Saturday - I started the day with
making a run to the toxic waste dropoff in Palmdale. Two old PC's, one
old laptop, two old printers, a small box of old batteries and the
supposedly eco-friendly compact fluorescents, and some motor oil. And
the last of my UPS units, which was almost too hot to touch when I was
cleaning up - clearly at the end of its battery life. It didn't even
beep when I unplugged it, so not only a fire hazard but not functioning!
Then I returned an overdue library book. Went by Harbor Freight, Home
Depot, Walmart, and Vons to buy some stuff. I need to get the
Explorer's oil changed and the tires rotated, but ran out of time for
that.
Then I stopped and picked up a bed frame stand from a friend, and
dragged another out of the attic, put the new beds on them. So now I
have the old queen still in the master bedroom, the new queen in the
south bedroom, and the two twins in the den. So when my friends visit
later this month everyone will have a bed, and the kids will share a
bath with their parents.
I think last time they visited that the kids ended up in bed with Mom,
and Dad ended up on the couch downstairs, but so it goes :-)
After the visit I'll get rid of the old queen bed - like, I said,
eighteen years old last month and used when I got it. And maybe the old
twin, it's about the same age I think, another gift from friends when I
was just moving into this place. I almost didn't get a new one, but
it's nice when I have company, and since it was half off with the
purchase of the new queen-sized bed, why not?
And there are more chores. But the list is definitely starting to get shorter.
It wasn't on the list, but I finally took the time to program the TIVO
remote to run the Vizio Power/Volume/Mute features. Which took all of a
minute...
I've been too tired to even watch TV, but I need to clear my queue
before the fall season starts. I noticed that Warehouse 13 wasn't in
the new TIVO, so I added it. I may have missed some episodes, I don't
think it's on the classical schedule.
Friday 5 October
2012
Friday
- It's good to be home.
I got up and immediately started cleaning and picking up. And of course
the furniture delivery happened early - before 1:00pm, rather than the
2:45-5:45 window they'd given me. I accepted the stuff, had them leave
it in the hallway upstairs, and went back to cleaning and throwing
stuff out. By late evening I was able to at least sleep on the new twin
bed, but it was a pain getting things re-arranged even for that.
Essentially it's been, oh, three or four years since a thorough
cleaning/tossing was done. Probably just before my Dad passed away, as
a lot of his stuff, books and tapes, were still in boxes. I deleted
enough of my own old stuff to be able to shelve (most) of those.
So now stuff to be junked is piling up in the side yard, as the trash can. I worked until 9:00pm on this stuff.
It's good to be home. No, really, it is.
Thursday 4 October2012
Thursday
- OTR. Another pretty long day.
I work up to the news that I'd made a girl scout cry. Really. There was a phone message from her dad.
I'd ordered some stuff from her and her sister on Wednesday night,
except that due to their age and my age, and trying to listen/order
over the phone from an incredibly noisy restaurant (Joe's
in Santa Barbara, great food but incredibly obnoxious tv speakers over
the booth - even complaining to the maitre d' didn't help.) only one
sister got an order. Sheesh. I was willing to call and re-order, but
the parents said that it was a character-building experience for her.
Hmmm. I remember "character building" experiences. Not among my
favorite memories. I can't go against her parents desires, but I'll
make sure to do something special for her at Christmas.
Her parents will just have to deal with explaining a pony to the HOA.
About 9:00 to 7:00, then I headed home to Lancaster.
Again, specs and grade/gps calculations. It was annoying to discover
that I'd actually forgotten to take one important point, and that
another didn't show up in the data, even though I can clearly remember
taking the point. Well, that happens sometimes with this stuff,
perfection eludes you...
And of course trying to rewrite the Specifications and forcing Word
into numbering and bulleting the way I want, rather than the way it
wants to do it, was as painful and frustrating as always.
