Thinking warm thoughts

Getting ready to shower. This preparation process consists of closing the heating vents in the kitchen and living room, and opening them in the bathroom and my bedroom. Later I'll close the one in the bathroom and let the furnace just heat my bedroom for a while because that's the coldest room in my house—especially since I have to keep it closed so the cats won't go in and pee on my bed.

When I go to bed, I'll open the vent in the living room a little so that enough comes out of that to trip the thermostat and turn the heat off so it doesn't get too warm in my bedroom during the night.

I was tempted by a $40 electric space heater at Big Lots today, but wouldn't have had any way to carry it home even if I'd cared to spend the money. Still, I can't help but think it would be a lot simpler if I could just turn the furnace off at night and use that to get my bedroom warm enough. Might even save me money, too.

Thinking warm thoughts

Getting ready to shower. This preparation process consists of closing the heating vents in the kitchen and living room, and opening them in the bathroom and my bedroom. Later I'll close the one in the bathroom and let the furnace just heat my bedroom for a while because that's the coldest room in my house—especially since I have to keep it closed so the cats won't go in and pee on my bed.

When I go to bed, I'll open the vent in the living room a little so that enough comes out of that to trip the thermostat and turn the heat off so it doesn't get too warm in my bedroom during the night.

I was tempted by a $40 electric space heater at Big Lots today, but wouldn't have had any way to carry it home even if I'd cared to spend the money. Still, I can't help but think it would be a lot simpler if I could just turn the furnace off at night and use that to get my bedroom warm enough. Might even save me money, too.

A Screw Loose

So, this afternoon I decided to bus up to the square and sit in the library for a while. I picked up my laptop, found the plastic protector piece that goes in the SD card slot (I'd taken it out to access my photos last night)…and promptly jammed it in upside down. It wouldn't come out. What was I to do? I didn't have any screwdrivers the right size to remove the screws. The computer repair shop down the street was closed. I guessed my only option was to go down to Wal-Mart and find a screwdriver myself.

It turned out that Wal-Mart was completely out of screwdriver sets in the right size. I walked over to Staples, and they hadn't carried them for a year and a half. But there were still a couple of places left to try. One of these was Home Depot.

On the way to Home Depot, I stopped at Wendy's to have a bowl of chili. "Finger food," I like to call it, after the incident with the lady who claimed to have found a severed finger in her chili (it turned out she had put it there herself). I was discussing it on IRC the other day with some friends and one of them said that the chili was where Wendy's puts hamburgers that have been on the grill too long and dried out. But so what? It's not as if they're spoiled meat. It's still perfectly good except for being a little dry—and that dryness won't matter after a while simmering in chili.

After Wendy's, I headed on to Home Depot, where I found just the thing: an 8-head screwdriver, with bits that stored in the handle. Once I had it, I found a chair to sit down in, took out a paper ketchup cup I'd snagged from Wendy's, prayed the tinkerer's prayer ("Please, Lord, let me be able to put this back together again"), and carefully pulled each of the screws on the frame of the bottom of my laptop. I then pried the edge apart just enough to extract the plastic stub. Success! I then put it back in rightside up and carefully screwed the whole thing back together again.

I suppose I should probably get rid of that little plastic stub. It was probably just there to protect the computer in shipping from the factory, and I expect sooner or later I would lose it in switching cards around anyway. I dunno; I'll think about it later.

Right now I'm sitting in that same chair at Home Depot typing this. There is no Internet access, but that's all right. I'll just go somewhere there is and post it there. I'm thinking maybe McDonald's. I still have a couple of coupons for their WiFi service, and it's possible they might already have gone to free so I won' t need them. There's one right across the street from Home Depot.

More later.

---

Now at a booth in McDonald's, connected to the Internet, plugged in and charging. Probably only spend another ten minutes or so here before the bus comes by and I ride it up to the square.

So nice to have a laptop with me.

A Screw Loose

So, this afternoon I decided to bus up to the square and sit in the library for a while. I picked up my laptop, found the plastic protector piece that goes in the SD card slot (I'd taken it out to access my photos last night)…and promptly jammed it in upside down. It wouldn't come out. What was I to do? I didn't have any screwdrivers the right size to remove the screws. The computer repair shop down the street was closed. I guessed my only option was to go down to Wal-Mart and find a screwdriver myself.

It turned out that Wal-Mart was completely out of screwdriver sets in the right size. I walked over to Staples, and they hadn't carried them for a year and a half. But there were still a couple of places left to try. One of these was Home Depot.

On the way to Home Depot, I stopped at Wendy's to have a bowl of chili. "Finger food," I like to call it, after the incident with the lady who claimed to have found a severed finger in her chili (it turned out she had put it there herself). I was discussing it on IRC the other day with some friends and one of them said that the chili was where Wendy's puts hamburgers that have been on the grill too long and dried out. But so what? It's not as if they're spoiled meat. It's still perfectly good except for being a little dry—and that dryness won't matter after a while simmering in chili.

After Wendy's, I headed on to Home Depot, where I found just the thing: an 8-head screwdriver, with bits that stored in the handle. Once I had it, I found a chair to sit down in, took out a paper ketchup cup I'd snagged from Wendy's, prayed the tinkerer's prayer ("Please, Lord, let me be able to put this back together again"), and carefully pulled each of the screws on the frame of the bottom of my laptop. I then pried the edge apart just enough to extract the plastic stub. Success! I then put it back in rightside up and carefully screwed the whole thing back together again.

I suppose I should probably get rid of that little plastic stub. It was probably just there to protect the computer in shipping from the factory, and I expect sooner or later I would lose it in switching cards around anyway. I dunno; I'll think about it later.

Right now I'm sitting in that same chair at Home Depot typing this. There is no Internet access, but that's all right. I'll just go somewhere there is and post it there. I'm thinking maybe McDonald's. I still have a couple of coupons for their WiFi service, and it's possible they might already have gone to free so I won' t need them. There's one right across the street from Home Depot.

More later.

---

Now at a booth in McDonald's, connected to the Internet, plugged in and charging. Probably only spend another ten minutes or so here before the bus comes by and I ride it up to the square.

So nice to have a laptop with me.