Sometimes nothing happens, and sometimes it's like the seven plagues of Egypt.

James had a good post-op checkup, at least, but it could be until the 29th until he has the stitches out, depending how quickly it heals. The toe looks very nice considering it was operated on only five days ago, no swelling or general ickiness.

Next morning James dropped his medical alert bracelet down his sink in the bathroom. After two fruitless hours of trying to lift it out with my collection of super-strong magnets (if I'd had one inch diameter ones it might have worked), I had to get to my eye appointment. So James called up Superior Plumbing, and they charged us $200 to get the bracelet out of the trap. ::sigh:: The plumber was nice enough, because James wasn't able to bend over, to take all the stuff from under the sink, and then put it back. James gave him a very good rating.

While the plumber was here, I had my eye exam. Man, they whizzed through it, and, surprisingly, my nearsightedness has improved, according to them, and my prescription has changed. I suppose this is why I haven't been seeing quite as well as I used to, so perhaps it's providential that the glasses broke. I was going to go directly to Costco, to order the glasses, but the dilation of my eyes really hurt and my eyes were watering copiously even with sunglasses out in the sun, so I went home to lie down.

Thursday I was perturbed already because Oliver has been pooping very loose out of nowhere, and it makes a wet, sticky mess at the bottom of his cage. Maybe he's getting a draft? I will have to half cover him at night when the A/C kicks in. Then we went to Costco to order my new glasses. I found a frame I had already picked out last week, plus ordered new computer glasses as well, finding a very lightweight frame like my sunglasses have. I thought about ordering sunglasses, too, but even using my own frame they would be almost $200! (I didn't think until afterward to ask how much single vision rather than progressive sunglasses would cost. I just use sunglasses for driving and really don't need progressives to drive.

Well, when we went outside I was perturbed because the chair lift on the truck didn't seem to be working well. I could stick my fingers under the far end of the bar and I don't remember being able to do that before. Scared me so much that I drove home (James still can't drive) with flashers on and very slowly.

Friday Butch got towed to the mechanic and thank goodness, it was only the battery; the AAA guy seemed to think something was wrong with the electrical system. I didn't realize Butch still had the same battery from when I bought him (2018); the battery was actually from 2017! So seven years was a good term for a battery. Wow, batteries are expensive now!

James did drive me over to pick up the car; he said he's not having any trouble driving with the surgical sandals he has to wear until his toe heals, but they are really a bear to walk in because of no arch supports. His left arch has been paining him fiercely since the surgery.

Labels: birds, cars, expenses, eyeglasses, health, home repair, repairs, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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It began with a win: we had to get Disney+/Hulu with the ESPN package because there was no Disney+/Hulu duo at the time. Neither of us likes sports, not the type that ESPN covers, anyway. Now they have the "Disney Duo," so I contacted Disney+ and asked how to change. A very nice person named Ariadna helped me cancel the Trio and then I signed up for the Duo. It was quick and easy.

Wednesday it took James an hour to get a blood test because the suits at Kaiser Town Park decided to have a staff meeting and leave only one person in the lab. Not cool.

And on Thursday James had the tip of his right pinky toe removed. This is the toe that turned up in January with a sore on it. However, the sore had not healed, despite all sorts of different treatments that never worked. He had an X-ray, then an MRI, then he had another X-ray just lately. The last X-ray showed that, although the bone was not yet infected, it was showing signs of becoming infected. So Dr. Conway took the tip of his toe off. It was outpatient and only took a total of ninety minutes. James was even able to go to get his Procrit shot later in the day.

In the meantime, back in March I lost one of the nosepad stalks on my only-year-old eyeglasses. This was my own fault; I should know better to buy glasses with long thin nosepad stalks; the last pair of glasses I had with long stalks one of them broke, too. Well, I had this weird workaround with a Kleenex and superglue to keep the other one from breaking, and I was tired of it. So Friday I jumped in the car to go to Costco to get a new pair of glasses.

The car wouldn't start and the dashboard lights flashed on and off. So I went in the truck, only to find my prescription only lasted a year and I couldn't get a new pair without a prescription. Luckily I called up and I got in next Wednesday.

The stupid car will need to wait so long as we have the truck for transportation; there are other things that need taking care of first.

Labels: cars, health, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:31:00 PM

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Well, now that the toe, and almost the teeth, are out of the way, it's time to attack all the other little irritants. This morning I got up at seven (ewww) and drove Butch to Advance Auto to see WTF is going on with him. Got a ride home and did various chores until the insurance adjuster came; pretty much what I thought: won't reach the deductible amount, which is $1,000. Well, I'll see if anyone knows a good tree service...

This actually ended...happily. Alex showed up to mow the lawn Wednesday morning and I went out there to warn him about the tree. He looked at it and said, "I'll take the wood and cut the poison ivy vine and toss them into the very back of the yard, and it'll be $30." Blink. Well, sure, I'll take it! (And "I don't deserve this man.") When I paid him for the lawn and the tree I actually gave him a little more because I was so happy to be rid of the fool thing.

Once the tree was taken care of, we had to head to Glenlake to get James his steroid shots. Now, when he made this appointment, they gave him no specific instructions, nothing about fasting, etc. So he was going to quit work at noon, we would have sandwiches, we'd go get the shots. Well, they called him at 11:45 to ask if he wanted to come earlier. We scrambled to get dressed and I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and he just had a 90-calorie brownie and scatted.

And then when we got there he was honest and said he'd had the brownie.

They hashed this out for ten minutes and then decided the 90-calorie brownie wasn't a threat. He got five shots in his spine and I picked him up in the truck.

Well, he wasn't supposed to drive home just in case he had a reaction to the shots, but just as we were leaving, Advance called and said Butch was ready. Oh, Butch's problem was that the camshaft sensor wasn't talking to the crankcase sensor. When they don't talk to each other, apparently the car's computer system has hysterics and just quits! (God, I miss Twilight. He had sensors, but he had sensible ones. This was only for the anti-skid system. When the sensors don't work why not just turn the anti-skid system off rather than the whole damn car?) Anyway, $311 worth of two tires and the sensor thing brought it up to $1100. Urgh.

On the way we picked up supper at Zaxby's. Good God, wings have gotten expensive.

James and I wrangled about this on the way home (and this took a while because the stupid Braves game was just getting out and the traffic was unbelievable) and so I let him drive from Advance to home, following him carefully. The spinal shots gave him no problems, no swelling or anything, although they warned him his blood sugar might spike. Boy, did it, it was in the high 300s when he went to bed!

Thursday morning I got up about 8:30, and I looked at the calendar and there was James' oral surgeon appointment at 11:15. But why did it say it was on the 11th? And then I realized he had never put the oral surgery on his calendar; this was the original appointment that was cancelled when he made the July 28th appointment. James called them in a hurry, apologized, and they said they could get him in at 11:30. Whew.

So I sat in the lobby on the free wifi, typing a story on my tablet while I listened to Rupert Holmes on my phone, until he emerged about quarter to three, rather bloody around the mouth. We stopped at Kaiser on the way home to pick up his pain meds and his antibiotic, and then went home, where I spent the rest of the afternoon putting on and taking off icepacks. He had a hydrocodone around dinner time: I made rice and gave it to him in some Campbell's chicken broth cut with vegetable broth and some squished up canned carrot and Lighthouse salad bits to give it a little body and a little ginger. It tasted pretty good. I just had the rice in broth.

By the time bedtime came he eschewed the pain meds and just took the Zolpidem and Tylenol. The bloody gauze for a while was pretty gross, but he took it out about nine o'clock and never put any more in, nor did he have very bad swelling.

He woke up Friday morning pretty chipper despite my having a crying fit about seven a.m. about what to do about the antibiotics: Kaiser shorted us; we only got twelve. By the time I got up, I was in a better emotional state, called Kaiser and got through the four hours (it seems like it, anyway) of COVID messages to talk to advice, who connected me with the West Cobb pharmacy, and they said they were sorry and said they'd prep a bottle with the remainder of the scrip for me to pick up. So, took the dog out, dressed, got $5 worth of gas at the BP so I could make it safely to Costco to eventually fill my tank, picked up the rest of the pills at West Cobb, went to Lidl, went to Publix, went to Kroger, and then came home with relief to lose myself into Law & Order: Criminal Intent and sit under the fan.

