Real ID Program

The US Government started a program of pre-documenting US international airplane travellers here years ago.  The idea was that citizens' driver licenses would have a marker on them showing that proof of residency was documented.  Apparently, few people participated in that program.  And I'm not making any political statement here.  I don't object to proving who I am, within limits.

The program morphed...

So early this year, I received a notice from the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) saying that I had to present certain documents by December 12 2019 or I couldn't use my drivers license to prove who I was more airplane flights.  I ignored  it.  I don't plan on any flights in the future and it seemed "bothersome".

Then they said I wouldn't be able to renew my license without presenting the documents.  OK, Mine is good for 4 years, no rush. 

Then they said my license could be recalled if I didn't present the documents.  And that was a problem.  The documents included my Social Security Card, an original or certified copy of my Birth Certificate, 2 proofs of Maryland residency, and a Tax W-2 form.

Well, my Social Security Card was gone when I lost a wallet 30 years ago.  And since (as a Federal Employee) I was never qualified for Social Security anyway, so I didn't worry about it..  I also didn't have an original or certified copy of my Birth Certificate (just a photocopy).  And as a retired Federal Employee, I don't get a W-2  form (just a different one..

But since Maryland threatened to recall my license, I decided I had to comply.  There WERE allowances.  Other legal documents showing my Social Security Number were permitted, alternate tax forms were permitted.  Proof of State residency was acknowledged via utility bills, property tax bills, etc.  Photocopies were fine but I missed the part about the Birth Certificate having to be original or certified.

The website appointment section was unusable.  I don't know WHY government offices can't get such simple things to work.  I actually tried for several months.  I would fill in all the data and then the site would just "stop". 

So I called to make an appointment.  It only took 3 telephone menus and 20 minutes hold time, but I got through.  The agent was friendly and helpful.  I got a "15 minute wait time guarantee".  I arrived and was called up in 5 minutes.

My Birth Certificate photocopy was rejected.  I said it was all I had.  The agent expalined that I could drive to the State of my birth and get one or contact them by phone for instructions to mail me one.  OK.  Well, it WAS my fault I missed the "original or certified" requirement on the email they sent. 

So I got home and checked my birth State website, got instructions and started to write a letter.  But in filing away my "precious" birth certificate (BC) copy, I noticed a few other folded stuff in the file I got after Dad died. 

You guessed it, one was a certified copy of my BC!  I was amazed.

So I called the DMV again, dreading a weeks-long appointment back-up.  I have one for tomorrow!  All will be legal again...

I'm still not sure why the State government  was involved.  Probably some Federal threat of reduced funding.  I don't really blame them for it all.  And the Federal Government seems to have been merely trying to have been trying to speed up airflight check-in faster by pre-clearing passengers.

And, like I said, this isn't a political statement.  But it sure could have been easier and less-threatening a process.  And this is one of those situations where legal residents have to jump through some hoops and people wanting to be deceptive could have easily faked the documents.

Oh well, one more thing off the to-do list...

Found It!

Last December , I received an updated credit card.  New expiration date.  But since the old one was still good, I set it aside where I couldn't lose it.  I lost it. 

I knew it was in the house.  So it wasn't a matter of someone else finding it.  When the old one expired, I went nuts trying to find the new one.  You know, searching every coat pocket, looking under every stack of stuff, under the furniture, etc.  So I used the number where I didn't need to show the card.  Online, for recurring automatic payments, etc.

I found it today!  I was making holiday cards and lifted my pack of cardstock in the file cabinet drawer.  There it was...  I just stared for a moment, but that was exactly the kind of place I would have expected to EVENTUALLY find it.

Isn't it nice to have a year-long mystery solved?

Shutting Down For Winter

I use a coiled hose for watering the deck pots.  But when cold weather comes, I drain all the yard hoses and shut off the faucets so no freeze damage occurs.  And usually, I leave the coile one sitting around.  It's pretty awkward to store.  But this year I did...

Sometimes you just want things to be put away for the season properly...  I bought it about 10 years ago because that was the hose the people at the local DIY store were using.

After I bought it, I found the ratings were poor.  But it has worked great here.  Well, the worst thing you can do to any garden hose is leave it outside with water in it that freezes and expands.

I drain all my regular hoses carefully and they seem to last forever..  The coiled one is hard to drain.  So I held it over the deck and used an air pressure pump to force all the water out.  Even after I had let it drain over the edge of the deck, there was still a lot of water the air pump forced out.

NOW I'm satisfied it won't have any freeze problems over Winter and it can sit safely in the original holder!

Daily Stuff

I spend yesterday in the basement.  It needed some work...

I had too many things sitting out that needed to be put away.  I had leftover pansies that needed to be under lights until I get them outside.  I had garden supplies all over the place that needed to be put away in some orderly fashion.

I had an outside plastic watering can that was ruined because I kept unscrewing the top off to get toads out.  Why they loved being in the top is beyond my comprehension, but eventually the screw top broke.

My in-line vent humidifier had failed, so I had ordered a few new parts.

I had 4' fluorescent bulbs in the light stand that had died.

There was ice under the basement fridge freezer.

So I got to work at it all...

I replaced the dead bulbs in the light stand.  I'm fussy about the bulbs.  The best for seedlings are 5000-6000 lumens.  I don't have garden seedlings growing, but I'm growing celery, basil and 4 kinds of lettuce.

I have 2 shelves under a part of the stairs, so I organized them all by type on the shelves, and got my table saw top cleaned of them.  I have a sliding cover system for the shelves, but that is for another day.

I looked at the watering can and decided it might be repairable.  If I cut the spout to allow te spray head to just fit in, rubber contact cement might work.  So I tried cutting it with my hack saw and made no progress.  But I had a 2nd hacksaw (small and designed for narrow cuts) it cut right through.  Apparntly, I need a new blade on the larger hacksaw.

I shook up the rubber cement contact cement as directed.  Applied it to the water can and the sprayer part separately.  Now, understand that when you use contact cement, it wants to adhere immediately.  No twisting or anything.  "CONTACT", right?

And I wanted to move it a bit.  Well, I decided that it could be fast but not "intsantaneous".  So, I set the watering can into a vice, held the spout in position, and then smacked the spout with a rubber mallet!  And then brushed more contact cement around the joint.  I'll find out if that worked tommorrow.

Then I went at the humidifier.  My original one was a turning sponge in a tray of water.  That worked well.  But it eventually died and I tried one that had water dripping over a ceramic honeycomb.  That was wasteful.  It was like a badly dripping faucet.

