does not have that but uses some much less water it is not necessary or a benefit.  All the holes for water discharge from the tank are twice the size as the old tank on the old toilet and that leads to fast rapid flow.  Uses less water to flush and less time to flush.

We had to buy the toilet and the contractor's plumber installed the new toilet.  He reinstalled the old fixtures on both sinks and the shower head.  We did not get new ones and we like of the old ones anyway.  That ended up with a couple of leaks but since it was a Delta fixture, Delta are warranted the fixtures for life.  So the contractor ordered up a new one and we got it pretty quick.  So it all is functional now in good working order.

We had the entire room repainted.  It had several places that needed touch up.  It takes a beating from the cleaning lady, not intentional but did a little damage here and there.  So we had it completely repainted including the ceiling.  The molding had some age cracks from drying out and the painters filled those cracks in with spackling and the new paint did a great job.

Judie picked out the granite.  And it is almost three quarters of an inch thick, so it is quite heavy.  Once installed it ain't gonna go no where.  They measure precisely.  The granite was also used in the shower.  It is a lighter color, not dark granite so it does not darken the place at all.

We had the old synthetic plastic surfaces removed.  We had a nice new tile installed, large squares were used.  We had the stool in the corner of the shower expanded to a bench.  And we had four niches added that were at least a foot high (shampoo and other bottles are getting taller now days).  The bottoms of the niches had the same granite and the bench across the back of the shower had the same granite in the seat.  And the door floor jam is also the same granite.  The niches had small oblong tiles in the back of each one.  The floor is small squares of matching tile and new drain that one can remove to clean down below floor level if one wants to do that.  They also reworked the floor so it had a definite slope and drained toward the new drain cover.

Lastly we had the shower light replace with a new low wattage high out put light.  We are no longer taking showers in an dark corner.  It is well lit now.

The tile, granite, and paint job look great.  The new paint makes the place look all new.  It all makes Judie happy and the old shower was an eye sore.

Working on the System . . .

Yeah, the irrigation system.  Maybe is should be the "irritating" system.  The control valve on circuit number 2 has begun leaking.  Along with the leak in the control container, a sprinkler is also leaking.  That sprinkler is the low point in circuit 2.  Not a giant leak, just seeping and keeping the driveway wet.  The driveway has a slight grade to one side and the sprinkler is located on the high side, so it becomes a large wide spot.

I got my plastic cup out and started bailing out the control box.  I had to go shut off the well pump and open a faucet to drain the pressure tank.  I got out an old seat pad for the outside chairs and plopped it on the ground by the control box and began bailing out the standing water.  I finally had to result in using a coffee cup to get the water level down low enough to get at the control valve.

First one removes the solenoid that opens and closes the valve.  Simple, just unscrew it and set it on the side on the ground.  It has two wires going to it and one has to be careful not to disturb them or you will have to work on that too.  The top of the valve unscrews, it has a large ring that holds the parts of the valve in place.  In this case it was loose, and that was a big part of its problem.  I took the top of the valve off and removed the spring that holds the diaphragm down.  Then I removed the diaphragm and the top was indeed cover with fine sand.

The well produces the sand, and there is not much you can do about it.  I had a separator for awhile that removed the sand but it developed a hole in the side.  I patched it once.  But it developed another hold that was beyond patching.  So it just took it out of the system.  The sand is microscopic and forms a sort of build up on the diaphragm causing it to malfunction.

I had replaced a number of control valves with so called "dirty valves" that are designed to handle the sand but I did not replace all the control valves, just those that gave me problems.  And the system ran for about 10 years with out a problem.  Last year we lowered the pump almost 30 feet to avoid over drafting the well.  Well that meant more sand and I have had to open up and clean out several clean  water control valves.  Just something you have to do.

I borrowed a new diaphragm off one of the old replaced valves.  Yes, I kept them around and now glad that I did.  The old diaphragm was not bad, I just decided to change it.

I reassembled the valve and screwed the top back on.  It had a little arm to manually operate the valve and it kept the control solenoid from doing its job.  So I removed the arm and reinstalled the solenoid.  Then I trotted out back, turned on the well and came back.  Yep, that fixed the problem.  Just to make sure I turned on #2 at the control box to runs the valves and yes, it worked as advertised.

Went out and checked and found another sprinkler not working.  That usually means the little filler is clogged up.  I took it apart and back washed the filter and reassembled the sprinkler.  Turn on the circuit, #6 circuit, and it still did not work.  I took the sprinkler head off and ran a wired down the tube and it was blocked by something.  So I had to take it apart again, and remove the tube also.

