Learning
12:46 p.m. - 2007-10-31


First, the obligatory earthquake report. I was sitting on the bed reading a knitting book when the bed began to gently sway like a boat on the water. Not a bad one; it was short where I live.

My daughter got a new camera and is taking the most splendid close-up pictures of her jewelry. I have not been very good about reading my manual, so I only know the extreme basics of my camera. Today I decided to at least make a little effort. I have been wondering if I accidentally pressed something because the pictures have been somewhat fuzzy lately. I found out that I could program it to reset itself to the original settings, undoing whatever I did to it. All because I opened the manual and actually read it! And I found out how to zoom the picture.

In other news, the vacuum cleaner started emitting clouds of smoke, which, as we all know, is not a good sign. I know what is wrong with it, the beater bar thingy is broken. I finally decided to find out how much it would cost to replace it, so I went down to the Sears part place and found out. Holy cow, the whole vacuum only cost $130 and it would cost $53 for the bar. I do not know how old the vacuum is, but I have had it for some years and it has had a hard life. Time for a new vacuum, I am thinking. I removed the burnt-out bar and the belt, and found out that it still has excellent suction. I guess I am going to be using the wand and an attachment until we get a new one. This is good because the condition of my kitchen floor can degenerate rapidly, so I need to clean it every day.

Had to go up on the roof to see if the earthquake undid my patch job, but no, everything was fine. While up there, I was admiring the view and waved to Mr. Ed across the street. He was quite startled to see me up there, and offered to help me if I needed assistance with the roof. I just told him to run over if he heard a scream. It is really quite nice up on the roof, as long as you stay on the roof and do not execute an unplanned rapid descent.

The spouse brought in the Halloween candy. I pretended to be busy, but I was really scoping out his new hiding place, which appears to be under his desk somewhere. I will file this info away for use next year.