E:\LETTERS\MarBan10.txt This file is posted at http://davebeeson.home.comcast.net/LETTERS/MARBAN10.TXT 4 March 2010 Had trouble reading my mail this morning because the sun was shining on the monitor -- and I saw stars on the way back from church yesterday and the day before. Busy week so far. Monday dawned non-precipitating with clear roads, so I put on my longjohns and sweat pants, wrapped up the stack of old magazines and put them into a pannier, and rode my bike to the emergency room. Of course I couldn't just turn around after dropping off the magazines. At this point I remembered that I had forgotten my shopping list -- after putting spare handkerchiefs into the pocket where the shopping list belongs, I crossed that pocket off my mental check list. I did remember that we need toothpaste and pine nuts; off to the health-food store by way of the Beyer Farm boardwalk, which had spots where I had to get off and walk; why couldn't they have left half-inch gaps between the boards to let snow fall through, it would have been cheaper, and would have shaded the plants below it slightly less. I followed Arthur to the railroad to see whether the town was still cut in half. Not only nobody trying to go the wrong way on Arthur, no traffic at all, and no sign of any incident at Main either. They must have gotten the train moving while I was getting dressed. Two hours of shut-down sure beats the clean-up time for the car-train collision we had last Friday! But this one came at rush hour, so may have caused more consternation. People sure are eejits. According to a witness quoted in the evening paper, the car just quietly and determinedly proceeded into the side of the train at fifteen miles per hour. I hope that when they released the driver from KCH, they took her to the Bowen Center. She struck an engine's fuel tank, which caused the train's crew some concern, but I heard them say it was only scuffed up, not even dented. The picture in the paper suggested that the car was totaled. Not being of a mind to cross Detroit twice, I proceeded to Market on the next street east (my Visitor's Bureau map says this street does not exist), where I caught sight of the dollar store. I veered aside, took a tour, and bought a spoon-shaped rubber spatula made outa plastic. (We need a new term for rubber spatulas now that rubber is available only in exotic-kitchenware shops, and, more often than not, cast in molds intended for plastic.) Then back across the parking lot, but something is not right. Inspection showed that my back tire was so soft that it was bottoming out every time I rolled over one of the flaws in the parking lot. Seems as though all my flats develop while the bike is parked. Back to the front porch of the shopping center. After thinking a bit, I decided that if I pumped the tire up, it would hold long enough to get home by the shortest route. Attempting to pump the tire resulted in letting the rest of the air out. By good luck the dollar store is adjacent to a playing field, and playgrounds in this town have pay phones. So off to the pay phone, reflecting that I *could* walk home from there, but seriously didn't want to. Now it used to be that to make a pay call, you first put in a coin to get a dial tone, then dialed your number. That was changed for E911, but I made calls more frequently and for a longer time before the change than after -- I still have a first-aid kit with a dime taped inside the lid around here somewhere. Moreover, it had been long enough since my previous call for old habits to assert themselves. I've also become accustomed to prices going up like rockets, and entirely out of synch with other prices. So I put in a quarter despite hearing a dial tone, and when the phone stopped accepting digits after the fourth or fifth, and demanded three more quarters, instead of hanging up and starting over, I just thought "egad! I hope I have enough quarters!" and put in the coins, expecting to re-dial when the phone had been paid enough. Instead I got a message that I'd dialed a long-distance call, and must dial "1" before dialing my number. (A five- digit *long distance* call?) So, the metaphorical dime having finally dropped, I hung up and, much to my relief, my four quarters were returned. The price of a local call *has* gone up since my previous call, but only to fifty cents. Lo and behold, Dave was home, and when I told him where I was, said that that was where he'd picked me up the last time. I said that I'd stop going to the dollar store. It's not really all that much of a coincidence -- playgrounds are the only place you find pay phones these days. I think there's one at the emergency room; I'll have to notice the next time I dump old magazines. Pity nobody makes a cell phone that you can tape inside the lid of your first-aid kit and forget about. An emergency-only phone could probably be wound up like a flashlight, but I'm the only person in the entire world who wants one, so it isn't going to be worth anybody's while to design it. I considered trying to repair the frame pump, then reflected that there have probably been great improvements in frame pumps during