I had to nip out yesterday morning to Home Depot to return a case of drop ceiling tiles that we ordered for Aaron’s bedroom (it’s the only room in the house with a drop ceiling). The tiles were delivered after the first order never materialized, and when we finally did get the tiles, they were broken, which I learned yesterday when I opened the case with the intention of replacing some of them. I returned them and got a new case and shot back home so I could try to get a few replaced before Aaron got home for Easter next weekend.
I also replaced the drive belt in our washing machine yesterday; Rhonda noticed that the spin cycle wasn’t ringing out the clothes as well as it should, so I ordered a new belt from Amazon. The particular model makes it easy to replace the belt; the only problem I had was actually getting it onto the pulleys. I cribbed a trick that I’ve seen the boys do a thousand times with action figures whose joints are too tight: boil some water and sit the item in the water for a few minutes. That worked nicely, and I got the belt on after my initial frustrations.
Things that you think are going to be easy often turn out to be a bit more difficult, while things you imagined are going to take a lot of time are often done in a few minutes. Ultimately, there was plenty of time to hit Bellview for wine and cheese, after squats and bench presses, which I do on Saturdays.
Check Your JND
Jason Anthony Guy linked to this gamewhich tests the smallest color change you can see, which is called just noticeable difference.. I tried it yesterday in bed on my iPad mini, and I got a pretty good score on the first test, but a more average score on the “hard” version. I recall the concept of JND from college, I think from the experimental psychology class I took in my sophomore year, but I can’t remember for sure.
Bass: How Low Can You Go?
Joey’s girlfriend let us borrow her bass guitar (I think she’s open to selling it), so I ordered some Ernie Ball strings for it, as the ones on there are a bit rusty and the G string broke when I was tuning it up. I’m pretty excited to have a bass guitar to play around with. I really would like to record some tracks for songs I’ve already recorded in Logic. There are also a few songs I’d really like to try to learn and record, where I’ve appreciated the base lines. I was working on Promises Promises by Incubus a while back, and since it’s not much of a guitar song, I’ve always really paid attention to the bass line. I really love the line in Mr. Brightside by The Killers too.
Penny Skateboards
Inspired by Sal’s post about (not) being to old to start skateboarding, I checked to see if Penny skateboards were still a thing. And happily, they are. I bough a couple of them to skate with the boys, and we had a good time; I wrote about it 13 years ago. There was a hardware store around the corner that sold them, and disc golf supplies as well, which I also bought and Aaron and I tried at nearby Landis Park. But back to the skateboards, I purchased a small 22” yellow penny first, and then a larger 27” at a Zumiez in the mall.
I put grip take on the 22”; it was, much to my surprise, my favorite of the pair. It’s much smaller than the decks I was used to as a kid, but it’s tight and responsive. I see them every time I go into the shed, and think I should grab the 22” and roll down the street just for fun.
