A Couple Of Good Productive Days

Some things have not been going well around here lately.  Nothing life-altering, but when things go wrong (broken birdfeeder pole, lettuce plants died inside the house,  roof shingle blew off in a storm, etc) it adds up, it can get pretty annoying.

So I am happy to mention a few successes!

1.  I cooked a standing rib roast a couple days ago, and I don't think I've ever done that before.  I marinated it overnight (red wine, garlic, onion, herbs) and cooked it to "rare". I don't eat meat rare, but I was slicing it in 1/2" pieces to freeze and reheat later (so that it wouldn't be "well-done" after reheating.   Came out great!

2.  I went grocery shopping (hence the standing prime rib) and also bought a spiral sliced ham (for slicing and freezing for sandwiches).  I check the receipt before I leave the store to make sure I got my Safeway loyalty card discounts and the digital ones from their website.  They were there.  But when I got home, I realized that they had charged me for the ham twice.  

I wasn't sure how to prove I hadn't bought 2 hams.  But in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that the repeated price of 2 hams would be exactly twice the cost on the label.  Which would be really unlikely if I had bought 2 different hams.  So I brought it back to the store (in a cooler with ice-packs around it) and explained it to the customer service manager.

She finally agreed and refunded the cost of the "2nd ham".  Yay!  If she hadn't, I would have demanded they check their videotape of the purchase.  I'm glad a didn't have to.  Actually, it occurs to me just now that I benefited from the refund more than I should have.  

I used a 10% discount coupon I got from them for getting my RSV vaccine.  And I got credit toward a future gas purchase (every $100 spent there gets me 10 cents per gallon off at their gas station).  I don't think I will go back to complain about that because I think it would just be too difficult to calculate and it would be about $2 at most.

3.  A very minor thing, but I advised 2 different people that they had dropped a glove, and a 3rd person that they had dropped their covid mask.  Little things matter.

4.  I've mentioned having laser printer color problems.  The Canon agent finally concluded (after an hour-long discussion and fix-attempts) that I most likely needed new toner.  So I bought some.  And when I got home and looked at the boxes, suddenly I saw similar ones in the computer room.  I had already bought new ones!

So yesterday, I went to return them.  I was concerned they would accept toner back.  But the boxes were unopened and pristine, and they didn't even argue about it.  But when they scanned the receipt on the 1st (black) box, it refused to register.  I figured there was a special policy refusing toner returns.  Bt when I suggested scanning the actual box bar code, it was accepted.  As were the color boxes.  

That was a great relief.  Toner lasts a lot longer than inkjet cartridges but is more expensive per cartridge.  If they had refused the return, I would have been out more than $250!  But it all worked out and I am very happy about that

5.  My good neighbors gave me a small box of Xmas goodies.  I had already bought a small box of chocolate-covered cherries for them and was waiting to add some banana/walnut muffins.  I finally made the muffins last night.

I was delayed on that because I kept not quite having all the ingredients.  Banana/walnut cake is a rather complicated recipe usually cooked in a bundt pan.  It came to me via Mom from Dad's mom.  I've loved it from childhood to the present.  Mom said she would only leave me the recipe in her Will, and she came darn close to that.  Thankfully she relented when she realized she couldn't cook any more.

It is sort of like a spice cake, but only like a standing prime rib roast is like a rump roast.  There is the usual flour and sugar and baking soda.  But you have to separate the egg yolks and whites.  You have to chop walnuts.    You have to mash 2 ripe bananas.  You have to "sour" some milk (milk plus some vinegar).  You have to whip the egg whites.

Then stir various ingredients together in a certain order for a couple minutes each (and it is thick and hard to stir).  Finally, you gently fold the whipped egg white in.  Add that is just for the bundt cake method.  But I wanted to make cupcakes/muffins for the neighbors present.  

I get in over my skills sometimes.  Muffins cook differently from cakes.  I had to look that up and got so many different instructions.  350F vs 375.  15 minutes or 20.  Cupcake papers or parchment paper circles on the bottom.  Top oven shelf or middle.  Fill 1/2 way or 2/3.  I went with cupcake papers and averaged the rest.

Because there is always "the toothpick test"...  The final arbitrator of doneness, LOL!  I was nervous about the results the whole time they were cooling.  After an hour, I finally gave one a taste-test (I had 22).  It was perfect...

I don't bake desserts often.  Brownies or tollhouse cookies a few times a year.  I hadn't made a banana/walnut cake in 5 years.  I 'm not sure I had made them as muffins before.  You experienced bakers may smile, but I feel insufferably pleased!  For me, that was a big deal.  And they worked out.😁

6.  And finally, I did something that might be useful to all cooks.  I've been frustrated about where to place my recipe cards while using them.  I've previously propped them up on the back of my cutting board, but stuff gets splashed around sometimes.  I wanted something better.  I could have glued a plastic clip to the base of the cabinet door above where I do my food prep.  But that seemed ugly.

So I stuck a small piece of double-sided tape in the center of the bottom of the door.  Then I stuck a small refrigerator magnet on the tape.  Then I put a small magnet with a handle on that.  I just take the top one off and trap the recipe card between them. 

 

So I've had a great couple of days.  Successful returns, error-adjustments, cooking a few things, and a nice little invention.  

New Heat Pump

Trane came and replaced the heat pump friday!  Since they were schedulaed to arrive between 7-8 AM, I had to get up at 6 AM to be dressed, fed and ready for strangers.  Which also meant feeding the cats, herding them into the bedroom the day, and cleaning the litterboxes.  Naturally, they were late (but only by 30 minutes).  Which was OK because I barely finished breakfast.

First, they disassembled the indoor part.

And removed it...

Then removed the outside unit.

I tried not to bother them too much.  I know contractors hate that.  But these guys were pretty friendly and I did have a few questions along the way.  So I showed up quietly every 30 minutes or so mostly just to observe the progress.

