4050 Up the river

Saturday, June 6, 2015

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

 --Sir Winston Churchill--

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Last Monday, June 1st, I drove up to the country house in the morning to meet the a/c man in the afternoon, to discuss getting central air there.   The house has a 30-year-old water-based heat pump for a/c, but the well water is so hard and so silty the coils are clogged up, and it hasn't worked in years.

It hadn't been too much of a problem when I lived there for several reasons:
- There were only a few days in July, usually, when the outdoor temp got over 90,
- I could pop the attic hatch and open the basement door, and then the attic fan pulled cool air from the basement,
- Since I was there all the time and could keep "on top of it", it never got out of hand.

But the past few summers there have been whole weeks with outdoor temps well over 90.  And if I arrive at the house and it's already super hot in there, I can't get it cooled down enough in an afternoon to be able to sleep there.  Plus, age seems to have made me much less tolerant of temperature extremes.

So, I need central air to get anything done up there.

I settled on one of the largest and oldest family-owned heating/cooling/plumbing companies in the area - they have lots of people, support a variety of systems, and their reviews are very good.  The owner himself came out to look at the place.  It's all good.  I have confidence.  He sent a chart of all my options as to size and add-ons, and I've chosen the middle one as being adequate and the best price.  So now I'm just waiting to hear when they can get started.  He said it would take one day (!) to install it and have it up and running, and then one day to remove the miserable heat pump.  And he did give me a price for the whole job, NOT an estimate.

The deck across the back of the house is rotting.  I had thought I'd have to replace the whole thing - it's over 30 years old.  I had expected it would cost a fortune.  But when we were walking under it, he said no, only the decking needs replacing.  It's not rotted, just all dried out and warped from the sun.  He said the underpinnings, posts and beams, are fine.  Wow!  That means I can just hire the Hairless Hunk to replace the deck!  I'm excited.

I'm pretty dense sometimes.  I told him how much I love the area, and how I really would like to keep the house, but it's just too much to keep up.  He asked if I'd be happy with a townhouse or condo.  I am so dense!  It was like a revelation!  Yes!  I could sell the house, and find something else, maybe something tiny, like an efficiency apartment.  Heck, I'd mainly be going up there for events and stuff, not to just sit inside, so I don't need more than a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and closet.  

Yeah.  I'm getting excited again.

I went online and searched for condos and such in north-western Dutchess county.  There's not much in the areas where I'd want to live.  There's new "senior housing" right in the village, that would be ideal, I've seen the place, it's nice, they have 1-bedroom apartments, balconies, pool, the usual, but they have income limits - and I'm past the limit by a bit.  (If I could invent a fake husband to share the place with me, then I'm within the limits for two.)  There's nothing like apartment buildings anywhere near the village.  I guess there are downsides to rural living.  I do want to find someplace in the Rhinebeck-to-Tivoli area, though.  I really like all the farms and orchards, historic mansions, woods and trails, the fairgrounds, all that.

And mainly, the CLEAN AIR!

Oh, well, plenty of time to work on that.

I returned to the city house on Wednesday, late.  
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4049 Change done.

Monday, June 1, 2015

"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."

--Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.---

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Update to the prior post, #4048:

Bruce Jenner is now Caitlyn Jenner, is now "she" (if you watched the interview you understand the special significance of the pronoun), and is on the cover of the next issue of "Vanity Fair".

Google "Caitlyn Jenner" and click on "images", or go to http://mashable.com/2015/06/01/caitlyn-jenner-vanity-fair-2/

Wow.

She doesn't look 65. Maybe I should try for sexual reasignment. "I want to be transformed into a 39-year-old woman, please."
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4048 Changing

Monday, June 1, 2015

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
 --Voltaire--

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Didja hear they caught a 3-D printer sneakily printing a 3-D printer?

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Why do they always give me cole slaw with my pastrami ruben? Can one overdose on cabbage?

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I watched the Diane Sawyer / Bruce Jenner interview the other day, on YouTube, and I'm glad I did.  A lot of my questions about what's going on with him were answered, and I'm left with a lot of respect for Bruce.

But (sigh) there's still so much I don't understand.  So many men (people assigned male, raised as male, whatever... I'm not sure what words to use) who want to transition to female seem to be obsessed with dresses, makeup, high heels, all the trappings.  I don't understand that.

I am 100% female, no question about it, and yet I can't remember the last time I wore a dress (caftans and mu'u-mu'us don't count), or the last time I wore a heel higher than 1.5 inches.  I did wear makeup to a Meetup dinner last Wednesday, but it felt strange (clownish) and I'm pretty sure that was the first time in at least a year. Clothes, shoes, lipstick and eyeliner don't make me feminine.  I'm not sure what does, but I guarantee everyone who sees me knows I'm 100% heterosexual female.

Seems to me these guys just need to get rid of the beard, change the voice, dump the muscles (hormones should fix all that), practice (slightly!) softer movements, and then just wear whatever's comfortable, like lifelong mature women do.  Don't go all girly, for pity's sake.  BE female!  Don't go all female impersonator.

But, like I said, I don't understand, so obviously I don't know what I'm talking about.

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This all reminds me of something that happened many decades ago, I don't remember when or where exactly, probably in the mid-70s.  Back then anyone contemplating a sex change had to endure major psychiatric counseling, and had to pretty much prove their seriousness through all kinds of sometimes humiliating exercises.

