Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Hi! Everything is ok here. Just taking a social media break. The weather is getting so nice and I’m just back out in the garden staying busy! You are so kind to ask about me. 🥰

Social media break == Good idea!

But it's nice to hear from you.

[Spunkygal]

19 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Social media break == Good idea!

But it's nice to hear from you.

I find that I sleep better when I limit screen time. I get eye and brain fatigue if I’m on too much. Also, my area has such a limited window of great weather before the mosquitoes, heat, humidity suffocate us and I’m going to make the most of staying outside until then!

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Why is this happening?

I'm cooking chips for lunch. For some reason the oi is foaming up to the point where I can't see the chips. I don't know how I will know if they are cooked enough or not. 

All I did was cut the chips and put them into the hot oil. It's a 50:50 mix of used oil from last time and new oil. 

Anyone got any ideas?

I have never seen that before? What kind of oil is that?

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, andidante said:

I have never seen that before? What kind of oil is that?

No idea. The cheapest and (probably) least healthy. I will read the label next time I'm in the kitchen. 

Which, since Mo and I are in bed and I've finished my bedtime mug of tea, probably won't be until tomorrow. 

I had a look at the chair leg I'd glued back together. The joint, anyway. The joinery on these chairs is mostly made up of crumbly wood and dried glue. I believe it would be best to remove the dried glue and get down to bare wood before trying to glue the parts of the chair back together.  But there might not be much bare wood left after I remove the old glue! Oh, and I found one joint with metal pins in it. 

It would be interesting to know how many times this chair has started  falling apart and been put back together in the past. 

Otherwise, not done much. Mo still not easy to feed. I have gave him chips for lunch. (Despite the foamy oil, the chips came out fine. The trouble was figuring out when they were done when I couldn't see them in the pan.) He didn't eat the chips so I put his bowl on the table and ate a chip as he watched. Then I picked up another chip and as I ate that he insisted I give him his chips back. Truth is, I could have eaten all his chips as well as all of mine. No matter how many I cook I always feel like I wish I'd cooked more. He ate his dinner (Rice. What else?) without any trouble.

Funny thing about the foam. As soon as I take the chips out, the foam vanishes. The foam is coming from the potatoes and not the oil?

Got a bunch of movies to watch. Nothing special. All I need is to not fall asleep for long enough that I can watch one of them. And to decide which one to watch first/next. 

The money for the towel racks that went yesterday didn't show up today as promised. I know it will happen, but it is a little annoying when you spend the day deliberately not leaving home because you are waiting on someone who never shows. Alas, it is the Bajan way. Just ask the Telco technician who was on his way on Saturday at 10:33 but didn't arrive until the following morning, while Mo and I did without food because we couldn't go buy a gas cylinder.

3½ days with no internet and when I get back online the level of bullshit is exactly the same as before. I should take a page out of @Spunkygal's book and just go sit outside in the sun.

Anyway...... 

Edited April 9 by Netfoot

[luv2lurk]

10 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Why is this happening?

I'm cooking chips for lunch. For some reason the oi is foaming up to the point where I can't see the chips. I don't know how I will know if they are cooked enough or not. 

All I did was cut the chips and put them into the hot oil. It's a 50:50 mix of used oil from last time and new oil. 

Anyone got any ideas?

Just out of curiosity, did you dry the potatoes after cutting and before putting in the oil?

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, luv2lurk said:

Just out of curiosity, did you dry the potatoes after cutting and before putting in the oil?

No. But they weren't dripping with water or anything.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Water/moisture was my first thought. 

[Netfoot]

23 minutes ago, Mr. Sparkle said:

Water/moisture was my first thought. 

OK, I will carefully dry the next batch of chips and we will see what happens!

[Schnickelfritz]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

OK, I will carefully dry the next batch of chips and we will see what happens!

I honestly can't remember your method for making chips, but if you are not soaking them first, this could cause the foam. Cut the slices into a bowl of water, swish around and drain. Refill the bowl with water and add salt. Add the slices and let them soak for about 30 minutes. Drain and dry. You should get nice crisp chips. You can add the salt to the first bowl of water if you want. That works pretty well and cuts down a step.

Are you reusing the oil? Your oil might be overused and breaking down. It sounds more like a moisture issue though.

You inspired me to make a batch of chips last night and Mr Schnickelfritz would like to thank you. Haven't done any in quite awhile.

Good luck with the chair!

[Notabug]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

OK, I will carefully dry the next batch of chips and we will see what happens!

It could be that that particular batch of potatoes had more moisture than usual.  The bubbling looked like what happens when something wet is added to oil.  Drying them with paper towels or a clean dish cloth should help.

[Netfoot]

The oil I use is the cheapest in the shop. 

Blended soyabean & sunflower oil. $9.99 for 2 liters.

Oil transfers heat into the food to bring about the cooking of that food. If there is any water in the food it flashes to steam and escapes in the form of tiny bubbles. That's why when you throw in your potatoes (or whatever) it effervesces. If the foodstuffs are bubbling, the escaping steam which causes the bubbles prevents the oil from soaking into the food. If the bubbling stops, the food becomes significantly more oily. This is the principle of fried food I have always taken to be fact. 

1 hour ago, Notabug said:

It could be that that particular batch of potatoes had more moisture than usual. 

Possibly. The spuds are 8 lb. for $7.99 and no particular type of potato specified. But they always look the same. I can by a named type such as  Yukon Gold or Russet or Idaho potatoes for $10-$13 for a 5 lb. bag, but I'm not gonna do that. 

1 hour ago, Schnickelfritz said:

Are you reusing the oil? Your oil might be overused and breaking down.

I do reuse oil. But the oil gets used up and I have to keep adding more. The batch of chips I photographed is probably 33% new oil mixed with older oil. But the older oil was probably a mix of oils that were used once, twice, and (maybe, a small amount) thrice. So I don't know if it's fair to say the oil is overused. It is a blend of new oil and used oils with the newer oils predominant and older fractions smaller.

I should be able to use oil 3-4 times. I recover the clean oil and discard the dregs with any particulate matter.

