1. Sometimes the silliness never ends. I previously mentioned that the new lawn mower arrived without 2 simple bolts and 2 simple knobs (fancy screw-on nuts). I called the company and gave them the model number and serial number they needed to send me the missing parts. They arrived. Well, "some" parts arrived.
They sent me one knob and a "camshaft adjuster". So I called the company again yesterday. 20 minutes on hold with music that alternated between barely detectable and silent. I got an agent. I explained I had received the wrong "missing parts" and gave her the ticket number. She got that right up on her computer and confirmed my name.
So she checked the details of the ticket and found the original person I had spoken to had mis-entered the model number. She was very apologetic. After checking with the technical support office, she confirmed the error and the correct parts.
As part of "customer service", they are sending me a 2nd mower blade along with correct parts (and we discussed exactly what those parts were). I doubt the additional mower blade will be of much value. I'm using this small electric mower for trim work, so I doubt the blade will ever need to be replaced or sharpened. I did appreciate the offer.
So in a week, I will have the correct bolts and screw on knobs. I already have the handles secured with blots and nuts I bought yesterday at Home Depot. Works fine. But it leaves the bolt ends sticking outward where I am sure to catch myself on someday. The knobs would cover that.
But the deal is that the bolts were missing to begin with, I had to spend 30 minutes on hold to get the initial request (with was a failure), had to call a 2nd time (20 minutes).
2. I have sometimes gotten leg cramps laying in bed at night. I started eating a banana each day a month ago and taking magnesium supplements (both suggested in a vitamin book I have) and hadn't had any cramps at night since then.
Until 4 days ago. My right calf muscle suddenly cramped and it was worse than before. I remembered that the muscle cream (Aspercreme - contains aspirin) said something about relieving muscle cramps and smeared some all over the area. The cramp went away almost immediately, but the next morning the muscle was tender and painful when I walked for about an hour. It actually felt that the muscle was ripped.
Then 2 nights ago, the left calf muscle cramped and it was worse. The Aspercreme helped but not as well. Walking around (which usually solves the problem) was only partially helpful. I had to carefully sleep with that leg fully extended. The next morning I was limping around an hour.
I feel fine again now, but that stuff is painful. And it makes it a bit worrisome about what positions I sleep in.
3. I had some kitchen stuff I wanted, so I went to Bed,Bath&Beyond with discount coupons in hand. My pepper grinder had broken, a timer had failed, my corn-butterer broke, my wine bottle foil cutter wasn't cutting anymore, I wanted a small slotted spoon to get olives out of the jar, and I wanted a good wine-puller (one on those neat things that you just push on and the cork "magically" comes out).
Oh the hardships of life...
But I discovered the BB&B prices were idiotic even with the coupons. $25 for a good salt grinder? Or matching pepper grinder. And even funnier, buying the 2 together as a set was MORE expensive than the 2 individual. Those people are NUTS!
They wanted $8 for a corn-butterer.
So I went to Amazon and found the same stuff at half the price (but oddly, the corn-butterer at almost 2x the price. The stuff I want doesn't meet the Amazon threshhold for free shipping, so they sit in my cart waiting for something else to add.
4. My riding lawn mower collects grass clippings around the exposed belt drives. Cleaning them all out is a pain. But I have an electric blower. I bought it to blow fallen leaves off the screened garden enclosure because last year snow collected on the fallen leaves and actually bent the metal poles supporting the top. And then I blew all the fallen tree debris off my deck. Sure beats sweeping. So It occurred to me to try it on the grass clippings in the mower belts. Worked great!
5. I mowed my spring bulb bed. Mowed the butterfly bed bed too. The electric mower is impressive. I plan to cover both to supress weeds. This year, the weeds took over.
6. Dug into the trailer half-full of compost. Filled up 8 kitty litter tubs full in a yard cart. But they were all soaked with rain in spite of a tarp covering the trailer. So they will have to sit inside a week to dry out. I need the compost dry so I can sift it through a 1/4" screen to mix it with peat and sand and vermiculite for seed starting soil next Spring. The rest will go onto the butterfly bed to improve the soil.
7. Cooked a lot yesterday. 10 chicken thighs marinated in leftover olive juice. Baked in a roaster pan with 2 sliced lemons, 4 shallots. Added a cup of olives and some cornstarch slurry the last 10 minutes. Came out great!
8. While walking off the leg cramp, I noticed my motion-activated floodlights were on. I looked out a window and saw a deer frozen in place. It was looking at my remaining hostas. I finally snuck out the side door and ran at it yelling and screaming. THAT got it moving away fast. I should get my crossbow set up (stringing it is a pain). Deer don't fear us these days; time to give them a reason.
9. Need to replace the roof on the old toolshed. 25 years old, and shingles are missing, leading to rain dripping into it. I originally just put 4'x8' sheets of interior plywood on top with shingles thinking that was good enough. I didn't know about roofing felt then. I can't lift whole 4x8 sheets anymore, but I can cut them in half and match the cuts on the roof. THEN I'll add roofing felt and new shingles. I have to remove the existing roof first though, and I'm not looking forward to that.
10. I saved a few Sweet Flag plants from my pond renovation this Spring. I put them in tubs of water. One tub just died off for some unknown reason but I noticed there were tadpoles in the water. OK, I'm a curious person so I netted as many as I could into a bowl of water and brought them inside. It took a while the shift them from bowl to bowl until the mosquito larvae were gone. But they are inside and I'm going to watch them develop to frogs. I added some aquarium plants to the bowl for them to nibble on and put a pan splatter screen on the top (in case I missed a mosquito larva).
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Farewell John McCain
John McCain was not of my political party. John McCain was not of my politics.
But he was a unique person on the political landscape. I admired him even when I disagreed with him (which was often). But it wasn't "always" either. And that "always" is the thing we have lost these days. The ability to sometimes agree with people you normally disagree with is essential to democracy...
A Soviet Chess Grandmaster (I forgot who) once said "I sometimes forget my opponents have good ideas too". That applies to politics too. John McCain sometimes had "good ideas too". He was a very good Senator, who spoke honestly and directly. That is a quality we will all miss.
We will never know whether he would have been a good President. He might have been a great one or a terrible one. History suggests mavericks can go either way. I've tried to think of when he would have been a better President than the person who won. It's difficult. He probably would have been the right person to campaign against Gore in 2000. I would have been twisted in knots about that choice, and either would have been better than Bush.
In 2008, I was torn between McCain and Obama, but decided that Obama was likely better at organizing the office and managing the affairs of government. It wasn't easy. My heart was for McCain, my mind was for Obama.
The deciding factor was that McCain would bring the Republican party into power and I thought the Democrats would do better overall. But it was very close. Both men seemed honest, honorable, and thoughtful. And Palin mattered. It signaled to me he was a good Senator who maybe didn't have a great talent for choosing qualified people to work around him. There is something to be said for getting good subordinate executive managers. Just look at Trump for examples of that.
If it was "just the President", I would have gone with McCain, hoped that Obama would run again in 2016 with more Senate experience, and won then.
But that is all water over the dam now. We have lost a person who was so very honorable, brave, and willing to think for himself. Yes, "honorable, brave, and willing to think" does not necessarily mean a great executive, but it is probably better than the opposite. We could sure use more people like him than fewer.
Farewell John McCain...
But he was a unique person on the political landscape. I admired him even when I disagreed with him (which was often). But it wasn't "always" either. And that "always" is the thing we have lost these days. The ability to sometimes agree with people you normally disagree with is essential to democracy...
A Soviet Chess Grandmaster (I forgot who) once said "I sometimes forget my opponents have good ideas too". That applies to politics too. John McCain sometimes had "good ideas too". He was a very good Senator, who spoke honestly and directly. That is a quality we will all miss.
We will never know whether he would have been a good President. He might have been a great one or a terrible one. History suggests mavericks can go either way. I've tried to think of when he would have been a better President than the person who won. It's difficult. He probably would have been the right person to campaign against Gore in 2000. I would have been twisted in knots about that choice, and either would have been better than Bush.
In 2008, I was torn between McCain and Obama, but decided that Obama was likely better at organizing the office and managing the affairs of government. It wasn't easy. My heart was for McCain, my mind was for Obama.
The deciding factor was that McCain would bring the Republican party into power and I thought the Democrats would do better overall. But it was very close. Both men seemed honest, honorable, and thoughtful. And Palin mattered. It signaled to me he was a good Senator who maybe didn't have a great talent for choosing qualified people to work around him. There is something to be said for getting good subordinate executive managers. Just look at Trump for examples of that.
If it was "just the President", I would have gone with McCain, hoped that Obama would run again in 2016 with more Senate experience, and won then.
But that is all water over the dam now. We have lost a person who was so very honorable, brave, and willing to think for himself. Yes, "honorable, brave, and willing to think" does not necessarily mean a great executive, but it is probably better than the opposite. We could sure use more people like him than fewer.
Farewell John McCain...
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
A Day In The Life
I wake up and the mews are all around me. Marley is under the covers, Iza is at a corner of the bed, Ayla is on the other side pushing ito the crook of my knees. I can't move.
So I pet them all sitting up to let them know I an GETTING up and breakfast is on the way.
The cats are fed, so I do MY morning stuff. Get dressed, brush teeth, etc.
I walk out on the deck to see what the day is like. If it looks bad, I go in and check The Weather Channel on the computer. Stay on the computer for an hour... I check Statcounter and it isn't working. All zeroes. It wants me to reload "code". I look at the instructions and decide to do it later.
Turn on the TV to see what Trump has tweeted overnight. Usual nonsense. Heat water for my green tea. Make a half sandwich for lunch (with celery/carrot/cucumber strips) and read the newspaper. I'm 3 weeks behind. Which is cool because it means I can skip the sports section, read the bad predictions in the editorials, and get straight to the comics.
Lunch done, go out to see if the bird feeders need refilling, drop a few goldfish flakes in the small pond, stare at the 10th acre of wild blackberries that need to be cut down (someday), pull all the weeds in one framed garden bed. Pick beans and tomatoes.
Hear a truck in the driveway. Oh good, my electric mower arrived. I got tired of fighting to start the gas powered one. It for trim work. I still have the riding mower for the bulk of the lawn.
Drag the electric mower box into the basement. The instructions are wretched. Drawings are way too small. But I'm not new at this. I figure everything out, except there are special-fit bolts missing. I call the company. They want my purchase number, serial number, and model number. I understand why the last one matters, but why the serial number? Do they think I would spend 20 minutes on the phone to get 2 free bolts?
Well, maybe they can track the serial number to the poor sap who boxed my mower so they can execute him and dishonor his entire family (its from China). But the nice person says they will send my the missing bolts in 5-7 business days. I could get them from Home Depot for $2 but it is the principle of the thing. I will will stupidly deny myself the use of this interesting new toy until the bolts arrive.
So I go outside again. The pollinating flower garden is a coplete failure this year. Massive weeds. I decide to pull them out. After the 3rd mosquito bite in 2 minutes, I go inside and spritz my arms and neck with Deet. The weeds are 3' feet tall, but pull out of the dry soil easily. After those, I focus on another variety and pull those. Last, I get the crabgrass and mock strawberry out.
There is almost nothing left. A few Purple Coneflowers. I'll have to start again. This time, I will cover the bed with black plastic to smother all the weeds and hope that leaves me a new bed for next Spring.
The Meadow Bed has problems too, but at least there are flowers growing. I'll try to pull weeds tomorrow.
I collected rainwater for a few days in large trays. So, before the mosquitos find the water, I transfer it to smaller containers. Those 12# kitty litter containers are good for that. And I found a few large funnels on Amazon once that make it easy to fill them. The funnel is the size of a helmet.
The saved rainwater is for my 6 Venus Fly Traps. They need pure water; tap water is poison to them. So I have about 12 gallons of rainwater now, capped and stored in the basement.
Back in the basement, I find a large envelope on the floor. Not addressed to me. Huh? Don't even recognize the address. Must have been stuck to the lawn mower box. Great! Now I am obligated to return it to UPS. I saw the truck go down my street, and went to get it to hand it over.
But OF COURSE, I had left the car outside on the driveway for the first time in several years so I could clean the garage a bit. So I had to go back upstairs to grab the car keys and get the envelope out. Missed him by "THIS MUCH" (shades of Maxwell Smart). 5 seconds... And I had stood inside for 10 seconds debating whether I could flag the guy down... He who hesitates...
So I went back inside. A few things to do there. I wanted to rearrange some stuff hanging on the bedroom walls and add some. So I needed my small container of picture hanger hooks. Which were nowhere to be found.
They were supposed to be in the kitchen junk drawer where things like tape, batteries, flashlight bulbs, birthday candles, bag clips, etc are kept. Not there. So I had a mental picture of them in a small drawer of one of those storage boxes you get from hardware stores. Checked them all. No hangers. I KNOW I have a lot of pictures hangers "somewhere.
I ended up reorganizing my shelves of odd nails and screws while searching for the picture hangers. Did a good job too! Old bags of nails are now in small boxes and labeled. All the different toggle bolts are together in a plastic bag. Weird stuff like old deadbolt locks (with keys) are in plastic bags.
But no picture hangers. So I had a list of stuff that was cheaper to buy at Walmart (butter, milk, ginger ale, etc). So off to Walmart I went.
Found almost everything on my list (they didn't have a small slotted spoon for scooping out olives from a jar). Walmart just recently reorganized the local store. Couldn't figure out where most stuff was. A clerk showed me the picture hangers. I found a nice little set of 200 pieces of various sizes. But they were goldish-colored and I thought that might be weak aluminum.
So I went to the kitchen aisle and found a magnetic refrigerator clip. Brought that to the picture frame hangers and learned they were steel! So I returned the magnet clip to the proper spot, and bought the hangers.
Getting home, I decided where to put the day clock and the remote minimum/maximum thermometer display. Picture frame hangers can be a pain. The nail has to go in at an angle. I measured the spot carefully and went to tap it in with a small hammer. The nail and hanger went flying!
So I had to get down and search the carpet. While I was there, I was looking at a doggie bed I bought for the good old days when Ayla and Iza napped together thinking "room for two" would be good. Of course not, but the thing has sat in the bedroom ever since.
