I Aten't Dead*
 

*only makes sense to Discworld fans, and if you aten't one you should be. :O:

Holy prolonged absence, Batman! Long time no Subsim!

So... uh... sorry I haven't been around. Does anybody still remember me? It feels like forever since I've checked in. I swear I've thought about you guys every day, it's just been the spring/summer/fall from hell at work and now it's finally started to calm down over the past couple of weeks altho given our recent track record we're due for another major upsetting of the office apple cart any minute now. :dead:

I've gotten back to working my "normal hours" and I'm keeping my fingers crossed but it does seem like ten hour days are once again the anomaly instead of the usual thing, which they were for a while, and while I enjoyed the $$ from all the overtime, I had no time or energy to do anything fun with it. Just mentally and physically worn out all the damn time. Now over the past few weeks I've gotten into somewhat of a comfortable routine again at work after all the changes, gotten a few long overdue things done in the condo, finally hung up the pot rack I'd been wanting in the kitchen for instance, it's been over a week and IT HASN'T FALLEN DOWN YET :woot::know: :smug: and I've got a few other projects in line like replacing the back patio light that fell off the place during a big windstorm back...uh...in the summer some time, I can't remember. :oops: In my own defense I did try to replace it once before but the light fixture I bought wouldn't work with the mounting plate that is used with this siding I've got, go figure, so I had to exchange it for something that I hope will work and I guess I better get on that in case I need to return the second one and start over. Again.

Ran into another major snag on the current project, and maybe I'll post about that in a separate dedicated thread and solicit help on that one since it's got me stumped and I got to either find a solution or pursue a different option ASAP. :hmmm:

Anyway - I hope ya'll are doing well, I've tried to look in and around and catch up on what's been posted but that may be a lost cause at this point. :88) I'm hoping I can get back into at least checking in more regularly if things stay relatively calmed down at work. :yeah:

Well, I've certainly missed your singular wit, and wondered if we'd ever see you again. It's good to hear your...see your...read your stuff. :D

Thanks!

I'm still trying to get back into what I used to think of as my normal routine, or at least reincorporate those parts of it that I enjoyed and actually miss and that are still available.

I swear I think at one point over the summer I went almost a month without checking even my email, except to log in from work to see what bills I owed and get them paid. Most of the rest of my time online was spent at Amazon ordering stuff I didn't want to haul my butt to a store to get. When you start ordering your groceries from Amazon, you know it's bad. :O:

After being really excited for the new season I watched the first episode of the new Dr. Who when it premiered and haven't seen an episode since. I've avoided catching reruns of them because I want to see them in order, I guess I'll have to see if I can get them Free On Demand or on Amazon Prime at some point.

I still don't have cable in my bedroom which means I see no morning news when I'm getting ready for work which means most days I see no news at all, so if somebody doesn't talk about it at work or on the radio the few minutes a day I have it on, I got very little clue about what's going on in the world. And Subsim General Topics was my OTHER major source for keeping up on current events, so I've been waaaaaay out of the loop all around. :haha:

Welcome back :woot:

Welcome back! :salute:

I will third that :salute::salute::salute:

We've been so lonely without you.:wah:
Welcome back to, uh, normal?:yep:

Without your misadventures in home repair I actually found time to get a lot of projects done around this homestead over the summer and fall.:up:

Welcome back Granny! :03: :up:

Welcome back young lady :sunny:

Make up your minds.:doh:

And welcome back.:D

Hi, glad to see all is well with you, I was just about to list you. :shucks:

I remember you.
Did I win anything?

Yes, the certainty that you don't have Alzheimer's.:O:

Turn the circuit breaker back on. :03::O:

It's all relative, depending on your point of view. To a youngster like Oberon she may seem like a granny, or at least mom. Me? I usually call her "kid".

Neal, you need to update that list. CCIP has posted at least once in the last few days. :sunny:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...postcount=2004

He is on the list? Ok, thanks, glad he is back.

I DID!!!! But the powerstrip still only gives love to the tester thingy, and none to my Dustbuster or Swiffer Sweeper. I'm assuming we're talking about my powerstrip woes.

Thanks for the warm welcome back, everybody. It's good to be here again.

Hey Fk!

*wave*

Oh dear lord lemme tell you about the pot rack. You'd think it would be easy, right? There's already two holes from a previous owner, right under one of the joists over the kitchen peninsula. So I buy a pot rack, only I get it and it needs to hang from four hooks, not two. Fine, I get out the studfinder thing and get a *bing* for the center of another joist about 16" over from where the two existing holes are, right about where it should be. Awesome!

So I measure and mark where the second two holes should go. I buy four big ol' screw-in hooks. Go to put them in the existing two holes only... wouldn't you know, the person who hung something from them, instead of using something that would screw all the way up into the joist that's RIGHT THERE, used a shorter something into just the ceiling, er, stuff - is that still called drywall when it's on the ceiling? Anyway they didn't use the joist, they made a hole and stuffed some kind of drywall anchor in there for whatever it was, which I can't get out without tearing a much bigger hole in the ceiling.

No problem, I've got room, I just moved everything down by a couple inches, remeasured, remarked all the spots. Get the first two hooks into the joist all nice and solid, great. Go to put in the other two and guess what? THERE AIN'T NO JOIST THERE. Despite the fact that my studfinder, which otherwise works flawlessly everywhere else, tells me I'm right under one. So I had to go back to Lowe's and try to look for something else to hang the rack from, preferably with two things in the joist and then the other two using anchors of some kind. Explaining the situation to the salesman there was fun!

Lowe's guy: Some of those cheap studfinders give false positives, you should always stick with higher quality products.

Me: I bought it here.

Lowe's guy: Er... maybe it needs a new battery?

Me: No, it works fine everywhere else I test it.

Lowe's guy: Maybe there's a knothole in the joist right at that spot.

Me: It would be a pretty big coincidence if there was another knothole exactly 28" down from this one and 16" across from the first joist. :shifty:

And on and on like that. In the end it was impossible to find four matching hooks that could be using with AND without anchors, in the existing spots. So I ended up having to get four jumbo metal hooks for hanging plants and stuff, and use all anchors, and use four entirely different holes and just patch the existing ones. What I expected to be a quick trip to the store to buy four hooks and a couple hours on a weekend afternoon hanging the thing turned into hours and hours of frustration and wasted effort, several trips to two different stores, and several messes that had to be cleaned up in my kitchen without anything worthwhile having been accomplished. :stare:

But it's up now and shows no signs of coming down, and I love it, so I guess it was worth it. :D

Edit: I forgot to mention the part where I poked holes in the ceiling every two inches in either direction from the hole-without-a-joist, at the suggestion of the Lowe's guy, trying to locate the joist that the studfinder said the first hole was right in the middle of. Yeah, there ain't no joist there, at least not one low enough to screw anything into, and wherever the next one is it's not anywhere close enough to the peninsula to use for the pot rack. Harumph.

Welcome back Mistress Weatherwax, that'l teach yoo to go 'borrowing' bees, very tricking thing 'borrowing' BeeeEeZZzzzzzz. :D

Cheers

Gary