Ok, next time I will wash and soak my chips for 30 minutes and dry them with a new kitchen towel before frying. Will report back on how it goes.  Not sure when that will happen. 

[Netfoot]

Woke up. Lay without moving. Extremely tired. Opened my eyes. Found my shorts. Found my shoes (and a very oily shop-rag). 

Puppy steals all sorts of things. But this morning was a new one.

Yes, a curly-bulb. Godnoze where he got it. His little tummy is prolly full of bits of glass. 

No sign of cuts in his mouth where any fragments went in. I have him all the bread & biscuit in the house. Not much. Maybe it will help protect his butt when the glass come out again.

Great start to the day. 

Edited April 10 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I am continuing to work on the chairs. Here is the one mortise that has been occupying me.

You can see that it is in bad shape. The right hand side has broken away and I've already had to perform two glue-jobs to try and repair it. Let's just hope no more bits break off. 

I also cleaned out quite a bit of dried glue from inside. The light coloured, crumbly stuff at the top was all in the joint. It is all dried glue. It came out easily. The previous repair was mostly glue! If I had just glued the joint back together (when the repairs were finished) the strength of the repaired joint would be no greater than this crumbly glue. Which is about as strong as a good biscotti. 

I think epoxy is my only chance here. 90-minute epoxy, of course - the longer the setup time of epoxy, the stronger it is. That 5-minute crap is about as strong as well masticated chewing gum. 

But the real problem is here:

Do you see the small "hairline" crack running across the front of the joint? That is an accident waiting to happen. It hasn't broken yet but this leg is fixing to break right in that spot. And there is virtually nothing I can do to prevent it. I could soak some CA into the crack. That will strengthen the leg a bit but not enough to confidently say the joint will not fail if a fat-ass like me sits on the chair. 

And that crack goes a loooong way, too. This is a look at it from the side!

It's 3" long!

Edited April 10 by Netfoot

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I am continuing to work on the chairs. Here is the one mortise that has been occupying me.

You can see that it is in bad shape. The right hand side has broken away and I've already had to perform two glue-jobs to try and repair it. Let's just hope no more bits break off. 

I also cleaned out quite a bit of dried glue from inside. The light coloured, crumbly stuff at the top was all in the joint. It is all dried glue. It came out easily. The previous repair was mostly glue! If I had just glued the joint back together (when the repairs were finished) the strength of the repaired joint would be no greater than this crumbly glue. Which is about as strong as a good biscotti. 

I think epoxy is my only chance here. 90-minute epoxy, of course - the longer the setup time of epoxy, the stronger it is. That 5-minute crap is about as strong as well masticated chewing gum. 

But the real problem is here:

Do you see the small "hairline" crack running across the front of the joint? That is an accident waiting to happen. It hasn't broken yet but this leg is fixing to break right in that spot. And there is virtually nothing I can do to prevent it. I could soak some CA into the crack. That will strengthen the leg a bit but not enough to confidently say the joint will not fail if a fat-ass like me sits on the chair. 

And that crack goes a loooong way, too. This is a look at it from the side!

It's 3" long!

I am not sure why your friend thought these were fixable? There is so much damage to them. I know you will do your best but that crack is scary.

[Netfoot]

Beef! That's beef, allright! And that is Mo, hoovering it up!

I used to buy an occasional pack of stew beef for Dotty and for Bud. Not often; every 5-6 months or so. Financial hardship has made it impossible to do this for Mo. But I am $400 behind on the rent so does $8.95 make a huge difference? No. 

He ate it all and polished the bowl. He was a little strange about it. After each piece he came and looked at me. I had to point him back at the bowl before he would take the next piece. And when he had finished that, he would come to me again. It's like he didn't want to believe this was his dinner. Later, on Garden Patrol, he was acting as if he was expecting punishment. I think he just couldn't believe this was for him and expected to be punished for eating it.

It didn't stop him coming for some of my cheese sarnies, tho! Like I said, too ordinary to post a photo. Oh hell, why not?

So, I have a puppy sleeping on the floor beside the bed, with a very satisfied look on his face. And I'm glad. 

I may get some extra work to do apart from the chairs. My guy came today and paid $500 for the two towel racks. I showed him some of what I was dealing with (with the chairs) and he said he was willing to accept some very low quality work. Angle brackets, for example. And for the crack, he suggested two dowels. I can get oak dowels. They are more expensive but stronger. But the oak will not colour match with the mahogany and I have no way to stain it to match.

Anyway, he said he had an additional job for me (maybe more than one) and that it was the type of job I like! I dunno what that means. Maybe it's sofa-feet. They are relatively easy but the sanding is unpleasant.

Watched a couple movies over the last couple of days:

Argo starring Ben Affleck (principally) along with Bryan Cranston John Goodman and a 78 year old Alan Arkin, along with several other well known faces. Affleck is tasked with the extraction of six embassy staff who avoided capture when the US embassy was overrun in Tehran in 1979 Iran. 

Zero Dark Thirty is about the effort to locate and eliminate "UBL", the mastermind behind 9/11. Jessica Chastain (who I like well enough but don't think of as a great actress) plays the role of a driven analyst who does not rest until Usama has been located and action taken. While criticized for the fictionalized nature of some scenes the film is generally considered to be a good portrayal of events. Chastain did a very creditable job, I think. 

Point Of No Return is a La Femme Nikita clone starring Bridget Fonda as the condemned girl saved from the gallows with the offer of a job as assassin for a shadowy group. Gabriel Byrne oversees her training and is her handler once she becomes operational. Fonda has a pretty face, but has little else of value to offer to the film. I'd recommend LFN instead but this will help you pass the afternoon if you are lying down fighting off cramps. 

Mo is now curling up on the foot of the bed. I am going to go cuddle with him for awhile, but he looks sleepy. 

I took my shower earlier and it is minutes to eleven. I will sign off now. Here's hoping tomorrow I feel better than today. And by that I don't want to imply that I felt sick. Just that today was a stumbly, wobbly day with twitchy hands, feet and face. And I am hoping to avoid that tomorrow.

