Darkoshi

skeetas n hats n teas

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 08:11:15 GMT

The heat and humidity and getting sweaty when working on the fence isn't the worst part; it's the mosquitos.

Yesterday when I started working on the fence at 5pm, the mosquitos were a nuisance already, long before evening. But I had my mosquito net hat with me. It worked very well at keeping the mosquitos from biting my face and neck. It couldn't however stop them from biting my hands through my gloves, nor my legs through my thin pants.

I have bruises on my forearm from having pushed my arms through the gaps in the chain link to tie wire ties from the other side.

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Back to that pronunciation thing. "Szcz". I know that "sz" is pronounced as "sh", and "cz" as "ch", but I can't pronounce them one after the other without a gap in between.

Yet I can pronounce SH + T (as is common in German words), and I can pronounce T + SH (as is common in English as CH). "Szch" is "SH + T + SH" So I should be able to pronounce them all together. And after trying it a few times, I can, but then I get tongue-tied trying to add anything else after it. I suppose it would only take practice.

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I dreamt this morning about someone who could do telekinesis. Not just moving things with their mind, but moving them so fast that they seemed to dematerialize from one place and materialize in another almost instantaneously. They had transported a mug of tea into my hand like that, and then asked if I wanted it sweeter. (Implying that they could add sugar to it in the same manner.) I asked them if they would be able to make the tea less sweet too (by transporting the dissolved sugar out of it)? They replied that doing so would be much more difficult. It would be simpler to replace the tea in my mug (transport it out of my mug and down the drain) with a new mugful of unsweetened tea from the teapot.

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hurricane damage

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 18:27:11 GMT

I slept through it, but my house suffered minor damage when ex-Hurricane Michael passed through. A tree limb fell in the back yard. It fell on top of the aerial cable which provides my internet service. That cable was connected to a hook in the soffit. From there, the cable runs down the side of the house. The hook didn't fail, but as it was only screwed into the fascia board and not all the way into a roof beam, the fascia board and part of the soffit siding was pulled down from the weight of the limb.

In spite of that, the cable itself remained intact and my internet still works.

I wonder if it is better to have the supporting hook screwed through the fascia into a roof beam. If it had been that way, what would have happened? Would the hook still have pulled out, possibly still taking the fascia board with it? Would the roof beam have been pulled loose too? Would the cable have snapped? Or would the hook and cable have been able to withstand the impact and weight of the fallen tree limb?

Now I need to get the fascia board replaced, as without it, there is an open gap under the shingles into the attic. That's my main concern. I don't want another rat incident. Although there have been signs that rats or some other creature had already gotten into both the attic and crawlspace again before this.

If only I weren't afraid of heights, I could probably fix it myself. It's only 15 feet up in the air, but still. The ladder gets wobbly at that height. And I'd need a ladder standoff.

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flea survival underwater

Sat, 13 May 2017 18:49:48 GMT

The day before yesterday, there was a tickle at the bottom of my leg, and I found a flea. I grabbed it, and unsure of what to do, held it in a stream of water at the bathroom faucet for a long time. Then I let the water wash it down the drain, and ran the water for a while longer. I was afraid it might still be alive, and might jump back out.

In the past when we had cats, I remembered submerging any caught fleas into a cup of water mixed with dishwashing liquid to drown them.

Yesterday evening, it happened again, in the same bathroom. I don't remember ever finding fleas in the house before*, so I believe it was the same flea. This time, I took it to the kitchen, dumped some water and dishwashing liquid into a plastic container, and held it submerged in that for a while before letting go.

(Feeling the flea struggling in my grasp. Trying to drown the poor thing a second time, after it survived the first traumatic attempt. I'm such a bad person. Life is so cruel. I don't like killing, but fleas are one of the few things that I long ago decided should always be killed, because of the severe misery they can inflict on other beings, and because there's no way to peacefully coexist with them.)

This morning, the flea was motionless at the bottom of the container. But now I don't trust dumping it down the drain again. And I don't want to dump it in the yard. So I considered dumping it outside the fence, to be on the safe side.

