The Shanty

I haven’t written in such a long time! I guess I was going through a combination of rethinking my survival preparation plans, dealing with work, not having great internet access, and also lacking time. I suppose the only good excuse of the four is not having great internet access. It’s hard to post when you can’t. Well, that’s not quite true. I can get onto my blog from the work computer and post whenever I want. The problem with that is work has a very intrusive email and internet system. We can’t get onto personal email, youtube, ebay, and the like but yes to blogs? Doesn’t make sense to me. Everything we send and receive through their system is documented as ours. I do not wish for them to document my blog.

Work has been interesting. I made it through my first year and didn’t get fired or laid off. About 10% of our division is now gone…most laid off or retired. My supervisor? Outright fired. It’s really ugly at the office. On the other hand, (and isn’t there always one when I write?) I do really like the group of people I work with. But I trust the executives in this company so much less than I trust the executives in this government… So I do my work, I cause minor amounts of irritation, and hopefully I will keep the position for another 3 years and 10 months until I am fully vested and can leave. Of course, I can leave before then (first goal is 18 months from now) but I will be leaving quite a bit of money on the table from the 401k. We will see…

I have done quite a lot of thinking and rethinking about my survival plans. You hear so much about needing to relocate to less populated places, and I agree that the middle of a big city during a total meltdown would be terrible, but I don’t think the less populated places are all that great either. I am not going to pack up and move out of state…probably. (You never know what twists and turns life brings.) I read stories about other states that are so much better for survivalists and those states have some totally crazy rules and regulations that I don’t wish to abide by either! And many of those states are getting worse by the year. So I’m settled here, I will plan for here.

What brings moving up? I had the opportunity to purchase my friend’s property. I like the place. It’s over 80 acres, with ponds, some fruit trees, a nice house, etc. But the political landscape of that state is as crazy as here. I also have the Bug-out property. Son is living there with his family. I was going to put time and money into that place. Then the drug dealers moved into the neighborhood. That area has always had some crime…amazing that a population of 250 people or so in a 10 mile area can spend their life “borrowing” things from their neighbors. But now it’s ugly. High fences going up. Guard dogs that get out and eat neighbor livestock. Hope it changes, but it’s not really going to be my go-to place anymore.

I may still purchase some other go-to Bug-out place. I have been spending more time in the wilderness and know where many backwoods camps are. They are great in years like now, with little snow. Put 10 feet or so of snow on the ground and I’m not wanting to be there either. So, for now, it’s my five acres of paradise in the Great Central Valley of California. Oh yes, I do have water unlike many of the farmers that are desperately in need.

So then what am I rethinking? Am I doing it right? While I love this property, as long as I have to work full-time somewhere else I just don’t have time to do everything that I want or need to do. So instead I decided to rethink the way I am prepping. Do I need the monster garden to grow all of our food? Do I need to can 600 cans of fruits, vegetables, and meats each year? Do I need to store 20 boxes of crackers only to have to feed them to the chickens when they get stale? Do I need 30 or 40 chickens? What changes to the house should I be making? What changes to the yard should I be making? Do I need more fruit trees? Should I be making olive oil now? Can anything be just for fun or does it all have to do with prepping? How should I balance contributing to a 401k compared to paying off the house compared to stocking up preps? Do we dare go on a vacation away from home? How far away is not too far? How do I really predict a collapse of society or is it just happening in front of us everyday and we as a whole can’t see that the flame is just being turned up underneath the dancing chicken?

I’m not going to go into all of my decisions today. Then what would I have to write about? Girl and Boy? They are growing up. Girl is in jr. hi. At least it’s a K-8 school so while there are jr. hi issues, it’s not the same as a real jr. hi. Still drama. Just got a text from one of her girlfriends…”If you are killed I won’t be at your funeral…I’ll be in jail for killing the person who killed you because I love you. Pass this email along so you will have good luck with everyone who loves you.” No, Girl won’t be passing that email along.

About a month or two ago girl decided to build her own house. She keeps asking for me to buy her a shed that she can move into. No, I’m not spending the money on a house for you. Earn or build your own. So she did. At the back of the property, under the fig trees, she built what I call “the shanty”. It’s a little homeless shelter looking thing built out of scrap she found in our scrap pile and in the neighbor’s scrap pile. The neighbors had a lounge chair frame which she fixed and covered with seat cushions. She built a table out of scraps of wood. She has a bookshelf, sealed boxes for food, and a container for clothes. She brought matches and a candle out there. I promptly brought it back into the house and told her no fires. She hasn’t though about taking one of the solar walkway lights to use for lighting. They would work just fine until about midnight or so when they would go out. If she put a good backup battery into it the thing would be able to stay lit all night.