Above: the marks left by my boy's toenails on my arm. Below: the boy himself.

Edited April 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Woken this morning by my "Breakfast Meds" alarm. I normally wake 1 to 1½ hours before this, without an alarm. 

Checked for messages, E-mail, etc, that might have come in during the night. Watched two YT videos and an episode of Eureka. Lay down and closed my eyes and the next thing I knew it was 5:30 PM and I was 2½ hours late taking "Lunch Meds". 

Why did I wake late this morning, and 1½ hours later take an 8-hour nap? And wake tired? And before you say "diabetes", look at my blood sugar for the last 3 months:

The occasional high but mostly in the green zone. Testing again tomorrow morning. 

Mo has positively refused to eat the chow I bought last week so I have to throw away 5 Kg. of grub. I bought a 2 Kg. bag of a type he is known to like. Gave him a bowl for dinner and he happily ate it up.

Despite my 8-hour nap today, I am tired. Mo is around here somewhere. He was curled up on the foot of the bed a short while ago but he looked out the window and departed. He will be back soon, I'm sure.

I would watch a movie but I doubt I would get through it. So I am going to line up some YT videos and douse the lights. I'll fall asleep soon but so what?

[Browncoat]

Could you sell the chow Mo doesn't like to someone else with a dog?

[Netfoot]

3 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Could you sell the chow Mo doesn't like to someone else with a dog?

Tried that once before and nobody was interested. Couldn't even give it away. Even family members refused to have it. Maybe if it was in an unopened bag, but...

[Netfoot]

We had a nice bully beef rice for lunch. Pumpkin, channa, cucumber. Tasty! Mo would not come inside to eat his but at 5:01 he came in and by 5:03 the bowl was empty!

Dinner was chow for him and spaghetti for me. He will eat spaghetti but he has a problem with the fine strands. He is far more comfortable with macaroni which he can more easily get his teeth into. 

It rained for a short while, but heavily. There is a smell of rain on the wind. And there is a moist chill too. So as soon as the shower stopped we went on Garden Patrol. Everything was wet so we did not linger and when I came in I boiled water and made tea. 

It is so nice to have evap. milk in the fridge. I've been using condensed watered down - one tin made up to a liter with water. But the resulting milk is sweet. It flavours the tea with that characteristic condensed milk taste. I like condensed milk but I prefer to not have that flavour affecting my tea, even though it is only marginally noticable. This mug just tastes a little better. And with condensed milk, I can't put it in my scrambled eggs or use it to make my spaghetti sauce creamy. 

Ninja Mo was just here curled up behind me but I just turned around to pat his head and..... he was gone. Now, I will keep checking to see if/when he reappears behind me again. 

I was not as sleepy today as yesterday. I did have a brief nap after lunch and I am a little tired now, but no urge to sleep away the day like yesterday.

Still wobbly. But it seems to be brought on by unusual movement. So, when I bent over to pick up Mo's bowl, I stand back up and find myself wobbling around and trying not to fall down for the next two minutes.

Still no sign of Mo. And no sign of more rain either, but the cool, moist breeze still blowing in the window. I think I know how to make Mo appear like magic. All I have to do is pop a mint in my mouth and and within seconds he will be standing on my knee and kissing me. He is very insistent that if I eat a mint I must give a portion of it to him. He is not often lucky in this regard.

It is still early (9:30-ish) but I am going to stop here and put in a video. I may fall asleep before it is done, but hopefully not. 

Tomorrow is Sunday and the following day I will have to go to QEH and Edgar Cochrane to renew my meds. I need a renewal for some before Tuesday. I have one more repeat on the MG meds but I don't see the doctor again until September so getting a renewed prescription is going to be a PITA. 

The neurologist is available (at QEH) on Tuesdays. So I can go back on Tuesday and make a noise until someone gives me a new prescription. I am not sure that I can get a script on Tuesday and wait a month before submitting it to the pharmacy? Sure I can! But I have to make two trips to QEH, one on Monday and again on Tuesday? Or I can wait a month and next time I need meds I go on Tuesday, get the new prescription and go to the pharmacy immediately thereafter? Better, but Neuro doesn't open until 1:00 PM on Tuesdays and by time I get the prescription, then to go line up at the pharmacy, will I get my meds before they shut down for the day? 

Look, I can't heat my head thinking about this shit so I'm going to watch a movie and go to sleep.

Edited April 13 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I was hungry but also lazy so lunch was sandwiches and a mug of tea. The sandwiches were very good and the tea was also.

I have not seen Mo since around 5:30 this morning when he dragged me out of bed to open the door. I was tired enough I got all the way to the door before noticing it was already open. This because he had already dragged me out of bed an hour before to open it.

He is not under the bed. I just looked and was dizzy/wobbly for 2-3 ninutes afterwards.

If I don't see him soon I will go out and find him and give him a cuddle. He is most likely asleep under the van or on the verandah. In fact I will.go now. Come with me.....

 

It's a nice day, outside!

Mo was as expected, on the verandah. He came out to shower me with kisses. 

I sat on the steps and he stood one step up with his hind legs and on my knee with his forelegs.

There  is a really sweet boy hiding behind all that wickedness! 

Boy, do I need a haircut, or what?

Edited April 13 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Full moon. Well, 99% and waning. according to the math. 

Just finished my dinner. Boiled veggies with (naturally) bully beef. Potatoes, red kidney beans, carrot, pumpkin, onion, the beef and spices. Brought to the boil and then simmered for five minutes. I cut the veggies small so they would cook quickly.

Mo's dinner bowl is on the floor but by time I got back from the kitchen he had departed. I can hear his voice outside barking. No, probably not at the moon. Because I can hear other dogs around the neighborhood barking which prolly means some stranger is walking through the development. 

I watched a couple episodes of a show called The Bondsman starring Kevin Bacon as the titular skip-tracer cum bounty hunter. Murdered, he gets sent to hell but is brought back to become a demon hunter. Yes, I know, but it really isn't too bad. Except it has 30-minute episodes. I find it hard to take a shower seriously of if it is limited by 30-minute episode run-times. Sitcoms, OK but a "serious" show needs more time. 

