DWSmith

The Iowa DNR posted a map of verified sightings a few years ago. In Des Moines Law Enforcement killed one in a backyard near a school. Now and then a hunter will kill one and its picture will be in the paper. A coworker was out jogging in a rural area and came over the crest of a hill. There were two mountain lions sunning a bit off the path. Calves have been found up in trees. I saw one from our dining room laying on top of a big, round hay bale grooming itself near dusk. I and other family members have made other sightings. The neighbors warned us to carry firearms when we first bought our land. They are not protected so they can be killed on sight. Although denied by the DNR, they are being brought in slowly in an effort to provide predators for the deer population. The dogs stay close to us when we suspect there's one nearby but they also do that when the coyotes are nearby. They've had some run ins with coyotes. I like having them in the area when they're at a distance. I'd never shoot one unless I felt threatened.

Had about an inch of snow Tuesday afternoon/night. Wednesday afternoon I was in the backyard walking the dogs and saw its tracks go all the way across the yard twice about 30 feet behind the house. It's our friendly, neighborhood mountain lion.

30 miles south of Des Moines, IA at 1:22 pm it's 58°F with a bit of fog and drizzle.

Saw a meme: "How to frighten the new generation. Put them in a room with a rotary phone, an analog watch, and a TV with no remote control. Then leave directions on how to use in cursive."

I think the reason for so many marksmen in the past was the abundance of country boys that began by shooting tin cans then by hunting squirrels, rabbits, etc. with single shot .22 rifles. Of course starting out with a BB gun in town in the backyard certainly helped me. I toted that thing everywhere. After I turned 12 I got a Remington semi-auto for Christmas. Still have it 57 years later. I remember my younger brother in his early 20's going squirrel hunting with me. Pow, pow, pow, ... pow, pow. He'd come back with 1 squirrel. I'd come back with 4 squirrels after firing 4 times with that Remington.

Might be due to regional terminology. Also, 'angling' sounds a bit more pretentious than 'fishing' so maybe that's it.

Michael said: The question I have “do you think it is better to have a limited amount of resources for information or an unlimited amount of resources? I guess a different way to ask ”do you find it more or less, better or worse, satisfying or irritating to have this information at your fingertips?” My $.02 worth: Newspaper, radio, magazine, TV, Worldwide Web, etc. are all in it for the money they make through advertising. Sex sells. Sensationalism sells. Controversy sells. ... Also, all of these seem to have their own agenda these days. Even mainstream TV news regularly twists stories to create controversy and increase viewership. (Have you heard of Surveillance Capitalism?) I don't think having immediate access to information is a problem. Discerning what is true is the problem. You used to be able to count on certain news sources for at least attempting honest reporting. Many good newspapers and magazines have died over the years. Personally, I get my news from several Youtube official mainstream news channels then compare what I hear and attempt to filter out the chaff. I also listen to National Public Radio for in depth stories even though they are not perfect either. I do occasionally watch BBC World News to mix in what they're saying. So I think it's better to have a limited amount of truthful information and a very limited amount of the nonsense but those days are long gone! Truthful news today is definitely more of a challenge than it used to be but it's possible to find. The TRUTH is out there but where???

Thanks for that reply! Didn't mean to sidetrack the thread. Just curious about what you said. 👍

I live out in the country and use the WiFi hotspot on my phone to connect my computer to the internet. I frequently forget to carry my phone and leave it on my desk when I'm in or near the house. Other than that I use my phone for talking and texting. When I do carry my phone around the property is when I'm doing stuff where I may have an accident. When I go to town I leave my phone locked up in the car unless I'm expecting a call. At night my phone is on my desk and never in the bedroom.

I've been issued iPhones by my previous employer but they always had Blackberry security software on them too. I don't know if all iPhones have that or not. Yeah, I think I'm going back to a dumb phone in the near future. Lots of them are available due to the digital minimalism movement. Yesterday a company I've been following (Sunbeam wireless) announce the details of a series of 8 new dumb phones. They get good reviews on the previous series of 3 phones. I'll see what people say about the new ones. They begin shipping around October 16 to 23. I neither need nor want a 'smart' phone. Anyone read the book 'Surveillance Capitalism'?

