Messages from Tom Cat - 2

[agate]

This is from Tom Cat (4/21--sorry for the delay):

No, the house is heated with liquid propane. The wood is for heating the workshed. I use about a cord and a half a year. (A cord is a pile 4 X 4 X 8 ft). The logs by the lake landing, like those that fall across the road and drive, need to be removed. It's better to burn them than to pay someone to haul them to a dump.


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Enlargement of the photo:

Nice jack (a young tom) turkey in the front yard a few minutes ago.

[agate]

Tom Cat (Ralph) has been having problems with the Kindle he's been using. Here is the recent conversation about it, in case anyone here can offer helpful suggestions for him. I'm including my replies so people can see what has already been suggested. But I know very little about mobile devices, and have no knowledge of Kindles. Please feel free to correct anything I've said and to offer your suggestions/knowledge:

On Sunday he wrote:

Things are as hectic as ever here. Yes, it looks like the snow is gone for now. Overall we got about 70 inches in this area. Our average is about 50 in. We got over half of that in February.

More later. The Kindle has knocked me off at least 10 times writing this. I think I'm being hacked and I don't know what to do.

Take care. Virtual hugs to all.

This last message took close to 45 minutes. It's driving me nuts.

My reply:

Bear in mind that I've never used a Kindle but I did find this--don't know if it helps:

"Why does my Kindle keep kicking me off the internet? Make sure that Airplane mode is off. Restart your Kindle and any network devices like modems or routers. Check that your Kindle is away from any devices that cause interference (such as microwaves, baby monitors, or other high bandwidth consuming WiFi devices). Confirm other devices connect to the same network."

It's what I got when I asked the Google search--but unfortunately I wasn't able to find the source of that information otherwise.


P.S. Or if the Kindle is more than 5 years old, it might need to be replaced.

His reply:

I think the over 5 years, get a new one is the way to go. Now what I need is to find out if there is someone who can transfer the data I need, and delete all kinds of stuff. Now to go to Oshkosh to go out to lunch and hardware/farm store shopping. ...

I added this:

I've heard good things about GeekSquad for computer fixes--haven't used them but very nearly did once or twice. The thing about electronics is they keep needing updates, and if the device is old enough, it will no longer do the updates--they just won't be available, or at least that's been my experience.

[agate]

I checked in with Ralph and here is his reply:

I'm still here, but having a foggy head half of some days. I've been trying to redress the planks on the handicap ramp and landing. Much scraping, epoxy-filling gouges, sanding, and final painting.I've been doing most work outside between 4 PM and ,8:30 PM. It's around 70° then, and low humidity.

And the sleeping is still a problem. Only get 4 hours in a row, plus another 4 where I'm up every hour. So it's a mixed bag of stuff.

Did get a couple acres of prairie burned.. Zach, the son of the family that will inherit this place and land, helped me with the burns. Things started to green up, and the lupine are up and blooming. Everything is a month or more late. Lupine should have been in full bloom in April.

Time to crawl in just before midnight. As an old colonial prayer goes: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, good Lord, save us! Amen." Take care.

[written today]

Crows getting up close ,& personal. Oscillating sprinkler going on the back lawn to keep everything from browning. Getting ready for another day on the handicap ramp and landing. Need to epoxy some large cracks on some ramp boards, let that dry, then sand and paint them. Time to get going. Take care.

[Ikoiko]

Tom Cat: only foggy-headed for half the day? I am foggy-headed all day and also get very poor sleep. Take care.

[flatcap]

I hear that. I feel tired — which is minimalizing it, to be sure — virtually all of the time. I sleep on and off during the day and night, and almost never get more than three or four hours a crack.

[agate]

^{TomCat's reply:}

I feel for all of you with MS, Parkinson's.. It has to be very frustrating when your mind wants to do one thing, but your body has something else in mind. And age makes things even harder to do rapidly. I remember about 8-10 years after my late wife and I were married, and out bank fishing. We were walking alongside the bank over boulders. She kept telling me [she couldn't] do that. Only when she was diagnosed with MS did I realize that she couldn't feel those rocks under her feet. And today I have some of the same problems. My sight doesn't see stuff on the floor until I kick it.

