Leave Well Enough Alone

 Remember all that stuff we bought to get ready for the hurricane?

  Well, thank goodness we didn't need it - we hardly got any rain at all and no wind to speak of.  That, of course, was a good thing, but it left us with a couple of pallets of stuff taking up space in our garage and no good way to move them.

I have a platform that mounts on my tractor's 3-point hitch. I installed it on the tractor, and after several fits and starts I was able to load the pallet of sand on the platform.  Before I got it moved to the barn though, the darn thing shifted and dumped bags of sand all over.  I got what was still on the pallet into the barn, and spent several hours over a couple of extremely hot days rounding up the rest and re-stacking it on the pallet.

That left the pallet of cider blocks.  It was pretty obvious I wasn't going to get that on the platform - and that platform had already proved to be unreliable at best - so I just ran a chain under the pallet and towed it out of the garage. That got the pallet out of the garage, across the driveway, and into the side yard before the chain pulled loose.

I should have stopped right there - the pallet wasn't really in the way - but not me, boy. 

I drilled holes in two of the support boards on the pallet, threaded my chain through , hooked up and started again.  

Honey says she was yelling at me the whole time to stop, but all I heard was the revving tractor engine.  By the time I got the pallet where I wanted it, I had a string of 30 or 40 cinder blocks trailing along behind.  

It is currently 93⁰, with a heat index of 105, so those cinder blocks are a task for another day.

Double Trouble

 

We haven't even completed repairs from Imelda, and now we have TWO storms headed for the Gulf of Mexico - either or both of which could (and probably will) impact us here at the old Boggy Thicket! 

Rather than just sit and wait, at least this time we are doing something to prepare.

We ordered a pallet load of 8X8 cinder blocks that were delivered this morning.  These will be used to get our furniture off the floor.  The sand on the other pallet is going to be used to build a dam around our generator.  

Hopefully none of this will be necessary.  

If it isn't, it won't be wasted money - we plan to use the blocks and sand to make a small raised vegetable garden next spring. 

The Internet Is Forever

 I first published this story on my blog almost ten years ago - https://boggythicket.blogspot.com/2011/10/at-balfanz-pharmacy.html- so I was amazed to see not one, but two new comments posted this week.

Killler Wasp

 

That is a picture of a wasp species I had never seen before this summer. Our daughter told us about one in her back yard in Bertram, and a few days later, we saw our first one here at the Boggy Thicket.

They are HUGE!  

If the red wasps I wrote about the other day were fighter jets, these monsters would be Boeing 747s.  Their bodies are 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, and they have a wingspan of about 3 inches.

They are known as Cicada Killer wasps - Sphecius speciosus - so named because Cicadas are the primary source of food for their offspring,  They attack locusts and carry the paralyzed bug  to their nests where they deposit an egg then seal them up to provide the larva with food.  The larva hatch in late June or early July - just in time to start the cycle again.

If there is any good news about these critters, it's that they are almost never aggressive toward humans.  The female's sting is said to be extremely mild, and the males can't sting at all. 

Limerick with a Twist

 Here's a Lim I wrote with an interesting twist. 

Lines 1,2 and 5 LOOK like they rhyme, but none of them do...

There’s a shop in the suburbs of Akron

Making masks from cotton and Dacron

They can copy a face

Anywhere, any place

From Yoda to Emmanuel Macron

Cassidy

 I eased into year 78 yesterday and my birthday was great.  

I got dozens of birthday greetings on Facebook - thank you all - and Honey made me a delicious birthday cake.  I didn't do anything special for the day, but that's just the way I wanted to spend the occasion.

If there was one cloud in the firmament, it was that I spent several hours on line or on the phone unsuccessfully trying to find somebody who would come pick up an injured hawk.  Lots of numbers listed on line were no longer in service, and the rehab organizations I was able to reach all wanted me to catch the bird, put it in a box and deliver it to them.

Honey first noticed the hawk on her morning walk a few days ago, and we have seen him in our yard or the neighbor's every day since.  He has a bad wing - probably broken - and is unable to fly.

I nicknamed him Cassidy, since all he can do is hop along.  I know it's a bad pun and in terrible taste.  It's just my way of making the best of an unfortunate situation,

Last Day On Earth

 Today is my last day on Earth - as a 77-year-old.

The last year hasn't been all that great, but it was eventful.

• I had cataract surgery on both eyes.
• Tropical Storm Imelda flooded our house.
• I've lost 20 pounds.
• We spent four months living in our 5th wheel.
• I had a cancerous tumor removed from my arm.
• The interior of our house was totally redone and we have all new furniture.
• We got the barn rebuilt.
• Like everyone else, we have been dealing with the many and varied inconveniences of Covid-19.

