can i reformat my brain?

January 27, 2002

Today's Reading
The Cat Who Went Up the Creek by Lillian Jackson Braun

This Year's Reading
2002 Book List

Weather: Well, that was a short winter, wasn't it?

The weird thing isn't necessarily that it's balmy shirtsleeve weather in January in New England. Well, that is a weird thing, but not the weird thing. See, about 2 weeks ago an ex-girlfriend of Nancy's ex-girlfriend (an ex-girlfriend once removed?) called and asked if she could stay with Nancy this weekend so she could still make her flight at TF Green Airport even though a huge northeast storm was coming this weekend.

Who predicted this storm you might ask? Well, Nancy asked. The son of said ex-girlfriend of ex-girlfriend predicted it. He's a teenage weather hobbyist. He should keep his day job. Nobody can predict the New England weather two weeks in advance. Nobody. Not even the great Don Kent, dean of all New England weather forecasters. Not even the Old Farmer's Almanac that faux -Yankee publication from New Hampshire.

Nancy explained to this person that no she couldn't host her this weekend 'cause she's moving. Yes, this is finally the big move out of the building with the galvanized pipes, electric sockets so loose the plugs fall out if a truck goes by in the street, not to mention the electric socket for the stove being so illegal that the gas company refused to turn the gas on. And did I mention that the kitchen sinks of the two second floor apartments share a drain? It's a real trip to have someone else's asparagus spear suddenly appear in your kitchen sink. Oh and the weekly invasion of black sludge in the bathtub ... and all that... leaving it all behind.

Some yuppies - and I do mean yuppies, they're wicked young and look like Doogie Howser - bought the building from Neglecto the landlady and are fixing to renovate it into upscale apartments attractive to a better or at least richer class of people. Too bad Neglecto never told them about the galvanized pipes. Hope they can find some very rich tenants who don't bathe, flush, or use any water...

But I'm rambling and also seem to have gotten ahead of myself.

Traffic: None to speak of.

On Friday I was up before dawn for another very early morning chiropractor appointment. I don't do well in the early morning. Then a stressful workday on top of getting up at 5:30 in the morning and then driving to Providence and trying to sleep among the boxes. Very long.

Coffee: Yesterday Nancy was up at 6:00 packing and trying to let me sleep in. I heard her moving around but I was not exactly awake because I was incapable of speech or anything like actually getting up until about 8:00 and even then I would have preferred to remain asleep for another week or so. But the movers were due at 9:30 so unless Nancy was going to let them pack me in carton I had to get up. I fetched coffee from 729 Hope, for probably the last time, since there's a Starbucks and a couple of other coffee places within a block of Nancy's new place.

The movers came, they packed, they moved.

Also on the subject of coffee: I learned from a coworker at Starship Startup that there's a cafe inside a bookstore just a tiny bit further from the starship than the place I discovered earlier this week, and they have French roast every day. So I checked it out on Friday. Not only do they have French roast, but there right in front of me was the new Cat Who... mystery (it just came out like this week) at 30% off, making it affordable. I have real thing for these books. It's almost an addiction. Like coffee...

Birds: Uh, there are house sparrows at the new apartment though not as close to the building as at the old place.

Books: So back to the Cat Who... One of the walking buddies, Joan-east, discovered the series and turned on the whole walking group to them. We're crazy for them. Group madness. So whenever there was a lull in the moving madness, I read. Periodically I would update Nancy on the story as it unfolded. I'll bet squirrels have something to do with a clue because they are mentioned a grillion times. Black walnut trees too. I want to know how Lillian Jackson Braun does it. She has a foolproof formula. If only I could get her to write the Cat Who Built a System Area Network, or the Cat Who Architected an N-Tier Data Center.

Cats: Cut to this evening, when I decide to try the new copier at the cat shelter to produce my volunteer newsletter. It copies double sided. It staples. It's the 8th wonder of the world. Even better than InfiniBand. Oops. It won't feed the originals right. There's a paper jam in the duplexing unit and the directions say to open the lower right and lower left doors then pull out the duplexing unit. OK, where's the lower left door? Oh, it's behind the sorter/stapler attachment. I detach the attachment, open the lower left door at the same time as the lower right door, open the duplexing unit, pull out the offending piece of paper, and voila! It duplexes like a champ but the little green light on the stapling button of the sorter/stapler attachment is no longer on. No stapling. Besides that, since I had to make a copy of a copy in order to get the feeder unit to accept the paper the photos look like strange gray and white squares. All the while a gray tabby kitten is trying to knock things off the top of his cage onto the copier. I decide to go to Kinko's instead.

Cut to Kinko's. The Kinko's worker asks if I want to use the self service copier. "I just broke the copier at MRFRS, that's why I'm here. I'm not sure you want me touching your copier." She obligingly sets all the options on the self service copier for me. The quality is a little better than the copier at the shelter. The strange gray and white squares are identifiable as photos of cats. I'm watching my 150 copies sort and staple themselves when I reach into my left pocket. There's no wallet there! I check the other pocket. No wallet. I go back out to the car and check there. No wallet. Panic rises in my throat. Here I am doing a gigantic copy job at Kinko's and I have no way of paying for it. Furthermore, if the wallet is truly lost and not just forgotten, I have no way of getting money for coffee or breakfast or I don't even want to think about it.

I explain to a worker there that I have to go look for my wallet. He looks at me strangely. Like how could I have Alzheimer's at 50? I go home first because it's closer than the cat shelter and if it is forgotten instead of lost then home is the place I forgot it. Wilbur is aggravated when I don't proceed to the greeting area and pet him before going upstairs to look for the wallet. There it is on the dresser. What the hell is wrong with me? Can I reformat my brain?

Back at Kinko's, the copier has just finished the 150th copy when I return with the means to pay.