Hi Paul,

So you reside in or near New York City ~  That must be an exciting way of life.  I've visited twice ~ once when I was a teenager and my Grandfather was sailing to Europe on either the Queen Elizabeth or the Queen Mary.  We took a tour of the ship before he departed.   And once, in the 1970's.  Overwhelmed, quite frankly at the tall skyscrapers....spoken, I guess, like a girl from Ohio :-).  We did visit Mama Leone's (not sure of the spelling) and saw Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.  Have never been back.

How are you doing with your quit?   Sometimes, I know it is not easy.  Try and avoid people and places that would be triggers.  Not always easy......

Susan

Hi Miss Kitty ~

Yes, it is always fun to see what is popping up in the Spring.  Right now, I have forget-me-nots everywhere.  Of course, I "scatter" all of the dried seeds in the fall from the plants.  It's my favorite plant!  I need to have Jim's help to dig out some of the green & white hostas which can be troublesome.  Always a joy to see the rebirth of flowers.  Feeding the birds.....the squirrels....the ducks and the chipmunks.  Have resorted to Discount Drug Mart for bird feed....they are eating me out of house and home....

Enjoy the weather...we have a freeze warning here!   Susan

Dear Jerthie,

A career in cosmetics ~ I'll take a recommendation for a good "line" eraser other than fillers or Botox?  Lol   So many on the market........

I'm a bit discouraged today as I made my Mother's recipe for Pumpkin Bread, using Almond Flour.  This is for a friend who must have Gluten Free.  At any rate, I grabbed Super Fine Almond Flour and what can only be described as a "fatal disaster".   The bread was mushy and would not set up.  I ended up throwing it all out.  Any suggestions?   I think the "super fine" Almond Flour just didn't get it!  Well, even in our later years we have cooking disasters.

Now making a good old fashioned pot roast.  Jim wants gravy (I don't eat that) so on we go......

Stay warm.  It's cold down here!   Susan

Susan...

You could use skincare with retinol to help with lines and wrinkles!  A serum before moisturizer at night also helps, as does sunscreen in the morning after moisturizer.  A good night of rest also goes a long way!

Almond flour would result in mushiness... I learned that the hard way too.  I am not sure what to replace that with.  I don't bake enough TO know.  Pot roast and gravy.... Oh yummy!

Cold here today but expecting warmth in the next few days with sun!  Good day all.

Good morning Kitty, Susan, Paul, Jerthie, and all.  Another cold morning but starting to warm up today.  We

have sun and not so much north wind today.  And nicer tomorrow.  I've about finished preparing the garden

tractor for it's grass cutting season.  I ordered a new air filter element, it's 10 to 15 years old.  I already cleaned

out the carburetor with carb spray and could use the old one until the new one arrives.  Sharpened the blades

this Spring, looks like I skipped it last year, they were marred up terrible.  Will have to sharpen daughter's tractor

blades also because I'm certain I skipped hers.  I better check if I have an engine oil filter for her tractor this morn.

My tractor is a 1996 with a 2 cylinder Kohler engine.  I'm getting quite a few holes in my mower deck.  I was welding

them but there are many now.  My daughter had the same model with a similar deck, might see about using that

one in a couple years.  I gave her a John Deere garden tractor I bought in a moving sale because her Craftsman tractor

was getting to hard to keep running.  Think her mower deck was still good.  It's twilight outside at 5:30 AM, Summer is

going to win the weather battle soon.  My deck will work until the mandrels that hold the blades weaken. 

I'm lucky I'm a man sometimes, don't care to much about wrinkles.  I would have liked to keep my hair for a few more

years because of the looks and the precancerous spots I get even though I almost always remember a hat when out

now.  The nurse told me last week it's partly because we didn't wear hats in the sun when we were young.  I really liked

my long hair when I was young, didn't want to cover it up.  Most did in the 70s.  I see lots of older males that still have hair.

Our omelet for the puppies and I is about the only cooking I do.  Long time ago I baked chocolate chip cookies but just as

well I let it go because it's very not good for diabetics.  As close as I got to baking bread. 

I got fooled along with many others.  I bought a 2 Terabyte external ssd drive case thinking it was a drive itself.  It was a

deceptive description.  So I have to order it again.  I didn't give a good review, along with others, so fewer will get fooled in

the future. 

Wife's flowers are coming up.  I'm spreading potting soil, from the flower pots she is retiring in the pool area, on the bare

spots in the lawn from all the excavating I did building drainage ditches.  The puppies are being terrible on the elongated

rectangular pots that she usually uses around the pool.  Probably be back next year.  My older daughter started the pool

area flowers when she worked at a greenhouse in the Spring every year for some years. 

