Diary Revisions: 2010-03-10
March 10th, 2010Today, I either added or modified the following posts in the Tom’s Diary blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance, and search-ability:
Tom
Pink’s PC Problems: 2010-03-10
March 10th, 2010Right before I went to see [Emmy], I received a Gateway PC to repair from a good friend of Mom’s She explained that she’d taken it to a computer repair shop and that they told her that it’s infected with some sort of virus. They advised that the machine is too old to bother disinfecting. Finally, they suggested that she purchase a new computer (from them). Of course.
When she related what happened at trivia night three weeks ago, I told her that I’d take a peak at it for her. So, here it sits, here I am back home from vacation, and now I’m about to begin the job of evaluating and repairing it. I’ll post my progress in the comments below.
Tom Hesley
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Today’s Business: 2010-03-10
March 10th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
- Pay all (1) pending bills. Another bill came yesterday after I’d paid the previous batch.
- Balance all checking accounts. DONE.
- Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010.
Log
05:00 AM: Woke up prematurely with a strong bathroom urge. Then after ten minutes, I realized that I’d not be getting back to sleep anytime soon. So I started my latest book, titled To Kill A Mockingbird.
06:45 AM: Going back to sleep; drowsiness has returned.
09:30 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday. It’s still 177.0 Lbs.
01:55 PM: Read more of the book To Kill A Mockingbird.
02:00 PM: Concluded work on the WPSBC Alumni Association Web Site Revamp project. The new site is fully operational, and the old site and hosting account have been canceled.
02:35 PM: Began working the Pink’s PC Problems: 2010-03-10 project.
08:45 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.
10:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy] on the phone about a little of everything.
10:40 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News on the DVR.
12:35 AM: Read more of the book To Kill A Mockingbird.
12:40 AM: Well, that’s it for today. Catch you later on. Good night.
Received Mail and Shipments
- Fashion Bug catalog.
- Misc. mail for an ex roommate.
Related Posts
- Book: Team of Rivals
- Book: To Kill A Mockingbird
- Pink’s PC Problems: 2010-03-10
- Today’s Diet: 2010-03-10
- WPSBC Alumni Association Web Site Revamp
Book: To Kill A Mockingbird
March 10th, 2010I began reading this American literature classic this morning. I’ve heard this book referenced numerous times as a great read, and it in fact, was the first book I downloaded on my new account from the BARD site last night. After decades of only knowing of it, I’ll finally get to know it myself.
Total reading time: Approximately ten hours.
Tom
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Today’s Diet: 2010-03-10
March 10th, 2010Today, I consumed the following items:
- Perfect Peach herbal tea and diet caffeine-free Pepsi throughout the day. 0 calories.
- 01:00 PM: 1.5 cups of oatmeal. 375 calories.
- 01:00 PM: Shredded Parmesan cheese. 200 calories.
- 01:00 PM: 0.5 cups apple cider. 100 calories.
- 05:00 PM: 3 cups V8 juice. 150 calories.
- 09:50 PM: 3 slices of provolone cheese. 210 calories.
Total calories: 1035.
Tom
Related Posts
Today’s Business: 2010-03-09
March 9th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
- Pay all (8) pending bills. DONE.
- Balance all checking accounts. IN PROGRESS.
- Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010.
Log
09:10 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday. It’s still 177.0 Lbs.
09:50 AM: Resubmitted my application to gain access to the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) web site. This is the third try. The other two times, done last week, they rejected because they said that the mailing address I provided does not match the one that the library in Pittsburgh has on file. I’ve been working with personnel at the Pittsburgh library for the blind to resolve. We think we have it now. We’ll see over the next day or two.
11:25 AM: Read chapter twelve of the Team of Rivals book.
12:30 PM: Mailed out all pending bills as of today.
01:00 PM: [Emmy] called to say that she finished off all the dark chocolate I left there from our early Easter celebration. 
01:50 PM: Filed roughly 20 pieces of received email from the last two weeks. I also applied all Internet shopping charges to my checking account.
02:00 PM: I’ve been approved to access the BARD web site and download talking books. Yes! I’ll check out the site later today.
03:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR. Now, it’s nap time.
