Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 2007 > Late Summer Vacation 2007 Edition
I chose this particular week for my vacation so that I was not gone from the office on the same week that most of my co-workers. It is a habit of everyone in the office to take vacations in the summer months before they expire, probably because most have kids who are off from school then.
What I did not reckon on was that the week I took the vacation coincided with the worse summer heat in years. It was in the 90's F (30's C) with saturated air for the whole of the week. The nights were warm and wet. I had to send the days cooling off in my bedroom, which until Tuesday was the only cool room in the house.
I took the panes and screen of the upper room window to the glazier in Gas City for measurement. The glazier fixed the screen (to be added to the bill). I painted big white bookcase.
I added a second coat of paint to the big white bookcase. After it dried I put the bookcase under the stairs.
I did yard work this morning: I mowed the lawn, pulled weeds from the patio, cut down weeds on the west side of the house, and finally cleaned the lawn mower.
I took Isis to the vet for surgery to remove that bump from her neck. Then I visited the doctor with my latest (and improved) blood-glucose readings. I drove on to Fishers to buy a new hard drive at Fry's and a new table at Sam's Club. I returned home too late to pick up Isis, so I had to wait until the next day.
I installed the new hard drive on the old Gateway and then put in Windows XP with all the updates. The Gateway is for my sister the teacher. Then I worked on the computer of my sister the editor, also installing a new hard drive but installing Windows 2000 (she objects to the activation feature on Windows XP) and several programs. Later I helped la rédactrice over the phone with her motherboard drivers — a difficult task given that she had no mouse and did not know how to navigate Windows with her keyboard.
I brought home Isis from the vet along with the antibiotic that I will have to feed Isis morning and evening for the next few days.
Then the folks let me borrow the upstairs air conditioner, which I installed in the living room. It is a very potent appliance that has cooled the room in minutes.
Evidently I did not insert my sister's old hard drive in its external drive case well enough, because it would not communicate with her computer when she got it home. So she opened the case and reseated the drive. Now it works.
That evening I went to the library board meeting. The big deal this month was software that does library accounting a lot better than the current accounting house we contract with. But we are stuck with no tax draw this year because Fairmount is caught in the assessment snafus in neighboring Madison County, which shares a school district with the town. So we get no software. Indeed, we get nothing outside basic expenses (salaries and utilities) because of the lack of funds, except for a book here and there due to a generous donation from a local club.
I did the laundry, took out the trash, and did the shopping for the weekend. I bought a double-hot-cheeseburger for dinner. All this I do anyway, but this Thursday I have a lot more time to do it.
I created a page of projects that I will be doing to the house this year and next. One project (the mailbox) is already done. Another (my cat and the upper room window) are getting there. The projects page is right here.
Then my sisters show up, in part to see Isis, in part to pick up the Gateway. There were complaints about my not having a doorbell.
Later that evening I had to go to my sister the editor's house. She got rid of a worm from her system on her own, but the removal had trashed her e-mail client. Fearing that she was about to do something destructive, I walked over there, persuaded her to buy a registry cleaner (Registry Mechanic), saved her current stash of mail, and reinstalled Thunderbird.
I took the panes over to the glazier. It was found that the bottom pane was mismeasured, or rather not measured at all on the assumption that it was the same size as the top pane. It looks like I will have to make another trip next week. At least I will not have to pay for the blunder. But there is no way you can tell how clear the top pane is when the bottom one is up.
I have a lot to look forward to when I return to work.
I have submitted the University Libraries Toolbar for review on the Firefox developer site. If enough editors test it out and find it acceptable, I can then submit the add-on for public inclusion on the Firefox Add-on site.
When I adopted Isis, one of my sister Tina's cats, I knew the first thing I needed to do was to remove the tumor on her neck. The tumor grew from a wound gotten in a fight with one of the newer cats. It has been oozing for a couple of years now; and one of the first things I wanted to do when Isis came was to have the tumor removed. Tina never got around to getting Isis' bump removed because she was too busy spending money on the health needs of her daughters, who always seem to have something wrong with them.
I took Isis to the new vet north of town for an exam and for a rabies shot. Then I took her there later to get the tumor removed. Now Isis wears a bandage around her neck to keep from scratching at the wound (starting the tumor process again). As the tumor was an oozy one, I have to feed Isis antibiotic from a dropper twice a day. The stuff smells like bubblegum because it was mixed for kids; why something like that is given for an animal with little taste and hardly any appreciation for bubblegum is a mystery.
Otherwise Isis adapting very well to her new home. Isis was skittish of the kitchen and utility room at first (Tina's house has no linoleum), but after a day or so she was eating in the kitchen. She is getting used to the fact that there are no other cats around to fight for attention and for her own space (she has a whole house now).