Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

Why did I tell you all about WW-II military tin openers? I have no idea. If you have not already concluded this for yourself, let me tell you now, that you can safely ignore 97% of everything I say.

I bought condensed milk, a box of teabags and two packs of macaroni elbows.  The remaining $32 bucks went into the bank to cover the bank service fee which will be levied any day now. The remaining balance will cover the rent with about $12 exactly $26.01 left over. 

Boiled up the two packs of elbows and cooked up some onion, corned beef and diced cucumber, along with a tin of diced tomatoes. When the pasta was ripe, I stole a ladle of the starchy water to add to the "sauce". The elbows were drained and put back into the pot, and the sauce poured on top and mixed in. I added pepper sauce to mine. Mo will eat it his food with pepper but he drinks a lot of water after and I see no need to subject him to a burny mouth unnecessarily. 

At dinner time I brought ¼" of water to a boil in a pot and placed the pasta in a colander over the top so the steam could permeate upwards. In about 30 seconds the pasta was nice and hot again, without becoming overcooked. 

Lunch tomorrow will be a new batch of rice with bully beef and carrots and cucumber. Or I can reserve the carrots and instead add frozen carrots with green peas. I will probably also boil some lentils for 20 minutes or so first, and add a good scoop or two of them to the rice.

I have a friend who works at a poultry farm. They sell wholesale chicken to vendors across the island. Apparently they also have retail outlets and I've discovered one is cleverly concealed directly across the road from Edgar Cochrane polyclinic. Next time I go for meds I may pop over and see if I can get some cheap chicken. Their whole chickens are approximately $5.50 per pound. So $33 and I could get three two-pound birds and bake them all at the same time. (I understand that multiple birds can be roasted or baked in the same time as a single bird, so long as they are all about the same size. If you know different, you have until my next visit to ECP to advise!)

All assuming I will have $33 to spend at that time.

Mo is being very affectionate. He is half asleep but he is sticking close and maintaining a high level of body contact. He moves from time to time but he moves to a new location with plenty of snuggle in it. 

Listening to Why Can't This Be Love? by Van Halen. This single from their album 5150 was the first with Sammy Hagar, right after the departure of David Lee Roth. I love DLR but I've always said Hagar was a fitting replacement, with a very similar voice and style and this is one of those few occasions where the quality of the music did not waver even a little, after the replacement of a major band member. I don't say this to diminish DLR's talent or ability, but to emphasize that Hagar was by no means inferior.

Watched Without Remorse today, a movie based on a Tom Clancy novel, with a number of changes to time lines, etc. It's been a while since I read the book so there may have been other, more significant changes as well.

My monitor is on the way out. I have trouble reading text on it and movies & videos generally appear as a dark blur. It's been like this for a while. Not so bad at first, but it has been getting progressively worse to the point where I have to look for a replacement.

Obviously, I won't be buying one. Fortunately, I have two monitors here and I'm thinking that one of them might work as a replacement. If it can be made to work. It does have a bright green, vertical hair-fine (one pixel) stripe, but I might be able to live with that if I can read the remainder of the screen. Otherwise,I have another one here that I can try but I'm not sure it works at all. Neither has a stand, but they have a VESA mount on the back so if I can get hold of four M4 screws I will have to build a stand. Four screws should be a good bit cheaper than an entire monitor! They will have to be longer than standard though, as they will be screwing through thick wood instead of thin metal. 

OK, I'm going to douse the lights now and get some sleep. Got a good, solid sleep last night (and needed it) and I'm hoping for the same tonight.

Edited October 30 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Rice on the stove!

Four cups of rice, bully beef, frozen carrots & green, mini musket balls, onions, diced cucumber and a couple scoops of cooked lentils. Add eight cups of water, salt, garlic powder, paprika and three tiny chicken stock cubes. (The cubes are only 10mm in size.)

Cooking now; soon finished. Mo came some time ago to advise me that it was lunchtime. He will welcome his rice just as much as I will welcome mine!

Mean time I'm working on small, triangular sofa feet. After doing the math, I've cut down the longer boards to shorter lengths which are more easily managed on the saw. And I've added a new extender board to my miter gauge. I used my combination square to set the angle and cut one foot. Then I made a clamp-on stop block to simplify cutting the remaining feet to correct length. According to my calculations, I should be able to get 113 feet. If I can actually get 100, I will be happy. 

But before I cut any more I have to change the blade as I planned to do several days ago. 

But before I do that I will have to eat my rice.....

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

The lunch rice tastes good! I wish I had a few other ingredients to make it better. I mean like Worcester sauce, mayo, or that sort of stuff that you could add a dash of to your bowl to make it a little bit more tasty. 

Had a second portion for dinner, warmed up in a pan. Again, if I'd added a beaten egg, the dish would have been subtly different and that would be a good thing. A minor addition to each meal - a sausage, an egg, some tuna fish, a plantain, etc, would make each meal unique and so not monotonous. Of course, it helps when the rice tastes good to start with.

Listening to The Magician's Birthday by Uriah Heep. This band was mega-big when I was at school. Only guitarist Mick Box remains from the original lineup. But then, it has been fifty five years...

Mo is on the foot of the bed, eating an empty bottle. Ow! And my toes. Now he is rolling around on my legs... OK, now he is bathing my left arm and making the phone difficult to use! He was slow to come on Garden Patrol and the reason? A stolen pair of running shorts out by the gate. And from the clean laundry, too! 😠

Friday is a welfare cheque day. Except, I have not received any new welfare cheques. The landlord was here yesterday and did not find a cheque in his mailbox. I am hoping the cheque will arrive between the last time he was here (yesterday) and Friday. Since Friday is the 1st of the month, he will be here Friday morning to collect the rent cheque out of the same box. So if my welfare cheque is in there by then I should get it without issue. 

Actually, as I normally get two cheques at once, dated a fortnight apart, I should get two cheques by Friday. I don't recall the cheques ever being late. I've been delayed by the landlord not being here to pass them along, but the cheques themselves have never been late. They normally come on Thursday or before.

All assuming that:

• They have not abandoned cheques and switched to direct deposit, as they claimed they were going to do, months ago.
• They are still paying me welfare money at all. They never got around to telling me the conditions under which I would receive welfare, nor how long the payments would continue for.

Mo has retired to the tiles.

No movies watched today. Tried watching something (name escapes me) that turned out to be mostly in Polish, so I had to abandon that. Then too, tried to watch Anaconda (the remake, not the 1997 original with J-Lo) but that was entirely in Mandarin Chinese. Settled for an episode of the Robin Hood series. 

YT is a hell-hole these days. Except for food channels. Otherwise it is all one lot slagging off the other lot and getting slagged off in return. The outright lying is reaching supercritical levels. Do these people not know that what ever happens, we get to see the original video with our own eyes? Why do they think I will see something happen and then believe a story that describes the exact opposite of what I saw for myself?

It's less than a week now, and I've been saying it will all be over soon. But I now doubt that to be true. Who ever wins, will be accused of cheating. When you tell me you are going to preserve honesty and I legitimacy by acting in a dishonest and illegitimate way...

So, yes. YT food channels. Watched people making sandwiches, deviled eggs, pizza, steak, chicken wings, and a curry that could only come from an English Chinese chippy. I personally don't like the yellow, Chinese curry you get from a chippy. Indian curry? Yum! Chinese? No, not really.

