I'm starting a new job Monday. Half a day for gearing up and security stuff, then train at home to work from home. Not great pay but need the bennies.
My better half is an RRT and for her it's all COVID, all the time. In a field wear people usually burn out before they retire, she's about on her last thread. Last night we informed our families we won't be vectors for the holidays. (My Mom is 90 and just dodged 6 weeks of solitary in a rehab facility without incident.) Pray for your local health care workers, if that's your thing.
One of my friends is married to a respiratory therapist - her experience with the pandemic in South Dakota is markedly different from our governor. Scary stuff happening.
Yes yes yes. I pray for them and my LEO friends everyday... My neighbor one house away is a nurse in one of our largest hospitals. He works in the ER "Covid wing". He has lost a lot of weight and looks bad from all of the hours and stress. I talk to him when he is out and he says the people who come in and test positive and are so sick they are admitted are in REALLY bad shape. He said that 99% of those folks already had COPD, type 1 or 2 diabetes, or were otherwise extremely unhealthy people.
The immediate family is through Covid. Wife works from home and missed no work days and our son, who was very high risk, hardly shown any symptoms. I never got it ... this time. Not just asymptomatic but tested neg and we did not quarantine within the household in any way. When the wife was active, she coughed and sneezed on me, accidentally of course, at times during the night.
Since my results were neg, my quarantine lasted nearly three weeks. Did not qualify for unemployment since I was "not available for work", no FMLA protection, and no short-term disability since I was never "sick". My employer was a total pain in the a$$ about the entire ordeal and I was afraid of losing my job. What a crock!
The best we can figure for me not getting it this time around is that I had, according to the Dr., the flu back in March before the big shutdown.
In March, my a/b flu test came back neg but at the time, few covid tests were available. Low risk = no covid test. Same symptoms as the wife recently had, including a slight loss of taste. Back then, as soon as I realized something wasn't right, I quarantined myself from the rest of the family and it must have worked. Come home from work, sterilize hands after getting out of truck, go to back porch and place lunch cooler on picnic table and remove shoes, enter house, put dirty Tupperware into sink w/soapy water, clothes come off and immediately go into the washer, then I immediately head upstairs to shower. I staid upstairs almost two weeks, only coming down to put food on my plate or go to work. Guess it worked as they never got sick in March.
Anyhow, masks have been mandatory at work since the shutdown. When it's 100* outside and the equipment you are working around is running around 200*, it's bloody hot. Add a mask and it's to the point people were having heat stroke.
Locally, WalMart is doing great but the smaller mom and pop business have been hit pretty hard. A lot of them will never reopen.
For those that are bothered by the mask strap; sew buttons on your hat for the strap or they make these nice soft silicone hair braids that can be placed on the back of your neck for the strap to attach to.
We also started random covid testing at work and several have been caught with no symptoms.
The good thing is we now feel like some of our freedom has been restored. I'm ready for some diy events!
@Kornbread said:
Didn't mean for that to be a novel.
No worries, feels good to put it down, even if I one reads or responds....
I am just lucky, I guess, can work from home, have a large enough house with a yard, the family's not here so my grocery store outing is less than once a week, but sitting at home all day is boring, but hey the berries and birds are good company!
My two main accomplishments this year. A small two way using the DX20 and DA135, cabinet is made from scrap pine 1 x 6 and plywood. The jet on top of them is a 1/72 Revell Germany Tornado in one of the special paint schemes from the 2009 NATO Tiger Meet. (Yes, I do build kits from time to time )
Otherwise, I've been finishing up some half-completed projects and doing some odd jobs at my parents' place to help them out.
I am just coming out of a 2 week quarantine. I was exposed but fortunately I nor my family contracted Covid. Made use of the great weather and my new tractor to get a bunch done on our property. Downed trees, cut trails, burn scrap wood, rearranged my shop, etc. Still working though OT has been cut. We do what we can to take care of each other, and our extended family.
