General Stuff

 Static electricity season has started.  I noticed it a few nights ago.  The outside humidity drops and the house follows.  I suddenly suffer itchiness from static.  In past years, I could actually make a fluorescent light glow dimly by touching the metal base.  I'm a real Leyden Jar.  

But it gets painful.  And with The Mews around me in bed, stroking them makes it worse.  I've seen blue sparks while doing that.

I have cotton sheets and blankets to mostly eliminate that now.  But they are old and one sheet ripped wide open from a small hole.  I threw it away expecting to easily buy a replacement.  I like Percale 100% cotton sheets.  And I like color.  And, having a waterbed, I only need 2 flat sheets.  Guess what is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find these days?  Flat cotton percale sheets as separates!

"Sets" (with a fitted elastic sheet) is easy.  But those don't work on a waterbed.  Looking at "waterbed sheets" just gets me the kind that have a sheet and blanket sewn together at the foot of the bed.  That doesn't work for me.

Doing internet searches was a complete failure.  Companies have so many keywords built in that even "Percale flat cotton sheets" brings up every sheet of any material, weave, or full set (meaning with fitted sheets).  The few sites I found that offerred flat sheets separate were all pale variations on beige (hotel style).

I finally broke though just searching "Flat Sheet".  It's weird that less is more sometimes, but it worked.  A site called Riley offerred separates, in red/burgundy, Percale, 100% cotton.  I ordered 2.  Now I just have to wait for delivery.

Expecting a wait, I went to the basement to see the condition of the inline humidifier.  I have a heat pump, which dehumidifies the air in the house as part of its natural process.  Great for 9 months of the year, but makes static bad the 3-4 Winter months.

I forgot to clean it last Spring.  It is a fabric drum that rotates through a tray of water that self-refills through a pipe.  But evaporating water leaves minerals behind.

It was encrusted with evaporated minerals from the water!  I spent an hour cleaning the rotating drum and the water reservoir tray yesterday.  A mild vinegar bath in a bucket did really well.  I saw the internal house humidity go from 20% to 30 after a full day.  That made a real difference.  Between that and cotton bed linens, I can sleep without static itchiness. 

The Mews appreciate it too.  I can let them under the covers and stroke their furs without "electrocuting" myself (or them) with static.

I Had A Busy Day

I've been having a problem in bed for a couple of years.  I sleep badly and lay there too long (10-12 hours) but get maybe 6 hours actual sleep.  And I never go through a ful REM sleep cycle.  But it suddenly switched to being awake after 6 hours the past few days.  Maybe I suddenly caught up to all the years of getting up after 6 hours sleep during my 35 year career.  But I doubt it.

I'm not sure what to make of that .  Just something else to add to my list of  questions for my DR at the next annual exam.

But the consequence is that I have actually gotten up earlier the past few days, and I got a lot done.  Not the best time of year to get active outside, but anytime is better than none.  

So:

1.  Mowed the lawn.  Nothing special in that, but 2 of my neighbors spent 4 hours using a leaf-blower to collect their leaves in a pile.  I just mowed the lawn twice (took only an hour) and shredded the leaves and grass back into the lawn.  Free fertilizer!

2.  Mowed the pollinator and meadow beds down to 1".  I plan to cover them both in brown shipping paper.  Lets water soak through but prevents light.  I need to smother the grass that has invaded.  $ months may not be enough (should have done in several months ago) but it should set them back a bit.

3.  Covered the daffodil/tulip bed with black plastic.  Bulbs like to be dry over Winter, AND that should REALLY smother the weeds.  I did that last year in early Fall, but the plastic held water pools and encouraged mosquitos.  So I waited for the first freeze this time.

4.  Took apart the garden.  Tomato cages removed. stakes removed, and the old tomato vines bagged for trash (the fungal and viral diseases will spread otherwise).  The tomatoes were a complete failure this year.  I will plant them in fresh spots next year.

5.  Harvested self-sowing and native seeds.  Snipped off the seedheads and placed each in a ziplock bag to store in the basement fridge.  When the soils thaws in Spring, I will spread the saved seeds and spread 1/4"on seeds and them rake it around lightly.  That way, most will be at perfect depth for growing.

6.  Charged up the string-trimmer.  My garden pathways have some invasive vines.  Cutting them down with stunt growth.  But I've been saving cardboard boxes for a few years.  Time to use them.  Covering the  paths with cardboard should eliminate those vines.

More work to do tomorrow, but rain forecast in the morning.

7.  Repotted 3 dozen Nandina shrub seedlings.  It was surprisingly difficult.  The deep narrow cells that released marigolds before do not release Nandinas for some reason.  But I expect all will survive.  Nandinas are tough,  All are under lights, so should do fine.

Software Updates

A year or so ago, I updated my software on my Mac.  Everything went completely whack. The apps failed. And the new Big Sur O/S was so mean that it couldn't be removed.  I actually had to buy a new Mac Mini to start again.

