Wasps!

So, entering the house this evening, I run my hand across the railing and approach the door when suddenly AMAZING PAIN. I get inside, and within 5 minutes my whole hand in pink and swelling. I get the first aid kit with the epi-pen, and Alison gets the car keys before we realize it is going down, slowly. Still hurts half an hour later, but I'll clearly survive. I worried, and considered hospitals, as I am allergic to bees and probably other things. I've traditionally allergic to like...everything. Anyway, we go outside with a light, and look at the railing. Wasps. No. Not wasps. WASPS!!! Yes, with three exclamation marks! I guess this is what it looks like when they are about to make a hive or nest or whatever those are called. Pile of them, wasps on top of wasps on top of wasps. A writhing mass of wasps. Plus wispy bits like spider webs against the railing. Terrifying. Oh, or maybe they were hornets. I am not clear how to tell the difference. I Raided them, and now they are wandering around the front deck, covered in liquid death. In other news, woodpeckers are starting to peck holes in the house again. Nature is against me.

Why is it so hard to recycle?

I mean hard. Like, it makes me tired to recycle. When we do go ahead and just throw things out, more often than not the item will end up in the recycling bin. Mission has a good contract, so there's no separating and they take everything. Well, not glass anymore, but we keep that and take it in when it's overflowing. So, every week I take out a nice big, professional Rubbermaid bin with 1-2 small trash bags in it. And, lug a lame, low recycling bin that is always totally overflowing with products. Usually, some is left in my yard when the truck leaves, and I have to put it back for next time. I called the trash company (who provides these silly recycling bins) and they have nothing bigger, even for purchase. I go to a variety of hardware stores, and they have... nothing. Maybe a tiny sorting bin set good for old women and their cat food tins. Big wheelie bins exist, but only on the internet. I have yet to find anyone who carries them anywhere in town. Not to mention they are like $100. My real point is this: everyone has these PR campaigns for being greener, but hardly any of them do anything I care about (much less, often, anything that really helps). Google around and you'll find Lowe's has some vague initiative to buy more sustainable woods, Home Depot gives away compact fluorescents, but how about simple, steps? How about concrete, specific things I can go into one of their stores and see with my own eyes any time I want to? How about carrying useful recycling bins, instead of just trash cans?

On washing machine hacks

This is our washing rock: I have come to realize that, in my time living on my own, I only learned fairly perfunctory washing procedures. There is much more to it if you really care. And like practically all systems used by folks who have to accomplish a specific task with their system, hack emerge. A favorite of mine is the washing rock. I have seen similar items other places, and not always from people who actually talked to each other previously. This particular hack involves the spin cycle. For reasons that elude me, its nice to be able to soak and agitate clothes twice. But its either unimportant or actually bad (I don't know) to spin between the two soaking cycles. The machine doesn't mind soaking and agitating with the lid open, but the spin cycle is apparently dangerous, so it will not start -- and if running will immediately stop -- if the lid is opened. So, the rock goes into a hole where some lame dispenser goes, and it keeps the lid closed enough bugs don't fall in, but open enough it won't start the spin cycle. While "researching" for this post, I asked about a few other's habits, and found something else interesting. Which, again, the wife with her great washing knowledge, already knew. Washing machines by no means always have the same UI. This struck me as quite pointless; they all do almost the same thing (I guess some of the more electronic types have additional smarty-pants features) so why have they not settled into one closely-related set of behaviors and interfaces. Here's my favorite example of how divergent they can be. In the spin cycle mode, one machine locks the lid. Like a stove on the cleaning cycle, you cannot open the lid at all. There is in fact no way to cancel the spin cycle. On a power outage once, their clothes were stuck in the machine until the power came back on. How does this make sense, and why would you expect this behavior based on use of other washing machines?

It pays to put your resume on the internet

It seems my new boss was looking for some office help, fill-in daycare, etc. While considering hiring me, she also looked at Alison's resume. She came with me to work today to interview, and now has a job. Now she can get around to the difficult work of putting her feet up and reading magazines.

Okay, she doesn't really start till Friday, and has nothing to do till I go home.

