The Mandelbear's Musings

The car came out to $388. They gave me a free rental, a silver Ion (Ag+ -- well, actually a Saturn, but the pun was too good to pass up), while waiting for the part they needed to fix the window. The actual repair was free under warranty.

I got the message about the car being ready while driving from work to my eye exam at Kaiser. The new bifocals came to $200 after the vision plan's $175 allowance. Not bad. The computer glasses are, apparently, good enough to last me the two years til my next appointment, but my astigmatism has drifted slightly and I've become a little more farsighted, so new bifocals with stronger reading sections (+2 diopters).

I'm continuing to find things about the new macbook that annoy me -- many of the third-party apps I'm using to make it more Linux-like are buggy. Only to be expected, I suppose. And nothing can get around the fundamental brokenness of the top menu bar (which can't be changed) and click-to-focus (which is dictated by the menu bar, which can't be changed). Well, between Parallels and Boot Camp I should be able to get a reasonable Linux going on it.

The shoes I ordered from REI on Monday arrived this morning in time for me to try them out on my walk. Nice. Just about the right amount of ankle support, without the excessive compression of the elastic brace.