Have Good News - Please post it here

[limestang]

Ok, with all of the challenges today we could all use some good news to balance things out. It can be the birth of a child, job promotion, great vacation, an unexpected gift, it’s totally up to you. Life is full of little miracles and sharing might just make someone’s day.

[limestang]

I will start one off - today my wife finally got a new knee. She has been in agony with bone on bone joint pain, so this is a welcome upgrade as she puts it.

The surgical staff were amazing and I was stunned when same day she was standing and walking with the help of a walker. It will take some time to heal and gain range of motion, but should be much better for the new year.

- limestang

[limestang]

Something fun to watch and maybe try if you happen upon a big pile of leaves

https://youtu.be/Tu3HN-MmJc4

[RC10th]

I'm pregnant?

[Dadio]

Something fun to watch and maybe try if you happen upon a big pile of leaves

https://youtu.be/Tu3HN-MmJc4

Poor dog clearly being forced to do something it hates

[Dadio]

I'm pregnant?

Those lateral flow tests can be misleading, it might just be COVID.

[LowClassCC]

It has taken a while but my family and I have fully recovered from out house fire years ago and started making progress forward again. By the end of next summer our 100'x60' backyard track should be fully operational and we will begin some new builds once again. It's hard starting over from nothing but anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

[XLR8]

My brother, Steve, is recovering in hospital from having two malignant tumors removed (behind the right ear and above left ear). Steve was diagnosed with myeloma about two years ago and has been undergoing regular treatments and follow-up scans but somehow they missed the tumors until he started having seizures a few weeks ago. Anyway, Steve is in PT/rehab now to rebuild strength in his legs after spending roughly 5 weeks in hospital. Once he's able to stand and walk unassisted, he will be released and can return home.
We were very concerned as you would imagine but Steve is doing better every day and has sustained no emotional or cognitive impairment; another testament to the awesome power of prayer.

[Dadio]

My brother, Steve, is recovering in hospital from having two malignant tumors removed (behind the right ear and above left ear). Steve was diagnosed with myeloma about two years ago and has been undergoing regular treatments and follow-up scans but somehow they missed the tumors until he started having seizures a few weeks ago. Anyway, Steve is in PT/rehab now to rebuild strength in his legs after spending roughly 5 weeks in hospital. Once he's able to stand and walk unassisted, he will be released and can return home.
We were very concerned as you would imagine but Steve is doing better every day and has sustained no emotional or cognitive impairment; another testament to the awesome power of prayer.

Plenty of people round here will pray if you let us know, good to hear he's on his way back to normal.

[RC10th]

I'm pregnant?

Those lateral flow tests can be misleading, it might just be COVID.

They must have given me the wrong test, I was wondering why it asked you to....... nevermind

[Incredible_Serious]

I'm pregnant?

I thought this was about good news.......

[LowClassCC]

I'm pregnant?

I thought this was about good news.......

That is good news right up to the point he goes in to have a natural delivery.

[JosephS]

I played battleship for shots yesterday and woke up without a hangover.

Today I ate pizza.

Found some random vintage associated parts on the shelf of a hobby shop.

All in all this feels like a win.

[Lowgear]

I like the concept of this thread with all that's going on. How about a debacle I've been dealing with for 5 months now with a happy ending? It's a decent read due to my advanced linguistical abilities.

First and foremost my computer is my life. The only time it's off is when I'm sleeping, and it's not even really off but put in sleep mode. It's used all day every day, and used hard. I also need it to last for a really long time. The only way to achieve this is to build them myself. As such, I've built all my own computers over the last 21 years or longer, which has only been 3-4 due to their longevity. Anyway, my current one is now 13 years old and really tired, and on borrowed time. It was supposed to be replaced over a year ago but I had to get the funds together for a new build, and couldn't decide which direction to go in. A lot has changed over the past 13 years, and I dreaded having to relearn what all the new tech is, and what's compatible. Then I'd have to figure out what parts I wanted to go with, gather all the parts from various sources, and finally do the build. Plus dealing with all the inevitable hiccups along the way. It could be a sign of getting older, but I just didn't want to deal with it. So I did the unthinkable, and bought a mass-produced name-brand computer! *Audience gasps in horror.*

