Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Notabug]

12 hours ago, Netfoot said:

 

By the way, some time this afternoon, the blood-blister disappeared, leaving only a little bit of raised white skin in my mouth where it had been. You can see it in the photo if you zoom/look close. It's just like what happened with the last one!

 

Netfoot, sorry I don't remember, but, if are you taking any blood thinners like Xarelto, or Plavix, or Coumadin; it could be that you inadvertently bit the inside of your cheek at some point which happens a lot.  People who are on thinners will often get little blood blisters from this, and, like yours, they drain and go away.  

You don't need to do anything about them as long as they stay small and eventually resolve.

[Netfoot]

4 minutes ago, Notabug said:

I don't remember, but, if are you taking any blood thinners like Xarelto, or Plavix, or Coumadin

I am on Warfarin which is a blood thinner. (If Joe Rogan took it, they would describe it as "Rat Poison" and tint his photo green.)

Yes, it could be this, but I bite myself inside my mouth fairly frequently. Sometimes 2-3 times in one day, because once you bite your cheek it swells a little which only increases the chance that you bite the exact spot again! But this is only the second time I've ever seen this happen.

I do get occasional issues with the Warfarin, like a huge black and blue when I bump into something or excessive bleeding if I get cut. I got a small cut one evening. I bandaged it but the next morning it was still bleeding. I stopped the Warfarin for a couple days to let healing start and then resumed it. Later, Dr. Kristi said I'd done the right thing.

I'm not overly concerned about the blood blisters in the mouth, which is why I have not taken it to Dr. Kristi either time. 

[Netfoot]

Finished all the cutting, drilling and sanding of the parts needed to make the items ordered. Had only screwed together 12 of the complete units

before the battery on the drill/driver went dead. On charge but doubt it will be charged in time to finish the pieces (30+) in daylight. 

The guy said he wanted them today, "...or at least some of them." So he can get 12 now and the rest tomorrow early. It only takes a minute to finish each one so if I get rolling I should be done in 20-30 minutes.

I am shattered. 60+ pieces to cut, 30+ pieces to drill, 60 pieces to sand, a jig to build and 30+30 pieces to screw together in the jig.

I think there are only 2-3 acetylcholine molecules left in my entire body! I'd do Garden Patrol now And go straight to bed, except it isn't dark yet!

And I stupidly used all the ice in the freezer (thirsty!) without refilling the ice trays. So now, there is no ice in the house. 😕

Edited October 1 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

OK, another 8 done so only 10 more to do tomorrow. Will charge all batteries overnight and I doubt it will take 15 minutes to do the remainder in the morning. Maybe a bit longer if I have to run them past the sander again, which is needed for maybe 1 in 6? 1 in 8?

I've been working all day with cramps rippling through my right hand. Been getting cramps in my left hand these last few days, but today, naturally, it is the right.

And my head is splitting. Not one for headaches very often but occasionally. And this one is a peach. I usually ride it out but I will swallow two Panadol in a moment. With warm water.

Missed my Lunchtime Meds and took them at four. So I can't go to bed early because Dinnertime Meds are now due at midnight! Unless I set the alarm and go to sleep early, wake up at midnight to take them, then go back to sleep...

Oh, and I seem to have developed a cold...

[ChiCricket]

 If anyone is interested in the new show THE SUMMIT, which has beautiful scenery and a race up a mountain for a million dollars, here is the new forum for it:

https://forums.primetimer.com/forum/8925-the-summit/#

Only the first episode has aired so far, and it's something to watch while we wait for the new season of TAR.

 

[Netfoot]

I'm listening to Deacon Blues by Steely Dan. I am of the opinion that Aja is their best album. Out of a catalogue of great albums.

I had my shower as soon as I finished the woodwork for the day, then ate the last of the soup for dinner. Actually, Mo got the last of the soup after he got the last of the chow. So godnozewot we will eat tomorrow! (Actually, Mo will be good; I have two things I can feed him. Not so myself, unless I cook more soup. Back to showering. Had one already but it's 8:30 PM and the temperature in this room with the fan blowing and the window open is 31.4°C or 88.6°F di a shower would be cooling. But I just don't have the energy to drag myself out of bed. I could have one when I go to lock up but I suspect I will leave the door open all night and give Mo a chance to come and go when ever he likes, literally all day night long.

I have counted several times and there are 22 completed units out there and parts to make another 10 so barring some crazy accident, I should end up with 32. Only 30 were requested, but he usually takes the excess if I exceed his quantity. I just wish I knew how much he was planning to pay for them! They were more complicated to build than the usual bits so I hope I get more than I get for them. He's paid me over $20 each for far simpler "sofa feet" in the past. And he wanted these done ASAP, as well! Anyway, what ever I get is better than nothing.

I have ten more to finish, first thing in the morning. I stick the two pieces in the jig I made, one in top of the other. The jig holds them in proper alignment to each other. I drill through the three holes pre-drilled in the upper piece and down into the lower, ensuring that the holes in the two pieces line up. Then I drive three screws down through the top piece and into the second, fixing the two pieces together. Done. Next!

If it were me, I'd add glue between the two pieces but I asked and he said "Don't bother with that." 

Batteries are on charge, the last parts are waiting by the jig, and as soon as I finish them, I will WhatsApp him and let him know they are all ready and waiting. I'd have done them this evening but the light got too bad as time advanced. I only have one 2' fluorescent tube in my garage, and that isn't enough light to do good work with. You try it and tomorrow you get to fix all the things you did wrong the night before because you couldn't see properly. Mo was sleeping in the passage when we went out on Garden Patrol but he has not returned to the house. He may be lying on the concrete in front of the van, or up in the verandah, on the tiles. Can't blame him; it's much cooler outside tonight. 

Anyway, I am going to post this now, and I won't read but I will play a time-wasting game of some sort on my phone. The first time I nod off and drop it, I will kill the lights and let the alarm wake me at 11:55 to take my Midnight Meds.

[Netfoot]

Yesterday, I broke a drill bit. I located my spares, dug them out and replaced the broken one, packing away the rest of the spares again.

As I was working to complete additional units, the drill fell over and the new drill bit bent.  I realized immediately that I would not be able to dig out the spares again and replace the bent bit before the light was completely gone, so I halted at that point with 22 units complete.

Naturally, being desperately tired, I couldn't get to sleep.  The last time I checked the time was 5:05 AM. I opened the door for Mo and the next thing I knew, was when a wet-footed puppy ran over my face at 7:29 AM. 

I dragged myself out of bed, fetched the spare drill bits, replaced the bent one and put away the spares again. Then, I went out and put together the last 10 units, bringing the total to 32. I WhatsApped my guy at 7:50 AM. So 21 minutes including changing the drill bit and putting freshly a charged battery in the drill.

The final assembly was never the hard part, especially after I took time to build the alignment jig. (I am a firm believer in using jigs if multiple items are to be made to the same pattern. They allow you to speed through the process of completing the operation on many pieces. However, the jigs take time to build and if they use adhesives, the glue needs additional time to dry before the jigs can be used.) What took the time was cutting out all the pieces, drilling the holes needed for the screws, and sanding all the pieces. To remove any saw marks, sharp corners or surface blemishes.

I would normally have wanted more time to do all this. Plan all the cuts to maximize number of parts from the lumber on hand, figure out what jigs would be needed and then build them, and then do all the work to complete the pieces carefully. 

For instance, if I have 30+ items to cut out of a board I will set up a stop-block on the saw by measurement, and cut a piece of scrap. Measuring the scrap and confirming the length wad correct, I would then proceed to cut out the individual pieces in rapid fashion, but I would stop every 5-6 pieces and measure the latest one. Had the stop-block moved? No? Good. Cut another half-dozen and measure again. But because I was asked to rush the job, I just measured the first one and once it was found to be OK, I cut all the rest without additional checks. 

OK, my guy told me he would collect in the morning as soon as possible. And I advised him I was ready for him at 7:50 AM. It is now 10:05 AM and no sign of him. His place of business is only 5-10 minutes from me, depending on traffic. So these really weren't needed all that urgently, were they?

Edited October 2 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

$150 for all 32. That's $4.69 per unit. And a vague promise to try and get some more money for me. 

