Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

And off we go!

Well, at least you know what colours I've gone with. GBG facets. 

The cord lengths have been cut to 80" (green) and 46" (black). The attachment loop has been tied, with two black and two green cords trailing, to be tied into the globe knot.

The green cord will go on first, with a 46" tail to go on the jig and a 22" tail because we need a total of 68" to make two passes.

The single black trace will be added last, with the two halves of the cord going on in opposite directions. 17" in each tail. 

I sure hope my math works out....

Can't get my recent scrapes to stop bleeding. Blood all over my desk, my pants, the floor..... Not going any further with the charm until there is no risk of bleeding all over it before it's even finished!

[Netfoot]

Small progress. 

The long green barely made it onto the jig with maybe an inch to spare. Which is really a short result because I prefer if I have a few inches to spare so I can start doubling while on the jig. I find this reduces any tendency for the knot to start to unravel. 

When I start to push in the pins on the jig one by one and tighten each strand in between, I will get progressively more loose cord and I will be able to chase the first pass of  green with the increasing amounts of slack. Just a couple of stitches to hold everything in place. The bulk of chasing/doubling can wait until the knot has been transferred to the ball and snugged up properly.

[Netfoot]

Green cord loose on the high carbon steel ball, and chased. 

This knot needs to be dressed neat and even on the ball. Then I can chase the two ends of the black on as well, between the two passes of green (GBG), to end up with a tripled knot. I just pray there is enough black cord here to complete the job. (IOW, I didn't cut it too short.)

Assuming all goes well with the tying and final dressing, we will then go into at least one, probably two rounds of tightening.

Each end of each cord needs a couple inches of excess to allow the ends to be "vanished." Then we will be done.

[Netfoot]

Uh-oh!

This closeup shows the facet where the attachment loop joins the rest of the knot. Two cords descend from the loop and chase the other pass on the upper side. Put another way, the upper pass of the facet diverts up into the loop. This is wrong!

One cord from the loop should chase on the upper side and the other should chase in the opposite direction on the lower side. To balance the facet.

To fix this, I will have to pull out one of the loop cords and re-chase on the opposite side of the main cord. But which loop cord should I pull out? One is 46" long and the other only 22". Obviously the short one is the better choice - less pulling out and less re-chasing for me to do.

Can you tell which of the two is the short one? Me neither! 😕

[Netfoot]

One-in-two chance of guessing right: nailed it.

You can see the upper cord from the loop chasing/following up the left hand side of the main pass. Meanwhile the lower cord from the loop chasing down on the right hand side of the main cord. 

All good. We will proceed. 

[Netfoot]

Fully formed and fairly well dressed. 

I will stop here. When I come back, I will tighten each pass which will produce a little extra length on the ends. There will be a little hammering on the lumpy bits if necessary. 

It doesn't look too bad! Colour choice gives me an attractive charms without it being too garish.

Mo is barking his ass off. He's been doing it all day. It's so annoying! I'd go out and blister his ass with lix! If I could only catch him.....

Edited Thursday at 11:23 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Slack pulled out of one of the four strands. Maybe 3".

Got to do the remaining three strands as well.

[Netfoot]

Done!

[Netfoot]

Wow! 📺 That was fun.... 😳

Off to bed late for some reason.

Coming In To Los Angeles by Arlo Guthrie in my ears. 

Pension dropped today. That gives me $28 on top of the roughly $5 I already had in the bank and the $7 in my wallet. I also get to cash my welfare cheque for $120. So a total of $160 at rough count. But got to go to the post office tomorrow to cash that cheque.

My woodwork guy came and we chatted. He has several  small jobs he wants done and he will come tomorrow (or so he says) and drop off the lumber he wants me to use. Should I see if I can get to the PO and back before he comes? Or should I wait for him to come (assuming he does) before going to the PO? I'll send him a WhatsApp and tell him I'm going out and another when I get back. That will protect me from him arriving while I'm out and also remind him I'm expecting to see him. 

