And Now We Are Only 3 (1 Person and 2 Cats)

I am sad to say that an era has ended.  I have been dreading this day for months.  LC has joined Skeeter over the Bridge.  Skeeter joined me in 1992 and went over the Bridge Dec 2008, LC joined us in 1993 and left this afternoon.  Together, they were a major part of my life for 17 years.  I hardly know how to imagine their absence.  While LC was still here, so was Skeeter in a way.  Now she has gone too.

I give LC her thyroid med when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.  Last night, I couldn't find her.  Well, that happens sometimes; there are lots of places in this house where kitties can hide when they want to and LC always knew when it was med time.  Ayla has some places I have NEVER discovered.  LC seldom hid, but she did a few times.


This morning, when she didn't come for breakfast, I went searching.  The past couple of months, I have often had to find her and bring her food to her.  I couldn't find her anywhere.  After 30 minutes of searching, with dread in my heart, I spied a tail.  She had burrowed into a corner of basement clutter.  When I shook her, she did not move.

I went upstairs and cried.  After a while, I went back downstairs to retrieve her body.  She was completely unmoving.  But when I pulled her out, she was warm.  She blinked one eye.  She was at the vet 5 minutes later, though essentially comatose.  The vet put her on fluids immediately and drew blood for tests.  He sent me home. 


An hour later, the vet called and said she had died.  He said she had roused a bit after the fluids but that at one of their every-10-minute checks, she was gone. 

Oh LC, I am so sorry that I wasn't there in your last minutes.  I wish I had just kept you home and held you until your brave spirit left your failing body so you could leave while in my arms as Skeeter did.  But I had to try to save you for a few more days...


I do not think she was at all aware of her surroundings.  The vet says she died from a kidney infection; her white blood cell count was very high.  He says she was not in any pain, just was feeling very very tired.


When I went to bring her home, the vet had tears in his eyes too.  The assistant who brought her to me was also crying.   She knows how I felt because she said she lost her 5 kitties in a house fire last week.  We cried together for a few minutes.  But I had to leave...


At home, I laid LC on the floor for Ayla and Iza to examine.  Iza sniffed her many times.  Ayla came over, but backed away and ran into the kitty condo cave.  She stayed in there an hour.  I think they understood that LC was no longer in her body.  It is important to me that they understand that she is dead rather than "missing".

 I went outside to dig a spot for LC next to Skeeter, but the ground is frozen hard.  I can't handle this today.  Tommorrow, I will try pouring hot water on the soil to thaw it.  For now, I need to build a small memorial box like Skeeter's.

They were beloved close companions (and mine) all their lives, their bodies will be close to each other afterwards.  It's all I can do at this point...

Please forgive my maundering and inelegant post.  I am grieving the loss of their presence and my memory of them.  I had so many happy years with both of them.  It is hard to accept that they are BOTH now gone.   17 years is a long time to share with cat-friends, and I am grateful for that time together.  They exist only in my heart and mind, treasured pictures, and their memorials.

Goodbye Skeeter and LC...

I think I will now go toss toys to Ayla and Iza, and explain to them that they are the "new era" now...

Computer Problems

3 PM:

My Mac Pro computer is apparently too evil too repair.  I don't mean that it is possessed with a malevolent spirit or that there are problems that multiple repair techs can't fix.  I mean that it apparently smells so strongly of cigarette smoke that no one is willing to repair it.

OK, I'll say straight off that if the computer is damaged because I smoke, that is mostly my fault. Only "mostly" because I have a lot of other computerized equipment in the house (including a PC that worked for 8 years - and still does) and they all work just fine!  The Mac needed repair after only 9 months and then again after 6 months.  If Macs need to be operated in a smoke free "safe" environment, they should have told me! 

I am not defending smoking; I know it is a really dumb habit and I'm trying to quit .  But when Apple Repair Stores point to "environmental abuse" in the warranty and claim that detectable cigarette odors void the warranty, I have a right to think I am being abused...

I was surprized and confused when the 1st repair place refused to work on the computer.  I tried to find a place that cleaned smoke-damaged computers (with no success).  When I called an actual Apple Store, the person laughed and said of the 1st repair place - not an official Apple Store, "That's just an excuse they use, bring it in and we'll repair it".  I was quite relieved.  But after 3 days, they called me back with the same story; that they wouldn't even work on it and my extended warranty was void.  Apple considers cigarette smoke to be a "toxic hazard".