This is the least I've ever got from him, for the most difficult pieces I've made for him. And a rush order too. The simplest pieces I've done, of the "cut me squares and sand them!" were $5 each.   I've received over $20 per piece for much simpler pieces in the past. I was hoping for minimum of $15-$20 each for these. Or even $25.

I have a big bill coming due next month for $520. If I don't pay that, I permanently  lose some digital property I've owned for 29 years. Once gone, I will never be able to get it back again because it will be snapped up by someone else. I'd hoped to get a good bit of that money from this job. Instead I have enough for one careful trip to the supermarket to buy a small amount of groceries.

We are out of chow for Mo. Very little milk and sugar and only a few teabags left. Potatoes very low. No meat scraps or meat of any kind. Only half a tin of corned beef, two tins of diced potatoes and and one watery tin of lentils. We're low on pretty much everything. A couple leaves of pak choy, one cucumber and no carrots, No pasta. Onions low. Stock cubes low. Garlic powder out. Salt low. No eggs. No bread/biscuits. No cheese. We're out of rice! (The last of the rice is on the stove now, for Mo's lunch & dinner.)

I am disappointed. 

I'm sure he will eventually "get some more for me". But I'd have been a lot happier if he'd given me $300 and promised to get me some more. Because I doubt the "more" is going to exceed the initial $150, and probably be less.

And he complemented my work, saying that the other people making components for him only slap them together whereas my work is always carefully done and much better.

[Netfoot]

Terribly disappointed not to make even a quarter of what I thought I might. I made these a while back:

A simple triangle with no pilot holes for screws or anything. Got between $22 and $23 each. I thought that was actually quite a lot for what they were but I think these most recent ones were complex enough to warrant something around there. And he tells me he wants me to make more triangles. At what price? A buck each?

Spent $95 of the money at Popular supermarket for potatoes, onions, rice, pasta, sugar, tea, salt, garlic powder, diced tomatoes, minced beef, a pack of sausages, a couple tins of tuna for a change of pace (Triple J, so I'm taking a risk!) and a bag of chips. No, not french fries. We use "chips" for fries and crisps and determine which is which by context. I had the chips for lunch - Mo had turkey & rice.

Also spent $58 from the bank at another supermarket to get 4 Kg grub for Mo, couple 250 ml evap. and some corned beef.

Made rice with pak choy for my dinner. Corned beef and onion with a little ketchup on the side. Better than nothing but not much good for all that. When Mo refuses to take his tax.....

Tired. Tried to get a nap this afternoon but only got about 39 minutes. Well, I suppose that is in fact a nap. (How does autocorrect turn "fact" into "gravy"?) But I'm still tired as hell, having got only 2½ hours sleep last night after the exhausting day I had yesterday. I just hope I will be able to get some sleep tonight.

It's been rainy all day, including some severe thunder & lightning mid-afternoon. Mo is not usually phased by thunder. Old Dotty used to run back and forth from one end of the house to the other. Whatever it was, If it wanted him it was going to have to catch him. Buddy was fairly cool. Maxi (one of my mum's dachshunds) used rush into the bathroom, crawl behind the stool in the knee-hole under the dressing table, and quake & shake. Mo mostly ignores it. But today, he came and lay down by my feet. Then on my feet. And eventually to comfort him, I took him to bed where he insisted on cuddles and hugs until the storm passed. 

I finished part/book one of my book. It's really two books in one cover. Apparently the author has a number of novels - maybe a couple of dozen - and these are sometimes published like this, two-up so to speak. Both these books feature the same officer in the British Navy during the age of sail, but at different times in his career. The first was set in 1802 and the second in 1813. I would normally embark on book/part two tonight but I don't know how long I would last, given how tired I am. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking and I will be wide awake until dawn tomorrow?

While My Guitar Gently Weeps by the Fab Four. This is one from the latter part of their career, with a little more sophistication in the music & lyrics. And a weepy, waily guitar!

Today is Wednesday so two days and I can cash that welfare cheque. I will pay a month of the water bill with it and put the remainder in the bank. The cheque after that can pay telephone. 

Not sure where Mo is. Will try and spy him out when I go for a shower in a minute. He is prolly lying in the passage. Don't actually want to take a shower on a damp night like tonight but really feel like I should. Would have made sense to take one this evening before night set in. 

Gotta do the pharmacy thing early next week. Didn't I just spend five hours waiting on drugs at QEH and Edgar Cochrane? I have to get a prescription from Dr. K. for half the stuff so I had better go see her Monday.

OK, so I will go for a shower now, check on the whereabouts of Mo-baby and maybe even lock up the house. 

[Netfoot]

By the way, did I show you my latest soup? All gone now... Maybe I should make more!

[Netfoot]

Just watched S01E01 of the US version of The Summit, drawn to my attention by another post upstream. I thought I'd give you my thoughts on what I saw.

First, this show is not TAR. But it was not a bad watch, so I will try and catch E02 when it becomes available. Let me describe what the show is about:

Sixteen people are brought to the start-line in  New Zealand and told that they will be racing to the top of a nearby mountain. (These people are not mountaineers!)  The prize is $1,000,000 which is divided into lots of $62,500 and distributed among the contestants - they carry the cash with them to the finish. They must race as a group, so the strong can't simply race ahead - if one person is slow, the others must wait. It makes sense from a group perspective for the strong to help the weak, even if that means stuffing them in a backpack and carrying them up the mountain!

They have 14 days to reach the summit, and checkpoints/campsites are waiting for them along the way. Shelter in the form of substantial tents, fire and plenty of food & drink will be provided at the checkpoints. If they are delayed and unable to make it to the checkpoint, they must make their own "bivy camp" and eat what food they carry on their person. Also, the following day becomes harder because before they start the next day's challenges, they have to finish the route they failed to complete the day before.

If anyone drops out or is eliminated along the way, their $62,500 leaves the game with them! Those who attain the summit before the 14-day deadline will pool the money they carry then and divide it equally between themselves. Now, if everyone carries the same amount ($62,500) and those that finish in time pool the money and divide it evenly, then they all get to take home... $62,500 exactly! But if someone is eliminated... they go and their cash stays and is then evenly divided between the remaining climbers.

So how do they get eliminated? Tribal Council, baby! Right after a good meal at the checkpoint. So there is a vote where climbers throw someone under the bus. Then they divide that person's cash evenly between the remaining climbers. So after checkpoint #1, there will be only 15 climbers, each carrying $66,666.66⅔ onward to the next checkpoint. This is additional incentive to make the checkpoint each night, because you then get to eliminate someone and split their cash, thereby enriching yourself. This doesn't happen at bivy camps.

Presumably at TC they boot off someone who is a sluggard and delaying the group, potentially preventing the remainder from reaching the summit in time. But there is also the possibility the bootee might just be an insufferable asshole, and I have already identified one person who could potentially fall into this category.

Now, remember what I said: this show is not TAR. But there is plenty of great scenery showcasing the stunning NZ countryside and mountain scenery. The contestants for the most part seem like decent folks and the show was an easy and enjoyable watch. No Detours or Roadblocks but the terrain provides significant challenges and obstacles which take some overcoming. As an AD&D Dungeon Master told me many years ago: "The Mountain is the monster!"

And don't forget, they are not (or shouldn't be) trying to beat each other. They must travel as a group so they can reach the next checkpoint - and eventually the summit - together.

If you think you might enjoy this, give S01E01 a watch. And post your thoughts in the appropriate forum.

Edited October 4 by Netfoot

[Browncoat]

I hate shows where someone is voted off.  

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I hate shows where someone is voted off.  

Yep. Survivor sucks. That's why TAR is the only Must-Watch "reality" show for me. But unfortunately, many reality shows follow that lead.

[Netfoot]

Spaghetti with tuna & onion for lunch. Used Triple J light chunk tuna in water. Simple, but tasted pretty good. I used to use the Triple J corned beef but the quality went to hell. You know when you open actin of bully, a rectangular block of beef & suet should come out all in one piece. The Triple J bully deteriorated to the point where what came out of the can was a sludge that was not at all appetizing. I suppose you might have used it in soup or something but it was so unappealing I decided to switch back to Cuisine brand which costs more, but actually looks like corned beef and not something that dribbled out of a diaper. Skipped dinner. 