I love pot roast and gravy but should be only a once a year thing for me, very hard to burn off the calories.  I can se big meals

on the scales and my glucose blood tests I do. 

I get my birdseed at Agway, a little cheaper than Tractor Supply.  Think it's a 50 pound bag.  We just get sunflower seeds.  Wife

says the smaller seeds were just pushed out of the way, from before I got involved in it.  I try to scare away the black birds and

squirrels, they scare away the smaller birds and eat too much.  I caught about 7 chipmunks and moved them down the road about

half a mile last year, haven't gotten into that yet this Spring.  It seems like you have one or two chipmunks when you really have 10

or 20. 

Hope you all have the sunshine today and enjoy the day.  But wear a hat for me. 

Ernie

Wife's flowers around the pool.

Flowers are so pretty....we wouldn't be able to leave them out yet....some nights it is warm enough but mostly no.....all is well so far....very windy here today...gusts up to 35 mph......and only 41 degrees......no agenda....lay low.....no stress that way...,.,.

Good morning Kitty and all.  That 2nd post down that picture, I fixed it last year so doesn't lean in like it is

in the photo.  Was a fair amount of work to remove the concrete from underground and get it straight and

deep enough.  That's why took me years to get around to it.  After this morning and Saturday morning it's

supposed to be in the 40s every morning.  30 right now and will dip a little before dawn.  Wife thinks that

we won't have as many plants on the ground this year because of the pups.

We had pizza with my older daughter and her family last eve.  We had more than usual trouble getting the

dogs to be civil with each other.  Maybe after they start getting walks will be easier.  I got a flat tire on the

way to get the pizza.  Think I was watching oncoming traffic and hit a branch in the road with a tire that was

already damaged.  Measuring the tread I'm not out much.  Ordered a tire and have to go to the garage for

inspection anyway in May.  My daughter came by and parked in the lane so traffic had to go out around,

while I changed the tire.  Wasn't sure the tire would stay up after I pumped it up because it's been sitting

around for 15 years and never used.  I turned around and came home, daughter picked up the pizza.

Probably won't use my Baja until I get the tire replaced.

Looked around in the amplifier I got for 2 meters with an ohmmeter, for a short circuit, because it tripped 

it's circuit breaker last time I powered it on.  Looks like I found a circuit almost shorted to ground.  Think

it might be the old relay I had to work on.  Was avoiding getting a new one because they're getting $75 for

them, were half of that just 7 years ago, huge mark up.  That's like the way cars go up in price, rare other

things do.  Haven't isolated the short to that relay yet, just suspicious.  Had to end my day early to exercise

before everyone got here for our pizza get together.  I was thinking the tube went bad so it's much cheaper

if it's this relay, new price for a tube is $800.

Puppies tore a solar light string in half out by the pool so I brought the two halves into the house and cut

the one light out and soldered the halves together.  We put them up high for now, later we will put them

back down on the large plant my wife has out there.  After the pups settle down. 

Have a good day all, here the north wind subsides a little more each day and it gets warmer. 

Ernie

Puppies at rest.  Much bigger now.

Good morning, all,

Slowly Spring is coming. I hear lots of complaints from neighbors and friends that it's not warm enough yet. I like this weather, easier to jog in. It gets very humid in NYC so I can wait for that.

Susan, my quit continues. I think because I went through this before it helps that I know much of what to expect. I know it does get easier.

I grew up in the borough of The Bronx. So, NYC is home and what I am familiar with.  I think wherever you grow up is what seems normal. I live in downtown Manhattan, a block from Wall Street. When I was younger this was entirely a financial district. Nobody lived down here, and it emptied out after work. After 9/11, many of the banks moved to Jersey City, or other boroughs. The buildings converted to residential apartments. So currently it's mostly residential, which still seems a bit odd to me. When I moved down here in 2008 there weren't many families, but the city built schools, parks, and dog runs so there are lots of families now. I like it, many of the streets are closed off so good for walking. Not good if you have a car or for delivery trucks.   

Enjoy the day,

Paul

Good morning Paul and all.  Another cool morning at 29.  I haven't jogged since 16, when arthritis

got to my feet.  Can walk many miles but even then I put pain killer on my feet.  I can get away without

it but not if I walk many miles every morning.  There is almost no impact on the elliptical so haven't

been using it since last July.  Except for the stint in the Army, the only jogging I did was around 2000

to 2016, took breaks once in a while because I was still smoking 2000 to 2007 and sometimes it seemed

pointless.  I would go 4.5 miles, usually before work.  Started taking our Britney dog with me in 2007

and then Cocoa dog later that year. 

