Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Notabug]

Quote

I'm not saying what I'm making because I'm pretty sure you have figured that out already!

I must be entirely devoid of imagination or insight because I have no idea what that is going to be.

[Spunkygal]

3 hours ago, Notabug said:

I must be entirely devoid of imagination or insight because I have no idea what that is going to be.

I haven’t the foggiest either!

[b4pjoe]

4 hours ago, Notabug said:

I must be entirely devoid of imagination or insight because I have no idea what that is going to be.

 

38 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

I haven’t the foggiest either!

Makes 3 of us. 😁

[Mr. Sparkle]

4th

[Browncoat]

5!

[Kindred Spirit]

6!

[andidante]

Me either but I am intrigued!

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

I haven’t the foggiest either!

Really?

Well, let me give you a hint:

Now I'm sure you can see where this is going!

The original segments were glued into pairs. Now the segment-pairs are again glued together in pairs, giving units consisting of four of the original segments. 

Ideally, you should start with a number of pieces equal to a power of two. A good number to start with is 2⁵ = 32 pieces. The reason for using a power of two is that you can keep pairing segments together and never end up with any odd pieces left over. In this case I started with only 18 pieces. Now, 16 initial pieces (2⁴) would have worked better but might have not ended up looking quite as good as I hope this will. After all, too few pieces and you end up with less of a curvature. One of these days I would like to try 64 pieces (2⁶) but I don't know how much wood I would have to start off with. 

Because I started with 18 pieces, when I had glued up pairs until I had four 4-segment  pieces, I had a 2-segment piece left over. So I glued the remaining 2-segment piece to the last of the 4-segment pieces. So now I have four (2² = 4) pieces left which are waiting a couple of hours for the glue to grab tightly before I go on.

There is considerable work with Dremel and sandpaper before segments are ready to be glued up! But hopefully I can complete the next glue-up tonight before bed. That would leave only two pieces left, which could be glued up tomorrow morning.

Yes I'm working at night, which I generally avoid. But I am doing this inside, where there is adequate lighting and I can keep an eye the next episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-69) while I work.

[Spunkygal]

Nope! Still don’t get it! 

A wooden armadillo??

[luv2lurk]

Beach umbrella for Barbie and Ken dolls?

[b4pjoe]

No idea at all...

[Browncoat]

Still clueless.

[Spunkygal]

I’m so relieved that I’m not the only one! 😂

[Mr. Sparkle]

Sea shells? A walnut? The moon? 

[b4pjoe]

I am afraid we all have horribly failed Netfoot’s woodworking quiz. 😁

[luv2lurk]

I think it is a ruse by @Netfoot to find out how many are following this thread 😁

 

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by luv2lurk

[Netfoot]

@Superclam wins the prize: it's a wooden seashell I'm surprised you folks didn't get it right away because I posted a photo of one not so long ago. One I made about 8 years back. Anyway, this is how far I've got

so you can see I've got a long way to go. Glue the two of them together and then hours and hours of sanding, including "thumb" sanding. That's when you hold the shell in one hand and press a strip of sandpaper against it with with tour thumb, then pull the strip out from under your thumb before returning the strip to the starting place and pulling it out again. It takes forever and when you're about 5% of the way into the job you want someone to remove your thumbs to stop the pain. Surgically. Or with a machete - that would be acceptable as well.

I could have glued the final two parts together and let the glue cure overnight but I want to do some sanding on the outside of the shell and it will be easier if I do it while the pieces are separate. 

Zoom in the photo to see how rough the pieces are and the ridges that must all be sanded away. Not to mention that the segments get thicker as they get bigger so I have to decide how to deal with the extra thickness.

One option would be to wire-wheel the outer surface of the shell. The paler wood is softer and would wear away faster than the harder, dark parts. This would give an interesting textured feel to the shell. Either that or ruin it. So I will hold off on that sort of move for now. Annoyingly, I can't make any more until I get the bandsaw fixed. 

Ate the last of the macaroni tonight. There are only a few if my black beans left, probably only enough for one meal. So I put a package of lentils to soak overnight. I will boil them for a few hours tomorrow right after the last if the black beans.

Very calm tonight. The leaves of the banana trees over the wall were hardly moving. The lights, etc had rainbows around them with glasses on or off (so it isn't the glasses).

Just Shoot Me, Baby by the Crash Test Dummies, a Canadian band I caught on to late. I only have three of their albums (I think they have probably released 9 or 10), my favourite of which is Give Yourself A Hand, from which this track was taken.

Spent a lot of time figuring out how best to spend my $40 loyalty card to get the best mix of items to last for the longest time. (I should post the URL so you could play the Forty Dollar game yourselves with actual items an legitimate prices.) But then I realized that I had to spend that $40 to get food for Mo. A small bag of his food costs $28.70 so I will only have $11.30 to spend on myself. In fact since I actually have $1.30 in my pocket, I can buy $12.69 worth of things for me to eat.

Gotta see Dr. Kristi on Friday. I have been summoned. If she has good news she usually calls to tell me. A summons usually means bad news. (Because I need some more of that !) But I don't understand how she could have any news for me. I haven't had any tests recently. I guess we will find out on Friday.

Now I'm dropping the phone with sleep, so I'm going to lock up and start snoring

[luv2lurk]

OK I am sorry to be blunt, but if fun things like chair for phone and toaster tongs don't sell on Father's Day, who will buy?

Switch to soundtrack from Oliver!

[Netfoot]

9 hours ago, luv2lurk said:

OK I am sorry to be blunt, but if fun things like chair for phone and toaster tongs don't sell on Father's Day, who will buy?

Switch to soundtrack from Oliver!

No need to be sorry. You are completely right and I can't tell you why it is as it is. But it is. 

Still, woodworking is a hobby and I just felt like making this shell which I started by cutting the boards months ago. 

You start on the bandsaw by cutting the lumber along it's length diagonally. What I mean is, you start with a few feet of a board (in this case I think it was just a 2x4) and resaw it into two boards the same length by cutting it lengthways. While normal resawing results in two thinner boards we angle the blade and cut the wood so as to get two wedges. Since you can't actually angle the blade, you angle the table in the opposite direction.

From there the boards are cut into short sections (five, in this case) and then the segments are cut from the wedge-shaped sections in sequence. 

