09:35 – It was 65.3F (18.5C) when I took Colin out at 0700, partly cloudy and calm.
More work on kit stuff today. We’re down to one of the FK01A core forensic science kits in stock, so we’ll get another dozen built today. We’re also down to half a dozen of the BK01 biology kits in stock. We need to make up chemical bags for another two or three dozen of those and then get them built.
Joanne and her family picked up the Malamute at 1000 yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, Joanne texted Barbara to let her know that the dog had escaped by climbing up to a window that was slightly open and forcing her way out through the screen. At least she’s wearing a harness, so anyone who spots her will know she belongs to someone.
Barbara was of course beating herself up for not doing enough or not doing the right things, but I told her she’d done everything she could and done it right. I half expected the dog to show up here again, and we’ll certainly keep an eye out for her. But Barbara thinks she was lost or abandoned during the US21 100-mile yardsale a couple of weekends ago and is now headed down US21 to find her way home. As Barbara said, she has enough experience with dog rescue to know that all you can do is your best. You can’t save them all.
Robbie, who delivers our mail when Lori is off, told me the other day that those scanners they use to read the barcodes on postage labels are a two-edged sword. USPS also keeps close track of their mail carriers. Robbie said that if he stood there talking to me for 10 or 15 minutes, which he did, that when he got back to the post office the managers would want to know why he was at our place for 10 or 15 minutes.
He said that had happened to him earlier in the week. He was delivering an Ennis route, near his home. He needed to use the bathroom, so he drove to his house to do so. When he got back to the post office, his manager wanted to know why he’d been at his house for several minutes during his route. He told them bluntly exactly what he’d been doing there and asked if that was okay with them.
Sometime over the next few days, I want to get some bulk food repackaged. We have 50-pound sacks each of white flour, white sugar, and white rice sitting in the utility room, and enough clean, dry PET bottles to hold all of them. At 3,000 cal/day, that’s roughly three person-months worth of calories.
Barbara’s going to the supermarket today, and is also stopping at Blevins or Farmer’s Hardware to pick us up another of these platform ladders. We bought one last year, and use it in the garage for getting to stuff on high shelves. We need another in the downstairs lab/work area for the same purpose.
We have a set of four stoneware kitchen canisters that we got from LL Bean not long after we were married. Barbara said the other day that she’d like some new canisters, and sent me a link to this set on Amazon.
They just arrived, and she’s happy with them. We use our current four for flour, sugar, tea, and coffee. I’m going to keep the current set, converting the two large ones to holding white rice and oats, both of which we use quite a bit of. The smaller ones will continue to hold tea (for me) and coffee.
The new set is smaller than the old one. I’d call the largest canister in the new set “medium”. But Barbara’s going to use Papa and Mama Bear in the new set for sugar and flour, Tweenie Bear for tea bags (for her). I’m not sure what she’ll use Baby Bear for. It’s really small.