blog.erwintang.com

You haven’t seen me write about ants in my home because for the last few months, I haven’t seen any. Well, that changed this evening. I was in the bathroom and I saw a line of eight or ten of them, crawling along a ledge. I know this route that they were on. They’re not really going anywhere, they travel along this ledge, get to a certain wall and they just turn back around again.

There were enough of them that it means that I’ll need to make new observations to figure out where they’re coming from. I might also lay down some new bait for them. I’m not sure why they’re back. I know there are some unknown points of ingress but they didn’t seem to use them until very recently. Was it a shift in weather? It’s been still kinda of cold for April. Who knows. I need to continue the work once again.

So I’ve had my exercise bike for about two weeks now and I’m quite enjoying it. One of the cliches about buying exercise equipment is that you stop using it and it just gathers dust in some part of your home. I know it’s only been two weeks and not two months, but so far I’ve been doing some riding about four times a week now.

No one wants to use a piece of exercise equipment if it’s a hassle or unnecessarily uncomfortable, that just adds friction to the whole experience. For the most part, getting on the bike is easy. It takes like thirty seconds to set it up in front of my TV. Once I figured out how to make the seat not feel like a block of steel, it meant that I could be on the bike for prolonged periods of time without hurting my ass.

I did about thirty minutes on the bike today and I got a good sweat going. Someone told me they used to go to spin classes where they go for nearly an hour. I think I need to work up to that. I usually just put on a long-form YouTube video on my TV and watch it while I bike. It’s quite the good combo and time flies. The bike has a shelf for a phone or tablet, so I’m able to check my messages or use the phone as a timer.

We’ll see how much I’ll be on the bike once the summer arrives and the heat comes with it. I have a nice big box fan that I can point towards me, hopefully that will help.

Last week, I ordered a stainless steel water bottle from Amazon. When it arrived the next day, it came in a cardboard box. The bottle was also inside some plastic film. When I took the bottle out, I unscrewed the top and I took a look inside.

What I saw, is what you can see in the picture above. I have purchased a few water bottles before and none of them, plastic or metal, ever came into my possession already with some liquid in it. This was an unpleasant surprise to me.

I think most people expect when they purchase a container that they are going to eat or drink from, it does not arrive in a “wet” state. As far as I could tell, the liquid was odourless. Other than that, I couldn’t tell what it was. Now could it have been just some harmless water? Yes, it very well could have been. If so, that begs the question, why is there water already in my supposedly new water bottle.

Was this water bottle previously used and then returned to Amazon? Yeah, that might have happened and if that did, that’s gross. Or was some warm air trapped in the bottle and when it got moved into a colder environment (like a plane or truck), the moist, warm air caused condensation to form inside the bottle? This is also possibility. The bottle is not insulated, so this could have happened. If that was the case, then just a quick rinse would have been sufficient.

In the end, I decided to return the bottle because no one really knows why the bottle was wet on the inside. Amazon also has a very easy and hassle-free return policy, so it made that decision easier.

I’m gonna hold out for a dry water bottle.

I ordered a metal water bottle from Amazon this week. When it arrived, I removed it from its packaging and then opened up the top to inspect the inside. I was surprised to see drops of clear liquid on the top when I unscrewed it. Then I peered into the bottle itself. What I saw is picture above.

As you clearly see, the inside of the bottle contained a small amount of clear liquid all along the surface. Now I’ve purchased a few water bottles over the years. Some came from Amazon and some did not. None of them, up until this point, ever had pre-existing liquid in them at the time of possession.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to want to have a water bottle delivered to me that is clean and dry on the inside. Could this be condensation from some moist air that was trapped inside of the bottle? Yes, that is possible, but I can’t guarantee that. I don’t know what that liquid is. Maybe someone bought this bottle, used it to drink water from it, and then returned it. That’s also a possibility.

I suppose someone people would have shrugged at the sight of this, washed it thoroughly and just used it. If those people want to do that, that’s fine. I paid money for a new water bottle and I’d like one that at the very least, has the appearance of a new water bottle.

You know, I’d understand if I had bought this from a thrift store or a garage sale, but this was supposed to be new and never used. I asked a friend if the bottle arrived in this condition would they use it and they said no.

Anyways, I’m returning the bottle and I’m quite thankful that Amazon offers a convenient and free method of doing this.

With the start of the new year, some benefits at work got topped up again. One of these is the global fitness benefit which reimburses you if buy things that help you exercise. I used this benefit last year to buy my walking treadmill.