Since resawing the 2x4 gives you two angled boards you get to make two shells out of your original piece of wood, but I managed to screw up the first one by dropping it in the floor and busting one of the segments.

Anyway, here it is with the last glue joint done and now waiting a few hours to cure a bit. 

Yes, that's a puppy under there, getting in the way as usual. He always wants to be in the thick of things. You should see him helping me out my boots on on a Saturday morning by standing in my lap!

If you want to use your imagination you can  try to picture this shell with extra segments. This shell has 18 but 32 would be the ideal number. The segments grow larger as you cut them out, so the additional 14 segments would extend the open end of the shell and wrapping around the "tail" by a considerable amount.

One of the drawbacks of making these shells is that the segments are cut in such a way that each segment "fits" the one before and the one after. Not just in size and shape but grain-wise as well. That's why you cut the segments from the same board. (Although I'd like to try alternating segments of redheart and maple or other contrasting woods to see how it looks.) The drawback is that if you damage just one segment you can no longer assemble the shell.

Anyway, I have given up on expecting any sales no matter what I make. Saturday coming is going to be my last day at Brighton, I believe. Because I won't have the money to pay the entrance fee, and I won't have the gas to get there.

Oh, and just because I have nothing else to worry about, we have a storm coming as well. If you start the animation, you can clearly see the islands in the early frames before the clouds get to them. And right out front, 105 miles east of the chain, you can see us. Zoom in and look closely and you will see me waving at you!

Edited June 22, 2023 by Netfoot

[Browncoat]

17 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Oh, and just because I have nothing else to worry about, we have a storm coming as well. If you start the animation, you can clearly see the islands in the early frames before the clouds get to them. And right out front, 105 miles east of the chain, you can see us. Zoom in and look closely and you will see me waving at you!

Stay safe, @Netfoot!

[Spunkygal]

Batten down the hatches, Netfoot! Stay safe!

[Netfoot]

It's been raining off and on all afternoon. More off than on. It's also been windy, but in an unusual way. We would get several minutes of a strong, steady breeze, followed by a period of calm before the strong, steady breeze returned. I jokingly told the guys in the group that I was thinking of sloping a glider off the front of the van!

Last night input a package of lentils to soak I'm ny little saucepan. In with the lentils input a salted pigtail. Around 10 this morning I set the lot aboiling and at noon I deemed them done. Had the last of the black beans with some rice & corned beef for lunch.

The lentils were too much for the Rubbermaid (6 cup) so I filled that and the remainder went with the last piece of corned beef. (From the current run  I have two more tins in the cupboard.)

For dinner I boiled those excess lentils - maybe another cup - with the bit of corned beef and made a watery soup which I spiced up with some basil and some Bajan pepper sauce. It tasted fine but it was quite watery. I will consider making soup with more of the lentils but with a chicken stock cube instead of corned beef, and starting with a roux so as to thicken the soup a bit. 

I'm running out of spices. I have no more garlic powder, no more balsamic vinegar, no more cayenne. A small quantity of basil and chives and about a tablespoon of red pepper flakes. I've got a lot of cilantro and paprika. So I guess they will feature more in my meals. Also got flour so dumplings & fried bread are likely to be more frequent.

The little shell is done. I could go on sanding it for another day or week or month but I think I will leave it as it is. I've finished it with wax/oil and tomorrow I will give it a light coat of clear, satin lacquer.

If the wind blows hard and the rain falls, it can come in almost horizontally, and get right up.to where the lathe is. Do I have covered all the important bits with plastic sheets which I got by cutting the bottoms and one side out of 50 gal.  bin liners.

Stuff further up inside should be fine unless we get a real howler which I don't think is likely.

Took Mo out for our patrol and he was acting somewhat unusually. I followed our usual route around the garden but he was distracted up near the top. When I got to the bottom he was nowhere near me so I doused my light and stood quietly just round the corner of the building. There is an internal fence there but it's about 2' back from the corner of the wall so there is a spot I could stand out of sight from the top end of the garden. After about a minute a very anxious Mo arrived, looking for me. But as soon as he saw me safe and sound he took off again.

The breeze was alternating every few minutes between calm and strong & steady. There was significant white cloud visible overhead but there were large patches of black sky between them. However, no stars are visible in those black areas so I think that there is a high cloud blanket over the entire island. Mo and I finally caught up again at the top of the garden, and just as we turned for home, it began to rain. Large, heavy drops fell and I hustled for cover but the Monster (naturally) decided to stay and play in the rain. It didn't last long so he didn't get absolutely drenched, but he was definitely damp when he joined me in bed.

I Die: You Die by Gary Numan. He made two albums as the front man for Tubeway Army before going solo. This track comes from his second solo album Telekon. I have both Tubeway Army albums and 20 of his solo albums. But as I glance at the collection I notice that I have Tubeway Army's eponymous album in my system as one of his solo albums. Must correct that. 

So. Dr. Kristi tomorrow at ten. I just don't know how that will.go. I suspect I've been putting on weight - or should have been given that I practically live on carbs. But OTOH I have been experiencing some issues that might indicate otherwise. I'm sure her scale will tell.

I hope her cough is better. Because she was hacking away last time I saw her. Didn't actually see her, come to think of it. Got a message from a croaky crapaud that was pretending to be her. Also heard her coughing in her office when I went to collect my last prescription. Surely that will be all cleared up.by now? We'll see in the morning. Unless we get blown away in the night. 

(Just soze you know, I'm not terribly concerned about being blown away. But heavy rain blowing horizontal would be a real PITA. Having said that, one of these days when I least expect it, I will end up getting blown all the way to Oz...)

Just hoping the weather improves by Saturday. It may indeed be as futile @luv2lurk suggests, but I gotta try. Besides, while getting up at 4:30 remains a devilishly evil thing to do, I am enjoying rubbing shoulders with humans. Usually I have no interactions with anyone apart from sales assistants, cashier's, etc. I don't see the guys at the club any more, so to be exposed to the human race in the form of Amhed, Haley, Jim, Joseph, Mark, Marva, Natasha, Sarah, Sally, Toni, and the rest is something I an starting to look forward to. And this Saturday is likely to be my last, at least for a while, so I would prefer if rain doesn't spoil play.  

