Spring Forward

So now the sun sets at 7 pm, thanks to our clocks springing forward this morning.  Which should mean the start of nicer weather.  Nope.  Today was a rainy, miserable day - one of many coming up over the next few weeks.  And the day was made worse by losing power this afternoon.  There was no indication that this was coming, but something knocked out the power for my entire neighborhood for a few hours.  Maybe a convergence zone formed?  That is when westerly winds that are split by the Olympic peninsula converge and cause intense localized weather conditions.  There was definitely a brief period of quite windy weather during the outage.  Maybe that was enough to knock some trees down and take out the power?  Either way, the power cut has had one positive effect in that my TV signal seems to be a bit better now.  Let's see how long that lasts...!   

Oh yes, and a happy International Women's Day.

Cable TV sucks

I finally got someone from the cable company to come round to my house today to look at my ongoing cable box issues.  For the last few days, my TV signal has been noticeably bad.  Not bad enough to stop me from watching TV, but bad enough for the picture quality to affect my viewing experience.  The "technician" was here about 5 minutes, and all he did was swap out my cable box.  I've now got a wireless one.  But has it fixed my issues?  I'm not sure it has.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is that instead of my picture breaking up, now the screen goes black briefly whenever the signal drops.  So I think there is still a fundamental issue with the signal strength coming into my home - which I don't think the "technician" who came here even checked.  And if it persists, I'm going to have to see if I can get someone else out here.  Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're doing.  And if there is still a problem after that, then I am officially cutting the cord.  Something I should probably do regardless.   

This week

For the first time this week, I've actually managed to remember to write a blog entry before I go to bed.  Says a lot about my state of mind this week.  Totally fried by work.  I feel like they're wringing every drop out of me before laying me off.  And I'm getting into some bad routines and bad habits when I'm busy and stressed like this.  But at least the clocks change this weekend here - a welcome sign of longer daylight hours and better weather.  Though the upcoming forecast would tend to disagree - not a single sunny day in the next 2 weeks...

Downtime

A fun day at work today.  Loads to do, and our programming environment was down most of the day.  So couldn't and didn't get anything done.  Do we get any leeway in our timelines for a delay that was out of our hands?  Of course not. 

Nostalgia

I've just been watching a new episode of Scrubs.  I didn't think I'd be saying that in 2026.  And as far as reboots go - if it's even called a reboot when most of the original cast have returned - it's pretty good.  But it feels out of place - apart from the cast looking a bit older, it seems almost exactly like an episode that would have aired 20 years ago or whenever it was.  Not something that belongs to the America of today.  In the same vein, we've got new episodes of Malcolm in the Middle being released next month - again with most of the original cast returning.  It just goes to show that there are hardly any original ideas in Hollywood any more.  But I don't mind these kind of reboots if the original was good and the reboot is also good and does justice to the original.

Cold

I was wondering why I was so cold in my home today.  So later in the day I checked my thermostat, and realized that I had never turned on my heating this morning.  Despite me doing that every single other day.  A worrying lapse.  And perhaps a reason why I should program the thermostat to turn the heating on and off automatically without me having to manually turn it on every day.  But for some reason I like the control of doing it myself - particularly because the times I get up and go to bed have been all over the shop recently.  I've noticed I've done the same thing a couple of times with the heating in my bedroom - but what I've also discovered is that I sleep a bit better when the temperature is lower.  So I will happily sacrifice waking up cold if it means I got a better night's sleep.  I guess I should be thankful I live alone in this respect - because all of these little quirks (and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg)  would probably drive someone else crazy.  

Pancakes

Dangnamit, I missed Pancake Day this year.  It's not really a thing in the US and so I keep on forgetting it's on Shrove Tuesday.  And even then, I don't know when Shrove Tuesday is.  Apart from it being on a Tuesday, obviously.  I think what is also confusing me is that tomorrow - a different Tuesday - is National Pancake Day here.  Why that isn't also on Shrove Tuesday is a mystery.  And nonsensical.