830 Tuesday and Wednesday

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

[Edit - fixed the date.]

I missed a post yesterday, and now I don't remember what I did all day. I know I was busy - I had a "to do" list, all prioritized and numbered and everything, and I did everything on the list and then threw it away. Now all I can remember is the bank and the fuel oil. Oh, and the post office. And the pharmacy. And the insurance.

If you ever get annoyed at my lists of "what I did today", well, this is why I do it - because I don't always remember on my own.

I had received the forms to sign up for xxx gallons of fuel oil for the winter at a reduced price. You had to specify how much oil you wanted, but according to my records, I used only 250 gallons last winter. Last winter was very mild. I had prepaid for 400, so I had some credit, maybe 150 gallons at last year's low price. To complicate matters, they had two different prices - the lower price if you intended to pay up front, and a higher price to pay monthly. I gave up trying to figure it all out, and went to the fuel oil office. The nice guy there looked up my credit, and - this I don't understand - when I said I'd prepay, he said he'd give me a better price, and I'm getting next winter's oil for something like 40 cents a gallon less than their lowest advertised price. So that was a profitable trip.

I may have mentioned that there's a guy from one of the online dating sites who lives 99 miles away. Far far beyond my acceptable zone. He's also too tall, at 6'. But for some reason, I find him fascinating, and didn't reject him right off (it's beginning too look like all the good ones are too far away). He is articulate and erudite (his retirement business is an online bookstore), and I like the way his mind works. He'll take something I said in an email, and sort of spin it around, so we're looking at it sideways. My ultraslow connection and I have spent some time on email.

Talked with Roman on the phone last night. We are to have dinner Thursday. He gave me some things to bring up with the minivan service people. I was wondering if maybe there was gunk in the fuel line, but he said that's unlikely. Given the "when"s of the stalling, he thinks it's probably just that it's idling too slowly. You'd think they'd have checked that, but ... nobody really does vehicular diagnosis any more. Can't count on their having checked anything.

It's 99 degrees outside right now, and 88 degrees in here. I probably ought to give the PC a break, before it melts.