After struggling with the fan problem for 3 weeks plus driving 220 miles back and forth to the 2 repair stores AND not having a repaired computer, that was a hard blow!

The problem is that the output fan operates on high speed constantly.  The computer appears to work just fine.  So it may be that I just have to put up with the noise until I can find someone willing to clean/repair it.  Or I may have to replace it, and quit smoking.  Quitting would be a very good idea anyway.  And I think I bought way more computer than I need, so replacing it may not be THAT expensive, especially if I am no longer buying cigarettes.

So the computer might fail at any time and it will be a while before I can replace it...

Update:

I just searched "Mac cigarette smoke" and found many sites that explained why cigarette smoke is so damaging to computers (and especially Macs because of their design).  I understand now why it is a real problem.  I even found a discussion site about it.  There were posts from users in my situation, users who have never (like me) experienced the problem with a PC, posts from users who blame Apple for not specifically mentioning cigarette smoke as a deal-breaker, and posts from Apple techs who described how cleaning melted nicotine from computers is both nearly impossible AND disgusting (even to techs who smoke).  Apparently, no smoking user has ever gotten any mercy from Apple.

I am in a real dilemma.  Given the descriptions of the problems with repairing Macs abused with cigarette smoke, I accept their refusal to repair the computer.  I think Apple is seriously wrong not to advise buyers that smoking voids the warranty or extended warranty, but I accept that no further action on my part can get the computer repaired.

I am fairly confident that I could stop smoking in order to save the next computer (if not myself).  But I haven't really been happy with my Mac Pro.  I haven't had crashes like on my PCs and I feel little threat from hackers, viruses, etc, but the applications software basically SUCKS!  Pages and Numbers are far less featured that Windows Word and Excel.  Even Office for Mac is far less than the same on a PC.  Organizing files in Finder is much harder than in Windows Explorer.  I first thought I just wasn't familiar with the Mac systems and commands, but after more than a year, the same problems remain.  Macs are expensive.  In addition, the nearest Mac repair store is 25 miles away, while there are 4 PC repair stores within 3 miles.

On the other hand, I switched to a Mac because Windows became so frustrating to use.  It crashed, it froze, it needed massive hacker and virus protections, and it is slow to load software.  The 3rd time in 1 year that I had to spend 2 days completely reloading all the software from scratch made me determined to never own a PC again.  My PCs needed a repair about every 6 months.

I think, though, that I will stick with a Mac.  My old PC still works.  I could use that more often for offline work.  As far as I can tell, my Mac would not yet need any repair service.

If that forces me to stop smoking, it might be the best purchase I've ever made!

SNOW!

Well, we got our first big SURPRISE snowstorm of many year the past few days.  Not 5 days ago, the forecasters were saying they didn't see any snow through New Year's day.  Then they suddenly predicted 4", then 8", then 12", then 20"!

I got 14" out in the middle of the driveway, which is about my most accurate place to measure.  Some nearby places did get 20", so I guess I was lucky.

I got up early this morning, deciding to buy a snowblower.  Consumer Reports magazine had an article rating them in October.  I googled my local stores for the "Best Buy" recommendations, but of course, none of them had those models.  My one gripe with Consumer Reports magazine is that it is nearly impossible to ever find the exact models they give the best ratings to.

But then the sad truth hit me!  First, I had to shovel the driveway anyway to get the car out.  Second, most stores were closed because of the snow.  Third, any snowblowers available tomorrow weren't going to be on sale, even if the lesser ones were available.

So I accepted reality.  The driveway had to be shoveled before I could contemplate any further decisions.  Reality sucks!  But I got out my heavy socks, pulled on my knee-high rubber boots, pulled the "serious" (Carhartt) winter coat out of the closet, and set about shoveling the snow.

The driveway is 60' long.  I did almost 1/2 and decided to stop for a rest.  I had taken some pictures and decided to load them onto the computer, and I make it a point not to over-exert myself (the hospitals call the day after a major snowstorm "heart-attack day").

