got that right! Good thing I'm using talk to text! I don't have to type anything!

 

I'm impressed that the speech recognition program you are using produces such letter perfect posts from you on this forum.

But that's nothing compared to you prioritizing helping your brother with his water pump, over and above your own project.

Good man!

 

He was nice enough to come over and bring a truck full of tools and cordless tools to help! The vehicle he was working on had a easy to change water pump but, getting to it was a pain and everything had to come off perfectly before it would come off properly. I didn't do much really. Hold this, pry on that, move the flashlight, and so on. Try to keep him calm when he was getting upset and vice versa. He helped me out a bunch as well!

We get along really well and I love working with him. we're both always cracking jokes! it's always a fun time!

 

Just an FYI... anything you type in yellow, I cannot see. I can tell that text is there, but I'm not able to read the text untill I look at the source code of your post. I can do that as a moderator, but most members cannot, and if any of those members are as old as I am, they too, might have difficulty reading some of your responses, without the recourse available to me. Consider green..or perhaps purple... something darker that old tired eyes can actually see. This is a problem that 18 year old eyes cannot fathom. Yet.

 

Sorry about that.😅

I'm sure my eyes aren't near as bad (yet) but, I am supposed to wear glasses. I just got tired of them messing up. Everything is blurry without them. Like a tree for example. Without glasses it a big brown stump with a big green ball on top. With glasses it's pretty bark and individual leaves. I actually have trouble reading the yellow a little bit myself without my glasses. I can't see details at all without glasses. I kinda quit going to the doctor's though because they kept telling me all these things wrong with me that didn't make much sense. Like how I am getting carpel tunnel. Isn't that something that takes many years to develop? I do have issues in my hands but that seems off. They said other things too but, I just don't see any of it making sense. I know some of it was inherited from my family.

Didn't mean to ramble on. sorry

​​​​​​I will write like this from now on!

 

Not going to tell you what to do, but I would suggest atleast getting a general checkup atleast annually if you can. Aside from the optometrist, I avoided as many doctors as I could for the many years.

I've had good insurance for the last 17 years, had to have it for my job, and I still didn't go. Last November my optemetrist say something concerning in my eyes and wanted me to get my blood sugar checked. I did the next day at an urgent care center and found out my fasting blood sugar was 362 mg/dL, for a normal person it should be between 70 and 100 mg/dL. Two weeks later I was able to get into a doctor for an A1c test and it came back at 12.5, that means that my glucose levels had been averaging 300+ mg/dL for atleast 3 months and basically confirmed that I'm a diabetic. Since November I've been a patient in more doctors offices than I'd entered in the last decade.

I tell that story to say that I wonder if I'd be diabetic now if I'd seen a doctor for regular check-ups over that past decade. I'm someone that most people would look at and never believed I am diabetic, even half the people I tell now don't believe me. I mostly share that I am to explain why I'm avoiding certain foods or a dessert looks really good, or the Krispy Kreme doughnuts someone brought in to work. I wonder if slightly elevated blood sugar could have been caught several years ago, and it could have been prevented from progressing to this stage.

Carpal tunnel can actually develop pretty quickly. Back when I first hired on where I work a lot of mechanics were suddenly being diagnosed with the condidion. Back then we thought it was a problem that people got from using a computer or typewriter, typing a lot. More and more mechanics started getting diagnosed with it kind of killed that idea. Not everyone was affected, but a lot more than expected were and were blaming the symptoms on other things. Turns out doctors just got better at recognizing the signs and could catch it before it advanced to the stage it was actually causing problems. Improved PPE and maintenance practices cut down on those problems a lot. Particularly impact gloves and braces which provided shock protection and wrist support while working. Your doctor may not have been wrong in saying that signs were developing, but that does not mean that it it has or will advance to a stage to cause problems. With the information you can look at what you do that might cause it to advance and take steps to mitigate it.

 

Oh and I too had trouble with the yellow and thought about saying something. I could recognize that there was text there and just highlighted with my cursor to read, so never did. I too will appreciate the change in color.

 

what your saying makes good sense. They also told me to see a cardiovascular doctor. I never did. I probably should. When I went to the hospital for covid, they said my liver was out of whack. I never looked into that either. I probably should have a regular checkup done every year. I thought carpal tunnel was harder to get than that. Interesting to know. Saying it the way you did, about being able to catch things early on and prevent it makes me want to go see the doctor. Thanks!

 

Weed eaters and chainsaws are horrible on your hands for more than short occasional use. Get impact absorbing gloves with the gel palms and fingers for use in your lawn care business. Also helps while on the mower, but it's not as pronounced as with the bigger handheld power tools.

Needle guns, hammer drills, air chisels, stuff that vibrates or impacts. And some stuff that you wouldn't think of like power washing the driveway, lot of small pulsating from that wand. Multi hour 30+ mile bicycling too. Wear some padded absorbing gloves. If your hands are numb after use you already did a lot of nerve damage

 

Should we call you Your Purple Highness from now on?

 

@josht
dude!! That's the quote of the year....lol👍😎

 

Wes is spot on with the carpal tunnel. Impact guns and the like can cause issues. Repeatedly squeezing, twisting, vibrating with the hands seem to be factors.

I also had someone tell me to never hit things with the palm of your hand. You know, the way we all do when working on things…. Since then I have tried not to and when it happens I do notice how hard it shocks the hand.

@josht ,
I’m right there with you on the “not knowing how to meet friends” thing. Been working at a plant for 23 years and spent my free time being a dad. Now that the kids are getting older I’m going to have to find some guys to do stuff with. But I’m awkward when it comes to that. Dad has always been my best friend and who I did everything with. Now that his health is bad we can no longer do things together. Well, not our normal things anyhow.
Too bad all my FTE friends are scattered all over the country. 😕

Tristan,
Man there is no way I would have tackled this project in that weather. The 4wd swap didn’t have to happen right now. I totally would have waited until sunnier days, which I’m sure will come soon down where you’re at.
But this is one of the reasons why everyone loves to follow your threads. You have a vision then nothing will stop you until it’s complete. It’s fun to watch your flurry of activity from our easy chairs.

 

Watch out for these signs from lack of socialization:

1. Poor self-esteem
2. Depression
3. Loss of reality
4. Increased tumor risk
5. Body chills
6. Generalized fearfulness
7. Uncomfortable around other dogs… waitaminnit…

 

I permit the access to call me as such!

 

Added a set of these to the "spring time purchase" when I pick up a Stihl FS131R to keep the tall grass around the pond under control. I did not know these gloves existed, thank you sir.

Well that makes sense... Usually when the palm is used as a hammer, all the does is make your hand hurt while you are going to grab a hammer.



Good luck to you Tristan. I was thinking about your task at hand when I saw the snow flurries yesterday afternoon up here.