A New Riding Lawn Mower

It was time!  The old 'White Outdoor" riding mower was nearly 25 years old.  I limped it along the past several years.  It needs annual professional repair (about $400 a shot).  The charging system stopped working last year, so every start or stall needs a jump-start and it complains "NNOOO" even then.  And it cuts unevenly these days.

The tires go flat in a few weeks and, they are sneaky about it.  The tires are stiff enough so that air-pressure loss isn't immediately visible.  Until, I make a sharp turn and the bead breaks (tire separates from rim).  If any of you have ever tried to re-bead a small stiff tire, you know how difficult that is.   I should have put inner tubes in them years ago.

The local outdoor yard equipment shop is awful.  High prices, and it takes a month.  When it opened, there were good owners, but they sold it to people who are sullen and greedy.  Most mechanaics understand "make it go good", but with these new guys, you practically have to write a detailed repair ticket yourself.

So this year, when the engine started clunking and clanking when I jumped it making grinding noises as it s l o w l y started, I decided I had had enough.

I research Consumer Reports (CR) magazine, of course.  They got me my last 3 cars (all really good) and with pricing information that made the salesmen complain bitterly at first and try to deny the data.

This year, all the top models of riding lawn mowers were John Deere.  But I made the "mistake" of looking for negative reviews of them "just in case".  Naturally, I found some.  "The transmission is weak",  "you can't tow anything uphill", the dealer doesn't honor the warranty".  But other people loved them.  Well they sell snowplow attachments, back soil plow attachments and give a full 2 year warranty, so how weak can they be>  And CR tests equipment very thoroughly.

After carefully comparing the suitable riding mowers in the most recent CR  article and ratings several times, and considering my modest requirements (not trying to tow anything heavy around, gentle upslope, high rating for even cutting, good mulching rating, etc), I settled on an e-130 John Deere.


Naturally the local Big Box store didn't carry it, but going to the John Deere website, I found a local dealer (who actually had the CR price).  I called.  First, they answered a long list of questions I had about the E-130 that weren't in the specifications.  Like, do the tire valves face outwards or inwards (inwards ones are REALLY awkward).  I said we had a sale.

They told me they could give me the best price if I went back to the John Deere website and my Zipcode would actually direct the sale back to them (manufacturer incentives are really high right now).

When I expressed some doubt about that, the local guy stayed on the phone and directed me through the website, getting me to both the appropriate mulching kit and inner tubes.  I purchased.  Sure enough, in 15 seconds, they got confirmation of the sale!


I picked it up today.  Cant use it yet, it has been raining.  Well, it should dry out By Sunday morning (slight chance of rain in the late afternoon, so say 1PM mowing. 

But here is a separate nice part!  I got help!  I am saving more for a post tomorrow, but if you have read this far, tune in tomorrow!  I pay myself by the word (joke).

A New Thing For Me

I've been listening to old music on the computer all night by themes and answering gardening questions on a forum.  But I suddenly had a thought.

I did something neat this morning.  It might be routine for some people even "duh", but it was new to me.

I like sci-fi.  I like Marvel movies and characters.  One of my favorite scenes in a Marvel Movie is in X-men:  Apocolypse where Quicksilver is saving the people in the exploding Xavier College.  And one of my favorite songs is The Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' and they were together in the scene.

So I searched the scene and found it.  But no music.  So I opened 2 windows on Firefox.  One held the scene, the other had the song.  I got them open up close enough for them to nearly match!

For me, that is seriously good stuff.  I don't normally figure out how to do things like that that.  Sort of a "one thing at a time person".

I'm gonna go do that again now...


...



Later, OK 5 more times, actually.

And he MOONWALKED  It was amazing to me.  Its like the Rubik Cube.  I can't do it even with instructions...

I haven't figured out what the brief dart thing meant but it was so quick even in slo-mo.

The Aquarium

I have a 30 gallon with community fresh water fish.There are some bottom-feeders like Corys and an algae-eater who keeps the glass clean.  There are a couple of Tiger Barbs and maybe a dozen Minor Serpa Tetras.  There are also pair of Marigold Platys. 

Platys bear live young.  The young never survive in a community tank.  They get eaten by the other fish nearly as fast as they are released.  I have come to hate that.

But I also have live plants and the "anachris" floats on the surface in a rather dense mat.  Baby fish hide in there. 


I disturbed the surface a month ago, and saw "something" dart out that was immediately eaten.  I realized it was a baby platy that I chased from its sanctuary among the floating plants.  I felt horrible about causing it to flee and be eaten by my action.

So, 2 weeks ago, when I opened the top of the hood to feed the fish, I happened to notice 2 tiny little eyes among the shelter of the plants.  It was a baby Platy that had survived its first few days.  With my reading glasses on, I saw it in various places for several more days.  Little black eyes hiding in the plants.

I've bred various fish in my life.  Bettas, cherry barbs, gouramis, and fancy guppies.  They each need special conditions, but most of all, safety from other fish.  There are even V-shape tank add-ins for live-bearers so the babies fall through and Mom doesn't eat them.  I should buy a new one.

Because Mom looks gravid again.

I haven't seen that Baby Fish for 3 days.   And I feel guilty...

Bad Days

I feel like I am falling apart lately. 

Need a new car (current one is a 2005 Toyota Highlander) and can't decide whether to replace it standard or keep it and buy an all electric sedan.  I only do errands around town, so an electric makes sense.  But sometimes I haul mulch or compost in a trailer, so I need some power.  I could almost buy a golf cart for my errands...  LOL!

Need a new riding mower.  I'm too old to push the regular ones around, self-propelled types with their constant speed are too difficult around the details of the yard.  Besides, I started with the push mowers at age 12 and hated it.  Eldest sons get all the hard work.  So I looked at Consumer Reports for a new riding mower.  Listed several, but when I looked up pros and cons, a lot of sites said those same mowers sucked at slopes or even dragging a yard cart behind.  I chose one anyway.  But the local store that sells my chosen model (John Deere E130) is closed (convid19). 

Iza's departure has left a hole in my heart.  I want a replacement.  Maybe "replacement" is the wrong word.  I have have space in my heart for another and I want it filled soon.  I am not good at waiting.  But the local shelter is closed, the Tonkinese breeder can't commit for 2 months, and the Siamese breeder is awaiting a new litter before she knows "who is who" I think.  But does have a 3 year old striped Siamese (Lynx?).

Impatience on all is driving me to distraction.

I know, I am lucky to even have minor concerns like this.  I don't have to wait in miles-long lines to get volunteered food like many people are.  I don't have loved-ones dying in hospitals alone.  I am comfortable staying at home.  I have 2 wonderful cats. 

I feel like a damn fool even mentioning these slight problems.  But Iza's loss has me all unbalanced.  I suddenly have nightmares.  I don't enjoy cooking and eating recently. 

I should just delete this.  But telling the world how I feel helps...

In the movie 'Conagher' a cowboy wanders around as a "hand".  He meets a widow named "Evie" who is managing a farm.  He "drifts", she stays.  She attaches notes to tumbleweeds.  An early internet...  He finds a few and wonders who she is (duh). Eventually, he does pull out one of her notes from his pocket and she admits to writing them.  Happily Ever After...

I feel like my posts are notes tied to tumbleweeds sometimes.  I'm not looking for someone, as Evie was not exactly looking for someone either, but my posts are often my connection to the universe... 

Thank you to all who read here.

Iza's Marker

I've been slowly building Iza's marker box to match that of Skeeter and LC.  They were bit of odd constructions with lots of angles.  The detailed work seemed a sign of respect.  So I copied them for Iza.

Somehow, tradition matters to me about OTB cats.  I want a sense of continuity and equal respect, so the markers have to be the same.

I started by taking one marker box into the basement and measuring it carefully.  It felt a bit weird having the marker box in the basement, but it was meant with respect.

Then I started cutting and assembling new boards.  It was very comforting, and I did it with Iza in my thoughts.

I cut pieces of preservative-treated wood ( for durability) to size, tilted the table saw blade of 30 and 60 degree angles to match the previous markers, and made some slight adjustments (not all boards are exactly the same thickness and width).

But I got it assembled with wood glue and clamps to hold it all together.

One can never have "too many clamps" but this didn't require all of mine.  

I didn't get all the angle cuts perfectly, but weather will expand the wood slightly.  I've learned to leave slight gaps on outdoor wood.

I leave the back open on these because I don't want to encourage critters to hide an burrow over the cats.

Here is the constructed memorial marker box.  I sanded some slightly mis-matching edges and added countersunk exterior-grade screws.  Glue won't hold long, but screws will.

And then I used rubber cement t attach the last brown resin cat figurine I had.  They came in 3,  Skeeter, LC, Iza...

Closeup of the Iza figurine... I apologize to her that it was the least expressive of the 3, but I really wasn't expecting to use it hoping to find more of the original set.  Or so soon.

I have brass letters on order for delivery in a week, and will attach them then.

Pansies

I meant to show 2 colors of pansies I have not seen before, Tuesday, and forgot.  And not that I know much about pansies.  But they seemed unusual...

I've never seen a purple/white pansy with a  with a bottom of yellow.

And these seem unusual to me.  Actually, they are slightly more lighter orangish than this, but I couldn't adjust the pic for the right color.   My camera has thoughts of its own sometimes, and I don't know enough about tint management.

Aside from that, I had a lot of the 16 cell pack pansies that were actually multiple plants per cell, so I got a lot of rather interesting combinations of 2 colors in one spot and even 3 in a few.  Don't you love surprises like that?

Earth Day 2020

Let's say a strange message appeared on my monitor a few days ago.  Let's suppose it came from The Galactic Confederation and went something like this...

"We have received some primitive signals from you.  We assumed they were some sort of sign of intelligent life or maybe a request for membership.  So we investigated.  After all, we have a few picobots around every planet that develops so much as pond scum...

Your application to join us is denied.  

We consider you all to be blarts.  You lay waste to your planet, you are all divisive and warlike, and you eat each other.  WE do not approve.  We note that you are attempting local spaceflight (and badly, we will say).  We will make sure you do not succeed at that until you get yourselves united, organize your resources better, and learn to get your individual energy from non-living renewable sources.

And BTW, we have detected your attempts to discover us.  Your efforts are both puerile and easily thwarted.  We have a whole world dedicated to presenting you images that look very nice and are meaningless.

If and when you "get your act together" in the picobots judgement, WE will contact YOU.  Meanwhile, we would appreciate it if you would stop trying to  galacticAI.univ us.  It's just static and goes straight to the junk balik.   We have one poor Scopinea who spends all day deleting your nonsense and while we give him that function, he is a sad case by our standards though we suppose hesheit would seem like a genius to you.

So fix your own problems before you try to leave your planet.  If you do, we will know." 

Ack Thbbft!

Mark

Fix it before you leave it...

Flowers

The Mews have not decided who will host the Thursday Garden Tours and I haven't collected the pictures of the Saucer Magnolia and the Daffodil Bed as they bloomed for a slideshow yet, so I wanted to show the Happy Pansies in the deck pots for now...

The warmish Winter and soft Spring has let tem grow better than they have in any previous year here.

If the pots look like they have too many of some color and not enough of others, it is because they got all the ones that weren't blooming at the time I planted the outside large mass. 

I was expecting some randomness surprises, and I got some.  

But that was the point, LOL!

The massed planting is doing well, though the Winter weeds have grown suddenly.  I had dragged the scuffle how between them in January, but apparently the weeds either grew back or new seeds germinated due to me disturbing the soil.   

Maybe they looked better in March.  Fewer flowers but fewer weeds...

I would hoe again, but newer demands command attention for longer-term benefits.  I have perennials and self-sowing annuals to plant in the Meadow and Pollinator Beds, wild blackberries and other briars (and some poison ivy) to dig out in the back non-lawn area.  It took days with the brush-cutter to chop all the wild stuff down last Fall, so I don't want to let that escape again.

But the Pansies sure have been a pleasure since October!

The Proper Place For a Deceased Cat

The proper place for a deceased cat should be a place of beauty because cats are nearly the definition of beauty.  And grace, agility, and movement.

The proper place for a deceased cat should a place it enjoyed in life because cats are almost the definition of knowing where they look their best and they know thos locations.

The proper place for a deceased cat should a place you look at frequently in the normal course of your life, because cats deserve to be remembered.

The proper place for a deceased cat should be a place you will maintain free of weeds and briars and invasive plants so that their final spot will not be lost.

The proper place for a deceased cat should have a decent marker.  They deserve it, and making (or buying) one is a final act of love and respect.

The proper place for a deceased cat should be in a sunny spot.  They adore sun.  They won't know it is sunny (maybe), but you will, and that will comfort you.

The proper place for a deceased cat should include gravegoods in honor of what they most loved in life.  Some treats, some Nip, a couple of toys.  Add anything you think is good.

The proper place for a deceased cat should include a bit of ceremony.  When the last shovelful of Earth's is added and tapped down (gently of course, cat's don't like loud sounds), play a bit of soft music, sit by the spot and contemplate the individuality of that cat.

The cat who shared space with you for a few or many years deserves time for you to recall its habits, likes and dislikes, loves and fears, and how it adjusted to you as you adjusted to it.  It was a living, thinking creature.

Cats are still essentially feral animals.  Yet they adjust to our world, come to adopt us as we adopt them, accept most of our household rules and get along so gently.

The last thing we do is remember them after they have gone OTB.  So do it well...

Thoughts

One less cat to pick up after.

One less bowl to clean.

One less litterbox to empty.

Fewer cans to open.

No meds to provide.

No more hairballs or floor-pee or morning stomach-foam from a sickly cat. 

But damn, I would sure accept that all again to have her back on my lap purring...

Iza was as unique a cat as humans are unique.  There will never quite be another "Iza".

Chess

I used to play chess very well.  When I was 12, I beat my Dad at it, and he never played me again.  I found a neighbor kid who also played and we had great games.

Wen I went to Univ of MD, it turned out the President of the Chess Club was 2 rooms away.  We played for hours.  I got pulled into the rated chess world.  When my friend the President was in an accident and became permanently (how do I say this) "not himself anymore", I took over.

Not that I was ever going to challenge Bobby Fisher, but I got a trophy or 2. 

Years later, I learned that some of the people on a discussion board also played chess (better than I did) and we formed an online team.  We did great.  I organized and they played.  I played some and won most games.

But there suddenly came a day when I couldn't play worth a damn.  I could defend perfectly well, but I couldn't arrange an attack at all.  I had just lost that. 

I quit the team and passed on the leadership to an other.

But I kept trying to rediscover the attack with books and chess apps.  I couldn't.  And AFAIK I didn't have a stroke. 

So I have been playing the chess app on my mac while waiting for things to process or download.  And I discovered that if the app was set to thinking 3 moves ahead, I could never win.  But if it was set to 2 moves ahead, I won every time.

I'm a 2.5 player, LOL!

There was a day when I thought I was still creative at things like chess, and I was.  And then, one day snuck up on me and whispered "you aren't anymore" and proved it.  I have some old written recorded games from years ago.  I replayed them. I don't even know what I was thinking in those attacks, but they worked wonderfully. 

Getting older sucks!

I don't feel dumber, but I have proof.  Dad lived here with me for 2 years, and went from slightly confused to totally demented.  One thing you can learn from aged parents is what to expect...  Well, at least if I follow his path, I have 20 years to go before that. 

Unless CoVid19 gets me.

I'm a downer today, sorry.

Cavebear

ConVid19 Update

I am changing some of what I said in the previous posts.  I am now very concerned about CoVid19.  Things have gotten far worse than I expected just 2 weeks ago.  I thought it might last several weeks and then those people who would catch it would catch it and hospitals would take care of most of them.  OOPS!  Serious pandemic experts say that it won’t end in a few weeks with a few thousands deaths but maybe late Summer with 100,000-240,000 deaths in the US.  THAT is scary.  

Worse, the experts specifically said that if you think you are immune because you don’t catch the flu or other viral illnesses, you are wrong because no one is immune because it is new.  That is REALLY SCARY!  I was kind of depending on having a genetic resistance to viruses in general (through experience).  I still suspect they might be “somewhat” over-stating it.  I know from reading some medical articles in the past that descendants of people who survived the Bubonic Plague in Europe have a general genetic resistance to viral illnesses.  Or maybe they were wrong then and know better now and I am just as vulnerable to this new one as anyone else.  That is REALLY REALLY SCARY, and I have adjusted my habits accordingly.  Not that I was wiling to tempt fate all that much before today, but I am being more careful now.

So I looked around the house to see what I had.  I found a large bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol which I will use carefully (because good luck finding any of THAT at Walmart).  I found a bottle of hand-sanitizer left over from when Dad was here.  And Wonder Of Wonders, I found that the box of 19 “dust masks” (it was 20, I used one) I bought a few years ago to help avoiding inhaling sawdust when I cut boards in the basement were N-95 respirators!  They must have been on sale at the time or I was thinking “why not the best"…  

I haven’t left the yard for 10 days, but I need fresh veggies and fruit.  One mask every 7-10 days grocery-shopping will me last 4-6 months.  Or maybe longer.  The medical folks say that the virus doesn’t survive more than 9 days under perfect conditions, so if I set 1 aside, it can be re-used in 2 weeks safely.  And I have 2 boxes of 100 latex gloves (one stays in the house and the other stays in the car) to handle them carefully to hang them in the garage (where I seldom go since I’m not driving anywhere these days).  

So I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow.  The Safeway stores have “senior shopping" from 7am to 9 am Tues and Thurs.  I won’t be there then.  First, who is most likely to be contagious?  Second, who is least likely to be careful with sani-wipes and masks?  Third, I’ll go right after lunchtime when the store is least busy.  And I’ll go with a handkerchief dampened with the 91% alcohol packed in a ziplock bag, 2 latex gloves, and a dishtowel to wrap around the cart handles (in case they are out of the sani-wipes they promise will be at the front door but weren’t the last time I shopped).

I picked a rotten time for my indoor-grown lettuces to be used up.  I grow several kinds in trays under daylight bulbs and when you cut them an inch or so from the base, they re-graow several times.  I just used up the “several times" and had to replant.  At least they grow fast.  In 6 weeks, I can start harvesting again.  And that matters because leaf lettuce doesn’t last long in the fridge and I LOVE my salads!  Running out of lettuce gets me going to the grocery store faster than anything else.  I have some crops planted outside.  Spinach, radishes, carrots, beets, snow pear so far.    And broccoli and related crops, leeks, celery, garlic, to transplant out soon.  Tomatoes and peppers to follow in 3 weeks.  But those take time to mature.  If I have to depend on harvesting tomatoes for food in dire straits, we are ALL in SERIOUS trouble.

MD, VA, DC, and several other States here have declared lock-downs the past few days.  The govts are all working out which businesses have to close and which can stay open (is 7-11 a “grocery”?) and is a liquor store “essential”?  What about a hardware store (if you need replacement parts for a toilet?) and what about if your TV dies?  TVs are important methods of communicating govt decisions.  

Restaurants here are doing free delivery just to keep staff employed.  Some places are converting to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where they deliver a box of fresh veggies for a monthly subscription.  I might consider that.  There aren’t many fruits and veggies that I don’t like.  But I’m fussy.  I want my apples and peaches ripe but my bananas green.  Not choosing individual items would be a real change.  But maybe if I organized a neighborhood group, we could exchange (from 10’ away) what we like and don’t.

There is good news.  While I tend to view “American Exceptionalism” with some suspicion, it appears from today’s news that we do have it in some ways.  Researchers have developed the first blood test that can accurately detect more than 50 types of cancer and identify in which tissue the cancer originated, often before there are any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease.  And with an error rate of .07%! 

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.  Previous tests took 3-4 days to show results.

3M has in two months doubled global production of N95 masks to about 100 million a month.  Some manufacturing companies that produce ventilators are going into 24/7 production.  Some other machine-oriented companies are changing machinery to produce more.  Based on some ideas from China, shelter companies are producing “one week wonders” to construct safe temporary hospitals on sports fields, in convention centers, and city parks.

FEMA is going full on.  The military is going full on.  The US actually has the worst infection statistics in the world.  It is hitting here hardest because we don’t allow the govt to declare total lockdowns (we just won't allow it “yet”).  But we are also responding to it in medical and technology ways that will have benefits here and around the world.  This virus is serious and it will reoccur for many months if not years.  But by this time next year, we will probably have a vaccine and it will become “just another” seasonal virus that will kill some people (as routine influenza does now) and become part of the background fight with viruses we have fought for a century

Many people will die, but most of us will live.  And fewer will die the next season.  We are about 325 million people in the US.  if 200,000 die from this it will be a tragedy to those who die, those who know the ones who die, and to society in general of the people who died who would have done great things in the future.  That is .06% of us (did I add the % inaccurately?).  It is tragic but not existential.  We will get through this.

 

It's going to be hard, but beatable.

 

Adjusting To CoVid19

I'm being careful.  Last month, guessing that things might get bad, I safely shopped in a grocery store and Walmart for basic supplies.  I didn't overdo it.  I didn't buy 2 years worth of toilet paper or 50 gallons of bottled water.  I didn't buy a case of canned chili (gag), a dozen frozen pizzas, or every box of chicken pot pies.  I didn't buy 5 gallons of milk (who can use 5 gallons of milk before it spoils)?  I'm reasonable. 

I did buy some large bags of frozen veggies.  I like veggies, and frozen isn't too bad.  I bought some canned goods (beans and corn) and 4 gallons of distilled water "in case", but not much else. 

I already had several months worth of frozen cooked meat (I routinely smoke a pork shoulder and cook chicken thighs en masse sometimes) and put them in 4 oz portions for future meals.

I didn't try to raid local stores of hand sanatizer or masks.

But it can be amazing what a packrat like me has sitting around...    I found leftover hand sanitizer from when my becoming-demented Dad was living here in 2012 to 2014.  I found I had a large bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol (why 91% and not just 90% baffles me) in the back if the bathroom cabinet.

More to the point, I do some woodworking and sawdust is always a problem.  I had a sawdust mask I had used too often and noticed a box on a basement windowsill.  Well, stuff sits around here a long time without really being noticed sometimes.  It is a box of 20 N95 respiratory masks

So I have a quandary.  I could donate it to a hospital or keep it.  A hospital would use it up in a few minutes.  To me, it means possible safe grocery shopping for several months.  I'm in the danger range for CoVid19.  Over 65 and respiratory issues.

What would you do?

Garden

I got the first seeds in the soil yesterday.    It was good to scratch up the dirt.  First was pre-germinated snow peas.  I soak then 24 hours and then let them sit 2 days.  I plant the obes tat send out a root.

This morning, I planted a 6' pattern of 35 spinach seeds.  I tapped out a handful and they were the exact amount.  Yay!

I also planted a sq ft each of radishes, beets, carrots, and kholrabi. 

The basement light stand is full of trays of tomatoes, peppers, cole crops, and flowers.  Most are emerging.  And I've started the dormant Venus Fly Traps in the cold garage; 4 hours of light this week and 1 more hour each week until it is warm outside.

Stared my war against the voles.  The voles eat plant roots.  And use mole tunnels o avoid predators.  So to rid the yard of voles, I have to chase the moles out.  Poor moles...  But they have to go to make the voles go.

Voles are like mice but eat plant roots.  And they love to hide.  They are the ones that eat your tulip and crocus bulbs.  They are also what the cats call "mousies" mostly.

I replanted my lettuce trays too.

My Personal CoVid19 Situation

This is partly to organize my own thoughts and partly to keep friends and family informed...

I am prepared for a long stay at home.  Some of it is just routine habit; some of it is in response to concerns about food and energy systems.

I am a homebody.  I routinely don't leave the yard for days at a time.  Granted, "day's at a time" is not weeks at a time, but I could manage.  I routinely have weeks  of home-cooked meals in the freezers (kitchen fridge and older basement fridge). 

When I heard that CoVid19 ad escaped China months ago, I added more canned goods to my pantry.  Nothing I wouldn't use up eventually, but stuff I normally wouldn't eat except in an emergency.  I even bought bottled water for the first time ever. 

As things have gotten worse, I have added to that.  A pack of TP here, a 3-pack of kleenex there, a few more cans of soup, a few cans of fruit, cans of tomatoes.  Bags of potatoes and oinions (I can't cook without them).   I missed out on the antiseptic-wipes, I thought for sure I had several packs of them from when Dad was here.  Maybe I sent them with him.

If the electricity doesn't fail for more than a couple hours, I actually have enough food for 3 months, and I'm not talking about frozen TV dinners.   If the electricity fails for 24 hours, I'm screwed!

One never knows what will happen in the face of social disruption.  I trust that we will all get through this OK with some cooperation.  People in democracies tend to rise to the challenge.

The thing that might challenge me most is not having fresh fruit available.   I like meat.  Small amounts are fine.  But 75% of what I eat is veggies and fruit.  Its not a diet, just my taste preference.

I have mentioned before that I have been immune to influenza virus since childhood.  This CorVid19 is not that virus.  I might be as vulnerable to it as anyone.  That's oddly scary.  After a lifetime of seeming-immunity to viruses, I'm not sure about this one.  It is entirely possible that the genetic reasons I have been free of them in the past makes me equally or more vulnerable to this one.

There is an ancient Chinese curse that say's "May you live in interesting times".  This is an "interesting time".  I don't want to live in "interesting times" like this! 

But I also look at this in another way.  Some bad things happen randomly.  The dinosaurs were wiped out by a random meteoroid.  There have also been other extinction events.  Shit happens sometimes. 

But I offer a word of hope.  This Corona Virus is not going to kill us off.  It is individually- threatening, but not species-threatening.  There will be some unfortunate individuals who die from it  (and probably fewer than from the regular seasonal flu). 

Be careful, but don't panic...  Always keep a towel nearby.

Update

The main Mac Mini dessktop HD is erased.  I confirmed that.  It does keep the operating system (High Sierra, not Catalina).  That is a relief.  Apple will probably look back on Catalina some day the way Coca Cola looks back on "New Coke" and Microsoft looks back on the Paperclip  function.

Or maybe not.  Apple might be dedicated to forcing it's users into iCloud and new annual subscription apps forever.  Already, I can see that I am being forced to choose the subscription MS Word and Excek (which I love vs the Apple Pags and Numbers (which have few features).

Fortunately, I have fewer word and spreadsheet demands than I used to, so I might die before they make it a "pay for every use" world.

But that's neither here nor there right now.  Right now, I finally have my OLD Mac Mini (the one BEFORE the one I spilled the wine on - call it the grandparent of the new one and the parent is dead)  being backed up on a 4TB My Passport external HD (51 minutes and counting down).  That isn't over-writing my older backups, just saving what is on my OLD Mac.  The pre-Catalina backups are still there.  4 TB is a lot of storage.

My idea is to save what is on the OLD Mac, (just in case) and restoring the Oct 2019 backup Mac-to-Mac directly.  Since I can't seem to choose the backup to migrate from Time Machine, but CAN if it is the only version on the OLD actual Mac (there being no other choices), I am expecting Migration Assistant will work this time.

Backup 34 minutes and counting...

BTW, my previous migration created 69,000 photo files.  I confirmed that this OLD Mac only says 17,000.  I take that as a sign that there will not be duplicates.  Time and a few more steps over a couple days will tell.  If photos duplicate along the way, maybe this time I will see where it happens.

Backup 10 minutes to go (an hour later, LOL) but it is getting close to finished.  The computer makes a guess on time, and it changes by what files it finds.  It is like a marathon runner not knowing what hills of downslopes it will find.

I didn't waste the time just sitting here.  I cubed 5 pounds of pork shoulder I smoked a couple days ago.  And packed the cubes 4 oz each into ziplock bags and got them in the freezer.  I'm set for any pork meal for months.  Very versatile stuff, pork!

The usual is adding 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 small onion, a couple cloves garlic, and oregano, thickened with flour.  But smothered in bell peppers or carmelized onion is good.  Mixed with stir fried veggies and served over spaghetti with soy sauce is good.

Well,  the backup is going slowly.  For every GB it backs up, the computer offers more GB,  so I guess it is going to take hours.   It is up to 90GB and the total on the HD is 340,  so I might as well let it run overnight and see what I get this afternoon...

IF it backs the whole current drive up on the OLD Mac, then I Restore the OLD computer with the OCT 2019 backup and THEN Migrate that to the new computer (because thenit will be the only version Migration Assistant can find).  Abd THEN if that works, I might actually be back at Oct 2019.  and possibly be able to copy the photos since the without duplicates AND have my email settings back.

Aren't computers fun?  And then Thursday morning, I get to (try and) capture Marley to stuff him into the PTU and bring him to the vet for HIS teeth cleaning adventure.  Oh the thrill of the chase...!

Stopping For Awhile

I've gone and messed up the computer again, AND discovered I never did have it fixed right like I thought recently.  I thought the only problem left was duplicate photos.  And maybe I should have just lived with those.

But I hate unresolved problems, so I can't working at apps that promised to find duplicate photos and remove them.  They didn't work.  So last night I sat down and started deleting them manually.  It's tedious but doable.