Saturday I helped him make the meat for his lunches since the steroids don't kick in, according to the post-procedure instructions, for three to ten days and his back was killing him. We were rapidly running out of acetaminophen, and I didn't want to go to Costco on a Saturday, so I actually got on the computer and ordered that and two other things and they were delivered by dinnertime; the $6 Instacart fee was worth not having to go there on Saturday. These things are so easy...we're starting to call it "phonewavium" by how we can get on the internet and order things so easily.

Labels: cars, chores, errands, food, health, illness, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:28:00 PM

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The week opened with fireworks! Nothing major, just Independence Day: James had to work as always, but nobody called, so we did our annual watch of 1776, and I put on the first five episodes of Alistair Cooke's America (from the Native Americans to the first westward movement). Used one of the pork loins in the fridge to make barbecue pork in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker settings) and it was quite yummy with sweet corn, plus watermelon chunks for dessert.

James went to the podiatrist on Tuesday. The antibiotic was already helping with the infection; the podiatrist cut away the left side of the toenail and then put acid on it to keep it from growing back. He has to soak his foot ten minutes in Epsom salts for a week and then I am to drown it in Betadyne and wrap it up each night. Business as usual, sadly.

The usual shopping on Wednesdays and then we had our monthly treat: driving up to Canton, having lunch at Uncle Maddio's (the owner is still running it alone), going to Books-a-Million, and then stopping at BJs on the way home for groceries and gas. I got three very interesting books in the remainder area: Law & Disorder by John Douglas, an FBI profiler (what I call my "Robert Goren made me do it" book); The Hunt for History by Nathan Raab, a historical documents collector; and also a creepy looking one about incels called Men Who Hate Women.

Hair Day was in the afternoon this month because Sheri had a baby shower in the morning, so we had time to drop by the Hallmark Ornament Premiere in the morning. I completed my "12 Days of Christmas" set, and got a Hallowe'en puppy, a miniature owl, and a "compass of my heart" that I couldn't resist. James got this year's airplane and the Mandalorian's spacecraft. Then we ate lunch at Okinawa and stopped at Petco for birdseed before going on to Hair Day.

The bad news is whatever recall work they did on Butch did not make any difference to the problem: the stabilization light is still coming on (and when it does the tachometer quits working!) and the car is still making stalling sounds and occasionally "starting soft." It did not thankfully stall out completely. Kia said "they couldn't diagnose the problem" (at least they didn't charge me for it!), so I'm going to have to call Mike. Also, the new thermostat is working fine but it's still saying half the time that it can't connect to the wifi or the "Smart Hub" (which is next to the A/C and is what really runs it), so I called Peachtree to come again and look at it.

Something kind of creepy: a celebrity I follow on Twitter posted pics of fireworks in NYC from their apartment balcony. Based on landmarks I could see and where the Empire State Building was in relation to the angle and then using Street View in Google Maps, I pretty much figured out where this person lives (at least the area!). Big Brother is indeed watching!

Labels: books, cars, chores, decorating, food, Independence Day, movies, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:58:00 PM

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Well, the truck A/C is finally fixed! It turned out there was no power going to the compressor, so while we were getting some cool air, without that power the A/C couldn't keep up in the heat.

That was done on Monday, and on Tuesday Robert came back and installed a new thermostat, and I discovered my Lennox account was never deleted at all. It was the iComfort account that was deleted. Apparently they're two different things; who knew?

On Thursday morning we brought Butch to Kia to have all the recalls done. I also asked them to look into the problem of the stalling. I think it's worth the diagnostic fee, but am hoping it's something Mike can fix, as I'd rather give him the money than Kia.

That was really all the big news at home. We did the usual shopping. The car was not ready by Saturday as Kia promised, but, again, I really didn't care.

I was still boggled by the fact that it cost James $50 to half-fill the truck tank! Prices are ridiculous. The ground turkey that was $2.89 in 2020 at Lidl is now $4.39! My favorite "dinner rolls" have gone from 59 cents to 99 cents. The only thing still cheap is the milk at the Mableton Kroger, and I know they use that as a loss leader.

This week, after being a member for six (honestly!) years, I finally started uploading my fanfiction to Archive of Our Own. I thought I joined a lot later, like 2020, but it turned out I never did anything with my membership because of James' heart attack. Kinda nervous because this is the first really public place I'm posting my Law & Order: Criminal Intent post-series stories, even though they're available on my website.

Labels: cars, fanfiction, money, repairs

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:34:00 PM

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It's been...a week.

Some positive things did happen. The most important is that we have found our old mechanic! James' truck needs work on the A/C; it either needs a shot of freon or the fan needs fixing. We didn't want to call True Automotive (what our old place turned into) since I'm pretty sure they overcharged me last time. We did get a coupon from an Advantage Auto Center on Cobb Parkway to have a free check of a car's A/C, so James called them up and heard a familiar name on the voice mail: it was Mike! So we have arranged to have the truck seen on Monday the 20th. I also made an appointment with the local KIA dealership to get Butch checked out; he has at least three recalls on him, including one to "update the software." So, my car needs Windows updates? I am wondering if this is what made the car lose power while I was driving it on May tenth. If not, I'm not sure if I want KIA to look at the car or just take it to Mike.

And James went to the urologist on Thursday and the NP pulled out the catheter. Hopefully the infection has gone away. I am less sanguine about the state of his prostate. I think it might be blocking his urethra again. This would mean more surgery. I hope this isn't the case.

On Saturday he had an MRI of his back. Orthopedics is trying to determine if there are some type of shots he can take as well as physiotherapy to help him walk a little better, so he (a) won't be in such pain and (b) will be able to exercise more. We were almost late because we were two-thirds of the way there and ran into a roadblock because a car had driven off Paper Mill Road. We were forced to backtrack and take another route and got stuck behind a moving van doing 25mph. How frustrating! But we did get there on time and it only took about thirty minutes, and James said the techs were very nice.

Our big problem started on Tuesday. Now, we got new HVAC in 2016, the day James had his first heart attack. We also got the maintenance plan; they do a checkup twice a year for a monthly fee. Well, less than two years ago they turn up with this new wifi programmable thermostat, as opposed to the old non-wifi programmable thermostat. I think the model number is a Lennox E30. Anyway, I did create an online account and it's nifty—like if we forget to turn on the eco-programming if we go away for a weekend, I can turn it on with the phone and not waste energy.

Well, the E30 is a finicky beast. The original they installed messed up less than a year into our owning it. It just quit working. This was when it was cold—maybe six months ago? They put in a new one. This one's been a little flaky—for instance, I have it in power save mode, which means the screen is supposed to stay off unless I wave my hand in front of it, but it turns off and on indiscriminately—but it's always held to the various programmed schedules fine. Until today. I walked past it and it came on...and what the hell? Instead of being on "summer" schedule, with temp set at 74, it was on "heat only" and already 77 in the house. Went to turn it back to summer schedule. Guess what. Touch screen has completely quit working.

Labels: cars, electronics, events, health, traffic

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:52:00 PM

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"Summer is icumen..." Eh.

Yeah, the big news here is that it's going to be 90s, presumably from now on, starting out with 90s and high humidity (thanks a lot, Florida), which makes the heat index on Monday the 13th a nice jolly 100 plus.

At least things got done this week: the bushes got trimmed and the dog was drowned...uh, bathed. (He only believes he's drowned.) And he's so happy afterward, but he doesn't want to admit it.

James did have a frustrating work day on Wednesday. Somewhere after eleven o'clock he couldn't receive any phone calls, although he could make them. So, between trying to resolve the problem all afternoon, he could only follow up on cases. It turned out to be a server problem and it was okay when he checked again on Friday.

Thursday we didn't do much besides the grocery shopping, but we did go to the Smyrna post office to see if the HOA bank had mailed the checks for the HOA account. They told us they wouldn't mail to a post office box, so we had expected them delivered to our address on June 6. Well, they never arrived. And they weren't at the post office, so James had to call the bank again. It turned out the original order got cancelled "because they couldn't find your address," so the order was only put in two weeks ago when James called the first time and the person we talked to ("Amanda") assured him they would be delivered on the 6th. We found out when he called that "Amanda" had left the company! So on Wednesday I had to pay the lawn guy out of my account because the stupid bank can't get this shit right. Anyway, the lady at the bank he talked to this time said they would put a rush on the checks, so maybe someday I will get paid back.

