If the walls are decent enough, I think I would just paint the walls with a white primer and then apply whatever color I want. Didn't do that with the door because I didn't have a primer so I had to paint four layers. With a primer that wouldn't have been necessary.

Going from dark to light can be tough but not impossible

Gaaaah!

The walls are in excellent shape, just ... painted a dark blue by the former owner (or probably the builder). Who paints their house dark inside and out? It absorbs the light in the rooms inside, and outside it blends into the forest so you can't see it (instead of catching the eye). I had plans to remedy that when I bought it so it would sell quickly and turn a profit; but everything in this house is made with tough materials to work with, lol.

Ya boy's presentation went very well. I had actually done one a couple months ago as well. Still a bit rusty and I stuttered a few times, but apart from that it was successful and enjoyed by all who were there.

I practiced it the other night and felt I rambled on too much, so I condensed it a bit lol. I will get it up here as soon as I can, for anyone who wants to see the final thing.

Aww, Rader, that's great news that it went well!

Nice! Congrats!

Then it's now safe to suggest you Google for "the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation"

Ugh. I hate talking in front of people. Great it went so well

Samesies. Glad it went well for ya!

Mowed about 1830. I could have held off another two days easy, but rains and T-storms are predicted for a solid week beginning tomorrow. Heart reading almost immediately afterward: Blood Pressure 101/60, Pulse 92.

My project for the morning was to find suitable TerrainHDforestgrasstwigdirt01su.dds textures for my experimental Oblivion installed. The ones I've been using look fine up close but show unsightly tiling at distance. I auditioned those by Discovery1, Lougain, Darooz, and QTP3R. I'm not totally satisfied with any of them, but settled on Lougain...for now. (I attempted to modify the texture color map I've been using to minimize tiling, but wasn't able to create an acceptable complementary normal map for it.)

Grocery run after lunch. Am experimenting with the suggestion here of keeping bread in the freezer. Seems to work. My problem is that I keep forgetting to set a slice or slices out to thaw five minutes before my accustomed meal preparation time, which bugs me to no end.

Went out for an exercise-walk 0630ish despite predictions of rain and T-storms. Took an umbrella with me. I needed it during the middle third of the walk. Steady medium drizzle to light rain the entire time. It was a soft rain. There was no wind. Only a few stray drops hit me. I even lingered outside a bit once home...until school kids started walking to their bus stop. I wanted no part of that so beat a hasty retreat.

(I notice I failed to mentioned having walked yesterday morning.)

Mowed the lawn late yesterday. The mower conked out with a bit of front yard yet to cut. A quick investigation showed that the mower was not out of gas but rather its grass ejection port had clogged. My mower tends to have trouble restarting after such stops until I let it set for some minutes. I therefore broke to remove a mess of weed-vines that have infested my front-of-the-house shrubs. I'd put the project off far too long so that there was a ton of vine (and other undesirable growth) to remove. I'd gotten a decent start on that when I heard an odd sound nearby. It was the "city" mosquito sprayer coming down the road, only a house away. My lungs being what they are, I knew I had to escape exposure. Didn't pull it off as quickly as I'd like. Have been coughing (more frequently than normal) ever since. Bit of a headache and scratchy throat too. As the sun was close to setting by then, I called it quits with the front yard not fully mowed and shrubbery weeding maybe 3/4 done. Will prolly finish up, the mowing at least, this evening. Done right, shrubbery will take a lot more time and effort.

Been able to exercise-walk every day for quite some time. Predicted rains and storms thankfully haven't materialized. Walking as early as I do, I've needed to wear a sweatshirt the past several days. Will do so again today, likely tomorrow. After that, who knows?

As threatened, I finished my lawn mow last night. So little was left to mow that I was done in well under five minutes...discounting the fellow who flagged me down just after I'd fired up the mower to ask if I had any useless junk lying around he could haul off. (Go figure.)

I must report that, as expected, the recently purchased mattress topper didn't pan out. At first I thought it might. For several days (nights) my neck did hurt less while lying on my back. But at the same time my shoulder blades gradually started hurting more and more. After the second day my lower back started hurting. Eventually neck pain too began worsening again.

