HOH OFFICIAL - Good Morning/Day/Night thread...

[Hook]

Have a Great Weekend folks!
Have some REAL (UnReal?) FUN - PLAY those UT99 Servers!!!

REMINDER: HOH servers are UP too!

[Hermskii]

I have had a headache all weekend. Dang!

[Hook]

I have had a headache all weekend. Dang!

Hopefully it is gone by now!

[Hook]

Hey, things are going good.
Have a great day y'all.

[Hook]

Hey, things are going good.
Have a great day y'all.

I told you things are going good.

[Hermskii]

Sup folks! This has been the best year I have have had in a long time! How is it going for you?

[Hook]

This has been one of the worst years I have had, mostly because of my son, etc. - but there is hope ...

Happy New Year 2019 to you all!

[a nameless entity]

I just came off of a bad year myself.

In 1984 my parents replaced the back porch with a small deck and greenhouse type little "garden room" built onto it. It's a frame with various sized and shaped acrylic panels, most of them are 2 foot square. The panels are held in place vertically by little squared off S shaped clips stacked on top of the panel below, and the panels are secured to the sides of the frame by W shaped clips.
A windstorm in April blew off 4 of the 2 foot panels. They were a pain to get back in place, and I had to hunt around the patio for the S and W shaped clips because I have very few spares.
Then a windstorm in May blew off over 1/3 of the 2 foot panels and wrecked quite a few of them. I now only have 1 intact spare panel left over. I got the rest all back in place, but strained my back at some point because I woke up in agony the day after I completed the repairs. I eventually gave in and saw a doctor, who gave me muscle relaxers. Those along with some codeine Tylenol worked nicely. BUT I was unable to ride my motorcycle, and didn't feel it was safe to ride until July.
Then a windstorm on September the 21st hit Ontario and Quebec. It turned into tornadoes in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, flattening many houses in several townships.
I was very lucky comparatively speaking. All the windstorm did to me was knock down my beautiful 150 year old shag bark hickory tree that was in my front yard. I was outside when it fell down. I had gone out during a lull and picked up some sticks and deadwood blown down from the hickory and my 200 year old oak tree that is also in my front yard. I went around back and was breaking up the sticks for later disposal when the wind came up again, stronger than ever. Just as I was thinking I should rush back inside, I heard a huge cracking sound and looked up to see the hickory tree falling almost straight at me. The top of the tree landed 8 feet from where I was standing. It took mere seconds to fall down. The sounds it made as it came down were just like you hear on TV when a tree is cut down. You hear the cracking of the trunk, and the wind rushing through the leaves as it falls. But the sounds are in 3D and much louder.
As the tree fell I saw it brush my 50 foot antenna tower aside like it was a tooth pick. When I went around to the front of the house I saw the tree broken at the base, and that it had taken down my power line. Luckily the wire broke at the pole side, and didn't wreck my electrical stack. The tree missed my gas meter too. It also fell neatly between my house and my neighbour's place, filling up her driveway, but just missing her house. Unfortunately the antenna tower landed on her garage roof, but the damage was minimal. Worst of all though, the tree fall wrecked my chimney. The damage to the chimney brickwork went 2 or 3 layers below the roof line. But I also got lucky in this, as the chimney landed on the narrow strip of land on my side of the property line. I was also lucky that the power company was able to come within 2 hours and restore my electricity.
This excitement was not good for namey's old ticker though. My heart was still pounding way too fast 8 hours later at 11 pm. So I took a couple of Tylenol 1's, and the codeine got my heart rate back down to normal. Next time I'll know to do that straight away. (Hopefully there won't be a next time though!)

I called my insurance company and learned I was covered, but it took them 6 weeks to send someone to rebuild my chimney despite my pleas that this part of the repairs be deemed an emergency. Winter was coming on after all, and heating my home with space heaters was not very safe and quite nerve wracking. By the time the chimney mason got to my place, the weather was cold. So he had a miserable day doing the work, and had to rig up a tent over the chimney and put a space heater under the tent for 2 days so that the cement wouldn't freeze while it was drying. I stuck a space heater inside my fireplace on the second day, when the temperature got really low. Once the chimney was finally ready, I could have the liner for my hot water heater reinstalled in the furnace flue, and the liner for my gas fireplace insert reinstalled in the other flue. The delay's meant no hot water for exactly 70 days, and no auxiliary heat from the gas fireplace for about 80 days.
Once the roofers came and did their work -luckily for them, me, and my house's sake on a relatively warm day- the work was finished. I signed off on the repairs exactly 90 days after the wind storm knocked down my tree.

