Notes from another sabbatical day
* Woke 5:30 a.m. and finally was moving around 6:20.
* Spent about ten minutes brushing, flossing, rinsing so I could put on a good face (well, mouth) for my dentist.
* Normally if I had left at 7:45 a.m. as I did I would arrive at 8 a.m. to see the dentist and I would have been on time. However, a semi-trailer rig jack-knifed and blocked off one lane which delayed me ten minutes. The office was concerned because they phoned for me at home to check if I was in transit.
* I was also sweating the fact that I had no time to fill up with gas and the car's "Check Gage" light went on, meaning I had maybe a gallon of gas left. However, I did get to the dentist's office, running (presumably) on fumes. Before I left the dentist's office the receptionist kindly gave me directions to the nearest gas station. Sure enough just three blocks away was a gas station. I had about 4/10ths of a gallon left by the time I made it there. Whew! With my truck that might have got me another 5 miles...maybe.
* The dentist had nothing bad to report. They took no x-ray but had no reason to do so: I reported no issues and a visual survey didn't indicate problems. He did some "gum" probing and says I have early periodontal disease, which I have had pretty much all my life. I really need to do flossing more than just when I "feel it."
* While I was in Nob Hill I visited the Goodwill store at 9 a.m. and left with a laser disc of Empire of the Sun, a 1987 film from Steven Spielberg (for $3), a stereo version of an Al Caiola LP from RCA-Camden for 50 cents, an El Patio chop plate (for $5) and a rose Harlequin oval plate ($3). The woman checking me out grabbed my $20 bill and ignored the change I had assembled to go with it. I had hoped she would take all the money I gave her so I could get a $10 bill back (and get rid of a bunch of spare change). Nope. My guess was that she is so concerned with checking whether $20 bills are counterfeit that she simply didn't see the rest of the money (At Goodwill stores in our area the clerks are instructed to check all $20 bills: mark them and look at them in the light. I have never been in any other store in town that had such a stringent requirement. They even do $10 bills. I haven't checked lately if they do $5 bills. They don't do $1 bills. I think $10 bills is a bit too much and certainly this lady made much too big a deal about the $20 in this case). This angered me and I walked away in a huff (and drove away in my truck).
* My wallet was a bit thin, so I had some more $20 printed for me and waiting in the ATM. ;)
* Ace Hardware is having its Grand Opening this week even though it has been open since September and has a $10 off coupon (for $20 or more in purchases). So I went shopping. My intent was just $20 so it would be a half-off coupon effectively. However, I did need a bunch of things so I went over (almost $40 worth)!
* I did one of the "projects" later in the day: I put half-inch rubber feet on an iron folding structure that supports a woven table. I bought this table in Lawrence, Kansas at an antique/collectibles store in 1990 to go with a couple of similar chairs that were given to me by M., my artist friend who at the time lived in Dodge City, Kansas. It's original gold plastic feet had cracked and most were lost and the remaining two were falling off. These new black rubber replacements were just a bit too big, so I wrapped a little brown duct tape on the ends of the rods to make the rubber feet snug. Works well!
* At Grocery Outlet I got four containers of juice. We were out for a couple of days and it was not good. We like our juice and it is certainly better than pop: dieticians say a serving of juice counts as a serving of fruits or vegetables. Because we are supposed to have at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables each day this is a good way to help reach that goal.
* For lunch, at 5 p.m., I had half of the food left over from last night's meal at the Queen of Sheba restaurant at Russel and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland. Very good food last night and as left-overs: heavy reliance on lentils with a crepe like bread to scoop it up and into your mouth. While eating lunch I watched an episode of Superman from the first season involving a girl who wore a leg brace that wanted Superman to take her to the fair but ends up getting kidnapped. The DVD release of the 1951 series is very nice with excellent prints: it is like watching a movie or self-contained serial episode.
* Put out the trash: recycling, garbage and compost. Added to the compost the kitchen accumulation of corn dog sticks, rice to-go containers and pizza boxes from the past two months (which are accepted with the food waste and not accepted with recycling). Along with the two bags of normal garbage I was able to cram in a plastic jack-o-lantern with a light fixture inside. The bulb burnt out but we could not open the bottom to get to the fixture! We replaced that with an LED back-lit hanging pumpkin now seen illuminating the 2nd story window from our bedroom.
* The rest of my day was wasted online as I just tried to relax and let an impending headache float away. I learned that one of Portland's classic hotels still exists! The Portland Hotel is long gone (now Portland Courthouse Square) but The Multnomah Hotel was publicized and figured prominently over the years. It, too, was destined to go and was closed in the 1960s but somehow was saved long enough for a big hotel chain to renovate it and re-open it as the Embassy Suites Hotel, downtown Portland (319 SW Pine Street)! In fact, I believe Sharon Cecilia Caloz Reeve Muczynski, my twin sister, stayed there once. I knew it was an older hotel but I didn't realize it was THE Multnomah Hotel. Some day Marisa and I will have to stay there, as we did once in a stay-at-home vacation several years ago at another of Portland's classic hotels, The Benson.
* Speaking of hotels, Marisa and I will do a stay-at-home vacation this year at the Paramount Hotel so we can go to a show at the Schnitzer Auditorium. We will have a balcony, park facing room with a king-sized bed. I didn't go for the 2nd floor room with the extended balcony and the private outdoor table...or the Penthouse suite. However, this one should be quite acceptable (and not for much more than the rooms with a queen-sized bed facing in some other direction without a balcony).
