Nothing to worry about it’s just the asphalt roads melting

We have a patch of cold-mix outside Casa de El Poeta that seems to have gone soft. It had a couple of tire tracks because cold-mix remains soft for about 24 hours after putting it down in more temperate conditions, but it seems to have a few more today after a string of 100°+ days this week. The concrete seems to be holding up fine where it wasn’t undermined by broken watermains years ago. Current temperature at 1700 is 99°F so nothing to worry about.😅

On bicycle things I have been perusing Craig’s List and online pawn shops in hopes of finding a bike I can get on and off of and still be able to ride, but prices haven’t been in my price range, or the bikes were too small for me to get proper leg extension while seated. I really need to find something I can ride to get some exercise with this bum hip making walking extremely risky for falling. That walk I had earlier just emphasized how bad my hip is now, but at least I can put my socks on without help again. There was a time right after the injury that action was impossible. It got a little difficult for a while this month but I’m better now.

On the Sprint-T I’m still plugging in the entries for the POWERNATION Ford (click to help me win, maybe) in hopes of winning the engine and having something to shove in front of the firewall. As I stated many years ago, there are two design objectives for this car, aside from doing car things like getting groceries and so forth. First is winning Goodguys autocross events by using basic physics and good design to succeed, second is cruising events and looking cool, and also not needing a trailer and tow vehicle to get it there. That is I want to drive to the event, drive the event, and then drive home. I also want to be able to bolt some slicks on it and compete in SCCA events. I will need a trailer to carry the tires for that.

I don’t object to doing a little maintenance at the motel beforehand, but I don’t want to unload and load a car hauler at the event. If I could afford to have a separate vehicle to get my race car around I wouldn’t be having these issues in the first place. There would be many problems I would not be having if I could afford to have a tow vehicle and a play vehicle. I would be fully vaccinated now because I wouldn’t have needed to leave the line because of running out of money for the Lyft, I could just keep circling the site until I got to the end of the line, not until my fare exceeded my checking balance.

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I don’t want to get political but

There are things going on that I can’t ignore. Some people can, but they would probably ignore their death and continue on as usual, like I did.

I am referring to the GOP members of the House claiming the rioters were “peaceful tourists” and not terrorists trying to overthrow the election in favor of their guy who lost. This was after Police were beaten, windows were broken on camera, and other acts of destruction were recorded by the people doing them. If those are the actions of “peaceful tourists” then I will be cranking my hot rod build before we go buy groceries this Saturday. Seeing as I don’t even have an engine yet nor any support items needed to crank that engine

Aside, isn’t interesting that some cars have had electric starters for over a century, and it has been almost a century since the last mass-produced car came with a crank to start the engine when the battery died, but we still use cranking the engine as synonymic with starting the engine, or spinning it over. These days it’s physically impossible to hand crank an engine unless the spark plugs are removed.

Anywho, there was a violent riot/terrorist attack in the Capitol Building, that some are denying ever happened. This is gaslighting on a mega scale, telling millions of people who saw it happen as it happened that they didn’t see what they saw. And people wonder why I’m “not a Republican”?

In other Poet news I’m currently rocking 199 entries for the small block Ford engine being given away by Powernation, which is all I can do unless 10 people click the link to help me out. It doesn’t cost anything to help except a few minutes of your time.

Continuing in news there is a discrepancy between the MS weather bug on my status bar on my computer and the Weather.com app on my phone. The report on my status bar is 95°F, but my phone says 97°F and a “feels like” of 105°.

I was busy yesterday

I went and did stuff yesterday in the heat. By Texas standards it was a bit on the warm side as we hit 101°F while I was out walking around. I did some banking for Mrs. the Poet, got a haircut from someone who knows how to do a flat top, and then got a good massage from a little slip of a woman.

Anyway, I got started on doing stuff about 1530 and got home about 1930. Now part of that is because it takes time to get places even if you go by Lyft, and part of that is because it takes time to do things. Banking took a while because I had to deposit a paper check, get cash, and check balances. That took a bit of time, because it just does.

The next thing I did was walk to the barbershop in the 101° heat, as one does in TX. That was a few minutes to walk the 0.85 miles to the barbershop because I was too cheap to pay a Lyft and didn’t feel like waiting for the bus that may or might not stop at the bus stop. The closest stop to the bank is right in front of the Community College and for some reason the bus route I needed tends to go right by that stop. Anywho after walking most of a mile in 100+° heat I was hot and thirsty when I got to the barbershop and needed to take a break before I got covered by the barber’s apron. So after I cooled off enough I got the haircut, which included an eyebrow trim, all the way down my nose. I think I mentioned I have a monobrow that goes all the way down my nose and ends right above the tip, and also my eyebrows above my eyes were bushy and needed a trim.

