Wednesday night, the corn monster came and chomped all the corn.
Heading into September it looked like this: all dry and kind of scrotty.
It was still hot when I shot this.
Since the first picture, we’ve had our first frost and the fall colors are starting. Unfortunately, it’s been raining a fair bit, which means the leaves will fall fast. I did a couple short “go up, take pictures, come down” drone flights, to see what the hills around me look like. Last year I had drama going on and couldn’t do any aerial photography. This year I have drama going on, an haven’t been able to do much aerial photography.
Wednesday they cut the corn.
Cut field will stay like this till they spray it and seed it in the spring
I was going to try to get a nice picture or two of the combine, but it was already dusk. So I was sitting at my desk writing a posting (the one about cocoa butter lotion) when -BAM- lights out. Combine is 12′ tall – power line across field is supposed to be at a minimum of 14′ but the pole’s been bending and the wire dipped enough to catch on the cooling fan on the top of the big John Deere. The farmer’s observation: “Looks like I fucked up your night.” Pretty much.
wire everywhere
Amazingly, the power company ninja’d out there and ran a new leg of cable while I was sitting around reading some, you know, books printed on paper.*
I got home from a 2-week session of living out of a suitcase, and caught up on my sleep. During my travels, I had increasing tooth pain in one of my rear molars, aggravated by changes in aircraft cabin pressure, I thought my head was going to explode. Here’s a bit of advice in case you’ve ever got mouth-pain: anbesol. It’s got lots of benzocaine in it. In fact it’s useful for blisters, abrasions, etc, too. So I spent most of my last 2 weeks packing down ibuprofen and pushing anbesol up against my gum (I lecture a lot; it’s fun to do public speaking when your tongue feels like rubber!) yesterday I got a sudden root-canal, which left my subconscious quivering and shrieking. Today has been devoted to drinking tea and napping.
(* The Hobbes translation of Thucydides)
I really enjoyed both of my root-canals.
Yuuuge improvement over the abscesses.
In the short term you can also use Benadryl (dyphenhydramine). Simple if you have a capsule, just cut it open and sprinkle on. In a few seconds … numb. I’ve used it as a paste with water on itchy insect bites and on lacerations requiring stitching. Makes the needle work much more pleasant. I’ve never tried it on tooth pain but I’m told it works.
The only down side its that it isn’t long acting. Applied a wound the numb only last for an hour or so. But this may be enough for the other stuff to kick in. Or to get you over a bad spot.
Dyphenhydramine is a staple of my first-aide kit. Allergies, itch, wound pain, and a really effective sleep aide. All for about $.10 a pill.
lorn@#2:
That’s great advice!
I have mostly used benadryl as an emergency travel shut-down (I take it on airplanes occasionally if I get “leg twitches”)
I’ve mentally noted this might be a good topic for a whole thread: Field expedient meds.
My husband once discovered that chili peppers were great for this type of toothache-while-traveling.
Sympathies on the tooth. I had one suddenly go berserk when I leaned over to tie a shoe-lace and nearly fainted.
Almost as bad was the new dentist casually remarking to his assistant as he tapped the tooth, ” I think I’ve decided to get those new golf clubs”.
Combine is 12′ tall – power line across field is supposed to be at a minimum of 14′ but the pole’s been bending and the wire dipped enough to catch on the cooling fan on the top of the big John Deere.
Little things like that happen. I took out a transformer one day while mowing hay when I accidentally cut the guy wire. It only cut power to maybe 5 or 6 cottages.
jrkrideau@#6:
I took out a transformer one day while mowing hay when I accidentally cut the guy wire.
I bet that didn’t do your hay cutter a whole lot of good, either!!!
Some years ago I saw the acronym BIFF for Backhoe Induced Fiber Failure. That could disrupt whole states from getting prime time TV. Not just power to 5 or 6 cottages.
Peter B@#8:
BIFF!
That’s a name from the internet past. ;)