For now I've given up on the bed entirely and am sleeping on my side in my 30+ year old ultra cheap second-hand mushy living room sofa. Awkward as all get out, and not very comfortable, but for whatever reason it causes less shoulder pain and slightly less neck pain when side-sleeping than the bed does. (Less pain lying on my back too, but not quite enough so to make it a viable option. Besides, the sofa is too narrow for back sleeping.)

I'm thinking of soon starting a WordPress blog. Partly just because I can, partly because there is a wide variety of things I just like talking about and discussing, and partly for other reasons. Even if I am the only one who reads it, I would at least put words down about the stuff I find interesting: political science (what I'm in school for), history, video games, sports, astronomy, and perhaps some more miscellaneous things.

The major issue I have with doing stuff like this is that I have the tendency to look at what I write just on my own and think "Wow, this sounds stupid," often times after a while. I do that even with stuff I wrote for school before, even relatively recently. I look at so many things that could have been better. Certainly you should be able to critique your own stuff, but I take it a bit far. But you know what, I'm still going to try to start it up. I have to make sure it doesn't cut too much into my time here at grad school though.



What size is the mattress topper, if I may ask?

Khajiit would read it. Post a link to it in your siggy, if you want to.

Thickness is 2" though it is patterned so that the "grooves" are less than that. It's also rather soft, or so it seems to me. I suspect my pain issues come from it eventually bottoming out so that I am once again resting more or less directly atop my very firm mattress. As to other dimensions, it is a "Queen Size" topper.

The 3" "soft" version of this topper intrigues me. Lots of good reviews, and doesn't seem to bottom out. But at $299 it's a great financial risk. That's a heck of lot to spend on something that might prove no more beneficial than previous toppers and other pain relief bedding gizmos.

Thanks, Khajiit. When I have a block of free time to use, I'll make it and let people know.



Yeah, my dad has some similar issues. He has some back pain and can't sleep on his side. He also uses a CPAP machine. I think his mattress topper is 4" though, but I believe it was for a lot less than $299. I can try to check with him.

More cavator projects for me; removing tree stumps that have annoyed me for too long.

Burn stumps with fire!

There's an idea. Could be fun and quite safe now since it has been raining. Mebbe I'll try it if the stump proves too much for cavator. Shouldn't, really, but it's right next to big rocks so it's difficult to dig around it.

It will still probably be at least a few weeks before I could actually start that blog, but I did manage to create one blog post that I am going to edit later on (it is much longer than I thought it would be, so I might trim it down). I want to have several different articles on a variety of topics first before I get the blog going. That way, if it takes me a while to actually post some stuff I will have already had a few articles up for anyone to read.

Plus, I have no idea what to name the blog. I want it to somehow reflect the variety of things I want to talk about, but I don't even know where to begin.

Removed both Oblivion Reloaded and Cinematic ENB - New Dimensions from my Oblivion experimental build load order over frustration with how bad distant visuals looked during sunny daylight. My thought was to reinstall Oblivion Reloaded plus ENBoost and make do with those for awhile, forgoing an ENB. But...I quickly discovered that after living with an ENB it's all but impossible to do without, warts and all. Cinematic ENB is now back in place. I might audition Candid ENB late in the week, but my hope is that Bevilex someday makes his ENB available for download.

My bro visited this Sunday. As always he slept on the sofa, leaving me stuck with my bed. (I've offered him the bed during his stays, but he'll have no part of it.) Didn't take me a minute to know I couldn't lie on it as configured. Stripped it down to the raw mattress, then added first (at bottom) a 2" memory gel topper, next (middle) my new 2" "grooved" memory foam topper, and lastly (top) a 2" microfiber down alternative topper. That combo let me make it through the night, if not in much comfort. I kept that combo in place Monday night, which didn't turn out so well. I've move my sleep essentials back to the sofa for tonight. Likely for the foreseeable future.

Cut it very close during today's grocery run. Spent $49.30 out of my $50 weekly food allowance. Seems a good many "periodic" food purchases (as opposed to weekly purchases) came due this week... butter, Wowbutter, Mrs Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning, cheese and so on. Truth to tell, my current Wowbutter jar might have gotten me through the week, but I didn't want to risk it.


