September 13, 2003
I stopped on my way to work yesterday morning to
donate blood. I'm a
regular donor. It's one of Mom's "things" and she can't donate at the moment so
I made an extra effort to make sure I got in for her birthday. As it happened,
it was my 5-gallon day. That means my accumulated donations come to 5 gallons.
They gave me a nifty hat/lapel pin to commemorate the occasion. Cool.
Once more, with feeling: happy birthday, Mom!
September 12, 2003
Happy Birthday, Mom!!
September 8, 2003
Oh...man!!! Now Apple's gone and done it.
I was perfectly happy telling myself that my 20 GB model was good enough. Its primary drawback is that it can't hold my entire library. I still have about 100 CDs that I haven't ripped 'cause I don't have the space. I suspect 30 GB can handle those CDs but wouldn't leave much room to spare. Since it wouldn't leave much room to grow as I added to my CD collection, I was relatively happy with my decision not to upgrade. I mean...really...the 30 GB model didn't have enough more there to warrant upgrading. And, now? The 40 GB model's got some fancier software and is actually smaller than my 20 GB model. But, the battery won't last as long and that's important to me. I play my iPod all day at work. Every day. It'll go nearly 10 hours on one charge. The newer models won't do that. They'll probably last somewhere between 7 and 8 hours. Oh...the pain. Now I have to decide. Is double the storage enough more to make it worth it to me? Is it?
September 6, 2003
So...here's the icky story for the day. I decided to do some laundry this evening. I opened the lid of the washer and caught the movement of something inside the tub out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was some sort of bug but it disappeared under the edge of the agitator before I had a chance to focus on it. I wasn't even sure I'd actually seen anything. It was just a flicker of movement. Maybe. Hmmm...what to do? Since I wasn't even sure I'd seen anything, I went ahead and turned the water on. Sure enough, after a couple of seconds, a little gecko-type critter about 2 inches long scurried out from under the agitator. I turned the water off as I tried to figure out how to get the critter out. And it quickly disappeared back under the agitator. Hmmm...
I decided if I added enough water, it would try to get away by going up the side of the tub. And then, at least I'd be able to see it. So, I turned the water back on. And, the tub slowly filled up to the point that the critter should've been seeking asylum on the side of the tub. Alas...no such luck. Then it occurred to me that it might be able to escape the water inside the agitator. So, I drained the tub. Still no critter. And, now the question was: could it have gone down the drain? That seemed extremely unlikely. Should I just do my laundry and not worry about it? I didn't really like that idea. I mean, the thing could end up squished in my jeans. And, then baked in the drier. Not a pleasant thought.
So, I turned the water on again. This time, I filled the tub with about 6 or 7 inches of water. Still no gecko-like critter. Back to the spin cycle to drain the water and start filling tub again. And, out floats a...sadly...dead critter. I scooped it up with a plastic cup and flushed it down the toilet. Ick.
I'd seen a bigger one earlier in the evening when I checked the mailbox outside the front door. It was about 5 or 6 inches long. And, it gave me a fright as it darted out from behind the junk mail reminding me of an almost identical incident a few years ago. I ended up grabbing a gecko by the tail as I picked up the mail one day. When I realized it wasn't a rubber band under my thumb...that it was a live gecko (!), I jumped back and dropped the mail. Sadly, I dropped it in the house (instead of tossing it away from me and out the door) and the startled gecko dove for cover under the TV stand. It took me about 30 minutes to capture it and send it back outside.
Back to this evening. I don't know what the little one was doing in the clothes washer. The washer is out in the garage, though, and it's easy enough for critters to get in there. I hope its little gecko friends learned their sad lesson and that they stay away in the future! Again I say, though: ick!
September 3, 2003
I had an entertaining email exchange with Steven on Friday. I meant to write about it at the time but forgot. I was just clearing out my inbox and noticed the messages so am sharing the exchange now. I sent him a note on Friday and asked as an aside if he was all ready for football season.
His reply: "I am ready for football season. My UT season tickets are in the horseshoe..."
I (ever the sympathetic friend) wrote by return email: "So...in another 20 or 30 years, you might be all the way to the 15 yard line, eh? :)"
To which Steven said: "Only if die and they spread my ashes there."
Heh heh.
September 1, 2003
A conversation with my grandma.
First, though, a bit of background. My parents grew up in Magdalena, a very small town in New Mexico. The kind of town where everybody knows everybody else. They went all through school together. Their parents knew each other. They both went away after high school and then hooked up and got married. I never lived in Magdalena but spent many a summer vacation or Christmas break there with both sets of grandparents. Of the grandparents, only my dad's mom survives. And, she still lives there. My mom is the youngest, by far, of five children. I really don't know my oldest cousins on her side of the family at all. One of them, Tommy Gene, is probably at least 10 years older than I am. If he walked up to me wearing a name tag saying, "Hello, my name is Tommy Gene," it probably wouldn't occur to me that he was "my" Tommy Gene. I'd guess I was only about 10 years old the last time I saw him. Or 12, maybe. That's about 30 years ago and is just a guess. I really can't remember the last time I saw him.
