(took too long editng-) Now that one noise is resolved, I realize that there is another which I'm pretty sure is the H100i pump chattering, especially after the rare cold start. At least that should be warranty RMA exchange material.

[QUOTE=xilman;437917]I spent essentially all day (so far) in bed drugged to the eyeballs.

Started by waking up at 02:15 with very painful gout. Couldn't sleep so took naproxen and a hefty dose of codeine. Finally dropped off around 04:30. Been swallowing more naproxen at roughly 5 hour intervals since.

At least the toe isn't too bad now and I hope to be back to what passes for normal tomorrow.[/QUOTE]

How particularly irritating; my sympathies.

Hard disk just failed. I have sort of resurrected it by turning off smart at boot but is running super slow trying to get my data off.

[QUOTE=henryzz;439118]Hard disk just failed. I have sort of resurrected it by turning off smart at boot but is running super slow trying to get my data off.[/QUOTE]

You have online and offline backups of your critical data, right? And fail-over machines?

[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddrescue"]DDRescue[/URL] might be your friend....

[QUOTE=chalsall;439139]You have online and offline backups of your critical data, right? And fail-over machines?

[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddrescue"]DDRescue[/URL] might be your friend....[/QUOTE]

I have a 6 month old backup. Fortunately there isn't anything too major missing. I probably won't remember what is missing TBH.

We had to euthanize our old cat this morning. She was 18 years, 5 months old. Physiologically that corresponds to a human age in the early nineties.

She had been frail for some years but retained all her intelligence. In the end she lost control of her rear legs, which had been weak since a RTA fractured her pelvis in her youth.

Sorry to hear about your cat. My cat is 17 and a half years old so I expect to be in similar shoes soon.

Does RTA mean Road Traffic Accident?

[QUOTE=xilman;439536]We had to euthanize our old cat this morning. She was 18 years, 5 months old. Physiologically that corresponds to a human age in the early nineties.

She had been frail for some years but retained all her intelligence. In the end she lost control of her rear legs, which had been weak since a RTA fractured her pelvis in her youth.[/QUOTE]

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that; you gave her a happy home and a life filled with love.

[QUOTE=only_human;439538]Sorry to hear about your cat. My cat is 17 and a half years old so I expect to be in similar shoes soon.

Does RTA mean Road Traffic Accident?[/QUOTE]Yup. Dated UK police jargon. I believe the current TLA is RTI --- Road Traffic Incident --- which leaves open the possibility that the event may have been malicious rather than accidental. That said, I might be quite wrong and that the jargon has changed yet again.

Your cat is in the late eighties in human terms (+). {Sh,H}e could live another few days or another few years. Who knows? The odds are markedly in favour of < 3 years but I have met personally cats who were significantly over twenty years old(*) and still living active and apparently happy lives.

My advice (given whether you want it or not ;-) is to provide good treatment, both social and medical, as long as your cat has a decent quality of life but don't surrender to sentimentality and prolong its life beyond that point. I've learned of cats which were given aggressive treatment up to and including long-term IV feeding and medication with no realistic expectation of a return to normality. That's just torture IMAO.

If only medics caring for humans were as humane as their veterinary counterparts.

(+) As was my mother when she died almost three months ago. She was 87.5

(*) One notable example from when I was a teenager was 22 and lived with a first world war veteran who was himself pushing 90. Both long dead now of course.

[QUOTE=xilman;439552]My advice (given whether you want it or not ;-) is to provide good treatment, both social and medical, as long as your cat has a decent quality of life but don't surrender to sentimentality and prolong its life beyond that point.[/QUOTE]

I'm also very sorry to hear about your cat. And, also, agree completely with your quoted above.

As was recorded here a while ago, I had to make the same decision for one of our cats; quite possibly the hardest thing I ever did. But it was the correct decision. "Scotty Girl" had a long and very loved life, and a painless death while I held her in my arms... :cry:

[QUOTE=chalsall;439556] a painless death while I held her in my arms... :cry:[/QUOTE]SWMBO had that privilege. I completed the paperwork, etc, and carried out the subsequent interment after we returned home.

Brni was short for Brnikat, the Egyptian queen subsequently known through the Greek Βερενηκης and Latin Berenices. My consultancy company, Brnikat Ltd, was named after her.

She was by far the smartest cat I've ever known and was a real hacker, forever solving problems and using the solutions to her advantage. She was the one who worked out how to release another of our cats from captivity imposed for sound medical reasons. She reached up to pull down the door handle so Darius could then push open the door from the inside.

Brni was once confined to quarters, also for medical reasons. The cat flap in our kitchen door had been set to inwards-only to allow the others to return home. She lifted up the flap with her claws on front paw and then dived through before the door closed again. When we set the door to be closed permanently, she removed the magnetic strip along its bottom (used along with a corresponding magnetic strip in the door frame to stop the door flapping in the wind). We caught her dashing down the garden with the strip in her jaws, presumably intending to hide it where we couldn't find it. We gave up after that.