Finally, a good night's sleep!

 

Last night, I was running on empty.  Not having good sleeps for several nights, I was very tired by the time it came for my nightly phone call with RQS.  Since I planned to get up and take care of a couple of things before sleeping, I decided to get comfortable on my bed for the nightly call.  And shortly after the call, I fell asleep.  Did I get in my jammies?  No.  Did I apply cream to my feet?  No.  Did I do any of the things in my normal post phone call routine before going to sleep?  No!  I simply passed out with my phone on my chest.  Boy, the waking up at 6 am had me feeling fully refreshed for a change.

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One of the projects I've been working on is to extract a Linux distribution, load it to a thumb drive, and then install it on a 10 year old laptop.  And for some unknown reason, I have been unable to do this.  It'd be nice to be able to play with Linux on my machine before I toss it out.  Sadly, none of the software I have works properly on this machine, and I can't figure out what I'm (likely) doing wrong.

At this point, I'll likely trash this machine because it's too slow for my purposes.  Given the age of this machine, its weight, etc., I'll wipe the hard drive and then send it to E-Waste processing.  I find it amazing how much E-Waste there is, considering that almost everything we buy now days has some form of computing chip (programmable controllers to CPU's) in its design.  (Who'd have thought 30 years ago that we'd have programmable toasters, light bulbs, and microwave ovens, among other devices.)

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Going to game night was a little awkward - in getting out of the apartment.  I had piled 5 garbage bags by the door, and could only take 4 of them out.  And that was a minor problem for me. But once the garbage was in the dumpster, I was able to get to Yonkers in a reasonable amount of time and play a game.  As usual, I lost.  But I go there to have fun, and not to be competitive.

  

 

The only time we went out on Sunday was to pick up veggies for dinner.

 

Yesterday (as I wrote this, RQS and I went out and disposed of some e-waste.  On our way, we passed by this building, where one tenant keeps up a campaign, calling his/her landlord a slumlord.  What I found interesting about this shot is that the downstairs apartment is supporting the landlord.  (You may want to enlarge the windows to see their signs.)  Given NYC's lack of affordable housing (and housing types), it's not hard to understand why this person may be staying in a substandard apartment.

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Today, neither of us were in the mood to go outside.  But we had to take care of two things: (1) Picking up vegetables for dinner from the local bodega, and (2) Making sure that my car is parked on the correct side of the street for alternate side of the street parking rules.  So, I got dressed in a frock I had stored at RQS's place, and we walked the block and a half to take care of things.  My car was parked in a place that would allow me to sleep late, so I walked back to the bodega to meet RQS and bring home veggies for dinner.

RQS was hurting - her knee was acting up, and it was a major effort for her to walk the block and a half to the bodega and back.  As for me, I carried the heavy stuff home (a 12-pack of soda), knowing that I'd have something cold to drink later on. I figured that the way RQS felt, we were going to be in for the night - and I was right.

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We took it easy for the rest of the evening, and watched a movie before going to bed.  On the whole, it was a quiet day.  But rest was something we both needed, as we are still recovering from our latest cruise. 

Carting off electronics for recycling, then figuring out what and where to eat.

 

One of the things RQS has been putting off was recycling her e-waste.  She had a printer not worth anything, 3 old cell phones which no longer work, and a broken all-in-one computer/monitor that had to be disposed of.  However, she would normally have to make a big effort to dispose of this stuff properly. This weekend, the stars aligned, and disposal would be easy for part of the day on Saturday.

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RQS and I woke up relatively early, but took forever to get moving.  Once out and about, we carted some e-waste out of her apartment and walked over to her storage locker.  She was having a hard time keeping up with me, as her leg was acting up again.  (I'm glad this didn't happen while on our recent cruise.)  But, we made it to the storage locker on time.  Once we put the dead computer in the cart, we walked a few blocks to dispose of everything.  Then if was off to lunch.

There is an operation called Wonder that is popping up all over the place. It is a ghost kitchen that imitates multiple restaurants, gearing its offerings for takeout and delivery.  Although one can eat inside many Wonder outlets, there is less service than at the average McDonald's - all orders are placed via an on-site computer screen, or on a mobile phone app. It is convenience in exchange for frugality. Although RQS was able to start placing my order (Chicken Parmigiana), she couldn't get her order (Eggplant Parmigiana) which was also on the menu.  So we walked out before finalizing our order and went to Wendy's.

Normally, we wouldn't be in for the day before 4 pm.  Yet, with RQS's leg acting up, we stayed inside for the rest of the day.  Dinner was Thai delivery, and then it was YouTube videos for the rest of the evening.