Shave It?

My family (especially on my mother's side, which is the controlling gene) is notorious for the males going bald in their 40s.  I am no exception. 

I'm considering just shaving my scalp "Mr. Clean" style.  Quite frankly, what's left is just mostly annoying.  I already wear baseball or straw hats outside anyway (to prevent sunburn).

What do YOU all think?

Seed Starting

I've mentioned before that I have a box of index cards I created that reminds me when to start seeds indoors, outdoors, and transplant dates.  Some years I get behind, but this year I've been staying on schedule.  Or so I thought.

Oh NO!  I completely forgot about the flowers!  Those aren't in the index cards because I change flowers too often and even varieties of the same kind can have different indoor or oudoor planting dates. 

But I have that information for the flowers on my seed list.  Sure enough, I should have planted some of them a MONTH AGO!  So I stayed up late Saturday to set up 6 flats of my starter soil mix in my 36 cels per flat and poured warm water into them to soak the soil.  I have been expanding my selection of flowers the past couple years.  They all want different conditions.

Sunday, after changing all the clocks (and I sure have a lot of them) I planted!  And it isn't just pushing seeds into the soil.  Some want 1/8", some want 1/4" and some want NO cover at all (needing light to germinate. 

And some want cool temperatures (50-60), some want 70-80, and some want in between that.  And since some want cool temps and light, and some want warmer temperatures and don't need light until the emerge, it got really tricky.  I spent an hour just sorting out seed packets by requirements, LOL!

But when I had that all done, it was easier.  Some were super-easy.  A whole flat of one kind, like marigolds or balsams or salvia required no combinations with other seeds.  Others did though, and as a result, I will have some more of some flowers than others I am used to. 

And, BTW, when I say a 36 cel flat, I really mean 35, because I always leave one cel cut out for easy watering.  I used to lift a corner of one cel to water under, but I noticed that one one seldom grew (because I was bending and thereby ripping the roots I think).  You learn stuff...

But I got most of them sorted out by temperature and germination requirements, and here is what I have growing!

I planted 6 flats.   Some can be under lights in the 64 degree basement.

 Some can be upstairs at 72 degrees and need light but are sitting on a countertop  (covered to prevent cat-exploration).

Some are in the cool basement and not needing light yet...  And, BTW, that light-color stuff is vermiculite which doesn't crust over like soil and makes it easier for the seedlings to emerge.

 Some are in the cool basement uncovered and exposed to light...

And aside from all that, my veggie seedlings are all up and growing well.  

Most of these seeds are several years old.  But because I keep them in sealed vials in the basement refrigerator, they last 3 times as long as the packets suggest.  I got almost 100% germination this year.

Next week, I have more flower and veggie seeds to plant indoors (and some outside).  I think I need another light stand!

But with any luck, this should be a fabulous year gardening year.  Most of the new flowers are self-sowing "cottage garden" types and will not need annual replanting (well, maybe some every few years) but it is a start at a "self-maintaining flower bed" in some parts.  Some parts of the flowerbeds have dependable perennials, and I love those. 

But I'm exploring self-sowing annuals lately.  We'll see how well that works in a couple years.  I'm patient. 

Blown Out Fence

I was wrong about my neighbor's fence being blown out in the windstorm of the past 3 days.  An 18-24" diameter tree fell over on it.  No fence panel is going to stand up to THAT. 

But I saw other fence panels blown out all around the neighborhood without trees fallen on them, so my original assessment of my fence construction quality stands. 

Most neighbors went cheap accepting commercial builders fences with 1x4" boards between the posts (and some posts just set in dirt because the owners didn't understand anchoring).  And the upright fence boards are just air-pinned nails.

I used 2x4" horizontal boards and used exterior screws instead of nails.  1x4" horizontal boards are cheaper and air-punched nails are faster. 

But they don't last...  Nails are good for about 5-10 years.  Screws are good for 10-30.  My fence is about 25 years old.  I've had to re-screw a few boards, but not many.  There will come a day when I have to rebuild the fence.  Even ground-contact pressure-treated wood doesn't last forever.  But not yet...

One of my windward side neighbor's huge trees are going to fall down and crush one of my 8' fence sections one of these days.  I can't stop that.  But it won't be a weakness of my fence, LOL!

Genetic Test

I just got the most ridiculous genetic test results back today.  A previous test from MyHeritage offerred results I generally expected.  Mostly French/German/Scottish and a bit of Iberian.  That made perfect sense.  Family lore and genealogy says we came from France and Germany into England and from there to North America early on in the 1600-1700s with more German influence in the 1800s. 