Euyitu3yrhuurutjiwwuas. (Mo just said that.) I took his collar off and hung it up so he could sleep without it. Mo doesn't like when you steal his collar and he gets stroppy until you give it back. 

I will lock up now and saw some wood.

[Netfoot]

A thundering downpour of rain and where is Mo? You guessed it: outside playing in it.

I call him inside and shut the door. And where is Mo? You guessed it: lying on top of my pillows with his coat all spiky with rainwater, drying off and making himself comfy for the night!

[Netfoot]

Right after I posted last night, a there came a thunderous downpour accompanied by strong winds. While I struggled to shut the window, Mo went out and got thoroughly wet. 

Apparently there was 3" of rain in some parts of the island; possibly more here and there. Rising this morning at 4:30 from a cuddly bed, there was little rain and I opened up so Mo could go out as and when he needed to.

Since I got up there has been little rain. Just a few brief periods of fine musty misty drizzle. Alison from Brighton emailed to say they will be open but the areas where the southernmost vendors usually park to unload/set up is waterlogged. This means that everyone will have to use the northern parking area for unloading. Things could get hectic. Of course, it is uncertain if there will be any customers. There have been very few shoppers over the last month or more!

Went to see Dr. Kristi who has recovered from her bronchitis and is in fine firm form again. It seems she only wanted to do an exam if of my heart & lungs before issuing any more prescriptions. Unlike other doctors, she does periodically insist on an exam. (I know a guy who boasts that he hadn't seen his doctor in years; he just collects prescriptions from the nurse when he needs them.)

My blood pressure is perfect and my heart and lungs sound clear & good. I discussed aches & pains and asked a few questions. I've had a couple sore spots on my butt which it turns out are from having lost more weight (8 lbs. down). Because my chair has a wooden seat, I've developed two sores where the point of my pelvis has been bearing my weight down onto the chair. I suspected this was the case and located a cushion for the chair, and I've been sitting on it for a few days, and my butt has already started to heal up. That... doesn't sound like it means what I wanted it to mean.

Anyways, back home, I made a dough from corn meal & all-purpose flour. Boiled them and had them with corned beef & lentils with paprika (what else?). Tasted good! I'll take some of the remaining dough and make fry-bread tonight. Just wish I had some marmalade or jam or even PB to spread on it!

Back hurts. Considering lying down.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Netfoot

[luv2lurk]

Fingers crossed (and the cat is also crossing her paws) for you tomorrow!

[Netfoot]

All washed up and clean, tomorrow's clothes laid out and EDC gear installed. Checked my wallet to make sure about the $10 entrance fee and couldn't find it! Ran around like a headless chicken for half an hour before I remembered that I'd left it in the van, inside the carrying case along with cards, sweets (bait), etc. Ran out and unlocked the van to check - all OK, it's been found. Searched several pants pockets and it seems the sum total of my liquidity consists of a handful of coins

Which add up to $2.45 total. It would be nice to get a few sales because I can really use the cash. But that isn't likely. All the long-time vendors tell me they too are suffering for sales and that they don't expect things to improve for another 3-4 months at least. Sally (hand-painted pottery) told me she made $25 last week which is probably less than it costs her. She uses a full sized section in the $30 area (roofed, with concrete floor) whereas I only occupy half of a section in the $30 area (tent on grass). Sometimes they ask me to set up in the $30 section but I told them I can't pay $15 so they let me in for only $10 because I didn't request that section, rather they asked me to help fill it.

On the way to see Dr. Kristi I noticed a small wound on the side of Mo's face. 

Now how did he do that? It's only about the size of a grain of rice. He probably got himself tangled in a heap of old fence wire the landlord refuses to get rid of. Mo likes to check it out to see if he can find a crapaud or two, but the ends of the wire are sharp and can reach out and grab you when you least expect it. 

Mo doesn't seem to be perturbed by it at all. In fact it seems like he doesn't even know or care that it's there.

I'm glad Dr. K is better. I worry about her. I've spent years training her and wouldn't like to have to start over with a new doctor at this stage! So I never like to hear of anything happening that might incline her to take a sabbatical. She is a good woman and fun to talk to. She told me that my sister & her husband had been in a car accident in the USA (no serious injuries but bad seatbelt bruises, etc.) and on returning to the island had gone to consult Dr. K. I don't know why they didn't go to their own doctor but anyway. Dr. K said she tried to discourage them over the phone and recommended another doctor but (as usual) my sister completely ignored everyone's wishes but her own and arrived at the clinic anyway. Apparently, Dr. K. was being loyal to me. 

One of these days I should tell you the crazy story of when Christine needed a vaccination for something obscure (Malaria? Tsetse fly?) When she was still globe trotting. Chris (who had more money than god, including all of mine) tried to cheap-out on Dr. K and ended up paying way more than she needed to, earning Kristi's ire! 

Flat bread for dinner. Tasted OK and Mo kept breathing on my hip so I had to keep feeding him titbits. Some thing to add a bit of flavour would have been nice. Jam, PB, raisins kneaded in, or anything. I could have made up another corned beef & lentil sauce like I had with the dumplings for lunch, but I thought I'd not bother. 

Saturday Night by Suede. This is from Coming Up, produced after the departure of Bernard Butler. I read somewhere that some music journalist once asked Brett Anderson (lead singer) if he could read music which caused some embarrassment because, so the story goes, Anderson can't hardly read at all! Don't know if there is any truth to that, so you didn't hear it from me! 

Well, the alarm will be going off at 4:30 and given that all the vendors will have to use the northern access, I'd better not dawdle in the morning. Mo just came and commandeered half the pillows, scratched them into a nest and is now curled up against my back. So I will go lock up and call it a day.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Went up to Brighton earlier than usual because there was the potential for chaos as the southern access was blocked so the entire market would have to funnel through the northern entrance. Plus, I was up before the alarm thanks to a fuzzy boy who woke me at 1:00, 2:30 and 4:00!

Got all set up, sharing with Marva and then Toni came and set up right alongside. Haley then came and shared the tent with Toni, so it was a fun little group of us. In the process of setting up I found a hard dollar, so mu pocket change now comes to $3.45 which is something like a 40% increase in liquidity. 

