Electrical woes – kiln & de-icing cable

Last night when I sat down to make beads I go to put my first bead into the kiln and notice a problem immediately. The kiln element is hanging down almost touching the floor of the kiln. Not good! I knew the element was going because I had to tuck it back into position a couple times within the last few weeks plus I saw a couple clips at the bottom of the kiln. It’s all very irritating. I can’t continue to make beads with the wire hanging like that in the kiln…



This is not unusual for my kiln. It happens about every 3 years. And because it’s not unusual, I keep a spare heating ring around for just such an occurrence.



I run upstairs, get the spare and switch ‘em out. I lose 500 degrees in the process, but no beads were lost and I can continue to make beads as usual. This is what a GOOD heating element should look like!



I let the heating ring cool overnight and (from experience) checked the electrical connection.



Yup, it’s bad too.



Thankfully, I watched my father fix my kiln once (both problems) and know how to do it myself now. I even keep everything I need to fix my kiln on-hand!



So, that was last night.

Since today was the first day in about 5 days that it hasn’t rained, I decided to install the de-icing cable. But before I started that job, I checked on my wood bees. Yup. The little fuckers are still there, swarming around like they still have a nest underground somewhere. It pissed me off! So, I took a shovel and started jabbing at it. That was a mistake. It REALLY pissed ‘em off! Two of them stung me. One on my back and another one under my arm. Although both sings hurt, the sting on my arm also got red and hot. The reaction went almost up to my elbow!



Normally, I don’t react much to bee stings but this one I did. FUCKERS. I should probably be more cautious in the future with bees... ANYWAY, I was pissed! All that work I did last week to get rid of them did NOTHING. I decided to build as big of a fire over top of that spot as I could! BURN baby, BURN!!!!!!



Oh yeah! So, I let that pile burn as I installed the de-icing cable on the South side of my house. When the smoldering pile cools down in a few days, I’ll take a shovel to it and really hack up that spot!

Installing the de-icing cable wasn’t bad at all once I got used to being up on the ladder.



Unfortunately, the 100-foot cable I bought was about 20 feet too short. The cable needs to terminate INSIDE the downspout. If it doesn’t, all the snow and ice melt from the roof is gonna freeze there.



I measured and re-measured, but I didn’t account for the loop at the end of each triangle needed to connect the roof cable to the gutter cable. HHHH. It just SUCKS!!! I spent 4-5 hours putting that cable up only to take it down!



So now, I have to return one of the cables and buy 2 more.

Garbage…



Today sucked. I plan to spend the rest of the night playing games on the computer. You know, to make up for it….

Mirror smear, bees, grass and de-icing cable

This morning as I sat down to take my morning piss, I see something strange on my vanity mirror.



At first I thought the mirror was cracked!! When I got up close to it though, I was relieved to find that it was just a smear. The strange thing about it though is that I don’t remember it being there last night (and I made several trips to the bathroom AFTER brushing my teeth last night). I would never leave a big smudge like that on the mirror and I can’t believe I didn’t notice it.



To me, it looks like a foot wearing argyle socks and either a clog or slipper.



Anyway. A suspicious smear started my day today!

Last week when I mowed the grass, I noticed a bee hive. There hasn’t been a year gone by yet that I’ve lived here and I’ve NOT had bees! These bees are ground-nesting bees and I’ve had them in this same spot before. It’s a spot in the yard where an old tree stump used to be. It’s nothing that sticks out above ground and I only noticed it when I had bees nesting in this spot 5 years ago. Anyway, I’ve been stung by those suckers before while mowing and they HAD to go! So, I dumped some gasoline on that spot and set it on fire.



LOL. Notice my neighbor’s UNmowed grass? Yup. I haven’t touched it (and neither have they…)!



Anyway…I let that sucker burn for about 30 – 50 minutes. The bees were NOT happy!



