Adventures
We've had a spate of adventures, recently.
We were back in NJ this weekend so Will could finish re-wiring the flatbed trailer we're borrowing from R&K, and finish building a wood platform across it, so we can start hauling items to NJ a bit at a time. When we drove home with it Sun night, things went smoothly, although Will did get out twice to check on things - once when we stopped for gas, and once on the highway when he thought he'd heard a noise. But all was well, thank goodness.
Toll Plaza: We have one of those electronic things in our car to automatically deduct bridge/turnpike tolls, so you don't need to stop and pay cash. However, because of the trailer, and because EZ Pass knows we don't normally *have* a trailer, we had to stop in the cash lane at the NJ/PA border/river crossing and talk to the toll-taker. She said she'd revoke the EZ Pass charge so we could just pay cash for the whole kit-and-caboodle (otherwise, the fee through EZ Pass for the unexpected trailer would be much more), which was fine. Then she saw the shadows of our two dogs in the back and asked after their breeds. When we told her, she said, "So, they'd probably need this size biscuit, then." And proceeded to hand us two appropriately-sized Milk Bones for them. I wish I'd gotten her name so I could have given positive feedback to the Delaware Toll Commission - she was friendly, helpful with our trailer fee issue, explained how to handle it, AND gave us treats for our furry companions. When was the last time you had a toll-taker that pleasant? :)
Wallet: So, we got home safe and sound, although a bit later than usual because we'd had to drive a little more slowly with the trailer. We got out of the car ... and then Will couldn't find his wallet.
He had taken it out of his jeans because sitting on it for nearly two hours in a car hurts. He swore he'd put it in the center space between the front seats. We looked everywhere - no wallet. The only conclusion; it had been resting on the edge of his unzipped jacket, and one of the times he got out to check on the trailer, it had been whisked out of the car and fallen. But, just to be sure, we searched every bag, and talked to Karen to be sure it wasn't there - nope. We called the gas station where we'd stopped - no wallet.
So, at 11:30pm, I got back in the car, and drove out to the place where Will had pulled over briefly, about 30-ish minutes from our house, and went to look for it. At the point that we'd pulled back into traffic, MiniPlu had asked how far we still were from home, and I'd happened to notice the mile marker as we went by, which helped formulate the answer. I was pretty sure it was marker 11.2, so I drove out to Exit 11 (at marker 11.7), turned around, got back on the highway, then pulled into the shoulder, put my hazards on, and drove at 2mph, looking for any sign of his wallet. Nothing. But, just to be sure, I went to the next exit (irritatingly, all the way down by mile marker 7), turned back around, drove this time to Exit 12 (which was actually past marker 13, go figure), turned around again, and re-did the search, this time with my hi-beams on. I'm sure people passing me didn't appreciate having brights in their rear-view mirrors, but they were just going to have to live (and, at least it's not like there was tons of traffic at that hour :-P). Nothing.
At the end of my search, Will called to check on me, so I reached into the dashboard compartment to grab my Blutooth headset, and gave him my update as I started driving back home again. He told me that, despite talking to the gas station, Karen had driven out to double-check, herself. (The station is about 35 min from their house.) Nothing. It was after 1am by the time I got off the highway near our house, at which point Will called back and said, "I think I know where it is! Check the dashboard compartment."
And, lo and behold, there it was. I mean, I had PUT MY HAND IN THERE to get my earpiece, and hadn't touched it. And we hadn't looked when we were frantically searching the car, because he was SO SURE he'd put it in the space between the seats - it just didn't occur to us to look in any compartments or glove box or anything. I couldn't really be mad, since the important thing was that we'd found it, but of course it took me a little bit to settle to sleep once I got back, and Monday was marching band when MiniPlu had to be at school early, which meant yesterday I was operating on only a hair over 4 hours of sleep. :P
Dentist: So, at my last dental checkup, back in Sept, they decided some slowly-deepening grooves on my three back molars (my wisdom teeth - I don't have any 12-year molars) finally had reached the point where they needed to be dealt with, before they became proper cavities. This meant that, after having had only four hours of sleep, I found myself in the dentist's chair. Because I knew the issues were still relatively small, I asked the dentist whether he thought I could forgo some or all of the Novocaine, because even though I had accepted the idea of having 3/4 of my mouth completely numb all at once (I was given the option of spreading the fillings over two appointments, but decided to get it all over with at one go), it still was preferable NOT to have that experience. I've only had two other fillings in my life, back in high school, and I skipped Novocaine for those, too, because they were small.