I'm watching Big Clive dismantle and analyze a £2 power bank from Poundland. It is unusual because it is disposable unit. You buy it, charge up your phone and throw the disposable power bank away! Clive points out that the capacity of the unit is only about 300 mAh so it would take ten of them to charge up a typical cell phone. And that a power bank with six times the capacity is available from Poundland for only £1, and it is rechargeable, too!  Clive's analysis shows that the disposable unit contains a power bank chip fully capable of charging the battery but that they simply left out the discreet components needed to make the unit rechargeable. 

Mo has just come in again but he is ignoring his dinner. I am not going to try to force him to eat it. I would like to eat it myself but I can't pirate his meal, even if he shows no interest in it.

We have not done our Garden Patrol yet. But soon we will go out and bathe in the moonlight. I'll set some water to boil and upon our return I will put the tea to draw and take a shower. Maybe I will have two mugs before I power down for the night. One soon and one later. I am really enjoying tea with PHD evaporated milk for the first time in many months. 

Tomorrow: QEH and Edgar Cochrane. Will buy some 90 minute epoxy on the way home and try to put this chair back together. Once it is reassembled, I'm not sure how I can reinforce it to compensate for the totally awful joints. How do I determine if it needs reinforcing? Sit on it and see if it self-destructs? It will be too late to reinforce it after that. How would I reinforce it? I could drill and dowel all the joints. Or I could buy some long screws and drive then through the joints and plug the holes to conceal the screws. At an absolute pinch I could resort to angle plates. Must check what they cost. Also check whether they come with screws or if those must be bought separately. 

Ok, I think am going to put the water on to boil and persuade the very handsome fellow who is currently sleeping on my left foot to accompany me on Patrol!

Edited April 14 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

9:12 @ QEH. Now serving #129. I am #271. That is a difference of 142. Seems like I will be at this all day. 

It is hot. The seating area is served by a large wall of "breeze blocks" but they don't work well when there is no breeze. The place is also packed with sweating, heat-generating people. All watching different videos with the volume turned up to max. Hard to believe that you can get a set of headphones for about three bucks. But they don't want $3 headphones. They all want $150 earpods. Where is my rifle?

At least I remembered to bring a book. Which forced me to choose a book. For Us, The Living by Robert A. Heinlein. Not one of RAH's loonier tales. A Rip Van Winkle story: After a car crash a man wakes in the snow in a mountain landscape. 150 years have passed. He has to learn how the world (and humanity) has changed, how to fit into the new reality and how his knowledge of the past can benefit the society he finds himself a part of. It's been a while since I remember reading this book so I will enjoy tucking into it. I will probably finish it shortly before my number is called. Now serving #144.

Edited April 14 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

10:37 @ QEH. Now serving #208 which isn't bad, I guess. More than halfway in 90 minutes. At this rate I will get the call around midday 

Meanwhile, reading the book. Just finished chapter one (49 pages) which ends with an author's footnote that runs for 2½ pages. I was wrong. This was RAH's first ever novel which he could not get published. Finally seeing print after his death it is a little on the loony side. And (typically) the heroine has been completely naked since page four!

Now serving #216.

[Netfoot]

11:09 @ QEH. Now serving me! Just about a teoI two hour wait. 

11:10 @ QEH. I'm collecting my meds and I'm out of here!

Edited April 14 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

21:30 11:30 @ Edgar Cochrane polyclinic. Now serving #891. I am #905. Fourteen to go. But how fast are they moving? QEH was fast this morning but here? We will see.

Battery: 56% and falling. 

11:54 @ Edgar Cochrane. Now serving #895.

 

Edited April 14 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

12:28 @ Edgar Cochrane. Being served. Left home at 8:30 this morning so four hours to get to this point. I've experienced worse.

I'm sitting behind a guy with an enormous head. Hi blocks my entire forward vision. Every time I try to peer around it to see what's happening inside the pharmacist window, he moves to block again. I don't think he's doing it on purpose. His tectonically huge head just can't help but block out the light of the sun. 

12:42 @ Edgar Cochrane. Just collected my meds.

Battery: 44%

Next:  Bank, epoxy, cheese. Not necessarily in that order.

I'm gone.

[Netfoot]

Been home for a while. Greeted at the gate by the most handsome boy I know!

Banked. Bought cheese. Was across the road from house when I set off in search of epoxy. Magically ended up at my own gate instead. Guess the epoxy will have to wait until tomorrow.

Ate some of the cheese with semi-stale bread and drank a glass of iced water. Contemplating a mug of tea. The 2' fluorescent tube in the kitchen is going blinkey-blink. Is it the tube? Or the starter? Starters come in packs of two. Every time I buy two and use one, the other vanished by time I need it. To discover if it's the starter I gotta buy one two and try it. If it isn't that, I gotta go back and buy a tube but I will already have wasted the money on the starters.

It's a sad state of affairs when just sitting around for a few hours leaves you exhausted. I just realized I left the meds from QEH & Edgar Cochrane in the car. Honestly, I can't face walking out to the car, picking them up and walking them back into the house. Instead I think I will take a shower. It's turned out to be quite a warm day and there is not much breeze blowing.  

So I am going to put the water on to boil and go for a long shower. I will start hot and then go to ambient. When I'm done I will make a mug of tea in the semi-dark. The kitchen window now looks out into the garage so not much light gets in that way. I did recently put a clamp-on portable lamp in there but it is concentrated on one area and does little for the kitchen at large. Fortunately the corner it illuminated is the very corner where I make tea.....

Ok, that's the plan. So here comes the action!