the last twenty years. That afternoon I walked to the Trailhouse, where I discovered that frame pumps have been "improved" to the point of no longer being possible to attach to a frame that doesn't feature the latest style of braze-ons. He said he'd special-order one that might fit and it would be in on Wednesday. On Wednesday, he sent in the order -- I think. [I suppose it's possible that when he said "It will be in on Wednesday," he meant that the *order* would be in.] On the way out, my attention was caught by a curious projection on a bike by the door, and Mr. Gast explained that the customer wanted to ride his bike around for a while before deciding where to cut the top of the fork, showed us how spacers hold the handlebars in place, and waxed enthusiastic about threadless forks for a while. This somehow reminded him that he had just got in a new model of small-town bike called "the Flat-Footer". It's a drop-frame bike with the cranks set forward, so that you can pedal properly even though the seat is so low that you can put both feet on the floor. I didn't quite dare to pedal in such narrow confines, but I draisined it a yard or two, and when I ran out of space, backed up -- yes, a bike you can back! I found that I could push it easily even though the seat was too high for me. ("Draisine" is my new verb. It's the name of the guy who built the first working two-wheels-in-tandem human- powered vehicle, and means "to propel a bicycle or draisine by pushing on the ground with your feet.") This bike would have been just the ticket for my ride across the boardwalk -- with both feet down, I could have coasted through the patches of snow. I'm not so sure about riding a single-speed bike up the slope at the other end. On the other hand, my chain broke out in the boonies once, and I found that I could get about halfway up Albany-County hills before I had to dismount even though the bike was most definitely not designed to draisine. Might could be that one could walk a Flat-Footer up a gentle slope without dismounting. (Anyhow, Dave says it does have gears.) (I'll bet they aren't Albany County gears!) The bike hasn't the slightest hint of cargo capacity, which would render it useless for the two-mile run to the grocery store. I presume it could be retrofitted with racks and panniers. But one selling point is that you can mount it from the back when you get so debilitated that even a drop frame is too much for you, and panniers would prevent that. Tuesday was laundry day, Only two loads, if I recall correctly. I ate too much grease for lunch on Tuesday. I didn't sleep at nap time, and got up feeling off my feed. I went off to Handwork Circle without supper, but had perked up considerably by the time it was time to come home. I think it a Clue that I drank an entire bottle of water while sewing, and was still thirsty. Once fully rehydrated, I made myself a duck-gravy tortilla torte. Liked it so well that I had another for lunch on Wednesday. And there's still some duck gravy. Wednesday morning, under pressure of the desire to take the bike with me to the Trailhouse so I could check whether the pump fit if by some chance it had come in, I finally got around to changing the tube in the tire. Learned in the process that I want a new casing too; since I'd already had my road-conditions practice, I decided to let the Trailhouse change the casing for me. so instead of putting the new tube in, I patched the old one. The glue in my patch kit was dried up, and so was the glue in an un-opened tube that Dave found in the bike cupboard. Add "patch kit" to shopping list. I also learned that Shoe Goo won't stick to an inner tube. So I rubbed off the excess with my fingers and put the tube back in right away instead of waiting for a cure. Just as I was headed for the Lava in the bathroom, I remembered that my tire levers were sticky, so I scoured them first, and that took most of the chain grease and all of the Shoe Goo off my hands, so Dave put the Lava back into the drawer. At which point in the writing I got up to check the hand cleaner in the tool kit; still there, still good, but the paper towels should be replaced -- and there's another patch kit in the misc. pocket! And I've already ordered the replacement. By the way, remember a while back I said that I'd put a pannier-stay clip Someplace Safe because I didn't have a spare nut and bolt on me? Guess what I found in the patch kit, complete with lock washer? Also found a bag of coins I'd forgotten about. I really ought to make a new roll kit for my emergency tools. The most time-consuming part would be selecting the fabric. I wonder whether I have any black nylon stashed away -- there is worlds of ripstop left from my wind pants, but that's a tad sheer for making a roll kit. Wednesday, I didn't sleep at nap time again, but this time I had the impression that that was because I'd got a good night's sleep. I was careful to lie on the floor for a while before Banner-making started anyway. Pumped the tire up again before going to the shop, and much to my surprise, the shoe-gooed patch not only held ninety pounds, the tire was still hard