Once again very few people were shopping for anything other than breakfast, but I did manage to sell two toaster tongs at $20 each! So, thanks to @luv2lurk for the idea. And it's a good thing too, because I put $10 aside so I can try again next Saturday, and I was able to buy enough fuel to get home again, and now I have $20 extra to pay for groceries. I was going to stop at the grocery on the way home, but I've decided to pass the money through the bank. I will deposit my $20 on Monday and draw it off again on Tuesday just so the bank has some activity to look at. 

Toni gave me some of her leftover pastries to bring home so for lunch I'm having Cinnamon rolls and Rocky Road.

I have an idea for something I might try to make on the scroll saw, but I have to figure out how to do something first, and maybe you could help? Imagine a long, cylindrical rod like a broomstick or a store-bought dowel. The trick is to mark a spiral (technically a helix) around it, so that the turns are even and regular. My initial idea is to get two thin, flat strips of something very flexible and laying them side by side, close-wrap your broom handle with them. Once that's been done, tape/pin one strip in place and unwind and remove the other. Then, with a pencil, follow one edge of the remaining strip and mark your broomstick. After removing the second strip your broomstick should have an even, regular helix penciled around it's length. Who ca think nof an easier/better way to produce this type of marking?

[Netfoot]

Risingson from Massive Attack's album Mezzanine. I think this is their best album, although my favourite track is Teardrop. The trio nearly broke up over the recording of this album, due to a disagreement as to who the female guest vocalist should be. Two of them voted for Elizabeth Frazier from Cocteau Twins but the third member ignored their choice and invited Madonna. When the others discovered this there was a huge row and Madonna had to be un-invited, and Frazier ended up on the album. 

You may know this album without knowing that you do. If you watched The Matrix with Keanu Reeves, you may remember a scene where Neo is asleep in front of the computer listening to some music on headphones. The computer tells him to "follow the white rabbit", then says "Knock, knock!" exactly timed to a real knock on the door. The music Neo is listening to is Mezzanine, and the track is Dissolved Girl with Elizabeth Frazier providing the vocals.

I've been half asleep since lunchtime but I've been trying to get some code to execute on demand via the web on my remote server (CGI program) and no matter what I do I keep getting errors. I'm testing with a simple 3-line program which works on the CLI but just won't run via the web. Anyway, I've given up for the night and with Mo snuggled up behind me I am going to leave him for a brief moment to lock the door and then the arms of Morpheus!

As I headed to the door to close up, Mo shot past me and went outside. He would like me to wait another half an hour until the came back in, then when I tried once more to lock up he could shoot past me and run outside again. Well too bad! If he wants to rush out he can stay out until tomorrow morning. 

[Netfoot]

I'm lying here with Mo and we're listening to In Liverpool performed by Suzanne Vega. I like quite a bit of her music, but not everything. For instance, one of her best known songs I guess would be Tom's Diner which everyone seems to like. Everyone except me. I do, on the other hand like the popular Luka.

Oh, it's just switched to Spooning Good Singing Gum from the Cocteau Twins album Blue Bell Knoll, with Elizabeth Frazier on vocals. I mentioned her in my last post in connection with her performance with Massive Attack on their album Mezzanine. That's a coincidence!

I did not leave the house all day but feel the urgent need for a shower anyway. BRB...

Right, so I've been working on the club robot. It can and does independently post items to the club's Telegram group. Things like cocktail recipes, weather reports, exchange rates, jokes... But I'm trying to get it to respond to commands. 

How it works is, the robot program lives on a server in Utah and most of the time it is asleep. Any member post a message on the group, and the Telegram servers distribute that message to every group member. But it also wakes up the robot in Utah and gives it a copy of the message, along with a few other pieces of info (date & time the message was posted, who posted it, and so forth) in an encoded form. The robot then decodes and examines the message looking for commands it can respond to. After taking appropriate action, the robot can go back to sleep until Telegram wakes it up again to process another message.

So the robot will ignore general message traffic, but it can be programmed to respond to specific commands. An example might be to respond to a message in the form /headlines by generating a response that lists the current news headlines. Or it might respond to /apod by posting a message containing the astronomy picture of the day. 

(Traditionally, commands are prefixed with a solidus. This reduces the chance of the robot mis-identifying part of a normal message as a command )

Anyway, I have finally got the robot to receive and decode the message traffic off of the group. Now I have to decide what commands would be useful and appropriate and then extend the robot to obey them.

Now, with the clock way past two in the morning, I think I will kill this light, and snuggle up with my puppy. 

[luv2lurk]

On 6/24/2023 at 12:50 PM, Netfoot said:

but I did manage to sell two toaster tongs at $20 each! 

Excellent news. And I know you have no use for cats, but I think mine crossing her paws helped in the wishes 😀

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Right, so I've been working on the club robot. It can and does independently post items to the club's Telegram group. Things like cocktail recipes, weather reports, exchange rates, jokes... But I'm trying to get it to respond to commands. 

OK, so I have no idea what Telegram is (assuming it is like a Facebook) but I have heard it mentioned many times recently in connection with the Wagner Group leader who made an advance on Moscow. It was his primary means of communication, but now he is silent. So maybe he has infiltrated it somehow, as mercenaries could do 😉

Edited June 26, 2023 by luv2lurk

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, luv2lurk said:

OK, so I have no idea what Telegram is (assuming it is like a Facebook) but I have heard it mentioned many times recently in connection with the Wagner Group leader who made an advance on Moscow.

Telegram is a messenger app, very similar to WhatsApp in functionality. It has quite a large (half a billion users) userbase - not as large as WhatsApp itself but not inconsequential.

And there are several other ways it's "better" as far as I'm concerned, a few of which are: 

• not a part of the FecesBook hegemony
• unlimited storage space for messages, media files & documents
• option for self-delete timer on messages
• no sim-card needed
• allows automated messaging

The last one is the one I find immediately interesting. You can write software to have content added without human intervention. Stuff like the cocktail recipes, weather reports and other stuff, both useful and  amusing.

For instance, we are considering the addition of a small (Raspberry Pi) computer to the club. With simple magnetic switches it will detect the opening and closing of the portals to our clubhouse and if the club is opened at an unexpected time, it can take a photo and send it out onto the group chat. Not possible with WhatsApp without a special "business account". It could also monitor the wind conditions and rainfall and keep members informed.

