A Quiet Monday

Good morning!

It's sunny & 42 degrees this morning: just about perfect. The dust is already making things hazy, and we could sure use some rain. I washed the grime & ashy grit off my truck this morning, but it will need it again in a couple of days.

Naturally enough, the automated car wash didn't want to operate, and displayed a message reading, "Please wait! Equipment not ready." I called the local number and, in the manner of a minor miracle, the attendant was actually on-site. He was able to reset the equipment so that I was only sitting there for about four or five minutes after paying, before I could enter the wash.

While I was in the wash bay, I got a call from the charge nurse at our surgery center. Power had gone off in one of the ORs, with a patient on the table. Since I was being circled by automatic equipment, I couldn't exit.

They were able to run some extension cords to address the immediate problem, and I got to my building about 10 minutes late. None of the breakers had tripped, so they called the electrical contractor to diagnose the problem.

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Mt. Redoubt has been slowly quieting down, seismically speaking, since the middle of last week. However, the Volcano Observatory scientists are warning us today that the lava dome is becoming increasingly unstable, and they still expect another eruption with little or no warning.

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Gasoline went up another two cents to $2.49/gallon over the weekend. Jolly stuff. The State government hasn't yet realized that raising the taxes on oil production results in higher pump prices. Yay.

That's about all I have this a.m. Be blessed!