mom-in-law

All posts tagged mom-in-law

Lens returns and I’m tired

Posted by Photonstopper on July 31, 2009
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The Canon EF 17-40 4 L USM wide-angle zoom lens arrived back in my hands today after a non-warranty "repair." Since it apparently shipped from the factory in maladjusted condition, I hesitate to call it a repair and I'm kinda miffed at having to pay for it — decent money, too! Still, it had to be done. My review on Amazon.com will reflect this experience. Report from the Factory Service Center:

We have examined the product according to your request, and, it was found that the adjustment of the part was incorrect the focus did not operate properly from time to time  Electrical adjustments were carried out on the part. Checked all, adjusted center/tilt/focus, cleaned all factory specs.

Next I'll test it the same way I did before shipping out and hope it performs to its full potential.

This weekend it looks like we get to work at Mom-In-Law's straightening up after the plumbing project. {sigh} There's a whole lot I'd like to do outside of that but I'm tired.

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Eee…k! My license!!

Posted by Photonstopper on July 25, 2009
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Queen Anne's Lace
Queen Anne’s Lace

Mom-In-Law comfortably ensconced in her own home, we spent the morning catching up on a little sleep, grocery shopping, and a quick trip in search of a new litter box. Tasha's facilities made it too easy for the cat to pee over the edge and on to the floor and to fling litter hither and yon. We didn't buy a box during the trip but were inspired to re-purpose a high-sided plastic storage box as a litter box. Hopefully that's all we need to do!

Returning from the Fairlawn shopping district, near Akron, I did a little cross-country exploration. She had collected a trail map for a little park we'd passed many times in past and it looked interesting. We'd not previously stopped so I wanted to discover what was there. With fair ease, I found the entrance to Allardale Park, we left the car and took a little walk on the one-mile trail. She hadn't planned on hiking, nor had I, but I'd brought my camera along just in case of, well, opportunities.

The day was warm, windy, and clouds ranged from thin to thick and dark. It was a very changeable situation.

The Allardale Park area was once farmland with some hills and valleys unsuited to cultivation. The late owners had planted thousands of trees over the years and gave their beloved land to the Medina County Park System for the enjoyment of all. Thank you Stan and Esther Allard, it is beautiful! The park system later added 200+ acres through purchase of adjacent lands. The mostly-earthen trail is rolling to hilly and is mostly through old woods. We saw and heard hawks in the canopy, saw damselflies and butterflies, and enjoyed the beauty of the woodlands.

In a meadow area many taller plants densely grew. Queen Anne's lace grew so tall I barely had to bend to photograph the undersides of some flower heads.

Leaving the park we headed home and passed through the little town of Hinckley. I drove past a local police car that was preparing to enter traffic — yup, legal speed and no other moving violations. The patrol car was in traffic behind me and suddenly those red and blue lights sprang to life! Eeek! What did I do?  Pulled over and stopped, the officer came to the window and addressed me by name. Politely he said, "your driver's license has expired." What?! Oh, no, I'd forgot! After checking my now worthless license, the officer said, "take care of it" and let us go. Thank you!

Good thing I'd already scheduled Monday off for other reasons and that a license bureau is within walking distance!

Oh, and the tinnitus is still at low level. No improvement over yesterday but not as bad as before.

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111111-01-01-09

Posted by Photonstopper on January 2, 2009
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We passed New Year's Eve watching old movies and enjoying a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti served up with too much smoked Gouda cheese and crackers. The Asti was excellent — so light and delicious and (for better or worse) with seemingly very little "kick." The cheese was good, but a little too old, and we ate too much of it. The movies were excellent and we had a fine night waiting for the end of the year to arrive. She managed to stay awake which is unusual in itself but She not only stayed awake 'til midnight, She stayed up 'til 1:00 AM and would have stayed awake even longer if Yours Truly hadn't shut off everything around her and toddled off to bed by Himself!