The dentist checked my teeth again and felt that perhaps my lower left (the only lower one) still needed Novocaine but that I could probably get away without it for the two upper molars. So, that's what I did. I brought music on my mp3 player, which helped distract me, and the pain was manageable, even though he did end up drilling more of my upper right than I think he had thought. So, anyway, an hour later, I was done and on my way again. I had this weird thing where the numb part of my face felt itchy - yet scratching did no good because it was numb. And the new contours of my teeth still feel weird. But I'm otherwise fine. I'm glad I only had the one shot, though, because the inside hinge of my jaw, where they'd put it, felt sore and stiff later that evening, like I had a case of lockjaw. I can still feel it a little, three days later, but it's not really a problem.
Tree:On Tues, around 9am, I noticed some hullabaloo on our semi-busy cross-street (we live on a corner) - people on megaphones, vehicles with flashing lights, etc. I hadn't heard an accident or anything, so I thought - maybe someone's working on electrical wires or something? And yet, a little bit later, it seemed like the hullabaloo had moved a little further south down the road. Shortly after that, I had to head out, also heading south, but along another street. I had to cross a street that intersects both the road I was on and the one where the megaphone people had been, but as I approached that cross street, along comes a cop car, lights and sirens blazing, and pulls right up to the intersection, blocking it off to the west (my right). Thankfully, I just wanted to go straight across, so I wasn't being hampered by the police at all, just curious to know what all the involvement was about. Maybe an accident had happened along *this* (cross) road, instead? As I went across the intersection, I glanced past the cop car to see if I could spot the issue.
And there was a giant tree coming down the street. The city's Christmas tree. It gets parked in the little plaza between the public library and City Hall, with a creche at the bottom and a couple of normal-sized Christmas trees around the perimeter. The tree is typically, oh, maybe 3-4 stories high? It's always a monster, for sure. So, yeah, imagine a flatbed truck hauling a giant tree down the street; the truck had to drive down the middle of the street, straddling the divider lines, so the branches wouldn't sweep away parked cars, bicyclists, small children, etc, as it went, which meant the cops were blocking off traffic, a few blocks at a time, to clear the way. Hence the megaphone people, the vehicles with flashing lights, and the police.
It's not every day you see a giant tree coming down the street. :-D
I finally started tackling my yuletide fic last night. It's all personal introspective, no active interaction, so I'm wondering how boring the recipient's going to find that, sigh. But it's all I've got at the moment. And I really have to stop thinking of 6-6.5 hours of sleep as "good enough." :P
We were back in NJ this weekend so Will could finish re-wiring the flatbed trailer we're borrowing from R&K, and finish building a wood platform across it, so we can start hauling items to NJ a bit at a time. When we drove home with it Sun night, things went smoothly, although Will did get out twice to check on things - once when we stopped for gas, and once on the highway when he thought he'd heard a noise. But all was well, thank goodness.
Toll Plaza: We have one of those electronic things in our car to automatically deduct bridge/turnpike tolls, so you don't need to stop and pay cash. However, because of the trailer, and because EZ Pass knows we don't normally *have* a trailer, we had to stop in the cash lane at the NJ/PA border/river crossing and talk to the toll-taker. She said she'd revoke the EZ Pass charge so we could just pay cash for the whole kit-and-caboodle (otherwise, the fee through EZ Pass for the unexpected trailer would be much more), which was fine. Then she saw the shadows of our two dogs in the back and asked after their breeds. When we told her, she said, "So, they'd probably need this size biscuit, then." And proceeded to hand us two appropriately-sized Milk Bones for them. I wish I'd gotten her name so I could have given positive feedback to the Delaware Toll Commission - she was friendly, helpful with our trailer fee issue, explained how to handle it, AND gave us treats for our furry companions. When was the last time you had a toll-taker that pleasant? :)
Wallet: So, we got home safe and sound, although a bit later than usual because we'd had to drive a little more slowly with the trailer. We got out of the car ... and then Will couldn't find his wallet.
He had taken it out of his jeans because sitting on it for nearly two hours in a car hurts. He swore he'd put it in the center space between the front seats. We looked everywhere - no wallet. The only conclusion; it had been resting on the edge of his unzipped jacket, and one of the times he got out to check on the trailer, it had been whisked out of the car and fallen. But, just to be sure, we searched every bag, and talked to Karen to be sure it wasn't there - nope. We called the gas station where we'd stopped - no wallet.
