Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Bob Heine's Auto Emporium

[LeonardY]

we spent a week at Disney World's Fort Wilderness living in a Fleetwood Terry trailer.

Bob,

I used to stay in those trailers during installations at WDW. I liked them better than staying at any of the hotels. It was quiet enough to get some sleep after a twelve plus hour work day.

It was also easier to have a person over without coworkers nosing around. I didn't have the same appearance code as cast members. My hair was long and I was from California.

 

[Bob Heine]

Boy, a week sure flies by!

Tested for Ph? Or for critters?

@Squankum, they test for Free/Combined Chlorine, Acid Demand, pH and Total Alkalinity. I have the test kit to do it myself but I suspect the fluids are aged out and likely won't provide accurate results.

Tee hee! I think that's even smaller than Rabbit diesel specs, which were 13 x 5 wheels, 155mm wide tires.

I see you joined the evolution out of the primoridal ooze with bigger tires and wheels after that. With that car, I'm sure it worked very well. More grip than power?

I've been maybe 15 years since I wandered away from the sport, but last I heard, my friend's VW had 13" x 10" wheels and 255/40-13 tires.

With the mods I did to the X1/9 the little tires howled and complained. It wasn't a tiny car but I had to put the targa top in the frunk when wearing the required helmet for autocross events.

A set of wider rims and huge BFG Comp T/As it just went where I pointed it. I was able to get it to slide a bit on one course that had a real long straight stretch and a hard left at the end.

I bet that was a pretty warm jacket! He would have used a buffalo robe but bison kinda barely existed in those days. Here's a pic from one of Ted Turner's bison ranches. This one is near Big Sky and has about 5,000 head, similar in size to Yellowstone National Park's herd.





Prices for a jacket made by an experienced buffalo hide craftsman will have you looking for a bear to shoot.

Natural Buffalo Fur Coat - Full-Length Custom Tailored - Handmade in USA

Be prepared for maximum comfort and luxurious warmth in your custom made Merlin’s Hide Out Buffalo Fur Coat.

www.merlinshideout.com

Up in northern Alberta grandpa made friends with a lot of indigenous people and did a bit of trading. He had a fringed deerskin jacket that was the softest leather I've ever felt. My grandmother sold it for nickels when he passed away.

My scheme was to stand a tire on one of these, then roll it into position, then readjust height of car as need be and wheel it forward again to see how that worked. I have done that, IIRC, on the Durango, when I have the room in the narrow shop.



Thinking about it tonight, I could have just gone with a $12.99 HF furniture dolly:

https://www.harborfreight.com/18-in-x-12-in-1000-lb-capacity-hardwood-dolly-58312.html

The Econoline is easier because it has steel wheels. The Durango has aluminum wheels but there are pockets in the casting on the back side between the stud holes, so it's not just go/no go/rotate wheel some/go, it's go/go too far/hung up/awkwardness.

Someday I'll have a roller stool like a proper fancy lad but I can't justify the shop space, and can get 80% of the way there with my milk crate with wooden top. Also, it's not an option for driveway car cleaning, because that's too narrow (wall on one side, too) and also, steep.

After my skateboard story you think I would have a set of those elbow annihilators anywhere near my feet?

Thats outright damn cool history!

Thank you @PhantomEB!

Bob, I just found out that Harry Epstein's has been sitting on a cache of second-rate stump stockings. I have no idea if your climate or today's prosthetics ever involve these things.

Epstein's Holiday Stump Stocking (Second)

Why hang a boring old Christmas sock on your mantle this year when you can have the official Epstein's Holiday Stump Stocking (second)! These not-first-quality stump covers have been in our warehouse for generations and now they can be yours! Filled with bits of Epstein's history, these tiny...

www.harryepstein.com

@Squankum, one of my dresser drawers has a stack of stump socks. The old fashioned mechanical arm uses them and they are 100% wool. They are coming up on 60 years old and still work fine. I do hand wash them so that helps. Because of the heat rash and subsequent ****** stump I rarely wear either the mechanical or the myoelectric arm. The myoelectric arm makes some pretty disgusting sounds when I move the wrong way. A fiberglass socket on sweaty bare skin sounds like a very wet fart. As a friend once said as he passed wind: "Do farts have lumps?"

Bob,

I used to stay in those trailers during installations at WDW. I liked them better than staying at any of the hotels. It was quiet enough to get some sleep after a twelve plus hour work day.

It was also easier to have a person over without coworkers nosing around. I didn't have the same appearance code as cast members. My hair was long and I was from California.