So when I removed it looking for the nail and hanger, I saw that there was a lot of cat fur bewhind the u8nused bed. I carefully brushed it away (didn't want to suddenly stick the loose nail into my hand). I ended up with a football-sized fluff of cat fur...
And no nail or hanger. Oh wait, there is the nail! Half solved. So I went and got a magnet and moved it around the carpet. CLICK! Hanger found!
THIS TIME, I tapped the nail in slightly on it's own. THEN put the nail in the hanger and tapped it. Worked great.
Added the min/max display below that. Now I have a whole bedroom wall to add other stuff to. And that is a project for another day.
Because it was time for dinner. Mine. Don't worry, the Mews got 3 meals during this whole day, and 2 or 3 more coming. Since I was pretty worn out from the day, I kept it simple. Thawed out a BBQ chicken thigh, made a quick tossed salad, heated up some thawed cooked red beets, and tossed an ear of corn in the M/W for 3 minutes. Dessert was mixed chopped fresh fruit.
A typical day...
In the pouring rain... Yes I had an umbrella.
But I had left the
So I pet them all sitting up to let them know I an GETTING up and breakfast is on the way.
The cats are fed, so I do MY morning stuff. Get dressed, brush teeth, etc.
I walk out on the deck to see what the day is like. If it looks bad, I go in and check The Weather Channel on the computer. Stay on the computer for an hour... I check Statcounter and it isn't working. All zeroes. It wants me to reload "code". I look at the instructions and decide to do it later.
Turn on the TV to see what Trump has tweeted overnight. Usual nonsense. Heat water for my green tea. Make a half sandwich for lunch (with celery/carrot/cucumber strips) and read the newspaper. I'm 3 weeks behind. Which is cool because it means I can skip the sports section, read the bad predictions in the editorials, and get straight to the comics.
Lunch done, go out to see if the bird feeders need refilling, drop a few goldfish flakes in the small pond, stare at the 10th acre of wild blackberries that need to be cut down (someday), pull all the weeds in one framed garden bed. Pick beans and tomatoes.
Hear a truck in the driveway. Oh good, my electric mower arrived. I got tired of fighting to start the gas powered one. It for trim work. I still have the riding mower for the bulk of the lawn.
Drag the electric mower box into the basement. The instructions are wretched. Drawings are way too small. But I'm not new at this. I figure everything out, except there are special-fit bolts missing. I call the company. They want my purchase number, serial number, and model number. I understand why the last one matters, but why the serial number? Do they think I would spend 20 minutes on the phone to get 2 free bolts?
Well, maybe they can track the serial number to the poor sap who boxed my mower so they can execute him and dishonor his entire family (its from China). But the nice person says they will send my the missing bolts in 5-7 business days. I could get them from Home Depot for $2 but it is the principle of the thing. I will will stupidly deny myself the use of this interesting new toy until the bolts arrive.
So I go outside again. The pollinating flower garden is a coplete failure this year. Massive weeds. I decide to pull them out. After the 3rd mosquito bite in 2 minutes, I go inside and spritz my arms and neck with Deet. The weeds are 3' feet tall, but pull out of the dry soil easily. After those, I focus on another variety and pull those. Last, I get the crabgrass and mock strawberry out.
There is almost nothing left. A few Purple Coneflowers. I'll have to start again. This time, I will cover the bed with black plastic to smother all the weeds and hope that leaves me a new bed for next Spring.
The Meadow Bed has problems too, but at least there are flowers growing. I'll try to pull weeds tomorrow.
I collected rainwater for a few days in large trays. So, before the mosquitos find the water, I transfer it to smaller containers. Those 12# kitty litter containers are good for that. And I found a few large funnels on Amazon once that make it easy to fill them. The funnel is the size of a helmet.
The saved rainwater is for my 6 Venus Fly Traps. They need pure water; tap water is poison to them. So I have about 12 gallons of rainwater now, capped and stored in the basement.
Back in the basement, I find a large envelope on the floor. Not addressed to me. Huh? Don't even recognize the address. Must have been stuck to the lawn mower box. Great! Now I am obligated to return it to UPS. I saw the truck go down my street, and went to get it to hand it over.
But OF COURSE, I had left the car outside on the driveway for the first time in several years so I could clean the garage a bit. So I had to go back upstairs to grab the car keys and get the envelope out. Missed him by "THIS MUCH" (shades of Maxwell Smart). 5 seconds... And I had stood inside for 10 seconds debating whether I could flag the guy down... He who hesitates...
So I went back inside. A few things to do there. I wanted to rearrange some stuff hanging on the bedroom walls and add some. So I needed my small container of picture hanger hooks. Which were nowhere to be found.
They were supposed to be in the kitchen junk drawer where things like tape, batteries, flashlight bulbs, birthday candles, bag clips, etc are kept. Not there. So I had a mental picture of them in a small drawer of one of those storage boxes you get from hardware stores. Checked them all. No hangers. I KNOW I have a lot of pictures hangers "somewhere.
I ended up reorganizing my shelves of odd nails and screws while searching for the picture hangers. Did a good job too! Old bags of nails are now in small boxes and labeled. All the different toggle bolts are together in a plastic bag. Weird stuff like old deadbolt locks (with keys) are in plastic bags.
But no picture hangers. So I had a list of stuff that was cheaper to buy at Walmart (butter, milk, ginger ale, etc). So off to Walmart I went.
Found almost everything on my list (they didn't have a small slotted spoon for scooping out olives from a jar). Walmart just recently reorganized the local store. Couldn't figure out where most stuff was. A clerk showed me the picture hangers. I found a nice little set of 200 pieces of various sizes. But they were goldish-colored and I thought that might be weak aluminum.
So I went to the kitchen aisle and found a magnetic refrigerator clip. Brought that to the picture frame hangers and learned they were steel! So I returned the magnet clip to the proper spot, and bought the hangers.
Getting home, I decided where to put the day clock and the remote minimum/maximum thermometer display. Picture frame hangers can be a pain. The nail has to go in at an angle. I measured the spot carefully and went to tap it in with a small hammer. The nail and hanger went flying!
So I had to get down and search the carpet. While I was there, I was looking at a doggie bed I bought for the good old days when Ayla and Iza napped together thinking "room for two" would be good. Of course not, but the thing has sat in the bedroom ever since.
So when I removed it looking for the nail and hanger, I saw that there was a lot of cat fur bewhind the u8nused bed. I carefully brushed it away (didn't want to suddenly stick the loose nail into my hand). I ended up with a football-sized fluff of cat fur...
And no nail or hanger. Oh wait, there is the nail! Half solved. So I went and got a magnet and moved it around the carpet. CLICK! Hanger found!
THIS TIME, I tapped the nail in slightly on it's own. THEN put the nail in the hanger and tapped it. Worked great.
Added the min/max display below that. Now I have a whole bedroom wall to add other stuff to. And that is a project for another day.
Because it was time for dinner. Mine. Don't worry, the Mews got 3 meals during this whole day, and 2 or 3 more coming. Since I was pretty worn out from the day, I kept it simple. Thawed out a BBQ chicken thigh, made a quick tossed salad, heated up some thawed cooked red beets, and tossed an ear of corn in the M/W for 3 minutes. Dessert was mixed chopped fresh fruit.
A typical day...
In the pouring rain... Yes I had an umbrella.
But I had left the
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Bots
This is what a search of a website looks like when various internet bots suddenly decide to take all your images...
They did not have my express permission. I suppose they have, or consider that they have, permission in the fine print of some agreement or site I once visited.
That doesn't mean that I like it.
Just saying...
That doesn't mean that I like it.
Just saying...
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Kim Possible, More
OK, maybe I should describe it, and my interest. First, I have always enjoyed cartoons (both old style and more modern graphics/anime's. I've watched almost all of them at some time or another, whether they are intended for children, teens, or adults. I can start with a very simple explanation: I was once a child. I know, I know, adults aren't supposed to admit that.
But I was watching a show titled 'The History of Comedy' recently and one episode was about animation. The earliest pre-movie-theater shorts were human comedians (who later moved on to longer movies themselves). There were some animated characters too. One was Micky Mouse. One human shorts comedian commented after seeing a Mickey Mouse cartoon "My career is over. The mouse can do things I can't".
And that is my interest. Charlie Chaplin could do some great slapstick, but he couldn't run off a cliff, tread air a few seconds, and survive a 1,000' fall. Wile E. Coyote could. Animated characters could sleepwalk across moving girders, step off the end onto a ferris wheel, get off at the bottom, walk home through crazy traffic, and crawl back into bed, etc.
The original children's shows were kindly old adults acting childlike. Brother Bob, Captain Kangeroo, etc. The earliest actual animations I can recall were Tom Terrific and Gerald Mc Boing-Boing. From there it was Popeye and Woody Woodpecker, sliding into Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. I wonder how many animated characters I could list? But don't worry, I won't do it here...
The cleverest early one was Bugs Bunny, the craziest one was Wile E. Coyote, the "adultish" one was Foghorn Leghorn with his asides to the viewer and "smart" jokes. Then came ones like Flintstones (prime time and aimed at adults) and Jetsons,.
I left watching those for Star Trek's moral messages and anything "space-oriented" like 1999, Babylon 5, etc. But I returned to animated shows like 'Angry Beavers'. The animated show writers had discovered sarcasm (yes so did Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc, but it was much simpler).
Then the Japanese anime arrived. Animated humanistic (as opposed to animal character) violence was everywhere. I watched a lot of that until I realized that the plots moved slower than the newspaper strips like Mary Worth, Brenda Starr, and The Girls of Apt 3-G! So I watched The Simpson's and the copies like Family Guy for a while. At least they were fast-paced. I adored Robot-Chicken, I still watch Rick&Morty, Superjail was completely insane.
So that brings me to Kim Possible. If you are still reading this, I'm impressed! It started in 2002. The idea was to create a fast-paced animated show that would mostly attract young teenage girls but still interest boys, and was "adult-friendly". I read the Wikipedia entry for the show, and the details and thoughts are impressive.
So why did *I* like it? Well, for a "girls show" it wasn't about unicorns and rainbows. Kim Possible was the main character in an action role. Her sidekick Ron Stoppable) was her best friend, a bit of a clumsy male friend from pre-K years who was sort of clueless. Kim fought super-villains, Ron tagged along to try to help.
It was partly comedy, partly spy-spoof, and partly the angst of high school years.
Kim is smart, talented at acrobatics and gymnastics (she is catain of the cheerleading squad. Her parents are both scientists (Dad is a Rocket Scientist, Mom is a Neurosurgeon, and she has 2 younger brothers who are brilliant but annoying - she calls them the "tweebs" as in twin dweebs). Kim is one of the popular girls in school and is involved in everything at school. So, massively good role model.
But she has no special power. She is "just" brave, agile and smart. The origin of the show seems to be that Kim goes online to advertise for baby-sitter jobs. Some busy Dad is looking for both a baby-sitter and a security guard (separate jobs). Somehow, he hires Kim for baby-sitting and she ends up with a baby-sitting job that gets her involved with fighting off a bad guy. She is good at it.
I don't recall all the early details, but the excitement attracts her and her friend Ron gets involved and she gets an underground reputation as a rescuer. She gets all over the world easily through a recurring/running theme of calling in transportation favors from people she helped previously but not seen in any episodes.
Ron is a nice guy, her best friend, a klutz, a devotee of Bueno Nacho fast Tex-Mex Food. He is usually helpful to Kim's adventures at some point, but usually by accident. Ron has a pet, a male Naked Mole Rat named Rufus who usually stays in a pocket of Ron's cargo pants. Given that "rufus" is normally a hair color, that is pretty clever. Rufus is often very helpful gnawing ropes and wires and stepping on "off switches". Everyone on the show has a talent, LOL!
Still reading? Good!
The main villains are Dr Draken (a blue-skinned mad scientist) and his sidekick Shego (an evil adult women with basically equal acrobatic skills and a wicked greed force she shoots from her hands, Dr Demento ( a mind-enhancer villain with a helmet, and my favorite ones (bored billionaire Senor Senior, Senior and his self-absorbed son, Senor Senior, Junior). There are some infrequently other villains.
Kim has signature look. Large flowing red hair, slim gymnastic build, and dresses according the styles of the time. In adventures ("missions") she sports a black crop-top and olive cargo pants with useful tools. Her most commonly used item is a ninja tri-hook on a rope fired with a gun, but mostly she depends on her own abilities and quick-thinking.
Ron is blond but average-looking, wears a black t-shirt and usually gray pants. His persona is the "high school loser who has a lot of accidents (losing his pants during missions is another recurring theme (which is probably funny to teenage girls and boys).
Kim has friends that show up. One is Wade, a 10 year old computer genius who spends all his time in his room. He feeds Kim locations and technical information. Monique is a new student who becomes her best female friend and is a connection between school and missions. There are a few boys in school Kin "crushes" on, but they don't last. Interestingly, Ron just discusses them with her as a friend.
For a couple years, the story plot was similar to sitcoms. Problem, situation, resolution, reset to square one the next week.
But after a couple years, the story arc developed.
Shego was once part of a hero team called the "GO Team". It was a Fantastic Four spoof with different powers. Hego was the strong guy and leader. Mego was a shrinker. Theygo could make multiples of himself. Shego had a force energy. Their origin was atypically silly (deliberately, I assume. A rainbow-colored asteroid struck their treehouse when they were children and they all gained POWERS. Shego left the team because she found "evil" more exciting. Shego is usually Kim's adversary.
But Kim has a high school adversary too (true to teenage angst). the next best cheerleader is Bonnie, who (of course) likes her boyfriends "big, strong, and not-too bright" (the football team quarterback, "Brick Flagg"). There are also some weird extended family members who are extremely talented in their own ways (we late learn that Nana was once a crime fighter like Kim)
Along the way, Ron is faced with his worst fear (ninja monkeys led by future villain Lord Montgy Fisk who eventually becomes Lord Monkey Fist. Ron is contacted by a Tibetan Monk type who sees a power in him and gives some training. The training is not immediately evident.
And also along the way, there are some humorous episodes that lighten the viewing. In one, Shego and Kim are struck with microchips that cause them to randomly experience extreme emotions at the same time, one where Draken invents an good/evil exchange ray and Shego becomes Kim's best friend for a while. We learn that Shego is not quite as evil as she seems to be, because, at the end when she is returned to her usual self, she is holding one of those old photobooth series of photos and looks at them wistfully before zapping them with her green force.