I've had this phone for about 3 years. It's a Google Pixel 3A. I know I would never allow something like this in the settings but an update might have initiated it.

👍

And the NSA has that super-sized data storage facility that has tons of information on everybody, the legality of which is highly questionable.

A minute or two after finishing up a phone call yesterday afternoon my phone asked me to approve a request to send to Google data about my phone call, a transcript of my phone call, and an audio recording of my phone call. I cancelled the request. What bothered me is that it had already collected the data, transcribed the call, and recorded the call before it asked me for approval. I assume it does these things on all calls and was only asking for permission on this one because it was being sent to Google. Not sure where this stuff goes for all of my other calls. Am I being paranoid? Does anyone else find this disturbing? Have I watched too many videos of Edward Snowden speaking? I'm dead serious. After keeping an eye on this sort of stuff for several years I find this quite disturbing and 'yes' I put blue masking tape over the camera lenses on my cell phone.

Steve, It's been nice to meet you here and to read your posts. Along with a few of the others here I think you and I even exchanged some messages when you were helping me out. Thanks! I have a question about your posts. If you don't use a cell phone do you use a landline? (Personally, I hate cell phones especially smart phones. I wish I could go back to a landline with a couple of high tech accessories; an answering machine and a caller ID device. 👍 ) Reducing the use of cell phones would probably do a lot of us some good.

Not me! I would have talked my little brother into letting me strap him to it. 🤣

So an out house is a man cave?!?!?! <just kidding> I'm thinking my room qualifies as a man cave but I'll have to ask SWMBO just to be certain. 😜

I've seen the tire and rim put in a steel cage before airing them up. Obviously it can be a deadly event. The guy was lucky to walk away.

Geez! Thanks. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'll have to bring in my bottle of rye and bottle of bourbon along with my glass (it's a jelly jar like the one Mark Harmon's character used on NCIS).

My office (It is called a media room (???) on the blueprints.) was barely as big as a walk-in closet and terribly over crowded but it had a window. That has changed. Our son and grandson have moved to their own place. That freed up 2 bedrooms. I took over one of them. For the past week I've been moving furniture, stereo equipment, and odds-and-ends into my new room in my spare time. It's just about the way I want it. Since I have long guns, rods and reels, fly tying equipment, ham radio gear, occasionally my hound dog, and a few other manly-man type things in this room does that make it a man cave? 🙂 To you what determines whether or not a room is a man cave?

After sitting for a few minutes my BP is running at 110/60 more often than not. The dizzy spells have subsided but I did have a few falls up until recently. I'm at high risk for falling all the time and walk with a cane. After having major back surgery in February falling is especially scary for me. I think the problem has resolved itself since I'm having almost no light headed episodes. Thanks for all of your replies guys! 👍

I took my watch to a watch repair shop for an adjustment. They put it on the little device and got it running more accurately. It's been a week now and it's correct to less than a minute. When used by railroad employees those watches used to be checked regularly by a guy with the railroad and reset if they were off. If they weren't accurate to within +/- 30 seconds after two weeks they were sent to the shop for inspection/adjustments. That was back nearly 80 to100 years ago if I remember my history correctly. I'd say that's darned accurate for a mechanical pocket watch.

Mike, Yep, having dizziness at 110/60 which isn't that low. Yesterday had a good day of no dizziness so I'm adapting to the lower yet normal pressure. Doctor wants it to run at or below 130/80. I agree. As long as I'm not symptomatic I want it as low as possible. Speaking of pulse rate mine used to always be 54 bpm at rest but that was until I hit my 40's. Now it runs at around 80 bpm. I need to hit the stationary bike regularly.

My doctor is fully aware of what's going on and says the amount of time depends on the person. I was just wondering if any of you had gone through this and if you had any issues how long it took for you to adapt to the lower blood pressure.

Long story short, my doctor is in the process of adjusting my blood pressure meds. My question is do any of you have experience with dizzy spells due to low but safe blood pressure and how long did it take you to adapt to it? The lowest I've recorded my BP is 110/60 which isn't that low. I'd rather tough it out and adapt than adjust my medicine to raise my BP a bit. Thanks!