Express Scripts/TRICARE . . .

Just hung up on Express Scripts/TRICARE because the answering computer would not let me speak to a real person.  I went through five or six reiterations with the computer.  I am asking for a "live person" and the computer wants an invoice number.

The computer then decided I should finally talk to a service representative.  About that time I finally figured out how to make changes to my account payment procedures via the Internet.  There were no explanations, and their syntaxes did not make sense to me.  I finally figured out their syntaxes and made the changes via the Internet.

But why do they so valiantly oppose connecting you to a live person?  Yes, I know, they do not want to pay for alive person and shuttle you off to a computer.  But the computer can not figure out what you want and since it does fit what they want it to, then they recycle you back through the same routine.  On me they cycled through six times, even one time where I pressed the O button on the phone.  Finally the computer decided I needed to talk to a service representative.  They make it hard to converse with a live human.

Fortunately about that time I broke the code on the Internet window and got the changes made to my satisfaction.  So that being completed, I hung up.

It is very demeaning and irritating to deal with a non-human entity.

The Old Inspiron Dell Computer . . .

The old computer, circa 2005, had a dual core Pentium chip.   The chip is used in the Computer Process Unit, aka CPU.  While dual core was quite fast when new it is slow as molasses compared t todays CPUs.  My current computer has two Tera Byte hard drive, 11 Gigs of random memory and a first generation I5 quad core CPU that runs at 3.2 Gigabytes.   So in general terms it is a four times faster than the old Pentium.

But the Pentium is still a computer.  I have had sitting on the side, it had Windows 10 Pro operating system, 4 Gigabytes of RAM, CD-ROM, one Gigabyte Hard Drive, and even an old 2.5 inch floppy drive in it.  So it is a functional computer with still quite a bit of capability but really slow compared to my current system.

I got a used color monitor for $29 and a USB plug in unit that connects with the modem for $9.98.  So I fired up the old computer and it would not let me in.  I had forgotten the password to get into Windows 10 Pro. 

After fighting it for two or three hours using all the common old passwords I used to use.  I was going no where.

I did a search on my new I5 system and found a bunch of You Tube folks that said they could unlock the computer.  All of them took time and a host of new names and logic etc., step by step process to do the job.  I figure if they could do it there must be some kind of soft ware that would do it.  I found I could go to Microsoft and get it done but you had to go through all kinds of shenanigan's identifying yourself and your operating system.  In other words it was equally a big pain in the butt to do.

I kept looking and reading and a name kept coming up, Lazesoft.  So I did a search on the Internet and found that is was a British company and offered free software to unlock the computer.  I downloaded the software, followed the instructions, made a CD-ROM with software on it.  I had to go into the old computers IOS system, set it up to boot on the CD-ROM.

I placed the CD-ROM in the optic player, it booted and the software quickly removed the old password.  I did not set up a new password, just left it blank.  But with about 20 minutes of research, another 20 minutes of make a CD-ROM and them setting up the old computer to boot off the CD-ROM and it solved the problem for me.  Frustration is gone!

So then the old computer was working.  I then went back into IOS to change the boot sequence back to the hard drive and now it would fire up immediately.  Then I went about getting the USB Internet connector into operation.  I had get to the Internet Connector location, set it up to operate and then go to the router (or in this case the ATT Modem) and trigger the WPS button, the device immediately got the message from the modem and locked in to the modem.

So now we have the old computer fully operational, connectable to the Internet and I down loaded Libre open source software word processor.  So it a going machine now, just slow.

We are going to give it to the family that does our house cleaning.  They have three youngsters, bi-ligual in Spanish and English.  Two of three kids are in school and oldest now needs a computer.  We gave him a cheapo lap top a whilc back.  But the lap top is not near as powerful a machine the old clunker.  So the second and third kids (and the parents) could use the old machine.

I have ask the housekeeper if she wants it, if not I will find someone else that needs a computer and give it to them.  I got to get rid of this old dust collector.

AOL Strikes . . .

Well not AOL itself but my Email account has been "spoofed."  Spoofing is not the same as hacked.  When hacked one can change his or her password and that takes care of the problem.  Spoof is when they steal your address and send out some kind of a message using you good name.  In my case the spoof, and the embedded address, signed me up for thousands of accounts worldwide.  Mostly somebodys blog, news letters, etc.  I mean they had to work to build that big address list and to irritate a innocent user.

I had messages pouring in from China, India, Russia, all of Europe, Middle East, South Africa and so on and on and on.