Just found out my nephew's wife has Covid. She's an OR nurse! Apparently someone she works with tested positive last week and that's more than likely how she got infected. We attended their wedding a month ago, against our better judgement. We didn't stay long after the ceremony because we were among just a handful of people wearing masks!
I just learned that if you want to get a free Covid antibody test, give blood at the Red Cross. The antibodies' half-life is around 73 days.
@Tom_S said:
I just learned that if you want to get a free Covid antibody test, give blood at the Red Cross. The antibodies' half-life is around 73 days.
That is very interesting. Mom did blood test today which includes antibodies test. I'll update.
I’ll be living somewhat vicariously through the MAC/DIY community...
I’m starting the process of getting the house ready to sell, and per the RE agent and the better half, there are walls that need painted, stuff (i.e. almost all personal pics and related) that needs to be boxed and out of view.
Apparently our RE agent is not a DIY speaker fan - she made some comment of preferring in-wall or on a shelf (over my floor standing OB’s). She wasn’t all that thrilled with my equipment rack in the corner either. So it’s you guys, Siri and Alexa… and more than a few adult refreshments.
Sounds like we are or have been in the same boat in 2020. The family had to put my aunt in the ground last wed but it wasnt Rona related , complications with diabetes. Really looking forward to a better 2021 , Ive got my chin up. Hope you all keep yours up too
Lisa, my wife, is currently positive with relatively light symptoms. Her extended family had a 90 year birthday party for my father-in-law that spread it to most attending, including my 88 year old mother-in-law. That's the most likely theory anyway. We had decided to not attend. So far, all those who have tested positive (6 people) are having mild symptoms and are improving.
Lisa, my oldest son Chris who lives with us and I are all employed. I'm working on a project for the Hummer EV so the work schedule is very heavy, but I'm part of a great team so that helps. Chris works at a grocery store and he had to stop while he isolated, but the store gets federal help since he's considered essential. So, his job will be there when he returns. Same for Lisa who is a nurse for the U of M health system. We are grateful for the privilege of no employment worries.
In my free time - a few hours Sunday afternoon - I'm slowly (as usual) working on a DIY turntable for my youngest, Andrew. I've got the hardware for the motor drive pretty much done and need to prototype the bearing and platter before diving into the firmware. It's Arduino based and a fun project. I'm also researching drivers for my PTT6.5 based design; specifically the tweeter. That has been more challenging than I expected. I will focus on that design once the turntable is done.
Wow, I hope your in-laws come out of this OK! I really worry about our older citizens. Some of my clients are retirement communities and I know the stress the staff has been under trying to keep their populations safe.
@Tom_S said:
Wow, I hope your in-laws come out of this OK! I really worry about our older citizens. Some of my clients are retirement communities and I know the stress the staff has been under trying to keep their populations safe.
Thanks! So far, my mother-in-law is doing remarkably well. Much better than we feared she would given her overall health. She also seems to be on the improving side of it, but one can never be sure with this virus, it seems.
Who would have ever thought we would be so excited about something as mundane as eating out? For the first time since early March, we ate an actual sit down meal at an actual restaurant. Yes, since March we have eaten no takeout, ordered any deliveries, nuttin. Every meal has been home cooked from groceries ordered online. Thank goodness the wife is a very, very good cook! Since the family has gotten over covid, we have ordered Dominoes Pizza, Dexter BBQ takeout, TacoBell, even went actually-there-in-person shopping. Although still concerned about my parents, who are in the mid 70's, in the last few weeks it's been like a heavy burden has been removed from our being. Light at the end of the tunnel I hope.
Just asking because I live in Rockford, IL. My sister lives in the Detroit suburbs. So I travel up I-95 from time to time, right past Ann Arbor.
There are a handful of MAC/DIY guys in the area here. It would be great to have you join us for a get-together, once we get back to doing that sort of thing.
My family and I are getting by during these crazy times. My employment situation has been stable and Covid hasn't hit my immediate or extended family yet as far as we know. Among friends and acquaintances, we are seeing the recent surge and it seems like it is getting closer to home all the time. Iowa's positivity rate is ridiculous.
