Waterbed Drama Continues

 So far so good. Following tips from seekerval (LJ only) and lydy , we trekked to the far NW suburb of Anoka and purchased a replacement waterbed mattress. There was, guess what, construction on Hwy 169, but other than that it was a pretty easy trip. But by the time we got home it seemed too late to start a major project so we both slept in alternative locations for yet another night. Today we stripped the old waterbed, ran a hose through the window, and started draining it. I vaguely remember last time we did this trying to pour water from a pitcher into the end of the hose to get the air out (WTF?). This time we turned the hose on long enough to fill it with water. Duh. What were we thinking? Anyway, working fine so far - hose is currently watering the highly invasive buckthorn hedge. 

Waterbed Defenestrated

 I called the Mpls Solid Waste number and after a couple of runs around a voice mail loop got someone who told me to just put it out with the garbage labeled "solid waste."  Yay for Minneapolis and their stellar waste collection services!!  

So Richard and Thorin rolled it up and tied it with a couple of ropes and then all three of us heaved it out the back window. Yow! As Lydy warned, that thing is freaking HEAVY. The guys seem to think that they can wrestle it to the alley without me, so I'm letting them work on it. 

Meanwhile, the wooden water bed platform has some drying out to do. Turns out it was leaking in more places than we realized and there is a lot of wet wood. Fortunately, the platform seems to be made of extremely good quality plywood and shows no sign of splitting or rotting. I hope there's a new liner in that waterbed mattress box, as the old one was pretty much done for and is rolled up along with the mattress.

ETA: I knew that was too easy. When I opened up the box with the new waterbed it did NOT contain a liner. I double-checked the invoice, and it definitely listed a liner as part of the purchase. Called the store. Apparently a miscommunication of some sort - he seemed to think that I had decided to get the "value package" without the liner after he had already typed up the invoice or some such thing. That wasn't my understanding. And I didn't feel like another 50 mile round-trip drive to pick up the liner. So he agreed to "send it down on the truck," which would get it here tomorrow. But then he called back and said the truck had left already so it won't arrive until Thursday. *sigh*  So two more nights in the guest room. At least that will give the plywood time to dry out thoroughly.

This is totally Lydy's fault!!

 After I responded to lydy 's post about computer games I found myself feeling nostalgic for all that computer gaming I used to do. I went back and read through my file of notes and personal game reviews (have I mentioned that I am a compulsive documentor) and the next thing I knew I was installing Steam. I had tried it years ago and didn't like the way it bogged down my computer, but that was 10 years and 2 computers ago. Sure enough, it is much less obtrusive now. 

Installing Steam is a lot like discovering Amazon streaming video, except that with Amazon Prime some of the content is free. But even if your original intent is absolutely to stick to the free stuff, it's so tempting to just buy the whole season of Orphan Black RIGHT NOW. I originally told myself I was only installing Steam to see what was available so I could advise Lydy. Yeah, right. Next thing I knew I was downloading Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Not the cheap $4 version (it's from 1993, after all) but the new remounted full-motion sound remastered 20-year-anniversary edition. So now I'm replaying that. 

While I was browsing around on Steam I found a surprising number of old favorites still available for under $10, but didn't bite. But I did put some of them on my wishlist, just in case I ever finished GK:SOTF. Then today I got an email from my new BFF, Steam, letting me know that Under a Killing Moon was now marked down 80% (from $5.99 to $1.99) limited time only! Not only that, for $5.99 I could get a 5-pack of Tex Murphy games, including two that I have never played and one that I really liked but could not finish because the computer I was using back in 1998 was too underpowered to handle it. Zow!  So okay, now I own those. And I seem to be logged into Steam again, looking for more things to put on my wishlist.