Lousy Summer.
My summer has been relatively awful. It started out okay, but soon I was sick for nearly a month thanks to illness brought to me twice by my neice. I then, and I’m still there, have been experiencing pretty significant pain from my teeth. I’ve been to the dentist, it’s not so much avoiding the inevitable removal of nearly all teeth, but the financial difficulty in affording such a thing. Dental costs have soared it seems and when you have a whole mouth full of pain it takes an uncomfortably long period of time to pay for all the work to be out of pain… and then comes the problem of being able to eat anything other than pudding, jello, etc. I’ve decided to no longer have teeth repaired, repair only results in putting off the inevitable removal, all the while ultimately costing me twice as much as just removing it in the first place.
I did apply for ‘reduced rates’ at this one dental office, but because I don’t live in a cardboard box I’m not eligible. I should say that it is because I live with my mom, her income pushes the ‘household’ (and they require that I count her income for some assinine reason) over the limit, even if on my own I would be eligible. Okay, so I’m not horribly poor, but I’m by no means even average, if it weren’t for living with my mom I’d not be able to survive. I literally make half as much as I used to even a couple years ago… business is bad… and it won’t be getting better.
I gained weight as a result of quitting smoking. This, indirectly, has lowered any desire to be terribly active. The additional weight has been such that my clothes don’t really fit. If I dug around for my old clothes I’d be okay, and I’ve procrastinated on that because it’s a form of admitting defeat. I did gain back my weight… …I’ll lose it again… someday.
Now, we’re at near record levels of heat for the summer… being fat and heat, they don’t mix. The weather has been wretched from a garden perspective. When I intended to be outside working I was sick or in too much pain thanks to my dissolving teeth, now it’s far too hot to be outside, and I’m still in pain.
My only hope is that I put off everything I’d been planning to do, spend all my non-bill money on the dentist, and it’ll probably be about $600 before I’m actually out of pain (and then some other teeth will start hurting to begin the cruel cycle again…) which I don’t think I can even manage before it gets cold… but hopefully this autumn I can get some of the yard work done that I meant to do in May and June… pathetic isn’t it? My roses are in such sad shape from the beetles and the blackspot… I’d be surprised if they all survived the winter. I’ve just not had the energy to fertilize and spray them… or weed around them… or even mulch them properly.
Honestly, it just sort of feels like I’m just sitting here waiting to get enough money to go the dentist, then sit again… go to the dentist again… over and over again. I know it’ll get better and things will eventually go back to normal, but this really sucks.
Totally unrelated to all that, I did buy the 2×4s a couple of weeks ago to start making the stand for the someday to be purchased 75 gallon aquarium. One of the 2×4s we actually not quite the right size… I think the supplier at Lowes is stove-piping the bundles. If the lumber I bought is “prime” or otherwise the best I can buy (at least at Lowes) then, guh, I’d hate to see the cheap stuff. Anyway, I had to remake part of it because of this dimensional screw up. I’ve also determined that there are very few places, none perhaps, where I have a flat and level surface, meaning the whole thing is level consistently across the area needed. I’m still a little unsure if my stand is properly flat… because it seems to rock a little bit, but it could be the floor; I know the shed floor isn’t level in any direction. When I shim everything I can make it level in every direction… so I suppose that is the answer. I’ll be putting 3/4″ plywood and a layer of foam as extra security, but… I’m sort of on that edge of wanting to do the whole thing again, take the best out of two. While the cost of more screws and lumber is significant enough (for such crappy lumber it’s practically as bad as the robbery the dental industry is) it is nothing compared to the aftermath of 75 gallons of water exploding out of its glass enclosure.
