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Sep. 2nd, 2006 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogThis night of magic air infuses my blood and fills my lungs with the warm chill of August. My truck's open windows let the dark sky breath out the still beauty of the star filled heavens, filling the interior with odd stillness in the midst of the wind that whistles by outside as I glide down the highway. Gusts tickle my bare foot on the accelerator and blow wisps of hair into my eyes as the green-lit odometer slowly counts the miles that roll by under my wheels like the hands of a clock roll endlessly 'round it's circumference.
I chat with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
serinthia about the music that this scene brings to mind. For me, tonight, it's Janice Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee, and The Eels' Woman Driving, Man Sleeping. I turn the radio on to catch the last instrumental bit of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine. It brings back memories of being on stage in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and I begin to recite one of my monologues: "Can you hear it Papa? The black machine. They got it goin' fifteen stories below the ground. They put people in one end, and out comes what they want." I drop off Serin a minute or two before midnight and drive away home, my voice vainly trying to match the strength and sorrow of Janice's as she sings her verses in my mind; "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...."
At home, my warm, beautiful raccoon is the perfect counterpoint to the wyrd of the outdoor night-world; not diminishing it's touch on me, but by lying next to me on our bed and filling my world with the warmth and safety of her voice calling me 'puppy', making the atmosphere outside all the more memorable. They are yin and yang; both very necessary, both possessing a beauty beyond the earthly. Both valuable; both sacred.
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Work went so very slowly today, but finally it was over. Serin and I drove down to meet up withposicat at his place, where we spent an hour or two poking at hardware and software (and picking up a copy of Spinrite that I'm very much grateful for). After conferring with tybis and samiitiger, the three of us drove out to the new Golden Corral in Gurnee. Though the food was ok, service was so sub-standard that none of us felt that a tip was warranted. But that's ok; I'm still stuffed, and that's what counts. It was getting pretty late by then, so Serin wanted to get home, and I decided that I should too since i'm getting up early for faire tomorrow and I needed to get some sleep (and look how effective that decision was....).
Plus, I wanted to get home to my sweetie. She'd had some trouble during the day with the washer and dryer and, though she told me before I left work that she had things well in hand, I wanted to check and see if there was anything I could still help her with.
Now, when I installed the wash machine, I stood next to it through the entire first load of clothes, just to see what problems (if any) would arise and fix them. I think I did pretty well. The legs were vastly uneven; at three points during the spin cycle I had to stop the washer to put more cardboard under the back leg. No biggie; just keep adding more layers 'till it stops rocking. Nothing new there.
I also had to stop the water from dripping down the fill hose. One of the valves leaks on our basement sink, and until we get the place clean enough to have the handy-dude come by, I have to deal with it. The leaking water gets on the fill hose for the washer and drips down it and onto the floor. I fixed this with the old washer by getting a long enough hose so that I could make a drip loop inside the sink for water to run off of. The hoses on the new one are so calcified into place that I couldn't even get them off with a vice-grip; I was in danger of breaking the valves, and the hoses are to short to make a loop in. So, I cut a piece of fabric from one of the things in our rag bin and tied a length of it around the hose, leaving it hanging down into the middle of the sink to divert the water. Problem solved.
Then the drain hose was too short. It would barely reach into the sink, but when the washer started draining, it would flip the end of the hose out of the basin and onto the floor. Oops. Fixed that by unbending a wire coat-hanger and fashioning it into a harness that wrapped a couple times around the hose, a couple times around a faucet, and connected the two in the middle. This lasted successfully through the rest of the spin cycle. I was beginning to feel like a household McGyver!
Unfortunately, my harness must not have been tight enough, because Andrea reported a hose slippage that lead to a minor water disaster earlier in the day. She did manage to get all of that straightened out though so she could keep washing clothes.
And did she ever! The house looks so much better now, and I am so indebted to my mate for all of her hard work in getting the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs in so much better shape, and for making a huge dent in the piles of clothes upstairs. I just had this wonderful feeling of peace and contentedness with all of that off my mind. Thank you sweetie; you are very much appreciated.
