Got bit a few too many times; came inside and got bug spray, and hosed myself down.
Sat out there a while longer; it wasn't 15 minutes before I started getting bitten right through the damned bug spray.
This is why I look for the stuff that's 100% DEET. It is utterly harmless to humans, but mosquitos cannot find you when you have it on.
* * *
Speaking of "100% harmless to humans" the other day I dealt with an email at work which was asking $Major_Hardware_Chain to stop selling RoundUp because her husband died of "4th stage non-Hodgkins lymphoma" that was "caused by glyphosate poisoning".
Way down in the fine print there was a mention that this organization which was dedicated to banning glyphosate herbicides "so no one else will lose a loved one" is a for-profit organization. That means they exist to make a profit on getting useful chemicals banned.
Yes I sent it to "spam". That's what it is.
* * *
Lunch today was a little extravagant.
Every once in a while the cafeteria has chefs from a sushi place in. I haven't had any sushi for a while, so on a whim (prompted by the growling in my stomach) I bought a couple rolls of kappa maki. (Cucumber.)
It was pretty good! I ate the whole tray while working, and when it was actually lunch time I was hungry again (not a lot of fat in vegetable sushi!) so I hit McDonald's for a quarter pounder. That helped.
...anyway during lunch and dring some downtime I added a couple more pages to AV. It's starting to pique my interest again.
And I've just barely introduced Angry John and its captain....
* * *
Pool continues to have a lot more rust in it than makes any sense at all to me.
I've rinsed rust particles out of the filter at least three times. Rust red going into the sink; almost like new coming out. And the water still looks horrible.
Funny thing: when I was running the hose, I could turn on the cold tap at the kitchen sink and get hot water, and if I shut that off and turned on the hot tap, I'd get cold water. I did have a shower while the pool was filling; what if that backwashed the hot water heater (which I haven't drained in a year) and pulled a bunch of rust from it?
Next time I have a day off and my wife doesn't, I think I ought to drain that hot water heater.
Anyway, I cleaned the filter, skimmed the pool, put in more shock and some algaecide, and now it's just a matter of crossing my fingers. Hopefully it'll be much clearer tomorrow, and hot enough to go swimming.
* * *
Then I went downstairs and started neatening things up a bit. The pile that accumulated down there since last year is mostly boxes; I broke down a bunch of them and tossed them, then rearranged things a bit, trying to figure out what can go into the attic. The Christmas decorations already went up there; the Halloween decorations are next, I think. And I'm thinking about putting the comic boxes in plastic tubs and putting them in the attic, too.
* * *
Looking at the Mustang a bit--
We haven't had time to do anything with that car. This evening I finally got around to looking at a few things under the hood, and found out why the belt squeals so much.
Okay, this car was originally a 6-cylinder model. I don't know if it had power steering, but I don't think it did. Either that, or else the guy who restored it didn't have the right pullies on hand, because there is one belt for all the accessories. One belt runs from crank to alternator to water pump and fan to the steering pump and back.
And it's loose.
Proper way to do this is to have one belt run the fan and water pump, and another belt run the alternator and power steering. Or even have three belts--but that might be overkill.
Plus side, there's plenty of room to put a 2-groove pulley in there and correct this shit. There's maybe three inches between the fan and the radiator, so that will actually help matters by moving the fan closer to the radiator. Another option would be to convert to serpentine. We'll see.
* * *
Well, won't be doing that sushi again. Warp core breach--no wonder I got hungry so fast after eating it.