I tapped the tube inverted and a couple of same stones came out.  That is the last sprinkler in the circuit so I figured the water had gradually move that debris to the last point.  I reassembled and it still did not work, so I have more work to do to clean it out.

Like I said, the irrigation system is constant maintenance.  Just when you think it is all okay something new crops up.

Fritzes . . .

I had written earlier about the absence of any of the fence lizards.  We call all of those lizards Fritz or plural Fritzes.

Well, the weather has heated up and cold blooded animals are out and about.  Fritzes fall into that category.  Also along with the Fritzes are their arch enemies, snakes.  All I have seen of snakes is one little one when I was repairing a sprinkler control valve leak.  He was in the control box enclosure.  He died of a severe case of shovel breaking his back.

I was walking along the sidewalk along the North side of the house,  Judie had piled up some branches from the oak trees out front.  I reached down to pick them up and spied a full grown Fritz looking up at me.  I picked up the sticks and he then took off into the bushes.

Later I saw another Fritz run up one of our oak tree in the front yard.  They tend to do that to pick various insects that reside in the trees.  It is also spot for them to cool off and their coloring blends in with the bark of the tree.  So it is sort of a defensive maneuver for them.

Since then I have seen several of the lizards in various sizes so they have not left us.  They have just come out of hiding and the warm air provokes their activity.

It is good to see they are abundant and living around us.  We also see an occasional Chameleon lizard roaming around.  But they are not as common as our Fritzes.   And the Fritzes love crickets and keep those little pests under control.

Seeing Fritzes running about tells me summer has really arrived.

Glued Again . . .

I hope the glue gets into the joint this time.  It is difficult to get to and I can not get any glue into the joint, I can get it on the pipe that goes into the joint.  I have very little clearance and the joint faces down, so no help from gravity.

I made a wedge and pushed that under the pipe to hold joint together.  And I used a different brand of glue.  I have had experiences in the past where some glues do not work, or stick so to speak.  That was bad can of glue and I have had to chase down other joints that failed.  Most of the joints are tight and can not expand, thus stay in place doing the job.  Some have pushed apart.  The system will generate a little over 60 pounds of pressure and in the hydraulic world that is a significant amount of push depending on the surface area affected.

I will test it out again this afternoon.  I want the soil in and around the valve to dry out so it is not slippery and allow my wedge to fail.  I also made a little dip in the wedge so that it will hold itself in place.  No end to jerry-rigging some of this stuff to keep it going.  I have left behind some unusual repairs on the houses I have owned.  I am sure I am not alone in such behavior, and other homeowners do much the same keeping their abodes functioning.

We had to put a new control board in the washing machine.  It is basically a motor start board with several large capacitors on it.  I have had a similar problem with the water well and replaced starter capacitors out there on the well.  There is no reason for the capacitors to fail except poor manufacture of the units.  Capacitors that are electrolytic have a reason as the electrolyte breaks down with time.  Solid state capacitors should not fail but they do.  All it takes is a pin hole failure the material that separates the two plates and that is the end of the capacitor.

At any rate the washing machine is back working again.

And I am waiting for the glue to dry and the soil to dry and see what I get this go round.

I Thought I had It Fixed . . .

Went to work on the irrigation problem.  I found the leak, applied new glue and got the joint re-glued.  I had let it sit over night.  I had even fabricated a little wedge to make sure the joint stayed put while the glue dried.

I tried it out this morning, turning on the well and turning on zone 1.  And it worked - for a while.  I had it running about four minutes and then shut it off.  Went and checked one last make sure time and water was spewing out and filling the control box container with well water very rapidly.

I ran back and shut the well off.  And then I bailed out the control box.  No new leak locations so I am back to the original leak.  I noted my fix was still in place, so now I have to figure out where this leak is originating from.  I suspect the same place but have to dig things out again.

First I am going to let things dry out until tomorrow and tackle it again.  It should not be to hard to find.  Fixing it is another matter altogether.  I hope I do not have a broken pipe.  If that is the case, it will be a more serious job to repair.

Irrigation systems are always a pain in the butt.  They are, in my mind, a constant maintenance project keeping them going.

At least I go the little snake killed off.  He was living in the control box.

That is the price one pays for a green yard, maintaining the irrigation system.

It Happens In Threes . . .

While in the USAF we were very superstitious of accidents.  It seemed to us that those accidents happened in a series of three events.  I am sure some of that thinking was kind of conjured up to support the theory of threes but it also seemed it did occur more often than not.   Another of Murphy's Laws.

