The Owl Underground

The Owl Underground is Moving to WordPress

2012-01-03T00:44:00.000-06:00

This will be my last blog post to this blog.

As I've mentioned earlier, with all the problems I've been having with Blogger, I have been considering moving my blog to WordPress. Sunday, I was notified by Blogger that I have used up all my free space for pictures and cannot upload any more pictures. Rather than pay for more space, I've decided to take that as my cue and do the deed.

So, now it's official. My blog has moved to WordPress:

theowlunderground.wordpress.com

The new blog has an RSS feed available so those who use a feed reader can continue to follow my blog that way.

I'll be keeping this blog as an archive since I won't be migrating any previous posts over to the new blog. Eventually, I'll move WOL's Poetry Place to WordPress as well, but one thing at a time.

For right now, the new blog is still a work in progress, as I'm still in the process of learning to use WordPress, and I am awaiting permission to use some photos as a potential masthead. Still, I like how it's going so far.

I'll see you over on WordPress.

A Revolution for the New Year

2012-01-01T15:36:00.000-06:00

Elsewhere, I have mused on the title of this blog. In one sense, it refers to the burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia, who is my "totemic animal" or "mascot" or "spirit guide" or "alter ego" or whatever. But the other sense of "underground" is that of a counterculture, a social movement that exists outside the scope of mainstream, politically correct, popular culture. (The burrowing owl is one of the few birds who nest in a burrow underground, so it works that way, too.)

I resist the term "old hippy" (the way I read the brief,"hippy" and "old" are mutually exclusive terms), but I still try to do my bit to walk against the current of consumerism, conspicuous consumption, and the idea that "retail therapy" is good for what ails you. (It seems ironic to me that those who would not voluntarily reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, are now being forced to do so by economics. -- Nothing will make you turn down your heater thermostat like a whopping great fuel bill!). So it was with great interest that I read a recent blog post by a lady I recognized right away as a kindred spirit. (I'm much too Taurean to live like she does, with a free spirit and few possessions, but ideologically, we have much in common. ) I'm taking her up on her challenge to "spread the word, share the symbol."

Here's the rune and the symbol:

And here's the word (in her own words):

RISE and ROOT!

For some time I have wanted to make an image with which to start a quiet  revolution on the backs of service station toilet doors, on the  billboards behind carparks, over the screens of insidious train-journey  advertising. In deep hatred for the feeling I get when I am forced to  enter motorway service station cafes, shopping malls or toilets, I  wanted to rail against all that is bland and homogeneous and commercial  and life-suckingly chrome-and-concrete and spreading un-refuted like a  disease across our land. I imagined planting little seeds of hope and  solidarity in the form of a beautiful and rousing image which I would  stick between the scrawlings of desperation and ugliness in the  perfumed, disinfected cubicles made for us to shit in whilst we are not  at home. The backs of public toilet doors are a fascinating melting pot  of honest expression, dissent and advertising; it feels like there’s a  communication between strangers played out there in this, the most  private of rooms, and this is the way I wanted to communicate:  liminally.

 I suppose I wanted to plant my revolution-seed in the dirt in the cracks  of the pavements, in the dirt between the formica and polyester, in the  dirt pushed to the edges of millions of touchscreens, in the dirt  underneath escalator rails and hygienic hand-dryers. Like the gargoyles  and marginal grotesques of the middle ages, I wanted to coax beauty in  once more like a stranger to the citadels of public ugliness we all have  become so used to. I wanted to surprise and unnerve and delight and  disedge all the lovely human beings who have grown so unseeing in the  unbeautiful subway of their daily rush through these places. I wanted  ivy to grow over all the chrome and adverts, its clinging rootlets  ruining the L'Oréal shine with their ancient, living patination,  and its roots grinding escalators to a twisted halt. I wanted green  silence to toll through the noisy claustrophobia of shopping malls and  for the shoppers to break their ankles on huge ancient roots, which had  crept in past the security guards (notwithstanding hoodies and ASBOs)  to smash up the shops. I wanted to grab them by the hand, and run with  them (limping) to the dark woods and remind them that they are powerful.

I  give  you this image to do with what you wish: download it, reblog it, print  it, photocopy it, make it into stickers and take them with you in your  bag to stick on the backs of public toilet doors, on supermarket  conveyor belts or over underground advertising screens; make it into a  poster, a projection, print it on bags and T-shirts, paint it large on  the sides of petrol stations, pavements, parliaments. . . I want this  image not to be for sale - take it freely and use it, let’s  make it spread unrelenting from the edges, appearing everywhere, but not  obviously authored. . . . It is yours. A gift  to our revolution for Two Thousand And Twelve. Take it and run. 

I want to be the one to bring the revolution to America (The last revolution we Americans had was against the UK. I think it's time we shared one.) We will probably be called "rooties," but what's in a name? Roots traditionally come with stems and leaves attached, and by our fruits ye will know us, to turn a phrase.

I would like to end this post by quoting the soi-disant "activist clown and former frozen dessert" the inimitable and incomparable Wavy Gravy, who says, "Put your good where it does the most." Words to live by.

A New Blog for the New Year

2012-01-01T14:52:00.000-06:00

According to my last attempt to tweek the design of my blog, I have used up my storage limit for blog pictures on Picasa, and in order to get more storage, I have to pay money. Since that is not an option, and since I've been unsatisfied with Blogger of late, this looks like the perfect time to migrate to WordPress. I've got some days off coming up, and it seems like perfect timing. Watch this space.

White Christmas, the Festive Board and a Progress Report

2011-12-31T15:33:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of shots of our white Christmas, such as it was. We had one of those snows where it's cold enough to snow, but not cold enough for the snow to stick to the concrete. All in all, it was the best kind in view of the circumstances. My sidewalk did not even get wet, so my dad could walk from car to house on good footing. These pictures were taken the night it fell, which was Friday night, but more fell albeit in a slow, desultory fashion, all day Saturday. It was beginning to melt in earnest by Sunday. Last year, I cooked Christmas dinner and had the folks over. I think it is the start of a tradition. The only couple left of the several couples who used to take turns inviting each other over for holiday dinners now spends the holidays in Atlanta with their oldest son and family. This year, their erstwhile exchange student from France who is the same age as the youngest boy, flew over and spent Christmas with them in Atlanta. Since my brother and sister-in-law were out of town, it was just me and the folks, same as last year. And, same as last year, I invited my BFF, whose parents are both dead now, to share the holiday with us.

Same as last year, I cooked a turkey breast. ($22/£14 for nearly 7 lbs/3.15 kg worth -- the turkey cost as much as the whole rest of the dinner!) I cooked it in one of those oven bags -- I washed it, salted and peppered it, and rubbed the skin with olive oil, then popped it into the bag. You make 6 half-inch slits in the bag, put it in a substantial baking dish, and shove it in the oven. It comes out moist and juicy, with the skin nicely browned. It was so tender it was almost hard to slice. We had green beans, mashed potatoes (instant), corn bread stuffing, giblet gravy, white rolls (which got a little too brown - !) and I made the cranberry Jello mousse thing. We had the traditional pumpkin pie for dessert. I put a velveteen drapery panel for a table cloth (that's Jaks helping set the table), and covered it with the clear vinyl table cover I keep on the table for daily use. My dad can barely see, and I didn't want to be hovering over him worrying that he would spill something on cloth that must be hand washed. I used gold chargers under my blue and white china, and gold napkins with some blue and white china napkin rings. A while ago, I also found some blue glass pillar candle holders on sale that are just perfect for coasters for my blue glasses.
My blue willow dishes are "grocery store dishes" although they were made by the Churchill china people in England-- you got stamps based on the amount of your grocery purchases, and little cards to fill in. Once you filled in a card with stamps you could buy a place setting for like $3, consisting of a dinner plate, salad plate, cup and saucer and small dish. Then you could buy serving pieces etc., for a very reasonable price. They had casseroles, and serving dishes, soup bowls, relish dish, coffee pots, tea pots, platters, etc. I bought at least one of everything they had, and have 12 complete place settings, plus serving pieces and the condiment set (creamer, sugar, salt and pepper, butter dish, gravy boat), as well as a teapot and coffee pot, an oval platter and a round platter. I have two of the little casseroles (called "covered vegetable bowls" here -- if you click on the title, you can see what they look like. I didn't pay anywhere near $80/£52 when I bought it in 1985!)

I used my sideboard to serve from, and served buffet style. It's hard to tell, but the sideboard has pieces of slate inset in the top where you can set hot dishes. It is in arts and crafts style, and matches my dining room suite. I got it at more than half off because it had been damaged in shipping (a crunched corner, and some very minor damage to the bottom shelf) and did not have any hardware. I was able to find hardware on the internet that matched my TV armoire and china cabinet, and it was very inexpensive.

A progress report on the pinwheel baby blanket that I started. It got too large for the set of double pointed needles, so I put it onto the the 24-inch needles, and now I've moved it to the 36-inch needles. (see right )

I'm making good progress on it. Since the only stitches it uses are knit stitches and yarn overs, I don't have to pay all that much attention to it, and I can work on it while I'm working. Once I've got so many stitches on the needle there's no room for more, I'll shift it off onto the 48-inch round needles. I started with a ball of baby yarn the size of a softball, and it's only down to tennis ball size now. I think I'll keep knitting on it until I run out of yarn in this ball, and see how big it is. I've got more yarn, so I can make it as big as it needs to be. Think I'll do a crocheted shell edging on it to finish it off. I'll take pictures of it when it is finished and post it on my Ravelry site.

This is the little baby that the blanket is for. It's a very difficult time for the whole family, who are having to come to terms with the knowledge that this precious little girl will have serious ongoing medical issues for the rest of her life, however long that might be. The child's grandmother (who was born on the day my mom and dad got married) and her husband have been close family friends for a long time. We grew up together, and we have watched the child's mother grow up. A very sad situation.

A Collection of Carols

2011-12-23T14:58:00.000-06:00

Alison Kraus and YoYo Ma perform "The Wexford Carol."

This is the English translation of a Gaelic Carol from the Outer Hebrides Islands titled "Taladh Chriasda." Sung by Sheena Wellington by Narada on the CD Celtic Spirit.

Gloucestershire Wassail, an ancient carol, on the Hurdy Gurdy

Loreena McKennett singing The Coventry Carol

Anuna singing Noel Nouvelet

A Medieval Carol, "Gaudete" ("Rejoice, Rejoice! Christ is born of the virgin Mary, Rejoice!")

Celtic Woman singing "O Don Oiche Ud I Mbeithil" (One Night in Bethlehem)

And from the sublime, we go straight on through to the ridiculous.

Happy Unspecified Occasion of a Celebratory Nature

2011-12-22T19:12:00.002-06:00

Tuesday evening I had my brother and sister-in-law over for supper, since they will be out of town over Christmas. We had baked potatoes topped with strained Campbell's Southwestern Vegetable Soup (I had the broth for lunch today) and topped with some Sargento's Mexican 4 Cheeses blend of shredded cheese. I made a fruit salad with drained mandarin oranges and chunk pineapple using raspberry yogurt as the salad dressing. Both my brother and SIL love cats as much as I do, but don't have any because she spends most of the week in San Marcos teaching violin at TSU, and he owns a violin repair shop here in town, and because of the amount of traveling they do hither and yon. They had last seen Jaks shortly after I adopted him, and both he and Stormie put in an appearance. Gobi, however, chose to remain in my bedroom sleeping on the bed. Jaks was in kitty heaven stretched out between them getting scritched and stroked and otherwise indulged.

I'm cooking Christmas dinner again this year for my folks and my good friend. I had a yearly health checkup appointment to go to Wednesday, and on the way back, I stopped at Market Street, our local "high-end" grocery store to pick up the fixin's for dinner. I'm cooking a turkey breast, and Prater's is providing the cornbread stuffing and giblet gravy. We will have the traditional green beans, jellied cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. I'm going to cook the turkey breast in an "oven bag" again this year, as the one I cooked in the bag last year was very tender and succulent.

Last year I found a recipe for a congealed cranberry salad made with whole berry cranberry sauce (1 can), cranberry flavor Jello (1 pkg) and Cool Whip (medium container). You make the Jello according to package directions, then blend in the cranberry sauce and Cool Whip. Refrigerate until it sets up. I'm going to have it again this year.

Right now, it's 31F/-1C and my weather widget has a snow icon for this evening, Friday and Saturday. I'm hoping that if it snows, it won't snow much and will melt by Sunday, or at least the sidewalks will be clear by then. My dad is what is called a "marginal ambulator" -- he is becoming quite frail and must use a walker to get around. On top of that, he's nearly blind. My mom telephoned earlier and she and I discussed options for getting him from the car into my house. He has a wheeled walker that has a seat on it. If the footing is "iffy" Sunday, we'll have him sit on the walker and we'll wheel him into the house. I have no steps that need to be navigated, so that would definitely be an option.

I'm going to be working from 9 a.m. to noon both Saturday and Sunday, but I have a feeling work will be light both days. Anyway, I'll have everything ready to go so I can just stick the turkey in the oven when it needs to start cooking. I can have some things done ahead of time, like putting my table linens on the table, etc. And I'll make the congealed salad Saturday afternoon.

I'll try to remember to take pictures this year -- at least of the "festive board."

In Memoriam

2011-12-22T10:04:00.000-06:00

(The Complaint Department)

(1994-2011)

On silent feet, the furry folk arrive,
Leave paw prints all across my days,
Scatter catnaps in my sunshine places.
Oh, how their presence graces me.
Quicker than a winking eye, as agile as a smile,
they stalk the pathways of my heart
And what great emptiness they leave behind
When it is time for them to go.

For Maeve

from (8>)

"Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" Redux

2011-12-20T03:00:00.000-06:00

The creative process is a source of fascination to many people including me. Any discussion of how the creative process happens invariably elicits the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" I've addressed this question before on more than one occasion, but here it is again.

I'm going to walk you through it this time. Here's where I think it started. Earlier, when I was catching up on the blogs I follow, I came across this quote:

Breath of Heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of Heaven.

-Chris Eaton

It's from the lyrics of a song, Breath of Heaven, written by Chris Eaton and recorded by Amy Grant. It's also known as "Mary's Song" as in Mary the mother of Jesus, and represents an attempt to "get inside Mary's head" and examine her thoughts about the situation she now finds herself in. That got me thinking about another song called, It Wasn't His Child, written by Skip Ewing and recorded by Trisha Yearwood (which might also be called "Joseph's song"), which addresses a another side of the "holy family" that somehow gets lost in the shuffle - that of a man who takes on the task of raising a child he knows isn't his.

For one reason and another, my sleep cycle has gotten disrupted again (I am a night WOL struggling to stay in step with the daylight world). I'm having my brother and his wife over for dinner tomorrow night as they won't be in town for Christmas, and then Christmas day, I'll be having my folks and best friend in for Christmas dinner. After I worked until 3 o'clock Monday afternoon, rather than push on through with house cleaning, I took a nap and slept until about 10 o'clock. As soon as I finish this blog post, I'll clean house until time to go to my doctor's appointment (mammogram) today at 2 pm.

When I awoke from my nap, I awoke out of a dream: It was about a Jewish family. The father was an orthodox rabbi much beloved and respected by his congregation. His two oldest children were both sons. A situation had arisen where genetic testing of family members to find a donor needs to be done. The second son was discussing the situation with his father intending to contact his older brother (who lives in another city) who he knows will want to have himself and his family tested to try to find a match. The father strongly urged the second son not to contact his brother and to drop the whole idea of including his older brother and his family in the search for a donor. The second son was deeply shocked and horrified to hear this coming from his loving, caring father who had treasured all his children and grandchildren so dearly, and who had gone to great lengths to live his faith. The son remonstrated his father bitterly about it. Finally, the father sat the son down and explained.

The whole family knew that during World War II, the mother and father and their first child, also a son, had managed to escape the Nazis for a time but, toward the end of the war, they had finally been caught and sent to a concentration camp. When they arrived at the camp, their 3-year-old son was brutally murdered in front of them by one of the Nazi officers. The camp was one of the first to be liberated by the Americans, and the mother and father were able to contact relatives in America who arranged for them to come to over and start a new life. Not long after their arrival in America it became evident that the mother was pregnant. She gave birth to a son whom they named after the child who had been killed in the concentration camp. Then the father told his son what no one else knew except the mother and father: When word came that the advancing American army was only a few days away, the Nazis in charge of the camp decided that it would be better to flee the camp and get as far away as they could so that if they were captured by the Americans, as seemed likely, they could avoid being associated with the camp. That night the same Nazi officer who had killed their child, took the opportunity to rape the mother repeatedly. That officer then fled with the rest of his Nazi comrades. The beloved oldest son and older brother, whom his parents doted on, was not the father's son, but the Nazi officer's son, the child of rape. Of all the courses the mother and father could have taken, after much prayer and soul searching, they chose to keep the child, who they realized was as much a victim of the Nazi officer's brutality as the mother had been. They would raise it and cherish it as their own. It would be as if the Nazi officer had intentionally given them one of his own children as restitution for the child he had murdered. The father knew that genetic testing would reveal that their oldest child was not his, and the information that would then come to light would have a devastating effect on the whole family, as so many of their relatives had been sent to the concentration camps and only a very few had survived, and especially since the older brother, who was now a much respected rabbi in his own right and well-known for his work with various human rights issues, did not know who his real father is. This information astonished the brother who marveled at how his parents were able to do this, since he knew how genuinely his parents, especially his mother, had loved his older brother over the years. Now the son was faced with the question of whether or not to tell his brother what he knows.

It would be a great story, especially in the historical and cultural context it had in my dream. But it would work in other contexts as well because the basic plot mechanics are about how humans deal with a very tragic set of circumstances and its consequences. I don't know if it is a story I will every write. I'm not sure I have the insight it would take to make the story ring true. But, it would make a great story.

So Much For the Christmas Spirit. . . .

2011-12-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

I had ordered two sets of assorted note cards from one of my English blog friends -- a very talented artist. One set was for myself, and one was a xmas present for a dear friend. I was very excited when I saw the envelope from England in my mailbox yesterday. But as I took it out, it seemed strangely light. When I got back into the house, I could see that the envelope had already been opened. It quickly became apparent why the envelope was strangely light. It was empty. The envelope closure was of the kind that has a sticky adhesive, so that it would reseal after it had been open and its contents had been removed. So, somewhere, either some customs person or some postal employee in one country or the other has $60 worth of merchandise, and I have an empty envelope. A rather expensive empty envelope. Needless to say, I'm very upset. I had been scrimping for over two months to get the money together to buy some of this artist's wonderful work. I'm going to file a claim with the Post Office here, but the package was not insured and I very much doubt I'll ever see my money or those beautiful cards again.

Snug as a Bug on a Couch

2011-12-13T01:57:00.000-06:00

I suspect the expression "snug as a bug in a rug" owes more to alliteration than to reality (unless the bug is a moth and the rug is wool. . . .). However, I was pretty snug Sunday evening, lying on the couch, covered in the fur of the ferocious "cotton leopard" (see right) which I trapped one year on a hunting expedition to deepest, darkest Wal-Mart. The grey kitty was snuggled in between my shins. The black kitty was snuggled first across my thighs, then between them (there was a minor border skirmish over who had claim to the territory between my knees, but that was quickly resolved). The white kitty was asleep on the folded lap rug on the ottoman next to the couch. Now if there had only been anything good on television, it would have been a perfect evening.

Oh, and did I mention I am in love with the taste of chai tea with almond milk in it?

Some Things to Share

2011-12-12T23:07:00.000-06:00

I've been enjoying Amanda Soule's blog, SouleMama, for quite some time (and have secretly longed to live in her house and with her family!). In fact, it was she who turned me on to the pinwheel baby blanket that she made for her new baby. However, on her most recent blog post, she featured a print for sale. I wanted to share this lovely print with my readers, and give a shout-out for one of those bloggers who allows me, albeit vicariously, to lead the kind of life I wish I could lead. Do go check out her Etsy shop and her blog.

And thanks to Jane for this gorgeous video. I, too, could go for a flash mob like this.

The Missing Line and a Better New Beginning

2011-12-11T04:40:00.001-06:00

Tonight, I started a pinwheel baby blanket using the pattern here. I'm using a variegated acrylic 2-ply fingering weight baby yarn. The basic color is white, with variegations of pink, yellow, blue and green. So far so good.

I'm using the size 2 (2.75 mm) set of the double pointed bamboo needles I ordered from Amazon.Com -- they are really a great buy (and bamboo is a renewable resource!). You get fifteen sets of five needles each, ranging from 2 mm in diameter up to 10 mm in diameter. You can get the set in either 6 inch length or 8 inch length. I opted for the 8-inch ones. I also got a 16-inch size 2 round needle and a 24-inch size 2 round needle, also in the bamboo, as I want the blanket to be as big as I have yarn for.
These bamboo needles have a nice "hand" -- being so thin, they have give to them, which makes me knit "softer." Being wood, they are not as slick as plastic or metal needles, so the stitches stay put. It drives me nuts when plastic or metal needles slide out of stitches so easily when you don't want them to. With the wooden needles, you have better control.

This is my third attempt to make this pattern. On the first two attempts, I couldn't get the center to look right and kept ripping it out and starting over until I got disgusted and gave up. But tonight (third time is charmed. . . ), I realized there was a line missing (row 4) from the pattern. It should read:

Row 1: Cast on 5 stitches. Place marker.
Row 2: Knit around.
Row 3: Make a stitch in each stit (10 stitches)
Row 4: Knit round.
Row 5: *K1, yo* around to marker (20 stitches)
Row 6: Knit.
Row 7: *K 2, yo* around to marker.
Row 8: Knit
Row 9: *K3, yo* around to marker.
Row 10: Knit
Etc:

Once I put in that 4th line, it went beautifully. It's tricky to start the blanket, working on double pointed needles with only 5 stitches, but once you get to row 4, it goes much easier. The center looks like a snowflake. I can't use my little plastic row markers with this project as the needles are so small. (I've had a little pill bottle full of the small ones, and another bottle full of the larger size probably for 20 years now. ) I'm having to use a knotted loop of yarn as a row marker, and I'm not used to having to deal with the "tails. Now that I've learned to knit continental style, I knit faster. Hopefully I'll get this finished pretty quickly. I've got to spend at least one of my days off cleaning house -- I'm having my brother and sister-in-law over. However, it will be nice to have some restful music playing on my Squeezebox, and just sit and knit. Haven't done that in ages. Since it is a baby blanket, it would be nice if the designated recipient got it while she's still a baby. . . .

A Lunch In The Life

2011-12-09T12:24:00.001-06:00

Wednesday was a "down time" day, a taking it easy day. Did some reading, slept a lot. Had a nice lunch. Started with some Uncle Ben's Ready Rice which cooks in the microwave in 90 seconds. While that was cooking, I cut up some pieces of Oscar Mayer Carving Board beef. Then I opened and drained a can of peas with diced carrots. The can holds about 3 servings so I saved one serving which I will have later in the week. Same with the can of chopped olives.

The Ready Rice serves two nice sized portions which I split between two bowls. I added the peas and carrots, and the chopped olives, and covered one serving in cling wrap to put it in the refrigerator for another meal. Then I nuked today's serving again, and had it with some buttered toast and a container of peach yogurt for dessert. Took about 10 minutes to prepare, and not much longer to snarf down.