Unfortunately for her, she is afraid of the dark so she won’t sleep in it. She does go out there on weekends during the day. The other day she left the phone in it so I told her she had to go get it. Unfortunately it had just gotten dark. Even with my best flashlight, she was not going to walk the ¼ mile on a moonless night. So I made her sit out on the back patio for about an hour until I was done with what I was doing. Then we walked together to the back. She got the phone and we started walking back to the house. I told her to close her eyes. She did. Then I turned the flashlight off. It took her about a minute to get her bearings but then we walked back to the house without the flashlight. The stars can light your way if you let them. If you adjust your eyes you can see quite well. The problem is when you have lights on or near the ground, these interfere with the light from the sky. When we were getting closer to the house the neighbor’s bright light really did make it more difficult to see right in front of us. Blinded by the light!

So am I. There is so much information being thrown at us that we are blinded. So stepping back and then figuring out how to look forward has been made a little easier. I will write about my changes. Just not today! I plan on making time to post at least once a week. I sure do miss writing daily but this new job does not allow me the free time.

I'm still here!

I do still exist.  I will be back to writing soon.  In fact, I think this weekend.  Sorry for the two month (almost three) break.  All is well...

Coming soon to a feed store near you - No more animal antibiotics for sale

Supposedly the FDA has a new voluntary program that is getting rid of antibiotics used in animal feed and in drinking water.  Now I don't want to get into it with people as to whether the use of these antibiotics is the source of all our antimicrobial resistance issues we face.  All I know is that the FDA is now making this "voluntary" to remove them from the feed.  But we all know that voluntary doesn't really mean voluntary.  The FDA has now decreed that the antibiotics for animals are to go from over-the-counter (OTC) to prescription by a veterinarian. 

What does this mean to me?  Right now I can order "animal" antibiotics on-line or even purchase them at the local feed store.  In three years, this will be phased out.  Animal antibiotics, that can also be used for people, won't be easily (or cheaply - have you noticed they are much less expensive for the animals than they are for people) available.  Now this is supposed to be in effect for meat animals including chickens, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, etc.  I assume that "fish" meds are still going to be available.  But who knows.  The far reaching FDA may ban that as well, after all, we eat fish too. 

If the final ban takes place in three years, I'm sure it will be phased out and unavailable much sooner.  It's time to make sure we are stocked up.  It's also time to do more research to see how long these meds will last in our storage program. 

Bugs, the cold, and having some fun

Next week I will have been here at my “new” job for a year.  I noticed that my postings dropped drastically over the past year.  I used to post between 200-300 per year, but this year, not even close to 100.  There were a few reasons for it, some I’ve whined about in past posts…

 

I only sort of have the internet issue sorted out at home.  Tethering my phone to my computer works well but I’m always worried that I will use too much of the allowance and have a killer bill.  I haven’t gone over yet, but it’s still a worry.  I will probably just spend another $10 a month and my worries will be over.  

Most of my prepping at home has come to a halt, at least when I compare it to what I’ve done over the past few years.  I just don’t have time to do much of anything.  When the job was four long days at least I had all day Friday to work uninterrupted on things.  Now I’m gone five semi-long days.  On the weekend we only have one day to play catch-up with all the chores and the other day we are in town for much of the day.  In a way it’s good to be stretched too thin.  If TSHTF we would be pulled in so many different directions that something would have to get put onto the back burner.  This is a good test to see what can be pushed aside that at one time was thought to be high priority.  

Well, I say it’s halted but it hasn’t really.  The pastures are planted in the different grains, and I’m hoping that they rooted enough before we got the freezing weather.  I guess spring will tell.  The sheep are still eating leaves off the mulberry trees.  Probably only one more good rain and the rest of the leaves will fall.  I do feel sorry for them and give them a flake of hay every few days but that’s my brain, they really don’t need it.  

The chickens are on scratch only.  Their egg laying is over until spring.  I have more chickens than we need for egg production and there's no reason to keep feeding them.  I am going to pick out about 1/3 of the chickens and butcher them.

