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13
Aug 13

The kind of day

Had lunch at the vegetable place, which is easier than typing Crepe Myrtle Cafe, because I often misspell it.

I order the The Markets Roasted Veggie with Bulger Creek Farm Goat Cheese, because goat cheese makes everything better. You can’t even taste the balsamic, and you forget your eating grilled veggies out of a defective pancake.

And then I realized that I inherited my grandmother’s taste buds. This blueberry was bitterly sour. That blueberry was terribly sweet. As soon as I make this story more interesting I’ll have to call and tell her about it.

While we were eating we received a call. There was something we could do right then, if we could arrive at the place right now. Well. We’re just a bit away and can be there in 10 minutes. And so we were. Walked right in and took care of the appointment. It was that kind of day.

Visited the giant box store and picked up cards and box store things. The only problem was the woman who was about 55 and 4-foot-5 with six children with her. They blocked the aisle I really needed, but only for a moment. And then they disappeared in that way that means you won’t see them on the next aisle over — whatever that means. It was that kind of day, too.

Self check out, then, with no one in front of me, which meant I couldn’t make the joke about how people should be certified by the state to use those things. And the machine worked perfectly for a change. The disinterested self checkout herder could stay that way. Beep, beep, beep and we were done. Such a lovely day.

Forgot to buy a brake light for the car, but that was pretty much the extent of the day’s difficulties.

Back home and read and wrote and should have done more. We went out just before dark to run. I got in 5K and finished just at the point of darkness where I could see a silhouette without knowing who I was seeing. My run was not great, but none of them are. This one had its moments, though, where I stopped counting footfalls and exhausted breaths and just kept moving. My splits are still very poor.

Got home, cleaned up, had leftovers — a vegetarian pasta dish which makes six meals in a row with no meat. That can’t last forever.

Watched Men in Black 3, and became convinced that Josh Brolin can become anyone if you give him enough screen time. I was relieved when the kid, at the end, turned out not to be Jaden Smith. You just knew it would be. And IMDb says it almost was. The database says there is a MiB 4 in the works.

Here are all the problems with the third one. They were plentiful:

Kind of makes you not want to see a fourth one made, but then you can say that of most any series, now can’t you?

And, now, cuddling with the cat, who doesn’t even seem to mind so much that she went to the vet today. She doesn’t know she has to go back next week, though. And everyone is impressed by how young she behaves. We’re just fortunate all the way around, then. It was that kind of day.

errands / Thursday — Comments Off
23
May 13

The age game lives

I noticed a short time back there was a tire on my car that was going out of round. I managed to drag this out and limp around as long as possible. Last week I was on an errand and noticed the thump-thump-THUMP-thump was even worse. I stopped between here and there and added air. When I got back home I noticed the front tire was contorted to an alarming state. Heat some plastic and torque it between your hands. My tire looked like that, which is, to say the least, troubling.

So I went to the tire place today. I put a little air in hoping that it would at least help get me close to the shop, which is about four miles from our home. Just before I arrived there the thump-thump-THUMP-thump returned to pre-front-tire-deformity levels. When I got out the front tire looked fine.

The guy at the counter, the kind of guy who speaks low and fast and is hard to understand over the noise of a room and has an odd beard and gives you a general uneasy feeling to start with, assures me that tire is probably fine because there are two pieces of rubber and they blah blah blah.

I don’t know that much about tires, but I have seen round rubber on vehicles my entire life and I can say these two things: 1. round is the optimal shape and 2. a bad tire doesn’t become good. With this wisdom in mind what he said didn’t carry that much weight, but, he said, they’d put the car on the rack and do their thing and so on. It was agreed that I would return this afternoon for the car.

So we went to Montgomery. We returned. We had lunch at Byron’s with a friend. I told the story about how, when Byron’s used to be a Dairy Queen they one day found themselves out of ice cream. I told the lady that day she should lock up and go home. No one goes to Dairy Queen for the chicken fingers, after all. Today Byron’s was out of chicken. Always something. (I had a vegetable plate and it was good.)

The Yankee isn’t feeling so well, so we went to pick up her bike which now features a shiny new derailleur and, presumably, no more shifting problems. (Which would be a change for her.) We stopped at the house for a bit and then headed out to fetch my car.

It had been moved, but the two guys working, earnest, confident men who gave you the impression of knowing what they were doing, said they had no idea what was going on with my car.