I'd be interested to find out what he has, especially as it seems to work for him.

Just got the info from him. He got it for whenever we go on family trips with the trailer. He got it online from Linenspa for $68.38 and it is made by a company called Lucid. It is called "3 Inch Bamboo Charcoal Memory Foam Mattress Topper." I thought it was 4" but I guess not. So maybe try checking it out to see if it is still around that price. Even if they aren't but are still in stock, I doubt it would be $299.

EDIT: Just realized the quote didn't work because I accidentally deleted a ].

A non exercise-walk day for me, my first in quite some time, thanks to rain and winds from Harvey. We're not expected to get more than 3-5" ran total, spread throughout the day. I'm not worried about potential flooding, though we are under a flash flood watch until some time tomorrow.

No projects planned for the day, except maybe putz around a bit on my Experimental Oblivion Build. Still have a number of unacceptably sub par visuals, especially outdoors in sunny broad daylight, the very conditions where vanilla Oblivion does its best. No idea what I might be doing wrong. If and when I ever unearth the cause, it'll prolly be something simple and obvious.

Slept until 0534 this morning, unheard of for me, thanks to having taken a sleeping pill just prior to bedtime last night. I prolly would not have slept so long had I been on my bed. The sofa is just enough more comfortable (which isn't saying much) to let me sleep a bit longer than usual.

Has an unexpected add-on to yesterday's exercise-walk. During my first trip down our street I noticed a car parked on the road in front of one house with its driver's side front door wide open. Paperwork and envelops were scattered nearby. No one was in sight. My original thought was that the owner must have recently rushed into the house for whatever reason. But during my second and final walk down the street, some twenty-plus minutes later, nothing had changed. More, I noticed yet more paperwork scattered a good two or three houses further down the road. Coward that I am, I almost ignored it. In the end I drummed up enough courage to knock on the door when the car was parked. No one responded for quite some time, though I heard kids inside. I was almost to the point of alerting the police...just in case...when a fellow opened the door. It was indeed his car. He was unaware, so he said, of the situation. He didn't seem all that interested in it either, which seemed odd to me. I sort of goaded him into at least retrieving the spilled paperwork, which looked to be medical and/or insurance billings. I let things go at that and finished the walk.

My project yesterday evening and this morning was to replace a super blurry shrub texture discovered while my OCOv2 avatar explored Ancient Yews forest. Took forever to figure out exactly which texture belonged to that particular shrub, as RefScope ignores shrubs, free-standing grasses, and the like. That done, I needed to find a suitable replacement that both looked good and blended with existing shrubs. This proved quite a chore. None of the several downloadable replacements I unearthed fit the bill. I resorted to renaming shrub leaf textures, with no better results. In the end I used a tree leave texture, heavily doctored in Paint.NET. This is the result The replacement being seen at near left and also to its right across the trail. It needs further work but gets the job done...for now.

As for the rest of the day, I'll likely mow after supper.

Other than my weekly grocery run and an exercise-walk the only project tackled was to redo the shrubms14boxwoodleaves01 texture mentioned yesterday in better quality, and created a JapaneseRedMaple alternative. I prefer the green version, but the Maple adds a bit of pizzazz.

Daily exercise walk went well. Carried an umbrella but didn't need it. Heart reading almost immediately afterward: Blood Pressure 94/66, Pulse 85.

Spent a good bit of time this afternoon getting the lowdown on what is advertised as my forced migration from AT&T DSL to AT&T u-verse internet, or whatever they call it now. Yup, DSL is going away in my area. The good news is that after the switch I'll supposedly get twice the speed (still quite slow), a much higher monthly data cap, and a lower monthly bill. The theoretically good news: I was told that, due to it being a forced switch, installation fees would be waved. The theoretically bad news: AT&T shows I'm currently set to be billed the fees, an extra $100. I called 'em back. The rep said she'd remove the fee. It's still listed on my billing account page. Bah! Also, my phone will no longer function during power outages. The rep offered some sort of battery add-on to fix that, but between my poor hearing and her accent I couldn't understand enough of what she said to want to commit to that. I'll ask the Tech about it when he or she does the install this Saturday (I hope).