The result I received from crigenetics is moronic.

According to them, I am mostly Finnish.  And there is all that Asian percents.

I wouldn't mind the least bit if I thought it was accurate; in fact if I thought I was from "everywhere", that would actually be neat!  But I know they are wrong about it. 

Ancestry Analysis

---

• 87.3%European
  • 29.5%Finnish 
  • 20.6%British 
  • 16.5%Northwestern European 
  • 11%Toscani Italian 
  • 9.7%Iberian  
• 5.4%Ad Mixed American
  • 2.3%Colombian 
  • 2.3%Peruvian 
  • 0.6%Puerto Rican 
  • 0.2%Mexican 
• 5.2%South Asian
  • 2.6%Gujarati Indian 
  • 2.6%Punjabi 
• 1.9%East Asian
  • 0.9%Chinese Dai  
  • 0.5%Kinh Vietnamese 
  • 0.3%Southern Han Chinese 
  • 0.2%Japanese 
• 0.2%African
  • 0.2%Gambian  

March Comes In Like A Lion

And other problems...

We have had some of the strongest winds here the past 2 days and it is forecast to last another.  Well "strongest" except for hurricanes and those don't last as long.  There have been gusts up to 62 mph, and it seems constant around 40+.  The wind howled so loudly around the house I could barely sleep, and I was very tired from staying up all night on the computer til 8 am the day before and only getting 5 hours sleep before I was SO hungry I couldn't lay in bed anymore.

I've mentioned before that I keep weird hours, but maybe not have explained in much detail.

I stayed up late Tuesday night and got 5 hours sleep.  I stayed up late Wed night in spite of having a dental appointment Thursday at 2 pm.   Partly, it was stress from the dental visit, but partly because I got emails from almost everyone I know and wanted to respond.  And I had just started an online chess game and kept getting replies from my opponent.

I also had about 100 pictures to process, a Dr Seuss poem to write, some software downloading problems, and Amazon seemed to have taken over my search engine choices (anything I searched online was sending me straight to Amazon's page).

I can't sleep worth a damn when I have stuff floating around in my head like that, and the only solution is to stay up until I solve most of the problems. 

So I did most of that stuff, and went to the dentist about as tired as possible.  That is generally good, as I have some problems with dental work.  I have a small jaw and holding it open while they do their work is hard.  Plus, let's just say I have to swallow a lot when my jaw is stretched wide and leave it at that. 

So I got home Thursday and the winds hit!  I needed sleep and got little.  The crashing sounds outside didn't help.  I was "IN" bed 12 hours, but maybe got 8 hours sleep.  Which, averaging the past several nights came out to about 4 hours per night for 4 nights each.

My local meat market was having some specials this week of exactly the stuff I wanted.  Del Monico Steak at $8 per lb, pork boston butt at $2, deli roast beef at $5/lb, and other stuff.  I HAD to get up to shop today to shop (Saturday is a madhouse there).  And I was out of fresh fruit.  I love fruit. 

I slept Thursday night til noon.  Got up and left the house at 1 pm.  But that would have put me at the meat market just when the local school lets out and a dozen students hit the store deli counter for subs.  So I stopped to get a haircut. 

I obviously don't worry about my appearance too much, LOL!

The cats aren't very critical and it is not like I'm trying to win a "handsome contest". 

Driving to the barber and the grocery stores was interesting.  The car kept rocking in the wind just sitting at a traffic light.  While actually driving, I kept getting hit with cross-winds and wanted to "change lanes" for me.  Local bridges were all closed.  One bridge, after having 3 tractor-trailers just plain knocked over. 

The dentist said none of my teeth are any good.  Which is really annoying because I don't eat candy and sweet stuff and brush twice a day.

Well, Dad have no teeth left by my age, so I guess I will not thank him for THOSE genes. 

The neighborhood have fence panels blown out all over the place and I've never seen THAT even when Hurricanes blew through.  None of mine though!  Friends tell me I "overbuild" things.  But I know those neighbor's fences and they are newer than mine and build by professionals.  I built my own. 

Companies use 1x4s and I use 2x4s.  They use nails and I use screws.  And that is why it is still standing!  My fence is 30 years old now, and not one board loose...

Next Project

My next project is to rebuild an old bench.