When I went back outside, a neighborhood teenage boy walked by and asked if I wanted to have him finish the job.  I said no, but quickly changed my mind.  When he said he would finish the job for $20 I said YES YES YES! (in my head)  but "well...  OK" out loud.  He didn't have his own snow shovel, but I have a good one (real metal, teflon coated).  He didn't have gloves, so I lent him a pair of mine.  It was worth it just not to have to deal with the dreaded snow plow ridge at the end of the driveway!

I told him it didn't have to be edge to edge, just more than the width of the car.  And because the driveway is at an angle to the house (because of a poorly placed storm drain), I stomped out the edges for him.  And he went to work.  Not to make fun, but his technique was horrible.  Clearly, he had little experience shovelling snow.  I gave him some slight advice (like, you really can't lift 15" of snow at once because it won't stay on the shovel, so take it off the top first.  I know about snow.  I grew up in Massachussetts and as the eldest child, I did all the snow shoveling, as I have all my years.

I helped him out when snow started sticking to the shovel.  Even teflon-coated shovels will start to keep snow when they get cold enough.  The trick is to bang the snow off and hit it with a silicon spray.  He did his best and was about near the end of the driveway (that dreaded snow plow ridge) when a neighbor (whom I do not know) came by with an ATV with a snow blade attached.  He blew out the snow plow ridge in 5 minutes!  What a cool machine...  I would love to have one, but I would settle for a snowblower!  When he finished, he just drove to the next driveway.  The only thing I could do was salute as he left.  I wish I had pictures, but the camera card was full.

Meanwhile, the neighbor kid was widening the driveway (relieved by not having to fight with the snow plow ridge).  Finally, it was done.

When I could tell it was wide enough for the car, I offerred him another $10 to do my 12' sidewalk and front steps.  Again, his technique was awful.  He was trying to do it from the bottom up and tossing snow where he would have to shovel it again.  I showed him that it was easier to turn the shovel over and scrape it "downhill".  When he did that, it went very quickly.  He got that done in about 20 minutes.

 

After he left, I widened the driveway by another 2 feet, but that only took 10 minutes.  After all, he had done what I asked of him and I was grateful to be spared the endless bending to scoop out most of the snow.

I'm still deciding whether to buy a snowblower.  I'm thinking a 2 stage, multiple speed model with electric start and recoil rope backup.  And I'm thinking Ariens for the quality, but CR magazine rated a Craftsman a "Best Buy".  Any advice will be appreciated.  I'll probably wait until the end of winter when they go on sale.  For use next time.

Then I went to do the deck.  I usually shovel out a path for the cats.  I did that.  I discovered that I had more raised decked nails than I realized.  As soon as the snow melts, it is HAMMER time!  But I did get it shoveled.

They enjoyed that, but you will have to go to my cat blog for that story.  The snow on the deck was almost 21" though.

Boat Canopy Again

Well, I waited too long.  I need to assemble it in halves in the garage (for the outside access) and assemble the 2 parts outside on the spot.  It is now too cold!  I am going to bundle up all the cut PVC and set it aside until Spring.  There were just too many questions about constructing it that made me hesitate in warmer weather, and then too many things that distracted me from the project the past month.

Next week will be cold but dry, so, as soon as the insides of the boat dry out and I can clean the leaves out of it, etc, I will simply put ropes over the seats bow to stern and across an tie a tarp down over it for the Winter.  Too labor-intensive for daily use, but worth it for the season.  I think other boaters call that "winter shrink-wrapping".

At least that frees me to pursue the other inside projects I have been putting off while dithering about the stupid boat canopy.  The pedestal dictionary stand, the end tables, and flooring the other half of the attic (though it does get cold up there in Winter, so I'm not positive). 

I put plywood on half the attic floors years ago, but the other half had wires running over the joists.  I cut notches in the joists for one sheet of plywood, butdecided that seemed structurally unsound.  It suddenly occurred to me last week that I could glue spacers/supports between the wires and simply raise the plywood up a 1/2 inch.  I am usually quite creative, but in this case, quite stupid!  The solution was obvious in hindsight.

I think I will set up a Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish) breeding tank.  I have a new tan male with unusual darker spots on the fins, and I've never seen that before.  And since I have a tan female showing signs of eggs, why not?  I've raised them before (decades ago).

