That was nice

The bed is much firmer, and it's going to take getting used to. It took about twenty minutes before I fell asleep. One of my friends called but the phone was buried in the covers and I didn't hear. I'm thinking this will be much better for my back.

Got the program installed; now I'm considering trying out the bed

Note to self: cut off that excess string along the side purple border, and now that I can get around, dust and straighten up my bedroom furniture. :) I'm going to take my book with me, curl up on the bed, try it out, and maybe listen to some soft music, too.

What a busy day

I:

1. Took out the trash and recyclables I worked on last night.
2. Dressed up and actually wore makeup today.
3. Worked.
4. Got my box springs. The delivery guys were great. They brought it in, set it up, and then helped me put the dust ruffle on the foundation before putting the mattress on top. I hadn't been offered the haul-away by the clerk, and so they weren't authorised to take the old one away, but they did take it to the area of the complex where large items for the trash pickup are placed without charge. They rocked! Go Sears!
5. Paid my February rent a little early.
6. Purchased Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 through our work programme which is $9.95.
7. Bought two euro pillows to complete the bedding experience (the shams came with the bedding set I got from Gabriel Brothers a week or two ago. So did the dust ruffle, which hadn't been on the box springs because the springs of the old one would have torn it up, so it was cool that the guy asked if I had a dust ruffle to put on. I'd totally forgotten. I used one of the $5 gift cards I got when I went to Sears the other day to get some money off the pillows.
8. Made the bed. Remember how I had to borrow pillows to prop myself up when I was out with my broken ankle? Now I have pillows aplenty.
9. Picked up my contacts.
10. Filled the car up with gas. The price jumped, no doubt due to the snow forecasted. I was getting to about 1/4 of a tank, which isn't good considering how very cold it's supposed to get, so I stopped at Speedway and got some.
11. Fought my way through more rush-hour traffic than I usually go through. I took back ways but even so, there were about three instances where other drivers were just being crazy. I had to go from the hospital to Fayette Mall, then to Woodhill Plaza, then down Richmond Road home. Granted, I could have waited to get the pillows or even the contacts for that matter, but I had the time.

So, I'm home now and getting something to eat. I'm going to download the Office suite and install it. And I'm definitely trying out that bed sometime soon, maybe listen to some music. It feels much firmer, judging by the couple of moments I sat on it earlier. The foundation is much higher than the old one, which was squishy and kind of 'fell' in the middle. Now everything is nicely supported and it's all higher. I took a couple of pictures of the bed all made and happy. It's amazing how finally getting something you've needed for a good long time can feel great.

Something I read while waiting for the box springs to arrive

Bring back shushing librarians: Library users plead for quiet places to read, write and study — but is anybody listening?

Librarians hate to be depicted as bun- and glasses-wearing shushers, hellbent on silencing any and all noisy activities within their sacred domain. Fair enough: Librarians are highly skilled, well-educated and socially aware as a rule, and should not be reduced to a cultural stereotype ranking only a notch or two above a church lady on the hipness scale.

Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be said for that shushing. I’ve long believed that one of the most precious resources libraries offer their patrons is simple quiet. Alas, for too long I’ve been forced to confine this sentiment to bar-stool rants because for all I knew I was being hopelessly retrograde. Libraries are constantly talking up the new — and often clamorous — services and activities they have added or plan to add in order to “better serve a diverse community” (and by extension, justify their continued funding in the eyes of public officials who like to appear forward-thinking). But take heart, seekers of serenity, for now we have data!

Thanks to Tasha Saecker ‏(@tashrow) on Twitter for sharing.

Still praying this will work out

Alabama bunker suspect faced court date, neighbors say

Investigators have communicated with the suspect through a length of PVC pipe that extends out of the bunker. They've sent down coloring books and crayons for the child, state Rep. Steve Clouse said. They've also sent prescription medicine for the boy, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said.

The boy's family is "holding on by a thread," Clouse said. They do not know Dykes, according to Clouse, who has been speaking with the family. Investigators are still communicating with the suspect and "have no reason to believe that the child has been harmed," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said Wednesday evening.

"Pray, pray," Olson told reporters.

Tense Negotiations in Alabama Kidnapping

A man with a history of violent behavior and a 5-year-old boy he abducted from a school bus on Tuesday remained holed up in the man’s homemade underground bunker in rural Alabama on Thursday morning.

The negotiations, described as tense and delicate, began Tuesday afternoon, when local law enforcement officials, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and SWAT teams surrounded the bunker off a dirt road in Midland City, a small town in southern Alabama peanut country, near the Florida and Georgia borders.

