And another thing!
Dec. 12th, 2025 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennlkLast night, I ushered a really good concert at Hill Auditorium. Wow! was the general audience response. Well, except for the people who left early because it was "too loud". Um, it was Brahms, and *not* the lullaby. It is loud, and brash, and intense. And wonderfully performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. There was a moment of unintended levity, when the violin soloist broke a string! There was a slight break while she went backstage to restring her violin and the conductor filled in with a bit of conversation. Then she came back, and the ensemble re-started the measure before the string broke.
My earworm for the week, Livingston concert on Sunday and Brahms yesterday notwithstanding, is from Randol Bass' arrangement of the Night Before Christmas (the best narrated version I found -- other videos are either overwrought or the guy sounds like he's reading a poem, not speaking in rhythm).
And in a partial failure of my plans, I failed to buy dried apricots last week when I was at the grocer, so I have to do that today on my way home from rehearsal. Because I can't not make apricot bread. Some of the other things I can skip, but not that.... So today is laundry and start packing, although I can do some of that around the baking tomorrow. Maybe I'll sort the living room while things are baking....
(edit for grammar. why I didn't catch it when I proofread, I dunno.)
My earworm for the week, Livingston concert on Sunday and Brahms yesterday notwithstanding, is from Randol Bass' arrangement of the Night Before Christmas (the best narrated version I found -- other videos are either overwrought or the guy sounds like he's reading a poem, not speaking in rhythm).
And in a partial failure of my plans, I failed to buy dried apricots last week when I was at the grocer, so I have to do that today on my way home from rehearsal. Because I can't not make apricot bread. Some of the other things I can skip, but not that.... So today is laundry and start packing, although I can do some of that around the baking tomorrow. Maybe I'll sort the living room while things are baking....
(edit for grammar. why I didn't catch it when I proofread, I dunno.)
Latest stuff
Dec. 12th, 2025 11:33 amjohnridleyI've made good progress on cleaning my room. Heck I can walk through it without stepping over stuff.
I'm also keeping up the pace on scanning old negatives and slides, and tossing them into a box for disposal when they're scanned. There's quite a heap over there in the corner but I'll get through it eventually. I have plans to rearrange slightly when that space is available.
We're going to NC next week. There's a slight urge to bring a small telescope, but honestly I won't have a chance to use it even if I did have it with me so there's not much point. We will be busy the whole time I'm sure. Maybe binoculars...
I chose South Lyon again as the Tuba Christmas event to go to, but when I got there, it was cancelled due to building issues. So an hour driving the truck for no reason.
Yesterday I redid the salt level sensor I built for the water softener a couple of years back. It has been working but not reliably - it stops reporting every day or three at random and needs to be reset, which kind of defeats the purpose. I didn't change the design or parts or anything, I just re-imaged with a 3 year newer version of ESPHome, and I hope that bugs have been fixed such that it doesn't have those problems anymore. Only time will tell.
The weather the last few days has been not the best. It snowed a bunch (maybe 6 inches?) then warmed up to 35, the snow turned to sticky gunk, then it rained but not enough to clear the snow, then it froze hard. In the middle there we tried to clear the snow. That did lead to the rain freezing to a hard cover, but at least it has a chance of clearing in the driveway next time there's good sun or above freezing weather. I find that if the driveway and the road in front of our house is good, I can safely ride a motorcycle, other than a few places where they have gravel parking lots (share house for instance) - they will still be icy.
I went to the gym yesterday and did not do so well. In hindsight I guess it could be because of the platelet donation the previous day, but it also could be that it had been 4 or 5 days since the last upper body day. I need to not take that long of a break. I dropped back to 4 days a week in the gym on the recommendation of the app I'm using, partly because December is busy enough that shooting for 5 days a week is difficult some weeks, but I'm planning to go back to 5 days when we get back from NC.
I got my old/experimental 3D printer back on its feet. It's still not printing quite as well as the Creality right out of the box but I'm getting it better. The last thing I did was to have it re-home the Z axis after warmup - if it homed cold then heated up, the print bed was too high and the head was dragging on the bed. Apparently the bed swells enough during heating to make a significant difference, because adding that final Z home just before printing fixed that issue.
I'm also in the process of trying to clean up the video and stuff on my storage devices. I'm recoding the archival copies of full runs of TV shows and stuff into x.265 - it saves space, sometimes a lot of space - I've seen 2GB video files go down to 500MB and still look about as good.