Now AOL provides a way to keep the messages from getting into your Email account and sends the message directly to the spam account.  It is called a spam filter.  The key is to getting rid of the message by sending it originally to your spam account.  There is a little Icon up on top that you can check.  The work is checking all the messages and sending to the spam account the first time puts all the sending addresses into the spam filter and the filter sends the messages to the spam account. 

At the peak, we had upwards of 8,000 messages in the spam account.  I would open AOL, go to the spam account and delete all the messages.  It quickly gets rid of the messages.  The good news is all those address that were originally contacted are easily deleted out of the spam account with just one click.  The senders quickly realize that they are sending the message to a fictitious account and quit doing it.

So we have been spamming message after message, leaving of course those we want to read and react to.  All the others are literally trashed.

It would seem AOL would take some action but since it is a free account there is no profit in doing anything to fix anything.  So they let it ride.  It creates a lot of traffic through their system but that is not a problem to them.  So they do not care

We have had this account address since 1994 and I want to keep it.  So we deal with it, sending all the unusual messages direct to spam.  And later clean out the spam account.  So the messages are really all going into nether land.

It is frustrating to deal with but can be dealt with.

The Chain Saw . . .

We have a small electric chain saw.   I have used it to cut down a couple of peach trees that died and recently a small dead Post Oak and Hawthorn tree.  The Hawthorn tree is just a nuisance that generates big thorns and causes flat tires on the garden tractor lawn mower. 

The saw did a great job of chewing up those small trees and making a little firewood for us.  We do not need the firewood but we do have a chimenea that we burn in the fall every once in a while.  So I keep a small stack of little logs to burn.  Most of it is peach wood but now has both Oak and Hawthorne wood in the pile.

But I notice the saw chain was pretty loose.  So I set about checking it out and found out it was dangerously loose.  I watch a "You Tube" presentation and got to adjusting the chain correctly.  It was not hard to do and pretty simple process.  The saw is electric nice and light and with a long power cord does the job.  No hard starting or mixed gasoline to deal with, just plug and go.

I have yet another one, a bit smaller that is on a "pole saw."  I have not used it yet but it is the next step for me to use.  Oak trees, especially Post Oaks generate a lot of dead limbs.  They are said to self trimming in the those limbs eventually rot and fall off.  With the pole saw you get them out of the way sooner and they are not so unsightly looking trees then.

Right now it is too hot and to do that kind of work requires early morning duty.  That's okay with me but I have remember to do it.  There is a Post Oak by the driveway on the North side of the house and now has a big limb with a lot of dead ones on it hanging over the driveway.  It is poised to drop a lot of sticks and trash on the driveway to clean up.  Might as well get at that when they are big and easier to dispose of. 

We have a big pile of tree trimmings in the back yard and usually get the yard folks to cart it off in the Spring.  And then we start stacking it up again with Post Oak droppings.  So I really need to clean out those trees in back yard too.

Just more work.

Monday . . .

Monday was a very busy day for us.  We usually have the housekeeper come on Mondays to clean up for us.  She is both a house keeper and friend.  She brought her three grandchildren with her.  We knew she was going to do this and okayed it.  In fact, Judie spent several hours entertaining the kids.  The housekeeper, Emely cleaned up and then hustled all the kids off just after lunch.

Monday the glass people also showed up.  One of the sliding doors for the shower/bath tub was off track, in fact one of the door's hangers had slipped down complicating matters.  So they showed up and took the door off, reworked the hanger and rehung the door.  It took two of them to do the job.  It is not a task for an non-professional to perform.  Those doors will shatter into a jillion pieces if stressed the wrong way.  So we let the pro's do their job and they had it all fixed up in about an hour or so.

And the landscaper showed up with a bevy of workers seeming each one came in his own truck.  So we had a crowd of vehicles parked out front.  They installed rings under the trees out front.  I say rings but they are kidney shaped as Judie does not like the plain old rings.  They place some big rocks, some smaller gravel and mostly mulch inside the rings.  They also planted Ajuga plants that will eventually spread as a ground cover.

They also put in a ring out back to around the big Hackberry tree closest to the house.  They used a pole saw and trimmed out some of the lower hanging branches to open up the sun light a bit.

They also planted a Little Jim Magnolia out in the mound.  The mound was a pile dirt that came from where we expanded the concrete off the patio.  The mound got all dressed out and even got one of those big pieces stone to go with the Magnolia tree.

And finally we had another Hackberry, smaller in size that was nuisance tree and I wanted it removed.  Well it is gone now.  That free up some sun light for the grassy area near the bird bath located in the middle of back yard.  The Hackberry's are trashy to begin with and it was going to be a problem with the Post Oaks, so it had to go.

All of the landscape stuff took about a day and half.  But it spruces up the yard and makes Judie happy, so I am happy with that.

