Apr
11
2009
0

Long winter

<div class=\"postavatar\">Long winter</div>

It’s been a long, tough winter, but, even though it’s another wet, gray, dreary day, there have been signs of spring here. The days are getting longer, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the temperature is gradually warming up. I’m really looking forward to the day when I don’t have to wear a sweater in the house, or build a fire at night. Maybe by the end of this month.

I’m also looking forward to getting back on track with housecleaning, de-cluttering, exercising—all those everyday things that fell by the wayside when it was so cold all the time, and I was sick half the time, and working extra hours to fill in at the library. I spent four hours yesterday cleaning the kitties’ room (including doing two loads of laundry to wash their blankets and kitty bed liners and the fish towels and my bath mat) and sweeping all the floors. I’d hoped to clean the bathroom and kitchen as well, but ran out of time and energy. Oh well. It’s a start. Next week!

I’ve decided to skip Fangoria this year. I already bought my tickets at last year’s Fangoria, but I just don’t want to go. I didn’t really enjoy it last year. They moved it to the LA Convention Center, and it’s too inconvenient and I don’t like the hotel. Oh well. I’ve seen all the people I wanted to see when I started going: my three favorite horror directors, Clive Barker, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven, along with many others, like Tony Todd and George Romero and Guillermo del Toro and Heather Langenkamp and many more. It was fun while it lasted, but I’ve had my run.

Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today!

Adopt one today! Adopt one today!

Written by Cody Nelson in: daily ramble |
Nov
22
2008
0

Rambling on

I don’t have much to say, but I got tired of staring at the same three posts yesterday while I tried out new blog layouts, so I decided it was time to update.

I’m scheduled to run eight miles this morning. My training has not been going well since Long Beach. It’s cold outside, I’m tired, I just don’t want to do it. I’ve skipped whole weeks, and shorted my long run the weekend I was out of town for BASCon. I’ve also been half-sick since BASCon with a cold or some sort of virus, and skipped one of my midweek runs this week. The Surf City Half Marathon is going to be interesting. If I can get back on track and do the rest of my training as scheduled, I think I’ll be fine, but the winter is only going to get colder. I’ve been really tempted to cancel Surf City, but there’s time yet to think about it.

I’m also losing my enthusiasm for Surf City because of the cost. Mom won’t be going with me this time to split the hotel bill, and the Surf City hotel is $200 a night. I was originally planning to go Friday through Monday, but now I’m thinking of just going overnight, drive down Saturday morning and home Sunday afternoon after the race. That will make the trip more tiring and less fun, but I am so broke right now—the Solar Guys dinged me an extra $5k for the work hooking up electricity next door. Mom paid for half of it, but still—that’s $2.5k I wasn’t expecting to have to pay. Plus, I’ve got property tax to pay at the end of this month, Christmas presents to buy (part of me wants to say, “I’m Buddhist! I don’t do Christmas any more!”, but the family would be disappointed and I like exchanging gifts), and next month I’ve got my truck registration (have to get it smogged this time as well) and insurance, and an estimated tax payment to make. And, on top of all that, I still owe the solar guys another $1k for finishing up the generator autostart, whenever they get around to doing that. My savings account is shrinking rapidly. I need to hunker down and start saving some money.

Well, I hate to complain and run, but I’ve got to get going. Eight miles await!

Written by Cody Nelson in: daily ramble |
Sep
18
2008
0

Watt-hour blues

The days are getting shorter, and my batteries are no longer getting enough charging to keep the fish tank going through the night. Monday morning, the electricity went out at around 7:30 am because the batteries had gotten too low. Since my generator is still not hooked up to the system, I couldn’t use it to charge the batteries and had to just wait for the sun to charge them up. Spent the morning doing housecleaning, and the electricity finally came back on at around 12:30 pm. So, about five hours for the sun to do the job.

Tuesday I was okay, but Wednesday the electricity was out when I got up in the morning. It was back when I got home from work—presumably, it came back on sometime in the middle of the day, as it had done on Monday. So, obviously, this wasn’t a one-time fluke—I’m just not getting enough sun any more. I emailed my solar guys Wednesday morning, and they said they’d get someone out to hook up the generator and the remaining solar panels as soon as possible. Automating the generator and running the line to my mom’s place will have to wait until the boss gets back from an out-of-town job he’s on, and has time to come and do it. But at least I’ll have a little more charging, and generator backup.

Meanwhile, I’ve put the fish tank on a timer to shut the filter/pump off at night and back on in the morning. I figured, if the electricity goes out, the tank is off anyway for a minimum of five hours, so I might as well shut it off at night and save the electricity for daytime when I need it. Going without electricity for two weeks last fall proved that the fish can survive without the filter. I’ll use the battery-operated airstone at night and change water a bit more frequently until the guys can get out here to hook up the generator.

It occurs to me that I could even continue to shut off the fish tank at night throughout the winter. As long as the water stays clean and the fish aren’t harmed, it would save a lot of propane if I didn’t have to use the generator every other day from October through February. Hm. We’ll see what happens once the rest of the solar panels are hooked up. They may be the boost the system needs to provide enough power through the winter.

I also took a bucket of soapy water, a rag, and a squeegee down this morning to clean the dust, mud, and bird crap off the solar panels. They were quite dirty, so that may also help with the charging. I don’t know if  it will be enough to make a difference, but it should help some.

My cat is insisting on sitting in my lap, so I’m having to type over him. Big silly lump.

I have an appointment with my financial person this afternoon. I made the appointment last week, before the big stock market shenanigans. Will be interesting to see what she has to say about all that. I’m not really worried. I’ve been through these things before, and the only thing to do is just sit tight and ride it out.

Written by Cody Nelson in: daily ramble |

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