I set up detailed folders routinely.  Used to drive the IT at work nuts.  Well, I like to make things suit myself, and what I could do, I did.

That has now come to haunt me.  My folder organization works fine for me, but apps (Windows nor Mac) are not designed to deal with such complications.  The old "iPhotos" Mac app undertood the difference between the original large photos and the highly-processed smaller photos I saved elsewhere.  The new "Photos" Mac app does not.  It sees ALL photos everywhere.

I did not know that.  So i managed to delete a whole lot of my processed photos while manually trying to delete "duplicates".  And that's not the only thing.  Nothing has really been working right since I "upgraded" to the latest Mac operating system (Catalina).

It can't be removed.  Which is why I bought a new Mac, but tipped a glass of wine onto the old one (killing the hard drive), and have been struggling since.  Some of that is not Apple's fault (they didn't tip the wine glass).  But that wouldn't have happened if Catalina was revertable to the previous operating system like all the previous ones were.  If it was revertable, I could have just reverted and gone happily on.

So here is the situation.  I'm going back to an October backup from an external hard drive of the later-drowned Mac HD.  I will try migrating back to this computer.  I will then try to use the backup I will make to a different external HD with some current files (like my email and new photos).

And I am going to be gone until then.  Days, weeks, I don't know.  What I do know is that I can't blog, visit, try to fix the computer (getting everything back), get my garden going, repair balky yard equipment (having a problem with those too), and take care of home and cats all at the same time.  And if I try to spend most of my day getting the computer back to pre-Catalina, I will go utterly nuts.

So, this is a (hopefully) brief sign-off and I will return with a gloriously working computer and a lot of new cat-pictures.  If I fail, I will starting from scratch, and I will go from there.

But I don't know when...

Indoor Gardening Started!

It's always a bit of work to get started each year.  Here is how it looked last week...

Well, things pile up over the Winter.  So I organized some supplies into piles, moved some stuff to the shelves in the garden shed, and threw out some junk.  That left me with this...

NOW, I have some working space and am ready to go.  The barrel (above) holds my personal premixed potting soil.  WAY cheaper than buying those small bags, and I know for sure what is in them (I try to stay organic).  The tubs below are the various components that are left over, plus some of them are used potting soil from last year.  Those are fine for established plants but not for new seeds. Kitty litter tubs make great containers (good size, good handles, good tops). 

The long narrow planters are for indoor lettuces, pak choi, and leafy celery.

The stacked trays below are filled with my sterile potting soul mix for the new seeds.  I poured an inch of hot water into each tray so the soil could soak.  Dry potting soil takes a day to get saturated.  It is not like regular dirt, LOL!

So, tomorrow, I will be able to plant seeds.  The first will be the heirloom tomatoes I hope to graft onto vigorous disease-resistant rootstock.  I've never succeeded in that in 3 years but I keep trying.  I learn a little bit each time.

The rest of the trays will go to perennial or self-sowing flowers I am trying to establish in old beds, some mass-annuals like marigolds and zinnias, and other veggies like bell peppers and melons.

I used up 1/2 of the barrel of the potting soil, but the trays are filled and saturated.  That means all I have to do is plant seeds according to schedule.

And I have a great schedule!  Years ago, I made index cards for each veggie, sorted by "weeks before and after last frost date".  Each card has the name of a veggie and the indoor or outdoor planting date, the kind of fertilizer it wants, and the spacing per square foot of garden space.  Example:
 
And I have 2 calendars marked with + or - weeks related to last frost to remind me which cards to look at for planting each week.

The growing season has STARTED!

Coronavirus Pandemic Preparations

I'm not a survivalist, an end-of-civilizationist, or someone who expects a political revolution.  I don't expect aliens, zombies, or the mole-people to attack.  I don't have the garage stocked with AK-47s and ammo.  I don't even have an outside generator.

To be honest, I have a couple of basic hunting weapons, and a few replica swords (I participated in re-enactments a couple of decades ago for fun) and those are functional enough if I wanted to sharpen them.  I have a hunting-quality crossbow, too (there are relatively tame deer in the swamp across the street).  But I'm not expecting any need for stuff like that.

What I AM considering though, is that the Coronavirus MIGHT spread enough (and mutate sufficiently) to sicken enough people to disrupt standard food and supplies distribution for a few weeks even in the US.  So I am taking some basic steps which will not waste money in the long term but might prove useful if I wanted to avoid going out more than necessary.

Here is what I am NOT doing:
1.  Buying cases of freeze-dried food and MRE-equivalents.
2.  Buying guns.
3.  Buying cans of gasoline.
4.  Buying a generator.

Here is what I AM doing:
1.  Buying an extra 6-pack of TP, hand soap, laundry detergent,.
2.  Buying a case or 2 of distilled water (my Venus-fly-traps need it anyway).
3.  Buying an extra case of cat food.
4.  Buying a dozen each of canned soups, stews, and chili.
5.  Buying a few large bags of mixed frozen vegetables.
6.  Buying a large Pork Butt to cook, cube, and freeze in portions (I do that anyway every few months).
7.  Buying a dozen chicken thighs for the same reason.
8.  Checking my non-prescription drugs and anti-infection ointments and bandage supplies.
9.  Pre-ordering refills of the cats' meds.
10. Filling my riding mower 5 gallon tank with gas, filling the portable 5 gallon can with gas, and topping off my car gas (I have gas stabilizer, so it won't go bad and will get used over Summer if otherwise not needed). 
11. Buying an N95 NOISH-approved particle respirator 10-20 pack (if I can find them).  That's for if I HAVE to go shopping or visit a doctor waiting room (but even then, I work with solvent and sawdust sometimes, and they work for those too so I'll use them eventually).
12.  Calling my doctor's office about getting a copy of my medical records (a good idea anyway).
13.  White gas (a generic term for camp stove and lantern fuel).  I have a single burner backpacker's cooktop.  "Just in case".


I've probably forgotten a few things. 

