What Are You Doing Today?

I got my laptop back and it seems to be running fine. They did a good job. All of my files got transferred to the new SSD Drive and all of my software got moved, with all custom settings retained. I'm not sure how they did that (updated the Registry) while changing the WIN version...and the new WIN version is the only issue I have. I thought they would reinstall WIN10, and it's got WIN11 on it. I don't really want WIN11, and didn't realize it until I got home. I'm not sure they could have reinstalled the defunct WIN10, and I don't know how they got WIN11 to load on this old machine (I bought it used 10 years ago.) They did say that I might lose the mouse and the keyboard every so often "on your old machine," and to restart if that happens (been fine so far.)

In my reading, I discovered that in order to have the potentially intrusive "Automatically Save Searchable Screenshot" function, you gotta have an AI app loaded AND your processor has to support it (although that part makes no sense to me.) So maybe I got a new OS on hardware that does not support spying...maybe.

I'm still gonna go to the Apple store next week and keep this machine as a backup. I'll research before walking in. I've almost always built my own machines or found "good enough" used ones (I think I've bought one new desktop and one new laptop over the past 45 years on a corporate purchase program.) Looks like it's time to cough up some bucks. (It hurts to say that.)
 
Beth Gallagher said:
It's rainy and yucky so I'll be staying in today. Maybe I'll clean something but probably not.
Click to expand...

I will also take all the rain you can send🙏🙏

@John Brunner i remember the days when I could flip back and forth between DOS and Windows. I was so sure Windows would lose out🙄🙄. I get upset every time there’s a new version.


******

All I did today was Clorox the horse water tubs, refill them, and give my poor Saturn a half a bath. I am on county water, so it won’t streak by letting it air dry. It is fairly clean and will stay that way for a few months as it lives in the garage.

ATM “The Unbelievable “ with Dan Ackroyd is on the History Channel. That will keep me entertained until it’s time to give the horses their supper.
 
I guess this thread is as good a place as any to follow up on those fake birds I bought from Amazon in an effort to stop a real bird from crapping all over my car. I'd rate this method as being 90% effective.

To recap, I have a bird that perches on my side view mirrors and craps all over my car. Plastic bags over the mirrors merely drove it to the window ledges where it crapped over the entire length of my car rather than straight below the mirror. A plastic owl didn't phase it. So I got the bright idea of getting fake birds and clipping them to the mirror so it would be Occupied.

These are the birds I bought on Amazon, meant for outdoor use:
SSYEBkS.jpeg

They are held on to the mirror's frame by some pretty strong alligator clips.

At first I put one on each mirror, and the Pooping Bird (PB) would knock them off onto the ground and proceed to crap on my vehicle. I decided to add another bird (to make PB work harder) which also got knocked off, and then another until I ended up with 3 birds on PB's favorite mirror (the one nearest PB's favorite tree.) I've seen it attack these birds. PB gets pretty angry. But for the most part, this works.

The 3 birds are almost always knocked to the ground when I go out in the morning, but I would estimate that there's poop on the car maybe 25% of the time, and even then the volume is way less. Having seen the effort that PB exerts to dislodge them, and how angry he/she is, I gotta think that there's not much juice left once the battle has been won. But the fake birds are paying a price.

Here's the single bird on PB's least-favorite mirror:
ohdgbuy.jpeg


Here are the 3 birds on the Mirror of Choice:
mGwnyuZ.jpeg


Their little heads are pecked to death. But notice how pristine the Cardinal is. While it, too, gets de-perched, it remains completely un-pecked. I'm wondering if PB is a female Cardinal. The coloring seems to be right, but it looks to be too small. I can't see the beak from my window, which would be the telltale identifier.

My next move might be to get a piece of U-channel rubber weatherstrip that I could glue/affix the fake birds to and push it around the circumference of the mirror's frame, making it impossible to knock the birds off. I'd still be able to easily remove the assembly when I drive.

This war is not over.
:giggle:
 
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The best luck we have had with discouraging an unwanted pest (in our case, squirrels), was with one of those sprayers that have a motion detector attached.
Bobby aimed it at the peach tree where the squirrels were stealing the baby peaches. When the sensor detected movement, it sent a burst of water back and forth over that area, and scared off the squirrels.
It also got the dogs if they ventured into that part of the yard, but they soon learned to not go there. I do not know if it would work on a tiny bird, but I think it would.

 
John Brunner said:
I guess this thread is as good a place as any to follow up on those fake birds I bought from Amazon in an effort to stop a real bird from crapping all over my car. I'd rate this method as being 90% effective.

To recap, I have a bird that perches on my side view mirrors and craps all over my car. Plastic bags over the mirrors merely drove it to the window ledges where it crapped over the entire length of my car rather than straight below the mirror. A plastic owl didn't phase it. So I got the bright idea of getting fake birds and clipping them to the mirror so it would be Occupied.

These are the birds I bought on Amazon, meant for outdoor use:
SSYEBkS.jpeg

They are held on to the mirror's frame by some pretty strong alligator clips.

At first I put one on each mirror, and the Pooping Bird (PB) would knock them off onto the ground and proceed to crap on my vehicle. I decided to add another bird (to make PB work harder) which also got knocked off, and then another until I ended up with 3 birds on PB's favorite mirror (the one nearest PB's favorite tree.) I've seen it attack these birds. PB gets pretty angry. But for the most part, this works.

The 3 birds are almost always knocked to the ground when I go out in the morning, but I would estimate that there's poop on the car maybe 25% of the time, and even then the volume is way less. Having seen the effort that PB exerts to dislodge them, and how angry he/she is, I gotta think that there's not much juice left once the battle has been won. But the fake birds are paying a price.

Here's the single bird on PB's least-favorite mirror:
ohdgbuy.jpeg


Here are the 3 birds on the Mirror of Choice:
mGwnyuZ.jpeg


Their little heads are pecked to death. But notice how pristine the Cardinal is. While it, too, gets de-perched, it remains completely un-pecked. I'm wondering if PB is a female Cardinal. The coloring seems to be right, but it looks to be too small. I can't see the beak from my window, which would be the telltale identifier.

My next move might be to get a piece of U-channel rubber weatherstrip that I could glue/affix the fake birds to and push it around the circumference of the mirror's frame, making it impossible to knock the birds off. I'd still be able to easily remove the assembly when I drive.

This war is not over.
:giggle:
Click to expand...

I can't remember, but have you tried just folding the mirrors in when you park?
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I can't remember, but have you tried just folding the mirrors in when you park?
Click to expand...
I had thought of that. I can fold in the mirrors on my truck manually, but the Mazda has electro-mechanical ones. They are set to fold in every time you turn off the car and then fold out when you start it, and since the mechanisms are nylon gears, they eventually wear out and are an expensive repair. It's a stupid feature with no real-world value. Disabling that function (I've done it) is an internet "hack." (Turn on the ignition but don't start the car, put the window lock button into the Unlock position, push down 3 specific window buttons but not all 4 of them, hold them all for 3 seconds.) Folding in the mirrors every time I get home is a last resort...and they would still provide a place for the bird to perch. I don't think it's using the mirror as a mirror. If it had been, the plastic bag trick would have worked.

Before fatiguing the mirror mechanism, I'd cut something to fit in front of the mirrors inside the housing to block them...but I think the bird would still perch there. And these fake birds are the only thing so far that have not driven it to perch along the window sills and poop the entire length of my car.

An hour after I went out and put the birds back on the mirror to take those pics, I looked out the window and they've been knocked off again. It's getting more aggressive. Before, they would stay put until the next morning. Probably built a nest nearby.
 
John Brunner said:
I guess this thread is as good a place as any to follow up on those fake birds I bought from Amazon in an effort to stop a real bird from crapping all over my car. I'd rate this method as being 90% effective.

To recap, I have a bird that perches on my side view mirrors and craps all over my car. Plastic bags over the mirrors merely drove it to the window ledges where it crapped over the entire length of my car rather than straight below the mirror. A plastic owl didn't phase it. So I got the bright idea of getting fake birds and clipping them to the mirror so it would be Occupied.

These are the birds I bought on Amazon, meant for outdoor use:
SSYEBkS.jpeg

They are held on to the mirror's frame by some pretty strong alligator clips.

At first I put one on each mirror, and the Pooping Bird (PB) would knock them off onto the ground and proceed to crap on my vehicle. I decided to add another bird (to make PB work harder) which also got knocked off, and then another until I ended up with 3 birds on PB's favorite mirror (the one nearest PB's favorite tree.) I've seen it attack these birds. PB gets pretty angry. But for the most part, this works.

The 3 birds are almost always knocked to the ground when I go out in the morning, but I would estimate that there's poop on the car maybe 25% of the time, and even then the volume is way less. Having seen the effort that PB exerts to dislodge them, and how angry he/she is, I gotta think that there's not much juice left once the battle has been won. But the fake birds are paying a price.

