My everyday life

My robot vac lost its mind this morning. It hit a patch of cables that I'd neglected to block off and I thought it was ok once I untangled it but, no, apparently not. It kept vacuuming but the map went nuts. Finally, I stopped it and told it to go back to the charger. Poor thing, it couldn't find the charger. So I picked it up and took it home and tucked it in. Then, oddly, the map on the app snapped back to correct. I'm going to let it rejuice and then send it out again on a run more for its self esteem than for actually sucking shit up.

I've had maybe 50/50 experiences with Etsy. When good they have been good but when bad, they have been oh so very annoyingly bad. Mostly, the indie folks (as opposed to the clearly corporate vendors on there now), I've found, are generally not business people. When they can't do what they promise, you get this long email about their dead cat or emotional downturn. But, I keep going back because cat beds made out of old computer monitors...

A few months ago, I ordered a Mariners face mask from this woman who happened to live not far from here. Tiny shop - 100 orders. I got the mask immediately and it was FABULOUS. The best fit of all and very high quality. I ordered more and got a note from her last night with photos of three masks saying she'd like to gift me a mask and would I pick one, please. What a very nice thing.

All of a sudden I have way too many yarn projects going. All blankets. As we get into warm weather. There is no rhyme or reason. Well, that's not true. One is because I like the pattern. One is because there's spreadsheet and I found the hex colors of my yarn to fill it in. And one is because it's knitting and the others are crochet. Idle hands and all that.

But before I can get to any of that, I'm off this morning to Uwajimaya (the Japanese grocery and also the grocery nearest to me). I need produce and, of course, eggs. They will be very busy but since I won't need a parking space, no problem. Also I will be limited to what I can carry and so won't get carried away and buy too much. Plus. walking. I need to do the walking. So that's the plan. Once I get showered and dressed. Plus, since I will have both treadmilled and walked IRL, I can take the rest of the day off!

(For my birthday, I asked for Ask Me Anything Questions. I got so many wonderful ones. I'm answering them in entries from here until I get to the end. If you think of something you want to ask, just leave a comment or a note. Deadline is totally not a thing.)


miss_ljv asks:

5. A book, movie, poem, any kind of media that had a profound impact on the way you view the world.


For as long as I can remember, my goal was independence. I looked for the 'how' everywhere. And mostly I saw women needed men to live. So, no surprise, my 'profound impacts' came from places where I could see examples of women doing things on their own.

I was really profoundly influenced by Nancy Drew. I devoured every single one of her books. I’d wait impatiently for the new one to come out. She was the early and really the only, for a while, example of what I wanted. Independence and respect for my brain.

But, also… and this is a little embarrassing but the movie Where The Boys Are - which, by the way, is credited with starting the whole ‘go to florida for spring break thing’. I was just the right age when it came out - 12. And while I have not seen it in 60 years, I can still remember scenes and lines from it. There was a lot of boy and boyfriend plot there but, those girls - not that much older than me - went on vacation on their own. They made mistakes but they were their own mistakes. Again, independence.

The other day, I thought, I need to dig out those little binoculars and remember to take them to the game. I'll be about 4 times farther back from the action that usual and will need them. I kept forgetting to look. Or remembering at bad times. Like this morning on my way out the door. So I said "Alexa, remind me at 2 pm to look for the binoculars."

So just now, she reminded me (oddly, not by voice but with a notification on the phone which is fine. odd but fine). So I got off my ass to look. I last had them in September of 2019 - the last time I went to a game. I have one multi-shelf/drawer cupboard where I keep visual shit - readers, glasses screwdrivers, cleaning solution... stuff like that. It's the logical place to put it but I tried it with much doubt.

And damn if I didn't find them in the second drawer I checked. I'm very impressed with me.

No so impressed with my back. I think I broke it yesterday when I spent about 4 hours without moving playing with that crochet spreadsheet. It's a hurtin'.

Walking to the grocery and back was not at all easy - my back hurt and one knee was trying to play trick knee. They both just need more walking to the store.

Robby's drunken evening was/is taking a difficult recovery. I tried to let it fix itself but nogo. So... reset... again. It doesn't have enough juice to map the house in one go so now it's charging again so it can finish. Fingers crossed.

The Flickr album of all the days.