10:47 – Yesterday turned into a major mess, with ice taking down lots of trees and leaving more than 100,000 homes and businesses in our area without power. Our lights flicked a couple times, but otherwise we’re fine. There’s still a lot of white stuff on the ground, but the high today is to be in the mid-60’s F (~ 18C), so it’ll melt off pretty quickly. USPS didn’t run in our neighborhood yesterday. I hope they deliver today. Neither cloudless days nor moderate temperatures nor gentle breezes stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
Barbara spent most of the day yesterday filling and labeling vials. In the past, we’d typically make up 30 or 60 complete sets of chemicals for biology kits or chemistry kits, or whatever, just enough to keep up with demand. Now that we’re building serious inventory, I have her doing bigger numbers of one chemical at a time. For example, among other things yesterday she did 210 vials of gum Arabic for biology kits. I’d have had her do twice that number, but we ran out of gum Arabic. Which reminds me that I’d better order more 5 mL PP RIA vials and caps. We’re down to only around 2,000 of them in stock. Not to mention that I need to order another kilo each of sulfadimethoxine, penicillin G potassium, and several other components.