I think I will do the Bettas first, to get them on their way.  I need to make a multi-compartment insert to place in a aquarium for the newborns.  Even males a few weeks old will attack each other, and fin damage never heals perfectly so they need to be separated real early.

Then the dictionary stand.  I am really ready for that.  I want to work with wood again!  All that PVC stuff really threw me out of my comfort zone for months.  Not that I am a great woodworker, but at least I understand the stuff!

And gardening season actually starts in 1 month!

Back on track, ever optimistic, and ready to go back to what I know...

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Sorry I haven't been doing projects lately.  I've really been distracted. Raking out leaves from the patio, pulling early winter weeds from the flowerbeds, doing the Thanksgiving Dinner thing, cleaning pots for next year, arguing with people on the Richard Dawkins website (WAY too much time spent doing that). 

Ayla (a cat) is in heat again.  It's really sad.  She has been spayed twice and neither operation worked.  She demands a lot of attention.

The rain gutters that I cleaned only a few months ago overflowed yesterday in a storm and the overflow gets into the basement.  I have screens covering the gutters and made sure the downspouts are clear, so I can't figure out the problem.  I was going to take another look at them today, but it started to snow unexpectedly.

I've been cleaning out my file cabinet.  That takes a lot of time and I'm not done yet.  And because of that, I am trying to re-write my Will.  Not an easy task.  And I am trying to search through old letters from my parents to find the information they have sent about their instructions about elder care and funerals.  I should have kept notes along the way, but I didn't.  Now I have to try to catch up.

A neighbor is having an addition put on the house.  The nailing starts at 8 AM every morning.  I normally don't go to bed until 2 or 3 AM, so I am not getting much sleep.

I've also been cleaning the basement.  Way too much stuff left out and to the point where I couldn't find anything.  Cleaning was needed.

And the car needed attention.  Not maintenance (I'm good about that), but cleaning.  I should have cleaned it when the weather was better, but I didn't.  I spent almost a whole day doing that.

And then there were the holiday cards to make.  I don't buy mine, I make them on the computer.  And it isn't easy.  The 2 programs I have to do that suck!  One only permits installed clip art and that got boring real fast.  The other allows imports but not "French-Fold" (twice-folded) cards.  So I figured out how to create French-folds in Excel.  It's not easy.  Half the text and pictures have to be rotated, I can't delete the boxes around the text half the time, and changing the text colors is nearly impossible.  I am a bit inept at that stuff.  Took my 2 days to create 1 birthday card, 25 Winter Holiday cat cards and 15 Winter Holiday people cards (my cats have more friends than I do).  But I did it and that's done with.

And there was a LOT of garden cleaning to do.  I cut down 90% of the tall perennial flower stalks last week, pulled up all the old tomato plants before that,

So, basically, I've been busy with stuff that was not "photo-interesting".

I'll try to get back at the boat canopy and other projects soon.

Boat Canopy - Yet Agin, Part 3

Drat, forgot to get the PVC cement!  I had a can, but discovered it was rock solid.  Well, it was 10 years old...  I tossed it.  But I meant to get new cement yesterday and forgot.  I need to build the top of the base first, and that involves some combinations of fittings, so they need to be cemented and carefully aligned first.  Can't do anything useful until that is done!

For my design, I have to put a 45 degree elbow into a 5-way cross piece exactly perpendicular, then cement in a bushing that changes the 1.25" PVC to .5" PVC.  I think I want to make a jig to assure the correct angle...  Perhaps clamping the 5 way into a bench clamp and having an upright to mark exactly 90 degrees.  Or I could screw some blocks into cheap plywood horizontally.  I'll have to look at both.

I can't decide how long the arch pieces will be until I have the top of the base cemented.  The base is 7'.  So the best arch top might be between 8' and 9'.  But I want to see it physically before I start cutting the top .5' PVC pipe.

May be a couple days before I get around to that.  The lawn is covered with leaves again, the boat is full of leaves,  and I have more spent flowers to cut down for the year...

The Boat Canopy - Yet Again, Part 2

Well, I've hesitated cutting the PVC pipe. I've never used a reciprocating saw, and I've never cut PVC where accuracy was important.

