I spent a couple of hours at the phone banks for Indiana Public Radio. It was during the evening news hours, but not many pledged called in. But we (I and five other volunteers) got a good meal as a local grill called Amazing Joe’s donated barbecue chicken, lasagna, salad and rolls. The barbecue chicken was actually delicious, and BBQ chicken usually isn’t.
My next stint was also a couple of hours, when the more popular programs come on, like a two-hour Car Talk. But I also sat in the back phones and did not get any calls.
I learned from listening in that the fast-forward idea (two months of pledge advertisements and four days of pledge taking) is working about as well as nine or ten days of pledge taking. It may be adopted permanently.
First thing after I arrived Friday was to visit the Human Performance Labs in order to volunteer for the same kind of gait measurements that were taken from me last year. I am part of a control group to study ways to help stroke victims regain mobility.
I had little silver balls taped to my joints and head. Then I walked a set distance ten times at normal gait, then ten times at very slow gait. It took a little over an hour, and I got a $25 Wal-Mart gift card for volunteering. I used the card for groceries.
I will also report for the same thing eight weeks from now, and then six months from the second test.
I got a nice card a couple of days ago from Linda the librarian, thanking me for my help in moving books, shelves and equipment from the old library to the new one. I was also informed of the submission to the county council for my appointment to the library board for a full four-year term. I assume that if it does approve my appointment that I will be personally notified, as there is a two or three month gap before the council posts their minutes on their Web site.
My mother has pointed out the following classified ad in the Madison-Grant Shopper, that I have missed because it was in such small type. (The newspaper and library board do not get along.) This is the pertinent part, with some editing.
The Library will be opening for full services on Monday, November 3. The Library is still a work in progress; but Director Linda Magers felt that being closed for almost a month for the move is long enough. The Library has been open to patrons for fax, notary and other smaller services; but looks forward to checking materials out to patrons for their informational and recreational needs. A formal dedication for the new building in being planned for a later date.
What had been delaying the opening was the lack of parts for the remaining stacks. It looks like we will have to open the library without them. Everything else, including the outdoor sign, is ready. The formal opening plans might be discussed in the next board meeting on the twelth of this month.
The maple tree in the back yard is doing its serious leaf-dropping. The yard was a blanket of leaves when I found the time this weekend to rake them. The announcement at the last town board meeting of the breaking out of the leaf sweeper was so vague that I continued to bag the leaves until I see proof of the leaf sweeper making the rounds. I worked late Saturday afternoon into the twilight, and then early Sunday morning. I raked and bagged leaves, pulled up dead patches of crabgrass, and mowed some of the lawn, especially the front and along the west road. That made up seven bags of yard waste.
I had to do the mowing with the original push-reel. The green push-reel is jammed in the right wheel. I tried taking apart the right wheel and oiling the appropriate parts, but it did not seem to work. It looks like I will have to get another mower next year, maybe the one I recommended for my neighbor’s mother-in-law — before his son decided that he would be the lawn-mower.
It looks like I will be voting at the town hall this year. Come to think about it, I voted there last year, too. I will probably go to the council chamber because it is the biggest room in the hall.
While I was relaxing Saturday afternoon, I heard strange noises on my screen door. Then I saw people wander around the neighborhood. I realized they put something in my door, so I checked. There, wedged in my screen door, were flyers from the Republican Party, talking about values
and suchlike.
It is evident that the Republicans are no longer taking Indiana for granted, now that it is likely that the Democrats will win its electoral votes for the first time since the Goldwater-Johnson elections of 1964. I think it is a little too late for that sort of thing:
When your life and livelihood is under threat, appeals to values seem tepid to almost all, and taken seriously only to a shrinking number of people who can still remember life in the pre-WWII United States.
I called the doctor’s office Friday morning. I was told that my metformin perscription will stay the same, but that I will be taking a new drug called a glimépiride that simulates the pancreas to do its job. I cannot pick up the perscription at the doctor’s office, since it is open only when I am working. So they will mail the perscription to me. I will then decide whether to take it to a drugstore or get my mail-in perscription to process it. If I want it sooner, I may have to pay out of pocket.
My boss found that frequency that British shopkeepers use to drive out the teenagers (and therefore any future business). It is a frequency that they can hear, but older people cannot. The noise drove his younger co-workers nuts, and our sysadmin can hear it as well. But my boss could not, nor could the office manager, nor could I. The reason? The guys were in their 20’s; my boss is in his 30’s; I am in my late 40’s.
Later that evening I downloaded a sound sample of that noise from NPR. It turns out that I can hear it, but only just, and provided that the sound is turned all the way up. It is an extremely high tone, and I can see how it can annoy teens or twenties. I would not be able to hear it in the background noise of an office, however, not even in a library.