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WEEK 28 2019

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Saturday 13 July 2019

Saturday - Hot, about 104F. It was 103F measured by me in the shade behind the house, but I had the mister running nearby, so I'll go with the official 104F. Humidity was in the low teens, so the swamp cooler worked as well as could be expected, but that meant exit temperatures in the house of about 76F, and the house at about 80F by 6pm, even on high. I just sat in the front room down draft and read, and that was OK, but it makes me want to turn on the 'mechanical' a/c.

Before it got too hot I put some Sevin on the tomato plants, one is looking pretty damaged already.

I also lowered the mist hose for the dogs, by lowering the ladder from across the tops of the metal chair backs, to the chair seats. The dogs, being Chihuahuas, can walk under without so much as bowing their heads but this actually kept the concrete continually damp, once I set up a little 2' high windbreak at the corner of the house, and the dogs showed no signs of distress. They wanted, rather, to play. Krypton in particular really really really wanted to play fetch, but after 20 wind sprints across the yard in the heat he carried the ball into his kennel and stayed there.

S texted, she and R are back in town, so I'll drop off the dogs with her tomorrow.

I think there were a couple of other books I read in the last few weeks, but I can't bring them to mind. There is a missing week that I wrote over, and I think I had something there, but...

So, Book #23 was Null-A Continuum, by John C. Wright. A.E. van Vogt wrote three sci-fi books with an emphasis on General Semantics, years ago, and this is a continuation of the series, really taking an alternate path after book #2. It was interesting, though I think there was a little too much construction and destruction of entire universes towards the end. But JCW really likes his expansive space opera stuff, so not too unexpected.

Friday 12 July 2019 Friday - Hot. I did a small walk before it got too hot. It was about 103F air temperature in back, in the shade in mid afternoon. It is supposed to be as hot or hotter tomorrow.

The mister, and using a hose to wet the concrete every hour or two, seems to keep the dogs happy. There were no signs of distress. I also wet the ground area in the shade of the old satellite dish, and have a wading pool for them there, and they are usually there during the day. The standing water does attract wasps.

I finally did some spraying for bugs around the house foundation, exclusive of the garage area that the dogs could reach. I remembered to wear long pants. I have welts on both arms and both legs from the other day.

It was too hot by the time I was done to put Sevin on the tomato plants, I'll have to do that tomorrow.

Thursday 11 July 2019 Thursday - Hot. About 101F. But fairly dry, maybe 15% humidity.

I did a short walk by myself, maybe a mile and a half, while it was still below 80F in the morning.

I was going to put the mist sprayer up near the eaves, as per the instructions. After testing it beforehand for a bit I decided it needed to be a lot lower to be effective for dogs with the heat and winds around here. Eventually I ended up suspending it from a metal ladder across two outdoor chairs, i.e., three feet up. At this height it still really couldn't keep the concrete wet, just damp and cool, which is what I was looking for. I have it set up in front of the dog kennel, which is in the shade in the afternoon, so now they are comfortable

Fiddling with all of that I didn't get around to spraying for bugs at the foundation, I'll have to do that tomorrow. The gnat invasion has run its course, but I'm sure there will be other critters wanting their pint of blood.

Jim decided he likes the new lot of food, and by late afternoon was happily gobbling it down. Yay!

Wednesday 10 July 2019 Wednesday - Hot, nearly 100F. It is supposed to get into the low 100's for the next four or five days, possibly 107F on Saturday. I should probably install that mist thing for the dogs.

I went out early and pulled and raked the dead vegetation away from the east side of the house. There were tall stickers that were absolutely infested with the gnats, particularly near the leaky faucet.

I forgot to wear long pants and became aware of numerous bug bites later in the day :-( Whatever makes the bites creates welts that last for weeks. Dang.

I went into town with AH and drove a Ram 1500 Classic, the lowest trim line (which is mostly nicer than my 1998 Explorer XLT). It's nice enough I guess, not an F-150 but a decent ride. Their prices were too high though. And looking on line I don't see the excellent prices I saw last week. I may have to wait until the Labor Day sales and the introduction of the 2020 models to get a good price.

There was one interesting thing: the original salesman went inside to "get the keys" and a sweet young thing replacement came out to give us the test drive and spiel. This has happened to me a couple of times at car dealers lately: AH suggests that they are hoping for a grandfatherly liking on my part to help me part with $2000 over what the price should be. Small chance: I may be a dirty old man, but I'm also a penny pinching old man!

