What are you doing today?

Wow, hang in there.
I spent the whole time wanting to ask how much longer but I didn't because I was afraid of the answer. Towards the end, the novocaine was starting to wear off a little. But I didn't say anything. At that point I just wanted it to be done so I didn't want to add another step to the process. And I hate the numb feeling from the novocain so I didn't want to restart the clock on that either.
I'm sore today but it's manageable. It's a different pain than I've been having which is good. This will go away over time.
 
Today I had a 'DUH!' moment. With my last Omaha Steaks order I stocked up a bit on chicken including 4-packs of boneless breasts with one plain and the other three being with different seasonings. The only problem is that their boxes take up a lot more room then just stacking the individual items, but, if I get rid of the boxes, I won't know which is which and Sharpie markers really don't work all that well on frozen stuff.

Now comes the epiphany (DUH! moment)... Why have a label maker with a keypad so I can make multiple labels with one input if I don't use it? Just make labels and stick them on each vacuum packed breast. Just tried one to see if the label will stay stuck in my freezer. If it does, problem solved.

LOL! Being a retired old fart simple things can be sort of cool. ;) Not really sure if that is a good or bad thing but I'm happy with it. :)
<edit>
Just to let know the labels seem to work and all 16 breasts are done and labeled taking half the space. :)
 
Last edited:
Read an interesting research paper about the aquaculture industry in Florida (okay, the potential advisor with whom I intend to send a cold e-mail), with about twenty pages.

Also, today I made a kind of modification to a soda bottle cap, using hot glue to attach a small section of aquarium hose. Later, I will put an air divider, to regulate the water flow (I am trying to create a small decanter tank). The glue is still curating.

Despite the cap still being prepared, I decided to test a possible solution for my brine shrimp tank removal of detritus excess. The objective is to remove at least the settled particles at the bottom, through the decantation process. I am thinking about using the detritus for my compost BSFL. I suppose that they eat even algae and cyanobacteria...
1713143551973.jpeg

1713143565326.jpeg


By far, the main issue with siphoning is that you siphon also the nauplii. I don't want to lose any nauplius during the process. This sieve set (that doesn't exist in Brazil) may help me, but I'm not certain.
 
Today is vet day. Two dogs and a cat get annual check ups and whatever shots are needed.
This afternoon Linda wants her veggies garden tilled. Back in the day a very big job. Now not so much, about 400 sq feet. Seasoned horse manure and lime were played in last fall, the plot tilled deeply and then covered. Tilling will be a breeze.
No rain expected today. A nice break in the monsoons.
 
Water change and cleaning! On a knee that's bone on bone. I couldn't talk my wife, nor my sister, nor her daughter (latter two our roommates) to do it for me, even after I promised not to leave them alone and to give detailed step-by-step instructions all the way through. But I understand. The first time I did a water change, I was petrified. I was certain I'd suck up one of my fishes.
 
I spent yesterday building a fence to keep the dog in, but let her run within it. With tourism season coming, the road out front will be very busy, and the pup is not settled enough to be trusted around it. So the fence will do double duty, also keeping the deer out of the vegetable garden.
So today, I'll hang around and ache! It's only my legs, arms and the rest of my body. My scalp feels okay. I thought I was in decent shape, and probably am, but I'm not 25 anymore.
 
I spent yesterday building a fence to keep the dog in, but let her run within it. With tourism season coming, the road out front will be very busy, and the pup is not settled enough to be trusted around it. So the fence will do double duty, also keeping the deer out of the vegetable garden.
So today, I'll hang around and ache! It's only my legs, arms and the rest of my body. My scalp feels okay. I thought I was in decent shape, and probably am, but I'm not 25 anymore.
GaryE ….. The aches and pains always remind me of my age.
 
I'm scared of spiders. I hate to admit that, because it's such a typical girlie fear, and I work hard to overcome it and desensitise myself! None of ours are really dangerous, even, but there's one species here that freaks me out, and I dread their breeding season around August-September time, as the males roam looking for females.

It's the ones you find trapped in the sink or bath, or suddenly come running at you from under the sofa or something. Large, brown, hairy, eight legged freaks! Tegenaria parietina and Tegenaria domestica.

I won't put a picture here out of consideration for other spider fearing people, but will add a link with large photo of a house spider and talk of how the males suddenly appear at that time of year! To try to overcome my fear ever since I was a kid, I would make myself hold a tarantula whenever I had the chance, try to catch and release spiders rather than splat them the moment I see them, which the panic response instantly wants me to! I like orb weavers, so long as their webs aren't stretched over a pathway I need to walk through. Cellar spiders with the tiny bodies and long legs are fine and I can catch by hand and remove, but I tend to leave them be since they don't run at and terrify me, and they can also eat house spiders.... ! save me, cellar spiders! You're much more chill and less terrifying, and only tend to find them in places we rarely access like the gardening tools cabinet. If keeping them means less chance of a house spider giving me a heart attack, then I'm happy to house them.

But those creepy, jerky moving, fast running, and horrible house spiders, while harmless, always seem to jump scare me!! And only increase my fear. I spray citronella and peppermint in window ledges and doorframes to try to deter them, especially as August approaches and I know it's house spider time...