Watched two movies today. The first was a revenge movie called (unsurprisingly) Revenge. Three men try to  murder a young woman but incredibly she survives. As they try to complete the job to cover their tracks, she sets out to turn the tables on them. There are several movies in this same vein but I was told this French version was the art-movie of the batch. If so, the prevalent paint was coloured red.

Second movie also features that colour, if in the name only: The Hunt For Red October. Sean Connery commands a Russian super-submarine which he wants to hand over to the US to sweeten the deal of the defection he is planning.

Well, the keychain charm is complete and attached to the keychain:

Not garish particularly, I think. 

The ball sinks to the bottom of the pocket while the cords at the other end float to the top. Always easy to find those keys in my pocket no matter what else is in there. 

I could tighten the globe knot a bit more by immersing it in boiling water for 30 seconds which will shrink the nylon. But high carbon steel is not stainless, not in this case anyway, so I don't want to subject it to a dunking. Besides, my round-jawed pliers have already tightened that knot quite a bit already. The cords do not move around at all on the ball. 

This particular charm was different to others I've done in the past. Normally, I tie the knot on the ball, with the extra length of the four ends being used to create the attachment loop. After the loop is fashioned, you still have the four ends to trim back and dispose of somehow. This time, I tied the attachment loop in the middle of the cords. So there are no ends to be seen there. Then I tie the globe knot around the ball, leaving the four ends of the two cords protruding from between the facets of the knot. These ends can be easily "vanished" leaving a charm such that the uninitiated can't find the ends of the cords anywhere!

Had PB&H for lunch. Different bread. Tasted much better than the last attempt. Dinner was sausages and egg with fried tomato. That tasted pretty good too. 

Just turned midnight. Will test blood sugar tomorrow morning. Been hovering in the high fives for the last few tests. This is "good" because 5.9 is the top of the OK range, but I always feel better if the number is lower. I'd prefer something too low even, rather than the high side of normal. 

Mo is here with me and has just started licking my feet. Oh, now he is curled up against my butt.... No, he's back at my feet again. I've taken his collar off for the night but he gets very stroppy if anybody tries to steal his collar! I have to take it off and immediately drop it in front of his face. Once he sees that you're not actually stealing it away, he calms down immediately and loses interest. You can then put it on the bedside table, or whatever you want. He's curled up against my back, now.

I'll post this and hit the hay. He's come round and is now curled up against my front. A tummy is in need of a rub!

Edited Friday at 06:53 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just heard that we have weather coming. Due Monday. Met. Office says: "By Saturday, a tropical storm watch as well as marine advisories may be issued." (Emphasis mine.) A Tropical Wave is expected to intensify into a Tropical Storm. And apparently, we are deas dead center in it's predicted track.

So it is still unclear what exactly is happening, but it's something to worry about. 

Gotta run to the PO.

 

Edited Friday at 04:12 PM by Netfoot

[Browncoat]

5 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Just heard that we have weather coming. Due Monday. Met. Office says: "By Saturday, a tropical storm watch as well as marine advisories may be issued." (Emphasis mine.) A Tropical Wave is expected to intensify into a Tropical Storm. And apparently, we are deas dead center in it's predicted track.

So it is still unclear what exactly is happening, but it's something to worry about. 

Gotta run to the PO.

 

I saw that on my local news/weather last night.  Stay safe!

[Netfoot]

In bed with a glass of ice and a bottle of water. Mo is nowhere to be found. He joined me on Garden Patrol a short while ago, so I'm sure he will turn up soon enough.

Went out to the PO and cashed my cheque, then I bought a bag of sugar and a sack of meat scraps. There was no evaporated milk and when I stopped at another store on the way home (getting soaked in the rain) they had none either. I never got to the bank to deposit the $127 in my wallet because I suddenly got a bad belly cuttings so I raced home and got there just in time. 

After that I waited for my guy who never showed all day. So I have just enough in the bank to cover the rent, and I can't deposit until Monday so I'm down to using cash direct to purchase. Maybe my guy will show tomorrow or maybe he will wait until Beryl departs (see later). It's a bit of a PITA because I could have got started on some of the work over the weekend!

