24/7 Chat About Anything

[travelaround]

PS. In the video I posted above... the story about how Happy Camp was named is false. John Camp didn't name Happy Camp after himself. It was more of a group decision - probably before John Camp arrived in town. There are several stories of how the place was named floating around.

 

[travelaround]

Happy to say - only 45 degrees here and no snow. We're expecting rain again tomorrow and most of the rest of the week. Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains of Northern California. Snow upstream on Grayback Mountain seemed to melt in our last rainstorm as the water in Indian Creek was exceptionally high and swift-moving when I last saw it two days ago.

 

[camperdan]

^^^sorry you are having to stay there and be in that kind of weather. But it will make you more determined than ever to become a snowbird that heads south for the winter.

Maki, What a great reply to Carla. I hope she gets the help she needs to sort out furnac, propane, et al. I would love to make the acquaintance of some of you in warm southern AZ. 72 today, But I still need a cat to snuggle with and a heavy
quilt at night.

 

[maki2]

Cloudy morning, cool but not freezing. There will be enough solar gain to do some work that requires electricity and still have my battery full enough for the night time use.

I had to come clean, so I am sitting in the parking lot at the laundromat while my clothes spin around. Going nowhere while getting somewhere.

I had to put set my phone back to having do not disturb me before 8am. Too many early bird acquaintances who think everyone should love getting up in the dark and have coffee while watching the sun rise as well as feeling sociable. Being an early bird in winter equals joint and muscle pain from the coldest hours of the day. By sleeping in I can skip that pain and avoid being in pain all day from muscles getting too tight in reaction to the cold. .

 

[Happy Camper]

Cloudy morning, cool but not freezing. There will be enough solar gain to do some work that requires electricity and still have my battery full enough for the night time use.

I had to come clean, so I am sitting in the parking lot at the laundromat while my clothes spin around. Going nowhere while getting somewhere.

I had to put set my phone back to having do not disturb me before 8am. Too many early bird acquaintances who think everyone should love getting up in the dark and have coffee while watching the sun rise as well as feeling sociable. Being an early bird in winter equals joint and muscle pain from the coldest hours of the day. By sleeping in I can skip that pain and avoid being in pain all day from muscles getting too tight in reaction to the cold. .

Amen to that.

 

[NctryBen]

Cloudy morning, cool but not freezing. There will be enough solar gain to do some work that requires electricity and still have my battery full enough for the night time use.

I had to come clean, so I am sitting in the parking lot at the laundromat while my clothes spin around. Going nowhere while getting somewhere.

I had to put set my phone back to having do not disturb me before 8am. Too many early bird acquaintances who think everyone should love getting up in the dark and have coffee while watching the sun rise as well as feeling sociable. Being an early bird in winter equals joint and muscle pain from the coldest hours of the day. By sleeping in I can skip that pain and avoid being in pain all day from muscles getting too tight in reaction to the cold. .

Wish I could skip it... I’m up at 2:30 usually because of it. I’ve learned for me it works to get up and read until I can go back to sleep. Three or so is when I can take another pain reliever. 4 it’s usually starting to work.

 

[bullfrog !]

^^^maybe it’s time to consider building a mobile sauna! Tucson used to have several health clubs that offer free month memberships! I used to get up early and hit the sauna which really helped.

 

[maki2]

Wish I could skip it... I’m up at 2:30 usually because of it. I’ve learned for me it works to get up and read until I can go back to sleep. Three or so is when I can take another pain reliever. 4 it’s usually starting to work.

You can’t skip all the different causes of pain. I take 8 hour time release Tylenol at bedtime if I know I am likely to be in pain that night. I will be doing that tonight so I get a decent sleep. But as always you have to follow your doctors and pharmacists advice about what OTC meds can be taken at what strengths and with what prescription meds.

What I do is not a judgement or even any advice on what anyone else should do. Your body pain is literally on a whole different playing field than mine.

 

[vanbrat]

There was a discussion not long ago with a group of friends I know about what do you do when head aches and such come around it was really interesting to hear what worked for some folks. Some liked hot showers and some liked 20 mins with towels either hot or cold over their eyes. One lady liked ice cream, one liked extra-large coffee with something yummy to eat (Sweets). One lady loved a small glass of white wine almost all of us said something about a drink of something. The discussion was because one in the group was not getting much out of over-the-counter stuff. Since the group was mostly busy working moms who had a hard time with 'time', and often didn't have time to think or remember to drink when thirsty. Anyway, we all agreed, take time to drink water or? and do what works for you.

