Whew!

It’s been a weird day. I mostly did some things around the house, ate, and played a bubble shooter game on my phone without much success of getting through level 23 (it’s based off of Disney Pixar’s movie Inside Out). A had called me earlier today and explained that the snow ploughs had not made it to his street but that he was about to go out and do some shoveling. I asked him to give me an update later. About 2 pm he called and said the plough had been through, everything looked good, and he’d shoveled the walks and driveway for me. They were almost out of coffee, and we’re getting temperatures around 0 degrees tonight and tomorrow morning, so I figured conditions would just worsen, so I went out and spent a half-hour digging out my car with a broom and a dustpan. Yes, really. I do need to invest in a snow shovel, after never needing any for years. But last year we had over 10 inches in each of two storms two weeks apart, and this time, while the official measure was over 9 inches, A and I each have about 10 or 11, as our parts of town got more snow. Add the drifting from the wind and it could go up to three feet in places.

After digging out where I could (and I’m counting that as exercise for my Habitica application), and only falling down once into a drift onto my butt, I managed to get out of my parking place, and then there was a moving truck taking up most of the space near the curve to the exit from the parking lot, so I had to go through the snowier area. I got stuck on my street, which never gets ploughed as far as I can tell, but shifting into reverse and then into first and second gear (which I’ve never done using an automatic) and got out and down the road. The next street and the one after that wasn’t bad, just narrower. Once I got to Man O’War, things were just wet, except for slush where people pulled out of other streets here and there. None of the right turn lanes had been ploughed, though, so we were having to turn from the right straight lane instead. I went down Man O’War and then another road that I knew was a snow route just to be okay, not the normal back way I go. Then I got to their street, which was pretty decent, and into the driveway. A and I went and got a few groceries for each of us, stopped by Jin Jin and got Chinese food, and then I headed home, as I wanted to get back by dark and the sun was already low on the horizon. I got home shortly before 6 pm, managed to make it back into the very same parking place I’d been in, after negotiating my street again.

I came in and one of my floor lamps (the newest, which I got three years ago), was leaning awfully badly, so I tried fiddling with it, and it totally came apart and broke, much to my frustration. I decided to walk away from the lamp and eat my kung pao tofu and spring rolls and calm down a bit. When I went back it was obvious that it was broken and not merely unscrewed, and that it was designed somewhat poorly. I salvaged the heavy glass shades off of the torchiere piece and the two reading lamps, and I’ll get rid of the rest when I take things to the dumpster, then look for another one that is similar. It means the living room is a bit dark, having only the original floor lamp over by the computer, and nothing will come on when I flip the switch next to the door, but I’ll eventually get another, maybe when I get my tax refund and have a little money to spend. Who am I kidding, that will all go to bills, I’m sure. :)

So now that I have released the lamp to the Great Beyond and I’ve eaten, I feel better. There are plenty of things to do tonight, but my back and neck are hurting somewhat from wrestling with the lamp (the base was very heavy, and the whole thing was nestled in a spot in the corner behind the couch, which reclined while I was trying to line up the base with the pole and screw it back together. I probably needed two people to even get as far as I could, but in the end, the screw would not pop up to where the pole could be screwed in, and plastic parts, beyond the metal pieces that were giving me fits, just crumbled, especially up in the light. Fortunately I didn’t break any of the shades (I did break one once before when the lamp fell over, and had to replace the two small shades with something similar). In retrospect, the lamp has never truly been completely vertical at 90 degrees to the floor since then, so it probably was on its way out for some time and I managed to keep it going for awhile by leaning it against the wall and putting it between other objects. Oh, well.

To be honest, I think I’m going to lie down for just a little while and then maybe watch something on DVD. Or read. I don’t know yet. I did do a little reading last night, but the book was terrible in terms of grammar so I returned it. It purported to be a history of Rome, but it was very cursory at best, treating the entire period from the founding of Rome to Augustus Caesar in few pages, and I had doubts of it getting any better. Plus, it focussed on battles rather than much of (in my opinion) the more interesting history of Rome, the social and political aspects. Anyway, considering I’ve taken graduate classes where I had to learn the history of the Republic and the Empire pretty thoroughly, this seemed inadequate, more like a listing of kings and emperors. I already had to memorise the entire list of Roman Emperors, I don’t need another listing. What I wanted was a nice overview to jog my memories on certain aspects of Roman history, and was disappointed. The download included another book on the history of Aegypt and one on the history of Greece, but I decided to not even try those.

Okay, the bedroom and perhaps getting comfy with a book (or a Kindle) is calling me. Oh, and probably I’ll just fall asleep for awhile anyway. :)

I unfortunately broke something this morning

It's not terrible, but I woke up this morning with glass on my bed. There is a floor lamp that stands by the bed that has an upward-facing torchiere and two side reading lights, all with glass lampshades. Apparently I thrashed around in my bed while sleeping and must have hooked the lamp, which fell on the bed, breaking one of the side lampshades. So I unplugged it and decided after picking up the glass not to try to unscrew the shade, as I was running slightly behind this morning and I was afraid that if I hurried I might nick myself with the remainder of the shade.

Fast forward to tonight, now that I'm home from watching 'The 100', and I managed to unscrew the one that isn't broken with no trouble so that I can take it to the store and find something similar. The broken one was really on there, but I finally managed to get it off. Now the glass pieces are thrown away and the light bulbs are back in and both, oddly enough, are working. Strange that it should break falling on the mattress but not hurting the bulb itself. Oh, well.

Tonight I visited for awhile and then we watched the show, which really has kept my attention and I'm interested in what is happening next, as opposed to its predecessor, 'The Tomorrow People', which has been cancelled. In all fairness, I was biased against the latter from the beginning because it was loosely based on a beloved British show from my childhood, and never captured my love for the original. 'The 100' has different plots and subplots going through it, as well as the necessary-for-the-CW love triangle and some angst thrown in. Plus, the grounder guy Octavia is so into, Lincoln, is hot. :)

What I forgot to do tonight was call my mom to confirm that I'm coming down to Danville tomorrow to visit my family. I'll call her first thing in the morning. I've got to get some gas before I leave and do a few minor things, so I'll probably get there about mid-morning.

So now I'm sitting on the bed, under the light, with the fan oscillating back and forth and my phone charging. It's been a good day, although very busy. I really worked hard to get caught up on everything I needed to before I left at work. Also, it's almost time for the Medical Library Association meeting, so I was fielding inquiries for some Hospital Libraries Section business (I'm chair of the membership committee). Between that and work, I kept on my toes. My optometrist's office called, too, saying that while they found my records, the contacts they were going to prescribe and which I'm trying now do not come in the prescription for my right eye, so they wanted me to come by and pick up a different pair to try, which I did. I also went the library and picked up an interlibrary loan.

Okay, I'm going to go do a few things before bed. Good night.