General Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Had A Busy Day

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

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

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

So:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Software Updates

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

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

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

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

Covid Masks

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Been Busy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That failed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cabinet, I'll be watching you...

Facebook

I've been on some discussion sites for years.  They are supposed to be dedicated to people of one thought as a safe place to discuss things among people of similar thoughts.  And I don't know how you will think about it (and some of you know), but I'm an atheist.  Always have been.  We are about 15% of the US population now and growing.

It used to be something to hide, but nor so much as time goes by and I don't worry about it all that much these days.  But the sites I visited have been allowing some really crazy people just to increase post count and maybe some ad revenue.  

So I went looking for an atheist discussion forum that promised "only atheists".  I ended up on a Facebook site.  I looked at it and it seemed OK.  But Facebook is weird.  I spent an hour trying to get my Cavebear avatar pic to fit their demands.  Never succeeded, but I suppose the front half is better than the back half, LOL!  There are probably assumptions and skills I do not "get".

But it is weird in other ways.  You can't seem to make more than one paragraph in reply, because "enter" sends the comment.  Finding previous comments baffles me.  Some seem to show up automatically, some don't.  Maybe that is a length of time thing.  

And well, by the rules, no non-atheist person is supposed to be allowed to post, the site is full of people posting who are.  I saw one post saying that saying "hello" was a mark of the devil because it included "hell" and saying "Hi" wasn't much better for some numerological reason.

I think I need my own site.  But I don't understand enough to set up and manage one safely.  Anyone out there who can wants a small side gig?  I'll go to a hiring site like Indeed , but I would prefer someone I know.  I would be the Administrator of course, but just to block the really crazy people.

Meanwhile, have to look at the FB site.  I posted a few replies and need to see if they got responses I like.

Electrical Outage

I've mentioned often enough that one of the positive things about my neighborhood is that we have buried cables.  So naturally we lost power yesterday!   Usually that means something at the switching station or a car accident knocking over a pole on the main road through town and lasts 5-10 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I knew something was unusual.  So I looked outside and saw construction equipment on the corner...  Great, some damn fool chopped the cable.  

Actually, the timing was fortunate.  10 minutes earlier and I would have been all soaped in the shower in a windowless bathroom.  THAT would have been fun!

So after another 30 minutes, I decided to go out to do some errands.  Haircut, grass seed, food...  Of course, that meant unhitching the garage door from the electric opener (yes OF COURSE I unthinkingly hit the "open" button first - habits are habits).  Geez, that door is heavier than I remembered.  

As I was pulling the car out of the garage, I noticed the small lamp on the opener was lit.  Was in on a battery backup?  No, the power had just been restored!  I closed the door and drove off anyway.

On the next street, I saw that people were burying concrete pipes along the side of the road (improving our drainage situation).  Certainly they had cut a cable.  If *I* had done that, I would have been charged for the repair.  But the County isn't going to charge a fine to itself, LOL!

Other than having to reset a few clocks when I got back, everything was fine.

The Old Dining Table

The new one replaces and old.  I was reluctant, as there is family history attached.  The table originally belonged to my maternal grandparents and there were a couple of matching pieces.  The only one *I* know of is a secretary desk I still have and the table.   Mom probably ate there when she was young.

I suspect there were more pieces of a set that were discarded over the years.  But the 2 pieces lasted through my parents and to me.  The secretary (writing table?) desk is pretty much untouched.  The dining table has sure gone through some changes though.  The 2 pieces were "honey oak" according to Dad.

He stripped the finish at one time as rec room furniture and painted it avocado with black legs. I got it as part of my first apartment furniture.  I eventually stripped it and renewed the original wood.   Dad saw it once and said I did "OK".  He was never heavy on praise and I might have been a bit heavy on the finishing.

But it has been my dining room table for many decades in spite of the weak side extensions.  Still,  I always wanted a sturdier one with a center leaf extention.  Bought it.  You read about the assembly yesterday.

The old one will live on though.  I have gotten it into the computer room.  It will be the platform for my old Civ2 offline game machine.  Beats the folding card table I'm using now.  WAY more stable.  I had to take all the legs off to move it and reattach them after.  Put a towel under the table to slide it on edge across the floors.

And quite frankly, as it is part of my family history, I can't bear to part with it...  I'm not sure what to do with the chairs...   I'll just find space to store them.  If someone wants the table after I go, there should be the chairs with it.

And all this (organized and without some junk parts)) will go on it...  Time to re-organize the computer room...

So the table and the matching writing table/desk live on.  I will probably keep them all my life.  What happens to them after depends on a time after I am gone...

Dining Room Table

 I bought a new dining room table and 4 matching chairs.  Self-assembly.  A couple reviewers at Amazon said assembly was horrible, but most said it wasn't too bad.  So keeping in mind that I've built a deck, a fence, and a shed among other things, I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

It was horrible!

You have to know something about assembly to truly understand, but I'll give some examples.  The whole table is assembled with a hex-head wrench.