Next part of the trip was via Lyft to the massage place. I found a new place closer to home and only a couple of miles from the barbershop, which was too far to walk, and the Lyft driver was initially sent to the wrong side of the strip mall that went in next to the barber’s, and it took a few minutes to guide him to the place to pick me up. Then it took a few minutes to find the massage place in another strip mall. Strip malls appear to be this guy’s Achilles heel, especially if they go around a corner like both of the ones at either end of this trip. The massage tech at this place was a slip of a woman who looked like a tween girl, but was actually a full-grown woman and managed to give a decent massage despite her minimal mass. My hips haven’t felt this good in ages. Usually a massage doesn’t last long in the hip area because of the nature of what the muscles do, but this one has managed to feel good-ish for almost than 24 hours and still feels not-bad.

I got a summary of my expenditures for Lyft for the day and it came out just under $30, which is a big chunk of my transportation budget. But $30 for 3 trips is not too bad, and I wouldn’t have even been able to do it on the bus because of the uncertainty of having a trip home. DART is so short of drivers that if someone gets sick their bus doesn’t go. And they don’t put out a notification that the bus isn’t running on their app. That’s what really annoys me, they have an app to take fares and alert riders, and they don’t alert riders when a bus isn’t running because of a sick driver. They give notices when the bus isn’t running because of no AC, or other mechanical issue, but staffing issues that shut a bus down don’t get notices on the app. This is stupid, and DART needs to fix it. Anything that interrupts bus service needs to be shown on the app. They don’t need to say why a bus is out of service, but they do need to let people know a bus is out of service. Especially if it’s a route that is last mile on the return to home. Transportation rant over.

AC is back again because the humidity is back down, so at least Casa de El Poeta is comfortable.

Thinking can be good

I had to stop and sit for a while because I didn’t want to make a mess going to the bathroom, so I was thinking. I realize thinking is generally not a good activity for me to engage in particularly after the Pinky and the Brain incident that we shall never speak of until the statute of limitations expires, but sometimes I solve an actual problem.

The problem is the condensation line from the AC gets stopped up and when the line is full it shuts off the AC leaving us sweating and immobile because hot in the house. The solution is to install pipe that is big enough to hold a lot of water and orient it so that as it fills it creates enough pressure to maybe force the blockage out. At least if there is a big pipe it will hold a fair amount of water and whatever process clears it up has the time to clear it up before the backup gets to the shutoff switch. As configured now the condensation line is a dinky thing connected to the condensation pan inside the AC that runs to the drain outside, and it is tiny. What I’m thinking about is putting like a 4″ sewer line segment to catch the extra water and hold it until it makes enough pressure to blow out the blockage, or it seeps by the blockage but keeps the AC running.

Now why this is a problem with the new AC but wasn’t with the old AC is because of how the filter went into the new system compared to the old system. The old system had the filter going into the side of the system and a big empty space under it and the overflow condensation would end up on the floor making a mess on the rug in front of the AC but still letting the AC continue to run. The new AC has the filter under everything in the system except the condensation collector and if there is overflow it gets in the filter, ruining it. So it is vital to not ruin the filter and keep it dry because filters for the new system last for 90 days and are expensive to replace.

Still fornicating hot

It’s so hot that I switched from peanutbutter cups to mints because I don’t like melted chocolate. Mrs. the Poet came to bed naked not because she felt romantic but because it was too hot to wear a nightgown. And also too hot for hanky or panky. Seriously, I tried for a hug and a kiss and failed at both because I adhered to her skin after just touching her. Not a pleasant night.

Current temperature in my office is 84°F, not deadly by any means, but even with a fan it’s still uncomfortable. Probably not good for the laptop, either, but the manual says I still have a few degrees of leeway before thermal shutdown. I decided to move my laptop and myself to the living room with the fan because it’s a portable computer, so why not portage it someplace where there’s a breeze? Also the temperature just hit 85°

In other things, I still do the things to possibly win the Ford engine from Power Nation daily, but I’m still 10 friends shy of my maximum of 10 friends. You have until 8/11/2021 to click the link and help me win. I really can’t do anymore thinking about the Sprint-T, I have to either abandon the project or stop thinking and start doing, but fixing the house is eating my car building budget alive. And in the greater scheme of things having a house that is habitable is more important than having a hot rod.

[$DEITY] it’s hot in here

Because the AC is intermittent it got to 85°F in my office as indicated by my Atomic Radio Clock. And the AC is intermittent because the installers used the condensation drain that came with the house and it doesn’t drain as fast as the the coil makes condensation. The other reason it’s hot in here is we finally had our first 100°F day outside.

