Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

For anyone who noticed I didn't post anything on the blog last week, I was feeling really sick. I still did my shift at the Birch Street Nursing Home, but wasn't feeling up to posting on Grandmother's Fanny Game when I got home. Also, I didn't do any work on the robot seeing eye dog, because I thought being in the damp basement would make me feel worse. But now I'm all better, and today got back to work on the robot dog. After finishing my tests of the large, sharp metal teeth, I started work on the dog's eyes. The eyes are the most important thing in a seeing eye dog, so I want to make sure I get them right. I took two small security cameras from the spare electronics bin at Winsome Headquarters, and fitted them into the dogs head, connecting them to the laptop computer that Grandmother bought me for my birthday this year. The connection worked, and the image was clear, but I need to do some more work next week to get the eyes to move.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I surprised the patients by joining them first thing at the poker table. I felt bad after last week when I spent the whole day down in my basement labratory working on the teeth of the robot seeing eye dog. So I wanted to make it up to them by spending the entire morning playing poker. I also brought along some strawberry jelly for their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, to give them a break from the normal grape.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I continued working on the head of the robot seeing eye dog. Last week I stopped when I was unsure what type of metal to use for the teeth. During the week, I got the answer from the files of the main computer at Winsome Headquarters. And I was happy to see that Grandmother had the metal in stock. When I was gathering supplies from the basement, Grandmother suggested I make the teeth as big and sharp as possible, so that the dog would be useful in all situations. I did what she said, but at first made the teeth a little too big, and the robot dog's jaw wouldn't close. So I had to remove the teeth and file them down a bit until they were perfect. It took all afternoon, and the patients missed me at the poker table. I promised that next week I would spend a little time with them.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I began sculpting the head for Mr. Pearlman's robot seeing eye dog. I decided on the shape of a golden retriever. But I wasn't sure how sharp I should make the teeth, and what type of metal they should be made from. I thought it might be a good idea for the teeth to be able to chew through a fence just in case Mr. Pearlman ever gets stuck behind one. But what kind of metal is able to break through fences? I knew the answer would be in the files of the main computer back at Winsome Headquarters, so I stopped work for the day and spent the rest of the afternoon playing poker with the patients.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I continued my work on the robot seeing eye dog for Mr. Pearlman. I finished building the legs and attached them to the torso. But when I did a test run, it seemed that the legs on the left side were slightly shorter than the ones on the right, and so the dog veered off to the side after a few steps. I was happy to discover that all the legs were the same length, and that I had just attached the ones on the left at a highter spot on the torso, which was much easier to fix. The next step will be sculpting the dog's head. That will be such a big job that I decided to put it off until next week when I can get a fresh start. There was an hour left in my shift, enough time to join the patients for a few hands of poker.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I spent the morning in my basement laboratory setting up the drill press, soldering station and tabletop bandsaw I purchased last week. Before I left Winsome Headquarters this morning, Grandmother cautioned me not to run too many things at once in this old building, reminding me what happened when my machine knocked the power out. So once everything was set up and ready to be tested, I made sure to operate only one tool at a time. The others I left unplugged. I'm happy to report that all the tools worked perfectly, and the power remained on. And although I was eager to begin using the tools, it was time for me to join the poker game upstairs. I had promised the patients I would spend the afternoon with them today. So my work on the robot seeing eye dog will continue next week. 

