Sandra enjoys some of the free on-demand television series which can be viewed over the interweb. Down under, one is funded by the government, the other is part funded by both government and advertising. I’ve noticed a trend in her viewing which includes both German and Scandinavian noir. Hmm, dark tales which would leave me with nightmares for weeks. I’m simply not man enough for such exciting narratives. But it’s an equal opportunity thing for my lady, and the folks on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Americans, also pump out some super scary content. I can’t watch that either, and on a more personal level find it deeply weird that the protagonist of the series “You” has the same personality type as my own. I’m much nicer, unless people really p#ss me off, err, sorry, I meant to type, annoy me deeply.
My personality type gets such a bad rap and seems to go from one extreme to the other. There was that mustachio’d German bloke in WWII who caused so much havoc. You have to admit that he had a rather stupid looking moustache. But then on the other end was, Mahatma Gandhi, who had equal parts good and kooky ideas. People don’t mention the kooky ideas in these enlightened days, and what’s with looking like he needed a solid feeding? You don’t see me skipping my meals! Far out! My favourite is the fictional Jane Eyre, who for her own reasons threw herself into a ditch after the dastardly Mr Rochester did the dirty on her. Spoiler alert: She got the upper hand in the end. You go Jane! Respect.
Anyway, one of the kooky things about my personality wiring, is that I love to write. Regular readers by now would have become aware of this fact. It is a pleasure to sit at the computer night after night and bang away on stories and/or missives. So there I was on Monday night tapping away at the keyboard. Sandra had plans to watch an episode of ‘Nurse Jackie’, as you do – except the screen was black with a little worm chasing it’s tail in some sort of strange circulating motion.
Such wormy iconography is projected onto screens as a pacifying tool. Please be patient whilst the worm seeks its tail and the computer does whatever it is meant to be doing. Except the sorcerous monster continued on its mysteriously never ending journey for far too long. A call was placed with the resident tech geek, i.e. me.
Upon closer inspection, with some wangling of the various interweb settings, I determined that the ad-blocker and cookie tracker protection were the cause of the black screen of television series on-demand death. The moment of truth had arrived, Sandra had to make the decision to enjoy the entertainment, take the advertisements and corporate stalking for her own good, or do something else with her time. The fictional character of Nurse Jackie, who seems to be a lot of trouble, would probably approve of the viewer stitch-up!
A quick lesson on how to switch the protection settings off, then on again, took a few minutes. The entertainment continued. I returned to writing. The incident did provoke some empathy, for clearly the provider was in a bind and most likely needed the advertising revenue. Their marketing targeting is way off! Last I checked Sandra has no need for incontinence pads, pensioner insurance, and / or cruises. The aged care provider showing off the hot young gardener whilst two elderly ladies look on in admiration was hardly realistic. I’ve met people who do gardening for a living, and they don’t look like that. Oh well, it’s probably all just revenue to the provider.
We live in such an odd world nowadays. A few days ago, the state government locked down all of the coastal and eastern extreme parts due to fears of bird flu spreading. In reality, what that means is that people can’t move their avian pets, poultry etc from those areas. Last I checked, birds can fly vast distances and probably couldn’t give a toss for the disease control areas. They’ll do what they do, just like that bloke from the “You” series did. Fun fact: interweb forums suggest that fictional character also has my personality type. We are not amused, for he seemed like a bit of trouble as well. Whatever, getting back to bird flu, it is a well known fictional trope, that someone always breaks quarantine, but in this flu case, my gut feeling suggests that it won’t be a human.
A lot of the controls and surveillance stuff getting implemented, looks pretty stupid to me, but I guess it makes people who are meant to be in control, look like they’re doing something. Anyway, if the systems are all that great, then how come some idiot in the US managed to put a few fake transactions onto a never used credit card last week? Now that was a truly odd moment and candidly made me wonder if the banksters had been hacked, yet they weren’t telling, or hadn’t realised.
Fortunately the nice banksters fixed everything up – a week after the charges hit the card, but the incident stole a few hours of our day. The card was cancelled, the charges disputed, and it was just one big hassle. At least we’ve learned we can physically bar all international transactions. Take that ye pesky miscreants! The story the banksters told me was that the hackers use arty-fish-al intelligence to run random combinations of credit card numbers, until they hit the jackpot. My lucky numbers apparently came up. It’s like winning the lotto, but losing all at the same time. This nonsense would be easy to stop, and on this interweb site I run a program which blocks bots that attempt to access it too quickly. How hard is that? Those botheads need to slow down and chill out for a bit. Sheez.
Guess we’re all taking baby steps in this strange new world. My hope is that the tech bros run out of mad cash sooner rather than later. It’d save the everyday person some hassles, but might cost them heaps in lost investments, err, sorry, expenditures. But until then, and also after then, I’ll continue to write, Sandra will enjoy her noir series, and we’ll remain content here in our remote eyrie.
The weather for most of this week was superb for forest clean up work. That’s what we do at this time of the year. We pick an area and remove most of the dead saplings. The small deceased trees can’t compete with the much larger trees, so they grow to around 20m / 66ft before then dying off. The thing is, the young upstarts get their revenge on the old and tall trees by providing heaps of fuel for forest fires. If a fire gets hot enough, everything carks it and even the soil gets sterilised. It’s not nice, so best if they’re harvested for firewood.
Often the roots of those tree have rotted, and they can be pushed over, by hand. When that isn’t possible, I fell the small tree, grind out the stump and collect the logs in a big pile. In September, I’ll cut those lengths up into firewood sized logs and store them away under cover. Being dead and air dried, they’re ready to be used now if necessary – which due to good planning, isn’t needed.
Once the stumps are ground down, the area is mowed. It looks a bit rough now, but in two years time it will be amazing to see. The local wildlife keeps a close watch on our activities in case we turn up any tasty grubs, which is often the case.
During the clean up work, we often discover the remnants of over a century of logging activities, and did that lot leave a mess or what? You’d imagine that with all of the big bulldozer machines they clearly used, a few extra minutes of activity would be spent burning off the tree stumps littered through the forest? But no, and we also find discarded beer bottles! Why clean up after oneself? Well, I am bothered, and cleaned up a few of each of them this week.
A few months ago I completely reconditioned the fuel system on the fifteen year old large chainsaw, and it runs at beast mode nowadays. The tree stumps are very dirty timber which necessitates a lot of chain sharpening, but nobody said this would be easy work.
The remnants are remarkably heavy, wet and dense. When they can be moved, we load them into a power wheelbarrow and dump them onto a bonfire.
After many hours, the bonfire usually burns down to quite a small size. We use the very smallest of the dead trees as fuel, otherwise the large chunks of cut timber will struggle to burn – at this time of year. In summer, they’d go off like a frog in a sock!
Observant readers may notice in the background to the above photos, just how many dead saplings grow in this particular flat-ish area of the property. It’s an unusual forest arrangement. I’m guessing they all got off to a good start over a couple of wet years. Then the inevitable dry year came along, and the big trees outcompeted them, all of them. Here is a big tree which was clearly damaged in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires which only just brushed through the land here.
Reducing the fire risk, protecting the larger and older trees (which have the hollows that provide housing), plus creating opportunities for edible ground-cover plants the forest critters will enjoy eating, are one part of this story. The other is that the forest pays us for this service in rocks. Some of those are rather large, and will be awesome for the garden:
Might need to split that one in half. But the sheer volume of rocks recovered, is remarkable and will be put to most excellent use when the warmer weather returns later this year.
By Sunday, the rains had returned as a storm swept up from Antarctica. Such weather suggests to me that the frozen icy continent is rather cold! The monster picked up moisture over the Southern Ocean as it moved north. Probably cold there too. Brr!
Rugged up against the cold, I spent most of the day in the machinery shed fixing and servicing many of the machines we rely on for the work done around here. One of the machines is something of a lemon. I don’t know whether the machine was damaged during manufacture, or due to carelessness when serviced long ago, but it’s been a pain. The original bolts holding the ignition coil into place, were threaded. I’d replaced those a year ago when I discovered the cause of the continuing starting problems. The positioning of the coil was then reset, but the thing had slipped again and the machine would not start. This time around I added some plumbing tape to the bolt threads and gave the coil a little bit more breathing space in its setting. This extra gap may burn the coil out quicker than it was designed to, but at least the machine will run. What a nuisance.
The rest of the machines only needed minor things attended to here and there. No big deal.
Anyway, warmer weather is on its way, and the Manchurian Pear has popped out lots of buds and will soon be full of blossoms.
One of the Almond trees has broken dormancy way too early. There are a few flying insects around, but not nearly enough to justify all of the blossoms.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 5’C (41’F). So far for this year there has been 810.6mm (31.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 757.0mm (29.8 inches)
Comments
35 responses to “World peace and Total Surveillance”
Yo, Chris – Not quit German noir, but sort of. The Editor might enjoy “Vienna Blood.” The setting is early 1900s Vienna. What’s not to like? Crusty old police detective and his side kick. An up and coming psychiatrist, who is a disciple of Freud.
Our library has “You.” I took a look at the description, and thought … No. I’ve been tempted by Nurse Jackie, but haven’t pulled the trigger.
Maybe the whole idea of personality types, needs another look? Smacks a bit of pop psychology.
Oh, I don’t know about landscapers. Ours set the curtains twitching and the lady Inmates hearts a pitter patter. 🙂 Two smoldering Latins and a ginger Viking.
I get two publications, from the AARP. American Association of Retired Persons. Every issue has at least one article about scams to watch out for. As adipated old people are often the target.
That’s a lot of potential firewood. And, I see you know the proper way to tend a fire. Keep pushing branches and logs, toward the center. Previous experience in the Australian Scouts? More likely, from your grandfather.
Rocks, rocks, glorious rocks! 🙂 Might want to leave a few, as interesting landscape features. Sure works for the Japanese. And what’s that shapely little tree that you’ve sparred?
I stand in awe of your machine prowess. A regular machine whisperer.
Well, the flowers surely indicate that spring is on the way. Even if some of your trees have jumped the gun. Lew
Hi Margaret,
No worries at all, I check for duplicated comments manually and feel free to click on the post comment button as often as you like! 🙂 I’d describe the software as good enough, this whole reaching for perfection business is over rated!
Well that’s the thing isn’t it? We all have triggers for this and that disease, and who ever really knows what act or habit may cause themselves to come unstuck? Ultimately our fate is sealed, but this societal penchant for presenting at any age at one’s lowest liveable weight is frankly bizarre. I’m an older fella now and intend to just be myself. The old timers had it right, a person needs a bit of reserves for when they’re put to the ultimate test.
You have my sympathy and compassion for your clearly loved sister Kathleen is fading away.
I’m real sorry to mention that, but the process with those things people love to take, kind of looks the like possibly same path. It’s been my observation that people achieve acceptance and warmth, by being accepting and warm. I’ve had some friends who’ve passed away that are missed because they were just lovely and fun people to be around. How they presented to the world, was a secondary consideration.
I’d not realised that about Marty. It would have been a doubly nice thing for your nephew to take him out onto the water so that he could pursue his passion. And the group you mentioned are equally delightful and caring. Respect.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Your thoughtful series recommendation, has been passed onwards. And! The Editor had heard of the series and will give it a go. It’s on the streaming service with the advertisements. 🙂
Man, I couldn’t watch the: “You” series either, the bloke seemed like bad news. Although, we were talking about this point today, and apparently the actor gets correspondence which sort of suggests he’d be perfect relationship material – which astounded him. What the heck? Oh well, moving on. The Editor talks up the ‘Nurse Jackie’ series, although you should be aware that the protagonist has addiction issues which from our perspective, were treated as a: ‘what do I need to do or say to continue with a business as usual’ approach. I’m sure you’d have met such folks? A dark tale that one, but the Editor suggests is well worthy of your time.
All very true, and the same thing could possibly be said about that entire psych profession and body of knowledge. That in no way devalues the work those folks do, and hey, I sought help to process my unusual childhood as a very young adult. I see such pop psych systems though as more of a framework with which to divine people’s motives based on a rough guide as to the sort of person that they exhibit. And from that perspective, the hits are greater than the misses. It kind of unlocks some universal truths as to the old school comprehension of: ‘character’. An unfashionable concept in this day and age, but it never went away, did it?
Hehe! Well, there’s always the exceptions aren’t there? Thanks for the laughs. Years ago I was at a pub quietly observing two middle age ladies chatting up the personable young bartender. As a disinterested bystander, the differences in expectations between the two groups, was not lost on me.
Yeah, always wise to be alert for scams, and also aware of the potentialities. I reckon the most effective scams work on people’s need for greed. High returns, often come with risk. That’s common knowledge, but who said that great one liner about people ignoring negative information when it came to their income?