So I bought a new one like the first.  It was good for several years.  But you had to remove all the water mineral deposits from the rotating sponge and tray water once a month.  I'm not great at routine maintenance...

But it is better than wasting water like the drip system.  So I bought a new rotating sponge and some other parts.  And set about installing them.  What a frustrating experience.  Every connection leaked.

I finally surrounded all the threads with pipe tape and tightened them as hard as i dared.  The floater (that controls the level of water in the tray) was counterintuitive.  A screw adjust the level where the float shuts off new water inflow.  But loosening the screw REDUCES the inflow.  That threw me off for a while.  Because when you put pressuse on the adjustment screw, it actually increases the waterflow while you are adjusting the screw to reduce the waterflow.  The pressure of the screwdriver fools you.

I finally figured that out.  It's working perfectly now.

The basement refrigerator is 25 years old.  It probably costs me more money than the stuff I keep in it.  Last month, I noticed a lump of ice in the refrigeration area and chipped it off.  It's growing again.  My currebt refrigerator is 15 years old and it doesn't recoup the cool temp very well.  I'm thinking of buying a pure refrigerator for the kitchen and a separate dedicated freezer for the basement.

Anyone who has done the like it?

Lots more things to do in the next few days.  I looked at the trees and they have no more leaves, so I can mow the leaves into the lawn when it gets dry in a few days. 

Shopping On Black Friday

Well, I don't.  I hate crowds.  In fact, the only place I will shop today is the grocery store.  I'm out of fresh fruit, lettuce, and milk.

In fact, I probably won't be in any store until after New Years Day.  So thank you Amazon!  No crowds THERE!

I placed an order there Wednesday (why wait?).  My sponge mop sponge fell apart and wasn't available locally, so I needed a new replacement sponge.  I ordered 2.  I doubt they will be available in a few years. 

I ordered a pack of tank top undershirts.  If that seems odd, its because I twist and turn a lot in bed and rip the seams of regular V-Neck ones.  Walmart never has the tank tops in my size. 

I ordered a cheap plastic watering can.  The reviews suggested that most more expensive models all had the same problems, but the cheaper one sometimes had pinhole leaks.  I can fix that easily.  So if I have to repair a pinhole leak in most, cheap is OK.

Mom sent me 2 microwave-safe plates decades ago.  I ruined one recently by trying to cook bacon on it.  The plate was M/W safe, but not "hot-oil" safe. 

Finally, I was watching an episode of 'Good Eats" with my favorite cook, Alton Brown.  He was using a mandolin.  Now, I ENJOY prepared veggies and using knives.  And I have some really good knives (Wusthof Classic - Got it 30% when a store went out of business).  But as I get older, my hands are wobblier.

So the idea of a mandolin was interesting.  Consumer Report said Zyliss had the best of basic models.  Safe, accurate, easy to use, and dishwasher safe.  So I ordered one as a gift to myself (who knows what you really want better than you do yourself, right?).

I have a Vegamatic in an closet.  It works but takes forever to clean.  I'll be glad to throw it away...

You ever buy As Seen On TV stuff?  Sometimes I do.  The Ginsu knives were good.  I actually tossed a ripe tomato at one of the knives and it did fall into 2 halves!  So was a stackable food container system (and wish I had more of them). 

So shopping is going to be entirely online for 6 weeks...  Except food.

Cleaning Leads To More Cleaning

All I wanted to do was clean the bathroom.  I did the usual from up to down and then it came time to mop the floor.

The sqeezie sponge disintegrated!  The local stores did not stock a replacement.  So, I wiped the floor with small towel from a bucket.  And then wiped it again with clean water.  The mats were drying after being soaked in the laundry tub with a bit of laundry detergent.  After they were rinsed several times the next day outside (garden hose and I left them out to be rained on), I waited for them to dry.

They wouldn't.  Cold humidity is really useless for drying.  It took 5 days for them to get half dry and then I just dragged them into the basement and waited.  And waited.  So they eventually dried and I was ready to put them back in place.

But there was dry grit on the floor, so I decided to vacuum the floor with my stick vacuum.  After a pass, there was more dirt on the floor then before.  Oh damn.  So I dragged the larger cannister vacuum out.  That was useless!  No pickup at all.

So I checked the both for being filled.  The stick bagless container was empty.  The cannister bag was empty.  That meant problems.

I'm not the world's best fix-it guy.  But I can try some things by logic.  It took 15 minutes to figure out how to take the cannister suction head apart.  I got the screws all loose easily, but nothing wanted to come aprt.  Which made no sense.  What were the screws for?

It occurred to me to turn the suction head over.  Then the top came right off.  You wouldn't belief what I found inside!  The entire suction head was packed with cat hair.  There was almost an entire cat in there.  And to be fair given the length, a fair amount of my own hair.

I started by just picking stuff out from the brushes.  Then I realized it was far more involved.  I got some pliers to pull more out. But if I had it to do over again, I would have brought it to the garage and used the air compressor and blow it all out faster.

On the other hand, I know more about the insides of the suction head, so maybe it was worth it.  In any case, when I put it back together, it worked like NEW!  Dang the sucker (literally) worked great.  So I did the rest of the house.

That's how things go sometimes.  You try to do a small thing and it turns into a big thing and you are glad you did it.  I did the whole kitchen like that last week.  Started with cleaning the M/W and the entire kitchen was clean 3 hours later.

And I did get the bathroom mats set back in place...

Product Question

I have a 60" LED TV.  The sound is "OK".  I've looked at ratings for sound bars at Consumer Reports and Amazon.  What I can't figure out is whether a sound bar would actually provide better sound than the TV already does that I would care about.

And the price varies so much!  Is any of it worth it?

Pansies 2

So, I had the pansies randomly sorted by colors (and a dozen of unknown colors).  I had the bed rototilled with a small electric tiller, my measuring stick, a large piece of plywood to reduce soil compression as I kneeled on it, knee-pads to save my aching knees, and a sharp trowel to dig holes for the pansies...

The first row was 12, the second, 11, the 3rd 10, the 4th 9, and the last 8.  It went better than I thought it would.  I get a bit better each time.  Each row is slightly offset from the previous.  And I had a dozen with no flowers, so I didn't know what colors they would be,  so I placed them in the center.  You can't get more random than that.

They will grow larger all Winter.  

Meanwhile, I had set aside some for the deck pots.  I planted those this afternoon and even some leftovers in planters to set out front (surrounded by wire mesh cylinders so the deer can't get at them), but it was too dark to take more pictures.  Sometime soon, though.

Pansies

I love pansies.  They flower in Winter and Spring.  Few plants do.

