It's 104℉ Right Now

[Kellemora]

My only job driving North American Van Lines loads, was for their electronics division, and most of those were exhibits that got parked at a fairground or office complex. I never handled anything with furniture other than that used in the exhibits.

I may have moved an office or two, but I wouldn't know, since all I did was pick up a loaded trailer and deliver it to one of their terminals, picked up another, usually full truck, coming back.

Glad you didn't have any surprises on your moves that lead to disaster.

The audio system we had for the music group was way ahead of its time. Wasn't computerized of course, but had a gazillion switched to modify one heck of a lot of things most of which had to do with the output, some with the input.

Yesterday and today both, I was late getting up here, and Hospice showed up early on both days too.
They use up all of my energy, so there was no getting back up here until late this evening, and even then, I almost didn't make it. I probably wouldn't have if they had not made me try out the Morphine at the same time as the pain pill, and an anti-anxiety pill. This afternoon was much worse for me, than the day I spent in the hospital for an exacerbation. Which is where I probably would have been had they not put me on Hospice. I'm still pretty much in panic mode, but as I've said before, I do better up here in my office, so just had to make it up here to see if that is still true or not. It is to a point.

[yogi]

When I was entering high school that was the time I had to decide what I might be doing with the rest of my entire life. The choice seemed overwhelming at the time, but in retrospect it was just one of many life changing decisions ahead of me. I had to think about going to college to get a degree or to go to the local trade school. I chose the high school with the college preparatory courses because even in those early years I favored stability. People in the trades, and truck drivers, are always on the go. It can be exciting in that there is a new job waiting to be done nearly every day, but some of those job sites were quite a distance from home base. And, you never knew for certain if there would be any work next week. So, the staid life of an office worker is what I envisioned. As it turned out I didn't get the degree but did get involved with electronics. It was the best of both worlds in that I worked for one company all my life and usually in the same building every day. Technician work was not the same ol' same ol' job everyday either. The best part of my choice was that Motorola had some terrific benefits that I am still enjoying today. Not sure I would have had that if I went the trades route.

Those hospice people can consume a lot of time, but their intentions are good. I can't say they give you the same treatments that you would receive in a hospital, but then you are getting those treatments at home. If you are going to be really uncomfortable, being that way at home seems like a better choice. I'm not sure what the ER folks would be giving you, but that light dosage of morphine did have its benefits in mom's case. Hopefully it is helping you out as well. It amazes me that you are so determined to get to your office on a daily basis. You truly give meaning to the phrase that "the end justifies the means."

[Kellemora]

Well, I knew I would be stuck taking over the cut flower shop and drivers some day. There are a lot of trades licenses that have to do with that business, so I always kept up with whatever classes were needed to maintain those at the top level.
While in High Skewl I took Drafting which is what led to my working at a few places where I had my hands in some famous things to brag about.
The truck driving came about as an adjunct to the flower business, then again later on when I was getting Wonder Plants put together. How I got some of the extra money I need to get it going.
After dad's heart attack, I was back to the florist, running the cut flower shop and associated operations, and getting my feet wet with the early computers, and moved up fast in those to a mainframe for at work.
Had the family not decided to sell the florist and greenhouses, that's where I would still be. But they did, and a whole new are of job opportunities opened up to me, albeit, some of those like plumbing and electric I did toward another goal, and managed to get my completed Journeyman level licenses, so I could do work nearly anywhere since I was licensed.

They started me out on 5mg hydrocodone, then upped it up to 10mg, then they added 0.5 mg morphine, now upped to 1 mg morphine, which is why I'm probably a bit dizzy. Plus Lorazopam along with all of that. I'm on a lot of new drugs that have replaced some of what I was on, but they are stronger and supposed to last longer.
They finally delivered me more O2 than they said they were allowed to, after I showed the O2 guy where and how it is used.
He agreed, I should be on a keep the rack full type of plan, which he will try to make happen for me.
He's also been giving me a few things Lincare would never give me without my having a special order for it.

On the bright side. I took 4 hours, but I made it up to my office. But now have to go back home before the hospice doctor gets here. Usually only a nurse comes, but every other Friday, I will see a real doctor after the nurse is gone, if she's gone when he gets here that is. He's due and she hasn't shown up yet.