And because of a friend's bad experience once, I glanced around to make sure none of my more "interesting" tools or equipment was missing.  Me friend had some serious theft while his house was being renovated (he got it all back because the thief was really stupid).  They did borrow one of my tools, but it was back on the rack before they left.

But I love to watch things being done.  I usually learn something useful...  Knowing what the inside of enclosed equipment looks like has allowed me to fix a few things myself for free.  For example, once the old unit started leaking water on the basement floor, and I had seen a water collection tray that looked kind of flimsy.  But I knew where it was inside.  So I remove that sheet metal panel, found a loose bracket and re-leveled the tray tightly.  👍

So they finally got to the part about installing the new outside unit.  Which seemed to take forever (but without them seeming to be doing anything with it), so I went out to take a look while they were busy inside.  

There was some noise that worried me, but it turned out to be some equipment that was temporarily attached.  I think it was either a power pack to run the equipment diagnostics before they hooked it up to the house current, or while they were hooking it up to the house circuit box OR it was pumping coolant into the system.  I didn't bother them about it; they were still working.

Whatever it was, it got turned off and detached eventually.  Because they only attached the outside electric cables after they detached it, I'm guessing it was a temporary power supply for testing purposes.

So here is the new outside unit.  It's big.  The old one reached my waist; this thing reaches my shoulder.  And it has a cover to prevent rain/snow/sleet.  The previous unit had a separate electric thaw system.  Because of the size, the ventilation slots around the casing reduce heat build-up in Summer.  

Everything about this unit suggests better operation and long life.  I think I am going to be happy for a long time.  

The last thing they did was install a new thermostat.  My previous one was digital, but only like a clock is digital.  That display showed all the choices and had about 4 manual buttons.  Easy to change from heating to cooling, change the temperature target, and control the fan.

The new one looked more like a smartphone app.  I can even control it with a smartphone if I want to (I don't).  And it is programmable (which doesn't work well for my rather unsheduled life).  But when I had the guy show me how it worked, it was actually simple to control manually.  In non-programmable mode, it is just a touch screen instead of manual buttons (whew). 

Touch the screen and it wakes up.  I can touch "heating/cooling" to change that, up/down arrows for changing the target temperature, and "fan" allows 3 choices (on when "unit is on", on all the time, or a 10 minute on/off cycle).  There are other touch choices, but those are for programmable scheduling mode and I have no need for that.

I should explain that.  I've mentioned I keep an irregular schedule.  I just sleep when I'm tired (or bored).  Sometimes I go to bed at 10 PM, sometimes I go to bed at 2 AM, and sometimes I just stay up all night.  No way can I program the thermostat for that.

Back when I had a regular office job, I had a fancy programmable thermostat.  And I should mention that (year-round) I kept the house at 76F daytime and 68F nightime weekdays.  Kept it 72F daytime on weekends.  And that worked (the thermostat allowed you to choose days).

Now that I'm retired, it's 72 and 68 everyday (I sleep better a bit cool).  But as I said, the hours are regular anymore.  So non-scheduled works for me. 

So here are the results after 2 days...

The Trane unit works better than any York or Ruud unit I have ever had!  It cools and heats quickly.  The previous unit took 4 hours to cool the house 4 degrees F.  This one takes 30 minutes either heating or cooling.

It is unbelievably quiet!  The previous unit made some noise even when new that I could hear in the bedroom at night (the outside unit is right under my bedroom window).  It was mostly just fan noise at first, but by the end it sounded like motorcycles driving up and down the street.  

This Trane unit (an XL) is so quiet I didn't even think it was on.  But standing close to it, I could barely hear it when it was operating.  A kitchen temperate probe thermometer set into a floor vent says it sends out 54F air.  That's actually higher than the previous one (which did 44F when new), but it is more powerful (3.0 tons airflow to 1.5).

And it is extremely energy-efficient.  Before I chose to buy an XL Trane, I visited several websites that seemed to be either expert testers (like Consumer Reports) or non-brand-oriented sites created by experienced but independent heat pump repairmen.  

The general consensus was that the XL Trane should pay back the cost in electrical use and lack of repair costs in 10-12 years.  And since they also said the Trane unit should last 15-20 years, that almost suggests I get it and use it for free!  

The concept bothers me slightly.  There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.  But I have to admit that, if a piece of equipment uses only 75% of the electricity and lasts 2x as long, you have to be gaining something somewhere!  So, I am very pleased (even if it is just the ultra-quiet operation).  

But I have a gripe!  The Trane unit uses a different size air filter than the previous unit.  I like to order good-quality filters in bulk.  So I went to pull the new filter out.  I wanted to know the brand and MERV rating (thats the size of various pollutants it can filter).  I can't (without damaging it, I think).  It catches inside somewhere.

So before I have to replace it, I ordered a dozen the same size but MERV 11 rating and duration (3 months) I usually do from Amazon.  When they arrive, I will force the new one out to examine it.  If the new ones are also hard to put in and out, I will call the Trane company and suggest they didn't construct the filter slot well (it was manually shaped on site).  That could get awkward, so I sure hope the new ones fit easily.

But overall, this Trane is by far the best heat pump I've ever had.  But I'll know better about that in 10 years.  With luck, this will be my last heat pump.

Ooh, I have to mention this too.  My electric co-op sends users a $100 -150 check anytime they use less electricity than the same Quarter of the previous year.  And the new Quarter starts June 1st.  If the new Trane is as efficient as they (and neutral websites) claim, I'll get a nice bonus!

An Outstanding Day

This all happened yesterday, but it seemed too late to post...  