We are preparing mentally and in other ways for a long, more isolated winter that will hopefully be followed by a return to something at least a little more normal. I have one son about to return home from college for a while (he and his circle of college friends all tested negative for Covid this week) and another who is a senior in high school, so we are trying to figure out what he will do next year. College evaluations now need to take into account how well set up the living spaces are to accommodate whatever a new normal might look like.
My mom broke her hip this summer, but surgery went better than expected and it motivated her to move into a senior apartment complex - a much better situation for her living alone. There have been a few Covid cases there, but it has been very well managed and there have been no major outbreaks so far.
On the audio front, I am still working on the supporting elements for my outdoor speakers (the Manganese project). I'm also trying to apply some lessons learned from my dabbling with the Audio Science Review site. The HiVi DIY 3.1 review went well, Helium not so much. I have been revisiting some recent projects that never were really finished with those in mind. Each will get their own thread in due time. I started over (for at least the 4th time) with the Vanadium crossover (the unfinished speakers with the 3" Tang Band mid dome), but this time doing full horizontal polar measurements on each driver. I am very happy with out that has turned out. I am also revisiting the Neon project that I started out for Mike Burke and posted on PETT. I have a lower crossover point and much flatter response, but am still working on addressing some of the other issues that this design would share with Helium.
I have also been acquiring a few interesting drivers for future higher end projects (a pair of Scan 9900's and 8531's, as well as a pair of ceramic SB17's). Now I just need to decide which project(s) to start next. There are at least a dozen options...
I extend my thoughts and prayers to those of you going through difficult times. We're a community even if it doesn't always feel like it during the pandemic. Let's look for ways to help each other get through. Please feel free to reach out.
Keep an open mind, but don't let your brain fall out.
Comments
I'm starting a new job Monday. Half a day for gearing up and security stuff, then train at home to work from home. Not great pay but need the bennies.
My better half is an RRT and for her it's all COVID, all the time. In a field wear people usually burn out before they retire, she's about on her last thread. Last night we informed our families we won't be vectors for the holidays. (My Mom is 90 and just dodged 6 weeks of solitary in a rehab facility without incident.) Pray for your local health care workers, if that's your thing.
One of my friends is married to a respiratory therapist - her experience with the pandemic in South Dakota is markedly different from our governor. Scary stuff happening.
Yes yes yes. I pray for them and my LEO friends everyday... My neighbor one house away is a nurse in one of our largest hospitals. He works in the ER "Covid wing". He has lost a lot of weight and looks bad from all of the hours and stress. I talk to him when he is out and he says the people who come in and test positive and are so sick they are admitted are in REALLY bad shape. He said that 99% of those folks already had COPD, type 1 or 2 diabetes, or were otherwise extremely unhealthy people.
The immediate family is through Covid. Wife works from home and missed no work days and our son, who was very high risk, hardly shown any symptoms. I never got it ... this time. Not just asymptomatic but tested neg and we did not quarantine within the household in any way. When the wife was active, she coughed and sneezed on me, accidentally of course, at times during the night.
Since my results were neg, my quarantine lasted nearly three weeks. Did not qualify for unemployment since I was "not available for work", no FMLA protection, and no short-term disability since I was never "sick". My employer was a total pain in the a$$ about the entire ordeal and I was afraid of losing my job. What a crock!
The best we can figure for me not getting it this time around is that I had, according to the Dr., the flu back in March before the big shutdown.
In March, my a/b flu test came back neg but at the time, few covid tests were available. Low risk = no covid test. Same symptoms as the wife recently had, including a slight loss of taste. Back then, as soon as I realized something wasn't right, I quarantined myself from the rest of the family and it must have worked. Come home from work, sterilize hands after getting out of truck, go to back porch and place lunch cooler on picnic table and remove shoes, enter house, put dirty Tupperware into sink w/soapy water, clothes come off and immediately go into the washer, then I immediately head upstairs to shower. I staid upstairs almost two weeks, only coming down to put food on my plate or go to work. Guess it worked as they never got sick in March.