Found the ugliest steak in the world in the sack of scraps. (The rain just started to fall and moments later I had a puppy snuggling with me. A dry puppy, thankfully.) I cooked the steak very slowly and fried some onions as well. I have potatoes and could have made chips but I chose not to. The steak turned out to be extremely tender and very tasty. I like my steak rare but if the cut of meat is dubious I prefer to cook it medium. So this steak was medium, but still very tender and very tasty. I ate it only with the onions. As I think about it now I could have sliced up my last tomato and had that with it but it really wasn't necessary. And the Hot Breath On My Hip thought it was pretty good too, since I cut strips off the steak and fed them to him!

Listening to Help Me by Joni Mitchell. Despite a giant reputation, I didn't really like her at first. But she grew on me and I have several of her albums now.

I had no dinner. Once again, I contemplated chips but laziness won out over nutrition. Well, I mixed Hotchup (which I made a while ago) with mayo and sweet chili sauce in a spoon and ate that for dinner. 

Instead of movies today, I watched a few episodes of the new season of The Bear which dropped yesterday. That is a 30-minute restaurant/cooking drama I was watching a couple months ago. This probably inspired my dinner. Head chef: "Use a  smaller steak. It makes the plate look cleaner!" They're thieving bastards, those fancy chefs. They think they are artists and that the customers come for the art. But I go to a restaurant for a meal. If I gotta stop at Roti Hut on the way home, you ripped me off! (The rain is now blowing in, forcing me to shut the window. And Mo had chosen this very moment to vanish. Not a good sign. I have a towel ready for his return!)

I've been looking for news on YT but there is no news today. Or more correctly, there are thousands of clips, but they are all about the same subject matter. And maybe that matter will drive a youse northerners crazy, but not me!

(The wet one has returned and is now licking the ice I'm my glass.)

Our TD has strengthened and is now TS Beryl. The Met. Office says that a Hurricane Watch may be issued tomorrow morning. I'm following the Met. Office WhatsApp channel so I should be able to keep an eye on any developments without undue difficulty. 

(He is/was only slightly damp. Now he is curled up behind me.)

I'm going to go read my book now. Mom has moved so he is laying along the back of my thighs and up against my butt. Legs in the air, it's a definite please for tummy rubs...

 

[Netfoot]

Met. Office: "Tropical Storm Beryl is strengthening and expected to become a hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday night and hence Barbados remains under Hurricane Watch. On the current projected track, the center of Beryl is expected to pass 45 km (26 miles) south of Barbados. The island is expected to feel the impacts associated with this system as early as late Sunday night 30th June, 2024."

[andidante]

57 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Met. Office: "Tropical Storm Beryl is strengthening and expected to become a hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday night and hence Barbados remains under Hurricane Watch. On the current projected track, the center of Beryl is expected to pass 45 km (26 miles) south of Barbados. The island is expected to feel the impacts associated with this system as early as late Sunday night 30th June, 2024."

Be safe Netfoot!!

[Netfoot]

Not well. Woke up feeling fine. Had a mug of tea and my tummy exploded. Extreme pains to the point of nausea. Cold sweats and shivering. Sat with sweat streaming off my body and dripping onto the floor. Ended up sitting in the middle of a sweaty puddle on the tiles. Today is very still and very hot (typical pre-storm conditions). Took some tummy-settling meds. Contemplated Panadol for the pains but they began to dissipate. Might be better not to mask any future pains so as not to conceal further problems from myself. Sweating considerably abated. Pains diminished significantly. What ever it was, it seems to be passing, but it was very unpleasant there for an hour or so. I'm still far from 100% and may take to my bed at any moment, now that I would no longer just soak the bedclothes in a minute. 

Watched the YT message from our PM. Defense Force, Police, Health Service, all government services... Everybody on alert. PM promises the storm will not be allowed negatively affect the big Cricket Match scheduled for this weekend. Because not even a German U-Boat shelling the capital during WW-II was allowed to interrupt the cricket match!

