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Oh, you should have seen it. A beautiful winter wonderland scene, frosty breath, a marvelous blanket of white coating the streets and sidewalks that crunches when one walks . . . wait a minute. That's not snow. It's salt. A glorious blanket of SALT covers the City of Brotherly Love. The salt trucks were out in force last night and this morning to protect the citizens from the bane of Philly winters - the freezing rain/sleet/ice that can make crossing a street an adventure in gymnastics and/or public humiliation. So I'm glad that they do it, but it tends to have a somewhat detrimental effect on footwear. I always forget about this part until after I decorate a pair of shoes - usually suede - with salt stains.
I stopped by the dive shop yesterday after work to pick up my regulator. I had taken it in to have the reg overhauled and to have the battery replaced in the dive computer. While I was waiting, I spoke with Nick, the shop owner, about our upcoming trip to the Cocos Islands off of Costa Rica in March. It should be fun although I mentioned that I would have really liked to go on the shop trip to Bali that he was planning for July 2002, but, alas, I have already pre-spent my vacation days. *sigh*
Then he said that they had to postpone the Bali trip until July 2003 because too many people cancelled after September 11th. Oh, really??
[Woo Hoo! Goin' to BALI!!]
It sounds awesome - twelve days aboard the MV Komodo Dancer, and I will definitely take some extra time on land. I was in Bali in 1995 - I had to be in San Diego for a conference and in London for a client trip two weeks later, so I called my travel agent and asked her to find me someplace in between that was warm, had some diving and beaches and some interesting things to see. I spent two weeks in Bali before traveling on to London - it was incredible and high on my list of places to go back to. So, now I've pre-spent three weeks of 2003's vacation in addition to all of this year's. Guess I'd better keep working.
Comfort food evening. I made Mom's Chicken and Rice, just the sort of thing that warms whatever cockles need warming when it is cold outside. The Alien said it smelled awfully nice, and she really hoped that I would let her have a piece. She promised that she would take the trash out if I did.
[She lied.]
Good news - the bathroom fan seems to have stopped making its Linda Blair Exorcist noises on its own. So perhaps I shouldn't give up on my theory that if left alone, broken appliances CAN, at times, heal themselves.
Update on the Laptop. Ana took it downstairs to see if she could jolly it along. She tried a couple of quick things, which didn't work. She wanted to keep it there and "defrag" it - it's been gone a long time. Probably not a good sign.
Maybe I should put the laptop in the bathroom with the fan, and see if it will fix itself too.
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Quote du jour:
"The only thing God didn't do to Job
was give him a computer."
-- I. F. Stone
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