In another, Draken steals a mind switching machine (where DOES he find these things?) in order to switch bodies with a military security guard in order to steal something better. Naturally, Kim and Ron get switched in the course of a fight with Shego. I could say simply that "hilarity abounds" but it continues into school. Each experiences the life of the other for a day or two.
As a result, Ron learns that Kim's life is full of demands of her numerous activities and clubs, confidence, sureness, practice, and security at home. Kim learns that Ron's life is filled with uncertainty, bullies, disrespect, things that go wrong by no fault of his own, and worry about his future. The immediate problem is that Kim is the cheerleader leader and there is a regional competition the next day.
They each have difficulties adjusting to each others' bodies. And there is no hint of sexual curiousty there; this is for young teens. But Kim can't make Ron's body do her cheerleading moves at the competition and Ron can't either. In the end, when Ron (as Kim) is trying and failing, Kim (as Ron) bumps him out of the way and manages (through utter determination) to make the finale grand act. They get switched back again, or course.
There almost wasn't a finale to the series. Disney has a general rule about its animated original shows of 3 years and out. Fan demand convinced them to extend the series when the creators promised arcs to an ending. Disney relented and signed on for 2 more year with a definite ending.
So, one of the hardest characters for Kim to defeat was an 8' alien female. At the end, she brings her partner, a 9' killer named Warhok to help her get revenge. These aliens really do have what all Kim's enemies have lacked. Real tech, real power, real focus. They arrive on Earth, destroying the (unoccupied) Possible Family house, the school, the Bueno Nacho and land hunbdreds of War Of The Worlds style machines all over. They have won.
This is where several themes finally come together (Graduation). Draken's latest scheme involved mutated plants and he gets hit by his own machine. Initially, this is humor, as all it does is cause large flower petals to surround his head no matter how many times he pulls them off.
Still with me here?
The aliens capture him and Kim (while she is giving a graduation speech). They are both immobilized on the alien ship. Draken is gleeful that at least Kim will share him fate. Kim manages to get free. Meanwhile, on Earth, both Ron and Shego are determined to save their partners and agree to cooperate. The get on the alien chute (via the trash dump - Star Wars reference) and meet up with Kim and Draken. They escape (Rufus finds an "Off Switch") and all eventually land on Earth fighting.
Dracken and Shego flee. Kim fights, Ron is shoved away or something. Draken has a vine pops out of his neck and he discovers he can order it to grow and destroy things. Draken suddenly has "The Best Plan He Has Ever Had". Draken and Shego return and spray the mutant plant goo all other the machines. The Aliens laugh at him and he smiles...
Something like "grow my pretties and destroy those machines"! And they do. So it is aliens vs Earthians again. Dracken and Shego are beaten, Draken knocken far away and Shego at the scene
Ron attacks the 9' guy and is smashed back knocking Kim out. He has a jetpack and is ready to try again. This is where another arc comes in. Sensei, who tried to teach Ron Monkey Fist skills appears to him. He says that Ron's time has come, if he is ready. Well, something like that.
Ron, seein Kim being held up like a broken toy doll, is angered. He focuses is energy on the Monkey Fist skills. He spreads his arms and levitates with energy and debris circling around him. Kim awakes and sees. Shego awakes and sees.
Ron attacks both the aliens with Monkey Fist arts and throws them both into the falling spaceship which explodes. Kim and Shego are stunned! Draken returns a moment later and,surveying the damage and the absence of the aliens, asks "Did I miss something?"
Shego says "I think the sidekick stepped up". Ron floats down and help Kim up (as she has done for him SO MANY times before.
A day forward... It is back to High School Graduation Day. Every one gets their degree (except Bonnie who is 1 credit short and has to attend Summer School. But Senor Senior Junior (her new boyfriend) is there to comfort her. Draken gets awarded a medal for saving the world and there are people in the audience holding up signs cheering him. He apparently decided that being a good guy is nice (it was the only plan he ever made that worked).
While Shego is standing next to him (In a green dress instead of her regular green and black battlesuit, Draken's vines wrap around them both and she has a slight smile (it was always assumed she liked him in spite of her sarcasm).
Kim and Ron jump in her car (enhanced by the tweebs) and her at the wheel, and they go flying off together.
One of the best finales of all time... I both cheered and cried the first and every time I saw it.
Now, a couple of things I picked up at various Kim Possible sites... Kim is extremely talented in many ways. But she has weaknesses. She crushed on boys that were right for her and some who weren't. She is a bit obsessive about her parent's approval. She is less sure about herself than others think she is. In action, she is brave, talented and quick-thinking. At home and in school she is not. She is an over-achiever with typical teen self-doubt.
Ron is, of course, rather her opposite. He loses his pants all the time in missions, fails most courses, eats total junk food, has a naked mole rat as a pet, and has to be saved a lot by Kim. But I think it is often missed that he is loyal, supportive, follows Kim into real danger in spite of having no skills until the very end, but helps her more than is usually noticed, is her true friend even when she talks about "crushing" on other boys trying to help her.
Rufus is the comic relief, but also a brave little friend to Ron at all times.
Shego might be one of the more interesting characters. Usually portrayed as evil, there is also a sense that she just loves Draken and will do anything for him. She's an interesting composite of powerful feminism (those powerful green forces she attacks with), the fact that most of the time SHE saves Draken from his own evil plots, and one senses that she really is the stronger member of the team. But then, what she most seems to enjoy is lounging in a beach chair and reading magazines. You never quite know what to make of her. I think the finale did mostly answer that. *I* think she smiled coyly when Dracken's vines pulled her to him.
So that's about Kim Possible and why I enjoyed it. There is a lot more. Look her up on Wikipedia. I just loved the series.
But I was watching a show titled 'The History of Comedy' recently and one episode was about animation. The earliest pre-movie-theater shorts were human comedians (who later moved on to longer movies themselves). There were some animated characters too. One was Micky Mouse. One human shorts comedian commented after seeing a Mickey Mouse cartoon "My career is over. The mouse can do things I can't".
And that is my interest. Charlie Chaplin could do some great slapstick, but he couldn't run off a cliff, tread air a few seconds, and survive a 1,000' fall. Wile E. Coyote could. Animated characters could sleepwalk across moving girders, step off the end onto a ferris wheel, get off at the bottom, walk home through crazy traffic, and crawl back into bed, etc.
The original children's shows were kindly old adults acting childlike. Brother Bob, Captain Kangeroo, etc. The earliest actual animations I can recall were Tom Terrific and Gerald Mc Boing-Boing. From there it was Popeye and Woody Woodpecker, sliding into Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. I wonder how many animated characters I could list? But don't worry, I won't do it here...
The cleverest early one was Bugs Bunny, the craziest one was Wile E. Coyote, the "adultish" one was Foghorn Leghorn with his asides to the viewer and "smart" jokes. Then came ones like Flintstones (prime time and aimed at adults) and Jetsons,.
I left watching those for Star Trek's moral messages and anything "space-oriented" like 1999, Babylon 5, etc. But I returned to animated shows like 'Angry Beavers'. The animated show writers had discovered sarcasm (yes so did Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc, but it was much simpler).
Then the Japanese anime arrived. Animated humanistic (as opposed to animal character) violence was everywhere. I watched a lot of that until I realized that the plots moved slower than the newspaper strips like Mary Worth, Brenda Starr, and The Girls of Apt 3-G! So I watched The Simpson's and the copies like Family Guy for a while. At least they were fast-paced. I adored Robot-Chicken, I still watch Rick&Morty, Superjail was completely insane.
So that brings me to Kim Possible. If you are still reading this, I'm impressed! It started in 2002. The idea was to create a fast-paced animated show that would mostly attract young teenage girls but still interest boys, and was "adult-friendly". I read the Wikipedia entry for the show, and the details and thoughts are impressive.
So why did *I* like it? Well, for a "girls show" it wasn't about unicorns and rainbows. Kim Possible was the main character in an action role. Her sidekick Ron Stoppable) was her best friend, a bit of a clumsy male friend from pre-K years who was sort of clueless. Kim fought super-villains, Ron tagged along to try to help.
It was partly comedy, partly spy-spoof, and partly the angst of high school years.
Kim is smart, talented at acrobatics and gymnastics (she is catain of the cheerleading squad. Her parents are both scientists (Dad is a Rocket Scientist, Mom is a Neurosurgeon, and she has 2 younger brothers who are brilliant but annoying - she calls them the "tweebs" as in twin dweebs). Kim is one of the popular girls in school and is involved in everything at school. So, massively good role model.
But she has no special power. She is "just" brave, agile and smart. The origin of the show seems to be that Kim goes online to advertise for baby-sitter jobs. Some busy Dad is looking for both a baby-sitter and a security guard (separate jobs). Somehow, he hires Kim for baby-sitting and she ends up with a baby-sitting job that gets her involved with fighting off a bad guy. She is good at it.
I don't recall all the early details, but the excitement attracts her and her friend Ron gets involved and she gets an underground reputation as a rescuer. She gets all over the world easily through a recurring/running theme of calling in transportation favors from people she helped previously but not seen in any episodes.
Ron is a nice guy, her best friend, a klutz, a devotee of Bueno Nacho fast Tex-Mex Food. He is usually helpful to Kim's adventures at some point, but usually by accident. Ron has a pet, a male Naked Mole Rat named Rufus who usually stays in a pocket of Ron's cargo pants. Given that "rufus" is normally a hair color, that is pretty clever. Rufus is often very helpful gnawing ropes and wires and stepping on "off switches". Everyone on the show has a talent, LOL!
Still reading? Good!
The main villains are Dr Draken (a blue-skinned mad scientist) and his sidekick Shego (an evil adult women with basically equal acrobatic skills and a wicked greed force she shoots from her hands, Dr Demento ( a mind-enhancer villain with a helmet, and my favorite ones (bored billionaire Senor Senior, Senior and his self-absorbed son, Senor Senior, Junior). There are some infrequently other villains.
Kim has signature look. Large flowing red hair, slim gymnastic build, and dresses according the styles of the time. In adventures ("missions") she sports a black crop-top and olive cargo pants with useful tools. Her most commonly used item is a ninja tri-hook on a rope fired with a gun, but mostly she depends on her own abilities and quick-thinking.
Ron is blond but average-looking, wears a black t-shirt and usually gray pants. His persona is the "high school loser who has a lot of accidents (losing his pants during missions is another recurring theme (which is probably funny to teenage girls and boys).
Kim has friends that show up. One is Wade, a 10 year old computer genius who spends all his time in his room. He feeds Kim locations and technical information. Monique is a new student who becomes her best female friend and is a connection between school and missions. There are a few boys in school Kin "crushes" on, but they don't last. Interestingly, Ron just discusses them with her as a friend.
For a couple years, the story plot was similar to sitcoms. Problem, situation, resolution, reset to square one the next week.
But after a couple years, the story arc developed.
Shego was once part of a hero team called the "GO Team". It was a Fantastic Four spoof with different powers. Hego was the strong guy and leader. Mego was a shrinker. Theygo could make multiples of himself. Shego had a force energy. Their origin was atypically silly (deliberately, I assume. A rainbow-colored asteroid struck their treehouse when they were children and they all gained POWERS. Shego left the team because she found "evil" more exciting. Shego is usually Kim's adversary.
But Kim has a high school adversary too (true to teenage angst). the next best cheerleader is Bonnie, who (of course) likes her boyfriends "big, strong, and not-too bright" (the football team quarterback, "Brick Flagg"). There are also some weird extended family members who are extremely talented in their own ways (we late learn that Nana was once a crime fighter like Kim)
Along the way, Ron is faced with his worst fear (ninja monkeys led by future villain Lord Montgy Fisk who eventually becomes Lord Monkey Fist. Ron is contacted by a Tibetan Monk type who sees a power in him and gives some training. The training is not immediately evident.
And also along the way, there are some humorous episodes that lighten the viewing. In one, Shego and Kim are struck with microchips that cause them to randomly experience extreme emotions at the same time, one where Draken invents an good/evil exchange ray and Shego becomes Kim's best friend for a while. We learn that Shego is not quite as evil as she seems to be, because, at the end when she is returned to her usual self, she is holding one of those old photobooth series of photos and looks at them wistfully before zapping them with her green force.
In another, Draken steals a mind switching machine (where DOES he find these things?) in order to switch bodies with a military security guard in order to steal something better. Naturally, Kim and Ron get switched in the course of a fight with Shego. I could say simply that "hilarity abounds" but it continues into school. Each experiences the life of the other for a day or two.
As a result, Ron learns that Kim's life is full of demands of her numerous activities and clubs, confidence, sureness, practice, and security at home. Kim learns that Ron's life is filled with uncertainty, bullies, disrespect, things that go wrong by no fault of his own, and worry about his future. The immediate problem is that Kim is the cheerleader leader and there is a regional competition the next day.
They each have difficulties adjusting to each others' bodies. And there is no hint of sexual curiousty there; this is for young teens. But Kim can't make Ron's body do her cheerleading moves at the competition and Ron can't either. In the end, when Ron (as Kim) is trying and failing, Kim (as Ron) bumps him out of the way and manages (through utter determination) to make the finale grand act. They get switched back again, or course.
There almost wasn't a finale to the series. Disney has a general rule about its animated original shows of 3 years and out. Fan demand convinced them to extend the series when the creators promised arcs to an ending. Disney relented and signed on for 2 more year with a definite ending.
So, one of the hardest characters for Kim to defeat was an 8' alien female. At the end, she brings her partner, a 9' killer named Warhok to help her get revenge. These aliens really do have what all Kim's enemies have lacked. Real tech, real power, real focus. They arrive on Earth, destroying the (unoccupied) Possible Family house, the school, the Bueno Nacho and land hunbdreds of War Of The Worlds style machines all over. They have won.
This is where several themes finally come together (Graduation). Draken's latest scheme involved mutated plants and he gets hit by his own machine. Initially, this is humor, as all it does is cause large flower petals to surround his head no matter how many times he pulls them off.
Still with me here?
