The Neon Nurse's Charting

You know the one. Where they say if you eat a live toad first thing in the morning, the rest of the day is bound to be better?

What I started with today was the residual effects of a cat tap-dancing on my face in the night. I had blamed Painty the Paranoid Princess, but on reflection, while she likes to sleep at the top of my head like a cat beret and try out a fluffy calico mustache on me now and again, she doesn't usually walk on me. On the other hand, after it got light, little Sandy was rampaging around the room and along the edge of my bed, which was the first time she's done that. So I don't know whodunnit. All I know is I have a scratched nose and bruised eye, and I Am Not Happy About It.

Makes me wonder if the spam I got recently was intended as some sort of vague warning. The sender was Deathward Bottommost. It was for a diet I am NOT going to try.

Speaking of death.... When we were up in Denver recently, driving around looking for the Lakeside Amusement Park entrance, we saw something odd at one of those little neighborhood strip malls. The business on one end was a Cremation Society. Next door was a little shop named Casket Mart. Fair enough, though kind of a jaunty name, all things considered. Maybe Box, Burn and Beyond was already taken. But the kicker was the last shop on the other end, with a BIG sign offering "Meat and Sausage"!!!

Smoked sausage, one presumes.

The one evening in weeks that I plan to do something outside after dinner? THAT'S when it rains.

I FINALLY got around to pulling the wheel with the split tire off the riding mower and taking it in to be re-shod. Yes, that would be off the riding mower that has been parked in the same place since May, waiting for SOMEONE to come fetch it in to be fixed.

*SIGH*

Okay, so tomorrow I will put it back on, and then ride it to town and hand-deliver it to the repair shop. Then maybe I can at last mow down the pollen-popping weeds that have taken over the place.

In other news, we had clear skies last night for the eclipse, despite predictions otherwise. I didn't get any pics, because my camera just doesn't zoom in enough, and the moon was still pretty high and distant here around the totality point. But I did wake Mike up for the main show a little before 4 am, and we had a nice time sitting on the porch, watching the moon fade out as we swatted mosquitoes. (I'd thought it would be too cool out for them at that time, but I was wrong.)

To go along with the full moon fun, here is a neat link I ran across today. It's a little toy that looks like a set of antique classic books. But when you walk near it, the middle book slides forward as if pushed by a poltergeist!

Ooooooooo!

Speaking of books leads to words, and here's a difficult but fun word game, Etymologic. They claim to be the toughest word game on the web, and I believe them, because the best I've been able to score so far is 9 out of 10!

Anyone else going to get up/stay up for the eclipse tonight???

Our current primary house project is fixing up some plumbing problems. I admit, I should have done something way back when we first noticed the slight seepage...but my hatred for plumbing tasks is only matched by my ability to live in denial.... I guess we got crossed off the House-healing Fairy's list. *sigh*

Part of what is getting me off dead center right now is that there's a good chance the clone's brother, a master plumber, is going to be able to free up some time to help us. With that as a dangling carrot, I have been clearing up access to the trouble areas.

One of those is a perpetually damp spot at the corner of the faucet end of the bathtub. The shower assembly is also old and in need of replacement. This meant removing the soaked wallboard, and also making a way to get to the piping.

In theory, the piping is accessible through the hall closet. In actual practice, that small, almost rudimentary hall was built as one of two paths to the front door. Since it wasn't crucial, we decided it was a good place to 'temporarily' put some boxes of books. About 10 years ago....

Which is why Mike and I spent a fun hour yesterday knocking that part of the bathroom/closet wall in. Since all the hammers are hiding just now, he used a wrench. I just yanked and pulled at first, but eventually gave into the temptation to see if I could still do a decent punch, palm heel strike and hammer fist. Answer -- YES! And my hands don't even hurt today!

Cleaning up the closet was not as much fun. Although I happily did not run across Geraldo Rivera in there, we did find that it had been put to use as Mouse Central Station. I shall spare you the 'ew' details.

Turned out there were still some coats in the closet (also two bridles, a motorcycle helmet of unknown origin, a vibrating foot soaker which I threw away, as well as Stuff, also mostly thrown away). The coats were a little dirty, but not chewed, and washed up just fine.

Even, amazingly enough, a rather nice leather coat I bought on a foolish whim in the early 90s. I didn't want to pay out huge bucks to attempt dry cleaning (plus how embarrassing would THAT be to take into a shop?). So I looked for ideas online, and saw where someone claimed success in machine washing a leather jacket, using shampoo and conditioner.

It's still air-drying, but it didn't lose any color or finish, so I am hopeful. Plus, it smells great! My only trouble now is trying to convince Mike he does not need a semi-retro ladies' style leather/patterned suede jacket, no matter how pretty it is.

The only thing I thought was on my agenda for today was celebrating that not-so-very-joyful-but-quite-useful holiday, Free Dump Weekend. The occasion was made even more festive than usual because our neighbors down the road have a puppy they are never home to play with. So Miss Smiley McFriendlyPants is always up HERE. And one of her methods of self-entertainment has been to tear into what we thought were securely stored sacks of trash and tumble the old shoes, torn out carpet and even less attractive items all over the place.

On my way to the dump site I spotted an auction sign. Kind of odd, since it was in what used to be the industrial part of town, before the bus plant closed, along with several of the smaller companies that made components for it.

After I got Dreamcloud emptied out, I took the back road from the dump site towards the street that had been marked by the auction sign. "Huh," I wondered. "Why are there so many cars parked at NEOPLAN?"