Your average Englishman coming home exceedingly drunk from the pub is convinced that a curry from the Chinese chippy will sober them up. Maybe they're right. The curry almost always brings on violent, prodigious projectile vomiting. And I guess if anything is going to sober you up, that will do it...

My book is progressing well. I'm about ⅓ of the way in. But don't forget that this book is actually two books under one cover, so that means I'm probably closer to ⅔ of the way through the first volume. Maybe another 100 pages to go?

Got my new saw blades out and had a look. One is 32 teeth and the other is 60 teeth. Both have carbide teeth. More teeth will give a cleaner cut. 80 teeth would be typical for a blade to cut plywood and other paneling and for cutting across the grain. 40 teeth would be typically use for ripping along the grain. I think of the two blades I have, the 60 tooth blade is a sort of compromise between ripping and cross-cutting. The 32 tooth blade is an aggressive ripper blade. I think I will go with the 60 teeth blade. I must also have a look at the dull blade that comes out of the saw and find out what Flintstones would charge to sharpen it. Assuming the teeth are only dull, and none are actually broken. Which I doubt.

I also used my circular saw today and it is as dull as a vegan barbecue! The blade for this is 7¼" as opposed to the 10" blades used on the table saw. Last time I bought blades for the circular saw I think they were on special for $85 and that was at least 10 years ago!

Just gone eleven! Will have a go at my book. Feeling hungry. Good thing there is nothing to eat in the house, like bread & cheese or crackers and peanut butter. I could go and eat rice but then there might not be enough for lunch & dinner for Mo and myself tomorrow. And I will be busy with sofa feet tomorrow, and won't want to do any cooking.

So nighty-nite, all!

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Changing Table Saw Blade:

1. VERY IMPORTANT: Unplug the saw! 
2. Use a block of wood to stop the blade & arbor from rotating and slacken the arbor nut. (My saw does not have a fancy arbor-lock!) Remove the arbor nut and washer 
3. Remove the old blade.
4. Prep the new blade. 
5. Install blade and secure with arbor washer and arbor nut.
6. Replace ZCI (Zero Clearance Insert); the home made, wooden throat-plate.

You're done! (You can plug the saw back in again, but this step is optional. Only needed if you want the saw to run!)

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

A few moments later.....

114 small, triangular sofa feet all cut to size. Could have got more with better planning. The pieces of stock were such that I "lost" anything from 1" to practically an entire foot at the end of each piece of stock. 

Still, 114 isn't bad. More than I'd expected to get. Because I'd computed 113 and you always lose a couple when cutting due to foul-ups. I was hoping for 100 but this leaves me with the option of discarding a few (if they turn out to be ugly) and still have a good number. 28 sofas by 4 feet is 112 feet in total. But hopefully, all 114 will be OK. There were a couple of rough ones (sanding!), but nothing really bad. 

ETA: Did I count right?

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Yeeech!

Hadn't seen much of Mo this morning but he came to tell me it was time for lunch. 

He reeks! He smells like a fermented sewer! I've searched him bodily and can find nothing stuck to or in his fur. But he is so stinky you can tell when he enters the room, even if your eyes are closed!

Lunch was "gazpacho" rice, served cold out the fridge. Just kidding - warmed in a pan before serving. Mo who gets at least as much as I do and often a bit more, finishes his meals before I can even get mine plated!

There is enough left for dinner tonight. If I survive the smell of my favourite puppy.

Then we will have to cook something else for Friday. We have more rice, but I don't know if we have four cups. We have potatoes and a little pasta.

I could even cook something like a simple lentil & potato soup and put it through the blender. Nothing elaborate, but with some corned beef and even a bunch of dumplings in it (after blending) it could be quite palatable. The dumplings or as an alternative, fry-bread will be required. Mo will need something more substantial than a thin soup for his meals.

The stink is numbing my nostrils.....

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

114 minus one is 113.

This was about the 5th one I drilled and I failed to notice there was a little chip of wood in the jig. This displaced the foot and caused the counterbore to be drilled slightly offset to the left. 

I will hand drill the pilot hole and the other two holes will be accurate in the jig. I'll point out the flaw when he comes to collect... 

Here are the remaining 113 feet. These have had the first (of three) counterbores drilled. The pilot holes for this counterbore have to drilled next. After that, the jig will be repositioned and the other two other counterbores drilled, then the last two pilot holes. There are six drilling operations required, per foot. 

I have bad belly-cuttings this afternoon. Mo still stinks to high heaven.

Back to drinking black tea again.😕

[Netfoot]

Here is my drilling jig under construction. If I were making thousands of these I'd spend more time and make my jigs much more sophisticated. As it is, scrappy pieces of wood can make a perfectly serviceable jig. Anyway, here it is:

On the top/left you can see two wood blocks glue to the base with a 90° angle between them. Clamped in the correct position on the drill press, the corners of the feet can be pushed into place in this corner of the jig, and the quill lowered to drill the counterbore in exactly the correct place. It takes only a few seconds each to counterbore the corners.

The lower/right of the jig is pretty much exactly the same, with 45° instead of 90°.  Both acute corners can be quickly counterbored using this half of the jig.

Here is a box of feet, all counterbored in the 90° corner. 

By leaving the drill press exactly as is and changing only the bit, the pilot hole will drop right in the middle of the counterbore. A minor glitch (previously mentioned) resulted in one hole being bored slightly off-center. I hgad to add the pilot hole manually.

Bad photo, I know, but hopefully you get the picture.

Now, reposition the jig so the other blocks are under the quill and switch back to the Forstner bit.

The two remaining counterbores can be drilled quickly. When all feet have been done, switch back to the smaller bit and complete the drilling operations on each foot.

All drilling operations now complete - tomorrow comes the fun part! Sanding!

Edited October 31 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

LOL!

When processing the box of 114 feet, I discovered these two:

As you can see, one counterbore appears to be missing from each.

Using the jig I drilled the pilot hole in the foot on the left (just visible) intending to add the counterbore afterwards. That worked fine. The foot on the right was not suitable for this "fix". Why? Because the missing counterbore....

...showed up! Sorry, but that one is just not fixable.

So, down from 114 to 113 with the others all useable. At 113 he is getting these for the very good price of $3.98 each. 

I will start sanding tomorrow. I will not aim to finish them all because I was told that only 12 would be need initially, and I was told Wednesday. So if I can get a couple dozen done per day, they will all be finished by Wednesday without excessive effort on my part. But if I feel good after doing a couple dozen, I might keep going and go for three dozen a day. Or four.

Mr. Stinky and I have finished off the last of the rice. Actually, when he came to inform me it was dinner time, he hardly stank at all. Doggies can clean themselves extremely well when they need to. Unless they have received excessive baths. I avoid bathing any of my boys. The stinkiest pup can clean himself pretty well in two days. And Mo, who was eye-watering at lunchtime is almost sweet-smelling again. Almost! I'm not saying that I never wash my boys. They get washed maybe twice per year. Sometimes they are just grubby and a wash is merited. I'm saying that if you wash your pup every week, you will rob them of the ability to clean themselves when they need to.

When Doggie Doctor says wash them with some medicinal solution every week for 8 weeks to get rid of a skin complaint or something, that is different. Unless DD is just out to sell me more expensive canine shampoo.....

