A Plethora of Peanuts...
...or What do you use to fill bankrupt pants!
Many many things going on. Before I get started though please be reminded that Anonymous commenting on the Livejournal account has been turned off so if you want to comment you will have to get an account. They're free just get one and email me the account name.
Let's see....
Went to the in-laws for Easter this weekend. Not my holiday personally (mine comes before Easter) but I did get to relax a little. Slept in a comfy recliner that was underneath a basement window. This allowed me to sleep in a sunbeam. Very cool. All hail the Goddess of the Sun! ;-)
Getting more things cleaned out. We killed another foot-pedal garbage can so we replaced it with a plastic swing-top one that even if we break the pins holding the lid I can quickly and easily repair it. Not metal but I'll live.
Of course that left me with the perpetual problem - how do you throw out a garbage can in the garbage. I'm hoping that the scrap signs I taped to both metal cans will convince the metal scrappers to take them.
I'm hoping to be off the 4th and 5th of April to do spring cleaning. I went through several totes and boxes in the attic of the workshop and found that a great amount of paper can be discarded. While I will keep some of the older computer books many of them will sadly never be useful to me even from an informational standpoint. Thus out they go. That and I printed out a lot of stuff I just plain never really used. So all that can go as well.
Got my old white Core2Duo Macbook loaded with Mint Linux 13 on an SSD and got Focuswriter among other things installed on there. Used it to finish a short story for FimFiction. The battery and power savings on that laptop work well under Linux now so I fully intend to take advantage of that. My only annoyance is I'll need to only write with it in the shade because it has a glossy screen. Since I often write at night, due to many reasons, that is not really an issue. (Kinda wondering what the keyboard on those OLPC units feels like tiny as they are. They have direct sunlight usable screens.)
Found two ACARD SCSI->PATA adapters in the workshop attic. That means I can use regular PATA drives and probably a makeshift CF->IDE adapter to run my Vaxstation 4000-60 with a solid state drive instead of severely aging SCSI drives. That will be awesome. I may look at spending for an actual PATA SSD for that once I'm sure of what needs to happen with that system. (BTW the end goal for that system is an old-style text MUD which I never got to experience when they existed everywhere. I just think this is a cool use of the hardware.)
I don't want to jinx anything *knocks on wood* but I think I stopped the oil leak in Dorothy. I checked all her valve cover bolts and took the coil off and found the bolt under the coil was loose. Tightened that and so far I haven't seen any more oil. Also the transmission is working well since being refilled. Need to replace the front motor mount though but that's not too expensive. We'll just have to wait and see on the oil thing. Watching it like a hawk for a while.
The snow is pretty much gone from the driveway now so the minute it's warmer and not blowing like mad I should be able to do the brakes on the truck and that should get her mobile again. Even if I need to renew the plates on her. The motorcycle just needs a battery and those jets put in the carbs and then she should be up and running.
Thinking about either moving my existing shed or replacing it. Here's the thing - I'm more than considering raised beds so I can work them without bending over. If that's the case I could easily put a prefab shed into the existing garden space, put the raised beds where the old shed currently is, then landscape the rest for enjoyment. In fact if I ever get $1500 or so I'll be ordering one of those cool Hobbit hole sheds in addition to the prefab garden shed. They make those things big enough to put a table in there and sit in them. (Goddess I so want a Bag End of my own!)
It's strange what you think about. I just realised that with enough money my grandmother's old property (10 acres in Wisconsin) would be perfect for a Hobbit hole. Her property is a valley between two hills so to speak. The small stream breaks it up about halfway. What I'd do is put a rustic garage with guest apartment at the top of the end where the driveway is. Then put a large flower/hedge garden to the right of the driveway and headed towards the back. There's even enough space on that property for a classic tall hedge maze if I wanted one.
Then a large stone path with steps leading down and around the back hill to the large vegetable garden and orchard. (Not to be confused with the orchard to the left side of the properly.) The path would continue on over a small ridge then cross a simple stone bridge before heading up the steps to the entrance to the Hobbit hole.
Mind you I'd probably use concrete drainage culverts to create the layout of the hole then cover them with wood inside. Or I could build it Earthship style with tamped tires but I'm not sure how well that would fit with a wood interior and fully covered not just bermed. And I'd have to probably dig out a big chunk of that hill then fill it back in when done. But the design could easily be completed in that space.
All that aside the property belongs to someone else now and frankly that area is starting to urbanise more so I might want to look for something further out.
I really want a place where there are little to no street lights. Some place where I can see all the stars without the light pollution or surrounding cities and towns.
Dreams....my mind gets wrapped in them from time to time but I wouldn't have it any other way.
My mind does do some things though that are very annoying. One of the worst is constant ear-worms. (Aka songs in your head if you've never heard the term before.) Think of it this way - imagine taking a music player and setting it to repeat one track. Now imagine that track is incomplete or gets interrupted easily or repeats the same part of the song like a stuck record. Now carry that music player everywhere you go for 24 - 48 hours. It has no power button so you can't turn it off and it's indestructible and chained to your wrist. After that time change the song to another random tune. Sometimes the same one even because it's True Random not Shuffle.
The last _72_ hours it's been Show me everything you've got by Rocket Summer. Today it's switched to a song called Never Back Down by a guy called Aviators. Never sure what it's going to be next. Sometimes it's easy to become distracted enough to not have the music in the forefront but most times it comes right back.
Thankfully though it _does_ change over time or I'd definitely be mad by now.
(...)
