For just a few bucks you can get one of those programmable thermostats with setttings for 7 days & 4 settings per day. Even better if you can find one with the 4 time period, but no day of week programming. You don’t really need the 28 (or 4) distinct settings, so just set them all to something a bit too warm for comfort in the summer and a bit too cool in the winter. e.g. 80 in summer, 50 in winter.
The thing you do need is the fact that when hubby resets the 'stat to whatever he thinks is comfortable (75ish) when he goes out there, that setting will only stick for a few hours then automatically reset to your smarter = more economical program. He gets what he wants, you get what you want and neither of you have to remember to turn the stat back after he’s done in the shop.
Our thermostats are programmable. Unfortunately, they are user hostile. I’m not sure if another brand with work with the Mitsubishi mono-splits. And he didn’t reset them - I think when I last set them up, I only went out 90 days, which obviously ended recently. But since we’re done with freezing nights, we’re just leaving them off till summer and he’ll fire up his pellet stove if necessary.
So the Yellow Dust began sometime yesterday afternoon. By the time I left it was already thick enough on the ground to see tire tracks in it. When I got to work, Nails didn’t come in, so I got put on loading her set(which set off much wailing and gnashing of teeth*, since I wouldn’t be doing the 100 Table/100 Slide/ Bottom Green car). It seemed way too easy. then it wasn’t. Apparently one of the package cars has a couple of medical places on its route, and those come in last(Ground and Air). So I got 50% of the set between 0430 and 0730, and 50% of the set between 0730 and 0745. But it got done. I stopped and filled up Carmen(3.7 gallons for 2 weeks of driving), and hit Teeter for some Bok Choy for tonight’s stir-fry. I also picked up a pack of used apples, and had one for breakfast with my blueberries and bran flakes.
Did you speak French to MusicMan again?
And go for it.
Yesterday was the first 90-degree day of the year, so we also made it the first pool day of the year. It felt nice! Got a few decent laps in but mostly just putzed around in the water.
This morning we dropped Chloe the kitty off at the vet for dental work - maybe. We tried a couple months ago, but it turned out she had a UTI and they wouldn’t put her under. Since then she hasn’t been doing too well. She’s stopped eating other than basically licking gravy off her food. We have to put puréed food on her nose so she can lick it off. She won’t go for treats and has lost a lot of weight.
Mrs W is convinced she has feline dementia, but I’m not so sure. She still cleans herself and uses the litter box, thankfully. I’m hoping she’s not eating because of mouth pain and the dental work will help - if the doc determines she’s healthy enough to get it done.
are there any goat farms near by? perhaps you could rent a goat to help with the yard clean up?
today was to have been rainy, turns out that will be the weekend.
i have notification that the loveseat is on the way from san diego. i should get an alert when it arrives in phila to set up a delivery date. there will be a cleaning and clearing frenzy. at least 3 pieces of furniture need to move to get the sofa out and the loveseat in. le sign, why can’t we beam furniture in and out? i can understand that you wouldn’t want to have living beings transported hither and yon. big heavy not living items should be something that could be done.
Got my COVID booster today. I’m not a baby about shots, but I didn’t even get a sticker! Lunch is crunchy chicken breast and asparaguts wrapped in bacon.
Appreciate it. My best memories of him are at family gatherings, where he could always be found on the floor playing with his nieces and nephews instead of talking to the adults in the room. The best uncle a kid could have.
With my luck, the goats would eat my azaleas!! But the worst of it is done. I think.
I helped FCD cut up some rubber strips for the fuel tank installation - I think that’s quite enough work for today. Because I’m an adult and I can make such decisions. So there.
Started Typing: 11:01 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 1:59 PM ET
Morning, all! I’ve been enjoying a nice, slow start to the day. I’ll be doing a little bit of SharePoint work for my current grandboss at lunchtime, but otherwise I’m off work until the new job starts on Monday: I’m eager to jump in, but am also appreciating these last few days of sloth!
I built the last Atari cartridge and mini-scene on Monday evening: for those who are interested, pictures of everything – including updated displays – are in my Lego photo album.
Speaking of Lego, I’m expecting a delivery tomorrow that will include the last of the pieces needed to finish my newphew’s Batwing. I should be able to wrap that up in the next few days. As a backstory reminder, it had been hanging on his bedroom wall and got damaged after a massive tree fell on my BFFs’ house last year and smashed through his bedroom ceiling; it stayed 90% intact, but some of the pieces got lost in the drywall/insulation. He tried fixing it himself but didn’t have the patience, and when I learned that my contract had been cancelled and there was a chance I’d be unemployed his parents suggested it as a project for me. I loved the idea, so almost a month ago I took it home and decided that rebuilding it would be easier than trying to figure out where the damage was/how to fix it. I spent a few days taking the whole thing apart, sorting and grouping the pieces as I went, then I downloaded the build instructions and starting putting it back together. I’m excited about finally being able to finish it.