No shortage of firewood here for personal usage. I spot folks cruising around the area looking for firewood opportunities, and shame I can’t put their energy to good use. Oh well, such is the system. Actually, as a a very young bloke I did a pharmacy round and home delivered medicines on my bicycle mostly to older and infirm folks. On Saturday mornings they’d get me to burn off their packaging in an incinerator out the back. Hard to believe that I was unsupervised, but that was actually the case. My how times have changed!
No worry there about leaving some rocks. There are plenty of Moby rocks lurking here and there. I’ve got zero chance of ever recovering those monsters. Given enough time, they’ll naturally split apart or break down into soil minerals anyway. You can see where the lava flows went through the land way back in time, by merely following where the rocks are now.
Thanks! And I owe a great debt to utoob for access to all of the enthusiasts gathered in that space. Also, foreign languages are too much for my brain, but! To my way of thinking, comprehending how machines work is kind of like learning their language. I must add though, that the cost for parts has gone up of late, mostly due to freight. It’s much the same story as with books, and sadly, demand destruction is a thing. I just try to keep enough spare parts so as to keep going. But who really knows what part is simple, and which has been missed?
Well, it’s funny you mention that about the ‘free shipping’ but I’ve been altering my searches for stuff like parts, to take into account the combined price, as well as the nearest supplier. You can kind of navigate a few savings that way. And yup, the social scores in that realm, tell a person all they need to know. There’s a lot of drop shippers in that digital space.
Lewis, we looked long and hard at the bookcase which arrived flatpack in the mail and was horrified by the low quality. The design on the other hand, was amazing and took something we could make in directions which may never have been. All up, mad cash well spent, but I don’t reckon the thing which turned up, is even donatable worthy.
Ha! No stained glass here. 🙂 But thanks for the suggestion. Agreed with the clouding, and I’ll avoid acrylic and try and instead use some tougher polycarbonate sheets. I know, glass is best.
Always wise to remain well fed, and I too reach for a similar state of being. The forestry work, like hauling and placing rocks, is some of the physically most demanding things we do around here. Anzac biscuits are wonderful to provide an energy boost at just the right time.
Your weather sounds lovely, although hope the smoke has dissipated? Record August rainfalls fell in parts of this state and also the state of South Australia over to the west. We headed an hours drive north to stock up on some honey and apples, but there was no walk to be done in that weather! Rivers were at flood levels and paddocks looked like swamps. It wasn’t too bad here, but some of the local creeks looked rather high. It was awful seeing peoples livestock out in the rain, or not in paddocks on higher ground, but you can’t solve other folks problems. All up, a remarkably wet day.
Sir Poopy used to have this trick when being ordered out of the kitchen. He’d leave, and then immediately return with a face which said: I’d did what you told me to do! H is clearly of a more sensible disposition. And she would have loved the tuna can juice.
Oh, that’s no good about your local blueberries, and I don’t recall you mentioning in the past that they’ve been smaller. It happens, and conditions can vary. Did the master gardeners say anything about water on the bushes? But it might be a problem, especially with the irrigation mucking around of late.
Agreed, Robins tend to hunt insects down here as well. It’s kind of like having the Fairy Wrens bouncing through the garden beds – they’re working for us. Birds often have complaints about present conditions they’d like to share and see you do something about. Imagine the angst a T-Rex would have had! 🙂
Me too, the difference between the pumpkin flowers is lost on me, but as long as they get pollinated, I’m unfussed at the lack of knowledge. Before you know it, those other local Triffids will produce some monster marrows.
I so hear you about the lack of growing space, and because of all of the work done on the new firewood shed earlier in the year, the winter crops are not up to snuff, as the old timers used to say. Is there a perfect? I’m yet to encounter the beast, but if you do, please let me know! 😉 You can’t do everything, and with limited space in your instance, it means pulling out still ripening crops. I’ve not yet worked out this issue, but am thinking about it and trialling approaches (although missed the boat as they say this year).
Agreed, the landrace goal should be local resilience over purity. It’s an awesome subject, and I’ve made that plant in-breeding mistake in the past with not enough plants. We’re kind of producing more each year, but with a lesser number of species. If all of the neighbours were involved, it’d be a no-brainer, but as far as I’m aware, they ain’t interested.
Ouch, and the sociability will return again in time. Is the counter installed yet?
Oh! Oh well, they’re not great, and for those reasons. When one of the toilet gaskets leaked a year or so back, the entire contraption pan, seat and water dispenser thing had to be replaced. And that was when I discovered the issues with the original installation which had been sub contracted. Hmm. I so hear you man. Not good, is it? Don’t laugh, but I’ve seen toilets with digital displays and asked the hard question: “What’s that all about?” Heated seat apparently…
Yup! Best avoided, if possible. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’d call “Vienna Blood,” German Noir Light. 🙂 Maybe because it’s in English?
Well, women write, and even marry men who are on death row. What’s the upside of that?
Oh, I get Nurse Jackie. Business as usual. I did that for about ten years. I knew I was alcoholic, but I was a functional alcoholic! 🙂 Until it wasn’t business as usual anymore and not very functional.
Oh, I think psychology and psychiatry can have value. But I tend to be a bit skeptical of some of the stuff I read about. Back when I was in the book biz, besides the “diet of the month,” there was also the monthly psych craze. TM, TA, EST, etc. etc.. Something new coming down the pike, all the time. I read a few of them, and found if I could pull out one good idea, it was a surprise. I do think Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a pretty good course of treatment. Makes more sense, to me, than a lot of the other stuff.
I think, besides greed, a lot of scams people fall into is because they want to follow the rules, or, help other people. The scam perpetrated on you, had nothing to do with greed on your part.
Oh, for the good old days of incinerators. Or, at least, burn barrels. Our dumpster room was a perfect shambles, this morning, due to the amount of cardboard. There’s a trolly they push out, once a week, for recycled cardboard. But this week, the amount was far beyond anything that could be handled in that manner. Who knows why? And, someone, in their infinite wisdom, had piled a bunch of cardboard in front of the dumpster. I wondered if the garbage man would even bother to empty it. But he did. After tossing aside all that stuff piled up in front.
Unless the seller is using the shipping as a profit center. I think I’ve mentioned a certain seed company, which is just south of Portland, has outrageous. shipping charges. The nursery I use, is in the same general vicinity, and charges about half of what the other seed company does.
Ah, I hadn’t realized you’d already gotten the … poor quality barristers bookcase. I saw one in a mystery series, last night, a “three stacker.” Taking a quick look at the hardware on offer, it looks like quality varies quit a bit. Yes, plastic would be better. When you open or close the doors, if you lose your grip, and it slams shut … well, glass often breaks.
Our high yesterday was 79F (26.11C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 78F. The smoke is gone, but I think there’s still quit a bit, aloft. Sunsets look pretty hazy. The weather you’re having, now, sounds like what we often have here.
I never talk down to H, or yell at her, but occasionally, I have to use my “stern” voice with her. When we sit and watch the bees, the path in front of us, where she sits, is wood chips. I have to keep an eye on her, as she wants to eat them. Who knows why. It’s why I occasionally call her Hoover, as she’ll put anything in her mouth.
I saw the Master Gardeners, this morning, and “suggested” they up the water on the blueberries. Don’t know if they will, or not. I’ve decided to top up the twelve bags I’ve got in the freezer, with frozen berries from Winco. I am so over fiddling with blueberries. 🙂 I’ll probably still pick some from our patches, but, the pressure will be off.
The fellow who wrote the landrace gardening book said that he lives in a cold valley, in the desert. Commercial seed just didn’t do well there. So, he trialed local landrace seed and got a lot better results. Which led him to trial, and explore the whole idea.
I’ll be interested to see what’s been accomplished, at the Club, in the last week. I’ll stop by, tomorrow. No great expectations, on my part. Lew
Hi, Chris!
All hail! The power’s out again.
Geez, Chris – you have scared me with that title.
Pam
@ Claire,
From last week. Thanks. The Princess and I both appreciate your concern. It’s a good group that meets here!
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh poop! No power, again! How’s things going on that front today? To be honest, the big Antarctic storm Sunday and Monday produced very little solar electricity for two days, and the batteries are in the 40% range tonight. Oh well, that’s what they are there for.
How’s the generator going? And hope it’s not too hot and humid. Youchie!
Sorry about the title! I was being a bit err, as they used to say: tongue-in-cheek, and that’s what you get by being cheeky. Me a bit tired tonight, just spent almost an hour fixing the audio on Sandra’s computer – which now thankfully works.
It’ll be a late dinner tonight.
How’s your general area coping with the lack of electricity?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yeah, probably. 🙂 That particular language is not known for its romantic poetry. Intensity, yes. It’d be a big stretch of the imagination to suggest that Wagner was a chilled out dude! The Editor had seen advertisements for the Vienna Blood show and your recommendation tipped the scales, so to speak. Report to follow, the first episode is on the cards for tonight, and Nurse Jackie was completed yesterday. A fascinating insight into a dark world, and from conversations I gleaned that an assertive sociopath took down the turbulent sociopath. If one views the character interactions as an insight into the more extreme versions of humanity, there is a lot of meat in the narrative.
You know, I’ve wondered about that issue as well, and here we can delve into the world of pure speculation, but I reckon some ladies enjoy the protective aspects of a truly scary partner. And then, I’m guessing others enjoy the idea of a relationship with said scary and soon to be deceased dude, without having to put up with the practical realities which may arise from having such an extreme person in the immediate vicinity. Dunno, but yeah, such male hapless individuals receive offers. Makes no sense to me.
Respect for eventually knowing when aspects of life were no longer working and having the courage to try something different. Spoiler alert, Nurse Jackie didn’t make it that far. Tell ya a funny story with the video games, for some unknown reason I decided after the switch from hippy dippy school to the very uptight grammar mob and a lot of time and hiding out with computers, to step back into the world. So I went for a walk, which took me through a park, and this is so weird, but during the walk I had a chance encounter with a kid I’d known in early primary school despite being many suburbs away. We ended up chatting and then hanging out, and I slowly got back into the world. How do such things even happen? It was a one in a million moment. So weird, yet the goings on around us, take their own course, and ours is to learn to sink or swim, but always is there a life raft, just at the edge – calling.
Man, I’m so with you on that stuff. Treat them as a tool, and if you get one good idea from any of those sources you mentioned, then you’re ahead. That’s my exact take with them as well. I reckon the problem with a lot of that psych stuff is that there is no one answer or method which covers all the ground, it’s the proverbial grab bag. Too bad, so sad for them even if they believe they have the answer to everything. Funnily enough, and I’ve mentioned this to you before but the first I heard of EST was in an REM song: REM – Country Feedback – best live version. It still awes me to think that I saw them perform locally in 1995.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has a lot of good about it. Yup.
The scam came out of the blue, with no action on my part. Bit of a nuisance really, and all quite random. Thanks for saying that too. One those things in life that are best nipped in the bud, and early.
Hehe! I’ve seen people use burn barrels even today in rural areas. Take a 44 gallon drum… Incinerators were traditionally made out of cinder block down under and usually sat way down deep in the backyard where nobody could see the thing.
Since we’re talking rubbish (your cardboard abuse of the commons drama), yesterday diesel fuel was AU$2.70 a litre at the pump (or US$7.18 a gallon). I observed a bloke filling up what you’d call a truck, and I’d describe as a dual cab ute (for utility vehicle – i.e. it’s got a tray like your Ranger). He worked for the council, and it had a diesel motor and the 68 litres was something crazy like AU$180! Made me glad that I drive a small efficient car. Anywhoo, a while ago the state goobermint ordered all local councils to implement a fourth bin for residents specifically for glass (I am not involved in that system) and about half of the council areas have refused to sign on. With the need for an extra lot of diesel fuel powered trucks to pick the bins up, I reckon that demand might fizzle out. Dunno. I’m wondering how much longer even three bins continue to get picked up?
Well that’s true about making mad cash on the shipping costs. I must admit to applying a flat cost for shipping which is slightly higher than the postage, mostly because sometimes packaging materials have to also be purchased. Although recently I’ve been using scrunched up newspaper as a protective barrier for items – it can absorb a few bumps and shocks.
But yes, I’ve been stung on shipping when it can’t be combined for multiple purchases – which happens with spare parts. Oh well, read more carefully next time is the advice I give to myself. It happened the other day, and I’m sure the supplier was well pleased with the result.
I recall you mentioning the seed company. Hmm. The Editor bought some herbs for the dogs in bulk online, and discovered that it was easier just to head into the bricks and mortar store. For some weird reason, that mob has an online ordering system, and when they get around to fulfilling the orders. Hmm. It’d been two weeks, and nothing. Oh well…
I was curious to see how the barristers bookcases worked, and had this vague idea that maybe the cheapie item was actually good. Of course a person can be wrong, as was the case here. That’s my thinking with the glass versus the polycarbonate issue, the plastic will cloud, but be less likely to break. I don’t believe that there is a perfect path through that maze of choice. We’ve all been there with dropping something delicate and watching it sadly smoosh.
