Busy busy busy

[stephbg]

I am the errand queen! And the spoon joker.



I have acquired a DIY Will Kit (for two, how romantic) which apart from the obvious is a nifty little guide to getting one's affairs in order. The actual Will part is pretty straightforward, but Husband and I have been sadly remiss in collecting all our administrivial names and serial numbers in one spot. I shall get those numbers!

Went to work, walked for caffeine, consumed caffeine. And BTW did some work.

Convinced shoulder-twinge-sporting Husband to go to the physio by the simple expedient of making a physio appointment for tomorrow. Simple expedient complicated by Husband's initial answer of "Yes" to the question "Have you been to physio x before?" and the Termite Guy turning up 2 hours early whilst engaged in unanticipated telephonic information exchange with the physio's receptionist. Sometimes I hate my name.

Husband's second answer to the question "Have you been to physio x before?" was "No".

Hammered out a deal with Husband that he takes the physio's advice re going to big band practice tomorrow night. He's not had much practice at being broken, and is likely to rush off and be active as soon as he thinks he's better, which will be too soon. Boys. On the bright side he's taken all the drugs I've fed him, and I didn't even have to prise his jaws apart or use the pill popper.

Tomorrow: go to work early; take Husband to physio; take self to shrink.

Booked Cally and Princess in for dental, claw clipping, brushing, oil change etc with most important item anaesthetic. Thursday night: halt feeding. Friday am: take cats to vet. Friday pm: collect cats from vet; apologise profusely; pay enormous bill.

The vet shares the same carpark as the physio. Note to self: don't mix up errands. Husband probably won't fit in the cat carrier, but if he did, he'd definitely need the physio afterwards, but it's handy so there's room for error. Under those circumstances I hope the error would be noticed before they tried to take his temperature.

Escorted Termite Guy around the property and located currently active termites; fortunately all in the garden. No more bits of Sector 7 eaten since last year. Warranty OK for another year. Check.

Chased up the home energy efficiency report thingie which is a couple of weeks overdue. It is not in fact overdue, because when The Guy said "a couple of days" he actually meant "a couple of weeks".

Took The Catmobile to The Nice Tyre People for a wheel balance and alignment, and suspension safety report. The Nice Tyre People had very nice things to say about The Catmobile, mainly that apart from the naturally worn shocks, everything that they cared about was in amazingly good condition. They quoted just under a thousand, so I've decided to go ahead and do the shocks, and try and extend her life with me for another couple of years. Yes, the gearbox, I know, but the actual experience of changing gears has improved with the superficial fixes done at the last service. She's worth keeping, and I can't afford my own taste*.

They didn't do the wheel alignment because there was no point if I was going to get the shocks done, but they would have if I had insisted. This is why I like to go to this place. The rebalance did not significantly improve the ride this time but I'm beginning to think I might actually be noticing flaws in the suspension now. She's been a bit rumbly since she had the flat tyre several weeks ago, but it's all a bit of a boiling frog experience.

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I've just remembered what happened when I had the shocks done on the Excel. I went back to my Nice Tyre/Brake/Battery/etc People of the time and asked to have a quick word with the manager. He was naturally a little leery, and not reassured by my opening:

"Hi. I was here yesterday with my white '96 Excel to get the shocks replaced."

"Yes?" I could see his hackles were slightly raised; these conversations never went well. Lawyer on speed dial.

"I'd like to thank the mechanic who did the work. It was a great job and the car runs so much better now."

The manager seemed startled by this statement. A fellow customer nearly fell over. After a few fish impressions he said "People just don't do that! Uh, I'll tell him." Huge grin. "I'll remember you!"

And thereafter I was treated royally and got mate's rates ;-)

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Whilst waiting for the car I wandered around the nursery next door. I used to go there a lot five years ago when we were establishing the garden; clearly a lot of other people used to go there as well, as it's looking a bit bare and weary. They have the same nursery cat, who once boldly jumped into my boot while I was loading up with plants. He's a fearlessly friendly shop cat, and since I was quite prepared to sit down and be sat and drooled upon whilst delivering professional-quality scritches, we got along very well as a time-killing duo.

I also wandered into the stone paving yard across the road, but it seems they only stock tame stones. I shall have to go to a proper masonry supply yard to get some wild raw rock to play with in the garden. When spoons allow *sigh*.

I did too much today, but sometimes, you just gotta.

No, I'm not bipolar :-)

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(*) I've tried to look at sensible cars, but I have irredeemably expensive taste, and the idea of my next car being less nice than my current car just doesn't compute. I even had a plan during the Datsun Sunny years: my second car would be a Laser (the Excel I got was reasonably equivalent, so that was OK), and my third car would be a Jaguar. The Catmobile is a reasonable fraction of a Jaguar. I never really thought past the Jaguar, but I'm pretty sure a Ford Focus as a fourth vehicle wasn't part of the picture. It's a relief to be officially not shopping beyond my means any more, but I'd still like to squeeze in a test drive or two for the experience.

Comments

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Having written quite a few wills now (at work we use a template, but I'm getting pretty good at writing clauses not included in it), it would seem you don't have to get massively specific. If you just say "my golf clubs" that's fine, you don't have to identify a serial number on each one or anything. I guess as long as your executors know what you're on about it doesn't matter much.

90% of the wills we get are just "residue divided equally between blah, blah and blah" and don't specify anything. Those wills are so boring.

Oh!! And we recently had someone finally who left money for her pet!

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

Really old wills are terribly interesting documents, with a lot of implied drama. Multiple spouses, secret lovers, unexpected half-siblings, large and inconvenient heir-looms, mysterious beneficiaries, never mind the arguments. Come to think of it, that would make an interesting basis for a TV show. Kind of a cross between Six Feet Under and any law drama. Maybe a PI who specialises in will executions...