Paul, you are always so [I]yin-yang[/I]. (Happy and Unhappy in a Schroedinger way.) Like life itself. Best of wishes to you!

[QUOTE=xilman;582511]<snip>
It appears that I may have gout in or around my left ankle and have been largely out of action for 4 days. It's possible that colchicine might fix it and I hope to find out in the next 24 hours.

Colchicine is evil stuff. The lethal dose isn't very much larger than the therapeutic dose, which is why the medics are loathe to prescribe it and then only in small quantities.
<snip>[/QUOTE]I hope it works. [taps fist to side of head] Knock on wood...

My grandpa had gout (in one of his big toes ["great toes"] IIRC). He was prescribed colchicine. If memory serves, the regimen was to take it in very small doses until he began tasting it.

Colchicine has been used to reduce swelling for millennia. It is an alkaloid that comes from [i]Colchicum autumnale[/i], a plant with common names autumn crocus, meadow saffron and naked ladies. However, it is not really a crocus, it only looks like one.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;582554]I hope it works. [taps fist to side of head] Knock on wood...

My grandpa had gout (in one of his big toes ["great toes"] IIRC). He was prescribed colchicine. If memory serves, the regimen was to take it in very small doses until he began tasting it.

Colchicine has been used to reduce swelling for millennia. It is an alkaloid that comes from [i]Colchicum autumnale[/i], a plant with common names autumn crocus, meadow saffron and naked ladies. However, it is not really a crocus, it only looks like one.[/QUOTE]It might be working. The pain has left the ankle and moved further down to the porcellus carnivorus, porcellus non voratus and porcellus plorans domum. I can hobble around now, which I couldn't do the first thing this morning.

Hurricane Elsa...
 

So, Friday morning Elsa intensified into a Category 1 Hurricane and passed just south of Barbados.

LOTS of wind; the power grid did not fair well. I've been without power since very early Friday morning. Keeping our fridge and freezer cold using purchased "party ice" (when we could find it) placed in a strong brine solution was amusing for about a day... Grinding our morning coffee by using an inverter plugged into the car's cigarette lighter outlet grew tiring about as quickly.

This afternoon I managed to borrow a Honda EU2000i generator from a contractor friend of ours which I spliced into our electrical panel (after disconnecting the mains, of course) to run our fridge, lights, and compute.

We don't expect to get proper mains power back for at least another two days.

So you are not located in Retina's lair. I would have thought you had your own version of a Tesla "Power Wall" or a generator and large bottles of propane.

Glad you are still with us.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;582733]So you are not located in Retina's lair. I would have thought you had your own version of a Tesla "Power Wall" or a generator and large bottles of propane.[/QUOTE]

Sadly, no... My lair is still a work-in-progress...

But I think after this experience WMBO will reconsider some of my budget requests. :wink:

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;582733]Glad you are still with us.[/QUOTE]

Thanks.

And this was actually a useful exercise. For the entire country. The winds could have been *much* worse, and we didn't fair very well as it was.

Just for some levity, please don't tell BL&P I did this... Note breakers #2 and #4 specifically. Molten metal bad...

[URL="https://www.airgas.com/product/Safety-Products/Area-Protection/Lockout-%26-Tagout/p/A81KDD123"]https://www.airgas.com/product/Safety-Products/Area-Protection/Lockout-%26-Tagout/p/A81KDD123[/URL]
(Not a product endorsement, just the first example I found.) Might prevent some "helpful" person from causing spectacular trouble.

[QUOTE=chalsall;582794]Note breakers #2 and #4 specifically..[/QUOTE]
I see what you did there, but you made a mistake, 9 is not prime either, and there is an ongoing argument about 1, too :razz: