2020
A Toilet Extractor Fan.
(Installed on 2020/12/23, No.257)
I installed an extractor fan to a toilet. I bought the fan more than thirty years ago but it was a little too big for the ventilating opening. So I gave up installing and it had been left aside and kept unused. This time I made a blacket and fixed it to the opening. Please visit here for details.
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Fixing An Old Favorit Mouse.
(Installed on 2020/12/15, No.256)
My favorit old mouse got out of order with its right button. The circuit tester showed the microswitch inside wasn't broken. It turned out that the trouble was caused by an abrasion of the button. I could fix it by gluing small pieces of plastic sheet. Please visit here for details.
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I reformed the last one of my diy speaker systems.
(Installed on 2020/12/07, No.255)
I have finally finished reforming all the buhsp(back unloaded horn speaker) systems I had built. The last one was the one shown in the photo above. Please visit here for details.
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Making dried persimmons.
(Installed on 2020/11/23, No.254)
My wife and I are experienced now and finished the whole work in about one and a half hours. I'm planning for the first time to let them have a bloom on them by brushing their surface in a few days when they are dried enough to get scrubbed. It makes them more tasty.
It seems a poor crop of persimmons this year. We couldn't buy sweet persimmons together with the astringent ones so that we're going to visit the farmer again toward the end of November.
A friendly neighbour who has a persimmon growing relative gave us a box of persimmons this year too, making an excuse about the size and the number that were smaller.
Two of them I had already eaten. They were sweet and tasty enough.
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Thank you for the flowers.
(Installed on 2020/11/15, No.253)
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Dredging 2020 Fall.
(Installed on 2020/11/13, No.252)
As Covid 19 caused the annual administrative cleanings cancelled I did it as a private one. The weather was good, not too hot nor cold. After dredging, I found a lot of small snails living in the dirty water.
Thus I could finish all the three big annual autumn tasks this year too.
I'm feeling relieved. Big thanks to my health!
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Upgrading the OS of an old VAIO laptop to Windows10.
(Installed on 2020/11/08, No.251)
The result of upgrading however wasn't acceptable and I replaced the old HDD with an SSD.
The reaction speed improved and I could use Excel smoothly but not with the browser Edge. For the next improvement I installed the browser AnciaChrome. It workded! I got newly an old SONY laptop with which I can enjoy net surfing as well as Facebook and other sns communications.
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Maintenance of the branch shredder.
(Installed on 2020/10/30, No.250)
Our old shredder of the lopped off branches needed a minor repair. In order to open it I needed a Y driver. I didn't have one nor did any D.I.Y.shop nearby. So I made one. It was not very good but worked. Please visit here for details.
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The 2020 lopping is over.
(Installed on 2020/10/26, No.249)
Lopping the branches is one of my three big tasks during the fall. I could finish the work in three days under the best autumn weather. Shredded branches came up to fill thirteen 45-liter plastic bags.
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Network Case For Nautilus D.I.Y.
(Installed on 2020/10/15, No.248)
More than three years had passed since the system was completed and I could finally made cases into which I put network devices. Please visit here for details.
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A colored persimmon leaf.
(Installed on 2020/10/12, No.247)
A colored leaf fallen from the persimmon tree at the entrance of our house. I made it into a pressed leaf, for I was interested in the vermilion color which was the same with that of a ripened persimmon.
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I trimmed the hedges around our family grave.
(Installed on 2020/10/04, No.246)
It was cloudy with only a very short light rain, the right weather for the work. I sweated and wanted breeze but I thanked for the cloudy weather as I could finish the work without a scorching sun.
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Pots And Pans Hook Board.
(Installed on 2020/09/27, No.245)
I had a 60cm×90cm board on one side of which a piece of stainless sheet was attached. It was an article left by our deceased son. The size was a little smaller and I planned to hook as many pots and pans by hooking pots reversed way of pans so that their handles meet in the middle in order to save space. Visit here for details.
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I trimmed the hedges around our family tomb.
(Installed on 2020/07/16, No.244)
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Maintenance of our home Wi-Fi.
(Installed on 2020/07/12, No.243)
1: Repair of the power plug and jack.
