Ah, data entry with Quickbooks, how I loathe your nonsensical, sandpaper-like forced use of the mouse and outright rejection of graceful entry-button focus shifts. You’ve driven me into the arms of Keyboard Maestro and other macro overlays yet again.

Over the past few days we’ve done a few things. We went to see a movie at the Crest, Avengers, Age of Ultron, which I had actually both forgotten about and forgotten the generally negative reviews of. The reviews were right, which is too bad. Still, it made Viv happy.

We then dined nearby at a very old-school (American) Chinese place which we picked because the parking lot was packed, and it was a good call. The food was nothing special or spectacular but it was good and tasty and fast and cheap.

We went to a baseball game on Friday with Spencer and Daena and many members of Daena’s professional association, which was fun. By happy chance it was an Iwakuma start and I was pleased to be going. I finally got around to taking the damn bus, which is the most practical choice when Vivian and I are meeting to attend a game on a Friday. Unfortunately beginning Tuesday or Wednesday I began feeling poorly, apparently a major arthritis and inflammatory disorder flare-up and was feeling weak and in pain all the way through the weekend. I was somewhat subdued, I am afraid.

I had to go try to take a nap after we’d eaten before Spencer and Daena showed up and walked to the car to try to do so. It was an unseasonably warm day and the car was parked in full sun, and I unthinkingly turned it on and ran the A/C for a little bit before realizing that was hopeless and useless and rolling down the window instead. I then turned the car off.

On leaving when I rolled up the windows I noticed that they were verrry slugggggiish but didn’t really think about it.

When we reached the car after the game, the doors would not unlock for the key fob and when we finally got in the car would not start. Somehow, I had drained the starter battery.

I called triple A. It was hard to convey the address of our location and I ended up on the phone with their intake person for about 30 minutes. During that time a random sportsbro saw what was up and offered to try a jump. Viv and I had both thought that Priuses could not be jumped but that proved, happily (and logically) to be incorrect. Priuses apparently cannot jump other cars, if I understand correctly, but they are quite jumpable. Which is a relief.

So I was able to cancel the call to AAA and off we went.

Then last night we drove to Bellevue to have dinner with my old girlfriend Julie, whom I hadn’t seen since just after Suzy’s death. Julie and I have been in touch on and off online for many years so we knew the general outline of each others’ lives and have also kept up via Facebook for the past decade or so but we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other for thirty years or so. Of course Viv had never met her either. We all had a great time, and it was very pleasant to catch up.

Julie was in town for a presentation and instructional seminar on hair techniques – she is a traveling trainer and presenter for Redken – and we had both known that at some point she would get to do a session here. It was great to reconnect.

My job hunt has been going OK, not great but not terrible. I have had two face-to-face interviews, both times for jobs that I was clearly overqualified for, so it’s no surprise I have not heard back from the interviewers for these gigs. It’s just a sales-contact problem so they key thing here is to maximize contacts and keep plugging away.

I stopped posting here just before the change in months mostly because I am still working on the database export and did not want to increase the entry base here while still trying to get everything out. After working out the methodology I need to run the experiments, there’s no harm in adding entries, so I have a few to run through.

First, over last weekend in August we bought Viv a new desk, a low-boy fold-out secretary which looks to be prewar and probably local – the wood is bone-dry cedar and the desk is light as a feather, which was kind of a relief because it meant I didn’t hurt myself hauling it into the house.

It was a little convoluted to set up, as Viv has been using the built-in kitchen-counter desk that was built when they remodeled the house in the late 1960s. It was a very simple, small des, 18″ x 42″ with a laminate surface and a two-cubby masonite dependency just big enough for a could of phone books. Plainly meant as a palling desk for the home’s domestic needs such as bill-paying and meal-planning, Viv was never happy with it and it offered zero storage.

In order to move her new desk in, I had to demo the old desk, spackle, mud, and repaint the wall, install the old desk downstairs as an additional work surface in the tool/mud room, and conduct a series of minor repairs to the incoming antique desk.

It took a few days but everything went well and she is now happily ensconced in the new work environment.

An article on Slog prompted a memory, which I posted as a comment over there, and then reshared on Facebook, and which also should be here.

Inside the Seattle Clinic That Survived the Darkest Days of AIDS, by Matt Baume, looks at a doctor and clinic whose career coincides with the time I have lived in Seattle.

My original comment on Slog:

Then in the discussion on Facebook another memory cropped up.

Old pal Jennifer Johnson noted to me that it was possible this fellow might have been suffering from AIDS dementia, which seems like a good guess. Anyway, it’s a damn shame he, and they, passed away.