Another morning dialysis

K's nephrologist recommended an extra treatment, and DaVita had this morning slot available today, so here we are again, dropping her off at 5:45am for a morning dialysis. Yawn. The good news, is that our day is starting nice and early.

Mystery solved

Hooray. I finally figured out the mystery of the bedroom TV power circuit that's been dead since the deafening thunderclap last Saturday evening. I forgot you have to turn a tripped breaker completely off, before turning it back on. It looks on, but it's not. I stopped in the basement, this morning, and realized the computer and the UPS it's plugged into, were both dead. I realized we still had some other dead circuits in the house. When I got home tonight, I had the idea that I should try resetting the circuit breakers again. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember which breakers I had found tripped on Monday, so I had to turn them all off, and then all back on. The good news... Success! All circuits are alive again! The computer's UPS is charging! And the office lights work!

NROL-65 Launched!

We launched D364, a Delta IV heavy, carrying the NROL-65 satellite, this afternoon.

See the photos on SpaceFlightNow

Early morning dialysis

We're up at O'Dark-30, to take K to a makeup dialysis. They never got around to connecting her to the dialysis machine yesterday afternoon. After two hours, they recommended she come back this morning, since they had an early 5:45am slot. I'm a little worried about Mandy being all alone at the house for five hours, so I've got her with me in the car. She should be fine, since at this early time of the morning, there should be plenty of covered parking spots available at work. I just need to remember to go out and get her out for an occasional walk around the facility.

Breakers tripped

I had the idea that maybe the dead bedroom TV circuit, was simply a tripped circuit breaker, so I stopped at the breaker panels outside, when I got home. Nothing tripped on the old breaker panel, darn. Aha! The new panel that was installed when we finished the basement had four CBs tripped! I turned them all back on. No joy with the bedroom TV, though, which I kind of expected, since it's upstairs, and probably on a circuit that's in the old breaker panel.

Crash boom oops

Our neighbors were over chatting this evening, when we suddenly realized a big thunderstorm had been creeping up on us. We were quite startled when the house appeared to jump, as a huge thunderclap sounded, very close outside. Later this evening, I noticed the bedroom TV doesn't turn on any more. Then, on a hunch, I wandered the house, and found some surge protectors that had their circuit breakers tripped, and reset them, which got the living room TV and basement stereo working. After a little troubleshooting, all I could figure out, was that the new power circuit, installed back in 2008 for the wall mounted TV, is dead. I have no idea where that circuit comes from. A bunch of audio/video cables disappear into the wall alongside it, but they reappear out another hole, over by the cable box, VCR, and DVD player, and plug into the back of all that. No sign of the power cord there. Hmm.

Bunny

Friends brought their fluffy white bunny, "Awilda", to visit this afternoon. Mandy did really well with it. She just followed Awilda around everywhere, and got in the occasional sniff. She was very surprised, when she sniffed the front end, and got sniffed back!

OK for HBO (not the cable channel)

The wound clinic gave the OK for Kristan to receive treatment in a HyperBaric Oxygen (HBO) chamber. They hope it will help get her foot wounds heading in the healing direction. She tried it early last week, and that's when they found her ears weren't equalizing. The pressure was so great, she just about passed out from the pain, which then lingered on for the rest of the week. They sent her to the Ear-Nose-Throat Doc, who inserted ear tubes that will allow the pressure to equalize. But she thinks those are not healing up right either, so it's back to the ENT today.

Bedroom fun

We're having fun with our new bedroom furniture. We finally have a headboard, for the first time, and drawers to put things in, that won't get all dusty in a few days. I'm all excited about picking up two power strips at Office Depot tomorrow, to clean up our dozen electrical power connections. Simple pleasures...

UPS 1354 Crash

The UPS flight 1354 that crashed on short approach into Birmingham on the 14th, is starting to sound more and more like the Asiana crash at San Francisco. Things seemed like they were generally going OK for aircraft N155UP, considering that there was no electronic glideslope guidance available, right up until they descended below the desired glide slope, hit power lines and then the ground. There's some network buzz about an unstabilized approach. These pilots had darkness, and an overcast layer, to deal with, which shouldn't have been a big deal. Why was the autopilot still engaged, on short final on a non-precision approach? Puzzling.