Mo was well fed today. He thinks he tricked me into giving him three meals instead of the usual two. But as Fiona Apple said, "I was on to every play!"

Welfare cheque in the morning. $120 + $55 in my pocket + $4.05 in the bank or $179.05 to my name. I want to send $80 towards the BWA and I want to put $20 in the van. That will leave $79.05 to spend. 

Should I go and try to buy $25 worth of meat scraps? I got an email today reminding me that US$239.88 is due on 23rd of  November. $480 dollarettes. Eight weeks and two days to find it. And all the other bills to pay as usual in the mean time.

Watched that show The Summit US today but I gave you my opinion on that already. Sufficient to say enjoyed it enough that I will continue to watch, unless later episodes prove less entertaining, in which case I will stop. Also watched Die Hard With A Vengeance with Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons. I like all three of these guys and the Die Hard series is legendary, after all.

Huge discussion on the club WhatsApp group about the legality of wearing camo in Barbados (it isn't). Also, the danger of lithium-chemistry power batteries from an electric powered model self-igniting in the boot of your car on the way home or in your house in the middle of the night, after even a mild crash. It got pretty heated! My van got insulted for it's colour and so did Raf's custom 4WD jeep called "Gooey Bluey" (by everybody except Raf) for getting completely stuck and needing a tow-out if it only sees mud in the distance!

Listening to Diary by Bread. A goldie of an oldie. But (as discussed before) I don't understand how he could have misunderstood what he read in the diary so badly and not caught his error until after the wedding. And I definitely don't understand how she could have agreed to a wedding when her affections were obviously directed elsewhere and that he must have been acting upon that misunderstanding.

Got 4-5 hours sleep last night which I definitely needed so I'm not as terribly tired ad I was. But another good night wouldn't hurt. Besides, If I'm not asleep soon, I will find myself boiling more pasta and scrunting around in the kitchen to find something to make a sauce. 

So with that, I shall shower, invite Mo to join me inside the house, shut the door and sleep.

(Part of the heated WhatsApp discussion mentioned earlier included Raf accusing me of only keeping Mo around to fatten him up for the pot!)

[Netfoot]

Lunch!

Onion, minced beef, sweet potato, cabbage, carrots, pak choy, English potatoes, pumpkin... and breadfruit!

Obliqued the carrots because I saw it in a YT cooking video yesterday. Look good and taste fine but a little more difficult to cut than regular mandolin slices.

Tasted good!

Will add some diced tomato and a tin of watery lentils this evening. Maybe also dome cucumber.

I have more onions, potatoes, some sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, pak choy, breadfruit and carrots, so I can stretch the soup by adding more veggies & ground provisions as needed. 

I have no more meat. Except some hotdog sausages, but I would rather not use them for soup. I tried to buy meat scraps but they had none, so I spent the money on veggies for the soup.

• $20 - gasoline 
• $35 - veggies
• $80 - B'dos Water Authority

In the bank I have $47.93 and another $2-ish in my pocket.

But I have a pot of soup and a fair amount of food for Mo. And who knows? Maybe some more work to come...

[andidante]

3 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Lunch!

 

That looks so good! And I am not a soup person.

[Netfoot]

50 minutes ago, andidante said:

That looks so good! And I am not a soup person.

It is tasty! 

A Sancoche or "long soup" is a Caribbean favourite. There is no particular recipe - you just add in what you have. My mum used to say that Sancoche meant "without soap" in some other language because that's the only thing you weren't supposed to throw in. But she was just joking as far as I know. No language I can think of that has anything like "Sancoche" to mean "without soap".

if you prefer, you can cook the vegetables separately and place them in a serving dish together. They are then called simply "Stew Food" because you cook your meats separately as a stew, which is ladled over the vegetables.

If you are in TnT and the soup is made with fish instead meat, and particularly if the fish eyes are floating so the bowl of soup looks up at you while you eat, it is a "fish braff". It tastes great but the eyes looking up at you are a little disconcerting...

I am not a big soup person either, but if your Sancoche contains sufficient quantity & variety of veggies, it is easy to think of it as a tasty vegetable stew instead of a soup.

Speaking of which, I'm hungry again.....

[Netfoot]

Added diced tomatoes and half a tin of lentils to the soup and boiled a bit more. It was the whole tin of lentils but there was only a half-tin of peas in there, swimming in a lot of water. The breadfruit is a nice inclusion. I only bought a small one (three bucks and change) and put half of it in. Breadfruit floats to the top so you tend to get that in plenty when you dip your ladle. 

Mo has joined me and is bathing my left arm. I had planned to bathe it later along with the rest of me.... And now:

Oh, wait! Seems a tummy needs tickling...

He enjoys chow with a spoonful of soup over it. He had that for lunch and again for dinner 

Not done much today. After returning from gas station, post office, supermarket and bank I just watched YT videos and another episode of Wednesday. I do think they are overdoing the "I am strange!" Exposition. Shut up about it and show me some strange! Because so far all I see is a smart-mouthed teen in an ugly dress, talking big.

Still doing small tweeks to my medical suite. Almost 100% reliant on it now, but running it in parallel to the old, bloated code. Thought I'd found a bug today, because it said I would  run out of Spirolon in 5 days but I discovered I had 15 tabs left. Quite a lot of debugging later I went back to the course data. Not sure how but when I entered the new supply a couple weeks ago I put in 24 instead of 34 so of course, the software was predicting I'd run out 10 days earlier than actual. 

Not sure how to guard against this. I do know the usual number dispensed (so, 30 per month in the case of Spirolon). Entering a total of 24 should have triggered a warning of some sort but the way the system works (and has from the start) is that I don't enter what I just bought. I enter the total amount on hand, which is the remaining quantity from last month plus what I just bought. Which is why I should have entered 34. Four remaining from last month and thirty new ones. and the "date counted" of whatever date it was I went to QEH/Edgar Cochrane. I corrected the error by resetting the "date counted" to today and the "quantity on hand" to 15. Which is less than the monthly issue of 30, but isn't an error deserving of a warning.

I will leave it as it is for now, but I think I will have to devise a new way of enumerating new supplies of medication as I acquire them. 

See, I don't track "purchases" of meds. I track a number of meds and the date on which that number was checked, updated or counted.

I'm pretty good on taking my meds but from time to time I screw up and fail to take something. Or Dr. Kristi will Instruct me to alter the dosage for a couple days (mostly this happens with warfarin). Or I drop something in the floor and never see it again. (I'm pretty fanatical about finding it to prevent someone else from finding it). So I can't simply add 30 each time I buy 30 because the computer balance from last month might be 4 but the actual quantity on hand might be 2 or maybe 6! So I verify (by counting) QTYOH each month and then manually add dispensed quantity as written in the bottle by the pharmacist. 

Anyway, the upshot is that whereas I thought I had to get meds next week (and even mentioned how fast the need had arisen again), I don't actually run out of meds until two Fridays from today, as opposed to next Wednesday as previously thought. 

Listening to Radiohead's Airbag. This is from OK Computer, their best album in my opinion. They have several great albums, Pablo Honey for example. But you'd have a hard time finding one bad note on the whole of this entire album. 

Got a good night's sleep last night. Was awoken this morning by a puppy rubbing himself all over me. Burrowing under my legs. Into my armpits. Behind my head. I reached out to see how wet he was but he was completely dry! So I tickled and cuddled and the rolling and tumbling and burrowing continued for five minutes or so. Then I opened my eyes. 

Somehow, he had gotten a pair of my shorts wrapped around his head like a turban with a loop under his chin like a retaining strap. It was the funniest thing I've seen in ages! And he wasn't the least bit distressed by it. He didn't particularly want it removed. He was just wearing it perfectly happily and playing with me at 5:47 AM for no reason other than that that's what puppies do!

After howling with laughter for awhile I removed it from his head. We continued playing snuggly games for another 4-5 minutes before something made him pause to look out the window... and then he was gone, like a rocket-propelled bat out of hell.

How did he get himself to the point where he was wearing a turban? I dunno. But pilfering from the dirty- and clean-laundry baskets is not entirely unheard of, for Mo. He is a well known klepto and every day I have to recover shoes, tools, model aeroplane wheels, propellers... Quite often socks which is a surprise because I so rarely wear them.

