Thursday Thoughts # 98

from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury:
"the difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching," he said. "The lawn-mower might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

"...that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing."

Liz to Tom: pre-wedding chat:
"I know a little something about baggage and I'm willing to help you carry yours if you'll help me carry mine."

Did you know?
We frequently abbreviate Christmas as Xmas because of ancient tradition. X is the Greek letter "Chi" which is an abbreviation for the word "Christ" in Greek.


Today's thoughts:

Tuesday - I don't think I sat down for more time than it took to eat. 

I didn't rush about doing everything as I used to, but I did get a lot done. Usually Tuesdays are pyjama days where I loll about in bed with a book, or sit by the computer for a while, before going back to bed with a book, but I woke up knowing that my bedding needed washing, it had that funky stale smell that unwashed bedding gets when the sleeper sweats all night and neglects the changing of the sheets.

So I stripped the bed and left the mattress bare all day to air out while I washed sheets and quilts, then I tossed in a load of clothes just because I was feeling like I should do something more instead of sitting around, and cleaned the bathroom section of the laundry/bathroom combo while the machine began sloshing the clothes around.
After hanging everything on the portable lines in the back porch I was feeling rather chilled so turned on the airconditioner when I got back inside and right away all I could smell was dust.
Uh-Oh. 
I'd been putting off cleaning the filters in it for far too long, about two and a half years :( and of course that's why the machine wasn't performing as expected. 
If I was one of the seven dwarfs, I'd be Dopey.

I turned it off again, took everything off my table, dragged it to stand directly under the wall unit and climbed up to stand on the table where I could reach the lift up panel. I took out the filters which were covered in so much dust only the frames were visible and took them outside to brush off the dust with a big old paint brush. 

Replaced the filters, turned the aircon back on and got a rush of warm air blowing down on me. Yay!
Tuesday was a chilly, rainy day, so the warmth was very welcome, but by now I was all fired up and took down the range hood filters for a good scrubbing, then cleared the benches and they got a good cleaning also. I even moved the microwave and cleaned under and behind it!

Before I remade the bed with fresh sheets, I got the long handled duster and swiped it around under the bed to get out as many fluffy bunnies as I could, I wasn't quite energetic enough to be dragging out the vacuum cleaner, the duster and dustpan would have to do. 
Once the bed was made, just like that, Tuesday was over. It was 4.30pm already, time to start dinner preparations.

I'd done a bit of blog reading in between stuff, surfed around a few real estate sites, discovered the apartment right next door to my brother's new (rented) apartment was for sale, briefly considered buying it if (hah!) I won lotto, but decided it wouldn't suit. For me alone, it would be great, but for Angel, not so good. He'd be miserable up on the seventh floor with no garden.
And of course the ever elusive lotto win is even more elusive when one doesn't even have a ticket...(*~*)

In other, much less important, news, guess who now has a smart phone? Not a fancy-schmancy i-phone, just an android, cheap enough that the budget could stand the hit as long as I don't go grocery shopping for the next few weeks.  Don't worry, I have food, all I need is a few dollars a week for milk, eggs and bread.
And I'm glad I took the leap and learned something new. I could feel the brain cells stretching and nudging each other, "wake up, wake up, something's going on here".

I first went to the big Telstra shop in Rundle Mall, last Friday, and was told they'd sold out of the one I'd seen online (K emailed me a link to the one she'd just helped a friend with), but the smaller shop at the other end of the mall might still have one, so I walked all the way back up the way I'd come and yes they did have one, so the deal was done, all my contacts  transferred and the receipt being printed when I noticed the display stand where I saw the phone I'd just purchased, right next to a sweet little Samsung Galaxy, smaller, cheaper and identical to the one my son has, so he could have helped me learn it. Oh well. Too late to change now. I took my receipt and headed to the bus stop.

Anyway, the phone. A Telstra 4GX HD, bigger than I'm used to, my little old flip phone fit into my hand nicely, this one is five and a half inches by two and three quarters and very flat, where the flip phone was a little curvy and nice to hold.

I expected a doozy of a learning curve and texted K I'd be out on Saturday so she could help me learn to manage it. K texted right  back that I shouldn't have too much trouble since I'd already worked out how to send a text message. She was right, by Saturday I'd sent and received several texts and voice calls too, so K just played around with it for a few minutes then gave me instructions which I wrote down, on how to add or delete contacts from the phone book, I no longer needed about half the contact numbers that had been transferred, also how to check the balance so I'd know when to buy a recharge voucher (it's a pre-paid $30 per month deal) and also how to delete old messages and calls. For now, that's all I need. I'll work out the camera and how to send a photo soon enough.
A gazillion useless apps? no thanks.

I hadn't really wanted to change phones, but family members often send me photos that can't be viewed because the old phone just didn't have enough disk space for them, at least, that was the message I got whenever a photo couldn't be opened. So, with this phone I should be able to see every photo they send me. 

I wanted a cover for the phone too, I like to keep my things looking new as long as possible, but both stores had sold out of covers and the glitzy little shop in the City Cross arcade only has covers for i-phones, so I texted K and while I was riding home she went online and emailed me a link to a whole page of different covers designed to fit my new phone, so when I got home I turned on the computer, opened the link and chose a black leather cover, wallet style, with a screen protector for the phone. It should arrive today.