when I got to the shop. So I pinned the ankles of my jeans and rode instead of walking. I found that I *can* ride in my walking shoes, but don't like it. Only the tips of the toes fit into the clips. I thought I'd ride on the backs -- the pedals are designed to double as platform pedals -- but my feet insisted on turning the pedals right-side-up. I left the bike, and told him to overhaul it as well as put on a new tire. He said he'd clean my chain too. I may be reluctant to ride it in the rain when I get it back. But I'm *always* reluctant to ride in the rain, and I'm adamantly opposed from October through May. Banner making went well, and we got all the tissue-paper flowers off the wall without having to wash the entire inside of the sanctuary. Having a man on a ladder was a big help! And I've frittered away the entire morning without even looking at my other pair of white jeans. I desperately need them; after forgetting to wash my finished pair three weeks in a row, they are so grungy that I put them in the hamper and I'm wearing my shabby herringbone jeans. Which have faded enough that they aren't all that bad for walking home after dark. We'll be on Atlantic time pretty soon, and it will be light when it's time to come home. 5 March 2010 But I don't know how I'll get up in time for church after Devil Satan Time starts. This morning, I woke at 7:30, went back to bed intending to rest until 8:00, but Al E. harassed me from 7:30 until eight -- and scratched Dave's face deep enough to bleed one of the times he walked over or fell on him. By then I was so wound up -- not to mention that the harassment had merely slackened -- that come 9:00 I still hadn't got any rest, but got up anyway. I'm looking forward to nap time, and thinking about putting one of the litter boxes in the garage. Al's been fascinated with the projection clock ever since we got it, but he hasn't been quite so persistent in knocking stuff off the shelf over my head before. Yesterday I did get the waistbands made for my new white jeans, and turned three-fourths of an inch of the back and front to the outside, to be covered by applique'ing on the waistbands. I'm always tightening the waist of the finished pair trying to get them to ride a little higher, so I'm setting the band on this one a little lower. An amusing post on the Creative Machine mailing list: after watching a documentary about a designer, someone asked for the name of a technique that looks like a rolled hem, but it's done by hand. AARRGH! Two fifteen in the afternoon is a fine time to remember that the Maple Leaf retail shop is open today. I probably wasn't fit to drive anyway, said the fox. Still ain't. I hold out hope for getting some fluids and sugar inside, then taking a walk to the Trailhouse. ----------------------------------------------------------- Pump in, bike almost ready. I'm going back tomorrow. Beautiful weather. Bare pavement all over the place, and every vista in full color! On the other hand, I appear to be coming down with something. Not fair! I just got over a cold! Had another nap after supper. There's ginger tea with lemon in the microwave. 9 March 2010 Watching a pair of ducks in the garden and wondering whether they were finding anything to eat, I did a double take: a *pair* of ducks! Another sign of spring. We simplified our Wednesday considerably. After church, Martha and I cancelled Banner Making, then Monday -- during my nap when Dave was out -- Toyota called to say the fire marshal, for reasons Toyota didn't understand, had forbidden them to keep the appointment to which I'd been planning to drive Dave tomorrow. (The truck needs to be undercoated.) Then during the last cracker in my midnight snack last night, Wednesday got complicated again. I called this morning and made an appointment to have a broken molar looked into at 14:00 tomorrow. And now the jaw and ear on that side have started to hurt, after I told the receptionist that it didn't. I think that I've been tensing up and making the muscles sore. I'm still waking up with the sensation of coming down with something, but it passes off when I move around and get some fluids down. On the other hand, I got a twinge in my knee on the way back from Owen's yesterday, and I felt it during the night, and if I pay close attention, that knee feels funny now. So with a freshly-refurbished bike and spring sproinging all over the place, I'm grounded for a week. Knees are the only body parts you can damage in the normal operation of a bike. so I want to be very, very careful. The left side of my jaw is complaining that it isn't accustomed to doing all the work. End of organ recital -- I hope. There'd been a leak springing up through the road near the end of Park Avenue for about a week. On Saturday, I predicted that they'd send workers to deal with it on Monday, and sure enough we woke up to the dispatcher announcing that a section of Park Avenue would be closed to emergency traffic. But when I went down to look at it after my nap, the hole was a considerable distance from the leak, and they had dug up a main and attached three new (bright blue!) water lines to it. Work