Anyway, he is lying on the tiles next to the bed now, so I will go and shower, lock up and read for a while.

[Netfoot]

G' morning, guys!

[Netfoot]

Left Mo in the bed when I went for my shower. When I returned, he was gone and so was most of the iced water in my glass. Adding that to the list, so far today he has stolen a shoe, a sock, a pill-bottle and the water. I have plenty of pill bottles. I've been collecting them for years. So I don't mind about that. The glass contained more water than I needed especially to cater for my purloining puppy. So all is well. I can hear him barking at godnozewot out by the gate... No! Here he is now! He has chosen to take his repose on the tiles. He may come up and give a few cuddles later. 

I was nasty. Covered in sawdust & sweat, so I really needed the shower. Some lumber arrived here at 11:00 this morning and I was asked to build some more "feet". Sixteen triangular units, plus an additional two square ones. They have to be 3½" thick, and no 3½" lumber could be found. So two separate triangles have to be cut, one at 2½" and one at 1" thick, and these two pieces have to be glued and screwed together. Then mounting holes must be drilled and counter-bored. And finally, the fun part: sanding. Since it is impossible to get the thick and thin pieces perfectly to size, this makes the sanding more difficult because you first have to sand until the inevitable ridge between the pieces is brought flush, and only then can the unit can be sanded smooth! Sixteen triangular units were required, I was told. If I was able to get more out of the lumber, I would be paid for each of them, but a minimum of 16 were required. I have cut 27 thick and 27 thin triangles, but

as you can see, two of the thin triangles have pretty nasty knots in them. (The two special square units are seen at the front. Ignore the scraps on the right.) I think I can put the worst if the knots facing in towards the glue joint but I will show him the result and he can decide if to take all 27 or only 25. Unfortunately, he requires the first 16 and the two square ones on Monday. Presumably early enough to use them on Monday. This means another rush-job so I can complete the first 16 by tomorrow evening.

Now, to get these two-piece units assembled, I glue and clamp a thick and a thin board together. Once the two pieces are joined with glue, I can drill pilot holes for two screws to backup the glue and help keep the pieces together. But I only have 12 clamps available that are suitable. A triangle has three corners so I can clamp only four units together at a time. I like to give the units 1-1½ hours in the clamps for the glue to "set up". It will take 24 hours to cure to full strength but I just need them to hold together long enough for me to drill/screw them. 

So, I've been "working" until 9:00 PM to glue up units, four at a time. Done eight, four in the clamps now, since 9:00 PM and four more waiting to be done first thing in the morning. Actually... If I waited 45 minutes I could go out and do the last of the 16 tonight, so they were all glued and well cured by tomorrow morning so I could continue with the next step (drilling and screwing). But I'd have to get out of bed, put on a pair of pants, and when I was done, probably take another shower. It would be convenient to have the 16 all glued and ready to go in the morning, but <groan!>

Watched a movie today called Wolfs (sic). Clooney & Pitt are two "fixers" who find themselves forced to work together. Loners, usually, the circumstances cause the job to take on a high stress dimension. Not a bad flic. I just wish I knew if the title of the show was misspelled deliberately for some esoteric reason, or whether the production team are simply a collection of dullards who never passed their English Lang. O-Level. 

Started another movie but I was not much impressed do by the 10-minute mark I had paused it. Can't even remember it's name!

Battery down to 9% so I will put this on the Qi charger and see if it can pick up a few milliamp hours. 

I will read for a while but I'm tired as hell so I doubt I will last long....

If I get the same $4.69 I got for the last items, then even if he takes all 27 of them, I will earn $126.63 for the lot. But since he prepaid me $150 a couple weeks ago, I'm hoping he pays at least $5.56 so I don't end up owing him money....

Battery: 4%...

Edited October 6 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Seven minutes past midnight. Of course I went out and glued up the remaining four of the sixteen pieces. Now I can start the day tomorrow in a good place. 

I am sweaty but I am not having another shower. I'm not dirty - applying glue and clamping does not kick up any sawdust or grime. 

When I was done, Mo had vanished but I whistled him in and he is now lying beside me, cleaning his feet.

Battery: 45% so I will play a tune! Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan.

Good night, people!

[Netfoot]

Working hard to complete the 16 items needed by tomorrow.

In between, gradually working on the other 11 pieces, but only insofar as I am gluing them together. (That is the step that takes the longest!)

I started by cutting the triangles from the thick and thin boards and ended up with 27 of each.

Because the desired thickness of lumber could not be found, two boards have to be laminated.

These are glued and clamped together, four units at a time because I only have a certain number of clamps available. 

I let the glue set up for 2-2½ hours before unclamping and reusing the clamps on the next four.

[Netfoot]

Because the triangles aren't perfectly cut, when they are glued together, the edges don't perfectly align.  There is a small (most times) ridge left along the glue line.

Zoom in and you can easily see what I mean. This has to be removed by sanding. And I've been sanding all day! I have had to use the blade of a broken propeller to scrape sawdust out of my armpits, and it comes out in the form of a tan paste. I shudder to think what my butt-crack will be like when I shower later...

So, after a lot of sanding, I end up with smooth glue lines:

You can see the glue line and you can see that the two pieces have been sanded flush. This is taking a long time because the sanding load is high and the thermal overload on the sander keeps tripping. This forces me to stop for 15-20 minutes to let the machine cool down again. Happens every 1-2 pieces. But after sanding, the piece is ready for the next step.....

[Netfoot]

The pieces are glued together. And modern wood glues generally produce joints stronger than the wood itself. But in the spirit of belt-and-braces, I drilled and counter-bored two holes into the piece

and drove screws into the  piece.

The screws are short - 1-1¼" only, but that is all that is needed to reinforce the joint between the 1" thick layer and the thicker layer. It doesn't need to penetrate the full thickness of the piece.

[Netfoot]

The screws are now reinforcing the glue joint, but an ugly counterbore remains visible. So, I whipped out my ½" plug-cutter and cut a few plugs...

These are released on the table saw with the gay abandon of popping corn in a skillet with no lid.

(They flew everywhere and at least 10% were lost for ever!) And when hammered into place (no glue, just in case they have to come out again), you can not easily see where the screws were put in.

To tell truth, the plugs are more to protect the screws from moisture than for aesthetic reasons. They are not stainless... This face of each "foot" would be screwed to the underside of the sofa, so a  counterbore wouldn't be visible even if you turned the sofa upside down!

I think they are going to be used on sofas...

One step closer to completion, but it's already eight minutes to five! I think I'd better stop for a mug of tea! (And I'm too knackered to move a muscle right now anyway.)

[Netfoot]

Tea? Not yet!

Three holes are required, through which screws will mount the "feet" will be attached to the sofa. I start with the counter-bores

which I was instructed to place closer to the right-angled corner. 

In an effort to hurry along, I tried just boring directly to the bottom but immediately jammed the bit in the hole. This is a known issue with Forstner bits. And the resulting heat buildup can ruin the carbide. So the remaining 47 holes were "peck-drilled", 20% at a time.

After the counter-bores are drilled, the pilot hole had to be drilled. But I don't have a sufficiently long drill bit of the right diameter! The hardware store didn't have one either, but they had one close... $27!

So I made my own with a piece of stiff wire, grinding a spade tip on the grinder.

And with the holes drilled, these are done. 

Except! For the sanding. The three corners of the triangle have to be rounded and the three edges which will ultimately touch the floor also need to be rounded. Given the size of these pieces and the amount of sanding required, they won't get done fast. And if the sander keeps going into thermal overload, it will take even longer. 

So now I will get that mug of tea, because it looks like I will be sanding for half the night. And I ate the last of the soup for lunch, so there is nothing for dinner.

And now, in the distance, long, loud peals of thunder, so it looks like we gonna get a little stormy weather for a while.

[Netfoot]

OK, so I've sanded one of the triangular feet. Here it is in comparison with another, as yet un-sanded one (underneath):

It didn't take that long to do, but there are 15 more and there is always the issue of thermal overload to contend with, when it kicks in. 

