08:10 – Barbara may have overdone it a little yesterday. Her knee is bothering her more than it has been lately. Last night, she tried using 50 mg tramadol rather than 5 mg oxycodone. She said that one tramadol didn’t do much for the pain. Taking a second one helped some, but not as well as one 5 mg oxycodone. But the pain is gradually decreasing and she thinks she has enough oxycodone left to cover the worst of it.
I didn’t get around to doing laundry yesterday, so I’ll do it today. I’m sure Barbara will want to clean house, but she won’t over do it.
Kit sales have slowed down a lot, as expected for this time of year. We did about 73% of our total January revenue in the first half of the month. If history is any indication, this slower pace will continue through June. In the third quarter, our revenue should be more than the first two quarters combined. The good news is that the slower pace will give me more time to do things other than building and shipping kits.
10:48 – I noticed that I’m running low on Zippo lighter fluid. As a pipe smoker, I go through a lot of it. I have to refill my lighter every day or so. I’ve been using actual Zippo-branded fluid, but in the past I’d used everything from 95% ethanol to wood alcohol to Coleman fuel to unleaded gasoline to VM&P naphtha.
The real Zippo fluid comes in 12 fluid ounce cans that cost $7 or $8. Looking at the Zippo MSDS, their fluid is indistinguishable from VM&P naptha, which costs about $8 per quart or $15 per gallon at big box home centers. So, rather than paying three to five times as much for the Zippo-branded stuff, I just refilled my lighter with VM&P naphtha. As expected, it burns indistinguishably from the Zippo fluid. Same flame height and color, and if anything it actually ignites more easily than the official fuel.
I carry a Zippo lighter (or two) routinely, and gave Barbara one of the propane-fueled Zippos to keep in her purse. There’s also a liquid-fuel Zippo lighter in each of our car emergency kits, along with a 4-ounce can of Zippo fluid. But I think for routine use I’m going to keep using VM&P naphtha.