Crickets Are Good?
Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioSunny and 78F this morning, as we sat out back in our trances, while cicadas buzzed, and birds chirped & squawked.
Snoop & Prowly both did give chase to different squirrels out in the grass, but... the squirrels always win.
After we came inside, and I fed everybody, I went straight onto the side porch...
What you're looking at will be the top side of the door, and it now has a complete first coat of preservative. I managed to get the edge sides too.
The fan's going, and It's gonna sit there now, and dry, until I get home tonight... at which point, I'll at least flip it over.
--<>--
I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't paint this thing!
It all boils down to those knots, which are denser than the surrounding wood, and will expand and contract differently, over the seasons.
Epoxy has the elasticity to mitigate that... and the preservative is there in the cracks too... but how well will either of them hold up against the final boss... the summer sun?
UV destroys all things in the end, and I'm starting to worry that transparent boat deck sealant is kinda useless against that.
Nothing beats a thick coat of good exterior paint!.. but only because paint sacrifices itself to UV over time.
Meaning, if I paint it once, I'm committed to painting it every two years.
And if I don't want the door to look like crap, I'm gonna have to remove, or tape around the hardware every time I repaint.
But... that is easier than replacing the whole door every four years!
--<>--
Yes... yes... I think I should paint this door.
And I guess it should be the sky blue of the trim on the outside of the house. I can hit the shitty storm windows of Dad's room and the kitchen with it at the same time.
And if I'm going with that color scheme, then the new cable should be white.
That could actually look pretty nice!
------------{=0=}------------
12:14AM
Slow night at work. Only 9,000 steps.
Some of the teachers haven't been in yet at all... their classrooms untouched since they were cleaned over the summer.
I think many are procrastinating.
The kids don't come back until Thursday, so... I'm expecting a last minute madhouse on Wednesday.
It's cool tonight... only 68F.
Yvette wanted to go in the back yard after I got home, and we sat out there for a bit, just like in the mornings.
The crickets are actually sounding pretty good!
Good enough that I put the S10 out there in the basket hanging from the tripod a few minutes ago to do a recording.
--<>--
I was hearing a lot of both field crickets, and mole crickets, and not much from the bush crickets at all... which is great!
And for whatever reason, the lawn of that neighbor, two doors north, who completely gave up on mowing back in March... which is shoulder deep now... is not screaming with bush crickets.
In fact, during the day, I hear a lot of field crickets from over there... because it's gotta be pretty dark near the ground.
But tonight... not hearing much of anything different from the rest of the area.
I also heard a distant speeder! They're back!
So, we'll see if this August and September are finally more like what I've been going for... and failing to get... the past five years.
------------{=0=}------------
I didn't flip over the plywood tonight. I figure it should probably dry overnight.
Behr makes a new exterior paint now in their, Dynasty, line... a couple steps above, Marquee, which is what I've used in the past.
They claim it's UV resistant, and will hold up to the elements, and hold it's color, for ten years!
If true, that might be what I want for HD2.0.
And today I thought, maybe I don't want to use rubber gaskets under the flat washers of they eye bolts, on the top side.
Because that rubber's gonna dry out and flake away... leaving a gap!
It may be best just to have the shoulder bolts sit on flat washers that are flush against the paint... and maybe... spray them with, Rain-Ex?.. to make them hydrophobic? I dunno.
--<>--
I'm also thinking of putting a 1X4 across the underside of the leading edge of the door, to touch the ground so the plywood doesn't have to... and also keep that edge from warping.
I figure I could just drive in some nails from the top, to hold it in place. If everything's painted... nails should work a lot better than screws.
It would be sacrificing itself... sitting in the rainwater and the snow... but if I soak that in preservative too... it could last several years.
------------{=0=}------------
The only other news is that, I've gotten tired of playing, Word Trip, and recently discovered Mahjong Solitare!
You may already be familiar with Mahjong tiles, but I'd never heard of them before!
An ancient set of Chinese tiles, with different designs on them, for game playing, similar to the concept of a deck of cards... but also very different from the playing card deck.
Long time readers will know about my love affair with the playing card deck (we're in the 9 of clubs week right now, by the way), and I am really smitten by the Mahjong tiles!
I'm thinking of buying a set of the tiles to keep on the porch with other games, for the family reunion.
And I looked to see if anybody had written a book about how to tell fortunes with these tiles and... all I could find was one used book, written in 1985, available on Ebay.
So... I'm thinking of getting that too.
