Chaos of life (also known as odds and ends)

After I posted about the thefts from our car, I did contact the insurance company, only to find out our policy had lapsed some time ago and we’d have been in major trouble if we had anything major happen. So it turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise as who knows when we’d have discovered the problem. It all came down to some poor communication when our bank, who acted as agent for us, changed to a different company and we wanted to stay with the one we had and our actions were a result of a misunderstanding of procedure at the time.  Anyway, we are insured again and will just replace items stolen out of pocket.

Even though I really loved my camera that was stolen, I’m a bit excited at the idea of choosing a new camera. There are a few possibilities that present themselves and all of them have yet to be released here. I won’t buy without having a model to hold in my hands and try out it might be a few weeks until that is possible. The current contenders are Canon’s new G15, which I believe is due for release any time now. This is a couple steps up from the camera that was stolen. Canon is the brand I’ve been buying for some time so the advantage is familiarity with their system and a certain amount of trust on the quality. I am also eyeing a couple of the Olympus mirrorless PEN cameras. I was rather keen on the current mini model that was released last year, partly due to the option of getting it in purple. Alas, the newer models don’t have those color options so I will likely stick with something more traditional. But it would have been neat to have a purple camera. :)
I was invited to a Nutrimetic party last Friday and decided I’d go despite the product line being full of makeup, which I don’t usually wear. I hadn’t seen this friend for a couple of years or more and I was rather keen for us to reconnect in the real world. We’ve been in touch online in some vague sort of way most of this time but we haven’t had a good chat in a long time . I’ve been to my friend’s house before but it was during the day and has been a few years. These days I would just use my gps but now we don’t have one so I decided to use my iPad and hope for the best. Maybe it would have worked better if Google maps was still an option. The new Apple maps didn’t do a great job. I did get there but had to stop about five times to figure out where to go. It tried to send me off onto side roads instead of waiting until I got closer to my destination. Then when I finally found the street, it couldn’t help me get to the address so that I was driving back and forth along this street trying to figure out where the house was. I did get there, but was fifteen minutes late. Once there, it took me a while to settle in and I was a bit anxious with so many people I didn’t know. It did get better later on and I met a couple of people who I really liked. I didn’t buy anything though as we had another major expense show itself a couple hours before I left home. I will get to that shortly. By the end of the evening, I had a chance to talk to my friend and discovered our sons (who belonged to the same D&D group) are in similar situations with their lives and somewhat isolated. So we now have plans to reconnect properly and get out boys together too. It made the journey well worth the trouble. I had similar trouble getting out of the neighborhood when I left and ended up going in circles. The iPad app was most unhelpful and I had to stop and examine the map several times to work out where to go to get to the main road again. The program could pinpoint where I was easily enough. But giving me instructions on where to go didn’t happen…it assumed I was at another location and directed me from there and I never did work out where the starting point was. I did get home after a few mistakes of my own.

Now I must backtrack a few hours to Friday afternoon. The Scientist and I went to the gym after he finished work, as has been our habit. We came home and he went off to have a shower while I took the dogs out for a walk. When I returned, he had not had his shower due to the hot water heater having died that afternoon. Always has to happen on a Friday, of course. The upside was that it wasn’t a long weekend and it’s not winter. I had to have a shower so went ahead and took one and expected it to be icy, but it wasn’t. Seems there was still a bit of warm water in the tank so that it was never uncomfortable for me. That was replaced yesterday and we are now $1500 poorer.

On the weekend, we had to make an emergency run to the vet when little boy dog got another seed in his ear. He didn’t cry out like last time but his behavior was quite uncharacteristic. He didn’t even bark at other people and animals when we got to the vet.  It took a bit of work to find the seed and get it out but he was back to his normal self when he came out and ready to take on the world.

And today the Scientist and I went for our long overdue eye check ups. I’m getting new glasses as my current ones aren’t quite doing enough for me, especially when driving at night. I’ve had my current pair for at least five years now. I didn’t need any changes at my last appointment so I can’t complain too much. I’m not totally sure if the optometrist was as thorough with my eye tests as he could have been. I told him from the beginning about a field vision test I’d been given a few years ago that had a few issues and was supposed to have been follow up on. I didn’t get a recall on that back then but he didn’t suggest any follow up either. Also, I was somewhat disturbed that he took my glasses away and looked at them and was totally unaware of the fact they are multi-focal lenses until I pointed it out when he was offering possible options on new glasses. I’m thinking of going back to the previous optometrist and asking either for a follow up or copies of my records to take to the new one.

And this Friday, my first-born child will pass from childhood to adulthood. At least on paper. I have more to write on that later. Also, I still want to write about the visit Lego Lover and I made to the art gallery to see the Modern Masters  from Picasso to Warhol recently.