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 Wednesday at 05:36 AM 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 Thursday at 12:28 PM 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 Thursday at 05:25 PM 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 Friday at 03:05 AM 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 Yest. at 01:46 AM 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 23 hours ago 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 4 hours ago 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 3 hours ago 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 1 hour ago 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 1 hour ago 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.