But some accustomed apps become obsolete and unsecure, so a few days ago, I upgraded to the newest Mac O/S "Monterey".  I expected a disaster.  Apparently, the BIG DEAL was that the programmers decided they liked Pink and Purple and rounded corners on the formerly square app icons.  

I may discover some problems with other apps, but not so far...  And if postibng works, I'm OK.

OK, pple mail is a bit different...  I'll have to get into that...

Covid Masks

I wonder if we think about the masks we wear?  This is not about whether to wear one.  I mean, I do and virtually everyone around HERE wears one.  But that's not my post today.  It is that there are a LOT of designs available, and we seldom really look at the designs people choose.  I have been doing that recently.

You can probably tell a lot about a persons interests by the designs on their mask.  I've seen everything from "question marks" to cartoon characters to fake mouths to smiley faces to plain surgical ones.  

This came to mind after I got compliments from several random fellow-shoppers and 1 cashier (who showed me the kitty paw tattoo on her wrist) recently.  I've been able to give most of them my blog address.  It never hurts to recruit new readers (and possible new cat-bloggers).

I need kitty-ears to go with it,  LOL!  Actually, I could probably fashion a passable set to attach to a plain matching black baseball hat I have.  I have a LOT of hats...

Another thought on masks.  You know how we tend to just smile briefly at other people in minor shopping or other social interactions with strangers?  They do a small thing like move a cart out of the way in a store, say "sorry", and you smile in return to acknowledge the action.  

Can't really do that very well wearing a mask. ;)  :(  But we do it anyway; the gesture is so automatic.  So I've been learning to actually say "thank you" out loud instead of just smiling.  

 

Been Busy

Lori, the new kitten (not everyone who reads THIS blog is cat-addicted) has taken up a lot of my time pre and post arrival.  But there have been other things going on.  

A minor but important event was returning a package of truly horrible frozen meatballs to Safeway (they tasted like ground up hot dogs mushed with Wonder Bread).  Because last year I went from the cashier straight to the Customer Service desk about a mispriced item and the lady there said they didn't accept "returns".  I pointed out I had only travelled 10" to the desk.  She GRUDGINGLY gave me a refund.  It was like I was pulling fish-hooks out of her butt.

So I went online to see Safeway's return policy.  It said they happily refunded any perishable or non-perishable item within the expiration dates.  So with that in hand (literally, I printed it out), I brought the meatballs back, prepared for an argument.

To my surprise, the Customer Service desk person didn't hesitate to give me cash back.  YAY!

Another surprise was to see that one of my upper kitchen cabinets was falling away from the wall.  Well, they are 35 years old...  But it wasn't that the whole cabinet was coming off.  The back for still firmly afixxed.  The cabinet SIDE was loose.

So, get out the glue...  But I couldn't force the side onto the back.  The darn thing was held together with staples!  I probably could have pulled all the staples out (because they wouldn't fit back into the holes and useless if they did.  Brute force seemed the best option.

Start 2 hours of work...  The staples made it hard to force the cabinet side onto the back.  But I'm nothing if not persistent, and persistence overcomes a lot of problems.

I failed in several ways, at first.  Wood glue and pushing had little effect.  But I had a ratcheting cargo bar and tried that.  It wasn't equal to the pressure of the loose staples.  I expressed a LOT of BAD WORDS... 

But I looked at it all again and reconsidered the problem.  That's what persistance is.  I realized the first thing to do was get the side in contact with the back.  So I measured the height to countertop and found things that fit under it.  

You'll love this"  My wood cutting board on end, a can of cat food, and 2 shims levered it up perfectly!  And I found that the cargo bar could be wedged in the open cabinet door at one end and the wall and another cabinet door.

That failed.

OK, the cargo bar had to be secured at both ends so I could actually rachet it without having to hold both ends in place.  

Having figured THAT out, I had to undo everything to squirt wood glue in the loose side and back.  Of COURSE the wood glue was old and the opening was dried.  So I soaked the tip in hot water and cleaned it.

THEN I squirted glue between the loose parts and clamped both ends of the ratchet bar in place.  And set the cutting board, catfood can and shims up tight.  MacGyver's got nothing on me, LOL!  Well, OK, I didn't use a paperclip...

Pushing and shoving, I ratcheted the cargo bar tight as possible.  So far as I could tell, it was a successfully re-joining.  But I also like to be sure.  Extremism in repairs is not a vice and it is not wrong to overdo one.  

So I cut wood strips 1/2" x 1/2" to fit between the shelfs.  That eliminates adjusting the shelves, but since I haven't changed them in 35 years, I probably wont ever need to.  I spread glue on those and wedged then into place with bricks.

I have weird odd tools for reasons.  You never know WHAT you will need sometimes...  

Cabinet, I'll be watching you...