Kobo and more

I’ve just completed a stretch of five (count em five) days off and I think I can understand how those who are retired talk of their days being so full they can’t imagine how they ever worked as days off (at least this many in a row) are trying that lifestyle on. It was good to finally have the days off all together as they’re meant to be in the rotation. I had anticipated having to do three 12 hour days and one LN but the scheduling Gods smiled on me and I won bigger than the Powerball. I headed in for my first LD today, dropping my vehicle off to be serviced and being picked up from the garage by a coworker at 0630 hrs. to head in to work. Things were progressing at the usual frantic Monday morning pace when the Nurse Manager phoned at quarter to nine to say “you’re going to find this bizarre but I’m sending you home to come back tonight for a LN as we’re going to be short as someone’s ill, so you won’t be able to work tomorrow days either”. I quickly reassured her that I didn’t find that bizarre at all, but very welcome as with our collective agreement we are paid double time for a shift switched without 24 hour notice. Yeehaw – I get to do one night shift in place of two days – doesn’t get much better than that for this night owl! I was able to sneak a nap after the cleaning lady left the sparkling clean house I’ve already stopped off and visited a friend on the way home who served me tea and cookies while letting me check my email on his high speed connection – great internet café I told him and likely more of a morning break than I was heading for at my place of employment.

Our final night shift was a very enjoyable one where I actually found the time to do some crocheting and I’m now back to where I’d ripped out the last set of nights. One of the hazards of night time craft work is that it takes at least twice as long with all the mistakes and starting over again. I was cleaning up my emails as I am deeply regretting the lack of connectivity at this point but I sustain myself by dreaming of the end of May. Can you hear me Eastlink? I had an email for Chapters/Indigo and when I checked out the offer it was to pre-order the Kobo e-book reader for $149 which is available the first of May. It is only the size of a paperback, but very slim (10 mm thick) weighing less than ½ lb. and comes preloaded with 100 books (a very eclectic list for sure – check them out), can hold up to 1,000 and a SD card will bring the capacity to 4,000 publications. It apparently holds a charge for two weeks or 8,000 page turns but it can be charged through a computer or a charger and for those older eyes the font can be enlarged. Here is the link to check for yourself:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/kobo-eReader/kobo_ereader-giz.html

The accessories list ‘skins’ for the e-reader in different colors and textures so it will ‘feel’ like a real book, which is not a concern for me at this point but who knows what I may want in the future? Apparently many libraries are getting into the act and making publications downloadable, at any rate there are lots of free e-books online and $10 isn't much considering a hardcover new release would be $32 and then you'd have to deal with the physical presence of it once you were done with it. I couldn’t resist and now I can’t wait. I won’t get any housework done, oh never mind, I don’t now but it may even impact on discovering surfaces for the cleaning lady to attack, but I digress.

After sleeping until noon on Wednesday, I made sure I was up in time to take the dog for a walk – this in hopes of wearing her out a bit for the car trip – an adventure which causes her to have panic attacks! Unfortunately although she’s 10 years old, she hasn’t grown out of the hysteria which begins when the key is turned in the vehicle. So, I covered the car seats with old sheets, shortened up her leash to hold while I drove and constantly ordered her to “sit” for the 25 minutes of sheer punishment it took to arrive at the vets due to the panting, whining and leaping. The amazing thing is that once the car stops she is so relieved to be out that she was extremely well behaved at the office and for the vet. The main reason for the self inflicted torture was to have a lump checked on her chest wall. I had diagnosed it as a lipoma (fatty benign tumor) which the vet concurred with, so that was good as I’m not a believer in dog chemo. Since it was such a challenge to get her to the vet the dog was behind in all her immunizations (actually since 2007 when the youngest daughter went off to university as she was the only one with the ability to cope with dog neuroses) so by the time the shots, tick medicine and exam were tallied up the damages were $165. Sigh. We got to repeat the drill on the return trip and of course, instead of running errands the journey was a one reason adventure due to the behavior of the canine passenger. Scheduling after a sleep day meant that I was mostly oblivious to the whole situation. MY nerves.

