Yesterday was definitely productive.  As subbing jobs go, it would have normally been very boring, but the teacher warned me that 1) he'd be doing the opening part of each class and 2) I'd be proctoring a test, and so he told me to bring something interesting to do.  So I brought The Big Book of Riddles, Puzzles and Enigmas, and have worked through the first 73 pages, flagging each puzzle as 'logic'*, 'algebra', 'geometry', and in one case, 'probability'.  I've been wanted to do this for a year or so now, to have a collection of puzzles I could draw on to support introducing various mathematical concepts.  I'm now done with Part I, with three more Parts to go, and my system is pretty well set up now.  Yay me!


In the meantime, I'm still trying to get over this cold.  I've never been sick as often as I have this fall, and this bug is very much like the last one.  It starts out as a cold, culminating in about 7 days in a fairly high fever for one day, and then goes back to dragging on as a cold.  I'm now at two weeks since I first noticed the symptoms starting to cluster, right at the icky-cough stage.  I've coughed enough that my side hurts and I understand how folks fracture ribs this way.  I'm ready to be done now, any time!

*which includes number and set theory.

Turns out that my Dad *did* keep some of his savings stashed away in an old sock... imagine my face when Mom showed me...

Yesterday was spent getting that liquified and put into savings for Mom and The Boy.  I never know when I'm going to have a week day free, and since yesterday turned out to be one of my free days, I jumped in and got the job done.  But between the drive down, and taking time to chat with Mom about various things, and the drive back, and the wait to get cashed out, and the drive to the bank*... throw in picking up The Girl from University.., my day was pretty much eaten up.

It was good to get it done, and I did manage to stop and pick up my shoes from the shoe repair, which I'd been trying to get done since Friday.  The DH had spaghetti waiting for us when we finally got home in the evening. But there's still quite a few things left on my Things To Do on Next Free Week Day list. 

And, Dad, in a sock?  Really???

*deposit into someone else's account?  Can't do that at an ATM...

There's been quite a few changes these past two weeks.  It is noticeably darker in the mornings, and darker earlier in the evening.  This year, I'm not sure why, I felt a little cheated, 'No, no, it's too soon for it to be getting darker'.  But, as I've noted before, it's been getting darker every day practically since school was out last June.  It's just that this year, it seems different for some reason.  

We had our first foggy morning a week or so ago, and a little bit more rain, and a grey day on Friday.... looks like fall is really here.  Oh, and I've got my first cold of the season.  *That's* unusual; I don't typically catch the things the kids are passing around, but this one seems particularly effective at propagating itself; many of the folks I know are sniffling and there appear to be quite a few teachers who are calling in sick. 

The greenhouse effort continues.  I had really hoped that there'd be a strong push, and they'd get it done, but it seems to be dragging on.  The DH believes that he'll get some of his buds around some Wednesday and they'll raise the roof when he gets to that point.  I keep expecting that to be the up coming Wednesday, but each week, we're not there yet.  Coincidentally, I just saw a link to a DIY site with instructions on how to reuse windows to make a greenhouse; theirs looks a lot more like what I expected than what I see happening out back.  But whatever, I guess. This is The Girl and her Dad's project, and I'm mostly staying clear.  It would be nice, however, if it could get wrapped up before the rains came again....

Meh. Wasted another day, although I did track down some interesting background information about the T. Pratchett books. The Girl tried to burn down the kitchen; thankfully she kept her head and put out the pan fire with minimal ill effects. I'm grateful that I didn't have to make a rapid evacuation of the house since I was in the shower at the time.

The rest of week's activities had ups and downs. I made a major effort on Tuesday, and got a lot of the mess made from The Boy's departure cleaned up. The stairs up to The Girl's room have been vacuumed for the first time in ages. Our mid-week trip to the Sinusoidal Wasteland to see The Boy had mixed results. The primary goal, which was to have him take his driver's test in the new car, failed. The alternate goal, which was to give The Girl a bit of a vacation somewhere warm, was more successful. It was a nice visit, but I would have been happier if he had passed the test.