Finally got a return call from my neurologist's office. My pharmacy recently cancelled a Propranolol renewal "at the physician's request. This had me sweating bullets. Propranolol is the medicine that allows me to get only a relatively few migraines per year, as opposed to spending a significant portion of my life in severe pain as I once did. Thankfully, according to the lady I spoke with, all is now well and my order is being processes. We shall see.

Ha! I knew it! The Propranolol order got messed up. The Neurologist office mistakenly (?) sent it to my local Walmart rather than Express Scripts. It costs me an addition $120 a year or more buying it locally. Gonna have to contact my Neurologist again and let them know how to correct the situation. I could attempt to transfer the prescription online myself, but Express Scripts needs to verify the transfer with my Neurologist, and I don't trust them to get it right without me first explaining exactly what's going on. (I keep Walmart as a secondary pharmacy for those times I need "emergency" one-off medicines that can't wait on mail-order delivery. Otherwise it's Express Scripts all the way. The savings is normally substantial, though our ever munificent Congress is working to make it less so for us military retirees.)

I've not yet walked today. It's too bloody cold! In the fifties! You younger and/or more robust folk are probably comfortable with those temperatures. Me, I start shivering once the thermostat reaches about seventy. Rest assured I'll walk once it warms a bit...unless I forgot. That's always a possibility the longer I hold off.

As this week's grocery list was rather minuscule I had ample funds to dine out during my errand run. My plan was to eat lunch at our one All-You-can-Eat American style buffet restaurant. Only, I need to drive by my favorite Chinese Buffet to get there. It was too much to resist. Almost without meaning to I found myself in the Chinese joint. It proved a big mistake. I piled my place high with goodies as always, set down and began to chow down. Maybe five bites later I realized I was not in a mood for Oriental food. Not in the slightest. Everything tasted repugnant, more so as I continued on. Before the half-way point I was struggling to force myself to eat. Me being me I made it to the bitter end. About the only enjoyment I derived from the experience was getting to use chopsticks, which as stated previously I far prefer for Oriental Cuisine.

My grocery run was a letdown in that Walmart was out of of Sugar Free Strawberry Preserves, the only sugar free variety I enjoy with any regularity. I settled for SF Grape Jelly (or is it Jam?), but yesterday's breakfast proved that to be a mistake. Very little flavor, and what little flavor it has isn't very appealing.

Walmart was also out of lettuce. I might have enough left of my current head to last the week if I ration myself. And if the lettuce doesn't go bad first, as can happen. I don't mind brown lettuce up to a point, but draw the line when it gets mushy and slimy.

Early Afternoon ADDENDUM:
1) Got in touch with my Neurologist office this morning. They promised to switch the Propranolol prescription to Express Scripts for me. Lo and behold, they did! Express Scripts shows it now being processed. I suppose I shouldn't pat myself on the back until the med is in the mail. But as of now all appears well. <crosses fingers>

2) When I check outside soon after posting here this morning I was surprised that it felt warmer than my online weather channel of choice said it was. Warm enough to walk. In fact I ended up removing my sweatshirt after a few minutes on the road.

Just finished a 1000-piece puzzle. And that's coming from a guy who isn't into doing puzzles, so I feel fairly proud of finishing this one. But it was one on U.S. presidents, so that's what got me to do it.

My first real assignment for grad school is due on Wednesday, although it will possibly get pushed back because of Hurricane Irma. But I am hoping to knock it out today and tomorrow so I don't have to worry about it.

I only made a modicum of progress this week on my preliminary blog posts before I actually launch one, but I hope to do some more on them this week.

A girl made you do it, right?

One of my friends does try to get me to do puzzles, but this one I legitimately wanted to do on my own. It was solely just because of what the puzzle had on it. I don't know the last time I ever legitimately did a whole puzzle (certainly never one that big) on my own, because they almost never interest me.

Lol, Khajiit was just messin' with ya!

So what was it a puzzle of, if you don't mind saying?

Oh, I know you were. Sorry, I should've made that clear.

