Netfoot July 30 Share July 30 (edited) Fenty finally showed up 8 days late. Took the money to Popular and bought groceries. $60 doesn't go as far as it did last week! There still isn't any Pine Hill evaporated milk. And even the Carnation has run out. I had to buy this stuff: which I have never laid eyes upon in my life before today. I hope it doesn't taste funky... Mo enjoyed the little trip. I bought 25 extra tea bags and 1,800 grams of sugar, along with a bag of ketchup keto to make more Hotchup), a couple tins of beans, a couple of tomato sauce, a tin of bully, a pack of mince and a small bottle of lime juice. Also a tiny pack of Teatime biscuits to share with Mo when I brew my next cuppa. Edited July 30 by Netfoot 2 Link to comment
Netfoot July 30 Share July 30 (edited) Over at the mall. Rent is due tomorrow night. Well, actually Thursday morning but I like to write the cheque and drop it in his box the night before so he can come and get it first thing. Checked my balance and I was 12¢ short. WTF do I do? Shouldn't have bought those Teatime biscuits for 89¢, now should I? Searched under the sofa cushions again but no luck. And just then, my guy showed up and gave me $100 for those pesky cupboard door frames. They were a PITA to make, but they were simple items not worth much so I ain't complaining about the Grantley. But that meant I had to come over and make another deposit. And all I wanted to do was grab a nap. Anyway, here I am, deposit made via the drop-box. I should get notification it's been processed before end of day so I can comfortably write the cheque tomorrow night. Meanwhile a young woman is having an incident, here in the food court. (Which is the only place to sit down in the mall.) Dunno what the issue is... Someone probably used the wrong pronouns. Who cares? I got problems of my own. Meanwhile, my guy says he will come by tomorrow with a drawing of some bits he wants made. Not sure what exactly... More sofa feet of some sort I expect, but he says he has to get the exact measurements so sofa feet with constraints. Whatever, if we can do it, we will do it. Only, when he says "tomorrow" he sometimes means "The 25th of next month." Meanwhile, I am procrastinating here because I am not looking forward to the walk back home. A cross Mo will be waiting; cross because I didn't take him with me. I locked him in and walked away from the sound of his insistent barks. I would love to be able to walk over here with him following at my feet but they would never let him in. They would quite rightly anticipate disaster and refuse him entry. Because there is no way you could turn him loose in this place without him going berserk. Not in an evil, "Let's see how many people I can bite!" sort of way (he's a lover not a biter), but in a "Wow! So many people to talk to and swap kisses with!" sort of way. And Bajans... Well, I still remember what my mum (a born Bajan) said to me when we moved here from Trinidad 60ish years ago: "Bajans 'fraid of two tings. Rain and dog." And as I am reliably informed, black dogs bite worse than any other colour of dog. There is a word in the Bajan vocabulary you probably have not heard that pertains to this. It is "rubbuhteet". When I introduce Mo (or in the past, Bud or Dot) to someone and they jump up on top of the furniture, I will say "He won't bite you." The response is invariably "He got rubbuhteet?" To which I reply "No. Nor do I and I ain't going to bite you either!" But it makes no difference. He name dog, he ain't got rubbuhteet so he is a danger to all decent Bajans. The only thing more dangerous would be a shower of rain... Anyway, can't procrastinate all day. Got to make a move to get home again. In time for tea... Edited July 30 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Netfoot July 30 Share July 30 Lying in bed l. Dizzy AF all day. Just wanted to keep quiet and still, but had things that had to get done. Mo is here with me now, giving cuddles and keeping me company. It's late; nearly five but I couldn't help it, I just had to lie down and try to get my head to stop spinning. To make matters worse, I think my arthritis flared up today as well. I can get cramps anywhere in my legs from hip to floor. But today I've had pains in the hip joints with no cramping to cause it. Anyway, will lie here a while and see if things improve. Hope I get a notification soon that the deposit has been processed. I use the drop box rather than lining up for a teller because there is a line for the tellers and you can easily spend half an hour in that line. But outside of the bank, there is a line for that line! Yes, you have to line up outside the bank and when there is room in the line for the tellers, security will let people who are lined up outside come in and line up inside. You could easily spend 90 minutes lined up outside before they let you join the line on the inside. It's insane. I try mightily not to have to conduct business in there. You might have a cheque you want to deposit which will take a whole 45 seconds but you get behind someone with a 6" thick stack of paperwork and deposit books and you have to wait 45 minutes for them to finish before you get a chance. Ranting... Mo has departed. He may return again soon. Meanwhile, I will try to enjoy a half-hour of relaxation. Saw a $49.95 kettle for sale at the mall. 1.7L capacity. Some completely unknown brand..... 2 Link to comment
Netfoot July 31 Share July 31 Spent a lot of time today googling "myasthenia gravis cramps". And it turns out that severe cramping is common with many MG sufferers. Mostly in their legs and feet. And their hands. It turns out that Mestinon (Pyridostigmine) is thought to be a strong contributor. And if you are also on Prednisolone, that makes it worse. There are other side effects as well. For example: Diarrhea. Well, I do get belly cuttings from time to time and this is often followed by The Trotts. Joint pain. I thought my hips (and recently my left elbow) were arthritis. Maybe it is, maybe not. Urinary urgency. I dunno what that means but I like the sound of it! When I got to pee, I got to pee now! And so on. It seems possible that the cramps may be the result of the Pyridostigmine I'm taking three times a day. But there is another factor that MG sufferers have identified. Overuse. Simply, MG results in a shortage of neurotransmitters. The drugs combat this by building up a supply in the body that can be used when needed. Physically using up that supply by overexertion can leave you suddenly as weak as a kitten. I've experienced this. But apparently, the closer you come to this, the more likely (and the more severe) will be your cramps. Urinary urgency. Joint pain. Etc. I wonder why the neurologist I spoke to last week didn't advise me of any of this? Even after I specifically asked if any of my meds could be responsible for the cramping? Anyway, none of that helps me. I asked about eliminating the Pyridostigmine and was told "Definitely not!" So I will continue to enjoy cramping for some considerable time, possibly for ever. Because she spoke as if that would be the last medication to be stopped, if ever. it would seem I will just have to avoid overexertion as much as possible. The effects of the drugs are bad enough, but just don't deplete those neurotransmitters, what ever you do! Avoid walking over to the mall. Get my groceries in more bags that weigh less and carry them into the house one bag at a time. Or would multiple trips be worse than heavier bags of groceries? Maybe I can get someone to stir my tea for me. Maybe I can train Mo to do it. Speaking of Mo, he just wandered in and is sitting or lying on the floor right next to the bed. Tonight is not a cool night, although the fan does make it comfortable. I still need to have my shower even though I had one already today. Black Balloon by The Goo-Goo Dolls. I like this band. They have produced a dozen or more albums and a number of popular tracks. Perhaps their best known would be Iris, which was a huge hit for them, but this track is on the list of top tracks for this band. It is a longish list! Testing glucose first thing in the morning. Later, I have to go over to the mall briefly. (Should I drive? Seems silly to drive to next door!) My swivel chair is about to go into Boeing mode. I will either get stuck in orbit (Starliner) or come crashing to earth (737 Max). Most likely the latter. I think it can be fixed fairly easily but it will require some welding which I can't do.I will have to ask around and see if I can find someone to do the welding for a price lower than a new chair. I bought that chair from work when the company closed down so I prolly been sitting in it for 35-40 years all told. Fixed it at least three times already, but different parts. The seat, the back and the wheels/castors. Anyway, Mo is nibbling my toes and I really do feel that a shower is in order. I will go for a cooling sluice and a bit of a scrub, lock up and return to bed. Midnight rapidly approaches and I could use a good snooze. My Love-baby: Link to comment
andidante July 31 Share July 31 8 hours ago, Netfoot said: Black Balloon by The Goo-Goo Dolls. I like this band. They have produced a dozen or more albums and a number of popular tracks. Perhaps their best known would be Iris, which was a huge hit for them, but this track is on the list of top tracks for this band. It is a longish list! My favorite songs by them are Slide and Name. I do like Black Balloon and Iris as well. All of these are on my iPod. I wish one of your doctors could find a good combination of meds that would lessen your symptoms! There has got to be something they can do? Link to comment
Netfoot July 31 Share July 31 31 minutes ago, andidante said: My favorite songs by them are Slide and Name. Both excellent tracks! Name was a breakthrough track from a breakthrough album! Quote I wish one of your doctors could find a good combination of meds that would lessen your symptoms! Me too. Unfortunately, MG is an incurable disease, the treatment for which is renowned for having side effects almost as bad as the disease itself. I think part of the problem is that the QEH doctors are essentially phoning it in. They are overwhelmed with patients and have very little support from the administration. I mean, what can they do if the hospital is unable to provide them with $10 biopsy needles for months and months on end? When I was first diagnosed with MG, I treated it privately. I saw the doctor once a month. He tested me and adjusted the meds to suit. There was surgery. And after something like three years, I was in remission. QEH is happy to see me every 4-5 months and in between, I am basically left to cope on my own. Unfortunately, in paying for the private treatment I bought the doctor most of a very large Mercedes Benz and that is why I now find myself looking under the sofa cushions trying to pay rent each month. And wishing I could afford bread to make toast, a toaster to toast the bread with, and marmalade to put on the toast! 1 Link to comment
Netfoot July 31 Share July 31 (edited) Wandered over to the mall first thing. I bought something yesterday and having just deposited all my cash I pulled out my debit card to pay. The seller told me he doesn't take plastic, but to go with the item and pay him when I am able. Obviously, I felt obliged to go and pay for the item as soon as possible, so over I went this morning. Mo stayed home on guard again, but he didn't have long to wait before I was back again; I didn't dawdle. Made lunch which was corned beef rice with black beans and diced potato. Potato in rice may sound strange but I get up to all sorts of strange stuff these days. My mum would only buy Exeter brand corned beef. And for years, I was the same. But when needs must you settle for lower and lower quality products as you chase lower and lower prices. I currently buy something called Triple-J corned beef, a brand I'd never heard of six months ago. Now, it's bad enough when you are buying the cheapest, lowest quality brand you can find. But it does not help that every month the quality of the product falls. I opened a Tim if of Triple-J today for the rice and what came out of that tim tin was considerably lower quality than anything I'd ever seen before, even from that same brand. Mo was curled up around the base of my chair and when I got up to come lie here in bed I thought he would keep me company. He followed me in but decided not to stay. I'm going to read for a while. I find it most comfortable to read in bed. I do not want to fall asleep! I'm thinking about a cuppa but it's a little early. And since the small saucepan has a portion of rice in it (dinner) I don't have any convenient way to boil the water for tea. Edited July 31 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 1 Share August 1 Yesterday, I bought a sack of ketchup. (Paid for it this morning.) And I made up a bottle of Hotchup. Only, I messed up when adding the pepper. About 50% more pepper went in than I'd planned. I stopped production at that point. I'm afraid to taste it. There is more ketchup that could be used to temper the burn, but there isn't much room left in the jar. (Bottle, whatever.) I still have to go through my pack of spices and see what else I can Include to add interest to the final result. But not until I sample it and see if it is actually poisonous, or whether it might be consumed with only recoverable chemical burning to the mouth. I fear it will be (as my dad used to say) "Hot with a Zed!" My dad used to say that about anything that had notable heat from pepper. "Hot with a Zed! HOTZ!" Neither I, nor anyone