Glad to hear that you aren’t being assaulted by the smoke. And it rained again today, but I was indoor for all of it and hardly noticed what was going on outside. Actually I got home pretty late. And then had to fix the Editors’ computer, the sound card had gone a bit wonky and no longer worked for recording. Turns out it was both a hardware and software issue, just to make the fix far from simple. Oh well, it’s all sorted out now. She records podcasts to listen to later, such as when driving.
Always wise to be firm and consistent with dogs, they respect the assertiveness. I have yelled at the dogs, but generally it’s because I’d turned my back for a second, and discovered that they’re a quarter of a mile away. That’s not right and a person needs to project their voice, although I’m mostly softly spoken.
Ollie chews on sticks too. It’s good for the dogs teeth, but probably not all that great if they swallow the timber chunks.
🙂 A dude has to know his limits, and your blueberry limits have clearly been reached! Agreed, a wise decision to take the plunge and then move on with your life. We’re juggling things all the time too, and sometimes an activity has just gone on for long enough.
Hmm. The landrace dude is very astute to have tested the purchased seeds in his sub fluffy optimal locale. Been there, and done that, and seeds grown on the warm mainland of Australia, don’t do all that well here up in the cold damp mountainous areas. Sometimes you’ve gotta take matters into your own hands with this stuff. I was fortunate to get to know some local gardeners who were also seed savers.
Hope the visit to the Club produces a few good chats and some coffee.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I know you’re a big, rabid Harry Potter fan 🙂 , so you may find this article, interesting.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/10/travel/harry-potter-dobby-grave-cable-diversion-intl-scli
Your peek-a-boo photo reminds me of that Greek Myth about the Symplegades aka Cyanean Rocks. I thought it was from the “Odyssey,” and, it may or may not be. But actually, it’s from “Jason and the Argonauts.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplegades
Vienna, in that time period, was quit the glittering city. And, they had great pastry nosh! Still do, according to reports. I’ve always been interested due to the art that came out of that place, in that period. I have a few pieces of Austrian Art Nouveau that I’m quit fond of. A copper and brass four piece smoke set, and a few pieces of glass. A small bronze sculpture of “The bookworm.” A portly little fellow, with books and manuscripts, in hand, and spilling out of this pockets. Only about four inches tall.
Coincidence? We’ve talked before about how life can go veering off in odd directions. But I can see how one can think that more is going on in the world, or outside it.
Talk about pop psychology … we have a magazine here, that’s been printed since 1967. “Psychology Today.” I see it’s still in print form, bi-monthly. I can’t say I’ve pursued a lot of copies, over the years, but I have seen a few. Always something interesting about the brain or behaviors.
That is a great song by REM. I looked up the lyrics, just to see if my “take” on it, was perhaps spot on. My take is: crazy girlfriend, but a lot of codependency. 🙂 Curb side psychological analysis, on the fly.
Of course, one can’t have incinerators, or burn barrels in town. Air quality, and all that. If we had an incinerator, here at the Institution, we’d have to keep a lock on it. As with the long ago attempt at a compost heap, all kinds of stuff would end up in it, that shouldn’t. Sometimes, when things get as out of hand as they did the other day, the maintenance guy makes a dump run.
“Tray” = US, “truck bed.” I wonder if the library will be cutting back on courier deliveries? So far, it doesn’t seem so. The Chehalis branch gets two a week.
I’m going to get gas, tonight. That ought to be interesting.
LOL. The infamous “shipping and handling.” I had quit a go-around, with shipping, this weekend. I had a package that was “out for delivery,” on Friday. It didn’t show, so I started investigating. In the first place, I had requested it be sent by US post, but, it was one of the major carriers. Also, they claimed that the address was wrong. Investigation proved, yesterday, it was. Did I type it in wrong when I ordered, or did the shipper? Anywho, over the weekend, I went to their site to correct the address. They wanted me to sign up for an account, before moving forward. I think not. After a couple of days of fiddling around, I finally hit on a “talk to an agent.” So, in not too long, I actually got a call. From someone who obviously spoke English as a second language. But, apparently, the information got through, and I got my package on Monday. It was a fraught weekend, with it on my mind, a lot.
You can deconstruct the cheap-o barrister bookcase, which I’m sure you’re doing. We’ve talked before about how I occasionally had to do that, with a piece of antique furniture. It’s a real learning experience.
Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Our forecast high for today is 79F. Cool and overcast. Quit pleasant.
I noticed, this morning, my first pumpkin. A green ball about the size of a tennis ball. Of course, as with most of that family, it may get a start and then fall off. Might be poor pollination, too warm a temperature or inconsistent watering.
Dawg got a bath, yesterday. I’ll take her to get her claws trimmed, tomorrow. We drove up to the Club. A lot of people she, and I, hadn’t seen in awhile. She did her usual meet and greet, but was torn by the desire to explore every corner of the new Club.
I didn’t see too much progress, but, the carpet for the entire place had been cleaned. A big job. I don’t drink coffee, when there. They’re dealing with one or two drip pots, and I’d rather leave that for the meetings. So, I came home and made myself a couple of cups.
Besides gas, I’ll head to Winco, tonight. I’ve got a list … :-). Lew
Chris,
Hey, you got rain! Congrats. We’d still be happy with a drop of rain or three. Nothing really forecast in the 15 day forecast. The record is 80 consecutive days without measurable rainfall set in 2017. We might equal or even surpass that this year. Today was day 42.
The Spokane fires are now all mostly contained. All evacuation notices were cancelled the past two days. Residents of burned homes were warned that anything left standing is probably unstable and dangerous. The fires on the Rez are getting under control. All family is back in their homes.
That Akita probably outweighs Dame Avalanche by 40 pounds. I’d put my money on the Dame anyways. She is QUICK and knows how to use that to her advantage.
Yeah, 4 a.m. Dunno if the sun is up or not. Something was brightening the eastern sky, but what it was, I don’t know. I remember a scene from the John Wayne movie “The Cowboys”. It’s pitch black out, sky is filled with stars. The boys are all sleeping snugly in their bedrolls. Suddenly, John Wayne’s character yells. “Rise and shine! Move ’em out! We’re burning daylight!” One of the boys says softly to one of his friends, “Burning daylight! How? Where’s the sun?” My sentiments exactly.
One of this week’s pictures reminds me of a song. Hmm, how did that go? Oh, yeah: “Kookaburra sits on the Japanese mower, etc.” But the big question that the Princess had is, “Did the bird laugh?”
I see that you have the technique for burning long pieces of wood. Set on top of the fire. Push in from the ends when it burns through. Repeat as necessary. Add stumps when the fire is hot. Sadly, you have enough dead saplings to last forever on your forest clearing project.
I can almost hear another song starting up. Almost but not quite. Big rocks and rockpiles. Or is that another name for a band?
There are certain types of movies I cannot watch. “Clockwork Orange” “Exorcist” and “Amityville Horror” are three that I know better than to even attempt to watch. “Nurse Jackie”? Not my type of series. I’ve known too many “functional addicts”, so no to that type of series.
Right this moment, the Princess has “Con Air” on the telly. I’ve always enjoyed that one. Steve Buscemi is fantastic in a supporting role, perfectly creepy. John Malkovich plays an excellent crazy man. I remarked to the Princess that I don’t think Malkovich has far to go to act crazy. She snorted up a mouthful of tea.
DJSpo
Hi DJ,
Sorry to hear that, and I’d send you some rain, if I could. But you also know of the secret never fail storm incantation, should it become really necessary. 😉 Candidly, it’s a mixed bag that one, and probably a last resort kind of thing. I mean, man there was that most extreme hail storm in late February. Losing half the seasons harvest in a few minutes is hard. And if I were subsistence, we’d not be starving, yet…
The summer season is getting on, and if I may, the continuing dry weather is good for the necessary clean up work. Rain makes that job doubly dismal. It’s great news that the local fires and also those on the Rez are coming under control. Sometimes all we can do is wait for the cooler autumn weather, in whatever form it takes. You wait and see though, if the rains return and there’s some warmth left in the soil, the entire area will green up in no time at all. Doesn’t help the people who’ve lost their homes, but it does look rich and nice and will give any surviving critters some rich feed.
Akita’s have a sluggish well fed look to them, whereas the Husky is a bit hungry like a wolf. I’d not realised that the Dame was being hassled by a heavy weight champion. Please extend my advice to her, which may have arrived by way of Bruce Lee: “I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times.” Sage advice don’t you reckon?
I know! What an early morning outrage was perpetrated on those youngster cattle rustlers. If John Wayne had neglected breakfast and trail coffee, things would have gone badly for his leadership. Look what happened to that martinet Bligh, the twice deposed, yet strangely promoted through the ranks into the Admiralty.
Mate, this morning I was up in the dark due to an early morning haircut appointment booked months beforehand. They’re booked solid, so best not to mess them around, although truthfully a person could make an appointment with me at some random date, say four years into the future, and bam, I’d be there. Punctuality is a lost virtue in these days of mobile communications.
🙂 You know, they only laugh early in the morning, or when they’ve raided another birds nest. They’re really huge birds which are best left mostly alone. About six live here permanently, and I like them because they can eat snakes. And respect for getting the song reference. Nice one.
It is so weird to me that the biggest risk to the forest, are the trees themselves. It’s so dysfunctional that I can’t sell off the excess firewood and speed the whole clean up job. And the longer I delay, the higher the risk that there may be a serious conflagration. One can hope that we’re staying ahead of events, but such things have their own timing which doesn’t consider my energy levels. Oh well.
A fine name for an err, rock band. Yes, very funny and the Flintstones would have known the melodic riff to perfection.
My sister was a junkie way back in the day, so it’s a complicated path, and we can love people who are under a spell, but not love what they do, but also protect ourselves from their energy. I’m of the opinion that Bob Marley had it right when he sang the Redemption song: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” Mind you, that CD itself was stolen off me long ago. When I mentioned that to the cop as the car was damaged in the heist, he asked me if I’d been drinking. WTF? See what I mean here?
Jerry Bruckheimer is noted for his fast moving coherent narratives, and that film rocks. Yup.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
So poor hapless Dobby is a slave? Hardly nice is it? No wonder they were upset when he died, I mean, good help is hard to find they tell me. You know, I’ve heard of house sprites, but would never dare enslave one. Oh my goodness what a thought! Best left alone to do what they need to do, spotty wizardry or not. Phooey to that idea, if the cover art wasn’t enough… 😉
I’d heard of the musician Finneas before, but clearly there was some sage advice to his even more famous sister (Billie Eilish) about rock, err, music. it’d not be easy navigating those narrow waters. That super tough Jason had some serious help getting past the Planctae, and the thought of confronting Cthulu in one of those tiny ancient Greek boats would make me soil my armour.
OK, I’ll be serious. See what happens when we commence a chat by introducing spotty wizardlings? Hehe!
Rumour has it that the Editors father was Austrian and born under clouded circumstances before being shipped with his mother to family in rural Czechoslovakia. I believe that my lady is watching the first episode this evening, and said something about the Holmes and Sherlock roles being flipped around. Even today Vienna is a very beautiful city. The photos are inspiring, and there seemed to be a general consensus to avoid the high rise giving the place a consistent sort of vibe. Ah, shades of Gustav Klimt and a sort of art deco feel.
It’s challenging for the senses to be confronted by the sheerest of chances, and I’ve observed genuinely lucky people to take such past gifts for granted – which leads to an undoing. A sense of gratefulness, followed by gracefulness is possibly the best approach, although people may argue that point. In summary, best to enjoy the wins, but not count on pre-ordained outcomes. Such encounters as the one I mentioned, do tend to make a person wonder. I’m sure you’ve had some deeply odd encounters over the years which have changed the course of your life? Your early master of antiques springs to mind.
Do they still print magazines? I must say that the publication you mentioned began with the noble goal of making the field of study more accessible. I’d never heard or seen it before. And that’s my take as well, if you learn something and/or get an idea from an article, you’re better off than you were before it was read. And I’ve felt that way about books in that particular area as well. My earlier lessons in life were not good, and I can certainly do better, but that takes education, observation and experience.
I’m 100% with you in your interpretation of the song. It’s a song of dismay, but then I’m of the opinion formed from casual observations over the years, that good circumstances, do not necessarily equate to good outcomes, and the opposite is equally true. Hardship is not necessarily a negative experience.
Yeah, I know, there are constant calls to shut down the operation of wood heaters in urban areas. Admittedly, someone could be unlucky when living next to a careless person whom burns any old rubbish off in their heater. That would be a problem.
I’d have burned off all that cardboard, but that is one advantage of living in the bush. The ash would probably contain a decent amount of boron, which all plants require.
Both petrol and diesel fuel were slightly cheaper today. Went into the big smoke for work, and did some good stuff. Got home late again. Oh well. And I was up in the dark earlier this morning. I’d had a haircut booked in and didn’t want to mess them around. I think I’m yawning a bit tonight, probably explains the attack of the sillies in the first paragraph or two. 🙂
How’s petrol looking cost wise in your area?