The local DIY store had a great deal on them.  18 pansies in cell-packs for $16.  Can't beat less than a $1 per plant...  I bought 6 flats of them 3 weeks ago.  Then it turned nasty outside.  When it wasn't raining, it was cold.  Or windy.  And then we went to DST, so it was dark an hour earlier.   I couldn't find a good day to plant them...

But then there was a day good outside, sort of.  Up to 54F and not much wind.  But then I realized I really needed to sort the colors out.

My sunken patio is a good height for that, so I spent an hour doing that.  But then I realized that to plant them "randomly", I needed to have all the colors mixed in the trays where I could easily reach the different ones.  Nothing is simple, LOL!

By then it was getting dark.  DST is a real change here.  Exactly when the DST change happens, the sun path is blow the elevated house west of mine.  I get TWO hours loss of sunlight.  It gets dark at 3:30 pm and cloudy days make it worse.  When I get up and about at 10 am and eat breakfast and read the newspaper by Noon, that doesn't leave much of a day.

But I got them planted.  Descriptions and pictures tomorrow...

New Faucet

OK, it was a couple weeks ago, but I'm just catching up on projects sometimes.

The 33 year old kitchen faucet failed. 

I took a look at it in hopes that maybe some washers would fix it, but no luck.

A plumber examined it and said the parts were no longer available.  I agreed, as the parts were in pieces when revealed.

He brought out some good parts.

After some work, I have a new faucet.  It works very nicely.  In fact it is guaranteed to work longer that I am likely to live.   Ceramic valves etc...

I showed some of this before.  It was to show you this...

The undersink is both clean and organized...

Don't hate me for that.  I promise not to do it again...

Venus Fly Traps

Venus Fly Traps...  They spent a grand Summer out on the deck.  Caught all kinds of small bugs.  And I helped.  Many of those large ants that decided my kitchen compost bin collection bucket was a great buffet came to sad ends.  

I loved watched the traps close on them.  But to be fair, they caught most insects on their own.  I just added a small amount for the pleasure of seeing the traps close.

It's not like insects have much self-awareness.  I once watched a grasshopper caught by a praying mantis and it just kept eating the leaf it had until the mantis finally got to the head.  It didn't seem to know it was being eaten.  So I don't worry about the insects the VFTs catch or are fed.  

And, yeah, I have a certain lethal admiration for plants that can catch and eat insects, since it is usually the other way around.

But it is getting too cold for them outside for the year.  So I brought them into the garage to adjust for the Winter.  By keeping them dark and cold for a few months, they live longer.  Next year, they will grow stronger and send up more traps.

Love them!

Why The Washington Nationals Won The World Series

I caused it.  Yes really...  

Yoy know how some people think that if they root for the home team and wear all the team stuff, it helps the team win?  Even if you just watch the team on TV?

I'm the opposite.  If I wear team stuff, they lose.  If I watch the game, they lose.  If they are winning 4-1 went I'm not watching, they get to losing 5-4 if I watch.  The same thing happens with mens or womens Univ of MD basketball.  If I watch, they lose.  If I come back, they are winning.  If I keep watching, they get behind again.

I know that is all rubbish logically, but the pattern persists.

At the beginning of the last year season, I bought a team hat.

The Nationals went to 19-31.  I stopped wearing it, and they won the World Series.  Is that evidence or what?  OK, it isn't, but the hat sat off my head all after and they won...

And as the announcer says "and another curly W is in the books"!

I will continue to not wear the hat next year...

3 Shots

I never used to worry about getting sick.  I haven't had the flu or even the common cold since I was a teenager.  But I started getting a flu shot when Dad was here because, just because I didn't get sick,  I could carry it.

Now I'm at an age when several things might get past my natural defenses.  So 3 weeks ago, I got the flu shot, a newer shingles shot, and a pneumococcal shot.  All on the same day.

I normally have no reaction to shots, but the 3 combined left my shoulders stiff for several days.  I felt like a baseball pitcher who threw too many pitches.  That's gone now, but OUCH!

I need a 2nd shingles shot in 2 months and another pneumococcal shot next year.  Which is fine.

But I think I won't accept 3 shots in one day again, LOL!

Aquarium

I've had aquariums since I was 20.  My first was built of scrap plastic I found at college.  I kept a few guppies in there.  Then, one day, I visited a department store with a fish area and was offended by all the dead fish in the tanks.  The department manager was drunk.  He asked if I wanted a job.

I should have said "no".  It messed up my college work.  But I was SO broke I accepted.  I cleaned the tanks of dead fish for a few days, started changing the water, read up on fish a bit, and made other improvements.

The company fired the manager and the Assistant Manager was promoted.  She saw what I was doing and asked me to do more.  I set up display tanks, breeding tanks, and even a self-maintaining guppy tank in a 2 gallon "brandy snifter" (I stole it from elsewhere in the store).

I set up Betta breeding tanks, kept the regular tanks perfectly clean.  And flunked out of college (I went back and aced all the classes later).  I had a job and focussed on that.  Bad decision but it made sense at the time.  I was starving and sharing an bad apartment with 5 other guys at the time.

Sadly, the department store closed.  The fish company offerred me a job as manager of their top store location, but I didn't want to move to New Jersey.  I left .

But I've always had an aquarium or two.  50 years of fish that come and go in their short lifespans.  I have sometimes become too casual about them.  I'm down to a couple corydorus, a red-tail shark, an algae-eater, 1 tiger barb and a dwarf gourami.

But I have a glorious amount of live anachris plants so the water is good.  Time to replenish the tank.

I want high fin red minor tetras, cherry barbs, and swordtails.

So I went to Petsmart 2 days ago.  They had fish on sale.  I wait for sales; I'm sensibly cheap.  If waiting a few weeks gets me something I want for less, why not wait.  The freshwater fish only live a few years at best anyway.

I got 5 highfin red minor tetras and 2 painted platys.  They were sold out on the swordtails.  And apparently no one sells cherry barbs anymore.  Which seems odd because even *I* have bred them (decades ago), but who knows the economics of breeding small fish for sale...





I just like to see something moving around in the aquarium.  And they give me something easy to be responsible for...

If you are worried that my hobby is depleting the natural population, my understanding is that these small community fish are bred and raised commercially en masse.  I would stop buying them otherwise.  Just saying...

Veterans Day

Missing Pictures

I posted about some things I've done recently.  But I didn't add pictures the way I usually do.  I was lazy, I admit it.

But here they are...

The broom:

The painted blue planter pots:

I don't recall where I bought them, but they were orange.  The blue is much nicer.  I just hope it lasts.