Winterizing the Bed

2011-12-06T05:23:00.001-06:00

About a week and a half ago, I switched my bed over to winter. I got this nice, thick red and gold comforter a few years ago, and I got one of those big space bag thingies to store it in. You put the items inside this sealable plastic bag, then vacuum the air out with the vacuum. This version (with kitties for scale) has "seat belts" that secure the plastic bag, and then the top zips on. It holds a king size comforter and both pillow shams. In the picture above, I had just put the comforter on but hadn't put the pillows in the pillow cases yet or put them on the bed.

The bedside lamps are both garage sale finds. The bases were brass, very tarnished, and the shades were stained and threadbare, so I used spray adhesive to stick fabric down to the shade and then hot glued a fabric edging around the top and bottom to finish them off. The fabric was a 2-yard remnant and was $2/£1.25 a yard. The edging was a 4-yard remnant The picture below was taken when I only had one night stand, the one pictured at left, and I was using a sofa side table to balance things out on the other side. The curtains are made from a banquet size table cloth cut in half lengthwise and then sewn edge to edge. I created a "pocket" along the top and then hung them from a slender gold tone pocket rod. I have a table runner swagged across the top of the rod, which you can see better in this older picture below.

You may not can tell, but the circular portions on the throw pillows are made from the rest of the fabric I used to cover the lamp shades. The tablecloth was $10/£6.50 on sale, the curtain rod was $8/£5 for two of them, and the runner was $12/£7.50. The pillow coverings are made from a packet of four napkins/serviettes that match the table cloth, also bought on sale for $2/£1.25. I never open the window that's behind the drapes. It has foil taped over the window panes (shiny side out to reflect sunlight and help keep the room cool in summer) and then a piece of 4-inch thick foam insulation board cut to fit the window opening. I did it like this because at the time I was working from 9 o'clock at night to 5 o'clock in the morning. When you have to sleep during the day, the darker and quieter you can make your bedroom, the better you will sleep.

Here's a before and after of the larger lamp. Far left is what it looked like when I bought it for $2/£1.25. Amazing what a little Brasso and elbow grease, some spray adhesive and fabric can accomplish.

I know you'd never suspect it, but the three main colors that I use throughout the house are red, gold and green. The living room/lounge is painted green with red and gold curtains. The dining area is painted red, with gold curtains. I found a remnant of upholstery fabric I just fell in love with, that was on sale for 75% off. It was $14/£9 for 2 yards (64-inch width). The 8 yards of bullion fringe cost more than the fabric, $22/£14 I made a table cloth out of it for my dining room table for when I'm not having company. I wish there had been more of the fabric. It would have made some fabulous sofa pillows for my brown leather chairs and sofa. I first had to hem the fabric (by hand -- too thick for the sewing machine) and then sewed the fringe on by hand as well.

Here it is finished and on the table. I have a clear plastic table cloth cover, to protect the table cloth from cat hair and other such consequences of sharing a home with three cats. My table seats 6 with the leaf in. I had to put the table on casters so I could get the table apart by myself to put the leaf in. I got the drapes on sale -- the last two panels they had. The window is not in the center of that wall -- it's about 4 inches off. So, when I hung the drapes I used a decorating trick of centering the drapes on the wall, not the window. I had to set the ends of the drapery rods about 4 inches farther apart than you would normally do, to allow for it.

Here's a little vignette from the living room to show you the color green it's been painted. The picture is a needle point that I designed and "pointed" just after I graduated college. I love that little cat planter. The plants are silk, however. Yes, the picture was crooked when I took the photo. . . .

The North Wind Did Blow and We Have Got Snow

2011-12-06T03:12:00.001-06:00

It snowed Sunday night, not a whole lot, but there it is. When it was falling, it was not cold enough for the snow to stick to the sidewalks and roads, which was a blessing. When the roads get the least bit wet or icy here, it becomes Demolition Derby Day. I was so thankful I didn't have to get out in it. The duplex I live in has these yard lights, one in the front (see right) and one just like it in the back -- well, not just like it. The one in the back works. Whenever they get snow on them, they always remind me of the streetlight in the film that you come to just after you've gone through the wardrobe into Narnia. We had some snow again today, but not much. Fine little flakes and tiny pellets of ice. It didn't get warm enough to melt the snow even slightly. Right now it's 15F/-9C, and tomorrow's high is predicted to be 29F/-2C. However, Wednesday, it's supposed to get up to 45F/7C, so we'll get some melting.

You've no doubt noticed I'm posting pictures again. (Click on any picture to get a larger size.) I finally figured a way around the fact that the program that goes with my camera won't work on Windows 7.

I tried just connecting the camera to the computer and reading the pictures in as though off a memory stick, which is the Columbus method (going East by sailing West), but it works. I used a program I downloaded free off the web to edit them. It doesn't have the features of the other one I had that I lost when the Dell's hard drive crashed, and I don't like it as much, but it's better than nothing. It also had a basic version of Photoshop on that computer. It was a downloaded version and I can't find the receipt to redownload it.
The concrete looking thing in the picture above left is a recycled bird bath -- the bowl was cracked and wouldn't hold water. I turned it upside down and made a sundial plinth out of it. The little sundial, which was a birthday present from a friend, is just set on top of it and is covered with snow. I liked the yellow leaves against the fence. I would have gotten a bunch more pictures but it was cold, and I wasn't wearing a coat.

I intended to mention in an earlier post that I finally solved the problem of getting the Windows 7 computer from rearranging my desktop icons and spacing them out. For Thanksgiving, my mom invited a couple and their son whom we have known a number of years. The son works for Hewlett-Packard in their server tech support. He has a multiple monitor setup himself, and he had had similar problems. He suggested my problems might be related to my KVM switch. Instead of booting both computers up at once, I tried booting up my work computer, then switching the monitor over to the Windows 7 computer before booting it up. Works like a charm. Now that I know what the problem is, I can play my games full screen.

Cold Weather Gear

2011-12-03T22:40:00.001-06:00

It's a little after 10:30 at night, and according to my weather widget, it's 31F/-1C outside right now. My heater has been kicking in off and on for the last couple of hours. I'm toasty under my lap robe in leggings, socks, and a sweatshirt. But it's not a very thick sweatshirt and this morning when I was getting dressed, it was quickly apparent that just the sweatshirt by itself wasn't going to be enough. So under my sweatshirt, I put on what in America is known as a "tank top" and in the UK is known as a "singlet." I have quite a colorful collection of them -- a grouchy black, both a light and a dark shade of Jersey-Girl Barbie pink, a medium shade of hallucinogenic orange and an OMG!!! TURQUOISE!!!, among others. Today I chose a light shade of molten fuchsia (which I can never remember how to spell). Now you have to picture this: The sweatshirt is about four or five shades too light to be called a navy blue, the leggings are a medium shade of charcoal grey, and the socks are black. A pretty conservative, nondescript color scheme. But underneath --- where nobody knows it's there but me --- I'm wearing this thermonuclear weapons-grade pink tank top. Takes practice to wear a pink like that in stealth mode and keep a straight face.

A Cold Grey Friday

2011-12-02T11:52:00.001-06:00

I found the little owl magnetic book marker that vanished mysteriously yesterday. I was leaving my office to go to the kitchen late that evening, and there it was lying on the carpet in the hallway between my office and my bedroom. Although there is a notable lack of evidence that faeries were responsible for its disappearance, I have not ruled out the possibility. However, since it was riddled with fang holes, cats were definitely involved in some way. It's the worse for wear, but it is still usable.

For breakfast this morning, I put 2 pair of those sandwich thins through the toaster, then I put a slice of cheddar cheese on two of the halves, and melted the cheese under the broiler. Then I put on a slice of ham and the other halves and snarfed them. Hit the spot. This morning, the sky was grey and cloudy and the sidewalk to the alley was still splotchy from it's having rained during the night. It alternated between dripping and mizzling all day. Now it's actually thundering, and it has started raining.

I picked up my new glasses at the "Walmart Vision Center" this evening. Lineless trifocals. I still haven't gotten over how amazing it is not to have lines across my field of vision any more - almost like wearing contacts. One thing I have noticed, though, is that my peripheral vision is blurry. Trade-offs. While I was there, I also got the styrofoam thingie for my outside faucet, and two more for my mom. Dropped by my folks' house on the way home and put them on the faucets for her. According to my weather widget, it's supposed to snow Monday, get down to 12F/-11C Tuesday night, and be at least colder than 25F/-4C every night from now til Wednesday, which is as far ahead as the widget shows.

After I got home from Walmart, I put on a dust mask, suited up, and went after the bathroom, getting it cleaned up after the plumbers replaced my toilet yesterday. They did clean up most of the mess they made on the floor, but now the floor and the fixtures are bleach clean. Once the floor dried, I put my bath mats back down. The new toilet is taller than the old one by a good several inches. It's one of those low flow/high efficiency kind. Once I got started cleaning, I really went after it. Even cleaned the shower. We have really hard water here, and we get lime deposits on everything. I got some new foaming cleaner stuff that made surprisingly short work of cleaning the lime deposits off the walls of the shower enclosure. Then I took a nice hot shower, put on some snuggly clothes, booted up my computer and ripped my new CD, AIR 2 to my hard drive. I heard a cut from the album on my favorite channel on Soma.FM, the internet radio station I listen to, liked it a lot, and bought the album on CD from Amazon. I've been listening to it all evening. Very nice.

I've been kicking around a story idea provoked by the idea behind the lyrics to the John Hartford song, "Gentle on My Mind" getting mixed up with the plot of an old black and white film set in Britain during WWII about a woman with a room to let who has an affair with the pilot she rents the room to. The pilot has to leave for some reason, I forget why now, but he passes his key to the room to one of his buddies with the injunction to look after the woman. The story idea has to do with a rather self-contained woman who lets a room to men who have some sort of dangerous, important occupation that doesn't allow them to stay in one place for more than a few months. Anyway, I've been trying to find a way into the story off and on for quite a while now. After I'd taken my shower, I booted up my computer and was playing one of my games when, apropos of nothing, a snippet of conversation between the woman and her current lodger popped into my head. It was an interesting angle on the characters, so I got the conversation down, like a quick sketch, and then fleshed it out a little. Here's what I ended up with:

He set the heavy ceramic cup downon the saucer, leaned back and studied her. He liked watching people do something they were good at. There was a certain grace, an economy to their movements that he found appealing. Thesunlight slanting through the gauzy curtains streaked the shadows of her armsacross the flour dusty table, and threw the tendons on the backs of herhands into sharp relief as they rippled beneath the skin. But now, the pleasure of watching her wasalloyed with the thought that he shouldn’t have let things go as far as theyhad. In the past few days, he haddiscovered that it bothered him more than he thought it would that she mighthave feelings for him that went deeper than she would let him see. It made him feel callous, especially when heknew he wouldn’t have stayed with her even if he could have. ”What will you do when I leave?”

“The same thing I did before you came.” She looked up from her bread kneading longenough for him to see the composed expression on her face.

”You won’t be sad to see me go?”

“Why should I be?” She paused to place afive-fingered pinch of flour into her palm, and transfer it flat handed fromone palm to the other, pat-pat. “People come and go. Things happen. Life goes on.” She lifted the dough and strewed anotherpinch of flour underneath it.

“And you won’t even miss me whenI’m gone.” The almost matter-of-fact tone of her reply had stung him intomaking a statement of it, instead of a question.

“No. I won’t miss you.” A simple statement, but itgave his ego a sharp clip across the shins. He reached for his cup and took a thoughtfulsip, then a second, silently watching her strong competent hands fold the dough and knuckle it down against the table, pressingout the trapped air in little pfffts of flour.

Then, quietly, she said, “But I will remember you.”

Don't know yet if this is the right way into the story. We'll see.

When I looked outside on my way to the kitchen this morning, the weather reminded me of the old (1966) Simon and Garfunkel song "Cloudy." They had voices that harmonized beautifully. Unfortunately, they also had creative differences. Such is life. However, I thought I'd let the ragamuffin child with the finger-painted smile and the skinny kid with the troll hair sing you the song. Enjoy.

The First Day of December

2011-12-01T11:37:00.001-06:00

1:45 pm
Last night I started reading Palimpsest, a novel by Catherynne M. Valente, and read some more of it this morning. Her style is like an assemblage of dream, fantasy, delirium, and hallucination, and yet her prose is beautifully precise, assembled with a watchmaker's precision. Her plots are like a cross between the Arabian Nights and the Twilight Zone, and her stories have their own internal dreamlike logic. If you are thinking about reading one of her books, go to a bookstore or library, open the one you're interested in and start reading the first page. You'll know within a page or two whether you'll want to keep reading. She's one of those you have to be there. If you're not "there," you won't get past the first couple of pages. But if you are "there," you're in for a great read. So far, this book is hitting me in the same "sweet spot" as Elizabeth Bear's Bone and Jewel Creatures did. That little novella blew my socks off.

I have this little book marker made from a piece of folded card stock with a thin piece of that magnetized plastic on each end -- it has an owl illustration on it. (I did have another one just like it with a unicorn on, but the white cat tried to eat it.) You open the magnets and put the book marker down over the top of the page and let the magnets come together with the page between them. It's supposed to keep the marker from falling out if the book gets dropped. I was using that book marker to mark my place in Palimpsest. When I read in bed, I put the book marker on my chest right below my chin. It's just what I do. When I was done reading this morning, I put my hand up to get the book marker, and it was gone. I looked in the bed, among the covers, under the pillow. I looked on the floor, and under the bed, but didn't find it. I don't know where it is. I think it was stolen by the faeries. Or else it flew away. Apart from the fact that I really like that book marker, it's not like I don't have more. I make them from pictures I've cut out of magazines which I paste onto pieces of fancy paper and sandwich between pieces of clear packing tape. Or else I make them using a desktop publishing program, print them out and sandwich them between pieces of clear packing tape. The plastic packing tape makes them durable. I've had some of them for 15+ years.

2:20 pm
The door bell roused me from my "bloggerie" -- The plumbers are here. (I put a note in with my rent check that my toilet was still leaking. She must have called them immediately she opened the envelope.) Maybe this time they will finally get it fixed. It's been leaking for months now. They've already been out once. The water was coming from around the base, so last time they replaced the wax ring that goes between the toilet and the drainpipe. They're going to put a second wax ring on top of the one they put in last time to see if that does the trick, which means they have to unbolt the toilet from the floor. Again.

3:00
They've got the second ring put down, and the toilet put back and bolted down again. Now, they've discovered that the leak was coming from the base of the tank and that it was leaking down the very back of the toilet base. They took they tank off and discovered that the gasket between the tank and the base was split right at the back, and that's where the leak was coming from. I feel relieved that it was leaking from the tank. The thought of its leaking from under the base was grossing me out. It's a slow but steady leak. In fact, I didn't even know the toilet was leaking until I pulled the mats up to toss them in the washing machine, like I do about every other month, and saw that the mat that goes around the base of the toilet had water stains and a little mildew on the rubber backing. Fortunately, running them through the washer cleaned the rubber backing right up. A set of bathmats is not cheap.

Once they get the leak fixed, I can finally put the mats back down again, and not a minute too soon, either. It's finally fooled around and gotten winter on us. My weather widget shows that the predicted lows are going to be below freezing every night this week and the predicted low for Monday night is 16F/-9C. That bathroom is on the north side of the house. It does have a heater vent in the ceiling, but I keep the door closed to keep the white cat from chewing up my toilet paper (which he later barfs on the carpet). Even though I put a vent grill in the door, it still doesn't get as good air circulation as it would if I left the door open, and that bare vinyl tile can get pretty cold in the winter time, heater vent not withstanding. It's not a large bathroom. A large mat in front of the shower door and a smaller mat in front of the sink pretty much cover all the floor I'm likely to walk on. Nice fuzzy fluffy mats. That's the bathroom with the corner toilet -- it's got a triangular tank so it fits into the corner at a 45 degree angle to the wall (like I say, it's not a big bathroom). The plumbers had a gasket to fit it, but coming up with the right washers for the bolts that hold the tank to the base is evidently tricky. Like the man says, 'Nothing is ever simple.'

I'm not worried too much about the weather getting colder, just as long as it doesn't get below 0F/-18C. I got the oil changed in my car this past Monday and in addition to replacing the oil and changing the oil filter, they check/change the air cleaner filter, check hydraulic fluid levels, top off the radiator and test the antifreeze. Turns out my antifreeze is "aging out" and it's now only good to 0F/-18C. If the weather gets really cold, that could present a problem. as I don't have a garage, just a carport. To get more protection, they'd have to drain and flush my radiator and put in new antifreeze. That'll be $99, please. Thank you very much. Don't happen to have $99 just at the moment, and won't until at least the end of December. Last thing I need is for it to come a blue Norther and crack my engine block. Which reminds me. I need to head down to Walmart and get one of those styrofoam thingies to put over the outside faucet by the back door. Last winter, that pipe froze and I didn't have any water to my kitchen sink until it thawed three days later.

3:45 pm
It has now been determined that the reason the toilet is leaking is because the tank is cracked at the base. Whether it was cracked before the plumbers started messing with it is a moot point. It's cracked now. They called my duplex manager, and she has authorised them to replace the toilet, if that's what it takes -- This toilet is original to the house, which was built in the early 1970's, and the chances of finding a triangular tank that will fit it are slim to none. Now the question is, can they find a toilet that will fit into the corner with the "flange" in the floor where it is, or are they going to have to get the jackhammers in (the house is built on a solid concrete "slab" foundation) and reposition the "flange" -- I'm assuming that's the doohickie that's cemented into the floor that the toilet is bolted down to. Thankfully, I do have another bathroom. Once the plumbers do get everything sorted out, I'm going to have to suit up and clean the whole bathroom with something heavy duty and germicidal-- sink, toilet, floor, cabinet, counters, the whole shebang. I don't think I'm being unreasonably paranoid. Who knows what the plumbers were fixing before they came to my house? (Ew!)

5:00 pm
They've come up with a toilet that has a rectangular tank that will fit in the corner, so we will be spared the jackhammers. It's a "water saver" toilet, which means it's got a smaller tank, about half the capacity of the tank on the old toilet. It's a taller toilet than the old one, too, and they've just discovered the feeder hose that supplies water to the tank is too short to reach this tank, so one of them has kited off to get one.

The white cat and the black one have been cowering under the bed all afternoon. I've no idea where the grey one is hiding. Periodically, the white one or the black one will slink into the office and rub up against my feet. All this business with the plumbers has thrown their nap schedule way off. A while ago, the white one barfed up a hairball in the living room. Thankfully, the hairball season is winding down. One of the plumbers asked me earlier if I had an extra roll of paper towels. My reply? "I have three cats. I have a whole package of paper towels." Actually, I don't. I'm down to two rolls now plus the one in the holder. Better put paper towels on my shopping list.

5:30 pm
The plumbers have just left. I now have a new toilet. It's higher than the old one, and has a much smaller "footprint," both of which points are neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. So long as it performs the function it was designed for, and doesn't leak or overflow, I'm happy.

On the first day of December
The real world gave to me
One leaky toilet,
Two plumbers plumbing,
And a bathroom that's very dir-tee. . . .

I'll clean up the bathroom in a while. Right now, the world owes me chocolate. Fortunately, there are Hershey's Kisses in the candy dish, Christmas Kisses, wrapped in red, silver, and green foil wrappers. . . I'll have three of each color. Nine is a nice round number. . . .

5:40 pm
The phone rang just now and it was the Walmart eyeglasses people telling me my new glasses are ready. I'll go get them tomorrow afternoon, and get the faucet cover thingie while I'm there. I had a doctor's appointment Monday at 9:45 in the morning, and after that, I went to get new glasses (they said they'd be ready Dec 5), then I got my oil changed and then went to Radio Shack and got a new watch battery. This has been a busy week.

Strange Dreams

2011-11-30T13:22:00.001-06:00

Had such a strange dream this morning. My parents and I were supposed to attend Kate and William's wedding. It was being held in some big cathedral somewhere. I was supposed to be helping women climb this wall up onto a grassy berm so they could get into the part of the cathedral where they could take their seats -- titled ladies of all ages in their pretty dresses. I decided it would be better to help them by pulling them up rather than pushing them, so I climbed to the top. After a while (and a great deal of effort and spoiled finery), it was decided that the rest of the ladies should go out through a door next to the wall and walk up the little hill to where they were supposed to line up to be seated. It was a very strange cathedral, with big square stone structures in front of some of the seating so that you couldn't see the front. After a long time of standing, a person came to tell us that she was sorry but other people had been seated where we were supposed to have been seated and that we were going to have to find seats where we could. I found a good seat next to a young couple with a baby, where I could actually see the front. A lady came by and noticed that I had navy blue hose on, and we were all supposed to have the regular shear kind of hose (there was a dress code for guests). I had to tell her they were the only kind I had, and she grudgingly let them pass. My mom was supposed to participate in a flower ceremony where each of several people of some importance were supposed to take a vase with flowers and put it at the front. My mom had my dad with her and she had to make him sit and wait for her to put the flowers where she was supposed to. I got to see her do this. There were several pantomime presentations at the front and it was rumored that Kate had sneaked a peek at them. Then I became aware that the cathedral only had a roof, and that the rest of it was open to the outside. It was now raining very hard, and there was a cold misty breeze underneath the stone roof. All the stone was old and had lichens on in places. A very vivid, but strange dream.

A Glad Thing

2011-11-23T17:27:00.001-06:00

This is just too good not to share. More Info.

A Sad Thing

2011-11-23T17:26:00.001-06:00

Anne McCaffrey

1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011

"Say not in grief that she is gone, but in thankfulness that she was."

Multitasking on a Monday

2011-11-21T20:39:00.001-06:00

I've already been working most of the afternoon, and I think I'll work another hour then call it a night. Got my lap robe on, and I'm comfy and warm. I've got my computer desk set up so I can work from a recliner. I've got all the software I need to do my work spread across both monitors. I'm proofreading to recorded dictation and correcting the transcribed medical report on the right screen. I've got my right foot on the foot pedal that controls the playback of the dictation that I'm listening to through the headset, both of which are plugged into my work computer. Soma FM's "Space Station Soma" channel is playing softly on the speakers plugged into my "play" computer. The black cat is curled up between my knees with his head on my left shin. The white one is asleep under my chair. (He's got very long fur, and he gets too hot sleeping against me.) The grey one is lying across my chest with her paws on my left upper arm, and her head pillowed on her paws. I'm knitting on a moebius shrug (straight knitting till I hit the row marker, then whatever stitch the next row is, so I don't need to pay much attention to it). I've learned to hold the thread in my left hand while I knit, which makes it easy to take my right hand away from my knitting when I need to use the mouse. Now and again, when I need to type with both hands, I gently move my knitting to the right and slip my left hand underneath it. I've got my left elbow resting on the arm of my chair so I don't disturb the grey one when I'm knitting or typing. We've got this working at home thing down to a science.

If Julia Child Can Use A Blowtorch. . .*

2011-11-20T16:48:00.001-06:00

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you are already aware that my culinary toolkit includes clothespins as part of the equipment essential to making iced tea. Since the packaging design process now seems to have been largely taken over by the accounting department, I may have to get a second hammer.

Yesterday, I was in the mood for some Pedro's Tamales, which I like to eat with a layer of refried beans and melted cheese on top. However, my preferred brand of refried beans now only comes in those "redesigned" cans(tins) that can only be opened on one end. Those kinds of cans are OK for "loose" contents like beans, peas and other things that come in pieces packed in liquid. However, they've also started selling "solids" like jellied cranberry sauce, refried beans, pumpkin pie filling, etc., in those kind of cans (a move no doubt dictated by the rocket surgeons in corporate accounting).

