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.