Any ordinary week I would have had to work from the office on Tuesdays, part of the state government's decision that there's no reason people who have no reason to work in person shouldn't get to spread Covid-19 and other diseases. The week between Christmas and New Year's, though, was an exception: we were allowed to work from home if we so chose. However, I had failed to bring my work laptop --- the only hardware I had capable of connecting to the state's network and doing work --- so Christmas night I had to give my goodbyes to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger's family, and her too, and drive home by myself. Had I not left my laptop at our house there's no reason I couldn't have worked from there, being at least near the Boxing Day festivities and being able to join them immediately at 4:30 when the work day ended. I'd be distracted but, realistically, only a little, as half of everybody was off and there wasn't much work for me to do anyway. Pity I forgot to bring my laptop, right?
So here's the secret. I didn't forget the laptop. I left it behind on purpose, so I would have a reason to head out that would not give bunnyhugger's parents the misapprehension that I didn't want to spend time with them. (I've missed a couple of visits bunnyhugger has made to her parents, since starting work, either because it was a workday or I was sleeping. And one of the warning signs of her starter marriage was how her first husband found reasons not to spend time with her parents.) But I needed to be home, for something we could not let her parents --- particularly, her father --- learn about. Under no circumstances may you tell them, dear reader.
For the sad postscript to our bright, beautiful new floor is that ... it's broken. The grout between tiles formed cracks, and chipped in several places, a thing that grout should not be doing less than a week after its installation. When we discovered this I called the tiling guys. They expressed dismay that this could have happened and said they'd be out Tuesday or Wednesday, after the job they were on, to fix it. And I didn't think about what Tuesday implied until it was too late. So I had to be home so I could sit and wait and be ready to let them in the house and point out the worst spots.
They did not, it turns out, arrive on Tuesday. So I could have stayed with bunnyhugger's parents and eaten the artichoke dip with them after all. Instead, after work --- and after any reasonable hour that the tile guys could have shown up --- I drove down and we took in a couple extra hours of Christmas, before we bundled up our rabbit and bunnyhugger and headed back home.
The tile guys showed up Wednesday morning, shortly after my big work meeting for the day. They scraped the bad grout out and injected some cementing compound underneath a couple loose tiles, and gave me their number in case the cracks reappeared.
Sad to say, the cracks have reappeared. Fewer, and smaller, and without chipping like we'd seen before. Last week I called to report that bad news and they promised they would make it right. But they won't have the time free for this until into February. Until then, we need to watch for more cracks that need fixing and hope that our floor will be as good as we had wanted. And that bunnyhugger's father --- who will go into an anxious spiral about its repair --- never, ever, ever hears of it. Now that you know the secret you must keep it.
You alert and long-memoried readers might recall that the big event hitting us after our July trip to California was a massive wind storm, centered on our block, that knocked over many trees and damaged many houses, fortunately none of them ours. So it was! Looking for the photo tour of the damaged neighborhood, then? Too bad, I shared that back in July. Instead, you're going to see our trip to KennyKon 24, a roller coaster event taking place at one of the wonderful places of the world ---
Kennywood! This is not a picture of my car, the red Prius, but it is a view from our quite good parking spot out to the entrance of the place.
bunnyhugger approaching the entrance to the park. You can see the KennyKon attendees gathered up, and, tickets in hand, going to the gates.
Over on the right is the start of the line and where people get their KennyKon stuff. Over on the left, the end of the line, is where you get your ticket ripped and go through the metal detector and all.
And here's our tickets! A blue Group Ticket. Regular admission is yellow, and the other colors signify different purchase conditions.
The back of the ticket, in case you'd like to forge your own copy and know it's important to get the fine print nobody looks at correct.
And at the entrance we see the happy news that Kennywood plans to be open for a thousand hours tonight! That's almost six weeks! Do you spot the secret selfie?
Trivia: The Shadow was sponsored by the Blue Cole Corporation from its start (as a mystery anthology) in 1931 until 1949, with interludes in 1931 when it was sponsored by Street and Smith publications, 1932 for Perfect-O-Lite and 1938 by B F Goodrich. (The show would run until 1954.) Source: On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, John Dunning. (The Blue Coal Corporation sprayed its processed coal with a blue iridescent chemical.)
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine Volume 32: Tears From Blue Skies -or- Popeye and Pluvious, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