Leonard, I loved the trailer. More room than the Disney Resort hotels for a little less money. And parking the car next to the trailer for the week was heaven. Our first experience at Disney World (1973) we stayed at the Dutch Inn and it was unfinished. Everything smelled like wet cement. The Rhode Island size parking lot at Disney World required a tram ride to the main entrance and the same thing at the end of the day. Heaven forbid you forgot exactly where you parked. Decades later we stayed at the little motels in Kissimmee and it involved the same hassle getting to and from the park but busses picked us up from those motels and drove us to whichever park we planned to visit. It's possible only a few of those motels had curry blending shops but the whole neighborhood made me miss my grandmother (she worshiped Queen Victoria and while living in England used curry in everything). I love the variety of curries but I'm pretty sure that's not high on everyone's list.

 

[Squankum]

@Squankum, one of my dresser drawers has a stack of stump socks. The old fashioned mechanical arm uses them and they are 100% wool. They are coming up on 60 years old and still work fine. I do hand wash them so that helps. Because of the heat rash and subsequent ****** stump I rarely wear either the mechanical or the myoelectric arm. The myoelectric arm makes some pretty disgusting sounds when I move the wrong way. A fiberglass socket on sweaty bare skin sounds like a very wet fart.

Here I go with the wicking again! The wool was for wicking back when, but Florida heat and humidity, I don't care how thin that wool is, we may have a problem on our hands/hand. As soon as I saw that HJE stump sock, I thought, "Do they use CoolMax nowadays?" CoolMax is kinda the unfamous, uncool modern wicking fabric. The socks and shirts I've had with it were quite nice indeed, though, for sweat transport.

So I google, and yep, lots of hits for CoolMax stump socks.

Knit-Rite Soft Sock with CoolMax Technology, Moisture Control, Sensitive Skin

Knit-Rite Soft Sock with Coolmax is a prosthetic sock capable of wicking perspiration away from your skin, while also reducing internal socket temperatures by a degree or two. Color coded top lets users know whether it’s a 5 Ply (Blue), 3 Ply (Green) or Lightweight Ply (Gray) sock. Free...

amputeestore.com

As for what is and isn't in a fart, "as we age", yes, I've discovered new frontiers in recent years. For once, I won't go into details.

 

[Bob Heine]

Today was fairly productive. When our children lived with us, Christmas was a big deal and we did the lights and decorations every year. When they started their own families we ended up going to their homes for the holidays and as the years went by, more and more of our friends moved away. We cut back little by little every year until we do the absolute minimum.

One of our grandchildren is bringing his family to our house on December 18 (Liane's birthday) so we dragged some stuff down from the attic. Among the decorations were two boxes with "Mesh" Christmas lights. I brought them down and remembered we acquired them at a thrift store shortly after Christmas one year. They were marked $8 but we paid $1 and never used them.

I opened the first box and the lights appeared to never have been used. Trying to install the first string made me realize why they looked so new. They were a literal rat's nest and I spent a half hour untangling the string. Opened the second box and it was much better. It appears they balled up the one string and shoved the second one into its box without fighting with it. This is what greeted me:

I tested both strings before I untangled them and all the lights worked. I got the second string placed on the second section of the hedge next to the front door. In 2000 I rebuilt the termite-damaged sections of the garage and wired a duplex outlet high on the wall. It's wired to the garage light fixtures so anything plugged into the outlet goes on at sunset and goes off and 1:00 AM.

Turned the timer switch on and the lights came on so I'm done and dusted with the Christmas lights. They will be gifted to someone or sent to the landfill in January.

The vacuum cleaner is my remote circuit breaker sensor. I plug it into an outlet and turn the vacuum on. If the vacuum runs, the circuit is live. I couldn't remember if I made one socket on that duplex outlet switched and the other one live full time. Turns out both sockets are switched.

 

[Bob Heine]

Here I go with the wicking again! The wool was for wicking back when, but Florida heat and humidity, I don't care how thin that wool is, we may have a problem on our hands/hand. As soon as I saw that HJE stump sock, I thought, "Do they use CoolMax nowadays?" CoolMax is kinda the unfamous, uncool modern wicking fabric. The socks and shirts I've had with it were quite nice indeed, though, for sweat transport.

So I google, and yep, lots of hits for CoolMax stump socks.

Knit-Rite Soft Sock with CoolMax Technology, Moisture Control, Sensitive Skin

Knit-Rite Soft Sock with Coolmax is a prosthetic sock capable of wicking perspiration away from your skin, while also reducing internal socket temperatures by a degree or two. Color coded top lets users know whether it’s a 5 Ply (Blue), 3 Ply (Green) or Lightweight Ply (Gray) sock. Free...

amputeestore.com

As for what is and isn't in a fart, "as we age", yes, I've discovered new frontiers in recent years. For once, I won't go into details.