I'm currently powering through DS9 - I haven't seen all the shows, probably about half across the whole run, maybe less. First season was all re-watches but it's been so long that I needed it. I'm also behind on Strange New Worlds and Discovery. Discovery I honestly don't like all that much, and I'm afraid I'm in the "I think I'm just going to forget this series ever happened" camp to some extent. Or treat it as a non-canon type thing.
I'm also keeping up the pace on scanning old negatives and slides, and tossing them into a box for disposal when they're scanned. There's quite a heap over there in the corner but I'll get through it eventually. I have plans to rearrange slightly when that space is available.
We're going to NC next week. There's a slight urge to bring a small telescope, but honestly I won't have a chance to use it even if I did have it with me so there's not much point. We will be busy the whole time I'm sure. Maybe binoculars...
I chose South Lyon again as the Tuba Christmas event to go to, but when I got there, it was cancelled due to building issues. So an hour driving the truck for no reason.
Yesterday I redid the salt level sensor I built for the water softener a couple of years back. It has been working but not reliably - it stops reporting every day or three at random and needs to be reset, which kind of defeats the purpose. I didn't change the design or parts or anything, I just re-imaged with a 3 year newer version of ESPHome, and I hope that bugs have been fixed such that it doesn't have those problems anymore. Only time will tell.
The weather the last few days has been not the best. It snowed a bunch (maybe 6 inches?) then warmed up to 35, the snow turned to sticky gunk, then it rained but not enough to clear the snow, then it froze hard. In the middle there we tried to clear the snow. That did lead to the rain freezing to a hard cover, but at least it has a chance of clearing in the driveway next time there's good sun or above freezing weather. I find that if the driveway and the road in front of our house is good, I can safely ride a motorcycle, other than a few places where they have gravel parking lots (share house for instance) - they will still be icy.
I went to the gym yesterday and did not do so well. In hindsight I guess it could be because of the platelet donation the previous day, but it also could be that it had been 4 or 5 days since the last upper body day. I need to not take that long of a break. I dropped back to 4 days a week in the gym on the recommendation of the app I'm using, partly because December is busy enough that shooting for 5 days a week is difficult some weeks, but I'm planning to go back to 5 days when we get back from NC.
I got my old/experimental 3D printer back on its feet. It's still not printing quite as well as the Creality right out of the box but I'm getting it better. The last thing I did was to have it re-home the Z axis after warmup - if it homed cold then heated up, the print bed was too high and the head was dragging on the bed. Apparently the bed swells enough during heating to make a significant difference, because adding that final Z home just before printing fixed that issue.
I'm also in the process of trying to clean up the video and stuff on my storage devices. I'm recoding the archival copies of full runs of TV shows and stuff into x.265 - it saves space, sometimes a lot of space - I've seen 2GB video files go down to 500MB and still look about as good.
I'm currently powering through DS9 - I haven't seen all the shows, probably about half across the whole run, maybe less. First season was all re-watches but it's been so long that I needed it. I'm also behind on Strange New Worlds and Discovery. Discovery I honestly don't like all that much, and I'm afraid I'm in the "I think I'm just going to forget this series ever happened" camp to some extent. Or treat it as a non-canon type thing.
Dimensions
Dec. 11th, 2025 10:19 pmbillroperToday was the big Dimensions concert over at Maine West with the combined band, orchestra, and choirs putting together a complex musical performance. With Julie graduating at the semester, this was the last music event at the school that she'll be participating in, so I wanted to make sure to see it. (Gretchen's bad knees kept her at home.)
It was fun. The kids did a great job and it was a good way to go out.
And listening to live music is good for me. :)
It was fun. The kids did a great job and it was a good way to go out.
And listening to live music is good for me. :)
Halfway through the pre-holiday schedule....
Dec. 11th, 2025 03:12 pmjennlkor, What *was* I thinking?
Sunday's Livingston concert went pretty well, I thought. I needed at least one more rehearsal to be really comfortable with my part, but that's what happens when I switch parts 3 rehearsals in. The director took the mambo piece a little bit slower than the "speed run" we did at the last rehearsal, and it went OK.
Perhaps as a carryover from the LCCB concert, I flailed through the first bits of Farmington's rehearsal, but I got it together before we'd finished the first piece. (Later in the rehearsal, we ran a piece that most of us are familiar with, so we're not buried in the sheet music, and DC likes to really work the tempo and dynamics. He did, and the band was following him, and when we finished it, he paused, started to speak a couple of times, then took a deep breath and said "next piece". There was really nothing he felt necessary to fix, or even bring to our attention. Those are rare. I hope we play it that well in concert....)
