How was your week?
Mine was something of a good news/bad news sort of thing.
We had a pool party/cookout on Labor Day Sunday. Number Two Son and McNugget Tamer came over with the kids and a couple of their friends. Youngest Son joined us, too. We put the volleyball net up in the pool for the first time and had a pretty good game of it for a while. All sorts of goodies for the cookout, too. They brought over a corn dip that I threw on the smoker while we played in the pool, plus McNugget Tamer made a pasta salad and a garden salad. Middle Son brought us baked goodies from Sam Walton, and Youngest Son brought plenty of chips. We had a good time.
We got word that our new storm door shipped. That was a little faster than we’d expected. Here’s hoping that Lowe’s will call me early this coming week to schedule the install.
Also in the good news department, we regained access to one of our rental properties. It’s an unfortunate reality that if you’re a landlord, you’re eventually going to have to deal with evictions, and we recently had to do that. Once the suit was finished and we had the writ of possession, we learned that the sheriff would be unable to help us until January. I don’t know what kind of magic our property management company invoked, but they emailed us Friday to say that the former tenant was out. We’ll find out in a week or so how much work we’ll need to do to get it back on the market.
Fencing started back up this past week, too. We gained four new students, almost doubling our class size. Two of them are actually old students, returning after taking a year off. I fenced five bouts Thursday night and only won one of them. I got more than a little rusty over the summer. I’d had every intention of buying my own gear so I could practice, but the pool took more money than I think we’d expected, and much more of my time.
Bad News
Athena has had a small cyst-like growth on the outside of her left eye for a few weeks, and it got a lot worse early last week. What had been smaller in diameter than a dime practically tripled in size almost overnight. The vet had an opening Thursday, so we headed in.
She hasn’t been to the vet in about four years, so I was a little nervous about how she was going to act. Turns out, she was fine in the waiting room, even with four other dogs and three birds. She didn’t like the treatment room very much, probably because it was relatively small and crowded. She really didn’t appreciate the muzzle I opted to ask for, since we were going to be messing around with her eye. Turns out the doc didn’t even probe the growth, since it wasn’t something she felt qualified to deal with. She gave us some meds and a referral to an animal ophthalmologist in Tulsa. Who knew that was a thing? I’ll give him a call Monday.
We are not having any fun with the meds. She’s getting Cipro once a day and an anti-inflammatory twice a day. We’ve tried cheese and peanut butter in the past and she hasn’t appreciated those, so I bought some Greenies Pill Pockets (affiliate link). I cheated and gave her a couple of empty ones to get her used to the idea of eating them, and she likes them just fine—as long as they’re empty. In her defense, the Cipro pills are pretty big, so we have to push her mouth open and toss the pill down, then hold her till she swallows. She gets a couple of treats after each dose though, so she’s beginning to cooperate. A little.
Again With The Computer
My desktop machine started acting up Friday morning again and finally shut down with an overheating warning. This is the second time since I bought it in March. For some reason, I saved the box and packing material they used to ship it back to me last time, so sending it back won’t be quite as expensive. I hope.
I’m beginning to wonder about causes here.
My desk sits in the northwest corner of the sunroom, and the computer sits on the right/west side of the desk, right up against the window. I’ve got a curtain there that currently covers about half of the computer, but I’m curious if that’s enough. I don’t want to completely cover the window though, because I get a nice view of the pool and the yard. We’ve only got a couple of options though. Once is to put up a screen like this or this. Those add some shade but still let me see outside.
The other option is to rearrange things and move my desk to a different corner of the sunroom. The southeast corner gets about a quarter of the sun that the northwest corner gets. The disadvantages to that corner? I’d have to turn to look out at the yard, but at least I can still see it. The other big issue is that we’d have to move a bunch of furniture. The southeast corner holds a bookcase, filing cabinet, and our freezer. Power is a little limited in that corner, too. There’s only one outlet there as opposed to the two in the other corner. Then again, the sunroom is all on one circuit, along with the outlets for the master and man bathrooms, the master bedroom, and the exterior outlet that runs the pool. It might be time for some rewiring.
Michigan at Oklahoma
I admit, it really killed me to have Michigan playing just two-and-a-half hours away and not be able to get to the game. I just couldn’t afford the tickets at over $250 for the cheap seats. It’d help if I could find a job, but that’s another story.
They looked terrible.
Okay, maybe not terrible, but I’m glad I didn’t go to the game.
Three yards and a cloud of dust just doesn’t work against a team like the Sooners.
Blake Corum could have broken loose on several of these plays up the middle.
Justice Haynes isn’t Blake Corum, and he doesn’t have Corum’s offensive line in front of him, either.
We didn’t seem to make any adjustments throughout the game. It looked like Moore had a game plan and was going to run it no matter what. I just wish his plan had involved more than having our $12M quarterback hand it off a few dozen times.
When Underwood did throw, he missed a lot. He was 9/24 for 142 yards this week as opposed to his performance against New Mexico: 21/31 for 251 yards. His completion rate got cut in half.
Was part of it playing against a tough SEC team? Possibly. Granted, it was only his second collegiate start. I think Moore’s game plan is partly to blame here though. He didn’t throw much in the first quarter, so by the time he really started throwing, the Wolverines were way behind the curve. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young QB. The AP sportswriters suggested that maybe Michigan doesn’t quite trust Underwood yet, which was an interesting take on it.
Ah well. On to Central Michigan next week.
Music
I’ve been a Home Free fan for a while. I’ve been a Gordon Lightfoot fan for a while. Home Free released a cover of Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” this week. I was prepared to not like it, even though I’m a fan of both artists, because as someone said back when Lightfoot died, maybe it’s time to move on from the song.
I don’t know if it is or not. Hansel makes a great point. I’m curious what led Lightfoot to sing specifically about the Fitz, and not do a musical tribute to all of those lost in the Graveyard of the Great Lakes.
But I really liked Home Free’s version of the song.
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