Beware? Not much
Irony day. The freezer compartment is filled with soups and stew and caramelized onions and packets of rice and some other stuff, but I was out of fresh fruit and dairy and some other perishables. So today was shopping day.
But first, there was a walk I needed to take, camera in hand. About three blocks from my apartment there are several orange construction alert signs warning that the road I usually take to get onto the freeway will be closed as they build a foot/bike path alongside Permanente Creek, which runs alongside my apartment. The signs say this will happen between the dates of 00/00 and 00/00.
Half a block north, in the last little nook before the freeway, is Acosta's Woodwind & Brass Repair. I have three baritone horns which need various degrees of repair to make them playable, and I had been planning on going to Acosta's to find out what it would cost/how long it would take, but he is only open from 11 am till 6 pm weekdays, so I wasn't able to do this while I was employed.
So I ducked in there, described the work, and he said it sounded like about $100 max per horn, so I walked back home, loaded them into the car and brought them in for him to look at. Mr. Acosta knows his stuff. He took a look at the valves and springs and showed me what was causing the valves to stick, and he also saw without me telling him that the oldest of the three played "fuzzy", it has leaks. The good news is none of them needs re-plating, which is expensive. The two older ones need a thorough cleaning and some truing, the newest one only needs a basic valve cleaning. Total bill will be around $250, give or take. And they ought to be done in a week.
That done, did my basic shopping, brought everything home and saw from the whiteboard I had forgotten to put zucchini on my iPhone list. For about the 6th time.
There's a produce place in the Mexican part of Menlo Park which I thought I would make a field trip to, and I got within a block of it, but got trapped in the wrong lane, and at that point on Middlefield, at that time of day, traffic is impossible - the only thing I could to was keep driving until I got to Costco. Not only is there no U-turn allowed there (for no good reason) there was a cop car watching for people making U-turns.
So I turned into the Costco lot, parked, and went inside on the off chance they had zuccinin. They did not. But they did have limes, mango slices, low-sodium bacon, paper bowls and bathroom cups, so it was not a wasted trip.
Got to the freeway at 6:30, traffic was a huge mess what with it raining and rush hour, so I took a Palo Alto exit, and have been parked at the very busy Starbucks across the street south of Stanford campus. I am at a table way in the far corner. The main area looks like a student MacBook convention. There is way too much eye candy, and more arrives every minute. Many of them may even be of age. Looking outside, traffic still looks pretty bad,k I should stay in here for a while longer. :-)
Had a call from the LA recruiter, he said he has not heard back from Cisco. I don't think he will - the hiring manager was clear about needing to fill the position quickly. More than a week is not quickly. And my experience has been that managers hire first, and notify the losers' reps last. Recruiter suggested I email him notes to the people who interviewed me, thanking them for their time. He thinks that may remind them to consider me. Normally, this is done right after the interview, it's really too late now, and won't do any good. He was told his company had an exclusive on this job, but I saw at least three other letterheads on resumes on the manager's desk, and the manager had not heard of the recruiting company when we talked about benefits. Most contract agencies these days offer some piddling group health plan, better than individuals get but not nearly as good as FTEs. I told him I would write those, but I won't.
Plans for tomorrow:
Nothing daytime. Carousel run-through at Lyric Theater, first time for run crew.
But first, there was a walk I needed to take, camera in hand. About three blocks from my apartment there are several orange construction alert signs warning that the road I usually take to get onto the freeway will be closed as they build a foot/bike path alongside Permanente Creek, which runs alongside my apartment. The signs say this will happen between the dates of 00/00 and 00/00.
Half a block north, in the last little nook before the freeway, is Acosta's Woodwind & Brass Repair. I have three baritone horns which need various degrees of repair to make them playable, and I had been planning on going to Acosta's to find out what it would cost/how long it would take, but he is only open from 11 am till 6 pm weekdays, so I wasn't able to do this while I was employed.
So I ducked in there, described the work, and he said it sounded like about $100 max per horn, so I walked back home, loaded them into the car and brought them in for him to look at. Mr. Acosta knows his stuff. He took a look at the valves and springs and showed me what was causing the valves to stick, and he also saw without me telling him that the oldest of the three played "fuzzy", it has leaks. The good news is none of them needs re-plating, which is expensive. The two older ones need a thorough cleaning and some truing, the newest one only needs a basic valve cleaning. Total bill will be around $250, give or take. And they ought to be done in a week.
That done, did my basic shopping, brought everything home and saw from the whiteboard I had forgotten to put zucchini on my iPhone list. For about the 6th time.
There's a produce place in the Mexican part of Menlo Park which I thought I would make a field trip to, and I got within a block of it, but got trapped in the wrong lane, and at that point on Middlefield, at that time of day, traffic is impossible - the only thing I could to was keep driving until I got to Costco. Not only is there no U-turn allowed there (for no good reason) there was a cop car watching for people making U-turns.
So I turned into the Costco lot, parked, and went inside on the off chance they had zuccinin. They did not. But they did have limes, mango slices, low-sodium bacon, paper bowls and bathroom cups, so it was not a wasted trip.
Got to the freeway at 6:30, traffic was a huge mess what with it raining and rush hour, so I took a Palo Alto exit, and have been parked at the very busy Starbucks across the street south of Stanford campus. I am at a table way in the far corner. The main area looks like a student MacBook convention. There is way too much eye candy, and more arrives every minute. Many of them may even be of age. Looking outside, traffic still looks pretty bad,k I should stay in here for a while longer. :-)
Had a call from the LA recruiter, he said he has not heard back from Cisco. I don't think he will - the hiring manager was clear about needing to fill the position quickly. More than a week is not quickly. And my experience has been that managers hire first, and notify the losers' reps last. Recruiter suggested I email him notes to the people who interviewed me, thanking them for their time. He thinks that may remind them to consider me. Normally, this is done right after the interview, it's really too late now, and won't do any good. He was told his company had an exclusive on this job, but I saw at least three other letterheads on resumes on the manager's desk, and the manager had not heard of the recruiting company when we talked about benefits. Most contract agencies these days offer some piddling group health plan, better than individuals get but not nearly as good as FTEs. I told him I would write those, but I won't.
Plans for tomorrow:
Nothing daytime. Carousel run-through at Lyric Theater, first time for run crew.