random thoughts - Day 1,981 (Tuesday) - pizza and puzzles

As part of the Mass Save Energy Audit on Monday, the technician left two of the new and allegedly even better Simply Conserve 7-Outlet Advanced Power strips, which he said had better surge protection. The new strip has little sliders described as "Child Protection Covers" and a new outlet identified as "Master Outlet." The "angled space conserving plug" is set at the opposite angle of the old strip which isn't as convenient for where the outlet is relative to the TV. 

Router plug covers half
of the next plug. WTF?

The thing that makes the Simply Conserve power strip less than stellar, however, seems like a design flaw. The two "always on" outlets, designated for use by modem/cable/satellite and DVR/router are too close together to be used by my router and cable plugs. I can plug in one or the other, but not both. I learned of this flaw this morning when I disconnected the router, cable, and TV to plug them into the new power strip. I ended up setting everything back into the older, allegedly inferior power strip which is designed to actually function. 

This is a problem for me because the router doesn't work in the cable connection in the art/craft/currently junk room and has to run off a splitter with the cable. Wi-fi is a necessity for, well, life. It's needed for job applications, health care stuff, address changes, bill paying, and basically everything. And cable is needed for my nightly sanity. 

The rest of the day was less annoying. Sis picked up pizza and she and Mom came over for lunch. That was the perfect inspiration to clear off the dining room table so it could fulfill its destiny as a food consumption facilitator. During our lunch, there was a weird sound that seemed like a phone notification but was the back door doorbell. A neighbor I hadn't met yet was standing there and said she needed "just a minute" when I said we were just having lunch. She asked if I had seen a red truck around her house, but it seems like half the trucks in the neighborhood are red, so, maybe? Then she launched into a meandering tale of someone known to her entering her house and removing her washer and dryer set and replacing it with a lesser quality set. Ummm, come again? I suggested changing the locks, and she said they did that. Three years ago. And then gave keys to a few people. I repeated she should change them now. 

The "minute" turned out to be quite a long time, with side tales about working at Sears and someone's sone who hates her which is odd because everyone else idolizes her and her husband and thank the stars Mom rescued me somewhere into the saga. They actually know each other. Now I'll keep an eye out for a red truck across the street.

The three of us sat around the table for a couple of hours and talked. My sister works in a credit union and we traded financial industry war stories. We looked at the built-in dresser/chesser whatever it is in the main bedroom. There was a quick evaluation of options for removing it and replacing it with a functional piece of furniture. One of the big challenges is the trim pieces on both sides of the space that reduce the opening and will prevent sliding the 42-inch dresser into the space. Potential solutions are removing the trim pieces, attempting to shave off a half-inch from the side edges where the top overhangs the base, or placing the narrower tall chest in the space. Also, underneath the built-in unit is plain sub flooring, and the carpeting ends at the front of the unit. Ugh. This gets more complicated every time I look at it.

Mom knows someone who knew the neighborhood when it was established in the late 1980s and they said the shallow drawers were for jewelry, which, as a concept, has a very '80s feel to it. That would certainly explain the shallowness that is an impediment to fitting any respectable amount of clothing in them. The basic unfinished wood drawer interiors don't seem very jewelry friendly though, so maybe any soft jewelry linings were removed over time. Now I want to find original marketing materials for the neighborhood and see how the features were described.

Sun-scorched lawn.

The evening walk to the mailbox station allowed me to see the level to which my lawn has become fried by the sun and lack of rain. Oy. It's joining the houses on the other side of the street that have looked sun-scorched all month. I will not be exploring ideas to hydrate the lawn. I'm trying to figure out where to plant a peony. The grass is on its own.