Last winter I put up plastic sheeting at the front porch and also in front of the family room area.  While it did keep those spaces a little warmer, I didn’t like the overall effect of not being able to see out those windows.  I would like to enclose that one space in front of the family room but my money priority isn’t that.  I’m still trying to figure out how to keep the house warmer during the winter.  The ceilings are insulated as are the walls.  Years ago in another house I put plastic on the inside of the windows to make an air space.  I am going to try that again to see if it works.  Same thing with my bedroom.  It’s always at least 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house if I am not running the central heat.  Those windows I will cover with plastic this week.  

Bugs got into some of the rice.  When I buy rice in the 25 pound bag I put it into the freezer before it ever makes it into the house.  After a week or two or a month (depending on if I need the freezer space) I take it out and put it into plastic buckets.  Normally I pour the rice into mylar bags, but for some reason I just put these store sacks into the bucket.  Perhaps I had extra rice that didn’t fit into the mylar bags, or I had filled my rice can in the kitchen, or something.  I just can’t remember why the rice was stored this way.  I’m assuming the little larva that was crawling around in the sacks of rice found their way into this bucket with a flimsy lid.  It just makes me wonder what else has bugs crawling around in it.  I am going to open a bucket of rice with the rice stored in mylar.  Hopefully that won’t have any bugs.  

I’ve also realized that I can’t store crackers so I no longer buy those in bulk.  The grandkids like one kind, then another, then another.  My normal is to buy for a year or so at a time.  Unfortunately, the oil, shortening, fat, or whatever they use in crackers goes bad quickly.  They end up tasting horrible and nobody wants to eat them.  Instead I have stocked up on cracker recipes and can make batches if necessary.  I still buy crackers but only a box or two at a time and they are usually gone before my next shopping trip.    I still have over a year worth of food stored and other supplies.  But I am changing my tactics.  I am going to purchase more freeze dried foods for the future and not concentrate on as much of a variety of everyday items.  No more having 10 varieties of crackers.  No more having 20 varieties of soup.  We don’t need that much variety.  

I also keep trying to reduce the stuff in the house.  I know other people make money on Craigslist or E-bay.  The only thing I’ve had much luck with is selling sheep.  Nothing else seems to sell so I am making a lot of donations rather than making some extra money.  

We had fun at Thanksgiving.  We ended up going down to San Diego sister’s house. I brought an extra grandkid (the 6 year old).  We went on a cruise around the San Diego harbor.  On the way home we stopped off at the Nixon Presidential Library.  The kids liked walking through Army 1.  We also went to Knott’s Berry Farm.  Girl loved the scary rides.  Boy wasn’t quite there yet but did go on a couple of rides that roll you upside down.  The six year old was quite happy with Camp Snoopy rides.  I did get him onto the tower that’s like the Space Needle.  You could see downtown LA.  He wasn’t really comfortable with it because it went up high.  He loved the baby roller coaster so I thought to myself, “why not try a big one?” For our last family ride, (yes I did get Girl and Boy to go on the baby rides) we choose a roller coaster that the six year old was tall enough for.  I kept telling him that he would have fun. Boy and Girl sat together and little Boy and I sat together.  In the middle of the ride, little one screamed so I said “isn’t this fun?” His response, “I HATE THIS RIDE!”  Well he survived.  He repeated his statement several more times.  I thought I ruined his experience.  No.  After he got over that, several times he thanked me for bringing him.  “It was so much fun!”  

One of the things I like about Knott’s Berry Farm is the shootout.  The sheriff always shoots the Bank Robber.  Yes, real looking guns and loud bangs with every shot.  I also like some of the old-time craft demonstrations that the kids can watch.  Normally I don’t buy much, but we did indulge in one item.  They had a bucket filled with snow and a pot filled with heated maple syrup.  The person poured a stream of maple syrup across the snow (about one foot in length) then put a large Popsicle stick on one end and rolled it up into a frozen maple syrup sucker.  Not having lived in the snow ever or even spending much time in it (other than now working in it) I had never seen this done.  It was delicious and of course it was a race to see if you could eat it before it all melted back into gooey maple syrup.  I wonder if you can do it with fake maple syrup, aka known as Log Cabin or cheap store brand, or homemade syrup with Mapleine flavoring and sugar water. If so, it’s a good treat to be added to our preps.