The idea being, maybe we could kill some time between events by telling fortunes in the kitchen or on the porch, with the tiles.
I dunno.
Okay, it's time to chill before bed.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
Snoop & Prowly both did give chase to different squirrels out in the grass, but... the squirrels always win.
After we came inside, and I fed everybody, I went straight onto the side porch...
What you're looking at will be the top side of the door, and it now has a complete first coat of preservative. I managed to get the edge sides too.
The fan's going, and It's gonna sit there now, and dry, until I get home tonight... at which point, I'll at least flip it over.
I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't paint this thing!
It all boils down to those knots, which are denser than the surrounding wood, and will expand and contract differently, over the seasons.
Epoxy has the elasticity to mitigate that... and the preservative is there in the cracks too... but how well will either of them hold up against the final boss... the summer sun?
UV destroys all things in the end, and I'm starting to worry that transparent boat deck sealant is kinda useless against that.
Nothing beats a thick coat of good exterior paint!.. but only because paint sacrifices itself to UV over time.
Meaning, if I paint it once, I'm committed to painting it every two years.
And if I don't want the door to look like crap, I'm gonna have to remove, or tape around the hardware every time I repaint.
But... that is easier than replacing the whole door every four years!
Yes... yes... I think I should paint this door.
And I guess it should be the sky blue of the trim on the outside of the house. I can hit the shitty storm windows of Dad's room and the kitchen with it at the same time.
And if I'm going with that color scheme, then the new cable should be white.
That could actually look pretty nice!
Slow night at work. Only 9,000 steps.
Some of the teachers haven't been in yet at all... their classrooms untouched since they were cleaned over the summer.
I think many are procrastinating.
The kids don't come back until Thursday, so... I'm expecting a last minute madhouse on Wednesday.
It's cool tonight... only 68F.
Yvette wanted to go in the back yard after I got home, and we sat out there for a bit, just like in the mornings.
The crickets are actually sounding pretty good!
Good enough that I put the S10 out there in the basket hanging from the tripod a few minutes ago to do a recording.
I was hearing a lot of both field crickets, and mole crickets, and not much from the bush crickets at all... which is great!
And for whatever reason, the lawn of that neighbor, two doors north, who completely gave up on mowing back in March... which is shoulder deep now... is not screaming with bush crickets.
In fact, during the day, I hear a lot of field crickets from over there... because it's gotta be pretty dark near the ground.
But tonight... not hearing much of anything different from the rest of the area.
I also heard a distant speeder! They're back!
So, we'll see if this August and September are finally more like what I've been going for... and failing to get... the past five years.
I didn't flip over the plywood tonight. I figure it should probably dry overnight.
Behr makes a new exterior paint now in their, Dynasty, line... a couple steps above, Marquee, which is what I've used in the past.
They claim it's UV resistant, and will hold up to the elements, and hold it's color, for ten years!
If true, that might be what I want for HD2.0.
And today I thought, maybe I don't want to use rubber gaskets under the flat washers of they eye bolts, on the top side.
Because that rubber's gonna dry out and flake away... leaving a gap!
It may be best just to have the shoulder bolts sit on flat washers that are flush against the paint... and maybe... spray them with, Rain-Ex?.. to make them hydrophobic? I dunno.
I'm also thinking of putting a 1X4 across the underside of the leading edge of the door, to touch the ground so the plywood doesn't have to... and also keep that edge from warping.
I figure I could just drive in some nails from the top, to hold it in place. If everything's painted... nails should work a lot better than screws.
It would be sacrificing itself... sitting in the rainwater and the snow... but if I soak that in preservative too... it could last several years.
The only other news is that, I've gotten tired of playing, Word Trip, and recently discovered Mahjong Solitare!
You may already be familiar with Mahjong tiles, but I'd never heard of them before!
An ancient set of Chinese tiles, with different designs on them, for game playing, similar to the concept of a deck of cards... but also very different from the playing card deck.
Long time readers will know about my love affair with the playing card deck (we're in the 9 of clubs week right now, by the way), and I am really smitten by the Mahjong tiles!
I'm thinking of buying a set of the tiles to keep on the porch with other games, for the family reunion.
And I looked to see if anybody had written a book about how to tell fortunes with these tiles and... all I could find was one used book, written in 1985, available on Ebay.
So... I'm thinking of getting that too.
The idea being, maybe we could kill some time between events by telling fortunes in the kitchen or on the porch, with the tiles.
I dunno.
Okay, it's time to chill before bed.
°¦}
