27 July 2010 Only 90 today but it feels much cooler

27 July 2010 Only 90 today but it feels much cooler

Lest I forget, happy birthday, David Rutstein!


That’s right. An afternoon high of 90° F at 1520 with a current relative humidity of 40%. This dryer air combined with an intermittent breeze provided sufficient promise of getting through the outdoor chores without becoming a puddle of butter around a flag pole. Armored in long pants, a fishing shirt designed for tropical climes, and the knowledge that any pause in today’s chores would result in them being dumped, I set out to do battle with the yard.

The first major chore was to add two bags of softener salt pellets to the well filters. Then it was time to remove multiple locust and other opportunistic saplings that have taken up residence. With the loppers out, it seemed appropriate to remove a bunch of eye-height branches in the back yard. Then the widow-maker in the hickory-like tree in front had to be coaxed down to ground level. The next high wind might have done it, or it might have created enough stress on the branches holding it up to fall at a most inopportune time. It’s grounded now but spared from the chainsaw for a while yet.

During this time, Gloria decided to de-fur the dog. Loki shed enough hair in a week to build a new dog. Brushing her hind quarters is, for some reason, a two person job that brings us as close to her being angry as we’ve ever seen her. We won today, mostly.

The riding mower worked as designed but the vibration from a one-cylinder engine is hard on my shoulders. The string trimmer also started right up and functioned well. By the time I finished trimming, I had a unique and unwanted series of muscle contractions, jerks, tics, and tremors going on that make it hard to do anything requiring my left hand and arm, and only slightly more function in the right hand and arm.

Outside chores accomplished four pounds or so sweated away.

After a shower, laundry begins. Dinner will be bratwurst and beans or potatoes of some sort.

It was an extremely short night; hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight. I think that once I stop moving, I’ll be unlikely to begin again.

Tomorrow the network extender should arrive. Hopefully the install won’t be futile. We’ll see.