Friday we had lunch at O'Charley's with Alice and Ken and John along with a nice long chat (John is currently fixing his own deck, which makes my back hurt to hear about), then waited in line for what seemed like hours for gasoline at Sam's Club in Hiram (there were lines of seven or eight cars at all ten pumps) due to it being at the "low price" of $4.24 a gallon. Finally we went to Walmart because James needed new mats for the truck. We also got sugar-free candy, more slippers for him, a new floodlight for outside, and a few other things.

Saturday we had nowhere to go and didn't want to spend any money, so we went nowhere. I did send a note to a friend, but mainly just did junk around the house, like putting the new mats in James' trunk and trying to make some order of all the wires on his dashboard (he have the GPS that plugs in, as well as the radar detector, plus the charge cord for when we use the phone for navigation, so it's rather a tangle up front). I finally taped everything down with duct tape and replaced the reflector on the wheelchair lift that got knocked off when I loaded the chair about a dozen times ago. Because MMR car repair went out of business a couple of years back and I thought the new place, True Automotive, overcharged me when Butch needed fixing in February 2020, we don't know where to take the truck to get the A/C repaired (we think all it needs is a freon or whatever-they-use-now charge, but it might be the fan). Plus I need to get Butch to the Kia dealer for the five, count 'em, five recalls on the stupid car and I really can't trust to driving the dumb car after it lost power on me in the middle of the road over a month ago, but I really don't care about the stupid car, either, and wish I could just avoid the whole thing.

Instead of thinking will spend time watching more episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent...

Labels: annoyances, cars, chores, shopping, television, weather, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:40:00 PM

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Well, what followed DragonCon was a series of interesting events (but at least not interesting in the Chinese sense).

On Tuesday, while I was dipping in and out of "Star Trek Day," I took down the master bedroom curtains, washed them, washed the windows, and did something about the window shade on my side of the bed (finally). The spring broke on it some time ago, and for many, many months now when I opened the window I just rolled up the bottom of the shade and secured it with a large paperclip on each side. It occurred to me just recently that we had a window shade we cut for James' "man cave" and had never put up; it's been propped up behind the door of my craft room since...well, you don't want to know. I tried it. It fit. So now I have a working shade again and the curtains are clean. (I have saved the broken shade; it's back behind the craft room door. It would be fine down in the "man cave" since James doesn't open the windows, but we can't get to the window now with a shelf full of modeling things in the way, and we never put the mounting hooks up anyway. Ah, well.)

Since it was cloudy out Wednesday morning, I put up the main autumn decorations outside: leaf mailbox cover, leaf wreath, fall banner, fall basket. Also did laundry and installed a "shelf" over one of the power outlets in the garage. These will be used to hold the rechargeable lights I found for his power chair if we have to take it out at night. I also put something away in his truck, and thereby hangs a tale:

Thursday James headed downstairs, got in the truck, and headed for physical therapy. Well, no he didn't. The truck wouldn't start. I should have simply told him to take the car, instead I just grabbed my pouch and took him there myself. On the way we discussed what to do with the truck: we figured we'd just call AAA and have them replace the battery. After all, it was five years old...

Well, no, I realized as I drove home, no it wasn't. The starter died last year, and they replaced the battery along with it. The receipt from November 2019 was in the glove compartment. So I called up the mechanic, who told me, sure they'd replace it free; it's under warranty. I told them I thought it was because the door didn't close properly when I'd put something in the cab. He told me that if it was just the light that had drained the battery, maybe they didn't even need to see it; if I could get it jumped off and then keep it running for awhile, the alternator would recharge the battery.

As I once again considered calling AAA, up the street comes our neighbor Gary, who walks his little daughter in the stroller every morning. I hadn't jumped off a vehicle in a dog's age, so I asked if he would help. We already had jumper cables, and the car...

Annnnnnd it worked. I locked the truck and left it running outside and just was about to take Tucker walking again (he got shorted on his first walk) but realized a whole hour had gone by and it was time to pick up James. Did I dare? Yes, I did, although I don't feel comfortable driving the truck; I dressed and went to get him. Just in case, instead of going directly to shopping, we drove home, turned it off, he changed clothes.

Yay. Restart. Still working, so far...

On Friday we had lunch at Top Spice [Thai restaurant] for the first time since the lockdown. Everyone likes Top Spice, so we had nine people, which was within safety guidelines. We also stopped in at Barnes & Noble (didn't buy any books; they don't have a thing I want) and at Hobby Lobby.

Did a bunch of other little things on Saturday including vacuuming the whole upper story and all the dust bunnies under the bed, and then it was Sunday and chore day (backed up my hard drive, too). So it was a varied week.

Big Thanks again to Gary for helping out!

Labels: books, cars, chores, cleaning, crafts, decorations, events, friends, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:30:00 PM

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Our Thursday-Friday-Saturday weekend was rudely interrupted by work: on Friday James had to make up for the Anachrocon Sunday he was off. We had happier news by then, but it came the long way around.

When last we met the car was acting funny. So Monday I took it to the mechanic and Tuesday I picked it up, considerably poorer. Apparently all four spark plugs were burned out and this had short circuited one of the cylinder igniters. They also replaced the oil pan/plug, where the car has been leaking oil. I'm not sure if I shouldn't start looking for a new mechanic. These folks took care of Twilight for years, and I think Tucker before that, and they have always been very competent. But they are under new management, and I heard the new owner speak disparagingly of the head mechanic who is beloved by all the customers. I notice they are not as busy as they used to be, and am wondering if they are driving people away. They were very nice to me, but the bill was larger than they quoted on the phone.

The good news for this weekend was that we have a new lift for the truck. We got the check from Nationwide on Tuesday (the adjuster rushed it through)* and Mobility Works had an opening, so by Friday it was on. It is considerably smaller than the old one (which I hope means it's less of a target) and the four outer, smaller wheels actually hang down now where they used to be on the lift platform. Only the two big wheels are on the platform, but the groove that holds them is deeper and it actually seems more secure.

The bad news is that because the platform is smaller, we have problems loading it on our driveway. Everywhere else that is flat, like a parking lot, is fine, but our driveway not only slants, but it curves; it's like a big swoop. So when we lower the lift all the way, the outer edge of the platform isn't flat on the driveway. So we have to find the best way to put the platform down and load the chair. We had to find the sweet spot for the bigger platform, but it doesn't work on the new one.

The only halfway fun thing we did this weekend was go to IKEA (I wanted ginger cookies) and then have dinner at Fried Tomato Buffet.


*I'm really impressed with Nationwide. From hit-n-run to new lift it's been exactly two weeks.

Labels: cars

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:58:00 PM

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Well, this was it. The final Anachrocon.

We've been going to Anachrocon since it was a mostly steampunk convention at the Hilton at Perimeter Mall. (221B Con, the Sherlock Holmes convention, was also there for a while.) We sampled our first one just on a Sunday, enjoyed the few panels we saw (candy-making exhibitions, mostly), and signed up for the entire con the next year. The con branched out further once it moved to the Marriott at Century Center (where Timegate/WHOlanta was held after they moved from the Holiday Inn in Chamblee). They started having a whole track of history panels and there was also a Doctor Who track, along with costuming, fabrication, literature, and science. There are literature and science panels at DragonCon, but no real history tracks, just alternate history panels. It was so good to be able to talk to others about things that interested you in real history, like an infamous circus train crash in Georgia. Two men who re-enacted Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson also used to come to the con. Then there was a shake-up in the con committee, the con was held one year near our house (the Wyndham at Powers Ferry), and then they moved out to the Hilton at the airport like everyone (WHOlanta and 221B) else. But it was obvious at the Wyndham con that attendance was down. So...long story short, this year was the last.

We had our own obstacle this year since the lift on the truck had been broken and we were still waiting for the insurance claim to process so we could arrange to have a new one installed. There was no way James could get the power chair there. Instead we decided to take the Kia and the rollator, since it was supposed to rain most of the weekend anyway. So on Friday we packed up our food (since the restaurants in the hotel are too expensive for words; the "Italian" place has spaghetti and meatballs for $22! Even the sports bar is expensive and tiny portions; I don't want to know what the lah-de-dah "Magnolia Room" charges), headed down to the airport about 2:30, annoyed to find out rush hour had already started. I let James off at the door and went to park the car out back. Our friends Clay and Maggi had also just arrived and they turned up soon afterwards.

