Journal, Day 1296
Friday, 06 October 2023
(Day — of #WGAstrike — Provisional end. Waiting for member vote count.)
(Day 85 of #SAGAFTRAstrike — negotiations restarted on Oct 2, still no deal)
Today was a clusterfuck. We got my brother’s physical therapy situation sorted, but he couldn’t move into the facility because it’s a Kaiser Permanente facility and they were on strike until 6:00 p.m. today. Hopefully, he will be transported to his new temporary digs tomorrow so he can start the next step of his hip replacement healing process.
He had a good day. This morning he lifted his right leg without using his hands for the first time in several months. A week ago had he even thought of doing this it would have been unbearably painful. Later in the afternoon, he was able to touch his right foot with his hand. That’s an amazing improvement. He walked to the end of the hospital hallway on his own power, assisted by a walker. I think we’ve moved past the initial post-operative agony and have graduated into the next phase of healing. I’m very grateful.
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Here at home, we woke up to a blocked driveway. The city was applying something called “asphalt slurry” to our street. It smelled like rotten eggs, and we weren’t able to drive out until well after 5:00 p.m.. Also this morning, there was an accident on the southbound 101 freeway involving a vehicle and a pedestrian that did not end well and resulted in a complete freeway closure until nearly noon. Even if I had been able to leave, I’d probably still be stuck on the 101 in traffic.
The capper on this day came at about 2:00. I took the work-from-home opportunity to wash a large load of laundry while working. I put it in the dryer, turned the timer knob to 45 minutes, and hit the “on” switch… and was rewarded with a “zzzzzt” sound and then nothing except the faint noise of the gas heater in the dryer kicking on but no air blower and no tumbling.
I opened the dryer door, closed it, and tried again. The gas was still on and when I took out the lint filter I could see the burner on full blast. I opened the door again, hoping it would shut off the gas burner. Without airflow, we would have a fire in very short order.
I ended up wrestling the dryer out of the laundry cubby in the upstairs hall, climbing over it to reach behind and unplug the dryer. The burner stayed on. Alarmed, I climbed into the tiny space behind the dryer and nearly tore my shoulder out of joint to turn off the gas.
I ended up taking a very large load of wet, clean laundry to my local laundromat to dry. I haven’t patronized a laundromat since the 1990s. I didn’t even know how many quarters I’d need, or if they had graduated to ATM card machines.
Happy to say, after $1.25 and a very boring 35 minutes, I’m home. Laundry’s dry, birds are covered, turtles are clean and asleep, dinner’s eaten, cocktails imbibed… and this day is DONE.