04:00 PM: I’m back up again.
05:00 PM: Balanced two of the three checking accounts that I manage. I’ll get to the most difficult of these (Mom’s) later. Hers is hard because she has many transactions to reconcile, and since I’m not the one who originally created each of these, I must investigate each a little to be sure it’s legitimate.
06:55 PM: Created audio journal episode AJE-2010-03-09-18-40, where I discuss why I read so many books that bore me. This current one, Team of Rivals, while I would not characterize as a boring book, I would say that much of the time spent reading it, I am in fact, bored. However, it’s nonetheless a spectacular work; it’s quite heavily larded with facts about Lincoln and the Civil War, and I find keeping it all straight and maintaining an accurate picture of how all the pieces fit together a bit challenging. But if the book is boring to me, this is not due to any lacking quality on the book’s part; it’s just me, not used to reading much of this sort of material.
08:45 PM: Successfully completed my debut log in to the BARD web site, and downloaded my first book: To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ll read that next.
10:10 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. Both of her hands were hurting this evening. Her carpul tunnel surgery back in 2007 on the right hand has provided only marginal improvement. She still suffers lots of pain; particularly when she uses her hand too much. She has an appointment scheduled for early April with the surgeon who treated her before. Hopefully, he’ll have some definite answers; he was a bit evasive and non committal when last I attended his office with [Emmy] for a checkup over a year ago. But I supposed this hardship is to be expected. Carpel tunnel surgery, as I’ve read on the Internet, has the highest rates of dissatisfaction of all surgeries. This surprised me because I know of many folks whose hands were restored to full and painless operation by this treatment. But there are many others for whom it does not work, and sadly, it appears that this time around, [Emmy] is in that latter group.
11:40 PM: Read chapters thirteen and fourteen of the Team of Rivals book.
11:45 PM: To bed with me now. Good night, and I’ll catch you here again in the morning. Take care.
Received Mail and Shipments
- Co payment bill for last set of diabetic test strips (ordered on 2010-01-21).
- Credit card privacy statement.
- Offer for insurance against in-home gas leaks; they repair any failed internal lines at no cost; except for the $2.50 per month premium. Hmmm. This might be a pretty good deal, although we’ve never had a gas leak. Even if we did, I could probably repair it myself. But still …
Related Posts
Diary Revisions: 2010-03-09
March 9th, 2010Today, I either added or modified the following posts in the Tom’s Diary blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance, and search-ability:
Tom
Today’s Diet: 2010-03-09
March 9th, 2010Today, I consumed the following items:
- Black Irish breakfast tea and diet caffeine-free Pepsi throughout the day. 0 calories.
- 12:55 PM: 14 almonds. 85 calories.
- 01:00 PM: 3 cups V8 juice. 150 calories.
- 04:00 PM: 4 slices of muenster cheese. 320 calories.
- 06:00 PM: 1 and 1/2 cups Cheerios. 150 calories.
- 06:00 PM: 1 cup skim organic milk. 80 calories.
- 06:00 PM: 1/2 cup raisins. 260 calories.
- 06:00 PM: Multivitamin. 0 calories.
- 09:00 PM: 4 cookies. 150 calories.
- 10:00 PM: 3 slices of Muenster cheese. 240 calories.
Total calories: 1435.
Tom
Related Posts
Today’s Business: 2010-03-08
March 8th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
- Do all pending laundry. DONE.
- Finish unpacking. DONE.
- Pay all pending bills. IN PROGRESS.
- Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010.
Log
07:20 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday. It’s still 177.0 Lbs.
10:15 AM: Read chapters seven and eight of the Team of Rivals book.
11:30 AM: Began going through all this accumulated mail, separating the bills from the letters and the junk mail.
12:00 PM: Got the laundry started; the hot water inlet on the washer was clogged again; this time with lint-like thread fibers. I’m not sure where this is coming from. But flushing the inlet has become a weekly occurrence.
12:45 PM: Sister Mary Ann and her girls stopped by to visit Mom and to visit the puppies at sister Christine’s house. I accompanied them.
03:00 PM: I’m back home. The puppies have their eyes open now and they’re squirming around and fast-wagging their little stubbly tails; they’re developing personality.