It was a busy day, with cutting slashing, scraping, placing, mulching, house cleaning and glass repair.

The Tool . . .

I written before that sprinkler systems are constant work.  A while back one of the sprinkler circuits routes ceased to operate.  I fiddled with it and still could not get it to work.  So I called a sprinkler guy and he turned out to be retired USAF Sargent.  And he did a bit off fiddling around and he found a broken wire from the sprinkler control unit going down to where are the wires were congregated just outside of the garage.  We ran a new wire from the control box to this location and he figured it out the correct wire connection and got the sprinkler working again.

That was about seven years ago.  And sure enough that same circuit went dead.  I looked and looked for the old connection and could not find it.  Many a night I would go to sleep trying to figure out how I could fix the problem.

In the mean time one of the units in the control box went bad and I had to replace it.  That was easy enough to do but I still had this one bad circuit.  That set of sprinklers were on the south side of the house and partly into the front yard.  The frequent rains, storms, etc. kept the area green but it has turned hot and dry.  And the grass was dying.

So back at it again.  Then I had an idea, why not use a jumper wire from the known good connection and then I could try the various wiring connections in the control junction box.  I would go to the main control box and select that station, number 7, so I knew it had power and then I connected the jumper to the end of that wire and then started test other connections.  On the second test using the jumper  cable and the sprinkler fired up.  I had finally located the correct set of wires in junction box.  After that it was just a matter of connecting wires together.

The tool is the jumper wire with alligator clips on each end.  I had not used it in years and had to go hunting for it.  I recalled after while that it was in my little tool kit I used on computers.  It had connectors, various screw drivers, a device to pull a computer chip out of its socket in that kit.  I had stashed the jumper in that tool kit.  I was elated when I found it and quickly put it to work and found the correct connections in short order.

That kind tool is home made.  One those things one creates to do something way back when.  I do not recall why I made it but boy it solved the problem quickly for me.  I ponder how to correct that problem for months and now know what to do.  Jumpers are not new, and of course, on a computer board there used to be various jumpers you had to use.  Those were simple little plug devices to connected two pins.    Nobody uses pin junction any more and I have a tube of hardware in the computer tool kit with screws, jumpers and "y" connectors to enable more than one hard drive to get power and so on.   Once in a great while one needs a jumper cable and that is why it is in the kit.

The Fence . . .

We have fenced in most of our backyard but have a gap on one side by the driveway.  So we decided to complete the fencing in to control deer from eating every thing under the sun.

While the workman was working on installing the fence we had a doe with twin fawns in the back yard.  The fawns wanted to stay there and so mama allowed them to do so but stood guard over them any way.  She seemed aware of what the fence meant and even settled in over by one already fenced in area next to the neighbors swimming pool.  Even with people in the pool, she was content to stay next to the fence in that area.  She recognized she was protected and we were not bothering her.  And neither was the workman who patiently continue to install fence post and some of the fencing.

Today he will come out and finish the job and we will swing the gates closed.  If she is back there, she will be trapped.  I have seen an already a mature deer clear the five foot fence with ease.  The fawns simply squeeze through the fence.  The fence is black and looks like iron but is really aluminum painted back.  And the vertical bars are space about five or so inches apart.  And the fawns can get through that with ease.  So mama would have to go over the top and the babies will follow her out of the yard.

And the deer have been most proliferate this year.  A friend down the street said she counted 8 fawns in her yard the other day.  Another neighbor further down the street feeds them and has had upwards to 15 fawns in her back yard.  Her yard in on the route that goes over toward Lake Weatherford for water.  She also owns the vacant lot next to her and has a huge trash pile that the deer hide behind.  She calls it a habitat protector.

So today will be their last day to rule our back yard.  And we can free up the barriers on our patio that protect potted plants.  We screened in much of the patio and they can not get into that area but have torn the screen in a couple places testing the enclosure.  We can not plant other plants in the back now.  But with closure of the gates we will be able to start planting again.   We can have Day Lilies again.

Many of the plants supposedly the deer with not eat are not the answer.  We have found the deer will eat parsley and even chives if they are really hungry.  If it sticks up and does not have a strong aroma like Rosemary, they will eat it.  I have seen them eat Iris' and eve Lantana.  They will dine on Verbena at will.  Marigolds go in one big bite.  We have Confederate Rose or otherwise known as the Tree Rose of Sharon that they have dined up at will.  Yet they leave our neighbor's Confederate Rose alone and it is only 20 feet away from our yard!

Anyway the gates will swing closed shortly.

Strange Event . . .

