Darkness Fell, and it was cool (literally and figuratively)

Last week, I went through some of the stuff in mom's car and took it to Goodwill. There's more yet, but it was so hot I couldn't stay out there for long and I wasn't going to bring it in the house just to take it out again.

On Saturday, I forgot to take my Civic to get the oil changed. It's not desperate, but the warning light is on. I'm just driving mom's car until I get a chance to handle that. And I have plans the next 3 weekends. I need to call the inspection place to see if I can get a ride to the bus stop and after work. If so, I can get it done on a weekday.

Saturday, I drove to  Chapel Hill to get my friend C.M. She's not been the best, healthwise and her husband has been worse. I offered to give her a ride to the tatting meeting if she wanted to join me. She finally took me up on my offer. Her son came with us, mostly to get out of the house and be there in case his mom needed some help I couldn't provide.

We went to lunch and then to the meeting. I'm not sure how much C.M. really learned, although she did finish a ring, with good tension, too. She said she needs to practice under circumstances better suited to concentration. The meeting went well. Thirteen people, not including CM's son, were there. Leigh of SomthingUndertheBed.com had some new books to show off. I made progress on the bracelet for Palmetto. Until the most recent ring decided not close. I haven't been able to close it since, either. I don't want to cut the ring and start it over, but I may have to.

Sunday was errands. I got some laundry done and CD and I did some running around. Our Starfinder books are arriving today, so we went ahead and paid for them on Sunday. We just need to pick them up.

Yesterday, of course, was the solar eclipse. I didn't go to where I could see the totality, but it hit 93% here. I signed up as one of NASA's citizen scientists. Though, I wasn't able to take temperature readings all morning, because I had to work. And giving my thermometer time to register the outdoor temperature took a few minutes, each time. I took vacation time to be out there a couple hours before the eclipse and a couple hours after.

solar eclipse in my office, thanks to my boss

I went to a local solar eclipse activity (buttons and making pinhole cameras). I made a couple buttons but not the pinhole camera, because one of my coworkers got a pair of eclipse glasses for me. Alas, my iPad ran out of battery power only an hour after the eclipse.

I took some pictures. There was one I really wanted to take, but I couldn't hold my fingers in the makeshift pinhole camera formation and take the picture. My new coworker joined me for a few minutes before and after she had to be on a conference call.

tree leaves acting like pinhole cameras

it's hard to take a selfie when you can't see

sun and shadows

glasses, thermometer, after the eclipse

 the temperature fell from about 32C to not quite 28C, and you could stand in 'full sun' without baking

a few minutes after

I wish I had thought to bring a colander

I almost had to call & cancel Mom's visit. Some idiot was either/both going too fast/following the bus too closely because when it stopped for me to disembark, Dimbulb passed the bus on the right. It's rather startling to start down the bus steps & see a car go by. If I had been a bit quicker or better prepared, I'd probably be in the hospital right now. Wheee. I called Anitra to vent & she told me how she almost got run over by a car doing something similar when she was in high school.

Mom came by about 1 or so. She only got lost twice. Thank goodness for cell phones. Next time I'm sending her on the 751 exit.

We went to Hong Kong Express and she bought lunch. We ate while she made me watch Warlord (which, by the way is not in iMDB). She claims that it is one of the 10 worst movies ever made. I have to agree with her. And it's not the actors' faults. They were good, but what they had to work with....bleah.

I went through the clothes that she had brought me. A surprising number of them fit. So I have more slacks to wear to work. Yeah! She also brought some things that I don't need, like more hangars. I have about 6 months worth of Wednesday presents to open. My Christmas present from her were more of the pieces of my flatware pattern (which is discontinued btw).

She liked the tv I gave her but she wished I'd been wearing a different shirt in the picture that I gave her. I was wearing my Greenman shirt. She left about 4 pm so that she could make it home before dark. She doesn't like driving after dark anymore; she is getting older and her night vision isn't what it used to be. Then, neither is mine.

Sunday afternoon I got sick again. Chris & I headed for Pizza Hut for the brunch buffet but they were closed for remodeling. Since it was noon, we were reluctant to eat at the other brunch places due to the post-church crowd. We went to Hardee's. It was okay. By the time we hit the grocery store afterwards I knew I was sick, again. Bleah. We looked in at Ultimate Comics. It's been open for months & it's really close, but we just haven't been by during store hours.

I mostly read & rested the rest of the Sunday. Then Monday (Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday: Observed) Chris went to work & I still rested, watched tv & read. By 2 pm I was finally able to get moving. I picked up the living room from Mom's visit, cleared the dining room table, un-loaded & re-loaded the dishwasher & gathered the stuff I was taking out of the house.
plastic & paper bags to the recycling at the grocery store
phonebooks to recycling
clothes to charity - Goodwill
1 vacuum to Goodwill
books to Edward McKay (since Lucy's closed)
article about Senora Lynch to Steve for Village of Yesteryear scrapbook
other errand:
buy page protectors for tatting copies (old workbasket patterns & internet printouts)

I looked at my nearly empty gas tank & then at the price of regular unleaded gas, $1.59, & decided not to go to North Raleigh to McKay or Steve's yesterday.

I made it home in plenty of time. I watched more of the Fillmore marathon & put the patterns in the page protectors. I put post-it labels on most of them but then as 6 pm approached I needed to make supper. It was Jadeclaw/9 tribes last night. But since Rosemary, our fighter wasn't there, we sat around, talked & they made pre-generated Ironclaw characters for me to use at cons this year.

Chris taped Barbarians. I thought it went off at 10 so I waited for the vcr to turn off to go to bed. It ended at 11 pm. No wonder my eyes were scratchy & tired. I was feeling cold so I heated up one of my wheat hot pads & used it as a bedwarmer. Wow! that was soooo nice. I love it. I will definitely do that more often.

As it turns out, I did make one mistake on the financial reports. I entered the wrong number on one line, which changed the results of another report. Still, it was the best I've done yet so I remain proud. I paid the price for that concentration though. When I left work at 2pm to go get my car my brain shut down. I literally had trouble thinking. That is an extremely uncomfortable state for me.

I have my car back & it is shiny. A good wash will do that to a car. They also vacuumed it. There are some leaves in the trunk & that is all. I drove it yesterday & the odometer still doesn't work properly. I took the bus today as I will refrain from driving the car as much as I can until I get that fixed. The new odometer will cost $480, with the labor being about $150. If I can locate a used odometer, Saturn will install, they just want guarantee it. That's up to my part source. * why is 'a used anything' & not 'an used anything'?

I stopped by Rose's last night & bought the frame for the picture of myself. Mom complained that she doesn't have any recent pictures of me. This photo will change that. I posed & James took the picture while I was in Charlotte. I suppose that I should write that information on the back of the photo in archival ink. Not that the glass or the backing are archival quality. I wonder if Mom meant that she wanted a photo for her wallet?

Did I mention that I have a new nephew? My step-brother had a son on January 1st. My dad sent me Stephen's website where the proud father has posted pictures of the little guy.