not good at doing nothing

 

I tried a few things to get the car running today, but I didn't actually take the backup battery out and try to jump it, as there was still glare ice on the driveway and if I did get it started I would just have to shut it back off again after a bit and maybe go through all of that again to get it started when I do have to go.  Although, I might do more with it tomorrow - the weather is supposed to get up to almost freezing 32 degrees tomorrow!  But that won't really fix it.  I did text the mechanic and find out that my other truck is not currently in pieces - and maybe we could swap it out so I can have a reliable transport to work for the next week.

 

Mark says not to worry so much - but I'm not good at not worrying and almost as bad at doing nothing, and I haven't been good enough to fix it, so I'm sort of hanging around in between.  I could have cleaned the house more but I tend to get worked up doing that - artifacts from my  mother's training, the more you clean the angrier you get.  I never understood that one but I do emulate it.  I played a little Minetest, in between taking readings on the car battery, trying to tighten the battery again, and charging up the spare battery (which is the wrong size for that car) that I could jump start the car with if I try to go somewhere.  That doesn't promise I can get it jumpstarted again after I'm done with work there.... or that the spare battery would have enough charge for another jumpstart.  So there's tangles there and not a solved problem just with that, either.  The mechanic suggested just taking the cables off and cleaning them and putting them all the way back on could help - but the battery is worn down below regular charging amount, and will need to be charged back up, also.  I might only get the one start and then be stranded the next time it shuts off.

 

But trading out for the other truck could work for a bit.

And then getting the battery replaced and find out if it is possible for it to stop disconnecting itself every two minutes and needing tightening after that battery is replaced.... gah.

I gave the post office a heads up that I might be having car trouble that could extend into Saturday - which they read the message, but they did not respond.

 

Sweetie is doing well with her leg -tried to chew on it once today and we put the cone on her.  She was very pitiful.  We do not need her opening that up when we can't drive anywhere to get it fixed.  There are a few first aid things we could do here if we had to, but I'd rather not have to.

 

if you know, you know.... 

300 blocks down and now you've got to get back to the surface after satisfying your curiosity of what is that rapidly rushing water in the deep dark cavern you just dropped into and can only see four or five squares away from you until you've set enough torches to light all the way across.

 

Languages: Czech and Japanese

more February snow

 more snow, more car troubles, but Sweetie's leg had the surgery and she is doing better - not best, as she still has some other issues they can't help with - but better.  She got up this morning after sleeping hard all night and had water and food and went outside, took her medication and begged for lots of treats.

At the vet office yesterday to pick her up, the car died.  We had to call the mechanic, who luckily came even with the weather facing down on us, and jumped our car, tightened the battery again, and told us to call him if we didn't make it home.  We did make it home - but this morning after the snowfall, the car won't start again.  I had just cleaned it off and opened the doors but apparently the battery hadn't had long enough to charge on the drive home with the heater and lights on, and then the cold weather on top of that.  He had checked that the alternator was charging... and I haven't messed with tightening it again or moving it when the lights went out and it stopped dead this morning while starting.  I didn't have to go to work this morning, and Esme didn't have school.  I might be expected at work tomorrow, but I will have to call in, as I still don't think the roads are going to be passable.  Esme does not have school through the weekend - when it is supposed to rise finally above freezing again.

I really do wish one or the other of these vehicles was more reliable - this one had been, until it started doing this.  It still wouldn't have gotten me out on the roads today, because of the slickness, but starting would have been nice.  It's nice when cars start when you turn the key.

 grumble

 and the mail truck is still with the mechanic, or I might try that...

we do have a backup battery in the house and I might try to jump it tomorrow afternoon...

 

 This is what the snow looks like out there, 2 to 3 inches.

 

 and this is the new town I was working on in Minetest  I named the water feature that  spawned into  'Luna Bay', so it is saved as Luna bay town.

the old world got lost in the update and something about my computer is wasting space with errors... I don't mind starting over with a new world, but it is a bit of 'hiraeth' nostalgia now for all those places on the map that no longer exist.  I haven't ventured far from this place like in the other world, this one biome type seems to stretch FAR, and I gave up exploring for a bit and just kept building new houses, and went deep in the mine.  

