Saturday
- a busy day, my day off was. Lot's of errands. I had a list of 21 things
to do, and added to it frequently. Less frequently I checked items off.
Most importantly - the dentist got the new crown on, after a bit of
fussing about. So, an hour in the chair and that's done. I brought my checkbook, ready to pay what I thought was a $200 balance, only to find the insurance had covered it. Cool.
Another tedious chore was to do more bills. And reconcile the check book(s). Bah. But it's done.
A work related task was to pick up a couple of tape measures. My old
30' Black and Decker tape will no longer
retract past the six foot mark, which makes it awkward to put in a
pocket. It's also rusting, which stains my hands and everything it
comes in contact with. I replaced it with a standard 25' Stanley tape
as backup, and a primary 30'
Stanley FatMax Extreme. The latter, as suggested by the name, is very
wide and can extend straight out, without elastic buckling, to a distance of 13 feet,
'standout' the plastic packaging calls it. Also one can extend it upwards further without collapsing, very useful. (Epinion reviews of the original FatMax).
It is, however, heavy.
That done, I was walking out of the store and passed a display of laser
tape measures. What's a guy to do? It's the 21st Century after all. I
picked one up, a Berger Fat Max Leica, and we'll see how it works/lasts in the field. Even a few minutes a day of productivity adds up across weeks and months.
It was early evening by the time I returned home. I unloaded groceries,
sniffed, changed the kitty litter, and then went over to some friends
for dinner (some excellent omelets) and a couple of DVD's on the telly.
The first was Oceans 11Oceans 12Oceans 13,
and despite my inability to sit through Oceans 11 (original or new) I
enjoyed it. I do like a good heist movie, particularly one not weighted
down with boring character exposition and back story... Then we watched
The Titfield Thunderbolt, which was amusing and (to my surprise) in Technicolor.
Friday
- a rain day. But there were so many errands to run, bills to
pay, that I didn't get out of Oxnard until late afternoon. Ah well.
I've a dental appointment Saturday, at noon, so there is that to look
forward too.
It rained quite a bit on the way home, and was windy along the 126. But
by the time I was near the top of the pass on the 14 Freeway it had
calmed down and there was no rain.
Later in the evening it rained, a good solid rain, and the wind blew
enough to keep me and the cats awake until midnight. The reports say
25MPH or so, but it seems stronger.
Tuesday
- New Years Eve I spent at a friends place. We watched the fire flicker
in the fireplace for most of the evening, declining to watch the Monk
DVD's. At some point I fell asleep, but woke up in time to hear the
gunshots and rockets bursting into noisy flight...
New Years day, I took care of some errands and was back on the road for
Oxnard. Work, you know....