Anyhow, masks have been mandatory at work since the shutdown. When it's 100* outside and the equipment you are working around is running around 200*, it's bloody hot. Add a mask and it's to the point people were having heat stroke.
Locally, WalMart is doing great but the smaller mom and pop business have been hit pretty hard. A lot of them will never reopen.
For those that are bothered by the mask strap; sew buttons on your hat for the strap or they make these nice soft silicone hair braids that can be placed on the back of your neck for the strap to attach to.
We also started random covid testing at work and several have been caught with no symptoms.
The good thing is we now feel like some of our freedom has been restored. I'm ready for some diy events!
Didn't mean for that to be a novel.
No worries, feels good to put it down, even if I one reads or responds....
I am just lucky, I guess, can work from home, have a large enough house with a yard, the family's not here so my grocery store outing is less than once a week, but sitting at home all day is boring, but hey the berries and birds are good company!
We made a bunch of 3-d printed "ear savers" for our employees. I'm told there are free 3-d files on the net
My two main accomplishments this year. A small two way using the DX20 and DA135, cabinet is made from scrap pine 1 x 6 and plywood. The jet on top of them is a 1/72 Revell Germany Tornado in one of the special paint schemes from the 2009 NATO Tiger Meet. (Yes, I do build kits from time to time
)
Otherwise, I've been finishing up some half-completed projects and doing some odd jobs at my parents' place to help them out.
How do you like the DX20 Matt? I ordered a pair just to get my order over $99.
I am just coming out of a 2 week quarantine. I was exposed but fortunately I nor my family contracted Covid. Made use of the great weather and my new tractor to get a bunch done on our property. Downed trees, cut trails, burn scrap wood, rearranged my shop, etc. Still working though OT has been cut. We do what we can to take care of each other, and our extended family.
Just found out my nephew's wife has Covid. She's an OR nurse! Apparently someone she works with tested positive last week and that's more than likely how she got infected. We attended their wedding a month ago, against our better judgement. We didn't stay long after the ceremony because we were among just a handful of people wearing masks!
I just learned that if you want to get a free Covid antibody test, give blood at the Red Cross. The antibodies' half-life is around 73 days.
That is very interesting. Mom did blood test today which includes antibodies test. I'll update.
Everyone is doing ok around here. I find it best to stay busy.
I’ll be living somewhat vicariously through the MAC/DIY community...
I’m starting the process of getting the house ready to sell, and per the RE agent and the better half, there are walls that need painted, stuff (i.e. almost all personal pics and related) that needs to be boxed and out of view.
Apparently our RE agent is not a DIY speaker fan - she made some comment of preferring in-wall or on a shelf (over my floor standing OB’s). She wasn’t all that thrilled with my equipment rack in the corner either. So it’s you guys, Siri and Alexa… and more than a few adult refreshments.
Sounds like we are or have been in the same boat in 2020. The family had to put my aunt in the ground last wed but it wasnt Rona related , complications with diabetes. Really looking forward to a better 2021 , Ive got my chin up. Hope you all keep yours up too
Love the look of those! Makes me wish I had a paint booth.
I wish I could paint! Sanding down another mess-up as we speak.
Lisa, my wife, is currently positive with relatively light symptoms. Her extended family had a 90 year birthday party for my father-in-law that spread it to most attending, including my 88 year old mother-in-law. That's the most likely theory anyway. We had decided to not attend. So far, all those who have tested positive (6 people) are having mild symptoms and are improving.
Lisa, my oldest son Chris who lives with us and I are all employed. I'm working on a project for the Hummer EV so the work schedule is very heavy, but I'm part of a great team so that helps. Chris works at a grocery store and he had to stop while he isolated, but the store gets federal help since he's considered essential. So, his job will be there when he returns. Same for Lisa who is a nurse for the U of M health system. We are grateful for the privilege of no employment worries.