I found copper, but still no tin or sulfur yet.  That makes iron, coal, graphite, gold and copper so far.  The copper,  like the gold, needs the carbon-steel pickaxe to mine.  The iron can be mined with a stone pickaxe.  

The copper can make pretty things like stairs and blocks, but it can't make the bronze without the tin.

I also found that all leaves are pretty good to burn if (IF) you are making glass - they work pretty well, and not a lot of them per piece of glass.  They don't work well with cooking much else.... even bread takes more fuel - sticks are viable.  The leaves from 'Tree' apple saplings type trees can be made into fiber - but only those leaves.  All the leaves burn.

I also found that the mine turtles can POP into existence right beside you with no warning.  Fun fun.  I ran quickly and then hit it with my spear, but that was a surprise jolt.

 

Made eggs - the chickens are laying very well at the moment.  Made rice, saved some of that for dinner.  Would really like Spring.  Please?  Languages: Czech and Japanese

bits of February (2)

 Sweetie is in at the vet and they will either call us tomorrow to discuss, or do the surgery and call us tomorrow to tell us she is out.  I have to work, of course - and it is going to be an extremely busy day as everyone is trying to ship in and out as there is a snowstorm supposed to hit later tomorrow night, into Wednesday, drop to single digits and not melt for several days.  We filled the propane bottle, have animal feeds and people food.  The boss expects Wednesday will probably be a stuck at home day, but I don't know further than that, as we tend to get snowed in here and it should be gone by Saturday but missing work because we live in the middle of nowhere and get snowed in, when those at the highway can get in... that is more stress on top of Sweetie's surgery.  She may have more wrong.. they said they had to wait for blood work tomorrow to know if they will proceed.  So I have to keep my phone close at work and wait for the call.

 

Yay (sarcasm + stress).

I'm going to bed now.

bits of February

 and February is ... running down that hallway over there, go catch it.  We are feeling better from that flu-like thing that knocked us all down.  My one ear was clogged for a long time as a remnant of it, but it feels almost normal now.  It was like walking around with a cotton sock stuck over my ear - just slightly dulled and nothing I could do about it.

Doing Japanese and French and a little Romanian, work, cold and rainy but there were a few days almost 70 degrees in there, too -- trying to get Sweetie dog into the vet for something we couldn't afford before, but she really does need.  We knew it would be a good sized vet bill to do it, and were trying to find when we could do it for her.   Got Grandma to the store after getting the little car back, Esme helped in the store and unloading all the groceries.   Grandma's puppies are fat and energetic!  It's not easy at all getting things in and out of the house with them running around.   

 

Our chickens had taken almost two months off of laying any eggs, while this egg shortage 'crisis' is in the news all over... but just about a week ago they started laying again, one a day (for 15 hens), then two, then four, now five... they must have liked those 70 degree days quite a bit, too.  We'll have some more cold nights coming up.Hoping it doesn't sleet, ice or snow soon, so I can continue getting to work.  

 

Got the little car back from having the radiator fixed.  It's hard to get parts for a twenty-five year old car.  Put the mail truck in the shop to try to fix the headlights taken out by the deer and a few other things.  It will be the same with that except it is a Toyota and that is a little easier to find most parts for.   Doing laundry.  Trying to get enough sleep, and it's cold.  I keep telling Mark sarcastically 'I have all these bones that are unhappy with me'... hip, elbows... the other day I dreamt that I was having a bike custom-fit for me (because Mark was telling me the day before about such a thing he did in his youth) and the technician while swapping parts on the bike also took off my arm at the elbow and replaced it with another one.. woke up and that elbow was hurting because I had twisted it strangely (hEDS, yay sarcasm) and it had finally hurt enough to wake me up.  Roll over, sleep for another hour on the other side, and it clicks back into the right place.  (hEDS, yay, no sarcasm).

