Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

J got the dryer installed late yesterday, so the main construction in the laundry room is done (and the Russell Hobbs kettle that started the whole project has its own plug in the kitchen). There's a nice new water heater in the basement, and the one that came with the house is at the dump. The laundry room is finally painted(!), and now we get to rethink how we're going to do storage in there -- one of the things that went away was 14 linear feet of shelf space. We added another 15 square feet of floor space, and we need to figure out how we're going to use it before stuff just appears. (and since it'll be "good enough", we'll never get around to doing something else with the space.)

There's a new floor in the laundry room, and a laundry sink! I've only wanted one since we built the house, but for Reasons we couldn't do that.

There are still boxes of things from those shelves around the house; and there's a pile of pantry things in the basement that need new homes -- the water heater took away about 20 linear feet of pantry storage, so that stuff has to go somewhere. But there are shelves in the storage room that are underutilised or full of "stuff that's not been sorted in years", so I should be able to find room for it all.

But early next week is the big push to get ballots in the mail, so I'll be working. Maybe I can get to the basement on Friday.... sigh.

(edit to fix typos)

it's chilly today. they tell us it's not supposed to get much above 60F, which is quite chilly for early September. And it was over 80 on Thursday! Temperature swings like that annoy my back, and since it was already annoyed.... It did get much better on Tuesday -- the muscles relaxed enough that I was able to move 'just right' and resettle the bits that got shifted last Monday -- but there's always some residual soreness. Temperatures are supposed to warm as the week goes on, so maybe I'll be able to get into the garden then....

Yesterday, I got caught in the traffic snarls that come when the President of the US comes to town. I didn't know he was coming (not sure how, but maybe they didn't publicise it), and merrily went off upon errands. I came out of my last stop, and the freeway ramps were all blocked off. So I tried the surface streets, and the overpasses in that direction were closed. So I tried to go the other other way, and there was construction kerfuffle -- construction equipment blocking an "open" driveway so that the panel truck returning to the supply center couldn't get in until the equipment was moved. Fortunately, I didn't attempt the other other other way, because that would have been hard stopped, as that route goes right past the building where he was appearing. It took over an hour to get home, on a trip that usually takes 25 minutes. Whee?

the clerk took the actual results in to AA at 11pm. We (floor and AVCB) were both done with counting and closing out the elections by 10, but it took another hour to get the township hall reset from the election. We got cocky in AV, and started a bit later than originally scheduled, and then one of the experienced teams got off. And then they did it again. sigh. (both early in the process, so it didn't take as long as it sometimes can to reconcile, but we still lost 45 minutes to tracking errors.) And the clerk brought us another 100 ballots over the course of the day, including 2 that were dropped in the box at 7:58pm. When the average processing rate is 100/hour, you can see why we ran a bit over. But we were done running the final tally tapes at 8:45 (and some of that time was waiting for the tabulator to send the preliminary results to the county -- with 120 tabulators all trying to send results at the same time it can take a while to get through...).

Only made two "rookie" mistakes while closing up/sealing election stuff, and they were both procedural. There's a place on the poll book where the chair is supposed to write the number of voters processed, which I missed until DN mentioned it. And we forgot to write the seal numbers from the interior bags in the poll book before we sealed the ballot container, so we had to cut the seal and do that, then change the seal and tag on the ballot container. (I haven't chaired an election since 2014, and I got this one dumped on me -- as the clerk says "she works for me, she can't say no".)

Yesterday, I took the day off -- I worked 11 days straight on elections. I did wash the dirty dishes I'd made when I made stuff for the potluck, and a couple of loads of laundry. Then I went up to Meridian to get the annual tuneup on the tenor sax, and to buy a new mouthpiece for the bari -- one of the ones in the case took a dive last week and broke. Meridian actually has it in stock, and I'd prefer to buy local than order online. So the tenor is good for another year. I may not be playing it in the fall, but at least it's ready.

(plus an indoor concert that, while an exercise in staging, is not subject to weather unless roads to the venue are flooded.)

Monday, the Farmington Band was outside at a Senior Housing complex. It was hot and sticky, but we were in the shade of a building. Somewhat unfortunately, the building blocked some of the (slight) breeze.

Tuesday, the Livingston Band was outside in downtown Howell. It wasn't quite as hot, nor as sticky. I, however, was showing the effects of three concerts in three days, and was off my game (I got the tricky bits, but the easy stuff I flailed at. Why is it so freaking hard to count in 2?!?). The audience outnumbered the band by a wide margin -- they were sitting in various shady places all around the amphitheater. We didn't play as well as we often do, but I bet that's because we haven't played since June....

Today has been an annoying day. I woke up with a headache, probably due to too much reading music outdoors without sunglasses and/or not enough water. Then, when I went out to deal with the birdfeeders, the Camry was making noises (fan noises, mostly) and there were lights on. I *KNOW* that everything was off last night when I closed the garage door, so I was perplexed. poke the Start button "No key detected" (fair enough, they're in the house), try again with the key. Nothing. The dash flickers a little bit. well, f#$K - the battery's dead. Turn the light control to "no DRL" from "Auto" and the right headlight and left running lights go off. get out of car, close door. "Smart Key failure" (erm, no. smart key _sensor_ failure, yes.)

Text J (who is, of course, 600+ miles away) "where's the battery charger?' First, we try the smart charger. Says the battery is at 6V. Well, there's your problem. Put the smart charger on the battery. 10 minutes later, it throws a "battery failure" alert. (Apparently the smart chargers sometimes don't work if the battery they're connected to is under about 9V.) Dig out Papa's old charger, the one that he built from a Heathkit kit in the early 70's. (hook that charger up. the engine fan that's been surging from 'only if you're listening for it' to 'why is that fan running' (WHY?) revs waaay up immediately after plugging the charger in. jump into front seat and poke Start button. Fan shuts off entirely. starter clicking noise also stops.) Get the battery charged to 10V so I can put the smart charger on it. Now it's up to about 12.5V, so I'm going to drive into town and back and see if it will start again. If not, I guess I call the dealer and say "WTF?" If it does, I go to the gas station on the corner, then run into A2 so that the battery is charged. Then cross my fingers that the same thing won't happen tonight.

UPDATE: drove into town (the long way) and back again, turned the car off in the driveway. Came in to the house, did a couple of things, went back out to see if it would start. Yay! it did. So off to the corner store for gas, and back again. Now I hope that it starts in the morning so I can go to work. (We often buy gas at the corner store because an abandoned gas station on the corner is worse than a gas station on the corner. And really, they're not that much of a problem. The lights are good downlights, so that the only time we really get any skyglow from them is when it's been raining and the parking lot is wet and reflective; they're not open really early or really late; and it's far enough from anywhere that the "kids" don't hang out in the parking lot all afternoon.)

Lotsa driving this week. (and I didn't really GO anywhere!) I will be very glad to stay home (FSVO) this weekend.

Saturday was a concert in South Lyon, 45 minutes away, followed by a gathering in Ann Arbor which I went directly to and then drove home, so that was another hour-plus.

Monday was Farmington rehearsal, in an alternate space, because there was not room for us at the high school --we were in the stage space of a largish church not far from the first home of the FCB. Due to road construction and associated closures and detours, that drive is now over an hour one way, and the route home is different than the route to get there.

Tuesday was TimeFail day. I had a work-related training in Saline in the afternoon, and was scheduled to be in Brighton at 6:30 pm. Training was *supposed* to be over at 4:30, but we didn't get out of the building until after 5, and it took extra time to get out of the parking lot because construction had the road out front down to one lane in each direction. I came home surface streets and it wasn't bad at all (marked speeds all the way, for the most part) -- coworkers said they went freeway and it was also clear. (we went separately because we all had other places to go after the training, and wouldn't have time to go back to the office and disperse.) I changed clothes, packed instrument/chair/music/music stand, and went off to Brighton for a concert. Usually, that drive is just over 30 minutes, but with the road construction between here and there, it was more like 45 minutes. Then I had to park over half a mile from the venue, and trundle all that stuff. (concert in the park downtown, limited parking for performers was full by the time I got there.)

Wednesday it rained, hard, and stormed. There was also a Farmington band board meeting. The *best* route to get to the meeting was "avoid this area due to tornadic activity and the debris/damage field"; and the secondary routes go through large construction zones, so another hour plus each way.

I've been able to do a little bit of weeding, though - filled the garden cart a few times, but I really need to do more. One of the gardens I was going to weed yesterday has been bypassed for a few days because of the seven different species of pollinators I saw at the flowers. I'll not disturb them -- there are other spaces I can work on.

the FCB concert went really well. No real complaints about setup -- a couple of people muttered, but as they were there to help with layout, they were well aware that we did the best we could with the space. It would have been nice had a few more people stayed to help with teardown (J and I got the last of the chairs moved into the choir room sometime around 5pm), but the equipment crew had to take gear back to NFHS 30 minutes away *and* return the truck before 6pm. Then it rained on the way home. J was on his motorcycle, so he got wet. Not as bad as Friday night after the OLC concert when he got soaked to the skin in the downpour.

IT was able to fix my computer -- he had to do a hard reset, but at least he didn't have to wipe it and start over. Theoretically, I will be getting a new-to-me computer within the next couple of months, as the three oldest systems in the office are getting replaced and handed down. (Even the oldest of them is years newer than the one I'm using, so....)

I will really need to pay attention to which sax I take to which rehearsal/gig this summer. The section leader at Farmington has swapped me to tenor for the summer! Ack! (It does make it a little bit easier, as the tenor is about half the size of the bari and is thus *much* easier to transport when I've got a wagon full of infrastructure.)