I should probably go to bed now. I have to get up early. Just one more trip to the computer room to check on my two computers running a Spinrite hard drive analysis. I've got a stack of hard drives that all need to be tested, and I want to get Puppy up and running with a finalized build this weekend.
I chat with
serinthia about the music that this scene brings to mind. For me, tonight, it's Janice Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee, and The Eels' Woman Driving, Man Sleeping. I turn the radio on to catch the last instrumental bit of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine. It brings back memories of being on stage in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and I begin to recite one of my monologues: "Can you hear it Papa? The black machine. They got it goin' fifteen stories below the ground. They put people in one end, and out comes what they want." I drop off Serin a minute or two before midnight and drive away home, my voice vainly trying to match the strength and sorrow of Janice's as she sings her verses in my mind; "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...." At home, my warm, beautiful raccoon is the perfect counterpoint to the wyrd of the outdoor night-world; not diminishing it's touch on me, but by lying next to me on our bed and filling my world with the warmth and safety of her voice calling me 'puppy', making the atmosphere outside all the more memorable. They are yin and yang; both very necessary, both possessing a beauty beyond the earthly. Both valuable; both sacred.
-----------------------
Work went so very slowly today, but finally it was over. Serin and I drove down to meet up with
posicat at his place, where we spent an hour or two poking at hardware and software (and picking up a copy of Spinrite that I'm very much grateful for). After conferring with tybis and samiitiger, the three of us drove out to the new Golden Corral in Gurnee. Though the food was ok, service was so sub-standard that none of us felt that a tip was warranted. But that's ok; I'm still stuffed, and that's what counts. It was getting pretty late by then, so Serin wanted to get home, and I decided that I should too since i'm getting up early for faire tomorrow and I needed to get some sleep (and look how effective that decision was....).Plus, I wanted to get home to my sweetie. She'd had some trouble during the day with the washer and dryer and, though she told me before I left work that she had things well in hand, I wanted to check and see if there was anything I could still help her with.
Now, when I installed the wash machine, I stood next to it through the entire first load of clothes, just to see what problems (if any) would arise and fix them. I think I did pretty well. The legs were vastly uneven; at three points during the spin cycle I had to stop the washer to put more cardboard under the back leg. No biggie; just keep adding more layers 'till it stops rocking. Nothing new there.
I also had to stop the water from dripping down the fill hose. One of the valves leaks on our basement sink, and until we get the place clean enough to have the handy-dude come by, I have to deal with it. The leaking water gets on the fill hose for the washer and drips down it and onto the floor. I fixed this with the old washer by getting a long enough hose so that I could make a drip loop inside the sink for water to run off of. The hoses on the new one are so calcified into place that I couldn't even get them off with a vice-grip; I was in danger of breaking the valves, and the hoses are to short to make a loop in. So, I cut a piece of fabric from one of the things in our rag bin and tied a length of it around the hose, leaving it hanging down into the middle of the sink to divert the water. Problem solved.
Then the drain hose was too short. It would barely reach into the sink, but when the washer started draining, it would flip the end of the hose out of the basin and onto the floor. Oops. Fixed that by unbending a wire coat-hanger and fashioning it into a harness that wrapped a couple times around the hose, a couple times around a faucet, and connected the two in the middle. This lasted successfully through the rest of the spin cycle. I was beginning to feel like a household McGyver!
Unfortunately, my harness must not have been tight enough, because Andrea reported a hose slippage that lead to a minor water disaster earlier in the day. She did manage to get all of that straightened out though so she could keep washing clothes.
And did she ever! The house looks so much better now, and I am so indebted to my mate for all of her hard work in getting the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs in so much better shape, and for making a huge dent in the piles of clothes upstairs. I just had this wonderful feeling of peace and contentedness with all of that off my mind. Thank you sweetie; you are very much appreciated.
I should probably go to bed now. I have to get up early. Just one more trip to the computer room to check on my two computers running a Spinrite hard drive analysis. I've got a stack of hard drives that all need to be tested, and I want to get Puppy up and running with a finalized build this weekend.
