Nilknarf News

An opossum under the sink.

The cold water had been running very slow for about six months, so I was going to see if it was the valve, so I stuck my arm under there and sure enough, the valve was kinda in the middle. I turned it full on, and as I was withdrawing my arm, I saw some beady little eyes looking at me.

In order to turn that valve, I have to be laying down on the floor... and my arm was within about 2" from this beasts' mouth.

Which reminds me... I don't know how to do possessives... I need to look that up. Is it beast's, or beasts', or just plain beasts? The latter would indicate the plural to me, but what do I know?

I do have the Prentiss Hall Writer's Style Guide, and the title would indicate that it's the first way... but again, what do I know? I need to actually take the book down from the shelf and read it a little, I guess, then I'd know.

Contractions I *do* know about... the apostrophe goes where the missing letters were, heh. Got that down pat, mostly, I do....

Anyhoo, back to the story.

Karen, of course, wants to keep the beasty. I was telling her (after I'd closed the door) that these beasties have sharp teeth and that they smell and don't play well with kitties and stuff like that, but she was skeptical. I don't know how I managed to marry a woman who doesn't believe everything that I say, but that's another story altogether.

I told her to call animal control, 'cause I *do* pay my taxes, and 'possum-wrangling is *not* one of my hobbies.

So, the second time that we opened the door, it hisses at us, and Karen saw it's teeth, and she was convinced.

It had also brought in some bedding material with it, and was making use of some washrags that it had pulled off of the hanger on the inside of the front of the door. It must have easy access to the outside, some way or another. I need to find that hole and patch it up posthaste.

Anyway, Karen left a message with animal control... they must not work on Sundays, heh.

I suppose that I could find a pair of work gloves and take care of it, but I really don't want to, y'know? It's pretty much a full-grown one, and I could probably grab it by the scruff of its neck, but I'd really rather not.

Meanwhile, work goes on outside.

But first....

I had noticed last night that I was sweating whilst sitting in the computer room. And when I went out to work about noonish, I noticed that the AC wasn't running. So I went downstairs and checked the breaker. Yep, it was broken. And O'yeah, Dan, my breaker box has a 200-AMP breaker at the top... a *real* breaker.

Flipped it back on... and the damned thing still wouldn't run. Called my co-worker who'd referred me to the AC guy that did the work last year, but I decided to not call him on a Sunday... hell, we can get by without AC for a coupla days anyway, we're tough.

But I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money, y'know? Not, definitely *not* in the budget.

So I checked the outside fuses... yep, they were good. Put them back in... nada.

I came back inside and turned the thermostat off. Went outside and worked for a half-hour, then turned it back on. Nada.

Worked outside some more, and suddenly, I heard the compressor/fan come on. Wonderful!

I think that I might've messed it up yesterday when I leaned a board against the side of the outside unit and cut off some of the circulation... I had the board covering up a window well that gets full of water when it rains, I need to go out and spend a few bucks and get a *real* cover and throw the board in the dumpster.

And I'm trying to resurrect my radial arm saw... it's been setting out on the deck for umpteen years, covered with a tarp. Unfortunately, the table part is rotted away, so I need to build a new one. I've got a lot of scrap wood around, but most of it is totally unsuitable for such a task. Maybe I can just order a new one from Sears.

Speaking of which, I've got a 3/8 HP electric line trimmer that I needed some parts for, so I went to Sears site and looked at the parts, it would cost about $40 to fix it. I looked in their ad today, they have a similar one on sale... for $40. I've had this trimmer for about 23 years, and it's in the dumpster now.

I'm proud of myself for making that decision.

Back out to work again, and I'm really happy that I have a nice air-conditioned home to take these little breaks in....

Gonna be a big break right now... I just got stung by some type of flying insect on my right hand, and I almost ran into Karen when I was heading back into the house, 'cause there were more of them after me.

The animal control guy called... they won't be able to come out until tomorrow, he said... and there would be a charge. WTF are my taxes doing, anyway, lining the pockets of politicians? O'wait, don't answer that....

In the meantime, he said that maybe I could get her out using a shovel and a rake... I might try that a little later, when I can go back outside without fear of flying insects? That'll be... winter, I think?

So, this appears to be a makeup day, word-wise, heh.

On another front altogether... I'm throwing stuff away from the basement. A coupla old stereo sets of Tylers, one side of the stereo works fine on both of them... the same side, unfortunately, or I could run them in tandem for a full stereo sound. Nope, they're gone. I don't have time to mess with that low-tech stuff any more, I've got computers to take care of, after all.

Old chairs. One is a recliner that I just love, I bought it when I was married the first time, and it's seen a lot of use. A chair that JD got from somewhere, a platform swivel rocker with a bad leg... a table that the first wife and I bought... I've been divorced from her since '79, and I think that's the last remnant of that era. Well, 'cept for some stuff that I got when I was in the army that I don't want to part with for some really stupid reason... a ten-band radio, for one. Gets SW and all of that, heh.

Naw, that's stupid, out it goes. It has to have batteries (8 D-cells!) 'cause the AC plugin makes it hum so loud that you can't hear it. I've been meaning to fix that since, well, since 1966. Yep. It. Goes. Into. The. Dumpster.

There is something... freeing? About throwing stuff away. Just think, that's been on my to-do list since 1966. Every time that I thought about that period in my life, I thought, "I really should fix that radio." Now I'll think, "Damn! I wisht that I hadn't thrown away that radio!"

No, I won't. Just like I really don't wish that I still had that Anglia with the flowers all over it any more. Or that convertible Rambler Metro.

Well, the really big news of the day... Karen and I have decided to have a garage/shop built. Yep, after all these years, I'm gonna get a shop finally. And I'm excited about it, I really am. And it will add to the value of our home, unlike a lot of other things... and start appreciating as soon as it's built.

Well, as I kinda anticipated, my hand is swelling up, and I'm gonna call it a day as far as the outside work goes. It's 17:30, and I've worked about six hours... manual labor. I'll still be able to work in the basement, though... lotta shit down there needs sorting through and throwing away. We've lived here 19 years, accumulated a lot of junk. Mostly good junk, of course!

And I should shut up for the rest of the day here.

O'yeah... click on the pic of the rodent for a bigger picture....