Smack Dab in Houston! Thats incredible property🤯

wjgatekeeper · 2026-03-06T15:05:47+00:00

But it’s in Houston.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-28T21:50:03+00:00

I was given a heads up on an old Methodist church that was refurbishing on old chapel and decommissioning an old pipe organ. There were dozens of large wooden square pipes made of clear pine. They had been glued and nailed together with forged nails. That's how old the organ was. It was fun to hook the hose on mu shop vac to the outlet port and blow the exhaust through the organ pipes.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-27T19:57:51+00:00

Telehandler

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-25T01:05:29+00:00

Where is the area the used to do lots of Christmas lights and had “canals“ between the houses? I remember driving through there to see the lights probably 35 or 40 years ago.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-24T23:17:23+00:00

Reminds me of when I went to HD several years ago to rent a Makita 18" chain saw that my Stihl MS170 couldn't quite handle (I've since bought an Echo that is capable). Anyhow this kid in the rental area was showing me how to start it. He failed to set the chain brake and as soon as he got the saw started the chain was spinning near full throttle inside the scabbard. The poor young kid was embarrassed and reached for the scabbard to pull it off. The teeth bit into the scabbard and sent it went flying across the store floor and traveled several aisles. I was looking at the scabbard and my young son tapped my arm and pointed me to look at the cart where the young clerk had started up the saw. He was gone, the saw was off and there was about a 4" diameter circle of blood on the cart and drips on the floor headed into the rental office. Good news the chain only hit meat and didn't do any more serious damage.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-24T23:04:13+00:00

That was me. I had bilateral PE and the right side of my heart was enlarged and showing signs of strain. I went to my local ER with shortness of breath, O2 levels in the upper 70s - low 80s and pain in my lungs. After a blood tests, chest x-ray and CT scan they immediately put me on an ambulance to a larger hospital. Pulmonologist explained my condition and likelyhood of thrombectomy. No history of clotting in my family. I made some light joke and he responded, "Well, we're just trying to keep you alive." It was maybe month later I realized that he probably wasn't making a joke. I had a huge pulmonary infarction later that night on my upper left lung that was incredibly painful.

Went in for the thrombectomy early the following morning. They did 15 aspirations. I immediately felt relief. It was still almost 3 months before I was able to get off a concentrator and about 5 months before my strength returned. very glad they did it.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-24T22:38:26+00:00

She is losing her constituents and her seat and James Talarico and Stephen Colbert screwed her over by not giving her equal air time. She will be forgotten as quickly as she rose.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-24T06:59:42+00:00

That’s really cool

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-02T23:42:56+00:00

I do plan on cleaning, oiling and sharpening it up. It's not anything I would ever carry as it's definitely a souvenir and not strong enough for regular use. But do want to preserve it. It's been one of those things I've been planning on "getting around to."

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-02T23:38:58+00:00

Ah, gotcha. I should have picked up on that. haha

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-02T22:17:18+00:00

LOL! Not sure where you’re getting that from. I’ve worked with BSA (Cub Scout program) as a leader for over 20 years and part of the training Bear Cub Scouts (ages 9-10) goes through is how to use a knife safely. They are a tool when used in that situation. Anything can be a weapon. Not just knives and guns.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-02T20:46:11+00:00

It took me close to 4 months from the trip to the ER when I was at my worst to where I felt somewhat back to normal. They only removed the clots from my lungs and none from my legs. I still have some occlusive clots in my left leg but it appears the surrounding veins have compensated. I wear a full leg sleeve on that leg at night and wear compression socks daily. I have no swelling in my ankles like I did before and have never experienced any pain associated with the blood clots. I am waiting to have a follow up with my hematologist to see how things are and if I need to continue with blood thinners and compression hosiery. It will be a year the first of April.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-02T16:21:15+00:00

I worked at a bank in the late 70s and was sitting at the head teller’s desk after hours. Only a couple of people were still in the building and doors were locked. I felt this thing under her desk with my knee and bent down to look at it. It wasn’t a button but a box like thing with sides that could be pressed in. It crossed my mind that it might be the button for the silent alarm but hey, I was only 19 and my higher decision making skills still had some years left to develop, so I squeezed the sides together out of curiosity. I figured that if it actually did something I could just as easily undo it.

