Air Dam

H forgot to shut off the water in his office last night. The toilet over there runs on. It's just a trickle, but it's enough to drain the storage tank if it goes all night – or all day if it's cloudy. The pump is solar powered (a vestige of our early, off-the-grid years here) and runs, on sunny days, into a 500 gallon tank uphill from the house. So this happens from time to time. Sometimes it's that stupid old toilet. Once in a while, someone forgets to shut off the water to a critter tub. Most often, it's just because it was cloudy for one day too many. Usually, we notice before it gets too bad. But when the pressure pump at the house cycles for more than a minute and then, after another minute, gets a note of panic in its voice, you know. Air dam. The whole system is dry. It will take a full tank at the top of the hill to force the air out at the bottom.

And now I've discovered another dam in a not-entirely-unexpected place. I've been neglecting my online friendships for months – personal shit has sucked away what limited energy I had for social interaction. I let whatever reserves of good will I had there trickle away for a few too many cloudy days – tried to reopen a tap just now and found myself blocked. Ouch. Not that I don't deserve it, but all the same. Ouch.

Sheri Needs This

Well not "needs" so much as "might want to abuse use." Close enough.

Oh hail...

If you post a photoshop to the intertoobs and nobody "LOLs," does it... oh, never mind. H laughed.


He liked it even better when he found out it wasn't just heads stuck on a ready-made image. I actually left O's head bobbly a'purpose - because that is what the intertoobs are for, bad photoshoppery, full of FAIL and without LOLs. Which mine is. Unfailingly.

What I did last Sunday

Not much, actually. I drove to Richmond. Sat and read for a few hours. Then drove home a different way so we could redeem a World Market coupon for Ginger Beer.*

It was all very exciting!

It was!

Kid had a fencing tourney and did very well. On her way to a third place finish (out of 25), she finally beat a couple of guys she'd never beaten before - STAB! Coach will be very pleased.

To make a good day even better, there was an older (as in my age or a little older) French woman there, fencing. That's one of the coolest things about this sport - no age limits. Kid and she spent much of their down time conversing happily - in French. Win!

Now I am brain dead and have to get Herself to C'ville by 8:30 AM. Bonne nuit!
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*Not our usual WM, but a Richmond one. They had Fentimans. We will take this path again.

Yes, we have no bananas.

Speaking of things-I-wish-I-could-discuss-more-frankly-with-the-Ancient-and-Venerables: health. Theirs. They've been amazingly well for 81 and 85 years, but* at 85, Pater was diagnosed with a slowly evolving heart issue, aortic valve stenosis, that has progressed from 'mild' to 'moderate' over the last year. He'll be 86 in March, so I have no right to expect him to be invincible. I don't. But he's my Pater, and even his Doc says he's more like a 75 year old - once again, I've been spoiled by good fortune. And, to her credit, we've all been spoiled by the Mater's careful stewardship. High fiber, low fat, low sugar, low salt - she's had them both on a strict regimen for decades. (H and I enjoy "corrupting" Pater with the occasional feast of forbidden fruit - bacon cheeseburger! It's safe - his *arteries* are clean as a whistle.)

Anyhow, their Doc sent him to a cardiologist who has seen him a couple of times now. The last time - last week - he said Pater could safely wait another year before undergoing treatment. Good news, right? And yet, that's what's bugging me.

The first time he saw Pater, Cardio Doc was pretty dismissive of anything less than valve replacement, but not at the mild stage where Pater was then.

Wait and watch. Watch and wait.

Now, however, he's sounding more interested in a balloon expansion. But from what I can gather, that's not considered a satisfactory *long term* treatment. So what is he aiming at? What are his expectations for this man, my Pater? How does a Doc decide how much treatment is ... "adequate?"

Green bananas, Doc - to buy, or not to buy?

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*assuming they weren't hiding it from me before - they're great for that, not wanting *me* to worry!

Beerbohm! Beerbohm! Beerbohm!

Just bought meself a copy of The Incomparable Max.

Dunno why.

Just ... "needed" it.

Happy National Day of Mourning!

And happy my birthday - can I pick 'em or what? I'm 3x17. Yay me.