I was in a checkout line at a grocery store.  At the end of the checkouts, against the windows near the door, where everyone had to pass him? her? was a person. I'll use "him", because I'm pretty sure he was not very far into the process.

He was at least six feet tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, wearing high heels, a beautiful lavender dress with Victorian lace trim down the bodice, shoulder-length brown hair, matching earrings and bracelet set, perfect understated makeup, and holding one of those two-handled purses that, let's face it, no one runs errands with.  It was obvious he'd put a lot of care into his appearance.  He was dressed like for Easter Sunday services at a southern Baptist church, minus the enormous flowered hat.

It was also obvious he was supremely uncomfortable.  This was obviously an "exercise", a test.  Just standing there, being judged by every person leaving the store.

All the people in front of me in the checkout lane were whispering, pointing, rolling their eyes, and making no effort to hide it.  As they walked past him to the exit, they avoided looking at him.

Me?  I thought that dress was the most beautiful color I'd ever seen.  On my way out I stopped in front of him, looked at the lace front of the dress, and looked up (way up) at his eyes.  They were so sad, like he was begging me not to say anything nasty.

I smiled, and said, "That dress is the most beautiful color I've ever seen.  It looks good on you."

I have never forgotten the smile I got.   The light in his eyes.  I hope he made it.
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4047 IRS Data Breach

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The singer is gone, but the song goes on.

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The IRS announced yesterday that there has been a major breach in data security.   Identity thieves have obtained "prior-year tax-return information for about 104,000 U.S. households".

There is a short Wall Street Journal article about what it means, and what taxpayers should watch for and do, at http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/05/27/5-questions-about-the-irs-data-breach/

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4046 Not a swamp cooler

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Contrary to what conservatives seem to believe, social programs are not socialism.

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Well, back in post 4041, I mentioned that Piper was all excited about a type of a/c system he wanted me to consider for the country house.  Being Piper, he snail-mailed me a brochure, rather than sending a link.  The brochure arrived today.

In the past he has tried to talk me into window units.  I explained to him that all the windows in that house are vertical windows that crank outward, hinged on the side, so you can't put window units in them, so then he wanted me to cut holes in the walls and install window units.  I told him he's nuts.  No way I'm cutting holes in the walls to permanently install ugly temporary units.  Then he found this new thing.  "A small box you just hang on the wall!  No holes!"  I didn't see how from his description it could possibly work, unless he was talking about swamp coolers.

a) It's not a swamp cooler.
b) It does require holes.  LOTS of them.
c) He obviously had no idea what he was talking about.

It's called an "electric ductless heating and cooling system".  Piper seems to think you just hang it on the wall, plug it in, and it works, like a window unit, but without the window.  Poor Piper.  Sometimes I wonder how he avoids accidentally poisoning himself.

The ductless system might be a good idea if you don't already have ductwork!  Like new construction, or if you have baseboard heat, or there's no space for ductwork, or whatever.  The only advantage I can see is in those cases.   With ductless a/c, you have the usual outdoor compressor, and the usual "fluid" that gets compressed and expanded to exchange heat.  If you have ductwork, the cooled air is then blown into the ductwork thence to the rooms.  With the ductless system, the cooled "fluid" passes through copper tubing installed in the walls to the individual units in every room, where fans in the units blow air over the tubing and thence throughout the room.

So you don't "just hang it on the wall".  

I'd need 6 to 8 units for the country house, and tubing and wiring fed through the walls to the units.  Once in place, the units cannot be easily moved, which takes careful planning for air penetration, circulation, and furniture placement.  In my living room, I currently have three or four ducted vents, all blowing air.  Going ductless, I'd have one source of cooled air in that large room.  There's got to be a comfort factor there.  Also, using the ducts, the air is filtered and circulated throughout the house.  These wall units don't circulate the air except in that one room, so things will probably get stuffy.  And although the manufacturers claim they do dehumidify, more than a few reviewers complain that the wall units frost up or drip water in humid conditions.

The distributors claim it's cheaper to install and operate.
a) They are counting the cost of having ductwork installed.  I already have that.
b) They figure a 30% loss of efficiency through temperature loss in the ductwork - but to get those figures, they assume the ductwork is uninsulated, and in the (hot) attic or exterior walls.  My ductwork is insulated, and is in the basement ceilings.
So in my case there are not only no savings, installation actually costs about 30% more.

So, thanks Piper, but no thanks.

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Why is the American robin always described as having a red breast?  You know, Robin Red-Breast?  It's not red.  The closest it comes to red is rust, which is not red.  If I had to color a robin given a small box of Crayola crayons, I'd have to choose the orange, with maybe a little brown blended in, not the red crayon.  

Sheesh!
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4045 -ough

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Capitalism in its mature form is corporate fascism. Fascism is the end game of capitalism.

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A rough, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman emerged from a slough to walk through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing.

The above sentence illustrates eight standard "Queen's English" ways to pronounce "ough".  

Of course, the actual number of pronunciations depends on local and regional dialects.  In the US, "slough" has so many variations that it's simply avoided.

I thought it was interesting.