As aforementioned, it was of the U.S. Presidents. Well, it isn't completely up to date, since Donald Trump is not on it (I suppose not being up to date was why it was on clearance ). I think it's a pretty cool thing to have and do though, regardless of what I think of any of them.

I'll try to snap a picture of it when I get the chance, if you want to see.

Sure! We like to see pics of what our fellow Chorrolites have been up to!

Behold my masterpiece!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3mo7sc636gm6wnf/P...Puzzle.jpg?dl=0

Cool! You going to frame it?

Thanks. Yeah, when I get a chance to get some puzzle glue I will put it up on the wall somewhere.

Nice job, Rader!

Nice puzzle. Back in my pre-PC days I enjoyed assembling jigsaw puzzles every now and again. Still have eighteen of them on a shelf. The largest, at 4000 pieces, is a humorous take on the Battle of Trafalgar by Ryba, seen here advertised in a reduced 2000 piece edition. My oldest are three (US) Civil War Centennial puzzles, battle scenes taken from that era's romanticized lithographs. Other than the Centennial puzzles (600+ pieces) and Trafalgar, most of my span the 1500-2000 piece range. I don't believe I've touched one in decades.

Well, I'm hosed. AT&T performed the switch from DSL to U-Verse this morning. Once everything was in place I went online to test my new "improved" speed. Download speed, which normally hovered around 315kbs with DSL is now just over 200kbs. Some upgrade. According to the rep I just spoke with, only the slowest speed U-verse is available in my area. What the...? What happened to the 3x speed I was originally promised? They're are sending out a tech Monday to see routing me differently can open up faster speeds, but make no promises. I'm not holding my breath. (The tech who made the switch today said I had a solid 18mb connection, if memory serves. But what does he know?) My only saving grace is that, based on one brief visit, I can still view YouTube videos at 480p.

Man that suuuucks! They should have just left the people who would get slower speeds alone! Such BS! I hope they at least give you a break on the price.

Yeah, tell me about it. Bad as download speed now is, upload speed is absolutely atrocious. Just tested by uploaded an almost 8mb unedited Oblivion bmp format screenshot to imjur. Took 3m 20s! Bloody 'ell. I shutter to think what sort of time it would take to re-upload my four 2014 Oblivion videos to YouTube, three of which are somewhat over 1gb. Even Minecraft save games, which I periodically uploaded as recently as late last year, now clock in at close to 500mb each in 7z format. I'll upload no more of those. (I've no need to in any case. The little putzing around I do in Minecraftia these days result in nothing significant enough to warrant replacing what I now have online.) A tech is still scheduled to visit tomorrow and see if I can somehow get a faster plan. I'm not holding my breath.

Due to needing to be available tomorrow from 8am to 8pm for the AT&T tech I did my grocery run this morning. No frozen broccoli. The Fuji's looked mediocre at best. (At least they went up 20 cents.)

Due to it being overly cool early morning and grocery shopping late morning I didn't get in my exercise-walk until after supper. Didn't bother taking a heart reading due to being to keyed up over this internet business.

Almost forgot to mention that, again due to fretting over internet speed woes, I got next to no sleep last night. Gonna try and remember to take a sleeping pill before retiring tonight. (I didn't think of it yesterday until far too much of the night had passed.

NOTE TO SELF: I "must" remember to drop off my city utilities payment at City Hall tomorrow, assuming I'm not stuck home awaiting AT&T the entire time. If not tomorrow then day after for sure. Don't want to pay a late fee.

As of now I'm a happier camper. The tech sent out today upgraded me to twice as fast as my old DSL account, no increase in price (according to him) and fixed some problems found on my line. The line fix helps my upload speed, but it's still nothing to write home about. I could have been upgraded higher, but would lose out on the introductory deal and have to pay and additional $10 a month. The tech recommended I stick with what I have now until after the intro discount expires, which makes sense.

I'll report back once I've tested actual file downloads and uploads, and find out what resolution I can reliably watch YouTube videos at.