Tuesday I wrangled the election reimbursement form, and sent it off to the Election Director at the County. Then I had to send her the pdf with all the timesheets/invoices/expense claims that I'd forgotten to attach. Then I came home and tracked down another copy of a receipt -- I got reimbursed for it, so I turned it in to Expenses, but somehow it's no longer attached to that expense sheet. But it was at Staples, and I was signed in to my account....
Wednesday I shoveled heavy wet snow off the top of the driveway before it froze into a slippery mess. (Driveway is still slippery, but at least it's not bumpy _and_ slippery!) This morning, I traipsed off to a County Clerk lunch meeting and did errands on the way home. (I was in Ypsi, stupid to come home today and drive back tomorrow.)
Stage rehearsal for Farmington tomorrow night, and concert on Sunday. Tomorrow and Saturday, I bake, do last minute errands (cat food!) and laundry, and pack, because bright and early Monday we leave for NC. (I really like to be through Charleston WV by the time rush hour starts, partly because if I do that we're out of the mountains before it gets dark.)
Sunday's Livingston concert went pretty well, I thought. I needed at least one more rehearsal to be really comfortable with my part, but that's what happens when I switch parts 3 rehearsals in. The director took the mambo piece a little bit slower than the "speed run" we did at the last rehearsal, and it went OK.
Perhaps as a carryover from the LCCB concert, I flailed through the first bits of Farmington's rehearsal, but I got it together before we'd finished the first piece. (Later in the rehearsal, we ran a piece that most of us are familiar with, so we're not buried in the sheet music, and DC likes to really work the tempo and dynamics. He did, and the band was following him, and when we finished it, he paused, started to speak a couple of times, then took a deep breath and said "next piece". There was really nothing he felt necessary to fix, or even bring to our attention. Those are rare. I hope we play it that well in concert....)
Tuesday I wrangled the election reimbursement form, and sent it off to the Election Director at the County. Then I had to send her the pdf with all the timesheets/invoices/expense claims that I'd forgotten to attach. Then I came home and tracked down another copy of a receipt -- I got reimbursed for it, so I turned it in to Expenses, but somehow it's no longer attached to that expense sheet. But it was at Staples, and I was signed in to my account....
Wednesday I shoveled heavy wet snow off the top of the driveway before it froze into a slippery mess. (Driveway is still slippery, but at least it's not bumpy _and_ slippery!) This morning, I traipsed off to a County Clerk lunch meeting and did errands on the way home. (I was in Ypsi, stupid to come home today and drive back tomorrow.)
Stage rehearsal for Farmington tomorrow night, and concert on Sunday. Tomorrow and Saturday, I bake, do last minute errands (cat food!) and laundry, and pack, because bright and early Monday we leave for NC. (I really like to be through Charleston WV by the time rush hour starts, partly because if I do that we're out of the mountains before it gets dark.)
Efficiency Expert
Dec. 10th, 2025 09:23 pmbillroperI am going through some code, cleaning up old constructs before a major release that's coming up. This takes me into some interesting places.
Today, I realized that there is a whole species of things that can be simplified by cutting out a lot of intervening code that is building unnecessary objects and doing unneeded lookups. I've patched a couple of places and will continue looking at the problem tomorrow.
Some of the fun, of course, is that we've moved up to Java 8 since this code was originally written which opens up all *sorts* of possibilities for playing with Java Streams. The amount of things that you can now do with one (longish) line of code is really impressive. :)
Today, I realized that there is a whole species of things that can be simplified by cutting out a lot of intervening code that is building unnecessary objects and doing unneeded lookups. I've patched a couple of places and will continue looking at the problem tomorrow.
Some of the fun, of course, is that we've moved up to Java 8 since this code was originally written which opens up all *sorts* of possibilities for playing with Java Streams. The amount of things that you can now do with one (longish) line of code is really impressive. :)
Catching Up
Dec. 9th, 2025 09:56 pmbillroperI am gradually catching up on things, both at home and at work.
The problem is that as I catch up on one thing, another thing comes careening down the track.
The good news is that we went out to dinner with friends tonight and had some good conversation. And the chance to talk to someone who is not one of my coworkers is a fine thing!