The aliens capture him and Kim (while she is giving a graduation speech). They are both immobilized on the alien ship. Draken is gleeful that at least Kim will share him fate. Kim manages to get free. Meanwhile, on Earth, both Ron and Shego are determined to save their partners and agree to cooperate. The get on the alien chute (via the trash dump - Star Wars reference) and meet up with Kim and Draken. They escape (Rufus finds an "Off Switch") and all eventually land on Earth fighting.
Dracken and Shego flee. Kim fights, Ron is shoved away or something. Draken has a vine pops out of his neck and he discovers he can order it to grow and destroy things. Draken suddenly has "The Best Plan He Has Ever Had". Draken and Shego return and spray the mutant plant goo all other the machines. The Aliens laugh at him and he smiles...
Something like "grow my pretties and destroy those machines"! And they do. So it is aliens vs Earthians again. Dracken and Shego are beaten, Draken knocken far away and Shego at the scene
Ron attacks the 9' guy and is smashed back knocking Kim out. He has a jetpack and is ready to try again. This is where another arc comes in. Sensei, who tried to teach Ron Monkey Fist skills appears to him. He says that Ron's time has come, if he is ready. Well, something like that.
Ron, seein Kim being held up like a broken toy doll, is angered. He focuses is energy on the Monkey Fist skills. He spreads his arms and levitates with energy and debris circling around him. Kim awakes and sees. Shego awakes and sees.
Ron attacks both the aliens with Monkey Fist arts and throws them both into the falling spaceship which explodes. Kim and Shego are stunned! Draken returns a moment later and,surveying the damage and the absence of the aliens, asks "Did I miss something?"
Shego says "I think the sidekick stepped up". Ron floats down and help Kim up (as she has done for him SO MANY times before.
A day forward... It is back to High School Graduation Day. Every one gets their degree (except Bonnie who is 1 credit short and has to attend Summer School. But Senor Senior Junior (her new boyfriend) is there to comfort her. Draken gets awarded a medal for saving the world and there are people in the audience holding up signs cheering him. He apparently decided that being a good guy is nice (it was the only plan he ever made that worked).
While Shego is standing next to him (In a green dress instead of her regular green and black battlesuit, Draken's vines wrap around them both and she has a slight smile (it was always assumed she liked him in spite of her sarcasm).
Kim and Ron jump in her car (enhanced by the tweebs) and her at the wheel, and they go flying off together.
One of the best finales of all time... I both cheered and cried the first and every time I saw it.
Now, a couple of things I picked up at various Kim Possible sites... Kim is extremely talented in many ways. But she has weaknesses. She crushed on boys that were right for her and some who weren't. She is a bit obsessive about her parent's approval. She is less sure about herself than others think she is. In action, she is brave, talented and quick-thinking. At home and in school she is not. She is an over-achiever with typical teen self-doubt.
Ron is, of course, rather her opposite. He loses his pants all the time in missions, fails most courses, eats total junk food, has a naked mole rat as a pet, and has to be saved a lot by Kim. But I think it is often missed that he is loyal, supportive, follows Kim into real danger in spite of having no skills until the very end, but helps her more than is usually noticed, is her true friend even when she talks about "crushing" on other boys trying to help her.
Rufus is the comic relief, but also a brave little friend to Ron at all times.
Shego might be one of the more interesting characters. Usually portrayed as evil, there is also a sense that she just loves Draken and will do anything for him. She's an interesting composite of powerful feminism (those powerful green forces she attacks with), the fact that most of the time SHE saves Draken from his own evil plots, and one senses that she really is the stronger member of the team. But then, what she most seems to enjoy is lounging in a beach chair and reading magazines. You never quite know what to make of her. I think the finale did mostly answer that. *I* think she smiled coyly when Dracken's vines pulled her to him.
So that's about Kim Possible and why I enjoyed it. There is a lot more. Look her up on Wikipedia. I just loved the series.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Kim Possible
I have always loved this one and it is being repeated in Disney HD. I won't bother you with a description. You either know and love it, know it and don't, or you don't know it.
If you love it, let's talk...
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Groundhog
You may recall I was trying to catch a groundhog in a live cage and kept getting skunks. I approached them holding a tarp in front of me (assuming a weird floating tarp would not cause spraying). I released one twice, running like hell after it emerged.
Then the 3rd time, I caught 2 skunks in the trap. OK, THAT'S IT! I dropped the tarp on the cage, waited a few minutes for them to calm down, and dunked the cage in a tub of water. Well, what else can you do with a caged annoyed skunk? After the 3rd time, it was obvious they were living here.
I sure didn't want to meet then while I was clearing the wild blackberry brambles from the backyard (my next project). Even dead in the tub they STANK! I dumped them in a storm drain. Which is logical. They rot and the water carries the bits away in small pieces, no smell.
The whole area where I caught them still smells after a week. Their spray is an oily substance and lingers even after days of rain.
I got the groundhog though. A bit of canteloupe slice as bait. The amazing thing is that I SAW it go into the cage! It sniffed all around the cage, found the opening, went inside, stepped on the lever that releases the door, and I had it! And you know what it did then? It calmly ate the last melon slice! LOL!
After I dipped it long enough to assure it was dead, I dumped it into its own borrow and filled the op;ening with the dirt it spread out all around.
I hate groundhogs. The skunks were just accidental pests.
Next week, I'll see about renting a brushcutter. Those wild blackberries HAVE to go. The patch attracts too many varmints.
Then the 3rd time, I caught 2 skunks in the trap. OK, THAT'S IT! I dropped the tarp on the cage, waited a few minutes for them to calm down, and dunked the cage in a tub of water. Well, what else can you do with a caged annoyed skunk? After the 3rd time, it was obvious they were living here.
I sure didn't want to meet then while I was clearing the wild blackberry brambles from the backyard (my next project). Even dead in the tub they STANK! I dumped them in a storm drain. Which is logical. They rot and the water carries the bits away in small pieces, no smell.
The whole area where I caught them still smells after a week. Their spray is an oily substance and lingers even after days of rain.
I got the groundhog though. A bit of canteloupe slice as bait. The amazing thing is that I SAW it go into the cage! It sniffed all around the cage, found the opening, went inside, stepped on the lever that releases the door, and I had it! And you know what it did then? It calmly ate the last melon slice! LOL!
After I dipped it long enough to assure it was dead, I dumped it into its own borrow and filled the op;ening with the dirt it spread out all around.
I hate groundhogs. The skunks were just accidental pests.
Next week, I'll see about renting a brushcutter. Those wild blackberries HAVE to go. The patch attracts too many varmints.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Blog Invasions And Other Stuff
I'm used to having Microsoft swoop into my cat blog and making 100 separate visits in a day every month or so. I assume they are stealing all my pictures. On the other hand, they seem to be registering my subjects to allow others who search a subject to find the cat blog, so "OK".
Have you noticed that Amazon has gotten into that too? In the past 4 days, they have visited me 1150 times and they don't appear to be slowing down...
Should I be concerned about this?
I can't tell. Internet searching about "why is amazon visiting my blog" doesn't produce any results.
Any thoughts?
And I noticed recently, looking at some statistics that one day, most visitors came from China. But I can't find a problem it caused. Maybe my firewall software saved me from some invasion or ransomware attack. Is this something to worry about?
I bought a new router months ago and finally installed it. Took me a week (ignoring the prob most days) to get it connected. Works fine (and maybe better, being 5G), but I've heard Verizon refuses to stop charging for a router. Anyone know anything about that? I'll be calling them in a couple days and any info might be helpful.
Lastly, my di-hydrogen oxide supply is low and the time travel machine is just not working well. Any sources?
Mark
Have you noticed that Amazon has gotten into that too? In the past 4 days, they have visited me 1150 times and they don't appear to be slowing down...
Should I be concerned about this?
I can't tell. Internet searching about "why is amazon visiting my blog" doesn't produce any results.
Any thoughts?
And I noticed recently, looking at some statistics that one day, most visitors came from China. But I can't find a problem it caused. Maybe my firewall software saved me from some invasion or ransomware attack. Is this something to worry about?
I bought a new router months ago and finally installed it. Took me a week (ignoring the prob most days) to get it connected. Works fine (and maybe better, being 5G), but I've heard Verizon refuses to stop charging for a router. Anyone know anything about that? I'll be calling them in a couple days and any info might be helpful.
Lastly, my di-hydrogen oxide supply is low and the time travel machine is just not working well. Any sources?
Mark
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
HAWK!
I was looking out the deck dook ans saw what seemed to be a log upright on the deck rairl. It tokk a few seconds to realize it was a large bird.
I think it was an immature hawk and those can be very hard to identify.
My book of eastern birds doesn't show the backs well, and it's wings and tail is closed, so I lack many clues the book suggests.
Measuring the bird in the first picture and comparing it to the plant in the bottom left corner, I think it is 14" high. I am guessing it is an immature sharp-shinned hawk or possibly immature cooper's hawk.
Are they a threat to my cats?
I think it was an immature hawk and those can be very hard to identify.
Measuring the bird in the first picture and comparing it to the plant in the bottom left corner, I think it is 14" high. I am guessing it is an immature sharp-shinned hawk or possibly immature cooper's hawk.
Are they a threat to my cats?
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Laughing At Ads
The insurance companies are really competing on ads these days. One long-running ad as been about Flo and Jamie from Progressive. Another is Mayhem from Allstate. The Flo ads were getting boring. Jamie was always the idiot. But they have one now that cracks me up. It shows Flo landing on a desert island and succeeding to catch fish and start a fire with "The Price Gun". And back at the office, Jamie asks why "the one item" she would choose to take was that iten and she says it helped her.
So someone else asks Jamie what one item HE would bring. Jamie says he would have chosen a boat. LOL!
The Mayhem guy (Allstate) amazes me. He is an evil person, but he is also understandable in insurance terms. He is the tree that falls on a house, the cell phone that distracts you into a car accident, the kid who swallows the wedding ring, etc. This guy cracks we up.
I hate seeing the same ad over and over again, so the number of different ads by one company is appreciated. They don't have the least effect of what company I do business with, but as far as having to watch commercials goes, "clever" and "varied" is appreciated.
A couple side notes... My dad's response to commercials was to hit the mute button. Well, I always found the sudden 3 minutes of silence more annoying than the commercials AND he often fell asleep so I would have to take the remote out of his hands and turn on the sound again when the show started.
Te other thing that annoys me about commercials is that there is a repeat pattern. Commercial A is followed by commercial B then A is repeated and then C. And I've even seen ABAB recently. Maddening.
The Weather Channel keeps complaining to me that I am blocking their ads. I ignore them. It's not like I care about their ads one way or another, but they slow down my access to the information a want.
So someone else asks Jamie what one item HE would bring. Jamie says he would have chosen a boat. LOL!
The Mayhem guy (Allstate) amazes me. He is an evil person, but he is also understandable in insurance terms. He is the tree that falls on a house, the cell phone that distracts you into a car accident, the kid who swallows the wedding ring, etc. This guy cracks we up.
I hate seeing the same ad over and over again, so the number of different ads by one company is appreciated. They don't have the least effect of what company I do business with, but as far as having to watch commercials goes, "clever" and "varied" is appreciated.
A couple side notes... My dad's response to commercials was to hit the mute button. Well, I always found the sudden 3 minutes of silence more annoying than the commercials AND he often fell asleep so I would have to take the remote out of his hands and turn on the sound again when the show started.
Te other thing that annoys me about commercials is that there is a repeat pattern. Commercial A is followed by commercial B then A is repeated and then C. And I've even seen ABAB recently. Maddening.
The Weather Channel keeps complaining to me that I am blocking their ads. I ignore them. It's not like I care about their ads one way or another, but they slow down my access to the information a want.
Friday, July 20, 2018
SKUNK!
Well, I trapped and eliminated the groundhog that took up living in my bramble-filled corner of the back yard a manth ago. And usually there isn't more than one that moves in per year. But when you live in one place 30+ years, you know what you normally see out the windows and what is not normal.
A few days ago, I noticed an un-normal movement out of the corner of my eye in the far back yard (I am far-sighted) and saw a small groundhog slipping back into the brambles. I don't want any around. They can dig well and get under the garden enclosure, they love to eat meadow flowers, and they are hard to chase away. They can eat almost an entire garden in a couple of days.
I don't mind them personally, but they are amazingly destructive. If they would stay in abandoned fields munching of food that does support them there, I would be thrilled. But when they start eating things I grow, it is them or me.
You may not like this, but when I catch one in a live-cage, I just drop it in a large tub of water and drown them. It is the fastest way I know of. They don't understand what is happening, they blurt out some air and are dead. I've made myself watch...
So I had another groundhog set up residence among the blackberries. I saw the burrow while picking some ripe berries. So I set the cage with some honeydew melon slices. They love those.
The next morning, I saw some motion in the cage. Great! I went out and discover a skunk in the cage. Oh damn. How do I get an angry skunk out of the cage without getting sprayed?
I stood watching it (from a safe distance) and thought about it for a few minutes. Then I went to my she and took out a 6'x9' plastic tarp and held it in front of me as I approached the cage.
From the skunk's POV, it wasn't a threat, just some weird blowy thing . When I got to the cage, I draped the tarp on it all sides but the front. Then after letting it get used to the cover (to calm down), and open the front of the cage, it walked out and I ran away 20' "just in case".
I had to spray the cage with hose water hard to clean it. I let it dry for hours, and set it up again with more honeydew melon to try to catch the new groundhog. If I catch it, it goes into the watertub and gets buried. If I catch the skunk again, it will go that way as well.
And no, there are no pictures. My focus was getting the skunk out of the cage without being sprayed...
A few days ago, I noticed an un-normal movement out of the corner of my eye in the far back yard (I am far-sighted) and saw a small groundhog slipping back into the brambles. I don't want any around. They can dig well and get under the garden enclosure, they love to eat meadow flowers, and they are hard to chase away. They can eat almost an entire garden in a couple of days.
I don't mind them personally, but they are amazingly destructive. If they would stay in abandoned fields munching of food that does support them there, I would be thrilled. But when they start eating things I grow, it is them or me.
You may not like this, but when I catch one in a live-cage, I just drop it in a large tub of water and drown them. It is the fastest way I know of. They don't understand what is happening, they blurt out some air and are dead. I've made myself watch...
