News of the week
Mar. 27th, 2009 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyesetzOn Thursday of last week, the drain pipe from my kitchen sink, laundry tub, and washer/dryer plugged up solid. As mentioned before, the drain pipes in my house were rather sluggish when I moved in and have been getting slowly worse ever since. On Friday I used Google Maps to find the closest plumber to my house, since if I was going to start a new business relationship with a plumber, I wanted one who would be willing to come to my house if our single toilet stopped working in the middle of a blizzard (because of course that is when it would happen).
On Friday, at 4:45 PM, exactly when promised, the neighbour-plumber showed up and spent a solid hour reaming out my pipes. Then I had a nice weekend. On Monday, at 3 PM (a little earlier than promised and without the preceding phone call that had been promised), the neighbour-plumber brought over one of the dozen journeyman plumbers who works for him. The journeyman re-hung the kitchen sink drain pipe to have a sharper slope (and removed the narrow copper section that was slowing the waste down), replaced the hot-water supply pipe that I had repaired with aquarium cement over a year ago, and tightened the screws on the toilet tank.
Yesterday, the plumber called to confirm my last name and said he'd hand-deliver a bill. I still haven't gotten it yet.
My original plan was to call a plumber about the drain pipes when the aquarium cement failed, but it didn't fail!
* * * * *
Yesterday I received an email from ServerMojo.com, which I had signed up for a long time ago but then never used. The subject was "ServerMojo trial expired" and the body explained that I needed to sign up for a paid account if I wanted to keep using the thing.
Today I received another email, with subject "ServerMojo trial *not* expired", explaining that yesterday's email was erroneous because my account is so old that is effectively a permanent free account. It said, "If you didn't yet know we'd recently launched a new and much improved ServerMojo - well this isn't quite the way we wanted to tell you but we hope you will have a look now and check it out anyway!"
* * * * *
My area has both grey squirrels and the melanistic "black squirrel", which is a mere colour-variant and the two kinds of squirrels interbreed (just like the different colours of humans do, except where authoritarians have made it their business to put a stop to the "miscegenation").
Today I saw a squirrel whose fur was a mixture of grey and reddish. It looked perhaps like it was in the middle of molting. Wikipedia claims that the red squirrel does not live in Canada, but does molt from grey to red in the spring. Perhaps it was a fox squirrel. The sighting was in a public park, so I didn't kill the "living fossil" and turn it into a squirrel sandwich.
On Friday, at 4:45 PM, exactly when promised, the neighbour-plumber showed up and spent a solid hour reaming out my pipes. Then I had a nice weekend. On Monday, at 3 PM (a little earlier than promised and without the preceding phone call that had been promised), the neighbour-plumber brought over one of the dozen journeyman plumbers who works for him. The journeyman re-hung the kitchen sink drain pipe to have a sharper slope (and removed the narrow copper section that was slowing the waste down), replaced the hot-water supply pipe that I had repaired with aquarium cement over a year ago, and tightened the screws on the toilet tank.
Yesterday, the plumber called to confirm my last name and said he'd hand-deliver a bill. I still haven't gotten it yet.
My original plan was to call a plumber about the drain pipes when the aquarium cement failed, but it didn't fail!
* * * * *
Yesterday I received an email from ServerMojo.com, which I had signed up for a long time ago but then never used. The subject was "ServerMojo trial expired" and the body explained that I needed to sign up for a paid account if I wanted to keep using the thing.
Today I received another email, with subject "ServerMojo trial *not* expired", explaining that yesterday's email was erroneous because my account is so old that is effectively a permanent free account. It said, "If you didn't yet know we'd recently launched a new and much improved ServerMojo - well this isn't quite the way we wanted to tell you but we hope you will have a look now and check it out anyway!"
* * * * *
My area has both grey squirrels and the melanistic "black squirrel", which is a mere colour-variant and the two kinds of squirrels interbreed (just like the different colours of humans do, except where authoritarians have made it their business to put a stop to the "miscegenation").
Today I saw a squirrel whose fur was a mixture of grey and reddish. It looked perhaps like it was in the middle of molting. Wikipedia claims that the red squirrel does not live in Canada, but does molt from grey to red in the spring. Perhaps it was a fox squirrel. The sighting was in a public park, so I didn't kill the "living fossil" and turn it into a squirrel sandwich.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
First ve get moose an skwirrel
Date: 2009-03-28 12:21 am (UTC)Re: First ve get moose an skwirrel
Date: 2009-03-28 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 04:17 am (UTC)Also, do you have a lot of firs or other conifers near where you live? Red squirrels like that.
Frai and I spotted an American red squirrel for the first time last summer in West Virginia. We were up around 4,000 in the Dolly Sods which has lots of firs. The environment is more akin to Canada than the surrounding area, with wildlife such as snowshoe hairs and the aforementioned red squirrel.
For what it's worth, "black squirrels" are common around DC too, having been brought to the region maybe a hundred years ago or so from Ontario. We have a few around our apartment... they're cool.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 05:42 pm (UTC)Here is the lost text:
Did it look kinda like a chipmunk but with a fluffy tail?
Yes, I was reminded of a chipmunk while looking at it.
do you have a lot of firs or other conifers near where you live
My house is in a "mixed" area, tree-wise. But I observed the squirrel in a stand of conifers next to a river in a public park.
"black squirrels" are common around DC too... they're cool.
They're something different to see, but behaviourally they're just grey squirrels, which are basically rats with cute fluffy tails.
having been brought to the region maybe a hundred years ago or so from Ontario
People used to think that doing stuff like that was a good idea. Nowadays the European red squirrel is endangered because the (imported from US) Eastern grey squirrel is outcompeting it on its home turf.
Frai and I
So how are you and the Mrs. these days?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 12:23 pm (UTC)My house is in a "mixed" area, tree-wise. But I observed the squirrel in a stand of conifers next to a river in a public park.
Definitely a red squirrel. :-)
[Black squirrels] They're something different to see, but behaviourally they're just grey squirrels, which are basically rats with cute fluffy tails.
Well, they're pretty. That's something. And I don't think squirrels are "rats with fluffy tails" any more than cats are "dogs with whiskers". Yeah, they both belong to the same order, rodents. That's not that close. Squirrels are tree dwelling, rats live in houses and sewers and such. Squirrels eat lots of nuts and a little trash. Rats mostly eat trash. Squirrels are out during the day, rats at night. City squirrels go about their business in front of humans. City rats hide in the shadows. Squirrels are amazing acrobats, leaping from tree to tree with precision and balance. They're chase each other endlessly. Ever seen a rat do these things?
Nowadays the European red squirrel is endangered because the (imported from US) Eastern grey squirrel is outcompeting it on its home turf.
Yeah, but at least the black squirrel hasn't caused any such problems. Mostly harmless, it seems.
So how are you and the Mrs. these days?
About the same as always, I'd say. nothing major to report.
Sorry for the delay in replying, btw.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 01:27 am (UTC)*snickers* XD
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 02:15 am (UTC)Note that the above "mentioned before" link includes the brownish text buttsex to help ensure that readers get the joke about "having a nice weekend" after the reaming. And then there's the bit about the journeyman plumber and the "re-hung" pipe...
But everyone else commented on the wildlife biology bit instead :(