Internet went down the other day, no connection at all.  Called ATT who provides us Uverse service and they did a line check and a modem test.  The young lady doing the work decided it was my modem that was at fault and thus they would send me a new one.  And since I owned the old one I did not have to send it back when the new one arrived.  I had to call ATT on my cell phone which is serviced by Sprint as Uverse effects both the land line telephone and the internet on the same line.  So with the line down the land line phone was not working either.

Well later that night the Internet recovered and my old modem was working just fine.  My neighbor who has the same service got a different story.  They told her the line was down and that it would come back on (and of course it did for both of us).  But they also said they were replacing her modem too.

Got the new modem last night and did nothing with it.  I plugged in all the wires and back power supply and the on light turned green this morning.  I then tried to use it but no joy.  So I hooked up the old ethernet cable and it worked just fine.  So I unplugged the ethernet line and went back to the WiFi unit.  It lit up correctly and I installed the new password off the new modem and all was good.  It used the same name, a code it guess, from the old modem and a new password to automatically set itself up.  No conversations with the tech on the phone to get the job done.

The tech I talked to, a young woman, had concluded my old modem was out dated and I needed a new one.  That was not true, she apparently was not told the system was down.  No matter the new modem operates in the higher frequency range and is about twice as fast as the old.  Naturally I like that and will keep it.  I think it might have been just an excuse to replace all the old modems, who knows?

I will take the old modem to the camp in New Roads.  It is probably faster than that modem and will work just fine there.  I know the old modem in New Roads is pretty old but still works.  This modem is probably faster than that old one.

We shall see.  Might be a bad idea.

Gastroparesis . . .

As a Diabetic you soon learn there are lots of secondary conditions that follow you around.  One those is Gastroparesis.  Basicially that means the stomach does not empty in the small intestine like it is supposed to do.

I first discovered this condition when my breakfast cereal did not empty into the digestive tract like it is supposed to do.  The acid builds up in your stomach and the cereal balls up into a sour mass.  After about 12 hours, maybe ten hours or even 14 or 15 hours after you eat, your stomach lets you know all is not well.  And it empties itself the only way it can, by causing you to throw up.  After tossing your cookies everything seems to return to normal.

Well I can usually detect when the stomach is building up.  It lets you know it is not happy.  I have been on occasion able to clear my stomach by contracting my diaphragm which sort squeezes your stomach into properly emptying.  It does not always work and when it doesn't you will end up hugging the while porcelain fixture in the bathroom, the toilet.  You have no choice.

Last night I had a severe attack and ended up emptying my stomach into the toilet.  This time it was cereal, it was all liquid in nature.  And that is a change for me.  Usually I have no trouble with liquids but I had drank a cup of coffee after dinner.  I always take coffee with half and half cream, and that turned sour on me.  I had had a bowl of commercial frozen Gumbo which was very soupy, or if you will liquid instead of being a solid.  Yes, there were a few crummy shrimp in the Gumbo but there were soft so pretty much turned to liquid in my stomach.

So a 1:30AM the attack began.  I tried contracting my diaphragm several times with no relief.  Then the stomach notified me things were going to come up.  I trotted off the bathroom and sure enough just made it in time when stomach contents started flowing up.  Not pleasant but necessary.  After the regurgitation things returned to normal and I went off to sleep.

Diabetes, as in my case Type II, is an autoimmune disease.  Once you have it, it will be with you the rest of your life.  Some once asked what causes it and we do not know what that it is.  In some cases reducing weight can cause Type II to go into remission.  But it will pop up again when you least expect it.  In my case I probably have severe liver damage due to absorption of Agent Orange.  There is no cure, one must learn to manage their Diabetes.

Agent Orange, so named because it came in orange barrels, was defoliant sprayed in View Nam to remove the cover from use by the Viet Cong.  The primary bad actor in Agent Orange is Dioxen.  Dioxen is common in 2-4-D used by all of us to get rid of weeds or other plant growth we do not want or like.  The Agent Orange used a lot of it, in a most potent vein.  It was sprayed by C-123 aircraft.  And they were all over the flight line where I commonly worked.  We even used the barrels as trash barrels and modified some of them into Bar-B-Que pits.  We had no idea how bad the stuff was.  And that contamination was ramped. it was everywhere on a Air Base.  Dioxen gets into your liver and makes it intolerant to insulin.

Today all Viet Nam Veterans are subject to a myriad of diseases and cancers all caused by Agent Orange.  Many have died due to the onset of cancer including Prostate Cancer and Parkinson's Disease.  Fortunately for me, I have no cancer but I do have Diabetes Type II.  As a result I have Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet and both hands.  That is I am losing sensitivity in my hands and feet.  Diabetes attacks your nervous system.