Keeping track of what you buy

I was out hanging laundry this morning and the next door neighbor told me that the rabbits are now eating his irrigation hose.  I pulled mine up and they still want to eat black hose so they just moved over 50 feet and found his.  I suggested we trick them and leave some chewed up hose laying around.  Maybe they won't eat his good hose.  He suggested trapping them and eating them.  Good idea.  Do you want to borrow my traps?

I was in Home Depot the other day buying the parts needed to put in the sprinklers for the raspberries. I overheard one couple talking about what type of lamp they were going to purchase. In the middle of the conversation the lady remembered that she had already purchased the lamp and it was stored away in the closet waiting for the day they would install it. They almost made the purchase again. We've all done that. Gone to the store to buy something that we already had.

I do that a lot but most of the time I do so because I don't want to use the “spare” at home. I'd rather always have an extra as long as I have the ability to go to the store and buy another. There are a couple of issues here. One is remembering what you have on hand. The other is knowing where to look for it. Now my mother has an even bigger issue. She knows where it is but can't get to it because there's so much stacked in front of it. She will just go to the store and buy more.

Christmas is coming. Yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet. Do you have your wrapping paper? Did you buy it last year after Christmas? Do you know where it is? I remember years ago, when the day after Christmas sales started at the early hour of 8:00 in the morning (stores didn't open until 10 normally). My sister and I would hang out together and hit all the sales so we could store it for the next year or two. It was a good idea because we bought a supply of a couple of years and we actually used it until it was almost gone. Then we'd repeat the shopping spree. Great bonding time! On the other end of this spectrum is someone like my mother who probably has 50 rolls of wrapping paper. But for the next holiday she will go out and buy more because it's easier to buy more than to move boxes around to get to what she has.

So, while I was at Home Depot overhearing that couple, I was wondering to myself about how many things most people buy intending to do that project on our next rainy day bit of free time. I have an ongoing project list. It's never ending. I mean, does anyone ever have a project list that is ever complete? Right now my list includes repairing the trailer vent (I bought and repaired two. I needed 3), winter trim the fruit trees, repair the garden beds, clean out the center barn, fix the chipper, fix the kids shower knob, rewax both toilets, paint the laundry room, and the list goes on and on. I can purchase items in advance for many of these projects. For these projects I need one vent cover, trailer bathroom vent fan, screw driver, electrical tape, ladder, 3 dozen 6” nails, drill, gas hose, pliers, a slip ring and the pliers for it, a new knob, toilet wax rings, paint, brushes, etc. On the list next to each project I write down items necessary, what is on hand and what needs to be purchased.

For example, to fix the trailer vents I need to purchase one more cover and a vent fan. I have the ladder, screw driver, and electrical tape. Even if I wasn't planning on completing this task for another month or so, or six, if I bought the vent and fan I'd check them off on the list. That project could get completed at any time. (Like before the rain!)

Tonight we had fried chicken and fried zucchini. Sometimes I'm just in a mood for fried food. The three year old granddaughter is over for the night and she helped me pick the zucchini. Yes, it's the middle of November and I'm still picking zucchini from the garden. In 16 years of gardening here in the Great Central Valley I've never had zucchini, eggplant, and even tomatoes still flowering in November!

At bedtime the little one asked if she could wear Girl's pjs from when she was little.  Sure.  I pulled out two of the four pairs of Girls pjs from when she was three.  Do you want the two piece thermals or the one-piece foot pjs with the long zipper? She chose the one-piece today.  I have really cut back on how many clothes I keep on hand for just-in-case.  With all the hand-me-downs plus the few I bought for Girl she had drawers stuffed with clothes.  Just because a little one may have 20 t-shirts doesn't mean I need to keep all 20.  Two or three is plenty.  The younger grandkids all come with a bag of clothes to use during their stay, but they always want to wear Girl's or Boy's clothes from when they were little.  It's cute. 

I was told I'm keeping my job. I'm glad, but a part of me was really wishing I'd have gotten laid off. I'm not quite financially ready to not have a job, but we would have managed, and I would have been able to really concentrate on working here on the property. But, this means that although I don't have much time to spend concentrating on prepping, the money is still there to be able to purchase prep items.

 

I've gotten used to the new cell phone already.  No more bouts of frustration.  I do have to watch how much time I'm tethering the phone to the computer but so far, so good.   