Ah, the wrong address issue was encountered by the Editor several months ago. Did you work out how yours was wronged (not grammatically correct, but does sound all rather menacing)? The auto-correct address function on the website got the Editor. Changed us from a post box to an entirely different street address, then saved the error in their system to spew out at a later date. Far out, at least your package eventually arrived. I can’t believe they tried to sign you up for an account. Someone pulled that trick on me the other day – totally unrelated to the scam.
Oh yeah, 79’F sounds perfect.
Yay for the pumpkin! It’ll be fine, given it’s already at the size of a tennis ball, maybe.
Happy H and may she enjoy the grooming expedition. Man, cleaning carpet is no easy task, but well worth it. It’s amazing what gunk comes out of heavily used carpets and rugs. A year or two back we bought a cheapie steam cleaner, which had good reviews on the web, and it works a treat. Three dogs is hard on wool.
Respect and that was a thoughtful act with the coffee. Oh my goodness, you are a thrill seeker invoking the ‘one list to rule them all’ words. You jest, but did Winco have everything you needed? Hubris, you know! 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Thinking of you, and hope the power is back on again!
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Poor Dobby was “owned” by an evil wizard family. Oddly, “dobby” is another slang term for a spliff, over here. Back in the past, there was a rock group named “Dobby Brothers.”
Billie who? I see her name in headlines, but haven’t bothered to follow up on who she is. I do see she’s about to break into acting. A bio-flick about the tragic poetess, Sylvia Plath.
LOL. The darnedest things set you off. Cover art, things that are too popular and hyped, catchy tunes … 🙂 Oh, well. I suppose it all goes to help you navigate life.
Now here’s an odd coincidence. I watched “Pressure”, last night. Quit good. Well, I watched the “extras” on the DVD. There was a young fellow, who got the job of editing archival footage, for the final edit. He really didn’t know too much about the movie, and got the job quit by happenstance. His name was Stagg. He was pretty chuffed when he discovered that the movie was about his grandfather, who is the lead / meteorologist.
I think my oddest encounter was with the, at that time, famous tattoo artist. I was looking for a job, he was looking for an assistant, and offered me a job. I wanted to think about it, overnight. The next morning, before I had made my decision, I get a call from the B. Dalton Bookstore, in Portland, offering me a job. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or maybe, water under the bridge.
If the racks in the supermarkets are any indication, the magazine trade is still around. I haven’t been in a “real” bookstore, in quit awhile, but they always had a large selection of magazines. Riding heard on them was always a chore, but an interesting one. Pull the old issues, rip off the covers to return for credit. The aisle in front of the magazines always looked like a snowstorm had hit. Those pesky little subscription cards that would fall out, as customers pursued them.
I don’t think wood heaters have been banned in too many places, as there’s always push back. But sometimes, if the air quality gets really bad, the slap on a ban … unless wood is your only source of heat.
Gas was $4.80 a US gallon, for regular.
Our high yesterday was 79F (26.11C). Our overnight low was 6lF (16.11C). Our forecast high for today is 73F. Prof. Mass things we’re maybe done with any really hot weather.
I’ll be taking H to the groomer, this afternoon. There’s something in transit, to me, that would indicated a popcorn night. “The Hail Mary Project.” I keep checking the library website, and so far, it hasn’t shown up.
Well, my hubris got me bit in the bum by nemesis. 🙂 When I got to the Winco, I could not find my shopping list! I thought I had put it in my wallet. Now, there’s not that much in there, but couldn’t find it … until I got home. It was in my wallet. 🙁 Oh, well, I had a short list and got everything, except pumpkin seeds. And I still have back up, of those.
I was thinking about my storage system. Such as it is. I’ve come to think of some of it as “deep storage,” the chest freezer, pantry closet, buckets in another closet for bulk stuff. Seems like I’m always pulling stuff out, to break into smaller amounts, to go in more convenient places, in the kitchen.
The holidays will be here, before we know it. When I was at the dollar store, the other night, I saw baking bags for fowl. I grabbed a box. At the yuppie discount store, they had bags of bagel chips, for the holiday Chex mix. Last year, I couldn’t find them anywhere and had to order them on line. I grabbed two bags.
I had a culinary adventure. 🙂 When I was at the Yuppie store, I noticed a can of diced tomatoes, with ghost peppers! 99⍧. So, I made my version of Spanish rice, rice, beans, garlic, corn, etc. And tossed in the can. A bit of catsup but none of the usual hot sauce. There was enough for two meals. Well, was it hot? I guess so. I sneezed, my nose ran, my eyes ran and there was a lot of burping. It was really tasty! 🙂
You might have had better luck with getting rid of the mice, if you had made offerings to the right deity.
https://archaeology.org/news/2026/08/11/mouse-bones-unearthed-at-sanctuary-of-apollo-on-crete/
The right deity, for the right job. Lew
Chris:
I’m not afraid anymore . . . Though how does Sandra sleep at night after those gruesome shows? She must have a special compartment in her head and stores such stories well away from the dreams area.
Our power went out again a couple of days ago. It’s back, but for some reason, our internet service, which always goes out when the power does (not just the modem), does not come back for 2 or 3 days after the power does. So, I’m on my magicphone.
I forget what your personality type is. I remember it’s quite complex. It sounds like your type has a lot of leaders in it.
You’ve had a lot of techno drama lately, with audio and ad issues. I figure if we are watching or reading for free, it is only fair that they get to put ads up. Don’t take that to heart.
Every now and then areas in my country are locked down because of bird flu, though not lately, I think. Maybe it is a good thing they don’t seem to connect wild birds with sick poultry or they’d probably shoot our feathered flying friends.
Oh, gad – you’ve been hacked, one of my biggest fears. My neighbor had someone hack his credit card and charge $17,000 worth of stuff. And a friend of mine has had her bank account hacked twice recently. In each case, the theft was discovered by watching their bank statements carefully. What’s not to like about putting all of everyone’s personal info in a public place?
If the tech bros cash doesn’t run out first, eventually their electricity will. Welcome to my world.
Your forest looks so great. Plus all that wood! And all those rocks! One grouping of rocks looks like Congress in session. So nice to see a kookoo bird again. He looks to be a healthy specimen. Your lemon machine unfortunately follows the habits of Tractorzilla; it is always and every time something wrong.
Darn those fruit tree flowers – again. But thanks for the lovely true spring ones – and the kooky roses.
Pam
Hi Pam,
I can’t watch such things either, leaves me with nightmares for weeks. It all began when my older sisters took me to the local cinema at the age of 10 to watch the sci-fi-horror: Alien. Spoiler alert, they didn’t want to hang with their younger brother and ditched me. Scared the daylights out of me that film.
As to your most excellent question regarding sleep, truly I don’t know either. I reckon your insight was spot on, compartmentalisation is a thing, but alas our brains don’t work that way and we need to avoid such images. When I had to deal with the rogue deer all those months ago, well, it left me with flashbacks. I don’t need that.
Out of curiosity has any reason been given for your power outages? Looking at the maps, it’s kind of in the western part of Virginia and sort of central West Virginia. Aren’t they naughty? A couple of years ago this area was cut off for five days after a severe storm, but it is at the end of the line so to speak.
🙂 Pam, I also use the magic phones to work out if the 5G modem here is having a software / hardware melt down, which has happened from time to time. Funnily enough, the monstrous device does that when it demands an update. Can you imagine the temerity of demanding an update, or the thing goes on strike! A fickle beast those devices.
Have you ever read Jane Eyre? A lovely tale of triumph in the face of adversity, and it is the rare spirit who holds their head up above the general goings on and works towards a better future. Or that’s what the general consensus suggests. Are such folks likeable? Hard to know and I may be biased. 🙂
All this connectivity, even the arty-fish-al stuff, has costs. None of us know who’s footing the bill, but my gut feeling suggests that one day, we’ll find out. Rest assured, I run this interwebsite on the smell of an oily rag, as the old timers used to say. But then lifting the bonnet and tinkering under the digital hood as a shade tree tech boffin, is not all that difficult. 🙂
Oh my, I hope your wild feathered friends remain unharmed, as the lot here do. There is an enormous amount of bird life here, it would probably surprise you to see. Oh well, what will be, will be. And our Avian friends breed at a fast rate and will recover before any bureaucrat / frightened person notices.
Yeah, some hacker pinched a crudit card as they’re wont to do. It remains a mystery how they got the number given I’ve never used that one with a merchant. My gut feeling tells me the banksters were hacked, and they ain’t telling. But, to their credit, they’re fixing the fall out. Makes me wonder how many folks hadn’t noticed? I’ve now blocked intanational transactions for the crudit card. Fool me once… As the old timers used to quip. By the way, it was $200 in total, but still a pain. Pam, they escalate, and rarely start at such huge numbers like the one you mentioned. All problems are best nipped in the bud, and early.
Agreed, I don’t trust these folks to keep our data safe. Now if directors were held personally liable for such losses, there’d never be any thefts.
You’ve got a whole bunch of serva farms in your part of the world, so yeah, electricity is a problem. Not to worry, the local mob are piling into the zany craze to build such monstrosities in the big smoke too.
Thank you! 🙂 Yes, your congress is about as ancient as those rocks, and moves about as fast. You may wonder why I work nowadays exclusively with small business? No? The Kookaburra is a very large bird, and is rarely hassled, but their ability to eat snakes is appreciated by me.
I know, awful isn’t when a machine continually breaks down. Dunno how your son feels about the situation, but each time I fix the darned thing, the thought that this time will do it properly kind of passes across the mind. Still, I’ve learned far more from my failures than successes, so maybe such machines as tractorzilla, are meant to teach us humility? Of course the circumstances are annoying-AF at the time. We can only but do our best!
A lot of climate weirdness this year! 🙂
And hopefully the weirdness doesn’t extend to your electricity supply? How’s the generator work out going? On a bright note, it’s always wise to run these motors regularly.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Awful to end up working for an evil wizardling family, and truly I reckon we’ve all been there. Doobie sadly couldn’t hand in his resignation, which is the path taken by yours truly, over a quarter of a century ago. His mistake I’d have to suggest was going back to spy on that lot and – here reading the plot line – and rescuing his equally foolish friends. The facts suggest that he was caught in a snare once, sure, it happens, but why he suddenly believed he’d outwit them a second time… I dunno man, it didn’t seem like a good idea to me.
Perhaps the elfin creature had taken a few spliffs beforehand and was enamoured of the song: “What a Fool Believes”? Hazza mate. Dude (taking a big deep toke, then handing it to the younger wizard). We so got this Malfoo business brother. Hand it back man, whoa slow down, savour it. (cue Cheech and Chong-esque sound) Letz go do whatever it waz we were takin’ bout. What was it again? Bro. Are you heading to the kitchen for a pizza or what? I so got the munchies.” And that is the real reason why the house elf doobie failed in his quest – you read it here first. 🙂
I actually quite enjoyed that song. The band still perform.
Really? Well, acting is an option to which few can do well, but I guess it is hard to stay relevant in the music business. It’s the churn rate you know. Things weren’t always like this.
OK, a couple of red flags there with the tragic character Ms Plath. If I may, mucking around with ouija boards whilst knowingly having serious mental health issues, is probably not all that bright of an idea. There are things in this world which mean us harm, why let them in to come and play? Fairy tales are full of bright strong characters whom make pacts, or fool around with the elder ones. The stories are intended as warnings as to what can happen to the careless, or at least provide guidance. Hmm. If I may, having a super high IQ, is merely one aspect of a person who has to navigate their way in the wider world that is reality. In some ways, one of Mr King’s stories recounted that escalating path with the elder ones clearly. Now, which was it… … Ah, found it (and note to self: organise the bookshelves), the novel: Later. I often recall the young protagonist in that book, having been occasionally spooked by the recently deceased. Far out, that old school friend incident troubled me deeply. Oh well. The world is a strange place.
Hehe! I really can’t adequately explain why the Harry Potter series didn’t call to me, the cover art was just the amusing excuse. Perhaps I prefer my protagonists navigating the fictional worlds using their combination of luck, wits and natural skills? Dunno. But you’re right, it is about finding ones way through life, which you yourself would do too. 🙂
Oh, that film about the D-Day meteorologists. They were right too, but not universally believed within their profession at the time. Now that is a strange coincidence. Was the film good? I’ve been keeping a look out to see if the ‘Tony’ film shows anywhere in the local area. So far, no luck.
Yours would have been an almost sliding door moment. I’d have gone for the book store job too, just on the basis that the world of the tattoo artist would be complicated in the same way as a commercial kitchen presents issues, mostly because of the people and hours you end up hanging around with. Mind you, book customers / the general public can occasionally be a shifty lot to deal with. What do they say about in space, no one can hear you scream? That may well be true for retail work as well, although I loved working at the Tandy electronics store. It was like a giant geek-fest, in the best possible way. 🙂
Yeah, magazines are still sold at the supermarket down here too. Truly, I’m with you, it’s been ages since I’ve stepped foot in a new book store. Dunno about your part of the world, but there are none in this general area, although I’m aware of one that pitches at kids books – clearly a lucrative market. They’re more found now in the inner urban areas, and what does that tell you about the gentle art of reading? Hmm. They wonder why literacy rates are on the decline?
