Listening to: Nothing – watched the firefighter’s memorial
Reading: Jewels of the Sun Nora Roberts
Weather: 45, sunny
Trivia: What was the first hard disk memory device?
The world's first hard disk memory storage device was IBM's 350 RAMAC Disk File (Random Access Method of Accounting and Controlling), first offered in September, 1956. The 350 RAMAC was the first storage device with random access to large volumes of data. (Random access means that any of the data is available in a short time.) It used fifty 24-inch (61-cm) platters, holding 5 million 7-bit characters of data (roughly equivalent to 4.9 megabytes). It could be leased for $35,000 per year. At the end of 1999, it was possible to buy a 50-gigabyte (50 billion bytes) hard disk for less than $1,600. That's more than ten thousand times as much storage as the 350 RAMAC, and the device itself is much more reliable and much faster.
Cool word:put on the dog
To put on the dog is to dress in a sharp, flashy way, in your very best clothes. Example: "For Bob and Alice's wedding, I really put on the dog, with a full tuxedo and an irridescent blue-green bow tie." Today, this expression has nothing to do with wearing your pet. Its origin might have had something to do with an actual dog, but no one
knows for sure. Several explanations have been offered for this mysterious phrase.
According to one story, in medieval times the very best shoes were made of dog skin. Since the expression was first recorded in America in the 1870s, this is an unlikely origin. Another explanation refers to the popularity of dressed-up ladies' lap dogs in the late 1800's in the US, when putting on the dog might have had quite a literal meaning.
Home today
I ended up staying home today. I felt terrible all night and decided the heck with it. Then I also took the cat to the vet.
He’s fine.
Fifty-nine dollars later, she says he’s fine and that there’s nothing to worry about. Basically it’s a cat with irritable bowl syndrome. Swell. In other words this may continue to happen. Yippee.
But I’m relieved that it isn’t anything terrible. I don’t think I’d be able to handle that.
This is the only pet I’ve ever had in my life, so to say I’m very attached to him doesn’t even begin to cover it. There may be lots of times that he makes me crazy, and it’s hard to go away for any length of time as I hate to leave him alone, but I love him to death.
Of course the trip to the vet caused a fair amount of trauma. First I had to lull him into a false sense of security, then I had to get him into the carrier. He hates that, and I don’t think he’s been in it in the last four years. When I lived in western mass he used to come home with me for weekends, but since I’ve come back here he just stays at home.
And he’s terribly afraid of people, so going to the vet is even worse. Then of course, once we get to the vet there are barking dogs and chirping birds. One sound scares him, the other makes him want to hunt. It’s a wonder he’s not totally neurotic.
So the vet weighed and examined him, took notes on what I had to report, gave him a pill and a couple of shots, then that was it. She’s convinced it’s not a big deal. He was so scared the entire time. He kept trying to burrow into my neck and jacket. He’s the type who thinks "If I can’t see you that means you can’t see me." He was thrilled to be put back inside the carrier.
I paid the bill and left.
I came home and collapsed. Actually I wrote two ed plans and a report. Yay for me. I really did work hard all afternoon. So I might not have gone to work, but I really did a lot of work. I got far more paperwork done that I would have if I’d been at school.
I’m sure there is more I could do, forms left to fill out, but hey. I don’t have to give them the ENTIRE day!
I also watched the tribute to the six firefighters from Worcester who lost their live last week. It was terribly sad. The thoughts of seventeen children left without fathers breaks my heart.
I have to say that I thought that the government officials who spoke, from the President on down, did a wonderful job. They do know how to comfort those who are in pain. In some ways I think that’s more important than leading the country. In the long run it’s the people who are important.
It’s back to work tomorrow, no matter what. I have a potentially difficult parent meting in the morning.
This has been the weirdest week. I feel so disconnected.
previous |
next
|
Home |