I've never had a problem with the wool and as rarely as I use the arm, I doubt 'll be investing in high tech stump socks. [EDIT: Or green bananas.]

 

[Bob Heine]

The walkway to our front door is constantly being crapped on by an iguana that lives in the big mahogany. It gets to the end of one mahogany branch and makes the short leap to the palm at the corner of the garage. It looks just like bird poop but it's lumpier and nastier. This mess is from the last two days.

I fetched the Milwaukee M18 pole chainsaw and it wouldn't quite reach when I was standing on the ground. For a moment I thought of getting a ladder but changed my mind and got the Corona manual pole saw. Retracted it's shorter than the Milwaukee but it extends to almost double the length. It wasn't as fast as the chainsaw but I could stand on the ground well clear of the area where the branches would fall. First branch was a small one that blocked the saw from cutting the larger branch.

Once down on the ground, the Milwaukee M12 Hatchet made quick work of the bigger limbs and the M12 pruner cut the 2-inch and smaller branches up to fit in the garden carts. If the iguana can make the leap from the Mahogany to the palms now, it can **** wherever it wants.

The two branches I've recently removed have really opened up the lower canopy of the Florida Mahogany. After it dropped its leaves 19 months ago it was getting ready to cover the house. Photo taken April 22, 2023:

Filled the two garden carts, moved them to the trash area next to the garage and put the tools away.

One more task for the day. Those weird little hose bumpers arrived yesterday so I put the four of them on the sections of pool cleaner hose that might block the skimmer.

.

 

[ODIS]

Lots going on, Bob! Will bet December weather is nice to work outside. Maybe I should consider “snowbird” life!

 

[Bob Heine]

Lots going on, Bob! Will bet December weather is nice to work outside. Maybe I should consider “snowbird” life!

Odis, it's the main attraction for living in Florida. It's also a bit of a drawback because things grow year-round and they grow fast. You would like Boca Raton and the Palm Beaches. I've seen every kind of Porsche there is (even a new Carrera GT). All kinds of Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, McLaren's and even the occasional Bugatti. Not positive of the reason but our real estate has gone nuts. A McMansion (in my neighborhood) sold for $1,990,000 in February 2021 and it's back up for sale and just dropped $310,000 to $6,490,000. The 1,500 square foot cottage next door (used to be part of the McMansion) is estimated to be worth $944,526 and has neither garage nor carport. Oh, and my neighborhood isn't gated and many of the homes are under 1,000 square feet. They were built in the 1930s to house the staff at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.

I have several projects planned that involve spending time in the attic. That's SWMBO's forbidden zone in the summer (I can climb up there, spend single-digit minutes up there and then get out of Hell's minor league training field.

 

[ODIS]

Odis, it's the main attraction for living in Florida. It's also a bit of a drawback because things grow year-round and they grow fast. You would like Boca Raton and the Palm Beaches. I've seen every kind of Porsche there is (even a new Carrera GT). All kinds of Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, McLaren's and even the occasional Bugatti. Not positive of the reason but our real estate has gone nuts. A McMansion (in my neighborhood) sold for $1,990,000 in February 2021 and it's back up for sale and just dropped $310,000 to $6,490,000. The 1,500 square foot cottage next door (used to be part of the McMansion) is estimated to be worth $944,526 and has neither garage nor carport. Oh, and my neighborhood isn't gated and many of the homes are under 1,000 square feet. They were built in the 1930s to house the staff at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.

I have several projects planned that involve spending time in the attic. That's SWMBO's forbidden zone in the summer (I can climb up there, spend single-digit minutes up there and then get out of Hell's minor league training field.

Holy Cow! Guess investing in real estate a few years go would have been the right strategy! Way outa my means but at least. Invested in Tesla and Nvida early on. So much fun watching the numbers fluctuating all over the place.

Tack care, Sir!

 

[gman007]

If the iguana can make the leap from the Mahogany to the palms now, it can **** wherever it wants.

GM Bob

Great job on trimming the Mahogany, very nicely done. It looks much better and hopefully this will put an end the iguana’s **** of terror .

Now if the iguana is smart enough it will **** its pants when it sees the distance between the branches and will not attempt the Grand Canyon size Evil Knievel jump! And if does attempt it, then you will have only a one time job of scraping the big **** of the pavement!