In the good ol' days, when you wanted to enjoy such like, you opened one end of the can completely, and then just pierced the bottom of the can with the can opener. This broke the suction and the entire contents slid right out into the dish. In the case of jellied cranberry sauce, you could then cut the "roll" into 1/4-inch slices for easy serving. If you have to dig the stuff out with a spoon and serve it in chunks, it looks icky, and it's difficult to get the right amount without looking like a glutton. In the case of refried beans, the entire contents slid out cleanly in a matter of seconds so you could get at them without having to spend several minutes digging out the can's contents with a spoon, which always leaves some behind (waste not, want not. . .).

So now if I want to eat refried beans, et. al., I have get out the church key and go dig into my toolbox and get my hammer because now, before I open the can, I have to turn it upside down on the counter, put the church key point down on the can bottom and whack it with a hammer a couple of times until the pointy end of the church key pierces the bottom of the can. Then I open the can with the can opener. Since I have an electric can opener, I have to put a dish under the can in some cases (like jellied cranberry sauce) or it dribbles on the counter. Such a hassle.

I suppose I could keep a cocktail straw and slide it down the side of the can to the bottom and blow in some air to break the suction, but in the first place, it's very awkward to do; in the second place, it's tricky to wash a cocktail straw and get it clean; and in the third place, ew. . .

*See: Here.

Bach, Bando, and Butterflies in Love

2011-11-15T12:14:00.001-06:00

Yoyo Ma on cello, Tamasaburo Bando, dancer. A collaboration by two incredible talents.

The lady's name is Ha Hui. I'm definitely going to see if I can hunt up more of her music.

Where Does The Time Go?

2011-11-12T12:43:00.001-06:00

In other news, for those folks who keep track of such things, the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" turned 40 this year.

The Procol Harum song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" turned 44.

The Beatles' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" turned 48.

Buddy Holly's song "Peggy Sue" turned 54. (Peggy Sue herself turned 71.)

Now that we've had this little jaunt down musical memory lane, I will leave you with Sandy Denny's version of her song "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" (which also turned 44 this year),
and its haunting lyrics:

Across the morning sky

All the bird are leaving

Ah how can they know it's time for them to go?

Before the winter fire

We'll still be dreaming.

I do not count the time

Who knows where the time goes?

Sad deserted shore

Your fickle friends are leaving

Ah but then you know it's time for them to go

But I will still be here

I have no thought of leaving.

I do not count the time

Who knows where the time goes?

And I'm not alone

While my love is near me

And I know it will be so till it's time to go

So come the storms of winter

And then the birds in spring again.

I do not fear the time

Who knows how my love grows?

Who knows where the time goes?

Hair Condition

2011-11-12T10:09:00.001-06:00

In October of 2008, I got my hair (see left) cut to a length of 3 inches all over my head (see right) in anticipation of rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder which took place on 10/11/2008. At the time, my hair was so long that I could not even comb it with one hand, never mind wash it, etc., and I knew my left arm was going to be out of commission for at least 2 months. I do not like my hair short, especially that short, but I could do anything I needed to do to it with one hand. It's been three years since my shoulder surgery and I have made a full recovery. I've regained full range of motion, strength and I'm pain free.

Supposedly, human hair grows an average of 1/4 inch a month. That works out to 3 inches a year. Evidently mine must grow faster than that. The picture to the left was taken 09/29/2010 to show that if washed, combed out and left to its own devices, my hair will make corkscrew curls. This morning, I did my hair in a "classic" pony tail, which is with the "tail" positioned at the back of the head just below the crown. About 10 minutes ago, I measured my pony tail with the tape measure, and the longest hair is 18 inches long. As you can see by the picture at right, I come by my natural curl honestly. The picture quality is actually pretty good for an 80 year old picture (1931), that's been digitized, cropped and enlarged.

Hindewhu

2011-11-10T14:36:00.001-06:00

Last night I watched a Smithsonian Channel special on Peter Gabriel and where his musical journey has taken him. Among many extraordinary musicians, instruments, and vocal styles featured on the program, there was a sample of a man doing something called "Hindewhu" which comes out of the musical tradition of the Pygmy tribes of central Africa. This intriguing style takes the form of a "duet" that is really more of a musical dialog between flute and voice. Just nearly blew me off the couch. See if you can figure out which is the flute and which is the voice.*

This style of music turns up in some pretty interesting places, like here:

and here:

and here:

*I'll give you a clue: The flute only plays one note.

Personal Signage

2011-11-09T16:54:00.001-06:00

Saw an add for a design your own tee shirt place. Thought about what I would put on a teeshirt. Definitely need to get one that says, "Feminism is based on the radical notion that women are people." Then I would have to have one that says, "She Who Must Be Butted" -- nobody but a cat lover would get that one. And another one that says, "Whatever." for those "frankly, Scarlet" days. Actually, digital technology has probably reached the point where you could make a tee shirt with a "text crawler" news ticker thingie on the front. You would download your text of choice to the text crawler from your computer/laptop/iPhone via WiFi. It would be powered by super-thin solar panels across the top and bottom. It'd have to be either washable or detachable, though.

Every Day is Caturday

2011-11-07T16:27:00.006-06:00

There can never be too much kitteh cuteness in the world.

Art + Music = Win X 2

2011-11-07T13:57:00.001-06:00

Jackie Morris had this video on her blog of friend and colleague James Mayhew, and what he's been getting up to these days. What an inspired idea! The music is "Sheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Watch this with a child you love

Hear! Hear!

2011-11-07T13:00:00.004-06:00

Power to the people.

We Get Our Hour Back Tonight

2011-11-05T17:57:00.000-05:00

Which means I've got to go adjust clocks all over the house. I don't mind daylight saving time. What I mind is all this spring forward/fall back rigamarole. I wish they'd just leave the durn clocks alone.

My mom is a watch wearer. One of the first things she does when she wakes up in the morning is put her watch on. Many of the rooms in their house do not have clocks in them because when my mom wants to know what time it is, she looks at her watch.

I work from home and spend a lot of time at my computer keyboard; wearing a watch is bothersome to me when I'm typing, so I don't ever put one on unless I'm going out. Consequently, I've got at least one clock in every room of the house. Most of them are digital, but only a couple of those are the kind that you can set to keep track of daylight savings time so they reset themselves automatically. So tonight I get to troop all over the house changing clocks. . . .

. . .including the clock above, a battery operated (cheap) imitation mantle clock intended to look like the real McCoy. It plongs out the Westminster chimes at a quarter after the hour, at a quarter til the hour, and then on the hour, it does the whole song and dance. The clock to the right I got because of the cat (oddly enough). The tail pendulums. (I painted the tip of the tail white to match the black one's color scheme.)

This week I've been particularly aware that the wheel of the year is turning toward winter. I've had the heater "enabled" for about two weeks now, but it's only in the last couple of days that it has actually gotten cold enough inside the house for the heater to come on. Another way I save money on my heating costs is by using the "add/subtract clothes" principle. This allows me to chose a fairly low "if it gets colder than this, turn the heater on" temperature and make up the difference in clothing. It costs money to run the heater, but putting on more clothes (or taking off a layer) costs nothing.

Right now, I'm wearing a long sleeved tee shirt with a short sleeved tee shirt over it, a pair of slacks and socks. (I don't wear shoes in the house, and in summer I go barefoot. Last week my feet brought it to my attention that it isn't summer any more. ) The two layers of cotton are enough to keep my upper body warm. However, when the weather turns colder, I can replace the top tee with a fleece vest, a sweatshirt, or a fleece shirt. A while ago, when I was up getting some lunch, I got my lap robe off the couch because my feet were getting cold even with socks on. (When I need to "add clothes" to my feet I'll switch from socks to my sock feet.)

Something I've been thinking about: This coming spring, when the winter stuff go on sale, pick up a couple of microfiber blankets and make almost floor length"body tunics" out of them -- something that you'd pull on over your head, with a zipped or buttoned neck , and either sleeveless or three-quarter length fairly loose sleeves. The microfiber blankets are light weight, washable, and very warm and bought on sale, they'd be budget friendly. I could wear a long-sleeved cotton tee shirt and leggings under it. . . .

As The Wheel Turns

2011-11-04T12:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my cousin drove in from his home near El Capitan in New Mexico to take my family to lunch. (Only a 4 hour drive -- out here in the flatlands, we tend to measure distances, not in miles, but in the length of time it takes to drive them.) He originally intended to come last Thursday, but it snowed there and rained here, so we rescheduled. He is the son of my mother's oldest sister. Since he's 13 years my senior, I've literally known him all my life. He and his lovely wife have retired to a small ranch, which they share with their beloved horses, dogs, cats, and her mother (who turns 90 in March). (He married "the Princess of Tulsa" or so she seemed to me at their fairy-tale wedding. The wedding reception was held at the Camelot Inn, where our family also stayed. Alas, the Camelot Inn was demolished in 2007, cue "Camelot, reprise." ) We went to Red Lobster, my cousin, my parents, my brother and I, and had a lovely lunch. Over some fantastic seafood, everybody caught everybody else up on the goings and doings of our respective lives. Despite being invited to stay over, my cousin decided to return home, as he would have just enough daylight left to make the drive. (Nor can I blame him -- I would not want to leave my wife and 90 year old mother-in-law by themselves overnight in an isolated ranch house that close to Mexico.) I had driven over to my parents' house to be there when my cousin came, and to simplify the logistics (The 'rents and I rode in my cousin's SUV, and my brother met us there). We had one of those absolutely gorgeous fall days that we are gifted with now and then -- cloudless, sunny, wind at 6 mph, gusting to 16 -- which really doesn't even qualify as a breeze out here. And it was like that all day. On the drive over, I spotted about a dozen or so Canada geese at one of the playa lakes I pass -- part of the advance scouting party, no doubt.

The other reason I had driven over to the folks' house was that after my cousin left, my technical expertise was needed. I had gotten the folks a cordless phone for Christmas several years ago (A base unit with three handsets so there would be one to go by my dad's recliner, one to go by my mom's recliner and the third to go on the base unit in the kitchen). Last week, both my dad's handset and charger had bitten the dust -- totally nonfunctional. I'd tried to find another handset+charger unit so we could just replace the dead one, but as you may be aware, when you buy a piece of electronics, they quit making that model within six to nine months after you bought it, and replace it with a newer model with more and better bells, lights and whistles. Since they'd had their phone for over three years, I couldn't even find a "reconditioned" handset. Luckily, I was able to find a "used -- like new" phone with a base unit, two handsets and a charger for a reasonable price on E-Bay, and bought it just for the one handset and charger. I had to "unregister" the new handset from the base unit it came with, and "register" it with their base unit. Since my dad is nearly blind from macular degeneration, we glued a small shirt button atop the "answer" button, and I set the volume as high as it went. (While I was performing these technical miracles, my dad was listening to his little portable radio over headphones. I was sitting at the kitchen bar some 12 feet away, and could hear the radio plainly enough to understand the announcer and recognize the music. Now that I think about it, I could have sat in any of the three bar stools on that side, but I chose the one that had been mine when I lived at home. . .)

After I had the handset set up and we'd plugged in the charger, my mom and I sat and visited a while. She asked me about flat screen TVs -- their gigunga cathode ray tube TV (40-inch diagonal) had already had to be repaired once (two guys in a truck came out to the house to lug it off to the shop, replaced one little switch, $365, thank you very much), and it had started acting up again. Rather than fork over that kind of dough to get it repaired a second time, my mom had decided that if it broke again, she was just going to replace it. The TV cost around $2000 new (HDTV- 7-8 years ago) and she was thinking it was going to take equally big bucks to replace it, but I googled around and found that a flat screen TV of the same screen size only cost around $500-$600. Needless to say, she was very pleasantly surprised. I told her when the time comes, to give me a call, and we'll go TV shopping.

As we watched the local TV news and weather (with the same news anchors and "head meteorologist" that have been at that station for as long as I can remember.), the "weather guy," who is thin on TV and pencil thin in person, gave us the 5-day forecast. We've already had one frost, and it's going to freeze again Tuesday. When I change the bed this time, I'm going to take off the blanket, and put on my comforter. As we say here, looks like it fooled around and got Fall on us.

All in all, yesterday was a very satisfactory first Thursday in November.

I thought I'd leave you with this little video. Amazing what you can do with fans and two pieces of cloth.

A Piece of Wave-Frosted Glass Washed Up on the Shore of the World

2011-10-31T12:51:00.000-05:00

Walking along the shore of the world this morning, I found this beautiful piece of wave-frosted glass on Jackie Morris' blog:

When I took a closer look, I discovered that a little further on was another one:

And another one:

And yet another:

And another:

And one more:

A trail of frosted glass crumbs leading me to someone beautiful. That's two, Jackie.

Samhain

2011-10-31T11:19:00.000-05:00

This is a repost from my Poetry Place in honor of this year's Samhain.

And a repost of a poem to the new moon, also from my Poetry Place.

Good Samhain, all.

The Pitter Patter of Little Raindrops

2011-10-27T05:00:00.001-05:00

A sound I surely wish we would hear more of. My weather widget had rain icons for yesterday and today, and it is/has been raining, kinda sorta (we've had a whopping 0.21 inch so far). Although I've heard the muttering of thunder off to the northwest, we're not having thunderstorms, at least not where I am. The weather forecast says there's a 7o% chance of rain, which out here means you have a 70% chance of being in a location where rain is falling. Unfortunately, we only caught the southeastern edge of this "precipitation event." But you can bet when I heard thunder, I checked my Google Doppler radar widget to see what, where, and which direction. (We're at the southwest end of tornado alley here, and we take the weather seriously.)

Frankly, so far, it has not been much of a "precipitation event" - really more like being spritzed by clouds. We need rain so badly here. Good, slow, steady rain, on and off over, like, about three months, with just enough time in between to let it soak in. Of course, if we did get that kind of rain, my roof would start leaking. All over my best furniture. Starting with my bed.

"I'll have to call you back later, Buddy. I gotta go hunt down my roof."

2011-10-20T11:42:00.000-05:00

We had a rip-snorter of a dust storm Monday, the likes of which we haven't had here since the 1950s. One of the downsides to living in the flatlands is that once the wind gets to blowing, there's not a lot in the way of topographical features to stop or deflect it. The joke here is that we have some very moving scenery in these parts.

Here's how much of a joke it is. This scenery was clocked at speeds as high as 70 mph (112 kph) when it moved through town Monday evening around 5:45 p.m.. According to the National Weather Service, the dust cloud was 8,000 feet high.

It came through ahead of a cold front that dropped the temperature about 30 degrees in a little over an hour from the low 90's F (around 32C) to the high 60's F (around 18 C). In case you haven't heard, we have drought conditions here, and when the wind gets to blowing over 60 mph, and the fields are bone dry, this is what happens.

It took this mess about 45 minutes to blow through. FAA controllers at the airport had to evacuate the tower and direct air traffic from a backup center on the tower’s ground floor. Trees toppled, roofs lost shingles and a small cargo plane at the airport was overturned.
According to meteorological lingo, this type of dust storm is called a "habub" or "haboob" -- depending on how you want to transliterate it. The word immediately made me think of an old WWII era Warner Brother's cartoon, "Falling Hare," where Bugs Bunny asks, "What's all the hubbub, bub?" The dictionary assures me that the word "hubbub" is thought to be Irish in origin ("hooboobbes" from Old Irish battle cry "Abu!" -- victory!) (compare to Scottish Gaelic "ubub!" an exclamation of contempt). Be that as it may. Monday's haboob certainly caused quite a hubbub in the Hub City.

Skating?

2011-10-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

OK, here's one from way out in left field. I was listening to an internet radio channel that plays "Old School Skatin' Jams" with a pair of rollerblades pictured on the icon. Now, Twinkle Tons has absolutely no business on rollerblades. But those four wheeled lace-up "skating rink" skates? Now you're talking. I need to get more exercise, and I could come up with a pair (if I could come up with the cash. . . ). But you need a large area of smooth unobstructed surface to skate on -- I thought of the concrete slab that was where the local branch of our public library was until they had to demolish it because it got water damage, became moldy and was extremely unhealthy to be in. It's only two blocks down the street at the park with the large playa lake. Twinkle Tons on roller skates funking down in broad daylight. It'd be like Xanadu meets the Dance of the Hours scene from Fantasia.

Nah. It's right next to a busy 4 lane street just before its intersection with Loop 289. I'd probably create a traffic hazard.

* as you've probably figured out, this is not the original music that goes with that clip.

Ever Get A Song Stuck in Your Head?

2011-10-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

I do. Frequently. This one popped into my head apropos of nothing and has been lodged there for two days now.

My mother has often remarked how many traits I share with her oldest sister (whom I am named after). I have fond memories of my Aunt and the home she and her husband built in Houston in the 1920's -- childhood Christmases spent there, summer vacations spent there. Her kitchen was white -- white walls, white woodwork, white tiled counters, white built-in breakfast nook. (The kitchen cabinet doors were painted white and all the edges but the hinge side were scalloped; the front part of the cabinet frame was painted blue -- I've never seen that anywhere else.) When I was very young, she used to make me what she called "tramp toast." She put a slice of bread on a fork and toasted it over the burner on her gas stove.

She was a music lover, a trait she shared with her baby sister and niece, but unlike her baby sister, she frequently sang tunes -- "do-do-do-do-" -- as she went about her housework. I can hear her slightly reedy voice in my mind's ear, singing away, off in another room. I sing, too, but I sing the words (when I know them), and if I don't know them, or if the song doesn't have words, I whistle it. (I can whistle in both directions.) (Drives the cats nuts.) -- Guess what I was singing this morning as I went into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal.

I Think We're All "Indies" On This Bus*

2011-10-15T18:41:00.000-05:00

My tastes in music are nothing if not eclectic, as you have probably begun to figure out if you have been following this blog for any length of time. If I had to define my taste in music, it would be WIHAL --Whatever I Hear And Like. I detest commercial radio because it's, well, commercial -- one right after another, in fact. Once I could record cassettes and later burn CDs, I started "Radio My" -- playing my music, my way, all the time -- which means I was spending serious bucks on equipment (stereo components and recorders and I couldn't tell you how many portable cassette players that I have literally played to death) and on music acquisition. With cassettes and CD's there was an an inherent gamble involved in buying music because of the difficulty of "previewing" what you were buying (not every album I bought stayed in my collection), and because of the "expensive song" problem -- having to buy the whole album just to get one song.

The digital revolution changed all that by making music available as digital files that could be manipulated by anybody who had a computer. The ability to rip and burn CDs with your computer, the invention of the MP3 player and the proliferation of music download services like Napster, Pandora, iTunes and Rhapsody allowed people to buy their music "a la carte" -- by the song. Rhapsody music service was a great discovery for me -- It was "kid in the candy store" big time. For less than the cost of buying one CD a month, I get unlimited playback of a heck of a lot of music (except current mainstream "pop" music -- stuff they play on the radio, MTV, YouTube, etc., -- you only get to hear 30 seconds of a song unless you buy it, but I haven't been "mainstream" in, like, ever). The advent of the digital music services has solved both the "play before you buy" problem and the "expensive song" problem.

OK. Here it is. The obligatory "You kids today don't know how good you've got it." And the main reason you kids have got it so good is because kids like me got tired of commercial radio and being told by some corporate marketing machine what music we were going to like and buy, and because we were born in the right place at the right time. Teenagers have always rebelled against the status quo (it's their job), but it's only been in the last 30 or 40 years that the technology has been available to allow us to do an end-run around "Big Business Music" -- the recording companies and their henchmen (commercial radio and television) -- who pretty much had an economic stranglehold on what and who got recorded for public consumption. The digital revolution made recording equipment affordable enough that anybody with a steady day job could afford to convert the spare bedroom into a recording studio and record their own music without having to win the "recording contract" lotto. It doesn't take much in the way of bucks to start your own music label, and the invention of the CD has made it affordable to produce and manufacture your own "product." And now the internet has made it ridiculously inexpensive for the "indie" musicians and music labels to get their music "out there" where people can find it and buy it. Subscription satellite radio services such as Sirius Satellite Radio (whoever came up with that name was brilliant!) have finally provided a palatable alternative to commercial radio. Oh, don't get me wrong. Big Business Music is still out there, but it's no longer all that's out there. Music has become democratic again, something it hasn't been since making it yourself was the only way people could get music when they wanted it.

Recently, I bought a Squeezebox Radio primarily as way to untie my Rhapsody playlists from my computer so I could listen to them anywhere in the house without having a set of MP3 player earphones in my ears. Since then, I've discovered internet radio, which are "radio station" websites that allow you to stream their content over your computer, devices such as the Squeezebox Radio, and -- yep, there's an ap for that -- mobile devices. If you have a computer, you have free access to either the Windows Media Player, or Apple's and Linux's answer to it, and most of the internet radio stations I've encountered can be streamed through either. There are now a host of internet radio stations all over the world. Most of them are "listener supported" -- you give what/if you can -- which in my cash-strapped case is a free plug: Right now, I'm addicted to SomaFM which I can listen to on my computer (Windows Media Player) or on the Squeezebox. You can also download for free plain vanilla versions of Winamp for computers, or a tang-tungling "Winamp ap" for various species of mobile devices. Ditto iTunes. And I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that just about every kind of music you can think of (like this and this) is being played on some internet radio station somewhere, and it's all no more than a google away. To paraphrase (yet again!) a certain FBI agent, "The music is out there."

*with nostalgic apologies to The Firesign Theater

One of Those Days After One of Those Days

2011-10-13T03:59:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was not a good day. I woke up with a serious sinus migraine and I was out for the day. I emailed work that I was out of action, as there was nothing for it but to hit the serious antihistamines, Mucinex, and a couple of 8-hour Tylenol, and crawl back into bed. This is a bad time of year for me because of the cotton stripping and ginning, but I really can't complain as this is only the second migraine I've had since August -- I've usually had four or five by now. Slept most of the day, which was a kindness, but then at around 9 o'clock at night, I was forced awake by a whiny white kitteh who seemed to think he would starve to death any minute if I didn't go into the kitchen and pour the 1/3 of their usual ration of kibbles that remained in each bowl into the middle one. By then I realized I needed to eat too.

I had a package of "Wacky Mac" -- which is rotini made with vegetable powder added to the farina -- that I needed to cook, so after I had a half glass of tea and pretty closely resembled an awake person, I cooked the rotini. Then I chopped onions, pickles, opened a can of chopped olives and two cans of tuna, and made some tuna salad with half the rotini, had a fourth of the rotini with a little olive oil drizzled on for "breakfast" and put the rest in the fridge. I had to stay up for a couple of hours because I can't go to bed just after eating, so I started reading one of the Shadow Unit stories I had on my Kindle until my Kindle battery bottomed out. By then I could sleep, but the story was at a really exciting point. I put the Kindle on charge, and crashed again.