Today, I took saw in hand and went at it! Of course, as I mentioned previously, I set up clamps and a sort of jig. I clamped 2 portable workbenchs so that there was a spot exactky the 5" distance I needed to cut. Then I moved the pipe so I could cut it straight (really easily with the reciprocating saw's guides).

I cut the 1st pipe and checked the measurement... Perfect 5'. I did the other 12 pipes the same way. I got some off by 1/8th", but generally, worked quite well. The slight difference won't make any difference (I'll match side by side pieces to match).

So now I have all my 1.25" pipes cut to the 5' and 7' lengths I need. I'll construct the bottom part 1st. Then I can try out a few roof arch lengths to see how to cut the tops pieces.

The reciprocating saw worked GREAT!  I found one sawblade at the Home Depot marked for PVC (marked as "8/12").  But they were sold in packs of 10, and I sure didn't need that many.   Individual blades were not marked for PVC.  But the 10 pack was 8/12 so I bought a single 8/12 Rigid blade.  That's the one to use.  Cuts through like a hot knife in soft butter, no casting of PVC dust at low speeds, and a nice clean cut!  The DeWalt saw gave a good square cut with almost no vibration.  I was utterly pleased!  No hint of melt, and the burrs rubbed off by hand (I"ll run a file inside and out anyway).

.

Boat Canopy Project Started

Well, I discovered something interesting about PVC pipes. They AREN'T all exactly 10'. Most were, but some others were exactly 10' 1/4". Not 10' 1/8", or anything else. Just one or the other. That's weird.

So I separated them by length today. I have 13 lengths that I need to cut exactly to 5" (for 26 5' pieces). I need 6 lengths to cut to 7'. So the ones that are too long get cut to 7'. That leaves me 3 "too long" pieces I'll have to trim a 1/4" off, but that's not too bad.

These are the exact 10' lengths:

(Picture would be inserted here if it were possible. Imagine a nice row of identical lengths of PVC pipes). GRRR!

I'm just glad I checked them before doing the cutting.

These are the longer ones. No, they aren't THAT longer. I just didn't line them up against the wall for this picture.

(Picture lengths of identical 1/4" too long PVC pipes than the one benchmark exact 10" length). GRRR!

I sure hope blogspot.com fixes this problem soon! Not being able to show pictures is VERY frustrating...


I made a sort of jig today.

I used my 2 Workmate benches to hold the 10' pipes. I clamped a board across them to make the outside edges exactly 5' and locked the benches together so they can't "drift" apart while the saw rattles them. That way, I can use the benches to measure 5 exactly'. Cool! It works like a stop block.



The distance from the far edges is exactly 5" so I can mark the pipes to cut them. And they are clamped together by a board so they can't change the distance.

I love setting things up to help in the production... That in itself is half the fun of making things.

No Photos?

Suddenly, I don't have icons for adding photos to the blog. Is it just me, or something happening across blogger.com? This is really annoying. I didn't change anything.

The Boat Canopy - Yet Again

I'll admit it.  I have all the pipes and fitting for the boat canopy design.  I'm just a bit afraid to start making it!  It suddenly feels a bit more complicated than I expected.  It's one thing to design something, but another to actually build it.

The first thing that struck me was how to cut dozens of 1.25" PVC pipes into the pieces I needed.  I have a pipe cutter that you turn around on the pipe and keep tightening.  But doing that for dozens of cuts seemed daunting.  I considered the radial saw, the tablesaw, a hacksaw, and a jigsaw.  All seemed problematic.  I googled a lot of PVC discussion sites and the evaluations of the various cutting methods all had supporters and detractors.  Serious power tools not only toss up a lot of nasty PVC dust, but can make bad cuts, and even spray splinters that get into the skin.  Low-powered tool like a jigsaw are slow and tend not to make square cuts.  Manual saws are s-l-o-w...

I decided a reciprocating saw was the best choice.  So I pulled out my never-used reciprocating saw.  It had only 1 saws blade on the kit, designed for metal.  And I had read some reports that said those blades melted the PVC edges and left hard blobs.

So I went to the net to find reciprocating saw blades designed for PVC.  Go ahead and search for yourself.  They are mentioned often, but never specified!  It was a maddening search.  There is basically "metal", "wood", and "multipurpose".   I was so frustrated!