New Year's Day felt like a Sunday. It was quiet, cold, and windy. Late in the morning we visited Mom-in-Law and, whilst She tended to her mother's needs, I headed to the attic to swap out the antenna installed a few weeks ago for a much larger model wa already owned. The larger antenna supplied critical signal strength to Mom-in-Law's living room TV to give her solid reception on a couple of formerly weak stations. She'll enjoy that. We'll install the smaller model at our house — we live within sight of the local TV broadcast towers so don't need much antenna.

Then we did a big loop tour of points south, just to get out, on a beautiful winter's day. We some looking around to see how and whether the fortunes of an outlet mall { Lodi Station Outlets } had changed since its renaming and the addition of an amusement passenger railroad around and through the property. The train, which was running, looked great but the shopping center looked like its decline is unchecked. There are lots of dark stores and "closing" signs on a couple of others. It will be interesting to see if it survives another year. I think its troubles started well before the ongoing sag in our economy began: it was supposed to be an outlet center implying low-low prices on name-brand merchandise. In reality, few bargains were to be had and its remote location made the trip not worth the effort. The recession may well do it in as, apparently, happened to a neighboring automobile dealership. That's my opinion, anyway. We do love the countryside out in Wayne County, however, and very much enjoyed the day's travels.

Um, the title of this article? As we arrived back in our driveway on January 1, 2009, the odometer on my car read 111,111. The miles are really piling up on the 2002 Honda. I like seeing the number patterns develop on the odometer and all ones is nifty. Alright, it's maybe not as big as celebrating the arrival of 2009 in Times Square, New York City, but I think 111111 on 01-01-09 is most excellent.  Or kinda sad.

111111-01-01-09
111111-01-01-09

 

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Sunday morning in the attic

Posted by Photonstopper on December 1, 2008
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Radio Shack DTV Box
Radio Shack DTV Box

I spent several morning and midday hours Sunday (Nov. 30) at mother-in-law's house setting her up for broadcast digital television (DTV). She is resistant to signing up for cable television service but enjoys watching football and the news. Since her TVs are not equipped with digital tuners, we procured two DTV converter boxes for her through the government coupon program.

We looked at several models in several stores but settled on the one offered by our local Radio Shack. I hardly even opened the box before installation day but learned we'd made the right choice. My own mother's DTV box works just fine but has no volume control on the remote control — she must use two remote controls to operate her television! Fortunately she has satellite service so the DTV box is, for her, strictly for backup when weather or mishap stops the signal reaching her from orbit. The "Digital Stream" DTV remote does have television volume control on the remote. We set the boxes aside waiting for the right time to actually install them.

So we decided to spend this cold and rainy Sunday morning setting up the DTV converters for Mom-in-Law. I also hoped the boxes would finally give her clear TV pictures — an upgrade to her faint fuzzy analog reception. Up in the attic, near the peak of the roof I discovered, to my disappointment, the existing flat antenna wire had been strung many long years ago. There was no clear path to pull new coaxial cable between the attic, where the antenna was to go, and the living room. So I mounted the new digital antenna to a rafter, strung coax to a point where someone in the past had attached a matching transformer to the flat wire, and connected it up. In the living room, the reverse was done: connected new coax to the transformer that someone had connected to the flat wire down there. Then, with a minimum of fuss, I connected up the converter to the antenna, the TV to the converter, powered everything up, and scanned for channels. The main channels were displayed better on the old TV than they had been seen in years… maybe ever! One of the local channels is disappointingly weak and suffers from what I call "digital stuttering," but, in all, it's way better than before.

In the kitchen it was much easier: connected the converter box to the rabbit ears, the TV to the box, scanned and, because that TV is newer, was rewarded with even better picture quality.

So now she's got better TV quality and her TVs will keep working after the big national digital change-over coming in February. We still think mom-in-law would get more out of cable but that's her choice. It was a lot of fun doing something nice for her by spending Sunday morning in the attic!

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Mostly stellar weekend

Posted by Photonstopper on September 4, 2007
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The Labor Day weekend was pretty good for us. On balance, we'd have to say it was stellar!

