Getting Comfortable

Memories

My maternal grandmother had overlapping toes.  I remember seeing some white canvas shoes with holes cut into the top so there was room for her toes to do what they did.  It was kinda cool to remember that, and realize we didn't even notice it was strange, unusual or different.  That was just the way it was.  I don't think she ever wore them in public, but they worked just fine with the custom modifications around the house. 

Exactly like this but with holes on top

I was thinking about that today, as I move things around getting the place to more suit to my needs.  Kinda of my own cutting holes in the shoes.  Do people do that anymore?  Do they make adjustments to things so they are more comfortable or do they go to the professionals for a consult?  Then order a custom fit from the professional maker of the whozit.  Self reliance is something I grew up with, and didn't even realize.  It's pretty cool to see that now.  And realize that I am almost perfectly capable of making what I need.

It's not about people anymore

 

When the repair guy ordered the part for the fridge, it showed arrival on 28 September.  Fully a month away.  What the actual heck is that?  So, I decided that feeding ice to the icebox wasn't gonna work long term.  So I picked up a 7 cubic foot chest freezer and one of these:  

 

 

Set the on temp at 35, and off at 30.  It cycles the freezer perfectly. Makes a dandy fridge that doesn't dump all the cold air out when I open it.  And it's small, doesn't take up the whole room like a full size fridge would.  ( I have fevered dreams gutting the freezer and using the cooling system in that beautiful old icebox....)

Found out the lightning took out my natural gas alarm, too.  So I ordered 2 to replace the one.  And I did that because this freezer uses ISOBUTANE for refrigerant?!?!?!?!?!??!  R600a.  Here's some comforting information:  

 

"As a refrigerant, isobutane poses a fire and explosion risk in addition to the hazards associated with non-flammable CFC refrigerants."   Oh thank you Uncle Sugar.  You so sweet!

 

So, in order to protect mother Gaia, the druids that infect our regulatory agencies decided an explosive would be more earth friendly.  Since natural gas rises when it leaks, and the heavier gasses like propane and butane sink, I got one for the old ceiling location and one for the floor, under the durn BS I just bought.  Remember Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd??  Yeah that exact B--- S-------!!!!!  I'll pass, too.

Move along "citizen"

 

I remember the last days of DDT.  Read stories of how innocuous it was to humans.  Just killed insects.  I think you could eat it without any problem.  Pour it under the house, mix it with paint, blow it into cracks for DECADES of deterrence.  Back in WW2, they blew that stuff all over folks to delouse them.  You can see old films of concentration camp inmates being dusted with it.  Some dingbat shows up with bad science and slick packaging... pffft! it's gone.  Replaced with things that are much more dangerous to humans.  And have a shorter lifespan than the insects they are supposed to control.  Oh, and sorry about all those dead malaria victims in Africa and Asia.  I guess those people don't matter to the druids.

Back when I was much younger and just starting out, we lived in a duplex.  They would spray for bugs on our side, wait a few weeks and spray the other side.  Waves of bugs every couple months came to visit.  I took a replacement ballast for a sodium vapor street light back to the house from work.  Boss said it was useless, sure take it.  I wired it up like an electric fence.  Ran a ground around the bottom and a low hot wire.    So I figure this hot wire is gonna help a few million bugs go to bug heaven.  Baited it, went to bed....  Lightning erupts in the kitchen, a healthy bzzzzaaaaap! and then....

 

BZZZZZZ....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... zap!  

 

Then the smell of high voltage fried bug guts wafts through the air....  I hoofed it in there, unplugged it and threw it out the front door.  Good grief that was poorly thought out.  Great lesson on how smoke can provide an ionized path for arcs to follow.  That's about the only reason I don't assemble tiny laser turrets to encircle the house and go after those big palmetto bugs...  I figure I'd catch one on fire and it would run into the grass an burn the neighborhood down.  

 

DDT didn't do that.  R22 didn't do that.  But ISOBUTANE??  Really???  

Thanks Uncle Sugar.  You numbah ten.