The wood was cheap pine when I bought it and rotted fast.  The metal frames are sound.  I will replace the pine with cedar.  That should last 15 years.

And I have a good place to put it facing my fence flowerbed, underneath a a small shady tree.

Again...

I'm pissed.  Another massacre at another school.  "Breaking News"...  It is becoming "not news".  Same old, same old.

The same helicopter pictures of surviving students running out of the school with their hands raised.  The same kind of angry young person killing others with the same kind of gun.  The same condemnations of the violence, the same regrets by the school leaders and the politicians.

I understand the news channels focussing on it.  It is what they have to do.  It's their job.  They report events.

I understand the school and local leaders decrying the event.  They really didn't think it would happen "HERE" in their good town.

I understand politicians speaking sadly of the event.  They really didn't think THEY would ever have to say the sad words about a school massacre.

I understand the shocked parents of the dead, wounded, and living struggling to get their children back home into the safety of their arms. 

  ...............................

What pisses me off is that I can hear extremists dusting off their prepared and often read speeches in favor of their positions about guns. 

Some will argue on today's talk shows that everyone should have a gun for protection, as if we want our children carrying guns.  That some teachers with guns in their desks would have stopped a deranged person from firing down a crowded hallway after the fire alarm was set off.  Yeah, just what you want; untrained people dedicated to calm education firing shots all around try to hit one student who looks like all the rest.  That it is "too soon" to talk about this newest tragedy...

Some will argue that all guns should be confiscated just to prevent this sort of thing.  As if we can find and destroy 300 million guns in the US.  That better security in schools would prevent this sort of thing.  That teachers need more anti-violence training.

I'm not sure what the solution is. 

A few things I do know.  This happens too often.  And as one commenter pointed out, there are also 90 gun deaths in the US on a typical day.  A politician pointed out than after gun laws of various sorts in Connecticut were tightened, gun deaths went down 40%.

I know that most of the guns used by students or former students in school massacres is often an AR-15 and they get them from home or friends.  Why does anyone need one in their home?

I know that more people are killed with their own guns then are ever used to successfully drive off an intruder.  That's a negative sum game.

I know that I'm comfortable around guns.  I was taught their purpose, their lethality, and how to use them.  I have hunted animals and killed them (and you eat what you kill). 

I know that you don't need an AR-15 or an AK-47 or any weapon like that to kill a deer.

  ................................

We can have guns for legitimate reasons.  I don't want to hunt deer with my Roman Gladius or a spear.  But you don't need an assault rifle for that either.  A single shot 12 gauge works just fine. 

And we don't need assault rifles to protect us from the Government.  If some dictator takes control, either the army will follow him or they won't and if they do, you can have your AK-47 and it won't do you any good!  They are trained to kill you.

Not that I expect they would, but you get my meaning.  They are trained and organized, you aren't.  If you and you and some para-military wannabees try to fight the army, you are all dead all to 0.

So lets discuss guns.  They work as designed.  A projectile comes out the front and it either hits something or not.  Most gun deaths seem to be self-inflicted.  You don't need an AK-47 for that.  I have no particular objection to suicide, but a 22 pistol will work just fine.  What are you going to do in a suicide?  Shoot yourself 30 times?

If you want to kill yourself, drink a quart of vodka real fast, wrap a plastic bag around your head and lay in the bathtub.  It's less messy.

So why do we have so many guns, and to what purpose?  Surely not for us to have some teenager take it and go shoot everyone (most of whom they don't even know). 

To protect ourselves from intruders?  Very few homes are intruded, and usually the intruder is not trying to kill you.  Waving a kitchen knife around is probably as good as a gun.  Faced with a gun, an intruder may shoot more for fear of his own life.  They can back away from a knife.  I had a college roommate who subdued 2 burglers with a baseball bat and THEY had pistols.

We need to rethink our gun-ownership.  Have a hunting gun is JUST fine!  Go shoot a deer.  We have too many of them as it is.  But these crazy military semi and truly automatic killing weapons have to go away. 

Start with making them illegal for private ownership.  Then offer half the value for ones turned in, no questions asked.  As the number goes down, fewer angry young students will have access.

Fewer angry young students, fewer school massacres. 

I could type all night.  As Arlo Guthrie said "I'm not tired...  or proud".  But I've said enough.

Oh Bother!

I was innocently eating dinner last night, and suddenly detected a lump in my mouth.  I won't go into details, but I found a tooth crown that had come loose.  I'm glad my tongue found it before my teeth did! 