After dumping gasoline, setting it on fire and letting it burn for a good while, I then flooded the hole with water. I kept that spot submerged for at least an hour. While keeping the spot under water I stood there with a pair of scissors and cut off as many bee heads as I could. After I got bored of doing that, I filled the spot with dirt and planted grass. It’s been about a week now and this is what the spot looks like now:



What’s shocking to me is that the bees are STILL there!



I doused their home with gas, I set it on fire, then I flooded it, and then I covered it with dirt and planted grass. OMG, what will it take for the little buggers to give up on it already!?? It’s frustrating. I want them GONE by the time I need to mow again.

Speaking of grass, this summer I’ve noticed a lot of these weeds growing in my yard:



I don’t know what they’re called, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM! They’re like potholes all over the yard. So, about 2 weeks ago I went out in my yard and started digging them up. After about an hour or so of doing that I managed to chew up my yard pretty good….



Lots of bear spots all over the place. MAN! About a week ago, I spent $60 on seeding soil and grass seed and a whole day repairing the damage (plus morning and evening waterings every day since). Today is the first day I’ve noticed the new grass coming up. THANK GOD!



I think next summer I’m gonna weed-and-feed the really bad spots and maybe restrict my digging/manual weed removal to a few spots at a time. HHHH. What a mess!

A couple weeks ago I ordered de-icing cable for my roof and it arrived in the mail on Monday.



For those of you who’ve read my blog for any length of time know that every winter I whine about all the ice that accumulates on the eves of my house. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem. I figure it’s worth a shot! I plan to install it myself. Kitty brought her long ladder over and I’ve worked out my plan.



The only outdoor outlets I have are next to the sliding glass door (not pictured but on the far right). So, that’s where I’ll start the cable. It will terminate somewhere in the downspout. According to my measurements, I need 96 feet of cable per side. I ordered two 100-foot cables. Hopefully, I measured correctly. We’ll see!!

Right now, I have the cables stretched out in my side yard to straighten them out as much as possible before I install them.



I plan to install them this week or early next week.

No news from Tussey Mountain about the office cabinets I want installed. I waited a month before asking for an update, but still nothing. I can’t WAIT until my house is finished! I HATE REMODELING!

This is funny: Photo-bombing kitty!!

Pet Society, death file and office

Since I last wrote, I’ve been adding Facebook friends like crazy for Thelma…



So, the majority of my FB “friends” now really aren’t. I have no idea who these people are!



But I’m cool with that. I just hide their blab from my wall and it’s like they aren’t even there.

Because coinage isn’t a problem for Thelma anymore, she can buy pretty much anything she wants. And what girl doesn’t like THAT!?? This week’s theme in Pet Society is wizardry. Thelma pretty much bought all the cool new wizard stuff including the requisite clothes. I think she looks quite snazzy!!



Here’s the best part though, I’m not the only one who thinks so!! Earlier this week one of my, um, “friends” made this post on Facebook!



Oh yeah. Having coin is a lot more fun!!

A few weeks ago, I went into Tussey Mountain Custom Kitchen, the folks who did my kitchen (Kevin), to talk about having some more work done on my house. The project I have in mind this time is an office desk and cabinets. Here’s what my office desk area looks like now:



The desk was custom made for me by my dad. It’s a GREAT desk – not too big, not too small and constructed of high quality materials. I’ve always loved it and have used it daily since high school. The only aspect about it that I don’t like is that it’s gray and metal. What I want is a desk just like it but one that looks a little less industrial/corporate business. In addition to the desk, I want cabinets installed above it (the additional storage is gonna be awesome!). So, to really get what I want I need to hire out. Anyway, here’s the drawing Patty gave me of the proposed project:



I haven’t been given a contract yet because there’s still some pending details that need to be ironed out. Patty and Kevin have a booth at the county fair every year and the fair is going on this week so they’ve been pretty busy. Next week, I hope to get this project under contract. I want it all DONE before it snows. I don’t want a repeat of last winter with all that shoveling!

