C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 98

Comet PAN STARRS

about 15 min after sundown, near the sun’s path: we haven’t seen it yet, but you don’t need a scope, they’re saying. We’re having clear skies, so there is hope.

Spring Cleaning…yes!

We are doing it.

We took stuff that’s still operable to a store that funds a rehab center: we have sworn off Goodwill, since it continues to pay employees non-survival wages while the CEO gets richer and richer. This little place is very of-the-people to-the-people, and as usual—we didn’t emerge without something. In this case—Jane needed a headboard. She’s been years without one; and they had one that’s going to do the job really nicely, including drawers on either side.

We’re establishing order downstairs…in what had been a landing zone for boxes.

The greenhouse is up and functioning.

The pond is—well, it’s still cold out there.

Furnaces…we’re going to bite the bullet…

One of those things you really kinda need is a furnace, when you live 90 miles from the Canadian border—in either direction.

So…since we got ticked at our car insurance company and switched, we decided to switch house insurance as well…but they, unlike the guys who wouldn’t cover our kitchen floor, actually ask questions about the age of things they might have to replace, like the roof, the furnace (which can cause general mayhem) — and we got to investigating.

Our furnace is a little guy, a Bryant, which is sort of a Carrier, which is 12 years old, and 80% efficient. This means 20% of the energy goes up the chimney. So…we began thinking. We plan to stay in this house. If we live here another 10 years, the furnace will be 22 years old, and we might be a little less able to pay for a new one. So…we can get a deal: our state wants the 80%-ers out, and is legislating against them, the utility people are offering a 400.00 rebate for switching to a 95%, the feds are offering a 100.00 deduction, and it just might be a good idea to do it. The difference in fuel costs will pay for itself in about 6 years; and that means that the furnace we have is going to cost us that over the next 6 years and it will be 6 years older, as in 18 years old and maybe by then, no rebates…mmm. Let me see. My math is not as good as Bren’s, but this is starting to look as if a move now is appropriate. So we are going to get the replacement, which will also save us annually on insurance. I think we’re making a good move here. I got the technician off Angie’s list, and I approve: we asked him about the ac, and instead of going into a song-and-dance combo deal, he said, it’s working: never replace a decent ac that’s working and doing its job, because they don’t get that much better, and none of them are going to be significantly better in this particular region of the country. Furnaces are another story. I appreciate that advice.

SO—no fix on the kitchen floor this year, likely, but getting that taken care of —that’ll be good.

And y’know all those commercials about saving you 400.00 on your car insurance: proved true. As you get older, your car gets older, your driving pattern changes: all these things figure in, and it’s worth calling and getting a quote. Ours has been inching up year by year and they finally sent us the one we questioned. Funny thing.

If you get a membership offer from AARP, (American Association of Retired Persons)—my advice is, join it. In a forest of offers for insurance of every sort—if their stamp is on the product, it’s tended to be good. And an AARP card gets you deductions for hotels and motels.

Hindenberg mystery solved?

makes sense in terms of the chain of events

Today we are going to put the skin on the greenhouse…we hope.

Doing much better this morning, after incredible stiffness last night: now we get to wrestle a significantly heavy plastic and cloth cover onto the frame, which stands way over our head. It is one piece, we think. If it has to slip down like a sock onto a foot, this is not going to be a cinch. But there are two doors, one on the front peaked end, one down the axis at the back. And if the doors do not include a threshold, this will be easier.

Stepstools and a plan are a must here, however.

The skin will help stabilize the frame. I want to get this done before weather sets in. And in the course of cleaning up the house, I’d like the plants we’ve been wintering over to go outside.

We have a nice shelf unit from the little greenhouse that baked and ripped. It’s about like a wire bookshelf, and will fit nicely somewhere.

And I may make a trek to the hardware to buy rope if the forecast says wind. That cover is going to be about as big as a boat sail, and I do not intend our new greenhouse to end up either bare or in Oz.

BTW, I filter ‘new members’ : If you have had trouble signing up, write to me via e-mail.

If a name is a combination of letters that does not reasonably occur in the language of the country of origin of the member, the registration will not last.

IE, if your screenname is highly suspicious as computer-in-origin, the registration gets cancelled. Spammers seem desperate to belong to this site, for reasons I do not imagine: I weed out several a day.