I'm hoping 78 will be a little less exciting, but I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Red Wasps

 

As I've said many times in the past, we have a large variety of critters here at the old Boggy Thicket.  One that I could certainly do without is the big red wasps that nest in the eaves of our house.  They build their nests behind the soffit where they can't be seen and are almost impossible to eradicate.

They are also highly territorial and extremely aggressive as I was rudely reminded yesterday.

I was trimming bushes near the front door when I was attacked.  First, one landed on the top of my head, but I swatted her away.  Then she or one of her cohorts landed on my right hand and stung me on my middle finger.  

That hurts! 

I've tried to come up with words to describe the experience but I just can't.  Try to remember being stung by a bee or a yellow jacket, then multiply the feeling by twenty or so.  It definitely gets your attention.

I came in and put baking soda on the wound and took a couple of Benadryl, but my right hand swelled up to the point it looked like I was wearing a baseball glove.  I could not make a fist.

I emptied a can of wasp and hornet spray into the cracks the buggers were coming out of, but I can't honestly say whether I killed any of them at all. 

Now. twenty-something hours later, my hand is still slightly swollen but almost back to normal.

Yeah - on my list of critters I could do without, those damn red wasps would be right up there at the top of my list.

Project

I have a 1950s vintage DeWalt radial arm saw similar to the one pictured.  It has been sitting out in my barn for the last 40 years, and I think the last time I used it was about 30 years ago.

It would make a great refurbishing project for somebody.  

It would require cleaning up, lubrication, and probably rewiring. The key to the on/off switch is missing and I think the switch itself needs replacing,  but with some time and effort it could be a very valuable piece of equipment.  A quick check on Ebay showed similar models priced from about $400 to over $3000.

I don't know what it's worth as-is, but if you're interested, make me an offer.

Hot Spot

I was paying a few bills on line, and for some reason, I decided to check the VISA card that shows up on our bank's website.  

We don't normally do this (or even check the monthly statements) because we have been steadily paying this card off since the last interest rate jump and have not charged anything on the card in over a year.

Imagine my surprise when I found a current $75.00 charge.  

It took a while to locate the source, but it turned out to be ATT Prepay.

Several years ago, we bought an ATT hotspot to access the internet when traveling.  While we were on the road, I would prepay for a month's access at a time.  Somehow that one time, as-needed, charge was switched to an automatic monthly charge, and we have been paying ATT for service we were not using since August 2018.  The charges varied slightly, but average out to about $80.00 per month, for a total approaching $2000.00!

I went to the ATT website and turned the autopay option off, then called the bank to be sure no more charges would be accepted.  I had tried to contact ATT via the website with no luck, but the lady at the bank gave me a number and I was able to contact an actual live person at ATT this morning.

The customer service guy at ATT was extremely nice.  Even though the website has a disclaimer that says no refunds, since we were long-time customers with several other ATT accounts - cell phones, DirecTV - he was able to refund the last three months of charges.  The whole thing still stinks, and I suppose I can't blame anyone but myself, but at least the outcome was better than I expected.

More Imelda

 We're still beating our heads against the Imelda wall.

The latest round is a rejection letter - our second - regarding the replacement of the damaged exterior sheathing.  I just sent the insurance company the following reply:

                                                                                                                                                                8/02/2020

Re: Claim # 193512

Dear Mr. Wilson,

We received your second rejection notice of our claim regarding the exterior sheathing on our home.  This strikes me as unfounded and honestly a little bit petty.

The portions of the claim regarding the interior and contents of our house were paid promptly and we were able to move back in by the first of the year.  Since then, all we have been able to do is wait.

First you wasted our time and your money employing an engineer to generate a report about the structural integrity of the brick veneer, something that was never in contention and never in doubt.  When we pointed that out after your first rejection letter, you asked for an addendum which basically said he had no idea about the sheathing in question because the contractor had already completed repairs to the interior of our home by the time of his inspection and the sheathing was not visible.

When we were told that you wanted to send an engineer it was supposedly to determine the most efficient way to replace the damaged sheathing, something that he never addressed.

None of this should have been necessary. 

Ms. Shanon Stalinski Bergeron, the adjuster you sent out immediately after the flood, is the one who first noticed this damage and pointed it out to us.  Since she is your adjuster, I would think that her word (with or without photographic evidence) should have been sufficient.  To ask us to tear out recently replaced sheetrock to prove there is damage behind it is simply unacceptable.

 

Sincerely,

Robert A. Couch

I doubt that this will get the desired response, but at this point, we don't have much to lose.