despite working about 4 hours, i didn't seem to make too much of an impact on the house sanding. i worked on the area above the window up to the roof. did i mention it was oppressively hot and humid? and that's just in the shade. once the sun started shining on the western side, i was afraid of passing out from the heat and falling off the ladder. i seemed to have built up my ladder height tolerance; now i can climb almost to the top without the slightest hesitation.

i was working right next to a wasp nest in the eaves of the house. i plugged up some crevasses already, but apparently not enough. despite my close proximity, they seem to tolerate my presence (or maybe i just don't register as a target for them). i was hoping the vibration from the sander would drive them to find a different home, but they seem to like where they are.

i've been studying them for the past few days, counting their numbers, waiting for the perfect opportunity. normally there's a wasp outside standing guard, but as soon as it went inside, i plugged up the hole with a wad of paper. that almost made it worse, because all the returning wasps weren't able to return home and were swarming around searching for the entrance. then i got the bright idea that i could just vacuum the wasps with the shop vac. it was amazingly easy, and made my wonder why i didn't do it earlier.

when it came time to clean up, i went to go dump out the shop vac. to my surprise, inside were about a dozen yellow jackets, all alive, all covered in paint. as soon as i opened the vacuum, they few away. apparently being sucked into a shop vac doesn't kill them. afterwards i felt an itch on my right shoulder blade. while taking a shower, i felt the presence of a large amoeba-shaped welt; apparently i got stung by one of the wasps!

i've been stung by yellow jackets before; it must not have been too painful because i don't remember anything about it. i was kind of expecting it to hurt, not itch. maybe it wasn't a yellow jacket, maybe it was just a mosquito, but this feels different from a mosquito bite. this also felt a bit like a sunburn, this dull subtle cooling ache.

i spent some minutes outside rigging up an armature support for the SJ4000 on my motorcycle. originally i wanted to put it down low (near the clutch shifter), but i could get the mount to attach. so i ended up hooking it from my right mirror and then building this long contraption using 4 different mounting segments.

i shot the video in real time, at 30fps 1080p. the final video is only interesting to me, and a big waste of storage space for a file that's 1.5GB. the coverage is pretty wide, 170°. the biggest problem is the vibration, made worse with the long armature. a more solid mount might fix this problem.

i got home around 3:00, took a shower, chatted with my uncle willy (who's coming to new york city in a few weeks), before going to market basket around 4:00 to get some groceries.

back at home, i replaced my handlebar grips. first i had to remove the old grips, the ones i suspect have been giving me non-stop dermatitis on my hands. i tried dripping some alcohol into the gap then shooting it with compressed air, but it just wouldn't budge. i kept trying, even unwrapping the handlebar tape to give the grips more flexibility. eventually i managed to remove one, and finally the other.

that was only half the fun. putting on the new grips was a challenge as well. i lubed up the inside of the grips and the handlebar. slipping them on was easy, but halfway they suddenly seize up. the first one, i only managed to get a quarter onto the handlebar. the second one, i managed to get about 3/4 on. i tried to remove them but it was impossible, made more different by the fact that these grips have an inner sleeve and then an outer foam layer (i didn't want to rip the foam).

i finally managed to put on the grips by wrapping the ends with a towel and then hammering them into the handlebar. they actually look pretty good, i thought they were much too large when i first saw them. now the final test is to ride with these new grips and see if my dermatitis will come back.

i heated up some ravioli for dinner, while watching a documentary on the history of atomic bombs.