But first... how long does it take a flea to drown? The answers given on this page are rather scary:

Can dish soap really be used to kill ticks and fleas?

Now I've decided to leave the flea soaking for at least another day.

*Our dogs have been at Qiao's house the past week rather than here. But I've been going over to feed the neighbor's dogs this last week, while they were away on a trip. One of their dogs had a bad flea problem in the past from what they told me, so I think the flea must have jumped on me while I was in their yard. Although I didn't notice their dogs scratching much while I was there.

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little flies

Sat, 14 Jan 2017 06:59:02 GMT

This morning, there was one of those little flies in my cube when I arrived. It flew in my face more than usual; it would definitely be a nuisance if it was always around. Not much later I heard a suspicious "smack" from my neighbor across the aisle. A little later after that, I heard a smack from the cube right next to mine. Upon which the coworker across the aisle got up and had a little chat with my neighbor. She asked if he's been having a bunch of little flies lately. Yep, he said, he already killed 6 this morning. He called them gnats. They discussed where they might be coming from.

So much for my visiting fly theory.

While I can handle, and even appreciate, a single solitary insect, the idea of having a bunch of them flying around in my cube, or anywhere else near me, is unpleasant and begins to be "something that must be dealt with", even if I don't like to kill them. It's sort of a contradiction, isn't it?
One = Why, hi there cute little bug. Let me help you out. So nice of you to visit. What's it like to be you?
Twenty+ = Agh, invasion. I suppose I'll have to kill them all. Kill, destroy, destruction.

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ants

Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:05:13 GMT

I just discovered a thick stream of ants going back and forth from my big dictionary to the crack in the corner of the window frame. The dictionary is right by the wall, so it's a short distance.

My initial reaction was that I should put out some ant bait right away.

But it appears that they had a nest in the thin area between the book cover and the book. They are carrying ant eggs/pupae away from the book, into the crack, presumably outside.

So, should I wait until they finish carrying away the eggs, and will they maybe then stay gone? Then I could fill in the crack so that they don't come back.

Sigh. I haven't even gotten around to caulking the last place ants came in, in the kitchen. I had used ant bait that time.

..
Update:
Oh gosh dangit. It's like a nightmare.

This afternoon I checked again, and almost all the ants and pupae were gone. There were only about 4 or 5 ants still milling around, and almost all the crud under the book cover was gone. I was so relieved, but I didn't have time to caulk the crack shut right then.

Now maybe 5 hours later I look again, and the ants are back in full force, this time carrying the pupae in the other direction and putting them back under the book cover! What the heck? Do they plan to carry them back and forth every day?

I guess I'll have to put out ant bait after all. But I don't want to end up with a bunch of dead ants, bait, and pupae under my dictionary book cover.

... Well, when I thump the book cover, some of the ants to start carrying the pupae in the other direction again. Maybe if I can keep that up until they're all gone again...

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poor little things

Thu, 29 May 2014 23:36:07 GMT

The wildlife company found droppings in the attic too. I hadn't thought to check up there lately.

Yesterday, they placed snap traps in both the crawlspace and attic. Today upon checking them, I found 2 dead rats in the crawlspace, and another in the attic.

What I had read indicated that rats tend to avoid new objects. I wasn't sure there were any rodents still here to be caught, and certainly wasn't expecting any to be caught the first night.

Now I'm a premeditated killer of roaches, fire ants, and rats.

I wonder why they come into the house. There isn't any food they can get too, that I'm aware of.
The wildlife company is going to better seal the crawlspace vents, and gaps along the roof line.

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rat a tat tat

Tue, 27 May 2014 21:32:15 GMT

Rodent - I found droppings in the crawlspace. Likely rat. But I haven't heard the noise in the wall over the doorway in over a month, so I'm hoping it's gone away on its own. I've caulked along the wall in the room that was having the odd smell, as I think it was coming in through cracks along there. I've scheduled an inspection from a wildlife control company. But if I let them do the work beyond the $75 inspection, it will probably cost a lot and it will include them putting out snap traps to make sure the rodents are no longer present and/or dead before doing any sealing. The guy said that they aren't legally allowed to catch rats and release them elsewhere. That makes sense.