* Spent about ten minutes brushing, flossing, rinsing so I could put on a good face (well, mouth) for my dentist.
* Normally if I had left at 7:45 a.m. as I did I would arrive at 8 a.m. to see the dentist and I would have been on time. However, a semi-trailer rig jack-knifed and blocked off one lane which delayed me ten minutes. The office was concerned because they phoned for me at home to check if I was in transit.
* I was also sweating the fact that I had no time to fill up with gas and the car's "Check Gage" light went on, meaning I had maybe a gallon of gas left. However, I did get to the dentist's office, running (presumably) on fumes. Before I left the dentist's office the receptionist kindly gave me directions to the nearest gas station. Sure enough just three blocks away was a gas station. I had about 4/10ths of a gallon left by the time I made it there. Whew! With my truck that might have got me another 5 miles...maybe.
* The dentist had nothing bad to report. They took no x-ray but had no reason to do so: I reported no issues and a visual survey didn't indicate problems. He did some "gum" probing and says I have early periodontal disease, which I have had pretty much all my life. I really need to do flossing more than just when I "feel it."
* While I was in Nob Hill I visited the Goodwill store at 9 a.m. and left with a laser disc of Empire of the Sun, a 1987 film from Steven Spielberg (for $3), a stereo version of an Al Caiola LP from RCA-Camden for 50 cents, an El Patio chop plate (for $5) and a rose Harlequin oval plate ($3). The woman checking me out grabbed my $20 bill and ignored the change I had assembled to go with it. I had hoped she would take all the money I gave her so I could get a $10 bill back (and get rid of a bunch of spare change). Nope. My guess was that she is so concerned with checking whether $20 bills are counterfeit that she simply didn't see the rest of the money (At Goodwill stores in our area the clerks are instructed to check all $20 bills: mark them and look at them in the light. I have never been in any other store in town that had such a stringent requirement. They even do $10 bills. I haven't checked lately if they do $5 bills. They don't do $1 bills. I think $10 bills is a bit too much and certainly this lady made much too big a deal about the $20 in this case). This angered me and I walked away in a huff (and drove away in my truck).
* My wallet was a bit thin, so I had some more $20 printed for me and waiting in the ATM. ;)
* Ace Hardware is having its Grand Opening this week even though it has been open since September and has a $10 off coupon (for $20 or more in purchases). So I went shopping. My intent was just $20 so it would be a half-off coupon effectively. However, I did need a bunch of things so I went over (almost $40 worth)!
* I did one of the "projects" later in the day: I put half-inch rubber feet on an iron folding structure that supports a woven table. I bought this table in Lawrence, Kansas at an antique/collectibles store in 1990 to go with a couple of similar chairs that were given to me by M., my artist friend who at the time lived in Dodge City, Kansas. It's original gold plastic feet had cracked and most were lost and the remaining two were falling off. These new black rubber replacements were just a bit too big, so I wrapped a little brown duct tape on the ends of the rods to make the rubber feet snug. Works well!
* At Grocery Outlet I got four containers of juice. We were out for a couple of days and it was not good. We like our juice and it is certainly better than pop: dieticians say a serving of juice counts as a serving of fruits or vegetables. Because we are supposed to have at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables each day this is a good way to help reach that goal.
* For lunch, at 5 p.m., I had half of the food left over from last night's meal at the Queen of Sheba restaurant at Russel and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland. Very good food last night and as left-overs: heavy reliance on lentils with a crepe like bread to scoop it up and into your mouth. While eating lunch I watched an episode of Superman from the first season involving a girl who wore a leg brace that wanted Superman to take her to the fair but ends up getting kidnapped. The DVD release of the 1951 series is very nice with excellent prints: it is like watching a movie or self-contained serial episode.
* Put out the trash: recycling, garbage and compost. Added to the compost the kitchen accumulation of corn dog sticks, rice to-go containers and pizza boxes from the past two months (which are accepted with the food waste and not accepted with recycling). Along with the two bags of normal garbage I was able to cram in a plastic jack-o-lantern with a light fixture inside. The bulb burnt out but we could not open the bottom to get to the fixture! We replaced that with an LED back-lit hanging pumpkin now seen illuminating the 2nd story window from our bedroom.
* The rest of my day was wasted online as I just tried to relax and let an impending headache float away. I learned that one of Portland's classic hotels still exists! The Portland Hotel is long gone (now Portland Courthouse Square) but The Multnomah Hotel was publicized and figured prominently over the years. It, too, was destined to go and was closed in the 1960s but somehow was saved long enough for a big hotel chain to renovate it and re-open it as the Embassy Suites Hotel, downtown Portland (319 SW Pine Street)! In fact, I believe Sharon Cecilia Caloz Reeve Muczynski, my twin sister, stayed there once. I knew it was an older hotel but I didn't realize it was THE Multnomah Hotel. Some day Marisa and I will have to stay there, as we did once in a stay-at-home vacation several years ago at another of Portland's classic hotels, The Benson.
* Speaking of hotels, Marisa and I will do a stay-at-home vacation this year at the Paramount Hotel so we can go to a show at the Schnitzer Auditorium. We will have a balcony, park facing room with a king-sized bed. I didn't go for the 2nd floor room with the extended balcony and the private outdoor table...or the Penthouse suite. However, this one should be quite acceptable (and not for much more than the rooms with a queen-sized bed facing in some other direction without a balcony).