5000 gallon pond. 25′ x 15′. Ordinarily spring start-up involves closing a drain, inserting a few filter pads, flipping a switch, pulling the cover off the winter-pit (deep spot), and adding 3 cups of pond balance pink stuff. The fish, sleeping through the winter, wake up and swim about and all is well. This year, however,…we had the 10 year old main pump die. This meant pulling it. But the cam-lock connector stuck. We got it out, and decided to install the NEXT one above the water line so we don’t have to work it under near-freezing water by touch and feel. This entailed sawing off the old one very carefully—30 feet of buried 2″ ribbed hose is not to be reckless with: we left enough comfortably to attach the new pipe/connector the way we want, and get the pump running. BUT in the interconnectedness of things-that-go-wrong, the slow incomplete demise of the pump last fall meant fir needles and old leaves piled up in the 20 lb (dry:more when wet) tangle of green tape that is the guts of the waterfall filter (think of a large garbage can full of gunky green tape that is populated, I swear, with man-killing leeches. (Actually they’re little worms and bugs.) And the new line, half-an-inch larger than the last, is blasting out water from the falls and the falls are clogged and spilling water like a volcano over the edge…So I climb up onto the rocks of the waterfall’s backside, haul out the tape into a trash can, take it away to hose down, and meanwhile the gunk escapes into the pond, rendering it a murky mess. So I go get the ‘fine’ filter pads to try to clean it up. Today I have 2 pairs of pants—the wet ones, and the dry ones. I sit with the window open, listening to the pump, and when (not if) its filters clog, I shall put on the wet pants and run out and rinse filters. Literally wash, rinse, repeat. This will be my day, besides taking notes on the next Alliance Rising book. Such is the glamorous writing life. The African Queen experience, complete with crawly things, in your own back yard.
Leeches. Man-killing leeches….
by CJ | May 25, 2018 | Journal | 32 comments
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Oh, my word, that is a pretty big pond! You be careful out there at least so far it is a sunny day.
Whew! Glad you didn’t have real leeches to deal with.
For a minute there, it was starting to sound like the suburban sweatpants women authors version of that Stand By Me leeches scene. Hollywood versus reality.
Possibly, Wil Wheaton has tips on how to deal with man-killing leeches. LOL.
Good decision to put the control unit above water, I presume. Trying to deal with a pump under freezing cold water while standing on one’s head does not sound like an experience one wants to repeat!
You know, these pond and home improvement escapades do sound like source material you could use for a hapless starship crew. Then again, possibly this is why we have the crew of the Pride chasing and cleaning air duct filters to prevent an infestation of kiffish Dinner.
(Auto-incorrect wanted that to be kiddish Dinner, which…yyiiiiiyyy…!)
At least you don’t have that creepy critter from Stranger Things to deal with! (I’m doing my first rewatch. Loving the show all over again.)
If you went out to deal with the pond without the arm-length Playtex gloves (and maybe a Hazmat suit), you are braver than I!
This weekend is our traditional 2 day gaming marathon. This morning began with a grocery run; the food is potluck, but I’m making a large relish tray with fruit, veggies, cheese and salami for the 2 days, replenishing as needed. Then it was off to the second floor disaster area – er, upstairs office over the shop. We will probably have to lay down another layer of plywood over the squishy floor, as getting the landlords to do it would be measured in millennia. I ripped out the last section of jerryrigged wall, and bodged together a cover for the hatch to the attic area (the original hatch had been discarded by accident in the great dump run). At least I have a plan to cover the awful walls, which will incidentally help with both the glued on cruft and terrible paint job. I treated myself to a new cordless drill, as the previous one apparently ate a gecko and died. And the Three Stooges proudly presented us with a lovebird — thanks, guys!
And there ARE real leeches—not in the big pond, where we have hungry koi—but in the lotus pond. Jane stepped in to clear the pump, and it was like the African Queen. Ook! little ones, thankfully.
Really! One associated them with warmer climates. Perhaps some gambusia, or perhaps temporary koi residents?
(I want my Tux back!)