[Netfoot]

Mo has had his dinner. I have not decided what to eat. If I had a toaster I could have some beans in on toast, if I had some beans. (Silly saying my mum used to like to say: "If we had some ham we could have ham & eggs, if we had some eggs...") I had bread & cheese for lunch and don't really want to have it again for dinner. Nothing to make soup out of. Not inclined to stand in the kitchen for any length of time. Could make spaghetti but what (other than bully & onion) could I put on it? I have a tin of tuna, I think. I have a plantain but that doesn't go well with pasta. I have a cucumber. A tin of pigeon peas but that belongs in rice. Of course, I could cook rice. But with Mo already fed it would be more than I could manage myself without really stuffing it down. 

I'll figure something out. My chest has gone all phlegmmy today and I am not inclined to do anything. But I gotta eat.

I had a shower earlier but I feel like I could have another. Mo is right outside the bedroom window, barking angrily. Oh, I have him a shout and now he is standing on the bedside table. 

Ok, bread, cheese and tuna. Or bread, cheese and corned beef. Or bread, cheese and egg. 

At least I have finally chosen a book!

Edited April 15 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

A tasty rice for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. (Mo had chow.)

Meanwhile, I've been watching movies. 

The Fugitive with Harrison Ford as Dr. David Jansen as the man who is sentenced to death for murdering his wife. He escapes when a train crashes and Marshall Gerrard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his team set out to apprehend him. But Jansen/Ford is out to find the one-armed man who is actually guilty of the crime...

Beachhead, a 1954 movie starring a young and stupid Tony Curtis as one of four WW-II marines on a Pacific island, dodging enemy soldiers and attempting to rescue a couple of French civilians and also bring back vital intelligence.

Winchester '73, a 1950s B&W western with James Stewart in the leading role. The storyline revolves loosely around a Winchester Model 1873 rifle which changes hands several times during the course of the movie

You may know I am an amateur radio operator. Radio hams use abbreviated codes to speed up communications. This originates from the use of CW (Morse code) which is slow. Some of these codes are still heard when the messaging is by "phone" (voice). Codes such as "YL" (a young lady, no matter what age), "XYL" (ex young lady; wife) and so forth 

A very common code is "73". This is --••• •••-- in CW and "seven three" or "seventy three" on phone. Usually heard when a "QSO" (contact) is winding up, it is a sort of fond farewell perhaps best thought of as short for "my best to you" or simply "all the best".

The 1873 Winchester, the gun that won the west, the lever-action rifle commonly seen in westerns was not actually that common. They were expensive, rare, and very highly prized. A man might say in his last will& testament that his ranch was to go to his oldest son while his '73 would go to his second son. With the eldest sometimes thinking he had got the worst if the deal.

The telegraph operators of the era transmitted messages over wires instead of radio waves. And between official messages and telegrams, they would chat, in Morse, over the wires. It became common to end such a chat with a message like "I will leave my 73 to you". This was a polite farewell sentiment that was quickly contracted to just "73".

That polite farewell message of "73" is still used to this day by ham radio operators all over this world, and will be a part of the closing exchanges of virtually every on-air conversation between hams in every country around the world, in every language. Hams who meet and speak face-to-face will almost always use it in person as well.

I've been told that the story I just told you I'd call bollocks. I don't care. I choose for it to be true. And that makes it so. 

So:

-•• •   --• ••- •••
---•• •--• -•••• ••• --
--• -•   • •••   --• -•••
--••• •••--
•••-•

Edited April 16 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Went shopping for epoxy and a starter for the kitchen fluorescent tube. Got the epoxy but no starter after three hardware stores! Seems the T12 tube I have in the kitchen is obsolete and T8 tubes are now the thing. (Each T is ⅛" so T12 is 1½" and T8 tubes are only 1".) 

I finally located a suitable starter for a T12 tube at Ace Hardware. It's 10¼ Km there and the same back. Would the van make it? Is there enough gas in the tank? Should I go by the ABC Highway bus? Should I just cook food in the dark?

Went to Popular and bought potatoes, onions, pasta, rice, corned beef, tuna, carrots, cucumbers.... Was going to buy eggs but

I ain't buying eggs when they are this size.

Boiled veg for dinner. Mo had chow. 

Ran into my friend at the hardware store and he wants me to make a small number of sofa feet on the lathe. Gluing up a wood block overnight and will make a screw-chuck for the specific tomorrow. Maybe after I get back from my long bus ride.

I've had a couple scary incidents recently where I put water to boil and forget about it until 45 minutes later. Potentially dangerous. I think I must buy a kettle that will switch itself off, rather than continue to use the stove which will not.

Had a shower earlier but I want another. I'm drinking tea now, but I will go for a sluice-down as soon as the mug is empty.

Mo had been alternating between stand-offish and super-affectionate all day since we got back from our shopping trip this morning. I give him love-ups when ever I get the chance, no matter what mood he is in.

No movies today. Been working on a script that accesses my music player via an XML query. No matter what I do, the XML is being returned ad "Invalid". Even the simplest possible XML query is "Invalid", even when it clearly is not. I am assuming the XML query engine is faulty. I am going to abandon my existing script and try to achieve my goal via another approach. 

I will stop now and drink my tea. Then shower and some more of my book. Mo is curled up beside me and pretending he doesn't know I'm here. I periodically give his back a rub, just so he knows that I am. 

[Netfoot]

ABC Highway bus it was.

Ever opened a tin of sardines? Ever felt like you could squeeze at least another three sardines in the tin? Meet my bus driver. I shoehorned myself into the bus. I was jammed between a woman with a generous back yard (who pressed it firmly against my hip) and a pretty young girl with a fulsome front balcony (which she laid on my shoulder). I am usually OK with these things but the Speightstown bus is not where I prefer to enjoy such.

At the next stop one person got out and nine got on. I don't know where they fit because standing passengers were already three across in the aisle.

Somewhere near the Belle junction, my Breakfast Meds alarm went off. Crap.

Got to Ace Hardware and went in. Looked around and couldn't find the starters. Checked again with their website - yes, definitely "In Stock". I asked a clerk. "We don't sell them any more. The government has banned the import of florescent tubes of all types, so you will have to buy an LED replacement."

Back on the ABC Highway bus, empty handed, heading south. Same bus, same driver. At least this time there was room to breathe and I actually got to sit down. Unfortunately, the front balcony was long gone. 

