Thank Ghu...

[gerisullivan]

...for friends and technology.

Upon hearing about just how tall the grass grew in my yard while I was in the midwest, that creative sweetheart of a guy, kip_w, offered to load his and malibrarian's mower in the car the next day, drive over, and help me conquer it. I accepted with appreciation and glee. That lasted about 15 hours, or until the rain started falling. That was a good 22 hours ago, and I don't think it's stopped since.

I suggested rescheduling, but also mentioned the possibility of tackling an inside job if Kip wanted to come over Wednesday anyway. He did, and thanks to his help and his excellent ideas of how to organize stuff, the Fan Room now sports as delightful amount of clear floor space in the center of the room instead of the 15-20 bins and boxes that had been lurking there for, well...years, actually. It really shouldn't feel quite so good to write that, but the whole notion that I've been here long enough for a project to languish for years (plural, if only two) is really quite welcome. Especially once it's a project dealt with. Or at least a significant piece of a project dealt with.

Thanks, kip_w! I'm utterly delighted with how much we accomplished, and how profoundly better the room looks for our efforts.

If it hadn't been for the rain, the room would still be the disaster zone it had been until Wednesday. Sure, I'd unpacked several dozen boxes, built shelves, filled them, and more. I'd even had the floor partially cleared a time or two, but only partially. Then it would get piled high again, with boxes home from Boskone or some other fannish endeavor. This is the first time I've seen the center of the room entirely clear since I bought the place. The only boxes in the open area are those containing the Hawaiian Party Kit supplies that galtine1 loaned to Space Cowboys on Hawaiian Holiday at this year's Boskone. Whoohoo!

The rain was not nearly so helpful on the technology front. I filed a phone repair request after the land line was 80% static and only 20% signal throughout the morning. I love automated, line testing and the other online resources for dealing with broken phone lines! Verizon promised to fix the line by Friday; I hope they get to it sooner.

Alas, by mid-afternoon and another 0.57 inches of rain, there was no dial tone at all. Not in the house, not at the NID box. I updated my service request to reflect this new dead-in-the-water status. Oh, joy.

I was able to make the calls I needed to through the rest of the day thanks to tolerable cell service (a welcome surprise here) and Skype's free calling service to land lines across the US and Canada. That helped. And this point, my phone rings once when someone is trying to call, but it never establishes a voice connection, nor is it able to identify the caller, which means I can't see who's trying to call and call back from my cell phone or Skype.

Even though I'm hobbled by the land line difficulties, I still have my net connection (it's cable, not DSL), cell phone, and related resources for staying in touch. That makes all this rain easier to bear. As does the memory of just how good the Fan Room looks, a memory I've already refreshed several times by going downstairs, admiring it, and tidying up just another thing or two.

You may need to remind me of my good cheer in the face of adversity in another few days. Apparently there's another storm right on the heels of the "June Nor'easter" that's going to continue dropping rain on my roof and elsewhere for most of tomorrow, too.

Comments

[fishbliss.livejournal.com]

That Kip is a good friend, indeed!