Jim has been having some trouble with his foot recently and along with some other treatments his doctor also gave him a sample of Biofreeze. On the bottom of his foot, it provided some relief. On the top, however, he instead got a excruciatingly painful response with tightened skin and prominent veins.
I was curious about this since I’ve never seen a reaction like that and – in a show of solidarity – I suggested he put some on the top of my foot. Because I’m a bad-ass, also.
He was hesitant, but went ahead with the roll-on applicator.
Nothing. No reaction at all.
He then added some of the gel version – still nothing. It didn’t get hot or cold – maybe just a little cooler from evaporation.
We were both puzzled, but I put my sock and shoe back on and went on home.
Thundercat was interested in the smell of my shoe and since he likes to chew on shoe laces, I took my shoe off and was just in my sock feet.
That was a mistake.
The smell of the biofreeze was intensely fascinating to him and he kept licking and biting at my sock-covered foot. When I tried to get him to leave me alone, he lashed out at me with full-on claws.
After a couple hits, I sat on my foot on the couch to defend it. He keep walking past to check to see if I was vulnerable, but I stayed in defensive mode until I went to take my shower and wash it off.
We have a… strange relationship, my cat and I.
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Jim’s also been having trouble with his laptop and he called me last evening for some tech support. The screen had gone black, but he was still getting the pop-up calendar reminders. And there was a youtube video of a watercolor painting tutorial still playing somewhere – we could hear the audio only.
I suggested a couple of things – restarting, checking to see if it was in presentation mode, etc. – but no luck. We exhausted what I could suggest over the phone and he was going to have to call Apple support after he was done with his homework.
I finished up a project I was working on at home, then realized it was early enough to go over to his place and see if I could help in person.
I got there and he handed me the laptop. I sat down, opened the screen…
…And everything was fine. The wallpaper was up on the screen and we had files and program icons there as well. We had to switch desktops to see the log-in and that let him in. There was a note about an update having installed and I’m guessing it was in the middle of that when he started using it.
So, I “fixed” it literally by being in the room and touching it.
Skillz.
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I got contacted by the Maker Faire people for the event coming up in May. They had featured me in their Meet a Maker newsletter and a local reporter wanted to interview me. Super cool!
(note: that was Meet a Maker. Not Meet Your Maker. Which would be an entirely different kind of faire.)
I responded back right away and said I’d be happy to. Then the reporter found out I lived and worked in Akron – and their paper only covered certain counties. So, no interview for me.
I’m making progress on rebuilding the giant cube to make it more portable. 2/3 of the way down with the folding and then I’ll need to put them together. Slow going, but I’m getting there.