The trouble shooting wasn't simple. I made wrong guesses and lost time. Luckily I noticed a dark stain inside the power jack on the minus contact reed as pointed with a white arrow in the photo above. It seemed to be a strong insulator of some oxide. I had polished the plug and the jack more than twice before but it turned out that I polished aimlessly. So, I peeled off the whole contact surfaces of the jack as shown in the right half. I did the same to the plug too as shown below. I ended up the maintenance with CAIG, a surface treatment.2: Setting the pc connected to Wi-Fi at all times.
I judged the router at times had failed in starting. To avoid such failure I set my desktop pc to be kept connected to Wi-Fi at all times even while it is asleep. The setting made Wi-Fi connection safely responsive to other random demands.
After such treatments the Wi-Fi connection has been almost perfect. Banzai! Return to the list
I restored the old push cart.
(Installed on 2020/06/30, No.242)
This push cart, which my father made about 50 years ago, had been my handy cart but badly weatherworn. It had corroded holes at some places and the wheels needed to be replaced. Visit here for details.Return to the list
I witnessed a vermin nutria.
(Installed on 2020/06/19, No.241)
I found a nutria in a rice field where rice plants have been transplanted recently. It was eating rice plants. I knew it only after I saw the photo on my pc monitor at home. So far nutrias I saw had been cute but in reality they were vermin. I recognized it. It's a real disappointment!Return to the list
The blossom of Kikarasu-uri -II-.
(Installed on 2020/06/19, No.240)
I found another vine of Kikarasu-uri, much vigorous one, along my daily walking route and I could take a photo of a beautiful shaped blossom. I don't see why but I have passed it long without noticing it. The blossom is unique with many thin long curly threads at the ends of its petals. So I wanted to know more about the blossom if any.According to an article the blossoms start to bloom in the evening. They are white and smell sweet in order to attract hawkmoths, their pollinators, in the dark.
Now I knew the best time for taking photos was early morning. That's why many blossoms I saw in the evenings were withered. I couldn't find any description about the beard on the petals.
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Thank you for offering beautiful flowers.
(Installed on 2020/06/15, No.239)
Coming back home in the afternoon I found some beautiful flowers were newly offered to our family tomb. Someone unknown but someone to whom our deceased son was important might have offered them as he/she had done continuously in the past years. We heartily appreciate the visit and the flowers offered to the grave.Return to the list
Tomohiro's classmates came to visit his grave.
(Installed on 2020/06/14, No.238)
Amidst the Covid-19 disaster Tomohiro's college classmates came to visit his grave today the closest Sunday to June 16th, his birthday. After visiting the grave we had a good tea time in front of the the family altar. The air of the room was kept fresh with a ventilating fan. We heartily appreciated their visit.Return to the list
Blossoms of Kikarasu-uri.
(Installed on 2020/06/08, No.237)
In the 223rd installment I wrote about Kikarasu-uri and wrote in it I expected to see the blossoms this year. I saw them but I missed the best chances to see their pure white flawless figures. They don't seem to bloom all together but one or a few at a time and didn't attract my eyes.I could count about ten other blossoms already drying, some with swelling ovaries. The blossom in the photo seems the last one. I could barely took a photo for me to report.
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I coated our concrete block wall top with resin.
(Installed on 2020/05/26, No.236)
The top of our concrete block wall had been badly weathering. To stop it I coated the top with polyester resin.
The resin is the leftovers of my speaker system making and the amount was enough to double coat the weathered top. I could make the best use of the leftovers. Good job!?Return to the list
A piece of beautiful plastic braid?
(Installed on 2020/05/25, No.235)
A few days ago my wife told me she found a piece of beautiful braid with a striped pattern in our yard. It might have looked like what you see in the photo above. As she tried to pick it up it flashed upon her "it's a snake". She was narrowly escaped touching it. She found it again on a rose tree today and I took a few photos of it.It seemed a young Japanese striped snake(not poisonous) about one and a half feet long(photo below).
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Gold bug trap.
(Installed on 2020/05/21, No.234)
Last month I took a measure to cope with the gold bug damage to be brought this summer on our grapevine covering it with a net. Consequently the net seemed to have exerted a bad influende on the vine. The growth of the new branches and leaves stopped it seemed. The colour of some leaves turned yellowish.So I took off the net and installed traps instead as shown in the photo. It's a littel too early for gold bugs to show up and you can't see if the traps really work at the moment. I can improve and make them more effective as needed.
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Four-leaf clover.