Fall is coming. It's already dark at 5:00, which shouldn't be the shock that it is. I still associate the long long days that stay light until 10-ish with summer. School is out and that should signal the beginning of these long days. But when I think about it, that's shouldn't be the case. The solstice is shortly after that, and from then on, it's getting darker, not lighter.

I guess this association comes from summers off at the university. Spring quarter ended the first week in June, which would have made late June and early July the middle of the summer session. Summer memories involve working late at the library and walking home in the twilight.

Regardless, school starts again in a few days, and we'll in be September by the end of the week. By the equinox and October, the sun will be rising and setting at 7-ish, the rains will have returned, and the days will only be getting shorter. It just seems too early this year...

The adventure today was the Quilt Show. Mom was interested in having company, and Sister #2 had other commitments and The Girl wanted to spend some time with her grandmother, so it worked out that the two of us met her down in Tacoma for the show.

It was interesting enough. There were some lovely pieces there. I find I'm most interested in the ones that are 1) something I could see using on a bed and 2) the ones that are still being hand stitched. That being said, there were still some lovely pieces. Mom took lots of pictures; me, not so much this time.

I've found that having no place to work and a backlog of projects is a real dampener. I've got Grandmother's cotton dresses that I saved to make a quilt from oh so long ago, and there's an embroidery-based quilt that I also started years ago. One of my books is on lap-quilting, which appeals to me because it allows me to do the hand work on a small enough scale that it is practical.

Having my own space for sewing and whatnot is all supposed to be additional incentive to getting the West Bedroom sorted out and turned into a workroom for me. It will happen at some point. Any day now, right? ;-) Well, actually, it had started to happen not so long ago, but various kids moved back home, and things got rearranged again. So, I've just got to get the momentum back up, and ignore the fact that every time I've sort something out, something else happens to unsort it. But I really enjoyed having the space last time, and I need to keep that in mind and make it happen again.

Once I got all the wrecked-car/new-car stuff wrapped up earlier in the week, I mostly wasted the rest of the this past week.

There's kitchen stuff to be finished. I *did* sort through that nasty cardboard box that was feebly trying to hold all the cleaning supplies that were stored under the sink, so that we've got a pile to take to the hazardous waste disposal and a clean(!) plastic(!) bin full of sorted stuff ready to be put back. Earlier in the week, there was a period of time where there was newspaper taped to the kitchen floor beside the sink area, but no obvious work was being done. The Girl and I got tired of tripping over the tools in the middle of the floor, inquiries were made, and work has resumed. The DH has cleaned out, sanding off, patched and (hopefully) is finishing prepping the under-sink area for painting. This may actually get done (?) in another day or two, at which point the cleaning supplies will be able to go back where they belong. It would be nice if that could happen before it rains, but I suppose we'll see...

The plan for today was to continue tackling that mess, and potentially make the archeological dig required to exhume the front room from the piles of (former) class work that has been accumulating over the last three years. Now that I'm DONE(!) that needs either pitched or filed. But instead, I got a text from the student I'm mentoring (I can not abide the term 'mentee') to tell me that she and her sib had a robot competing in the 'Space Elevator' competition today at the Museum of Flight. So I hied myself over there in time to watch two of their four matches. The first went well, the second was during the Space Elevator 101 presentation in the Allen Theatre, the third was a work in progress. They made the finals (their fourth match), but I had to leave before that to get back to get *some* of the weekend stuff done.

The Space Elevator presentation was very interesting, and gave me a better perspective on where things are now. I'll be taking their monthly newsletter now, to keep up on how things are developing.

So, all in all, it was another interesting day, but another day of inadequate progress on the homefront. But, then again, I can't think about a place I would have rather been to hear about Neil Armstrong...

