More Efficient from Home?

The cold I felt coming on seemed worse when I woke up this morning, so I called in and said I'd work from home today. If I'd really needed to be there in person, I could have done so, but I would have been sneezing over everyone. I'm reasonably functional other than the stuffy head. I settled down to tackle a job that I figured yesterday afternoon would take me all day today, with me delivering results near the end of the day.

Except it only took me about three hours. For a change, every piece of data I wanted was in the place it needed to be, and all of my code worked right the first time I ran it. This never happens.

I sent off the results to the people who wanted them. The only bad thing here is that it left me with not a lot to do, and all of my written notes about the project are at my desk (one of the few reasons it would have been better to be at that desk today). Still, nobody has replied; I think they're all busy on other things today.

Oh, well, I'm not actually running behind or anything; I'm just not getting as much done as I could have done.

Putting Manufacturers Out of Business

I was feeling well enough after lunch to go out for a walk to the train station and back. My current luck of trains held, as a UP empty autorack train bound for Warm Springs rumbled by on track 2. Later, a blood sugar reading of 118 confirmed that the walk did me good.

On the way back, Lisa called. She has had me tracking down a particular model of portable propane-fired soldering iron: the Portasol P-1, which the manufacturer has discontinued. The parts for the P-1 don't fit the new model P-2, and Lisa says the stores aren't carrying the parts for the P-2 anyway because they haven't been made yet. However, almost anyplace online that said that they stocked the P-1 (which she liked better anyway; it fit her hand better, being smaller than the P-2) no longer has it. I found a couple of places that claim to still have it and have tried to order a couple.

Alas, Lisa is very much someone who, when she finds something she likes, needs to buy a lifetime supply of it, because there's a good chance it's about to be discontinued or the manufacturer is going out of business or something like that. One of the reasons I think we'll need to buy a storage container is to buy the cases of products we'll need to buy of anything she likes. (Think, for instance, of a gross of Danskin Style 1331 tights, which (a) she likes and (b) look good on her.)