My series of threes just happened.  We started the redecorating or modernizing the main bathroom.  We had a couple of things we wanted to do and two we really needed to do in the bathroom.  The home builder had used modern plasticized surfaces both the sinks and the shower.  He also had some about the tub but we rarely use the tub and just let it stand as it was.  The grand kids like to use it when come because it has jets in it.  But otherwise the tub collects dust.  But we wanted to change the shower and the sinks.

The shower was a continuous problem sealing and resealing the joints.  In the cold weather the seams tended to open up and pull the caulking apart.  I had to re-caulk the tub often and it was really beginning to look bad.  And I was concerned it may be leaking behind the walls of the shower.  So we decided to redo it in tile and at the same time put in granite tops for both of the sinks.  And while we were at it replace the toilet with a "tall one."  The old toilet was pretty low and we did not realize it until we used a neighbors bathroom and found their toilets to be much higher.  And the bolts holding down the toilet had come loose from the floor/foundation.  So while we were at it, we are replacing the toilet.

I am sure the toilet bolts were put in by an idiot.  They were completely loose and the toilet actually moved around.  This promoted leaks from the attaching plumbing.  So while we were doing all the other stuff, get that changed also.

And we are going to get the bathroom repainted.  Same color scheme, just needed it after 15 years of usage.  So all that got wrapped up in one job.  They started Monday.  That was the first of the three events.

Second event, the washing machine crapped out.  Turns out a bad circuit board, like a 20 minute job to get in the guts of the machine and replace a control board.  The board starts the motor up to do the wash job.  Simple job, expensive job - $550 bucks to get it done.  The repair team got it done in two days, the part was available and in stock.  So it was quick.

Third event, circuit number 1 in the irrigation system busted loose.  We had water going all over the place but principally in my neighbors drive way almost flooding his garage.  I had to shut off the well, and start digging it up the control valve.  I has been a problem because it is near the driveway, like 5 inches from the pavement.   And we have a complicated driveway with a distinct curve in it and more than one person has drive off the concrete and over the control box.   The control box transfers the pressure on the plumbing and pulls the glued joints apart.  The result is a humongous water leak and it pours into my neighbors yard.  It is a job I will end up doing, muddy, messy and hard to determine just where the leak is coming from.  Once the source joint is located, them another pain in the butt to fix it.

The cheers of home ownership.  At least we do not have to worry about the bathroom.  And the washing machine is fixed.  The rest is my onus.

Mighty Mississippi River . . .

My home town is New Roads, Louisiana.  My family settled in Louisiana in 1856 when my great grandfather, a steam boat Captain, bought Brunswick Plantation located on the coast of Pointe Coupee.  The mighty river flows west to east from Morganza, Louisiana towards St. Francisville on the other side of the river and then turns abruptly left and south towards Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Our plantation is sort of in the middle between Morganza and St. Francisville.  It is prime sugar cane land.

The river is at flood stage now and is flowing about 1.5 million cubic feet of water per second.  Let's put that in gallons which is much more interesting.  That would be 11.7 gallons of water per second.  Just about Morganza is Old River, a cut off horse shoe shape water structure that rises and falls with the river stages.  There is where the Old River Control Structure is built, a system of locks and flood gates that controls the flow of water out of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River.  About 30% of the water flowing down the Mississippi is diverted to the Atchafalaya River.

The Atchafalaya is were the Red River flowing out Texas and Oklahoma ends.  So the water of the Red River is mixed in with water from the Mississippi River.  The interesting point to be made is from that structure to the Gulf of Mexico for the Mississippi River it is about 250 or miles of the meandering Mississippi River but the Atchafalaya is fairly straight and it is only about a 100 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.  That means the Atchafalaya flows more than twice as fast as the Mississippi.  It is a mean river and it is trying to capture the Mississippi and leave Baton Rouge south high and dry.  The Army Corps of Engineers has designed the Old River Control Structure to prevent the capture of Mississippi River by the Atchafalaya River.

Below the Old River Control Structure lies the Morganza Spillway, an emergency flood control structure designed to off load excessive water from the Mississippi River.  The fore bay in front of the Morganza Spillway structure is about two miles from the main channel of the Mississippi and is about two miles wide.  There are guide levees that hold the water up against those control gates in the Morganza Structure.

The Morganza Spill way has been opened twice, once in 1973 and again 2011.  It was open about 50 some odd days before it was closed.  Fortunately in 2011 south Louisiana was in a drought and spillway that extends down and parallel to the Atchafalaya River absorbed all the water.  Today there is no drought and in fact the country side has received lots of rain and the land is saturated.  If they open the Morganza Spillway again, this time Morgan City, a town of 11,000, located on the Atchafalaya will get the brunt of the water flow.

