dpostman

@Sea Dog Wishing you all the best Greg, and hopping for a great and successful outcome. Looking forward to hearing back from you. dp (Dennis)

The weather outlets around here compared this snow storm to the one we had here in Moncton back in '92. That storm brought down 5ft of snow in 3 days. "Maritime Provinces, February 1-4, 1992. A 110-hour-long blizzard with gusts up to 140 km/h brought record snowfall of 163 cm to Moncton, New Brunswick; several other cities recorded more than 100 cm of snow" As impressive and inconvenient as that is, it's easy to move on from this compared to what many other communities and regions have been put through. dp

In contrast to all my friends on CC that are currently enjoying warm and sunny weather... My 1976 Roper snowblower is running at 111dB measured from operator distance 🙉. We got it easy this time compared to our neighbours just a few hours east in Nova Scotia. Some areas in NS got over 4ft of snow.

As an FYI, There are apps that you can use to measure the SPL (Sound Pressure Level). I would be the first to point out that you can't really trust an app on a phone for accurate results, but after trying a few different ones, This one was pretty much on the nose with the Calibrated Lab quality SPL meter I borrowed from our hospital medical engineering techs. I don't know how the programmers of the app do it, or if it just happened to match up good with my specific phone, but it was very accurate. Accuracy on these SPL meters is critical, since the dB scale is logarithmic. So a difference of 3 dB is either half or double the power. In the screen shot, my office was averaging around 50 dB until I clicked the button on my phone for the screen capture, that brought it up to 62dB. This particular app has a save function to save the captured data. dp

For anyone who is interested, I always have with me, Noise reduction ear plugs. Such as these: They are different than the usual squishy foam ear plugs. The Noise reduction ear plugs have a much more even reduction across the frequency range, so they are much more musical. Not perfect, but much better than the foam ones. I was a Front of House sound reinforcement tech (Sound Man) for many years in my previous career and still have very good hearing. I still protect my hearing with these reusable ear plugs that only cost around $20. A very SOUND investment 😉 I really have a difficult time enjoying myself when performances are too loud and even get irritated. Anyway, That is my PSA for today 🙂 dp

Mine is the them music of The Swedish Chef 🙂 dp

Plan B... 😳 dp

I had not thought of that one. I was speculating more towards Colorectal. dp

It has been announced that he is being treated for cancer. They did not specify other than to say that it is unrelated to the prostate surgery he had earlier last month. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68203457 dp

I can see how that would be awkward at the dinner table 😉 The waiters would constantly be coming to see what you want with that hand raised up in the air like that. dp

I totally get that. My home time zone is Atlantic time, so most of the time, ship time for us is an hour earlier and sometimes 2 hours earlier. I come into work at 7am, and when on vacation, I don't change my sleep schedule very much, so it makes for some very early rising on ship. I usually have 2 breakfasts when cruising 😉. dp

OB, During your Coco Cay exploration, did you make it all the way to South Beach? There used to be an area on the right of South Beach called Cove Beach, and that was often reserved for a crew area, But I heard that they were developing another area for the crew. I'm wondering if you noticed if this "Cove Beach" was still a crew only area or if it was now public? How quiet was that area? Thanks, and great pics so far!!! dp

I can't... but I certainly enjoy trying. You know how the saying goes, If at first you can't, then try and try again. Nice to know that is an option, but we would probably take that for 2. dp

The above sorta rings a bell... My wife was out of town last night for work... I stopped at the liquor store on my way home... Looky what I found 😉 They are now stored safely way back in the liquor cabinet 😁 dp

Hi OB. This is right up my alley, so I can offer some explanations. The batteries in phones degrade the most when in the extreme states of charge. That is 100% and 0%. Usually, most people charge their phones by plugging them in before going to bed, so the phone charges up to 100% and spends most of the night sitting at 100% and this has a long term effect on overall longevity. The number of charge cycles do somewhat count but going from 30% to 80% only counts as a half cycle. The same as going from 50% to 100% Charging super-fast also has a detrimental effect on battery health. Wireless charging also creates lots of heat. It is fine to charge to 100% once in a while if you are going to be needing it, or quickly if it is convenient, but on a regular basis, slow charging by plugging in, and keeping the phone in between 20% and 80% state of charge as much as possible, will improve the over all life span of the phone battery and after 3 years, will still most likely keep a charge almost as when it was new. I have my phone set to limit charge to 80% and have fast charging disable by default. But I did create manual routines that I save as widgets on my home screen so that I don't have to go searching in the settings every time i wish to enable them. These widgets will bypass those default settings temporarily. I hope this helps, but I can elaborate more in depth on any of the above points if you want more info. dp

It is unfortunate to see the burden placed on the family because of the delays. However, if I were given the choice when it's my time... what a wonderful way to go. dp

Congrats to Owen... and to you and Lisa. I remember how amazed I was of the amount of extra time that gave us in the evenings. Our oldest (son) was not as "busy" as our youngest (daughter), and we never realized how much of our time revolved around her activities until it all suddenly stopped once she could drive. I don't think I could go back. Now she drives herself to university and back that is 5 and a half hours away. Now you and Lisa will have time to go for activities and on dates together... you know... like going to Costco together 😉 dp

This is my son's tuxedo cat. When she comes to visit, spends much of her time at the kitchen peninsula just watching me... dp

Starting 2 weeks of vacation. Off to my brothers ocean side cottage for a few days. Kayaks are all loaded. DW and I are Spending a few days with my Brother and his wife (The 2 of them are with us on B2). Hope to get a river run and some wilderness drone footage. Not much for cell service, there is some but it is sparse. will see all of you in a few days, and probably a dozen pages later 😉 And just adding, I took a few lightning strikes yesterday evening with my drone. They were still relatively far away. Have a great weekend to all. dp

You are in fact probably right about the Half & Half being 10%. We call it cereal cream and I don't recall seeing the label Half & Half around here, so I had always assumed it was the 18% since it is roughly half of 35%. When looking for the above cereal creme (10%). I also found this one below, you were right about Half & half being 10%, Your memory is perfectly fine 😉 dp

I would just like to clarify that it does in fact exist elsewhere. Here in Canada, it is generally called Coffee Cream and is 18%. Has a longer BB date that regular milk but must remain refrigerated. And I suspect other countries also have it. Whipping Cream (Full Cream) is 35% Cereal Cream is 10% Light Cream 5% But I drink black coffee. dp

Me neither, I caught this one last week. He was none too pleased about it from all the hissing and groaning he was making when I relocated him. And I took a picture of this surfeit of skunks. 1 mother and 6 or 7 kits. It is hard to tell them apart as they were travelling across my back yard all bunched up. Took the picture through a screened window. I though it was best to let them through and not take off running after them with a broom.😇 dp

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