Holiday update
Monday, May 25th, 2009Memorial Day, a day off work, so I think I can squeeze out an update. Finally. We’re supposed to be in mid-BBQ by now, but had a few cancellations so Morgan, kids, and Maggie are out back and I’m computing. Photo update later, for now just the words. On the plus side, the house is nice and tidy.
I feel like I’ve been productive in what little free time I have – we splurged on a new laptop with our tax refund, so I sold our old one on ebay, as well as our old digital camera with the half-wonky screen; made and hung a swing on the tree out front last weekend, made a raised-bed garden out back which is showing initial signs of success with tomatoes and an assortment of other sprouts coming up. My hops are coming back this year, let’s hope for success on them.
I’ve got a keg of hefeweizen sitting in the closet, waiting a few more weeks for Brian and Sonya’s wedding, plus 3 bottles of Mirror Mirror in the garage fridge to enjoy sometime in the distant future. As Brian put it yesterday, we’re living in times of some of the best beer availability. It’s an obsession, tracking new special releases, what might be available in Reno or not, tasting sessions with friends, stowing ultra precious bottles away to age or wait for the right occasion. I love it.
My other favorite thing besides beer (coffee) also has developments to report – Grandpa Dave sent us a big drip coffee and espresso machine recently that we just put into service. It’ll take a few pots to figure out just the right grind, amount, and setting for the perfect cup, but the iced espresso I had earlier put me into this weird “tired from antihistamines but feeling heart palpitations from the caffeine” state that I didn’t like very much. I’m reaching equilibrium now, both substances wearing off a bit.
On other fronts, we seem to be battling sickness on a regular basis. We thought Lola’s ear infection had passed, but more recently she had such a bad cough that it kept us all up most of the night, so we took her in. She was diagnosed with asthma and put on a daily steroid mist treatment that’s not much fun. And her ear was still infected, plus a hold in her eardrum. She seems well enough, but we’re to see an ear-nose-throat specialist next week and get this all figured out. Sid’s mostly well, except for some mystery diarrhea the last couple days that we have no clue about. Me, just allergies kicking my butt with everything in bloom this time of year, thus the aforementioned antihistamines.
EcoReno continues to keep us busy, although we could certainly use more business. We’ve more or less decided our biggest impediment to raging success right now (besides the generally poor climate for business everywhere) is location. We get virtually no drop-in serendipitous walk-in traffic, so we might be looking at moving at some point. We’ll see. The people who do shop with us really do love our store and our merchandise, we just need more of them. No big news otherwise, we just keep chugging along, looking for ways to grow and succeed.
My work continues to plod forward in a dismal situation – the library’s budget cut 36% means doing more work with a lot less. No layoffs for now, but lots of vacancies that means everyone’s working harder. Our hours are being cut at the end of next month, and my schedule will change, so the child care situation will need to change as well. And then again in a few months when Sid’s sitter goes to nursing school.
Well, I guess I’ve been a computer hermit long enough. Time to open a cold one and relax on the deck I hosed off earlier today. Days off are good.
