I Keep Saying I'll Keep It Short...

Then CDO* sets in.

Okay, short this time. Woke up way late, got to work at 10:30. Attended one mostly useless meeting. Guy Who Never Shuts Up was honing his "I'll just keep talking and ignore anyone trying to get a word in edgewise" skills. Had a daydream about trying to figure out why my daydreams are so compartmentalized.

Found a lot to write in my weekly report. Two bugs I filed have started wheels spinning in Engineering.

Didn't go out for lunch, had enough snacks and wanted to make up for being late.

Costco, because last weekend there was a guy selling granite counter tops. That booth was replaced by someone selling juicers. I don't understand why 40 people would stand transfixed by his presentation. Were they hungry for veggie sludge?

Walked around looking for butter/paté/cheese spreader knives. None found. On the way out picked up a pamphlet from the granite countertop permanent display, which was mostly useless. No prices, no details of colors, etc. Just a number to call for a free in-home estimate. I have about 50 sq ft to do, Lowe's would cost $3,550 for the kind I want.

Home, took a nap. Forced myself to sleep till 9.

Dinner was reheated frozen stuff.

Domino pooped in the livingroom by her scratching post. Almost didn't see it.

iPod classic 7th gen bought on eBay is defective. Have to wait till Monday for the seller's reply to my note.

Plans for tomorrow:

8:30, put out recycled soda cans for community drive.
Take Domino to Palo Alto for a shave
Community emergency preparedness meeting at 2
Would like to go to the Thai classical event in Union City but it's too early

Grooming FAIL

Woke up early enough to put the cans out for recycling. The groomers said they took animals first in first out, so instead of the planned 11 I dropped Domino off at about 10. The place is a house, in a dense residential area (one wonders how they got the zoning variance) there is no parking.  Parked on the street half a block past. The front stoop is designed to trip you twice. Very low, wide steps. Opened the door and was hit with the strong smell of animal urine. Should have walked out right then.

Gave the nice lady at the desk Domino's info, dropped her off and said I would be back around 4:30.  Plenty of time for them, I figured. They are cash-only which was another red flag. Had some time to kill, so went to one of my regular Starbucks which is next to a credit union, where I got some cash before going for a mocha.

But first my ADD stepped in, and I pulled into the car wash because the car needed it both inside and outside, and I had a coupon. I thought I had a coupon, what the cashier pointed out is what I had was the part of the ad the coupon was cut out of. She gave me $1 off anyway. Coupon would have been $4 off.

There should have been a line, but there wasn't, so when I tried to put the car in valet mode, one of the workers opened a door which apparently screwed that up, because when they parked it, it locked itself with the keys inside. They had to break into it.

Plenty of time after Starbucks before the 2 pm emergency preparedness meeting at the community center, so I went to Academy Press, where one of the basfa regulars was selling off most of the items left by her late father. I bought some engraved blocks and a parts cabinet and most of a ream of paper. There were many cabinets with drawers of movable type fonts, and I was tempted to buy a drawer, but looking closer at the items, I don't have a setup in which to use them.

Home, heated up a couple of corn dogs and some mixed veggies for lunch. Among the junk mail was a notice from the assessor's office with the assessment for the house, which looked about right. Unfortunately it will almost double the taxes. Nice thing about a movable home on leased land is the assessment is about 1/3 of what it would be if I owned the land.

Walked to the community center and listened for an hour to a very complete presentation on how to prepare for a disaster in the community. There was a husband-wife team doing the main presenting, plus four other trained volunteers chiming in from time to time. They did a good job, very reasonable suggestions, and now I have short shopping list. Something which was answered for me is yes, we are allowed to have outdoor BBQs. Lowe's is having a sale, I may get one.

Walked back home with the couple who live in #1. Nice, intelligent people. They don't look old enough to live here, but I guess they must be.

Hung up the laundry until it was time to collect Domino. When I got there she wasn't ready yet (WTF?) and they said she had been very stressed and quite a fighter, and the shave job was very uneven as a result. So they only charged me the standard rate. I was flabbergasted that they had not sedated her. As I was waiting a family, tall German dad and three black kids brought in their schnauzer puppy in a whim. Cute kids, lovely dog. Dad was clueless. Bottom line is they got in the way of my retrieving Domino. After 10 minutes the front desk person finally let me into the grooming area so I could see how my cat was, but then she gave the family the tour, so that didn;t work so well. The 80-year-old hag who had done Domino's grooming tried to shame me about not bringing her in sooner, and insisted it was more than 3 weeks since the mats had started. It wasn't but at this point I was done with the place, and just needed to get Domino out of the stressful environment. There were three dogs being groomed on tables around her with no barriers. And of course schnauzer pup decided to growl at the nearest one.

Grabbed the carrier and left.

Domino was uncharacteristically quiet until I pulled into the driveway. Then she started wailing her usual wail.

Inside, it took her a while to leave the carrier. She was seriously spooked by the experience. All evening she has been finding dark hiding places she has never gone before. Right now she is hiding behind a box under the new table on the other side of the office. The shave job looks like hell, and was not completed. They left her tail alone, and they missed a bit of her ruff, which was the part I told them several times was the problem area. One other disturbing thing is she is very skinny. Not their fault.


At the front door was the expected Amazon package, three queen microfiber sheet sets. I put a light blue one on the bed, Domino watched from under the rack where my scanner and shortwave radios are. Nice to have an adjustable bed frame, raising the front way up makes it easy to snap on the anti-slip clips.

It was too late to go to the Thai classical dance reception, or Vallejo to see Madame Butterfly a friend was starring in and produced. I could have made it to The Mikado downtown, lots of friends in that, but decided it was wiser to keep the cat company. So I watched two episodes of TMZ, caught up on FaceBook, looked in the freezer for dinner and saw that I needed to make a short Safeway run. Back home, as usual there were more frozen foods than fit in the freezer. There is a lot of chicken soup saved up for a snotty day, but also the freezer arrangement is not kind to packaged meals. I would love to replace the fridge, but prices these days are obscene, and except for the organization this one seem to work fine.

Solved a wee bit of the problem by having one of the frozen dinners nuked for dinner. Watched two episodes of Hollywood Game Night and here I am journaling.

Plans for tomorrow:
Maybe go to the dump in the morning and get more mulch
Shoup Park by 12:30 for the 1:30 concert. Weather forecast is for 90°
Take out the garbage