If you are a real person and had trouble registering, my e-mail addy is in the ‘contact us’ file accessible on the top row. Write to me and tell me you’re real and you’ll get through with no trouble at all.

In the craziness of the weather this winter/spring, we have a greenhouse…

WE picked this thing up on sale year before last, and we have found the spot for it. It’s heavy—takes Jane and me to carry the package; and large enough for a cafe set and shelves for plants. We’ve been puzzling over to how make sure it doesn’t go airborne in our occasional 40 mph winds, and think we have the idea. The highland Scots tied two stones on a rope and flung them at intervals over the rooftree of thatched huts to prevent wind damage. And I think that will suffice.

This gives us a place to shelter plants, to get morning glory and moonflower started early enough, and also a place to treat some of our whitefly problem that turns up in the winter with plants indoors. We didn’t get the pond open yet: we were going to, but it was bitter cold and blustery, and it just wasn’t a good day.

Jane and I got the skeleton up, and we’ll figure out the covering tomorrow or the next day.

We went out to eat tonight—rarely do that—and caught part of the Mariners game down in spring training. They’ve been going great guns, and scored two in the first inning. This is good. We’re happy.

So we’ll have a plant area outside that’s immune to the freezes. Got this monster at Lowe’s a couple of years back, but they often repeat things. It’s the cheapest greenhouse at this size you can get, even if it’s not on sale.

Very stout pipe for the framework: it weighs a ton. And no tools needed for assembly, just wingnuts.

I, on the other hand, managed to bash Jane in the forehead with a pipe as I maneuvered to save her from stepping back on a stack of heavy pipes; and then I had my hand around a joint I was adjusting when she decided to help from the other end of the pipe: caught a fold of skin on my ring finger, and it’s going quite purple and puffy in the immediate area of the pinch. The Keystone Cops are in full display. It’s spring and we’re back in the yard. Feels good.

This takes about 5 minutes to view, but it’s really neat.

How the Earth and Sun really move

I’ve explained this to classes, back when I taught. It’s really neat to see!

Oh, when you get out of shape…

…I’m doing rehab at the Y, and just a little tends to do me in, I mean like 15 reps apiece on each of about 6 machines—but I’m up from 10. The good news is (I’m working most on the leg exercises, a little on the midriff) I started out with 20 lbs and am now up in weights, up to 30 or 40. But done in! I tell you, don’t fall behind on your exercise! It’s so hard to climb out of the pit, and worst, absolute worst of all, you start getting lower back pain from the collapse of what’s been preventing you from having lower back pain. The SI joint (sacroiliac: joint combining spine with pelvis) is one of those nasty bits of engineering we assaulted very inconsiderately when we decided to stop walking on our knuckles. Most of the ills of the human frame are due to misaligment of said joint (habitually standing swaybacked), or falling and jolting it, or twisting while carrying too heavy a weight, or several other injudicious moves we can make which tax that piece of engineering that really should have several more restraint tendons but doesn’t.

On the other hand, I’m gaining on it. I’ve gotten the better of a nasty hip pain that was keeping me awake at night (SI pain), and gotten more stamina, and more general strength. Guys may not understand this, but then again maybe you will: when you exercise and gain strength you find things you were finding heavy aren’t…so you’re not surprised when they aren’t.

Which is how I ended up at the store without my billfold in my purse—an object which weighs about 8-10 pounds; and the billfold probably puts another 3/4 pound on it. Didn’t detect that it was missing—as in, lying on the kitchen table; so I trek 3 miles to the store—and discover I have no billfold. I drive illegally back home, recover same, and trek back again to get my stuff for the pond…

But it’s better than finding the purse heavy, eh?

My program: inside leg extension, outside leg extension, backward leg push, torso twist, ab crunch, triceps curl; I started on the bikes, but discovered my back/hip pain getting worse, which means I wasn’t moving evenly or symmetrically, so I laid off that and went to the inside/outside which gets the SI evened up, then the others, and funny thing, the hip pain went away, so I think I’m onto a good track.

They may have found Downbelow. ;)

Planets at Tau Ceti, one in the goldilocks zone

A little heavy on the gravity, but hey, you can’t have everything.