The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the end of your own arm.
-- Fred Dehner --
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Back on 5/7 I said I had several days to catch up on, and then I didn't. Let's test my memory.
Aborted trips
Week before last, 5/9, I went upriver to the old house with plans to bring some boxes and smaller furniture down. Traffic was heavy because of roadwork and the trip took three hours. I got there at 11 pm, desperate for the bathroom, and that's when I discovered I had forgotten to bring the house key. It's countryside and small village. Everything is closed by 9 PM. The nearest public bathroom is 10 miles away across the river.
I shrugged and piddled on the driveway in the light of the van door. I always wanted to do that....
Then I drove to the Wal-Mart and bought a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a nightgown, and got a room at a little motel near the Throughway. It's the cheapest motel in the area, at $67 a night, but I had read very good reviews a few months ago. It turned out to be simple, basic, in good repair, very clean, and remarkably quiet considering its proximity to the Throughway. The next morning I drove back home.
That was depressing. I now have a note on my front door listing all the things NOT to forget when I head upriver.
Last week, 5/15, I planned to try again. Tuesday afternoon I took a load of cardboard and paper to the recycle center (yeah, we have twice a month pickup, but I'm rarely home on those days). It began raining while I was unloading the van, and I noticed what looked like oil floating on the water running from under Fred. He's now 10 years old, and he does sometimes spring leaks. I planned to drive him upriver that evening. It didn't seem like a good idea until I found out what was leaking, but ... I couldn't put the trip off because I had arranged to have the old house furnace serviced the next day, Wednesday. Rescheduling (again!) is difficult.
So I drove the BMW north. Hal, the one with the tiny leather back seat and the tiny trunk. I wasn't able to bring back anything but one armload of clothes and two small boxes.
Another disappointing trip.
Since then I've had an amazing amount of energy. I've assembled the Nugget's birthday wagon (steel Radio Flyer with all-terrain wheels and wood guard rails, whoop whoop!). She loves riding in it, but it requires two adults, one to pull and one to walk alongside to make sure she doesn't try to climb out. We've gone for a few walks with it. I assembled a bunch of Ikea bookcases (they had a sale). I cleaned, washed dishes (the dishwasher in the new house died on its 18-month birthday), sorted shoes, changed sheets, did some laundry, and pulled together a bunch of stuff to donate. Today, when her mother wasn't looking, I taught the Nugget how to drink from a hose.
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More cheap books!
Amazon has a "Kindle Daily Deal", providing one heavily discounted book on a daily basis. It's at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kin_post_os_08242011_DailyDeal?&docId=1000677541. You can subscribe to daily notices on the right of that screen. You may have to change your Amazon account email notices to accept Kindle subscriptions.
I seems to take about two days to kick in, but then you get an email every morning with the day's bargain. I've got only two notices so far, and neither were books I was interested in, so I can't comment on the quality of the offerings.
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Why polls are bullpoopy
This one was on the radio during my drive upriver last week. Somebody polled random people in the Albany area about fracking.
Approve = 37%
Oppose = 36%
No opinion = 27%
Have heard about fracking = 66%
Do the math. 7% of the people had an opinion on a topic they admit they'd never heard of. (I was surprised that the news reader didn't remark on the discrepancy.)
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Major dose of tender adoration
Orangutan mother with six-week-old infant. Kisses and coochey-coos.
[http://youtu.be/nastRZIPRKM]
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