What are you doing today?

[jaylach]

Right now I'm feeling pretty good about the new ownership and management in my apartments. When they took over around 10 months ago they promised to bring the building back to what it should be. In that 10 months they have already replaced the roof and gutters. Today half the parking lot was resurfaced with the other half upcoming. Add to that the fact that the hallways are already prepped for painting which will be followed by new hallway carpeting I think the new people are keeping their promise. It even seems so with appliances that need replaced. A resident needed a new stove and they replaced with a nice glass topped range. Personally I'd prefer gas but, if electric, I'd like glass topped as they are so much easier to keep clean. Still it points to their being dedicated to making things better for the tenants.

Also they are enforcing rules as two people are under eviction orders due to smoking in their apartments; this is a no smoking building.

I won't say that I agree with everything the new group is doing but respect that they are doing what they initially said.

 

[Oldspartan]

Today after church went out to brunch with our local daughter. Afterwards Linda went to the orphan pet place to help out. Me? I am spending the day in the pond house after talking to the kids who live in other states. Feet on a stool, mug of honey ale in hand, and the stereo turntable holding a vinyl short stack of Baez, Dylon, Donovan, and Cat Stevens. Life is very good today.

Happy Father's Day to all.

 

[MattW]

I'm currently watching the Austin CS Major. All NA based teams have already been eliminated before the playoffs.. Asia and Brazilian teams have been amazing this year, which is good to see, since Europe has been dominating the last few years.

 

[MaloK]

Ultra vitrified ceramic stove tops are not easier to clean, tested. If you spill something with sugar on there...

It's going to be painful as heck. And you cannot use a chip hammer to clean it.

With disabled people it's easier to trow the classic element in the garbage clean the stove and put a new one in place.

 

[GaryE]

This morning's sunrise looks like it's being filtered through a thin layer of honey. It is absolutely beautiful out there, but crisp. For some reason, the nights are unseasonably cold and this is causing my vegetable garden to grow very slowly. Temperatures are a few weeks behind normal, or may be dead on for a new normal. I love it except when I look at the garden.

Our first summer visitor comes today - when you used to live in a crowded inland city and you move to a view of the Atlantic, people come to see you! It keeps you in touch with old friends, and at least one of our guests this summer will come bearing rare fish. Today's guest will bring 10 pounds of dark roasted Costa Rican coffee I bought last week from my longtime coffee roasting friends in the city. There are things I can do without, but good coffee is essential.

I went by a friend's aquarium store last week - the only decent fish store in town. He'd ordered too many plant tissue cultures, and the ones he hadn't sold were starting to go south. I bought a couple of healthy ones and he insisted I take the 3 cultures he felt were done for and unsellable, to see if I could save them. In a town full of excellent plant people, he picked me, the blighter of fields and murderer of flowers. I've never met a plant I couldn't kill with attempted kindness.

Two of the three seem to be rallying, and I have one very weird looking tank with Hygrophilia, Rotala and Ludwigia plants that are all 2 inches high. I don't usually keep many stem plants, but when they go well, they look great. If the outside garden will suffer with cool nights, the inside one may thrive.

 

[Oldspartan]

Yesterday, in a nod to age, I continued laying pea stone over Linda's flower beds in the front of the house. This amounts to pull back her mulches, laying in an 1inch or two of well-seasoned dairy poo donated by a local farmer, then covering the bed with cardboard and topping with 2 inches of stone. So far, I have finished the 36-foot-long lilac hedge that lines the part of the driveway that fronts the house. That hedge is fronted by a six-foot wide perennial flower bed of Peonies and Cosmos. Also completed a 20 foot by 5-foot bed that is in front of our entry porch. This area has 4 -6-foot evergreens fronted by yellow Stella Del Oro Lillies.

A result of the above is that I was awakened at about 1 AM with severe leg and lower back pain. Three Tylenol 500's later the pain is now under control, but I am wide awake, so here I am. My intention today is to ride implements of destruction and mow the yards and build a shelving unit in the pond house to raise the small fridge to a more comfortable level. It will also hold a coffee maker. Above the shelve, a 4-foot storage cabinet if my back is up to the task. It was built a few weeks ago and just need to be put in place.

Linda and I will also ride the tractor down to the bottom 40 to inspect her grain garden. They are new this year and we have not looked them over since emergence a while back. They should be starting to "head" at this point.