Me, I like 2 aspirins or Tylenol, cover my eyes with a hot washcloth, lay down with my feet up a bit and not have anything bug me for at least an hour and drink a nice cold strong glass of iced tea.

 

[NctryBen]

Well, here anyways, we can go outside open our mouths to the sky and hope we don’t drown. For the headache... just stay out of direct sunlight... (easily done today) and today I’ll first try the ice cream and then the hot wash cloth on my noggin. Not liking being inside all day just about. Hopefully tomorrow a little reprieve before Tuesday’s rains!!

 

[Morgana]

I'm not big on meditation but I have found that sometimes, for intense pain, listening to a Tibetan bells recording helps. It won't fix anything by itself, at least not for me -- but in combination with pain pills and hot washcloth and deep breathing, it will sometimes do the trick. I don't think the bells are just soothing, there's something about the sequence of sounds that seems to distract your brain. I can't find a link to my particular recording, but there seem to be lots of them online.
I vaguely remember being told that when you're anticipating pain, the way your muscles tense up actually makes the pain worse, so anything you can do to relax (haha easier said than done) will help.
Ben, I'm sorry to hear that you are still having so much pain! I guess I had assumed that you were seeing some progress by now. Dumb question maybe, but have you tried marijuana? is that a legal option where you are?
A sauna seems like a great idea.

 

[Happy Camper]

Headaches can be caused by different things. Some get sinus pressure headaches which respond well to moist heat. Others have tension headaches that respond well to Tylenol or similar medications.

A recent study showed the majority of headaches and migraines originate in the neck. Go figure.

Excedrin extra strength worked sometimes for my ex who would get massive migraines.

Be aware of where you head aches when you get a headache. It'll help you narrow down the cause.

 

[maki2]

I took a small bag of my garbage to the dumpster at the La Posa South LTVA at Quartzsite,Az this morning. There are often boxes and bags of giveaways next to the dumpsters. Just people downsizing stuff, In fact I was leaving a useable item there myself today. I looked in the box next to where I put down my donation. There were quite a few items in the box and among them was a laptop, but no charger for it. The laptop had a lot of stuck on bits of surface dirt on it, most likely years accumulation, especially on the keyboard surface. But it was not in overall horrible looking condition, just really dirty. So I decided to take it and see if it would run. It did not power up right away on battery power but among my power supplies for my laptops I had one that fit the power port. The power port was a little bit flaky but I got it charged up enough to power on. And it looks good but of course I do not know the password. Fortunately It can also be charged via the USB C 3.1 port.

Now that was truly a huge good fortune to be there at just the right time to find it as it is an HP Envy 360 with a Core i7 processor!; a very pricey laptop when it was new. Even if the power port for the charger is flakey I am thrilled to have it!

One of my friends I met from this forum is currently camping nearby and is going to see if he brought along a copy of Windows 10 among his stash of jump drives. I am hoping that I can set it up for dual boot with a copy of Windows 7 on it as well. I will have to ask my friend about that possibility. I think I have a windows 7 CD with me as that is the OS on my old backup laptop.

 

[user 22017]

I looked in the box next to where I put down my donation. There were quite a few items in the box and among them was a laptop, but no charger for it.

Nice find!

 

[maki2]

Yes but I just figured out the USB C port on it cannot be used to charge the laptop. No big deal, a new power port with cable is not expensive, under $15.

I have replaced power ports on laptops before. I have another laptop that has a broken hinge. I should get around to fixing it as well. It has some legacy software on it that I need to use for some projects.

Unfortunately I do not know how to fix a lot of issues with laptops, but I can do some simple things including having replaced a screen, a keyboard, hard drives, cleaning them and such. But I do not do such things often enough to have gained anywhere close to having professional level skills at it. It still makes me a bit nervous that I will mess something up beyond repair. A pretty typical feeling.

 

[user 22017]

Unfortunately I do not know how to fix a lot of issues with laptops, but I can do some simple things including having replaced a screen, a keyboard, hard drives, cleaning them and such. But I do not do such things often enough to have gained anywhere close to having professional level skills at it. It still makes me a bit nervous that I will mess something up beyond repair. A pretty typical feeling.