I’ve observed that in public and retail spaces with people making a mess and then quietly moving on.
🙂 Dude, wood is our only source of heat! Although, after the wood heater had an issue last winter, we purchased a very robust electric fan heater. It’ll take the edge off the chill, but uses an enormous quantity of electricity – and that’s usually in short supply in winter. The experience left me wondering about how the ‘electrify everything brigade’, will cope with serious winter heating. Good luck with that…
Ooo, your gas is slightly cheaper than what we’re paying for petrol now which is US$5.48 a gallon. Given what the stuff does, it’s pretty cheap all things considered. The issue really gets down to whether cheap is the same thing as affordable, and that’s a question open to much debate. Guess it depends, and I’m unsure of your thoughts, but demand destruction is a thing. I remember as a young kid in the 1970’s what with the oil crisis, nobody went anywhere, that’s adaptive behaviour.
I agree with the Professor, your summer season is winding up, although you might get an Indian summer – which is a thing down here. You’re having such lovely weather where you are, especially compared to the rest of the country. I hear you about that. 😉 It was cloudy and cold today, but only rained a smidgen.
Now that’s a film which is also on my to-see list, and I’m really curious to hear what you have to say about it. Hey, what do these interweb sites really know? 🙂
Lewis, are you considering getting super organised? Sort of sounds like it. We do that occasionally too, and sometimes it’s weird finding things and then asking the hard question: Why are we keeping this? I auctioned off a few items which fell into that category recently. The strange thing was one item I thought would be worth heaps, got one cent, after several runs. Get rid of it! 🙂 And the thing I thought was complete rubbish, and was originally destined to be thrown out, got an amazing price with lots of interest. I don’t get it, and clearly have no natural skill in that selling area.
Hang on a second, which holidays? Do you guys have a traditional summer break or something like that? It’s usually around Christmas here, and it always surprises me that in the colder parts of the world, it’s festivities and then back to work. Yes, I recall the Chex mix shortage last year, and we even discussed how to make them – seems like a lot of work. No point waiting until they’re snapped up and you miss out. Nice score too.
Whoa! You took your mouth on a culinary adventure, which I’m candidly not brave enough to do. Those ghost and reaper chilli’s are off the scale hot. 🙂 Well done, and you’d definitely feel that pain twice! Respect, and I’ll take your word for the tasty bit. Clears the sinuses hey?
It’s candidly hard to keep up with which God does what. I’d say that protection of agriculture in that instance was probably more important than venerating the seer. Wisdom and guidance is good and stuff, but a dude has to eat.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – A couple of tech articles, you may find interesting. Or appalling. Maybe in equal measures.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/12/weather/nws-warning-glitch-outage
And, a rather amusing one …
https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/fake-ai-ads-in-the-west-4th-street-subway-station-unite-commuters-in-hatred-of-ai-ads
This irritation has been around for a long time. When I used to stay at Uncle Larry’s, and troll through his 300 channels, often I’d stumble on an ad and ask myself, “What exactly were they flogging?” Not a clue. And I still see it, on this here inter web.
Your riff on the Pooter world was very funny. I think you missed your calling. You should have written for Mad magazine. Speaking of magazines, I noticed The Onion is flogging a print edition.
Well, as my mum used to say, if we all liked the same things, the world would be pretty boring. I was reflecting on that, this morning. It occurred to me that also resources, in some areas, would get pretty thin. 🙂
I think Plath was too early for pop psychology and psychotropic drugs. Otherwise, she might still be with us. Her fans, to this day, really hate on her husband, also a poet, as the cause of her demise. Oh, I don’t know. People make choices.
“Pressure” was pretty interesting. Two meteorologists, one Brit and one American go head to head. The American is all analog. If the weather patterns were similar to 1922 or 1906, then that was today’s forecast. The Brit took a more … “let’s look at the current data” approach. Whose approach would Gen. Eisenhower follow?
There’s quit a bit about Kay Summersby, in the movie. Interesting character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Summersby
People had a lot of … discretion, in those days. It’s the old Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty conundrum. Did they or didn’t they? Who cares?
Well, especially back in those days, once I’d made a promise and set a course, I’d stick to it. If I’d called the tattoo artist, before I got the call from B. Dalton, my life would have been quit different. Sometimes, it pays to sleep in late. 🙂
We don’t have any big bookstores here. The nearest is up in Olympia. Which is in a different county. And, as you know, I haven’t been out of the county in over 20 years. 🙂 We did have a bookstore, from a small chain, a few years back. I stopped in, once, and it was pretty interesting. New books and a lot of remainders. But, you know what came along, and they vanished.
I can remember print and TV ads, back in the 1950s, flogging “Total Electric Kitchens,” or houses.
https://www.tastingtable.com/1975678/vintage-kitchen-appliance-ads/
Then there was the 1959 Nixon / Khrushchev Kitchen Debate. 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate
I saw an article, the other day, that world wide, countries are dipping deep into their oil reserves. And, here, a lot of chatter about how our weapons stockpiles are quit low. Might be an ideal time for the Land of Stuff to move on Taiwan.
The “Hail Mary Project,” was well worth a bowl of popcorn. Though maybe a bit long, in places. Sort of a cross between “E.T.” (without the irritating kids), and “The Martian.” I’d like to read the book, I think. But the hold list, is long. It’s by the same author who wrote “The Martian.”
Speaking of kids, we got a long screed from our building manager, Little Mary Sunshine. Apparently, there’s been complaints about the night manager / maintenance guy, who now live in the building. Noise complaints, and just general people under 62 living here. The noise complaints are about their kid. He’s getting pretty big, and walking now. When I’ve seen him, I haven’t heard a peep out of him. It’s just, I think, general s–t steering. I think it’s great that we have maintenance on-site. And, his wife, the night manager, takes security pretty seriously. I’d hate for us to lose what I think is a pretty good situation. Little Mary Sunshine, quoted all the appropriate HUD rules, and said if there was a noise problem, during “quiet hours,” she wanted a date, time and situation report. Probably, won’t happen.
Speaking of movies, I see there’s a new “Evil Dead” movie, out. “Evil Dead Burn.” The reviews aren’t too good. Seems to have lost the fun, of some of the earlier films.
Our library got season one and two of a new series. “Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries.” Sounded interesting, so I ordered in both season. What a waste of space on my hold list. 🙂 Consistently, across the board, the worst acting I’ve seen in a long time. Seems to happen when the production company has a religious bent.
Me? Super organized? Surely, you jest. 🙂 I make attempts, and it lasts about a couple of days. Relapse is real! 🙂
Auctions are a real c–p shoot. Always surprises, good and bad. I took a look at what the local auction has on offer, in their weekly auction. Wow. There’s a real nice pair of Art Deco bookends… but I had to remind myself that I had lots of sets of said bookends, and sent the to auction year before last.
I started thinking about the holidays, because they kind of kick off with Halloween. And when I was in the op-shop, the other day, they had their Halloween stuff, out. It comes in swift progression. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Oh, the Chex mix isn’t really a lot of work. It’s just gathering all the ingredients. And it makes a lot of mix. Lasts a long time.
Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). Our overnight low was 55F (12.77C). Our forecast high for today is 84F. Our forecast for the next week is low 80s.
I think Apollo the Mouse Slayer was for the working folk. Apollo’s seer was for the upper crust. Generals, kings and such.
I took Dawg to get her nails done, yesterday. I don’t need an appointment, just drop in. My, she sure was antsy. I had to get a good grip on her, while the tech worked over her paws. Usually, she isn’t as twitchy. She’s had a bit of odd behavior, lately. After months of neglect, she’s rediscovered her hidy hole, under the bed. She’s also taken to barking a bit, in the apartment. LOL. That I have a solution for. I just toss a towel over her head. Calms her right down. Lew
Chris:
Yeah – I can well imagine the deer flashbacks. Are we sensitive flowers – or smart?
The power company may well have given an excuse, but it might not have been the true one anyway, so I don’t even look at their website. But since there were storms both times, I would guess downed trees. There are an awful lot of trees in my part of the world. No – that’s not awful, that’s good.
At least we can always blame the tech bros, but we have to thank them, too, or all of us here wouldn’t be friends.
I think I did read Jane Eyre in highschool, but I’m not sure. I always get that mixed up with Jane Austen. And then I get mixed up yet again when the Bronte sisters (as in Jane Eyre) come into the picture. And Thomas Hardy, whom I always found very depressing.
Well, when I lift the techie bonnet, I usually swoon. Did you have to do anything special to your site to make it compatible for smartphones?
I am pretty sure why you work with small businesses.
You had told me to run the generator regularly; I doubt if that is happening, but it ran okay anyway,
I suppose you saw this in a comment at Ecosophia a little while back. I was more than shocked, being such a book lover.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/burning-down-great-library-yet-again/
Pam
Chris,
There were some thunderstorms across parts of Washington last night. New fires? May take a day or two to tell. However, the big Kaiser Canyon fire on the Rez saw up to a half inch of rain. It helped the firefighting effort a lot. That fire is now 87% contained.
This particular Akita is big enough that, even if quick for its size, cannot be as quick as the hungry Husky. It is the only dog that Dame Avalanche dislikes.
Oh, and Dame Avalanche caught another mouse on Wednesday. She got it cornered but couldn’t get to it. It was able to move underneath a garbage barrel. At that point, I intervened and it was the Dame and me teaming up. Eventually she caught the mouse, which I disposed of before she could eat it and get sick. The Dame was richly rewarded with her favorite treat.
I agree with that Bruce Lee quote. Fundamentals. Do the fundamentals well, operate within your limitations and you can go far. There was always a team in the high school basketball tournament that did the fundamentals well, was disciplined with the fundamentals, and was successful against more talented teams that weren’t as concentrated on fundamentals.
Bligh was a forerunner of today’s “the big turds float to the top” management style.
I actually learned that song at school when 7 years old. Catchy tune, and I’ve never forgotten some of the lyrics. In your case, you don’t want “laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra, save some gum for me.” Nope, you want, “Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra, eat some grubs for me.”
The Princess had a birthday Tuesday. She says that she is now 42. Who am I to argue with a Princess? We spent the past two days celebrating. She is on her Toppenish venture now.
Well, sort of the normal Toppenish trip. However, the Omak Stampede and Suicide Race is this week. Her brother wants to attend. There’s usually rodeo, a carnival, a Native encampment with war dancing and traditional “Stick games”. Brother used to war dance. Fun, although it can get very hot.
It was once understood hereabouts by lawn forcement and respectable society (whatever THAT is) that nobody listened to Marley who wasn’t drunk or high or both. Hence the reaction you got from that policeman. Naturally, I disagree with that “respectable” idea.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Probably sensitive, but doing the needful, even when it is distasteful. I must say that Mr Bell’s take on English rural life in the 1920’s was a lovely place to spend time in, and thanks for the book recommendation. Unlike the horse trail rider trespassers here of many years ago, the hunt group in the book had the common decency to hand over some mad cash to the land owners on who’s property they traversed. It was like spending time in a slower and more refined world of known personal relationships to which I could happily deal with. How did the narrative resonate with you?
Trees and storms probably explain things, and it takes crews to right power poles and rejoin broken wires. Given enough trees, it is a big job, and one the linesmen (for most excellent reasons) wouldn’t want to rush. Yes, the surplus of trees is a good thing! 🙂
All very true about this whole tech biz stuff. And what a pleasure it is chatting.
Oh! Well as a little hint, the Brontë sisters wrote much darker, and in my opinion, more realistic tales of human behaviour than Jane Austen. 🙂 Truthfully, and they do say that confession is good for the soul, the only way I could enjoy Ms Austen’s works was with the addition of martial arts and zombies – which some cheeky wag added to the narrative a few years ago. I know, awful being a guy, yeah. Hehe! I struggled relating to the social climbing concerns of the characters and felt bad about that, but could appreciate the difficulties of keeping one’s katana sword sharp for random encounters with the undead. It’s complicated…
Now Mr Hardy, I’ve not been exposed to, and based on the general flavour of your observation, I’m thinking that this is a good thing. Hang on a second, I’ll just take a shallow dive into those literary waters… … Ah, if I may, there’s no fool like an old fool, and you can probably guess why? The gentleman in all of the depictions has a rather earnest face, and it has been remarked upon elsewhere that the face is the representation of the soul, which you clearly divined by other more direct methods such as being depressed by the produced texts. Honestly the last time I was worried about class divisions and lived in a pile like Max Gate, was like, err, never. 😉
Thank you, and that is high praise. It looks good on phones, yup. 🙂 But this is not my doing, it’s the more up to date WordPress theme used after the big crash, which handles such matters effortlessly. The text is nice and big and easy to read too. Not a thing was required by me to achieve what you’re seeing.