else in the family had any clue WTF he was talking about but if anybody asked him he would just laugh and offer no explanation. Mo has just been sampling my iced water. I came out of the shower to find him asleep on the bedroom floor so I locked up. I brought a glass of ice with me but the moment I started pouring water into the glass (I keep a 2L bottle by the bed) he was up and moving, and before I could finish the pour, his nose was wet. It wasn't today, so it looks like it might be the 25th of next month. Listening to No Woman No Cry by Bob Marley & The Wailers. What a tremendous influence he was on modern music. Hard to believe he's been gone for 43 years. Been working on my meds management suite. Actually having fun with it, but not pushing myself to the point of frustration. If I get fed up, I stop. I am refining my design, and the basic support routines which will be in the module linked by all other parts of the suite. Still cleaning up the code as I go. For example, now that I am catering for dosages that are less frequent than daily (Prednisolone 20mg: 1.5/2 = 1½ tablets every two days) the field $meds{DAILY} ceases to have meaning so it had been eliminated. So the routines that read & write medication data to & from disk have to be altered, along with routines that print, dump for debugging, etc. I would like the final suite to be nice and clean, with as little cruft as possible. And I'm in no rush to finish. No deadline. I have a bunch of crufty code with minimal features that I use now, and can continue to use until my new, cruft-free code is done and tested. And since I am moving away from a monolithic design to a suite of small, function specific programs, some programs can be used already. For instance, I am already using the new Finger program instead of the old --finger option on the monolithic cruftosaur that I have been using up to now. I have mince, red beans, tomato sauce, onions and $20 in my pocket. So I can go in search of some ingredients that might go well in a red sauce. Sweet peppers, mushrooms, olives, etc are out! But maybe I can find something else. Pak choy? Leeks? I have some potatoes, some rice and some pasta. A nice sauce would go well with either of those. And maybe I can find a couple of nice plantains... Well, the door is locked, the puppy has drunk my water and is now curled up and snoring in the bend of my knees. The rent cheque had been written and awaits the landlord's pleasure in his mailbox. And tomorrow is another day. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 1 Share August 1 Four in the morning and the puppy who has been peacefully sleeping for hours, leaps to his feet and demands I let him out of the house! Couldn't get my eyes to close. So, with nothing better to do, I tested my HotChup. I am formally renaming it. It is now Hot-Z-Chup! It probably isn't actually lethal, but when I spilt some on the desk it ate a hole in the wood! As a born Trini, I should never admit that something is too hot and in truth I could eat the stuff as is. But rather than have it blisteringly scorching, it would prolly be more sensible to cool it down a bit. How exactly, I'm not sure. Adding more plain ketchup is the only thing I can think of. But the bottle is virtually full. So I will have to use a good bit of it before I can top up with plain to dilute the fire. Now if the puppy will stop galloping back and forth between the door and the window, crossing the mattress and me in the process, I will try to get another 40 winks. Link to comment
Netfoot August 1 Share August 1 Stupid me! August 1st is Emancipation Day. So no, I won't be out at the grocery looking for things to put in my red sauce. Link to comment
andidante August 1 Share August 1 36 minutes ago, Netfoot said: Stupid me! August 1st is Emancipation Day. So no, I won't be out at the grocery looking for things to put in my red sauce. I had to Google that as I had not heard of it. It sounds like our Juneteenth holiday every year. Link to comment
Netfoot August 1 Share August 1 1 hour ago, andidante said: I had to Google that as I had not heard of it. It sounds like our Juneteenth holiday every year. They only started celebrating it relatively recently. 1 Link to comment
Browncoat August 1 Share August 1 8 hours ago, Netfoot said: How exactly, I'm not sure. Adding more plain ketchup is the only thing I can think of. But the bottle is virtually full. Do you have another container? You could split it out between two containers and fix them both. Link to comment
Netfoot August 2 Share August 2 Retired to bed this afternoon, not feeling very well. Had a nap and rose feeling a little better. For lunch I made spaghetti with corned beef & onion sauce. 10 hours ago, Browncoat said: Do you have another container? You could split it out between two containers and fix them both. I used quite a bit of the HotZchup in the spaghetti sauce. This dropped the level in the bottle sufficiently for me to add another 25% (estimate) more ketchup which should dilute the heat a bit. Will try that tomorrow. Unfortunately, the meal did not taste good. Not because of the HotZchup but because the quality of the bully beef was terrible. I ate a bit but as hunger went down, displeasure went up. Eventually, the last half of the meal went down the pan. I think I will have to draw the line at Triple-J in future. Mo does not seem to mind it, but I will have to set myself a slightly higher standard, cost issues or not. I've one tin of Triple-J in the cupboard and I will feed it to Mo. There is no point economizing on groceries to the point where you can't bring yourself to eat them. It is not a cost saving to buy a product that is so unpleasant you bring it home from the shops and just throw it away. I have mince and beans and tomato sauce but today was a bank holiday. I was not able to go out in search of additional ingredients that might complement those ingredients. As a result, I decided not to use them and to go with the corned beef instead. But tomorrow, if I feel able, I will go in search of a few extra provisions. Other than the onions, there are no fresh foods in the short list above. Maybe we can improve on that. I might see if I can get a few dollars in meat scraps as well. So far, I've had good luck with meat scraps. There are often good pieces in amongst the scraps. The landlord phoned this morning. At an early hour. Waking me up. To tell me to leave the rent cheque in his mailbox. Where it already was. Where it has been from before midnight on the first of every single month, for the last 10 years. To make matters worse, Mo insisted on waking me at 4:00 AM to be let out. Which is not unusual but for some reason I just couldn't get back to sleep. It took ages for me to get my eyes closed. And when I finally did, minutes later this fool was on the phone with his brilliant new idea as to what I should do with his cheque. Listening to Songs Of Red And Gray by Suzanne Vega. I quite like her music. Don't know much about her as a person, but that's OK. I don't usually follow the path taken by musicians and bands. What little (sometimes it's is a lot, sometimes more than I want to) I know is because the information falls into my lap, so to speak. Not because I go looking for it. So I guess the people I end up knowing most about are the ones that won't stop blowing their own horn. (Not you, Herb Alpert!) Have not watched a movie in ages. Or a TV show. Will have to just watch something, anything, that I know I will enjoy. So, a great old movie that I always enjoy but isn't too heavy because my brain doesn't want to cope with 'heavy' these days. And that I have not seen too recently. And not the LOTR series because too long. Any ideas? My book (All Tomorrow's Parties by Bill Gibson) is progressing well. I'm about ⅔ of the way through but because I'm usually too tired to read much at a time progress is slow. Next Tuesday the book tent will be open, but I don't know I have money to go buy a book from them. Will have to start digging through my books again, looking for candidates for my "Reread" pile. Browser just ate a couple paragraphs off the end of this post but I'm not going to retype them. Instead, I'm going to go for a shower and lock up the house. And look who just showed up empty-handed at the BYOB party! 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 3 Share August 3 (edited) Quiet day at home. Did little of anything accept doze in my chair while YT videos played unwatched. Around two I bundled Mo into the car and we went to the shops. I bought a few plantains, a few cucumbers (which I can dice and add to a meat sauce) a d this left me with a few bucks left over. Enough to buy a small punnet of mushrooms or a baby of salt breads. I sorely wanted the mushies but I settled for the bread because I thought it would be more useful generally. I mean, if I make a meat sauce I could easily ear it with bread! Ate a couple of the dt breads with PB&J for a late lunch. Mo had chow with the remainder of the tin of corned beef mixed in he ate it enthusiastically. Good, because there is a whole time of Triple-J in the cupboard and I don't plan to eat it. So for dinner I defrosted a small piece of pork and pan-fried it. I also cut some thin chips to go with it. Not many, only one spud. I added some dry spices to my HotZchup (celery salt, dried basil, etc) and topped up with ketchup. Gave it all a good shake and a stir and sampled it. Still quite hot but no longer so hot as to require the Zed. And a couple ounces of ketchup still remaining if it needs a little more dilution. But it won't. I'm OK with it being hot. I just think that if your eyes are streaming so bad you can't see your plate, you are prolly overdoing it. Mo was a complete pirate in the car. He can be a nasty little boy when he feels inclined. And today he was determined to drive me absolutely bonkers with the barking. He can simultaneously give you high volume and high frequency - enough to destroy your eardrums in a most painful manner. And he just will not stop. I mean, I could have punched him in the head and flung his lifeless corpse out the window, but that would probably have attracted some sort of fine for littering. So for that reason and no other, I decided to let him live. Listening to I Alone by Live. I consider this to be their best album, choc full of great tracks. In fact, I can't tell you which is my favourite from the album, because there are too many to choose from. If I write down a track title here, I will probably come back and change it six times before this post is finished. I'd really hoped my guy would come around this morning to tell me what he wants done next. And in fact, yesterday would have been even better. It always helps when you have the weekend to think about whatever it is to be made and to figure out an efficient way to do it. I said hoped, but in truth I didn't expect. He's a nice guy but he is very unreliable with timing. I have very little clue as to what exactly he wants done. All he said was that the parts would be "slightly tricky" and indicated this was due to the required "angles and chamfers". Which is why it is good to have a couple of extra days to figure out what steps and in what order will give the easiest procedure and wastes the least wood. (Red ink again.) I said yesterday that I needed to watch a movie which would entertain without being too 'heavy' or too long. And I settled on one which I first saw about 50 years ago at school. (Mo has just arrived and is lying down on my left foot.) It may not be a new movie but it has a cast of characters I can get behind. I speak of course, of the movie The Italian Job released in 1969 (definitely not the sad remake from 2003). This movie stars Michael Caine, an actor who I quite like. Also, Noel Coward. And was that... Yes, it was indeed, Benny Hill! But my favourite cast members were three BMC Cooper S minis, in red, white and blue. And fitted with the 1275cc version of the transverse A-Series engine & transaxle! (Mo has departed.) The original Cooper S (not to be confused with the original original Cooper without an S) was designed to compete in 1100cc class racing, so it was built with a 1071cc motor. The size was chosen so that even after a +30 thou. engine rebore, it would still be under 1100cc and allowable for competition. Unfortunately, right after the 1071cc S was released, the 1100cc racing class was eliminated and replaced with 1000cc and 1300cc classes. BMC was forced to produce a short-stroke version of the engine at 970cc and a longer stroked version at 1275cc. The 970 was a real screamer, happily revving to 10,000 RPM with little persuasion. But the 1275 version was the real prize. It won the Monte Carlo rally outright in '64, '65 and '67 and came first in '66 but was disqualified. The judges kept looking until they could find an excuse to do so, finally settling on some nonsense about the headlights. Now, as it happened, my first car was an Austin Mini 850, fitted with an 848cc version of the transverse A-Series motor. I and my other mini-driving friends would have wet dreams over Cooper S minis. I fitted a big-valve cylinder head from a 1275 GT (a later derivative of the S, not as hot but better than my 850) and a pair of 1¼" SU carburetors, also from a GT. I tried a 3-to-1 extractor from a pre-S Cooper but it was crap and I eventually settled on a 3-2-1 extractor instead. I can't recall where that came from but it performed! Dismantled the original distributor and replaced some of the parts with parts from the S distributor. Pushed the top speed of the car from it's original 61 MPH to something over 85. I say "something over" because 85 was the speed at which the speedo cable broke, right as I gave chase to a 1725cc Hillman Hunter. (Of course I did. Absolutely thrashed him. And for the record, the only car that ever beat me was another mini! I just couldn't keep up with him but I got close enough to read the writing on his boot lid. It said "Austin Cooper S". That's when I knew I was licked.) So. Yes. The Italian Job. Enjoyed it hugely. Wow. I sure can woffle on about nonsense! Better shut up and go read a page or two of my book. And the ink is still red. At least it is on my end... Edited August 3 by Netfoot 2 Link to comment
