My Substitute Reality -You're just jealous cause the little voices only talk to me-

Sunday August 14, 2016

What’s Happening? Part 1

Filed under: Family,Life,Personal — don @ 10:23 am

It’s been a long time since I’ve added a post so I figured I could give a summary of what’s happened since my last one.

My last post was about the birth of my first granddaughter Eloise (Ellie) Weiss.  Betty and I flew out to Wisconsin in January to spend a little over a week with them.  I had wanted to spend some time there since we don’t get to see Jocelyn and Eric that often.

We flew out at the end of December on American Airlines.  One of my presents to Betty was going First Class.  I had us on a 767 that had the lie down seats in FC so it was going to be quite an adventure.  Unfortunately that plane had some problems so we were forced to get on a smaller plane but at least she still got to experience FC service.

I had decided to fly into O’Hare because the price was better if you were going FC.  It was a mistake on my part as I didn’t think about how much air traffic would be using the airport in the middle of winter.  Chicago had a blizzard on our way there and it caused lots of delays which caused lots of planes to stay at the gates which meant there was no place for our plane to go once it landed.  We were stuck on the runway area for 1 1/2 hours.  Really glad we were in FC then.

The trip to Racine took about an hour once we got out of the airport.

We stayed at a hotel I had found when I went out in 2014.  It was a small place but the price was good and it was fairly clean.  It was also only about 2 miles from Joce.

There was snow on the ground and it did snow a few times.  Having grown up in Tucson and living the last 29 years in LA I don’t get to see much snow.  It was very nice and I’m glad we didn’t get snowed in.

Michelle and Josh joined us a day or so later and we went to Milwaukee to meet them for dinner.  They had problems with getting their car but eventually we met and had dinner.

The next few days we went various places and did family things.  Then Michelle and Josh had to go home.

We stayed a few more days and had a great time not feeling rushed.  One thing I had wanted to do was take a tour of a cheese making factory.  There was supposed to be one not too far from Joce but it wasn’t open while we were there.  We didn’t get to see any but we did get all the curds and cheese we wanted from the world famous Mars Cheese Castle where the owner is good friends with Joce and Eric.

When we flew home it was uneventful but we felt we had a great vacation.

Saturday October 24, 2015

Granddaughter!

Filed under: Family,Life,Personal — don @ 11:12 pm

After 4 grandsons we finally have a granddaughter.

My youngest blood daughter Jocelyn gave birth to Eloise Elizabeth Weiss on Saturday October 24th at 5:09 pm in Kenosha, WI.

She was 8 lbs, 5 oz and 20 1/4 inches long.

Betty and I will be going out at the end of December with Michelle and Josh joining us a few days later.

Eli

Friday September 11, 2015

Never Forget

Filed under: Family,Nothing,Personal — don @ 6:14 am

twin_towers1

Tuesday June 16, 2015

A Leap in Speed

Filed under: Computers,Geek — don @ 1:57 pm

I just switched over to Time Warner 300/20.  It costs less than AT&T was charging me for 45.

2015-06-16_1303

 

 

 

 

 

I’m hoping this will last me at least until Google fiber comes in.

Friday May 22, 2015

New Phone

Filed under: Camera/Photography,Computers,Cool Stuff — don @ 8:00 pm

I’ve had my Samsung S4 for 2 years now so I figured it was time for an upgrade.

I gave a fleeting thought to an iPhone but figured there’s really nothing that new about them that would drag me back to Apple.

I’ve been very happy with my Android so I decided to go with a Samsung S6.

It’s very similar to the S4 and the S5 that Betty got about a month ago with a few extra perks.

1)  It has an honest to goodness fingerprint reader.

2)  It has built in induction charging.

3)  It’s made out of metal and glass instead of plastic.

4)  It has a REALLY high resolution screen, much more than the iPhone 6.

5)  It’s got a REALLY good camera that takes low light photos very well and will take 4K video (although I don’t know what to watch it on other than the phone).

6)  It has an 8-core CPU vs the 2 core iPhone. (although the 2 core iPhone CPU is pretty good)

All of that plus I’m not shoehorned into the App Store and what Apple thinks I should use.

I’ve heard the new Samsungs are really locked down but I unrooted my S4 not long after I rooted it and never missed it.  I have a friend at work who says he could never be happy with not being able to change ROMS.  I guess if you live for doing that it’s understandable but if I want to geek out I have my computer.

I’ll play around with the new phone and report anything that’s super cool.

Tuesday May 5, 2015

Heading Back Down

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Family,Life,Personal — don @ 12:42 pm

We will be heading back down to Mexico on June 30th.  Since they need about 4 days to put in my permanent plate I figured I might as well take advantage of the extra US holiday that they don’t celebrate.