[yogi]

I can tell by what you write here that you are fully into the palliative care routine hospice is designed to administer. It's not the same as the pure healthcare you were getting before hospice stepped in. I could be wrong here, but it appears that you are getting better treatment today than you were before. Part of that is due to the drugs you could not previously afford to buy but which are now part of the palliative philosophy. The major improvement is in regard to all those healthcare people who are now coming to visit you instead of the other way around. What is happening to you is basically what happened with my mom. The irony in all this is that your insurance premiums (probably) have not changed in spite of the better treatment. In my eyes normal healthcare could have been administered the same way. Of course palliative care does not normally involve hospitalization, but if you got the same quality care before as you are getting now hospitals could be avoided for the most part. Anyway, I'm glad you are being treated well, and perhaps too well. Those helpful folks do have a tendency to overdo it sometimes.

There is something called sapiosexuality which describes people who get turned on by people of high intelligence. I didn't learn about the term until a few years ago, but I apparently have an instinctive attraction to people of intelligence. Basically that explains our friendship in that I regard you as very well versed in a wide variety of fields. Now, don't misunderstand me. While I do gravitate toward intelligent people, there is no sexual motive behind it. LOL

When I started working at Motorola it was in the factory on a production line. I could only take that for a few months at which time I tried to advance myself out of that department. My experience with ham radio helped as did a correspondence course in electronics, all of which got me a technical analyzer job and out of the brainless factory kind of work. I was still working in the factory for much of my career but alongside engineers and management people. In other words I gravitated toward people of intelligence. When I finally made it to the IT job I learned something about intelligence that I did not expect. Most of those guys were super nerds and arrogant as all hell. I did my best to be different and got quite a few compliments and citations for it. About the only trade I did consider seriously for a while was cabinet making. I had a neighbor who did that and was very impressed with the tools and the finished products. That's a field in which perfection is demanded and gets a high price.

[Kellemora]

Prescriptions on Hospice are done 16 pills at at time, or basically, one day of script at a time, exceprt for a few that ard dispesp endedddddddddd at 30 or 45 pills at a time. Depends on the galue of them I think.
Pardon the tuypos. I'm not only dizzy an d loopy, I cfant's stay awayke, been that way all eening.

I'm not saying this to be ph unny, but I rarely run across anyone who know as much as I do about any topic I've worked in or am well versdeddd in. Mainly those josb I 'v eodne for many years so I know how rto do it right.

rrrrrrrrr Assemblyline work is grainless work and coule be replace by machinese easdikly enough, in most case= s.

Have to move upthe ladder to get your teeth into the dfesign and testing fazes of you want ernjoymehnt from yoru jogb.

Before I fall aless again. Hagfe a gereat night ZYogi!

AVTY
Duitfhff

VTY
Dutch

[yogi]

One of the functions of this high tech hearing aid and the software it's connected to has to do with translation. I can transcribe any one of thirty languages it understands and then reverse the process so that the foreign speaking person can see and understand what I said. I'm pretty sure I can also hear the translation in addition to reading it on the phone. I must report, unfortunately, that my fancy hearing device is not adept at typo-ese. LOL Fortunately I have a similar function built into my brain so that I was able to translate most of what you typed. It's odd in a way because much of my career was spent dealing with people who were not always well educated in English. I had to explain some highly technical things to them, and for the most part was successful. Also was able to answer their questions because I could translate their intent if not their actual words. The bottom line here is that I fully understand the state of mind you must be in with all those drugs. I am very impressed that you had the desire to attempt a reply. It is all just more testimony to your determination and strong will.

I'm not surprised that you rarely found an individual who could match what you have learned. I think you have the ability to absorb knowledge at a faster pace than most of us, which explains why you were so good at what you did. The sponge in your brain is VERY porous. The variety of your experiences is nothing less than amazing. Most of all, I am grateful that you are here and willing to tell me some of the stories about those acquired skills. So, now you make a few typos due to medications. No big deal. Keep up the good work.

[Kellemora]