And people like to help you finish your words before you've said them.. I sometimes say a few explicit words back in obscure foreign languages, like Tagalog or Ojibway or Arapahoe. It reminds me of two Lakota waitresses on the Redbud reservation. Two white ladies were overheard saying,"I wish they would speak American." The waitresses said to each other in Lakota, "So do we."

Good night, and take care. Glad to hear from everyone.

[agate]

Here's what Ralph (Tom Cat) has been up do--fixing up the handicap ramp that was constructed for Cat Dancer:

This is the before and after of the refurbishing of the handicap ramp and platform going into the front door. After messing around with it, from last October , it's finally done. It snowed the night before I was to start on it in October. Finally with about a week of good, hot dry weather, and Zach's help,it's done. Last coat of paint went on Wednesday night, about 8 PM. The day got up to 90°, but cooled down to 75° when I put a final coat of paint on. Lots of scraping, sanding, and epoxy filling cracks and loose knots on the deck boards. Nice to have it done. It's been about 20 years, when some Amish friends put it up for us.

It's been up to 90°F in the middle of the last 3 days, and dry. That deck repaired on hands and knees has really taken it out of me. I'm trying to catch up on four days of dishes, laundry folding, yard grass mowing, and watering everything. And the Kindle is still messed up. Having Jeff, ,Zach's dad, come over at 3 PM to help me get my bank statement up, and some stuff on the Kindle cleared up too.

In the meantime, I'm drinking a lot of juices, apple, cranberry, orange, and milk & water. Doing a gallon or more of liquids each day. Well, time to get busy, trying to catch up with things. Take care, and virtual hugs to you all.

[Ikoiko]

Nice job!

[Virginia]

Ramp and steps look really nice, Ralph! I am glad you have finished because its going to get even hotter than it has been.

[agate]

Though I've transmitted your replies to Tom Cat (Ralph), the only replies I've had the last two times he has just sent back a thumbs-up sign. I take that to mean that he is letting us know he is OK but maybe too busy to communicate, or maybe having problems with the system he is using. He has mentioned several times that he wishes he could find help in learning more about how to use a computer or Kindle but so far I don't think much help has been forthcoming. His out-of-the-way location doesn't make it easy to line up a tech person for a personal consultation.

So maybe we should wait a while and keep contacting him from time to time? I'm afraid that if I called him, he wouldn't be able to learn much from me over the phone, particularly since I've never used a Kindle. He needs a real tech person, I think.

[Virginia]

I think that is a good idea Agate. We don't want him to feel any pressure to answer us when he is having a hard time doing it. We do want to know that he is doing well.

[flatcap]

<snip> ~~~ Posted in the wrong place.

[agate]

At last a message from Tom Cat (Ralph):

I'm doing fair to middling as they say in the old country. I've been staying inside on the really hot days. By most evenings I'm tired and under the weather. I'm not in the mood to be sociable, or writing letters. My close contact of talking with people is the hour or so when I have a blood draw and shot to increase my hemoglobin. I've been isolated for several years now. My main aches & pains are all the joints in the body, trying to keep everything inside and out in order.

I have a few close friends about 300 miles away, but don't know if I should try driving up there any more. I'm an extrovert living as an introvert.

If anything takes me down it'll be stress. For the joint pain, a couple of ibuprofen pills a couple times a week does fine. Blurry vision after reading for a half hour or so is a real problem. I'm to have a glaucoma test in a week or so. Not looking forward to that, but knowing I need it.

I'm going to take a break here and want to get back to happy things happening too. And I thank you for sending this on, and the messages from Ikoiko, Virginia, and others. You keep me going, more than you'll ever know. Take care and virtual hugs to everyone.

[Virginia]

So.glad.to hear from Ralph, though he does sound somewhat down. Don't pass this on. I will write to him later so he will not feel pressured to respond right away. He sounds sad.

[agate]

I thought he sounded sad too, Virginia. He's posted a long message with photos since then, and I'll try to transfer them over here some time soon, I hope today.