A while back, several years ago, I noted I was getting quite obese.  So I set about losing some weight.  I lost over forty pounds and my normal weight now days is 190 pounds.  I think I had topped out a 243 pounds at one time.  I did this by not eating any lunch and I still more or less maintain a no lunch diet.  I figure in ancient times one at breakfast and then dinner.  So I figured lunch was just a luxury.  People told me Diabetics should not avoid meals, that is baloney.  Diabetics should avoid carbohydrates with a passion.  So I am mindful of my diet all the time.  I have rice and corn are very high in carbohydrates.  So I avoid those, as do I avoid sugar and sugary drinks.  Alcohol does not have sugar but does have empty calories.  So I do not drink as much as I once did.

So Gastroparesis is just another health element you have do deal with as a Diabetic.  You get used to it over time.   Metphormen is a common drug for Type II treatment and it can also stimulate your appetite.  I take it and Januvia to control my blood sugar.  My body produces insulin but my liver is intolerant to the insulin.  Those drugs essentially make the liver work like it should.

Survivor Benefit Progam . . .

Survivor Benefit Plan or as we ex-military people would say SBP is basically an annuity for your spouse and kicks in when you, the primary military person dies.  If you die on active duty it kicks in automatically for your spouse.  But if you are retired like me you have to pay for it.  It cost about $320 a month.

You pay for it for 360 months and then you are paid up and no longer have to pay for it.  The annuity pays your spouse half of what you got in retirement.  So it is different amount for different grades, the higher grades pay more than the lower grades.  It is not a case of rank has its privileges.  You have the privilege of paying more.  I reached 30 years last September.

How much is it?  Well is supposed to pay your spouse 50% of your retirement pay.  And it runs as long as your spouse lives.  I guess they figured since one of the pair is deceased the remaining spouse only needs half of the retirement.  That is not perfect but it works for us.  And of course it is taxed.

But since I am retired and a veteran I also get veteran's benefits.  Should I die from an established disability ala VA, then my spouse collects Dependency Indemnity Compensation (DIC).  And since I am now rated 100% disabled the VA considers virtually considers any cause of death as acceptable for DIC.  Thus up until now you could not get a 100% of DIC and 100% of our SBP.   For every dollar of your DIC you collected a dollar was substracted from your SBP.  The law is changing, it has already been enacted.  So basically by 1 February 2023 you can collect both of them.   It is important to remember one pays for SBP out of ones retirement pay, while DIC is compensation and it cost the veteran nothing.

So it is refreshing to learn you still have the SBP and life a life insurance policy is "Paid Up."  In the past if you withdrew from SBP you could not get it back.  Those whose spouse precedes them into the grave, you can quit paying for it.  You got nothing back, it was money spent for the protection and gone.  You can voluntarily get out of paying it only if your spouse agrees since it is a benefit for the spouse not you.  Divorce of course, all bets are off too.  Now days I still have the protection for Judie but no longer have to pay for it.

When I signed up for SBP I asked my insurance company, USAA, was it a good deal.  The answer was a resounding yes.  That is I could not get such coverage for that amount of money from any insurance company.  And the fee was deducted from my retirement pay before taxes.  Nobody else except us military types could get this deal.

So should I die before Judie, she gets a good deal.  In the old days we referred to this as the military "Widow's Tax."  Congress has finally removed, albeit not immediately, the tax.

James . . .

Son James has returned to the DFW area and has a new job.  All I know about it is software oriented and he works with old friends that he knew from his Motorola days.

They sold their house in Austin, a nice small bungalow that they brought up to date.  New fence in back yard, fixed a significant leak under the slab, repainted the inside of the house.  They got their money back and probably made some more as prices in Austin have skyrocketed.  I am sure now with the Coronavirus things in Austin may have turned down.

They have moved into an apartment off Beltline road.  An all new facility, accepts the dogs and has a nice grassy area with Bar-B-Que grills, a few yard games and a swimming pool.  The place is located on a lake that once served as source of cooling water for an electrical power plant for Dallas.  The plant has long been removed and the land has all been reclaimed.  While it is on the line with Fort Worth and Coppell, the land belongs to Dallas so it has a Dallas address.  The location is just north of DFW International airport.

They elected to rent and then look for a house later.  Joan's job has always been in the same area so she can ride her bike to the office.  James has to go a bit further, perhaps a couple of miles.  I am sure that is a wise decision with the current Coronavirus issues.

They are happy to be back.  He still retains an interest in his old place of employment but I am sure in time he will convert it back to cash.  They are high tech and their product gets exported to China regularly.  While China telecoms are the primary customer they do sell now inside the US.  Originally, they were not permitted to trade in the states with their respective post employment agreements.  Those agreements have essentially expired.

