Monday, January 7, 2013

Today’s Swirl

colored ink 1-7-13

 

Today, just some odds and ends . . .

We’re having trouble with our heat pump.  Again.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but when the guy came out this evening, it probably marked at least the sixth time they’ve been out this season.  And, incidentally, we live in Oklahoma, not some place with crazy winter weather; we’ve only been running the heat for maybe three months.  I’m just about over it.

Image courtesy of posterize at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On his way home from work tonight, Brian got pulled over.  The officer issued a citation for doing 50 in a 40 zone; Brian is insistent that he was maybe doing 42mph.  It’s kind of a bummer, since there’s no practical way to contest it.  I’ve heard of people finding information about radar guns being out of calibration, or officers not being properly trained, or what-have-you, and those sorts of things would most certainly make a nice defense for a speeding ticket, but I’m pretty sure the police figure most people won’t go to that kind of trouble.  And at least in this case, they’re correct.  And who’s going to spend money to involve a lawyer to avoid a $161 fine?  Again, not us.  (Yeah, $161; ridiculous, right?)   Brian is beyond annoyed, and it doesn’t help to point out that even two miles over the limit is technically still speeding and carries the same fine; no, that doesn’t help at all.  He’s feeling persecuted by the man. 

Finally unpacked the textbooks that have been sitting around in boxes for about a month.  Everything’s good with the order, but six classes makes for a bunch of books.  It was a little bit daunting. 

I got a 2x teleconverter today for my camera; I’m hoping to get some better bird pictures with it.  It was too dark today by the time I got it, so I’ll have to test it out tomorrow.  You lose some light with the doubler, so it’s definitely a trade-off, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out. 

Unexpectedly, I am not watching the National Championship game tonight.  Brian was outside with the heat pump repairman for most of the first half, then went to bed as soon as the half ended.  But, based on the score I did see, Notre Dame is getting whumped up on pretty badly.  Not a terribly big surprise, and Brian will be far from displeased if the whumping continues the entire game.

I’m chugging along with the Ultimate Blog Challenge; today marks the first week complete.  I am planning to post every day this year, not just this month, but this makes a nice way to kick off the new year.  And, I’m also back to daily workouts this year, including a plank challenge that started today.  As I may have mentioned in the past, I don’t really have a lot of strength, so even one plank a day will be a true challenge for me.  There’s a goal by the end of the month to be able to hold the plank for 2.5 minutes—definitely a challenge. 

And, lastly, when I downloaded the image for today’s post, do you know what the security challenge code was?  Hugger-mugger.  How apropos is that?

What’s going on in your world these days?