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      Saturday, October 10, 2020


catstuff
09:35 AM - 10/10/2020

The topic: Mario update
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Geez, where does the time go? It seems like forever ago, but it was just a couple of weeks.

On Thursday, September 24, Mario ended up at the vet's, in surgery. The problem? Let me start at the beginning.

Okay, we all know that he has a problem pooping.  It's why we were at the emergency vet on the fourth of July. He was getting an enema. He was prescribed lactulose (two to three times a day) and subQ fluids to keep him hydrated and his stool soft, not hard and dry. And I've been pretty good at giving those meds, but getting the right recipe has been tough. Too much, the stool is too loose. Not enough, his stool is on the way too hard and dry, hard to push out with his bad back.

But, I try.

Anyway, in the days before that Thursday, I noticed that his poop was getting harder (up the lactulose) and for some reason, he was scooting when he was done, smearing feces all over the bottom of the shower (he goes in Brian's shower, which makes cleanup much easier).  This went on for a couple of days and that Thursday, I cleaned his butt off with a moist cloth. And there was blood on it.

Okay. I consider what might be the cause. Did he tear himself when scooting? The bottom of the shower is rough (non skid, I suppose) and maybe a dry piece of stool scraped him?  He wasn't very happy with what I was doing. Really uncomfortable. Then he got off of the bed, went into the bathroom and had a fine stool specimen. Perfect size, perfect consistency.  He left the bedroom and got up on the bed. I wiped his bottom again. Blood.

I waited a few minutes and touched the area with a tissue. Blood. And more blood. And it didn't stop bleeding, there was actually more with each tissue.

I called the vet shortly after.  The vet said to bring him in. She wasn't feeling well, had planned on going home, but she said to bring him in and drop him off. We did.

Shortly after we got home, the phone rang. Mario had some sort of tumor right inside of his anus. On his bowel. She could perform surgery to remove it. And did we want to send it out for testing? You know, for cancer?  We said "do the surgery, don't send it out, it really won't matter at this stage of the game if he has cancer or doesn't, there's nothing we can do about it".

A few hours later, she called, the surgery was done, we could get him in an hour or so. When we picked him up and paid for the surgery, the tech brought out a baggie. She said "since we're not sending this out, the doctor thought you might like to see it."

And here's what she gave me:

It looks like a little berry. But that was blocking the stool from exiting in a painless manner. It might grow back, it might not. Not sure what it was, the vet called it a "tumor".  It sure looks like a polyp when looking at pictures of polyps online. We were sent home with five days worth of pain meds and an antibiotic. He recovered nicely. A little sore at first, but he's okay now.

I'm still trying to get the meds adjusted, this week I started giving him A/D on my finger, he seems to eat it better that way. He hasn't had much of an appetite for a while now. He does like treats, but he can't survive on treats.  He does seem more comfortable.

He's started getting under the covers again at night and this morning, for the first time in months, he came up to me while we were still in bed, got really close to my face and meowed. That was pretty cool. Then he got down and joined the rest of the cats, waiting for us to get out of bed and get them their morning treats.

surgery    mario    constipation    catstuff   

      Tuesday, October 20, 2020


geekstuff
06:41 AM - 10/20/2020
The current weather is Super foggy!

The topic: Why does it all happen at once?
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Nothing big, mind you. Just little things that in the grand scheme of life, I'm the only one bothered by them. But they annoy the hell out of me.

A couple of weeks ago, something happened to my Epson R1900 and the prints are coming out with a bluish tinge. It's just ugly. I've done so many cleans, I've replaced parts, changed out all the ink ( I have a continuous ink system) and still, the prints are too blue.

I sent the same photo over to the little Epson and it printed out perfectly. So, there's an issue with the R1900. I'm thinking I may have to do the clean of all of the print nozzles. Most likely, there's some dried ink in one of them.

Then yesterday, the super old Win XP computer that sends the weather station data up to the internet started sounding pretty bad. I unhooked everything, took it outside, opened it up and it was fully of dust and lint. I couldn't get the right handle on Brian's compressor hose, so I used a can of compressed air to clean it out. Worked great. Set it back up, still noisy. Damn.

Then I opened it up again and listened to where the noise was coming from. The hard drive. Crap. Maybe someday in the future, when I have nothing else to do, I'll clone the one that's in it and put a new one in. But not this week.

I pulled out one of the old laptops I had, the one that crashed before I got my new one and I'm in the process of removing all of the old files on that and then I'll set up the weather station system on that. That software is so old, it is no longer downloadable. Luckily, I've saved pretty much everything over the years. On various external hard drives. Now, I just have to find it.

Oh, and since the laptop doesn't have a serial port, I ordered a USB to serial adapter.  It will be here today. Until then, I'll be using the Revo Uninstaller to remove all of the programs. I got the portable version this past weekend, not realizing that I'd be needing it so soon. This laptop has a lot of junk on it.

If I can get the weather software running properly on this, I'll need to find a great laptop cooling fan since it will be running 24/7.  This is the laptop I bought on eBay and it didn't come with a battery, just a power cord.

And someone hacked into my Hulu account. Heh. Their devices have been removed and the password has been changed.

Nice day for heavy fog!

geekstuff   

      Thursday, October 22, 2020


geekstuff
08:26 AM - 10/22/2020

The topic: Well, one problem has been resolved
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I pulled out the old XP computer, got the old laptop (I was supposed to have sent it away when I replaced it, but life got in the way and I didn't and now I'm glad I didn't) up and running. I updated it to Windows 10 Pro (did you know if you had an upgrade license for Win 7 home to Win 7 pro, you can use that to upgrade Win 10? I got mine on Amazon back in 2012 and it still works).

I was able to get the weather station software running on it, there were a few things I had to edit (the software has been discontinued and there had been an upgrade which I was able to download and it works). But most of my settings transferred nicely.

The one thing I needed was a serial port and found a Sabrent USB to Serial adapter on Amazon for less than ten dollars. It was delivered the next day and it set up like a dream. It came with a disk for driver installation and I just can't believe how smoothly it went. I needed this to connect to the weather station itself.

I'm running the laptop 24/7 and right now, I have an older laptop cooler with a fan. I ordered another one on Amazon, a more powerful one, it should be here today.

The thing is it's a PITA to work on the laptop where it is. And I'll be damned if I can get access to it from my regular PC. I had the settings right yesterday, but after all of the Windows updates that were installed (this took hours, it had been a while, so there was catching up to do), I lost access and I'm not happy about it. I did find a remote access program and it was only $3.45 (if you use the link provided in this review) for a year. RemotePC. After the first year, it's $70. If I can access any of the computers from my main computer, it's worth it. And they also have a download for an Android device. My phone is Android.

I installed it yesterday morning and had some problems. The problems being me not understanding what I was doing. They were very patient working with me and when it hit me what I was doing wrong, something so simple, well, you know....but I like it and will most likely renew the license next year, if I have the available funds.

Still having problems with the printer. I ordered some new unclog fluid from a different company. Comparing photos of clogged nozzle prints and bad printhead prints, it looks like it's clogged nozzles, not a printhead problem. And the major cause of clogged nozzles is disuse. Yeah, that could be it.  I'll work on that, but it's no longer a priority at this point. I just won't be printing out any photos. I guess I could if I wanted to spend the time fiddling with the color settings, but I need a break from it at this point.

Update on remote access. 

I guess at some point in the Windows updating yesterday, the option to have the network files either no password needed or password needed for access, was change to needs a password. Turned that off and the files on other network devices are once again available. It's easier for me to edit them that way.

weather station    remotepc    printer r1900    laptop    geekstuff   

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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