Beehive Juggernauts opened for Abney Park's Circus at the End of the World again. They opened for AP the last time I saw them, as well, but under the moniker The Tin Can Tobacco Band. I like them and I was looking for their next venue (unsuccessfully; I'm not sure how they get the word out to their fan base yet...) when I stumbled on a previous event of theirs at the Gypsy Cafe in Fremont. Checking the Cafe calendar, I found, not the Juggernauts, but a Russian Open Mic.

The DH was off seeing about The Cabin septic tank and whether we need it inspected, and The Girl was at a business planning dinner with the 3D club, AND, probably more important, the cafe had a hummus veggie wrap that really sounded good, so I headed off there for the evening.

It was interesting, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't Russian. The best way to describe it: think of karaoke, but with instruments. There were quite of few instances where ones who could play well, couldn't sing, and the ones who could sing couldn't play well. But it was fun, and I'm glad I went alone. The DH would have hated it, The Girl would have been bored, but I enjoyed listening and thinking about Laurette.

Oh, and as to *why* it wasn't Russian? Yesterday was the *23rd*, not the *24th*. Now I've got to decide whether I'm going to head that way again tonight...

Cranky, cranky, cranky. Car insurance stuff, new car decisions, sister's husband's health, twisted ankle, and a lot of my time redirected from what I planned to do to stuff I "needed" to do.

So, I've been to the Antiques Roadshow now. Sister No.2 was supposed to go with Mom to this, but the BIL was ill; it was at her incentive that I put my e-mail into the random draw for tickets. Wouldn't you know I'd be the one to win? Do I watch it? No. Will I start watching it? No. If you do, when the Seattle episodes air, I'm the one with the long hair in the background during the segment discussing the two Rodin-esque stauettes.

We found out some interesting things. I didn't know that the ceramic jar that Mom calls the Ugly Woman was a tobacco jar; great-grandmother used it to hold match sticks. Mom's little charm bracelet made of Cracker-Jack prizes is actually collectable, although in a less-than-$100 way.

In the catagory of very useful things: Mom's "bookstore" necklace* is an 1890 pate de verre pendant and had the beading added in the 40s or 50s (much to the appraiser's disdain). Presumeably it wasn't specifically done by Almeric Walter (I'm sure he checked the back for a maker's engrave), but it is very much in his style. It's a pretty piece with its own merit, and it's nice knowing what would need to be done to restore it to its Arts and Crafts glory.

Was it worth missing La Belle Storm's ballet performance? When I step back and look at it, yes, probably. But it's taking some time and perspective to come to that conclusion.

Now to find the car title...



*Dad found it in a KC bookstore in 1954 or 55.

Independent of car insurance claim research, I spent yesterday crawling through the stuff on my backup disk, consolidating the three backups that I had of The Boy's computer into one so that I could (finally) get another backup of my computer made. The last one was back in April, and I'd started getting nervous.

I've got three similar 'copies' of my computer(s) that I need to go through and condense as well, but now that I have TimeMachine working again, the urgency is reduced.

I knew I forgot something I was meaning to do yesterday. The post. I spent yesterday afternoon chasing down more information regarding the value of the Saab 2000, and then shipping it off to the newest insurance person. This is the 4th person I've dealt with, if you count the first fellow who took the initial claim information over the phone. Next there was the gal who was supposed "own" my claim, but that only seemed to last until the field agent went and inspected the car. We received the initial settlement offer from him Tuesday, and it was much too low compared to what the various websites like Kelly's Blue Book, Edmonds, and NADA Guides reported it to be worth, by at least $1000. So he had to turn our claim over to this last guy, who discovered for himself what I've been telling the previous agent; there aren't comparable cars out there to assess our car against.

