August 31, 2020

Looks as though I have a new cat!

It's been nearly a year since my 17.5 year old tabby point Siamese disappeared while my husband and I were in the UK. WE finally found his remains a month or more after we got back - he was just curled up as though he'd fallen asleep so our worst fear that he'd been taken by a coyote were not true.

I've been looking at cats on the local Humane Society website but since we still have to get the porch roof repaired, and the upstairs deck and downstairs screen porch rebuilt, I'd been delaying.

A friend had a plain dark tabby cat, neutered male about a year old, that her daughter adopted in Pensacola as possible barn cat. He is definitely not a barn cat. He's very gentle, and likes being indoors. The daughter brought him home for the summer - and she can't have a cat where she will be living this fall. The family is a dog family - they have several Labradors that get along with this cat, but the son's blue heeler makes out that she would love to eat a cat. The cat has been living on their screened porch.

Today I stopped by the Humane Society's local cat cafe. They serve coffee and other quick drinks and have a big window into a room full of cats. I'd been watching a pair of cats for months - they showed up months ago as three month old sisters, brown tabbies, but they have not been adopted since they need to go as a pair. We really only want two cats so they would have been great but...

My friend offered to bring over the dark tabby that her daughter had adopted. They really need to find a home for him before winter. He is a sweet cat, not very big but weighs about twice what I expected for his size. Beautiful green eyes. The daughter calls him Rascal but her mom calls him Kittiboi (she probably spells it KittyBoy, BTW). I'm not sure either name will stick if we keep him. ("IF" - HAH!)

He seems to be settling in, which is kind of bad news. I'd planned to introduce our two new cats at the same time so neither would feel as though they 'owned' the space. I may have to go back to the cat cafe tomorrow and adopt the light gray tabby female they have. She is equally relaxed, used to people since she has been in the cafe's cat room for months where they let people come in and meet the cats. Or there a tuxedo male with medium length hair that might work...

If I get another cat right away, Kittiboi will not have time to claim the place completely, I hope.

My husband has not met the new cat yet.

I'll post pics as soon as possible.

August 22, 2020

Watching a heron stalk live on Africam - pretty cool

One of the Africam locations (now on YouTube) is a place called Rosie's Pan, a little pond created I think by daming up a natural spring. It was just past dawn when I turned to the channel and the camera operator had zoomed in on a gray heron. At first I thought the heron was standing still but he was oh so slowly moving - the water was so clear you could see his feet under the water moving in slow motion.

He worked his way across the pond, his eyes not moving from something on the other side. He got a bit away from a clump of reeds, then struck - and caught himself a big frong. Right now he's still beating up the frog getting it ready to swallow. Oh - the frog is history now.

I'd seen the heron there before and he always left disappointed. I didn't think there were any fish or other aquatic life in the pond. Now I know why he checks it out most mornings!

August 22, 2020

Can I use epoxy to put in a couple of tiles?

I need to put two tiles at my sink, and two or three on the window sill above the sink. At the sink the underlying material is the ceramic sink material and a strip of the cement board used for tile. On the window sill the underlying material is drywall.

The job is too small for any of the tile people I have contacted. Well, I did have one guy that was going to do it but he has not returned calls for a month and now his phone is disconnected. He had done a slightly larger project and I had planned for both to be done at the same time, but that did not work out. He promised to come back to do this part but now I have no way to locate him.

I know the small containers of pre-mixed tile adhesive are not appropriate for a wet or damp location. I also know that epoxy grout is sold, but not in the very small amount I need. So I am wondering if I can just use epoxy adhesive to glue the tile down. I figure epoxy is water proof (or at least resistant) and should hold up to being at the sink.

I'm looking at PC Products PC-11 Paste Epoxy - it can be used to reattach tile on swimming pools as well as repairs in a marine environment. https://www.pcepoxy.com/products/permanent-repair/pc-11-paste-epoxy/

One advantage is that it comes in smaller sizes than tile adhesive materials do, as small as 1/2 pound or even smaller. I'd need about one pound to do both projects.

August 17, 2020

KAMALA! by Randy Rainbow

August 7, 2020

This is why I will not be voting by mail

I've posted responses before about the major problems with deliveries by the local post office for my area. It's so bad, the local paper has written about it:

It has not gotten better since that article was written.

June 11, 2020, I sent a certified letter, signature required. I just got the letter back as "unclaimed to forward" - the part that really pisses me off is that the building where the letter was to be delivered is two fucking building down the same side of the street from the post office.

On 6/12/20 there is a note about "tree work" - yes the company had trees taken out to enlarge their parking lot. There is some undecipherable note dated 6/16. Then nothing until a note "LN 8-7-20" I'd guess when they decided that they would not bother any more attempts at delivery.

So I paid over four dollars for the post office to store a CERTIFIED business letter for almost two months. Future legal documents will be sent via FedEx. This post office has demonstrated that they can't do it at all.

I do not trust this post office to deliver mail. I've had a box at that location for over forty years. When they "lose" Amazon or other packages, they make no attempt to locate them, they just tell me to have another of whatever it was sent. That means medications and medical supplies have to be re-sent and Amazon has to eat the loss. I seriously believe that there are known thieves working in the building and that their managers do not care to have them charged with theft.

Since they are incapable of delivering mail, I cannot trust them with a ballot. I would not be surprised if they lost a truckload of mail in ballots this year.

August 3, 2020

Need help with Kindle book transfer

I have an old Lenovo Android tablet that has been my e reader for about a year now. Suddenly it will not connect to the WiFi on my modem. (That is a whole other problem that will be discussed tomorrow with my internet provider.)

I figured that I can probably sync the books I have paid for from Amazon with Kindle on my computer (where I have not had Kindle, but will install it in a few minutes, after it finishes downloading). Amazon only talks about transferring Kindle files to their devices - is it as easy as that with non-Amazon devices? All they say to do is to hook up the Kindle device via USB, and transfer the files into the correct folder on the tablet or whatever.

I've tried that, put the files into the folder on the Andriod tablet where the other book files were, but the ones that had not been previously downloaded on the Android tablet do not show in the Kindle library.

If I can't figure out how to do this or how to get the tablet to connect to the WiFi, it may be the end for my tablet.

August 2, 2020

Good Trouble - the Founders Sing