I thought my doctor's appointment was Wednesday at 3 o'clock, so I slept till 10. By then the Kindle was recharged and I could finish (I hoped) the thing I was reading. At the point I'd left off, one of the good guys had been chained to the floor of his late grandparents' house by his psycho uncle, was in the process of starving to death, and there was a forest fire surrounding the place. I did at least get him rescued by the time I jumped in the shower, got dressed and headed off to the doctor's -- only to find out my appointment was tomorrow. Embarrassed, but somehow not surprised (I should have known to check my calendar rather than trust my memory coming off one of my SM headaches). To apologize to myself I stopped off by a favorite Chinese restaurant and got take out -- almond chicken, Shanghai chicken, and some cheese won tons. Home again, home again. Finally finished the story while and after I ate. Pretty tense for a while. I've been catching up on my feed reading. Thought I'd do a blog post so nobody would think I'd fallen off the world. . . .

Right Now . . .

2011-10-06T04:51:00.003-05:00

Last night I succeeded not only in streaming SomaFM internet radio on my Squeezebox, but also on my Windows Media Player. The Squeeze box will only stream 16 of the 20 channels on offer, but the one I like is one of them. Buying the Squeezebox was money well spent.

Today when I booted up my W7 play computer (as opposed to my WVista work computer), the screen resolution remained where it was supposed to be (1366x768), and my desktop shortcut icons were still where I put them. So right now I'm a happy camper. After weeks of irately rearranging my desktop shortcut icons every time I booted up the W7 computer because some gremlin, or imp or jinn loose in this [insert expletives of choice] computer changed the screen resolution, rearranged and neatly gridded my shortcuts each time I booted up the computer. I tried this. I tried that. I tried downloading the newest manufacturer/model-specific monitor driver. No soap. Then last night rummaging around, I found there was an option to enable NVIDIA GForce (which has something to do with the display). I enabled. So far, so good. Now let's hope the durn thing is not just messing with my head and me having my desktop icons positioned in the places and the order that I want them is now the status quo.

So now, since it's OMG o'clock at night, I'm listening to the "Drone Zone" channel on SomaFM through my Windows Media Player over headphones (the couple who live in unit A just had a new baby, and the one they already had is now 3). A while ago I also downloaded some cool skins for my Windows Media Player and have chosen an Alien Invader skin from the Skins Factory. It's animated, has sound effects and is entirely satisfactory.   One of these days I'm going to figure out how to stream podcasts on the Squeezebox -- which doesn't have a headphone jack BTW, but I guess you can't have everything.

I had a long sleep-in this morning and didn't stir until almost 3 o'clock in the afternoon, then got the book of short stories I had been reading, climbed back in bed and finished reading it. Then I took a shower and washed my hair, and the white one actually let me cut four mats out of his fur without growling or trying to bite me. Maybe he's finally figured out that I'm doing him a favor.   He and the black one get to play-fighting (like bored little boys in the back seat halfway through a day long drive), and the white one yowls because the black one has snagged his teeth on a mat and has come away with a big clump of white hair dangling from his mouth, or else the white one is trying to groom and he gets his own teeth caught on one.   I keep finding these tufts of white hair on the carpet. Poor ol' Pu. He refuses to be brushed. Always has done. All attempts at bribery have been to no avail.   The only way you can do anything with his coat is to anesthetize him and shave it every other year -- assuming I've got the $300 bucks the vet clinic wants to do it. Not happening this year, I'm afraid.

I've just polished off the bag of Reece's Pieces I got Saturday when I shopped groceries. I think taking 5 days to empty the bag shows admirable restraint. According to the "Nutrition Facts" label, a serving size is 51 pieces (like I'm going to pour some into a bowl, count out 51 and put the rest back in the package).   Hopefully, I will not have to entice any ET's anywhere by leaving a Hansel and Gretel trail of Reece's Pieces. . . . Has it really been over 30 years since that film came out? Dang. Where does the time go?

Caught a Smithsonian channel program, "Kings of the Prairie," the other day about the prairie ecosystem, focusing on the buffalo's part in it. (Technically, they're not buffalo, they're bison, Bison bison, or Bos americanus) The buffalo's fur is so insulating that when snow falls on them, it doesn't melt -- which is pretty remarkable when you consider that an animal with a body that size generates a lot of heat. The program had a segment on prairie dogs (Cynomys), and a segment on the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia). Guess which segment I liked best.

Now I'm going to read the cartoons and webcomics I follow, and then it's off to snuzzonia.

As a Public Service to My Readers.

2011-10-04T23:46:00.003-05:00

If you are sad, down, blue, disgruntled, perturbed, bummed, or otherwise not happy, click on th red button to access the repair function.

Reprinted by Permission

2011-10-04T21:17:00.000-05:00

A large, grape-green box fan, already old when ransomed by a fiver at a tag sale 15 years ago. Inexplicably, the dial turns first to "HIGH." The motor rev's the fan blade until it's rattling the safety grills as it slowly hums across the floor.
(I am strapped inside its belly as the C130 Herk goes rumbling, jiggling, juggernauting down the runway like a fat kid grim with determination to reach the plate before the baseball.)Turn the dial to "MED," The fan blade throttles back, the growl becomes a bass kazoo above a steady clattering. (The aircraft sits back on its haunches, points its clown nose skyward. The rattle-tattle squeaking falls away with the ground as the lumbering metal bumble bee slowly winches itself skyward.) Now turn the dial to "LOW." I set the fan upon the rug to dampen the vibration, cock it, lock it into place with two heavy bricks set along its top. Then into bed, adjust the sheet, turn out the light. (The heavy metal albatross has leveled off to cruise at altitude and I am curled into the darkness of its craw as it goes droning onward through the star-pocked night.) I would not take $100 for that fan.

Small Stone for 07/04/2011,
From "WOL's River of Stones"

Pets on a Dime

2011-10-04T00:58:00.001-05:00

You go to the pet store anymore and they have all this fancy stuff you can buy for your dog or cat -- Fancy beds, fancy bowls, a jillion fancy toys, T-shirts and neck scarves, and last time I went to Petsmart to buy cat food, they were setting out Halloween costumes for dogs. But let me ask you. When was the last time your Lab pitched a temper tantrum in the middle of the dog toy aisle because you wouldn't buy him a new chew toy, or your Peke pouted all afternoon because the neighbor's Chihuahua had a fancier food bowl than he did, or your Siamese stalked off and slammed the cat flap behind her because you made her sleep on a ratty old afghan instead of a real cat bed all her own like Fluffy up the street has? Guess what. They don't care.

I fell into the trap and bought fancy "pretend" sheepskin beds for my kitties at $30 bucks a pop, which they hardly ever sleep in. They'd much rather sleep in cardboard boxes on the floor (they're scattered all over the house) or the wicker "magazine" basket under the coffee table in the living room, or on the lap desk I keep under my bed but never use because whenever I go to get it out there always seems to be a cat sleeping on it. And it just so happens that the boxes Amazon.com ships book sized items in are just the right size. -If somebody hocks a hairball up in one -- no biggie. Mommie just orders a couple of used books from Amazon.com, and everybody is happy. The kitties like them with the flaps hanging open, too -- especially my little grey girl -- the flaps make it harder for her younger brother to get close enough to give her a swat when she's not looking. (He's such a little thug!).

I used to buy special cat toys, too. But the toy my lot have played with the longest and have had more fun with is one of those small, hen's egg size plastic Easter eggs that comes apart in halves so you can put candy treats inside. My mom had gotten some to use as favors at a baby shower she gave, and I ended up with the extra one as an Easter gag gift. I started to toss it when I got home with it, but then I had a brain wave. I put a large round bead inside it and glued it shut. Because it's small and relatively light, they can bat it about easily and because it's egg shaped and has the bead to shift it's center of gravity around, it rolls in really unpredictable ways -- it's a challenge to them to catch it. What's more, it's just big enough to be too big to roll under any of the furniture.

And while we're on the subject of pet toys, --- socks. Everybody has socks and sooner or later everybody has socks with a hole in them. Cut off the top, stuff it with other holey socks and sew the ends shut. It fetches just as good as that fancy stuffed animal they want you to fork over $20 bucks for, and if Rover leaves it somewhere or buries it, there's always more where it came from. Or tie a knot in it -- instant tug of war. But if you're making dog toys out of worn out socks, put a dot of almond oil or lavender oil in the center of the stuffing -- doesn't take much -- just a dot. That way the dog can learn which socks are toys and which are not.   My cats love to play with the toe of a tube sock, stuffed and sewn shut. It is light enough that they can bat it about and toss it in the air. Sprinkle a little catnip inside before you sew it up -- hours of fun. Oh, and if you have cats, get a long piece of heavy gauge wire, bend it in half and twist the ends together all the way down. Then shape the bent end into a crook like a golf club or croupier's stick. The doubled piece of wire should be long enough to scoop cat toys out from under the stove, refrigerator or any piece of furniture with "feet." Retrieve the toys from under the furniture about once a month and give them back a few at a time. To them it's like getting all new toys.

A word of caution, though. Never give your pet a golf ball to play with, especially if you have wooden floors and double especially if you have cats. If you do, I can guarantee you'll be startled awake some night at pitch dark o'clock by a strange knocking rumbling noise and you'll lie there with your heart in your mouth, clutching the covers with both hands, shivering in terror-- until you realize that the noise that's put the wind up you is the cat playing kitty soccer with the golf ball on the wooden floor. Even if you have carpeting, they'll carom it off the baseboards and make a surprisingly amount of racket in the process.   This is the voice of experience speaking.

You want fancy pet mats? At the end of summer when the big beach towels go on sale, buy a couple. Take a towel and fold it in thirds length-wise so that the long edge is folded in a Z shape. Then put some heavy duty thread in the sewing machine and sew all around around the outside, about half an inch from the edge.   Now you have a dog mat. The Z fold gives you three layers of toweling so it's comfy, and it's a towel. You can throw it in the washer and wash it in hot water just like any other towel -- although it does take it about twice as long to dry. A regular bath towel done that way is just the right size for cats and small dogs. Next time your local "bargain" store has a sale on bath towels, pick up a couple in your choice of colors, or hit the garage sales or car boot sales. As far as that goes, it's a way to recycle your old bath towels. You want warm fuzzy? Pick up a fuzzy bath mat on sale, or recycle one. Because they are rubberized on one side, they won't slide around on wood or tile floors and the rubber adds a degree of waterproofing. Take them outside, shake off the pet hair, and toss them in the washer.

And how about using one of those rubber anti-slip bathtub mats to put underneath your pet's food and water dishes. If food or water spills on it -- it's rubber. Take it outside and hose it off. One of those'll keep your pet's dishes from scooting around on the floor just as well as those fancy mats you get at the pet store for $30.

You want fancy dishes? Try the flea market or the charity resale shops or jumble sales, or your local dollar store. As long as they're safe for people to eat from and safe to put in the dishwasher, and you can find two that match, you're home free.

Your dog won't care if it's a Goodwill afghan folded up and put inside a cardboard box. All he cares about is that he has a place of his own and it's near you. So what if it's a tatty old sock top stuffed with rags? What matters is you throwing it so he can bring it back to you. Your "Good boy!" will trump any fancy bed or toy or special dish in the pet store. Your cat won't care if her favorite napping spot is covered with a mat you made from a bath towel you bought for a quarter at a garage sale or if you set her food and water out in pressed glass bowls you got in a charity shop for a dime apiece. So what if the bowls don't match? What matters to her is that she can depend on you to put food and fresh water in them for her, and that she has a spot of her own to curl up and snooze in.

An Interesting Weekend

2011-10-03T03:58:00.000-05:00

Saturday I went grocery shopping at 5 pm at Wonderful Wally World (Wal-Mart) and was reminded of why I hate to shop there during "reasonable" hours. The place was swarming with people. However, while there, I spotted the Chicana version of Dolly Parton albeit minus the "superstructure." The physical resemblance in her face was striking -- caused me to do a double take. Judging from the large keyring she carried, this lady was evidently some kind of supervisory person, but to go with the "uniform" she also had on full makeup and long, elaborately coiffed hair.

"NCIS" has started up again, and the first two shows of the season have been very interesting. I really like the way Mark Harmon has let his character, Gibbs, start to mellow out a little, but I'm kind of getting the feeling he's about to leave the show and let Michael Weatherly's character, Tony DiNozzo, try to carry it. However, as much as I like the characters of Abby, and Dr. "Ducky" Mallard, and the actors who play them, when/if they lose Gibbs, they'll lose me, too.

"Haven" is heading toward the end of season cliffhanger, and there have been some interesting developments. This "dark horse" of a TV show has risen steadily in my estimation since I first started watching it. The scripts are well-written. The dialog is sharp and witty. It's well cast, and the actors have cohered into a great "ensemble." They clearly enjoy what they're doing and who they are doing it with.

The newest incarnation of "Doctor Who" is barreling toward the end of season cliffhanger, and I have no idea where, or if, it's going to go from there. I'm sorry, but I just can't get with Matt Smith's "Doctor." David Tennant's Doctor is my favorite. I love Alex Kingston's "River Song" character, and her marvelous tag line, "Hello, Sweetie."

The week's (and probably the year's) best "odd cultural juxtaposition" award has to go to the "Boudica Samba School" whose members SilverTiger photographed on a recent expotition he and Tigger took to Colchester.

Friday, the plumbers came to fix the triangular toilet in my en-suite. It was leaking from the wax seal underneath between the toilet and the sewer drain pipe (ick!), and had been for some time judging by the condition of the underside of the mat that goes around the base. It was a slow leak, fortunately. The one plumber was sneezing and stuffed up, and then Saturday, Stormie started sneezing. She goes through periods where she'll sneeze four or five times, and then she won't sneeze at all for several hours. Apart from the sneezing, she seems otherwise OK. Knowing what kind of muck plumbers can get into, I always cringe when they come -- the idea of them walking into the house tracking in who knows what on their shoe soles, and then the kitties walking on it and licking their paws -- And me walking around barefoot too. At least I don't physically put my feet in my mouth (although metaphorically is a different story, . . .). Now that I think about it, the kitties seem to start sneezing about this time of year -- and so do I. The cotton harvest is usually what sets me off . They usually start stripping the cotton in September and that puts a lot of pesticide and defoliant treated trash in the air, and it's usually December before they get it all ginned, which throws more trash and cotton filaments into the air. Don't think we'll have much of a harvest this year, though, so maybe I'll get off light.

Here's what stripping cotton looks like. This video will also give you a feel for just how flat the land is here, in every direction.

Yeah. What She Said.

2011-09-24T15:34:00.001-05:00

The first time I listened to this, I thought, "Duh!" -- As far as I was concerned, she was preaching to the choir. Everything she said seemed so patently obvious to me. Then I remembered a two week vacation to Britain I took once. When I told my friends and coworkers about my plans, the first thing they asked me was, "Who are you going with?" When I replied, "No one," invariably, the next question was, "You mean, you're going by yourself?!" And then I remembered a lady I worked with once who was almost pathologically afraid of being by herself, as if she would evaporate into thin air unless there was someone with her to validate her existence.

What kind of a world do we live in that people need to be taught how to be alone?

Too Amazing Not to Share

2011-09-19T19:38:00.005-05:00

I seem to have this knack for finding things when I'm not looking for them. Here's yet another case in point: I was looking for something else when I stumbled across something on YouTube that just blew me away. It's the last video on this post, but bear with me. I'm going to take you there by the scenic route.

OK. Here's the setup -- Joan Sutherland, one of the heavyweights of opera; Ella Fitzgerald, one of the heavyweights of jazz, and the inimitable Dinah Shore, singing together. Most of my readers are probably too young to know who any of these ladies are --so take a moment and follow the links. Each of these ladies was a singer of tremendous talent.

Here's Joan Sutherland, singing the famous and fiendishly difficult "Bell Song," from the opera "Lakmé" by Delibes. Bear with me here. It will be worth it to wait out the recitative that leads into the aria (actually, you're probably more familiar with this opera than you think you are).

And Ella Fitzgerald --a true jazz great, one whom many consider to be the greatest "scat singer" in the history of jazz. Here she is "scatting" to "One Note Samba" (the music is by Antonio Carlos Jobim, the man who wrote "The Girl From Ipanema").

Here's Dinah Shore, and her beautiful voice (with subtitles in Spanish, no less). In a time when singers actually had to be able to sing to sell recordings, she had 80 charted hits.

Now, here's the three of them singing the "Three Little Maids" trio from the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado" (You may be familiar with the composers, the operetta, and the song if you've seen the film, "Topsy, Turvy.") I'm sorry I couldn't find the video that goes with the audio -- it would have been hilarious to see those for-real divas sing it together.

Writing this post was a walk down memory lane for me. Dinah Shore had a popular TV show by one name or another from the 1950s into the late 1970s -- she was one of the first "TV stars." There was never more than one TV in our house the whole time I lived at home. And in the evening, we watched the shows my folks liked --that included what was always known in our house as "the Dinah Show Chevy Shore." Music like this was part of the sound track of my early childhood. But, I cannot hear music from the Mikado (or read the "Pogo" comic strip by Walt Kelly, for that matter), without thinking of Bill Smith, an amazing man with a brilliant sense of humor, who brought a great deal of laughter and joy to my family when I was growing up. Au revoir, Bill.

Last Night My Sleep Was Troubled

2011-09-14T18:58:00.001-05:00

I'd swear it's the name of a fiddle tune, and it's somewhere in my music collection, and I don't have time to hunt it down right now. Bother. But it perfectly describes last night. As I have mentioned before, I very seldom have nightmares or "bad dreams" but last night, I had some doozies. I got to bed late to begin with -- around 4 AM, which is late for me, and got thrown out of sleep an hour and a half later by a fast and furious dream which I thankfully have now forgotten. I got up, went to the bathroom, put my "nite-nite" music back on and went back to bed (getting up and moving around tends to "fade" a dream out of your consciousness). About an hour and a half later, blam, slammed awake again -- I remember being in the upper storey of a big old house, that had a large hexagonal window set into the wall up under the eaves, but the window had a big triangular piece broken out of the bottom of it, and outside it was sprinkling like it was starting to rain, and I knew I had to cover the hole somehow to keep the rain from coming in. I remember gangs of "monsters" brown and knobby like a lady's nylon stocking stuffed with wadded up socks, with mouths and hands like squid's beaks; I remember they were coming after me. I had to reach into a room to turn on the light so I could defend myself from them, but my arm and hand were so severely ataxic they were almost impossible to control. That was the point where I woke up, very shaken and disturbed.

These past couple days, I've been having the "brain whooshes" that I get periodically from the bupropion I'm taking, and I've been out of my B-complex vitamins for over a week now, so I'm sure that's a factor. After I woke up the second time, I was all jittery and apprehensive like I was having a flashback to that "monsters in the closet/under the bed" syndrome that many children go through around 3-6 years old (my "monsters" were human skeletons -- they really creeped me out as a child). By now it was after 6 AM and I knew that if I was ever going to get back to sleep, I needed to take my mind off it -- reading usually helps.

Fortunately, I remembered I had received the lastest issue of "Scottish Life" magazine the day before, so I started reading it. "Scottish Life" comes out four times a year (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), and I literally read the thing from cover to cover, every column, article, everything except the adverts, and pour over the pictures. It's like the first line of the lyrics of that old James Taylor song --"In my mind I'm going to Carolina" --except in my mind I go to Scotland. I did physically go there once in the 1970's while I was living in Berlin, and it was like going home.

Supposedly, my dad's father's family is from there, and a substantial number of the Scottish people who emigrated to America (mostly because of the highland clearances) settled in Georgia where his dad's family is from (Coffee County), but so far, nobody has been able to pick up the genealogical trail beyond Georgia -- thanks no doubt to Sherman's March to the Sea in the last days of the American Civil War. Supposedly that branch of the family originated in Sutherland. (Elizabeth Gordon, Countess of Sutherland, and her husband George Granville Leveson-Gower, the Marquis of Stafford, were responsible for the eviction of around 15,000 people from their lands, beginning in 1807). And some of them came to Georgia because of the turpentine and pine tar industry that grew up in the long leaf pine forests of the Carolinas and Georgia (big demand for it from the European ship building industry as pine tar was used for caulking sailing ships). There is a substantial Viking contribution, genetically and historically, in the people of Sutherland, and the clan name of the clan we're supposed to be descended from is derived from a Norse word. But be that as it may. If money was no object, I would move to Scotland in a New York minute.

During my mental trip to Scotland, I came across an article about the latest Pixar film, "Brave" which is supposed to be released in the summer of 2012. Pixar does those computer animated films like "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo" and they are notable for (among other things) the big names they get to do the "voice acting" for the characters. The "voice cast" of this one is supposed to include:

Kelly Macdonald as Princess Merida

Julie Walters as the Witch

Billy Connolly as King Fergus

Emma Thompson as Queen Elinor

Kevin McKidd as Lord MacGuffin / Lord's son Young MacGuffin

Craig Ferguson as Lord Macintosh

Robbie Coltrane as Lord Dingwall

John Ratzenberger as "TBA" (a character whose name has yet to be announced, apparently)(he was the mailman in "Cheers").

"Voice acting" by Billy Connolly, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane (he played "Hagrid" in the Harry Potter films)? I'm buying that one for sure (and wouldn't I have liked to be a fly on the wall during the recording sessions!).

My little mental vacation did the trick. I was finally able to go to sleep and slept until after 1 o'clock this afternoon. However, as tomorrow is the last day of the pay period and I'm way behind on my line count (which is how I get paid), I'll be working today and tomorrow pretty much all day.

Since I quoted the song's lyrics earlier in this post, I thought a rendition of "Carolina on My Mind" sung by ol' JT, the walking man himself, would be a good way to end this post. The original version of it was on his first solo album "James Taylor" and was recorded with a little help from Paul McCartney on bass, and Paul and George Harrison (uncredited) on backup vocals. (That album was recorded at Trident Studios in 1968 at the same time the Beatles were making "The White Album" in a studio down the hall). This version is from his "Greatest Hits" album released in 1978, and is the more well known version (the one with the pedal steel guitar). Here it is, straight off the vinyl LP. (You can hear the hiss as the phonograph needle tracks through the "dead space" between tracts at the end. Funny how incredibly evocative that sound is to a certain segment of the population. . . . )

Footnotes and Assorted Chuckles

2011-09-13T00:44:00.001-05:00

In a recent blogpost, I mentioned a question posed by Jackie Morris on her blog: "Why do you read?" The very next day, this was the daily offering from "Non Sequitur," which is drawn and written by Wiley Miller. It's one of my favorite comic strips:

In another recent post, a fellow blogger Townmouse mentioned bicycling in killer high heels (the phrase "courting disaster" comes to mind). And past Sunday's strip for another of my favorite comic strips, "9 Chickweed Lane," drawn and scripted by Brooke McEldowney, struck me as particularly on topic.

George Booth's cartoons frequently appear in the "New Yorker" magazine. Here's one of his for the dog lovers in the audience:

And one from "Get Fuzzy" by Darby Conley, for the cat lovers.

And, finally, another by George Booth for the cat loving gardeners.

I've always like reading cartoon strips -- reading the Sunday funnies was something I looked forward to growing up. It's no surprise that I've been a member of gocomics.com for several years now (membership is free), and one of the folders in my feed reader contains the feeds of my favorite comic strips. Unfortunately, they don't have any George Booth's cartoons, but all the other comics shown here as well as many other comic strips and editorial cartoons are available at gocomics.com, for free. If you are so inclined, check them out.

2011-09-11T14:08:00.002-05:00

New York City

2,753

411

Arlington, Virginia

184

Shanksville, Pennsylvania

September 11, 2001

3,388

Ponderables

2011-09-10T11:27:00.002-05:00

Perusing author Jackie Morris's latest blog entry this morning (there's always something visually and/or spiritually tasty to be found therein), I took a go at answering the question she posed: "Why do you read?"