You're doing much better than me. I have two old laptops that were only used for maybe 5-6 months each. I tried fixing both to no avail. It's been so long I can't remember what I tried to do to fix them. I know I ordered a cheap power supply off ebay and that didn't fix one. And a new keyboard. They quit working when I spilled coffee on one and candle wax on the other

Anyway, I have those two; plus two or three PC's I'm saving to try to get old photos and videos of my kids off of. One got a virus and I can't remember what killed the other. Both have good hard drives. One PC was formatted, though

I need to find the best (yet cheapest) recovery place to try to save the pics and videos. Before I kick the bucket Otherwise they will end up at an electronics recycling place and all images will be lost.

I spent the entire day trying to remove a "browser hijacker" from my new laptop. I don't know exactly what it was, but Bing took over my browser and search engine. What a pain. Finally solved it a few minutes ago by "refreshing" Firefox. I even reset the laptop today ... so had to reinstall a ton of stuff.

Hope you have better luck getting yours running.

 

[Happy Camper]

Maki, if you need assistance with that let me know. You have the skills to solder on a new power connector. Laptop repair is something I have extensive experience with.

Laptop hinges can be simple or a true pita. Sometimes the plastic breaks and there isn't a lot you can do to reinforce it. If that's the case it's might be best to disengage the hinges altogether and make it a two part laptop. Just take care to not damage the display wires.

You might consider getting a USB hub so you can attach a keyboard and mouse, along with a monitor/TV. You can also connect your printers and other accessories. There are many very small yet efficient keyboards that don't take to much space. Go wireless with them if it's more convenient.

Then you can switch out computers as needed and have the exact same setup for them all. You can always opt to not plug in if you need more mobility.

Another option is getting an external drive enclosure. Take the drive out of the damaged laptop and set up your good one to boot from external drive. You'll probably have to change some drivers, but it should work.

Of course these are just a few options, and I'm not quite awake. I am not offended if you don't use any of these ideas lol.

 

[Happy Camper]

Carla, the only thing that matters are the hard drives. As mentioned above, you can get an external drive bay and transfer all of the pictures to your current computer.

For the formatted drive. There are some very decent free recovery programs out there. I would consider trying those first. Before you do, make certain whatever programs you use are read only when accessing that drive. Expect them to run for a very long time depending on how large the drive is.

And definitely update your antivirus software before attaching them to your system.

 

[maki2]

Thanks for the advice, however I guess I did not makemyself clear. I am NOT in need of repair advice. I have replaced power ports before but I do watch repair videos on YouTube before I do such things as each model of the computers is a bit different and knowing the tricky bits or moved for routing the new wire in is always a good idea.

I know how to solder wires. I had to do it professionally and get certified to do it when I worked in the wire shop at Boeing building wire bundles for the planes. I also was trained to put on crimps and other connectors. That background certainly is useful for doing Van Builds. I did all my own wiring in my travel trailer renovation.

2002 and 2003 I went to a university and took the course for an A+ certificate in computer repair. As I stated above I sm capable of replacing a power port. I do not need to solder it, it is just a matter of removing the old one and fitting in the new one. This is what the part looks like. One side fits into a retainer against the side of the computer where you put the powervcord in, the other end plugs into the wiring harness, so no soldering is required for this repair. As you can see in the photo the part is not expensive.

 

[Happy Camper]

Thanks for the advice, however I guess I did not makemyself clear. I am NOT in need of repair advice. I have replaced power ports before but I do watch repair videos on YouTube before I do such things as each model of the computers is a bit different and knowing the tricky bits or moved for routing the new wire in is always a good idea.

I know how to solder wires. I had to do it professionally and get certified to do it when I worked in the wire shop at Boeing building wire bundles for the planes. I also was trained to put on crimps and other connectors. That background certainly is useful for doing Van Builds. I did all my own wiring in my travel trailer renovation.

2002 and 2003 I went to a university and took the course for an A+ certificate in computer repair. As I stated above I sm capable of replacing a power port. I do not need to solder it, it is just a matter of removing the old one and fitting in the new one. This is what the part looks like. One side fits into a retainer against the side of the computer where you put the powervcord in, the other end plugs into the wiring harness, so no soldering is required for this repair. As you can see in the photo the part is not expensive.
View attachment 34989

Sooo, you got it. Ok.