The next few paragraphs will be all about yesterday’s Supreme Court visit: if you’re not interested in reading about that, just scroll down to the first quote.
I woke up shortly after my alarm went off (6:30am), left my house on time, and walked up to the building’s entrance at right about 9:30 – as planned. But, the security guard said I couldn’t even enter the building until 10:30! Luckily the weather was beautiful, and I walked over to some stone benches to sit and wait. A nice family visiting from Columbus, OH, was also there for the 11:00 session, and we chatted for a while. Shortly after 10:00, they decided to try getting in: when they didn’t come right back I also walked to the entrance, and a different guard waved me right in. Security was quick, and we were directed to go sit in the cafe and wait for further instruction.
At around 10:30, we were led out of the cafe by a Supreme Court Police officer: he took us to the lockers to use for our stuff (no bags, phones, books or other preprinted materials, etc. were allowed: aside from the locker key, all I brought in with me were reading glasses, a blank notepad, and a pen), then showed us up the staircase to the chamber. There was a contingent from Princeton University in the group, and I marveled at how young they all looked to me. We went through a second metal detector, and lined up outside the doors to wait…and wait…and wait. We didn’t get let in until 11:50!
We were seated mid-argument, and I wound up nearly dead center; behind counsel and the Chief Justice, but only a couple of rows into the gallery benches. Not a bad seat. Justice Alito was absent, but it was kind of cool/interesting to see all of the others in person. I also found the lawyers’ statements, the questions from the Justices, and the responses to be interesting. The case was about whether certain EPA regulations should be imposed at the federal or state level, and happily I was able to follow the arguments/discussion. The Court adjourned for the day less than an hour later, though; around 12:40.
As expected, I’m glad I went – but I’m not sad that I gave up my ticket to the 04/02 session. Travel time was an hour each way (door to door), and there was a lot of walking and a lot of waiting and standing (I have blisters and sore feet/legs today) for just 50 minutes of time in the chamber. If they continue with this lottery thing I’m likely to enter it again sometime, but next time I’ll only request early sessions: I think a little less sleep would be an acceptable tradeoff for (hopefully) not standing outside the doors for so long.
Excellent!
Gmail and Google Calendar have been extensions of my brain for years: I use both for appointments and reminders, etc. Just last night there was a virtual meeting I would have missed/forgotten about completely if I hadn’t set Calendar to send me an email reminder. I’m really not sure what I’d do without them these days!
I started classical voice lessons in high school, and was a lyric mezzo for decades: recently, though, I’ve had to accept that I am truly now a contralto at the age of 53. Sigh.
(I refuse to learn the Messiah alto parts, though: I just don’t attempt the highest notes during sing-a-longs anymore. )
I actually did things! Woke up this morning feeling mostly better, with just a little bit of congestion, had a nice slow wakeup, reviewed music for about an hour, and then decided to see if I had energy to do some outside stuff. Had planned this past weekend to sweep off the patio and pick up branches* left by the storms two weeks ago, then got sick. So I did it today. Still a lot of small sticks to get and tons of other things out there that I didn’t quite have the energy for, but I did things!
Now I need a nap…
*I very nearly didn’t catch my phone’s alternate idea here (I usually swipe instead of type), where instead I would have picked up the babies left in my yard by the storm.
I mentioned before that my formerly apolitical wife is so upset with the way things are going, that she bought a 3x5 Ukrainian flag that she’s flying on the corner of our house outside of the front window. Today I bought a 3x5 United States flag, and 2x3 Canadian and Mexican flags. We don’t have anywhere to put them, but we’ll have them in case we find a place.
No Mr. Max today. His owner called and said his tummy was upset, so she’s bringing him tomorrow and for a couple of hours on Friday. This is less convenient for me, but I’ll manage. So today I"m trying to get all the tomorrow stuff done.
They also leave little goat raisins behind, which, in quantity, can burn the lawn. When I had a lawn to mow, deer would helpfully come to my lawn to graze. They left little pellets, which burned the grass. Once as I was turning into my driving, a deer boldly squatted to deliver a fresh load of LawnBGone. (“From ass to grass in no time flat!”) I honked, got out of the car, waved my arms, and yelled at her. She gave me a bored look (“You again.”) and kept going, then lazily loped off. Clearly she didn’t give a…except she did.
