Ruminations of an ex-Oregonian

It’s yucky hot right now.  Almost 10 PM and still 93 degrees.  Forecast for tomorrow is 107.  At least it’s fairly dry.

The new neighbor started moving in yesterday; he had his brother and father helping him.  Turns out that the father has had a heatstroke some years ago.  I helped them unload the truck then went down to Caldwell with them to fill the truck up again.  We didn’t think it was a good idea to have the older man in the sun that much.  It was 105 and the truck was another 30 degrees warmer inside it.  The neighbor, Tony, had a handtruck and I took mine as well.  We had the father in the cool house stacking boxes, two of us taking loads out and one in the truck getting them settled and it went pretty fast.  By the time I got home about sundown, I was worn out and smelled horrible.  Quick shower and bed.

Anyway, the heat continues and the A/C just can’t quite keep up.  Still better inside than out.

I went out and dug up the sprinkler that I killed earlier today.  I decided that instead of the little sprayer type, I would just go ahead and put in a rotor.  I have a couple of spares and it would be nice to have it go around farther than the sprayer did.  Then I realized that the sprayer head is a 1/2″ pipe and the rotor is 3/4″.  So, I have a nice hole in the ground for the night until I can either get an appropriate adapter or another sprayer tomorrow.

My wife came home with the game of Life, Pirates of the Caribbean style.  They have run out of ideas for new games, and have to keep recycling the old ones with new gimmicks.  So far, I have yet to win a game.

Whoever installed the sprinkler system placed, in their infinite wisdom, 1 sprinkler in the little area on the side of the house where there is very little yard.  I don’t have a problem with having a sprinkler there.  The problem is that this particular sprinkler is not connected with the rest of the front yard.  Anyway, after cutting the area where this bank of sprinklers operates, and turning them on and proceeding to the next area of yard, I came around the corner where this solitary unit is, mostly under a bush, and cleanly cut it off with the mower.  Now I get to replace it.  #&(*@)#&@# sprinklers anyhow.  I guess I have project for later.

According to the city, I have to have my backflow prevention device for the sprinkler system tested every year.  It is only for the sprinklers, not the water going into the house.  For the life of me, I can not see how water from an unpressurized side of a water system could ever make it into the pressurized side.  It makes no sense to me.  At least the city pays for the test.

While the man was here I asked about the water softener system.  I have been here a year and have not had a clue what to do with it.  He spent a minute and quickly told me what I needed to do to maintenance it.  Pretty straightforward.  Put salt in the big black bucket and change the filter every six months.  I took the old filter out to see what it looked like.  YUCK!  So, I need to get a filter as well as salt.  Maybe the water pressure in the house will be better with a clean filter installed.

I just spent about 2 hours giving my car a “tune-up”. Of course, tune-ups these days are different than they used to be. Change the air filter and plugs. That’s it. Of course, in order to change the air filter, you have to diassemble half of the car’s front end. And, to change the 3 plugs in back, you have to remove the distributor block. So, a 30 minute job expands to 2 hours. The car is spec’d for platinum spark plugs. It didn’t have platinum plugs in it. At some point, they were changed and the correct ones were not installed. I also spent the $40 and put a K&N air filter in it. It will be interesting to see if it will get better mileage. Just going up the street and back, it runs a lot better.