I washed it off carefully, then put it in a shotglass of mouthwash to keep it overnight.  My dentist had an opening at 3 pm today, so off I went.  I was admitted promptly at 3 pm (be still my beating heart).   First thing they did was sterilize it of course (mouthwash or not - they were kind about that and admired my intent).  Then they examined the tooth for damage and it looking OK, they tried a test re-fit.

It fit so well, they actually had trouble getting it back off.  So they took it away and drilled off the old epoxy.  The dentist Himself came in and showed it to me.  The gold crown was so old it actually had a hole worn through the top.  Well, I had several crowns 40 years ago, so it lasted pretty well.

And I learned something about crowns.  I always thought gold crowns lasted the longest, but was wrong.  Porcelain lasts longest, followed by silver, followed by gold.  And the gold content is low.  But gold wears at about the same rate as tooth enamel, so the bite stays the same.  Silver is close and can easily be ground down to match the bite. 

Porcelain doesn't wear down.  You would think that would be perfect, but it means that the crown top becomes a high spot over decades and makes your jaw adjust and some annoying stuff like that.  It is mostly for cosmetic reasons.  Well, I seriously doubt anyone other than a dentist will ever see that back molar.

The old crown was replaced, but it is temporary (like a year or 3).  It still has that tiny hole in the top, and that will lead to caries someday.  But "tis enough, will serve"...

But it also meant he looked at my other teeth.  I knew there were 2 other teeth that had sharp tops, which meant damage.  I'd been avoiding it. 

But you have to get such things fixed eventually.  As the dentist said, "you can have them fixed now while I can still put a crown on them, or you can wait until they have to be removed entirely".  So I have an appointment in 2 weeks to start getting those 2 teeth crowned, and then the old (now temporary) one from today replaced over a series of visits. 

I hate dental visits.  Well, no one likes them, but mine are worse than average.  I have a small jaw (apparently genetic) and can't open it as far as most people can.  My cats can open theirs more than I can!  A kitten probably can...  I have the jaw of a 12 year old!  In general, I have great genes - other than my teeth.  I seem to owe that to Dad.  At my age, he had almost no tooth unfilled, uncrowned, and 2 partial bridges.  At least I'm not at that point yet.  Hurray for fluoridation and novocaine (and nitrous oxide on occasion during a root canal).

My jaw is so small, my wisdom teeth never even emerged, and even then my teeth are too crowded.  In my 20s, a dentist said I should have 4 teeth extracted; a left upper and lower; a right upper and lower, make proper room for the rest.  At the time, that seemed horrible!  He said it would be painful afterwards for days.  But now I wish I had had that done.  Nothing like hindsight...

As it turned out, I had to have 2 teeth extracted 4 years ago.  One planned because it had simply fallen apart, and one unplanned because the roots were entangled  in the first.  Fortunately, it didn't bother me.  But the thing that amazed me was that the procedure wasn't the least bit painful (as the old dentist suggested it would be).  It was however utterly boring (no pun intended).  Drilling, spitting, holding my head to resist pulls, etc.  Never hurt in the least during or after!

On the other hand, I have a limited number of teeth, so I would like to keep them as long as possible.  Anything good for 20 years is probably OK.

So I'm going on a journey of dental work, which should last until flu season is over.  Then to a doctor to start getting regular exams and a series of physical and virtual exams that my insurance rep says is covered these days as "preventative medicine".  I plan to get every "virtual" test they will allow, and possible some not covered. 

On sad fact is that I've never been to any one doctor for more than a few years, so my medical history is almost non-existent.  But I went through my age-old medical file today and discovered some valuable information. 

Things like a 1988 letter from Mom (in response to my questions) detailing some family and personal history, some old doctor visit bills - a few of which mentioned some blood test results - etc.  I'll make copies to bring to my new doctor (I chose a geriatric internist over a GP).

But the important thing is that I'm getting back on track for regular medical care after decades of assuming I was immortal.  I've treated my cats and maintained my car better than I have myself.

Time to get myself into the maintenance loop...

Seed Vial Tray

Some years ago, I built a quick little tray to hold vials of seeds in the basement refrigerator.  The seeds last a lot longer in the fridge, and the vials keep them from getting dried out or damp. Te vials are specimen containers I once found real cheap online!  I'm good at looking at things functionally, rather than just by intended purpose, LOL!

But the original had holes that were both tight and a bit too close together.  So I decided to make a new one.

