3291 Home again, home again, fiddle-dee-dee

Saturday, June 25, 2011

“... the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft
while in fact he has only one year of experience - twenty times.”
-- Trevanian, Shibumi --

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(I know that's supposed to be "jiggity-jig", but I'm feeling more like Scarlett these days.)

I'm back in the new house, got home around 10 pm last night. I didn't bring much back with me - all my CDs (but not yet the cabinet, so they'll be stacked along a wall for a while) and some summer clothes.

I awoke to find this today:
(The pink foil next to the broom is the pot. The black circle is a cork mat the pot had been on. The thing that looks like a ball next to the mat is a hyacinth bulb. The funny things in the back are drums.)

I don't know whether the rod fell on its own, or maybe Jasper got scared by something outside and pulled it down. I must have been tired because I swear I didn't hear a thing. The damp dirt was spread across the floor, and then tracked all over by little kitty feet. It's partially swept up in this photo.

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Daughter brought The Nugget over for a visit this morning, because they're going to Pa. for the weekend, and I hadn't seen Nugget since Tuesday. She's changed already! Her face was round, now it's more square. It got longer.

She's very social. Very strong eye contact. It's obvious she's trying to communicate with little hoots and kicks and arm-waving, and she shows her appreciation for your attention with the most beautiful sunny smiles.

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A woman I sorta almost but not quite know wrote a "complaint" for the New York Times Complaint Box, http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/complaint-box-i-dont-have-kids-deal-with-it/, about how annoying it is when people ask her why she doesn't have children. I like this, from one of the commenters:

... "Why, in a country so rich in diversity and differences, in a land where contrasts and distinctions are rejoiced and applauded, do child-free people still have to make excuses..." Because the sad truth is that Americans celebrate sameness not diversity, homogeneity not differences and imitation, not originality. Examples of intolerance, unwillingness to accept differences of religion, skin color, life-style, ethnicity, and speech are everywhere and increasing each day. Our self-aggrandizing celebration of diversity is just another feel-good myth together with "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", "Liberty and justice for all", and "Without regard for race, creed and color" that Americans toss around in a pathetic effort to convince themselves of this nation's superiority.

Pax,

Doug

Oh, yeah. Especially that last sentence.
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3290 Hair, final version!

Friday, June 24, 2011

"My admiration for you has found new limits."
-- Trevanian, The Eiger Sanction --

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When the new woman cut my hair on Monday, just sitting there in the chair I was pleased with what she was doing. I've been happy with it since.

Yesterday, arriving at the old house, I went into the master bath and looked at me in the huge three-way mirror. Sitting next to the mirror was a wig stand, holding the wig I had purchased last summer for my mannikin Peggy Sue, and had worn a few times myself. Everyone liked the wig on me, they thought I looked amazing, but I wore it only a few times because it slipped and itched. But it was that wig that convinced me that maybe going short might be ok.

The first cutting, I showed the original hairdresser the photo of me in the wig, and told her that's what I wanted. That's not what I got, then or in the next two trims. I was discouraged. Maybe I didn't have enough hair for the same effect.

Well, yesterday I looked back and forth between the wig and the mirror. It's exactly the same! I finally got what I'd wanted all along.

My hair is almost white. The wig is a medium blond. Hmmmmm.............
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3289 Not a lot of headway

Friday, June 24, 2011

The question Diane Sawyer (interviewed on Oprah) would most like to ask the Pope:
What do you think Jesus would think of the way you dress?

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Yesterday I slept a bit late, shuffled a few things around in the old house, watched "The View", which I hadn't been able to watch since moving, then went into the village for lunch. When I walked into the diner I saw Vinnie in a booth, so I joined him. He said Piper would be coming. So I had lunch with Vinnie and Piper - the usual l--o--n--g lunch.

Vinnie'd had a hip replacement since I'd last seen him. Piper had just returned the day before from a two-day trip to Florida to sign the papers to have his sister (who has been trying to die in a hospital in Florida since January) taken off life support, but at the last minute her sons, who refuse to face facts, started legal proceedings to stop it, so he was very upset. Turns out that they couldn't find a lawyer who was willing to take the case for what they were willing to pay, so she would be taken off support yesterday afternoon, and Piper was angry and upset that he would not be able to be there. So there was a lot to talk about.