It obviously couldn't be your normal run-of-the-mill computer due to my usage and requirements. Enter the world of workstations. They bridge the gap between home computers and servers. They're meant to be constantly run while handling heavy workloads which seemed like just the ticket. I ultimately decided to go with one of Lenovo's offerings. Mainly for the fact that their workstations are IBM designed since they bought their computer division. I went with a ThinkStation P Series 720 upgraded to dual Xeon processors, 32GBs of RAM, and dual 1TB SSD hard drives.

Now the problem is workstations generally cost thousands of dollars. The kind of money I didn't have or was even willing to spend if I did. So eBay to the rescue as usual. I waited months for one to be listed at a price I could afford. Finally there was a seller who had several new in open box ones they were listing in succession. I lost the first two but won the third.

I won it for cheaper than any other one that's been sold on there from when I started looking to this day. Even cheaper than it was going to cost me to build my own. So needless to say I was pretty excited. Unfortunately that ended the day it showed up. The shipping box was pretty beat up but I was hoping the computer was unscathed. I unboxed it, and my heart sunk as it was covered in damage. What was unusual was the damage didn't seem consistent with it happening during shipping. Like for example part of the front bezel had a spot where it was melted. I contacted the seller, and we fought back and fourth over it for a month which is another story in itself. Upon opening the case to inspect for component damage, everything looked fine, and was indeed brand new. I fired it up, and it worked flawlessly. Luckily the damage was all cosmetic. The seller ended up giving a partial refund, and I was going to use the computer as-is.

I really didn't want to though as it bugged the crap out of me. I was so discouraged and disappointed by the entire ordeal that I didn't even want to look at the thing. I was hoping I could find a used case off eBay or something in better condition when much to my surprise, you could buy replacement parts through Lenovo! That was shocking as I've never seen a brand-name computer manufacture sell replacement parts for their computers before. This being a workstation though was the reason. I was quickly met with more disappointment as the cases were on backorder. Alright, it said the estimated time to be back in stock was in 10 days. I go to the site after the 10 days are up, and it still says out of stock, and gives a new date of 15 days away now. I wait the 15 days, go back to the site, and it gives yet another new date. Every time I checked the date when the case was supposed to be back in stock, the date was just being extended. I contacted support to air my grievances, and they were of little help. Basically they didn't know if the case would ever be back in stock, and to not count on it. I'm really dejected by this point but reluctantly gave my credit card in case they ever did come in. Several months go by, and I get an email out of the blue last week that I was receiving an order from Lenovo... A brand new case! It arrived a few days ago but due to Thanksgiving I haven't been able to fully take it out of the box to inspect it. From what I can see though, it doesn't appear to have been damaged in shipping or anything.

I'm back to being really excited about the prospect of having a new computer. Now is the task of removing everything from the damaged case, to install in the new one. I plan on doing that in the next few days. The irony of all this is that when all is said and done, I technically ended up building a computer anyway, so the story goes full circle.

[XLR8]

That's a great story Lowgear.
I also used to build my own PC's but that was back in the late '80's.
I switched from a Dell desktop to IBM Thinkpad laptops about 20 odd years ago and made the transition to Lenovo when they bought the line. I'm writing this on an older Lenovo Thinkpad T440P. I have a small boneyard of disused Thinkpads up in the attic. They eventually get taken down by a virus then it's time to find a replacement.
The feature that attracted me to IBM/Lenovo is their laptops are completely modular and serviceable and parts are relative easy to find and replace.
BTW, my other laptop is a MacBook Pro which I really like as well.

Anyway, it was a great story and I'm very glad it has a happy ending.