It is a nice little tool when designed for proper use.  There are bolts designed for hex-head use (as opposed to slot or phillips head screws.  It doesn't slip.  But I emphasize "when used properly".

The table arrived with all the right parts.  Tabletop, legs to assemble and attach, and under-table cross braces.  The design and support structure is very solid.  I could tell that from looking at the various views online.  I'm not an engineer, but my Dad was and I didn't escape teenhood without some experience.

It took nearly a day to seperate the parts.  The box seems to have been mislabled "this side up".  There were parts to wouldn't separate.  Had I opened the box on the other side, it would have been easier.  Maybe it was my error...

\But iIt's the way the parts have to be assembled that was horrible.  There were holes where you have to feed a bolt into and tighten them.  They were designed badly.  You have to fit the hex wrench into the bolt (technically a "machine screw" if you care) and turn it.  1/4 turn at a time forever...  

And in the dark.  You can't get at it and shine a light in any way.  Your hand HAS to cast a shadow.  So it is all by feel.  And the fit is tight.  And sometimes the bolts locked up from poor fit.  I solved THAT by driving all the bolts with a socket wrench before I assembled the pieces, but that was just more wasted time.

The table had to be assembled upside down.  Damn it weighs a ton (or so it seemed).  The leg assemblies took a frustrating hour each.  Fitting the hex wrench for each 1/4 turn was difficult.  Each of 4 of the legs seemed to take forever and I had to take "frustration" breaks.  But I eventually got them together.

Had the assembly been easier, I would have remembered to take more pictures, but in frustration, pictures were the last thing on my mind.

That meant attaching the assembled legs to the upside-down tabletop.  That part was easier.  I had cut off 1/2 inch of a same-size hex wrench (good hacksaw) because it fit into a socket wrench socket.  That allowed faster turning when there was free access to the bolts.

And then I could add the cross braces between the legs..  That took some pushing but it worked out well.  I eventually had the table completely constructed, but still upside down...

The male friend across the street had a knee replacement a couple months ago and a 2nd one scheduled in a couple weeks. The lady mentioned recently she had an arm-sprain.  No one else to ask for help.  So no one else to ask for help.

I was worried that, if I tipped the table up on one side of laegs, they might break.  After all, sideways isn't what they are designed for.

I figured out many ways I might possibly get the table upright.  But the one that seemed most secure was to clamp the heck out of all the weak spots..

First, I had to get the upside-down table up on its side.  That was hard enough.  Not much gripping area at the edge (flush to the floor).  I finally got a small piece of scrap board and lifted the tabletop enough to shove the scrap under.  From there, I could reach far enough under to get a decent grip and turn it on a side position.  Hurray!

Then I needed to turn it from the side to upright.  That was what really worried me.  All the weight of the table  would be on 2 legs.  But that's why I had all the braces and clamps.  It did occur to me that when I turned the table from side to upright, the far legs were going to have a sudden shock of weight.  

So I taped styrofoam under the legs to aborb that!  And the edge of the table top was no more easier to lift sideways that flat.  So I had to do the "lift and scrap wood push under" again.  It took a few tries but I got it.  Full hand-room under the edge...

I was pretty much worn out by that time.  But there was only one more 90 degree turn to go.  One more HEAVY lift (squat, lift from the legs and stand up), and the table was upright, undamaged... 

Removed all the clamps (which I credit for the non-damage to the legs) and the styrofoam that eased the sudden weight of the table hitting the floor.

And here is the table upright.  The instructions said it requires 2 people.  Yeah, did it by myself...  I'm ornery that way.

I have 4 matching chairs to assemble.  I hope that goes easily.  Ay least they are each lighter to handle, LOL!

The table has a center leaf.  I probably won't use it, but I wanted the option.  A center leaf table is a lot more sturdy than a side leaf table.  My previous dining table had weak side extentions.  More about that next time...

Strange Neighbors

You may be getting tired of this, but there is always something new.

Mototorcycle Guy is driving back and forth up and down the street less frequently lately.  I don't know why, but maybe it finally became boring.  Or he can drive further away legally.  Or someone complained.  Or he he has a new hobby.  Or is getting older.  Or my brain is tuning it out.

My eastern side neighbors are taking up the noise slack from Motorcycle Man, though.   The lady there has taken up leaf-blowing.  Gas, not electric, of course.  She spent 3 hours blowing all the leaves into a pile in the back up the yard a week ago.  And did the same yesterday into a 2nd pile.  Why 2 separate piles?  I have no idea.  

I want to tell them that just mowing the leaves into the lawn if good for the lawn and a whole lot easier, but I hesitate becaue we didn't start out well.  They tried to burn my fence and then intruded on my property with a gas-powered metal-bladed whacker around a tree.  And I had to yell because the guy wouldn't turn his noisy whacker off.  And then complained I was yelling...