Things I already have that might be useful to consider for others to consider:
1.  Rechargable batteries and charger.
2.  Slow-burning emergency candles.
3.  Charcoal for the smoker.
4.  A crank-powered flashlight and a crank powered radio.
5.  Powdered milk, powdered Gatorade (electrolytes), bread flour, sugar, salt, spices.

I don't expect it will get all that bad.  I'm not the paranoid kind; I expect things won't get as bad as some fear.  But buying stuff that you can use eventually won't hurt and may keep you from going out among the sick could make things easier.

Just a thought...

Comments About That Unusually Helpful AOL Tech Person

Comments came up about how unusually helpful the AOL tech was and that she didn't want company recognition...

I had dealt with at least 6 AOL techs over the last couple months.  I'm not saying they weren't helpful to the degree required for their jobs.  But if there was something I couldn't do or understand, they lost patience quickly.  So they didn't go out of their way to help.  They were following AOL rules.  One is paying $5 per month per email account that they could verify.  Another was that I had to know the previous passwords which were on the dead Mac Mini.  They pretty much just tried to get me off the phone to get to the next customer.

I should mention that the previous ones might have had trouble because I didn't have a 2nd phone for sending a code to, or call waiting set up.  I did contact my service provider (Verizon) to set that up.  It just took a button click on My Account and then discovering there was a button on my phone labeled "call waiting'!  Well, you don't see what you aren't looking for...

When I talked to this latest one, it was obvious she was not so concerned with AOL rules.  She didn't ask if I had an paid account for each email address.  She asked if I had passwords, but when I said I didn't (and explained why) she said "then we will set of new ones".  She was patient after asking questions that I didn't fully understand.  She answered some questions she didn't have to bother answering.

An example was "what is the difference between POP and IMAP accounts"?  She explained that POP was easier for AOL but did not allow recovery of email files while IMAP took a little more work, but allowed recoveries.  When I mentioned that my working email account was POP, she said "well let's fix that first".   And she did.

She was on "remote control" over my computer by then.  She explained what she was doing at each step.  After changing my primary email account from POP to IMAP we went to the marksmews email.  She didn't ask if I had a monthly payment account, she just went about setting it up as IMAP.  To do so, she generated a master password on her end and told me to enter a password of my own afterwards to change it.  And she specifically said at all such times that she had turned off her vieing so that she couldn't see my new password. 

OK, that might have been untrue, but I was trusting her.  I think she was being honest.  Besides, I'm sure anyone at AOL could see my passwords if they wanted to.

So she had my cavebear email changed to the safer IMAP format and the marksmews email set up the same way.  She asked if I needed further assistance.  I mentioned a 3rd email accounnt.  When she asked why have 3 accounts, I explained it was one general email and one each for 2 blogs (cats and gardening) just to keep them separate.

She laughed and said she admired organized computer files.  I didn't mention that I keep so many folders of various kinds that I used to drive the computer guys nuts at work when they had to solve a problem.  They make sense to me and that is all that matters.

So she went about setting up my yardenman email (gardening) as Imap and went through the process of creating a temporary new master password at her end *sending a temporay code to my call-waiting) and then going off-viewing while I created a new one for myself.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience.  I have never in my life had a better experience with a computer company tech.  So why did she decline to let me thank AOL on her behalf? 

Well, during our hour-long chat, I mentioned that she was unusually helpful and did she really enjoy doing this?  OK, I would expect any company agent to express a positive attitude whether they actually enjoyed their job or not.

She seemed actually happy to help people get problems fixed and to be the one to fix them.  So parts of being happy at what you do are hard to disguise.  She seemed to REALLY enjoy what she was doing.

I get that.  When I visit my favorite gardening forum, the first thread I go to is the "Questions" thread.  Some guys love cars, some like sports, I was gardening as a preteen.  So it has been 60 years...  I love to answer gardening questions!  I get positive pleasure from helping other people garden well. 

So, apparently, the AOL tech rep I spoke to feels the same way about computers.  I think that she knows that she is breaking AOL rules by helping people without asking for payment programs or pushing add-on "pay-for" services.  It just gives her pleasure to help others with her expertise.

An aside...  The internet has been the greatest opportunity for people to share their individual knowledge since the invention of the mass-printed book.  Before the printing press (invented in symbol-driven China, but much more applicable to European letter systems), scholars had to write individual letters to the few others they knew about things they had discovered (expensive, slow, and uncertain of delivery).  After the printing press, scholars could write whole books available to all who could buy one (it still wasn't cheap).  But 1,000 books reached more people than a dozen short letters.

With the internet, we can reach a Billion people if they are interested and nearly for free.  So sending answers to questions (whether computer, gardening, cooking, etc) into the internet is basically "books cubed".

The AOL tech woman is one of those.

Email Accounts

This is long and has a pretty good ending, but you'll have to read to get to it!  And I'm writing this is relatively good humor, as you'll see by the end.  Consider it "a novel to read in 20 minutes".  I'm done complaining.  LOL!

I originally set up 3 email accounts on Verizon mail years ago (2008).  It was quite easy.  So I set up a primary email for myself (friends, family, shopping, my Cavebear's Lair blog).  That is me "in general".

I set up one for the cat blog (Mark's Mews).  That one gets 95% of all my emails of course.  Mostly notifications on comments.  It is easier to read them in email than actually going to the blog.  And all of those are saved that way "just in case".

I set one up for my garden posts and forums (Yardenman).

I was happy as a pig in mud.  I loved being organized in my slightly different 3 personas.  No deceit intended, but it was just easier to have family, cat blog, and garden forums separate.

And then, in 2017, Verizon sold their email accounts to AOL.  "Rest assured", they said, "you keep your email addresses forever, and will get more experienced service at no cost.  This is for YOUR benefit".  I ask, are there more chilling marketing words than that?

AOL is used to people having one email.  But they worked hard to get my 3 accounts transferred.  And they did succeed.  I ended up with a dozen different passwords and I wasn't sure which went to which email account, but they assured me they could always find it or give me a new one.  No cost.  I was a legacy from Verizon, and free service was part of the contract.