The problem is that as I catch up on one thing, another thing comes careening down the track.
The good news is that we went out to dinner with friends tonight and had some good conversation. And the chance to talk to someone who is not one of my coworkers is a fine thing!
Nothing Serious
Dec. 8th, 2025 09:26 pmbillroperThere are serious things that I could post about today and honestly, I just don't feel like it.
I'll just say that Calvin the Dog seems to be healing up nicely after last week's surgery. Ruby is not sure this is a good thing.
Of course, Ruby is far from certain that *Calvin* is a good thing...
I'll just say that Calvin the Dog seems to be healing up nicely after last week's surgery. Ruby is not sure this is a good thing.
Of course, Ruby is far from certain that *Calvin* is a good thing...
One Thing at a Time
Dec. 7th, 2025 08:53 pmbillroperThere are just limits to what you can get done in a weekend, especially when you have two dogs who are anxious to compete for your time. I appear to be Calvin's "safe person" and when he is threatened by Ruby, he will hop up on top of me in my chair looking for protection. This annoys Ruby, because Calvin is now hogging her person. (This is not to say that the dogs do not love the other people in the house -- I just appear to be the household alpha.)
The Christmas tree did not get straightened up in its stand today, because that's a three person job really and I was not going to get that level of cooperation. But one of the tubs of Christmas decorations has gone back to the basement and most of the decorations are actually up which is a good thing.
The driveway was also shoveled by Julie and me in various shifts. Julie does not quite realize that the apron is part of the driveway, but I have explained this to her and hope to have better luck next time. Gretchen suggested that I should fire up the snowblower, which probably would have been the best idea if I already had gas and was sure that I had the appropriate snowblower oil *and* had an empty gasoline container. Maybe before the *next* major snow. Today's was about five inches, which is definitely a depth where the snowblower becomes worthwhile.
I bought more plugins and software upgrades while they are on sale. Now I just need to *do* something with them...
And I cleaned off the top of the bookcase in my bedroom, putting the stuff that had accumulated there away for its safety. I'll need to remember where I put it when I need it. That's the tricky part. :)
Tomorrow, it's back to work and I have a *lot* of things to do. Happily, I updated the password that was going to expire today when I logged in *yesterday*...
The Christmas tree did not get straightened up in its stand today, because that's a three person job really and I was not going to get that level of cooperation. But one of the tubs of Christmas decorations has gone back to the basement and most of the decorations are actually up which is a good thing.
The driveway was also shoveled by Julie and me in various shifts. Julie does not quite realize that the apron is part of the driveway, but I have explained this to her and hope to have better luck next time. Gretchen suggested that I should fire up the snowblower, which probably would have been the best idea if I already had gas and was sure that I had the appropriate snowblower oil *and* had an empty gasoline container. Maybe before the *next* major snow. Today's was about five inches, which is definitely a depth where the snowblower becomes worthwhile.
I bought more plugins and software upgrades while they are on sale. Now I just need to *do* something with them...
And I cleaned off the top of the bookcase in my bedroom, putting the stuff that had accumulated there away for its safety. I'll need to remember where I put it when I need it. That's the tricky part. :)
Tomorrow, it's back to work and I have a *lot* of things to do. Happily, I updated the password that was going to expire today when I logged in *yesterday*...
Reading now includes Listening for me
Dec. 7th, 2025 06:34 amalicebentleyMy love affair with reading books started early, helped along no small bit by enthusiastic parents with a hodgepodge but large collection of books. The actual -amount- of books I read has varied wildly, impacted by work, activities, inclinations and supply.
I was reading very few books during the last handful of years of my bookstore, for instance. Just too busy/tired. And for a span of time after that, as if I'd lost the knack.
In previous decades acquiring a book always meant a paper copy to me. I'd nab the occasional ebook when that was extra convenient, but I really love the whole experience of holding a book, turning the pages, enjoying all the design choices the publisher makes to bring them into being. But as we all know, that leads to having thousands of books to provide habitat for, or potentially (shudder) move. So over the last half-dozen years I've been making a concerted effort to buy ebook variants, and gift or sell a bunch of the paper ones.
It's not the same experience, but it's easier on my aging eyes (thank you backlights and adjustable text sizes) and storage issues are much reduced.
A couple years ago my process at work changed. My day was filled with assembling models, sometimes ones I'd already done many times. The perfect environment to have an audiobook on headphones - especially if it's an audio version of a book I'd already read and didn't need to be completely immersed.