We’re leaning to temporary koi residents. After they’ve eaten enough, and grown, we’ll move them over to the big guys.
Off-Topic: Yesterday and today, YouTube surprised me with Navaho language learning videos, a few, and so I have a very slight idea of what Navaho sounds and words are like, and the tiniest idea of grammar basics. They do not have F and V, natively, but they have a whole series of glotalized consonants (sort of constricted unvoiced stops and affricatives), nasal vowels like French, yet not, plus a few other surprises, like some sort of slurred barred L, and more. Very, very curious sounds.
They do things with lots of vowels and the glottal stop, but it sounds quite different to Hawaiian, and yet a bit similar. (Completely unrelated.) The word order is Subject Object Postposition Verb, and the verb system does things with time and place that English verbs do not. Also, those postpositions are inflected to specify who/what object is being talked about, which impresses me as initially difficult, and yet very handy too. Postpositions are like prepositions placed after the object noun instead of before. You could think of this like how the English -‘s goes after a noun but means “of, from, by” the noun. So you’d get, approximately, “He the-ball her-to threw,” for “He threw the ball to her,” and I got the impression you might ordinarily be more specific about where and when things were going on with the verb form, as well as more precision in the subject, direct object, and indirect object. So this seemed quite handy, yet not too much longer.
They also have tonal syllables and grammatical features not covered in what I saw.
My one complaint was that for the particular YouTube channel, they had disabled comments. Why a teaching channel would do that, except to avoid moderating stupid racists, I don’t understand. I would’ve otherwise asked a few questions. So I’d need to find another Navaho channel to learn more in depth.
This made me think of the t’ca, oddly enough, or the old Chinese romanization system, because Navaho spelling has those glottal spellings as, t’, k’, ch’, ts’, tl’, ‘, and possibly I’m forgetting a couple. The L in tl and tl’ has a slanting bar like in Polish, but it’s used for a slurred sound between an L, an H, and an S or SH, approximately. I think it might be the same as Welsh LL or a posited Archaic/Proto Greek LS sound. — So there are a lot of neat and puzzling things going on with Navaho that give inspirational ideas for people interested in conlangs and xeno-linguistics.
That was neat enough, I thought I’d share.
When it comes to the Navajo and lingusistic families, you should probably remember they’re not related to the Puebloan peoples, though perhaps they have some “borrow words”. The Apache are related, but other than that you’d have to go up to Canada for linguistic relatives.
The language family is ‘Athabaskan’, or, more recently ‘Dine’, if you’re inclined to look it up. Random note: Dine (accent mark over the e, which I can’t be arsed to look up how to put it in) is the Navajo word for ‘The People’, i.e., themselves.
Well, despite increases in Prime membership, Jeff Bezos’ greenlighting of The Expanse is enough of an excuse for us to justify another year subscription. Apparently he announced it at some conference, and blindsided the principal cast members, who proceeded to whoop and say ‘Hooray! At least one more year of guaranteed employment!’ Not unlike Start Trek TOS, season 3, although one hopes with better scripting.
I love the very detailed analysis of the phonetics and morphology of the language! This one post has probably been the first time in about 10 years that I have been able to substantively use the cultural literacy acquired by my one college linguistics class from 20 years ago. It is so pleasant to be able to exercise those concepts.
Hey, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Where else could we go and learn about anything from leeches to linguistics to lava to who knows what else, all in one place, with people just as curious about it all?
This is one of the things I like about CJ’s blog. On-topic and off-topic, I feel like I learn something new all the time, and the people are friendly. (Or associative. 😉 )
Leeches. I *hate* leeches!
When I was a lad in my early teens we lived in a small country town and swam unsupervised in nearby farm dams (times have changed somewhat). My mum gave me a bag of salt for the leeches which were prolific, large and slimy, and apparently preferred soft spots like the inner thigh. We were of the opinion that a lighted cigarette was more effective than salt, but I never told my mum that. (And no, I didn’t smoke then – that was later.)
