Coffee heat rising

The not-enough-long-green blues

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{sigh} Over at Room Farm, Chance was  down in the dumps yesterday, worried about paying off the ginormous debt and feeling overwhelmed by all those little chores given to piling up if your attention is even briefly distracted. Annoying computer is again not letting me speak on Room Farm…some days it works, others it doesn’t. But her remarks do bring to mind the general summer doldrums, not the least of which is the not-enough-long-green blues.

In these parts, summer breeds cabin fever as surely as winter does for our snowbound brethren in the upper Midwest. Today the thermometer on my back porch reached a balmy 115 degrees…and believe me, you’d have to be balmy to go out in that. This leaves you inside the house, contemplating—what else? Your dreary budget and your prospects for penury, a horror show aggravated by the astronomical costs of an Arizona summer. The air-conditioner, set at 82, has been pounding steadily the entire day. Just to keep the potted plants alive, I’ve had to run water every. single. day for weeks—today being Saturday, it’s deep-watering day, so in addition to dumping the daily drench on all the potted plants, the roses and citrus need have water dribbled on them for hours. And a pool loses about an inch and a half to evaporation every day; that has to be replaced daily, lest the pump suck air and self-immolate. I’m going to have to borrow against my first-born child to pay this month’s water and power bills!

I’m turning into a mummified pickle sitting here in front of the computer all day. Other than work, work, and more work, there’s precious little to do. And boredom breeds inaction: the product of sitting on one’s duff all day is generally another day of sitting on one’s duff.

An unexpected visit from my neighbor Harriett reminded me of this. She knew the previous owners well and was curious to see how the house has changed since they left. As I was giving her the grand tour, I remembered that I hadn’t cleaned in four weeks! Old papers, junk, books, piles of shoes (bad habit: leave them on the floor wherever you slip them off your feet!), dog dunes, dirty dishes, unmade bed…eeeeeek!

I realized I need to get this place cleaned up, and then I need to get out of it. Sitting here in my own litter enjoying a blue funk is not a good thing. But…I also realize I can’t afford to spend money entertaining myself. Kathy and I are going to a chamber music concert next weekend, only ten bucks apiece—but that’s about it. I’m broke: can’t afford a cleaning lady, can’t afford to go out, can’t afford to travel, can’t even afford to fill my car’s gas tank without running the budget into the red.

Well, yesterday I scrubbed the joint from stem to stern, and that actually made me feel somewhat better. Then I decided to make a list of things I can do to avoid premature brain-death.  Here are a few ideas that came to mind:

Mall-walking. Some of the covered malls around here open at 7:00 in the morning for folks who would like to get a little exercise without expiring of heat exhaustion. La Maya and I have already started doing this; but it’s not necessary to have a walking buddy to enjoy this free activity. Just keep moving so you don’t have time to look at the (closed!) stores.

Free or low-cost community activities. Next Saturday I’m going on a photo walk with Paradise Valley Community College staff and students.

Take a hobby outdoors. When the extreme heat breaks (it will, as soon as the monsoon rains start), I intend to take a few pencils and a pad of paper to the park to do some drawing.

Invite friends to a casual (read “inexpensive”) dinner. M’hijito is entertaining me and friends at his house next weekend: smoked spareribs with whatever veggies and salad we can come up with.

Clean house. Yah, I know: bleagh! But it’s amazing how much a tidied-up and clean environment changes your outlook on life.

Visit a museum on “bum’s night.” Many museums open for no admission one day per week or per month.

Window-shop in commercial art galleries. Restrain yourself from buying, and this activity can be every bit as interesting as a tour through a contemporary art museum.

Take the dog for a walk. It’s free.

Play with the cat. Also free.

Wrap up your breakfast or dinner and go on an early morning or sunset picnic. Costs no more than you would have spent for food, anyway.

Volunteer. Serving up chow at the local food bank may make your own circumstances look pretty good while it gets you out of the house and into contact with other human beings.

That’s about as much as I’ve managed to dream up. What do you do to chase away the not-enough-long-green blues?

The DIY Dog Food Chef: Should you feed bones to your dog?

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As regular readers know, I feed Cassie the Corgi real food: a carefully calibrated combination of starch, vegetables, and cooked meat plus canine vitamins. Easy to fix and unlikely to be contaminated with adulterants such as melamine.

It being summer, we’re both developing cabin fever: when it’s 105-degrees plus, the pavement is too hot for her feet after dawn and before sunset. In her doggy boredom, she’s been working on creating a fine lick granuloma on one leg. Because she doesn’t pull off bandaids (what kind of a dog is she, anyway?), it’s pretty easy to block her from chewing the incipient wound she’s already built, but all that means is she finds another spot to lick.

No one really knows what leads a dog to lick itself raw, but some veterinarians speculate that one cause is boredom. So I decided she needs something to keep her busy with chewing: let her chew an object instead of her foot.