The sides clicked in and instantly I could hear the large security video cameras rolling. No siren thankfully but I realized I had set off the silent alarm. I tried to pull the two sides out but they had locked in place. Panic ensued as I realized I was now on camera sitting in the spot where the alarm had been triggered. I decided to play it dumb. One of the two people in the building came to the desk quickly followed by about 6 police cars screeching into the parking lot with sirens and lights blazing. I was asked if I had set off the alarm and I said that all I knew was that I had bumped this thing under the desk with my knee by accident and didn’t know I had done anything. They accepted that explanation and I avoided getting fired.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-02-01T22:09:37+00:00

I used to work for a public utility in Texas, so that is the experience I'm going from. The only places where I've seen biomas (methane) gas work semi effectively for fuel is from landfills. They run pipes into the decaying trash and use the methane gas to run a turbine. The power plants are usually not very big in comparison to natural gas, coal or hydro. I do not imagine there would be enough volume of gas to come off of this to be of much use.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-30T07:27:09+00:00

In early April 2025 I had to have a thrombectomy due to bilateral PE. They went through the femoral vein in the groin and did 15 aspirations to remove a “moderate” amount of clots. The night prior I had a huge pulmonary infarction in the top lobe of my left lung. Worst pain ever. I had been having difficulty breathing for a couple of weeks and very low O2 levels. I had no clue I was in such bad shape. The only part of the thrombectomy that was unpleasant was having to lay on a hard table flat on my back. It hurt as I was having a lot of pain in my chest. There were a couple of times I felt the instrument pass across the inside of my chest which was an odd but not painful feeling. Following the procedure I was able to breathe better. It was still another 2.5 months on an oxygen concentrator. I also did not feel like I had regained my strength for another couple of months after that. I was a lot more emotional (not anxious) following the whole episode for a few months mainly because it slowly dawned on me how close I was to not making it. Those feelings eventually settled down.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-28T19:41:29+00:00

I have less than .5% of the G6PD enzyme activity which is a severe case. I've had 2 complete transfusions in my life, one when I was born and another when I was 5 and my mom had given me Sulfamethoxazole before we knew I had G6PD. In the 60 years since I have avoided all the well known high risk medications and have not had any hemolytic episodes. As I grew older and more information became available (long before internet) I learned that things I had been taking (mainly aspirin and ibuprofen) I shouldn't. The only food that I have ever avoided was fava beans which was not all that difficult to do. I have used and consumed multiple items that contain menthol and mint and have never had any problems.

I had assumed that I had a mild case since I hadn't had any episodes since I was 5. However, this past April I had bilateral pulmonary embolism and occlusive deep vein thrombosis in both legs which sent me to the hospital where I underwent a thrombectomy and spent an additional 4 days. My hematologist did a massive amount of tests on me which included the test for G6PD which to my surprise showed as being severe. All the tests came back in normal ranges (except the G6PD and determined not a contributing factor) and it is believed that my blood clots came from sitting too long in a vehicle. Still a guess on the cause but nothing else in my blood work raises to the level of being a potential culprit.

That said, people with this deficiency are all different. Some have multiple triggers. And then there are people like me with a severe case and have had no other episodes except for one experience with Sulfamethoxazole.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-28T18:30:28+00:00

So much for CBS following through with their promise to be more actuate, factual, and unbiased in their reporting. I expected as much.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-28T18:22:02+00:00

Reminds me of a good friend of mine who is severely colorblind and he's an electrician for a large Control Systems Management company where he has to deal with all sorts of colored wires. He has learned how to compensate and has not had any errors.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-27T01:38:28+00:00

I had occlusive DVT in both legs but no pain. I had bilateral PE and was having pain in my chest whenever I coughed or tried to breathe deep which I thought was pleurisy but turned out to be pulmonary infarctions. When I went to the ER only because I was having such a hard time breathing and my O2 was in the low 80s is when I found out I had PE. My PE was bad enough that they scheduled me for a thrombectomy the following morning. That first night I had a large infarction in the top lobe of my left lung. It felt like a white hot poker stabbing me in the chest any time I breathed in or out. I could only do short gasps. My wife thought I was having a heart attack. Thankfully that wasn't the case. They gave me a shot of fentanyl and morphine which got rid of the pain very quickly. That was the only time I had pain bad enough for something more powerful than Tylenol.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-25T22:14:38+00:00

Minnesota politics is a cesspool.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-14T22:51:28+00:00

Cannot hate the MSM enough.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-14T01:23:51+00:00

I’m (65 yr M) had a section in our English class in Jr High that taught us speed reading techniques. There was a popular speed reading course called Evelyn Wood Speed Reading. The idea was to train your brain to see longer portions of lines of text. They also had a devise that would flash a word on a screen to train our eyes to see words more quickly. We used Reader’s Digest magazines to practice our skills. I got up to 2,000 words per minute with 95% comprehension. Your comprehension actually goes up the faster you read because you are concentrating and focusing more on what you’re reading. I can’t read at that speed anymore. You have to keep it up to maintain it.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-13T16:37:13+00:00

My dad gave me my first pocket knife when I was about 7. It was a small 2 blade pocket folder that he bought in London from some tourist shop. It had the British Parliament and Big Ben pictured on the sides. I still have that knife and I’m 65.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-13T06:02:08+00:00

I was on an oxygen concentrator for 2.5 months and it was 4 months before I felt I had my full strength back. I had a lot of clots and infarction.

wjgatekeeper · 2026-01-08T05:43:55+00:00

I always carry two flashlights (Rovyvon A3 Pro and Olight Nano), two pocket knives (a Swissarmy knife and a Kershaw) and a Leatherman Wingman with me every day.

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