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4044 Explosions and Implosions

Monday, May 25, 2015

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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I don't know how I've missed this.  There's something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder (use that term for an internet search) currently categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) under the "Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders" category, characterized by explosive outbursts of anger, often to the point of rage, that are disproportionate to the situation at hand.  Someone can be going along just fine, and then some tiny thing will suddenly set them off, and they explode into a fury of aggression.  Sometimes it's loud verbal abuse, sometimes it's a physical attack on a person, sometimes it's destruction of property.

Quoting from Wikipedia, "Some individuals have reported affective changes prior to an outburst (e.g., tension, mood changes, energy changes, etc.). ... Aggressive acts are frequently reported accompanied by a sensation of relief and in some cases pleasure, but often followed by later remorse."

Hmmmm.  "Affective changes."  I wonder if that's what I was sensing when I knew ahead of time when my father was most dangerous.  I have described it as a peculiar smell he'd get sometimes.  If I walked into the house and smelled that smell, I'd turn around and walk out, find somewhere else to be for a few hours.  Some of the individuals describe sweating or other physical changes when it's "coming on".   And I always did think his rages were fun for him, that he enjoyed them.

I've known several people like that over the years.  People you have to tiptoe around, because you never know what will set them off.  They frighten me.  A lot.

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I found a very good article on introversion.  I am an introvert.  On a scale of 1 to 10 on introversion, I'm probably a 9.5.  People keep accusing me of being shy, but I'm not at all shy.  I am a classic introvert.  Daughter keeps pushing me, "You need to get out more, Mom.  You need a social life."  Um, no, I don't.

Shy people are self-conscious.  Self-consciousness has nothing to do with introversion (an introvert can also be self-conscious, but it's a separate thing).  Introversion is an entirely different thing.  To an introvert socializing, especially with people you don't know well, inconsequential "chit-chat", is extremely tiring, draining, it feels downright stupid, and withdrawing to recharge is essential.  It's why whenever I visit people, I always stay at a hotel, not at their home.  I need to be able to get away, to be alone.  To pull myself back together.  I need time with me.  I like time with me.  I am most whole when I am alone.

If you know anyone you think is shy, please please a thousand times please read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/physical-behavior-of-introverts_n_6069438.html?cps=gravity_3405_-4864920025740837456

If you've ever wondered why I hate the telephone, read it.
If you've ever wondered why I don't "chat" with people, read it.
If you've ever wondered why I  don't go to happy hours, read it.
If you've ever thought I'm antisocial, wondered why I stand in corners, read it.

The article is so good I want to print it off before it disappears, but I have not yet hooked up the new printer, so I'm getting a little frantic.  I want to have a hundred copies, so I can hand them out every time someone tries to drag me into a group,  with "You're too shy!  Nobody's going to hurt you!"  No, they will drain every ounce of my psychic energy with blather.

Bull shit!  Read and learn!
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4043 Nightmares

Monday, May 25, 2015

India, according to the BBC, is having one hell of a heat wave.  They said on the radio today that the temperature has hit 122 F in some areas.  Wells have gone dry.  A man interviewed said that birds are falling dead out of the trees like leaves, and in residential areas it's even hotter outside than the weather service says because air conditioners are running full blast, pumping more heat out.  More than 400 people have died.   It could get worse because farmers can't work in their fields or get to their animals, and animals are dying, so there will be food shortages.  People are praying for monsoon season ... which may be delayed because of El Nino-like conditions.

The BBC also reports a serious bird flu epidemic in American chicken coops, so we will see egg prices, and the prices of everything that uses eggs, go way up.

I like the BBC.  They report on stuff that matters, everywhere.  US news outlets are useless.

---------------------------------

I remember in the late 1950s, when we lived in Ottawa, we had a few days of 120 F.  Nobody had a/c then.  I don't remember how we coped.  I do remember my mother saying over and over, "This is Canada!  It's not supposed to get hot!"

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Have you heard about the young woman found early last Friday in a Maryland playground pushing her dead three-year-old son on a swing?  It's such a sad story.  People who live near the park said they saw her there pushing the swing the evening before.  Authorities think she may have been there all night, pushing the child on the swing.  They think she was in emotional shock, deep in denial, pushing the swing to make the child happy.  Maybe if I keep pushing him he'll come back.

The mother is still in the hospital. She's apparently not yet coherent.  None of the many articles has mentioned a husband or family.  I'm not sure they know who she is.  An autopsy on the child has shown no cause of death.  A toxicology report will take a while longer.  I was a bit frustrated by the report, because it didn't say how long he had been dead.

I feel so bad for that woman.

I have this scenario in my head, completely made up, where the child had asked to go to the playground, and she said no, so he threw a tantrum, and she left him alone in his room to cry it out.  She thought he cried himself to sleep, so she left him alone, and then later found him cold and gone.  In her overwhelming grief and guilt, she took him to the playground, and pushed him on the swing, trying to make it all better. 

A mother's nightmare.

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4042 Sorry, Seinfeld fans....

Saturday, May 23, 2015

"Seinfeld" has been off the air for 17 years.  Let it go, folks!  I'm still hearing/reading about it, and I'm done.

I hated the show when it was on.  I didn't find it in the least bit funny (with the exception of Kramer, I guess).  I despised the characters, especially Elaine, who needed a good slapping.  They were simply not nice people, and I hated the thought that there were viewers who thought that what they did was amusing and deserving of emulation.  Like when George was so happy with his hairpiece, and she snatched it and threw it out the window.  How was that funny?  She had no right to do that.  If I were George, I'd have beat the crap out of her - and there was a lot of crap in her to beat out. 