I’d never had a severe leech experience until my trip to Anglin Lake a couple of weeks ago. I’d only seen leeches swimming freely and they always seemed quite small. After kayaking the lake, beaching on a few islands here and there, I was finally sitting at my campsite and when I took my socks off… oh, my goodness! There was this big grey one with a textured back on my ankle and it was attached. It was about 20mm across and 40mm long. AAAaaaagh! I was thoroughly panicked, but when I gave it a good finger-thwack, it flew off into the groundcover. Yeek.
I looked at my ankle and there was a neat little circular hole in the skin with a halo around it, and it was bleeding freely. It took about an hour for it to stop as I applied pressure to it.
Leeches = not-fun!
Wow! I got a shout out from The Oldest Nerd on YouTube, for having alerted him that The Expanse has been picked up by Amazon for season 4, late Friday night. He also thanked another viewer for alerting him. Since I was sure he’d have researched it himself, I did not expect a mention or a thank you, but it really was a lift. (It’s been a strange weekend.)
No word yet, but presumably Netflix, which has the international rights to the Expanse previously, will continue to do so for season 4 and after.
Amazon will have the North American and Australian / New Zealand distribution rights for The Expanse for season 4 as an Amazon Prime Original series. Previous seasons remain as domestic for Amazon and international for Netflix.
This is good news for science fiction fans! It should mean less wait for that next season, and better support.
The SyFy Channel unfortunately does not seem to understand how to support its shows, or the new reality of how most people watch shows these days, through streaming services or by recording and watching later. Their reason for cancelling had to do with first-run showings and viewings within 3 days from recordings, and not from streaming or online purchase or box set sales. So, effectively, they kind of shot themselves in the foot.
But their loss is Amazon’s and Netflix’s gain, and we fans and SF&F fellow authors win.
I still haven’t forgiven Skiffy for how they treated Farscape.
I’ll happily follow the Expanse to Amazon!
(I’m playing hookie, sort of.) So I heard a quote from John Cleese of something the Dalai Lama had told him. John Cleese said he asked the Dalai Lama why Buddhists laugh so much. The Dalai Lama replied:
“What I like about laughter is that when people laugh, they can have new ideas.”
Considering that the Dalai Lama said this to a comedian writer/performer, it’s a very interesting compliment as well as fine advice and observation.
Let us not forget that the lowly leech has a very valid medical value.
Am listening to Chanur again – really scary at times.
Jonathan up in New Hampshire
I grew up swimming in lakes full of leeches. Big dislike. The only time they seriously caused an incident was during summer camp. When a cabin mate chose not to change out of her swim suit after swimming class. At supper she fainted and they found a blood bloated leech inside her suit. Certainly drove home the lesson to check thoroughly when we got out of the water.
I do love the multifacetted talk on this blog, it really is the most congenial place on the internet to hang out with interesting people.
Off topic, I recently saw a brilliant map comparing the Netherlands to some large cities, like New York and Los Angeles.
https://brilliantmaps.com/empty-netherlands/ in which the one in the middle of the bottom row shows the country with all its towns and cities, while the one in the middle of the center row shows only the towns and cities in the area the Dutch together call Randstad (edge-city) and consider part of the larger citified agglomeration along the west coast.
The map guy said: it’s not so much a densely populated country, more a not very dense city…
Off topic 2, but related and in contrast to the previous view, for anyone who’s interested in touristy video and doesn’t mind an hour and a half of German talk. A German television network’s tourist destinations program has just aired an episode about my province of North Holland in the Netherlands, with lots of little places to visit and things to do.
Plenty of green space in that, both agricultural and nature reserves, even though the southern part (including the Fort Line) falls within the Randstad.
The presenter (anchor woman?) is constantly talking in German about what she’s seeing and doing, so this might only be slightly interesting to someone who speaks German and get very tiresome soon for anyone else. The program page has sub-pages with a short text in German for each aspect of her story, which Google translate might be able to do something with, so you’d get an idea of what is going on even if you can’t understand her.
