Do it yourself

Quote: Face

Still employed, just injured. Off until Jul/Aug, gonna make the most of it.

You make it look easy.

Quote: petroglyph

You make it look easy.

That's cuz you just get cleaned up pics and 15 minutes of story.

I'm dying right now, just trying to get twisted enough to go to bed lol. The physical part is about as bad as it gets. While the Mantis is a gamechanger and I don't have OG's hatred of wheelbarrows, the constant stooping of digging holes wrecks me. Even more so that my left arm can't lift now, so it just holds as a pivot point to my right arm crane, leaving my back as the engine. I'm. F#$%ing. Dying right now lol

But all the rest, yeah. It IS easy. It all comes down to very short term manual labor for one of your all-time top 3 possessions. I love this pond and it's gonna kick ass. All I gotta do is scoop some s#$% for half a week. Easy =)

Totally switching gears, but this is the proper thread for this, esp now that I have petro's attention...

My electric bill just dropped a sizeable amount and I don't know why. The only change to anything during this drop was a home remodel; the weather was constant, habits the same, appliances untouched (heat and cook and dry laundry w/gas). The only things we could think of that changed (no matter how improbable) was we replaced ~6 electrical outlets inside the home (all high use areas) and killed the 110v that went outside to a single exterior plug (nothing plugged in).

I'm talking from $120 to $75. Surely those changes couldn't count for a full third of my entire bill? And I can't see gas prices changing to that extent...

Just thought I'd ask. It's bugging us.

ETA: Beginning of home remodel was the end of my period of sloth. Surely my PC couldn't be burning $40 a month?

Quote: Face

Totally switching gears, but this is the proper thread for this, esp now that I have petro's attention...

My electric bill just dropped a sizeable amount and I don't know why. The only change to anything during this drop was a home remodel; the weather was constant, habits the same, appliances untouched (heat and cook and dry laundry w/gas). The only things we could think of that changed (no matter how improbable) was we replaced ~6 electrical outlets inside the home (all high use areas) and killed the 110v that went outside to a single exterior plug (nothing plugged in).

I'm talking from $120 to $75. Surely those changes couldn't count for a full third of my entire bill? And I can't see gas prices changing to that extent...

Just thought I'd ask. It's bugging us.

ETA: Beginning of home remodel was the end of my period of sloth. Surely my PC couldn't be burning $40 a month?

How many KWH did you burn this year vs last, it's often on the electric bill.

Might have been some lineman god smiled upon you?

I know a guy that had a bad duplex receptacle in his wall and he says when he touched it it was hot, says his power bill changed 400 in one month?

I feel for heat on my light switches occasionally, they do not last forever. You know how cheap the stab in connections on the back of switches are these day vs the old style of wrapping the end of your #14-12 around a screw. Bad connections dimmer switches get warm, sometimes they get really hot?

Kenarman probably knows more than I do about low wattage stuff. But I think even your pc has nomenclature on it telling you how many watts it uses. Figure out how many hours of use makes a kw, multiply that by how many hours x your elec. rate. Porn ain't cheap man. lol

Quote: Face

Thanks, Flea.

Still employed, just injured. Off until Jul/Aug, gonna make the most of it.

If you are on any kind of disability you had better be careful about building ponds and other work around the yard. They can and do put PIs out there watching you. I have both worked with one and when my dad was off with a broken arm we found out they had a car on the house.

For general knowledge, this is what a PI spends a lot of their time on. Not driving a BMW or Ferrari around town trying to solve something the cops cannot or will not. They sit and watch. Guy I worked with told me how he spent 8 hours watching a storage unit waiting for the actor to get his bike out and go riding.

Quote: Face

Totally switching gears, but this is the proper thread for this, esp now that I have petro's attention...

My electric bill just dropped a sizeable amount and I don't know why. The only change to anything during this drop was a home remodel; the weather was constant, habits the same, appliances untouched (heat and cook and dry laundry w/gas). The only things we could think of that changed (no matter how improbable) was we replaced ~6 electrical outlets inside the home (all high use areas) and killed the 110v that went outside to a single exterior plug (nothing plugged in).

I'm talking from $120 to $75. Surely those changes couldn't count for a full third of my entire bill? And I can't see gas prices changing to that extent...

Just thought I'd ask. It's bugging us.

ETA: Beginning of home remodel was the end of my period of sloth. Surely my PC couldn't be burning $40 a month?

The most common thing I find when people have an unexpected drop in their bill is that the reading is wrong on the bill. This can happen a least a couple of ways. Some times they don't actually read the meter and they estimate it or the meter reader simply makes a mistake. Neither of these are applicable if you are in one of the many areas that have installed 'smart meters' which don't need to be read but send the reading via the cell network direct to the office. If you had a wrong reading your next bill will pick it up when the meter is read correctly and you will get a larger than normal bill.

Of course you might have actually used less some how. Heat tapes, your pond, everything off while on holidays? Most unlikely but it does happen would be a meter that has gone bad or bad meter that has just been changed out to for a good one. Does your meter look new?

Quote: AZDuffman

For general knowledge, this is what a PI spends a lot of their time on.

This has always been true. PI's are
dirt diggers, they follow husbands
suspected of cheating, and work
insurance fraud. Pulp fiction in the
30's and 40's glamorized the job
and movies were made from the
books. A PI's life is about as
exciting as any job, it's just a boring
daily grind.

Just pick one ep of Rockford Files,
or Magnum PI, and whatever
happens in that ep will never happen
to a real PI in his entire career.
Just like most cops never fire their
service weapon once in their career,
yet on TV they fire it in every
episode.

Yes it was called Transom Peeper. Back then divorces often required evidence.

Number 1 priority would be all the ones on permanent work disability.
Number 2 would be working people who are chronic abusers

Once they run out of investigating those people you might be on the list for an actual investigation. Of course, there's always your boss just looking for a reason to fire you possibility.

Like, the second job (or third) I ever had, boss sent me to find another employee. I found her out at the apartment swimming pool. Might of been okay, but she was playing water volleyball when she was suppose to be dying with the flu.

You can do things with one arm and two legs though and use the other arm lightly for balance. Not sure about shoveling dirt! That's pretty tough. But you still might be able to argue your way. Probably throwing fast ball baseball pitches with a dislocated shoulder would get you in trouble for sure.

The other thing to consider, even though the Postal Service boss could say one is able to work, if a worker hurts themselves more AT WORK, when they had a recommended recovery by the Doc, then guess who is on the hook? So, they wouldn't want to bring someone back because of liability, even if someone looks okay to them.