Bob: I always love reading your responses and posts so keep up the great work.
how's the health for you and your bride down in muggyville?
stay cool!!
Drives, thanks for the kind words,
Also, thanks for checking up on me. Here's the looong story:
I know you've been doing your best to stay healthy and maintain or improve your strength. As you approach your seventh decade, the side effects start to show up and it's hips and/or knees letting you know how long you've been stressing them. Please take care of those things sooner rather than later. At a younger friend's funeral I overheard: "He was so healthy and fit so dropping dead on the tennis court came as a complete surprise."
My heart issues reminded me I was 75 when AFib (atrial fibrillation) came knocking on my door. Couple of cardioversions (mine involved the word "CLEAR") temporarily fixed the problem but when it came back for a third visit, the surgeon shoved stuff up my femoral artery into my heart and fried or froze the parts of my heart causing the problem. I've always had a slow heartbeat but when it scared the **** out of the doctor and nurses doing another invasive procedure (involving the hole right next to that femoral artery) it was suggested I get a pacemaker. What scared the **** doctor was the pulse alarm never shutting off. According to Gargle: "A heart rate exceeding 100 BPM (tachycardia) or falling below 60 BPM (bradycardia) while at rest may indicate a potential issue..." My pulse rate at rest was 37bpm but it would quickly go to 130 during a heart stress test. The little smartphone in my chest lets my pulse rise quickly but provides little electrical shocks whenever my heart tries to slow below 60bpm.
About three weeks ago, Liane fell in the garden. She loves working on her gardens and often bends over to pull a weed or pull leaves out of her bromeliads (the Pineapple is a member of this family of plants). While bent over, she took a step and something tripped her. She fell the short distance and hit her right shoulder. It began hurting the next day but she was going to see her Pain specialist the following week. He moved her arm through a full rotation of her shoulder and told her it was an arthritis issue. We saw our primary care physician this week and after poking and prodding her shoulder, prescribed an x-ray. There is a lab connected to our big fancy hospital on the first floor of his building so she had one taken on the way out. Next morning (this past Friday) he called to tell us nothing showed up on the x-ray and gave her the name of the orthopedist he uses. Hopefully the first proposal isn't a joint replacement.
An hour before the call, Liane asked me to move a pot full of Aloe plants to one of her potting benches. I picked the pot up and moved it to the granite slab that's sitting on a couple of wooden saw horses. Turned around and was heading back to the house when my bare foot caught on a section of metal edging that keeps the curved section of 12x12 concrete pavers in place. Over the years the pavers have settled so the metal edge is an inch higher. Feeling myself headed for a fall, I took a step forward and simply extended my fall. The side effect of the Prednisone (and generic Zytega that suppress testosterone, the fertilizer for prostate cancer cells) causes muscle weakness, especially in the long thigh muscles. I extended my arm to break my fall, now headed to a block wall, and impaled my left chest on the gate fence post next to the wall. That slowed my fall but I still bounced off the impaler and landed on the pavers. My hand did a good job slowing the fall but I still hit that post hard. I know my hand helped because the gate latch bent and cracked the wedding band. Liane immediately sprang into action and slathered Arnica Gel on my chest to prevent bruises to form on my otherwise perfect chest. It seems to have worked, with the only evidence being some red spots and a line from the edge of the post. That white scar is the pacemaker installation locator:

The shot to my left chest was concerning because that's where my pacemaker is located. After lying on the walkway for five minutes (felt like five but probably only two) while Liane repeatedly reminded me to breathe, even when I suggested the blow was to my chest and not my head so I still remembered how to breathe. Got up, went in the house and got out my cellphone and Kardia Mobile device and determined my heart controller was still working as designed. Put the pulsometer on my finger and the blood pressure cuff on my arm. Pulse 60, oxygen 98% and blood pressure 128/74 and confirmed 60 bpm. I told our primary care doctor about the incident during his call about Liane's x-ray and called my cardiologist (his office monitors my pacemaker from the wi-fi box next to my bed). I assured both I would schedule a visit if anything changes.
As to the ring, it looks like we'll be shopping for another. My first wedding band was cut off my left hand when I arrived at the hospital in 1965. Had they waited for Liane to arrive and make the decision to amputate or try to re-attach my useless left forearm, they could have cut the damn finger off instead of ruining a gold band. Pawn shops, here we come (I'm thinking another flimsy one that won't rip my finger off when this sort of thing happens again).