 

[gman007]

Not positive of the reason but our real estate has gone nuts. A McMansion (in my neighborhood) sold for $1,990,000 in February 2021 and it's back up for sale and just dropped $310,000 to $6,490,000. The 1,500 square foot cottage next door (used to be part of the McMansion) is estimated to be worth $944,526 and has neither garage nor carport. Oh, and my neighborhood isn't gated and many of the homes are under 1,000 square feet. They were built in the 1930s to house the staff at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.

OMG! These prices and crazy price increases are nuts! This has to be a bubble !

 

[PugetDude]

OMG! These prices and crazy price increases are nuts! This has to be a bubble !

Same thing happening here in AZ...

 

[gman007]

Same thing happening here in AZ...

Simply nuts!

 

[Squankum]

Holy Cow! Guess investing in real estate a few years go would have been the right strategy! Way outa my means but at least. Invested in Tesla and Nvida early on. So much fun watching the numbers fluctuating all over the place.

As the kids today would put it,




"Stonks" memes explained here. There's not much to explain, it's just silliness.

What Are Stonks?

Stonks is an intentional misspelling of the word "stocks." It's often used in a meme joking about the stock market, a specific stock, or investments.

www.thebalancemoney.com

 

[Squankum]

After my skateboard story you think I would have a set of those elbow annihilators anywhere near my feet?

I think I missed that story. Did you try to ride one, or did you step on an unexpected skateboard?

 

[Squankum]

Bob, I was checking in on Festool last night, because I had a friend who had never heard of that cult, when I learned about this.

Would they give you a discount? This could be just the thing for your next two decades of pole saw work.

 

[Bob Heine]

Holy Cow! Guess investing in real estate a few years go would have been the right strategy! Way outa my means but at least. Invested in Tesla and Nvida early on. So much fun watching the numbers fluctuating all over the place.

Tack care, Sir!

Odis, I've never hit the jackpot but in 2004 I bought 100 shares of Costco for $48.15 a share. Twenty years later it has gone up a bit, closing at $992.61 on Friday. The real estate thing frightens me because you have to take on debt and hope there isn't another 2008 bump in the road.

GM Bob

Great job on trimming the Mahogany, very nicely done. It looks much better and hopefully this will put an end the iguana’s **** of terror .

Now if the iguana is smart enough it will **** its pants when it sees the distance between the branches and will not attempt the Grand Canyon size Evil Knievel jump! And if does attempt it, then you will have only a one time job of scraping the big **** of the pavement!

@gman007, I will be delighted to clean up the finale! Jasmine isn't allowed out in the un-fenced front yard and I suspect this iguana is the Einstein of his/her family. The 37 siblings who wandered into our fenced back yard have gone over the iguana rainbow bridge.

OMG! These prices and crazy price increases are nuts! This has to be a bubble !

The situation is beyond crazy. The $6.9M place around the corner is a 6,832 square foot 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath two story with an elevator and 2-car garage. It's sitting on a triangular half-acre lot with pool, 1/2 a basketball court, two story playhouse and a putting green.

I'm guessing the wine and coffee pantry cost more than our house.

Based on the floor plan, there isn't a lot of wasted space.

The other McMansion that makes even less sense is located closer to the ocean but isn't waterfront property. They tore down a $1,330,000 home to build a modern monstrosity that is up for sale for $6,250,000. It's a 5 bedroom 7 bath with 2-car garage.
It's 5,451 square feet sitting on a .21 acre (9,230 square foot) lot.

Much of the first floor is open to the second floor so completely wasted, hard to climate control space. The "back yard" has a pool and spa but basically it's all paved.

If you aren't close friends with the neighbors behind this place when you move in, you will be real soon. This is the view from the Master Bedroom and that's not a reflection, it's another bunker.

The three open spaces have an interesting description. The areas marked A6 (233 sf) and A8 (399 sf) are called NVA (No Value Area).

Same thing happening here in AZ...

Scott, it figures. Our newest residents are fleeing the weather and taxes where they live. Horrible as they may be, a lot of those folks made a lot of money.

Simply nuts!

My brain is broken.

As the kids today would put it,




"Stonks" memes explained here. There's not much to explain, it's just silliness.

What Are Stonks?

Stonks is an intentional misspelling of the word "stocks." It's often used in a meme joking about the stock market, a specific stock, or investments.

www.thebalancemoney.com

@Squankum, the people (like me) who didn't get in on the ground floor might think the whole STOck market "stiNKS".

I think I missed that story. Did you try to ride one, or did you step on an unexpected skateboard?

