u/ryhaltswhiskey

https://bmjgroup.com/preparing-a-home-cooked-meal-at-least-once-a-week-may-cut-older-peoples-dementia-risk-by-30/

During the tracking period, 1195 people developed dementia (cumulative incidence 11%); 870 died and another 157 moved away before developing dementia.

Analysis of the data showed that greater cooking frequency was associated with a lower risk of dementia in both men and women, but differed according to the extent of culinary competency.

Cooking from scratch at least once a week was associated with a 23% lower risk of dementia in men and a 27% lower risk in women than cooking less than once a week..

And for those with few cooking skills, cooking a meal from scratch at least once a week was associated with a 67% reduction in the risk of dementia.

While a high degree of culinary competency was also associated with a lower risk of dementia, cooking frequency didn’t reduce the risk of dementia further.

These findings held true after accounting for potentially influential factors, such as lifestyle, household income, and years of education, and they were independent of other activities positively associated with cognitive reserve, such as crafting, volunteering, and gardening.

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The tools I have: Bosch rotary hammer, the higher grade one. The widest bit that the hardware store had was about half an inch. I rented a smaller rotary Hammer yesterday with a nice wide chisel bit, but it was just too much of a hassle. The higher powered one works a lot better.

The concrete has a lot of pebbles in it so it's hard to get an even chisel across.

I think I got what I need here, but the post base is not level and I'm going to be attaching a beam to it so it's going to be screwed into the slab, but there's going to be an air gap on one side I'm sure - because getting a level square cut out of a concrete slab seems to be difficult to get right.

My best guess here is a piece of galvanized sheet metal, very thin, on top of some concrete patch and then use a bubble level to get it leveled out. And of course drill a hole in the middle for the stainless screw anchor.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17989-neurodermatitis

>Lichen simplex chronicus, or neurodermatitis, happens when constant itching and scratching make your skin thick, rough and leathery.

I hate to admit it, but I've been dealing with this for years because I have a bad habit of scratching my scalp. It was bad enough that at one point I had a small bald spot about half the size of a dime on the side of my head. It was really embarrassing. I talked to my dermatologist and he did a biopsy of the area just to make sure that it wasn't some sort of underlying problem that was stopping the hair from growing. Nope. It was just me scratching it too much.

I'm posting this because I've almost got it dealt with/cured. The four or five spots on my head are nearly gone.

What has worked for me is fluocinide ointment (I think 0.05%) three times a day. That's a prescription so you have to talk to a dermatologist. The good thing about the ointment is that it's greasy so it makes you not want to touch your scalp because you get a greasy residue on your fingers if you do.

I'm posting this because I had a hard time finding information about what actually works. The usual advice is to just stop scratching, but if you have a habit of doing that it's hard to stop doing it. The first advice my dermatologist gave me was to snap myself with a rubber band on my wrist every time I did it to discourage the habit. I didn't find that very useful because all I had to do was not snap my wrist with the rubber band. The ointment works better because it doesn't hurt but it does discourage you from scratching because of the grease and it slowly calms the skin down so that it will "let go" of the callus-like skin over the area.

I mean I understand the mechanics of the rotary hammer and I have a 5/8 masonry bit, but it's the straight down part that I'm having trouble with. I'm putting in some post bases and the screw anchors are 5/8 of an inch and about 6 inches long. The concrete slab is slightly sloped, about 2°.

I have a portable drill press jig for my regular drill, but there's no way it's going to work for a rotary hammer.

I did try this with my hand drill and there's just no way. It would take me an hour for each hole. The concrete has a lot of little pebbles in it and I think that's really slowing things down.

My only guess here is to attach an electronic level with an alarm-on-level to the side of the rotary hammer but there's no way it's going to stay on, I would need to duct tape it. And I would need to assume that the rotary hammer has a perfectly flat spot that is also parallel to the path of the drill.

edit: I'm going to rent a roto hammer (I get free rentals on some tools) -- also saw this, which is definitely cool https://www.tiktok.com/@bullseyebore/video/7569009055302208823?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc -- costs about $70, maybe it would work on a roto? But $70 for just one project, oof.

Edit: I can rent a roto hammer for free because I have a hookup for this. But I can only keep it for a day. Which made the drill a potential attractive option that I had to try at least. But there's no way.

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Device information:

Relay Version: 13.0.46 Pro

Phone: Google Pixel 7a (LYNX)
Android Version: 16 (36)
Device (product): lynx (lynx)
Rom: CP1A.260405.005

The spring went out in my garage door. I called the company that made the spring and they say that they only have a 1-year warranty. It's well past that.

I've had five guys out to look at it via Yelp. Some of them offered warranties for their work, one of them offered a 20-year warranty, but when I asked about the manufacturer of the spring he stopped responding. So that looks like a scam. Another guy offered a 7-year warranty. But when I asked he said that the warranty was backed by his company, not the manufacturer. Or he wasn't very clear about it. Which is sus.

And there have been some scams around garage door repair in the US https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/local-garage-door-repair-business-customers-targeted-by-nationwide-scam/

So how do these things work, do the manufacturers of garage door springs offer a warranty beyond one year? Because if a warranty is just backed by the business that did the installation... If that business is gone in 5 years the warranty is gone too.

I just don't want to deal with this ever again if I don't have to.

Edit: The ranges on the warranties on the parts have been all over the place. 20 years, 7 years, 3 years, one year. But my neighbor referred me to the company that she used previously and they offer a 5-year warranty at a reasonable price which seems good enough for me.

Image - the two squares are simpson post base standoffs. The cross hatch intersecting the middle of the beam is a concrete pad.

This is for a deck. The top of the deck at the standoff on the right there is at the perfect height. But there is a concrete pad that has a very slight slope, So if the beam is on top of the concrete there will be a very slight step up to get on to the deck, which I don't like. So I need to cut about a 2-in notch into the beam at the arrow which would then slope down to zero at about 2 ft to the right of the cut.

I don't have enough woodworking skill to know how to do this. I'm thinking of cutting various depths in with a circular saw, like every half inch and then using a chisel to get the pieces out. I could use a chainsaw. I have a compound miter saw but I don't know how I could use a compound miter saw to do this. It doesn't seem possible. I could rent a beam saw from the hardware store. I know that would get the job done, but I've never used one of those before.

This will be completely hidden when it's done. And I have sealer for it.

I suppose my other alternative is getting a jackhammer and just getting rid of some of that concrete but I don't have experience with that either. Maybe I could grind down the concrete?