So I had another groundhog set up residence among the blackberries. I saw the burrow while picking some ripe berries. So I set the cage with some honeydew melon slices. They love those.
The next morning, I saw some motion in the cage. Great! I went out and discover a skunk in the cage. Oh damn. How do I get an angry skunk out of the cage without getting sprayed?
I stood watching it (from a safe distance) and thought about it for a few minutes. Then I went to my she and took out a 6'x9' plastic tarp and held it in front of me as I approached the cage.
From the skunk's POV, it wasn't a threat, just some weird blowy thing . When I got to the cage, I draped the tarp on it all sides but the front. Then after letting it get used to the cover (to calm down), and open the front of the cage, it walked out and I ran away 20' "just in case".
I had to spray the cage with hose water hard to clean it. I let it dry for hours, and set it up again with more honeydew melon to try to catch the new groundhog. If I catch it, it goes into the watertub and gets buried. If I catch the skunk again, it will go that way as well.
And no, there are no pictures. My focus was getting the skunk out of the cage without being sprayed...
Monday, July 16, 2018
Been Doing Stuff
First, I have to mention that Bryce Harper of the Washington National baseball team just won the Home Run Contest. YEEAAAHHHH!
Second, the pond renovation project is complete. It was harder than I expected. I originally pulled out all the pots from the pond, and that involved bending down with my arms in the pond cutting roots away to get chunks of plants. It was exhausting in the heat, but having my arms in the water did help.
I finally got to the point where most of the pond was empty of plants and pulled it up. That took 3 days of about an hour each day. I couldn't find the leak in the preformed pond, which still bothers me. So I added some soil around where I recalled the pond form was low and reinstalled it and filled it. So after 3 days, there was no leakage, so it was time to replace plants.
Not in the original pots, of course. I used regular pots years ago but I bought pots designed for ponds last year and used them. Pond pots have lots is holes for roots to seeks nutrients in the water.
The 8" pots I had, had growth around them like beachballs. So the first thing I did was to chop outside roots off. That was surprisingly horrible. The roots were too soft to cut easily. I finally tried my "digger knife" (like boning knife with a saw blade). That wasn't really easy, not I got better using it as I went.
And THAT was only to be able to pull the existing plants out of the old pots (which were broken into pieces by root pressure).
Planting pond plants is tricky. You can't just replant them into new pots using regular potting soil (a lot of it just floats away). What the pond plants want is "muck". And I was really short on that. And Home Depot doesn't sell "muck"
As far as I can tell, "muck" is a mixture of organic material, gravel, and clay bound by soil roots. And you want some stones in the bottom of the pot for the weight to keep the pot sunk and upright.
So I retrieved all the previous pots (most of which didn't even have plants in them anymore - they escaped into the the general root mass) and soaked them in 5 gallon buckets. When they well utterly soaked, I ripped them apart until the old gravel fell out and I was left with dead roots mass.
Not wanting soil to muddy the new pond water, I blasted the gravel in a large sieve. I also blasted the ripped off root hairs (that wouldn't regrow). I slowly cut roots of healthy plants (waterlillies and Sweet flag) into replantable chunks.
Now I have 4 divided waterlillies potted in the 2' deep section of the pond and 10 potted sweet flag plants and there are still 20 seemingly viable chunks on sweet flag in buskets of water where they will be fine. I'm keeping them indending them to grow in the the larger 8'x9' pond if I can get it cleared of brambles and relined this year. Don't worry about all that standing water; I put bT tablets in all containers monthly.
And that is the next major project. An 1/8 acre of the backyard has been taken over by wild blackberries, english ivy, and some poison ivy. Several years ago, my large pond developed a leak and went down to 6" of water. And the mosquitos moved in. I only realized the problem when it was too late to kill the mosquito larvae with bT, so I poked more holes in the liner to drain it.
So now I have a new pond liner, but I have to clear all the space around it to set the new one in. But it is surrounded with wild blackberries and they are delicious! So I'm waiting until the harvest ends and then I will clear the whole area.
Today while the area was shaded, I weeded all around the astilbes in the front yard. It was frustrating. I added compost to the area last year and the weeds seem to have appreciated it more them the Astilbes. And the weeds do better in the drought we are having here (not any rain in 4 weeks). So I went out and pulled weeds out of the dry soil (the best time to do it) and then watered them deeply.
I lost 2 of 30 Astilbes (according to landscape flags I stuck in when I planted, but that was better that I expected. A few look weak, but most are thriving. And I have a dozen more in the backyard where they are struggling. If I can keep them going til Fall, I will transplant them to the front yard among the others.
The yard has become infested with poison ivy and some vine. I'll have to dig the poison ivy out (wearing armlength rubber gloves). The vines are so widespread, I'll have to spray them. I don't like that but I don't have much choice.
There is always SOMETHING to fight with here... I wish there wasn't. I have other useful things to do.
Second, the pond renovation project is complete. It was harder than I expected. I originally pulled out all the pots from the pond, and that involved bending down with my arms in the pond cutting roots away to get chunks of plants. It was exhausting in the heat, but having my arms in the water did help.
I finally got to the point where most of the pond was empty of plants and pulled it up. That took 3 days of about an hour each day. I couldn't find the leak in the preformed pond, which still bothers me. So I added some soil around where I recalled the pond form was low and reinstalled it and filled it. So after 3 days, there was no leakage, so it was time to replace plants.
Not in the original pots, of course. I used regular pots years ago but I bought pots designed for ponds last year and used them. Pond pots have lots is holes for roots to seeks nutrients in the water.
The 8" pots I had, had growth around them like beachballs. So the first thing I did was to chop outside roots off. That was surprisingly horrible. The roots were too soft to cut easily. I finally tried my "digger knife" (like boning knife with a saw blade). That wasn't really easy, not I got better using it as I went.
And THAT was only to be able to pull the existing plants out of the old pots (which were broken into pieces by root pressure).
Planting pond plants is tricky. You can't just replant them into new pots using regular potting soil (a lot of it just floats away). What the pond plants want is "muck". And I was really short on that. And Home Depot doesn't sell "muck"
As far as I can tell, "muck" is a mixture of organic material, gravel, and clay bound by soil roots. And you want some stones in the bottom of the pot for the weight to keep the pot sunk and upright.
So I retrieved all the previous pots (most of which didn't even have plants in them anymore - they escaped into the the general root mass) and soaked them in 5 gallon buckets. When they well utterly soaked, I ripped them apart until the old gravel fell out and I was left with dead roots mass.
Not wanting soil to muddy the new pond water, I blasted the gravel in a large sieve. I also blasted the ripped off root hairs (that wouldn't regrow). I slowly cut roots of healthy plants (waterlillies and Sweet flag) into replantable chunks.
Now I have 4 divided waterlillies potted in the 2' deep section of the pond and 10 potted sweet flag plants and there are still 20 seemingly viable chunks on sweet flag in buskets of water where they will be fine. I'm keeping them indending them to grow in the the larger 8'x9' pond if I can get it cleared of brambles and relined this year. Don't worry about all that standing water; I put bT tablets in all containers monthly.
And that is the next major project. An 1/8 acre of the backyard has been taken over by wild blackberries, english ivy, and some poison ivy. Several years ago, my large pond developed a leak and went down to 6" of water. And the mosquitos moved in. I only realized the problem when it was too late to kill the mosquito larvae with bT, so I poked more holes in the liner to drain it.
So now I have a new pond liner, but I have to clear all the space around it to set the new one in. But it is surrounded with wild blackberries and they are delicious! So I'm waiting until the harvest ends and then I will clear the whole area.
Today while the area was shaded, I weeded all around the astilbes in the front yard. It was frustrating. I added compost to the area last year and the weeds seem to have appreciated it more them the Astilbes. And the weeds do better in the drought we are having here (not any rain in 4 weeks). So I went out and pulled weeds out of the dry soil (the best time to do it) and then watered them deeply.
I lost 2 of 30 Astilbes (according to landscape flags I stuck in when I planted, but that was better that I expected. A few look weak, but most are thriving. And I have a dozen more in the backyard where they are struggling. If I can keep them going til Fall, I will transplant them to the front yard among the others.
The yard has become infested with poison ivy and some vine. I'll have to dig the poison ivy out (wearing armlength rubber gloves). The vines are so widespread, I'll have to spray them. I don't like that but I don't have much choice.
There is always SOMETHING to fight with here... I wish there wasn't. I have other useful things to do.
Friday, July 13, 2018
A Peaceful Evening
TBT here... I am sitting here at the computer. Marley is sitting on the carpet next to me. Iza is sitting on the floor next to him. Ayla is on my lap, a rare event. All is quiet. All is peaceful. All is good in our lives...
But the camera is in the kitchen... And speaking of "no camera"...
OK, about the "Chicken Thigh Incident". My view is that Iza was young and none of the Mews or previous cats stole food from my plate . I could always just get up to answer the phone or check email at the back room in perfect confidence that my food ON A TABLE was always untouched.
Food on the floor in bowls was THEIRS. Food on the table was MINE!
So imagine my surprise when I glanced through the kitchen door and saw Iza running past with my WHOLE chicken thigh in her mouth. Keep in mind they had all just been fed full bowls of stinky goodness.
So I ran into the bedroom after her. Of course she went to the hardest place for me to get at. She KNEW the space under the bed headboard was tricky. She WASN'T prepared for The Mop. I shoved it in under the headboard. And even then, having been stuffed with good cat food before, she refused to give up the chicken thigh.
She didn't realize I had closed the bedroom door...
Seeing no other exit, she ran into the bedroom bathroom. And I went in there and closed the door behind me. Iza, the chicken thigh, and me in the small room. I was pissed. And as much as I like to share with the cats, I wasn't planning to eat the chicken thigh after she had chewed on it. There ARE limits to sharing.
But I didn't want to reward her for stealing my food either. So took the chicken thigh away from her and left her in the bathroom for 5 minutes while I put the thigh away in a marked container to dice up and give her later. She enjoyed it and hopefully did not recall that was the same chicken thigh.
IZA: I have a different view of the "chicken thigh incident". He abandoned some great food and I was HUNGRY! He starved me. I only weighed 12 pounds at the time and thought I should weigh MORE. So there was this great-smelling food on the TV Tray that he OBVIOUSLY didn't want , so naturally I just picked it up and walked off to a safe place to eat it. He went all nuts!
Chased me all around the house, and finally I fled to the room he never goes into in daytime, and went to eat the good stuff in peace. And then he snuck in while I was distracted and CLOSED THE DOOR. Oh Bast, that was not good... Nowhere ta go... Never ever go hide in the shower... He pulled the good food RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH! Can you belief that?
And then gave me little bits of it the next day as if I should be pleased. Well, actually I was. But still, I grabbed that fair and square. A WHOLE chicken thigh, unspiced with "stuff" and all mine... And he took it away from me...
But the camera is in the kitchen... And speaking of "no camera"...
OK, about the "Chicken Thigh Incident". My view is that Iza was young and none of the Mews or previous cats stole food from my plate . I could always just get up to answer the phone or check email at the back room in perfect confidence that my food ON A TABLE was always untouched.
Food on the floor in bowls was THEIRS. Food on the table was MINE!
So imagine my surprise when I glanced through the kitchen door and saw Iza running past with my WHOLE chicken thigh in her mouth. Keep in mind they had all just been fed full bowls of stinky goodness.
So I ran into the bedroom after her. Of course she went to the hardest place for me to get at. She KNEW the space under the bed headboard was tricky. She WASN'T prepared for The Mop. I shoved it in under the headboard. And even then, having been stuffed with good cat food before, she refused to give up the chicken thigh.
She didn't realize I had closed the bedroom door...
Seeing no other exit, she ran into the bedroom bathroom. And I went in there and closed the door behind me. Iza, the chicken thigh, and me in the small room. I was pissed. And as much as I like to share with the cats, I wasn't planning to eat the chicken thigh after she had chewed on it. There ARE limits to sharing.
But I didn't want to reward her for stealing my food either. So took the chicken thigh away from her and left her in the bathroom for 5 minutes while I put the thigh away in a marked container to dice up and give her later. She enjoyed it and hopefully did not recall that was the same chicken thigh.
IZA: I have a different view of the "chicken thigh incident". He abandoned some great food and I was HUNGRY! He starved me. I only weighed 12 pounds at the time and thought I should weigh MORE. So there was this great-smelling food on the TV Tray that he OBVIOUSLY didn't want , so naturally I just picked it up and walked off to a safe place to eat it. He went all nuts!
Chased me all around the house, and finally I fled to the room he never goes into in daytime, and went to eat the good stuff in peace. And then he snuck in while I was distracted and CLOSED THE DOOR. Oh Bast, that was not good... Nowhere ta go... Never ever go hide in the shower... He pulled the good food RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH! Can you belief that?
And then gave me little bits of it the next day as if I should be pleased. Well, actually I was. But still, I grabbed that fair and square. A WHOLE chicken thigh, unspiced with "stuff" and all mine... And he took it away from me...
Monday, July 9, 2018
Pond Renovation, Part 1
Well, I have this 5'x3' pre-formed hard pond shape in the flower pond. It has a shallow shelf around the edge and a deep spot in the center so it cant freeze. I put in pots of Sweet Flag and waterlilies years ago. It takes some maintenance. And I'm not great at maintenance.
Every couple of years I just sort of forget about it and it gets a bit out of control.
Well, apparently, I set a record for ignoring it. I mean, the plants grow, it rained enough to keep it filled naturally, and everything seemed OK.
Until I noticed that even after heavy rains, it wasn't staying filled. So I refilled it with the garden hose. The next day it looked dry again. Oh damn, a leak!
So a few days ago, I decided to pull the individual potted plants out to find the leak.
Guess what? I couldn't remove the individual potted plants. They were intertwined. In fact, as I discovered, the entire interior of the pond was nothing BUT roots, and most of the plants were growing outside of the original pots!
I couldn't lift the mass of plants out the the pond. But I have something called a "Digger Knife". It is basically a dagger with a saw blade. I started cutting pots out of the root mass.
In 2 hours of hard work, I had 1/3 of the root mass removed and stopped for the day. My work rule is 30 minutes max and 15 minutes relaxing. I don't want to die stupidly. I go inside to cool down and drink Gatorade.
