Friday, May 29, 2009

"WHAT'S THAT BEEPING?"

...asked Terri, while we were tuning in the news at about 10PM last night. Since it wasn't our usual station, I listened closely to hear if one of the news anchors was beeping. Unsure, I hit pause on TiVo (everything "live" on TiVo is really just freshly recorded) The beeping was faint, but from someplace else. I wandered the downstairs, ear cocked. Not here, not there, getting fainter, now I hear it better.

The bedroom: A beep - really a chirp - was chirping about every ten seconds. That's why the search took time; you could walk by it and it'd chirp 5 seconds later and you'd be rooms away.

I thought I narrowed it down to the air conditioning control, perhaps in need of a new battery? Though it flashed the message: Change filter, I just doubted that they'd wire that to a bird's ass (the chirper).

I consulted our collection of ring binders - when we moved we vowed to be organized ORGANIZED! and have ring binders with every applicable manual or instruction hidden in clear plastic, on the page you cannot find.

But I persisted and located the heat control unit instructional booklet. Ah thought so! Just grab in here and here and pull up and...

I was standing in the bedroom holding the control unit proudly when Terri walked in. I had figured that since the battery was invisible, I'd have to take the plate off the wall. I waved the control unit around and said, I think it's this. Terri went to and pointed at the alarm system and said - it's THIS. She was right.

So after I put the control head back on (turning off AC but not knowing until much later) and searching through the library of important documents we saved, I found the code: *2 would tell me what was wrong! CALL SERVICE was wrong - great. Call service, where I'll bet they'll charge me $50-100 to show up and replace the battery and 'test the system.' Test THIS! Online I ordered the lead-acid IM1240 and will install it myself.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

CAPTURED! AND RELEASED.


This is where the trap was set. Catfood bait.



I'll bet the beast weighs maybe 15-20 pounds!



I only hope THIS is the one which has been digging up our lawn and planting beds.

Until now, I can't recall ever seeing one up close. I have seen them occasionally on the roadside, with little Xs where the eyes would be.

The Texas armadillo is about the size of a large cat; its overall length is about 2½ feet, and adults weigh from twelve to seventeen pounds. The shell is really bone.

I drove this big fat one about 7 miles away and released it, somewhere where it hopefully will stay far from here. I let it go and it ran behind a fenced in property, once I shook it out of the trap.


Thursday, May 21, 2009

A GREAT LINE

A writer, Whitney Pastorek, wrote this, in her report on American Idol. I think it's such a great line... "while their less-successful former contestant counterparts roamed free, like a wilderness safari of failure."

Whew!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

PHANTOM OF THE GARDEN

I suspect strongly the Armadillo that tore up our lawn last fall is back. We also found a big hole (watermellon size) when we redid the beds that parallel the house, with plants, etc (and lots of mulch.) I dragged the CATCH-A-KRITTER-CAGE-OF-HUMANE-TREATMENT out of storage, loaded it with a nice new can of stinky catfood, and placed in the bed next to the gas meter, where the hole was excavated.

And LO! Within a few nights, the trap was tripped, but empty!

I reset it just now. Time will tell, and if time does, there will be photos posted here, but I wouldn't hold your breath. The trap has never worked for us.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

SNAKE

Sometimes I am too cautious. It's a side effect of a good imagination - I imagine things going wrong... so when I take our dog out for her final pee in the dark, I always use a flashlight, especially at this time of the year, when snakes are said to be active. You never know.

Last night I swept the concrete with my spotlight, like a guard at a maximum security institution of incarceration. I noticed what appeared to be a branch, which had fallen onto the driveway.

But wait, the branch... was moving. A closer look - a snake! (And scarily, pointed away from the house, as if it lives there or close-by!)

Jessie did her business and I retreated to the house for tools - in this case a pickaxe, which I dropped on its side to immobilize the reptile, while I got the shovel for a beheading.

Yeah yeah, I know, they eat flies or something. I don't care.

Apparently I need a sharper shovel.



I thought it might be a baby copperhead but am not sure. Similar, to be sure.

I took a valium to sleep without snakey dreams as I had some adrenaline to overcome. Woke 45 minutes past my normal wakeup, with no bad dreams. I put the carcass out for the vultures.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

UNRELATED

Unrelated, but...

Something bit me on the elbow. Or stung me. Wouldn't you think to get there, the whatever-bug bypassed a lot of good MEAT?

The doctor prescribed me a medicine with the words, "if it works, you'll hurt. That's how you'll know it's working." Gee, that's JUST what I wanted. If it doesn't, he prescribed me a backup. Both the nurse and the doc - at separate times, cited HOUSE, M.D. (And BTW - the last HOUSE episode was, I think, the best to date.)

Terri's car now has a new $2200 what-used-to-be-called carburetor in it. Now it's an "engine-management-control-interface-which-nobody-understands-and-we-can-charge-a-fortune-for". I suspect what it really does is light the "check engine" light.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

PECAN STREET - FESTIVAL

That's what Austin's famous 6th street used to be called. The photography social group I joined met up at the fest for pictures. I think I got some good ones and they are below.