(Installed on 2020/05/05, No.233)
I found a four-leaf clover along my walking route. I learned it's also called a lucky clover. However, it carries the connotation of the cross and thus means an evil thing too. My knowlege had been so poor that it only had a good meaning. I have been too spoilt now to believe in the meanings of what plants carry but the world is now in an unfortunate situation with Covid 19 and I felt like relying on anything good.Encouraged by the lucky clover I tried to find more lucky clovers. I found a five-leaf clover instead nearby.
The photo shows it. I composed two photos into one. The left half of which is its upper view while the right half is from its side. Wikipedia says the record of maximum leafs of the plant counted so far have been fifty six. I'm sorry to end up the story so insipid.Return to the list
Renge-so(Chinese milk vetch).
(Installed on 2020/04/26, No.232)
The photo shows the view from the bank I enjoy walking. The place commands the wide and long view as shown in the photo, where recently I found renge-batake(the fields where renge-so was profusely blooming). It's nostalgic. In my childhood villages were much smaller and surrounded by rice fields most of which were covered by renge flowers seasonally every year.I remember a peddler of renge seeds. The seeds were sold by the measure of 'sho'(0.47 U.S. gallon). The farmers grew renge-so in their fields because it provided them with nitrogen which the plant caught from the air by their root nodule bacteria.
I also remember the scene where young girls were enjoying spending time in the midst of pink renge-so flowers. They were the country girls who got jobs with textile factories en masse. They were both gone long since.
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I provided a bug net for the vine.
(Installed on 2020/04/22, No.231)
I installed a bug net frame over the vine, a memento of my deceased son Tomohiro, expecting the vine bears beautiful clusters of grapes this year.The vine had been terribly damaged by gold bugs(a scarab beetles) in the past years that I learned at last my manual daily picking of bugs was no match. The frame is now ready for the net to be installed.
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A kingfisher on the Nikko-gawa river.
(Installed on 2020/04/20, No.230)
It was warm and windless on April 19th and I expected to see some nutrias while walking along the Nikko-gawa river. None appeared. It seems they are highly sensitive to the approach of an atmospheric depression. I had the same experience before. It had been forecasted that it would rain.Foreseeing no reward for the walking that day I glimpsed something blue on the river through the thin dried grass stalks. I walked back softly a few steps and saw a kingfisher there. I had failed in photographing one a few times before. Each time one flew away before I was ready to shoot it.
This time I took out my camera and released the shutter remaining motionless there. The photo above is the one I took at that time. I wanted to take it from a better place but the bird didn't allow for me to move. Sensing my motion it flew away. Chances to meet kingfishers are few and the pnoto is a valuable one for me.
I took the next photo below soon after I took the first one.
I saw two smaller tortoises chasing a bigger one(their mother?). I learned through Wikipedia that they were Red-eared sliders came from North America. They are green in color while they are young, which were familiar to me being sold at a street stall in my childhood. I took home two rewards for the walking that day.Return to the list
The season of love(=恋(koi)=鯉(koi)=carp)?
(Installed on 2020/04/09, No.229)
I happened to see many carp gathering. They are usually wandering alone in the river, the banks of which I walk daily. I had never seen such gathering before. I watched them for a while expecting something else to happen. Nothing happened.I learned through Wikipedia that their spawning season starts around April when the nuptial small projections appear on the face of mail carp. Unfortunately the water was not cear enough nor they were too far for me to confirm the marks.
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Two cherry blossom photos for 2020.
(Installed on 2020/04/05, No.228)
COVID-19 has been spreading and threatening me, an aged person. However, tempted by sunny and warm weather, I went out and enjoyed watching and taking some photos of cherry blossoms. The places were thinly visited and it was windy too. I judged we were not exposed being there to the danger of infection.The top photo was taken at a kindergarten along my walking route. The grand trunk with wonderfully spreading branches are fascinating.
The bottom photo was taken at a river bank away about thirty minutes drive from home. The trees are called the Hyakujuro-zakura cherry trees after the name of Ichikawa Hyakujuro, a kabuki actor who presented the trees about ninety years ago.
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Nutria -III- Eating for babies?
(Installed on 2020/03/18, No.227)
Nutrias show themselves in the evenings. Swimming, eating and grooming they never stay still in one place. However, I have been observing exceptional one recently.The photo above shows the one. I see it both on my way to and from walking almost at the same place. It is always eating and, naturally, chubby. Why does it keep on eating staying aroung one place? Isn't it expecting?