  

Stop eating the hose!

I am back on line.  Obvious since you are reading this.  I am still frustrated with the new phone but it's getting a little better each day.  I can plug the phone into my desktop computer and it will get on-line that way.  I was talking to a friend and he sent me some links to put into the new phone which would turn it into a hotspot, which I was told will use less of my Internet allowance.  So I tried doing that and hooking it to the desktop.  It didn't work.  How was I to know the desktop didn't have the right parts in it?  Then I tried it on girl's computer.  Still didn't work.  It didn't dawn on my that when I had the Internet card it always had to be plugged into those computers.  There wasn't anything just streaming over the air.  But the work computer, now that's a different story.  I can use the WiFi part of the phone with the work laptop.  So rather than have the phone plugged into the computer in my library I'm sitting on my bed with the computer on my lap. 

 

Now I know most of you are snickering that this is simple stuff.  It's simple if you know and understand it.  It's foreign to someone who doesn't.  Just like last week when I got the new phone.  I didn't know how to use it at all.  Girl set the alarm for the phone to go off at the end of the workday and I had to ask one of the young employees how to shut the alarm off.  Then I downloaded the 204 pages of instructions for the phone and printed it up.  Great bedtime reading.  Prior to that, I was talking to a friend on the phone and he said, "just tap the phone and ask it how to do that. It will tell you."  "What? My phone will talk to me?" If you have no experience with the technology then you don't know what you don't know!  So now I know...sort of.

 

I pulled the irrigation hose out front because the rabbits had eaten through it.  The neighbor said he hasn't had a problem because he keeps his hose out in the open rather than tucking it under the plants.  He said that with the cars traveling down the road the rabbits won't go into the open to eat the hoses.  Sounds good to me.  That may work at his house but not mine.  I didn't replace the irrigation hose.  Instead I bought another 100 feet of garden hose.  I decided to just hand water the raspberries.  I watered them.  Pulled most of the hose back up the driveway and felt good that the plants got watered.  I went back outside a couple days later and watered again.  This works.  Sure it's not as convenient as the irrigation hose and just turning a knob but the weather is great, it gives me a little peace and quiet to go out and water, and I'm making sure that the plants are watered.  After all, we haven't had any rain in a long time.  A couple days ago I went back out to water again and no water came out of the nozzle.  Those kids.  I'm sure they undid one of the couplings.  After all I have about 600 feet of hose all connected together.  So I walked the hose line to see where it was undone.  It wasn't.  There were huge holes in the garden hose.  In three different places! 

 

I can't shoot the rabbits because I'd either be shooting at the road or at the house.  Neither is an option.  I can't poison them because there are quail in the same area and I wouldn't want the birds to eat the poison.  No, I just have to outsmart them.  I repaired the hose but I can't keep doing that.  I give up. Can't give up.  That's not an option.

 

Today I bought irrigation pipe.  I am not going to bury it, instead it is going to get strapped on to the fencing about 3 feet off the ground.  I bought risers and 1/2 circle sprinkler heads.  No more drip irrigation for the front.  It's heavy duty now.  These raspberries are cosing me a fortune!  I could buy raspberries forever and probably not spend as much money as this irrigation mess has cost.  I just have to remember that it's not just the raspberries.  It's a barrier between the house and the road.  I have the fencing and then three feet wide and four feet high of brush pile and then the raspberries in front of the brush.  Maybe next summer we will actually get some raspberries to pick.  Then I'll forget all about the rabbits destroying my irrigation.

 

The thought has crossed my mind about how I would get this stuff watered if TSHTF.  I have a lot of plants and trees that need water.  The mulberries are almost old enough to grow without being watered.  The olives don't need water, nor do the figs.  Everything else around here has to be irrigated.  If I had to carry everything out by bucket I would spend hours each day watering.  In order to run water through the hoses you need to have good pressure.  We have a pressure tank so I wonder if we hand pumped the water into a large holding tank and then this water went into the pressure tank so run the irrigation?  If TSHTF I may want things along the road to look dead anyway.  It wouldn't be a good idea to have everything around me lush and green when everyone else around has everything dead. 

