Well, my parents are on their way home...it was good to see them for a bit. My Mum is getting tinier, but they are doing well. Mum didn't try and declutter as they were only there 1 night and she's a bit weaker from her newer heart medication, so we just relaxed, drank some tea and putted around a bit. It was nice to catch up on stuff and just hang out with them...I don't get to see them enough. And they even got up and had breakfast with me and dropped me off at work this morning on their way home...very nice.
Last night Zeke had an adventure. Zeke can and will get into anything at a moments notice and is (I'm sure of it) part monkey. We were showing my dad a place in one of the bedrooms where the heat duct had come unhooked and was loose in the floor, and asked him if he could help us fix it next time they were through. He agreed and we went off to have tea...and later that evening, in bed, we heard a yowling Geek howl from the bathroom, and I thought "oh Mum shut him in the bathroom cabinet, I'll go let him out". But no...he was actually in the floor below the bathroom. Poor guy...he went on a spelunking expedition through the open floor duct hole and couldn't find his way back out. We'd for gotten to put the cover back on the open floor hole. So we shone a light down and called him and bribed him back out with some treats. It took about 10 minutes and my Geek was quite warm by the time he popped his head out for some food, but he was OK. And now we know...his ninja skills include stalking us from behind the walls and below our feet.
Tricky little guy...:)
I had a bit of an adventure in incompetence land yesterday getting J's watch repaired, but in the end, I went to an actual watchmaker, and they fixed things. The person J took it to is apparently the worst guy downtown for watch repair, and I had a lady in a jewelers look at it...she was afraid that he'd actually broken off some of the switches, but recommended a watchmaker or sending it away to Casio for repair, as only a watchmaker can crack the thing open to check it out/fix it. That would take weeks if it was sent away, so I went back to the original screwer upper guy and demanded that they tell me the name of the best local watchmaker (crossing my fingers that there was one) and that they pay for any and all repairs to J's watch. They mumbled and cowered and sent me to a watchmaker nearby. Luckily I had a lot of time and headed out on my watch adventure.
It was worth all the hassle just to go there...it was a little watchmakers shop on the second floor of an old 1910 building, filled with old wall clocks, cuckoo clocks, an old tall grand chiming clock..and there were work tables strewn with little tiny gears and little tools and magnifiers all over them. The people who helped me were wonderful. They were actual certified watchmakers who took the whole watch apart and spent the good part of a n hour fiddling and tweaking to find that this particular watch (besides needing a good cleaning) has an internal reset for the buttons when both batteries are removed at the same time (apparently anyone good knows not to do this, as they can't reset it on their own), so they reset it and put it all back together and viola! Good as new. Whew...
Such a relief...it was a lot of stress, but in the end I'm glad I got to go up there and see that shop...I've never been to an actual watchmaker before. It was really cool.
Now I want a cuckoo clock...
6 comments:
I have only watched a watchmaker once, but it was fascinating.You should check out the A&E movie Longtitude about the clock maker John Harrison who solved the mystery of longtitude. Science and time pieces!
Was Zeke named after BBC Zeke?
Nope...I just looked at him when he was little and I said while joking around trying to pick a name "you look like a...Zeke to me" and he walked up and mewed at me to agree...so it was so.
I kept trying names I didn't like that much on my two, and they agreed to everything... but although they have names now, we're lazy and keep calling them Boy and Kitten.
Glad the parent visit went well!
And that the watch is fixed. Watchmaker's shops are SO cool, and a cuckoo clock is the cat's pajamas!
How far away do your parents live?
They're bout 3 hours away...not too long, but just enough that they don't just up and visit too often.
It was nice to see them...
An actual clock/watch repair place? Competent people? If it weren't for the infernal cold, I'd want to move to Canada. Would one of their employees, perhaps, wish to move to southern New Mexico and fix the cuckoo clock my grandfather gave me?
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