I had to work Saturday so that made this a not-long weekend for me. Sunday, however, we were able to bring mother-in-law home from the nursing facility. She was delighted to be home and is now in much better condition than before her brief hospital stay for surgery. She said of her last physical therapy session, "The therapist told me she I was going so fast with my walker she couldn't keep up with me! I told her, I have to, I don't have much time left!" That's my 88-year-old mom-in-law for you!  After making sure she was settled in at home, sweetie and I set off looking for lunch and new sneakers for me. We had a nice lunch at Chipotle and found great shoe bargains for both of us –she finally got some good sneakers for herself instead of those really cheap ones– at Shoe Carnival. Then home.

Starry starry night
Starry starry night

The forecast called for excellent sky conditions Sunday and I had missed out Saturday night because of lack of sleep Friday. It's all related. So I felt I really had to go out to the observatory this night so that I wouldn't regret not going. As it turned out, I had a great time and was, in fact, very glad I went. I practiced locating the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with the big scope. Not easy but I was able to find it repeatedly. I also got a gander at the beautiful globular star cluster M22, in Sagittarius. Tried photographing both of those objects through the telescope but it's still not tracking well enough. The sky was so clear that I decided to try some observatory portraits and got some very nice shots. I'll do that again another night since I've learned a few things on this first try. Among those things, I need to bring my good tripod, not the old broken one. Also, the ISO setting of 1600 introduced a lot of noise among the stars. Still, I love this photo and several others from the night. Left the observatory at midnight and got to bed before 1:30 AM Monday, Labor Day.

Today we rose a little late and got on the road a little late for a –seemingly– very hot ride from Oberlin. It was supposed to be a loop through the town of Wakeman and back to Oberlin but, well, I missed a turn and we rode too far south. We corrected that, got to Wakeman and a Subway sandwich lunch on their town green, and made it back to Oberlin. Not much of a loop but a challenging 33.9 miles on a beautiful day through splendid countryside of rolling fields and farms — and almost no motor traffic! Taking a shower, however, may have been the most rewarding part of the activities — we were so sweaty and sticky.

I lost sleep Friday night because Tasha has started vomiting again. Poor little kitty. It didn't seem so bad as the first time this happened and we took her in a panic to the emergency clinic. She had been off the medication since late July, however, and I'd hoped we wouldn't have to resume. With her problem continuing, though not severe, over the weekend, I felt I had to start her back on Prednisolone. I'll call the vet tomorrow and find out what course of treatment he recommends.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and back to work…. {sigh!}

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Meteors, moms, and cooling off

Posted by Photonstopper on August 12, 2007
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This weekend was nice enough. We did the usual running around on Saturday –groceries, etc.– with a quick trip to the new La-Z-Boy store in North Olmsted for a look at some chairs. Saturday night was relatively clear, as predicted, so I ducked outdoors a few times to see how the Perseid meteor shower was going. I spent several minutes craning my neck and, within a couple of seconds of each other, saw two meteors. There's a possibility I saw a third, faint streak, running across the sky. Sky conditions here, south of Cleveland, are not the best on an excellent night and last night was not excellent — considerable haze and light pollution diminished the view. The shower peaks tonight (Sunday) but the weather forecast is for cloudy skies, at least until after midnight, and I must get a decent night's sleep for Monday's return to w-o-r-k. Oh well. I have to admit I'm a bit spoiled on meteor showers having witnessed the Leonids "storm" of a few years ago. Hard to beat a hundred or so bright meteors per hour for natural celestial fireworks. I am considering taking Tuesday, Aug. 28, off so that I can be up in the wee hours for the total lunar eclipse. Given clear skies and a good view to the west, the eclipse ought to be a very good show.

Mom-in-Law is comfortably recovering in the nursing home. We don't expect her to stay there for long but it's nice to have her in a facility she doesn't mind, where the staff likes her and she them, and where she likes the food.

