The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[Teamubr]

I haven't been as productive as James and others. I did patch up some stains and drywall on the kitchen ceiling from Ian's toilet tank leaking (clean water).

My accomplishment over the holiday was burning more PTO ( and money). We booked a week in St. Martin/Sint Maarten. We had been talking about trying a new island and our cruise a few weeks ago convinced us we are island and not boat people.

So if anyone has been to St. Martin and has some "must see" selections, let me know. We aren't going until May, so I still have time to do some research.

j

 

[jbrostek]

Never been to St. Martin, though figure a rum runner and a soft sand beach would keep me happy.

 

[4077]

I haven't been as productive as James and others. I did patch up some stains and drywall on the kitchen ceiling from Ian's toilet tank leaking (clean water).

My accomplishment over the holiday was burning more PTO ( and money). We booked a week in St. Martin/Sint Maarten. We had been talking about trying a new island and our cruise a few weeks ago convinced us we are island and not boat people.

So if anyone has been to St. Martin and has some "must see" selections, let me know. We aren't going until May, so I still have time to do some research.

j

I suppose "must see" is very subjective...however, as a pilot, I flew into the Princess Juliana airport (SXM). Going to the beach just off the end of the runway there to watch takeoff and landings is pretty cool. There is a bar, I think, just south end of beach where you could sit more comfortably and watch as well. There are more videos of this than you can shake a stick at (I presume this saying had something to do with attempting to fend off wildlife, insects or something else at some point in the past) to see what it Is all about... I wouldn't be surprised if you have all ready seen these before. Anyway, that is what the pilot recommends....

 

[Teamubr]

I suppose "must see" is very subjective...however, as a pilot, I flew into the Princess Juliana airport (SXM). Going to the beach just off the end of the runway there to watch takeoff and landings is pretty cool.

I've seen these pics, Jimmy. Pretty impressive. Just as fun are the ones where the planes are taking off and the jet wash knocks people over that are standing along the fence. Darwin at work. . I'm sure we will probably go see it because we are dumb tourists.

For those that haven't seen the beach and runway, these pics are not Photoshoped.




j

 

[garneska]

Happy New Year!! Obviously my holidays did not go as planned. However, mom is out of ICU and on a regular floor. She will probably be moving back to a nursing/rehab facility at the end of the week or so. Her labs look good but she is very weak so i am not sure if she will actually be able to get out of bed. However rehab can do some amazing things, if mom is willing to do the work, and i am not sure she is.

 

[bama_ed]

Happy New Year!! Obviously my holidays did not go as planned. However, mom is out of ICU and on a regular floor. She will probably be moving back to a nursing/rehab facility at the end of the week or so. Her labs look good but she is very weak so i am not sure if she will actually be able to get out of bed. However rehab can do some amazing things, if mom is willing to do the work, and i am not sure she is.

That's good news, Kris. It sounds like your mom has been improving. I hope you mom stays at it and keeps trying to get stronger.

Ed

 

[bama_ed]

I've seen these pics, Jimmy. Pretty impressive. Just as fun are the ones where the planes are taking off and the jet wash knocks people over that are standing along the fence. Darwin at work. . I'm sure we will probably go see it because we are dumb tourists.

For those that haven't seen the beach and runway, these pics are not Photoshoped.

View attachment 822321
View attachment 822320

j

j

You're telling me those pics are real? I'm gonna have to find some YT videos in action to believe that.

Ed

EDIT - OH.DEAR.GOD - And yes, Darwin Indeed!

 

[Teamubr]

EDIT - OH.DEAR.GOD - And yes, Darwin Indeed!

Looks like you found them.

For others:

Happy New Year!! Obviously my holidays did not go as planned. However, mom is out of ICU and on a regular floor. She will probably be moving back to a nursing/rehab facility at the end of the week or so. Her labs look good but she is very weak so i am not sure if she will actually be able to get out of bed. However rehab can do some amazing things, if mom is willing to do the work, and i am not sure she is.

That's fantastic, Kris. She's a tough old bird.

j

 

[jbrostek]

@garneska I so need to get this shirt when I can cheer you on during one of these races.....

 

[jbrostek]

After two very long and exhausting weekends, the laundry room is done! I can say that while hanging cabinets is not that difficult it is when you are trying to work around the geometry of a non-square or level knee wall (built around the family room fireplace, but man its clear they did not use a square or a level.

Most important is Melissa loves it, and so do I!!

First is the family room finished patch, and have some black slate I got on clearance a few years ago. I had planned for the half bath of the previous house. I am thinking it would be nice flat surface unlike the current uneven wall stone the previous owners used. I would still keep the wall stone on the wall sections.


And now the Laundry room....


This is the finished product. It was a struggle to get this right so it would look good there is nearly a 3/8" variance from the back corner of the wall to the corner of that top knee wall. Thankfully this turned out pretty good in the end. The cabinets are completely hung on the wall, the lower trim is just some 1x3 I trimmed out to close the gap and make it look cohesive. The filler strips between the cabinets where a challenge to get right as well, again so many angles.



