Subj : slow the growing of g To : Daryl Stout From : Barry Martin Date : Tue Aug 01 2023 08:33:00 Hi Daryl! BM> So far haven't made it past 99ø -- maybe today! Supposed to be some BM> storms tonight cooling things off, which is good timing as the Bix Race BM> is tomorrow morning (7 mile foot race up and down hills -- no, it is BM> definitely not flat here!) plus RAGBRAI - bicycle journey starting at BM> the western boarder, zig-zagging across the state and this year the BM> eastern dip-your-tires-into-the-Mississippi-River is in Davenport. BM> (The start and end points plus the route vary from year-to-year.) DS> It's around 100 today...and an area of severe storms to my DS> northwest moving southeast. I may have to shut things down before DS> I go to bed this evening. The area sort of lucked out: Saturday morning was mostly cloudy so helped keep the temperatures down, which also helped to keep down the number of emergency site visits (they set up tents also the race route and at the end of RAGBRAI [bicyling across Iowa]. The prior night (Friday) not so good: at least two tornadoes in the area, high winds. One of the neighbours' tree limbs broke and land in my backyard. Missed stuff, so no damage other than bent some shrubs. They helped clean up, so that's taken care of -- base of the limb was a little larger than the diameter of the telephone pole -- not a small one! BM> During the local news they have been making quick PSA reminders about BM> checking in on neighbours, elderly, and if one can't hold their hand on BM> the pavement for ten seconds then it's too hot for walking a dog on the BM> pavement. DS> The post I saw from the National Weather Service noted it at 7 DS> seconds. They've been using ten around here. We're either tougher or '10' registers better than '7'! BM> That would seem to indicate a relationship between carbonated drinks BM> and kidneys stones, at least for you. There also seems to be a very BM> strong relationship to osteoporosis and carbonated beverages. Hmm: BM> loss of calcium in the bone structure, many kidney stones are of the BM> calcium carbonate variety... Seems to be a potential link there! DS> I'm having to wait until my disability payment arrives on DS> Thursday to go back to the Post Office Box (it has been over a DS> month since I checked the mail). There was an issue with the DS> alarm system Thursday, and I didn't want to go off on errands. DS> With one final bill left to come out on Tuesday, I won't have DS> enough to make the run to the Post Office and to the bank. Yes, I'd probably want to hang around the house if there was a problem with the alarm system. Month seems like a too-long period to be checking mail but then I think you mentioned some time back you had the USPS e-mails to see what was being received. If all the bills done electronically and nothing but junk mail no reason to rush down there. DS> My lawn guy texted me this morning, and said he was coming DS> by...and I panicked. I told him "I had to reschedule it for DS> Thursday, when my next disability payment arrives. Otherwise, if DS> they try to debit it out of my account, it'll be declined, and DS> I'll go to jail for having insufficient funds". I called Customer DS> Support, telling them if they were going to muck with my schedule DS> like my pest control folks were doing, I was going to find DS> someone else. It's not right to have them do the work, and not DS> get paid for it...but I also don't want them out there if there's DS> a threat of lightning. I don't kow about going to jail on a first inssufficient funds offense, but the repeated fees for not having enough funds in the account might be just as bad! BM> But the rubber tips and golf balls should isolate you from the ground!! DS> I've been struck twice...I don't want the third time to be the DS> charm. Ding! Crackle-crackle! BM> Backups are good! Even if a little old (months, not years!) better BM> than nothing! DS> But, I couldn't get to the backup. Hinges to the storage bpx rusted shut?! BM> Have had PSUs fail. Have had a motherboard fail: section was charred! BM> I don't think an actual fire, just really-really hot. What was sort of BM> funny is AFACT the motherboard worked with the charred section until I BM> did a reboot -- apparently the BIOS didn't like the charred section not BM> responding! DS> I've had power supplies/batteries fail as well. I keep a few CR2023 batteries on hand so when I go in to an old computer I can swap the motherboard battery if it's getting old. Will put a note inside with the date. (UPSs I put the date on the outside of the unit.) BM> They should warrant a battery repair more than 30 days. OTTOMH the BM> only reason for a battery (UPS) to go out is a sensitivity to being on BM> a surge-protected power strip. I don't know if an alarm circuit needs BM> to have the detection sensitivity of a computer's UPS -- would doubt BM> it. Some sort of voltage smoothing seems to be necessary: don't want a BM> glitch to set off or reset the alarm! (I've built battery back-ups so BM> have some experience.) DS> It was 6 times in 6 months, and I am sick and tired of it. Obviously something is wrong. I gave some off-the-top-of-my-head possibilities to try to help in the remote diagnistics. BM> Part of the problem is lack of training. Most of the time when calling BM> in the 'service tech' is reading from a script: "Power boot the system: BM> unplug while we count to 20...." Admittedly power booting will BM> frequently fix or at least bypass the problem, but for those times when BM> it doesn't we need a little bit more training (like how to go to the BM> next page of the script!) DS> Sort of like Xfinity...you call their Customer Support line, DS> and they text you a link to their Xfinity Assistant to solve the DS> problem. If things fail, then they'll let you talk to a real DS> person (I guess AI doesn't work). Some people are just plain dumb when it comes to fixing things. That however needs to be detailed: I've repaired a lot and built some electronics, but cars - minimal clue (know what's right, everything else is wrong). The other night I called my Mother and she said her TV wasn't working (so what isn't working? no power? no picture?). She said she pushed a bunch of buttons on the remote to try to get it to work again. (Hair raising on back of my neck: stop pushing random buttons and making things worse!!) I remembered her (source) button was near the bottom of the remote so told her to turn on the TV, tell me what she saw (she did see one of the source labels). Told her to push the button once and tell me what she saw (reads off different label - tells me we're progressing and the TV isn't locked up). Push button a couple more times and I hear the sound from the TV. So something really simple (to me anyway) like selecting the correct input is really complicated to other people. BM> Not having any experience with commercial alarms systems I can't offer BM> much other than generic fixes. Appears you have 'battery failures' but BM> six in six months either means a bunch of faulty batteries or more than BM> likely something wrong with the battery circuit. Easiest thing would BM> be to replace the alarm unti, of which the battery circuit is a part. DS> It's rare that I lose power here. I haven't lost power here either for some time -- has glitched several times in the last couple months: hear a distant 'boom!' following the demise of a too-inquisitive bird or squirrel. Friday night's storm had lots of lightening but the power stayed steady. BM> And sort of a 'side note' but I do it automatically: make certain the BM> extension's wire thickness is more than sufficient. Don't use a flimsy BM> zip cord extension for an air conditioner type of thing -- there is a BM> reason the a/c wire is thick! I'm 'notorious' for using 13- and 15-Amp BM> extensions where a 5A zip cord will suffice. Better too much current- BM> carrying ability than not enough. A $20 power cord is better than a BM> $20,000 fire! DS> Or like the idiot who substituted a penny for a fuse. Or uses a twist tie through the handle of a circuit breaker to keep it from tripping! BM> Heck: I read 'light' and was thinking the light in a refrigerator! DS> If they don't want us to have a midnight snack, WHY is there a DS> light in the refrigerator/freezer?? If you're desperate enough use a flashlight! ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® .... Summer heat made me realize I won't survive in Hell; I have to change. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .