USMB Coffee Shop IV

[gallantwarrior]

Just got back from running errands and just in time too....... If I had been out any longer I might have gone postal on these clueless, distracted morons. They are everywhere today, on the roads, in the stores, etc......... Thankfully we weren't in a high crime area, we'd be looking at nothing but easy marks being accosted around every corner.........

There must be something in the air. It's been nuts up here, too. Or maybe the snowbirds finally made it up and are now clogging our roads with those monster condos on wheels they seem to favor. Of course, the statewide season of road destruction has reached its peak frenzy because they're trying to get their "repairs" finished before the snow flies.

I don't know. Doesn't sound like something new to me. I see these kinds of people every single day, unfortunately.

I am looking forward to retiring in a year or two. I won't have to drive somewhere every day. Once the snow flies in winter, I will hopefully have enough wood put up so I won't have to cut or split any before Spring. I have plenty of crafts projects, and the cabin is an ongoing project itself. I'll have my little loft set up for crafting so I can escape the partner if I need to. I'll have my animals (goats and chickens at first), and my garden to keep me busy, and fed pretty well.

 

[gallantwarrior]

4 - 33 gal. Trash bags total so far and I now have the chair uncovered.
It's a - ok. but needs to be vacuumed.
Still tons of insulation to go.
I am going to use the 10 gal. wet dry vac ,to get all of the stuff on top of everything stored on the shelf's.

Sounds like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

Tell that to my poor aching back.

Oh, yeah! I know a bit about that. Every time I get into a project, it becomes crystal clear that I'm not 30 any longer. Ibuprofen and hot pads are my friends!
You'll feel loads better once the mess is cleared up, though. How have you decided to get the repairs done?

 

[peach174]

4 - 33 gal. Trash bags total so far and I now have the chair uncovered.
It's a - ok. but needs to be vacuumed.
Still tons of insulation to go.
I am going to use the 10 gal. wet dry vac ,to get all of the stuff on top of everything stored on the shelf's.

Sounds like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

Tell that to my poor aching back.

Oh, yeah! I know a bit about that. Every time I get into a project, it becomes crystal clear that I'm not 30 any longer. Ibuprofen and hot pads are my friends!
You'll feel loads better once the mess is cleared up, though. How have you decided to get the repairs done?

When we can find a dry wall handyman that does our area out here in Willowlakes.
Ziltch so far.
It's hard to find anything in services for out here in Timbuktu.

 

[gallantwarrior]

There is a kid in my neighborhood who has divined the perfect crime. He rides an off road dirt motorcycle. Not a light on the thing, he rides without a helmet. It has been said that if you don't think it's worth it to protect your head, you're probably right. He has modified his little motorcycle to make the exhaust system unnecessarily loud.

His crime is to coast his motorcycle down the street in front of the Luxurious Pimplebutt Estate during the wee small hours of the morning, usually around 3:30 am. Then he kick starts it to life, revs the engine and speeds away like a phantom. This wakes me, my dog, my neighbors and their dogs.

While I, like my neighbors, grumbles and tries to fall back to sleep, the dogs are not so easily calmed. They carry on making the human efforts to regain peace nigh on impossible.

It is the perfect crime. He serves his apparent purpose of disturbing the peace (why else would he coast down the hill in silence) while becoming impossible to be punished or caught. We cannot call the cops as he is gone before we can reach the telephone. We cannot prevent him from continuing his reign of din as it happens in the dead of night.

What compels him?

Privileged entitlement? Childhood frivolity? Stupidity? Blatant and total disregard for everyone but himself?
Maybe he's sneaking away from his girlfriend's parent's house by coasting and that little burst of noise is his way of bidding the fair damsel "farewell, adieu, until we meet again"?

 

[gallantwarrior]

Got back from Tucson at Drs. Office.
Mr. P will have out patient surgery for a defibrillator and pacemaker on Aug. 17th.
We have to be there at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. He should be released around 1:00p,m, the same day.

I'm marking that date although best wishes and positive thoughts are coming your way, and Mr. P's way, hoping that the outcome will be what you both want it to be.

 

[gallantwarrior]

4 - 33 gal. Trash bags total so far and I now have the chair uncovered.
It's a - ok. but needs to be vacuumed.
Still tons of insulation to go.
I am going to use the 10 gal. wet dry vac ,to get all of the stuff on top of everything stored on the shelf's.

Sounds like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

Tell that to my poor aching back.

Oh, yeah! I know a bit about that. Every time I get into a project, it becomes crystal clear that I'm not 30 any longer. Ibuprofen and hot pads are my friends!
You'll feel loads better once the mess is cleared up, though. How have you decided to get the repairs done?

When we can find a dry wall handyman that does our area out here in Willowlakes.
Ziltch so far.
It's hard to find anything in services for out here in Timbuktu.

Shame we're not closer. Both my partner and I are fair hands with sheet rock. The partner is single-minded enough to hang, tape and mud an entire room in one day (I've seen him do it). You can't do finish work, though, until the mud is dry.

 

[peach174]

4 - 33 gal. Trash bags total so far and I now have the chair uncovered.
It's a - ok. but needs to be vacuumed.
Still tons of insulation to go.
I am going to use the 10 gal. wet dry vac ,to get all of the stuff on top of everything stored on the shelf's.

Sounds like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

Tell that to my poor aching back.

Oh, yeah! I know a bit about that. Every time I get into a project, it becomes crystal clear that I'm not 30 any longer. Ibuprofen and hot pads are my friends!
You'll feel loads better once the mess is cleared up, though. How have you decided to get the repairs done?

When we can find a dry wall handyman that does our area out here in Willowlakes.
Ziltch so far.
It's hard to find anything in services for out here in Timbuktu.

Shame we're not closer. Both my partner and I are fair hands with sheet rock. The partner is single-minded enough to hang, tape and mud an entire room in one day (I've seen him do it). You can't do finish work, though, until the mud is dry.

Yes it is a shame your not.
We could do trade with your goat cheese to our buffalo meat as well.

We will find someone eventually through friends ,who know people who do drywall work.
It just takes a little bit of time through the grapevine so to speak.

 

[gallantwarrior]

The sounds in the evening dews and damps of the summer night can be a meditative, almost zen-like experience. The constant drone of crickets with a bass note reminiscent of a dial tone is punctuated by a rhythmic chirp of individual crickets. Occasionally the song of a distant freight train's horn can be heard. Occasionally a car slides along the pavement on its way home or to work on the graveyard shift.

All together, it's a pleasant sound to drift away into sleep. Some folks need some audible distraction. A synthetic sound machine replicating the wind rustling palm fronds or the sound of waves lapping at a beach. Even 'white noise', an amalgam of perceptible sounds drowning out more violent and harsh sounds in a city.

Yes, it's nice to be soothed by sound. My favorite is the cricket's chirp on a warm summer night. They must be encamped hundreds of yards away as they join in their insect chorus lulling me into dreamland.

But last night, last night ...

One cricket took his place right outside my window. He chirped away with a staccato rhythm as loud as the sound of plywood being ripped off a wall. He wooed his cricket sweetheart who must have been down at the end of the block by rubbing his supposedly substantial legs together. He created a din he must have been very proud of, but kept me up for hours.

Ah! Summertime! It giveth and it taketh away.

I don't have a sound machine, but I have oodles of soothing sounds (white noise) saved in my collection at youtube. I also have this website to go to and its a loop....so turn off the monitor but keep the pc on, and listen to it all night..which is what I do often.

SimplyNoise -- The Best Free White Noise Generator on the Internet.

And this is my youtube collection:

I just leave the TV on. I've done this for years and if the TV shuts off, I'll wake up. Of course, some of those soundtracks get incorporated into my dreams, making for some pretty weird dreams.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Sounds like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

Tell that to my poor aching back.

Oh, yeah! I know a bit about that. Every time I get into a project, it becomes crystal clear that I'm not 30 any longer. Ibuprofen and hot pads are my friends!
You'll feel loads better once the mess is cleared up, though. How have you decided to get the repairs done?

When we can find a dry wall handyman that does our area out here in Willowlakes.
Ziltch so far.
It's hard to find anything in services for out here in Timbuktu.

Shame we're not closer. Both my partner and I are fair hands with sheet rock. The partner is single-minded enough to hang, tape and mud an entire room in one day (I've seen him do it). You can't do finish work, though, until the mud is dry.

Yes it is a shame your not.
We could do trade with your goat cheese to our buffalo meat as well.

We will find someone eventually through friends ,who know people who do drywall work.
It just takes a little bit of time through the grapevine so to speak.

Good luck, crossing hooks for you.

 

[Montrovant]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I think my laptop may be dying. A few times now when I've turned it on, it has lines going across the screen, as if my monitor is ready to kick the bucket, then it clears up and will be fine, but when I go to turn it on again, same thing happens. Could be time to invest in a new laptop.

You might be able to just replace a component, say the video card. I've never replaced laptop parts, so I couldn't really advise you. I only deal with PCs.

Of course, if you don't need too much out of it, a new laptop doesn't have to cost that much.

 

[WelfareQueen]

A great song. I hope you like. And yeah...it's Pearl Jam....so don't be put off. Love the lyric and the melody.


Just Breathe by user183852791

 

[Foxfyre]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I think my laptop may be dying. A few times now when I've turned it on, it has lines going across the screen, as if my monitor is ready to kick the bucket, then it clears up and will be fine, but when I go to turn it on again, same thing happens. Could be time to invest in a new laptop.

You might be able to just replace a component, say the video card. I've never replaced laptop parts, so I couldn't really advise you. I only deal with PCs.

Of course, if you don't need too much out of it, a new laptop doesn't have to cost that much.

That's true. I bought a couple of Asus 15" at under $300 each for myself and Hombre to use in the great room to play games or do Facebook or whatever while watching TV in the evenings. They are fine for that. For heavy duty stuff though, we prefer our PCs in the office from where we can see what is going on in the great room and kitchen and front porch, walk, and yard.

 

[Foxfyre]

Just got back from running errands and just in time too....... If I had been out any longer I might have gone postal on these clueless, distracted morons. They are everywhere today, on the roads, in the stores, etc......... Thankfully we weren't in a high crime area, we'd be looking at nothing but easy marks being accosted around every corner.........

There must be something in the air. It's been nuts up here, too. Or maybe the snowbirds finally made it up and are now clogging our roads with those monster condos on wheels they seem to favor. Of course, the statewide season of road destruction has reached its peak frenzy because they're trying to get their "repairs" finished before the snow flies.

I don't know. Doesn't sound like something new to me. I see these kinds of people every single day, unfortunately.

But. . .but. . .your state is supposed to be much more grown up and civilized compared to how it is out here. I'm disappointed. (kidding)

 

[Foxfyre]

A great song. I hope you like. And yeah...it's Pearl Jam....so don't be put off. Love the lyric and the melody.


Just Breathe by user183852791

I like Pearl Jam. And yours is a very nice rendition.

 

[Gracie]

Well..I have news of the inlaws. Wanna hear?

I know I should not be grinning, but..its hard to be sympathetic, especially when they refused us a roof until we could find our own. Now, they are roofless. They got the mobile home, but can't live in it yet. No money to turn on the power. Nothing like living in a metal box with no electric, no swamp cooler (which it has), no beds, no anything and no money until next month. They called today complaining about not having any money and hinting. I ignored it and said what they said to me "oh, thats so sad".
Now they know what it feels like to have nothing and no place to feel safe.

Karma has a way of making its existence known, doesn't it?
You and Mr. G getting settled in for the winter? I suspect you'll have snow if you're in the mountains.

Trying to prepare. So far, I am still sweltering in this horrible heat. But, its "only" 88 today, so its better than 104. I think fall will hit us early. Don't know why I think that..just feel it in my bones. So, been looking for snow boots at thrift stores. Got everything else. Of course the housemate has shitloads of wood but won't use it...he likes his forced heater that only does the living room when he feels like turning it on..which is rarely. He keeps it at 60 degrees in there. I have to wear a coat during the colder months when I am cooking in the kitchen, which is rare as well, since I cannot abide the stink wafting off the shag carpet that is even in the kitchen. Yes, his kitchen is carpeted.

My goal now is to find our own place up here. No more renting rooms. I want warmth during the winter, coolness during the summer. I don't think that is too much to ask. Oh, and I want a CLEAN home. Having my own, I know it will be.

But, in the meantime, I stay outside even though it is hot as hell, and only come inside at dusk...then I just stay in our rooms and only go out to get a quick bowl of cereal. Cooking in there just makes it hotter since he has no air conditioning and is "used to it" but expects housemates to do the same.

 

[peach174]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I suspect it's the battery, mine started doing the same squirrely things and had to get a new one.
It transfers your old data to the new one automatically so you don't lose any of your data.

 

[Ernie S.]

We're one of 2 bars in the down town area.
I don't know what your budget is, but you can spent 3 or 4 hundred a night for a condo on the beach, but if you're anything like me and think of a hotel as nothing more than a place to sleep, there's this a couple miles south of Doc's and 4 or 5 miles north of the beach:

https://www.trivago.com/?iPathId=59650&bDispMoreFilter=false&aDateRange[arr]=2017-08-27&aDateRange[dep]=2017-08-28&aCategoryRange=0,1,2,3,4,5&iRoomType=7&sOrderBy=relevance desc&aPartner=&aOverallLiking=1,2,3,4,5&iOffset=0&iLimit=25&iIncludeAll=0&bTopDealsOnly=false&iViewType=0&aPriceRange[to]=0&aPriceRange[from]=0&aPathList=59650&aGeoCode[lng]=-87.683846&aGeoCode[lat]=30.401897&f[255]=1&bIsSeoPage=false&aHotelTestClassifier=&bSharedRooms=false&bIsSitemap=false&rp=&cpt=5965003&iFilterTab=1&

I was looking at this place. It looks nice and is very affordable.
We like it quiet.

Have you heard anything about these little cottages?
It looks lovely, plus it's big enough for you and any of your friends who might want to hang out with us there for like lunches and dinners.
Kayaker Haven and Riverside Retreat! - VRBO

Or this place looks nice
Beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath Condo located sh... - VRBO

The first place is very close to my partners' place in an area called Bon Secour. It's right on the Bon Secour river. Maybe a 10 to 15 minute drive from Doc's.
The second place is very close to Tanger Outlets (mall), close to Owa, our new amusement park that is partially open for about 3 weeks and 2 miles, maybe 4 minutes from Doc's.

How are you doing Ernie? Healing up well I hope!

Still limp a bit, Chris, but not hurting hardly at all. The neuropathy is no longer painful, but the inside of my calf and behind my knee are numb. I guess that means something is reconnecting. The mobility of the knee has improved a lot but not to where it needs to be. Tomorrow at 10:30 I go for my last evaluation. There is some chance I may need a knee replacement, but we shan't worry about that right now.

Still getting physical therapy?

Nope I've been free from the physical terrorists for a month now. Good news yesterday! I broke up with my orthopedist. Our monthly dates have come to an end and I have been proclaimed well on my road to recovery.
Of course, I think I should be 100% by this point, but realistically, I will be "nearly 100%" in about 6 months.

For the first time, there will be 2 bands sharing the stage at Doc Holliday's The first is our house favorite, The Jason Abel Project. They will be followed by "Heavy Funk" all the way from Pensacola FL. (25 miles or so)

 

[Montrovant]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I suspect it's the battery, mine started doing the same squirrely things and had to get a new one.
It transfers your old data to the new one automatically so you don't lose any of your data.

I've considered that as a good possibility. I might end up buying a replacement battery and hoping it fixes the issue, they only run about $10. I'll wait to see how I like the new Kobo I bought first, though.

 

[Ernie S.]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I think my laptop may be dying. A few times now when I've turned it on, it has lines going across the screen, as if my monitor is ready to kick the bucket, then it clears up and will be fine, but when I go to turn it on again, same thing happens. Could be time to invest in a new laptop.

I bought a new HP 17" about a month ago. I just couldn't get past the EFCI garbage that Microsoft forces manufacturers to put on their machines in order to install Linux. I tried several distributions and finally got the thing to boot up Linux Mint in what they call "compatibility mode" OK it WILL boot Linux, now I needed to figure out what "compatibility mode" was and pass those options to Kubuntu that I've been using for 5 years or so.
I'm happy to report that I am currently running a fresh install of Kubuntu 17.04. Now I just have to move a couple hundred Gigs of data from the old laptop HD to this one.

 

[Montrovant]

My Kindle appears to be dying. It started resetting itself yesterday (which has happened before), but did not want to finish loading after the reset. It was caught in a loop of restarting, beginning to load, and freezing. I eventually got it to work by plugging it into my PC. We took the little one to karate, and it started resetting itself again. This time it went to a completely black screen, which I've never seen before. Then, when it did eventually go back to normal, it moved on to a completely white screen. At this point, it seems as though I need to plug the Kindle into my PC almost every time I want to turn it on. Once I have it on, it works fine, but after I turn it off, turning it back on is an issue.

I went on ebay and bought a Kobo reader. Apparently they are made by Barnes & Nobles. The one I got is new, but an older version. It will require me to convert all of my mobi files into epub files, so I'm doing that on the second PC right now. It comes with 100 "classics," such as Pride & Prejudice, loaded on it; I'm curious what those books will be. It has less memory than my Kindle keyboard, but 1GB should be plenty of space, and it can take an SD card to expand the memory.

Mostly I'm just hoping that it will not cause issues when I load my books onto it, that the screen is as easy to read as the Kindle, that it is relatively comfortable to use, and that the battery doesn't drain super fast. I don't need extra features in an ereader. It only cost $27, so if it works well and I can use it for as long as I have my Kindle (just over 6 years), it will be great.

Luckily I still have a bunch of paper books if I continue to have ereader problems.

I think my laptop may be dying. A few times now when I've turned it on, it has lines going across the screen, as if my monitor is ready to kick the bucket, then it clears up and will be fine, but when I go to turn it on again, same thing happens. Could be time to invest in a new laptop.

I bought a new HP 17" about a month ago. I just couldn't get past the EFCI garbage that Microsoft forces manufacturers to put on their machines in order to install Linux. I tried several distributions and finally got the thing to boot up Linux Mint in what they call "compatibility mode" OK it WILL boot Linux, now I needed to figure out what "compatibility mode" was and pass those options to Kubuntu that I've been using for 5 years or so.
I'm happy to report that I am currently running a fresh install of Kubuntu 17.04. Now I just have to move a couple hundred Gigs of data from the old laptop HD to this one.

You couldn't just format the HD? Or were you setting up a dual boot?