Netfoot August 4 Share August 4 So, let me tell you more about my 1964 Austin Mini 850! <heh!> No, I'm not that cruel. Woke this morning at just a couple minutes to six. Opened up for Mo, had a pee and went back to bed. When I surface again, it was 9:30!! No idea what happened. Glucose 4.6 mmol/L this morning. Higher than last time, but still well on the low side of normal. For lunch, I boiled a couple of potatoes and a small plantain. In separate pan, I fried up some onions, added minced beef and when the meat was browned to my liking I added red kidney beans and tomato sauce. To bulk out the sauce I diced a cucumber and added that along with some garlic powder. The resulting meal was quite good. There was still a bit of metallic taste but it wasn't strong and it was more of an after-taste. So eating it became an exercise similar to drinking mauby. (More on mauby shortly.) I only ate a part of the meat sauce at lunchtime. For dinner I boiled a small portion of spaghetti and put a generous dollop of sauce over it. I also added a little bit of sauce to Mo's chow which he promptly inhaled. There is still a dollop of sauce left and I may cook a small pot of rice tomorrow and put the sauce on top. Or just eat it with bread. Mauby is a local drink. Considered a delicacy and beloved of many, it is horrible. It is made by steeping the bark of the mauby tree in boiling water and adding sugar to the brown muck that is the result. The drink leaves an extremely bitter, and persistent after-taste in your mouth, which is probably reminiscent of quinine. To combat this, they add sugar to the point where it is sweet enough to make you sick. I'm not being hyperbolic about the degree of sweetness, any more than I am about the level of bitter. So when you drink mauby, it's horribly sweet as you sip, but that switches to that nauseatingly bitter after-taste when you stop. When forced to drink a glass of mauby, my process then, is to start drinking, and just keep pouring it down as fast as you can without sicking up, until the glass is empty. That way you suffer only one (admittedly prolonged) bout of super-sweet, followed by only one bout of horrible bitter after-taste. And you're done. Just keep an eye out for someone saying "Wow! You obviously enjoyed that! Let me get you another!" So, food with a metallic after-taste is treated like mauby. Put the first mouthful in your mouth and keep shoveling it in until the plate is empty. Only one after-taste to suffer through, right at the end. I had a cuppa yesterday and it had a distinct, if mild, metallic flavour. Tea is usually free of unpleasant tastes. Went in search of movies to watch. Discovered a few. May watch one tomorrow. Spent the day telling myself not to forget to go to Dr. Kristi Monday for a blood pressure test. Only remembered late this evening that Monday is Kadooment day and her clinic will be closed. Worst of all, I've been saying tomorrow, not Monday. Because I have been assuming today was Sunday all day and I suspect I also spent yesterday thinking it was Saturday. Listening to Hit Me With Your Rythm Stick. A good tune by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Dury passed away in 2000 but his death had been prematurely announced on the radio in 1998 by Bob Geldof. Amongst the flood of call-in listeners expressing their sorrow, came Dury himself to ask why he had not been informed of his death sooner! As a result, the popular music magazine New Musical Express (NME) went on to describe Geldof as the world's worst DJ... Mo has just joined me. He has been quite affectionate all day and on more than one occasion I went out to where he was sunning himself, and gave him some extended lovings. Now, laying alongside my left leg, he has just given the most enormous sigh. I guess we can never know the hardships that a puppy has to experience in life! How the weight of the world can bear upon his mortal shoulders. Maybe a tummy rub will make him feel a little better. I dunno why this thought has just surfaced in my brain, but here are a couple food questions for you: 1) can you think of any dishes that that you might find on the menu if you went out for Chinese food, that contained cheese? 2) can you think of any ready-bottled (or canned) carbonated beverage / drink that contains milk? Mo has now moved down and is curled up on the tiles next to the bed. I think I will take that as a sign. I will go and lock the door, but first I will read for a while. Then sleep. 1 Link to comment
andidante August 4 Share August 4 47 minutes ago, Netfoot said: I dunno why this thought has just surfaced in my brain, but here are a couple food questions for you: 1) can you think of any dishes that that you might find on the menu if you went out for Chinese food, that contained cheese? 2) can you think of any ready-bottled (or canned) carbonated beverage / drink that contains milk? Mo has now moved down and is curled up on the tiles next to the bed. I think I will take that as a sign. I will go and lock the door, but first I will read for a while. Then sleep. I remember a show that was on in the 70s called Laverne and Shirley. Laverne used to drink milk and Pepsi. I tried it once, it's not bad! Link to comment
Netfoot August 4 Share August 4 25 minutes ago, andidante said: I remember a show that was on in the 70s called Laverne and Shirley. Laverne used to drink milk and Pepsi. I tried it once, it's not bad! I remember Laverne and Shirley. Don't remember Laverne drinking milk & Pepsi. I like mixing milk with carbonated drinks! They make a good combo. Pepsi/Coke tend to leave an unsightly brown foam around the inside of the glass, but tastes fine! Also good: milk and Sprite or 7Up. I also like milk and Red. (There are several brands of red drinks; Buster, Ju-C, Fruitee, etc. They might have different names but the flavours are much the same so they are simply known as a Red Ju-C or a Red Fruitee...) I also drink milk & Tiger Malt which is a non alcoholic malted drink made by the local brewery. I like them as they come and also mixed with milk. This combo is called a Jungle Milk But this is sort of what I was asking. Does anybody know of a commercially available product like this? I'm pretty sure I've never heard about any such. But why not? If you like milk (which I do, and I'm probably not alone) and given that you can already buy strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and other flavours of milk, carbonated milk drinks seem to be pretty obvious. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 4 Share August 4 Woke up at 8:50. What, late again? Why no alarm? Because the phone is completely dead. Won't start up because the battery is completely flat. Been on charge for an hour now, but it was on charge all night! . Hopefully it is actually taking a charge. Will check shortly. Meanwhile, we have a persistent, moderate shower with occasional peals of thunder. Well, I suppose better today than tomorrow, which would dampen the ardour of those celebrating Kadooment by dancing and getting drunk on Spring Garden highway. I seem to recall that it rained every time I ever went partying down on Spring Garden... and that the rain was welcomed by all! More thunder. Well, Mo is curled up right here, near me. So it can rain all it wants. We will remain snug as two bugs! 1 Link to comment
Schnickelfritz August 4 Share August 4 (edited) 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: But this is sort of what I was asking. Does anybody know of a commercially available product like this? I'm pretty sure I've never heard about any such. But why not? If you like milk (which I do, and I'm probably not alone) and given that you can already buy strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and other flavours of milk, carbonated milk drinks seem to be pretty obvious. There is a brand called Lotte Milkis that is exactly carbonated soda. It's available in Asian markets (I think it's a Korean brand). There are several flavors fun flavors, such as melon, strawberry, mango. It's really popular in Hawaii (lived there for quite awhile). 10 hours ago, Netfoot said: 1) can you think of any dishes that that you might find on the menu if you went out for Chinese food, that contained cheese? Crab rangoon (not really a Chinese dish, but...) Edited August 4 by Schnickelfritz 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 4 Share August 4 (edited) 49 minutes ago, Schnickelfritz said: There is a brand called Lotte Milkis that is exactly carbonated soda. It's available in Asian markets (I think it's a Korean brand). There are several flavors fun flavors, such as melon, strawberry, mango. It's really popular in Hawaii (lived there for quite awhile). Crab rangoon (not really a Chinese dish, but...) OK! That is interesting and good to know! After 90 minutes on my favourite charger, my phone battery level is... 0%. Trying a different charger but the reason that one is my favourite is because it is a Qi (wireless) charger. The USB/charger port on my phone is 5 years old and requires far too much fiddling for me to get it to work... But I'm giving it a go. So we should soon know if the problem is the charger itself or the charging circuit inside the phone. I have no idea how I will manage if my phone dies and can't be resuscitated. ETA: after 30 minutes: 26%! Woop! Edited August 4 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 5 Share August 5 I finished my book last night. So I have selected another book from my pile. It is another Bill Gibson novel (The Difference Engine), but this one is dissimilar to the others I've read lately. Set in 1855, the new steam-powered, gear-driven computers based on Babbage's Analytical Engine have supercharged the industrial revolution and thrust Great Britain into prominence in military industrial development, information technology and almost every other field.... I'm looking forward to it. Had the last of my meat sauce today for lunch. Warmed it and put it into a salt bread. Not bad, but if I were preparing the sauce for that purpose I think I would mash the red beans and dice the cucumber a little finer. For dinner I had salt bread with PB&J. Red ink again. So silly. I can do something as simple as correct an auto-correct foul up and an entire paragraph turn red. Then everything is red from then on. Yet when you save the post, most of the red ink vanishes, leaving only a word or two in each paragraph as red. Go figure. Watched two movies today. Wanted to watch an invisible man movie but not the usual story. I remembered one that starred Darryl Hannah and Chevy Chase with Sam Neill as the baddie. It was called Memoirs Of An Invisible Man. Enjoyed that one with my lunch. The next was called Driven and starred Sylvester Stallone as a racing driver. With a wheelchair-bound Burt Reynolds as team owner & manager it might have been good, but it really wasn't. Apparently it was poorly received by fans & critics and was not a commercial success. I have a much better racing movie that I might have watched. Grand Prix with James Garner as the hero. This 1966 movie introduced Several revolutionary techniques for filming automotive sequences which are still commonly used today. I chose not to watch it this afternoon because it is over three hours long. Mo just arrived and burrowed under my legs like... I just don't know what. It rained most of the day. Sometimes with the rain howling down, sometimes with long, slow peals of thunder rolling on and on. Generally heavy rain. Took Mo out on Garden Patrol when there was a quiet break. The garden was not as wet as I expected it would be. Bitter Pill by Billy Idol. Tomorrow is Kadooment and I am going nowhere near any party or fete. I will stay off the road and hope nobody comes to my gate. Not sure what I will eat, but there is a little ramen left and there is also oatmeal and although there isn't much milk, there is probably enough for a bowl of oatmeal. Mo has departed after extracting an extensive tummy rub. Probably gone off to finish his dinner. That little fellow lives a life of true hardship! Anyhow, the phone is at 87% charge and I want to put it on the Qi charger and see if it charges at all. So I will do that now and read a chapter of the new book. And see if the %age increases at all. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 6 Share August 6 (edited) Just finished watching ye olde black & white movie. It's called Wing And A Prayer, and was released in 1944 as one of those propaganda/morale builder movies. The story is about an aircraft carrier whose orders are to sail around the Pacific, popping up unexpectedly where they are least expected (obviously) and each time they encounter the Imperial Japanese Navy they are to turn tail and run away. The idea is to convince the IJN that they are encountering different carriers who are too afraid to fight. This will lead them to believe that the USN is scattered, low on equipment & supplies and demoralized. Implying that it is therefore safe to mount an attack on Midway. Where the USN is actually waiting to ambush them. Sounds a bit silly, but in fact there is a glimmer of truth in the scheme. Steps were taken to convince the IJN that the USN was understrength and that it would be safe to attack at Midway. But I think a glimmer is about as close as this movie ever got to historical accuracy. I had ramen for lunch. I boiled the noodles and then discarded half of the hot water before adding the "flavour packet". Ramen comes in different flavours. Everything from shrimp to possum. But I suspect that without the flavour packets there is absolutely no difference between penguin ramen and wombat ramen. I've seen guys making ramen dishes on YT and they go to extreme lengths to make their own noodles. Can't remember what it is, but there is some ingredient that must be present for the term ramen to be correct. It looks like a whole lot of trouble to me! I'd be perfectly happy buying unflavoured, dry ramen but that won't work until I come up with the ideal additions to the noodles. I want something that will live in the fridge, not get eaten until I'm cooking ramen, then come out of the fridge and be ready in no more time than the noodles themselves. And taste good, of course. My dinner was a piece of beef that I fried in a pan, and served with the last of my potatoes cut and cooked as chips. As the beef was resting and the chips were finishing up, I sliced an onion on the mandolin and softened that in the pan the steak had been in. I deliberately did not prepare any gravy. I had HotChup on my chips and I must say it is quite tasty with the addition of the dry spices. And no longer throat-scorchingly hot with pepper. I prepared a bowl of chow for Mo and opened the last tin of bully beef so I could mix in a dollop with his meal. He was very pleased to see that and wolfed it down in time to catch me with one piece of the beef left on my plate. So he got that along with one chip as well as his own meal. I have pork chunks defrosting for him. Not sure if he will get that tomorrow for lunch or dinner. Dr. Kristi in the morning to get the blood pressure checked. May or may not see her. Could put it off until later in the week or simply skip entirely but she has a sharp tongue when she feels you need to be scolded. And I don't want to get on her bad side! Did a little work on my meds management program today. Not much but it did result in an improvement. I lay out my meds three days at a time. I essentially know by heart, what goes in each pill box. But with Prednisolone now to be taken only every other day, I like to double check if to lay out two days with and one without, or vice versa. I wrote a program called Three which tells me what meds I need for the next three days; how much of each meds I need for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner on each of the three days. (It also tells me what quantities I have on hand and warns if there isn't enough for the three days ahead.) But what if, I asked myself, I want this information for four days ? Or only two? Well, I altered my program to process any number of days from one up, printing the results accordingly. And it was quite easily done! It does three days by default but if I want some other number, I simply use Three --days 5 and get what I need. Yes, I could symlink Three to Five and have the code check it's own name to set the default. But I'd then need to do the same with Two, Four, Six... So I won't do that. I rarely need to know anything other than three... Listening to This Time by Suede. I like this band a lot a I like a lot. I consider it a shame that the two real talents in the band just couldn't get on together. Mo just jumped into bed and when I patted him on the butt he snarled most aggressively and made as if to bite my hand. Now, he is wriggling around on his back trying to attract tummy rubs. Tough luck, puppy. Just be glad you didn't go through with that snarl/bite threat or you would have found yourself defenestrated! Earlier today I watched an old, cult-classic sci-fi movie from 1974. It's called Phase IV and involves some sort of astronomical or cosmological event that affects the ants in some desert valley in Arizona. The ants don't get huge and waddle around the landscape (like 20 years earlier in the movie Them! which I also have here to watch). They just get very smart and aggressive. Very low budget, only three main characters living in a temporary dome as they test the ants. The professor, who is quite willing to place his (and everyone else's) life in jeopardy to complete his research. The cute girl who wandered in (and speaks even less than the girl in Creature From The Black Lagoon) and who thinks they should go out and reason with the ants. And the engineering student who should have had enough sense to leave the professor and the girl to argue about it while he got the hell out. So not the greatest movie ever, but it has achieved cult status in some circles. And the girl was cute. If gormless... Not only do I have red ink tonight, have the very rare white ink. Where your text disappears against the white page. To read it, you have to select it like you are going to cut'n'paste. (Who knows, with this system.) Yes, I also have CFTBL to watch. Seen it before but don't remember too much about it. She had dialogue consisting of nothing but shrill, terrified screaming when ever the creature showed up. Oh, and a very decent pair of white shorts, if I remember. This was the first movie to utilize extensive underwater photography. Mo has departed. Last night, only 45 minutes after I locked up, he barked and clawed until I got up and let him out. Mo is always welcome to sleep with me or anywhere in the house if he wants to. If he chooses to sleep outside I am fine with that too. But when he wants you to open the door every hour through the night so he can come in or go out again... Sorry, not playing that game. I will read for a while (even though it's lateish) and then, when I am locking up, I will give him the chance to decide whether he wants to be on the inside or outside. Edited August 6 by Netfoot 2 Link to comment
Netfoot August 7 Share August 7 (edited) So! Dr. Kristi first thing. Chucked Mo in the car and started up. It died. Started up again. It died again. Note to self: fuel required for vehicle to run. Now, when (if) I get money to buy a little gas, I got to figure out how to get the gas from the gas station back to the house. Because the car can't go and get gas itself. Bundled poor Mo out of the car and left him On Guard as I set off to walk to Dr. K's clinic. Rain immediately started to fall. Got to the clinic without difficulty, but damp. Saw Dr. Kristi with her handbag in hand. "Leaving?" "Yes, I have a doctor's appointment." "Me too!" "No, you don't!" I had to laugh. Because technically, she was right. She just said "Come test again in a couple weeks." Which technically isn't an appointment. Any way, she said Clauder would do the test and call her with the results. So said, so done. It started raining again just about the same time I set off for home. And it's been raining on and off again, spottily, all day. Dr. K. was to call me if she wanted me to implement any changes and I have not heard from her so I assume she is satisfied with the results of the test. The machine did report that I was dead the first two times Clauder tried it, but eventually it gave spreading a reading which, if I remember correctly, wad was marginally lower than last time. Anyway, I sent Dr. K. A snap of her godsun. Kissy! Kissy! Just out of the shower and found Mo rolling around on the bed. I assumed he was wet from outside and was drying off. But no, he was completely dry and just playing. He is rooting around behind me now, as I type. My left elbow is hurting. It has been, for a week or more, gradually getting worse. It's a full ache which I assume is caused by arthritis. Although, joint pain is one of the side effects of Pyridostigmine... Boiled some spaghetti for lunch. Also a plantain. Once boiled, I put the plantain in a pan and gently browned it in oil. When the spaghetti was ready I tossed it in a different pan of hot oil and poured on two beaten eggs. So, think egg fried rice but with spaghetti. It tasted damned good. I will admit spaghetti and plantain are not a combination that springs readily to mind, but they went together well enough. I enjoyed it so much I cooked exactly the same thing for dinner. Meanwhile, I got the defrosted pork chunks and seared them in a hot pan. I didn't cook them too much because I wanted each chunk to remain plump and juicy and not shrink in the pan too much as it might be expected to. It looked pretty good and I cut off a tiny piece about the size of a rice grain and tried it. It was delicious. There was slightly less than I would normally give Mo for a meal so I added a small amount of chow. Mo ate all the pork with delight and left all the chow behind in the bowl. Speaking of Mo, he has ninja'd away. I expect I will see him again soon. Loads of movies to watch but I spend quite a lot of the day with my head down on my desk, snoring and drooling. I assume I am snoring; I'm asleep at the time so can't confirm. And Mo ain't talking. But prolly. Listening to One by Three Dog Night. A great, old band from the days of my youth. Very versatile, with a diverse catalogue. My new book. Written by Bill Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Sterling is a good author too. Only thing with this book is that I am on page 42 but chapter one doesn't end until page 69! I don't like to stop reading at some random point. Just close the book between any two paragraphs? No. I prefer if there are more frequent break-points in the narrative at which I can choose to stop. Mo has just returned. Jumped into bed and disturbed a tiny moth that had alighted on my knee. The moth started fluttering around aimlessly but Mo is tracking it like a gun turret tracks an enemy bomber. Whupps! The moth has departed through the bedroom door with Mo in hot pursuit. Good thing it didn't fly out the window! Seeing as I have 27 pages to go before the chapter ends, I'd better get right on it. Darn it. Today was the Book Tent. Not that I remembered until just now, but even if I had, I don't have a functional vehicle. Which is more distressing than you might think. Edited August 7 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
andidante August 7 Share August 7 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: So! Dr. Kristi first thing. Chucked Mo in the car and started up. It died. Started up again. It died again. Note to self: fuel required for vehicle to run. Now, when (if) I get money to buy a little gas, I got to figure out how to get the gas from the gas station back to the house. Because the car can't go and get gas itself. My new book. Written by Bill Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Sterling is a good author too. Only thing with this book is that I am on page 42 but chapter one doesn't end until page 69! I don't like to stop reading at some random point. Just close the book between any two paragraphs? No. I prefer if there are more frequent break-points in the narrative at which I can choose to stop. Do you have a gas can that you can take to the gas station and fill up to bring back to your car? I hate not having a proper stopping point when I am reading also! I always look ahead to see how long a chapter is or if there is a break in the chapter so I know how much to read. Especially if I am tired and just want to go to bed. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 7 Share August 7 26 minutes ago, andidante said: Do you have a gas can that you can take to the gas station and fill up to bring back to your car? I have a 5 gallon can I could use. But the nearest gas station would be a three kilometer walk, there and back, so I will try and find someone to give me a lift. Of course, when (if) I get a welfare cheque on Friday, it will be a six kilometer walk to the nearest post office to cash it, to get the money to buy any gas! Quote I always look ahead to see how long a chapter is or if there is a break in the chapter so I know how much to read. Especially if I am tired and just want to go to bed. I am exactly the same. When I'm reading at night and my eyes start to close, I flip forward quickly, to see how many more pages before I can stop. When you discover that you still have twenty seven pages to go..... Yikes! 1 Link to comment
andidante August 7 Share August 7 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: I have a 5 gallon can I could use. But the nearest gas station would be a three kilometer walk, there and back, so I will try and find someone to give me a lift. Of course, when (if) I get a welfare cheque on Friday, it will be a six kilometer walk to the nearest post office to cash it, to get the money to buy any gas! I am exactly the same. When I'm reading at night and my eyes start to close, I flip forward quickly, to see how many more pages before I can stop. When you discover that you still have twenty seven pages to go..... Yikes! Oh that is quite a walk! Hopefully you will be able to get a ride for both. Link to comment
