Saturday, November 29, 2014

Rhombicuboctahedron (and other polygons)

I heard the alarm go off, but stayed in bed to do a little mental programming. When I got up, I read a book for 20 minutes while sitting beside the HappyLight. There was no sun out this morning. I swished and ate a leaf of kale that I picked from my window garden. Then I exercised, and juiced. I ate one of the kiwis. I read e-mail. I loaded and ran dishwasher before going to Target for 9-volt and 6-volt batteries, which I saw on their website. They did not have the 6-volt, however. I came home and made breakfast. I looked for 6-volt batteries on Amazon. I read the reviews, and found related videos on Youtube. Then I saw how to recondition bad rechargeaables. I tried it on the DeWalt drill battery and it worked. I looked up the Ryobi to see what kind of battery it was. I realized that my original objective was to order a lantern battery. They also had videos about reviving laptop batteries, but since mine was in the shop, I could not try the procedure (with my old battery of course). One video showed how to put new batteries with an old battery so that the charge will equalize. I put one of the old 9-volts (had a charge of 8) against one terminal of the 6-volt. That should raise it to 4 volts, right? I put new 9-volts in the smoke alarm and re-installed it in the hallway. It resumed beeping so I sent an e-mail to Chris. I noticed daylight fading so I went outside to rake in the back yard. There were leaves all over the property and I wasn't sure where to rake, but consoled myself that eventually they will all be raked up and I will wonder what to do next. I came in, read Chris' reply and then realized I still hadn't ordered a battery. I boiled water to melt some butter to put on a sweet potato. While it melted, I unloaded the dishwasher. I ate the potato with pumpkin seeds while watching X-Files. When the DVD started skipping, I took a break to gather up the laundry and the bedsheet. I did the load of towels and bedding first. Then I finished the episode and watched a second one. I was looking at quilts on Pinterest and ended up on a math site trying to understand what a rhombic hexecontahedron was. Someone quilted one so I want to do one, too. That led to other polyhedra formed by stellating the regular ones. I made what is called a small rhombicuboctahedron once but did not know that was its name. I was feeling tired so I laid down until the laundry was done. Then I got up to dress the bed. I went back to studying polyhedra until Chris skyped me and Michele joined the conversation. We talked until she had to go do her laundry. Then we all hung up and those of us on central time went to bed.

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