Six Days

My alarm clock woke me at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. As I walked past my second story windows, I couldn't help but notice that more snow was gently swirling to the white-coated ground below. I tried not to worry about the driving conditions that I might face when it was time to take 'A' to the oral surgeon. Her appointment was for 9:45. In good conditions it's a 15 minute drive. I told her we'd be leaving at 9 a.m. I was anticipating her usual stall tactics, her apprehension, nerves, poor driving conditions, you name it. I was a bit on edge about this all happening successfully. We did manage to leave the house on time. Driving was slightly unnerving. Nugent Stretch was particularly horrendous. It was unlike Rockport to leave the main roads so poorly tended. Well, tight budget, poor economy. What ever excuse. We arrived safely and 'A's surgery to extract her two lower wisdom teeth went well. We were out of the oral surgeon's office within an hour and back on the slick roads. I stopped at our local pharmacy to drop off the three prescriptions for 'A'. they didn't have one of them but called it in to their Gloucester store. Great, I'd have to head back to Gloucester in the lousy weather. I dropped a very groggy and unhappy 'A' off at our house, leaving her to my mom's care, while I headed back to the local pharmacy and then to Gloucester. What relief when I got back home thinking I was off the roads for the rest of the storm. Until 'A' needed to take one of the liquid meds and the store had fail to include the dosage spoon. Back out again. This time the roads were like ice. The plow had scraped nearly down to the pavement, nearly, and there was no salt or sand. I had one of those 'oh please just keep moving' moments as I headed back up the Main Street hill and slid around the corner of our street!

More shoveling.

Remarkably 'A' seemed rather perky on Thursday and she even went with me to pick up suitably soft foods from IGA. It couldn't be this easy could it?

Nope. Thursday night started the 'meds are making me sick'. No doubt between Percocet, Penicillin, and some anti-swelling pills, and very, very, little to eat. No rest until 12:30 at night.

Friday was not much better, with 'A' spending most of the day acting miserably. Meanwhile, I had three sets of keys to finish up ready to ship on Monday AND a call from our local doctor with the rebuilt by me, reed organ. The office waiting room roof had leaked all over the organ. Yes, I made an office call and found the organ thoroughly soaked. Groups of keys moved, invisibly interconnected, like wave swells. Felts were dripping wet. Stop knobs were frozen in place. The case was marred with the ghosts of water droplets and runs. I dried what I could and lubricated some steel parts against rusting. Leaving the case opened up, I told the doctor to leave a fan running and circulating air around and through the organ. I feared it was irreparably damaged and said I'd be back on Monday to check 'the patient'.

Work, work, work and wait on a miserable and irritable 'A'. Saturday was a blur. With the exception of an email from THAT ex! Stupid. Copied and dropped it off at the police station and forwarded a copy to J at WHOA. Wish I had as much free time as THAT guy to bother attempting to annoy someone who has better things to do than even think of me!

Sunday a day of rest? Not this week. In the morning I was working in the shop, finishing up keys. And since 'A' was feeling up to it, I took her for a ride around and to buy a jigsaw puzzle at Tuck's. It was getting to the point that I had to smile and enjoy the few and far between pleasant moments available with her.

The boxes were loaded in the truck and I headed out to ship them on Monday morning. Then I stopped at the bank and followed that with a trip to check on my organ 'patient'. The organ had made a remarkable recovery! It will still need most of the felts and leathers replaced, but the bellows are fine. The keys have unwarped nicely and neatly and they all function of their own! The stop knobs move freely! I told the docotr that I'd write up a work order and have it to him in a couple days.

If only things with 'A' were going so easily! She had a rough day and chose to share it with me. Tonight, though she made great leaps to eating Spaghetti-O's and a bit of deli ham. Of course, she's not taking any meds any more and she's not as nauseous. She quit taking the antibiotic with a tentative okay from the oral surgeon's office. Oh yeah, Mr. Snowmanaround the house had a rough day, too. He lost his head today over the 40°F weather.

And now full circle. I hear I'll be waking up to swirling snow in the morning.

Spam Anyone?

The Piano Technician's Journal classifieds have been taken! By whom? The spammers, of course. For those of you scratching your heads, "Huh?"

I advertise my key work business in the classified section of the (in print) Piano Technician's Journal. Most of the ads are available for viewing online. Those little scoundrels who look for unsuspecting victims to scam have evidently gotten desperate and are trying contacting advertisers with email addresses posted in their ads.

