holycrap

You leave the house empty for less than 24 hours, and the next thing you know a giant "waterbug"-roach nastiness is having the nerve to walk across your damn brand-clean desk that you just decontaminated days earlier with isopropyl alcohol (happy side effect of busily cleaning your keyboard at long last)... UGH. smash!
doom for bug.

is it thursday again?

I won't discuss time again.

I will mention, briefly, that my battle with the dreaded aquarium bacteria is ongoing, but they are decidedly on the losing side; their annihilation is imminent. The lugging of 5 gallon buckets has been good for my arms, at least, and Pi and Tres seem to love all the attention and excitement.

I have been working as Tara Lynne's helper-monkey (assistant bartender) at Beast on Wednesday nights. I have also been working in the big town across the river since Friday; some on-site freelance at the work place of an old friend and college classmate. Speaking of which, I must depart!

166. Return

This, Blogger™ tells me, shall be my 166th post.

It is a cruel thing, returning to a city on the edge of a heat wave, having spent the fullness of a week beneath fairer skies and witness to the Atlantic's infinite recitation upon the shore of a barrier island. Fire, was the island. (Fair Harbor to be specific.) What a singular place; so narrow- a wisp of a landmass (the word mass being used exceedingly loosely, here).

Completed The Alienist (Caleb Carr); also read The Stargazey (Martha Grimes), which I left at the house for future fans of the Richard Jury series; and finally, The Children of Hurin (Tolkien)-- the darkest of the lot by far, as I realize now all of my beach reading selections were stacked with death!

Some images: (more will appear on Flickr™ at some point)
Oh how I love being near to water in the summer. A balm to mind and body. (Being away from this computing machine also helps.)


looking east from our front deck, just before dawn


the sunken forest


sunset on the bay side, taken through a sunglass lens for pinkness!

more amsterdam...

the continuation of glazing

Here shows the ongoing work with the awnings image! This one is clickable, so to provide a larger view as well...

h20

after second major water change

Thursday came and instead of their water being clear, it was thoroughly cloudy again, and Tres was showing signs of "brown blood" from the overabundance of bacteria and their attendant nitrates. Aigghh!!! So, Friday morning I had to change out a great deal of the water again, and more salt. (This time I dissolved the salt first). The photo above shows them later, in the evening after the change-out. Sullen, just lurking on the bottom, mirrored in their misery. I was really worried that it would continually get worse. I removed the plastic plants, salted and scrubbed them, but decided to leave them out for now. I also added opaque black foil to the sides of the tank to prevent sunlight coming in as much as possible.


much better!

However! Saturday morning arrived with still-clear (95% clear anyway) and happy fishes! Brown blood gone! Begging for food and swimming around like freaks! Still are today. They won't even slow down long enough for a clear photo. *whew!* Probably one more (smaller) water change-out today, to keep them safe from evil bacteria.