She is not so big in its body size but they are said to become sexually mature in three to ten months old. The nutria has such good appetite perhaps because she has to eat for her babies, too. Their pregnancy period is said to be about four months. Will I be lucky enough to meet her babies in a few months? Return to the list
Nutria -II-
(Installed on 2020/02/24, No.226)
The photo shows the nutrias I had badly wanted to meet.
Walking on the Nikko-river banks has become my daily routine recently as I have become interested in observing nutrias which inhabit the river in the area I walk.
The new route has one stinking factory and the river slightly smells but it is far more fascinating than the old one for its wild animals. I used to walk through the houses and rice fields before where I saw only people or those walking dogs.
One warm sunny late afternoon soon after the cold air mass which brought the historically late first snowfall of the season had gone, I was blessed with the opportunity of observing the nutrias of a mother and her two kids. I had met them first about ten days before when I could only take them into poor shots with my cheap smart phone camera. Since then I had badly wanted to meet and take them with a more decent camera before these cute kids were weaned. The photo above shows them. The kids had been playing with each other at their mother's bosom when I saw them for the first time. I miss such innocence they have outgrown so quickly. Return to the list
Thank you for offering flowers
(Installed on 2020/02/19, No.225)
On February 19th Mr.Y, the owner of the restaurant which was the last working place for Tomohiro and Ms.H, who was a colleague in their days of working part-time took the trouble to visit the grave and offer flowers. Now the tomb has a lot of beautiful flowers.
They offered incense sticks to the altar in our house, too. We heartily appreciated their visit. Return to the list
Thank you for offering flowers
(Installed on 2020/02/16, No.224)
On visiting the family grave this evening I found some beautiful flowers had been newly offered. Someone had offered them for our deceased son as February 19th is the anniversary of his death. He has been dead four years now.
We heartily appreciate the visit and the offering of flowers to his grave on the chilly rainy day like today even after four years since he had died! Return to the list
Nutria(Coypu)
(Installed on 2020/02/11, No.223)
Walking along the Nikko-gawa River on good weather days I can often observe nutrias. There are four of them within some three kilometers I walk. I remember I counted four of them nearly ten years ago, too. According to the material listed below, their average life span is two years and reproductive power is big but they haven't been increasing. Their survival conditions seem harsh.
The two smaller nutrias in the photo live a little downstream from the site where the biggest, bushy and jet-black one which seems the father of other three lives. As nutrias can grow to be reproductive within a year the smaller two can be a couple. Another one, which looks as big as the two smaller ones, lives upstream far from others.
Nutrias, though their original home were South America, first brought into Japan in 1939 from France for the purpose of producing furs. Escaping or being ousted soon after the World War II and the fur boom in 1950's they now inhabit in many prefectures from Fukushima to Yamaguchi. They are vermin and not beautiful but still good entertainers for a walker like me.
Materials:National Institute for Environmental Studies Return to the list
Kikarasu-uri(Trichosanthes kirilowii var.japonica)
(Installed on 2020/01/30, No.222)
This is a short passage about Kikarasu-uri(Trichosanthes kirilowii var.japonica). I write this because I was glad to have encountered the fruit for the first time in my life.
I was familiar with Japanese snake gourd of the same genus since childhood. The fruit was red in color. There were some trees in my neighborhood on which I found the fruit every autumn but I had never seen Kikarasu-uri before. The latter is edible and the baby powder of our generation, which was called 'tenka-fun', had been made from its medicinal root. It has long been replaced now by artificially made talcum powder. The word 'tenka-fun' still reminds me of its characteristic smell.
I encountered the fruit while going for a walk. It was hanging among the citrus fruit on the branches of a not big citrus tree by the road. It looked like citrus fruit. I was about to pass by the tree but one that was hanging on a dried piece of vine caught my eyes. The shape was almost that of an orange but, taking a closer look, I found it wasn't citrus fruit. I took a photo and went back home to find it was Kikarasu-uri.
Lucky I was the fruit was there before it was gone. I'm now expecting that I can see the flowers this summer. Return to the list
No more "..., I think."
(Installed on 2020/01/25, No.221)
N.B. "...,I think" is a literal translation of Japanese "to omoi masu", which is added at the end of each expression. And so, "...,I think" may not properly convey what the original expression means.