This UK document: Guiding principles in the Humane Control of Rats and Mice, indicates that in the UK, it is illegal to release black rats, doormice, and even grey squirrels (?!) into the wild.

But if I was ok with using snap traps, I would just use them myself, right? Why pay someone else to do it? And why pay them to come out several times to check the traps when I could just do it myself? Do I really trust that they'll do a better job of finding and sealing any entry points, than what I've discovered on my own so far?

I had been planning to get an infrared motion-activated wildlife camera to stick in the crawlspace to see if there still is any activity down there, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I was planning to seal 2 of the crawlspace vents better. But the rodent must have been getting from the crawlspace into the walls. That's what I'm not sure about. I found 2 possibilities, but neither seems very likely.

So I should let the professionals do their thing. Even though I worry that they're no more pro than me. Just pay them and don't worry about it. Just let them kill and don't worry about it.

Just be a grim reaper and don't worry about it. After all, death is the most humane solution for everything, right?

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Enough of this. I'll go cut some grass.

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blogging, coughing, boy george, camaraderie, life

Fri, 02 May 2014 04:32:38 GMT

Sometimes I feel it would be better if I only posted creative interesting things. If I left out the boring, rant-ish, whiny, and/or unimportant posts. If my journal were inspiring and intriguing rather than mundane. If I didn't use it simply as an outlet for whatever was on my mind at the time. But then there wouldn't be many posts, and it wouldn't really reflect my life, which is mostly mundane.

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I don't recall having allergies as a kid. Not the runny-nose, sneezing, itchy eyes kind of allergies that I started getting as an adult. Yet when I was about 10 years old, I had a persistent cough. I was tested for allergies, and was given some kind of desensitization treatment.. shots or skin patches; I don't recall it well.

I never quite understood how having a cough could be due to allergies.

Yet a couple years ago after having been sick, and still having a persistent cough and sore throat, a nurse told me it was due to post-nasal drip. That surprised me, as I usually only notice post-nasal drip when it is thin and runny - like when I'm having a runny nose kind of allergy attack.

The kind that makes my throat itch, by contrast, is thicker. It's just now in the last few years that I'm able to recognize this sensation. Realizing that my throat is tickling due to thick slime oozing down back there, as opposed to tickling for an unknown reason. It's odd that this wasn't something I was able to recognize to begin with.

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I'm staying up late to see Boy George on Jimmy Kimmel... Hadn't planned to, but upon hearing that BG would be on, I figured I shouldn't miss that, right? Like old times, staying up to see an appearance. Gosh, how long is this show? Figures that he'd be the last person on.

Aw. Just one song, and not even an interview.

I've listened to clips from his latest album, but none of the songs really appealed to me. This one he sang didn't either.

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Yesterday while eating lunch, something buzzy flew into my hair. I put my hand up and flinched away when I felt something up there. So I brushed it off with my sandwich container. I turned to look at the picnic table, and there it was, some kind of cute bug. Looked like a youngster. I blew at it, and it lifted its front legs (arms? pincers?) up in the air as it to ward off an attack. So then I let it be and ate my lunch. But I turned back to look at it several times. It didn't move away. I began to feel a camaraderie with it.

Such a small thing. And yet it has a brain. What is it like, to be that insect? What is it thinking? Is it watching me? Is it feeling camaraderie with me too?

It's all in my mind. That feeling of camaraderie would quickly vanish if I saw it doing something like eating another insect.

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It's so hard, living. One has to feel compassion for anyone who's managed to stay alive, to make it so far... to stay fed, stay clothed, live to adulthood, and everything else. Even if they aren't making a very good impression. Even if they're arguing, or drunk, or conniving, criminal.

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Break on through, break on through.

How can this life be anything other than a puzzle to figure out? And if so, it isn't without merit to wonder who made the puzzle and why.

Or this life could be something without any meaning at all.

It's all up to what one manages to believe.