Back to the conversation. I got home about 5 this evening and the phone rang about 5:30. Here's the conversation as best I can remember it. G is Grandma. J is me.
J: Hello.
G: Hi, it's me. I was hoping you'd be home.
J: Hi, Grandma! Always good to hear from you.
G: Well, I wanted to call you earlier but I had to be sure about the news and I didn't know if you'd be home. Tommy Gene had a massive heart attack this morning.
J: That's terrible. Where was he?
G: At home in Socorro.
J: I didn't know he was living in Socorro.
G: Oh, yes. He has been since he married <insert name I can't remember>.
J: Huh. I didn't even know he'd gotten remarried.
G: Yes. You remember, he married <insert name I can't remember>, Carlotta's daughter. I heard this morning that he'd had a heart attack but wasn't sure so I waited to call you until I knew for sure. Mercy called to check and it's true. So, I sent an email to your parents and then called you.
J: So, I guess you called Ginger and Roger?
G: Well, I'm sure Ginger knows since she's there with Mercy. I haven't called Roger yet.
J: So, is Tommy Gene in the hospital in Socorro? Or in Albuquerque?
G: Neither.
J: Neither? He can't be at home after a massive heart attack, can he?
G: No. He died.
J: Oh my gosh! That's terrible.
G: Yes. I don't know any of the arrangements yet or anything. I can't remember if he had any other family.
J: Well, of course, there's Tommy Roy. [Ed. note: Tommy Gene's son.]
G: Oh yes...of course.
J: So, how's Vera? [Ed. note: Tommy Gene's mother.]
G: I don't know. I ran into her outside the grocery store on Saturday but we didn't talk much. She was coming out and I was going in.
At this point, the conversation went off onto other topics. But, then, as we were getting ready to hang up, I came back to the subject of my cousin.
J: Well, I guess I'll send a note to Vera. I'm sure she's very upset about everything.
G: Vera? Why would you send her a note? Wait a minute! Did you think I was talking about Tommy Gene?
J: Well, yes.
G: No! I was talking about Tommy GREEN.
J: Who's Tommy Green? I don't know any Tommy Green.
G: I told you who he was. He was married to <insert name I can't remember>, Carlotta's daughter. [Ed. note: I believe Carlotta might be one of my father's cousins which would make the person who's name I can't remember (although it might be Stella) my second cousin.]
J: Well, geesh. I thought you were talking about Tommy Gene.
G: (starting to laugh) I wondered why you were asking about Vera!
J: (also laughing) Well, it was the logical person to ask about since her son had just died! And, I also mentioned Tommy Roy and you didn't say anything about that.
G: I don't remember that! Gosh, it's a good thing you mentioned him again before we hung up. That would have been terrible if you'd thought Tommy Gene was dead.
J: Indeed.
G: So, you don't even know who Tommy Green was? I thought you'd remember him.
J: Nope, Grandma. I have no idea who that was. Sorry.
We chatted for a few more minutes and then signed off. Too funny. Well, not to Tommy Green's family, I'm sure. But, this is typical for me and Grandma. There was a time, when I was in college and for a couple of years just after I got out, that every time I'd go visit her, someone in my father's extended family had died and I'd end up going to a funeral with her. It became somewhat of a joke for us. And, now she frequently calls to tell me when someone else has died. And, in general, I don't have any idea who she's talking about. In her mind, I grew up in Magdalena and know all of these people. But, really, I only visited. And, when I did, I really didn't hang out with anyone that wasn't a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or first cousin. Ah well...
August 29, 2003
So, here are the opening lines of the last two books I've read:
"It's been a long time since I've played with dolls. I've never really thought back on my time with plastic humans before, but today, as I was watching a group of gigly young girls browsing Barbies in the Wal-Mart, I remembered that feeling--that strange sexual energy and giddy shame of playing Barbies in my bedroom."
And, then...
"When I was a little girl I used to dress Barbie up without underpants. On the outside, she'd look like the perfect lady. Tasteful plastic heels, tailored suit. But underneath, she was naked."
Isn't that just odd? The first set of lines come from Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon. The second set come from High Five by Janet Evanovich. The books are nothing alike. And, if I hadn't read them back-to-back I probably wouldn't have noticed how they both started with stories about being naughty with Barbie. Life is strange. In fact, the subtitle to Why Girls are Weird is "sometimes life is stranger than you are."
