Category: Life

Courtesy of Davis Community Library in Bethesda, Maryland

I apparently never forget the location of a library. I may not even remember where all the roads go, but I seem to be able to find libraries I used to patronise by remote control. Davis Community Library is a medium sized branch of the Montgomery Country Library system. And when I asked if there was any way I could use the computers even though I am no longer a patron, the librarian pulled a stash of cards kept for that reason out of drawer.

Thursday’s airline connections were perfect. On Wednesday we decided to bail after waiting in the Colorado Springs terminal for almost four hours. We discovered that our plane was suffering from mechanical difficulties and the mechanic wasn’t on site yet. Our bags were sent on ahead Wednesday while we arranged to take an 8:30 am flight Thursday morning. (Somewhat miraculously, our bags were actually sitting in the airline luggage office when we got to Baltimore-Washinton International.)

We had arranged to stay with friends who live in Silver Spring, and were there by 7:00 pm, exactly on time according to the revised plan. They had arranged for some other old friends to come by the house, and prepared a very good dinner. We were up fairly late except it wasn’t late for me since I am still on Colorado time.

Jack is off with one of his siblings at the ATT Golf Tournament (hosted by Tiger Woods.) I am driving the PT Cruiser that we rented at the airport, and trying not to get too lost. I do best when I don’t try to overthink where I am going. Things have changed a lot in the past 17 years when we left, and a lot of landmarks have been obscured by more recent buildings. I’ve already performed my solitary pilgrimage to G Street Fabrics, and had a nice lunch at Madeleine’s Bakery and Cafe. The Quiche Lorraine was only okay, but the cup of Tomato Basil soup was to die for.

Tonight we are going to a meeting of the Washington Science Fiction Association of which Jack and I were members for many years. I don’t know how many people we will still know, except for some of the people we already saw last night.

Tomorrow we head for Bethany Beach. The forecasters say the temperatures will be 100F by Monday, so I will be glad to be at the beach by then. It hasn’t been too hot so far, but the humidity is very draining when one is used to the relative dryness of Colorado.

I Hate Flying

Right now, I am sitting in the Colorado Springs Airport using free wireless on Jack’s computer. That is the good news. The bad news is that our flight has been delayed and we may or may not make our original connecting flight. We may not get into BWI until 1:20 am tomorrow morning. Tell me, why do people still fly?

Chicken Sitter

In five decades, I have done some odd things for friendship, but yesterday did one of the oddest. As I was shutting down to leave the office, a friend called and said she needed a pet sitter. She had to go to the doctor herself and then had a vet appointment for her chicken Cassie too soon afterward to go home and get her. Since temperatures are in the nineties here in the Springs, she was afraid to leave Cassie in the car while she was in the doctor’s office, even with the windows open. So after leaving work, I drove to the doctor’s office, and met my friend. We found a shady spot in the parking lot, and I put Cassie (who was in a crate) outside next to the bole of the tree. I was pleased to see Cassie evidently inspecting her surroundings alertly, a lot less upset by the situation than I would have expected. She didn’t look like a sick chicken to me, but my friend said she hadn’t been eating normally.

My friend wasn’t in the office for very long, and was soon ready to take Cassie to the vet. (Evidently, finding a vet who treats chickens was a challenge in itself.) The vet examined Cassie, decided she was treatable, and prescribed an anti-biotic and Pepto-Bismol for an inflamed crop.

Good News

I’ve had more good news to add to being offered a job this week and meeting an old friend for the first time.

The young woman leasing Hap took him to a two-phase (dressage and cross country) and took sixth!  Considering she is still in the process of figuring out how to put Hap (who isn’t easy) on the bit their dressage scores weren’t great, but they evidently cleaned up on cross-country.  She has been working very hard with Hap, and I am glad to hear that they evidently had a blast on the cross-country course.  This was particularly admirable because she had never schooled Hap over these jumps.

I had a great lesson on Lily this morning with my trainer.  We have a dressage arena set up temporarily, so I worked on practice tests.  She seemed to enjoy the change from our regular routine.  Then I went out and found a comfortable swim suit, which was far more surprising then Lily’s excellence on the flat. 

And finally, in connection with the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Denver next year, I found out something this afternoon which pleased me very much.  I don’t feel I should mention it yet, but I am so chuffed.

Not Posting As Much for a While

I received a part-time job offer on Tuesday morning.  I started this morning.  I will be the office manager for the Colorado Springs branch of a consulting firm.  The professionals in the office are billing every hour they are in the office, and there is no one to do the overhead tasks that most offices require.  The location is downtown Colorado Springs, which is 30 minutes from home when there is no traffic, and much more when there is traffic.  However, with half-days, I will be able to avoid rush hour traffic at least one way.

Let There Be Light

Tuesday morning, about 8:15, we lost power due to a severe spring snow storm. Without electricity, our only working appliance was the gas range. We have a five gallon cooler that we keep filled with reasonably fresh water year round, so we had water we could heat and give to the dogs. The temperatures never fell significantly below freezing, so we didn’t have to worry about the pipes freezing. However, I was very happy at 10:10 pm last night when the bedside light woke me and I heard the hot water heater and furnace start. I got up for a while and puttered around, starting the dish washer, turning off lights and heating rice packs to warm the bed. I was practically purring to have electrical power after 36 hours without it.

Mountain View Electrical Coop generally does a great job on restoring power after storms. In our fifteen years in this neighborhood, this is the first outage that lasted more than four to six hours. I am just glad we don’t live near Calhan, an area to the east of us. I saw a report that they lost 200 utility poles, and may not get their power back until Saturday.