Anne N. Mouse: Blog

I'm still trying to find an acceptable solution to the wet nose, fogged lenses situation that winter brings when trying to wear a face mask in temperatures low enough to cause one's breath to condense. I haven't looked up the incidence of e. coli on surfaces other than restrooms, but it might give me some indication of how efficacious masks are...

On the automobile front, I got the lug bolt out of my front wheel on the Geo the hard way... I had to take it to a machine shop... (which meant pulling the hub... lots of skinned knuckles for someone....) pressed the bearing out then removed the broken stud, and replaced it... Was wishing for unfettered access to a FADOL machine tool, as I threatened to cut channels so that I wouldn't face that problem again... Probably as soon as I can find something in the AWD category that I can afford the Geo goes on the market. I've sort of decided that for the time I've driven it I over paid... But then what I didn't know was: 1. It had over sized aftermarket rims on it... 2. Rims required oversized (difficult to find [more on this latter]) lug nuts....
3. Lug bolts are 10! mm (tiny) and require only inch pounds of torque....
4. Back to difficult lug nuts, 10 mm bolts originally come with a tiny acorn nut that can easily pull through after-market rims. Thus need to have oversized (on the outside) nuts... This also means they are even easier to over-torque (reason for one bolt breaking)

Other assorted but not overwhelming (without the lug-nut problem) mechanical issues that one might expect in a seriously down market car of the age of the Geo...

Writing (what you hoped to hear) nothing to post here, but working on something I may attempt to take commercial... We shall see when I get more than a few hundred words done on it. The up side? If I can find all of it, I have a handwritten manuscript that I'm reworking that is in excess of 200,000 words... Even finding part of the manuscript will help.... :) Which I've done... But the part I found is the middle!

I hate computers... Or at least the idea of artificial intelligence. Mainly because it may be artificial but it ain't intelligent at all! Okay I'm ultra paranoid and don't keep pass words anywhere except in my own wetware (notably fallible!) but that is me. Still the fact that some companies (a lot) it seems, depend not just on the very irritating phone tree, but on a 'digital assistant' doesn't help. I lost my cell phone (either kicked it out of the truck or left a door unlocked to run into some place like a gas station) and so need to replace it while keeping my number... (hopefully) but that is looking slimmer and slimmer as the days go by, given what I just mentioned above.

It was cold! 10 degrees F or -12 C on Monday and Tuesday mornings, and never got above freezing. I'm going to do a little more shopping but believe it or not I'm having a hard time finding a balacalava.... Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places...? I know we were issued them as part of our artic gear when I was in Alaska, and I purchased a couple extras, but can I find one now? No! Would I like one? Oh yeah! Will I buy one on line? Probably not!!

If you're Homer home maker and have been doing home improvement projects during this COVID contagion and you live in the USA, you have been helping keep me gainfully employed.

I remain highly skeptical of the mask... Though there is reason to believe it may work. So I continue apace in looking for something to answer the issue of trapped moisture that becomes a hazard in itself. However that may not answer my other complaint about masks and freezing or near freezing temperatures. That complaint has to do with fogged safety glasses... This I'm certain of: injury to eyes in saw mill settings without safety glasses is 100%. Fogged safety glasses is like being blindfolded... Not good for safety in an industrial environment.

I saw a comparison about the mask as if people were running around pissing on each other.... Now I think that doesn't quite fit the issue, as it is more like people are running around tooting... Now you can smell a toot even if the tooter has on jeans, but you run a much smaller risk of e. coli infection if he wears them rather than doesn't. Thus the point of the mask as well, stopping the aerosolized virus. Paper mask became mush due to moisture, but maybe I can find something at the ski store....
If I can keep from being blinded by fogging... Oh and I need a reading lens but have to have a 'bifocal' as my reading lens causes everything over 24 inches away to be a blur too.

Oh one final word on masks... In not wearing one I would be following the example of Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi....
Which informs my calling them fascistic.
I must wear a mask but they may forego it if it pleases them...