Seinfeld himself wasn't to be emulated either.  In his middle 30s in real life he was dating a 17-year-old.  After 4 years he dumped her for a woman who had been married only three weeks.  She got a divorce and they got married.  I figure she was a very accomplished gold-digger, and I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, so you know I must have some strong feelings here.

I really didn't like that show.  I really don't like Jerry, even though I have to give him some credit - his act is one of the cleaner ones in a world of foul-mouthed "comedians".

Is my age showing?
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4041 Swamp cooler

Saturday, May 23, 2015

I'm going to have the heat pump a/c at the country house replaced with a standard compressor-type a/c system.  Piper is trying to talk me into choosing an evaporative system instead (also known as a "swamp cooler", not because they are used in swamps, but because they can smell like one).  They are less expensive to install and less expensive to run, especially given the cost of electricity in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

However, the freakin' things don't work in high humidity!  Yeah, they're great in Texas, or Arizona, and they've been used for centuries in the Middle East, but they simply don't work in areas where the humidity gets above 50%, maximum.  Because, uh, duh, they depend on evaporation, which doesn't work well when the dew-point is 70 degrees. It's not often that high in the Mid-Hudson Valley - only on very hot days, which is exactly when it matters.  Sheesh.

I've given up arguing with him.  He tends to fall for every sales pitch.  I've warned him over and over that you don't get information on which to base buying decisions from the guys selling things - you get information from actual users or disinterested parties.  But he doesn't use the internet at all, except to follow "cookbook" directions for email, so he doesn't research things.

He says it's not the same thing as a swamp cooler at all, and he's sending me some brochures, and I've promised to look at them, but ....

Sheesh!
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4040 Final bird entry

Saturday, May 23, 2015

I found the baby bird dead Wednesday morning.  I think there was something wrong with him all along.  He never made the fecal sacs that chicks his age are supposed to make, and his cloaca looked prolapsed.  It may have happened when he fell from the nest, or it may have been that way all along so he'd been kicked out of the nest.  We'll never know.

I called Daughter, and she was sad.  She told Nugget, and Nugget was excited, wanted to see the bird right away.
 "Aren't you sad?"
"No.  I like to see dead bodies!"

Oh, my.  Not sure what's going on with that kid.

Well, Daughter has a lot of anatomy books, has even participated in a human dissection, maybe that explains it?

Hercules, Daughter, and Nugget left Thursday for a five-day trip to West Virginia (some kind of caching shindig) and Pennsylvania (Hercules' family), so there wasn't time for a proper funeral.  So the bird is in a box in a freezer bag in my freezer.  Daughter said I could go ahead and bury him while they were away, but I don't want to --- mainly because I am incapable of digging a hole these days, and putting him out with the garbage is distasteful.  On the other hand, given Nugget's ghoulish fascination with "dead bodies", maybe it's a good idea if she doesn't know where he's buried.

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More chain-jerks:

• Weary and wary are different words.
• We are all frustrated by "I could care less" (meaning "I couldn't care less").  Believe it or not, in the past few days I have seen at least three examples in three different places, of  "I could careless."  Don't people think about what they say (write) anymore?
• Exacerbate and exasperate are different words.
• Disorientate is not a word.  Yes, disorientation is the noun, but the verb is simply disorient.  Same with orientate/orientation/orient. 
• This one drives me crazy:  "calm, cool, and collective."  That one I hear as well as read.  How does one be collective?
• Sew and sow are different words.  You can't sew the seeds of discord.
• Invite is a verb.  It is not a noun. 
• Ask is a verb.  You don't have an ask of someone.  You have a request or a question.

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4039 Pill Bugs and Horseshoe Crabs

Sunday, May 17, 2015

I read a lot.  Most of the day, in fact.  But even though I keep buying books, most of them are in the "to read" stack.  Most of my reading is on the internet.  I start with something, and start following links, and next thing I know hours have passed.

Earlier today Daughter asked if we could feed the baby bird pill bugs.  I started looking, and ended up fascinated.  Did you know that pill bugs (a.k.a. roly-poly, sowbug, wood louse) aren't insects at all?  They are crustaceans, descended from trilobites, and directly related to horseshoe crabs.  They breathe with gills. That's why they need to stay in moist areas.  They, along with the horseshoe crabs, evolved many eons ago, when there was more copper in the oceans than iron, so their blood is copper-based, not iron-based, and so their blood is blue, not red.

Birds do love to eat them, but rarely find them because they stay in dark places, and are active at night.

However, pill bugs suffer from a parasite that warps their minds.  The parasite eggs are in bird poop.  When the pill bugs eat the bird poop, the eggs hatch inside them and take over their brains, causing them to go out in the open in daylight, where birds find them and eat them.  The parasite grows in the birds from the larval stage to the adult stage, mate, lay eggs in the birds' digestive tract, and then the eggs are pooped out, to be eaten by more pill bugs.

So yes, we can feed the baby bird pill bugs, but only those captured in dark places.  None found out in the open.

Cool, huh?

