Useless Conversation

[Furiously]

Communities have gates?  That must be where the rich people live. 

Depends, I live in a condo complex and the garage has gates. Mostly to keep people from parking there that don't live there. Houses with gates are rich though.

I think my neighbors have one to keep their grow operation private..

[Xanthippe]

Completely unrelated to HVAC concerns:  Am I the only person who likes liverwurst?  This is a damn tasty sandwich  

Try some braunschweiger if you like liverwurst.  My German mother force-fed us that crap as kids.

I'm not sure I've had liverwurst. I like braunschweiger but lately, it does bad things to me, so I don't eat it much at all.

What's the difference between them?

Also - sorry to hear about MisterNoisy's dad, but glad meds are better for him now.
Cyrrex ouch. Hope you're feeling better soon.

WTF is *kin? Do I want to know?

(And Schild - you're going to be old one day. So old that you will think 60 is not old. So there!)

[Polysorbate80]

What's the difference between them?

Not much.  Braunschweiger is maybe more likely to be smoked or have bacon or other stuff in it, but there's so much variety in recipes that the two can be functionally identical.

[Yegolev]

Installing a geothermal heating/cooling system when the house was built was some of the best money I've ever spent; the thermostat sits at 72 all summer for an entirely negligible energy cost.

I looked at one of those.  The guy at the home show would not even give me a ballpark number, but surely five figures for installation.

The air guy can't come until Friday.  I'm considering shutting down my PC.  I'm definitely moving my work laptop downstairs tonight, the fan on it is really working hard.

When he comes out, though, I'm going to let him check over both HVAC units as well as tell me what new thermostat to install which has a remote control.

It's probably something dumb like a capacitor, but since I fried something last time I worked on it, I'll let a pro do it this time.

[Pennilenko]

(And Schild - you're going to be old one day. So old that you will think 60 is not old. So there!)

For some reason, my gut tells me that Schild is an exception. I can totally picture him being in his mid 60s and saying something along the lines of,"They should have killed me off a while ago."

[rattran]

My boss put in geothermal, it ran about $6k for a closed loop system, his mother went for the cheaper open loop system. Both seem to work fine summer and winter in Southwest Michigan.

[Polysorbate80]

Installation cost is the real killer.  If you're not planning on sticking in a house more than 5-10 years, don't even think about installing it; you'll never recover the cost.

Spread over the 30+ year life expectancy of the equipment, it's a totally different story.

[Salamok]

Installation is going to vary tremendously based on the terrain, here in Austin it would cost qute a bit more due to everything being rock once you go down deeper than a foot.

[MisterNoisy]

Am I the only person who likes liverwurst?  This is a damn tasty sandwich  

Had liverwurst, onions and whole grain mustard on crusty baguette for lunch today.  Love that stuff.

[Cyrrex]

Liver-anything is awesome.

Back pain update:  I have been steadily improving, and that does a lot for my mood.  Down to 50mg of morphin suflate a day (that's equivalent of about 40mg of straight morphin), which is about half of what I was at before.  I now have almost zero pain when lying down, except when I wake up in the morning, which I chalk up to just being in that position all night.  At least now I can sleep on my side, which I could not do the first two weeks.  Let me tell you, being stuck in one position in bed SUCKS (that's what she said?). 

Have also been able to walk around for longer periods of time.  Actually went for a walk outside yesterday...circumnavigated the house a couple times, then walked down the bike path a hundred meters or so before I had to turn around.  Starting also to be able to sit up for a couple minutes at a time.  This is the one big problem I still have to overcome.  I can't really go back to work if I can't sit down (and, well, I'm also on drugs so there's also that).  So my goal now is to continue to cut down on the drugs and increase the sitting.

I do as much exercising as I can.  I have certain spine-stretching things I have to do as much as I can stand, but I am also doing a lot of pushups and pullups...I have one of those Iron Gym things up on the door frame.  Doing body squats too. 

Best of all, potentially, is that I just got a few hormone injections around my L4 and L5 at the doctor's office.  I am totally crossing my fingers that this is going to help me a lot.  When I got a full on cortisone epidural in the US several years ago, that helped big time, so maybe this one will as well.