And besides, my back can't take much more right now, and it is full dark in the garage, barring a single 2' florescent tube. Since sanding is done by eye, it is a particularly bad task to be done in poor lighting. So I will contact the guy and explain all this to him and ask when he plans to collect tomorrow. That will give me an idea how early I have to get going in the morning.

So now it's time for a mug of tea....

[Netfoot]

Now, I got up from this chair heading for the kitchen to try and make a meal out of some spaghetti and two hotdog sausages... but found myself sanding triangular "feet". I've now done 8 of the 16. 

My guy says he wants to collect between 9:30 and 10:30 in the morning, providing they are complete. I can get up tomorrow, do my breakfast meds and then get the remaining eight sanded and ready for him. Assuming I can get out of bed in the morning.

In the mean time, the broken propeller says I should consider taking a shower. And I tend to agree. 

[Netfoot]

Showered earlier and scraped myself with that broken prop. Just dragged myself to bed. I'm walking like a drunken Quasimodo. Mo was here a second ago but he peered out the window, stuck his butt in my face, and departed in haste.

Set an extra alarm 30 minutes earlier than my normal wake-up. Not to get out of bed earlier, but to make sure I'm actually semi-consious when the regular alarm goes off.

Listening to Sara Smile by Hall & Oates. I wasn't terribly impressed when this pair were huge in the charts. But that didn't mean I couldn't recognize a great tune when I heard one!

I can hear Mo, outside, barking loudly. And the source of the barking moving rapidly around the yard. So what ever it is, he is running and barking. Earlier, when I came in to grab a towel for my shower, he came with me. He often accompanies me into the bedroom. If I go for a pee, or to get a clean shirt or to recover the glass from last night's iced water, he waits on the bed for a cuddle. Unfortunately, I couldn't hop into bed to give him a cuddle, not for a moment! A photo in my last post will explain why. I was slightly tempted because he looked especially playful, but the grime level on my skin was just too high.

With half the triangular feet completed and a couple of hours in the morning to finish the rest, I will be glad to get these things out of here. 

I was promised cash for all the feet tomorrow, even though I am only delivering 16 tomorrow. The remaining 11 will follow, but I won't be rushing them out. I will take it a little easier with them. Still have no idea how much I will get paid for them. And after the previous job I was told he would try and get some more cash for me. But also, I was pre-paid $150 which I was told was in part for these feet. As a result, I have no idea if I will get any money to speak of. I could really use a bit of cash, to use for various purposes. 

It would be nice if he would say "Make these and I will pay you $X for each one." And it would be nice if he would not give me the job late Saturday morning and want it complete less than 48 hours later. When I'm forced to hurry I can't actually do the job as well as I'd like. Some of these feet have fine cracks in the wood which were in the original boards. Ideally, I'd fill the cracks with wood filler and sand everything back to get it ready for paint. But the filler takes 24 hours to dry so I had no chance to do that here.

Mo is here gain, panting like he ran a marathon and looking out the window... no, he's gone again. He is in the yard barking again....

Tired. Got to get up and start sanding, first thing. Should douse the lights and get some sleep. 

A tiny little lump has appeared on the sole of my left foot. It is about the size of a split pea. (Panting Puppy is back. Looked out the window, retired to the tiles.) The split pea lump is the type you can't see but you can feel if you rub the spot with your finger. Which I don't want to do much, because it is painful to touch. It came out of nowhere 3-4 days ago and had been getting gradually worse since then. There is absolutely nothing to see. I don't recall stepping on anything that might have caused it. I'd I go to Dr. Kristi on the 14th for a prescription, and if it is still there, I may ask her to look at it. 

I have to go to the post office to on the 18th to cash my next welfare cheque. (Mo has departed again. I think most people would be a little wired at his motions.) Unfortunately, my program tells me I have to renew my meds before the 18th. Otherwise, there will be no meds to take on that morning. So I will have to take the car out twice that week. First, to QEH/polyclinic, then to the PO.

OK, fell asleep and dropped the phone! And Mo is back, looking out the window again. So I think it's time I called it a day.

[Netfoot]

6:56 AM and the job is done. I can barely lift this box.

Got up at a quarter past five and drank a mug of tea while I caught the news. Then: Sanding.

Eight pieces remained to be finished so I got stuck right in. The sander bit me twice, once directly on a spot where it had bitten me yesterday. (The sander bites me every single time I use it.)

So, I'm done. I will notify the guy just before eight. Hopefully I will have a few dollars in my hand before lunchtime. I'll let you know what I end up getting. Don't forget, I have a large bill coming up late November, so hopefully there will be at least some cash I can save towards that. There wasn't any the last time I got paid...

I still have 11 more to do, but I have to start back almost at the beginning. Flush-sanding, screwing, plugging, counter boring and drilling the fixing holes, and final sanding rounding & finishing. Maybe more, I can't remember what all has to be done. But I am not rushing to a deadline. No working at 6:00 AM or 11:45 PM. 

Of course, I'm covered in dust again.....

ETA: The price for the job was $380 ($14 each) but after the pre-paid deposit of $150 was deducted, I got $230 ($8.50 each). I am putting that entire amount towards the bill which comes due late in November.

The money came in an envelope with a note from the guy's wife (she is the manager of the business) saying "They are perfect!" which must be in reference to the headboard hangers I made last time.

He says he expects some business on the run up to Christmas; he expects to have 3-4 easy-to-make projects for me soon; he expects I should be able to make $1,500 to $2,000 total; he will get back to me "...in a week or so!"

Edited October 7 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

So, what happened today? Up before six and sanded the remaining sofa feet. Handed them over and collected payment. Sent my laundry off to be done. Received a package of lancets from someone who was overseas. Boiled another pot of soup. Forgot to replace the bed clothes when I stripped the bed for laundry and had to do it when I came to bed. (Mo came in, took one look and high-tailed it out of there! He was back when I returned from my shower, lying on the tiles, where he is still.)

Asked a traveller to bring me a box of 100 lancets. I was down to 15. They brought me 300 lancets! So now, according to my meds program, I have enough for the next 946 days and will need to replenish before Tuesday, 11th May 2027. A date I consider it very unlikely I will see.  Any way, I will test glucose tomorrow, but I will finish the 15 before I embark on the 300.

Otherwise, done little all day. The soup contains onion, corned beef, carrots, diced tomatoes, English potatoes, breadfruit, pumpkin, cucumbers and pak choy, and spices including local pepper sauce, red pepper flakes, cilantro, paprika, celery salt, and dried rosemary. The last may have been a mistake. Not flavour wise, but because little pieces of the rosemary keep turning up on my tongue and they are a little wooden. I have to fish them out with a finger and throw them away.

The soup tastes OK but I think it will improve with age. As I boil it again each day the veggies will soften and this will improve the mouth-feel. I can add more potatoes, carrots, cucumber, pumpkin, diced tomatoes, corned beef and onions, but I'm out of breadfruit.

Speaking of which, I added half of a (small) breadfruit but I had soup for lunch and dinner and in each case I struggled to find breadfruit in my bowl. I hope it's just a statistical thing and soon I will get a bowlful with extra breadfruit to compensate.

Tomorrow I will resume work on the remaining sofa feet. But not at the sort of pace I maintained over the weekend. I want to get them finished before the end of the week but at a more easygoing rate. When I have them ready to go I will advise my friend that he can come and get them as soon as he wants, or wait until he brings me my next job to collect them, if more convenient. (A broader hint would require a bigger font...)

Listening to A New Decade by The Verve. This is off A Northern Soul. My fave album of theirs is Urban Hymns but many people (apparently) consider A Northern Soul to be their best.

Raf asked me if I'd build him an engine test stand and I agreed. He is using a borrowed one and wants me to model the new one after that. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before so I have an idea what he wants, but I can't just build it from memory. I know what I'd want if I built an engine test stand for myself, but he will have his own requirements. I keep telling him to send me a photo and basic dimensions but he says he will bring the stand for me to look at when he is finished using it. 

I will build it out of 6mm birch plywood. But the base & front will be under more strain. Therefore, I want to laminate two layers of ply to give me a 12mm base & front. And I could do the laminating in advance to speed up the process when the actual build begins. But if he wants it a particular length, width and height, I will have to laminate the pieces ½" (say) longer, wider and taller than the final parts so I can cleanly trim the parts to final dimension.