Although I must admit that it didn't feel that way during the weeks and weeks of waiting for the insurance company to get moving; -I know darn well that in comparison to the people in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, and those folks living in North and South Carolina that were facing and suffering from those hurricanes around the same time I have been very lucky. Now that it is all over, I can smile and shake my head over all my neighbours and the passers by who took a look at the situation and told me how lucky I was.

[Hermskii]

Like I said, 2018 was great for me. I made the most money I have ever made in a year. I have a job that I love and get to work from home too! Besides computer work being a mainframe administrator.

I also own my own oil company. I am a oil broker. You take your car to go get your oil changed somewhere and that somewhere place has to buy their oil from someone. That someone might be me! I started my company in 2008 right when the country started going to hell. Thanks George Bush Jr. I closed it down and restarted it back up in 2013 or 2014 and it has grown every year.

I must acknowledge a little bit of bad stuff too. I had my first colonoscopy this year. I came out of it OK but it cost me out of pocket about $1,500. Then my wife did the same for about the same costs. We went on a unscheduled/unapproved/unbudgeted vacation for the first time in 11 years. It costs over $4,000.00 and hurt the pocket book badly. I also just had surgery on my left foot to fix an old ligament injury that has been driving me nuts for about 2 years. There goes another $2000.00.

My eye-site is starting to get really bad from looking at monitors all day. The hearing has been bad since I was 40 and I'm 51 now. My 14 year old son is bigger than me. I should say taller. I'm 6 foot at 250 pounds. He is 6 foot at about 150 lbs. You folks know him as Hermskii Jr.

Another good thing was that I got my servers back online finally and upgraded this forum to make it big and secure finally.

Nameless, let's aim to have a better year this year OK!

That is all for now. Peace out all!

[a nameless entity]

Ouch Herm! Are you saying that the money you had to pay for all your medical stuff was your co-pay? (If so, what percentages were your responsibility?)
You were very wise to have the colonoscopy done despite the cost. You've started at the right age and only need a repeat once every 5 years.

I am glad for all your good news too! And that you got to have a vacation.

I agree, things should be better overall in 2019. Let's hope so anyhow.
One bit of good news is my weight. I've been trying to shed pounds very slowly over the past few years. After being stuck at 250 lb for years and years, I finally managed to get below 230 lb last month. I've back slid a bit due to Xmas, but I'm hoping to achieve my next to last goal of 225 by March. The ultimate goal is to be less than 200 lb some day. I have shrunk from the 6' 1" of my youth to 5' 11". I'm sure that despite my arthritis I have more energy now than I did at 250 lb. So getting the weight down is a good idea.

I ran out of time on Friday, as the library was closing. So I had to cut my previous post off where I did to upload it in time.

I want to acknowledge that Hook and his family have certainly had the worst of it in 2018.
My thoughts and best wishes are with you sir. May your 2019 be a big improvement over last year.

[Hermskii]

I have gone up to almost 250 lbs. I am a normal 200 but after starting to work at home and after not exercising anymore for the last few years from my foot issue. I have gained weight like mad. I carry it pretty good though but I'm fat and I know it. After y foot gets better I will take weight loss very seriously. My biggest goal I can think of right now is to get beneath 180. Yes, I have a very very long way to go but feel strongly I can do this. Getting this first 30 pounds off should be the easy part. The last 40 will be tough.

[Dr.Flay]

OK. when your foot is better, every day release a hornet or wasp into the house.
You will be a lot more active and alert even while sitting

[Hermskii]

Hahahaha! That is extra funny or not to me because I am terrified wasp in any form. You have no idea how much more alert I'd be and how much more I'd move but I will pass on your idea. Thanks! I think all wasp need to die and often enjoy sitting for hours watching people take out wasp nests in every fashion on youtube. I even saw a guy do it with his hands before and did not get stung. I hate wasps!

[Hook]

I see you got rid of those spammers!

I like virtually ALL animals! (even wasps)
Good day to you all!

[Hermskii]

HOOK likes wasps??? NO!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello All! How goes it? Yes, I nuked the spammer accounts. It has been a long time since I nuked an account!