After lunch I went to my car guys. They are willing to work on Suzie, but suggest that I have AAA tow her in, save some money. So I'll do that today.

When I got back to the house I looked in the "cars" folder in the (HUGE!) file cabinet, and naturally, the car titles, the main task for this trip, aren't there. In fact, the folder was empty. It's supposed to have all the service records, too. I don't understand. Where are they?

So all afternoon and evening I sorted through the "to be filed" pile looking for the car titles - one of the main things to accomplish on this trip. And that's all I did for ten hours. Naturally, I had to read everything to determine whether it was to be saved or tossed (I saved all personal correspondence), shredded or not, and at the end of the evening I had cleared two square feet of floorspace in the den. Wow. Only 3,998 more square feet of floor, attic, and basement to go! At this rate it will take me only three years to get out of here.
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3288 Finally upriver again.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

It is the great flaw of equality ... that everyone believes that
only [he] know[s] what is best for the others.
-- Alex Haley, Queen --

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I arrived at the old house early last evening, after stopping at the diner in the village for dinner. I had intended to visit Piper, but his office was closed and dark when I passed at 5:30, so I probably just missed him.

The minute I walked into the house, I got a discouragement headache. There's so much stuff here! I never know where to start. The Hunk has parked his dump trailer (it's so cool - it's a regular trailer, but it has a hydraulic lift on the front, so it dumps) in the driveway so I can fill it with stuff he'll take to the dump for me.

Today I want to visit Piper and then go to my favorite car guys and ask if they'll come get Suzie and tow her to their shop. I think a mouse has chewed into the heating system or something, because smoke billowed into the car the last time I started her, which was back in March, or maybe February - the last time I was able to get up here and get through the snow to get her door open.

A task for today is to locate the titles for the three vehicles, so I can get them registered in NJ. I haven't been diligent about filing, so that search alone could take some time.
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3287 Heating up

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

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I have been lax about updating here, not because I'm busy, or because nothing's happening, but because my internet connection goes down about every half hour, which makes it awfully hard to get anything at all done, let alone the lower priority stuff.

This morning I got a popup when I tried to connect saying that Novell wanted to do a "firmware update" to my modem --- with a stern warning that any interruption of the update could severely damage the modem. Uh, ok. That explains why it's been so unreliable lately. It needs an update to be compatible with the other end? So I clicked "Ok". The connection hadn't actually been made, but I figured the updater ought to be able to figure that out and make the connection, right?

Yeah, sure. It got halfway through the update and couldn't connect. No kidding. That's what has been the problem the past few days. Can't connect or won't stay connected. Duh. Catch 22.

So it failed.

Scared me half to death.

But then after I restarted the system, I was able to connect. Modem not dead. Halleluiah.

I got the "update now" message again this evening, after about the fifth bounce, and this time it actually worked.

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Daughter, Nugget, and I walked into ... gee, I don't know what to call things around here. Out there in the country you've got actual villages and towns. Around here it all runs together, there's residential neighborhoods, businesses along the highways, and, uh, clumps of "main street shops" kind of things, sort of like once upon a time when this was countryside, it used to be a village and that was the "downtown". Well, we walked into the downtown. There was a Thai restaurant she wanted to have lunch at, and a new salon that might do a better job on my hair.

We walked. I had the best Pad Thai ever. I got about an inch cut off my hair, and I'm really happy with it now. The back is finally exactly the way I want it. Then we walked back. I checked it on the map, and it was 1.9 miles out and 1.9 miles back, so after avoiding walking as much as possible for the past month, my first excursion was four miles in rubber flip-flops, and I had no problem at all then or today.

I need to get up to the old house. Maybe tomorrow.

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Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of this blog, if you count the original on the now-defunct AOL Journals. I go back and read the old stuff occasionally, and I no longer recognize that person. She seemed smarter and more passionate then.
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3286 How it all began

Sunday, June 19, 2011

In Mexican Spanish slang, "Mensa" means "stupid/crazy woman".

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I have erased the original content of this post because it's just taking up room, and there are versions of it all over the internet. Just search for "bay of ezekiel" (you must include the quotes, or you get football stuff), and you'll find it. (Some versions are longer and more filled out than others.)

The topic is how the internet began.
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