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

During the week, I was helping Grandmother, and I didn't have time to go to the hardware store to pick up the tools I need to continue building the robot seeing eye dog for Mr. Pearlman. So today, after I made the patients their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, I left the Birch Street Nursing Home to go to the store. I put extra peanut butter on each of the sandwiches to slow the patients down, because I knew I'd be gone for a while. Fortunately, the drill press, soldering station, rotary tool for fine adjustments, and tabletop bandsaw were all in stock, and I loaded them into my little red wagon. The guy warned me that I wouldn't be able to return these items after using them like I did with the tools for pulling up carpet. When I got back to the Birch Street Nursing Home, the patients were scrubbing the last of the peanut butter off their dentures and were ready for a poker game.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Based on the measurements I took of Mr. Pearlman last week, today I began building legs for his robot seeing eye dog in my basement laboratory of the Birch Street Nursing Home. But I soon realized that my tools, including a hammer, a crescent wrench and a set of screwdrivers, were not going to be enough. What I really need is a drill press, a soldering station, a rotary tool for fine adjustments, and a tabletop bandsaw. It looks like I'll have to take another trip to the hardware store.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I continued work on the robot seeing eye dog for Mr. Pearlman. It's going to be a great surprise for him. I want it to be the perfect height so that he's able to pet the dog without bending over. I knelt next to him to get a measurement, hoping he wouldn't know what I was doing. I was successful, but I did such a good job at being quiet that he didn't know I was there at all and ended up falling over me. When he regained consciousness, he asked me what happened. I told him that he had fallen and said that if he'd had a seeing eye dog it might not have happened.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

I arrived at the Birch Street Nursing Home early again today, but this time before heading down to my basement laboratory to work on the robot seeing eye dog, I wrote a note to the patients and left it on the poker table. I didn't want them to worry about me like they did last week when they thought I wasn't there and had been hit by a car. I got right to work, using some of the metal pieces I bought at the hardware store last week to begin making the robot dog's skeleton. After just a few hours, I got the frame of the dog's torso built, which was my goal for the day. That left me free to spend the rest of my time playing poker with the patients.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

I was excited to get back to work on the robot seeing eye dog, so I arrived at the Birch Street Nursing Home a little early today. I immediately went down to my basement laboratory, and carefully took out the robot dog, which so far was just a battery and motor. Last week I had wrapped those parts in Mrs. Chang's old sweater to keep them safe. I started today by removing all the other spare robot maid parts that Grandmother had given me and organizing them on my workbench. Once I had separated all the parts into groups, I realized there were many components I would need to get. I decided to take a trip to the hardware store, and figured on the way out I could check on the patients. They were all standing at the door, looking outside through the window. When I asked them what they were looking at, the patients were startled. They said they were looking for me, and thought I'd been hit by a car. Mrs. Lieberman announced that since I had not been hit by car, they could start the poker game. I felt bad, so I played a few hands before telling the patients I had to run an errand. I promised them I would be careful and I wouldn't be gone long. On my way back, I picked up a box of doughnuts to share with them. 

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I spent most of the morning working on the robot seeing dog for Mr. Pearlman. In the box of parts that Grandmother had donated to this project, there was a motor and a battery. I began there, connecting the two with a portion of the heap of wires Grandmother had also included. I was so excited when the motor began to hum, and I wanted to continue working. But right then the patients started calling for me. It sounded like an emergency, but it was an argument over the poker game. Both Mrs. Kunkle and Mrs. Macmillan had ten-high straights, and Mrs. Macmillan was arguing that because her ten was a spade and Mrs. Kunkle's was a heart, that she was the winner. Mrs. Lieberman normally rules on these disputes, but apparently she had been in the bathroom for more than twenty minutes and the other patients were eager to get on with the game. So it was left to me to rule that Mrs. Kunkle and Mrs. Macmillan had to split the pot evenly. 

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

This morning I took components for the robot seeing eye dog to my laboratory in the basement of the Birch Street Nursing Home. Last night after I showed Grandmother my blueprints for the dog, which she applauded, she let me have some of the leftover parts from her robot maid. Today I left the patients to their poker game and began sorting through the materials. I quickly realized I had enough parts to get started on a certain section of the robot dog. I wanted to tell Mr. Pearlman, but decided to wait until the dog is completed and let it be a surprise.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

I took a break today from the poker game at the Birch Street Nursing Home to go down to my basement laboratory and begin drawing up plans for Mr. Pearlman's robot seeing eye dog. While I was working, I suddenly remembered it was the 4th of July. But since none of the patients seemed to remember, I decided to keep quiet about it.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