The books that really swayed me to this was Murderbot. I had already bought and read each of Martha Well's books as they came out, usually with a re-read of all the previous ones once a new one arrived. Kevin R. Free's audiobook was an unexpected delight, bringing me a way to revisit this favorite story while giving me a new view of the characters and events. And while still getting good work done!
After that I started binging audiobooks quite as badly as I've ever tucked into paper - and it's past time I wrote up more of these experiences. That's my big plan for more DreamWidth posting and I hope I will hold to it.
I was reading very few books during the last handful of years of my bookstore, for instance. Just too busy/tired. And for a span of time after that, as if I'd lost the knack.
In previous decades acquiring a book always meant a paper copy to me. I'd nab the occasional ebook when that was extra convenient, but I really love the whole experience of holding a book, turning the pages, enjoying all the design choices the publisher makes to bring them into being. But as we all know, that leads to having thousands of books to provide habitat for, or potentially (shudder) move. So over the last half-dozen years I've been making a concerted effort to buy ebook variants, and gift or sell a bunch of the paper ones.
It's not the same experience, but it's easier on my aging eyes (thank you backlights and adjustable text sizes) and storage issues are much reduced.
A couple years ago my process at work changed. My day was filled with assembling models, sometimes ones I'd already done many times. The perfect environment to have an audiobook on headphones - especially if it's an audio version of a book I'd already read and didn't need to be completely immersed.
The books that really swayed me to this was Murderbot. I had already bought and read each of Martha Well's books as they came out, usually with a re-read of all the previous ones once a new one arrived. Kevin R. Free's audiobook was an unexpected delight, bringing me a way to revisit this favorite story while giving me a new view of the characters and events. And while still getting good work done!
After that I started binging audiobooks quite as badly as I've ever tucked into paper - and it's past time I wrote up more of these experiences. That's my big plan for more DreamWidth posting and I hope I will hold to it.
Doing the work
Dec. 7th, 2025 06:09 amalicebentleyI love the idea of what social media can do for me, and what I could bring to it. But actually putting in the time and thought to keep up my end of the bargain endlessly escapes me.
This week I had work news to share, that I'd enjoy talking over with friends, and realized once again that I haven't been making a space for that.
I'll post quips or photos on FB, I doomscroll on Bluesky, and I enjoy the creative insanity that rumbles through Tumblr. But each of them has only a scant handful of friends I can expect to interact with.
The same is true here on DreamWidth of course. And I've been even worse than elsewhere on posting, or commenting, or sometimes even opening the page to read.
I've tried before, but I'm going to try again and make this a place where I post more, and reach out more. I'm even going to start rambling about all the terrible wonderful books I've been reading.
This week I had work news to share, that I'd enjoy talking over with friends, and realized once again that I haven't been making a space for that.
I'll post quips or photos on FB, I doomscroll on Bluesky, and I enjoy the creative insanity that rumbles through Tumblr. But each of them has only a scant handful of friends I can expect to interact with.
The same is true here on DreamWidth of course. And I've been even worse than elsewhere on posting, or commenting, or sometimes even opening the page to read.
I've tried before, but I'm going to try again and make this a place where I post more, and reach out more. I'm even going to start rambling about all the terrible wonderful books I've been reading.
Healing Puppy
Dec. 6th, 2025 09:10 pmbillroperCalvin the Dog seems to be healing up well after his surgery, so that's good. He's also leaving the area alone, so we are dispensing with the Cone of Shame. Today, Gretchen put his new larger harness on him, which we are hoping will make him happier, because he had pretty much outgrown the previous one.
In different news, I updated the website today, so everything there is up to date. This is much easier when you're doing it one song at a time. :)
In different news, I updated the website today, so everything there is up to date. This is much easier when you're doing it one song at a time. :)
Guitars, Mr. Rico!
Dec. 5th, 2025 10:43 pmbillroperI headed down to Tobias Music for their holiday Taylor Tone Show, where many Taylor guitars were compared. It was a lot of fun and I picked up a few new bits of knowledge that I hadn't had before. Mind you, I carefully didn't play any guitars this trip, because no guitars are currently allowed to follow me home. :)
My Taylor 710ce-l9 limited edition short-scale is still on consignment there and can be seen on their website. If you're looking for a standard Taylor dreadnaught, it's a good deal...
