The Ultimate Answer to Kings

There’s quite a lot of comments as well as a couple of direct emails from people trying to help me with my bedroom heater situation, and I haven’t been very responsive. I’m not ignoring you, I’m just sort of up to my ass in projects of higher priority at the moment…

…such as gluing my leg back together, painting, baking, some minor Jeep issues and the like. I don’t plan to put the furnace off and I promise I’ll get back on that topic, and thanks to those with more knowledge than myself who have offered their help.

We had our first big rain this morning/afternoon…

Almost 7/10 of an inch in less than three hours, with lots of nice lightning and thunder to keep Tobie interested, a lot of new yard erosion I wasn’t expecting, and – to my surprise…

…the wash even ran a little! Which it almost never does on the first storm of the season. It came on earlier than usual for a Monsoon storm so I didn’t get much painting done. In fact I only just began the morning’s planned session when I had to hurry and pack everything away. I did get my bread baking done, though. And then I sat down to fix a pad on my soft insert whose epoxy had gotten hard and threatened to fail entirely. And that always leaves me trapped on my ass for a couple of hours.

Get a red dot, they said. It’ll fix your problems, they said…

And it does. Really. You have to learn how to use a pistol all over again…

…and there are obvious issues, none that aren’t worth the price of admission. But one thing they don’t mention?

Look, whatever gun I’ve anointed as my main babe and principal squeeze, I wear that puppy every waking hour of every day. More if you count old-man naps in my chair. In a far less than antiseptic environment. Do you know how hard it is to clean lint off the recessed glass of a pistol optic, after it’s been cemented there by calcium from kitchen sink or yard hose splash? It’s like part of the daily procedure now, just before the morning walkie with Tobie right behind me shooting Expectation Rays out of his eyes.

Next time I’m going to try one of those optics that look like little boxes, with everything sealed up inside and nothing but outside on the outside.

So I installed that new thermopile in the bedroom heater, right? And it fixed nothing. I didn’t even know what it did: Thought I did but I was not right about that. So it’s supposed to produce current and … power the gas valve?

Anyway, apparently the spec is 500mv but this one – brand new, remember – is producing less than 400. Tops out at 392. Significant? I dunno. I took somebody’s advice and put the question to a furnace forum.

ETA: Somebody on that forum suggested I measure the voltage with the thermostat turned on, and it’s substantially lower. Starts at 187mv and slowly drops. I don’t know what that means.

Yesterday was water day so I didn’t get any painting done. Today I hit it early before it got hot with the front and side window and door trim…

Phoebe has finished up her baby-raising duties and gone off to wherever she goes, so I’m free to work on the side of my own damned house.

Good thing too, because this was the only wood trim that was actually peeling from the sun. Of course I had to start by cleaning all the bird shit off the trim and glass. That bird really ought to be paying rent, or at least cleaning up her own mess.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the upper part of the porch and gutter.

It’s a lot more square footage but a lot less persnickety so it should go quicker. But as always I really don’t care how much I get done in any one session as long as the progress is steady. One of the advantages of a small cabin; no matter how slowly it goes, there’s only so much brush work.

The topic may have come up from time to time.

And I came by my attitude quite honestly. If you spend 45-50 hours a week working, plus a frustrating 2 hour/day commute, would you rather be handed a beer when you get home or a paintbrush? One alternative suggests appreciation; the other just says “quit your bitching and get at that cove molding. Neatly, damn you!”

I never formally swore never to look at another cutting brush as long as I lived once I became single again, but the intention was implicit. Which is why I was so surprised to find myself doing exactly that nine years ago when the cabin’s first siding and trim were at last complete and in need of paint. I’ve noted before that the Secret Lair started as one thing and sort-of ended as another because the project became ever more complex as the years passed. Unlike the cove molding, it became something I actually cared about.

Now we’re pretty much in the maintenance-only phase, and I find to my surprise that, though I still think painting is one of the more tedious activities mankind ever cursed himself with, I really don’t mind doing it.