It seems strange to me to live in the city, I grew up on the PA farm, 3 miles from a small town.  We had

a little larger towns 50 miles north and south of us that had discount stores like Town and Country or

Nichols.  These days there's a Walmart about 10 miles from the farm  The speed limit was increased to

50 mph on our old back road so people going to Walmart and other places fly down that old road 55 or

60.  very dangerous for all the residents on the road.  When I was a kid it wasn't unusual to not see a car

for and hour or two, now it's hard to cross the road without waiting for 5 cars or so to pass by.  We usually

only went to those larger towns for Christmas shopping or to go to the amusement park once a year when

dad's company, Corning Glass, gave us all free tickets and a picnic meal.  On rare occasion for shoes.

I never knew the banks left the city.  I saw the 911 site when it was a big hole in the ground, during the clean

up I guess.  I was on a company bus tour that we were getting training at in northern NJ.  That would be strange

live in those buildings. 

So Paul, do you jog in Central Park or on the concrete sidewalks?  I would think concrete would do your feet in

after a couple years.  Harder than pavement.  When I was about 7 years into jogging I would still be using whatever

soft shoes I could find and ended up bruising my heels sometimes and had to take a break for couple months. 

I finally started buying jogging shoes and eventually stayed on Brooks Addition shoes, think it was.  Kind of weird

name for people jogging to partly fight an addition.  Think they're changing over to a different name for them now.

I didn't know how important the running shoes were, started talking to others that were jogging.  I still use them for

walking.  I have some of their walking shoes but usually only wear them when it starts getting colder because they

don't breathe like running shoes.

I found a shorted diode in my 2 meter amplifier and changed it out along with it's companion diode.  Just 1 amp

rectifier diodes, guess in that circuit they could cripple a 2000 volt power supply.  Didn't get the amp all hooked

back up and try it out yet.  I had some of the rectifier diodes in my parts. 

Our refrigerator / freezer started leaking water a few days ago.  We remember it doing this years ago but I didn't

take any notes and put them with the manual, very unusual.  I really didn't find anything wrong this time.  A lot of

ice melted into water off the freezer cooling coils while I was disassembling the ice maker, the panels, and lowering

the freezer door.  In the end we are thinking the power interruptions during our 3 days without power caused a

ice build up.  Not sure yet but seems likely, especially since I didn't leave any notes from last time.  There's a second

fan, besides the one blowing across the coils with the compressor underneath the frig, directing air up towards the

refrigerator so guess these coils also cool the refrigerator also.  Replace the control circuit board on it about 6 months

ago and a relay on the old circuit board about 5 years ago.  Thing has been a little bit of a pain.  Our previous frig lasted

25 years and only gave it away because the shelves were starting to rust.  This one is now 15 years old but started going

bad at around 10 years old.  They're getting lot more money for these too, around $2000 now I think.  I left notes this

time on what on what we think was wrong. 

About finished getting our garden tractor ready for the mowing season.  I see I have the engine oil filter for my daughter's

tractor so I'm ready to get started on it soon.  She has some larger branches down from the snow storm so need to take the

chain saw over to cut some of them.

Have a good day everyone.  The north wind subsiding a little more here today so a little warmer.  No jogging here but getting

tougher to cool the air around the elliptical.  Wife doesn't like me closing the curtains and opening a window. 

It's Saturday and wife and I have the weekend off!  No overtime!  Yipee! 

Ernie

Control board for GE frig/ freezer.

Good morning, everyone.  The wind lessened here also. Pretty nice out. 

Ernie, there is a jogging/bicycle path that goes around Manhattan called the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. It is about 33 miles (not that I get close to ever finishing it); and you can stay on it for 95+% of the time. There are a few spots that are not yet complete. An old building or a high cost to adding to the path. I am at the bottom end of the island, so I either go up the Hudson River, or East River depending on how the sun is shining, or wind blowing. Most of the path is asphalt paved or something that supposedly is easy on your feet. There is some concrete, but I walk that. Various parks jut out from the path so it's relatively tree-lined (by city standards). 

Where I am the Hudson side is nicer, though it is also windier. If I'm up early I see many people fishing. I can't imagine eating a fish from that water. If you look closely the rivers are as dirty as you can imagine. 

Enjoy the weekend,

Paul