Catching Up

Well, here we are a good month and a half into the rainy season, and for the most part, as dry as it is during the dry season. Don't know if that's something related to global climatic changes or just a quirk with the local weather.

Speaking of water. We finally got our new tank for the reverse osmosis (RO) system. Hooray! No more toting 5-gallon bottles of water up a flight of stairs. That is a chore that I guarantee is never going to get easier, especially as you (or me, in this case) keep getting older. Of course toting a crate of Belikin upstairs is no joy either. Just that the reward for doing so is much more pleasant once the bottles are cooled down.

New Reverse Osmosis Tank

The tank for the RO is much smaller than the old one. The old one was a 14-gallon tank. I thought when we initially set up the system that I was really going to need the larger size, having nothing to relate it to.

Size Comparison

It soon became apparent that the smaller size was more than adequate. About the only time I would have needed the larger one would have been if I was filling 5-gallon bottles. As it is, we generally only use the 1-liter bottles.

Breakages to report... Well, I guess not breakage - it's already broken. It's a 'repairage', if that's a word. My Shop Vac has been out of commission for some time. I had given it to Cecil to fix, which he did. Then I promptly broke it when I tested the motor and gave it back to Cecil.

Cecil managed to fix it again. So, the motor works fine. The problem is the blower connected to the motor. It's made out of soft aluminum and has two steel flanges (I guess that's what they're called) on either side to provide strength during operation to withstand the torque generated when the motor starts up and runs.

Shop Vac Blower With Flange

Both of those have separated from the blower, allowing the blower to freewheel. I'm going to try some JB Weld today to see if I can glue those two items back to the blower.

J-B Weld Steel Epoxy

It appears they were originally press-fit together.

Blower Showing Flange Removed

There's another flange that fits on the other side of the blower. Gluing these to the blower is my project for this morning. Stay tuned.

Aints and more aints are driving everyone down here crazy. That's ants to the uninitiated. It seems the little buggers are trying to move into our homes to escape the rains which are sure to come... Maybe. Anyway, we've been waging war with them.

The treatment du jour is some stuff we've tried before and it sort of worked. Terro Ant Bait. It came before in these little plastic tray thingies that you cut a hole in it and the aint was supposed to go inside and suck up the juice then leave.

Terro Ant Baits

I think the aints here got wise to the deal and wouldn't have anything to do with the tray. But, Terro, came out with some new stuff. It's called Terro Ant Killer. I don't know if it's the same formulation or not, but it comes in a handy squeeze bottle.

Terro Ant Killer

You put three or four drops on a piece of cardboard (supplied as part of the kit) and place it where the aints can get to it easily. They love the stuff. We've been refilling the stations three and four, or more, times a day and it really does get rid of them. We've been using it so much, that we've taken to replacing the cardboard stations with beer bottle caps - tidier and easier to pick up and place.

Thank God we have a pool - That's our A/C. We're in it every day, and almost all day too. We're averaging mid-nineties temp and humidity. We use machetes to cut a path through the air just to walk.

The car made its pilgrimage up to Rick's again. Only for a day this time. A drive shaft bearing or something like that had gone out and was grinding its way to oblivion. Rick was able to fix it and got it back to me by early afternoon the following day.

I think that's it for this installment. I've got some dishes to do, then to the workshop and tackle the J-B Weld thing. See you later.