Cue "Twillight Zone" music here.
By the way, I loved Why Girls are Weird (it made me laugh; it made me cry; it was great) and am only through the first two chapters of High Five (the fifth book in the Stephanie Plum series) so have no real opinion on it. I've enjoyed the series, thus far, so will probably enjoy this one as well. It can't hope to be as good as Why Girls are Weird but it'll still be fun.
August 27, 2003
Disposals are us. My garbage disposal went out several months ago. Not that big of a deal for me since I never used it much anyway. But, it was starting to wear on me. I noticed that Sears was running a sale on appliances and such and they had their "big deal super duper" disposal on sale this week...for about $10 more than their bottom-of-the-line model (which wasn't on sale). So, I went in and bought it. I checked out the installation instructions and figured I could probably install it myself. That was on Monday. After work. I came home and went to work getting the old one out. That went fairly smoothly. Hmmm...'turns out I needed plumber's putty to put around the flange of the new one. Okay, I could get that the next day on my way home.
I also noticed, though, that...uh-oh...there's the whole aluminum wiring problem. My townhouse was built back in the early 70s. Aluminum wiring was pretty much standard there for a few years and that's what's in my house. That meant I couldn't safely connect the new disposal with its copper wiring to the aluminum wiring coming out of the wall. The old disposal, by the way, had aluminum wiring so was not a fire hazard. So, I went looking online for some possible solutions. It turns out there's only one acceptably safe solution for connecting copper directly to aluminum and it requires a special tool which uses upwards of 10,000 pounds of pressure to make a "cold" weld between the two metals. And, you have to have special training in order to use the tool. So, I called for a list of Austin electricians certified on the equipment and there's one guy. One guy in Austin. One. The person manning the 800-number said there are only about 40 in the country. The whole country. Yikes! So, on Tuesday morning, I gave the Austin guy a call and he said he didn't really think he could do the job because it costs over $300 a month just to rent the special tool. Uh-oh. He said he'd look around, though, and see if he could work something out. So, we hung up and I started to get a bit depressed about the whole thing. Wasn't this supposed to be an easy job?
But then I remembered the salesman at Sears asking me if I had an outlet under the sink or if the disposal was hard-wired. Well, it was hard-wired. But, what if I installed an outlet? There are approved outlets that work with aluminum wiring. I know this because I had all the outlets and switches replaced with them when I moved into my house. So, when the electrician called later in the afternoon to tell me he couldn't find a solution to my problem, I asked about the outlet idea and he assured me with a bit of a Homer-ian "Doh!" that it would be a fine solution. So, I stopped at Home Depot on my way home and bought an outlet box, the appropriate co/alr outlet, some plumber's putty, and a power cord kit for the disposal (so I'd have something to plug into the outlet!). That was last night. (By the way, Happy Birthday, Dad!...look how much fun I was having on your birthday!)
I got home and immediately got to work. I installed the flange and bracket for the new disposal in the sink. I attached the power cord to the disposal. And then noticed that...sigh...that's not dry wall behind the sink. Nope. It's plaster. The outlet box I bought was for dry wall and wasn't gonna work. So, I packed it in for the night.
Which brings us to this evening. I stopped at Home Depot again, returned the outlet box, and went in search of something that would work in the space under the sink. I found a metal box that I could screw into a wooden support beam that runs along the wall under the sink and bought it. So, I came home and went about installing my new outlet. My drill was dead. So, I set the battery to charging and starting taking apart some of the pipes under the sink since the pipe going away from the disposal to the drain was now too long. The new disposal is about 4 or 5 inches wider in diameter than the old one. The rubber washer around one of the pipes crumbled as I loosened the pipe fitting. Hmmmm...that meant another trip to Home Depot since I hadn't purchased any of those. Ah well. The drill now had enough power that I could drill the pilot holes for the new outlet box. Got that installed and then attached the wiring to the new outlet. Woo hoo! Then, I proceeded to use my hack saw to cut the old pipe to its proper length. Sanded the edges. We must do things properly, doncha know? Then, a quick trip to get the new rubber washer. They came three to a pack. Which turned out to be good since I decided one of the other rubber washers should also be replaced. I fit everything together, tightened it all up, and turned the water on. Woo hoo! No leaks.
Then, the real test. I plugged the disposal into its new outlet and...with a bit of a cringe...flicked the power switch. Double woo hoo! It worked too. And, no explosions or fires! Yippee!
So, I guess that means I can install garbage disposals! Yay, me! Oh, and by the way, they're apparently called food waste disposers. They're not garbage disposals. I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to one as a disposer, though. Isn't that odd?
joanna@joanna.org
URL: http://www.joanna.org/archive/Aug2003-Sep2003.html
Last updated: September 13, 2003