I also wanted to save as many of the plants as possible. Well, it really is amazing how many large containers you have around if you really search. I found 4 and filled them up with water. So as I cut one portion on plants loose, I stuck them in those until they were packed. But as long as they have water, they are fine.
The next day, having many plants in water in containers, I got a bit more brutal. I just kept cutting with the digger knife until I was down to about 1/3 the root mass. I weighed myself in the morning and later in the day. I lost 3 pounds in sweat. So I drank a lot more Gatorade, sat inside an hour and went back outside.
THIS TIME, I was able to lift the preformed pond up and over, spilling the remaining root mass onto the lawn. Whew, that was a great relief. I now had the preformed pond loose and could look for a hole to repair. And I couldn't find one. The best way to look for a hole in something is to hold it up to the sunlight. Nothing, nada, zip... So I set the preform on the lawn and filled it up halfway (because it seemed to be leaking lower than that).
The next morning, the water level was exactly the same! I was utterly baffled. So I scooped out the water and poured it on plants (avoiding wasting water) and considered the shaped hole in the ground. Well, it was never quite level, so I added some soil at the low end, and pounded in in removing the smallest bits of gravel.
So I put the pre-form back in place. And refilled it. It isn't "perfectly" level, but within 1/2" and that is good enough. It used to be a bit tilted toward the back, so the front always looked a little empty. Now the front always looks full. Better.
Now I have to wait to see if it leaks again. I put a stake at the spot where the water overflows. If it is below that in 2 days (accounting for evaporation), I will drain it and decide whether to line the inside with plastic, scrub the outside and inside and paint it (inside and out with a water sealant, or replace it.
I have enough problems with some parts of the yard as it is (wild blackberries, english ivy, and poison ivy showing up everywhere). I really didn't need this one. But it was a very specific problem and I sort of needed that.
Those other problems come next. I'm in activity-mode...
Every couple of years I just sort of forget about it and it gets a bit out of control.
Well, apparently, I set a record for ignoring it. I mean, the plants grow, it rained enough to keep it filled naturally, and everything seemed OK.
Until I noticed that even after heavy rains, it wasn't staying filled. So I refilled it with the garden hose. The next day it looked dry again. Oh damn, a leak!
So a few days ago, I decided to pull the individual potted plants out to find the leak.
Guess what? I couldn't remove the individual potted plants. They were intertwined. In fact, as I discovered, the entire interior of the pond was nothing BUT roots, and most of the plants were growing outside of the original pots!
I couldn't lift the mass of plants out the the pond. But I have something called a "Digger Knife". It is basically a dagger with a saw blade. I started cutting pots out of the root mass.
In 2 hours of hard work, I had 1/3 of the root mass removed and stopped for the day. My work rule is 30 minutes max and 15 minutes relaxing. I don't want to die stupidly. I go inside to cool down and drink Gatorade.
I also wanted to save as many of the plants as possible. Well, it really is amazing how many large containers you have around if you really search. I found 4 and filled them up with water. So as I cut one portion on plants loose, I stuck them in those until they were packed. But as long as they have water, they are fine.
The next day, having many plants in water in containers, I got a bit more brutal. I just kept cutting with the digger knife until I was down to about 1/3 the root mass. I weighed myself in the morning and later in the day. I lost 3 pounds in sweat. So I drank a lot more Gatorade, sat inside an hour and went back outside.
THIS TIME, I was able to lift the preformed pond up and over, spilling the remaining root mass onto the lawn. Whew, that was a great relief. I now had the preformed pond loose and could look for a hole to repair. And I couldn't find one. The best way to look for a hole in something is to hold it up to the sunlight. Nothing, nada, zip... So I set the preform on the lawn and filled it up halfway (because it seemed to be leaking lower than that).
The next morning, the water level was exactly the same! I was utterly baffled. So I scooped out the water and poured it on plants (avoiding wasting water) and considered the shaped hole in the ground. Well, it was never quite level, so I added some soil at the low end, and pounded in in removing the smallest bits of gravel.
So I put the pre-form back in place. And refilled it. It isn't "perfectly" level, but within 1/2" and that is good enough. It used to be a bit tilted toward the back, so the front always looked a little empty. Now the front always looks full. Better.
Now I have to wait to see if it leaks again. I put a stake at the spot where the water overflows. If it is below that in 2 days (accounting for evaporation), I will drain it and decide whether to line the inside with plastic, scrub the outside and inside and paint it (inside and out with a water sealant, or replace it.
I have enough problems with some parts of the yard as it is (wild blackberries, english ivy, and poison ivy showing up everywhere). I really didn't need this one. But it was a very specific problem and I sort of needed that.
Those other problems come next. I'm in activity-mode...
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Independence Day
With admiration for our eventual British friends and compatriots across The Pond, and acknowledging things were hard at first a couple of times, as we got the French to annoy you once and had to take advantage of the first actual world war (1812) etc. I beg pardon to present the following document. It means a lot to us here in the US, much like the Magna Carta does in your history.
And face it, you couldn't have hung on to us forever . Too many people, to much land, too much distance. Heck, we were too BRITISH to be colonists forever, LOL!
With the spirit of advancements of freedom in mind, I present The Declaration of Independence for all to read. And I am doing this today because things are not going very well here, and we need some reminders about how we started...
And is important to notice that not all of the reasons were good or would stand the test of time. Still, it was an impressive try.
hen
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
And face it, you couldn't have hung on to us forever . Too many people, to much land, too much distance. Heck, we were too BRITISH to be colonists forever, LOL!
With the spirit of advancements of freedom in mind, I present The Declaration of Independence for all to read. And I am doing this today because things are not going very well here, and we need some reminders about how we started...
And is important to notice that not all of the reasons were good or would stand the test of time. Still, it was an impressive try.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Democrats Are Wimps
I think I am abandoning political parties. The Democrats are damn wimps, the Republican are hateful and selfish.
The Democrats couldn't beat a 12 year old at chess, the Republicans would and brag about it. I don't like either idea.
There has to be another way in the US. One without Trump but one without the the old guard Democrat leaders either.
I need some leaders in both parties who will start working together to actually solve some problems. That means Nancy Pelosi has to go, Mitch McConnell has to go, all the current leaders have to go.
I'm a Baby Boomer. We have all screwed up. We did some good things, but it is time for us to let go and give control to the next generations. It isn't easy saying that. But sometimes you have to.
My generation, in control, has fallen into an utterly divisive stalemate. at the extremes of political parties. We can't get things back to the center.
I pass the torch on to you to get things working again. Save us from this mess. Build the Center again, demand that your political leaders demand consensus, choose political leaders who will work together. Rebuild a Center...
The Democrats couldn't beat a 12 year old at chess, the Republicans would and brag about it. I don't like either idea.
There has to be another way in the US. One without Trump but one without the the old guard Democrat leaders either.
I need some leaders in both parties who will start working together to actually solve some problems. That means Nancy Pelosi has to go, Mitch McConnell has to go, all the current leaders have to go.
I'm a Baby Boomer. We have all screwed up. We did some good things, but it is time for us to let go and give control to the next generations. It isn't easy saying that. But sometimes you have to.
My generation, in control, has fallen into an utterly divisive stalemate. at the extremes of political parties. We can't get things back to the center.
I pass the torch on to you to get things working again. Save us from this mess. Build the Center again, demand that your political leaders demand consensus, choose political leaders who will work together. Rebuild a Center...
Friday, June 29, 2018
Dr Visit
I haven't been to a Dr since 2008 and thought it was time. Well, I feel fine, almost all my older relatives died feeling just fine until old age got them, and the family medical history says there is nothing in particular we die of. Well, 1 Gramma died in her 70s, but that was diabetes from just eating too much gravy and being fat. Otherwise, we all seem to healthy as horses and die of old age or the ocassional accident. Mom died at 88 from Parkinson's and Dad died at 92 from general old age and boredom
But you never know what surprise a Dr might find and better late than never. So I contacted the Dr Office where I last went in 2008 to start getting an annual checkup and blood tests and "all those fun things".
Every Dr or Dentist I have ever gone too has demanded a paper form describing medical history. And since my "medical history" is on scraps of paper and letters from Mom and such, I asked if I could come by and pick up the form to fill out at home before the appointment today. "Sure, just come to the office and pick it up" they said.
When I did that yesterday, "no such form". They just ask questions and enter it into the computer. Actually, the front desk has no idea how the back offices work. That was STUPID #1
I sat in the exam room for 45 minutes watching green and purple colors flow around under my eyelids before the actual Dr showed up. Yeah, he's busy, I understand. But asked a lot of the same questions. He doesn't use the same computer system the entry people use. STUPID #2
But he was pretty good. Asked the right questions to get an idea of my problems (none except some muscle cramps in bed after working hard outside), but I was there for an general physical which takes a 2nd visit. I told them when I made the appointment that was what I wanted. STUPID #3
The Dr flexed my calf and thigh muscles after I mentioned cramps and said he could tell I did enough exercise (Yardwork. If you need deliberate exercise, you don't have enough outside real work to do, LOL!).
I told him about my hand tremors and he suggested I could see a neurolab above the office. When I was leaving, I asked about the neuro lab referral and he said I didn't need that. STUPID #4
I'll address that next visit...
I did get some information. My pulse is 71 beats per minute. My blood pressure was 130 over 60 (systolic and distolic, IIRC). My lungs are in better shape than they should be for someone who has smoked for 45+ years. He suggested I stop smoking (DUH). I gave a blood sample for lab tests.
I can visit an x-ray lab to look for cancers, but they don't like virtual scans, saying there are too many false positives.
I sometimes don't understand how professionals operate in such disconnected and confused systems. In my career as a telecommunications manager for a Federal Agency, I would have been fired if my office had been so disorganized. And I would have fired anyone who didn't understand the need for coordinated records systems!
Oh, and they let me leave without a new appointment for a physical and a discussion of the blood test results. STUPID #5
Oh well, I've gotten back on track for regular Dr visits, and that is a good thing I suppose. Who knows, I might have cancer all through me and better to learn that ASAP. It would be good to know positive or negative.
I've reached the age where people start dying of "natural causes" or specific conditions. That's the only reason I went; to see if I was "OK". Looks like I will have to wait a few weeks.
But you never know what surprise a Dr might find and better late than never. So I contacted the Dr Office where I last went in 2008 to start getting an annual checkup and blood tests and "all those fun things".
Every Dr or Dentist I have ever gone too has demanded a paper form describing medical history. And since my "medical history" is on scraps of paper and letters from Mom and such, I asked if I could come by and pick up the form to fill out at home before the appointment today. "Sure, just come to the office and pick it up" they said.
When I did that yesterday, "no such form". They just ask questions and enter it into the computer. Actually, the front desk has no idea how the back offices work. That was STUPID #1
I sat in the exam room for 45 minutes watching green and purple colors flow around under my eyelids before the actual Dr showed up. Yeah, he's busy, I understand. But asked a lot of the same questions. He doesn't use the same computer system the entry people use. STUPID #2
But he was pretty good. Asked the right questions to get an idea of my problems (none except some muscle cramps in bed after working hard outside), but I was there for an general physical which takes a 2nd visit. I told them when I made the appointment that was what I wanted. STUPID #3
The Dr flexed my calf and thigh muscles after I mentioned cramps and said he could tell I did enough exercise (Yardwork. If you need deliberate exercise, you don't have enough outside real work to do, LOL!).
I told him about my hand tremors and he suggested I could see a neurolab above the office. When I was leaving, I asked about the neuro lab referral and he said I didn't need that. STUPID #4
I'll address that next visit...
I did get some information. My pulse is 71 beats per minute. My blood pressure was 130 over 60 (systolic and distolic, IIRC). My lungs are in better shape than they should be for someone who has smoked for 45+ years. He suggested I stop smoking (DUH). I gave a blood sample for lab tests.
I can visit an x-ray lab to look for cancers, but they don't like virtual scans, saying there are too many false positives.
I sometimes don't understand how professionals operate in such disconnected and confused systems. In my career as a telecommunications manager for a Federal Agency, I would have been fired if my office had been so disorganized. And I would have fired anyone who didn't understand the need for coordinated records systems!
Oh, and they let me leave without a new appointment for a physical and a discussion of the blood test results. STUPID #5
Oh well, I've gotten back on track for regular Dr visits, and that is a good thing I suppose. Who knows, I might have cancer all through me and better to learn that ASAP. It would be good to know positive or negative.
I've reached the age where people start dying of "natural causes" or specific conditions. That's the only reason I went; to see if I was "OK". Looks like I will have to wait a few weeks.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Wrong Address
A nice little light-hearted happy post...
I was stepping outside Wednesday to get my mail when a Fed Ex truck stopped. I had some small items on order from Amazon (more mole repellent pellets because the sprayable liquid kind just would not spray well, a new electric razor because my old one actually fell apart, and some Felliway refills), but I wasn't expecting them that day. And the Fed Ex guy backed up as close to the garage as he could. When there are small items. they just stop at the street and bring the boxes up. So I was a bit curious.
He opened the back of the truck at brought out 2 chewy.com boxes. Which really surprised me because, while I have an autoship arrangement, it wasn't time for one and I always get an email first. So I just dragged the boxes into the garage.
I had thought to email Chewy about the "gift" shipment, but I opened the boxes first. It wasn't stuff I order! So I glanced at the label to get the order number to see if I had possibly ordered something new (which I was sure I hadn't of course) and noticed the name and address wasn't mine. It was a neighbor.
Well, I HAD mentioned my surprise the the driver, and he mentioned there were 2 other regular Chewy customers right on my street (which only has 20 houses on it) and indeed, he had 2 more Chewy boxes to deliver further down the street.
I SHOULD have realized there was an error right then, but who thinks quickly when surprised?
So I looked up the name on Whitepages.com and found one with an address on my street and 2 phone numbers. I got a lady who said "he moved away 4 years ago". Oh drat. Wait, then why was a delivery being made there after 4 years? So I asked if I was talking to (the address on the box)?
It was his mother (at some other address). The address on whitepages.com was right, the phone number was old! So I explained everything and she cracked up. And said she would call him immediately to come and pick up the boxes.
Which he did in about 30 minutes. Turns out he has Chewy autoshipping too. We had a good laugh about the entire error. He is going to correct his phone number on whitepages.com.