Oh dear, I did waste a fair bit of the space on the internet with that one. Images of the story are in post:

Bob Heine's Auto Emporium

Wow Bob, Sounds like you've had a rough spell lately. Roseanne Roseannadana once said: "It just goes to show you it's always something". Seriously, I hope things get better for you, and they will. I've had times like that, and it's always frustrating.

www.garagejournal.com

It might be easier to read in a PDF:

 

[Bob Heine]

Bob, I was checking in on Festool last night, because I had a friend who had never heard of that cult, when I learned about this.

Would they give you a discount? This could be just the thing for your next two decades of pole saw work.

@Squankum, you know I'm going to have a story to go with that.

Near the end of 1965 my stump had healed well enough to be fitted for an artificial arm. I had also been fitted with a temporary denture for the five front teeth something on the train knocked off. My parents came to visit and I was sitting in an arm-less dining chair. I wasn't yet accustomed to either artificial body parts. Something caused me to sneeze, which made my shoulders shrug, which made my hook fly up to within an inch of my face and my teeth flew across the room into my father's lap. The room went dead silent and I got up, walked over to my father and put my hand out. He put my bridge in my hand and we all started laughing hysterically.

The arm is actuated by a cable attached to the hook (or hand). The other end of the cable attaches to the harness and a shrug pulls on the strap. Another ******** the front of the arm pulls on a smaller cable that locks and unlocks the elbow. I hadn't locked the elbow so instead of opening the hook, the shrug lifted the forearm.

I can see the Festool story hitting the internet about an 80 year old man beaten to death by a left arm assist because he was unable to adjust the power setting.

 

[rharman]

@Bob Heine - If you'd like to downsize & relocate to sunny SoCal, you could get something like this lovely 977 sq ft, 2 bdrm, 1 bath for only $810,000. Bonus room in the back and a 2-car garage. Such a deal....

Oh yeah... Taxes would be about $9-10k

 

[kaymccampbell]

@Bob Heine - If you'd like to downsize & relocate to sunny SoCal, you could get something like this lovely 977 sq ft, 2 bdrm, 1 bath for only $810,000. Bonus room in the back and a 2-car garage. Such a deal....

Oh yeah... Taxes would be about $9-10k

Back in the day, I rented a place in Sux Diego, in Ocean Beach. Anyway it was aqua-spring green adobe with a flat roof that had log beams. It was ugly, slumping, had mold growing up one wall n across part of the floor. It had a big roll up garage door, like a truck repair shop. It looked like some kind of small converted warehouse or auto shop. There were few windows, no yard. Just weeds in the sidewalk cracks. It was minutes from the beach. It was great. As my lease was ending, the owner offered it to me for $40K. If I had any intention of returning, I'd have snapped it up. Well, about 10 years ago it went for well over a million. And it was in even worse shape than when I rented it.

 

[Squankum]

The three open spaces have an interesting description. The areas marked A6 (233 sf) and A8 (399 sf) are called NVA (No Value Area).

What are they hiding in there?!

 

[Bob Heine]

Back in the day, I rented a place in Sux Diego, in Ocean Beach. Anyway it was aqua-spring green adobe with a flat roof that had log beams. It was ugly, slumping, had mold growing up one wall n across part of the floor. It had a big roll up garage door, like a truck repair shop. It looked like some kind of small converted warehouse or auto shop. There were few windows, no yard. Just weeds in the sidewalk cracks. It was minutes from the beach. It was great. As my lease was ending, the owner offered it to me for $40K. If I had any intention of returning, I'd have snapped it up. Well, about 10 years ago it went for well over a million. And it was in even worse shape than when I rented it.

Kay, my cousin was a Navy officer and while stationed in San Diego he bought a house for $26,000 and his father thought he was nuts. When they moved a few years later the price had tripled. Multi-million dollar home today would be my guess. I went on a business to San Jose in 1973 and looked at some two story, four bedroom, three bath, two car garage homes in the mid $50,000 range. My boss was asked to transfer me but he refused -- I was indispensable and un-promotable at the same time.

What are they hiding in there?!

@Squankum, I suspect their bodies were covered in Gunite under the pool after they finished digging the hole, boring the tunnels and installing the reinforcing mesh and rebar. Their widows are running a chain of nail salons.

 

[Squankum]

I suspect their bodies were covered in Gunite under the pool after they finished digging the hole, boring the tunnels and installing the reinforcing mesh and rebar. Their widows are running a chain of nail salons.

You're just lucky your water table is so high there!




(Water table in this pic is inconsistent, they're just trying to show examples of features.)

 

[Bob Heine]

Aside from a face plant, I've been tackling some small but rewarding tool chest organizing. One of the small and shallow drawers in the stainless CSPS stack has chisels, air hammer bits, punches, picks and pin drill handles. Without bins it's kinda OK,,,

Long ago I moved the blue plastic trim pry bars to a jar that has a red set and put the big wedge in the hammer drawer with the sledge hammer in it. The drawer also picked up miscellaneous size eye-setting punches. Eight bins later and it is a little better, at least it makes me feel better opening it to find a tool.