However, Raf being Raf, I can't get through to him. He will have it his way...

Going to read a bit and then try for some shut-eye. 

Edited October 8 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

So, I've been working on the remaining sofa feet, hoping to get them finished tomorrow. Here they are, glued and sanded flush:

That's 10 footses ready to be drilled tomorrow. Two holes for screws to reinforce the glue joint and three holes for mounting to the underside of the sofa itself. (Each hole will be counter-bored for the head of the screw and piloted through for the screw itself.)

You may recall I was talking about 11 pieces remaining. Upon closet closer examination, I have condemned this one:

First, it has a nasty knot on the face of the thin board,   right in the bottom edge. But the big problem is that the thin board was (somehow) cut smaller than the required size. Just look at the two uppermost edges of the thin board in comparison to the thicker board! There is about ¼" ridge that would be left, were I to glue these together! I've just spent over an hour sanding down a ridge that was maybe one fourth as large, and that does not count the time waiting for the thermal overload circuit to reset after tripping - which it did 5-6 times. The 11th piece would be hours and hours of sanding on two ridges, not just one! 

But worst of all, if I were to go ahead and spend an entire day sanding this thing so the glue joints were flush, the final foot would get rejected anyway, because it would be noticeably smaller than the other 25 footses. 

(I fear that if I say 10 feet someone will think I mean 120 inches. Hence the occasional use of footses.)

Anyway, 10 glued and sanded flush. I will mark them for drilling tonight and do the five counter-bores (each) in the morning. I could do them tonight but I am feeling lazy. I think it will go pretty easy and fast, so I'm confident the job will be finished tomorrow.

Edited October 8 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Quiet day, other than the sanding of sofa feet. Ate soup for lunch & dinner; not much left in the pot (less than a full bowl) and it's mostly broth with few chunky veggies. I might add some pak choy to freshen it up a bit...

Listening to All I Need (avec Beth Hirsch) by the French duo Air. This is from their debut album Moon Safari. They get credited with a number of genres but I will call their music "Electronic Pop" and be fine with it.

Mo has just arrived and is licking a bloody cut on my leg. And double-kicking my butt. Here is a picture I took of him earlier:

If he looks a bit sorry for himself it's because I'd just given him a bollicking. I caught him sitting placidly and watching a mouse eat his lunch! And it was the third time in less than 24 hours, too.

Then, as we went out on Garden Patrol, Mo was hesitant to come. I went out to see what he was worried about: a KN95 that I use to prevent my lungs from completely clogging up with sanding dust - taken out to the gate and shredded. He got a minor bollicking for that too. 

Speaking of mice, I had a mouse problem a few months ago and deployed poison and traps but it looks like I have a problem again. Wonder if I still have any poison left? I really hate to use it with a pupper in the house. Got to be 100% certain he can't get at it!

Mo has departed.

I walked past one of my tool boxes and failed to notice a pry-bar sticking out. Nasty scratch across my calf which he detected within seconds and began to lick. Thank goodness dog spit is antiseptic. Right? Right?

He's back again. Oooof! Tummy Trampoline... Now he's looking out the window. Annnd... he's on the tiles.

Been trying all day to contact someone st the insurance company that covers the van. "...currently unavailable!" Literally a dozen times today. Want to find out the difference in premium from fully comp. to 3rd party. She is 18 years old, after all. So reducing to 3rd party isn't such a crazy idea. But I got a nasty feeling that the difference in premium is only $30-$40 for the entire year! If so, why not pay the $40 for the better cover? I just wish I could discuss it with the rep from the insurance company... Guess I will try again tomorrow. 

Mo just jumped up, looked out the window and scarpered. 

Heidi and her entire family are off in the morning. Hope they don't have hurricane issues in Florida and get socked in. They are expecting to come back in 12-ish days. I'm never comfortable when friends or family go traveling "up north." Too many damned crazies. So I will be left without family here for nearly two weeks. Well, my sister is probably still here but she isn't family.

Mo is back on the tiles. He's quite mobile tonight!

Going to go have a shower and then read. Never had my post-Patrol mug of tea but I won't go get one now. 

Edited October 9 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I can't help it - I just love this guy!

[Netfoot]

Quarter to two. All remaining 10 units complete and waiting for pick-up. Took my time so as not to tire myself out.

Had the last of the soup for lunch. As usual, the bottom of the pot always tastes better than the top! I could have added more vittles and made it stretch further but 1) I never seem to want to spend time cooking anything when I'm working my arse off, and 2) I need the soup pot to boil the macaroni I'm dying to have for dinner.

Macaroni & what? Well, all I've got is corned beef, onion, pak choy, and tomato sauce so I suppose it will be some combo of those. Don't really see potatoes, pumpkin and carrots being much use when making a sauce for macaroni. I suppose I could julienne the carrots and make a stir fry instead. Bully beef, onion and carrots with a little pak choy, stir-fried up with the macaroni. Dunno that that appeals so much. 

Anyway, I've been using the broken propeller all day but it's time I went and had a proper shower to get off the caked-on sawdust.

Ewwww!

[Netfoot]

The last of the Mohicans sofa feet have gone. I've been promised that he will be back "before Friday" to arrange something "long term". Now, Before Friday would normally translate to "Tomorrow" but in this case probably means "Some time in the next 2-3 weeks!" And judging by recent conversations, I think "long term" might mean "ongoing."

He has been suggesting a job that would be simple units (such as square, $5 feet for a "pouf", but lots of them, produced in batches). He might request 300 of them, but require only 50 be produced each week. So six weeks of work. This is fine by me, so long as he doesn't want me to make complex and difficult items at the rate of 50 per week and pay <$5.  It took me 3½-4 days to make 26 of these latest items and that was working from early in the morning to late at night. Some of the time, at least.  50 a week and I'd be dead by day nine.

Mo sends his love.....

[Spunkygal]

A friend uses a rat/mice trap that drowns the rodent and no poison is involved. You need a bucket with a snap on lid. She fills a bucket with water. Half of the lid is hinged, creating a “trap door.” Leave a morsel or some bird seed on the hinged part and when he hops up for the snack, he falls into the water and drowns. Safe to use around Mo. She got it at either Home Depot or Lowe’s so maybe your DIY hardware store has one or maybe you could fashion one. 

[Netfoot]

Anyway, I'm in bed, bathed (earlier), and just finished my bedtime mug of tea. Mo was here, alternately peering out the window and washing my feet but now he has retired to the tiles.

Now, I posted earlier about emptying the soup pot so I could make dinner, so you should have no difficulty guessing what I had for my evening meal, right? Correct! Bangers & mash!

Only instead of bangers I had American hotdog sausages and instead of mash I had chips. I have been trying to get to the ideal crispiness of the chips by altering my procedure in some small way each time. Tonight, I cooked the chips in a covered pan and left them a little longer than before. They came out nice and crispy... but a little on the dark side. I think a few minutes (maybe only one!) less in the oil and they would have been closer to ideal. But it's hard to judge the state of the chips with a cover over the pan. So I had a peep and they were slightly less than ready. Then 2-3 minutes later they had obviously been in a hair too long. It doesn't help that you really need to take them out a little early because they continue to cook after they come out of the oil. 

(Mo has gone out.)

I slipped the sausages into the oil as the chips were coming out and in the time it took to drain and add salt and garlic powder to the chips, the sausages were done. I think the sausages don't actually need cooking as they are already cooked in the factory, but they improve by being heated up and having a nice bit of colour added to the outside. The chip oil, deeper than what I'd usually deploy for the sausages, did the job perfectly, cooking them on all sides simultaneously without my having to roll them from one flat side to another. (They come out of the package sort of square from being tightly packed. Cooked in the chip oil, they inflated themselves back to round.)

Finally caught someone at the insurance company. $1,233.90 for a year of 3rd party cover. They didn't like the idea of comprehensive cover as an option. Honestly, I dunno why I'm even thinking about it. There is very little chance I will find $1,233.90 to pay the insurance without facing some other much more critical bill to pay instead. And there is no way I will pass a "roadworthy" without at least four new tires. If I knew someone else who drove a TownAce I might try borrowing their tires long enough to get the roadworthy done, but that would still leave me with a highly unreliable set of rubber on the road. I think I could probably get some really cheap tires for ~$100 each. You know the type - like the Japanese cross-ply tires that used to come on the early Datsuns and Toyotas. The ones that would cause your butt to pucker the upholstery on the car seat if you got caught driving when the rain came down? But I used to drive an old banger that I used to have to pull aside and park when the rain came, so.....

