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Spur08

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Posts posted by Spur08

  1. I land tomorrow at 8:30 AM.  Checking in to my wife's hotel (she's been there all week) and then I'm off to du Monde for some coffee and beignets.  I'm taking a cooking class starting at 10 AM for 3 hours and then the rest of the day to myself.  I'm thinking Drago's for dinner?  Wife is free starting Friday and we're going to Atchafalaya, GW Fins, Cochon, and Ruby Red Slipper.  What else should we get into -- food, drink, or otherwise?

  2. When my wife taught 4th grade math, every year they would have multiple night time meetings with a roomful of angry parents because of this.  The angriest were usually engineer dads who never struggled a bit in math and couldn’t understand how anyone could find the old way difficult.  It really offended them that the teachers wouldn’t stick with the method that worked so well for them. 
    I know they were engineers because this is the first thing they would tell her before they splained how she should do her job.  It drove her crazy since has 2 masters degrees (evolutionary fish biology and education) along with 2 BS’s (biology and chemistry) and her dad is one of the top physicists in the world.  She is pretty good at maths, especially at a forth grade level.
    Funny. Her picture isn't showing up
    • Like 2
  3. I’m looking for a place to have a group friend trip with kids.  I have a good friend who has stage 4 metastatic breast cancer – her 5 year survival rate is about 20%.  To maximize the joy in her life, we’re trying to schedule as many friend trips with her as possible.   The stipulation for most trips will be that kids will be attending – all under the age of 5, which will make things a challenge b/c don’t want to be isolated to our rooms once naptime/bedtime commences. 

     

    Do any of y’all know what options are available where we can all have separate rooms, but still be a baby monitors lengths away so the adults can socialize, drink, etc?  The group would roughly be around 5-10 families, depending on everyone’s availability.  I’ve thought of maybe getting a group of cabins together around Broken Bow as long as they are close enough together where we can congregate.  Any other options?  Specific examples/links would be appreciated.  Most of us are located in DFW area but obviously are able to travel a reasonable distance (via car)

    • Like 1
  4. https://www.tdi.texas.gov/consumer/cpmbalancebilling.html
    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/medical/article/In-mediation-doctors-reduce-billed-charges-by-12519873.php
    Might be worth a shot to try the state when it comes to lowering your bill.  From what I can tell, the first step is mediation with the doc over the phone, and if the consumer is not satisfied, a formal hearing.  What doc is going to want to go to a hearing or send a rep.  I bet any charge gets cut in half easily during the phone call.
    Also don’t be afraid to tell the high charging facility you are reporting them to the local consumer affairs reporter.  They might lower the bill by $500 just to prevent the reporter from showing up outside.
    unfortunately telling a doc or facility that you’re not paying and to ding your credit does very little but make you feel better and they ding your credit. 
    Lulz at this guy thinking a doc handles his own billing and would need to personally go to a hearing.

    /I'm out of network. Fupm
  5. 9 minutes ago, EE2B said:

    Everywhere you have a line coming off to a light, is that a splice point also? Also, that looks like a lot of lights. What size transformer do you have and have you calculated the total wattage for the lights?

     

    Edited to add: you may try breaking the splice and using marine grade shrink wrap instead of tape. That would give you more protection from water. I think you can pickup a box of difference sizes from amazon for $10-$15.

    Sorry -- I meant to specify that all the lights are LED, ranging from 20-50W equivalent.  I forget what the transformer capacity is but the total lights on the line are significantly below max b/c I wanted room for expansion at a later date.  And, yes, everywhere there is a line coming off there is a splice point.  

  6. 47 minutes ago, Updawg said:

    Not sure about the melted part but I bet you are getting water in there. Get some outdoor wire nuts (they have grease in them) and wrap well with tape. That's what I did.

    I have those on the double splice, but the triple splice was too big for the outdoor nuts.

  7. I need to jump on the electrician advice. Last year, I installed an outdoor lighting kit. Whenever it would rain, the gfci would trip so I assumed that the connections were loose/got water in them. I finally decided to take a look at it today and repair the splices and use shrink housing to cover them.

    I've attached a rough drawing of the diagram. At splice 3 (green X), I notice that the rubber housing looked slightly melted whenever I took off the electrical tape. The odd thing is that the copper wires do not look melted. Is that normal? Could this be due to the water getting in the circuit or did I make a wiring mistake?

    My handwriting blows. The lights are path lighting, wall wash/spot, and uplight spot.

    9c6700ccfcb3750a59ef648b2ccf788d.jpg31e8de5a1948a229ab5b03285006cde7.jpg

  8. I did brakes on both my car and my wife's previous car. I then paid a good mobile mechanic that was recommended by a buddy that is very affordable. Hence forth, I will always use him for brakes. If you're in north Dallas, I'll shoot you his info.

  9. On 12/15/2018 at 7:58 AM, Spur08 said:

    We got some pretty bad news this week.

    One of our closest friends, the matron of honor in our wedding, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33. I suppose she was lucky in that she found out by getting a bruise checked out from her daughter kicking her in the boob while playing. A CT flagged a couple of spots in her spine so she's getting a MRI to verify what they are. She starts chemo next week, following by surgery and radiation.

    We have a very closeknit group of about 6 or so couples. We are banding together to provide car packages and what not throughout her treatment. All of us are local DFW folk except for the friend getting treatment, who has recently relocated to Austin with her family.

    My question to this group is - what are some good items to include in care packages? Of course, there are restaurant gift cards and the like but I'm wondering what other things we may not be thinking of. Both of there families are with them right now so we can some time to organize for the following months.

    So a lot has changed in the last few weeks.  The spinal lesions did verify that our friend has Stage 4 METs.  Her oncologist in Round Rock told her that they didn't have a clinical trial for her and recommended she go to MDA.  Jump to this week, a PET scan at MDA showed additional lesions in her pelvis, ribs, and lymph nodes around her heart.  She has started Ibrance treatment this week and will have an appt with a dietitian at MDA in a few weeks. 

     

    It's like an emotional nuclear bomb with each update given.  I'm concerned about her, I'm concerned about her families financial stability, I'm concerned about her husband and their 2 girls.  My wife and I are the go-betweens between all of our friends due to our close relationship with her and their fear/concern of how to react.  I suppose we all feels paralyzed with all of this news and just don't know what steps to take.

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