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Neville's brush with prejudice
Sunday, November 27 2016
Unusually, Gretchen had Neville with her all day at the Golden Notebook today. Early in Gretchen's shift, a customer came into the store and did something no customer had ever done before: she freaked out about Neville being a pit bull. When Gretchen insisted that Neville is the sweetest dog you could ever hope to meet, the woman wasn't buying it, claiming she'd heard stories and, well, you can never be too careful. It was as if Neville had been a nest of hornets Gretchen had foolishly brought in from a tree outside. She had to end up leashing Neville, who had no interest in that woman anyway. The irony is that woman went on to buy a book by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a man who rose to fame by documenting and quantifying the lingering legacy of prejudice.
Meanwhile, back at the house I completed yet another painting of a dark animal on a credit card. This time the animal was a raven, which might possibly be my favorite species (paraphyletic though it be) of bird. I spent perhaps a bit too much time working and reworking the background, though I'm happy with the result:
Another task I undertook today was getting that 900 MHz remote headphone from the Tibetan Center thrift store working. It turned out to be in worse shape than I'd initially thought. It wouldn't charge on its charging cradle, and I soon learned why: one of the contacts on the headset had completely rotted away, leaving little more than a green smudge. This must've been the result of some sort of galvanic process (which would've involved unusual amounts of moisture), and serves as a cautionary tale for those who leave electronics charging constantly in dubious environments. To replace the contact, I hammered a piece of 10 or 12 gauge copper wire until it was about 3/8 inch wide, trimmed it into a long shape similar to a rectangle, bent that into a flat-bottomed U-shape, heated it in a MAPP-gas flame while holding it in a pair of pliers, and then plunged the tips of the U-shaped copper shape through the plastic housing of the headset on either side to the site of the old contact. It wasn't a perfect replacement, and took some hammering and filing to make it work. But once I'd soldered the lead to the new contact on the inside, the headphones could once more being charged on their cradle. They work well, and have a much better range than anything using bluetooth technology. (I remember setting my brother up with a very similar headset eight or so years ago in Virginia.)
This evening Gretchen posted a message on my Facebook wall asking me to make dinner (the post was liked by three or four other people). I proceeded to make a big pot of chili; I hadn't had any good chili since before the October vacation in France.
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