/still expanding my map in the minetest game, found out those green saddled pig things are called 'mine turtles' in the game... made a lot of new places by sailing down rivers and putting new farms wherever I could land with resources - then found them again by road and stairs and now my map is much more interconnected, it's actually really cool to bounce around from place to place   

 elbows hurting right now, make another pot of coffee and off to bed

They won't do Sweetie's surgery until next week, but they did drain the area a little and give us antibiotics and set her up with some shots so they can hold her overnight there and make sure everything is good.  It should just be a few stitches, they say, after they use a laser, and she will be so much more comfortable and probably add years onto her life.  That is what we hope.  She'll be twelve next month - I looked it up.  And, bonus.. she let them do the shots and all of the other things without even getting upset, because she realized we are trying to help.  When she was spayed, she bit someone and was very upset with us for a good while.  This time, she was really good with the vet and even asked us when we got home 'why didn't they fix it?'.... but when we started giving her the pills she is taking them like a trooper.  I hope all goes well until next week comes.  They couldn't do the surgery until next week - and the other place wasn't even going to give her an exam for another week.

bits

 There was a flu like thing going around the schools here and it is still going through the community - last week was our week to go down, one by one - but not with the full thing so far luckily.  We're still not taking any unnecessary trips but I missed half a day of work and I allowed Esme two days off school although she was well on her way to better after the first day - that was the day I was starting to feel bad and if she was still not well and went to school and had to be picked up, that wouldn't have worked out too well.  My boss sent me home after a few hours, and I slept off and on after that all the way to dinner, and then went to bed and slept another ten hours.

Anyway.  I got back to asking a few more questions in the Minetest.  Mostly 'what's over there?' and going there.  I found a few more interesting biomes, and started actually giving places names again so I could remember one from another.

I've been orienting myself with the sunrises and sunsets, as well as my road network, which has become quite large.

some of the roads are more like 'death stairs', though - but they do work and I can make them a bit safer as I actually need to go that way again.

 

Other questions answered :

Yes, you can make coal in a furnace with just tree trunk bits burned by anything else wooden.  Leaves also burn, but very very fast, so you'd need hundreds of them to do anything other than bake a loaf of bread maybe.  

 Yes, so far I see that wheat grows out to three deep from a water source - someone told me it should really do it to four.  Will check.

Found a locked chest in a half-abandoned brick building in the middle of nowhere - made a lockpick and opened it - but it kept shutting again before I got everything out of it.  Bug maybe.  I was able to pick it again and again when it would stop letting me take things and back out of the inventory.

 You can mine overhead while sitting in a boat - but you might not be able to collect the drops based on your velocity and where it decides to fall.

 

What are those ferns for?  You can mix them with fiber (made from grass) and make fertilizer to improve your crop squares.

 

In order to make plain 'fiber' all you need is types of grass - lots of types work. But to make rope, you need to go break some dirt in the desert biome.  It gives the dry grass clumps you might have been wondering where they come from - I was.  And then the rope can be used to make a lasso, which I still have the fun of experimenting with.  I haven't even used the net yet that I made in the other biome.  

I also miss fishing in the original Minecraft.  /thinks  This is a bit like fishing for things that are already on land.

 

 

Well it took like ten minutes - I went and tried the net out on things.  It works on sheep, pigs, skunks but not clams (roll eyes) yes I try things like that.  It doesn't work OFTEN - there are a lot of misses.  It makes the animal a 2D icon and you can pick it up, carry it somewhere, and drop it again, like in a fence.  The lasso works the same way but I had much better luck with it on the pig right away.  Interestingly the pig came up as 'boar' when it was 2D, and the sheep as sheep.  I wonder if there are pigs that are sows, and sheep that are rams?  Maybe not.  I haven't successfully bred any yet.  I don't even know if this version has that.  With these tools to move them around, it's hard to tell either way.

The pigs (boars) can get out the fence easily.  The sheep didn't.  Also, in my inventory, the sheep do not stack - they each need their own inventory slot.  I could not get to them to breed with hay, straw or wheat - although they looked at me and ate the wheat from my hand.  I put the hay and straw both in the pen for a bit, and tried to feed it to them.

 

 sometimes it feels like it is always dark and/or raining except for a few rare times.

I hadn't seen any monsters except that green saddled pig creeper thing - did take down several more of those with spears, because once you see them it's a good chance they see you and come after you.  Then, I ran into trouble in a desert biome at night.  I guess I'll call this one a sort of skeleton-sounding desert spider walker thing, from now on to be referred to as a desert spider-walker.

 

it's a bad screenshot but it's at night and they come jump through the air in a huge leap straight onto you after this... so needless to say, I have a sword and steel armor now.  They don't drop anything (unlike the pig creeper which drops tnt) but they sound like bones when they fall over.  The first one jumped down on me when I was mining a shallow hole in the desert at night and it would have finished me off if I hadn't started hitting it with the pickaxe.

