That is the problem with some of those places. Not sure if they have certified grease monkeys working on their cars when tards come out and beat on them or what. Hopefully they will refund money if your car is broke. :)

I did not mean to belittle the R8. It is a [email protected]@ car and I am an Audi/VW fan already. I saw them unloading an R8 at the Audi dealer the other night and stopped to watch them pull it off the trailer and drive it inside the showroom. Noice!

Day off stayed home and rewatchted the Super Bowl a couple of times!!!! 8•)

Alarm goes off in the basement at the sump pump. I go own and find no water in the basement. An hour later the alarm is still sounding and my girlfriend discovers a couple of inches of water. She heads outside to see whats going on. Maybe some weird warm front melting the 2' of snow around the side of the house.

She finds the backyard flooded and the faucet turned on. We think maybe its neighborhood kids or a sociopath neighbor who is out to get us for some reason or another. Once the water drains away i find a 2' hole dug right under the faucet. One or both of our crazy ass dogs must have rubbed against it enough times to turn it on. Good thing this didn't happen in the morning or we would have had a mess on our hands.

Mac, hopefully it was the dogs.
I posted on Facebook 1-2 months ago warning about potential robbers/rapist opening faucets late at night hoping to lure single women out of the safety of the house.
Here is a quote, not sure if source is real or not, but the message still stands:
WRITTEN BY A COP: Everyone should take 5 minutes to read this. It may save your life or a loved one's life. In daylight hours, refresh yourself of these things to do in an emergency situation... This is for you, and for you to share with your wife, your children, & everyone you know. After reading these 9 crucial tips, forward them to someone you care about. It never hurts to be careful in this crazy world we live in.

1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do :The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!

2. Learned this from a tourist guide. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse,
DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you... Chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse.
RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.

4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.
DON'T DO THIS!) The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head,
and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR ,
LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE..

If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, Repeat:
DO NOT DRIVE OFF! Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it. As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.

5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
A.) Be aware:look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor ,
and in the back seat.
B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door.
Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women
are attempting to get into their cars. C.) Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side.. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)

6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!)

7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN!
The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then,
it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!

8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked 'for help' into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim.

9. Another Safety Point: Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late
and she thought it was weird.. The police told her 'Whatever you do, DO NOT
open the door..' The lady then said that it sounded like the baby
had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, 'We already have a unit on the way,
whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.' He told her that they think a serial killer
has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby.. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors when they're home alone at night.

10. Water scam! If you wake up in the middle of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a burst pipe, DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE! These people turn on all your outside taps full blast so that you will go out to investigate and then attack.

Stay alert, keep safe, and look out for your neighbors! Please pass this on
This e-mail should probably be taken seriously because the Crying Baby Theory was mentioned on America 's Most Wanted when they profiled
the serial killer in Louisiana

I'd like you to forward this to all the women you know.
It may save a life. A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle..
I was going to send this to the ladies only,
but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc.,
you may want to pass it onto them, as well.

Send this to any woman you know that may need
to be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in it
and it's better to be safe than sorry..
Everyone should take 5 minutes to read this. It may save your life or
a loved one's life.

I finally learned how to use WoL (Wake on Lan).
Super simple too:
[Link: windows7-issues.blogspot.com]
[Link: matcode.com]

Now I don't have to get my ass up to turn on the server or my HTPC in another room.

Wednesday, I picked up a nearly new URC MX900 from a CL seller for a cool $25. It will probably be sold for a profit. He even had the software although he said he had to search hard for it. He must not have looked at Mac's favorite site. :)

I drove 30 miles to go look at a internet problem for a client. Go in, unplug modem and plug it back in. All fixed. Its ok, I had to get out of the house anyone to get the usually Valentines day flowers. I was all set to have them delivered to her work, also 30 miles away. She is a teacher and they cancelled school today due to the weather, so had to go to plan B.

It worked out in the end. I ordered a new Lenovo laptop that finally arrived today, but required a signature. Had she not been home, I would not have received it today.

Tuesday I had to troubleshoot and repair a failed gate intercom that I installed about 7 years ago.  Cable distance is around 3200ft with 2" conduit and pull boxes every 200ft.  There are 14 in-ground pull boxes and almost all of them had been grown over or buried 6-8 inches when a service road was added.

Had help from two of the ranch hands to find and dig them out.  A bunch of the boxes had been filled in by gophers and finally found where the gophers had chewed through the wires.

There was enough excess wire in the pull box to make a new splice without pulling new wire and the guys put some chicken wire down in the boxes along with some gravel on top to try and keep the gophers out.

Did I mention it was the second to last box where the damage was...










 

3200 ft. Is a looooong way for CAT cable.

I did 35 miles to find two cable boxes manually turned off (I leave them on of course). Life as a CI.

Today was Nelle's 8 week checkup after bilateral TTA surgery. Doc says she is completely healed up. Both knees were operated on and she walked out of the hospital on her own 3 days later. She was running and jumping (against doctors orders) within a week. Needless to say we are all happy around here.

This is what her knees looked like before:



This is what they look like now:



The procedure will keep her femur from sliding forward off the tibia. It's amazing to see how many different things she does now that shes not in constant pain. She used to sit on the side of her butt all the time. We thought it was cute but it turns out that her knee pain made it impossible to sit like a normal dog.

You really need a TDR, I've been in the same boat as you. I had to repair dial tone feeding the emergency phones at an apartments multiple pools. The apartment complex owned the 100 pair cable that snaked through the complex. First repair took 8 hours. Second one after hooking a TDR to the line, showed an open at 300', really narrowed my search area.

I was literally 1 minute from emailing you about this and decided to peruse the forum first....

Great news for Nelle! How is Val doing?

Val is doing well. Her "flipper feet" are gone. She wore splints for a couple of weeks. The only other treatment was good food and exercise and her rubber paws are strong like they should be.

How is Shelby doing? Nelle is supposed to stay on lock down for 3 more weeks and then we can let her go back to her normal life. I don't know who is happier about that. Her or us.

Before:



After:



Closeup of paws:



She can jump super high now. This kid can open most doors, gates and even her crate door. The only reason we can keep her contained is that the word "cookie" makes her stop whatever shes doing. She comes running and sits right down waiting for a treat. Last week she hopped the baby gate and ran out the front door when the UPS guy came. She was half way down the driveway heading to the street when i yelled COOKIE and she slammed on the brakes and ran right back. I might have to keep her on a leash in the house :).

Yes, great advice.  I've got a Fluke test set with TDR but in this case it didn't work.  The gophers didn't bite through the conductors, they only ate through the insulation and over time the brown pair corroded, but hadn't really opened or shorted.

The TDR was giving readings all over the map which is what led to the extensive discovery work.  The client wanted to rodent proof all the boxes to try and keep it from happening again so all the boxes needed to be dug out anyway.