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Take a walk on the mild side.
May 2008 - Posts
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I went into Best Buy (there is only one in Tallahassee) to buy a deep cleaning vacuum (with the water tanks and detergent). I viewed their selection and made my choice. Right now I have an injured foot with a big bandage on one toe so I'm wearing flip flops. The box with the vacuum is big and heavy. To get it to the register, I take a step with my good foot, I drag the box, and then I drag my bad foot. I make my way to the front like this -- step, drag, drag. I go past an aisle with two store employees, I go past the manager's office, I finally make it to the register. No one asked to help me. I figured once I got to the register (the person working the register wasn't busy and watched me approach), that she would ask me if I needed help out to my car after I paid for the items. Wrong! It didn't seem to bother her one bit the difficulties I was having with the merchandise. I continued dragging the box to the front door. I figured one of the other employees working the other registers would notice me and send for help. Wrong again! I made it to the outside. A customer coming up to the store asked if I needed help. I figured that since I had made it that far, that I could make it the rest of the way. I politely declined and attempted to continue. The customer repeated his query even more earnestly, "Are you sure you wouldn't like some help?" I finally agreed that yes, I really could use some help. He suggested we swap burdens. He carried my items while I carried his much smaller bag all the way out to my vehicle. I thanked him profusely and repeatedly and said how kind he was to help. I couldn't believe that no employee in the Best Buy offered to help carry the heavy item I was purchasing. I would have thought that at the very least they would have been worried about the liability if I fell while trying to get the merchandise to the front of the stop. I am very disappointed in Best Buy.
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All the kittens
are almost eight weeks old now and they are ready for their new homes. There’s
at least seventeen kittens now, ten in the house and another seven outside.
There could be more that we haven’t seen yet. The outside cats have their
litters in the woods and we don’t get to see them until maybe week four or
five. By then, the kittens have not been handled and so are afraid of people.
We usually see them only when they are scurrying away to hide. One thing that
they all have in common is their cuteness. The newest bunch
is about six weeks old and we have them inside. Their mother refuses to feed
them and growls at them. At this point my husband and I are their surrogate
parents. We fed them with a dropper for the first two days and then they
started eating on their own. We took all the
inside kittens to the Vet to get them wormed and checked over. All of them were
certified healthy, happy, and ready to grace the homes of new owners. The new
bunch resides in the room where the computer is and they love to “help” write
these blogs. They all climb up in the lap of whomever is writing, sometimes to
sleep, sometimes to explore all the neat things that they find. Sometimes we
think about mixing the litters so that they will have some friends to play with
but, if we did, we might not be able to separate them. There are so many little
ones that look alike, we might not be able to get them back to their own
mothers. As far as we can tell, the father(s) must be all black or tiger
striped. Most of the kittens show these two types of colors. (I promise to stop blogging about cats and kittens very soon.)
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This past weekend was very busy. My husband had built a
boathouse about two and a half years ago so he could build his boat. He moved
the boat closer to the water a few months ago and the boathouse has been empty
ever since then. He took down the tarps that were getting tattered from the
weather and the wooden structure remained like a huge spider.
We were sitting
on the back porch on Sunday morning. I mentioned to him that we might want to
take the structure down. He said, “okay”, that the wood could be used for other
purposes. We decided that “today” would be the day to start the project. He
figured out a strategy to raze the building and we set to work. I thought that
it would take quite a few days to dismantle it; so did he. We started to work
by mid-morning and in about two hours, we had it on the ground. We stopped for
lunch, had a short nap during the hottest part of the day, and then we set to work again cutting up all
the wood that we could salvage. By the end of the day the entire building was
cut up and stacked. There was still plenty to do in separating the good wood
from the garbage, but at least it was a start.
When I got home
on Monday evening, he had saved all the usable lumber and he had burned all the
rest of the building. He told me it took all day to finish the task. I’m glad
it’s done.
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IMAGINE IF INSTEAD OF CRYPTIC GEEKY TEXT STRINGS,
YOUR COMPUTER PRODUCED ERROR MESSAGES IN HAIKU
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A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
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The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist
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Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
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ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.
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First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.
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With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
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The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao, until
You bring fresh toner.
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Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
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Stay the patient course
Of little worth is your ire
The network is down
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A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.
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Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that
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Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
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You step in the stream,
but the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
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Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
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Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
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Rather than a beep
Or a rude error message,
These words: "File not found."
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Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
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Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
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Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?
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Login incorrect.
Only perfect spellers may
enter this system.
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No keyboard present
Hit F1 to continue
Zen engineering?
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The code was willing,
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.