(Earthworms have the same parasite, with the same life cycle, but it doesn't take over their brains.  The parasite is dangerous for baby birds because the first stage of the parasite is spent in the bird's trachea, where they grow into wormy things, and then when it gets to adult stage it moves to the esophagus, and if there is a large infestation, it can impede the bird's breathing.  So it's not a good idea to feed baby birds worms.  Which I don't understand, because parent birds feed chicks worms all the time.  Another interesting note - chickens won't touch a pill bug.)
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4038 Stuff

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The baby bird in the bathroom is getting feistier.  He sits and opens up if he's hungry, but if he's full he runs away and hides.  That's good, I guess.

If your feelings about modern art are anything like mine, you'll like the following video.  Seems like today, art is not about craft, or talent, or uplifting beauty, or leading us to see more than a simple picture, it's all about marketing.  About convincing people that this "creation" is art.  Usta be art was obvious, something extraordinary, something I couldn't do.  Well, I don't have the words.  This guy does:


[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc]

Would you like to commit a murder and get away with it?  Even if there are witnesses?  Even if you confess?  See http://nowiknow.com/the-perfect-crime-scene/.  That article is very short, and has all the info you need, but it contains a link to an analysis by a law scholar that's quite a bit longer, but well worth reading if you happen to be, like me, a law wonk.

And now a list of my latest peeves:

• It's not free reign.  It's free rein.  Like a horse that's allowed to go where it wants.
• It's a necklace, not a neckless.  Sheesh!  I'm seeing this one more and more lately.
• It's a mock turtleneck, not a mock neck.
• To obey the rules is to toe the line, not to tow the line, unless you happen to be a mule on a canal towpath.
• Wander and wonder are different words.  Even my SIL Hercules screws this one up.
• You don't wreck havoc; you wreak havoc.
• Massive means having great mass.  It is NOT a synonym for huge.  A rock can be massive.  A large balloon is probably not.  And a spat is definitely not massive, no matter how angry anyone got.

It's Mensa election time, and I'm getting emails with candidate campaign statements.  A lot of people have been unhappy with the direction Mensa has been taking, so many of the candidates are promising to change things.  One woman's proposals sounded really good to me, I was ready for go out and campaign for her, and then she screwed it up royally, turned me off completely.  She started a paragraph at the end with the sentence, "If you have a complaint with no potential solution, then stop."  She doesn't mean that if there is no solution, then shut up.  The remaining paragraph made it clear that if you see a problem, don't bother bringing it to her attention unless you already know how, and have the means to know how, to fix it.  Provide a solution, or don't mention it at all.

I HATE that attitude.  Ran into it several times with managers in IBM. 

Sometimes you are in a position to see that a certain course of action is guaranteed to run into disaster, but you are not in a position to do anything about it.  You can see the danger, but you don't have all the pieces to figure it out what to do about it. The solution requires that several disciplines work together to figure it out.  Like engineering, financial, and legal, who each have their own view of the situation, their own goals.  No, you are not allowed to raise a red flag with someone who can take it up the line, pull multiple divisions together.  Nope.  If you can't tell them what to do to fix it, then you are supposed to just sit there and watch the train run off the tracks.  In parts of IBM, bringing up a problem without also supplying the complete ideal solution is known as "Eek-a-mouse".

I really really hate that.

I especially hated it when in the end, the train ran off the tracks, as predicted.
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4037 Continuation of Post 4036

Saturday, May 16, 2015

I got interrupted yesterday by Nugget coming over to visit.

Walking her back over to her house later, we found a tiny baby bird (still with fluff on either side of his head and on his back, so definitely not ready to leave the nest) hopping down the middle of the street.  No idea where he came from.  The rest of the evening was spent building him a nest box in my spare bathroom, digging worms and grubs for him, and feeding him.  So I now have a bird after all.  Looks like it might be a starling.

To conclude the previous bird stories, the blackbirds gave up on the dryer vent after one got stuck ripping open the netting Daughter had put over the opening to keep them out.  Once it got loose, they never came back.  Funny that running the clothes dryer didn't bother them, but a net "trap" frightened them away.

The house finches who built the nest in the wreath on my front door were evicted twice, and when they rebuilt the third time I gave up and allowed them to stay.  They laid four eggs in the prettiest, softest-lined nest I've ever seen, and just five days later the eggs were ... gone.  I suspect a squirrel got them.  Mother squirrels will eat eggs and new hatchlings because they need calcium when they're nursing babies.  (When you make eggs for breakfast, crush the shells and toss them out on the lawn for nursing mothers: squirrels, racoons, possums, cats, whatever.  If nobody takes them, they're good for your lawn.)  Anyway, the finches haven't been back.

I think the robin who'd laid claim to my patch of front lawn has built a nest in the tree, and may have chicks because I'll see a robin fly into the tree, and then there's an unholy racket of buzzing and chirping.

So, expect future updates on the baby bird in the bathroom.  He eats a LOT!  Just this evening he ate six chubby earthworms, two fat grubs, and about 12-15 medium-sized mealworms before he decided he was full and stopped begging.  That was his fifth meal of the day.  Nugget is happy feeding him, but when he gets full and wants to sleep, she's done.  Daughter has fallen in love with him and will easily spend an hour up there snuggling him.