[Netfoot]

Exactly midnight.

The plan for tomorrow: cash my welfare cheque at the post office, deposit the $120 in my bank account and (when the deposit is processed) pay one month (the oldest) of my electric bill. Which happens to be $136.79,leaving me with a surplus at the bank of $8.37 total. 

Only problem: I don't have a welfare cheque to cash! I dropped the rent cheque I the landlord's mail box this evening after Garden Patrol. I looked into the slot and could clearly see that the box was completely empty.

I've been getting welfare cheques for 28 weeks and they have never been late. Even if Postie brings one tomorrow, heaven knows when I might get it because the landlord will be here at first light to get my cheque and will be gone by time Postie comes, if she does. It is just possible that they have begun using the Direct Deposit system that they have been planning for months. If so, the deposit has not dropped yet because I checked. And my bank would have sent me notification of the deposit, had it occurred. 

Now, if the deposit is due on 1st November, they might wait until that exact date to make the deposit. If so, it might appear in my account some time tomorrow. My pension is reliably four days early every month. This ensures that if the pension is formally due on a Monday (which it is, every 28 days) I will get my pension without delay, even if it is a 4-day Easter weekend. That is a very convenient policy but there is no guarantee that Welfare will adopt a similar policy.

I think it is very likely that my run of welfare assistance has simply come to an end. 28 weeks may sound like an unusual period, but who knows how these things work?

Anyway, I will hope that a cheque (or deposit) does show up eventually - late is better than never. But I am concerned.

It's only $60/week, but it has been a saviour. I don't know how I would have got here without it. I don't know how to manage without it. The money from the sofa feet had been critical, but the welfare has also been critical. It has also been reliable, which the sofa feet have not.

To make matters worse, the electric bill which came this week included a disconnection warning. I could be cut off at any time. Last time I was disconnected, food in the fridge spoiled and life was pretty grim for 6 days. I kept in touch by going over to the mall every day and using their wifi. Unfortunately, their wifi has been offline for several weeks now, and I don't expect it to come back any time soon. 

Rock. Me. Hard place.

Mo was here a moment ago, lying peacefully next to me. He has now wandered out of the bedroom. I can hear him barking outside on the grass,near the window. He still pongs, but nowhere near as vilely as this morning. The picture I posted before? It was difficult being in his company long enough to take that photo. Now, he isn't a sweet smelling puppy by any means, but he no longer makes my eyes water. He's back again...

Been watching more Robin Hood episodes. Between cutting out 114 feet and drilling 342 counterbores and 342 pilot holes, I didn't spend a lot of time sitting around at my desk. Only when tiredness forced me to sit down. Today was hot and still, so I frequently found myself drenched with sweat to the point where I was slithering around with the tools and just had to get in front of the fan and dry off with a little towel. And as soon as I felt I could get back to work I did so, without relaxing to the end of the episode or anything like that. 

Hope to get a significant number of feet sanded tomorrow. (Mo has departed again, after looking out the window.) I will then message to say "X number of feet ready to collect at your convenience; sanding continues on the remainder." I will also mention that the overall price will work out to be good at <$4 each. (Mo is back, and straight to the windows.) I hope he is forthcoming with more jobs sooner rather than later. The loss of electricity will make sanding these feet "difficult" (read: impossible) and doing any other job just as "difficult".

Listening to Go Down Gamblin' by BS&T. I like BS&T. Nowhere near as prolific as Chicago, but not a bad catalogue of a dozen or so studio albums. And a good brass section.

Well, I'm going to read my book a while. It's after midnight already but surprisingly, I don't feel very tired. But I do want to get up in the morning, check my blood sugar (3.4 mmol/L last time: 'Dangerously Low") and get sanding. So I won't read for long. 

Mo is curled up next to me, cleaning his nuts. He still is a bit stinky but bearably so. Thank goodness.....

Closeup of my face this morning, dealing with Mo at his worst:

The unruly beard hides a lot but believe me, that is not a happy face!

Edited November 1 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

40 sofa feet sanded and now complete and ready for delivery. (Lower box.)

The 41st foot had a sliver split away from the body. It is right on the edge where I would need to sand away the edge into a smooth curve. But I couldn't be sure the entire sliver would get sanded away. So I stopped and glued the sliver down and taped it into place. When it's dried, I can sand as planned and if it goes away, it goes away. If some remains, it will be glued firmly into place.

Of course, having stopped at 40, I have not restarted. I will get a glass of iced water and take a break. I don't have to wait until the glue on #41 has dried before I resume. I can set it aside and leave it until tomorrow when it is thoroughly dry. Remember, I don't need to do these all today. Although I might, if everything goes smoothly and I don't completely collapse from tiredness.....

Not seen much of Mo this morning. In fact, I will go and look for him now. Want to come along?

Searched high and low - no sign. Realized that the only place I hadn't looked was...

...right behind me!

Bad photo. Gave him a snuff and no stinkee. That probably means my nose has been numbed...

[Netfoot]

Phew!

[Netfoot]

Listening to 16 Fathoms Down by shaggy & Sting. I like Shaggy and I like Sting but I continue to be surprised how well this combination worked out!

Came to bed to find it was already occupied. 

He has since retired to the tiles but I suspect he will be back...

You probably can guess how relieved I was to get that welfare cheque today. Late for some reason, but in hand never the less. I hussled down to the post office to cash it then straight to the bank to deposit it. From there, back home, arriving at 12:05, maneuvering part, around and through the three rassholes who had blocked up the road in front of my house.

I made soup. Different soup. I started by dicing a few potatoes and putting them in a pot with a package of dry lentils. Boiled them in water with salt, garlic powder and two stick cubes. After 30 minutes, I ran the whole lot through the blender then added sliced carrots and onion as well as a chunk of bully beef. As that was simmering, I made some very plain dumplings which I chucked in to cook in the soup. 

The soup was mostly a thick broth despite the carrots and dumplings. So I cooked a cup of rice with more lentils. I fed Mo a bowl of lentil rice with a scoop of potato & lentil (with bully & carrot) soup on top. He sniffed and turned away. I looked away for a second and when I looked back, the bowl was empty.

I had the soup by itself. Not a flavour explosion in the mouth but by no means unpalatable. The shortage of things to chew on in comparison to my usual soups is a little strange. If I had more things to add I would. But right now, the bank balance is $8.37 (more later) so not much opportunity to shop for sweet potatoes, yams and plantains! I'm thinking that fry-bread might have been a better choice than dumplings in this particular case.

Was very tired after lunch so I took a solid nap. When Mo woke me up (he's back in bed, BTW, bathing my left arm), I checked my email. The bank sends me an email to notify me when the deposit gas been processed. But no email. 

The balance of the rice and another dollop of soup had Mo happy and I had another bowl of soup for my dinner. Still no email. Ok, it's now waaay too late to get Light & Power paid before the weekend, but what is my balance anyway? Checking online, I discovered that the deposit had been processed hours before but no notification had been sent.

< Saved here because the browser has crashed five times and I don't want to have to do a text recovery for the sixth time. >

Anyway, paid the oldest month of arrears at BL&P but it won't get processed u til next week, so I hope they don't disconnect over the weekend. (The final demand pay-by date was 7th October.)

