in which I am a real person

[ritaxis]

So Sunday was my greatniece's first birthday party. Emma made her a sweater:


The party was at Lake Temescal, which is in the hills of Oakland and is one of the three places I went swimming a lot as a child (the other two were the Richmond Plunge and Stinson Beach, thus covering among them an artifical lake, an indoor swimming pool, and an ocean beach). I had not been there in more years than I like to count (since in my imagination I am twenty-six years old forever). It was almost the same. I could be a little kid on that little beach and open my eyes underwater to see -- nothing, as the water was opaque (it's clearer now but still a greenish-brown).

Monday was Emma's visit with the surgeon and he was happy with her progress and we were happy with her progress (which is not to belittle the pain, discomfort and disability of this healing period, natch) and he agreed with all the things she wanted to do. And then we went to Mitsuwa and Fry's on the other side of the hill with her fella and his mother. And we got way too many Japanese snacks which we're supposedly using some of on the plane trip. And a converter thing for foreign plugs.

Which raises the question of why don't they get an international commission together to decide once and for all which kind of plug and current is best overall and then everybody switch over? This is stupid. Brooks, what are the advantages/disadvantages of 110 vs. 120 volts? What about all those plug conformations? And is North America the only region that uses 110? Why are we out of step with the rest of the world in so many ways?

Today I took our friend Anton and Frank to Big Basin, which was nearly a two-8hour trip because on the up direction I followed Anton's directions instead of going the way I kow to be faster (not to mention safer because of there being less locals on the road). This made me later than I said I would be to arrive at the Coastal Watershed Council office to learn how to enter data from the field tests we've been doing all summer. But I did get there, and I did learn, and I did enter a bunch of data.

And the pharmacist did pack my pills in plastic bags with the labels on them, and that makes me happy. I wonder if I can get them to just slap a new label on the bags next month?

And I have my feckless young friend MC staying at the house while we're gone, so he can play with the dog and the cat and stuff. So that's all right. But I still don't have the reservations for the train from Amsterdam to Berlin, the bus and ferry from Berlin to Copenhagen, or any idea at all of how to get from Denmark to Amsterdam again.

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure 110->120V should need converting. Until recently, we British had 240V (nice duodecimal number) and our continental European partners had 220V (double the American 110), but we standardized recently on 230V, and nobody needed to convert any equipment. (we just had to wait a few more seconds for our kettles to boil to make the tea-- oh! the humanity :-)

What really surprises me is that America went for such a low voltage in the first place: it means the three kilowatt kettle is out of the question for most of you. No wonder you're a nation of coffee drinkers!

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Gloria's daughter has become an Aussie (really -- she talks with an Aussie accent). She brought over a kettle like that and Gloria's husband ran in the right kind of wire for it. There's a switch right on the socket, and the kettle has a kind of time-out on it, so it's safe for Gloria except for the fact that it has hot water in it.

Is that a new cat picture?

[del-c.livejournal.com]

No, same old Rocky icon; and this is the same old Buzz icon.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I went swimming at Temescal and Stinson Beach, too. (Temescal is an artificial lake? Good heavens -- I never knew.) My main place for swimming, of course, was my grandparents' house in the LA area....

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I love the skull & crossbones on the sweater!