I’ll just skip ahead here to the point where I closed my eyes and was mentally, actually, really, counting to 10. I pointed out they seemed to have some sort of communications breakdown between the morning crew and the afternoon crew. They pointed out how much the tires were going to cost me and I was going to get my car fixed. I would be the last one of the day. I apologized for that, hoping it wouldn’t keep them there late, but also making the joke that I hope they did it right because, you know, the guy has PTA or a softball game or what have you.

And then this man decides to play the age game. I was just thinking to myself the other day, You know, no one has played the age game in a long time. Maybe you’ve outgrown that sort of thing.

This guy who, and I get it, took a bit of exception to my do it right joke, says “I bet I’m older than you. How old are you?”

Really?

So I told him. And he told me how old he was, which was meant to be some sort of prima facie evidence that he does his work right. The general utility of his morning colleagues aside, I had no reason to doubt this. The urge to play the age game notwithstanding, I am not qualified to comment on this man’s dedication and pride in his work. I couldn’t bring myself to point out that plenty of people who have a decade or so on me are perfectly capable of doing a lousy job, but I’d already counted to 10 and this guy wanted to put two tires on my car and go home. What’s more, he looked great for his age. So I apologized for my joke and we laughed about it.

Half an hour later I got my car back — I wandered around the store and tried to not look bored — and the tires feel great. That gentleman knows his craft, and I hope he hit a triple or really proved a great point in his parent-teacher meeting.

And that he told them he was 47 while he did it.

Alabama / cycling / errands / football / iPhone / memories / photo — Comments Off
7
Jan 13

“Now yellow waxen lights Shall wait on honey love”

That’s Thomas Champion, by the way.

But what a day of beautiful light:

That was in the afternoon, sitting in the backyard enjoying the shadows passing through the grass. That was after lunch and a very brief bike ride and some school work. It was before a trip to the big box store and the big warehouse store.

On the way home we saw this light:

It isn’t cold, it isn’t hot, it isn’t really anything at all, just bright and golden and perfect. What a lovely day.

Then the football game happened. In three BCS games the last four years Alabama has outgained their opponents 1,176 to 670 yards. The Tide have outscored Texas/LSU/Notre Dame a combined 100-35. Tonight was a demolition, an anti-climax. A coronation, really, after the SEC championship game.

At halftime Notre Dame’s coach said the best plan was for Alabama to not come back out in the second half. He might have been understating it.

After the game the sideline reporter Tom Rinaldi said to Nick Saban: “Enjoy it if you can.”

All of that said so much.

So my Notre Dame shirt that I got last year during our trip to South Bend was as helpful as I thought it would be. Death, taxes, Saban; Alabama is a dynastic juggernaut.

Beautiful day, though.

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17
Dec 12

This plumbing has happened before, this plumbing will happen again

For the seventh time in our two-plus years in the house I undertook a plumbing chore this evening. The working mechanism in the tank of one of our toilets had forgotten how to turn off — a plastic tab having turned to dust or what have you — which threatened an overflow and so on.

The good news is that this is the third one of these I’ve replaced in the last 18 months. At least it is easy.

The big thing is keeping everything dry. You have to drain the tank, and then climb between the cabinet and the porcelain and work your way through two plastic bolts. These were made in China, of course, so they are the best plastic money can buy.

And then there’s the water dripping, because a little drip is better than a lot of sponge drying. After that the new device, which will surely find some way to crumble before 2014 arrives, goes in.

Seen another way this is really an exercise in defying the Mayans, who were big on plumbing:

A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.

“Water pressure systems were previously thought to have entered the New World with the arrival of the Spanish,” the researchers said in a recent issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. “Yet, archaeological data, seasonal climate conditions, geomorphic setting and simple hydraulic theory clearly show that the Maya of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, had empirical knowledge of closed channel water pressure predating the arrival of Europeans.”

I had no idea I’d find that story when I started the Mayan joke.

Anyway, after a few attempts, the washer was seated. The newest fine plastic from China was in place and tightened.

Also replaced some light bulbs in the other bathroom, because electricity with wet hands is fun for everyone! And because if you’re going to one of the home improvement stores you may as well combine your misery. The bulbs are on the primary aisle when you walk in and the cheap plumbing stuff isn’t far away. Naturally, since I knew exactly what I needed tonight, I ran into two staffers who offered to help.