I'm not trying to sell you on Telegram, BTW. We have had a good experience using WhatsApp as the club group chat host medium. But we are hoping that with the addition of custom software (which I, unfortunately, have to write) Telegram can give us more.

[Netfoot]

Did little all day. Skipped lunch because of the state of the kitchen cupboard. If I had a dollar for every time I thought how nice a cup of tea would be, I could not only afford to have a cuppa, I could order a ridiculous pizza too. Due to food shortage, drank a lot of iced water this afternoon.

Dinner was curried corned beef with lentils & onion over white rice. Tasted fine, but for it being a touch on the salty side. Dunno how, I only added the tiniest amount of salt to the rice and none at all to the curry. 

Anyway, a great thirst came upon me and drinking more water had brought on The Belly. I ended up sucking ice cubes because they can quench your thirst without contributing too much water to the system. same old same-old.

Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & The Pips. Written 50 years ago, this was a great song and despite the passage of considerable time, it still is!

It's a still, quiet night. Not hot or cold. I'm tired and glad to be in bed. I could wish for a more comfortable bed, but it is probably better to deal with life as it comes, rather than bitching about how it isn't as good as you would have preferred. 

Rich And Strange, off Asquarius by Cud. This is an obscure, short-lived band and the disk (the only one of theirs I own) was hard to find. Had to resort to a rare-disk merchant. I don't know what happened to the band members after Cud broke up. (Other than that they reformed a decade or so later.)

Mo is running low on food and there is little left for me to eat so I will have to go shopping tomorrow, I guess. Really not looking forward to it.

Got the robot working today. There was much trial and error and many failed attempts, but just as I was about to give up for the day, it responded! 

The robot currently only knows how to respond to a single command: "/greetings", and it simply sends back a pleasantry from a short list, calling the greeted by name and wishing them a good morning/afternoon/evening or night. But now I've got it working  I should be able to add extra functionality fairly easily. 

And now to lock the house and try for some sleep.

[Netfoot]

Great. 

I was going out to the grocery and Mo was excited to come for the ride. 

When ever I leave the house, I always check that I have the key to get back in again. Nobody has a spare to my house, so I always reach into my pocket and pull out the bunch with house & car keys on it. When I have that in my hand, I will slam-lock the door. (It can't be locked any other way, otherwise I'd use the key to lock it, like I do the car.)

Reached into my pocket, grabbed something and as I lifted it out of the socket pocket I slammed the door... only to realize what was in my hand was not the keys!

So now I sit, waiting for the landlord to arrive with his spare key. He and I don't get on all that well. So there will be some grumbling to come. And he won't be motivated to hurry. It's nearly noon, so if he was cooking his lunch he may we'll finish cooking it and eating it before he even sets off. 

Anyway, I get to spend some quality time with Mo. Only, after about five minutes Mo tired of the quality time and wondered off to find somewhere to nap.

And I can't even spend the time cleaning up the garage because I'm not wearing my ratty, old, work clothes. I'm wearing my ratty, old, street clothes. 

Now where is Mo? Eeeeek! Ticks!

No, wait. Sweethearts. My blood pressure should return to normal by tonight. Tomorrow at the latest...

Edited June 27, 2023 by Netfoot

[Spunkygal]

Sweethearts???

[Netfoot]

Ok, the landlord got here in 31 minutes and I am not displeased. If it had been 2 hours I would have been displeased but not surprised.

The keys, it turned out, were in the ignition switch of the car, which was locked. Seeing as I never lock my car other that with the key, I am unsure how that happened. Speculating, when I got home on Saturday, I left the keys in the car instead of putting them in my pocket. I usually leave the car unlocked so I can go in and check the supplies, etc. When locking up (actually, while on Garden Patrol) I will lock up the van using the "house" keys which hang on a hook near the door. I suspect that's what I did on Saturday, not remembering that my "pocket" keys weren't in my pocket but still in the ignition. (Fortunately not turned or I'd have had a flat battery!)

Went down to the grocery and got a bag of chow for Mo, a bag of loose salt, a 1,750 gram bag of Indian Girl rice, a sack of cucumbers, a pound of carrots, two packs of macaroni, a tin of corned beef and four tins of tuna fish (for a change).

It cost me pretty much every cent I own. I have $4.30 in change in my pants pocket and $10 put aside for entrance to the market next Saturday.

The tuna is $1.79 per tin for 99 grams (drained), whereas the corned beef is $4.99 for 340 grams. This means tuna is 1.8¢ per gram and the corned beef is 1.47¢ per gram. Tuna then, is cheaper than bully beef. But the bully beef has a strong flavour so a small amount of it will go a long way. Whereas tuna has a much milder taste so it doesn't "stretch" as far as the bully beef. The four tins of tuna I bought for $7.16 will not make as many meals as the single tin of corned beef at $4.99 will. Which is why I eat the bully most of the time. But I just felt I needed a break.

1 hour ago, Spunkygal said:

Sweethearts???

Ok, that is a word from my youth in Trinidad.

You know some plants produce burrs. Seeds with long, spikey points and barbs that cling to your clothes of a puppy's coat. But some plants produce seeds that aren't spikey, but sticky. They cling to you in the same way but won't make your horse bolt!

In Trinidad there is a variety of plant that produces sticky seeds with a heart shape. Well, more of a kidney beans shape, but if you close one eye and tilt your head it might pass for a heart shape. These, because they are heart shaped and because they cling to you, are known as sweethearts. In fact the term is generally applied to any sticky-type seed. Now, the actual sweethearts are not common here. We get these:

Which are not heart-shaped but are sticky. And they grow all over the place, including my yard. I took this branch and touched Mo on his back and:

So I use the term "sweethearts" to mean a sticky (as opposed to spikey) burr. Which is silly because most Bajans don't know what I mean, but I keep doing it....

[Browncoat]

Those look like what we used to call "stick-tights".

[Spunkygal]

I read that sweethearts, stick tights, or burrs, whatever term you want to use were the inspiration for the creator of Velcro. His doggie kept getting them in his fur and the brilliant man’s mind eventually correlated burrs to Velcro! 

[Netfoot]

Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny) by Elton. The Johnny in the title supposedly refers to John Lennon who had been killed the year previous. If so, the lyric is obscure enough I challenge anyone to draw that conclusion without a big hint from elsewhere.