Many things I've done over the years, I've done in ways which were not considered the traditional way of doing them, and the reason I get ooh and aah when people looked over my work. Even as something as simple as counted-cross-stitch. I'm sure you've seen the back side of many of these works, and the back side looks like a royal mess of lines of stray threads.
But if you look at the back side of my work, the back side and the front side are nearly equally as neat. Sometimes you have to guess at which side as the back and which side is the front. It is much harder to do it that way, takes longer, but gets the accolades.
There are also other important reasons why I may do something the way I do. Like before I published by very first book, I came up with a logo for DR. And it is located on the lower spine of every book I've ever published, and in a predominant place on every advertisement. This is also why it didn't cost me as much in advertising as most folks too. I just wanted my add plastered out there as many as I could get with drawing any click throughs on the actual adds. My goal here was recognition of the logo. So if a customer was in a store trying to make up their mind which book to pick, and one or two they were considering had my log on it, the more times they saw that logo in places, the more popular they might thing my books were, and that would alone would generate more sales on a whim.
Nearly everything I did, regardless of what job I was doing, I had a specific thing I always did, without fail, and in the overall scheme of things, it just makes the finished product look correct as it should be. Like have ALL the screws screw holes on switch plates facing vertically. People notice uniformity, over haphazard directions on a lot of things.
On things like knives, it helps to know WHY certain knives have a single beveled edge or a double beveled edge, and just how sharp they should be honed. Or should they also be ground with a grain in the edge of the metal. Trying to cut tomatoes with a knife that is hone sharp makes it feel like the knife is dull, when it could be the sharpest knife in the drawer. Too sharp for cutting tomatoes and other slick skinned items. While for cutting meats, you want them as slick as a surgical knife. Except for deboning knives. They need to be sharp, but not honed or slick, more like a ball point edge so they don't gouge slivers of bone into the meat when boning.

I've been running about 4 hours behind schedule all day today. And this is why it is after 10 pm that I've finally made it this far, and have not even made it to my stack of e-mails yet. But I'm getting there.

I do appreciate the confidence you have in me, but honestly, I've forgotten more in 30 years than I ever learned, hi hi.
Something we used to say about my Uncle Leonard behind his back, hi hi.

Moving on to next project for tonight.

[yogi]

I do appreciate the confidence you have in me, but honestly, I've forgotten more in 30 years than I ever learned, hi hi.

I doubt that's entirely true, but I do know what you are talking about. Obviously we have more memories buried in our brains than what we are conscious of at any given moment. But even if you lost 90% of what you knew in the past, that remaining knowledge is vast in scope and valuable on many levels. I've run into people with certain dysfunctions, such as autism, but seem to have some highly specialized skills in one area or another. I can't help but wonder if the conditions that brought about your epilepsy are not the same conditions responsible for your ability to learn and execute perfection. I suppose you could simply be experiencing OCD, but it seems to not be as simple as that.

Your comments about knife sharpening are a great example of what I'm talking about. Being interested in cooking also gives me an interest in the tools I must use, knives in particular. There are many ways to sharpen them and barely a consensus regarding the details. One consistent concern among experienced knife sharpeners is the angle on the edge of the blade. The thinnest of knives come in around 12 or 14 degrees while those boning knives can be near a 20 degree angle or more. I started out using a table top sharpener that has two grinding wheels with preset angles that cannot be changed. The first and more course of the two is set around 18 degrees while the second is closer to 14 degrees. The idea suggested in the instructions is to sharpen the knife at the broader angle first so that you can feel a burr along the edge. Then run it through the shallow angle so that the blade ends up with two angles. In theory that works pretty well. For boning or other thick knives they suggest only using the broader angle and then run it along a built in tool that puts a burr on the sharpened edge. This will cut tomatoes, but it is intended for use in tougher situations such as de-boning meat.

All that was fine and good for several years. Then I ran across a tool company called Wicked Edge. These guys sell a jig upon which any knife can be mounted with the blade pointing upward. On either side are metal rods mounted on ball joints. They can be adjusted by pushing them closer or further away from the blade so that you end up with the right sharpening angle. They also supply the diamond stones to fit on the rods and give instructions how to use all of this gear. It takes some practice but the tool does a marvelous job. Stainless steel is very difficult to sharpen but this tool and all the diamond grind stones give my chef's knife an edge that almost requires no pressure from me to cut through a tomato. The Wicked Edge is truly amazing. They also have a tech forum and you would not believe how many different ways there are to sharpen knives. Then again, maybe you would. LOL

Being the businessman that you are, it's not surprising that you intuitively know how to advertise your goods. Brand recognition is a very powerful influence on buyers and the reason why things such as logos were invented. Seeing the logo frequently does in fact make it and the product it is attached to seem familiar and trustworthy. It's actually subliminal suggestions in action much like the propaganda machines use to influence peoples' behavior. In the case of promoting a business the motives are to make people comfortable when they see your product and thus be more willing to buy it. Impulse buyers are operating at that level all the time.