I never feed my dogs bones, mostly because they’re messy indoors and attract ants and other insects outdoors. Smaller bones, as we all know, are very dangerous to domestic dogs: the risk for intestinal impaction and perforation is high. Some people, however, think you can get away with large knuckle bones, those round heavy things that are pretty hard for a dog to break apart. And many folks figure a dog, being a direct descendant of the wolf and genetically barely discernible from the wolf, should have at any raw bones you care to give it.

A dog, however, is not a wolf. Over tens of thousands of years, Canis lupus familiaris has adapted to live with humans, and it’s a rare domestic pooch that brings down dinner on the range. I did a little research and found this interesting e-mail discussion between a small-animal veterinarian and biologists and caretakers who  manage captive wolves. The wolf experts point out that wild canids eat more than just a bone: when they ingest bones, they’re also eating skin and fur. The fur, in particular, tends to wrap itself around hard objects in the digestive tract, padding sharp bones and protecting the intestine.

Huh. Well, I don’t think I’ll be inviting Bugs Bunny to Cassie’s tea-time while she’s chewing some cow’s knuckles. So…hold the raw bones, waiter.

So what can I do to amuse this animal?

One reasonably safe strategy is to take a Kong-style toy and fill it with peanut butter or dog treats, so that the pooch has to fiddle with it for quite some time to extract the yummy stuff. Peanut butter, while probably harmless unless the dog is allergic to it, is fattening. You can substitute any number of fillers, including raw vegetables if your dog will eat them. Yogurt and cottage cheese can also be used. Ordinary dog treats work well. When using gooey or runny fillings, you can minimize leakage by freezing the filled Kong before giving it to the dog.

The other thing I’ll be trying is adding some omega-3 fatty acids to her food, lest she have a deficiency that’s giving her itchy skin. Easiest way to accomplish this is to include salmon in the diet. She likes salmon, but lately I’ve fallen into the habit of feeding hamburger most of the time. Dogs need a variety of protein sources. In addition to adding fish a couple times a week, I’ll dig some chicken out of the freezer for her, and also pick up some ground lamb the next time I see it on sale at Sprouts.

And finally, even though Cassie is pretty laid-back (she got over her apparent separation anxiety within a few weeks of taking over my house), to forestall any further neurotic behavior I’m going to have to get off  my duff at 5:30 in the morning and take her for a walk, instead of plopping in front of the computer and spending an hour or two blogging. She already polices the neighborhood every evening; in the mornings it will be safe for us to invade the park (we don’t go there after dark). So that should give her (and me) a little more exercise.

So, as to the answer to the question of whether you should feed bones to your dog: in a word, nope.

Dog food at Funny:

Doggie treats
General recommendations
Costs & benefits
Doggie chicken soup

Foil debit card hacking and balance inquiries

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Did you know you can use your debit card without entering a PIN? Identity thieves hacking into merchants’ hardware and software and stealing customers’ PINs have made using a debit card risky business. And some merchants, such as gas stations, transmit balance inquiries each time you use a debit card, racking up bank charges. Here’s an easy way to foil them:

When you get to the merchant’s cash register, swipe your debit card, then select “credit” on the keypad and sign the receipt. Your money still comes direct from your checking account, but when you sign for your purchase, you don’t have to enter a PIN. So, even though you’ve used your debit card, you haven’t put your PIN into the system.

This bit of intelligence comes from the Arizona State Credit Union and is confirmed by another credit union in Virginia. The Virginia credit union adds that the strategy also will avoid balance inquiry fees, which occur when you shop at places like gas stations that transmit balance inquiries when customers use debit or ATM cards, because such merchants don’t do balance inquiries when you select “credit.”

Alternatively, you can tell the cashier that you want to sign for your purchase. She or he will ask you to sign the receipt, as you would do with a credit card.

According to The Consumerist, selecting “credit” with a debit card sends the transaction through a different network than the one used for PIN transactions. Banks like you to do this because merchants have to pay more money for signature debits. But it doesn’t cost you a thing.

Image: Channel R, Wikipedia Commons

Update: Programmable thermostat vs. electric bill

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Comes a new electric bill in the mail. You may recall that last month I had another kitten because the revered Salt River Project presented a bill that was $37 higher than the June 2008 bill, when (all things being equal) last winter’s 3 percent rate hike should have delivered a $13 increase. Two factors could have had to do with this: a new programmable thermostat and a new chest freezer, which resided in the ovenlike garage.

The thermostat had been set to 80 degrees during the day and 76 at night. After perusing June’s $158 bill, I decided to reset the thermostat to 82 during the day, leaving it at 76 for sleeping. And I put Gerardo the Lawn Dude up to moving the freezer inside the house.

This month’s bill, at $165.78, came in $36 under the July 2008 bill of $201.92! Hallelujah!

I still don’t know which circumstance drove up the May bill—fricasseed freezer or programmable thermostat. Probably it was a bit of both.