Spent most of this convention at the literature track, which, like last year, consisted of mostly writing panels. We spent Friday evening, in fact, solely in the literature track, where there was the one non-writing panel, the history of alternative history. The other Friday panels were about editing, writing effective villains, "That Took Me Out of the Story" (unforgivable errors mostly), and tropes.

Saturday we were there from eleven until 9:30 p.m. (and probably would have been later had I not considered poor Tucker's bladder). We did a cruise around the Dealer's Room when we arrived, then went to sit down in the 17th Century Medicine panel given by Jo Frost, waiting for the Writing Historical Fiction panel (which, as always, boils down to "research! research! research!"), and we both went to the "Writing Alternative Universes" panel.

At 2 p.m. I attended the Science Track's panel about "20s" technology. Debbie Viguie and a friend ran this as a humorous look at technology that came out in the 20s (1920s, 1820s, 1720s, 1620s...) doing a Bill and Ted riff. It was funny, and we voted for our favorite technologies and added things. (James had gone to a panel on tommy guns, and remarked wryly that he know more about tommy guns than the moderator.)

Attended the "Effective Research" panel back in "litrachure," then went wandering back to History track to see the "Untouchables" panel. Jeremiah Mitchell was still finishing the Battle of Atlanta, and it ran way, way over, so his "Untouchables" presentation was a bit truncated (but still ran over). Jeremiah loves to talk about the things that interest him, and, boy, can he talk. I'd seen the Capone/Ness presentation previously but he attacked it at a different angle this time.

So I was late getting out of that one and decided to give "Tesla vs. Edison" a miss.

The next panel was about unusual roles for women, which we all went to, but it was different from what I expected. The moderator was talking about specific people; I thought it was going to be more general (talking about women who became soldiers, perhaps, like Deborah Sampson, or about women being tram drivers in World War I, etc.). After that Clay, Maggi, James, and I stood around swapping pet stories—and watching the cute dachshund, Dobby, walk back and forth with his human, wearing a little doggy three piece suit.

The final Saturday panel was about the Kennedy assassination, which Maggi and I remember, but Clay and James don't, so they stayed outside and talked and we stayed in and watched Jeremiah, who had corralled all the conspiracy theory evidence (although there's enough non-conspiracy stuff to be puzzled about, like why no forensics teams ever saw that limousine) and started talking at 8:15, and, like the Energizer Bunny, kept going and going and going. Maggi left because her back was hurting, and I would have stayed if I hadn't started thinking Tucker was really going to need a walk—I tiptoed out at 9:30, Jeremiah having just reached the investigation that took place after the Warren Commission report.

So in we walk Sunday morning, and the first person I run into is Jeremiah. I ask "What time did you finish last night?" He said "Eleven." I just laughed.

We did three panels on Sunday, a literature one about developing story ideas, and then a panel in the history track about re-enactments and the value of historical accuracy. Instead, with the meager audience's help, it developed into funny re-enactment events and the crazy things re-enactors are asked (Jeremiah and Jo said they were both asked if their campfire was "real"). The third guy on the panel (Bill?) said that it was hard for beginners to attain historical accuracy anyway, because most re-enactors start in their teens when they have no money, and they don't have the cash to order handmade Civil War-era-like brogans ($400!). But, yeah, sneakers did kind of take you out of the moment. 😊

So we (well, Maggi and I at least) ended up back at the beginning for the last panel in Literature, "Give the Princess a Sword." Strong female characters—but don't make her a guy in a girl outfit. (The guys were outside in the open area, watching a demonstration swordfight.)

We probably should have stayed for closing ceremonies, but being on his feet was catching up with James, so instead we headed home. We did buy Girl Scout cookies before we left.

(And who was the last person we said goodbye to? Jeremiah. So he got the last word. 😉 )

There was one perk out of the Hilton this weekend: we never had to pay for parking! The ticket reader didn't work all three days—you couldn't insert the ticket into it; the feed did not work—and when you pressed the call button they just opened the gate for you. There's at least $15 saved.

Which, of course was a good thing, because as we got on the freeway we had problems in two ways: we just went straight up through downtown because I-285 had construction all weekend, only to find out the freeway was backed up all the way through downtown. Of course being stuck in traffic was the perfect time for the car to start giving me trouble. It was idling low (500 RPM) with a visible vibration, and it was fighting me as I tried to accelerate. Any speed under 2000 RPM and there was a vibration. (There was also a tick when it idled.)

We owe the hospital. We owe the IRS. And now this. Arrrrgh!

Labels: annoyances, cars, conventions, friends

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:09:00 PM

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Well, it was an interesting weekend, and, yeah, part of that was in the Chinese sense.

I went into the weekend feeling chuffed because I'd finally updated my Christmas web page completely (I'd done the donkey work already and was just tweaking) and did some minor corrections to the Thanksgiving page. I'd done the Autumn page earlier, so now the only other seasonal page to update is the Winter one.

Thursday we made the usual supermarket run, and then had this week's lunch a day early at Curry Curry, a Thai restaurant near where James works. I had pad thai and got a huge bowl of noodles and meat; looking forward to the leftovers! Alice, Ken, and Mel also showed up and we had a nice chat before we headed off to Walmart. We needed more non-stick bandages and also picked up more melatonin. In the evening we had a small snack and watched Babylon 5.

On Friday morning we drove out to Kaiser Glenlake for James' appointment with his cardiologist. This was easier said than done. The truck has been giving him a problem since early summer; sometimes when he tried to start it it would click. And after a few clicks it would start. Friday morning it didn't start at all. So I drove him out instead and had to shove James around in a manual wheelchair. I'd say the visit went fairly well: Dr. Shash said his readings and labs looked okay, and he thought James' slightly elevated blood pressure was caused by the pain from his arthritis. He said just to keep an eye on things and if it continued he'd raise the dosage of his meds a little. He doesn't want to do it now because it would make James more tired. (I didn't realize BP meds made you tired.)

Then we had to go downstairs for his blood tests for Dr. Kongara next week, and then back upstairs to the pharmacy, and then only could we head home. Luckily we got out of there before they blocked off the roads near our house because both the President and the Vice President were in Atlanta today.

Once we got home, James tried to start the truck again, but it was a no go. So I went upstairs to call AAA, only to realize we had never received our renewal notice in the mail. Instead I went online to pay the bill, then called them about the truck. First they sent over someone to try to jump it off just in case it was the battery, but that was a lost cause. Only then could the tow truck show up and the guy pulled the pickup out of the driveway as easily as the yolk comes out of a broken egg, and we followed him to the mechanic. They won't get to look at it until Monday.

(James' blood tests came in later in the evening. Everything seems to be holding steady, creatitine at 2.4.)

Since James couldn't drive himself to his meeting on Saturday, I took him up to Town Center and left him at Hobbytown while I bopped around a little. I had four good JoAnn coupons but not much money, so bought four more colors of DMC Etoile floss and enjoyed the browsing. Then I took the back way—because Barrett Parkway today looked like it was the week before Christmas—to get to the Hallmark store since I had a good coupon. I did end up with a gift for someone and two Thanksgiving cards. I also took a turn around Tuesday Morning, and dropped in at Publix to see if they had chicken and wild rice soup. I was strolling around Barnes & Noble when James called and said the meeting was over. I was an idiot and went through Barrett, and it took me twenty minutes to get about two miles. Did someone move up Black Friday when I wasn't looking? Incredible!

So we headed home and spent a quiet evening watching Babylon 5 and the end of the Shadow War. Alas, if only they knew the hardest part was ahead of them.

Labels: cars, crafts, food, friends, health, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:58:00 PM

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So, another Thursday has rolled around. Woke leisurely, had breakfast, walked Tucker.

We were still having gorgeous weather this morning. Yesterday the high was only 72℉, and there was a breeze. It was like a day borrowed out of April, one we could actually enjoy without yellow pine pollen dust in the air. Had the front, bedroom, and dining room window open, and the door to the deck while we were at home. So walking this morning was a joy, even with the sun out. There was a smart breeze, and the air smelled fresh and wonderful, of grass, trees, and even flowers, rather than hot asphalt, hot concrete, and car exhaust.

When we got back, it was off grocery shopping! We got in the truck, James backed out, then stopped a foot from the garage door and said "Something's wrong." I didn't understand. I thought he meant the garage door, or, even worse, something wrong with him. "What's wrong?" To my relief, his response was only, "There's something wrong with the truck. I've got a flat tire or something."

