Sanitation, Skulls, and Swatches

I know that it is the end of July, but due to circumstances beyond my control I’ve been Spring Cleaning. Either I’m a few months late or half a year early. The rationale behind this was a new household acquisition — a carpet cleaner. One of the differences between the Old House (yeah, I’m going to keep using that) and the Current one is that we eliminated the carpeting in the Old House shortly after moving in. There were beautiful hardwood floors, at least they were beautiful after we had them reconditioned. I don’t know what is under the carpeting here, but roughly 75% of this house is carpeted.

We were looking at the cost of renting a carpet shampooer, but found one on sale and decided that we might as well buy one. Granted, it is really easy to use, but the actual process is a pain in the butt. Doing the whole house has taken roughly four days, primarily to allow us access to important things like bathrooms and exits. I wrapped things up today and I really hope that the carpet in the TV room is dry before The Mrs gets home from work.

The skull portion of this post’s title comes from the fact that I had a dentist appointment yesterday. Due to shifts in insurance and my own lackadaisical nature when it comes to my own health, it had been a couple of years since my last appointment. I’m pleased to say that the whole thing went rather well, only one small cavity which will be taken care of next week and the admonition that I should floss more regularly. What made the day for me, however, was that they took a 3D image of my skull as part of the process. That was wicked cool. I am moderately obsessed with skulls. Quite a few of my regular decorations feature skulls (second only to dragons), 40% of my tattoos feature skulls, they’re just really cool.

I wonder if I could get the image as a file and have my skull 3D printed…

Listening To: I just started The Haunted Haunted House by Drew Hayes. It is the second in the 5-Minute Sherlock series which features a person altered by drugs which make him exceptionally intuitive. He also has the ability to be a complete genius — for five minutes a day. Oh, and he thinks he is the decendent of fictional character Sherlock Holmes. The previous book was a fun bit of humorous espionage for fans of shows like Monk and Psych.

I also received a waterproof speaker for my birthday (thanks sis!) so I’ve been listening to a lot of First Wave Radio in the pool.

Currently Reading: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin. I haven’t gotten too far into it yet, but it already has me on the edge of my seat. I was floored by Manhunt and this looks to be just as captivating and moving.

Current Obsession: Bizarrely, my own health. See below.

We have finally made our way through all of the submissions, including the ones that we were giving second and third looks. The final decisions were incredibly hard. It is always difficult to say no to well written stories and these were all amazing. The final count for the anthology looks to be TWENTY-SIX stories and over 100K words. We will be announcing the full list on the Dragon’s Roost Press website soon.

We’ve covered the Sanitation and the Skulls portion of this week’s title, but whats with the Swatches? Are we looking at fabric samples for some new project? That would fit with all of the house stuff we’ve covered here lately. Fortunately, that is not the case this time around.

I’ll leave the fabric buying to The Mrs and her quilting.

And speaking of The Mrs, she has been asking me about getting a smart watch or a FitBit for a while. She has been wearing a FitBit for years now, in fact, she’s on her third.

Amusing Aside — her first FitBit (and I had one too) was one of the digital pedometers back in the day. The hospital she worked for at the time had a program where if you set and met your fitness goals, there would be a discount on your health insurance. One day I came home from work and was greeted by the dogs out in the yard. At first I couldn’t figure out what the green thing on Titus’ collar was. Apparently, The Mrs had outsourced her steps for the day.

I wasn’t against getting a fitness tracker, I just wasn’t sure if I would wear it. I am not someone who regularly wears a watch (although I have quite a few nice ones I put on when we go out). I will occasionally wear a pocket watch while I am at a convention, but for the most part I simply use my phone (think of it like a technologically advanced pocket watch).

On one hand, part of me likes the idea of an Apple Watch (yeah, I’m one of those Apple folk). I do love my technology. One the other hand, there is part of me that doesn’t like the idea of always being linked in. I suppose I could just take the thing off and leave it next to my phone when I want to unplug, but that would ruin the whole tracking thing…

On the gripping hand, I can’t justify that kind of spending on something I might not use.

At least that was the thinking until I found one that was really cheap. And it was recommended for old people, so there is that too.

I’m still getting used to wearing it. I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I’m not just randomly checking to see what my heart rate or blood oxygen level is. It is doing what The Mrs hoped for, which is making sure that I get up every hour and move around a little (although the carpet shampooer really helped with that this week).

The thing that I can’t get over is how similar this is to the Swatch Watch that I used to wear in high school. The face on the smart watch is square and larger than the round Swatch, but it weighs about the same and the band feels just like it. I am toying with the idea of changing the watch face on the new one so it looks like the grey striped one that was part of my old wardrobe.

And yes, I’m pretty sure I still have that Swatch.

No, I don’t have the Swiss Army shirt with the epaulets that went so well with it.