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 Wednesday at 02:25 PM 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 Yest. at 02:03 AM 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 Yest. at 03:18 AM 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 14 hours ago 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 13 hours ago 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 12 hours ago 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 6 hours ago 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 20 minutes ago by Netfoot