But I am worried about upper Pointe Coupee Parish.  It is isolated with the Atchafalaya on the West, Old River on the North and the Morganza guide levees on the east.  It is triangle and there is no way out for the water if there is a crevasse.  In normal conditions water flows south and there is a pumping station lift the water out and over the levee into the Atchafalaya River.

But if there is a crevasse they will all be under water for along time.  In 1927 that is the region where the flood began.  Yes, all up and down the Mississippi flooded but there was a crevasse along the Atchafalaya and flood water reached all the way down to Pierre Part back behind the city of Plaquemine I Iberville Parish.  Even False River fill up from flood waters.  It was very bad.

So we wait and we watch and pray that there are no crevasses in the levees along the rivers.

Wow - What a Storm . . .

We had the dry line drift passed us today and sure enough a huge storm followed on as expected.  We got violent straight line winds followed by a powerful rain storm.  Rain was blowing level with my vision across the yard.  I saw water running down the window in the laundry room, never saw that before.  I looked up and the gutters were overflowing.

Switched to local TV and they were saying there were embedded tornadoes in the storm.  Doppler radar had detected rotating clouds, a sure sign of tornadoes forming or already formed.  Of course funnel clouds are not tornadoes until they touch down.  Thank God, none of them touched down around us.

We watched the storm track move across DFW and on to Flower Mound.  I am sure later tonight we will learn of evidence of tornado activity some where along the track.

It is clear now, gentle breeze and light shower.  Just a few rain drops here and there.  Big difference from the early storm.  I turned off the sprinklers, we do not need any irrigation tonight, we got washed to day.

The storm even shut down TV reception.  The TV just held the last picture for about ten minutes.  That indicates very thick clouds to interrupt the signal.  Usually happens when it snows, or as in this case, a big raging thunder storm.

It has passed and I think we are finished with it for the day.  Tomorrow will be sunny and clear.  The storm will have washed out all the crap in the air.

Air Compressor . . .

I have an old Sears air compressor I acquired some years ago while living in San Bernardino,
CA.  When I got this compressor the electric motor was shot.  I shopped the catalogs, especially farm oriented catalogs and sure enough I was able to get an electric motor at a very reasonable cost.

I installed the new motor and the unit operated well for years.  But the drive belt was showing its age.  I bought some belt treatment spray material to see if that would help.  It did but it was still marginal.  Finally, the old belt just could not get a grip any more.  I took it off and it was pretty bad, ribs missing, stretched to much, etc.  Time for a replacement.

I went on line with Sears and tried to get a parts list to figure out what the belt part number was.  At least I could maybe get an after market belt and replace my aging one.  Sears said they got rid of their data on that unit years ago.  Sure enough I found out it had been manufactured in 1971 and that made it one year older than my oldest son.  You can do the math, but the answer is 48 years old.

The original belt gave up the ghost recently and I began an Internet search for a new one.  I had a part number I found on the belt and went from there.  I figured the configuration was fairly common and there should be other brands that used the same parts in its make up.  I was right.  Amazon listed about four different belts that all appeared to be the same but with different prices.  I got the least expensive one.

I found the belt listed on Amazon and ordered it up.  I had some misgivings in that I had measured the old belt and it appeared to be 48 inches long.  And all the belts were described as being 49 inches long.  What the heck, a new compressor was at least a $100 and the belt was only $14.95 shipped free on Amazon Prime.  So I got the belt.

Sure enough Amazon Prime delivered the belt in about two days.  It was in what I thought to be a tiny package, but I opened it up and it was indeed the belt as ordered.

Installation was bit tricky but I used my God given mechanical talent to get it installed.  And the first try it popped right off.  But I got it going the second go round.  I plugged the compressor in and she started right up and charged up the tank to 150 PSI.

I had previously changed the oil in the two stage up right compressor unit with compressor oil.  Yes, it is not the same as the oil used in a car.  But the oil had been in the unit since my days in San Berdoo back in 1993 or so.  Time to do a little maintenance, right.  So the unit ran smoothly and worked just fine with an oil change and new belt.

I then drained the water out of the tank.  When you compress air the air contains some quantity of moisture.  So water builds up in the tank.  I drained it and it was about a half a cup full.  Not bad for some 25 or so years of use.  True I did not run it every day, maybe at best ten times a year.

Judie dislikes it because it is big.  That is bigger than she wants it to be.  I regard it as fine piece of equipment that I keep working and using.   So for fifteen bucks or so, some elbow grease cleaning it up, the old compressor is running like a top.

The Procedure . . .

