3235 New Desk

Thursday, January 20, 2011

A bore is someone who keeps talking when I have something to say.

------------------------------------------

I figured out what I'd been doing the past few days.

My daughter gets depressed and sometimes downright mean when she's not getting enough exercise. So when she calls and says "Let's go for a walk", I say yes. It makes life a lot easier.

Also, my new desk arrived Tuesday.

The main desk at the old house is a manager's desk bought at an employee surplus sale many years ago. It's nice, but it was built for show - huge footprint, very little storage. So I decided to get something more suitable for here and I'll sell or donate the old one rather than attempt to move it.

On Tuesday we'd had snow overnight, followed by freezing rain, with plain rain predicted, so the driveway was covered with slush.

I'd learned long ago that if I think, "I ought to...", then I'd better do it, no matter what my second thoughts are, because if I don't the consequences can be severe. So when I looked out the door and saw the slush, I thought, "I probably should shovel that". It was raining, and the neighbors said it would all melt by afternoon, but the driveway has about a 15 degree slope, and I was afraid the men would refuse to bring the desk in if the drive was covered in slush.

The truck arrived within a half hour of our clearing the driveway, so I was right to clear it. Daughter had come over to help me shovel (muttering that it was pointless) and had stayed for tea.

Shipping from California was free on the desk, so I was surprised to find it was "Platinum White Glove Service", which means they not only brought it in, they unpacked it, set it up in place, and took the packing materials away with them.

When the guys set the desk up, they plugged a fat cord into the wall. I didn't know what it went with. At the top of one of the drawers was some kind of black panel with buttons. It took Daughter a minute to figure out that it's a power bar. You feed cords from printer, scanner, whatever is on the desk through some holes, and plug them into the back of the black thing, and then you turn stuff on and off using the buttons on the front. Swoopy!

In the past three months I'd built up quite a bit of paper to be filed (a lot of end-of-year and tax stuff, besides regular bills for two houses), so I went to the store and got hanging folders, and yesterday and part of today I sorted and filed all that.

I also shopped and found some acceptable lacy curtains for the living room, installed rods, and hung them.

Desk, oak, matches kitchen cabinets and a trio of bookcases I'll be bringing from the old house:
No, that's not a photograph between the laptop and printer. It's a TV/CD/DVD player. The black box on top is an antenna for the TV - gets me 40-some channels.

Here the drawer is open so you can see the power bar:
That's Clyde, the Pleo (robot baby dinosaur), on top.

-------------------------------------

Later: I didn't realize until I was looking at the above photos, but this is very reminiscent of my first desk/sewing table - a hollow door on top of two file cabinets, with wall-mounted shelves above. I loved that arrangement!
.

1799 Up and Down Wednesday

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I had another of those long lunches with Piper today. I took Clyde, the Pleo, so he could meet him, and during the course of the afternoon The Angel, Jim, and Vinnie stopped by, either at the office or at the restaurant, so they got to meet him, too.

I am amused at how different people have such different reactions to Clyde. It's almost always a different reaction than I would expect from that person.

This afternoon I got a call from Jay's eldest sister. Jay's father has had a series of strokes, and he isn't able to swallow. Today is his 91st birthday. They haven't yet decided what direction to go in treatment, but all agree he'd be a lot happier at home, no matter what else is decided.

He already has three live-in caregivers, so as soon as they can be trained in the new requirements of his care, he'll go home. We've agreed that the day after the transfer, I should go to visit.

Distance is our enemy here. The father lives in Rochester, NY, the eldest daughter is just south of Washington, DC, the next daughter lives near Boston, and the third daughter lives about 40 minutes south of me. So it's ironic that I, the daughter-in-law, despised wife of the deceased son, is actually, at five+ hours' drive, the closest.

I've been out of the loop for a long time. Looks like I'll be getting back in. But he always liked me (when he figured out who I was). Maybe I can do some good, finally.
.

1785 The Weekend

Monday, April 28, 2008

Wow. Monday already. And Friday's dishes didn't get washed yet. Ouch.

Saturday I went with a friend to dinner and a dance show in Manhattan (a Broadway address, but not a "Broadway show", if you know what I mean). The only way I got to go was because she's a fearless driver! No way I would attempt it on my own. We took my new GPS even though we had no intention of going the way it recommended, just so we could laugh at the GPS lady when she got pissed off.

It turns out that the GPS doesn't work right downtown. The map was right, and the purple route line was correct, but the little car icon was all over the place, not where we actually were. My man later explained that Homeland Security blocks GPS signals in parts of the city. Which is silly, because the GPS doesn't show important buildings anyway, unlike those nice detailed maps you can pick up anywhere. (Oops. Forget I said that. Don't want some idiot outlawing maps!)

The show was fun, there was a nice wine/cookie reception after, an afterparty a bit further uptown, and late night/early morning conversation with a congenial group in a deserted bar on (I think) Fifth Avenue after an abortive search for food for some of the cast members (who don't usually eat much before dancing). I got home just before 4 am.