I’m supposed to be painting right now. I’m working on the porch, starting from the bottom and this morning is/was scheduled for removing [what passes for] the gingerbread and painstakingly painting the middle section.

Unfortunately…

…right now the weather isn’t cooperating. The day dawned cloudy and blustery, and Tobie and I got home just in time to avoid a rain shower so we’ll have to see how it goes. In the meantime I’m taking this moment to update on some access to tools issues… Continue reading →

June in the high desert is often – not always – the hottest month, depending on what Monsoon does. It can get hotter in July and August but if Monsoon is doing its thing the heat in those months is mitigated by storms and evening breeze. Right now it’s just hot.

So I typically spend my late mornings and afternoons hiding in the shade. The earlier you can get your outside stuff done, the better. Morning walkie, for example…

Yeah, I’m sweating before seven.

This morning I needed to do something I’ve put off for two days. I’m out of bread. So I hit that chore as soon as the voltmeter showed the solar panels were having some effect*…

…because using the oven when the cabin is already hot doesn’t increase anybody’s comfort.

Once we’re done with that…

…I can go back to mostly loafing. No pun intended.

This morning we finally hit the bottom of the flour bucket…

I have a procedure for that. In my situation it’s actually possible to run out of flour due to it not being sold locally. I ran into that even before the various shortages caused by the covid thing, so I plan ahead…

…by always having at least one spare full flour bucket. But some years ago I learned to my cost that it’s possible to plan too far ahead, since flour in paper sacks has a definite shelf life. So now I try never to have more than three buckets’ worth of flour on hand – roughly 100 pounds – or otherwise it’ll sit too long and not be so good for baking. I have now rotated my second bucket into use, and I’ll take the empty to Ian’s place where I have about a bucket’s worth stored in anticipation of this day. It’s cooler there, dark in the storage area, and bugs have never been a problem. Once I fill my empty and put it in the corner under the kitchen counter waiting for the current bucket to hit empty, I’ll start gradually accumulating 35ish pounds of flour at Ian’s place. That seems to work pretty well: I have enough to ride out unexpected shortages, but not so much that I exceed the shelf life of the flour.

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*My newish oven works much better for baking than the old one but it doesn’t have a pilot flame. The heating element that lights the gas pulls YUGE wattage so if the solar power system isn’t in full operation I have to run the generator or draw the batteries unpleasantly low.

It’s water day. All the empties are already in the Jeep, and all I need to do is get some quarters and deal with this bottle here…

…which has a little less than a gallon left. I hate when the working bottle is nearly empty on water day, and I hate pouring good drinking water down the drain. It’s not the money – I can afford a quarter a gallon – it’s the opportunity costs. I like to get my full value from a trip to town.

So I start thinking of all the places the water will go…

*The ready-use pitcher
*Two cooler bottles
*Tobie’s water bowl
*The tea pot – but not too full, propane costs more than water
*Oops, don’t forget the water bottle on the nightstand
*How much is in the trail canteen?

Only when all the various water vessels scattered around the cabin are completely full, or as full as practical, does any drinking water hit the plumbing so I can top off all my water bottles in town. Because I’m cheap. 🙂

Got well into the nineties indoors and out yesterday, with nary a breath of wind. Got some yard work done early but spent the bulk of the day indoors reading E. E. Smith and drinking water. Once the sun approached the horizon we took the party outdoors…

…really for the first time this year because the flying/biting bugs started the season in an aggressive mood. Not so bad last night, thankfully. Tobie, who doesn’t seem to suffer from the heat as much as LB and TB did but definitely doesn’t prefer it, got with the program immediately and just quietly kept me company till we went back indoors well after dark.

Speaking of the heat…

…I got that new cooler just in time. The first wave of the heat wave, I went through two ice bottles daily. This morning there was still a bit of ice in the bottle after 24 hours. So that worked.