having ceased except for one guy picking up litter, I walked up close enough to look down the hole, and remarked that it looked as though they still had a lot of work to do; he said no, they would be done as soon as they turned the water on and filled in the dirt. When we took our after-supper point seven, the vehicles were gone, the holes were filled in -- and the leak had stopped. We figure that there had been two mains for some reason -- there is a "main under here" stripe that ran through the leak painted on the road -- and that they had hooked everybody served by the broken main to the other one, then turned the broken one off. Aha! I've been suspecting that the ghost buttons on my status bar were connected to the screen saver. When I came back to the computer just now, there was a button plainly labeled "screen saver", and it disappeared when clicked just like the blank ones. With work on the water main going on, I didn't want to wash clothes on Monday, so I went for a ride. Well, I'd have gone anyway, with a newly-overhauled bike that needed shaking down, a rare bright not-very-cold day, and precipitation predicted for today. (So far, it's been brighter and sunnier than yesterday.) Not to mention that we were almost out of milk. I had a bag of canned goods I didn't want, so I briefly considered going straight at the entrance, but I dislike climbing the hill in a constant stream of traffic, so I turned left and went through the interurban tunnel, where the climb is gradual and I usually have the street all to myself. In view of the twinge I felt on the last leg, it's lucky that I spared myself the strain. By good luck, rather than intelligence, I picked the right street to double back on and came out in front of Our Father's House. Took a turn around the thrift shop while I was in there; noticed a "pants organizer" and finally found out what the rack I keep my scarves on is for. Works great for scarves, but would be a poor way to store pants; they would overlap too much, and (except for squashing) be as thick as if hung separately. Thicker, since each pair is folded in half. I recall deciding to visit the consignment shop, Annie's Attic, but don't recall going in. Then I crossed the street to go back, found myself in front of the gun shop, and went in. Not much of interest; I remembered seeing a pink "ladies' gun" the previous time. and reflected that as far as I'm concerned, a lady's gun comes in a big black holster attached to a big burly bodyguard. Thence to Owen's, where I'd been struggling with the sign blocking my parking space for some time before I remembered that I wanted to go to the emergency room before buying milk. Since I was already there, I went in to drop a leaky plastic grocery bag into the "bag to bag" bin. Straight up Harrison, which isn't quite as nice as before it was repaved -- the new pavement doesn't extend to the part of the road bikes use, and the edge of the new layer is sometimes high enough to steer the bike out from under a careless rider and throw him into the traffic lane. Boardwalk free of snow, but cluttered with pedestrians. Followed Arthur to Park, and meant to follow Park to Market, but when I realized that I was headed straight for the dollar store, I turned onto Center. Found a truck and lots of orange cones blocking the traffic lane, and the work they were stopped for blocked the sidewalk, so turning pedestrian wouldn't help. After thinking it over, I used the left-turn lane like everybody else -- but with more attention to my timing. Stopped in Warsaw Health Foods for pine nuts and spent $31.82 -- and I didn't even look at the toothpaste. Thence through the church parking lot to Market, because I ought to enjoy Market as much as I can before they ruin it. I heard a rumor that folks are making out that the roundabout scheduled for the entrance is necessary for The Greenway; perhaps they can siphon off enough of the Greenway budget to delay the destruction of Market by a few years. Converting stop-and-go traffic to continuous flow would make it *harder* to cross Winona, but if they can sell bike lanes, they can sell anything. And of course the rest of the trip was a milk run, save for the twinge I felt on Cleveland just before Durban. In addition to buying milk, I spent five or six dollars on a package of safety pins, after establishing that it included a few of the very large and very small pins I needed in addition to a heaping handful of the medium pins I already had more than enough of. I'd have gotten better pins for less money at Lowery's, but now I've got pins. Heaven only knows when I'll get to Lowery's. Especially now that I'm off the bike for a week. While I was re-packing my stuff on the bike for yesterday's ride, the missing pannier clip fell out of something. I clipped it to the handle of a basket of tools in the bike cupboard. 10 March 2010 Al is not only knocking things off the ironing board, he's complaining about the noise. 