I was able to get into the garden a little bit this week. I got the white lilac weeded and thinned; and pulled most of the weeds in the flower bed next to the French Lilac; I started to weed around the sand cherry in the doorside garden, but have run into some complications -- that garden is full of alliums, and it's hard to get into it without stepping on plants, and the sandcherry has lots of dead or mostly dead branches on it that poke. I'll need to go out there with pruning shears before I go any deeper. I also pulled a lot of weeds out of the east garden, and you can almost tell! sigh. I think that will be tomorrow's project.

even less to report, really.

Both bands are in the final stretch toward concert -- Livingston's is actually *tonight* (the only Sunday in May that they could get the venue was Mother's Day, and nobody wants to do a concert on Mother's Day, so Saturday night it is). Farmington's is next Sunday, in a venue we've played at before, but I do not like doing setup in. Hopefully this year we'll have a better handle on exactly How Many People we'll have - last year we had four or five people show up at the last minute, and it was very stressful trying to wedge them into the setup. And then people had the nerve to bitch about sight lines - folks, I'm doing the best I can with limited and weirdly shaped space. If you think you can do better, you are welcome to show up early and help.

J went off to Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo yesterday to help friends move the weird shaped stuff that the movers don't want to. The chorale he sings in is also in the final leg toward concert, so he's off at an extra rehearsal this morning. Next week, he'll be gone with chorus stuff every night but Tuesday.

I do *not* have jury duty next week -- this pleases me, because I really didn't want to get up at 6:30 every morning (to be downtown by 8:15).

We saw some fairly boring Northern Lights last night -- people north of us were getting swirls and colors and dancing curtains. We got a lot of red sky glow and occasional streaks of green. J tried taking long exposures (15 sec) and all he got was red skies. And there were clouds moving in from the north and west, so by 11pm we were completely clouded in. And it's raining again.

work computer getting even more squirrely. Boss tells me that IT is on it, but is also saying that the plan is to replace her computer and pass stuff down. In July. I don't know if the computer I'm using will last that long. And we start working on the election in June. So much election work is done in online-then-file batches that it's not entirely clear how much I'd be able to do without access.

Have started working on the gardens -- weeded the strawberry bed on Monday, yesterday I went out and cut back the sage in the NW garden and cleared willow twigs out of that bed, last week I raked leaves out of the NE garden and made a quick cutting-off-last-year's sticks in the E garden. Chilly, damp, and randomly rainish today, so probably won't get out there today.

J cleared the rill and put the pump in the pond late last week, so the birds have been bathing in the rill. There are at least two spring peepers (frogs) in the pond area.

I'm debating making a run to IKEA. I need some storage bins for the living room, and while I could buy some OK ones from Meijer/Target, I want some other choices. And it's about time for my semi-annual "wander through IKEA and see what's new/cute" anyway.

after last week's running around, this week has been very quiet. All rehearsals cancelled for the week (no school means school buildings aren't open for non-students after hours so there's no rehearsal space), no concerts to usher. (There is one concert this week, but I'm very much not interested in it -- if I got paid to usher, I might go, but as it is? nah.)

Monday I got into the yard and did some raking. There's still so much to do, but at least the mess under the willow tree has been tamed a bit. Next, I need to collect branches from under the oaks, and cut back stems in the E garden. The daffodils in the NW garden are blooming -- I wish we'd get some sun so they'd be really pretty! The tiny irises in the E garden bloomed last week, just in time to get buried by the snow on Friday. They're not as cold-hardy as the daffs, so the flowers are gone, although the leaves are still pretty healthy.

We got a lot of rain and wind yesterday (Tuesday) and today it's chilly and damp.

(odd, that)

I missed last Tuesday's Livingston rehearsal because I was at Hill Auditorium for the Emanuel Ax/YoYo Ma/Leonadis Kavakos concert. It was worth missing a rehearsal, even though I will miss at least one more before the concert (I will be working the Election, and rehearsals are Tuesday evenings). The music in that ensemble is straightforward enough that I can miss another rehearsal and still perform well.

This week was the first week that I've been to rehearsals for both bands in the same week since the beginning of the year -- scheduled school holiday/snow days/TimeFail have wreaked havoc with my schedule, but I should be good until Election week, in which I will miss both rehearsals. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last weekend we ran off to Capricon in Chicago. The con was good, we hung out with our friends, actually went to some programming, ate lots of restaurant meals (we walked to all of them, because the convention was downtown, so that was nice). It was good driving weather both ways, which is also nice.

I've been doing a lot of video training for working Early Voting (as mandated by the new Michigan voting laws), and there's so many things that we Just Don't Know about how it's all going to work. At the same time, I've been sending out absent voter ballots. BossClerk wants to know when the AV counting board should start, and I'm like "dunno, man. Depends on how many ballots we get back. Right now, we've got maybe three hours worth of ballots. If all of the ballots that we've sent out come back, we might have five hours of work. But some of them won't come back. And we may send out a lot of ballots next week." (again with the shrug.)

The cats are pleased by the change in weather -- they like the sun. They will be annoyed next week when it gets cloudy again.