08:06 – It’s cold this morning, 8F (-13C) not counting wind chill. Not that I pay much attention to publlished values for wind chill. They’re entirely arbitrary because wind chill values are subjective. That is, they’re calculated by a formula, which varies from country to country, but those formulae use constants that really should be variables whose values vary according to individual perceptions.
Barbara’s mom is not doing well, either physically or mentally. Barbara’s taking her to the doctor this afternoon. Barbara and Frances are looking into getting Sankie on the waiting list for another facility that provides assisted-living services. The issue is that they need to get something lined up before Sankie really needs those services, because otherwise they may end up having to take whatever is available, which may not be very good. Frances visited once facility called Homestead Hills, which has an excellent reputation and is closely associated with Sankie’s doctor. Frances was very pleased with the facility. They want $1,500 to put Sankie on their waiting list, but I told Frances I saw no downside to getting Sankie on the list. That $1,500 will keep Sankie on the list forever, and if a place does become available they don’t have to take it. If they subsequently change their minds or move Sankie elsewhere, Homestead Hills will refund their deposit in full. Homestead Hills costs about $1,000/month more than where Sankie is now, but Dutch’s VA insurance should pay at least part of that difference.
We’re low-stock right now on both biology and chemistry kits. I have everything I need to make up a couple dozen more biology kits, but I need to fill bottles and make up chemical bags for the chemistry kits. So that’s what I’ll be doing today.
11:16 – I opened my last box of 200 half-sheet mailing labels yesterday. This morning, I was printing bottle labels when the printer ran out of paper, and I loaded my last 50 or so sheets of those labels. So it was time to order labels.
I went to the ibuyofficesupply.com web site. Two or three years ago, they had good prices on those labels and other supplies I use a lot of, so I’ve been ordering from them ever since. I noticed that they’d lowered the bar for free shipping from $75 to $45. It crossed my mind that Amazon was affecting their business, which made me realize that I could probably just order what I needed from Amazon. Sure enough, Amazon Prime had both types of labels, as well as the printer paper I needed. So I ordered all of that, and threw in a Roku 3 streaming video player. When Barbara’s TV remote died the other day, I realized how dependent we are on our original Roku XL|S box. If the box failed, we’d be SOL until we replaced it. Even if the remote failed, we’d be SOL, since there are no controls on the box itself. After checking reviews and comparisons, it was pretty clear that the Roku 3 was the standout choice, at least for our viewing habits. It’ll be here early next week. I’ll replace the old box, and keep it as a spare.