The other welfare cheque that came today (they come two at a time) can be cashed on my birthday.

Unfortunately, I can't take it and go to Barbecue Barn to get myself a birthday meal. I checked online and soup, salad, starter, entree and a soft drink, plus desert and a coffee would cost me $114.95 leaving me only $5.05 from the cheque. Instead I will pay the Telco and have $1.67 left back instead. (No, if I didn't have bills to pay I still wouldn't go and eat that meal. I'd buy groceries for the house instead.)

The term "rasshole" by the way, is uniquely Bajan. Yes, it means exactly what you think it does, only worse.

Saving paragraph by paragraph, now.

Mozie is back on the tiles. He still is a tiny bit stinky if you snuffle his fur deeply, but generally that awful stench he was exuding yesterday has gone. I still need to take a shower and lock up. And potato & lentil soup seems to have the effect of promoting flatulence.

OK so 48 sofa feet done, 65 more to sand. If I do 32-ish a day they will all be ready by Monday morning. 32 a day should be easy, seeing as I did 48 today. 

Look, I'm going to save this here and see if I can finish my book tonight. It's a minute before eleven and tomorrow is Saturday so I should be able to get through it without too much difficulty. 

Edited November 2 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just finished Bagley's High Citadel. I was closer to the end than I thought. Having another entire book between the same covers makes it difficult to judge.

Next? Wyatt's Hurricane. I like this book very much, prolly for the same reason that my favourite Bond movie is Thunderball. It's set in the Caribbean. A fictitious island nation ruled by a crazed, evil dictator is in the path of a very strong hurricane but he won't accept that the danger is real, because he did not give any hurricane permission to strike! Meteorologist Wyatt struggles to make anyone take the threat seriously, as the rebel forces attempt to overthrow the government. The description of a powerful storm strike from this book has left me with a lifetime respect for the potential danger that threatens us here most years, sometimes more than once. 

Not tonight. Showered and in bed after locking up, I will wait until tomorrow to get stuck in. 

[luv2lurk]

I don't understand why they don't switch to direct deposit for the cheques.

Have you asked recently?

 

 

[Netfoot]

7 hours ago, luv2lurk said:

I don't understand why they don't switch to direct deposit for the cheques.

Red tape & bureaucratic inertia, I'd guess. It's been about 5-6 months since I received a request for my details but I'd only just joined the scheme so they might have been working on it for years at that point. I asked when it might go into effect and the guy indicated another two months. But then he began laughing hysterically, so I guess he knew that was a completely unrealistic deadline.

I don't know why the scheme would present any difficulty to implement. Pensions already utilize direct deposit.

Quote

Have you asked recently?

No.

Yesterday, I was reaching for the phone to call them to make inquiries when it rang. I would have started by asking if they had switched to direct debit. But before I could pick up the phone it rang. It was the landlord telling me he had the cheque for me...

By the way, the bank notification that the deposit had been processed, which failed to arrive yesterday, came at 6:01 this morning. Nearly 18 hours late. Not much help stopping illicit withdrawals by internet tricksters.

[Netfoot]

The sander has bitten me again! That's four times. Two yesterday and two this morning.

All four right in exactly the same spot. I've had to start using a pair of gloves. Gloves are not as obvious as you might think. If you are wearing gloves and they get snagged and pulled into the machine they will take your hands with them.

72 feet now sanded - another two dozen this morning. 

Landlord just increased my rent by $200 per month...

Edited November 2 by Netfoot

[andidante]

3 hours ago, Netfoot said:

 

Landlord just increased my rent by $200 per month...

Has he raised it that much before? That is outrageous!! 

[Netfoot]

1 minute ago, andidante said:

Has he raised it that much before? That is outrageous!! 

It's the first time he has raised the rent since I moved in, maybe 15 years ago.

[andidante]

13 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

It's the first time he has raised the rent since I moved in, maybe 15 years ago.

To me that's still a lot! You just can't seem to catch a break.😟

[b4pjoe]

4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Landlord just increased my rent by $200 per month...

Is that $200 US dollars or $200 Barbadian dollars? Even if Barbadian it is still about $101 US dollars. YIKES! If it is US dollars...DOUBLE YIKES!

[Netfoot]

31 minutes ago, b4pjoe said:

Is that $200 US dollars or $200 Barbadian dollars? Even if Barbadian it is still about $101 US dollars. YIKES! If it is US dollars...DOUBLE YIKES!

It's $200 Bajan dollarettes. But that is the money we use here. It's what my pension & welfare and woodworking pays me in.

At $3.98 each it's 51 more sofa feet that I have to be asked to make.

Edited November 2 by Netfoot

[b4pjoe]

At $3.98 Bajan dollarettes per sofa feet you are being grossly underpaid. 😁

[Netfoot]

Sodium Citrate. Supposedly makes cheese melt without "breaking", producing smoother, creamier cheese sauces.

Anyone use the stuff? Where do you buy it? I don't think its available around here.

90 sofa feet completed, now. Another 18 done. (The box holds 18 feet per layer.) One more layer plus a handful of stragglers remain: only 23 more to go. Gotta leave something to occupy myself with tomorrow, right?

[Netfoot]

Custard Creams - 125g for $18.99

Custard Creams - 150g for $4.99

If you know, you know!

[Netfoot]

Why is my battery at 8%?

I watched a silly movie today about some guy who went for a hike in the woods and encountered a drug-lab. Much gunfire ensued....

The news about the rent increase was a blow, I will admit. It's been years and I can't really blame the guy... but it's going to be very tough to manage. I doubt I will find anywhere comparable, so I guess I will have to manage, somehow. 

The sofa feet and the welfare have made life barely manageable. It allows me to carry on but it doesn't allow me to spend money on frivolous luxuries. Like bread, eggs, cheese, and food generally. An additional $200 in expenses will prolly put all groceries out of reach!

Listening to Suspicions by Eddie Rabbit. Not a huge fan but I do like this track. 

Got 23 more feet to sand tomorrow. I've previously informed him that I had 48 ready but when he comes for thec 48 I want to tell him I've finished the rest and give him the entire lot. So can ask him "What next?"

Battery now at 4% so I will save here and switch to my book. Mo was just here next to me being extra affectionate; licking my arm so the phone becomes very difficult to use. And literally sitting on my face.

I gave him the last of the penne with the last of the soup poured over it. No dinner for me. I would have cooked chips but the oil situation is almost as dire as the money situation. 

Ok, Wyatt's Hurricane with the battery at 2%. Might add some more later but we are going in the Qi charger right now!

Edited November 3 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just wrote 5 paragraphs on how hungry I was having had watery soup for lunch and iced water for dinner. And I described all the food I didn't have in the house. 

Then the post vanished.

It is after midnight and all there is is potatoes, spaghetti (unless that packet has macaroni in it) and rice. Should I get out of bed and start cooking? It would be near one o'clock before I was eating.

Since I plan to cook the last of the rice tomorrow, it would have to be spuds or pasta. And the only thing to go on it would be onion & bully, maybe with some of the Hotchup as well.

Wish I had some bread & cheese. Or sausages & eggs. Or even just ramen ! Or  anything quick and simple, just to fill the hole. To keep my belly button from meeting my backbone.

I don't know how much longer I can go on living like this!