Mo just came in and curled up against my tummy. I went to remove his collar but in a flash he leapt up and out of my reach. Some soothing words and he's returned, but now he's curled up against my back. I have periodically taken the collar off my boys maybe once every week to 10 days, so they could experience of sleeping without it. During the lockdown Bud went without his collar for nearly eight weeks. But Mo likes his collar. If I release the buckle he leaps to defend the collar from being stolen! I never do anything with it but hang it over the bed. He calms down a bit when he sees the collar isn't going anywhere. But it's a very happy puppy who gets his collar returned to him the next morning!

It wained off and in all afternoon. 2-3 minutes if heavy rain followed by 30-45 minutes of no rain. And back and forth. Late in the afternoon the rain started again as before, but instead of stopping after a couple of minutes it intensified until there was a howling downpour pounding on the roof  and drowning out the movie I was watching. Then for an hour or more we had thunder & lightning rattling the windows in their frames. Mo, blithely unconcerned, took a nap in the passage. When it was time for our Garden Patrol, the rain was still talking hard, if not still actually raging down. So out we went, getting properly wet, before returning to the house after a quick shufty round the garden. Within a minute of our returning inside, the rain stopped dead and has not resumed.

The Robot was modified to offer jokes and cocktail recipes ob demand. It all worked well, until it broke. We ended up with a infinite loop running between my server in Utah and the Telegram server in godnozewhere. Telegram would trigger the robot which would fail, causing an incorrect response being returned to the Telegram servers which would then "retry" the robot which would fail again..... Got it sorted in the end, but jokes & cocktails are temporarily suspended until  I figure out what went wrong.

Meanwhile the puppy went out for a walk in the wet and is now conducting a game of Tummy Trampoline with legs and feet soaking wet!

Ah, crap! I forgot to set out my meds for the next three days! Well, I will go do that then lock up the door and hit the hay.

ETA: You have no idea how tempted I was to purchase milk & sugar so I could make myself a cuppa now and again. But it would have cost me almost ten bucks, and I only had about $30 to spend, so I thought I'd better but get food and not delicacies like tea stuff.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Netfoot

[ShowsILoveToHate]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny) by Elton. The Johnny in the title supposedly refers to John Lennon who had been killed the year previous. If so, the lyric is obscure enough I challenge anyone to draw that conclusion without a big hint from elsewhere.

Mo just came in and curled up against my tummy. I went to remove his collar but in a flash he leapt up and out of my reach. Some soothing words and he's returned, but now he's curled up against my back. I have periodically taken the collar off my boys maybe once every week to 10 days, so they could experience of sleeping without it. During the lockdown Bud went without his collar for nearly eight weeks. But Mo likes his collar. If I release the buckle he leaps to defend the collar from being stolen! I never do anything with it but hang it over the bed. He calms down a bit when he sees the collar isn't going anywhere. But it's a very happy puppy who gets his collar returned to him the next morning!

It wained off and in all afternoon. 2-3 minutes if heavy rain followed by 30-45 minutes of no rain. And back and forth. Late in the afternoon the rain started again as before, but instead of stopping after a couple of minutes it intensified until there was a howling downpour pounding on the roof  and drowning out the movie I was watching. Then for an hour or more we had thunder & lightning rattling the windows in their frames. Mo, blithely unconcerned, took a nap in the passage. When it was time for our Garden Patrol, the rain was still talking hard, if not still actually raging down. So out we went, getting properly wet, before returning to the house after a quick shufty round the garden. Within a minute of our returning inside, the rain stopped dead and has not resumed.

The Robot was modified to offer jokes and cocktail recipes ob demand. It all worked well, until it broke. We ended up with a infinite loop running between my server in Utah and the Telegram server in godnozewhere. Telegram would trigger the robot which would fail, causing an incorrect response being returned to the Telegram servers which would then "retry" the robot which would fail again..... Got it sorted in the end, but jokes & cocktails are temporarily suspended until  I figure out what went wrong.

Meanwhile the puppy went out for a walk in the wet and is now conducting a game of Tummy Trampoline with legs and feet soaking wet!

Ah, crap! I forgot to set out my meds for the next three days! Well, I will go do that then lock up the door and hit the hay.

ETA: You have no idea how tempted I was to purchase milk & sugar so I could make myself a cuppa now and again. But it would have cost me almost ten bucks, and I only had about $30 to spend, so I thought I'd better but food and not delicacies like tea stuff.

Hi there! Greetings from Boston, USA. 👋🏼

I’ve been reading this thread for several days now and I find your posts to be so interesting. Some, I can relate to; other I can’t. Not a big deal. 🙂

I have always known that Empty Garden was about John Lennon. I was around 19 years old when he was shot and killed, and knew that he lived in a large, beautiful brownstone apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, called The Dakota. He was killed right at the entrance to the building. So the lyrics make a lot of sense to me, in an artistic kind of way, like Elton John and Bernie Taupin are known to do. 🙂

But if someone didn’t know those specific details then I can totally understand how that song would have no clear connection to John Lennon. 😬

I’ve wanted to comment on some of your other posts, but I feel like an intruder, as if I’m reading personal correspondence. 📃🖋️

Looking at your avatar, I thought that you had a cat sitting on your shoulder, but now I think that it’s your dog Mo. 🐶🐾🐾❤️

I really enjoy seeing your woodwork. I know all about lathes, etc, and interestingly enough, I also know a bit about computer program writing. Maybe that’s why I’ve been coming back to read your posts. 💻

At any rate, it’s nice to make your acquaintance, in an internet kind of way. 😄

Edited June 28, 2023 by ShowsILoveToHate

[Netfoot]

7 hours ago, ShowsILoveToHate said:

I’ve been reading this thread for several days now and I find your posts to be so interesting. Some, I can relate to; other I can’t. Not a big deal.

Hey, that's fine! Just imagine what a boring place the world would be is all our brains ran in lock-step. 

Quote

I was around 19 years old when he was shot and killed, and knew that he lived in a large, beautiful brownstone apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, called The Dakota. He was killed right at the entrance to the building. So the lyrics make a lot of sense to me, in an artistic kind of way, like Elton John and Bernie Taupin are known to do.

