To Avatar, or Not To Avatar

Grump, my alter egoNearly all the commonly used message boards allow the use of what is known as an “avatar.” These are the little pictures that you see next to the member’s names in the message thread. Many of the message boards I have been involved with offer a list of interesting avatars that you can set up in the user control panel. You can choose from a couple dozen or even hundreds of pre-selected avatars, or you can upload one from your computer, or point to one of your own located on your website.


Avatars are so popular and forums so prevalent that there are websites solely devoted to offering you a huge assortment of avatars. Some are free, some you pay for, some are plain and simple, some can be joined with frames and other image elements. They come in many sizes, but usually will not exceed the dimensions most common message boards allow. Here Continue reading

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Recessed Door Pulls

This is a review of the Baldwin Hardware Flush Mount Door Pull I purchased for my bedroom closet doors and a pocket door. In my bedroom remodel, I used metal accents with a Venetian Bronze finish. I searched Google and discovered a branch of ATG Stores.

Some things you have to see in person to fully appreciate their suitability. The Baldwin Hardware Flush Door Pull in Venetian Bronze Continue reading

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Doctors Ain’t Always Right

Still here and lookin' dapperThree years ago, one of my doctors at the Veterans Hospital in Reno, NV told me I had 2, maybe 3 years left. I am very happy to be here to show you that doctors ain’t always right.

Yes, I still do have COPD (Emphysema). Some doctors call it late stage, some end stage, others call it severe COPD. Whatever stage it is, it means that they have prescribed for me the last, best drugs and treatment to extend my life – and my breathing – as much as possible. There is no cure, Continue reading

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Building a Platform Bed

Building a Platform Bed for Style and Storage Is Easy

You could say the problem with my bedroom is that it’s too small. Trying to move around in my bedroom is difficult – I keep bumping into things. The bed, the dresser, the other dresser, the end table and them damn posts that stick up on all four corners of the bed. I tried to solve the problem a while back by cutting the 2 posts off the footboard part of the bed. I turned a $1200.00 bed frame into a mistake that’s worth 50 bucks now, if I’m lucky.


But wait… maybe it’s not the room’s fault. True, it is only 11′ x 12’6″ (not counting the 2×8′ closet), but that’s not nearly as small as some bedrooms I installed flooring in over a 35 year span. Maybe the real problem is my continued insistence to stuff all the big furniture from my old house into this much smaller space. And I’ve been living like this for nearly 4 years now. Well, not like the mess you see in the pictures Continue reading

Posted in Decorating and Remodeling, One Foot Out | 5 Comments

Building a Storage Unit #2

I really do enjoy building things and remodeling my apartment. But this storage unit has not been much fun. It’s just not glamorous. Ya know what I mean? But I made progress.

As I mentioned in my last entry about this storage unit, the lumber was giving me fits. It’s nice to have friends though. A contractor friend, Ken Heiman, dropped off a few rows of 16 penny nails for the nail gun he lent me last year. The nails drive so fast, the 2×3 studs don’t have a chance to even think about splitting. The framing went pretty smooth. Continue reading

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Building a Storage Unit #1

Jim can use tools!I’m starting a new project. Wait just a darn minute here, you say? That’s right, I’m not so bad with tools. Did I forget to tell you I did flooring for 35 years? Have I not mentioned… well, no, I haven’t written about my little projects here yet. Sorry. I’m kinda jumpin’ around here because last year I did a major remodel of my main living space. And just a month or so ago I finished building Continue reading

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I Want My Old Body Back

My old body could eat junk food on a regular basis because my work installing floor coverings ate up a big portion of the calories I took in. I could stay up past my bedtime too. My after-hours activities ate even more calories – dancing (I loved dancing), bicycling, making love and even shopping. And I could get by on 4-6 hours sleep and be fresh as a pot of coffee in the morning.

As I got older, the calories began to be more noticeable Continue reading

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David Bromstad Brought Me Back To Life

David BromstadJust the way I had spent most of my days the last 3 years, in early May, 2009, I was holed up in my cave of an apartment waiting to die. I was told I had end-stage Emphysema and not a lot of time left.

But that day last May was the beginning of something that changed the way I felt about my life and what I wanted to do with at least part of what I had left of it. The credit goes to David Bromstad, interior designer and host of Color Splash Continue reading

Posted in Decorating and Remodeling, One Foot Out | 1 Comment

Enough With The Anti-CHP Rhetoric

In response to so many letters to the editor of Feather Publishing newspapers…

CHP Shoulder PatchCan we finish up with the complaints about our local California Highway Patrol real soon, please? It’s getting tiresome and some of you are sounding like whiners. Really. Because there have been so few cheering for the CHP, allow me.

I’ve been driving the roads of Plumas County most of my adult life. That totals around 12 Continue reading

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A Computer Mod is OFF the List

More than a year ago – yeah really, that long ago – I wrote What My Other Foot Wants. This was/is my own personal “bucket list” or as I called it, my “other foot list.” Well, things have changed in the last year. My health hasn’t gotten better, but I have a different attitude and my priorities have changed. I am paring the list down, maybe changing a few details or even adding new. But this is only about one item: number 8 on my other foot list is outa here.


That’s right, no great computer mod that has designs to be published in a computer magazine. I already did that. It was a great mod I called Functional Design. It took a couple of months to build and had Continue reading

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