dental appointment.
I took the beginning of the day off, and drove to the nearest clinic providing free dentistry. Carin went with me for moral support, which I really did appreciate. The key, it seems, is getting there as soon as they open, since walk-ins tend not to be early risers. Everyone was quite nice to me; even so, I mentioned to the tech who was taking my vitals that I was pretty freaked out; she said I was hiding it remarkably well, then noticed that my blood pressure was pushing 140. (I don't have high blood pressure.) The temp filling which Carin put in is going to have to last around three weeks, until they do some digging and/or filling halfway through next month. Yes, I have to wait that long.

I'm feeling very, very off because of this; I'm so nervous about eating at this point that I'm mashing my food with my incisors at this point, taking little tiny hamster bites and chewing them most inefficiently. I feel depressed about this--I remember being depressed for no particular reason, and this is the same feeling, but it's for an actual reason. A half-month--I can deal with that. I have to deal with that.

When we got back into town, I asked to stop by the local library; I've gotten some Cordwainer Smith pages via online ILL, but they're missing pieces, and I wanted to make a request in person. It turned out that today, this very day, was the grand opening of the library; they've been trying to upgrade their facilities for ten years now, and what I had thought was the actual library turned out to only be a cramped temporary space. The place is swanky. I missed out on the free cheesecake, but I had a chance to talk to the director, as well as the genealogy and local history librarian, who happens to only be there on Mondays. (Good timing, me!)

I asked about scanning some local history photos and postcards, and she mentioned possible copyright issues. I briefly summarized The Rules (published before 1923 or unpublished by an author who died prior to 1937), and was astonished that she didn't know the duration of copyright. I suppose it might not come up with great frequency, but I work with copyright and licensing so much that it seems as much a part of common knowledge as the names of the states.

In any case, I'm going to start volunteering my time, if I can spare some, to help out there. Not only is it a really nice place, it would provide great experience in a library environment. Besides, I think my dorky skills could be of some use to them, as I absorb practical skills. I'm considering getting that book scanner ever more strongly now, even though it would make me a darned hypocrite.

While I was flitting around being a dork (Carin said it looked like I was arguing with the local history librarian, because I was gesturing so much), Carin met a very friendly girl who was playing Curious George in a production upstairs in the children's library. I said hello, but we did have to run out of there.

Brian had told me to take a personal day, but I didn't want to take off more time than was necessary; I did some web work in the afternoon so that I was only losing a half-day. Clever me, and good for Brian, in that my sick time (does this count as sick time?) isn't draining the coffers more than is necessary.

We did have Rick Day in the afternoon; we ate (though not at that Thai place which is always closed or closing, as if they don't want to see us), chatted, and watched another B5 ep. Things are starting to fall apart, in that fifth-season sort of way--nothing's going to be as epic as the fourth season; the stakes simply cannot be that high. Nevertheless, we care enough about our main characters to follow them.

It was midnight breakfast tonight, a pre-finals tradition... but we were both fading fast, and even though I'd have liked to go to it, in a practical sense, I couldn't have. When we got back to the apartment, we were crash-tired.

Comments: Pharyngula | Uncommon Descent