Copious Free Time

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Now that I'm sitting down, I'll magically forget everything. Let's find out.

• I put up a bookshelf in Sarah's room, and she's been working to fill it up and put the room in order. She also is getting rid of some of her kiddie books and board books. So far I haven't even found any I want to pull out and rescue. She told me we could have the closet outside my office back. I said she could still use it, and she said no, Cathy and I could put boxes in it again. On Sunday night, she went up to sleep in her bunk. Soon she was back down here, tearfully telling me she couldn't sleep without a grownup around. I reluctantly went up to sit by. After a while, it just wasn't working out. In retrospect, maybe the first full night of Daylight Savings was a bad time to make the switch. Anyway, I said she could go back to her closet and she said she'd go to sleep on our bed as usual and we could carry her to her beloved closet when she was asleep.

• The A just below middle C was kind of irksome, so after ignoring it for a couple of weeks, I cleared off the piano and opened it up. I picked up the four mutes and put them on top. Only there were just three of them. After searching, I found it down inside the works, resting below a hammer. After some wrestling, I got it out and tuned the A. While it was open, I checked another couple of notes and found that the F where the mute was was now pretty well messed up. A little thin wire that should be straight was twisted across the next key, and trying to play it was correspondingly snafu'd. So I'm back on the auxiliary piano until we can get the acoustic fixed.

• Lots of school stuff. The Art Ambassador project (Faith Ringgold) went swimmingly and is finally over. On the other hand, I forgot completely that I was supposed to be at Sarah's class yesterday for Science Action, so I get a Zero on that one.

• Lots of work stuff. Wrapping up two books with one more (the French version of one of the completed books) on the horizon.

• Enjoying the new car. I'm an SUV drivin' man now, with our used 2006 Honda Element. I'm getting used to automatic shift and electric windows. Sarah's enjoying the legroom. Whenever Cathy takes her anywhere, they use the Element. More good news: the mp3 disks I made when my iPod was in the shop a while back work in the car's CD player.

• Weather's getting better. Sarah believes we've seen the last of snow; I'm not so sure. I can clearly see how much the snowplow man has ruined the lower end of the lawn. When I take walks around the neighborhood, no matter where I go, I see tire tracks through yards. Whoever went through here on the Saturday after Christmas covered a hell of a lot of ground. They crossed our yard, and the tracks are probably still visible under some circumstances, but it's much worse next door, where they turned at high speed before going -behind- the next house. I don't know who did it, but I know it was a jerk.

• Sarah got a good report card, so we went out last night for ice cream.

• It's ant season. For two or three weeks, ants have been a fact of life. See an ant, kill an ant. After a while, sweep up dead ants and discard. I looked up from piano playing (still managing, with maybe one exception, to play every day) to see Sarah and Lulu smashing Cheez-its in the driveway. The next morning when we were waiting for the bus, I mentioned the Cheez-its. "Lulu and I did that," Sarah explained. "For the ants. When they see the Cheez-its, they'll eat them and not be interested in going inside."

• As mentioned in passing, I'm taking walks through the neighborhood. It was cold enough a time or three that I used the treadmill instead, but any time I can go outside, I do that instead. I usually pick up the phone and talk to one of my sisters or Dad. If they're not available, I can't seem to think of anyone else to call, so then I just walk and maybe listen to the iPod.

• Phone guy came over and quickly found the cable that was making a constant buzz that drowned out all voices on the landline. Mice had gnawed through the insulation. Thanks, phone guy!
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