Why, yes, yes, he did. The left rear tire was flat as a pancake. I remember when he came home Tuesday (he teleworked on Wednesday because he got about four hours sleep and didn't feel safe driving) the truck looked a little low when it pulled in the driveway, but the tire was not flat then, nor looked low.

So James slowly pulled the truck back in the driveway so as not to damage the tire, and we took the car to Lidl (where I went inside for milk and bread) and then to Publix where we picked up twofers, including more dog biscuits, and some lunchmeat and more turkey thighs. On the way home, James called AAA, and they were on their way before we arrived home. James could watch the truck's progress on a map on his phone.

Man, that's a big truck. The guy told me he towed a Hummer once! He had the spare tire out from under the truck, the bad tire off, the spare tire on, and the spare tire filled with air (there's a compressor on the front of the AAA truck) in less than 20 minutes. So Triple A has paid for itself this year.

I'd already eaten a sandwich (James was sweet and bought me mortadella, which I had with a nice fresh Lidl bun), James ate his, and we took the tire over to MMW (formerly NAPA Auto Center), although James was certain he would have to buy a new tire, and the tires for the truck are over $125 each. But...surprise! It was a puncture that could be patched and only cost $25. We hadn't been here since they remodeled, and the inside looks really spiffy now, new floor, checkout desk, even a little counter where you can get water and coffee. Mr. Gagnon, the sweet older man who would occasionally be the one who drove me home and back when I had Twilight repaired, must have retired. There's a new gang, but Mike the head mechanic is still there.

On the way home we stopped at Kroger to pick up no-salt mushrooms and found a windfall in the Manager's Special section in the meat department: three meals of sirloin steak and three meals of pork loin, all discounted. We got six main courses for dinners for about $22. Also the mushrooms. Pity Kroger is the only place to find no-salt mushrooms.

Because of the meat, we had to come straight home. We got all the servings in the freezer, and I also sliced up the green pepper we bought at Publix. Both James and I love green pepper flavor in chicken cacciatore, but we can't eat the pepper itself because it makes us sick. So I freeze strips of green pepper to break up into chicken cacciatore to give it the flavor, and then we discard the bits of pepper.

By the time that was over, it was almost time for supper. We had the last of the chicken cacciatore I cooked last time, and James had it with green beans and brown rice, and I had it with fresh French bread from Lidl. Finished my library books, watched two Perry Mason episodes, took Tucker out under an almost full moon that was so bright you could see the sky as dark blue and not black. It was so nice outside the college students renting one of the houses down the street were out goofing off on skateboards (and one on a scooter with lighted blue wheels).

There was a comment on my Facebook post about the flat tire saying that we "were sooooo lucky." Yes, we were. James teleworked Wednesday because he only had four hours sleep and didn't feel safe driving. What if he had gone to work and that tire gave out when he was driving to or from work, going 45 mph on South Cobb Drive or the East-West Connector? Or if he came out exhausted after ten hours work to find the tire flat and had to wait for AAA? Instead it went flat in the garage. So, thank you, God.

Labels: books, cars, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:53:00 PM

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Yes, I'm still alive.

However, I'm still recovering from an emotional tailspin that's been a nightmare.

The foley catheter that James had inserted after the urodynamics test on June 26 was defective in some manner and kept disconnecting from the leg bag. He had to come home from work one day, and, because he sits off in an area with no one else around, went through another day with the damn thing popping off about a dozen times. That Thursday he called Kaiser urology, but they couldn't get him in. They told him if he felt it needed to be changed, he needed to go to...guess where: Urgent Care. So we did that on Friday afternoon after taping the catheter output to the leg bag with electrical tape.

The tech they had put the catheter in was not experienced at it. By Saturday afternoon, July 14, it went sour. James called me about 3 p.m., after walking out of his club meeting in terrible pain. I asked if he felt capable of driving to Urgent Care at Towne Park (he was about three or four miles away) and he said yes. So he went there and I went to drive to meet him. I was nearly there when I had to slow down for traffic. It proceeded forward and then had to stop again, but I reacted three seconds too slowly and rear-ended someone. Alice and Ken came to rescue me, but amazingly the car was driveable even though the hood was bent up and the grill broken and the A/C quit working. In fact, according to the HUM device plugged into the car, all the systems (battery, coolant, engine, transmission, etc.) were working perfectly. I drove it home (with Alice as co-pilot) and ironically they were going to take me back up to Urgent Care, but James was on his way home. They had to put in a new catheter (and this time they did it correctly). We need to have a big, big talk with Urololgy or someone at Kaiser. This is the second time we've had a foley put in at Urgent Care and it's gone bad.

I had a big bruise on my left shoulder where the seat belt caught me and I ached all over for a while, but the biggest ache was in my heart because I hit someone. (The lady wasn't hurt.) I've never hit another car in my life. And I knew Nationwide would want to total the car. Even though I've taken such good care at it, and even coddled it after the bridge collapse on I-85 last year, and the seats and the interior still look brand new, the body work would be a bear. I did take it to my mechanic and he said he knew a fairly honest body shop; I went there next and they said it would be $5K to fix and even then, because the hood was jammed shut, they might have to make more repairs after reaching the $5K limit. After the impact of the accident, vapor came out of the vents and the A/C quit working. There was another $1K right there. In misery I just gave up.

(Incidentally, the HUM from Verizon worked fine, just like the similar gadget in those OnStar commercials. I had barely reached for my phone to call 911 when the dispatcher came on the line and asked if I'd been in an accident. They called the police for me and the dispatcher stayed on with me until the police showed up, while I sobbed to poor James stuck at Urgent Care.)

On July 25, exactly fourteen years from the day I bought my PT Cruiser,  I had to tell the insurance company to come take the car away. They were fourteen good years and so many adventures: my mom's house for Thanksgiving after the car being broadsided by an SUV costing $13K to repair, LaSalette Shrine, Udvar-Hazy (twice), Newport, Orchard House, Quonset Point, Yorktown, Jamestown, Williamsburg, Valley Forge, Roadside America and The National Christmas Museum (now both closed), Hershey, the PA Railroad Museum, Strasburg Rail Road, Newport News, Norfolk, Dayton, Wapakoneta, Bronners CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, the Henry Ford, Greenfield Village (where I still want to live), Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Helen, Toccoa, Chattanooga, DragonCon, Owensboro, bringing Schuyler home from Petco...and surviving I-75/85 and I-285 weekdays. It was the last car I had that my mother rode in, and, with our finances, the last new car I will ever own. Lots of memories. Much heartache.

On Saturday July 21 at Aaron Lawson's going-away party, Jerry, bless him, was trying to cheer me up and asked if I'd like to look at his car to maybe think about getting a used Kia Soul. (Both he and Clair seem happy with their Souls.) As we were leaving, Jerry invited James to sit in the car to see if he had good head clearance. Just as we approached it, a big red-tailed hawk swooped down over our heads and landed in a tree almost right over the car, and looked back at us. It was so close we could see the beautiful patterning of the spots on the chest feathers. So James "tried on" the car, and then we got in the truck to drive home. We were approaching the end of Sewell Mill Road, almost at Roswell Road, a few miles from the Lawson house, and I saw a flash of white next to the window. Flying right next to the passenger side of the truck, so close that James couldn't see it, was another red-tailed hawk.

Just for the heck of it I Googled and got "The hawk is a messenger bird. Usually when we see a hawk it means to pay attention because a message is coming to you. Hawks represent clear sightedness, being observant, our far memory and guardianship. They also bring courage, wisdom, illumination, creativity and truth. Hawks give us the ability to see the larger picture in life. They can help you to overcome problems and make wise use of opportunities."

James whiled away some hours for me by looking for used Kia Souls. We found one with a great Carfax report (one owner, no accidents) except for a lot of miles (150K for a three-year-old car!) up in Roswell. So we went up there Sunday the 29th and got caught up in a whirlwind of perky car salesman (so help me, I asked him "Are you always this relentlessly cheerful?"). Anyway, we drove it and it seemed okay. It's got a smaller engine than the PT so it's noisy, but it runs okay. Beggars can't be choosers, and because James needs the power chair to get around, we won't be using it on vacations anymore, except maybe for weekend things where we are not moving around much (like when we went up to his sister's for Thanksgiving in 2016). It will strictly be an errands and emergency car.