It didn't start as an outstanding day.  I had a tree removal service scheduled to arrive 8:30-9am.  Their office called at 9am  to say they had to finish a big job from yesterday and would arrive 11am-Noon.  Well, they knew that yesterday, and they could have let me know.  I would have liked to have slept later.

And they didn't show up then, either.  But just as I was about to call (expecting a cancellation), I saw a car pull into the driveway.  OK.  I figured that was the boss arriving before the crew.  Except a lady got out carrying 2 large shopping bags.  That seemed odd.

She asked "tree service"?  I could smell food.  After a few questions, I figured out that she was delivering food for the tree service crew yet to arrive.  Well, it was lunchtime and it had been paid for.  We both laughed when we realized the confusion.  I put the bags inside the door and she left.  

The tree service boss and crew arrived 5 minutes later and were glad I had the food waiting.  The ate fast outside.  They weren't on my clock so I didn't mind so long as they were here to do the work.  Everything went better and better as the afternoon progressed.  

First, they tackled the 2 dead trees.  The small one was gone before I could even take a picture.  Chainsaw, 2 minutes, and no more tree.  A 3' chainsaw goes through a 4" dead tree like a hot knife through butter!  Then they attacked the big dead tree and a 6" one next to the fence.

The crew has a dedicated "climber".  He does all the limb-work.  It was a marvel to watch!  He limbs the tree from the bottom up, leaving 3" stumps to serve as ladder stairs.  Then he goes back down cutting about 12' of the top as he goes. 

There are many jobs I just would never try.  That is one of them!  Those guys are crazy.  This is not my first time having a tree removed, and most of them have been larger.  One previous guy hung by his knees over a branch (unroped) while waiting for the rest of the crew to remove the limbs on the ground.  

Here's a pic of the crew removing cut limbs.   

Eventually, the trunk was ready to be cut off and ground level.  Boss does the big chainsaw work, always.

That's when things went from good to great!  

The male neighbor pulled into his driveway, jumped out of his car, and approached me.  I was worried he suspected I was going to have the roots (in my yard) of the tree in his yard grinded out, and was upset about it.  I had a copy of the County regulations in my back pocket (quoting a State court decision that said my rights to remove offending tree roots (even from a neighbors tree) were essentially unrestricted.

We got off to an awkward start when they moved in a couple years ago.  The lady there nearly burned down  my fence trying to burn tree-debris (I saw the smoke and stopped her) and the guy was weed-whacking 10' inside my yard).  Not that I have asked, but it seems they are "separated but cooperative".  So I was prepared for a complaint.

Nothing of the sort!  He waved and I approached.  Turns out that he had been wanting to get rid of that tree between our houses for a while and wondered what a tree service company might charge.  I made a quick pitch to him about 1) the "unfortunate unsuitabilty" of a maple tree (planted by a previous resident) next to a house.  2) That I had already done cost comparisons.  3) They were doing a great and professional job.

So I waved the crew boss over to talk business.  It went perfectly!   They agreed on a price on the spot and since the crew was already there, they could do it RIGHT THEN (after my job was completed of course).

 But as I say, my job had to be completed first.  And there are pics...  But involve the neighbor's tree.  They completed the work in my yard wonderfully.  By the time they were done, they had cleaned my yard so carefully that you could hardly find woodchips.  The previous tree service also did outstanding work, so now I have 2 I wouldn't hesitate to call.

So, on to the last pics...

The crew removing the neighbor's tree...

And it took some work!  They had to rope every large limb to avoid hitting either house and some of my shrubbery.  They knew how to rope and cut every single limb of the multi-trunked maple so that it swung carefully to the ground touching nothing!

There were times when a limb started falling I cringed watching it swing around at the start.  But every single time, it landed in the rather small "safe" area.  Yes, I know they do that  every day, but I still was amazed they never got it wrong.  Even experts can miscalculate.

This picture shows the branch-grinder machine and half the truck the ground chippings go into.  If you look carefully, you can see the chips shooting out into the truck.  The machine actually pulls the limbs into the grinder and shooting into the truck through the curved chute.  It is amazing how much of a couple of large trees fit in there when chipped.

And here is where things get mixed a bit.  I took a pic of the overgrown junk wild shrubs a few weeks ago (as "before" pics).  

Removing them was part of the tree work.  The brown spot in the foreground (2nd pic above)is what is left of one now.  And in the picture of the untouched neighbor's tree (way above) you wouldn't have been able to see the garage door.  I am thrilled about that too.

And finally, the last of the neighbor's tree was cut down.  The original tree way a single-trunked tree and was cut down.  It returned with a vengeance, growing 5 trunks 30' tall in just 15-20 years!

Boss went at the remaining trunks with the wicked 3' chainsaw.  Took at least 20 minutes.  

And even then, they had this huge chunk of enjoined trunks to cut apart, but they finally ended up with this...  You can see the big roots extending from it.

Aside from just knowing how to cut down trees professionally, those guys are incredible strong.  The tree trunk pieces are too big for the grinder machine.  So they carry them to a separate trailer to be delivered to (I assume) "some god-awful huge grinder elsewhere".  There are things I do not know.  

The job is not actually done yet.  The stumps and roots still have to be grinded out.  I have underground cables here and I know where they are through previous experience.  But legally (and for insurance) you have to have "Miss Utility" come out and paint lines on the lawn over them.  

It is the contractor's responsibility, but they didn't realize utilities might be involved in the 2 stumps near the street.  I'm glad I asked them about that.   The tree service guys will return for the stumps and root grinding after the utility lines are painted.  The neighbor is (apparently) not sure if he wants to pay for having his own stumps ground down.

I'm not telling him or the tree service yet, but if the neighbor chooses not to pay for that stump grinding, I will offer to.  That tree was cut down once before (and came back) and I want to make sure it doesn't a 2nd time.  