I'd need $500 up front and $103/month to get that organized. I might in a real pinch scrape up the $500 over time but my fixed monthly costs already exceed my fixed monthly income by over 50% and that does not include groceries for Mo or myself. To add another $100+ to my fixed expenses right now would be difficult without also boosting my fixed income.

(Mo is back again, on the tiles.)

I know electricity & water are not fixed in any true sense because they are different each month but I know they are coming and I know roughly what they are likely to be. Also, the income from the woodworking jobs is a blessing but it is definitely not fixed. If the guy gets orders for sofas, chairs, poufs or whatever I might get some work. But it is not guaranteed. I might get a nice bit of change one week but hear nothing more from him for 6-8 weeks thereafter.

I'm tired thinking about this. Let me switch on the music player: I Dream Of Wires by Robert Palmer. This is a cover of the original by Gary Numan. I have the track from Numan's second (I think) album Telekon as well. This has somewhat unusual lyrics about a dystopian future in which the hero of the story, a man formerly called 'The Sparkle', finds himself as literally the last electrician alive. 

Ok, I will put a stop to this now and go to sleep with visions of macaroni dancing in my head. 

BTW, Heidi & her husband left this morning on an early flight and safely made it through Florida airspace and on to final destination safe and sound. Her girls who were to catch a later flight were unable to do so and are (last I heard) still stuck here, trying to find a way. 

My birthday is in the middle of next month. There was a time when I used to treat myself to a pizza from Chefette every year on my birthday. I have not done so for several years, of course. It's $45 for a pizza there now. That would buy an entire cylinder of gas for the stove. 

But I do have a funny story about my birthday pizza. This would be about 11 years ago. I bought my pizza and took it home, but decided to save it for dinner instead of eating it for lunch. Didn't want to put it in the fridge to get clammy, so I left the box on the kitchen counter. From room temperature it wouldn't take long in the nuke-box to get it up to eating temperature... While I was distracted elsewhere, a little fellow named Budweiser, who was only about as big as my left foot at the time, entered the kitchen. He jumped onto a cardboard box that was sitting on the floor waiting to be unpacked. From there he jumped to the top of the trash bin, and from there he used a drawer that had been left pulled out a little as a stepping stone. And made it onto the counter. From there he walked over the stove (fortunately not hot)  to the other counter and knocked the pizza box and contents onto the kitchen floor. Returning to the floor, he took two bites out of every slice, and mashed the rest of each slice into the floor.

Ok, with that memory to warm my heart, I will go to sleep. 

Edited October 10 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

55 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

A friend uses a rat/mice trap that drowns the rodent and no poison is involved. You need a bucket with a snap on lid. She fills a bucket with water. Half of the lid is hinged, creating a “trap door.” Leave a morsel or some bird seed on the hinged part and when he hops up for the snack, he falls into the water and drowns. Safe to use around Mo. She got it at either Home Depot or Lowe’s so maybe your DIY hardware store has one or maybe you could fashion one. 

I've made similar traps in the past. I will look around and see if I can find a suitable bucket. If so, I will try to devise something that might help reduce the numbers. 

[Netfoot]

In bed, but the door is still open and I've not yet had a shower. Mo is lying on the tiles beside the bed. I'd have stood on him in the dark if I weren't accustomed to avoiding him in the dark. 

Listening to Suzanne Vega sing Luka. Prolly her most popular track.

Dunno why I'm so tired today. Did little to tire myself, but these days, tiredness and weakness is governed by biochemistry. And yesterday, I was late with my meds and had to switch to a makeshift schedule to get all 12 tablets taken. (I remember when it was 31 per day. Or was it 36?)

I had sausages & potato for dinner yesterday and macaroni & bully for lunch today so I couldn't think what to have for lunch. I had a couple hotdog sausages but no eggs, bread or cheese. I had oatmeal but not enough milk to go with it. (Probably only enough for a mug of tea in the morning. Will have to go get some more.) 

And then I thought: Rice! So I had sausage & rice with carrot& pak choy. Didn't taste bad but I made a little too much so I gave Mo the bowl with a generous tax in it.

Watched a show with the Three Stooges (Clarkson, Hammond & May) and some YT videos.

The election draws nigh and the bullshit piles high. I know there is no honesty or integrity anywhere in politics in the US (or anywhere else). And there hadn't been any for years. But I am still surprised at how smugly the bald faced lies get told, when it's clear that they are lying, we know that they are lying and they know that we know that they're lying. Yet they continue to lie with a smile on their face because they have no shame. And they get away with it because half the country is perfectly OK with the perfidious dishonesty because it furthers their warped, personal agenda. 

Unfortunately for small countries like mine that are located close to the huge, social & economic vortex that is the USA, when your country gets screwed by dishonest, self-serving political opportunists, my country gets screwed as well.

Going for my shower. Will lock up and maybe read. Although last time I thought I'd read I didn't get a single page read before I gave up and crashed...

[Netfoot]

Just awoke. Discovered the delightful transformation Mo had performed on the fresh bedsheets I put on the bed on Monday:

I think I will sell him. Anyone want a puppy? Cheap?

[Netfoot]

Glad you think it's funny!  😠

When will you come by and pick him up? He can do the same to your sheets, tonight!

[Netfoot]

Re: Mud-foot puppy. Where is the mud coming from?

Water pressure has been very low since last night. So low, I couldn't even take my pre-bedtime shower. And this morning, only a trickle in the pipe to make my tea.

Went out to make a deposit at the bank and buy some milk for the weekend, but discovered the yard awash with water and mud, and a steady stream of water flowing over the grass, out under the gate and away down the gutter in the street. Upon further examination, I discovered a burst (or, if you prefer, leaking) water main right by my house!

I'd link to a 3 second video, but Google won't process it and make it available.

Went on to the bank, to discover I'd left the deposit envelope with the money, at home. Also discovered that the mall wi-fi was down.

Bought two small evap., topped up my phone $10 and came home feeling stupid. Called the BWA and reported the leak. Two previous reports already made. Nothing more I can do now but wait for it to be fixed.

There is a lot of water coming up, but it isn't spouting 20 feet in the air, so they will probably get to it late next week...

ETA: Let's try this link...

Edited October 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

The BWA are on hand fixing the leak. 

I discovered this when I went to boil potatoes for lunch. 

Unfortunately, the water to my house is cut off as a result of the pipes being worked on. Dunno when water will return, but when it does, it will be brown with dirt, cloudy with fine air bubbles and spitty with large air pockets. I will have to run the taps at full bore for 5 minutes or so, just to get them flowing properly again. Until then, no food. Or tea. Or iced water.

But at least they are working on it now, and not in a week.

ETA: I now have three earth-moving machines and eight workers (or maybe one worker and seven supervisors), fixing the pipe outside my wall. But no water yet.

Edited October 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

The men and machines are finally gone. The water is flowing again.

Yeech!

😆 Don't worry. It will run clear in 5-10 minutes. Then I can consider something (godnozewot) to eat, a mug of tea after Garden Patrol and a shower before sleeping.

Edited October 12 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

For lunch I had a simple meal of potatoes, carrots, onions, pak choy and bully beef, boiled in Perrier. Or the world's cheapest alternative to Perrier that I have had lying around the house for over two years. It was passable, but hardly exciting. Dinner... No dinner.

The yard has dried out remarkably quickly since the leaky main was fixed. No doubt the soil is waterlogged but you wouldn't know it after a casual inspection. Except where someone has completely dug away a patch of grass to expose pure mud for application to bedclothes. Fortunately I have access to 50 gallons of sawdust so I dumped 2-3 gallons over that patch and stomped it in. It might inhibit a certain person from getting overly muddy paws. But it probably won't.

My stupid neighbor has tethered the largest and most aggressive looking of his dogs right outside my wall. She climbs on something and puts her front paws on top of the wall, peering over in a very frightening way.

