Entries tagged with light bulb

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Pre-Retreat

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

33,0 miles

sunny, warm

334 recordings of 40 types. 63 old CPD. 23% clear.

I'd better catch up on the couple of days before the retreat!

Tuesday morning (the 27th) I went to breakfast with the ladies and I told Christa that I was thinking of going to Oberammergau. This got us talking about Germany and I told her about our trip to Walchensee. We had been going to go into Austria but that was the day our parked car got hit ---by a beer truck! How traditional for Bavaria! I told her about going to Oberammergau, in 1969 (not a Passion Play year) and carefully selecting 10 carved figures for our Nativity set... so pleased to have a set from Oberammegau.. only to find it was actually carved in Italy!

Christa told me about how in the War her home town was used to make munitions, so the women and children were moved out and her family ended up living in a castle with a baron, who took them in so they'd help pick strawberries. And she mentioned her husband's (he was born in Germany but moved to the US when he was small and was a citizen) father was buried in Belgium (World War I), and it took me a minute to realize he'd be in the German cemetery there.

I finally called Canada. It was harder than it should have been, considering the country code is "1". I tried everything and finally went into chat with TracFone. There's an access number to call first. Actually, I don't know if having called it once I need to bother with it again, but I certainly will keep it handy.

I finally got to talk to Doug. Nancy was off at a meeting. They intend to go with me to the Canadian Geocaching capital! What a wonderful idea!! It was a nice talk, and of course, Frank came over to give me some rye bread while I was still on the phone!

Vince tells me they've put AJ back into PreK. The aortic disease he had probably slowed him down. It's hard for grownups to get emotionally straight when their bodies are sick, how very much harder it must be for a 3 and 4 year old!

Wednesday the rat guys came over.and checked the place out. There are 4 or 5 new holes or ones where the old caulking has worn down, and they were really against all the vegetation close to the house. They will come next week and plug the holes and cut back the trees and bushes and plug the rat hole in the kitchen (the bricks seem to be doing their job, anyway. The rat didn't get in while I was gone.) Again, I was on the phone when they came, talking to Clare (from the tax company. She's Jewish so wanted to know about Oberammergau.) I chatted with the inspector for about a half hour after they had finished.

I'd called the water company in the morning. The water guy came over almost right away and eased my fears. They burrow under the tree roots and he will be sure they get it right. So I didn't need to move the daffodils as I did. Now, as I write this, I know they'll be on the street on the 4th and 5th. (Rat guys on the 4th. It all happens at once.)

I changed the living room light bulb (still have incandescents) and cleaned the shade while I was about it.

I also got a number of geocaching areas figured out. I decided I'd best download them to the computer right away, to the GPS late

Thursday morning I packed and frittered. Rich's watch fell apart in my hands... not just the band but the connection to it on the case. I took it loose to the retreat and it's amazing how often I look at my wrist!! I played the Mirrors of Albion for quite awhile, too.

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Things Fall Apart

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 572

1.3 miles

cloudy and cold, warmer (60s?) during the day

348 recordings of 64 types, 1 old SVU (almost done here), 51 old CPD, and 50 old Last Man Standing. 25% clear.

It all started with a few computer glitches back in early December. I poked around to find out what to do about them, and must have triggered something.

But this past week was something else. My phone went out the Thursday before Christmas, and when I reported it on Friday morning, I was promised a technician would be here Friday the 29th by 8PM. Hoping that something would happen earlier, I spent Tuesday through Friday here in the house, with my cell phone on. I did dash out Tuesday morning to see if I could find a Christmas tree for next year, but no such luck. The pre-lit trees that were left were too tall. Oh, well. I'm still throwing this one out so I will HAVE to buy a new one next year. Vince forgot to call on Tuesday. I suggested FaceTime, but at the time he called on Wednesday that didn't work, as my iPad had gone off.

Oh, and that night my light bulb popped.

On Wednesday I was looking at the credit card bill and spied a suspect charge from December 5. See above. I looked in my diary, nothing, and checked on the internet to find "mycomputersupport.com" which had "SCAM" written right after it, so I disputed the charge and immediately lost that credit card with a new one coming in three days. I had enough cash on hand in case the phone guy charged for the service (which would happen if it was somehow my fault, though I doubted that.) Only one bill was coming due that week, TracFone, so I wasn't too worried. Of course, it did come due on Thursday so I called and explained. And I thought that was set, but when I got the card I immediately called them and it was long and involved... something that should have been simple was terribly complicated by the Indian woman on the line.

