Thunder of Wade

One day last week, I was up late playing videos games.  Not that unusual, but I noticed that my furnace was still running.  It was late enough that it should have cycled down for the night and I went over to check it out.  The display on the programmable thermostat was dim and I could just barely see that the battery indicator was blinking.  The batteries were dead enough that it wasn’t keeping track anymore and the furnace would just run.

I swore, then proceeded to dismantle the thermostat to get at the batteries.  The cover was a flimsy piece of plastic that I almost broke, but I finally got to them.

AA

Now, I don’t have a stockpile of batteries in my house and I had a total of zero AA batteries.  I started scrounging around for some and realized that if I didn’t find any, I would either need to leave the furnace on all night (making it too hot) or off all night (way too cold in the morning).

I finally found a flashlight with the right size batteries and salvaged those.  I put the thermostat back together and set about programming it again.  Did a little more swearing and then got out the manual.

The configuration menu is activated by holding the back-light button for three seconds.  I never would have found that without the manual.  And would it have killed anyone to add a “setup” button?   Why is the trend for electronic devices to reduce the number of buttons to stupid levels?  I blame Apple for that.

Except for remote controls.  I’ve got three remotes and each has at least 2 dozen buttons that I never use.  Really?

The thermostat required pushing buttons or holding buttons in the correct sequence  – with a timer that would clear what I was doing if I wasn’t fast enough.  I finally got everything set up again and went to bed – knowing that I would have to replace the batteries again soon since they weren’t new.

So, the temp in my house is back to normal for now.

Hmmm… I wonder if I can transplant some buttons from my remote controls to the thermostat?

I went on a tour of homes this weekend that were decorated up for Christmas.  Or were supposed to be – only a couple of the places really went all out and the rest were just extra fancy.  In one case, it was fancy beyond functional – I can’t imagine the people that lived there actually “living” in a space like that. Overall it was pretty and I got some ideas on using glass blocks, but it wasn’t as holiday decorating focused as I expected.  And it didn’t suddenly inspire me to decorate my house or anything crazy like that.

Sometime last Thursday is the last time I have a clear recollection of where my checkbook was.  It’s normally either in my dining room with my bills tray or in my back pocket if I have to take it with me.  I’ve never had problem with it getting loose from my pocket – but the last time I remember it was taking it off the counter and putting it in my pocket.  And that’s it.

So, yesterday I went to the bank and transferred the money from my vulnerable checking account to a new one. I got a new checkbook and a new account number and we left some money behind in the old account to cover bills that had already gone out but not cleared.

From there I headed over to post office and then to the payroll office to get my direct deposit sorted out.

I checked my bank online last night and saw that the funds had been moved, but that the new account was not yet set up for me to view.  So, I’m a little hesitant to use my debit card until that is sorted out – I’ll check again here in a few.

Fortunately, I’m done with my Christmas shopping.  Unfortunately, I don’t keep a lot of food in the house.

So, I’m stressed about my stupid mistake.   And my Mom and I recently had a difference of opinion via email that ended with her saying we would talk more when she next saw me.  Not looking forward to that one.

The combination has me a little off my game and not really excited about the upcoming holidays.    On a brighter note, I finished mile #143 in the pool yesterday.   Seven miles to go before I reach my revised goal for the year.

Spent Thanksgiving with my family – had a pretty nice time.  The highlight of the trip was painting with my niece – we made place-mats for the thanksgiving table.  She really enjoyed the painting and it was a really neat bonding experience.

We didn’t do a lot over the  holiday, mostly just ate and played games.    Good to just relax for a bit.

As I was packing up my car to head home, I noticed that the key fob wasn’t working to open the trunk or the doors. I figured it was the battery in the fob and opened the door manually with the key – then noticed that the lights didn’t come on.  I tried the key in the ignition and it wouldn’t turn over.  Turns out I’d left an interior light on when I’d parked my car Wednesday evening and didn’t notice.

I got out the manual and my Dad and followed the strange instructions to jump the car – except that the horn sounded each time we tried it.   Finally got it started and let it run for a little while before shutting it down.  It had enough charge to get going when I left and fully charged on the way home.

I expected some traffic on the drive back, but not seeing three accidents – or almost being a part of 2 more.    There were two separate times when traffic in front of me went from 60 to 0.  I had enough room to safely get stopped by standing on the brakes, but the cars behind me had to swerve out into the shoulder to get stopped.  In both cases, traffic got moving again with no apparent cause – though now that I think about it I’m wondering if it was a reaction to deer.  A third time we all had to hit the brakes, but by this point we were all so gun-shy that everyone had plenty of room to get stopped.

I was glad to make it home and put my care safely in the garage.

Got some shopping to do – both online and in the real world.  Guess I’ll need to brave the crowds some evening this week (wish me and my patience good luck) – my family is celebrating Christmas early this year.

This past week I’ve gotten over 1,500 spam comments on my blog.  I, apparently, have been noticed by the spammers and I’m interesting enough to warrant a surge of traffic.  Which I guess is somewhat flattering and also deeply annoying.

I’ve been deleting them, but at one point they were coming in every few minutes.  Different posts, no real pattern – and nearly all are nonsensical.  There were a couple though that I had to actually read to see that they were junk – they were almost, but not quite, related to my the topic of the post.