Problem is that they haven't got English perfected nor do they have any idea what kind of 'product' they are asking about 'purchasing'. On the flip side, it is amazing how many business people fall for these spams/scams. Here are the text portions of two emails I received within the last week. Both went to my business email address.

Hi,
1)is this item still available for sale??
2)where are you located?
3)may i know why, you want to sell it?
4)Has this item involved in any damage before?
5)can i see more picx??
6)do i need to repair?
7)what year is this item manufactured?
8)what is the final price?
9)can you help me determine the weigth?
10)i will like to know if you do accept a
certified cashiers check or money order as mode of
payment?
11)i have a freight company on my own will be
available for them? because the operate 7:00am
to7:00pm mon-saturday i will be glad to read from you
soonest..

*************************************************

To whom it may concerns: I am erron.i am interested in purchasing your Item wish you list as classified,pls kindly let me have the full details like present condition and pictures and least price,As soon as i have get all those information i will be happy to proceed with the transaction
Regards
erron

*************************************************

Uh huh.

On another note, there are some changes in the sidebar. More art as it is finished. I believe one painting has been sold. Yay! You've seen "Schuyler's Monster" occupying the Recent Reads for a few weeks. Rob's book is all that I expected. Honest, comfortable, a best friend. It's not some high end example of superior literature, it's a 'real person book'. Do pick up a copy. Another addition to the sidebar is a link to one of my favorite blogs. Visible Woman hooked me the first time I read one of Linda's posts. The more I read the more "yep I know exactly" moments I have. Although our lives have been radically different, in many ways our hopes, inspirations, and some quirky understandings of life have kept me visiting and wanting to read more.

A Little Computer Literacy is a Dangerous Thing!

This falls in to the "never ceases to amaze me" category.

How many red flags do you see?

From the Gloucester Times on Dec. 31, 2007:

Online car sale is a scam - Jessica Bensen

A Gloucester woman reported falling victim to a scam while trying to sell her car online.

The woman told police that a man in Nigeria had offered to buy the car, and sent her five money orders, which she deposited in her bank account. Then the man requested that she send her own money order to the shipping company to have the car sent to Nigeria.

It was only after she had sent out a Western Union money order that her bank called to let her know that the money orders she had received from the man were fake.

The woman told police that the name she had been given was Richard Williams, of Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.

She reported the incident to police at 12:24 p..m yesterday, in the hopes that others would not fall victim to the same scam, according to the police report.

Where has this woman been for the last umpteen years? Once again it goes to show that even a bit of common sense has bitten the dust.

My Rating

Three Cheers for Jayne!

I love passing along good news. Check out Jayne's Netcrimes blog to read the details of the great news. Then go to the book's official site to buy a copy if you don't already own one!The holidays are coming soon, so think of your friends who are online and wrap up a copy for them.

Playing in My Sandbox

I'm going to try to keep this brief. I've met many wonderful people online and through this blog. I intend on meeting many more. Everyone is welcome to submit a comment on any of my posts. However, I feel it is only fair to publicly state a few conditions.

While comments are encouraged (there are some readers out there who don't, I know who you are!) , I will continue to moderate publishing comments.

General laid back conversational stuff is great.

Opinions are always read enthusiastically. I will even publish those that don't agree with mine!

I love "meeting" new readers and will ALWAYS check out any links that are a result of their comments. So, if you have a questionable content blog and want to comment on mine, you'll have to do so anonymously or with a different name so that the link to your blog does not appear.

That being said, I WILL NOT publish personal attacks on me or any other reader.
I WILL NOT intentionally contribute, even in a secondary manner, to the "rumor mill".
I WILL NOT allow links that I feel possibly contain offensive material. If this means that your comment is rejected, well, so be it.

I truly appreciate the folks who READ my blog because they ENJOY it.

The rest need not comment.

This is MY sandbox. Play nice with each other!

OH YEAH....I'm going to the other Cape for a day and a half to visit Dad's grave at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne and to visit my uncle at his new residence. SO...if your comments don't appear right away, don't worry, you haven't been banished! I'll be back Tuesday. (And I'm taking the camera)

Online Safety broadcast

A truly informative panel discussion, in which my friend and WHOA "boss" Jayne Hitchcock participated, is New Hampshire Public Television's broadcast "Internet Safety". You can view the broadcast online by going here, or if you are in the New England area and get NHPTV the show will be re-airing Monday 19th at 7:30 p.m.. And while on the subject, check out these sites: WHOA, WHOA-KTD, and the Net Crimes book website. Super job, Jayne!