ADDENDUM:
Partially downloaded QTPR off Nexus as a test. Speed was mostly around 810kps, fluctuating occasional down to as low as 792kps. That's over double my DSL top speed of 315kps, assuming it reached that, which didn't always happen. Yeah, 810kps is no big deal these days but hey, it's better than I'm used to and a far cry better than the abysmal speed AT&T recently tried to saddle me with.

YouTube wise, based on only two videos, I can now reliably view at not only 720p but 1080p. On DSL I was pretty much limited to 480p except during bad stretched. I could occasionally use 720p, so long as I put up periodic pauses. (I haven't try videos higher than 1080p with the new service.)

ADDENDUM 2:
Now circa 1330 I just returned from paying monthly utility fees. Originally drove to City Hall circa 1230 to find the office closed for lunch. Drove home and almost said to heck with it for the day. Despite being a bit hotter than I prefer I decided to walk rather than ride during my second, successful, payment attempt.

Watch the price of your current plan very carefully. A lot of times, they will start you out on a lower rate and then after a certain amount of time, the price goes up dramatically.

Yeah, I'm gonna keep my eyes open for the next some months. Supposedly, my "plan" goes up only $10 per month after the introductory year. We shall see. It sort of worries me that I've received no email from AT&T confirming the work done this morning and spelling out my upgraded services. They sure weren't bashful about sending emails by the score before and immediately after my Saturday initial installation appointment. But more so than anything I'm worried about what will happen once Net Neutrality goes away, as is almost certain to happen very very soon. I can see much of the stuff I like to watch and read being throttled or outright blocked. It'll be just my luck to finally be able to view videos at decent resolution only to find that there are no longer many videos I "want" to watch, or at best am forced to watch at super low res.

Projects today and yesterday:

Yesterday:
Scheduled and attended a medical appointment with my Primary Care Physician. For around two months now I've suffered pain at my right elbow to one side of my "funny bone." It varies from barely noticeable to intense, and can be inconsistently triggered or worsened by a variety of movements with that arm/wrist. It never totally vanishes. For a stretch of several days it sometimes diminishes to the point I think it's about to fade to nothing, only to resurface full force.

The long and short of it is that, assuming the doctoring is correct, I have "tennis elbow". The good news is that, according to him, it should eventually go away without need of any sort of fancy procedure. For now I need to wear a "splint" just below my elbow joint that supposedly keeps me from aggravating the area quite so much. It's nothing elaborate, more or less a pressure band. It makes certain forearm movements difficult, so that it's now a major pain to do such things as brush my teeth, pull on/off T-shirts or sweatshirts, even put food/drink in my mouth. I was told to take Extra Strength Tylenol, but not why. Thankfully, computer usage doesn't trigger pain and is not much bothered by "splint."

Stopped by Walmart to pick up the afore mentioned Tylenol. Also bought one of sammiches kept near their deli counter, which I had for supper. Not bad at all.

Found a YouTube video, based on Bevilex Modlist, that offers 1440p resolution. It ran flawlessly for about seven minutes, then began to repeated freeze. I finally gave up the attempt and dropped to 1080p, which worked like a charm (as I knew it would). 1440p not being dependable doesn't bother me. I suspected that would be the case going in. Besides, too much viewing at that resolution might prove catastrophic for my monthly data cap.

Today:
Not yet much to report. Got in my exercise-walk circa 0700. First time since early spring I wore full sweats and toboggan outside. Also carried an umbrella, which wasn't needed. Forgot to take a heart reading afterwards.

Exercise-walk circa 0700 this morning. Heart reading afterwards: Blood Pressure 98/67, Pulse 80. Again wore full sweats and toboggan. Could have waked a bit and dressed more lightly. But every second I wait increased the chance I'll lose enthusiasm to do so. Best strike while the iron is hot.

Getting more used to brushing my teeth left handed. Same with medicated inhaler treatments, didn't waste a single puff this morning. (The darn stuff's expensive.) Removing my upper partial is still a major struggle as that takes BOTH hands. (Removing my lower-mouth apparatus, on the other hand, is super easy, as that can be done with one hand and my tongue. (It's a loose fit, not intended for use while eating.) Using a fork left handed is no fun either, and somewhat risky.