[Netfoot]

Cooked half a packet of spaghetti which I found in the door of the fridge. Ballsed it up. I expect the water was not as salty as the Mediterranean sea, more as salty as the Dead sea. Still ate it all. Time is twenty past one.

Less salt and a more imaginative sauce would have been nice. I remember when a sauce of mine would have had real meat, sweet and jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, brined olives and fresh tomatoes - even if it also had tinned tomatoes. That was a long time ago. A time that (apparently) will never come again. 

I expect I will be drinking water all night and all day tomorrow while peeing like a garden hose with a puncture, thanks to the salt. Mo insisted on a little taste but it really was a little taste, seeing as he already had two meals today. He won't have any issues with the salt because the amount of pasta & sauce he got was low. 

I am now returning to my book. It's late and I have sanding to do tomorrow but a page or two will quickly get me in the mood to switch all systems to Standby....

[Netfoot]

RIP, Peanut & Fred!

The last of the sofa feet have been sanded: 113 complete and ready for pickup.

And it's a new week, so what would be nice, is more work!

Gone ten. No idea what to cook for lunch. Rice? One, maybe two cups left. Potatoes? Yes, that could work. OK, potatoes. 

[Netfoot]

So naturally, I cooked rice. And potatoes. There was exactly two cups of rice left which will give Mo and I lunch and dinner.

The pot contained corned beef & rice, a couple of diced potatoes, two carrots, two onions, and two scoops of cooked lentils. Seasoned with salt (of course), plus the last of my stock cubes, some garlic powder, some paprika and some cilantro. It looks good:

Now, I will taste it. 

Tomorrow is Monday and who knows what we will eat then? I've got $4.46 in the bank, so I won't be buying groceries. There are 2-3 smallish potatoes and two packs of macaroni. There are several onions. And one tin of corned beef. 

[Netfoot]

Went in to get my towel and there was no sign of Love-Baby, but when I returned from my shower, he was resplendent on my pillow pyramid. He is such a shaggy boy. 

We had rice for lunch. With potato, obliqued carrots, thin onion rings (mandolin), two scoops of cooked lentils and corned beef. It tasted pretty good! And for some reason, I've not really been bothered by metallic or chemical tastes in my mouth. Not recently. Hope that situation doesn't revert to where it was before!

We had more of the rice for dinner, finishing off the pot. I only had two cups of rice and a single cup makes two servings. So one cup feeds Mo and I for one meal, and two cups feeds us both for a day. 

A cup of rice does not really produce a large amount of food. So it helps greatly to add cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, peas, channa, corn... What ever you can, to make one cup of rice produce two portions large enough to feed us. 

Watched a movie today. Can't remember the name but it is a popular plot-line. Hit-man gets terminal diagnosis from his doctor and takes out a hit on himself. Naturally, as soon as this is done, the doctor calls to say "The lab screwed up; you're fine!" But this doesn't stop every assassin in Europe continuing to earn the big-bux payout for making the hit! What I liked about this show was the amusing methods employed by each assassin in turn to make the hit, and the equally amusing means by which the target thwarted them, one by one. The movie ended up being more of a comedy than anything else.

Hope those sofa feet go early tomorrow. But I doubt it, somehow. When he asked me to make them he said something like "I'll need 8-12 by Wednesday, next week!, and the remainder when you get them finished." He won't have any need to come and collect before Tuesday afternoon or even Wednesday morning. But the sooner he comes and takes then away, the sooner they're off my hands. I'm happier with the job done and the parts delivered, than to be sitting here thinking "12 finished, only 100+ more to make!

Besides, given how I make them, it's easier to make them all at one time. It might take me a day to build/assemble a setup on the table saw with the miter gauge, but once it's set up, it takes me less than 5-10 seconds to cut each foot. I just start and keep going until they are all done and I have a box of cut parts. The drilling jig also takes time to build and set up on the drill press. But then I do all the 90° counterbores in 5-20 seconds each. Then I redo the setup and put in the matching pilot holes. Another setup and I do all the 45° counterbores in 10 seconds each. One final setup and the last pilot holes take another 10 seconds each. 

It's much easy to batch out the operations rather than do the parts one by one. To make a dozen at a time, I would have to keep redoing all the machine setups every 12 parts. 

Anyway, they're all done and he can collect when ever he is ready. I just hope he doesn't come to collect 12 and ask me to "keep" (i.e.: "store") the remainder until he wants them, some time further on down the road.

Listening to Loaded by Primal Scream off their Screamadelica album. A fun track! 

< Browser playing the fool. Will save now rather than risk losing the post. >

[Netfoot]

Woke up at 7:30. Went back to bed at 9:30 and immediately fell asleep again. Woke for the second time at noon.

Mo indicated he would not refuse some lunch.

I put macaroni to boil and corned beef to make a sauce with only water. That reduces our food supply to 1½ packages of macaroni and less than one tin of corned beef.

Just as the macaroni was finished, the stove ran out of gas. I removed the empty gas cylinder and double-checked: Yes, the spare gas cylinder is also empty.

So. We have very little food but it doesn't matter because we don't have the gas to cook it with anyway.

Mo won't eat his lunch.

I guess I should just go back to bed.

Edited November 4 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

The sofa feet were just collected. He said he had a job for me either later this week or next Monday.

[Netfoot]

So, no lunch for me. Or more correctly, a liquid lunch. I started with 1½" of Hotchup in a glass. I then added a dash of salt, a sprinkle of garlic powder and a dusting of dried thyme. Finally, 1½" of white vinegar and 1½" of water. Ice cubes and stir. Tasty. Would have been better if I could have replaced half the vinegar with lime juice but I have no limes. And I suspect it isn't a reflux-friendly beverage.

Come dinner time, there was nothing I could cook so poor Mo got gently rebuffed when he came looking for a meal. A couple of hours later, he returned and I went into the kitchen and scoured around to find something for him to eat. Eventually, I gave him a taste of the last of the cooked lentils and he ate them, so I gave him all of the remainder.

I was hungry too, so I scoured around some more and settled in the ½ tin of corned beef in the fridge. You can eat the stuff without cooking so I split it into two and diced up one half. Mo enjoyed a bully beef desert after his lentil pea entree. I ate mine but it really isn't the most palatable, right out of the tin. Better mixed with mayo and a few other things and spread on a cracker or a slice if bread! But neither mayo, crackers or bread were available so I ate it as it came. Mo finished his quickly and came along to help me with mine. I was quite surprised to see how delicately he took chunks of corned beef from my fork!

Tomorrow, there is nothing. All the remaining lentils and all the remaining bully have now been consumed. Mo will quite happily eat cubes of raw potato so I can cut up the few potatoes I've got left and give them to him. After uncheck that raw potato does not cause upset tummy in puppies.

Trying to sell something to get a few bucks. Don't have much. All the easy-to-sell stuff has long been sold. A I'm not sure what to buy, should I get my hands on a Grantley or so. 

A gas cylinder refill will cost me $43-ish. A bag of chow for Mo will be $18 or $26 depending on brand. This would only leave me with $30 to buy food. If I skipped the gas cylinder, I'd have $70 to buy grub. I could buy bread, crackers, PB&J, cheese, etc, and live on sandwiches until the next set of sofa legs comes along, hopefully no later than next Monday. I could buy a gas cylinder then, along with some food that requires cooking.