In other aquarium related news, I finally finished purchasing the bare minimum of parts for the pressurized CO2 system. Granted, this is just a regulator, diffuser, and CO2 cylinder, but each part cost enough that I just couldn’t go out and get everything at once. Growth has been much better than previously with the DIY (yeast/sugar/water) CO2 generator, but the insideous black beard algae (BBA) hasn’t made a significant retreat. Growth slowed relative to creating a better environment for the plants, but that was before pressurized CO2. I believe the only option is to simply allow the plants to grow out of it, trimming out infected segments on a regular basis; eventually it will be gone. There is the option of removing all effected plant segments at once, but the risk of throwing the aquarium seriously out of balance is too great.
Suddenly, it seems, there is now phosphate (PO4) in my tap water. This is greatly disturbing and I hope it’s somehow only a temporary condition, as otherwise I believe I’ll be downsizing my aquatic pets significantly; while the added PO4 while a surprise, will actually be saving me on having to dose so much into my ‘high performance’ aquarium, any added PO4 is a disaster in my low-light aquariums… I’ve had pretty horrid algae outbreak as a result of the extra PO4 throwing my low-light aquarium in the bedroom out of balance. The additional PO4 in the relatively nitrogen-limited aquariums has caused an outbreak of cyanobacteria, otherwise known as green slime algae or blue green algae. It can fix its own nitrogen and thus will thrive with extra phosphate while other higher plants suffer. Adding nitrogen to low light tanks is in general a less than great idea, and of course doing water changes actually makes the problem worse; eventually the phosphate will be used up… it’s annoying.
It occured to me while writing about the aquariums that some may think I should spend that money on fixing my teeth… and perhaps it would be the most responsible course of action, but I need to keep my life worth living… money needs to be spent to make life enjoyable, otherwise it’ll actually be ‘just waiting around’ like it only feels like right now. I’m trying to balance all the needs with the limited financial capacity I’ve found myself with lately… and anyway, the aquarium fund is directly the money I’d otherwise be spending on cigarettes if I hadn’t quit in January. Justification… oh the fun.
Considering how unbelievably painful my last extraction was, when I tried to save some money by going to a different dentist, (which was a massive mistake), I’m really starting to wonder just how much more painful it’d have been if I just used pliers myself. $115 for an extraction is really getting to be ludicrously expensive. …self extraction isn’t something I plan on trying though… even if I’d save hundreds of dollars, heh.
Unrelated again, I’m planning on… perhaps this fall, build a new TV stand. I believe that I have come up with a much better design than the current one, and while I could retrofit and refinish my current stand, the sheet of MDF to just make a new one is a relatively small price to pay when considering the annoyances of refinishing (which I did last year to my side table and coffee table). The size and type of little electronic stuff has changed a lot since I originally built the current stand and now with having a router and table saw I can do a much more intricate and thus better job. Huzzah for not having the underpaid guy at Lowes or Home Depot cut all the pieces for me… and risking him being slightly off, unintentionally or intentionally because he’s annoyed I’m actually asking him to do part of his job, heh. I only say that because once one of the guys was so incredulous that I wanted him to cut up a sheet of MDF for me… that is why they have a panel saw afterall! Anyway, the new design has the dvd player, receiver, and dvr in the center, with the overall box divided into thirds instead of in half. This will serve to lend not only additonal compressive support to the top (the current stand has deflected slightly on the 22″ or so span with the weight of the tv. The center section will have slots cut to accept 1/2″ MDF shelves for the components, this will allow the shelves to slide out for wiring, but also allow the shelves to be re-arranged if it ever becomes necessary. Eventually I’ll create doors to cover the left & right cubbyholes, which will then overlap the edges of the center supports to hide the shelf slots. If I ever feel particularly fancy I designed those doors to accept either glass or acrylic (acrylic would be better… even if scratch prone) so that half the door will be solid, the other half is then glass, so the glass half covers the center section. I might not be explaining this well, but I like the idea. I’ll probably not put the acrylic panels in the doors though, for fear of trapping heat, the dvr is quite the hot device. If I ever bought an Xbox 360, haha, I’d burn down the whole cabinet from the heat! ;)
I think that’s about it… time to crawl back into my hiding spot.