Updated 8/21 --- Case # 07-002069

Update 4: Picked up the truck today. It stinks. Apparently, the windows were down while it was abandoned in Missouri, as all the snack debris, paperwork, dog treats, etc. on the floors and window cubbies has gone bad. And, the villains smoked and left beer cans, so that's all great with the hellish sun. Also, it was out of gas, so I had to spend an extra half an hour at the fix-it place while they looked for gas for it. Apparently, it was at least partially a pointless joyride, abandoned when out of gas. Yeah, deductible kicked in, so I had to write a check for $300-something today. This feels wrong that I have to pay for something wildly not our fault, and after never making another claim, ever. Update 3: The events you are about to read took place between 2:35 pm and 6:05 pm on August 13th. Yes, it was a trip back to the 50s. All paperwork and physical appearances. Well, unless you want to mail in notarized copies. And no one tells you what to do, so we had to drive across the whole damned city... twice. Anyway, saw the truck. Weirdly, the box sorta hidden in the back seat with the tarps, bungees and FAK is missing. The ladder and vaccuum out in the open in the bed are right there and unmolested. Explain that. And, Alison shares no musical taste with those who drink malt liquor in stolen trucks and leave the cans behind. The truck starts...ish, and has no damage the insurance guy missed, but there's something else wrong with the ignition mechanics, so the steering wheel only sorta turns. Not really drivable in any safe manner, so its being towed tomorrow morning. Still much insurance to work out. Not sure, in the end, how much out of pocket there will be. Oh, and also I loved how this was a number originally. As we move thru the system, I have more and more numbers I absolutely have to refer to: - Police case number 07-002069 - Claim number UMD6293 (yes, they call it a "number" despite the 3 alphas) - Tow reference number 705-105 Update 2: The Mission detective wandered over to Missouri first thing and gave us a report, paraphrased: - The vaccuum is there! - The ladder is there! - That's all weird as the doodlebug is not! What? The small, specialized item is gone? - The dash is broken, and the steering column (not a suprise, as it was stolen!) - The CD player is gone. Shocker. - The CDs are still there! So, stupid thieves. Insurance guy needs to go next, and evaluate it for repair and money. I suspect its screwed up enough we cannot start it with a key, so it'll be a bit before we're driving it. So, status is: Waiting for the insurance guy to call. Update: Its been found. There will be more updates, as we haven't seen it, and cannot till some time Monday, but it was found in KCMO, and is in some impound lot out off Stadium Drive. Alison is pissed that it seems we'll need to pay for the impound lot charge ($75/day!) even though we are the victims here. I'd love it if there was a great story around this, but even if so, I am a pretty mediocre storyteller. So, our truck was stolen, from in front of our house. Apparently, at 4 am this morning, as the dog was trying desperately to wake us up at that point. But she's annoying often enough anyway, so we blew it off. Naturally, it was also filled with my nice Fiberglas stepladder, and Alison's beloved Doodlebug and cannister vac. She's much more upset about those than the truck. Tomorrow, I'll call the insurance company and find out the true nature of the disaster. I have poor hopes for paying out usefully on a 1994 pickup. Hopefully, we'll find the truck abandoned soon enough.

Actually Affordable Chairs

Our deck has been lacking one thing. Well, aside from a reasonably smoke-free neighborhood, and a lack of oppressive heat. Chairs. We do have a number of these slatted wooden folding jobs from World Market my family has given us, but they are sensationally not all weather. One rain and they are inclined to warp, or turn black. And yes we do leave things out by accident. Plastic seemed the right way to go. Don't get me started on the $3 white plastic lawn chair (where did they all come from... and what do they want?). But we've seen a series of neat, sturdy, well-desiged roto-molded chairs that seemed right. Turns out, they start at about $100 per chair. We spent quite a bit of time when we were in the bay area, then online, trying to justify items from DWR (within reach of who?) like the Air Chair or even cooler things like the Bubble Club stuff. But its just not possible. That's stupid. We want to be able to use these things. Lots more searching was in order. Unusually, I cannot find some secret retailer with great prices, or some chinese knockoffs. But I do stumble across office furniture. Swooping office folders, but in boring colors. Then another random google link and... a revelation! The classic steel folding chair, on clearance ($11 each!) because they are fire engine red. IMAGE of our nice chairs... This is perfect. Though accused of being in KU colors, alison just likes red accent items, and everything else tends to be blue as the trim for the house is blue. So red did it. Couldn't be happier. This is our dream for most of our home design or function solutions. Perfect fit, form and function for less than we would have dared dream.

Clever watering stuff

Enough with the exclusively work stuff. It'll come back with morphology and polymorphism and other big words soon enough. There's exciting stuff around the house also. As usual, its still equipment. We used to love the Simple Soaker. Essentially a sprinkler system without the Ditch Witch, new water pipes, and general expense. Until a few weeks ago, the biggest problem was finding them. But after three years, they are starting to fail. And, they were never exactly the right size. Always too long or too short. So, when messing around the hardware store trying to find replacement 3/8" tube, and other stuff, I instead found out about the current state of drip systems. They are way, way more exciting than they used to be. Mostly, they don't just drip anymore. Drip systems have always been simple. Cheap 1/2" poly tube, ends are closed by folding and clamping without tools (undo it all you want to relieve pressure seasonally, or for maintenance) and the drip lines are attached by punching holes and just stuffing 1/4" poly tube adapters into the side of the line. The new part, to me:

• They have sprayer heads. A lot of them. We got the 180° heads, and its true, they are truly 180, with 5 foot range.
• They are designed to attach to hoses. Adapters are plentiful, so no more need to run them off a full-on sprinkler system.
• They are sensationally cheap.

I installed 100 ft of line (basically, 100+ feet of garden bed along the side of the house and drive), several 1/4 extensions to cover more area, 12 sprayer heads, and all the bits I need to support this, in like 1 hour, for under $50. And the flow rate is astonishing. They spray wonderfully, so everything is wet and happy, but its at 10 gal/hr per head. With all 12 heads on the two runs we did, that's 2 gal/min. Our house puts out somewhere over 6 (hard to say exactly due to flow constriction at faucets). In practice, you cannot tell its on if you take a shower. Or run another full-flow sprinkler. All in all, when I can spend a few more bucks and spend the time in the 115° heat index, I'll rig up every garden bed we have with these. UPDATE 8/22: Do not hit the hose or head with a weedwhacker. At least they are cheap and easily repairable.