14 March 2010 I sewed on the back waistband yesterday and the front waistband today. Now all I have to do is to bind the bottoms of the legs, sew on four hooks, and embroider up to twenty hook eyes. It was harder than I expected to attach the bands. Sewing them on was nothing, but I couldn't pin three layers of hemp canvas, so I had to baste by hand. On both edges of each band. Stab-stitching all the way. And when the sewing was done, I had to pick the basting out, which came pretty close to pulling out one stitch at a time. I'm rather pleased that shortening the pants at the top removed the hem allowance at the bottom. White pants worn for everyday get really grungy around the hems, and the stains don't come out. With the edges bound, I can pick the binding off and put on fresh binding whenever it gets unbearable. I wouldn't have thought of binding pants legs without the little push. 14 March 2010 Off to the Toyota dealer tomorrow. I'm still noticing my knee. I think that I'm noticing it just because I'm noticing it, but I think I'll come home by the shortest route, just in case. 23 March 2010 Whoosh, I didn't think I was *that* out of shape. I did a little loop out to 250E by Frontage and back by Wooster, and came home so beat that I took my entire nap lying flat on my back. I do *not* sleep on my back, not ever, not even when they shot me up with sodium pentathol and put me on a gurney. 'Course, I opened by selecting new frames at the optician on Frontage Road. Decisions always exhaust me. I looked at every frame in the shop, selected one that I thought I could live with, asked if it came in a less-garish color, it did come in "tortoise" (which the clerk called "brown") as well as "rainbow". Then she said wait a minute and dashed over to the first wall I'd looked over, and came back with a gray pair that was just perfect. And quite cheap, I thought -- a hundred forty-four dollars for lenses and frames both. Or maybe embarrassment helped wear me down. In the morning, I picked up a comb and pulled the holder off my pigtail, then thought that I'd better pull my jersey over my head before combing my hair, proceeded to finish dressing and leave the house, and didn't realize I hadn't combed until I was checking frames in the mirrors. Maybe they thought it was helmet hair. Or maybe it was worrying about my knee. I was ... *aware* of it, and knew that if the sensation advanced to actual pain, I'd be grounded for another week. But by then I'd figured out that it's standing on the right pedal while coasting that's stressing it, and was careful not to do that except just before dismounting. And I had an inadequate lunch rather late. Aside from crashing afterward, it was a good ride. After ordering my new glasses, I toured the Goodwill store, a couple of dollar stores, General Nutrition, and Big R. Bought potato sets and onion sets at Big R. Then picked up a packet of dill seed and a few groceries at Aldi, including some "pepperoni-flavored snack bites" for my lunch, picked up a loaf of bread and a package each of english muffins and sandwich buns at Aunt Millie, then toured the restaurant- supply store. I checked the second-hand shelf hoping for spoons and there were spoons -- but all soup spoons, which we have in plenty. We keep running out of teaspoons at church dinners, so I've been keeping my eye out for cheap spoons to contribute, but teaspoons don't hang around in thrift shops very long. Thence home. I didn't see any winter damage to Joe's clay court, but I expect he'll disagree when he comes home. I was still hungry when I got home, so I asked Dave what he'd had for lunch: a single-serving can of chicken salad packed with a little bag of crackers. I actually noticed those when I was at Aldi, but didn't think of buying one to eat *now*! I ate a lot of crackers with whole-milk yogurt and went to bed. The lunch bit was why I went into General Nutrition, but they still sell nothing but pills and powders. 24 March 2010 I did take advantage of Big R's restroom to straighten up my hair. Didn't have a pigtail holder, but it was still half braided at bedtime. Went to Optical One and back before noon today, with hardly any delay in the laundry. Nice and windless, so I'm going to leave the whites out on the line while I take my nap. The coloreds are soaking. Gone have to go back tomorrow; during the fitting, I felt that the specs were tilted, but couldn't tell which way. I'm becoming increasingly aware that the right temple needs to be bent up just a hair -- when I was making lunch, I kept thinking that the skillet was tilted. (well, it is - - the stove isn't level -- but not that much and not in that direction.) The specs seem to work much better outdoors than in, perhaps because the tilt matters more to the bifocals than to the main lenses. I also suspect that the doctor gave me more difference in the reading part of the lens -- I should have emphasized that I could read just fine with the old prescription. He asked me what strength reading glasses I used, and like a durn fool, I told him. I also said that they were for threading needles, not for reading, but I didn't jump up and down on it. I may need to use my old glasses for reading the computer. 