This most recent fellow got involved yesterday, and to both of our amazement, he has already heard back from the dealers that he contacted to provide value estimates

. They're also giving values that are about $1000 apart, but to his credit, rather than average the two, he's just going with the higher one. His current settlement offer is about $800 higher than the previous one, and I don't really think that I can do better than that, even if I still think it is a little low. I'll look over the details tonight with the DH, and I'm assuming that we'll release the car to them tomorrow. Monday, we'll bring the title into the office and presumably walk out with a check. When all is said and done, it's effectively cost us about $100 a month plus maintenance to own this car over the past year, so I suppose that might be considered reasonable. The irksome thing is that even with the insurance check, it's going to cost us over $3000 to replace it, if we go with the 2001 S-5 that we're considering. Blah. But it could be worse.

Well, after the effort to push The Boy out of the house, yesterday was pretty much of a do-nothing-type of day. I chased down what I thought would be a reasonable settlement for the totaled car, and contacted both of the insurance agents to see why we hadn't heard anything Friday about that as expected. The good news on that: we did receive the settlement offer today. The bad news: it's about $1000 less than I expected and about $2000 less than what I found to be justifiable. (It's also $4000 less than what we'll wind up spending to replace it, but that's a separate issue.) I've sent my counter-proposal, and been told that I'll be dealing with yet another agent as a result. Sigh.

The house certainly feels empty, now that The Boy has headed back to the Sinusoidal Desert for school and isn't involved in the dramatic demolishment of one room or another. The kitchen is torn up because he got the sink pulled out, cleaned up and (mostly) reseated. The Back Room is in pieces because of his rushed departure last night, and the West Bedroom has achieved a different level of chaos because we had to move enough things to let him dismantle the bunk bed set, to take off to the new apartment. We're still missing one set of bolts but he'll either find a suitable (metric) replacement or sleep on the mattress on the floor until I unearth the correct ones.

Now the challenge is figuring out which displaced pile of stuff to tackle first. The DH has already tackled most of the dishes that had accumulated while the sink and dishwasher were out of commission (a mixed blessing by itself), and finishing the kitchen is the logical place to start. Lots of work ahead, but it is nice to have a sink that isn't detaching itself from the counter any more...

It's Kauai in April... and I'm wearing a sweater and thinking about putting my jeans on. I knew it wasn't going to be hot for our visit, but I at least thought it would be *warm*.

We're here because the Darling Husband rolls another decade at the end of the week, and this is how he (always) wants to celebrate those b-day milestones*. We were supposed to fly in on Thursday with friends, but after a comedy of errors we wound up arriving a day early because our plane arrival time changed and we could no longer meet our scheduled connections. Instead of flying down to LA and from there into Lihue, we wound up with three legs: San Jose to Honolulu to Lihue. Ignoring the multi-hour layover in Honolulu, this actually worked out well. We were able to sort out the car and had Wednesday evening to get acclimated before picking everyone up the next day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainycity1/sets/72157629762088127/

* so far, we're two for three.

The first night was spent at the Aston Aloha Resort. Except for a few minor details, like not being able to open the sliding door to let some air in and never figuring out how to turn on two of the lights, it was just what we needed. The resort was right across from Lygate Beach Park, and the next morning we had time to walk through the park and take pictures. There was also the surprise of finding that adjacent to the resort were several Old Hawai'i sacred spots.

Thursday (2nd Day) we picked up the O'Ls without incident, did some light shopping, got lunch and headed up to the Wyndam Bali Hai Resorts up in Princeville. Thursday evening was spent with various parties splashing around the pool while the rest of us played spectator. Various resort cats were found and petted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainycity1/sets/72157629765535111/