This island has an uncanny ability to "dodge" stormy weather. It's done so dozens of times that I can recall. My usual position is to doubt that anything can come of the predicted storm. Of course, you can't count on this sort of good fortune 100% of the time and you'd feel a fool if you ignored the warning then got a spanking. Today, feeling as I do, I really can't make any preparations. Even if I felt well enough, there is little I could do.

With some cash I might be able to build a barricade to help protect the van and the contents of my open-fronted garage. The lumber yards right now will be a bad-house mad-house of people buying lumber and plywood for boarding up windows, etc. Delivery services will deliver your order, but given the mad rush you might get it next Wednesday. I don't have the strength to handle that right now, and couldn't afford it if I did. So all I can do is make sure the windows are closed to keep out any rain, and when the storm does come (assuming it does) make sure Mo is safe & sound inside with me, and hope for the best. 

Sunday night may be the first time Mo and I miss Garden Patrol since he came home on 2021-OCT-16, when he was an itty, bitty baby weighing 5 lbs. But if the eye of the storm passes over at a convenient time.....

Having said all that, outside is overcast, but otherwise dry and clear.

Edited 22 hours ago by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Feeling a lot better - a little tender in the tummy, but... No lunch of course. No idea about dinner.

Here is Beryl, and just North of her predicted track you should see us cowering in fear. (Zoom in and you will see Mo and I waving at your satellite.) Click the arrow in the clock - bottom center - for a brief animation. I believe this is constantly updated so depending on when you view it, you will see something different to what I'm  seeing now.  It's very configurable so you can have lots of fun playing with it if that's your thing; switching to I/R after dark, etc. (It will be dark soon.)

Now, back to my iced water with Angostura Bitters!

ETA: If you point at the island (on the page) a pop-up appears which says "Hurricane Warning". I believe we are still under Hurricane Watch conditions. There is a significant difference in meaning between these two terms:

• A Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions (sustained winds of 74 mph or higher) are possible within the specified area.
• A Hurricane Warning indicates that hurricane conditions (sustained winds of 74 mph or higher) are expected within the specified area. 

We are as far as I know, still only under Watch conditions. That may change at any moment, of course.

Edited 20 hours ago by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Whooops!

The Watch has just been formally upgraded to a Warning. 

[Netfoot]

Met. Office: "Hurricane Beryl continues to intensify and is expected to become a major hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday night."

All the windows are shut other than the one right above the bed. I will close that tomorrow. 

In bed, glass of iced water on the small table beside me with Mo's nose stuck in it, damn it! It rained long & hard early evening so Garden Patrol was damp indeed. Had macaroni for dinner with a very thin sauce made from a tiny bit of bully beef, a few leaves of pak choy and an onion. Did consider black beans but deliberately chose simple. Wasn't terribly tasty but it was filling and no ill effects. Not even when I finished with a mug of hot tea. 

Mo has now departed but I had to refill the glass for him to finish drinking first. For a dog that must take a drink out of every puddle he meets, I don't know how he's so thirsty on a wet night like tonight. And it isn't like his bowl isn't full.

Listening to The Asphalt World by Suede from their Dog Man Star album. I really like this band. Front man Brett Anderson might be a bit of a dick - I respect Bernard Butler much more - but I don't fault his talent as a singer and songwriter. 

Mo has ninja'd back in and is curled up at the foot of the bed. 

Still only one subject of conversation on YT. Come on, people! Nobody can honestly be surprised at how it turned out. Can life please return to normal now?

Watched no movies but did watch a bit more of The Bear.

Rain now. Blowing in to sprinkle on me. Had to shut the window in a hurry. Mo moved to curl up against my back. No, he has decided to go out.

Remember the recently tied 40 facet keychain charm? I looked in the back of my recipe book. They have a recipe for a 176 facet knot! Apparently, it dresses well onto a ball or a cube! Never tried a cube before. And I can make perfect wooden cubes easily enough. (Perfect spheres not so much.) I am tempted to attempt a 176 facet cubical knot. Maybe from gutted Paracord, two passes in two colours.