 

Girl was in a Veteran's Day parade over the weekend.  We had dinner tonight with Army daughter and Navy son-in-law.  I called military brother and wished him well.  There's a big parade in the city tomorrow that we may attend.  Other than that, tomorrow the irrigation is being put in.  The rabbits are going to have to learn how to jump if they want to eat any more of my hose. 

Life without Internet

Have you thought about what your life would be like without the Internet?  We found out this week, and I sure was in for a few surprises.  I do have Internet at work but I can't get onto any non-work email or blogging sites, or many sites I normally visit.  Some I can, but do I really want work to see that I'm getting onto a survivalist site?  No.  Same with my banking.  Do I want work to see what's in my account since they can be a ghost on your computer at any time.  Never!  And at home we had nothing.

My last job provided me with Internet access at home.  I had a wireless card that they paid for each month.  All was great.  When I left that job they never shut the Internet card down.  For 10 months it continued to run.  At first I assumed it was because I was still helping out by running a class for them but a couple months ago I was told that they would be running the class themselves and I didn't need to help at all.  OK.  But the Internet kept coming.  Until last week.

I got on the computer and so Internet.  I reset the card.  Nothing.  I reset the computer.  Nothing.  I tried the card on a different computer.  Nothing.  It's shut off.  I didn't have time to go purchase something else.  Someone said I could tether my phone to my computer.  I've seen it done before.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a smart enough smart phone.  I couldn't do it.  Today I had to upgrade my phone.  Now, I just plug the phone into the computer and away I go. 

But for almost a week there was no Internet.  It got me wondering about how I'm using it and what would happen with a real Internet disruption.  So what if there's no Facebook.  I would miss email since it's the main way I communicate with most of my relatives.  But texting would work, if the phones were still working.  But what about my banking?  What about using the Internet to research or entertain? What about me chronicling what I'm doing by writing this blog?  It's much easier to do on the large computer screen and the real computer keyboard. 

Paying the bills?  Most of my bills pay automatically so I don't really have to worry about them.  As long as I get paid there's enough to pay the bills.  It's almost autopilot, although I do pay close attention anyway.  I don't have very many bills being sent to me anymore.  Just a few years ago I was getting bills sent and also getting them on-line.  I changed my mind on most of the bills and now very few are sent in a hard copy - but I make copies every couple of months so I do have hard copies around.  How would I know what I owed if I didn't have access to a computer?  It was disconcerting not being able to track it easily, even if it was just a week.  I could get on to the banking site on my old phone but it was hard to do much once I got there.  This new phone is easier and running the computer is even easier.  But what if it went away? 

I couldn't check out the weather forecast on any of the Internet sites using the computer.  I turned on my weather radio instead.  I couldn't look up some information that Boy was questioning me on.  He was also writing a report on New York City.  We couldn't look up to do the research.  I pulled out one of my book boxes of "Know Your America" that I collected 45 years ago...it couldn't really have been that long ago, was it?  Most of his questions could be answered by these booklets from the 60s the rest of his research had to be completed at school.

I sure got a lot of things done around the property this weekend.  A couple of times I went in to the library here at home and looked at the computer.  Definite withdrawals!  Oh why won't you work?  Instead, since it was a beautiful day outside, I hit the chore list and got a huge amount accomplished. 

Saturday night I went to the football game.  The grand kids got left home since the game didn't even start until 7:30.  At least the game ended at 11:00.  Fresno State 8-0!  The last 7:30 game ended at midnight!  I was home at midnight and changed all the clocks back an hour.  Good, an extra hour to sleep.  Glad I changed the clock because Boy came in at 6:30.  When are you getting up?  I told him to go make some breakfast and that I would get up at 8 to make a cooked breakfast.  He only came in one other time.  Drives me crazy, but a good crazy.

I finally dragged myself out of bed and made a great homemade breakfast.  Home grown potatoes, eggs, and some chicken sausage.  Homemade (but store bought wheat) bread and home grown and made jam.  Even the orange juice came from the garden.  Army daughter and Son-in-law were supposed to come over today to help with chores and to "pay down" what they owe me.  They never showed up.  Not surprised.  Boy, Girl, and I washed the car. Boy even when out to give the chickens food and water without my asking. Girl even unloaded the dishwasher without making it seem like I was asking for the moon.  Who are these children?????  Was it because I was more available because I wasn't sitting on the computer for an hour?  I don't know.  Maybe not having the computer available isn't such a bad thing after all - except I would miss reading what everyone else is doing.