Tom's Diary

Today’s Chores

• Cat duty
• Shower
• Dispense Mom’s meds
• Shovel the walks and ramp
• Deploy all storage baskets purchased on yesterday’s   shopping trip,   per the   Household Organization, 2009   project.
• WPSBC Alumni Association   board meeting teleconference this evening @ 7:00 PM.

Log

09:25 AM: I’m up.   

09:30 AM: We got a lot of snow overnight (total accumulation appears to be around six inches), and at this moment, it’s raining on top of it.  Yuck.  The ramp is completely covered, along with our driveway, as well as the Christmas lights that line it.  So I may have to take up the lights if we must have the driveway plowed, to prevent them from getting run over or snagged by that heavy equipment. 

10:00 AM: Temperature outside is thirty-five degrees.  So I’m turning off the roof heaters; I’d turned them on last night before bed,   here.

10:05 AM: Heading outside to shovel snow for a bit.

10:40 AM: All the sidewalks and the ramp have been shoveled, and now that the snowfall has switched entirely over the rainfall, I don’t expect any more accumulation over the next several hours.  The snow bent many of our trees and shrubs very far over.  So far, none have snapped, and I did shake some of the snow off of them.  Hopefully, they’ll survive the flexing that last night’s winds and snow put upon them.

01:00 PM: Worked the   Household Organization, 2009   effort, in which I deployed more storage containers. For further details, see today’s comments on that post,  here.

01:25 PM: Posted the   Basement Siren Blasts   piece.

01:50 PM: Taking a nap.

04:00 PM: I’m up again.

05:25 PM: Worked the   Duplicate Title Tags   issue.   Check today’s comments   here   for further details.

05:59 PM: It’s been an extreme day of weather here at the homestead,what with all the snow, rain, and wind we’ve experienced over the past twelve hours.  And, at this very minute, we just heard a loud clap of thunder too.  Seems isolated so far, as no other crash has followed.  But I think I’ll wait a while before stepping into the shower. 

06:55 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless    on the DVR.

06:59 PM: Dialing into the   WPSBC Alumni Association   board meeting now…

07:40 PM: The meeting just adjourned.  I’ve been given a couple assignments too:

1. Call our investment firm and get this money transfer to our checking account moving along, that we’ve been working on since October.
2. See if the bank that hosts our checking account can switch us over to an account that does not charge us monthly maintenance fees when our balance falls below a certain value. 

I’ll work these issues tomorrow.

08:10 PM: Just hung up with [Tad].  He wanted to follow up on some things discussed during the board meeting, and to wish me and mine a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.  Nice.

10:25 PM: Talked with [Emmy] while listening to Christmas music on WALY FM 103.9 here in Altoona.  They were broadcasting the John Tesh radio show.  Pretty informative and he plays some great music as well.

11:40 PM: Worked more on the   Duplicate Title Tags   removal effort, and did some post categorizing along the way.  There are now just 622 uncategorized posts left to categorize. 

11:45 PM: Just posted the list of post revisions   here,  that I made today to this, the    Tom’s Diary   blog. 

12:05 AM: I’m headed to bed.  So take it easy, and I’ll catch you out here later today.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Basement Siren Blasts
• Diary Revisions: 2009-12-09
• Duplicate Title Tags
• Household Organization, 2009
• Mom’s Status: 2009-12-09
• Roof Heaters On: 2009-12-08
• Shopping Trip: 2009-12-08

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in  the   Tom’s Diary    blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, appearance, indexing, removal of duplicate titles, and search-ability: 

Tom Hesley

12:30 PM: While organizing my plumbing supplies into these storage boxes that I bought during yesterday’s   shopping trip,  I came across this very loud and old industrial siren (yes, a siren) that I’d purchased on eBay a few years back.  Why, you may wonder, would I buy a siren?  Well, if you don’t use it much, it’s a real blast when you do (no pun intended).  I used to scare   [Emmy]  with it, when I’d blow the thing in the dead quiet of a late evening, and now occasionally, I threaten to take it to her building and set it off in those  “echoey”  halls. 

You know, in a boyish way, such instigation would be awesome, though I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of it. So, no, I’d never really do it.  I wouldn’t want to cause a heart attack.  But periodically threatening to do it, gets   [Emmy]   fired up.  Indeed, the fact that I have the siren at all, lends credibility to my playful threats, and   [Emmy]   takes me seriously, amusingly, whenever I tease her about it.  Sadistic, I know.  But this infrequent but potent fun makes all the hardships of owning it worthwhile; finding space for it every time I reorganize the cellar.  Having it in this case, even if I never use it, makes it still, a useful tool to keep around.

Anyway, I thought I’d blow the dust out of it just now and so, went to the north east corner of the basement, which is right underneath Mom’s sitting room.  There, I let it rip for perhaps three to five seconds.  That whale-turned-scream got her attention alright; she wanted to know what it was.  So I took it upstairs to show her, and plugged it in again for another loud spurt. Once its scream died, she struggled to explain to someone with whom she was talking on the phone, why I’d have such a thing.  She didn’t know, and I just chuckled, saying that I have it precisely for times like this, when I can scare the heebeegeebees out of someone now and again. 

So now, I’ll avoid using it for another three years, in order to recharge its  shock value.  And then?   Look out, anyone nearby. 

Take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-12-09

Pending Appointments And Issues

• Sometime this month, we must take Mom’s 2008 property tax paperwork to a lawyer in Tipton for examination.  She may be eligible for a significant tax rebate.
• 2009-12-11 @ 3:45 PM: Appointment with podiatrist. 
• 2010-02-04 @ 11:30 AM: Appointment with orthopedist for a quarterly checkup on the progress of healing of her charcot foot.

 Log

06:00 AM: Blood sugar: 210.  Covered with 10 units of log insulin.

09:15 AM: Blood sugar: 213.  Covered with 15 units of log insulin.

10:00 AM: Dispensed Mom’s morning meds and long-acting insulin. 

01:40 PM: Dispensed Mom’s lunch-time meds.

02:30 PM: Blood sugar: 198.  Covered with 10 units of log insulin.

06:00 PM: Blood sugar: 210.  Covered with 14 units of log insulin. 

10:15 PM: Blood sugar: 106.  No coverage needed.

10:40 PM: Dispensed bed-time meds to Mom.  She’s awake now; she had slept much of today.  All is well, though she’ll probably be awake all night now.  I hope there are lots of good cable TV shows for her to watch. 

Tom Hesley 

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-12-09