I have a bunch of stuff to write about the weekend, but I’m not feeling quite up to it at the moment, so you’ll have to settle for trivial bletherings for the nonce.
One of the many ways D. is superior to any other guy I’ve been involved with is he’s mechanically inclined and not afraid to fix stuff. I’m somewhat adept at fixing or at least jury-rigging things that break, and I don’t mind doing it, but I’ve never advanced to the power tools level, and plumbing scares the bejabbers outta me.
Reason I mention this is, our toilet at home has been doing the endlessly running water thing for the past week or so. I feel fully confident that between my research into how best to troubleshoot and fix the situation (ball cock, heh.) and D.’s mechanical cleverness, the thing’ll get fixed. It’s downright refreshing.
Something that I don’t think even my sweetie can fix is my Sony Dream Machine alarm clock, which isn’t consistently doing its primary task of waking me up in time for work. I’m thinking of getting this one. (Checking to see what today’s Dream Machine looks like, I’m tempted by the bad green one.) I have to admit, waking up to “nature sounds” is quite appealing. Does anyone have an alarm clock that he or she adores? What do you like about it?
Alarm clocks, and the social need therefor, are inherently evil. I dunno - the idea of being gently soothed awake by the sounds of nature…I can’t imagine I’d actually wake up but instead would just drift back to sleep. Unless by “the sounds of nature” they mean an avalanche, or an earthquake, or something like that. Chirping birds and a gently rushing stream won’t cut it. That is, my alarm-clock philosophy is: make it obnoxious so you’re forced to turn the damned thing off for sanity’s sake. In fact, I think the video you linked to on the 17th would make an excellent alarm clock.
Joe & I have our ancient radio alarm clock tuned to a classical music station. It’s more pleasant than waking up to (usually bad) news on the public radio station, anyway. Note: we keep our alarm clock on a table a few feet away from the bed to discourage excessive snooze alarm button-pushing.
I hate alarm clocks, and have not used one in years. I always get up when I need to, even if it’s some bizarre plane-catching time. While I am a light sleeper, and I think this has something to do with it, I would encourage people to at least try to give up the alarm for a week and see if it works. Because you must all do what I do and be like me.
Unfortunately, I’m not wired to wake up at a time even remotely compatible with holding down a day job. I ended up getting the nature sounds clock, and so far, it’s great — I wake to breaking waves that gradually increase in volume. It also has a clock in case I end up going back to beep-beep-beep + “Morning Edition” combo (the classical doesn’t start until 8:00 a.m.) — but I hope I won’t have to. Nothing like W’s grating twang rousing me out of a nice dream to spoil my day.