I spent the afternoon thinking about z

I did not feel well enough to get up today, and my wife and the dog are in Florida, so I had no responsibility so I crashed. Well, I was curious about where solar shingles were at, and before I knew it, I had watched seven hours of utube dealing with reusing laptop batteries in solar batteries. It was an amazing experience as I learned a laptop may have 8 smaller cad batteries configured in a battery pack, and when it begins to fail, it may be only one or two of those batteries which are bad. The other ones can last for years and years. So I watched these guys pull old batteries, test them, reconfigure them in cool battery packs, and these battery packs which are being sold for whole houses for 16k could be done for significantly less than 10k for a finished solar system.

Bob was all excited about Musk and his batteries and cars, and Z was all excited about the Dow solar shingles, and now after watching all day, it appears chevy and their new 300 mile bolt all electric is kicking tesla's asz, and the whole house battery at 10k has been abandoned as they cannot compete to natural gas generators. Today I also found out that z's dow solar shingles are being discontinued. The whole solar industry is jumping by leaps and bounds and I will forever miss our past discussions, but with Bob and Z on my mind this afternoon, I had a blast researching. I am going to build an RV with cad battery packs and standard solar panels which just keep dropping in price. I have sunny areas of the islands where there are no utilities and I want to build an RV which is totally self sufficient. I will need to build two trailers. One will have a shipping container frame and will have the sides open to create a 20 x 24 platform which I will enclose with vinyl from old billboard signs. I will then build a mechanical trailer on a standard 16 foot x 8 foot trailer where I will have water storage, waste storage, batteries, a built in bathroom, and a solar panel roof. I will be able to use the smaller trailer up by the house when the power goes out as a back up whole house power source. When I want to spend time in the RV in the middle of the island, I simply park the smaller trailer next to the larger stationary rv and plug it in to the solar trailer. I will add a four inch waste pipe to my septic and will drain the waste out when it is full. I still think I can build the smaller trailer, but doubt I will have the town to finish the larger trailer, but heck this is fun. I just miss the conversation as the quality of the same has dropped precipitously.

2seaoat wrote:I did not feel well enough to get up today, and my wife and the dog are in Florida, so I had no responsibility so I crashed.  Well, I was curious about where solar shingles were at, and before I knew it, I had watched seven hours of utube dealing with reusing laptop batteries in solar batteries.  It was an amazing experience as I learned a laptop may have 8 smaller cad batteries configured in a battery pack, and when it begins to fail, it may be only one or two of those batteries which are bad.   The other ones can last for years and years.   So I watched these guys pull old batteries, test them, reconfigure them in cool battery packs, and these battery packs which are being sold for whole houses for 16k could be done for significantly less than 10k for a finished solar system.

Bob was all excited about Musk and his batteries and cars, and Z was all excited about the Dow solar shingles, and now after watching all day, it appears chevy and their new 300 mile bolt all electric is kicking tesla's asz, and the whole house battery at 10k has been abandoned as they cannot compete to natural gas generators.  Today I also found out that z's dow solar shingles are being discontinued.   The whole solar industry is jumping by leaps and bounds and I will forever miss our past discussions, but with Bob and Z on my mind this afternoon, I had a blast researching.   I am going to build an RV with cad battery packs and standard solar panels which just keep dropping in price.   I have sunny areas of the islands where there are no utilities and I want to build an RV which is totally self sufficient.   I will need to build two trailers.  One will have a shipping container frame and will have the sides open to create a 20 x 24 platform which I will enclose with vinyl from old billboard signs.  I will then build a mechanical trailer on a standard 16 foot x 8 foot trailer where I will have water storage, waste storage, batteries, a built in bathroom, and a solar panel roof.   I will be able to use the smaller trailer up by the house when the power goes out as a back up whole house power source.   When I want to spend time in the RV in the middle of the island, I simply park the smaller trailer next to the larger stationary rv and plug it in to the solar trailer.  I will add a four inch waste pipe to my septic and will drain the waste out when it is full.  I still think I can build the smaller trailer, but doubt I will have the town to finish the larger trailer, but heck this is fun.  I just miss the conversation as the quality of the same has dropped precipitously.

Even while resting you are busy. Incredible!

My father in law two days before he died said" I am afraid to go to sleep because I do not think I will wake up", One of my favorite dogs who was dying blocked my way up the stairs as she wanted to spend some time with me as she knew her time had come, and she was dead two days later. I am learning about losing things now. It has been a slow journey, and one which has bestowed incredible wisdom as to what is important, but in the end the human spirit fights death to the end, but at some point we all have a realization that the time has come to pass. I am nowhere near that point now, and I strongly believe that keeping busy with projects and having your imagination fill the mind with positive thoughts and perceptions forestalls the certainty which faces each of us. If you remember Bob, after facing the realization that he was terminal decided he was going to take that cruise and enjoy music of his youth. That dream kept him going until that tumor exploded into a reality which he could not change, but even in the worse of his battle, he was planning to return home if possible. People need to capture the possible and the positive regardless of the reality which they face. I have never been happier, yet fully understand what remains of my journey, and choose to be positive and productive until I am no longer able to continue.

Many people do not believe. My grandfather had a dream that really disturbed him. He was not a religious participating person but a good person that supported our Catholic upbringing.

Papa, after several days of acting strange, told us about his dream. He said, during the night at 2 am a kind man woke him up. Papa and the man had a very long discussion and towards the end, the man showed Papa a calander. The calander had June 18th circled in red and the year read 19_ _.

Every year on June 18th Papa was anxious. Years later Papa became very sick, it was in April. He was an emergency admission to the hospital the day before a schedule routine surgery. He was examined by the ER physician, the cardiologist, hematologist, and his surgeon. His lab work was very bizarre and he was not expected to live through the night. Unfortunately, there were no critical care beds so he was admitted to a semiprivate room so I could stay with him. Papa received 2 units of blood that night and the next morning he was sitting up and felt fine...his cardiologist did not even recognize him the next morning and he told me he came in expecting to here my grandfather died during the night. He said, " by all rights he should not have made it through the night.

The surgeon came in and diagnosed a severe gallbladder attack and scheduled surgery. Risky but necessary. When he was operated on it was discovered his gallbladder had completely eroded. The surgery was long and complicated. A T-tube was temporarily inserted and he would need another surgery when the infection was controlled.....skipping along....Papa had a good recovery and had the second surgery. During his post op Papa went in to respiratory arrest....he recovered but shortly after he became septic. He eventually lost consciousness and was in a coma for several weeks. Papa did not know the dates and remained in a coma.....he died June 18th @2am.

There are many things we simply do not understand. I had a dream the other night where I was promised virgins........I woke up in a cold sweat, but then realized he was talking about surgeons.

2seaoat wrote:There are many things we simply do not understand.  I had a dream the other night where I was promised virgins........I woke up in a cold sweat, but then realized he was talking about surgeons.

Things tend to get a little hazy in the wee hours.....

My grandfathers died on the same day within 30 minutes of each other... one in TX and one in FL.

PkrBum wrote: My grandfathers died on the same day within 30 minutes of each other... one in TX and one in FL.

Unbelievable things happen.

On July 4, 1826, John Addams last words were Thomas Jefferson still survives. Five hours earlier Jefferson had passed away on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the  Declaration of Independence. Old friends and patriots that were linked in life and linked in death.

Thanks Seaoat and PkrBum for sharing personal stories.