Taken last night in my office at my school's Open House. I'd picked up the new glasses that afternoon while on a break. After an 11-hour day, I was exhausted, and looked it. But I like the glasses!
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
End of summer wrap up
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Breaking news...
Joe Biden is a good and decent man and will be right up there with Jimmy Carter when I think of the best presidents of my lifetime. This is another example of him attempting to put the good of the country ahead of his own personal ambitions. We owe him our gratitude and respect. I hope with all my heart that this was the right decision.
Now it's time to go to work.
Friday, July 19, 2024
Dress code
I got a summons for jury duty this week. For those of you outside the US, that means that I'll have to show up in court on the appointed day and I may or may not get selected to sit on a jury. I really hope I'm not chosen; the school year will just be getting started and I don't want to have to miss several days (at least) of work. We'll see.
So anyway, when I opened the summons, this sheet of paper fell out. Apparently the fine citizens of Florence county have to be told explicitly what is not appropriate attire for court.
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
And now, this
I just read a breaking news alert that President Biden has just tested positive for Covid.
It's terrible news. I hope he's okay. And I'm really interested in the reaction of the Trump fans on hearing this news. Let's see how long their "how dare you wish harm on a POTUS" lasts...
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Thoughts on this past weekend (edited)
What a weekend we just had, huh?
Sunday, July 14, 2024
When the World Goes Mad
when the world
goes mad
become wildly kind
to everyone
everyone
everyone
everyone
my love,
~ you can’t control
much
but you control how
you treat others
in these breaking news
heartbreaking times
when nothing feels
certain
let your raw kindness
be a certainty
allow your compassion
to become a North Star
stamped up in
the sky for
others to follow
back home
~ john roedel
(art by Jungsuk Lee)
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
It always comes in threes
It's been quite the week in this house. Let me tell you how my time off has gone so far:
We decided to repaint the bathroom, since we both had grown to dislike the coral color we painted it last year. The weekend was spent matching color swatches to the tile, picking out the paint, gathering (and purchasing) supplies, and finally, a lot of careful prep work. We sanded walls, taped corners/edges/windowpanes, and covered everything in plastic drape cloths. Last time we didn't prepare carefully enough, and it showed. We were determined to do a better job this time! On Monday morning, all the preparation was finally done, so we started applying the first coat (primer) to the walls. An hour or so into said application, I started to drip sweat. I had an uneasy feeling....and went to check the thermostat.
The air conditioning had quit working. Horror (mostly on my part) ensued.
All work on the bathroom came to a screeching halt. I called around until I found an HVAC repair service that could come out in two days, on Wednesday. The office person I spoke to assured me that if a technician had an opening sooner than that, they'd call. Of course I told her we'd take what we could get, especially with the holiday coming up.
So.....we had no air conditioning. In South Carolina. In July. Add to the fun the fact that the entire main bathroom (our only source of a bath or shower!) was draped in sheets of plastic and tape. It looked like one of Dexter's kill rooms.
Y'all. I nearly cried.
But the fun didn't end there, oh no! After setting up fans around the house and opening windows, we sat down to watch some tv for the distraction. As soon as we turned it on, there was a weird flash, and the screen went dark.
For no apparent reason, the tv had just up and died! We couldn't believe it. There's something else we'll end up replacing sooner or later. *
That was Monday. We were fortunate in that Monday night the low temperature was lower than it had been in weeks...67 degrees. It could have been so much worse. Then we got lucky again and early yesterday morning the HVAC place called and said they had a technician who was free to come by before lunch. Hooray! It ended up being a relatively simple repair, and our unit is still under warranty for defective parts, so for less than $200 we had a/c again. And had only been without for 24 hours. What a relief!
Well, back to business, right? We finished the coat of primer in the bathroom and were waiting for it to dry...when we noticed water seeping out around the toilet. A lot of water. It was immediately obvious that we were going to have to find a plumber. F*ck!
At least this time I wasn't too worried. We have another half bathroom we can use, so there's that. But it was sure aggravating after everything else that had happened.
A plumber came out this morning. It was a really, really simple fix and ended up taking the guy maybe 10 minutes. It was also very cheap, something I've never had the privilege of saying about a plumbing repair before. Again, it could have been so much worse.
Moving on.......
Last night we stayed up until after midnight, painting. It's all done now save for a few minor touch ups, and today after the plumber left it was dry enough that I could finally take a long, hot shower. We're really pleased with how the paint job turned out, too.
Tonight I'm grateful for a working air conditioner, a non-leaking toilet, and a finished home improvement project.