Netfoot August 8 Share August 8 (edited) In bed after a shower. The door is locked and Mo is right here sniffling at my feet. It tickles! First thing I saw on Garden Patrol was two socks. Two new socks. A pair of unused socks, found and purloined by the puppy and taken outside where destruction can be wrought upon them. Fortunately I rescued them before any damage was done. I still whacked Mo around the head with them, but a whack with a pair of socks didn't even cause him to turn a hair. He is looking out the window, now. And now curled up against my tummy where I can give him an occasional scritch! Don't think I had any lunch, and I know Mo didn't. I deliberately have him none and here is my reason. For the last week or so he has been blasé on food. I give him his meal, he sniffs the bowl and wanders off. He returns later to eat. So he got no lunch today. Now, come dinner time, I measured out a generous portion of chow, then I fried up some corned beef and when it was nicely cooked I added a bit of water to the pan to make it a slurry. Poured this over the chow and mixed it all up so everything got coated. When I gave it to him he was not the least bit blasé about it! He put his nose in that bowl and it didn't come back out until the bowl was polished clean on the inside. I had penne with black beans, cucumber and a little tomato sauce. There is enough left for me to have for lunch tomorrow. Listening to Iron Man from Black Sabbath's second album Paranoid (now well over 50 years old). There are some good tracks on this album, with this one perhaps best known these days because of the superhero movies. But there are other great ones, from the raucus but fun Fairies Wear Boots to the gentle Planet Caravan. Not forgetting the title track, widely considered one of the greatest heavy metal tracks ever. And more! 5 hours ago, andidante said: Hopefully you will be able to get a ride for both. If I can get a lift to the gas station (and assuming that lack of gas is why the car won't run), then once I put some gas in the car, I should be able to drive to the post office. 😀 Mo now lying on the tiles right next to the bed. Oooof! Tummy Trampoline time, apparently... Watched a movie called On A Wing And A Prayer. Not the same as the one I watched yesterday about an aircraft carrier. This was about Dennis Quaid with wife and two daughters on a puddle-jumper (Super King Air) when the pilot suddenly drops dead. A true occurrence, apparently, DQ had to land the plane an save the day. This is a faith-based story line which isn't my usual choice but it wasn't laid on too thick so I was fine with it. What I did find a bit annoying was a whole sub-plot about a young girl who is a bit of an aviation boffin because she wants to be a pilot when she grows up who was listening to the ATC audio and explaining everything they said to her clueless friend. So you got to hear the ATC conversation, then you got to hear it all explained again. I think her name was Ethel Exposition because she did nothing but explain what was going on. Despite the fact we already knew, because we had just heard it all, direct from Dennis Quaid's mouth, or the mouths of the ATC. Mo now sprawlax on the bed with all his bizniss exposé! Spent the day mostly perusing YT videos about designing and building reverse "tadpole" trikes and velomobiles that lean when they go around corners. Now, the idea appeals but I'm in two minds. I've studied suspension design, mostly for competition vehicles, for years. I have several text books on the subject matter. The primary goal of suspension is to keep the vehicle wheels perpendicular to the road (i.e. vertical) during both bump & roll conditions. This prevents the flat underside of the tire (as seen from the front or rear) from lifting on one side or another. This maximizes the amount of rubber in contact with the road (contact patch), increasing grip. Which reduces your chance of flying off to the side and into the sugar canes. Or over a cliff. (I've done the first several times in my youth in my 1964 Austin Mini 850, but fortunately, never the second.) Leaning the tires on these tadpole trikes seems contra-indicated. But bicycles and motorcycles routinely lean over to go around corners. Their tires have a round profile rather than flat-bottomed like a car. And so would a tadpole if you fitted it with bike wheels. So, I don't know. Should you design a tilting front end with round profile tires? Or should you go with flat bottomed tires and design suspension that keeps the wheels vertical during bump/roll like a regular vehicle? It strikes me that the only way to decide would be to build a rig such that you could fit either/or, try both, and see which one tried it's hardest to kill you! Another consideration for building a trike/velomobile would be: do you include A rumble seat in the back? A cargo hatch in the front? A two-man seat in the middle? After all, Mo got to fit in somewhere.... Watched Fat Man And Little Boy this evening. This is the story of the Manhattan Project with Paul Newman as General Groves. Can't remember the name of the actor who portrayed Oppenheimer but it was the guy who played Howling Mad Murdock, crazy pilot from The A Team. He did a pretty good job! John Cusack played a composite character, representing the two scientists who were unfortunate enough to fall victim to The Demon Core. I thought the show was pretty good despite being 35 years old. The more recent movie Oppenheimer from last year is probably a little better simply due to being made more recently. But the even older TV series with the same name and starring Sam Waterston is still number one in my opinion. Ok, enough talk. Time for sleep. Or would you like to hear about the paint job and the upholstery on my old mini? LOL! Thought not... Edited August 8 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Mr. Sparkle August 8 Share August 8 6 hours ago, Netfoot said: Listening to Iron Man from Black Sabbath's second album Paranoid (now well over 50 years old). There are some good tracks on this album, with this one perhaps best known these days because of the superhero movies. But there are other great ones, from the raucus but fun Fairies Wear Boots to the gentle Planet Caravan. Not forgetting the title track, widely considered one of the greatest heavy metal tracks ever. And more! Probably my favorite album of all time, other than the first Sabbath album. Depends on my mood. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 9 Share August 9 Damp, in bed, with Mo at my feet and the door locked. Mo has already been at my glass of iced water but he did leave some for me! It's been raining off and on all day. Sometimes light showers, sometimes hammering downpours. When I went out to take Mo his lunch, I found a good quality, long-sleeve shirt lying on the driveway in a puddle of water. I don't wear that shirt around the house so I know it came straight out of the clean laundry. Mo looked very contrite but I gave him a whack with said shirt anyway. Then I gave him his lunch and a brief cuddle. Tomorrow would normally be a welfare cheque day. Of course, I started getting these cheques unexpectedly, without warning and without explanation. So, they could stop coming just as unexpectedly. Now, in the past, although the cheque would be dated on the Friday, it would be delivered by the postman the day before, on the Thursday. This evening, I fished around in the landlord's mail box and found my electric bill (now two months in arrears) but no welfare cheque! Now a couple months ago, they told me they were looking to switch to a direct deposit system. Hopefully in June or July, but in practice, nobody could say when. So it is possible they didn't send a cheque because they are direct depositing instead. And the deposit has not dropped yet because the welfare payment is officially due tomorrow. So. Will it be a direct deposit tomorrow? Or have my welfare payments come to an end? (Some serious rain has just started to hammer down outside! I'm glad I have a puppy here with me, warm and dry and cuddly.) And if they do deposit my welfare payment tomorrow, will the bank inform me? I usually get an email notification of transactions on the account, but while payment notifications are swift, deposits can sometimes languish for a whole day before notification arrives. So right now, I have no idea where I stand WRT welfare. All I know is I'm two months late on electricity, two months late on water and while my Telco was paid in full, a new bill dropped yesterday and is due on the 21st. Been a wobbly day. But no headache. For the last 4-5 days I've had a splitting headache but no sign of it today. Silver lining! (Mo has just moved up behind me and curled up against my spine, between my kidneys.) Watched the Swallows And Amazons movie based on the book by Arthur Ransome. This was the 2016 production by the BBC. I feel like everyone will know the story but perhaps not? This was the first real book I ever read at about five or six years of age. Prior to that, I was reading picture books of some sort of another. But when it was time, my mum gave me this book. Apparently, it is something of a family tradition. The story is set in the Lake District, and featuring two families of children who encounter each other sailing on the lake. I have visited Windermere and Coniston Water and even seen (from a distance) Bank Ground Farm where the children were staying. The story was fairly well presented by the BBC except they added in a pair of dastardly Russian spies that I don't think were in the book. Also, Able Seaman Titty was renamed Tatty because Titty is a bad word that Aunty Beeb has to protect us from, while insisting on showing us public fellatio during Stripey Month. I admit it's been over 60 years since I first read this book and I have not reread it much since then. But I think the Russian spies were unnecessary. They were probably added as something that might hold the attention of an adult audience in a story that was entirely intended for children. Otherwise, it was a good watch. I finished yesterday's penne for lunch. For dinner, I made up a dough from three cups of white/wheat flour and one cup of yellow/corn flour with baking soda/powder (forget which) and a buncha spices. Made this at lunchtime and tore off four lumps which I rolled into flat frybread tonight. Fried in oil and filled with PB&J, I ate three of them before Mo showed up and laid claim to most of the fourth. There is at least as much dough left in the fridge so I can have more frybread tomorrow or make it into dumplings, or do various combinations as the mood takes me. I've got at least 5Kg of flour remaining in the freezer so I won't starve. Not for another couple of days, yet. Listening to Summer's In Bloom by Reef from their album Glow. These guys make no secret about what they mean! Summer's in bloom. Light her up, let her fill the room... Oh-oh! Red & white ink again! Why does this happen to me? And only me? Apparently? Left hand contorted by cramp to the point of uselessness but strangely, no pain. Go figure. Mo went down on the tiles, attempted to steal something out of the clean-laundry basket, got hollered at, returned to bed and is curled up at my feet. And the red ink has run out and we are back to normal black ink again. Also watched Damnation Alley. This is a post-nuclear apocalypse movie with George Peppard and Jan-Michael Vincent as the two main leads. They survive the nuclear holocaust because they were actually in a missile silo launching a counter attack at the time. They have to travel from wherever they are to Albany (Why Albany? Don't know.) across very hostile terrain in a very improbable looking vehicle, picking up strangers and having adventures along the way. Cinematic production about what you'd expect from a low- to mid-budget movie made in 1977 but something of a cult classic none the less. Mo now curled up between my shoulder blades. Half an hour to midnight. I will go and read my book now. Fingers crossed a welfare payment shows up in my account tomorrow. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 10 Share August 10 In bed from the shower. Mo is curled up against my back but the door is still open. He will probably come and go before I get up and lock it. No welfare cheque(s) arrived today with the postman. And no deposits have been made in my account. There remains the possibility that the cheque(s) are late but one thing I will say about the local bureaucracy is that they generally are on time with things like this. There is also the possibility that they have switched to direct deposit but there are teething problems. And of course the bank is not generally efficient with notifying me when there are deposits on the accounts. So I could receive notification on Monday that there was a deposit, but the notification carry today's date. Now, I've been concerned for a while that the welfare cheques could stop at any time without warning or explanation. They started without warning or explanation, after all. (Mo is gone! That pup is part ninja!) I've been checking back and I've received two cheques a month (of $120 each) for the last four months. I would not have thought that four months would be the cut off. Three or six months would sound more reasonable. Or... The total so far is $960. Perhaps the cut off was $1,000 rounded down to the nearest payment? I'm just speculating. All I know for sure is that I've been trying to figure out how to make ends meet with the welfare payments. And failing to see how. I sure as hell don't know how to manage without them. Anyway, all I can do is wait until Monday and see if a cheque or a deposit shows up. If nothing happens by a certain time I can call welfare and simply ask them if I've been switched to direct deposit or whether my payments have been terminated. I'm listening to Behind Blue Eyes from the 1971 album Who's Next, the fifth album (I believe) from The Who. This is a classic track from a classic album by a classic band! It even has a classic cover. Considered one of the greatest album covers of all time, perfectly suitable for what many consider one of the greatest albums of all time. I had frybread with PB&J for lunch, but while there is plenty of dough left in the fridge, I chose ramen for dinner. At first I thought of skipping dinner to conserve the ramen, but then I thought "Buggrit! I'm hungry!" I added julienned cucumber and chopped onion to the ramen. Not great, but it was OK. Tomorrow, I will combine half a tin of black beans, half a tin of tomato sauce, half a cucumber, a whole onion and some spices, and add the mix to some dumplings made from the same dough. I also have some frozen pork so some of that might end up in there as well. Of course, it won't unless I take it out of the freezer so BRB... Right. Small bag of pork chunks defrosting. A small amount of that in the mix, and the rest can go to feed Mo for a meal. With some chow. Or even some of the same dumplings. More red ink. 😠 Watched an old movie this afternoon: WarGames, starring that oily little shit Matthew Broderick. Amongst others. When was that from? 1983? Humans considered unreliable in the silos of NORAD's missile defense, they were replaced by an advanced computer system. (I know it's advanced because it has more flashing LEDs than my neighbor's Christmas tree.) so what happens next? Exactly what you'd expect: The computer has a brain-fart and sets out to blow up the world! One thing that is shockingly obvious is how simplistic the "advanced" computer technology of the day was. But to be honest, I think my mates and I laughed at that when it first came out! I seem to remember some follow-up to this movie. Either a sequel or a TV series. I just dunno if I could take any more of that oily little shit Matthew Broderick than I already have! Gone midnight. Ink suddenly black again. Think I will read a bit then lock up and sleep. Mo not back yet so alas, no photo. 1 Link to comment