The big deal is they are back home again.  Both are very  pleased to be close to us as we are too.  No long treks back and forth to Austin.  I really don't miss that.  However, Amanda Lou and Mike are still living in the north side of Austin in Phugerville.

Closing In On the End . . ..

End of what?  End of the family Usufructs Agreement.  A Usufructs is a legally binding "use" agreement.  They have been around for centuries but until the early 1980s were not recognized in Louisiana.

Well my family had a Usufructs Agreement drawn up.  My father wrote it and then his lawyer took over and put it good legal language.  He also had it "peer reviewed" and subsequently had it inserted in the Louisiana Constitution making legal.

That agreement controlled the frontage of the plantation and who could do what with what.  My brother built a log house on my father's part of the usage agreement.  There were four more or less equal area across the front of the farm.  One part had the old family house which I call Angeles House.  We subsequently sold the house to a Morrison who is a share holder.

With in a year of my brother building the log house he died.  He died intest-state ( no will) but the agreement was in force so the log house fell to my father as it was on his area of control.  There were other bank issues that were resolved and my father rented the house.  My father died in the mid 1990s at age 86 and the log house became ours.  By ours I mean his heirs; my brother's children, my sister and myself.

I was in the military and then retired to a town outside of Fort Worth, Texas so I could not provide any management help keeping the log house and it became my sisters duty as she lived closest to the house.  My nephew Johnny lived nearby but my sister did the job anyway.

My sister has since died and Johnny has taken over the responsibilities.   Herrise left it in a good lease and all he had to do was collect the rent and pay for the fire insurance.  

Well, the Usufructs Agreement expires at noon, May 28, 2020.  After that the log house reverts back to the plantation.  We will turn over a nice four thousand square foot log house and the management now falls to the plantation.  We, as share holders in the stock ownership of the plantation, will continue to participate in the proceeds but on a per share basis.  We no longer as subset of the larger family have any responsibility for and to the log houseersonaly.

Basically, it has been forty years since the agreement was placed in use.  It will expire.  Others will manage the place and we will all share in any income on  a pro rata basis.

Quarantine or Social Separation . . .

Well we do not have any Coronavirus ergo we are not quarantined.  But we, like all the rest of you, are practicing, in our own way, social separation.  Let me give you an example.

Last Saturday, our neighbors came over and we all had a glass of wine or two glasses or . . .   Any way we did this on our screened back patio which we now refer to as the porch.  We had the ceiling fan on high to blow all those bad things in the air down, not up and flying around.  We place all the chairs six feet apart except for Judie and I, who sat on the little outdoor sofa.  So there was three couples and one widower.  We had a rare good time and did not exceed the 10 person limit.

Yesterday we ventured into Fort Worth to Costco.  I was just about out of coffee and I get a big bag of beans there and grind them up.  It was coolish day, temperatures are 55 to 60 degrees with blustery winds.  We found this huge line of people waiting to get in to the facility.  We all stood the requisite six feet apart, some with baskets and some waiting to get baskets.  We were strung out a block long.

We were there only a few moments when the line moved up.  We did not make it into the store, we were now the third couple in line at the door, many were behind us.  We observed two fellows wiping down the roll-a-round baskets down with alcohol soaked cloths.  Killing the virus, you know, before the customer got his dirty filthy hands on them.

Then they let 10 sets of us in.  No more than two persons to a set.  No family reunions allowed, so to speak.  Into the store and we found it sort of picked over, tons and tons of water in all sorts and kinds of bottles.  No Kleenex, no toilet paper, no paper towels, but lots of paper plates and lots of baggies to store stuff in.

The staff seemed normal, then we got to the checkout area.  There they had a woman marshalling us into various check lines making sure we were practicing social clearances.  There were all kinds of markings and lines on the floor to guide you through the checkout.

The  couple in front of us were didling around, trying different charge cards, talking on the phone, etc.  The clerks and helper would not let us put things on the conveyer belt or move up.  We had to maintain that social separation.  The couple continued to screw around and you could see the checker was losing patience with them.  Finally, the woman hung up her telephone call, things got straightened out and the check out was complete.  And they continued to just stand there and chat with each other with no consideration to anybody else in the place.

No more coffee grinding machines.  They did not just cover them up, they literally hauled them off and hid them.  Fortunately, we have coffee grinder rarely ever used and now will have to do the duty.  I am sure it will work.

Later went to Walmart, they had close all but one entrance.  And that entrance had a marshal watching you but essentially doing nothing but looking hawkish.  Baskets and cones used to direct you exclusively to one automatic door to enter and once inside barricaded line proceeded further into the store with a station every six feet with towels and hand cleaner.  The first one I stopped at the hand cleaner was empty.