Well my pain doctor did a procedure on my neck.  That is he administered two shots of Cortisone to my neck in the 5/6 and 6/7 joints.  That is just above sixth cervical joint and the bottom the same joint.  And the problem is predominately on the right side of my neck and effects the right side of the body.  In this case the nerves dealing with the right shoulder, right arm, right hand and the fingers on the right hand.  It weakens the ability to direct the muscles and that means a loss of dexterity in that arm and a concomitant lost of strength.

To top it all off is that many years ago I damaged the right bicep, tore the muscle and of course it has not recovered.  As one Orthopedic Surgeon said he could not fix the muscle.  So I do bicep exercises to keep the strength up on that arm.  Of late I have been restrained from doing pressure exercises (weight lifting) and been doing restrain exercises (pulling bungee cords, etc. which is not near as effective).

I used to do curls with my right arm and was using a 10 pound weight and doing 25 repetitions.  Now I can barely to 10 such repetitions with my right arm.  I have recovered in left arm after left shoulder replacement and can do the 25 repetitions easily.  So I am being impacted by the nerve interruption or pressures on the nerve.  Since the procedure the doctor performed I have been again restrained on what I can do for a while.

The pain doctor said it was so bad that there would be three such procedures before we could really see much recovery.  He said it was tight because the nerves swell  and because the vias are being crushed by lack of disks holding the joint apart.  Think of the disk as an O-ring between joints, it seals up the spinal cord but more importantly allows the nerves unimpeded access to connect up with all the activities of the arm.  Yes, I can move my arm but not as much nor as quickly.  Sometimes have to use the left arm to assist the right arm.

I sense I am using my left arm more when driving because it is stronger and responding better.  I still use the right arm but it is weak sister now.

So far all the Cortisone has raised my blood sugar and not much else.   Numbness is down in the little finger and ring finger.  That is effected by 6/7 joint that before was not a problem.  So it is sort of getting its first treatment, but not much improvement in the 5/6 joint - yet.  Ergo that is why I will get more shots before this is over.

Abd what this says is I am getting old.  Things are breaking down like the disks in my neck.  Could this be arthritis too, yes, but I really do not know that yet.  By the way this is known as Radiculopathy.

Yuck!

Sun is Out . . .

After a couple of days of overcast and rain, the sun has appeared again.  I turned the irrigation system off yesterday, the ground is soaked.  So saved a few dimes of electricity and a few gallons of ground water.  I will turn it back on in a day or two.  I have a leak to fix.

The Texas lakes are all recharged.  We got about three inches of rain and other areas got as much as seven or more inches.  So the run off has charged all the lakes and there was a threat of flash floods.

Here in Texas we lost a family to the raging waters.  I do not know if the driver mistook a turn and drove off the road into raging waters or was swept off the road by raging waters.  It kill the mother and two children and the husband was found clinging to a tree some distance from his automobile.  The two children were found in the car and the wife further down stream.  It was a very tragic event, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I walked around and noted the plants have enjoyed all the extra water and are perked up.  Part of front yard was ravaged by Chinch bugs and is not recovering.  It is yet too cool for the Chinch bug and this go round I have a lot of poison (Malathion) for them.  I will spray it when it gets dry as a preventive action.

Judie has gone around with her Round Up and sprayed the weeds in the cracks of the concrete.  No weed goes with out a shot of Round Up and they are indeed drying up.

I will soon have to fire up the lawn tractor.  She has hired a lawn service since she thinks my arm is not sufficiently recovered to cut the grass.  I will charge up the battery and get an oil filter to prepare the mower for action.  The blades are plenty sharp and ready to go.  I will air up the tires too.  It is time to get one more season out of the mower and then maybe I will give up.  I just can not bring myself to pay $50 to cut the grass.

I have go behind these guys and fix things.  They trigger one water leak and mowed down one sapling in a wire cage.  I had to straighten out the wire cage and put flags on it.   So far they have not done it twice and the poor little sapling is recovering with a new shoot.

These guys mean well but just rush around way to swiftly.  They want to cut and go, move on to the next customer.  They need adult management.

Well the sun is out and I see some plants coming back.  That kind of wets my appetite to get some yard work done.

I Finally Got It To Work . . . .

A while back I bought a WiFi booster via Amazon Prime.  It was a nifty device.  You plugged it in in the den next to the AT&T modem and it learned all the signals and the correct little lights blinked on off until finally the right ones were left lit.  That meant it was working.

I them moved into the kitchen and tested it against my lap top and found the signal was much stronger and lap top worked faster.  That was as advertised.  

Judie is wearing a heart monitor and among other things it connects to the Internet automatically.  But the signal in the bed room was not strong enough and it did not connect in that room.  So I moved the booster into the bedroom and sure enough, the monitor connected up with whatever it connects to.