It's interesting, driving home from Santa Barbara last night there was
this light flickering against the clouds (marine layer), reminiscent of
Mt. Doom in Lord of the Ring. But rather than the demonic fires of a
fallen angel's forge it was just flare gas from the oil fields in the
hills above the Ventura River.
Wednesday 3 October 2012
Wednesday - OTR. Working on the
specs for one job out in Thousand Oaks, and on the repair calcs for
that job down in Murrieta as well.
Dave kindly asked me out to dinner with his family, and we had a nice
meal at Joe's in Santa Barbara, and strolled about State Street for an
hour or so.
The boat looks OK. I haven't gotten a chance to really get down and
work on her as I'd planned, let alone do some sailing, but I'm resigned to that not happening until November now.
So it goes.
California is still running in the red. There is a huge tax increase on
the ballot in November, and Sacramento just passed a law that all
business owners with four employee's or more must have a 401k plan -
and set it up so that it's easy to put them into the (bankrupt) state
pension system and hard to put into a (solvent) fund. Way to drive even
more business out of the state!
One reason California is bankrupt - ridiculous spending - isn't
addressed. We all hear about things like a half billion dollar high
school, and ten billion dollar "trains to nowhere", but what about what
should be a simple roadside stop bathroom:
The square footage of the buildings at this "rest stop" on the 101 probably exceed the size of my home.
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Tuesday
- So, another day of work about the house. With new beds coming in,
Friday, it was (past) time to start cleaning upstairs. It's funny how
one gets used to things (dirt, clutter and debris), and then your eyes
are opened by change. I worked all day on that stuff, filled the trash
can, and am still not really ready for Friday. The store called and
asked if they could deliver Thursday - Hah! Not a chance.
Because, you know, I'm down to Ventura tomorrow and at least part of
Thursday. All day Thursday if experience is any guide, but I'll try to
get out in early afternoon if I can.
Monday 1 October 2012
Monday
- It would have been my Mom's 88th today.
It's strange, when I went downstairs the house had a strong scent of
roses. I went outside, it smelled normal. I checked the roses in front
- nothing happening there. As I said, strange.
My friend, the one who survived Carmageddon (he emailed to say it went well,, by the way, rather less traffic than usual) was at a birthday for a 2-year old on Sunday, though the birthday was actually today, so it seems that little S and my Mom share a b-day.
I decided to sand the french doors and paint them, before winter
comes. I had considered varnish, but they're in pretty bad shape. Paint
will be OK. It was Monday all morning long though, with everything I
attempted taking twice or thrice as long as it should. Still I got the
east door off and sanded. I was going to fill the various holes and
cracks with wood putty, but realized the stuff I had on hand was
interior, not exterior.
"No problem!" I think to
myself, and go out to the car and get the tube of stuff I bought for
the boat a week ago.
Which also says "Interior use only". Oops. By this
time it was nearly noon, and about 100F, so I put the door back on it
hinges so I could run the A/C. I'll finish up later in the week I guess.
For my birthday present I bought a new bed for the master bedroom. I've
had the current one for 18 years, and it was used when I got it. About
time I think, though I could have gotten a nice radar set for the boat
for the same price.
Sunday 30
September 2012
Sunday
- Working around the house and yard mostly. The garbage can is almost
full again, lots of debris from my den. I have visitors in a few weeks,
so it was a good excuse/reason to spend a few hours tossing stuff. It
sure looks better empty, though I stuck a lot in the closet.
Riley has turned into quite the grasshopper hunter. He treats them like
they were mice, capturing them, letting them go, catching them again.
Sometimes they surprise him, by flying away rather than the smaller
jumps.
Got some good work in on the iOS stuff. It's a bit like jumping in a
pool, once you overcome the initial hesitation it's easier to forge
ahead. So I'm carefully storyboarding all the windows we need - the
actual work view, the splash screen, the setup and record pages.
Probably I'll use either popup or split-view view controllers, I haven't decided.
Probably whichever is easier to keep track of...
Picture of
the Week Photo Notes: Another hot air balloon, floating over Lancaster.