Checked and still no paper towels or toilet paper.  I had to walk all the way to the other end of the store to get my toothpaste, checkedout and then out the only door open.  I got eyeballed by the woman a the door on the way out.  Have to follow the rules, you know.

I wonder what Home Depot and Lowes is like?  Oh well that is another store for another day.

Backup Power Supply . . .

We use ATT Uverse for our land line telephone and DSL connection to the Internet.  When we signed up yea years ago they included a battery back up system so when the power is out the telephone will continue to operate.

Well the other day the power supply died, that it had a red light on it.  That meant the internal battery had died.  Thus either the whole assembly needed replacement, or a trouble call to ATT or perhaps I could replace the battery.  Of course, there were no instructions given with the device.  So I unplugged it and the phone quit as well as the internet quit.  The modem was of course dead.

I unplugged the power supply and it was weighty which indicated to me it had a battery in it.  I moved it over to my desk/work station and opened it up.  It did have an access door and sure enough it had a 12 volt sealed lead acid battery in it.  I extracted the battery and did a search on Amazon and found maybe a dozen replacement batteries at price ranges from $17.95 to $40.00.  I ordered up the $17.95 unit, free shipping but had state tax included so it was about $19.40.  That was okay.

But it was going to take a week or more to be shipped.  Well the unit had a switch on it and I had turned it off when I moved it over to my desk.  So I hooked it all up again, plugged it into the modem and turned it on.  And it worked except I got a red light as there was no battery in the unit.  It worked just fine, powered up the modem and we were in business.  We just did not have a back up for a while.

The new battery arrived a while ago.  Perfect fit.  I hooked it up, installed in the unit and installed the cover door and plugged it into the modem.  I had not unplugged it from house power, but did turn it off to install the battery, a safety thing to me.  Once the battery was installed and the switch turned on it showed a green light and the modem came back alive.

So we were without a land line phone for about five minutes.  And the Internet connection came right back up.  I filed a three month warranty with the "MightyMax Battery" company via the internet.  I suppose the new battery should last maybe another five or so years like the original one.  No matter I know how and where to get a replacement battery now.

Funky Weather . . .

Four days ago I think it hit 90 degrees, yesterday it got all the way up 60 degrees with rain.  The rain kept things cool.  Today it is back up to 77 degrees so it is warming up again.  And the rain clouds, well the blew away or perhaps the rise in temperature sent them off.  I am not a weather man, I just gotta suffer from it like the rest of you.

I am ready for the Coronavirus to slow down and for the temperatures to stay warm.  I want the spring weather to stabilize.  If I have to stay home, I want to be able to work in the yard comfortably.  I guess I am greedy about it.

I had to charge into the edge of Fort Worth to have my car inspected for its annual renewal of the license tag.  Well, we don't actually have license tags but we do have a sticker in the lower left side of the windshield with a date the next inspection is due.  The inspection is not much, sort of basic but the dealer gets $25 and change to do it.

Then you take your renewal paper work, a copy of your current insurance coverage documentation and a check and send it to the county for renewal.  They in turn send you the new sticker to put on the windschield.  Of course, you gotta scrape the old tag off first.  Not hard to do and we keep one of those razor blade scrapers in the utility room to do the job.

It is a nuisance job but it means spring is sprung cause that is when ours are due.  I guess we buy cars in the spring.

The other thing is income taxes and now they have been pushed back.  Even the Louisiana income taxes have been pushed back.  Of course, Louisiana taxes are dependent on your federal tax data.  So if Uncle Sam pushes back, so must the state.  I am not forgiven paying federal quarterly taxes and I will get that out soon.  It is due April 15.  Nobody forgave that.

So far we are healthy and no where near any Coronavirus.  But it is in Tarrant County (Fort Worth) and a lot of the folks work there or send their workmen here to do jobs.  You never know where it will come from but for sure if it is in Fort Worth, it will be here en-mass soon.  We have at this time four cases in Parker County and given the history of it spreading, we should see a big jump soon.

No shaking hands, instead pass the disinfectant wipe or a squirt of hand sanitizer.  Life is changing before our eyes.

Coronavirus . . .

The nation, indeed the whole world, is going crazy over the Coronavirus.  It is serious but made more serious by a media heighten sense of fear.  Roosevelt said, "We only have to fear itself."  Famous words with the declaration of war against Japan December 7, 1941.  Yes, we are in a war but is it more serious than the common Flu?  Apparently not and we have a vaccine for Flu (and altogether to many people do not get their annual Flu shot) but no vaccine for Coronavirus.  This time next year we will have that vaccine and I bet lots of people will not get the shot.