I have gotten quite a bit done, although not as much as I would like

So much bending has my back hurting, so I'm taking a break. The bedroom is in good shape; I've done pretty well with the bathroom, living area, and dining area. The kitchen's still a mess; I need to run a load of dishes and do some hand washables as well. I have one bag of trash and seven bags of recyclables plus several cardboard boxes that need to go (all the time I was laid up, I had one hamper of recyclables that went out--otherwise they've piled up). (They're not huge bags, but it's still a lot.)

I've been following a news story all day, and apparently it still hasn't been resolved. It is very scary. I hope things will work out so the little boy is saved and the gunman can never menace anyone again. I'm amazed he was free and still had guns after some of the stuff he has been doing: Suspected Alabama gunman holed up with boy in bunker after school bus shooting

A gunman holed up in a bunker with a 6-year-old hostage kept law officers at bay Wednesday in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away, authorities said.

SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman's rural property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener's safe release.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

The standoff along a red dirt road began on Tuesday afternoon, after a gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the small town of Midland City, population 2,300. Sheriff Wally Olson said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 6-year-old child. The gunman then took the kindergartener away.

"As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a church pastor who helped comfort the traumatized children after the attack.

This is really inspiring and touching

On January 28, 1986, NASA Challenger mission STS-51-L ended in tragedy when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. On board was physicist Ronald E. McNair, who was the second African American to enter space. But first, he was a kid with big dreams in Lake City, South Carolina.

This is a great video. Please watch it. A librarian figures prominently in it, although not perhaps in the best light. Thanks to Vanessa Irvin Morris for sharing this on Facebook.

I'm home, have some music going,and have eaten dinner

So the next step is try to bring some order to the house. I did get a phone call about the delivery tomorrow--it will be between 10:15 am and 12:15 pm. So I'll go in to work like normal, come home, and then hopefully they'll deliver the box springs. Wish me luck!

I got an e-mail from Microsoft the other day

Telling me to activate my Windows Media Center (the program that is necessary to watch TV or DVDs on your computer) for Windows 8 with my key before the deadline of January 31st. This appears to be a mass mailing to remind people that of the deadline to activate the free keys that were given out to those running Windows 8 during the promotional period. I've already activated mine, but didn't remember if I had or not, and the instructions in the mailing don't work for doing so, at least if you have already. So if you come across it, and have activated your Windows Media Center, feel free to ignore the e-mail. You can type 'activation' in the Search box on Windows 8, choose Windows Activation, and if it is already activated, it will tell you that Windows 8 with Media Center is activated. Hope that helps some people out there.

PS I've also got an offer through our workplace and Microsoft to get Office 2013 Professional Plus for $9.95, much like I did with Office 10. So I'll probably go ahead and do that, too.

Best laid plans

So YKWIA really wanted me to come over and fix some food for him, because he's still feeling puny and didn't feel up to cooking. Guilt was applied gently. I can't help it, I fall for that, even though I know there's no reason I should. But I knew he wasn't feeling well and didn't want him to not do well just because I wanted some 'me' time. So I went over about 8 pm and helped out, but didn't stay for dinner because I'd already eaten and it was about 11 pm by then. I came in, hooked up the DVR/VCR (after rooting around in my closet for some RCA cables to hook it up through the cable box and RF modulator), tested it with a DVD (The Princess Bride and a VHS tape (Chicken Run), and generally determined I had it hooked up right and it would play both ways. I'll work on figuring out the recording aspect later. It goes from the cable box to the DVR/VCR, to the RF modulator and then the TV. I still have to change the cables at the RF modulator if I want to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime videos on the TV.

Right after I got that hooked up, I thought I'd blog and YKWIA called to tell me he really appreciated me coming over. I did enjoy doing the cooking, and I'm learning a lot, but it makes me very tired, because it involves a lot of standing, even though I can chop sitting down, etc. I really need to take my kitchen mat with me next time, although his dog may well try to eat it with me standing on it.

So tomorrow I'll have to work on the house. The bedroom is now a mess because I had to move things to get to the cables in the closet. Sigh. If I can just put some music on tomorrow and work for maybe three or so hours, I think I could get the dishes done, get the recylables out, put things away, and maybe vacuum. We'll see. For now, it's after midnight and I think it would be good to go ahead and head on to bed. If you're in the area, be careful in tomorrow's morning commute. It's supposed to be a lot of straight-line wind and heavy rain. Good night.