The day will be closed out with a meal of smoked walleye. My brother dropped of a couple of nice frozen slabs a couple of days ago and they are currently soaking in a light brine. A bit of fruit salad and a splash of tomato mushroom soup followed by a nice fresh strawberry shortcake smother in fresh whipped cream will complete the meal.

 

[Willow 123]

Out for a motorbike ride with mates from the AJS club today

 

[seangee]

Out for a motorbike ride with mates from the AJS club today

Sightly envious - my bikes are feeling quite negelcted

 

[seangee]

Yesterday I went into the big smoke. I quit my second last job in the City because I had better things do do with my life than spend 4.5 hours a day travelling (even though I'm only 35 miles out) and took a local role. During COVID they shut down the local office and I had to spend 3 days a week back in the City, despite the fact that my teams were in a different country - so all that travel was just to join on-line meetings. So I quit that one for a role that was remote.

Now the powers that be have said it would be nice if we could go in twice a month. Not going to complain about that because lots of banks have started demanding 4 or 5 days a week, but I hope its not the start of a slippery slide. Actually they are not enforcing it - so we all figured we should keep them happy and hopefully they won't decide to impose any ridiculous rules! And Monday is a good day for it because London is quiet - that being relative

 

[gwand]

My local fish store agreed to purchase for store credit 20 Anomalochromis thomasi juveniles born on April 5. I have spent most of the morning trying to net these slippery little guys and gals. They are beautiful fish.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Just found out I didn't draw any elk or antelope tags for the coming year. I guess the pressure's off to get a new hunting bow built this summer. Might take a year off from elk hunting and just try to get a nice, fat deer this fall.

But on a happier note, Mrs. Badger and I celebrate 21 years of marriage today! I'm going to take her out for breakfast at the local bake shop once she's up and around. The Badgerling is volunteering to help at the local pioneer school, so we'll have time for a nice, leisurely breakfast.

 

[gwand]

Just found out I didn't draw any elk or antelope tags for the coming year. I guess the pressure's off to get a new hunting bow built this summer. Might take a year off from elk hunting and just try to get a nice, fat deer this fall.

But on a happier note, Mrs. Badger and I celebrate 21 years of marriage today! I'm going to take her out for breakfast at the local bake shop once she's up and around. The Badgerling is volunteering to help at the local pioneer school, so we'll have time for a nice, leisurely breakfast.

Happy anniversary! The first 21 years are the hardest. You can let your hair down now.

 

[Oldspartan]

Just found out I didn't draw any elk or antelope tags for the coming year. I guess the pressure's off to get a new hunting bow built this summer. Might take a year off from elk hunting and just try to get a nice, fat deer this fall.

But on a happier note, Mrs. Badger and I celebrate 21 years of marriage today! I'm going to take her out for breakfast at the local bake shop once she's up and around. The Badgerling is volunteering to help at the local pioneer school, so we'll have time for a nice, leisurely breakfast.

21 years -- Hope you have that times two. Congrats!!

 

[GaryE]

I'm reading a book about fish. It's one of what we now see making a surge -books by fish explorers or experts in an area. I doubt we'll ever see catalogue type books again - overviews like Innes or Baensch.

This one's called "Rough Road into the Deep Unknown" by Bela Nagy (ISBN 978 615 002 3515 8). It came out this week. It's by a respected researcher who wants to communicate his love of annual killifish, and his explorations in Africa to find species of the Genus Nothobranchius. If you have ever day dreamed of fish hunting in Africa, read this. I've only done that once, but even with my limited experience, this rings so true. The storytelling is excellent and it's an accurate, good read.

The photos are well chosen.

Nagy's first language is Hungarian, and his style is somewhat flowery at times. That carries the feeling he wants us to share though. He's a great storyteller so far - especially about how he felt out there in the wild on these wonderful crazy quests.

It makes me want to travel.

 

[Lanpenn]

My new brine shrimp project brought some interesting things. Currently, my Artemia are starting to develop thoracopods. Okay, but I have found several white dots moving. I tried to record them:


No money for a microscope, so I can only hypothesize that they are probably unicellular eukaryotes. Since brine shrimp eat particles smaller than 50 micrometers, I do not know if they eat these organisms. Probably not.

My Betta splendens is doing well, I believe. He is even flaring at his own reflex on glass (sometimes, I suppose), something I have not seen since probably 2023! I've put water lettuce (another Brazilian plant...) in, and the results are getting interesting. I will still publish some decent photos.