WTF-Beta

I'm very glad you posted that story. It reminded me of what it was like to be young and foolish and still live to tell about it.

I grew up in an area where most cars were big domestic sedans and the earliest compact cars were Chevy Corvairs and Ford Falcons. The most exotic vehicle was a Renault Dauphine that a high school friend's father owned and a VW Beetle that my high school math teacher drove.

When I arrived at university in 1963, I was amazed at the number of sports cars around, especially the smaller British cars like the TR-3s, Austin Healeys, MGs, and so on. There was even a Jaguar XK-E or two. I could understand the allure of such cars. About 10 years later, when I met my wife, she was driving an Opel 1900 that she had bought in California and drove back to Pittsburgh when she decided to return east.

We made some memorable road trips in that car. One of my favorites was a ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway on the cusp of spring with the trees in full leaf in the lower portions and just beginning to leaf out at higher elevations. It was like driving through almost the entire season over a couple of days.

I'm also reminded of the following:
There was a young man from Boston
Who had a cute little Austin
He had room for his ass
And a gallon of gas
But his balls hung out and he lost 'em.

Big Al

No place to hide?

If a private player has these capabilities, one can only wonder what is beyond the reach of government actors.

Big Al

@Daniel said in My childhood home sold!:

BTW, you can't tell by looking but it's the night sky based on a specific date. The stars do or did glow in the dark. My mother was an artist. I'm glad it's still there.

That's a neat feature. I hope you save a picture of it. Do you recall what the date was?

Big Al

That was a remarkable story and one I had not heard before.

I have read about how even civilians - men, women, along with their children - were convinced to opt for suicide rather than surrender. I'm astounded how the Marine was able to argue so persuasively against that indoctrination.

Big Al

@Bernard said in Work on the house:

Outside the visible boards is a covering of tar paper, and on top of that, board and batten. In fact, the contractor's quote included covering the inside of the wall with a moisture barrier before insulating, but when he discovered the tar paper, decided against it. On the other sides of the house, clapboard cover the main portion of the walls, with board and batten in the front gable.

Glad to hear he's being careful with the vapor barrier. Old houses were relatively free-breathing, but with insulation and restrictions to air and moisture flows, condensation within wall cavities has become a serious concern if not properly addressed.

Big Al

@Bernard said in Work on the house:

I love the fact that my house is not clad in plywood or OSB (are they the same thing?).

Definitely not the same thing. Plywood is made by gluing sheets of wood veneer in alternating grain directions into a thicker sheet. A lot of the veneer is cut in rotary fashion from logs. Some plywood destined for furniture or similar uses may have the exterior layer on one or both sides made from flat-sawn veneer, typically a good hardwood.

OSB (oriented strand board) is made by chipping wood into strands (fairly large thin pieces) that are mixed with glue and usually some water-repellent. The strands are then laid down in a fashion that aims to largely orient the strands in layers with alternating grain direction and the resultant mat is compressed and heated to activate the glue and form the board.

OSB allows timber that is not suitable for lumber or plywood manufacture to be used in the production of a material useful for sheathing, subflooring for floors and roofs, and similar applications.

(Full disclosure: I worked on start-up of the first production-scale plant for what eventually became OSB in northern Minnesota in 1972-73)

What are the walls of your house made of? I can see boards in the pictures, but I don’t know what exterior material may exist outside that sheath.

Big Al

@ShiroKuro said in They named a restaurant after me!!:

Shirokuro | NYC
https://shirokuronyc.com/

Some of you might remember that ShiroKuro means "white and black" in Japanese (we don't say "black and white" in Japanese), which I chose for obvious reasons (the piano keyboard).

I didn't remember that. I think you were on the Piano forum prior to me, so I may have missed it on that account.

Now if only the restaurant were a piano bar, the story would be complete.

Big Al

I almost always wore REI wool hiking socks before my medical incident. I don't think I actually ever wore a pair out. They treated my feet very well.

Now I have to wear very strong compression support hose that extend up my calf. My wife struggles each morning to get them on me

Big Al

Judges noted a “delightful mix of apple tart, custard, and intriguing dried apricots” on the nose, followed by a palate that offers “a refined medley of buckwheat honey, dried apricots, vanilla, and warm spice.”