[Kellemora]

There is one interesting thing about me and the way IQ tests are taken.
Over the years I've had over 15 totally separate types of IQ tests.
Some of them I do much better than excellent, some of the highest grades possible.
On others, that cover a bit of everything, where I though I would do well, is where I did the worst in many cases.
A couple of tests I've taken which were not part of standardized 15 IQ tests I first mentioned, I basically aced out on those. Got the highest grades possible on those. But they were geared more toward trades knowledge, which has nothing at all to do with getting the types given for college entrance exams, and in fact, quite the opposite.
There is one very interesting test, or group of tests, provided by trade schools to see what field you would fit best in.
These are absolutely nothing at all like college entrance type of IQ tests. Far from them. All of those types of tests I do remarkable at.
And ironically enough, if you pick 5 of the highest IQ achievers for college entrance level students, they will do extremely poorly on all of the trade school style of tests.
Not too many college level kids even know how to change a tire, much less plug or patch a tire on a bicycle or a car.
Yet they are on their way to patching up things like hearts and stomachs. So go figure, hi hi.

I learned quite a bit about knives in the years I was in the saw and tool sharpening business. There is one heck of a lot to learn if you want to be sharpening blades of any type for professional users.
I'm the only person the local barber shops let hone their blades, and even then, even allowing me to do one of them took a couple of years and a lot of samples left with them from their older shavers and trimmers.
In fact, it wasn't my favorite barber who I thought would trust me, but one of his competitors who just happen to have several old blades he though were no longer able to be sharpened properly, they were well worn I'll say that for them.
But they figured, they were ready for the trash heap in the condition they were in, and he let me give them a go. With the deal if I could make them work well again, he would pay me for the sharpening service, if not, no pay, even if he did use them for a while as a test.
He gave me an old wooden box that held like 8 of them. 2 of them had damaged end tines, like they were dropped also.
Fortunately, I knew just how to fix those with sprung or bent tines and had the tools to do it to. I took a lot of extra care making them precision flat again before I did the final honing on each of them.
As agreed, I was supposed to have 6 of the blades back to him on a Thursday morning when he wasn't so swamped with orders, so he could try them out. I truly expected to hear back from him on Monday as to whether or not they fit the bill or not. They were really rough ones to have to do, and I knew they could not be made factory perfect, but as close as possible.
I waited until Thursday morning to stop by again, and lo and behold, he had a box of 24 of them for me to, all were in much better shape that the ones I started with. Said he wanted them back by next Thursday morning, which was perfect for me.
Since they started out in better shape, they came out to perfection, every single one of them.
Come the next Thursday and he had three boxes for me, with a private name written on each box, and he told me not to mix those blades up, as they belong to private individuals I probably did not know. But he did let me do something new too. He said I could put my business card in each of the boxes so they know which service did the repairs and honing.
Like everything else, once I had all the old battered blades all fixed up, and the newer blades were fast and easy to do, by now I had everything down pat so the jobs went smoother and faster. But by the same token, they didn't use all that many blades to the point of needed rehoned so sales slimmed down to only when they needed them done, and all the old ones they would have thrown away were not back in service for them.
But on the bright side, they all new knew who it was who was doing such a good job, I got even more business, even from those who didn't trust me to do theirs at the git go. That's OK though, they didn't get in on the ground floor pricing either, hi hi.

Bingo on Brand Recognition! This is why it is so hard for a company to alter their Logo once it has been accepted.

[yogi]

You are absolutely correct about there being many types of intelligence measuring tests. Apparently many of those tests you took were of special design for specific purposes. When I was first employed by Motorola they gave me a "technicians test" to measure my skills and knowledge of electronics. I didn't ace the test but I did well enough to get a promotion afterwards.

College entrance exams basically want to know if the applicant is going to waste their time trying to get a degree, or are they actually capable of doing the work necessary. That kind of testing is nothing like the tests tradesmen take and for good reason. If you want to work in the trades you don't get that kind of education at a university. If you want to be a brain surgeon, you don't get that skill learning how to use saws and chisels. All things considered, intelligence tests do not measure a person's intelligence. They are designed to reveal how likely it is for a person to understand and learn in a particular environment. That's why you didn't do well in the general intelligence testing. You are a specialist and not a generalist.

As my experience with the Wicked Edge tool suggests, you can't do a good job unless you use the right tools. Learning how to sharpen knives and scissors is one thing. Knowing how to use the tools effectively is quite another. Then there is the problem of acquiring the proper tools. You certainly mastered all three phases when it came to tool sharpening.