Because, of course, that's where the auction was. The old bus factory. I couldn't stop myself from pulling in so I could have a look around.



That's Final Finish, and I mostly worked way down at the far end, in one of the pits. There were two "lines" of buses. Back in the day, they would start by building the steel skeleton of the bus in the other large bay to the east of this one. As it moved along they added the sheet metal skins and the axles and such. Just before it came into the Final Finish area, it was painted. At this point, the buses didn't have wheels on yet. They rode on rails on little trolley-like carts, pushed forward by the workers.

I was an electrical installer, and worked under the bus hanging the long "harnesses" of wiring that all the components would later be plugged into. It was a dirty job, because the tarry undercoating wasn't yet fully dry. But as jobs go, I kind of liked it. I learned a lot of useful skills and got some great stories along the way.

I felt weird going back inside today, because I'm pretty sure I haven't been in there in at least 15 years, and then I was just taking a tour on an open house day.

NEOPLAN was what finally got me to commit to moving to Lamar and setting up house-keeping with the clone...I had applied for a few jobs down there before, but there just wasn't much on offer until they came to town. I met my friend Stefan from Germany there (aka The Best Ex In the World), and they gave me my first few special jobs, doing the company newsletter, semi-official company photographer, and later a few other consultant gigs.

Not to mention being in the company band and writing the company comic book.

Good times.

I didn't buy anything at the auction, though. No room in this house for another pet more furniture.

So much for my intention to post SOMETHING daily.

Part of my problem is that we've gotten a bit of a bug to do some renovation and general space-arranging. It's the sort of thing that finds me with enough energy at the end of the day to read my friends' LiveJournals and blogs and such, but too brain dead to find anything creative and amusing to say about cleaning out a cupboard and the fridge. And since that sort of thing has been my main daily excitement....

I think you can see the problem here.

Also, sometimes I cannot just sit here and type, because it wakes up the cats.


(Obligatory Lolcat caption: "Hay! We beez sleepin heer!")

I might as well admit it, I am often way behind everyone else, and not just because of the cats. Last night I FINALLY watched An Inconvenient Truth, which I thought was very well done. Al Gore is actually a funny guy, who knew? And heaven knows the movie needs those lighter moments, because it's just horrifying to see pictures of the melted glaciers, the ice packs breaking up at the poles, and the flooding of coastal cities to a degree that will make New Orleans look like a mishap with a damp towel.

That reminded me I had saved this cartoon a while back, but never gotten around to sharing it:



Have a nice weekend, everyone, and do something green if you get the chance!

Last post tonight, I swear!

Did you know Netflix has a new service? Providing you have a pretty good broadband connection, you can watch streaming movies live on line. You get one hour per dollar of the monthly fee you pay them, each month. No extra charge!

Mike and I went looking for something we would both like, and what we ending up agreeing on is the BBC series, The Life of Birds. It was actually Mike who talked ME into it, not the other way around! (He likes documentaries. And also birds.) We've watched two episodes so far, but may take a bird break and go for The Life of Mammals next.

I found this next site from an e-newsletter I get about computer workin's. It used to be the LangaList, but he joined forces with a different newsletter--and their combined powers are pretty good. The most recent issue recommended this:

http://secunia.com/software_inspector/

You don't have to download anything. It can test, right through your browser, to see if all your (Windows type) interactive software and plug-ins are the most current, most secure versions. After it gives you the report, you can choose to go and update any or all of them. I did our three house computers, and it was pretty easy, and none of them blew up, plus they subsequently passed their regular anti-virus/anti-spyware scan from ZoneAlarm. So in my opinion, it's a safe and useful tool.

Seems like there was something else I was thinking of putting here...oh, well, there's always tomorrow!

As you may know, I do a little political blogging, too. I don't usually post those here, to spare you from the rare times I become so shrill only dogs can hear me. Dogs on Mars.

But this one is more personal than political, plus it comes with a cute picture.

Last May, while prepping for our Lamar Days Parade, there was an unfortunate incident with me, our plastic blow-up donkey, and a rogue air compressor.

Since I popped him, I knew I should be the one to fix him.



I am happy to report he's a good solid citizen again. We recycled many, many plastic grocery bags and styrofoam peanuts, but he also now contains not a few outdated plastic yard campaign signs.

He supported these people and causes, back in the day, and now they are supporting him.

I like that.

It was 104 at 5:30 pm yesterday. Just sayin'. (and complainin')

I believe I picked up the link to walkscore.com from my LJ friend Mareklamo. It helps you figure out how walker friendly your neighborhood is. My score was ZERO.



Several people commented on my post last night (about the Village Inn sausage hash pipe) saying they try to keep an anonymous profile online so as to avoid stalkers. I think that's a good plan for most people. The above is why I personally am not too concerned. Not only is my house kind of out of the way, my TOWN is the largest one for a two hour drive in any direction....

(Beware! Once the bottleneck gets unstoppered, there may be a deluge!)

Even before the internet, I knew the rule about not putting anything down on paper you wouldn't want read out in court...with your mom listening. (Hi, Mom!)

The following article concerns a college student from Colorado who knows that...NOW. Yes, LiveJournal is involved.

"It started out as an average personal-injury lawsuit. It ended with instructions for making a marijuana pipe out of a sausage and a surprising lesson about how what you write on the Internet can come back to haunt you."

Click here to read the whole amazing thing!