Got home and was slobbered on by Big Bessie from next door as I squeezed through the incredibly narrow walkway that runs beside my house. (Or maybe I am just incredibly fat.) Checked the landlord's mailbox to discover two welfare cheques waiting. One is dated tomorrow! Good Friday. So I won't be able to do anything with that until next Tuesday.

An exciting, pointless journey to Warrens and back, and the kitchen is still in the dark. I have taken my Breakfast Meds 90 minutes late so I will take Lunch Meds 45 minutes late and Dinner Meds on time.

Now to go make a cup of tea by sense of braille!

[Netfoot]

I took down the light fixture in the kitchen. Before undoing the 120V A/C mains connection I wanted to be sure the switch was off! To check, I used this "neon test" screwdriver.

It has a tiny neon bulb inside the handle and a brass butt. If the tip of the screwdriver is on a live wire and you touch the brass butt the neon bulb lights up. 

Two wires. Red (normally live) and black (normally neutral). Testing showed that as expected, the polarity was reversed in this stupid house: red=neutral and black=live. With an old fluorescent tube it works either way but it is bad practice to have the colours reversed. I might have tested the red wire, note that it was not live and concluded the switch was in the off position. Then gone on to electrocute myself on the black wire. Fortunately, I know the landlord is a dumbass and checked!

I made sure the switch was off and taped it so it could not accidentally be switched on. Then I removed the fixture. 

I removed the ballast and the receptacle for the starter which I can't get. 

The reversed polarity wiring is part of the house so I can't fix that. Instead I made a note inside the fixture to make sure there is no confusion if I have to open this thing up again. 

Yes, that is an LED tube that will replace the old florescent tube. Not sure if my beat-up phone camera shows this but the LED tube, unlike the old florescent tube does care which is live and which is neutral. 

I put the fixture back up, reconnected the mains wiring taking sure to put live where it was supposed to be and ditto neutral. 

Ta-daaaaa!!

But it was not as easy as I made it sound. It took me probably four hours. More than half of that time I was standing on tiptoe on an 8" square raised platform with my hands stretched up to max over my head just to reach the fixture! I was up and down like a fool, dropping screws and scrambling to recover them from the kitchen floor. (Three screws were not seen again and are waiting to ambush my bare feet in the days ahead.) It doesn't cover the 25 minutes spend scouring the house for the missing neon test screwdriver before I discovered it was clipped to the neck of my tee-shirt.

By time that light came on my arms felt like they'd lost an argument with a steamroller and I was so tired I was literally shaking. 

But the light works now. The bulb was a bit expensive at $28 $25.47 but I really didn't have a choice. If government has de facto banned florescent tubes, I will never get the old setup to work again.

But here is the very best news of all! Tomorrow being a bank holiday, the first day of a four-day weekend, what better day than today could there be for my computer to die?

I came in to check something on the computer and the mouse cursor would not move. I noticed the red light under the mouse was off. I then noticed that the lights on the keyboard (caps lock/num lock/etc) were also off. I tried mouse and keyboard, each in every USB port on the computer, of which there are six. No joy. I stuck the mouse onto a USB charger and the light came on big and bright. So it is probably not the peripherals. 

The computer died a couple weeks ago and after a couple hours I persuaded it to come back to life. No guarantee I can do that again. I will try, of course. But right now I am so tired and my arms so leaden I hesitate to do anything but lie here and tell my sorry story.

Mo is under the bed. I saw him crawl under on his belly, only a moment ago. I would join him but: too much belly. Besides, under there is his "safe space". Wouldn't want to deprive him of that.

Edited Thursday at 09:26 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

And here I am, desktop back up and running. I powered it down, waited an hour and powered it up. Keyboard and mouse are fine.

System booted, ran checkup and fixes on disks shut down improperly and gave me the login prompt. 

I logged in and cat /proc/mdstat getting 

Quote

Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [multipath] 
md125 : active raid1 sdc5[1] sdb5[0]
      962641344 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 1/8 pages [4KB], 65536KB chunk

md126 : active raid1 sdc4[1] sdb4[0]
      962643776 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      
md127 : active raid1 sdc3[1] sdb3[0]
      962643776 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
   
unused devices: <none>

Note the [UU] on each of the three RAID-1 mirrors. That stands for Up/Up. Meaning that both halves of each mirror is up and functioning and that the arrays are healthy. Either [U_] or [_U] would indicate that one half of the mirror was up and the other missing or failed but the data is still available. (The primary purpose of RAID is that after disk failure in an array, all the data is still available.) [__] would mean that the array had failed and the contents of the array (the data) was not available. RAID-1 (and -5) arrays can only tolerate a single disk failure. 

Ran startx and X-Windows & KDE (the graphical desktop) came right up. everything looking good. Loaded an album into AmaroK. It (The Lexicon of Love by ABC) is playing fine.

You know what? I'm going to get a glass of iced water and call that lunch!

Edited Thursday at 08:20 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Dinner was Turkish penne with onions, purple cabbage and grated cucumber. Not the tastiest pasta I've ever had, but not bad! I put Mo's penne bowl next to his chow bowl and he ate the penne And polished the bowl. Then he ate most of the remaining chow.

I was pleased to discover the $1.59 Turkish pasta I was eating, but this is a different brand and it is only $1.49 which is very cheap for 400 gr. 

I am still feeling tired from standing on that little stool and holding my hands over my head. Also, both hands are crampy this evening. Glad that didn't happen while I was working on the kitchen light. Mo is sleeping on my right foot. I just had my second shower of the day. Or was it the third? It is a warm night despite the fan. There is little breeze in the window and it is not cool.

I will read a bit more of my book and them sleep.

Mo disappeared without warning, from my foot. He was lying outside in the moonlight when I went looking for him for Garden Patrol. It is cooler out there. I should consider sleeping out there myself!

