The Gift of My Very Own Minions, and That Thing I Said About the Rain? Forget It.
What a bizarre day!
It started off with a terrible bout of insomnia -- partially caused by my sinus cavities having suddenly decided that it might be a nice idea to practice breathing underwater -- and the coming of a strong storm band. To pass the time, I finished reading The Lost Symbol, the new Robert Langdon novel by Dan Brown.
The plot was a little on the tired side. It was another Puzzle Coupon Quest with that Historical and Art twist that Dan Brown does so well. Only, he was trying too hard with this one. I found myself more interested in the philosophies, technologies, and arcane knowledge more than the unraveling of the plot.
Anyway ....
Insomnia = finishing The Lost Symbol + stormy weather + not a lot of sleep = really would like to stay in bed and sleep
Ended up getting ready for work + taking the Miata to work + a lightning strike that came too close to my little convertible before leaving the subdivision + suddenly having troubles with First Gear while waiting a light, in a storm, on the way to work = WTF?!!
I tried to pass it off as some odd thing that happened -- probably water getting into someplace that it shouldn't be because the Miata sits low -- when the same damn thing happened about 8 blocks away from the previous spot.
W.T.F.
I was about 10 miles away from work, with a couple of big hills that needed scaling, and hoping that it wasn't anything serious. There was also the hope that I'd be able to make it to the parking garage safely.
The closer I came to the parking garage, the worse things got. First gear locked up while I was waiting to get my parking ticket, then my engine started to sputter while I had the clutch and brake in to reach for my ticket. Just before I parked, I had to put the car in reverse to back into one of the wall slots. First, the engine died. Then, after restarting the car and fighting to put the shifter into Reverse, the car moved in reverse (rather jerkily) while the clutch was still in.
I knew the car was boned with transmission problems. I figured things would be easier to deal with after I got my large chai latte at the coffee shop on the plaza. I went into the coffee shop and found out that they're going out of business. This Friday (tomorrow), they're serving their last drinks.
Taking my chai and being reminded by the wind gusts that it's better to be a palm tree in a storm than a live oak, I walked across the plaza to go to work. Once inside, I called M to make arrangements for the car (and myself) for the afternoon. Then, my chai and I went up to the 3rd floor.
One of my jobs is doing the humidity log for the gallery. My morning starts off with the taking of the temperature and humidity readings from 4 sensors placed around the Art Floor. Then, I pop onto The Weather Channel website to get the outdoor temperature, humidity and morning weather forecast. This morning we had a Tornado Watch, a Severe Weather Warning, and a Flash Flood Warning. The Curator also came in and told us that there were tornadoes spotted just west and just south of downtown. Then, the weather outside turned pitch black at 10am.
Woo hoo! Let's hear it for working on the 3rd floor of a building when there's tornadoes in the area. Woo Hoo!!
The weather was so horrible, in fact, that a school group of 5th graders (from a neighboring county) called off their field trip today. Those 100+ kids will have to be rescheduled for another day. One that, hopefully, doesn't have another 100+ kids also scheduled to tour the museum on the same day.
Strangely enough, I had enough things to do to keep me busy.
During my time today, I was informed that we'll be getting some volunteers in the museum on Saturday. They're a group of girls from a local sorority who are going to help me out with stuff. The staff member who told me this news seemed to believe that they might volunteer more and/or do an internship with the museum. Since I'll be on the 3rd Floor on Saturday (when they'll be in), I'm to kinda-sorta supervise them, train them, and give them things to do.
Now, I just need to figure out what I need help with.
It started off with a terrible bout of insomnia -- partially caused by my sinus cavities having suddenly decided that it might be a nice idea to practice breathing underwater -- and the coming of a strong storm band. To pass the time, I finished reading The Lost Symbol, the new Robert Langdon novel by Dan Brown.
The plot was a little on the tired side. It was another Puzzle Coupon Quest with that Historical and Art twist that Dan Brown does so well. Only, he was trying too hard with this one. I found myself more interested in the philosophies, technologies, and arcane knowledge more than the unraveling of the plot.
Anyway ....
Insomnia = finishing The Lost Symbol + stormy weather + not a lot of sleep = really would like to stay in bed and sleep
Ended up getting ready for work + taking the Miata to work + a lightning strike that came too close to my little convertible before leaving the subdivision + suddenly having troubles with First Gear while waiting a light, in a storm, on the way to work = WTF?!!
I tried to pass it off as some odd thing that happened -- probably water getting into someplace that it shouldn't be because the Miata sits low -- when the same damn thing happened about 8 blocks away from the previous spot.
W.T.F.
I was about 10 miles away from work, with a couple of big hills that needed scaling, and hoping that it wasn't anything serious. There was also the hope that I'd be able to make it to the parking garage safely.
The closer I came to the parking garage, the worse things got. First gear locked up while I was waiting to get my parking ticket, then my engine started to sputter while I had the clutch and brake in to reach for my ticket. Just before I parked, I had to put the car in reverse to back into one of the wall slots. First, the engine died. Then, after restarting the car and fighting to put the shifter into Reverse, the car moved in reverse (rather jerkily) while the clutch was still in.
I knew the car was boned with transmission problems. I figured things would be easier to deal with after I got my large chai latte at the coffee shop on the plaza. I went into the coffee shop and found out that they're going out of business. This Friday (tomorrow), they're serving their last drinks.
Taking my chai and being reminded by the wind gusts that it's better to be a palm tree in a storm than a live oak, I walked across the plaza to go to work. Once inside, I called M to make arrangements for the car (and myself) for the afternoon. Then, my chai and I went up to the 3rd floor.
One of my jobs is doing the humidity log for the gallery. My morning starts off with the taking of the temperature and humidity readings from 4 sensors placed around the Art Floor. Then, I pop onto The Weather Channel website to get the outdoor temperature, humidity and morning weather forecast. This morning we had a Tornado Watch, a Severe Weather Warning, and a Flash Flood Warning. The Curator also came in and told us that there were tornadoes spotted just west and just south of downtown. Then, the weather outside turned pitch black at 10am.
Woo hoo! Let's hear it for working on the 3rd floor of a building when there's tornadoes in the area. Woo Hoo!!
The weather was so horrible, in fact, that a school group of 5th graders (from a neighboring county) called off their field trip today. Those 100+ kids will have to be rescheduled for another day. One that, hopefully, doesn't have another 100+ kids also scheduled to tour the museum on the same day.
Strangely enough, I had enough things to do to keep me busy.
During my time today, I was informed that we'll be getting some volunteers in the museum on Saturday. They're a group of girls from a local sorority who are going to help me out with stuff. The staff member who told me this news seemed to believe that they might volunteer more and/or do an internship with the museum. Since I'll be on the 3rd Floor on Saturday (when they'll be in), I'm to kinda-sorta supervise them, train them, and give them things to do.
Now, I just need to figure out what I need help with.