Mister Noisy - do you know what they are giving your Dad?  I have found through this process that getting the right level and the right kind of drugs is frustratingly hard.  I get why they want to be careful with perscribing opoids to people, but still...it took way too long for me to get the right dosage.  And then I would by chance get another doctor on the phone, and he is all "oh, have you heard about this little nerve medicine..." that of course I have never heard of.

Unfortunately for me, morphine doesn't really seem to phase me much.  I mean, it helps with the pain, but I am not really getting high at all.

[Yegolev]

Installation is going to vary tremendously based on the terrain, here in Austin it would cost qute a bit more due to everything being rock once you go down deeper than a foot.

There is a solid layer of granite under my house, not sure how deep it is.  We almost failed the percolation test when having the site surveyed.

[Chimpy]

Let the Morphine get totally out of your system (takes about 36-48 hours after the last dose) then take another dose. You will lukely notice the effects. I thought it really wasn't doing anything when I was in the hospital except making me sleepy and dulling the pain. When I decided I needed to take a dose after three days with the NG tube in just for the sleep inducing side effects I started to notice some of the "high" effects. I think it is harder to notice those effects when the morphine is being administered for relieving intense pain.

Since we are on "hey I'm not dying updates," I started back to work on Monday and this morning took my last dose of antibiotics. I still am tired most of the time and my abdominal muscles ( and indides) feel like they are slightly out of place but at least the pain is gone and my digestive tract is working as well as can be expected after three weeks of constant antibiotic use.

[MrHat]

Since we are on "hey I'm not dying updates," I started back to work on Monday and this morning took my last dose of antibiotics. I still am tired most of the time and my abdominal muscles ( and indides) feel like they are slightly out of place but at least the pain is gone and my digestive tract is working as well as can be expected after three weeks of constant antibiotic use.

That's good.  Three weeks of antibiotics use sounds brutal.

On the gate: After having to actually tinker with it, I realized that anyone could just grab it and open it with very little effort.  I think its more of a "look, the community next to us has no gate, why rob us?".  Coupled with our giant glass window front doors, if someone wants something, they can come get it.

There is a house up the road with a gate 8' wall and several cameras.  I suspect the drugs.

[Sky]

Coupled with our giant glass window front doors, if someone wants something, they can come get it.

FIFY

There is pretty much no residential security that can stop a professional thief.

[Merusk]

Installation is going to vary tremendously based on the terrain, here in Austin it would cost qute a bit more due to everything being rock once you go down deeper than a foot.

What makes Texas soil even better is what little of it there is happens to be absolute shit.  We had to do post-tension slabs on all the houses when I was building in Texas because there was no support at all.  Just slab on grade homes floating about on a sea of crappy dirt.

[Lantyssa]

You make our clay-dirt-gumbo cry.

[MisterNoisy]

Mister Noisy - do you know what they are giving your Dad?  I have found through this process that getting the right level and the right kind of drugs is frustratingly hard.  I get why they want to be careful with perscribing opoids to people, but still...it took way too long for me to get the right dosage.  And then I would by chance get another doctor on the phone, and he is all "oh, have you heard about this little nerve medicine..." that of course I have never heard of.

Unfortunately for me, morphine doesn't really seem to phase me much.  I mean, it helps with the pain, but I am not really getting high at all.

Glad to hear you're doing better - the drug he's on is hydromorphone/Dilaudid - not sure what the strength is, but 2 of them does the trick.

Since we are on "hey I'm not dying updates," I started back to work on Monday and this morning took my last dose of antibiotics. I still am tired most of the time and my abdominal muscles ( and indides) feel like they are slightly out of place but at least the pain is gone and my digestive tract is working as well as can be expected after three weeks of constant antibiotic use.

Glad you're doing better as well.  :)  If my brother's experience is any indication, that feeling of things being out of place is normal, and you'll be A-OK in a few weeks after you're out.

[Lantyssa]

Glad to hear you're doing better - the drug he's on is hydromorphone/Dilaudid - not sure what the strength is, but 2 of them does the trick.

