Been relatively quiet here the last couple of months.

Provincial said:
I had a knee replaced just after Thanksgiving. That slowed me down for a while.

I let a friend put his mini-excavator in my shop to do some repairs. He has had health problems, so it is going on three months now. He's supposed to come over tomorrow to do some welding, and I hope he can get the whole thing done by the weekend.

I have an Onan 218 to assemble and put back in a garden tractor when the shop opens up. Once that is done I hope to test out my VFD installation on the 1340 Metal Max lathe that I installed over a year ago!
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I’m thinking after Thsnkgiving myself. How is your new knee?
 
It is recovering. We had a period of ice and snow that caused me to miss three Physical Therapy sessions about a month after the surgery. I think that set me back, and I got to a point at the end of the scheduled sessions that the Therapist told me I'd be wasting my time paying him, and to just keep working on it by myself. The problem is that I can get the knee straight, but not past center. That means in doesn't "lock" when I am standing. It is slowly getting better, and I think it will turn out OK. I can put my socks on by myself, and trimmed my own toenails the other day, so I can bend the knee pretty well.

I couldn't stand or walk for long at first. By the time the therapy ran out (8 weeks) I could stand for a couple of hours before I had to sit down. After three months, I went to an event where I was standing and walking all day. I sat down for lunch, and other than that, I took three short breaks sitting down. It is improving slowly, but steadily now. I use an exercise bicycle and a leg lifting machine regularly, plus when I am in my recliner, I prop up under my heel and put a 4 pound sandbag on my knee to push it past straight until it gets too uncomfortable. That was suggested by the therapist. The exercise bike loosens up the knee, and is the first thing I do when exercising.

My wife had a knee replaced three years earlier, and I am progressing about the same as she did. If I forget to take the Tylenol, it isn't very uncomfortable. I was able to kneel on that knee pretty soon after the surgery, perhaps three weeks. Others say kneeling never came back for them. Both of us have numb areas to the outboard side of the incision, probably from nerve damage. She says hers got a little better with age, but is still numb. It took her about two years before she felt her knee was fully healed, but after two months, she was getting around fine. Both of us quit the strong pain medicine during the day after about a month and a half, but kept taking it at night for another month in order to sleep. If the pain doesn't get much worse when you are scheduled for the next pill, it is time to cut back on the strong stuff.

I was bone on bone by the time they scheduled me for replacement. I limped badly, and had lots of pain. I could walk without a limp the first time I tried it after the surgery, and climbed the stairs to the bedroom (22 steps) from the time I got home. The function of the knee was probably near 100% right out of the gate, but the swelling and trauma from the operation take time to heal. Everyone I talk to that has had a knee or hip replaced is glad they did, and wishes it had been done sooner! Me too.

Edit to add: I am glad I timed it like I did. I got Thanksgiving, then recovered enough for Christmas. Healing up during the cold and wet time of the year and getting around well in time for the better weather. I've been working in the shop lately, and I'll be able to get in a full day's work outside by the time the weather cooperates.
 
Not much time left with taking care of my father in law. But he passed away last Saturday at 3:30am. These two weeks will be doing all the funeral arrangements. Orlando this Thursday and then they fly his remains to PR to be buried at the National Cemetery there. We head out to PR on Sunday.

My concern now is that my wife might go crazy with travel… first time just the two of us in over 20 years… She is already making plans and I am here looking at the boxes of kits I bought to play with the machines…

Not complaining… but we have a house in Orlando that I need to finish emptying so we can sell it…. And I need to finish my workshop…

Again, not complaining, we do need to get out and relax a little…
 
wachuko said:
Not much time left with taking care of my father in law. But he passed away last Saturday at 3:30am. These two weeks will be doing all the funeral arrangements. Orlando this Thursday and then they fly his remains to PR to be buried at the National Cemetery there. We head out to PR on Sunday.

My concern now is that my wife might go crazy with travel… first time just the two of us in over 20 years… She is already making plans and I am here looking at the boxes of kits I bought to play with the machines…

Not complaining… but we have a house in Orlando that I need to finish emptying so we can sell it…. And I need to finish my workshop…

Again, not complaining, we do need to get out and relax a little…
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My condolences Wachuko. Been there, and I get it. It sounds like you are taking it better than I did. I hope it all eventually smooths back out again and you can get some equilibrium in your life and back out in the shop where problems are solvable.
 
Jamie, Sorry to hear your father in law passed, sounds like it might have been for the best. It's still a bummer though.

For me, not much has changed. Life on the farm it seems there is always ten things to do. Been working on the Bronco project some, doing a little machining, learning FreeCad and the never ending cleaning and moving things around in the shop.
 