About the first 100° day, usually by now we have had 5 or more days above the century mark, but because of climate change for the first couple of months of Meteorological Summer our usual heat went to the Pacific Northwest, and the cool air was redirected around the Arctic Circle and onto us, leaving our temperatures well below normal, and theirs well above normal. But that flow moved on and we have our normal temperatures and so do they.

Getting back to that condensation drain thing, there is a sensor that controls a relay that turns off the AC when the condensation line gets backed up so the water doesn’t flood the house like when we were living in the apartment when we first moved here back in the 1990s. That one was bad, I lost so many magazines that time.😭 That was the last time we lived in an apartment. Shortly after that we got evicted and bought Casa de El Poeta, but it wasn’t named that at the time. It wasn’t named anything back then. Then a while after I was killed our central heat and air went south to the land of non functioning appliances, and we lived with window units for several years because it was cheaper than replacing the AC and wiring at the time. But our finances changed and we could afford to get the electrical wiring changes and replaced the entire inner and outer systems, but for some reason they didn’t change the condensation drain when they installed the new system and now it’s overwhelmed by the humidity.

I’m still doing the thing for the giveaway Ford engine because it’s my best hope of getting an engine for the Sprint-T. Otherwise I don’t have the budget to keep Mrs. the Poet happy and buy an engine and transmission. The plan is to sell the prize engine or trade it for an LS junkyard engine and transmission. Or see if I could sweet talk the TV production company out of a transmission and controller in exchange for making a program or 3 out of building the Sprint-T. It’s possible but unlikely so I’m not going to put it high on the list of probabilities. The chain of events needed to make that happen is so convoluted as to make living through getting hit by a truck going 60 MPH look like an everyday thing.

I’m angry and I can’t talk about it

There are many things I’m angry about, and a few I can’t talk about because they involve other people I’m in a relationship with and talking about it would be a bad thing. I mean seriously, this is making me extremely angry, it’s something I need for not getting crazy (and the last time it was withheld I did get a little crazy), and it’s something I can’t talk about, just around.

So since I can’t talk about what’s making me crazy, how about that Cleveland baseball team? Cleveland Guardians, that’s an inspiring team name, right up there with Washington Football Team. TBH the “Indians” moniker was more than a little over the top for these days. And Chief Wahoo has been racist since before the turn of the century. That last remake was just terrible. Not only racist, but yugly with a capital UGH!

I’m still angry and no closer to finding resolution to the things I’m angry about. So Imma go watch some cat videos…

OMG I just spent $11k on windows

We have needed new windows since before I was killed in 2001. And not Windows the OS/GUI, the kind of windows that let you see outside. We have 12 windows in the house and 10 need replacing years ago. Seriously, of the ten windows 3 are opaque, and several more have wood rot problems. (And I keep getting ads for Windows 11, so that upgrade route also remains open.)

It was not too bad of an experience, I put it several steps up over the losing a tooth experience of a few weeks ago, but still nothing compared to pulling a baby out backwards with the other leg still pointed the wrong way and nobody even getting needing stitches, or resuscitation. I really dodged a bullet on that one. But this was still a pleasant experience. Four stars out of five, would recommend. I hope I have no needs to do this again, but if I had the funds I would.

Also I did the thing for the free engine again today, but if I don’t win either that engine or one of the lotteries, I think paying for the windows is going to deplete the budget for the Sprint-T for the next 114 months.

Something is wrong with the thermostat

It’s “only” 90°F outside but it’s 80° inside at my computer desk even though the thermostat is set for 76. And I just checked and it’s 80° at the thermostat and the AC still hasn’t come on even though the setting is 4 degrees cooler than the temperature. Something is rotten in Texas, heck with Denmark.

Something else that isn’t working according to spec is my autofill for passwords. I let Google remember all my passwords for sites that require readers be over 18 because they’re a bunch of unrememberable gibberish suggested by either Google or the website, and now I have been dead longer than that. Longer than 18 years that is. I mean seriously this latest update to Windows has messed up a bunch of things, but the thermostat is probably not among them. So I don’t know what the problem is, I mean with the thermostat.

Edit to add: The thermostat has gone out completely for a couple of hours, and my autofill for passwords works some times and not others. I’m going to call the people who installed the AC system tomorrow and have them take a look at it, but I don’t know what I can do about the autofill.

I’ve been really boring lately

I’m eating raisins and generic peanut butter cups and drinking generic diet cola and coffee, and watching YouTube videos. Well reading web comics too. Not the source of massive missives.

I’m still doing things but this video is something everyone should watch, because funny. Seriously I get a little cranked that buns are 8 to a package but hotdogs are 10, until I remember I can make my own beanie weenies with the extras.

Also I apologize to my Francophile readers for neglecting Bastille Day celebrations and I hope you fed the bourgeoisie to the guillotine by yourself. Nobody sent me any orders for tumbrels, so I don’t think anyone did.