[Note: this is another in my Mainland Missive Series, based on weekly emails to my relatives on the mainland.]
9/25/20
Aloha All –
Well, life lurches on here. A bit more sun here to produce power and heat for our pool and shower, though Thursday night we did have .7” of rain overnight and another .2" last night. Our bedroom a.c. is working splendidly and I confirmed this week that it is surprisingly efficient in terms of the sun juice it uses. It’s always nice when things work better than you expected!
My kitchen fan saga took a little detour this week. I re-hung the main part and got it re-wired successfully (after one teensy, non-electrocuting mistake). However, as I was re-attaching the blades I noticed how crappy the brackets that hold them to the fan motor looked, and decided to take them off the blades and repaint them before declaring the project a success. I didn’t do this on the entry way fan because the bracket bolts were so badly rusted they wouldn’t come off. The kitchen grease actually prevented rust on this fan’s screws, so they came off easily. After the paint dried for a couple of days I reattached them on Thursday and admired the result. Project finished! Looks much better and certainly is a lot safer.
On Wednesday I got my yearly flu shot. We usually do this before we take our yearly fall trip somewhere, but of course that won’t happen this year. But at least now I can have a reduced probability of getting BOTH Covid 19 and the flu at the same time, pretty much a death sentence for someone like me. Slightly sore arm Thursday and Friday, but not a bad trade-off. Didn’t bother me as much as I feared when we went to PF for our workout yesterday.
The battle against the neighbors’ (yes, plural) coqui frogs continues. It is amazing how much more quiet they are on the evenings are when we don’t have as much rain, but then when we do get some moisture they come out again in force. My neighbor Scott and I refuse to give in to the onslaught and neither of us have resident coqui’s in our yards for long. The best way to get them is by hand-catching them as they are singing (LOUDLY) for mates, something that is much harder done than said. Their call is so loud that it is very difficult to find exactly where they are because the sound bounces off surfaces and makes it seem that the reflection is the source. Scott and I have gotten pretty good at homing in on them anyway, and although there is a spray you can use to discourage them from taking up residence, it will only kill them if they are hit directly, and you don’t know for sure if you were successful because they may shut up for a while and then start up again if they don’t get enough spray on them. A coqui in the hand is a certain kill if you bag them and put them in the freezer for a while. Anyway, Scott and I decided to test if the spray really works, so when he caught one this week we gave it a quick spritz and watched. Yup, in less that 2 minutes it was indeed dead, but of course it got a direct and thorough coating. The spray is citric acid and though harmless to us and to most plants, it really does a job on coquis’ delicate skins. We both continue to spray but we also hand-catch whenever we can. I had one such victory on Thursday night, when I caught and executed (by freezing) a newcomer that was trying to set up a mating territory under our study window. Even a small victory feels good.
Finally, I did some surgery on my old desktop to keep it going. The cooling fan was starting to have a case of arrhythmia – racing for no good reason then settling down again. This was erratic, not tied to temperature or usage. Fans are cheap so I thought I’d try to replace it and see if that helps. Kind of fun to conquer the innards of a computer, and I managed the swap pretty easily. However, the new fan has an irritating hum to it that may be another problem. We’ll see.
Covid 19 is settling down, with new cases each day this week mostly in the single digits. We’re at about 180 active cases, still concentrated in the Hilo area. As I said, lurching along.
Ok. Off for our usual Saturday routine this morning. Take care, and try to enjoy your fall weather as much as you can. As one t.v. news anchor has said, "Stay positive and test negative." Hopefully someday we'll forget what that means.
5 comments:
Loved your latest! Full of Shermanisms like "life lurches on" and "your fan having a case of arrhythmia". You certainly are brave with your DIY projects. I hope you are well-insured. Lastly, killing creatures as they are attempting to mate! I look forward to others passing judgement.
I think I'll send you my step stool to fix. You don't have to return it, just fix and use. I hate to see things go to the land fill for lack of a good fix. My home project today was to replace some rusty, tho galvanized, deck screws with stainless steel new ones. I have more time to get them seated at the proper level whereas I was in a hurry when I first put the deck down and a few were just a little high. I got shamed by the new paint job we are getting on the house, and decided it's time for those rusty guys to go. No frogs, but the mountain lion, bear and deer have run through here recently. I ordered a critter cam, but it never made it to the house. Probably better check the scat around here, eh?
Hoppy --Well, judgement day may be even worse for me when it comes to light that I caught a pair of coquis in the very throes of passion. Yup, *while* mating. They are now sharing a freezer bag marked “Romeo & Juliet.” Fun fact: Coqui mating takes 8-10 hours, usually beginning around midnight when they pair up (always a different couple). Smaller male climbs on female’s back and clamps on with his hind legs. The female assesses unknown cues to decide on whether to accept his advances. If so, she lays 20-30 eggs while he fertilizes them, then leaves (in fact, he chases her away). For the next 2 weeks or so he tends the eggs, mainly by keeping them moist. Once they hatch they’re on their own, though, and he tries for another female. In about 8-10 months the young males will start to sing and find a territory of their own.
Dennis --
LOVE to see a mountain lion or a bear roaming through on a critter cam! Nothing like that here, of course. Best I could do is maybe a cat, a rat, or a feral pig. In your case casual hiking has an added element of risk, I’d say.
TMI
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