Fixing stuff

Today I put a screw on the wall in the kitchen to hold the broom. Then it was on to the shower. I had fixed the shower head a couple of days which had developed crud on some the holes that partially blocked them so that they sprayed in in all kinds of directions. The door had a partially torn rubber sweep. I stapled the torn end together and then applied caulk to fill the gaps. Looks good (I love caulk, so versatile!). The door sill had settled over time and scraped when opening and closing. After looking at it for a little while, I just went and got some pliers and bent up the aluminum sill until it no longer scraped. Pretty simple fixes, but nice to have these things working again.

Cleaning my teeth myself

Tartar builds up for me and for many years I would go to the dentist every four months for cleaning. All this has changed with COVID-19. For starters, my dentist stopped seeing patients as the pandemic appeared, then she closed for good. So without a new dentist until mid-August, I decided to see just how much I could do myself. Turns out I can actually do a lot with just a few tools.

Stainless steel Dentist tools
Portable Magnifying mirror
Microphone stand

Do I need to replace the mower blade?

My mowing needs are not for a lawn, but to keep the weeds down. As far as I can tell, (much as I’ve already concluded for the mulching blade on my weed whacker), it is the mass of the blade and the momentum/velocity exerted by the machine that cuts, not how sharp the blade is. I can understand the need for a sharp blade if your goal is to have a putting green, but that’s not what I’ve got. Figure I’ll just leave the old blade in, dull as it is, and as long as it’s destroying weeds, job done.

Bob’s weedkiller redux

  • Diamond Crystal Bright & Soft Salt Pellets, 40 lb. Bag
  • 5 gal plastic Home Depot bucket (fill bottom of bucket 1/4 – 1/3 salt, then add water until bucket is half full).

After a day or two (and some occasional stirring), the salt pellets will have begun to breakdown and the water molecules will have become completely saturated with sodium to a maximum salinity of 26.3%. Add a squirt of Dawn dish washing liquid and stir. Put in HDX sprayer. Spray blackberry and watch it die.

Seawater has a salinity of roughly 35,000 ppm, equivalent to 35 grams of salt per one liter (or kilogram) of water. The saturation level is dependent on the temperature of the water. At 20 °C one liter of water can dissolve about 357 grams of salt, a concentration of 26.3%.

UPS just flat out lied about my delivery

After waiting since Monday for my package to be delivered (it’s been stuck in Petaluma — 30 minutes away – since 6/14!). Now the UPS website claims as of 2:52pm today that “the receiver requested” (that would be me) to pick the package up from the UPS facility and will let me know when I can do that. I did no such thing. Pure bullshit.

I understand UPS is being slammed these days, but that’s no excuse for fabricating excuses as to why they’re not delivering packages. If the next thing I hear is I can pick it up in Petaluma, I’m going to just refuse delivery and return it. The whole point of why I bought it online was to have it delivered, not to have to drive 30 minutes to go pick it up myself! WTF.