Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Oh my, SO MUCH has gone on since the last update: air conditioning, a living room refresh, a rattlesnake bite, and tons more.
We now have air conditioning! It's four separate mini-splits covering the main parts of the house. Mini-splits are more energy-efficient and eco-friendly than a big central air unit. The system passed one inspection, and we're scheduling a final City inspection. We've used it a bit, but mostly have still been able to manage by opening and shutting windows and deploying fans. Temps are rising, but so far haven't gotten above 100. Yet.
The Ikea bookshelf project happened! John went to Ikea one Friday and ordered five Tonstad bookshelves, one Tonstad cabinet, and a Skruvby sideboard, for in-home express delivery, over $1,800 after taxes and fees. Of course, while John was there he treated himself to lunch and a cake, nom nom nom.
Over the next several weekends we emptied the old bookcases, stashed the books around the house, moved the old bookcases aside, and built bookshelves. Then came the fun part: restocking the bookshelves! Our books are now in a kind of order, which means we can actually find what we're looking for: Latin and Greek here, Shakespeare there, classic lit here, modern lit there, poetry up there, travel over there. We also organized the DVDs. Books and DVDs had to be double-stacked on several shelves to make the system work. Surprisingly, the consolidation and organization revealed only two duplicate titles. John moved his lit books out of his office, releasing shelf space for archaeology and history books, although some of the history books may end up going into the living room as well.
We've taken part in several marches and demonstrations protesting the Trump regime and its unconstitutional overreach, including, just last weekend, the largest protest ever held with more than 5 million people in all 50 states. The situation keeps getting worse, though, with United States Marines and National Guard soldiers deployed against peaceful American protesters in Los Angeles, a Democratic state senator from Minnesota assassinated in her home along with her husband, a Democratic state representative and his wife shot in Minnesota in a connected attack, official calls for the arrest (and worse) of California governor Gavin Newsom along with more political assassinations and attacks against left-leaning groups, and more funding being diverted from education and healthcare and social services to fund military and military-style incursions into non-Trump-supporting U.S. states, along with a military parade in honor of Trump's birthday. There are also calls to legalize the deportation of U.S. citizens. (U.S. citizens, especially those of color, are already being kidnapped off the street and trafficked to foreign prisons, out of the reach of family and assistance, but it's, so far, unconstitutional and illegal. Congress is working on it making it so, though, and, regardless of legality, Trump has seized the power to do it and is doing it.) It is not safe to be a person of color in this country, and the worst part is realizing that that racial hatred was there all along. We were always outcasts.
The digging part of the excavation project John was on for the several months came to a close, and now he's awaiting the start of some of the lab work, including sorting and cataloging finds. Meantime, he's been monitoring construction work near the beach and out near Buckman Springs (another potentially long-term project).
John had a couple rare days off, so he met up with an old advertising buddy, Jose, for lunch and went to REI's Memorial Day sale and bought two pairs of sun gloves. And, he made that big Ikea run.
He also went to a couple company parties, one at a pizza place and the other on Fiesta Island. And, he had an interview with yet another CRM company.
John got a new CPAP, a Resmed Airsense 11. His old machine, an Airsense 10, started giving a message saying the motor life had been exceeded, so Kaiser gave him a new machine. It's a tiny bit smaller and sleeker and lighter than the old one.
Ondine got together with some Heidelberg friends and took a nice evening walk with our friend Lucy. Also, she had lunch with Danielle and her Mom, marking the first time the parents have gotten together. John has threatened that he and Roy should go out with Danielle's Dad for a manly men's lunch, maybe axe-throwing and BBQ, lol. She also visits her mother almost every weekend.
For Mother's Day Ondine wanted the Kints to come over and make her pancakes and bacon, so we got in a couple boxes of mix and a rasher of good, thick uncured bacon. Watching the two of them cook together was very entertaining, so it was an excellent meal and a fun show!
She also has been taking steps (ha!) toward getting a knee replacement.
Shadow got bitten by a rattlesnake in our back yard! Ondine rushed him to the emergency vet on Jackson, where he received first one and later a second vial of antivenin. He stayed under observation overnight. It was lucky she got there when she did, because about 20 minutes after Shadow was checked in, the clinic was turning people away because they were at capacity.
Anyways, a few days and about $3,000 later, the dog is totally fine now. The thing is, he's deaf, he can't hear the rattle. So, after all that, he could learn nothing from the experience; he has no idea what happened, lol. Ondine is looking at getting him the rattlesnake venom vaccine, which apparently buys some time if he gets bit again.
Leo just returned from a week-long cruise to Mexico! He went with his friend Trent, who had never been out of the country before. How fun! A storm meant that the cruise reversed its planned itinerary, making this trip a near copy of the family trip we had 15 years ago, with Barbara and Bill, back in 2010: Mazatlan, La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta. Trent's parents dropped them off, and we picked them up just this last Sunday.
After dropping Trent back home, we all convened for a wonderful Father's Day ramen lunch at Underbelly in North Park.
Lately we've been watching (on Kanopy) a fun German murder mystery called Mord mit Aussicht, about a igh-flying detective inspector from Cologne sent to take charge of a small, rural police station in the Eifel mountain region. We've both been learning German on Duolingo, so it's been fun watching something set roughly in the area kinda near the Moselsteig. The Moselsteig may be our next walking trip, whenever that happens. It'll have to be after Ondine's new knee is installed and she's back to walking normally.
Neighborhood gas prices are still weird. Most stations in the neighborhood are about $4.89, but there's one local station that recently rebranded from Chevron to G&M, and it seems to have a teaser rate going that's well below other stations; for a few days it was $4.09 per gallon. John has also been filling up at the Viejas Pit Stop on the rez, which is about $4.19.
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