The trip to Warrens was not fun. The trip back home was much better. The overcrowding can be really excessive. When a bus fails to show up, the one that follows has to carry two loads of people. I could have driven the van down there but it is a long distance to go and if there is any issue (like a flat tire) it is a long distance to arrange the van get towed home from. And if Mo is with me, getting him home becomes extremely difficult. I don't think he would be a good hitch-hiker. 

I've seen all sorts of livestock on busses chickens, turkeys... Even a pair of black belly sheep once! But Mo would be the last straw for the Barbados Transport Board. And Bajans distrust black dogs so I would get an avalanche of complaints about how he "don' got rubbuhteet."

I was planning to make a curry this weekend. Potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, maybe even some dumplings? Serve it over white rice. There was no chicken in the shop except breasts selling at $16+ for two. No beef either. Do I make corned beef curry? Do I go out on Saturday and try and find some other form of meat? The trouble is I can't remember if Mo likes curry or not.

Left hand cramping is on the increase. Will stop while I'm ahead. 

[Netfoot]

That damned dog! 

I made curry stew. Only it turned out to be more of a curry-flavoured soup. Delicious any way. It contains pumpkin, carrot, onion, cucumber, purple cabbage, black beans, potatoes and bully beef. Spiced with curry powder, of course. It came out with far more gravy than intended, hence more soup than stew? Or stoup? It tasted good. 

I have the puppy a half bowl of stoup and a half bowl of chow. He refused to eat either of them!

Grrrrrr!!!

I think I will sell him!

Edited Saturday at 03:22 AM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Mo still has not eaten. Food is there for him so I am not worried. If he was hungry, he would eat. 

I had more soup for dinner. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some toast. I would go and get another bowl now as a midnight snack. 

Watched Sicario: Day Of The Soldato which is the sequel to the movie with Emily Blunt in it. Frighteningly believable. And seven years old. I doubt things have gotten better in the intervening years. Maybe it will now?

I don't understand a society that encourages such brutal behaviour and simultaneously denies itself the ability to defend against such behaviour.

Got a new medical problem that is actually worrying me. Last few days I have been burping a lot. I mean two three times a minute. Only tiny little burps but persistent and frequent. Something is producing gas in my stomach. If it was going the other way I'd guess methane. Since it isn't, maybe CO²? Ok, it might sound funny but when I lie down the gas starts making bubbles in my throat. It is uncomfortable and it worries me a bit.

Mo was here earlier but I don't know where he has gone. Wait! Here he is now, flapping his ears and curling up behind me.

You know what? I'm going to get another bowl of soup.

[Netfoot]

Over at the mall. No problems, I just want to buy 2-3 blank DVD disks.

During the latest system crash, I not only got it to stand back up again, I also diagnosed an issue with the DVD drive. So I want to create a new install DVD in case I have to reinstall at a later date. I downloaded the  Slackware 15.0 64-bit installation ISO and will use it to create an install DVD. Just in case.

Momid Mo is well. He wanted to come with me but the foolish mall would never let him in, so he had to stay home "on guard". I might buy him a treat to eat while I'm over here. Nothing much. Depends on the cost of the blank DVD disks. A cookie or something.

Back killing me just from walking over here. That's why I'm sitting in the food court instead of concluding my business and heading home.

Edited Saturday at 04:38 PM by Netfoot

[andidante]

12 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Got a new medical problem that is actually worrying me. Last few days I have been burping a lot. I mean two three times a minute. Only tiny little burps but persistent and frequent. Something is producing gas in my stomach. If it was going the other way I'd guess methane. Since it isn't, maybe CO²? Ok, it might sound funny but when I lie down the gas starts making bubbles in my throat. It is uncomfortable and it worries me a bit.

 

You have GERD or acid reflux or something like that correct? Forgive me if I am incorrect. It might be that acting up. Are you eating something different that may cause that?

[Netfoot]

6 hours ago, andidante said:

You have GERD or acid reflux or something like that correct?

Yes, I do. I'm hoping it is that and nothing really weird like a space-alien incubating in my chest!

Not been eating anything especially strange. The only difference in my diet I can think of in the last week or so (which is how long this has been happening) is that I switched back to evaporated milk in my tea from diluted condensed. I suppose it could be that...

A roti and a coke. And a movie. The roti is boneless chicken & channa. I like to add pumpkin for a bit of sweetness or cooked cabbage for a slight crunch. Curry is often served with sweet condiments/extras like coconut , raisins or chutney. No pumpkin available today so cabbage it is.

Here it is with three huge bites taken out. Mo got the first and last bites of this roti and an excessively large number of the ones in between as well. 

Roti can be incredibly messy to eat if the curry is "juicy". You can end up with curry running down your arm and dripping off your elbow! My mum called such a roti "back-steps food". Because it's best to sit on the back steps to eat it do so you can hose off the mess that you leave when you're done. Today it was not juicy and was no trouble to eat.

Edited Saturday at 11:36 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Had chips for lunch. With corned beef gravy, so.... poutine?

I sliced the potatoes, washed them twice and left them soaking for 30-35 minutes. Dried the chips with two brand new kitchen towels.

The oil frothed right up like before and completely obscured the chips as they cooked. Foamed right up to the rim of the pan. As the chopd cooked the foaming reduced. That makes sense because as the moisture cooks out the foam reduces. 

The chips came out and I gave them to Mo with gravy. The second half of the chips went in and the foam was right back. When they were cooked (and the foam almost disappeared) I drained them and added the other half of the gravy. That was my lunch. I will brew up.a mug of tea in a while.

 Feeling very lazy this weekend. Just lolling around watching videos and reading. 

Not sure what we will have for dinner tonight. Maybe pasta, maybe rice. Rice would be easier and like I said, I'm feeling lazy.

Spent hours yesterday trying to burn an install DVD for Slackware-64 version 15.0 starting with an ISO image I downloaded from Slackware themselves. 

I tried 4-5 different burning tools and each of them told me that the ISO was less than half the size of the double-layer DVD+R disk I had. Advising me that it would waste more than 50% of the disk to burn the ISO, it told me to get a single layer disk and use that instead. Then it refused to proceed with the burn. Five separate pieces of software did this. 