And there is added benefit to getting the neighbor's tree cut down (as we both seem to have wanted to happen).  I've mentioned some early awkward events regarding them.  This tree-cutting was somewhat of a shared event and gives us a successful common experience.  That is something to build on.

Happy Coincidence

Sometimes, small things make you pleased.  And the oddest small successes do matter...

I try to drink a fair amount of liquid first meal of the day.  Whether it is breakfast or lunch (eggs, pancakes, or sandwich) doesn't matter.  I have a mug of green tea, lightly chocolate-low sugar milk with a splash of vanilla, a small glass of Coke (for the fizz), and usually a glass of V8.

I thinking of the vanilla today.  I don't really care if it is real or artificial.  The taste is about the same (and cooking article generally agree).  What really matters to me is how easily I can pour a controlled amount into the milk.  Some bottles come with flip-top caps that only allow a few drops (my favorite).  Some come with seals under the caps and I just poke a small hole it the seal.  

I bought one recently that had neither. Take the cap off, and it is a 3/4" open bottle.  Control is tricky.  Too much vanilla is a bit bitter.  I don't have the steadiest hands these days, so that is a problem.  I was looking for a small food-grade squirt bottle and not having any luck.

On the other hand, I had just emptied a bottle of soy sauce with a nice small-holed flip-top cap.  I was considering emptying the small vanilla bottle into the large soy sauce bottle, but wondered if the vanilla would sort of evaporate in all the extra space.

Then I looked at the caps on both bottles.  They seemed about the same size (visually).  Was it possible they were interchangeable?  I mean, a slight difference in size would leak.  And if the a cap threads were even barely different, same problem.

So I tried the exchange.  The flip-top, small hole, soy sauce top fit on the vanilla bottle like a glove!

The flip-top cap on the soy sauce bottle...

And now on the vanilla bottle...

In a way, I should not have been too surprised.  Industry loves uniformity of sizes.  It is a lot cheaper (efficient) to make 10 million caps of one size than 10 million caps of 3 sizes.  I've discovered this elsewhere.  I have some cast iron pans with no lids and I have some teflon pan with lids.  Most of the teflon pan lids also fit the cast iron skillets perfectly!  This is often useful.

I have also discovered that all toothpaste tubes have the same type of caps.  Some come with flip-tops and some don't.  I save the flip-tops...  So when I buy one with a screw-off cap, I usually switch them.  Trust me, some mornings I just can't deal with a screw-off cap...

So when I discovered that the soy sauce flip-top cap fit on the vanilla bottle, I was very happy.  It sort of made my whole day.  OK, maybe I am too easily "happified" by such a little thing, but little things like that can actually mean a lot these days.

There are enough major things in the world that aren't working.  I'll enjoy a minor one that does...  😁

Indoor Gardening Started!

It's always a bit of work to get started each year.  Here is how it looked last week...

Well, things pile up over the Winter.  So I organized some supplies into piles, moved some stuff to the shelves in the garden shed, and threw out some junk.  That left me with this...

NOW, I have some working space and am ready to go.  The barrel (above) holds my personal premixed potting soil.  WAY cheaper than buying those small bags, and I know for sure what is in them (I try to stay organic).  The tubs below are the various components that are left over, plus some of them are used potting soil from last year.  Those are fine for established plants but not for new seeds. Kitty litter tubs make great containers (good size, good handles, good tops). 

The long narrow planters are for indoor lettuces, pak choi, and leafy celery.

The stacked trays below are filled with my sterile potting soul mix for the new seeds.  I poured an inch of hot water into each tray so the soil could soak.  Dry potting soil takes a day to get saturated.  It is not like regular dirt, LOL!

So, tomorrow, I will be able to plant seeds.  The first will be the heirloom tomatoes I hope to graft onto vigorous disease-resistant rootstock.  I've never succeeded in that in 3 years but I keep trying.  I learn a little bit each time.

The rest of the trays will go to perennial or self-sowing flowers I am trying to establish in old beds, some mass-annuals like marigolds and zinnias, and other veggies like bell peppers and melons.

I used up 1/2 of the barrel of the potting soil, but the trays are filled and saturated.  That means all I have to do is plant seeds according to schedule.

And I have a great schedule!  Years ago, I made index cards for each veggie, sorted by "weeks before and after last frost date".  Each card has the name of a veggie and the indoor or outdoor planting date, the kind of fertilizer it wants, and the spacing per square foot of garden space.  Example:
 
And I have 2 calendars marked with + or - weeks related to last frost to remind me which cards to look at for planting each week.

The growing season has STARTED!

Washington Nationals Baseball

The Washington Nationals, my local team, swept the St Louis Cardinals 4 games to none to win the National League Championship.  They will be playing in The World Series in a few days.  It is the first time a Washington baseball team has competed in The World Series since 1932.

The Washington teams have a long history of failure.  The joke used to be (playing on George Washington) "Washington, First in War, First in Peace, and Last in the American League". 

Teams moved away to other cities.  IIRC, one team became the Minnesota Twins, one later became the Texas Rangers, and the area was without a team for about 30 years.  I moved to this area the year the last team left, so I never had a local team.

The current team came from Montreal where the fanbase vanished after years of failure.  It was so bad, the MLB actually took over the team and moved them to Washington DC and sold them to a local wealthy family group in 2005.

The first years were difficult but the the new owners dedicated themselves to improved organization, new players,  and built a minor league farm farm system from scratch.  They traded for and drafted young players showing talent, hired creative coaches and managers, and treated players well with long contracts and fair pay.

The Nationals have experienced considerable success in recent years, winning division titles in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017, and winning the National League pennant tonight.  Some players have been with the team 10 years and new players have joined the team with great success.

One aspect of the team that impresses me is that the players enjoy playing together.  Good hits result in the player getting a "whole team dance" when he returns to the dugout.  And it doesn't matter if someone can't dance well so long as they try enthusiastically.  The excitement is contagious.