Another small, shallow drawer has my Dremel stuff. Dremel clamshells hold a fair amount of stuff but every time I turned around, a clamshell had to be dumped out on the workbench. The small gray bins are deeper and hold a lot more than the clamshells.

The drawer has a lot more than just the stuff in the clamshells and I suspect there will be more rearranging in the future.

 

[Finallygotit]

Aside from a face plant

Whoa, whoa, whoa....... back up. Please explain? What did you do?

 

[casmurbax]

Hi Bob, following Finallygotit... FacePlant?


The arm you showed, my 1st one, circa 1982 was built almost exactly like thee one pictured. Operated the same, way locking elbow, strap around the arm pit. Though my strap was built a little different and the area around the front of my pit got sore over time, took some time to get it all adjusted where it worked some what and I was not sore from it.

I would hit my face with my it whenever I bent over. This contraption was what I had at first:

I hated it, because I was above elbow, doing what was pictured was nearly impossible, at least for me. I eventually just went to a passive hand.

Did you have to put a sock on your stump then feed the sock through the socket and pull the stump into the arm?


Pulling the sock through the hole? like pictured? This is a good example of how mine worked. But I think this was is electric elbow.

I recall how bad that sock got in the summer down there, it was awful. I would change it couple times a day depending on what I was doing that day.

Sorry didn't mean to make it about me.

 

[Bob Heine]

Whoa, whoa, whoa....... back up. Please explain? What did you do?

Dan, short version is I tripped over my own feet. I posted a longer version in Dan Wentworth's "Pull up a Chair..." thread:

"71°F 55% and dark
Got up today to find the pool cleaner dead in the water. It's the stupid electronic timer that has never worked. Thought about starting the retrofit of another Intermatic mechanical timer. Forgot today was Liane's nail day. Dropped her off at around 11:30 AM and returned home. They work pretty fast so I looked for something simple to do. Decided to let someone take away the seven sod pallets (sod farms charge $5 deposit on each pallet). Rolled the first four out to the end of the driveway on my hand truck and stacked them up neatly. As I turned to go back for the next one, my right shoe got caught under the second one in the stack. I started to fall and I overcame the instinct put my arm out to soften the landing. I made a semi-soft landing on my right side but my head hit the sidewalk. A kid in a passing car stopped to help. Went in the house to check the damage and it was just a bump. Sat for a few minutes to be sure I wasn't getting dizzy, nauseous or blacking out. Finished stacking the last three in plenty of time -- Liane was doing a little grocery shopping and had someone call me.

One minute you're doing a simple little job and the next minute you're wondering if you need to see a doctor. I double-checked the concussion symptoms and decided not to see a doctor. The amount of time I would waste explaining didn't seem like time well spent. I'm always cross-eyed, my pupils are always different size and the dent in my temple isn't new.

Liane put Arnica Gel on the area so hopefully I won't scare the kids next week at Liane's two birthday parties."


The Arnica Gel worked so my face isn't purple and green but I didn't feel the pain in the other pl;aces right away. Should have put some on the half of my hand that turned purple along with my rib cage where I hit the wheel on the hand truck.

I blame most of this on my continuing prostate cancer treatment. The removal of the gland got the majority of the cancer, focused radiation got rid of the little tumor that formed in my pubic bone but to be sure it doesn't go anywhere else I'm taking 1,000 milligrams [four horse pills] of Abiraterone Acetate (generic Zytega) and 5 milligrams of Prednione twice a day.

I have taken drugs that come with instruction sheets but the sheet for the AA drug is a whole new level of scary. I had to hang it on a garage cabinet and stand back to photograph it -- and it's printed on both sides -- and all in English. There's no Spanish or French translations.

The Zytega website isn't all that encouraging concerning its side effects. Most of the side effects seem to be descriptions of life at 80.