Here was my answer: "Reading is like having the world handed to you on a plate. It's a way to experience life in another's head, in another's words. It's better than films because you create the video yourself in your own imagination. It's secret and special because it all happens inside your head. It's a chance to hear a voice that may be long dead, to share the ideas with persons from another time, place, culture, century. You don't need electricity to work a book, to make it's pages turn, to make the words come alive. All you need is light enough to read by."

In that odd way the world has, my verification word for publishing that comment was "enabl."

I awoke this morning from a dream where I was not only in a situation, but talked to others about it throughout the dream as it twisted and meandered from scene to scene, as dreams will. The dream began with the situation I was in, which was this: My mother and I were driving in a car. She was in the driver's seat, and I was in the back seat behind her. Quite suddenly, a red "DitchWitch" pickup overtook us and forced us off the road to the side. The driver cried "Look out" and looked upwards. I looked up out the window and saw that there was a helicopter body falling, spinning and rolling slowly, it's rotors smashed and useless. Falling beside it was a piece of sheet metal painted blue, as though it might be part of the skin of an airplane. Because the man in the pickup had forced us off the road, the helicopter body missed us when it crashed to the ground, and only the piece of sheet metal hit the roof of the car. The car was damaged, but we were completely unharmed. Because the man in the pickup had forced us off the road, we were saved from what would have been certain death. The man in the pickup did not stop, but drove on.

For the benefit of my readers who are not familiar with DitchWitch, it's the trademark of a company that makes trenching machines of various sizes and shapes, such as might be used for laying underground pipe. The pickup was red in color, and had the company name and logo on it -- a red DitchWitch pickup. This was evidently a very important detail, because as I recounted the experience several times during the dream, always using the phrase "a red DitchWitch pickup forced us off the road."

I am not one for analyzing dreams. I don't feel a need to work out what the dream "means," or try to divine its "message." I look at them as one might look at a beach one walks upon after a storm, when one keeps an eye out to see if anything interesting has washed up on the shores of consciousness. These images and dream stories have a way of ending up in my writing -- like bits of a collage.

Now that I have sat down to work at the computer, the grey kitty is playing her little game -- she jumps up on the desk beside me, walks onto me, kneads a little, walks across to the other side. She wants to be petted, of course, but she has to walk back and forth across me several times before she will settle down. If I start typing, she will walk off in a huff, and the whole thing starts again. Since I work from a recliner, she insists on walking across a rather sensitive area midway between my shoulders and waist. . . Her aim is to end up lying against me.

Lately, she has started kneading the inside of my arm just below my left elbow. This has become a pretty popular kneading area. The black one has started lying in the furrow between me and the back of the couch and kneading this same area. Every now and again, the white one wants to kneed my outstretched left arm while I'm in bed. Of course, when I'm at my computer, I'm mousing with my right hand, and when I'm watching TV, I use the remote with my right hand. And because of the side of the bed I lie on, the kitty's half is on my left. Still there are other parts of me available for kneading in all cases, yet all three are selecting this one small area of me to energetically massage. The white kitty, and poor dear Jett before him, have perennially favored that arm, since Jett slept beside my pillow and the white one sleeps at my side ( he's my self appointed wingman. . .), but the other two were never kneaders until just the last couple of months. However, cats are masters of inscrutability, and it's very likely quantum physics is involved somehow. It usually is.

The concrete walkway to the back gate was damp and the ground was muddy when I looked out the back door this morning, so sometime during the night it rained. Don't know how much though. Still, I'm thankful for whatever we got.

A Pinwheel Blanket Pattern to Knit

2011-09-08T17:11:00.001-05:00

In a recent blog post of a blog I follow, Soulemama, she showed pictures of a blanket she made for her new baby, using Genia Planck's pattern here. It looks pretty uncomplicated, like the sort of thing that I could knit on while I work (another "perk" of working from home). Occurs to me that in addition to a gorgeous baby blanket, if folded in half, it would make a nice wrap come winter for those in colder climes. Hopefully, the pattern will continue to be available at that location, but just in case:

Round or Pinwheel Baby Blanket*

Materials:
Yarn: It can be either a bulky weight, worsted weight, or double knit weight.
Needles: Size to work with your yarn. Both double points and a circular. Pattern:
Cast on 5 stitches, knit around. Place a marker to mark the beginning of the round.
Next round, make 1 stitch in each stitch (10 stitches).
Round 5: *k1, yo* around to marker. (20 stitches).
Round 6: knit
Round 7: *k2, yo* around to marker.
Round 8: knit
Round 9: *k3, yo* around to marker.
Round 10: knit
Continue this pattern of adding a stitch in each section- there are 10 sections, 10 more stitches. When needed, switch from using the double points to a circular needle.
When the blanket has reached the desired diameter, cast/bind off. Now your blanket is complete, unless you want to embellish it with an edging.
Now for your edging: You can add fringes or tassels or even pom-poms. Or, for those handy with a crochet hook, you can crochet a bit of a lace edge around. (I knit my first one with Lion Brand Jiffy yarn- it's a bit "fluffy"- and crocheted an edging of mercerized cotton, for a more finished look.) You can also knit in stripes, and on the even rows, throw in some purl stitches for a bit of texture. It also works well with a variegated yarn.

*Pattern © January 2001 Genia Planck. E-mail: Knitgenia@aol.com

For All You John Waterhouse Fans

2011-09-07T10:46:00.001-05:00

In the great computer crash, one of the files I lost was my collection of images of John Waterhouse's paintings. Today I was googling to try to recoup my losses and I hit the mother lode. So, for all you fans of John Waterhouse (and you know who you are, Celtic Lady), check out the collection here.

Cosmic Musings

2011-09-02T14:27:00.000-05:00

According to Einstein, God doesn't play dice with the universe, but the other day, after getting a good look at what was standing in the check out line in front of me at our local discount store, I began to suspect She'd been playing with the funny putty. . .

It's probably a good thing that we are not aware of the rotation of the earth, or the motion of the earth around the sun, or the motion of the sun around the center of the galaxy. Especially since some of us have enough trouble walking across level unobstructed ground as it is.

Pausing a Moment to Look Around

2011-08-24T03:05:00.000-05:00

Right now, I'm mentally at that place where you have set out to reach a destination, but to get there you must go through uneven, rocky terrain, and you have to pay such close attention to your footing and what's directly in front of you, that you can't spare any attention for anything else, where if you want to see where you are in relation to the surrounding landscape, orient yourself against landmarks to see how far you've come and how far you still have to go, or even just to take in the scenery, you have to stop and stand still, because you cannot walk and look around you at the same time.

The journey I have begun is one of disengagement. I find myself looking around my house at the things I've gathered around me and thinking, 'that stays, this goes in the garage sale,' knowing it will just be the first cut, and that I won't make the final cut until I know more about the 'to' place. The sad thing is, when I moved to this house, I thought, 'I want to live here until they carry me out feet first.' This really could have been 'that' place, except the landlord lives in another town, and he couldn't care less that the paint is peeling, fascia boards are rotting, that the roof needed replacing 10 years ago, the fence is falling down. . . but, he doesn't care about anything except getting his rent check. So now it's become the 'from' place, which is really a shame.

I'm also coming from a time and mental "place" where I had to spend practically every waking moment at my computer just to earn enough to barely scrape by, to whatever I get during my scheduled shift will do, and the rest of the day is mine to do as I please, and on my three days off, I will actually be off. I still haven't quite gotten my head around it -- time to get back into jewelry making. Time to finish some of those "UFO's.*" Time to start sorting things into "go" and "stay" piles. There are things that need to happen, and I need to make them happen. I'm already making checklists in my mind. I'm about to do the "get ready cha-cha" -- that little wiggling of the hind end that cats do just before they pounce.

It's going to be hard, though, paring down, "downsizing." I like all my things. I wouldn't have them if I didn't like them. Now I'm going to be faced with having to choose which of my things I like the most. . . .clothes, furniture, kitchen things, everything.

So today, I stopped working and shut the computer down at 5 p.m. (my shift actually ended at 2 p.m. -- I'm "weaning" myself gradually). Now that I've got those new movie channels, I decided to see what's on to watch. I crashed on the couch and did a little channel surfing, and wrestled with Jaks -- he wants to rub his face all over my face which he doesn't seem to be able to do without wiping his nose on me in the process. (Having cat hair on me is one thing, but I draw the line at kitty snot.)

I was watching this program on National Geographic channel about zombie alligators -- something to do with wildlife experts trying to figure out why the alligators in this one lake in Florida are going belly up and dying. About halfway through it, though, I faded out, fell asleep, and the tail end of that show and the one after it about a pod of orca separating a baby whale from its mother and killing it got mixed into a very weird dream. I've been working day shifts since 2009, but my body has been fighting it tooth and claw. I am not a "day" person. If I'm not careful, I'll stay up half the night and not get to bed until 5 a.m. and then have to be "at work" at 9 a.m. I got off schedule over the weekend and slipped back into my "night WOL" ways -- my body's natural sleep/wake cycle -- and I had a little nap on the couch.

When I realized that the alligator program was over and it was another program that was about killing baby whales, I hit the guide and started surfing. I know that "predator and prey" stuff goes on in nature all the time, but that doesn't mean I have to watch it. I surfed around and found a film called "Letters to Juliet" -- it's a quintessential "chick flick." The "letters to Juliet" to which the title alludes are actual letters that people had written to Shakespeare's heroine Juliet (as in "Romeo and -") and then mailed to Verona, Italy. (I understand Sherlock Holmes gets letters as well, mailed to 221 Baker Street.) The "ingenue" character discovers that there are a group of ladies in Verona who have taken it upon themselves to answer these letters. The "ingenue" character discovers a letter written by Vanessa Redgrave's character in 1957 and decides to answer it herself, even though it has been over 50 years since the letter was written. Thereby hinges the plot.

I recalled having seen the first part of the film, but not the ending -- I never seem to be able to watch a televised film from start to finish all at one sitting -- I usually end up watching them piecemeal. I'll either surf into the middle of it, like it and try to find another showing and see the first part, or I'll start watching it, surf during the commercials, and end up watching something else. Whenever my BFF asks me if I've seen a particular film, my typical answer is, "I've seen parts of it." So, this evening, I got to see how the movie ended -- pretty predictably, actually -- but long before then, my attention had been captured by how much Vanessa Redgrave resembles my BFF. Same hair, same facial structure, some of the same mannerisms. I would have called her and talked to her about it, except she is usually asleep by 9pm, and since it was creeping up on 10:30 by then, she would be long gone into Lala Land, tomorrow being a work day. Now that I've finally seen the whole movie, I can say that if you like romantic movies set in Italy, where, after a series of plot twists, girl ultimately gets boy, and a happily ever after is had by all, then you'll like"Letters to Juliet." There's even a balcony scene.

*UnFinished Objects

Too Good Not To Share.

2011-08-18T05:11:00.000-05:00

This was on Pilgrim's Moon's blog, and it's too good not to share. She put it up as part of an ongoing discussion on her blog about the recent riots in Britain.. It came from here.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Almost Sorted

2011-08-18T00:47:00.001-05:00

I've reinstalled all the computer programs I need that will work with Windows 7, got my backup drive up to speed automatically backing up all the important things, and I'm finally current with all the blogs I follow, and caught up with my webcomics, and cartoons.

The Microsoft Encarta dictionary/thesaurus program I had barely ran with Windows XP, and I didn't even try to put it on the new computer which runs Windows 7, which is a bummer. I liked having a stand alone dictionary program. I hate having to use one of the free online dictionaries which means I'd have to open a browser window and access it by bookmark any time I wanted to look up a word, and all the on-line dictionary websites are so cluttered and "busy" with advertisements. But then I got to thinking, maybe there was a decent dictionary widget on the Yahoo widget website, and there was. It's just a little oblong, one line window that I can have down in the corner of my screen. When you type in a word, a little screen rises up and shows the definition. It's OK, but most of what I use a dictionary for is spelling. The great thing about the Encarta dictionary was that when you opened it, there was an index of words down the left-hand side of the window, so all you had to do was to type in the first couple of letters, and then you could find the word you wanted in the index and get the spelling. I may google around and see if I can find a stand-alone dictionary program anyway. One thing about Windows 7, though, is that it automatically spell-checks practically everything you type as you type it regardless of what program it's in, including Blogger, so now I don't have to spell-check my blog posts as an extra step.

One thing I do not like about Windows 7, however, is that it doesn't seem to have a quick launch tray option -- or if it does, I haven't managed to find it. Both Vista and XP had an area on the left end of the task bar down by the start menu where you could put shortcuts for the programs you use a lot so you could open them without having to minimize windows to get to the desktop icon -- I had the Encarta shortcut, a Firefox shortcut, a Rhapsody shortcut, my camera program's photo manager program shortcut in the quick launch tray as well as an icon that would go directly to my bare desktop, effectively minimizing all at once the programs I had open. That one toggled, so I could just mouse the icon again, and go back to where I was, and all the windows I had open.

When I got the eMachine I use for work, it came with a free wide screen monitor, and I made that one the monitor that I hooked to my KVM switch so I can use it with both computers, and used the monitor that came with the Dell to plug directly into my work computer so I could use two monitors for the three ring circus of programs I have to have open in order to work --while I'm working I typically juggle 8 windows all the time, and often have a 9th or 10th window open when I use any of my reference programs or have to google something. Anyway, the wide screen monitor is very wide, It's about 2 inches shorter than the Dell monitor (which is almost square), but then it's half again as wide. Since I use the wide monitor with both machines, what I ended up doing is having all my program icons down the left-hand side, and then open all of my programs in a "normal" window. That way, I can (eventually) get them to open in a window that is about 2 inches narrower than my monitor screen. So, in effect, the whole left-hand edge of the monitor screen is one big quick launch tray. After the first four or five times you open a program and resize the window to the size you want it, the program starts to open in that size window all the time. Right now I'm still in the process of "training" all my programs to open in the right size window.

One problem I've been having is that when I play games in a maximized window, when I exit the game, the widgets I have on the right side of my screen get moved out of place -- my weather widget and the "werewolf monitor" widget that shows the phases of the moon -- and I have to move them back. It occurred to me just now to use the same trick of opening game windows in "normal" mode and resizing them to cover the whole screen -- Duh!

I had been planning to get a new camera this month, but I'm going to have to bump new glasses to the head of the queue and get them first. I've priced some different places and I think I can get what I want for around $300 or less. That would include a set of trifocals -- I figured out years ago to measure the distance between my eyes and the computer screen, so I can have the middle "focal" set up for "working on the computer." I have them set that "focal" up a little higher than they usually would so I can look through it without having to bend my head back. Right now, I'm having to use the bottom "focal" of my glasses to work on the computer and I have to put a little piece of foam under the "nose piece" to raise the glasses up high enough. That "less than $300" price would include a pair of prescription sunglasses. The place I've decided to go will make you a pair of prescription sunglasses with polarized lenses for $98 and, if you choose from a narrow selection of about 10 frames, the frames are included in the price. Even though the glasses I have now will get darker in bright light, being inside the car defeats the purpose, and the lenses lighten up again. I really need prescription sunglasses. Out here in the flatlands, the sun is very bright pretty much from sunrise to sunset throughout the year, and when the founding fathers laid out this town (1890), they laid the street grid north-south, and east-west. So, if you happen to be driving east between sunrise and about 9 o'clock, the sun is directly in your eyes. Ditto with driving west between about 4 o'clock and sunset. Of course, the town was laid out before cars were invented and since it doesn't bother horses to go directly into the rising or setting sun, the founding fathers didn't see having east-west oriented streets as being a problem. To make the situation even worse, just about the time the seasonal lengthening/shortening of the number of hours of daylight takes care of the problem, we go on/off daylight saving time! I might be able to wangle getting both the glasses and the camera this month. We'll see. Mostly it will depend on how much work I can get this next payperiod.

Foghorns and Thunderboomers

2011-08-12T19:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, there was a thunderstorm icon on my weather widget, but the promised rain has failed to show so many times this year that I didn't get my hopes up. At about 8 p.m., I started hearing thunder. I was printing out the user's manual to my new Squeezbox Radio at the time, and wrote the rumbles off as "sound and fury, signifying nothing" -- to coin a phrase. But it kept on thundering and thundering. So, after I got done printing and shut down my computer, I went into the kitchen and looked out the window -- it was raining! Coming down in buckets, in fact. It was raining so hard that it was puddling on the ground because it couldn't soak in fast enough. (Insert video "Twinkle Tons does happy dance" here.) What's more, the ground was still damp at noon today, which means I won't have to water the flower beds this week.

It turns out that in addition to its tune playing capabilities, the Squeezebox Radio has several clock functions, including an alarm that can be set for day of the week as well as time, and a sleep timer, and I wanted to try them out. But, somehow or other, there was no product manual packaged with my Squeezebox Radio, so in order to find out how to use these functions, I had to download the PDF file off their website and print it out -- all 31 pages of it!

The Squeezebox Radio has a wide choice of "alarm sounds" on offer (oddly, the standard "beep" sound is not one of them). You can choose to be awakened by the noise of a passing train (with or without whistle), traffic noise, the sound of coins jingling, the "dive warning" claxon of a submarine, as well as a myriad of nature sounds. I went through the whole repertoire of sounds looking for one that sounded "alarm clocky" and finally settled on "fog horn." (I promise I'm not making these up!) You can also adjust the volume of the alarm sound, which I neglected to do. So at 9 a.m. this morning, we got a fog horn going off at "standing right next to it" volume. The black kitty and the grey one had already reported to the "liberry" window for bird watching duty, but the white one was still in the bedroom. As I lunged for the Squeezebox to stifle the foghorn, I saw him slinking warily toward the cat flap in the bedroom door like he was expecting the ceiling to come crashing down on him at any moment. I think we'll forgo the fancy stuff and stick with the trusty ol' Walgreen's digital alarm clock.

Slowly But Surely Recovering From The Dell Crash

2011-08-05T21:53:00.000-05:00

Slowly but surely, I'm putting my "computer world" back together. Thankfully, all the blogs I follow were on my Blogger profile, so getting those back together was easy. I found all my cartoons and webcomics and got them set back up. So NewsFox is back together.

The version of Print Shop I have is for XP. I haven't tried to load it yet. Thankfully, all my "photopoems" are on WOL's Poetry Place, so they're OK, but I lost a bunch of pictures I had planned to poetry on. What really breaks my heart are the photos I've lost. I had backed some up on data CD's and have transferred them back to my hard drive. Looks like all I lost was most of last year's and all of this year's. However, the pictures I've put in my blog will be in my blog's Picassa files, so all is not totally lost.

I lost some of the most recent work I had done on my writing, but at least I didn't lose character list and the research files and geniologies, etc. I've lost a bunch of fonts and I'll have to hunt those down again.

However, I have an external drive hooked up to the new computer now that backs up files every time I modify them -- It's a little gadget about the dimensions of a man's wallet, and yet it has as much drive space as the main drive on my new computer -- 500 Gb!

It will be a while before I can put pictures in any blog posts, though -- the software on my current camera doesn't work right with Windows 7, but next month I'm getting a new camera, so there's no problem there.

I got another new gadget -- Squeezebox Radio. (It arrived Tuesday). It connects to the internet by WiFi and will play the music in my Rhapsody account. It also can connect to a bunch of other music services like Pandora, Napster, etc, as well as play free internet radio services, podcasts, etc. It will also play music you've downloaded to your computer. It comes with a power cord, but it will also work with batteries. You can get a remote control for it too, but that's extra.

The Squeezebox's sound quality is excellent. I haven't tried to find any internet radio stations yet. I'm just so delighted that I can listen to my Rhapsody music anywhere in the house now, instead of only at my computer or on my MP3 player. Wednesday night I actually cooked -- boiled up some elbow macaroni, put a third of it in some Wolf Brand Chili, and a third of it in the dish of tuna salad I made, and kept the other third to eat straight with a little olive oil on. I put the Squeezebox radio in the kitchen and listened to my Rhapsody playlist of Celtic music while I cooked.

I have to say it took a call to Squeezebox customer service (off shore rep, not our problem, call your ISP*) and two calls to my ISP (first call I got an offshore rep, not our problem, call Squeezebox) to get the durn thing connected to my WiFi, but the third call was charmed. I called my ISP again and this time I got an American customer service rep. He figured out my modem was set wrong, and adjusted the settings until we got it connected. Now it works like a charm. (I do so hate those off shore call centers. If it's not on their script, they are clueless.) I caught up on some reading last night while I ate some supper, and listened to my Kevin Kendle play list while I ate and read. Wonderful.

So, things are slowly but surely getting better. I'm looking forward to having the new camera and being able to go on some photo expeditions and get some decent photos that I can share with my blog friends.

*ISP - internet service provider

And Then There Were 4

2011-07-26T15:34:00.002-05:00

Mom called Saturday, July 23, to tell me that her sister Emma had passed away. She was 97. She was the youngest of my mother's 3 sisters. Now all that are left are 3 of the 8 brothers, and my mom. Yep. There were 12 of them: 4 boys, 3 girls, 4 more boys, and my momma. My Aunt leaves behind two daughters, as well as grandchildren, great grandchildren and a great great grandchild. She was honored by the town's historical society as the oldest native born resident of the town.

I think of her and remember a road paved with crushed oyster shells way out in the country. My aunt Verna and her husband lived at the corner where it turned off the paved road, which is why the road was informally known as Yost Road, and it was lined with little depression era wooden farm houses belonging to this or that uncle or cousin. Then you came to my Aunt Emma's little house, and farther down was my grandma's house, where my mother was born. My Uncle Herbert's house was at the end of the road. That's all gone now. The only houses left are my Aunt Emma's and my Uncle Herbert's (the old one and his new one). Now that little road is Yost Boulevard and it's lined with homes in the million dollar plus range. There was once a time when almost everybody that lived on that road was related to me one way or another. Now I only know one person who lives there, my Uncle Herbert. His satsuma orchard is gone. Clear Creek is still there, but the land where my momma chased down cows and picked figs now sports huge luxury homes, and it's not out in the country any more.

I was thinking how quickly things had changed since I was a child, until I remembered just how long it has been since I helped my Aunt Verna bring in the cows, or ate fried chicken in my grandma's kitchen, or went over to see my sweet Aunt Emma, or stayed in the little shotgun house up on concrete piers that used to be where my uncle Herbert lived. They were all built that way -- wood frame houses with high-pitched roofs, built up on piers because of the wet climate -- and their wooden floors talked to you as you walked from room to room. So many of those people have gone on to whatever comes next, and yet I can still hear their voices in my mind, remember the wonderful food -- Verna's chocolate meringue pies, my grandma's coffee cakes and fried chicken, my Aunt Odessa's home grown tomatoes served in slices and eaten as one of several vegetables being served. Their lives were so different from mine, their houses were different, the landscape was different, the climate was different (hot and dripping with humidity!). Even the grass in the yards was different (Saint Augustine grass versus the Bermuda grass in our lawn). Driving the 600+ miles from one end of Texas to the other when we went to visit them was almost like going to a different country. Now it is another country, a country of memory.