The old rusted smoker:

It was mostly rusting after many years (even though I mostly kept it covered).  In fact, it is so old, the manufacturer doesn't even sell a cover that fits right.  I will guess 20 years.  It still works.  Partly because I bought 2 specifically shaped metal bases for the charcoal burner offset.  Those are starting to get burnt through and becoming brittle.  Which is why I found a metal roasting pan to set above them and below the charcoal grate.

Cleaning the charcoal burner offset was easy.  Cleaning the cooking area was not.  I had to scrape accumulated meat fat and burnt ashes all inside it.  I have a metal cutting board scooper than worked great for that.  And I have to say that a cleaning product called Kaboom



is a fantastic cleaner.

But back to the smoker...

It looks great, is completely cleaned, and I found a generic cover that fits OK.  I'm leaving the wood platform for Ayla to claw on.  She loves it more than I need it to look perfect.

The Hibachi:

I referred to a "delmonico" to be cooked on the refurbished cast iron Lodge hibachi.  Those those for whom the term is unfamiliar, it is basically a ribeye cut.

"A rib steak is a beef steak sliced from the rib primal of a beef animal, with rib bone attached. In the United States, the term rib eye steak or Spencer steak is used for a rib steak with the bone removed; however in some areas, and outside the U.S., the terms are often used interchangeably. The rib eye or "ribeye" was originally, as the name implies, the center best portion of the rib steak, without the bone.
In Australia and New Zealand, "ribeye" is used when this cut is served with the bone in. With the bone removed, it is called "Scotch fillet".
It is both flavorful and tender, coming from the lightly worked upper rib cage area. Its marbling of fat makes it very good for fast and hot cooking."  ~ Wikipedia

A "hibachi" (in the US) is generally a small charcoal container suited to a single steak or anything of similar size.  I used to have a nice small one but it vanished somewhere along the years.  My current one is larger than I wanted but things get bigger over the years.  My current one is a 2 steak size, but I can live with that.

I painted all of it but the top grate with the 1200F Rustoleum paint after wirebrushing the rust away as best I could.  The Rustoleum instructions said not to paint the cooking surface.  So I oiled it and baked it in the oven the way you would any new cast iron pan.  I mostly use cast iron pans for most of my cooking (and they all have wonderful black patinas inside and are nearly non-stick), so doing that was just a routine matter.  I had planned to use it yesterday, but it was so cold and windy (and the hibachi is open on top) that I decided to postpone the re-use.

Mailbox flag repair:

No picture, nothing to see.  It was a bit of wedging here, a pliers pull there, and some axle grease the rain won't wash away (really thick stuff).  But a "hard to move mailbox flag" became an "easy to move flag".

Hope the pictures helped make the past few posts make more sense.  Pictures are good.

Mailbox

I have the same mailbox I set up when I first moved here 33 years ago.  It had a thing on the top to put the street number in.  Sleek, cool...

Someone kept knocking the top off.  I would find it a few yards away and reinstall it.  Apparently, that really annoyed the vandal.  That person finally tossed it in the drainage easement once.  I found it there and reinstalled.

Finally, it was no longer "findable".  OK, I gave up.  I figured it was someone who would get older and lose interest.  After a few years, I made a fish shape to hold brass letters.  It remained.

But after enough years, the flag assembly began to stick.  I realized the mailperson couldn't lower it easily.  Well, I like my mailperson, so I went out to fix it.  I discovered it wasn't really a good design (it needed to be lifted slightly to lower it).

Nothing like a challenge...

I went at it with a screwdriver, pliers, and axle grease.  By the time I was done, it slid from up to down to up to down smooth as silk.

The next day, I stood by the mailbox as the mailperson came by.  I said "check out the flag".  She did and pronounced it "perfect".

So I also painted the flag a brighter red.  Might as well overdo it, LOL!

Yet Even More Stuff

When you get starting painting, everything looks like a paintable surface.  So I just had to paint the cast iron Lodge Hibachi.

I set it under the smoker a few years ago and it rusted from the humidity.  So I spent a day going over all the surfaces with a wire brush.  I brought the top grill inside and oiled it and set it in the oven to season it as you would any new cast iron pan.

The rest got painted nook and cranny with 1200F rustoleum paint.

I can't wait to cook a steak on it...  Well, OK, I can.  It's night now.  But I have a  DelMonico waiting to go in the evening!

Even More Stuff

Well, as long as I'm in painting mode, why not paint the rusting BBQ smoker?   I had a can of Rustoleum high temperature black.  So I opened it and went to stir it up.

Bad!  It was like tar.  I ruined a shirt and jeans from the splashes.  The stuff CANNOT be cleaned off

Off to the DIY store...

Back with new stuff (and shaken in their machine) I went about painting the smoker.  Its not like a good paint job inside the house, but will serve.

And since I was trying to improve the smoker (I had cleaned it thoroughly of all grease and ashes), I thought why keep doing that?  Why not put some pans under the cooking rack to catch the fats that could be removed and cleaned separately?

Ahh, my friends, the world is designed to not provide pans that fit.  Every pan I could find was just too narrow or long or deep.  Well, "almost".  You know those cheap roasting pans that come with the oven?  They fit perfectly.

OK. so then I needed new roasting pans.  Those pans that come with the oven?  They don't sell them anywhere I can find.

Darn, now I need to buy fancy ones for actual oven use...

More Stuff

Since I painted the broom, I decided to make some planting pots a color I liked better.  I had bought a pack of eight 12" wide pots that were orange in a basketweave look.  I wanted them in blue.  So I bought a spray paint in "Wildflower Blue" described as "for plastic".

Painting the pots was tricky.  I couldn't just hold them and spray.  I like blue, but not on my hands.

I finally set up a 4"x4" post wedged into a cinder block and set the pots upside down on the top.  With a latex glove on my left hand, I sprayed, turned, sprayed, turned and sprayed.  Set each one on a newspaper to dry.  Then sprayed the top of the insides.

It is impressive!  Orange is now blue.

And having matching planter pots is great.  I used 2 for repotting Dracena and 1 for a Poinsettia.  I'll be moving other plants to the remaining matching pots soon.  Well, I do like blue...

Lots Of Stuff

I didn't post here for a while because things got busy.  Part was the stress of the World Series I was sure we would lose (yes, I am a fan of little faith).  Well, optimists may be happier, but pessimists are right more often...

But during that time, I just kept doing small things.

Some may sound silly, but they were important to me.  For example, I painted a broom.  I bet few people have ever done that.  There was a reason...