I found a nice light fixture Melissa would like, much better then the dated brass mushroom that was there. Bonus it's a 3 bulb fixture which offers all the light a laundry room could need.



And of course proper decore...


And we cannot forget to be prepared for our furry friends.



We are slowly putting things back into the laundry room and organizing it better with all the extra storage along the way. Love how it turned out and everyone is happy for it to be functioning again. I am pretty sure our oldest DD was running out of clean clothes.

 

[garneska]

I am dedicating this post to my MRI results. I have not seen the dr yet, so i have no idea what the plan is to get me running. I have the report from the MRI i am going to paste sections of it here leaving out all the stuff that is fine.

Impression:

1. Complex body and posterior horn medial meniscal tear with additional large tear at the posterior root of medial meniscus with extravasation.

2. Moderate tricompartmental knee joint osteoarthrosis most pronounced at the patellofemoral component with bone-on-bone contact at the lateral patella.

3. Small Baker's cyst.

Narrative

FLUID: No significant joint effusion. Small Baker's cyst. Small ganglion cyst at the insertion of lateral head of gastrocnemius muscle.

MENISCI: Complex body and posterior horn medial meniscal tear with additional large tear at the posterior root of medial meniscus with extravasation. Lateral meniscus is intact.

CARTILAGE: Medial Compartment: Mild cartilage thinning and fragmentation. Lateral Compartment: Mild cartilage thinning. Patellofemoral Compartment: Full-thickness cartilage loss with with bone-on-bone contact at the lateral patella.

I am pretty unhappy that i have two tears in the medial meniscus. I am really unhappy about the arthritis. My xray did not look as bad as the MRI is saying. However the area where it says is bone on bone is absolutely one of the spots that bothers me a lot.

I am screwed!

 

[Teamubr]

Ouch, Kris! I am pretty impressed you have been able to run as much as you have. I'm sure you have Googled all of this. The arthrosis and bone on bone is a result of being a high level runner for a long time. This is "wear and tear" stuff from long term, high level use. The miniscus tears are the acute thing and I suspect your doc will recommend surgery to address. The Baker's and ganglion cysts are just resutls of the ongoing trauma.

Let us know what the doc recommends. I also have some close friends at Emory if you want a recommendation on a 2nd opinion. It never hurts to have options or at least 2 experts agreeing on a treatment. Given you should be considered a high level or elite athlete, they should be more focused on restoring maximal function as opposed to what they would offer a sedentary slug like the rest of us. Seriously though, they should be gearing treatment to get you back to high level functioning as opposed to a more routine level "normal" people should expect.

j

 

[garneska]

Thanks @Teamubr was looking for your opinion. Agree with all you said. I was hoping not for surgery but I think it’s in the cards. fyi I am going to see Dr Kyle Hammond at Emory on Jan 16. yes I also might take a second opinion.

I seriously thought that was not my MRI and it got mixed up, but it was the ganglion cyst that made me say it is mine. Top of my calf had hurt, almost thought blood clot but was like no not right. I think it is the cyst bothering me.

yeah not really a happy camper here.

 

[Sjm9911]

I will say, only good is that the pain is probably caused by the meniscus tares. The arthritis and bone on bone hopefully is normalish. I have that also, and the pain wasn't from that but from the tares. I will say I am walking better since not being on my feet for 24 hrs at work. If the bone on bone hurts after the surgery, there are a few things you can do. Best thing you did( and worse) is get the MRI, so now you know what your dealing with. The cyst, normal with the damage, will go away as will the pain after the swelling goes away and the meniscus is repaired. I am hoping for the best.

 

[jbrostek]

@garneska Lots of wishes for best/fastest recovery. I cannot fathom the worry ontop of everything else that has been creating for you.

I am trying to recover from the last two weekends of work. So far the worst has been my upper back that just seems to be super tight no matter how much I stretch. I am hoping that it calms down soon, or I will likely be making my own appointments to address it. Melissa wants me to go get a massage, and that might be a good start.

Hope everyone is well after all the weather. I am still working on putting away holiday decorations, and can finally take down some after I gave it some time to dry out. Then my focus will go back to buttoning up a few things on the main level remodel and painting the front and garage door before I put new knobs and locks on it. Finally we will have it where the entire main level has matching hardware for the interior doors and the exterior will be keyed alike.

Side note for anyone that recalls my little diesel heater setup. Last weekend with temps down in the 30s Saturday and not running the heat overnight, I got the garage up to 52F from about 30. Sunday nearly 60 from about 38 and warmer outside temps. I know the pull down ladder has a lot of heat loss, and might put one of those insulatation tents in but really a 20 degree increase is pretty good. I been also reading about people using baseboard and cast iron radiators to harvest the exhaust waste heat and think I might have to try that too. Either way, pretty happy with it and the power setup.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

I am dedicating this post to my MRI results. I have not seen the dr yet, so i have no idea what the plan is to get me running. I have the report from the MRI i am going to paste sections of it here leaving out all the stuff that is fine.

Impression:

1. Complex body and posterior horn medial meniscal tear with additional large tear at the posterior root of medial meniscus with extravasation.