So, at 11:30pm, I got back in the car, and drove out to the place where Will had pulled over briefly, about 30-ish minutes from our house, and went to look for it. At the point that we'd pulled back into traffic, MiniPlu had asked how far we still were from home, and I'd happened to notice the mile marker as we went by, which helped formulate the answer. I was pretty sure it was marker 11.2, so I drove out to Exit 11 (at marker 11.7), turned around, got back on the highway, then pulled into the shoulder, put my hazards on, and drove at 2mph, looking for any sign of his wallet. Nothing. But, just to be sure, I went to the next exit (irritatingly, all the way down by mile marker 7), turned back around, drove this time to Exit 12 (which was actually past marker 13, go figure), turned around again, and re-did the search, this time with my hi-beams on. I'm sure people passing me didn't appreciate having brights in their rear-view mirrors, but they were just going to have to live (and, at least it's not like there was tons of traffic at that hour :-P). Nothing.
At the end of my search, Will called to check on me, so I reached into the dashboard compartment to grab my Blutooth headset, and gave him my update as I started driving back home again. He told me that, despite talking to the gas station, Karen had driven out to double-check, herself. (The station is about 35 min from their house.) Nothing. It was after 1am by the time I got off the highway near our house, at which point Will called back and said, "I think I know where it is! Check the dashboard compartment."
And, lo and behold, there it was. I mean, I had PUT MY HAND IN THERE to get my earpiece, and hadn't touched it. And we hadn't looked when we were frantically searching the car, because he was SO SURE he'd put it in the space between the seats - it just didn't occur to us to look in any compartments or glove box or anything. I couldn't really be mad, since the important thing was that we'd found it, but of course it took me a little bit to settle to sleep once I got back, and Monday was marching band when MiniPlu had to be at school early, which meant yesterday I was operating on only a hair over 4 hours of sleep. :P
Dentist: So, at my last dental checkup, back in Sept, they decided some slowly-deepening grooves on my three back molars (my wisdom teeth - I don't have any 12-year molars) finally had reached the point where they needed to be dealt with, before they became proper cavities. This meant that, after having had only four hours of sleep, I found myself in the dentist's chair. Because I knew the issues were still relatively small, I asked the dentist whether he thought I could forgo some or all of the Novocaine, because even though I had accepted the idea of having 3/4 of my mouth completely numb all at once (I was given the option of spreading the fillings over two appointments, but decided to get it all over with at one go), it still was preferable NOT to have that experience. I've only had two other fillings in my life, back in high school, and I skipped Novocaine for those, too, because they were small.
The dentist checked my teeth again and felt that perhaps my lower left (the only lower one) still needed Novocaine but that I could probably get away without it for the two upper molars. So, that's what I did. I brought music on my mp3 player, which helped distract me, and the pain was manageable, even though he did end up drilling more of my upper right than I think he had thought. So, anyway, an hour later, I was done and on my way again. I had this weird thing where the numb part of my face felt itchy - yet scratching did no good because it was numb. And the new contours of my teeth still feel weird. But I'm otherwise fine. I'm glad I only had the one shot, though, because the inside hinge of my jaw, where they'd put it, felt sore and stiff later that evening, like I had a case of lockjaw. I can still feel it a little, three days later, but it's not really a problem.
Tree:On Tues, around 9am, I noticed some hullabaloo on our semi-busy cross-street (we live on a corner) - people on megaphones, vehicles with flashing lights, etc. I hadn't heard an accident or anything, so I thought - maybe someone's working on electrical wires or something? And yet, a little bit later, it seemed like the hullabaloo had moved a little further south down the road. Shortly after that, I had to head out, also heading south, but along another street. I had to cross a street that intersects both the road I was on and the one where the megaphone people had been, but as I approached that cross street, along comes a cop car, lights and sirens blazing, and pulls right up to the intersection, blocking it off to the west (my right). Thankfully, I just wanted to go straight across, so I wasn't being hampered by the police at all, just curious to know what all the involvement was about. Maybe an accident had happened along *this* (cross) road, instead? As I went across the intersection, I glanced past the cop car to see if I could spot the issue.
And there was a giant tree coming down the street. The city's Christmas tree. It gets parked in the little plaza between the public library and City Hall, with a creche at the bottom and a couple of normal-sized Christmas trees around the perimeter. The tree is typically, oh, maybe 3-4 stories high? It's always a monster, for sure. So, yeah, imagine a flatbed truck hauling a giant tree down the street; the truck had to drive down the middle of the street, straddling the divider lines, so the branches wouldn't sweep away parked cars, bicyclists, small children, etc, as it went, which meant the cops were blocking off traffic, a few blocks at a time, to clear the way. Hence the megaphone people, the vehicles with flashing lights, and the police.
It's not every day you see a giant tree coming down the street. :-D
I finally started tackling my yuletide fic last night. It's all personal introspective, no active interaction, so I'm wondering how boring the recipient's going to find that, sigh. But it's all I've got at the moment. And I really have to stop thinking of 6-6.5 hours of sleep as "good enough." :P