Did not get eaten by the bugs.

There are bugs, but in the cities they are way less difficult than you might think.
Mosquitoes. like everywhere, seem to increase with rain.
There is a dreadful little gnat called a no-see-um. Very tiny, but you have to mash it to stop it because it won't quit chewing.
These can mostly be avoided by not being out in the lawn at dusk or using the same repellent that works on mosquitoes
Those giant cockroaches called Palmetto bugs are rarely seen, hide from people, and are easily stomped.
If you get cockroaches or fleas in your house, it's your fault for providing food for them.
We used to have love bugs that would clog up your radiator, but they are about as common as lightening bugs now.
We have red wasps that don't care about people. Not like the mid-west wasps that will attack you. Just move a bit so they can tell you aren't a flower and they wander off.
Other than that, standard plant bugs like aphids, caterpillars, and moths.

It really isn't bad in the bug department. Stay out of the lawn at sunset and use standard mosquito techniques at night. That's all.

 

There are bugs, but in the cities they are way less difficult than you might think.

No chiggers? My sister's place in central Missouri has them. Awful little beasts. Itched and scratched for 2 weeks after a stroll onto their lawn.

Note that I am in Denver, Co. All we have here are mosquitos. We can sleep on the grass here.

 

No chiggers in Florida.

However, I would like to mention how funny it is to see a mid-west person going into some kind of insane dance trying to get away from the wasps.
They don't know the wasps don't care and all you have to do is quit holding still long enough for them to figure out you aren't a plant.

 

Actually, we do have bees and wasps and a lot of other buzzing and crawly critters here. Like you, I don't think about them because they are not a problem.

 

Better that I landed in Florida. I sweat like a pig, but the air is clear and the sunsets are beautiful.
Besides, I have an ace in the hole. My day job is air conditioning.

But doesn't that mean that you spend all your time in places where the air conditioning isn't working -- and that you have to leave as soon as it starts working?

 

I have been to central Florida twice -- both times in the fall. The weather was great. Did not get eaten by the bugs. It did rain for one day in Daytona Beach.

I was stationed in the panhandle of Florida (basically southern Alabama-- in more ways than one) and it did away with any desire I ever had to live in Florida. There were about two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall when it was absolutely perfect. The rest of the year sucked. Then again, I grew up in a semi-arid climate so I don't tolerate humidity very well.

There were lots of bugs -- including big ones -- but they weren't much of a problem. Where I live now probably has more bugs, but they are mostly small and easily ignored.

 

But doesn't that mean that you spend all your time in places where the air conditioning isn't working -- and that you have to leave as soon as it starts working?

Yes.
When I arrive to fix an air conditioner, it usually isn't working. When I leave, the air conditioner has not yet caught up with the heat in the house.
It was similar when I did house calls to fix TVs, refrigerators, microwave ovens, fuel burning furnaces, leaky faucets, etc. They usually didn't work when I arrived and I left after I fixed them.
Only in factory jobs did I stay after I fixed the first machine.
In the case of house calls, I have never figured out how to legitimately stay after the job is done.

 

In the case of house calls, I have never figured out how to legitimately stay after the job is done.

Reminds me of a carpet cleaning commercial that runs around here. The premise is a guy calls into the carpet police to file a complaint and so there's a lot of Q & A. At one point it goes, "Did they send a two-man crew?" and the response is, "No, just one guy. He never left -- he's dating my daughter."

 

He never left -- he's dating my daughter."

The first, "profound" thought I had about doing house calls: If you sleep with the customer, even once, you will never cash another check from her.
(Do I need to explain that I divined this without direct experience?)
Company policy probably frowned on dating the customers and I had a wife at the time, but offers happened, both overt and clandestine.
I assumed it was about avoiding any sort of cash payment for the repairs.

 

My Dad was a air and heat tech for a Whirlpool dis. in the late 60s. I worked with him a few summers while in high school. We had to go on a service call one time, for a brand new microwave oven a customer had just bought. This oven cost thousands of dollars and the Dis. owner wanted Dad to answer that call. Dad was real good with handling customers.

Well, we get out there in the service truck, and the place is big and fancy. Gardeners and maids.
Very rich.

So, the lady of the house takes us back to the kitchen and Dad asks her what seems to be the problem.

This lady reaches over to the oven, turns it on, grabs her tits, and starts yanking them in and out.

I kid you not. She is standing there pulling on them in and out, and she says "Everytime I turn this oven on, it tries to pull my bra off!"

Dad busted out laughing and I joined in, couldn't stop, had to leave, lady was furious.

We told the Dis. owner what happened, he chuckled and said he wasn't worried about it.

Never heard from the woman or the oven.

 

This lady reaches over to the oven, turns it on, grabs her tits, and starts yanking them in and out.

That tops anything I have ever seen!

I think my worst customer wasn't the customer.
We installed an air conditioner in a 3 story condo, got paid, everything worked, and everyone went home.
That means we were everywhere from up on the roof to, "the drain is inside the concrete slab, so you just have to use the pipe provided".
We did a free call to clean out the old drain pipe about a week later.
A month later I received a phone call from the son of the customer He said he wanted to renegotiate the price.