My Taylor 710ce-l9 limited edition short-scale is still on consignment there and can be seen on their website. If you're looking for a standard Taylor dreadnaught, it's a good deal...
Workroom cleanup
Dec. 5th, 2025 12:33 amjohnridleyI'm doing a reorganization of my workroom.
I have been scanning old family film using Windows 11 running in VirtualBox for a couple of days (the scanner does work under Linux, but the Digital ICE dust removal mechanism is proprietary software that only works in Windows).
It was doing so well that I thought I'd try running Blue Iris (my security camera software) on it. This is the only thing I was still running on the separate Windows box. It runs 24/7, so it'd be nice to shut that off and save the power.
In the past I've struggled to keep B.I. running well on older machines (7th gen i5 or older). However this machine (12th gen i7) is enough of a beast that it runs the software under Windows+VirtualBox and only pulls 40% of one CPU core; almost negligible. Score. One fewer big box in the room, less wires and jumble.
As a bonus, I also got Blue Iris running properly as a Windows service, and learned how to start the VM on Linux boot, so the whole thing spins up seamlessly and the Windows GUI is hidden unless I need it. And I linked a directory on the big external drive to a shared folder and had BI store recording clips from the cameras there.
And now I don't have a KVM in circuit to one of my monitors. That monitor has been giving me trouble and I'm now pretty sure that it was the KVM causing the trouble, so that should be solved now as well.
In the past, I have gotten a few things running under WINE+Bottles, but since I have a few things that absolutely don't work properly under those, I had to have a Windows instance spun up anyway. I'd love to not run Windows at all but I suppose it's a necessary evil sometimes.
Removing that machine exposes the bottom couple of shelves on my stereo rack, making those shelves usable. I may have to redo the north built-in shelves to make them deep enough for LPs (currently built for CDs/DVDs, that would not take up any room (there's dead space behind at least the upper shelves there) and would eliminate a small free-standing cabinet.
I have been scanning old family film using Windows 11 running in VirtualBox for a couple of days (the scanner does work under Linux, but the Digital ICE dust removal mechanism is proprietary software that only works in Windows).
It was doing so well that I thought I'd try running Blue Iris (my security camera software) on it. This is the only thing I was still running on the separate Windows box. It runs 24/7, so it'd be nice to shut that off and save the power.
In the past I've struggled to keep B.I. running well on older machines (7th gen i5 or older). However this machine (12th gen i7) is enough of a beast that it runs the software under Windows+VirtualBox and only pulls 40% of one CPU core; almost negligible. Score. One fewer big box in the room, less wires and jumble.
As a bonus, I also got Blue Iris running properly as a Windows service, and learned how to start the VM on Linux boot, so the whole thing spins up seamlessly and the Windows GUI is hidden unless I need it. And I linked a directory on the big external drive to a shared folder and had BI store recording clips from the cameras there.
And now I don't have a KVM in circuit to one of my monitors. That monitor has been giving me trouble and I'm now pretty sure that it was the KVM causing the trouble, so that should be solved now as well.
In the past, I have gotten a few things running under WINE+Bottles, but since I have a few things that absolutely don't work properly under those, I had to have a Windows instance spun up anyway. I'd love to not run Windows at all but I suppose it's a necessary evil sometimes.
Removing that machine exposes the bottom couple of shelves on my stereo rack, making those shelves usable. I may have to redo the north built-in shelves to make them deep enough for LPs (currently built for CDs/DVDs, that would not take up any room (there's dead space behind at least the upper shelves there) and would eliminate a small free-standing cabinet.
Fixed
Dec. 4th, 2025 09:23 pmbillroperToday, Calvin the Dog was fixed.
Because the rescue group that we got him from was paying for the bulk of the expenses here (we paid for all of the add-ons, like bloodwork), they needed to find a vet who would work for a low enough fee. This meant that we drove out to Fox Lake, which is about an hour from home. Well, actually *I* drove out to Fox Lake in Gretchen's minivan with Calvin in his kennel in the rear. Calvin did not like this and proceeded to whine for most of the trip. Then I turned around and drove back for work.
Calvin was ready to go home in the afternoon. This time, Gretchen's schedule accommodated her coming along with me, so I put the kennel back in the house and drove back out to Fox Lake to pick Calvin up and bring him home, along with his Cone of Shame (TM).
Calvin is happy to be home, but not that thrilled with the Cone of Shame, which we take off when we're in a position to keep an eye on him. We are not in a position to keep an eye on him overnight, so back in the Cone of Shame the poor pup has gone!