Friday (3rd Day) was spent exploring the North Shore in between rain showers. The original plan was to drive all the way to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach to provide an overview and then stop at places on the way back, hopefully after it had stopped raining. Plans evolve, however, especially where the DH is concerned. and we wound up driving only as far as the Maniniholo Dry Cave, where we stopped and got out to go look at the petroglyphs. (Side note: while searching for information on the drawings, I found stories about how the cave was built by the Menehene and named after one of their master fishermen, but I didn't find anything that confirmed that the petroglyphs were authentic... interesting.**) Since the rain passed while we were in the cave, we went ahead and spent some time playing in the waves on the beach at Haena Beach Park. This wound up working well, as about the time that we were wrapping that up, the rain returned and we drove the rest of the way to the end in the rain. Parking was none existent at Ke'e Park, so we turned around there and headed back.
**http://voices.yahoo.com/northshore-cave-adventures-kauai-3852052.html

Another sun break coincided with Lumahai Beach, where most of the party played in the surf while I sat on the beach and played photographer. After a particularly large wave knocked over the littlest O'L, her mother and the DH while they were exploring the rock ledge, as well as snatching away a pink croc as tribute, we packed up and left just as the next downpour started.

Lunch and a replacement pair of slippers were found at Hanalei, then we headed back to the room to get dressed for our luau.

The luau was more elaborate than the one we went to 10 years ago at Princeville Hotel, but I felt the previous one was more intimate. This luau had gardens to walk around beforehand and live entertainment on a small stage while we had dinner, including the prerequisite hula lesson. The open bar served what they claimed were mai tai's, but if they weren't virgin, they certainly weren't very experienced. After dinner we all trooped over to a fairly elaborate theater, where we saw samples of a variety of dance styles associated with the island, including Hawai'ian, Polynesian, Samoan, Chinese, Japanese and Maori. We were well fed, well entertained, and it was very late when we finally made it back up to the North shore and our rooms.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainycity1/sets/72157629773780179/
(first group of photos - more to be added)

The Magic Eight Ball told me yesterday that the day was not going to be one of the better ones, and oh man*, was it right!

First I went out to find that my car had been broken into. Fortunately(?) my stuff is old and nothing appears to have been taken. (What? They didn't want my headphone-to-cassette-player-interface?) I'm not sure whether the fact that it is a stick shift has anything to do with it not being stolen. There is a chance that I inadvertently left it open and it was just a kid walking along checking car doors, I suppose, since there was no damage to any of the exterior locks. So, they threw the stuff from the glove box all over that car, and left both doors ajar, and that was that. The door handle on the driver's side was ripped off (? Why? Makes no sense...) but that was the worst of it. I had to head on into work, so didn't take time to make a police report. That could wait until the afternoon, right?

Except that by the end of the day, I had no voice and was definitely not up to calling anyone. I took my temperature when I got home and it was over 102 deg. I really had a hard time believing that, so I took it at least twice more. I was in a 2nd grade classroom all last week and on Friday, I made the mistake of starting an apple last week, and not finishing it before all the kids came back in from recess. It got to collect all the germs that are present in a 2nd grade class for the rest of the afternoon. At the end of the day, I looked at it and decided that I certainly needed to wash it before finishing it. Guess that wasn't enough. ;-) I felt a cold coming on all weekend, and I guess yesterday was the last straw.

So, picking up the pieces, I cancelled today's job last night, and went to bed early. The fever has definitely come down, although there's still a remnant. I'll spend most of today sleeping, I guess, since my morning coffee hasn't helped revive me at all. If the car doesn't get called in until tomorrow, that's fine too; the only reason to report it would be if there is something similar going on in the rest of the neighborhood. I've got a job in the afternoon for both tomorrow and Friday, in the same 2nd grade classroom as last week. I should be fine by then, but you can be sure I won't be leaving any half eaten apples around for kids to breath on!

* I'm dating myself right here. Current vernacular has replace that phrase with, "oh, dude!" but that just doesn't sound right to my ear yet. Even though, when you look at the two phrases, they are really exactly the same thing.

Postscript:
I hadn't realized how hard that flu hit me. It wasn't until the end of March that I started feeling myself again, not to mention, until I started getting caught up with everything that had been impacted.

ooooh... stormy weather. Just Sunday I was thinking that it was almost like spring, and now here today, there's rain and wind and quite the winter weather. Good incentive to clear the area around the fireplace and have a fire!