The Nationals started out the season badly.  They were 19-31 at one point and were written off by all the professional sports commentators.  And then things changed.  Injured players started returning.  The manager pushed 2 phrases:  "Tomorrow we go 1-0" and later "Stay in the Fight".

In August and September, the Nationals caught fire.  From failure, they became the hottest team in baseball.  They earned a Wild Card one-game playoff spot and won that.  Then they beat the LA Dodgers who had won 106 games (serious lots of wins). 

They earned the right to play the St Louis Cardinals who have a lot of experience in recent playoff games and won that series.  They not only won, they killed them.  They held the Cardinals to no earned runs for 35 innings.  The Cardinals got 4 runs tonight, but the Nationals had gotten 7 in the 1st inning. 

They will now play the winner of the NY Yankees and Houston Astros in the World Series.  I have no idea what will happen, of course.  But the Nationals have won something like 15 of their last 17 games and they are ready to play anyone.

If they lose, they lose (one team has to), but it has been a fabulous comeback from a bad start.  Whatever the outcome, I will remember this season.

Washington DC has a history of losing teams (other than the football team back in the 80s).  But the Washington Capitals Hockey team won the championship last year, the Washington Mystics Womens Basketball team won the championship last week, and now here come the Washington Nationals into the World Series...

It actually feels rather weird to think of Washington DC as a sports powerhouse...

I'm not actually much of a sports fan.  I don't watch games between top teams.  I do watch local sports teams when they are doing well.  Yeah, I'm a "Homie". 

But I'll watch every minute of the World Series games.  Because things like that don't come around often...

Cat-Blog Comment Problems

I may have A solution for some of us who have been having problems leaving comments on blog sites!!!

As many of you who mostly visit my Mark's Mews cat blog know, I have had on-and-off problems leaving comments at blogs.  It has driven me to distraction sometimes, but mostly, I worry that my blog friends will think I never visit them.  It was so bad that I couldn't even get Preview of my comments to show up, never mind sent.

I kept trying.  Sometimes I could comment for weeks and then suddenly I couldn't.  I don't know about you, but I have Statcounter.  Its a simple free program that shows you some very general data about visitors to your site.  If you recognize a visitor, you can label them so you see a friend's name.

I'm not pushing it.  It has some flaws.  It doesn't recognize every visitor (mobile phones maybe).  But it gives me a general idea of how many people visit the blog.

So, if some of my friends have that too, they see that I visit but never leave comments.  When in fact, I am trying like crazy to do so, sometimes several times at a single site I visit.

I thought I fixed the problem once by switching my feedly.com reading list from Safari to Firefox, and indeed it worked for a while.  But it would always stop in a few weeks.

Recently, I was looking around at some app settings after yet another frequent upgrade from Firefox, and I REALIZED SOMETHING (all caps to get your attention).

My Firefox was a Beta version.  You can tell by clicking on "Firefox" in the upper left corner and then clicking "About Firefox".  That tells you the version you have.  A "b" means Beta. 

I'm generally willing to go with a Beta version for the improvements, but I started to wonder about that.  Betas are not final versions and have flaws.  And also (and I think this is the most important part), other apps haven't adjusted their programming to the Beta version yet.  Apparently, at some point in the past, I agreed to receive Beta versions of Firefox.

Think about that.  My Firefox Beta app is ahead of the regular sites who sometimes have to make some adjustments!  That takes them some time.  And during that time, there may be programmibg conflicts.

And it seemed to me that the last time I updated the Firefox app was just when I stopped being able to comment on blog sites.

I had a hard time finding info on the Firefox Beta Program, but I eventually found a discussion of it by people like me who were trying to get off it.  Firefox didn't make that easy.  It seems they get a lot more information about your usage in the Beta Program than they can if you use the Regular versions.  And they share it with other companies.

I finally figured out that the solution was actually simple.  All you have to do is download their current regular version and move it to your apps folder.  I don't know about Windows, but in Mac it asks you if you want to replace the previous version.  Click YES.  Your bookmarks will transfer and you will be off the Beta Program.

I did that a few hours ago and immediately tried commenting.  I knew the instant I typed in a comment that it was different!    My avatar showed up.  Preview worked.  Publish worked!

My comment went through to the site.  And all I did was change from the Firefox Beta Program to the Regular Program...

I hope that works for anyone sufferring difficulties commenting...

A haiku of joy...

A problem of late
Became a problem no more.
I can comment now.

Hope this helps anyone else as it has helped me.

Retirement Anniversary

I almost missed it this year!  I retired 13 years ago March 1st.   I haven't regretted a day of it!

I retired the first day I was eligible for a full annuity.  Many co-workers were surprised, for various reasons.

1.  Because I seemed to really enjoy the work I did.  And I did.  It wasn't routine work.  I wasn't following old procedures every day.  And it allowed me to solve new and different problems.

2.  I was allowed great freedom in what I chose to do.  Most office workers aren't.  Apparently, many co-workers were envious.  I could say a lot about being a "self-starter", and bringing "solutions to Management rather than problems",  but I bet most of you reading this are like that and don't need it explained.  But I had many co-workers who were not.  I recall reading a humorous collection of (probably fake) personnel evaluations and one said "Works OK if watched constantly and trapped like a rat in his cubicle".

3.  A number of co-workers asked how I could retire financially at 55.  Well I had carpool members who lived paycheck-to-paycheck and they didn't have to.  They talked about vacations, new cars, moving to larger houses, eating out a couple times a week, movies, etc.  I didn't do a lot of those things.

Now, I didn't grow up poor.  My Dad had a good Government salary (GS-15) and while Mom and Dad were careful with money (grew up in The Great Depression), we kids had what we needed, good food, and nice Christmases.  But once I left home, I spent years in poverty myself (refusing to ask for help).  And I mean roach-infested apartments I shared with several other guys, minimum-wage jobs, and Hamburger Helper...