How to do that math? Measure the width of the gutted Paracord. Multiply by four to get the area of a facet. Multiply by 176 to get the area of all facets (which should be equal to the area of the cube). Divide by six to get the area of one face of the cube. Square root to get the length of one edge of the cube. Cut cube of that size from solid wood on the table saw (or make up six squares and glue into hollow cube to add lightness).

Guessing ¼" for width of gutted Paracord because I'm not getting out of bed to go measure some: each facet would be ½" sq. so the area of the cube would be 44" sq. and a single face would have an area of 7⅓" sq. The cube therefore would be 2.70" on a side. But my math as usual is suspect.

Additional calculation: How much cord needed to tie? Take area of cube from above. Divide by width of.... Multiply width of gutted Paracord by two to get width of facet. Multiply width of facet by 176 to give length of one pass. Two passes will be needed. Plus extra for first pass, for fitting onto jig before tucking, dressing & tightening. At ¼" width, we are talking 88" of gutted Paracord cord per pass. 

The little jigs I have won't allow me to form a knot this size. I would have to make a larger, one-off jig to allow me to tie this knot. It wouldn't be too hard to do this...

Somebody stop me from going down this rabbit hole!

Rain stopped, window open again, Mo not returned yet. Quarter to one. Will read until Mo returns then go lock up. Guess I'd better sleep on the window side of the bed tonight so as to notice the rain. If I sleep on the wall side, it could be a while before I notice the rain is coming in and the bed could get quite wet before I take action.

Oh, great! A nice leg-cramp right now will definitely be convenient. 

Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Floyd....

[Netfoot]

Met. Office: "Hurricane Beryl intensified into a category 2 hurricane and is expected to become a major hurricane before reaching Barbados late tonight. Therefore a hurricane warning remains in effect for Barbados. The center of Beryl is expected to pass about 73 miles (118 km) south of Barbados sometime early Monday morning 1st July, however, the island will begin to feel the impacts late tonight and into early Monday morning."

Calm & quiet at this time. Dry but partly cloudy/overcast. Mo woke me at 5:30 so sleepy. Will try for a nap later so I am mot too tired tonight/tomorrow morning.

Want a cuppa but yesterday morning  that leas to bad belly cuttings so not sure what to do. Lots of mosquitoes whining around this morning...

[Browncoat]

14 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

The center of Beryl is expected to pass about 73 miles (118 km) south of Barbados sometime early Monday morning 1st July, however, the island will begin to feel the impacts late tonight and into early Monday morning."

Hopefully Beryl will stay on that track and spare you the worst!

[Netfoot]

Met. Office: "Hurricane Beryl intensifies into a category 3 hurricane therefore a hurricane warning remains in effect for Barbados.

The reconnaissance aircraft is currently investigating the system and has found storm-force winds in the outer bands ahead of the system. Taking this into account storm-force winds are expected before midnight 1st July 2024. The center of Beryl is expected to pass about 73 miles (118 km) south of Barbados sometime early Monday morning 1st July 2024."

ETA: "The next update will be at 11am today..."

Edited 4 hours ago by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Met. Office: "Hurricane Beryl continues to intensify as a category 3 hurricane. Therefore a hurricane warning remains in effect for Barbados.

The hurricane hunter is still investigating the system and has found storm-force winds in the outer bands ahead of the system. Taking this into account storm-force winds are expected before midnight 1st July 2024. The center of Beryl is expected to pass about 75 miles (120 km) south of Barbados sometime early Monday morning 1st July 2024.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 km (30 miles) from the center and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 km (115 miles)."

The predicted track has moved a pivvy South. Not much, but it is better than nothing. Note that if it passes 75 miles South as predicted we won't get hurricane force winds but we will get storm force winds.

The next update will be at 2pm today. (The actual bulletin is written after the specified time so they can give the situation at that time. Then some intern has to remember to post it on the net. So it's never actually available/ready at the specified time.)