So I bought another booster to replace the one that was now in the bed room.  But it was not exactly the same make and model as the one in the bed room.  In fact it was much more complicated to set up.

The one in the bed room just sat there and figured out what was what and went to work.  The new one had to be "set up" correctly to work.  I tried following the instructions provided with the booster but it seemed like they were written by a Chinese computer expert with lots of acronyms not spelled out so you did not know what was what.  It just did not have that automatic feature like the older booster has.

I finally did a Google search and found some instructions in American writing and followed those instructions.  Basically I had to use the lap top, hook up a Ethernet cable between the lap top and the booster.  Then using that computer web browser to connect with the manufacturer and the instructions on the regular computer, I hooked up the cable and sure enough got things rolling.  I noted that the new booster only had two lights instead of four that were on the older booster version.  And sure enough I got the proper light indicating a signal working just fine at long last.

Then I moved the booster back into the living room, plugged it in and watched it.  The power light flashed a few times and then went steady and after about a minute the signal light lit up, went off, blinked a few times and then came back on with a strong light.  I am guessing that meant a good signal. And the signal light remained on meaning it was connected and doing its boosting as it was supposed to do.

I then fired up the lap top in the kitchen area and I immediately noted a much faster response using the Internet.  So now I know I had a good signal.  I confirmed the lap top was running faster and better now with the booster working like it should.

But it took me a couple of weeks to finally figure out how to set the thing up.  Once I broke the code on passwords, etc., it was a piece of cake.  But no one explained what pass word to use when with what process or step.  The pass word they were looking for is one off the AT&T modem whivh is just a 10 digit number.   I do not refer to that number as a pass word but rather as the "Modem Code."  Now I know better.

I would not be surprised now that I could get a signal across the street in my neighbors house since both boosters are working.  The booster improves the signal power (that is range) and speeds up the data transfer at the same time.  It does make a difference.

New Hearing Aids . . .

I asked for and got an appointment with the Audiology Clinic at the Veterans Administration (VA) clinic in Fort Worth.  And to my good fortune I got the same young lady that examined me some five or six years ago.  We did a quick test, basically the same test I originally had back when I first got hearing aids.

She told me my hearing had not change much but probably my hearing aids were failing, or wearing out.  No matter, some where along the way I had those hearings repaired when both receivers came off.  She told me I should have brought the repaired hearing aids in to have them recalibrated or tuned up. This I did not know thus have suffered for the last three years with subpar performance of the devices.

So she ordered up new set of hearing aids for me.  This time I also got a Blue Tooth television set up.  That allows me to listen to the TV through my hearing aids.  That is really neat and I find I can turn the TV sound almost off and still hear what is going on.  Before with the subpar old hearing aids I still had the volume up pretty high.  Now I can hear though the hearing aids and the sound can be set way down as to not bother anybody else.

I can also answer my telephone via the hearing aids even to the point I can use the hearing aid on the left side to reject a call or even hang up on a call.  And of course I can communicate through the hearing aids to the phone.  If you think about it, hearing aids have a microphone so it can be used to talk to a caller via hearing aid to the cell phone.  So the phone can stay on your belt or be elsewhere and I can still answer the call.  That is a really neat feature too.

The new hearing aids are much more sensitive and I hear much better.  I really do hear all the clicks and clacks of typing on a key board, or the change jingling in my pocket.  The hearings aids also have programs to work jointly, focusing on the someone talking to you or even suppresses road noises while riding in a car.  All of that is programmed into the operation of the devices.  All of that in a tiny little container sitting behind my ear and with a terminal in my ear (called a receiver).  These are Receiver In Canal (RIC) devices.

I find the VA gives first class hearing equipment.  Mine are Phonak brand (Swiss Made like a fine mechanical watch) and top of the line devices.  I looked up the prices, of course these are prices everyone gets charged and was astounded at how expensive they were.  I am sure the VA buys them in bulk and gets a better price but even so they are quite costly.

I do have a service connected disability for hearing but it is rated at zero.  Getting compensation of hearing loss means you really have severe hearing impairment.  I can hear but I do not hear much above 4,000 cycles.  This is known as telephone hearing because that is about the fidelity of our telephones.  So while I do not collect any compensation I do get hearing aids and I am thankful as they are pretty expensive devices.

Any how I did not know how much I had been missing.  And all that sound is catching up to me again.  Some things are really painful to hear amplified like water coming out a kitchen sink faucet.  Man, that is very irritating especially if I am standing over sink and running the water.  At distance it is not so bad but up close it almost hurts it is so harsh.

