Monthly update :-)

Health
I went back to the knee specialist. “It looks like you are beginning to have some problems with your knee” He was being funny, but basically telling me that this is just the start. The interesting thing is, since the last time I was in he has become the President Arthroscopy Association of North America. It’s funny I went to him because of a recommendation by my regular physician. I trust him enough that I didn’t bother looking up the knee doctor. I just went. I noticed on his card that the knee doctor has a website so I looked it up. Sheesh! Patents and everything. No wonder he’s so expensive. Anyhow, Starting in January I’ll be double insured as we transition me from my insurance to Melissa’s new cheaper & better insurance. So in January I get my knee scoped out, and (hopefully) fixed.

house
The hatches are battened. We’ve been averaging about 35F outside. The new windows are working well. No ice has formed on the upstairs windows. The large window that we replaced downstairs is most definitely doing it’s job. The old window was so drafty that we would set the thermostat to 70F, it would cool off really quickly downstairs by the drafty window where they put the thermostat. This caused the furnace to kick on a lot and the temps upstairs to be close to 80F. It was also so drafty down there that you’d swear you felt a breeze.
With the new window we’ve got the thermostat set to 65F when we’re home and awake. This has made it stay anywhere from 66-70 upstairs, depending on how many / how long computers have been on. At night it turns down to 63F. Believe it or not, 65 is warm enough that I’m sitting here in sleeping shorts. It’s downright hot when you get moving around a bit. When watching a move downstairs, you do need a blanket though. But that just makes it more cozy.

Projects
Still working on the router table. The design is done, a few pieces are cut. I ran into a snag when I discovered that my 80t plywood blade was dull. With any luck that is what I will be doing today. I did get the cabinet finished for the workbench. I trimmed it out with a bit of cherry that I got from my bosses old entertainment center. So the whole cabinet is made from recycled entertainment center parts, and as Melissa said, “It’s still an entertainment center”

workbench drawer fronts and trim

I also got tired of fighting with the cat and the fan noise (barely audible BTW) so I took a bunch of scraps and made a case for the server.

tiny quiet server

Now, I can’t hear a thing from it, even when the drives are busy. It also sits under the desk and doubles as a night light.

tiny quiet server at night

So all in all a very quiet month thus far.