I'm always amazed by the variety of tastes people can find in a particular glass. I'm afraid my nose and palate are much less sensitive. I know things I like better, but I could never find six distinct and identifiable flavors in anything I've ever drunk.

Bourbon is the spirit that I almost always drink when I'm having hard liquor. I primarily drink beer and regard it as a great time to be a beer drinker.

Big Al

@pique said in Sleep apnea and c-pap machines--experiences?:

Wondering if Medicare considers these machines to have a limited life span and if they will replace the machine at that point?

They do at some point. I'm on my third machine right now. I got my first one through my health insurance while I was still working. It was a Phillips Respironic that was subject of a recall. By that time I was on Medicare and had to get a new sleep study before I could get a replacement, which was a ResMed. The humidifier on that one failed a few months ago out of warranty and I got a replacement ResMed but had to pay the usual Medicare medical equipment copay. I was cautioned that if it had been much longer (10 years?) that I might have had to get yet another sleep study.

I'm glad to hear you're now having some success.

Big Al

I have been using a CPAP machine for quite a few years now with good success. I use the nasal pillows because I have a full beard that would interfere with sealing a full mask.

I was suffering from increased daytime drowsiness that was interfering with work and making me fearful of falling asleep at the wheel when driving home from work. My wife said that I sometimes stopped breathing entirely for short times at night, a fact that was probably apparent to her by interruptions in my snoring. I had discussed this with my PCP, who had been reluctant to do anything, but when my wife called him and told him that something had to be done because I could lose my job for sleeping at my desk, he finally ordered a sleep study and confirmed that I had sleep apnea. I was prescribed a CPAP machine and have been using it ever since.

It made an immediate difference in my daytime alertness and general feeling of well-being. If you continue to have difficulties adapting to using it, please discuss this with your prescriber. A change in hardware, pressure setting, or some other parameter might help. If your situation is anything like mine was, it's important to try to make it work.

Big Al

@Piano-Dad said in Stop AI plundering:

I looked at this topic title and wondered, "what is Big Al" plundering?

Big Al

Happy birthday, Jon. I hope you are enjoying it.

Big Al

Happy Birthday, Kluurs! I hope you're enjoying the day.

Big Al

This video at that site went a long way toward answering my questions.

Big Al

That's some remarkable work.

It did raise a couple of questions in my mind:
When the restorer is removing overpainting, how does he discriminate between work of a previous restorer and overpainting that may have been done by the original artist?
The restoration painting work proceeded at what seemed to be a rapid pace, but I wondered how the restorer could color- and texture-match so apparently effectively. Is that all a function of the skill and dexterity of the restorer or was some of the effort omitted to speed up the demonstration of this step?

Big Al

said in Nice big house in NE Ohio:

Wow. That has everything I'm looking for in a house, including the fireplace in the bedroom (I had one in the bedroom of the farmhouse I grew up in and I still would love to have one).

I wouldn't want to have to mow all that grass. I'm curious what's in all the areas that weren't pictured.

Big Al

Wow. That has everything I'm lookong for in a house, including the fire place in the bedroom (I had one in the bedroom of the farmhouse I grew up in and I still would love to have one.

I wouldn't want to have to mow all that grass. I'm curious what's in all the areas that weren't pictured.

Big Al

Hope your birthday and celebration went great.

Big Al

@Bernard said in Almost hit head on:

Maybe it's because I lived in NYC for so long, where horn usage is ubiquitous.

That comment reminded me of an incident many years ago.

My wife had injured her knee in a sports accident and couldn't work the clutch in our cars, both of which had manual transmissions. To let her drive, we arranged to swap a car with her parents so she would have a car that she could drive with one good leg.

I met my father-in-law at a midway point between our homes to do the swap. The car that I was driving then had a problem with the horn ring accidentally shorting and sounding the horn unexpectedly, so I had pulled the connection to the horn until I could get it fixed.

Returning home after the swap, I said to my wife, "I probably should have told your father about the nonworking horn." She said, "He already knows. He called to ask how to work the horn, because he couldn't get it to sound. He even stopped to look in the owner's manual for information."

As you may have guessed, my father-in-law grew up and learned to drive in NYC,

I'm glad your horn was working when you needed it.

Big Al