I actually had a fairly nice weekend. Mostly ran around with She Who Must Be Obeyed on errands great and small. On Sunday we took a nice hike in the Gorge Metro Park of the Summit (County) Metro Park system totaling about four miles. It was cool and sunny and a wonderful day for a walk. I carried the camera but wasn't inspired to shoot any images. A small sore spot that had been in my throat for a few days developed overnight into a something more uncomfortable. {No coughing, but loud snoring.} Today I've been pretty well drained of energy and doing the minimum necessary at the office to keep everything going — not sick enough to warrant leaving but not fully effective staying! Treating it with aspirin, zinc throat lozenges, and lots of liquids. The skies and the weather are absolutely beautiful right now but I can't do much with them… I'm feelin' crappy.
weekend
All posts tagged weekend
Yesterday was bright and sunny. Today we have returned to winter gloom. It doesn't look good for the weekend, either, and Saturday night at the Observatory I was supposed to host our first Public Night for the year. Oh well, at least it looks like the sky conditions will be unambiguously opaque — no second-, third-, and fourth-guessing a decision on whether to open. The worst times are when we have an event planned and maybe it will be cloudy and maybe it won't be cloudy. Do I drive to the Observatory or not? Because this was going to be a Saturn Observation Campaign special event, we have a rare "rain" date –next Saturday– in case sky conditions prevent our opening. That's Northern Ohio for you… not exactly the astronomy capital of the world.
This year's big event calendar publishing project seems to have taken forever! In fact, we ought to be in print right now and might have been except we needed to find a new printing company. It seems Rohrich Corporation closed its doors, apparently late last year, and I was left scrambling looking for a new company that could provide excellent quality and service at an affordable price. I got three estimates and selected the new provider. About all that remains on the publishing end is a page or two of text to place, copy-fitting, and a photo caption or two. I hope to be able to >>finally<< finish the publication tomorrow (a scheduled day off) and ship the CD-ROM off to the new guys. Celebration will be in order. A bonus: this year, for the first time ever, I won't do the majority of shipping and distribution from my house! The new printer will handle that. What a relief: you have no idea how much 20,000 full-color "magazines" fresh off the press can stink up your house unless you've actually lived with it! Of course, I'll lose the exercise of lugging 20 or so cartons of 35 pounds each down into the basement and back up again over the course of a few months — I guess I'll have to do strength and cardio training some other way.
My thoughts go out to the fine folks formerly with Rohrich. So sorry to learn of the closure and job losses for people we worked with for many years. Here's hoping they all find better times not long ahead.
Weekend: We plan to visit the Cleveland Auto Show. Yes, a little pre-shopping.
It was a rather unremarkable weekend. I guess you need those now and again.
I had to call off Saturday night's scheduled Observatory open night due to weather. Overcast and thunderstorms moved into the area well in advance of our opening time which made the decision easy. Good thing, too! Months ago I determined that last night's target for viewing would be the M4 star cluster in Scorpius. Given that our open hours were to begin at 9 PM and that twilight, on a clear night, really seems to end after 10:00, we'd have had no chance of seeing M4 until maybe 10:30 — half an hour before closing! With no bright planets and no Moon to look at, that would have been a very awkward and disappointing 45 minutes or so! So I was saved from my faux pas and was actually relieved to cancel. Next year, the solstice open night will feature the Moon so that we'll have something to look at in a naturally bright sky!
Instead of spending the evening at the Observatory, we watched a movie at home. She chose the excellent Pixar film, Ratatouille and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Funny… my night's sleep ended with a dream that had something to do with a small restaurant, much the same as the end of the movie but no rats were cooking! This morning I made omelettes and toast for our breakfast and we sat at the table, looking out at a quite and bird song filled Sunday morning. Later we headed out on a small mission and enjoyed a relaxed visit to downtown Hudson and its cooking store and book store — both small, independents and both quite wonderful.
It was good to have a restful day. The week ahead will bring plenty of work and a couple of visits to the Observatory. Next weekend won't be nearly so quiet.
It was a decent week, for the most part. Two days of deep moodiness were followed by a revival. I completed installation of an email archiving system –for compliance with state and federal record-retention laws– which was a big deal. Yeah, not a bad week.
We spent little time at home today. Took Her car to the dealer to fix a rattle. The noise turned out to be, as expected, the catalytic converter heat shield coming loose. The thing fell clean off as they raised the car on the lift. We did our weekly grocery shopping and set some sort of record for the total spent! We still don't know why, though we did stock up on a few pricier items and seasonal things that are unusual for us.
We picked up the repaired car midday, headed home for a quick lunch, then out the door for some holiday shopping and, well, just to get out … the sky was mostly clear and sunshine beckoned. In the later part of the afternoon we paid a visit to Hinckley Lake, mostly to visit the boathouse outdoors shop there. As we arrived the shop managers were also arriving, back to make sure they had shut something off when they left earlier! They very kindly let us in. We examined some nice sweaters but bought nothing as She does not like items that are marked DRY CLEAN ONLY. Too bad. The storekeepers were very nice about it having been inconvenienced not at all; in fact, they were downright cheerful and friendly. Nice way to end the day out in the world.
The weekend weather forecast looks unpleasant for our usual outdoor activities. Too cloudy for astronomy and too much rain chance for cycling. What we will be up to is, at this point, unknown. Tasha is feeling much better after a few days of dosing her with Prednisolone. Dr. B. said I did the right thing in resuming the medication he prescribed as therapy for possible inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Tasha's feline body seems to agree. {See: Cornell Feline Health Center for more info.} Where she was vomiting frequently and a little too quiet, she now keeps all meals and water down and romps around the house — her old self again. Doc would like us to begin reducing the dose and try and find some low maintenance dose that will keep the symptoms at bay. Very tricky: she went for more than a month without any medication and had no noticeable symptoms — how to find that elusive minimum dose. Dinner out at the Wild Ginger China Bistro tonight! What's pending for the weekend is a mystery!
PhotonStopper 