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Server's poor response
Not quick enough for browser.
Timed out, plum blossom.
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Hal, open the file
Hal, open the damn file, Hal
open the file, please Hal
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This site has been moved.
We'd tell you where, but then we'd
have to delete you.
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To have no errors
Would be life without meaning
No struggle, no joy
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Server is lifeless
The customer is distraught
Where is the backup?
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The server is built
Everything is now installed
What was the password?
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Our kittens are five weeks old. I posted their pictures in my photo gallery. They seem to change daily and are growing up so fast. Every time I go in the room where
they are playing, they all appear to be bigger, older, and more energetic.
Their personalities are really starting to
develop. It’s really fun to see them show different characteristics, one
from the other.
All of them seem
to be using the litter box. They must think it’s a sandbox; they spend
more time playing in there than they do pooping. They do poop in there but,
sometimes, I find their droppings in the corners of the room. The litter box is
also in the corner of the room so I think they are trying to poop in the
litter. With time I’m sure their aim will get better. What a glorious day that will be. They also seem to guard the poop. As I am trying to scoop out the clumps, they gather around and try to snag the scooper with their claws.
Now that
they are bigger, and getting into everything, they have discovered my shoe
rack. It has three levels to it. When I come home from work I know that I’ll have to put my closet back in
order. All the kittens love to play with the shoe laces that dangle down from the higher levels. They wind up pulling all of the shoes down to the floor. I can’t get angry with
them, though, they are so cute. Soon they’ll be off to new homes and I know
that I’ll miss them.
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Cooking for the family has always been a challenge because I‘ve always had a full time job. It was quite an adjustment for me when I got married three years ago. My husband is one of those people who wants to sit down together at every meal and he prefers home cooking to restaurant food about a thousand to one. I guess he’s got a good point, I mean, why do we get married if we’re not going to do things together? He knows there are times when we can’t dine together; he’s had forty years of work experience so he knows you can’t always do what you would like.
Given that I must work and I also must prepare food for the table, we have come up with some strategies to make my life a little easier. First, I go to work and put in my time at my job. No problem. Second, I’ve found it convenient to do my grocery shopping on my lunch hour and on the way home from work. With the price of gas these days I don’t want to make any extra trips to the store. I like to do the shopping because I know what I want. If he goes to the store, I don’t know what he’ll bring home. Men in grocery stores? Please! All they’ll buy is cake, ice cream, and beer! Third, to make the food preparation easier, I make up a large batch of pasta (he likes pasta) so we can eat out of the dish all week. One cooking session gives us six – ten meals at a time. This is a great time saver and he can feed himself when I’m at the office. Fourth, to make these large dishes of food, I’ve discovered that using simple recipes is a big help. I’ve got a few cookbooks that feature only a few ingredients. Five simple ingredients, mix them together, and I’m through in fifteen minutes, yay.
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I was able to pick up my car the next day after being in the shop for six days as discussed in a previous blog. I was so happy. After riding in the loaner car they provided, a Kia Rio, my van felt like a luxury car. It is very smooth, comfortable, and quiet. Much more so than the Kia, although the Kia had much better gas mileage, about 40 miles/gallon. As I drove towards work after picking up the van from the mechanic's shop, I tried to use the cruise control - no go. Oh, no, I thought, what now? Did the fact that they put in a whole new transmission mean I would no longer have cruise control? Was the transmission that was installed not capable of cruise control? Or was it something simple? I had no clue. I called my husband who called the mechanic, who told him "no problem", just bring it back in for a quick look. I stopped by there the next morning on my way to work and it did only take 2 minutes for him to hook up the wire and I was back on my way to work and making use of the cruise control. I had a few glorious days of freedom from car worries until one evening when I pulled into the driveway and my husband says, "Hey, do you know that your headlight is out?" Just great. I am pleased to report that we were able to take out the bulb, get a replacement from a car parts store, and put the new one in. And it worked! We also bought a spare bulb in case the other headlight goes out. I think we were lucky that this repair only cost $22 for the parts and we did the labor ourselves. I bet I can change the other one by myself when the time comes.
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For most of my life, I thought chartreuse was a bright pink. I don't know why. I can't recall anyone ever pointing to the color and saying "That is chartreuse." American Heritage Dictionary believes chartreuse is "a strong to brilliant greenish yellow to moderate or strong yellow green". Which doesn't tell me what the difference is between "greenish yellow" and "yellow green", but I do know now that chartreuse isn't pink. I still don't conjure up in my head a yellow green (or greenish yellow) color whenever I hear the word chartreuse. To me, "chartreuse" just sounds pink.
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