🙂 Not to worry. With all of the kerfuffle constructing the new firewood shed earlier this year. I skipped that regularly starting of machine business too, and have been busily making amends recently. It’s not ideal, but you know, sometimes life intrudes. And good to hear that your generator kicked into life when needed.
Pam, that story of the book destruction is horrific. I don’t know what to say, other than it appears to me to be an absolute travesty. And since you raised this issue, I’d known about it, and had wondered if it was driving up book prices for both new and second hand? One can almost wish them to run out of mischievous mad cash.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I hate the arty-fish-al stuff. Within the last hour, a server level program decided that I was a mischief and has blocked me from my own interwebsite. I can’t comment, and may be posting this from the future (as in the morning). My head hurts. A support request has been made to get rid of this nuisance program which I never asked for in the first place.
The article was interesting to me, but then I’m under no allusions as to having adequate warning, and/or being rescued during a massive bushfire. Other folks will need their hands held, but it is an expensive proposition to do so.
And I must say, the subway advertisements was a timely reminder of this dross which we are fed. As the kids might say, right now, I’m feeling the feels. 😊 This stuff is inhumane.
That sort of advertisement you mentioned, which was kind of esoteric, used to be I believe a non deductible expense for tax purposes. Like you noted, what is the thing exactly about again? Does it relate to earning an income, like you know, boring stuff such as selling products? Empty feel good stuff, leaves me cold man. Dunno, it’s weird though. Maybe the creators see the advertisement as a form of artistic expression?
See, this is exactly what happens when young brains are exposed to the antics supplied in bulk by Mad Magazine! What, me worry? Fun stuff, and sadly missed. I had fun writing that little Harry Pothead scene. Hope the Onion do well with that endeavour, although I reckon it’s a bit too early. One thing I noted about Mad Magazine, was that despite all of the content, it looked cheap to physically produce and distribute. It wasn’t all high gloss multi colour printing, was it?
You’re probably right with Ms Plath, and there have been a lot of advancements since those days, but reading about her life yesterday, I believe that she’d already made some attempts on her life before the end. Look it probably wasn’t ideal for the poet to settle into a normal life, and discover it didn’t fit. That’s the thing about such a high IQ, does the person really know themselves? It takes a lot of brain capacity to achieve such high scores.
History suggests that it was a wise decision to follow the forecasts of the meteorologists who looked at the data.
The actress who played Kitty Russell, sounded quite the lively lady and alert to the loss that would have been, if only! There are some fun articles on that Gunsmoke subject, yup.
Didn’t Dorothy make the claim that there’s no place like home? Except neither of us have a large new bookshop anywhere nearby. Such things happen. Pam mentioned something I’d also heard about, new and used books are being physically fed into arty-fish-al nuisances. I believe the process destroys the books.
A lot of refrigerators and freezers in that article, and also the dreaded science oven! Which I’d not realised went that far back in time. The first one’s I saw turned up in the late 1980’s. By the way, the new replacement nuker machine seems to be doing OK. It doesn’t produce as much heat as the much older one did, but sort of gets the job done. I’d had this weird notion that they were much alike, but clearly no.
Had to laugh about the Kitchen Debate, and this one was entirely new to me. But did you know, that there is an old Vulcan saying that only Nixon could go to China. I’m not making that up either. But clearly he could also go to Moscow without fear of political slurs.
That’s the word on the street regarding reserves, of all sorts, not just the one’s you mentioned. Cutting off something like 20% of the world’s energy supplies was always going to bring trouble, and here we are with trouble. The Japanese are (or at least were) off loading their US treasury reserves. Gold is flowing from reserves to pay for more expensive oil. There are a lot of moving targets, put it that way. It could be a good time to do that land of stuff strategic move, although, it may also bring your forces closer to home than they are now. Could backfire that way. Dunno.
Hehe! Yeah, the ET film was aimed at the kids for sure, or at least that was my opinion as well. An enjoyable film though. Ah, it will be a most interesting book to read, but bummer about the long waiting list. So it’s on the recommended to watch list?
Man, I dunno what to say about that. Kids make a heap of noise, that’s what they do. All of us were kids once, and I’m sure I annoyed the daylights out of adults. If your fellow residents want the assistance, and can’t provide it themselves… It’s all part of the deal, as far as I can tell. I’d probably relocate the more deaf ones closer to that residence, but it sounds (!) a bit of a Machiavellian solution.
I saw links to that trailer, but how are they going to beat Armies of Darkness? I still chuckle thinking about the messed up incantation: Klaatu, barada, nikto! Or was it Klaatu, barada, necktie! Funny stuff, and the sort of dumb thing I’d have done in the circumstances. Hehe!
Oh poop! Some insights into that world would be interesting.
I wasn’t quite joking around about the super organised bit. Sometimes we can but reach for the stars, and instead achieve a certain sort of reaching for dust bunnies that have fallen behind the couch.
Thanks for saying that, and they look like a carp shoot to me too. Lewis, resist the temptation to collect. It’s in the blood man, stay strong.
Does the chex stuff you can make at home last for a long time? Interesting. Preserving techniques are always complicated. On this subject, did I mention that the pickled cucumbers have lasted way longer than the fortnight than most of the recipes suggested? I don’t know what to make of that.
Nice weather you’re having. Part sunny, but cool here today.
The ancient Roman working folk probably had to worry more about mice than the upper crust did. I know who’s meals would be cut if there were food shortages…
Dogs can get a bit neurotic as they age, and your weather is cooling, so she might be feeling the seasonal change in her joints. Dunno, hope H is doing OK?
Cheers and better go take a closer look at this server stuff. What a headache producing nuisance!
Chris
Hi DJ,
I’m having serious server end troubles here, and will email you the reply. Ha! And those nitwits think they can outwit us! Maybe they can…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’m sorry your server decided to go flip-o. What a pain in the … ear. Here on the Home Front, there’s been a couple of computer things, over the past couple of days.
I scroll through a major news site, just checking out the headlines. For some reason, the page reloads, and there’s a small message, “There’s been an error.” And, it’s back to the top of the page.
The library is also up to their old tricks. I decided I wanted to watch “Civil War,” which I saw a year or two ago. There was a copy sitting on the shelf, in Chehalis. So … did they pull that copy and add it to my holds? Nope. It’s being shipped in from gosh knows where. That’s happened more than once. If it hasn’t shown up by tomorrow, I’ll ask whoever is at the drive through, to go pull it off the shelf. Is it a feature or a bug, in the system?
“Esoteric” is a good word for this ad slop. Someone got paid to develop these ads. And, one imagines it had to pass some kind of upper management. But, as all the tech boys are on the same wave length, more or less, I suppose it made infinite sense, to them. Whatever happened to focus groups? A bunch of everyday citizens, that gets stuff thrown at it, to check the response.
Lots of pressure on women, back then, to follow traditional life routes that might not have been a good fit. Although, according to reports, Plath eventually drank the kool aide and had a couple of kids. And seemed to take to that aspect of her life.
With all the big box and chain stores we get here, you’d think, eventually, we’d get a bookstore. But, maybe not. The way things are going …
I wonder how much longer my nuker will last. It’s about 5 years old, now. And, I’ve noticed it takes a little bit longer to cook things.
I asked my Dad what he thought of Nixon, maybe during all the Watergate stuff. About all he said was that Nixon opened the Land of Stuff, and he could get a decent paint brush, again. 🙂
Yeah, let’s open a western front. Seems like a good idea. What could possible go wrong? I keep meaning to stock up on some Potassium Iodide pills.
Would I recommend “The Hail Mary Project?” Well, I liked it. I found it pretty engrossing. And, as with “The Martian,” pretty funny in spots.
Relocations in are building are … fraught. You need a good excuse and a note from a doctor. I agree. Cluster a bunch of deaf people, around the noise source. 🙂 But, we can’t have empty apartments, sitting around, waiting for a hard of hearing person to show up. Of course, there are ear plugs. I’ve also found that leaving my A/C on, creates white noise. It really cancels out noise from the parking lot, and hallway. There are white noise machines.
Speaking of the Amish, I’m reading another one of those travels across America, books. “Your Fellow Americans: Dispatches from Across the Country We Call Home.” (Peter Santenello, 2026). He has a chapter on his exploration of the Amish folks. It starts with a trip to a town in Florida, Pinecraft. It’s where all the Amish snowbirds go for winter. And, a trip to Ohio, to spend some time in Amish farm country. The author is a pretty interesting fellow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Santenello
Yes, I’ve got to ignore the rando tat. 🙂 There are a few specific tat targets I’d like to acquire. Mostly, filling out one collection or another. An item or two I sold, that I wish I hadn’t. But, aging is about loss, and one has to “get with the program,” or be very unhappy.
The Chex mix lasts a long time. I generally keep it in bags, in the fridge. Though airtight containers also work.
Our high yesterday was 81F (27.22C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). Our forecast high for today is 81F. I saw an article, last night, that they’re having terrible wildfires in Britain. I was aware of all the other European countries fires, but not of Britain. Though drought is effecting a good chunk of it.
LOL. Well, they say dogs acquire a lot of the characteristics of their owners. Maybe H is picking up on my general crankiness? 🙂 Her mobility is still good. No changes, there. She may be a bit bored. Lew
Chris:
I agree with every word you said about that time period in the English countryside. It was a pivotal turning point for many technologies. And, interestingly, the situation of British agriculture got worse about that time. Political, mostly, I think, though it also followed on a pretty severe drought. And it was heading into the Great Depression.
An awful lot of people say that about Jane Austen, poor dear. At least it can’t hurt her feelings now. For some reason, I don’t think Miss Austen was the same personality type as you.
Then thank you, Word Press!
Signing off – storm has just hit, so what will the power do?
Pam
Chris,
Yours isn’t the only server with issues. The local gummint air quality website has been touch and go for several days now. And when the website is working, some of the monitoring stations might or might not work. None of these were in the fire zones.
I’ve seen that happen at times with fires and rain, too. Sometimes, not always. Suddenly, this region’s gummint climate forecast through the 28th is for “above average rainfall”. Yet our actual weather forecasts show no signs of rain whatsoever for that same time period. My gut tells me that we won’t get any rain here. Well, maybe 4 drops or so. 😉
The Dame? Train? Bwahaha! She was easy to train if and only if she condescended to getting trained. Socialization was easy with her. Other husky owners agree with my observation that the training of huskies really starts to become apparent starting at age 3. Now, at 5 years old, the Dame is generally a well-behaved husky. Well, except for birds. Sometimes she decides she has to chase them. She caught a flying sparrow this evening. Poor bird.
Your theory is correct. A bad owner will allow the bad aspects of the dog to thrive. It’s the lack of boundaries and probably the lack of proper routines, such as training, games, walks, socialization. No routine and no boundaries leads to a poorly behaved dog. Add inconsistent treatment from the owner leads to confusion that makes things worse. Mistreatment by the human often leads to other psychological and behavioral problems.
On the other hand, a dog that has a rougher personality baked in can be taught some control by a patient and able human. Takes a lot of time, a lot of routine, a lot of angst. Thordog was one of those. Taking him to doggy school was the turning point, not because he became trained and trainable (which he did), but because he sensed that his humans cared enough to get him around other dogs in the doggy school setting. That earned his trust.
Nicely done. “What does this thing here mean?” Nasty question to ask students who are used to being spoon fed information and how to solve problems, thus never having to learn how to think. But you made them think. Ha! Good job.
Yes, getting a degree is basically a learner’s permit. It shows a prospective employer that you MIGHT be able to learn how to do real work. If you know what you are doing, the process itself is irrelevant. You are able to concoct the process when necessary. The knowledge and the ability to think are more important than processes.
That joke is spot on. The arty fish al intelligence can go through the process a zillion times while I’m on my 10th time through. But I know how to solve a problem by knowing when to ignore the process, short cut to the middle of the process, or even make a new process. I think it was Einstein who said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
The Princess had to ride a horse down the Suicide Race hill once. She was Miss Colville Tribes or something, and that was a requirement. She grew up on horseback, so it wasn’t a problem for her. Her maternal grandfather won that event 36 times or something. Two of her cousins from the paternal side ruled the hill for about a decade.
Yeah, Omak gets hot in August. The Suicide Race is run 3 evenings and one afternoon. We were there for the afternoon race once. It was very hot. All the young nieces wanted to wade in the river, so I was the designated lifeguard. That was fine by me, as being in the Okanogan River was the only cool place to be. And we got a great view of the race from upstream a bit.