Here's the single bird on PB's least-favorite mirror:
ohdgbuy.jpeg


Here are the 3 birds on the Mirror of Choice:
mGwnyuZ.jpeg


Their little heads are pecked to death. But notice how pristine the Cardinal is. While it, too, gets de-perched, it remains completely un-pecked. I'm wondering if PB is a female Cardinal. The coloring seems to be right, but it looks to be too small. I can't see the beak from my window, which would be the telltale identifier.

My next move might be to get a piece of U-channel rubber weatherstrip that I could glue/affix the fake birds to and push it around the circumference of the mirror's frame, making it impossible to knock the birds off. I'd still be able to easily remove the assembly when I drive.

This war is not over.
:giggle:
Click to expand...


When my husband was working, he had a company vehicle, which stayed parked outside. Not only did the birds sit and crap on the outside mirrors all the time, they pecked the :poop: out of the mirrors too, scratching them to where he could not hardly see out of them. I guess the birds thought there was other birds sitting there too, and then that’s when the pecking fight began.
 
John Brunner said:
I had thought of that. I can fold in the mirrors on my truck manually, but the Mazda has electro-mechanical ones. They are set to fold in every time you turn off the car and then fold out when you start it, and since the mechanisms are nylon gears, they eventually wear out and are an expensive repair. It's a stupid feature with no real-world value. Disabling that function (I've done it) is an internet "hack." (Turn on the ignition but don't start the car, put the window lock button into the Unlock position, push down 3 specific window buttons but not all 4 of them, hold them all for 3 seconds.) Folding in the mirrors every time I get home is a last resort...and they would still provide a place for the bird to perch. I don't think it's using the mirror as a mirror. If it had been, the plastic bag trick would have worked.

Before fatiguing the mirror mechanism, I'd cut something to fit in front of the mirrors inside the housing to block them...but I think the bird would still perch there. And these fake birds are the only thing so far that have not driven it to perch along the window sills and poop the entire length of my car.

An hour after I went out and put the birds back on the mirror to take those pics, I looked out the window and they've been knocked off again. It's getting more aggressive. Before, they would stay put until the next morning. Probably built a nest nearby.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying. My car does that, plus the "back the seat up" when the ignition is turned off. I don't believe moving the seat back and forward serves any purpose when entering/exiting the car, other than wearing out the motor and mechanism. I'd rather just have the seat stay put, exactly where I positioned it.

I think most power mirrors can still be folded in manually, though.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I get what you're saying. My car does that, plus the "back the seat up" when the ignition is turned off. I don't believe moving the seat back and forward serves any purpose when entering/exiting the car, other than wearing out the motor and mechanism. I'd rather just have the seat stay put, exactly where I positioned it.

I think most power mirrors can still be folded in manually, though.
Click to expand...
I'll check out my manual. When I was active on the Mazda forum there was a guy who got crap for buying an extended warranty. I forget how much he said it saved him when the nylon gears on his auto-folding mirrors stopped working. So much of this stuff that has no way to turn it off can be done with stupid insider hacks. Goodness knows how anyone initially finds out about them to put the word out.
 
Krystal Shay said:
When my husband was working, he had a company vehicle, which stayed parked outside. Not only did the birds sit and crap on the outside mirrors all the time, they pecked the :poop: out of the mirrors too, scratching them to where he could not hardly see out of them. I guess the birds thought there was other birds sitting there too, and then that’s when the pecking fight began.
Click to expand...
I've not seen evidence that's what this bird is doing. One of my next steps is to get some weatherproof material to cut a shape out of to fit over the mirror, but as I said before, putting a plastic bag over it just made them perch on the window ledges and crap over the entire side of the car. I wonder if I could get a fake different critter and put there. Maybe tiny cats might confuse it enough to stay away.
 
Don Alaska said:
I thought maybe could slide a sticky plastic bag over each mirror and perhaps turn it inside-out when not in use.
Click to expand...
The problem is that the bird just moves to pacing & pooping all along the window ledges (front door and back door) when mirror access is blocked like that, making a bigger mess rather than the current localized one. For some reason, that has not happened with the fake birds perched there. After the fight, I think the bird is [literally] pooped out. So perhaps this method is providing that unintended benefit. I'm leaning more toward figuring out a way those fake birds cannot be knocked off, since everything else causes it to make a bigger mess. I may add Mirror Blockers.
 
John Brunner said:
I've not seen evidence that's what this bird is doing. One of my next steps is to get some weatherproof material to cut a shape out of to fit over the mirror, but as I said before, putting a plastic bag over it just made them perch on the window ledges and crap over the entire side of the car. I wonder if I could get a fake different critter and put there. Maybe tiny cats might confuse it enough to stay away.
Click to expand...

Maybe a rubber snake?
 
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