I'm still struggling with getting to bed on time. That certainly is a priority goal when the alarm goes off in the a.m., but somehow I get a surge of energy just when I should be winding down. Even if I get to bed close to when I'd like to, I wind up picking up a book in order to wind down, and then I read until it's too late.

The plan for last night was to bring my homework (which keeps getting put off as well) to bed, work on that for 30 minutes and crash. Instead, since I was late getting up there, I opted out of the homework. This was the right choice, as I didn't want to spin my brain up. The wrong choice was when I picked up the inevitable book instead. It wasn't as late a night as it has been recently, but still later than I'd like.

I think the answer is, strictly no books after 9:00. Period.

Arrgh! What a wretched bunch of kids. I suppose all teachers run into this. Everyone wants to teach the ones who want to learn. No one wants to teach the ones who don't want to be there *and* the ones who don't want to be there are making it challenging for those who *do* want to learn.

I suspect this conundrum is at the heart of the failings of our educational system. If you look at the populations who have high scoring students, I have to wonder what you would see if you looked at their population overall.

And it makes me wonder how and if I fit into this system at all.

Monday the 13th... far worse always than any Friday could be... It's the type of day that you just put your head down and get through.

Went to the School District HR office to see how the 'Pool' applications work. Turns out that they hire from those applicants, knowing that they want them but don't know for which school. I applied last year for the elementary pool. Today they told me that it was just that the ones they hired were more qualified. That true even with all my STEM experience? Do I believe that?

Wow. It's Saturday. And worse than that, it's Saturday evening. The day is gone, and I've done nothing towards ticking things off the To Do list.

Well, I haven't done exactly 'nothing'. The DH and I had a lovely dinner to celebrate Valentine's, since he'll be off playing with FIRST robots that evening. And I've looked over the posts that are finally starting to show up on my two on-line math classes (probably high time, since we're all supposed to have posted *and* commented by tomorrow ;-).

I also made significant progress towards reducing the sleep deficit that I've been insisting on maintaining throughout the week. This is actually a pretty good thing, since I've felt hints of illness nibbling at my edges lately, and I really don't want to get sick. Especially for a silly reason like refusing to go to bed on time. The Pirate Cat, btw, thought that the extended nap time was a special treat, just for him. No wonder he's never around at bedtime; he sleeps the entire day these days, with or without a bed buddy.

So I guess I can't call the day a complete waste; but I certainly didn't tackle the multitude of things that I keep saying I need to.

Got up, went in to work with the Kindergarten class again today; came home; discovered that the DH wasn't going to be available to help me pick up my car from the shop; ran through e-mail, etc,; picked up The Girl from campus; coerced her into helping me pick up my car; rewarded her with dinner; and now it's time for bed.

Well, at least I know where all the time went today... ;-/

It doesn't seem like I got much done today. I'm not sure that really true; I made it in to work with the Science Olympiad students, we got the 900 up to the garage to have the belts worked on (ouch - almost $500 for new door hinges), and got the oil changed in the 9000. I looked at what is required for my Experimental Design event that is coming up oh so much sooner than I really think (I need to make up two events: one for March 10th and the other for the 17th) and started looking for interesting ideas to build an event around. I got the bills paid and my hair washed and trimmed and my shampoo made up with my essential oils.

I think it feels like I didn't get anything done because I'm avoiding doing the things that I know I really need to. I didn't go over to talk to my Volvo expert to see how much effort I should be making to keep the '77's parts in circulation (the alternative and easy answer is to donate it to the Humane Society, but then it will just be sold for scrap and crunched up). I didn't go walk, and I know I need to get out and do that (even better would be to get out and run, but that's even more involved). I didn't get the backroom picked up; it still has all the stuff we dumped back there to make room for the paramedics over a week ago. I certainly didn't straighten up the parallel mess in the front room.