Weather’s really weird this morning. Thunderstorms are coming through heralded by big gusty blasts of wind in random directions, and Tobie found it all very exciting to the point where he forgot he’s a big dog now and started rampaging around senselessly and really annoying grumpy old Uncle Joel.

Which made me chuckle when it reminded me of this meme I saw just yesterday…

I spent the majority of my time here in the Gulch living on the economic edge. Which means scrounging, which is all about access to tools.

Up till about five years ago I went without refrigeration at all, which really limited the ways I could eat in summer. Then somebody was throwing away an old cooler and asked me if I wanted it, and I decided to try an experiment…

Ian’s place has a fridge, which I never used to use at all. But I stuck some old icepacks in his freezer and then put them in this old cooler to see whether and for how long they’d keep beer and condiments cool. That worked pretty well so I filled some empty juice bottles with water and froze them which worked better yet. But as a cooler, that old cooler really isn’t much. Doesn’t really matter in winter but here in the first heat wave of the summer I’m replacing those ice bottles twice daily.

And that got me to thinking, since I now have a little more money to play with…

…what if I got a better cooler? We’re going to see if this works substantially better, or if I just wasted some money.

Speaking of summer and water bottles…

I have learned through painful experience to pay attention to how much water I drink once it gets hot. Dehydration will sneak up on you and do nasty things. The cabin gets mid-nineties inside by mid-afternoon so one important function of that cooler is to let me have at least one bottle of cool water at all times because drinking warm water gets old fast. I try to empty at least three of these daily, not counting tea and coffee.

It looks like Phoebe might be getting a neighbor!

She’s still on her nest, I’m starting to think she has started a second clutch of eggs. But now lately a second nest started forming, though I’m not sure I’ve seen a second bird. We’ll see how this goes – it’s kind of late in the season for nest-building and I found it surprising.

I’m still getting over that series of allergy attacks suffered late last month but it is getting better. Haven’t been getting my assigned projects done, but I will. Except for that I’m in good health and spirits.

Somebody had a big accident on Tobie’s bed. Don’t know what happened or why, not mentioning any names, maybe a posse of ground squirrels burst in and held him down while others peed all over the window side of the bed. Not pointing any fingers here. And dark stains aren’t that rare, since he commonly chews up bones on the bed – but they fade, and these didn’t which was what got me thinking the unthinkable. This was very uncharacteristic behavior, and dammit Tobie that’s a new bed.

Tobie hates disruption of his living space, don’t blame him, so do I but this clearly called for something that had never happened before…

First thing, even before morning walkie, I took his bed away from him and out to the porch. There was some preliminary work needed, like removing the padding and a good vacuuming – and breaking out the vacuum cleaner first thing in the morning, Uncle Joel? Why are you doing these crazy things?

I hoped to have the bed back to him by evening but didn’t want him being all drama queen all day so I had an alternate plan…

…in the form of an old dog blanket that Neighbor L gave to me a few days ago. Didn’t really believe he’d accept it as a substitute but it was worth a try and to my surprise…

…he said, “yeah, okay.”

So we went for our morning walkie, taking along the bed cover to the washing machine at Ian’s place…

…where it got a good scrubbing and a long session in the machine. I was happy to see that this actually worked.

It being high summer at last, the cover dried very quickly and now…

Good as new. Probably back to not smelling right.

A couple of Generous Readers bought gel socks from the amputee stuff supplier, but that was a while ago and I’ve been awaiting their arrival with increasing anxiety. But today the first batch landed!

I think this is from Anon, who specifically said he bought five. A princely gift, these things ain’t cheap. This is a huge help. Thanks!

Also, to make our day complete the dollar store finally had one of Tobie’s favorite toys…

Not that it immediately matters because his current one isn’t completely dead yet. But it’s getting there, and I’ve had my eye out for a(n inevitably necessary) replacement.

or, Revenge of That Bush in my Yard.