I loved the bristles on this one broom I had, soft but effective at catching dust.  But the handle broke.  I tried to find a similar broom without success.  So I cut the broken part cleanly and found a PVC pipe that just fit inside it.  I used construction adheasive to join the 2 pieces together.  That failed (I think the adhesive needed air exposure). 

So I drilled holes and put screws in.  That failed too.  The handle stayed wobbly.  But one thing I am is persistent.  I discovered the broom head unscrewed from the handle.  So I brought the broom head to the locval DIY store to see if I could find a matched replacement handle.  None on the replacement handles fit the threaded broom head.

But wandering through the hardware section, I noticed extension poles for roller paint brushes.  They fit!  But the broom head was green and the handles were bare wood or red metal.  I bought the red one.  And spray-painted both the broom head and handle green.

I am insufferably pleased with myself...

The Baseball World Series

I cant believe it.  The Washington Nationals won the World Series!  It was a record-setting sequence of games...

It was so weird.  As a Wild Card Team they played a one game contest against the other Wild Card Team, the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Nationals won.

Both of the best-of-five National League Division Series went the full five games. This was the first time since the 2012 NLDS that both series went to five games.

The Washington Nationals, winners of the National League Wild Card Game, upset the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers. The Nationals were 19–31 on May 23, then went 74–38 the rest of the season to finish in the top NL wild card spot.

They then played the St Louis Cardinals, winning in a 4 game sweep.

That meant they would play the Houston Astros, the team with the best record in MLB this year.

The Nationals won the 2 games at the Astro's stadium, suggesting an overpowering series.  But then, at home, the Nationals lost all 3 home games.  All the Astros had to do was win one of 2 games at home.

They didn't.  For the first time in MLB history, the home team lost every game.  From down 2-3 games and having to win both of the last 2 games on the road, the Nationals won both.

The Washington Nationals are the World Series winners.  On Saturday, the town held a parade.  Basically, all the roads were closed.  People went crazy. 

We are used to having winning teams here.  Yeah The Washington football won a few decades ago.  But suddenly, we have the Championship Hockey Team, the Championship Womens Basketball Team, and now the Championship Baseball Team.

I don't expect that will last, but it sure is enjoyable while it does!

US Baseball World Series

In a little over an hour, the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros are going to start game 1 of the US Baseball World Series (I phrase it that way because "they" call it "The World Series" even though the Rest Of The World is not invited and that annoys me).

However, this is the 1st time the Washington Nationals or the team they came from (the Montreal Expos) have ever appeared in the World Series.

I am a pessimist when it comes to local sports teams.  When they have a good year, they struggled.  Even when one occasionally wins some championship, it is "just barely" and certainly not repeated the next year.  Some cities have sports dynasties that last a decade.  On rare occasions, we get "a year".

I am accustomed to seeing the local teams choke.  But The Nationals have gotten this far and hope springs eternal...



Midnight update:    ------  We won...

A Political Thought

People have different political opinions.  I accept that.  I don't always agree with the majority but I try to understand varying points of view.  And political thought has been more divisive lately. 

I spend a part of my day watching political commentary, reading politics in the Washington Post newspaper, and thinking about news.

I majored in Government and Politics at the University of Maryland.  I am not active in politics, but I think about politics a lot.

Last night, as I lay in bed hoping for the sweet release of sleep, I found myself considering President Donald Trump.  I dislike him.  But that's not the important thing that came to mind.

As I laid in bed, an odd thought occurred to me.  What if some person managed to become President with the specific intent of ruining US American democracy internally and also set out to ruin our international trade/political alliances/reputation for helping others.

Well, that would be pretty horrible wouldn't it?  And then it occurred to me that such a person would be doing exactly what President Trump as been doing. 

Seriously, what would a person deliberately trying to ruin the US reputation overseas and domestically do that President Trump hasn't already done and is continuing to do?

I'm not going to list all sorts of things he has done.  There are sites that list them and are easily findable with a simple web search.  My concern is that I actually can't tell the difference between what President Trump has done and is doing and someone deliberately trying to ruin the US.

Am I the only person who has had this very uncomfortable thought?

Washington Nationals Baseball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wasted Food

Sometimes, you just don't finish doing something!

Two weeks ago, I bought a pork Boston Butt, a beef Steamship Round, and a package of 10 chicken thighs.  The pork is for smoking and cutting into cubes for pork stew and stir-fries. I pack the cubes into plastic sandwich bags 4oz per bag and I get enough for several months.

The beef is for roasting rare and slicing for sandwiches and a few 1/2" slabs to cube later with noodles and gravy.  The chicken was for "anything", so I just boiled it.  I normally bread the chicken with Panko bread flakes and bake it or saute it skin side down, and that works well.

What a disaster!  The chicken was mushy, but I did freeze them immediately.  For some reason, I kept putting off slicing the beef and cubing the pork.  Everyday, I saw them in the fridge and said "I've GOT to get at that today".  I didn't.  For over a week...

When I did, the beef had some discoloration.  The pork looked fine and it WAS smoked in 1" thick slabs, so I thought it would be preserved.  But last night, I decided I just didn't want to risk any of it.  I tossed it all into the trash.  $50 worth of meat, wasted.

I hate wasting food, but not at risk to my health.  Better safe than sorry.

I redid the chicken a couple days ago and it all turned out perfectly and I froze each thing individually.  I'll buy another Boston Butt and Steamship Round  next shopping trip (soon, I miss my pork stew and I'm out of fresh fruit too).

This time I'll chill them both and process them the next morning!  But I sure hated to waste all that...

Computer Fun

"Computer Fun" and I say that sarcastically.  I just spent 4 hours restoring processed and organized pictures that suddenly vanished.  Some background...

I use a Mac Mini.  It is small, but sufficient.  And I like the fact that it is solid state and doesn't need a fan.  It could use a few more ports, but I I have just barely enough and haven't needed more yet. 

I keep my files organized, especially the pictures.  IPhotos holds all the full-sized pictures by date.  When I crop, filter and resize them for blog use, they go into a new folder (like documents and applications do).  I think most people keep their pictures by subject.  I take too many to be able to find them that way.

So, in the Photos folder, I set up 6 subfolders"  Cats, Family, House, Other, Videos, and Yard.  Each of those folders gets a new subfolder each year (2018, for example).  Each year folder gets monthly folders (January 2018 is 1801).  Daily subfolders when I need one (January 20, 2018 would be 180120).  That may or may not seem seriously complicated, but I can navigate to any subject and day in about 5 seconds.