So that's why I feel like I didn't get anything done. And I'm still not sure how to resolve that.

Yup, looks like things are back to normal alright. I was up to midnight finishing up and scanning the Probability homework that was due. Things had gotten put off due to the preemption of the previous weekend and getting ready for the Science Olympiad invitational.

So, today I get to chase kindergartener on ~6 hrs of broken sleep. Not fun. No complaints about the kids; they're delightful. But it's a full day, and I need my wits about me to keep us all on track and on schedule. So more sleep would have been better.

Well, that went surprisingly well. The Remote Sensing event was much more 'do you have the right stuff in your notes' and not as much 'figure this out'-type activity as I normally like, but it was finished in the early evening, which continues to be unusual and surprising for me. I was also the 2nd one done grading. This is in part due to my having my sessions during the 1st and 2nd hours; in part due to having grading help (a *huge* help!); and in part due to having a lot more multiple-choice and matching questions.

Now, to get the Experimental Design events ready for next month!

Back to the same-old same-old. Spend all of Wednesday and Thursday pulling my Remote Sensing Event together for our Invitational this Saturday.

Wednesday was productive; I pretty much knew what I wanted on that part of the test, and it was just a matter of tracking down the data. AND recording the sources. Since this is a practice test, we give the teams a copy and I want the sources to be the best, most useful ones I can provide the students.

Yesterday was less directly productive. I was trying to find an activity that 1) was different than the ones I've done before and 2) still useful and representative. FINALLY late in the evening I found the one I wanted.

Now to write *that* part up today. Hopefully that will go quickly, and not be another marathon. When I did this for last month's Invitational, I found that I *liked* not being up until 2 or 3 the morning before the event. So that's the goal again for today.

Well, things seem pretty much back to normal. The DH was checked out of the hospital yesterday around 11:00. We had expected nothing to happen until the afternoon, so I had to scramble to get coverage for the class I was monitoring to get down to pick him out (a sub for the sub... good thing I've built up lots of good karma with that school; they were great!). When he first called me, I got the impression they had cleared him out and he was sitting in the lobby in nothing but his bathrobe and hospital socks, but turns out they weren't quite that close to turning him out onto the street.

He was back to working with the FIRST Robotics last night at the school and will resume his sports regime this coming weekend. Amazing, and we're grateful.

Everything is going fine, but time and schedules are hugely impacted. The most stressful thing to deal with right now is everyone thinking that we're under-reacting. But he really is fine. We were really lucky.

So, the DH is doing fine, all things considered. Our luck was amazing; things couldn't have fallen together any better. The EMTs were there within minutes of our call, and their tests didn't show anything to worry about. DH opted to go down to the Cardio ER anyway for further checks. The tests there only showed one slightly abnormal result, but the ER Doc decided that they should start the more invasive test... which showed a major blockage. The blockage was being cleared within 4 hours and prognostication for heart muscle recovery is optimistic.

My husband had a heart attack this afternoon. He's going to be fine, but I keep thinking that if I say it enough times, it will seem less surreal. This isn't what I pictured a heart attack to look like. It certainly wasn't the cliche 'clutch your chest and fall down'. He just didn't feel well, and his chest hurt.

So, I finally bit the bullet and put in the paperwork to donate the Volvo to charity. Sad, but I need to get rid of it. Riding on that wave of 'get it done', I rounded the Darling Husband up and we hauled the busted TV over to RePC and their electronics disposal program. (Well, actually, it's the state's program, but you know what I mean.) Victory!

...only when I got in touch with the fellow in charge of the car donation, he told me that they would just sell the car by weight for scrap metal. Lots of parts on that car would still be useful to other Volvo owners; believe me, I know! So that's back on the To Do list. Sigh.

Looking outside you'd never think that this time last week we were wading through snow. Patches of snow lasted in the backyard until just a day ago. Now the sun is out and it's a completely different scene.