The Dell Is Dead

2011-07-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

*****JEREMIAD WARNING******

I schlepped the wretched thing out to Best Buy yesterday in 100-degree heat to see if they could get it back up, or at least try to access some of my files. They called me last night at about 8:30 and told me the hard drive was officially cratered. They have a deal where you buy an external backup drive, and they try to recover your files. If they can, they put them on the external drive, and if they can't, they refund you $60 of the $160-something that the backup drive costs. However, I was planning on getting an external backup drive anyway, so now I've got one. I had a LightScribe drive on the Dell, and they are going to pull it for me and scrap the rest. I can put the LightScribe drive on the new computer.

All my email addresses are gone -- years worth of them -- and the latest versions of all my creative writing pieces. I had backed them up fairly recently, but I'm too racked up right now to put the little memory stick in this computer to see how long ago that was. Everything I had in the Firefox feed reader -- the blogs I'm following, my webcomics -- gone. Of course the blogs I've "friended" are on my profile page on Blogger, and I'll be able to piece that part back together easily. The photos I had in my wallpaper changer on the Dell are gone. I have duplicated most of them on this computer, but there were some I had put on recently that are gone. Fortunately, when I bought the games I had on that computer, I printed out the page that gave you the key, so all I have to do there is download the game again, type in the key and I'm good to go. They assure me that Windows 7 will be able to "see" my printer (and the LightScribe drive), and that I shouldn't have any trouble there. I do need to check the Epson website to see if they have a driver for that printer for Windows 7, although I seriously doubt it. It's a fairly old printer (older than the Dell computer was).

In between all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, I keep telling myself that at least it was not my work computer. (Cold comfort -- ) I'm trying to keep things in perspective. I keep telling myself I do have backups of most of my stuff. It's not the end of the world. I could have lost everything. It's strange how vulnerable I feel -- I've only got one computer!

The Dreaded Blue Screen of Death

2011-07-15T20:26:00.000-05:00

My "play" computer crashed this afternoon -- I got the dreaded blue screen of death announcing an"Unmountable boot volume" error. This stupid Dell did not come with a copy of Windows XP, which I might have been able to use to get it up and running again, so I'm pretty much dead in the water right now. I don't know how fixable it is; I just know I can't fix it. This is the computer I was planning to replace at the end of the month, anyway, so the machine itself is no big loss. What concerns me most are the files on its hard drive which, of course, have not been backed up recently -- my writing, my pictures, all my email addresses.

Wednesday, I'm going to take it in to Best Buy and let a Geek Squad guy take a look at it to see how fixable it is, and if so, what it would cost to fix it. If it's over $50-60 bucks, I'll just do without until I get my new one. If it can't be fixed, I'll see if they can recover my important files off the hard disk. Of course, that's the computer that has my feed reader on it which has all the blogs I read and the web comics I follow. So if you don't see comments from me, that's why. The feed reader is a Firefox gadget, and I can't put Firefox on my work computer because it is incompatible with the programs I need to do my job.

I think when I get the new computer, I'll see what kind of external automatic backup gizmos are available, and what kind of money that entails.

So, anyway, I'm practically incommunicado right now.

A Lapsed Blogger, Alas

2011-07-15T05:02:00.000-05:00

I've been remiss in blogging of late, for which I apologise. First, I had a flare up of my asthma; smoke from grass fires in various directions hasn't helped. I've had my meds readjusted and it took a while to get things settled down again. It's been so hot. I've gotten a new boss. I'm trying to work my schedule as closely as possible and try to get the required number of lines in the required time, so that I will have some time to do the humpty-eleven other things I want to do. And in between time, I've devoured 7 books (The three "Netwalker" novels by Jane Fancher and the four "Promethian" novels of Elizabeth Bear) When I say, "devoured," I mean, "opening to the first page, start reading and don't stop reading until you get to the last page." -- pausing, of course, to make a meal, (reading while I eat) and visit the powder room. Now I'm working on the book that the film "Restoration" (starring Robert Downey Jr.) is based on, but I'm not going at white heat like I was on the other books. The film is good, by the way, apart from the spectacular miscasting of Meg Ryan in a role she's totally wrong for.

This past Monday afternoon, I went by the folks' to install a shower conversion thing for my mom. I brought my adjustable wrench (spanner) and my large adjustable plyers, plus a roll of Teflon tape. Took me about 10 minutes to do the deed. The pipe that holds the shower head is way high in that shower, and the hand-held thingie makes it even higher. My mom got the hand held thing to make bathing my dad easier, which it definitely will. However, in solving one problem, another problem was created: My mom is a member of the "helmet hair" generation. To her, a hairdo is not a hairdo unless it's cut short, ratted/teased/backcombed all up in a bouffant style and glued down with hair spray. (There's no accounting for taste. . .) She gets her hair done every Friday at her beauty salon, and doesn't comb out her hair or wash it until she goes to the beauty salon the next week, when the stylist combs out the ratting, washes it, sets it and styles it for her again. So that means when she showers, she is very careful not to get her hair wet. With the shower head up even higher than it was before, this makes it rather difficult. Shower caps are out -- They mash down her hair. The point where the pipe for the shower head comes out of the wall is every bit of 6 feet high. I'm thinking maybe I'll search the internet and see if I can find an extension that can screw on the main pipe and put the shower head down lower.

The new payperiod starts Saturday. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get my lines and work my shift. I'm counting the days until August.

I'm glad I've turned out to be a toolbelt diva so I can go help my mom out with things like that.

Hidden Letters and Mysterious Symbols

2011-07-08T22:25:00.002-05:00

Things have been hectic. Doctors' appointments -- yearly well checks, mostly. I've had my asthma medications juggled a bit, and the mix is better. Hadn't realized how much sleep quality I'd lost until I got home from the doctor's on Tuesday at 4, (second day of my new meds), took a nap and woke up on Wednesday when my alarm went off! ! I got up, saw to the kitties, ate breakfast, decided I'd read a little, read a couple of pages and found I could hardly keep my eyes open. I decided then, that I'd sleep until I got tired of it. Well, there went Wednesday and most of Thursday. Still it felt good.

Why I needed a new keyboard

I'd meant to blog about my new keyboard last week. I got it the same day I got mapped. Office Depot is next door to Petsmart. I went in to look at the office furniture as I mean to change this huge clunker of a computer desk to something less elaborate as soon as I decide what I want, and I have bought the two other "big ticket" items (new computer and new camera) that I have on the agenda. While I was in there, I took a look at their keyboards. I can't use a wireless keyboard or mouse because of my KVM switch. The one "wired" keyboard they had was a nice slim Logitec, low profile. The price was right so I got it. Several essential keys on my old keyboard had quit working, like the "Backspace" key and one of the "CTRL" keys, so it was essential that I get a new one. You might notice on the above picture that the "letters" had worn off some of the keys, and you can see the wear on the space bar. The "black" areas on the lower edge are where the heels of my hands go. The "shiny" is worn completely down.

Above is the new one. It has the same "backlighted" capability as my old Microsoft "gamer" keyboard had. It also has a nice light touch, which is very important when you type as much as I do.So I got the keyboard (above) home and got it hooked up to my KVM switch. (the square grey thing in the picture left) The Function keys (F1, F2, F3, etc) across the top row of the new keyboard are user programmable but come preprogrammed to a set of what the makers assume are "desirable" functions. Since the only function I use much at all is ESC, that was neither here nor there. However, as I was testing it with both computers, I noticed there was no Scroll Lock key on this keyboard! --The Scroll Lock key is the default "switch key" for the KVM switch that allows you to switch control from one computer to the other. You press the Scroll Lock key twice in rapid succession and it switches the keyboard, mouse and monitor to the control of the other computer "on the fly." Usually, I just have one computer or the other on at any given time. However, my "work" computer is the "main" computer, and if I want to use my "play" computer, I have to switch everything over to it. Fortunately, I have pack rat tendencies. When I'd gotten the KVM switch, I had stuffed the instructions for it into my "instructions" file where I keep the instructions for things that I buy (household appliances, TVs, VCR's, DVD players, etc.) and was quickly able to locate them. I followed the instructions to change the "hot key" from Scroll Lock to CTRL, and a crisis was averted. This is what the back of my computer cabinet looks like (right). At the bottom, you can see the fan (white thing) I have set to blow through the cabinet to keep things cooled down. Very essential these days. The KVM switch is like a "Y" splitter. You plug your keyboard, mouse and monitor into one end and there are two sets of mouse, monitor and keyboard cables that come out the other side, which you plug into the appropriate plug holes in each of your two computers. Just above the fan in the picture is one of the two UPS battery backup plug boxes I have. Each one has a battery that provides 10 minutes of power. This allows me to save what I'm working on and shut down my computers in a controlled way if the power goes out. These have "saved my bacon" more than once. I've got quite a nice little setup. My friend calls it my "cockpit" I can reach everything without having to get up from my chair. Makes it handy.

I have this lovely plug box that allows me to attach plugs from various things into the back of it and control them using buttons on the front. This has been very handy over the years. That silver thing is my ISP's modem -- Since I have ATT Uverse, the modem also controls my TV and phone service. The bad thing about this is if my modem goes, so does the TV and phone. Still, I have my cellphone for backup. That big black knob thing is my desk lamp plug. It has one of those long fluorescent bulbs in it and a fully adjustable "arm."

As I start downsizing for my move, I want to replace this huge desk (which I had to split apart to get into the room) with something smaller that has more desk area. There are KVM switches that will support two monitors, and that will be the next "upgrade." These allow you to use two monitors with both computers. Right now, I have one monitor on the KVM switch, and use it with both computers, but the other monitor is "hard wired" into my work computer. In case you havent' figured it out yet, a lot of my world is held together by clear packing tape. . . .

Before I could finish getting this proofed and posted, one of my UPS boxes squealed at me, a good sign that the battery is about to go out. It's much less expensive to order a new battery, than a new UPS device -- I just ordered 3 batteries, one for each UPS I have, for about $65 and got free UPS ground shipping. I couldn't even replace one of the UPS devices for that. I'll have to save the old batteries and take them to Radio Shack to be recycled next time I'm out and about. It doesn't matter whether you bought the battery from them or not. They take them all.

Caturday -- The Physics of Cats

2011-07-02T20:54:00.003-05:00

Newton's Law of Inertia.
A body at rest remains at rest unless an outside force acts upon it.
A body in motion will not change its velocity unless an outside force acts upon it.

WOL's first corollary to Newton's Law of Inertia:
A body at rest attracts cats.

WOL's second corollary to Newton's Law of Inertia:
A small object at rest on any surface that is higher than the floor will attract a cat, who will then use its forepaw to push the object off the surface onto the floor, resulting in (a) a loud noise. (b) breakage. (c) the object rolling out of sight underneath a large piece of furniture. (d) the worst combination of the above. The probability of this happening increases exponentially with the value/importance of the object.

WOL's Law
The desire of a cat to be on the other side of a closed door is in inverse proportion to your willingness to get up and open the door.

I've Been Mapped!

2011-06-29T20:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I went by Petsmart to get the kitties some food and a box of cat litter. As I was getting out of the car, I happened to see this white car with green designs on, that had a tripod on the roof with a red ball atop it. It was going down the street that fronts the strip mall where Petsmart is. At first I though it was one of the local TV stations' "roving reporter" vehicles. They're "manned" by a reporter and a camera person, and they go "live on the scene" to where the "news" is happening. These vehicles have a satellite transmitter on the roof that telescopes up and down so they can uplink the video footage to the TV station. But this car didn't have a channel logo emblazoned on it like those cars do. Then I thought it might be a storm chaser for the National Weather Service -- some of them have mobile Doppler radar equipment mounted on the roof. But the gizmo on this one didn't look like it might be a radar unit. Then it dawned on me -- It was a Google mapping car taking panoramic street views.

If you're at all familiar with Google maps, you will know that you have a choice as to how you want to view the map of your chosen location: As a "schematic" street map, which is like a printed road map; a satellite view, which is exactly that, a still shot from an orbiting satellite; or a street view -- which is an actual video shot of what you'd see if you were standing on the street. It's a 360-degree view that you can pan with the little map controls. In order to get the street views, people drive around in these cars with a roof-mounted video camera that shoots a panoramic view of everything around them as they drive by -- the road ahead, the road behind, and what's on either side. And I was standing in the parking lot by my car when this one drove past.

The thing is, when they "street view" someplace, these Google cars have to drive down every single street and road in the whole place. Can you imagine having a job like that? They probably go in pairs -one to do the driving and one to operate the equipment -- I'm sure there's more to it than just running the camera, They'd also be using a GPS device to plot their position, too, so they could also update the street maps with new streets, road closures, new bridges, etc. And they'd have to have some way to process the data to tell if they missed a spot. I wonder what the job qualifications are? Besides a having a valid driver's license, I mean. You'd have to really like driving/riding around in a car. I wonder what kind of salary they make? What would your job title be? You know it would have to be something cool sounding, something that would look impressive on your resume like "video cartographer." One thing about a job like that, though: You'd have one whopper of an expense report to turn in each month!

Stealth Shopping

2011-06-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday at 1 pm. (You have to see them at least once a year or they won't renew your prescriptions.) The weather had cooled down to a balmy 106 F/41 C, but by the time I got home, my waggin' was draggin', as they say. I was supposed to finish out the final three hours of my shift after I got back, but I decided to lay down for a bit and cool off. The next thing I knew it was almost 10 pm. I got up and finished my shift, and then caught up on my web comics and comic strips, and "my blogs" (In the days of my youth, women had "my stories" meaning the soap opera(s) they followed. My mom's was "As the World Turns." Nowadays, we have "our blogs" -- the blogs we follow.). By then it was almost 5 o'clock in the morning. We got paid late, and my check didn't clear til after midnight on Monday. But Wal-Mart is open 24/7. In fact, late at night or early in the morning is the best time to shop there since there's hardly anybody in the store then except the employees and the restockers.

I had a thunderboomer icon on my weather widget, but the cell was moving to the northeast. All good stuff happened north of us, though, and we didn't get so much as a drop.

There wasn't another car in sight when I pulled out onto the main drag. I caught the light where it goes under Loop 289. I was the only car at the intersection, and like a good citizen, I sat through a full cycle of lights all by myself until it was my turn to get the green. Got a small stone out of the deal, too. Another thing about shopping late at night is you can get a really good parking space. I'd bet there weren't more than 30 cars in the whole parking lot. I'd made enough on this check that I could stock up. I was low on yogurt, out of milk, low on cereal, low on frozen fruit. I got some more frozen cherries and frozen blueberries, which I like to eat frozen. Although I still had three bags of frozen blueberries, I was down to my last bag of frozen cherries. They had some "blueberry muffin" bread -- same difference as a blueberry muffins, only in a loaf cake shape. You get the whole loaf, already sliced, in a clear plastic, reclosable clamshell.- so I treated myself. I treated myself to some ready made cornbread while I was at it.

I got a small stone going into the store and another one coming out. On the way home, I stopped off by Whataburger and got my usual Whataburger, fries, Coke and two large vanilla shakes (the breakfast of champions!), and this time the Coke made it home. After I put up the groceries it was almost 7 o'clock in the morning. I should have gone to the bank and gotten the money order to pay my rent (the drive through opens at 7:30), but I was polishing up my small stones and I let the time get away from me. My shift started at 10, and I don't get off until 3 pm, so I guess I'll have to brave the heat again today-- fortunately the predicted high is only 103 F/39C.

Remember that little rhyme about the lengths of the months, "Thirty days hath September"?
Putting up my groceries always reminds me of the "alternate" version.

Thirty days have Septover,
April, June and peanut butter.
All the rest have thirty-one
Except my granny,
She has a little red wagon.

Oh, and the yard guys finally mowed my back yard this morning. First time it's been mowed since last year.

The Buffin Boy

2011-06-28T10:21:00.000-05:00

His name is Ronald. He lives up the street. We call him the Buffin Boy because buffins are his favorite. His buther bakes them for him, sometimes with bananas and sometimes with blueberries and sometimes with chunks of wallduts. We tried some of his buther's buffins, and we've decided we like buffins, too, especially the yellow kind with boppy seeds in.

Ronald has a little sister, Lady Big Wheels, who can be found most days ka-thunk ka-thunking like a railroad train up and down the sidewalk. When it comes to buffins, she can take them or leave them. Her food of choice is a binony sandwich with amaters on. She loves amaters so much that sometimes her mother lets her eat them with the sandwich off. Recently, she made a whistle stop in our driveway, sporting a jaunty grape Kool-aid smile, to inform us that Ronald had had to go to the hosthistle and have a noise taken out, so now he doesn't say 'buffins" any more. Just only we do.

A Broken Bed and Spilled Coca Cola

2011-06-26T00:49:00.010-05:00

Even though it was a day off, Friday was not a good day. After breakfast, I emptied the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away. Then I gathered the trash from all the wastebaskets and put it in my two big plastic trash cans with wheels, and cleaned out the cat box, but I didn't haul the trash out to the dumpster in the alley. I just didn't have the energy. I just left it sitting by the back door. (The trash cans have lock on lids.) Instead, I took a shower and washed my hair,then watched TV for a while. About 3:30 in the afternoon, I went over to see my folks. But first, I had to pop the hood(bonnet) on my trusty 1987 Toyota Crayola and check the clutch fluid reservoir -- there is a very slow leak in the hydraulic line somewhere, and when the fluid gets too low, its the same difference as trying to shift gears without pushing in the clutch first. (I keep a bottle of hydraulic fluid in my trunk.) Fortunately, I didn't have to add any. I held my breath as I turned the key in the ignition, and was relieved to hear the engine turn over, which meant my battery was still OK. The unrelenting heat like we've been having can do a car battery in just the same as severe cold can -- I know that from experience!

I had my car's air conditioner on the fuel efficient setting with the blower on medium, but it didn't really make much difference. It was hot outside anyway, (107 F/42 C) but out on the street, with all that asphalt, the heat was unbelievable. It was like being in an oven.

My mom was in the "computer room" (my brother's old bedroom) when I rang the doorbell, so she heard it this time. We visited for a while, and then she said, "Oh, did I tell you what happened? Your father broke my bed last night." She took me into their bedroom and showed me. They have a four-poster bed. The bed's side rails have a pair of metal hooks on each end that hook onto slits cut in the headboard and foot board, and then the ends of the slats sit on the side rails and hold the mattress. My dad had somehow used the post on the foot board on his side of the bed to pull himself up with and had caused the side rail to break loose from the foot board, taking a big chunk of the bed post with it. My mom was able to use a stack of books to support the side rail on that side. Luckily none of the slats had fallen out, otherwise the mattress and box springs would have been on the floor.

Now, you have to understand about this bed. My mom grew up during the depression. Her family lived way out in the country on a farm. They never went hungry, and they had the things they needed, but they didn't have "nice" things. After she graduated from high school (valedictorian), she moved into town and stayed with my aunt (her oldest sister) and uncle while she went to secretarial school (typing, shorthand). Then she got a good job in town in the offices of Humble Oil Company. and got an apartment. She was working when she met and married my dad and she continued to work (with time off for children) right up until retirement age. The bed in question is part of a mahogany bedroom suite (bed, vanity with stool, nightstand and tall chest of drawers) that they bought in1947, shortly after she and my dad were married. They got some kind of "package" deal on the furniture, because at the same time as they bought the bedroom suite, they bought a china cabinet, a dining table with drop leaves, an extension leaf and six chairs, and a sofa (which has since bit the dust -- the only piece of that furniture they don't still have). They bought it on credit and paid it out $5 a week. And it's not only nice furniture, it's good furniture -- solid mahogany, not veneer on cheaper wood. They've had this furniture several years longer than they've had me. My mom has a big emotional investment in this furniture. It's her first "nice" furniture, and they've had it for over 60 years. When she told me what had happened, it wasn't "the" bed or "our" bed, it was "my" bed.

I suppose it can be repaired. Maybe my brother can fix it. He's got some serious woodworking chops. I've sent him an email. He and his wife were supposed to chaperon some of her violin students to some kind of seminar in Germany sometime this summer, but I've forgotten when they said they were going. We kind of move in different orbits these days.

Since I'd just gotten paid, I decided that on my way home, I'd stop off at Whataburger and treat myself to a Whataburger, fries, large Coke and two large vanilla shakes. (I put the shakes in the freezer and eat them like ice cream. Two will last me til the end of next week.) I have a cardboard drink carrier in my car, but apparenly, I didn't get the Coke down in the carrier far enough. The turn from the main drag into my street is rather sharp, and I took it a little faster than I should have. You guessed it. The Coke fell over and dumped out all over the floorboard of my car. aaaarrrrgggghhhh! I pulled into the parking lot of the bank on the corner and bailed out as much of it as I could, but then my hands were sticky and I got sticky on the door latch, the seatbelt buckle, the gearshift knob, my keys, the front door knob. . . .Fortunately, I was only about a block and a half from home. I got an old towel and mopped up as much as I could get up, and wiped everything down, but I was not a happy camper, especially when I was eating reheated french fries. . . .

Saturday's high was 110 F/43 C It's only supposed to get up to 109 F Sunday. Right now, at 12:30 (0030 hours) of a Sunday morning, it's 91 F/33 C with 10% humidity.

The chorus of this song by Phil Collins pretty much captures my mood right now.

Surely you recognize the guy playing lead guitar in Phi's band, but how about the bass player, or the guy on drums?

Dried Up and Blowing Away

2011-06-24T11:41:00.002-05:00

After a brief respite, it's hotter than ever. Predicted high today is 107 F/42 C with Saturday's high predicted to be 108 F. Amazingly our current humidity now (45%) is higher than it is Biggar, Scotland (40%) (just southeast of Glasgow). We're going into our fourth week of 100+ highs.

The yard is burning up. I've lost my miniature yellow rose bush and some of my honeysuckles. Just burnt up. The one in the front looks bad. The jasmine is not doing well. The roses are holding out OK. Deep watered again last night. First time I've watered in two weeks. I keep trying to "disengage" since it's not my yard and I'm planning on moving as soon as I get enough money saved up and can find a place where the landlord lives in town and takes care of the property. But it just breaks my heart. My pretty little miniature yellow roses (picture taken last spring).The back yard hasn't been mowed since last year, and is all over "Tree of Heaven" seedlings, and there are paper mulberry seedlings and Siberian elm seedlings in the flower beds and weeds that are taller than the fence (which is falling down. We're keeping the back gate closed with a piece of wire looped around the fence pickets.)

I just vegetated Wednesday and Thursday, lying in bed reading -- three books one right after another -- Jane Fancher's trilogy Uplink, GroundTies, and Harmonies of the Net -- all books I had downloaded to my Kindle. Used up half the charge on my Kindle's battery and had to recharge it last night.

Almost to the end of June, which leaves only July to get through til the time my finances will dramatically improve. A new computer to replace my elderly Dell. A new camera -- an SLR with a view finder -- this one, I think, which also takes videos. A pair of new shoes. Then I've got to open a savings account and do some serious saving, saving up enough to move. In the meantime, I've got to do some serious culling, cleaning and have some garage sales. Start downsizing.. In the meantime, I am barely scraping by. Counting down the days. My electric bill this month is going to be huge. I don't even want to think about it, or anything else. It's almost painful to look out the window at the yard. My pantry is on an outside wall. Yesterday evening, when I opened a can of pineapple rings and was cutting them into chunks, they were warm to the touch.

Listening to Scott Joplin rags on Rhapsody, some played on solo piano, some played by a dance band. A nice distraction. But now I've got to quit blogging and change the catbox, and take out the garbage. Then I've got to take a shower and wash my hair.