I did spend my career organizing information after all...  ;)

Now, also, Mac has an app called "Time Machine".  Connected to an external hard drive, it keeps automatic backs of all changes in files and by some program I know NOTHING about,  it connects to all past saves so that you can restore individual files, individual folders, individual programs or your entire computer.

And that has saved me more than once for individual files to the whole thing!  I LOVE TIME MACHINE!

So I went to add a Flashback Friday post on Marks Mews.  I choose them by scrolling through IPhotos It displays dates, and when I find one I want to use, I just go to that date in Photos (IPhotos is an app; Photos is a saved personal folder).

The original full-size picture was in IPhotos but the processed picture I wanted was not in my Photos subfolder.    And I discovered that half the pictures in my subfolders from 2016 and earlier were gone!  ARRRGGGHHHHH!

I should mention that while Mac computers have strong anti-hacking software built-in, I do use one called MacKeeper to look for adware, malware, useless files, etc.  And I was using it frequently the past few days.  I made the mistake of trying to download a TV show I wanted a quote from and ended up with a pop-up ads.

I didn't realize how aggressive MacKeeper could be defining "useless files".  It allows you to look at the list of files to be deleted, but file names can be difficult to interpret.  After reading a dozen and not seeing anything that worried me (most seemed to be if I needed to read something in a foreign language), I went ahead and clicked "OK".  It deleted almost a 1,000 files and gave me back   about a Gb memory, so I was rather pleased. 

Until I discovered a lot of processed pictures missing...  Now I'm not saying that MacKeeper did that, just that both things seemed to happen at the same time.  Maybe I got hacked at the same time.  But I am suspicious of coincidences!

So I went into Time Machine and tried restore individual folders from 2 days ago, iy didn't work.  So I looked at the Time Machine backups from a week before and those were blank.  I had to go back to August, and there they all were!

Not to get too technical (unless someone has a question), but I had to select specific folders for Cats, Family, House, Other, Video, and Yard one at a time and save one then then go back and do another. and double check because once it didn't restore (probably my fault, but that's why you check).

BUT!  They are all back now...  The Flashback Fridays post on Marks Mews is proof.

MacKeeper is a good app.  It does find adware, some tracking malware, and actually non-essential files.  But I will be a LOT more careful in the permissions I allow it in the future, LOL!

Locked CD Rom Drive

For What It Is Worth - 

I had a CD locked in the D drive and it suddenly just rattled.  I couldn't get it to play and I couldn't get the tray to open.  I was going NUTS.  Then, searching for an answer, I found a 15 year old post that said to stick a straightened paperclip into the small hole in the front.

I remembered about that soon as I read it, but I had forgotten!  Look for yourself on a Windows PC...

I didn't solve the "failure to play", but at least it got the CD out, LOL!

But when I got the CD out and tried it in the 2 tray it played fine.  I have to laugh that I'm keeping a Windows 95 (offline) working.  But I suspect I'll have to find a repair shop soon.

9-11

I will never forget 9-11.


My parents remembered The Great Depression and WWII as defining moments.  We both remember the John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King assasinations.  I remember Vietnam and 9-11 and Mass Shootings more.

We think of animals as "wild" and sometimes "cruel".  They are just trying to survive.  We are the wild ones.  We don't do things like that for survival.  We do them because some of us are afraid, scared, cruel, uncaring, and fanatical.

We humans are sometimes inspired creators of beauty, invention, creative thought, and civilization.  Discoverers of mysteries of the universe.  So far as I know, no other living creature has ever looked at the stars and wondered what they were or deliberately took action to find out.  No other animal has ever contemplated its own death or what happens afterwards.

Only we.  And yet we kill each other not for food.  We cause pain for no purpose.  We commit mayhem, destruction, and death to our own kind.  We create the 4 Horsemen Of The Apocolypse in our own image because they are US...

Too many of us think "it's not the Earth the meek inherit, its the dirt". *   Way too often, we don't value those who just live peacefully; we admire those who command others and take without helping.

In the past 2 decades, we have seen the rise of hate-filled people finding each other (when once they were isolated and feeling alone) organizing themselves via the internet.  Mass murders are becoming common, as individuals are encouraged by each other to commit mayhem.

As an even minor matter, flash mobs are increasing.  Lately, people driving ATV have started to swarm areas of some cities, terrorize pedestrians and car drivers and then suddenly disappear along paths where police cars cannot follow.

Does that remind you of A Clockwork Orange"?

I'm not saying this is new.  And I don't want to say society is falling apart or that the newest generation is evil.  The ancient Greeks even complained about that.

What I'm saying is that we need to reorganize our society to provide more early intervention and therapy rather than just build more prisons and punish those different from we more peaceful types.  I think there are usually causes for hate.  And if those are addressed, the later problems won't occur as often.

* One of the most perfect songs ever written about unethical attitude was "The 7 Deadly Virtues" sung by Mordred in 'Camelot'.

"The seven deadly virtues, those ghastly little traps

Oh no, my liege, they were not meant for me

Those seven deadly virtues were made for other chaps

Who love a life of failure and ennui

Take courage-now there's a sport

An invitation to the state of rigor mort

And purity-a noble yen

And very restful every now and then

I find humility means to be hurt

It's not the earth the meek inherit, it's the dirt

Honesty is fatal, it should be taboo

Diligence-a fate I would hate

If charity means giving, I give it to you

And fidelity is only for your mate

You'll never find a virtue unstatusing my quo or making my Beelzebubble burst

Let others take the high road, I will take the low

I cannot wait to rush in where angels fear to go

With all those seven deadly virtues free and happy little me has not been cursed"

I have to add more.  I was sitting at the computer today and listening to the radio and they mentioned  the exact time the 3rd plane hit the Pentagon.  I worked sort of near there. 

I felt a thump up through our solid building.  I didn't know what it was at the time, but I understood after.   We were all focussed on the World Trade Centers at the time.  Part of our office was "Emergency Management", so we had several TVs around.  We were watching the towers fall in disbelief.

I don't recall the timeline of events all that well now.  We were just shocked and stunned.  I could know better even just re-reading the posts from the time, but that not the point. 

I was and still now so angry that anyone could do such things. 

My day went something like this (and if I have some events out of place, forgive me):

1.  Hey (Division Director) a plane just crashed into one of the Towers in NYC.

2.  OMG, a 2nd one hit (dawning awareness).

3.  I feel a thump through the building.

4.  Smoke on the horizon.

5.  The first Tower falls in real time. 

6.  We realize the Pentagon has been hit.

7.  The second tower falls.  Many in the conference room think it is a replay but I shout "its the other one".

8.  We are all just stunned.  Thought the first was a horrible accident.  It all seems incomprehensible. 

9.  It all starts to sink in. 

10.  All employees are dismissed.  "Leave now"!

11.  My office is on the top floor.  We have some roof access.  We see smoke from the Pentagon.

12.  The streets are clogged.  No one is moving.  I tell my carpool, we aren't leaving.  We are only a couple blocks away from The White House, but this old building is all stone.  We are safer her until the streets clear.

