Tuesday, Jan. 22

Before I went to bed last night, I made it a point to look outside to see Jupiter, bright in the sky near the moon. It's the closest to the earth that it has been since 1951 (if you can call 368 million miles away close). The next time it will be this close is 2022.

Slept late, until around 8 a.m., but didn't immediately exercise after breakfast. Instead, I checked my e-mail and found there was a note from the director of the upcoming readers' theater saying he could meet this afternoon with a reporter from the local newspaper.

For a week now, I've been running interference, like an author's agent, or something, between the play's director and the reporter, because the director wanted an article written about the book he has written about the Civil War, and he wanted this particular reporter to do it (since the reporter is extremely interested in history). But the director, being very modest, didn't want to seem to be tooting his own horn, so he asked me to schedule the reporter for an interview.

Anyway, since it was already late morning, I decided that rather than e-mailing the reporter, I'd just call him and arrange the interview time. That done, I then e-mailed the director, and waited for a response to be sure he got the message.

All of this could have been a lot easier, if they'd just got on the phone to each other. But, oh well. It's done now, thank goodness.

The director has already been interviewed by a reporter from the regional paper, and a photographer has snapped pictures at a play rehearsal. A few weeks ago I'd contacted the editor of that paper, but didn't get a response, so I feared they just ignored my request. I'm glad they got on it.

While I was dealing with this, Hubbie made a haircut appointment, showered, and got ready to go the barber shop and do other errands. Since he was going to town, I got a birthday card ready for Great-Grandson, and made sure he took an envelope of coupons to be mailed to Granddaughter. He also took this week's word search puzzle contest to the newspaper, and went to the bank, and the grocery store.

Before he left, he called the heat/air unit repairman, because the heater quit working sometime during the night. The repairman arrived around 9 a.m. and flipped on some sort of computer switch at the unit, which keeps going off for some reason. He showed Hubbie how to switch it on, in case it goes off again before our new unit comes in next week.

After that, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, and then went on his errands. By now, it was around 10:30, so I got into my exercise clothes and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises.

Once I was ready for the day, I fixed a Ramen Noodle soup lunch for Mother, who was working on her jigsaw puzzle. For myself, I heated a leftover bagel pizza, which I had with cottage cheese.

I'd called Hubbie earlier to ask when I could expect him to return home, and he didn't know, but suggested I go ahead and eat. I put a helping of 11-bean soup on the stove for him to heat when he got here.

He arrived about 30 minutes later. By then it was time for Mother and me to meet our 1 p.m. haircut appointments. Br-r-r, it was cold out there, but at least it was sunny, and there was no wind.

Today's story from the beauty shop: some man harrassed Mother's hairdresser by phone this morning, twice calling her and claiming she had left trash on the road near his home. He gave the location of the supposed trash, but didn't leave his name.

However, local police were able to triangulate the number, which appeared to have come from a cell phone belonging to a guy living in another area of town, who had no clue what was going on. It'll be interesting finding out how this all plays out.

It's scary getting this kind of call, though. We wonder if someone was just trying to lure the hairdresser to an isolated part of town to rob her, or otherwise do harm to her.

After hearing this story, I mentioned seeing an article in the local newspaper last night about a man with the peculiar name of Sir (middle name, last name), who was going around town knocking on doors and asking women if their husbands were home. My hairdresser is familiar with this homeless guy, who (not surprisingly) has a mental problem, and has been arrested before. He may seem harmless to folks who know him, but I definitely don't want him knocking on my door!

Back home, Mother resumed her jigsaw puzzle, and I went upstairs to my office to write the final draft of the readers' theater article to send to various newspapers. It was after 4 p.m. before I completed the task.

While I was doing this, the pest control guy came and treated the house both outdoors and indoors. I was not expecting him to come indoors, so the house was a lived-in mess. I don't like it when I'm not given an opportunity to spruce up before people come.

The guy hasn't been coming in lately, telling us that he didn't need to unless we saw bugs that needed to be treated. The outdoor treatment is supposed to provide a block to pests. But today, he said that once in a while he likes to come in, so Hubbie agreed. I let Hubbie know, though, that from now on, I want advance notice before the guy comes in.

Downstairs, I put dishes of leftovers in the oven for our supper...stirfry, rice, gravy, and sweet potatoes. An odd combination, but it worked to satisfy us.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house afterward, and Hubbie and I settled in to watch TV, including the 2004 movie, "The Clearing." Stars Robert Redford, and Helen Mirren. A well-to-do executive is kidnapped by an employee, and his wife must ransom him.