This year, I decided to buy an exercise bike. There’s enough room in my apartment for one, without me having to move around any furniture or restrict my movement. Now I used to think exercise bikes cost at least $500 and if you’re looking at a fancy bike like a Peleton, those are around $1000+. I got mine for just over $300 and that’s with tax and shipping included. It’s not the fanciest bike available but it’s not a poorly made bike either.

The bike was made in China obviously to be that cheap but it’s got three separate adjustments for the handlebar height, seat height and seat distance from the handlebars. It’s even got a very simple computer that can track things like speed, distance, time elapsed, and even your heart rate. It took me about twenty minutes to assemble but the steps were all very intuitive and easy to do.

So far, I’m starting simple, so I ride the bike three times a week. Each time, I average about twenty-five minutes on the bike. I usually start off with a quick pace for a few minutes and then I dial up the resistance to simulate a hill climb to really get things going. I do this as long as my legs can endure it, then I remove all the resistance and then do a normal sprint for a few more minutes.

I can work up quite a sweat and I feel great after the ride. The original bike seat was too small and a bit too stiff, so the first few rides made my ass hurt, to the point where it was very uncomfortable. Amazon came through with a seat cover that has thicker padding, so now rides are much easier on my butt.

The bike is also super quiet, there’s virtually no noise coming from it no matter how fast you pedal. I remember riding some exercise bike as a kid and it was probably designed in the 70s or 80s and it made such a racket when you pedalled at any speed. Whatever technology got developed in the meantime has made these machines so much quieter and apartment friendly now.

There’s no excuse for my cardio to be bad now.

On the weekend I scheduled an oil change for my car since it was due for one. I have a friend that owns a few Midas locations around town, so I go to the closest one for oil changes.

I was expecting it to cost about $100, which was how much it was last time. They also do a quick inspection of my car, mostly simple things like checking my battery, tire pressure, and brakes. I had gone to get some lunch when they texted me their inspection report. It turns out that one of my rear tires had two screws embedded in it and the pressure in that tire was down to 9 psi, when it should be around 32 or so. I didn’t even realize this and admittedly, it’d been months since I checked the tire pressure on each tire. The report also mentioned that my cabin air filter needed replacement, which wasn’t a big deal. They also said my battery probably would need replacement in the fall or winter. I already knew about this as the last time I had a quick inspection, they already mentioned my battery probably had a year or so left before it needed to go. The big surprise though was the busted tire.

I finished up my lunch and hurried back to the shop. I asked if the tire could be repaired but they said the two screws were really close together and because of that, a patch or repair would probably start to leak. I would need to replace the tire and because you can’t really replace just one tire on the same axle, I’d need two new tires. They checked their stock and the most similar tire to the one I had was located at another one of their shops hundreds of kilometres away. I’d have to wait for that tire to get shipped here. In the meantime, I’d either have to drive on this busted tire or use the spare. That wasn’t really appealing to me because I didn’t want to come back and driving on the spare or the bad tire made me nervous.

I asked if they had anything in stock that was compatible with my car and they did have two tires that were slightly more expensive. I kinda did the math in my head and the cost of convenience, time, safety, and peace of mind was worth the extra cost, if that meant everything could be taken care of in a single visit.

In the end, what I expected to be a $100 visit turned out to be a $800 bill for my car. It’s unexpected things like this which demonstrate how car ownership can be a costly endeavour. It also reminded me that I need to check my tires more frequently like I used to.

In this recent post, I wrote about the upcoming fire alarm inspection for my apartment. Well, the inspection is tomorrow and my place needs a bit of cleaning before I feel comfortable letting someone see it.

Since they don’t need to come into my bedroom to do the inspection, I’m tempted to just throw everything into my bedroom and call it done. Of course, you can’t do that for everything. You can’t throw a dirty floor elsewhere, you gotta vacuum it.

This will be a good excuse for me to partially clean my apartment though. Silver linings and all.

Like many of you, I’m trying to be frugal at times as everything is so expensive these days. Food is something where I try to be smart about where I spend my money.

For me, one of the better deals at my local supermarket is four roasted chickens quarters, essentially a whole chicken for about $11. Now that’s not as cheap as your roasted Costco chicken but considering I don’t live anywhere near a Costco and I don’t have a membership, it’s still a pretty good deal for me. It was even a better deal when it was $9 but I digress.

