I hate to start with a totally new type of lenses but I wonder if there's a better way. This may all come under the category of "getting old sucks."
Since I had my contacts on, I ventured out in public. First to the bagel store, where I should have asked if any were hot, since my plain bagel was not. It must have been relatively fresh, but didn't seem that great. I ate a little more than half walking down the street. Then to Gristedes, which had 3 flavors of Minute Maid Light, but no raspberry. They also didn't have peanut butter Edy's.
I went to the other Gristedes a few blocks up, and still no juice, but they did have the ice cream. Looking at the 4-muffin packs, 2 containers fell to the floor and the muffins fell out. I put them back but decided I couldn't leave them there and told the deli person I would pay for them. She said there was no need and she would discard them, but I did buy one box. They were only on the floor for a second, and the part that touched the ground may have been paper. Walking home, I decided they were too fattening (last time I bought them, I ate the tops and threw the rest in the incinerator), and left the box on top of a cart near the construction site. I'll check tomorrow to see if someone took them.
I also discarded (in a garbage can) the rest of the bagel since I'd rather spend calories on a fresh, hot one. So after all that, I came home with just a pint of ice cream. I would have walked more, but it was hot and humid.
I sat in air conditioning and looked at magazines and puzzles, and obsessed that my reading vision wasn't ideal. Finally I went on the terrace around 9. I needed to put the portable light on the higher setting in order to read. Sigh. Then again, if I'm home I can always wear glasses. I brought out the iPod to hear the podcast of "On the Media" and then listened to music.
The iPod started acting up and jamming. I tried to reset and it gave the sad face icon with the Apple support URL, and a battery icon. Uh oh! Soon the thing was completely jammed and none of the buttons worked. I went inside and plugged it into the charger, and it kept clicking and giving the support and battery indicators. Same thing when plugged into the USB slot of the PC, and it didn't show up on iTunes.
Research showed this was the low battery indicator, and supposedly it needed to charge more to be recognized by iTunes, but nothing changed after an hour. One forum recommended just hitting the iPod a few times on the right. I did this - and it worked! They also recommended running diagnostics, and unfortunately the HDD scan (which took forever) said "End Scan 112, RD Fail." This is not good. I'm past warranty (bought 12/04), so when it dies I'll probably just get a new one. Last time I accidentally got the HP iPod for Windows, when I meant to get an Apple iPod and fill up my less-used iBook with music files. So the replacement will definitely be Mac. Not sure if I'll upgrade to video, and I'll also need to figure out how to transfer over the music from the Dell to the Mac (either by burning a DVD or with the iPod itself, if it can go from Windows to Mac).
I handed in Uptown yesterday, and processed another week of NYT puzzles, so there's some completion amid the frustration.