I went to Home Depot yesterday and looked at reciprocating saw blades.  The hardware/tool clerk (manager?) helped.  He pointed out that all the blades fit all the saws.  That helped, I thought I need the same brand as my DeWalt saw.  Then he noticed that there were little graphics on the blades that showed what they were designed to cut.  One had a picture of PVC pipe.  But that was a pack of 10 blades and I sure didn't need THAT many.  He had to go help another customer.  But then I noticed that the teeth description on the PVC blade was "8/12".

So I looked at the individual blades and found others that were "8/12".  It seems to be a pattern of varying teeth.  I bought one!  Yay...

I have a few old pieces of PVC pipe and I will try the blade on one in the next couple of days.  If it works well, I will start cutting Boat Canopy PVC soon.

I've been thinking on how to cut pieces accurately.  I need a bunch of 1.25" pipes at 7', a bunch of 1.25" pipes at 5', a bunch of .5" pipes at 5" and a bunch of /5" pipes at 2.5'.  I think I will have to set up stop blocks on my workbench and use the far end to mark the cut points.  Then I can set the PVC pipes in a pair of Workmate benches set 1/4" part to guide the reciprocating saw in a straight cut.

Assembling all the pieces is going to drive me nuts...

On the other hand, I'm going to be thrilled after I get it all finished.

I'll sure be glad to go back to working with wood when this project is completed!

Oops, Been Away...

I can't believe I haven't posted for 3 weeks!  I've been busy, just not with stuff worth taking pictures of.

I planted 400 crocus bulbs.  200 at a friend's place, 200 in my yard.

My parents visited.  That took 3 days of attention and cooking, and 2 days before to clean house and 1 day of downtime afterwards!  I had to watch Science TV for 2 days to get over having to listen to Fox News while they were here...  (Shudder)

I cleared out all the dead tomato vines.  Carefully.  There were disease problems and I tried hard not to leave any vine debris behind.  After I collected all the debris on the lawn and bagged it for disposal. I stacked all the cages far away from the garden.  I don't think fungal diseases do well on rusty metal exposed to cold Winter temperatures.

I raked all the leaves out onto the lawn.  That's right, ONTO the lawn.  I shred them with the mower until there is nothing left but leaf dust among the grass.  It really works well!  Free fertilizer and organic bulk for the soil.  My surface soil was clay when I moved here; now I have 6" of topsoil.  You don't get that by applying commercial fertilizer...

I chopped down most of the spent flowers.  That was quite an effort.  I have a lot of asters, coneflowers, monarda, sedums, etc that are 3' tall.  I had to haul a lot of flowerstalks to the slow compost pile.   And I made sure to leave the seedheads sticking up in the compost pile so the birds can get at them.

The tricky thing was the thistle seedheads I discovered.  They were hidden among the asters.  I cut one and a few seeds fell off.  So I covered the rest with plastic bags and taped them shut, THEN cut them.  I sure don't want those damn things next year.

Related weed subject:  Bindweed.  I was after them ferociously all year.  I don't think a single one got more than a few inches long before I pulled them up.  I know they are perennial and have deep roots, but if they can't grow above soil for long, they will die.

It has been raining for almost 4 days.  Leftover from Tropical Storm Ida.  That has kept me inside.

My cat LC had her annual shots and exam.  But I didn't have a stool sample.  With 3 cats, it can be hard to tell who's is who's.  I closed LC in the guest bedroom Friday (with food, water, and a litterbox of course).  No luck.  Tried it Sunday.  No luck.  LC really likes to "do her business" outside.  I finally had to leave her there Tuesday and Wednesday until I got a poop sample!    I went to the vet Thursday morning, but they were closed.  I had to wait til Friday.  Doing shopping and errands with cat scat in a plastic bag in the front seat is not my favorite thing to do.

But I got it delivered earlier today and the results were negative (she is as clean of scat-identifyable problems).  For multiple cats who like to be outside a lot, that was great news.  And, as LC is approaching 17 years, she might be expected to have some problems.  None there, anyway. 

So things are going well and I have been active.  I should learn to post about things even when I don't have pictures to show!

Back on track tomorrow, I hope.