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So, to continue from yesterday.  Where was I?  Oh, yeah, Tuesday, May 5th.  The Hunk had just put the new tire on my car.  Then I went to the village diner for lunch, and to the hardware store for white spray paint, and a few other stores for some other stuff.  When I got back to the house, I pried the new numbers off the tree next to the driveway, painted a large white oval on the bark, and renailed the numbers.  Now you can see them.

By then it was close to 5 pm.  Still nothing accomplished on the house, midway through the second trip.

I had been trying to sort the crap in the house into "take south", "sell or give away", and "throw away", and I'd been making very little progress because, well, there's so much, and everything has to be touched, examined, considered.  On a previous 2014 three day trip, all I'd done was go through one drawer of the four drawer horizontal file cabinet. This time I just grabbed some garbage bags and ran quickly around throwing stuff in the bags.  I was really being tough.  I even threw out a jade Chinese teapot because it leaked.  I filled two huge garbage bags, and tossed them into the back seat of the car.  And then about 8 pm I sat down in the den for a minute, and woke at 11 pm with my head on the desk.  I was exhausted.  I went to bed.

I left fairly early Wednesday because I have to be south of Newark by 4 pm or the traffic is awful, or wait until after 6 pm to leave, and I wanted to be home to watch Survivor at 8 so that wasn't going to cut it.  I left at 1 pm, and the 2.5 hour trip took me 4.5 hours because of roadwork near Suffern and ... something? an accident long cleared out? ... near the Oranges that both slowed me down to 2nd gear for miles and miles.

But I was very good about those garbage bags.  I resisted the urge to look into them one more time, and they went out with Thursday's garbage collection.

So, two round trips, five days, many hours driving, $900 in hotel, gas, tolls, thermostat, tire, and I have two bags of trash to show for it.  I hope the next trip is more productive --- but I sorta doubt it because I'll be meeting with the a/c man to discuss getting the old heat pump replaced with electric a/c, and I want to go to the SS office up there to get some business handled, since the local SS office down here is understaffed and overcrowded, you can't make an appointment (although the website says you can by calling, but the phone call gets you a recorded message that says you have to appear in person), and on three attempts in person I hadn't been able to actually see anyone ("take a number", wait wait wait, "oops, we're closing now, come back tomorrow", when it's the same thing again).

I am currently collecting SS and Medicare on Jay's record as his widow, but I can give myself a huge raise by collecting on Ex#2's record.  That is complicated, have to show proof we were married long enough, it affects my medical insurance, and so on and so on.  Can't do it online.

I hope no more trees get blown over up there.
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4036 Long time no see.

Friday, May 15, 2015

It's been a while.  Slightly over a month.  Partly because I'd been busy, but mainly because my laptop had been in the shop (which was mysteriously closed for a while).  I have my little Sony notebook, which works just fine for visiting websites and reading mail, and writing short comments and so on, but is frustrating to type on.  Yes, I bought a Bluetooth keyboard for it, but the freakin' thing doesn't want to hold a charge.

Laptop is now back, so I am too.

About the only noteworthy thing that's happened in the past month is that the Nugget celebrated her fourth birthday, and I've been to the old house twice in the past three weeks, both very expensive trips.

Nugget has been hearing about measles, I guess.  She told her father one day that she wasn't feeling well, might be coming down with something, "I think I have weasels."  For her birthday I got her an art easel she can use at my house, the kind with blackboard on one side, white board on the other, and paper on a roll underneath that can be draped over the top.  She went home and told her Daddy that Gramma got her a weasel!

Sometimes it's hard to know what's going on with 4-year-olds.

I hadn't been to the old house all winter.  They had a LOT of snow last winter, and I just didn't want to deal with it.  My last trip of 2014 had been in November, to make sure the furnace was on and to shut off the water and drain the pipes so there'd be no danger of freezing.  I made my first trip for this year in late April, heading up Thursday, planning to stay until Saturday.

It was still very cold up there - daytime high in the low 40s and nights dropping into the low 30s.  When I got to the house on Thursday, it was 56 in the house.  I pushed the thermostat buttons to boost the heat, and nothing happened, except that the thermostat went blank - except for a flashing "low bat".  Hmmmm.

I drove into the village and bought some batteries.  I installed the new batteries, and the thermostat went completely wonky, like digital "8"s blinking everywhere.  But the furnace fan did come on.  It was blowing cold air.  Seems like the burner wasn't on.  Hmmmm.

I went downstairs to check the furnace, and the gauge on the oil tank said it was empty.  Hmmmm.  Maybe the furnace hadn't been running at all?  So how could it have been 56 when I arrived?  Then I remembered - that house is extremely well insulated, and practically the entire west wall is glass.  The afternoon sun can warm it up.

By then it was getting late, sun was low, and the temperature started dropping.  Obviously I wasn't going to be sleeping there.  I don't know what the heck was going on locally, but the cheapest close hotel room I could get was $199.  Plus tax.  Sigh.  Non-scary Kingston motels aren't cheap to start with, and Rhinebeck is worse.

The next morning, Friday, I went back to the house, and it was cold. Worse, it was a cloudy day.  The Hairless Hunk had been removing some fallen trees from my side yard, so loads of logs, his huge trailer, AND a flatbed truck, AND his spare car were parked at the top of the driveway.  The fuel oil truck needs to be able to turn around at the top because the driveway is long, steep, curving, and narrow and they hate to back up or down it.  I can't call for a delivery until I know the Hunk has cleared the driveway, and he has a job.  I felt so discouraged I packed up a few things and went home.  Made my calls from there.

