My Blog! My Blog!

The Aerogarden has been a positive addition to my life. Unfortunately, it hasn't filled the void left by the closing of what was my favorite bookstore in all the word, Chester County Book and Music Company.

CCBMC was slated to close half a year ago. Apparently, their landlord wanted more rent (their site in the West Goshen Shopping Center on the outskirts of West Chester, PA, occupies more than a city block's worth of space and used to be even bigger) and, when they could not comply, said that they had to vacate when their lease expired so the shopping center could put in a public gym business.

CCBMC's owners hoped to find another location for the bookstore, at least, though their wonderful in-store cafe, the Magnolia Cafe, closed at the end of December. esrblog and I showed up for a last meal on the day the Cafe finally closed, December 29, 2012, despite blizzard conditions and slick roads. We have had so many wonderful meals, both alone together and with lots of different friends, in that cafe. Now, it is no more.

The bookstore itself closed this past Saturday, January 26, 2013. Again, we came to say goodbye. Despite the store's huge size, their 30%-40% off sale throughout January and a big clientele had done their work; there were so many empty spots on the shelves that I found it painful to attempt to browse for bargains. "This is like stripping a corpse," I said, more than once, to esrblog. But the owners are still hopeful of finding a new, if smaller, location in which to reopen the bookstore, so in the interests of aiding their efforts and showing our thanks for the more than 20 years they'd done business in that location, esrblog and I bought a few books. It seemed like the least we could do.

Meanwhile, on the job front, I am still waiting on two companies that had said that I was still in the running for the jobs for which I had applied. Both said they'd have more information for me, if not a complete answer, in "a few weeks". That was shortly after New Year's Day. Still nothing. I attempted to telephone my contact at one of the two and got voice mail, naturally.

So as of right now I'm still pushing out resumes, and doing part-time work for my former, full-time employer. How long, O Universe, how much longer before something changes for the better?

Now it's October.

Today will be a quiet day, I think, because I have a bad sore throat that's metamorphosing into a head cold. So does esrblog. It's a shame, the weather is beautiful, but all I want to do is go back to bed. :-(

The rainstorm brought to us early on Thursday morning by tropical storm Nicole, alas, resulted in house leaks again. Minor so far, but in two of the same old places; along the front wall of the basement, and above the basement back window. Not sure what I can do about these things, except have a contractor frown at it again, and maybe find nothing doable.

Two weeks ago, my brake pedal started to give less and less performance and required more and more pressure. Since the car was due for inspection anyway, I took it in to the shop, and got horrifying news. A part (that looks like a thick Frisbee with two cogs sticking out of the top and bottom center) called a "brake booster" had failed, though they seldom do so. Unfortunately, the model of brake booster I need for my ten-year-old car is no longer made by Toyota, and as a result there was only one spare brake booster my car could use in the ENTIRE COUNTRY. My car was stuck at the shop for five days until one could be brought in by Federal Express. It cost $700. I also needed to have a tire replaced (to match the tire I'd had to hastily replace, earlier this summer, when it pancaked), and what with one bit of inspection-related labor and another, I needed to pay $1,400 to get my car back. Augh.

But other than all this, life is going well enough. My elderly cat is in reasonable health, my husband is blogging interestingly about wargaming, geek education videos, Terry Pratchett, the smartphone market wars, and other stuff. And did I mention that the weather is beautiful today?

I spent the morning/early afternoon of my official "Christmas" holiday from the office taking Eric and landley to the Trenton train station so they could get to New York with less trouble. In the afternoon, I visited our deserted offices and spent a non-billable 3 hours sorting and throwing out unneeded papers and generally organizing stuff so that I can be genuinely productive when I return to work tomorrow morning. Now, I am finally back home with our cat.