But I saved as much as I could.  Every promotion meant half the increase went into savings and finally into index stock funds.  When I could finally buy a house, I had to borrow the down payment from my parents (at market rates and a firm repayment schedule).  But I paid that early, bought a new car 2 years later, refinanced the mortgage to 20 years, then 10, and finally paid off the original 30 year mortgage in 14 years.

My average car has lasted about 10 years (current one 12 and likely to go to 15) and 2 of them were cheap junk (a Chevette Scooter and a used Chevy Vega Hatchback, and my first 2 cars were rather old, so they didn't have much left to give), so the average lifespan would be higher otherwise.

So back to my co-workers' question about how I could retire at 55.  They bought new cars every 3 or 4 years.  I kept mine 8-10.  They spent money as fast as they earned it.  I saved and invested.  They went to restaurants once a week for $20 each; I learned to cook.

4.  The other question I got was "but what will you DO all day"?  That was my favorite question!  I had so much I wanted to do, I couldn't do it in the time I had off work.  Too few people have a life outside of work (other than going out on the town).  I had too many hobbies and interests I couldn't wait to do more of.

Subject and replies:

Gardening:  "But you can just buy food at the grocery store".
Yardwork:  "So just hire someone".
Woodworking:  "You can just buy furniture, you know".
Cats:  "They just ruin your furniture".
Computer Games:  "Yeah, I like Angry Birds (or whatever was popular in 2006)".  But I was stretching my mind with complex strategy games.
Cooking:  "Pizza Hut delivers".
Fishing:  ""Icky".

Etc...  I went bowling, I went golfing, I went fishing.  I gardened, I worked in the yard, I built small furniture, I enjoyed staying up late at night to see things on TV I had never been able to see before, listened to long pieces of music and watched weird DVDs (Heavy Metal, Fantasia, and Wizards, and bought science/history/nature ones.

I played Civ2 a lot (a game where you you start with a primitive Settler and built until you can hopefully launch a spaceship.  And then there was a multi-player version where you could play other people from all over the world.  After a YEAR of learning how to play it properly, I learned how to design new worlds for other people to play.

Then I organized the one and only worldwide Civ2 Tournament.  That didn't come from nowhere.  In college, I was the President of the University Chess Club for my last 2 years there.  It didn't mean that I was the best player (I was nearly the worst), just that I could keep the meetings organized and I also learned to manage campus tournaments.

So I took that old chess club organizing experience and managed the Civ2 tournament.  It was one of the most difficult things I ever organized.  Just try to imagine the negotiations involved in getting some player in Australia to play a person in Italy, or Japan with England.  But I finally got 12 of the 16 best players to play several rounds to get to a Final Two.

They played (and as always, I was a non-player viewer), and it was a close game.  As I promised, I made a small trophy of shaped wood painted red with a rearing horseman on the top with a small plaque announcing the winner.  The other players of the game followed the games and cheered the Winner.

The individual players only had to be there in their local time (like the Japan guy was up early to play and the English guy stayed up late), but I had to be available 24/7 for all games.  It was worth the effort; something new, something I had not tried before, something no one had done before.  But I also announced that I would never try it again, LOL!

All this is mostly a reminder to myself about what I've done after retirement, and why.  A lot of this blog is just me talking out loud about things that may not matter to others.  It doesn't HAVE to mean much of anything to other people.  But if it does, that's good.

I've enjoyed my retirement, and I hope to for a long time.  I am suited to retirement.  And this might sound odd, but there was never anything in particular that I ever wanted to do in life.  Just do some job well, and enjoy my time here usefully.  I've done and am doing that.

If nothing else, celebrate my retirement time with me...

The Heat Pump...

The repairmen came, they went.  In their wake, they SEEM to have left me with a working heat pump.

I was worried when the repairman showed up.  It was the same guy who messed up my system in Feb.  While he started working on the unit, I called the office repair manager.  He called back a few minutes later to assure me that the guy he sent was especially good at replacing parts.  But also would come by in 30 minutes (from another job) to make sure all went smoothly.

And it was a damn good thing he did.  Because the repair manager had to do most of the work himself!  He had promised me a free part and free labor, but I did not know the free "part" was almost the entire inside unit.

It took them 4 hours.  Because of some gradual equipment changes, the replacement coil was not a "pull and replace" unit.  The manager went "hands on" to it, cutting some sheet metal to fit.  I got a kick out of saying to the sent repair guy "This is why I worked to be Manager, so as to not have to do this stuff".

The "sent" guy would not have known to do that shaping work.  If I hadn't called, he might STILL BE HERE 6 hours later botching the job.  And that is a lesson learned.  If a simple repair is done right, great.  If a complicated repair is done well by a talented repairman, great!.. But if a repair is in the middle and they send the simple repairman to fix it, you need a Manager!

And did this guy know his stuff!  It was like watching a surgeon.

And it got better!  A few times when he was waiting for equipment to provide results, I asked a few questions.  Apparently, they were good questions.  Having a Dad as an engineer helps...

So I mentioned understanding gas expansion cooling, and he mentioned that he had taken AP classes in physics, so we had a great discussion about dark matter and dark energy and fun stuff while his equipment measured pressures and temperature changes.

Geez, I hope managing a heat pump repair unit pays well...

Anyway, the high pressure whistling sound is gone inside and out, the screeching sound of the outside fan is gone, the heating and cooling seem to be working, and all I had to pay for was the coolant.

I hope I feel as happy in mid-summer and next winter!  The repair company maybe doesn't have the best basic repairmen, but they sure stand by their promise to make everything right eventually.  That sounds like a back-handed compliment, but I mean better than that.  They COULD have just fought my complaints and said go call someone else if I wasn't happy, but they didn't.

