General

A water main outside my building broke last night, flooding my patio with over 3″ of water. It was also raining heavily, so I first thought it was flooded from the rain. I borrowed a pump and the water flowed back in as fast as I was pumping it out. When I looked outside, the entire back of my building looked like a swamp. They had to turn off the water for our entire complex for most of the night. Thankfully it’s fixed (although the rest of that pipe is in bad condition, so they’re watching it carefully) and we had the water back when I got up at 7:30 today.

Today was my first mother’s day without my mom, so it felt sort of weird. I went with two of my friends to have dinner with one of one’s mom. We had a very nice time, as much as I was able to. I also went to a memorial gathering Friday from the hospice where my mom spent her last days, so I’ve been thinking about her a lot for the last few days.

Today was Cinco de Mayo, a major event here, even though it’s barely observed in Mexico. So of course I decided to go out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch with some friends. Very bad idea. The usual Friday crowds + Cinco de Mayo crowd meant we were lucky to even get in. It took them 45 minutes to serve us.

I’ve noticed for several days that my DirecTV DVR’s time is off by two minutes causing all recordings to start 2 minutes late. From checking DirecTV’s forums, it looks like other people are having the same problem. Rebooting the DVR reset it to the correct time, but within 15 minutes it was back to the incorrect time.

Today I picked the first eggplant from my garden and had eggplant parmesan for dinner, plus a salad with fresh lettuce & tomato. It was great. A small garden like this isn’t enough to pick dinner every day, but I get an occasional treat. So far I picked 8 tomatoes, 1 eggplant, 1 bell pepper, some lettuce & lots of fresh basil.

Mom dies after 911 call treated as prank: “A 5-year-old boy called 911 to report that his mother had collapsed in their apartment, but an operator told him he should not be playing on the phone, and she died before help arrived.” (Via Newsvine – Get Smarter Here.)

This 911 operator should be fired immediately. Any call of that nature should be taken seriously and investigated rather than assuming the kid was playing. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Earlier this week, USA Today had an article about Absolute Software, and today there was one in WSJ.

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I picked the first tomatoes from my garden today. Unfortunately some animal or bird got to one before I could pick it. I ended up with 4 good ones. It looks like two eggplants will be ready soon, and I’m now on the second planting of lettuce.

I always enjoyed gardening, but this is the first time I’ve been able to have my own garden. Last year I couldn’t plant much behind my apartment since a large tree blocked the light. With the tree gone, I now get enough sun to grow some vegetables. I’m in a good location to plant a garden, since my building is one of the few that faces the outside rather than another building.

Hearing about Dana Reeve’s death from lung cancer made me think about my mother’s recent death, also from lung cancer. Until now I never realized that lung cancer progressed so quickly. Although she was having progressively worse trouble breathing for the last year, her cancer was only diagnosed less than 3 months before she died. In the last two months, her health deteriorated very rapidly. Lung cancer is a horrible way to die.

I feel especially bad for Dana’s son Will. Losing a parent is difficult at any age, but he lost both parents in a short time at such a young age. At least both of my parents lived long lives and died when I was already an adult.