I couldn't go back until the second Monday following, but I got an oil delivery order in the meantime, and made an appointment for thermostat service on Monday, May 4, at 2 pm.  I rushed up river that Monday to arrive by 1 pm, because I had to nail some house numbers on a tree near the end of the driveway, because some fool had run over the mailbox.  The bark on the tree was light gray.  The numbers were 7 inches high, black with reflective white edges.  From a distance of 8 feet you couldn't see the stupid numbers.

Drove up the rest of the driveway and found the invoice for the oil delivery on the front door.  They had pumped $9.32 worth of oil.  Duh?  The previous delivery had been in late February, for 250 gallons, so that means that up until February the furnace had been running, but had not been running since the February delivery.

The service guy arrived.  He said yeah, the oil tank is full, the gauge must be stuck on empty.  The furnace had to be reset, it must have run out of oil just before the February delivery and shut itself off.  Yup, the thermostat was dead, no idea why, sometimes they just fry themselves.  Especially after fifteen years.

I'm so glad there's no water in the pipes in the house.  It was a very cold February and March up there.

The furnace guy didn't want to install a new thermostat.  He was honest.  He said the thermostat isn't covered under my (very expensive) service contract, so the company would bill me $300 for a new one, but I could buy a perfectly good one for $65 at the big hardware store across the river and install it myself or have someone do it for me.  The Hunk works weird hours (UPS), so he was already sleeping and would be leaving for work at 9 pm.  It took me about 30 seconds thinking to say, "Fooey.  Do it now.  I'd rather have it working now than have to freeze here today and spend another night in a hotel."  (The bill has arrived, BTW, and I got a discount because of the service contract, so it was just a hair over $200.)  That's $400 so far on two trips up, in addition to the $100 per trip in gas and tolls, and I hadn't accomplished anything yet.

After the furnace guy left, I went to the deli to get a late lunch, and hit a pothole.  With the BMW.  Split a sidewall, about 1.5 inches.  Drove into the village to meet with Piper to discuss investment strategy, then drove to Rhinebeck to the tire place.  They didn't have my tire in stock (low profile, drive-flat).  They can get it in by tomorrow morning, but that's ok, I can drive on a blown drive-flat at low speeds for like 100 miles, no problem.

By then it was like 6 pm, and I was dog tired.  I poked around at the house a little bit, and went to bed early.  I slept very badly, hardly at all, because the alarm clock no longer works, and I needed to be up and dressed early.

At 7 am Tuesday morning, the Hunk came by to look at some tools I had told him he could have from the basement - a large standing drill press and a table saw.  He's been so dependable and helpful the past few years, keeping the grounds presentable and the house safe, as far as I'm concerned he can have everything I don't need.  He loaded the drill press into his truck, and then said, "Hey, your tire's flat."

BMWs don't come with spare tires.  Or jacks.  There's no place to put them anyway.

The damn thing was down to the rim.  No way I was going to drive it the 10 miles to Rhinebeck.  Now, the Hunk gets home from work about 6 am, works a variety of jobs until about 2 pm, goes to sleep for a few hours, and then back to UPS at 9 pm.  He had mentioned he had a contract in Rhinebeck that day.  I said I was going to call the tire place and get a tow truck.  He said no, he'd just take the tire off and take me and the tire to Rhinebeck - but he wouldn't be able to pick me up again until around 2, is that ok?

The new tire was on the rim at about 11, and I got a call from him as I was paying ($245) for it, he needed to go home to get some tools - so he picked me and the tire up, took us home, put the tire on the car, and retrieved his jack and tire iron, and went back to the job.

See why I don't mind giving him drill presses and table saws?

Continued next post.......
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4035 Shoot Me Now

Monday, April 13, 2015

Daughter came over yesterday and we got the nylon netting up over the vent flaps. This morning I heard a heard a bird in the vent.  He (or she) had either torn a hole in the netting or moved it aside or something, had gotten inside the flap, and then caught a foot in the netting and was fluttering furiously trying to get loose.  Inside the vent.

The ladder was still out there, and I must have scared him dragging the ladder over, because he broke loose and disappeared into the tube.  I removed the netting, and then went in and turned the dryer on to blow him back out.  I don't know where he went or how he fared.

I guess I'm going to have to get some kind of metal screening or something.  Is this an isolated case of birds invading vents?  It can't be.  Are there vent flaps made to discourage birds?  If not, why not?  If there are, why would anyone install this kind, especially with the danger of nesting materials catching fire in the ceiling, or the danger of cooking eggs or baby birds in there.

I don't know what to do.  I guess I'll go to Home Depot and ask someone.

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The Angel sent me a draft of my 2014 tax return to review.  I took one look and freaked.  There had to be something terribly wrong.  According to this, I will pay $0 in federal and state taxes for 2014.  That's zero.  Nothing.  Zilch.  Nada.  I will be refunded every dollar I had paid in estimated tax and withholding over the year.

I don't understand.

I usually pay something between a few thousand and several thousand.  2013 was unusually high, $9K+ for federal, $4K for state, but that was... very unusual.