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There's an odd smell in this room. Like... old cat litter, maybe. Seems to be coming from the brick wall. Or maybe from one of the electrical outlets. Or maybe the edge where the brick wall meets the floor. I wonder if it is related to the rodent in the wall, though I haven't heard it in a couple weeks.

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unintentional harm

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 04:08:02 GMT

A couple weeks ago there was a lizard in the garage, in one of the round plastic bins. I thought maybe it had gotten stuck there, not being able to climb back up the walls of the bin. So I took it outside. But it behaved oddly. It didn't scurry off, and it moved its body oddly. The next day, it was still in nearly the same spot, dead.

Later, it occurred to me that maybe it had eaten some of the roach bait/poison I had put in the garage. Or maybe it had eaten a roach which had eaten the poison. That made me feel bad.

Last week, while using the trimmer to mow the lawn, I accidentally hit a cockroach. That made me feel bad too. It looked like I cut its head open. I didn't know whether I should stomp on it to put it out of its misery, or if that would make it worse. I never know.

There seem to be a lot of bugs scurrying around in the grass when I'm mowing, lately. Maybe because of all the rain. I've been having to mow the yard each and every week.

I have a new trimmer with a lithium battery which works much better than my old trimmer with the nickel-cadmium batteries. The old batteries took a long time to charge, and lost their charge pretty quickly. The new batteries charge in under an hour, and the new trimmer has a speed setting. At first I thought it was best to keep it on the lowest setting, so that the battery would last longest. But then I realized that using a higher speed lets you mow faster. You can swing the trimmer back and forth faster, whereas with a lower speed, you have to move slower in order to cut the same amount of grass. I was beginning to enjoy the higher speed settings, as I could get the same amount of grass mowed in less time. But then I hit that roach. And then I thought, maybe at a lower speed, the line would be less dangerous. Or maybe, with me moving more slowly on the lower setting, the bugs would have more time to hear me coming and to get out of my way.

I decided not to put roach bait in the garage anymore. It's too cruel. The bugs out there don't bother me much. It's not that big a deal to have to vacuum up their mess once in a while, compared to the alternatives.

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canine persuasion

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 21:32:56 GMT

Both my dogs have surprised me in that they apparently like to eat raw carrot pieces. Considering that they like dried sweet potato and yam, I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising.

For some reason, the big dog no longer likes the heartworm+flea preventative pills. Hopefully it is just something about the flavor, and if I get the other brand which is only against heartworms, she'll still take that one.

The little dog still likes the heatworm+flea preventative pills.

After Serena ate her pill, I was trying to persuade Zorro to eat hers, by offering her some popcorn, and then holding the rest back until she would eat the pill. This was made more difficult, as Serena ignored her own popcorn and tried to go after the big pill instead. While Zorro ate the popcorn I had given to Serena.

Considering how much trouble it was to get Zorro to eat the pill last month, I stand defeated. I don't want to go through all that again. Last month, it involved peanut butter getting smeared over my hands multiple times. I finally succeeded (I think*) after squishing the pill into a nutter butter cookie. It didn't squish or stick very well. In the end, I think Zorro finally ate it out of pity for me, not because she was in any way tricked by the cookie.

*The pill disappeared, so I can only assume it disappeared down Zorro's throat.

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crinkle scritch

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 04:33:35 GMT

Don't you love it when you keep hearing a rustling sound in your room, but can't figure out what is making it?

I think it's a monster of some sort, above the ceiling by the window...

Surely it can't simply be leaves rattling around on the ground outside.

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slooooogs

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:14:08 GMT

Slugs must have a good sense of smell. On wet days, if I leave the dogfood out too late, they crawl onto the porch, into the black plastic outer bowl, through the "moat" of water that I keep in the black plastic bowl to discourage ants, and into the inner bowl which has the dogfood.

Did you know that slugs are hermaphroditic, with both male and female sex organs? And that supposedly* there's this thing they sometimes do, called apophallation?

* Sometimes I wonder how much of everything I hear and read is really true. I assume that a lot of it has at least some truth to it, but I don't have personal proof, so most of what I "know" is based on hearsay. And sometimes things that are widely thought to be true later turn out to be wrong.

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