Since I last wrote, I also had my last will and testament drawn up along with a health directive. I can now die without worrying that all my assets will go to the state instead of my family. Yay! In addition to having a will, I’ve also started gathering up all my important papers so that everything will be easy to find in the event of my death. So far my pile includes the title to my car, the deed to my house, my birth certificate and my SS card. I still need to make copies of those plus gather all the information needed to close my online life, my financial life, to take over my frit business and close all my utilities. ::sigh:: I guess I have a ways to go yet before I can check off “death file” from my to-do list. Yeah, working on it… I’m glad I have a will now. That was the most important part!

Fruits of my Facebook Pet Society begging campaign

I play Pet Society on Facebook. It’s a game where you can make up a pet, buy stuff for it, decorate your house, go fishing, visit with other pets, etc. It’s fun and I enjoy it. :) My pet’s name is Thelma. Meet Thelma!!



Thelma is ALWAYS broke!!




And there is so much that Thelma would like to buy! For starters, new eyes and a new mouth.

Before…



After!!



Well okay, not quite after. $2400 coins!! I have $0 at the moment. So, no new eyes or mouth for Thelma…

Thelma has only ONE outfit (the one she’s wearing…). In her wardrobe are 2 items: black shoes and a pair of sunglasses…



There are lots of things in the shop that she would love to buy!! This watermelon dress is cute…



All this stuff, Thelma wants!!!



Any piece of bling would be nice! The pink ribbon would look GREAT on her, I think. But alas, 0 coin…



Not having any coin is a big problem for Thelma! The best way to make coin in Pet Society is to have other pets to interact with – friends in Facebook that also have a pet. ::sigh:: Unlike some people (LAURIE ELLER!), I don’t have many friends in Facebook and of the few I do, very few have a pet in Pet Society. So, over the past week or so I’ve shamelessly asked my FB friends to please make a pet in Pet Society. I give ‘em the whole shpeal about how it doesn’t take much time, that they don’t ever have to go back to play, how it would benefit me, etc. The majority of my requests were totally ignored (and they were PERSONAL requests too and not general invites to the game) {{sniff}}. Fine, whatever. Thankfully, several of my FB buddies did make up a pet!!!!!!!!!!!! And to those of you who did, THANK YOU!!! Melissa, Kelly, Heather, Stefanie and Nicole.



And Laurie, thanks for letting me be friends with your daughter, Nicole. AND for being my cash cow!



Did I just call my good friend Laurie a COW?? Um, kinda… Okay here’s the thing, Pet Society came out with fishing a couple weeks ago. It’s totally awesome! So, I go out to the food shop and buy all kinds of food items to use as bait. I go fishing and I catch fish. Thelma has a good time!!! I hear there’s some rare fish in the pond and, of course, Thelma wants ‘em all!! It takes special bait to catch a special fish. Thelma wants the apple fish BAD and so she goes to the food shop and buys lots of apples. Thelma quickly uses up all her apples without catching the elusive apple fish and has no more coin to buy more apples and yet still feels like fishing… ::sigh:: Thelma ALWAYS needs coin!! Apples are only 5 coin each.



Where can Thelma make 5 measly coin?? CUPPIECUPPIE!!!!!!!! Since Laurie’s pet, Cuppiepuppie, is starving, filthy and miserable….



Thelma can go over there and rub her until coins start popping out of her!!



While fishing for the apple fish (it took me 146 apples to finally get the apple fish), I visited Cuppiepuppie A LOT. So, thanks for being Thelma’s cash cow Laurie!!

And here are all my fish (and a poop…)!



Nice tank, isn’t it? It was a gift from my nephew, CJ. (Given to me because… YES, YOU GUESSED IT! Thelma had no coin to buy one for herself!!!). At $3,000 coin, it wasn’t a small gift…



Kisses!



Is that Molly? Is Molly one of your FB friends? NO! You crazy people. Molly’s a DOG… (albeit a really cute one)!

What can I say? I was desperate for Pet Society friends!

So, after all my shameless soliciting, Thelma now has 8 more friends to visit than she had last week. That’s 160-240 more coin every day for Thelma. THANK YOU!!!

AMAZING dog video!!

AMAZING dog video!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this!!! I thought some of you might too.