Ugh. Now that I thought about it the song has switched back to the Rocket Summer one. *sigh*
I'm going try and get some sleep now and hopefully it'll have shuffled again before I wake.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/267038.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
Many many things going on. Before I get started though please be reminded that Anonymous commenting on the Livejournal account has been turned off so if you want to comment you will have to get an account. They're free just get one and email me the account name.
Let's see....
Went to the in-laws for Easter this weekend. Not my holiday personally (mine comes before Easter) but I did get to relax a little. Slept in a comfy recliner that was underneath a basement window. This allowed me to sleep in a sunbeam. Very cool. All hail the Goddess of the Sun! ;-)
Getting more things cleaned out. We killed another foot-pedal garbage can so we replaced it with a plastic swing-top one that even if we break the pins holding the lid I can quickly and easily repair it. Not metal but I'll live.
Of course that left me with the perpetual problem - how do you throw out a garbage can in the garbage. I'm hoping that the scrap signs I taped to both metal cans will convince the metal scrappers to take them.
I'm hoping to be off the 4th and 5th of April to do spring cleaning. I went through several totes and boxes in the attic of the workshop and found that a great amount of paper can be discarded. While I will keep some of the older computer books many of them will sadly never be useful to me even from an informational standpoint. Thus out they go. That and I printed out a lot of stuff I just plain never really used. So all that can go as well.
Got my old white Core2Duo Macbook loaded with Mint Linux 13 on an SSD and got Focuswriter among other things installed on there. Used it to finish a short story for FimFiction. The battery and power savings on that laptop work well under Linux now so I fully intend to take advantage of that. My only annoyance is I'll need to only write with it in the shade because it has a glossy screen. Since I often write at night, due to many reasons, that is not really an issue. (Kinda wondering what the keyboard on those OLPC units feels like tiny as they are. They have direct sunlight usable screens.)
Found two ACARD SCSI->PATA adapters in the workshop attic. That means I can use regular PATA drives and probably a makeshift CF->IDE adapter to run my Vaxstation 4000-60 with a solid state drive instead of severely aging SCSI drives. That will be awesome. I may look at spending for an actual PATA SSD for that once I'm sure of what needs to happen with that system. (BTW the end goal for that system is an old-style text MUD which I never got to experience when they existed everywhere. I just think this is a cool use of the hardware.)
I don't want to jinx anything *knocks on wood* but I think I stopped the oil leak in Dorothy. I checked all her valve cover bolts and took the coil off and found the bolt under the coil was loose. Tightened that and so far I haven't seen any more oil. Also the transmission is working well since being refilled. Need to replace the front motor mount though but that's not too expensive. We'll just have to wait and see on the oil thing. Watching it like a hawk for a while.
The snow is pretty much gone from the driveway now so the minute it's warmer and not blowing like mad I should be able to do the brakes on the truck and that should get her mobile again. Even if I need to renew the plates on her. The motorcycle just needs a battery and those jets put in the carbs and then she should be up and running.
Thinking about either moving my existing shed or replacing it. Here's the thing - I'm more than considering raised beds so I can work them without bending over. If that's the case I could easily put a prefab shed into the existing garden space, put the raised beds where the old shed currently is, then landscape the rest for enjoyment. In fact if I ever get $1500 or so I'll be ordering one of those cool Hobbit hole sheds in addition to the prefab garden shed. They make those things big enough to put a table in there and sit in them. (Goddess I so want a Bag End of my own!)
It's strange what you think about. I just realised that with enough money my grandmother's old property (10 acres in Wisconsin) would be perfect for a Hobbit hole. Her property is a valley between two hills so to speak. The small stream breaks it up about halfway. What I'd do is put a rustic garage with guest apartment at the top of the end where the driveway is. Then put a large flower/hedge garden to the right of the driveway and headed towards the back. There's even enough space on that property for a classic tall hedge maze if I wanted one.
Then a large stone path with steps leading down and around the back hill to the large vegetable garden and orchard. (Not to be confused with the orchard to the left side of the properly.) The path would continue on over a small ridge then cross a simple stone bridge before heading up the steps to the entrance to the Hobbit hole.
Mind you I'd probably use concrete drainage culverts to create the layout of the hole then cover them with wood inside. Or I could build it Earthship style with tamped tires but I'm not sure how well that would fit with a wood interior and fully covered not just bermed. And I'd have to probably dig out a big chunk of that hill then fill it back in when done. But the design could easily be completed in that space.
All that aside the property belongs to someone else now and frankly that area is starting to urbanise more so I might want to look for something further out.
I really want a place where there are little to no street lights. Some place where I can see all the stars without the light pollution or surrounding cities and towns.
Dreams....my mind gets wrapped in them from time to time but I wouldn't have it any other way.
My mind does do some things though that are very annoying. One of the worst is constant ear-worms. (Aka songs in your head if you've never heard the term before.) Think of it this way - imagine taking a music player and setting it to repeat one track. Now imagine that track is incomplete or gets interrupted easily or repeats the same part of the song like a stuck record. Now carry that music player everywhere you go for 24 - 48 hours. It has no power button so you can't turn it off and it's indestructible and chained to your wrist. After that time change the song to another random tune. Sometimes the same one even because it's True Random not Shuffle.
The last _72_ hours it's been Show me everything you've got by Rocket Summer. Today it's switched to a song called Never Back Down by a guy called Aviators. Never sure what it's going to be next. Sometimes it's easy to become distracted enough to not have the music in the forefront but most times it comes right back.
Thankfully though it _does_ change over time or I'd definitely be mad by now.
(...)
Ugh. Now that I thought about it the song has switched back to the Rocket Summer one. *sigh*
I'm going try and get some sleep now and hopefully it'll have shuffled again before I wake.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/267038.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.