Which brings to mind a problem I had many years ago. I bought a router to do some work around the house. It came with one or two bits but I needed way more than what they supplied with the new tool. Fortunately the Ace hardware store near me had an ample supply of router bits. They were quite expensive as I recall and the bunch I bought cost more than the router itself. Be that as it may I did the work I needed to do and the bits were totally worn out to prove it. Router bits are not like knives or scissors or barber clippers. I have no idea what it takes so sharpen some of those odd shaped tools, but I know you have to be a great tool and die maker to do it right. LOL I think I ended up with half a dozen bits and no two of them could possibly be sharpened with the same tool. I could have sent them a shop to have them resharpened but the cost for that was even more outrageous than buying new bits. I don't know what it takes to put a cutting edge back on those bits, but I think I would enjoy finding out first hand.

[Kellemora]

Router bits are tempered after they are made and made sharp for the job at hand, then they are disposable.

The Hospice gang was here this morning. They don't want me to try and make it up to my office anymore.
Said it is driving my heart way to hard, and causing me not to be able to hold my breath at a stable level.
Found that out the hard way today. I made it up here, and I'm still up here, with no way to get back home for a while yet.
They don't want me to try on my own, until they get a person back here with a transport chair, better than the ones I have.
My O2 reads OK, and my pulse is only a tad high, but I"m suffocating big time. Same exacerbation scales that put me into the hospital the last time. They gave me a dose of another medication and they will be back in around 15 minutes or so.

So, this may be goodbye for a few days until I get set back up down at the house.

So take care there Yogi!
I'll be back, soon, hopefully!

[yogi]

As you might recall, there were more than a few posts of mine suggesting that you stay put in your house and not attempt the trek up to your office. It was and still is a tough decision because we both know you benefit from being in your private man cave. Unfortunately getting to and from said cave is putting a lot of stress on you physically. There isn't a lot you can do to change your physical condition, but it may be possible for you to find some comfort down in the house. It likely won't be the same as the office, but I have a feeling those hospice people would be willing to help you make the transition if you looked at them with sad puppy eyes. LOL I know they do try to be helpful and perhaps that would extend to moving some vital pieces of furniture for you, such as the Silver Yogi. I don't know about the rest of your stuff. You might have to hire a moving company for that.

I will be looking for your return to this website and hoping it will be quicker than either of us anticipate. In the mean time I truly am happy that you have people looking out for you. I know you like to think you can tough it out, and perhaps you can up to a point. Those hospice people know where that point is and it would be best to heed their suggestions.

[Kellemora]

It took a couple of hours to get my old netbook up and running, but it is still on an older OS so has no features. GParted in NOT in Synaptic for me to check what available partition I can use for a new OS. Nor if it will work with our Fiber Optics. But at least I got you loaded and with the right log-in name and password. You've had many websites I've hit before I found this one named bfchat...

Right before lunch, I felt like I could make it to my office, but glad I didn't, because an hour later I'm way super down and actually can't move from my chair to wheelchair right now.

The main point for today was getting connected. Got Farcebook First, don't know,habit I guess, I don't do much there anymore. But it was already on my toolbar, not with the old password.

I'm super tired, so this is all I can do for today.

[yogi]

You continually amaze me. I did not expect to hear from you for several days, but here you are the very next day. Bravo!

It doesn't take much to get to this website. All you need to remember is "brainformation.com" is our home page URL. Type that into your browser address bar and you will see a CHAT NOW link to this website. Once here it's business as usual. Keep in mind that you can get here the same way via a smartphone or via a tablet. You might not like typing on either of those, but it is a way to get here if all else fails.

I don't know if it would do you any good or not with that old netbook, but I can easily put the OS of your choice on a USB memory stick and send it to you. If the netbook can boot into a USB, Debian probably would work but there are other more lightweight OS's as well. Of course there may be hardware compatibility issues, USB2 vs USB3 for example, but I'm sure I can make something to fit your system if I know what is in your system.

I don't think you would have problems with fiber optics. Routers and modems usually are backward compatible. Your netbook might not be up to optical cable speeds, but I'm guessing it should work. And, yeppers, Synaptic and gparted are two different animals. But, if you can boot off a USB, then none of that would matter.

Y'all take care of yourself. Don't fret if you got to sleep instead of type messages here. I know you will be back whenever you can make it.

[Kellemora]

I am sitting up, and managed to get to my little netbook, which is a far cry from perfect.
I just now booted it up, still on Debian 9 to see if a copy of GParted was on this version. No Luck.

I've been out of it all day, but made you my first, and probably only contact for today. Not everything works as is should on a keyboard connected to an old netbook computer.

