The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[team bradfield]

Sad day, Gizmo diagnosed with cancer, he's in no pain, we are in wait and watch mode if tumor returns, grade 1 spindle cell

 

[team bradfield]

Instead of the "CONE OF SHAME" he agreed to the sweater Chris Evans wore in knives out.

 

[Sjm9911]

So sorry. Wishing for the best possable outcome.

 

[bama_ed]

Me and DW hosted in-state family two days ago for a Christmas celebration so we have have a few quiet days here before we go to another celebration in town here for my out-of-state family some of whom will be visiting. So this was an opportunity to get things done while things are quiet while we have no rushed commitments to be anywhere or do anything.

Have some camping trips planned in January and February and one of the things I wanted to do was try to improve the clarity of my front headlight covers that had badly oxidized/clouded up over the years. It's a 2012 Yukon XL with 215K miles so I'm probably living on borrowed time anyway. But without donating a bodily organ, I wanted to try to improve the appearance and light throughput out the front end of the truck.

While I was busily placing Amazon orders after Thanksgiving for Christmas presents (for others), I researched and chose to try this:



I finally got around to using it this afternoon (trying to beat the oncoming rain - I think I will make it since the finished product needs an hour before it gets wet). IMO it certainly was an improvement.

Here are before and after pics.

Passenger side:





Driver's side:






For the cost ($17) and effort (<30 min) I put in, it appears to have been worth it.

Two complaints I've read about over the years about these kinds of products are:

1. They don't work - and -
2. If they work, the improvement doesn't last for long

That very well may be (#2) but I think this worked for me (#1). Just follow the instructions to the LETTER (I did-read the included instructions in advance and watch the YT video referenced in the instructions).

If anyone out there was thinking about their cloudy headlights, I would offer this product as one to try.

Bama Ed

 

[JP6972]

Merry Christmas everyone

 

[jbrostek]

Merry Christmas fellow DisNerds! While a day late, I was mostly offline yesterday after 4 days straight of holiday gatherings.

We had a good time, Friday morning left to visit our PA family, returning home Saturday evening, then had my sister and her fam at the house Christmas Eve. So Christmas Day was just the 4 of us opening our gifts and breakfast before the girls where off to their father's house.

@bama_ed The only kit I have had good luck with is the pro level kit my friends shop has. https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40072113/ (its expensive, over 600 for the kit) It uses 4 levels of sanding and polishing to take them from cloudy to clear. I would love to hear how well that kit holds up for the cost.

 

[bama_ed]

@bama_ed The only kit I have had good luck with is the pro level kit my friends shop has. https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40072113/ (its expensive, over 600 for the kit) It uses 4 levels of sanding and polishing to take them from cloudy to clear. I would love to hear how well that kit holds up for the cost.

That's well on the way to the cost of a bodily organ, James. I see in my solution that the driver's side (which was worse off) is still scratched. I had two levels of grit to sand with and should have gone over the length of time stated in the instructions for each level.

Be that as it may, it is certainly an improvement. Time will tell how long it lasts.

Hoho. Ed

 

[jbrostek]

Exactly!!! I have access to my friends kit so I polish them there. I will say that on the Highlander, after 2 polishing we finally replaced the lights. They where just too far gone.

 

[garneska]

My knee has been really bad. I saw my PT on Dec 18 and she rubbed the popliteus muscle, basically muscle behind my knee. i was thinking that made it worse. I ran on Friday and then took a few days off. Will get into that later. I went to run today easy since the knee was still an issue. Just under 2 miles and something in the back of the knee popped. Not loud but I felt the pop and then the pain. Thankfully close to home so I limped in. i am now sitting in the chair icing the back of my knee. Bert is at the gym. I have no idea if I am going to be able to stand on it.

now I wait for Bert to get back before I attempt to stand.

 

[Sjm9911]

My knee has been really bad. I saw my PT on Dec 18 and she rubbed the popliteus muscle, basically muscle behind my knee. i was thinking that made it worse. I ran on Friday and then took a few days off. Will get into that later. I went to run today easy since the knee was still an issue. Just under 2 miles and something in the back of the knee popped. Not loud but I felt the pop and then the pain. Thankfully close to home so I limped in. i am now sitting in the chair icing the back of my knee. Bert is at the gym. I have no idea if I am going to be able to stand on it.

now I wait for Bert to get back before I attempt to stand.

Not good. Please, I know running for you is like a breath of fresh air, but have the knee checked out, and run every test on it. I neglected my knees for a while, pain is the norm now, even after a successful meniscus repair and flushed bone fragments. I dont run, never had it was the job that took years off my knees. At 50 , they both still hurt half the week, and its only time untill I have to get replacements. Do anything to avoid this. Even if it means maybe taking up cycling. This isnt a medical advise thing, its just a please dont get to where I am thing. Not walking and hobbling at points during the week at 50 for me isnt good.

