3 degrees

I have thermometers in every room which have been doing yeoman's work these past few days. The one in the living room next to me has been at 77 for the past few days. This is exactly 5 degrees above what I'm happy with. Today, we're splitting the dif. It says 74 right now. And the sun is behind the clouds so not frying the terrace. It's still 70 degrees out at 9 am which is ridiculous for downtown Seattle but it's sooooo much better.

Last night, on the news, no sooner had they blown up the weather hopes with cooler temps, then they popped it completely by explaining that this weather will bring on the fire season earlier and longer and so we can look forward to days and weeks of smoky air. Fuck. I do have some unused N-95 masks left over. I guess they will be getting some action after all. Fuck. My lungs are already not happy campers. A summer of smoke is going to really piss them off.

Oh well.

In other news... at midnight, Washington State removed all COVID restrictions. This will be interesting. There is at least one restaurant in town advertising $1000 signing bonuses for line cooks.

I have one natural light source in this house - the windows at one end of the living room. In normal times, I have low energy lamps throughout the house that basically stay on as long as I'm awake. They are all controlled automatically. Alexa turns them on in the morning and off when I go to sleep. While none generates much heat at all, they give me the allusion of heat so I have kept them all off except the essentials in the room where I am.

I set up a dashboard on a Fire Tablet I have so I can easily turn them, individually, on or off as needed without getting off my ass - or searching for their on/off buttons which, because I don't use them, are not readily accessible. The dashboard is quite handy. BUT Amazon throws up an ad every time I turn the tablet on. I get it. For $20 I can make those go away. I'm a cheapskate about the weirdest stuff.

This morning I got an ad for baby diapers. Come on! At least be relevant! It's not like you don't know me! So I fired up an Amazon customer service chat window and very politely asked to get those ads removed without paying the $20. I had to wait a while but sure enough, I got a 'one time exemption' from paying the $20. Victory is mine. Made my day. It's the little things.

Yesterday I read a story about the HOA for the condo that collapsed in Florida. They were looking at an assessment for fixing the place that would cost each home owner anywhere from 8k to 30k depending on the size of their unit. Many had balked at the bill. I get it. We've have a couple of assessments in this building over the past 30 years. I think $3k was the biggest. I suspect any maintenance assessment going forward will be 'marketed' on the pay now or rubble soon message. Ugh.

I think I'll go no where again today. I'm getting good at that.

Biggie is very busy this morning.



I need a shower.

Biggie 2021

The Flickr album of all the days.

This cat is going to be the death of me

Biggie bit me again today. I was being careful so not a bad bite but still, I really wish he wouldn't. Then about an hour ago, I looked out and he had jumped up over the rails (and chicken wire) and was, once again, on the ledge ready to drop four stories to the ground below. I grabbed him and pulled him back in but if he's done it once... arugh!!

Shortly after he climbed into his tree and has been there ever since. I don't want to block his path to the outside. But I sure don't want him to jump four stories. Seriously. He's going to be the death of me.

My brother arrives in a week and a half. I decided today to make some reservations - now that places are opening up, I want to make sure we get in. Too late. One place I wanted to go, has zero reservations left in July. Zero.

So I got my act together and got on the stick. I ordered the shelving we need for the terrace storage project. I located a couple of good trash haulers and made a deal with one that is now not sounding good but I have a another one in my back pocket who has availability on the day I want. I want to get all this shit planned/settled so that we have time for plans b, c, and d... if needed.

Today's baseball is at 4 but the damn game is on YouTube! That is not convenient for me, thanyouvermuch. It's better than Facebook which they did a couple of times in 2019 but still, I pay way too much for the freakin sports channel and now they don't have the game??? grrrr

At least it is considerably cooler inside and out today. thankyoujeasus