I made the new one with holes 1/4" farther apart.  That may not seem like much, but it made a lot of difference.  And I knew because I drilled a couple of holes in scrap wood to check. 

I decided this one should have looser holes.  But since the vials wouldn't stand upright in loose holes, I made both a top and bottom.  To make sure the holes on each matched, and to save time, I screwed the top and bottom together, drew a grid on the top, and drilled right through both pieces at once.

I LOVE my drill-press!

The pencil line on the board in back allowed me to line that up the grid lines on the pieces without having to "eyeball them each time.  The drill bit you see there is called a "forstner bit".  They drill large holes with flat bottoms.   My set goes from 1/4" to 2 1/2".  The thing you see stuck in the drill where the bit goes is the  "chuck key" that tightens the bit .  I keep it clamped lightly in there so I can't lose it.

Here is the fully drilled top and bottom.  The solid piece of plywood behind them is the real bottom.  That piece is so the vials don't fall through the drilled holes.

I spread wood glue between the holes of the drilled bottom and the solid piece.  You can never have too many clamps.  If you need a gift for a woodworker, clamps are usually a safe bet!  

All those drilled holes created a lot of sawdust shavings.  I dump that stuff in the woods.  I don't compost it because of all the chemicals in plywood.  The trees don't mind a bit...

Then I needed to support the top 1 1/2" over the bottom.  I had cut sides from leftover plywood.  But I was going crazy because the kept coming out slightly tapered!  I kept checking the fence and the blade and they were perfectly square.  But I had actually cut them first, and didn't remember that, before that, I had changed the miter gauge a degree off "0" for another project and neglected to set it back to ).  Argh!  But I fixed that and the sides came out perfect. 

I glued the sides to the bottom upside down deliberately so that the glue squeeze-out didn't attach the pieces to the assembly stand.  Don't laugh.  Better woodworkers than me have done that...

I used scrap wood and shims to raise the bottom to even with the sides, then glued and clamped it.

Then I turned the whole thing over and repeated that to attach the top.  There was a slight difference in height in the center of the sides.  It made no functional difference, and no one would ever see it but me.  But I would, so I used a block plane to shave it down and a finishing sander to smooth it.  Putting it on my utterly flat table saw showed not the slightest wobbly in any direction.

Here is the finished try next to the old one.  A nice difference.

You can't really see it, but all of the vials are numbered.  I keep a list of the vial numbers and contents.  In fact, for safety, I keep 3.  One is with the seed tray, one is with the box of index cards listing the planting dates, planting depths, and growing notes, and one is in a permanent notebook.  Losing track of which seeds are in which vials would be a DISASTER!!!

And I got it done just in time.  Planting indoors starts next week...

So now I'm ready to build wood frames for the 2 bathroom mirrors. 

And I need to buy a trailer-load of compost for the garden beds.  My trash barrel of starter soil from last year is all used up.  Fortunately, the weather is going to be decent Saturday. 

Stocks

I'm pissed!  Last week, before the stock market crashed, I was thinking I should get out and ride on the gains.  I looked at my stocks and decided to move them to safe money market accounts and CDs

But I wasn't sure how that would hit me taxwise, so I tried to find out out.  I don't know enough about that.  so I researched how exchanging my index funds would work.  The stock index fund I invest in was not clear about it, so I went internet researching.  I wasn't sure.

I was 2 days away from getting out before the recent crunch.  Cost me about $40,000.

Yeah, it will probably recover slowly over the next year.  But I wanted to just get out anyway.   Not timing the market, just wanted to leave entirely into safe investments for my old age.

2 days too late is 2 days too late.  I guess I'll hold.

My Medical Insurance

You all know what it is like talking to you medical insurance company right?  Bad.

Wrong.  I just spent 90 minutes talking to mine and it was WONDERFUL.  Sharaya explained everything to me, told me about the things they covered and how to get fancy virtual tests covered and all that. 

I now have a primary care doctor (and I can change that easily if I want after a visit).  I can get a back specialist directly after one visit to my new primary care doctor and she says I can get virtual tests done with a simple co-pay in the network (and apparently all such specialists are covered) and my primary doctor will actually pay attention to those. 

She said that is the way their coverage is going; high-tech...  United health Care.

I haven't tested it yet, but she was so positive I nearly fell off my chair.  I will call one of the doctors she emailed me today about my back and a annual physical.

But she was so great I had to post this first...