It is good to be hearing again!

Pain Doctor , , ,

Well I had an appointment with the pain doctor yesterday to address my right arm.  I have radiculopathy which literally means I have disk problem in my neck that pinches the nerve and impacts my arm.  It is not just pain and numbness, it is a loss of dexterity and mobility.  I am losing range of motion.

First the nurse put me through her routine including a pee in the cup routine.  They do that because they deal in opioids a lot.  So I was not excited about it, just something you have to do.  My BP was up and I attribute that to finally getting to see the doctor but doing so means you have to go through a bunch of BS to get to that point.

The next person was a PA and he put me through his paces.  He had learned I had Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) which is a result of my Type II Diabetes (an auto immune disease).  Diabetes attacks nerves and especially nerve ends in your extremities.  And the VA has assessed that and awarded me a Service Condition which among other things carries with it a monthly stipend.  The fact that I have it is not a big deal to me and it really does not impact me a great deal.  Yes, I have lost some sensation in my feet and hands but that condition has not changed since I have gotten my Diabetes under control.  And I generally pay close attention to the Diabetes.  As a result its onslaught to attacking my nervous system has if not abated has remained relatively unchanged.  Basically, it does not bother me anymore as I know what it is and that I can not do anything about it.  The PA was intent on trying to get me to take Gabapentin and I was not having anything to do with it.

Then the doctor popped in to see me.  His news was disheartening in that neck conditions were really bad.  The joints at 5/6 and 5/7 were really bad especially on the right side.  I knew that it was bad just not how bad.  I had looked at the MRI and even I could see there were issues at those joints in my neck (or if you will my upper spine).  The discs were bulging out and the shots would pump up the disc and relieve the pressure on my nerves.   I had been though this before except it was just 5/6 joint giving me issues.  He did not even mention Gabapentin or my PN at all.

I had my left shoulder replaced in September last year and had to wear this humongous sling for at least a month.  I attributed my neck problems to the wearing of the sling.  The doctor agreed with me.
Now I am scheduled for a "procedure" and that treatment will be shots in the neck.  It appears that the process has become refined and improved.  So now I have to go to minor surgery for the treatment.  The doctor said it was so bad I should expect at least three shots to treat it.  That means three different times in the minor surgery for me.  He said I should expect it to take at least that many times to get things back into place so to speak.

In the last month or so, the pain has abated but I know it can flare up immediately.  More so I want to get my dexterity back again.  There was no comment about that but I am sure I will regain some degree of range of motion.

No Fritzes . . .

Fritz is the name I gave to our resident fence lizard.  He was a real laid back guy.  We later had a Mrs. Fritz but she was not so laid back, she was very skittish.  And then we had a bunch of them all over the yard.  Our cricket population went to near zero.

But so far with arrival of Spring I have not seen a Fritz in the yard or their other favorite spot, my garage.  We used to see them run across the window screens.  But so far we have not seen nary a one around the yard.

I think perhaps they have moved on as there seems to be no crickets for then to feast on.  I am guessing they have so decimated the population of crickets that there is not enough food for them to survive on.  Oh, I'm sure there are other insects they may eat but even so, there are no Fritzes running around anymore.

Or maybe I am just premature in thinking they are gone.  I do not know.  We will keep a watch for them.  Maybe they are in your yard now.

Aaaaah, New Orleans . . .

We made it back from a few days in New Orleans.  Drove down from Weatherford to the city.  We got off on Poydras, went about five blocks, turned right and one more block to the hotel.  That was easy and convenient.

 We met James and Joan and Jacob, Anne and children for a stay in New Orleans.  We stayed at the Old 77 Hotel and Chandlery on Tchoupitolas Street.  Old 77 was a quaint place, newly configured, perhaps a couple of years old at best.  Chopped up old warehouses coupled together to make a hotel, restaurant and art dealership.  It was nice though sort of dated walking around tiled floors, then carpet, then wooden (and noisy) flooring.  The place was well done and the location was convenient.

Then we ate our way through the city.   First night we ate at the Pelican Club, a restaurant off Bienville, across the street from the Monteleone Hotel and down the alley.  The food was great.

The next night we ate a Commander's Palace across from the cemetery in the Garden District.  My great great grandfather is interred the cemetery.  And some of our relatives of later generations are also interred there with him.  Commander's, owned by the Brennan family, was spectacular.  We entered the place, went through the kitchen, passed the bar and patio to another dinning room out back.  The dinning room had a couple of large oak trees in the center.  Our waiter was Peter and he was magnificent.  The food was out of this world including the deserts.