Lawn forcement is one that I picked up from the Gabriel DuPre series of books written by Peter Bowen. Fortunately, I collected the series as each new book was added. They are hard to find now. One of the recurring characters is an ancient cowboy known as Booger Tom. Very colorful chap. He completely disliked the late 20th century. Why? Because no longer could he go in front of a judge in Montana and say, “Yup I killed him yer honor. Why? Because thet jackass needed killing.” Booger Tom also had an extreme distrust of lawn forcement. His phrase.
Oh, and the air quality Thursday night got pristine. Seriously. I was able to open up the house, suck fresh cool air inside. It was glorious. Unfortunately, tonight smoke is supposed to drift in and out, so I think I’ll keep the house buttoned up.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Yeah, it was a fascinating insight into how much things changed in only short period of time. Human and horse labour was being used extensively on Mr Coleville’s farm, and wow did that change rapidly or what? I reckon the entire rural social fabric would have fallen apart, through lack of jobs. And the drought hit this part of the world too, it was pretty bad, as it was in the US as well.
And it was a bit chilling when Mr Bell spoke of the Great Depression in the terms of people losing their farms in only a few years into the future. It was a sobering moment during otherwise good times at the country market.
Interestingly, Mr Bell described himself as having a ‘dreamy disposition’, and alas I probably wasn’t raised right and am stuck with a deeply pragmatic outlook. Jane Austen’s works are brilliant, social climbing somehow just doesn’t resonate. Actually between you and I, I tend to avoid literary critique and until you mentioned it, it hadn’t occurred to me that other folks said similar things about the books. A shame the author passed away much too young, for who knows what may have been produced?
And thanks for the laughs. 🙂 How about you on that personality type front?
Pam, you may have spoken too early there with the thanks to the software. So last night was weird. Your comment went through just fine, but I struggled posting comments to Lewis and DJ. Turns out, some software had been installed on the interweb site which I believe uses an arty-fish-al agent which appeared to be checking comments. And it cracked the sads in a very final way. Had to put in a call for help, but slept on the problem and discovered the software this morning. This situation should not be, and I disabled the code. What a nightmare, but your original point stands, it does look pretty good on a smarty device.
Oh by the way, the support people suggest that there may have been blocked for dubious meducal advice, which I can’t find. Doesn’t mean the thing is correct. Oh well, nobody said life would be easy.
Yikes! How did you go with the latest storm? And hope the power remained connected this time.
Had a nice day here, just pottered around doing tasks that I’d been putting off for a long while. Feels good to get some of that stuff done. How are you doing?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ha! Our plan B worked nicely huh? Man, it was super weird what happened. It was apparently an arty-fish-al agent too, which looks at behaviour patterns. But I could see no reason why it blocked my reply to your comment, and so logged a support query with the hosting providers. The rest you know.
I slept on the problem, and sure enough an answer popped into my head this morning which incidentally was encumbered by a headache. Always the way isn’t it? Somehow the thing had installed itself on the core software, which to me seems very deeply weird, but apparently it was allowed. I pay for an independent mob which has been around for a long time to provide these sorts of services, and don’t need some new thing. Fortunately I could get into the code and disable the dastardly bad actor. But what a time eater. Harry pothead worries about death eaters, I worry about idiots using up my spare hours. 🙂
Yeah, all those monitoring stations are pretty expensive, and probably haven’t fared so well with budget cuts. If I may add, all of our goobermints have a problem with spending more than they earn, and the proverbial chickens may be coming home to roost, as the old timers used to say.
Hopefully if you don’t get the rain, you at least get some cooler and calmer weather. That’d be a relief. We’ve mentioned this before, but I tend to check a number of different sources for weather forecasts and get a vague idea as to what may eventuate. Enjoy those 4 drops, if they arrive. 🙂
Man, some dogs have a wild nature and Husky’s have a reputation. Actually now you mention it, the Kelpies demand that you be the boss. The Editor used to meet them at their level, which is not what they want at all, thus the years of dog training – which turned out she enjoyed immensely. Ollie by contrast is a handful, but wants to fit in – he’d known worse conditions in his early life.
The three year thing sounds about right to me. Dogs mature into their roles in the pack, at a wild guess, but I don’t really know. When young, they can be super idiots, but then weren’t we all?
It’s good exercise for the Dame and keeps the birds alert, everyone wins. The sparrow, well, if the Dame hadn’t caught it…
Man, that’s an awesome summary in relation to dog training. You know, setting boundaries is a very complicated social matter, and even an assertive person will discover people pushing at their limits. I’m always observing, at a respectful distance, how people deal with such situations, you never know what you might learn.
Nice you persisted with Thordog, man some people dump dogs when it gets too hard and that was the case with the original fluff boss dog – she was a handful, at first. That’s an interesting story, and they do benefit don’t they? Getting under their hood so to speak, can produce wonders. Ruby wants to be run. Ollie wants to be loved. Dame Plum demands we be proven worthy of respect. It’s complicated isn’t it?
Hehe! DJ, it truly was my pleasure teaching the graduates to learn to use their problem solving abilities whilst comprehending what they were doing. It’s a bit rough putting them on the spot and getting their minds to focus on what is before them, but truly, you’d be surprised at how many simply wanted to process stuff instead of producing stuff. There being a considerable difference. I guess that’s a deep problem which begins at an early age with our education system. I dread to consider what kind of skills are being built into the wider population when so many are reliant on lazy arty-fish-al output.
Ha! A learners permit. Thanks for the observation. Yup. He was a smart guy that bloke. And he’s right too, my take on that is more down home: when one finds oneself stuck in a hole, using the same ideas which landed them in there in the first place, it probably won’t be good enough to get them back out again. Thanks for mentioning the quote, as I’d not heard it before.
Did I mention spotting a large deer with a fawn the other night? Just took the dogs out to do their business, and heard gunshots off in the distance. Someone else around here probably spotted them as well. Ammo ain’t cheap, so I can’t begin to imagine how much they’ve burned through over the past couple of months. A staggering quantity which is way beyond my budget.
Respect! And now I think about it a bit, double respect to your lady. What a feat on horseback for all of the family, and some titles have to be earned, the hard way. Those are the best titles.
It gets hot here in February too, I hear you about that, and the heat would add to the challenge. When I look at the pampered horses in paddocks around here, I don’t reckon they’d do all that well in real world extreme conditions, like that race.
DJ, you had the best spot to watch the race, and cooling off in a river on a hot day is one of life’s real pleasures.
What a fun story you mentioned, and a cattle inspector and sometimes deputy, can go places and ask questions in an unassuming fashion, that more credentialled folks can’t. Sorry, but rumour has it the book market, new and second hand, is a bit skewiff right now due to arty-fish-al monsters physically eating books. Hard to believe, but it’s going on and market distortions are err, distorted. Hopefully things return to normal sooner or later, but at $50 for a paperback, let’s just say the word ‘no’ springs to mind.
But lawn enforcement just reminds me of the ‘cut your grass’ letter received from the nice real estate agent when renting in the project housing place whilst building here. Truly, I’d live in a shed in preference to that experience. And I’ve not encountered a determined home owners association. Oh my! In such spaces, no one can hear you scream!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Thanks man for the kind thoughts, and I felt like a dragon slayer this morning (with a headache) working out how to kill that arty-fish-al agent in a permanently dead fashion. Truthfully, it felt good. But my sword is but a lone weapon and it makes the sensitive person wonder how many less geeky folks are putting up with this rubbish?
In this tech instance though, I cracked the sads and may have began an investigation, but who knows what may eventuate. An hour or so ago I received an email saying the interweb site is under attack. Oh well, what will be, will be.
My headache slowly subsided upon vanquishing the dastardly code. The rest of the day was spent pottering around doing a bit of this, and a bit of that. Speaking of which, have you ever seen the series “Mr Inbetween”? The Editor enjoyed that show, and it’s probably right up your alley.
Anyway, I fixed up some pipes on the house water tanks. They’re 55,000 pounds each when full, and move around a little bit as they fill and empty, so needed some flexible but watertight joints. That took a few hours to sort out. It was still early, so I dismantled the scary old wood chipper machine and discovered that the after six years of use, and two years since the last blade replacement, it was perfect inside. Who knew? Of course it had to then be reassembled… After lunch I fixed up a broken trail camera plastic with supa-glue, and got some of it on my fingers. That stuff is rotten and I ended up having to file it off my skin. What the heck?
It was nice weather from my perspective, and the dogs were running around, but eventually all but Ruby eventually got cold and wanted back indoors. Ruby hung with me like a champion, whilst chasing every bird in the area. Tonight, she’s fast asleep in front of the wood heater.
Do you know, one of the news links you posted to the other day did exactly that? I’d forgotten to mention it as I’d missed reading the concluding paragraph. Thought it was weird. Man, the dead interweb theory is very real, and let’s just say that I can take a solid guess as to why that may be happening.
Just for a laugh: What do these arty-fish-al things know? Let’s find out! 🙂
As to your library dramas, have you noticed the occasional news item in these latter tech days which ask the question: Why does everything have to be so f$%king hard? Apologies for the emotions there. Yesterday was a very trying day. Oh well, what would Marcus Aurelius say when faced with these tech onslaughts? That bloke knew a thing or five about troubles.
Focus groups do tend to weed out the errors and/or stupidity, unless they felt compelled to poison the err, golden goose. Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened in history. Plus, if I may add, due to insane property prices, society is becoming geographically and economically stratified. This is almost unprecedented, and probably won’t end well. But if you picked a focus group derived from a particular class, they may all provide the same response. Dunno. Thanks, the esoteric stuff is lost on me, but then I wasn’t raised right and status is not a personal concern.
Yeah, possibly so about the poet. Mental health issues are, from my perspective, one of those things where people have different limits and tipping points. Ms Plath may have been OK with the trappings whilst everything was good, but who really knows what dark thoughts circled around her mind, and which incidents pushed her over. And truly, the ouija board thing was a bad idea for a person who may have been more receptive to trouble.
With books down here at $50 for a new paperback, my gut feeling as to your question, is candidly not good.
It’s a good question isn’t it? The previous nuker lasted three decades, and before we replaced it, I did a bit of reading, and they’re saying about a decade now. The magnetron’s apparently aren’t as well made these days. Still a few years away… The new machine is certainly not as grunty as the old one.
Thanks for the memory of your dad and his thoughts on Nixon. See, the Vulcan’s knew stuff, and I don’t call it the land of stuff for nothing. Presumably way back in time of the British Empire, they probably viewed the US that way.
Do you really want to survive such an event? And truly, given I do all of the maintenance on the machines here, the mind does wonder how many of those things actually work. They’re super complicated machines.
Thanks for the film review, and I really enjoyed ‘The Martian’ film.
Nice one and yours is an adaptive strategy to external noise. 🙂 It’s quiet here on a human noise front, and sometimes for me the contrast to the big smoke is hard to ignore.
Alright, you raised an interesting question. How do amish snowbirds get to Florida? Turns out there is bus service. Who knew? My memories of the 1970’s suggested that nobody went anywhere in those days. Didn’t seem to matter much. But I will note that the older residents seem to be leaving this cold area.
Isn’t the joy collecting part of the collection process itself? Think of the anticipation!
Oh! I don’t store much in the fridge other than fresh produce, so the chex idea had not occurred to me. Don’t they get mooshy?
Yes, Britain has to deal with such things, just like everyone else. Dude, there are parts of that green country, which only get 23.5 inches of average rain per year. Looks super green in summer, usually. But add a few degrees here, and few less inches of rain there, and it’ll be a disaster. They get droughts just like the rest of us. Far out, the UV here is rated as Extreme in summer, and they get what, Moderate? Summer weather is a bit unsettling… Plus they have the heat island effect, and what is it 70 million people, that’s a lot of hard surfaces and unintentional thermal storage.
Hehe! Here’s to the cranky, for they alert others as to boundaries. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Danger Will Robinson! Site under attack! 🙂 A couple of times, last week, when I attempted to sign into a major archaeological news site, I got a message from the fruit company, that to proceed could cause REALLY BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN!!! I did not proceed. Besides all the nonsense from our artificial friends, there seems to be a lot of Middle Eastern mischief, about.
I tried something, that worked, on the constantly refreshing news sites … as if different sized ads that come and go aren’t bad enough, which jerks text around. I shut down my computer, back to square one. Even disconnected the wi-fi. And … the problem cleared up.
I noticed the library web site will be down, from 2am to 7am, tonight. For “System Maintenance.” There’s been a lot of that, lately. When it starts coming fast and furious, it usually means it’s time for a new catalog. Oh, joy. 🙁
Well, what do you know. Our library has the first two seasons of “Mr. Inbetween.” I put the first season on hold, and will give it a look. Sounds a bit … Dexter.
What I wonder is … what broke the trail cam? Follow the banana bread crumbs?
Yes, why does everything have to be such a darned struggle? The more complicated a system, the more opportunities to go wonky. I’ve always thought dual authentication is a bad idea. Just more points of access to whatever. Say, a bank account.
Well, from everything I’ve read about empires that fall apart, One big factor, among many, is inequality. And there sure is a lot of that, these days.