So I had it checked out by my mechanic on Monday the 30th and had it bought by that afternoon. The tow truck came by for poor Twilight last Friday (I promised not to cry anymore but I did after the taillights disappeared from our street). I've put all the shopping bags and etc. in the new car—it's a 2015 white Kia Soul, and it is definitely not "bigger on the inside" like the PT—and did a bunch of errands in it today.

Ambivalent about names. Since Twilight and Cloudy (the truck) had weather names, I thought "Hoarfrost" or "Frosty" for short, and James started singing "Frosty the white car, is a jolly, happy Soul..." I laughed and considered decking him at the same time. But a couple of times I've called it "Butch." It does have a flat top, after all.

Still, miss my "boy." And still miserable about hitting someone. I've been driving since 1971 and never hit another car in my life.

Labels: accidents, cars, friends, illness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:10:00 PM

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Another day on the run: up for breakfast, moving quickly for dog-walking because it's cold and windy, and then we went off to the bank. It took a while, but finally all the loan papers were signed. We also converted James' change into a deposit for his checking account while we waited.

Once we had the bank check we went to pick up the truck. That didn't take long. We brought it right home and loaded it up with the necessities: water, James' umbrella, the emergency box (which doesn't fit under the seat like it did in the old truck), the pocket organizer with the map book, etc. We could not put up some things because they had polished the dash so much that we couldn't stick anything to it. James thinks if we scrub it down with Windex it might get the coating off enough to put up some hooks for the GPS wires, etc.

One of the things we did do before putting it back in the truck bed was clean out the big black trunk that holds the driving pillow and the shopping bags. We found an old Borders container (!!!!) in there, ragged receipts, plastic bags, multiple paper Trader Joe's bags, many squished Publix reusable bags, plus some shoe inserts for James' orthopedic shoes and two rolls of wrapping paper I bought God knows when. Both are still good. We corralled the bags in other bags and brought order to chaos. Also, we had saved the old adjustable tie-downs from the old truck and had a dickens of a time figuring out how to put them on properly, but they finally went on the rails on the back.

By then it was way afternoon, so we went to Hibachi Grill for lunch, then went to Lowe's for duplicate car keys and a new toilet seat. Once that was finished, we were going to stop at the Publix across from Sprouts, but the parking lot was SRO. Instead we made a short stop at Office Max, then just went back to the Smyrna Publix to do the rest of the grocery shopping.

Sadly, we discovered one, or rather two, things we forgot to check on the truck. One, it doesn't have a jack. That's usually behind the seat in the cab. Well, we do have AAA in case we get a flat. But we also didn't test the radio. It does work, but the left speaker does not. We did test out the aux in jack and it works fine, so no more radio transmitter needed for us to listen to podcasts on long drives. No sure if getting the speaker fixed is costly or not.

When we got home James got on the phone with Nationwide and added the new truck to our insurance policy. It didn't take twenty minutes.

We had pot lucks for supper and spent the evening watching The Incredible Dr. Pol. Tucker enjoyed tonight's walk, but I nearly froze my fingers off. It's not all that cold (20s) but the wind has the banner out front out flat most of the time, so the wind chill is adding the knife edge.

Labels: cars, chores, food, organizing, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:11:00 PM

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It's been a frustrating ten days.

New Year's was pleasant. We watched the Rose Parade (grand marshal Gary Sinese) and its colorful floats and equally colorful bands (a Japanese band had bright purple uniforms) and horses. Later we went to Alice and Ken's house to watch the Rose Bowl because the University of Georgia "Bulldogs" were one of the teams. I don't like football, but I have to admit it was a really good game; lots of suspense into two overtimes. The "Dawgs" won, which meant they went to the SEC championships. Alas, they lost that game in overtime to the University of Alabama this past Monday. Apparently the "Tide" was too high to resist.

The cold continued apace. It was cold even for me. LOL.

No one came to pick up the poor truck until Friday. We had left it out all afternoon on Thursday as they said they were coming by. Apparently there were so many wrecks over New Years' weekend they couldn't keep up. We have not heard what they are offering us yet, but today we found out the repair would be over $9,000. The truck was only worth a third that much. No word how much they will offer for the lift.

When I arrived back at work on the 2nd, I still had thirteen hours of use-or-lose remaining, so I took Thursday afternoon off and Friday. Thursday I took James to his nurse visit (thankfully his blood pressure was down) and then we looked at two local used car lots for cars. We also broached the idea of getting a small SUV. However, another Tacoma would be the best value, and we did find a promising one just down the street, near the house.

We also went vehicle hunting on Sunday, including cross town to a Toyota dealership. That was a bust, because all they had was a double cab, which won't fit in the garage with the lift. We came back, went by the Toyota used lot on Cobb Parkway where we saw an access cab that looked promising, but which was as old as the old truck. It was freezing—we were in our "Rhode Island winter coats" and bundled up like Randy in A Christmas Story—but the salesman was very helpful. Finally we headed up to the Toyota lot at Town Center. They had a very nice 2011 in "pyrite," so we decided to keep an eye on that one.

However, James finally decided on a 2014 white Tacoma from the lot near our house. We took it on a test drive, kept it overnight, and then brought it to our mechanic, who found it needed brakes and the tires were suffering from dry rot and it had a broken door hinge, but otherwise was good mechanically. The dealership agreed to fix those three things and we should have it by the end of the week. We have an appointment to put a new trailer hitch on it next week and Mobility Works is ordering a new lift. (The old lift cannot be fixed. Once it is even slightly damaged they cannot guarantee its structural integrity anymore.)

We also tried out Wade's Diner and didn't think much of it.

We had our Twelfth Night party as usual, this year on Epiphany itself. We had a small but fun crowd, and missed Mel and Phyllis, who were home with a cold. Aubrey found the pickle on the tree as always. Gifts were exchanged and enjoyed.

A few weeks ago we got an offer from Earthlink for their "Hyperlink" service (broadband through the phone line). We were doing okay on DSL but we are still considering "cutting the cord." I made an appointment to get it yesterday because the salesman said it only took about an hour, an hour and a half to install. They assign you a time, and since James had to take the white pickup over to the mechanic to get it checked out anyway, I figured that would work.

Well, this turned out to be a fripping nightmare. The Hyperlink is installed via AT&T. Yesterday's technician showed up, turned off the phone without telling me (I was in the middle of an order), then went through the house testing all the phone jacks to find the one that was loose so he could connect the modem to hardwire to the computers. Once he found that, he installed the modem, but it wouldn't update. He kept going back and forth outside and then finally decided there was something wrong with the outside line and called an AT&T tech to come fix it. This dude was outside for about four hours, and when I noticed he was in the truck (this was after dark by now) I went to ask him what was going on, since when the first tech left we had a dial tone and now we didn't. He thought it was fixed and expressed surprise about the missing dial tone, and had to go to the box on the main street to turn it back on. It was horribly scratchy, and even though the Hyperlink hadn't been installed, we had no DSL at all and couldn't even fall back on it. For some reason my dial-up modem would not work, either.

Plus James had missed a day of work, I'd missed most of a day of work, and I was madder than a wet hen. I called up Earthlink and gave them a piece of my mind, but since the call center isn't even in the U.S. it's not like they really care.

By this time the first tech had gone off duty. They promised me someone would be here at 9 a.m. today to finish the install. I didn't let it wait. Since I couldn't sleep anyway—I had hurt my left leg on the stairs during the day—I was on the phone with Earthlink customer service at eight and finally found the Atlanta number and called them at eight thirty. During the latter call I got someone named Debbie and she called up AT&T and made sure someone was on their way.

He indeed got here at nine, but it took him over three hours to get it going. He had to work on the box on our street, and then the main junction box on the cross street, back and forth, and finally, to get our dial tone back, had to lay a new line just for the phone (someone will be out to bury it next week). He didn't say it aloud, but apparently the dude who worked on the box yesterday didn't know what he was doing. Anyway, finally we had a solid green light, and one by one we could attach the computers. The cell phones and the tablets were the least trouble because all you have to do is show Android a picture of wi-fi and it connects. 😊 Even the ancient Blu-ray player attached to the modem and it hasn't spoken to the wi-fi signal in five years! It took us, however, at least another hour to get the most critical unit attached: James' work laptop. The other two computers were a cinch: find the modem, tell it to connect, type in the cybernetic salad that's the password, and you're in. The work laptop wasn't that simple because we also had to set the connection parameters (what level of security and in which format, which we didn't know until James found the specs on the modem). That didn't get done until 2 p.m. James' supervisor sounded really testy this morning when he called in saying the internet was still down, so he worked an additional hour to make up for not being available in the morning.