My cousin from Florida came to visit as was here most of the, making me very tired.
My Sister and brother came very early this morning Being the worlds very busiest workhorses.
Since we cannot make room in the house for my computer, they decide to clean out my garage. Which is a most major undertaking to even consider, but they have made it half way through already.

They have spent the entire day working, which is fine with me, it let me get some much needed rest.
Debi went to get us some dinner and will be back in a minute.

Oh, the purpose of cleaning up the garage, is so a wheelchair can go in the overhead door, turn, go down a hall way to my office and turn and go in that way. Rather than building a small ramp to get up over the one step at the top of the hill. The blacktop driveway doesn't have a short steep incline like the dirt hill does.

My sister thinks she has enough clout to get me an electric small style wheechair. I hope so.

They are back with food. TaTa.

[yogi]

I shudder just at the thought of using a web based computer, or a netbook in other words. I am so spoiled with what I have now that anything less would cause me to find some other hobby. LOL Then again, if it's a netbook or nothing at all ... I might be willing to make some concessions.

You seem to be getting a lot of support from your family, and that is a good thing. Knowing how you never throw anything away would make me think it's impossible to "clean" the garage. Some or all of that stuff would need to be hauled away by the 1-800-JUNK people. I think the Salvation Army would come by and pick up stuff too if there was enough of it useful to them. There really should not be a problem getting rid of all those goodies, but I can't imagine you would want to get rid of any of it. I'm certain your brother and sister know how to handle your special needs. If your sis can arrange for a motorized chair, that would be ideal. I'm not sure how you would get to the office in inclement weather. Rain you probably can deal with, but if snow and ice pave the way to your office you could have a problem.

I have a version of gparted designed to work on a live disk, or USB memory stick. It's easy enough to download if you have access to the Internet, but I don't know if a netbook is capable of burning it to USB memory. Again, just say the word. If it would be helpful to have a bootable memory stick with gparted on it, I would be happy to send you a copy.

[Kellemora]

My brother and sister are cleaning out my garage and making a nice wide path from the garage main door down a hallway to my office door. They will only be here one day to do that then my son will be hear a couple of days to push em around on my trasporter from my office to home and back. So, at least for a few days while my son is here from Florida, I will have someone to push me up hill t o my office.

Can't do much on the old Netbook.

[yogi]

All I can say is that I'm glad there is an alternate way for you to get to your office. I know how much you enjoy being there. I guess it still won't be an easy trek after your son leaves, but I suspect that will be worked out in due time. You have a way of doing the impossible. LOL

My dear wife heard some good news on the television the other day. Apparently St Charles County voted to freeze the property taxes for people over the age of 65. While that is greatly appreciated I am wondering where that freeze will be made. The tax bill this coming December is slated to be about $1,000 more than last year's. Thus I'm hoping the benchmark is based on that last bill and not the next one.

[Kellemora]

I'm really in bad shape today and tonight Yogi, did get a ride up to my office at 8 pm from my neighbor.
But now he's ready to take me home already, so gotta go. I should make it up here tomorrow earlier.
Lot's of things going on today, broken toilet seal, some lights did not work, usual fix it now or pay nearly later.

OK, gotta Run. Just here so you knew I was still alive.

Good deal on St. Charles County.

[yogi]

I had little doubt that you were still among the living, and the effort you make to let me know about it is truly extraordinary.

A few months ago I told you about the irrigation system that was leaking out by the street shut off. They fixed that for several hundreds of dollars and I suspect it is their people who broke it in the first place. They are the only ones ever to touch that shutoff valve. I had nothing to argue with so I just paid them to fix it and watch the water bill go back to normal. Well, it didn't. That was a head scratcher, but then my dear wife noted some water around the back of the toilet. We had to call a plumber and the seal at the bottom of the tank was leaking. More than that, the shut off valve inside the tank was not shutting off properly. It would fill the tank to the top of the overflow pipe and run that way for several minutes. I tried adjusting it manually but never was able to get it working right. The plumber replaced everything inside the tank and it has been working fine ever since. So, this year I had two leaks that I could not personally fix and paid through the nose (actually via credit card to get back a % of my purchase) to get all the work done. I also put my hearing aids on the credit card and gained a whole bunch of rebate points just by doing that. LOL

And, I don't need to remind you that it is not necessary to struggle reaching your sanctuary just to let me know you can. I am VERY glad that you can tell me about it, but don't want you stressing yourself on my account.