25 March 2010 I was going to go to the opticians for a frame-tilting this morning, but it's raining -- and after wearing my new specs for a while this morning (my eyes got so sore that I changed back after writing yesterday's entry), I suspect that most of the "tilted" sensation comes because one lens changed a lot more than the other. I still think I want my right earpiece raised a tad, but I think I should wait until the ear gets sore so that we can tell where and how much. And I do need my old glasses for the computer. Read a couple of Analog stories with the new ones this morning, though. I just wandered around the house a bit in my old glasses; I wonder how long it will take me to get into the habit of changing before I stand up? Hmm -- I haven't tried the new lenses for reading the O.E.D. yet. Now I have. No improvement, but I learned -- or re- learned -- a better way to hold the paperweight-shaped magnifier that lets me see a whole line. I went knee-hose hunting on the way back from the optician yesterday. Nothing but sheer at J.C. Penney, hose that might do at Elder Berman, but $15? And the sizes were given in height and weight. Height is correlated with foot size, but not all that close! I declined to gamble. Then I stopped at Payless Shoes: what's this? Opaque, beige, plain at the toe, marked with shoe sizes, and only $2/pair. Upon seeing that it was $5/three pairs, I also bought black and brown. Which is fortunate, because after being stretched to fit, the beige aren't all that opaque. Better than what I've been wearing, but you can still see the veins on my feet. And, by the way, when I paid for the socks, the clerk asked for my telephone number. That's outrageous for a cash transaction, but I was surprised, and I'd been showing my data to all sorts of medical people that week, so I whipped my calling-card sewing kit out of my wallet and showed it to her before thinking. A bunch of other stuff came out of the pocket with it, including a pig-tail holder. I think we had a very good banner session yesterday. Even though the original plan didn't pan out, I think we are going to make deadline easily. Martha had been working overtime, and brought a fairly-polished design, ready to trace, and all the appropriate colors of cloth, so at end of work we had letters traced, ironed on, and cut out, and a great deal of other work finished. When in one of the dollar stores on Tuesday, I learned a name for non-rubber spatulas: silicone spatula. But they aren't all silicone. I ran the cultivator around in the garden yesterday, but a good deal of work needs to be done before I can plant the potato and onion sets. I ain't going out into the rain to do it today! I monitor the right-hand raised flower bed to see how the strawberries are doing, but there is nothing planted in the left-hand raised flower bed, and there were fallen leaves all over it, so it wasn't until last Tuesday that I noticed that there are tulips coming up all over it. Last summer I dug the dirt out of that bed and put it back through a screen, just to get rid of the tulips. And these aren't wee little one-leaf sprouts such as might be sent up by a bulb that could pass through hardware cloth; they are full-sized tulip plants that might well bloom. All I can think of is that there were some bulbs buried so deep that digging down two feet didn't disturb them. If you want a start of really-persistent tulips, let me know. I'd been hoping to stay overtime at Handwork Circle Tuesday, and have my new white jeans to wear to Banner Making yesterday, but I started feeling tired again when there were five eyes and two hooks still to go, so I went home. The baby gowns have had rather low priority ever since I Googled around and discovered that one can buy them for a hundred dollars a dozen. Be a good teaching project, if any church members ever want to learn how to sew. 27 March 2010 Right now I'm putting off going out into the cold to plant potatoes and onions. It's already six degrees warmer than it was at breakfast, and the sun is out. I haven't the foggiest idea what I did with yesterday. I did go to Optical One, where a very pleasant and competent woman made my frames feel *much* better -- I'm still fiddling with them, but I'm seeing straight, and it's more being aware of them than uncomfortable -- the old ones feel pretty much the same way now that I'm beginning to get used to the new ones. If I haven't settled in by Monday, I'll go back for another tweak. But Optical One is a very short trip now that I know the way; about the same distance as Owen's, I'd say. And I got prompt service and was completely out of other errands to run while I was out that way. When dressing, I took my pigtail holder off, reflected that I should pull my shirts over my head before combing my hair -- and laid my glasses beside the pigtail holder. I did remember Maple Leaf Farms yesterday, and the weather was lovely, but I didn't feel like going. I've been out of toothpaste for days. Baking soda isn't all it's cracked up to be. Better when you don't mix it with salt. Still haven't been to Lowery's. But pins was all I needed there, so there hasn't been much motivation. 