Ear troubles

The wound clinic gave the OK for Kristan to receive treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. That should get her foot wounds heading in the healing direction. She tried it early last week, and that's when they found her ears weren't equalizing. The pressure was so great, she just about passed out from the pain, which then lingered on for the rest of the week. They sent her to the Ear-Nose-Throat Doc, who inserted ear tubes that will allow the pressure to equalize. But she thinks those are not healing up right either, so it's back to the ENT on Monday, if she can get an appointment.

The light at the end

OMG. It feels like we can see the light at the end of the home-repair-improvement tunnel. The refinished hardwood floors are all cured and ready for use. The furniture is mostly moved back onto the hardwood floors where it belongs. The new stairway railing is installed and stained. The new replacement carpet is installed on the main floor, staircase, and upstairs bedrooms. The leaking pipe in the kitchen ceiling is fixed. The five huge holes in the kitchen ceiling are patched, and the ceiling has been taped, textured, and painted. The new bedroom furniture (our first headboard ever!) has arrived, and the dozen electrical devices around the bed have been unplugged and replugged several times. Now, we just have to deal with the moderately long "punch list" that's left over from all that.

Scheduling conflict

It should be fun at the house right now, with the drywall repair and new carpet installation happening at the same time. I had a bit of a problem with the schedule... then I couldn't bring myself to send either of them away, since they're all busy, and might not be able to get back for weeks or months, and I so badly want all this work to be done.

Holes patched!

It's the first day of kitchen ceiling repair. Today they patched and taped. I'm so glad, to finally have all those holes covered up.

Found the leak

Some good news: After many weeks of putting up with five huge holes in the kitchen ceiling, while waiting unsuccessfully for the leak to re-occur, today our painter/friend and his drywaller/friend found a bunch of corrosion on a section of copper hot water pipe that was hiding between the holes. He sanded off the worst of the corrosion in one spot, and it started leaking immediately. A self-sealing (sort of) leak! Called a new plumber, and replaced the entire section.

New landscaping

Our front yard landscaping is finally in! It's been a long time since the landscaping fire last summer, that almost burned down our house. It is so nice to be able to look at the nice plants and rocks alongside the driveway now, instead of that pile of muddy dirt that's been there for a year. I'm sure our neighbors are appreciating it, too.

Disneyland!

I'm back, from a whirlwind trip to LA, just gone for two nights and a very fun day. Mikele talked me into going to Disneyland with her, the kids, Bob, and some of his relatives, 13 of us in all. I was soooo hesitant to go, but Kristan talked me into it. We made arrangements for a friend to spend the nights with her, which made the difference for me. I had a really fun time with everyone. I had to laugh, using the Find My Friends app, to watch people getting lost on the LA freeways, while coming to meet me at the airport. We had a fun little group adventure, walking to dinner at Inn N Out on Sepulveda Blvd, and watching the big Jets arrive. Parts of Disneyland were so different! I'd never been to California Adventure, the new park that replaced the huge parking lot that used to be right outside the old park. We had lunch at the Boudin Bakery in the Pacific Wharf there, really enjoyed my Shrimp Louie in a sourdough bread boule. I'd never used the Fast Pass, that lets you reserve a spot in the shorter line at the more popular rides, and I just loved bypassing those long lines! We hit up lots of twisty turny rides, old and new. And I did get to eat dinner at my old favorite Cafe Orleans restaurant, just outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and got a delicious drink from the Mint Julep Bar next door. I loved watching the evening Fantasm show on Tom Sawyer's Island, and the fireworks over the Fantasy Land Castle, complete with Tinkerbell floating by! The LA Sheraton Gateway hotel was a perfect place to stay, right by LAX, which made it so much less stressful, catching an early-morning flight home. Mandy was ecstatic to see me. She's lying on the bed next to me, looking exhausted and content after all the dancing she did for me, when I walked in the door just now. I posted a bunch of pics on Facebook.

We visited so many attractions, I was overwhelmed!