June was fairly mild: only a couple of 110-degree days. July is the cruelest month here. This weekend we’re supposed to see temperatures of 114 to 116. That’s fairly typical. So, the bill that arrives in August covers the hottest period of the year. Last August’s bill was $229.54.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Tuesday I reprogrammed the thermostat to run at 82 degrees from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (about when I just can’t stand it another minute); then drop to 78 degrees between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.; and then to bring the temp down to 76 degrees between 10:00 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., the period when I usually start trying to get to sleep. After I should be asleep, then the temperature goes back up to 78.

Chances that I’ll actually sleep through a 78-degree night, of course, are nil. This morning I was up at 4:30, feeling just slightly too damn hot. But what the heck. If a miracle happens and I manage to drop off around 10, that’s 6 1/2 hours, bordering on adequate.

If this scheme keeps the August bill under about $225, I’ll be happy. SRP is going to raise rates again in November, so any cuts I can make now will just keep my head above water next summer. After that? Well…after “retirement,” move to Prescott, I guess, where temperatures are milder.

How come our post office doesn't look like Prescott's?
How come our post office doesn't look like Prescott's?

If you’re in debt…

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Javanese piggy bank, 14th or 15th century AD
Javanese piggy bank, AD 1300–1400

…you’re not alone! AARP recently published the results of a poll in which respondents were asked what proportion of their monthly income their monthly debt obligation amounted to. Nineteen percent of adults under 50 said they owed more than their monthly income! That’s almost one in five Americans.

We old buzzards weren’t much better off: 14 percent of people 50 and older were in the same boat.

Among the younger set, 24 percent saw about three fourths of their monthly income go to debt service, and 25 percent spent about half their income on debt. An incredible 26 percent of us dinosaurs said we spent 75 percent of our pay on debt.

Twenty-nine percent of the young things—more than a quarter, almost a third!—said they owed less than half their monthly income; 38 percent of survivors of the Cretaceous put our debt load at less than half of monthly income.

And…apparently the surveyors didn’t think to ask if anyone owed nothing. Too unlikely, eh?

IMHO, the most surprising element of this probably not very scientific survey was that over 1/4 of post-50s owed around 75 percent of monthly pay. Say what??? How could you possibly hit 50 or 60 or (hevvin help us) 70 and have to fork over 3/4 of your income to some lender?

Well…OK, two words: Edmund Andrews.

And no, I dunno how old he is. But obviously, if they included mortgage debt in this question (and there’s no sign they didn’t), folks who bought houses in the last three years or so are surely strapped.

In other categories, it’s not so surprising that old duffers are doing better than the rangy young pups: if you bought a house ten or fifteen years ago, what was once a breathtaking mortgage payment now looks pretty good. And most people hit their financial stride around age 50: typically people reach the peak of their earning power between ages 50 and 65. So if you earn more than ever before and you have an old mortgage, your debt ratio is probably lower…especially if you’ve been figuring you’d better shovel out from under the debt before you retire.

How about you? What proportion of your monthly income would you estimate your monthly debt to be?

Image: Wikipedia, GNU free documentation license

Impromptu shrimp curry

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I ate it before I could take a photo of it. Sorry. It deserved a picture.

The other day M’hijito and I went over to the new westside Lee Lee, an Asian supermarket of local fame. While there, I picked up a three-lifetime supply of Madras curry.

If you’ve never tried Madras curry powder, consider seeking it out or making it. So lovely! It’s spicey-warm and…well, the only word I can think of is “mellow.” It’s a deliciously mellow, just slightly hot spice.

Around 10:15 this evening, I was moved to fix dinner. As you can imagine, the bare fact that it was after ten o’clock before I got around to eating reflected a difficult, nay, hair-pulling day. Luckily for you, you weren’t here!

Anyway, with the air conditioning system fixed and an estimate of taxes on Social Security benefits run and a new set of survival figures calculated (*$%$&*#@!!!), bills paid, budget rejiggered, pool cleaned, copy read, more copy left unread, inadvertently dessicated lime tree rescued, associate editor’s new GDU horror story confronted, friend’s woes heard, dog walked, thermostat re-re-re-reprogrammed, and the general hysteria ebbing, I wanted something easy and fast to prepare. Pulled an open bag of frozen shrimp out of the fridge and proceeded:

I had…

• four or five medium-sized frozen shrimp (one serving), defrosted and patted dry with a towel or paper towels
• some leaf lettuce
• a ripe mango (any fruit would do)
• 1/4 lime
• Madras curry, about 1 Tbsp
• about a tsp. of whole mustard seed
• 1 little green onion, coarsely chopped
• a few spoonsful of cooked rice
• a splash of olive oil

Peel and slice the mango. Place some nice leaves of lettuce on a dinner plate and set the mango slices on the lettuce. Squeeze a little lime juice over this mini-salad.

Pour a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan. Warm briefly over medium-high heat. Add the defrosted shrimp and the cut-up onion, a tablespoon or so of curry powder, and a sprinkle of mustard seeds. Cook the shrimp until it’s about done. Add some cooked rice. Stir gently until the shrimp is finished cooking and the rice is warm.

Place the cooked shrimp and rice on or very near the mango salad.

This is a lovely flavor combination. Easy, quick, and minimally messy. Good eating!

🙂