12 rolls for making cutters is between $7.50 and $8.00 and a large sliced loaf goes for around the same. A good sized block of cheddar would be $10 to $11. So $70 would buy cheese sarnies (or cutters) for at least a week. Can't think of alternatives to cheese. Ham: too pricy. Eggs: can't cook them. Tomato: Ooo-la-la! But with $70 to spare I might even be able to get some mayo. A small jar of pickles. Things to make the sarnies more palatable.

All of which discussion is moot, because I don't have a Grantly anyhow. 

Watched the layer version of Carrie (2013?) which follows the same basic script as the original. I rather expected a few deviations to differentiate the two, but not really.

So tomorrow is elections day. Today really, seeing as it's after midnight. Your election day is a bit of a joke. Our elections take place in a single day. They declare the polling stations, paint the white lines across the road on either side, and polling starts at 7:00 AM, I think. The polls close at 10:00 PM and the ballots are counted immediately. Results are announced during the course of the night and the official hand-over takes place the next morning. You guys have been voting for weeks and I'm now hearing that some state are going to delay announcing the results until they can manufacture enough ballots to guarantee the outcome they desire. (I presume this is a joke.)

I, obviously, have no idea what the outcome of the election will be but I will predict this: Whoever wins the election will be denied the presidency as a result of nefarious actions taken by their opponents.

Listening to a track called Untitled from the debut album of Visual Audio Sensory Theater (VAST). Yes, the track is titled "Untitled".

OK, it's late and I've had a lousy day, and tomorrow will be worse. So I am going to shut down now and hey! The election shenanigans tomorrow (and in the days and weeks ahead) probably won't promise reassuring improvements in the economy with corresponding improvements in my personal circumstances. But it's going to be very entertaining, what with all the screaming, chest-beating, outright cheating and holier-than-thou, bold-faced lying. So, there is that to look forward to....

[Netfoot]

Google: "Raw potatoes contain solanine, a compound that can be toxic to dogs. Make sure to always serve your pooch cooked potatoes. Raw potatoes can cause unwanted health effects such as gastrointestinal distress, weakness, and lethargy, as well as weight gain."

So, I fed him a raw carrot instead, cut into little strips. And I ate a few of those strips as well. 

I am arranging to sell an engine in order to get a few bucks. It is a $600 engine and since it's a forced sale,  I'll be lucky if I get $200 for it. I would take $100 if that were all I could get... Mo needs food.

If I do get $200, I hope to get a fresh gas cylinder, a bag of chow for Mo, and some groceries for the house.  Buyer said he was going into a meeting so I'm waiting to hear what he says when he comes out again.

[Netfoot]

I have a case of The Trotts. Prolly because I have been eating ketchup for the last two days.

The deal for the engine finally came through. Unfortunately the electricity went off around 3:30 and for a while I thought I'd lucked out and they'd cut me off.  But the entire neighborhood was out and (apparently)  large areas of the rest of the island too. It didn't come on again until well after six. The result is, the payment didn't come through until 8:04 PM and the shops close at 8:00 so no food today. $250.

I feel terrible that all Mo has had to eat for the day is a carrot. But first thing tomorrow we will be grocery shopping. So he will get breakfast, and maybe I will too.

Dunno when I will get to bed because I can't find any news that gives an indication as to how the election is going. But I expect I will get fed up fast, so I may head out soon.

ETA: I'm now hearing that Peanut the Squirrel was a N*zi...

Edited November 6 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Went shopping at seven. A few bucks worth of gas, a cylinder of gas, some groceries... but no chow for Mo. There wasn't any. Not the cheap variety, not the expensive variety. So I bought rice & corned beef.

At the gas station I bought two salt-fish cakes and gave Mo one. I should have given them both to him, but I was hungry too.

Came home and made myself some sandwiches. Fed Mo a significant share of my sarnies and the odd slice of plain bread too. Will cook a pot of corned beef rice for lunch but right now...

Tired as hell. Lying in bed and will probably nap. Woke this morning to the election results and the the most concentrated pile of copium in the history of the world. I'd hoped the election would put an end to the bullshit but apparently there will be weeks and months more of Chicken Little shouting "The sky is falling!"

Any way, I'm not feeling well so I will try to catch 40 winks, now.

[Netfoot]

Just back from Garden Patrol.

I couldn't find these earlier. They weren't in the back of the van where I thought they should be but I couldn't find them in the kitchen either.

Here is the guilty little face that Patrolled with me. But look at the wall on the very corner of the house.

Now, that's nasty. About 4½" to 5" long. Dangerous, but not too dangerous for a grown man. For a 35 lb. Puppy, though....

Buddy got bitten on his face when he was just a tyke. No idea how big that one was, maybe only 2-3". His face swole up like a balloon. I rushed him to the vet (1 minute away but closing in 2 minutes) and they pumped him full of antihistamines and gave me a bottle of antihistamine syrup for him to take for the next three days. A Croc made short work of this one.

So six unbroken eggs out of the dozen, and one with a cracked shell but intact membrane. He will be getting that one for breakfast. But what he won't be getting? Is any of these, despite them being specially purchased (for 69¢) with him in mind.

Edited November 7 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Yes, I was very angry when I saw those eggs. But he was hungry. No food the day before other than a carrot. OK, he'd had a fish cake and shared my cheese and ham sarnies by then but still, he was a hungry boy. And damned naughty !! But I still gave him half of each TeaTime biscuit. I broke each one in half and gave him the "bigger half". 

For his dinner I cooked corned beef & rice and gave him half. A couple hours later he was back, sitting by my chair and putting one claw on my thigh. A sure sign he wants food or water the water bowl was full so I gave him tomorrow's lunch and he scarfed it quick! Two dinners in one evening. 

Listening to the original version of Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold. Always liked it, despite having some question about the lyrics. For instance:

Well, he ran down the hall and he cried/
Oh! How could his parents have lied?/
When they said he was their only son/
He thought he was their only one

What lie? They said he was their only son. And after his mother brought him a sister, he still was their only son. Now admittedly he was only two years old st that point, but surely this is a case of sibling rivalry that could have been easily explained away?

I've been feeling sick for several days now. Maybe because I've been eating crap like ketchup instead of even halfway decent meals. Anyway, I'm feeling a little better this evening but not much. I have skipped my shower (but I feel so ratty I might go take one later). Mo is sleeping in one of his favourite spots:

Right alongside.

Sometimes he has his butt in my armpit and his head around my waist, sometimes his head rests on my feet and his back feet reach my hip. In his current position I can reach down and give his tummy a quick rub. Sometimes he does this behind me. It is much more difficult to administer tummy rubs in that case. Especially when he is further down with his head on my feet. Double-footed butt-kicking is the frequent outcome of insufficient tummy rubbing, in such cases. But there is little risk of that right now.  He is fast asleep. 

Finished my book last night and started #4, called Landslide. A young geologist in BC is asked to survey the site of a backwoods hydroelectric dam to ensure the dam and it's reservoir won't be covering any kind of valuable mineral deposits. His report indicated no mineral deposits of value but warns of a thixotropic condition of the soil in the area of the proposed dam. Naturally, the unscrupulous builders desirous only of the profits from their hydroelectric project, choose to ignore this information and proceed with the construction of the dam without first stabilizing the soil. Result: book title. 