So a couple of days ago I cut down two of the many intrusive bushes that have taken over my yard between the woodshed and the wash…

…and I really should have paid more attention to the fluffy stuff on the ends of the second one’s branches…

…because as soon as I started cutting that one I was constantly in the middle of a cloud of pollen. And I thought at the time that given the state of my allergies so far this warm season this might not be a good thing. But I was expecting to just spend the rest of the day emptying another tissue box.

Instead I was wheezing before I even got indoors. My windpipe basically closed, and though I seem to be better this morning I’m still constantly clearing my throat.

I am undeterred! I own a paint respirator, and I’m not afraid to use it! But it does seem as though everything’s trying to hurt me lately…

I don’t know why but in the past couple of years what used to be mostly bare dirt has broken out in big dense bushes. Not just here, either – it’s happening all over.

I wanted something like a string trimmer but with substantially more authority, one that could reach into a bush and slice the branches out. The sort of thing I’d normally use loppers for, but these bushes are too thick and tangled for that.

Finally got something I hoped would work…

Allergies or not, I’ve been really looking forward to trying this out. I started with two bushes that have been bugging me for a long time…

My new brush cutter isn’t very expensive, and as feared the price of that was a not-very-powerful electric motor. But it does have reach and at least a little authority, so once I figured out something resembling a technique…

…those two bushes became big piles of brush in the driveway in less than one sweaty hour.

Now I’m paying for it with barely being able to breathe again. But that will pass. I must demand a little more respect from the plants in my yard. Still have some raking to do.

After a pretty good day I had a night that seemed to last about 48 hours. Some of that was the heat – the first heat wave of the summer has arrived to smite us sinners in its righteous wrath – but also because I can’t sleep if I can’t breathe…

On the plus side, I was able to restock my tissue supply at the Palace of Food day before yesterday. So I have that going for me.

This made my morning. You’re familiar with Markley’s Law, right? It refers to the musty old joke that an interest in owning/carrying guns is driven by a desire to compensate for small male genitalia*. Guns are phallic symbols, people unhappy with their own phalluses are drawn to carry them in order to project power and aggression that they would not otherwise feel.

It was always just a slur, nobody ever tried to actually quantify whether it’s true or not.

Or have they? Actually it seems somebody did.

I don’t know who sponsored the above-linked study but I can only assume they didn’t get their money’s worth. Because the study** turned out to purport the exact opposite.

Size Matters? Penis Dissatisfaction and Gun Ownership in America

In this study, we formally examine the association between penis size dissatisfaction and gun ownership in America. The primary hypothesis, derived from the psychosexual theory of gun ownership, asserts that men who are more dissatisfied with the size of their penises will be more likely to personally own guns.
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We find that men who are more dissatisfied with the size of their penises are less likely to personally own guns across outcomes, including any gun ownership, military-style rifle ownership, and total number of guns owned. The inverse association between penis size dissatisfaction and gun ownership is linear; however, the association is weakest among men ages 60 and older.

😀 I’m not suggesting that the above is in any way important or meaningful or even truthful. But it did get a chuckle out of me.

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*the fact that it may or may not be true in my case is not an indication of truthiness in regard to the general population. No part of my aspect has ever graced the cover of a romance novel, or ever would – on the other hand I don’t actually own that many guns.

**which may or may not be any more accurate than the slur it was intended to reinforce, I’d have no way of knowing.

h/t

First Wednesday of the month is senior day. Yay. We went early this time and it wasn’t very crowded but this is my first visit in three months and I started out kind of hyperventilating anyway. But I got over it.

Somebody knew right away there’s something in those bags for him…

Abandonment issues and all, Tobie kind of likes it when Uncle Joel goes to the Palace of Food.

I think this was composed by an AI whose first language is not English.

You know you’ve addressed this to someone who can’t confidently define what an app is, right? No. You didn’t know that, Robbie Robot. I award you no points.

This is normally an autumn flower…

…but they’re already showing up in May/June. A little confusing, especially since it hasn’t been wet.