When I got to the Birch Street Nursing Home this morning, there was a note from the head nurse telling me to keep a close eye on Mr. Pearlman because he has been getting out of his room and bumping into things all week. I was already worried about him after he wandered across the street last week, and was thinking that maybe it was time to get him a new seeing eye dog. But after the troubles with Sniffles The Eighth, I didn't think it was a good idea to get another one from the pound. So when I got back to Winsome Headquarters, I asked Grandmother for advice. She suggested I look into building a robot dog.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

Today at the Birch Street Nursing Home, it was such a nice day that I decided to take the patients out for a stroll in the yard. They all put on their summer sweaters, and out the door we went. I sat on the porch and watched them walk back and forth on the front lawn. When they were good and tired, I rounded them up and brought them inside. It didn't take as long as usual, and just as I wondered why, I heard a noise across the street. It was Mr. Pearlman hitting his walking cane against the gate of the Birch Street Cemetery. I ran across the street and when I got to him, he seemed out of sorts, asking who put the post there. I guided him back to the Birch Street Nursing Home, and thought that maybe it's time he gets a new seeing eye dog.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

This morning at the Birch Street Nursing Home, I made sure to ask Mr. Richards about the visitor he had last week, the first visitor any of the patients have ever had. Mr. Richards laughed and said he was just an old friend. Mr. Volkov immediately suggested we start the poker game, and two seconds later Mrs. Lieberman was shuffling the cards. I started with a great hand, and the game was so exciting that it pushed the visitor right out of my thoughts until I was walking back to Winsome Headquarters, and by then it was too late to ask any more about him.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

There was a knock at the door of the Birch Street Nursing Home this afternoon. It was the first time there'd been anyone at the door since Mrs. Lieberman was investigated for stealing that vase from the museum. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew I had to answer it. It turned out it was a visitor to see Mr. Richards. What a wonderful surprise! I don't remember any of the patients ever having a visitor before. Everyone crowded around the man, until Mr. Richards excused himself from the activity room and went upstairs to show the man his room. They must have had a lot to catch up on, because the man didn't come back down until just before I left. We weren't sure who the man was, but that was the topic of conversation at the poker table all afternoon. Mrs. Henley said he must be Mr. Richards' grandson, but Mr. Volkov seemed certain that he wasn't. I didn't get a chance to ask Mr. Richards because he didn't come back downstairs. I'll have to ask him next week.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home

During school this week, I kept thinking about Mrs. Patterson, and wondering how she would have reacted if we hadn't avoided Mrs. Shimshack's grave on Memorial Day. So today during a break in the poker game at the Birch Street Nursing Home I took her across the street to the Birch Street Cemetery. We walked directly to Mrs. Shimshack's grave. I took my notebook out of my backpack so I could write down my observations. Even though my experiment on Mrs. Patterson was conducted more than two years ago, I know it's important to follow up periodically. We stood at Mrs. Shimshack's grave for a full five minutes, and I am pleased to announce that Mrs. Patterson had no reaction whatsoever. We were soon back at the poker table, and we had missed only one hand.

Cindy's Job At The Birch Street Nursing Home: Memorial Day Edition

The head nurse at the Birch Street Nursing Home asked me to work today, and since I had the day off from school, I was happy to spend it with the patients. To celebrate Memorial Day, I took them on a field trip across the street to the Birch Street Cemetery to visit some of their old friends. We spent a little time at the graves of Mrs. Geffner, Mrs. Beaumont, Ms. Jenkins, Mrs. Diaz, Mr. Oliveras, Mrs. Lowe, Mr. Tanaka, and Hazel. And then we all worked to clear the trash from Mrs. Chang's grave. I was careful to avoid passing Mrs. Shimshack's grave, because, even though Mrs. Patterson has been really good lately, I didn't want to risk setting her off and ruining the afternoon.