I dragged out the 2013 return and compared them.  It doesn't look like anything was missed.  The big difference was in capital gains.  In 2013 I had a lot.  In 2014 I ended up with a small net loss (which Piper will have to explain next time I see him).  I fired off some questions to the Angel, all of which he answered satisfactorily except for one $5K itemized deduction I still don't understand.  I have to get back to him on that.

After that mess last fall when the IRS decided I owed an additional $61K for 2012 (I didn't, but clearing that up was not easy), I really don't want to attract attention! Given the difference between 2013 and 2014, I'm afraid red flags will be popping up all over the place.

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Update:  internet search.  Bird guard.  Can buy in hardware stores.
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4034. More bird fuss

Friday, April 10, 2015

Well, I'm still battling the black birds who have decided to nest in my dryer vent.  I have the netting and the duct tape to block the vent, and the ladder to reach it, but it has rained and/or been windy every day.  The few periods of dry, Daughter has not been home, and I don't want to climb that high without someone to "spot" me.  So, there's a towel in the dryer that gets dried over and over, to blow out nesting materials and attempt to convince the birds the vent is not a good place.

Rocky suggested the birds might be starlings.  I didn't think so because they have no white speckles and no iridescence, I've seen them at a distance of two feet through the sliding glass patio door, but the more I read about starlings, the more I think maybe she's right.

Starling bills are yellow in nesting season, the size is right, the tails are right, and starlings nest in holes.  Starlings, when they find a good hole, are very aggressive about keeping it, defending it against other birds and animals, even to removing the nests of others, destroying the eggs of others, and killing the nestlings of others.

These two sure are determined to keep this hole, so yeah, I think maybe starling is right.  This is New Jersey.  There are lots of stories here about oddly-colored birds.  Two summers ago I saw several robins in the back yard with white edges on their wings and tails.  Lots of Super Fund sites around.  Raritan Bay.  Major air and ground pollution.  Outflow from the East River.  Odd coloring is the least of possibilities.
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4033 More birds! I'm under attack!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

There is a pair of tiny birds building a nest in the wreath on my front door.  When I opened the front door this morning they were hard at work, and fluttered away chirping.

The wreath is a grape vine and silk flower arrangement that Daughter and the Nugget had made for me.  The flowers are very large, so the birds had been able to tuck the nest behind them pretty much out of sight.

There are no leaves on the trees yet, not even any swollen buds, so maybe the birds are desperate for hidden spots.

I pulled the little circle of grass out.  The door opens inward, so when a parent is sitting on eggs and I open the door, the bird would be IN the house.  Not a good idea. I'm kind of hoping they try the porch light.  That wouldn't bother me.
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4032 Doves

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Doves have to be the stupidest birds ever.

The street at the country house doesn't have curbs.  The side of the road is gravel. There's a tree at the end of the driveway that every spring releases fluffy puffs of fragile twigs of white something-or-other that looks for all the world like snow. It forms drifts up to a foot deep up and down the road.

We had a pair of doves that every spring built their nest smack on the gravel on the side of the road, in the midst of the floral "snow", just a few feet north of my mailbox. Every day the mailman flattened the nest, and every day the doves rebuilt it. Eventually the "snow" disintegrated, and the doves would give up.

Never saw any eggs.

There was a huge dense daffodil bed close by, and an acre of lawn, not to mention the woods.  I will never understand why they chose the road, year after year.

Update - to the new house.  For the past two weeks, every time I go out to the front porch for a cigarette, there has been a dove sitting on the electric wires passing over the end of the yard. You can tell it's a dove even in silhouette by the tiny head out of proportion with the chubby body.  It sits facing me.  Staring at me or the house. Unmoving. Eerie. It was really starting to bother me.  Shouldn't it be out foraging somewhere?

In front of the front door there's a rubber doormat.  This morning I discovered the beginnings of a dove nest on the doormat, on the hinge side of the door.  You can tell it's a dove nest because it's long fine grasses curved into a circle.

Duh?

How have doves managed to still be here?  Their survivor skills are nil.  They have to be the stupidest birds ever!
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4031 Bird Begone!

Monday, April 6, 2015

There's a pair of birds who have decided to build a nest in the exhaust vent for my clothes dryer.  Birds tried last year, too, but I foiled them by making sure the flap was closed all the time.  It tends to stick open after I've dried a load, so I whack it with a mop handle to close it.

This pair however has learned to open the flap, so when I hear them scrabbling around in the tube, (in the kitchen ceiling), I run the dryer to chase them out, and blow out the sticks and grass they had taken in.  We've been battling for three days now, and they haven't given up yet.

I have some plastic netting with holes small enough to keep birds out, and large enough to not obstruct lint or whatever, and duct tape to stick it over the vent, but it has been so windy I didn't want to climb a ladder.  The vent cover is about 10 feet up, so I have to use the big ladder.

Looks like today is the day.

I don't know what kind of birds they are.  The male and female look alike, both about the size of a robin.  The head is dark black, and the body is a slightly lighter black.  Beak and legs are yellow.  At first I thought they might be grackles, but they're a bit small for grackles, and they have shorter tails that taper to a point.  There doesn't seem to be any white on them anywhere, and no iridescence that I can see.

Any birders out there who can identify them?  Whatever they are, they're pretty smart, but not easily discouraged.
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