Now in comparison, just a few feet away from the supermarket is a fast-food Mexican place, where I can get a burrito for essentially the same price. That’s a regular-sized burrito, which is good for just one meal. Depending on how hungry I am, those four chicken quarters can last me through dinner, lunch, and then another dinner the next day. That’s a lot of good protein for the money I paid and relatively healthy.

For another comparison, there’s an A&W downstairs where I can get a cheeseburger, fries, and a drink for about $12. Again, that will last me just one meal and I’d argue it’s probably less healthy for me.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes, it gets boring eating chicken for lunch and dinner for almost two days straight. It’s great for saving money though!

I was woken up this morning to the sound of my hot water dispenser singing a melody to let me know it had finished boiling the water inside it. Normally, I have that featured turned off, so I instantly knew that sometime while I slept, the power had gone off and wiped the dispenser’s memory. Then sometime even later, the power returned and then caused the dispenser to boil the water and sing a tune.

My suspicions were further reinforced by the fact that all my lights were on all over my apartment. Most of the lights in my place are controlled by the Internet, so when they lose power and then get it back, they default to the “on” state. I had no idea why the power went out but I still had lots of time to sleep, so I grabbed my phone to turn off all the lights again.

When it was actually time for me to wake up, the power was still on, which was great because I had a Zoom meeting as my first thing to do after rising. Then around 12:30pm, the power went out again for about a minute and then came back on. It’s been stable since then.

I checked the Twitter account for my municipality and while they mentioned the outage, there wasn’t a cause listed. Power outages are very rare in my area of town. On my street there are no power lines on poles anymore as all power is now routed underground. Maybe a rat bit a line somewhere in an electrical vault.

I had the pleasure of starting my weekend off with a visit to the dentist at noon on Saturday. I was kinda dreading it all week and that must have affected my sleep as I awoke somewhat restless and too early on Saturday morning.

When I arrived at the dental office, the vibe was off almost immediately. I’ve been with this practice long enough that when I walk in, they know who I am, what time my appointment is, and why I’m there. About two years ago, I actually stopped going up to the front desk because they would always go, “yeah, we know who you are, just have a seat”. So now, I just make eye contact with whoever is at the front desk, say hi, and just proceed to the waiting area.

This time, there was only person at the front desk, and I’d never seen her before. Nevertheless, I looked at her, said hi and began to walk over to take a seat. She stopped me right away and asked me who I was. Weird. I had to backtrack and went up to the desk to identify myself. She confirmed my name and then also wanted to confirm I was there for some fillings, which I said yes. Only after that was I offered a seat to wait.

After sitting for about a minute, a dental hygienist emerged and said my name. I got up and said hi. I followed her to the back of the practice, which I’d never been to before. She led me to an actual room with a real door. This office is pretty much an open office plan and the treatment areas are not separated by walls, just like bookshelves instead. You can hear other people getting their teeth worked on, their conversations, and I’m pretty sure we’re all sharing the aerosols generated by all the tools. Anyways, this time, this was a real treatment room with walls and a door! What a treat!

They explained to me this was the kids treatment room. The walls were still pretty stark but there were some kids decorations stuck to the wall to give it a more playful appearance but that was it. I didn’t even see a TV on the ceiling which the other areas had.

After I sat down, a dentist I’d never seen before arrived. He was new to the practice and I don’t know where the other dentists I usually see were. He was very friendly though and made sure I knew exactly what was going on. He also made sure that if I had any questions, he’d answer them.

As for the actual procedure, it went as well as it could, considering I got poked with three needles, had that awful dental dam stretched across my mouth which restricted my breathing, was subjected to drilling, and I was in a full-body clench for almost an hour. Other than that, it was a great time.

Once they were done, they released back into the waiting room like I was a formally caged animal. I had to settle up because my insurance doesn’t cover all the filings.

I mentioned the vibe was off because I haven’t seen any of the normal front desk staff now for my last two visits. Like I mentioned, I’ve been going here for years and I can recognize multiple people from that office now. It seems like they only have one person working the desk now and that person has been new for the last two times. They also have this new dentist now, who I enjoyed having him work on me though, but I wonder if his arrival was part of some recent big changes to the practice. Do dental practices suffer from layoffs like the games industry? The economy is not in great shape, so I wonder if people are foregoing dental care to save money. If that’s true, dental offices aren’t gonna make that money.

Well, I’m not going back to that damn office for another few months, so I’ll check on them then.