Oopsie, the Batwing looks like quite the project! Did you ever consider becoming an engineer? Is this a surprise gift? How old is your nephew?
And THANK YOU for the SCOTUS story! So you sat BEHIND the justices (and therefore, not to be irreverent, behind the behinds)? So interesting! In all the photos and movies I’ve seen, it didn’t look like there was seating back there. Did all the justices look attentive? Did all of them ask questions?
flyboy, I salute your wife. She seems like a wonderful, compassionate person.
wheelz, I hope Chloe is OK. How old is she? (Also, I keep typing extra E’s in your name, so before correction, it looks like “Wheeeelz!” I guess I see you as the fun-loving type.)
Are new boosters out, or is this the one from last fall?
That’s terrible! If you can’t get rewarded with a shot of hooch or a lollipop, the LEAST they can give you is a sticker. Hmph.
Hey everyone, back from doing things, most of them disappointing.
I did indeed manage to break my ankle during the fall, the ortho guy showed us the x-rays and pointed at things with his pen and we nodded our heads like it was making sense. He says it’s not bad and I should recover in about 4-6 weeks as long as I behave myself. I don’t like him very much, but whatcha gonna do.
He’s having me go for an MRI on my hand Friday because he thinks I tore some tendons or ligaments so something in my thumb when I landed.
At least he took that stinky cast off and gave me a boot so I could bathe properly.
So the world is burning and I’m just sitting here with my feet up.
In other news, the lady who runs the fruit stand in town has a son who just got accepted to Yavapai College in Prescott. We spent some time talking about the town, the campus, housing costs and traffic before she started hinting that she was going to need someone to watch the store while she was gone. I told her that I could work for four hours a day but only while she was gone, not as a perm thing. We didn’t talk money, but if I get an employee discount for the rest of my life, I’ll be happy with that.
Today I got some lovely yellow tomatoes, a couple of white onions and a jar of beet pickled eggs for hubs. I need to remember to gather up her bell jars for the deposit, I have a dozen already, I don’t need hers too.
No live plants though. She’s going to be getting some big ferns next week, but I’ve never had any luck with them. Of course, I’ve always lived in the desert and I’m guessing they like living in a semi-tropical rain forest much better. Oh, I can probably keep a fushia alive as well, that’s exciting.
Maybe plant some flagpoles and make hanging them and taking them down at dark part of your daily routine. Or put spots on them so you can leave them up 24/7 if you have power out there.
Go you! I’m glad you are feeling better and hope your wife recovers just as quickly. Even though I’m sure it didn’t feel quickly, at least it wasn’t long covid.
Besides it being the Supremes, that pretty much describes all of my court visits as well. The big difference between being a jury prospect/member and being sued (happens all the time to government workers, especially the ones who handle legal documents - its NBD) is that we stood in different lines behind different doors and sat on different sides of the courthouse.
Lots of walking and standing and waiting and uncomfortable seats.
He made a big impact in a very short time on the world. The littles will always remember there uncle taking the time to be with them while the rest of the grown-ups were doing grown up stuff.
Back when I got my shots at the drug store, I always walked down the treat aisle on my way out. I didn’t need their stinkin stickers, I deserved a chocolate booze bomb for my suffering! I hope your arm isn’t sore tomorrow, I’m not a huge fan of covid shots. Of course you couldn’t tell that by looking at my shot record, cause I’m an even lesser fan of getting sick so I get them updated regularly.
Poor lil girl, I do hope you get good news from the vet. It is so hard when you don’t know what is wrong and they can’t tell you.
And now my stoopid wrist is aching, more later.
Watch where you are putting your feet folks. The aftermath of carelessness isn’t a bunch of fun.
I’m from a Navy family. I’ve been daydreaming about a mast with a yard/crosstree. The U.S. flag would go on top, and the other flags would fly below the yard. All with pulleys.
Looks like laundry day will be delayed. Daughter and I are taking the Grandspawn to the Baltimore Zoo on Firday - it’ll be a pretty day and Tobias is off school for teacher training. Roxy will get a free day off.
It was much worse than we thought. Chloe had hepatic lipidosis, a very serious liver disease. Treatment is difficult, expensive, and of limited efficacy, especially in older cats. Prognosis was grim and quality of life would be quite poor.
We opted for humane euthanasia. She is at rest now.
Ha! I wouldn’t even know where to find a metal ship’s mast! Given that actual masts are a bit more intricate and than just a pole and a crossbar, not to mention a lot bigger, makes it even harder.
We went through a second metal detector, and lined up outside the doors to wait…and wait…and wait. We didn’t get let in until 11:50!
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