Money, money, money, money....

Once again I find myself with the title "Treasurer" after my name.  I'd probably complain more except that it is something I feel comfortable doing and, this is important for me, each treasurer position I have held has been a very different experience.  This time I have been asked to be the treasurer for the Carmichael Branch of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.  Our annual budget amounts to somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 considerably smaller than previous money management positions have been.

But probably the most unique aspect of this position is my involvement with cash, coins.  Now, don't get excited, anyone, the money is gone from our house as fast as it gets there, if it even gets there at all.  I just get it, count it, and see that it gets to the bank.  But there are more coins than I've ever had to deal with.  I feel like an amusement arcade operator.

The Friends display books in the library lobby, books that are used but in excellent condition.  For $2 or less you can buy books that would have cost $20 to $40 new.












On the honor system people drop the money into this lockbox













 which I periodically empty.  A recent emptying operations left a pile like this.  It looks like a whole lot of money, doesn't it?  Until you notice how many pennies are in the pile.

A major part of my job is to then sort and count all these coins using a cheap but effective coin sorter.

All the funds raised from these lobby sales goes back to the library to assist in purchasing equipment, furniture, books, materials, and sometimes even entertainment for the younger patrons.  Its a win-win situation all around.  And I get to be "the King ... in his counting house, counting out the money".

The height of laziness or hygiene

When I was a teen my father developed an anal fistula, or as he described it, a second asshole.  And while it was painful enough to deal with, I think he complained more about the humiliation of having to have someone else wipe his bum.  "It's the ultimate in dependency!" he crowed.

Well, I hope never to get an anal fistula but I am sold on having someone, scratch that, someTHING wipe my bum.  This Christmas we upgraded from a handheld bidet to an Intelliseat bidet.  It is about the same difference between a bicycle and a Lexus.

The first thing you notice when you sit down on the Intelliseat is a friendly digital greeting beep.  Without skin contact on a particular place on the seat, nothing happens.  Next you notice the seat is heated, warmed to about 86 degrees F.  Not a deal breaker but certainly is nice on a cold morning.  When you've done your business you no longer have paperwork to finish, just a couple of buttons to push.  There is a button for Her Front, for Her Back, and for His Back.  Each button directs a small tube to emerge from underneath the back of the seat and direct a spray of warm to very warm water at the intended location.  After a minute it will shut off automatically unless you want to stop it sooner.  Then yet another button turns on the blower and your private area is swept with a warm, gentle breeze.

I thought it would take a while to get used to the change.  It took maybe five minutes.  You can still finish off with toilet paper but you'll soon find that is a waste of time.  It's that good.  And think about it the next time you get some dog doodoo on your shoe.  Would you rather wipe it off with a small piece of toilet paper or would you rather spray it off with a warm stream of water?  I'm sold.

Installation was a challenge but only because we have a 3" seat riser installed.  Otherwise the parts all fit, the instructions were complete, and the thing worked correctly out of the block.  I highly recommend this ultimate indulgence.

A little bit means a lot

Lately, because I can't use my walker I've been using the power wheelchair to get around the house much as I have used it to get around outside.  This has taught me to be a much safer driver and has also taught me the value of just a small distance.

Probably the largest problem negotiating my way around the house has been getting through doorways.  My chair is 25.5 inches wide whereas our doorways are 29, 31, and 32 inches wide.  That should mean I have from 2.5 to 6.5 inches clearance room.  This picture shows the doorway with the door swung open.  The 28 inches has lost .5 inches on one side because of molding and 2 inches on the other side because the door is still blocking the way.  So now my  clearances are 0 to 4 inches.

All I need to do,  you say, is widen all the doorways.  That's true and I'm in the process of doing that unintentionally with my chair.

Invention to the rescue!  Turns out that one of the major door hinge makers also make an offset hinge that recovers all of the space taken by the door.  As part of their Christmas gift to us Jessica and Jon installed three sets of hinges this week.  They're marvelous!

Look below at how the offset hinge moves the fulcrum back and to the side, effectively moving the door from the doorway. There are, of course, situations where these won't work but for the majority of cases, they're marvelous.

	Old Hinge	New Hinge
Space taken up by door
Inside view
Outside view

Everyone talks about the weather

but I can now record it in real time.

This arbor may look like a standard backyard rose trellis but it is really a weather station in disguise,
There high in the structure is a solar powered wind vane and wind speed detector
and a short distance away is a automated rain gauge.
This unit mounted on the house is designed to measure temperature and humidity as well as relay the wind and rain information to the master unit in the house.
The master unit acts as an attractive weather display but behind it's lovely display is a relay unit that communicates with
our PC where all this data is stored as frequently as once a minute.  Of course the data in the computer can be used to plot graphs of the wind speed vs temperature vs time of day.   So much data to manipulate, graph, and impress myself with.

What a step up from my old weather rock.

Serious review:
I'm impressed with the overall quality and connectedness of the system.  The outside units are definitely not military grade but look like they'll stand up to the weather for several years.  I am disappointed in the documentation - there isn't any.  They do reference a website with appropriate downloadable manuals in PDF format but even these are sparce sources of information.  The graphic capability of the program is barebones so it is a good thing that data can be exported for use in Excel.