Friday, February 19, 2016

Random Thoughts

Why does "cleave" mean both to join and divide?

I used to be a Republican in the 70s, but they left me, so I vote Democrat (usually).

Can it get worse than seeing Donald Trump running for President?  Sure!  What if he actually won?

What happens when the umpire in baseball throws the ball directly to the pitcher?  If the ump throws a wild toss, can the guys on base run?

Why is a mouse when it spins?  OK, that's an old Dad joke.  He never showed much sense of absurdity, so I always remembered that one.  BTW, the answer is "The higher the much".  It shows that even staid old engineers have an inner sense of humor.

Speaking of Dad, he once bowshot a front-facing deer just as it lowered its head.  The arrow got it right in the forehead.  Which wasn't immediately fatal, but crashing into a tree trunk as it ran away was.  Likely the only "deer death by tree".  Even Dad felt sorry for the deer.  What a weird way to go.  At least it was sudden...

Cleaning old bathtub tiles is awful.  I found this stuff that I tried today (Kaboom with Oxy-Clean) that melted the old stuff right off.  And dont worry, this isnt an ad; they don't have the slightest idea I exist.

And speaking of bathrooms, I found something that cleans the inner shower curtain nicely.  Any house vinyl-siding wash... 

I seem focused on cleaning right now.  You want to protect your hands from harsh chemicals?  Hardware stores sell disposable latex gloves 200 for a few dollars.  Want permanent gloves that are longer on your arm than the household-style rubber gloves?  Pond supply companies sell gloves that cover almost the entire arm.

Have outdoor planter saucers that hold water and breed mosquitoes?  The hardware store sells packs of "mosquito dunks".  Those are time-release doughnuts that last a month and contain a bacteria that infests mosquito larvae and kills them.  They are designed for small ponds, but if you crunch one into small bits, you can sprinkle a pinch into plant saucers each month.  Harmless to people, pets, and beneficial insects.

Most folk remedies don't work.  Moles don't eat bits of chewing gum put into the tunnels and die from their stomachs being clogged.  Dandelion root pulp does not clear skin conditions.  Sage leaf paste does not regrow hair (if the hair follicles are dead, they're DEAD.  Forever)!  On the other hand, aloe does relieve surface skin itches, and willow bark teas does relieve minor discomforts (we call the synthetic compound "aspirin").

Hair is almost pure nitrogen.  Add it to your compost.

Speaking of compost, if you are a kind of "natural" person, add pee.   It's mostly water, and nitrogen with other minor organics and minerals.  Composting microbes LOVE that stuff.  And it repels varmints.  You might want to do it at night, though, if you have watchful neighbors...

And more about compost...  "They" say never to add meat or fats to your compost pile cuz it will attract varmints.  That's only because most compost piles are open.  In one enclosed with hardware cloth, it is a good addition for trace elements.  Seriously, do you think dead animals just lay around unreturned to the soil?

You can snip a lot of perennial plants and stick them in soil to root.  I did that with pink, purple, and white azaleas last Fall, and some are flowering now.  At 1" tall.


Buy some childhood toys.  Did you use a top as a kid?  Buy one and learn to use it again.  Gyroscopes are neat too.  And get one of those cheap radiometers that spin around in the bulb in sunlight.  Don't get old...

Old crockpots work better than the newer ones.  Those removable inserts don't heat evenly.

Speaking of old stuff...  If you are as old as I am, you remember your parents having the Circus glasses.  They are still available on eBay.
Changing a waterbed mattress is harder than it sounds.  Emptying the old one and refilling the new one takes a LOT of water and that water doesn't warm up for a couple days.  And woodstain that is supposed to take 8 hours to dry takes 3 days!

A bucketloader that removes snow from your street in big piles is not as nice as a real snowplow that just spreads it on the side of the road evenly.

My Alma Mater men's basketball team was #2 and lost to an average team.  Then was #6 and lost to a conference team that had gone 0-13.  The will be lucky to stay in the top 10.

Donald Trump criticized The Pope for criticizing his idea of building a wall to keep illegal immigrants out (saying building walls instead of bridges wasn't "Christian").  I'm not discussing THAT, but Trump said ""No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith,".  Wait, isn't that what religious leaders DO?

I once read that every deer thinks every hunter is a shrub and that every turkey thinks that every shrub is a hunter.  So turkeys are hard to sneak up on.  But every squirrel thinks every noise (like a very slowly opened window) is a hawk! 

Baseball season is slowly beginning in training camps in the southern US.  I've read that half the teams are predicted to get to the World Series.  I hope that is only true for MY team and one other.

The past 3 Winters, my car battery died routinely.  So I bought something called a "battery minder" that keeps it charged.  So naturally, THIS WINTER the battery is staying charged just fine!

I was re-arranging the basement and there were several bags of particular bolts and nuts.  For some project I never finished.  I hate that!  Now I label such bags with the intended purpose.

"Hints From Heloise" have some of the dumbest hints I've ever seen.  I read one recently about knitting covers to the tube tops of squeeze ketchup and mustard bottles.  WHAT???  Some people have no real lives...

I think I will make up some fake "Hints To Heloise"...  Good mental exercise.

Keep a last year's calendar on the wall.  Makes you think about what day it REALLY is.

Walmart is infamous for double-bagging.  Today, they hit a new mark.  High mark or low, mark I cannot say.  They double-bagged, alone in a double-bag, a 4 roll pack of toilet paper!  What did they think was going to go wrong with a single bag?

Grocery-store shoppers drive me nuts.  What is the instinct that makes them all leave their carts in the middle of the aisle?  Half of them are oblivious and at least apologize.  But the other half seem offended when I politely do the "coff, coff, excuse me please?" request.

Do you have some favorite observations or complaints?












1 comment:

Megan said...

Donald Trump as President is hard to imagine. I think it would probably be dangerous for the entire planet.

Why is a mouse when it spins? I was always told that the answer was: "The higher the fewer", which kinda sounds like the opposite of your father's answer, don't you think? That makes me wonder if anyone actually knows why a mouse is when it spins.

Questioning other people's religion: as an atheist, I find all religions pretty hard to stomach. That people can be bothered squabbling about which one is superior is like a bunch of toddlers arguing about which fairy tale is the best - a completely pointless exercise.

Leave your mobile phone alone for five minutes, will ya? Get. A. Life.

I miss good-quality print newspapers. These days, newspapers are filled with op-ed pieces and random junk articles that have been included because a reader took a great pic on their phone and sent it in. I stopped watching television news several decades ago.

Grocery shopping: there's a difference between price and value. I am not interested in buying cheap nasty products. If you want to sell them, by all means - but please provide me with the option of a better quality product, grown and produced locally and yes, I will happily pay more for it. And if you're selling stuff reeeeeally cheaply (yes, Mr Walmart, I'm looking at you), it's probably because you pay your staff so little that they can barely afford basic living expenses. I don't want to say $5 at the expense of the retail assistant who can't afford medical bills.

The thing is, Mark, that I could go on - and on and on! Perhaps you could make this a once-a-month post so each post/comment doesn't get too long. LOL

Megan
Sydney, Australia

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