So, the two that survived:
Oleg Volk explains how gas prices work. A very good explanation. The price of gas at the pump is basically a futures price, based on what the owner of the gas station expects a refill to cost him. When a major petroleum nexus is shut down by a major disaster (ie Houston and the hurricane) it naturally will cost more to get gasoline next week.
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On the selection of electronic components. Quite useful if you're not quite sure which type of resistor/capacitor/diode/regulator/trans
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Spent my day yesterday cleaning the house. The north end of the house is a disaster area--typical for renovations--but the kitchen and bathroom simply needed cleaning as I hadn't done anything for a couple of weeks. Well: when you've spent your day painting, the last thing you want to do is scrub the vanity or wash dishes.
So I did that--cleaned the entire bathroom, and then cleaned the kitchen. They really needed it.
This coming week will be a flurry of paint prep and painting, again. I plan to paint the family room, the kitchen ceiling, and the front hallway, and get some kind of start on the computer room. We'll see what I actually manage.
Still haven't figured out how I'm going to do that wall by the stairs. I could do the ceiling without masking because no one cares if there are smears of ultra white on the old dingy paint on the wall; but when I go to put paint on the wall, I don't want smears of color on my nice white ceiling. That means masking and edging but I can't reach where I need to work.
One idea I had: screw a 2x6 to the wall. Lay short lengths of 2x4 across the gap and secure to the 2x6 with screws so they can't move. Put stepladder on this platform, then mask, edge, and paint down to the 2x4. Remove everything after paint dries, then spackle holes and sand; paint remainder of wall.
Originally thought of using a 2x4, but that's only two screws per stud and I'd want three. We're looking at supporting 300 lbs of man, tools, and supplies, and I'd want to be confident the whole mess wouldn't end up in a jumbled, broken pile at the bottom of the stairs. Figure 10-12 feet, three screws every 16 inches, that ought to hold up well enough.
That's not what I want to do, of course, because it's inelegant (to say the least), but it would be reasonably safe. Probably the thing to do is to get a cinder block and a piece of plywood, use them to level a regular ladder on the stairs, and do this part when Mrs. Fungus is home so she can steady the ladder while I work. Masking the area will take less time than getting the ladder, cinder block, and plywood in one place. Ditto for edging it once we have the color we're putting up there; and I can paint it the same way I did the ceiling, by screwing a broom handle into the roller handle. I won't need the ladder for the actual painting.
This is the only real problem area. Everything else is an 8-foot ceiling and I can handle that with a small stepladder.
...and that's enough about that for one day. Maki needs his physical therapy; time to pull the cat's leg.
