Win 11 made me think ios meets macOS with some chromwbook features. To actually do anything useful you have to use the terminal or know how to access certain settings, that i think shouldnt be hidden. And im not about to learn more proprietary higher lvl programming. There were 2 huge turn offs of windows 11 for me though. One had to do with having to disable only being able to install things from the microshit store. The other had to do with security. As i stated above, i run a hardware firewall for the entire network. Individual devices do not need antivirus software. Ive uninstalled McAfee and every time windows updates it reinstalls it. Then the 2 options it gives you are install now or install later. So i contacted both McAfee and microshit and was told i either needed to upgrade my subscription ($$) and use THIER software to properly uninstall it or buy a specific unistaller though the windows store and it wasnt free. Microsoft rech support also tried to tell me i needed the avs and having multiple avs wont hurt anything and the network conflict could be fixed if i turned off the server/router. So being the computer literate hacker that i am and only having 3 days of win 11 experience i went into the registry. Not sure how but win 11 has no gui now. Im loving the new Ubuntu.

I probably could build a bunch of crappy computers with the random hardware i have upstairs. Before the pandemic i was building crappy computers for kids in the area that didnt have them and couldnt afford them. The school passed out tablets so the kids dont need comps now.

Surgery or chemical.  I had the chemical done on the palms of my hands - never again!  I've never felt so much pain!! NEVER!!!!!

Can't remember the name of the routine ...

aljones wrote:

Surgery or chemical.  I had the chemical done on the palms of my hands - never again!  I've never felt so much pain!! NEVER!!!!!

Can't remember the name of the routine ...

If conservative treatment doesn't work (or if there is risk of permanent loss of Bryce function, then surgery it shall be. I see the hand surgeon on Thursday - i gather loss of function is a bit of a red flag that gets seen immediately.

Never heard of a chemical treatment - but wasn't this a DePuyten's contracture? Think they possibly use enzyme treatments to discover the fibrous tissue. Old fashioned treatment for ganglions was smash it with a book

Right you are, it was a DePuytrans contracture - couldn't remember the name - and yes it was enzyme rather than chemical. But when they inject something that's supposed to dissolve the sheath around the tendon, in my lay book, it may as well be chemical.

I think, in my case, I'd rather have had it smashed with a book. The initial injection hurt like bloody hell, then they used O2 to freeze the surface nerves so they could "release" the <whatever>. Freezing the surface of my hand was no pic-nic but it was a joy compared to what it felt like when he started "cutting." Nope, I'll contend with things not being where they belong rather than go through that again!!!

Went to the hand surgeon yesterday. Good news: surgery not indicated, he doesn't believe the ganglion is pressing on the nerve and we're beginning to see slight improvement. Bad news? I bruised the nerve and it typically takes 4-5 MONTHS to recover ( and slightly under his breath"maybe longer with older age"). He even pointed to the spot at the base of my hand on the pinkie side where he believes the injury occured. Which is where I see swelling.

Sigh. I guess i get to play chase the soap all over the shower 'til summer

Al? You never did get fill function back, of i remember correctly,?

amymeme wrote:

Went to the hand surgeon yesterday. Good news: surgery not indicated, he doesn't believe the ganglion is pressing on the nerve and we're beginning to see slight improvement. Bad news? I bruised the nerve and it typically takes 4-5 MONTHS to recover ( and slightly under his breath"maybe longer with older age"). He even pointed to the spot at the base of my hand on the pinkie side where he believes the injury occured. Which is where I see swelling.

That surgery isn't forthcoming is a good thing! While I've had few and very far between I keep hearing that as one ages ( WHO ME?? ) they take longer to heal from and tend to have more problems than if you're a young 50 or so ...

amymeme wrote:

Sigh. I guess i get to play chase the soap all over the shower 'til summer

But if you can get Wayne to help, it could be more of a joy than a problem, no??

amymeme wrote:

Al? You never did get fill function back, of I remember correctly?

If we ignore the fact that I have a little finger that wanders on its own all too often and there's still a lingering numbness ... well, it's much better than it was but, yeh, still not completely right but I don't necessarily expect things to behave right - even most of the time - now.

Totally agree with you re surgery. If there's no other choice and living with whatever is not an option, than yeah, have surgery. But there's always at least some little nagging thing that results. I had a whopping ganglion removed from between my great those and 2nd toe about 20 years ago. There was no choice, I had to cut a hole in my shoes too wear them. Surgeon told me it was far bigger and more involved than it looked from the films. So, years, i could wear shoes after. But there was nerve damage and i have no feeling between the toes. And of late, something is going on with it. Feels really thick on the bottom of my foot. Worse? Every now and then feels like an electrical explosion in my foot. Fortunately, while it is breath taking, it's gone before i finish gasping. At least, most of the time.

