Dysmey Blog Archives  >  early summer vacation, part 1

early summer vacation, part 1

This week is my second short summer vacation.

thursday startoff

I finished the three new Mac Pros in the Educational Resources unit of the library, and the testing version of the new University Libraries toolbar for Internet Explorer, before the end of last Thursday.

Thursday was one wet day. It was raining when I went to work. It was just sprinkling when I went to the barber at the Student Center during my lunch break. When I stepped out of the Student Center it was coming down in sheets! I found that a collapsable umbrella does not protect well in a very heavy rain. I had to wring out my shirts in the library restroom and go about shoeless to dry out my socks.

I had thought that the rains would force a postponement of the town fireworks that evening. But the heavy rains were for Muncie only; Fairmount was spared the heavy afternoon rains!

Madre was panting so much that Padre brought her to the hospital last Wednesday for what they found was iron-poor blood. They gave her a couple of liters and kept her overnight. I had thought they would keep her there longer. But no: The hospital could not find out why she that way, so it sent her home and told her to see a cardiologist. So I went over to the folks' house to see if Padre was home — and found Madre sitting in her usual chair!

My sister the teacher took Madre's place for the fireworks festivities; i.e,, she parked her car in the field, spread a tarp on the ground, and brought a chair for me (I don't do tarps). There we sat with the rest of the town and visitors from other towns for the fireworks that started at ten in the evening. It lasted an hour, and it was pretty impressive. The town fire department does a good job with the fireworks every year.

fourth of july

It has been a nice fourth of july. The only thing different was lunch at the folks, where we ate pizza from Papa Murphy's in Muncie. The folks got pizza with the works; pizza with spinach, chicken and feta cheese; and a plain pepperoni pizza for Madre. Later in the evening I mowed the lawn.

saturday

I went to Lowe's this Saturday and bought a hook and bracket set for the shed. I screw in the bracket with wood screws to the horizontal stud on the north side of the shed, then I install the hooks, on which I hang the shovels, rake, broom, and most of all the lawn mower. Easy enough in thought but tough in practice: I do not have the means to drill the holes to screw in the wood screws to attach the brackets. So I set it aside for tomorrow.

I also bought a butane torch to burn the weeds in the cracks in the concrete of my front sidewalk and patio. I found that the torch was a little too small to burn the weeds, so I doused the weeds with alcohol and used the torch to set them alight. The good thing about the torch (as opposed to a match or a lighter alone) is that its flame is directed. With the right combination of burning and pulling I got rid of the weeds.

My evening movie was the so-called "final cut" of Blade Runner. It differs from the film as I first saw it as a college student in the 1980's: No narration, no happy ending, a lot more of the visual scenery that annoyed some people, a more gory rendition of Tyrell's death, and a lot more of Zhora's, um, topography.

sunday

I do not know how I manage this. At the end of my last vacation, I pulled a tendon in my wrist. On this vacation, I stubbed a toe on the bedroom threshold. I had to do a splint on my toe at bedtime, and wrap the toe with cloth and band-aids in the morning. It was a bother walking for the rest of the day.

I borrowed a cordless electric drill from the folks to drill the holes into the horizontal stud and secure the brackets to it. I was a little messy with the wood screws, but in the end the brackets held firm. Now the tools and the mower are off the floor.

My evening movie was the three Wallace & Gromit shorts.


Posted on the Dysmey Blog on 6 July 2008.