She is actually a bit if a sweetheart but Mo obviously feels somewhat intimidated by a dog 4 times his size leaning over the wall and staring at him. He has been out there barking every 5 seconds, all evening long. And acting pretty aggressively himself, too! I eventually had to go out and show him a LART while I told him to shut up and behave! Good thing about LARTs is, if you actually have no intention of using it, you can brandish a positively terrifying one! Of course he is still barking, but far less frequently. Which is a fair compromise, seeing as he was never in any danger from the LART, regardless.

Listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, which is funny because I was wearing a shirt with the name of this track on it today when I left the house.

No dinner but I brewed up. I put double the water in the pan because I wanted to boil it for 10 minutes before using it. It's coming out of the tap perfectly clear to the eye, but you don't usually get to see germs. (Mo has just joined me in bed. He is lying at the foot, polishing his sphericals. No mud on his feet, but the damage he did this morning requires no further effort on his part!) So I boiled the water long, and quite a bit of "mud" settled out. Our water is very "hard" with plenty of limestone dissolved in it. (Double-foot kicks to my shoulder blades.) Boiling it can leave a white residue on the pan or in the waters. (He's gone.) I decided that I would run the shower full blast while I undressed, showered, dried off and prepared for bed. Just to help flush the pipes a bit. All went well until the end. As I was drying off, the full blast stream suddenly cut to about ⅓ with no obvious reason. I hope that doesn't mean the pipe has burst again! I will have to check for more upwelling water in the morning. Or maybe Mo (He's back.) will inform me in his own way.

Was supposed to take my blood sugar this morning. I take it first thing, fasted, and before my liver states to produce glucose in response to physical activity. This morning I forgot until three hours later and after a large mug of sweet tea. 7.3 mmol/L. I will test properly tomorrow.

But as it happens, in the morning I'm hoping to receive a Telegram from my software. It should warn me that certain medications are LOW (≤6 days remaining), and tell me to acquire more before Friday 18th. After another three days I should get a VLOW (≤3 days) warning. It should also remind me that I need a new prescription from Dr. Kristi in order to acquire the replacement meds. We'll see what happens tomorrow at 5:46 (Med-Warn --telegram runs as a cron-job at that time every day.)

Mo is on the tiles. I'll go lock up now and since it's well past midnight I will pop off to sleep. Don't know what to have for lunch tomorrow. Maybe I could try some sort of rissoles with corned beef, flour, instant mash and possibly even some sort of finely chopped veggies, like carrots? Or just put some boiled, mashed pumpkin in the mix? Going to look up a few recipes and see what and all is called for.... Hmmm. No crazy ingredients but grated onion might be a good addition. No breadcrumbs but I have flour and cornmeal which might make a good substitute.

OK, locking up and dousing the lights now, so you have to go!

Edited October 12 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Awoken at 3:45, I refused to open the door until 5:10 and out he zoomed!

Back in bed, I soon had a soaking wet puppy jumping on top of me and rolling vigorously back and forth, oblivious to the elbows and knees jabbing me in all sorts ol soft spots! Then out he'd go after a peek through the window!

He left mud on the bedside table (which I admit needs painting) and the bedroom remote!

I went out - it had rained, and clawed feet had dug through my sawdust anyway. Took the opportunity to take a photo of my neighbor, whose name I don't know, so I will be calling her "Big Bessie" from now on. This photo doesn't show it, she is really a big girl. Her paws are slightly larger than my clenched fist. Now, I know I don't have huge hands, but...

Not a good photo, shot against a bright morning sky, but you can see that Mo has been jumping up to bark at her. He takes a run at the wall and leaps, bouncing off on his front paws, but for just that split second he gets close enough to bark! The top of that muddy patch is 44" from the ground. I wonder how many times he jumped to make that extra huge patch of dirt on the wall? I wonder how I'm going to get it off?

You can easily see where he put in some extra effort to leave a fair number of much higher paw parks on the wall, the highest of these are all hovering around 54" up. That's four and a half feet. For reference, Mo is 16" at the shoulder and 27" from butt to nose, standing normally. Not counting his extra-long tail, which he stole from a monkey of some sort.

Also, received this Telegram this morning (I have blurred Dr. K's surname & phone number because who knows where this image might end up?):

A quite satisfactory result except for the duplication of the doctor's name (and pluralization of the word "Script") under the "Scripts" section at the top. I've already fixed this issue by adding @script = uniq( @script ); at the appropriate point in the code. I won't know for sure that it works for three days (Tuesday morning?) when I expect a VLOW warning telegram on these same items. I could add --duplicate to the crontab file to make it duplicate warnings, but why bother? Pyridostigmine from QEH will deserve (and should get) a LOW warning in two days but I have repeats from Dr. Jacinto so I won't get another Script warning.

I also note the time of the telegram was 5:46, exactly as expected. This tells me that my system clock is accurate, that the cron daemon is functioning properly in so far as timing is concerned and that Telegram itself didn't introduce any delays.

The kitchen tap is running strong and clear (I'm brewing tea), but the shower is still only putting out about ⅓ the water i'd expect. I wonder WTF is wrong with that all of a sudden? Time to check the crappy shower rose again? I seem to remember saying last time that it probably would bot survive another overhaul. ANd since I can't afford a light bulb and I'm still in semi-darkness in the bedroom, I doubt I will be ab;e to buy a new one.

Edited October 12 by Netfoot

[andidante]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

I went out - it had rained, and clawed feet had dug through my sawdust anyway. Took the opportunity to take a photo of my neighbor, whose name I don't know, so I will be calling her "Big Bessie" from now on. This photo doesn't show it, she is really a big girl. Her paws are slightly larger than my clenched fist. Now, I know I don't have huge hands, but...

 

Not a good photo, shot against a bright morning sky, but you can see that Mo has been jumping up to bark at her. He takes a run at the wall and leaps, bouncing off on his front paws, but for just that split second he gets close enough to bark! The top of that muddy patch is 44" from the ground. I wonder how many times he jumped to make that extra huge patch of dirt on the wall? I wonder how I'm going to get it off?

Would she be able to jump over the wall if she was so inclined? 

[Netfoot]

40 minutes ago, andidante said:

Would she be able to jump over the wall if she was so inclined? 

The wall is actually two walls with a narrow footpath between. My wall is the one in horrible pink and the neighbor's wall is actually made of wood on top of a low, block base. 

You can just make out a pile of marl to the right of his wall. I think she climbs up on this and is able to get her paws in the top of his wall.

I have no doubt she could get over if she were free to do so but he keeps her on a chain (actually a wire) all the time and I believe she is at the limit of that wire when she peers over the wall. It's actually against the law in this country to keep a dog on a chain 24 hours a day but we're talking about a guy who left his three dogs to the mercies of hurricane Beryl when it blew through here a few months ago.

By the way, the wire gets quickly damaged by being dragged around on all the junk in his yard so Big Bertha periodically escapes and has to be rounded up by concerned neighbors and returned to custody. But a proper chain would cost more do he ain't about to buy one.

If she broke free I expect she could jump over into my yard but I think she takes those opportunities to get as far out of Dodge as she possibly can, until someone brings her back again. 

Edited October 12 by Netfoot

[andidante]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

The wall is actually two walls with a narrow footpath between. My wall is the one in horrible pink and the neighbor's wall is actually made of wood on top of a low, block base. 

You can just make out a pile of marl to the right of his wall. I think she climbs up on this and is able to get her paws in the top of his wall.

I have no doubt she could get over if she were free to do so but he keeps her on a chain (actually a wire) all the time and I believe she is at the limit of that wire when she peers over the wall. It's actually against the law in this country to keep a dog on a chain 24 hours a day but we're talking about a guy who left his three dogs to the mercies of hurricane Beryl when it blew through here a few months ago.

By the way, the wire gets quickly damaged by being dragged around on all the junk in his yard so Big Bertha periodically escapes and has to be rounded up by concerned neighbors and returned to custody. But a proper chain would cost more do he ain't about to buy one.

If she broke free I expect she could jump over into my yard but I think she takes those opportunities to get as far out of Dodge as she possibly can, until someone brings her back again. 

I feel bad for his animals. They deserve a better owner than that!!