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Old 04-15-2020, 09:32 AM   #1
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The new Normal

Because we are sheltering in place it recently became apparent that, more than ever, we are now dependent big time upon two appliances in the house. The refrigerator and the television. The new normal.

A heavy snowstorm the other day served to highlight that fact and caused great concern. First, the satellite dish on the roof got crusted with heavy snow and ice. All our current daily diversion gone. No daily news reports, etc., and I missed this weeks’ episode of Better Call Saul. Then, the freezer in the fridge broke. Ice cream in there turned real soft.

The television problem was mostly addressed with a large broom outside. I say mostly because after brushing off snow and ice the disk still not transmitting most channels, including CNN and MSNBC. Kept getting these maddening screen notices that the satellite connection was lost. I searched the set-up instructions, I pulled plugs to reboot. Nothing worked. The skies cleared, I had brushed off snow from the dish, but nothing changed.

The refrigerator was the bigger problem of course. It’s new, and fancier than your mother’s fridge. Freezer was packed with stores for the long haul. Looked everywhere for the owner’s manual. Could not find it. For backup I ran out to the trailer and plugged the Dometic in to shore power. With this shelter in place thing it wasn’t likely a repairman was going to come to the house, even if I could find one. Had no idea what the problem was. So many appliances these days contain motherboard brains that will fail.

It did not help that my once brilliantly quick trouble-shooting mind seemed to have been run over by a big old truck. That proved to be the case here. I went outside again, this time to stomp around and brush off heavy snow and ice from the gutters. That’s when I saw the other satellite dish on the roof. We had two. Had forgot about that. The first one, installed closest to the back porch, never got taken down when we dumped their service for a new provider. Reached up, brushed off crusted snow from dish number two. Problem solved.

Still at a loss with the refrigerator. There seemed to be nothing else to do, so I pulled it away from the wall to see if there were any temperature controls back there I didn’t know about. Planned to drive later down to Costco to ask about their repairs policy. It was also a good time to clean and disinfect the floor. Lots of mouse droppings back there.

I pulled the fridge plug out from the wall socket. Floor cleaned, I plugged the fridge back in, and suddenly it fired up! We are now back to the new normal, with two victories in one day!
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Old 04-15-2020, 09:45 AM   #2
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Too bad we humans can not be unplugged and rebooted back to normal, glad you solved your problems.
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Old 04-15-2020, 10:52 AM   #3
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Myron: You could have put your frozen food outside under some packed snow!
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Old 04-15-2020, 02:26 PM   #4
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Thawing ice cream is a once in a time opportunity not to be missed!
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Old 04-15-2020, 10:01 PM   #5
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SpringThaw

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Thawing ice cream is a once in a time opportunity not to be missed!
Hi Myron
In the 70s the small town of Minden Iowa has a tornado. All power to
This little town about 20 miles east of Council Bluffs was knocked out. I was city arborist in
Council Bluffs and as a helping hand we were dispatched with a bucket truck to work the damaged trees. It was great duty because just trimming is easy compared to picking up the mess on the ground. Citizens did the cleanup. About noon the mayor shows up and asks what we are doing for lunch? We allowed that we had intended to stop at the Red Cross truck in town. Mayor says I have a freezer full of steaks thawing along with my ice cream. Here’s my address, you’re eating lunch with us. Of course we argued but followed him at about 10 feet to his house. Most meat and ice cream I ever ate at one setting. Strike while the grill
is hot and the ice cream is getting soft. Didn’t get as much done in the afternoon as we did in the morning. Got hot and windy. Yeah that’s it too windy.
Iowa Dave
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Old 04-16-2020, 07:51 AM   #6
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Never been in one but I can appreciate your tornado story, Dave. You reminded me, ten years ago, I think it was, we stopped for the night in Joplin, some time after the clean up of a big one. It was striking. There were very few trees, Walmart was totally gone.
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Old 04-16-2020, 08:52 AM   #7
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Refrigerators with Motherboards

Maybe it just needed a reboot?
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Old 04-16-2020, 09:42 AM   #8
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I remember my first tornado experience while attending college in Fairfield, Iowa in 1960's. Snakes would come up out of the ground due to the dropping barometric pressure. There was a town just south of Fairfield that suffered major damage in 1967 and the school organized a help party for Keosauqua, Iowa. Keosauqua, IA is a High Risk area for tornados. According to records, the largest tornado in the Keosauqua area was an F4 in 1967. The damage was unforgettable.
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Old 04-21-2020, 09:15 AM   #9
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Sinking the Titanic? A must watch for sane people.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/a...gtype=Homepage
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Old 04-21-2020, 09:38 AM   #10
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Keosaqua