andidante August 10 Share August 10 10 hours ago, Netfoot said: Watched an old movie this afternoon: WarGames, starring that oily little shit Matthew Broderick. Amongst others. When was that from? 1983? Humans considered unreliable in the silos of NORAD's missile defense, they were replaced by an advanced computer system. (I know it's advanced because it has more flashing LEDs than my neighbor's Christmas tree.) so what happens next? Exactly what you'd expect: The computer has a brain-fart and sets out to blow up the world! One thing that is shockingly obvious is how simplistic the "advanced" computer technology of the day was. But to be honest, I think my mates and I laughed at that when it first came out! I seem to remember some follow-up to this movie. Either a sequel or a TV series. I just dunno if I could take any more of that oily little shit Matthew Broderick than I already have! Gone midnight. Ink suddenly black again. Think I will read a bit then lock up and sleep. Mo not back yet so alas, no photo. Have you seen his movie Ferris Beuller's day off? Did not like his character but LOVED his friend Cameron. I thought the girlfriend was pretty useless too. I did like Ferris' sister also. Link to comment
b4pjoe August 10 Share August 10 11 hours ago, Netfoot said: No welfare cheque(s) arrived today with the postman. And no deposits have been made in my account. There remains the possibility that the cheque(s) are late but one thing I will say about the local bureaucracy is that they generally are on time with things like this. There is also the possibility that they have switched to direct deposit but there are teething problems. And of course the bank is not generally efficient with notifying me when there are deposits on the accounts. So I could receive notification on Monday that there was a deposit, but the notification carry today's date. Not sure if direct deposit is the same there as it is in the states but they can't auto deposit money into your account here until you give them the bank name, the routing number, and the account number. Have you supplied that info to them? Link to comment
Netfoot August 10 Share August 10 2 hours ago, andidante said: Have you seen his movie Ferris Beuller's day off? Sure have. It is a classic in it's own right! Still don't think much of Matthew Broderick, but I will admit he improved as he aged. 1 hour ago, b4pjoe said: Not sure if direct deposit is the same there as it is in the states but they can't auto deposit money into your account here until you give them the bank name, the routing number, and the account number. Have you supplied that info to them? Yes, I did that a couple months ago. They sent me a form which I filled out and returned it in person. I went through the same process few years ago to get my pension, which is also deposited directly into my account. That process has operated flawlessly since then. It's never been so much as a day late. In fact, it is almost always four days early... 1 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 11 Share August 11 Just before Garden Patrol, as I sat at my desk, there was a sudden scuffle behind me, which concluded with a loud squeak and Mo rushing outside with something in his mouth. I grabbed a torch and followed. By time I reached him, Mo had dug a hole in the grass, stuffed his prize into it and refused to let me even see what it was. He snarled and threatened to bite (and got a little smack on the butt for that) but there was no amount of patting and praising that got him to where he would let me get close enough to see what he was protecting. At one point he lay down directly over the hole and refused to move! Well, I didn't want to discourage him or make him feel that he had done wrong in any way. So I left him to it and finished the Patrol without him. No meals today. Not in the usual sense. I had three mugs of tea and cooked up a small fry-bread each time, which I split open and ate with a very thin smear of PB and even less J. I don't actually feel hungry right now, but maybe tomorrow I will be more in a mood to make black bean and cucumber with tomato sauce and onion. Which I can eat with rice, pasta or even fry-bread. (There is still some dough left and plenty of flour to make more if needed.) I'm low on milk. Just opened the last little box. Got maybe a kilo of sugar, and around 25 tea bags. What I'm running low on is gas for the stove. And at something like $43 per 25 lb. cylinder.... There is very little chow left for Mo. Maybe one more serving. There are some pork chunks I can fry up for him and serve with rice or pasta. Listening to Pilots by Goldfrapp. Can't remember when (or where) I first heard Alison Goldfrapp sing, but I was a fan almost immediately. I like the music as well as the vocals. I wish I'd got on board earlier. This track is from their debut Felt Mountain, as is my favourite track of theirs, Horse Tears. Mozie is here in bed with me. He got a severe talking-to because while he was guarding his conquest from thieves I was discovering the pillowcase he had stolen earlier and dragged out to get soaked and mud-stained in the yard. It's been another day of rain, off and on. Right now he is trying to extract water from my glass but unfortunately for him, the glass contains no water, only ice. Now, he is flapping his ears vigorously. Once, years ago, I had to reach deep into Dotty's ear with a hemostat and extract a grape-sized tick. But I can see nothing in Mo's ears other than everyday grime and grunge. Watched another classic movie today: Demon Seed. Computer/robotics boffin develops an AI which sounds suspiciously like The Man From UNCLE. It isn't long before Robert Vaughn Proteus becomes contemptuous of humans but simultaneously desires to become one at any cost. Utilizing boffin's computerized home and robotic appliances, Proteus impregnates boffin's hot wife (Julie Christie) to create a human version of itself... Also watched YT videos although I think more often than not the videos watched me! Battery voltage is low so I will end here and put this on charge. Had charging issues with my Qi charger a couple days ago, but all appears to be working perfectly since then. Qi chargers are not fast, but will easily do the job overnight. I also have a fast charger but that must be plugged into the USB-C port... which is 5 years old and finicky. I use it during the day if I need to recharge the poor old battery. But it takes quite a bit of annoying fiddling to get it charging. Ninja-boy is now curled up against my kidneys. He is extra fuzzy! Ok, bed time! Last night when I started to feel sleepy, I counted ahead to see how many pages I had to go before the next chapter in my book. Seventy eight pages! Now, Mo had departed.... 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 12 Share August 12 (edited) I measured my shoes today. One of them, anyway. From the tip of the toe to the back of the heel was 11⅞". Remember that: just a plinknin less than a foot. Listening to Creep by Radiohead. This is off their debut Pablo Honey album. This is a grand song! The gentle vocal with the instrumental line, reinforced with a simple drum sequence right up until the sudden wail of fuzz guitar as the chorus kicks in. But at the transition, the three grunts from the guitarist are a wake-up call that really smacks you in the face! Not originally a part of the song, the guitarist (who apparently didn't like the song) stuck them in to express his dissatisfaction by deliberately ruining it. Rather than ruin it and trigger a rewrite, the producers boosted the sound and it really makes the song something unforgettable. They recorded a clean version for radio airplay ("so fucking special" becomes "so very special") and my copy of Pablo Honey includes both. Skipped lunch but come dinner time I went looking for those pork chunks I'd defrosted for Mo. To my surprise, when I opened the bag, it turned out to contain two absolutely tiny chicken thighs! I stole four tiny pieces of the chicken; not very much. Mo got the vast majority which I fried and mixed with the last of the chow. The small pieces I got were also fried and in the same pan I made four tiny frybreads. These were only about 1½" to 2" in size. I sliced them open, and put the tiny pieces of chicken in them with a smear of mayo and a literal drop of Hotchup. Tasted pretty good! 'Course, I could have eaten a dozen... Watched a movie today which is the absolute classic, definitive "AI Takes Over" movie of all time. Obviously I'm speaking of Colossus: The Forbin Project. What is scary about this movie is the concept that people could be so stupid as to hand over the reigns of power to an AI with absolutely no checks and balances on it's subsequent actions. I really recommend this one to any who have not seen it before. 1970 was 54 years ago but the effects are still passable. A little retro maybe but still good enough. So how big is my shoe? Perhaps a photo will help you remember: Pictured here alongside Mo's prize from last night. I went looking for it today and found it right where Mo had left it. Nose to tail, tip to tip, it's at least as long as my shoe! Of course, I dug it out of the hole and after taking it's portrait, I placed it in the wheelie-bin for removal by SSA tomorrow. Since they charge me very close to $50 per month to remove my trash, I'd better not hear any complaints! Just gone midnight. Mo was already in bed when I came into the bedroom, but by time I got back from having my shower, he was gone. Since then he has returned and then departed again, twice. I will read for a while and then lock up. I gotta say he is becoming more annoying every day, demanding that the door be opened earlier and earlier every morning. It was 2:30 AM the other day. Sometimes I just swipe him with a pillow but he ignores that sort of response and just keep barking in your ear. And clawing viciously at any bit of exposed skin he can get to. I could try swotting him hard with the pillow, but I hate the idea of hurting him, even in a completely non-harmful way.... Z-zz-zzz..... Edited August 12 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 13 Share August 13 Boy! You should have heard me cussin' this morning! It went something like "Every f-ing time I leave my f-ing house the f-ing rain f-ing falls and soaks my f-ing ass!" Only it went on, all the way from home to the grocery. Which is in the same compound as Dr. Kristi's clinic. As she was a few yards closer than the grocery proper, I popped in there to get under cover. The rain stopped immediately. As soon as I left, it restarted but only until after I crossed the parking lot and entered the grocery. I bought 2Kg of chow for Mozey, 5 lbs. of potatoes for me, along with two 250ml cartons of Pine Hill evap., a tin of lentils and a tin of corned beef (not Triple-J). Good to see Pine Hill milk on the shelf, but no 1L cartons, only the 250ml size and not a whole lot of them. Packed it all into a backpack and exited the store just as the rain began to fall again. Short stop at Dr. K. again (the rain stopped) where I spent 5 minutes and stole a sweetie from a bowl she keeps on the table. The rain returned just as I departed so I made my way home sheltering for five minutes at each bus stop along the way (yes, the rain stopped each time and restarted again as I resumed my journey). Finally got home dripping, but with some supplies! And about $13 remaining in the bank. Listening to Hey Lawdy Mama by Steppenwolf. One of the first albums I ever bought was 16 Greatest Hits by Steppenwolf. This track was on there, but it is also on their album Gold. As these are both compilations you would expect the track to appear somewhere on an earlier album. But I can not determine which was it's initial release. 