13.  We hear about a 4th plane coming for DC.  Most remaining people head to the basement.  I stand on the roof watching.  We aren't the target.  If it hits us, I want to watch.  OK, I 'm crazy.  But I wanted to see.

14.  That plane went down in Pennsylvania the radio says.  We don't know why.

15.  I watch fighter planes circling around DC.

16.  The streets are clearing.  I tell the carpool we can leave.  I'm the driver that day.

17.  Some roads are blocked.  I end up up on an unfamiliar path, but finally recognize a road,  The roads there are completely empty. 

18.  My whole carpool is crying.  So am I.  I use nearly a whole box of tissues keeping my vision "sort of' clear.  The roads are empty though...

I don't recall much the next couple of days.  I don't even remember if I went to work the next day.  That doesn't matter. 

What matters is that I developed a hate of the specific people who did that and I will not let it go. 

"Never forgive, never forget".

 

A Night

It was 8 pm.  I read blogs.  I answered emails.  All was well...

But then the dark side came over me.  I went to a DISCUSSION BOARD!  Flails from the LEFT, flails from the RIGHT, flails from the CENTER bounded and tore.   I dodged them as best I could, facts shielding me from, so I thought. 

But after mere moments I truly was assailed by ignorance and taunts.   In spite of all facts, my best ones I plead, the armies did numerously my overwhelm my refusals to yield.

In silliness unfactual arguments did some represent, till my armies of supporters did true represent that my facts were supported, and those who supported the opposite view were soon sure to be cursed.

And leaving the sotie, perhaps Rick and Morty, I went off to find some old comical lines.

I could not find Autumn or her kind lover Winter but I did find Las Lindas and read upon those for a time.  But then I remembered The Piled High And Deeper of alt-comic fame.  And therein I sat whatching  this one and that  reading the starts of 2 comics I surely recalled that...

Amused me years ago reading about all that sh*t.  Ansd today bringing ll f those memories though,

You'ld have to begin at the start you know, and not at 6:30 am like I am now.

How To Lose Weight

Get up at dawn

Get on the computer.

Stay on the computer. 

See dawn...

Ignore dawn.

Watch sun set.

Think "how bad would cat food taste"...?

Decide not to find out.

Make 3 egg rolls and a couple shrimp. 

Got to bed.

Sleep 14 hours...

There is a reason I have a clock in the bedroom that just tells me what day it is...

Price-fixing

Chewy sells a case of a particular cat food at  at $38.66 per case, Amazon sells it at $38.66 per case.  Logic suggests one might offer it at $38.49 and the other at $38.67.  Or whatever.  How is that not "price-fixing?  That's illegal.

We are getting way too controlled be non-competiveness.  Everything costs the same no matter where you go.   That's wrong.

Idiots Everywhere

My next door neighbor cut down most of the hedge between her and the farther neighbor 2 months ago.  It might have been by agreement, but I wonder if they know (as only I do being here before both of them) that the hedge was planted by the previous owner of the OTHER house. 

Not all that important, but that same immediate neighbor decided to burn the dried hedge material in the back yard.  Under small dry trees.  Among other dry debris.  Next to my wood fence...

Fortunately, I happened to step out side and heard the very distinct sound of a crackling fire.

Seriously, there was dry brush from the original burning spot all the way to my fence.  I told her it was very dangerous for several obvious reasons and that she needed to put it out.  She said OK and told her child to bring water.  It came in a child's pail which the woman splashed around a bit.  But they did that several times and it appeared to be extinguished.  The woman went inside; I stayed out to watch.  Fortunately it really was out.

Who is dumb enough to burn dry brush under dry trees near a wood fence?

Just a few minutes ago, I went to the local 7-11 literally midnight, and there was a teenager who just sailed through a busy intersection (with no overhead lights) on a black push scooter.  Wearing black clothes.  I only saw him in the headlights as I turned.  And I hit the brakes.  Another driver turning oppositely almost hit him too. 

Is there something in the water that is making people stupid?

Books

I was a young reader and loved reading books as a child.  I always needed more books to read.  The first document I ever owned was a library card.By the time I was 12, I had read the entire family encyclopedia of 25 volumes and several of my parents' saved textbooks.  I had gone through the entire local library's "young adult" section (defined as age 12-15 or something close to that).  I had to get permission from my parents and the librarian to check out more adult books.

My parents approved, but I vaguely recall the librarian asking questions about the difference between information and fiction.  I don't recall my answers the least bit, but apparently, when it was clear I understood the difference between William and Clark exploring Western North America and Isaac Asimov and Buck Rogers, I was allowed to read more adult books. 

In the years afterwards, I spent a LOT of money buying both science fiction AND information books.  So I love books and cherish the enjoyment of reading and the real information at my fingertips.

10 years ago, I packed half of my sci-books into boxes  to clear some shelf space.  It was the half I thought the least of.  A few years ago, I went through my shelves and removed those "information books"I thought had little value.  Those got tossed after I learned the local library didn't want my kind of books.

I've started a de-clutterring project.  Today, I went through the information books and tossed most of them into the recycling bin and put more in boxes in the garage because the recycling bin was filled. 

The era of information books is over.  The internet provides all the information I can use.  I skimmed through many of the books and I couldn't find anything in them that wasn't easier to find on the internet.  Basically, the internet (in this regard) is a bigger faster library a few keywords away. 

And books go obsolete so quickly sometimes.  Or even were decades ago.  I looked at one World History book and it was written in 1937!  So I got brutal about it.  Any information book that seemed overcome by new information (historical, scientific, or repair) went. 

I kept books like 'The Peter Principle' and 'Murphy's Laws' and 'Flatland' and Human and Cat evolution.  And those may go in the some future weeding.

Six 3' shelves became one.  Some I'll keep because their information doesn't age much (backyard landscaping projects or linguistic explanations).  And some books went because I'm not sure why I bought them in the first place. 

But I bet I tossed out books that cost me $5,000 originally.  And a shelf of National Geographic maps; Google does that better.    I got rid of 10 years of various magazines a few months ago.  I got rid of books of Poe stories and Kipling verses.  I even tossed al dozen Ayn Rand books I thought I would read and never did after 20 years.