I have been noticing that people are overusing "I think" at the end of each expression. The words may make the expression softer, but at the same time make it noncommittal. Thus the speaker, I suppose, may feel comfortable unconsciously. The typical Japanese example of such expression used by an MC in introcing a person to appear on a stage can be literally translated like, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. So-and-so, I think."
The other day, while surfing over the internet I happened to find the same opinion. It was written by Satoshi Umeda under the title of "Prohibition of '...I think'". The expression is fully examined in it(only in Japanese). It was installed already in 2017 but unfortunately such improper usage has been still increasing? Return to the list
My first dream of the New Year.
(Installed on 2020/01/15, No.220)
I had a dream, the first dream of the New Year. I was near a certain railway station. The street was crowded. I met my daughter who was a childhood friend of her deceased brother. She was smiling as if telling me "You should go to meet him quickly".
I was going to the place he had been employed for some years. I had never been there before and I had been feeling guilty about it. I walked long but never came to the place that could meet what I had imagined. I thought he didn't want to meet me. (The photo above shows nowhere.) Return to the list
The best pc audio setting.
(Installed on 2020/01/10, No.219)
Referring to some articles on the net, I upgraded my pc audio setting. The photo below shows Audacity is working bypassing Windows audio engine.
In order to set it you must specify the sound quality and check off the two items for bypassing the audio engine, which you find at the details tab under the recording device property.The photo below shows Foobar2000 is working without Windows audio engine.
Likewise, in order to set it you must specify the sound quality and check off the two items for bypassing the audio engine, which you find at the details tab under the playback device property.In addition, you must add components with which Foobar2000 becomes equipped with optional output functions. The zip file can be downloaded from the site you'll get Foobar2000.
Has the quality of sound improved? Please check it by yourself. Return to the list
Audacity recording revived on Windows10.
(Installed on 2020/01/08, No.218)
Redording of FM-tuner output became impossible after I upgraded Windows7 in ICONIATAB-W500 to Windows10. However, it revived by a fluke after my two and a half days toil. The audio device is an old SE-U55SX by ONKYO, which I had used since my pc's were working on WindowsXP.
The photo shows Audacty is working pushing green level meters. The window tells the audio API is 'Windows WASAPI', the recording device 'line(SE-U55SX)', the playback device 'speaker(SE-U55SX)'. I had tried the combination many times in vain before it revived.
The recording revived unexpectedly when I was about to give up. I connected for trial an old usb dac(SOUND BLASTER Digital Music Premium HD) which I had forgotten being broken. When it was connected the usb ports on ICONIATAB-W500 stopped working and so did SE-U55SX. I took off dacs and rebooted the pc. When it came up the recording function was beeing revived. It's typical Windows behavior. Lucky I was!
While trying various solutions I could learn some new things about Windows such as functions of audio engine, a weak point about Media Player 12, an exclusive mode of WASAPI, etc. So, I installed Foobar2000 with which to replace Media Player. The two and a half days toil wasn't a fruitless.
Upgrading WindowsXP to Windows10 with Aspire one D250.
(Installed on 2020/01/03, No.218)
I upgraded my ten-year old laptop(Aspire one D250/Acer) OS from WindowsXP to Windows10. I failed three times but made it at the 4th trial by following the next steps.
1 Upgraded WindowsXP to Windows7.
2 Copied system disk onto a new SSD.
3 Exchanged the old SSD for the new one.
4 Upgraded Windows7 to Windows10 by using 'MediaCreationTool', which you can download from Microsoft.
I, a pensioner, can never afford to buy a new pc. Aspire one with Windows10 is sticky in response but it revived as an usuful deta input tool for me.
Fixing futon dryer timer switch.
(Installed on 2020/01/03, No.216)
I wanted to replace our old futon dryer with the one in the photo but the timer switch didn't work. It had been left unused many years. You could use it with a timer controlled extended outlet but, as usual, I tried fixing it and luckily, it revived. The details of fixing are here.
Return to the listTomohiro's classmates came to visit his grave.
(Installed on 2020/01/02, No.215)
Tomohiro's college classmates came to visit his grave on Dec.31st. It's one of the busiest days in a year in Japan but they organized the visit as it was the only possible day among those when one of them with his wife temporarily staying home coming back from Germany. There was another man we met for the first time. He lives in Tokyo and had missed chances before.
We had a good time in front of the the family altar.