A fellow was marking existing cable locations in my back yard this morning. According to him, my AT&T U-verse wiring might be buried today. Be good to get that out the way, as the lawn will need mowing soon. (Hopefully this will be one of its last mows of the year. Which reminds me I need to buy a bit more NO ETHANOL gas, the nearing no ethanol pump being roughly five-six miles away.)

Cavator project:

*Washing
*Lubing
*Fueling

Before that some more rock removal. FINALLY those specific ones are gone!

Projects today:

Around 0915 I suddenly realized is was grocery day. Assuming I don't plan to to dine out during the run - I didn't - I normally time my runs so that I'm home before 1000, obviously impossible under the circumstances. Showered, dressed, drove to Walmart. As happened last week, no frozen broccoli. Neither Fuji nor Pink Lady apples looked fit to buy. I settled on $5 pre-packaged HoneyCrisps, an apple unknown to me.

Called AT&T to ask why I was receiving notifications to call a certain number or face interruptions in service when DSL internet is forceably switched to fiber U-verse next month. As you might recall, I went ahead and made the switch over a week ago. Still, maybe there was something yet to be done I had overlooked. Nope. All's well, according the fellow I spoke with. (Well, that's not quite true. My new outside cabling is still not buried.)

Called both of my state's Senators to inform them that they are under no circumstances to vote for the newly hatched Graham-Cassidy plan to destroy the ACA and replace is with something far worse. (If you know my Senators, you know my call is almost certainly for naught but hey, a fellow has to try.) Who would have thought I would be defending the ACA, which I consider a barely acceptable stopgap message at best? What I "should" have done is tell them to not only vote NO on Graham-Cassidy, but also enthusiastically throw their support behind the Single-payer Medicare for All proposals at last taking shape in both chambers. Alas, I know all too well how that would go over with those two.

(I've become bad at spontaneous extemporized speech I simply dread these congressional calls. I stumble around so much, even when I write down the gist of what I intend to say, that I often feel I do more harm than good. But...phone calls are supposedly taken more seriously than email, and now that I have unlimited free distance calling within the continental US (thank to U-verse) I've no real excuse not to anymore.)

(Maybe my decrepit avatar has rubbed off on me. An old washed up never-was, at a time of life when I expect to vegetate my days away in senile contentment, suddenly find myself in some small measure attempting to thwart those I see as perils of the realm. Any true comparison between the two of us is ludicrous, but still...)

ADDENDUM: Now 2017-09-19, I Forgot to mention that I intended to do a partial lawn mow prior to sundown yesterday evening. (The unburied AT&T cable prevents a full mow.) Alas. Went outside to check temperature to feel droplets of water hitting my exposed arms. Precipitation wasn't enough to be called rain, sprinkle or even a dribble. Not a drop of moisture showed on sidewalk, driveway or street. Grass, however, was just wet enough to prevent mowing. (I suspect I could have mowed by raising the mower blades up a notch or two, but what's the point in that?) The somewhat good news is that today's weather, which had been forecast to be stormy, is now predicted to be no worse than cloudy, giving me another potential chance to mow chance once it cools this evening.

Yesterday:
As threatened, I mowed much of the lawn after supper: the enter front yard, both sided, and about two-thirds of the back. Am waiting for the AT&T to bury my U-verse wiring before mowing the final third.

Today:
Exercise-walk today circa 0700. Didn't bother to take a heart reading. (Took one right after yesterday's mow.)

Called AT&T Wire Burial Department before lunch. According to the rep I spoke with my wiring is scheduled for burial tomorrow.

Checked online about my potential for being a victim of the recent Equifax data breach. The result: based on person info I provided it is unlike that the breach affected me. Not a 100% free pass, but likely the best outcome one can hope for under the circumstances. I suspected all along that I might be in the low-risk category, possessing no credit cards, taking out no loans, and paying for everything with "cash" as I do and have done for several decades. On the other hand, AT&T needed to run a credit check on me during my forced switch to U-verse earlier this month. (Leastwise, the AT&T sales rep I spoke with said that was part of the procedure.) Ergo, the big credit data businesses must have "some" info on me, however minuscule.