I worked on the jigsaw puzzle, days 4 and 5. It's amazing how much quicker this one is than the Rosetta Stone! I was wishing I could sleep in, since I had nowhere to go, but was awake by 4 every single day of that week.

I had a hot flash. This is hypoglycemia, which means I've been TOO low carb along the way. I hope the A1C test is good... I'm really tired of being so very very good.

Thursday I cut oleander along the driveway. This night I went to bed leaving the TV on, so at 4 I saw all those strange lights coming from the living room!

Friday my card came, so I had a lot of time notifying people of the new number. I got Amazon right but it took 3 tries and as many days to finally get Apple right. It was good I had the Amazon right, because my DVD player wouldn't open and give me back the Netflix disc it had. I eventually pried the tray out, but the disc fell into the machine. So I took the top off, and got the disc out unharmed, but obviously needed a new DVD player, and ordered a refurbished Sony with a 3-year warranty. And finally, at 7 Friday night, the phone guy came. He tested all the phones, and all the jacks (which involved taking a lot of the junk in the back room out of the way, and it was all bootless anyway.) He finally decided the short was probably in the attic. I didn't want to tackle the attic with that awful fluff insulation and who knows how many rat corpses, what to do? He decided to wire a new phone jack piggy-backed on the U-verse jack, which is at last in the living room (what a mess if it had still been in the back!) He put my kitchen phone on it as a temporary fix, which was awkward. I ordered a cordless phone with three handsets... the base will be in the living room and the other phones in my bedroom and the kitchen, and of course I can wander around the house with them.

So Saturday I first went on a walk to Trader Joe's for eggnog and to CVS for scotch tape. The 4 pounds of eggnog got heavy by the time I got home. In the late morning I tried to go to see "Darkest Hour" but had the wrong time, and the 3 PM show would have been too late, as I needed to go to Saturday Evening Mass. Which I did. Then when I came home in the dark I could see dark reflective spots on the carport floor. Uh-oh. I had an oil leak.

Before the festivities on New Year's Eve, I went out to a morning coffee geocaching get-together. And the final thing that is falling apart is ME! When I went to get out of the car, my left hand cramped up and wouldn't stop for about 10 minutes. Ow ow ow ow ow. The first time I had a hand cramp was in Spain and there's only been one other since. It's either dehydration (which would be Spain) or a lack of potassium, so I had to get bananas.

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The Last Weekend in November

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 560

202.4 miles

c-c-cold!

(It would be easier to keep up if I weren't so busy. Of course, then I would have nothing to write about.)

Last Saturday, November 25, I slept in until 6 and started covering a garden bed with leaves before the gardeners came.

I spent most of the afternoon waiting for Bernadette, and still bitter, at one point I took a 4.3 mile walk to take a book to the farthest Little Free Library. No Bernadette. I thought she'd forgotten, but it turns out my communications major was unclear as to when she was coming... she'd meant SUNDAY afternoon.

There was a Black Friday sale on Fishdom. I'm not playing much, only getting the diamonds when they are on sale.

While online, I also bought one thing for Steve&Family, since it was something I was already going to get but was on sale.

The 26th was Niki's birthday and I actually sent her card on time. Bernadette came by and got her tickets, and stayed and talked. She admired Hoarder Central. She says it's gone from "dumpster ready" to "messy." I was having her help me move the train layout so I could cover it with plastic and put it out, but it turned out to be broken. The plaster mountains had cracked. OK, then, it will go with the hauler. She helped me move it out to the carport.

Also, I found out they are going to WorldCon in San Jose next August. Since I'll be in Oregon with Vince and family, Joan will be babysitting. I hope she doesn't have the heat problem again. (She fainted last year.)

While Bernadette was here I darn near burnt the turkey soup, but saved it just in time. It's gonna be good.

I replaced a light bulb and the Brita filter.

I was beginning to wonder about the night twinges I've been having. They are normal, hyptic jerks or sleep starts. (And, of course, now I know that, I haven't had any since.) On this evening, I'd been asleep for about an hour when there was a TERRIBLE noise. The cat somehow managed to knock my ceremonial dagger to the ground! Boy, that changed things!