It was 70 degrees outside.  They heated the house up to 80 and cooled it down to 65 in just an hour.  AFAICT, that means it is working.

And BTW, Iza is a Very Brave Cat .  She followed us all around, watching what was going on.  Marley an Ayla hid in the bedroom.  Iza got extra treats after they left.  She is a "Snoopervisor Extraordinary"!

The Last Edging Circle, 2

Well, you may recall that I had a ridge leveled in my back yard, the soil moved to raise a part of the front yard and that I was creating some areas bordered with edging so I could plant stuff.  And that I had become royally tired of digging trenches for the edging in the rocky soil.  And because there were some large tree roots I did not want to cut which meant cutting the edging to fit on top of the roots.

So I left the last one half done for a week and did other stuff.  Well, I am happy to report that I finished it today.  No more digging in that soil...

There are 3 edged areas.

The far one has perennial wildflowers mixed in with enough compost to barely cover.  I have no idea what will happen there.  The package of seeds did not specify which plants were, and they grow so slowly that I won't recognize any until they bloom, and there were already some small weeds growing there.  I might end up nurturing 400 sq ft of weeds until next Summer when I see nothing blooming  when I have to replant more carefully.

The middle smaller area is for Lychimartra Firecracker, a lovely bronze foliage plant about 24" high with lots of small yellow flowers.  But it is a bit invasive and needs to be contained by itself.  It has its own 200 sq ft circle so that I can mow around it!

The nearest area, also 400 sq ft will be a combination of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths for Spring color; with transplants of purple coneflowers, black-eyed-susans, and goldenrod for Summer and Fall color.  Plus I plan to add a few dwarf butterfly bushes.  I may get a package of seeds of plants that attract butterflies and bees to scatter among the plants next Spring. 

This last area will take some work planting.  Tulips and Hyacinths don't last long here because of the voles, so I have to make cages to plant them in.  The daffodils are fine without cages, being toxic.  But the bulbs haven't been delivered yet, and the transplants still have green leaves so I can't move them yet. 

Which means I can start on the new border of the older flowerbed (up against the fence to the left of the above picture).  I originally planted the border with alternating 12" sections of yellow then purple crocuses.  And 4" gaps between sections for annual Summer flowers.  The voles ate most of the crocus bulbs in just a few years, so this time, I am planting them in cages.  I'll still leave a 4" gap between the cages because it is nice to have Summer flowers there too and change them each year (yellow marigolds one year, dusty miller the next, orange zinnias after that, etc).

At least I don't have to install more edging there.  It's already in place!  And the soil there is soft and the border is the width of my spade.  "Piece of cake".  Right?  Yeah, right...

Fortunately, the weather is forecast to stay nice into mid-November, so I may get away with all this before the first hard freeze hits.  But I had better get working of those cages.  Two sizes of cages actually.  8"L x 6"W x 4"H for the crocus bulb border (so I need about 50 of those).  I haven't decided on the size of the cages for the tulip and hyacinth bulbs yet.  I need to sit down and diagram cages what use a 3' wide roll of wire mesh efficiently.

But I have the crocus bulbs now, so they come first.  The tulip cages can wait a few days...  But they will look basically like this...

 


















 12-18" square, 6" high.  It only needs making a wood form to bend the wire mesh over.  Not that that takes no time, but it beats buying cages at $30 each!

Garden Enclosure Screen Door

The garden enclosure door is giving me trouble.  The posts holding it keep getting out of alignment.  Sometimes the top sticks.  Sometimes, the latch won't catch.

I've bought some additional pvc pipes to help hold it in place, but I had to get the frame in alignment first.  One post had to be raised 1/4", and that was trickier than I thought.  Since it is stuck in the ground 2', the idea was to pry it up 1/4" and then hold it there while nature lets the soil below it expand and fill in.

So the first part was to lift the post.  Easier said than done.  I dripped water in around it for an hour, and that did loosen the post.  But lifting the post isn't just pulling it up a bit.  There had to be something to hold it up the 1/4".  And I don't mean to suggest that I am strong enough to just pull it up that much.

I had the idea of screwing a 2x4" board to the post and prying on the bottom of that board.  That would work, but how would I hold it there?  I tried putting a 4x4" post against the top of the frame and then lifting it with shims.  I did that, but the frame didn't rise.

All I was doing was pushing the post into the dirt...

Arggh...

And if I put a board under the 4x4" post, that was too tight to make it fit under.  I had to re-think it.  And the 4x4" post I was using to raise door frame was the wrong length by 1".

AHA!  I set a scrap piece on board in the screen doorway and set the post that was "just" too long on the board at an angle.  Pounding that 4x4" post that was at an angle, toward the post I wanted to lift worked!

Look at it another way.  The door frame post and the ground made a right angle, with the bracing post resting on a board at the bottom making the hypotenuse.  By pounding the bottom of the bracing board with a small sledgehammer, I pushed the top of the door frame up the required 1/4".  Hurray!

But how to hold it up?  The bracing post prevented the door from closing...

Well, that baffled me for a few minutes.  But then I realized that if I screwed on a board near the bottom of the door frame post  on the opposite side, it would hold it up for ever.  Well, I didn't need "forever", just long enough for wet soil to settle below the door frame post.

SO...   I set a cinder block next to the door frame post, stomped on it a few times to settle it into the soil so it wouldn't sink under pressure, and put a scrap piece of 2x4" board atop the cinder block.  And I screwed that board into place.

So the post holding the latch side of the screen door (that I had just raised 1/4") won't settle back down (the piece of 2x4" is resting on a cinder block that won't settle into the ground and the 2x4" board is screwed solidly into the door frame post).

I can leave all that in place forever.  Its not in the way of the door closing.