WTF?!
We did a proper install with all the little details taken care of, the machine was right for the job, everything worked, we did it for about $300 under the other prices that were bid, nobody was complaining, and we even came back later and fixed the existing drain pipe. Apparently this guy thought he was in charge of protecting his mother from, "nothing is wrong and I got a great price".

The inspectors were worse than the customers. Things like, "You didn't bid on anything but the air conditioner for the room addition but I won't sign off on it unless you add a bathroom vent fan and install nail protectors on the pipes for the old machine which cools the original part of the building." Then there was the time we paid $385 for a sheet metal transition to get the air outlet low enough to go under the building and the inspector told us to tear it all out, dig a trench, and lower the air conditioner. That was the job where the City Permit Department forced me to make 17" x 22" drawings of the two story building with two air conditioners showing the lack of holes we weren't making between the first and second floors. I drew a floor plan, copied the page, and labeled it, "penetrations to to the second story" and there were none. The Building Department deemed the drawings acceptable.
Did you ever wonder why a free standing Bank building has 5 small air conditioners? It's cheaper to make 5 independent zones than to install a fire damper on every air grille in the building.

Or the document where I was forced to swear (under penalty of perjury) that there are at least 3.412 B.T.U.s in a watt-hour.
I asked the official if he would like for me to swear that circles are round.

Still, I have to admit that the civilian construction industry has a lot less B.S. than military jobs. I am so grateful I only tried that once. "Here, fix these radios but don't replace any parts." It took me about 6 weeks to get so frustrated that I quit.

Edit: Does this belong in the Jokes Thread?

 

Or the document where I was forced to swear (under penalty of perjury) that there are at least 3.412 B.T.U.s in a watt-hour.
I asked the official if he would like for me to swear that circles are round.

You should be grateful they didn't make you swear on all the digits of pi !

 

You should be grateful they didn't make you swear on all the digits of pi !

Yesterday was the day to talk about Pi.

 

It looks like a cold front is going to stall on top of me, causing 4 days of unpredictable rain.
70F to 82F for the next 4 days. Good temperatures for Florida people.
Doing my happy dance about finding the coolant leak in my used car. I guess I'll fix that in between thunder storms.

 

We got hit with a blizzard yesterday. It dumped 18" of wet, heavy snow at our house and forced the closure of I-25 (the main north/south interstate in Colorado) from Colorado Springs to Castle Rock (just south of Denver) pretty much all day. So we were essentially snow bound and, somewhat by choice, still are. I could fire up the Beast and plow the road, but as with Colorado spring storms, it is quite warm today and melting pretty well. I shoveled the deck (which took a couple hours) in just my shirtsleeves and with no gloves -- gotta love Colorado weather! So we are waiting until tomorrow to see if the Saturn might be able to make it out without the Beast's help.

 

@WBahn We here get the result of your weather, it is either a Colorado Low or a Colorado High coming in.
At the moment I am having a beer on the deck.
Max.

 

@WBahn We here get the result of your weather, it is either a Colorado Low or a Colorado High coming in.
At the moment I am having a beer on the deck.
Max.

Interesting -- we sometimes get Canada Highs or Lows. Usually, though, if we get something from Canada is it a high pressure system while our lows generally come from Gulf of Mexico. I don't know which way this storm tracked -- it took me a bit by surprise because it's Spring Break and so I haven't been driving much and that's about the only time I get news and weather. We just woke up and found all of our windows -- on every side of the house -- completely frosted and snowed over. Very unusual for us. Even more unusual is that our internet connect has stayed mostly up and at normal speed (for us). Extremely unusual given both the wind shaking the trees and the heavy snow in the trees -- either of which usually takes down our link for the duration.

 

We got snow again yesterday (and it is snowing again right now). Following a couple warm days that meant icy roads on the mountain this morning. At the final descending switchback the Saturn could get any grab, either to stop (I was crawling to begin with, so it just sped up) or to turn as sharply as needed. So I went off the mountain. Fortunately the berm caught the inboard wheel so it hung up hanging off the edge on the frame and wheel with the other three wheels in the air. Even if it had gone all the way over I would have been stopped within a couple more feet by the trees. It was a slow enough excursion that I wasn't hurt at all and about five minutes later one of my fellow plow drivers came down. So we hooked up and, after several hard hanks, he got me back up on the road. Amazingly, there doesn't seem to be any body damage, but my alignment is pretty well screwed -- hopefully that's all.

In theory, the day should only get better from here. Indications, however, are that this might be a tad too optimistic an outlook.

 

Sorry to hear about the adventure.
Things are starting to get pretty nice here, I might head down to the beach at the river today.

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/97024:4:US

 

The heat index got to 93F yesterday, sunny and dry. I'm happy I met my schedule getting that used car ready before summer. The 1996 Aerostar isn't worth rebuilding the A/C, and I can't get parts for it, so I'm delighted that the new car has dual air, and it all works. I didn't think you could properly cool a black car in Florida. Happily surprised!

Not the happy part: I have to resume mowing the lawn in the summer.
Oh well. Thirty-five minutes of chasing a lawn mower around passes for exercise.