 

[garneska]

Spencer thanks for the advice. i actually was planning to go to the dr in jan after the half. i figured it was time to find out what was really going on with the knee. Was it just runners knee or actually something more permanent. I had a rough night sleeping. Bert walked Whisky to daycare today because i have a whole story on her separation anxiety that i think i forgot to tell you all. Short story she chewed up in her bed in the crate while we were gone. Then I have a dr appointment today at 11. After that will go visit mom.

So the mom situation is not good. Mom had a perforated gastric ulcer. She had emergency surgery on Sunday and is in ICU. Current status things are not good but might be trending in the correct direction except her white blood cell count. She is still on the ventilator and i hope she might get off it today, but since the labs look pretty similar to yesterday, it may still be another day.

 

[garneska]

My MRI is scheduled for Jan 9. He is pretty confident that it is a torn meniscus but not sure how bad till MRI. X-rays showed mild arthritis so win on that side.

Good news for mom, they took her off the ventilator. She feels miserable but I was happier leaving today and telling her I love her and her saying it back.

 

[Teamubr]

Great news on your Mom getting off the vent so fast. The WBC should start trending down... slowly, since the perforation is repaired.

And a pop behind your knee is likely a miniscus. Hopefully the MRI shows it is minor, but ice and elevation is your friend right now.

j

 

[jbrostek]

@garneska hope the MRI shows nothing major, yet gets you a solid way to heal up. Lots of well wishes for your mother’s recover.

This week flew by! I worked Tuesday and Wednesda, and

Thursday was our anniversary. The morning started with some home made eggs Benedict….one of our favorites.



Most of the morning we spent reading and relaxing. The in the afternoon went out to our favorite winery. We had some cheese and crackers and enjoyed a couple glasses as we relaxed and reconnected after the usual hectic holiday of seeing family.




We are club members here and had not just one, but two wine pickups waiting for us. And the somehow we Decided to buy their 12 wines of Christmas promotional case, plus some bubbly for New Years. We left with a grand total of 19 bottles as we left for our dinner reservations.

A week earlier I had made reservations for us a Clair’s at the Depot in Warrenton, the same place we went to last year. I had looked at other places but they were all booked up. Dinner was phenomenal as we hoped.

No photos, though we had some fried oysters, followed by crab bisque before our main course.

I had a Ny strip with wild mushroom reduction, garlic mash and sautéed spinach



Melissa had filet mignon with garlic mash, Brussels sprouts and French fried onions.


Dessert was an apple crisp with vanilla bean gelato. And Clair’s sent us a complimentary champagne toast.



Afterwards it was back home to open our anniversary wine and watch some hallmark movies with our puppy who was born on the same day.



The evening ended with the tradition of Melissa falling asleep mid movie.

 

[jbrostek]

And of course the Brostek’s really dont know how to sit still lately. Leading to the holidays, Melissa asked if we could redo the laundry room and add some cabinets to organize what we normally store on the knee wall that surrounds the family room fire place.

The before photos:




This of course is the best time to make a few repairs and complete some other projects that require walls in that room to be opened. First I had to figure out what was going on with the kids rooms HVAC connection. The room is always cold and never felt much air through the vent even though it has a 6“ feed in the basement. So opening that wall up revealed some really poorly thought out duct work that killed the flow. It took a bit to figure out, however the new routing has restored air flow and the room feels so much better now.

The other project that require some holes in the wall was adding some new electrical circuits to the garage area. Turns out the one wall in the laundry room had a great pathway to the garage attic.

Thankfully the electrician was available to finish this project on our timelin!

So now I have two 20 amp circuits on each side of the garage in addition to the original one.




Plus I have power for my compressor



and most important to me is a proper 30 amp RV plug.



Last night and this morning I have spent the day repairing the walls and preparing for paint. Some of the repairs included better muddying of existing walls that the previous owners did not do well. We also moved an outlet in the family room and deleted an empty box mean for cable/telephone which just had a blank plate on it.





I look forward to sharing the finished product.

 

[Sjm9911]

Happy new year to all!

 

[Stratman50th]

Happy new year to all!

Same to you brother!
And to all, Happy New year!

 

[JP6972]

Happy New Year !!!

 

[MrsPAHunter]

Happy New Year, y'all!

Looking forward to catching up with everyone in November at the Fort...less than a year and counting!

 

[jbrostek]

Happy New Year all!

Making progress on the laundry room. Painting is done, some LVT flooring is next on the list, the remaining parts and pieces I need start arriving tomorrow as well. Still have cabinets, trim, etc after the floor but shooting for function by tomorro.