“Yes. Can you just wait here? Soon enough something I don’t understand will inevitably break in my house.”

We did our Christmas cards tonight. I was responsible for the stamps and the return address. The cards look great, because my lovely bride picked them out. I think everyone most in our address book is getting one.

Everyone else is getting an email with a JPG attachment.

Then I made a Christmas card for Allie. I’ll put it here tomorrow.

Tonight I also added several new banners for the blog. Many of the new ones are a departure from the thin 900 by 200 pixel design. Tell me what you think. (And reload to see more. Or see them all in one place, here.) My next trick will be to organize them in something that resembles a seasonal classification.

Oh, hey, there are new things on the Samford journo blog:

Maps that tell stories

A few lessons from Newton media coverage

You saw the Newtown picture now read the story behind it

There’s also Twitter and Tumblr and this, the complete Star Trek trailer.

See you tomorrow. Remember: Allie’s Christmas card will be here.

adventures / errands / iPhone / memories / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
10
Oct 12

Our new addition

The washing machine hit the spin cycle and made a weird, muted whirring noise. You grow accustomed to the sounds of your life and then the absence of those things, or their replacement by other noises, is startling.

Turns out the sound was one of failure. Broken, but trying, but accepting. At the end of the cycle I opened the washing machine and found the clothes clean, but still dripping. The missing sound was the one that represents the spin cycle. The new sound was one of “Meh.”

So I took the cover off the washing machine. I removed the drain valves and the motor. I found the coupler, which I replaced on this machine last year, was in working order. I also found some brown fluid under the frame.

We called appliance folks. This, they said, was a transmission issue. That’ll run you $500, parts and labor. And you need a special tool. And how old is your washer? You may as well buy a new one.

Well.

I have another washing machine. When we got married we just kept both sets of washers and dryers. So we plugged up my washer, which I bought second hand in 2000 for $1. I used it until 2010 or so and it has since sat patiently waiting. So we reinstalled it. Washed a load of clothes. There is a foot missing, so the balance is off and the spin cycle is violent. There was water, just a little, not a lot, coming from somewhere. I could not detect the where. But I also noticed that this one, too, was showing off some of the same brown transmission fluid. I’d thought connecting this one might give us a few months to save up some money, but figured we were now down to days.

The streak of broken things in this house — the air conditioning (twice), the refrigerator, the dishwasher (twice), the shower, three toilet repairs, the kitchen sink faucet, a broken and repaired washing machine and now two permanently retired — continues. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so expensive. That doesn’t include the new roof the previous owner put on as she put the house on the market (hail damage) or the many, many times Charter has been out to not fix the cable or a few smaller things. We’ve just started our third year in this house.

There are spirits, we joke. I think back on our first night in the house, standing on the top of a six-foot step ladder painting a high wall and shudder.

It is amazing we haven’t seriously hurt ourselves. Oh I grabbed a hot wire fixing the A/C. And Brian tried to help us figure out the first dishwasher problem and shocked himself. He also created a great electrical arc. We discovered, under there, a wire nut that had burned through itself. We’ve asked electricians about that, who don’t know how that could have happened.

Meanwhile, the local Sears is going out of business, so we bought a new washing machine.

It doesn’t have the center post in the drum. It doesn’t have a transmission. It is actually very quiet. It has a digital timer telling you when the load will be completed. If it breaks it displays error messages. You are supposed to be able to call the tech support, hold the phone near the sensor and they can determine the problem. Yeah, I don’t believe that either. It plays a little song when the load is finished.

Page two of the manual says “For your safety, the information in this manual must be followed to minimize the risk of fire or explosion, electric shock, or to prevent property damage, injury to persons, or death.”

It has a stainless steel drum. It runs on an inverter direct drive motor, suggesting if I can turn it inside out I can indirectly drive the space-time continuum. There is also a child lock, which I presume is not meant to keep kids inside, and also SMARTRINSE, which is designed to save water, but wasted capital letters.

And in 20 or so years we’ll have recovered the money we would spend at a laundromat.

That’s mostly what we’ve been dealing with the last few days. I was on fall break on Monday and Tuesday. I decided to take those few days off from the blog as well. These are the first two days without at least something being published since April of 2005.

I’m fine with this decision.

More tomorrow.