Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

ETA 9:05 p.m. I can now hear the heating system, and the space seems to be warming up again.

I may have spoken too soon. The radiators are now barely warm, and I am cold. We have turned the space heater in this room back on. I don't know what's going on, but we haven't heard from either the management company or the maintenance person since lunchtime.

We have heat! The building has an entire new boiler, and we had the delightful side-quest this morning of trying to figure out why we couldn't get the power in this room back on after something overloaded the circuit. The answer turned out to be that the ground fault interrupter in the bathroom also controls the circuit in this adjoining room.

The side quest involved having a maintenance person come in to look around (which worked, he identified the problem) while I sat in my bedroom with the door closed, because he thought that pulling his shirt up over his face was adequate masking to protect me. We have masks, Adrian offered him one.

Also, I dropped off my ballot after lunch today, and came home via Trader Joe's, to restock our supply of interesting dried fruit, specifically, mandarins and Montmorency cherries. (We do get other dried fruit there, but plenty of stores stock raisins, dried cranberries, and dried apricots.)

However, the tips of my left thumb and fingers hurt as I type, so I think it's time for an NSAID and something that doesn't involve a keyboard.

Progress: cattitude went shopping on his lunch hour, bought an air conditioner, and arranged for Wednesday delivery. We could have gone Saturday, but they treat weekend orders as if placed Monday, and he convinced me that we might as well lie around at home. In retrospect, I think it might have been worth going out, given that subways and appliance stores are air conditioned: between the sad state of the old air conditioner, and the limited power of the current living room window fan (also slated for replacement), the apartment was probably hotter than most other locations in the neighborhood, indoor and out. By yesterday afternoon, I had developed a slight case of heat rash. (It's already somewhat better, from a day in air conditioning.) Ah, well.

Wednesday, I will be working from home. This means I get to bring home page proofs, a Word file to edit, or possibly both, and do my usual diligent things, but with julian_tiger to distract me instead of the coworker dealing with the aftermath of her breakup (today, she was telling the ex she needs money from him, segueing into suggesting job training programs). There will be a break for the air conditioner to be delivered, and a later one for someone else to install it (really). Once the machine is installed and turned on, I will go for a walk, because it's important to get outside every day, and I probably won't be able to before then. Also, I will drink better tea than on the usual work day.

Also, I have been to the gym, which was quite crowded. A number of the small dumbbells and the five-pound add-ons for some of the machines were missing, but overall I am pleased with the workout.

( numbers )

We are in the middle of the season's first heat wave; I spent the weekend mostly lurking, naked, in the one (inadequately) air conditioned room of our apartment, emerging periodically to use the computer or make tea, and for one walk near the river. Today's forecast high was above the weekend numbers.

So, I got to work and discovered that either the air conditioner repairs were made last week have failed, or something else has broken. There was an early morning email saying that the office manager was aware of the problem, and had contacted the repair people. A bit later, a tub of cold sodas (all sugared) appeared near the coffee machine. Around noon, there was email from the company VP, saying that the conditions were becoming unbearable, and encouraging those of us who physically/logistically could to take our work home with us (but check in with your manager first). My boss, Wendy, whom I have praised here before, encouraged me and the other people she supervises to leave. I took time to make another cup of hot tea, and finish the math book I was almost done with. Then I picked up my next project, put it in a bag rather larger than my usual daypack; got lunch at one of my nearby deli/salad bar places, which has seating; and took the work to the Science, Industry, and Business Library, which is near work and has plenty of chairs and air conditioning. I read proofs for a while and digested my lunch; then put them in my bag and went to the gym. (I figured it didn't matter what order I did stuff in, as long as I bring them back completed tomorrow morning, and the gym is nicer when less crowded. (That branch also doesn't really have enough AC for these conditions, and if it's not significantly cooler on Thursday, I will be using a different branch after work.)

As a bonus, I saw a swallowtail butterfly on the building wall on my way in to the gym.

I am now exercised and the work all finished; it's still too hot in my apartment, in part because we almost certainly need to replace our decade-old air conditioner. I really hope the air conditioner at work is better tomorrow; the heat wave isn't expected to break until Wednesday, and I much prefer working at my own desk, with the net there to check things. (The network is the computer: I didn't bother taking my PDA out to use as a calculator this morning because Google does the job, at least for what I needed then.)

( gym numbers )

Yesterday I dug out the box of hair color I'd picked up in Montreal, and used it. It's a lot subtler than the purple, a color designed to look natural. roadnotes described it as a "golden blonde you haven't had since you were 14".

After dyeing my hair, I went to the gym, where the AC wasn't quite up to what I needed, but I managed a plausible workout anyway ( Read more... )

I had dinner with Roadnotes, baldanders, and cattitude, good Burmese food, but somewhere in there my foot had started hurting. We took a cab to Battery Park City, in large part because I wanted to minimize walking, and I yelled at baldanders for telling the cabbie to just pull up at the taxi stand, instead of taking us to the door. What I should have done (20-20 hindsight) was told the cabbie no, take us to the front door, instead of waiting until we were out of the cab to say anything. He apologized, we sat on a bench for a bit while I calmed down and everyone enjoyed the evening air, and then went inside.

eleanor was having a fine party, with lots of nice snacks--canteloupe and smoked salmon go together very nicely--and interesting people, but I was too overheated to really enjoy it. After a couple of rounds of retreating to the cooler bedroom, to refresh myself but without company, I apologized and Cattitude and I went home. We caught a bus, and got the A train at 14th Street (another foot-sparing maneuver); Cattitude handed me a band-aid for the blister on my toe, and I made it from subway to home in fits and starts, resting as needed, then retreated to the air conditioning.

I am still tender of foot, and glad Simon should be home today so I don't have to go out in the heat to feed and water the animals. Trouble is a pretty boy, but my feet hurt and it's hot.

After work and working out yesterday, I found myself thinking "this isn't so bad", so I went to hear a friend's band play, then got some food with several friends (including said musician). I found out later that the temperature had topped out at 103 degrees (Fahrenheit) earlier that day.

Walking to the train, I felt as though I'd managed to burn part of my face. A cool compress (improvised from tissues) helped some, and lip gloss was a big comfort. But this morning one finger was doing something similar.

No visible rash, just this odd burning. My first thought, last night, was hot sauce from dinner getting to me somehow--but the finger didn't cause problems until after my shower.

I blame the weather, and maybe over-exuberant exercise. My left hand certainly feels overused: maybe it's time for some of those fingerless gloves. But I'm up to 150 pounds on the seated leg press--and thought "that wasn't even difficult" after the first set of 15--well on my way to my goal of pressing more than my bodyweight. Arbitrary, of course, especially since I picked that machine for the goal because it's the one I think I can get to in reasonable time. I also upped the weight on the hip ad- and abduction machines, and did a bunch of other stuff. Air conditioning is my friend.