When I first read this I (miraculously) new what thixotropic meant. It is a material condition where a solid substance behaves normally but can quickly transform into a near-liquid gel if it experiences a sudden, physical vibration or shockwave. Ketchup is an example of a thixotropic substance. It's quite solid. It won't pour from the bottle. But if you hit the bottle or shake it just right it becomes liquid and will pour. When left alone for a brief moment, it returns to it's solid state.

Picture a dam built on soil exhibiting this property. Like a chip sitting in top of a pile of ketchup. Everything is fine until someone cuts down a tree (or something like that) next to the dam. The tree trunk hits the ground with a crash, the soil under the dam turns to slush and the whole dam plus the reservoir take off down the gorge at high speed!

Watched a movie today called Blood & Bone. About a bare-knuckles street-fighter who sets out to make a name for himself in the underground subculture of <random city> but it turns out he has an ulterior motive involving revenge and retribution... Not really very good, but I didn't have much else to do. 

But having said that: I've been bitching about the dominance of election related videos under YT. However, I've found an entire subclass of these that are incredibly entertaining: I speak of the Post-Election Meltdown videos. They are hugely entertaining! Now, I assume that these are for the most part deliberately made freakouts for clicks & "clout" because the fears described and the expectations described can only be a put-on.

Nobody could be so dense as to actually believe the things some of these people are supposedly freaking out over. There are some completely lunatic ideas! A certain tech billionaire isn't going to attach or embed a chip in you to monitor your menstrual cycles. So if I catch you having a breakdown on camera over that possibility, I will enjoy your performance and rate it for acting and technical production values, but I won't take you seriously. I know that stupidity levels vary widely and that a medium like YT is available to people at every level, even the stupidest. I even know that high gullibility and low intelligence walk hand in hand in certain parts of the political spectrum. But nobody, and I mean nobody who is capable of feeding them self without gouging out their own eye with a dinner fork, is really that stupid.

Mo has woken, wriggled around for a while trying to get comfortable, and finally retired to the floor. I suspect he will return when the lights go off and I roll over to go to sleep. 

But the phone just gave me a "Low Battery" warning (even though it's still at 19%) so I will end here and yes, I think I will go have that shower now.

I hope I feel better tomorrow. I also hope I get some more sofa feet to make. When I gave him the last lot I said I hoped they were of acceptable quality. They were good! But that's the sort of thing you say. My friend replied that by comparison, the stuff he gets from elsewhere are like pieces of tree-stump. Which I took to be a favorable response. So I can hopefully get the job to make some more! Unfortunately, he doesn't need 250 a week. Not unless he gets orders for sofas to suit. And apparently the work is seasonable seasonal. He gets more work on the run-up to the start of the Tourist Season (15th December) as hotels refurbish & redecorate. Which is now. So how about 250 feet a week for the next week or so? Starting tomorrow? Not unless he gets orders for more sofas!

But recent events might signal an improvement of the economic circumstances for a nearby country. This might lead to increased activity in our hospitality industry. Which in turn might require additional refurbishment & redecoration in hotels and a demand for more sofas. With feet!

Anyway, it's now hustling in the direction of 2:30 AM and the battery is at 10% so I'm off for a shower and then....

Edited November 7 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

it was 6:30 AM before I finally got to sleep. Wracked with a bad case of reflux that was joined by a bad case of nausea. Still feeling it now, plus belly-cuttings. Still tired after less than two hours sleep.

Blood sugar this morning was right on the upper limit of "normal". Last few readings: 5.2, 3.4, 4.3, 3.5 and now 5.9 mmol/L.The 3.4 and 3.5 are  "dangerously low" according to my meter, with flashing red light and everything.

Anyway, back to some more Meltdown videos! I'm starting to believe that such incredible levels of stupidity are possible. Particularly with some mainstream news broadcasters. These, you would expect, would present a neutral face to the public, concealing their own personal feelings if necessary. But I am not a citizen nor resident of the USA and I speak English rather than American, so perhaps we attach slightly different meanings to the word "Journalist"?

[Netfoot]

Gave Mo corned beef rice. An I added his egg on top. He ate the egg...

...then he abandoned the rice and began harassing me for my cheese & cucumber cutter.

He is such a little pirate! 

Hoping that eating bread will help settle my stomach. Took a Nexium this morning. That and not lying down seem to have helped a bit.

But I'm tired and I wanna lie down! Maybe I should make a YouTube video of me screaming incoherently, throwing things and threatening to move to Canada Venezuela! I'm an adult, like that!

Back to YT.....

Edited November 7 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

A thunderous downpour! And here is my neighbors dog who I've named Big Bessie: 

Bess may appear to be chained outside where she can't escape the elements but you'd be wrong! Bess gets to crawl under a dead pickup truck to shelter.  It's her companion, that I never gave a name to that had no shelter from the rain, any more than she has shelter from the scorching sun all day, every day:

This is the same guy who just left the dogs exactly where  you see them, when we were hit by hurricane Beryl a few months ago. 

[Spunkygal]

So why does he have dogs in the first place? 

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

So why does he have dogs in the first place? 

He had no dogs for years. But he has a house under construction which (I'm told by the neighbors) he's been building for fifty years. People pilfer his lumber pile, his concrete blocks, his sand and marl, his rebar.... Then he got a dog and the pilfering was reduced. So in quick time he acquired two more dogs. 

It's clear he had no affection for the animals, does not care what happens to them or becomes of them. I have never observed him feeding them although obviously he must, because they have not died of starvation.

He has the dogs because they keep pilfering to a minimum. That is the only reason they are there. 

I'm feeling a little better but not much. The reflux and nausea has passed but my stomach still hurts a bit. And I'm dead tired. So I will switch the lights off now and try to get a good night's sleep. 

Mo is on the tiles right next to the bed and will probably join me and snuggle when the lights go off. 

Tomorrow is the end of the week so hopefully some sofa feet will be commissioned tomorrow. Although, he did say "or next Monday!" And besides, he's a good guy but I can't say he makes the dates he promises with any degree of regularity. 

Gotta get some shut-eye!

[Netfoot]

And, lo!

There came a thundrous downpour of rain, loud and unexpected. And verily, a minute later came a fuzzy dog, running quickly, through the living room. On course for the bedroom, flapping his ears and sprinkling his path with rainwater.....

Had to get a towel and dry him off. I think he lets himself get wet at least partially because he wants to be dried off with a big towel. 

Lunch was rice. Corned beef, cucumber, carrots, pumpkin. I forgot to boil some lentils or other peas and add some of that. I also failed to add sufficient salt. I try to keep the salt low, but if it's too low, the taste of the dish is compromised. This is a mistake I make when I cook larger (like four cups) quantities of rice. From now in I will be adding one measured teaspoon of salt to the pot for each cup of rice. If that turns out to be too much/little in practice, I will adjust to suit.

Instead I had some of the rice and it was fine after I sprinkled salt on top. But I think everyone would agree: if you have to sprinkle salt in top, you probably should have put some more in the pot.

Had a solid night's sleep last night, and feel much better this morning. Still not 100% but pretty good.

Lying in bed with a fuzzy puppy right now. His butt is in my armpit right now... He's been very playful all morning.