The following night we ate at Emeril's Delmonico's on St. Charles Avenue.  The dinning room was up stairs and we were on time for our reservation.  We had a large round corner table in the front dinning room.  Service was again terrific and the food was excellent.

Friday, we had to get up and drive back to Texas.  Jacob, Anne and children caught the train, the City of New Orleans, for Chicago and James and Joan flew back to Austin, Texas.  We had a great time, drank to much, and ate to much, gained three or four pounds and loved it.

The weather cooperated, it was cool but dry and we walked to the French Quarter to have beignets at Café Du Mode.  Being old hands at it we walked past the long line of tourists wanting to sit outside, or the long line at the "togo" window and went in the small but cramped inside dinning area at got the first available table.  We actually got two tables adjacent to each other and had instant service.  No wait, just coffee and donuts.

We later walked down to the French Market, browsed around, caught the street car on the levee and rode back to Canal Street.  From there is was just a stroll back to the Old 77.

We passed a great time, enjoyed ourselves and the children but we were ready to go home.

Computer Woes . . .

My old Dell Inspiron crashed.  It had to do with loading an update of Windows 10 Pro version 1803.  In the mean time I acquired a new (at least new to me) Dell OptiPlex 890 with an I-5 CPU chip.  It is a much faster machine.

The computer was purchased from Blair Technology which refurbishes computers for Intel.  It came with a one year warranty, a mouse, and key board.  And it was stocked with Windows 10 Pro, 8 Gigabytes of Ram and a two terabyte hard drive.  All of that was $206 delivered to my door step.

Yet the Version 1803 bit me again and got the system up and running again but having lost almost all the software package that came with it.  It was no great loss.  I loaded all my old software and it runs just fine now.

Then I started having start up problems with the new machine.  I found a way to get it going but finally shipped back to Blair Tech under warranty.  I got it back in about 10 days and I figure I got a new power supply.  I added more memory and it now has 12 Megabytes of RAM.  The same hard drive was in place so I did not have to reload software.  I did have to reload my selected pre- addressed URLs like Google, Morning Advocate newspaper, etc.  That is no big issue and all is well now and I have a faster machine.  I did have a problem with the Blog but that is finally resolved for keeps (I hope).

I reformatted the old Inspiron computer and it sits in reserve now.  I plan to give it to my house keeper for her young grandchildren to use but I will have find a cheap monitor for them.  I have the key board and mouse.  I probably will have to get a new Internet connection along with the monitor to make the machine a complete and useful device.  Their children need the machine and I have given them a small lap top but they will soon out grow that machine.

A Long Time . . .

I have been fighting the "Blogger" for at least five months.  At last I broke the code and I am back on the air so to speak.  Much water has gone under the bridge in that time.

The biggest is I had my left shoulder replaced.  I was in constant pain, sometimes harsh, sometimes mild.  The Orthopedic Surgeon said the end of the humerus bone was totally eaten up by Osteoarthritis and had to be replaced.  The operation was conducted in Fort Worth Methodist Harris Hospital on September 18, 2018 by Dr. Curtiss Bush (an graduate of the LSU Medical School).  There was immediate relief, no more pain, period.  Done and gone.

However, recovery was a bit more arduous than desired.  I had to wear an awkward sling that put a lot pressure on my neck.  Apparently that caused my Radii Culopathy to flare up and started problems from my neck down to my right hand.  I have pain that radiates from my neck sometimes very bad but most times just irritable often requiring a couple of Ibuprofen pills up to and including Tylenol 3's (Codeine).   Sometimes the numbness in my fingers is elevated and sometimes it backs off.  But all together indicate my neck problems had returned.

Dr. Bush seemed skeptical about it but I convinced him to require a MRI on my neck and an X-ray of my right shoulder.  I have had the MRI and looked at the results and the 6th vertebrae looks bad on the top and the bottom of that neck bone.  In the past I have had Cortisone shots in the neck that pumped up the disc and totally relieved the pain.  I have an appointment with the same pain doctor and I will give him the MRI and say shoot me up again.

The Cortisone usually results in freedom from pain for at least 5 years and last time it worked for almost 15 years.

Any left shoulder is great, no problems fully recover range of motion, etc.  I am very pleased with the final results.  I breeze through physical therapy and face a follow up appointment a year from my birthday, March 9.

I am getting old and things are wearing out.  The left shoulder being one of them and my neck the other one.  Both are attributed to all the jogging I did in the military.  On the other hand all that jogging has put off my cardio problems.  I do have cardio problems but no heart attacks and mild blockages in the arteries around my heart.  The VA has awarded me service connected disabilities for both the Radii Culopathy and the heart disease.