Still, though it’s very touristy, it’s not about the very short tulip season or Amsterdam, and it gives a fair idea of the area around here. https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/wunderschoen/sendungen/urlaub-nordholland-100.html
I used to do HUFC* work for a general transcription outfit out of San Francisco. One time I got a job which was an interview with Miss Navajo Nation talking about how she got the title. You know how in all those big beauty pageants, there are things all the contestants have to do and be judged on — swimsuit, evening gown, little speech. For Miss Navajo Nation, the speech has to be in Navajo (that’s how the recording opened, with her speaking Navajo — which appeared in the trascript as: [foreign language]), and one of the things they are judged on is how well they butcher a sheep. Don’t remember what else was required — it’s been a while — but that part stuck in my mind. She went through the finer points of sheep butchering and what the judges watch for . . . The rest of the things they had to do were all traditional skills, though. When I worked for that company, you got to pick what you wanted to transcribe. I always tried to choose interesting stuff.
*Hard Up For Cash
DH loves the ‘Longmire’ series. One episode featured the Miss Cheyenne Nation competition. I don’t know how true to life it was, but for the parts they showed, the contestants had to perform traditional dances in traditional garb, and butcher a deer while the judges asked questions about technique. It’s my understanding that the producers made a fair effort to show both the good and bad about rez life.
Sort of, 4H/FFA meets a beauty pageant. So she might be very pretty, but she can get down with the farm and ranch work too. Well, actually, I could see how that might be a desirable thing in a potential spouse. 😀 Just not a skill most city folks would think of right away.
Heh, in order to transcribe Navajo in its official standard way, you’d need to know the sounds, spelling conventions, and how to type several accent marks on the vowels and at least one on the consonants. I am not sure as a novice with only a couple of videos on it, I could accurately transcribe a passage. — Interesting problem for a xenolinguistics officer too.
The joys of apartment living in the high tech age:
My apt. complex redid something about their website and payment system. So several times today, I get to monitor whether they’ve posted my current charges and the new automatic payment I set up. Currently, it’s showing only one item due, with the rent, utilities, pet charge, etc., not yet posted due — even though they are indeed due. — Their changeover apparently got rid of all the old registrations, yet once I’d clued in on a couple of things, I got in and my old account was linked to the new one. (Whew! For a minute there, I was thinking it would not.)
I also get to double-check if their forms processed two dates and another couple of fields properly. The service they use is highly unhelpful and minimalist about it all.
I suppose I’ll know around noon or 6:00pm if everything’s copacetic. Sure hope so. And after the billing period, I’m going in and changing the payment date, so it is comfortably _before_ the due date, rather than right on or after it. I don’t like a bad surprise in something so important.
They have a paper system too, which is really why I don’t understand why the full amount doesn’t show yet. If he paper billing shows it due, the online form also should. And this is from a major service and a banking system. Oh, joy.
In celebration and/or protest, I have fixed some chicken strips and cream gravy and spinach for tonight. I am due for a grocery rip next week. I may try delivery or pickup, and see if that helps me, as Kroger’s now offers this. Whether they’ll deliver to my door in my area, I’ unclear on yet, but this might help me.
I have a craving for homemade pizza which likely won’t be met until after the grocery run. But I intend to do a traditional supreme pizza and possibly another try at a green sauce pizza 9not salsa verde) as I feel the great need for this.
I feel sure that a great yearning toward a favorite dish like pizza and sauce is not man’chi, yet it seems that there should be a word for this. How does one say the great yearning toward a pizza with sauce and toppings as one pleases?
:snicker: Say, is Spam kabiu? As in, Spam and pineapple for a Hawaiian pizza. (I usually go for a supreme pizza, all the veggies, extra black olives, all the toppings except anchovies or jalapeños. But for reasons involving a forum post and YouTube video seen recently, I may attempt a Hawaiian style pizza instead.) Don’t judge me. LOL. — I have the feeling that canned foods would be kabiu, by virtue of being cooked and preserved, but perhaps that is not so. I would think pineapple and coconut shavings would be kabiu year-round, but I don’t know. Inquiring minds wonder.
@BCS, Canning meat to preserve it out of season is mentioned specifically as being not kabiu to the central Ragi atevi. One of the things Bren was supposed to mediate on with the humans was pressure from the Aishiditat for the humans to stop dealing in canned meat with the southern (island?) group that did not regard preserving meat as un-kabiu.