Wilted

2011-06-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

It's 8 o'clock in the evening, it's 101 F (38 C) outside, and the humidity is 4%. The kitties pass each other warily, tired of getting their noses shocked sniffing each other by way of greeting -- (and of getting their aft end shocked, as well, I suspect). Last Monday, for no reason I can think of, I parted my hair down the middle and braided it into braids, something I rarely do, and haven't done for a long time. Now I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I'd been wearing my hair in what I think of as a "'50's" pony tail, high up on the crown of the head, to keep it off my face and neck, but braids are even better. I hope things are cooling down. Tuesday's predicted high is only 95 F (35 C). Now, there's a lesson in perspective. Compared to 106 F and 107 F (42C) , 95 F seems almost cool.

My Day

2011-06-19T19:45:00.002-05:00

The day after the end of the payperiod is my day (unless it falls on Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, which are my scheduled workdays -- days when I have to work). This time it came on a Wednesday, so it was my day to sleep in and take it easy. Usually I don't even open my office door. It's a day to read, watch TV, or whatever else I feel like doing. This time I took Thursday off too. It was nice. I finished reading some things I had downloaded to my Kindle. I slept a lot. Took things easy. Friday, I caught up on "my blogs" -- the blogs I follow -- and the webcomics and cartoon strips that I follow. I wrote a "small stone." And while I was doing all this, I was listening to music on Rhapsody -- my playlist of Irish and Scottish music, with all those wonderful voices -- Maire Brennan, Mary Ohara, Cathie Ryan, Mary Stewart to name but a few. That got me thinking about the kind of music that appeals to me.

The music of my middle teens was "folk"-- the muscial current that produced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio. Didn't care for Bob Dylan -- he doesn't have much of a voice. He was all about words, which didn't appeal either. Joan Baez's music had too much of an agenda. The Kingston Trio was too preppy and oxford button down shirty. What caught my ear and held it was Peter, Paul, and Mary, and later Judy Collins, and still later, Joni Mitchell. Judy Collins' voice is magical, etherial, and she chooses her songs well, both in terms of words and music. Joni Mitchell had a great voice, and she had some good lyric set to good tunes. Thinking about Joni Mitchell reminded me of Chelsea Clinton, since the former "first daughter" was said to be named for Joni Mitchell's song, "Chelsea Morning." That got me thinking about the song, and that great line "And the sun poured down like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses." Simple enough to go to Google and see what YouTube had to offer. I found several nice renditions of it. But while I was rumaging about, I turned up this knock-your-socks-off video of Joni Mitchell, the late Cass Elliot (Mama and Papas) and the late Mary Travers (Peter, Paul and Mary) singing together.

And just to round out the treat, here's Mary Travers in her element -- As many times as I've listened to this song, and as long as I've loved it, it was only recently that I discovered it was written by Gordon Lightfoot! (We miss you, Mary!)

Ted Kooser -- Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet

2011-06-16T21:21:00.000-05:00

Selecting a Reader

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
"For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

~ Ted Kooser

I'm not generally a fan of poetry, but then I have also been known to make exceptions. Like just now. Thank you, Sun Pours Down Like Honey, for turning me on to this man's writings. Trust a librarian to know where they keep the good stuff. As for his winning a Pulitzer prize, no mystery there.

Who Is This Man, and What Else Has He Written?

2011-06-15T20:04:00.001-05:00

Flying at Night.

Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.
Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water. Below us,
some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death,
snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn
back into the little system of his care.
All night, the cities, like shimmering novas,
tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his.

-Ted Kooser

At the Sound of the Chime. . .

2011-06-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

I have an ersatz mantle clock in my office that does the Westminster chimes thing on the hour, quarter hour and at a quarter till the hour. I keep it in my office because the chiming helps me keep track of time while I work -- except that it's currently running about 5 minutes fast. Every time it plongs, I think, 'I need to reset the time on that clock.' But there's a label on the clockworks that specifically warns you not to reset the time just before or just after chiming occurs. So then I think, 'I'll wait 6-7 minutes and then get up and reset it.' Then it plongs again. This has been going on for about a week now.

The River of Stones Project -- Count Me In

2011-06-14T22:27:00.003-05:00

Check this out: These folks have challenged all comers to write a "small stone" every day during the month of July, and share it: Post it on your blog, tweet it, or collect them in a notebook, or email them, or whatever. Nip on over to The River Of Stones and check it out. If you decide to participate, here's what to do. Be sure to get a get a badge to display on your blog, Facebook wall, or where ever. (See top of my sidebar.)

I'm up for the challenge. Are you? I've created my own River of Stones blog for my "small stones" and have put a link to it on my side bar.

I'm Having "Issues" with Blogger Again (Still)

2011-06-14T22:07:00.001-05:00

On my "play" computer, which runs Window XP, Blogger appears to function entirely as advertised from both the IE and Mozilla Firefox platforms.. However, my work computer runs Vista and because the programs I use to do my work are only compatible with Internet Explorer (IE), I cannot load any other browsers on it. Apparently, Blogger does not like Vista, especially when IE is the only browser it uses. Blogger has decided to express its anti-Vista sentiments by refusing to display the Google followers on any of my three blogs when I'm using that computer. Before the Great Friday the 13th Blogger Crash last month, this blog had 15 followers. Now it only has 13 --! If you are a Goggle follower of this blog, thank you! -- and please check to see if Blogger arbitrarily decided you were not allowed to be my follower anymore and removed you from the list. If you like what you find here, and would like to become a Google follower of this blog, please do! and Welcome!

I may also be having "comment" problems, too. If you have tried to comment and Blogger wouldn't let you, please contact me (see profile) and let me know so I can raise Cain (again) with Blogger. I do wish the powers that geek at Blogger would get their act together. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to have John Cleese moments. . .

Notes to Self

2011-06-14T03:00:00.003-05:00

I've got to remember to start the dishwasher tonight before I go to bed. I'm drinking out of the last clean tea glass, I'm down to two plates, and I'm almost out of spoons. . . .When the weather starts getting hot, I always try to wait until late at night to run it -- usually after midnight -- since even the energy efficient drying cycle pumps heat into the air. I never run it until there's no room to wedge anything else inside it -- typically just once a week. And, actually, washing a full load of dishes in the dishwasher takes less water (and gas to heat the water) than washing them by hand.

The cooler I can keep it inside the house, the less often the AC kicks on. (Both the AC and the central heat are on a programmable thermostat. Ive got it programmed so that the AC won't come on until the thermostat reads 80 F/ 27 C.) That means not using the cooktop or the oven unless I absolutely have to, hanging wash outside instead of running the dryer, not turning on any lights until it's too dark to see where I'm going and turning lights off when I leave the room, and keeping the window curtains as closed as my three voyeuristic cats will let me. I've got those energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs in every light fixture in the house (I was amazed at how much you can save on your electric bill just by switching from incandescent bulbs to the compact fluorescent ones. Sure, they cost more, but they last up to 10 times longer and they pay for themselves by what you save on electricity -- and on the cost of cooling your house in summer -- you'd be amazed at how much heat incandescent bulbs put out.)

It was 104 F/40 C again today (Thursday it's supposed to get up to 105 F!). When I opened the front door to see if the package I've been waiting for had been delivered yet, it was like opening the door of an oven. I shudder to think what my electricity bill for this month is going to be. We've had high temps in the 100+ range for going on two weeks now. Maybe I should reconfigure my weather widgets to give the temp in Celsius -- strictly for the psychological value. Somehow 40 C doesn't seem nearly as hot as I know 104 F is. This heat wave we've been having is both concerning and disconcerting. Usually, if it's going to get this hot, it will be in late July or August. I can't shake this uneasy feeling that we're in for a long, hot summer. The city is already talking about rationing water -- which won't really affect me that much since I already do. Our total year-to-date rainfall for 2011 is a little over an inch. Our average yearly rainfall is around 16 inches, so we're already way behind.

When I went over to my mom's the other day, the playa lake I pass on the way was almost half empty. (The city uses a system of "man made" playa lakes as catch basins to collect and store rain runoff from the storm drain system.) The water level in the deep end was down almost 10 feet lower than normal and the shallow end was completely dried up. If the water levels get much lower, the city Parks & Rec guys are going to have to relocate the ducks and geese from the smaller playa lakes to the bigger ones. The Parks& Rec people maintain small populations of both at the playa lakes that are located in the city parks because they help keep down the vegetation near the lake shore, where it's tricky to run the mowers. Almost every lake in town has 2 or 3 pairs of those big "domestic" geese and a small herd of domestic ducks, which also helps attract birds like the two kinds of herons we have here (great blues and night), and the little waders like killdeer and avocets. -- The geese are very territorial, which helps keep the dogs and feral cats away from the wild birds who frequent the lakes -- you can see why people keep geese as "watchdogs." Just let a dog or cat (or jogger!) invade their territory and those big ganders will honk up a ruckus and the next thing you know, the whole flock is after them -- and they can pinch hard with their bills, too! We also get mallards and ruddy ducks, particularly over in the playa lake by my bank, where they've planted cattails around part of the shore (which attract the red winged blackbirds, too). We also have coots, several species of grebes and there's a gallinule species we get now and again , but you usually have to go to the "natural" playa lakes outside the city limits to find those. The city has also stocked the playa lakes in the parks with fish -- not sure what kind(s) -- so people can fish in the lakes -- or in most cases, have a reasonable excuse to sit out on the lake shore and hold a fishing rod. (Whence the expression, "Are you fishing or catching?" -- meaning, "Are you just going through the motions, or are you actually accomplishing some useful task?) Which reminds me, I've got five more reports to proofread before I can knock off for the night, and I'd better get after it. . .

Oh, and I must remember to check the Littermaid to see if it has enough cat litter in it before I close down the world and call it a night. . . . .

Resealable Plastic Bags: Convenience vs. Being Environmentally Responsible

2011-06-12T21:40:00.001-05:00

Here's the dilemma: Those plastic resealable food bags are so handy, but they are made from petroleum based chemicals -- fossil fuels. You want to be environmentally responsible, but those baggies are so convenient. Here are some ways to take advantage of their convenience, while reducing your "carbon footprint" --and saving money in the process!

I buy the resealable freezer bags in the 1-gallon size. Freezer bags are made from thicker plastic, which makes them more durable. Then, I reuse them --over and over and over again.

If you live alone or are empty nesters, you can't always find small loaves of bread, or smaller quantities of things like rolls or buns, and if you don't refrigerate the bread, it tends to spoil before you get a chance to eat the whole loaf. So, once I've eaten all the bread, I save the empty plastic bread wrapper. (I do shake out any crumbs and wipe the inside with a tea towel.) Then, when I buy the next loaf of bread, I put half the loaf in the empty plastic wrapper, and twist tie it for immediate use. Then I twist tie the wrapper on the other half, seal it inside a freezer bag, and put it in the freezer. (Double bagging the bread this way helps prevent freezer burn.) When I take the bread out of the freezer to thaw, I take it out of the freezer bag and put the freezer bag in the drawer to be reused again. Since the bread was in the wrapper when I put it in the freezer bag, no food came in contact with the freezer bag, so it doesn't need to be washed out before I reuse it -- which saves time, water -- and money!. Also if you save up a bunch of bread wrappers, you can buy several loaves of bread at a time and freeze half a loaf, or even a third of a loaf per freezer bag. This way you can have a variety of different breads (rye, sourdough, ciabatta, etc.) without having to worry that some of the bread will spoil before you get a chance to eat it all. You can also do this with hamburger and hot dog buns, dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, English muffins, bagels, pita bread, naan, and tortillas. The 1 gallon size freezer bag holds half a loaf of bread easily, and you can can put several smaller packages of buns or rolls inside a single 1-gallon freezer bag. This lets you repackage your hamburger buns in packets of two, or four, so you can take out what you need, reclose the baggie, and put it back in the freezer. -- and if you put the bread in the microwave for about 15 seconds before you eat it, it's almost as soft as fresh.

It's also hard to find smaller packages of potato and corn chips, snack foods, "generic" cereals and other such foods that come sealed in a plastic wrapper. I cut the bag open with a scissors, and then put bag and all inside a 1 gallon freezer bag. This way, the freezer bag keeps the food from going stale, and because it stays in the original packaging, no food touches the freezer bag -- so, again, the freezer bag doesn't have to be washed before it's reused.

And what about those foods that are sealed in bags and then put inside a cardboard box, like many brands of crackers, fancy snack foods and "name brand" cereal?. What happens? -- you roll up the top of the bag, and then close the box top, and put the box back in the cabinet -- and then it goes stale before you can eat it all. I take the bag out of the box, cut it open, and put it in a 1-gallon freezer bag. (Since my city does not recycle cardboard -- shame on them!, I open the box at both ends and flatten it before I put it in the trash, so they take up less room in the landfill.) The freezer bag seals air tight to prevent the food from getting stale, is easy to open and reseal, the wrapper it comes in keeps the food from touching the freezer bag, and because each product stays in its own bag, you can keep several different kinds inside a single 1 gallon freezer bag, which also saves pantry space -- get the picture? (Also if you fold over the top of the package bags before you seal them in the freezer bag, the various foods don't "trade flavors" by being sealed together inside the same freezer bag.)

I use the same technique for bagged candies like M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, gumdrops, etc. The larger size bags are more economical and put less packaging in the landfills, but. . . how to reclose the bag? Cut the bag open, then put the bag inside a freezer bag. Again, you can put several different kinds of candy in a single 1-gallon freezer bag. Foods like nuts or dried fruits that are packaged in sealed bags can be stored this way also.

And what about those frozen fruits and vegetables that come in the large, resealable bags? -- the ones that get frost crystals down inside the parts where the bag is supposed to seal and you either can't get the bag to seal at all, or it seals incompletely and the contents get freezer burn. - I just fold the top of the package over, and put it inside a freezer bag. This also works for things like frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks that come sealed in plastic -- you can buy the bulk size, which is more economical and puts less packaging in the land fill, then put the plastic bag inside a 1 gallon freezer bag -- That way you can take out only what you need, reseal the freezer bag and put it back in the freezer. And then there's frozen french fries, hash browns, frozen toaster waffles -- the list goes on and on. . .

My freezer doesn't have an ice maker, but if I leave the ice cubes in the ice trays, the frost free feature "defrosts" them, which wastes water. So I freeze the cubes in trays, then empty the trays into -- yep, you guessed it -- a 1 gallon freezer bag. I get the bag out of the freezer, take out what I need, reclose it and put it back in the freezer -- and, it's a whole lot easier to get 3-4 ice cubes out of a bag than it is to get just a few of the ice cubes out of the ice cube tray. . . .

And here's the frosting on the cake: I bought a box of 20 one-gallon freezer bags almost a year ago, and wrote the date of purchase on the box just to see how long they'd last me --There are still 4 unused bags in the box!

Caturday Is For The Birds

2011-06-11T07:21:00.000-05:00

Here's one for all you nature lovers and birdwatchers:

Robins: 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

and a review of the film by our guest critics. . .

IT'S RAINING!!!!! IT'S RAINING!!!!!

2011-06-10T18:39:00.002-05:00

About 10 minutes to 6, I heard the rumble of thunder, checked my weather widget and saw the "thunderboomer" icon. Fully prepared to be disappointed, I looked out the back door and saw this! (Those white things in these photographs are not hail, but raindrops reflecting the camera's flash.)

Now you can see why I hate that stupid "tree of heaven" next door. My yard is just full of "volunteer" seedlings. I don't know how much rain we got, but I'm grateful for every last drop.

The little boy who lives in "A" loves the rain. He kept running back and forth between the carport and the driveway, laughing and dancing about. He'll be 3 this fall. However, he'll have a new baby brother or sister before then (August).

It was really coming down there for a few minutes. The little boy's mother said there was a guy up the street just standing out in his driveway with his face turned up to the sky, getting soaked. I don't blame him a bit. (You can see how well the landlord maintains this place. I cropped out the part where a piece of the fascia board has rotted to the point it's coming off.) The rain was coming down at a slight angle toward the house and the eaves of the roof caught the part that fell closest to the house.

Everything was so thirsty for rain, you could almost hear slurping noises. . . .

It only rained here for maybe15 minutes. A quick check of the Doppler radar loop showed there was a big storm cell to the south of us tracking toward the north east. Unfortunately, south of us is where most of the rain was/is/will be falling. Still, the northern edge of the storm brushed across the south end of town. Now, 10 minutes after the rain stopped, the sidewalks are almost dry. I wonder if we got enough to push our year to date total over the 1-inch mark ?

Running Errands

2011-06-10T17:32:00.003-05:00

Not running, actually. More like "walking purposefully." Too hot to run (high 90's F/36+ C). Had to go out to pick up a prescription refill and get my "health care provider" to renew that one and another one that are about to run out. Stopped by my folks house on the way to take my mom some frozen veggies that my friend brought me for our TV Sunday this past Sunday. It was her turn to bring the dinner and my turn to do dessert, only she forgot I don't like bell peppers. My mom does, though, so I took them by to her on my way to get my prescription.

Bless her heart, my mom didn't have her hearing aid in, and couldn't hear the doorbell over the TV. (I could not only hear the TV loud and clear from the front porch, I could feel it through the soles of my feet.) So, I'm standing on the front porch calling her on my cell phone to tell her I'm outside standing on the porch! From time to time, my dad decides he's not going to get dressed and wears his pajamas and robe all day. Today was one of those days. He turns 87 this year, and has been suffering for some time from what is called "multi-infarct dementia" (MID) -- lots of little tiny strokes in the small vessels of the brain. He's practically deaf, nearly blind from macular degeneration, and can barely get around. He spends most of his time in his recliner in front of the TV with the volume turned up to "Rock Concert" levels. It's so hard to see the witty, funny, charming man I love so much slowly crumbling with age. It's like watching someone take a devastating fall in excruciatingly slow motion, and being helpless to prevent it. My mom, on the other hand, is still as sharp as a tack, and doesn't miss a trick. This year will be their 65th wedding anniversary.

I stopped by our local Wal-Mart for groceries on my way home. While I was waiting in the check out line, a Mennonite lady and her two children got in line behind me. The Mennonite women all wear distinctive dresses with hems about 4 inches below the knee. They all look to be cut from the exact same pattern -- home sewn -- although the fabric is mostly the same kind of tiny, busy floral prints like my grandmas used to wear. The married women all wear their hair up and have dark scarfs covering their hair. The older child, a girl who looked about 14, had the most gorgeous honey blond hair almost down to her waist. The other child was a little towheaded boy who looked about 6. Their children are always so well behaved (which is more than I can say for the rest of the kids I see these days). They speak a dialect of German (Plattdeutsch) among themselves, but they also speak English, albeit with a German accent. They're an Anabaptist sect, similar to the Amish, only not as conservative. Unlike the Amish, they allow telephones, electric lights and motorized farm equipment. There are several colonies of them in our area, and I see groups of women and children in Wal-Mart from time to time. They have a reputation for hard work and honest dealings that fits right in with our West Texas work ethic. The ones here came from Canada by way of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. They've been trying to relocate to America, particularly Texas, since the 1970s, most recently because of the escalating violence of the drug wars, but the American Immigration people are not making it easy for them.   What makes our area attractive to them is the availability of large tracts of land. I relate to them in a way, since my mother's mother's people also came to Texas from Germany -- in fact, from the same part of Germany (Saxony) that these Mennonites came from, so they would likely have spoken Plattdeutsch as well. However, they were Lutheran.

The little bit of groceries I bought cost almost exactly all the cash money I had in my purse, so I am officially tapped out until next payday. That meant I had to forgo the traditional Whataburger and fries that I treat myself to on the way home. Whataburger has got a new commercial (advert) on TV now about their chicken club sandwich. The guy that does the voice-over is priceless. He sounds like every good ol' boy around here. The kind in boots and jeans, with skinny legs and a generous dunlop (a belly that "done lopped" over his belt. . .which is why he still wears the same size jeans he wore in high school. . . ) with a cowboy hat, or a John Deere gimme cap jammed down tight on his head, a long sleeved western shirt. The back pockets on his jeans are worn clear down to the white in places from sliding in and out of the seat in the cab of his pickup/tractor/cultivator/combine/stripper; the right one has a roughly square worn place in the center from carrying his wallet (which is permanently warped into a curve), and his left one has a circular worn place from carrying his can of Skoal chewing tobacco. After describing the ingredients of the Whataburger sandwich in question, the voice-over guy comes out with the tag line, "And if that don't put a zip in your doodah, I don't know what will." Cracks me up every time I hear it.   I haven 't found that particular commercial on YouTube yet, but here's another one in the same vein with the same guy doing the voice over.

While I was putting up the groceries, I managed to put about two thirds of a glass of iced tea down the hatch, too, gulped down out of one of my 24 oz "Texas Tumblers" (on the right). I used to have eight of them but I broke one about 15 years ago -- after Libbey quit making that size, wouldn't you know. They still make the pattern, it's called "Chivalry." but the largest tumbler they make now is 16 oz (at left), which is a bummer. I've scoured the internet looking for another 24 oz one, but to no avail. I still have eight each of the footed wine, beer and water glasses, though.

After I put up the groceries, I changed into my "work clothes," which right now is an organic cotton "sleep shirt" that Hanes used to make, but doesn't any more (-- I bought one, really liked it, bought a couple more whenever I could and ended up with 10!) This is what they look like only in a lighter weight fabric. They are so cool, comfortable and soft, and they get softer with every washing. The cotton short sleeve pullover blouse I wore over slacks to run errands was too damp from perspiration to throw in the hamper -- I had to hang it up to let it dry out first -- which is why I was sucking down the iced tea. 99 F/38C temperatures at 24% humidity, even for the short time I spent outside, just wrings you dry. Having just written that, it occurs to me that I should have been wearing a hat -- I've got a straw one with a nice wide brim.

Now I'm trying to settle down to work. It's a good thing I have flat screen monitors now, instead of the old TV tube kind. In the first place, those old monitors put out an incredible amount of heat (nice in winter, but. . .) whereas the flat screens put out hardly any. And in the second place, I couldn't run a fan and one of those monitors on the same electrical circuit without giving the monitor a case of the heebiejeebies. Right now, I've got the celling fan on "taxi down the runway" speed, and a small little fan aimed right at me.   Time to get busy.

Saying Goodbye to Mikey

2011-06-09T21:11:00.008-05:00

~Mikey~
September 1998 ~ June 8, 2011

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, two dear friends, Aunt Sasa and Uncle Jno made the difficult decision to say goodbye to their dog, Mikey. He was a dog of unknown antecedents. According to Uncle Jno, "It was sometime in February 1999. One of my daughters, then 14, and I were resting on the bed in the then new downstairs bedroom, I with my eyes closed, my daughter, apparently not. Suddenly I heard her say, “Oh my God. WHAT is THAT?” I opened my eyes to look at the windows facing the road, and there on the window-high mound of snow was a cocker spaniel size pup, he who would be later known as Mikey." It's a pretty sure bet Mikey didn't end up on that snowdrift by accident. He was almost certainly dumped there. But this one time, that all too familiar story had a happy ending.

When Uncle Jno met Aunt Sasa, they were both married to somebody else. But life happened, and Mikey became part of a blended family, a stepdog to three step cats. Uncle Jno and Aunt Sasa moved their blended family to an old farm house near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and life was good. There were forests and lake shores to explore and long walks to be had, farmhouse renovations to supervise and gardens to help plant.