We are killing in the USA more people due to Flu by many thousands than we are from Coronavirus.  Yes, the elderly are more at risk die Coronavirus.  Italy with an unusual amount of elderly folks and as a nation has been hit hard with many deaths.  Iran has been hit hard because they are doing little to prevent the social contact vis-à-vis person to person.  They are being hard headed.  Who knows what is going on in Spain or for that matter in Great Britain or Germany.  The Russians have said little but are up to their noses in it.  And India has put 1.3 billion people on sequester.

We do know now that about 80% of the people infected have little or no symptoms.  They may feel ill but it seems to soon pass.  Youngsters, and I mean really young children, do not seem to be badly impacted by the virus.

Young adults do get the disease just as much as the elderly but have strong bodies and are generally more healthy than us oldsters.  We oldsters all seem to have other secondary issues that make the disease much worse.  So yes, we have a greater risk for more compromising disease and even death.  But we have that risk any way as elderly people, we are nearer to the end of life than to the beginning of life.  That is just plain facts.

Do I like those facts, no, I am one of those elderly that have other issues.  Personally I am impacted by Agent Orange and have Diabetes Type II.  I am 80 years of age so I fit into the wrong category of risk, I am high risk!

My wife has other compromising issues and severe heart disease to go with it all.  And while she is not yet 80 she will be 79 years of age shortly.  She is probably higher risk than I am.

But we can not live a life of fear.  We must live life as we are, we have no choice. We will soldier on regardless of what transpires for us.

Take care folks, give us space and you take your space too.

Knee Update . . .

I saw the Orthopedic Surgeon Friday.  Prior to the office visit I had an series of X-rays taken for the visit.

Thursday my knee started to act better.  It sort of self healed though it was not a complete riddance of pain, but it was now much more tolerable.

The doctor looked at the X-rays and said he did not see anything  to worry about.  No knee replacement but he did see arthritis under the knee cap (probably the source of pain).  He said he could order up a MRI but doubted it would give him much more information.  So that was ruled out.

He did give me a cortisone shot in the knee and it helped a little bit.  I mean today I still feel the knee, it reports to me everyday.  But the knee does not inhibit my locomotion.  It just lets me know it is there.

So no operations, just see the doctor if anything flares up again.  I liked that since it was good practical advice.

We then exchanged a few comments about the LSU Tigers.  He is a graduate of LSU Medical School.  He did not attend LSU for his undergraduate degree.  But as usual, once in the LSU system he becomes totally infected.  And of course since he is an Orthopedic specialist he sees lots of athletes.  His specialty is shoulders, he does not normally do knees and hips but since I am his patient he took care of the knee for me.

The Right Knee . . .

I woke up on December 28th with a right knee hurting a little bit.  I have  had that occur before and then the pain would disappeared.  I have arthritic knees and that is sort of a normal thing for me.  However, by December 29th it was really giving me fits.

I could not straighten out my knee and had trouble sleeping through the night.  I resulted in taking a couple of Aleve tablets that sort of help.  It dulled the pain down.  But when I stood up it was excruciating pain for the first step.  After a few small steps I could move better with less pain.  And after about six or seven steps walk with out a limp.  The knee, however, let me know each time I took a step it was protesting.  The Aleve moderated the pain.

I normally sleep on my side, mostly the left side but sometimes the right side and often switch around during the night in my sleep.  I could not sleep on my side.  If I was on the right side the knee had the left knee on top of it and if on the left side it was top but still protesting painfully.  Enough pain to keep me awake.  By December 30th I was resorting to a couple Motrin (aka Ibuprofen) during the night to fight the pain and get some sleep.

So I resorted to sleeping in a reclining sofa or a recliner chair.  That made me sleep on my back and keep the knee out straight.   Keeping the knee out straight is painful at first but then abates.  I find even during the day sitting in a recliner eased the pain.

I contacted my Orthopedic Surgeon's office seeking an appointment.  They said they would look at the knee but they did not do knees.  They would take me as a patient since I was still a patient from my left shoulder replacement.  And that they would refer me to a knee doctor if I needed it.  The appointment is a squeeze in tomorrow  (Friday Jan 10) at 8:30 AM with a date for an X-ray prior to the appointment.

So tomorrow I will be off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of joints.  I think I may have some Arthroscopic surgery or at worst a knee replacement.  The shoulder work I had done was an emphatic replacement and that was successful surgery.  My left shoulder is better than my right shoulder today. I have a big four inch scar as a reminder of the surgery but I have absolutely no loss of motion and absolutely no pain anymore.

The pain has moved on to the knee.