Finally Done, after a month.
May. 30th, 2017 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdI signed the contract a month ago, ETA was May 8, which did not please me at the time. Calling a couple of times a week got no response. Kept getting voicemail where before there had been humans. Finally got through, date had been set for today at 9 am but nobody had bothered to let me know. 9 am became 9:30, a call got two humans, the second one said it would be another hour. The excuse was they had to pick up some columns which they knew they had to pick up ahead of time a month ago.
10:30, two workers arrived to replace the carport columns. The electrician showed up an hour later to see what needed to be done with the kitchen lights. Part of the plan was he could easily scope it out and get what he needed from Home Depot. But first he tried to install the remote controlled light switch I'd bought, and broke a screw. One more thing to get from Home Depot.
It took three people two hours to install the switch, remove the old receptacles and install new ones and another hour for them to discover that LED bulbs are polarized, and only fit in one direction, unlike fluorescents which don't care. And then he has to send the last worker to HD again to get the diffuser panels, which were actually the first thing on his shopping list. So another half hour, and finally at 3:30 I'm signing off on the work and printing a check.
While the last HD run was in progress I went online to find out how to pair the switch with my home automation system. The first three articles/youtubes were wrong. Finally stumbled on a site which had it right. And a bonus - unlike fluorescents, LEDs are dimmable, the switch has a dimmer, and the smart hub knows this. I can tell Google Home to set the lights to half and it does it. But best of all, I can turn the lights on/off from anywhere.
The carport columns are the same shape and size as the previous ones, but are not bent where cars have run into them, and are white to match the house and not some hideous light green. I thought the columns would be the most work, but that only took 45 minutes, plus 15 minutes cleanup.
So getting up with the alarm and ready to receive visitors at 8:30 in case they were early was in vain. The late finish meant a full day of unpaid time for me. 3-day week instead of 3.5. I am not pleased.
Fitful sleep last night, was chilly, which meant borderline low Hgl. Morning reading was 91.
On the tablet today is Seanan's nomination for Novella, Every Heart A Doorway. I have always loved her writing style but completely disinterested in her subjects and the worlds she creates. I am not amazed by her success, she has struck a rich vein of fanhood, well deserved, just not mine. This work is very different, except for the bloodletting. It is borderline science-fiction, a unique take on human psychology and personality disorders. It is definitely not her usual fantasy/SCA/horror work.
After the smoke cleared, I walked down the block, got my car and plugged it in, and thought about dinner. Out. But first, I needed to put the toaster, can opener and sodastream syrups back on the island, push the microwave cart in from the piano room and the bags cart from the livingroom, and the bar stools from below the white board. And the honey bear from next to the blender. And with the toaster in place I made a pair of Safeway generic chocolate chip waffles. They were good, but what few chips were there had migrated to one edge.
Unplugged the car and drove to Lawrence, and the Hanoi/Saigon Seafood Restaurant, which used to be basic Chinese, but it has a different ownership and menu now. I had the chef special chow fun, which did have a variety of things, shrimp, chicken, pork, scallop, but the noodles were pot thai noodles, not chow fun. That's the second time this has happened to me (different place the last time). It was okay. As I waited for my change, they gave me a rectangle of white, which turned out to be agar agar coconut similar to what I had made, but thicker and commercial.
Home, played with the kitchen lights a little, ice cream for a real dessert, and another episode of Dark Matters which again ends with everyone captured. 3/4 of the episode was crew searching the ship, interminably doing that point yourself and your gun one way, then do a 45° turn and repeat. It got old.
After the episode the clock by the TV said 9:35 so I turned it off, only to be reminded that it was 7-something, and that clock got reset by the several power outages the bozoids did as they fumbled with the light installation. Had they known what they were doing it would have been one off, one on and done.
Plans for tomorrow:
Work - new tests, new projects
10:30, two workers arrived to replace the carport columns. The electrician showed up an hour later to see what needed to be done with the kitchen lights. Part of the plan was he could easily scope it out and get what he needed from Home Depot. But first he tried to install the remote controlled light switch I'd bought, and broke a screw. One more thing to get from Home Depot.
It took three people two hours to install the switch, remove the old receptacles and install new ones and another hour for them to discover that LED bulbs are polarized, and only fit in one direction, unlike fluorescents which don't care. And then he has to send the last worker to HD again to get the diffuser panels, which were actually the first thing on his shopping list. So another half hour, and finally at 3:30 I'm signing off on the work and printing a check.
While the last HD run was in progress I went online to find out how to pair the switch with my home automation system. The first three articles/youtubes were wrong. Finally stumbled on a site which had it right. And a bonus - unlike fluorescents, LEDs are dimmable, the switch has a dimmer, and the smart hub knows this. I can tell Google Home to set the lights to half and it does it. But best of all, I can turn the lights on/off from anywhere.
The carport columns are the same shape and size as the previous ones, but are not bent where cars have run into them, and are white to match the house and not some hideous light green. I thought the columns would be the most work, but that only took 45 minutes, plus 15 minutes cleanup.
So getting up with the alarm and ready to receive visitors at 8:30 in case they were early was in vain. The late finish meant a full day of unpaid time for me. 3-day week instead of 3.5. I am not pleased.
Fitful sleep last night, was chilly, which meant borderline low Hgl. Morning reading was 91.
On the tablet today is Seanan's nomination for Novella, Every Heart A Doorway. I have always loved her writing style but completely disinterested in her subjects and the worlds she creates. I am not amazed by her success, she has struck a rich vein of fanhood, well deserved, just not mine. This work is very different, except for the bloodletting. It is borderline science-fiction, a unique take on human psychology and personality disorders. It is definitely not her usual fantasy/SCA/horror work.
After the smoke cleared, I walked down the block, got my car and plugged it in, and thought about dinner. Out. But first, I needed to put the toaster, can opener and sodastream syrups back on the island, push the microwave cart in from the piano room and the bags cart from the livingroom, and the bar stools from below the white board. And the honey bear from next to the blender. And with the toaster in place I made a pair of Safeway generic chocolate chip waffles. They were good, but what few chips were there had migrated to one edge.
Unplugged the car and drove to Lawrence, and the Hanoi/Saigon Seafood Restaurant, which used to be basic Chinese, but it has a different ownership and menu now. I had the chef special chow fun, which did have a variety of things, shrimp, chicken, pork, scallop, but the noodles were pot thai noodles, not chow fun. That's the second time this has happened to me (different place the last time). It was okay. As I waited for my change, they gave me a rectangle of white, which turned out to be agar agar coconut similar to what I had made, but thicker and commercial.
Home, played with the kitchen lights a little, ice cream for a real dessert, and another episode of Dark Matters which again ends with everyone captured. 3/4 of the episode was crew searching the ship, interminably doing that point yourself and your gun one way, then do a 45° turn and repeat. It got old.
After the episode the clock by the TV said 9:35 so I turned it off, only to be reminded that it was 7-something, and that clock got reset by the several power outages the bozoids did as they fumbled with the light installation. Had they known what they were doing it would have been one off, one on and done.
Plans for tomorrow:
Work - new tests, new projects
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