The spam comments seem to have died off a bit, but if I get another surge it might be worth it to invest in some anti-spam tools for the blog.

In other blog news, my twitter feed came up with an error when I was trying to make my last post – and it froze the page.  I managed to get around it and run an update that fixed it, but for a while I thought my blog was broke.

Finally, in the past few weeks I’ve been getting very bad – but very short – headaches.  The pain hits me in the temple like an ice pick, quickly ramps up, and then fades out.  Of course, I suspect a voodoo doll, but I don’t know anyone with that kind of time on their hands or the inclination to do me harm.   I guess I should see a doctor about them, but they are so short in duration and relatively infrequent I don’t know if it’s worth the effort.  I’m planning a doctor visit after I turn 40 in January – maybe I’ll bring it up then.  The reason I mention it now is that I had one this evening.  Strange and annoying – much like the spam, I guess.

The street outside my house is narrow and unfortunately the small driveways and garages force my neighbors to frequently park on the street.  There is still enough room for two cars to pass each other – barely – but it’s close.  Most of the time one of the cars will temporarily pull to the side and yield the way until the opposing car is past.

This past weekend, I was coming home from some errands and was about a half a block from my house.   Another car was coming towards me and got way over – I figured I had enough room to get past the parked cars.

I didn’t.  Not quite anyway.  As I went past one of the cars I hear a “thunk” and realized I had hit a parked car.   I pulled into my driveway and checked my car.  The passenger side mirror was turned and I noted a small scratch as I rotated it back into position.

I went out and checked the car I had tagged.  The driver side mirror was rotated as well.  I rotated it back and noted a small scratch there as well – but it was an older car and I didn’t know if that was my doing or not.

I asked one of the neighborhood kids that was standing nearby if they knew who’s car this was and got a vague answer that it was someone that lived on the street.  Which is what I pretty much assumed.

So, I went back to my house and wrote a note explaining what had happened and my contact info – then took it back and left it under the windshield wiper.

A little while later I got a call from a woman who didn’t give her name but indicated she was my neighbor and had gotten my note.  She said she noticed a scratch on the car but said it wasn’t a new car and didn’t think it was a big deal – though she would have to talk to her husband.  I apologized again and we ended the call – though I wondered why she called me then if she needed her husband’s input on getting it repaired.     I haven’t heard back from them so I guess they aren’t going to pursue it.

I’m glad I left the note and even gladder that it wasn’t a big deal, but it makes me cranky – once again – at how fragile cars are.  I wasn’t going fast and the mirrors rotated as they are supposed to and still… damage.

So, lesson learned.

This past Friday, I headed down to visit my folks for my Mom’s birthday.  We went over to my sister’s on Saturday and got to hang out with her and my brother-in-law – and my two nieces.  The older is not quite 3 and she’s full of energy.  She talked up a storm and ran around the whole time we were there – when she wasn’t having Grandma or Grandpa read to her.   The younger is 3 months and is really adorable.  I got to hold her a few times and even managed to get her settled down a couple times when she was crying.

They also have an Xbox Kinect and we got to play that quite a bit after we got back from lunch at a mexican restaurant. We played dance games, adventure games and a few sports games.  I sweat through my shirt a couple times and had a lot of fun.  Mom said I did a good job with the dancing game, but I think she was just being nice.

The next day we were back over there for more cake and hanging out.  We played more of the Xbox and I managed to wear myself out again.    The drive home Sunday night was a little uncomfortable – stuck in a car after all that activity wasn’t a fun time.

On Monday, I was really sore, but it didn’t stop me from hitting the pool and getting in my laps.  I’m over  125 miles for the year and trying to figure out my new goal.

This morning I got up extra early and headed to the polling place to cast my vote.  I had all the info I needed – including the precinct number and my ID – and was ballot number four for my precinct.  I used my cheat sheet to quickly fill out my ballot and I was on my way.  No matter how things go, it’s still pretty awesome that we live in a country where we can determine our own leaders and cast a ballot without fear.   It’s also awesome that the political ads are done for a while – it kinda sucks being in a swing state.

I started growing a beard while on vacation and it eventually got out of hand.  And it made me look way older than I am.  So, I shaved it off in stages and took pictures.    There are a couple photos on my “human” page and a link to an animated gif of the transformation.

This year, I dressed up as a Chinese demon called an Oni.  Details on my costume page.  Photos on the new page for this year’s costume

It was trick or treat night in my neighborhood this past Saturday.  I joined up with some of my neighbors to pass out candy – and to demo my costume.    While my friends passed out candy, I freaked out the kids – and the parents – and the drivers of cars that went past.  Much to the amusement of my friends.

The weather was cold and there was a light drizzle in the air, so as much fun as it was to hand out the candy to the kids, it was great to go inside for some hot soup.   After dinner, we played a few rounds of dominos (I won!) before calling it a night.

I didn’t have my glasses on when the kids came around for trick or treating, so I didn’t get to see much of them.  One kids got points for dressing as a Jawa with light up eyes – but lost points for having them red instead of the correct yellow.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, just a cold and rainy time.

I also found out that President Obama is coming to campus on Wednesday.  Which was supposed to be my day to walk around campus for Halloween.  I’m still going to dress up and try to avoid that part of campus until he leaves.  Hope I don’t run into any secret service.