Oddly there was no hard sell at any of the dealers, no "What do we have to do to get you to drive away in this cream-puff?" sort of stuff. I don't know if it's my gray hair or just indifference on the part of the AV dealers, who are still asking (and apparently getting since they've been doing it for decades) about 5-10% more than dealers down below.

Afterwards we went by Walmart and picked up some stuff: electric contact cleaner and some automotive stuff for him, and a pump sprayer, some Sevin, and some 60" boot laces for the Keen boots for me. And a couple orders of fried chicken for a late lunch back at his house, on me, since he drove.

I kicked the a/c onto "high" in late afternoon, when the house interior hit 77F, and it brought it down to 73. Nice.

Still haven't run the generator this week. Too hot by the time I get done with chores.

I did get a chance to talk with TD in the evening, car and truck buying and renting, how work is going down there. Sounds like things are OK.

Tuesday 9 July 2019

Tuesday - Warm again, into the 90's, and windy. Did a short walk with the neighbor.

It's been very windy, actually, for the last couple of weeks. The sun sails are holding up well though.

Critters Update:

The dogs are doing OK, no issues, after a slight reduction in food intake and a late afternoon feeding. I also get up before 6am and let them out...

Jim is mostly refusing to eat, since there is a new flat of cat food (of exactly the same make and flavor, but he's picky). I have to hand feed him. He got into Budd's dry food, then threw it all up. The joys of cats...

The massive gnat invasion is going on still, hundreds of them. There seem to be cycles of insects out here: butterflies, beetles, moths, small flies, big flies, spiders...and now gnats. Ughh. I spent some time in the hot outdoors and containers looking for my bug poisons, found some, but couldn't find a working sprayer. Grrrrrr.

Everything seems to be an effort these days.

Monday 8 July 2019

Monday - Warm.

I've been looking, online, at the RAM 1500 Classic. This may be the best value in the pickup line. No good offers from the Honda people on Ridgeline's (and no used private party 2nd generation Ridgeline's in all of Southern California), and the F-150 is just too costly.

I'll have to go into town and test drive one first - the hip is still bothering me, so a low seating position car is just not going to work. I went into town in the neighbor's Corolla a few days ago and was really limping when I got out. I'm not even sure I can drive for extended periods in a comfortable vehicle.

AH came by and was able to diagnose the a/c issue as a bad switch. Unfortunately the thermostatic switch wouldn't work with my setup, so we made a quick trip to Van Dams Farm Hardware here and picked up another six position rotary switch. Things now work fine. On low the swamp cooler (on a hot day) can only maintain house temperature into the mid-80's by late afternoon, on high it can actually keep the place comfortable.

We had gone up to the roof and looked at the fan motor to test the windings for continuity. It's American made, a two speed Emerson built in St. Louis. Which means it's probably original with the house, 30 years old. Amazing. The modern Chinese motors give you one to two years service before failing now. While there up there we oiled it (yes, it has oil cups!), and also the fan bearings.

The Chihuahua's were very excited at seeing a stranger on the roof.

No dog poop issues this morning, but there was an invasion of small gnat-like critters in the kitchen. Small enough to come in through the edges around closed kitchen window. Ughhh. I think the leaky outdoor faucet is attracting them, it's immediately under the kitchen window. I actually bought some washers the other day, I just have to weed whack under there and then install them.

I spent some time and came up with an expenses spreadsheet this weekend, pretty inclusive. I mean, I know what the monthly utilities are, but it's kind of shocking to see the amount of recurring expenses that generally go on the credit cards, and the amortized cost per month of things like income taxes, property taxes and car insurance.

Sunday 7 July 2019

Sunday - Warm again.

I did some shopping in town, as I was beginning to run out of stuff after three weeks. In particular, bagels and Popsicle.

I kind of want to get away from bread for breakfast though - carbs might be a bad thing, causing a sugar spike.

Krypton pooped in his kennel overnight, again. So everybody is going to get fed less, and a lot earlier - maybe 4pm.

There was another earthquake, this time a magnitude 7, up near Ridgecrest on Friday night, BTW. I was at my neighbor's place, and it was a long steady roller. It actually made their hutch in the living room rock, and a picture in a frame fell over. There were a number of quite noticeable aftershocks through the evening.

I've been wanting to start the generator some more, but not on a Sunday. And it's been very hot, and very dry, and very windy, so I have to sit and watch while it runs because of fire danger. And I'm too lazy to do much of that. So it has a couple of hours with a 500W load, and even a 1350W load, but it needs another 8 or so before I can change the oil to synthetic and call the break-in period complete.

Picture of the Week

a lizard basking

A lizard sunning itself on an old log.

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