Eventually, I had to mount the ISO, copy all the contents to a working directory, create a 1.2 Gb padding file in there and create a new ISO which was big enough that it required a DL disk. 

What fool would think that they should warn about efficient use of the disk and not allow the user to go ahead? I don't know who but four or  five software designers all thought the same way.

I didn't have a mug of tea this morning. I could really use one now. 

[Netfoot]

Sleepy afternoon. 

Rice with tuna, the last of the black beans & purple cabbage and carrot. Quite tasty. Mo ate his before I could finish mine. Normally he waits until I put my bowl down and then cleans it out. Then he eats. But not tonight. 

Watched Platoon. A host of talented actors show the terrible reality of the Vietnam war. I was not at risk, not being a US citizen, but I met and new several young American men who were on the run from the draft. Many served. But it is hard to condemn those who decided they would not.

Blue Origin's Cock-rocket made it back after a historic 10:29 flight! If only they could have arranged this a month earlier, maybe they could have rescued Butch & Suni!

Mozie is looking out the window. It's been quiet all day. (No real surprise.) Garden Patrol was dark (no moon, very few stars) and quiet. A coolish breeze is blowing. I want a shower but I don't really want to get wet. If you know what I mean...

He has been very affectionate today. 

He usually is but today is but today is extra!

I guess I'd better go brave the Shower & the Cool Breeze. Sounds like a movie title. What would the plot be about? And I already had my tea so I can't even have a warm mug waiting for me après la douche!

[Netfoot]

Woke up!
Fell oudda bed!
Puppy made me see some red...

My apologies to the Beatles.

Now I gotta go find a shoe.....

Edited Monday at 11:45 AM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Yep.

Same ship, different bay. 

[Netfoot]

Been watching a bunch of movies. Let's see...

The Born Losers as well as Billy Jack. Tom Laughlin started as Billy Jack in four movies in the late 60s & early 70s. The last two were not much but the first two were hot when they first came out. No idea why. The acting was pretty poor and production values were low. The first two movies (at least) attracted cult-like approval. Watching again I am amused at the milquetoast nature of the baddies and the untutored skills of most of the actors. The real slutty hoes the plot called for were played by some very clean-cut and innocent looking young women in neat, clean clothes that looked new but relatively unsophisticated. Yet I found these movies enjoyable to watch. Nostalgia, I guess.

Skyscraper is a sort of Die Hard clone with Dwayne Johnson in the lead. Terrorists/thieves take over a skyscraper and Johnson has to infiltrate and defeat to save his wife & kids who are trapped in the building as it burns. 

Without Remorse is a Tom Clancy shoot-em-up starring Michael B. Jordan as the vet whose wife is killed as a part of some twisted political take-over plot and hard charges to get to the bottom of it and punish the wrongdoers.

London Has Fallen as well as Angel Has Fallen are parts two & three of a trilogy starring Gerard Butler as the Secret Service man who takes his job on presidential protection very seriously. I watched part one recently so I did not see the need to rewatch it again so soon. Aaron Eckhart plays the President in part one with Morgan Freeman as Speaker of the House. In part two Freeman had become Vice President and in part three Freeman had advanced to President. I'm all three movies the President comes under severe threat of harm and Butler heroically saves the day. 

Mo just jumped into bed. We had penne with corned beef & onion for lunch and Mo only ate a small amount. I reheated his penne for dinner, adding some extra bully beef and fried it up with an egg. The bowl was quite full and Mo only ate about ¾ of it. I, mean time, was peering into the fridge trying to think what I would have for my dinner. But when I saw Mo walk away from his bowl, my problem was solved. I finished his penne and very nice it was too. 

I was also able to make a single sofa foot on the lathe (only one was requested) and to finish the glue-up on one of the mahogany chairs. Not the one with the badly broken joints, the other one. I used 90 minute epoxy and masking tape as a barrier to prevent the epoxy squeeze-out from getting everywhere. The joints of that chair were in pretty good condition. No broken pieces in the joints and only two joints that needed regluing. One o'clock tomorrow will be 24 hours it has been clamped up on the table and curing. After that I can do the others one. That one had three joints that need regluing and a couple of them are really bad. 

I have been looking at the possibility of adding a steel corner-brace to each joint to strengthen them. They are only a couple of bucks each plus screws, and I could possibly get away without adding them to some of the joints. Steel braces would be a poor quality solution but given how bad some of the joints are, there may not be any alternative.

The lathe really needs some servicing and the chisels are pretty worn. Both of my diamond parting tools are broken. The scrapers are fine. The bowl gouge needs replacing it was a very cheap purchase for around $30 which was quick to chip the edge and to wear. A decent bowl gouge might be around $125 and a deluxe one anywhere up to $350. But bowl gouges are not necessary for making sofa feet. 

I desperately need a shower and I will go and do that now. Tomorrow I have to deposit that welfare cheque that was dated on Good Friday. While I'm out. I suspect I will spend some money on groceries but I really want to avoid spending too much. Month-end is only 10 days away and rent is short. Pension should drop on the 1st but probably late afternoon. The landlord likes to be waiting outside the bank from before it opens to cash his rent cheque at 8:01 AM. 

Ok, time for a shower.

Edited Yest. at 04:12 AM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I'm tired. It's only minutes to midnight but I don't know why I'm this tired. I've not done much today. Dropped the cheque at the bank and bought a board from Kooyman, then grabbed some groceries before heading back home. 

Been surfing YT and watching some TV episodes but otherwise done nothing tiring today at all. 

Gave Mo chow for lunch and had corned beef sandwiches. Mo refused to eat his lunch and demanded my sandwiches instead. Later, his lunch became his dinner and he refused to eat that either because I had more sandwiches for him to demand. He ended up eating most of the chow in the long run because I stood firm and gave him only a bite or two of sandwich.

The door is locked, I'm showered and powdered, Mo is curled up at my feet and a mug of tea is sitting on the bedside table. Watching a video on wiring up hotrods and by time that is done I will have finished my tea and ready to roll over and fade. 

I don't think I will read tonight.