And he's run off. No, he's back, with a plastic bottle to chew on.

I have not heard about any sofa feet today so (as sorta expected) it will probably be next week, hopefully. 

Will read. Then I will either get up and brew tea, or go to sleep. I'm trying a new thing with the condensed milk. Instead of adding spoonfuls of condensed milk direct to mugs of tea, I diluted the condensed milk with water 1:1 or slightly more water than milk, and keep it in a bottle in the fridge. Much easier to use and I'm not likely to just pour out a glass and drink it because it's still a little too sweet for that.

YT meltdowns continue to be amusing. The guy who U-turned his truck so he could drive over a political lawn-sign, then blamed his opponents when the sign ripped up his tyres? LOL! "I set myself on fire trying to burn down my neighbor's house and it's their fault!" 

Book.....

Edited November 8 by Netfoot

[andidante]

6 hours ago, Netfoot said:

YT meltdowns continue to be amusing. The guy who U-turned his truck so he could drive over a political lawn-sign, then blamed his opponents when the sign ripped up his tyres? LOL! "I set myself on fire trying to burn down my neighbor's house and it's their fault!" 

Book.....

I am hoping everyone will calm down and we can unite as a country as this is all so exhausting!

[Netfoot]

The rain is absolutely chucking down and has been for hours. It let up a little, for a couple minutes and Mo and I went out for Garden Patrol. I slogged through icy rainwater which came up above my ankles. I kept my fingers crossed that I didn't fall because if I were to break a leg, there would be nobody to call for help. And no phone to call with anyhow.

Mo has been PITA, going out in the downpour to get completely drenched, then present himself to be dried off. Something like five times since the rain began. Don't have enough towels to dry him anymore and if I don't get him tousled down to his satisfaction he rolls on his back on the bed, making little snarly yelps and growly barks as he wriggles back and forth. I've just dried him off and he is back outside by the gate (sounds like) barking at godnozewot and getting soaked again. 

Mo had more rice for dinner. I initially intended to do the same but instead had two egg cutters. If course, Mo got a taste of them both. 

And here he is again, drenched once more. I kicked him out of bed (without any actual kicking, of course) but that ruins my plan. I'd bought a 1½ oz. packet of peanuts to share with him but now, he isn't here to collect his share. I recall that Buddy loved to share peanuts with me in bed as out midnight snack. Can't usually manage to do that with Mo, but I splurged on a pack of nuts on Tuesday (I think?) for 89¢ and is I am not going to share it with Mo, I would just as happily have bought honey-roasted for the same price!

2 hours ago, andidante said:

I am hoping everyone will calm down and we can unite as a country as this is all so exhausting!

I 100% agree, but I am sorry to say, I don't think that is going to happen. Least ways, no time soon. You see, far too many people in the MSM and social media have far too much money to make by generating a solid stream of hate-clicks. And there are a great many that are in line for criminal prosecution or punitive lawsuits, so they must tarnish reputations while whitewashing themselves as best they can to try to avoid the just consequences of their previous behaviour.

But let's hope I'm wrong. 

I am feeling almost 100% better again. To be honest, I've avoided proper showers the last couple of days, settling for a rapid sluice in hot water. Tonight, I'd hoped to have a good soak and a good scrub but I am not inclined to do that with the rain bucketing down outside, a chill breeze in the window and a damp bed and damper bedmate to return to from the shower!

I don't know if I watched a movie today or not. I seem to remember watching something... But I can't remember for sure. So I can say that if I watched a movie at all, what ever it was, was obviously totally forgettable.

Ok I'm going to post this now, summon Mo and share these nuts with him (if he turns out to like nuts, which I suspect he might.)

Dance With Me by Orleans. Thy produced a surprisingly large number of albums for being relatively unknown. But this track did become quite popular 49 years ago....

ETA: Mo was very suspicious of the first peanut. He poked at it, pushed it around with his nose and looked a little confused. I had to take a nut out of the package and eat it flamboyantly, right in front of him,with lots of crunching and lip smacking, etc, before he actually ate his own. The second and all subsequent peanuts took him about ⅒ of a second.....

Now he's stolen the empty wrapper off the bedside table and is turning it into tiny, metallized confetti. I'm going to go and lock the door because I don't want to deal with his wet butt again!

ETA2: Garden Patrol was quick, what with ankle deep water and a constant drizzle. But I did notice one thing that Mo had found and been playing with: an empty 1 liter PHD evaporated milk carton. Now, he has a habit of pilfering things out of the trash to play with. But I have not been able to find 1L evap to buy for months! And SSA takes the trash away every week, pretty much. So where in hell did he find that?!?? He must have stolen it months ago and stashed it somewhere (under the bed like Buddy?) and fetched it out today to play with.

So much sweet and so much naughty in such a little package! And always able to surprise. 

Edited November 9 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Forum just ate about 20 paragraphs. So, instead I'm going to read my book. 

[Netfoot]

Overcast day. No rain but maybe soon?

Last of the rice going to Mo for his lunch. Dunno what I will have. No bread or cheese left. Still have eggs, potatoes & pasta. Very little cooking oil so I can't make chips. 

There are some carrots & cucumbers remaining, along with onions. I could boil up spuds, cucumber & carrot and stir up a sauce of bully & onions. 

Or I could cook some spaghetti and toss it in egg. The last time I cooked this spaghetti, I read the package which said "Macaroni - 10 to 12 minutes." Why would the package say macaroni when it contained spaghetti? I tested the spaghetti at 8 minutes and it was already over soft.  So if I cook spaghetti today, have to cook it for less than 8 minutes, but for exactly how long I have no clue. I don't like my pasta with a crunchy center. I believe that is the definition of al dente but either way it's not for me. I like my pasta to be chewy, but not crunchy nor mushy. 

I have a tin of diced tomatoes and a package of minced beef but the mince is frozen. I will save the tomatoes until the beef is ready to cook - maybe tomorrow. Then I can make a sauce and have it over boiled vegetables, over pasta, over rice...

Been reading The Vivero Letter and I'm almost done. I will finish this afternoon, unless I fall asleep. Certainly by tonight. Next up would be #6, The Spoilers. When a millionaire loses his daughter to heroin addiction he takes it personally and wages war on those who engage in the drug trade. But not the street dealers. He goes after the poppy plantations.

Got an unpleasant pain running down the right side of my ribcage and on as far as my hip. Dunno what that is but it can join the other aches and pains that have taken up permanent residence in my body. My birthday is later this week and I ain't getting any younger!

Guess I'd better go feed the puppy. And maybe myself. Although, if I don't eat any lunch, there will be more food in the larder for me to not eat for dinner.....

[Netfoot]

Just finished The Vivero Letter and ready to begin The Spoilers later tonight. After that will be Running Blind. This is one of my favourites of his and unless I misremember, the first of his I ever read. But I do seem to recall that the BBC made a miniseries of this book. I wonder if I can locate a copy? It might be nice to read the book and watch Aunty Beeb's production for contrast. But should I watch the show first and then read the book? Or read the book and then watch the show? Wotcha think? Might not be able to find it, any old how. 

And in any case, The Spoilers will come first, starting at bedtime tonight.

Mo, who was snuggling with me as I read this afternoon is now barking like a lunatic, out by the front gate. Better go see what has got him riled up...