There has been entirely too much drama already this month.

And I've only just begun putting Christmas back up! Only the kitchen and the foyer are cleared so far.

Labels: accidents, cars, Christmas, electronics, food, friends, holidays, parties

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:38:00 PM

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I always save up my annual leave for Christmas. No use in taking time off in the spring or the summer when the weather is horrible; if it's going to be miserable anyway I might as well be at work. So, yay, I could sleep late, but not very. James was teleworking and I couldn't sleep.

He was teleworking today because earlier in the week we had noticed pink fluid dripping under the truck. Oh, no, transmission fluid is pink! Thursday he teleworked and I brought the truck over to NAPA Auto. Apparently in Toyotas coolant is also pink and that's what was leaking, from a hose that goes from the front of the engine to all the way in the back, so to replace the thing they had to take the whole intake manifold (? the top part of the engine anyway) off. So they didn't finish Thursday, but did have it by this morning so James could go off to his iron infusion this afternoon.

I had a Hallmark coupon for Amy's Hallmark on Dallas Highway, so I headed out there. I found a cute gift to put away. Then I walked down to Barnes & Noble to pick up a Christmas issue of "Smoky Mountain Living." The Dallas Highway store is the only one that carries this reliably.

I'd forgotten to put my 20 percent off all periodicals coupon in my wallet, so I swung by the house to get it. B&N is giving a 20 percent off discount to members this weekend, so it would be a good time to pick up the new "This England Annual" I saw on Monday. Picked up the January "Country Sampler" as well. (I'm enjoying 'em now. Won't be able to afford them next year.) Also used the 25 percent off coupon I got in e-mail and the 20 percent off coupon I got in the mail on two books about an American woman who marries a Frenchman.

I came home by Publix since I've managed to go there three times without dropping off the toys I collected for Toys for Tots—and I still forgot them in the car and had to bring them back in after I loaded the groceries in the hatchback (well since I was at Publix I might as well do the shopping, right?).

Once James got home we went to MicroCenter to buy a new hard drive for James' computer. James hasn't gotten a major Windows update since last November. Each time he tries it reaches 89 percent and goes to black. He has to reboot and put it back to the previous version. Well, when he tried it just recently it went to black and stayed there; it would not let him go back to the previous version. We figured the update fried the Windows operating system. So we were going to load Windows 10 onto a new hard drive; then we would get James' files off the old hard drive via an enclosure. By the time we got home, we were so bushed we just ordered chicken wings for supper and then got to work on loading Windows 10.

Except it wouldn't. I finally got on chat with Microsoft and this patient tech support guy worked with us for three straight hours to get this thing to load. But we kept getting an error message CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT. I looked it up and the tech did as well, and it...dammit...is a processor error. There's nothing wrong with the disc. There's everything wrong with the computer.

And...groan...another late bedtime.

Labels: books, cars, computers, food, magazines, shopping, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:59:00 PM

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Another nice sleep this morning, although a much more challenging day awaited. James was out of breakfast burritos completely, and we had forgotten to get "plastic cheese" (Kraft cheese slices) for them. Sigh. Well, I wanted to go back to CVS anyway; the item I'd forgotten was Gold Bond medicated powder and I really needed it with the summer rash and all. So after I walked Tucker, I got in the car and drove up to the CVS on Milford Church Road, which is next to a Walmart Neighborhood Market (basically a grocery store). I could get the cheese there.

To my jaw-dropping amaze, CVS had no Gold Bond, or any kind of talcum/cornstarch period! They suggested I go to Walmart! So I did, and I got the cheese and the Gold Bond. Abso-fragging-lutely preposterous.

I had noticed the other day that my right front tire seemed low, so I went out of my way to the QT (because they are the only ones that have free air) on Austell Road. I pulled up next to a lady with a nearly flat tire, who looked at me with big eyes and mouthed "It's broke. No air." I bulged my eyes back and mouthed "No air?" She shook her head, looking absolutely frazzled. Sigh. Pulled out and drove home, but have no idea what she was going to do. She needed even a little air to get home without ruining the tire. Some stupid vandals probably damaged the air pump. They think it is funny.

I dropped off the cheese with James, picked up a towel and the dog soap, and transported Tucker to Petco and the dog wash. This time there was a chow chow being bathed in the lefthand tub and a shepherd-cross getting "drowned" in the righthand one, so we were pig in the middle. Tucker had been really eager to go out until faced with the washtubs, and did a passable imitation of Ophelia drowning during the entire affair. He made everyone laugh, though, when I was done with him and kept shaking my hand at him and saying "Shake!" and he shook off every time. This was something I had taught Willow and have been teaching Tucker.

On the way home we passed another QT and I was able to get some air (after the dude with the BMW blocked the parking space near the air hose). Tucker passed out from exhaustion after his ordeal and was quiet all afternoon. I helped James bag some burritos and made the bed and washed out Tucker's bedding, and chilled out watching more of Ray Mears' Wild Britain.

Supper was chicken and wild rice soup and we were able to watch Colour Confidential this week except the very end of the second show when a rainstorm stamped its way in with a great noise of thunder and blotted out the signal. Isn't it funny how analog television never failed during storms and digital always does? Seems like technology is regressing sometimes. It was a rerun anyway. I know we've missed some, but we haven't reached them yet.

Labels: cars, dogs, food, pets, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:35:00 PM

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After almost a week of wretched high 80s—we beat the record high on Wednesday, f'Gossakes—it was happiness itself to wake up this morning to find it in the 50s, cloudy, and breezy. I had to wear my jacket to take Tucker out for his walk and it was so nice I doubled the distance we usually walk. In this type of weather I can walk for hours.

I was hoping to make a quick trip to JoAnn this morning, maybe stop at Michael's, and visit the Barnes & Noble at Town Center because they have the best selection of cross-stitch magazines, and then still have some afternoon for crafting. I got most of that done, but getting home early wasn't to be—traffic was absolutely abominable. Just for the heck of it I asked the GPS to take me to JoAnn and instead of a more direct route it took me south before going north and then wanted me to go south again instead of just turning left and going the final few miles. I had a 60 percent off JoAnn coupon and used it on some nice neon pens, plus some pretty sale glass beads and Crayola metallic pencils. From there I went directly to the Barnes & Noble and was rewarded with two lovely British cross-stitch magazines with gift kits, one with a gift calendar. I was tempted by a Georgette Heyer Christmas mystery, but in the end didn't get it.

Since James can't eat at Tin Drum anymore, I've been going on my own. There's no Tin Drum at Kennesaw any longer, so my shortest route would have been to hop the freeway and go south. Today there was some sort of holdup on I-75, so I went back the way I came, which was a bad idea as traffic around and in downtown Marietta was backed up. I could see if it were lunch hour but it was nearly 1:30 at that point. I had to keep avoiding traffic jams and it took me 45 minutes to go 11 miles.

I finally had my lunch about two while reading one of the magazines I bought, then had to sit in a long, long line at Costco waiting to fill up. The lines at the Costco gas station on a work day are absolutely amazing.

Now I should have been able to go home, but I had to go back over to the car place. Yesterday I had taken Twilight over the the Napa Auto Center to get the switches for the automatic windows replaced, my oil changed, and my car inspection done. Well, apparently the emissions inspection machine is supposed to give you a certificate number to make it "legitimate," but it hadn't given me one. So he had to do the emissions inspection again (no charge) to get me that certification number. Thank goodness! The renewals for our license plates will be coming any day now.

Didn't get home until three o'clock and frittered away the rest of the afternoon watching Lassie and updating the appropriate season page on my Lassie website. When James got home we had supper at Ken's, and then went to Publix to pick up some twofers. James found a chocolate orange black tea on the clearance shelf. He can't try it tonight due to the caffeine, but hopes to try it tomorrow morning. If he likes it we will go back to get the rest.

Labels: books, cars, crafts, food, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:53:00 PM

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So when I took Tucker outside this morning, I had to pull him back immediately to grab my jacket. Damn! It was chilly out there! It turned out it was about 55°F, cloudy, breezy (my favorite weather!), and it pretty much stayed there all day. Which made it perfect when we ended up doing what we did.