My condolences for your wife and you Jamie. I just attended a funeral for a local woman who fulfilled the admonition "leave the World a better place than when you came." I hope they can say that when I pass.
 
woodchucker said:
So your heart is pumping, but nothing else? I would say sports give me a jolt, even if I am getting on in years, and my muscles get the benefit of the blood. To me that seems like a false sense of blood pumping, you are getting stressed, but your body is not relieving any of it. Go do some heavy exercise. That will do you more good.

edit: gotta go, volleyball time. I used to work out every day 2 times a day. Racquetball for lunch instead of eating, and lifting weights in the evening. upper or lower body. Ski every weekend..
Then life changed, I played volleyball 4-5 times a week. Now only once a week... I've put on a lot of weight because I am not staying active like I used to... But playing a sport (solitary or team) always worked well to relieve the work week's stress. I never figured playing a video game would do that.... you need balance. My son used to only game, then he got into speed skating and , then climbing and hockey. He still games, everynight probably 11 - 1..
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I get it. But I've gone from wrestling in highschool and college, then to volleyball 4hrs a day 4 days a week to racquetball plus backpacking sometimes for 14 days at a time to stupid strenuous long hour jobs where I had no time for anything else. To now a home biz that looks like I'm retired to the outside world where I walk my dog typically 3hrs a day sometimes 7 days a week. Yeah, it's nothing like when I was young but I'm not that guy anymore and by the specs I know of folks my age they'd wish they could just walk that long.

When I say blood pumping I'm not talking about exercise I'm talking about like having a bf109 diving on you out of nowhere and you've got to do 12 things to take your plane from cruise trim to combat while trying to avoid virtual dying. There's a reason why so many military and F1 drivers etc use sims to help train for the real world. You can do all the exercise you want but if everytime you get surprised you flip out and scream like a little girl you are not training your nervous system to override the adrenaline rush and just react and do the right thing. Case in point, did you see where the young Ukrainian turret gunner took out a T90 tank with a Bradley by taking out it's optics and blinding the tank? Know where he learned that? Yup, tank sims. He was totally green to war and even the Bradley AFAIK but knew the only hope he had of not dying was blinding the T90. That's pretty impressive. And crazy.
 
C-Bag said:
I get it. But I've gone from wrestling in highschool and college, then to volleyball 4hrs a day 4 days a week to racquetball plus backpacking sometimes for 14 days at a time to stupid strenuous long hour jobs where I had no time for anything else. To now a home biz that looks like I'm retired to the outside world where I walk my dog typically 3hrs a day sometimes 7 days a week. Yeah, it's nothing like when I was young but I'm not that guy anymore and by the specs I know of folks my age they'd wish they could just walk that long.

When I say blood pumping I'm not talking about exercise I'm talking about like having a bf109 diving on you out of nowhere and you've got to do 12 things to take your plane from cruise trim to combat while trying to avoid virtual dying. There's a reason why so many military and F1 drivers etc use sims to help train for the real world. You can do all the exercise you want but if everytime you get surprised you flip out and scream like a little girl you are not training your nervous system to override the adrenaline rush and just react and do the right thing. Case in point, did you see where the young Ukrainian turret gunner took out a T90 tank with a Bradley by taking out it's optics and blinding the tank? Know where he learned that? Yup, tank sims. He was totally green to war and even the Bradley AFAIK but knew the only hope he had of not dying was blinding the T90. That's pretty impressive. And crazy.
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ok, you made a great point. seems we had a similar younger life... I just hated watching my son play games all the time when he was young. I was an outdoors kid. only at night did I spend time with my hobbies.. When he finally got some balance to his life, I relaxed a bit. Someone that only games is missing much of life IN MY OPINION.. we all know what opinions are like..
 
I'm glad a grew up before computers were a home thing. I'm kinda hooked on them now, I'm not a gamer though. I can see where some of the sim games would be fun.
 
woodchucker said:
ok, you made a great point. seems we had a similar younger life... I just hated watching my son play games all the time when he was young. I was an outdoors kid. only at night did I spend time with my hobbies.. When he finally got some balance to his life, I relaxed a bit. Someone that only games is missing much of life IN MY OPINION.. we all know what opinions are like..
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once again I totally get it. I spent all hours I could outside. It was the only way to get out of the craziness of my home growing up. Luckily we always lived close to open spaces where there was nature/creeks/etc. I too had a son who fell into the pit of video games. The life changer for him was one of my interim jobs was being a maintenance director at a YMCA camp for a summer. It was @ 5,000' just outside of the gate of Kings Canyon Park on Sequoia Lake. My idea of paradise and turned out the same for my 12yrld son. He spent the summer up there with me living amongst the teenagers in a tent working on my crew. Taught him a LOT about life and what the old man goes through to do "work". It got totally real when the teenagers quit and left he and I to maintain the camp for the last 3 weeks of camp.
 
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