I knew most of the basic facts as you describe them. But not being familiar with the actual scene as perhaps you are, I don't see any connection between the Dakota building in Manhattan and a garden. Is it located in a well-known garden? 

Quote

I’ve wanted to comment on some of your other posts, but I feel like an intruder, as if I’m reading personal correspondence.

Please do comment as much as you want to! I post a lot and I wish the others were as 'vocal' in the forum.  Any and all comments are appreciated.

Quote

Looking at your avatar, I thought that you had a cat sitting on your shoulder, but now I think that it’s your dog Mo.

Yes, it's my Mo, when he was a baby. He is a sweet boy and cute as a button, but very naughty and definitely with a mind of his own. Here is the picture from which the avatar was made:

I would have preferred another photo but because of the way the avatar is cut out of the original image, I decided not to go with it. Here is the image I actually like better:

You know, if you include Mo, most of my face gets cut away. Which might actually be a good thing? [ETA: Just changed it!]

Quote

I really enjoy seeing your woodwork. I know all about lathes, etc, and interestingly enough, I also know a bit about computer program writing. Maybe that’s why I’ve been coming back to read your posts.

That's very interesting. I make it plain that I am no expert at woodworking and as far as lathe-turning is concerned I an pretty poor at it. I know turners that make it look like magic. Some YT videos in particular show the wood cooperating and the piece ending up finished and beautiful in just a couple of minutes. But for me it is a challenge and real work, and the piece is broken or ruined somehow, before I'm done and has to be discarded. I wish I could point the finger at my tiny, underpowered lathe and less than great tools, but you know what they say about a bad workman.....

As for programming, I made my living as a programmer (now retired), but not doing the type of systems programming that so enthused me as a student. No, instead I spent my career cooking the books and counting inventory for a local  merchant company. So now, when I try to do interesting stuff I have to work hard to make it come out right.

Quote

At any rate, it’s nice to make your acquaintance, in an internet kind of way.

Indeed! And likewise, I'm glad to meet you. I hope you will stick around and maybe make your presence felt by sticking your oar into the conversation and stirring!

Edited June 28, 2023 by Netfoot

[Mr. Sparkle]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

knew most of the basic facts as you describe them. But not being familiar with the actual scene as perhaps you are, I don't see any connection between the Dakota building in Manhattan and a garden. Is it located in a well-known garden? 

I dived into this, because I should be working instead. Anyway, it's about Madison Square Garden, which as I'm sure you know, is an arena in NYC and is known informally as "The Garden." 

I found out today that he's singing "Johnny" and it's about John Lennon. I thought for years he was singing "darlin'." 

[Netfoot]

13 minutes ago, Superclam said:

Anyway, it's about Madison Square Garden, which as I'm sure you know, is an arena in NYC and is known informally as "The Garden."

OK, I see why I was not quite with it all these years. I have heard of Madison Square Garden, obviously, but I never connected the dots. 

Not that it matters, when it comes to my listening pleasure. I like the song (and enjoy listening to it and singing along, but you don't want to hear that!).

And that may be a little unusual for me. I am mostly into the earlier stuff like Captain Fantastic and earlier albums. But this comes from a slightly later era.

[andidante]

I love Elton John. I am currently reading his book called "Me". It is very interesting. 

[Spunkygal]

6 hours ago, andidante said:

I love Elton John. I am currently reading his book called "Me". It is very interesting. 

Have you seen Rocketman! The actor who played adult Elton should have won the Oscar. IMO, he was perfect. I think his name is Taron Egerton. And he did the singing. But the Academy had given the Oscar to Rami the previous year for Bohemian Rhapsody so there is speculation that they didn’t want to give it two years in a row for a biopic of a rock star.  

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Have you seen Rocketman!

I saw a movie about his life a couple years ago but I don't remember what it was called. It was good, though.

Just returned from an amusing Garden Patrol and then had a shower. Calm, with the occasional flutter if a breeze. Grass wet and twinkly in the torchlight. Some whitw clouds visible overhead with black sky between. But the black sky shows no stars, so high level cloud cover is probably near to 100%.

Now, a couple times recently I've hidden from Mo by standing quietly in a little nook between the corner of the house and the fence where he can't see me from across the yard. I pounce out on him when he comes looking. Tonight he decided to turn the tables and hid in the same spot, waiting to pounce on me when I came close enough. Only trouble, he couldn't resist poking his head around the corner every few seconds to see where I was! It was quite hard to believably be surprised when he pounced!

My lentils ran out last night, so I put a 400g package of field peas to soak in a saucepan overnight. In with the peas I put a crusty old pigtail I found in the back of the fridge. It was salted but it has been in there so long the salt was crusted all over it. Late this morning, I put the pan to boil and gave it 45 minutes to an hour until the peas were just the right consistency. Then I turned off the fire and fished out the pigtail. It was a long one so I'd cut it into two to get in the pot.

Mo got half the pigtail with his chow for lunch and the other half with his dinner tonight. I put a scoop of the peas with a little piece of corned beef and some sliced cucumber to cook while I made mashed potatoes from some flakes I've had in the fridge for well over three years. They don't taste so good any more, especially when you don't have the milk and butter to add in as directed. But I've hung on to them because I knew I might need them. The mash plus the peas, bully beef and cucumber was my lunch.

After taking out a fairly large scoop for lunch the remaining peas filled a six cup container. I have over a dozen packages of various types of beans & peas in the fridge so I guess I will be eating beans for a while!

For dinner, I mixed flour with water and a little salt. More of a batter than a dough. Spooned it into a hot pan and made... Dunno what to call em. Flour fritters? They had a softer consistent than the frybread I usually make but they tasted OK and Mo agreed with me. These were much easier to make but had a tendency to stick in the pan.

Midnight Runaway by Three Dog Night is playing. Aways liked this band. They had a bunch of hits in the early 70s when I was an impressionable young lad. It was a big band that over the years saw many musicians come and go. They recorded several songs written by outsiders, making many of them famous to the degree that their recording became the recording for that number. I mean nobody is going to improve on their rendition of Mama Told Me (Not to Come), are they?

I had a pretty miserable night last night due to two severe bouts of cramp in my right foot plus some other milder cramping in the left. The worst were bad enough to make me get up and walk (hobble, really) around trying not to cry out. Please, not again tonight!

