Not just hard, WAY hard water

7/20/10 Tuesday
First thing on the list is to finish rebuilding the evaporative air conditioner. I had presumed the reason it wasn’t cooling air was due to the high humidity, and while that is a fact upon closer inspection I discovered the tubes that transfer water had once again plugged up. This is nothing new and I’ve cleaned them out before as best I could. Our water is not just hard water, it’s way hard water. When lawn sprinklers and even water hose attachments plug up with mineral deposits after a short period of use you know the water is hard. So I had to go buy a kit to replace all the tubing and already spent a couple of hours carefully scraping and chipping mineral deposits off the pump, which I just replaced last year. Cherie and I have lived in front of the fans all week. It doesn’t get to me much as I’m working outside all the time but it’s been hard on Cherie, who spends her work day in air conditioning. When we get a few extra dollars I’ll buy a window air conditioner. The biggest problem will be getting electricity to it as there are no plugs on the outside wall.

Today I’ll go to Midland and do my laundry. It’s going to be a tight couple of weeks as we’ve had several expenses to pay out on. I’ll poop scoop at our friends house and check on the cabinet repair job I did but haven’t followed up on. I think that going to Midland will not happen till later in the day as there is plenty that needs doing here on the farm and I want to catch it early in the day before it gets too hot.

Giving the dogs a tick bath is high on the to do list as well. As expensive as Frontline is it still doesn't seem to do well against the ticks. Rascal and Trixie will stand still for the bath but Gretchen and Ben are another matter. I'll have to spray them with the Adams spray we have that seems to work.

Cherie is doing better now. The depression comes in waves and she is working on forgiving the people who unwittingly hurt her so bad. There’s more to that but I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut. When the time’s appropriate I might write about the whole situation, or I might not. I’ll take Cherie’s advice on that one.

That’s it. There’s work to do and it ain’t getting done while I sit here and write. See ya next time.
=====================================================================

Came in to take my ten o’clock pain pill. 1 every four hours, took first at 6:00 this morning. Woke up hurting as I often do. I just got done washing Trixie and Rascal. Bending over each one of them for over ten minutes each as I scrubbed the shampoo in as per the instructions was excruciating, but it has to be done. Looking at the clock I can tell I spent way more than ten minutes each on them. You don’t know how many ticks are on them till you wet them down and start scrubbing in the shampoo. When they are wet you can see the ticks easier through the thick fur and as I work the shampoo in with my fingers I can feel them easily. My fingers are trained to detect ticks or anything else in their fur now. We constantly find ticks as we pet them. Cherie tells me we just put the frontline on them two weeks ago and you are not supposed to apply it more than once a month.

Ben and Gretchen have disappeared, as they regularly do, so I’m unable to spray them down. Guess I’ll go work on the air conditioner now. Hard to believe it’s already after ten. Time flies when there’s lots to do.

I remembered yesterday that there had been a pipeline break on our land last year and they had come out and dug it up to repair. It’s a pipe that runs from our oil well towards the highway. Now I wonder if that’s responsible for the big increase of salt in our well water. We really need to pursue that. Several people told me that they would get me the number and address of the railroad commission, who’s responsible for that, but none of them have. It’s a constant frustration for me to keep forgetting what I need to do and to consistently not follow through on things. Just read an article concerning a veteran who sustained a traumatic brain injury in Iraq five years ago where he expresses the same frustration. Then there is always the constant flow of people who can’t seem to comprehend this. They look at me and talk with me and are unable to detect these issues so presume I’m fine. That’s why they call it the “Unseen illness”. I’ve built companies despite multiple TBI’s and was able to do it because I could hire people to compensate for the problems that come with it. That came up at the USDA meeting when I was asked what made me think I could accomplish the business plan when I had a hard time with day to day tasks. I told them I would hire people to help but that didn’t seem to get through, get past the preconceived notions of what it takes to be successful. I’ll make it with or without their help, but it would sure be easier with it.

Break time’s over. Gotta go