In my free time - a few hours Sunday afternoon - I'm slowly (as usual) working on a DIY turntable for my youngest, Andrew. I've got the hardware for the motor drive pretty much done and need to prototype the bearing and platter before diving into the firmware. It's Arduino based and a fun project. I'm also researching drivers for my PTT6.5 based design; specifically the tweeter. That has been more challenging than I expected. I will focus on that design once the turntable is done.
Paul,
U of M = Michigan ?
Wow, I hope your in-laws come out of this OK! I really worry about our older citizens. Some of my clients are retirement communities and I know the stress the staff has been under trying to keep their populations safe.
Spent a little organizing the pc workspace I've been using in anticipation of the kid coming home. Check out my custom speaker stands!
For shits and giggles I might sand and respray the sub to match the satellites, that would be cool.
I see a red theme there!!!
I'm really liking it. Nice, clean and effortless - way better than I was expecting for the price point. I'm crossed 2nd order electrical FWIW.
Yes.
Thanks! So far, my mother-in-law is doing remarkably well. Much better than we feared she would given her overall health. She also seems to be on the improving side of it, but one can never be sure with this virus, it seems.
Just asking because I live in Rockford, IL. My sister lives in the Detroit suburbs. So I travel up I-95 from time to time, right past Ann Arbor.
Who would have ever thought we would be so excited about something as mundane as eating out? For the first time since early March, we ate an actual sit down meal at an actual restaurant. Yes, since March we have eaten no takeout, ordered any deliveries, nuttin. Every meal has been home cooked from groceries ordered online. Thank goodness the wife is a very, very good cook! Since the family has gotten over covid, we have ordered Dominoes Pizza, Dexter BBQ takeout, TacoBell, even went actually-there-in-person shopping. Although still concerned about my parents, who are in the mid 70's, in the last few weeks it's been like a heavy burden has been removed from our being. Light at the end of the tunnel I hope.
We will get through this.
There are a handful of MAC/DIY guys in the area here. It would be great to have you join us for a get-together, once we get back to doing that sort of thing.
My family and I are getting by during these crazy times. My employment situation has been stable and Covid hasn't hit my immediate or extended family yet as far as we know. Among friends and acquaintances, we are seeing the recent surge and it seems like it is getting closer to home all the time. Iowa's positivity rate is ridiculous.
We are preparing mentally and in other ways for a long, more isolated winter that will hopefully be followed by a return to something at least a little more normal. I have one son about to return home from college for a while (he and his circle of college friends all tested negative for Covid this week) and another who is a senior in high school, so we are trying to figure out what he will do next year. College evaluations now need to take into account how well set up the living spaces are to accommodate whatever a new normal might look like.
My mom broke her hip this summer, but surgery went better than expected and it motivated her to move into a senior apartment complex - a much better situation for her living alone. There have been a few Covid cases there, but it has been very well managed and there have been no major outbreaks so far.
On the audio front, I am still working on the supporting elements for my outdoor speakers (the Manganese project). I'm also trying to apply some lessons learned from my dabbling with the Audio Science Review site. The HiVi DIY 3.1 review went well, Helium not so much. I have been revisiting some recent projects that never were really finished with those in mind. Each will get their own thread in due time. I started over (for at least the 4th time) with the Vanadium crossover (the unfinished speakers with the 3" Tang Band mid dome), but this time doing full horizontal polar measurements on each driver. I am very happy with out that has turned out. I am also revisiting the Neon project that I started out for Mike Burke and posted on PETT. I have a lower crossover point and much flatter response, but am still working on addressing some of the other issues that this design would share with Helium.
I have also been acquiring a few interesting drivers for future higher end projects (a pair of Scan 9900's and 8531's, as well as a pair of ceramic SB17's). Now I just need to decide which project(s) to start next. There are at least a dozen options...
I extend my thoughts and prayers to those of you going through difficult times. We're a community even if it doesn't always feel like it during the pandemic. Let's look for ways to help each other get through. Please feel free to reach out.
Sehlin Sound Solutions