Aquarium Update

Aquarium Update

 

I keep telling myself “Aristotle is worth it!”

 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’m getting a 55-gallon used aquarium tank, stand, hood & filter in great condition for $100. That will happen this afternoon when Lisa gets off work so she can help me move it.

 

I have invested $100 in additional aquarium rocks and new innards for the filter.

 

The new rocks and filter innards will be arriving in the next few days, which is just about perfect timing. It will be time to clean the 20-gallon tank again, so I can move the fish to the tiny tank and swap out the 20-gallon one for the 55-gallon one. It will fit in the same place between my den desk and my door.

 

A better/more serviceable location would be under one of my den windows because I could run a hose in from outside to refill the tank during major cleaning, and drain it the same way using a siphon hose.

 

BUT then I’d have to string a long cord along the bottom of  two walls to accommodate the pump, filter and hood lights. I may do that, but then I won’t be able to see it while I work, and I really enjoy having it next to my desk.   It’s meditative and helps me think when I pause…

 

So, I’ll probably put it where the 20-gallon one is.

 

Decisions, decisions!

 

But Aristotle and his tank mates are worth these various gyrations.  As soon as I can see they’re healthy and happy in their new home (about a week from now) I’ll get a few more denizens of the deep to add to them, and some more plants.

 

Alas, at some point I may still have to re-home Aristotle and get smaller species of plecos (rubber nose and/or bristlecone, which only grow to the size Aristotle is now, 6″), but hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy him for several years before that happens.

 

(He sure is a pooper, though! I use a turkey baster every day to suck up and remove his output. It lies in strings on the aquarium floor or draped on floating plants. It looks innocuous, but it wouldn’t be great to leave it in longer term.)

 

I’m buying the bigger tank to make Ari happy, but a 100 or 150 gallon tank is out of the question for me. My place is too small to accommodate a tank that size. 55 gallons is as big as I want to have.

 

In Other News…

 

It took an act of Congress (just about!) to get my new debit card to work this morning. The instructions were “just go use it” OR logon and change the PIN.  Well, the PIN is the one I like and remember, so I drove to an ATM and tried to use it.

 

“PIN not recognized.”  Three times.

 

So, I drove back home and checked the PIN to be sure it was the same. YEP! So, then, I mailed my BECU rep and told him the problem and that I needed to withdraw $100 before 1 today, so PLEASE HELP!

 

But then I remembered the chat feature, and tried that. The auto helper gave me a link to change my PIN number, so I went there and added the same PIN number.

 

BINGO!  It worked!

 

I know this because I drove back to the ATM immediately (luckily, just a mile away) and withdrew the moolah without a hitch.  SUCCESS!

 

But I was pretty ticked off for a while there. It took me four times as long to do as it should have. I’m not overly thrilled with BECU (literally everything takes longer than I think it should), but they are diverse and inclusive — they sponsor PRIDE parades and other international cultural events — so I’ll probably stick with them anyway.

 

(My sister picked BECU when she retired from banking a couple years ago. I followed suit so we can transfer funds back and forth for mortgage and other miscellaneous needs that we share. I think I would have gone to TAPCO otherwise. They’re a mile away and I go there to get cash with my debit card, because they have a reciprocal relationship with BECU.  I went inside once and they were friendly, personable, and very much like an old-style community bank.)

 

But we make compromises with family members (except for religion and politics. Jackie and I are polar opposites there, so we don’t share those topics with each other.)

 

I read too many books after studying the Bible for five years because I still had questions about the authors and their cultures. I left organized religion (which translates as “bondage”) a year ago officially, but I’d been researching HOW the historical Jesus became co-opted and transformed into Christ (decades after he died) and found it to be somewhat like making sausage: unappetizing just for starters, and I think the actual Jesus would have disavowed what his cultish followers have said and done, and continue to say and do, in his name.