Staying sane? - 3rd week of stay-at-home order for us.

[Joe Kuhn]

Since I work as a programmer during the day and have been on my machine quite a bit at night, I really needed to do something different.

I went back to an old hobby of small engine repair. (I know, way off topic) Our mail lady asked if she could drop off a chain saw that her husband was not about to fix. I said sure. I left it in the garage for a couple of days and decided to look at it today.

Drained the gas out of it and the fuel filter fell out with the gas. Looked inside and saw the hose from the filter to the exit was disconnected too. Exit hose is black. Piece of hose to filter was laying in the bottom of the tank.

So how do you fix this, particularly because that exit fixture is on the other side of the tank? My needle nose pliers wouldn't reach it with a new piece of hose and I wasn't about to go to the hardware store (stay at home!) for a longer pliers, although I could really use one like this:

I took the old hose out with a strong pull from above and threaded a new one through with a wire. See concept below. You trim the hose on an angle, pull it through from the inside of the tank on out, and you'll just be able to get the tip of the hose with a pliers. Pull and you're done.

Connect all the pieces and it's fixed:

I get to see if it starts tomorrow.

Have also been watching Quantastic on YouTube. The creativity of these artists can be amazing. Makes me wonder if there are any XF forums for artists. Would like to visit.

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What have you been doing at home to stay sane?

 

[drastic]

Download the TikTok app and you'll be amused for hours just sitting there watching everyone do the same dance and all the 15 second funny videos.

 

[Paul B]

I'd rather catch the virus ...

 

[drastic]

I'd rather catch the virus ...

You probably will from that app..... lol

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Here's an article I find worthwhile. Written by my college professor who's involved in the Mindful Kindness movement in Eugene, Oregon.

Their website here

The article:

 

[Jay™]

Our lake lot will be open soon, Home office move to lake lot for the summer (and no TikToK)

 

[Joe Kuhn]

The part at the bottom of that article is particularly relevant: 5 to 1 pos-to-neg with the wife during this extra time at home.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

My new rule: leave the food in the kitchen!

 

[Shelley]

I've been on this lockdown/self isolation for 5-6 weeks, 2 and a half weeks before the official uk lockdown because i had a sniffly nose (probably had the cold) and got sent home from work. Driving me nuts so much so I de-lidded a cpu on one of my older water cooler pcs because of the boredom.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I've been on this lockdown/self isolation for 5-6 weeks, 2 and a half weeks before the official uk lockdown because i had a sniffly nose (probably had the cold) and got sent home from work. Driving me nuts so much so I de-lidded a cpu on one of my older water cooler pcs because of the boredom.

Are you going to replace the cpu? I did that once. Worked better after.

 

[Shelley]

It's in one of my old rigs and the temperature on stress test doesn't hit above 20c running at 4.2ghz. Because the silicon doesn't sit flush with the water block I had to cut a square piece of copper so it sat flush and got the max cooling. I would have liked to have sat the water block directly onto the silicon (cores) but that wasn't an option I reckon I would have gotten lower temps.

I've got a second reservoir feeding the 2 GFX cards separately so that lowered temps (in theory) as it's got it's own pump and dedicated loop.

It is an old threadripper /1080ti system so I wasn't bothered if I damaged it but it all worked out and it's been sitting there idle ever since. It was just something to do at the time after watching some videos on the net.

 

[Mendalla]

Well, I spent last weekend doing admin work on my board. (was behind up on some updates to styles and add-ons, identified and dealt with some security risks, that sort of stuff)

I am participating in a bible study on my board (it's nominally a religion-themed board but you wouldn't know it at times).

Been viewing a Great Courses lecture series on Arthurian literature (something I was into in my teens and twenties but have kind of neglected in recent years)

Generally staying sane but I'm a introverted sort who doesn't have much of a life outside home base anyway. Do miss going to work and seeing my team in person but the commute is a lot shorter now.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

It's in one of my old rigs and the temperature on stress test doesn't hit above 20c running at 4.2ghz. Because the silicon doesn't sit flush with the water block I had to cut a square piece of copper so it sat flush and got the max cooling. I would have liked to have sat the water block directly onto the silicon (cores) but that wasn't an option I reckon I would have gotten lower temps.