Since James worked Sunday, he had today off, and I took today off as well so he could get new tires installed on the truck; one is starting to bald while the other looked like it had a slow leak. We also ended up ordering the heavy-duty shocks; they'll be put on tomorrow, and he'll take my car to work. Me, I've got housework to do anyway.

After we dropped off the truck, we had breakfast at IHOP (let's hear it for the senior menu!), then headed east, skirting a tremendous line of people queuing up for I-285 by taking the alternate exit. I was originally headed for Sprouts, but we ended up at the Buford Highway Farmer's Market first. I wanted frisee and they're about the only place that has it, and I was jonesing for lupini beans; I got them, but had to buy a big jar. I'll have enough for a while. We also got pork kabobs, which will make great pork cacciatore, some great chicken legs, and some pork chops, more Asian noodles, spaetzle, and of course some peppermint Ritter bars for dessert. With the Russian cards they also had some Russian books, and I was delighted to recognize a Russian-language version of Tom Sawyer. Thursday morning is a great time to come—I've never seen the place less crowded!

We lucked out at Sprouts; they not only had the Italian wedding soup, but they had their chicken noodle soup as well. (We got both, and had the chicken soup for supper—or rather high tea, since we hadn't eaten lunch, so ate the moment we got home—and it's quite good! Not too salty, with big thick noodles and nice big slices of carrot.)

Stopped at Barnes & Noble for a few minutes; nothing much new out, but did get a new "Remind" magazine. It's really not worth the money for a "retro" magazine, since mostly it's just full of puzzles, but it had a story about the 1964 World's Fair.

Our final grocery stopping shop was Trader Joe's, where we got some cupcakes for dessert, another container of miso soup, chicken sausage, fruit bars for James, and some "shrimp nuggets," which are just whole shrimp in breading. We sampled them, and they were just so good. I also bought a bottle of vodka pasta sauce, as we've had some crab ravioli in the freezer for ages but haven't eaten it because regular tomato sauce would just blot out the taste of the crab.

Gas was 2.15⁹ at Costco, and that was our actual last stop. James put the groceries away while I walked Tucker, we had the chicken soup, and then lazed around the television for the rest of the night: Ellen, the news, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, Doctor Who (parts 1 and 2 of "The Visitation"), this week's Big Bang Theory and a rerun, and finally two episodes of Police Surgeon. These were supposed to start tonight, after Retro Television finished showing Doctor Simon Locke; to my dismay they only showed 23 of the 26 episodes and started Police Surgeon on Tuesday's second showing. It's a really depressing show; I think they scraped the underbelly of every 1970s cliche crime: criminal fathers deserting sick kids, drug smugglers, an ex-con who betrays Simon who's trying to help him. One of the episodes tonight was a bit more character-driven (Simon rides with a cop whose partner was killed to determine if he's fit for duty), but the other one had a Mission Impossible-ish cliche Hispanic dictator and the people who were trying to kill him. Sam Groom still plays Dr. Simon Locke and Len Birman is now Lt. Dan Palmer; it's like they're Simon and Dan from Dixon Mills in an alternate universe (which means they're still sniping at each other).

Retro says the three missing episodes ("Marooned," "The Wanderer," and "Gun Point") aren't in their package, which is bizarre because on their web page SFM Entertainment, the distributor, says they own all 109 episodes—good trick, as there are only 104 episodes of the Doctor Simon Locke/Police Surgeon combo in its CTV listing—did they not sell Retro all the episodes that exist? I'm bummed because (1) I wanted to update all the descriptions on my Locke web page and (2) I particularly wanted to see "Marooned" again because Simon and Dan are forced to cooperate with each other to survive rather than exchanging barbs at each other. LOL. I've found at least two other people on the Retro Facebook page that prefer Locke to Surgeon!

Labels: books, cars, dogs, food, magazines, pets, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:41:00 PM

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Honest, I intended to get up at 8:30, but the bladder alarm went off at 8:23. Since I was still feeling a bit achy in the back, I took three ibuprofin and reset the alarm for 8:45—and then managed to doze through an hour of Miss Gladys Stevens of Omaha, Nebraska intone "Time to wake up, sir." (It's my Andromeda Strain alarm. Heh.)

After breakfast and dog walking (a beautiful day out, cloudy but not rainy cloudy, with a lovely breeze) and some minor tidying-up, it was approaching lunch time. I gathered up my Michael's coupons and went out to the garage and looked underneath the car. I have these plastic splash guards on either side of the front of the car, way under the front bumper. Since I'm so darn short, I can't see the front end of the car, and too often have run the very low front end over a curb and then have to back up slowly to get it off, hearing ominous scraping that is the plastic of the splash guard on concrete curbing. This forth-and-back motion yanked one end of the right splash guard off so it was dangling back early in the summer. What with end of fiscal year, I never got the time to take the car to the mechanic, so I taped it up with duct tape. I asked them to fix it yesterday along with the innumerable other things I had done to the car...

...flashback...Wednesday when I got in the car to drive home from work, my check engine light came on. I've owned Twilight for ten years and two months, and never in that time has the check engine light ever come on. So Thursday morning I drove it directly to the mechanic. It turned out it was the oxygen sensors that go with the catalytic converters. Yes, indeedy, I won't pass emissions inspection without those puppies working. So they fixed that, plus did the emission inspection, but there were other checks coming up that needed doing. I had it all done: brake fluid flush, cooling fluid flush, etc. They also said they'd fasten up the splash guard...

...but the duct tape was still on it. Did they forget? So the first thing I did was drive there to ask about it; he put it on the rack and said yes, they did fasten it back up; the problem is the piece of plastic that it's fastened to is broken. So even though there's some extra bolts in it, the thing would wobble back and forth when I drove at high speed. So they left the duct tape on. I could go by a Chrysler dealership and pick up the part, and they would put it on for me, but he couldn't find the part in a catalog. In the meantime, the duct tape was doing a good job.

Oh, great. Just what I want, a visit to Ed Voyles. I'm still pissed at them for the way they treated us when I was out looking for a car in 2004 (they basically ignored us).

Anyway, I went on to Barnes & Noble. It's Member Appreciation Week, so I get 20 percent off instead of ten! So I bought the new "Southern Living" and "Landlove" (the latter with a deliciously autumn cover), two cross-stitch magazines, and...okay...The Secret Journal of Ichabod Crane. I admit it; I'm hooked on Sleepy Hollow.

From there to Costco for gasoline and then to Michael's. I got some beads on sale for a special project that I can't start until my package comes from e-Bay, and two small sets of fall note cards. Oh, yes, and some purple duct tape. If I'm going to have duct tape on my car, the least I can do is match the paint.

By the time I got home it was around three o'clock. I had a little lunch and then popped Snowy (this sounds so easy—I have to catch him first, and his wings work really well!) into the little carry box. We went out on the deck, and I whistled and very soon the birds began to show up: the brave little brown-headed nuthatches, the chickadees, and the chipping sparrows, although only the former stayed around very long. Mrs. Cardinal chipped disconsolately from a tree but she wouldn't approach while Snowy, Tucker and I were out there. The big wide world, even with overcast skies, overwhelmed Snowy; his eyes looked like two huge black buttons in a little white face. Then we went inside and watched an episode of Lassie together (at one point Tucker got jealous of all the attention "Brother" was getting, and leaped into my lap), and he was just starting to get restless when James arrived home.

We had supper at the Panera/Chipotle combination on Barrett Parkway. James had the latter, myself the former, and we ate on the terrace out back. It was still mostly cloudy and delightfully cool, with just a hint of a breeze. Afterwards I made quick stops at Michael's for more project parts and JoAnn, which had nothing I liked, and the one thing I bought the coupon was useless for because it was already on sale. The sun was just setting as we turned south to use the Big Shanty Connector—the most useful road at Town Center!—to get to Barnes & Noble without having to hit the mess that is Barrett Parkway. By the time we got there I was tired myself, and disappointed that they still don't have "Best of British" anymore, but I made the mistake of wandering by the science fiction and mystery books. I picked up the Doctor Who novel Silhouette (featuring the Paternoster trio), a book of Rocketeer short stories, and the sequel to Murder at the Breakers, Murder at Marble House. I wasn't impressed by the first book, but it takes place in Newport—how could I resist? Home in time to see the very end of "The Krotons" on Doctor Who and then the season premiere of Hawaii Five-0 with a murderous drone.

Labels: birds, books, cars, crafts, dogs, food, magazines, pets, repairs

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:45:00 PM

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