With a Hey Ho, the Wind and the Sun
Jun. 6th, 2020 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrj Serve up several 90F days in a row, follow up with high winds, and sure enough there's a grass fire close enough that the diversion traffic is all going past my house. I only noticed because there were some road-frustration noises (like: someone trying to turn left through the stream of diverted traffic and no one letting them through, so there were some squealing tires when a gap presented itself). Went out to get the mail and a pedestrian let me in on the traffic diversion. I can hear helicopters and there were fire trucks earlier.
Let's see, I haven't posted since Tuesday, mostly because I was scrambling to get today's podcast together. And the day-job did the "welcome back from vacation thing with a bang, landing me a relatively unexciting investigation to which was added a completely artificial and unnecessary emergency deadline. (The artificialness of it was clear when me pushing back and escalating resulted in an easy work-around.) Sorry for being vague, but the details aren't exciting and require too much explanation.
I don't know whether I've seriously come out of my Saturday Slump or whether I was just particularly motivated today. After working on the blog, I plunged into the next stage of the House Project, which was to remove all the furniture from the bedroom (except the bed frame itself), vacuum thoroughly, and then do the carpet shampooing, If I didn't get that done today, then it wouldn't dry properly by tomorrow (fortunately, in this heat, I can assume it will be dry by tomorrow). And I really want to be able to move things back into place (and have a bed again) by Sunday night. It occurs to me that for tonight I guess I get to confirm the workability of the office-as-guest-bedroom.
Completing this stage will mean the wardrobe is no longer in the way in the living room, but it'll be a separate task-group to sort through all the costume and SCA gear that's sitting in the middle of things. That requires mental and emotional energy, not just physical stamina. While moving wardrobes and wrestling mattresses, it occurred to me to speculate on when I might get to a point of *not* being able to assume I can do that sort of thing by myself. I've always been rather proud of being strong enough to wrangle most things on my own (though I'm fine with asking for help when I need it). I know all the tricks, like slipping cardboard under the legs of the heavy furniture to "skate" it over the carpet, or walking things little by little rather than trying to push them all at once. But I do have to admit that I've passed my physical peak, mostly because the sciatic nerve damage affects certain lifting and balance requirements.
My order of tapestry yarn for the "hunting rabbits" needlepoint project arrived, so I'm completely set up to the point when there's only background left. It's going so quickly! I got a lot done at the Nebula conference. Quarantine logistics have that going for it.
The berries are in full season, which makes me think of the usual timing of my June garden party. Maybe next year. I'm not quite getting enough berries to need to make jam or freeze them, but I have plenty to enjoy every day. In a few days, I think I'll harvest one of the zucchini. The tomatoes are coming along, but not near to ripe yet. It looks like I'll have plenty, though.
I had an amusing bicycle tire adventure this week. Went out to take my ride Thursday and found the rear tire flat. After some diagnostics to determine the cause (especially to see if there was some pointy object stuck in the tread) it turned out the leak was around the inflation stem. Odd, but ok. Replaced the tire with my spare, but when I went to top off the pressure on the front tire since I had the pump out, I found that the tube appeared to have "herniated" out through the opening for the inflation stem. There was a little balloon at the base of the stem. It still took pressure, but I didn't feel like risking a ride until I at least had another spare tube available. Ordered a couple of tubes from REI for curbside pickup on Friday, and sure enough when I went out to the car on Friday to go get them, the front bike tire was flat--abraded where the stem had herniated through the rim. I've never had a tube do that before. I'm guessing that the heat over-pressurized the tires, though I don't generally inflate them to maximum pressure. And I've ridden the bike in hotter conditions than Wednesday's. A mystery.
I'm not ignoring the larger political goings-on, but I don't think the world needs my input on it in my blog.
Let's see, I haven't posted since Tuesday, mostly because I was scrambling to get today's podcast together. And the day-job did the "welcome back from vacation thing with a bang, landing me a relatively unexciting investigation to which was added a completely artificial and unnecessary emergency deadline. (The artificialness of it was clear when me pushing back and escalating resulted in an easy work-around.) Sorry for being vague, but the details aren't exciting and require too much explanation.
I don't know whether I've seriously come out of my Saturday Slump or whether I was just particularly motivated today. After working on the blog, I plunged into the next stage of the House Project, which was to remove all the furniture from the bedroom (except the bed frame itself), vacuum thoroughly, and then do the carpet shampooing, If I didn't get that done today, then it wouldn't dry properly by tomorrow (fortunately, in this heat, I can assume it will be dry by tomorrow). And I really want to be able to move things back into place (and have a bed again) by Sunday night. It occurs to me that for tonight I guess I get to confirm the workability of the office-as-guest-bedroom.
Completing this stage will mean the wardrobe is no longer in the way in the living room, but it'll be a separate task-group to sort through all the costume and SCA gear that's sitting in the middle of things. That requires mental and emotional energy, not just physical stamina. While moving wardrobes and wrestling mattresses, it occurred to me to speculate on when I might get to a point of *not* being able to assume I can do that sort of thing by myself. I've always been rather proud of being strong enough to wrangle most things on my own (though I'm fine with asking for help when I need it). I know all the tricks, like slipping cardboard under the legs of the heavy furniture to "skate" it over the carpet, or walking things little by little rather than trying to push them all at once. But I do have to admit that I've passed my physical peak, mostly because the sciatic nerve damage affects certain lifting and balance requirements.
My order of tapestry yarn for the "hunting rabbits" needlepoint project arrived, so I'm completely set up to the point when there's only background left. It's going so quickly! I got a lot done at the Nebula conference. Quarantine logistics have that going for it.
The berries are in full season, which makes me think of the usual timing of my June garden party. Maybe next year. I'm not quite getting enough berries to need to make jam or freeze them, but I have plenty to enjoy every day. In a few days, I think I'll harvest one of the zucchini. The tomatoes are coming along, but not near to ripe yet. It looks like I'll have plenty, though.
I had an amusing bicycle tire adventure this week. Went out to take my ride Thursday and found the rear tire flat. After some diagnostics to determine the cause (especially to see if there was some pointy object stuck in the tread) it turned out the leak was around the inflation stem. Odd, but ok. Replaced the tire with my spare, but when I went to top off the pressure on the front tire since I had the pump out, I found that the tube appeared to have "herniated" out through the opening for the inflation stem. There was a little balloon at the base of the stem. It still took pressure, but I didn't feel like risking a ride until I at least had another spare tube available. Ordered a couple of tubes from REI for curbside pickup on Friday, and sure enough when I went out to the car on Friday to go get them, the front bike tire was flat--abraded where the stem had herniated through the rim. I've never had a tube do that before. I'm guessing that the heat over-pressurized the tires, though I don't generally inflate them to maximum pressure. And I've ridden the bike in hotter conditions than Wednesday's. A mystery.
I'm not ignoring the larger political goings-on, but I don't think the world needs my input on it in my blog.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:52 am (UTC)6/4 - temperature 96.9, no bike ride (see above), no excursions off the property
6/5 - temperature 97.6, no bike ride (see above), drove to REI for curbside pickup, shopped at Ranch 99 for some things Safeway just doesn't carry (like nori sheets and reasonably-priced whole duck), all masked of course
6/6 - temperature 97.4, no excursions off the property but chatted with a neighbor from 6ft away (neither of us masked)