My long birthday weekend is about over.
I spent my birthday last Saturday first getting a swine flu shot, then visiting the local library, then visiting the Bracken Library, then shopping at Fry’s and Best Buy in Fishers/Noblesville, and finally driving through a thick fog.
I read about the swine flu vaccine clinic in the town hall. I let it slip out of mind because I had intended to go to Muncie very early for some blood work. But I got out of bed late. I remembered the vaccine clinic only because I was mailing a water bill and noticed what was going on.
My visit to the local library was to replace a library card that I left in the pocket of a shirt which in turn went into the washer. This time I got the card laminated. And I had to sign a form conforming that I am secretary of the library board for another year. One day the board will find someone else who is not arthritic, but until then I do my duty.
I did not do much at the Bracken Library besides typing out and publish my belated New Year 2010 entry and then taking a catnap in an out-of-the-way corner with a book on Easter Island on my lap. After that I had a birthday lunch at the Olive Garden: Chicken scampi with zuppa toscana, and torta di chocolate for dessert. It was my only other meal for the day.
I visited Fry’s and got parts to turn my Isis box into a functional system, as well as Resident Evil: Degeneration on DVD. I could find a decent monitor at Fry’s (shame on them), so I went to Best Buy to buy an LG Flatron W2361VG for my main box. The Isis system, which I assembled in my bedroom, gets the Viewtronic I got from my folks.
I also got a Linksys Wireless-G USB dongle for the Isis box, so that I can link it to my local net. That meant going back on my sworn oath not to use wireless, which was the reason for the conduit project last summer. But there is no possible means to wire the bedroom, so I had to reactivate and secure the wireless part of my router. In the end the Isis system works as intended.
Finally I drove home through a fog so thick I could not see beyond two meters from the front of my car. I had to drive at forty miles per hour until I approached the intersection of state road 37 and Madison County road 600 N. The shadows of cars and a tanker truck silhouetted in the fog-dispersed light of stopped cars in the other direction showed me that something bad had happened. In the fog the scene was so freaky, but evidently someone went off the road into a deep ditch. I waited for about fifteen minutes. When it became clear that the traffic was going nowhere and that the police had the scene in hand, I drove into 600 N and drove slowly to state road 9.
I got my birthday lunch on Sunday: Pork roast with fennel, mashed spud, beans (both green and baked), and German chocolate cake with cocoanut icing. Among my gifts is an AARP magazine to remind me how old I am now. I spent Sunday doing more work on the Isis box.
Today I washed off my car as much as I could in this cold weather; and I installed a new magnetic strip to my shower stall to keep its door from popping open.