Today we rode our bikes in southern Medina and northern Wayne Counties on a 32-mile circuit. Not long on distance but short on flat terrain. Heat and humidity added to the effort! The countryside out there is quite beautiful and the hills make for a lot of work but it's one of our favorite routes. Still, we're both glad to be indoors this afternoon, and cooling off.

P.S. 8/13/07 > The early weather forecasts were wrong and it was clear Sunday night. I stepped outside at about 11:30 for one last look to see how the meteor shower was going. Saw one moderately bright meteor. It may have been a good show under dark skies but here, in town, it was fairly lackluster during my casual look(s). My neck was sore from the aforementioned bike ride and I was very tired so went to bed a little late and without a great temptation to hop into the car and run out to the country. Just as well.

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Where she belongs

Posted by Photonstopper on August 8, 2007
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As I arrived at work the sky was darkening. Bright streaks of lightning connected clouds and ground. It was going to be an interesting morning! Soon after I entered the building the rains came. The intense downpour flooded the court garden and began to come into the building under the doors. We got about three inches of rain in around an hour! Then the lights clicked off and on… more than once… for about a second each time… deadly to computers! The recently-rebuilt server went down and stayed down twice — an indication that its backup power supply (UPS) had failed. After the second system stop I shut off the old UPS and moved the computer's power connections to a neighboring, known-good UPS. The usual glitches developed around the building; things that happen when the power is interrupted. There was only one PC fatality. Apparently the computer was booting up during one of the brief outages and a Windows file was corrupted. I hope I can repair the OS damage tomorrow without a full reinstall. Then Finance descended upon me: Inventory time! That led to a culling of obsolete and broken equipment for sale and disposal. Most of the stuff is of very little value and the costs associated with staff time will far exceed any money brought in by the sale of that crap. Policy rules, however: So it is written, so it shall be done.

Mom-in-Law needs more time in the hospital {duh!} and will be staying there a couple more days. She officially needs more time to recoup from the surgeries and be evaluated for post-hospital care {duh! and duh!}. Whew! I suppose even older folk vary as to how quickly they recover from any given medical procedure. But this sweet, frail elderly woman just showed no potential for going home the day after having her procedures. So good sense did prevail in the end and Mom-in-Law is staying in hospital where she belongs.

Late-Night P.S. — We had more storms tonight. While at home we had heavy rain around 8:30 or so with nearly constant lightning. Very impressive! As the storm (we were at the edge of a line of more powerful storms that swept through) passed, I looked out the west window. What should I see but clouds lit by occasional flashes of lightning and a large clearing at the fringes of the maelstrom. And in that clearing a star shown.

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A good one and a busy day

Posted by Photonstopper on August 6, 2007
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Mom-in-law's surgeries went very well. Cleveland Clinic surgeons used low-risk techniques to make repairs to prolapsed tissues. One of those surgeries is usually an outpatient procedure; the other was not. She'll spend the night at the hospital in recovery but they're expecting to discharge her tomorrow!! That fast discharge was not something spelled out prior to surgery. Mom-in-Law can't go home like that so an assisted-living place is quickly being sought. Sweetie said she visited her mother in recovery, touched her face and said, "my, you're warm!" To which Mom-in-Law replied, "I guess that means I'm still alive!" Good one, eh?

A fun day at work: A group of staff and, come to find out, others, were in on Sunday to inventory everything (tech and non-tech items). So the first thing I had to respond to, beginning as I walked in the door and for the first hour or so, was scattered reports of equipment not working. Mostly items had come unplugged: monitors, network connections, even a fiber-optic media converter. After "fixing" those that were out of service, I rapidly visited 'most every PC and monitor on the main floor of the building, checking, straightening, placing cables where they belong, etc. Whew! Then it was time for paper jams. And printers that think they have paper jams. I worked in a couple of hours hammering on an Web form and its underlying mailing scripts; getting closer to making it work but it isn't there just yet. No call back from Cisco but that's alright; I had plenty to do. Tomorrow I supervise inventory of the Server Room and a storage area — standing instruction: look but don't touch! All-in-all today was a busy day.

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