29 March 2010 I have Al's affection at the moment, despite having chased him off my chair three times. Dave moved the box he used to keep by the window and parked the old TV set in its place (He just bought a new HDTV), Al jumped off the desk onto the TV, hit the slanting part at the back, fell to the floor scrabbling wildly, and left Dave's room shaking the dust from his paws. He nested in the box of linen on the ironing board until Dave called me to help him slide the box over the television. (There were a lot of data cables involved, since the telephone box, the connection to the outdoor antenna, and the connection to my room are all in that corner.) I came back to find him on my chair again, chased him off and resumed typing, then realized that *first* I should re-pack the linen box and put it away -- discovered in the process that I have more scraps of the "oakwood" slacks than I thought I had, so patching them should go to the top of my to-do list, since it's getting to the season to wear linen- cotton slacks. So now he's decided that it's just too active in here, but hasn't returned to Dave. Maybe there's a good show on squirrelevision. Washday. I put the blacks and whites together and still didn't have a full load. 31 March 2010 Also had a load of bleachables. Brought the tablecloth and pillowcases in after sunset, slightly damp so I took the pillowcases off the line onto the drying rack and then carried the drying rack in. Left the towels on the line and didn't remember them until the following afternoon, but it didn't rain or blow. This morning, I saw a squirrel searching the raised bed, and wondered whether he knew anything about the mystery tulips. Dave quite sensibly asked where a squirrel would find tulip bulbs that weren't already buried. I also found a tulip in the garden, and moved it to the lily-of-the-valley bed. I have decided that I can't wear my computer glasses until after supper; this should stop me from slowing my adaptation to the new glasses by wandering around in the old ones. I thought that making reading the screen uncomfortable would also stop me from frittering away the whole morning at the computer, but it's 11:07 already. I forgot that touch typists don't need to see the screen. Did finish my new russia-drill slacks yesterday, then put them on and went up to the church parlor to check them out in the full-length mirror. The look very like the old ones. I may have to embroider more eyes and move one of each pair of hooks; the waistband adjusts loose enough, but with only half an inch to spare. On the other hand, canvas tends to stretch with use. I ain't never, ever gonna use canvas to make a waistband again. Net even real cannabis canvas. It did have one advantage: once one has forced the needle through, it leaves a hole that you can feel for, so it's comparatively easy to place the stitches precisely. And some time or another, just because I thought it was cute, I bought a heavy-duty thimble designed for just such a job. 1 April 2010 I've got a pot on the outdoor fireplace. I decided to boil the strips I tore off the roll of muslin to make casings on the After-Easter-What banners even though they will never be washed, and while I'm at it, I might as well boil all the muslin scraps from which I'll cut patch liners for my oakwood pants, just to be safe, and that much fabric called for using the enamel canner, which is pretty big to boil on the stove, and hey isn't it well past time I started cleaning up all those sticks? The sticks I want to get rid of don't want to come out of the woodpile, and once out, they stoutly resist going into the fireplace. We got one banner finished yesterday, all but the hem on top to put the stick through. I'm seriously considering taking my sewing machine to banner-making next Wednesday, even though it would mean that I can't have my walk -- I can drag it in the cart, but I don't want to bounce it that much. Soda isn't as bad for brushing teeth now that I put some in a spice jar, and have more control over how much I use. But I've really, really got to get around to going to Zale's. I'm trying it with just a little salt; that may work better than mixing salt and soda in my hand. The potato sets are in the garden, but not covered because I want to use compost for that, and haven't bought any. Mem: stop at Ace on way to Zale's. Haven't a single onion out, save those that I used to fill out the garlic row last fall. But I've dug out some of the catnip that's where the onions belong and moved out by the windmill pad. They say "If you set it, the cats will get it" but so far (knock wood) it's unmolested. I proofread this wearing my new specs. Can't reach the keyboard if I move back far enough to see through the main lenses, but I'm sticking to the rule: no computer glasses before supper. Except that I walked around in them most of the morning, having forgotten to switch back before going back to bed at six, and put my specs on by feel when I got up at half-past nine. The pot is hot, but not boiling. The fire should be steadier now that I have several big pieces in it, so it may boil, and I suppose hot for a long time will be as good as boiled, We've still got lots of sticks we want to get rid of.