Scene of the 'stupid' crime:
I have a few sets of those. The newest one goes on the welding cart because they're designed to clean torch jets. The rest are in the toolbox drawer with the forceps and vascular clamps and Stihl chainsaw tools and hacksaw, and pickup fingers and stabby things for removing o-rings and other like stuff.
Kay, I'm going to order a few more sets. They are much easier to use than a drill bit because they have that loop on the end of each one. I can also grab the whole set without worrying about scattering a bunch of my best guess drill bit sizes around the yard. My forceps/vascular clamp tray sounds like a good spot, along with both welding carts. Turns out Jeff's river has a set of four on sale right now:
With that train of thought, I technically have three garages (there is an attached garage at the old house), therefore I should order another set for the attached garage, it will come in handy to not have to go to the big garage for minor repair in the house.
Cody, you know I always have
thoughts of trains of thought that go off track. I forgot about your attached garage. You realize this is the GJ so buying triplicates of every tool is completely reasonable and respected. Have you thought about a trio of forklifts?
Bob
I always put tools, parts, etc in the most logical places where any idiot will remember! But a few weeks later, when I need these sobs , it seems my brain’s logic has changed and I can not find them in the current most logical places. Some weeks later when I am searching for something else that I need and can not find, I find the tools that I needed weeks back.
They says squirrels are responsible for a lot of reforestation because they hide the nuts and acorns in most logical places but later seem not to be able to find many of them. I suppose you and I might be related to squirrels but alas in our case the lost tools do not grow and produce more tools (wouldn’t that be nice??

)!
@gman007, after a very brief search of the Internet, I discovered the reason for the problem:
"The left brain/right brain" concept refers to the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are specialized for different functions, with the left hemisphere associated with logic and language and the right hemisphere associated with creativity and spatial reasoning."
Obviously my right brain put the thing away in the perfect, most ingenious and space saving place possible. When my left brain goes looking for it, it's not in the logical location and I utter a continuous stream of curses until have used them all. The next time my right brain is conscious, I find the thing exactly where I put it. I am fully aware that neither side of my brain works very well.
Mat, I think you have the right term but the image that term triggered in my mind was more along these lines:
[I believe I have to pay to show the movie character Hannibal Lecter but CPAP Bob is a freebie.]
I think they're Parkside...
From the workshop to the garden, from tools to accessories. Powerful and always for the best price. Discover PARKSIDE’s huge selection. You can do it!
parkside-diy.com
I'd never heard of them before, but I just went down a Google rabbit hole. Apparently they're popular in Europe (they're the in-house brand of the German retailer, Lidl), and they're good enough for the Terminator...
Mat, thanks for diving down that rabbit hole. I worries me that the tool requires the strength of the Terminator to lift it. The reason I buy so many Milwaukee M12 tools is for their lighter weight. I do buy other battery powered tools but they either take AA or AAA batteries or have a charging port (and are therefore disposable when they stop holding a charge).
I too occasionally use a fountain pen

and I have 2. My favorite is a Cross that I paid way too much for many years ago. The ink I I use is as near to waterproof as I could find. It was my preference for log entries until the company changed no carbon copy logs. Then I had to change to a ball point.

