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Loons On A Tree
May. 27th, 2005 11:11 pmWasp situation still unresolved. I have mostly received suggestions involving using the barbecue itself to burn the nest up. Let me explain a little more clearly why I'm reluctant to do this.
First of all, I am not comfortable with propane barbecues. Maybe it's the tank of compressed flammable gas. Not like I want to mess around with lighter fluid either. Quite frankly, I'd be happier without a barbecue entirely, but Nicole insisted. Part of what makes me feel safe around it is trying to follow slavishly the ritual of inspecting the barbecue before putting it to use every year. Unfortunately, having lost the booklet that explains it, I only remember two steps. One is wiping down the propane tank and its connections with very soapy water to check for leaks; the other is proving the Venturi(?) tubes underneath for insect nests, so you don't get a fire inside your barbecue when you try to light it up. Now the insect nest that there is, is not in the Venturi tubes, but for all I know there's something in there, too. I don't feel comfortable probing around those tubes with a pipe cleaner while the wasps are there...and I don't feel comfortable burning the wasps without checking the tubes. There. I've said it.
I also wouldn't relish the task of cleaning out the barbecue after toasting the nest. If we Raid them, then there may be some toxic insecticide inside the barbecue, but hopefully that'll dissipate soon and not contaminate any food cooked thereon. And we'll be eliminating the nest relatively whole, so the cleanup situation may be less complicated. Except that there may still be dead wasp bodies on the bottom of the barbecue.
Fuck, I hate this whole situation. Which is why nothing has been done on it tonight. Tomorrow we'll go to Canadian Tire and see what they have for bug sprays.
I did finally do something about the Internet problem tonight. Not like getting it fixed or anything, but I phoned the tech support number and talked to a real person(after navigating through an admittedly cool voice-activated system). I used my cell phone, because I didn't feel like trying to plug a phone into the network modem(which is actually on the floor behind my desk right now, because it kept falling off), but of course it began to run low on charge after a few minutes(for it is wimpy that way), so I had to run upstairs and get the AC adapter and plug it in.
The guy I talked to didn't seem completely dim, though not necessarily completely savvy either. For instance, at one point I had to send him a copy of tracert output, so I ran it in Cygwin and redirected it to a file...forgetting that it probably used Unix-style line endings. I attached it to a file, but he couldn't get it to work, so I converted it to CR/LF and sent it again. Anyway, they have verification that my connection is slow, and they have my IP address, which is really all I can tell them right now. (I did a ping, by the way, of the Telus web page, only five hops away, and got 20% packet loss.)
We are now watching Buffy Season 6, which of course I got for Nicole for her birthday. We've been itching for it in the month or two since we finished Season 5, and so far it's not disappointing. We watched the two-hour opener, "Bargaining", in the afternoon on her birthday, and then "After Life" after we got back from the movie. Tonight we moved on to "Flooded", finishing off the first disc, and putting us three episodes away from the legendary "Once More With Feeling". I can hardly wait. We've finished off most of our weekly TV shows, apart from "Doctor Who", so the whole summer stretcheth before us.
And finally I have seen the legendary Andrew, about whom I have heard so much, for someone who only showed up in the last two seasons of the show. (Or was he in the Prom episode?) I'm hoping that Jonathan doesn't turn into a real bad guy--Warren has my vote for being the real nasty one, though they all seem mostly geeks out of their depth right now. Not much of an Axis of Evil, or whatever they call themselves. I'll find out, I guess.
First of all, I am not comfortable with propane barbecues. Maybe it's the tank of compressed flammable gas. Not like I want to mess around with lighter fluid either. Quite frankly, I'd be happier without a barbecue entirely, but Nicole insisted. Part of what makes me feel safe around it is trying to follow slavishly the ritual of inspecting the barbecue before putting it to use every year. Unfortunately, having lost the booklet that explains it, I only remember two steps. One is wiping down the propane tank and its connections with very soapy water to check for leaks; the other is proving the Venturi(?) tubes underneath for insect nests, so you don't get a fire inside your barbecue when you try to light it up. Now the insect nest that there is, is not in the Venturi tubes, but for all I know there's something in there, too. I don't feel comfortable probing around those tubes with a pipe cleaner while the wasps are there...and I don't feel comfortable burning the wasps without checking the tubes. There. I've said it.
I also wouldn't relish the task of cleaning out the barbecue after toasting the nest. If we Raid them, then there may be some toxic insecticide inside the barbecue, but hopefully that'll dissipate soon and not contaminate any food cooked thereon. And we'll be eliminating the nest relatively whole, so the cleanup situation may be less complicated. Except that there may still be dead wasp bodies on the bottom of the barbecue.
Fuck, I hate this whole situation. Which is why nothing has been done on it tonight. Tomorrow we'll go to Canadian Tire and see what they have for bug sprays.
I did finally do something about the Internet problem tonight. Not like getting it fixed or anything, but I phoned the tech support number and talked to a real person(after navigating through an admittedly cool voice-activated system). I used my cell phone, because I didn't feel like trying to plug a phone into the network modem(which is actually on the floor behind my desk right now, because it kept falling off), but of course it began to run low on charge after a few minutes(for it is wimpy that way), so I had to run upstairs and get the AC adapter and plug it in.
The guy I talked to didn't seem completely dim, though not necessarily completely savvy either. For instance, at one point I had to send him a copy of tracert output, so I ran it in Cygwin and redirected it to a file...forgetting that it probably used Unix-style line endings. I attached it to a file, but he couldn't get it to work, so I converted it to CR/LF and sent it again. Anyway, they have verification that my connection is slow, and they have my IP address, which is really all I can tell them right now. (I did a ping, by the way, of the Telus web page, only five hops away, and got 20% packet loss.)
We are now watching Buffy Season 6, which of course I got for Nicole for her birthday. We've been itching for it in the month or two since we finished Season 5, and so far it's not disappointing. We watched the two-hour opener, "Bargaining", in the afternoon on her birthday, and then "After Life" after we got back from the movie. Tonight we moved on to "Flooded", finishing off the first disc, and putting us three episodes away from the legendary "Once More With Feeling". I can hardly wait. We've finished off most of our weekly TV shows, apart from "Doctor Who", so the whole summer stretcheth before us.
And finally I have seen the legendary Andrew, about whom I have heard so much, for someone who only showed up in the last two seasons of the show. (Or was he in the Prom episode?) I'm hoping that Jonathan doesn't turn into a real bad guy--Warren has my vote for being the real nasty one, though they all seem mostly geeks out of their depth right now. Not much of an Axis of Evil, or whatever they call themselves. I'll find out, I guess.