What are the possible side effects of ZYTIGA®?
ZYTIGA® may cause serious side effects including:

• High blood pressure (hypertension), low blood potassium levels (hypokalemia), fluid retention (edema), and irregular heartbeats can happen during treatment with ZYTIGA®. This can be life-threatening. To decrease the chance of this happening, you must take prednisone with ZYTIGA® exactly as your healthcare provider tells you. Your healthcare provider will check your blood pressure, do blood tests to check your potassium levels, and check for any signs and symptoms of fluid retention every month during treatment with ZYTIGA®
• Tell your healthcare provider if you get any of the following symptoms:
  
  • Dizziness
  • Fast or irregular heartbeats
  • Feel faint or lightheaded
  • Headache
  • Confusion
  • Muscle weakness
  • Pain in your legs
  • Swelling in your legs or fee
• Adrenal problems may happen if you stop taking prednisone, get an infection, or are under stress
• Severe liver problems.You may develop changes in liver function blood tests. Your healthcare provider will do blood tests to check your liver before treatment with ZYTIGA® and during treatment with ZYTIGA®. Liver failure may occur, which can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you notice any of the following changes:
  
  • Yellowing of the skin or eyes
  • Darkening of the urine
  • Severe nausea or vomiting
• Increased risk of bone fracture and death when ZYTIGA® and prednisone or prednisolone is used in combination with a type of radiation called radium Ra 223 dichloride. Tell your healthcare provider about any other treatments you are taking for prostate cancer
• Severe low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Severe low blood sugar with ZYTIGA® can happen in people who have diabetes and take certain antidiabetic medicines. You and your healthcare provider should check your blood sugar levels regularly during treatment with ZYTIGA® and after you stop treatment. Your healthcare provider may also need to change the dose of your antidiabetic medicines. Signs and symptoms of low blood sugar may include:
  
  • Headache
  • Drowsiness
  • Weakness
  • Dizziness
  • Confusion
  • Irritability
  • Hunger
  • Fast heartbeat
  • Sweating
  • Feeling jittery
• The most common side effects of ZYTIGA® include: Feeling very tired
  
  • Joint pain
  • High blood pressure
  • Nausea
  • Swelling in your legs or feet
  • Low blood potassium levels
  • Hot flushes
  • Diarrhea
  • Vomiting
  • Infected nose, sinuses, or throat (cold)
  • Cough
  • Headache
  • Low red blood cells (anemia)
  • High blood cholesterol and triglycerides
  • High blood sugar levels
  • Certain other abnormal blood tests

ZYTIGA® may cause fertility problems in males, which may affect the ability to father children. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have concerns about fertility.

THESE ARE NOT ALL THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF ZYTIGA®.

On the bright side, it helps explain the cramps I treat with potassium (8 potassium gluconate pills up to four times a night with an additional two potassium chloride tablets if the 32 of the lightweight stuff doesn't work). This week I purchased a couple of little shakers of Nu Salt. It contains one ingredient: potassium chloride.

It also explains the swelling in my feet. A daily 12.5 milligram hydrochlorothiazide pill helps, as does avoiding manufactured food.

Not sure if it helps but I take a daily calcium/magnesium pill to hopefully reduce the bone fracture risk a litte bit.

On the bright side, I feel pretty well. I've been taking Abiraterone and Prednisone for the past 15 months.

On the darker side, the prognosis these assholes publish *****:

"At the end of the follow-up period (July 2015), 12 (23%) patients were alive and 3 (6%) were still receiving abiraterone. Median follow up for alive patients was 33 months (range 12–48 months) and median duration of abiraterone exposure was 16 months (range 9–21 months). For all deceased patients, the cause of death was prostate cancer.

As for the efficacy analysis, the median duration of overall survival was 19 months."

If I'm still posting on April Fool's Day, the joke's on them. Still posting on the 4th of July, I've beat the median.

 

[Bob Heine]

Hi Bob, following Finallygotit... FacePlant?


The arm you showed, my 1st one, circa 1982 was built almost exactly like thee one pictured. Operated the same, way locking elbow, strap around the arm pit. Though my strap was built a little different and the area around the front of my pit got sore over time, took some time to get it all adjusted where it worked some what and I was not sore from it.

I would hit my face with my it whenever I bent over. This contraption was what I had at first:

I hated it, because I was above elbow, doing what was pictured was nearly impossible, at least for me. I eventually just went to a passive hand.

Did you have to put a sock on your stump then feed the sock through the socket and pull the stump into the arm?


Pulling the sock through the hole? like pictured? This is a good example of how mine worked. But I think this was is electric elbow.

I recall how bad that sock got in the summer down there, it was awful. I would change it couple times a day depending on what I was doing that day.

Sorry didn't mean to make it about me.

John, please don't be sorry.

My first arm was made in 1965 and the elbow was mechanical. The wool sock went on the stump and stayed there. I got used to it and it was never a problem. The first hook was made for office work and wimpy as hell, aluminum with a nitrile lining (Hosmer #5XA). Had to unscrew it to put the mechanical hand on the arm.