Meanwhile, he had done exactly what I do about tracking orders and had seen the "delivered" notice and knew he hadn't received the order. So he contacted them and they had already sent a replacement order before his mother called him to let him know I had his stuff!
Which meant he was getting a whole free order. Soooo, I said, "How about I keep the bag of kitty litter and you make off with all the other free goodies"? He laughed and handed me the bag of litter. It was the least part of the order.
So...
1. The Fed Ex guy delivered the package to the wrong address.
2. I had to spend time figuring out where it belonged.
3. The whitepages.com site had old information.
4. Chewy did good customer service.
5. The rightful recipient had to go out of his way to get his order.
6. But he is getting a whole new order free.
7. I got a free bag of kitty litter as a reward for my efforts.
8. Chewy will have a very routine claim against Fed Ex and get their cost back.
9. Fed Ex will ultimately pay for their delivery error.
It all works out nicely for all involved except the Fed Ex people who made the error!
Don't you wish everything worked out that nicely?
I was stepping outside Wednesday to get my mail when a Fed Ex truck stopped. I had some small items on order from Amazon (more mole repellent pellets because the sprayable liquid kind just would not spray well, a new electric razor because my old one actually fell apart, and some Felliway refills), but I wasn't expecting them that day. And the Fed Ex guy backed up as close to the garage as he could. When there are small items. they just stop at the street and bring the boxes up. So I was a bit curious.
He opened the back of the truck at brought out 2 chewy.com boxes. Which really surprised me because, while I have an autoship arrangement, it wasn't time for one and I always get an email first. So I just dragged the boxes into the garage.
I had thought to email Chewy about the "gift" shipment, but I opened the boxes first. It wasn't stuff I order! So I glanced at the label to get the order number to see if I had possibly ordered something new (which I was sure I hadn't of course) and noticed the name and address wasn't mine. It was a neighbor.
Well, I HAD mentioned my surprise the the driver, and he mentioned there were 2 other regular Chewy customers right on my street (which only has 20 houses on it) and indeed, he had 2 more Chewy boxes to deliver further down the street.
I SHOULD have realized there was an error right then, but who thinks quickly when surprised?
So I looked up the name on Whitepages.com and found one with an address on my street and 2 phone numbers. I got a lady who said "he moved away 4 years ago". Oh drat. Wait, then why was a delivery being made there after 4 years? So I asked if I was talking to (the address on the box)?
It was his mother (at some other address). The address on whitepages.com was right, the phone number was old! So I explained everything and she cracked up. And said she would call him immediately to come and pick up the boxes.
Which he did in about 30 minutes. Turns out he has Chewy autoshipping too. We had a good laugh about the entire error. He is going to correct his phone number on whitepages.com.
Meanwhile, he had done exactly what I do about tracking orders and had seen the "delivered" notice and knew he hadn't received the order. So he contacted them and they had already sent a replacement order before his mother called him to let him know I had his stuff!
Which meant he was getting a whole free order. Soooo, I said, "How about I keep the bag of kitty litter and you make off with all the other free goodies"? He laughed and handed me the bag of litter. It was the least part of the order.
So...
1. The Fed Ex guy delivered the package to the wrong address.
2. I had to spend time figuring out where it belonged.
3. The whitepages.com site had old information.
4. Chewy did good customer service.
5. The rightful recipient had to go out of his way to get his order.
6. But he is getting a whole new order free.
7. I got a free bag of kitty litter as a reward for my efforts.
8. Chewy will have a very routine claim against Fed Ex and get their cost back.
9. Fed Ex will ultimately pay for their delivery error.
It all works out nicely for all involved except the Fed Ex people who made the error!
Don't you wish everything worked out that nicely?
Monday, June 25, 2018
Mole Repellent
Nothing like things that don't work to work to get the blood flowing! The moles finally discovered my raised garden beds and the voles followed the tunnels.
I had a bag of castor oil pellets same to use around veggies, so I spread them around there. I also had several bottles of liquid sprayable castor oil but with something in it that shouldn't be around veggies and it went downhill from there!
There were 2 ways they suggested applying the liquid. The first was a hose-end sprayer. That is basically a small container where you put in a certain amount of the undiluted liquid and add some water and the water from the hose pulls up a small amount as you spray water from the hose.
The other is using a dedicated pump sprayer that you just add some of the liquid repellent and a lot of water and pump the sprayer full of air to force it out the end of a wand.
Both drive me NUTS! As far as I can tell, unless either are pure water, they clog.
Using the hose-end sprayer, the mole repellent turned to foam and would get sucked up with the hose water. I mean, nothing like spraying water all over the yard and discovering that the hose-end container is as full of the application liquid as when you started. Great! I just watered a lawn that was already soaked with weeks of rain!
I took the thing apart, made sure everything was working, tried it again, and got the same result. You can't get this liquid to suck in with the hose water.
So I tried a pump sprayer. I even have 3 of them. One is dedicated to herbicides for wild English ivy, another persistent vine, and poison ivy death. I can't use that one for any other purpose. The other 2 are ones that are hard to use. I have taken them both apart a few times and gotten them working perfectly. They don't stay working long. Apparently, the least bit of solid matter stops them completely. I'm not sure whether to try and clean them out again or give the the "Sledgehammer Of Death" before sending them to the trash can. There is a certain satisfaction in that. I need to find a better pump sprayer...
If you have one, please tell me...
You know what finally worked? A simple watering can. I mixed the mole repellent in a 5 gallon bucket, filled the 2.5 gallon watering can and put tape inside to output nozzle to make it dribble the mole repellent out slowly to spread it evenly. And did that 25 times! Sometimes, you just have to accept doing things slowly if you want a good result. But it was a long afternoon!
One nice thing was that I could especially pour the castor oil mix on the tunnels AND into the vole holes.
And I timed it well. The idea is to get the castor oil liquid onto the soil and then have it soaked in with rain or hose water. It started raining again just when predicted.
So I went inside, washed off any residual mole repellent spray, gave The Mews special treats, played toys with them, and we all had a good dinner an hour later.
The Mews hated being inside all day, but I didn't want them walking around on the stuff and then licking their paws. And even better, it rained another1/2" as I was typing this. It is safe now. They can go out in the afternoon.
My hope is that the moles will decide neighbors' yards are better territory. My understanding of castor oil is that it makes the worms and grubs taste bad. And possibly makes them smell "wrong" to their mates and makes them not happy staying together as Mr and Mrs Mole.
And it isn't the moles I am after all that much (though I regret the earthworms they eat). It is the damn voles that use they tunnels to get at plant roots. No moles, fewer voles...
I had a bag of castor oil pellets same to use around veggies, so I spread them around there. I also had several bottles of liquid sprayable castor oil but with something in it that shouldn't be around veggies and it went downhill from there!
There were 2 ways they suggested applying the liquid. The first was a hose-end sprayer. That is basically a small container where you put in a certain amount of the undiluted liquid and add some water and the water from the hose pulls up a small amount as you spray water from the hose.
The other is using a dedicated pump sprayer that you just add some of the liquid repellent and a lot of water and pump the sprayer full of air to force it out the end of a wand.
Both drive me NUTS! As far as I can tell, unless either are pure water, they clog.
Using the hose-end sprayer, the mole repellent turned to foam and would get sucked up with the hose water. I mean, nothing like spraying water all over the yard and discovering that the hose-end container is as full of the application liquid as when you started. Great! I just watered a lawn that was already soaked with weeks of rain!
I took the thing apart, made sure everything was working, tried it again, and got the same result. You can't get this liquid to suck in with the hose water.
So I tried a pump sprayer. I even have 3 of them. One is dedicated to herbicides for wild English ivy, another persistent vine, and poison ivy death. I can't use that one for any other purpose. The other 2 are ones that are hard to use. I have taken them both apart a few times and gotten them working perfectly. They don't stay working long. Apparently, the least bit of solid matter stops them completely. I'm not sure whether to try and clean them out again or give the the "Sledgehammer Of Death" before sending them to the trash can. There is a certain satisfaction in that. I need to find a better pump sprayer...
If you have one, please tell me...
You know what finally worked? A simple watering can. I mixed the mole repellent in a 5 gallon bucket, filled the 2.5 gallon watering can and put tape inside to output nozzle to make it dribble the mole repellent out slowly to spread it evenly. And did that 25 times! Sometimes, you just have to accept doing things slowly if you want a good result. But it was a long afternoon!
One nice thing was that I could especially pour the castor oil mix on the tunnels AND into the vole holes.
And I timed it well. The idea is to get the castor oil liquid onto the soil and then have it soaked in with rain or hose water. It started raining again just when predicted.
So I went inside, washed off any residual mole repellent spray, gave The Mews special treats, played toys with them, and we all had a good dinner an hour later.
The Mews hated being inside all day, but I didn't want them walking around on the stuff and then licking their paws. And even better, it rained another1/2" as I was typing this. It is safe now. They can go out in the afternoon.
My hope is that the moles will decide neighbors' yards are better territory. My understanding of castor oil is that it makes the worms and grubs taste bad. And possibly makes them smell "wrong" to their mates and makes them not happy staying together as Mr and Mrs Mole.
And it isn't the moles I am after all that much (though I regret the earthworms they eat). It is the damn voles that use they tunnels to get at plant roots. No moles, fewer voles...
Saturday, June 16, 2018
A Slight Political Rant
I completely understand that reasonable people can disagree about the proper goals of government and how to get those goals promoted. I have absolutely no problem with rational and thoughtful debate, and I understand that things can get emotional and intense.
For example, I am not a general fan of US Republican ideology. The idea that corporations can be trusted to self-regulate always seems to be disproved by what they actually do. The idea that scientists are making false claims about the climate, the safety of water and food, and the proper way to rehabiliate prisoners (among many issues) seems to me to be a matter of wishing vs reality. And all evidence I see suggests that giving money to the rich does not result in "trickle-down" economics.
And I might naturally be one of them. I'm an "older white male with accumulated self-earned assets who worked hard, invested in the stock market, and believes that "success" is generally self-driven".
So why am I not a Republican? Because I had advantages many others did not. And because a functional democracy has to allow social and economic mobilty.
For starters, let's just say that I had middle class parents who could live in a safe suburban neighborhood, I attended a safe suburban school, and I had safe suburban friends, all of whom were "just like me". Of my senior high school class of 254 students, only 4 did not graduate and THAT was actually a sort of scandal. There were some "minority students" in the school, but my recollection was that they were treated the same as the the rest of us (they might disagree), but even they were from middle class professional families and living in the same neighborhoods. Their parents attended the same neighborhood parties.
I was probably about 16 when I discovered that there was another high school in town (when I got my learner's permit and drove around town. It was decrepit. It looked like a prison (barred windows - ours opened), had a small playground with rough ground and no grass - ours was a couple acres and had actual grass), our school was neat and clean on the outside - that one was spray painted with words I didn't even know.
I asked my parents about it. They said it was a poor school because the parents of the kids who went there were poor and couldn't donate much to their school. But they also said it was about racism, politics, and that they routinely voted for town officials who promised to fix those things but those people never got elected.
You do have to understand that, in the 1960s, kids even at 16 years old were not so much exposed to reality outside their neighborhoods. We didn't have much on TV to watch other than national news, sitcoms and western show, and cartoons. We watched Walter Chronkite, Bonanza, Disney, and The Flintstones.
I went to school, did my assigned homework, pulled weeds in the garden, helped my Dad around the yard, learned to play golf as Dad's caddy, played some football and board games with friends, and that was about IT!
Two years later and I was thrown into college at the safe State University. I was supposed to learn some academic skill, get a good job, and carry on the White European tradition. I went to college in 1968, and The Vietnam War got in the way. I started to learn things I wasn't supposed to learn.
I learned about the treatment about minorities. I learned about inequities. I learned that not all was fair. I learned that minority students faced difficulties I did not.
And the Vietnam War was bad, but worse for minority soldiers than white soldiers. They didn't get promoted as readily, so they were on the front lines more often. When they came home wounded, they didn't get the same treatment.
And to be honest here, I was never in Vietnam. My college deferment protected me until the government had that one massive lottery and I dropped my college deferment and I drew a number never called. If my number had come up, I would have gone, and I would probably be a very different person than I am today. But my number wasn't called.
So I stayed in college and started thinking about things. I changed my major from mechanicl engineering to political science and started studying people and society and how "it all worked". I had been vaguely Progressive Republican and changed to Progressive Democrat. There is a difference.
The former has a "noblesse oblige"aspect of helping those lesser than you; the latter has more of a "we are all equal so help those who need help". I fail sometimes in attitude sometimes, but I keep in mind that a good start in life helps make a better future for most people.
I know too many people who think that skin color somehow implies ability. I know why skin varies and it is just a general adaptation to sunlight exposure. There is a reason why Scandinavians have whiter skin than Southern Europeans and them being lighter than Africans. It has nothing to do with intelligence or ability. It has everything to do with history and geographical advantages.
Read 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' sometime. It will open your eyes.
Meanwhile, for the rest of my life after college, I have supported ideas to make the cultural and financial differences of minorities fairer.
It's why I am a Democrat now. Things have to become fairer. That is basically the whole premise of a fair society. I cannot not support the "Me First" attitude of the Republicans. And to be honest, I think some Democrats go overboard. But given 10 issues, I will probably agree with the Democrats on 8.
OK, I've had my say on the subject.
For example, I am not a general fan of US Republican ideology. The idea that corporations can be trusted to self-regulate always seems to be disproved by what they actually do. The idea that scientists are making false claims about the climate, the safety of water and food, and the proper way to rehabiliate prisoners (among many issues) seems to me to be a matter of wishing vs reality. And all evidence I see suggests that giving money to the rich does not result in "trickle-down" economics.
And I might naturally be one of them. I'm an "older white male with accumulated self-earned assets who worked hard, invested in the stock market, and believes that "success" is generally self-driven".
So why am I not a Republican? Because I had advantages many others did not. And because a functional democracy has to allow social and economic mobilty.
For starters, let's just say that I had middle class parents who could live in a safe suburban neighborhood, I attended a safe suburban school, and I had safe suburban friends, all of whom were "just like me". Of my senior high school class of 254 students, only 4 did not graduate and THAT was actually a sort of scandal. There were some "minority students" in the school, but my recollection was that they were treated the same as the the rest of us (they might disagree), but even they were from middle class professional families and living in the same neighborhoods. Their parents attended the same neighborhood parties.