I've got a second reservoir feeding the 2 GFX cards separately so that lowered temps (in theory) as it's got it's own pump and dedicated loop.

It is an old threadripper /1080ti system so I wasn't bothered if I damaged it but it all worked out and it's been sitting there idle ever since. It was just something to do at the time after watching some videos on the net.

Had to look up "threadripper" to see what that is. It's a cpu brand. At first I thought you were doing your own hosting a while ago and maybe had thoughts of doing it again. In that case a forum hosting machine could be affectionately referred to as a "threadripper". Hah! I once did a wiki for the Kuhn family, but they didn't like it and stayed with the email option for family communication. That has fallen away too. My immediate family, as in brothers and sisters are into texting now and sending nice photos and short videos.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Well, I spent last weekend doing admin work on my board. (was behind up on some updates to styles and add-ons, identified and dealt with some security risks, that sort of stuff)

I am participating in a bible study on my board (it's nominally a religion-themed board but you wouldn't know it at times).

Been viewing a Great Courses lecture series on Arthurian literature (something I was into in my teens and twenties but have kind of neglected in recent years)

Generally staying sane but I'm a introverted sort who doesn't have much of a life outside home base anyway. Do miss going to work and seeing my team in person but the commute is a lot shorter now.

I know what you mean by introverted type. Have never liked meetings at work, but Zoom meetings are kind of fun because you can stay muted and we don't do video into everyone's private space.

You're reminding me of the admin work I need to do as well. I've been wanting to get the Robots add-on installed so I can tell the difference between people visitors and automated ones. Some of my guests are surely NOT real people as they are often on my site and have names like 'securi' and 'crawl' in their URLs. That is, after I get some of my other hobbies completed. I fix small engines and with the spring weather here people are bringing me the lawn mowers and chain saws. The ethanol in gasoline keeps me in business there. That stuff goes bad over the winter every time and clogs up the carburetors.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Well, I spent last weekend doing admin work on my board. (was behind up on some updates to styles and add-ons, identified and dealt with some security risks, that sort of stuff)

I am participating in a bible study on my board (it's nominally a religion-themed board but you wouldn't know it at times).

Been viewing a Great Courses lecture series on Arthurian literature (something I was into in my teens and twenties but have kind of neglected in recent years)

Generally staying sane but I'm a introverted sort who doesn't have much of a life outside home base anyway. Do miss going to work and seeing my team in person but the commute is a lot shorter now.

Visited your board and it's so clean and nice looking. I'm thinking of joining if you allow non-Christians. Spiritual discussions can be great with a neutral component. What do you think?

 

[Russ]

I've worked from home for the past seven years so no change there. My wife is a nurse so she still goes in as normal, a little extra overtime but still a normal routine on her floor. I've had a home gym for the past three years so not missing out there. The only thing that's driving me a little insane is the kids being home more than normal.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I've worked from home for the past seven years so no change there. My wife is a nurse so she still goes in as normal, a little extra overtime but still a normal routine on her floor. I've had a home gym for the past three years so not missing out there. The only thing that's driving me a little insane is the kids being home more than normal.

I don't know how you guys with kids manage. I see neighbors with little ones home all day and wonder if they're getting their school work done. I know the ones next door are, but the others seem to be outside most of the day - and mingling with other kids next to them. I guess it's "all one big family" for them. Home schooling with the help of regular teachers has become the norm in my family, but they're all in different parts of the US now.

I have one kid left at home, but he's 22 and studying all kinds of things on the internet - all the time. He loves science, machine tool work and even comedy via some of Jerry Seinfeld's great video series.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I've worked from home for the past seven years so no change there. My wife is a nurse so she still goes in as normal, a little extra overtime but still a normal routine on her floor. I've had a home gym for the past three years so not missing out there. The only thing that's driving me a little insane is the kids being home more than normal.

Considering Evolve as shown on your site. Actually I better get some members first! Heh.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

...

Shelley, you should put a link to your site in your signature, so we can check it out.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Nice chatting with you all. Back to my other hobbies for now...