Nothing is forever...

When I foolishly downloaded Mac OS 'Catalina'  last November, everything to Hell in a Handbasket, as they say.  Catalina was a 64-bit system and none of my 32-bit apps worked.  And it was not reversable.  Apple WANTS everyone to "progress" and that meant 64 bit.  I kicked like a mule and I bit like a crocodile.  Didn't do me any good.  Catalina wasn't leaving my computer. 

So I pulled out the previous Mac Mini (that didn't have 'Catalina') and started migrating the Catalina one to it.  I had some short cables, so I had to snuggle both Macs on one desk.  Along the way, I moved one that still had an overlooked cable attached

That cable caught my wine glass and spilled it onto the Catalina Mac.  It's OK to laugh.  I'm trying to write this as a comic-tragedy...  The Catalina Mac was immediately fried.  Dead.  No power.  Drowned.  Zombied.  6' under.  You get the point....

So I had the older one I stopped using in 2017.  But I also had an external backup from a few days before.  On Mac, it is called "Time Machine".  Theoretically, you can restore your computer  down to the last email setting from it. 

But what they don't tell you is that it has to be the same computer.  To a different computer, it is just a collection of apps and docs and folders.  Guess who was on "a different computer"?

I tried everything for a couple months.  Ceiling Cat KNOWS I tried (I'll get some credit for that somehow someday, I'm sure, but not NOW).

I bought a new Mac Mini, not realizing that it was a cloud computer and had little memory.  I was able to return it.  I bought a real one.  1TB and faster stuff.  So I confidently went to use "Migration Assistant".  Apple says it will copy everything from an old computer to a new one.  Guess what doesn't work as claimed?  It copied most of the old Mac, but not the photos or email or settings. 

I'm going to guess it is partially my fault.  I customize and organize my computer files freely and in ways the designers probably didn't expect. 

When we got our first office computers (Convergent Technology, aka C3) in the early 90s , the spreadsheet was called Multiplan.  It had a way to link files together.  I linked freely.  I crashed the system.  Not to the point where our Data guys were upset, but to where the Multiplan programmers and C3 managers called me asking what I had done.  Well, it was more like "What the F ing H*ll did you do

I told them that I had explored their spreadsheet and used the features.  They had to rewrite large parts of their spreadsheet code to allow what I did.  I am very likely infamous at C3 and possibly mentioned in some software articles from the time.  

So I can get around software given a half a chance, and I find things the programmers didn't think of.  I couldn't fully migrate the old mac to the new one.  The Photos would NOT go (too many I suspect).  The settings wouldn't transfer (I had to many alterations?) maybe.  My mail wouldn't go at all!

I got the photos transferred one folder at a time using an external HD.  The new computer didn't like it the way I did it, but it has to copy files directly if you are determined enough.  On tyhe other hand, you can't MAKE it copy "settings" apparently.

So then I called AOL about the email.  Remember that part about free service forever?  Forget that. Never heard of it.  And they hate us legacy Verizon email users.  They ARE stuck with keeping our email addresses working though.  I have no idea why that and not the free service, but that is money and who really knows what the contract actually says.

They demanded I have a separate phone to receive temporary codes.  I only have the landline (yeah, I'm THAT primitive).  Call waiting would work, but I had never set that up and wasn't even sure I had it.  AND they wanted me to pay $5 monthly for a support account for each email account.  I went for one for the Cavebear email account.  If I had to live with one, that's "me".

They got that working, but refused to touch the others unless they could send a text or voice code to a separate number.

Well, after finally getting the photos moved and setting up new setting all around, I set up a "chat" with a Verizon agent.  She told me I had call waiting and how to activate it.  Stupid me, it was right there on a phone button!

But armed with call-waiting, I confidently called AOL again, expecting to have to pay $5 per month for tech support for each account.  And expecting to have trouble understanding what the agent was saying.

And THIS is why I am so thrilled.  First, imagine an Asian Indian/Irish accent (it sounded beautiful whatever it was).    Second, imagine not being asked to sign up for a year's worth of monthly payment for 3 accounts.  Third, imagine someone who cheerfully led me through all the stages of all 3 accounts (correcting a few previous mistakes by the previous AOL agents) for over an hour and got all 3 accounts working AND even helped me get the email accounts under my Inbox.

I even asked her if she enjoyed her job when it takes so long for a customer like me and she said she really does enjoy helping people with difficult problems.    She seemed sincere.  OK, I get that.  Sometimes I spend hours at a gardening site answering questions that will never benefit me in any way.

And another thing.  They always tell you a name when they start and you never remember it.  So when I told her at the end that she was the most helpful tech person I ever dealt with and wanted to commend her to AOL, she requested I didn't.  I was stunned.

After we tested sending a few emails between my accounts to be sure it was all working, I thanked her and hung up.

And I immediately emailed AOL.  I told them I didn't have her name, but I gave them the case number, and that they had better make her "Employee Of The Year" because she did what 5 other of their agents didn't! 

I do have 11,000+ emails to sort out, but that is sure better than none.  I can do that.

And I did an internet search about where my Firefox bookmarks are.  I learned I can't "import" them because they don't get the idea of importing from Firefox to Firefox.  I'll bet I can import them to Safari and THEN to Firefox.  I LOVE "workarounds", LOL!

I have duplicate pictures that won't go away using a "duplicate-remover" app.  I'll remove them manually over the next few weeks. 

BTW, I learned the difference between email settings of POP and SMTP.  Email providers love POP because it is simpler.  SMTP files are recoverable.  POP files aren't.  Take a look at your email settings and see which you have...  If they are POP, call your email provider and demand a change.

But nearly everything is re-established on my new computer.  3 months of misery.  But you know what?  Next year, I will hardly even remember it.   Times heals all wounds.  And in the grand scheme of things, the past 3 months will not matter next year. 

Happiness to all.  My computer life is finally coming back into order...

And thanks to all who read this far.

Mark