Thursday was spent very productively on all sorts of domestic chores from laundry to bread making and more. I called a friend and we headed out to White Point Lodge for an evening which was sponsored by the Writers Federation where readings by authors who had won awards such as the Thomas H. Raddall award were featured. We got to meet Linden McIntyre (The Bishop’s Man), Shandi Mitchell Under This Unbroken Sky) and Michael Crummy (Galore) and enjoy them reading from their books as well as chat with a previous winner - Donna Morrisey and Tom Raddall Jr. who manages the endowment and very well apparently as it’s grown from $1000 to $20,000 for next year. I told Mr. Raddall that he should be handling our nurses pensions not the government agency! It was a lovely evening and my friend bought us each a glass of wine so what is not to like about that?

On Friday I was up in time to walk the dog and then headed off for a massage appointment, ran some local errands and was on the road to the city before lunch. I stopped in Bridgewater to unsuccessfully look for M.O.B shoes but did find some for $10 which will do for work and checked out the Singer sewing machines at Wal-Mart with an eye to picking one up on the way home if the advertised sale at Zellers didn’t work out. Made my way to the craft store in time to pick up two flower girl baskets and some craft goodies for moi – a good thing I don’t live too close to craft stores me thinks. Headed on in to daughter #2s and we ordered a pizza for supper before starting out on our wedding errands. Our first stop was at Fabricville where we selected lovely (if temperamental) material for the flower girl dresses. Then we managed to sort out the wine for the wedding situation with a taste testing at the NSLC bottle-your-own station and the discovery that this is possible to do in a liquor store only an hour from home. Aha! The father of the bride will have that on his very short list. We made a stop at Chapters so the bride to be could pick up two story books en francais (the French version of Scaredy Squirrel) for one of the flower girls who had her birthday party Sunday. The Zellers stop was a complete waste of time and so we headed back to the apartment where I was disappointed to discover that I couldn’t connect to the internet with my netbook, this is highly likely due to the Bell turbo stick fiasco. This continues to haunt me even though I have discontinued the darned thing and wait in fear for the May 15th bill. A call to tech support enabled me to toss the software and now I’ll need to test drive a wireless connection somewhere. Sigh.

Saturday morning brought a run to the Famers Market before the crowds hit and I managed to score a wonderful warm apple waffle. Yum. Bought some gardeners soap (which is great for stinky lobster bait hands) and got free bath salts, turkey pepperoni and kielbasa and great garlic cheese. Found lots of great craft ideas as well, just have to source more time for that. After daughter # 2 left to tutor for the morning I cut out the two flower girl dresses and had one blocked out by the time she headed back for lunch. Then she and the fiancé headed out to babysit and move furniture respectively for a couple in the south end as I continued to toil in my sweatshop. By the time they made it back at almost 4 p.m. I had one dress completed for a fitting and we headed out to the great niece’s place for her to try it on. This one will fit her cousin better so I’ll make the next one a bit smaller for her. After a nice visit, I was on the road at 6 p.m. with a pit stop at the Wal-Mart to pick up the sewing machine I’d promised myself and was home by 9 p.m. I discovered that mister had developed a cold in my absence (likely from the prodigal son) and was considering his condition serious if not palliative. I advised he would be needing more than palliative care assistance if he passed his bugs along to me as I’m too busy to be sick right now.

Sunday was spent recovering beginning with sleeping in, puttering and getting ready for scrapbooking on the weekend. The theme is sweet 16 so we’re instructed to bring photos of us at age 16. The romp down memory lane was a fun diversion for the afternoon as I located and scanned a few (very few compared to today’s standards) shots from that era. Supper of pot roast, sewing a pair of vent covers for the boat on my geriatric sewing machine which made dying groanie noises thus vindicating my new purchase, and finding surfaces for the cleaning lady completed my day. Now as a co-worker asked “do you have sense enough to go to bed when you have to work in the morning?” and when I asked her why she inquired she said “because I don’t” so mine aren’t the only bleary eyes in the a.m. at least.

If I was really disciplined I’d have studied for my trauma course as the long weekend in May is quickly approaching or….retrieved my new sewing machine from the trunk of the car and played with it instead. Choices, choices. Instead I had a 3 hour nap which has set me up well for making it through this night. Later