In the words of his stepmama, Aunt Sasa, "He was the sweetest, happiest boy we have ever known." To her, he became "Michael from Mountains," after the Joni Mitchell song.

So here we are some 12-1/2 years after Life, or Chance, or perhaps Fate put Mikey in just the right place at exactly the right time. He had cataracts and was almost blind. He had had mast cell tumors (a form of cancer) surgically removed only to have them recur. Medicine could not cure; it could only buy a little more time. Age and disease had taken their toll. Thought the spirit was ever willing, the flesh was becoming weaker and weaker. It was time to make the most difficult decision love has to make. In the words of the song by Sting, "If you love somebody, set them free." Yesterday was the day they chose to set Mikey's unfailing spirit free from his failing body.

His friend Steffy came to say goodbye and brought Mikey a cup of softserve vanilla ice cream. (When she went to the ice cream place on her way over, tears were streaming down her face. She ordered a small cone equivalent, but the server gave her a medium.) Aunt Sasa and Uncle Jno cooked steaks on the grill, and cut them up for Mikey to eat. Then their vet came, and Mikey spent his last minutes in this world surrounded by people he loved and who loved him. At 6:08, on 06/08/2011, Mikey's sweet golden spirit left his tired golden body and passed through the veil that separates this world from whatever lies beyond. I like to think he has run on ahead, to check out where the trail goes next. In the fullness of time, when his people join him, he will run to greet them with a joyful bark, tail wagging, and they will set off together on whatever new adventure awaits them. You were a good dog, Mikey, and you will be greatly missed.

Dear Mikey, this one's for you.

Things & Stuff

2011-06-09T02:15:00.001-05:00

I've just finished enjoying a lunch/supper of peach flavored yogurt with bits of peach in, and some cheeze and crackers. I'm just not in the mood for anything hot or heavy. It's been over 100 F/38 C for the past four days, with the same in the forecast until Sunday, which is as far as ahead my weather widget displays. Today's high was 104 F/40 C. It's cooled down to 81 F/27 C at half past midnight, so I took the opportunity to nip out to retrieve the mail by the light of the half moon, grinning brightly in the sky.

I've just had an email from a dear friend in MI. Immediately I saw the subject line, I knew what it was. They made the painful decision to put down their elderly, much beloved dog, Mikey. They had the vet come to their home, which I think is the best way. I hope they get another dog soon, though (preferably a rescue), as taking long walks with their dog is one of the things that keeps her sane. She's in the same field I'm in, dealing with the same hamster wheel type of a job that I am (just for a different company) trying to make enough to live on.

The other day, I received my birthday present that my dear friend had ordered for me from the Gaelsong catalog (and was completely delighted by it!). "Moongazing Hare" from Oriele Bronze. It's about 6 inches high, beautifully detailed, and quite charming.

Even though my birthday was last month, I still have one more present to receive -- one I ordered for myself. Problems with shipping are holding it up, but I'm told I should have it by Friday.

My folks usually give me money for my birthday, which they did again this year, so I treated myself to some books, and to this Windstone dragon votive holder, which I've been wanting for some time. I've been on such a tight budget for so long, they insisted I "blow" it all on treats for myself. And seeing as I'm a good girl and always mind my parents, I did! I just have to hang on until August, when my financial situation will finally improve.

Just a shot of yesterday's lunch/supper -- asparagus (canned, alas!) drizzled with a little Ranch salad dressing. I put the can in the refrigerator overnight so the asparagus was nice and cold. I've not had much of an appetite since it's been so hot here. All I've been having is cereal with almond milk for breakfast and something cool and light for lunch/supper. I've got to pick up a Rx refill either today or tomorrow and while I'm out, I need to do a little grocery shopping because I'm out of almond milk, and almost out of yogurt. Right now, I need to go make a pitcher of tea and then try to work for a couple hours.

A Magical Discovery

2011-06-09T00:10:00.000-05:00

How would you like to have a faerie and elf wedding like this? The work and attention to detail that was put into the clothing and accessories is just phenomenal. The creativity talent behind this truly fairy tale wedding can be found here:

What I've Been Reading Lately

2011-06-08T01:19:00.000-05:00

Having temporarily exhausted the supply of Thursday Next and Nursery Crime novels by Jasper Fforde, I am continuing to whittle away at the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett (I'm on the 23rd of 38), and I treated myself to his "Bromeliad Trilogy", one of his "non-Discworld" books.

Lately I've accumulated several books by Jane Fancher, the dead tree editions of her "Dance of the Rings" trilogy, and Kindle downloads of GroundTies, Uplink and The Harmonies of the Net, but I haven't gotten to them yet.

Also on the "To Read" pile is Restoration, the novel by Rose Tremain on which the film "Restoration" starring Robert Downey, Jr., was based.

I recently splurged and got dead tree editions of Elizabeth Bear's four "Promethian Age" novels (Blood & Iron which I've just started, Whiskey & Water, Ink & Steel, and Hell & Earth), the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy ( Dust, Chill, and Grail), and All the Windwracked Stars. And just today, I downloaded three more of her novellas to my Kindle.

What I've just finished reading were Kindle downloads of New Amsterdam, Seven for a Secret, and The White City, all by Elizabeth Bear, an interesting series of stories with a continuing cast of characters, based on some interesting premises. The world the characters inhabit is what is called "alternative history" which is based on the idea "What if key historical events had not taken place or had had different outcomes?" In the alternative timeline of these three books, the American Revolution didn't happen until the 1900's, the American Colonies occupy the same territory as our original 13 colonies. The Dutch still have their colony of New Amsterdam (which became our New York City), Spain still has Mexico, Texas and California. France still has the Louisiana purchase, New Orleans and their Canadian colonies (Montreal), and there is an Iroquois Nation, which is a recognized country. However, the French revolution did happen, their subsequent Emperor (Napoleon?) was deposed some time ago, and now France is a republic. England is still a constitutional monarchy and is ruled by King Peter, the eldest son of the Iron Queen (Victoria?). The internal combustion engine was never developed. Travel is by horse drawn vehicles or electric trams. There are subways in London and Paris and railroad trains are either electric or steam powered. Air travel is by hydrogen filled zeppelins. Most cities have gas lights and some have electricity. Two of the stories take place in the first decade after 1900 -- In one of these stories, one of the characters helps precipitate the American Revolution (120+ years late, but still over the same issues). The third story takes place some 40 years later. In the intervening years, the German Reich has conquered and occupied Britain. There are two major differences between our world and this alternate world: The first is that in their world magic is real. You can, in fact, study it at university and obtain a doctorate in thaumaturgy (Th.D.). It is a magic which involves spells, rituals, magic circles, alchemy, and wands, but one of the possible career paths open to an accredited sorcerer is criminal investigation. One of the characters is just that, a crown- appointed criminal investigator who uses magic to help solve crimes. The other difference is that "wampyr" (vampires) are real and vampirism is legal in most countries (except the American colonies where being a vampire or "harboring one" is a felony offense) Sunlight is fatal to wampyrs, but stakes, holy ground, and Christian artifacts (crucifixes, holy water) have no effect. In Europe, they"live" openly (if the "undead" can be said to live at all. . .) In the demimonde of wampyr society, each wampyr assembles a "court" of about 12-15 willing blood donors ("courtesans") on whom they feed by turns. All three books are what I call "a good read." They were well written, with well-rounded and appealing characters, and good plots. Truth to tell, I found it hard to put them down. The day after I finished the last book, it occurred to me, that's "steampunk."

I have to say, I think my Kindle reader was well worth the price. It's exactly as promised: Easy to operate, light and easy to hold, and if you turn it off each time you stop reading, one charge can last up to a month. The display is very eye-friendly. The only reason I haven't bought more Kindle books than I have is solely based on very limited funds, and having to stretch those funds as far as I can. If I see a book I want, I get the cheapest version available -- unfortunately, it's usually the used paperback version. But if it happens to be the Kindle version, then that's what I get. Of the Kindle versions of the three books I just mentioned -- two were only $2.99 apiece, and the third one was only $0.99. And you get practically instant gratification -- Once you press "buy," you'll have your book in the time it takes to send and receive an email!

Having a Kindle reader is like having your own private 3500-book library you can carry in your purse, backpack or briefcase. The price of the Kindle version is comparable to or better than the cost of the same book in a new dead tree (paper) version. However, I do want to emphasize that you do not have to have a Kindle reader to read books in Kindle format. Amazon.com has made a Kindle reading app available as a free download that works on a PC with Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. There are also Kindle apps (all of them free downloads) for iPhones, iPads, Androids, and Blackberries. The Kindle books you purchase are emailed to your reader of choice, and you can start out reading a book on one device and finish reading it on another device -- your place is electronically bookmarked. The free download conversion program "Calibre" lets you convert any DRM-free ebook format to one readable on a Kindle, which gives you quick access to Google books (many free), Project Gutenberg books (all free), and Calibre's catalog of books (some free). If you are a reader with limited bookshelf space or who travels frequently and you want to be environmentally responsible, a Kindle reader or reader app for your device of choice is something you should look into.

Having My Fridays on Tuesday

2011-06-07T17:42:00.000-05:00

Had a container of purple yogurt for breakfast (blueberry).   So smooth and cool going down. Ate it with a demitasse spoon to prolong the enjoyment. The forcast is for highs of 101 F/38 C til Friday, when it's supposed to cool down to 99 F/37 C. It's 5:30 in the afternoon, and its 100F/38 C and according to my weather widget, our relative humidity is a whopping 10%.

I should be working, really squirreling away, but my motivation bottomed out somewhere between the kitchen and my office. I have my TGIF's on Tuesday, and tomorrow I'm definitely sleeping in. A while ago, my now former supervisor called to tell me I'm going to have a new supervisor. (She's still working for the company, though.) They used to have one manager for the MTs and one for the editors (my former supervisor), but now they're dividing everyone up under "production managers" who will manage a group comprised of both MTs and editors.   Bummer. I really liked her. Also, it seems I will be dropping some accounts, and picking up others, so new accounts to have to learn all the nitpicky things the client wants. Nuts. Now I have to break in a new boss. . . Is it August yet?

In other news, many of my UK blog friends are gardeners. Serious gardeners, as in growing all their own fruits and veggies.   I saw this and thought of you.

The Definitive Littermaid Modification

2011-06-07T02:49:00.004-05:00

I had an earlier post about modifications I made to my Littermaid kitty poop box here and here, but now I believe I have finally gotten it perfected. So this will be the definitive post on the Littermaid modification. I recently got a new one -- with four cats for a year and three cats for two years, the electric eye finally gave out on the old one. Got this one off Amazon.com. I use the Mega because I have multiple cats, and my two (former) boy kitties are big boys.

The three selling points for my getting a Littermaid were -- (1) Even with three cats, you only need one poop box because (2) it scoops itself after every use -- which means I don't raise a lot of dust scooping three cat boxes every night of the world (a big plus for me since I have asthma), and (3) one 40 lb box of cat litter does for 3 cats for a whole month. The Littermaid will pay for itself within a year based on what you save in cat litter expenses. My first two cats were adult when I bought my first Littermaid, and they adapted to it very quickly. All three of the cats I have now were raised from kittens with the Littermaid being their poop box. There is a 10 minute delay in the scooping cycle so the cat is well clear of the box when it starts its cycle and the litter has had a chance to clump hard. (You do have to use "premium clumping litter.") After scooping, the rake smooths out the litter as it returns to its "home" position. The rake has a safety bar so that if it encounters an obstacle on its way back "home," just the slightest bump of the safety bar will stop the rake. The soiled litter is scooped into a lidded, plastic container that then closes, so odor is kept to a minimum. (I have seen my cats sit there and wait for the Littermaid to cycle so they can use a "fresh" box.) So here's the whole setup:

This is what it looks like fresh out of the box. It comes with a package of 12 disposable containers, each with its own lid. The grey thing on the right end is where the container goes. The grey bar on the left side is the rake assembly. That's the part that does the automatic scooping. You might can see a little dot in the middle of the top side wall. That's one of a pair of electronic eyes. The cat interrupts the beam between the electronic eyes by getting into the box to "do its thing." Ten minutes after the cat leaves the box, the scooping cycle happens. (The electronic eye work like the automatic doors at the grocery store.) The Littermaid comes with a little ramp for cleaning litter off paws but I don't use it because it goes on the end of the box and where I keep the Littermaid, I don't have room for it.

You have to cut the plastic ties that hold the rake assembly. It says use scissors, but wire snips work much better.
The Littermaid comes with a power cord that plugs into any household electrical outlet. The cord is at least a yard long. It has a little plug on the end that plugs into the outside rim on the rake side of the box. If you look carefully at the the part you plug into the wall, you will see a combination of letters and numbers stamped into the metal on the outside of one of the prongs. -- write it down. That's your serial number. You'll need it to register your product for warranty purposes.

But here's the cool thing. You can use a Littermaid in an RV or trailer even if you don't have a wall outlet because it will run off batteries. It takes eight AA batteries. I'd use rechargeable ones. It also comes with a scoop with teeth you can use to clean off the rake tines.

Now here's where we depart from the booklet of instructions. Instead of the little plastic containers, you need one of these (left) a Littermaid Receptacle Chute. Good ol' Amazon.com is where you can get one. It costs less than a dozen of the containers it replaces. You will need a container lid, however, unless you get one of these, which are out of stock as of this writing. The chute is what holds the trash bags, but more of that later.

The container/chute goes on the "business end" of the Littermaid, and is covered by the lid unless scooping is in progress. Here you see where it goes. You can also get a look at the rake tines.

The motor that drives the rake is a little high-pitched and whiny, but it is much quieter than the earlier models, and also has more "oomph." The lid isn't lifted until the rake is actually at the end of the box ready to deposit the clumps. If for some reason the rake cannot displace the clump (mine like to make a big pile of litter over their poop) The rake will make three attempts to shift it, and then stop and the red "on" light goes from steady red to blinking red. You will need to "manually" fix the problem, then restart it.

Now, here's where the good part comes in. I went to Wal-Mart and got one of those under-the-bed storage boxes with a lid that latches on each end (about $15). I set the Littermaid on top of it and marked where the container would sit. Then I cut that shape out of the lid.

Now I take a regular old draw string type 20 gallon size trash can liner, bring it up through the chute and turn it down over the sides. I use clips to hold the bag down. The chute has one long side that has a wide lip on it. That side goes under a little flange on the side of the Littermaid.

On the left is the Littermaid in place with no bag in. It's a straight shot down into the plastic storage box. On the right is the Littermaid with the chute and bag in. You'll want to spread the bag out under the chute so it can fill more easily. Now you won't have to change the bag for at least 3 weeks.

Next comes the lid. This is what the container lids look like and on the right is what it looks like installed. The new Littermaids come with packets of activated charcoal that you stick under the lid. (see below left.)
When the bag gets as full as you want to deal with -- a month's worth of clumps from three cats weighs about 40 lbs -- you unclip the sides of the bag from the chute, pull them up off the sides and pull the drawstring. You can then lift Littermaid and box lid up, set it aside, remove the "dirty" bag, put a new bag on and there you are.

Fifty 20-gallon trash bags are around $4-$5. A dozen Littermaid containers are about $20. You will need to keep an eye on the Littermaid though, to refill it with clean litter from time to time. Minimum and maximum fill lines are printed on both sides of the litter tray. (See left.)

Having the Littermaid up on the box like that does make it about 8 inches higher but enough of the box sticks out that it acts as a step. My white cat is 12, and he has no problem hopping in and out.

I will also mention that the rake easily detaches and the litter tray has latches on the sides so it can be dropped out for cleaning.

I change bags every three to four weeks -- and that's for three cats. Of course, if you just have one cat, you might want to go ahead and use containers, but line them with a plastic grocery bag. You might could go 4-5 days before you have to change bags. If you line them with grocery bags, one container could last you 5-6 months, and a dozen of them comes with the Littermaid.

Oh, and did I mention the white one likes boxes?

Cloudy -- But Are They The Right Kind?

2011-05-31T20:21:00.002-05:00

There's a thunderboomer icon on my weather widget but it's only partly cloudy. When I looked outside just now, the line from the Millay sonnet (XVII) came to mind: "A yellow darkness, sinister of rain." In six words, she captures that particular atmospheric effect exactly. Back at my computer, eating the supper I'd gone into the kitchen to fix, using blue corn chips to scoop up the refried beans covered with melted cheese, I hear a low rumble off to the west. I click on my browser and go to the Google Doppler radar widget. We're inside the red box of a severe thunderstorm watch, and there are evolving blobs that represent storms. They're south and west of us, and it looks like the two largest cells will miss us. But there is a little cell heading straight for us. "Severe storm" in our neck of the plains usually means "high winds and hail" -- as in chewed up trees and crops pounded to death. But, we're parched here, and hail melts. A squall of rain stampeding across the roof would be a welcome sound indeed.

Update: When I went out about 11 pm to check the mail, the sky was overcast, and I could feel "mizzle" in the air, with the occasional droplet, but that's the extent of it for now. Judging from the NEXRAD loop, all the fun stuff happened northeast of us.

How Do They Do That?

2011-05-31T01:33:00.002-05:00

I'll give you a clue. They are not wearing ice skates.

This is the Russian dance troupe "Berezka" (founded in 1948) performing a round dance called the "khorovod," which features the ensemble's trademark, inimitable step that was created by choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina. Upon joining the ensemble, dancers are told to keep the famous “floating step” technique a secret, and not to share it even with their family.

Now and again, I just take a little browse through Youtube just to see what I can turn up. This browse started with "Yidl Mitn Fidl," (including a version by the Budapest Klezmer Band sung in Yiddish with subtitles in French) which was close (but no cigar) to the tune Fanny Brice was singing at the start of Sunday's clip from the film "The Great Ziegfeld," and this clip is where I ended up. This time. Next time? Who knows?

(P.S., In case you haven't already figured it out, my tastes in music are rather eclectic.)

Requiem for a Mouse

2011-05-30T16:28:00.002-05:00

My sweet little Microsoft "laptop" mouse (left) has terminal scroll wheel malfunction. Now I have to use the huge clunky old Dell mouse (right) until I can get another one. Although the Microsoft mouse was marketed for use with a laptop, it has a standard USB plug. It fit my hand so nicely. I got it because it was little and light, and could be operated with just the fingers. Having to use the Dell mouse is like going from a race horse to an elephant.

Yesterday, my mom's digital camera finally bit the dust (the one with the battery compartment door latch that's been broken and the door held shut with a rubber band for a couple of years now). Good thing I told her to take me along when she goes to get a new one later this week. Where we're going to get it is where I got the Microsoft mouse. . . .

Stealth Laundry

2011-05-30T01:57:00.000-05:00

I decided to bite the bullet: About 7 oclock, I took a break, filled 5 ice trays and stashed them in the freezer, then nuked enough water in the microwave to brew a pitcher of tea. Then I stripped my bed and washed my bed linens. When I hung them on the line around 8:30, it was still light out, but it had cooled down to 92 F/33 C and there was a nice little breeze. By the time I'd taken my bath, washed my hair and washed the second load of clothes, the sheets were dry. When I hung the second load out, it was nearly 11 oclock, fully dark, and a balmy 85 F/29 C. The humidity was up to a sopping 37%, and the wind had picked up. I've put the clean sheets on the bed now, and I'll work until about 1:30 or 2 AM, then nip out and bring in the laundry, in the dark of the moon. . .

Will Trade Heat For Rain

2011-05-29T17:20:00.004-05:00

It's 2 oclock of a Sunday afternoon here in the flatlands. It's 103 F/39 C outside, with 7% humidity. Every ceiling fan in the house is on speed 2. Even with my thermostat set at 80 F/27 C, my AC has been running most of the day. (Oh, my aching electricity bill!) I really need to do 2 loads of clothes, but it's too dang hot to go outside to hang them up (although they'd probably dry in about 20 minutes). What's worse, though, is that yesterday I should have made a big pitcher of iced tea and about 5 trays of ice cubes, but I didn't.

Not even June yet, and it's already hotter than a $2 pistol firing uphill. On my weather widget, there's a thunderboomer icon for Tuesday. Don't I wish! Our year to date rainfall for 2011 is 0.88 inches. I sweated more than that taking out the garbage last night.

For your Sunday delectation, a little bagatelle I found on Youtube (amazing what you can find there!). That's William Powell playing Florenz Ziegfeld. Guess who's playing Fanny Brice. (Hint: It isn't Barbara Streisand).

As I was preparing the links for the video, I realized that Fanny Brice died 60 years ago today.

How It Is Right Now

2011-05-27T19:35:00.001-05:00

I think many of you have caught on that my job is in the medical profession. It's called medical transcription: The doctor dictates hospital and clinic records, and the medical transcriptionist types what he says. These documents get printed out and go on a patient's chart. When I first started in 1986, I was typing, to the tune of at least 65,000 characters a day, 5 days a week, which amounts to a minimum of 325,000 characters a week, week in and week out.

Usually what goes first on a medical transcriptionist is the wrist: Carpal tunnel syndrome. However, I came into the profession with an Achilles' heel. I had scarlet fever at the ripe old age of 21. The problem with scarlet fever is "over kill" -- your body's immune cells not only kill the strep germs, but anything that looks like them, which includes the tissues that form heart valves and the cartilaginous tissue that forms the joint surfaces. I was very lucky, in that I suffered no heart damage ("rheumatic fever"). However, I did get some joint damage. Unfortunately, it was in the small joints of my fingers.

Long about 1998, the constant stress on my finger joints of typing 16,900,000+ characters a year had gotten to the point that I was seriously considering leaving the profession that had been so good to me. That's when I found out about medical editing. It was a way to stay in the profession and continue to do a job that suited me down to the ground (except the typing part -- I've never been all that fast, really. I max out at about 80-83 wpm.)

Up until 1999, I had been working for local hospitals, first on site, in the hospital's medical records department, then as computer technology became more sophisticated, I bought a computer and started working from home. Finally in 1999, I got the break I needed. I got a job with a national transcription service. I had to transcribe for them for 6 months, but then I was eligible to become a medical editor -- and I've been one ever since.

A medical editor's job is two-fold. We proof the document to sound, making sure what the transcriptionist typed is what the doctor said and that it's all spelled and punctuated correctly. We also fill in blanks that the transcriptionist couldn't "get." To do well in medical transcription, you've got to be able to filter out background noise and foreign accents, so that what's left is the information that needs to get on the page. -- That's where my gift lies. I have what is termed a "good ear."

Becoming a medical editor has allowed me to continue in a profession that I'm not only good at but that I love. Unfortunately, now and again, I have to transcribe. It's part of the job description of a medical editor that when the editors run out of work, they have to transcribe. Usually that doesn't happen very often. Unfortunately, it's happening now. National transcription services draw their personnel from all over the country. However, the extensive flooding and tornadoes have taken out enough phone lines and otherwise made it impossible for enough transcriptionists to work that it has seriously impacted the company's ability to return documents to their clients in a timely manner. So now we're all under mandatory overtime, and every editor has to transcribe 10 documents after they finish their editing shift. There's no telling how long this situation will continue.

So, this post is an explanation as to why I won't be posting very regularly for a while, and while I'll still be reading all your blogs, I might not be making very many comments. However, if you see something like this ((o)) in a comment. You'll know I've read that post, and left behind a "pebble" to show I was there.