Still struggling just a wee bit.

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The sun has come out twice, now, today.  Just a hint of it, now, really.  I'll take what I can get.  Whatever else I can or can't get done, I do plan to get out hiking twice next week, and visit my friend as well.  Though the dark of cloud is sort of keeping me down, I am hoping it stays, or comes back, for next week.  It is much easier for me to try to push when it is cool than in blazing sun.  But... what will happen will happen.  At least I know the sun screen does an excellent job.  And with twice daily treatments with aloe vera and then adding moisturizer in, my skin should be about ready Monday.

The lad that mows came by to do just that today.  I noticed he had mowed recently.  I paid him for feeding and scooping for the girls.  Before he got to that, he wanted to try out the water mine I have.  It's a CO2 operated sprayer.  We tinkered with it, carefully until we figured it out.  He was the, well, volunteer.  It works.  After a bit of tinkering with how to get it to spray best, we have it down.  And, we know how to fill it and set it up safely.  It's not, technically, dangerous.  It's more a matter of not wasting cartridges and not getting wet unexpectedly.  Oh, yes, this thing is going to be a little joy to play with.  In the heat of summer it will be perfect.  Not all of what Doom does is about death.  Sometimes it's about creating squeals of various sorts.  Hmm...  Mom?  Water mine?  Probably not so much.  Probably.  *evil grins*

I have, what I am hoping, is a little project that arrived today.  A new water filter for my drinking water.  The old one, technically, still works.  But the faucet for it broke from the piece that kept it held to the sink.  The three replacement parts, perhaps more were needed, cost more than a new system.  Wasteful.  I'll not buy Sears products again.  I simply used the system until it was pretty much ready for replacement filters, to get what of my money out of that system I could, but was looking the whole time.  Without the need for electrical connections, I should be able to get this in fairly easily.  Hopefully the old system, as I am taking it out, will prep me for putting in the new one.  The new one was purchased after a lot of reviewing reverse osmosis systems, reading the good and the bad, and doing my own calculations.  Simplicity of use and maintenance, longevity, and function were the starring roles, followed by cost, replacement part costs, and a few other things.  The problem with Sears equipment is that it often seems to be proprietary.  You have to buy from them, you can't just go to any old hardware store and pick up whole or partial bits.  With this, if the faucet goes, or just the connection actually, I can pick up a whole new faucet, with connections, for under $20.  Gah!

Oh, my books on edible plants arrived as well.  Now that I have my gear for drawing, and these, I think I am going to try to combine the two.  I figure, but looking for plants that are more likely to be in my a.o., and drawing those, perhaps making notes on the drawings, I will have a better chance at spying them in the wild.  As I suggested, I won't be eating anything out there.  Essentially, wild plants are considered toxic, at least by me.  Having some of the lore down would merely be as... a curiosity... unless greater need required some risk taking.  I still remember the story of a man who had been eating as such for decades, so much so that he taught others.  He ended up accidentally killing himself, and over a dozen others, with a mistake.  I think it was wild onions, or they look like onions.  If they don't smell of garlic they are extremely dangerous, but the two types can grow side by side.  Yeah... curiosity.  For now.  Well, and a reason to get into sketching and more impetus to hike.

A bit more sitting, after all that play time /snark and I will probably get in and try to remove the spoon this evening.  I have been tinkering, to try to clean out the mess, in the meantime.  It does drain, albeit very slowly.  Cleaning solution goes in after each flush, and I have some hope that the thing will, mostly, be cleaned before I tinker with it more seriously.  Another flush/cleaning or two and...  While I'm thinking about it, I ought to see if it can handle another flush and maybe a bit of brush cleaning and more Pine Sol.  It's dirty work.  Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor... Joe shit the ragman.  Later.