But the latch doesn't "catch",  I can solve THAT.  A small piece of aluminum fill fix that.  Actually some would a plastic credit card.

Just accept that the door and latch will now work, and that the screen door closes as smoothly as silk!

Been Gone

But for reasons.  Being on the computer makes me smoke, and I have been fighting that by restricting my computer time.  The Mark's Mews blog is primary, so I manage to do that.  Emails came second, and that has been difficult.  I've had to write them in increments.  This blog seems least important...

Not that I don't enjoy writing on it.  Just that my non-smoking willpower gets worn out fast and by the time I get to THIS blog, I need a cig.

WELL...  The computer crashed.  Sort of.  More accurately, an upgrade to Mac Yosemite (OSX 10.10.2) crashed my iPhoto.  Don't know why, but some internet search showed a LOT of unhappy upgraders.  I spent a couple of hours a day for a week trying to get at my photos with no success.  Tried un-upgrading, and other stuff too.  No luck. 

Apple doesn't LIKE un-upgrading!!!  It offends them that you don't like the new stuff.  

I could have lived with the new "Yosemite" operating system if it allowed me access to the old photograghs, but there was an endless loop of "fixes" with no end.  I finally had to do the serious thing.

Thank goodness for "Time Machine".  It stores my previous versions of the hard drive.  You would think that makes it easy to just copy back the previous old version.  You would be right.  And you would be wrong.

Its possible.  But not easy, they say.  I know because I read all kinds of internet searches about doing it (and some said it worked and some said it failed.  I knew it COULD work, because I had done it once before.  It took the help of a Verizon IT tech (2 years ago I think).  Not his job, but he helped me.  And I wrote down the steps on some scrap paper.  A foot-high stack of which is always on the corner of my computer desk

I went through the stack and actually found the scrap! 

It worked.  Two hours for restoring the older OSX version, 30 minutes for "repairing" the iPhotos Library, 30 minutes for repairing my emails (and I had to endure 15 minutes of re-receiving 200 emails and deleting them as they were all duplicates).

But everything seems to be working last lat month again, and I am greatly relieved.

All that sitting around and watching the s-l-o-w progress made me get more cigs.  Damn!  Well, one night in 3 weeks isn't too bad.

I've been busy.  But that's the next posts...

Thanks for visiting after 6 weeks of no posts...

New Deck, Part 4

First, A recognition of Independence Day.  I go out on the deck and read The Declaration Of Independence out loud each year on this day.  It is a stirring document.  Last night, I saw someone on a political talk show who said the claim is at the end and the justification is before, so read it backwards that way. I get the idea, statement at the end and justification before.

So I did.  I have to admit, I thought about it a little differently.

And to my/our British friends, I hope there are no hard feelings.  We got off to a rocky start, but I think it has worked out pretty well over the past couple centuries.  My revolutionist ancestors would not have tipped their hats to you, but I can and do.

But we DO have our holiday and I will support it with a steak on the Japanese hibachi grill, a cold Canadian beer (or 3), a few Southeast Asian shrimp, and a German sausage.  What could be more "American" than that?  LOL!

  ----------------
Now to the deck.  Finally, the end!  Well, sort of.  On Monday, some guys will be coming back to take away all the debris, fill the patio holes with more cement and apply a professionally smooth surface to match the existing patio as close as possible,  and smooth out all the remaining dug-up soil.  But the deck is essentially done.

First thing yesterday morning, they finished putting the composite board on the deck.  Then started putting on the rail support posts.   It looks great.  Now there is a real deck!

Then the tedious part, putting the rail tops on, then all the ballisters.  Of course, they had a sensible way of doing those.  They tacked the all tops with a nail gun and them let them hang freely, then they tacked the bottoms using a level to get them aligned properly.

THEN they put a screw in the top and bottom.  I would have done it the hard way, of course.  Each ballister one top screw and one bottom, one at a time. 

The ballister work progresses...  They did gripe about my "screws" contract requirements though.   They said nails were just fine and would have saved them almost 2 hours work.  But nails always come loose and I can't think of any screws that ever have!  They accepted that (and I might have gotten a couple minor construction points for it).

They did get them all done eventually.

I seem to have missed taking pictures of them building the stairway rails and attaching the ballisters on those.  That was a right piece of hard work by itself.  And took 2 hours worth.  Lots of angle cuts and awkward positions for screwing them in.

They got done just before the rain hit and I helped hual stuff to their trucks.

But here is the final deck!  From the deck door straight out...

A shot across the corner...

The landing leading to the stairs...

A look down the stairs...

And finally, a shot from the stair-landing to the opposite corner. 

I am thrilled!  There is SO much more usable space.  I can actually put a table out there, for example.

And to remind you of the difference, here is the "before" picture (admittedly after 25 years)...

And the "After".

 Quite a difference!

Intersections

I have this blog for myself, and I have a separate blog for my cats.  I try to keep this one for my own thoughts and I try to leave the cats to theirs (with some usually unseen help on my part).  But sometimes, both blogs intersect.

Yesterday was a case in point.  I read about 80 cat blogs every few days (for my own pleasure and to help my cats keep in touch with their friends).  You never know what you are going to find when you visit one.  One cat will have just caught its first mouse, another may report the death of a beloved old cat, another may have had a trip to the vet. 

Sometimes I read a serious story about a cat that brings me to tears.   I have read many of them over the years.  Sometimes about lost cats, sometimes about cats killed in sad ways, sometimes about rescued cats.  Isn't it odd how both happy and sad stories can bring tears to us?

Today I'm writing about an old neglected cat who found a friendly home to pass her last days.  I won't repeat the whole story here; it is written so much better at Max, The Psychokitty.

There aren't many sad endings that also feel happy when you stop crying.  If you haven't read that post, go there now!  Go there NOW!