My Robot gave loads of trouble today, but I finally got it to work without issue this afternoon. It will respond to a greeting with a pleasantry, it will tell you a joke on demand, it will give you a randomized cocktail recipe when asked, and it will list all the commands it can follow. I'm now working on a currency conversion function where you say something like "/convert BBD 123.45 to UKP" and it give you the rate of exchange and the equivalent amount. I also want to do recipes, news headlines, sunrise & sunset times (and moonrise/moonset), plus date & time of next new & full moons. And anything else that I can think of that will possibly be useful or interesting.

Anyway, going to call it a day now. Going to fetch Mo and shut down for the night.

[Netfoot]

Just had lunch. Rice with bully beef, field peas, sliced carrots and diced cucumber. Tasted pretty good, but would have been better with some sort of gravy or. Knob of red butter or something.

Will have macaroni for dinner, prolly with tuna.  Or skip the meal entirely and have it for lunch tomorrow. 

Been working on some software all morning, but right now I can't get any closer to my desk because someone has fallen asleep on my foot so I can't move. So I'll start a movie.

Did some digging around for something today and unexpectedly located some stuff that's been on the missile list for some time. For example, a bag of leather scraps and a box of a gross of emery boards, not seen for the last 8-9 years. (They make good sanding strips for modelling.) Also located a few electric gubbins and my collection of Zip-Loc bags. And a box of nitrile gloves. Years ago when I couldn't find them 8 bought Another box so now I have two. Or 1½ really, because I've used some. They get used when applying stain or messing with anything that can screw up my hands. Except 9 out of 10 times I forget until I've already started...

Mo has moved now, but the movie is playing now, so...

[andidante]

21 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Have you seen Rocketman! The actor who played adult Elton should have won the Oscar. IMO, he was perfect. I think his name is Taron Egerton. And he did the singing. But the Academy had given the Oscar to Rami the previous year for Bohemian Rhapsody so there is speculation that they didn’t want to give it two years in a row for a biopic of a rock star.  

I did see it! I thought it was very good. He should have won for sure.

[Netfoot]

Sunday Afternoon by the band Texas. It's off their album "The Hush". No, it isn't C&W (which is one of the two genres I don't particularly like). Texas is a Scottish pop/rock band fronted by lead singer Sharleen Spiteri. They named the band after a movie quote or something. The Hush is a good album, but it's my second favourite of theirs, after White On Blonde. Name inspired by Dylan's Blonde On Blonde - a musician I've never had a moments time for - this was a big hit for Texas. Now certified as 6x platinum, too!

Uneventful Garden Patrol with light, cool breeze tickling my skin, a sky devoid of visible clouds but also devoid of visible stars. I noticed a circular rainbow around all the streetlights. Visible with the specs on or off, what ever it is, it is in my eyes. Or maybe we are just going to have snow fall?

Had macaroni with tuna & field peas. Tasted pretty darned good!

I've been broke for about 2½ years now, and penniless for a year. So, a year ago I told Dr. Kristi that I was going to have to stop eating healthy and eat cheap. It had been 15-20 years since I bought sugar, butter, all the things Dr. K. tells me are bad for me. Used to use nothing but olive oil for cooking... etc. Anyway, I have not been eating mostly healthy vegetables for the last year. I've been eating loads of cheap carbs instead. Real sugar in my tea instead of Stevia. But yet, I've still been losing weight.

Naturally, losing weight is a good thing; I'm not worried about that. What worries me is why I'm losing weight... It isn't like I'm eating less. The plate still contains the same amount. It's just that it's all carbs! 

Anyway, on Friday when I saw her she put me on the scale and noted that I'm down 8 lbs. Since last time I weighed (February, I think). It didn't strike me at the time, but it came to me this afternoon that I'm down exactly 100 lbs. 

This afternoon while rooting around in some storage containers I located a clamp (which is a component of my Lansky sharpening kit) that I've been missing for too long. I've not been able to sharpen my knife properly for a while! Not only did I find the clamp, but also my white Sapphire stone which I like to use right before finishing with the leather strop - which also turned up today. Now I can sharpen my knife properly! I mean, it's good and sharp already, but if you look at the knife, I want the gleam of light from the edge of the blade to slice open your eyeball!

Switched to a new exchange rate API for the robot. The old one worked OK but requests were being funneled through a middle-man site and I wanted to cut them out of the equation. The new API is very slightly different to the old. You send it a list of ISO standard currency codes (USD, GBP, etc) and for each one, it sent back the exchange rate using the Euro (€) as the base currency. The old API allowed you to choose what base currency you wanted to use (so, BBD) which was a little more convenient , but not a biggie. If X is the rate of BBD to the Euro, and Y is the rate of GBP to the Euro, then the cross-rate from BBD to GBP is simply X/Y.

The changes to return to the same functionality as before were minor. But I also implemented some changes that should allow me to more easily enhance the robot to function as an exchange rate calculator. You could then type something like "/exchange BBD 1234.56 to UKP" and have the robot respond with the correctly converted amount. I have to work out exactly what I want that part of the robot to be able to do and devise a consistent syntax for commanding it.

On the other hand, I'm considering developing a general purpose calculator with named memories and well as various functions one of which would be conversion to a different currency. Not sure if I actually want to go there, though, a d if I did it would be ax pretty large project so I may shelve that until I've given the idea more thought. 

I was talking with ChatGPT this morning about the best way to test for the presence of a particular key/value pair in a hash without generating the key/value pair by simply referencing it. (Answer: don't use if ($hash{'key'}) but instead go with if (exists $hash{'key'}) which is guaranteed not to create it as a side effect of testing for it. Anyway, during the conversation I mentioned that I was feeling a little wooden-headed. When the chat was over, the AI told me to go and drink some coffee!

anyway, it's after midnight and the alarm is set for 4:30 tomorrow morning, so I had better go find a puppy... Oh. He just walked in with something in his mouth. I hope it isn't a used diaper. Dotty did that once...

Edited June 30, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

[Spunkygal]

I’ve never heard of a grass skirt but it sounds tasty! 

Not to get too personal, but has Dr K said anything else about some testing? Weren’t they supposed to fit you in for a CT scan or MRI or something? Is it the out of pocket cost that is the issue?