16 Greatest Hits says it is from Steppenwolf Live, which in turn says it is a "studio recording". Gold gives no origin for the recording and a search of the studio albums does not reveal the track listed in any of them. So I am no further forward. But it's a good track. Mo had been favouring his left forefoot for the last couple of days. Mo hates anybody even touching his feet, far less examining them and he is extremely protective of his left forefoot in particular. So I have checked as best I could but given the limited access I have been granted I was not able to find anything wrong, from shoulder to toes. We started off on Garden Patrol and Mo was literally walking on three feet. The two rear feet functioning normally but the left fore not touching the ground at all, while the right hops along to keep him moving. I picked him up and carried him through our Patrol. He's a heavy little bugger! Prolly three times as heavy as the sack of groceries I struggled with this morning. But my baby is suffering and $13 won't win much of a response from the vet. Right now, he is lying on the tiles next to the bed. When I came in with a glass of ice, he stood on my knee as I poured the water into the glass and no sooner the neck of the bottle came out, his nozzle went in. Sluuuuurp! Half the water gone. It would all be gone, I suspect, if the nozzle was long enough to reach the bottom. I love my puppy and try not to deny any reasonable request he makes. But am I wrong for wanting to drink a glass of water without dog-slobber in it? When I got into the bedroom I couldn't find my phone. Did a search and found it quickly. In the freezer. Watched two Made-For-TV movies today. They were both based on books written by Bill Shatner (or more likely ghosted for him based on notes he made). These are very low budget affaires and not by any means quality productions. The plot centers around a convicted cop, now released from prison. The focus is a new 'drug' which is actually an illegal chip installed in your head. It can generate pleasurable hallucinations when triggered into action by a coded video or audio signal. I think of it as a primitive droud which works by stimulating the five senses rather than trickling current direct to the pleasure centers of the brain... I can't figure out how the sellers make any money from this. As a user you would obviously have to pay for the chip, but once it was installed in your head, why would you need to go back? Got two more movies in the set to watch. Will get around to it. Had no lunch. (Mo got some of the chow I lugged back from the grocery.) For dinner I fried up some pork and split it with him. His went onto some more chow and I deglazed the pan and stirred in the gravy. No gravy for me. I boiled a plantain and made chips. My chips continue to improve. Slightly. Instead of slicing the potato lengthwise, I cut at an angle. This way I could control the length of the slices and thus the chips themselves. So shorter chips but more of them. And more easily controlled as to how cooked they should be. Besides, diagonal slicing is easier. Served with Hotchup I enjoyed the meal. Still a bit metallic but not too bad. More potatoes but that was my last plantain. And there are still some meat scraps in the freezer but I am not sure what exactly. Pork? Beef? Chicken? I should colour code the bags or otherwise mark them somehow... What am I to do about my three-legged puppy? Link to comment
andidante August 13 Share August 13 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: Boy! You should have heard me cussin' this morning! It went something like "Every f-ing time I leave my f-ing house the f-ing rain f-ing falls and soaks my f-ing ass!" Only it went on, all the way from home to the grocery. Which is in the same compound as Dr. Kristi's clinic. As she was a few yards closer than the grocery proper, I popped in there to get under cover. The rain stopped immediately. As soon as I left, it restarted but only until after I crossed the parking lot and entered the grocery. Did you end up getting your check after all? Or at least find out if they have stopped them? Link to comment
b4pjoe August 13 Share August 13 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: Listening to Hey Lawdy Mama by Steppenwolf. One of the first albums I ever bought was 16 Greatest Hits by Steppenwolf. This track was on there, but it is also on their album Gold. As these are both compilations you would expect the track to appear somewhere on an earlier album. But I can not determine which was it's initial release. 16 Greatest Hits says it is from Steppenwolf Live, which in turn says it is a "studio recording". Gold gives no origin for the recording and a search of the studio albums does not reveal the track listed in any of them. So I am no further forward. But it's a good track. It was not on any of their studio albums it seems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppenwolf_discography Link to comment
Netfoot August 13 Share August 13 9 minutes ago, b4pjoe said: It was not on any of their studio albums it seems. Yes. It's a bit strange. Their "16 Greatest Hits" album lists it as coming from "Steppenwolf Live" but "Steppenwolf Live" describes it as a "(Studio Recording)". So I guess thewy recorded it at some studio or the other, decided not to include it in whichever album they were working on, but later on scraped it up off the floor to include in "Steppenwolf Live". Good thing they did, because it became a fan-favourite! Link to comment
Netfoot August 13 Share August 13 28 minutes ago, andidante said: Did you end up getting your check after all? Or at least find out if they have stopped them? I was just coming to comment! Yesterday, when I walked through the rain to the shops, I had only $53 bucks in the bank. And spent $39 of that. This morning, literally moments ago, I heard the landlord calling me. I went out and he handed me two welfare cheques, one for last Friday and one for next Friday. (That's how they normally come; Four weeks apart, two at a time but dated two weeks apart.) I dunno what happened. They are usually very reliable. They were not in his mailbox Friday so either they didn't come until yesterday or he took them out of his box to give to me and forgot about them until this morning. I suspect probably the latter. I can tell you, it is a huge relief to have them in my hand! I can't tell you how worried I have been for the last 4 days! Now I have to get some gas in the car, because I have to get the cheque to the post office to be cashed, and I will need to go get meds at Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic and at QEH before the end of the week. 2 2 Link to comment
Netfoot August 13 Share August 13 (edited) Mo is walking around quite normally now - but only sometimes. One minute he is hobbling around on three legs with one foot in the air and the next he is using that foot like there is nothing wrong with it. He has favoured that left foreleg since he was a puppy. I wonder if there is some long-term issue that flares up and goes away randomly? We just had a cuddle in bed. First, he did his patented side-drop onto my jaw. Then he stuck his butt straight in my face. And then the coup de grâce, he double-back-leg kicked me in the throat. That was all the cuddling I could handle. I was in the bedroom because I was changing into street clothes. A buddy is supposed to come this afternoon after work to take me and a huge 5 gallon can to the gas station to buy half a gallon for the van. Hopefully, lack of gas is the reason it won't start, so with half a gallon, tomorrow I can go to the post office to cash that cheque, add some more gas to the car, then the polyclinic and QEH to replenish meds . My program is saying: Quote Medication required: -- Spirolon (25mg) before Sat 17th Aug -- Mestinon / Pyridostigmine (60mg) before Mon 19th Aug -- Prednisolone / Corotrope (5mg) before Thu 15th Aug Of course, I will do the lot at once... By the way, yesterday would have been Budweiser's 11th birthday. My eyes still water when I think of his life being cut short at only eight years of age. He was a rascal but the most likable rascal ever. And Mozie's birthday is next week some time... Edited August 13 by Netfoot 2 Link to comment
Netfoot August 13 Share August 13 Bought $10 in gas or about 2⅓ liters. Poured the gas into the car but it would not start after about 10 times. Actually, it would fire but immediately die. Shook the can and it had a little more gas in it so I poured it out into a smaller bottle and from there added it to the tank. Got another ½ liter from can to tank that way. The 5 gallon can is a little unwieldy getting it to drain completely into a filler on the vertical side of the van. Going via the bottle allowed me to empty it all into the tank. She started first crank and ran fine. Stopped and tried again 3 more times. All fine. Just need to fill up at the station tomorrow. After cashing the cheque at the post office. Then, Edgar Cochrane and QEH. 2 Link to comment
andidante August 13 Share August 13 9 hours ago, Netfoot said: I was just coming to comment! Yesterday, when I walked through the rain to the shops, I had only $53 bucks in the bank. And spent $39 of that. This morning, literally moments ago, I heard the landlord calling me. I went out and he handed me two welfare cheques, one for last Friday and one for next Friday. (That's how they normally come; Four weeks apart, two at a time but dated two weeks apart.) I dunno what happened. They are usually very reliable. They were not in his mailbox Friday so either they didn't come until yesterday or he took them out of his box to give to me and forgot about them until this morning. I suspect probably the latter. I can tell you, it is a huge relief to have them in my hand! I can't tell you how worried I have been for the last 4 days! Now I have to get some gas in the car, because I have to get the cheque to the post office to be cashed, and I will need to go get meds at Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic and at QEH before the end of the week. I am so happy to hear that! Glad they have not stopped them. 3 hours ago, Netfoot said: Mo is walking around quite normally now - but only sometimes. One minute he is hobbling around on three legs with one foot in the air and the next he is using that foot like there is nothing wrong with it. He has favoured that left foreleg since he was a puppy. I wonder if there is some long-term issue that flares up and goes away randomly? I know he is still very young but do you suppose he has some kind of arthritis or something? Link to comment
Netfoot August 14 Share August 14 1 hour ago, andidante said: I know he is still very young but do you suppose he has some kind of arthritis or something? It might be. He is and always has been highly protective of his feet but that left front in particular. And when ever he has footie issues, it is almost always that left front foot. So there might be something wrong with the foot that is not immediately obvious, but which flares up from time to time and then fades away. Since he fights like a pirate if you try to examine the foot, I have not been able to identify anything particularly odd about it. A wonky toenail? A painful joint? Dunno. And it could be something internal like arthritis. But he is not quite three and he's been like this over the foot since as far back as I can remember, so if it's arthritis he has had it since before he was one year old. Last seen walking around using all four feet perfectly normally. But last night he couldn't even put that left front on the ground and I had to carry him through Garden Patrol. Well, I didn't have to. He was perfectly happy hobbling along on three feet, but..... 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 14 Share August 14 Are dogs handed? I mean like left-handed vs. right-handed? Maybe Mo's left paw is the one that usually causes him trouble because he is left-pawed and so that is the paw he usually sticks into trouble? I am sure I mentioned before, but since my last visit to QEH Neuro clinic I have been on half dose of Prednisolone. Previously 35mg every day, now 35mg every 2 days. Yesterday was a 35mg day. Today I picked up the wrong pill box. Instead of having no Prednisolone today, I had another 35mg. No biggie, I was on 35mg per day for months, right up until only s couple of weeks ago! Except this afternoon, I had three of the worst dizzy spells since I can't remember when. Food for thought. Found that sequel to the WarGames movie. It doesn't have Matthew Broderick in it, but the replacement hero has a friend who should be taken outside and shot. Anyway, watched that. Not too bad. About par with the original. Once again the computer technology portrayed is laughable, even allowing generously for the age of the movie. I made rice for lunch. It contained a little black beans, a little tomato sauce, a little diced cucumber and a very little corned beef. Plus some spices, mostly garlic powder. It cooked up quite nicely. I gave Mo chow but with a generous amount of the rice stirred in to give it extra flavour. And I ate the rest myself. It was pretty good. I think it would have been even better if my taste buds were not determined to sabotage everything that goes in my mouth. For dinner Mo got chow and I dug out the last of the dough and made two frybreads. With a very little PB&J they tasted slightly mouldy. Well, the dough has been in the fridge for days now, so... I added more PB&J to drown out the mouldy taste and it worked well enough. No idea if the off taste came from actual mould or from drug-addled tongue. As mentioned earlier I obtained 2⅓ liters of gas for the van (thanks, Ian!) and it started and ran. Tomorrow, assuming it still runs, I will cash last Friday's cheque and use $20 of that to put some more gas in the van. The balance I will deposit in the bank and use it to pay towards my water bill. It should be enough to pay a whole month of the arrears. It would not be enough to pay a month of the electric bill. I just gotta hope that they don't cut off the electric before I get more furniture parts to make for my guy. The saws, sanders, etc, don't run well without juice. Listening to The Motivator by T-Rex. Marc Bolan is a bit of a sad case. Terrified his whole life long of dying in a car crash... he died in a car crash. If I remember correctly, the car in question was a high-end model of mini. I dunno if I've ever mentioned it, but my first car was a mini! In fact, I've owned three in total, over the years..... Let me tell you about them! The first was maroon, the second was blue and the third was red... Let me tell you about when I broke an engine mount on the red one, on the way home from a Christmas Eve party in the early hours (unplanned aerial excursion into a cane piece) and had to fix it in time to get to the family Christmas Breakfast at 7:00 the next morning..... 