That's the stuff they were giving dad to kill the pain from his pancreatic cancer.  It's some really heavy stuff.

[Selby]

If my brother's experience is any indication, that feeling of things being out of place is normal, and you'll be A-OK in a few weeks after you're out.

My dad said it took almost 5 weeks to truly feel normal again once he got out of the hospital and was off the drugs.  The appendix rupturing is serious business.

[Rasix]

I guess I might be a little behind the times in pop culture when Weird Al is spoofing songs I've never heard of by artists that I've never listened to.   

[WayAbvPar]

I guess I might be a little behind the times in pop culture when Weird Al is spoofing songs I've never heard of by artists that I've never listened to.   

I passed that threshold about 15 years ago. When I backfilled my Weird Al catalog a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the new album, I HAD to figure out what the fuck Trapped In The Drive Thru was parodying, because it was so fucking obnoxious. I am not sure if that was a mistake or not. I now like Weird Al's song for being a great parody, but I am pretty sure listening to even the 5 minutes of Trapped In The Closet that I managed to get through before I turned it off cost me years off my life and probably a chunk of my soul.

Holy SHIT what a fucking abortion of a 'song'. I wish nothing but pain, agony, heartbreak, and crotch rot on R Kelly for inflicting that steaming piece of fucking baboon shit on an unsuspecting populace. It is just so unbelievably awful  I can't even properly express it.

[schild]

Trapped in the Drivethru AND Trapped in the Closet are amazing. Neither should have been made and yet they were. They're testaments to man's ability to fixate on the worthless.

[Ingmar]

I still prefer his style parodies to the ones that actually ape a specific song. He has a real knack for writing songs that sound exactly like they could have been written by another band - like the Pixies one on this album.

[WayAbvPar]

I still prefer his style parodies to the ones that actually ape a specific song. He has a real knack for writing songs that sound exactly like they could have been written by another band - like the Pixies one on this album.

Agreed. While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

[Nebu]

Agreed. While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

I'm a big fan of the polka medleys.

[WayAbvPar]

Agreed. While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

I'm a big fan of the polka medleys.

Same. People went apeshit when he went an album or two without one, so we aren't the only ones.

[Sjofn]

On the whole I prefer his pastiches but once in a while a parody is just such a huge improvement over the original lyrics (lookin' at you, #Word Crimes) it reminds me to be pleased he does a lot of those too.

[Merusk]

Agreed. While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

I'm a big fan of the polka medleys.

Enjoy this one then, it's going to be the last one for a good long while. His Reddit AMA two days ago indicated it's a hell of a lot of work, and it doens't sound like something he'll have the time or ability to pursue now that he doesn't have a contract. 

So on one hand we'll probably get a lot more Al songs since he can release when he wants, wherever he wants, but on the other the polkas are probably dead.

[Sky]

I'm so much more up to date on modern music since I started listening to Postmodern Jukebox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmCJEehYtU

[Ingmar]

Agreed. While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

I'm a big fan of the polka medleys.

Enjoy this one then, it's going to be the last one for a good long while. His Reddit AMA two days ago indicated it's a hell of a lot of work, and it doens't sound like something he'll have the time or ability to pursue now that he doesn't have a contract. 

So on one hand we'll probably get a lot more Al songs since he can release when he wants, wherever he wants, but on the other the polkas are probably dead.

Sounds like he will keep adding stuff in and out of them for the live shows though.

[Merusk]

Yeah, which is going to be nice because his concerts remain fantastic.  I wish he'd come through here again.

[Sjofn]

If I could change one thing about his concerts, I'd reassure him that he can cut back on the costume changes and no one will really mind.

[Yegolev]

While some of his parodies are brilliant, his 'in the style of' songs are what make him a genius.

Like this?

http://clyp.it/jvodjoyi#

[WayAbvPar]

That is actually one of the polkas. And as I understand it, those are the actual lyrics to an actual song (and he is mocking it, obv).

[Nebu]

I think the thing I'm appreciating about Weird Al these days is how his deconstruction of the music industry exposes it for what it really is.