Also found this sort of jungle biome.  There are potatoes there, some wheat, and the trees drop apple saplings.  It wasn't too far from a place with clams, and pigs are wandering around.  I didn't build a base there, but there would have been plenty of food for one.  Clearing some of the trees would have been the job.  I built a road halfway through and then went back and decided it was time to go check out the new desert I had found.  It had some gold ore just laying on top of the ground, which was unlike the other desert with the village that was on the other side of the map.

I am still looking for the sulfur, tin and copper which the online player manual does not talk about but I see in the creative menu.  Where are they? That is why I thought 'let's check in the desert'.... and then the desert spider walker made me rethink my wandering strategy and I came back better armed.

More later.

bits

 We got the taller propane tanks secured into the back of the truck today - which was something we had been working on for a long time.  That meant we could fill up four times the amount I've been getting every other day in the small tanks.  

Then we got some groceries, and came home.  A yellow squash was fifty-nine cents, and the big white onion was one dollar and forty-nine cents.  I bought an apple for sixty-nine cents.  I wanted to compare what the prices were after a while, but really they aren't that high compared to what the news is saying everything is too expensive to buy vegetables.

I made squash and onions with bacon over rice for Esme and I - and a bit of hamburger on the side for each of us while Mark had one.  The other night we made an 'Italian' soup, with a marinara pasta packet and some kale in one pan, and tomatoes, cannellini beans, peppers and onions fried together with some hamburger in another pan - then put it all together into bowls with garlic toast.  That was really good - although I hadn't meant it to be 'soup' until that last moment when I guessed eating it as soup was better than waiting for a much longer time for it to boil down the sauce into a thicker texture.

Tired - headed off to bed.  I played a little bit of Minetest (like Minecraft) earlier while we washed the laundry - and made a good amount of progress.  Yea, it's Luanti, not Lunati but you could understand my mistake.  Lunati looks cool for a name.  Lua-nti makes sense since it is programmed in Lua.

 

A scaffolding (ladder) decoration added to a balcony formation made in the side of my typical stairstep roof.  Another watchtower on a little island across some water - as seen from the balcony.

 

Checked off some new skills / achievements / tests :

Figured out how to sneak finally, and built a long air bridge across a canyon. 

Figured out how to use that shift (sneak) button to descend the ladders - that took forever.

Made the stone spear and then was able to kill the pigs, the creeper things (that looked like saddled pigs but blew up with TNT) and the skunk like creatures.

Found a desert biome and harvested cotton in the wild.  I still haven't seen what else can be made from the cotton except for cotton bales.

Made reed blocks with swamp grass clumps and papyrus.  It can be dried in the furnace to make a different color. Esme said :It's like thatch.

Discovered that potatoes grow in swamp or plains area.  

Found a mixed plains/swamp area where I could plant all of the crops within not too far from each other.

Traded with a villager using the trade book and bought a cactus (still seeing how that will turn out). If only I could find one that would sell me a carrot, now!

Made brick.  It required no clay - just sand and gravel *question mark*

Discovered that yes, indeed, the wheat and cotton and potato will grow two deep away from a water square - but they won't grow well without a water square.

Made two new farms and started naming and completing the interconnection between them so I can travel fairly easily from one to another.  Experimented with new roof styles and using half-blocks as well as the stairs.

Found iron ore and mined it with a stone pickaxe, then discovered how to take the wrought iron ingots to steel and carbon steel using graphite.  I had been wondering what the graphite was for!  Made shears with the carbon steel.  The carbon steel pickaxe cut through rock like butter.

Made flint and steel, and made TNT from base materials (instead of just monster drop).

Made carbon steel and mined gold ore with it.  I kept seeing the gold speck stuff and it would not break with a stone pickaxe.  I didn't know if that was sulfur or gold - because you can't look at things like in the old Minecraft before you break it.  The gold isn't very useful, yet... although one ingot was needed to make the trade book I already had that from the first village having that in a chest.

Still haven't found tin or sulfur, although they are supposed to be out there.  Have found a few locked chests in villages and haven't went through how to open them although there is a tool that can be crafted for that.