🤣 No, I won't do that to you. Have not seen Mo since before I went for my shower. He was perfectly fine on Garden Patrol. Which is good, because I was wobbly as hell. Walked down to the end with my left hand on the house wall and then back up again with my hand on the guard-wall, all the way back to the gate and in through the garage. Mo could have fallen over on his back with all four legs in the air and the best I could have done for him would have been to lie next to him and keep him company. Having said that let me check that Ninja-Mo isn't lying in the bed right behind me... No. Not this time. I've reached page 244 of 383 in my book. Last night when my eyes started to feel droopy I counted how many pages to the end of the chapter: 42. Hell, no! So now I have to go back a page or two and try to remember what was going on when I just up and stopped reading in the middle. The physical nature of a book can have a significant effect on how easy/pleasant it is to read. I recall I ordered a copy of Two Years Before The Mast and when it came I was surprised but not concerned to note the book was wider than it was tall. Pages in landscape rather than portrait, in other words. It's only after I started reading it I realize how difficult it was to read. Because the page was wider, the lines were longer. I couldn't just sweep my eyes left & right, I had to actually turn my head a fraction. Also, when I reached the end of each line and my focus snapped back to the left, because of the unusually long distance I had to spend a split second deciding which line was the next one. I would periodically read the same line again, or accidentally skip the next one and continue with the one after it. While it was an excellent book, it was a right royal pain in the ass to read! Avoid any book typeset/printed in this manner! Anyhow, speaking of books, and seeing as it's well past the witching hour, I will stop here. It is (still) 42 pages to the end of the chapter which I have no intention of completing tonight. But perhaps I can get half a dozen pages closer. 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 14 Share August 14 (edited) 10:37 QEH: Cashed my cheque, bought extra gas, collected half my meds from Edgar Cochrane polyclinic, and I'm now at QEH trying to collect the other half. As you can see, I have 118 people in the line ahead of me. Unless my arithmetic is wrong. And I forgot to bring my book. Poor Mo. He is in the car. At least it is parked under an extremely shady tree! But it is a hot day. Even sitting here right by the breeze-block wall with a breeze blowing, I am sweating. When I leave here I have to go and deposit the balance of the cheque in the bank so I can pay something towards my water bill this evening. 11:42 QEH: Now serving 978. That's 55 served in 55 minutes. Again, if my arithmetic is correct. So 63 more to go and at 1 per minute I should get called in just over an hour.... Battery at 48%... No, did get the arithmetic wrong! It's 55 served in 65 minutes so 1.18 minutes per person therefore just under 1¼ hours to wait. 12:15 QEH: They're moving fast, now, and skipping 2-3 numbers, sometimes. Only 25 more to go! 12:25 QEH: Now serving... Me! Number skipped from 40 to 42 and I had to rush up and jump in front! 12:31 QEH: On my way! Bank and home! 13:18 Home: And we're done for the day. I'm knackered and very thirsty. I have a huge glass of iced water which will be my lunch. Mo will get chow, right after I drink my water! Edited August 14 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
Netfoot August 15 Share August 15 (edited) So much for my morning! I sat around most of the afternoon, watching videos and working on my software. (Found a nasty bug which I've implemented a fix for, but will continue to look for a cleaner solution.) Last night I moved some pork from the freezer to the fridge to defrost. A bag of chunks for Mo and a larger piece for me. Since I can use a knife and fork I can handle the bigger piece; since he can't he gets chunks. Come time for dinner, I forgot all about the pork. I gave Mo chow and he happily ate that. A little later as I planned to open a tin to get some corned beef for myself (not Triple-J) I noticed the pork! So I fried my piece and also boiled a couple of potatoes. I deglazed the pan for gravy and fried up an onion to go with it. The meal was very enjoyable. Boiled potatoes prolly aren't quite as good as chips but I thought to give myself a change. Also, my chips dem seem to be improving but they are still far from perfect. Part of the problem is inconsistent chip size. I am thinking of some sort of home made mandolin-like device to cut the potatoes into slices of even thickness. My mandolin will only do ⅛" slices which are too thin. ¼" would be more like it. Or even a shade larger. I know you can buy a thing with a square matrix of blades that you simply press down on a spud and presto! Buying such a thing would require actual money. Of which I have none. Not very much, anyway. Listening to Drive by The Cars. I like this band a lot. This track is from their Heartbeat City album. Not my favourite album of theirs but this is (I believe) the best track on the album and it is a good one. I believe it was one of their best performing tracks ever. Mo is sleeping on the tiles next to the bed. I noticed him there when I came in to grab my towel to take a shower. He has not moved at all since. In fact..... Yes, he is breathing. He is actually mostly under the bed. But his four footies are sticking out the side by a few inches. He spent the afternoon engaged in a bark-fest with my neighbors three dogs. That guy had no dogs at all for what? 15 years? Then, within the last year, he got one and didn't treat it very well. Obviously, the dog was not an object of affection but a means of dissuading unwelcome visitors. Now, he has three dogs. (When I say he doesn't treat them well I give the example that during hurricane Beryl of recent memory, he chose to shelter elsewhere, and not at the house next door to me. The dogs were simply left on their chains out in the elements, to weather the storm as best they could on their own. Fortunately for them, Beryl was mild and treated us all gently, dogs included.) Anyway, Mo spent most of the afternoon arguing with them. And after his morning in the car, he is all tuckered out, it would seem. Red ink again. I started to watch a movie today. Named The Professionals, a western starring amongst others, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Jack Palance. A small group lead by Marvin are paid to enter the badlands to rescue their patron's kidnapped wife from evil bandit Balance. I dunno how it turns out because I paused it and came to bed. I'm tired and I am going to post now and go to sleep. Got a suspicion that the moment Mo opens his eyes there will be plenty of barking in my ear and clawing at my skin to get me to unlock the house so he can go out for a prowl. Oh! I had a video of Buddy going for a short drive in the van and leaping pack and forth between the front passenger seat and the back seat. Something like 61 times in 5 minutes. (He used to do that!) It was in his Google Photos album. Then it completely disappeared. Do you suppose Google deleted it because the car hi-fi was playing music? Some sort of copyright issue? Would they be that anal? I found the original footage on my disk today. I could reupload it but if it was deliberately taken down once already..... Right. Bed. And black ink has returned right at the end. Edited August 15 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment
andidante August 15 Share August 15 7 hours ago, Netfoot said: Listening to Drive by The Cars. I like this band a lot. This track is from their Heartbeat City album. Not my favourite album of theirs but this is (I believe) the best track on the album and it is a good one. I believe it was one of their best performing tracks ever. That guy had no dogs at all for what? 15 years? Then, within the last year, he got one and didn't treat it very well. Obviously, the dog was not an object of affection but a means of dissuading unwelcome visitors. Now, he has three dogs. (When I say he doesn't treat them well I give the example that during hurricane Beryl of recent memory, he chose to shelter elsewhere, and not at the house next door to me. The dogs were simply left on their chains out in the elements, to weather the storm as best they could on their own. Fortunately for them, Beryl was mild and treated us all gently, dogs included.) Some people should NOT have animals! I do like the Cars also. Magic is my favorite song of theirs. Link to comment
Netfoot August 16 Share August 16 Late! Nearly one in the morning. Went out for Garden Patrol and I didn't see Mo hanging around by the gate so I thought I'd walk around to the bedroom window and wake him up through that. Only, when I swung the corner, there he was, waiting for me. He was almost tapping his foot with impatience! He has a complex personality. It's been a wobbly day. I spent most of the time watching videos and working on my software. There is a function that I've implemented at least three times only to discover that my logic was flawed and that the return value of the function was not reliable. Correct most of the time, it would occasionally bowl you a googly. But today I have revised my logic (for the fourth time) and think I finally have it right. Won't know until I implement and test in the morning, but I am confident. Just as confident as the last three times I thought my logic was correct..... I am listening to The Fat Lady Of Limbourg by Brian Eno. Known for his electronica especially in the ambient arena, he was also a member of Roxy Music for a while and recorded two albums with them before departing. He and Bryan Ferry just could not get along. They say it is because Eno's sartorial extravagance would upstage Ferry. And Ferry wasn't going to stand for that! Mo got his pork for lunch. I took the bag of chunks out of the fridge and was surprised how much it contained. I purloined one chunk about the size of my thumb for my own use. The balance was cut into slightly smaller pieces and lightly browned in a pan. A little deglazing and Mo had a nice bowl of meaty chunks with good gravy. An occasional alternative to chow can not be over appreciated. The phone ate the last two paragraphs and I had to rewrite them. I'm abbreviated form. Speaking of Mo, he has just taken up residence curled up against my back: As for my own lunch, well, I had that little piece of pork. So I diced a potato and put it to boil. Meanwhile I set an onion to brown and cut the pork into pieces each the size of a grain of rice. I added a tin of red kidney beans and half a roughly cubed cucumber, along with the remainder of the ketchup. (Not the hotchup, the ketchup it was made from.) Finally I added the pork (which vanished and was never seen again) and a ladle of the potato water. Lunch was the boiled potatoes with half the sauce ladled over it. Dinner was more potatoes with the other half of the sauce. It tasted pretty good. The pork could not be seen but it did impart some flavour. I finished my western movie from yesterday (not too bad but somewhat predictable) and I also watched the pilot episode of a TV series called Nautilus. This is a reimagining of Jules Verne's famous 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. The pilot episode wasn't too bad but did hint that the reimagining might include changes to the story to improve it for "modern audiences". In other words, it might turn out to be packed with woke bullshit. So far however, and admittedly only one episode in, it seems to be OK. Will continue with it and hopefully I won't have to unceremoniously dump it. As said earlier it is late. Mo has retired to the floor but he won't stay there after the lights go out. However, I still need to go lock the door. And as soon as I make a move in that direction, he will be off like a rocket, knocking me down if he is coming from behind and needs to overtake, just so he can reach the door and shoot outside before I can close it. If he tries that tonight though, I will simply let him go, then lock his butt out. It's too late for his usual stunts. 1 Link to comment
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