I have a vivid memory of opening one of my underbed drawers when I was four or five, a huge house spider being in there and running at me, and me freaking out about it. Then my dad rented the film Arachnophobia for us all to watch when I was about seven or eight I think, since it came out in 1990 in the US, then a while longer before available to rent on VHS I think (dating myself here)! Film both terrified and fascinated me - it's a really good film, and I have a yen to watch it again, but there are some genuinely frightening scenes for an arachnophobe in training! Mum was angry at dad for letting us watch scary films, and blamed him for my fear of spiders, but I'm sure it was the drawer spider that began my fear. Mum later admitted to me that she's scared of spiders too, but she always put on a brave face and pretended she was fine with them, because she didn't want to encourage my fear, not wanting to feed into it. She's probably why I always tried to face and overcome my fear of them.

I've had one fall from the picture rail above my bed while I was reading a book and drifting off to sleep one night at like 3am, feeling peaceful, until a huge ugly house spider landed on my pillow right next to my face, I jumped up screaming and it escaped down the back of the bed. I woke my brother and made him move the bed, find the spider and either remove or kill it, since there was no way I was sleeping in that bed knowing a huge house spider was so close by! Fortunately he is patient and amused by my fear of them, and was prepared to go to battle with the monster while I set up bedding on the sofa in case he didn't find it. He did, thankfully!

Yesterday at about 1am I woke up, pulled on a dressing gown for warmth, then was watching something I was really absorbed by. Felt a tickle on my head and just brushed it away, thinking it's a loose hair since my hair was up in a loose bun. Few minutes later it tickles again, I brush my hair back, and a large house spider falls onto the bed and escapes while I gasp/quietly shriek in horror and panic.

I haven't found it yet, despite trying hard all day-maybe the hoover got him. But maybe he's under a piece of furniture, hiding and waiting to attack me again. That's possibly worse than knowing it must have been above my head on the wall, picture rail or pillow, OR, on my dressing gown when I put it on without me noticing, then had climbed onto my head(!!!). That's bad enough. But now its the jumpiness, and fear that it'll crawl back onto the bed, or onto me!


It's in here somewhere. It's not breeding season for them now, so I'm mad at yet another jump scare house spider being on me, being in my room, and the not knowing where it is now, but knowing it's probably nearby...!

I need to broker some kind of deal with them, the way I have with cellar spiders, or orb weavers. Just don't get on me somehow, at all, or run directly at me and scare me! Want to live in the sheds? Go mad, I don't mind... within reason. Or set up behind or underneath a wardrobe or bookcase.. so long as they stay there, and stop frightening me. I will catch and release to a shed if they're stuck in the sink or bath or I see them from a distance and can mentally and physically prepare to use the cup and cardboard method to catch and release you creepy and frightening spiders - so long as you all quit jump scaring me like that and reinforcing the phobia! Deal?
 
We regularly have spiders running between armchairs in an evening.

One evening years ago, our next door neighbour knocked on our door and asked could she borrow my husband. Her husband was out and there was a huge spider on the wall half way up the stairs. Her four daughters were refusing to go to bed as they'd have to walk past it, and she couldn't deal with it either.

Then there was the day I went into the local pharmacy and the female customers and staff (including the female pharmacist) were in a panic as there was a large spider on the shelf. I went to have a look, then asked for a cup of some sort and a piece of card. These were quickly provided and I relocated the spider into the car park.

The ones I hate are those which spin enormous webs, usually between our house and next door's garage in front of the greenhouse and between the back of our garage and the fence, both at eye level. Then when I go to the greenhouse to get my water change buckets, or behind the garage to put something in the wheelie bin I get a face and hair full of web. I relocate those to the bushes at the bottom of the garden. Those are pretty spiders with stripey legs.



Have I mentioned that I'm female?
 
Bit ny a recluse some years back. Extremely painful and the venom literally melted my flesh. The pain and aftereffects lasted several weeks. I do not hate spiders but hold them in the same regard I hold snakes, necessary evils.
 
I hate to be the one who says interesting, but I just encountered those Tegenaria domestica for the first time recently. Some family members have a place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, right down by the docks. Those European spiders have become invasives in their area of the city, which has caused a buzz as they are large things, in relative terms. They've spread through the city, and I see no reason why they won't thrive in houses here. There's nothing their size til you go inland.

I used to have an embarrassing touch of arachnophobia, but was able to desensitize myself. But like you, there are exceptions. I can handle tarantulas, though I don't want to. But the Canadian wharf or dock spider, and the larger wolf spiders still bother me. I know they won't harm me, but they put on an aggressive show, and I'm happy to steer clear of them. Orb weavers or other large spiders are no problem, and when I was in Gabon, I had zero concerns about spiders.
But show me an adult female dock spider, and I will probably find somewhere else to be.

It's not really arachnaphobia as I 'm not bothered by ALL spiders. I'm Dolomedesaphobic, I guess. It's funny how one small species group can be it's own category in our minds.

I have a friend who has a spider room, the way I have a fishroom. He's absolutely fascinated by them, and has pets of a number of different Genuses and origins. I don't mind going in there at all, though I'm not especially intrigued by them. They're impressive, but not something I'd like to study too closely. I have found out that I'm at the northern edge of the widow spider distribution in my new home, and have seen a few out in the shed I turned into a greenhouse. I'm cautious with them, but not worried or scared by them. They're just there. I expected dock spiders when I demolished the walls and roof of that then rotting shed, but met none. I'm guessing the saltwater nearby doesn't appeal to them, and the nearest freshwater pond is about 2 km away.
 
We have furry wolf spiders in our basement that occasionally vacation in our living space. Some are the size of a fifty cent piece. I was bitten by one in my sleep. I hate and fear spiders, especially wolf spiders. But the gods must have had a good reason for making them. I just wish they moved next door.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top