I was probably about 16 when I discovered that there was another high school in town (when I got my learner's permit and drove around town. It was decrepit. It looked like a prison (barred windows - ours opened), had a small playground with rough ground and no grass - ours was a couple acres and had actual grass), our school was neat and clean on the outside - that one was spray painted with words I didn't even know.
I asked my parents about it. They said it was a poor school because the parents of the kids who went there were poor and couldn't donate much to their school. But they also said it was about racism, politics, and that they routinely voted for town officials who promised to fix those things but those people never got elected.
You do have to understand that, in the 1960s, kids even at 16 years old were not so much exposed to reality outside their neighborhoods. We didn't have much on TV to watch other than national news, sitcoms and western show, and cartoons. We watched Walter Chronkite, Bonanza, Disney, and The Flintstones.
I went to school, did my assigned homework, pulled weeds in the garden, helped my Dad around the yard, learned to play golf as Dad's caddy, played some football and board games with friends, and that was about IT!
Two years later and I was thrown into college at the safe State University. I was supposed to learn some academic skill, get a good job, and carry on the White European tradition. I went to college in 1968, and The Vietnam War got in the way. I started to learn things I wasn't supposed to learn.
I learned about the treatment about minorities. I learned about inequities. I learned that not all was fair. I learned that minority students faced difficulties I did not.
And the Vietnam War was bad, but worse for minority soldiers than white soldiers. They didn't get promoted as readily, so they were on the front lines more often. When they came home wounded, they didn't get the same treatment.
And to be honest here, I was never in Vietnam. My college deferment protected me until the government had that one massive lottery and I dropped my college deferment and I drew a number never called. If my number had come up, I would have gone, and I would probably be a very different person than I am today. But my number wasn't called.
So I stayed in college and started thinking about things. I changed my major from mechanicl engineering to political science and started studying people and society and how "it all worked". I had been vaguely Progressive Republican and changed to Progressive Democrat. There is a difference.
The former has a "noblesse oblige"aspect of helping those lesser than you; the latter has more of a "we are all equal so help those who need help". I fail sometimes in attitude sometimes, but I keep in mind that a good start in life helps make a better future for most people.
I know too many people who think that skin color somehow implies ability. I know why skin varies and it is just a general adaptation to sunlight exposure. There is a reason why Scandinavians have whiter skin than Southern Europeans and them being lighter than Africans. It has nothing to do with intelligence or ability. It has everything to do with history and geographical advantages.
Read 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' sometime. It will open your eyes.
Meanwhile, for the rest of my life after college, I have supported ideas to make the cultural and financial differences of minorities fairer.
It's why I am a Democrat now. Things have to become fairer. That is basically the whole premise of a fair society. I cannot not support the "Me First" attitude of the Republicans. And to be honest, I think some Democrats go overboard. But given 10 issues, I will probably agree with the Democrats on 8.
OK, I've had my say on the subject.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Odds and Ends
No recent updates on my niece and the consequences of the accident. News could come tomorrow or in months.
I basically solved my confusion about the EU GDPR notice requiring even foreigners to post about cookie use. I found a brief one elsewhere and stole it. It seems to say enough. Feel free to steal it yourself from here (right under the header). I think that, after a month, I will move it to the bottom of the blog, and later, somewhere barely findable. Eventually, it will become nearly meaningless like "This site complies with all international laws applicable in the United States Courts to the best of our understanding.
I do NOT like that Blogger has eliminated forwarding of comments to email account. There was no reason given. If it saved them money, they should say so. If they polled the community and got a positive response to the idea, they should say so.
The change is a real inconvenience to me. I mean, no complaint to Blogger if they had a good reason, but none was given.
I'm also annoyed about the end to Open ID commenters. I have enough of them who are frustrated and they are long-time commenters who don't want to establish Google accounts. Its not up to ME if they should or should not.
The rain as been amazing this Spring. Starting in early May, it has rained about 16-20" total. I didn't keep track (at the start, who knew it would be a lot?). But I have a good rain gauge and a general idea of how many times I have seen 1/4" to 3".
And the hardest thing is that it has been rather steady. 3" was a LOT at once. But most times it is 1/2" every day or so. The problem is that it keeps the soil soaked. You plant seeds in soaked soil and they just rot.
Joke: "I planted rice in early May and they have all drowned".
Seriously, I have lost a month of planting. I planted 4 square feet of Spinach and got only 4 seedlings. There should have been 4 dozen. And I can't plant my deck pots when they are all mud. Squishing around the wet soil creates little tubs that dry out and form hard layers later that flower roots don't penetrate well.
I have molehills EVERYWHERE! The soft soil is like Heaven to them. They are even in the front lawn and I've never had them there before; it is usually too hard for them to dig through. And the voles use the mole tunnels to get at plant roots. I'm going to have to spray carol oil over the yard. That doesn't bother the earthworms the moles feed on, but apparently, it gives them an awful taste to the moles, so they go elsewhere. and if there are no mole tunnels, the voles are forced aboveground where nearly everything wants to eat them.
Their are mole poisons, but I can't use them. A poisoned mole can mean a poisoned predator (like my cats). And I've never found a mole trap that had any meaningful affect. You spike or whatever an few adult moles and it makes little difference. There are always a few fertile adults left and that means more mole babies. You have to make the adult moles actually LEAVE!
I've started unclutterring the house. Well, you have to unclutter before you can clean, and I've let that go for too long. And no matter what you want to do, something else seems to have to be done first. So I looked around for "first things".
I tend to save interesting home maintenance, gardening articles and recipes out of the newspaper and stack them on a corner of the dining table. I went through the stack and threw most of them away. I'm not really ever going to make those fancy chocolate truffles or hazelnut cookies, I'm not going to make those "tandoori/honey/duck burritos", and I really don't need a 13th way to BBQ a chicken...
And really, if I ever need to refinish a water-spot on a table top or re-grout a tile, I'll just look it up on the internet. It is time to stop saving information when it it so easily available online!
What I DO need to do is collect all the random stuff off the living room bookcases. There are aquarium supplies sitting there. So I need to enclose the existing aquarium stand with wall panel wood and make doors so the stuff has a place to be altogether and out of sight.
And move some kitchen appliances I seldom use out of the cat-stuff closet to above the cabinets, making room for the 2 shelves of cat toys so THEY are out of sight (but surely not forgotten).
And then move some stacked books INTO the bookcases, etc... Figuring out the FIRST thing to do is very important, or else I just end up shifting the clutter around...
And then there is the Cat Room. Which doubles as a storage room. My Xmas decorations are still out loose. I could spend a whole day just in there! I would like to store them up in the attic, but I had some energy-saving contractor in there a few years ago insulating the place 12' deep (and have never noticed any reduction in my electric bill). So it is time to put down some plywood flooring (like I used to have there). And I still have the plywood I originally installed and then removed for the increased insulation in my basement. But that has to be done before I can move the seldom-used Xmas decorations up there.
There is always something that has to be dome first...
I basically solved my confusion about the EU GDPR notice requiring even foreigners to post about cookie use. I found a brief one elsewhere and stole it. It seems to say enough. Feel free to steal it yourself from here (right under the header). I think that, after a month, I will move it to the bottom of the blog, and later, somewhere barely findable. Eventually, it will become nearly meaningless like "This site complies with all international laws applicable in the United States Courts to the best of our understanding.
I do NOT like that Blogger has eliminated forwarding of comments to email account. There was no reason given. If it saved them money, they should say so. If they polled the community and got a positive response to the idea, they should say so.
The change is a real inconvenience to me. I mean, no complaint to Blogger if they had a good reason, but none was given.
I'm also annoyed about the end to Open ID commenters. I have enough of them who are frustrated and they are long-time commenters who don't want to establish Google accounts. Its not up to ME if they should or should not.
The rain as been amazing this Spring. Starting in early May, it has rained about 16-20" total. I didn't keep track (at the start, who knew it would be a lot?). But I have a good rain gauge and a general idea of how many times I have seen 1/4" to 3".
And the hardest thing is that it has been rather steady. 3" was a LOT at once. But most times it is 1/2" every day or so. The problem is that it keeps the soil soaked. You plant seeds in soaked soil and they just rot.
Joke: "I planted rice in early May and they have all drowned".
Seriously, I have lost a month of planting. I planted 4 square feet of Spinach and got only 4 seedlings. There should have been 4 dozen. And I can't plant my deck pots when they are all mud. Squishing around the wet soil creates little tubs that dry out and form hard layers later that flower roots don't penetrate well.
I have molehills EVERYWHERE! The soft soil is like Heaven to them. They are even in the front lawn and I've never had them there before; it is usually too hard for them to dig through. And the voles use the mole tunnels to get at plant roots. I'm going to have to spray carol oil over the yard. That doesn't bother the earthworms the moles feed on, but apparently, it gives them an awful taste to the moles, so they go elsewhere. and if there are no mole tunnels, the voles are forced aboveground where nearly everything wants to eat them.
Their are mole poisons, but I can't use them. A poisoned mole can mean a poisoned predator (like my cats). And I've never found a mole trap that had any meaningful affect. You spike or whatever an few adult moles and it makes little difference. There are always a few fertile adults left and that means more mole babies. You have to make the adult moles actually LEAVE!
I've started unclutterring the house. Well, you have to unclutter before you can clean, and I've let that go for too long. And no matter what you want to do, something else seems to have to be done first. So I looked around for "first things".
I tend to save interesting home maintenance, gardening articles and recipes out of the newspaper and stack them on a corner of the dining table. I went through the stack and threw most of them away. I'm not really ever going to make those fancy chocolate truffles or hazelnut cookies, I'm not going to make those "tandoori/honey/duck burritos", and I really don't need a 13th way to BBQ a chicken...
And really, if I ever need to refinish a water-spot on a table top or re-grout a tile, I'll just look it up on the internet. It is time to stop saving information when it it so easily available online!
What I DO need to do is collect all the random stuff off the living room bookcases. There are aquarium supplies sitting there. So I need to enclose the existing aquarium stand with wall panel wood and make doors so the stuff has a place to be altogether and out of sight.
And move some kitchen appliances I seldom use out of the cat-stuff closet to above the cabinets, making room for the 2 shelves of cat toys so THEY are out of sight (but surely not forgotten).
And then move some stacked books INTO the bookcases, etc... Figuring out the FIRST thing to do is very important, or else I just end up shifting the clutter around...
And then there is the Cat Room. Which doubles as a storage room. My Xmas decorations are still out loose. I could spend a whole day just in there! I would like to store them up in the attic, but I had some energy-saving contractor in there a few years ago insulating the place 12' deep (and have never noticed any reduction in my electric bill). So it is time to put down some plywood flooring (like I used to have there). And I still have the plywood I originally installed and then removed for the increased insulation in my basement. But that has to be done before I can move the seldom-used Xmas decorations up there.
There is always something that has to be dome first...
Friday, June 8, 2018
Hard Days
I think I am starting to wear out. I turned 68 two weeks ago, but that is too early these days.
I pulled weeds for 2 hours yesterday and ended up with involuntary finger clenches again. It happens more and more frequently these days when I do gripping work. It never bothers me at the time, but 2 hours later, some fingers decide to clamp tight.
The computer world is escaping from my mental grip. I've never had more than a desktop computer and a laptop. The new EU law really got me to realize I could follow help rules. And I get angry about changes like that Blogger won't forward blog comments to my email (which I am used to) for no reason I can find.
More blogs demand I enter my blog name and email and blog url, and that is getting annoying. That stuff used to autofill and it doesn't now. So it gets harder to visit cat-blogs now.
My teeth are falling apart. I've been to my dentist 6 times in 3 months. The last time was to replace an old crown that had developed a hole in the top. He said I could have it replaced or wait a year and have the tooth pulled. I went for the new cap.
Which came off the night it was installed. Hadn't even eaten anything yet since my jaw was still numb. I could only get an appointment yesterday morning. And oddly, the cap wouldn't set properly (though it did before).
I'll bet that means the permanent one will need a lot of adjusting. I'm sure not looking forward to THAT in 3 weeks.
I find it hard to sit at the computer and visit my blogging friends. There are always emails that seem more "urgent" these days, and I love those too. I'm just not balancing things... You know?
I'm going through some changes, and I don't know where I am going to come out.
Please forgive me if I don't visit for a bit. I love you all and your visits matter to me. My "To Do" list is just too long. If I don't attack the wild blackberries and english ivy in the back yard and the poison ivy spreading everywhere, I'm going to completely lose control of the yard.
I shouldn't be feeling this old at only 68!
I pulled weeds for 2 hours yesterday and ended up with involuntary finger clenches again. It happens more and more frequently these days when I do gripping work. It never bothers me at the time, but 2 hours later, some fingers decide to clamp tight.
The computer world is escaping from my mental grip. I've never had more than a desktop computer and a laptop. The new EU law really got me to realize I could follow help rules. And I get angry about changes like that Blogger won't forward blog comments to my email (which I am used to) for no reason I can find.
More blogs demand I enter my blog name and email and blog url, and that is getting annoying. That stuff used to autofill and it doesn't now. So it gets harder to visit cat-blogs now.
My teeth are falling apart. I've been to my dentist 6 times in 3 months. The last time was to replace an old crown that had developed a hole in the top. He said I could have it replaced or wait a year and have the tooth pulled. I went for the new cap.
Which came off the night it was installed. Hadn't even eaten anything yet since my jaw was still numb. I could only get an appointment yesterday morning. And oddly, the cap wouldn't set properly (though it did before).
I'll bet that means the permanent one will need a lot of adjusting. I'm sure not looking forward to THAT in 3 weeks.
I find it hard to sit at the computer and visit my blogging friends. There are always emails that seem more "urgent" these days, and I love those too. I'm just not balancing things... You know?
I'm going through some changes, and I don't know where I am going to come out.
Please forgive me if I don't visit for a bit. I love you all and your visits matter to me. My "To Do" list is just too long. If I don't attack the wild blackberries and english ivy in the back yard and the poison ivy spreading everywhere, I'm going to completely lose control of the yard.
I shouldn't be feeling this old at only 68!
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