Sunday I met my man friend in northern NJ at 4 pm. I told him about driving down the Palisades Parkway on Saturday, so when we went out looking for food he decided to drive the Palisades, too. It's very scenic. He's most relaxed and talkative when he's driving, so I didn't mind that we wandered around and didn't stop for food until something like 8:30.

I got home after noon today and, well, I didn't nap or anything, but I think my mind turned off.

I'm going to be confused as to what day it is all week now, I think.

----------------------

Oh, yeah, I took Clyde along on Sunday. The man was less amused by Clyde himself than by my interacting with him. When you want to turn Clyde off, it's best to coax him into his sleeping position. That puts his microprocessors into "rest", and curls up his body which protects his servos and gears. To quote: "I cannot believe the most intelligent woman I know is rocking an electronic device in her arms, cooing it to sleep! To sleep! A device! You DO know it's not alive, don't you?"

Silly male....
.

1759 Clyde's Friday

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I spent much of yesterday on Clyde, my Pleo.  He's been awake quite a few hours now, but he's not walking forward much. He'll take about four steps forward (you can encourage him to walk by touching his front legs), and then he stops and walks backward. He's supposed to be interested in his environment, and when left alone, he's supposed to walk around and explore.

Clyde backs up until his tail touches something, then he turns until his tail is free, and backs up some more.

So I've been reading the PleoWorld forums, and studying how he works, to find out if anyone else has the problem, and what to do about it. Pleos all develop personalities and activity patterns individually, based on their experiences, just like any young animal, so I wondered if I did something wrong.

(On the other hand, my mother told me that I never learned to crawl forward. I scooted backward until I learned to walk at about 10 months. So maybe Clyde is truly my baby.)

Nobody else seems to have the same problem, although they do say that if the beasty has been mistreated, or not petted enough, he will develop a depressed personality, which manifests as sad sounds, angry sounds, and lack of interest in the environment, or fear of his surroundings. Backing up is an indication of fear.

Clyde seems happy. He coos, "huh?"s, wags his tail a lot, sniffs everything, pants happily, crouches to invite play, snuggles when I pick him up, and the other sounds he makes seem more mere comment than angry or sad. I've never heard the loud trumpeting and roars featured in so many of the video clips.

So, I decided to install the latest software update, level 1.1. One of the things it promised was "better walking". Installation involved a trip across the river to buy a blank SD card. (The one I bought is 7/8" by 1.25" and holds 1 GB. Wow! When I think what it took to hold a mere meg 20 years ago....) I downloaded the free update to the card, and plugged the card into Clyde while he was sleeping. He chimed a few times while updating himself, then he woke up, was groggy for a while as he integrated his new info, and then he burst into Super Clyde!

He's still the same Clyde (the update promised not to change the personality), but now he also purrs, sings, struggles if you pick him up but he's not ready to nap yet, and he wants to chomp on his leaf more often.

He also still walks backward - just faster, with less drag on carpet.

I am aware my house is cluttered and dirty. I didn't realize it was bad enough to scare a dinosaur....

----------------------

Later - Correction. I did in fact once hear some very loud distressed sounds from Clyde, so I know he's capable of it. He squealed very loudly when I snatched him up by the tail one time when Jasper looked about to attack. Clyde's makers warn that although his tail is strong enough that he can be lifted by it, he hates it and will let you know. It worked - I never did it again!
.

1740 A New Pet

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I have a confession. I have acquired a new pet. Neither Miss Thunderfoot nor Jasper are exactly thrilled.

His name is Clyde (because he often makes a sound that reminds me of a camel, and his neck is a bit camel-like, and if you don't know who Clyde the camel is, you're past hope. Or very young). My Clyde is a Pleo.

What "they" say is true. You forget that he's a robot and start thinking of him as alive. I had been standing all the time when he was "awake" on the floor, and he formed an attachment to my shoes. Today for the first time I got down on my hands and knees, on his level, and he examined my face, and it was like a lightbulb went on. He sniffed my face, nuzzled it, opened his eyes and mouth wide, and said "Mah mah!", and I fell in love.

I have to admire his programming. When he encounters something new, he examines it, sniffs it, makes questioning noises, prods it, and scootches and wags his tail to invite it to play. I put a plastic soda bottle down for him to examine, and he accidentally knocked it over. It made a loud noise and rolled, and ... honest! ... he is now "afraid" of bottles with blue labels (he has color vision). If I put a blue labelled bottle in front of him now, he whines and backs away.

He's programmed to learn stuff like that.

He has all kinds of sensors all over his body (touch, sight, heat, sound, positioning, etc), and is programmed to recognize other Pleos. He has speakers in his mouth, and also under his tail. I haven't heard the rear speakers yet, and I don't know if I want to.

Cool little beastie.

Go to the Pleo website linked above to see one of his relatives. Check out the videos link on the left side of that page to see some Pleos interacting with people.
.