Thursday 4/30/2020
Started the day with Veronica’s early-morning aerobics class at 7:15. I was the only attendee, so I had a personal trainer, in effect.
Then, after a suitable time reading the internet, it was time to clean! Thursdays have been the usual day for cleaning. When I first moved in, Wanda, the housecleaner for the 6th floor, asked what day I would like my room done, and I opted for Thursdays, because I was usually away all day Thursday, doing artifact stuff. So for months I would come home to a clean apartment with vacuum cleaner tracks on all the carpets, like the mower stripes on the outfield before a baseball game.
Then came the virus, and Wanda got promoted to apprentice nurse’s aide, and I went without cleaning for a sad amount of time. Then last week I got my DIY vacuum and swiffer, I wrote about that. So today was DIY cleaning day. I have a checklist of all the surfaces that need to be (a) dusted (with or without pledge), (b) sprayed with cleanser and wiped, (c) swiffered, or (d) vacuumed. It’s a long list. Plus changing the bed linens.
However, I got through the whole thing in 2 hours, before lunch. In the afternoon, a little coding, a little Affinity Photo review, and that was the day. I didn’t even turn on the TV in the evening.
I finished reading The thirty-nine steps, which is really not a good book. So much casual cultural stereotyping. Some quite unbelievable coincidences. At one point, Buchan has written himself into a box: he’s set a big deadline in mid-June but he started the action in late May. He’s got over a week to fill before the next thing can happen. How does he pass that week? His hero has had malaria in the past; he has a malarial relapse and spends a week in bed in a conveniently safe cottage. One week of narrative time, compressed into a page. Problem solved, for the author.
One thing I want to do is to get some life back in the wood of my coffee table. It’s a beautiful object; I’m sure Marian paid a bundle for it back in the 60s; but it really has dried out and taken on a gray tone. I know it would come back to a deep reddish brown with some oil of some kind. I sought The Google’s advice and it comes down to either Scotts Liquid Gold or Old English Lemon Oil. I opt for Scotts. But for some reason the shipping time on Amazon is weeks.
Well, somebody mentioned recently that Ace Hardware was doing curbside pickup; I have a nice Ace Hardware just up Channing Street. So I go on the Ace website, select “my” store, and order and pay for one can of Liquid Gold. Email: order received. Please wait for the “order ready” email before coming to the store. Expected date: 4/30.
However, the email doesn’t come. Tomorrow, one hopes.
Evening, I try out a game, HiveSwap. It’s cute, and has actually amusing dialog. It’s one where there’s a plot, and you advance the plot by walking your character around various rooms, clicking on things to look at them and solve puzzles. I get frustrated early by not being able to solve a puzzle, so I go to the YT and watch a walk-through of the first bit. Oh, is that what it was. Actually it looks kind of fun, and I think I’ll go back to it and play some more.
Codgerville 