2. Moderate tricompartmental knee joint osteoarthrosis most pronounced at the patellofemoral component with bone-on-bone contact at the lateral patella.

3. Small Baker's cyst.

Narrative

FLUID: No significant joint effusion. Small Baker's cyst. Small ganglion cyst at the insertion of lateral head of gastrocnemius muscle.

MENISCI: Complex body and posterior horn medial meniscal tear with additional large tear at the posterior root of medial meniscus with extravasation. Lateral meniscus is intact.

CARTILAGE: Medial Compartment: Mild cartilage thinning and fragmentation. Lateral Compartment: Mild cartilage thinning. Patellofemoral Compartment: Full-thickness cartilage loss with with bone-on-bone contact at the lateral patella.

I am pretty unhappy that i have two tears in the medial meniscus. I am really unhappy about the arthritis. My xray did not look as bad as the MRI is saying. However the area where it says is bone on bone is absolutely one of the spots that bothers me a lot.

I am screwed!

As a fellow medial meniscus tearing pro, I feel your pain. I've had 2 surgeries on each knee. Like 30% remaining on my left knee and 60% on my right. I'm 8 weeks out from my most recent surgery and I'm pretty much back to normal other than kneeling occasionally hurts.

Good luck and speedy recovery through it all.

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok, so this week I spent most of my time fixing the dryer. I ordered parts on amazon, and watched about 6.4 hours of repair videos. Being handy, and tool oriented, I said this was going to be easy. All the videos I watched went smothly, the hard stuff was at the end. So , my luck, on step 2 the easy to remove electronic display wouldn't budge. 45 mins later it was out, lucky without breaking it. So, took it all apart and put it back together. Still didnt work right. Then I noticed, what I thought were 2 spare parts in my rebuild kit. Went on amazon, and thiere were 2 more sensors with the kit that needed replacement. So, in the afternoon, took it all apart. I was left with basicly 3 walls and the motor. I remeved the other 2 sensors, and what I had were the wrong parts. So off to amazon to order more stuff. Came in today, and I barley remembered how to put it back together. Warning, the sides of these things are sharpened sheet metal. I belive they are honed to a razors edge. With that said, I cut both hands and elbows getting the belt back on. Good news is it works. It may have I little dent where it was kicked, but thats just cosmetic.........

 

[4077]

As camping show season arrives, I have begun to think of a "dream" next trailer. I thought a lot about 5th wheel and Class A (more space in both, class A not having to get out in the rain - if necessary just pull in, auto level, and wait out the weather in comfort). However, I must admit I am in love with the Airstream 25 FB at moment...love the big front and rear window, the rear twin beds option (avoid the sheet fight and room for doggo to sleep in between - careful stepping out of bed for night time relief !!), and the light color interior would make it very bright feeling (I'm WAY over the darker wood interiors!!). Also, not too big, but not too small... Anyway, fun to think.....

 

[Sjm9911]

As camping show season arrives, I have begun to think of a "dream" next trailer. I thought a lot about 5th wheel and Class A (more space in both, class A not having to get out in the rain - if necessary just pull in, auto level, and wait out the weather in comfort). However, I must admit I am in love with the Airstream 25 FB at moment...love the big front and rear window, the rear twin beds option (avoid the sheet fight and room for doggo to sleep in between - careful stepping out of bed for night time relief !!), and the light color interior would make it very bright feeling (I'm WAY over the darker wood interiors!!). Also, not too big, but not too small... Anyway, fun to think.....View attachment 825902

Lol, I was looking at these, i am not in the market but this one and the 29 foot one are nice. I like the kitchen area, the normal dinette table thing is cramped for me, this I like so much better.

 

[bama_ed]

As camping show season arrives, I have begun to think of a "dream" next trailer. I thought a lot about 5th wheel and Class A (more space in both, class A not having to get out in the rain - if necessary just pull in, auto level, and wait out the weather in comfort). However, I must admit I am in love with the Airstream 25 FB at moment...love the big front and rear window, the rear twin beds option (avoid the sheet fight and room for doggo to sleep in between - careful stepping out of bed for night time relief !!), and the light color interior would make it very bright feeling (I'm WAY over the darker wood interiors!!). Also, not too big, but not too small... Anyway, fun to think.....

I toured the Airstream factory in Ohio a few years ago (wrote about it here) and if I had a half ton truck and a place to store the trailer, I would have pulled the trigger years ago.

We have a folding/popup/A-frame trailer and it works for us with our tow vehicle and storage/neighborhood situation. But I will cheer for you all the way down to the Department of Motor Vehicles to register an Airstream and live the life if that's what you can do.

So @4077, you need to share DW's opinion on this option. I recall you have a trailer but I seem to remember you folks also staying at Bonnet Creek in the past. As I know for a FFFFfffffact: "if Mama ain't happy then nobody's happy." Is BC the choice if travelling all the way to Florida?

Also, would the Airstream be a good fit for you to go trailering in the Northeast on a long weekend or up in the mountains?

I'm behind you on the Airstream option. Having a regular Yukon XL, I was intrigued by the Airstream Bambi and Caravel lines.

Bama Ed