If you liked “The Martian,” you’ll probably like “The Hail Mary Project.” Speaking of movies, I see “The End of Oak Street,” is in the theaters. Can the DVD be far behind? LOL I read a review, yesterday, and you may not like it. Too many unanswered questions for Chris! 🙂
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/14/nx-s1-5928131/the-end-of-oak-street-review
We have quit a few “snowbirds,” here. Even at the Club. Though the points south they seem to prefer is Arizona. The Amish, even in farm country, are pretty good a caging rides from “The English.” Which is anyone who isn’t Amish. 🙂
I’ve never had a problem with soggy Chex mix. Judging from the fumes it gives off, during the making, quit a bit of moisture gets off loaded.
Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 59F (15C). Our forecast high for today is 80F. I see two trains in Britain, derailed. Due to heat warping the rails. It happens.
I dinked around in the garden, last night. Picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes. Some of which ended up in dinner. Rice, a can of garbanzo beans, garlic and frozen broccoli. Staked up my asparagus, as it is quit tall and falling out of the tub … again. I set a couple of potato traps, for the woodlice. As they are felling (timber!) my green bean sprouts, one by one. I’ll put up some barriers, tonight, and replant some. I also cut the heads off the red onions, and put them in a paper bag. I could hear the seeds falling off, like rain. Quit a few landed in the garden, and I wonder if I’ll have some volunteers? I pulled up all the remains. Now, with a bit of clean-up, I’ll have some space for a few cool weather crops.
I stopped by the Club this morning, to check on progress. LOL, they’ve got a big screen TV up. Of course! I guess there’s a game of some sort or another, this afternoon. In general, it looks a bit more organized, with more tables and chairs. But, it’s a long way to go, to recapture the … sociability of the old clubs. Building a counter sounds simple, but there should be a sink, and water source. As you know, more complicated then just banging together a counter. Lew
Chris:
You can see more of Mr. Bell’s dreamy disposition in the second book. It’s quite introspective and so far, I am moving kind of slowly with it because of reading 6 or 7 books at the same time, there just hasn’t been many farming details mentioned on his new farm, though I know they were going on.
I have never tried to figure out what type of personality I am; sort of afraid it might scare me. Though I can be somewhat different depending upon who, or what group, I am with.
Lordy – the software problem that you described is what’s wrong with the thing. Though maybe it’s the tip of the iceberg? And so we can’t even describe something that might have helped us feel better (even with a disclaimer?) because it’s “dubious medical advice”? Like “I feel so good after I eat apple pie”? Is this an Australian thing?
I’m doing better, and I dare not say why . . . I finally worked out in the garden today; it had been a week. There was a lot of stuff to harvest and I planted some kale and spinach. Luckily there was a good rain yesterday and the power only went out for 60 seconds, though the internet was out till this morning.
I keep all my clothes mended; that’s what I usually do in the evenings. Of, course, the worst of the lot are my work clothes. The other evening I was working on one of my oldest pairs of work shorts; they already had 8 colorful patches (sometimes I match the fabric; sometimes I go all hippy). I added another colorful patch. My sister says my name should be Patchwork Pammy.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Out of curiosity, did Mr Bell ever get his coveted dovecote? There was talk about it in the first book. It’s interesting isn’t it about the dreamy disposition, because he mentioned it, but it wasn’t apparent in the first book. He seemed like a quick study and picked up competencies with practice. The lack of details on the practices maybe because at the time they were so common place as to be considered not worth mentioning? Dunno. Or maybe he felt the urban readers wouldn’t have appreciated the detail?
🙂 No worries at all, it’s no big deal really. I tend to match peoples energy too, but extroverts can wipe me out. Far out.
It was a big call to block my comment to DJ, and made me re-read it closely and for the life of me I couldn’t discern any dubious medical advice – which is an issue in your country I believe, and that is where the software originated. Of course the thing was also wrong. It felt good terminating the thing.
That’s lovely to hear that you’re doing better. Yay! 🙂 All that rain you’ve been having lately would make the place look super green, or at least it probably would to my eyes which get accustomed to what people on your west coast would see during the summer months. Dry. How good are kale and spinach? The naughty cockatoos have dropped another couple of silverbeet plants. I know what Mr Bell would recommend to do! 😉
Oh poop about the interweb connection, but at least it’s back.
Work clothes are for err, work, and need not be fir for polite company! But do hope some of your patches have bright floral patterns, just for fun. That’s a very sweet nickname.
I forget whether I mentioned that we decided against patching the damaged chaps? Thinking about it, the internal lining was ripped and any patch would simply provide a false sense of security. The internal lining is very fibrous and works by jamming up the spinning chain, so they’re really a use-once kind of thing.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Yeah, the browsers in geek-boy-number-one’s platform is also doing such things lately. Is the site actually risky, or not keeping up with the latest security certificates? Dunno, but a business website clearly forgot to pay for their certificate the other day, and it expired and just unexpectedly stopped. Man, the browser sometimes tells me this interweb site is unsafe, and it’s because I use a cheaper security certificate which should just work. Sometimes they over react to possibly shake down users for mad cash, or at least that is my impression. Are the tech bros our mates? Hard to say, but my gut feeling is strongly leaning in a certain direction.
By the way, I ran a full in depth security scan of this website, and found nothing unusual. So the unasked for program was a big nothing burger headache burner. I checked out what other people had to say about it on the unfiltered opinion sites, and they were not very complimentary the cheeky scamps.
That’s how to do it with your browser and those annoying site issues. From previous discussions I get the impression your machine deletes all cookies and trackers when you shut it down, so no wonder you’re having some success with that. By the way, yours is not the default option!
Have the library folks nothing better to do? What’s with changing the catalogue so frequently? It seems like a waste of mad cash to me. The thing either works, or it doesn’t, is how I see the world, but hey, that might be too much to expect. It’s a well known joke, but I genuinely do get worried about upgrades.
Hope you enjoy the series, the Editor had only good things to say about it. The protagonist is a Dexter, but for hire. A strange breed that, and weirdly one of the big mobsters down here (now deceased) used to cheat them. Like, who would do that? Crazy stuff, but he did, and they’d agree on a price for a hit, then apparently he’d only pay half. Talk about living dangerously through poor decision making processes.
Alas, the trail camera plastic broke because it was poorly made. It was a little hinge which had not all that much material, and was under considerable pressure – the thing has to be fairly water resistant. Oh well, I’m leaving it a few days to cure properly, but people tell me that sprinkling bi-carb over the particular glue formulation I purchased, sets it instantly and forms a new layer of plastic. Dunno, if the fix doesn’t work, I’ll try that.
Yes, I’m beginning to get annoyed that things have become so complicated. I didn’t mention it, but I wanted Friday as my one day off work this week, and people and systems were seriously stressing me via email, text messages and phone. Some difficult conversations were had here, because the Editor was also pestering me with work stuff that was not urgent. There’s been some legislated changes with systems recently, and now they’re constantly poking me most days. I can see why people are pulling out of the profession and newbie numbers are down, a lot as is remuneration. I’m having to set some hard limits for my own mental health. Not a fan of these recent changes put it that way.
There is a lot of inequality, no doubts about it. And it is widening. Never a good sign, mostly because the folks who keep things rolling along, lose their interest in doing exactly that. They just slowly give up. Then the monolith comes to a screeching halt. Wouldn’t be the first time such things have occurred.
I’d seen the trailer for that film, and it sounds mad, but in a fun with human eating dinosaurs kind of way.
‘Points south’ is not part of the lexicon down under, and neither is ‘snowbirds’, but absolutely it is a thing. I’m an old fella now and the winters don’t bother me one bit, but that may be a heritage thing. I’d imagine the Scottish highland winter is revolting to experience, and touch and go as to whether you’d survive as a crofter. It’s 45’F tonight, and I went down to the forest edge to push together the bonfire in the dark. Jeans and t-shirt was good enough for that experience, but no doubts folks hailing from tropical climates would struggle with the long winters here. It’s always interesting to see who resides up here in the longer term, as Dorothy mentioned, folks come and go ’round here. 🙂
We did a bit of forest clean up work today and had a big bonfire. The weather was just perfect for that, and there was not even the slightest breath of wind. Dead calm, as will be tomorrow. Plenty of sunshine too. Not to worry, Wednesday’s weather will be feral wet. Ah, one extreme to another, seems to be the way of things.
Yeah, being baked, it’d do that off gassing, which in kitchens they describe as ‘reducing’.
That train derailing was in the news here too. Not good. The authoritas slow the trains down here on hot days, for that very reason – steel expands in the heat. Usually they travel at 130km/h or 80m/h, but in the heat it’s down to 80km/h or 50m/h. Still pretty fast historically speaking. The UK is warming, and they probably don’t know how to slow down in such weather.
Yummo! Cherry tomatoes are the epitome of summer tastes. Those rotten wood lice! Oh well, they are edible I believe… And yeah, the really tall asparagus spears turned to fronds, do tend to fall over if not supported. In a few months when they turn yellow, you’ll cut them all to a bit above ground level anyway.
Go the red onions, and I struggle growing bulbing onions. Respect, and the seed has a short shelf life too. My gut feeling is as you suspected, there’ll be some volunteers.
🙂 Man, the Club will get there, and respect to the silent benefactor who provided a permanent home for the wandering flock. You got it right, a counter with plumbing and power, is not a two minute job.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Yo, Chris – Ahhh, the dreaded security certificates. Those were the things that finally did in my old computer. Oh, well. I guess 15 years of service …
I sometimes have to struggle to get into my e-mail, because of some “security concern.” I really think there is no concern, they just periodically throw that out there, to appear to be “on the job.” So, it’s off to some other corner of the net, to retrieve a code. Which is all well and good, but, when I enter the code, I don’t want to see, “Ooops! Something went wrong. Try again later.” I went through the song and dance of getting the code, now is it too much to expect them to accept it? Apparently, so.
Even if I put my computer in a sleep mode, I clear the history, right before I do that. Mostly, that takes care of glitches. But occasionally, it’s shut the whole thing down. When I close it out at the end of the night, I shut it down, entirely. And, turn off the “magic” mouse and keyboard, to preserve the batteries. Also, if I’m doing something financial on-line, I go to whatever website from a cold start, and then shut it down entirely.
Well, it’s not really the library folks fault. It’s a case of the “vendor” not supporting the software, anymore. There are several companies that provide library software. So, it’s always a fraught process to figure out which programs will also “play nice,” with what’s currently on-board. The old migration problem plays into that. Price is also a factor.
So, did the big mobster die in his own bed, of natural causes? 🙂 Put me in mind of the Roman emperors. Not many of them went gently into that dark night. And, even the ones who lived to a ripe old age … well, there were always rumors.
The old work / life balance. I wonder how much of this recent, and past harassment, as far as the goobers are concerned is all about “get big or get out?”
LOL. I forgot that in your case, it would be “points north.” As far as oldsters looking for warmer climes.
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). Our overnight low was 59F (15C). I thought it would be a lot lower … maybe even in the 40s. When I took Dawg out for her walk, at midnight, I was glad I threw on my light coat. There was a wind with a sharp bite in it. Our forecast high for today is 80F.
I always have to remind myself, when doing the Chex mix, to stir it up on the stove, with the hood fan going. After I pull it out of the nuker. I think it’s the Worcester sauce that creates an almost poison gas. Really goes for the sinuses and lungs. 🙂
So, do you add good soil before or after you cut back your asparagus? Top dress, I think it’s called. I did a bit of work in the garden, last night. I cut down an old vinegar bottle, and smooshed it a bit, and created barriers around the green beans. I’m soaking some more seed, now, and will replant a bit, this evening. And, erect the barriers. I also scattered around a bit of the Mater Gardeners slug bait.
We just had our yearly county fair. Winds up today, I think. Similar to your ag shows.
I forgot to mention, I bought some frozen blueberries, at the Winco, the other night. Shrinkflation! I’m pretty sure the bags were 5 pounds, last year. This year, four pounds, the same price. About $10 per. I bought four bags. I’ll see how far that gets me, topping up the 12 gallons in the freezer.
I ran across an interesting mention, in that book on traveling around America. He spent some time with fishermen, on our east coast Chesapeake Bay. Turns out the bay was mostly formed by a meteor strike, about 35.5 million years ago. Towards the end of the Eocene age. Not as devastating as the one that did the dinosaurs, but still must have been an “interesting” day on this old planet earth. I just learn something new, everyday. 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_impact_crater
I might try my hand at pollinating the pumpkins, this morning. I’ll see. Lew
Chris:
Mr. Bell did get his dovecote. A good way to raise meat – if they don’t become pets. Though I made pets out of the chickens; however, they were never meant for meat.
Our place is now as green as it can get. What a relief.
The patches all have floral patterns, no two the same. I rather stand out.
You are right not to patch the chaps; too risky. Besides, it would be a really big job.
Pam