In my retirement I’m getting very accustomed to routine days with no urgent tasks awaiting me. I read the paper, I do a chore or two for Locus Online or sfadb.com, have lunch and take a nap, then read a book for two or three hours in the afternoon, and finally write a blog post, sometimes a book write-up but often simply commentary about what I saw in the paper or online during the day. Then dinner, and TV (Jeopardy, then whatever), until 9 or 9.30pm. Early to bed, early to rise (typically awake by 6 or 6:30am).
This past week has seen one interruption to that routine almost every day. So I’m behind on blog posts, writing up Pinker, and reading anything at all.
Last Saturday was the Locus Awards, which I’ve already discussed.
On Sunday and Monday, I compiled all the Locus Awards results, i.e. winners and ranked items to 10th place. A lot of tedious typing and running comparison queries to check for misspellings or other discrepancies. Collecting of cover images for the top book winners.
Tuesday I compiled the reviews from the July issue (the office sends me a PDF preview copy) into my index, to generate the list of interviews for the website July TOC page. (And eventually update the entire book review index, which I do every two or three months.)
Also on Tuesday, and long-anticipated new version of Riven, the 1997 sequel to Myst, was released, now with free-motion graphics and, it turns out, some significant changes in game play from the original. I spent several hours monitoring the download, and actually began the game for about 45 minutes.
Also, a trip to the post office to mail a key to Larry’s house to our estate seller in Austin TX. I was out of stamps.
Later Tuesday (just as I finished my blog post that day!) my partner Y’s son J was in a car crash. He’d just leased a new Volvo a month before. A 17-year-old kid in a white van made an ill-advised U-turn from the right lane of a two lane road (passing underneath a freeway, as it happened), apparently not seeing J just to his left in his blind spot, and hit the right middle of J’s car, sending it spinning into the wall on the opposite side of the road. New cars these days can be programmed to sent alerts to family members in the event of a crash, so partner Y heard right away, and we drove out to Lafayette, in rush-hour traffic, to bring J home. Car totaled.
On Wednesday I edited and formatted Paul Di Filippo’s three reviews for June (he apologized being a bit late), which takes minimum an hour and longer if interrupted. Otherwise routine day.
On Thursday a major chunk of the afternoon was taken going to the downtown Oakland Social Security Office, to obtain a SSA-1099 form for 2023 for the later Mr. Kramer, so that I can file his taxes. And to make sure it was updated to account for the payments SSA made after his death that I, as executor, had to pay back to SSA.
Also Thursday, we had house cleaners come, a different pair than usually do our house due to scheduling difficulties. That evening when I went upstairs to brush my teeth before bed, I heard the shower dripping. I tried turning the handle off. It didn’t stop. I turned it all the way on. And the shower handle didn’t stop, but kept spinning, both ways, while the shower ran full blast; I could not turn it off.
Friday and today Saturday were spent trying to find a plumber to show up. Actually, Y took the initiative to shut the water off the entire house and then disassemble the shower faucet, and found the broken part.
Friday Y had an appointment to take his car into our favorite BMW service place for routine servicing. I followed in my car to bring him home. Then we stopped at Home Depot, and our local hardware store, to find a replacement for the broken part. No one had it. The hardware store recommended a plumber, Z and Z. Back home, I called them. Long story short: I tried scheduling with them for two days, they never called back, or showed up. M/w Y, thinking he might fix the shower himself, found a part match on Amazon and ordered a replacement, to be delivered today, Saturday. Then this morning he logged into Angie’s [List] and got a response, from a guy who actually showed up, today at 1:30pm, understood the problem, but could not find a replacement part at any local stores. And then–Amazon showed up, with the replacement part! Just on time! So plumber fixed shower, and everything is working again in our house.
While waiting for a response this morning, we called our realtor in Austin to discuss various issues. Landscapers; pricing the house; arranging to ship L’s car here to California. So many balls in the air.
Finally, Y’s son M and M’s wife are flying in to Oakland this evening, in about an hour, to stay overnight. Glad we got the plumbing fixed before they get here. The plumbing service recommended by the hardware store never has called me back.
