Unproductiveness

People who know me would know
why I think this tape is cool.

For every night like there was a couple of nights ago where things were going great and I had a ton of ideas, there is a night like tonight.  Where I am pretty much dragging my ass from one task to the next.   Not really sure why.   Nothing in particular any different about today.  Without the red light from the exit sign shining in my eyes, I should have had a great night of sleep, and the world by the tail.   Eh, not so much.

I decided not to do the whole stressful look for the auto blade fuses.   I found that a pack of them was three bucks at the corner gas station, I just bought them.   Should all of these fuses ever choose to stroll back through my life, I am going to be pretty well stocked.

This afternoon I did some checking and got the measurements on the refrigerator I am looking at.

Depth 21.5”

Height 20.66”

Width 17.63

I now have a box of this size in the van.   The first step of this is to start doing without that space…

Reading the documentation for installation, the fridge also wants two inches behind for ventilation.  Either I need that space over the top of the fridge as well, so it sort of vents to the front.   Or, another option would be to run a channel in the back of the floor-to-ceiling shelf to let heat get to ceiling?   That might be better in the summertime and so worth the effort.   Something I have to think about.

While I’m in the process of not doing anything constructive anyway, I am going to write this out more or less to document it.   As expected, even the perfect van has a few problems now that I have driven it a bit.   Here is a current list of things I need to have the repair shop look into:

The final vestiges of snow are
leaving this frozen wasteland.

* Heater fan doesn’t always blow.   I would say maybe twenty percent of the time it works.   However, something to note to the mechanic, twice I have had it on the freeway and then the next time I start it, the fan blows.   Coicidence?

* Side door doesn’t open from the inside.   

* Need a new ignition key plug.   You have to put the key in with the sharpie marker’d side facing toward you. Then either jiggle the key until it hits just the right spot and turn it;  Or insert the key very slowly, particularly at the end and just after the final detent, but before the key is entirely bottoms out, you can turn it.   Note to self:  When using van as bank robbery getaway vehicle, remember to leave engine running…

* Randomly the seat belt dinger goes off

* Tire pressure monitoring system doesn’t work.   How much does this cost to fix?

* The dash service engine light is on.   I presume due to the tire pressure warning?

* Driver’s side washer doesn’t work.

I’m not a wrench turning guy.   I have to hire this work done.

<Some time passes, sleep occurs, etc..>

The not so shabby walk to get
to the bonsai garden.

This morning I am sitting in the bonsai garden of my big city.   It is Sunday morning and the place just opened up.   Living here in the land of ice, it is so great to come here where I can breath warm, green, fresh air.   Springtime air, filled with life on a March day.  When I lived in this city full-time before, I came here often.  At that time this room, the bonsai garden, was just a tacked on room.   Just getting started with a couple of loaned trees and a few more twiggy ones.   An after thought of a city conservatory.   Since that time the Japanese wife of a very wealthy American businessman took it under her wing.  What came of that is an endowment for the room I sit in now.   Looking on the trees in this beautiful tiled room I see the dates they started and realize many of them are the same twigs I saw before.  All grown up and looking great.   All of this combined, it is a great room to sit in the corner and type.   They only thing that keeps it from being perfect is  a ready caffeine supply and a power outlet.

Hey, this conference food isn't
bad!   Three years in a row they
have served great food.

I was in the city over a weekend, attending the second day of the computer conference.  It wasn’t the best conference for me this year.   I didn’t really get much out of it technically.   The keynotes were pretty great.   But for shear entertainment value (though unfortunately one session title/description I was actually interested in)  when I was actually in it appeared to be taught by Robin Williams Scotsman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpCZGA92LOY) I think I was picking up maybe one in three words the majority of the time, then there were these random short paragraphs that were entirely unintelligible but seemed to contain elements common to profanity.  

<Some time passes, blues occur>

For reasons too complicated to get into, since I had to stay in the city pretty much the whole day on Saturday, I decided to just stay in the city over the weekend.   But after that decision was made, as I scanned down Facebook I discovered a blues fundraiser going on at a bar I sometimes frequent. Here it was on Sunday, and I am looking for something to do.   Fate.

This particular Sunday, it is bright and sunny as can be.  Difficult for us northern tier people this early in the spring.   We are all walking around squinting, looking at our watches and unable to believe the date.  The bar is one of those places where you usually walk in at night and you say “whoa, kinda dark in here” but then your eyes sort of adjust and it is fine.   But walk in there on a sunny, Sunday afternoon and I couldn’t see anything. Anything.  I handed a woman at the door my cover charge, walked in a couple of feet and had to stand almost ten minutes before I really felt comfortable to move forward.

The show was outstanding.   Of course.  It was short sets, maybe five or six songs.   Then on to the next band. I was really only there to see one singer, a friend, who I think is outstanding.  I have seen her a number of times either like this with one other performer or in her full band.  I even had the pleasure of hiring her band to do an acoustic show in my living room.   —It was the one hundredth year birthday party for my house.   Except for that I had only seen her playing in my home-town bars.   She rarely plays in the big city.   But she is an amazing singer.  And to have this line up like this, the one day a year I might be in this city on a Sunday, is an amazing quirk of fate.