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I remember my first tornado experience while attending college in Fairfield, Iowa in 1960's. Snakes would come up out of the ground due to the dropping barometric pressure. There was a town just south of Fairfield that suffered major damage in 1967 and the school organized a help party for Keosauqua, Iowa. Keosauqua, IA is a High Risk area for tornados. According to records, the largest tornado in the Keosauqua area was an F4 in 1967. The damage was unforgettable.
The Town of Keosauqua is still looking pretty good. It’s in Van Buren county. There are several small towns in the county and they have banded together in a tourism encouragement
Program called “The Villages of Van Buren” . The Natural resources aspect of the area is a big attraction for “out of doors” folks. For the past 5 years I’ve fished a tournament down there on Lake Sugema with about 50 other guys. Always a good time. I won it twice maybe that’s why it was so much fun. It would have been this Friday but got cancelled. Camping is closed
at this time in the state and county parks. The state campground Lacey-Keosauqua is a great
park that has undergone some very positive renovations the past couple of years. I’ve only
camped in the area in the spring and fall, I know it’s busy in the summer but Iowa has about 30% non reservable “walk in” sites. There’s a fine hardware store, auto parts store, grocery store and a couple restaurants in Keosauqua too. Antique stores dot the landscape.
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View from our site last year at Sugema County Park, Van Buren County
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Old 04-21-2020, 10:42 AM   #11
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My first tornado experience was in a sailboat. Susannah and I were sailing for Charleston, SC, at the same time that a strong cold front was heading out to sea. We met the front about 12 miles offshore and when things got nasty I ducked into the cabin to alert the Coast Guard that we were out there and give them our position. They replied that they were too busy to help because there was a tornado in the harbor. I opened the hatch and relayed to Susannah that there was a tornado and she replied, pointing up, "That tornado?" Fortunately the tornado had lifted up off the surface so no harm done. Whew...


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Old 04-21-2020, 02:39 PM   #12
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Sinking the Titanic? A must watch for sane people.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/a...gtype=Homepage
Watch Stephen Colbert every night to have a good laugh before going to bed ! Pat
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Old 04-21-2020, 02:59 PM   #13
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Yeah, I have long been a fan of his, going way back to his spot-on Colbert Report days. Have since found Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologues tend to be more prescient.
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Old 04-21-2020, 03:26 PM   #14
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Had to look that one up there Myron...prescient word of the day......... Remember "germane" in Smokey and the Bandit?
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Old 04-21-2020, 04:13 PM   #15
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Yeah, I have long been a fan of his, going way back to his spot-on Colbert Report days. Have since found Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologues tend to be more prescient.
Yup also get to see Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmie Fallon in the day too . Can’t get enough when you get bombarded with everything else . Stephen is the night ritual before bed though ! Pat
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Old 04-21-2020, 04:46 PM   #16
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My night ritual before bed is going to the bathroom........ tough getting old......
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Old 04-21-2020, 04:50 PM   #17
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That's prescient for sure. Then I take a swig of Harvey's Bristol Creme.

(Not Germaine..... Spanish via the UK.)
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Old 04-21-2020, 08:22 PM   #18
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Sinking the Titanic? A must watch for sane people.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/a...gtype=Homepage
Thanks, Myron! 😂😂😂
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Old 04-27-2020, 09:52 AM   #19
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No masque?

I wanted to take the trailer out today and go camping someplace. But all the campgrounds in my state are closed, even the free ones. Like Yogi said, no one goes there anymore. Seems everyone is sheltering in place. Well, not everyone. It wasn’t going to stop me.

I hooked up the trailer and pulled out looking for somewhere to tow. Ah, the freedom! So good to be on the road again. But where to go? First, drove over to the gas station and filled up. As usual, the attendant was inside his glass cubicle with the sliding tray for taking cash or handing out a receipt when the self-serve pumps were out of paper. He didn’t need a mask. I had mine on.

Seemed next like a good idea to park at the super market on the other side of the lot, go get some food and drinks for today’s trip. The lot was nearly filled. You never know what might not be open these days. I was amazed at how many customers in there were not wearing masks. True, in this state we do have the lowest ratio of virus related deaths. Nothing of course, compared to the “red” states. By red I mean the ones indicating hot spots colored red on maps. We are more a very light beige. At least, today.

At the moment there may be over 50 thousand deaths nationwide but there is no physical devastation to see, and though that stat seems pretty widespread it’s all behind closed doors. Unlike a Hollywood earthquake, pretty much invisible.

Regardless, you’d think folks would think not taking a chance would be the wise move. These days the person most likely to harm you could be your neighbor, or friend, or the guy you bought gas from. Did you disinfect that receipt? There evidently is no shortage here of defiant, independent thinkers. Bless their hearts, like to think I’m one of them. But, my mask is on, and proud of it. No choice there, dear one made it for me. She washes it for me every day.

This would be solo trip. A day trip, just me and my Escape. Thought a nice drive north into the mountains would work.
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Old 04-27-2020, 12:57 PM   #20
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I think people in NM are getting bored or the warm weather is making us anxious. Quite a few out and about this past weekend. Maybe our NM resolve is waning with our low infection rates after good social distancing measures put in place early. Time will tell. Our Native American populations are getting hit hard, they have a lot going against them for sure.

Let's be careful out there as we stretch our legs a little. BTW we're staying home still, see you in June.
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