As for hubby on the shower? Two of us "charging soap??!!? At our age, we'ld likely been our necks

What is nice, at the moment, when I show the tiny improvements, he absolutely glows. I think the unspoken worry between us has been done degenerative nerve disease ( my uncle had als.) So seeing improvement. And specialist verifying likely an injury, is a big relief

That's a scary proposition! My grandmother lived to 103 and was as sharp as ever at 100! She was born in 1899 and swore she was going to live to see three centuries - the 1800's, the 1900's and the 2000's - she did and all I can say is good for her. Her body just eventually wore out ... My mother, on the other hand died from side effects of dementia at 83. So I've got two things to watch for, an enjoyable 100 years (if I'm not completely insane by then!)

My roller coaster just went over the top and we're on downhill slope! It was 85 yesterday and I don't think we've broken 50 today!! Please, someone, make this stop!!! I'm really glad that summer is the better part of 9 months here, 'cause I love summer!! Those other 3 months, well, not so much.

Avalanche and Sky have both started telling BC that "Enough's enough!!" They'll play with her but, being a kitten, she doesn't know when to quit and they've had to tell her that it's time for a break.
They rough house with each other and a "little" rougher than they do with her and she hasn't figured out that getting in the middle is gonna get her snapped at!

Put my avocado back outside, let's see if it picks up any. It didn't like being inside at all and they'll freeze in a light freeze outside. The buds on the maple have started to swell as has my fig ( I left it outside this winter ) so now all I have to wonder about are the two oaks that the rabbits chomped on. One of them is just a twig sticking out of the dirt and the other has a couple of "branches" so we'll see.

We are headed to the 60s this week. I think we will have one more little winter stirring but I doubt it will amount to much. Went to the lawn and garden show over the weekend. Bonsai Guy couldn't bring his super tropicals because it was too cold outside for transport. If it would have been this coming weekend he would have been fine. It's about time to consider moving out my fig trees so they can come out of dormancy. My Brooklyn Whites I rooted are going wild and I may set them out Wednesday so they can take some wind. The others need to be potted up and then they can head for the greenhouse.

This is the devil season here - low 40s today, in the 50s forecast for Sunday. Temptation abounds. But the weather will bite you if you give in, even if you plant the hardiest of vegetables before, at the very earliest, mid to late April. My gardening urges will have to be content with my light stand and seed flats for now. My hand is ever so slowly gaining function. Hopefully I'll be able to put the plant stand together by myself. (Husbands help always comes with suggestions. And rants when things don't go easily. If I have to, I'll wait til Friday afternoon - he'll be volunteering
at a vaccine clinic and I'll call my son. He rants as well but him, I don't have to sleep with that night! The big question will be if I can manage seeding - my "pinch" ability is sadly compromised. I did, however, manage to open 2 cans with a manual can opener last night Hoping 8 can get out done, I'm a bit behind starting onions and some angelonia seeds I thought I'd give a try. But - when I plug in a realistic last frost date, Johnny's seed calculator says I'll be right on time...

Hopefully we've seen the last of the 20's overnight!  Supposed to get into the mid 70's today and stay there or higher for the next week.  I really hate to have to bundle up (even if that just means adding a jacket) when I go out for anything.

---

BC has, on occasion, become DC and on rarer occasions FC!  I understand she's a kitten still but if she doesn't curb her activity she's going to go outside - which means she'll become lunch for something - I was laying in bed reading (The Wheel of Time, full series) last night, felt her get up on the arm of the couch and then she just pounced on Avalanche who was laying in his typical place right beside the couch.  That is simply not nice!!!!  Scared the hell out of both of us ... and then she scampers off to the back part of the house.  I swear ... a lot!!!  The dogs have decided that it's more pleasant to stay outside rather than put up with her!

A little earlier today she took a bite at my ankle... I don't mean a nibble or batting it with her paw, she just took 'hold and bit!  Didn't draw blood so I guess she was playing but damn man!!

(( You can all stop laughing now .... ))

I Have the boards to put a 12" raised bed in but need a hand. It seems to take at lest three to hold the boards, the drill and the bolts I'm using to put it together. (( No nails don't work out here, boards dry up and you can pull nails out by hand! Lesson learned. ))
Fig tree and Maple are swelling at the buds so I know they're coming along; Oaks got eaten by the rabbits, still watering them in the hopes that something will come back from the stick they left; Avocadoes seem to be like the fig, if I left them outside they were gonna die so I brought them in and they died. Oh well, have a friend with a restaurant so I have plenty of pits to try again with. Wintering over when there isn't much of a winter is a pain!

My figs are out. I potted them up to 5 gallon pots over the weekend and they got the boot out of the garage. My cuttings I started earlier are leafed and I will start hardening them off in another month or so when we are more evenly up to temperature. The garage figs are dormant so don't need hardening as no leaves yet. In general I don't have much concern for my figs in temperatures down to around 20 through the winter. Once they have woken and leafed though they must stay above freezing. The basement has an assortment of seedlings that will start making the journey to the greenhouse soon. Deer put a dent in my raspberries so I have new of those on order I will have to net this year.

Kitten energy. Oy. Mine has bounced back from her spay and is a wild child. She's backed off on biting since she's realized I can thump her every bit as hard as she can bite me. My big fuzz of a cat she still likes to hit at a bit but my other cat has put the fear in her so she isn't as rough with Kiva. I do try to run her a couple times a day though to burn off some of that energy. Sometimes it's with the laser pointer and sometimes it's with throwing mice and attempting to teach her to fetch. She will almost fetch the grey mouse but for some reason not the white one. I want one of the cat wheels but I'm not willing to pay a couple hundred bucks for a giant hamster wheel the cats may or may not take to.