And I see a pile of brush along with the leaves.  I hope she doesn't plan to burn them.  It isn't utterly dry like it was last year, but it is routinely windy.  If she starts to burn it all, this time I will just call the Fire Department.  They will explain things with more authority than *I* have...

And they recently added some solar panels.  The Flip-Renovater added them on the south roof before they moved in, but I'm pretty sure there weren't any on the NORTH side of the roof until recently (it's not a noisy job, so I might have missed it happening).  I did see some ladders up to the roof last month, but didn't pay much attention.

Why would they do that?  There is little sunshine on the north roof here.  Maybe they don't know how solar panels work and that indirect ambient light is what powers them.

The neighbors 2 yards east had a nice hedge but cut it down 2 years ago.  Not down to the ground, 2 feet high.  The shrubs are completely dead, but they leave them in place.  Well, maybe the stumps serve as a property line indicator.  After all THEIR west neighbor is MY east neighbor who doesn't seem to quite understand property lines...  But a long row of dead shrub stumps?  That's odd.

I was surprised to look out the window (petting Ayla who loves windowsills) and see a guy walking the roof ridgeline of my helpful neighbors.  It's not something you see every day.  Then I noticed other people walking around all wearing identical tee-shirts, so it was some business.  So there was some project going on.  The van parked in front had a simple name that said nothing about the purpose.

I hope whatever they were doing doing out well.  I like that couple.  I'll have to wait for a chance meeting to ask about it.  But at least they tend to do sensible things.

The west-side neighbors continue to leave a fallen-down willow tree on their front lawn after 3 years.  They have a mowing service that carefully mows around the tree.  I almost never see them outside.  Five or so years ago, I saw them all in the far back yard digging.  I think they were burying one of their dogs.  I din't go looking over the fence of course, that would have been intrusive.

I live in a neighborhood where you can't just go knock on a door and ask "what just happened" or "why did you do that"?  People just aren't that interested in their neighbors.  Neither am I personally, but I enjoy seeing the odd things they do.  

I myself, am perfect in all regards, of course...  LOL!

Complaints Update

Well, the neighbors 2 houses away resolved my remnant tree trunk curiosity; they cut those down last.  But 5 DAYS of chainsaw noise - wow!  I can't tell if their yard is much brighter (probably is but surrounded by a fence).  The backyard between us sure is brighter; I wonder if they are happy about it.  

I can even tell some difference in my backyard in early morning.  There are patches of sunlight where I haven't seem it for years.  Unfortunately, not in my garden area.  The rising sun quickly goes behind trees of my southern neighbor.

Speaking of the "neighbors between us" who surrounded most of their tree trunks with kitchen plastic wrap, I remain baffled.  Internet searching finds nothing about it, so it is probably some hare-brained idea (given their apparent inexperience at yardwork). There ARE plastic tree-guards you wrap around trunks of young trees in Winter to prevent bark-scorching, but that is entirely different heavier-duty stuff and the there are holes in it to allow air circulation to the bark.  

I'll have to post a question on a gardening site I visit occasionally.  Actually, I hope what they are doing kills those trees.  THAT would open up some light to my garden!  I don't mind that they are "junk trees"; to some extent, "trees are trees" in the same way that green weeds in a lawn are at least green.  And they produce oxygen just like weeds in the lawn do.  But I sure wouldn't mind if they rotted and died from the plastic wrap, LOL!

So the chainsaw music from the neighbor 2 houses away ended Friday.  Another neighbor started their own cutting project Saturday.  Tis the time of year, I guess.

I might be doing the same soon myself.  I have a Beech tree that died last year.  I gave it this one to see if it send out any new shoots.  It didn't.  I have a small specimen tree that also died last year.  It sent out a few shoots in Spring, but they withered, so it's dead.  

And a huge Sweetgum tree in the westside neighbor's backyard lost the top 1/3 some years ago and another 1/3 fell into my backyard last year (which makes it my problem).  Fortunately, it missed the 2 Sourwood and 2 Korean Dogwood saplings I planted 2 years ago.  I'm depending on them to grow fast and tall enough to shade out the wild blackberries that sprung up when I cleared the backyard of my own junk trees.  So I need a professional service to clear those out.

Motorcycle Man continues to just ride back and forth along my dead end street.  He goes back and forth every 20-30 minutes most of the day.  I originally thought he was doing motorcycle repairs in his garage, but I finally realized it was the same 3 motorcycles all the time.

It isn't like the motorcycles are the huge types that gangs ride, but the sound still penetrates the house and it's the repetitiveness that is most annoying.  I don't know anything about the rider.  He wears a visored helmet.  But he is too large to be a teen hiding his riding from the law.  I'm guessing an adult  either living in his parents basement or married with an unhappy home life.  

One of these days, I'll take a stroll down the road and see if I can figure out what house he is in.  It's not that he is doing anything illegal, but it sure is annoying.  Sort of like someone putting a church bell on their roof and having it ring ever half-hour 8 am to 10 pm.

I've probably been complaining too much lately.  I'll try to get back to more positive stuff soon.