These folks are really big on getting someone in to sell you carpet; but so far, getting the crap installed has been extremely problematic, particularly now that we have the certification.
So at 7:43 freaking AM on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when Mrs. Fungus has the whole weekend off and I could have slept in, they deign to call me about scheduling the installation. Only my phone was on the charger and I was asleep until it started ringing.
Plus side: when I called them back, the guy answered. So I e-mailed him the certification, and now I'm waiting for him to call me back. What I should have done is insisted on him waiting on the phone with me until he received the e-mail. In my defense, I had only just woken up. *sigh*
Well, we'll get there, I suppose.
* * *
I've concluded that we're in for a warm winter without much snow.
It has been, so far, a mild autumn. Temperatures have been warmer than is seasonal, though yesterday, while taking a break from home improvement tasks, I stood in the sun and enjoyed 60° weather, and noticed that there was ice in the birdbath. The weather over the past couple of days has been anomalously warm, not really an indicator of how the winter will be. (I'm reminded that in 1967 the big blizzard was prefaced by unseasonal warmth.)
But my feeling is that it will be mild. The grass is still green, and growing--I cut it the Monday before Thanksgiving!--and the trees haven't yet dropped all their leaves. The oak population in particular; I know some species retain their leaves through winter, but my impression is that there's a lot more leaves on branches than is typical at this time of year.
Of course this prediction is worth the paper it's printed on.
* * *
Among other things, on Friday the endoscope I ordered Monday came.
I was chatting with Og and mulling the possibility of putting the sports camera on a stick and putting it down the cleanout tube to see if I could see anything. He pasted a link to a USB endoscope, $10 delivered, and I couldn't not do it.
Anyway, plugged it into the system and found it to be rather not-bad for $10. The camera head is 5.5 mm across, has six LEDs for illumination, and it comes with a couple of different accessory tips (a mirror, a magnet probe, and a hook probe). In theory it can connect to the USB port on an Android tablet or smartphone and the video can be displayed thus, but sadly my phone doesn't support that kind of thing.
Still, it's a nifty thing to have on hand, and for $10 you can't beat it. It won't be any good for inspecting the piping as its cable is only two meters long, but I'm sure there are any number of other uses that I'll find for it. Next time I need to see in a tightly confined space I expect it'll be worth the effort to get out the laptop and hook it up, anyway.
And no I'm not going to perform my own colonoscopy. STFU.
* * *
Well, that guy's obviously waiting until I go back to bed to call me. Guess I know what I've got to do.