I hesitated before doing this today, but I thought about the last time I did a few years ago and couldn't recall a single book of them.  Obviously, I did not miss them.  I bet I won't miss these either. 

It was hard to start tossing them, but easy to continue once I realized I wasn't losing information, just accepting that there was a better way to get at it that didn't fill up physical bookcases.

OK, so books had their time.  I guess I just went screaming and kicking into the 21st century today.  One day centuries ago, a storyteller started reciting a memorized tale of some hero, and the King said "I have that book, and others.  You're fired".

Things change.  And I'm not done tossing books.  The recycle bin is mostly filled and very heavy.  So tomorrow I'll pile more in boxes and stack them in the garage for the next recycle pickup.  I'm keeping every sci book I own.  Those don't actually become obsolete. 

Strange Flower

I have planted a lot of flowers over the years.  I usually recognize them when I see them.  I appreciate some (like Brown-Eyed Susans) that self-sow in places they like better than where I originally planted a few a decade ago.  I have a lot of those now in clumps scaterred around a corner of the yard.

I've been planting other self-sowers in other spots (seems efficient).  If they survive like the Susans and spread around, it will be interesting.  When I plant annuals, I tend to be very geometric, but these I will let wander where they may.  In fact, I'll snip the flower heads, rub the seedheads in my hand into a bowl to separate the seeds and just scatter them everywhere I don't mow. 

If it works, great - Flowers Everywhere.  If not, no loss...

I know it works in general, because last Fall, I collected seedheads from the Pollinator Bed and scatterred them back in and added a thin layer of leaf compost to cover lightly.  I got mostly just one kind though.  I don't know what it is, but orange flowers are nice and the bees love them.

But the strange flower is this...

I've never seen that in the yard, and I've sure never planted anything like that.  It's 16" tall.  The flower lasted 2 days and I don't see another bloom coming.

I may take a walk around the neighborhood to see if someone is growing those to ask what it is.  Of course, if anyone here recognizes it, that would be good...

Broken Cinder Block Wall

OK, some of this might sound technical but it isn't really.

My sunken patio cinder block retainer wall broke a month ago.  I originally thought it was due to rain, but now I think it was just coincidence.  There was no flooding against the wall.  Even the soil behind it is not expanded.

I had a masonry guy come out and he said he would rebuild it in a trench all around for $16,000.  Um, no not what I needed.  A couple other people returned calls, but I couldn't understand a word they said.  So I gave up and considered how I could do it myself.

I tried levering the wall back in place.  Wood beams are not as strong as cinderblock weight.  They bent first.  I needed a better lever.  I came across a "motorcycle lift", basically a wide scissor jack like you might have in your car for lifting it to change a tire.  But wider and more stable and up to 1100 pounds lift.  You turn a large handle, and the lift slowly spreads.   Cost $80.

I bought one.  It took a few days to figure out an immovable object from which to push the wall.  The house foundation was obvious, but I didn't have anything long enough to reach the broken wall.  But there were 6'x6" posts concreted 3' down and anchored to the foundation above. 

And I had a 4"x4" post that just came a foot short.  Perfect!  But the angle from the deck post wasn't exactly at the angle of the broken wall.  So I used some scrap wood and a dozen serious clamps to make it so.  That left "just" enough room for the motorcycle lift to fit in.

Let's just say that to avoid any boards moving around, I also clamped some wood to the posts to prevent that.  No supporting structure could move.  So I started to turn the handle of the motorcycle lift.  And no, there was no damage to the deck posts or anything else.  I had all possible movements prevented.

The broken cinder block wall MOVED!  I actually jumped for joy...  I got it 9" of 12" back in place before the lift was fully extended.  But then the angle was changed and it slipped sideways under pressure.  Nothing sudden, just that the pressure sideways was greater the the pressure forwards. 

GRUMPH!

It's at the point where I only need to move it 3 more inches in order to use some masonry construction adhesive between the broken edges (stronger that grout, it claims).  But it only has a 20 minute window before hardening.  So I had to know I could push the 2 edges quickly enough.

And I don't have posts that match the distance!  Arghhh...  I have some ideas about using bricks, wood chunks, loose solid cinder block caps.  But until I'm absolutely sure there is no angle of pressure that won't cause them to suddenly pop loose dangerously, I won't proceed.

I THINK two clamped 2"by12" boards across the 2 deck posts with be strong enough (a 4"x4" post just bends), but I want to think of a stronger and safer arrangement. 

And I should mention that the handle on the motorcycle lift is just a small 6" metal rod attached to a hex drive that fits over the screw that turns the jack.  It hurt my hands to put enough pressure on it to turn it when things got heavy.  Well, it just occurred to me while writing this that I have a ratchet drive set with longer handles and sockets and one of them is for loosening/tightening the lug nuts of truck wheels (that I've never had need of before), so I can get more leverage...

But I'm getting there...  Half the fun of doing difficult things is figuring out HOW to do the things. 

;)

Stuff

Nothing like returning from grocery-shopping and finding your driveway blocked by a big truck.  It wasn't a freight truck (and I hadn't ordered anything requiring one lately).  So I pulled the car off the road onto my lawn, put on my best smile, and asked what was up.  There was a large firehose in one storm drain..

Sorry, I didn't take pictures.  Which didn't matter, because there was nothing visible going on.  Apparently, the storm drain clearing crew reported that one was half-filled with gravel and a specialized equipment crew does that.  And I'm not criticizing.  A lot of equipment only has a few experienced operators locally.  The guy (I've never seen a woman among these crews) who can delicately manage a 1/2 tin bucket to scrape debris off a storm grate is NOT the same as the guy who can manuver a drone through a pipe to find a blockage, etc.

Anyway, they were there to flush the foot of gravel out of one storm drain to the other 90' away and from there to the outlet under the street.  They suggested I move my car since the spray was fierce and some gravel would come out.  I had raw meat in the car, so I demanded they let me get it into the refrigerator (they did) and I moved to car way up on the lawn (which they said was safe - and was).

When they put on their helmets and goggles, I decided the best place to be was in the house!  They let loose the firehose.  It wasn't Old Faithful, but it WAS pretty impressive.  I think their eqipment could have watered my entire lawn an inch deep in about 5 minutes.

When the finally left, I went out and looked, the major storm drain was completely empty of gravel, the secondary one was nearly empty, and all the gravel was washed through the pipe under the street.  I'm not sure how my neighbor there feels about it.  He has more gravel in the easement leading to the swamp than before. 

Nothing really special, but it IS a finale to the 6" of rain in 4 hours from about a month ago Monday...