The cats get their nails trimmed. that has helped with my sanity.

So all you guys with fig trees...got the better of me. Went to tractor supply yesterday to pick up dog food. Annndddd....there they were. Chicago Hardy figs. 7.99 a piece. Hardy to zone 5. Fruiting from both old and new wood ...My Id got the better of me and I now have 2 1 year transplants to put....somewhere

Your fault, guys!!!

I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have threatened you like that. But geeze, woman, you really do need to stand up for yourself, maybe see if you can find just a little bit of self control. Do you think you can convince Wayne<?> to stick them in the mud - ground??

Nope on the Wayne doing the planting - not because he wouldn't be happy to do it for me but because that is my pleasure. I enjoy "playing" in the mud. Though, grumble, grumble, grouse, 15 minutes poking around in the garden yesterday afternoon and found a tick on my abdomen when I went to bed. Sigh. Time to spray those overalls with permethrin...

You're too nice @amymeme, if I'd said something like what I did to my aunt she'd have handed me my head on a platter - but then she'd have known just how serious I wasn't and been laughing the entire time.

I'm going to be intrigued to see how those "Chicago" trees handle the winter weather.  I've never seen figs anywhere except in the south (California, Texas, Louisiana)

One of the very pleasant surprises to living where I do is that there are almost no bugs, no mosquitos, no roaches, no 'no-see-ems'; 'course the "kissing bug" AKA conenose beetle makes up for them but they tend to be rare where we are (I've seen a few and squashed 'em); ants abound outside but I've only had one time where the 'grease ants' invaded looking for water apparently.

And it's warming up again, we're going to be in the high 70's / low 80's for a while. Maybe spring has finally sprung!

aljones wrote:

You're too nice @amymeme, if I'd said something like what I did to my aunt she'd have handed me my head on a platter - but then she'd have known just how serious I wasn't and been laughing the entire time.

I'm going to be intrigued to see how those "Chicago" trees handle the winter weather.  I've never seen figs anywhere except in the south (California, Texas, Louisiana)

One of the very pleasant surprises to living where I do is that there are almost no bugs, no mosquitos, no roaches, no 'no-see-ems'; 'course the "kissing bug" AKA conenose beetle makes up for them but they tend to be rare where we are (I've seen a few and squashed 'em); ants abound outside but I've only had one time where the 'grease ants' invaded looking for water apparently.  

And it's warming up again, we're going to be in the high 70's / low 80's for a while.  Maybe spring has finally sprung!

I'm confused, Al - did I miss something? "Threatened?" ?!!?

In the message you mentioned ( "Threatened" )  I was being absolutely facetious.  ie, you bought the figs because I threatened you (somehow) and it's all our fault ... all in a nonsense vein.

"Self control" because you saw the figs and after our mentions of them "just had" to get yourself some.  I was playing !!!

I knew you were playing, I just didn't get the threatened part. Now I see your meaning as tempted. And yes you and Jenn definitely tempted me, and, alas, I succumbed. I have no doubt they will grow this summer... The question is, will they come back.

So with the Chicago, you will need to cover them for winter depending on your usual base cold temperature. I have a Celeste that is outside, we go down to -15 or so in a winter. Uncovered they will get killed at those temperatures. Plant it deep so to hopefully keep the roots from freezing even if the top gets killed. If it has to grow back from the roots though you will be much harder pressed to get a fig crop. They are good uncovered down to around 20, then you need to wrap them. I usually pile leaves up tight around mine then cover with a tarp, layer on an old comforter, and then another tarp. If you wait until they go down to below freezing several times you will get good lignification in the branches and you can just bend them down easy when wrapping time comes. Then when you unwrap in spring the branches will bounce back.

Thanks, Jenn.

And...good to hear from you I heard about the huge accident on the interstate and was hoping you weren't involved!

Someone made a big boo boo in that wreck but luckily not in my neck of the woods. Way down south. If it doesn't happen on 54 or 63 it doesn't affect us much where we are.

Glad to hear that.

Yeh, it'd be a shame if one of us went away for any reason ... there're few enough us chatting on here now.

Went out to check on my trees and the maple is doing a nice job of budding, no leaves yet but the buds have swollen and are exposing their innards (( for some reason, that just sounds wrong!! ))
The fig is actually putting out some leaves not very big yet but a couple of them are obviously fig leaves.  Now wonder what kind of fruit I'll get this year (and nope I'm not expecting apples or peaches, I'll settle for some decent figs though)
The avocados died but I have some more planted, let's see if starting them off earlier in the year help them grow better, last longer. Obviously bringing trees in for the winter isn't gonna work!

Two years ago I dropped some morning glory seeds beside my water tanks and had maybe a half dozen come up and flower; last year I repeated that and got nothing - I think the quail got them; this year I think I'll try for a pot and see if I can plant a handful of seeds and get flowers.