I spent four hours driving around far northwest suburban Chicagoland today, which is just about enough time to drive to Muncie to pick up K.
But not enough to drive back too. :)
Because the rescue group that we got him from was paying for the bulk of the expenses here (we paid for all of the add-ons, like bloodwork), they needed to find a vet who would work for a low enough fee. This meant that we drove out to Fox Lake, which is about an hour from home. Well, actually *I* drove out to Fox Lake in Gretchen's minivan with Calvin in his kennel in the rear. Calvin did not like this and proceeded to whine for most of the trip. Then I turned around and drove back for work.
Calvin was ready to go home in the afternoon. This time, Gretchen's schedule accommodated her coming along with me, so I put the kennel back in the house and drove back out to Fox Lake to pick Calvin up and bring him home, along with his Cone of Shame (TM).
Calvin is happy to be home, but not that thrilled with the Cone of Shame, which we take off when we're in a position to keep an eye on him. We are not in a position to keep an eye on him overnight, so back in the Cone of Shame the poor pup has gone!
I spent four hours driving around far northwest suburban Chicagoland today, which is just about enough time to drive to Muncie to pick up K.
But not enough to drive back too. :)
Touch Me Tonight
Dec. 3rd, 2025 06:51 pmbillroperThis song started, like so many songs do, with the chorus arriving and demanding to be attached to the rest of the song. It just took a while to figure out exactly what the rest of the song was, along with getting the tune into some stable state. But once you get the first verse down, everything starts to make sense...
And it's in the key of G! The nice normal key of G. Pay no attention to that Em7 and Cadd9...
Anyway, I hope you like it!
( Lyrics inside )
And it's in the key of G! The nice normal key of G. Pay no attention to that Em7 and Cadd9...
Anyway, I hope you like it!
( Lyrics inside )
even more of the same...
Dec. 3rd, 2025 05:01 pmjennlknow with added snow and cold (gosh, you'd think it was December or something). Yesterday there was a large hawk hanging out in the trees in the backyard. The only other birds out there were the sandhill cranes, who just don't care about hawks. Even the neighbors' chickens were staying in their pen.
I was late to FCB rehearsal on Monday -- traffic came to a halt on 96E, a quarter of a mile past an exit. The wreck was at the next exit, 2+ miles down the road. 30 minutes later, I get to the scene of the crash, and all that's left is a sedan about a foot narrower than it should be, a flatbed tow truck, two fire trucks, four police cars, and about 30 feet of missing guardrail. Roads were clear and dry, so I dunno....
LCCB rehearsal went pretty well (good thing, because the concert is Sunday!). There is one passage where I'm not gonna try for all the notes. I'll go for the afterbeats that the other two are missing, and say "good enuf". The biggest issue with the mambo bass line now seems to be the tempo that the director wants to take it at.
Have nearly wrapped up the November election. Tomorrow, I'll track down the last bits of information I need to submit the reimbursement request, and then I think I'll be done with that. whee!
Sunday starts the busy slog into the holidays. Two concerts, two rehearsals, two work meetings, one concert to usher, two days worth of baking because the day after the FCB concert we are off to NC to spend most of a week with Mum. And two different performances at church. One will be fine, one will not. Probably.
I was late to FCB rehearsal on Monday -- traffic came to a halt on 96E, a quarter of a mile past an exit. The wreck was at the next exit, 2+ miles down the road. 30 minutes later, I get to the scene of the crash, and all that's left is a sedan about a foot narrower than it should be, a flatbed tow truck, two fire trucks, four police cars, and about 30 feet of missing guardrail. Roads were clear and dry, so I dunno....
LCCB rehearsal went pretty well (good thing, because the concert is Sunday!). There is one passage where I'm not gonna try for all the notes. I'll go for the afterbeats that the other two are missing, and say "good enuf". The biggest issue with the mambo bass line now seems to be the tempo that the director wants to take it at.
Have nearly wrapped up the November election. Tomorrow, I'll track down the last bits of information I need to submit the reimbursement request, and then I think I'll be done with that. whee!
Sunday starts the busy slog into the holidays. Two concerts, two rehearsals, two work meetings, one concert to usher, two days worth of baking because the day after the FCB concert we are off to NC to spend most of a week with Mum. And two different performances at church. One will be fine, one will not. Probably.