According to the email they sent me it takes 1 day to make the new plate then I have to go back for any adjustments the next 2 days.  It’s possible I will be done on the 3rd and if so we could come back then instead of waiting for the 4th.

We are also going to stay in a hotel on the US side this time.  It’s the Quechan Hotel and Casino right at the off ramp from I8.

Maybe I can win enough to pay for my implants!  Ha!  I’m a funny guy.  I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose much.  I do like the nickel slots though but I suspect they will be updated like the slots in Vegas where you don’t use money anymore.

Friday February 27, 2015

Net Neutrality

Filed under: Computers,Geek — don @ 7:44 pm

Is anyone else worried about the fact that the government that couldn’t make a website work now has complete control of the internet?

Just curious if it’s only me.

Tuesday January 6, 2015

Implants in Mexico

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Family,Personal — don @ 1:35 pm

I’ve been wanting to get implants on my upper for about 6 years but with the cost of them in the US I couldn’t justify it.  I had actually had my middle four teeth on the upper pulled and a bone graft done about 6 years ago but when I was finally told the actual cost I decided to wait.

The cost in the US was going to be around $30,000 and that was for just 4 teeth (2 implants).

Earlier this year I realized since I was over 59 1/2 I could take some money from my 401K without a penalty so I started looking at dentists in Los Algodones, Mexico.  I heard about Los Algodones from Richard and I know Dale and Donna also got some work done there.

The dental group that seemed to be the largest with many good reviews was Sani Dental Group.  I got a quote from them and scheduled my first visit for December 27th-31st.

We arrived on the 26th and drove over the border without talking to anyone.  We went straight to the Hacienda Los Algodones which is a hotel owned by Sani.  It’s a very nice little hotel with decent sized rooms and very friendly employees.

The next day we went to Sani and they did a CT scan and a panoramic X-ray.  Then I met with a diagnostic specialist.  He said I needed an All on 4 (which is what I wanted anyways) and he suggested I get an implant on my lower back right molar (which had been extracted quite a few years ago).  I agree with them and we also planned to do a post and crown on one of my teeth I had done a root canal on a few months ago.

They said to come back on Monday so we spent Sunday checking out a few stores in town.  Every few feet someone comes up and tries to sell you something.  We weren’t buying.

Monday morning I went in and they numbed my right lower side so he could put in the singe implant.  That was completely painless so I was ready for the extractions.

He then numbed my upper right side and started pulling teeth.  I had 4 on that side with one a molar.  That wasn’t very pleasant and he had to keep adding Novocaine.  He finally had them all out and started doing the implants.  Again, the implants were not painful at all and he had the 2 in within 15 minutes or so.

Then he numbed my upper left and extracted the 2 teeth and then put in the other 2 implants.  As before there was no pain involved (of course my mouth was very numb).

Next came the part I did not like at all.  He said my bone was medium to soft and that he didn’t want to install the temporary plate that screwed on.  He wanted me to use a full denture for the next 6 months.  I told him I really didn’t want to do that as one of the reasons I went with the All on 4 was you get teeth screwed into the implants basically the same day.

He convinced me to try the denture but as soon as it was in I started gagging.  I told him there was no way I could put up with that for 6 months let alone 6 hours.

He said he would go ahead and install the temp plate like I wanted as long as I signed a paper absolving them of any damage caused by not waiting.  I went ahead and did that since I was not going to use the denture.

So later in the day we started doing the temp impression/plate.  To do that they put a plate in your mouth and start painting what I believe was acrylic material so that once they had it done they used it to make the temp.  That was probably the most uncomfortable procedure of the whole day.  It was in my mouth for close to a half hour and wasn’t doing my gag reflex any good.

On Tuesday I went back to have the new temporary screwed in.  It looks great and feels *okay*.  I suspect I’ll get used to it in time.  I do have to take it easy for the next 3 – 4 weeks and not eat anything hard.  I figure I can handle that.

To sum it up my experience was mostly good with the exception of the full denture.  I know I will be very happy once I get my permanent plate in about 4-6 months.

I should also mention that Betty got a post and crown while we were there.  The cost for both including a panoramic x-ray was only $300.

I would like to say something about the town but we really didn’t spend much time walking around.  On Monday we did go to a restaurant for lunch and then another one for dinner.  The one we went to dinner at was called Kashas and it had excellent food for decent prices.  When we first got there we noticed only one other couple.  While there a bunch more people came in and they were all locals.

If you walk around town be prepared to be semi-accosted by all kinds of people trying to sell you trinkets, artwork, and various other items.  Most of them would take NO but a few were very persistent.  One guy actually scared Betty with his aggressiveness.

I highly recommend going to Mexico if you need any dental work that would be expensive in the US.  You can save a lot over the cost in the US where it costs 300-400% higher.

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