I also have a set of calligraphy pens that I never mastered that sit unused.
Andrew, I had Parker 21, Cross and Schaefer fountain pens that i really liked. The Parker was old and didn't take cartridges so when it wouldn't refill itself from an ink bottle, I stopped using it. When our daughter asked for a calligraphy set, I bought two. She mastered the skill and made some really nice unofficial invitation and award cards I gave out at IBM (boy do the managers who didn't do that show me some hate). I should probably be embarrassed that I have 20 fountain pens and all the tools and parts to repair the non-cartridge ones). The calligraphy pens are not shown but this is the current stable:

When I was simply signing store-bought cards, I signed them with calligraphy pens but now I use Hallmark Card Studio on my Windows desktop (There's a Mac version as well). They also have IOS and Android apps if you prefer to send electronic cards.
www.hallmarksoftware.com
Download the Hallmark Cards Now app on iOS or Android. Manage Crown Rewards, send free eCards by text or email, or a paper card right to their mailbox.
www.hallmark.com
That Parkside drill looks very similar to my Bosch.
Dan, if the Bosch batteries fit, our son would be interested (if the price is right).
They are German cousins!
@gman007, if they're first cousins, I don't think you can legally put the batteries in them both.
I see your obsession with writing instruments. I took every mechanical drafting class I could in high school. My senior year, I took Architectural Drafting. Every single one that fit my schedule. So I started getting interested in mechanical pencils of just about every flavor available (with a high school student budget) HB for dark lines, 2H and up to 5H for everything else. I tried a fountain pen one time on one of my blueprints. I didn't wait long enough for the ink to dry, so my T-square and plastic triangles really made a mess of things. I'm not very artistic (actually, not at all) but have tried to sketch a horse in pencil. Most of my attempts at sketching animals end up looking like a bloated woodtick. Ha. But I have several very nice pens that I don't use and really just want to own them for the quality built into them.
Rick, it's not a healthy obsession. The pen side has already been confessed but the pencil side is about as bad. The mechanical pencils are 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and whatever size the IBM Electromagnetic lead is.

Now you tell me I need more variety in my pencil leads. I'm beginning to perspire....
Here's my pen of choice nowadays... It is in my shirt pocket every day. I'm using it right now to write this with the rubber tip on the top end. You can see that the ruler markings have mostly worn away, there's a small screwdriver with one end being Phillips, the other end being a straight driver, if you unscrew the cap. I have a small drawer full of pen pieces, to at least keep one pen alive and working...
Rick, I feel a little better but I'm looking away. I can only take so much pen and pencil overload.
"Come with me if you want to drill."
@Squankum, is he talking to my maid?
Bob, I'm on chapter two in my book. Ha, not like I'm going to do a play by play of my readings every single week, but chapter two talks about understeer/oversteer. That was one subject I was looking forward to understanding. So far, it makes perfect sense. Vectors, center of gravity, based on weight per wheel, centrifugal force, making corners in terms of G-force... I had to wipe away some drool a few times... I love learning about this stuff. And Squankum, if you are listening, oversteer is when your back tires let loose of traction and you have to counteract with steering in the wrong direction to stay on course. Understeer, your front wheels lose traction and you end up going in a straight line. Braking and acceleration/deceleration can help or hinder you in both circumstances. Braking moves the center of gravity forward in your car. More throttle moves the COG more toward the rear of the car. The tire rubber compound makes a difference in traction. What works on a race track might not be the best on a street car. (Think rain and lots of deep tread verses a slick on a race car). The book really is geared toward race cars, and that, in my mind, is good to learn. Race cars and drivers really push the limits on just about everything. We can all learn from their experience. ( At least me...)
Rick, I have read a fair amount about the whole subject but in bits and pieces from magazine articles in auto enthusiast and science magazines. I tried to explain it to Liane but she wasn't interested so I took her to an empty parking lot after a decent snowstorm in the Hudson Valley. I showed her how to recover from oversteer and when trying to turn and brake at the same time be able to decide if changing direction or stopping was the desired result. Never told her it was 'understeer.'
All of those things happen on street cars, too! They're just set up for understeer, and that's okay with me. Even tire angles happen on the street, just at a lesser degree.
It really is a good book.
@Squankum, in Florida they require people to renew their driver's license every 10 years -- until you reach 80 when it's every 6 years. I am doing my best to control my impulse to drive like I did 60 years ago, avoid tickets and above all not have an accident. At $4,700 a year for our three vehicles, a little OOPs could be very expensive. Should I ever get the big block Corvette back on the road, all bets are off.