Biking with Butterflies, Identifying Mushrooms, And Painting the Subaru... After a Long work week.

Silver spots on underwing.

So much to say during my limited time off.   What can I say?  The Week has been rather busy.  I already mentioned the O2 sensor fiasco,  which I was able to correct after being shown how amateurish I am.   But that is OK!  I will suffer any humiliation as long as the Silver Bullet  Subaru runs perfectly!   ( And World domination!  If I HAVE to suffer humiliation,  why not make it as  HUGE as possible?)

But after that,  they authorized overtime for the various projects that we were behind on.   Cheryl and I volunteered and were trained on several smaller sections.   They predicted that we would not be able to score them out until late Sunday....AND authorized 60 hours of overtime!

Rain, Rain go away!

Heat, Heat go Away!

 I knew this was too good to be true, but we went for it and managed to gain a few extra hours during the week and on Saturday.   Pearson added tons of additional scorers to catch the project up and we managed to finish just after noon on Saturday... So much for that juicy overtime.... However, we DID manage to get a full week with bonuses.   Better than the Monday deadline they had initially mentioned.  Hooray Team Allenbrite!

Cheryl tries to pet it. 

Have I mentioned it is HOT?   Currently, I'm sticking to the leather couch because the humidity and heat makes everything feel as if it were dipped in syrup. There is no escape!  Even in the "comfort" of the air conditioning.   Last weekend,  it rained and was cool.  We almost could not do our normal bike ride because of the heavy rain.  ( actually, we did miss Sunday.)









But now,  being outside feels like you are melting.   We went on our bike ride early this morning and found it at least tolerable.   I guess you get used to it after a few hours.   But one of the cool things about going out in the heat is the things you see.   Introducing... The 4th dimension.

Butterflies tend to love "Tropical Heat".   This Great Spangled Fritillary, is a fine example.   He was so busy stocking up on the milkweed that he barely noticed Cheryl petting him.  She was trying to get him to open up his wings for the camera.   The Silver spots on the underside are the most striking of the Fritillaries.  They are easily distinguishable  from the Regal Fritillary if you have both species side by side.  This one was really large as well.  Very pretty.  It is unfortunate that people miss these little jewels when they are right there in front of people.  It must be similar to seeing the 4th dimension.

I have been playing around in the yard trying to get my Tomato plants to grow.   So far I think they may be out of the woods.  They are about 24 inches tall and several plants are beginning to produce blossoms.  I water them and have staked them up so they do not flop over.   I have also been doting on my creeper vines and other plants.

Field Bolete.

Polypore spore dispersal.

While fussing,  I discovered a new Mushroom growing near the edge of the apartment yard.  Behold!  The Hortiboletus campestris (“Field Bolete”)  They are Edible!   (I say "they" but I really only found one...so far.)  I love finding new things and doing the research.  Knowledge is power and knowing the land is a huge advantage in a survival situation...  for the coming Zombie Apocalypse.   Besides,  this little guy is very colorful and cute.   How could I NOT pick it?

Finding the Spore Print  of each. 

The rains have also triggered several other smaller species to bloom.  I have a small population of Deer Mushrooms growing from stumps ( At least I think they are that species.) and a few small  toadstool mushrooms I have yet to ID.   I'm working on the Spore print now.

Let the Painting' begin!

And finally,  Painting the Subaru.   It has been almost two ( or maybe three!) weeks since I did all that work on the rust around the wheel hubs.  Subie has been driving around with Primer on those areas for way too long.  Primer is not a long term solution. 

Something tells me the color is not right...

We have been waiting for the paint to arrive from the Subaru Paint Manufacturer and finally... it arrived.    I took the moment Yesterday to begin the final painting stages.... However.    The paint did not match!

I think you can tell...

I double checked the numbers on the Car.  ( it tells you the specific color of the paint under the hood) and Cheryl double checked the Order.   Everything checked out.  BUt that still didn't make it match up.   I was kinda bummed.   I thought that perhaps it would finally match once I had several coats on and was able to sand and buff things out. 

Off the Shelf can of paint...

Looks so much better!

But Cheryl talked me into buying another color directly from the Autozone paint department.  I pulled off a piece of the Subie and we went in to match up the colors as best we could. 

Slightly more shiny, but I'm ok with it.

SUCCESS!   The difference is immediate!   Cheryl looked up the manufacturer of that paint and he did get several "did not match the paint requested" feedbacks.   My guess is that the recipe for that color of silver got messed up somewhere along the chain of command. 

Three more coats and a little buffing.  

So, for now,  I'm working with the Silver that Chevy or Ford use.   I'm not a fan of either of those brands, but I will suffer any humiliation to make Subie look nice.   ( And World Domination!  If I have to suffer the Humiliation of buying a GM product,  I might as well make it as HUGE as possible.)    Three more coats and some clear coat and Subie should look as good as new.   OR at least as New as I can get him   Fingers crossed when the job is done.

That was a HUGE post.   So much to say about a week that was so busy.  But thanks for stopping in.   Looks like we are on a new project next week, so I probably will not be able to blog much then either.    Hopefully,  I will not have to save up too much.  We shall see.