04:30 PM: Read chapter nine of the Team of Rivals book.
05:05 PM: Created a new sub category in this blog: Today’s Diet in the Journal category. I placed all the Today’s Diet posts in this category so people could pull up these easily by their title (Today’s Diet). These can also be accessed via the Food Diary category as well because the Food Diary category feels to me like it belongs in the Food category as well as the Journal one.
06:30 PM: Sister Christine called; we chatted for an hour.
08:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.
10:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy] on the phone.
11:25 PM: Journaled for the past hour, hoping to lift my dour mood regarding Mom and the hardships of coping with the nearly constant head-butting with her. I thought the vacation would restore some of my tolerance of her ways. But barely twelve hours after returning home, we argued again, and the hurt and anger I felt as result appeared as strongly today as they had before my vacation began. The vacation unfortunately, solved nothing. During this time, I created the following audio journal episodes:
- AJE-2010-03-08-22-21
- AJE-2010-03-08-22-36
- AJE-2010-03-08-23-04, where I talk about receiving the Beacon Lodge camp papers today, and how I will definitely not be attending this year.
11:30 PM: Folded and put away the single load of white laundry I washed today. now, I shouldn’t have to launder anything for at least the next several days anyhow.
12:00 AM: Read chapter ten of the Team of Rivals book.
12:05 AM: Okay, it’s bed time once more. So I’ll catch you back here later today. Take care.
Received Mail and Shipments
We received lots of mail while I was gone, as follows:
- Homeowners insurance bill.
- 2 Credit card bills (Mom).
- Notice for me to contact my renters insurance company about address and phone number updates.
- Prescription benefit update notice (Mom) that shows how much she’s spent on medicines this year so far.
- Renewed credit card (Mom).
- Instructions from Mom’s medical insurance company on how to lower her drug costs and delay entry into Medicare’s “donut hole”.
- Auto insurance offer. No thanks.
- Mom’s monthly retirement pension pay stub.
- Instructions on how to read revised credit card statements (Mom’s).
- Co-payment bill from Mom’s mail order pharmacy.
- Gas bill.
- Co payment bill for diabetic testing supplies.
- Cable TV, Internet, and phone bill (all in one bill now).
- 1 credit card offer. No thanks.
- Annual savings statement (Mom’s).
- An information pamphlet on the Jitterbug cell phone – Mom requested this.
- Property tax bill.
- Grand opening notice for a local grocery store.
- Invoice for my recent flash memory cartridge order from American Printing House for the Blind.
- Verification form for Mom’s annual disbursement from her savings.
- Health Coach information (Mom requested this).
- Credit card offer from Discover. No thanks.
- Bed, Bath, & Beyond advertisements.
- The 2010-03 issue of Lion magazine.
- 2 statements from Mom’s medical insurance company, that detail recent, covered medical expenses.
- Weis grocery store coupon for $20.
- Wheelchair monthly rental bill.
- 2010-02 audio cassette issue of Consumer Reports magazine.
- Coupon book to celebrate the grand opening of the latest Martins grocery store in Altoona.
- 1 advertisement for Wolf Furniture; a local furniture store.
- 1 weekly coupon mailer.
- Business checking account bank statement (mine).
- Notice of termination of my dental insurance policy, which I allowed to laps at the end of 2009.
- Electricity bill ($188.48).
- Offer for Life Line Screenings. Not me, but I’ll put it downstairs for Mom. Perhaps she’ll want to do this.
- Census 2010 forms.
- Beacon Lodge registration forms for summer camp, 2010.
- Offer from Domain Registry of America. They want me to transfer one of my domains to them. Not at this time, thanks.
- Promo Only EADFF music subscription; issue 2010-02-03.
- Promo Only EADFF music subscription; issue 2010-02-04.
- Promo Only EADFF music subscription; issue 2010-03-01.
- Promo Only Country Radio music subscription; issue 2010-04.
- Promo Only Mainstream Radio music subscription; issue 2010-03.
Related Posts
Diary Revisions: 2010-03-08
March 8th, 2010Today, I either added or modified the following posts in the Tom’s Diary blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance, and search-ability:
Tom