Hence also the need for Geigi’s live fish tanks at the space station as a source for fresh-caught fish/protein before atevi went up there to live, with the attendant discussions about the fish needing to have a chance to escape capture otherwise it’s not hunting but farming and harvesting captive animals to eat, which would not be kabiu.
Though when one season’s meat is especially unpalatable to Bren, and he has to ask for eggs instead, it’s said that a clever cook will manage to have some keepable leftovers from the more palatable preceding season(s). Maybe something like a pickled ham or a smoked sausage, which was treated as a way of preparing the food, for the taste of course, not solely to preserve it. Surely not 😉
And one certainly couldn’t throw out any such leftovers when the season has passed, that would be seriously disrespectful!
With Spam, you could argue that it’s kabiu…because it’s “spiced ham”, thus already preserved. (Although I don’t think the Mospheirans have pork of any kind – pigs are large animals, and not good for the area if they escape their enclosures.)
I missed that somewhere, though there’s a good portion of the Foreigner books I haven’t read yet.
I could see how there would be regional or other disagreement over what is kabiu. Even within a single cultural or religious tradition on Earth, you get all sorts of opinions. — Often causing schisms, splits into two or more groups. — I recall Ker Pyanfar’s dismay that there were three human governments, leading her to wonder about the fractious nature of Tully’s kind, or just how many of his kind and how much territory they covered.
And yes, the atevi wouldn’t have Spam, but some sort of atevi-earth analogue animal, if that. Mospheiran humans might have a similar product, but if I recall correctly, they didn’t bring down human-Earth lifeforms, except into very controlled, isolated environments, for fear of ecological or medical crisis one or both ways (atevi-world or Terran origin).
So I should’ve said, Spam-like. Heh. So possibly, it’s not kabiu for the majority on the mainland or in most regions, but it might be within kabiu for the southern or island locals.
I did remember reading that Bren didn’t like foods in certain seasons, and therefore ate eggs or fish then, or other things, along with vegetables and such.
I seem to recall that at certain seasons the usual prep method involves things that are high in alkaloids – like autumn berries – and thus Not Humanly Edible. (Self-preservation is a good idea.)
For a green pizza, try using a thin layer of Alfredo sauce, then covering it with spinach and/or basil, mozzarella as desired.
I’ve had good luck with a green lasagna: regular lasagna noodles, layered with pesto, spinach and mozzarella, and a drizzle of Alfredo on top. Make sure you drain off as much of the oil from the pesto as possible, or you will have a lasagna that will slide on through, ifyaknowwhutImean.
Phooey. There’s a delay in either processing or posting, so now the full amount for my apt. monthly payment shows up due, but has not yet shown as having been submitted or accepted, and may not show up until tomorrow, despite that I scheduled it for today. Oh, joy.
I would dislike it more if I didn’t have the money to pay, but I do, so awaiting something being recorded when I would’ve thought it would be already, and there’s the usual deadline and little grace period…sigh. I will check again tonight and tomorrow. I will be irritated if it hasn’t shown up by tomorrow and I have to make a separate payment. Just as long as it’s not counted late to generate a late fee. :-/
The building I live in is small enough that they don’t do automagic payments. I write a check and drop it at the office. Sometimes the door is open and I stop to talk with whoever is inside.
Whew! Payment went through this evening, so I’m good until next month again.
My complex is a bit odd: there are units on two sides of a major road, and all units are in two story setups. Of course, my apt. is across the road from the main office.
My landlady just has the duplex I live in. I hate mailing personal checks. I used to go to the bank and get a bank check. Then shortly before I moved, my bank got an app for both PC and Android where you can pay people money if you know their bank account # and bank routing number. I got this info from my landlady and set her up in the app. Now I can pay my rent from the comfort of my home at any time of the day or night. I just transfer the funds to her account. I love it because it’s easy and painless and doesn’t require me to drive anywhere. She likes it because she doesn’t have to take the check to the bank and deposit it and wait for it to clear. The money just shows up in her account. Win/win.