The hand came with a "skin color matched vinyl glove" for $180 ($1,802.82 in today's money). Ball point ink and mustard would leave a permanent stain in the clear vinyl (skin color was sprayed inside the glove). They matched my skin color the month after the accident so it was a lovely cadaver grayish pink.

I had a new "ditch digger" arm made in 1973. It was the same design and worked really well. Had them provide a new hook (Hosmer #7LO) and quick release socket in the arm. They also gave me a bag of rubber bands and tool to install them so I could adjust the pressure of the hook's serrated jaws. For one job I put about six rubber bands on it and it would crush walnuts into powder.

It has all kinds of great features, including a notch for holding welding and TIG rods.

My 2007 arm is a Utah 3 and like yours, has myoelectric sensors in the socket. The elbow is activated my a microswitch controlled by the same little ******** my previous arms. I got the thing to work but frequently went into wrist spin mode instead of hook open mode. Very entertaining.

Like your socket, they provided a thin polyester sock that I pulled through a hole next to the elbow joint to get the stump fully inserted. Had to unscrew the plug to let the puddle of sweat out of the socket so it didn't spill out the top. The rechargeable batteries were stupid expensive and required a special charger. Insurance balked at the batteries and charger because they thought they were AA or AAA or maybe Milwaukee M12 batteries. Eventually they paid the $500.

 

[Finallygotit]

Holy **** Bob! I'm pretty damned sure you will still be here past Independence Day. But dayum, those meds scare the **** out of me just reading the side effects. YIKES!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Hoping you heal up fast...that's quite a list of side-effects...anymore it seems like the side-effects list is longer than some of these drugs are worth!

 

[Mr.zippy]

Geeze Bob, you do look at bit like Steve Austin, but i wouldn't recommend running as fast as he did! Heal up quickly and keep us up to date on happenings!

 

[madison069]

Glad to hear you’re doing ok after your fall. As for medication side effect, I plan to just wear depends to combat the **** leakage with cough. I look forward to scaring folks away with my stinky diapers.

 

[gman007]

Bob
I am sorry to hear about your fall and Wishing you speedy recovery from the fall and also the effects of the cancer drugs.

My prayers are with you.

Ps
Excellent job on the organizing the tools, looks great.

 

[shortykorte]

Bob, I hope no quick trips are in your future.
Hope the Mrs. has a wonderful birthday.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Good grief Bob you have had your share of bridges to cross! You have always managed to overcome what ever is placed on your path. The meds definitely have covered all their bases, big pharma, big lawyers.
My wife had Radial keratotomy on her eyes years ago prior to the lazer procedure. I sat with her while the surgeon (who was the go to guy for the province) explained or pointed out all the possible pitfalls and potential disadvantages of the procedure. I damn near got up and grabbed her by the hand to get the hell out of that office. Her vision was being corrected with contacts and or glasses so not life debilitating. But it freaked me out and not a common procedure at the time. She did it and it all worked out.
Another time after going through breast cancer with a mastectomy, chemo and plenty of pharmaceuticals. She is on her regime of post operation drug cocktail and doing pretty well at least better. But one of the drugs was not playing nice and causing her much grief. She decided she wanted to discontinue the one drug or at least try another. Eventually she just discontinued the culprit with plenty of don’t do it from me, the kids and friends. But her and the Oncologist (sort of) eventually discontinued the drug and it all worked out.
I have an old school mate/1buddy that just had his prostrate removed, as we talked he asked if I had ever had any surgeries preformed. I thought for a moment and said all of mine have been self inflicted, car/work accidents so not health related. The items above and others my wife has had to endure were way over the top as she is disciplined, takes care of her health, eats responsibly, doesn’t drink or smoke, exercises. You know all the good stuff. Me not so much and probably have been pretty lucky. I‘m kinda laughing at the moment thinking that the wheels will just fall off one day

I always find your thread interesting but don’t always have a chance to personally touch base but you just keep posting to your hearts content.

 

[Grizz1963]

****** on the fall.

It is so sudden when we go from vertical to horizontal.

Arnica is good stuff in my experience.

Look after yourself and Liane.

 

[Squankum]

 

[Squankum]

****** on the fall.

It is so sudden when we go from vertical to horizontal.

I have fallen on ice twice in the past 15 years -- it's amazing how cartoonish it can be. The last time, both feet just flew out in front of me and I landed nearly flat.

Insult to injury: I had dampened the driveway hosing something off an hour before sundown on a winter day. All my fault!

 

[Squankum]

I've said it before, but I'm not the one to start it! GJ needs a "show us your prosthetic limb(s) thread."

 

[Squankum]

It's a shame when the kids today try to imitate their role models from the teevee.