Saturday

It was time.
I have not done it in quite a long time.
I dreaded it, but, this morning the thing was running SO slow and NOTHING I did was doing anything for it.
I'm referring to my computer and further referring to reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP (I'm not in the least bit interested in the newest version of Windows until I start hearing better things about it). 
The reason doing all of that is a pain?  Well think about all the software that you have on your computer and then think about reinstalling all of it.  IE-8; Adobe flash player; Avast; sound drivers; printer drivers; my video surveillance software, all KINDS of stuff.  Plus, you have to keep rebooting for half of this stuff.  It takes hours, literally.  You forget half the software you have installed on your computer - until you run into something that you need and then there you are, installing yet more software or drivers.

I literally hate the process, but - in the end - it IS worth the effort.  My computer is running MUCH faster than it has in a long time.  How long it runs like that is up in the air, but this time, I created a restore point as soon as I got it up and running before any malware or whatever could distort the registry. 

There IS software out there available via internet that tweaks and tunes your registry and fixes whatever is broken - but it isn't free.  I'm not really looking for more payments right now, I am already hurting financially enough as it is. 

Some elements of my computer that have not worked correctly for quite a while have been restored as well.  I knew reinstalling Windows would fix everything, I also know from ample experience how much of a pain it is to do all of that.  Perhaps, however, having revisited this issue yet again, I will remember how much more fun it is to surf the net with a machine that is actually working correct and perhaps I will reinstall Windows a bit more often. 

It's going to be another hot day outside and I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever to do anything.  Well I have to go to the store and get the power card reloaded with some money for electricity.  I am also going to buy some of those low-fat,low sodium, low-calorie frozen dinners.  I like some of those things, it's a quick, easy meal and it is good for a diet.  Well, it's good for my diet, anyway.  I was down to 193-1/2 pounds yesterday, the lowest I have seen it in ages.  If I am making any progress at all, even small amounts, I am good with it.  It means whatever I am doing is working.  I don't have to lose it all in 2 weeks, I just have to have the peace of mind that it IS going down.

The owner of the pest control company came yesterday - he is going to ALL of his accounts, over time of course, as he let go 2 of his service personnel who were not doing the job very well.  Well, take that back, the one that has come over here has been to some houses and hasn't done the job AT ALL.  Some neighbors apparently caught him in the "act" of just walking around a house and then leaving while claiming he had done the work.  He was here last time - whatever he did, he almost killed my ornamental pear tree out front, in fact I am still not sure if it's going to survive, killed half the leaves on one of my 7-1/2 foot tall ficus trees and did some lessor damage to other plants.

I showed this guy all of that which is when he started explaining what was going on.  I explained that after he left last time, NONE of the ants were dead.  So, go 2 months without them procreating and yes, there were literally thousands of them on my property - coming from anthills from one of the properties behind me.  We came inside and I told him about the cockroach problem.  He gave me the bad news: $150 to get rid of them.  A 2-treatment process, but it is guaranteed. 

He then saw my can of Roach-prufe and suggested before I pay him that much money that I go through the entire kitchen, take everything out of all the cabinets and drawers, take the drawers out, clean it all with bleach and apply that stuff all over.  Do that in the bathrooms as well.  I have had some pretty good luck with that stuff in the past, and frankly, I don't have an extra $150 laying around - though I wish I did because I will pay whatever I have to get rid of the friggin' things.  He declared that the problem in my house wasn't that bad - yet.  Yes, well I don't want them in here AT ALL.  So, I am going to go through the extremely arduous process of pulling everything out, cleaning it and applying the roach prufe this weekend and see if that helps. 

He also suggested taking off all the switch and electrical outlet covers and putting some of the stuff in all of those, too.  Yes, folks, this isn't going to be any fun at all.  It will, however, be INSIDE the house, it needs to be done and it is going to be very hot today and tomorrow.  So - yes - get a couple of beers, put on my work hat and get started on it.  But not right now - I HAVE to go to the store and get power on the card.  There is like 6 bucks left on there, about enough for half a day on a hot summer's day if it doesn't get TOO hot. 

Okay, my new Plecostomus (fish) have devoured a large portion of the algae that was growing in the larger pond.  There are 5 of them, they are large and apparently they were hungry.  The Koi - all 4 of them - are all apparently doing well and the goldfish in both ponds are still alive and kicking.  All the smaller fish that I got for free from the pond being shut down?  Well, yesterday I was watching "fry" they call them - new baby fishies - were all over the place in the large pond.  I was a bit surprised any of them were left, some of those Koi will devour those things for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Oh, and strike one up for experience: dogs like Koi pellets.  I left out the bag and it was opened.  I had NO idea that dogs would eat that stuff, but when I came home, most of the bag had been devoured.  Fortunately I had filled up 2 large containers with the stuff so it wasn't a total loss, about a half the bag was lost.

Turtles?  Are finally coming out of the water.  They get up on the block I set in there for them - but - as soon as they see me they dive into that water. At least they are coming out of it now and I just started today to leave some food for them up on that block.  I won't put it in the water because I don't want the water getting polluted by having food in there that might not be getting eaten.  I'll go back out in a while and see if they have eaten any of it. 

Oh, and the little fishies!  They are the funnest to watch of all of them.  They are just baby fish - the current I have going with 2 pumps in that pond is so strong that they really have to fight against it to get up to the top and get some of the fish flakes I put in there for them.  I take the giant flakes, crush them in my hand, put them in there and watch them go to town.  They have several places where they can hide from the fish that are hundreds of times larger than them and will probably eat them if they can.

I am watching an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive".  The family featured in this one is on a boat in some river in Zambabwe.  A Rhino has decided to attack the boat and knocked everyone out.  The mother is drowning, apparently - as they state "she doesn't know how to swim".

And again, I ask: how do you get into adulthood without having had learned how to swim?  To me this is unfathomable.  I was a sea otter when I was a kid - oceans; lakes; swimming pools; rivers; streams; I didn't care what kind of body of water it was, I was in it.  Even yucky green water I would jump right in.  Canal water?  Didn't care, let's go!!!  In my teen years, I continued with that excepting I got VERY lean - 4.9% body fat - I knew how to swim but the leaner you are, the less buouancy you have.  You simply drop like a rock in water.  Still, I could swim the width of a lake that was at least 1,000 feet wide.  Yes, I would be tired by the time I got to the other side, but the challenge of it was too great to pass up. 

Some of these shows they come up with these days.......craziness.  Another one that has some pretty crazy stuff in it is "I Survived". 

Long delay and done with this.

G'day.

ben